Duke

*This article is about the character from Echo. You may be looking for Duke, the Dungeon Master in A Role to Play.*

## Duke

* Arches
* Echo

## Physical Description

### Text Color

Text colorbox placeholder
In *Echo*

**Duke** (full name possibly **Duke Tibbits**) is a secondary antagonist in Echo and Arches. He is a long-time resident of Echo and an associate of Brian.

## Appearance

Duke is an elderly weasel with scraggly gray fur and pink hands. He has bloodshot eyes, a gaunt face, and is very skinny. He has a scar underneath his left eye and is missing part of his left ear.

He wears a stained white tank top and light blue pants. His gray hoodie has the sleeves ripped off. In Arches, he wears a red flannel shirt and jeans.

Duke has a high-pitched nasally voice that is raspy due to his smoking habit.

## Personality

Duke is described by Chase Hunter as "one of the crazy old people" in Echo. He is typically irritable and often suspicious of Echo's other residents. Despite being a loner he likes to stay acutely aware of whatever is going on in the town, and considers himself something of a local authority figure. His dependency on meth and other substances often causes him to be detached from reality.

## Story

* Echo
* Arches

### Prior to 2015

Duke's family has lived in Echo since 1915; his grandfather was present during an earlier mass hysteria event and stayed in Echo afterwards.

At some point Duke married a younger woman named Rachel. Duke and Rachel fell into debt with Brian, a local drug supplier and sexual sadist, who forced them to repay him with sexual favors. Sometime in the early 2000s, Rachel was killed by Brian during one of these encounters. After her death, Duke descended into meth addiction and even years later it appears that he is still haunted by visions of her.

Also sometime in the early 2000s, Duke allowed Chase and Carl to take material from a pile of junk in his backyard so they could build a treehouse. When he saw that the two of them had tricked TJ into trying to clean up the entire pile by himself, Duke informed Chase's parents and got him grounded.

At some point, Duke got a job at the Blue Diamond Casino near the Meseta Reservation. He works, or used to work, as a security technician there. Jenna describes Duke as having been friends with her father.

### Leo's route

On Wednesday night, Duke intercepts Chase and Leo as they walk back to Leo's house. He seems to conflate Chase with The Embrace, which he and Leo have been seeing around Echo for several weeks, and asks when Chase got into town. Leo tries to play it off casually, and Chase does not realize the meaning of Duke's questioning until much later.

When Leo and Chase meet in the diner on Saturday, Leo mentions offhand that earlier Duke was giving him trouble and trying to blame him and Chase for causing all his problems. Not long after, Duke arrives at the diner, wielding a gun and accompanied by Brian. Duke shoots Janice for trying to stop him from entering, then subdues Leo at gunpoint and directs Brian to apprehend Chase. Duke promises not to kill them, and says that he merely wants to figure out what is happening to the town and fix it. Duke then sees something that he calls 'she,' presumably an apparition of his wife, crawling on the ceiling of the diner and shoots at it. Chase escapes while Duke is distracted, but is captured soon after.

Upon awakening in Brian's trailer, Chase hears Duke explaining to Brian that he believes Chase is central to the mass hysteria's latest recurrence. Duke acts calmly and gently towards Chase initially, but becomes irritated and slaps him when it becomes clear that Chase has no answers to give him. Duke accuses Chase of lurking around town late at night, and explains that he's been asking Leo all week about their shared visions of The Embrace but Leo hasn't answered him. Duke instructs Brian not to torture Chase, then leaves to deal with Leo.

After Kudzu rescues Chase, they break into Duke's house in search of Leo. Chase is caught by Brian again and dragged down into Duke's basement, where Leo is being interrogated by Duke. Duke realizes he can threaten Chase as leverage against Leo and vice versa, and holds each of them at gunpoint in turn. Chase is able to keep Duke talking about the 1915 Hysteria, which Duke's grandfather lived through, as Kudzu sneaks into the room. While Duke is distracted, Leo bites Duke's arms, causing him to drop his gun. Chase gets the gun and shoots Brian, and then Chase, Leo, and Kudzu take Duke hostage and lead him back to the motel.

As they arrive at the motel, Duke stops, says he sees something, and then screams and runs off. Leo gives chase, but Duke evades him and reappears just as Chase is unlocking his car. Duke manages to get the keys and hits Chase with the car before driving off. Duke is next seen dead on the road beside Chase's car, with the Socket Man crouched over his body.

### Flynn's route

When a group of Echo's citizens gathers at City Hall on Saturday to discuss the mass hysteria that is erupting in the town, Duke quickly takes on a leadership role. He asserts to Mayor Moore his suspicion that Chase is somehow connected to what is happening and calls for him to be apprehended and possibly killed to put a stop to the madness. Duke says he needs to stop the Hysteria and 'make it so she leaves me alone,' presumably referring to his wife Rachel. He is able to win over the mayor and several townspeople, especially after Flynn admits that he believes Chase was the one responsible for Sydney's death.

As Chase and the others try to leave, Duke fires off a warning shot and threatens them with his gun. Depending on whether or not Flynn allows Daxton to try and talk him down, Duke is either disarmed or intimidated by Flynn, and may then be tackled by Leo if the wolf's mental state is deteriorating due to events earlier in the route.

Duke's ultimate fate is ambiguous: as they drive out of Echo, Flynn and his friends see Duke's corpse lying beside Chase's wrecked car, apparently a victim of the Socket Man. This seems impossible based on the events of Flynn's route up to that point, but it is exactly how Duke ends up in Leo's route.

### Jenna's route

While Chase and his friends look for Carl on Tuesday, Leo storms out of Carl's house after an altercation with Flynn and runs into Duke. Chase can't hear their argument, but it ends with Leo knocking Duke on his back.

Early on Thursday morning, Duke notices Chase and Jenna as they walk through Echo in search of Carl and comes out of his house to ask what they're doing. Duke reveals that he and Leo have both been seeing strange visions of Chase around town and explains that he was trying to confront Leo about it previously.

On Saturday, Duke convinces Brian that Chase, who is restrained in Brian's trailer, may hold the secret to stopping the mass hysteria that is breaking out in Echo and tells Brian not to inflict any of his usual torment on Chase or his friends. Duke alternates between caring and violent while he interrogates Chase, but becomes frustrated when Chase can't give him any answers. Duke reveals that he played a role in orchestrating the kidnapping of Chase and the others, based on his suspicion that Leo has been hiding something about the cause of the Hysteria. Duke promises to return and leaves to go to a meeting at Town Hall, but does not reappear.

### Carl's route

During Carl's party on Wednesday, Chase sees Duke running up the road. He stops and Chase remarks that his posture is slumped like he's 'given up' on something, and that he seems to be speaking quickly to someone. As Chase watches, Duke appears to begin cowering, before suddenly looking and pointing directly up at Chase.

Later in the route, if Chase is fatally stabbed during his altercation with Jenna, he is broken out of the illusion that he has been trapped in and wanders aimlessly away from Carl's mansion as he bleeds out. He sees something in the road that looks like a weasel and assumes it is Duke's body.

### Arches

Duke is first mentioned by Brian, who overhears Cameron and Devon outside his trailer and, assuming Duke is skulking around his property, shouts threats in their direction.

At some point, Duke himself notices Cam and Dev in Echo, and decides to give them a day to leave before taking matters into his own hands. After they fail to depart, Duke decides to strand them in the town to teach them a lesson, and has a brief confrontation with Devon and Arturo when he is caught disabling Arturo's car. He headbutts Artie and punches Dev, stunning both, before pulling a gun on them. Duke calls the two 'sick fucks' for coming to Echo for fun and references the mass hysteria event from five years previously, then advises them that the freeway is a seven-mile walk away before leaving.

Some time later, Duke is driving when he sees the lone figure of Artie walking down the road, and pulls over to berate him. Duke quickly realizes that Artie has been shot in the head and is close to death, and gets him to confirm that Brian is the one who did it. After a brief deliberation, Duke decides to take Artie to the hospital and helps him into the vehicle.

Duke remarks that he will call the police after Artie is dropped off, although he plans to make it back to Echo before they arrive in order to take care of some unspecified business. He is reluctant to do whatever he feels he must, but muses that everything has to end eventually.
## Relationships

### Rachel

Duke was once married to a woman named Rachel, who Chase remembered being "very nice." She was accidentally killed by Brian sometime in the early 2000s. After her death Duke became badly addicted to meth, presumably due to emotional distress.

Duke is cagey about why exactly he is so convinced that Chase is involved with Echo's hysteria, but he usually says it has been told to him by 'someone he knows.' That someone is most like a vision or tulpa of Rachel, which follows Duke in a manner similar to how The Embrace follows Leo.

### Brian

Duke's and Brian have a very complicated relationship that is both antagonistic and cooperative. Duke refers to Brian as a "pervert" and considers him "one sick fuck," but they have known each other for many years. At some point, Brian arranged for Duke and his wife to exchange sex with him for drugs, which indirectly resulted in her death at Brian's hands. In both Leo's and Jenna's routes, Duke and Brian team up to kidnap Chase in an attempt to figure out how to stop the mass hysteria. Despite Brian's massive size and strength, Duke seems to hold some authority over him, which Brian despises.

In Arches, the two seem to be much more at odds, with Brian reacting angrily just to the possibility that Duke may be coming near his property.

### Leo

Duke's antagonism towards Chase means that he and Leo repeatedly come into conflict, but they seem to have gotten along otherwise.

During Leo's route, Duke mentions that while he and Leo were drinking together sometime previously, Leo mentioned seeing visions of Chase around town, which is possibly what caused Duke to start seeing Leo's tulpa as well. This leads Duke to repeatedly question Leo in the period leading up to the mass hysteria, and then ultimately plot to kidnap Leo and his friends to get answers.

### Chase

Duke is deeply suspicious of Chase, and believes because of the appearance of The Embrace that Chase is somehow responsible for the mass hysteria that breaks shortly after Chase and his friends return to town. In Jenna's and Leo's routes, he goes to great lengths to kidnap and interrogate Chase, and in Flynn's route he seems to suspect that the only way to stop the madness is to kill Chase outright.

## Trivia

* Duke is the descendant of Clifford Tibbits, a character who appears in The Smoke Room.

## Gallery

### Echo

NeutralAngryDazedConcept art of Duke prior to his sprite being added to the game. Drawn by Redd.
## References

1. ↑ GeorgeSquares' CuriousCat
2. ↑ Redd's Twitter