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character

The Jackal

Adrius au Augustus

Augustus's monstrous son, revealed as the war's true mastermind, who betrays Darrow, murders his father, and shatters the rebellion.

Story so far

The Jackal reveals himself the war's true puppetmaster. His alliance with Darrow was a long game: having learned Ares's identity when Darrow revealed himself at Attica, he conspires with the Sovereign, Cassius, Aja, and his half-sister Antonia to spring a massacre at Darrow's Triumph feast. Golds in Pink fleshMasks—Lilath and Vixus—slaughter the guests; Lorn au Arcos is butchered, Victra shot, and Darrow poisoned by Roque.

Confronting his father Nero au Augustus, the Jackal unmasks a lifetime of hate: exposed on a rock as an infant for being weak, he murdered his brother Claudius as a child by hiring Karnus with Augustus's own money to provoke a duel. When his father spits that he should have strangled him in his crib and disowns him—'You are not my son'—the last of his humanity dies, and quoting Milton's Satan ('Evil, be thou my good'), he shoots Augustus in the head, over the Sovereign's need for him alive. He has delivered Darrow to the Sovereign and seized Mars for himself.

Appearance

Twenty, plain-faced with sand-colored hair and dead coin-like eyes, right hand a bare stump; serene amid slaughter.

Role

The war's true mastermind; betrays Darrow, murders his father, and breaks the rebellion.

Relationships

Nero au Augustus — His father, who exposed him as a baby and disowns him, whom he murders at last.
Darrow — His false ally, whom he betrays and delivers to the Sovereign after learning his secret at Attica.
Cassius au Bellona — His co-conspirator, whom he once paid to murder his brother Claudius.
Antonia — His half-sister and fellow butcher, who slaughters the guests at his signal.

Earlier in this series

Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:

Sources — 8 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 8
  • Augustus's one-handed serene-monster son, now a shadow media magnate scheming to return home.
Chapter 13
  • Augustus's monstrous son, who uses the gala chaos to murder his rival heir Leto with a poisoned stylus.
Chapter 26
  • Augustus's monstrous son, who survives Luna and renews his secret pact with Darrow to spread the war.
Chapter 32
  • Augustus's arrested son, who nonetheless saves his sister with his own hidden mercenaries.
Chapter 37
  • Augustus's freed son, Darrow's spymaster-in-chief, who orchestrates the propaganda war and begs Darrow to save his father.
Chapter 44
  • Augustus's son, whose long reach frees his father and whose companies make Darrow a god—whom Mustang urges Darrow to cut off.
Chapter 46
  • Augustus's son, building his own empire at Attica, who secretly tortured captured Sons—and is duped into losing them.
Chapter 52
  • Augustus's monstrous son, revealed as the war's true mastermind, who betrays Darrow, murders his father, and shatters the rebellion.
Character portrait