Edmund Rockwell

Edmund Rockwell was a 19th century London chemist. Ever since he woke up on the Island, Rockwell was curious about the wondrous properties the flora and fauna have. With his keen intellect for his time, he became the tribe leader of a neutral tribe on the Island. However, his obsession and lust for more power started him on a path of no return.

Alias:


 * Stupendous Scholar and Scientist
 * Gallant Gentlemen
 * Explorer Extrordinaire
 * Sir Edmund Rockwell
 * Obsessive Man
 * Monster
 * The Master
 * Corrupted Master Controller
 * Mr. Purple Tentacles
 * Egotistical Nutter

Background
Being from 19th century London, all that is known is that Rockwell was among several scientists that laid the foundation of present day science but he may have done his own study and is unaware of other discoveries. He may be from Victorian England because of England's past activity of expanding and controlling an empire so vast the sun never sets on it.

Rockwell's Role as an Antagonist
Rockwell can be considered the main human antagonist for Ark even more so than Gaius Nerva due to his consistency throughout the ARKs and his influence as an antagonist overall increases as the story continues. This is all of the evidence of him being the main human antagonist:
 * 1) The Island
 * 2) Every time he chats with Helena, he positions himself to be the superior scientist when talking about science.
 * 3) He chooses to accept Nerva's offer of joining the New Legion in exchange for test subjects and a hand in helping out studying the obelisks
 * 4) He twisted and manipulated theoretical facts into making Nerva think the obelisks can be turned into a weapon just so the New Legion can be near the obelisks more.
 * 5) Rockwell is shocked to find that Helena helped Mei Yin to activate an obelisk. He feels betrayed by Helena.
 * 6) Rockwell grows an obsession in learning more about the power of the obelisks, and the secrets of the Tek cave.
 * 7) Rockwell doesn't care about the New Legion and Nerva being destroyed several times over in the Tek cave for the night sky view and the mysterious material (Element).
 * 8) Scorched Earth
 * 9) He steals the artifacts from the survivors of Prophet's rest by making the guards fall asleep with his narcotic.
 * 10) He manipulates Timur, the tribe leader of Scorched Earth's in-lore alpha tribe, the Burning Phoenix into serving him.
 * 11) Rockwell gains Timur's trust by helping his wife, Nasrin, deliver their child, which was a success.
 * 12) With Timur in a good mood, Rockwell tells him about the obelisks, its artifacts, and a guardian to overcome while the tribe throws a feast in celebration of Timur becoming a father.
 * 13) The Burning Phoenix tribe holds a feast in celebration of besting the Manticore, but Rockwell poisons the whole feast and leaves their compound with Element samples.
 * 14) He hides his true self and Element samples from Helena Walker who, with Raia, found him after a sandstorm.
 * 15) Aberration
 * 16) Rockwell sees Helena as a useful, yet disposable bodyguard for him.
 * 17) Rockwell manipulated Diana into serving his needs by placing him on the tribe's research team, an expedition into the Element region for molten Element samples.
 * 18) There are instances when he writes about his experiences and suddenly, he talks in the third person as if something else took over his mind and that force is telling Rockwell to do what it wants. Since he has too much exposure to Element, this could be the Element hive mind talking to and taking over Rockwell's mind.
 * 19) Rockwell gets furious over people mocking him directly or indirectly, or if they don't treat him as a scientist.
 * 20) Mei Yin wearing a suit of Tek armor.
 * 21) His fellow researchers treat him like an old man
 * 22) The researchers lecture and scold him like a child after he injected a full dose of molten Element into a charge pet.
 * 23) When he overheard that Helena has done a great achievement, he was furious and wanted to prove that he is the better scientist.
 * 24) Rockwell injects a full dose of molten Element into his body, turning himself into a monster and killing most of the survivors at the Tek Village. He vows to watch the entire world upon a throne of Element.
 * 25) Extinction
 * 26) If the King Titan is defeated a secret ending cutscene will play, revealing that even after being slain by your hand, Rockwell is still alive and now on Earth alongside the crash-landed Aberration ARK and says a message to you in a distorted mechanical voice, I AM COMING FOR YOU.
 * 27) The One Who Waits/Homo Deus Helena mentions that Rockwell is delusional in thinking he is high up when he has already finished descending down the ladder of madness. She admits that Rockwell chose to live as a monster who lives with inverted values where he loves tormenting people and hates caring for them.
 * 28) Genesis: Part 1
 * 29) He is rallying all of the subservient survivors from the Genesis Simulation to his cause due to his awareness and in preparation for "The Arrival", something you don't really know about.
 * 30) Rockwell adds new things to the Genesis Simulation with some of them not appearing. The overall result is turning the Genesis Simulation from being a test to find the ultimate survivors to a factory in choosing people who will serve Rockwell in making Earth a world of his image.
 * 31) Criteria in measuring servility, a person's willingness to excessively serve their master.
 * 32) Invisible camera that surveys a survivor. HLN-A manages to fix this glitch.
 * 33) Adding back doors to the simulation's security systems.
 * 34) Adding new AIs as well as a copy of HLN-A into the simulation.
 * 35) Rockwell is manipulating any survivor he gets his hands on and turns them into Corrupted Avatars. The overall result is infecting the various survivor's real bodies with Element.
 * 36) Rockwell prevents several survivors from respawning by putting them in a holding pattern inside the Genesis Simulation
 * 37) Rockwell accessed the Genesis Simulation's back up files of survivor's memories and personality that were on the consideration list.
 * 38) Rockwell made the Genesis Simulation cause errors where people are respawning in unfamiliar bodies.
 * 39) Rockwell adds the Corrupted Avatars to the Genesis Simulation.
 * 40) Rockwell is going through the survivors' minds, not in the Genesis Simulation and is harshly editing them to a point it makes glitches.
 * 41) Rockwell constantly mocks you anytime he takes over HLN-A. He mocks the survivor about:
 * 42) Running back to where we died only to die all over again.
 * 43) Perfectly fitting the role as a janitor by fixing glitches and in short, cleaning his mess without knowing why.
 * 44) How we are starting to struggle with the traits of civilization bounding the survivor.
 * 45) Gathering food, hunting the creatures, and inventing new technologies while being safe in a bell curve that someone made.
 * 46) Our memories being real or if someone else, including himself, fabricated our current childhood memories.
 * 47) Being the simulation of a real human being.
 * 48) Really knowing what the Genesis Simulation tests, himself, Helena Walker, and the Homo Deus are preparing the player for. He even notes the survivor doesn't really know what is going on and how everything fits together.
 * 49) Fighting against him is like shaking a fist at the sky.
 * 50) Rockwell might be the one who grabs you at the end of Genesis: Part 1. It might be possible because
 * 51) The story explorer notes of Genesis: Part 1 when Rockwell talks portray himself in the visuals as a person with tentacles and a malformed face.
 * 52) We might still be above the Earth, and he was able to grab the survivor before they got to Arat Prime. The ship that the survivor is on is possibly flying over to Arat Prime instead of walking all the way and Rockwell somehow managed to intercept the ship. A possible way that Rockwell intercepted the ship is by flying, which is highly unlikely and unusual for him to do.
 * 53) He said he was coming for revenge at the end of Extinction.
 * 54) It could be possible that the tentacle at the end of Genesis: Part 1 belongs to Rockwell, as it shares many similarities to a Rockwell Tentacle.
 * 55) Very similar sound effects to Rockwell can be heard when the survivor grabbed.
 * 56) However, it is problematic if he is the one that grabbed the survivor. It is true that Rockwell grabbed them, but there is a possibility that the tentacle came from the survivor we saw becoming corrupted since direct contact with corrupt Element turns a person into a tentacle monster like Rockwell and that person grabbed you with their tentacle.
 * 57) With what he is doing to survivors in the Genesis Simulation, Rockwell is intent on building an army of corrupted humans and dinosaurs outside the simulation with him leading it.
 * 58) Not only is Rockwell's return might happen but also a sentence at the end of the Genesis end credits say that Helena Walker and Mei-Yin Li will return but how they will return is unknown.
 * 59) Other than gaining servants, and pawns for his cause, Rockwell arrogantly gives the survivor hints about his grand plan.
 * 60) Rockwell is getting adjusted to his "tools" where they can alter the foundation of the world and describes his tools being relatively primitive to him.
 * 61) In HLN-A Story Explorer Note #40, he states the entire Genesis Simulation is under his control but an image of an entire city shows he has control of the city as well, calling it "his personal walled garden", implying that he has control over not only the Genesis Simulation but the entire city where the simulation resided and the planet Earth itself.  The image includes ARKs that dot the perimeter of the city.
 * 62) The city could be Arat Prime, a mysterious location that is associated with the Genesis Simulation.
 * 63) Rockwell tells the survivor that he will do some "weeding", implying that he is planning to use Arat Prime to root something out on a grand scale.
 * 64) With the end goal of his plan involving Element being rampant on Earth, and the fact that ARKs are referred to as giant seeds, the ARKs have a pivotal role in his plan.
 * 65) Genesis: Part 2
 * 66) He almost has full control of the colony ship that is depicted in the teaser trailer to a point he can alter the creatures living on the ship, but he is currently not able to change the ship's initial destination.
 * 67) In the teaser trailer, Rockwell declared the end result of his plan: to endlessly spread his Element-empowered influence and will across the infinite universe.

Personality
Being a 19th century British man, Rockwell is shown to be one of the kindest survivors, but his self-centeredness and sense of superiority over other survivors in terms of intelligence say otherwise. Since his physical strength has waned due to his old age, his intellect is sharp and he uses that to get around other survivors, making him one of the most cunning manipulators in the ARK lore.

Before Rockwell started down on his path to corruption, Helena noted that he was a kind person who would offer what survivors need without hesitating. His gentleman, scientist, and scholar demeanor made him a mentor figure to Helena.

When Rockwell was at Scorched Earth from his perspective, he was always paranoid and easily insulted. He even crosses moral boundaries by killing the Burning Phoenix by poisoning their celebratory feast. During Aberration, Rockwell has become fully obsessed with Element (Edmundium) when he inches closer and closer to seeing its liquid state. He also becomes irritable and impatient when he doesn't get what he wants. He even gets insane when injecting a partial dose of Element. When Helena was at the obelisk checking team and she was mentioned over the main tribe radio, her name was the push in Rockwell's path to insanity to prove that he, not Helena, was the superior scientist. From Helena's point of view on Scorched Earth, she noted he has become an obsessive man. On the Aberrant ARK, Helena noted he was getting distracted and engrossed at his studies of Element (Edmundium). She even writes that Element (Edmundium) is mentioned at least once in every sentence of his.

Throughout Genesis: Part 1, Rockwell enjoys mocking the survivor's ignorance of what is really going on and how the Earth's current condition, ARKs, Genesis Simulation, Element, and the Homo Deus fit together. According to HLN-A, Rockwell is far from the gentle, kind man that Helena Walker described as he corrupts survivors with Element and harshly editing one mind after another. He is also careless and arrogant while altering the Genesis Simulation as he leaves messes and backdoors but he seems to know that everyone in the simulation, including the player, aren't a threat to his plans. Time after time, Rockwell mocks the player for how they are now nothing compared to him and how little of what they know on what is really going on. He has even become sadistic towards survivors as he notes to enjoy watching survivors drown in the Ocean biome of Genesis: Part 1.

When confronted by the survivor in the Genesis Simulation during the Arrival Protocol, he mocks and insults the survivor through his avatar, the Corrupted Master Controller.

Relationships with Other Survivors

 * Helena Walker
 * Being close friends when it comes to science, they always chat about the abnormalities of the ARKs over tea. With Helena being from Australia, Rockwell sees her as lesser because he is from Great Britain but still respects her area of study. No matter how much trouble Helena is in, or if she needs something, Rockwell gives the things she needs as if she is his closest friend, a trait Helena well respects.
 * However, when Helena left Rockwell out on an expedition, he doesn't forgive her and begins descending down madness because he feels like Helena abandoned him.
 * On Scorched Earth and Aberration, he completely lies to Helena since she is ignorant of the fact that he saw her in New Legion custody. Trying to keep Helena in the dark, he keeps his kind exterior intact.
 * Because of what he did as a monster, Helena is forever scarred from being held responsible for bringing the man that killed many Tek survivors.
 * His assistants
 * They are close associates that worked with Rockwell during his years on the Island. The number of assistants that he has is unknown.
 * Rockwell noted that he will never risk putting his assistant in harm's way in one of his experiments.
 * He respects each of his assistant's way of acting clever.
 * In Aberration, his relationship with all of them seem to have mostly dissolved due to his growing insanity when he noted that they were dimwitted in helping him with his research back on the Island.
 * Gerande/Gerald
 * One of his assistants that he had several years ago told him that noticed that the word "ARK" was on every implant of every survivor, but he died due to an incident with some Compsognathus.
 * Isabelle
 * Isabelle is Rockwell's closest assistant who advised him on taking a break before going into his next experiment, unknowingly starting his descent into madness with his obsession of the obelisks and soon Element/Edmundium. She is also the one who Rockwell entrusted to look after Rockwell Manor while he is away, unaware that he will never return to it.


 * Nerva
 * The tribe leader of the New Legion, Nerva gives Rockwell an impression that he has permission to rule the Island.  His honesty and intellect makes him think he has the right to rule although accounts of Roman authority being harsh makes him have second thoughts about him.  However, the Roman Centurion is another reason why Rockwell began to descend into madness because Nerva exercised domination and his tempting offer of test subjects and aid of obelisk study got the better of Rockwell. This in turn, compromised every single relationship he had with other survivors except Helena's. The only thing he doesn't like is how Nerva uses such a basic base layout. However, his descent makes him want to ditch the New Legion so he can have the power of the obelisk for himself. He even noted wanting to dispose of the New Legion over and over to reach his goals.


 * Timur
 * The tribe leader of the Burning Phoenix, they first met when fellow Phoenix members took notice of Rockwell's exceptional medical skills as a nurse. Rockwell was brought to their main headquarters to help Timur's wife Nasrin help deliver their child. Rockwell's skills helped the tribe and he gained Timur's trust. He used it to manipulate Timur to challenge the guardian. Upon victory, Rockwell took his Edmundium and the trophy into the night as the tribe choked on a poisoned feast that was compromised by Rockwell himself.


 * Raia
 * The Masked Vigilante of the desert Ark, Rockwell rarely interacts with her. He only notes she is way to observant and can notice poison. Rockwell calls her a witch and mocks the name Wali al Aswad.


 * Mei Yin
 * Hearing stories about her, Rockwell get images of a person eating others with her creatures, where in reality, she is actually the most effective hunter on the Island. Upon seeing her on the Aberrant Ark, he is enraged at seeing her in Tek armor and notes of her glares. During his stay at the Tek tribe's main base on Aberration, Mei Yin gave Rockwell the glare as if something is off about him.


 * Diana
 * Diana was Rockwell's caretaker before he became a monster. Even though Diana truly said that she is taking care of him, Rockwell saw it as a way to use her as leverage to reach his goals of trying to "understand and unlock" a being's true potential. When Diana saw Rockwell's monstrosity, she killed it and brought him before the council, removing him from any type of research.


 * The survivor
 * Beating him on the Aberrant ARK, Rockwell is enraged that he is bested by someone with far less power.  He even vows to them that he will come for them when he and his ARK landed on Earth. In the Genesis Simulation, Rockwell only explains to the survivor about what Helena and the Homo Deus are planning for them and even goes to lengths in persuasion to prevent them from getting out of the simulation. When the survivor manages to wake up from the Genesis Simulation, Rockwell grabs them and pulls them somewhere as the screen blacks out.

Appearance
Rockwell was an elderly man who always wears a pair of trusty glasses. Time after time, he is portrayed to have a romantic hairstyle and a regular style for his beard and mustache. Even though he wore cloth and desert cloth, there was an instance when Rockwell wore a hazmat suit to the molten Element region. Rockwell soon became a tentacle monster that is the second-largest thing in the ARKs behind the King Titan. With the teaser of Genesis: Part 2, Rockwell is seen as a mass of tentacles and with the official wallpaper of the same DLC, his face has somewhat regenerated and he seems to have other appendages that appear to look like fists. The eyes seen in the trailer depicts that Rockwell had blue eyes when he was human.

With the ARK animated series, Rockwell has the typical 19th century British look with his pair of glasses. He wears a blue coat, a blue scarf, a cyan shirt, a pair of green pants, and black boots. He even has a cane made of a dinosaur's thigh bone.

Survival Skills
Even though Rockwell wasn't the strongest survivor, he made up for it in experience and intellect so concentrated he could have a 2 month discussion with someone about chemistry and the sciences. Nerva noted about his wide knowledge of managing politics, studying science, and finding the best compromise of the various tribes on the Island. His many recipes have also come to attention to how capable he is. With them, he was able to travel to places where a typical old man would break. Within the span of the Island storyline, he made a recipe for fria curry, calien soup, steak saute, battle tartare, and the Broth of Enlightenment. Being from England, his background is focused on chemistry. He had knowledge about chemical bonds that helped him study element. To carry out his experiments, he helped out with the politics and negotiations of the many tribes on the Island in exchange for participants that will partake in his experiments.

From time to time, he exaggerated the numerous times he has traveled the world and bested some of the most dangerous predatory animals in his youth and past life. Two notable remarks are how he supposedly took down a Bengal tiger with his bare hands and how he could beat a Seeker into submission if he was younger.

However, even if he has no power, his intellect was keen and wide to many survivors on the Island. That same intellect can help bring an agreement that can prevent a war between two warring tribes, most notably the two parties involved in the Southern Isle Accords: The Black Thumbs and the Painted Sharks. But his intellect has a dangerous side as he was able to manipulate Nerva, the leader of the New Legion, and Timur, the leader of the Burning Phoenix Clan, into serving his needs without them realizing it. He even manipulated Diana, the emotional support of the Tek tribe into getting him the things he needs and wants.

When he gained power by turning into a monster with tentacles with an injection of Element into his body, he was able to ruin the highly advanced Tek village and create a massive hole in the middle of the Aberration ARK. When he gained control of the Aberrant ARK, he managed to partially influence and corrupt Boris, one of the 5 graduate school students that arrived on the ARK after the Tek tribe left.

As more time passed, he became more accustomed to controlling Element than it controlling him. As a result, he became a central pillar for Element much like the King Titan, but in a more controlled manner. In his boss fights in Aberration and Genesis: Part 1, he has grown adept at using electricity to stun his enemies.

Between the time between Aberration and Genesis: Part 1, he noted that his power and tools grow stronger with each passing day and have the potential to alter the very foundations of Earth. During the in-lore events of Genesis: Part 1, he was able to alter the Genesis Simulation, a technological feat that is years beyond his understanding, into serving his own needs of finding survivors that are servile. During the fight against him during the Arrival Protocol, he was using Element to control the many minds of survivors that will soon become Corrupted Avatars by corrupting said minds outside of the Genesis Simulation in an attempt to stop the player from escaping.

On the Colony ship of Genesis: Part 2, his powers have become amplified to a point that the survivor and HLN-A can't stop his plans. In Genesis 2 Chronicles 2, he noted that he has grown a mass of eyes to help him see everything in his section of the Colony Ship. Rockwell was even powerful enough to create beasts of his own design as of Genesis 2 Chronicles 3.

His power and influence was so profound that he was 3 of the 13 known bosses in the game (10 if one wants to exclude the tameable titans).

Tamed Creatures
The Island


 * Archimedes (argentavis)
 * Several mesopithecuses
 * Several gigantopithecuses

Aberration

Bulb dog (Corrupted; Temporarily) NOTE: This creature is described to be a tiger like creature. This could be a early version of the shadowmane found in Rockwell’s garden found in Genesis: Part 2


 * Elemental reaper (Under his control)
 * Nameless (Under his control)

Genesis: Part 1


 * Corrupted dinotars (Under his control)
 * Corrupted avatars (Under his control)
 * Corrupted avatar attack drones

Genesis: Part 2


 * Summoners
 * Corrupted survivors

ARK story
Refer to the explorer notes

Notes/Trivia

 * Rockwell as a "corrupted human"
 * Rockwell's Element-Infused monster form is similar to the Nephilim described in the Book of Genesis in the Bible.
 * Both grew to massive sizes that are described to make a normal human pale in comparison in terms of size.
 * Both of their behavior was abnormally aggressive and they acted like brutal tyrants. They were far from gentle, normal human beings.
 * Both the Nephilim and the monster Rockwell were the union of a human body with an outside force that can easily twist their human traits. The only difference is that the Nephilim were the result of a union with a human body and an outside force(wicked angels) by birth while Rockwell was united with an outside force(Element) by injecting it into his system.


 * In Genesis: Part 2, Rockwell is voiced by David Tennant.
 * In some visuals in his and Helena's explorer notes that depict him with his glasses, his glasses sometimes obscures his eyes because of the light.
 * This is a nod to a common trope where intelligent, plotting, or villanous anime characters have glasses that causes light to obscure their eyes.
 * With Rockwell being intelligent, plotting and the overarching antagonist of the ARK storyline, the glasses trope was a faint hint of his antagonistic role all the way back in 2017.

Gallery
Sir Edmund Rockwell Sir Edmund Rockwell