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Tuesday, October 27

The Jackal Character Guide

Finish Red Rising and choose it above to read this guide. Later-book sections remain hidden until you select those books.

The Jackal pixel art

Character guide · first on-page appearance: Red Rising

Who is the Jackal?

The Jackal is an Institute warlord known for destroying rival Houses and using extreme violence. Darrow hears about him long before they meet. His real name is Adrius au Augustus, and he is Nero’s son and Mustang’s twin.

Adrius is ruthless, but he also has help. His father has arranged for the Proctors to protect him and steer the competition toward his victory.

Current status

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Appearance and personality

Adrius can seem harmless when he needs to. He enters Darrow’s camp as a defeated student named Lucian and uses the surrender celebrations to hide an attack. When Darrow exposes him and pins his hand to a table, Adrius cuts it off to escape.

Adrius wants Nero’s approval even while claiming to be better than the people around him. He uses other people’s love against them, but cannot stop wanting his father’s recognition.[1]

Attributes and abilities

Adrius breaks Darrow’s alliance with Cassius by sending a recording of Julian’s death. The evidence is real. Darrow cannot explain away the killing or the months he spent hiding it from his friend.

The Proctors protect Adrius throughout the competition. When Darrow traps him, one of them supplies a sonic device that helps him escape. His access to adult help gives him advantages the other students do not have.[2]

After the Institute, Adrius builds influence through media, finance and criminal contacts. He offers Darrow money and intelligence in exchange for an alliance. His help makes a real difference to the Augustus campaign, which encourages Darrow to keep working with him despite Mustang’s warnings.[3]

Adrius’s nuclear plan leaves Lilath outside the bunker with control of the bombs. Capturing or silencing him cannot stop her from detonating them.[4]

History

Book 1

Red Rising

The Jackal’s campaign is first described through warnings and reports. Fitchner reveals that he is Nero’s son and that the Proctors are protecting his victory. He targets Darrow’s alliance with Cassius by delivering evidence of Julian’s killing.

Adrius later enters Darrow’s camp under the name Lucian. Darrow exposes the disguise and traps him, but misjudges how far he will go to escape. Adrius amputates his own hand, uses help from an interfering Proctor and kills Pax au Telemanus while trying to reach Darrow.

Darrow’s assault on Olympus removes the Proctors’ protection. Mustang then returns with Adrius tied up, giving Darrow the victory. Adrius survives the defeat and continues trying to win his father’s approval.[5]

Book 2

Golden Son

After exile from Nero’s favor, Adrius approaches a vulnerable Darrow with money and a political alliance. He survives Evey’s bombing because Darrow intervenes, then benefits when the gala’s chaos removes Leto as a rival heir. Darrow sees him conceal a device immediately after Leto’s paralysis, giving him reason for suspicion he does not act on openly.

During the rebellion, Adrius supplies intelligence and media support, helps restore the Augustus position and expands his own access to finance and data. His capture of people who know Darrow’s origin makes that apparent alliance increasingly dangerous.

At the Triumph, his betrayal becomes explicit. He says he learned Darrow’s identity in Attica, helps destroy the victory celebration and confesses that he paid Karnus to kill Claudius. When Nero repudiates him, Adrius shoots his father despite Aja’s objection. Darrow is carried into captivity.[6]

Book 3

Morning Star

Adrius interrogates Darrow for three months and confines him for nine more inside his dining table. He uses false claims about Darrow’s family, a public execution of a double and the destruction of contact with the outside world to attack his prisoner’s ability to hope or trust.

After the rescue, Adrius remains a threat to both the Rising and the Sovereign. Stolen nuclear weapons create leverage on a scale that ordinary hostages cannot. When Cassius apparently delivers Darrow and Mustang, Adrius has Darrow’s hand cut off before sending the captives to Octavia.

The assault in the bunker kills Octavia and defeats her protectors, but Adrius then reveals the bombs on Luna. Detonations support his threat, and he demands Darrow’s suicide. Darrow refuses and tears out his tongue; this silences Adrius without stopping Lilath’s remote control. Mustang’s appeal to the fleet creates the opportunity to destroy her ship and end the sequence.

Adrius is hanged a week later. Mustang pulls his feet to shorten his suffering.[7]

Book 5

Dark Age

The Abomination is a child cloned from Adrius and raised by Lilath using the dead Jackal’s messages and plans. He claims to be Adrius, but Virginia rejects that claim. She notices his loneliness and uses his desire for companionship to help escape. The original Adrius remains dead.[8]

Relationships

Mustang

Virginia captures Adrius at the Institute rather than giving him the victory their father arranged. She continues opposing him while struggling with the fact that he is her brother.[9]

Virginia warns Darrow that Adrius treats people as objects. She does not trust him, however useful his information becomes.[10]

Virginia helps stop Adrius’s nuclear attacks and attends his execution. Pulling his feet is the last kindness she can offer him.[4]

Darrow

Adrius turns Cassius against Darrow, then escapes Darrow’s trap by cutting off his own hand. Darrow repeatedly underestimates how far he will go.[11]

Their alliance benefits both men. Darrow accepts help from the person who killed Pax, and Adrius gains influence through a commander Nero increasingly favors.[12]

Adrius keeps Darrow imprisoned in his dining table and lies about his family to break his will. During their final confrontation, he demands Darrow kill himself to stop the bombing. Darrow refuses, but still needs Mustang and the fleet to stop Lilath.[13]

Nero au Augustus

Nero protects Adrius at the Institute and expects him to win. Even with that support, Adrius cannot secure the affection and respect he wants from his father.[14]

Adrius admits that he still wants Nero’s approval after being exiled. At the Triumph, he confesses that he arranged Claudius’s death. Nero rejects him, and Adrius shoots him.[15]

References

  1. Red Rising, chapters 29, 34, 40–44. ↩
  2. Red Rising, chapters 32–34, 40–41. ↩
  3. Golden Son, chapters 7–8, 24–25, 36, 43–45. ↩
  4. Morning Star, chapters 63–64. ↩1 ↩2
  5. Red Rising, chapters 26–29, 32–34, 38–44. ↩
  6. Golden Son, chapters 7–12, 24–27, 36, 43–45, 51. ↩
  7. Morning Star, chapters 1–2, 8, 37, 59, 63–64. ↩
  8. Dark Age, chapters 54–56. ↩
  9. Red Rising, chapters 43–44. ↩
  10. Golden Son, chapters 24, 43. ↩
  11. Red Rising, chapters 32–33, 40–41. ↩
  12. Golden Son, chapters 7–8, 24–27, 43–51. ↩
  13. Morning Star, chapters 1–2, 63. ↩
  14. Red Rising, chapters 29, 34. ↩
  15. Golden Son, chapters 7–8, 51. ↩