The Last Express - Characters

Characters

Robert Cath

A young American doctor and the protagonist of the game. Seemingly ostracized by the American medical circles due to his tendencies to the occult, Cath moved to Europe. During this period, he had a run-in with Irish nationalists, resulting in a firefight with British police along with an Irishman named Reilly. The fight resulted with the death of a British policeman and the injury of Reilly. Cath escaped to the continent and retreated to Paris where he was contacted by his old friend Tyler Whitney with whom he seems to have a grudge about "what happened in Cuba". Cath is depicted to be a capable character in social circles (he speaks French and Russian and seems to understand German, judging by the subtitles which are absent when he overhears Arabic or Serbian)

Tyler Whitney

An American gentleman, and close friend of Cath, who seems to have traveled extensively as he is known by many characters in the train. His social contacts vary from Serbian military to German industrialists. Whitney invites Robert Cath to the Orient Express for them to take a journey to Jerusalem where Whitney claims to have found something interesting for Cath (which later turns out to be a manuscript). Tyler Whitney's personal agenda for being on the Orient Express is a three-way business transaction: He possesses an antique egg which he wants to sell to a certain Prince Kronos for a hefty amount of gold which he would then turn over to the German arms dealer August Schmidt to purchase military equipment to support the Serbian "Black Hand" for their liberation campaign in the Balkans. Unfortunately, Whitney turns up dead before the journey even starts, leaving Cath in a very delicate and dangerous position.

August Schmidt

A wealthy German industrialist and an arms dealer. He plans to sell his weaponry to Tyler Whitney. Along the way, he meets Anna Wolff, an Austrian violinist and socialite to whom Schmidt is seemingly quite attracted. However, after the acquisition of the guns "Tyler" bought for them, Serbians hijack the train and subsequently Schmidt is left inside the sleeping car to which he was evacuated.

Anna Wolff

An Austrian socialite. One of the porters in the train refer to her as "having made more journeys on the Orient Express" than the porter himself. After discovering Tyler's corpse, Cath finds a scarf with the monogram "W" upon it which puts Wolff under some suspicion. Later in the journey, it is revealed that Anna Wolff is actually working for Austria as a spy, tracking August Schmidt's arms deal. Anna becomes Robert Cath's eventual love-interest. After reaching Constantinople and learning that the war has broken out, she leaves Cath to join the war effort, promising to return after the war is over.

George Abbot

A British gentleman who boards the train in Munich, Abbot appears as a talkative and ordinary man who converses with practically everyone he comes across. After the murder of the young Dolnikov, he reveals to Cath that he was aware of his true identity, along with his exploits concerning the Irish incident and his impersonation of Whitney and offers him to work with the British government for the upcoming European crisis. He is one of the few characters to actually make it to Constantinople.

Alexei Dolnikov

A Russian nobleman who disdains his aristocratic roots. Alexei espouses anarchism and the abolishing of all authority. He and Tatiana Obolensky are childhood friends and Alexei asks her to elope with him. When she refuses, he attempts to plant a bomb and kill Count Obolensky whom Alexei considers as a relic of Tsar's oppressive rule. In his confrontation with the Count, Alexei is stabbed to death by the delirious elder aristocrat.

Count Vassili Alexandrovich Obolensky & Tatiana Obolensky

Tsar's cousin and a former Russian ambassador, Count Obolensky takes her young granddaughter Tatiana, who spent several years in Paris back to Russia. The Count is rather senile at first, with occasional seizures which Cath treats with herbal medication. During a confrontation with his granddaughter's lover Alexei, the Count, in his delirium, stabs the young anarchist to death. Tatiana, wracked by guilt and shocked by Alexei's death, assumes an almost catatonic state. Even during the Serbian hijacking attempt, they do not move from their table in the dining car. The Count displays a certain aspect of what might be called clairvoyance as he claims that those who were evacuated to the sleeping cars will never reach Constantinople. In the end, as the train reaches its final destination, Tatiana opens the gun cache and blow them up with what seems to be Alexei's lighter.

Prince Kronos

Rumored to be a prince in exile, Kronos is a wealthy art collector who travels with his private car along with his bodyguard Kahina. He seems to know Cath's secrets and wishes to carry on with Whitney's transaction. He never leaves his car, except for one occasion, on which he invites Anna Wolff for a duet as he plays the piano. In the end, he turns out to be the main antagonist of the game, as he returns to the train in Constantinople to take Robert and Anna hostage to acquire the "egg".

Milos

A Serbian military officer and a member of the "Black Hand" who assassinated Prince Ferdinand. Apparently, the Serbian High Command gave Tyler Whitney an antique to liquidate and buy them military equipment. Milos and his comrades, Vesna, Ivo and Salko board the Orient Express to get the weapons from Munich and then hijack the train through Austria into Serbia. During the attempt, Cath kills the subordinates after which Anna Wolff shoots Milos to death.

The Firebird

The object that forms the main story arc of the entire game, the Firebird is a jeweled egg with a world map engraved upon it. The egg is accompanied by a whistle, both of which are lost in the beginning. It turns out that after finding Tyler's dead body, Anna Wolff took the egg and later she gave it to the unsuspecting Tatiana for safekeeping. The whistle turns up in the hands of the French boy, François. Cath recovers both items and hides the egg in the luggage car while keeping the whistle. A recurring reference is made for the Firebird: Tyler Whitney (in Cath's nightmare), Count Obolensky and finally Kronos all refer to the bird's "singing". In the climax, Kronos holds Cath at gunpoint to open the egg. Cath opens the jewel by the virtue of the Russian fairytale he found in Tyler's luggage, referencing various locations on the world, forming some sort of combination. As the egg opens, it turns into a mechanical predatory bird. At Kronos' demand, Anna plays the violin and the bird sings. However instead of closing the egg, Cath blows the whistle, launching the creature first on Kronos then on Kahina. As the bird's claws tear and shred at Kronos, Cath finally sees how Tyler met his end.