Quake Guy

Overview

Ranger (also informally known as "Quakeguy") is a special forces marine in the Quake series. He serves as the main protagonist of the 1996 first-person shooter Quake (where he was initially unnamed) and later appeared in both Quake III Arena and Quake Champions as a playable character.

He was created as a silent protagonist reminiscent of the protagonist of id's earlier game Doom and, like the "Doomguy", is a mysterious military soldier alone against an endless force of monstrous beings (which, in his case, are dark-fantasy Lovecraftian beings). He is distinguishable with his gritty brown color scheme and helmet reminiscent of ancient Roman Legionnaires, and did not appear in later single-player Quake games (as the setting with abandoned in favor of a more story-driven sci-fi setting).

Although he had no dialogue in the original Quake, he has a variety of grunts, groans, and screams, all of which were done by Nine Inch Nails musician Trent Reznor. In Quake Champions, he was voiced by veteran voice actor James "Jim" Kevin Ward.

In Quake Champions, Ranger has two unique traits: a resilience to his own weapons (allowing him to safely use explosive weapons at close range and to "rocket jump" with ease) and a personal teleportation spell (known as the Dire Orb).

Story

Few is known about the elite marine known as "Ranger" prior to taking charge of Operation Counterstrike. All that is known is that he has a wife (Annie) and two kids, and that he played football for Miskatonic University. Tasked with traversing through transportation devices (known as "slipgates") into hostile dimensions, Ranger becomes the last remaining soldier against the invading forces of an enemy codenamed "Quake".

After collecting four eldritch Runes (each representing Earth Magic, Black Magic, Hell Magic, and Elder Magic) in four separate dimensions, Ranger unlocks access to the lair of "Quake", who is revealed to be the All-Mother Shub-Ngurath. While the final threat to humanity was impervious by his weaponry, Ranger found a way to use teleportation (using a mysterious spiked sphere known as the "Dire Orb") to frag her from within.

Able to harness the power of the Dire Orb for his own survival, Ranger has become trapped in the hostile realms of the Elder Gods for decades after. Delirium has eroded his resolve, though a worn family photograph tucked away in his armored boot serves as a scrap of his hope and sanity.

Unknown Canon

The two official "mission packs" for Quake (Scourge of Armagon and Dissolution of Eternity) expands on the story after Ranger's battle with Quake, though whether this story is canon is unknown.

Sometime after the events of Operation Counterstrike, Ranger finds a mysterious slipgate that returns him to a modern military base in his homeworld. Finding the base deserted, he finds that the remnant forces of Quake are still invading using slipgates located in the base. Single-handedly wiping out the invaders, Ranger journeys back to the realms of Quake, where he finds out that the leader of the invaders is one of Quake's generals: the hulkish half-machine Armagon.

After disabling the power source to the slipgates and killing Armagon, Ranger manages to return to the military base using a mysterious rift only to find a charred book detailing the Day of Dissolution, in which wizards of the underworld (known as Wrath) has managed to alter history to reform the world in Quake's image. After returning to the realms of Quake and eliminating the leader of the Wrath (the Overlord), Ranger ventures through time using a "time pod" to eliminate the Ancient Guardians and destroy the Temporal Teleporter (guarded by a powerful dragon).

After destroying the Temporal Teleporter, Ranger scrambles to the charged time pod before reality shifts back to normal. His fate afterwards is unknown.

Trivia (Q1)

• Like Doomguy, Quake Guy's face is shown at the bottom of the screen in the game. The appearance of his face reflects the amount of damage that he has taken. He looks especially intense when he picks up Quad Damage.
• Besides the hand axe, the weapon that Quake Guy wields in third person view does not correspond with the weapon that the player is actually using, but appears to be modeled after the Plasma Gun from Warhammer 40,000.
• Quake Guy does not have a proper jumping animation. He simply appears to levitate off the ground with an appropriate sound of exertion. Looking up and down also causes the entire character model to lean forwards or backwards. Quake Guy also lacks a swimming animation.