The Luminous Path is a Hong Kong Triad and the rival of the Red Arrow. The Luminous Path appears as a major faction in Deus Ex.
History[]
The earliest mention of the Luminous Path dates back to the 2010s. In 2018, then-established Triad groups engaged in a violent conflict, known as the "Mark Gor Lau War," which weakened those Triad groups. In the aftermath of the conflict, the Luminous Path and Red Arrow were among the newly empowered groups that replaced the ones previously in power.[1]
2052[]
In 2052, the Luminous Path were led by Gordon Quick, and also hosted the laboratory of Tracer Tong, who is regarded as a friend of the group.[2] By this time, the Luminous Path had entered into conflict with the Red Arrow due to the actions of Majestic 12 agent Maggie Chow. Previously, the Red Arrow had stolen a prototype of the Dragon's Tooth sword from VersaLife. Chow recovered the prototype on behalf of Majestic 12 and used the weapon to murder the Red Arrow Leader, Yuen Kong.[3] She then framed the murder on the Luminous Path, resulting in war between the two Triad groups.
In line with tradition, war between the two groups was carried out using traditional weapons such as swords.[4] On one occasion, the Luminous Path attacked the Lucky Money club, which resulted in ten dead.[5] Although the Dragon's Tooth sword had been returned to Majestic 12's possession, if it had remained with the Red Arrow, it would have given them a large advantage over the Luminous Path due to the weapon's extraordinary technology.[6]
The conflict was resolved by JC Denton, who had arrived in Hong Kong to seek the help of Tracer Tong. JC was able to uncover Maggie Chow's involvement in starting the Triad war, which earned him the trust of Gordon Quick as well as an audience with Tracer Tong. Afterwards, at the request of Tracer Tong, JC infiltrated the VersaLife laboratories to retrieve a ROM-encoding for the Dragon's Tooth sword. This ROM-encoding enabled both Triad groups to produce the sword, allowing for Gordon Quick and Max Chen to declare peace and end the conflict.
Later, the merged AI Helios, in an effort to demonstrate its capabilities, declared the triads of Hong Kong illegal and locked the compound of the Luminous Path.[7] The group's fate is not known.
Notes and trivia[]
- In Deus Ex, the Luminous Path is represented by two classes of generic non-player characters in addition to the unique character class for Gordon Quick. The first class, TriadLumPath1, is used to represent common gang members. The second class, TriadLumPath2, is internally labeled "Gang Leader" and depicts a much taller gang member with a queue hairstyle. The leader-type NPC class appears only once in the entire game, appearing among other gang members in the Luminous Path compound.
- The name "Luminous Path" resembles Illuminati. According to design document 13.12, this reference was intentional and was meant to imply that the Luminous Path are under the influence of the Illuminati. The relevant part of the design document states:
- While the connection between the Luminous Path and the Illuminati is not explicitly mentioned in-game, it can be seen that the computer in Tracer Tong's laboratory displays "Illuminati Information Systems" as its network.
See also[]
Gallery[]
.png "Luminous path shirt texture (tiger).png (11 KB)")
References[]
- ↑ Dragon Heads: The Triads of the 21st Century
- ↑ Dialogue from Lucky Money bartender: "Tong, yes... friend of the Luminous Path Triad. And, by extension, enemy of the Red Arrow."
- ↑ Dialogue from the boat person: "Cauterized. The scientific terminology. Someone cut him, but it was a weapon that cannot be explained with current technology."
- ↑ Dialogue from Gordon Quick: "All contests between the Triads are decided with the ancient art of fighting."
- ↑ APR - Ten Dead in Gang Slaying
- ↑ Dialogue from Gordon Quick: "The Dragon's Tooth is the most perfect blade possible in a non-eutactic solid -- it would have given the Red Arrow an enormous advantage."
- ↑ Dialogue from Paul Denton, if he survived, to JC when JC is in Area 51: "It's decided to replace human government -- I don't know why. In Hong Kong, it ordered the police to remove all barricades from the roads; traffic is flowing again. It declared the Triads illegal and locked the door to Tong's compound."