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"Being a good soldier comes down to one thing. To one single question: What are you prepared to sacrifice? When they came to me with the nanosuit, I sacrificed Laurence Barnes, the man I was, to become Prophet. When my own flesh and blood held me back, I sacrificed that too. Replaced it, like a spare part. Victory costs. Every time, you pay a little more. I saw a glimpse of what's coming and there was nothing left of me to stop it. When the greatest combat machine fails... what do we do then? What do I do?!"
―Prophet's narration in the opening scene of Crysis 3.


Major Laurence "Prophet" Barnes is the squad leader of Raptor Team during the events of Crysis on the Lingshan Islands and a major character in both Crysis and Crysis 2. A copy of his personality and memories returns as the protagonist in Crysis 3 within the Nanosuit 2.0.

Background

A seasoned veteran of Operation Desert Storm and Operation Enduring Freedom during the War on Terror, he spent years in schooling before joining the US Army. At some point, he took part in a CIA-backed drug raid in which civilians were killed. Angered by the deaths of innocents, he hospitalized his CIA supervisors by beating them to a bloody mess. When he was reprimanded by his superiors, he lashed out at them too. Since he was to be put in Leavenworth federal prison, he figured he should "really earn it" and proceeded to beat up everyone in the room. At the maximum-security prison, he received some documents sent by Jacob Hargreave. Barnes was set free, but in return he had to do a favor for Hargreave; he was the first soldier to try on the Nanosuit 1.0, where he met Nathan Gould.

Later at Lingshan, after he was temporarily MIA, Nomad, being the second-in-command, temporarily took Prophet's role as squad leader. However, because of Nomad's rank, Strickland assumed complete mission control.

Crysis

Prophet leads Raptor Team through their first few objectives, the first being to find Aztec who was separated from the rest of the squad only to be informed by Jester and Nomad that Aztec was torn to shreds (along with a North Korean patrol) by an unknown hostile; he then incinerates his suit via remote and orders the two to stay on mission.

He later regroups with Nomad, Psycho, and Jester, who have made a startling find: a boat completely frozen solid in the middle of the tropical island. He then proceeds to order Psycho to "can it" after he questions their true motives for being on the island and argues that Prophet knows more than he's telling him. After Prophet and Psycho's argument, they hear a thunderous roar in the distance; suddenly, an Ceph Scout blasts from the other side of the boat, abducting Jester and dragging him off into the jungle. They finally manage to find him but it is too late as he was nothing more than a mangled corpse on the side of the mysterious mountain. Prophet proceeds to vaporize his suit and continues forward with the mission.

Later he regroups with Nomad, who also begins to question his superiors motives. This startles Prophet as he is used to Nomad taking orders without question and being utterly obedient. He then tells him that he has no idea whats going on and that he was sent to find these people and that's what he is going to do. Immediately after his debacle with Nomad, he is abducted by a Ceph scout and dragged off into the jungle in the same manner as Jester. After his abduction, Nomad lists him as MIA rather than KIA hoping Prophet may still be alive; Major Strickland assumes mission command after this event.

Prophet miraculously reappears at the point of the story where Nomad exits the Ceph ship and saves him from a squad of Ceph troopers, but exhibiting strange behavior. He has somehow managed to jury-rig a complex alien weapon into operation while in the field, and seems to have a much deeper understanding of the Ceph than anyone else, but his suit's thermal systems are badly damaged. Nomad then escorts Prophet out of the sphere and escorts him to a VTOL to safety. Once he returned to the USS Constitution, he is seen arguing with Psycho (who also managed to survive) telling him how he's going to take the fight to the Ceph. Prophet was last seen stealing a VTOL and flying back to the island with the intent of stopping the Ceph forces singlehandedly. Presumed dead after the island is the subject of a nuclear strike, he was last revealed to be alive when Psycho received a radio communication from Prophet on a VTOL with Nomad and Helena Rosenthal after the defeat of the Warrior at the hands of Nomad, whom quickly reacts to this by ordering Psycho to take them back to the island in search of him as thousands of machines pour out of the alien ship.

Crysis Warhead

There are only three references to Prophet during the game. The first one is radio transmission overheard by Psycho as he leaves the USS Maine in Frozen Paradise; Prophet is seemingly in danger of hypothermia since his Nanosuit is malfunctioning (Psycho responds, trying to find out where Prophet is, but Prophet is seemingly unable to hear Psycho, possibly due to radio interference). Later, in the second half of Below the Thunder, Commander Emerson informs Psycho that Prophet had been found alive. The final reference is in the later parts of From Hell's Heart: Emerson announces that Prophet and Nomad have made it out of the Ice Sphere alive, and are headed to the carrier.

Crysis (comics)

Prophet fought alone against the bipedal aliens until the VTOL arrived. Unfortunately, it was shot down by the Ceph right before it landed. A large bipedal alien then destroyed it, knocking down all the survivors and severely injuring Nomad. Prophet then came to their rescue and defeated the giant Ceph with a Gauss Rifle and grenades. He also defended his would-be saviors from any smaller Ceph as they got up. When they all got to safety, Prophet explained that the mission was nothing more than a cover for Jacob Hargreave's agenda, to everyone's shock.

Hargreave contacts Prophet and tells him there is a private vessel docked on the opposite side of the island. Upon hearing this, the survivors attempt to take a shortcut through the alien ship, but they are caught by the Ceph inside and forced to step through a portal, one that Prophet is reluctant to go through.

Prophet reveals that he befriended a North Korean soldier, Pak, some time after he stabbed the Ceph Scout and escaped into the cave. The KPA Nanosuit appears to have been designed separately, contrary to speculation that it was reverse-engineered from American technology. However, they were overwhelmed by the tentacles and Pak sacrificed himself to allow Prophet to escape.

Despite Nomad's distrust, Prophet leads everyone back out through the portal. Outside, they find that they've travelled 18 hours back in time. Prophet reveals that he was surprised the first time, and even saw his old self talking to Pak. At the rendezvous point, Prophet hails the boat before contacting his old self to ensure that events unfold the same way. When the boat arrives, however, they are betrayed by the crew, who shoot them and disable their suits with a powerful EMP.

Once on board, Prophet is exasperated to find that Norman West, the CIA operative that he beat up in Panama, is behind all this. He ridicules West for killing women and children and beating up the immobilized Psycho, but relents when West threatens to kill Nomad. He tells the agent that the CIA has been wrong on multiple accounts, including at Lingshan, but West refuses to believe him. Prophet gives West the coordinates to Hargreave's bunker in exchange for Nomad receiving medical treatment.

However, Morrison's nuke hits the island and releases an EMP blast that frees the captives. Prophet and Psycho proceed to kill the crew, but are eventually fired upon with a rocket launcher. Nomad sacrifices himself and allows the two surviving members of Raptor Team to kill the rest of the crew. Prophet terminates West with extreme prejudice and after mourning Nomad's loss, decides that Hargreave's the only one that can help them.

Crysis 2

At some point after the Lingshan incident, Prophet was promoted to the rank of Commander. It was then revealed that Prophet was under the orders of CryNet Systems CEO Jacob Hargreave, who had him investigate Lingshan to procure knowledge about the aliens, the Ceph. Prophet confronted Hargreave about his knowledge about the Ceph and was angered to learn that his superior actually used him and Raptor Team as mere test subjects to field test the Nanosuits against the Ceph; Hargreave calls Raptor Team's casualties "a necessary sacrifice." As a result, Prophet went rogue and stole the Nanosuit 2.0, becoming a wanted man in the process. In the years between 2020 and 2023, Prophet somehow discovered the existence of Ceph ships buried all over the Earth and traveled to New York City to warn the city of his findings. He arrives too late, however, as the invasion has already begun.

Prophet allied with Nathan Gould in finding a way to combat the Cephlapods. At some point, Prophet was infected with the Ceph's "Manhattan" virus. On August 23, he rescued a dying Alcatraz after a Ceph Gunship destroyed his reinforcement submarine and killed most of the marines on board. He gave Alcatraz his suit before committing suicide so that the Nanosuit would adapt to Alcatraz, leaving behind a video inside the suit for Alcatraz.

Throughout Alcatraz's journey, he encounters many of Prophet's memories inside the suit, and the suit itself delivers messages from Prophet; these are possibly programs he instigated before his death. The CELL troopers which hunted Prophet mistook Alcatraz with him, and even after knowing he wasn't him, continued calling him Prophet anyway.

After Alcatraz's heroics in halting the Ceph invasion of Manhattan, he encounters a copy of Prophet's personality stored within the suit itself. Prophet hinted the suit had somehow 'preserved' his spirit. He explained things about the Ceph and says that neither he nor Alcatraz could die yet, and the nanosuit bearer awakened. After receiving a radio transmission from Karl Rasch, the other founder of the Hargreave-Rasch Biomedical corporation, Alcatraz reply to him, "They call me...Prophet," apparently in the latter's voice.

Crysis 3

During the time between Crysis 2 and Crysis 3, Alcatraz's personality was completely supplanted by Prophet's. While in Siberia, C.E.L.L. operatives shot and subdued him with K-Volts and imprisoned him in a stasis chamber for two decades. During this time, C.E.L.L. further enhanced him with captured Ceph technology. In 2047, Psycho, Dane, and Bandit, part of the Resistance, rescue him from CELL. Psycho explains that in Prophet's 20 year absence, CELL used Ceph technology to generate nearly unlimited energy. Eventually, CELL gained a monopoly over the power supply, and used it to drive everyone into debt. Those who could not pay were sent to "volunteer camps." A resistance movement formed in response to this. The resistance eventually freed Psycho from the skinning labs, and he joined their ranks. Tara Strickland also helps the resistance politically as a senator, but is unable to do much due to CELL's political dominance. The source of CELL's power generation for the entire world, called System X, is also located in the abandoned and encased New York, which has grown into a jungle. Psycho wants System X destroyed to free the world from CELL. Prophet, though worried about his visions of the Alpha Ceph showing him the end of the world, agrees.

Psycho and Prophet enter the dome, fighting through CELL forces and feral Ceph Stalkers. They reach the resistance headquarters, where they meet Karl Ernst Rasch and Claire Fontanelli, the commander of the resistance. Rasch tries to convince her that Prophet is what the resistance needs to finally overthrow CELL. Despite affirmations from Psycho, with whom she seems to have a special relationship, Claire is skeptical of Prophet, ostensibly because of the extensive modifications, the integration of Ceph genetic material, and the deep integration with his suit. Grudgingly, she eventually agrees.

Their first target is System X's outer defenses. Despite CELL's capacity for infinite power generation, CELL chose to power its defenses with a hydroelectric dam. Prophet hypothesizes that CELL does this because it fears something about System X. Prophet, who continues to have visions, disables the dam and then disables the System X facility. It is revealed that System X is the Alpha Ceph. A system program designed to kill the Alpha Ceph when necessary activates, but fails, and the facility self-destructs. The Alpha Ceph fires a beam into the atmosphere to open a wormhole to the Ceph home world in the M33 Galaxy. Through this wormhole, they plan to send an invasion force to invade the planet, revealing their true motives for inhabiting the planet for millions of years. The Ceph hivemind reactivates, and a coordinated Ceph attack ensues. Prophet resolves to kill the Alpha Ceph and end the threat once and for all.

Prophet learns that he must unlock his suit to defeat the Ceph. Prophet and Psycho head to the skinning laboratory to use the cradle to do this and to find out who was responsible for skinning Psycho. At the facility, they see firsthand the atrocities visited upon the Nanosuit soldiers by CELL. Psycho uses the cradle to remove the neural blocks put in place to prevent the Ceph from taking over Prophet's mind. It also lifts the restrictions on the nanobots in Prophet, and they are now able to transform. Meanwhile, Psycho does more digging into his past, despite orders from Claire. He discovers that it was Claire who had skinned him and the others at the behest of CELL. Upset, he rebuffs efforts from Claire and Prophet to console him. Claire pleads that he was the reason she joined the resistance, and that she had no other choice. Prophet also claims that he had no other choice, and that he told him what he needed to know at the time of the Lingshan Incident. Psycho finds this unacceptable, as everyone has a choice. He hands Prophet the dogtags of Nomad, Aztec, and Jester, and leaves.

Prophet learns that because the Alpha Ceph is creating a wormhole, the CELL plans to use Archangel, a satellite based energy distribution platform that can draw power from the entire world's power grid, as a directed energy weapon to destroy all of New York and hopefully the Alpha Ceph. Unfortunately, firing it at the Alpha Ceph would cause a chain reaction that would destroy the whole planet. To make matters worse, the Ceph attack Claire and the resistance. Prophet races to rescue them, but the situation is so dire that Claire tells him to leave them, as they are only holding him back. Psycho shows up with a VTOL and rescues the resistance. They proceed to the Archangel control facility where they shut off the weapon before it unleashes enough energy to set off a chain reaction. Rasch, who had used Ceph DNA to extend his lifespan, is recovered in the facility, but is now under the control of the Ceph. He disables Prophet and tries the same on Psycho, but Claire blocks his attack and Psycho shoots Rasch. No longer under control, Rasch implores the group to leave as the Ceph tentacle renews its attack. Prophet, Psycho, and the injured Claire board the VTOL and engage in a massive air battle, eventually crashing. Claire, succumbing to her injuries, is forgiven by Psycho and dies. Psycho laments to Prophet that he is powerless because he does not posses a Nanosuit. Prophet fights with Psycho, revealing that Rasch had incapacitated Prophet because of his integration with his suit, and that they only survived because of Psycho's humanity. Psycho, now going by his human name Michael, resolves to do the slaughtering and procures another VTOL to take the battle and Prophet to the Ceph.

Michael and Prophet kill the Alpha Ceph, destroying the wormhole device, but the beam powering the wormhole pulls Prophet into space. Now in orbit, Prophet sees a massive Ceph Ship, similar to the one in Lingshan, coming through the wormhole. His suit heavily damaged, Prophet almost gives up, but instead he pushes on. Recalling Archangel's immense power, Prophet hacks into the satellite and uses it to destroy the Ceph ship. This collapses the wormhole and ends the threat of invasion. In the explosion, Prophet is knocked off the satellite by debris and falls back to Earth. He impacts the water in Lingshan Island where 27 years ago the Ceph were initially discovered. When Prophet wakes up, he is in a house in Lingshan. In the background, there is a news broadcast of the now Senator Tara Strickland, who announces that the remaining assets of the CELL corporation have been seized as part of the global recovery effort. The Nanosuit, now more symbiotic than ever before, changes its outer layer to resemble Prophet's original body. He grabs the dogtags of the deceased Raptor Team squad members, thinking how much he sacrificed his humanity and his body in his quest for victory. He walks out to the beach, throws the tags into the water, decides to use the original Prophet's actual name "Laurence Barnes" from now on, walks back towards the house, and cloaks repeating his famous taglines "They called me Prophet. Remember me." 

In-game Character Information

In 2020, Major Laurence Barnes was equipped with a revolutionary combat system from Hargreave-Rash Biochemical: The nanosuit.

As the suit's nanites bonded to skin and nerves, Barnes began his transformation into an entity we know as Prophet.

At first, 'Prophet' was simply the Major's codename in the field, but as the suit's true form became apparent, this began to change. Far from the simple 'combat exoskeleton' Hargreave-Rash promised, the nanosuit was actually a volatile cocktail of highly advanced technology and genetically engineered alien DNA.

During Field-testing on Lingshan, direct contact with the aliens caused a disturbing shift in the Major's suit, bringing him closer in nature to the Ceph. But even as he fought the alien influence clawing at his mind, the suit-bounded soldier discovered that his new body could be adapted, upgraded, and evolved. The nanosuit allowed biological systems to be improved, modified, and even replaced. Each upgrade brought much-needed power to fight the Ceph incursion, but each came at a price:

With each replacement, each modification of his body, the Major became less man and more machine; less human and more Ceph; less Laurence Barnes and more Prophet. One piece at a time, he left his humanity behind.

In New York, Prophet replaced his Ceph-infected flesh altogether with a dying marine named Alcatraz, thus sacrificing the last remnants of the man he was to turn the tide of the war in humanity's favor.

When the smoke cleared, Alcatraz was lost and Barnes himself was little more than a ghost haunting the machine. What remained to continue the fight, was Prophet.

Prophet - a killing machine holding onto the last treads of its barely-remembered humanity. Prophet - a relentless alien-hunter secretly plagued by unearthly visions and the pull of it's own Ceph nature. Prophet - a deadly weapon system made from alien upgrades and knotted nano-musclepacks wrapped around a stolen corpse, dreaming it was once a man named Laurence Barnes.

Quotes

"The situation is FUBAR (Fucked up beyond all recognition/any repair)"
―Prophet during Relic to Nomad, commenting on how bad the situation is.
"I've got your back Nomad, let's give these ugly bastards a taste of their own! *Nomad pauses, stunned* You with me, son?"
―Prophet during Paradise Lost to Nomad when he miraculously returns with the MOAC.
"His nuke won't even scratch the surface."
―Prophet during Reckoning, telling Psycho how the nuke Admiral Morrison will launch won't even damage the aliens.
"We cannot fight new wars with old weapons. Let him who desires peace prepare for war."
―Prophet in a CryEngine 3 Tech Demo, talking to possibly a crowd or Nomad about the War in NYC.
"Alcatraz? That your name? Alcatraz... Destiny's a bitch, huh? It'll be on you now, son."
―Prophet talking to Alcatraz during their first meeting.
"Hey dead man. Some trip, huh? Thought I'd gone? Well, I thought so too. But the suit, man. Hargreave was right. The suit changes all the rules. They got inside me. The Ceph. They got inside. I had to break the link to the suit, or loose control for good. And you, you were there, in front of me. Dying, in front of me. Man, I ought to take the chance. Give you the chance to finish what I started. It was our only hope. Look at that. Not just New York. Not just Lingshan. The Ceph have been around... forever, man. And they built everywhere. Everywhere."
―Prophet during the Crysis 2 ending cinematic
"They call me...Prophet."
―Prophet responding to Karl Rasch at the end of Crysis 2.
"They think I'm the Alpha Ceph.. I am the Alpha Ceph.."
―Prophet during the beginning of Gods And Monsters.
"This ones for Raptor team you son of a bitch!"
―Prophet saying this before shooting his bow at the Alpha Ceph in Crysis 3.
"First week of boot camp, they taught us a lesson. A good soldier knows there's only one thing he can rely on when the chips are down: Not his cutting edge intel, not his state of the art equipment, and not his top of the line weapon. Just himself: It took me a long time to remember that. For now, the war is over. I made mistakes along the way. But after all, I'm only human. My name is Laurence Barnes.They called me Prophet. Remember me."
―Prophet during the Crysis 3 Epilogue


Gallery

Trivia

  • In a deleted training level in Crysis, Prophet is supposed to accompany Nomad and help him fight in a mock tutorial village.
  • In one of the unlockable flashbacks in Crysis 2, it was revealed that Prophet, like Nomad, visited the alien structure on Lingshan, where he learned of the Ceph locations via a map similar to the one in the ending clip and was contacted by Gould while inside.
  • In Crysis: Legion it is revealed that after the Lingshan incident, Prophet deserted from Delta Force and severed all ties with Hargreave, only contacting Nathan Gould, his ex-handler, occasionally. It is also revealed that he may have visited several other alien structures between the events of the two games, and that shortly prior to Crysis 2 he contacted Gould, wanting to deliver something very important to him (in all likelihood he was referring to the Nanosuit).
  • Prophet is voiced by James Vincent Meredith.
  • The callname Prophet becomes finally appropriate in Crysis 3, for various reasons.
  • Prophet is the only human who is able to use Ceph weaponry.
  • Prophet, Psycho, & Nomad are the only surviving members of Raptor Team.
  • In the end of Crysis 3, Prophet merged with the Nanosuit, existing as a single super-human being with all the powers of the Nanosuit.
Characters in Crysis and Crysis Warhead
KPA Lee Kim-sun · Kyong Ri Chan
Other Edward Jones
Raptor Team Aztec · Jester · Nomad · Prophet · Psycho
Eagle Team Bandit · Bear · Blue Dog · Cupcake · Dane
Research Team Martin Badowski · David Rosenthal · Helena Rosenthal · Hostage
US Military Richard Morrison · Clarence Strickland · Sean O'Neill · Emerson · Tim Gillespie · Bradley


Characters in Crysis 2
C.E.L.L. Dominic H. Lockhart · Tara Strickland · C. Abao · Mitchell Reeves
1919 Expedition Jacob Hargreave · Walter Gould · Karl Ernst Rasch
United States Military Alcatraz · Sherman Barclay · Chino
Other Nathan Gould · Edward Newton · Prophet


Characters in Crysis 3
Ceph Alpha Ceph
Liberty Dome Rebels Bandit · Claire Fontanelli · Dane · Karl Ernst Rasch · Prophet · Psycho
Other Tara Strickland
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