Lord Darius: the human warlord Hackett wanted killed on Nonuel

Lord Darius was a human warlord operating out of the Plutus system in the Hades Gamma cluster, and the title was one he gave himself. His base sat on Nonuel, a secondary source of element zero, and he used that position to squeeze the Systems Alliance for money, mining fees and drug-manufacturing equipment. Admiral Hackett sent Commander Shepard to talk to him. What Hackett actually wanted was something else.

Who is Lord Darius in Mass Effect?#

Lord Darius was the leader of the most powerful criminal syndicate in his corner of the Skyllian Verge, dug in on Nonuel beside an element zero deposit, and the target of a mission Hackett hands to a mostly Renegade Shepard.

The lordship was invented. So was most of his grievance. Alliance miners had been working an asteroid in what Darius considered his territory, he had attacked them, and he described those attacks as punitive and justified. Rather than fight for the site he decided to charge for it, which is how a mining dispute turned into a negotiation with a Spectre.

The four demands#

Darius does not warm up. He is angry that Shepard is there at all, and he has insults prepared that vary with Shepard's gender and background. He can still be talked round, but his price is long.

First, he wants respect, which in practice means being called a Lord. Second, he wants an apology from the Alliance for the mining he insists was illegal. Third, in return for granting mining rights he wants the Alliance to supply him with the equipment to manufacture red sand, on top of regular fees and a share of the extracted eezo. Fourth, and last, he wants Shepard to ask nicely and say please.

Agree to all of it and he produces an OSD setting out the arrangement. The conversation has a fuse, though. Shepard is allowed to object to exactly one of his conditions. A second objection counts as one insult too many and Darius ends the talks and sets his men on the Commander. Shepard can also simply stop talking and open fire at any point.

The Alliance connection#

Push back on him even once and Darius drops a claim worth hearing. He says he is an ally of the Alliance, not an enemy of it. After the batarians were driven out of the Skyllian Verge, the Alliance handed him weapons and equipment so that his syndicate, already the strongest in the region, could take control and hold the area steady. The partnership only soured when his appetite for eezo and his drug operations became more trouble than his usefulness was worth.

Nothing in the record contradicts him. It puts the mission in a different light: the warlord extorting the Alliance is a tool the Alliance built and then decided to retire.

What Hackett actually wanted#

Whether Darius survives the meeting or not, Shepard reports back to Hackett afterwards and comes away understanding that the Admiral had expected the Commander to kill him, and had wanted it. Hackett does not apologise for that. His response, when it comes, is a question about whether Shepard really believed the Commander was the only one doing whatever the job required.

Fighting him#

Darius has more health than the retainers around him and five bars of shielding, and both his health and his shields regenerate. He can add Immunity on top, and on Insanity he also gets Shield Boost. He carries an assault rifle and a shotgun and swaps between them by range, so Sabotage only forces him to change weapon rather than disarming him. With the shotgun out he can throw Carnage.

For all that, his retainers are the real threat, because there are more of them. Locking Darius in a Stasis field and clearing the room first is the safer approach. There is also a faster one: at the opening of the fight, Overload can detonate the hazardous containers behind him and blow him clean off his balcony.

Aftermath#

Unused audio from the first game describes what each outcome was meant to lead to. Kill Darius and various pirate groups try to shut down Alliance mining in the area and get nowhere. Spare him and the price of element zero rises, because his demands are still attached to it. Both Galactic News reports were restored in the Legendary Edition, so the choice now has a visible consequence rather than a silent one.