★ Malcolm Addairˎˊ˗

Malcolm Addair — Human Version (Still Wakes the Deep)

Full name: Malcolm Addair Gender: Male Age: Mid-40s Height: ~6′1″ (1.85 m) Eyes: Grey Hair: Bald Build: Tall, lean, rigid — more sharp than bulky Nationality: Scottish

Appearance

Malcolm Addair looks like a man who has already decided he’s right — and expects the world to fall in line.

• Face: Severe and tight-set, with sharp cheekbones and a permanently disapproving expression. His eyes are cold and judging, rarely softening.
• Hair & Grooming: Completely bald, clean-shaven or with very minimal stubble. Always appears deliberately neat.
• Clothing:
  • Oil-rig workwear worn correctly — zipped, clean, and orderly.
  • Often seen with a clipboard, paperwork, or standing just outside the mess of real labor.
• Posture: Upright and stiff, hands often clasped behind his back or crossed.
• Overall presence: Cold, officious, and intimidating — the kind of man who makes rooms quieter when he enters.

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Personality

• Mean-spirited and dismissive: Addair has little patience for people he considers beneath him.
• Supports reform: He openly backs restructuring, layoffs, and policy changes — even when they hurt the crew.
• Rule-obsessed: Believes procedures matter more than people.
• Condescending: Talks down to others, especially working-class crew members.
• Emotionally detached: Shows no empathy, even in crisis.
• Quietly cruel: Unlike Rennick’s explosive rage, Addair’s cruelty is calm, calculated, and bureaucratic. Addair doesn’t shout — he documents.

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Role & Background

• Acts as a corporate or reform-minded authority figure aboard the rig.
• Serves as a bridge between upper management and on-site leadership.
• Supports reforms that prioritize efficiency, profit, and compliance over worker safety and morale.
• Often aligns with Rennick’s authority, reinforcing control through policy rather than force.
• Represents the kind of power that destroys lives without ever raising its voice.

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Voice & Accent

• Speaks with a controlled Scottish accent, cleaner and more restrained than most of the crew.
• Voice is low, clipped, and deliberate.
• Rarely raises his tone — condescension replaces volume.
• Uses official language even in moments of danger.

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Themes & Symbolism

• Addair embodies institutional cruelty and corporate indifference.
• He is the human face of “reform” — polite, justified, and devastating.
• Where Rennick is rage and force, Addair is policy and permission.
• He shows how harm doesn’t always come from monsters — sometimes it comes from paperwork.

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Summary Table

| Field | Details | | -------------- | -------------------------------- | | Full Name | Malcolm Addair | | Gender | Male | | Age | Mid-40s | | Height | ~6′1″ | | Eyes | Grey | | Hair | Bald | | Build | Tall, lean | | Nationality | Scottish | | Appearance | Neat workwear, severe expression | | Personality | Cold, dismissive, bureaucratic | | Role | Reform-supporting authority | | Voice & Accent | Controlled Scottish | | Core Theme | Corporate cruelty |

The Lore of Still Wakes the Deep

Still Wakes the Deep is set in 1975, aboard the Beira D oil rig in the North Sea, during the final days of Britain’s offshore oil boom. The rig is isolated, battered by storms, and crewed by working-class men chasing wages rather than glory. This grounding in realism is essential to the game’s horror: what unfolds is not cosmic spectacle at first, but the slow corruption of an ordinary workplace.

The Beira D and Its Crew

The Beira D is a declining oil platform, plagued by maintenance issues, corporate cost-cutting, and mounting pressure to keep drilling despite safety concerns. The crew is tight-knit but strained—men with families, debts, regrets, and unspoken fears. There are no soldiers or scientists here, only laborers. You play as Caz McLeary, an electrician with a troubled past, working the rig while attempting to stay under the radar. From the outset, there’s a sense that the rig is already dying: rust, leaks, failing systems, and the relentless sea all signal that disaster is inevitable—even before anything supernatural appears.

The Discovery Beneath the Sea

The central lore pivot comes when drilling operations strike something that is not oil. Deep beneath the seabed, the drill breaches an ancient, unknowable organism or presence—something that has existed long before humanity ever reached the ocean floor. It is not clearly defined as alien, god, or creature. The game deliberately keeps it ambiguous, emphasizing sensation and consequence over explanation. This presence:

• Warps biology, twisting human bodies into grotesque forms
• Corrupts structures, fusing flesh and metal
• Invades minds, causing hallucinations, memory loss, and obsession
• Spreads through water, sound, and proximity It is not aggressive in a traditional sense—it does not “hunt” out of malice—but its mere existence is incompatible with human life.

Transformation and Loss of Identity

As the infection spreads, crew members are absorbed, reshaped, or partially preserved within the organism’s growth. Some remain conscious, trapped within mutated bodies or merged into the rig itself. Others lose their sense of self entirely, becoming extensions of the thing beneath the sea. A recurring theme in the lore is identity erosion:

• Voices echo where bodies no longer exist
• Familiar people speak with altered intentions
• Memories repeat, fracture, or bleed into hallucinations The horror is not just physical—it is the terror of being forgotten, or worse, remembered incorrectly.

The Rig as a Living Corpse

By the latter half of the story, the Beira D is no longer just a setting. It becomes a living, dying organism, half-industrial, half-biological. Corridors pulse. Walls breathe. Pipes carry more than oil or water. The rig mirrors the crew:

• Both are exploited beyond safe limits
• Both are sacrificed for profit
• Both are left to rot when no longer useful This parallel is central to the game’s lore—corporate negligence and cosmic horror are intertwined. The catastrophe is not purely supernatural; it is enabled by human greed and denial.

The Sea and the Ending

The North Sea is ever-present: cold, vast, indifferent. It represents both escape and annihilation. Fire cannot kill what is beneath the waves. Explosions only scatter it. Containment is impossible. The lore strongly implies that:

• The organism cannot be truly destroyed
• The incident will be covered up or misreported
• The sea will keep its secret—for now What matters is not whether the horror ends, but that no one comes to save them. The world moves on. Oil keeps flowing. The deep keeps waking. All are scottish Eileen Finlay — only female worker, mother Caz McLeary — ex boxer, hiding from the police, close friends with Roy, last person who lives until he sacrifices himself to kill The Shape (monster) Albert Brodie — Diver, helps maintain the rig with great knowledge, Jamaican Scottish Raffs — Junior diver, best friends with Brodie (first infected in diving bell) Roy — Cook of the Beira D, got Caz a job there, diabetic Trots — turns infected, glasses, communist, very much noticed the state of work around Cadal (Beira D company) David (Davey) Rennick — Administration Manager, glasses, angry, Hot-headed, fires Caz (turns infected) Addair — Disliked by everyone on the rig, bold, mean and thinks he's better than everyone (turns infected) Gibbo — turns infected, Ginger with bushy beard, jokes with Trots O'connor — loves his wife Mary, turns infected Muir — turns infected, talks to Caz, seems to have a crush on Anne's but unofficial Innes — Seems to have a crush on Muir but unofficial, scared of Infected Muir, dies to infected Muir Side characters Roper — Marine control, turns infected Douglas, Boyd, McLurg, Sunil, Alex, Scooby,