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Ezechiel Pregzt is a character in the Alone in the Dark series who appears as the main antagonist of the first Alone in the Dark and as an overarching antagonist in the other games.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

Ezechiel Pregzt was presumably born near the beginning of the seventeenth century. He eventually became a pirate known as Ezek the Bloodthirsty, captain of the ship Astarte and grew to be famous for being particularly sadistic and brutal. Sowing terror across the seas and traveling throughout the world, he likely became interested in the occult and black magic during this time. In his more recent years, he had a relationship with the voodoo witch named Elizabeth Jarret, with whom he had a son unknown to him named Jedediah "Jed" Stone.

In 1620 he is processed by a Welsh court, but manages to escape a hanging and heads to Florida where he continues to practice black magic rituals, human sacrifice and voodoo, after which the boardings of the Astarte became even more profitable. Years later Pregzt is again on trial, this time by a court of a gang of pirates who accused him of not "paying his share to the brothers." The hanging took place, but thanks to his developed occult powers, Pregzt rises and heads back to Florida with his crew, looking for a complex of underground caves where he could continue his blasphemous rituals, leaving the ship at New Orleans and traveling deeper into the swamps accompanied by several men carrying heavy trunks. Two days later they heard screams and gunshots from the swamps, eventually Pregzt returned to the ship accompanied by a black man who introduced himself as Keith, claiming that the others were all eaten by alligators. Then he divided his loot between them all and left the Astarte to his companions Elishah Smith and Elie Hell before abandoning the life of a pirate.[1]

In the following years he took to worshiping the mysterious stones and became further involved in his dark cult, dramatically increasing his powers in the complex of caves he found. In 1818, he assumed the name of Eliah Pickford and bought the lands of a certain Ledoux to build a huge house with a basement that was connected to the maze of underground passages where he practiced black magic and also filled the house with blasphemous manuscripts on occult rituals. He also named the house Derceto in honor of his old pirate ship and crew.[2]

On June 17th, 1862 Union soldiers in Louisiana found themselves arriving at Pickford's plantation; Pickford then invited Captain J.W. Norton and his lieutenant Patterson to dinner in an effort to use them in its rituals. Norton, who realized the danger, managed to fire three shots into Pickford in the clash and the soldiers then set fire to the whole plantation; the Pickford slaves, however, managed to extract the body of their master from the house in flames, then later infused his soul inside a tree in the basement of Derceto.[3]

Alone in the Dark[]

In 1875 the villa was bought and restored by Howard Hartwood, who was highly passionate about the history of Pickford, eventually coming to realize his past as a pirate.[2] Pregzt, at that point in time, needed a new body to inhabit and tried to take over Howard's, manifesting himself through nightmares and trying to draw him to the basement. At the entrance of the caves, however, Hartwood bit off his tongue in a last ditch attempt to resist Pickford, dying suffocated by his own blood after the attempt on his own life.[4]

Derceto then passed to Howard's son Jeremy who, in 1924, began to suffer from the same grotesque nightmares and hallucinations as his father, seeing Pregzt in the guise of a "dark man". The occultist freed his undead slaves and infernal creatures summoned from other dimensions in order to bring Jeremy to the basement, but Jeremy sensed the danger coming and hanged himself in the attic villa in August of that year, preventing the undead pirate once more from coming into possession of a new body.[4][5]

When Edward Carnby/Emily Hartwood goes to Derceto in 1924, Pregzt orders his slaves to take the visitor to him so he may revive himself.[6] However, they found Pregzt's tomb and managed to destroy him.

Alone in the Dark 3[]

Pregzt is mentioned in a scorched notebook, formerly owned by Don Fernando, who raised Jedediah Stone, the founder of Slaughter Gulch. He found out that Jed was the fruit of an union between Pregzt and Elizabeth Jarret, hoping that he wouldn't follow on their footsteps, fearing for what was to come.

Strategy[]

Human Form[]

Pregzt first appears in the form of a Pirate. He is able to block bullets, arrows and thrown weapons, and punching/kicking does no damage. He can only be defeated by the Cavalry Sabre or the Knight's Sword. The best tactic is to corner him and attack with alternating stabs. Doing this prevents him from attacking. Each of his attacks do 3 damage. Upon death, he drops the key to the ballroom.

Tree Form[]

The final boss of the game is Pregzt's soul bound to a tree, where he sits stationary in a pool full of Deep Ones, shooting fireballs at the player.

The only way to defeat him is by placing the Talisman on the cover stone of Pregzt's sarcophagus, making him vulnerable, then throwing the lit oil lamp towards him. Since Deep Ones can't be killed, and the fireballs do not home, the best tactic is to rush to the tree and quickly finish him off. Pregzt will start to catch on fire and the Deep Ones will disappear.

Trivia[]

  • Pregzt's form is based on the H.P. Lovecraft story, "The Tree", which opens with a vivid description of the olive grove, and a fearful, human-like olive tree within it.
  • A testimony of nightmares caused by Pregzt, Jeremy Hartwood has a picture that depicts the cavern with its shaft in the Derceto gallery and one that retracts the occultist in its form of "black man".
  • It has been suggested that Pregzt, as worshipper of Cthulhu and seaman, was in the city of R'lyeh.
  • Many of the details of Pregzt's life are not clear, including during the processes in which he is judged, what sentence was issued and how he escaped. On many items it can only be made based on the assumptions of play documents.
  • The identity of the mysterious "man in black" (which looks like Keith) as reported in the document The Trial of the Captain Pregzt is a mystery. It has been suggested that it may be an emanation of Nyarlathotep, as it is described in a similar way in the story of Lovecraft The Dreams in the Witch House.
  • The character of Judas de Certo that appeared in Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare is based on Pregzt.
  • At some point in time, prior to his "retirement" of piracy his ship was threatened by a huge ginormous wave, but with the use of a ritual involving a chicken foot, the malayman was able to halt the wave, and have it dispersed.

Gallery[]

References[]

Alone in the Dark
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