Dorian Brown

Agent Dorian Brown is said to be the oldest and most famous of the Mystery Trackers special agents. He is the initial player character in the Detectives United series, although as the games continue, the player switches between him and the other two detectives as the story requires.

Biography
Brown has a distinguished reputation for solving difficult cases and is the head of a specialized unit within the organization. He is first introduced in the Mystery Trackers installment Raincliff, which is the only time he appears in that series; he is a young man in his mid to late teens in the game. When he reappears in Detectives United as a member of the Mystery Trackers organization, he remarks that he has since gained twenty years of field experience, indicating how much time has passed. Unlike other members of the Mystery Trackers, who all use code names and keep their real identities a closely guarded secret, Brown actually goes by his own real name.

Raincliff
Dorian, known as Dory in the family, was one of three children born to Rafael and Angelina Brown, in the town of Raincliff. In the Brown family, there was a long-standing genetic mutation which caused one child in each generation to be born with the ability to turn invisible at will. According to the records made by the family doctor, exactly what causes this is unknown. Rafael Brown had this ability; however, Dorian and his siblings were an aberration. They were all born as normal children, but starting on their first birthdays, they began to disappear, finally becoming completely invisible by the time they were teenagers. Their efforts to befriend other children in the town went badly due to their condition. Meanwhile, their father Rafael developed a murderous loathing for visible people; he went on a mad rampage and killed many of the Raincliff citizens before his own children could capture him. They imprisoned him in a secret room in the family mansion, though he escaped more than once and went on additional killing sprees. He swore vengeance on his offspring, and vowed to make everyone "revere the Headless One."

Fearful of how the outside world would treat them, the siblings wore masks to give themselves some kind of face. They pledged to bear the burden of keeping their father locked up, and to defend Raincliff from trespassers who might reveal their secret. Eventually, a group of college students came to investigate the so-called phantoms of Raincliff, and the wary siblings captured them to prevent them from escaping and publicizing their secrets. The Browns had a rare variety of roses, brought back from the east by their ancestor, which caused memory loss; Mortimer and Dorian intended to use the roses to wipe the students' memories, then release them. However, Arabella fell in love with one of their prisoners, Ingvar Vasa. When an agent from the Mystery Trackers was sent to Raincliff to find the missing students, she covertly assisted the agent in rescuing them and getting them out of the city.

Following these events, Rafael Brown once again escaped his confinement. He attacked and apparently killed Mortimer, then captured Dorian and tied him to a torture wheel. The Mystery Trackers agent returned to Raincliff to try to stop him; the agent successfully freed Dorian from the wheel, but was injured before they could stop Rafael. Rafael then attempted to flee the city using an airship, but it crashed and he died in the resulting fire. He and Mortimer are said to be buried side by side in Raincliff. Arabella married Ingvar Vasa and relocated to Montana, where they have a son named after her brother Mortimer; young Morty has the family ability to turn invisible at will. As for Dorian, he accepted an invitation to join the Mystery Trackers, lending his unique skills to their detective work, and became one of their most celebrated field agents.

Detectives United
Brown is not seen again in the Mystery Trackers games, but resurfaces in Detectives United: Origins. A longtime field agent with an impressive record, Brown has been with the Mystery Trackers for over twenty years as the game begins. For reasons unknown, he has spent the last five years being stuck on desk duty, and is thrilled to have the chance to once again return to active field work. As the series progresses, we see the gruff and snarky detective grow increasingly attached to his new partners; he is very protective of them both.

Brown is sent to one of the British royal palaces to investigate the theft of the Queen's jewelry. While beginning his search, he meets James Blackthorne, a paranormal researcher. Unlike Brown, the younger man has had a personal treasure - the Blackthorne family signet ring, a gift from his grandfather - stolen by the Collector, the same person who robbed the Queen, and he wants it back. The two detectives quickly recognize each other and agree to form a partnership, later joining forces with Anna Gray, who is in a similar situation. In the bonus chapter, James is taken prisoner by a malevolent ghost child, and Brown leaps into action alongside Anna to rescue him.

In Darkest Shrine, the three detectives split up to investigate S.H.R.I.N.E.'s activities in different parts of the world. Brown volunteers to visit Schneider's Hotel in the Alps, citing James as being afraid of heights, where he is nearly buried alive when an enemy agent triggers an avalanche. They soon discover that parallel dimensions are also being threatened, and in the bonus chapter they learn that they each have a "dark doppelganger" in one of them. Brown's dark doppelganger is the leader of that dimension's version of Detectives United, known as Commander Brown, and is quite possibly the most dangerous of the three; it's only thanks to Dark James turning on his former friends that Brown and James are able to return to their own world.

In Timeless Voyage, the detectives are separated yet again, this time by force; Dark Anna sends James a few centuries into the past to steal a relic from the Mystery Trackers, while Brown is thrown thirty years into the future. He finds himself at the mansion of the McGrays (the setting of The Heir), where he must recover the Sand of Time. While investigating the location, he expresses concern for his absent partners; at one point he finds a photograph of Anna and her daughter Alice, and makes the fond remark that "Anna hasn't changed a bit over the years." In the bonus chapter, the ancient enemy of the Mystery Trackers is revived and Brown has to explain the matter to his partners. He is almost killed when Morpheus sets fire to the Mystery Trackers library, sending Anna a distress signal - not to have her come and help him, but to warn her away. James finally breaks free of his mind control and is able to save his friends, repaying the favor from the bonus chapter of Origins.

In Timeless Voyage, one puzzle has Anna reviewing assorted files on the detectives' shared computer, which includes their individual dossiers; Brown's dossier is very short, with a notation that "Additional information is classified." It's unclear why this is the case, though it likely has to do with the secrets of Raincliff and the crimes of his father.

In Phantoms of the Past, Brown's painful family history comes to light. His twin brother Mortimer apparently survived the attack by their father after all, and has surfaced in a town called Restville, where he's using the family's signature blue roses to exert a form of hypnosis over the residents. Rather than tell his partners about this "family drama," Brown leaves on a solo investigation to try and stop his brother, but asks Agent Shade to inform James and Anna of his whereabouts if he doesn't return. He sets up shop in the basement of an abandoned house and gets to work trying to bring Mortimer to justice, something at which he is unable to succeed until his partners come to help him two months after he leaves Mystery Trackers HQ. Mortimer, like Dorian, is invisible, and dresses identically to his brother, so it becomes a challenge for James and Anna to make sure they're dealing with the correct twin. Dorian clearly cares about his brother, but will not let his misdeeds go unpunished. Upon being reunited with his partners, both of whom address him by his first name for the first time in the series, Dorian is once again at the top of his game and easily brings Mortimer to justice. The game ends with him sadly inquiring what will happen to his brother, and Agent Shade says that it will be a few days before they know the answer.

In Deadly Debt, Dorian leads the investigation into the strange events surrounding a cursed violin and a man who has lost his soul. Thanks in part to a device of his own invention, he's able to pinpoint sources of paranormal activity, which comes in handy during the case. He makes a point of trying to be the one to take on dangerous aspects of the investigation, such as finding a way into a back alley location and investigating the second murder scene after Anna is attacked at the first. His sleuthing and intuition come in handy when figuring out where the third murder will take place and enable James to prevent it from happening, and in the bonus chapter he's able to easily subdue masked criminals during a street fight.

James Blackthorne
With James, Brown has something of a big brother relationship. He often teases the younger man in casual conversation; however, whenever James is in trouble, Brown will not hesitate to do whatever is necessary to help him. In the bonus chapter of Origins, he and Anna both rush to Louisiana to rescue James from the malevolent ghost child who has captured him, and when James is returned to the present, Brown exclaims that he's never been so glad to see a paranormal expert. During the bonus chapter of Timeless Voyage, James is once again in danger, and Brown knows that he has to be stopped before he does something which can't be undone, but at the same time he's clearly upset at the idea that he may have to harm his friend. In Phantoms of the Past, Brown doesn't hesitate to tackle Mortimer - his own brother - when he realizes that Mortimer is about to hurt James; learning about his strained relationship with Mortimer sheds some light on Brown's attachment to James, as he likely now feels as though he has the brother he has always wanted. The relationship becomes steadily more cordial in Deadly Debt, as their greetings for each other are warm and Brown displays little of his usual snark, instead treating James as more of an equal.

Anna Gray
Toward Anna, Brown is very rarely teasing, especially compared to the way he treats James. He has a hint of old-school chivalry to his disposition when interacting with her. He clearly has great respect for her abilities and is familiar with her work, calling her "the famous Anna Gray" when they first meet. They work well together in the bonus chapter of Origins when they're trying to rescue James. In the bonus chapter of Darkest Shrine, Brown is the first one to figure out that the woman they're seeing is not, as he puts it, "our Anna." When the three detectives are separated in Timeless Voyage, Brown is shown to be worried about both of his partners, and in the bonus chapter, when the Mystery Trackers' library is set ablaze, his first reaction is to send a warning to Anna that she has to stay away for her own safety. She's as anxious as James for his welfare in Phantoms, and when the partners are reunited, she becomes the first person in the entire series to address him as "Dorian." As with James, knowing his family history provides some context for Brown's behavior toward Anna, since he hasn't seen his real sister Belle in a very long time; given how well they get along and how much they evidently care about each other, it's quite possible that Anna has become something of a substitute big sister for him. This continues into Deadly Debt; when Anna is nearly killed during her investigation of the first murder scene, Brown is shown to be rather quietly angry about it, as he doesn't take it well when either of his partners are endangered. As with James, his interactions with Anna are increasingly warm, and they both make remarks about always being glad to see one another.

Agent Shade
Brown and Shade are both field agents for the Mystery Trackers, and have long been acquainted with each other. There is clearly mutual respect present in their relationship; when the Queen first calls Shade with a problem in Origins, she immediately knows that Brown is the perfect choice for the case, and Brown is grateful to her for the consideration. Phantoms of the Past seems to indicate that Brown trusts Shade a good deal, as when he departs on his secret investigation, she is the only one who knows where he is going and why. He entrusts her with the folder of case notes to be given to his partners if he fails to return, and she seems genuinely distressed by the fact that there has been no contact from him in two months. In Deadly Debt, when he contacts her with the first report about his investigation, she urges him to please be careful.

Trivia

 * Brown is from Raincliff, in Scotland, where he grew up as a member of the invisible Brown family. Because he is completely invisible, he is at all times covered from head to toe in clothing, a ski mask, goggles, gloves, and a hat. He only discards his outfit when he wishes to go unseen.
 * His first name, Dorian, is never used by any other character in the first three games of Detectives United. Brown himself uses it just once, in his introductory line of dialogue in Origins, and it appears in a few official documents seen in the games. Only near the end of the fourth game do both Anna and James finally address him as "Dorian" rather than "Brown." By the time of the fifth game, Anna, James, and Agent Shade all call him "Dorian" regularly.
 * Brown is implied to be ambidextrous. In his introductory scene in Origins he's shown writing with his right hand, and he later throws an object at the Collector using the same hand. However, in the bonus chapter of Deadly Debt, he knocks out an assailant using a single well-timed strike with his left hand. This suggests that he is capable of fighting with either hand.
 * Headless, the secondary antagonist of Origins (and the primary antagonist of the Mystery Trackers installment Raincliff's Phantoms), is a relative of Agent Brown's. It's not specified how they are related, but he uses the same moniker as Brown's deceased father Rafael.
 * Field agents in the Mystery Trackers usually adopt code names. Brown is the rare exception; he is known in the organization as Agent Brown, which is his actual last name.
 * According to his 'employee profile' seen in the first part of Deadly Debt, Brown is approximately 35 years old. His most notable character traits are stated to be his straightforward nature, his sarcastic sense of humor, and his fierce drive to protect the people who are most important to him. The profile's description of how he came to be invisible is extremely similar to the way it's described on this very page, and the person who wrote this page would just like to say hello to the Elephant Games staff and thank them for making her feel like she contributed to the game.
 * Chris McCann, who voices Agent Brown, is also the voice of Nathaniel Prior in Darkest Shrine, and of Mortimer Brown in Phantoms of the Past.
 * The voice acting credits for Haunted Hotel: A Past Redeemed mistakenly list both Agent Brown and Mortimer Brown as appearing in the game. They are not in the game, nor does Chris McCann voice any characters who do appear.
 * Like James before him, Agent Brown has become something of a breakout character for Elephant Games, frequently appearing in their social media posts. The company's social media coordinator notes that Brown is extremely popular, particularly with the female demographic of players.