Lucius Rhyne

Lucius Rhyne was the Mayor of Night City from 2070 until 2077. After Rhyne's unexpected death, the focus of Night City politics turned to who would replace him: Deputy Mayor Weldon Holt or Councilman Jefferson Peralez.

Biography

2017 - 2030s

Lucius Rhyne was born on October 12 of 2017 in a Trauma Team clinic in Night City. His father worked at Arasaka, and his mother was a NetWatch officer. His early childhood was eclipsed by the Fourth Corporate War and its tragic effects. When Lucius was five years old, his father was killed during the Night City Holocaust of 2023. Growing amidst such devastation made his lifelong commitment to fight for his city.

Just a few years after the nuke, Lucius's mother was captured by one of Rache Bartmoss's rogue AIs while on a mission in the Net. In spite of the financial hardship of providing care for his mother's body, Lucius enrolled at the Night City University and graduated in Cybernetic Law, deciding to embark on a professional career.

2040s - 2070

During the early 2040s, Lucius was a community organizer in the Watson Development, being one of the few idealists in Night City working to make the world a better place. He was well-known for his inspiring speeches and calls to action. In 2044, Rhyne led a district-wide work strike that prompted the Night City Co-Prosperity Sphere businesses to organize a vote for City Manager, convinced that Lucius was the perfect man for the position. With this, Rhyne's efforts were rewarded when in 2045 he was elected to become the Watson City Manager, representing the district in the Night City Council.

In 2060, Lucius Rhyne was elected to have a seat in the Council as a member of the Devolutionist Party, still acting as a representative of Watson. During the Unification War (2069 - 2070), while the rest of the Council was debating on what to do, Rhyne led the city's defense effort against the New United States of America. Using his contacts made during the last decade of service at the City Council, Lucius was able to convince Arasaka to come to Night City's aid, which brought the war to an early close in June 2070. Night City secured its independence and Arasaka's ban was lifted, welcoming the corp back to the city and permitted too construct a new office building. Right after the war, Rhyne had his own vision for a new form of municipal governance, which would also allow the corporations even more freedom. With this backing, an election took place, and Rhyne's popularity allowed him to become the Mayor of Night City, which hadn't had one since 2023.

Over the following years, Rhyne's time in politics made him a wealthy man, but it also appeared to have dulled his ideals. By 2076, public opinion on him had split, and he was either respected as the city's savior or reviled as its most crooked politician.

2077

In 2077, Lucius Rhyne was gearing up for re-election and his main opponent was Councilman Jefferson Peralez from the Federalist Party. Over the following months, Rhyne was comfortably leading Peralez in the polls and boasted a job approval rating of 60%. Lucius scheduled a press conference to speak about Night City's recent 3% drop in crime rate, an accomplishment only made possible by the mayor re-designating Pacifica an "independent district" of the city to exclude its crime statistics from official numbers. Shortly before the start of the press conference, a cyberpsycho named Péter Horváth breached City Hall on the heels of NCPD Detective River Ward and moved to kill the mayor with his mantis blades. Ward gunned Horváth down before he got close enough to hurt Rhyne. In gratitude, Rhyne presented Ward with the Medal of Merit. When news of the failed assassination attempt broke, Rhyne's lead over Peralez surged from 12% to 19%.

On the day of the Konpeki Plaza heist, Rhyne and Deputy Mayor Weldon Holt met with Arasaka reps at Konpeki Plaza to discuss Arasaka's plans to buy up low-income housing in Watson for corporate re-development. Rhyne was reluctant to approve the land grab because Watson was his main constituency and it would hurt his image. Unbeknownst to the meeting's participants, the merc V remotely controlled a cloaked Militech MT0D12 drone through the room while preparing for the theft of the Relic in Yorinobu Arasaka's suite and eavesdropped briefly. Rhyne and Holt wrapped up the meeting and departed the hotel before the heist took place three and a half hours later.

At some point soon after Konpeki Plaza, with Rhyne looking to unwind after a long day, Holt arranged a private booth for the mayor at an invitation-only sex club known as the Red Queen's Race. However, whoever was behind Horváth's attack was not finished trying to end the mayor's life and had a lethal virus inserted into Rhyne's braindance wreath, killing Rhyne after he activated it at the club. His body would be discovered a few hours later by the club's manager who immediately contacted Holt; the Deputy Mayor in turn had Detective Harold Han personally investigate the matter. Han confirmed Rhyne's death, though the lethal braindance went unnoticed; instead, the senior Detective concluded that Rhyne's heart had given out during a session, attributing it to his age and health, and informed Holt of such. Holt, not wanting the circumstances of Rhyne's death to affect his own political ambitions, ordered Han to cover it up by sneaking Rhyne's body out of the club and back to his residence and to state he died from heart complications. Nonetheless, this abrupt nature of Rhyne's passing fueled a number of conspiracy theories which alleged that Holt either had Rhyne assassinated or helped Rhyne fake his death. The culprit was never discovered.

Legacy

Lucius remains were incinerated and interred in a niche at the North Oak Columbarium with the inscription: "Lucius Rhyne. A great man of the people."

Database Entry

Lucius Rhyne

LUCIUS RHYNE

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Mayor of Night City, considered by many to be the right man for his time and place, and by others as the city's biggest crook. During the Unification War, when NUSA forces tried to take the city and annex it into the union, Rhyne led the city's valiant defense. Under his leadership, Militech's tanks were repelled and the Night City became fully independent. Despite continuous accusations that Rhyne is greasing his palms with corporate money, for many he remains a symbol of Night City's freedom.

Associated Quests

• The Heist
• I Fought the Law

Notes

• Rhyne was one of only four residents of Night City who owned a Rayfield Aerondight "Guinevere" in 2077.

Gallery

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  In Cyberpunk RED
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  In Cyberpunk 2077
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  Rhyne election advertisement