Reverend Straik is a member of the N.I.C.E. who believes himself to be a prophet capable of wielding science as a divine weapon. He is a member of the inner circle that Mark joins in the N.I.C.E., and he views the creation of the Head and the N.I.C.E.’s other experiments as the path to humanity’s salvation. Dimble notes that Straik was “a good man once,” but he has since been corrupted by the N.I.C.E.’s ideals and his own grief for the death of his daughter. At the end of the novel, Straik helps Wither sacrifice Filostrato to the Head, only to be sacrificed by Wither immediately after.