Illusive Man

"Salvation comes with a cost. Judge us not by our methods, but what we seek to accomplish."

The Illusive Man is the elusive and secretive leader of Cerberus. His face is perfectly symmetrical and his nose perfectly proportioned, likely from cosmetic surgery. He has close-cropped silver-grey hair with "steely blue" eyes (which appear to be prosthetic in the Mass Effect 2 opening sequence). The Illusive Man's real name and his life before Cerberus are both long forgotten. For years, the Illusive Man has been using Cerberus and his immense network of contacts to achieve his goal - making humanity ascendant above all other races. He is described as having the best and worst traits of humanity rolled into one man. He drinks and smokes constantly, but is overall an intelligent individual.

The Illusive Man is voiced by Martin Sheen.

Background
The Illusive Man was a normal civilian with a job and a family until the discovery of alien life. His long-term plans are ultimately unknown, but he has many different projects all factoring into helping humanity achieve its 'rightful' place. He was responsible for breaking Cerberus away from the Alliance military, and building up Cord-Hislop Aerospace as a cover for the shadow operation. His justification is that "if humanity is to survive, sacrifices must be made for the greater good. The Alliance doesn't understand this. Cerberus does."

Projects
The Illusive Man believes that the political party Terra Firma has a part to play in humanity's ascension and even used an assassination in order to put the right man - Charles Saracino - in power. The Illusive Man's belief that biotics are the future of humanity led him to order the sabotage and detonation of Eldfell-Ashland Energy starships over human colonies, to ensure biotic children would be born. Somehow - likely through unsavory means - the Illusive Man claimed one of these biotic children as a baby and gave her to Paul Grayson to raise as his own daughter. A decade later he planted Cerberus operatives into the Ascension Project to take advantage of the Alliance's more sophisticated biotic research.

He also has an interest in the quarians and their Migrant Fleet. The Illusive Man does not trust an alien species that effectively has the largest armada of ships in the galaxy. However, he is also greatly impressed by the quarians' technological expertise, namely their creation of the geth and their continued survival despite the odds stacked against them. This curiosity has led him to seek the transmission codes for the Migrant Fleet to spy on them.

Mass Effect: Ascension
After the attack on the Citadel, the Illusive Man became suspicious about the claim it was a geth armada, knowing that no ordinary geth attack could have been so successful. He knew that eventually word of what had really happened would filter back to him, but in the meantime he had greater concerns. Though he acknowledged Commander Shepard's role in creating humanity's new place in the galaxy, the Illusive Man also knew the suspicion and mistrust of the other races would soon close off the political channels that Shepard had opened, and decided to push ahead with his work in the Ascension Project. He also ordered Pel to go to Omega to get the Migrant Fleet codes, but Pel betrayed him and tried to sell Gillian Grayson to the Collectors.

When Paul Grayson reported to the Illusive Man, he gently confronted Paul about his addiction to red sand, but agreed Gillian needed to be pursued and authorised an attack on the Migrant Fleet itself. When the strike team, including Paul and the quarian Golo, failed to report back, the Illusive Man assumed they had died in the attempt as his vast web of informants did not stretch to the Migrant Fleet. He was surprised, therefore, to get a communique from Paul, and even more surprised when Paul calmly announced he was leaving Cerberus forever. He held the threat of revelation over the Illusive Man's head, and used it to get an assurance that Kahlee Sanders would be left alone. The Illusive Man was forced to agree for the sake of Cerberus' other projects.

Mass Effect: Retribution
Illusive Man will appear in Mass Effect: Retribution.

Mass Effect 2
In Mass Effect 2, after Shepard's death, the Illusive Man used his contacts and Cerberus' resources to bring him back from the grave. He also funded the effort to construct the Normandy SR-2 and gives Shepard direction during the first part of the game. Commander Shepard works with the Illusive Man to put an end to the human abductions, as help is needed from Cerberus' galaxy-wide information to piece together the clues to the mystery, despite Shepard constantly being at odds with him. After Shepard escapes from the facility, he gives command of Miranda and Jacob over. He also reveals the SR-2's pilot, Joker.

Illusive Man's Appearance
The Illusive Man's suit was designed to capture an impeccable futuristic style, combined with the casual swagger of a charming billionaire. He also seems to possess unique patterns on his pupils, probably a feature of surgery. It is unknown if it grants him any additional abilities or just serves as aesthetics. It is worth noting that, if Shepard chooses the renegade path his eyes strongly resemble that of the illusive man, only with a red tint. It is possible that this represents a the personality of the illusive man. Shepard as a renegade is an obvious predator, but the illusive man is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Trivia

 * The "Illusive Man" may be inspired by the Upright Man and his successor, the Virtuous Man in Raymond Feist's Midkemia. They also run organized crime syndicates. He's also comparable to the G-Man from the Half-Life series, both in appearance and role (they both play the role of an overseer and employer, both observing the player as the games progress and pulling strings to control the outcome of specific events). He may also take inspiration from the Cigarette Smoking Man from the television series The X-Files or the various representatives of Star Trek's Section 31.
 * He is sometimes erroneously referred to as the Elusive Man; however, 'illusive' refers to that which is transitory, unreal, or deceptive.
 * Unsurprisingly, the Illusive Man bears a strong physical resemblance to his voice actor Martin Sheen.
 * While the Illusive Man claims he wants to keep Shepard alive, he constantly endangers him/her by sending him/her on suicide missions he himself starts. It is possible the Illusive man believes the adage "If you can do it once, you can do it again," believing he can resurrect shepard once more.