Nothing is True. Everything is Connected.
Category: <span>Ghost and Darkness</span>

Sylum Inspiration: Tiny Terror

 

No one is quite sure where Tiny Terror comes from.  They do know he’s a dragon like Draco, but a different breed.

He’s about 4ft in length, comes up to mid calf on average size human.  He has the ability to spit fire, which is extremely hard to put out.

(Dilios Note: Just ask Muldoon and his never ending supply of shoe laces)

He hides in the tall grasses of Africa and hunts smaller animals.

Tiny became part of Ghost and Darkness when I found him wandering and adopted him.  He doesn’t like Muldoon much, but adores Grady.

Sylum Inspiration: Allan Quartermain

Ghost/Darkness: Second-in-Command

 

Allan Quatermain doesn’t talk much about his life before he set foot in Africa.  He won’t even mention his real name.

What he will tell you, is this: Some strange little Shaman looked at him, yelled out some weird words, wiped paint across his cheeks and forehead and told him, ‘You have the Spirit of Africa in you.  As long as you stay on her soil you will be immortal.’

Two days later the tribe he was with were attacked, and he was Turned by Anok Sabe.

Sylum Inspiration: T’Challa

Ghost/Darkness: Member

Note: I actually prepped this post back in July/August (prepping for the move).  Little did I know how eerie of a timing this was going to be.  Rest in Peace Chadwick Boseman – you’re an inspiration to us all #wakandaforever


The Black Panther is the ceremonial title given to the chief of the Panther Tribe of the advanced African nation of Wakanda. In addition to ruling the country, he is also chief of its various tribes (collectively referred to as the Wakandas). The Panther habit is a symbol of office (head of state) and is used even during diplomatic missions. The Panther is a hereditary title, but one must still earn it.

In the distant past, a meteorite made of the vibration-absorbing mineral vibranium crashed in Wakanda, and was unearthed. Reasoning that outsiders would exploit Wakanda for this valuable resource, the ruler, King T’Chaka, like his father and other Panthers before him, concealed his country from the outside world. T’Chaka’s first wife N’Yami died while in labor with T’Challa, and his second wife Ramonda was taken prisoner by Anton Pretorius during a visit to her homeland of South Africa, so for most of his childhood T’Challa was raised by his father alone.

The Wakanda’s had always known about the Ghost/Darkness Clan, and the two kept each other hidden, but where there for each other if needed.

T’Chaka was murdered by the adventurer Ulysses Klaw in an attempt to seize the vibranium. With his people still in danger, a young T’Challa transformed for the first time, giving away the secret that many had not known, and killed Klaw.

That the Black Panther was an actual Panther.

His uncle took over the throne until T’Challa was old enough to be a true leader.  T’Challa did everything he could to study his people’s history and culture.  He also took time to spend with Ghost/Darkness to learn more of the outside worlds.

He claimed back his throne, and became a good King to his people.  A few years afterwards, while traveling between Wakanda and Ghost/Darkness home base, he was ambushed by poachers.  He took a shot to the hip, but was able to escape them.

He thought himself ready to die, only to have Owen Grady smiling down at him – asking if the ‘kitty wanted to live’

He loved and hated him for that.

Sylum Inspiration: Bessie Coleman

Ghost/Darkness: Member

Coleman was born on January 26, 1892, in Atlanta, Texas, the tenth of thirteen children to sharecroppers George Coleman, who was mostly Cherokee and part African-American, and Susan, who was African-American. When Coleman was two years old, her family moved to Waxahachie, Texas, where she lived until age 23. Coleman began attending school in Waxahachie at the age of six. She had to walk four miles each day to her segregated, one-room school, where she loved to read and established herself as an outstanding math student. She completed all eight grades in that school. Every year, Coleman’s routine of school, chores, and church was interrupted by the cotton harvest. In 1901, George Coleman left his family. He returned to Oklahoma, or Indian Territory, as it was then called, to find better opportunities; but Susan and her family did not go along. At the age of 12, Bessie was accepted into the Missionary Baptist Church School on scholarship. When she turned eighteen, she took her savings and enrolled in the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now called Langston University) in Langston, Oklahoma. She completed one term before her money ran out and she returned home.

n 1916 at the age of 23, she moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she lived with her brothers. In Chicago, she worked as a manicurist at the White Sox Barber Shop. There she heard stories from pilots returning home from World War I about flying during the war. She took a second job at a chili parlor to procure money faster to become a pilot. American flight schools admitted neither women nor blacks. Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender, encouraged her to study abroad. Coleman received financial backing from banker Jesse Binga and the Defender.

With the age of commercial flight still a decade or more in the future, Coleman quickly realized that in order to make a living as a civilian aviator she would have to become a “barnstorming” stunt flier, and perform for paying audiences. But to succeed in this highly competitive arena, she would need advanced lessons and a more extensive repertoire. Returning to Chicago, Coleman could not find anyone willing to teach her, so in February 1922, she sailed again for Europe. She spent the next two months in France completing an advanced course in aviation, then left for the Netherlands to meet with Anthony Fokker, one of the world’s most distinguished aircraft designers. She also traveled to Germany, where she visited the Fokker Corporation and received additional training from one of the company’s chief pilots. She then returned to the United States to launch her career in exhibition flying.

“Queen Bess,” as she was known, was a highly popular draw for the next five years. Invited to important events and often interviewed by newspapers, she was admired by both blacks and whites. She primarily flew Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” biplanes and other aircraft which had been army surplus aircraft left over from the war. She made her first appearance in an American airshow on September 3, 1922, at an event honoring veterans of the all-black 369th Infantry Regiment of World War I. Held at Curtiss Field on Long Island near New York City and sponsored by her friend Abbott and the Chicago Defender newspaper, the show billed Coleman as “the world’s greatest woman flier”[12] and featured aerial displays by eight other American ace pilots, and a jump by black parachutist Hubert Julian. Six weeks later she returned to Chicago to deliver a stunning demonstration of daredevil maneuvers—including figure eights, loops, and near-ground dips to a large and enthusiastic crowd at the Checkerboard Airdrome (now the grounds of Hines Veterans Administration Medical Center, Hines, Illinois, Loyola Hospital, Maywood, and nearby Cook County Forest Preserve).

But the thrill of stunt flying and the admiration of cheering crowds were only part of Coleman’s dream. Coleman never lost sight of her childhood vow to one day “amount to something.” As a professional aviatrix, Coleman would often be criticized by the press for her opportunistic nature and the flamboyant style she brought to her exhibition flying. However, she also quickly gained a reputation as a skilled and daring pilot who would stop at nothing to complete a difficult stunt. In Los Angeles she broke a leg and three ribs when her plane stalled and crashed on February 22, 1923.

In the 1920s, in Orlando, Florida on a speaking tour, she met the Rev. Hezakiah Hill and his wife Viola, community activists who invited her to stay with them at the parsonage of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church on Washington Street in the neighborhood of Parramore. A local street was renamed “Bessie Coleman” Street in her honor in 2013. The couple, who treated her as a daughter, persuaded her to stay and Coleman opened a beauty shop in Orlando to earn extra money to buy her own plane.

Through her media contacts, she was offered a role in a feature-length film titled Shadow and Sunshine, to be financed by the African American Seminole Film Producing Company. She gladly accepted, hoping the publicity would help to advance her career and provide her with some of the money she needed to establish her own flying school. But upon learning that the first scene in the movie required her to appear in tattered clothes, with a walking stick and a pack on her back, she refused to proceed. “Clearly … [Bessie’s] walking off the movie set was a statement of principle. Opportunist though she was about her career, she was never an opportunist about race. She had no intention of perpetuating the derogatory image most whites had of most blacks” wrote Doris Rich.

Coleman would not live long enough to establish a school for young black aviators but her pioneering achievements served as an inspiration for a generation of African-American men and women. “Because of Bessie Coleman,” wrote Lieutenant William J. Powell in Black Wings (1934), dedicated to Coleman, “we have overcome that which was worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream.” Powell served in a segregated unit during World War I, and tirelessly promoted the cause of black aviation through his book, his journals, and the Bessie Coleman Aero Club, which he founded in 1929.

For More Information Contact the Vampire Council Library.

It was during her time as a pilot she met Steve Trevor.  He liked her instantly, she reminded him of his own Mate … kicking ass and taking names.  He liked her idea of a school, but knew it wouldn’t be easy for her – yet knew she had already surpassed so many obstacles.

He told her about Vampires and gave her the opportunity.

She didn’t hesitate to take it.

Sylum Inspiration: Owen Grady

Ghost/Darkness: Scientist

Owen Grady grew up in London, raised by his mother and grandfather. He heard stories of his father, who had left the family for Africa. He entered into the British Military like his father and grandfather, but after seeing only a portion of battles he knew it wasn’t his place.

After his mother died, soon followed by his grandfather, he set out to Africa to find his father. He wasn’t impressed.

Though he understood why he stayed in Africa. He fell in love with the land, the animals, the people. It didn’t take long for him to figure out about Vampires, especially as he had seen and heard rumors when he had visited the West Country about Arthur and his Knights.

He wasn’t expecting to be Turned, but when one of the Clayton’s lions lashed out, he was in the wrong place. Muldoon didn’t give him much of a choice.

Sylum Inspiration: Okoyo

Ghost/Darkness: Hunter

Okoyo doesn’t talk about her childhood.  She lost her family to slavers, and when they came for her, she fought hoping for a quick death.

Only to be saved by Ababuo, who attacked the slavers killing them all.

She traveled for a few years with Ababuo, learning about Vampires, the Medjai, and how to fight.  In time she asked Ababuo to Turn her and be trained as a warrior.

Sylum Inspiration: Allan Quartermain

Ghost/Darkness Clan: Second-in-Command

Allan Quatermain doesn’t talk much about his life before he set foot in Africa.  He won’t even mention his real name.

What he will tell you, is this: Some strange little Shaman looked at him, yelled out some weird words, wiped paint across his cheeks and forehead and told him, ‘You have the Spirit of Africa in you.  As long as you stay on her soil you will be immortal.’

Two days later the tribe he was with were attacked, and he was Turned by Anok Sabe.

Sylum Inspiration: Ababuo

Ghost/Darkness: Hunter

Ababuo lived a simple life in her village as the wife of a powerful warrior with their two strong sons and a beautiful daughter. When their village had been attacked, she was taken as a prize by men dressed in black with strange markings on their face. She refused to submit, fighting the men who tried to claim her as their own. She was surprised when she could understand the men’s language. Her captor made a deal. He would not tie her in the saddle if she would stop fighting.

During the long return journey to where their tribe lived in southern Egypt, the men came to respect her for her stoic acceptance of her situation, doing her share of the work, and for not using her woman’s wiles to make her life easier. When they reached camp, all the women were bathed and dressed to be put on display for the single men. She chose to fight, beating all comers until one the tribe’s headmen called a halt. In the end her strength won them over, and she was given the honor of becoming one of their warriors.

After the ceremony she woke up dead with the markings of a warrior on her cheek.

Sylum Inspiration: William ‘Dell’ Parker

Ghost/Darkness: Member

 

Dell Parker was born during World War II into a family riven by the conflict. His father, William, died during the Guadalcanal Campaign not too long after Dell was born. This broke his mother, Alice. She took solace in a bottle and her neglect, combined with occasional bouts of physical abuse, left an impression on the young boy.

As Dell grew older, he found it was safer to hang out with kids on the street rather than face what was at home. It was only through the timely intervention of his grandmother, who taught him how to bake during their visits together, that he actually got his life on track.

The burgeoning surfing culture along the southern California coast also provided solace. Dell became an accomplished long board surfer, spending his free time riding the waves when he wasn’t working odd jobs.

Being drafted to go to Vietnam sent his life into an unexpected direction.

Dell became a combat medic and saw first-hand that he could save lives through his own skill and tenacity. He caught a bullet during a particularly heavy skirmish near the end of his second tour. Suddenly, ‘Doc’, as the men in his unit called him, was the one who needed saving. Unfortunately, they were in a hot zone and the possibility of timely rescue was fleeting. The rest of the men made Dell as comfortable as they could before returning to the fighting and he resigned himself to his fate. That is until a stranger in a battered helmet and dirty fatigues sat beside him and told him that he had a choice. He could die or he could live.

The discreet flash of fang clued Dell into just what he was being asked to choose. Closing his eyes, he gave a nod and whispered, “Yes.”

Sylum Inspiration: Bessie Coleman

Ghost/Darkness: Member

 

Coleman was born on January 26, 1892, in Atlanta, Texas, the tenth of thirteen children to sharecroppers George Coleman, who was mostly Cherokee and part African-American, and Susan, who was African-American. When Coleman was two years old, her family moved to Waxahachie, Texas, where she lived until age 23. Coleman began attending school in Waxahachie at the age of six. She had to walk four miles each day to her segregated, one-room school, where she loved to read and established herself as an outstanding math student. She completed all eight grades in that school. Every year, Coleman’s routine of school, chores, and church was interrupted by the cotton harvest. In 1901, George Coleman left his family. He returned to Oklahoma, or Indian Territory, as it was then called, to find better opportunities; but Susan and her family did not go along. At the age of 12, Bessie was accepted into the Missionary Baptist Church School on scholarship. When she turned eighteen, she took her savings and enrolled in the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now called Langston University) in Langston, Oklahoma. She completed one term before her money ran out and she returned home.

n 1916 at the age of 23, she moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she lived with her brothers. In Chicago, she worked as a manicurist at the White Sox Barber Shop. There she heard stories from pilots returning home from World War I about flying during the war. She took a second job at a chili parlor to procure money faster to become a pilot. American flight schools admitted neither women nor blacks. Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender, encouraged her to study abroad. Coleman received financial backing from banker Jesse Binga and the Defender.

With the age of commercial flight still a decade or more in the future, Coleman quickly realized that in order to make a living as a civilian aviator she would have to become a “barnstorming” stunt flier, and perform for paying audiences. But to succeed in this highly competitive arena, she would need advanced lessons and a more extensive repertoire. Returning to Chicago, Coleman could not find anyone willing to teach her, so in February 1922, she sailed again for Europe. She spent the next two months in France completing an advanced course in aviation, then left for the Netherlands to meet with Anthony Fokker, one of the world’s most distinguished aircraft designers. She also traveled to Germany, where she visited the Fokker Corporation and received additional training from one of the company’s chief pilots. She then returned to the United States to launch her career in exhibition flying.

“Queen Bess,” as she was known, was a highly popular draw for the next five years. Invited to important events and often interviewed by newspapers, she was admired by both blacks and whites. She primarily flew Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” biplanes and other aircraft which had been army surplus aircraft left over from the war. She made her first appearance in an American airshow on September 3, 1922, at an event honoring veterans of the all-black 369th Infantry Regiment of World War I. Held at Curtiss Field on Long Island near New York City and sponsored by her friend Abbott and the Chicago Defender newspaper, the show billed Coleman as “the world’s greatest woman flier”[12] and featured aerial displays by eight other American ace pilots, and a jump by black parachutist Hubert Julian. Six weeks later she returned to Chicago to deliver a stunning demonstration of daredevil maneuvers—including figure eights, loops, and near-ground dips to a large and enthusiastic crowd at the Checkerboard Airdrome (now the grounds of Hines Veterans Administration Medical Center, Hines, Illinois, Loyola Hospital, Maywood, and nearby Cook County Forest Preserve).

But the thrill of stunt flying and the admiration of cheering crowds were only part of Coleman’s dream. Coleman never lost sight of her childhood vow to one day “amount to something.” As a professional aviatrix, Coleman would often be criticized by the press for her opportunistic nature and the flamboyant style she brought to her exhibition flying. However, she also quickly gained a reputation as a skilled and daring pilot who would stop at nothing to complete a difficult stunt. In Los Angeles she broke a leg and three ribs when her plane stalled and crashed on February 22, 1923.

In the 1920s, in Orlando, Florida on a speaking tour, she met the Rev. Hezakiah Hill and his wife Viola, community activists who invited her to stay with them at the parsonage of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church on Washington Street in the neighborhood of Parramore. A local street was renamed “Bessie Coleman” Street in her honor in 2013. The couple, who treated her as a daughter, persuaded her to stay and Coleman opened a beauty shop in Orlando to earn extra money to buy her own plane.

Through her media contacts, she was offered a role in a feature-length film titled Shadow and Sunshine, to be financed by the African American Seminole Film Producing Company. She gladly accepted, hoping the publicity would help to advance her career and provide her with some of the money she needed to establish her own flying school. But upon learning that the first scene in the movie required her to appear in tattered clothes, with a walking stick and a pack on her back, she refused to proceed. “Clearly … [Bessie’s] walking off the movie set was a statement of principle. Opportunist though she was about her career, she was never an opportunist about race. She had no intention of perpetuating the derogatory image most whites had of most blacks” wrote Doris Rich.

Coleman would not live long enough to establish a school for young black aviators but her pioneering achievements served as an inspiration for a generation of African-American men and women. “Because of Bessie Coleman,” wrote Lieutenant William J. Powell in Black Wings (1934), dedicated to Coleman, “we have overcome that which was worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream.” Powell served in a segregated unit during World War I, and tirelessly promoted the cause of black aviation through his book, his journals, and the Bessie Coleman Aero Club, which he founded in 1929.

For More Information Contact the Vampire Council Library.

It was during her time as a pilot she met Steve Trevor.  He liked her instantly, she reminded him of his own Mate … kicking ass and taking names.  He liked her idea of a school, but knew it wouldn’t be easy for her – yet knew she had already surpassed so many obstacles.

He told her about Vampires and gave her the opportunity.

She didn’t hesitate to take it.

Sylum Inspiration: Naomi Bennett

Ghost/Darkness: Member

 

Ask anyone who knows them and they will tell you that Naomi Bennett is the opposite of Addison Montgomery. Where Addison is that bright spark, Naomi is the quieter (and slightly more broody but she’s working on it) ember. She’s driven to succeed in the way that really focused people sometimes are: focused on the goal and not so great at some of the other things in life.

Naomi and Addison met in medical school and they became best friends. Where Addison is a rock star as a neonatal specialist, Naomi is the same as a fertility specialist, board-certified in reproductive endocrinology, obstetrics and gynecology.

In Naomi’s eyes, she’s done all the right things: gone to school, gotten a great career, married and had a daughter, named Maya. That’s why she’s broadsided when her husband, Sam, tells her he wants a divorce. When pressed for the reason why, he says he’s unhappy but also there’s no good reason beyond wanting to leave.

Addison walks back into Naomi’s life after a number of years looking for a change and wanting to have a baby. Although a baby is not in the cards, Naomi offers Addison the chance to join her practice, Oceanside Wellness Group, which Addison accepts.

There’s also another small wrinkle: the practice’s receptionist and midwife trainee, Dell Parker. Naomi tries to write off his feelings for her as a crush given their age difference. But there’s something about him that unnerves her in a way that she hadn’t expected. He also brings her cake which does nothing for her waistline.

When Maya becomes pregnant with a less than desirable boyfriend and Naomi loses it a little; (okay, she loses it a lot) Dell and Addison are there to talk her off the ledge.

Things go sideways when an accident puts both Dell and a laboring Maya in the hospital. Maya and her baby survive but Dell is down with a severe head injury that needs surgery, which is only stopped when Dr. Cooper Freedman comes forward and has to out Dell as a vampire to the rest of the practice.

When the dust settles, Dell takes Naomi aside and tells her everything.  He also tells her that she’s his mate.  That particular truth settles something inside of her and though she asks him for a little time to think about it, she already knows what her her heart says.

Sylum Inspiration: Jane Porter

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Ghost and Darkness: Archivist/Librarian

 

Jane Porter was raised by her father, her mother died when she was young. Her dad took her with him, where ever he studied or taught. Also took her on expeditions around the world. He was criticized for not training a young lady eligible to get married.

His thought was she didn’t need to conform. Her husband had to be good enough for his daughter.

He always made sure she had a proper education and thought for herself.

When they traveled to Africa, she was thrilled to see a new place. When they had met John Clayton she felt a pull to him. When he told them his story, she was awed by his strength and courage. She didn’t want to return to America, but she wasn’t sure if she was welcome in Africa with him.

She was depressed when they got home, her father worried about her. She was about to tell him she was going back to Africa when John showed up looking for her. It was then he told her everything.

She traveled back to Africa, was introduced to the Clan and instantly overwhelmed. It was Tess that saved her and had a long conversation about what would be expected of her and what it was like to live in Africa.

 

Sylum Inspiration: The Caretaker

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Ghost and Darkness: Caretaker

 

No one even knows his real name. Where he came from. Anything.

The Caretaker has always been behind the scenes, takes care of everything that needs to be done.  He’s always been loyal to his Sire, and when he left with Lock-Nah to start the new clan, he went along with them, knowing someone had to look after the crazy bunch of morons

Sylum Inspiration: Niobe

jada-pinkett-smith

Ghost and Darkness: Member

 

Niobe was the daughter of the Shaman. She was considered beautiful and filled with a strong spirit. When Morpheus pursued her for his bride, no one was really shocked. They were shocked that two ruled together. After a while the tribe settled into the new idea, as Niobe was strong and caring, and helped looked over the woman and children of the tribe, as her own family.

Even after being Turned, Niobe has continued her quest to protect woman and children.  Though not a Hunter, she is not a woman to mess with.

Sylum Inspiration: Robert Muldoon

Muldoon

Ghost and Darkness: Head of Security

 

What better Head of Security in Ghost and Darkness Clan – than an ex Big Game Hunter.  Robert Muldoon patrols the wildlife refuge to keep an eye out on the animals, poachers and Rogues.  He a rough guy who doesn’t take peoples bullshit.  Very loyal to his Mate Dilios and despite the bristly attitude he has to his son, Owen, he cares very deeply for his boy – though he’ll never show it.

And he has no love for Raptors.

Unlike his boy.