Tag: Inspiration Block

Ghost/Darkness: Member

James Lucas Yeo was a British naval commander who served in the War of 1812.

Yeo was born in Southampton on 7 October 1782, and joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman at the age of 10. He first saw action as a lieutenant aboard a brig in the Adriatic Sea. He distinguished himself during the siege of Cesenatico in 1800, when thirteen merchant vessels were burned or sunk. In 1805 he captured a fort and a privateer at Muros Bay. He was sent to Brazil, given command of a frigate and four hundred men, where, he captured a fortified position of two hundred guns and took a thousand prisoners. He participated in several sea battles during the Napoleonic Wars, so successfully that he was made a post captain at the age of 25.

In 1810, he was knighted for his services at the Invasion of Cayenne. In 1811 he commanded the frigate Southampton, which captured a piratical frigate- Amethyste.

In 1812, he commanded the frigate HMS Southampton, then stationed in the Bahamas. He captured the pirate ship Heureuse RŽunion at the Action of 3 February 1812 and the American brig USS Vixen in November 1812, but shortly afterwards Southampton and Vixen were wrecked in the Crooked Island passage, although no lives were lost. As was customary in the case of the loss of a ship from any cause, Yeo was court martialled, but the court accepted that the reef on which he was wrecked was not charted, nor were the local currents documented, and Yeo was exonerated.

The importance of the naval warfare on the Great Lakes raised “The Lakes Service” to the status of a Flag Command and Kingston was the Commodore’s headquarters. Yeo was sent to Canada in 1813 aboard Woolwich to command the British naval forces in the Great Lakes. The Commission of Sir James Lucas Yeo stated “During the continuance of your Command you are hereby authorized to hoist a distinguishing Pennant as Commodore on Board such one of His Majesty’s Ships as you may select”  Sir James’s use of his small navy was always determined and skilful, but he was hampered by a lack of cooperation from the British army. The commander of these forces, Sir George Prevost, failed to follow up key advances made by Sir James at Sackett’s Harbour and elsewhere that might have resulted in major British victories. On the whole, historians regard the war on Lake Ontario as having been a draw. During 1814 both Yeo and Chauncey, the American commander tried to out build the other. Yeo captured Oswego and then blockaded Sacketts Harbour on 6 May 1814, when reinforced by two frigates built on Point Frederick. During the final months of the war, Yeo ensured British control of the lake by the 1814 launch of the HMS St. Lawrence, a 112 gun first rate ship of the line built in Kingston specifically for use on the lake, a three-decker man-of-war, and he had two more building. The Americans also had two first line men-o’-war on the stocks.

In August 1815, Yeo was posted to the Inconstant, 36 guns, at Plymouth. After the British-American War, Yeo held important commands on the West African and Caribbean stations, but saw no further action.

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His ship sank off the coast of West Africa. Washed up on shore he was found by Rupert Howard. He nursed him back to health with the help of this sister. When James asked what  happened Rupert told him everything.

Not wanting to go back to his life James stayed with the siblings, coming to learn about the country, the Clan and Vampires.

He then asked to be Turned.

Ghost and Darkness: Hunter

Thomas Sawyer was named after the great his father’s favorite story, written by Mark Twain. He was raised a good Texan Boy and held the values his family taught him. He was all-American quarterback in high school, dated the lead cheerleader, and went to Texas A&M. He was recruited into the CIA, for his sharpshooting skills and the ability to take any role necessary.

He was sent to South Africa.

Where everything he had learned from childhood was thrown into his face. He struggled to do his job will but doing it contradicted his own philosophies.

Then he met Alan Quartermain.

Who ended up a Vampire.

His Mate.

Who smacked the living shit out of him and told him to grow the fuck up.

He was dragged to an animal reserve, by a tall man he later found out was Tarzan. The Clan Leader stood by his Second and was ready to send him away, but it was Tess that stood by his side and told them he needed to learn.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about the whole situation. In the five years he learned a lot about who he was, truly was. What it meant to be a Mate. And more importantly what it meant to be a human being.

Thomas also had reality shoved in his face. From The Caretaker smacking the crap at him, Kumalo making him work at the soup kitchens, Dar letting his ‘big cat’ play with him, and Tiny Terror chasing him across the plains…

Two years in, he found himself in the middle of the open plains bawling his eyes out and screaming to the heavens. He woke up with a lion laying next to him, and Tao smirking.

It took another year for him to fly home, have it out with his family, quitting his job and flying back to Africa.

Another two years to get to know Quartermain.

Ghost and 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.

Ghost/Darkness: Hunter

Patterson was born in 1867 in Forgney, Ballymahon, County Westmeath, Ireland, to a Protestant father and Roman Catholic mother. He joined the British Army at the age of seventeen and eventually attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

In 1898, Patterson was commissioned by the Uganda Railway committee in London to oversee the construction of a railway bridge over the Tsavo River in present-day Kenya. He arrived at the site in March of that year.

Almost immediately after Patterson’s arrival, lion attacks began to take place on the workforce, with the lions dragging men out of their tents at night and feeding on their victims. Despite the building of thorn barriers (bomas) around the camps, bonfires at night, and strict after-dark curfews, the attacks escalated dramatically, to the point where the bridge construction eventually ceased due to a fearful, mass departure by the workers. Along with the obvious financial consequences of the work stoppage, Patterson faced the challenge of maintaining his authority and even his personal safety at this remote site against the increasingly hostile and superstitious workers, many of whom were convinced that the lions were in fact evil spirits, come to punish those who worked at Tsavo, and that he was the cause of the misfortune because the attacks had coincided with his arrival.

With his reputation, livelihood, and safety at stake, Patterson, an experienced tiger hunter from his military service in India, undertook an extensive effort to deal with the crisis. After months of attempts and near misses, he finally killed the first lion on the night of 9 December 1898 and the second one on the morning of 29 December (narrowly escaping death when the wounded animal charged him). The lions were maneless like many others in the Tsavo area, and both were exceptionally large. Each lion was over nine feet long from nose to tip of tail and required at least eight men to carry it back to the camp.

With the man-eater threat finally eliminated, the workforce returned and the Tsavo railway bridge was completed on 7 February 1899. Although the rails were destroyed by German soldiers during the First World War, the stone foundations were left standing and the bridge was subsequently repaired. The workers, who in earlier months had all but threatened to kill him, presented Patterson with a silver bowl in appreciation for the risks he had undertaken on their behalf, with the following inscription:

“SIR, – We, your Overseer, Timekeepers, Mistaris and Workmen, present you with this bowl as a token of our gratitude to you for your bravery in killing two-man-eating lions at great risk to your own life, thereby saving us from the fate of being devoured by these terrible monsters who nightly broke into our tents and took our fellow-workers from our side. In presenting you with this bowl, we all add our prayers for your long life, happiness and prosperity. We shall ever remain, Sir, Your grateful servants,

Baboo PURSHOTAM HURJEE PURMAR, Overseer and Clerk of Works, on behalf of your Workmen. Dated at Tsavo, January 30, 1899.”

Patterson considered the bowl to be his most highly prized and hardest won trophy. It was soon after this he met John Chard. Anyone who was anyone in the British Military knew who John Chard was, John was honored to meet a fellow engineer. The two became fast friends, and soon John told him about Vampires. He was offering Patterson a new life.

John had to think about it, and even sat down to discuss with his wife. The both met with other Ghost/Darkness Clan Members. Patterson finding in a dry humor that the Clan carried the nick names given to the two lions he had just killed.

His wife saw it as a sign.

He was Turned.