William Clarke Quantrill

William Clarke Quantrill was a Wraith who lived in the 19th century United States.

Biography

A nasty son-of-a-bitch since the day he was born, life has been one act of violence after another for William Clarke Quantrill. Those who knew him in his youth claim that he nailed snakes to trees and shot at passing dogs.

As he grew older, Quantrill realized that brutality needed to be hidden, otherwise society would take it away. Fortunately for Quantrill, the War Between the States provided an excellent opportunity to conduct his ghastly behavior under the guise of military service. Rising to the rank of captain in the Confederate Army, Quantrill rallied a vile gang of thugs, villains and shifty drifters into a guerrilla unit that proved to be the scourge of the frontier. Lawrence burned in their wake.

Two years later, after losing numerous troops to attrition, starvation and death, Quantrill crossed swords with Union Captain Edward Terrill. The short skirmish left decisive results: William Clarke Quantrill died, victim of over one pound of lead bullets.

Of course, a man of Quantrill's nature wasn't about to let a little thing like death get in the way of his greater ambition. In his mind, he still had torture and misery to inflict. Quantrill's would-be reaper was sent into Oblivion as William beat him into a Harrowing with a soulsteel shovel.

If I can do this with a shovel, though Quantrill, imagine what I could do with actual weapons. Driven by a desire to turn the resources of the Underworld to his advantage, Quantrill set out to learn the art of soulforging. After learning the art from a Renegade Artificer who had been exiled from Stygia (and forging her into a crude soulsteel cutlass), William Clarke Quantrill once again rallied a pack of rabble Renegades to his side. If his hunch was right, he knew exactly where to find a virtual gold mine of souls ripe for the picking.

Lawrence proved to be that gold mine. Most of those who died in the inferno became Drones in the Shadowlands; a very few became sentient wraiths. Quantrill and his lieutenants built a soulforge in the First National Frontier Loan Company and crafted their luxuries from the Corpa of the hapless wraiths there before them.

Quantrill was clever enough to know that sooner or later he would run out of raw materials, however, and through a lieutenant's powers of Puppetry, he arranged a deal with Marshal Angel Hodge. Quantrill provided Hodge with information gleaned by his ghostly spies in return for Hodge's assumption of fatal justice. The marshal simply had to kill enough people to keep Quantrill's forges busy.

Irony, or perhaps poetic justice, conspired against Quantrill before long, however. His still-living mistress Kate King moved to Lawrence after his death in an attempt to begin her life anew. Quantrill still held as much passion - if not more - for his lover as he did in life. Her presence inflamed his undying desire and has recently been the the cause of numerous impotent rages, as he realizes that he cannot touch her and will be forever denied the object of his passion. Quantrill has taken to Skinriding Kate as a stopgap means of stemming his anger at not being able to be with her.

Recent nights have seen a few cracks form in the façade of Quantrill's Empire, however, and the dead captain has had to undertake a campaign of damage control to prevent his town from slipping away from him. A new interest in mysticism has sprung up in Lawrence, according to Marshal Hodge; seances and mediums have come into vogue. (This is due in part to Piper Dunsirn's claims of seeing ghosts of those who died in the fire - many families wish to speak with their departed relations. Lay mysticism in Lawrence also owes a bit to Minister Carter's sermons, after which people are too excited to let matters lie.) Quantrill is familiar with the Hierarchy and the westward crawl of Stygian influence; he knows that should the word spread among the Quick about ghosts in Lawrence, the Legions would surely follow. Needless to say, he's not prepared to share the wealth of his empire.

One of Quantrill's former lieutenants has gone rogue as well (a rogue Renegade!), giving rise to a bit of paranoia on Quantrill's part. It seems that Billy Budd has either suffered a bout of remorse over his aid to Quantrill or desires the "throne" himself. Quantrill doesn't let this bother him much...yet. He's got other concerns to worry about.

Profile

  • Image: Quantrill is a badger of man: hirsute, brawny and mean. His tattered Confederate uniform betrays the gunshot wounds that ended his life, ad plasmic "blood" weeps from the bullet holes whenever Quantrill is agitated. William Quantrill bears an eternal scowl that furrows his bushy eyebrows deeply. He always carries his relic pistol, a .45 caliber Colt single-action.
  • Roleplaying Hints: Somebody once said, "He who hesitates is lost," and that's something you've taken to heart. You act quickly and decisively - and brutally. Your strongest motivation is the continued success of your Lawrence "empire," but no man is an island, and you keep many opportunities headed toward various stages of fruition at any one time. You don't put on any false airs about your activities in the Lawrence Shadowlands: It's a grim situation, but if you weren't on top of it, you'd fall prey to it yourself.
  • Destiny: Quantrill is captured during a conflict with Stygian troops in 1897. After being turned over to the force commander, he travels via Midnight Express to Stygia proper, where Artificers craft him into a ghastly brooch for the Quiet Lord.
  • Nature: Visionary
  • Demeanor: Architect
  • Circle: Lawrence Gentry
  • Physical: Strength 4, Dexterity 3, Stamina 5
  • Social: Charisma 2, Manipulation 2, Appearance 2
  • Mental: Perception 3, Intelligence 3, Wits 4
  • Talents: Alertness 3, Athletics 1, Brawl 4, Dodge 4, Expression 1, Intimidation 5, Subterfuge 3
  • Skills: Crafts 1, Firearms 5, Leadership 4, Melee 4, Ride 4, Stealth 2
  • Knowledges: Enigmas 2, Medicine 2, Occult 2, Politics 4
  • Backgrounds: Contacts 2, Eidolon 3, Haunt 4, Legacy 3, Memoriam 4, Notoriety 2, Relic 4, Status 2
  • Passions: Maintain control of Lawrence (Spite) 4, Turn back Stygian influence (Pride) 3, Spend time with Kate (Love) 3, Discover who jeopardizes his rule and eliminate them (Greed) 1
  • Arcanoi: Argos 2, Inhabit 5, Moliate 2, Puppetry 1
  • Fetters: First National Frontier Loan Company 4, Kate King (mistress) 1
  • Willpower: 7
  • Pathos: 6
  • Permanent Corpus: 10
  • Shadow: Pusher
  • Angst: 8
  • Thorns: Infamy 7, Death's Sigil, Shadow Call
  • Shadow Passions: Destroy other wraiths (Fear) 4, Relax control over Lawrence (Self-Hatred) 2, Arrange Kate King's death and drag her into the Underworld (Hate) 1

Trivia

See historical figure, William Clarke Quantrill.

References

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