Doug BrotherofCats Dandridge

Decades ago I read one of the Kane novels by Karl Edward Wagner. I was impressed by the amoral immortal that was only out for himself, but at the time was only reading things that came easily to hand. I found no more Kane novels lying around and more or less forgot about the character. But not really. This year I looked up Kane and found that Wagner had written three novels and a number of shorts about the man who was cursed with eternal life. I found the complete shorts at the local library and bought the three novels in paperback form over the net. Masterful works full of mood, and an unforgettable character that might be called evil, but was also capable of doing good, even if it was accidental.
I became interested in the character because I was working on a series that featured immortal humans empire building on a world of magic, and wanted to read the perspective of a very successful writer who developed his own immortal character. Now my immortals were more along the line of Milo Morai in the Horseclans novels of Robert Adams. Engaged in life, mentoring the shorter lived peoples around them, sometimes cruel, but always for a good reason. The other immortal I am familiar with that might have lent something to the development of my own was Lazarus Long, Robert Heinlein’s immortal man who cloned himself as female twins and went back in time to have sex with his mother. Long was somewhat amoral, in a society that accepted such. But he was not really a bad guy.
Kane is a bad man in most respects. Part of it has to do with the curse that was laid upon him by a mad God for killing his brother and leading a revolt against the deity. Part of it had to do with living through the passage of so much time, where, as Wagner relates, centuries pass like years for most of us, and Kane grows bored with everyday activities, seeking the chaos that is the only thing that makes it all worth living. And, as Wagner states in another story, short lived beings like humans, whose lives flicker like candles before one who will live forever, seem useless. Kane does not mourn the loss of most people, they are just objects that will inhabit his world for the briefest of times. While he does mourn the loss of an ancient city, or even a tower or a wall, things that could provide constancy for at least some centuries of his existence. This was a different perspective on immortality, a fresh if dark perspective. Kane can still be loyal to friends who stand by him, or lovers who take away some of the loneliness, and even shows kindness toward his stallion, Angel, in Dark Crusade. But mostly he doesn’t really care for the short lived sparks of life that surround him. His attitude seems to be that more will be made, and he will again be surrounded by them as he continues his march through eternity. Makes me wonder what the attitude would be of an immortal race or species toward a shorter lived species. Would they think them worthless because they did not enjoy the same life span, even if the immortal race was not any smarter or stronger? Superiority based on life span alone. It could happen, since we have seen examples of superiority through skin color or circumstances of birth, why not from something that would seem more of a birth advantage.
My immortal characters will be more like Morai and Long than Kane, though he could become the pattern for the more evil characters I will have in my work. But I would not steal Kane whole cloth from Wagner. Kane is one of a kind, and deserves to remain so. I wonder if Wagner’s dark style comes from his having worked in Psychiatry. I was trained to be a Psychologist, and still work in social services, and I know my thoughts tend to run toward the darker aspects of human nature. Whatever the source, Wagner’s dark side brought forth some marvelous works. It was a shame he did not live long enough to give us more of Kane’s story. Just as it was a shame that Robert Adams died before he answered some of the questions in the Horseclans saga. Unfortunately the writers of immortal characters do not enjoy the same advantages as their creations, and death comes knocking sooner than any of us suspect.