I have recently been reading the short stories of Kane by Karl Edward Wagner. Now for those unfamiliar with him, Kane is loosely based on the Cain of the Bible. He killed his brother and was cursed with immortality, unless he is killed by violence. Good luck with the second part, as Kane is three hundred pounds of muscle and bone, with an expert’s grasp of the blade and a sorcerer to boot. Not an easy man to bring down, Kane is one of the greatest anti-heroes of fiction. He can be evil, and he can also become the hero that rescues the world from calamity. In one of the stories he is sought by a knight and his men who travel the world destroying evil, and Kane is their next target. But is the knight actually good. His men can be as dirty and evil as they come, exalting in the pain and suffering they cause to others in their obedience to orders. And the knight is first introduced as putting possibly innocents to death to wipe out the corruption of the evil Ogres they served, even though they had little choice but to serve or be served as the next meal. So the good knight is not so good after all. He still defeats evil, and in the long run leaves some lasting good in the world. Still, when killed by Kane, the ultimate evil who is just looking for peace, I cheered at his end.
Sometimes in the real world the good is not always so good. Not everyone in the tales of the past is a Paladin, a pure holy warrior whose only purpose is to destroy evil and save the innocent. People can hide their evil inclinations behind a facade of good. Think of those Spanish Conquistadors who rode in the name of the church, only to kill en mass for gold. Or the witch finders of Europe who accused only those who had wealth to give up, so that both they and the church profited. Or the priests of this era who molest little children while hiding their demons behind the cassock and cross. And then there have been evil men and women, those who break the law, but are still good family members, and upholders of the weak and helpless. Jesse James, who killed and robbed and still looked after family. Brutal men who fought at the drop of a hat and were still gentle to their sons and daughters. Sometimes in fantasy characters are portrayed as black and white, fully good or totally evil. When real people have a little of both in them, and their character allows one or the other to rise to the fore, most of the time. Wagner, on the verge of a career as a psychiatrist before becoming a writer, knew this, and was masterful in making characters cut out of both sides of the divide. I applaud his efforts, and hope that someday I will create characters as memorable.
Karl Edward Wagner
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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.
