MAJOR DEEJ UNIVERSE

Samuel Shane is the seventh generation that was born to that of a secretive magical sect called the Conglomerate. There, in the Conglomerate's underground Citadel, Samuel's father worked as a blacksmith and his mother as a stable maid.  Sam had no brothers or sisters and was to be raised to one day replace his aging father as a blacksmith, however, on one special day in 1992, a young Sam Shane caught the interest of a man that would later affect Sam's life thereafter.

​

In 1992, Sam was a ball of unfocused energy.  He was doing poor in his schoolwork and was often seen pretending he was a knight, flailing a wooden sword about the air claiming to save the common citizens of the Conglomerate.  His parents tried desperately to help him focus, but his mind was always somewhere being a virtual knight in his head. His parents, low in the ranks of the Conglomerate's pecking order, realized that their one and only son was most likely not going to help the family's position, much the same as generations past had done.  It wasn't a bad lot in life for them, but after several generations, Sam's parents became sad at any potential future prospects for them or Sam.

​

One day during that same year at the Conglomerate's pseudo-outdoor market (spells were used to make it seem that the roof on the market ceiling was actually an open sky), Sam and his mother were gathering groceries when one of the vendors started screaming about something evil just hatching from one his pallet of eggs.  Sam, always looking for a boy's adventure ran over to investigate as bodies began to fall to the ground and screams began permeating the air.  Sam's mother chased after him, but was caught in the wave of exiting marketers.  Sam, however, arrived on the scene of the commotion to see five dead people on the ground before him; the looks on their faces locked in a death mask of fear and/or surprise.  He saw a pallet of eggs with one cracked open, however, there was no yolk or egg juices; it was a yolk-less egg.  To Sam, that meant a Basilisk or a winged Cockatrice.  One gaze from either one causes instant death, regardless of the size of the creature, which more than likely couldn't be more than the size of a snake at this point. 

​

Before anyone could arrive and take on this dangerous creature, young Sam started chasing the creature around, attempting to corner it.  Each time the creature attempted to attack or look at Sam, Sam instead vaulted away to the next best location to continue corralling the creature.  Grabbing-up an old sword from a rival blacksmith's table, Sam thrust the blade at the creature, deftly aware of the creature's deadly gaze.  As Sam was about to kill the creature, amidst the now empty market, an old man happened onto the scene. Sam saw the creature break off to attack the old man, but Sam intercepted it through an amazing display of bravery and athleticism.  Sam while vaulting over vendor tables, grabbed up a mirror hanging on a post and thrust the mirror between the old man and the beast, causing the creature to gaze at its own reflection, thus killing the creature instantly.

​

That's not all.

​

As Sam was vaulting towards the old man, Sam was also crowing like a rooster, utilizing another old myth that a 'rooster's crow' could kill the creature.

​

On top of that, Sam had grabbed up a vial labelled as "Mongoose Pee" from another vendor's table and splashed the contents of the vial at the leaping creature.

​

Using all the means of killing it, Sam successfully killed the creature dead...three times over.

​

Sam landed across from the old man and asked the old man if all was well with him. The old man responded with a solid nod.  Sam then patted the old man on the back and told him that he and the rest of of the market goers were all safe now.

​

Rather than bask in the creature's kill, Sam went back to find his mom like as if nothing had just happened. Along the way, Sam even put the items he'd used against the creature back where he got them, even so far as to leave money on the table of the vendor that was selling the vial of mongoose pee.

​

The old man stood there stunned, taking in the actions that young Sam had just performed.  The old man them adjusted his cloak; a cloak that now showed him putting away a hand mirror, a dagger, and a vial labeled as "Weasel Piss". 

​

The old man, intrigued with Sam, began following Sam on and off for the next three days, watching him. Studying him.  

​

The old man finally introduced himself to Sam.  The old man introduced himself as Sir Cedric Cairne, a man well known in the Conglomerate community as a legendary hero called the Celtic Knight - the last living knight of the long-disbanded group of magical warriors once called the Knights Arcanus (see more of the Celtic Knight's story in the segment labeled  "1895-1914").

​

Sam didn't believe the old man until Sam was shown the the old man's branding - a brand on the old man's forearm signifying the mark of retirement of a brave knight of the Conglomerate.  When Sam saw the mark he fell to his knees showing fealty to the old man unto that of a god.  The old man demanded Sam arise and talk with him.  Over the next few hours, Sam and Sir Cairne talked.  By conversation's end, the old man stated that 'it was time'.  He then went to Sam's home and spoke with his parents, telling them to meet at the Conglomerate's council chambers at noon the next day with Sam packed and ready to go far away with him for 'training'.

​

The next day, Sam said his goodbyes to his few friends (and a couple of girls he'd hoped to have had as girlfriends one day) and family and went to the Conglomerate council chamber - a place none of Sam's family had even been allowed to be in or see.  Once there, the guards recognized Sam and his family and escorted them to the chamber where several of the Conglomerate's elderly council members stood talking with the Sir Cairne.  Each council member looked uneasy...even a little chided.  Once introductions were done, Sir Cairne stated that he had invoked an old ruling meant for honored knights - a rise in station and Conglomerate rank, should one choose to do so upon retirement as a knight in good standing.  Sir Cairne told the council (seemingly again), Sam and his parents that, as a knight 'forced' to retire, he'd decided to chose a 'lower' station than he was serving in rather than one higher in the Conglomerate's rankings.  The station was Master at Arms of the Conglomerate's Magical Weaponry Storage and Armory, a ranking two levels above Sam and his parents current position, but two levels below that which Sir Cairne had once performed as the leader of the Knights Arcanus decades before.  Sir Cairne informed those gathered before him that Sam would be trained to 'replace' Sir Cairne as the new "Master at Arms" for the Conglomerate's Armory, and that in doing, so, Sam's parents would also be increased in position, making Sam's father a weapon's inspector for the Conglomerate Armory and his mother as a Barn Manager for a new Conglomerate barn that Sir Cairne would talk to her later of.  The council, although nervous in their acceptance, acquiesced to what Sir Cairne stated, drawing up the papers on the spot.

​

Hours later, Sam's parents were moved from their old home to a far nicer home not far from their new work locations.  Sam was told to say goodbye to his parents, where upon Sam and Sir Cairne left.

​

Over the next several years, Sam was taken around the world and trained to be the best Master at Arms ever in the Conglomerate's history.  He learned all things historical, metallurgic and magical about every single piece of armor, weapon, and device known by the Conglomerate and Sir Cairne.  Not only was he taught about being the best Master at Arms ever, Sam was also secretly trained how to be an arcane warrior, more specifically - a KNIGHT ARCANUS.  No one in the Conglomerate had been trained to be a knight since before the last formation of the Knights Arcanus.  Sadly, the practice of carrying on a knight's training and and its related practices had fallen out of fashion with the Conglomerate, or more correctly, unsupported by the council of elders.  Even though Sir Cairne fought the council on this over the last several decades, it wasn't in Sir Cairne's authorization to formally train another as a knight unless he had express permission of the whole of the council elders.  For the last several decades, the council voted a majority "no" to reforming the knights or training a new knight.  As such, Sir Cairne continued his secretive training of Sam as a Knight Arcanus...and what an incredible knight Sam would eventually became.

​

Although Sam got off to a rough start in his training, thanks to Sir Cairne's school of 'tough love' and 'hard knocks', Sam soon mastered his new Master at Arms trade and his secret skills as a knight before the turn of the 20th century.

​

In 1999, Sam performed what Sir Cairne called 'The Knight's Trial'; a test of courage, valor, bravery, arcane weapons handling and knightly altruism.  Sam passed with flying colors, the first in 85 years to ever undergo and pass on in all areas tested during the trial.  In a somber two-person ceremony of Sam and Sir Cairne, Sam was secretly knighted as "Sir Shane" by Sir Cairne.  Days later, Sam was taken back to the Conglomerate.

​

A few days after their return, an increasingly frail Sir Cairne took Sam through the inventory that was the Conglomerate's Armory, ensuring that Sam knew everything about each of the thousands of items, weapons and armor vaulted in the space.  Thanks to Sir Cairne's teachings and methodology, Sam mastered the armory inventory in weeks vice months.

​

On the 31st of October in 1999, Sir Cairne died.

​

Sir Cairne's last words with Sam were to make Sam promise to do what he knew to be right and true, regardless of the council's decision (although Sir Cairne did add "It's nice to have the council's permission, but if they can't see the righteous or true path, then take it anyway").

Sir Carine also asked Sam to bear a knight's title that had never been used before in the history of the Knights Arcanus  - the title of "The Samhain Knight". The Samhain Knight title was a title that Sir Cairne had dreamed to call himself, but was told by the council of elders that the title was too 'pagan' to be allowed to be used, and was thus forbidden to use the title ever.  Sam agreed to Sir Cairne's last requests and with Sir Cairne's last weak utterance of "It is Time", Sir Cairne, the last true official knight of the Conglomerate's Knights Arcanus, died.

​

After the Conglomerate's grand funeral for Sir Cairne, Sam went on to perform his new duties as the Master at Arms for the Conglomerate Armory in an exceptional manner.  When he wasn't performing his duties, he was secretly practicing his fighting techniques taught him by Sir Cairne.  Sam even found some time to reconnect with acquaintances of his youth, one in particular was a beautiful, yet fiery red-haired mystical Scryer known as Cheryl Carpenter.  

​

In January of 2000 A.D., Earth was invaded.

 

Sam's training and leadership would come to test him unlike any knight in the history of the world.

​

The Soltan Star Empire invaded Earth in January 2000 A.D..  Their goal: subjugation of human life for the galactic slave labor market, the plundering of the planet's vast resources and predominantly for the siphoning and storage of Earth's magical energies; a process that in mere months could leave the planet a dying, lifeless husk.  The Soltans had been monitoring Earth for decades and attacked Earth with strategic precision, taking out nearly all of Earth's defense, primarily, a majority of the Conglomerate's magical schools and facilities.  National leaders, superheroes, tens of thousands of military troops, airmen and sailors, all died within the first hour of the invasion.  The Conglomerate had not prepared for an assault of this magnitude or the unexpected ferocity.  As such, the Conglomerate's magical schools were decimated in minutes, causing massive surges of refugees attempting to pour into the only safe haven they knew - the Conglomerate's Citadel, located miles underground of the British town of Greenwich, England.

​

The Conglomerate's council of elders were stymied by the quickness of the demands the invasion set upon them and their magical community.  The best they were able to do was take in those in need.  When it came to any offensive measures, the council couldn't make a decision, even when activiating the Knights Arcanus seemed the best option, they also realized...there was no one trained to BE a knight.

 

That's when Shane took charge; not as Sam Shane, but instead as Sir Shane, The Samhain Knight.

​

Donning a special armor he'd already selected for himself from within the vault, Samhain Knight began gathering up the weapons they would need to fight against the Soltans.  As a handful of magistrates and council members looked on in surprise and shock at Shane's audacity, Samhain Knight put out magical broadcast (last used by the Knights Arcanus back in 1895) for all magical citizens willing to fight the Soltan invaders to join him within the hour in the Conglomerate's Main Armory for weapons issue and recruitment for the 20th Formation of the Knights Arcanus.

 

As Samhain Knight strode confidently through the armory at a brisk pace, collecting up weapons and armor as he went along, a couple of the council elders told the Master At Arms that he didn't have the authority to form the Knights Arcanus since it required a unanimous vote of all active members of the Conglomerate's  council to approve such a thing.  Samhain Knight sharply turned to the elders and said, 'so why are you standing here talking to me?  Go, vote, and let's get to fighting'.  The same elders cautioned Samhain Knight that he also didn't have the authority to remove ANY of the armory's weapons without consent, for which Samhain Knight simply asked them, "You're still here? Go! Get that vote!".

​

As magical users and want-to-be recruits for the Knights Arcanus started showing up, Samhain Knight began quizzing his hew recruits with a bastion of rapid fire questions, asking him the same type of knightly questions that Sir Cairne, the Celtic Knight, once asked him as a boy.  Should any of the recruits answer with something other than what Samhain Knight desired, they were immediately dismissed from the armory.  Eventually, Samhain Knight was able to recruit about three dozen new recruits. Next, Samhain Knight eyeballed each new recruit and at times grabbed their torso, arms or legs to size them up and would then hand them a set of armor to wear and an applicable weapon to wield. 

​

As Samhain Knight was preparing for combat, the elders discovered they were not ready for the speed at which all of this was happening.  Three elders were missing and feared dead; magical shields and defensive devices were found depowered or missing; thousands of students and staff from the schools, scattered across the planet, were all attempting to re-enter the Citadel, but with the Citadel's shields up, they couldn't; instead they were stuck in the killing field that was their own school grounds. As such, the council could not properly vote on the formation of the Knights Arcanus nor the use of the armory's weapons.  As Samhain Knight and his new knights, now loaded for war, menacingly strode toward one of the Citadel's main portals, the few council elders in the Citadel intercepted the knights.  They forbade them from leaving the Citadel until there was a proper vote and that until that time, the knights needed to stay in reserve at the armory should anything else go wrong.  Samhain Knight told the elders they were wrong about that course of action and that he and the new Knights Arcanus were going topside to take the fight to the Soltans with or without the council's permission.

​

That's when the elders locked down every single magical portal exit from the Citadel, preventing their own citizens from leaving the Citadel.

​

There was no way out now.  Samhain Knight and his knights were now trapped behind an unearthly level series of magical shields in the Citadel along with the few thousand magic users left in the order that survived the onslaught thusfar.   Furious, Samhain Knight ordered the council to open one of the doors only to be chastised like an impudent child for all to see.  Realizing Sir Cairne's last words, that when the council was wrong and he knew the right answer, that he needed to act upon it. 

 

Samhain Knight made his decision - he would take the fight to the invaders...but the point was academic unless he was able to find a way to leave the Citadel. That's when a young, lower ranked stable maid walked up to Samhain Knight, gave him a letter and a set of keys, and walked away back around the corner.  Perplexed, Samhain Knight read the letter.

​

The letter was from his mother.

​

The letter stated that she and his father were safe and well.  The letter told Samhain Knight to use the keys to unlock their domicile's entry door and closet door where a one-shot Technomage portal exists.  Take anyone or anything needed for the escape that can fit through the closet door.  Once everyone/everything is through the closet door's portal, Samhain Knight was told to go through the portal and close it by closing the closet door.  The portal would disintegrate once all people and things using the portal reach the other side.

​

In the note, Samhain Knight's mother said they and others like them will meet him at 'The Hacienda' when all was done.

​

Armored and armed with every weapon and weaponized relic they could carry, Samhain Knight and his knights went down the narrow passageways of the Citadel to his parents' domicile.  There, he entered the house using the provided keys and unlocked the closet door to see a quaint, steampunk-style portal designed into the closet's door frame.  Samhain Knight then directed each new knight to enter the portal and wait for him on the other side.  When he was the last one left, Samhain Knight entered the closet and closed the door.  Seconds later, he found himself on the floor on a dark, dusty old basement.  The portal they'd come through disintegrated as mentioned in the letter.  Before him were his new knights, all unharmed, and two large doors.

​

Upon opening the doors, Samhain Knight and his crew saw a long length of stables with nearly four dozen beautiful and healthy horses in them, most of which were of a unique breed and/or magically-empowered at that.  The knights, as if mesmerized by the horses, each walked towards a horse of their liking and almost instantly started to bond with them...almost as if the horses had been made for each knight present.  Samhain Knight was not immune from the same situation, finding an enormous black Clydesdale warhorse at the front of the stables.  Even the stable nameplate identified the horse to be Samhain Knight's.

​

Seconds later, a swath of people came through another set of doors adjacent to the stalls.  It was the site's staff...and Samhain Knight's parents all standing under a wooden sign labeled as "The Hacienda". 

​

In a loving embrace, Samhain Knight and his parents quickly exchanged hugs and kisses, all the while explaining what had happened to each of them.  After Sam quickly told his story, his parents described that Sir Cairne had set this all up in advance, thanks to the knowledge produced by a handful of scryers he'd known, one of which was Shane's girlfriend, Cheryl Carpenter.  

 

The visions the scryers saw was of a 'coming storm' of alien invaders; a storm that the Council decided to ignore.  One particularly powerful, yet young scryer told her school's order that the 96% survival chance of the Citadel completely rested on a future line obscured by the council's manner of teaching, and that the future line had to have the Knights Arcanus fighting the 'coming storm' or the world would surely die. 

 

In that same future line, the young scryer also pointed out that the council's inaction would eventually cause the sect's downfall decades later.  The young scryer saw a man, dressed in the same armor Shane was now wearing, taking the fight to 'strange, alien-like invaders', along with nearly 2 to 3 dozen magical knights on horseback.  The same vision showed Shane's parents as the caretakers of an old non-Conglomerate ranch house and stables, caring for horses and creating new weapons in an old blacksmith's shop at the same location.

​

The young scryer mentioned was indeed Cheryl Carpenter, who now stood before him in her armor, with her own weapons, ready to do battle with the knights as the "Autumn Knight".

 

With all that said, Shane, stipulating himself officially as the Samhain Knight, told his new knights quickly and briefly that he himself had been trained by the last living Knight Arcanus, Sir Cairne, the Celtic Knight. With that, Samhain Knight gathered his knights, thanked his parents and the Hacienda's staff with a formal bow of respect, and then in a what seemed an epic view, he and his knights mounted their new steeds, already geared and armored for battle, and rode off  into the sky with Samhain Knight in the lead, swords and weapons in the air.

 

Minutes later, Samhain Knight and his Knights Arcanus arrived in Madrid, Spain where over 400 Soltans had invaded.  Within an hour, the battle was won and the new 20th formation of the Knights Arcanus had won their first victorious battle with loss of three new knights in the process.  Although bittersweet for most, their deaths helped catalyzed the knights commitment to battle and their need for teamwork and brutal combat with the enemy alien forces.

​

The next several months of fights and battles of the Knights Arcanus against the Soltans were the stuff of legend. Battle after battle, Samhain Knight led the Knights Arcanus into victory nearly every time. With each battle, the Knights Arcanus lost more of their brave warriors, but at times, new recruits from the scattered schools of magic would volunteer, with Samhain Knight's test and authorization, and become knights in their own right.  Amongst those new recruits was one from a school of magic that had been long thought dead - a Deathknight of the Death school of magic. That Deathknight became a controversial addition to the Knights Arcanus, creating an element of fear that at anytime 'it' would turn on the knights and kill each and all of them in their sleep.  Samhain Knight, however, had a feeling that were was more to the Deathknight than others believed, assessing that fear was molding his fellow knights' perception of the Deathknight. Regardless, the Deathknight fought with a fervor and power that inspired the other knights, even when certain battles seemed hopeless to win, the Deathknight would use its strength and conviction to fight on no matter what  - unto victory. As such, the Knights Arcanus became legend due to their actions over those several months of war with the Soltan invaders.

​

After several months of intensive fighting, the Knights ARcanus ranks began to thin, leaving only a few remaining weary knights into an epic final battle that not only saved Earth and caused the Soltans to retreat to the dark side of the planet Mars, but also reversed the Soltan's siphoning of all of Earth's magical energies. Their actions, coupled with teaming with the rest of the world's remaining superheroes, villains and military forces, stopped the magical energy siphoning and instead reversed the magic energy flow back into Earth, breaking old magical resistors and reinvigorating ancient, previously drained magical Ley Lines, causing the planet to magically overcharge by 400% of its previous magical energies, making Earth the most plentiful magical energy source in the universe.

​

After the invasion, only several of the Knights Arcanus survived.  Many knights lost limbs, were placed in comas, or even brain dead. Sadly, the care for these brave warriors had to be done at the inadequate facilities of the Hacienda, all due to the Conglomerate elders' disdain for the 'illegal' formation of the Knights Arcanus.

 

The Conglomerate and the Citadel did in fact, survive the Soltan invasion, however,  hundreds of thousands of magic user died as a result of the invasion, leaving magical schools bereft of leadership and most schools having to rebuild from scratch.  The council of elders was buried in the post-invasion recovery, however, the issue of Samhain Knight's illegal formation of the Knights Arcanus and the 'theft' of several hundred items and weapons from the Citadel's armory was still a massive atrocity against the Conglomerate's system of law. As such, Samhain Knight's actions were considered treasonous; an act that in the Conglomerate's laws resulted in a mandatory death penalty for each knight.

​

Weeks after the invasion was over, Samhain Knight and the Conglomerate's council of elders agreed to a parley and to meet at an old neutral location, attempting to resolve their issues in a 'civilized' way. 

​

As a result of the parlay in late 2000 A.D., anyone associated with the Knights Arcanus, whether a knight or not, were ordered to turn themselves in to the Conglomerate elders for sentencing and execution. Samhain Knight instead countered that he, his knights and his staff would submit themselves to imprisonment for their actions, so long as those that died fighting the Soltans were allowed to have their bodies return home and buried with honors next to their love ones and ancestors.

 

The elders not only angrily denounced Samhain Knight's request, but they also attempted to magically detain and/or kill the knights on the spot, breaking a century's old neutrality of the meeting spot at "Arthur's Seat" in England. 

 

The knights defended themselves valiantly and with restraint.  Samhain Knight used a rare, one-shot spell to 'stop time' long enought for his knights to escape back to the Hacienda (wherein The Hacienda was magically masked by unearthly levels of wards, protection spells and anti-detection relics).

 

Today, Samhain Knight and his knights and staff operate out of the The Hacienda, located off the coast of Spain, were to this day, they continue to reside.  Sadly, one wing of the Hacienda has become a critical care ward for the disabled and infirmed knights; the knights the Conglomerate would rather see dead than honored and taken care of.

 

The Hacienda now has a powerful, new Technomage portal that is quite 'state-of-the-art', however, still has a few 'glitches' that need to be fixed before it works right.

 

Samhain Knight remains as leader of the Knights Arcanus.  The real world knows all too well of Samhain Knight and his band of 'strange' superheroes (all of which are registered under the Super-powered Registration Act), however, the Conglomerate's citizenry and its children consider the "Samhain Knight" as a bedtime story or mythical fairy-tale.

 

Unable to return to the the Conglomerate, its schools of magic or the Citadel under penalty of death, Samhain Knight and his fellow knights instead work with today's superheroes, organizations and super-groups to stop evil across the planet, as well as still protect the Conglomerate and its citizens, even though they are still considered to have 'never' existed, as per the Conglomerate's decree.

​

Samhain Knight continues to train new, young knights as knight errants, all of which receive the same tough love and school of hard knocks method of knightly training he received from Sir Cairne, the last living knight of the 19th Formation of the Knights Arcanus.  Although he is not well loved by his knight errants, he is considered to be the best knight and leader ever in the history of the Knights Arcanus.

​

​

​