by Renaud Bédard
BLACK KNIGHT THE MOVIE
by Renaud Bédard



Generations of Black Knights through out the ages have existed, some were heroes and others villains, some used the help of magic, and others of science; but one specific line of knights, has the same family blood running through their veins, straight up to the modern age, with a descendent learning of his legendary ancestors

- SIR PERCY OF SCANDIA -

Sir Percy of Scandia was born at the castle of King Arthur Pendragon in England during the first years of Arthur's reign in the sixth century A.D. Percy's father was a distant cousin of King Arthur Pendragon of Camelot, and was his ally in battle during the king's youth, as well as a friend of Arthur's advisor, the wizard Merlin. When Percy was a child, his parents moved to their estate in Scandia, the area now known as Scandinavia. Following Merlin's advice, Percy's parents had the boy educated in all known forms of combat, in which Percy proved to be a master and won knighthood in his adolescence. At the time, one of the biggest threat to the country was Arthur's illegitimate son Mordred, by his half-sister Morgause. Arthur welcomed Mordred into Camelot, but Merlin knew that he would conspire to bring about Arthur's death and try to seize the throne himself, and Merlin needed a warrior who could stop Mordred but whose identity would remain a secret. After the death of his parents, Merlin sent a message to Sir Percy, summoning him to Camelot; and at the royal court he played the role of a timid one, upon Merlin's instructions, so that no one would suspect how dangerous of an opponent he could be. Merlin then took Sir Percy aside, and gave him the armor and enchanted sword, the Ebony Blade, that he would use in his new identity of the Black Knight. Over the following years the Black Knight foiled numerous plots by Mordred against the king. The Black Knight also played a major role in defeating various other foes of Arthur and of Camelot. His greatest adversary proved to be the sorceress Morgan Le Fey, who was Arthur's half-sister and the aunt of Mordred. Later on in his life, Sir Percy of Scandia married the Lady Rosamund, to whom he had revealed his secret identity; and Sir Percy, using the wealth from his estate in Scandia, to built the castle now known as Garrett Castle in England, and there he and Lady Rosamund went to live and raised their children. Finally, after the revelation of the affair between the king's wife and Sir Lancelot threw England into civil war, Mordred openly gathered armies to lead against the forces of King Arthur. During the battle Arthur and Mordred had mortally wounded each other; and the dying Mordred ordered a few of his remaining men to bring him to Garrett Castle where they could ambush his other great foe, the Black Knight. Mordred had learned that by Merlin's enchantment, the Black Knight could not be killed as long as he held his mystical ebony blade, except by a weapon made of the same meteor as the blade. Upon entering Garrett Castle Mordred's men attacked the Black Knight, and were droven them off, but not before Mordred struck the Black Knight from behind with a dagger made from the same meteor as the ebony blade, and Mordred immediately died. But Merlin appeared before the dying Black Knight and cast a spell upon him that would enable the Knight's own spirit to return to Earth whenever Mordred's spirit returned to do evil

- SIR EOBAR OF GARRINGTON -

Sir Eobar of Garrington, a descendant of Sir Percy during the Twelfth Century, discovered the Ebony Sword and decided to follow in the footsteps of his legendary ancestor the original Black Knight in order to fight in the Crusades. The Twelfth Century Black Knight was also an ally of King Richard the Lion-Hearted, and while Saladin had captured Jerusalem in 1187 A.D. and Pope Gregory VIII preached the Third Crusade to recover it, which was led by several of Europe's most important leaders: Richard I of England, Phillip II of France, and Frederick I, the Holy Roman Emperor, Eobar Garrington was knighted and charged with banishing the Moors from the holy land in the name of Christianity. Eobar, a skilled warrior, swordsman, and horseman, for the last years of his life, was possessed by the spirit of his descendent Dane Whitman, who intermittently controlled his body. As Garrington and his fellow knights set forth on arduous trek toward occupied Jerusalem, the evil spirit of Mordred arrived in the midst of the Crusades, affecting events so that King Richard was captured, as Richard's brother, Prince John, commanded a plan to abandon and replace the king. As the body of an other Black Knight of the modern era turned to stone, a spell of the wizard Merlin's summoned Dane Whitman's spirit from the future through time to oppose Mordred's plot, and in Garrington's body, Whitman's spirit fought savagely in the Crusade, and the Black Knight's fighting prowess quickly earned him respect among Christians and Moslem, and defeated Mordred and his allies. And it was with the help of Amergin, last of the Alchemist, that the spirit of Dane Whitman was finally returned to his own future time, in his own body restored from its petrified form

- PROFESSOR NATHANIEL GARRETT -

Professor Nathan (Nathaniel) Garrett was born in England and was a descendant of Sir Percy of Scandia, the heroic Black Knight. Garrett was a brilliant scientist and inventor whose particular specialty was genetic manipulation. He earned his doctorate at Oxford University and later taught there as a professor. At some point Garrett visited a castle he had inherited, Garrett Castle, where Sir Percy of Scandia was buried, and the spirit of Sir Percy appeared to Garrett and presented him with the opportunity to become a modern day Black Knight to crusade against evil. Garrett saw the original Black Knight’s enchanted Ebony Blade in a scabbard near the tomb of Sir Percy, but, being unworthy to wield it was unsuccessful in drawing the sword. Garrett moved to the United States, where his sister had gone to live, and led a highly distinguished career as a research scientist, but he also acted as the head of an espionage ring. Inspired by his encounter with Sir Percy's ghost and by a statue of a winged horse, Garrett decided to devise for himself the costumed identity of a criminal Black Knight; and using his genius at genetic manipulation, he artificially mutated a horse to give it wings, enabling it to fly. He also devised highly advanced weaponry, much of which he built into a lance-like weapon, and an armored costume similar to the original Black Knight's. And throught various battles against the heroes known as the Avengers and many escapes, Nathan Garrett finally meet his own death, but not before calling out his only living relative, his deceased sister's son, Dane Whitman, and on his deathbed, Garrett told Whitman he regretted the wrongs he had committed and wished for his nephew to put his work to good use. The first modern day descendant of the Black Knight Professor Nathan Garrett might have been manipulated and influenced towards evil by the mystical magical powers of Morgan Le Fey from the past directed towards the future, while the next modern day generation Dane Whitman might have been shielded somehow from the darker influence also by an other power, from beyond time

- DANE WHITMAN -

Dane Whitman is also a descendant of the original Black Knight, Sir Percy of Scandia, who was a member of the Knights of the Round Table in King Arthur's Sixth Century Camelot. After learning of his family long heritage, Dane decided to improve upon his uncle's work, Nathan Garrett, and assume the identity of the Black Knight. First mistaken for his criminal uncle, this new Black Knight quickly set himself apart and demonstrated his courage and heroism. Learning that he had inherited Garrett Castle, Whitman traveled to England with the intent to sell the property; but while touring the place, he stumbled upon the tomb of Sir Percy and was contacted by the ghost of his ancestor who explained to him the origins of his noble lineage and told him of the Ebony Sword. When Whitman tried to draw it from its scabbard, he succeeded where his uncle had failed; and after successfully battling the demonic guardian of the sword, he left the castle with the enchanted blade and soon found himself drawn into battle with Le Sabre, a modern day agent of Mordred, and soon made himself some allies like the occult master Doctor Strange and the Avengers in his fight against evil. And for a time, through the wizardry of Merlin, as the body of Dane Whitman turned to stone, his spirit was summoned into the past, in the Twelfth Century, to come to the aid of one of his own ancestor, Eobar Garrington, and for five years while his real body remained a stone statue in the Twentieth Century, within his ancestor, Dane Whitman fought in the crusades against evil and some of the worse tyrants the world has ever known, and eventually defeated Mordred and his allies, before being returned back to his own future time with the help of Amergin, High Druid of Avalon, to pursue in the modern age, his own crusade against evil of all races and belief, as evil remains evil in any color or whatever religion it hides under