Richard Kessler

Captain **Richard Kessler** (pronounced Rick-hard), Hero of the Reich, is probably not the most accomplished or the most extraordinary among the 19th century's German Centurions. He is, however, the most famous - and beloved - among the public at large, having captured Germany's imagination with his adventures in Africa. Partly this is a matter of being at the right place at the right time, given the steady growth of enthusiasm for all things colonial and African over the course of his life. But, unusually for a Centurion, he is also a master of self-promotion, never shying away from any fame or notoriety he might accomplish. This is perhaps not wholly selfish, as it grants him a special kind of influence he could use to good ends. But at the same time it cannot be denied that, even in his old age and unlike many others in his cohort, Richard greatly enjoys being a hero and all of its trappings.

He was not always an Africa man. Though he visited the Dark Continent multiple times over his career, earlier in his life he served in various militaries, sailed on a ship and explored crumbling castles and ancient ruins the world over, collecting scars, stories and medals. One constant was that he did not cooperate too closely with the Century Club or with Centurions, dealing with them on a case-by-case basis; he valued his autonomy and spontaneity too much, disdaining the Club's tendency towads bureaucracy. When in time he had aligned himself with the newborn German Empire, he still remained fiercely independent, operating far away from most superiors and serving his country how ever he himself saw best. Though the German military command and bureaucrats were less than thrilled, his popularity, business connections and the admiration of the Kaiser himself meant that he got away with tweaking their collective moustaches, especially so long as he kept delivering great coups.

Kessler had finally settled down in Central Africa in the 1890s, helping stake out German territory, ransacking local ruins - and protecting the natives from various ills, including overreaching colonial officials, fellow adventurers more ruthless than he and, of course, the dastardly British, whom he further provoked by all but openly intervening in the Second Anglo-Boer War in 1898. In his spare time he assisted Manfred von Richthofen and his team in their efforts to stop Masque and his followers during that demagogue's African phase. Over the years he accumulated, on top of the aforementioned scars, stories and medals, an increasingly large collection of local rarities and of various helpers with nowhere else to go; most notably a tribe that was left homeless by an invasion of giant ants that he fought off. Adopting all of them, he turned them into the core of his *Dschungelshutz*, or Jungle Patrol, a uniformed native private army rowdily playing at being German soldiers and assisted Kessler in his self-appointed duties as the champion of order, justice and the German way in Mittelafrika. It was as part of this mission that he responded to rumours of Henry Maurice Allard, the White Scorpion, having survived in the jungle, making trouble for nearby outposts with his scavenging (and the killing of those who tried to claim his coincidentally quite significant bounty), though that hunt was eventually interrupted, then joined, and ultimately, as far as Kessler is concerned, completely botched by Sarah Hayes.

The Great War changed everything, long-simmering national rivalries in the colonies having transformed into all-out warfare. Kessler accepted it with a combination of regret and plucky enthusiasm, placing the *Dschungelshutz* at the disposal of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, in many ways a man after his own heart. He proceeded to wage a skillful guerrila war, crippling the Belgians' offensive capabilities before moving on to British and Portuguese targets. The anarchist Communard tribe led by Junius Tendaji became another enemy, however, having aligned itself with the British as a matter of opportunism, and having clashed with him in the past as well. Despite their formidable skills at guerrila warfare, Kessler survived their harrying and now his struggle, as well as von Lettow-Vorbeck's, continues, long past when anyone with an understanding of the Entente's material advantages in Africa could have expected it to end.

He appears to have one lieutenant in particular, a native boy of a certain age with a superior competence... But, his name was never actually mentioned so he probably isn't very important.