The Man with No Name

Also known as Childe Roland, Rolande Pendragon, simply Roland, Lazarus, Shenandoah, William Munny, and Roland Deschain.

## Biography

**In Progess**

Roland Deschain was a child of Arthur Pendragon. He had several siblings: his two older brothers, and his sister, Burd Ellen. one day there were playing ball near a church. Rowland kicked the ball over the church and Burd Ellen went to retrieve it, inadvertently circling the church "widdershins", or opposite the way of the sun, and disappeared. Rowland went to Merlin to ask what became of his sister and was told that she was taken to the Dark Tower by the King of Elfland, and only the boldest knight in Christendom could retrieve her.

The eldest brother decided he would make the journey, and was told what to do by Merlin. He did not return, and the middle brother followed, only to meet the same fate. Finally Childe Rowland went forth, having been given his father's sword, which never struck in vain, for protection. Merlin gave him his orders: he must chop off the head of anyone in Elfland who speaks to him until he sees his sister, and he must not eat or drink anything while in that realm. Rowland obeyed the orders, dispatching a horseherd, a cowherd, and a henwife, who would not tell him where his sister was. The henwife would only say he had to circle a hill three times widdershins, and say each time "Open, door! open, door! And let me come in." Following the instructions, a door opened in the hill and Rowland entered a great hall, where sat Burd Ellen, under the spell of the King of Elfland. She told him he should not have entered Elfland, for misfortune befell all who did, including their brothers, who were prisoners in the Dark Tower, nearly dead.

Rowland, forgetting Merlin's words, was overcome with hunger and asked his sister for food. Unable to warn him, she complied. At the last moment, Merlin's words returned to Rowland and he threw down the food, upon which the King of Elfland burst into the hall. Rowland fought with the King, and with the aid of his father's sword beat him into submission. The King begged for mercy, and Rowland granted it, provided his siblings were released. They returned home together, and Burd Ellen never circled the church widdershins again.

During the fall of Camelot, the knight Orlando took Roland and with him, stole both Excalibur, and traveled to the flame of eternal youth, making Roland immortal. The two stayed together until Roland was though slain during a battle with the Saracens while fighting for Charlemagne.

Roland eventually came to work as a Secret Service agent.

**Lazarus Man**television series shows glimpses of the main character attempting to stop the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. We can only speculate that Roland somehow got wind of the plot but could not stop it from taking place. There are allusions in the Lazarus Man that he discovered a larger plot and that this is the reason that he was shot and killed.

Roland took a bullet in the back and a glancing shot to the head. After being buried he clawed his way out of the shallow grave and stumbled off following the tracks of the Cavendish gang. Unfortunately he walked right into their evening camp. Cavendish had his men beat the wounded Ranger and then he shot Reid point blank in the chest. The bullet cracked his sternum but did not penetrate, it traveled under his skin along his ribcage, breaking a couple of ribs and exited out his back.

They then buried him in a shallow grave. Amazingly enough, Daniel Reid was not dead; he once again clawed his way out of the grave and walked aimlessly until finding a farmstead. The farm people took him in and cared for his wounds.

When he regained consciousness. He realized that he was did not know who he was. The physical trauma and mental trauma had given him almost complete amnesia.

He spends the next 18 months unsuccessfully trying to discover his identity, spurred on by the memories of the faces of the men who had beaten him and by the memory of a tragedy he had witnessed, the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

He used the names Lazarus and Shenandoah during this period, and some of his adventures were highly fictionalized in the television series ***Lazarus Man*** and ***A Man Called Shenandoah.*** His quest eventually took him to Washington D.C. Throughout his travels he had been beset by men thwarting his attempt to regain his memory, he believed that it involved knowledge he had about the Lincoln Assassination. Information had come to light from a high government source that Lazarus's real name was James West and that he was an operative for the United States Secret Service.

TraveIing to  in 1868 Lazarus, using the name James West, became involved with an incident that involved a stolen national historical document from the Library of Congress. There was also an actor involved named Artemus Gordon. Together they recovered the document. During this period Gordon and West were working seperately but Gordon had become aware of someone with a close resemblance to Jim West using that name. When his paths had crossed with this "James West" during the stolen Emancipation Proclamation Incident he decided to help "West" investigate his past. They checked the archives but found scant records of James West’s true identity. The files had been ordered destroyed by Lafayette Baker, former head of the Secret Service

They could find no one that would talk to them in , so they decided to pay a call on Lafayette Baker, who was staying in . Baker was corrupt as they come, A Treasury Department official wrote of Baker's tenure as head of the Secret Service: "Baker became a law unto himself. He instituted a veritable Reign of Terror. He always lived in the first hotels [and] had an abundance of money."

Gordon and "West" tracked Baker down to a hotel room. He regarded West with fear and shock. Instead of revealing "West"s true identity. Baker gave him teasers of information, telling West that he had indeed worked for the government during the War first as a Scout, then as a Intelligence Agent for the Army and finally as a member of the Secret Service. He had used the name Jim West more often than any other cover but he had used several. He told Lazarus that Grant knew him as West and by the way, some groups objected to the good General running for President and had quite a reception planned for him.

Artemus demanded to know what Baker was talking about, resorting to persuasive tactics to make him talk. Baker launched into a detailed description of an assassination plot against Grant when he suddenly slumped forwards and died.

Examination found a small dart protruding from his neck. Gordon plucked it out with a pair of tweezers and tossed it into the fire.

Gordon and "West" succeeded in foiling the plot against Grant, which involved killing two Secret Service Agents guarding Grant.The guards were agents of the Knights of the .  Gordon and "West" were nearly killled by soldiers also attached to guard Grant.

Gordon revealed himself to be an agent of the Secret Service on detached duty. He had the unfortunate duty of telling Lazarus that everything that Baker had told him was a lie. While there was a James West that worked for the Secret Service as Baker had detailed, Lazarus was not him. Grant’s requested that Lazarus join Secret Service. If he did he would be trained by and work with Gordon and the real James West in neutralizing special threats to the . Grant promised Lazarus that as a special agent of the government he could use its resources to discover his true identity. Despite being tempted by the offer Lazarus declined, not really trusting for the government to divulge the actual truth. As it turns out the conspirators had destroyed all the evidence concerning Reid’s identity as they destroyed all the evidence surrounding the  assassination that did not support the idea of a impulsive plot by a crank actor and his cronies.

Daniel Reid’s memory never returned and continued to use the alias of Lazarus and Shenandoah. There is also a good possibility as his search for his identity grew ever more frustrating that he became an embittered man, and became known throughout the west as the Man with No Name.

The conspiracy against Reid either stopped with Baker’s death or when it became apparent that Reid had actually and truly lost all his memory, he was no threat.