Edward Strickland

*“I had people I cared about there too, Derek. Angela, my daughter, was assassinated by a car bomb they blamed on Free Magic Separatists. My wife, Electra, ended up dying handling a daemonic artifact the Red Room thought they could weaponize. You’re family, you’re blood, and yet you serve their murderers.”*— Edward Strickland, *Esoterrorism*
**Dr. Edward "Ned" Strickland** was the former head of the White Room in Division One of The House, the husband of Electra, the father of Angela, Derek Hawthorne's distant cousin, and an agent of The Wazir. After serving in the Marines and coming to work for the White Room, Strickland's world was rocked when, his rapid succession, his wife and daughter were killed thanks to the House's machinations and he was diagnosed with cancer. Desiring to live forever at all costs and determined to destroy as much of the House as he could in the process, Strickland used his mystic and scientific expertise to aid the Wazir in his crusade, using Pantheon Corp's near infinite resources to create the Matheson-22 virus so as to turn people into draugr capable of spreading the infection through bites. Once the House began to identify the fact that there was a mole in the House, Strickland led an assault on the White Room which he used to fake his death. However, Derek and his allies tracked Strickland down to his safe house and, at Derek's own request, the Wazir murdered him as part of his negotiations.

## Biography

### Early Life

Not much is known about Ned's past. It is known that he loyally served the Marine Corp and was well-regarded during his time in the military. At some point, Ned married a woman named Electra, and they conceived a daughter named Angela. According to Derek, Ned was a very happy family man who doted on his daughter and came to holiday gatherings, even among his convoluted extended family. Derek has a fond memory of Ned gifting him a signed poster of *Wrath of Khan* at a family Christmas.

However, tragedies began to strike Strickland's life one after the other. Electra was killed on a mission for the Red Room where they were trying to control a demonic artifact, and his daughter Angela was assassinated by Yuri. Soon after this, Strickland himself was diagnosed with cancer. With little else to lose, Strickland became obsessed with preserving his life by whatever means necessary, which eventually put him in contact with Cassandra Cassidy.

### Developing Matheson-22

In his attempt to simultaneously destroy the House and prolong his own life as long as he could, Strickland began using Pantheon Corp's resources to modify the existing Matheson virus for his own ends. In the process, Strickland showcased his newfound disregard for human life; to force Pantheon's scientists to cooperate, Strickland would kidnap and kill their families, then use magic to convince them they were still alive whenever they asked for proof. Additionally, while modifying the virus, there were several incidents where the scientists involved converted into draugr on the spot, with Strickland uncaring of the casualties along the way. The entire time, he continued to pretend that he was loyal to the House, feeding Cassandra and the Wazir any information he could from within.

Eventually, his experiments finally bore fruit and the virus was finalized, now capable of turning average people into draugr that could, unlike most draugr, spread the infection through bites like a zombie. With the virus expanded into an apocalyptic-level threat thanks to Strickland's brilliance, the virus was handed over to the Wazir, who needed it as a cornerstone of his plan. However, Strickland kept some of it for his own use should it become necessary.

### Assault on the White Room

After Derek's first encounter with the Wazir led to the Matheson virus and the existence of a mole in the House becoming public knowledge, Strickland formulated an escape plan with the aid of the Sons of Mars. After getting in another argument with his top scientist Lucy Danvers over her reluctance to conduct experimentation on the virus, Strickland left the room as Derek and Shannon O'Reily entered the room. After leaving their sight, Strickland began an assault on the White Room by disabling the sprinkler system before dispersing Matheson-22 in the air, turning dozens of personnel into draugr. At the same time, the Sons of Mars launched an assault on the servers to destroy as much data as they could, forcing Derek to choose between saving the people in the building and saving the information. Thanks to Derek choosing the people, the Sons of Mars were able to destroy several servers, setting the Red Room back a dangerous amount.

In the meantime, the Sons of Mars were also sent to extract him safely, but Strickland, not wanting any loose ends that could be tied back to him, killed the mercenaries sent to get him out. His plan was ultimately successful, as Derek managed to turn the holy water suppression system on and dissolved all of the draugr in the building, allowing Strickland to pass himself off as one of the dissolved corpses and flee the scene. Thanks in part to Tommy Moretti also fleeing before the event and being marked AWOL, Strickland wasn't even a suspect.

### Ambush at the Safe House and Death

In the meantime, Strickland fled to his safe house. With his cancer getting worse and worse, Strickland took the extraordinary step of mummifying himself to prevent him from dying early, presumably with help from the Wazir. With this, he hoped to defy the Gods and live forever, with his cancer never able to take him while he continued his revenge on the House. However, Derek and Shannon continued to unravel the conspiracy, eventually leading them to realize Strickland's survival and his role in the creation of the Matheson virus. Using their knowledge of his true name, Derek, Shannon, and Penny Hawthorne were able to track him to the safe house he and the Wazir were currently staying at; however, their attempt to ambush him failed utterly, and he defeated Penny.

With his added power, he subdued Shannon and Derek easily, all the while pleading with Derek to recognize that the House was the organization that killed his family and he can't serve them in good conscience. Derek refused to listen to this argument, prompting Strickland to move to kill him. However, before he could do so, the Wazir called out that all of them were to be spared, and Strickland, referring to the Wazir as his "master", obliged. After bringing Derek and Shannon into the room with the Wazir, he and Derek began negotiating, prompting Derek to jokingly suggest that the Wazir kill Strickland as a sign of good faith. The Wazir immediately used Strickland's true name to condemn him to his final death, and before he could do anything, Strickland died instantly and his disappeared. Having mummified himself and likely killed some of his own relatives during the White Room assault, Strickland was damned to Hell.

## Legacy

Strickland's creation of the Matheson-22 virus made him a key part of the Wazir's plans even despite his death. The Wazir intended to spread the virus all over the world to cause a draugr outbreak that the House would be unable to cover up; in addition, his use of Pantheon Corp's assets gave Cassandra the means to attempt to spread the virus to her own targets. However, both Cassandra and the Wazir would ultimately be defeated by Derek, rendering all of Strickland's sacrifices and losses completely pointless.

Strickland's ultimate desire to see the House completely destroyed would be realized in 2008 thanks to Nathan Hawthorne exposing the supernatural to the world and wiping out The Committee to prevent them from interfering.

## Personality

*“The original Red Room had done mummification as a means of defying the gods, and the practice had been forbidden ever since. Ned had obviously decided the rules no longer applied to him.”*
Before the tragedies that changed his life, Ned is described as having been gruff but loving to his family, in particular his wife and daughter. He ensured that Angela would be friends with his distant family and even once gifted Derek a signed poster of *Wrath of Khan* as a Christmas present. However, once he lost his wife and daughter, Strickland lost all of his humanity with them. He became cruel and boorish in his every day life and downright sadistic in his methods of revenge. Once a man of science, Strickland let several scientists die without a care, and despite declaring that his revenge is motivated by his family, he hypocritically killed several members of the White Room, which included people he was related to. In the end, he was so desperate to get his revenge and live forever that he became a sexist, desperate, pathetic shell of a man completely subservient to the Wazir, a traitor to everyone he knew who died an ignominious death.