The Unknown

**The Unknown** is an major character in Clayverse, the protagonist of the solo series (Unknown Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3, Vol 4, Vol 5,), the important hero of street level stories, and a key character in various crossovers (Spectrum War, Freak/Show, Unnecessary Next Cycle).

## Description

Vigilante by day, vigilante by night, **Unknown** is famous in his city as a local madman who suffers from advanced PTSD, which prompted him to block any memories of his past life. In a past life, he was known as **Kieran McKeisen**, but his memories and data have been erased, so no one can say for sure about his biography. Unknown himself is not able to tell anything about himself, since he doesn't remember anything. Moreover, he doesn't want to remember anything, believing that having learned the whole truth about himself will simply go crazy.

## History

### Early Life

**Kieran McKeisen** was previously known as a successful but corrupt lawyer, who was in touch with Italian Don Samuel Remmy and billionaire Frank O'Hyspe. After a mysterious incident involving his sister Lauren McKeisen, Kieran's arm was badly injured and he also was given amnesia. Horrified by what had become of him, McKeisen decided to prevent a possible memory return by blocking the memories of a past life. Trying to hide his past from himself, he put on a black mask, which he never took off again.

### Becoming Vigilante

#### Everyone Starts Small

The Unknown began his crusade against crime in 2013, at the same time the New-Vigilsfield media first started talking about him. He aimed at inexperienced crooks, robbers and other small things in the crimeworld. For a while, he worked as a bouncer for Detective Singletface, forcing unfaithful spouses, scammers, corrupt police officers or judges to surrender to the law, but soon left Singletface due to a low salary. Then he got a job in a martial arts school, from where he was fired due to "abuse of power" - some of the students got seriously injured by him during training.

#### Holding Back The Gang War

After failing to build a career in the usual sense, The Unknown runs into 13-year-old Hunter Albertson, a gifted computer programmer. The young man becomes a vigilante's partner, helping him to track criminals down and catch them.

The Sicilian Mafia, under the leadership of Don Samuel Remmy, planned to start a large-scale conflict with the Irish Mafia to occupy territories. However, Unknown, with the help of an informant, found out about the plans of the gangster and personally interrupted the supply of weapons from Italy, undermined drug trafficking, and also sent a bunch of mafia members to the hospital, which undermined Remmy's financial situation and did not allow the gang war to unleash. During a raid on one of the warehouses, Unknown found a bionic prosthesis, which he replaced with a previously low-quality prosthesis with the help of Hunter.

### Fear Itself

When a wave of mysterious suicides related to a local urban legend sweeps across the city, Unknown and Hunter head into the sewers of New Vigilsfield to investigate. There they encounter the hero of local horror stories, Mr. Horrorman, who at first is friendly and even presents himself as some kind of victim of circumstances, but when Unknown learns that the consequences of his superpowers were an intentional move by Horrorman, a fight ensues, as a result of which Unknown and Hunter are exposed to serious psychological test. As a result, the heroes did not fall under the influence of the so-called Horrorman syndrome, but after this incident, they changed slightly. Unknown became more paranoid and Hunter became less trusting of his guardian.

In 2018, 18-year-old Hunter rethought his relationship with the Unknown, believing that the masked hero was extremely toxic and abusive towards his young partner. After the scandal, Albertson left his mentor all alone.

### Archenemy Saga

#### Meeting Ripper

Gwendoline Blame asked Unknown for help. She was a skilled manipulator and thief until she encountered Frank O'Hyspe. When she was preparing to steal his money, he, in the mask of **The Ripper** serial killer, attacked the woman, neutralized, and then locked her in his basement. The Ripper long time psychologically tortured Gwendolyn, preaching his ideology of "purification". After a month of imprisonment in a psychopath's mansion in countryside, she was able to escape. The Ripper provided himself with reliable protection, bribing the police and the media to keep silent about The Ripper's atrocities, so only Unknown could put an end to it.

Unknown broke into O'Hyspe's mansion, charging the businessman with multiple murders. Frank distracted the vigilante's attention to attack him. However, Unknown resisted, and The Ripper fled, at the same time taking hostage his former victim Gwendolyn, who brought masked hero to the house. Unknown returned to the city and contacted The Ripper by phone, convincing him to make a deal. He told about his mysterious past, which he chose to forget after a terrible incident, and for "purification", Unknown is more promising than a woman. The Ripper agreed on exchange and asked Unknown to come on the rooftop of his downtown skyscraper.

Arriving, Unknown is given to The Ripper without a fight, allowing himself to be knocked out, tied up and taken away to hell. The killer is waiting for his opponent to wake up in order to read his philosophy of "purification", and then break him, finding out who is hiding under the mask. Suddenly, the Ripper sees a familiar face, but cannot remember who the vigilante reminds him of - in order to save amnesia for himself, Unknown uses a bionic arm, breaks out of captivity, pulls on the mask again and enters into the last confrontation with the maniac. Having defeated him, he calls the cops, but to Unknown's shock, the scandal was quickly hushed up, and The Ripper escaped justice as if in nothing. The villain set himself the goal of getting masked man, in order to find out all his sins and subsequently conduct his therapy on him, and Unknown, in turn, set himself the goal of putting the elusive killer behind bars.

## Personality

Unknown makes it clear that he doesn't like it when someone tries to discover his past. For him, hiding his personality is above all. And yet, Unknown often appears in public, works, goes to shops... So everyone knows him. Unknown does all his activities without removing his mask. Responsive and reliable, Unknown always runs to the rescue if injustice prevails somewhere. He is ready to use any methods, but usually, it doesn't go to extremes, like murder. Imitating comic book heroes, he portrays himself as a sharp-tongued, eternally positive hero, but he always pretending to be edgy and dark person. But not being in the field of view of ordinary people, Unknown becomes withdrawn, depressed and self-critical. He still berates himself for a mysterious incident, the details of which he does not remember, but knows that it is something terrible. With his heroism, Unknown is trying to make amends for the guilt that lies with him.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Master Combatant:** The Unknown is a great fighter, who rarely gets down in a battle. According to himself, he knows all of the main martial arts, including kung-fu, judo and karate.
* **Swordsman Skills:** The Unknown can use every type of blade he got. As he says, knives and swords are ones of his best friends.
* **Physiology at human peak:** The Unknown is well-trained. He is stronger, faster and more durable than an ordinary human being.
* **Law Degree:** To be added

## Equipment

* **Vigilante's Uniform:** The Unknown wears the same clothes all the time, rarely take that off. He never take off a mask.
	+ **Leather coat**
	+ **Black mask**
	+ **Jeans**
	+ **Trainers**
	+ **Gloves**
* **Bionic Prothesis Arm:** The Unknown's right arm was lost under mysterious circumstances. It was replaced by a high-tech prosthesis, which was also mysteriously recieved by The Unknown. Being heavier due to the steel parts, the prosthesis does more damage. The prosthesis is also stands for any kind of external intervention.
* **Cricket Bat**

## Relationships

### Family

* George McKeisen ✝ - father
* Lea McKeisen ✝ - mother
* Lauren McKeisen/Lynch - sister
* Andrea McKeisen - niece
* Hunter Albertson - adoptive son
* Alia Crane - wife

### Allies

* Vigilanty Four - Former Teammates and Friend
	+ Lauren McKeisen/Lynch
	+ Hunter Albertson
	+ George Callahan/Vigil - the biggest fan
* Harry Witchsand - Bartender
* Gwendolyn Blame - Friend, Client
* Maxwell Paxton/Detective Singletface - Former Boss, Friend, Teammate
* Mr. Horrorman - Former Enemy, Situational Ally and Client
* Pantheon of Clay - Friends, Teammate
	+ Clayknead
	+ Dumplinger
	+ Tirechanger
	+ Weaver
	+ Literaturer
	+ Leathermaker ✝
* Reese Green/The Rabbit - Friend, Teammate
* Alistair Tempus/Timelock - Temporary Enemy, Savior
* Demetrious Lacheanatra - Former Employer, Former Enemy, Situational Ally
* August Gracehold Jr./Firesword - Friend, Teammate
* Elijah Hipper/Thornhip - Friend, Teammate
* Theodora Tarxx/Dynamite - Friend, Teammate

### Enemies

* Frank O'Hyspe/The Ripper ✝ - Attempted Killer
* Don Samuel Remmy ✝ - Former Employer
* Aleksy Zakrwawionski/Sniper - Attempted Killer, Situational Ally
* Lewis Lightbright/Magmatic Man
* Court of Circle - Attempted Killers
	+ Armand Mansfield
	+ Vlad Hittenberg
	+ Lex Coolting
	+ Hal Corpsmann
	+ Green Man
	+ Virus
	+ Delusion
* Spectrum ✝ - Attempted Killer
* David Pierrejour/Cenzorman
* Victor Scheinlain/Eagle-Eyed
* Dennis Krass/Mezzanine
* Frank O'Hyspe/Elite - Former Ally
* Team Obscurus - mercenaries
	+ Captain Bullshit
	+ Razorhands
	+ Stace DeWitt
	+ Douggie
* En'Erch

## Notes

* Unknown is based on characters such as Red Hood, Vigilante (DC Comics), Punisher, Winter Soldier (Marvel Comics)
* While the identity and some details of Unknown's past eventually come to light, the events that turned him into who he is are never shown, only hinting at what really happened.
* Unknown has a whole bunch of mental illnesses, including: psychogenic amnesia (cured), PTSD, OCD, depression (cured)
* In the original concept from 2013, Unknown, whose real name was **Spencer Marlowe**, had two bionic prosthetics, and lost his arms while serving in the army.

## References

1. ↑ Unknown Vol 1 11
2. ↑ Unknown Vol 1 8
3. ↑ Unknown Vol 1 9
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Unknown Vol 1 4
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Unknown: Fear Itself
6. ↑ Unknown Vol 1 3
7. ↑ Unknown Vol 1 1
8. ↑ Unknown Vol 1 2