Baron Samedi

## Appearances

**Baron Samedi, the Zombie** is a character in the *Atmosfear* series. Usually a playable character, he has also hosted *Nightmare II*.

## Background

### *The Harbingers*

He's taking last requests and 'Stayin' Alive' ain't one of his favorites. He's Baron Samedi - Voodoo's ad-Minister of the living dead - the last 'VJ' on The Other Side who holds court every Saturday in his Cathedral of Jive

Leading his choir of lost souls dancing the 'banda', the chain-smoking Samedi calls up the dead toll free.

With a sense of fun as bent as a rib, the chief pranktitioner of black magic and comedy just loves to throw a funeral "...cause I always miss my own."

### *The Gatekeeper*

Meet Baron Samedi, the Voodoo VJ who could dance up a storm with his entourage of lost souls. With a dark sense of humour and a darker sense of fun, The Baron always encouraged fresh blood into his frightclub "The Cathedral of Jive".

"Everybody's welcome! It doesn't matter if you are a somebody or a nobody. Just as long as you're a body!" was the slogan for his relentless membership drive.

So it was wise to beware of invitations to join in the hokey-pokey, because when the Baron called for you to "put you're right foot in" - he meant it literally!

Then one night, while out soul searching, the Baron had his own membership abruptly cancelled. Imprisoned now in the rancid **green** glow of The Other Side, all he can do is dance to the music inside his head under the ever watchful eye of the Gatekeeper.

Any last requests?

### *Khufu the Mummy*

Not all zombies are lifeless. Baron Samedi, the voodoo god of everything outrageous, just loved to dance. So he opened an uber-hip frightclub called The Cathedral of Jive, where if he chose you as his dance partner he'd really take your breath away.

'It doesn't matter if you're a somebody, just as long as you're a body!' was his club's slogan and new members, he claimed, were literally dying to get in.

Then one night the Baron had his own membership abruptly cancelled. Imprisoned on The Other Side by The Gatekeeper, the baron figured his dancing days were over. But an invitation to visit Khufu's Club of Cash now has his feet working again.... overtime.

The Baron feels right at home in Khufu's casino where the customers all look like zombies and his disco dream lives on!

Among the living dead that is.

## Origin

Baron Samedi is loosely based on the Haitian Vodou loa of the dead, although he was originally misattributed by the game's creators as the Arawak Indian god of the dead.

## Appearance

### *Nightmare II*

Baron Samedi, unlike the Gatekeeper, already appears to be somewhat undead from the very beginning. His most notable features are his wild grey hair and top hat, under which he hides an exposed brain. As the tape progresses, Samedi’s skin dries out and rots more, becoming tighter around his skull. His game piece is represented by the white headstone.

### *The Harbingers*

In *The Harbingers*, his piece is represented by his top hat. His character card shows him in his final form as seen in the Western versions of *Nightmare II*, as does his appearance in the Rules Presentation.

### *The Gatekeeper*

In The DVD reboot, his piece is represented by his green top hat. His character card shows him in a stylised, more cartoony version of his final form from *Nightmare II*.

### *30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition*

The visual design of Baron Samedi's playing piece as seen in the Deluxe edition of the anniversary rerelease is much closer to his depiction in traditional Haitian Vodou myth: a fully skeletal form with thick brown dreadlocks, a large serpent slinking in front of the headstone along towards his suit and a slicker-looking top hat with purple and green feathers wrapped inside a ribbon adorned with a skull.

## Personality

Unlike the Gatekeeper, Baron Samedi will, at least for a while, present with a more positive "party animal" personality, referring to the players as “babe” or "kid" rather than “maggot”. Despite this, he holds no reservations about banishing players to the Black Hole, or making the game any easier for them. He has a slight favourable bias to the player who pulls his own tombstone from the bag and a propensity for fooling around with players by faking them out during games of chance or outright disabling the effects of certain cards in their possession. His wild attitude also leaves him prone to mood swings even more severe than the Gatekeeper at times; if he is not pleased with a player's attitude or their bad manners, his emotion will shift on a dime and at worst, he may call them "dirtbag", a nickname reserved only those he loathes the most.

## Key/Keystone Powers

### *The Harbingers*

 Purple
 Yellow
 Orange
 Blue
 Red

#### *The Third Dimension*

 Purple
 Yellow
 Orange
 Blue
 Red