Armando Estebán Corroto

**Armando Estebán Corroto** is a perfect gentleman.

Less importantly, he is also a Centurion, close friend of Herschel Babbage and mentor of Fernando José Salas del Monte.

However, it is his gentleman nature that defines him. He is a master of etiquette, punctuality and fashion. He is a master dancer and also a master pugilist, exhibiting the same preternatural grace in both cases. He is highly erudite and well-connected, on good terms with people like Winston Churchill, whom he met in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Conversely, and predictably, he is on rather poorer terms with uncouth characters such as Kim Kwon-sung. Armando has countless other small talents, such as a perfect memory and incredible counting skills.

It was his organisation skills more than anything that convinced Jacob London more than anything else that he would be a valuable piece in his plan to bring down the Shadow Federation. Accordingly, Jacob encouraged and assisted his and Herschel's independent research into the life and death secrets of Ancient Aran, prior to formally recruiting them and Manfred von Richthofen into a devious plan to deny immortality to their shadowy opposite numbers. Armando let himself be captured by the Shadow Federation's goons on April 1st 1914, but not before sending off his pupil, whom he had in vain been trying to transform into a gentleman after his own example, with some very detailed instructions and a second, sealed letter to the Wapping safehouse. The latter letter was of particular importance, though one that was not understood by most of the people involved in those events; it contained the Perfect Dose, an encrypted recipe for the immortality-granting substance desired by all those involved. Subsequently this letter, and a fake, slightly changed version of it, played a key part in Jacob's plan against Masque.

In captivity at the Saint Haven Citadel, Armando seemed to enjoy greater freedom of movement than the other Centurions (perhaps because, out of all of them, he was the most sympathetic to the pursuit of immortality - though not enough to actually join his enemies), making good use of it to scout out the place and count the forces at the enemies' disposal. After the young Centurions arrived and broke out their mentors, Armando took part in the battle against Dr. Mostro's rampaging zombies, though was too late to help with the main confrontation in Masque's inner sanctum. Afterwards he let Fer leave for Italy on his own (travelling alone on the Continent being seen as a better test of what he learned than some silly, bloody adventure), instructing him to open a certain letter once he had accomplished what he set out to do there.

As he revealed in the letter, the sabotage of his own pursuit of immortality by Jacob and Masque has left him convinced that it is time for him to repay one last debt. While he valued Europe more than anything, he felt confident enough to leave it in Fer's charge while he headed to America, to put an end to an old nemesis whose name he refused to disclose, lest Fer try to seek revenge for him if he should fail. Lastly, Armando provided his pupil with a list of tailor shops throughout Europe. He has never been heard from since.

Owns an estate somewhere, and is connected in some way to someone named Isabella.