John Keel

Background: John Keel (nicknamed “Even” in some circles) was a writer and journalist in the 20th Century. He specialized in cryptozoology, legends of mysticism and the macabre, ufology, and magic, achieving a degree of notoriety among aficionados of the lore. His career in decline, he went missing at about the turn of the century. The official story is that he passed away quietly of natural causes. A few who knew him give a different account: that one day he simply went missing and was not heard from again — until he showed up one day outside the gates of NewHome, looking decades younger than when he had been last seen on the mainland, and memories of his experiences in the intervening decades a hopeless jumble.

Significant plot summary: Like any rookie to the Island, he drifted for a while, in equal parts dumbfounded and strangely at home in this outlandish new environment. It slowly began to dawn on him that he had been tossed into a place teeming with strange adventures, and even stranger creatures — in short the perfect place for him to write about. It was about this time that he met a young woman named Gamina Wulfsdottir. While attempting to interview her for the book he was slowly compiling, she offered him residence in an abandoned houseboat that she had discovered and appropriated. He now refers to her as his “landlady”. He now has a quiet retreat to do his writing, and divides his time between traveling around the Island poking his nose into other people's business, and sitting at his typewriter at the houseboat.

Personality: His willingness to believe is tempered by a journalistic rigor that has only grown sharper over the years. He has grown more focused on writing things down than in actually publishing them. Though open-minded to a fault, he is prone to modes of thought and speech that harken back to the mid-20th Century.

Apparent characteristics: A human male of late middle age; salt-and-pepper hair and beard; most often wears gabardine trousers, a faded Hawaiian shirt, hiking boots, and a slouch fedora. He's older than he appears.

Skills: Having spent much time traveling around the world, much of it on foot, he is no stranger to hiking and rugged living. His professional skills revolve around being able to observe minutiae and describe them in text. His favorite tools are a machete and a typewriter, though not in that order.

For his full story, see his Island Bio.

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