Jacob London

Jacob London, AKA Yakub Landani, AKA far too many names to mention, including some that would surprise you... is a Centurion. Almost certainly.

Even his closest allies and his own pupils know next to nothing about him, in fact; doubly so when it comes to his path. Although his most "neutral" identity appears to be Turkish and he does have some connection with the region, it is important to remember that he is a master of disguise and misdirection. Only the approach of his inevitable death has convinced him to share some things with his favoured Centurion apprentice and successor, the sometimes Viktor Vaughn. Like Viktor in some ways though unlike him in others, Jacob was trained from an early age to be the ultimate spy (and Centurion contact) for a cause known as the League of the Hidden Covenant, which aims to guide the world along a predetermined path. (From that we might surmise that a lot of things that happened in 19th century history happened at all and happened in the exact way they did because Jacob had made them so. Or certainly he would want people to believe that.) Unlike Viktor, he did not travel around quite so much nor did he acquire quite so many skillsets so early; instead, he appears to have accumulated prodigious skills over time but wanted to get the same result much quicker with his replacement. He has also hinted that he was put through some torments wholly and thankfully unfamiliar to Viktor. At least his implication that he has no life and no identity outside of the eternal game of shadowy conspiracies seems to ring true enough.

Whatever the defects of his training, he appears to have more than made up for them over time. Not only is he capable of flawlessly and effortlessly assuming different identities, but he also possesses some significant magical power, not to mention the ability to read people's thoughts. His experience and vast network of contacts makes it easy to stay several moves ahead of... most opponents, and even apparent failures or mistakes may well be part of a deeper scheme.

As he is known (by those who know him) to be an incorrigible manipulator and deceiver, Jacob does not seek to be trusted (not, at any rate, as Jacob). His default personality is rather cynical, contemptuous and... carefree, filled with amused disregard for the world and the interests and plans of others. It is also snide, cheerful and effeminate. However, it is likely to be yet another act; in times of greater urgency, Jacob has been able to speak in a much more serious and grave fashion, for the most part. His world-weary cynicism and ruthlessness seem real enough, however.

Jacob has too many agents, associates and allies to mention; especially as most of them are not known to the protagonists, and many do not know this about themselves. One thing that is worth mentiong nevertheless is that some of his most important game pieces have double initials: Viktor Vaughn, his other Centurion pupil Zack Zimmerman, Juan Juarez, George George, Domenico di Diomedio... This seems to be as much a joke as a hint to those in the know that they are treading in an area of interest to him.

Predictably, Jacob has remained mostly aloof from the Century Club during his decades. Although he was of course more than happy to cooperate with both the organisation and, more often, individual Centurions when it suited his own purposes, this never turned into a long-term arrangement and he always kept his distance. Perhaps his closest friend among the Centurions was John Spencer, due to some similarities in their thinking and a history of cooperation. People like Spencer saw that, despite Jacob's fondness for keeping secrets, manipulating people and betraying the Centurions to their worst enemies, things always seemed to work out for the best in the end in ways that could only be explained by a skillful manipulator choreographing the events from start to finish. Of course, many more Centurions, such as Manfred von Richthofen, did not find this reassuring or endearing in the slightest.

It was Jacob who planned out the events that culminated in the Battle of Saint Haven. Although he won over Manfred, Kim Kwon-sung, Armando Estebán Corroto and Herschel Babbage for his scheme by pitching it as a way of denying immortality to their enemies in the Shadow Federation and ending the careers and lives of some of the last century's greatest monsters, in truth this was secondary to what he would later say was his main objective: discouraging the pursuit of immortality for the next few decades by resoundingly demonstrating its negative consequences. Although Masque had begun to seek a way to become immortal and formed an alliance with Dr. Mostro, James Burke and Madam Czarna to achieve it on his own initiative and had began to delve into the recently unearthed secrets of Ancient Aran without any prompting, once Jacob had learned of it he did his best to encourage both the Shadow Centurions and the Centurions in their studies before making them aware of each others' progress. Masque was convinced to see a way to expedite his search, already in risk of either running out of time; Manfred and the others, meanwhile, were appalled at the idea of the Shadow Centurions' reign of terror continuing into the 20th century. The rest was easy enough; Jacob offered his services to both sides, coordinated the adult Centurions' semi-voluntary capture, helped the young Centurions escape and meet up, threw Viktor Vaughn into the mix to help them, later also reacquired his old asset Juan Juarez's leash for one last mission in Saint Haven, and finally paid the young Centurions a personal visit at John Spencer's estate in Alderley Edge and prepared them for an assault on Alderley Edge. There were many other lesser things he did as well, some of which the protagonists are likely to remain ignorant of forever. Not everything went as planned along the way; but enough things did. None of the Shadow Centurions became hideously malformed and dangerous immortals to be prominently put down, but Oromassi was still there as a warning, if a less effective one, and the world's fate was this much safer for the Shadow Federation's demise.

Shortly after that things started to go wrong. News of an abrupt, yet oddly-coordinated Europe-wide plague of cults, monsters and black magic forced Jacob to almost immediately abort his plans for a more up close apprenticeship of Viktor Vaughn, by then renamed into Gregor Kovacs. Instead, Jacob fled, and left Gregor to cope for himself, guided only by the occasional letter like in the old days. Later he would reveal that the newly-emerged threat, Schwarzmeer, had almost immediately struck at the very heart of the League of the Hidden Convenant, leaving the great organisation blind and disorganised, unable to coordinate an efficient response to the activities of Schwarzmeer cultists all over the continent. For every plot they stopped, ten more had advanced. At a great price, Jacob was able to learn more about the opposition, though even then too many things remained a mystery for an effective counter-attack. In the meantime, all he could do was try to salvage assets, rebuild networks and thwart some particularly concerning individual schemes, personally or through agents like Zack or Gregor. For once he was so clearly challenged he did not even see fit to downplay it.

It was at around this time (or more specifically during the Dardanelles operation of 1915) that Jacob attempted to interfere with Lin Tsao's assassination of Kemal Mustafa, an up and coming Turkish officer who, according to at least one occult authority, was destined for very great things. Despite running Lin through a magical gauntlet and attacking him physically several times, Jacob had failed to stop him, with some uncharacteristic incompetence at the most critical moment possibly sealing Mustafa's fate. Possibly Jacob was just tired and desperate, like he had made Masque be, or affected by the same magical event that almost killed Simon Laffey at roughly the same time and place. Or perhaps even now he was playing some deeper game. In any case, he insisted that Lin leave after the assassination, refraining from any further attacks and warning him of dire events that were soon to follow as Schwarzmeer's monsters and cultists began to show up all over the field. Lin and his team-mates barely managed to escape the chaotic, confused fighting that followed.

Finally, in 1917, he lured Gregor - by then done with his mission in Paris and hiding out in the Balkans, seeking to learn more about both Schwarzmeer and Jacob's plans - out towards Rzymsky Dwor, the abandoned (and now somehow relocated) mansion of the Twardowski noble family near Krakow. Once there and no longer pretending to be a shifty one-eyed German guide, Jacob had a talk with his pupil, finally giving him a halfway satisfactory briefing on both his own loyalties and the nature of the opposition. After that, Jacob pointed Gregor in the direction of Stockholm, where a number of pivotal events required his attention. As for his own plans, the spymaster did not see fit to disclose them...