Kim Kwon-sung

Kim Kwon-sung is a Korean 19th century Centurion, though one with only the loosest affiliation with the Century Club and possessed by an attitude that really stretches the usual perception of Centurions as altruistic heroes. He began his life as a street scum in northern Korea, obtaining his impressive if rather low fighting skills through hard, persistent training in the School of Hard Knocks (his eventual Centurion pupil probably thinks to this day that this is the name of a dojo). At one point he mugged a famous swordmaster and stole his swords, pawning one of them (which happened to be magical) and keeping the less valuable-looking one as his Special Sword, gradually incorporating it into his fighting style. Afterwards, having grown bored with being an outlaw, he made his way to China, only to stir up trouble again - and then by sheer coincidence get shanghaied by the captain of a visiting British ship.

After he sobered up and realised he was surrounded by water, making fighting his way out a futile approach, Kim travelled all over the Southern Seas with the ship, soon terrifying the crew into making him their chief fighter and relieving him of most other duties. He fought sea monsters, eldritch gods, Dr. Methuselah and anyone else unfortunate enough to get in his way, and acquired a broad and cosmopolitan hatred for all types of people he encountered. By the time he left the ship, he had seen the world and learned that he hated all of it. Grumbling, he soon resumed travelling, this time overland, drinking heavily and picking fights wherever he went.

By sheer coincidence (or, perhaps, the ineffable workings of fate) some of the fights he picked happened to be against dangerous enemies of the Century Club and modern civilisation, and on enough occassions he managed to save the day - and some Centurions - without ever meaning to, and with disturbing brutality. Nevertheless, he was approached by the Century Club's agents and offered their full support. He threw them out of the tavern's window. Later, he stumbled yet again into one of the fights between a team of Centurions and one of their adversaries. No one involved would speak about precisely what happened on that day, but in the end, the Centurions managed to walk away badly battered yet alive... and Kim was persuaded by their leader, Manfred von Richthofen, to join them. While the Korean hardly ever bothered to interact with the Century Club staff on its own and in no way altered his overall attitude, he seemed to gain some small modicum of respect for Manfred (or maybe just an appreciation of his ability to find good fights), as he became a semi-permanent member of his team until it disbanded in 1901.

Having resumed his wandering after that, Kim came back to China, where he was hired by the Mandarin Tsao family to train and protect their son and heir, Lin. Again, it is not clear why he had accepted this offer, but the fact that the boy turned out to be a Centurion of the 20th century may have had something to do with it. He took to the job of doling out physical abuse to a stuck up nancy boy with glee. Nonetheless, when things suddenly went south for the Tsao family due to some obscure political affair, Kim kept his promise, striking the protesting boy unconscious and putting him in a boat before the Qing reprisal squad could find him. Initially he took him to Singapore, where he was offered a chance to sell the boy to his parents' enemy, the man who would later be known as Fu Manchu; despite giving the offer some serious thought, Kim decided he didn't like the look of Fu Manchu's whiskers and ended up taking Lin to one of his old haunts in London. There Kim continued to train Lin by beating him senseless on a daily basis, a regimen that, if nothing else, made most other dangers in the world seem rather tame and was just on this side of survivable for a Centurion.

He was distracted from this engaging work by Manfred, who tracked him down and offered him a chance to make sure some old enemies were left in the ground after he died. Despite hating the plan that required him to sit still in a cell for a few days before starting to kill, Kim agreed to go along. On April 1st 1914 his apartment came under attack from Masque's anarchists; while Lin escaped by being thrown out of the window, Kim let himself be captured, but not before the attackers were forced to resort to explosives. Taken to the Saint Haven Citadel, Kim bided his time... only to be enraged when the Centurions finally arrived and Viktor Vaughn informed him that Lin lost the jian he gave him to Dr. Methuselah. He was also disappointed by the fact that the Shadow Centurions were all killed by someone else, but did slake his bloodthirst somewhat on Mostro's creatures and some stray anarchists.

After the Battle of Saint Haven, Kim disowned Lin, only to be persuaded, very grudgingly, to take him back after a prolonged sword-fight. Conscious of his own mortality, Kim demanded that Lin swear to kill Dr. Methuselah and Fu Manchu, as he hated the idea of being outlived by his enemies for long. If Lin died trying that would be something of a consolation as well. They went back to London to track down Fu Manchu (and acquire boxes to live in, their apartment having been destroyed), but did not count on the magic used by some in his employ, which ultimately trapped Kim in Hell. Kim was last seen (or, well, heard) in Hell, slaughtering demons to make a staircase.

Kim is not known to be an honourable man, although he is also said to keep his word. He is ruthless and bloodthirsty, hateful and bitter, perfectly selfish, wrathful to the point of being self-defeating, and fond of low tricks and verbal and physical abuse. One might say his heroic spirit manifests in his complete lack of fear, and fair-minded contempt for weakness. Most people in the Century Club prefer to give him a wide berth and keep him looking in the direction of their enemies.