In the 6th century AD, the mortal man Sir Percy of Scandia becomes the mystically empowered Black Knight to defend King Arthur and Camelot thanks to the sorcerer Merlin’s influence and his parentage. Sir Percy wears enchanted armor, rides the powerful steed Thunder, and wields the Ebony Blade boasting the strength of will to resist its mystical blood curse.
Becoming the Black Knight
Born at King Arthur’s Camelot Castle during the first years of Arthur’s reign in the 6th century AD, Percy learns magic and swordplay from his parents first. Percy’s father, Sir Dandel, is a distant cousin of Arthur’s and had been his ally in battle during the King’s youth, as well as a friend to Arthur’s advisor, Merlin (also Merlyn). When Arthur secures power, the young Percy and his parents move to their estate in Scandia, the area now known as Scandinavia. Seeking to protect Camelot from the evil Mordred (Arthur’s illegitimate son) and knowing Arthur would never believe evil of any of his knights, Merlin secretly urges Percy’s parents to train him in all known forms of combat, which Percy masters over time.
Though Dandel persecutes the Druids, seemingly driving them out of Scandia, Percy’s mother, Lady Evaine, is secretly a Druidic priestess and continues to lead Druid ceremonies. When Evaine brings young Percy to one such ritual, the springtime-embodying hunter spirit Gwynn manifests, saying Percy was destined to become “the hand of fate” and requires a warrior’s training. Despite her pacifist beliefs, Evaine stops resisting Dandel’s efforts to train the boy in the arts of battle. Meanwhile, with Percy not yet ready, Merlin animates a suit of armor as his Black Knight, AKA Hollow Knight, to oppose a corrupt Sir Mogard. Winning knighthood in early adolescence, Percy eventually becomes lord of his parents’ estate after their deaths.
Percy plans to offer assistance to his distant kinsman King Arthur when Merlin approaches Percy privately with a strange request. Warning that Camelot faced many threats, including Percy’s own corrupt cousin Sir Mordred and his sorceress ally Morgan le Fay, Merlin asks Percy to become Arthur’s secret weapon: Sir Percy would pose as a cowardly fop within Arthur’s court, concealing his fighting prowess. Realizing Merlin’s offer was part of the destiny Gwynn foretold, Percy follows Merlin’s instructions, receiving sanctuary after telling Arthur his lands in Scandia had been seized by the Baron of Emscore. Merlin gives Percy the Black Knight armor and masked secret identity so Mordred cannot have him ambushed and killed. Astride the mighty stallion Thunder, the Black Knight’s valor and skill swiftly impresses the likes of Sir Lancelot and Lady Rosamund while frustrating Mordred’s forces, though all uniformly dismiss Sir Percy. After the Knight saves Arthur from an ambush, Arthur welcomes him into the legendary Knights of the Round Table, honoring his oath of secrecy; when Mordred protests, the Black Knight informs Mordred he would see his face the day he died.
Deciding his champion needs a mightier weapon and informing Percy of Camelot’s foredoomed future, Merlin leads Percy to the mystical subterranean Pool of Blood (allegedly filled with blood of all who every died on Earth), and has him forge weapons from the Starstone, a glowing ebony meteorite, which had fallen to Earth years earlier. Explaining that the Starstone’s radiance would make any weapon fashioned from it invincible, Merlin directs Percy in carving several fragments off the Starstone and crafting them into four night-dark objects: a sword, a staff, a shield, and a chalice. Cooling the newly forged items with sacred blood magically drawn from the Pool, Merlin tells Percy he can select only one of the four objects, and that choosing the correct one might prevent the fall of Camelot. Favoring the object most suited to a knight, Percy chooses the Ebony Blade. Merlin then casts a spell to destroy the other three items lest they fall into the wrong hands, but Morgan le Fay secretly helps Mordred interrupt the spell long enough to seize the Ebony Staff.
The virtually indestructible Ebony Blade can slice through anything, and protects its wearer from harm, but it also carries a curse: forged in blood, it compels its wielder to seek bloodshed. Perhaps wary of corrupting his champion, Merlin instead gives the sword to one of Arthur’s other heroic knights, but the blade quickly corrupts its new owner, who then had to be killed by Camelot’s other defenders. The same fate rapidly befalls the blade’s next six equally noble wielders. When an eighth wielder of the blade, Arthur’s own cousin Sir Reginald, was similarly corrupted and killed, Arthur’s court came to believe that only three of their number might be strong or virtuous enough to resist the blade’s influence: Arthur, Percy, and Merlin himself. Unwilling to risk Arthur or Merlin and afraid of what Merlin might become under the blade’s influence, Percy chooses to wield the Ebony Blade as the Black Knight, largely resisting its corrupting influence through strength of will. Percy employs bloodletting, however justified, which augments the Blade’s thirst.
Enchanted Ebony Blade
Percy is a highly trained athlete, with well-developed strength, speed, stamina, agility and reflexes. He is a master of swordsmanship, equestrianism, and all forms of combat known in Camelot. He is also a talented poet, singer and musician (specifically playing the lute). As the Black Knight, he wears chainmail armor and a metal helmet, which may or may not have magical properties. He also sometimes uses a conventional lance.
To prevent suspicion of his dual identity or secret purpose, Percy poses as a fop, abhorring violence of any kind. His powerful and swift black stallion, Thunder, also referred to as his black charger, also adjusts its carriage so that it appears to be a broken-down nag when ridden by Percy, but rapidly assumes its true strength and posture when Percy becomes the Black Knight. This ruse, perhaps supplemented by Merlin’s enchantment, keeps Percy’s steed secret as the Black Knight’s Thunder. Percy uses tunnels from his room, the entrance hidden below a table and exiting outside the castle and even outside the entire courtyard, to swiftly appear following the Black Knight’s departure, further helping prevent suspicion of the Knight’s true identity.
The Black Knight wields the Ebony Blade, which is composed of an unidentified, apparently extraterrestrial metal further enhanced by Merlin’s spells, the combination of which renders it indestructible and able to cut through any substance up to foot-thick steel; to disrupt, deflect, and/or neutralize most forms of energy, including magical; and to form a mystical bond with its wielder, which allows him to transport himself through arcane ritual across space and time if separated from the Blade.
Merlin’s spells render the Black Knight immune to death as long as he holds the Blade; however, the spells were ineffective against a weapon carved from the same metal as the Ebony Blade. The spirits of people slain by the Blade are sometimes trapped within an astral realm linked to the sword. The Blade, which tends to influence its wielder toward bloodshed, can have negative mental or physical effects on its wielders. When used to shed blood or kill, the Blade’s influence increases, leading to further bloodshed that often culminates in madness. Blood-shedding can transform a wielder into an immobile Starstone form, and has also transformed lesser-willed holders into demonic bloodthirsty creatures, such as Sean Dolan, AKA Bloodwraith. Though influenced by the Blade’s bloodlust, Percy resists this through strength of will (though by Percy’s account the Blade’s hunger was greatest at the time of its creation and has lessened over time), and he is largely resistant to its other curses, presumably via Merlin’s magic.
Following his physical death, Percy’s spirit resides in the Brazier of Truth within Garrett Castle. His spirit can be summoned as needed and can purge the Ebony Blade of some forms of its blood curse. In spirit form, Percy can possess his descendant Dane Whitman, AKA Black Knight, upon occasion.
Currently residing within the astral realm associated with the Ebony Blade, to which are banished the souls of those slain by the Blade, Percy’s spirit struggles against the evil spirits within that realm, hoping to conquer the evil influence that affects those who hold the Blade.
Mystical Menaces
As the Black Knight, Percy defended Camelot against many foes, notably the immortal conqueror Tyrannus and the Olympian god Hades, AKA Pluto.
Percy’s cousin Mordred and his sorceress ally Morgan le Fay are not only constant threats Camelot, but also Percy. At the ready to slay Mordred during a civil war battle, Percy instead allows Mordred to stab him with an Ebony Blade to prevent a dark future prophesized by Merlin.
Knights of the Round Table
The hunter spirit Gwynn foretells that Percy would one day become the hand of fate. Gwynn sometimes aides Percy so that he can fulfill his destiny.
Percy is son to Sir Dandel and the secret Druidic priestess, Evaine. His distant cousins include King Arthur Pendragon, AKA King Arthur, Mordred, and Morgan le Fay. While allies with Arthur, he often goes up against Mordred and Morgan’s schemes in defense of his King and Camelot. He later marries Lady Rosamund and he helps raise their first son Geoffrey, but dies while Rosamund is pregnant with their second son, Edward.
The sorcerer Merlin empowers Sir Percy as a champion of Camelot. He gifts Percy an enchanted suit of armor and later guides him on a quest to choose the magical weapon that could save Camelot. Merlin also comforts Percy during his death and casts a spell that allows his spirit to return should Mordred also return. Sir Percy’s ghost appears in the Black Knight’s garb on occasion, usually offering guidance to his descendants.
Descendants of Sir Percy and those who would take up the Black Knight guise include Sir Raston, Eobar Garrington, Sir William, Sir Henry, Nathan Garrett, and Dane Whitman. Sir Percy often visited his descendants in his spirt form to offer guidance.
A Fated Knight’s Tale
As the Black Knight, Percy continued defending Camelot against Morgan, Mordred and other threats. Foiling Arthur’s kidnapping by Mordred’s agents but unable to accuse Mordred without proof, Percy endured Mordred’s taunts and Arthur’s considering him helpless. Accompanying Lady Rosamund when she left Camelot to learn falconry, Percy fled when invading Vikings ambushed them; returning as the Knight to save her and drive off the Vikings, Percy later suffered her accusations of cowardice. When Mordred plotted Arthur’s death in a “friendly” jousting tournament, the Black Knight convinced Mordred to face him first, then defeated Mordred, while Merlin afterward prevented Mordred from discovering Percy’s absence from his room. The Knight later foiled a plot by Mordred employing Sir Robert de Quincy and the Normans to conquer Camelot, but remained unable to prove Mordred’s treachery. During a subsequent battle tournament, Mordred informed the giant Sir Guy of Gascombe to tell his men to concentrate on the Black Knight; with him downed, Guy’s side would easily win the rewards. Suffering a shoulder wound, the Black Knight escaped with Merlin’s aid, and Merlin impersonated the Black Knight to throw off suspicion of the Knight’s true identity due to Percy’s injury. The Knight subsequently prevented Mordred’s Roma (Gypsy) allies from trapping Arthur during a lion hunt. When Sir D’arcy captured the traveling Rosamund and others, seeking Rosamund as his bride, the Knight allied with quarterstaff master Simon the Strong and other villagers to defeat D’arcy and free Rosamund. After the Black Knight helped defeat the robber baron Sir Guy Wandrell, Guy impersonated the Knight and framed him as a criminal, but the Knight eventually defeated and exposed Guy.
After the Black Knight defended the beggar Tibbet from an abusive knight, Tibbet supplied information that enabled him to defeat the giant warrior Kevin MacCaul and his internationally gathered menagerie. Mordred soon allied with pirate chief le Ponneau, guiding his men to ambush and capture Arthur and his unarmed knights as they distributed a harvest to his people. With Arthur captured, Mordred sat the throne, but Percy escaped the pirates, and Merlin led him to seamen who aided the Black Knight in finding the pirates’ island and freeing Arthur and his men. When Sir Gilles tried to use the Dragon of Kentswood Swamp legend to conquer Camelot via a Trojan Horse-like plot, the Black Knight exposed Gilles’ forces within the fake dragon and led their defeat. After Nottingham’s sheriff Sir Joshua Costain’s crushing taxes left many penniless and drove them to become bandits, the Black Knight allied with Big Tim’s group of thieves to defeat Costain’s forces, expose his duplicity and return his ill-gotten wealth to its rightful owners. Arthur and his men were later captured by Tartars under Timultor and Mohar Jinn. Jinn’s allies imprisoned Camelot’s warriors, and Arthur’s group (including Percy) were enslaved while Arthur was starved to force his surrender. Percy ultimately led the enslaved knights to break free, defeat their captors and free Arthur.
Allied with the Olympian death god Pluto, deposed Roman Emperor Tyrannus led an army to conquer England. After the Black Knight defeated Tyrannus, Pluto attacked the Knight. Mortally wounded, Percy nonetheless injured Pluto and drove him off, after which Gwynn healed Percy’s wounds and reminded him of Camelot’s fate. When Percy left with Merlin to oppose Morgan Le Fay’s distant schemes, an imposter later known as the Maha Yogi and Merlin Demonspawn impersonated Merlin, but the real Merlin deposed the imposter upon returning. Percy was among several beings summoned from across time by Zarrko the Tomorrow Man to battle the modern era’s Fantastic Four; the disoriented Knight assaulted Kristoff Vernard, AKA Doctor Doom, before returning to his own time when Scott Lang, AKA Ant-Man, neutralized Zarrko’s Time-Displacement Dial. After dragons (actually alien Kakaranatharans) slew Arthur and his other knights, the Black Knight was nearly overcome by warrior madness, but the Lady of the Lake sent him forward in time. Possessing the body of his modern-day descendent Dane Whitman, Percy led the Super Hero team Excalibur back in time to Camelot, prior to the dragons’ assault. Though the “dragons” threatened to overpower even these defenders, Excalibur member Sage identified the aliens’ true nature and directed Merlin to conjure a Formosian herb, which rendered the aliens unconscious. This fall of Camelot diverged into Reality-6120 and the Excalibur team returned to their future.
The Lady Rosamund fancied the Black Knight and scorned Sir Percy for years, but eventually married Percy after he revealed his dual identity to her. Using his Scandian estate’s wealth and Lady Rosamund’s considerable holdings, Percy built Castle Scandia in England and the couple relocated there, living blissfully for a year and having a son, Geoffrey.
Eventually, however, revelation of the Round Table knight Sir Lancelot and Arthur’s wife Guinevere’s affair threw Camelot into a civil war and shattered the Round Table, and Mordred openly gathered armies against Arthur. In the final months of Arthur’s reign, Percy learned of one of Mordred and Morgan’s plots, and the Black Knight and Merlin led forces to defeat Mordred’s warriors long before they could reach Camelot. Merlin then trapped Morgan with a spell that would kill her if she left her castle; additionally, she was encased in a block of ethereal force, preventing her from using her magic outside her castle. Sometime later, a group of android knights sent by a divergent counterpart of Kang the Conqueror assaulted the Black Knight. Percy was soon joined by the modern era’s Ororo Munroe, AKA Storm, Nathan Summers, AKA Cable, and Earth-9870’s 39th century’s Aliya Jenskot, sent to destroy one of Kang’s Time’s Arrows, part of his plot to eradicate numerous realities. The time-travelers helped defeat the android knights, who fled back to Castle Le Fay. Learning the Time’s Arrow was contained within the ethereal block binding Morgan, the time-travelers convinced Percy to release Morgan. As the travelers returned to their own time, Percy left Morgan still trapped within her castle, but now mobile and able to send her spirit and magic beyond the castle’s walls. When Mordred sought a new magical ally in the Dragon of the Moon, Arthur’s forces (presumably including both Merlin and Percy) joined the Eternal known as the Interloper in banishing the Dragon back into space. Merlin was eventually imprisoned in an enchanted cave by his lover, the faerie sorceress Nimue, AKA Vivienne (not to be confused with Niamh/Nimue, the Lady of the Lake), Morgan’s former pupil. Morgan later perished battling a time-traveling Jessica Drew, AKA Spider-Woman, though her spirit survived in an astral netherworld.
As the final battle between Arthur and Mordred’s forces arrived, Percy unmasked and revealed himself as the Black Knight, joining Arthur’s warriors. When Arthur repaired to Castle Scandia to plan strategy, Mordred’s forces, backed by Saxon armies, ambushed him en route. Merlin’s astral self warned Percy of this threat to Arthur, but Percy was delayed by sorcerous menaces along the way; Mordred slew Arthur but was mortally wounded by him as well. The dying Mordred ordered his men to bring him to Castle Scandia where they could ambush his other great foe with the Ebony Dagger, carved from the Ebony Staff and able to slay the Ebony Blade’s wielder.
After the Black Knight arrived and defeated Mordred’s remaining warriors, Percy sensed Mordred approaching from the shadows and prepared to turn and slay him, but Merlin’s astral self showed Percy a vision of two futures: one in which Camelot fell and eventually gave way to a wondrous modern world with its own heroic Black Knight, Dane Whitman, and one in which a Camelot-dominated world gradually spawned an oppressive, backward medieval regime championed by a corrupt Black Knight, Nathan Garrett. Realizing Camelot must fall for the good of humanity, Percy allowed Mordred to stab him, diverging the dark future to Reality-9721; Mordred died soon after, though Morgan pulled his spirit into her netherworld.
As Percy died, Merlin comforted him and cast a spell ensuring that Percy’s spirit would return if Mordred ever rose again. In the meantime, Percy’s spirit was reborn as the new incarnation of Gwynn, a reward for his heroic sacrifice. He would thus remain, immune to time, until his spirit would later be summoned to wear the Black Knight armor again. Rosamund, pregnant at the time of Percy’s death, bore him another son, Edward, who grew to manhood and carried on a proud lineage.
At some point, the Scorpians, an alien race of would-be conquerors, created a robot simulation of Camelot as part of their Tower of Time in a realm accessed via the Bermuda Triangle; this simulation’s rogue Black Knight robot would team with adventurer Skull the Slayer to destroy the Tower and its alien master, Slitherogue.
Toward the end of the 6th century, Percy’s spirit guided his descendent Sir Raston to the Ebony Blade, which Raston claimed, occasionally using the Black Knight title. Ruthless and ambitious, Raston used the Blade in pursuit of personal power, eventually serving the time-travelling Kang as part of Kang’s elite guard, the Anachronauts and apparently perishing defending Kang’s kingdom Chronopolis from Immortus’ forces. Percy’s 12th Century descendant Eobar Garrington subsequently wielded the Blade on behalf of King Richard the Lion-Hearted as the Black Knight of the Crusades. In later centuries, less famous descendants of Percy such as Sir William and Sir Henry also took up the Black Knight guise.
In the modern era, Percy’s descendent Nathan Garrett visited Garrett Castle (formerly Castle Scandia), and Percy’s spirit offered him a chance to assume the Black Knight’s mantle; however, Nathan was proven unworthy when he could not draw the Ebony Blade from its enchanted scabbard, held in a dead man’s hands. In his rage and despair, Garrett became a criminal Black Knight, but took a fatal fall from his flying steed during a battle with Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man. The dying Garrett summoned his nephew Dane Whitman, and the repentant criminal urged Dane to redeem the family legacy by using Black Knight guise in the service of justice. Dane visited Garrett Castle, which he inherited from his uncle, where Sir Percy’s spirit invited Dane to succeed him. Dane drew the sword from its scabbard and bested its mystical Guardian in combat, earning the right to wield the Ebony Blade as Percy’s true successor.
Appearing when summoned by the mystic Brazier of Truth kept in Garrett Castle, Percy subsequently advised Whitman, aiding him in using the Blade’s power to bring it and Whitman together across dimensions to help save the Avengers from Kang. Percy, at first hesitant to reveal the truth claiming it may drive Dane mad, helped Dane discover that the star-spawned Grandmaster created a contest and pitched the Avengers in battle.
Percy is called upon by Dane again who needed wisdom for he felt the evil in the Ebony Blade changing him. Percy arrived knowing the reasons for his summoning and advised Dane to destroy the sword at Stonehenge. Upon his arrival he was met by a hooded figure who sent him across dimensions to the Well at the Center of Time where he tried to throw it in, but the blade did not let him cast it into the cauldron. Eventually, after fending off Arkon and assisting the Avengers, he sent the Ebony Blade into the well.
Summoned again by Dane, Percy recounted to him and the Avengers, who Dane gathered at Garrett Castle, of the Blade’s reappearance in a tree in Olympus where the sword willed itself to be torn from the it by Ares, God of War. Amora, AKA Enchantress, followed the blade and joined Ares. Together they planned to quench the Promethean Flame with the sword so that three worlds, including Enchantress’ home of Asgard, would fall under Ares’ reign. Ares entered the arena of immortals and with the blade he slayed Zeus, snuffed out the Promethean Flame which turned all Olympians, aside from himself and Hercules, into crystal. Percy continued to tell them that Ares gathered an army, expelled Hercules and moved on to other worlds to conquer.
After Whitman’s spirit was sent to the 12th century to inhabit Eobar Garrington’s body, the Ebony Blade vanished, and Percy’s spirit informed Sorcerer Supreme Dr. Stephen Strange, AKA Doctor Strange, that the Blade had rejoined Whitman. Victoria Bentley, an associate of Strange’s possessing innate mystic potential, purchased Garrett Castle soon after.
After Whitman was restored in the modern era, he suffered from warrior madness, and Percy guided Dane, aided by Dr. Strange, to shatter the Brazier with the Blade, causing the evil within the sword to return to Percy, whose spirit seemingly passed on to final judgment after expressing pride in Whitman. Percy’s spirit, or perhaps just a simulation, was later part of the Legion of Unliving created by the Grandmaster within the realm of Death. This Percy battled Dane Whitman to a stalemate before returning to Death’s realm.
After Namor McKenzie, AKA Namor the Sub-Mariner, used the Ebony Blade to stab the Leviathan (actually his own transformed wife Marrina), the Blade’s altered blood curse gradually transformed Dane Whitman into immobile Starstone. Whitman was brought to Garrett Castle, where Victoria Bentley gathered the Brazier of Truth’s fragments. Combining the Crystal of Bas-Lyoness’ magic with the fragments, Victoria summoned Percy’s spirit, who directed them to a secret chamber containing Percy’s armor. Victoria placed the helmet over Whitman’s head (magically fitting over Whitman’s own helmet), which transferred Percy’s spirit into Whitman’s body, and Percy’s spirit neutralized the curse, restoring Whitman’s body to full mobility; the process also restored the magical wings of Dane’s 12th century steed, Valinor.
Soon after, however, Mordred and Morgan attacked anew, and Victoria led the Percy-possessed Black Knight to join with Brian Braddock, AKA Captain Britain, Dr. Strange, Irish youth Sean Dolan and Brunnhilde, AKA Valkyrie (who used Victoria as her host) to oppose them.
Percy occasionally became overwhelmed with desire for vengeance on his ancient enemies and Victoria or others removed his helmet as needed, restoring Whitman’s control; however, the curse soon immobilized Whitman each time, necessitating the helmet’s replacement and restoring Percy’s control. After defeating Morgan and Mordred’s agents Dreadknight and the Fomor’s Balor, Percy was forced to swear not to stand against Morgan when she threatened to destroy an entire village’s souls via her magical Wicker Man. Whitman, not bound by this pledge, convinced Percy to relinquish control to him, after which Percy’s spirit merged with Ebony Blade, enabling Whitman to use it to dissipate the Wicker Man and restore its energies to its former victims. Whitman then banished Morgan and Mordred back to the Netherworld, while Percy’s spirit neutralized the former curse’s effects.
Fearing the Ebony Blade’s bloodlust or other curses would eventually overwhelm him, Whitman plunged the Blade into Starstone remnants to neutralize its evil. When killers sought the Ebony Blade, Sean Dolan, who had become Whitman’s squire, drew the Blade to fight them off and was transformed into the demonic Bloodwraith. Percy was helpless to stop Bloodwraith from slaying numerous victims and feeding their souls to the hungry blade; these souls joined those of Percy and apparently all of the Blade’s victims over the centuries within an astral realm accessed via the Blade. Bloodwraith subsequently slew, among others, Victoria Bentley, Namor and Andromeda Attumasen, and Percy aided Namor’s spirit in fighting off vengeful spirits. Explaining the eternal struggle of good and evil within the Blade, Percy led Namor to other benevolent spirits, including Victoria, Marrina and Andromeda, and Namor escaped the Blade’s astral realm with his and Marrina’s spirits, the latter seemingly passing on to a higher plane.
Morgan subsequently tried to access the Ebony Blade’s full magical power, but Psi-Lord (an alternate future version of Franklin Richards) caused the thousands of souls (presumably including Percy’s) within the Blade to be channeled through her before returning to their astral plane.
Andromeda’s spirit was liberated from the Blade at some point, while the Blade itself was recovered by Dolan, and grew with him to immense size by absorbing power from the deceased Slorenian nation’s population. The sword was apparently later recovered by a group of vampires, who arranged to deliver a false Ebony Blade (magically powered and containing a vampire fang to simulate the true Blade’s bloodlust) to Whitman in order to neutralize his threat to a planned vampire invasion. The Vatican’s Opus Dei organization apparently recovered the true Ebony Blade from a vampire nest in Iraq, and the Vatican subsequently armed their own Black Knight with it. This Knight was swiftly defeated by T’Challa, AKA Black Panther, who used the Ebony Blade for a time before returning it to Whitman. Percy’s spirit is presumably still bound to the Ebony Blade and may still advise and assist Whitman as needed.
