Maple White

Known aliases : Mabel Wyatt, Wendy Marple, Mary Wolf, Miranda White-Mychaels

Date of birth : 1860 AD, London, England

First death : 1895 AD, Exploring mysterious plateau in South America

First teacher : Simon de Miranda

Weapon : German cavalry saber

Recorded beheadings :

1924 AD Franz Lehar

1966 AD Xixo the Aztek; 1989 AD Una Merkel; 2000 AD Kenneth

Most recent base of operations : New-Orleans LS, USA

Occupation : Writing crime novels

Known associates : Simon de Miranda, Ramon Suarez Llorca, Sean Burns, Una Merkel

Watcher : Charles Smith

Roster of Immortals Status : Active

Watcher Journal of Charles Smith

1 August 2001 :

Maple White inspired the fictionnal character from Arthur Conan Doyle's series, The Challengers, although portrayed as a man. Maple was a victorian scientist and explorer who vanished in South America early May 1895, and re-appeared in Buenos Aires the following year with immortal ranchero, and former conquistador, Simon de Miranda. It is believed Maple became immortal whilst travelling near the Rio de la Plata and was discovered by Simon de Miranda who taught her to use a sword.

The tragic circumstances in which she fought her only four recorded battles are tales onto themselves :

Franz Lehar, born in Austria one hundred years ago, was an crazy man, still living in the past, who never accepted the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution and sought to kill every industrialist living in England. Maple investigated the murders, met up with him and tried to rid him of his madness, but he wouldn't listen. Unwilling to kill him, Maple handed him to the police, but he escaped from his lunatic asylum and murdered three more persons; Maple, feeling responsible for those deaths, put an end to his rampage.

A few months later, Maple wrote a very successful crime novel about a mysterious series of murders in the worlds of industrialist, commited by a man whose family had been killed by pollutants. A novel truly ahead of its time !

In 1966, as western society was about to know some of its biggest changes after the Industrial Revolution, Maple White was taking some holidays in Barcelona, enjoying the sun, sea and company of young Spanish men. She befriended an immortal living there, Ramon Suarez Llorca, former conquistador who had been mentored by Simon de Miranda, Maple's teacher.

Lorca had commited many atrocities during the 15th century, killing many Mayas and Aztecs but learnt very different things when becoming immortal, and had felt repentant ever since.

Unfortunately for him, a particular immortal was hot on his trails : Xixo, a survivor of the campaigns led by Pizarro who sought to avenge his people by killing as many descendants of the conquistadores as possible. Maple understood the man's feelings but she couldn't let him kill innocent people, particularly the repentant Ramon. Xixo challenged Ramon with Maple watching, unable to interfere. Xixo won the duel and killed the spaniard, in spite of Ramon's pleas for forgiveness. Maple understood Xixo's motives and decided to leave the place without challenging him, but made him swore to stop the killings.

Once back in London, Maple read in the newpapers that an embassy in Madrid had been bombed, killing twenty-three persons, injuring sixty others. Infuriated, the immortal went back to Spain, tracked Xixo down and challenged him to a fight. Before his head fell, Xixo bravely prayed Popocatepetl the Feathered Snake to accept his soul and forgive him for his crimes.

Una Merkel is an even more tragic story than Xixo's : a victim of immortality, Una's regenerative powers allowed not only every part of her body to regenerate, but also her mind and consciousness; thus she still lived in the past, forever trapped in the hours in which she had been raped and beaten to death in her home of Manchester. She was confused by her environment (the padded cell in which she was locked up) but her mind replayed to her the fourteen hours she had spent from waking on morning up to her death. Once "dead", it would endlessly start back over. She was lucky Maple chose to become a nurse during the eighties, and coincidentally arrived in that hospital. Understanding the torments Una was going through, Maple had her "mysteriously vanish" and took her away.

But Una's madness couldn't be cured, in spite of Sean Burns' help who discovered what was really wrong with the immortal. Maple took on herself to deliver Una from a life of torments and took her head with a swift stroke of her sword.

Two years ago, freshly-settled in New-Zealand with her husband Gary, Maple took in a little boy named Andy Kells, a lovely blonde-haired, doe-eyed child who had "recently been killed during a freak storm and had awaken immortal". This story was a scam since the creature hiding under the identity of Andy Kells was none other than Kenneth, the immortal Saxon boy who sought to win the mythical price. Fate waited for Kenny to reveal his treacherous, conniving nature, which he did one night when he stabbed Gary in the neck with a fork and prepared himself to take Maple's head. Horrified of seeing Gary's life bleeding away, Maple got nearly killed but managed to stab Kenny in the chest before trying to stop her husband's hemorragia, unfortunately too late. Enraged, she quickly beheaded Kenny, getting the immortal community rid of one of its more vicious members; after her husband's burial, she left New-Zealand for the community of New Orleans, in search of another life under another new identity.