Allan Quatermain was an English-born professional big game hunter and occasional trader in southern Africa who supported colonial efforts to spread civilization; he also favoured native Africans having a say in how their affairs are run. He became a quintessential imperial outdoorsman who finds English cities and climate unbearable, and thus prefers to spend most of his life in Africa, where he grew up under the care of his widower father, a Christian missionary.
Adventures in Africa
Quatermain was frequently accompanied by his native servant, the Hottentot Hans, a wise and caring family retainer from his youth whose sarcastic comments offer a sharp critique of European conventions.
Quatermain in 1888
Quatermain became ensnarled in the vengeance of Zikali, the dwarf wizard who plotted and finally achieved the overthrow of the Zulu royal House of Senzangakona, founded by Shaka and ending under Cetewayo.
He had married his childhood friend, Stella Carson in one of his earliest adventures in Africa but she died giving birth to their son, Harry. He widowed twice and eventually lost his only son while working in the smallpox ward of a hospital shortly after getting his medical degree. He longed to get back into the wilderness. His adventures were published by H. Rider Haggard.
Having persuaded Sir Henry Curtis, Captain John Good, RN, and the Zulu chief Umslopogaas to accompany him they set out from the coast of east Africa into the territory of the Masai and while staying with a Scottish missionary are attacked by a group of these tribesmen whom they overcome with heroism. There follows a voyage along an underground river to a lake in the kingdom of Zu-Vendis, a warlike white race entirely isolated ruled jointly by two sisters, Nyleptha and Sorais; both fall passionately in love with Curtis and this together with the rejection by Sorais of the nobleman Nasta results in a civil war between them (Sorais and Nasta's forces against those of Nyleptha, Curtis and Quatermain). After a battle Queen Nyleptha is victorious but then threatened by the treachery of the priests who plan to murder her in the palace. Umslopogaas and one loyal warrior manage to save her from this, killing Nasta and the chief priest Agon. Sorais, defeated and jealous, takes her own life: Nyleptha and Curtis become King and Queen; Quatermain feeling tired and old, decided to fake a brave death from a wound suffered in the battle.
His friend Lady Ragnall was informed about Allan's death by George Curtis Sir Henry Curtis's brother. In 1889 Allan returned to England to seek Lady Ragnall and her supply of taduki. Taking too much of the drug, he temporarily entered a dreamland where he fought alongside John Carter, Randolph Carter and The Time Traveller against the forces of the Great Old Ones, and nearly had his body stolen from him by an eldritch abomination.
The Taduki made him addicted and resolved to opium. By 1898 he was to be found in Cairo frequenting in an opium den. It was where Mina Harker was ordered by Campion Bond to find him and bring back in the service of England. Quatermain was reluctant, but when Mina was assaulted by rapists he did not hesitate to attack them.
Together they left the den and Mina ran with him until the docks, an angry mob after them, where Captain Nemo showed up and took them below the sea.
Service to the Empire
Fu Manchu & Professor Moriarty
In June 27, they arrived to Paris to find a certain missing English doctor. There Mina contacted Chr. C. Auguste Dupin who would tell them about the incident of the Rue Morgue some decades earlier and the reappearance of the ape-like monster. Mina posed as a prostitute in order to lure a possible suspect. Quatermain and Dupin were to watch after her, but Quatermain was attracted by a pharmacy, and went to buy a bottle of laudanum. When he returned, Mina was missing.
Helped by a prostitute, Dupin guided Allan to Henry's apartment in Rue Richelieu where they heard voices and cries. They found an ape monster threatening Mina; Quatermain managed to put the bottle into its mouth, and made it sleep over a window.
After Jekyll was apprehended, Murray, Quatermain and Nemo were sent to the Correctional Academy for Wayward Gentlewomen by Campion Bond to apprehend Hawley Griffin. Murray presented herself and Quatermain as parents who wished to inspect the place before lodging their daughter.
During their stay there, Quatermain slept in the guestroom with Nemo who accompanied them as a manservant. Then they saw Griffin trying to rape Pollyanna Whittier. The two men tried to catch him but he hit Quatermain with a lamp, and crushed Nemo's nose. Murray threw a bucket of white paint on him (belonging to the decorators who were working there) and delivered him to the Empire.
When the team was assembled, Bond briefed the team about the reason he intended them. Fu Manchu had stolen the Cavorite of Professor Selwyn Cavor who would man the first expedition to the moon.
While Quatermain and Jekyll's first task was to see their contacts in Limehouse. Quatermain first met a Chinese woman who redirected them to Ho Ling at Shanghai Charlie's. There, he met Shen Yan asking for Ho Ling who supposedly owed him money. Then he saw Ho Ling tortured by Fu Manchu. Shen Yan however realised that Quatermain was an opium addict and Ho Ling did not owe him money. Quatermain made up the story that Ho Ling sold them tar instead of opium and he wanted a refund. After leaving Shanghai Charlie's, Quatermain was greatly bothered by the crime lord's visage, and he reported back to the rest of the League. Mina on the other hand, had discovered where Fu Manchu's operatives were storing the Cavorite. It was located in an abandoned channel passage that ran beneath the Rotherhithe bridge and the Thames. The only known entranceway was through a homeless shelter. Once again, Allan and Mina posed as a married couple seeking a place to stay. They found the passageway, which led them to the center of Fu Manchu's operation. With some assistance from Edward Hyde and the Invisible Man, they were able to steal the Cavorite. As Fu Manchu's men surrounded them, Allan blasted a hole through the glass roof of the tunnel with his elephant gun. As river water poured in, Mina activated the Cavorite and it pulled them all upwards through the water to the surface where the Nautilus promptly scooped them up.
Quatermain and the League gave the Cavorite to Bond, who gave it to M. The Invisible Man secretly tracked down Bond and discovered that the League was actually employed by Professor Moriarty. Quatermain and the League then used a dirigible provided by Nemo to attack Moriarty before he destroyed all of East London to destroy Fu Manchu.
Quatermain took a machine pistol from Nemo and used it to shoot down most of Moriarty's men. But Moriarty quickly shot Quatermain. Moriarty mentioned that Holmes had mentioned Quatermain, and had considered him a coward. As this is occuring Mina Murray destroys the glass containing the Cavorite. Moriarty tries to grab the Cavorite, but then falls into the air.
The airship falls, and the League sinks to the ground in the hot air balloon because Mr. Hyde weighing more than Dr. Jekyll. As they fall Mina begs Allan to hold her much to his surprise. The League survive the fall and meet the new M, Mycroft Holmes, who keeps the League Employed.
Martian Invasion
A year after Moriarty's plot, the League was tasked to inspect a crater which is revealed to be harboring Martians. The Martians immediately kill hundreds of innocents, but the League is able to survive. The League then lodges at a small inn, with Quatermain sharing a room with Nemo.
The next morning, the League was forced to retreat to London after a failed army attack and the arrival of another tripod of Martians. Thereafter, after debriefing with Mycroft Holmes, Quatermain, Hyde, and Nemo returned to Horsell for reconnaissance and came close to a Martian tripod. The group swiftly returned to London and discovered Hawley Griffin's betrayal. Shortly after, Mycroft Holmes sends Quatermain along with Mina Murray on a new mission to the Southdowns, giving them very vague instructions concerning their task in finding an elusive doctor.
Quatermain and Murray encountered an insane man named Teddy Prendrick, who gives them little information, save that in the woods nearby lurks a doctor whom he once encountered. Along the way Quartermain and Murray started to have feelings for one another. Allan even discovered the hidious scars in Mina's neck, but was not repelled by them. Instead, he foudn them attractive, saying they reminded him of his previous wife.
The two meet Morreau who gladly gives the two what they seek which is labeled H-141. The British agents use this H-141 which is revealed to be a hybrid of Measels and Anthrax to succesfully kill the Martians. Nemo is apalled at his involvment with such a horrid weapon and vows to never again serve in the League. Mina similarly decides to leave Allan as she needs to have time alone, much to Allan's disappointment.
Traveling around the world
Several years later Quatermain asks Murray to accompany him on his journey back to Africa. While travelling the two resume their romantic relationship. When arriving in Africa Allan told Mina that he seeks the Pool of Fire that grants all who bathe in it immortality, Allan desiring it to become young oncemore in order to perform better sexually for Mina. Mina agrees, the two eventually reach the Pool of Fire which has the names Homer, Ayesha and Orlando all written on it. Mina goes in first and to her disappointment emerges unchanged. Allan, however, is made once again into a young man in his prime. Murray claims that her lover is dead, while Allan adopts the name Allan Quatermain, Jr. to avoid confusion or questioning. The two celebrate their immortality in a moment of great passion.
The two go to China where they meet Orlando. She encourages them that being immortal makes all actions not a question of if they shall do it, but a matter of when they shall do it. Orlando joins Allan and Mina, becoming a third lover to the two.
Murray, Quatermain and Orlando return to London and form a new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in 1910. New members include the psychic detective Thomas Carnacki and the thief AJ Raffles who comes under British Employ as a way to be pardoned of his crimes. The new League tries to prevent a crisis foretold in a vision of Carnacki at King George V's coronation. The League travels to a tavern home to many magicians. A Magician warns Murray of Oliver Haddo being dangerous.
Resigning from the Empire
World War II and Big Brother
In the 40s Carnacki resigns from the League out of his old age. During World War II Allan and Mina speak to a drunk Winston Churchill who sadly forsees that the Post-War Britain will have the Socialist Totalitarians win the elections. Disturbed by this prediction Murray and Quatermain leave Britain for America.
In America the two have adventures battling a decendent of Fu Manchu. They also have an adventure transcribed on a record. Allan and Mina eventually go to the Blazing World, living there for many years.
In 1958, Murray and Quatermain return to London which has recovered from years of Big Brother. Murray encounters Jimmy Bond who takes her to the Ministry of Love and attempts to rape her. Murray beats Bond and takes the Black Dossier, a transcribe of the history of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Together they escape England with it and go to the Blazing World.
Allan Quatermain in 1969
Relapse into drug addiction
Allan seen with Orlando in Paris of 1964 where the two engaged in sexual games of dominance and submission. Mina does not accompany them, and it is hinted that she had began drifting apart from both Orlando and Allan.
In the year 1969, Mina forms a League with the surviving members of the Second Murray Group in the hopes of preventing the birth of the Moonchild whom is destined to bring forth a dreadful new aeon. Allan, just like Orlando, is rather dismisses much of Mina's attempts to adapt to the times and the entire era as being hollow in their peace objectives. Allan aides in killing Soror Julia. Allan and Orlando search for Mina in Hyde Park but cannot find her because she had been taken to a lunatic assylum. Eight years later, in 1977, Allan had become addicted to drugs again, Heroine this time, causing a rift between him and Orlando (Allan tried to sell Excalibur for drug money).
Death
Alan Quartermain's last stand against the Antichrist
Forty years later Allan is still a drug addict. He runs into Orlando again who is on his way to save Mina from the asylum, but he wants to have nothing to do with them anymore, running away when Orlando asks him to join the league once more. For a moment he even consideres committing suicide, putting a gun against his head, but he can't bring himself to pulling the trigger. Changing his mind, he joines Orlando and Mina in their battle with the Antichrist, blasting the monster with his elephant gun. The Antichrist however simply regenerated and proceeded to kill Allan with a lightning bolt emitted from his penis.
After the battle ended, Allan's body was brought to Africa and burried in an existing grave dating from the time he originally faked his death.