The Saint Clair family cemetery lies beyond the eastern boundary of Blackthorn Hall, beneath ancient oaks that were already old when the first members of the family were laid beneath them. Generations of Saint Clairs rest there under weathered stones bearing names that once carried considerable influence throughout the county. Lucien Beauregard Saint Clair had known those names since childhood. They belonged to portraits hanging in the darker rooms of Blackthorn Hall, to stories repeated around the family table and to ancestors whose courage, wisdom and general magnificence seemed to increase considerably with every passing generation.

As the Dark Confederacy grew, Lucien found himself requiring followers who could be relied upon without demanding payment, questioning his orders or disappearing when matters became particularly unpleasant. The solution was conveniently located on his own property. After all, the Saint Clair family had always placed considerable importance upon duty to blood and family. Lucien merely decided that death was an inadequate excuse for avoiding it.

These were not common corpses dragged from some forgotten battlefield. They were Saint Clairs, and Lucien believed that family obligations did not necessarily end at the grave.

Major Ambrose Saint Clair

Major Ambrose Saint Clair had been Lucien’s great uncle, a stern and thoroughly unpleasant man who had spent much of his life insisting that the younger members of the family lacked discipline, courage and proper respect for their elders. He had served in the Mexican War before returning to Virginia, where he devoted himself to managing the family estates and quarrelling with almost everyone who disagreed with him. Family tradition maintained that Ambrose had never lost an argument, although this may have had something to do with his habit of carrying a pistol during most conversations.

He died several years before the Civil War and was buried with considerable ceremony in the Saint Clair family cemetery. Lucien remembered standing beside the grave as a boy while relatives solemnly described Ambrose as a pillar of the family. Lucien remembered him rather differently.

When Ambrose was raised, death had done remarkably little to improve his disposition. The old Major emerged from the earth still wearing the decayed remains of the coat in which he had been buried, one skeletal hand immediately reaching towards the place where his pistol had once hung.

Lucien regarded this as encouraging.

Ambrose now follows his great nephew with the same expression of permanent disapproval that he wore in life. Whether some fragment of the old man’s personality remains is uncertain, but Lucien occasionally catches the Revenant staring at him in a manner that strongly suggests Ambrose still believes the younger generation has made a complete mess of things.

Cousin Nathaniel Saint Clair

Nathaniel Saint Clair had been one of those unfortunate branches of the family tree that respectable Saint Clairs preferred not to discuss. A gambler, duellist and enthusiastic consumer of other people’s whiskey, Nathaniel possessed considerable charm and almost no judgement. He disappeared regularly for months at a time before returning to Blackthorn Hall with an impressive story, an empty purse and, more often than not, somebody looking for him.

His luck finally deserted him during a card game in Richmond when another gentleman accused him of cheating. Nathaniel indignantly denied the charge and demanded satisfaction. Unfortunately, the other gentleman proved considerably better with a pistol than Nathaniel had anticipated. His body was returned to Blackthorn Hall and quietly placed in the family cemetery, where everyone hoped that he had finally ceased causing embarrassment.

Lucien had always rather liked him.

Nathaniel proved surprisingly difficult to raise. When he finally clawed his way from the grave, several playing cards and a silver dollar were discovered amongst the remains of his burial clothes. Lucien took this as evidence that someone in the family had possessed a sense of humour.

The Revenant Nathaniel retains something of his former swagger. His movements are stiff and unnatural, but there remains an unmistakable arrogance in the way he carries himself. He sometimes turns towards the sound of cards being shuffled and has been known to stand silently beside games played by the Ragged Veterans.

Nobody has yet been foolish enough to deal him in.

Cousin Thaddeus Saint Clair

Thaddeus Saint Clair was Lucien’s second cousin and perhaps the strangest member of the family even before Lucien began raising the dead. He never married, rarely travelled beyond the boundaries of the family estates and spent most of his later years living alone in a small house on the edge of the Blackthorn property. He possessed an uncomfortable reputation for knowing things before they happened. Servants claimed that Thaddeus could predict storms, deaths and unexpected visitors, while several members of the family quietly recalled occasions when he had warned them against journeys that subsequently ended badly. The Saint Clairs publicly dismissed such stories as superstition, although few of them willingly remained alone with Thaddeus after dark.

Lucien was never quite so certain.

Thaddeus died shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War and was buried beneath a magnolia tree at the edge of the Saint Clair family cemetery. Unlike the graves surrounding it, his resting place seemed strangely untouched by the passing years. Weeds rarely grew across the mound, the earth remained dark and the inscription upon his stone was still clearly visible long after neighbouring memorials had begun to crumble.

When Lucien performed the ritual, Thaddeus did not claw his way from the earth with the other dead.

He was simply standing behind Lucien when he turned around.

That particular detail is rarely mentioned.

Thaddeus now accompanies the Dark Confederacy as one of Lucien’s Revenants, dressed in the decaying remains of the dark suit in which his family buried him. He rarely moves unless commanded and has never spoken since his return, yet there are moments when his behaviour suggests that something more than Lucien’s necromancy occupies the ruined body. On several occasions Thaddeus has turned towards approaching danger before any living member of the posse became aware of it, while at other times he simply stands staring into the darkness beyond the campfire as though watching something moving amongst the trees.

Even Lucien has become increasingly reluctant to turn his back on him.

Blood Remains Blood

Lucien considers the raising of his relatives entirely practical. Blackthorn Hall needs defenders, the Dark Confederacy needs soldiers and the Saint Clair family has always maintained that its members have obligations to their blood and their land. Lucien has merely extended those obligations somewhat beyond their traditional duration. Ambrose brings the discipline of an old soldier, Nathaniel whatever remains of the instincts of a gambler and gunfighter, while Thaddeus brings something altogether more difficult to explain.

The Ragged Veterans are considerably less comfortable with the arrangement. They will fight beside corpses raised from forgotten graves without much complaint, but there is something different about the three Saint Clair Revenants. Ambrose watches the men as though inspecting an exceptionally disappointing regiment, Nathaniel still seems interested whenever somebody produces a deck of cards and Thaddeus occasionally turns his head towards things nobody else can see.

Around the campfire the men have consequently developed a simple rule. Never insult the Saint Clair family in front of the dead Saint Clairs.

Nobody knows whether they can understand.

Nobody particularly wants to find out.