Sir Daniel Fortesque

Sir Daniel Fortesque
Biographical information
Title(s)	Hero of Gallowmere (1286 - Present)
Gender	Male
Born	1254 Gallowmere, Britain
Died	1286 (aged approx. 32) Gallowmere, Britain
Resurrected	First resurrection: 1386 (aged approx. 132) Gallowmere, Britain Second resurrection: 1886 (aged approx. 632) London, United Kingdom
Family	Captain Fortesque (past self) Lord Cedric Fortesque (father) Granny Fortesque (grandmother) Unnamed Fortesque (close relative) Colonel Freddie Fortesque (distant relative) Unnamed younger sibling(s)
Behind the scenes information
Voiced by	Jason Wilson Marc Silk Stéphane Cornicard
Appears in	MediEvil / 2019 remake MediEvil 2 MediEvil: Resurrection

"It has risen again! Sir Daniel Fortesque! See?" ― Information Gargoyle, MediEvil

Sir Daniel Wigginbottom Fortesque IV (1254 – 1286), commonly shortened to Sir Daniel Fortesque or Sir Dan, was a knight of the kingdom of Gallowmere. Due to his father's influence and a close personal relationship with the king, Sir Dan became the king's champion and Captain of the army. In 1286, he was charged with leading the militia into battle against the rebelling court magician Zarok in what would become known as the Battle of Gallowmere. Ignobly, Sir Dan was killed by the first volley of arrows. The king, unimpressed with Dan's performance, weaved a legend about the felled warrior, declaring him the Hero of Gallowmere.

A hundred years later, in 1386, Dan was brought back to life when fate meddled with Zarok's second attempt at conquest, as his latest spell wasn't supposed to work on undead with a valiant soul . Dan seized this opportunity to live up to his legend and brought down the sorcerer once and for all, gaining access to the afterlife's Hall of Heroes as a result.

By the late 19th century, Sir Dan's skeletal remains were exhibited in the British Museum in Kensington, London. In 1886, he was resurrected once again, this time by the ruthless industrialist Lord Palethorn. Dan was soon recruited by Professor Hamilton Kift to help in the fight against this new threat. During his mission to restore peace in London, Dan also found love in Kiya, an ancient Egyptian princess with an adventurous spirit.

The exact fate of the Hero of Gallowmere after his victory over Palethorn is unknown, but several conflicting accounts of the subsequent events have emerged. The most detailed of these accounts saw Dan and his newfound love travelling back in time using the Professor's time machine. However, the pair is said to have been tragically separated during their journey, with Dan becoming stranded in 1286, the year of his death. He was then quickly employed by Gallowmere's fairies to help preserve the proper course of history.

Finally, to succeed in his mission, Sir Dan is believed to have ended up swapping bodies with his still living self. This allowed him to boost the morale of Gallowmere's army before dying as he once had, therefore helping secure victory for his men in the war with Zarok while also condemning himself to reliving his undead adventures for eternity in the process.

History

Life

Sir Daniel Wigginbottom Fortesque IV was born in the kingdom of Gallowmere in 1254 as the eldest son of Lord Cedric Fortesque – the wealthiest noble in the land. Fortesque pursued a career as a knight to impress the maidens. He was trained by the best weapons masters in the land, but never realised his full potential due to a lack of effort on his part.

Using his father's money and influence, Fortesque was able to rise through the ranks of the king's army. After the king's previous champion had an unfortunate accident while riding his horse, the king chose to appoint Fortesque as the replacement, listening solely to the words of his new advisor.

Death

In 1286, an army of the undead began marching towards Castle Peregrin. Unbeknownst to the king, it was led by his very own court magician Zarok. The king was in desperate need of a hero who could tackle the threat, and he knew exactly who he wanted.

Fortesque was chosen to lead the charge into battle. Unfortunately, he died instantly when he was shot through his left eye by the very first arrow fired. Despite this, the Gallowmere army went on to win the battle without him.

In order to save face, King Peregrin declared Zarok the Sorcerer dead and organised a hero's burial for Fortesque, including the construction of a custom crypt. From then on, Fortesque was revered as the Hero of Gallowmere.

Some sources offer a different version of Fortesque's death. They claim that Zarok had trapped a genie called Al-Zalam in Fortesque's head on the day of the battle, that Fortesque caught his foot on the grass and twisted his ankle before being shot, and that the one ultimately responsible for his death was none other than Zarok's right-hand man, Lord Kardok. However, this version of events is unlikely to be true.

First resurrection

In 1386, Zarok resurfaced and cast a spell called the Evernight, which turned the skies over Gallowmere black and robbed the innocent of their very souls in order to revive the dead. Fortesque was unexpectedly reanimated when magic from the Evernight drifted into his crypt and settled upon his decomposing corpse.

After getting his bearings, Sir Dan travelled throughout Gallowmere, dispelling the black mist and laying the corrupted dead to rest, battling Zarok's minions along his route. With each defeat of Zarok's minions, Dan earned the right to claim numerous weapons and resources from the Hall of Heroes, that he might once again confront Zarok and lay him low once and for all.

Although Dan inadvertently released Zarok's most ancient and powerful force in the Shadow Demons, he would defeat many of Zarok's most insidious traps, including an elaborate clockwork maze before finally reaching the core of the wizard's lair. However, Zarok had at least one more trick up his sleeve--an indomitable elite group of bodyguards called Fazguls, ready to strike Sir Dan down. Using the freed souls he had gathered, Dan summoned his own spectral warriors and eventually slew the Fazguls. There, he also met the undead Lord Kardok and struck him down.

Frustrated, Zarok made a last-ditch decision to face the would-be hero one-on-one, transmogrifying into a beastly form. The battle was intense, but Fortesque made good on his mission and became the hero he was always meant to be. As Zarok destroyed his own fortress, a vulture swept Sir Dan in its talons and carried him back to his crypt. For his heroic deeds, Dan had earned a place in the Hall of Heroes, where he remained for the next five hundred years.

An alternative account exists, according to which Zarok allegedly elected to use Sir Dan's ophiophobia against him and morphed into a giant king cobra-rattler hybrid instead of a figurehead-shaped beast. The outcome remains the same, but for the genie Al-Zalam to turn back and pull Sir Dan from the rubble, flying him back to the crypt.

Second resurrection

In the intervening years, kingdoms and empires rose and fell. Gallowmere was nearly lost to the annals of British history when remnants of the kingdom were brought to a London museum in the late 19th century. Among the artefacts recovered were remains of Zarok's beast transformation and Sir Dan's body, still in his original armour.

An expedition in 1878 also unearthed the tome once used by Zarok to cast and control the Evernight. This tome came into the possession of the ambitious industrialist Lord Palethorn. In his pursuit of control over London, Palethorn became obsessed with Zarok's tome, and so sought to raise his own army of the evil dead toward his ends. Once again, Sir Dan was revived and had to deal with this threat.

Although Sir Dan was slow to grasp his latest predicament, he eventually found support from the ghost of a young Winston Chapelmount, who in turn introduced him to Professor Hamilton Kift, a researcher looking for a means to stop Lord Palethorn from executing his diabolical plot. Dan was thus sent on a mad dash throughout London, following Palethorn's magical trail. Along the way, he stumbled into an ancient Egyptian exhibit, where he met Kiya, the lesser-known mummified consort of Ramesses II. She instantly fell in love with Dan, which he returned in kind.

Dan and his newfound allies faced evil after evil, defeating many of Palethorn's minions and allies, including The Iron Slugger and The Count. Tragedy struck however when Kiya was murdered by The Ripper while she was out on a mission in Whitechapel. Dan became so blindsided by this that he chose to abandon his mission and fled into the sewers under London. There, he happened upon a civilisation known as Mullocks, who worshipped him as a God due to finding his heroic statue at some point in the past.

While saving the Mullocks from their archnemeses known as Octomators, Dan learnt about a mysterious object known as the Time Stone and discovered that the Professor had previously invented a time machine. After confronting the Professor, Dan made his way into the Museum where the time machine was exhibited. Having repaired it, Dan travelled through space into the sewers, where he stole the Mullock's Time Stone. Finally equipped with a fully functional time machine, he went back in time and saved Kiya from The Ripper. The time travelling Dan then merged with his past self to resolve the resultant time paradox.

With Kiya in tow, Dan was back in the game. He made his way to the spires of a London cathedral where he successfully recovered the final page of the scattered spell book. It was too little too late however, as Palethorn simply snatched the page away from him. Once Dan had defeated Palethorn's lackeys Dogman and Mander, Palethorn proceeded to summon a huge demon. Using his extensive combat skills, Dan was able to drive a wedge between Palethorn and the demon, making the demon turn on Palethorn, crashing his spaceship. Rather than admit defeat, Palethorn chose to go out with a bang; with his dying breath, he ignited a bomb, which Sir Dan barely escaped. Then, it was finally over. London was safe.

Eventual fate

There are three conflicting reports about what happened to Fortesque after he successfully defeated Lord Palethorn:

Return to eternal rest

Fortesque and his girlfriend returned to her reconstructed tomb in the Museum. Once they said their goodbyes to the Professor, they entered Kiya's sacrophagus and resumed their eternal sleep together.

Presumed death

Dan and Kiya boarded Professor Kift's time machine, travelling back in time. They wound up in Zarok's Lair, where they were immediately attacked by Palethorn in a beastly form.

In truth, the pair had not only travelled back in time, but also to an alternative timeline, where Palethorn had used the spell book to rewrite time and replaced Zarok with himself. Whether they survived or perished at the hands of this Palethorn is unknown.

Time loop

Dan and Kiya boarded the Professor's time machine, travelling back in time. However, the machine malfunctioned, separating them. Dan himself ended up in 1286, one day before the Battle of Gallowmere. After spying on a meeting between his past self, the King and Zarok, he was recruited by a fairy called Griff and his former comrade-in-arms Canny Tim to help them with preserving the correct flow of history. Together they concocted a plan to stop an upcoming attack on the castle by the Jabberwocky.

With Griff's help, Dan was able to steal the armour of his former self. He jumped out a castle window donning the armour and slew the rampaging Jabberwocky in the name of his living counterpart.

The night before the fabled battle, Dan was captured by Zarok's henchmen, Boris and Merek. They took him to The Mystic Maidens to kill him, but before they could land the final blow they were brutally killed by Lupo, Dan's hound from when he was alive. Later, Dan got an opportunity to say his final goodbye to Kiya. Then he helped the witch Wartilda with brewing a Body Swap Potion so he could truly take his past self's place in the upcoming battle. After realizing Dan wouldn't be able to drink it, they turned the potion into an ointment which they rubbed on both the undead and the living Dan. Come morning, Dan found himself in his living body once more. He and Canny Tim headed to the castle to prepare for the battle.

On the battlefield, Dan revealed Zarok's treachery to the king. He gave a rousing speech to the army before heading into battle and dying in the first volley of arrows as he knew he would, thus completing, and restarting, his journey.

Legacy

Future members of the Fortesque family would follow in Sir Dan's footsteps, fighting on behalf of Britain on battlefields the world over.

Dan's brave deeds were not forgotten by the world at large either, although the events surrounding his return and victory over Lord Palethorn in 1886 were initially dismissed as not having really happened. Professor Marcus Effington Christy, a 20th century academic, described the claims made by contemporary witnesses as mass hallucination induced by the high prevalence of disease in London at the time.

Academic interest in the Hero of Gallowmere continued into the 21st century. Most notably, Professor Darrow of Cambridge Archaeology dedicated her life to studying him, including his resurrections. Of particular interest to scholars was the location of his final resting place, the location of which remained unknown.

Characteristics

Appearance

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Personality

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Abilities

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Gameplay

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Behind the scenes

Sir Dan is the primary character and protagonist of the MediEvil franchise.

Development

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Portayal

Sir Dan has been portrayed by Jason Wilson in all MediEvil entries with the exception of MediEvil 2, where he was portrayed by Marc Silk instead.

In other media

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