Caleb
""Too stubborn to quit, too stupid to die." This was how a Lieutenant of the Cabal once described Caleb, and he wasn't too far off. Driven by his quick wits and the shear force of his vicious nature, Calab has become an unstoppable force of malice and spraying bullets. Using his good mix of speed and toughness along with his familiarity with a wide variety of weapons, Caleb is the brawler, the kind of person who runs into a room guns blazing, getting chewed up by everything the enemy can throw at him. But his utterly ruthless style guarantees that when he enters a fight, no one gets out alive. These traits have made him the recognized leader of the Chosen. "
--Blood II: The Chosen Website
Caleb is the main character of the Blood franchise. You play as him exclusively in Blood and Blood II: The Chosen. You can play through the single player campaign as the other Chosen in Blood II, but without any storyline or cutscenes. He is the leader of the four Chosen and is by far the most powerful. He is known for his aggressive nature, sadistic tendencies and violent sarcastic humour.
He wears classic wild west clothing - a leather trench coat, boots, brown pants, white shirt and cowboy hat. His favourite weapon is the Sawed-Off Shotgun. He is most known for his gravelly voice and tendency to spout out witty one-liners. When left alone, Caleb will sing old show tunes to himself.
Caleb is voiced by Stephan Weyte in both Blood and Blood II.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early Years and the Cabal
Caleb was born in western Texas in 1847. By age seventeen, Caleb was well known as a merciless gun fighter with a hunger for bloodshed. Seven years later he came across a burned-out homestead with a single occupant: Ophelia Price. She was completely mad when Caleb found her, but from what Caleb could gather of her nearly incomprehensible ramblings, she and her husband were members of a dark cult called the Cabal, who worship the dark god Tchernobog. When her husband tried leave the Cabal, they responded by torching their home, killing him and their son. Ophelia blamed her husband for their plight.
Caleb was immediately taken by Ophelia's beauty and took her under his protection. She became Caleb's doorway to the cult and his lover. He rose through the ranks to become one of the Chosen - the elite servants of Tchernobog. Along with Ishmael and Gabriel, the four Chosen served the dark god well, preparing for the day he would throw open the doors of the dimensions and take over the Earth, although earning the ire of others high in the cult like Cheogh.
[edit] Betrayal and Revenge
Sometime between 1871 and 1928, Tchernobog summoned the four Chosen to the Hall of the Epiphany, Tchernobog's chamber. Caleb and the others thought that they where to be given orders. Instead, Tchernobog tells them that they have failed him and disavows them. The four are stunned as Tchernobog sends his lieutenants to take the Chosen one by one. Shial descends from a thread of silk and takes Gabriel off into the darkness. Cerberus bursts Ishmael to flames and consumes him. Lastly, Cheogh swoops down from the darkness and kidnaps Ophelia. Tchernobog casts Caleb into a bottomless pit, telling him to "consider [his] power, in a hollow grave".
In 1928, Caleb awakens in an open grave in a mausoleum. Armed with only a Pitchfork, he fights his way through a quest to retrieve the other Chosen. He first goes to the Altar of Stone, where he finds Ophelia crucified and dead on a slab of rock. Cheogh attacks, but Caleb defeats him and cremates Ophelia's corpse. Next, Caleb heads to the frozen north to seek out Shial, whose lair is deep in the bowels of the Earth in the arctic circle.
After defeating the spider queen he finds Gabriel within a cocoon, dead. Caleb plucks out his heart and consumes it to gain power. After that, Caleb travels to France, during a bombing raid. He moves through several civilized areas, including a bank, a morgue, a meat packing plant, a dam, and sewers until finally finding a lava-filled cavern where Cerberus makes its home. Caleb kills Cerberus finding no trace of Ishmael, and moves onto other areas, eventually finding a large temple, which leads to the organic entry way to the Hall of the Epiphany.
There, Tchernobog reveals to Caleb that he killed the other Chosen so Caleb would return, seeking vengeance, with the strength of each life he had taken. With this power, Tchernobog will throw open the doors and inherit the Earth. However, Caleb defeats him (and the reincarnations of his lieutenants) in battle, and evades the the Hall (after killing one last annoying innocent in the temple).
[edit] Cryptic Passage
Main Article: Cryptic Passage
Having heard of an ancient scroll guarded by the Cabal that is rightfully his, Caleb sets out in search of it. After heading to the Carpathian Mountains and fighting through such places as a dock, monastery, library, graveyard, opera house and even a steam boat, Caleb ends up in a castle where, after taking a transporter, he finds where the scroll is held. After defeating the Lord of All Nightmares, Caleb takes the scroll for his own use.
[edit] Post Mortem
Main Article: Plasma Pak
After the defeat of Tchernobog, Caleb learns that the Cabal are training a new rank of Chosen. Caleb starts in a shopping plaza and migrates to several temples, killing every last Cabal member on the way. He enters a large area meant as a training ground where he finds several red-robed cultists, the Chosen-in-training, who he destroys along with their stone beast that forms.
[edit] 1928 to 2028
After the events of Blood, little is known of Caleb's doings. Gideon says in his introduction that Caleb spent his time "hanging out in dive bars, swilling cheap beer, smoking bad cigars, and starting brawls over women of dubious moral character". However, the Blood II instruction manual and propaganda says that he is striving for leadership of the Cabal and to resurrect his beloved Ophelia, and the other Chosen.
[edit] CabalCo and the Ancient One
By the year 2028 the Cabal had reorganized themselves as the monopolistic mega corporation CabalCo, under the eyes and leadership of Gideon. The Cabal regained their quest of world domination, almost totally controlling the world through economic and political power. Despite this, Gideon still felt unsatisfied as long as Caleb, the Great Betrayer, still walked the Earth. Whether because of his pride or because he wanted to assert total control over the Cabal, Gideon seeks Caleb out.
Gideon seizes control of the train Caleb is riding on, starting a cat and mouse chase to the Lafayette Museum of Antiquities, where Gideon attempts to destroy him with the Singularity Generator. The weapon fails, and instead brings back Gabriel (now Gabriella - "it's a long story"), who disappears through the same vortex. This causes the fabric of reality to unbind, already weakened due to the fact that Tchernobog, the maintainer of realities, is dead. This leads to creatures like the Shikari and Bone Leeches to come through from a different reality.
Caleb pursues Gideon throughout New Town, invading several CabalCo buildings, such as a meat-packing plant, water treatment facility, and a Cabal Safehouse. Along the way, Gideon tries to use the Singularity Generator again, unwittingly bringing back Ishmael. Gideon manages to escape, and Ishmael tries to convince Caleb that he in fact inherited the power of Tchernobog and that he must use it to seal the ever growing rifts. Caleb ignores him and continues his pursuit of Gideon. Ishmael later informs him that Gideon is holding Ophelia at his temple, and that she was the first to come through the rifts into this reality.
At CabalCo Headquarters, Caleb fights his way past the security checkpoint and a power station, and reaches the temple where Ophelia is being held. Gideon manages to to whisk her away before Caleb can rescue her, causing Caleb to once again pursue him. They finally confront each other on the rooftops of CabalCo Headquarters, where a battle ensues. Gideon escapes through a portal to the other reality and Caleb, against the advice of Ophelia, follows him through.
In the other reality, the exit point for the rifts, Caleb travels through ancient tribal structures, until he meets Gideon in an abandoned temple. Gideon changes into a giant spider and fights Caleb in a final battle to the death. Caleb ends up the victor and eventually wanders into an ancient arena where three tombs, each containing one of the Undead Chosen. These corpses speak for The Ancient One, the invader of our reality, making threats and other forms of intimidation, which Caleb promptly ignores.
He defeats the undead forms of his companions and finds the lair of The Ancient One, a large squid-like beast, who he defeats in combat. The other Chosen finally catch up with Caleb, with Ishmael telling him that he has no other choice but to use his power to seal the rifts or all of reality will perish. Caleb finally gives in, and waves his arms as magic power flows out. The screen then displays a textual epilogue:
"Does Caleb really close the rift? Does Ophelia get her two-minutes of gift? What the heck happened to Gabriel... er, Gabriella? What if Ishmael can't get home? And, where did he get those tattoos? Tune in next time on: As 'It burns, it burns'. Enjoy these answers and more soon... we promise."
--Blood II: The Chosen epilogue
[edit] The Nightmare Levels
Gideon acts as narrator, telling how he is now a ghost trapped inside his skull. Caleb and the other Chosen, still stuck in the other reality, are trying to get home the only way they know how - walking. They stop to make a campfire and pass the time telling stories. This attracts the attention of The Nightmare, an ancient physic monster resembling a giant undead dog. Caleb tells about his time in the frozen north, seeking Shial in the bowels of the Earth, when suddenly a portal sucks him away and he finds himself replaying the incident he was describing.
The others, nonplussed that Caleb has disappeared, continue telling their stories. At the end of each, Caleb appears, trying to figure out what is going on before disappearing again. After Gabriella's story is finished, he wonders where he will be going now, as he's "all out of Chosen to visit".
He ends up in an old west ghost town, possibly based or inspired by his own past. Caleb eventually finds a mine shaft that leads to the lair of The Nightmare, who he slays, ending his physic journey. Nothing is known of what happens to Caleb, Gideon or the Chosen after this point, as this the end of the official Blood canon.
[edit] Development
"We all got tired of the the player-as-cultist character, so Kevin is working on a new player character model... The new character really rocks..."
--A Weekly Blood Development Update, October 14, 1996
As indicated by his appearance in the Blood Alpha and the quote above, Caleb was originally supposed to look like a Fanatic, indicating that the Blood developers originally did not have as ambitious plans for player character. It is unknown when Stephan Weyte became involved with the project, or how soon Caleb's personality was derived.
Early builds of his model for Blood II generated some controversy over trench-coat colour, as explained by Eric Kohler: "several people on the forum have expressed dismay over caleb's clothes (specifically his coat) being brown instead of black. don't worry, the colors aren't set yet, i have been considering tweaking his colors for awhile, i just haven't had the time yet. we'll probably wait until the end of development to go back and mess with that sort of stuff. we might even use our new mesh deformation to give his coat very natural movement. it all just comes down to how much time we have. anyway...don't fret, nothing's final till we ship."
[edit] Fan Portrayals
Caleb's depiction in fan fiction, fan games and fan art differs, sometimes dramatically.
[edit] Fan Fiction
Fan fiction depictions of Caleb differ based on the author. For example, in Dinner with the Preacher Caleb seems to be a very intelligent man, with great knowledge about the Cabal and Tchernobog. This is in contrast with most of the stories and even some of the games, where Ishmael is depicted as the intellectual who often guides Caleb and the other Chosen.
In Dying Times and How Much Time Has Passed, Caleb is shown as a reminiscent man, who often looks back to times passed. There is no sign that Caleb does this in Blood or Blood II: The Chosen, it does not, however, deny this character trait.
Some of Caleb's traits appear to have been passed down the generations. In Blood: I Live Again and Dead Reckoning, Caleb Sanguis has good aim and can become aggressive. These are probably traits he inherited from his ancestor.
[edit] Fan Art
Like in fan fiction, various Bloodites used their own approach to drawing the Caleb. The artist known as Rust/MightyTwinkie for example depicts Caleb with long white hair, while others like Slink depict him with long black hair. Some like Hamish Wilson and Slink shroud his face, while others (like Björn Wehrhan) depict him with a face similar to that of a male witch.
