Hidden Angels Series

 An issue with families is that sometimes they name children after one of the parents’ siblings and we run into confusion in a family saga such as the Hidden Angels Series.  The modern tradition, although not always observed, is that if a man names a son for himself, the son is labeled “Junior” and the father “Senior.”  If a man names his son after his brother, in other words a collateral line of descent, the nephew is labeled with a “II,” pronounced “the second.” While this is not always so today, such consistency of form was even less common in the Eighteenth Century.  For instance, if a nephew were named for a deceased uncle, he may not use a number at all.  He would just go by the exact same name as his uncle with no easy distinction unless someone diligently were to check his birth year and so forth.

Such is the case with Benjamin Thaddeus West.  In the West family, there are no less than four Benjamin Thaddeus Wests.  Two of them use the naked name, and the other two who are first cousins, both append a “II,” since they were named for their uncle, who was named in turn for his uncle, so he could also have used the Roman numeral II, too.  Thus, in discussing them, I shall use the numbers assigned to them by the genealogy program that I use for tracking them all.

Benjamin Thaddeus West (I4295) was the eldest son and heir to Tobias Matthew West, Sr. (I3), eldest son of Matthew West (I1).  Tobias followed his father as the Prince-Elector of Franconia in the Holy Roman Empire, even though he never went there and left it in the hands of his brother and regent, James Charles West, Sr. (I188).  Benjamin was originally known by his grandfather’s subsidiary title, the Earl of Tortuga.  He went on his Grand Tour to Italy, and that is where he changed history.  He married Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, who was the heir to Massa and Carrara.  He died four years later after having four children.  His eldest son then became the heir to Massa and Carrara.  Of course, he was also the heir to his grandfather Tobias and great-grandfather Matthew.  This Benjamin Thaddeus West never appears in the books directly.  He is referenced in the first book when his brother, Tobias Matthew West, Jr., is using his grandfather’s courtesy title of Earl of Tortuga.  By that time, he was in Italy, married, and having children.  He had quietly renounced the right to his grandfather’s British titles, since he did not figure to leave Italy.  However, his grandfather’s titles as a Prince of the HRE and then a Prince-Elector were created after his death and he and his children never renounced those, so his eldest son will follow his grandfather as Prince-Elector of Franconia in the third volume of the series.

He is not to be confused with his nephew, Benjamin Thaddeus West (I14), the son of Ezekiel Robert West (I8), who is also the Angel Hermes and is known as “Benny.”  Benny has already appeared in the second volume, Angels Revolting, and will be a fairly major character throughout the series.

A list of the descendants of Thomas Ramsey can be found here.  As with the rest of the series and information about it, it is an evolving work: http://www.poetrybase.info/wat/Thomas%20Ramsey%20Descendants.html

As is mentioned in the “Indian Wars” chapter of the first volume of the series, due to Matthew West’s actions Thomas Ramsey wound up married to twenty-one Muscogee women simultaneously.  As some of his wives passed on, he usually maintained twenty-one wives by replacing those who passed, usually within a year.  His final count was sixty-two (62) wives and 1,019 children.  This gave him the claim to having fathered the highest number of children ever documented, at least until Tom Smith, Jr. surpassed him in the mid-19th century.  That still left Ramsey at the top of the list for non-Angels.

Many of Ramsey’s wives had multiple births, just as the West family had a high incidence of multiple births.  There is the implication in the “Indian Wars” chapter in the first volume that West might be related to Ramsey’s maternal grandmother, and so it might be natural in the line as was the Second Sight (ESP).  However, it is also possible that Matthew West may have altered Ramsey’s genome for some purpose.  This is not explicit in any of the volumes of the series, so it may not have happened.  Perhaps Ramsey has some natural mutations that can cause both identical and fraternal twins and multiple births.

Another factor to be aware of is that many of the children were born of Muscogee women, and the rest were later adopted in as new clans within the Muscogee Confederation.  Therefore, all last names are hyphenated to indicate both the paternal line and the maternal line (clan).  The clan names are not spelled as the Muscogee (este-Maskoke) now spell their language.  The names assigned to the new clans are also not formed exactly as they would be done today, or necessarily as they would have been formed in the late 18th century unaltered by the presence of Matthew West.  Several things are historically different than they would have been and have effected changes in the Muscogee people and their language.  Events in the third and fourth volumes of the series will further complicate their lingual landscape to the point where it becomes easier to use English as the official language of Hyperborea, the kingdom that forms out of the Muscogee Confederacy.

Ramsey gave many of his Muscogee wives English or Christian names.  There are a few with Muscogee names, but most became known by the names he gave them.

Another character in the Hidden Angels series is Thomas Ramsey. He was born Thomas Ramsay in 1695, but spelling was seldom consistent in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, and the family descended from him eventually settled on the Ramsey spelling. Even earlier in the family history, the name had been de Ramesie, so what’s a small variant in spelling between family members? His paternal line was related to the Earls of Dalhousie in Scotland. He was his father’s youngest son and, finding himself unlikely to inherit his father’s holdings, decided early on a life of adventure. When the Tuscarora War came along, he joined the forces sent from South Carolina to help the North Carolinians. From there, what happened over the next few years was documented in the chapter “Indian Wars (1711)” in the first volume of the series. Matthew West became his Mentor, and when the Yamasee War came along in the Spring of 1715, he brought Matthew West into the fight. This in turn led to his settling among the Ochese Creek Muscogee with a large number of wives. The Muscogee sometimes practiced polygyny lightly, especially for rich and successful men, although Ramsey became a very extreme case.

Matthew West set Thomas Ramsey up as a very wealthy trader among what would become known as the Creek Confederacy and later as the Grand Duchy and eventually Kingdom of Hyperborea. Because of West’s actions in Ocmulgee, Thomas Ramsey was married to twenty widows and the sister of a young warrior on 1 June 1715. One of the widows had many children very quickly with Ramsey, and his wives started competing not only for his affections, but also to see who would have the most children. Because Matthew West not only made Ramsey rich, but also helped him to continue growing his fortune, Ramsey became a very desirable man among the Muskogee. As some of his original wives died, other clans pushed their daughters onto him as wives. Also, since the Muscogee figured descent matrilineally, if one of his wives died without surviving daughters or with very few daughters, the clan she was from would provide Ramsey with another wife to ensure they would have his descendents in their clan. Ramsey also married several women of European descent and one former slave of African descent. Between the number of wives, the competition between them, and Ramsey’s long life, he had a very large number of children. Of course, not having special health genes, not all of those children made it to adulthood or lived long lives. Still, some of his descendants would eventually rule many of the world’s nations, particularly Hyperborea and Meropis.

After 1715, we will not see much of Thomas Ramsey directly in the series. He did teach at The Fortress in Charleston, and his sons who lived to be old enough attended that institution. Ramsey or his male descendants also participated in Matthew West’s adventures in various wars, although they are not directly mentioned within the first two volumes. Thomas Ramsey never was able to spend long years away and on campaign, though, due to the demands of his wives, younger children, and businesses. Eventually, he and his descendants who had trained at The Fortress would set up a similar university within the Creek Confederacy’s territory, The Stronghold. That institution would later move to Brunswick, which had been part of Georgia before negotiations which transferred the city and some other disputed areas of Georgia to Hyperborea.

In the 1720’s the French started trying to have more influence in the area to counteract English expansion in Georgia. They built Fort Toulouse not too far from Ramsey’s base in Ocmulgee. Ramsey traded with the French and helped them survive a lack of supplies coming from New Orleans. He also married several of his daughters off to the French officers and soldiers of the fort. This started as a way for Ramsey to keep an eye on the French and diminish their influence, particularly since he held an officer’s commission in the South Carolina and later other militias from English colonies. Eventually, after the American Revolution, he was playing the powers off each other and held general officer commissions for the United States, Britain, Spain, and the West Florida Colony, which would later become Meropis.

There were also waves of British and Spanish traders throughout the Indian lands while Ramsey was there. Many of these also married Ramsey’s daughters or granddaughters or great-granddaughters. Understandably with the number of daughters he had, he was more than willing to co-opt the competition by merging them into his family.

Like Matthew West, and with West’s assistance, Ramsey built many mills and factories around Ocmulgee and later throughout the Creek Confederation’s territory. While not living long enough to see the creation of the new nation of Hyperborea, he created the industrial base that would be the foundation of that nation’s wealth and power. He also helped spread some of Matthew West’s ideas on medical issues, and so helped the Muscogee in preventing many epidemics that would have otherwise ravaged them.

Thomas Ramsey was what anyone would call a good man. He worked hard. He took care of his wives and family. He was neither quick to anger, nor overly keen for war and adventure. (The latter being one of Matthew West’s flaws.) He was fair and reasonable. He was erudite. He liked to teach: the people of Ocmulgee, his descendants, the students at The Fortress, etc. While given extensive opportunities and wealth, he did not rest on that wealth, but worked hard to build it, to serve his family, and his community. Of course, with over a thousand children, a man does have motivation to work hard. He was a loyal man. He was loyal to his king and to his friends. He was loyal to the Muscogee people among whom he had settled, and he started them on their path to an independent nation. While we do not see a lot of him in the books, he and his family had a profound effect. It will also be hard to recognize many of his progeny, since the Muscogee were matrilineal, so that many of the powerbrokers of the future of what would become Hyperborea are descended from his daughters and their daughters rather than from his sons.

Since Matthew West and many of his descendents or in-laws are successfully active in wars for a monarchy, they receive titles of nobility.  Here are most that were created before 1778 and their statuses:

* Improperly attainted by the British Parliament, even though they were in the Peerage of the Duchy Palatine of Durendal, controlled by the Parliament of Durendal.

One of the characters in the Hidden Angels Series uses the name Matthew West from the year 1700 until 1778.  This character is the primary causation for the series, and many readers are dissatisfied that I do not have much more about him in the first book.  Part of that may come from a misconception that the book is a novel and that Matthew West is the protagonist, or at least the main character.  The book was never intended to be about him, but rather about his family members.  To put it bluntly, he’s the sperm donor for the series.  His main purpose is to spread his genetically engineered seed all over the place and to use his powers to provide advantages for his children and family.

In writing and developing the series over more than seven years before the book was published, I had several friends and relatives read the manuscript.  Many of them wanted more of Matthew West.  The initial plan for timing of the first four chapters was 1700, 1764, 1767, 1775.  The first chapter was “Fallen Angel (1700),” which is much-modified but still exists in the first volume of the series.  The next chapter was the chapter in which Enoch West catches the lightning and discovers his power.  The third chapter was where Enoch is training his powers and thinking about his siblings’ powers.  The fourth chapter was the first battle of the American Revolution where the “Angels” take out a British platoon and capture the rest of the company.  Again, this series of short stories within a family saga frame was intended to highlight Matthew West’s descendents, not him.

Why is that?  Mainly because he makes a really horrible character from a writer’s perspective.  Good characters are supposed to change and grow within a story.  Good characters have to get into dilemmas.  If a character is practically immortal with eternal youth, already very old, and having personal protection fields that render him invulnerable to outside forces, what’s to make him change or grow?  If he’s a million or more years old, is he really likely to change?  Wouldn’t he have already grown up and faced his demons as much as he could?  So, there cannot be any real physical or outer challenges to him as a character.  He’s just too powerful.  He does seem to show some internal conflicts.  He has a code of ethics, even if it is nothing like most people’s personal codes.  In the story “Stasis (1755),” he really hates that it is best for the most people and the world for one of his grandsons to die.  He could have saved Saul FitzGoliath (Born James Abraham West), but realizes that such action would take future history on a dangerous path.  Instead of letting history take its course and watching his grandson killed through torture, he takes a hand and kills Saul FitzGoliath and several others through a small direct conversion of mass to energy.  That is about as conflicted as he gets.  Still, I did add more about him and more about what he is doing for his family since the readers wanted it.  Yet, readers are still not satisfied.

So, you want to know about Matthew West?  You should be able to project much of this based on stories in the first two volumes, but I’ll lay it out now as plain as day.  In his own mind, he is very logical in his actions and is a nice enough guy.  Were you playing poker with him, you might also think he’s a very nice guy.  But he does have flaws.  One of the flaws is that he is easily bored.  This is brought out early in the first volume in “Intrusion (1711).”  Something comes up and he decides to meddle in the situation mainly because he’s bored.  A second major flaw is that he is not above playing judge, jury, and executioner, as he does in several chapers, such as “Indian Wars (1711)” or “Pirates and Pirate Treasure (1717).”  He kills the Creek warriors who were involved in killing the traders in the town of Ocmulgee.  He makes it seem as if it is some sort of contest, but think about his powers.  If he can withstand falling from the sky in a metal meteoric shell, a knife or axe blade is nothing to him.  Who appointed him to judge others?  He did, just because he could.  He is also manipulative.  Some manipulation is to be expected, and there is the old phrase about power corrupting.  But are there examples of his using his powers to manipulate people for his own convenience?  None that are explicit.  On the other hand, what’s really happening in “Fallen Angel (1700)?”  Molly notices that every time he touches her, she feels better.  Why would a pretty young girl need to feel better?  Maybe because her father just died?  Maybe because she was not over the death of her mother or any other siblings she may have had earlier in her life?  Maybe because the whole village of Native Americans who lived near her have died?  As an author, I don’t want this stuff too explicit in the stories, but Matthew West is manipulating her.  Yes, he is helping to heal her emotional hurts from being around death her whole lifetime.  It is not explicit in the version that was finally published, but he helped her overcome shock, too.  But is he doing it for her and her soul growth?  Or is he doing it because he would rather be around a smiling, happy, pretty girl rather than a fountain of tears.  Another case is where he allows a manipulation in his favor that he is not causing directly.  One of his descendants who is an Angel has a power of super-luck, which allows him unconsciously to manipulate his environment in an extreme way for his betterment.  When Matthew West is trying to buy an immediate domain and title as Fürst within the Holy Roman Empire, this grandson’s super-luck has manipulated things to make it much easier for Matthew West to get more than he wanted and get it inexpensively.  Does he do anything to change this situation?  Nope.  He rolls with it.

So, what are some of his other traits?  Many of these stem simply from his extreme age.  As people get older, they tend to become more and more themselves.  They stop worrying as much what other people think, and do what they think is right or what pleases them.  Being millions of years old, Matthew West is a character, strongly individualistic, and when it comes down to it, doesn’t care much what other people think about him.  Part of this is not worrying about status.  While he achieves high status, he doesn’t need the trappings of that status.  When Strachan and Locker realize that he is the Duke of Avalon, they start to rise.  He waves them back down.  Likewise he passes this disregard for status on to most of his progeny, so when initially confronted with Strachan and Locker, Tobias West, who is by courtesy a Marquess using his father’s subsidiary title, not only does not mention this, but makes tea for them himself.

As mentioned above, Matthew West does have his own code that he lives by.  Much of that code is informed by his past experience.  He passes some of these rules onto his progeny as well, especially those descended from him on both sides who are the “Angels” of the series and volume titles.  A large part of this code is based around rules that keep him and his powers from being directly noticed by normal people.  He tries not to do anything unexplainable in front of others, although he fails at that a few times, such as in “When the Hearth Burns Wild” in the second volume.  He puts out the fires and heals the burns of the British military contingent, although he denies having had anything to do with it.  He blames it on some unseen “Angel” or Angels who are watching him.

Perhaps this is the first characteristic I should have mentioned, but it’s obvious that this is not his first rodeo.  Even in the first chapter, he realizes “that it has happened again.”  He has a pattern that establishes itself due to his nature as an extremely hard to kill and powerful eternal.  As mentioned in more than one chapter, those with eternal youth have episodes of mental adjustment.  The human brain is not made to live for thousands or millions of years.  Every once in a while, it needs to reorganize and from the outside it often appears that the individual has gone mad.  Most eternals have these episodes on a periodic basis that may be from about 500 to 7,000 years depending on several factors.  Intelligence and mental agility contribute to an individual’s having a longer period between episodes.  Mental organization is another factor.  People who are extremely organized and logical are going to have longer periods between episodes than flighty, sloppy thinkers.  Mental organization helps to keep the accumulating information in check.  The character known as Matthew West is extremely mentally organized.  This is not just because of his age, either.  He was born as an outlier, not necessarily a mental mutant, but definitely at the far end of the bell curve.  His periodicity is 50,000 years.  The episode lasts approximately 2% of the period, so each of his episodes are 1,000 years.  He is a very powerful Angel with a wide range of powers.  He is very difficult to subdue during his periods, and it usually takes at least 250,000 years in any given universe that he is in before there are enough powerful “Angels” to overpower him.  As observed in the very first chapter, when he is overpowered, he has a defense mechanism that will blow him into another place and time, another parallel universe.  In some of these universes, treatments are developed which can postpone episodes.  So, some universes that he has existed in, he has lived in the same universe for millions of years before something went wrong.  Others, such as the one he was blown out of in the first chapter, it was early in his fifth episode (250,000 years) when he was overpowered.  Although I do not know if I shall ever get it done and published, I have one volume of the series set almost 100,000 years forward on another planet where he had spent his first episode in this universe and where they are trying to determine if he still exists and will have another episode and come back as “The Mad King” again.  He has been resident in at least a dozen universes, most of which have had an Earth and in which he has landed and effected changes to the history we know.  In the beginning of the second volume, he dreams about one of these when he showed up in China in 4,000 BCE.  In the beginning of the third volume, he’ll be seen in another universe where he changes the outcome of a famous English battle.

Going back to his code of ethics, he does try to avoid killing people.  The exceptions are where he is playing judge, jury and executioner, as previously mentioned and in battles.  But in incidents with General Woodward or Captain Fox and his crew, he finds ways to avoid actually killing them.  A related matter is that he believes in reincarnation.  Partially, this helps him assuage his guilt for those he does kill.  But he at least believes that he has encountered the same souls multiple times in their incarnations.  So, where he does kill in battle or kills a pirate or other criminal, he knows that they are only harmed in the physical world; whereas, their spirits not only survive, but they’ll be back.

Finally, he has an odd and playful sense of humor.  It is often also delivered deadpan, so Thomas Ramsey does not know whether West is only making up the story about telling the Appalachee chief about the vampire horses, whether he did tell the chief but was not serious, or whether he was serious about breeding vampire horses.  There are several other examples throughout the series where West may be pulling someone’s leg with his stories.  Characters are not necessarily to be trusted, especially when they have much to hide.