Solomon Kane is Robert E. Howard's 16th Century Puritan adventurer who wanders the world battling evil (supernatural and otherwise) with a brace of pistols and his military rapier. REH never provided an extensive backstory for Kane, his sole motivation seems to be a keen sense of justice resulting in an obsessive need to right wrongs.Howard only dropped a few hints and clues about Kane's origins. He was from Devonshire, born probably around 1530. His people -- his co-religionists -- were apparently some ultra-Protestant sect of dissenters, who were persecuted by Catholic Bloody Mary and Anglican Elizabeth in turn. Kane seems to have come from a once-prosperous backgound, but often refers to himself (bitterly?) as a landless man. It seems reasonable to suppose that his family's lands and properties were seized by the Crown at some point, leaving them impoverished. It was likely during this early period that Kane was taught the use of the rapier.Kane went to sea as a young man, his travels taking him as far as India and China. His earliest recorded adventures both took place during a return to England, on the road to Torkertown, apparently near the end of the reign of King Edward VI (probably in the year 1553).He seems to have been involved in the Wars of Religion in France at some point, and to have regretted it. There's some whiff or suggestion of massacres or other war crimes, for which Kane was probably not directly or personally responsible, but for which he feels some pangs of conscience. An encounter with a dying girl led to Kane chasing down the bandit chief Le Loup, a persuit that led through Italy and Spain to Africa's Slave Coast.Returning to Europe, Kane's wanderings took him to Germany's Black Forest, where he met fellow Englishman John Silent. With Silent, Kane fought Moslem corsairs in the Mediterranean. Captured in a fight, he was forced to become a galley slave for a time.Upon escaping from slavery, Kane returned to England, where he fought and slew Sir John Taferal in a duel of honor. A request from the dying man sent him back to Africa on a quest to rescue an innocent girl from Barbary pirates.Kane sailed around the world as a member of Francis Drake's crew. He was a close personal friend of Sir Richard Grenville, another of the privateering/semi-piratical English sea dogs of that period. He seems to have known/been mixed up with outright pirates at some time.He was at some point a captive in Spain, and was tortured (as a heretic) by the Spanish Inquisition. Escaping Spain, Kane returned to Africa and was gifted with a cat-headed voodoo staff by the wizard N'Longa. Show less «