Knight

Lawrence “Knight” Santiago

PERSONALITY

Knight likes to think of himself as something of an enigma. Coming from across the pond under an obviously fake name, and keeping all of his details under wraps he’s managed to be at least a little bit suspicious. He’s nominally friendly, and more than happy to share a drink with anyone who expresses even a passing enjoyment of his music. Knight is definitely not a violent man, and is at odds with the machinations of anyone who has that as their default setting, but he’s willing to get along with most in exchange for alcohol.

HISTORY

Knight jumped on a boat to the United States as soon as the first whispers of jazz music hit the Old World. Jazz was the music he had been waiting for, everything that his incessant piano playing had been working towards. Every little bit of tinkering that he had tried to make the piano new, was there in jazz. He started renting the shittiest apartment he could find, and bought a beat up old vertical piano that for the first few months was his only piece of furniture. Knight struggled to make any contact with the American wizarding community as he’d left in rather a hurry, for more than one reason. He kept in the habit of casually using magic for his own ends, but he had exclusively Muggle friends and colleagues for quite some time.
His life was, for the most part quite easy. He gained a small measure of fame as a jazz player, earned more than enough money to keep food on his plate and beer in his fridge, until Prohibition, of course. Unfortunately, his old life- more specifically, his family- eventually caught up with him. And not out of idle curiosity, or concern for his wellbeing, they sent him a letter fraught with worry about the disappearance of his Welsh cousin Emyr. Buoyed on by none too subtle threats and pleas, he set out to track down his errant cousin. This turned out to be a simple task, as the boy had found his way into a Speakeasy and had spent the rest of his time there squandering his money and bragging about his piano playing cousin.
Knight didn’t have the funds to send Emyr back home, the boy would just get on the next boat back, even if Knight managed to get him on a boat in the first place. Beyond that, the family seemed somewhat fed up with him anyway, so Knight decided to send him to the nearby school. And, showing what he considered to be an unhealthy level of kinship, he moved to the nearby Camden Hills, to better keep an eye on the goings on. Beyond that, he was in a little bit of trouble concerning the tab that the boy had racked up on his name, along with his own debts to various Speakeasies, so it seemed like a good time to find some new crowds to spread his music to. Perhaps even find some new talent that he might be able to convince to work with him- a jazz band seemed like a fantastic idea.