Kane (fantasy)

A literary character created by Karl Edward Wagner in a series of sword and sorcery novels and short stories between 1970 and 1985. The stories are set in a grim, pre-medieval world which is nonetheless ancient and rich in history.

Little is known about Kane's origins, he is said to have killed his brother and been cursed with eternal life by a mad god. Kane is portrayed as an excellent warrior and accomplished sorcerer without a home, who spends the millenia wandering from one adventure into the next. He is often compared to Conan the Barbarian (this is partly because Wagner also wrote several Conan stories), but is quite different in that he is an intelligent, often devious character with a more somber and reflective outlook on life than Conan. He is largely ambivalent towards common morality, seeing himself as someone above the concerns of normal men and frequently tends to end up on the wrong side in the conflicts he gets involved in, to his own detriment. A common theme running through all Kane stories is the hero's weariness with his own immortality and his attempts to give his existence meaning.