Blackmore (The Suffering)

"That fool tried to play me? Thinks he's too good for my game? Too bad for him I'm the one who writes the rules. I'm gonna show him what his life can be like alone. Don't need to be subtle about it..."

- Blackmore, gearing up to murder Torque's family in good morality playthroughs

Blackmore is a minor villain mentioned in the 2004 horror game The Suffering, and the main villain of its 2005 sequel, The Suffering: Ties That Bind. The undisputed ruler of Baltimore's criminal underworld, "Colonel" Blackmore dominates the city's illegal drug trade, eliminating any rivals to his empire through swift, brutally-efficient tactics - including the use of an underground sewage pond as a drowning pool. For this reason, he has emerged as one of the most infamous figures in Baltimore's troubled history, to the point that even the police do not dare oppose him. His fearsome reputation is only enhanced by the mystique surrounding him, for only a privileged few have ever met him face-to-face.

During the backstory, series protagonist Torque used to work for Blackmore, but following his marriage to Carmen and the birth of his sons, Torque attempted to leave the crime lord's employ. Blackmore's retaliation not only drove the couple into a bitter divorce, but ultimately led to Torque being sent to prison for the murder of his family - thus setting the stage for the events of the first game. As such, Ties That Bind concerns the protagonist's search for vengeance against his former employer, and the mysterious game that Blackmore insists on playing with Torque.

He was voiced by the late Michael Clarke Duncan, who also played Attar in The Planet Of The Apes, Manute in Sin City, and the Kingpin in Daredevil.

Appearance
From the moment he appears in the game, Blackmore is immediately distinguishable from the rank and file of his henchman, even while dressed in an inmate's uniform at East Baltimore Correctional. Tall and thin, he is bald except for his eyebrows and the goatee on his chin. He sports numerous old burns along his cheeks, along with several laceration scars running across his face, though it's never specified how he acquired them. Most distinctive of all are his piercing grey eyes, the left of which appears to be obscured by a milky-white cataract, though he shows no signs of vision difficulties in any of his scenes.

In the overwhelming majority of his scenes, the crime lord wears a very specific ensemble consisting of a crimson button-up shirt with the top two buttons undone, a pair of black pants, and dress shoes. The only exception to this rule is during his visit to East Baltimore Correctional in the introduction, in which he wears the faded blue uniform of an inmate.

Most of the inexplicable details concerning Blackmore's appearance are later justified by the fact that he has no physical form of his own, and his distinctive look is due entirely to Torque's childhood imagination. However, he has woven the illusion of his existence so well that the trouble convict doesn't notice that nobody seems to ever look in the crime lord's direction, or that nobody ever appears to speak directly to him. It's not until Torque begins to take into account the fact that witnesses keep mistaking him for Blackmore that the illusion begins to unravel, culminating in the crimelord effectively unmasking himself in the final level of the game, "Born Into This." For good measure, in Jordan's notebook entry on Blackmore, the photograph provided is just one of Torque wearing a cowboy hat.

Personality
Created to be Torque's opposite in every single way, Blackmore's personality reverses every single major trait of the protagonist: where Torque is plagued with doubts over his sense of self, Blackmore is effortlessly confident; where one struggles with anger management problems, the other never loses his cool; where Torque remains silent, Blackmore enjoys monologuing; where the troubled convict tackles his opponents up close with any weapon available to him, the criminal mastermind prefers to plot and manipulate from behind the scenes; where one chose to marry and start a family, the other prefers casual sex and regards relationships as unnecessary distractions; where Torque is content to follow, Blackmore is determined to dominate everyone and everything in Baltimore.

Cold, calculating and ruthless, Blackmore has become infamous for his use of brutal, devastating tactics, wiping out all opposition by any means necessary - especially those that leave a lasting impression. Most famous of all these methods is his Drowning Pool, in which those who opposed or inconvenienced the crime lord in anyway were disposed of, condemning them to a slow and unpleasant death in the cloying sewage. Those who attempt to leave Blackmore's service suffer an even worse fate: when Torque began showing more loyalty to his family than his employer, Blackmore slowly dismantled his personal life, tormenting Carmen with threatening letters and hiring men to provoke Torque to violence, concluding with Torque being sent to jail for manslaughter and his wife divorcing him. And when this wasn't enough, Blackmore took his deterrent to the next level, either by having Torque's family murdered, getting Torque's eldest son addicted to drugs and driving him to murderous insanity, or by manipulating Torque into killing his family himself.

In keeping with this ruthless nature, "The Colonel" demonstrates a profoundly Darwinistic streak; in much the same way that Torque's Hatred encouraged him to murder the defenseless, Blackmore encourages Torque to kill anyone who even mildly inconveniences him, approvingly remarking "now you can rise up on the backs of the dead," and making a particular point of noting "kill or be killed" when speaking out in favor of murdering Riley. For good measure, he shows little regard for heroin addicts, dismissing Kyle's withdrawal pain with a sneer of "he did this to himself."

Blackmore has a particular fascination with games, adopting terminology based on sports and strategy games: in various scenes, he himself as a "last-minute entry", dismisses Miles as a "sucker player," gloatingly advises Torque on all the pieces that make the game better, and concludes an ambush by cheekily asking "ready for checkmate?" Every action Blackmore takes is essentially a game of chess, effectively summarizing both his scheming, strategic nature, and his ambition: he plays to win on all-or-nothing stakes, whether it's in his attempts to take over Baltimore or in his struggle to take over Torque's brain.

Despite his fearsome reputation Blackmore demonstrates a jovial, almost avuncular charm, treating his employees generously when they serve capably, and remaining friendly with Torque even once they have declared war on each other. Indeed, Blackmore calls his former employee "my little one," regarding him as a misguided son more than anything else - and has actually been doing so ever since Torque's childhood, raising him to follow his way of life. Overall most of this affability is genuine in nature: for all his ruthlessness, Blackmore despises unnecessary cruelty, does his best to persuade Torque before forcing him, and reacts very violently to the death of Torque's family in the even that both games have ended on a positive morality rating. However, this affability rarely ever stops the crime lord from exercising his legendary ruthlessness - including getting Cory addicted to drugs in the neutral ending, throwing Cory's ghost into the Drowning Pool, and destroying Torque's personality so he can move in "full-time."

The Imaginary Friend
Unknown to all but a highly select few, Blackmore began life as a secondary personality of the series' protagonist, Torque. As with his other major secondary personality, the future crime lord first came into existence as a direct response to Torque's difficult childhood in the Garvey Children's Home: with most of the other children either bullying him for his status as an outsider or fearing him for his violent temper, Torque had few friends, and in desperate need of guidance. As such, it wasn't long before his own subconsciousness conjured an alternative; it's not known precisely when Blackmore first appeared, but he emerged with his mission fully established: making Torque a success.

Over the course of their time together at the orphanage, Torque's imaginary friend served as both a surrogate father and a mentor, calling him "my little one" even as he encouraged the problem child to embrace criminal ambition. Given his shaky grasp of reality, it's not known if Torque ever became aware that his teacher wasn't real, but it's suggested that he was at least partly aware of it; at one point, a caretaker happened to walk in during one of Blackmore's lessons, only for Torque to claim he hadn't been talking to anybody. Similarly, he showed no sign of shock when Blackmore vanished as soon as an adult entered.

However, the two were eventually forced to "part ways": once Torque grew old enough to leave the Children's Home, the lessons stopped, and with a life outside the orphanage to attend to, he soon forgot all about his imaginary friend. It's not known what prompted the end of the lessons, but it's likely that it was caused by Blackmore's first forays into physical existence: having blossomed into a secondary personality in his own right, he wanted a life of his own. From his adolescence onward, Torque began experiencing psychological black-outs in which he could remember nothing: some of these were brought on by his explosive rage, but the overwhelming majority of them were due to Blackmore flexing his muscles for the first time.

While Torque struggled with the effort of holding down a job and keeping his temper in check, Blackmore was making inroads into Baltimore's criminal underworld. Though he only had control once a week at the most, he made the most of what little time he had, delving deep into organized crime, racketeering, extortion and drug dealing; bit by bit, he built up a reputation for brutal-but-effective tactics, making him both highly-valued and greatly-feared among the gangsters of the city, until he eventually became powerful enough to build his own gang into a syndicate in its own right. Blackmore also gained a reputation as a man of mystery, for once he had enough influence to manage his gang from behind the scenes, he never showed his face unless he absolutely have to - usually only remaining in direct contact with a handful of trusted lieutenants, most of whom were under the impression that Blackmore just happened to look like Torque.

Eventually, the newly-forged crime lord was able to out-brutalize all other major crime syndicates and crown himself as the king of Baltimore's gangsters. For good measure, he was able to maintain his stranglehold over the city's rackets through regular displays of cruelty, most prominently via the Drowning Pool, a large concrete vat of sewage hidden deep beneath Baltimore. Through calculated acts of atrocity such as these, Blackmore soon became so infamous that he became a legend among criminals and law-abiding citizens alike, his notoriety only fueled by his ghostly, elusive nature.

However, this lifestyle wasn't enough for Blackmore: he was still limited to what opportunities he could seize while Torque was unconscious, and the crime lord's ambitious nature would not tolerate such restrictions for long: he wanted full control over Torque's body.

Carmen and Blackmore
After many years of ruling the city from behind the scenes, Blackmore chose to reintroduce himself to Torque, choosing to "meet" him at one of his favored hangouts, namely a derelict gazebo in Druitt Hill. By this time, the troubled young offender had managed to turn his life around: he'd found employment at a local gym and was in a committed relationship with a woman named Carmen - who he'd actually met at that very gazebo. However, Blackmore convinced him that he could achieve more in life, offering him more money than he could earn in a year of work at the gym in exchange for his loyalty; Torque agreed, and soon found himself as a footsoldier in the world of organized crime.

At first, everything proceeded relatively smoothly: Torque earned a very generous salary in Blackmore's service as promised, and his relationship with Carmen remained happy and stable. Eventually, they even married and had a son, Cory. However, as time went on, Torque's working life and his personal life began to collide: Blackmore became aware of Carmen's existence, and took a dim view of the influence she was exerting on her husband's decisions. This was ostensibly because she was an obstacle to Torque's ascent through the ranks, but in reality, it was likely due to the fact that her moderating behavior made her a potential danger to the crime lord's plans to become the dominant personality. If he wanted his plan to be successful, Blackmore had to make sure that Torque's personality was similar to his own before he finally assimilated it, and Carmen's presence threatened this modification; so, he set out to end their marriage by any means available to him.

He began by speaking with Torque one-on-one, trying to convince him that he'd be better off without his wife if he wanted to get anywhere in life. Not only did his other self ignore him, but when Carmen admitted to disapproving of his criminal lifestyle - reasoning that it was no way to raise a family and correctly suspecting that Blackmore was just using him - Torque went so far as to leave the crime lord's service for good. Infuriated, he began harassing Carmen with threatening phone calls and angry letters, insisting that she break off her marriage for the sake of the family. Though extremely distressed by this approach, the two remained together. For good measure, the threat inspired Torque to begin plotting against Blackmore with his close friend Miles - unaware that neither of them could physically harm him.

However, it was just prior to one of Torque's regular visits to Miles' bar that Blackmore took his attack on the family to the next level: ordering one of his henchmen to deliberately anger Torque, he then arranged a discreet call to the police summoning them to the bar. As ordered, the henchman went out of his way to provoke the ex-criminal to violence, first by making lewd comments about Carmen, then insinuating that he'd sold drugs to Cory, and finally calling his wife a whore and implying that Cory wasn't really his son at all. Seconds later, Torque beat the man to death - at the very moment the police burst in. Torque was arrested for manslaughter, with Miles being collared as well for aiding and abetting. Though the deliberate provocation was taken into account by the judge, it wasn't enough to get either of them off the hook, and both men were sentenced to five years in East Baltimore Correctional.

For good measure, Carmen visited Torque in jail some time later: revealing she was pregnant, she admitted she could no longer trust her husband or his protestations of innocence, and that he couldn't be a father to Corey or their newest child while in prison. The visit ended with Carmen divorcing Torque - exactly as Blackmore had intended.

Having naturally gone to prison as well, Blackmore took advantage of his other self's continued blackouts to take over Eastern. Scant hours after being informed of the divorce, Torque and Miles were confronted by a gang of thugs - supposedly confronted by Blackmore, but only in Torque's distorted view of reality: informing the two that they were now officially conscripts in the crime lord's army, the thugs went so far as to beat Miles to a pulp, before being drawn away by a massive riot. Despite the confusion, Blackmore continued his attempts to sway Torque to his side by offering him a clean slate in his organization in exchange for murdering a captured prison guard: whether he accepts the offer, kills the hostage-takers or does nothing is up to the player. Finally, Blackmore tested the full scope of Torque's power by deploying first the full brunt of the rioters against him, then the Slayers summoned up by the rioting.

Once the riot had ended and the prison had returned to normal, Torque defied expectations by managing to continue his relationship with Carmen despite the divorce: though she'd initially refused conjugal visits, she found herself attending anyway; and though she'd doubted that Torque could be a father while imprisoned, she took Cory to see him - and later, her new son Malcolm. Blackmore was annoyed, but with the two personalities incarcerated, there was precious little he could do to stop Carmen from attending. Eventually, Torque was released from prison, and went on with his life, doing his best to be a responsible father to Cory and Malcolm on the occasions when he had custody of the two boys.

Infuriated that his other self still refused to comply with his orders, Blackmore set out to destroy Torque's family once and for all...

The Suffering
Blackmore's method of dealing with Torque's family is determined entirely by how the player chooses to proceed through the two games.

In the event that the player takes the good morality path by saving lives and helping those in need, it's revealed that Blackmore paid a gang of thugs to murder Torque's family, beating Carmen to death, drowning Malcolm in the bathtub, and throwing Cory out the window. Torque, arriving home just in time to see the last of the murders take place, he is left alive on Blackmore's instructions and mockingly told to enjoy his new life alone. However, should players continue the good path in Ties That Bind, it's revealed that Blackmore only wanted the family terrified enough to leave Torque of their own accord, but the thugs he hired proved too bloodthirsty to stop at a simple assault case (this does not apply in other morality playthroughs, of course).