The Kersley Family

The Kersley Family is one of the oldest and widely known families in all of Malton. With a long legacy of scientists and inventors their fortune was built on conspiracy. From Biotechnology to the practices of the occult, the Kersley Family is one of the most influential familes in Malton.

Appolonius V. Kersley

Appolonius V. Kersley was a young scientist in WWI and became famous when he was accused of selling plans for classified projects to the Germans. One of these plans was a medical procedure that could reactivate dead tissue. Appolonius' trial was shrouded in scandal with government interferences. He later on went to work for the Army and Intelligence services through both World Wars. After the Armistice, Kersley had several children - one of them was the famous eccentric Willum J. Kersley, who would later found Necrotech.

Kersley Mansion, seen from the south.

After World War II, Stanbury-based scientist Appolonius V. Kersley built a large and luxurious mansion in South-East Stanbury, in order to raise a family with his wife Gretzel Kersley (nee Klemperwitz). He also founded a research laboratory on the grounds of his mansion to work on medical and genetic research. Barely any credible information about the group was released, but their research was supposedly based on the technologies Kersley had worked on throughout the World Wars. Later, Willum J. Kersley would use many members of this research team to form the core of Necrotech, in response to the zombie menace. According to the wild rumour mill of the Malton tabloids, the Kersley Mansion held the secrets to mysteries like the identity of JFK's killer, the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa's body, who framed Roger Rabbit, and truth about the infamous STREETS. Kersley died young, and mysteriously- despite having no recorded history of health issues of any kind, he dropped dead of a supposed massive heart attack while walking down Frye Way one day, without any prior warning - or, indeed, any following warning either. His will was obfuscating and convoluted, and never became fully sorted out, with only one possession of his being passed on in an orderly manner. That possession was Kersley Mansion - and it went to Willum.

Willum J. Kersley

Willum J. Kersley (detail from a press conference photo)

Willum J. Kersley was the secretive and reclusive billionaire who founded Necrotech. Before the outbreak he occupied the beautiful Kersley Mansion in Stanbury Village, but the location is now ruined by fire, and Kersley himself has disappeared. The circumstances of Necrotech's creation are mysterious and several journalists have failed to uncover any new information. All records on Kersley's past and finances have been elided.

Rumours about Kersley

(None of these rumours, or any substantial information about Kersley, have been verified:)

1. Supposedly responsible for the unusually high number of local kidnappings. The police instead blamed inmates escaped from the decommissioned Shackleville Penitentiary.
2. Supposedly responsible for the occasional local electricity brownouts. Utility companies instead blamed clouds of radon gas.
3. Supposedly deserted the Army in Vietnam after finding a temple brimming with jewels and treasure. However, other rumours say he deserted earlier, in Korea, after coming afoul of an occult group there and contracting an unknown disease. There are no enlistment records of a Willum J. Kersley in the U.S. or British armies.
4. Was often visited by young Filipino males, sometimes in large groups. Presumably, they were just tourists.
5. Weekly deliveries to the mansion apparently included several tons of coloured gelatin, and back-catalogues of 50s-60s era conspiracy magazines.
6. Supposedly worked for the CIA, DARPA, Mossad, KGB, Spetnatz, SAS, GRU, OSS, MI6, etc. etc., depending on whom you ask.
7. Always wore full sleeves, gloves, and either a scarf, cravatte or large collar; some say he had a horrible skin condition or flesh-eating disease, others say he just had style.
8. His voice was notably stilted and high-pitched, according to some of those who heard him speak.
9. They say he killed a man in Reno just to watch him die.

As of the time of the outbreak Willium Kersley had no children, and (taking all possible bodily clues) would have been about 80 years old. Yet in all his years since his sudden appearance in 1949 no-one ever saw any hint of him aging or slowing down.