John Henry Booth is a character created by C.T. Phipps for the eponymous series of Mythos novels Cthulhu Armageddon.
Description[]
John Henry Booth is a middle aged African American man with grizzled features and is a physically imposing specimen. He prefers to dress in the weather beaten attire of a New Arkham Ranger or those of a cattle rancher.
John is a former Ranger that led Gamma Squadron for the Council of Leaders in New Arkham. He spent many years traveling and charting the Wasteland outside of his city-state in hopes of helping humanity's pockets of survivors. Unlike the majority of his fellow Rangers, John held little animus to mutants or members of human-related races like the Deep Ones or Ghouls.
John was grim and fatalistic with a reverence for both family as well as children. He was also pathologically obsessed with the idea of revenge.
History[]
Cthulhu Armageddon (EXP)[]
John wakes up imprisoned and sentenced to death in his hometown of New Arkham. His teammates, Gamma Squad, have been killed and he has no memory of how it happened. Interrogator Mercury Takahashi helps him escape in exchange for taking him with her. John has no interest in helping her, though, and plans to gain revenge on whoever is responsible for his teammates' death. Journeying to the frontier town of Scrapyard, they encounter the ghoul Richard Jameson who helps John explore the Dreamlands. This leads him to discover one of his fellow Rangers, Jessica O'Reilly, is alive. It also leads him to discover that the person who killed his squad, Alan Ward, is leading the Cult of Cthulhu to kidnap local children. Seeking out the Black Cathedral, John eventually allies with local tribals from Dunwich to assault it.
The Tower of Zhaal (EXP)[]
Dying of a magical sickness, John agrees to help The University try to prevent the rising of the last Great Old One, known as the Unimaginable Horror. Joining with a group of other Wasteland outlaws, he proceeds to try to track down Marcus Whateley before he unleashes it onto the world. After helping a shoggoth revolt against the Ghoul city keeping them as slaves, John and company reach the Tower of Zhaal that is being used to summon the Unimaginable Horror. Unable to prevent it, they instead use it to bring the attention of Cthulhu who destroys the creature in a battle that drives all but John insane.
During the events of the book, John discovers that he is not entirely human and is in fact the descendant of a race called the Kastro'vaal or Eyes of Yog-Sothoth. This event leaves him to contemplate suicide but, ultimately, he chooses to strike a bargain with his inhuman consciousness.
Behind the Mythos[]
According to C.T. Phipps, John Henry Booth is based on Roland from Stephen King's Dark Tower series as well as Clint Eastwood's character Will Munny from the 1992 Western Unforgiven. He is also inspired by Idris Elba in terms of "mental casting."