In 8250 B.C., an ambitious hunter and his tribe attempt to become empowered by a Bloodgem guarded by Ulluxy’l Kwan Tae Syn. The ceremony proves fatal to the tribe and the Bloodgem explodes, with a fragment embedding itself in the hunter's chest. The Bloodgem endows the man with immortality and he takes the name Ulysses Bloodstone, hunting Syn and the monsters that get in his way.
Paid for in Blood
It all started in the distant past when an ancient race of gods in an alien universe, where chaos rather than order was the binding force of the cosmos, create the Bloodgem to conquer other dimensions. Their intention: to turn those realms into a form similar to their own. The Bloodgem serves as a conduit for the energies of the Hellfire Helix, an interdimensional nexus point through which all magics and energies pass. These energies somehow create a consciousness known as the Exo-Mind.
As per the wishes of these gods, the Exo-Mind creates Ulluxy’l Kwan Tae Syn as its guardian; the gods need five such guardians to complete the ritual necessary for interdimensional travel. However, the Exo-Mind has no interest in the outcome of the Elders’ goals and sabotaged their ritual. The Bloodgem is thus hurled across time and space, arriving in the final stages of a collapsing universe. The Bloodgem survives the death of that reality and is subsequently released during the subsequent “Big Bang” that creates the current Earth dimension. The Bloodgem spawns the future Star of Capistan at some point.
Billions and billions of years later, the Bloodgem is one of the gems brought to Kree-Lar by scientists investigating the Alpha and Omega Stones, uniting a series of artifacts which also access the Hellfire Helix. The gems are linked to form the Lifestone tree, which genetically remakes eight representatives to serve as the Chosen Eight of Fate (occasionally referred to as the Guardians of the Galaxy), whose purpose was to maintain peace among the inhabited worlds. This group is active for over two hundred years, after which galactic peace collapsed.
Efforts to steal the Lifestones cause a warp-drive implosion, creating a fissure in space that shatters many of the Lifestones to the far corners of the galaxy and beyond. Among these were the crystals that would become known as the Godstone (which empower the Stargod of Other Realm and the Man-Wolf), the Ka Stone (which empowers the Sphinx), the Moongem (which would later empower both incarnations of Moonstone), the Power Prism (which empowers Dr. Spectrum), and the gem that empowers the Blue Diamond. Like the Bloodgem, many of the Lifestones have complex origins prior to the creation of the Lifestone Tree.
The Bloodgem itself arrives on Earth in 8250 B.C. The utilization of the Bloodgem allows it to be located anew by the Exo-Mind, which allegedly decides that it wishes to observe the evolution of humanity through disinterested eyes. It requires a host whose entire existence revolves around a single purpose; it decided on revenge. The Exo-Mind dispatches Syn to Earth, and he rapidly creates a citadel in a cavern around the Bloodgem. The gem’s fiery trip through Earth’s atmosphere draws the attention of a hunter who leads his subsequent hunts in that direction. Spying a cloaked figure (Syn), the hunter follows him into a cavern where he approaches an advanced citadel. Though shocked by Syn’s monstrous appearance, the hunter is granted great power by Syn and invited to bring his tribe to the citadel, so they, too, could gain power.
However, the ceremony proves fatal to the hunter’s tribe, and the hunter, surviving due to the energies he now possessed, leaps atop the Bloodgem in an effort to stop the process. The Bloodgem explodes, and one geometrically perfect fragment imbeds itself in the savage’s sternum; the others are scattered across the planet. The Bloodgem fragments each access only certain “wavelengths” of energy. The hunter receives immortality, and dedicates himself to exacting revenge upon Syn, the being he held responsible for his people’s death, and eventually takes the name Ulysses Bloodstone. In time, fragments come into the possession of others, such as Raa of the Hill People (one of the Anachronauts) and the man known at various times as the Mad Merlin, the Magus, Maha Yogi, and Merlin Demonspawn. But this story is about Ulysses millennia-long search for Syn.
Bloodgem Powers
The Bloodgem fragment grants Bloodstone superhuman stamina, agility, senses, and vast regenerative powers, enabling him to regenerate from virtually any injury up to the dispersion of a vital portion of his bodily molecules. Some sources claim he can regenerate if a single cell survives. He’s immune to aging and conventional diseases and does not require air, food, or water. Removal of the Bloodgem proves rapidly fatal.
Bloodstone possesses an invisible “third eye” on his forehead, granting him extrasensory perception, enabling him to see human auras (and thus see people in the dark) and mentally access astral planes. He has limited telekinetic powers and can also enter suspended animation.
Bloodstone has experience in virtually every human form of combat and martial arts, and possesses vast knowledge of weaponry. He uses a wide variety of bladed and ballistic weapons; his favorite is a specially designed shotgun that fires explosive shells that he psychically detonates. The shotgun can fire five rounds before it requires reloading. He also has weapons specially designed for vampires, and a lamp that senses danger and can transport him to its site.
Forever Foes
Being a monster hunter for over a millennia, Ulysses racks up countless enemies—mostly monsters whom he dispatches—but the one that eludes him is the Exo-Mind created being, Ulluxy’l Kwan Tae Syn, who originally guarded the Bloodgem. Syn often sends monsters to attack Ulysses while Ulysses hunts Syn, giving the latter the time to elude his hunter.
Monster Hunters
In the late 1950s, Ulysses co-founds the Monster Hunters, a team comprised of Makkari of the Eternals, the Wakandan warrior Zawadi, and mystic Anthony Ludgate Druid, AKA Doctor Druid. They go up against Gorgilla, who’s turned an ally, Gigantus, monstrous mutates, and their leader, the Deviant warlord Kro.
Over his millennia-long life, Ulysses possibly has many wives and children. The ones that are known about include his wife Elise, an archeologist, his daughter and monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone, his son Cullen, who sometimes transforms into a monster, and his long-lost daughter Lyra, whom he sacrifices with the Nullgem to trap Krakken—a higher being who obtains power through British and Irish priests. When his three children finally reunite, they battle the Krakken together.
Journals Across a Millenia
For a hundred centuries, Bloodstone pursued his goal of taking down Syn, while Syn sought to regather the Bloodgem fragments. To keep Bloodstone from reaching him, Syn dispatched hordes of extradimensionally-born monsters to kill him. Bloodstone triumphed over the creatures sent against him, but only succeeded in locating his arch foe a handful of times. When he lost Syn’s trail completely, and was not involved in learning new languages, skills, or knowledge, Bloodstone went into a self-induced suspended animation, sometimes for up to a century at a time.
Shortly after his mutation, Bloodstone banished the powerful alien Orrgo. He was present in ancient Egypt, during the rise and fall of the Greek and Roman empires, and during the formation of Britain’s Parliament. At some point he fought the mighty dragon Fin Fang Foom.
About 10,000 years prior to the modern age, he fathered a daughter, Lyra. In a time of crisis, when the magical warlord Krakkan planned to claim the Earth for his own, Ulysses made a bargain with the gods: he would sacrifice the Nullgem—how he came into possession of it is unrevealed, but it stabilized and amplified the bloodgem’s power—and his only child. Ulysses gained power from the bargain, allowing him to beat Krakkan and banish the beast. But Ulysses would go on to have other children.
Bloodstone also served as a swashbuckling pirate on the high seas, enjoyed the Renaissance, and fought demons as one of the Puritans. He served as a major in the American army during the Revolutionary War, fighting alongside General Wallace Worthington and the Captain America of that period. In the 19th century, he took the name Ahab and was captain of the Pequod, during which time his pursuit of an incarnation of the Atlantean Giganto gave rise to the legend of Moby-Dick. In the American west, Bloodstone took the alias “Redstone Kid.” During this time, he unsuccessfully tracked the Living Totem.
By the early 20th century, Bloodstone had acquired a fortune through mercenary work and shrewd investments. Bloodstone served as a biplane pilot during World War I and fought Nosferatu vampires during the 1930s. During World War II, he encountered the Blonde Phantom. In 1956, as Frank, he defeated the monstrous ant Grottu and helped form the Monster Hunters, eventually encountering the likes of Gorgilla, Gigantus, the Deviant warlord Kro (who had been unleashing many of the monstrous mutates that plagued the Earth at that time), Skrulls, and the heroes who would become the First Line. Bloodstone also encountered the smoke monster Diablo, Dracula, the Frankenstein’s Monster, Gor-Kill, and N’Kantu, AKA Living Mummy, among countless others. Bloodstone encouraged the Monster Hunters to contribute to his lengthy monster journals, and they gathered stories from others’ fantastic encounters.
By the late 20th century, Bloodstone had established bases in six different locations across the globe, each with handpicked operatives. These included Bloodstone Island, Tropic of Cancer, near the Caribbean Ocean; Minibase-6, Harlem, New York; a base near Moscow, Russia; a mansion in Boston, Massachusetts; and at least two others. At some point he married a woman, Elise, with whom he had a daughter, Elsa, but Ulysses left when Elsa was two years old.
In the modern era, after defeating a psychic monster known as the Possessor, Bloodstone followed the Bloodgem’s guidance to work in film with director P.D.Q. Werner and actor Brad Carter; the latter accompanied Bloodstone on adventures.
The Exo-Mind allegedly came to tire of experiencing life through Bloodstone. It had Syn ally himself with the Conspiracy, a group of four others—surgeon Dr. Juden Bardham, the dark sorcerer Kaballa, ecdysiast Bubbles O’Day, and an intelligent dolphin named Atlan—assembled by the Exo-Mind to complete the five beings necessary to channel the Hellfire Helix’s full energy into Earth. The Conspiracy was told that they would gain the Helix’s power, while giving the Exo-Mind a new perspective. The Conpiracy assisted Syn in assembling the remaining Bloodgem fragments, but they betrayed Syn, backing the evolved scientist Centurius, who slew Syn and replaced him in the Conspiracy.
When Bloodstone became attracted to reporter Samantha Eden, the Conspiracy dispatched their agent Dominic Dunsinane, AKA Domino, to prevent Bloodstone from becoming distracted from his single-minded quest, thus causing the Exo-Mind to lose its hold on him. After battling agents of the Conspiracy, including the Killer Shrike and the monsters Goram and Sharzan, Bloodstone was captured by Kaballa, and the Conspiracy cut the Bloodgem fragment from his chest, leaving him for dead while they performed the ceremony to reassemble the fragments and gain their power. However, the Exo-Mind instead absorbed the Conspiracy’s life forces, transformed the Bloodgem into a giant form which it inhabited, and rampaged through Manhattan. Clinging to life via residual Bloodgem energy, Bloodstone confronted the crystalline creature and cast his soul into it, disrupting the Hellfire Helix, severing the Exo-Mind’s connection to Earth and shattering the Bloodgem. Bloodstone’s form collapsed, leaving only a lifeless skeleton.
Years later, Baron Helmut Zemo, AKA Baron Zemo, located Bloodstone’s skeleton in the Museum of Natural History, and used his sternum as a divining rod to track down the Bloodgem fragments, which he used to try to resurrect his father, Baron Heinrich Zemo, AKA Baron Zemo. However, the assembled Bloodgem summoned the Exo-Mind, which possessed Zemo’s form and made plans to take over the Earth. The Bloodgem was shattered and fell into a volcano, banishing the Exo-Mind once again.
Ulysses left his daughter Elsa and her pregnant mother his Boston home, the Bloodstone house, along with all of its contents, accumulated during his millennia of adventures. She was later given a Bloodgem fragment and her father’s journals, and she became a monster hunter in her own right.
