Mikhail

"Why were we not told of the bell? I had the grail in my own hands. We were so close."

Mikhail is a ghost encountered in Aeternis.

Background
Mikhail is... Well, was a sailor hailing from Novgorod. He was part of the crew on the Cirrus, one of two ships dispatched to Aeternis with the final resupply mission in 1307. However, rather than aid the Templars, they were supposed to enter the Temple and acquire the Grail for the Priory of Sion.

Mikhail and his team met with Cobweb for a briefing and received a map of Aeternis leading straight to the Grail. Unbeknownst to them, they were set up to fail and their fate was sealed when they entered Aeternis. Tipped off by Phillip, the sailors were captured and subjected to horrific tortures by Tobias. Alas, they were only told what they had to know for the purposes of the mission. Identities of the agents or the intentions of the Prieure were not part of that.

Their silence only bought them suffering: Tobias hanged the attackers throughout the temple, promising to quarter them later... After a thousand years of suffering. By the time the Holy Thief encounters him, he is almost completely gone in terms of sanity and mostly gone in terms of flesh.

Interactions

 * Mikhail is found dangling from the rigging of The Tempest and will engage you in conversation. Being a corpse that was stuck there for the past hundreds of years, all he can tell relates to the original attempt to take the Grail and the Prieure's mission.

Behind the scenes

 * Mikhail was originally Giorgio of Arezzo, an Italian sailor.