Claudio Kilgannon

Claudio Kilgannon is the main character of the story The Amory Wars, which is the concept behind the albums of the band Coheed and Cambria. The setting of this story is Heaven's Fence, a locale also commonly referred to as The Keywork although these two are not the same thing.

The story is further explained in the Album's accompanying graphic novels which are written by Claudio Sanchez, the frontman of Coheed and Cambria. Claudio Kilgannon is in many ways an alter-ego of Claudio Sanchez.

Many sites and individuals on the Internet have taken many different approaches to attempting to "extract" the story from the Coheed and Cambria albums. One such website is Cobalt and Calcium which has combined what they know of the songs and graphic novels with transcripts of interviews with Claudio Sanchez to attempt to chronicle the progression of the Amory wars.

The Second Stage Turbine Blade

Before The Songs

Not Involving Claudio: Coheed and Cambria, the father and mother respectively of Claudio are told by Mayo Deftinwolf that they must kill their children to protect the Keywork.

Josephine goes to Jersey City with her Fiancee Patrick. They are attacked by the Jersey Devils and Josephine is raped.

Coheed poisons his two youngest children, Matthew and Maria, and kills Josephine with a hammer when she returns from her ordeal.

At this point, Mayo Deftinwolf arrives and tells Coheed and Cambria that he lied. His forces capture Coheed and Cambria so that they can be brought to Paris:Earth.

Everything Evil

The story begins with Claudio Kilgannon going out with his girlfriend Newo Ikkin. Late at night he realizes he’s late for his curfew. Claudio quickly returns home to find Josephine Kilgannon, his sister, on the kitchen floor and from behind him an Onstantine Priest emerges. Seeing this, Josie tells him to run and says, “Dear Claudio, you’ll make it if you believe.”

Between songs

Claudio manages to escape the Priest by becoming intangible, which he can do because he is The Crowing Although he does not know that yet. He boards a trash ship called the Guile Greaver.

Not Involving Claudio: Coheed and Cambria are brought to Paris:Earth, where many dragonflies have been prepared so that if they sting Coheed, he will transform into a creature called the Monstar once he makes eye contact with Cambria. This transpires, and Coheed transforms into the Monstar giving him increased strength as well as the ability to cool and deactivate the Stars of Sirius which power the Keywork.

Cambria becomes the White Ruineer, and the two creatures kill each other. However the Monstar still manages to deactivate one star of sirius, which interrupts all of the Keywork. This forces the Prise to sacrifice themselves to prevent its dissolution.

Neverender

The Guile Griever flies away, Claudio wishes he could see his parents one last time. He writes them a note, which apologizes for disobeying them. Hoping they’re still alive (as he does not yet know of their death), he hopes that someday they will be able to read it and understand that he misses them and loves them. Finally he contemplates suicide. He decides against it, instead becoming determined to do something about the tragic events that have befallen him and his family.

After the Songs

Claudio arrives on Shylos Ten, where Wilhelm Ryan is putting into action his secret genocidal plan against the race called the star Star. One of the members of this race named Star Cecil befriends Claudio. He tell him the story of the Hearshot Kid, a Star who attempted to rebel against the soldiers of the URA (Wilhelm's standing army and henchmen) and was promptly killed, but became legendary. Claudio witnesses many Star being brutally murdered by being forced into a machine which rips them apart.

Angered by this, Claudio defends a Star by killing the URA soldiers attacking him. Star Cecil tells him that while his bravery is applauded, it is best if he leave the Star encampment.

Not Involving Claudio: Although the rebellion of the Mage Mariah Antillerea failed (as a result of the Prise sacrificing themselves), the rebellion still grows secretly.

In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3

The story resumes 10 years later

Three Evils Embodied in Love and Shadow

Sizer, an IRO-bot who had given himself up to the URA to earn the affections of Jesse Kilgannon, has already been tortured to the point of being completely disassembled and discarded in the streets of Shylos X. Claudio finds what is left of him and reassembles him. Sizer and Claudio become friends, and apparently band together.

The Crowing

Sometime after "Three Evils (Embodied in Love & Shadow)" Claudio falls asleep and is woken up by the Prise Ambellina. She has been cast out of the Prise Order so that she can guide Claudio on his path to becoming the Crowing. He is told that as the Crowing it is his duty to destroy the Keywork and all that God had made as an answer to His riddle. Claudio is skeptical of this. Ambellina also tells him the fate his parents met, and Claudio vows revenge. On Wilhelm Ryan.

Blood Red Summer

Claudio is brought back to Jesse, who then elaborates on his destiny as the Crowing, and the meaning of the events that transpired back on Hetricus. Jesse tells Claudio that it was all part of Wilhelm's plot to remove any possible threat to his reign over the Keywork and Heaven's Fence. Claudio, overwhelmed by all this information, asks what he did to deserve all of this.

Camper Velorium I: The Faint of Hearts

The group's plan to get onto Shylos X undetected has left them without a ship. Luckily they stumble upon Al, the freighter pilot of the Camper Velorium who gives them a ride on his craft. As the group learns of Al's background as a sharpshooter, they see he is obsessed with his sniper rifle, The Faint of Hearts. This obsession borders on sexual fetishism.

Between songs

Not relating to Claudio: Al envisions himself as being rejected by Ambellina, who later discovers that Al is a psychopath who kills white girls with his sniper rifle. Al is obsessed with his rifle to the point of sexual fetishism.

A Favor House Atlantic

Al had been transporting the group to House Atlantic, Wilhelm Ryan's headquarters. Presumably, he betrayed them because of his troubles with Ambellina somehow leading to them almost be captured. However, at the last moment, his love for Ambellina causes him to undergo a change of heart. He offers to provide cover fire for the group as they escape with his sniper rifle. The line "Bye bye beautiful, don't bother to write." is widely believed to be Al's farewell Ambellina, indicating that Al believes this to be his heroic last stand, and that he will not survive.

The Light & The Glass

The group manages to escape House Atlantic on Jesse's ship the Grail Arbor. Claudio rests, and dreams of Newo. Since he has developed some telepathic abilities, in his dream he is able to actually watch her as she writes a letter. He begins to feel bad because he was never able to say goodbye properly to her. He imagines what it would be like if they could have one last encounter. At this point, Claudio begins to dream of all that Jesse told him about Ryan's plot and the fate of his parents.

21:13

Claudio's dream shifts to a speculation of what it would have been like if he had returned home on time the night his parents killed his sibling. He relives the events of Everything Evil in this format.