Stephen Banning

The father of John Banning and the half-brother of Joseph Whemple, Stephen Banning was a world-famous archaeologist who sought to find the tomb of Princess Ananka. Upon discovering it, he and Joseph entered despite the objections of a mysterious Egyptian man named Mehemet Bey. Within, Stephen found the mummy of Ananka as well as the fabled Scroll of Life. Reading from the scroll, Stephen accidentally called forth the tomb's eternal protector, Kharis. The archaeologist was saved by the appearance of Mehemet Bey, but the sight of the living mummy caused him to suffer a mental breakdown.

Six months later Stephen Banning was admitted to the Engerfield Nursing Home for the Mentally Disordered, where for three years he lay in a total catatonic state under the care of Dr. Reilly. One day he came out of his catatonia and sent for his son, John, attempting to warn him about the mummy, and that Kharis would not rest until all those who disturbed Princess Ananka's tomb had been killed. Although John did not believe his father, and the overwhelming anxiety sent Stephen into a raving fit that got him confined to a padded cell in the nursing home, neither man knew that Mehemet Bey, under the alias of Mehemet Akir, had come to Engerfield and brought Kharis with him.

Reviving Kharis a second time using the Scroll of Life, Bey/Akir sent the mummy to murder Stephen Banning first. Stephen's fortified cell did not save him, as Kharis broke in through the barred window with effortless ease, and strangled the archaeologist to death with one hand.