Gabriel Macalister was born in Aberdeen in 1895. He grew up with a strong sense of religious devotion and patriotic duty, and joined the Scottish Riflemen when he came of age. He fought in the Great War and was at the Battle of Ypres, where, like so many soldiers there, his death was both particularly bloody and pointless. Years later, as a wraith in the service of the Deathlords, Macalister had forgotten most of the details of his death, and eventually just assumed that he died heroically, charging across the battlefield.
When the First Deluge destroyed the Iron City and created the Wasteland in 1983, Macalister and his company were one of the very few to survive. Macalister found himself garrisoning a bare patch of dust at the edge of an empty, ruined city. He kept to his post, and years later was able to help a group of Orpheus Agents find their way into the Iron City. His ultimate fate is unknown, but what is known suggests that he was devoured by a swarm of spectres that attacked as the Agents were trying to sneak into the ruins.