Gratiano de Veronese
- Lasombra -Verona- Verona -- medieval -SPQR- Rome -- medieval
Quote: "The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason." -- T.S. Eliot, "Murder in the Cathedral"
Sobriquet: Lord Varonese, His Grace, Gratiano
Appearance:
Behavior:
His Life: Born into the prosperous De Veronese family of Italy, Gratiano knew all the advantages of noble birth and showed the requisite haughtiness and base cruelty at an early age. Indeed, his father's few attempts to curb the boy's arrogance and pride only led to more hostility and anger. Still, Gratiano's ambition and accomplishments pleased his father; he quickly distinguished himself in war, commerce and politics. Entering the priesthood as a teenager, he also wielded this power well, and sought a bishopric while still in his early twenties.
The early part of the twelfth century was a curious age of Popes and Anti-Popes; of holy wars within Christendom; of the Italian nation trading happily with German nation invading it. Grantiano battled with all his substantial might and power to keep Italy strong, knowing birth tied his power to its. Thus he used treaties, trade agreements and troops as weapons against the Holy Roman Empire.
But it seemed nothing could stem the tide of endless invasions. As the armies of the Empire came closer to seizing the Papacy from Rome, the Italians desperately sought a new strategy.
Amid high hopes for peace (and praise), the young Gratiano embarked upon a series of diplomatic missions to the court of the Holy Roman Emperor to negotiate for greater autonomy. After months of futile bargaining, however, he realized his countrymen's insincerity in the negotiations.
That they had sent him, him of all people, only to stall, was unbearable to the ambitious young man. His bitterness grew as he saw the dazzling wealth of the Emperor's court, and slowly he began adopting German customs. This, coupled with the lack of action on his investiture, began severing his ties to his homeland.
A German noble quickly noted Gratiano's dissatisfaction and began working on him. In short order, the Italian patriot agreed to betray his Pope and his people in return for a German estate and entry into the clergy of the Holy Roman Empire. He maneuvered the elderly patriarch of his family into sighing away valuable territorial control to the Holy Roman Empire, and laid the groundwork for a siege of northern Italian cities.
His glee at how well the plan caught his family off guard knew no bounds, and his happiness would have been complete if not for the intervention of an ancient vampire.
His Death: Gratiano's base betrayal of his own family caught the eye of the founder of the Lasombra clan of vampires.
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