Adriono D'Armaz, a ruthless man in his early sixties, was once a merchant's son without land or title.
His father, Lugo Armaz, owned three ships; two of which were under the care of his brothers; the third served as both breadwinner and home for himself and his Adriono. He had been married once, but his violent temper had lost him his wife— not in death, but in disgrace. for she left him shortly after giving birth to Adriono. After that he fathered no less than fifteen bastards, each of which he provided work for on his ships, developing a workforce of loyal men. Some would consider him blessed; he was rich, though he had no land, and his seed seemed to give him only sons, which was better. If he had been born a noble, he would have been lauded everywhere; instead, he was unable to gain the power he truly desired, forced to bow before the whim of landlords who lived fat off of his labors.
But Lugo was smart; he was terribly smart. Instead of bowing his back, he grew spines. He chewed tobacco abd so at sixty his jaw was rotten and his breath terrible; no-one wanted to treat with him in person for the stench of it, but he was so clever and well-connected that he was able to have his son work for him without trouble. With Adriono's gift for business and his preternaturally silver tongue, things began to turn their way, and casual aqquaintences turned to blood brothers, light-minded favors turned to debts, and slips of the tongue turned to deadly information that Adriono and Lugo were always more than happy to keep a secret… in return for continued friendship and considerations. One could not be over kind as a merchant, and they were well-suited to taking advantage of every kind of opportunity.
There was something vaguely threatening about Adriono; his blue eyes were mercilessly cold and distant from his smiles, and his hands were hard from a childhood aboard a ship that was in constant need of repairs. He grew to be a whipcord of tendon and muscle, only developing his father's bulk later in life. He was not tall, but he was built steady to manage the buck and sway of the ship he grew up on, with powerful legs and scarred arms. He had a gift for tailorship, and exquisite taste; he made fine clothes for himself and his father so that they would not be dressed in hand-me-downs and tatters as they climbed in power and influence; it was lost on Lugo but on Adriono it gave him the air of a man-in-the-dark, with silver chased boots and maroon at his black collar. He wore always the brass key of his father's chest on his belt, and a white rose in the lapel of his doublet, so that some young women thought him unnaccountably dangerous and beautiful.
Adriono soon built in his father's name a merchant fleet with money worked and bled for, and they became one of the richest families in Four Corners. He became friends with the king's men who came to the Free City, and gave them service and honor above all others, and in this way was eventually introduced to King al'Ramar himself, to whom he offered a number of very fine ships for use in the war effort. The King was under great pressure for ships, and so recieved this gift gladly, as Adriono Armaz asked for no favors in return, only that the king consider him for the honor of bearing fine Parthian silks and spices, the Armaz's finest wares at the time, through his contacts up to the royal seat in Lyionesse. For this nearly unnatainable luxury, the King agreed, and the Armaz grew yet more in influence and wealth.
With it they built a fine mansion in Four Corners overlooking a bend in one of the countless canals, with windows of clear glass and a little dock big enough for a yacht and several gondolas. They also purchased a workshop some ways away, and there they built their first weaving-house, where Adriono brought master weavers from Parthia supplied by his friend the merchant-prince Esfahabi and others from Aequor to weave the brocades and silks for the crown. The fabrics they developed were very fine, and only Adriono Armaz could supply them, for he paid his workers -very- well and was sure that they were both healthy and protected from slavers and thugs, with good housing in the city and access to tutors and apothecaries. In order to do this, he built up his well of kept-men, guards essentially who were often family members of his weavers.
Adriono did what he does best; and climbed like a panther up through the ranks, attaining for himself and his aging father the priviledges and wealth he had always coveted as a child, and the influence and power that supported it.
Finally, his opportunity came in the form of the ongoing 30 year war. One day, while in Lyionesse, he was able to provide the king with assistance that no-one else could profer; rumor of a traitor in Fiorello reached the throne. The al'Sepali had gathered men beyond their reports to the king, and were posed to make a move on the throne itself while the rest of the Aequor forces were engaged with the Galenthians to the south. Al'Ramar was incensed, and asked who would take care of these traitors for the crown. Adriono did. And he did so with the merciless finality of a merchant, taking his impressive ships with their powerful canon and his ammassed mercenary force and crushing the traitors in the name of the crown, coming upon them at night and burning their encampment to the ground with alchemist's fire and capturing the survivors.
In return, the king gave Adriono a title and the lands of the now deceased al'Sepali. He became D'Armaz, and one of the very loyalist of servants. His ships guarded the Fiore Rivers under the key-and-rose banner of his new house. They were placed alongside the Geroux under al'Sylenthar as banner houses, an arrangement that served both very well.
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