Name: King Giuseppe Lombardi the Second/Jr.
Home: Cagliari, Italy
Date of birth: 15 September 1904
Occupation: King/Consul, politician, former soldier
Political affiliation: Monarchist/fascist
Description: The bastard son of the former Principe of Italia and Duce of Corsica and Sardinia, Guiseppe Lombardi the First, Giuseppe has lived his entire life in the shadow of his father's brief rule and the destiny it has placed upon him. He was only a child when his father, a former Roman senator, led a revolt against the Empire and formed the Catholic Italian state, and then was later assassinated and the Burgundian Pope claimed rulership over Italy. Perhaps due to the general cooperation between the Pope and his father before his death, his youth, or his bastard blood, Giuseppe was not deemed a threat to the new government and was permitted to remain in Italy with his mother. When he reached adulthood in 1922, he enlisted in the Italian army, serving in the Burgundian Conquest of Auvergne and German Liberation of Mainz alongside Italy's ally Burgundy. While he enjoyed the soldier life, he became increasingly frustrated by an army that was becoming dominated by the Burgundian minority that resided in Italy. He and his fellow Italians found themselves relegated to lesser positions while the high command was held exclusively by those loyal to the Burgundian government. This came to a head in 1931 when Jacobin rebels seized the capital and overthrew the papal government. This was short-lived though as the Burgundian-dominated army asserted control and crushed the rebellion. Rather than restoring the previous government, the Burgundians maintained their influence over Italy through a military dictatorship led by the misleadingly named Partito Nazionale Fascista. Disgusted by the actions of the army he served and its attempt to hold the Italian people down, Giuseppe and many of his comrades left the military. He remained adrift without a purpose until dissent against the fascist government reached its peak and prompted a mass revolt. With the collapse of the military dictatorship, a series of unstable governments followed. Giuseppe, seeing an opportunity to save Italy from its own destruction, threw his hat into the political ring, gathering the allies he had gained during his service in the army and using his lineage to draw in more supporters. He then served as a politician in the young Italian republic, where he led a coalition of reactionary monarchists and Italian fascists, united in their goal for a strong and united Italy.
Giuseppe managed to quickly make waves in Italian politics, contesting Ugo Saletta in the 1936 election and claiming the position of Consul. Now in a position of leadership, he immediately started rooting out the rampant corruption within Italian politics, all while passing reforms to create a stronger Italy. His efforts were bolstered by his quasi-militia followers called the Squadristi, who were sometimes no more than hooligans but fanatical in their support of Giuseppe. During his tenure as Consul, he primarily relied on the advice of his three closest friends, his second-in-command Benito, his best friend Paolo, and Paolo's second cousin Artemisia. Benito, who headed up the Squadristi, often butted heads with Paolo, who was a diehard Catholic monarchist. It was often Artemisia who provided the more rational voice, tending to side more and more with Paolo as time went on. Benito, who was becoming increasingly sidelined, grew resentful as he found his superior taking a much weaker path. This all came to a head when Benito plotted a coup, attempting to assassinate Giuseppe during Italy's independence day parade and turning his Squadristi against him, but the coup was stopped when Artemisia intervened and saved Giuseppe's life. Now seeing the threat his more fascist followers presented, he turned on the Squadristi and disbanded them, locking up the more fanatical members and integrating the more moderate ones into positions in the administration or military. He also took advantage of the ensuing chaos to seek emergency powers from the Senate, strengthening his hold over the government. Artemisia though, fearing that he'd slip back into more authoritarian ways, attempted to take his life while disguised as the Ripper, but hesitated and fled instead. Giuseppe managed to puzzle out her identity, confronting her later but then coming face to face with her angel companion. He remained rattled after that experience, trying to put as much distance as he could between him and Artemisia. Meanwhile, with Benito's influence removed, Paolo began pressing for a monarchist revival, and attempted to smooth relations between Giuseppe and Pope Rhaban, despite the two men despising each other. Even the Senate was increasingly in favour of a monarchy. Eventually Giuseppe gave in, permitting a referendum, one that passed in favour of a monarchy. Giuseppe was thus crowned King Giuseppe Lombardi II, and a coronation was later held after Pope Rhaban had to be arm-twisted by Paolo into agreeing. Giuseppe now rules over Italy as king, although he has not let that change his style of leadership much. He has also slowly come to terms with his revelations about Artemisia and is tolerating her presence once again, if only to prove he can rule Italy on his own.
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Name: Albrecht Held/Pope Rhaban VII
Home: Köln, Burgundy
Date of birth: 27 January 1869
Occupation: Burgundian Head of State & Supreme Commander, Pope/Supreme Pontiff of the Universal (Catholic) Church
Political affiliation: Catholic absolutist
Description: Albrecht was born into an old and prestigious Burgundian noble family, one that has been around for centuries and predates the Empire’s conquest of the region. The Held family, along with other older families in the region, held tight to their pre-imperial traditions, practicing Catholicism in secret even as their faith was persecuted within the Empire and holding a deep resentment as a result. As such, Albrecht was baptized as Catholic as a child and indoctrinated in his family’s faith, something that would play a key role in his development.
The Held family also followed the age-old noble tradition of training the eldest son as heir, sending the second son into the church, and preparing the third for a career in the military. Albrecht was the third son and spent his entire childhood preparing for a military career. He was an active child and took to his training quite enthusiastically, spending many hours drilling and studying military strategy. When he finally became an adult, he joined the army. He spent a few years in the military, an environment that he loved and excelled in, quickly moving up the ranks. It is likely that if he had continued on in his career, he easily could have reached the height of the imperial military command before he was forty.
This was not meant to be though, as his second brother passed away, leaving the family without a representative in the underground Catholic Church. Albrecht’s highly religious father coerced him out of the army to take his brother’s place amongst the clergy, believing that the family’s fortunes would falter if they did not show their appreciation to God by offering a son to His service. Albrecht was thus trained and ordained as a Catholic priest, although he absolutely hated it. He found life as a priest tedious and boring, and missed the excitement of military life. Despite this, he approached his religious career like he did his military one, with great discipline and diligence. He buried himself in his theological studies and dedicated himself to performing many charitable works amongst the Catholic community.
During his time in the priesthood, Albrecht came to realize just how many of the old noble families were secret practicing Catholics. Many of them were influential members of their community and held positions in government or the military. Albrecht spent much time ingratiating himself with these secret Catholics, especially as he began to realize the power this hidden group could wield if united in cause. If given the right opportunity, they could achieve something great, and perhaps be free to practice their faith out in the open after so long hiding in the shadows.
When the Time of Troubles came and the Empire seemed on the verge of collapse, Albrecht jumped at the chance to take up arms in rebellion, not hesitating to cast off his cassock and join the Burgundian army. The Burgundian military followed the old model of nobility holding all the commanding positions, so he was placed in charge of a regiment where he quickly earned his reputation as a skilled general. His time away from the military had not dampened his ability, and his shrewd tactical mind played a decisive role in achieving several key victories. His genius was quickly recognized, and he rose to a key leadership role in the rebellion against the Empire.
During the later stages of the war, Albrecht saw an opportunity to combine both his military leadership role and his position as a priest to unite his people behind one central figure. Knowing that the nobility in the region were secret Catholics, and using his positions as both a prominent general and ordained priest, he claimed the title of Pope, a title that had laid vacant or dormant since the dismantling of the papacy by the Empire. He drew upon the Catholic roots of the region, with Köln having been the last recorded location of the Papal State, and portrayed the Catholic faith as a form of resistance against the Empire, with the Orthodox Church denounced as an imperial tool to control the populace. His ascension as Pope went quite smoothly, for he already had the support of the nobility, and had won over the common people through his military successes and preaching of Catholicism as resisting the Empire. By the time that the war ended, and Burgundy had freed itself from imperial rule, Albrecht had firmly established himself as not only the new state’s ruler, but almost the head of the reborn Catholic Church, being coronated as Pope Rhaban VII.
While the new Pope’s position in Burgundy was now firmly entrenched, he also had allies abroad in the form of King Giuseppe Lombardi of Italy. The former duke of Corsica and Sardinia had managed to liberate his own home country much like Albrecht had with his, but was also a devout Catholic. With a fanaticism that even put the Pope to shame, Lombardi preached the virtues of the Catholic faith and took great efforts to establish the faith within his country. Rhaban supported his efforts in his capacity as Pope, seeing great success as Lombardi used a similar method of portraying Catholicism as strongly anti-imperial. While the Pope’s involvement not only helped secure Catholicism’s hold in Italy, it also established the Pope’s presence in the region, something that would soon play a significant factor in events to come.
While Lombardi had done much for the Catholic faith, his time in power was short as he died a few years into his reign. Much as Rhaban had used his faith to unite his own people behind him, he saw an opportunity to do the same with Italy. Taking advantage of the chaos caused by Lombardi’s death, and the fact that his only notable successor was a bastard child, Rhaban swooped in to seize the reins of power. With the Italian government so new and Lombardi having drilled the importance of the Catholic faith into every Italians’ head, it was almost too easy to achieve.
For the next two decades, Pope Rhaban ruled over both Burgundy and Italy, securing his position as head of state and strengthening the faith as a means to keep the population in line. He took great effort to weaken the Orthodox Church, seizing their land and property, and even going so far as to have the Patriarch of Rome tortured, beaten, and exiled from Rome before moving the papacy to Rome to secure his position there. In the case of Italy, he placed Burgundians in key government and military positions, as well as made use of their army to aid his own military ambitions, including seizing Auvergne from France and fending off a German invasion. This would end up being a great point of contention as resentment grew against the Burgundians holding all the positions of power in Italy. In 1931, that resentment boiled over as Italians grew tired of Burgundian rule and vented their frustrations at the Pope, forcing him to flee back to Burgundy. The Burgundian high command managed to hold on for a few more years before the Italians reclaimed control of their own government and military, but the Pope’s role in Italy was done.
Rhaban’s stint in Italy had weakened his position in Burgundy, as he had had to rely on appointees and a quasi-representative parliament to rule in his absence. Upon his return, he spent the next few years centralizing power within himself as the sole authority within Burgundy. Dissident groups of fascists and communists were expelled and exiled, and the democratic movement was quashed, with the parliament eventually disbanded and the reins of power fully returned to Rhaban’s grasp.
Now the leader of Burgundy faces an identity crisis. For decades he has presented himself to the world as Pope Rhaban VII, head of the Catholic Church. He has used his faith to bring people to his cause as a means to fight against imperial influence, even using it as a pretext to claim leadership of entire countries. Yet while Rhaban was born and raised as a Catholic, his faith has always been a political tool to him, a means to control and manipulate. He puts on great displays of pomp and grandeur not because he loves the decadence, but because he loves the power and the control over people it gives him. He never wanted the life of a priest. Deep down he is still Albrecht Held, the no-nonsense military man, who would much rather be in a military uniform and leading troops into battle than giving a sermon. At times he wishes he could cast aside the papal persona and lead as himself, yet he knows that the Catholic Church remains the greatest obstacle to an imperial restoration, and under no circumstances will he tolerate a return to the tyranny of Rhomania. So for now he plays the role of Pope, all while the military mastermind strategizes his next big move.
