presents...
Marco has not been legitimized by his father and so does not use the Donati name. However, for purely practical reasons, everyone addresses him as 'Don Marco.' He is Don Antonio's son, legitimate or not. Marco is not a particularly happy young man. He's really very envious of his uncle Salvador, who is about his age, and who gets to run around and have adventures and not worry so much about inheritance and politics and knives in the back. Marco worries rather a lot about knives in the back, because even an idiot could see that Uncle Tomasso is going to try something, someday. And Marco is no longer a child, and so no longer protected from the Great Game. He rather wishes his mother would stop trying to get his father to legitimize him, or make him an heir, or anything. He'd be very happy with a nice little country estate, thank you, or maybe a small mercantile interest that allowed him to live in a decent style. If Father would fix him up with a nice marriage, or buy him some property away from the Donati, that would be just fine. He is not ambitious beyond maintaining a comfortable life with good food, pretty clothes, and a respectable number of servants. At least, he wasn't. Father has married now, and Marco is worried that he is making a bad impression on his stepmothers. Shouldn't he show more drive, more determination? Of course, he'd be doing so at the expense of any children they'd have. So, um... well, maybe not. Maybe yes. They are very nice ladies, very cultured, from Vestini lands, and his father wants them to be treated very well. Marco is doing his best to comply, acting as their squire or honor guard when they go out and generally acquainting them with Monfalcone. He relays messages from his father to them, and from them to his father. He is also falling in love with the younger Senzavista, Francesca. Respect for his father has restrained his ardor so far... Marco's pattern of the bad and the good going hand-in-hand continues. He has to opportunity to undergo Rose+Cross initiation - which could get him killed in Vodacce if he's not careful. Uncle Tomasso is finally out of the scene - but helping his father earned Marco a heaping helping of anger from Antonio. His father survived the attack - and his father survived the attack (and he feels horrible for even thinking about thinking that might be a bad outcome). He's going to be going on a trip to Mondavi Island, escorting Gianina and Francesca - and he has no idea if he can handle the temptation. Antonio and Marco parted ways angry; Teodora might have had something to do with that as well. Whatever the reason, Marco semed to feel less constrained by his loyalty to his father and more inclined to act on his feelings as the trip to Mondavi Island progressed. On Mondavi Island, he and Francesca became lovers. They entertained the notion that they could carry on at home for a little while, but on Caligari Island, looking toward the mainland, realized that it couldn't work in the long run. Impulsively, they booked passage on a ship to Castille, intending to go from there to the Midnight Archipelago. They told no one of their going, not even Gianina, who had repeatedly told Francesca that she couldn't hear of what she was doing with Marco. The other Donati have spread word that the pair died of cholera, and bodies were even buried in Caligari catacombs to further the illusion.
Marco's most important Sorte strand is a Cups strand to Francesca. He has the Passionate Arcana.
Photo Credits: "Portrait of a Man in Armor," Sebastiano del Piombo, 1512.
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