Machavellio Disforza

Lord Governor Machavellio di'Sforza, also known mononymously to many as Disforza, was a legendary statesman. Almost certainly the world's single most influential people, he was once a nobleman-in-exile, then a famed freedom fighter, and finally a power-hungry father of a proud nation that, at its peak, ruled almost a quarter of the human population.
== Personality ==
There was quite a cult of personality around Max. He was certainly one of the greatest and most infamous statesmen of all history. Max was a man driven by two vices - glory and gold. He carried out any action necessary to acquire these. Examples include:
* When he had his uncle forge a document to cause the death of one of his best friends, Gauward, to stop him from revealing their plans under Imperial torture.
* When he assassinated his own ally, the elderly chief Born of Thunder, to install her angry son Biting Shark as chief and spur him to war against those he framed for her death.
* When the Night Watch convinced him to bombard Felonil with the promise of millions of gold, and of annexation.
== Life ==
=== Early Life ===
He was born Machavellio Dateriö di'Sforza in 1492 in the city of Sanctum, in the Fallo. His parents were the great General Colombo di'Sforza and the politician Prella Söxka di'Sforza. Max's great-great-great grandmother was the eminent Empress Dateriä II; the di'Sforza family hailed from a long line of notable nobles. Sanctum was the electorate seat of the family, as one of the nine contemporary most powerful Euluskan noble families. He received a scholar's education, primarily in war, public speaking, politics, rhetoric, philosophy, history, languages, and military tactics, and enjoyed a luxurious upbringing, spending his time between Sanctum, the Felonil di'Sforza Manor, and the resort town of Undula. He was the youngest of three legitimate siblings - his eldest sister Anaïs was raised to be the generation's general and warrior; the middle child Isilen was prepared to be a kind socialite, and Max was prepared for politics. There was also a bastard middle child, Inigo, the product of an affair between Colombo and a maid named Mariana. 
=== Fall of the Family ===
 A full deep dive is available at Disforza or The Conspiracy.
In the years before 1510, Max's family had led several glorious holy wars to stamp out religious insurgency around the Fallo. In 1510, the Holy City of Imvola was occupied by Fallonese pagan insurrectionists. Rekuölos XIII chose Colombo to lead the army to reconquer it. However, this scorning angered Jakobo Euvristhim of House Calinezzi, who cooked up a plot to take revenge upon the di'Sforza family so he could have his allies snap up their electorates and cardinalcies. Long story short, Jakobo's plot was successful in framing the di'Sforza family as allegedly planning to assassinate the leader of the church, the Archon. On Saint Eleiäs's Day 1510, an incensed mob of militiamen and civillians lynched Max's parents and his maternal uncle Arronda-Maiä. Max's uncle, Gianluca, was seized but forced into servitude because of his savancy. 
=== Liberating Lakay ===
Max later said that he and Anaïs, disguised, witnessed their parents' hanging, powerless to stop them. They were now wanted on pain of death. Max changed his hair and name, and found fortune with Anaïs as a mercenary in the east region near the north foothills of the Caliveri massif, but after three years, Anaïs was captured by slavers looking to make good on the bounty. Max, alone for a few months, was also captured by Imperial agents. However, thankfully, they did not recognise him, and mistook him for a mere bandit captain - what luck! He was shipped off to Lakay as an indentured labourer in 1513, bound for the iron-mining penal colonies of Fort Mystra aboard a prison vessel called The Eagle Cried Hope. The ship sank in a storm, and he and several crew washed up on shore. They soon formed the Lakayan Liberators, a budding freedom fighter group seeking revenge on the Empire that had wronged them all. Max's co-conspirators included Gauward, Teller, Ocker, Matteo, Elna, and others along the way. Led by the genius political machinations of Max's mind, the Liberators began a bloody conquest of revolution over several long months. Many of them were brutally murdered by Imperial agents and the Davison Hawkshaw Agency. At one point, one of Max's best friends, Gauward, was captured. Max pulled strings with his servile uncle to have Gauward killed by firing squad to prevent him from revealing details of the plan. Furthermore eschewing his brutality and how he wished to succeed 'at any cost', he assassinated Born of Thunder, a peaceful Kaneeyi chief, and framed the Empire for her death, spurring her successor and son Biting Shark to war. The Kaneeyi nicknamed him Cunning Bear, unknowing of the true extent of his machinations. He also orchestrated a wedding between the Uiyet and Bayut tribes to unite them, and he entreated the Verdis to supply weapons, by bending to the whims of their king. His genius knew no bounds. 
At long last, he rallied the indigenous nations and the freedmen labourers, and began the Battle of Fort Helena. Most of his companions except for him died during the bloody fights and the explosive assault on the keep. In a moment of compassion, he saved the life of the chief of the secret psionic police who had been hunting him - Overseer Leona Adler. Alongside her, the deserter-thief Anderson, and the tribeswoman Orthalas, they killed Governor Laurena di Ayala of Lakay, and declared the island free. Within two years, the Empire had given Lakay up. Max declared The Lakayan Federation thereafter, and installed himself as Lord Governor; Leona now his wife and the Commander-in-Chief. Glory was, in some way, brought to his family's name after it had been tarnished three years ago. 
=== Toppling the Empire ===
In 1519, the Empire was in its death throes. When its armies let up for a moment, turning north to reconquer lost territory, Max and his closest ally, the Vortic Mercatorium, invaded the Horn and fought brutally over several long weeks. They blockaded Sanctum, bombarded Cessalia, fought the Vristhim navy in the sea, made landfall and torched farms, and finally Sacked the Lyskeiön Capital Territory and hanged the final Emperor. The capital city was half-burned, its coffers looted, its people fled, surrendered, or cut down. The city became a Vortic protectorate until 1540 then became independent again; its population dropped from 6.75 million to only 340,000 within months. Machavellio Disforza's name instilled terror and fear once more, as the greatest general of all. Max's dynasty restarted the house's prominence that was briefly lost. His numerous children and grandchildren became notable. His youngest son Francisco Disforza became a great general who earned his honour working with the Night Watch; his oldest daughter Érmione Disforza became a rich and powerful businesswoman; his emancipated uncle Gianluca di'Sforza catalogued the languages of the world; his granddaughter Olympia Disforza and her wife Heather Jarren Gray Disforza became patrons of the arts and of politics, and eventually, Olympia and Heather's great-great-(many)-granddaughter would become Sfelonila Disforza, ruler of Lakay in the Collapse era.
=== Halcyon Days ===
In 1560, independent Felonil was taken over by the shadowy cabal of fascists known as the Oracles, led by remnants of a branch of the Decimus family. They were technocratic eugenicists and fascists. The Night Watch, an elite mercenary group containing Max's youngest son Francisco, failed to stop the Oracle-led murder of several powerful people like Eothain Blackstone and Perennial Althier. The Night Watch were driven into hiding by Adrienne 'Vishara' Ophiuchus, and came to Lakay. They convinced Max into accepting something he already suspected - that Felonil was weak, and ripe. With the help of indigenous Verdis technology that could cause a blackout, Max led a Lakayan naval force to Felonil. They blockaded the harbour and bombarded the city as the Night Watch then stormed the palace and burned the last Oracles alive. Machavellio forced the now free, candid Ministers all to pledge fealty to him and to the Federation. He annexed the bomb-battered Felonil in 1561 and turned it into the glorious Halcyon, city of the future, within years. In 1567, Max was approached by Arnu Waldenstromm and Asha de Varley, and offered the secrets of a new technology - electricity. Halcyon under Max was fully lit with electrics by the end of the decade, and was a decadent, luxurious, and rich place within the next few decades - a city the size of most countries, with unknowably huge resources, skyscrapers, trains, cars, telegraphs, aircraft, dirigibles, telephones, and more.
In Jakobo Calinezzi's old age in 1561, he heard that Machavellio Disforza, the son of Colombo who he plotted against, and that Lakayan revolutionary hero, had become Lord Governor of Halcyon, and the single most powerful man in the world overnight. Max was the golden idol of over a fifth of the world's population. Jakobo suffered a nervous break and was bedridden from intense guilt and nerves which caused him to deteriorate rapidly. Upon his deathbead, Jakobo was visited by Max, and haunted by this sight; Max looked just like Colombo, huge and bearlike with a hairy mane of curled brown hair. Jakobo confessed his role in the conspiracy as he lay dying. His last words were "Know everything I did, I did for my family". Machavellio stood, delivered his final piece to Jakobo, and left him to die with dignity:
=== God Wars and Collapse Era ===
Max lived an oddly long time, celebrating his 134th birthday in winter 1621 to electric lights and fireworks on the eve of what would spiral into the outbreak of The God Wars. He was not sharp any more - now old and feeble, kept alive beyond mortal means by use of a bronze heart, voltaic brainstem, and a galvanic left lung. His generals did his bidding through the first 20 years of the God Wars. In 1642, when the Everlasting Night began, worldwide auroras caused all electric technology to malfunction intensely. His iron organs malfunctioned and he finally died.
Category:People
Category:PCs
Category:Villains
Category:People of Power
Category:Good Articles
Category:Legendary Figures