Di'Sforza

The di'Sforza family was one of the most important and infamous noble houses in history. 
== History ==
=== Origins ===
The clan originated a few centuries before zero. They were of Fallonese ethnicity, the native inhabitants of the mid-Fallo region, who were frequently characterised by the southern Euluskans as curly-haired, broad-chested simple folk who were content to keep to themselves, eat good food, drink good ale, and live quiet, unassuming lives. The origins of their name are not fully known, but it probably had something to do with the Old Fallonese word sforhca [sfɔʰr̥t͡sʌ], meaning "she-wolf". 
However, the di'Sforza clan was one of the most ambitious amongst them. They became established around the Undwla (Euluska: Undula) coast and on the east shores of Maeldaf isle. They soon came to rule the burgeoning port on the saltmarsh of the river Hŵstws (Euluska: Ettusthos). The port was relatively rich for the time due to its central location on the coast and near Maeldaf, a nexus of trade. This port contemporarily was known as Porthŵstws. The di'Sforza family became rich merchants and ruled the area strongly. They were known for their varied prowess, mainly focused on trade, military strength, ships, science, and art. They also dealt strongly in condottiere (elite mercenaries) which they supplied to other contemporary city-states.
=== Role in the Early Empire ===
Just before the year zero, the Euluskan Empire unified the ten rettu (kingdoms) of the Horn and the Fallo, which included the di'Sforza's city-state around Porthŵstws. When the empire unified, Euluskan became the prestige dialect, and Porthŵstws was renamed to Sanktaöm, the City of Saints. The family grew more powerful from the increased Imperial trade. They ruled the furthest northwest city of the Empire, so it received a lot of trade from expeditions heading or returning afield, as well as the farmlands contributing to the central Empire's holdings, and the shipbuilding industry. The di'Sforzas became rulers of Sanctum, the nearby Estir Woods, as well as overseeing the palatinate of Cessalia to the south eventually.
In addition, the di'Sforza family soon became known for their warlike prowess. They were chosen to raise and lead numerous armies. Whilst they did not train such numerous forces as the Decimus family (the Empire's main military corpus), nor such elite cavalry, they instead nurtured great leaders, officers, and generals. The family and those who lived under them were known for their strategy. Quite a lot of those in their ward became notable condottiere (elite mercenaries) who worked for foreign powers or far overseas.
=== Medieval History ===
The di'Sforza helped lead the Fallo Campaign from the 40s to about 120, pacifying the last corners of the Fallo to establish full Euluskan Imperial control. They drove out their enemies into the Burning Hills and did not follow; they wiped out the Caliveran Zutgardts; they beat back the Tbikhlan mountaineers and the southern populations of the Vistu. By the 120s, the whole region was unified and the di'Sforzas had won glory from doing so. 
They contributed several emperors, some notable, others not. Because of their role in the empire, the family had an Imperial Crown, which was a jade laurel wreath and a golden sun halo combined. One of their first notable emperors was Bella III, who oversaw the early colonisation of the Danderillon in the early fourth century, as well as Dateriä I (who Datria was chartered and named after). 
=== Thirteenth and Fourteenth Century ===
In the late thirteenth century, Empress Dateriä II was born to a di'Sforza mother and a Calinezzi father. Her mother, Maria di'Sforza, was actually killed by Ormander when trying to avenge the death of her cousins (see Dateriä's page for info).
Dateriä was very notable for being one of the only emperors of direct dual nobility heirage, taking over after the 1260 Azoälda succession crisis (when that house was left heirless), as well as reigning during the early colonisation of Lakay. She was a controversial figure - despite leading the Empire during a period of great prosperity, she declared the Great Lakayan Rebel War on the native Kaneeyi Lakayans, spearheading a crushing wave of Euluskan imperialism and colonialism against a fierce resistant indigenous enemy. (Interestingly, her great-great-great grandson would then liberate Lakay against the Empire.) Her daughter ruled as Grima X and won the war. 
Dateriä had a younger son named Enniö di'Sforza, Ennio was a legendary mercenary lord. He assisted the matriarch of the minor de'Ferrva noble family, Estrik, in taking back her rightful seat in Cessalia (and plotting against her traitorous uncle and murderous family). Ennio's actions in the 1330s helped Estrik become Empress Estrik Vitëlerya I de Ferrva; her family then became one of the major families of the Empire. 
== Fall ==
=== The di'Sforza Conspiracy ===
In the years before 1510, the di'Sforza family had led several glorious holy wars to stamp out religious opposition and insurgent armies around Imvola, the Dolmen Peninsula, the St Verehia River Valley, and the northeastern Moors. In late 1510 as the Empire's reach was beginning to crumble (see The Euluskan Empire for why), the Holy City of Imvola, the burial place of all Euluskan Saints and the crowning place of all Euluskan Emperors, was occupied by Fallonese pagan insurrectionists. After the 1510 Diet of Lyskeiön, Emperor Rekuölos XIII (the antepenultimate Emperor) chose the di'Sforza family to lead the holy war to retake it, and nominated Grand Duke General Colombo di'Sforza to lead the reconquest, alongside the Fiexko, Fioretta and De'Ferrva families to supply troops. One of the leaders of the Calinezzi family, Jakobo Euvristhim, was already angered at Colombo because Jakobo had been passed up for this honour. Furthermore, he was incensed that Colombo and his armies chose not to wait for the Archon (the church's leader)'s blessing to bless the army before leaving - this was unheard of, and insulting. Another who shared Jakobo's anger was Valaneä de'Seditus. Furthermore, after a crisis of succession in the cardinalcy of Cessalia, Jakobo hoped his nephew-in-law Bishop Erulekion Calinezzi-Decimus would be elected the new cardinal, but his competitor was Colombo di'Sforza's cousin, Bishop Iliyaka Fiexo-Disforza.
They hatched a deadly plot to discredit the di'Sforza family and bring them to ruin. They bombed the tunnels in Imvola to hinder the army, but only ended up injuring Colombo's eldest, the knight Anaïs di'Sforza, and killing her friend General Minka Fioretta. Colombo's conquest of Imvola was successful though, and they returned to fanfare and celebration. The conspiracy shifted - and now Anaïs was suspicious of the plot. Jakobo approached the spurned Archon Anxara Verreiön, who was cross with the Disforzas for passing up on her blessing. Jakobo offered the Archon a cut of the Disforza's rich lands in Sanctum if she helped them plot against them. Jakobo also offered his nephew-in-law, the Bishop, as a puppet ruler for the Archon if she chose him over his rival bishop. She agreed secretly. 
The conspirators - Jakobo Calinezzi, Valaneä de'Seditus, Erulekeion Calinezzi-Decimus, and Archon Verreion - orchestrated their final act on Saint Elias's Day 1511. Decimus mercenaries ambushed the Disforza's militias and killed them on the forest roads. Spies of the de'Seditus family planted false documents in Disforza Manor that suggested the Disforzas were planning on usurping and killing the Archon. Other spies disguised themselves as Disforza scions and gave anti-Imperial speeches to frame them. The final act was a cunning one of sacrifice. Jakobo's right-hand bodyguard volunteered to be Polymorphed into the likeness of the Disforza family militia captain; the real captain had been kidnapped and killed by Valaneä de'Seditus that morning. The transfigured bodyguard emerged from the crowd when the Archon was walking up the steps to the Sanctum Cathedral to lead worship for Saint Elias' prayers. The bodyguard stabbed the Archon in her hand, as pre-agreed. Then, Jakobo Calinezzi emerged from the cathedral in mock surprise, drew his sword, and killed the transfigured guard, denouncing the family as traitors.
It worked. The incensed public rioted against the di'Sforzas, finding the evidence of their "plotting". Angry crowds of nobles and soldiers General Colombo, his wife Prella Söxka, and his sister-in-law Arronda Maia Maria were dragged by the mob out into Sanctum's Mornala Square. As the bells rang for Saint Elias's Feast, they were brutally lynched by a cheering crowd after the Archon and Jakobo gave a fervent speech about their evils. Colombo's brother Gianluca was seized, but because he was a genius savant mathematician, he was sent as a servant to serve the Governor of Lakay. The family's name was tarnished, their deeds wiped from the record, their crown melted down, their home burned. 
Colombo's four children managed to avoid being found, though it is likely that some of them witnessed their parents' hanging. These four children were Machavellio, Anaïs, Isilen, and the illegitimate Inigo Dallario. Machavellio and Anaïs fled together for a time before they were separated. Machavellio became a brigand, but was arrested in the Fallo in early 1513. Anaïs fell in with a pirate crew and fell in love with another pirate woman. Isilen was very simple-minded and barely managed to blend into a crowd and take passage on a ship. And Inigo was a half-Disforza, so they were able to fit in for some time in the tropics. Anaïs, Isilen, and Inigo eventually crossed paths two years later in the Volkotti Straits as part of a chartered privateer crew who then settled down near King's Stead and did work for Selim aboard a flying-boat. 
=== Lakayan Liberation ===
In 1513 as aforementioned, Machavellio was arrested, but his captors did not know his identity. They bundled him aboard a prison ship called the LEV Eagle Cried Hope and sent him to the penal colonies of Lakay to mine metals. By this era, the Empire was in its death throes. However, a storm hit the ship, and he and some of the crew survived. They began a bloody conquest of revolution over several long months. Many of them were brutally killed by Imperial agents and the Davison Hawkshaw Agency, but they orchestrated several plots to unite the Kaneeyi, Uiyet Bayut, and Verdis indigenous tribes - Machavellio was incredibly cunning, and even assassinated a peaceful Kaneeyi chieftess and framed the Empire in order to spur her son to war. Either way, it came to fruition at The Battle of Fort Helena, where the united native armies and the Euluskan prisoners' revolt combined forces. They killed the Governor, Laurena di Ayala, and overthrew the head of the colonial administration. The Empire withdrew from the island within a few years. Though everyone around him had mostly died, Machavellio Disforza stood firm, married the woman who had once led the secret police against him (Leona Adler), and ruled as Lord Governor of The Lakayan Federation thereon. The Disforza name was back to glory, and O how glorious it was. 
=== The Fall of the Empire ===
In 1519, with their territories reduced to just the Horn and Fallo, the armies of the Empire mustered for one final blaze of glory; to retake Felonil, richest city in the world, and their property until five years ago. They hoped that by reacquiring the richest city on the planet, the resources could help them fight for their lost colonial possessions in Lakay and the Volkotti Straits. [a full breakdown of the reasons for their decline is at The Euluskan Empire]. Unbeknownst to the Empire, the Lakayan Federation and the Vortic Mercatorium had allied and were biding their time. When the Empire drew its forces out and marched north over the Moors toward Accipiter, the Vortais-Lakayan alliance attacked in the Battle of the Horn. They fought up the west coast and in the sea. They blockaded Sanctum, bombarded Cessalia, fought the Vristhim navy in the sea south of the peninsula, and made landfall in several places. Several long weeks of a military campaign ensued as they fought bitterly toward the relatively undefended capital, all the while sacking and burning towns and villages. In a fortnight, Machavellio Disforza's armies controlled the coastal ports of Sanctum and Cessalia, and finally reached Lyskeiön. Thus followed the Sack of Lyskeiön - the final Emperor was lynched, the conspiratorial Archon was killed, the 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. 
=== Glory ===
Machavellio's dynasty restarted the house's prominence. 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 (see below); his oldest daughter Érmione Disforza became a rich and powerful businesswoman (and one of the Oracles' benefactors ironically, see below); his emancipated uncle Gianluca di'Sforza catalogued the languages of the world in his last years; 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 post-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, failed to stop their rise or the 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 (and bribed) Machavellio di'Sforza into accepting something he already suspected - that Felonil was weak, and ripe. With the help of indigenous Verdis technology that could cause a localised technological blackout, Max led a chiefly Lakayan naval force to Felonil. They blockaded the harbour and bombarded the city as the Night Watch then stormed the palace and fought the last of the Oracles. The old Ministers were freed, and, ever the power-hungry man of his forefathers, Machavellio forced them all to pledge fealty to him and to the Federation. He annexed the battered Felonil in 1561 and turned it into the glorious Halcyon, city of the future. The city soon came to have electricity 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, telephones, and electricity. The City of A Thousand Stars earned its moniker from the electric lights that littered the smoggy sky. 
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, the god-king of over a fifth of the world's population. He 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. Jakobo was haunted by this sight; Max looked just like Colombo, huge and bearlike with a hairy mane of curled brown hair. Imagine the fright, seeing the man you thought you had discredited and lynched fifty years ago, and you having to live with what you did every night! 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 ===
Lord Governor di'Sforza 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. Old and kept alive beyond mortal means by use of a bronze heart, voltaic brainstem, and a galvanic left lung, he succumbed suddenly to his long-overdue death when The Everlasting Night began, and the worldwide auroras caused all electric technology to malfunction intensely. The Federation formed the bulk of the Euluskan League, one of the three main world warring powers. After Machavellio's death, his descendants ruled during the last throes of the God Wars. They were brutal times for all, and soon, the family retreated to Lakay as the world froze over in The Everlasting Night and Halcyon was left in ruins. 
In the Collapse Era, the Disforza family were the rulers of Lakay.
== List of Notable di'Sforzas ==
* Empress Bella III di'Sforza - Active in 300s - oversaw first colonisation of the Danderillon
* Empress Dateriä I di'Sforza - active in 350s - Datria is named after her
* Grand Duchess Rievka di'Sforza & her husband Perron Varro-di'Sforza - active in the late 1100s
* Palatine Velur & Palatiness Ekarla di'Sforza
* Galeatzus and Torio di'Sforza - mercenaries killed in the mid 1200s, Maria sought to avenge them
* Lobo & Naraya di'Sforza 
* Mariä di'Sforza (& her husband Ryberto Calinezzi) - Maria killed by Ormander after making a deal with the devil to avenge her cousins
* Empress Dateriä II Emwyrraül di'Sforza-Calinezzi "The Mercy" - daughter of Maria and Ryberto (not shown on the family tree image) - glorious and notable empress
* Empress Grima X Ylna di'Sforza - finished the Great Lakayan Rebel War.
* Palatine-Condottiere Enniö Branco di'Sforza
* Dorro and Teiä di'Sforza
* Grand Duke Colombo di'Sforza and Grand Duchess Prella Söxka-di'Sforza - glorious generals and strategoi, killed in 1510 in the Conspiracy
* Gianluca di'Sforza and Arronda Maiä Maria-di'Sforza - the latter killed in the Conspiracy, the former enslaved as a scribe in Lakay
* Anaïs di'Sforza and her partner Jak Waiki'ki - Anaïs being a powerful knight, eldest of Colombo, pathfinder of her broken generation, active 1510s.
* Isilen di'Sforza
* Inigo Dallario (di'Sforza) - bastard son of Colombo and the scullery maid Mariana Dallario, privateer in 1510s
* Lord Governor Machavellio 'Master Max' di'Sforza - brought glory to his house again, active from the 1510s to the mid 17th century!
* Bishop Iliyaka Fiexo-Disforza
* Leona Adler-di'Sforza - wife of Machavellio, once his pursuer
* Érmione di'Sforza
* Mercio di'Sforza
* Francisco Léon di'Sforza - youngest son of Max
* Laureäna Acampo-di'Sforza, second wife of Francisco
* Sir Cosimo Lavrentio di'Sforza, eldest son of Francisco, great military general in the God Wars
* Lady Olympia di'Sforza and Heather Jarren Gray di'Sforza - the former was grand curator of the museum and failed to thwart the Crime of the Century
* Sfelonila di'Sforza - ruler of Lakay in the 1900s TE (200s Collapse Era).
* 
File:A black wall to shield the self when the sky is rainier Photo.jpg|Sfelonila the Lakayan
File:Sterlin Syla by Olieart on DeviantArt.jpg|Gianluca the Linguist
File:Med (9)1.png|Anaïs the Knight
File:3e77c43ae1942d57641561c975da05a1.png|Leona the psychomancer
File:Ermione.png|Ermione the Benefactor
File:Francisco.jpg|Francisco the Night Watcher
File:Female Character Art Collection.jpg|Olympia the Curator
File:Olia Panny Photo.jpg|Heather the Farmer
File:Max port.png|A young Machavellio
Category:Families
Category:Good Articles