Alessandro Beneditti

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Alessandro Beneditti was born in 1187 in the town of Pisa. The Beneditti family was a powerful and rich merchant family. The family business was run by Alessandro's uncle Giovanni. Alessandro's father, Artuo, was the second born son and became a skilled shipwright to help further the family's power.

When Alessandro was 10 years old Giovanni's wife, who had suffered many miscarriages, was finally able to give birth to a son, Alessandro's cousin Lucciano. A year later Renatta, Giovanni's wife, was able to give birth to Lucciano's sister, Traviata.

Sadly, this joyous occasion was marred by two tragedies. The first was that Renatta passed away giving birth to Traviata. The second tragedy was far worse for Alessandro. A few days after Traviata's birth Alessandro's father was killed in an accident at the Beneditti shipyard. They were installing a new mast onto one of the ships, the support lines snapped, and the mast fell on Artuo killing him.

Alessandro's mother was able to strike a deal with Giovanni. If Giovanni would send Alessandro to school in Florence she would raise Lucciano and Traviata. Giovanni agreed and Alessandro was sent to Florence to become a learned man.

Alessandro excelled at school and Giovanni soon realized that Alessandro was smarter than Lucciano. So Giovanni adopted Alessandro as his son and began to groom Alessandro to become the heir of the Beneditti business. Lucciano would become the head of the merchant family's security/muscle. Alessandro was trained in courtly and business intrigue, while Lucciano was trained in the martial arts.

For a time everything was going perfectly, Alessandro was flourishing under Giovanni's tutelage and Lucciano was finding out that not only was he an excellent swordsman but was skilled in leading men in battle.

Everything changed in 1200 A.D. when Alessandro's magical gift manifested. He was in a heated argument with a fellow student at school and accidentally set the boy's hair on fire.

When Giovanni found out he immediately disowned Alessandro. No respectable person would ever openly trade with a Magus.

Alessandro would have been destitute had a Redcap not been traveling through Florence and heard about a child who had set a boy on fire simply by screaming at him. The redcap owed a Verditius magus a favor and that was how Alessandro ended up becoming Amarantos' apprentice.

Although Amarantos' covenant was Verdi, Alessandro spent most of his apprenticeship with Amarantos in Greece. As a result Alessandro was largely disconnected from the politics and vendetta's that plagued Verdi.

It wasn't until very late in Alessandro's apprenticeship that he returned to Verdi. It was soon after he passed his Gauntlet that there was talk about allowing a new covenant to be formed in the Roman Tribunal under the joint control of Magvillus, Literatus, Harco, and Verdi. Although Alessandro didn't ask to go to the new covenant, he was chosen to go because of his lack of political connections or vendetta's levied against him.

It was shortly after Alessandro arrived at the Garden of Monsters that a letter from his mother reached him. Her letter begged Alessandro to take in Lucciano. Lucciano had been exiled from Pisa and nowhere to go. Alessandro grudgingly agreed and had Lucciano brought to the newly formed covenant.