Raffaele Moretti

Children: Eloise Moretti, Hose Remera

Nieces/Nephews: Antoinette Perypeczko, Bibble Mist, Ricardo Clementine

## Early Life

Raffaele Moretti was born in Udine, Italy in 1877. At a young age, Raffaele was a cheerful boy with always a smile on his face. His family owned a small local brewery business that his father, Luigi Moretti, spent his entire life developing and managing. For everyone, Luigi was a successful and brilliant man that everyone knew and loved in the entire city of Udine, but he was also a strict and violent father. Raffaele and his brother, Matteo, were always victims of his father's violent tantrums and they couldn't even cry or they'd be threatened "Piangi e te ne do ancora!", cry and I'll give you some more. His father wasn't the only person he was scared of. At the age of 14, there was a lady that used to joke with him and touch him inappropriately. Raffaele never knew her name, he only knew her as a "friend of the family" type of person so he was scared even to talk about that to his father or mother. One day he tried to speak to his father about those unwanted attentions and Luigi didn't believe him. Raffaele was beaten to the point he passed out and decided, the next day, to never speak of it again.

Raffaele never saw the lady for the next two years and became a humble beer brewer at the age of 16 in the "Fabbrica di Birra e Ghiaccio", owned by his dad. The family business was growing strong by the year and was going well, to the point it became a national beverage that everyone in Italy knew about, "Birra Moretti". He worked there for 9 years before he realized that he wanted to do more, to do something for the greater good, but Raffaele himself wasn't sure of what that would be.

Raffaele's dreams weren't to be a brewer forever and his dad wasn't a man you could argue with. He decided to stand up for himself and tell his father that he wanted to do something bigger, something that he was willing to wake up in the morning for, but his whole family didn't like it and they kicked him out of the house for good. That's where he met "the straw that broke the camel's back". He recognized the lady that abused him when he was younger. Raffaele approached her but couldn't speak a single word. He was paralyzed, but not out of fear. He wasn't scared, he couldn't explain what was happening. The lady tried to speak with him, to flirt even, but he couldn't react at all. She then touched his arm -*"Non toccarmi lurida stronza!"* - he screamed, and immediately grabbed her head and smashed it against the wall repeatedly until nothing was left of it. He was in shock, he couldn't even feel his heartbeat and stood still for a couple of seconds before realizing what he did. Raffaele was forced to run away from everyone outside of Italy where everyone knew him and his family, so he ran to the dock where he took the first ship, hid on it, without even knowing its destination.

## Arrival in the Commonwealth

When Raffaele first arrived in the Commonweealth, he was an illegal immigrate and had to change is name into Walter. People often asked if it was his actual name or who named him, as his accent would give him away quite easily, but the excuses were always the same: *I have Italian grandparents, I'm from the south, I have a sore throat*. He used to live in Black Water and would often visit Strawberry for business or for friends, until one day the lawmen claimed he was responsible for a marshal disappearance. They couldn't find the real culprit so they had to blame it on someone. Luckily for them, they found Walter dealing some swamp herb cigarettes so they used it to start framing him, being a *"criminal"*. Raffaele spent days in jail and the only person he could talk to was his lawyer, who was rapidly giving up hopes, as there's not much anyone can do when the Marshal themselves frame someone by making up fake evidences. One day they offered Raffaele to walk "*freely*" inside the town one more time before the execution, and he took that opportunity to pick every gun and bullet possible from local dealers and old friends. He hid two revolvers inside his jackets and waited for the best opportunity. A Marshal was forcing him into the cell one more time for the night, so Raffaele took his guns out and started shooting everyone inside the Sheriff's office. He got shot twice in the process, both bullets went to his left arm and never fully recovered from that, reason that will lead him to never being able to hold to guns at the same time ever again. Raffaele grabbed the first horse on sight and rode away, as far as possible and ended up in Saint Denis, covered in blood and barely alive.

## Events in the Commonwealth

Raffaele arrived in Saint Denis, completely lost, alone and scared. He had no money on him and he needed medical attention. He started begging everyone in the city until someone offered to pay for his medical bills. He will never forget his help, a stranger that never introduced himself to him. After he was cured and taken care of, Raffaele started farming and offering protections to make as much money as possible, as he had to think about food and water.

From that day on he went back to being Raffaele Moretti. With his first money he managed to make some papers, buy an ID and legally become a citizen of the commonwealth.

When he finally had had enough money to take a bath, buy some clean clothes, shave both beard and hair, he decided that he wanted to eat a warm meal somewhere fancy, somewhere welcoming, so he headed to LaBastille, Saint Denis finest saloon. That's where he met Tilly Paris and Camillo Porgini who gave him a warm welcome and a new beginning. Camillo had an important meeting and asked Ralph to wait for him because he would offer him a job, after taking care of some business, so Ralph waited a long time but Camillo was not coming back. Worried, Ralph went to check on him and found him near the bank, held at gunpoint by an individual that, of course, he never met. Ralph's instinct kicked in and shot the man at the back of his head without hesitation. He ran to Camillo, telling him to wait at LaBastille and that he would take care of the body. Without wasting a second Ralph picked up the stranger and ran through every alley avoiding the streets, until he found himself outside of Saint Denis, where he fed the body to the alligators. When he went back at LaBastille, Ralph told Camillo what he did with the body and Camillo took note of it and spoke with Carlo Porgini about him, slowly introducing Ralph to the Porgini Family and become part of it. Camillo always treated him like a son, he helped Raffaele by providing him a job at the distillery that Camillo opened and managed by himself. At that point, Ralph fully trusted Camillo to the point he would've taken a bullet for him, and started to see him as a father, the kind he never really had: *a caring one*.

Tilly one day hired two women: Birdie and Cat. Ralph at that point was frequently present at LaBastille, as security and helping hand, so he spent a lot of time with any employee at the saloon, but they were different. They were the most fun and Ralph immediately befriended them, having the time of his life. He fell in love with Birdie in no time and proposed to her almost right away. He loved her so much that he wasn't willing to wait more than what he already waited to call her *his Wife*. Birdie accepted the proposal with one condition; being able to marry Cat. Ralph was okay with it as he fully trusted Cat at that point and knew she was right for Birdie. The three of them were often confused for a love triangle, but in reality it was a simple straight line. Ralph married Birdie, Birdie married Ralph and Cat, Cat married Birdie. *Ralph did **not** married Cat.*

Soon Camillo passed away from tuberculosis, and with him his doctor and lover as well as one of Ralph's best friends, Nakita Umbatu. With that, came depression. Ralph lost someone that truly loved with his heart, people that were always there for him and people that he trusted. Ralph stopped working for days as he couldn't handle going inside the Distillery without memories and depression hitting him like a train, so he would often be found at LaBastille, drinking alcohol like he could drown his pain. Not even a week later, his "wife" Birdie and his friend Cat left Saint Denis to pursue their dreams of becoming famous artists in New York.

At that point Ralph lost his acquired Father, his best friend, the woman he loved more than anything in the world and was left with only a distillery. Not for long, as the government evicted him and sold the business to other people without confronting him. Ralph lost everything, he was lost and depressed, but the only person that really helped him keep his sanity was ~~[redacted]~~ Trina. She was always there for him, since he was Walter, as she taught him how to plant, process and roll swamp herb. They soon fell in love, leading them to be a couple that would care and look out for each other. *Always, not matter what*.