House Bossi

## House Bossie

Sigil of the Bossi

**House Bossie** was originally a minor noble family of Iber in the Emilian Marches. One branch of the Bossi has risen to power and infamy in the last few generations through the Ecclesiarchy and is now a force to reckon with in Aliris Sector.

## Origins

The Bossi claim collateral descent from the gubernatorial house of Iber but no such link has been confirmed by unbiased authorities. Whatever the origins of the House may have been the first of them to achieve planetary and later Sectorial prominence was Calixtus Bossus who began his career as a canon of the Cathedra Argante. He entered the service of Lord Alonse di Trastamare, a cadet of the Gubernatorial House who successfully claimed the governorship of Neapolis in right of his wife. Calixtus serving him as a counselor and advisor as well as confessor. Calixus recommended himself to the then Arch-Cardinal pretendant of Romuleia by using his diplomatic skills backed by the power of Neapolis to smooth out the succession schism of 729.M41. He was rewarded by a lesser Cardinalate, that of Valens Majora. His election to the Arch-Cardinalate of Romuleia in 755.M41 came as a surprise to all concerned - most definitely including himself. But it laid the foundation for the Bossi's later prominence and pwoer.

## Familia Romuleia

### Appian Bossus

b. 731.M41, Arch-Cardinal of Romuleia and Primate Pretendant of the Aliris Sector. This ambitious and extremely able Ecclesiarch was born to a minor noble family on a planet subject to the Iberian Dominate. As a younger son Appian was dedicated to Holy Church at an early age. His gifts clearly lay in finance and administration rather than rhetoric or theology and he was duly steered into the Ecclesiarchy's clerical bureaucracy. As a humble under-dean he married Girael Lucia, a canon's daughter by whom he had three children. The conventions required the couple to separate when Appian was created Arch-Deacon of the Primate Cathedral on Romuleia and promoted to the Cardinalate of Valens Majora by his uncle Calixtus in 780.M41 but it was accomplished without ill feeling on either side, nor did Girael lose materially through the loss of her husband. Appian did not remain celibate, nor was he expected to, but his liaisons were temporary until he met and fell hopelessly in love with Vanissa Candia, a professional Social Companion of Romuleia. The connexion produced four children but had come to a natural and amicable end some years before Appian was elected Arch-Cardinal in 820.M41.

### Petrus Lucius Bossus

b. 760.M41, son of Deacon Appian Bossus and his first wife Girael Lucia. Petrus is presently Lord Palatine of Grande Iblis, Lord General and Commander of Sarkomand. Petrus is a good son to his father, a loyal vassal to his governor and a dedicated officer of the Imperial Guard. Unfortunately these three roles all too often come into conflict. He is widely agreed to be the only honorable member of his family and the only one to be trusted farther than you can see him.

### Gironda Bossa

b. 767.M41, second child of Appian Bossus and his first wife. Gironda was married by her father to Haymon Doria, Trader Princeps and Senator of Serenissa, as part of an alliance with that power to further their mutual interests at the expense of the Lord Sector. Doria's unexpected assassination - at the behest of the Arch-Cardinal say some - left his young widow as his sole heir - if she could keep it. Gironda not only kept it but went further than her late husband ever did becoming not only Princepessa and Senatrix but Grand Admiral of Ships of Serenissa. This is not all good news for Appian as Gironda has shown herself to be at least as interested in furthering the League's ends and her own as the fortunes of House Bossi.

### Bellisent Bossa

b. 769.M41 third and youngest child of Appian Bossus and his first wife. Bellisent has been married and divorced from a series of ever more high ranking and powerful husbands as her father's career and his political needs changed.  First to a pair Iberian aristocrats, successively not simultaneously, and later to the heir presumptive of the present Vicarius of Romuleia Mattos Cessare. Possibly as a result of this blatantly obvious manipulation Bellisent has become quite anti-political and not very friendly to her father or his ambitions. She currently lives apart from her husband - to both their content - as colonel of a PDF regiment raised from the Cessare estates.

### Sebastian Bossus

b. 794.M41 to Cardinal-Archdeacon Appian Bossus and his companion Vanissa Candia. Named by his father for the Blessed Saint Sebastian Thor and intended from birth to follow in his ecclesiarchal footsteps. Anything but a saint 'Bastian Bossus has shown himself to be an able and ruthless soldier. He is presently leading a crusade against Redemptionist extremist sects in the Romuleian Dominion supported by Lilium. His ambition is to lead the crusade that finally retakes the Ionian Worlds which he and his father hope to make fiefs of House Bossa by right of conquest.

### Macharius Bossus

b. 796.M41, second son of Appian Bossus and his companion Vanissa Candia. Named in honor of the great general Solar Macharius Appian expected this son to be the soldier of the family but, though he still holds the official title of Gonfaloniere of Romuleia a series of embarrassing defeats convinced both father and son that warfare was not Mach's metier. Instead he has proved himself a past-master of intrigue and under-handed tricks. Macharius recently divorced his wife Dona Buenca Trastimare, a daughter of the former heir to gubernatorial chair of Neopolis, and is trying to arrange a new alliance personal and political with Lippus II of Gallica.

### Helenia Bossa

b. 800.M41, third child of Appian Bossus and his companion Vanissa Candia. So far Helenia has tamely married and divorced two husbands at her father's behest. She has co-operated with her brother Macharius' schemes and acted as intercessor for Sebastian with their father. She gets along beautifully with her stepmother Julia and dotes on her younger brothers and sister. Helenia is definitely the 'good girl' of the family, trusted implicitly by all the others because she seems to have no ends of her own - or does she? She's accumulated quite a little fortune from gifts and bribes, not to mention two marriage settlements, and people who cross her tend to disappear quietly and without fuss. Helenia is an enigma. Maybe she is a 'good girl' or maybe she's playing some deeper game of her own.

### Memmius Bossus

b. 805.M41, fourth and youngest child of Appian Bossus and his companion Vanissa Candia. This son is rather an afterthought with his powerful father. Memmius has been gifted with both Ecclesiarchal benefices and a military fiefdom indicating a certain confusion as to his intended career. Memmi himself couldn't care less about his future being much too busy enjoying the present along with his mistress Dona Buenca Trastimare, Macharius' former wife. But don't get the idea he's *harmless*, he's not.

### Julia Domnis (-Bossa)

b. 799.M41 to a minor noble house of Romuleia. Julia was one of the young maids of honor hired as companions for the Cardinal-Archdeacon Bossus' teenage daughter Helenia. She soon developed a girlish passion for the handsome and powerful Cardinal which he after some years came to return. A cautious young woman, however deeply in love, Julia insisted on marriage and a settlement before sex. The latter was not a problem but as it is illegal for high officers of the Church to marry the former was. Appian acceded to her demands after his ascent to the Arch-Cardinalate. The marriage is an open secret, known or guessed by those in the highest circles but eminently deniable.

Julia is the mother of two children by Appian; Lauria Bossa b. 822.M41; and Romulus Bossus b. 827.M41.

## Quotes

### About:

"*Petrus. You're looking well, I like the casual pauldrons. You'll impart my sincere affection to Helenia wont you?*"
— Douchard Bagge