Leonardo Macaluso

**Leonardo Macaluso** is the founder and first king of Rhodina. He is also one of the most well-known members of the Macaluso Family, due to his actions while he was in power.

## Early life

Leonardo was born in Agrigento, which was one of the villages involved in the formation of Rhodina. His family owned a small fishing company, which saw moderate success as a small business, raking in decent money. Leonardo's father, whose name is unknown to this day, had some personal problems with the mayor of Agrigento, though. It all reached its tipping point when the mayor walked in on his wife having an affair with Leonardo's father. He then stabbed Leonardo's father multiple times, causing him to die of blood loss less than 15 minutes later. On top of this, the mayor shut down the fishing company, and did his best to cover the whole thing up.

## Agrigento Revolt

Now, Leonardo, without an income and a missing father, immediately began to suspect the mayor of causing it. He reached out to his two brothers, Alberto and Cataldo, and the 3 devised a plan to avenge their father. They started with small things, like petty theft and blackmail, but they quickly started to escalate their crimes. They eventually discovered a major shipment of paper that easily cost thousands, with a label going straight to the mayor's office. They did the only reasonable thing they could, and burned all of it. This caused more damage than just a loss of paper, however, as it turns out the whole government was out of paper, meaning they could no longer document anything. This led to major problems with foreign merchants, which the economy of Agrigento relied on, who boycotted the city by halting all trade with it. News of this quickly spread, and opinions quickly turned against the government.

Leonardo and his brothers realized they had to act fast, or an unorganized revolt would likely happen, due to the unruly nature of the town. They rallied a group of supporters, who broke into the mayoral offices, taking the mayor prisoner. While Cataldo was looting the office, he found some files. One of which was a document of his father's murder. He rushed it over to Leonardo and Alberto, where they all came up with an idea. While they still had the mayor in custody, the published the document, after taking out anything negative about their father, which put the final nail in the coffin for the mayor. The next day, the mayor was executed for corruption and the unprovoked murder of their father.

Since the people saw the brothers as heroes, they replaced the previous government, doing whatever they could to secure their position. Their victory would not last long, though.

## Founding of Rhodina

Two months after they took power, the nomadic tribes began their raid on the villages. Since Agrigento was the furthest south, it suffered the least damage. However, it was still hit pretty bad. Both of Leonardo's brothers were killed, leaving him as the last of the Macaluso family. On top of that, the capitol building was completely destroyed, as well as his personal home. By the end, Agrigento's population was cut in half. Leonardo sent parties up north to contact other villages, hoping others survived the attacks. When they returned, they brought hundreds of refugees with them, since they learned Agrigento was the only city even suitable for life anymore. While this did bring the population roughly back to its pre-raid numbers, it now lacked the housing and food to support the refugees, let alone its current residents. Luckily, the nomads never found Agrigento's supply storages, meaning housing could quickly be built up again. The other villages were eventually completely abandoned, due to everyone emigrating to Agrigento.

As his city grew, foreign merchants took notice of its rapid growth, and took interest in it again. Seeing his city prosper, he renamed it to Messina, promising the people a new chapter to their lives. He eventually had multiple children with his new wife, Angela. These were Antonio, **Roberto**, and Sofia.

As Leonardo neared the end of his life, he knew he had to secure his family's future, as well as hic city's. He put his firstborn, Antonio, in charge of Messina, and Rhodina as a whole. Before he could decide what to do about Roberto and Sofia, he tragically suffered a fatal heart attack.