Józef Anton Daniłowicz

Commonwealth's first Minister of Finances is, perhaps, the most mysterious member of original National Assembly - a political organization that overthrew Polish-Lithuanian monarchy and estabilished a republic that would become one of the greatest powers on Earth. Even his time within the Assembly is poorly documented, as Daniłowicz was known to be a very secretive - though not reclusive man. However, after he passed away his friend and co-worker, Roscislaw Czwijnowski, shed some light on the man who - behind the scenes - layed the groundwork for Commonwealth's rise to power - both politically and economically.

## Early Life

Young Józef was born in Warsaw on November 11th, 1673 - an exact day of Battle of Chocim, where Polish-Lithuanian forces commanded by the future king Jan Sobieski (at the time acting as a Crown Hetman) stormed and conquered Ottoman-held Chocim fortress in the middle of a freezing blizzard. And although it was a great victory for Polish-Lithuanian forces, for newborn Roscislaw the day was not at all joyful. His mother passed away shortly after giving birth, and his father was one of the very few casualties of Chocim assault - a common footsoldier who died while storming the breach. As such, Józef became an orphan on the very first day of his life - and because he was just a son of townsman, there was little mercy or help he could expect. In regular circumstances he would've been left for death, but his uncle who was present during his birth and witnessed Józef's mother - his sister - dying, decided to take the boy under his wing. The issue, however, was the fact that Józef's uncle was not a respectable man. Instead, he was a renowned Warsaw gambler and drunk, with ties to many criminal organizations. As such, while Józef managed to survive, his childhood quickly became a blur of constant cold, hunger and desperately scraping at every opportunity to find food or coin, right in the middle of Polish capital. But - to surprise of his uncle - young Daniłowicz proved to be extremely capable little thief. Weak from constant malnutrition and unable to defend himself in most situations, Józef quickly learned to think on his feet, not to mention that by the age of 6 he was able to hide in practically any place at any time - in fact, his skill was so renowned, that he reportedly could walk right into the middle of National Assembly meeting, deliver financial reports to the Prime Minister, take a bottle of wine from the table and walk away without being noticed by anyone. Likely this is just an exaggeration, but it does not change the fact that Daniłowicz became a very proficient thief in his early years, and by the age of 16 he was able to buy several buildings in Warsaw which then became headquarters of his financial operation.

For, despite being a very proficient criminal, Józef was aware that his career was - ultimately - a dead end. At best, he would eventually slip and end up in jail for the rest of his life. At worst, local authorities or his competition would become too aggravated, and Józef would become yet another gutted corpse, floating face down in Vistula River. Because of that, he started looking for other opportunities - and it was then, when he accidentally met a person who would change his life forever. A young man was visiting Warsaw and wanted to hire a local guide and bodyguard - and Józef, commanding almost a 100-strong group of cutthroats was eager to provide their services. This person in question was a young noble named Ulryk Poleska, an idealist who studied in United Provinces and returned to Poland with great many ideas on how to improve the failing nation. His ideas - ones speaking of democracy, liberty and equality - sounded like madness to Józef at first, but as he continued to listen to the man, he found himself nodding along. After about a month, he was fully on board and eager to bring Poleska's plans of republican coup into reality - but in order to do that, he would have to become something far more than just a common mobster.

The idea came almost instantly - Józef already had enough money to life comfortably, so now he just had to use it properly to multiply it. The answer was to found a private bank - or, as they were called at the time, a "moneylender". Józef used his initial capital to invest in several promising businesses (where possible ones that were ran by Poleska's supporters) and then used profits gained from these venues to invest even further. It was a risky business even in the best of times, but Daniłowicz was able to use his criminal experience to stay away from shoddy clients and - as years passed - his profits became growing much faster than he could ever dream. By the time the revolution started, Daniłowicz's fortune was comparable to the most powerful magnates - including the infamous Radziwił family - except, unlike the nobles, Józef made sure that not a single coin could be traced back to him. In the months leading to the revolution he used this money to purchase equipment and support for his fellow rebels and even prepared emergency supplies for common people, safely hidden away in warehouses all around the country. These supplies were a backup plan in case the revolution failed but - fortunately - they were not needed, and could instead be used to stabilize the country during sudden change of the government. From behind the scenes, praised by almost no one, Józef Anton Daniłowicz ensured that republican uprising went as smoothly as possible - and for this, he was then appointed as Commonwealth's Minister of Finances - no small task, considering that the treasury he inherited had not a single gold coin inside. Still, despite this handicap, Józef was not only able to keep the newly-born Commonwealth afloat - he managed to make it thrive, and over the next 15 years turned the country from one of the poorest and most destitute parts of Europe into an economic powerhouse that controlled markets in all corners of the world.

## Exile

The dream could not last forever though. Despite being instrumental to Commonwealth's rise to prominence, Daniłowicz remained a secretive man and - unfortunately for his career - prone to certain backroom deals. And one of these deals was funding General Poniatowski's doomed invasion of British Isles - using his personal wealth and national treasury in equal measure, Daniłowicz organized a fleet of steam ships and prepared dozens coal stations that could be used to keep these vessels operational not only on the way to Brittania but also on their long journey to India and back that happened afterwards. And while the indian part of this operation was not really questionable, allowing Poniatowski to rampage his way from Scotland to the gates of London was a very dangerous move, one that remained a black stain on Commonwealth history, and served as justificiation for many conflicts between two giants in the future.
Because of that, Daniłowicz had to leave. He put all the books in the Ministry of Finances in order and vanished without a trace while the war between Austria and Commonwealth was still raging.

What happened afterwards is, to this day, very much a mystery. Three decades later, Daniłowicz would reappear in Empire of China as financial advisor to Ming Emperor, but what was he up to during that time only he knows. And, always eager to cause confusion, the man himself was known for spreading more and more outlandish rumors that changed every time he'd spin a story. To a diplomat from Ottoman Empire, he said that he spent years as a pirate in Indonesia and used this wealth to buy his way into Chinese Imperial Court. Mughal Emissary on the other hand heard a story about Daniłowicz traveling to Americas and finding mysterious golden city of El Dorado. Inside the city in the centermost palace, there supposedly was a magnificent diamond larger and more pristine than any other in the world - and Józef would then gift this magnificent stone to Chinese Emperor which would earn eternal friendship of the court. British envoy then listened to a story of Daniłowicz estabilishing trade contacts between China and mysterious Atlantis, a nation living deep beneath the ocean. And to Commonwealth's ambassador - invied to China by Daniłowicz himself - he said, gleefuly, that he got pissed drunk after leaving the Ministry and suddenly woke up 30 years later, with a terrible hangover, sitting right next to a man who turned out to be the Celestial Emperor.

To this day, Daniłowicz's fate during these 3 decades remains mostly unknown, but recent research managed to shed some light on it. According to Chinese historical documents, Daniłowicz arrived in the Empire from the west, alone, marching in ragged robes across the Gobi desert. A wreck of a man, he was barely even aware that he ventured all the way into Celestial Empire's territory - but what followed then changed not only him, but China and the rest of the world as well.

The big standing question, however, what Daniłowicz was up to between his disappearance from Commonwealth and marching into China. Using data from Chinese records and other historical sources proved no conclusive answers that could enable us to track his journeys and adventures in full, but we do have at least some points of interest that can be considered to be reasonably accurate.

## 1719-1723 - Arabian Travels

Harbormaster reports from Muscat, Oman, indicate than in early 1719 a man arrived on board of Dutch fluyt bound for India. According to these reports, the man "looked like one of many beggars and poverty-stricken Europeans discplaced by wars" and as such was dismissed without causing much interruption. Afterwards, however, there are reports of a small and high-scale thieveries happening all over the city - and, considering just what Józef's occupation was before the revolution, it was probably more than just a mere coincidence. The crime-wave lasted for several months, and ended with a mysterious traveler from Europe being arrested while he was trying to rob local bazaar - and his description fits Daniłowicz almost perfectly. Still, despite his crimes - and the fact that he was an infidel - he was not executed. Instead, local administration press-ganged him into becoming a worker in one of the caravans that traveled across vast Arabian deserts. It may seem like a lenient and almost completely pointless punishment - after all, a criminal in such position could always simply walk away and try their luck elsewhere. However, it was a long practiced solution - yes, one could always walk away and vanish in the distance, but the only place they could go would be an endless, inhosptable desert. And so, Daniłowicz began long marches from Muscat to Baghdad, fully aware of the fact that any attempt of escape would be nothing else but suicide. But although everything seemed bleak, some positive things came out of this punishment - for one, Józef became surprisingly proficient when it came to surviving in hostile desert conditions. What's more, he also learned about many local legends. According to stories, the peninsula was far more fertile and rich in ancient times, full of life and wealth. The people who inhabited it - in times way before Muhammad made his journey to Medina - built great many cities which, after their ancient empires fell, were reclaimed by the relentless desert sands. Some of these ruins could sometimes be found after violent sandstorms, only to vanish underneath the sand once again few weeks later. One of these cities, however, eluded all explorers for centuries - a mysterious Iram, City of Pillars and the jewel of the desert. Stories about this city varied wildly, with some even claiming that it fell underground into a massive cave where it rests to this very day, guarded by seven-headed stone serpent and lost in time for the rest of eternity. But regardless of rumors, these tales sparked almost an obsessive interest in the mysterious European, who - without a word - abandoned his caravan one day and vanished into the desert. Nobody bothered to look for him. The desert - everyone though - would claim the criminal regardless, and if not, then perhaps Allah considered him worthy of survival. It was 1722. He returned marched into Muscat, alone, a year later and looked like a man who aged two decades.

His hair were completely gray, his skin almost white in color and wizened like old parchment. But despite looking like a wreck of a man, the traveler's eyes gleamed with odd energy, something that was absent from his face for many years. But most importantly, his backpack was full of artifacts unlike anything anyone in Muscat - or anywhere else for that matter - ever seen. Richly decorated cubes made of emerald, boxes that seemed capable of trapping the sunlight itself and holding it indefinetely, and figurines of unknown, tentacled creatures made from black ivory - all these items quickly gained interest of Oman's Sultanate itself, and soon the European was invited to court and offered an outlandish sum of money for these amazing objects. Except the deal never happene - as soon as this mysterious European showed himself at the palace he was immidiately surrounded by Sultan's guards who - by now - realized that he was a criminal convicted few years before, and whose punishment was not yet done. The guards arrested the traveler, dragged him to jail and took all his artifacts away from him and presented them to the Sultan. But it was not yet over for that European. After the Sultan realized just how valuable the artifacts were, he tried to force the location of the City of Pillars out from his prisoner. But by the time the court torturer arrived to ask his questions, European's cell was emtpy - he was, after all, known for being adept at lockpicking. The criminal escaped into the night and, until his appearance in China much, much later, he vanished from pages of history. As for the objects taken by the sultan they were, sadly, lost during great earthquake that leveled Muscat in 1841 and so we are unable to truly determine their origin and nature - and many historians claim that they were, in fact, not ancient artifacts but cleverly forged fakes. Whether or not that is true, we cannot tell today, but one thing remains certain - whatever (supposed) Daniłowicz found in the mysterious Iram, changed him for the rest of his life.