Angelo Carmine

## Carmine Gentleman

**Angelo Carmine** is a Rider encountered in *Monster Hunter Stories Ultimate*, and serves as an optional fight.

## Description

Angelo Carmine is a tall, lithe man with long, light blonde hair, blue eyes, and soft facial features, giving him the appearance of a dandy. On his head rests a dark red, wide-brimmed hat with a massive, white feather, and he wears a black domino mask alongside a dark red bandanna on his face, obscuring his identity. He wears a dark red jacket with silver lining and trim and gold buttons and rhinestones, and over the sleeves of this jacket rest black gauntlets with silver markings and gold, ovular rhinestones. Over his shoulders rests a black cape with gold trim, which is held in place with gold chains. Underneath this jacket is a pair of white breeches, black leg coverings that reach up to the thighs, a white breechcloth, and dark red boots with silver lining, gold rhinestones, and black soles. He wields a unique Sword and Shield dubbed the Carmine Swordstick.

## Personality

Angelo is an intrepid merchant, travelling far and wide to collect rare, valuable items to sell to customers for very high prices and looking for all manner of customers to sell his wares to, no matter the risk involved, with his favoured customers being Hunters and fellow Riders due to their long, wide travels leaving them wanting for new, worthwhile items. He is shown to be courteous towards his customers, talking to them like they were old friends, offering them fine wine, and respecting their decision to buy or not buy items, and is honest about the effects of the items he sells, as he values customer satisfaction. When he's not busy selling his wares, he is a robber by trade, boldly going up to intended marks with his Monsties in tow and requesting them to hand over their goods if they want to avoid a fight, and is willing to fight them to get what he wants. He is also pragmatic when it comes to his choice of targets, refusing to rob the poor because they lack valuable goods, and prioritizing government figures and members of nobility, sleazy and corrupt ones in particular, due to them having large sums of money and valuable items on hand and being disliked by the general public. Should anyone try to steal from him like he steals from others, he will challenge them to a fight to see if they are worthy of taking his goods; if they win, he will let them have the goods for free, and if they lose, he will take them back, alongside the money they would have initially paid for it.

## Background

Not much is known about Angelo Carmine's past, but what is known is that he was once part of a family of merchant Riders who made their fortunes by selling top-quality Bulldrome meat made with a variety of herbs and spices and special charms lived within the Aya Country, which was primarily ruled over by an aloof, enigmatic princess who held Lunastras in high regard and her assortment of cohorts, each of whom had varying degrees of morality ranging from ambiguous to outright evil. Looking to increase his own fortune and make a name for himself among his family line, he decided that there were more markets to delve into and that he would need ambition beyond the sale of spiced pork and charms, and travelled far and wide to acquire new goods to sell to the residents of Aya, using his family heirloom, a Versa Pietru-themed cane whose shaft hid a sharp blade within it that was known as the Carmine Swordstick, to defend himself from monsters along the way. His very first Monstie was a Bulldrome he raised himself, sparing it from the grill due to the emotional attachment he had for it, and he went out of his way to make it as powerful as it could be, using the Rite of Channeling to bolster its physical prowess. As he traveled, he picked up a wide range of rare items ranging from unusually large Bumblepumpkins to sizable pieces of Auristone, selling them to anyone who had the zenny, and developed his own brand of wine made from uncommon, succulent grapes found only in the Aya continent, giving samples of it to customers to encourage them to look at his wares or just stick around and talk, wanting to get to know his customers better so he could appeal to their needs more, making him quite popular; in addition, upon realizing that there was an untapped market in the Aya region in regards to Monstie Eggs, he decided to gather as many as he could, prioritizing rare and smelly ones due to him noticing that they tend to carry the genes and slots Riders want in their Monsties and selling them for a sizable fee, and decided that his best bet would be to expand his business ventures worldwide, wanting to travel the world to see what it had to offer and potentially bring in buyers from other parts of the world to put his name on the map and build a greater business empire. Unfortunately, his ideas of expansion would not go over well with Aya's rulers.

Xenophobic and paranoid, the rulers of Aya were aghast at Angelo's idea to expand his business worldwide and bring in clients from other parts of the world, believing that such business would undo their control over the continent to people they considered untrustworthy and inferior to them, and made increasing demands for him to reconsider, or they would mark him as an outlaw and blacklist his business. Angelo refused to do so, stating that the rulers of Aya were operating on outdated ideals that were holding everyone back and that they were losing an opportunity to make business boom, and claimed that they were being selective when it came to the enforcement of their laws regarding outsiders, commenting on how they were considering bringing in hunters from other continents to help deal with a Midari outbreak despite their distrust towards outsiders, questioning them for not doing more to help out their people themselves despite their power and proclamation as the ultimate authorities, noting that every good he obtained was by his own hand, and that his business, if allowed to expand, could be used to help supply the hunters and replenish lost zenny and resources put into stopping the fungal abomination. Unfortunately for him, they would not hear him out, and they proceeded to have their mercenaries raid and destroy every shop he built, strip him and his family of their high-class privileges, and marked him as an outlaw out of spite for him and his commentary, threatening to kill him if he ever showed his face again. Deeming them all sleazy, corrupt, and decadent, Angelo took to a new form of business in the form of the black market and theft, robbing any wealthy passersby, particularly those of nobility due to them having the most zenny and rare items, on sight and selling his illicit wares in private locations, never losing his affable demeanour all the while, and because those he robbed were largely distrusted by the public due to their aloof, yet authoritarian attitudes and lack of concern for those beneath them, and because he never targeted the poor due to them having nothing of value to steal, he continued to have a positive reputation among residents, particularly low-class and middle-class ones, being seen as a dark hero who was fighting back against a decadent establishment (though they would never express these feelings in public for fear of punishment). Things came to a head when the rulers of Aya discovered that their funds were mysteriously low and that a Rusted Kushala Daora Egg one of the princess's aides was holding onto had mysteriously vanished, and deeming Angelo as the culprit despite a lack of proof that he did it, he was marked *persona non grata* and run out of the continent, with the rulers working towards making him an unperson so they would not be reminded of what happened. Disappointed, but not ready to give up, he decided that he was going to make his worldwide business happen, with or without the people of Aya, and boarded a boat to the Old World.

Stuck in a new land with no way to return home, Angelo decided to rebuild his business from the ground up, building himself a portable cart akin to what the members of the Capital C Caravan used and had his trusty Bulldrome tow it, and used the seeds of the grapes he grew to create vineyards, holding them in transportable containers and crafting fine wine that he would offer to passersby for free so he could get a better understanding of the new land from the locals. Among the first people to take up business with him were the people of Jumbo Village, who paid good zenny for whole bottles of the wine and added them to their canteen and provided information on other villages throughout the Old World, and he would continue to expand outward, fending off monsters with his swordstick and his Bulldrome's incredible strength, and as he ventured out, he continued collecting rare items. After overhearing a conversation about a hunter who cried over not being able to obtain monster plates and gems, he decided that there was another market to tap into, with this one being the sale of rare monster parts, and decided to obtain a hunting license from the Guild branch stationed there, noting that being hunted down for poaching wouldn't be worth extra profits due to him being in an unfamiliar land and recovering from a major loss of business, commenting that he already received enough grief from the rulers of Aya. After killing a variety of troublesome monsters for the villagers and seeing just how profitable hunters can be, he continued to venture outward to collect items that would be of use to them, going from Pokke and Yukumo to Kokoto and Dundorma, building up a positive reception like the one he had at home, though at the same time, he had no qualms with robbing wealthy passersby and pickpocketing Guild Knights to increase his wealth. Eventually, he built up a wide range of customers and amassed a great amount of wealth, and would venture out to collect more Monsties due to him understanding that his Bulldrome could only do so much. Throughout his travels, he obtained the eggs of a Glavenus, an Ivory Lagiacrus, a Stygian Zinogre, a Kirin, and a Silver Rathalos, subduing them with the great strength he and his Bulldrome built up, and while it was not an easy task, he was very persistent, which paid off in the long run, as he managed to acquire many different rare items that hunters would be more than happy to buy. He was also involved in a series of incidents directed at rulers of various towns and cities, such as the mysterious disappearance of Great Poogies from Dundorma, the rich residents of Verudo having much less zenny than usual, a selfish kid princess repeatedly losing her Rajang pelt gloves, and individual Guild Knights, particularly those who did things like take bribes from criminals or mistreat poor communities, losing their signature rapiers and sidearms, and deciding to cover his tracks, he ventured out to a continent full of Riders known as Ijotria, sometimes returning to conduct more business with hunters who wanted to see him.

Upon reaching Ijotria, Angelo continued doing business like he did in Aya, finding as many heavy and smelly monster eggs as he could and selling them to Riders who were interested in his wares, and built up an even bigger fortune within the region due to how much Riders were willing to shell out for items like Great Poogie Eggs, Charms, Stimulants for Monsties, and Ancient Panaceas, with them wanting to make their Monsties as great as possible and acquire rare ones, and he proved to be quite popular, perhaps even more so than he was in the Old World and Aya, since despite his thieving, even people who worked for the Hunter's Guild branch in Ijotria held him in high regard for his willingness to spare the poor and (usually) going after rich folk who deserved to be robbed, ranging from uppity nobles who treated everyone else like scum to corrupt politicians who exploited the people they claimed to care about. He even built up a friendship with members of the Research Commission branch in Ijotria, including the Raidamachi Guildmaster, who was impressed by his stories, affability, and charisma, allowing him to conduct business in Raidamachi as long as he didn't steal from the residents (unless they attacked or robbed him first, then they were fair game, and he'd only steal from them if they could afford the loss). He would not be without opposition, however, as a variety of regions would have him banned, seeing him as nothing more than a petty criminal who didn't know his place and holding people like the residents of Raidamachi in disdain for their willingness to associate with him. Nevertheless, he would continue his story one way or another as the greatest merchant Aya ever produced, and would prove to them that they made a grave mistake by exiling him and destroying his business. And  a travelling Rider with a Felyne for a companion could provide the means to bolster his business further, or undo it before his own two eyes.

## Abilities

Angelo Carmine is a Rider with no specific element of choice regarding Monsties, wielding a unique Aether-elemental Sword and Shield known as the Carmine Swordstick and using an Ivory Lagiacrus, a Stygian Zinogre, a Kirin, a Glavenus, a Bulldrome, and a Silver Rathalos. He and his Monsties are all at the highest level Riders can reach, and his Monsties' Genes are tailored for competitive matches between Riders, making him a difficult match for all but the mightiest among them. He is also a well-traveled and hardy individual, having scoured all sorts of places to acquire rare goods.

## Tropes that Apply to Them

* Affably Evil: He's polite to the player and other customers, talking to them as if they were old friends, offering them a glass of wine free of charge when they stop to buy his wares, and respecting their decision to not purchase his wares, and has genuine respect for the player's abilities as well, praising them if they beat him and encouraging them to get better if they lose. He's also a ruthless mugger who'll send his Monsties after noncombatants if it suits him, and will rob the player if they lose to him.
* Bonus Boss: Regardless of the route the player takes, he can only be fought by refusing to pay for something taken from his store, or by attempting to thwart him when he robs hapless NPCs.
* Cane Sword: His aptly-named Carmine Swordstick appears to be a Versa Pietru-themed cane at first, but fighting him reveals that the shaft hides an ivory blade which holds Aether energy.
* The Dandy: He's quite focused on his own physical attractiveness, wearing stylish clothes and keeping himself neat and tidy.
* Domino Mask: He wears one.
* Even Evil Has Standards:
	+ If the player suggests that he's a con man, he'll take offense to it, stating that while his means of obtaining his wares are dubious, he's been entirely honest about their effects, and that such dishonesty is beneath him, whereas the same can't be said for the people he's robbed.
	+ He was also displeased with the rulers of Aya for their xenophobia, dismissing them as paranoid control freaks who lost an opportunity to make business boom within their land over outdated ideals, and their actions regarding his business, believing that they were being selective when it came to enforcement and that they were no better than him due to the individual leaders' conduct.
* Evil vs. Evil: His primary targets are sleazy and corrupt politicians, nobles, and associates of the Hunter's Guild, as he sees them as easy game due to them having rare and valuable goods on hand in addition to being disliked by the general public and making their fortunes off the backs of others.
* Genius Bruiser: Not only is he at the highest level a Rider can be, but his Monsties are all tailored for competitive play, making him as tactical as he is strong.
* Gentleman Thief: While a bit more violent than most examples, he's a dashing and debonair fellow who refuses to rob those who can't afford the loss.
* Graceful Loser: If he's defeated, he'll praise the player for their strength and skill, and will also let them keep the item they tried to steal from him following the battle with him.
* Holy Hand Grenade: His Carmine Swordstick deals Aether damage.
* Intrepid Merchant: No matter how dangerous the area is, he will find a way to get there and try to sell the player his goods, and he's explored many different areas in an effort to gain new goods.
* Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He's a tall, long-haired, dashing rogue, and when unmasked, he's shown to have soft facial features.
* Meaningful Name: His last name, Carmine, is a shade of deep red, reflecting his primary choice of colour regarding his outfit.
* Odd Friendship: He's quite friendly with the Research Commission of Ijotria and the Raidamachi Guildmaster despite his distaste for the Hunter's Guild and the Guild disliking thieves.
* Pragmatic Villainy:
	+ He refuses to rob the poor because they having nothing valuable for him to take. This extends to gameplay as well; while he normally has no qualms with robbing the hunter if they lose to him, he won't do so if they lack the funds needed to buy the item they tried to steal.
	+ Despite being a highwayman, he decided to acquire a hunting license from the Hunter's Guild and only killed monsters in self-defense until he got the license. Although bandits are able to be reformed in the Guild's eyes, with some hunters being former bandits, they do not hold the same attitude towards poachers, and he was recovering from a major blow and stuck in an unfamiliar land following his exile from Aya, which would have left him with nowhere to go if he took up the poaching trade.
	+ He also won't conduct business with the player if they take up the Oblivion Route, noting that he'd rather not support someone whose goal is to kill everything and everyone because it would be detrimental to his business, leaving him with no customers, and thus, no profits.
* Shoplift and Die: Stealing from his store will result in him attacking the player so he can get his goods back, along with what the player would have initially payed for it.
* Videogame Stealing: If he defeats the player after they steal something from him, he'll take what they would have paid for it alongside the stolen items.
* Villain with Good Publicity: Despite being a ruthless mugger, he's amassed a large, dedicated following due to his genuine politeness and charm, sharp sense of style, and habit of targeting wealthy figures seen as sleazy and corrupt by some. This is invoked in-game as well, with the Carmine Swordstick he wields being described as a choice weapon for charismatic gentlemen among rogues.

## Notes and Trivia

* Angelo Carmine was designed to be an optional, high-level boss that players could effectively test their skill on; not only are he and his Monsties at the highest level they can reach, but he also utilizes Aether, which is uncommon and strong against a number of monsters, and all his Monsties are ones that are high-tier or top-tier in PvP and have gene selections designed to fit their roles (for example, his Bulldrome has a Tenacity Gene, which goes well with its high Attack and heavy-hitting moves and compliments the Potential skill the Monstie naturally learns).