Our Story

Medici is an island nation with a wealth of a special material known as Bavarium. Discovery of this powerful compound has rocketed Medici’s international importance and power, but it has also brought great woe to the country. It is currently under the boot of a vile dictator known as General Sebastiano Di Ravello. The people have little say in their government, their work, and sometimes even their lives. Things are desperate for many, and there needs to be change!

What could be more of a just cause than that?

Our hero, Rico Rodriguez, was born in Medici but left quite some time ago. In his people’s hour of need, he returns to try and free them from tyranny. Using his courage, and a massive arsenal of weapons and gadgets, he might very well succeed in changing the course of history!

Rico Rodriguez

History

Rico grew up in Medici after leaving Mexico with his parents when he was only a small baby. His family lived a semi-rural life on the edge of a minor town, but Rico found a way to distinguish himself as a young racecar driver. Rico seemed to be driven by a different fire than just winning. Even when he was leading races by several seconds, he continued to push as if some demon burned at his back. Rico became a local hero, but also began attracting the attention of a young military general with his eye on power.

During a Medician championship race, where Rico was clearly winning the field, he wrecked his car and had to be taken to the hospital. That same night, President Antonio Dante was assassinated and his murder blamed on the popular socialist leader, Rosa Manuela. In the ensuing chaos, what would later be termed ‘The Night of the Bonfires,’ General Di Ravello grabbed control of the country in a brutal military coup. Rico, with only minor injuries, escaped from the hospital, but too late. He returned home to find it in flames and his family murdered. His best friend, Mario, smuggled him away from the scene to the last boat to leave Medici. Rico escaped, having lost everything he cared about in one night.

On the boat ride across the Atlantic, Rico met Sheldon, who worked for an American government secret agency. He joined up with this new path in life, eventually ending up working as a freelance go-between for The Agency. From there, his continued training in the art of regime destabilization solidified his role as an indispensable agent. His known assignments included overthrowing dictators in the Caribbean nation of San Esperito and the Southeast Asian nation of Panau. At some point, his service allowed him to gain US citizenship, though he never really considered the US as his home. He always kept sporadic contact with his old friend Mario. When he received news that Mario and the rebellion was nearing defeat, he decided to put a lifetime of training to personal use and right the wrongs of his past.

Mario Frigo

History

As a child, Mario compensated for his lack of physical stature with a talent for making friends. One weekend, he found himself watching an F1 race on TV with the head mechanic of a local garage. Mario was enamored with the drivers’ skills, and when he realized that many of them were as small as he was, he was hooked. He soon became the mechanic’s assistant and found himself working on the car of Medici’s prodigal race driver, Rico Rodriguez. They became fast friends, literally, but things went badly for Rico on the night that General Di Ravello seized power, and Mario helped his friend escape Medici when the rest of his family perished.

At 18, Mario took a job as a bus boy in a restaurant frequented by local Mafiosi. An older gentleman who was impressed by Mario’s devotion to even unimportant duties invited him to train for a position in a leading crime family. Mario jumped at the opportunity to improve his precarious financial situation, but his progress was soon impaired; Di Ravello began to favor other, less scrupulous, mafia families: organizations that in turn funneled money to his regime, without regard for the effect their horrific acts had on the nation.

Before long, Mario’s crew merged with a growing Medician rebellion. The rebel movement has been active for some time, but it’s been losing ground lately. Without outside help, they’re doomed to fall against the superior numbers, force, and financial power of the general’s militia.

Dimah

History

A gifted mathematician and scientist, Dimah Ali Umar al-Nasri never intended to work with nuclear weaponry. At Cairo University, she studied nuclear physics under Sameera Moussa, the nuclear scientist known as the “Mother of Atomic Energy,” who nurtured in Dimah a fervent belief that atomic energy would change the world for the better. Dimah’s thesis centered around the use of Bavarium for safer nuclear energy, which she hoped would ease the burdens of developing nations. She fervently believed that her research would yield benefits for humanity no matter her vocation. Upon graduating at the top of her class, she joined a military hardware manufacturer.

Her clever inventions caught the attention of the Agency, who spirited her away to serve as a gadget and weapons inventor for several decades. During this time, she met and equipped a young Rico Rodriguez with his signature grappling hook and parachute. She also invented a number of gadgets the Agency determined were too risky for operatives to utilize, including the stripped-down wingsuit that she would later give to Rico. When Sebastiano Di Ravello, dictator of the Bavarium-rich island nation of Medici, became an ally of the United States, the Agency gave him Dimah to help develop and research Bavarium; in return, Di Ravello allowed the Agency (limited) access to his research.

In Medici, Dimah made incredible sprints of progress where teams of brilliant scientists had slogged before her. Di Ravello superficially supported her interest in generating energy and curing illness with Bavarium, but simultaneously directed her toward what he saw as more useful goals: mining, refinement, and weaponization. The more time she spent in Di Ravello’s oppressed nation, the more she bore witness to the terrors of his regime: failure rewarded with torture and death. Petty crime punished by lifelong labor in the mines that produced the very Bavarium she weaponized. She grew to understand Di Ravello’s increasingly clear schemes for the imperial conquest of the Mediterranean.

Seeing how her work with Bavarium fit into the collage of turmoil that transformed the once-beautiful Medici into a ruin, she finally began to ask whether her years of dedicated research were really yielding benefits for humanity; she did not like the answer. A rift grew between Dimah’s passion for research and invention, and Di Ravello’s greed for novel new weapons of mass destruction.

Seeking repentance for her contributions to Di Ravello’s progress, Dimah fled and sought asylum from Mario Frigo’s rebellion.

Annika Svensson

History

Annika Svensson grew up rich in Stockholm, lived the party life for a while, then decided she wanted “adventure” without really knowing what that meant. At 24, she sailed out of Stockholm on her 35-foot sail yacht accompanied by her lover of the moment, a professional archaeologist. The first destination on their around-the-world tour was Medici.

Their trip was cut short when Medician outlaws hijacked her boat and held them for ransom. She was never in real danger, or at least she didn’t feel like it. These pirates just wanted money, and why not? Here was her privilege, her peers’ privilege, exposed; these pirates, as she learned, were both dirt-poor and also unwelcome in their own country’s society. She convinced them to release her lover (who was not worth nearly as much), then promptly fell in love with the outlaws’ leader, Paulo de Silva, and became increasingly sympathetic to their cause. When her parents refused to pay her ransom, she just took the money from the bank account herself and chose to stay.

After Paulo was killed by Di Ravello’s troop s during a raid, Annika couldn’t bear to see the crew he’d built disintegrate because of a lack of leadership, so she became their de facto captain instead.

Teo

History

Born in the small town of Aiyetoro, Teo quickly learned the ropes of piracy from the locals who patrol the Gulf of Guinea. Decades spent pillaging holds, abducting ransoms, and narrowly escaping the military educated Teo in the subtleties of brawling and economics, in shipping lines and naval combat, in fight or flight. Many of his friends started calling him the professor, as he often would bring back all the books he could find from the ships they took. Though not widely known in the rest of the gang, Teo possessed a near photographic memory. The long days and nights at sea, Teo would immerse himself in philosophy, mechanical schematics, Jules Verne, and any other book or source of knowledge he could get his hands on.

Soon, his insatiable thirst for knowledge sent him exploring the waterways of the world. Selling his skills as a sailor and a warrior, he came into the employ of Paolo de Silva. Paolo was a charismatic pirate who specialized in harassing the Medician army and ransoming wealthy tourists who came to soak in the warmth of Medici’s sunlight, oblivious to the suffering that engulfed the rest of the country. Medici, so full of history and filled with modern technology, captured Teo’s imagination. He quickly ascended the ranks until he was Paolo’s right-hand man and closest companion.

Years passed, when one day the pirates abducted a young Swedish aristocrat named Annika. She was quickly more than a match for Paolo’s leadership skills and both fell into a fiery relationship. Even in the short time, the couple became a much-loved institution among the pirates, and were seen as the soul of their crew, even if Teo had become the will. One fateful day, Paolo perished at the hands of Di Ravello’s militia on a routine raid, and much to Teo’s surprise, the crew rallied to Annika. Trusting Paolo’s judgment, Teo served her as though she were his friend’s reincarnation.

As the years passed, much of the crew got absorbed into the revolution or died. Soon, Annika and Teo found themselves as two smugglers against the world. Annika quietly supported Teo’s constant search for knowledge and Teo in turn never doubted her leadership, thus forging their unbreakable friendship.

Tom Sheldon

History

Tom Sheldon is a longtime Agency operative who first came into Agency employ in the sixties. Sheldon was active during the various Agency black ops of the Vietnam War (including ops in Laos and Cambodia). Sheldon was active in the South American Theatre during the eighties and also played an important role in the operations that led to the election of the framed ‘Papa Panay’ of Panau, who was later deposed by Rico Rodriguez. His involvement in General Di Ravello’s coup of Medici led to the assimilation of Rico Rodriguez into The Agency.

Rosa Manuela

History

Rosa Manuela first came to public attention as a prominent lawyer. With WWII far in the rearview mirror, Europe was changing, and Medici along with it. A conciliatory voice like Manuela, was just what both sides of the country needed. Although Manuela was first elected to the Medician parliament as an unimportant member of a minor party, she soon came to lead a coalition of opposition parties. During this time, her husband was killed in a car accident. Many said that the killing was meant as intimidation; it left Manuela to raise her young son alone.

After Manuela led the opposition for a few years, she looked likely to unseat the government of the sitting president, Antonio Dante, in the next election. If she won, she would be Medici’s first female leader. This could be proof that, like other European democracies, Medici was becoming comfortable with diversity. But when president Dante was assassinated shortly before the election, General Sebastiano Di Ravello blamed Manuela for the crime; the general roused a mob to harass Manuela’s supporters. Manuela fled into exile the Night of the Bonfires, and has lived in South America ever since, lobbying with world leaders for the freedom of Medici from General Di Ravello and biding her time until it is safe to return to lead her homeland.

Zeno Antikythera

History

Zeno Antikythera never really intended to move from Greece to Medici permanently; he relocated after learning about Bavarium and scheming to make a fortune on Bavarium tchotchkes. One thing led to another, and soon Zeno found himself in the employ of the dictator of Medici, who was quick to use psychological and physical harm to manipulate the frail and weak-minded scientist. Zeno spent some time working with Dimah, who saw him as mostly useless.

General Sebastiano Di Ravello

History

Sebastiano Di Ravello was born to a lower-middle-class Medician family and worked his way up to the highest echelons of the military; because he pulled himself up from near poverty, he has little sympathy for others who haven’t done the same. Several decades ago, as he watched Rosa Manuela leading her people toward a more prominent place in Medician society, he decided she was forcing Medici in the wrong direction. To his eyes, she was promising prosperity to people who hadn’t earned it and devaluing the accomplishments of honest Medicians.

Because of this he took drastic measures to protect his country. To prevent Manuela from winning the election, Di Ravello induced several Medician extremists to assassinate the president. He then personally drew up documents that blamed Manuela, and led a campaign of violence against her supporters.

For decades, he has led Medici with an iron fist; over time he has grown even less sympathetic and further limited the people’s rights.