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Basiliscus

Conzaga Family (Varlyrio)

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Here are the main members of the Conzaga family and their biographies. The family has a strange trait whereby all the children are born with white hair due to some genetic anomaly.

***

Besil Conzaga (retired)

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In his prime Besil kept the Conzaga family going during the troubles between the de Fioris, Amancios, Chiaros and Baiamontes. A deft hand was required to prevent being crushed in the civil wars and assassinations that took place during the worst of those years.

A quiet unassuming man Besil largely kept the family out of sight and never flaunted his wealth, gently expanding the family business and buying up local competitors.

Now in his twilight years, Besil has handed the Conzaga family affairs over to his eldest son Staffen to manage, looking forward to a quiet life.

Staffen has asked that his father have his likeness immortalised in the Conzaga family crypts, something the modest Besil does with reluctance.

***

Staffen Conzaga (family head, deceased)

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Staffen is the current head of the family and a shrewd and ambitious man. Having lived through a period of Varlyrian stability, with three generations of Amancios as Rego, he can afford to expand more aggressively than his father and take more risks for the family business.

Whereas his father preferred bribes and marriages, Staffen isn't shy in carrying out the occasional abduction or assassination to further his goals.

After his second wife died in childbirth, he turned all his energy into the family vinyards and is posed to take every advantage he can.

Whilst his more underhand tactics have had some successes, it has also created him many enemies, and he insists that him and all his children are assigned a bodyguard for their protection. 

For his own bodyguard he has picked a Minotaur named Minos, chosen because only he can speak the Minotaur tongue and no-one can turn the beast against its master.

***

Nestur Conzaga

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Nestur is the second son of Besil and whereas his brother Staffen got all the business acumen, Nestur is the warrior of the family. Sent off to the mainland to learn his craft, he fought in many of the civil wars that plagued Historica and his mercenary company earned many riches for the Conzaga family coffers.

In addition to gold, his time at war brought back a lot of information on the other Historican factions which will be invaluable for expanding the family trade links.

Having never married, he has no children, and is much more likely to be found in taverns with low company than at the family vinyards.

***

Bernaldo Conzaga

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As Staffen's oldest son, Bernaldo should be heir to the family business, but being brought up on tales of his uncle's adventures on the mainland meant he often skipped his lessons and he desired more than anything to become a warrior and travel to distance lands vanquishing foes.

Unfortunately, the period of peace brought in by the death of Ravaage  and the coronation of Queen Ylspeth has robbed him of this opportunity, so instead he spends his time drinking and womanising along with his uncle and his men.

Having been brought up in relative luxury, he spends gold like it's going out of fashion, and thinks nothing of bedding any woman he can get his hands on.

In the most embarrassing case, Bernaldo was found in the bed of the Duc D'Elancon. After the Duc demanded his head, Nestur cut off the Duc's hand and only intervention from the Rego and Staffen's agreement to pay a large sum of gold prevented a full blown vendetta.

Bernaldo refuses his father's offer of a bodyguard, scorning it as "babysitting". The real reason is that he doesn't want his father to know what he gets up to...

***

Gisela Conzaga (ambassador to Avalonia)

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Gisela is Staffen's second child, and oldest daughter. Fierce and independent, she rarely listens to her father although her relationship with him is considerably better than Bernaldo's.

Rather than spinning and needlework, Gisela prefers to get involved in the family business and handles political turmoil with ease. Her father begrudgingly accepts her advice even if some of his advisers find it distasteful to debate with a woman.

As her bodyguard, she has been assigned the lionel Mohatu. With his keen sense of smell and lightning quick reactions, he is ready to keep Gisela safe from anyone who might do her harm.

***

Mychel Conzaga (secondary character)

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Mychel is Staffen's second son to his first wife, who was born shortly before his parent's divorce. Unlike Bernaldo, who takes after the hard drinking uncle Nestur, Mychel has his gandfather's quiet and unassuming nature. He lacks his sister's political ruthlessness, but he did get some of his father's intelligence.

He is considered a master of the vine, and the Conzaga vintage has never tasted better under his direction, a fact his father rarely admits in company. He enjoys the simple things in life and rarely troubles others.

His bodyguard is the avian-sapien Meiyo - a master of the sword her keen eyesight keeps Mychel out of harms way.

***

Poppa Conzaga (in Kaliphlin)

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Poppa is Staffen's second daughter, and his only child to his second wife. After her mother died birthing her, she is painfully aware of her failures and is hard on herself for every mistake she makes, whether it be improper etiquette or a stitch in the wrong place.

She tries to overcompensate by fitting in as a perfect daughter amongst her more unruly siblings, but her tender age and fragile constitution mean she mostly misses out on the fun.

She is protected by the Kaliphlin champion Tsiri. He left the isle of Gorr under rather dubious circumstances, and only narrowly avoided being taken by pirates on his journey to Varlyrio. Despite his past the giant Sudite dotes on Poppa and is more of a father to her than Staffen, who is often too busy running the family business to spend much time with his daughter.

***

That's them all! At some point I will do a family tree to help you keep track of them.

 

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Love the vignettes, and the stories that accompany them!  Bernaldo seems to be quite the Rogue.  Plenty of targets for intrigue...

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Wow, you really went all out and the final thing is something epic!  I really love the way the body guards turned out for example, and I will comment on flickr on my favorite of the vignettes :) . Great bios too! 

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Nice nice nice!  Some excellent figs and intriguing backstories here, and like Navarre mentioned, the bodyguards are an excellent addition!  The second vig is probably my favorite - love how the Minotaur blends nicely into the background (I actually missed him at first glance)! - but the others are all nicely built too; the window on Gisela's and lanterns and floor on Nestur's being my favorite details, I think.  

Looking forward to seeing how this all plays out... :devil: :wink:

And of course, welcome to the Guild! :thumbup:

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20 hours ago, Rogue Angel said:

Love the vignettes, and the stories that accompany them!  Bernaldo seems to be quite the Rogue.  Plenty of targets for intrigue...

Thank you! Bernaldo is certainly going to cause a lot of internal struggles for the Conzaga family, I made him a bit naughty to allow me to drive the story forward without requiring external enemies.

6 hours ago, W Navarre said:

Wow, you really went all out and the final thing is something epic!  I really love the way the body guards turned out for example, and I will comment on flickr on my favorite of the vignettes :) . Great bios too! 

Many thanks for the kind words! I'm glad you've come round to the body guards now :laugh:

2 hours ago, Garmadon said:

Nice nice nice!  Some excellent figs and intriguing backstories here, and like Navarre mentioned, the bodyguards are an excellent addition!  The second vig is probably my favorite - love how the Minotaur blends nicely into the background (I actually missed him at first glance)! - but the others are all nicely built too; the window on Gisela's and lanterns and floor on Nestur's being my favorite details, I think.  

Looking forward to seeing how this all plays out... :devil: :wink:

And of course, welcome to the Guild! :thumbup:

Thanks man. I think my favourite is also the window on Gisela's one, that was one of those occasions where the parts were on the table and they were shouting out to go together.

Also thanks for the guild welcome, despite the family animosity I'm hoping we can still give a good account of ourselves in challenges and so on!

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Love the little vignettes! And the family lore is great! I'm intrigued to follow their stories!

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Great vignettes and lovely characters :thumbup:

Which torso did you use for Staffen?

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Brilliant minifigs and I love all the effort and details that went into each individual vignette. I think the bodyguards for each family member really add something to the story. Staffen seems somewhat familiar as well! Fantastic job!

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Great vignettes and a very diverse range of abilities and predilections for the family members. I like seeing another somewhat prominent Varlyrian catfolk. I also appreciate the inclusion of some more adult elements in these stories. I try to do that a little too, striking a balance somewhere between Tolkien and Martin but probably skewing a lot closer to Martin.

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Wow! Love those figs and stories behind them! The small vignettes adds so much more to the figs and presentation!

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On 10/20/2018 at 12:43 AM, The Last of Nergoue said:

Nice Vignettes!

Thanks!

On 10/20/2018 at 7:08 AM, Windusky said:

Love the little vignettes! And the family lore is great! I'm intrigued to follow their stories!

Thanks, hopefully more stories coming soon.

On 10/21/2018 at 7:34 PM, Gideon said:

Great vignettes and lovely characters :thumbup:

Which torso did you use for Staffen?

It's the Master of Lake Town torso from the hobbit.

On 10/22/2018 at 8:44 PM, Ayrlego said:

Brilliant minifigs and I love all the effort and details that went into each individual vignette. I think the bodyguards for each family member really add something to the story. Staffen seems somewhat familiar as well! Fantastic job!

You might remember Staffen because I entered him into a contest for LoR. Since that's basically dead now, I thought I could re-purpose him for GoH.

On 10/24/2018 at 4:43 PM, mccoyed said:

Great vignettes and a very diverse range of abilities and predilections for the family members. I like seeing another somewhat prominent Varlyrian catfolk. I also appreciate the inclusion of some more adult elements in these stories. I try to do that a little too, striking a balance somewhere between Tolkien and Martin but probably skewing a lot closer to Martin.

Yeah I liked what you did with the catfolk culture, it helps to make Varlyrio more unique from the other factions, and it helps if a few of us include them to make them seem more prevalent. I'm a big fan of Martin's works, so you will probably sometimes see his influence in my writing.

On 10/24/2018 at 6:27 PM, de Gothia said:

Wow! Love those figs and stories behind them! The small vignettes adds so much more to the figs and presentation!

Thanks!

Edited by Basiliscus

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Another interesting looking family, presented in excellent vignettes! The body guards are my favorite characters here. I wonder if there is any family connection between the Conzagas and the Centarios of Zotharith in Nocturnus (the characters of @Exetrius, who also all have white hair). Could be an interesting collab...

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3 hours ago, Henjin_Quilones said:

Another interesting looking family, presented in excellent vignettes! The body guards are my favorite characters here. I wonder if there is any family connection between the Conzagas and the Centarios of Zotharith in Nocturnus (the characters of @Exetrius, who also all have white hair). Could be an interesting collab...

Hehe, yes I'm reading along.. Who knows? :wink:

Nice vignettes here, I especially like Bernaldo's one. Doesn't really need a description to know what kind of guy he is. :laugh::thumbup:

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Besil and Bernando are my favorite of the two.  They couldn't be more different.  I love the statue waiting for the final touches.  Also the expression on Bernando's face is perfect.

As Kaliphlin is not as settled politically as other guilds at the moment, there could be opportunities for adventures for Bernaldo there.

I can imagine the exasperated father sending him to spend some time with the Knights of Aslan in order to get the adventuring out of his system and learn some discipline and devotion.

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14 hours ago, Henjin_Quilones said:

Another interesting looking family, presented in excellent vignettes! The body guards are my favorite characters here. I wonder if there is any family connection between the Conzagas and the Centarios of Zotharith in Nocturnus (the characters of @Exetrius, who also all have white hair). Could be an interesting collab...

Thanks! I had no idea about the Centarios, but I searched for them in the forum and a distant connection might be a nice plot twist...

10 hours ago, Exetrius said:

Hehe, yes I'm reading along.. Who knows? :wink:

Nice vignettes here, I especially like Bernaldo's one. Doesn't really need a description to know what kind of guy he is. :laugh::thumbup:

Ha! Originally I was going to make him my secondary character, but I decided to go for the more straight laced Mychel and make Bernaldo the family antagonist. I think it could be interesting for us to 

5 hours ago, x105Black said:

Nice collection of Vignettes.  Good stories.  This makes me want to be more active.

 

Good job!

Cheers! I hope you can be more active too, I'm hoping to participate in all the challenges for Book III.

2 hours ago, Muakhah said:

Besil and Bernando are my favorite of the two.  They couldn't be more different.  I love the statue waiting for the final touches.  Also the expression on Bernando's face is perfect.

As Kaliphlin is not as settled politically as other guilds at the moment, there could be opportunities for adventures for Bernaldo there.

I can imagine the exasperated father sending him to spend some time with the Knights of Aslan in order to get the adventuring out of his system and learn some discipline and devotion.

Interestingly you've preempted my next free build storyline...

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Usually character intros are just "fig-on-plates" presentations (or not even on-plates in my case!), but the vigs you built around each one are each marvelous in their own right.  Sweet work. :thumbup:

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11 hours ago, Basiliscus said:

Interestingly you've preempted my next free build storyline...

lolol :head_back:

seriously, this is glorious. the vignettes are really cool and the stories intriguing and well written. I think the family as a whole is ready for a nice start ^^

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On 10/29/2018 at 7:00 PM, mrcp6d said:

Usually character intros are just "fig-on-plates" presentations (or not even on-plates in my case!), but the vigs you built around each one are each marvelous in their own right.  Sweet work. :thumbup:

Thanks man, I wanted to try and make each vignette a small insight into each character, showing a bit of personality with the background.

On 10/29/2018 at 9:50 PM, en_zoo said:

lolol :head_back:

seriously, this is glorious. the vignettes are really cool and the stories intriguing and well written. I think the family as a whole is ready for a nice start ^^

Made good progress on my next freebuild, hoping to have it up some time next week! Thanks for the comments!

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Excellent builds to showcase your character's family :thumbup: The column design in Besil's scene is super cool :wub:
And using panels to allow for the loose slope cobblestone technique on such a small build is quite clever. It will be interesting to see more of the Conzagas!

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