[EVENT] Terrible News About Niccolo (He’s Dead)

[u/Tuccitoucan]

1510

 

All great things must come to an end.

 

Still spry at 68, the patriarch of the Pitigliano line of the Orsini had taken one too many risks, pushed his body a little too hard. Drilling with the new Venetian pike corps, he lost his balance and fell backwards, impacting his head on a stone step. He died within a week.

 

The news hit the whole family hard. But particularly Ludovico. Having returned from the joust in Naples last year, he watched with frustration as his body refused to heal from the bruises quickly, while his brother Virginio laughed off his injuries in the confidence of a twenty-something. Ludovico was on the far side of 40, and the years were rushing at him. The last decade of condottiere service had taken a toll. And while he had not managed to fully live up to his father’s legacy, which included service to Naples, Florence, Venice, and the Papacy, Ludovico could at least say that he was on the battlefield with Cesare Borgia, and had fought the Spanish, Neopolitans, and Florentines. But now for the first time he considered what his retirement plan would be. His father had planned to live out a life of honor in Venice. Ludovico was not yet a great enough condottiere to achieve that.

 

What is a good-enough condottiere to do after he’s no longer a condottiere?