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Cardinal Cardoza is a distasteful Catholic priest who works as the Church's primary ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople.

History[]

Early History[]

Cardoza was born Italy and raised Catholic, and during his childhood he became close friends with Farnese, the brother of a man who would become the Pope by 1546, and who was considered a brother in all but blood. Thanks to his connections, after Farnese joined the Catholic Church, he helped Cardoza join the organisation in a prominent position as a cardinal as well.

In addition to enjoying flaunting his power, Cardoza was a sodomist who abused several boys and young men, which he indulged in alongside other priests like Farnese.

The Church later decided to send Cardoza to serve as one of their ambassadors to Sultan Suleiman, the ruler of the Ottoman Empire, which saw the cardinal start living in the Moslem capital of Constantinople. While there, Cardoza hired Sinon to be his manservant, and later began hosting sordid gatherings for himself and his fellow priests, in which they would abuse young boys together.

Some time after Suleiman decided to host a chess tournament to determine which nation had the best chess player, he hired the Italian chef Brunello to teach his cooks how to prepare European dishes. Brunello brought with him his family, which included Benicio, a simple-minded 12 year old boy. After meeting the boy and seeing how easily he could manipulate him, Cardoza asked the boy to bring his meals to his room, at which point he would sexually assault Benicio, who had no idea what the cardinal was doing to him was wrong.

When Benicio did realise this, nearly three months had passed. Ashamed of himself, Benicio his slit his own wrists. While Brunello wanted Cardoza to perform a proper Christian funeral for Benicio, Cardoza refused, claiming that the boy's suicide had offended God. This eventually led to Brunello shouting at the cardinal, who refused to budge on the matter.

During this same period, Cardoza discovered that the Sultan's queen, Roxelana, was having an affair with the wrestler Darius. The cardinal proceeded to begin blackmailing the Queen so that she would use her influence with the dungeon guards to intervene if his priests were caught harassing boys. This proceeded for the next two weeks, until Cardoza took an interest in Darius himself, and threatened to inform the Sultan of the affair if the wrestler did not agree to submit himself for the cardinal's carnal desires; knowing he would face death if the Sultan found out, Darius reluctantly agreed.

The Tournament[]

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The still-living Cardoza was left where he was to continue suffering as Ascham gave his final findings on the murders to the Sultan, making note on how the Cardinal had been responsible for pushing Pietro to commit the first murder due to his abuse of Benicio. As a result, Suleiman decided that Cardoza would be imprisoned for the rest of his life in the palace dungeon, and the Cardinal was given minimal care and routinely tortured until his life finally ended.

Personality[]

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