Cardinal Farnese is a high-ranking Catholic priest, brother to the Pope, and a member of the delegation sent to Constantinople for the Invitational Chess Championship.
History[]
Early History[]
Farnese was born as the brother Paul III, the man would become the Pope by 1546, and became close friends with Cardoza, who was considered a brother in all but blood. Thanks to his connections, Farnese would later join the Catholic Church and became a high-ranking cardinal, helping Cardoza join the organisation as well.
During his time with the Church, Farnese worked to avoid getting involved in petty schemes to improve his standing, which made him more popular than even his brother the Pope. Farnese was content serving as the Pope's most trusted advisor, but rumours circulated that he was in line to become Paul's successor. Conversely, though, Farnese was seen by some - like the Jesuits - as an embarrassment, due to regularly making foolish and ignorant remarks, and selling items above the standard rates, such as when he sold pieces to Austria's Archduke Ferdinand at 10 times the price he had taken from the Polish king.
In addition to enjoying flaunting his wealth, Farnese had two vices; the first being relatively minor, an opium habit. The cardinal's second vice, however, was far more serious, committing sodomy against boys and young men, which he indulged in alongside other priests like Cardoza.
As a devout Catholic, Farnese was highly critical of the Islamic faith, being highly vocal with anti-Moslem speeches, demeaning several aspects of their faith such as polygamy, and even tried to call for a new crusade on Jerusalem. While few in Rome minded his comments, word of Farnese's views spread into the Ottoman Empire itself, which led many Moslems to despise the cardinal. His critiques severely offended the Iman Ali, who tried to launch a fatwa - a public death warrant - on Farnese, though his fellow Iman thought this too extreme.
When the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman sent out invitations to a chess tournament he would be holding to determine which nation had the best chess player, the Pope decided to send Farnese along with the delegation to the Moslem capital, knowing that his brother would offend the people and provoke the Iman, which in turn would irritate the Sultan since he would not be able to afford to allow the cardinal to come to harm lest he risk embarrassing himself before his guests.
During the journey to Constantinople, Farnese shared the same carriage as Michelangelo, who had been contracted by Sueleiman to craft the chess sets for the chess championship, and caused the artist much strife. As they entered the Ottoman lands, crowds of Moslems who knew of Farnese's distaste for their culture would point the soles of their shoes at the passing cardinal's carriage as both an insult and a form of protest against the bigoted Farnese.
The Tournament[]
Upon arriving in Constantinople, Farnese was reunited with Cardoza - who had been in the city serving as the Church's ambassador for some time - who graciously allowed his old friend to sleep in his room at the Church's embassy. Later, Farnese and the rest of his delegation representing the Papal States waited in line with the other delegations representing the various nations who'd sent players to await their turn to meet with the Sultan. From the English delegation, the princess Elizabeth noted the cardinal's display of wealth in comparison to the Jesuits who were with him, which drew the attention of her teacher, Roger Ascham, to Farnese. Knowing of the cardinal's reputation, Ascham was surprised to see him among the Church's delegation, and surmised the reason for his presence.
During the opening banquet for the Sultan's guests, Farnese and Cardoza began catching up before eventually deciding to relocate to the embassy to eat their meals in private and look over correspondences he had brought from Rome. However, Cardoza was waylaid by the Christian delegation from Spain, and so Farnese decided to return to the embassy alone. Upon arriving and finding the meals Cardoza had arranged waiting for them, Farnese decided to partake in his while he waited for Cardoza to arrive.
Unfortunately for Farnese, he unwittingly began eating the meal intended for Cardoza, which contained elephant's ear put in by Pietro, as part of the young man's desire to take vengeance on Cardoza for violating his brother Benicio and driving him to suicide. The cardinal's mouth quickly became irritated with a violent rash, which then swelled up and closed his airways, suffocating Farnese. When Pietro came to check to see if Cardoza was dead, he was horrified to see that he had killed the wrong man instead. Attempting to cover his involvement, Pietro stripped the fat cardinal naked and dragged him out to the reflecting pool before mutilating Farnese's jaw to make it appear that the fiend who had committed several murders around Constantinople had killed Farnese, and then stabbed his chest to make it appear to be how he had died, hoping that this would throw off any investigation.
Soon after, Farnese's body was found in the reflecting pool by the palace guards, at around the same moment that Elizabeth, Elsie Fitzgerald and Zubaida entered the courtyard in the hopes of getting a better view of the firework display meant to close off the ceremony. After the girls were ushered away, a guard informed the Sultan, who waited until after the ceremony was over to examine the scene for himself.
Despite Pietro's hopes, the fiend who had terrorised Constantinople had already been captured some days earlier, and so the Sultan knew that Farnese's murder had been orchestrated by someone else. Knowing of Ascham's ability to solve crimes through the use of logic, Suleiman informed the teacher of the incident and tasked him with finding Farnese's killer, whom the Sultan believed to be intending to embarrass him. Publicly, though, Suleiman decided that since he wouldn't be able to cover up Farnese's death for long, he would allow the narrative that the cardinal had been a victim of the fiend to run its course since it would prove less of a humiliation to him.
Ascham and Elizabeth proceeded to examine Farnese's body, which allowed the former to deduce his true cause of death, and the following morning visited Cardoza at the embassy to make enquiries. However, Ascham's questions led to Cardoza realising that he had been the intended target, but incorrectly assumed it had been the chef Brunello, and so had his manservant Sinon kill the chef and his wife.
Ascham's investigation soon led him to also realise that Farnese had not been the killer's target as well, and so set about trying to find out who had cause to harm Cardoza. Meanwhile, his parents' deaths led Pietro to fear for his life and take refuge in the cistern beneath the palace, where he was later found by Elizabeth. Not long after, Ascham came to realise why Cardoza had been targeted and spoke to Pietro himself for confirmation, who broke down and confessed to killing Farnese by mistake. Ascham decided that, since Pietro had only been trying to do away with the cardinal who had abused his brother and hadn't intended to set off the chain of death that had followed, that he would give him a chance to flee before informing the Sultan of who Farnese's killer really was.
Personality[]
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Trivia[]
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