Lord Alistair Leone

Lord Alistair Jean-Marc Leone was a Siennian philanthropist, adventurer and author who was well-known for his published journals detailing his travels across Eleron. He was noted for being rambunctious and eccentric in his personal and professional life. He was partially responsible for funding The Viridium Sanctum and the Lucky Leone Theatre (his funding came with the caveat that he would be the one to name the theatre). He was remarkably patriotic, recorded as often remarking how Sien could do no wrong and celebrating the brilliance and ingenuity of its people, much to the chagrin of everyone he met on his travels.

Early Life

Born to the noble Leone family, Alistair had an unremarkable childhood receiving private tutelage in essential studies as well as Siennian sword fighting. He attended The Royal Academy studying history, philosophy and astrology. An incident report from the Academy indicates he at one point during his studies, brought in a dragon eel he had fished up just prior, dumping it on the professor's desk. He was briefly suspended when the dragon eel bit his professor's arm.
Soon after graduating, Alistair got on the first ship he could find that would be leaving port and headed northward working as a deckhand. As a worker, he was dedicated to the tasks given to him, though he often absent-mindedly neglected his own safety, almost walking off the ship while reading on several occasions. Somewhere off the coast of the Wilderlands, the ship was attacked by a sea serpent that ate or otherwise killed 8 of the crew and injured 3 others before being killed by Alistair with a crossbow. After observing the slain beast, Alistair reportedly begged the captain to turn the ship around and return to Sien so he could 'show [his] friends the great catch he just made'. The ship left the sea serpents corpse behind, and would not return to Sien until 2 years later, without Alistair.

Morhiel

According to his journals, Alistair stayed in the northern jarldom of Morhiel for 4 years, travelling up and down the eastern coast, even heading northward into Sikuin on occasion. Originally he stayed in the capital of Molnhaven working various positions as a fisherman, dancer, lamplighter and barber. He was held in a cell overnight after harassing a local shifter by begging her to 'bite him and turn him into a werewolf.' Alistair refused to hear from guards that shifters are not suffering the lycanthropy disease.
Further afield from Molnhaven, Alistair was able to put his education to work and act as a translator between Eleronese and Morhansk for merchants and travellers. While travelling he attended a Morhillian Stormfest where he broke his arm, declared a convicted thief an outlaw in a trial where he was given legal authority as an unbiased party and learnt to mush sledding dogs. Alistair was incredibly fond of his sled team and was devastated when one of his dogs, Sir Woofington Leone, caught an illness and perished during a long trip along the edge of Sikuin. He had the dog cremated, and sent the ashes back to Sien where they were received by his confused family.
After 4 years Alistair received correspondence that sickness had spread within his home city, both of his parents were ill and wanted him home as soon as possible. He sent his first journal ahead of him, along with instructions to his family's accountant, and ordered passage on a ship back to Sien. However, upon arriving at the docks on the day of departure, Alistair looked at the boat and declared to the captain that he had had enough of sailing, and turned around to begin sledding south with his dogs.

Travel Home

While his original ship plans would have seen him home within the year, the decision to travel on land would ultimately end up costing him 3 years, not entirely due to his own actions. Crossing The Krigoth Mountains with his sled team proved treacherous, instead of taking locals' advice to travel further west to Dar Kuldar and pass through the mountains that way, Alistair purchased a rowboat which he fit himself and his dogs onto, and rowed past the mountains, along the Frystahav. This ordeal took an estimated 14 hours of straight rowing and battling the waves while his dogs barked and cried. Upon getting to shore he immediately passed out, and upon waking realised he could barely move his arms due to pain. It took him a week to recover from the strain he had put himself through, at which point he had burned through his supplies and had to travel inland again to purchase more supplies.
Making his way through the Wilderlands Alistair got lost no less than 5 times, needing caravaneers to give him directions whenever he came across them, again refusing their suggestion of finding a caravan heading south to travel with. By the time he reached The Shattered Kingdoms of Lisun he had been on the road 6 months and was finding it harder and harder to travel through the winter weather. Stopping in a small barony, Alistair started chopping wood and reciting poetry for tips while he stayed in civilisation over the winter months. He writes that he originally planned to set off on the new year, but one of his dogs had become pregnant and worried for the new pups, he stayed put for another 7 months before he deemed the pups ready for travel. The new additions both were costing him more resources and slowing down his travel speed but he refused to sell or give them away to anyone else, though he did sell the sled as it was now hard to move across the rough, snowless ground.
The majority of his third journal cover this stretch of travel between the barony and the Beragast Vale, taking detours to keep himself stocked, hunting and fishing to help provide for himself and his hungry team of dogs. Travelling along streams to ensure a steady source of water, Alistair ended up accidentally drifting off course, a mistake that cost him 2 weeks of travel time, and plenty of food. With the game being scarcer and not stretching far between his hungry pack, Alistair made the decision to go even further off course to reach the closest settlement. Alistair demanded an audience with the mayor and requested that as a 'loyal Siennian noble with means' he should receive the needed food for free, and in return, Alistair would put in a good word for the town when he returned to Sien. The mayor consequently threatened to hang Alistair by his thumbs in the towns square for his audacity. Unfortunately for Alistair he was out of coin on his person, and the people had no interest in a cheque, so he remained in the town for some time working as a farmhand up until the end of the harvest season.

Homecoming and Success

By the time Alistair returned back home to Sien, he had been gone a total of 7 years, and was one year late for his parents' funeral. Luckily for him, the conditions of their wills hadn't timed out and he inherited all their property and wealth, on top of collecting the royalties that had accrued from his first journal. He immediately set to renovating the Leone Estate to house the dogs, and publishing his other two journals as well as giving interviews about his travels. There was already public interest in his new releases from his first journal and he swiftly increased in popularity. While living in Sien he donated vast amounts of his wealth to a variety of causes, the most notable of which are listed below.

The Viridium Sanctum, where he was also responsible in attracting more attention to the funding of the building's construction.

The Lucky Leone Theatre, a theatre company for the working class

Three separate expeditions across the Restless Sea, looking for landfall beyond Mer Chasse (unsuccessful).

The purchase of a small caravel that was gifted to The Valeran Archipelago as Alistair thought their home-made ships were 'pitifully small, and lacking pizzazz'.

The foundation of a 'notable pet and steed' cemetery

He continued to publish and write after his adventures, authoring books on language, dog-training, a rabbit-based cookbook and a collection of poems about fishing.

Death

On the morning of the 18th of Night, 658 3E, the body of Lord Alistair Leone was discovered in his study by his maid. Examination of the body puts his time at death as being the night before, and likely due to the poison Midnight Tears a noted favourite of organisations like The Clock. His death was shocking to the public, family and investigators as a possible motive for the murder seemed unclear. It has been theorised since that he may have been planning to invest in a project someone didn't want to succeed, or his manner had finally offended someone with a short fuse. While authorities originally listed the maid and Alistair's ex-wives as potential suspects they were swiftly cleared after questioning.
His will was a subject of much debate within the general public, people wanting to know which of his children or previous spouses would be included or excluded from his fortune. However, there was little left of the apparently vast Leone fortune, and what did remain had actually been bequeathed to the Viridium Sanctum, with his property given to Lady Alessia Fatorre, much to the naturalists surprise. While she did offer the Leone estate to Alistair's children, all of them refused, either wanting to respect their fathers wishes, or out of anger and wanting to distance themselves from the man who cut them out of his will.

"I have to say, Lord Leone was an odd man. He was brash, rude, spoke without thought and always seemed a little isolated from reality. Yet, the legacy he's leaving behind, it's a lot more positive than I would assume could come from someone like him. People may think it is....insensitive of me to speak about the dead in such a way, particularly with how much of my life's work relied upon his generosity. But it is true, despite his attitude and general....personality, he genuinely made a good impact upon people, upon this city. I suppose that means that now, I have to thank him for that despite him being an obstinate asshole the whole time."

— Lady Alessia Fatorre

Species

Human

Ethnicity

Siennian

Date of Birth

591 3E, 8th of Fields

Date of Death

658 3E, 17th of Night (67 years old)

Family & Marriages

Throughout his life, Alistair had three wives and 5 children, notably ending all of his marriages on sour notes. His first marriage was shortly after he returned to Sien and inherited his parent's wills. He publically declared he was looking for a wife and there was no shortage of families interested in Leone's prospects. Alistair met Lady Delfina de Rossi during a ball, and after meeting with her twice more, proposed. The two were swiftly married and remained so for 7 years, having three children between the two of them. In their final years of marriage, Delfina was reportedly getting fed up with her husbands' antics and inability to stick to a single schedule or plan long-term. On their final anniversary dinner, he tried to give her a signed copy of his journal collection as an anniversary gift. The two were officially divorced in the morning.
His second marriage, to Lady Imelda Pisani came as a result of Imelda falling pregnant with Alistair's child, and the two wanting to avoid a bastard child. The union seemed more peaceful than the last, the two happily having another child, until Imelda became increasingly concerned about the children's safety with their father's reckless behaviour. The full extent of this reckless behaviour during this time was not fully detailed, but Imelda and her children left the house shortly after Alistair had a living brown bear delivered to the house 'because he wanted to try domesticating it'. The bear was captured by authorities later in the day after it was found wandering the streets, and Alistair and Imelda divorced two weeks later, after five years of marriage.
Alistairs third and final marriage with Lady Chiara Trevesan was ultimately short-lived. After meeting in a backgammon club, the two would only be married eight months before Alistair would divorce Chiara, stating 'her cold feet and consumption of candied fruits' were major factors in this decision. Alistair rarely remained present in the lives of his children either, though he did help fund their tuition and would visit on Midwinter.