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Part seven of milking my friend famous YouTuber Blobbygobster ’s birthday for content takes us back into the Assassin's Creed universe. This is his OC Romolo Passerini, er… Remu, idk Brandon can decide which design works better for which character. He's one of a pair of twin brothers operating during the Unification of Italy in the mid 19th century. Last I remember talking with Brandon about these two characters, he didn't have much of a story planned out aside from the basic idea that one brother would end up killing the other (ya know, in case the names weren't enough of a foreshadowing to that already). So instead of giving you a proper bio here, I'm gonna present Brandon with a couple hypotheses on how I would write the story depending on which brother he may want to portray as the protagonist, though some of these spit balls of course aren't necessarily mutually exclusive anyways. For the sake of simplicity, I'm just gonna call this one “Romolo”, though again these are Branson characters so he's free to change them however he pleases.

So okay, here's my idea for if Romolo is the more heroic brother: the story starts out more or less the same for both. It's 1848 in Palermo, the most prominent city in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Ever since the fall of Napoleon, the Templars have oppressed the kingdom through their puppets in the Bourbon Dynasty with no checks on royal power, helped along by the Sword of Eden Excalibur which Richard the Lionheart had passed down to King Tancred 800 years ago. The Passerini brothers get their start by taking up arms in the rebellion against King Ferdinand II, and their success attracts the attention of the Assassin Brotherhood. Romolo has more of a mind for politics than his more reckless brother, so when the Assassins ask him to travel north with them and seek allies in the court of King Charles Albert of Sardinia, he sees the value in the diplomatic mission. Romolo achieves his acclaim by ousting the Austrian Templar Joseph Radetzky from Milan and Venice. Radetzky is a clever fox with friends in high places, though, eventually leading to the Assassins assigning the brothers to target Pellegrino Rossi, minister to Pope Pius IX. Fearing for his safety after a successful kill, the Pope flees to sanctuary in Sicily, allowing the Assassins to occupy Rome just as they did in the Renaissance. It's all well and good, but by 1849 Radetzky returns in force and brings Sardinia to heal. King Charles Albert abdicates, the French occupy Rome, Radetzky reclaims Milan and Venice, and Ferdinand II uses Excalibur to squash the rebellion in Sicily.

Remu is absolutely pissed. He'd warned his brother this is what would happen if he'd gotten too cozy playing politics instead of arming himself in the field. This is the first in a line of many schisms between the two. While Remu sets about trying to draw Radetzky into battle, Romolo is approached by the like-minded Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, newly appointed minister of Sardinia. He's got a slow-burn plan to unite Italy under King Victor Emmanuel II, but to do that they need to get the French Emperor Napoleon III on their side. Now if this was my story, this is where I'd bring in the Orisini plot, where Felice Orsini attempted to blow up Napoleon III and thus convinced the emperor that maybe being friends with Italy was better for his health. But apparently Ubisoft beat me to that. I admit I've long since fallen off the wagon of reading every piece of AC media that comes out, so I'm relying on the wiki here when I confirm that the Orsini Affair was a plot device in The Magus Conspiracy novel, orchestrated by Assassin turncoat Oscar Kane just to test some sick new bomb he's had invented, Felice Orsini himself just being an Italian radical ignorant of Templar plans. I'm sure there's something there Brandon can squeeze in, I mean the novel moves on after Orsini was arrested, and historically he died not long after, so there is still a target there with flimsy connections to the Templars. Maybe instead Romolo gets sent to Crimea during the war as was Cavour's original plan to break bread, or maybe Romolo brings Orsini to Napoleon himself to say look, the Templars just see you as another chess piece, help us instead and we'll protect you. Idk, put a pin in it.

Either way, it's now 1859 and with the alliances set, all they need is a casus belli to attack Austria. Cavour stations Romolo with the troops in Modena, forcing the Austrians to issue an ultimatum to stand down, which is obviously refused. The Austrians get pushed back, Ferdinand II dies back in Sicily, and all seems well until it's revealed that Napoleon thinks himself too important for the Assassin-Templar War and signs a treaty basically saying France can't be bothered anymore and Italy is on its own. From Remu's perspective, it's obvious that Romolo is no better at keeping smoke out of his ass than the Emperor. In 1860, Remu takes matters into his own hands by joining Giuseppe Garibaldi's volunteer army of 1000 men to invade Sicily against the wishes of Cavour, Romolo, and their precious “strategy”. The raid is successful in ousting the Bourbons once and for all, and Remu even manages to retrieve Excalibur itself. He hands it to Garibaldi, giving him the power and authority to march north and invade the Papal States. Romolo is horrified, because the warpath is a slaughter, and if they take Rome, it will surely ruin their alliance with Catholic France. He therefore marches with Victor Emmanuel II to meet Garibaldi's army in the middle. The commanders and the brothers meet at Taeno, and Romolo is relieved when Garibaldi peacefully hands Excalibur over to the true king of Italy.

On paper, they'd done it. Italy was now united, just as they'd always dreamed. Remu, however, doesn't see it that way. To him, his brother is a royalist traitor who'd gone too soft and taken the only object that could set Italy free from all tyrants. It wasn't long before reports started coming in from the south of radical Assassin cells sympathetic to Remu splitting off and extorting the common people for their “protection”. This wasn't the liberty that Romolo believed in. Remu had become so blinded by his hatred for being told what to do that he had become directly responsible for kicking off birth of the Sicilian Mafia. In order to stop his brother from ordering a hit on every Assassin who doesn't agree with him, to prevent him from getting his hands on Excalibur and turning the entire Boot into his own personal criminal empire, Romolo is forced to assassinate his brother, leaving him conflicted on what the path forward should now looked like, if any of this was worth it at all…

Design notes, this one turned out much better than I expected it to. Originally, I was going to give the brothers a more classic Assassin white, but then I thought no, these are Brandon's characters not mine and Brandon likes black robes. I personally think it looked better white, but then I'm a bit more of a traditionalist Assassin XD As for details, I obviously took a lot of inspiration from the hussar uniforms that were in vogue at the time, with just a splash of Ezio's Brotherhood robes to harken back to that classic Italian-ness. His headshot ended up looking a bit too much like a pizza chef, but that's neither here nor there- If I do say so myself, I could honestly see this being a proper design for a main character in a game. See, Syndicate, it's that that hard to design 19th century Assassins.

Description
Part seven of milking my friend famous YouTuber Blobbygobster ’s birthday for content takes us back into the Assassin's Creed universe. This is his OC Romolo Passerini, er… Remu, idk Brandon can decide which design works better for which character. He's one of a pair of twin brothers operating during the Unification of Italy in the mid 19th century. Last I remember talking with Brandon about these two characters, he didn't have much of a story planned out aside from the basic idea that one brother would end up killing the other (ya know, in case the names weren't enough of a foreshadowing to that already). So instead of giving you a proper bio here, I'm gonna present Brandon with a couple hypotheses on how I would write the story depending on which brother he may want to portray as the protagonist, though some of these spit balls of course aren't necessarily mutually exclusive anyways. For the sake of simplicity, I'm just gonna call this one “Romolo”, though again these are Branson characters so he's free to change them however he pleases.

So okay, here's my idea for if Romolo is the more heroic brother: the story starts out more or less the same for both. It's 1848 in Palermo, the most prominent city in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Ever since the fall of Napoleon, the Templars have oppressed the kingdom through their puppets in the Bourbon Dynasty with no checks on royal power, helped along by the Sword of Eden Excalibur which Richard the Lionheart had passed down to King Tancred 800 years ago. The Passerini brothers get their start by taking up arms in the rebellion against King Ferdinand II, and their success attracts the attention of the Assassin Brotherhood. Romolo has more of a mind for politics than his more reckless brother, so when the Assassins ask him to travel north with them and seek allies in the court of King Charles Albert of Sardinia, he sees the value in the diplomatic mission. Romolo achieves his acclaim by ousting the Austrian Templar Joseph Radetzky from Milan and Venice. Radetzky is a clever fox with friends in high places, though, eventually leading to the Assassins assigning the brothers to target Pellegrino Rossi, minister to Pope Pius IX. Fearing for his safety after a successful kill, the Pope flees to sanctuary in Sicily, allowing the Assassins to occupy Rome just as they did in the Renaissance. It's all well and good, but by 1849 Radetzky returns in force and brings Sardinia to heal. King Charles Albert abdicates, the French occupy Rome, Radetzky reclaims Milan and Venice, and Ferdinand II uses Excalibur to squash the rebellion in Sicily.

Remu is absolutely pissed. He'd warned his brother this is what would happen if he'd gotten too cozy playing politics instead of arming himself in the field. This is the first in a line of many schisms between the two. While Remu sets about trying to draw Radetzky into battle, Romolo is approached by the like-minded Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, newly appointed minister of Sardinia. He's got a slow-burn plan to unite Italy under King Victor Emmanuel II, but to do that they need to get the French Emperor Napoleon III on their side. Now if this was my story, this is where I'd bring in the Orisini plot, where Felice Orsini attempted to blow up Napoleon III and thus convinced the emperor that maybe being friends with Italy was better for his health. But apparently Ubisoft beat me to that. I admit I've long since fallen off the wagon of reading every piece of AC media that comes out, so I'm relying on the wiki here when I confirm that the Orsini Affair was a plot device in The Magus Conspiracy novel, orchestrated by Assassin turncoat Oscar Kane just to test some sick new bomb he's had invented, Felice Orsini himself just being an Italian radical ignorant of Templar plans. I'm sure there's something there Brandon can squeeze in, I mean the novel moves on after Orsini was arrested, and historically he died not long after, so there is still a target there with flimsy connections to the Templars. Maybe instead Romolo gets sent to Crimea during the war as was Cavour's original plan to break bread, or maybe Romolo brings Orsini to Napoleon himself to say look, the Templars just see you as another chess piece, help us instead and we'll protect you. Idk, put a pin in it.

Either way, it's now 1859 and with the alliances set, all they need is a casus belli to attack Austria. Cavour stations Romolo with the troops in Modena, forcing the Austrians to issue an ultimatum to stand down, which is obviously refused. The Austrians get pushed back, Ferdinand II dies back in Sicily, and all seems well until it's revealed that Napoleon thinks himself too important for the Assassin-Templar War and signs a treaty basically saying France can't be bothered anymore and Italy is on its own. From Remu's perspective, it's obvious that Romolo is no better at keeping smoke out of his ass than the Emperor. In 1860, Remu takes matters into his own hands by joining Giuseppe Garibaldi's volunteer army of 1000 men to invade Sicily against the wishes of Cavour, Romolo, and their precious “strategy”. The raid is successful in ousting the Bourbons once and for all, and Remu even manages to retrieve Excalibur itself. He hands it to Garibaldi, giving him the power and authority to march north and invade the Papal States. Romolo is horrified, because the warpath is a slaughter, and if they take Rome, it will surely ruin their alliance with Catholic France. He therefore marches with Victor Emmanuel II to meet Garibaldi's army in the middle. The commanders and the brothers meet at Taeno, and Romolo is relieved when Garibaldi peacefully hands Excalibur over to the true king of Italy.

On paper, they'd done it. Italy was now united, just as they'd always dreamed. Remu, however, doesn't see it that way. To him, his brother is a royalist traitor who'd gone too soft and taken the only object that could set Italy free from all tyrants. It wasn't long before reports started coming in from the south of radical Assassin cells sympathetic to Remu splitting off and extorting the common people for their “protection”. This wasn't the liberty that Romolo believed in. Remu had become so blinded by his hatred for being told what to do that he had become directly responsible for kicking off birth of the Sicilian Mafia. In order to stop his brother from ordering a hit on every Assassin who doesn't agree with him, to prevent him from getting his hands on Excalibur and turning the entire Boot into his own personal criminal empire, Romolo is forced to assassinate his brother, leaving him conflicted on what the path forward should now looked like, if any of this was worth it at all…

Design notes, this one turned out much better than I expected it to. Originally, I was going to give the brothers a more classic Assassin white, but then I thought no, these are Brandon's characters not mine and Brandon likes black robes. I personally think it looked better white, but then I'm a bit more of a traditionalist Assassin XD As for details, I obviously took a lot of inspiration from the hussar uniforms that were in vogue at the time, with just a splash of Ezio's Brotherhood robes to harken back to that classic Italian-ness. His headshot ended up looking a bit too much like a pizza chef, but that's neither here nor there- If I do say so myself, I could honestly see this being a proper design for a main character in a game. See, Syndicate, it's that that hard to design 19th century Assassins.