Mortesecca
Mortesecca is a fleet officer of the crew Blades of Ascalon. He sails the Sage Ocean. "Morte secca" is the term for the Grim Reaper in Tuscan vernacular. Due to his paranormal powers, for long time he has been seen as a necromancer until he has revealed his true identity of a Malamati (Sufi Saint) who acted as an emissary of Al-Khader, the Muslim Saint George. In the esoteric tradition of Ascalon, he is known as the White Fers.
Early life
Mortesecca was born in a distant land where the legend of Ascalon comes from.
He long traveled around the world, until he reached the kingdom of Cold Steel. Here, due to the incredible length of his beard, was mistaken for a descendant of the long-bearded druid who gave birth to that nation. He rescued the little Safebet, one of the two sisters who was the legitimate heir to the throne from an evil vizier who proclaimed himself regent and wanted to kill them in order to usurp the throne. It is believed that here he was also initiated from a local hermit to the secret art of blacksmithing based on the shatranj game.
Mortesecca and Safebet moved to the Western lands. Being fond of natural sciences, he became a member of a local academy. However due to his morbid interest for human corpses and black magic, he was banned from that academy. He gradually gained a reputation of a holy man, with healing and prophetical powers. One day, the young son of the city's ruler received a bruise after he fell off a horse and suffered from internal bleeding for days. His older sister asked for the help of the charismatic healer, Mortesecca. Although the little boy was quickly starting to give signs of recovery, when the ruler, renowned for his sanctimonious moral, found out that Mortesecca, who was seen as an infidel for his Muslim background, was the healer of his son, he issued an order of arrest against him. It is said that when fleeing the city, Mortesecca cast a curse on the ruler's family which slowly led to its fall. He found refuge in a Benedictine monastery of a neighbor city, where he pleaded with the local bishop for sending Pishkirlin, who was at that time a student of the episcopal college, to another country in order to prevent him from embarking on the expedition organized by the secret society to which both of them used to belong.
The wreck in the Sage Ocean
Mortesecca was one of the members of the unfortunate expedition the goal of which was seeking unexplored lands to establish an ideal society. After several years of navigation, two of the ships belonging to that expedition reached the Sage Ocean, but here the carpenter of one of them started a mutiny and took control of the ship, coming into possession of Mortesecca's book of magic. He sent all those who refused to obey to his orders to the other ship and then treacherously sank her with all them onboard, setting sail for the Cursed Isles. Mortesecca and a few survivors reached the shores of an outpost, where they buried the legendary Ascalon, the sword that Saint George used to slay the dragon.
From there he reached the Gull Archipelago, where he met the crew Fratelli della costa, a group of compatriots who were planning to free their homeland from foreign dominance. He joined the crew and invited Safebet to do the same, hoping one day they would help the Princess regain her throne.
The prophecy of Ascalon
Soon thereafter Mortesecca came to know that Pishkirlin too had reached the Sage Ocean, being accused of high treason by the Empire and sentenced to death in absentia. Mortesecca already knew that the young officer would have embraced the cause of Fratelli della Costa and in fact they met again once Bummaku invited Pishkirlin to join them.
Due to a lack of men and to a long illness that struck down Bummaku, the endeavour of Fratelli della Costa was not successful. In the meantime Pishkirlin bought back for his house the Grand-Magistery of the Sacred Military Order of Saint George, leaving Fratelli della Costa in order to assume the rank of Captain of the Knights of Saint George. Mortesecca left as well, establishing at his turn the crew Blades of Ascalon and proferring the prophecy that
"The Crown of a nation will be forged from the iron of Saint George's sword".
Rumors, that the legendary sword with which the Saint slayed the dragon had been brought to Sage, spread like wildfire. The place where the relic was hidden being unknown, all attempts to find the sword seemed to be in vain. One by one, all of the searchers gave up the hunt except Pishkirlin, who after a long quest set sail to Tern Archipelago, the most likely place where the sword could be. On Ashkelon Arch Island he found Mortesecca waiting for him, and handing him the sacred sword. That has been interpreted by the historians of Sage as the necromancer's suggestion to Pishkirlin to unite their crews under one flag, which was eventually called Ascalon.
True identity
Mortesecca's controversial behavior such as the interest for black magic and his proneness to alcohol abuse has often been seen as immoral, casting a bad light on him and calling into question his worthiness to belong to the Order of Saint George. He, however, has eventually been recognized as a Malamati, a hidden Sufi saint who deliberately tries to draw the contempt of the world upon himself by committing unseemly, even unlawful, actions, and yet preserving perfect purity of thought and loving God without second thought.
Mortesecca revealed his true identity for the first time during the mission known as The Fallen Knight. He acknowledged being an emissary sent by Al-Khader to help Pishkirlin rebuilding the Order of Saint George and finding Ascalon first, then putting its members to the test in order to see if they would have chosen the path of virtue rather than vice. At the end of the mission, Mortesecca resigned his position as a leader of the flag, promising to come back one day.
It is believed that the foliate head trinket, that has been created by Pishkirlin, was inspired by a carving in Mortesecca's shack that represented the symbol of the "Green Man", who can be associated with the quranic figure of Al-Khader, The Green One.
