Ruskov Marnise
High Lord Ruskov Marnise
“The Marnise House was . . .” Kall perked up at that. So the heiress did know some things. She nodded behind the blindfold.“Witches. Bloody, bloody witches. And they burned for it.”
Ruskov Marnise was the patriarch of House Marnise until his death in 1493, and is posthumously infamous as one of the globe's most long-standing assassins. He gained much of his wealth from commissioned murder of and for the Confederacy's high aristocracy, and killed upwards of ninety individuals over the course of his career. This was kept secret until the Arcanic Purges, when he was exposed by one of his biggest employers, House Duxtour, as being both an assassin and a blood arcanist. During the first purge, Lord Marnise was dragged from his manor and tied to a stake in the central market district where he was whipped and burned to death as a symbol that no arcanist, no matter how noble of birth, was exempt from the purges. The rest of his family was guillotined and burned next to his body that same day.
Background
Ethaeras University
Ruskov grew up in House Marnise, one of the wealthiest houses of nobility, in Beourjen City. When he was sixteen he applied to Ethaeras University medical school, wanting more of an education and worldly experience, and began attending the next year.He spent the next six years focusing on his education and honing his arcanic abilities, returning to Beourjen City only in the summers. His family, although they didn't quite understand why he wanted to pursue a slightly lesser career or live in a place like Ethaeras Capital, were generally supportive of his endeavors.
In 1476, Lord Duxtour reached out to Ruskov to tell him that his son would be attending Ethaeras University and asked if he would look out for the boy and show him around the city. Ruskov offered to meet his son, Andrei Duxtour, at Chamberv station so they could ride into the city together, and that fall they became close friends. The following summer, Andrei invited Ruskov to the Duxtour summer home on the Sophre coast and the two spent most of the summer there with House Duxtour.
Ruskov completed his doctorate in 1478, however he continued to stay in Ethaeras Capital for three more years despite his initial plans to return home to marry following his studies. He spent those three years working at a small family practice in the city, and it's assumed that during this time he and Andrei began to conspire on plans to assassinate several of the Beourjen City nobles.
Return to Beourjen City
Ruskov and Andrei returned to Beourjen City in 1481, where Ruskov promptly married and settled into his own manor. He began his own practice in Beourjen City and had three children throughout the next decade, though his marriage appeared to be mostly politically-driven and loveless. Being both a powerful blood arcanist and a skilled surgeon, Ruskov's practice was quite successful and he became wildly wealthy—almost unnaturally so, given his humbler profession.In 1489 he supported Andrei running for South Beourjen Representative and that same year delivered Andrei's son, to whom he was named the godfather of.
The Duxtours' Divorce Trial
In 1492, Ruskov went to serve as witness in trial supporting Andrei when Andrei's wife attempted to file for divorce. The specific charges were kept under wraps, as the Duxtours made efforts to keep the entire trial out of public knowledge, however the divorce was ultimately denied. The afternoon after the trial concluded, Ruskov and Andrei were spotted in a heated argument near the Steel Palace, and later that night Ruskov was spotted leaving a brothel in the slums of South Beourjen.Though they had been extremely close friends up until the divorce trial, Andrei and Ruskov were not seen in contact following it until almost a year later. Andrei's son had caught plague, and so Andrei sent word for Ruskov, begging him to come help.
Ruskov went to House Duxtour that night to offer his assistance, and sometime during the night Andrei left to visit his wife—they were living separately at the time—and presumably tell her about their son's illness. When he returned the following day, his son was dead.
The Marnise Trials
Andrei went to the court that same day with a slew of charges against Ruskov from the past decade, demanding that he be executed for his crimes. Ruskov was immedietely arrested with the Triadic promising Andrei an accelerated trial. Andrei publically disclosed his son's murder on the front steps of the Steel Palace in front of a crowd before the trial and used the crime as reasoning to slander the arcanist population as a whole, attributing Ruskov's revealed assassinations as the result of the Triadic's inability to control arcanists.By the end of the first day, it became clear that there was too much confounding evidence and history to sift through for a quickly concluding trial. Thus, Andrei ordered the chaska to take Ruskov hostage. Ruskov was brought to the executioner's square in the market district the following morning, by Andrei's orders along with the rest of House Marnise, and they were each executed and burned one by one. Ruskov was executed last, his last words part of a whispered exchange between him and Andrei. His execution marked the beginning of the Arcanic Purges.
Letters
A number of letters were exchanged between Ruskov and Andrei over the years they both lived in Beourjen City, and several of these letters served as evidence during trials. Those used as evidence during Ruskov's trials were subsequently placed in the Hall of Annals, however it's rumored that several letters used in the Duxtours' divorce trial disappeared shortly afterward.
Species
Conditions
Ethnicity
Date of Birth
1453
Date of Death
1493
Circumstances of Death
Arcanic Purges
Family
Children
Gender
male
Comments