[hider=Alberto Grosso "Grand Prince of the Main]
[h3]Character Description[/h3]
[list]Name: Alberto Grasso “Grand Prince of the Main”
Species/Race: Human (Calarian)
Sex: M
Age: 42
Court Alignment: The Black Court
Role: Rogue Merchant Prince, Fat Bastard
Appearance: [b]Appearance:[/b] [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/d/d8/Robert_Baratheon.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20240408200215]A massive man, bloated with excess and ambition, Alberto was once athletic and powerful in his youth but that was some time ago. His brown beard is well-maintained. He clads himself in finery and jewels, often adorned with precious metals.[/url]

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[h3]Strengths and Weaknesses[/h3]
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Skills: Knowledge of Exotic Goods, Well-Connected Tradesman, Tremendous Wealth, Physically Strong
Weaknesses: Gluttonous, Lecherous, Greedy, Wrathful, Slovenly, Vainglorious, Prideful 
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[h3]Background:[/h3]
[list]Backstory: Alberto was born third son to an enormously wealthy trading family in Calaria, one of the first to make the great voyages to the spice islands far afield. This reputation instilled a strong interest in shipbuilding and far-afield trading. But for a young Alberto, such luxury was merely a comfort rather than an interest at first. Being a third son, little was expected from him, and when he raised his own company of mercenaries, few objected to such an endeavor. 

He was a strong man, and while more than a little arrogant, he was an adequate leader of men and master of coin even as a young man. Hiring more competent captains to understudy from, he was a decently fast learner, if not the best practitioner of war. Seeing battle on the sea as sell-sails and hired muscle hardened him, even taking his wife Julia from an Inburian noble house after his taking of a Haltian Vessel on their behalf. 

His successful campaigning would come to an end just short of ten years from when he had started, reaching the age of 27 before the grave news of the passing of both of his brothers. Being recalled, Alberto was pressed into a role he was never meant to take; the heir to immense wealth and status. His father was similarly displeased with this arrangement, but strained himself to try and press his own machinations on his son. This unpleasantness would only be compounded with the death of his wife in childbirth. This combination of factors would make Alberto a much more unstable man. 

Taking up command of his family’s operations in this new land, Alberto had an ambition for his own work: that his family would be able to transport more goods across the seas than any other power of the time, be it their rivals in Calaria or from other lands. In order to do this, Alberto began a shipbuilding race that would springboard his own personal prominence, building ever-larger carracks and galleons to traverse the treacherous seas. 

By the time his father died, Alberto had a growing reputation as a master of ships and an audacious trader. Despite this, his projects had not yielded the domineering position he had hoped, with other parties being able to match the rate of his construction. As his ambitions grew, so did his appetites and dreams. It would be the construction of the [i]Pride of the Main[/i] that would be the final word upon this race to glory, and one that would cut into his tremendous fortunes considerably. 

Consumed by his own desires, he took command of the [i]Pride[/i] and began operating it as his own personal trading ship, eschewing his operations to his nephew and younger brother back home. He has crossed the ocean on an ostentatious monument to his own hubris, and profited greatly in the face of increasing hostility from pirates. Backing the Pirate Queen, he was quick and eager to exploit her potential for personal gain, all while protecting his own business. Over the course of their work in the new world, he would be whispering in her ear to propel her own ambition alongside his own.
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