Antonio Venceslas

Antonio Venceslas is a treasure hunter and collector of antiquities who sails the Shattered Sea in his ship, The Night's Pearl.

Life
Antonio was born into a poor family who barely made enough money to feed them. When he was 16 Antonio's father had an accident at sea and lost an arm, he could no longer work to support the family, therefore Antonio and his brother began to get into crime just to get enough to survive. They stole and assaulted innocents, robbed from the rich and poor alike, but most of the money they earned went to their parents. When they were 18 Diego began to question the morals of their operations. The two brothers had a difference of opinion, which escalated into a fight which ended in a draw. After that fight they were bitter and went their separate ways. Antonio bought a ship and promised his parents that he'd find a fortune on the high seas. He promised that when he returned his parents would have enough money to live in luxury for the rest of their lives. Diego joined the Calamaran army. Both parents were caught in the plague of 2005 and died while their sons were at sea.

Antonio made his first fortune from raiding an ancient tomb on one of the savage islands and retrieving several ancient artifacts. Selling these, he was able to buy a better boat and a crew. From there, he continued in similar operations of stealing valuable items from all across the Shattered Sea and eventually amassed a vast fortune. He has also amassed a lot of knowledge on the cultures and primitive civilisations of the Shattered Sea, spending a lot of time reading historical records and studying the savage islands.

in 2010 Antonio built his manor on the site of his parents old house, including a vast library and a trophy room to contain all the artifacts he has retrieved. This was also the point at which he started to keep most of the things he found instead of selling them. He didn't need the income, he was by this time in command of several smuggling operations.

Antonio had many lovers over his years, but perhaps the most significant was Parakeet. in 2014 Antonio met this girl from the island of Na'Waka and took her on board when she expressed desire for adventure. Parakeet soon came to adore Antonio and the two became a couple.

in 2015 Antonio came across word that the mythical Wandering Isle might actually exist, and that there existed a map to it. He excitedly pursued this path and eagerly researched everything known about the Wandering Isle. In 2016 he found that a stone tablet on Na'Souri could show the location of the map, but it was fiercely guarded. Antonio however knew that the Na'Souri revered a fire god and thought up a cunning plan.

Antonio used an amulet he'd found a long time ago which had control over elementals and he, in secret, went to the volcano on Na'Souri. Using the amulet he took control of a particularly powerful elemental who lived in the volcano and used them to pretend to be the Fire God, using a magical voice amplifier. His trick worked incredibly well and it wasn't long before the people of the island worshipped his fake god. Using this power he demanded many of their artifacts and valuable things be thrown into the volcano, where his elemental would collect them and take them to his secret cave in the volcano. Antonio continued this for a year, even after he had managed to acquire the stone tablet. It was this time that he met Emilio and Erihapeti, who he demanded be thrown in the volcano after he had found out they had shipwrecked on the island. His purpose behind this is unclear, but it's possible he just wanted to talk to somebody new after a year of being on the same small island.

Emilio and Erihapeti were forced politely into joining his crew, and together they took The Night's Pearl on its journey to Narak'Shar in the Dark Isles, stopping on the way at Isla Cobre to make a deal with Viciente Fang for an ancient skull of N'Shari origin which could control undead to an extent.

At Narak'Shar, Emilio, Erihapeti and Antonio searched for the map. Antonio had to fight some undead and High Priest Gorgolith of the N'Shari, but escape mostly unscathed. Eventually, it was Emilio who managed to find the underground library in which the map was stored. Antonio was fascinated by the many volumes in the ancient library, and would have drowned in there trying to collect as many scrolls as he could if Emilio had not snapped him out of it and dragged him away. In the library they were unable to find the map, but traces told them someone else had taken the map.

Antonio deduced that one of Viciente Fang's men must have taken the map after following him to Narak'Shar, and the crew immediately set off to find this ship. They eventually caught up with the ship of Sergio Ramirez, a captain under Viciente's command, but they also encountered a ship from Na'Souri with Princess Aka'Aka herself on board. Aka'Aka, Antonio and Sergio met on the deck of the Night's Pearl to negotiate which quickly escalated into an argument. Unbeknownst to Antonio, Emilio Ventura formulated a plan with Parakeet for her to steal the map from Sergio's ship while he created a distraction. This distraction was in the form of firing all the broadside cannons of the Night's Pearl at Sergio's ship while they were anchored adjacent to one another. As soon as this happened, a fight broke out between all three factions. Sergio's ship was quickly sunk after a couple more cannon barrages, but not before Erihapeti rescued Parakeet from it. Outnumbered and alone Aka'Aka returned to her ship and fled.

Everything seemed positive for the crew of the Night's Pearl. Parakeet gave Antonio the map she'd found, but Erihapeti swiped it from his hands and tried to keep it, right there on the deck. Antonio raised his gun to shoot, but hesitated to kill his first mate, giving her time to raise her own gun. Antonio demanded the map, but they were at a standoff. Antonio quickly grabbed Parakeet and held his sword at her throat threatening to kill her if Erihapeti didn't give him the map. He even threatened to kill everyone on the ship, to get the map back. Unfortunately for him, Emilio intervened and pushed his sword arm away, getting inbetween Erihapeti and Antonio in the process. Parakeet slipped away, Antonio shot Emilio in the side, and he fell down Erihapeti shot Antonio. Antonio, bleeding, desperate and angry, demanded that the crew take Erihapeti and kill her. However, Emilio, on the floor bleeding, encouraged the crew to mutiny. The crew hesitated, until Antonio reminded them how much he'd given them and how generous of a captain he'd been. He reminded them what they'd be doing without him, and the crew turned on Erihapeti. Erihapeti escaped by igniting a purple powder to create hallucinogenic smoke and fled with Parakeet on a rowboat.

Antonio docked at a nearby ship stop and trading post called Suda Punte, because that was the most likely place for Erihapeti and Parakeet to have gone. After Viciente Fang himself arrived in his flagship, the Kraken, Antonio entrusted Emilio with finding Erihapeti and the real map, giving him a fake map to convince Viciente with.

Appearance
Antonio is average height, standing at 5'9". He has a very handsome face with black hair and a black goatee. His eyes are a deep brown colour. He is of medium build, not too skinny, not too large. He is relatively athletic, but not incredibly muscled.

Related Characters
Emilio Ventura

Erihapeti

Parakeet

Elberto

Sergio Ramirez

Viciente Fang

Princess Aka'Aka