Borgia: Triumph and Oblivion

The non-Showtime version of the Italian familia, Borgia, has just hit Netflix with a Netflix Original season three, Triumph and Oblivion. For those confused that there are two cable series with similiar names, this article does a good job of breaking down some of the differences.

While there were a lot of liberties taken with historical means and events, and some things not followed up on from previous seasons as I'd hoped, overall it was a very satisfying season and brought a nice close to a strong series.

I'll be hitting some specific spoilers below that relate to how my brain looks at a series like this and associates it with the various role playing games I run or play in.

1. Alliances: The man who would be Cesar, Cesare Borgia, loses his power towards the end of the series. In so doing, he finds himself at the mercy of others and it rapidly goes to show that without having his own power base, he must ally himself wherever the winds blow. But such waters are filled with...

2. Treachery: When you are approached by multiple nobles and rulers who wish to make use of your unique abilities, how do you trust any of them to do right by you once you've performed whatever deed they wanted in the first place?

3. Secrets: During his imprisonment, one of Cesare's fellows is a priest. Turns out that priest was a former Jew who gave up the faith to save his life. Cesare noting the pain and terror that the man knew, is able to convince the now priest to help Cesare escape, even though it costs the Jew his life. Secrets have a powerful role in Italy and it's the wise characters who fetter them out.

4. Shifting Sands: While the series doesn't try to go strictly by historical records or events, there are two parts that dovetail nicely into other material I've read. One of those is that Cesare didn't' have any plan for if he was near death at the same time his own father died. By not being in power or in command at full strength, this allows others to take a larger role in the world to come. In helping to elect a Pope that was a former enemy, Cesare makes what is probably his last 'big' mistake in that it's all downhill for the former Prince at that time. Being able to navigate among the many powers, even in a smaller country comprising of City States like Rome was surrounded by at the time, as opposed to the 'countries' of Spain and France, without the right backing, it's easy for even the mightiest to fall.

5. Disease: One of the interesting bits about the series, is it doesn't shy away from disease as a cause of death. The 'bad winds' that hit Rome thanks to its proximity to water and the insects that tend to love such an environment, were the end of the Pope and almost the end of Cesare himself. When looking at the role disease plays in a campaign, in any setting, is it a seasonal thing? Is it localized to a specific country? Look at 'The French Disease', brought home to France from the New World. Look around in today's environment and the fear of Ebola. The fear that diseases cause can be greater than the disease itself. Keep those elements, both historical and current, in mind when deciding how much power disease has.

6. The Dead Speak! One of the things I was curious about, was what would they do when the Pope died? Instead, Cesare, when facing doubt or failure, imagines himself seeing his father and the conversations they would have were his father still alive. It works well in this instance as they don't have the opportunity to overdue it.

7. Turn the Page: One of the things they did quite a bit differently, is how Cesare's story ends. Historically, it doesn't turn out well. Killed in an almost random brawl against some knights and stripped bear as they didn't know who he was, but here, Cesera leaves everything behind and instead heads to those newly discovered 'Americas' to start life anew. It's an interesting twist on things and I say 'Turn the Page' because I know even in completely fictitious campaign settings like Star Wars and Forgotten Realms, you may get some 'scholars' who are bound and determined to have a setting adhere to canon as close as possible. When it suits your campaign and your game and everyone else is having a good time? Let canon die.

8. Your Think Your Family is Bad: The only character of the Borgia family to not be cast as a monstrous creature, is the Pope's daughter, Lucrezia Borgia. She is instead, on her third marriage, striving to bring the light of God into her new family's ways. Turns out that the Boriga's weren't the only family filled with back stabbers, filled with murders, filled with those who would commit any one of the seven dead sins. And that follows in the footsteps of the Pope that came after the Borgia pope!

9. Complex Characters: One of the things I enjoyed about 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons was the simplification of alignment leaving the 'extreme' ends almost to the supernatural entities. People are complex. We're not ants with the ability to only perform one function. While some of the deeds done by these individuals are truly monstrous, they also helped fund and expand the Renaissance itself. Some of the greatests artists still admired five hundred years later, came to prominence at this time. Find something that is 'normal' about the bad guys. Do they feed the hungry because they grew up poor? Do they have a fondness for children because they grew up without parents? Do they enjoy a certain type of music and fund a college of bards to play that music? Giving bad guys something that the players can relate to doesn't void the vile things such characters may commit, but it does make them more rounded and less super villainy.

Borgia: Triumph and Oblivion isn't perfect but it's a fun ride to a series that I feared would not have the opportunity to have it's swan song.

The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior by Paul Strathern

After watching the Borgias and Borgia, two separate shows based on the infamous Italian family of the 1500s, I was curious to see what others had written about them. Seeing The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior, a book discussing Da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Borgia, three figures fairly well known to modern audiences, I was curious as to their historical importance to one another.

In the Showtime special, I don't remember Da Vinci at all to be honest. Machiavelli showed up mind you and was well played. In the Borgia series though, Da Vinci is part and present with Machiavelli and Cesare Borgia. There is a great scene in the later where Cesare is atop an armored carriage with his famous slogan, "Caesar or Nothing" in all his prime and power while Da Vinci quickly sketches him.

Written by Paul Strathern, the author of Napoleon in Egypt among others, I'd never read anything by Paul before. Fortunately, his writing voice is easy and flows nicely. Reading the book is a pleasure. The author presents several sources of information and informs the reader when these sources are questioned and provides a massive "Notes" section which provides where the information is drawn from.

Paul brings the reader to prior to the three meeting, as well as what happens when they meet, and what their eventual ends are. The author notes that in their own time, they were often considered failures. While Da Vinci was known for his impressive and wide ranging talents, his inability to FINISH things was well known to his many patrons who often grew tired of that. He was fortunate to die under the patronage of the current king of France who treated Da Vinci almost like a father figure and kept him around only for company and didn't expect anything from him.

Machiavelli, best known perhaps for his writing of the Prince, which is based off of his meeting with Cesare Borgia. It even notes where exactly that Machiavelli believes that Cesare failed in not realizing his power base from his father the Pope was more important to Cesare that he realized and helping to elect the man who would wind up being his doom, Julius II.

Machiavelli, due to what he refers to as "Fortune" is cast down from his lofty position and winds up living much of his end days out on his familial lands in poverty and away from 'the action' of the court. Even when he manages to write the Prince, it turns out that the people of the time are more shocked and horrified of it then awed by it. The Prince, and all books by Machiavelli, wind up going into a books banned by the Church list. Going against the church is never a good thing, and in an Italy where the Pope is actively engaged in things? Even worse.

Cesare? After many years of what must seemed to have been almost super human 'Fortune', suffers setback after setback when he no longer has Papal forces at his command. After taking over much of the Romagna, and installing law that brought its own peace and even a level of joy to the people who lived there, the Romagna is taken from Cesare and Cesare suffers capture.

To me, it's interesting that the author speculates that Cesare, after having suffered these many setbacks, including almost dying of the same disease (or perhaps poisoning) that killed his father, in effect commits suicide through recklessness. This is a theme I've seen played out when Police Officers start taking unnecessary risks, or firefighters or any occupation that is inherently dangerous in the first place. Even comic books don't escape this theory as it was recently decided that Cyclops of the X-men, was committing "Suicide by Supervillain."

While Paul doesn't provide a ton of depth to the information here, he does bring out a lot of the interesting aspects and speculates on others backed up with the information on hand. In addition, with all of the reference work at the back of the book, I can't imagine anyone who wants to know more about this time period and these people, would be leaving the book with no further place to go.

If you're looking for more information about three three and the world they shared and some of those they shared it with, like  Louis XII, Alexander VI,  della Rovere, the Sforzas, Orsinis, and Medicis. Many of these famous in and of themselves, but together, forming an impressive tapestry of historical significance.

Borgia: Further Random Ramblings

I'll be hitting a few more points from the non-Showtime series, Borgia below. Anyone who doesn't want any spoilers should read no further.

One of the things I failed to mention about the Borgia series, the non-Showtime one, is that the motivation for Lucrezia to murder Juan, or at least to murder him at that time, is that Juan wants to redeem himself. He wants to confess his sins. He wants to live a virtuous life.

This means he'd get into Heaven.

So Lucrezia kills him to prevent that from happening. Her hatred of her brother is so great, that she cannot abide the thought of him going to Heaven. Her motivation is there, but the timing is directly influenced by religious belief.

It resounded in my mind an echo of the version of Hamlet with Mel Gibson as well as the play itself mind you. Here Hamlet comes across the king who has begged the Lord for forgiveness so if Hamlet does kill him at that junction, the king would go to heaven.

The hatred that Hamlet and Lucrezia share, to prevent the soul from going to a 'just' reward in the afterlife, is played out in both instances here.

In role playing games, what religious motivations can be arranged to do something similar for characters and their enemies?

In fantasy settings that have saints or gods or war, would fleeing from overwhelming victory be enough to damn a soul? What if the individual suffered from a magical compulsion that forced them to flee?

What if the damnation of the soul is of secondary importance but the appearance of the damnation is what's important?

For example, during the siege of a city, a war leader priest might call for a retreat when the city is going to fall and a high marshal or otherwise highly placed and respected knight prepares to lead the retreat but his assassination is arranged so that it looks like he was killed fleeing from the combat. This can be a devastating blow to the morale of the people he was supposed to be leading.

Such a thing might call on the players to investigate what actually happened. Was the weapon used to kill the knight one that the enemy uses? Did the knight suffer any other wounds? Is there a 'signature' mark like Zorro or other skilled opponents leave on their foes? Has the body been moved?

That's the first plot point that has a lot of potential implications for the game master and those players who pick clerics as their characters.

The second is specific missions.

Cesare's rise to power starts with a limited force of soldiers. So few in fact, that he has no desire to spend any of their lives when he doesn't have to.

In one instance, he's able to assure the people of the town that if they resist, the destruction he rains on them will be hoffic and on the other hand, he assures them that taxes and other fees will be lessened under him. They surrender.

He tries this on another town, but Caterina, 'Il Tiger', has captured the man's son so he cannot surrender without his son paying for it.

Cesare sees this as a perfect opportunity and infiltrates the castle holding the child, kills the child's captors, and makes the get away with the child and a bonus prisoner.

He does this alone, but in a role playing game, something like this might be accomplished by a few special characters, like the player's characters.

By having specific missions that can have tremendous impact on the game, the Dungeon Master allows the players the opportunity to directly influence the game. By having the players rescue an important son, or daughter, it gives the players a 'touch' with someone whose powerful or influential directly and gives that powerful person, a reason to respect the abilities of the players and to have a personal tie to the players.

Borgia: Rules of War, Rules of Love, provides a lot of ideas and visual inspiration for those who want to take their campaigns out of the dungeon.

Borgia: Faith and Fear

After watching the Showtime series, Borgias, Netflix decided, hey, you know, since you enjoyed that, you'll probably enjoy . I was like what is this? Another series on the infamous Italian family? And yup, it is.

Commonly referred to as Borgia, Faith and Fear for the subtitle of the first season, this is another show that looks at the infamous family of fifteenth century Italy. There are currently two seasons on Netflix, each season being twelve episodes long with a third one coming soon.

I'd try to do a breakdown on the differences between the two but to be honest, I think this guy over here does a fantastic job: http://www.exurbe.com/?p=2176 , a specific post on a blog that has a lot of other cool stuff over here: http://www.exurbe.com/.

In short, the Faith and Fear series starts earlier in the time frame, it goes into more detail and dove tails more events, it has more character growth and more vile things happening not just to the 'villains' or opposition of the period, but to the heroes as well. Cesare here is far more confused, far more looking for himself, then he ever was in the Showtime version. The Pope here is far more flawed , far more flawed, far more seeking of redemption at times, then Jeremy Irons.

Both are enjoyable but I'll be honest, I'm looking forward to the next season of Borgia: Faith and Fear hitting Netflix.

Below I'll be discussing some potential bits that would be useful for various role playing games:

1. Life: Often players need to eliminate a threat. They need to find a way to remove an obstacle. But what if, what if they need to keep something alive instead. When Faith and Fear starts, the old pope is dying but that Pope's bastard son has changed the will. Some are not pleased with this so special doctors and medicines are brought in to prolong the Pope's life and have the problems of that changed will undone. Changing the nature of what it means to succeed can provide different challenges for the players. In a fantasy game like Dungeons and Dragons, this can be a relatively simple thing if the players are high enough level with spells like Cure Disease and Remove Curse so keep those elements in mind when designing the issues.

2. Shifting Alliances: The Pope has many enemies. There are even some who seek to have him removed through military means. When these methods fail though, they don't necessarily 'come around', as they are always still in opposition, but they recognize the political landscape for what it is and work within it. This is perhaps even more dangerous for the Pope in that the old saying, "Keep your enemies closer" means that well, your enemies are closer.

3. Politics: Lucretzia's wedding is prevented from being consummated by the Pope. This allows the pope the easy annulment of the wedding if he decides that he can marry his daughter off to a better match. This political gambit is easier to believe than tales of impotency that were used as grounds in the Showtime although turns out that happens here as well.

4. The French Disease: Syphilis! There are historical debates about the so called French Disease. Apparently there are those who think it  came from North America and those who think it was present all the time in Europe. As player characters in advance science fiction settings, and high fantasy settings tend to wander all over creation, to different planets, different times, different planes, the players may carry disease with them when they return. Or when interacting with people who have been to those places, may encounter the disease first.

5. Historical Uncertainty: In both series, Juan dies. Both have the deed happen differently. When looking at things that happened in the past, keep your options open. Unless the players specifically need to know exactly what happened and have the means to do so, such as with time travel or viewing it directly with magic or technology, having the past events be more fluid allows you to change or customize things later on. The end result doesn't change though, but the viewing of it, the happening of it, do.

6. Public Executions: So you've committed a crime. No big deal right? No so quick here. One man is put on the wheel and his bones and body broken with a hammer. Others are spread eagled upside down and sawed in half. Others hung and burned. Public execution is a  common thing here and its for the masses. Its the public entertainment of the day and the warning of what happens to those who cross the people in power.

7. The Papal States: Too often history, indeed, most subject matter, tries to simplify things to make them easier to digest, to give the reader/viewer/observer some method of starting to gather information about the subject in question. For example, when thinking of Italy, do you think of it as a single country or do you break it up into the various factions and city states? Within those city states, do you further break those down into cities with individual governors and fortifications that provide security to those around them? The Papal States are an excellent example of a miniature country within Italy surrounded by various City States and stronger countries, like France that allow the information to flow out in parcel form. Here is independent city state, here is unrepentant Il Tiger, etc... When setting up the locations in your campaign world, while the whole of it might not need to be presented to the players in one bite, having the ability to expand beyond the starting point is important.

8. Random Death: People die all the time and sometimes die of the weirdest things. For example, imagine being a captain of the guard and having a lightning bolt strike a cross atop a building that causes the cross to fall down and crush you. Imagine eating some bad fish at dinner and falling dead not long after that.  Without access to modern medicine, or it's magical equal, death can occur from any number of things ranging from small cuts that lead to infection, to STDs that without cure, grow progressively worse and worse.

9. Action and Reaction: In the later part of the series, as Cesare is walking through Rome, he encounters a blind man. The man relates that he was blinded in a brawl by a great warrior. Cesare asks if the blind man hates that warrior, who it turns out was Cesare himself, and the man replies that no, it was his own act of aggression that lead to him being blinded. When characters take action, there will be reactions to those. Some of those will be in support, some indifferent, some in direct opposition. When you know who the players are, the actions of the characters become easier to see how they ripple and effect others.

10. Introductions: Long before we see Caterina Sforza, the fierce warrior woman, various characters mention her prowess. This feats of impressive ability from third party allow the viewer to get an idea of the nature of Caterina. This is similar to how various shows or novels or comics will bring in a new villain and the first thing they have that villain do is demonstrate how powerful they are by destroying someone else. Having the players learn about some new menace through word of mouth is an effective way of providing information and allows the Game Master to put false information and rumor out as well as actual information and detail out.

Borgia: Faith and Fear, brings a lot to the table that the Showtime series didn't get to and I'm looking forward to the third season when it hits Netflix.