Sorella Putanesca Trovato

Name: Puttanesca "Nesca" Trovato

Age: ~20

Species: Descendant (Libiduli)

Class: Warlock (Celestial Pact)

Background

Novella Rainaldi was six when her family’s enemies stormed their ancestral home outside of Vigenze. A cheerful and boisterous child, she had been her brother’s constant companion despite the difference in their ages. While the Visconte Bruno Rainaldi and his wife Grazia were loving parents, Novella was especially close with her and Leandro’s nurse, Griselda, from whom she learned a lifelong love of the Saints’ Creed. She still remembers Griselda pushing them out the servants’ entrance, pressing a worn rosary into Novella’s hands. She still wears the rosary these [number of] years later.

Leandro did his best to protect and provide for the pair of them as they survived on the streets of Vigenze, while Novella tried to contribute through whatever means she could. Though Leo preferred she avoid the seedier parts of the city, Ella befriended all sorts as she worked to contribute. She scavenged the city’s refuse, caught rats for coin, sold flowers she found, sometimes even literally singing and dancing for their supper. A common refuge for her was the Badia Vigenze, where she would spend hours studying the frescoes of the saints or helping the nuns. They were able to continue her education in bits and pieces over the years, and even then Novella considered joining the clergy.

When Leandro got them a place on the Via dell’Amorino, Novella happily took up work in the kitchen, earning her the new name Puttanesca. While she enjoyed her time at the brothel, she still spent plenty of time in church, now at St. Elisabetta’s just down the street. As the sisters there ministered to the sex workers in the Malacucina (Vigenze’s brothel district), Nesca (as she was often called now) spent as much time in their company as in her employers’, sometimes at the same time. She felt sure these represented her possible callings, though she knew Benvenuto (as he was now named) would discourage one of them.

Nesca garnered attention from customers early, but Signora Filide, the owner of the brothel, and the other women made sure to keep them away from her until she was older. By the time Nesca was fifteen, Signora Filide was fielding bids on Nesca’s first time. When Benni discovered this, he told Nesca to pack her things; they were leaving the brothel and Vigenze if possible. The pair joined up with a travelling troupe of entertainers, touring the inn yards and village centers of Fanuzia. Nesca truly enjoyed this time in her life, seeing more of the world than she ever had before. She missed the nuns of St. Elisabetta’s, but made sure to attend church as often as travel and work allowed.

While a part of the troupe, Nesca fell in love with another performer, Bastiano. Nesca anguished over whether to accept his offer of marriage or remain a maiden to one day join an abbey. It was when she finally acquiesced and consummated their union that Nesca had a religious vision. She was visited by St. Ishilde, who revealed to her snippets of the divine language and reassured her in her faith. Not long after, unfortunately, disaster struck Lucera, in which the troupe were staying, as a devastating fire ravaged the town. Many of the troubadours died in the flames and subsequent chaos, Bastiano among them. Nesca mourned and buried her love, taking her vows as a lay sister of the Creed and leaving with her brother and their friend Alaric as they set out on the road once again. When they met Jorge and his company, Nesca didn’t take up soldiering like Benni and Alaric, but continues to accompany them as an invaluable aid nonetheless.