Hieronymus Berrana

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Portrait of Father Berrana.

Hieronymus Berrana - born 4953 as Hieronymus Lianno - is a Human cleric and prelate in the service of the Church of the Circle in Worlmarch Province.

Father Berrana is considered a prominent citizen of the Continent, in his capacity as the leader of one of its parishes, and as a teacher and practitioner of the faith.

Background[edit | edit source]

Berrana was born and grew up in Egredore in the Midlands, in an outlying village of the great city of Eastgate. He was the eldest of six and only son of his master stonemason father and mother who was a healer. He remembers his youth as a time of simple ways but also of contentment, benefitting from the peace of a quiet region of the Continent and the modest but honest means his parents work brought. As the eldest child, he was both the one most made an example of as a lesson to the younger, but also the one to whom the younger children looked for guidance and inspiration when their parents were away.

Berrana was accepted at the age of 17 into the Scuola Divinica and took to his lessons well. He found he enjoyed the study and writing of the rites, and was sent aged 21 into Worlmarch as deacon of the Odomond chapel. He maintained this position until he was selected to replace the retiring prelate nine years later. He has built a reputation for dedication to the scriptures of the faith and a patient, compassionate manner with his parishioners.

Father Berrana is married and has a son and daughter.

Past[edit | edit source]

Father Berrana is not himself aware of it, but his family name is actually not Berrana at all, but Lianno. He is the younger of two sons, and middle child, of Amantius Lianno, one of the bosses of the Four Families, the powerful criminal cartel. As a youth, he had worked as a clerk in his father's office at the family business, Lianno Mercantile, in Eastgate. His future was altered when faced with a crisis of conscience after overhearing his elder brother Arvell discussed his plans for a heist against a powerful banking family in Eastgate. Having grown up thinking his family merely successful merchants, he was shocked to learn they were one of the most influential criminal cartels in the Commonwealth.

After Hieronymus quietly reported the intended heist to the constabulary, his father found out. Despite his actions, Amantius refused to take the traditional route in dealing with his younger son, the snitch. He could not simply let the matter go at that, however, as others of the family were wanting Hieronymus punished, and the Lenonage family was angry at the "failure" of their agreement. Thus, he opted to have him quietly put out of sight, on the pretense he had his son "dealt with." Calling in a favor with the Incantrium, he had Hieronymus' memory wiped one evening while he slept and replaced with fabricated remembrances of a totally different life, and had him placed in the seminary. As if he had always been there, Hieronymus excelled in his lessons and was made an anointed cleric of the Church in due course. He has since been devoted to the works of the Faith, unaware of his true familial origins.

His father makes an anonymous donation every year at New Annum of a hundred gold pieces to the chapel at Odomond. While his identity has never been determined, the generous gift enables the chapel to more than sustain its local charity and outreach, and they don’t feel it wise to question such generosity when it can provide so much assistance.