Brother Pius

The man now known as Brother Pius was christened Ludovico in anno domini 1190. Though officially the son post mortem of an Anconan master shipwright, his widowed mother was widely rumoured to be the occasional mistress of a local Baron, and it is likely that Pius was born a bastard.

Education

When scandal and civic sanctions began to close in on his mother for her libertine ways, she used a large portion of her remaining wealth to buy Pius a place at the university of Salerno. He was a poor student at best, prefering to spend time with drunkards and whores than with masters and books. However, close to a decade spent among the greatest medical scholars of the age could not fail to make some impact on the young man, and while he displays little aptitude for the law or liberal arts, and none whatsoever for theology, he became a competent chirurgeon with a thorough grounding in medical theory.

Holy Orders

Pius was saved from almost certain expulsion from the university by a chance meeting with a follower of Francis of Assisi. In the rapidly forming Franciscan order, Pius saw a chance to continue his epicurean life in a somewhat accepted fashion. Though he spent little time with Francis himself, he was tonsured and inducted into the Order of Friars Minor.

Pius continued to spend most of his time in brothels and taverns, trading free drink and 'services' for blessings and other sacraments which, as he has never been ordained as a priest, he had no authority to provide. In 1219, these practices caught the ear of a Dominican inquisitor. Pius was called to stand trial for simony, but never faced the inquisitorial court. Instead, he fled north, towards the alps.

Companion of the Academica

During his travels, Pius chanced upon Xenophon of Thessalonica, then a recently-gauntleted magus, making his way through unknown lands towards the Academica Septima Superior. Pius happily agreed to accompany the young man to his new home, seeing in Scotland a place outside the inquisition's reach. Since his arrival at the covenant, Pius has acted as a healer (notably to William le Pen after his near-disembowelling by goblins of Clan MacArawn). He has also displayed an ability to speak the languages of beasts and to heal the bloody flux (common, in the cold, wet climate of Scotland) with his touch.

Finally, Pius is the covenant's de facto spiritual counsellor. He believes in the scriptures in an abstract fashion, but relies more on his down-to-earth common sense. This, and his knowledge of filthy drinking songs in almost every language spoken in the covenant, has made him quite popular among the covenfolk.

Pius is an overweight man, his face ruddy and missing an ear from some long-ago bar brawl. He appears to take his vow of poverty seriously, possessing little beyond his donkey, a walking staff with a fingerbone of Saint Matthew bound to it and a wineskin.

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