Luca de’ Medici is a Florentine paladin of the Golden Hand from Florenzen around 1300. Imprisoned and mutilated by Graz’zt in Tovag Baragu, he refused a demonic condottiero contract and, once rescued, swore to execute Auro.
| Type | Character (paladin) |
| Origin | Florence, c. 1300 |
| House | Medici |
| Gesta | Florentines |
| Spanish entry | Luca de los Medici |
History
Luca bears the name of the Medici, but lived three centuries before Lorenzo the Magnificent, in the Florence of the 1300s, of the crusades and the disputes with Dante. He took part in the gesta (campaign-cycle) of the Florentines, which ended with a githyanki invasion of the Astral Plane. As a paladin he smote foes and healed by laying on hands.
Tovag Baragu
Graz’zt captured him and took him to Tovag Baragu, the black tower under the full moon, ringed by dragons and ruins and reached only through impossible geometries. There he floated weightless in a dense liquid (mermelada, “jam”), among floating monoliths in permanent darkness, hearing ancient voices in Dante’s tongue. His captors cut off the Golden Hand, the magical limb at the heart of his power, and took the little finger of his other hand, an eye and his teeth to make a six-fingered double of him. They threw his sword through a portal into a random dimension. Offered Graz’zt’s condottiero contract (“the fidelity of a good Italian condottiero”), Luca refused; Khalim later bore that mask in Imola.
Return
The group rescued him. He recovered the Golden Hand, his sword and his scattered gear, and swore to execute Auro, the Horseman of the Apocalypse who knew his wounds from within. Years later he led the closing of the portals on Mount Analogue: five gates on a celestial mountain under demonic siege, five trials, ritual poems in Latin. There his oath took a double-edged form: first establish Auro as Horseman, so that he would annihilate the other three Horsemen, and only then bring him to justice. He also coordinated the finale at Zaira from Mount Analogue.
Later traces
- He is assigned guardianship of the house of Leo among the zodiacal platforms (Platform of Leo); this is not yet confirmed.
- A late trace places his Golden Hand in the tomb of the Medici, beside the hand of Seth.
Gallery
