Luca de’ Medici is a maimed Florentine crusader of the Medici house, regent of the family, guardian of several passages and holder of Excalibur, remembered as Luca the Martyr. Whether he is one man or a lineage bearing the name is disputed. His crypt in the Medici Chapel holds his belongings and “the place of the hand”, but no body.
| Type | Character |
| House | Medici |
| Titles | Chancellor and seneschal; principal paladin (in Dorotea) |
| Spanish entry | Luca de los Medici |
The Medici house
In 1201 a Medici entered the council of the commune. Some 180–190 years ago the family were rising spice and luxury merchants, not yet important. They produced a gonfalonier of justice, Salvestro de’ Medici, Luca’s uncle. Cosimo de’ Medici, Lorenzo’s grandfather, forged the Peace of Lodi with Francesco Sforza, first duke of Milan. The house protected its own, including the chompi, the “blue children” and the workers, against rival families. Its arms show six coins with lions’ faces; one shield seen has five points instead of six.
Appearance
An old but upright gray-haired man, scarred on the nose and eyes, usually battered and bloodied, cleaning his sword. He wears a red Magus-King tunic or the medallion of chancellor and seneschal. He is missing the eye “with which he saw the arcane”, one hand (“that hand of God”) and his fangs; with the eye and hand he lost his magic items and his sword, taken by those who hate him. He rides a pegasus.
Roles
- Regent. When Lorenzo de’ Medici, head of the house, died shut in his house and unabsolved, with Savonarola ruling Florence, Luca was asked to act as uncle-regent for Lorenzo’s son. Lorenzo, projected from death as a vicar, charged him with what his living son could not do.
- Guardian. He controls the passage to Fiji and grants authorizations to travel there, guards the platform of Leo, and is sabonado (bound) to defend the vanguard of Mount Analogue if called.
- Crusader. He obtained Excalibur and in the Holy Land kept the invasion of the shadow from becoming worse. His rule: «entre mi vida y que triunfe la luz, elegí que triunfe la luz y sacrifiqué» (“between my life and the triumph of the light, I chose the light and sacrificed”).
- Physician. He delivered a child as physician and midwife.
Enemies of the house
Pope Sixtus IV ordered the Medici murdered to install his illegitimate son, ruler of Imola; ten or fifteen years ago the attempt killed one of Lorenzo’s sons. Savonarola, whom Lorenzo condemned to hell for sorcery, sleeps in the Medici crypt and guards it “with the cañoles”, unidentified creatures. Expelling him is a condition of the house’s return. The Medici are said to be badly “contaminated”.
Captivity
Luca has been a prisoner in the steppes of Gran Cana, in Uyambala; he has been in the Holy Land and Dorotea, and dealt with the entities Jalim and Ananta on a plane. His family is said to be “at the center of the earth”. His ransom was set at 1,200,000 florins; his recovery is the event “where Luca the Martyr was recovered”. He is said to be “building the duality”.
Conflicting accounts
- One account says he lost his right hand; another, his left.
- A century passed for him “as if it were…” (cut off); no one in Florence has named a Lucas Medici for 200 years; he says he has traveled “several thousand years”; yet he is active in present-day Florence. One ageless man, a reincarnated name, a return or a duplication: unresolved.
- The five-point shield may be a period mark, a branch variant or a forgery.
Open questions
- His exact kinship to Lorenzo is not established.
- Who, near Lorenzo’s death, became a lich and made a pact with devils is not named.
- What “the place of the hand”, the sabonado bond and “the duality” are is unknown.
- Whether the “lucas” counted as sums (fifteen for a trip to Cyprus, twenty-five for a gem, seventy-five in debt) are a currency is unclear; the florin is the only certain coin.