Luca Brunelli

Gran Custodé Luca Brunelli
Brunelli in his formal military attire (1934)
1st Gran Protettoré di Mansilla
In office February 11, 1937 – August 1, 1937
Monarch	none
Preceded by	position established
Succeeded by	position abolished
1st Gran Custodé di Regno di Mansilla
In office August 1, 1937 – November 22, 1960
Monarch	Fernando II
Preceded by	position established
Succeeded by	Lorenzo D'Amaro
Personal details
Born	Luca Fantino Antonio Alonso di Brunelli (1892-06-29)June 29, 1892 Sanclaro, Mansilla
Died	November 22, 1960(1960-11-22) (aged 68) Campanattre, Mansilla
Cause of death	Assassinated
Nationality	Mansillian
Political party	Mansillan National Front (1930s-1937) Party of Mansilla (1937-1960)
Spouse(s)	Sofia Brunelli (m.1922)
Children	Antonio, Francesco, and Valentina
Known for	Overthrowing the Ferera Dynasty
Military service
Allegiance	Mansilla
Service/branch	Army
Years of service	1911-1937
Rank	Major-General

Luca Brunelli (June 29, 1892 - November 22, 1960) was a 20th century Mansillian ultranationalist politician, self-stylized populist, and junta leader who overthrew the Ferera Dynasty in 1937 and established the modern Mansillian government. Before becoming the de facto leader of Mansilla following the coup, Brunelli was a respected Field Marshal in the court of Stephano X, a position he exploited extensively for political clout and the organizing of revolutionaries. After serving as the functional ruler of Mansilla for more than three decades, Brunelli was assassinated by socialist partisans while driving to a royal function in 1960.

Biography

Early Life

Luca Brunelli was born on June 29, 1892 to Fantino and Gabriella Brunelli in Sanclaro, Mansilla. In 1903, Luca's father, a low ranking administrator in the regime of Stephano IX, was killed while attempting to break up a drunken brawl between several of Stephano's guards while on furlough at a pub. Deeply disturbed by the death of his father, eleven year old Brunelli swore off all intoxicants and debauchery and prepared for a career in the military, believing that he was called by a higher power to restore discipline and honor to the ranks of the Mansillan army. Brunelli attended a prestigious military academy, finishing at the top of his class and joining a fast track officer program in 1911.

When the two men who killed Fantino Brunelli were released from prison in 1913, they both subsequently went missing. Their bodies have never been recovered, but, according to legend, Brunelli personally tracked down, captured, heinously tortured, and executed both men, dumping their dismembered corpses into the sea.

Military Career

Brunelli's military career was nothing if not meteoric. Although Brunelli never saw deployment abroad (as Mansilla pursued a policy of strict neutrality), he rose through the ranks of the Mansillan army's military police corps at an astounding rate, becoming known as a brutal disciplinarian. He adopted a policy known as dottrina senza eccezioni (literally translating to, "doctrine of no exceptions"), and was known to pursue full court martials for even the slightest infractions. Naturally, Brunelli made many enemies while serving in the military police corps and was transferred to a desk job by a commanding officer he frequently quarreled with in 1925. This position had Brunelli investigating organized foreign threats to the Mansillan nation, which were essentially nonexistent at the time. Rather than languish in his position, however, Brunelli was blessed with a serendipitous stroke of luck, the formation of the Partito Unito dei Lavoratori, an underground socialist society apposed to the reign of Stephano X, in July of 1926. Historians agree that PUL was no real threat to national security, consisting of only a few hundred members, mostly academics and disgruntled tradesmen, who lacked the arms or level of organization needed to do much more than stage a plantation strike (which were disruptive, but infrequent occurrences at the time). Undeterred, Brunelli decided that, in the absence of a true threat, he would construct one.

Brunelli fabricated a number of correspondences between the PUL upper leadership, making it appear as though they planned to seize a weapons storehouse in Cerano, inflating the organization's membership and insurgent capabilities substantially. In 1927, Brunelli delivered his memo detailing the threat the PUL posed to the Mansillan crown to the Security Council of Mansilla (Consiglio di Sicurezza), the body of national security advisors who reported directly to Stephano X. The council never became aware of Brunelli's subterfuge, but were unswayed by the memo, unconvinced that PUL posed any actionable threat to the king. Once more undeterred, Brunelli covertly assisted in the organization of a number of socialist rallies, allowing the PUL's numbers to swell. By 1929, the Consiglio was convinced, and authorized measures to eradicate the PUL. Brunelli was commended for his investigation and placed in command of an army division tasked with arresting PUL organizers, a duty which Brunelli carried out with lethal efficiency.

Around the time of his promotion, Brunelli became disillusioned with and, ultimately, disgusted by the Mansillan monarchy. In his memoir, Il trionfo degli angeli, published in 1940, Brunelli recalls coming to regard the Mansillan bureaucracy as a "cancer" by the late 1920s. According to Brunelli, the nation was sick, infected by degenera (degenerates), who "degraded the moral character of the people of Mansilla" through debauchery and exposure to corrupting foreign influences. Although he never made it publicly known, Brunelli considered Stephano X to be the ultimate degenera, poisoning the nation at its very source and selling out the Mansillan citizens' birthrights to overseas corporate interests. Brunelli, once convinced that his purpose was to restore order to the Mansillan army, gradually came to believe that he had, instead, been placed on earth to reform the entire nation and deliver it from its own ethical corruption. By 1930, Brunelli brought many generals around to his way of thinking, establishing a base of loyal supporters. Unaware of his growing hatred for the monarchy, Stephano X, whose reputation was waning with the Mansillan commoners by the early 1930s, thought he had found a perfect national head of security in Brunelli, who was efficient and diligent, two traits found nowhere else in the Mansillan military. In 1932, Brunelli was appointed Chief Consigliere of the security council he had once been ignored by.

Assassination

Late in the evening on November 22, 1960, while travelling to a ribbon cutting ceremony in Campanattre, a small city northwest of Sanclaro, Brunelli's motorcade was ambushed by Esercito di Liberazione Popolare, a socialist partisan group backed by Laeral's Bureau of Foreign Intelligence, who were staged in the thick brush along the side of the road. Brunelli and his wife, Sofia, were riding in the back of a convertible with the top down at the time of the attack, and had no opportunity to escape the hailstorm of bullets. Brunelli was shot more than thirty times in the span of a few seconds, dying instantly or near instantly from a bullet which pierced his heart and coronary artery. Sofia Brunelli and the Brunellis' chauffer were both killed in the ambush, as well.

Legacy

To say that Luca Brunelli constructed and carefully cultivated a cult of personality around himself over the course of his three decade run as Prime Minister of Mansilla would be an understatement. According to the official Mansillan narrative, the entire nation mourned Brunelli's death for months, wearing only black, formal wear in public until well into 1961. By the same account, women could be seen weeping in the street at the thought of living without their glorious leader for years to come. In reality, while many many genuinely mourned the death of Brunelli, much of Bernacchi's narrative was likely fabricated. In the years following Brunelli's assassination, more than a dozen settlements were renamed to "Brunelli," notably including the Mansillan capital, Cerano (now "Brunelli"). Additionally, hundreds, if not thousands of marble statues of Brunelli were constructed and erected in town squares and the courtyards of official buildings around the nation. Many still remain, though more recent Mansillan leaders have attempted to distance themselves somewhat from Brunelli, leading to the tacit removal of many of these statutes.

Brunelli was succeeded by his handpicked successor, Lorenzo D'Amaro, as Prime Minister (Gran Custode) of Mansilla, who diligently continued Brunelli's "war on degeneracy," though D'Amaro gradually phased out some of Brunelli's more draconian policies and punishments.