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The Conte Sabastino.
There is an apocryphal tale that Cristofano Sabastino's mother was brought unexpectedly into the pains of her first labor by a horseback ride, and that the son and heir of House Sabastino was born in a barn while a late April squall battered at the wooden shutters. Whether the tale is true or not, it is certain that Count Cristofano was, from the start, at ease among animals. As if born to the work his family had cultivated for centuries, he spent a happy childhood roaming the hills and pastures of his ancestral lands, and took immediately to the care, tending, and preservation of the livestock that have been the lifeblood of his House.
Indeed, so great was his passion for animals that his parents' greatest chore was turning him into a nobleman rather than a herdsman. Tutors of heraldry, etiquette, religion, and rhetoric found a restless boy whose thoughts were in the barn with the cow having a breech birth rather than on the lessons at hand. Still, persistence and a hard hand brought most of the lessons home eventually, and, in time, Cristofano began to show a head for stewardship and a love of reading.
Martial skills came more easily for the quiet boy, who was born strong and healthy and who aspired to be like his father in many things. Though hunting was as much a necessity as a noble pastime for a House whose wealth rested on protecting livestock, he grew to love that as well, enjoying the time outdoors with hounds and horses. In particular, he began to love mounted combat, an activity that combined the martial arts with his love of animals. In time, this turned into a keen interest in the lists and pageantry of tourneys.
Cristofano was too young to accompany his father to fight in the siege of Irsina, but he will never forget the pageantry and celebration when the company returned victorious, claiming the city rightfully for the Sacario. He was old enough, however, to fight at his father's side in the battles of Dordolla and Cortaccia. In the last, he watched with a mixture of pride and horror as his father led a doomed charge to halt the advance of siege weapons on Breganze, earning himself a heroic death and making his son a Count at the age of 23.
Now five years into his title, Cristofano has learned a great deal, but it has not changed the quiet country spirit that resides at his core. As the politics of Matora grow ever more deadly and the stakes for his family continue to rise, he will not be able to hide in the countryside forever. Ill-equipped for the intrigues and politics of the Major Court, he will need all of the allies he can muster, and the help of his extensive family to navigate the shark infested waters of the Catellus Sea.