Post by Agent Lloyd Wakeman on Jun 19, 2009 16:51:20 GMT -5
Name: Ivan Fyodorovich Tsesarsky
Gender/Sex: Male
Age: 48
Height: 6'2
Physique: Large, heavily muscled, intimidating
Hair: Short cropped, black
Eyes: Dark Brown
Clothing description: Wears a nondescript black suit
Occupation: Head of the New Amsterdam Collective and the Ferretti crime family, member of the Council of One Hundred
Home City: New Amsterdam
Housing location:
Backstory:
Born in Moscow in 1977, Ivan was the son of KGB colonel Fyodor Tsesarsky and his non-working wife, Daria, who died of tuberculosis in 1984. As the son of a high-ranking KGB officer, Ivan enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle as a child, until the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 90's. Fyodor, who had a reputation as a particularly brutal enforcer of the Soviet regime, was immediately fired from the newly reorganized FSB after the 1991 coup, then killed while supporting Parliamentary forces in the constitutional crisis two years later.
Newly orphaned and forced to fend for himself, Tsesarsky joined the rising Russian mafia, working for Thief-in-Law Boris Lebedev and his "Organizatsiya." He proved himself an adept enforcer and, in 2000, was shipped off to the United States to join the Organizatsiya in its ongoing war against the rising Syndicate to retain control of the Russian mafia in America.
Tsesarsky had other plans. It did not take him long to realize that the Organizatsiya couldn't hope to compete with the Syndicate on its own turf. Instead, he defected to the Syndicate-loyal New Amsterdam Collective, and soon found himself a major player in the Syndicate's army in New Amsterdam.
With the end of the Syndicate Wars and the Organizatsiya's withdrawal from America, Tsesarsky became a rising star in the new underworld of New Amsterdam. Unlike many members of the New Amsterdam Collective, Tsesarsky had the political savvy to recognize that success in the new underworld would mean stepping far outside his traditional ethnic comfort zone, and even outside the sacred Thief's Code.
In 2005, Tsesarsky began to woo Angela Ferretti, daughter and only child of Don Anthony Ferretti and heir apparent to the Ferretti crime family, one of the Five Families of New Amsterdam that controlled the New Amsterdam mafia before the rise of the Syndicate. They were married in 2006, to the outrage of the leadership of the New Amsterdam Collective, to whom Tsesarsky's decision to take a wife was an unthinkable violation of the Thief's Code. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't long afterward that the New Amsterdam Collective attempted to have Tsesarsky assassinated. It did not go well.
Tsesarsky used the assassination attempt and has his family connections to Don Ferretti, who was a major player on the Council of One Hundred, to claim leadership of the New Amsterdam Collective. The result was a six-month gang war in New Amsterdam, as Tsesarsky and his supporters ruthlessly exterminated all traces of the Collective's former leadership.
His rise to the leadership of the Collective was only the beginning of Tsesarsky's quest for greatness. In 2014, he offered the independent Don Joseph DeFalco the Collective's assistance in assisting the DeFalco family gain supremacy over the rest of the Five Families - and even offered to finance Don Ferretti's assassination himself as a show of support. In reality, of course, DeFalco's attempted coup was a disaster. It lasted for only six months before Scaligeri stepped in, and accomplished nothing other than Don Ferretti's death - and later, Don DeFalco's. While DeFalco accused Tsesarsky of collaborating with him, Scaligeri, who was largely out of touch with the political situation in New Amsterdam, did not believe him, and not only did Tsesarsky escape punishment, but Scaligeri awarded hm the leadership of the Ferretti crime family, on the grounds that his marriage to Angela Ferretti made him the closest thing Don Ferretti had had to a son.
Since then, Tsesarsky has been steadily increasing his grip on the underworld of the East Coast.
Other:
Tsesarsky is arguably the most powerful member of the Council of One Hundred, and is considered the strongest contender for the office of capo dei capi upon Don Lawrence Scaligeri's death. His area of influence is centered on New Amsterdam, but extends up and down the east coast. He also has his hand in activities in Blackwork and Walsh, and is particularly intrigued by the latter.
Tsesarsky has a fondness for and interest in the occult, and is interested in the urban legends surrounding Walsh. His awareness of the magical traditions of the city is vague at best, but he does believe that Walsh is home to supernatural powers that could guarantee his success in the coming war for control of the Syndicate. Similarly, Tsesarsky is by far the most willing of the Syndicate members to cut deals with supers, although the Thief's Code forbids him from dealing with those superheroes officially associated with the government in any capacity, primarily aimed at weakening his competition for control of the Syndicate.
He holds to a corrupted version of the code of the vory v zakone, or "Thieves in Law" of the Russian mafia, blended with the familial codes of the Italian-American mafia, which has been distilled throughout the organizations under his influence. The essential principles are a refusal to attempt to work for a living, under any circumstances, a concept of honor amongst thieves, and loyalty to the family and to relatives. Tsesarsky and those under his control refuse to involve themselves in the drug trade or weapons smuggling - not because they find these crimes distasteful, or somehow "worse" than other crimes, but because they consider them work. This code is driven by a bitter grudge against the United States government, who Tsesarsky blames for the fall of the Soviet Union and, as a consequence, the humiliation and death of his father.
Gender/Sex: Male
Age: 48
Height: 6'2
Physique: Large, heavily muscled, intimidating
Hair: Short cropped, black
Eyes: Dark Brown
Clothing description: Wears a nondescript black suit
Occupation: Head of the New Amsterdam Collective and the Ferretti crime family, member of the Council of One Hundred
Home City: New Amsterdam
Housing location:
Backstory:
Born in Moscow in 1977, Ivan was the son of KGB colonel Fyodor Tsesarsky and his non-working wife, Daria, who died of tuberculosis in 1984. As the son of a high-ranking KGB officer, Ivan enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle as a child, until the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 90's. Fyodor, who had a reputation as a particularly brutal enforcer of the Soviet regime, was immediately fired from the newly reorganized FSB after the 1991 coup, then killed while supporting Parliamentary forces in the constitutional crisis two years later.
Newly orphaned and forced to fend for himself, Tsesarsky joined the rising Russian mafia, working for Thief-in-Law Boris Lebedev and his "Organizatsiya." He proved himself an adept enforcer and, in 2000, was shipped off to the United States to join the Organizatsiya in its ongoing war against the rising Syndicate to retain control of the Russian mafia in America.
Tsesarsky had other plans. It did not take him long to realize that the Organizatsiya couldn't hope to compete with the Syndicate on its own turf. Instead, he defected to the Syndicate-loyal New Amsterdam Collective, and soon found himself a major player in the Syndicate's army in New Amsterdam.
With the end of the Syndicate Wars and the Organizatsiya's withdrawal from America, Tsesarsky became a rising star in the new underworld of New Amsterdam. Unlike many members of the New Amsterdam Collective, Tsesarsky had the political savvy to recognize that success in the new underworld would mean stepping far outside his traditional ethnic comfort zone, and even outside the sacred Thief's Code.
In 2005, Tsesarsky began to woo Angela Ferretti, daughter and only child of Don Anthony Ferretti and heir apparent to the Ferretti crime family, one of the Five Families of New Amsterdam that controlled the New Amsterdam mafia before the rise of the Syndicate. They were married in 2006, to the outrage of the leadership of the New Amsterdam Collective, to whom Tsesarsky's decision to take a wife was an unthinkable violation of the Thief's Code. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't long afterward that the New Amsterdam Collective attempted to have Tsesarsky assassinated. It did not go well.
Tsesarsky used the assassination attempt and has his family connections to Don Ferretti, who was a major player on the Council of One Hundred, to claim leadership of the New Amsterdam Collective. The result was a six-month gang war in New Amsterdam, as Tsesarsky and his supporters ruthlessly exterminated all traces of the Collective's former leadership.
His rise to the leadership of the Collective was only the beginning of Tsesarsky's quest for greatness. In 2014, he offered the independent Don Joseph DeFalco the Collective's assistance in assisting the DeFalco family gain supremacy over the rest of the Five Families - and even offered to finance Don Ferretti's assassination himself as a show of support. In reality, of course, DeFalco's attempted coup was a disaster. It lasted for only six months before Scaligeri stepped in, and accomplished nothing other than Don Ferretti's death - and later, Don DeFalco's. While DeFalco accused Tsesarsky of collaborating with him, Scaligeri, who was largely out of touch with the political situation in New Amsterdam, did not believe him, and not only did Tsesarsky escape punishment, but Scaligeri awarded hm the leadership of the Ferretti crime family, on the grounds that his marriage to Angela Ferretti made him the closest thing Don Ferretti had had to a son.
Since then, Tsesarsky has been steadily increasing his grip on the underworld of the East Coast.
Other:
Tsesarsky is arguably the most powerful member of the Council of One Hundred, and is considered the strongest contender for the office of capo dei capi upon Don Lawrence Scaligeri's death. His area of influence is centered on New Amsterdam, but extends up and down the east coast. He also has his hand in activities in Blackwork and Walsh, and is particularly intrigued by the latter.
Tsesarsky has a fondness for and interest in the occult, and is interested in the urban legends surrounding Walsh. His awareness of the magical traditions of the city is vague at best, but he does believe that Walsh is home to supernatural powers that could guarantee his success in the coming war for control of the Syndicate. Similarly, Tsesarsky is by far the most willing of the Syndicate members to cut deals with supers, although the Thief's Code forbids him from dealing with those superheroes officially associated with the government in any capacity, primarily aimed at weakening his competition for control of the Syndicate.
He holds to a corrupted version of the code of the vory v zakone, or "Thieves in Law" of the Russian mafia, blended with the familial codes of the Italian-American mafia, which has been distilled throughout the organizations under his influence. The essential principles are a refusal to attempt to work for a living, under any circumstances, a concept of honor amongst thieves, and loyalty to the family and to relatives. Tsesarsky and those under his control refuse to involve themselves in the drug trade or weapons smuggling - not because they find these crimes distasteful, or somehow "worse" than other crimes, but because they consider them work. This code is driven by a bitter grudge against the United States government, who Tsesarsky blames for the fall of the Soviet Union and, as a consequence, the humiliation and death of his father.