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freeholdingfrom poor South Side boy to self-made monster to Baron of Chicago: John Marcone's History
(I couldn't find a source that truly covered all the bases of canon and extrapolation. So here is the rundown. Glossary at the end.)
Not much is known about John Marcone's early life. He's a Chicago native, apparently the son of a poor South Side family. He grew up in a Catholic household and eventually left home to join some branch of the military, professing to have suffered from a "deludedly patriotic youth." Many of his combat skills came from here.
More is known about him when he came back and took on the name John Marcone (his original and True Name is a mystery). He got a position for himself in the local mafia empire under the Vargassi family and quickly made a name for himself. He was the portrait of a young punk with a gun, the perfect wiseguy. The problem was that he became a threat to the family heir, Marco. Marco staged a hit on Marcone to remove him from the picture, but it all went horribly wrong.
At Calumet Park, Marco's people attempted a drive-by shooting to kill Marcone. Not only did they miss, but they hit a young girl who was with her family. While Marcone got off scot-free, Amanda Beckitt took a bullet. She subsequently fell into a coma, though the Vargassi family covered up the incident and had her declared dead.
That became the defining event of Marcone's life. Seeing the effect of collateral damage on his precious city and its people snapped something in him His life mission became to take over the city's crime and work to make crime clean, and save Chicago from itself.
There was a regime change. Marco Vargassi and his father Tony 'vanished,' and John Marcone became the new don of the city. And true to his intentions, he did take control of the crime of the city, driving out rivals and instituting new rules to reduce the damage crime did to the city.
In the regime change, he also discovered the true fate of Amanda and had her moved to a out-of-the-way care facility in Wisconsin and began to quietly work to bring her out of her coma.
After the city was settled and under his control, John expanded his powerbase. In the process, he discovered a new drug on the market that wasn't under his control, Third Eye. Following the trail of this magic-based drug likely lead him to discovering the supernatural elements of the city and definitely lead him to meet Harry Dresden, professional wizard.
After a rocky first meeting during which Marcone tricked Dresden into showing his inner self in a soulgaze (see Useful Terms below), the two cooperated with each other enough to find the source of ThirdEye, solve the murder of one of Marcone's people, and rid Chicago of a mad warlock. (Storm Front)
Six months later, Marcone found himself targeted by an FBI sting with supernatural ties and an unfettered loup garou (superwerewolf). He lost one of his oldest friends in the process and quickly became desperate for survival and revenge, even trying to bribe Dresden to work for him and force the wizard's hand. In the end, they once again teamed up to do some mutual life-saving, taking out the corrupted FBI agents and putting the loup garou out of its misery. (Fool Moon)
Marcone spent some time doing research and getting a better understanding of the supernatural. His knowledge base grew and at some point he discovered Monoc Securities, run by Donar Vadderung (the mundane alias of the All Father, Odin). Somehow, Marcone managed to sign a contract with Vadderung and was assigned Sigrun Gard, a Valkyrie, as his bodyguard and magical consultant.
Marcone also learned of the power of faith objects and made arrangements to have the Shroud of Turin stolen. His plan was to use the Shroud to try to heal Amanda Beckitt. It all went horribly wrong with the introduction of the Denarians (fallen angels joined with humans) who stole the Shroud to use it to kick off the Apocalypse. Once again Dresden and Marcone's paths crossed and once again they ended up working together, saving each other, saving the day, etc.
Marcone got away with the Shroud, but didn't make it to Wisconsin without Dresden tailing him. Dresden learned the nature of Marcone's plans for the Shroud and agreed to let him keep it for three days. The gesture was appreciated, but ultimately futile; Amanda slept on. (Death Masks)
Outside an instance of Marcone casually averting destiny and saving Dresden's life (Dead Beat), the two stayed out of each other's spheres for a while. In that time, Marcone became involved with Helen Beckitt, mother of Amanda and widow. When Helen had trouble finding work as an ex-felon, Marcone put her in charge of Executive Priority, his health club-cum-prostitution service, trusting her to keep the women working there safe.
Helen, being a magic practitioner herself, became tied up in another case of Dresden's, which inevitably brought Marcone and Dresden into each other's orbits again. A situation came along involving overwhelming odds and many hostages, and Dresden needed back-up. Dresden went to Marcone and made him an offer he couldn't refuse: his help getting Marcone signed onto the Unseelie Accords as the first vanilla mortal Signatory (see Useful Terms).
Marcone agreed to help Dresden, acquired reinforcements from Vadderung, and followed Dresden into an assault on the White Court. He also allowed Dresden to appeal to his better angels when the lives of the hostages came under risk, much to his annoyance.
Marcone became a Freeholding Lord under the Accords, taking on the title of Baron of Chicago and making him the most powerful vanilla mortal in the world. (White Night)
Of course with power comes responsibility, but also a lot more danger. Marcone found himself targeted by the Denarians, who took him captive after breaking through his extensive defenses and separating him from his bodyguards. His kidnapping was in reality a test run for an even more powerful being (the repository of all human knowledge, AKA The Archive, known to her friends as Ivy), but the Denarians didn't waste the opportunity; Marcone was tortured for several days in an attempt to make him join the Denarians. It was ultimately unsuccessful as Dresden (who else?) showed up to rescue Marcone and Ivy. (Turn Coat)
The experience with the Denarians makes Marcone clearly more careful. It ironically seems to help him settle more into his role as Freeholding Lord. He is more hands-off, working with intermediaries rather than directly. While the Red Court is an issue, instead of striking at them directly, Marcone enables Dresden to fight them himself. (Changes) He begins to apparently groom a successor or at least an assistant, and reaches out to Vadderung for extra forces to protect Chicago.
Marcone's presence is not explicit in Ghost Story and Cold Days, but his influence is felt. With the death of Harry Dresden, the city's top defender, Marcone steps up, helping fund and organize the Brighter Future Society for the task. There are hints that Marcone's character is evolving some to adapt to his growing responsibilities: new faces being brought into the fold, more politcal jockeying, and more emphasis on his role as Baron over his role as head of the Outfit.
At the point he's being taken from, John is an immensely powerful figure who juggles his legitimate enterprises with the supernatural and the criminal.
Useful Terms:
vanilla mortal: a human with no exceptional magical abilities.
soulgaze: inherent magical ability of higher level wizards. when a wizard locks eyes with someone for too long, they trip into a soulgaze, which is a metaphorical representation of the soul of whomever they've made eye contact with. it is Sight magic, and thus can never be forgotten. the soulgaze is a mutual experience.
Unseelie Accords: the closest thing the supernatural world has to laws. started by Queen Mab of the Winter Court, it is a collection of people/Signatories who agree to abide by certain rules and laws.
Signatory: one who has signed onto the Accords. To do so requires the proper paperwork (not easy to get one's hands on) and the sponsoring signatures of three other Signatories. in Marcone's case, his co-signers were Lara Raith of the White Court Vampires, Donar Vadderung (AKA Odin), and Harry Dresden of the White Council.
White Court: White Court Vampires, the most 'human' of the vampire groups. Emotion eaters.
Denarians: Members of the Order of the Blackened Denarius. Each of the pieces of silver Judas had became inscribed with the sigils of fallen angels. When a human picks one up, they are infected with the consciousness of an fallen angel. Some humans go willingly, some not. The Denarians like to pick powerful people to recruit to their cause. Their cause is usually bad news.
(I couldn't find a source that truly covered all the bases of canon and extrapolation. So here is the rundown. Glossary at the end.)
Not much is known about John Marcone's early life. He's a Chicago native, apparently the son of a poor South Side family. He grew up in a Catholic household and eventually left home to join some branch of the military, professing to have suffered from a "deludedly patriotic youth." Many of his combat skills came from here.
More is known about him when he came back and took on the name John Marcone (his original and True Name is a mystery). He got a position for himself in the local mafia empire under the Vargassi family and quickly made a name for himself. He was the portrait of a young punk with a gun, the perfect wiseguy. The problem was that he became a threat to the family heir, Marco. Marco staged a hit on Marcone to remove him from the picture, but it all went horribly wrong.
At Calumet Park, Marco's people attempted a drive-by shooting to kill Marcone. Not only did they miss, but they hit a young girl who was with her family. While Marcone got off scot-free, Amanda Beckitt took a bullet. She subsequently fell into a coma, though the Vargassi family covered up the incident and had her declared dead.
That became the defining event of Marcone's life. Seeing the effect of collateral damage on his precious city and its people snapped something in him His life mission became to take over the city's crime and work to make crime clean, and save Chicago from itself.
There was a regime change. Marco Vargassi and his father Tony 'vanished,' and John Marcone became the new don of the city. And true to his intentions, he did take control of the crime of the city, driving out rivals and instituting new rules to reduce the damage crime did to the city.
In the regime change, he also discovered the true fate of Amanda and had her moved to a out-of-the-way care facility in Wisconsin and began to quietly work to bring her out of her coma.
After the city was settled and under his control, John expanded his powerbase. In the process, he discovered a new drug on the market that wasn't under his control, Third Eye. Following the trail of this magic-based drug likely lead him to discovering the supernatural elements of the city and definitely lead him to meet Harry Dresden, professional wizard.
After a rocky first meeting during which Marcone tricked Dresden into showing his inner self in a soulgaze (see Useful Terms below), the two cooperated with each other enough to find the source of ThirdEye, solve the murder of one of Marcone's people, and rid Chicago of a mad warlock. (Storm Front)
Six months later, Marcone found himself targeted by an FBI sting with supernatural ties and an unfettered loup garou (superwerewolf). He lost one of his oldest friends in the process and quickly became desperate for survival and revenge, even trying to bribe Dresden to work for him and force the wizard's hand. In the end, they once again teamed up to do some mutual life-saving, taking out the corrupted FBI agents and putting the loup garou out of its misery. (Fool Moon)
Marcone spent some time doing research and getting a better understanding of the supernatural. His knowledge base grew and at some point he discovered Monoc Securities, run by Donar Vadderung (the mundane alias of the All Father, Odin). Somehow, Marcone managed to sign a contract with Vadderung and was assigned Sigrun Gard, a Valkyrie, as his bodyguard and magical consultant.
Marcone also learned of the power of faith objects and made arrangements to have the Shroud of Turin stolen. His plan was to use the Shroud to try to heal Amanda Beckitt. It all went horribly wrong with the introduction of the Denarians (fallen angels joined with humans) who stole the Shroud to use it to kick off the Apocalypse. Once again Dresden and Marcone's paths crossed and once again they ended up working together, saving each other, saving the day, etc.
Marcone got away with the Shroud, but didn't make it to Wisconsin without Dresden tailing him. Dresden learned the nature of Marcone's plans for the Shroud and agreed to let him keep it for three days. The gesture was appreciated, but ultimately futile; Amanda slept on. (Death Masks)
Outside an instance of Marcone casually averting destiny and saving Dresden's life (Dead Beat), the two stayed out of each other's spheres for a while. In that time, Marcone became involved with Helen Beckitt, mother of Amanda and widow. When Helen had trouble finding work as an ex-felon, Marcone put her in charge of Executive Priority, his health club-cum-prostitution service, trusting her to keep the women working there safe.
Helen, being a magic practitioner herself, became tied up in another case of Dresden's, which inevitably brought Marcone and Dresden into each other's orbits again. A situation came along involving overwhelming odds and many hostages, and Dresden needed back-up. Dresden went to Marcone and made him an offer he couldn't refuse: his help getting Marcone signed onto the Unseelie Accords as the first vanilla mortal Signatory (see Useful Terms).
Marcone agreed to help Dresden, acquired reinforcements from Vadderung, and followed Dresden into an assault on the White Court. He also allowed Dresden to appeal to his better angels when the lives of the hostages came under risk, much to his annoyance.
Marcone became a Freeholding Lord under the Accords, taking on the title of Baron of Chicago and making him the most powerful vanilla mortal in the world. (White Night)
Of course with power comes responsibility, but also a lot more danger. Marcone found himself targeted by the Denarians, who took him captive after breaking through his extensive defenses and separating him from his bodyguards. His kidnapping was in reality a test run for an even more powerful being (the repository of all human knowledge, AKA The Archive, known to her friends as Ivy), but the Denarians didn't waste the opportunity; Marcone was tortured for several days in an attempt to make him join the Denarians. It was ultimately unsuccessful as Dresden (who else?) showed up to rescue Marcone and Ivy. (Turn Coat)
The experience with the Denarians makes Marcone clearly more careful. It ironically seems to help him settle more into his role as Freeholding Lord. He is more hands-off, working with intermediaries rather than directly. While the Red Court is an issue, instead of striking at them directly, Marcone enables Dresden to fight them himself. (Changes) He begins to apparently groom a successor or at least an assistant, and reaches out to Vadderung for extra forces to protect Chicago.
Marcone's presence is not explicit in Ghost Story and Cold Days, but his influence is felt. With the death of Harry Dresden, the city's top defender, Marcone steps up, helping fund and organize the Brighter Future Society for the task. There are hints that Marcone's character is evolving some to adapt to his growing responsibilities: new faces being brought into the fold, more politcal jockeying, and more emphasis on his role as Baron over his role as head of the Outfit.
At the point he's being taken from, John is an immensely powerful figure who juggles his legitimate enterprises with the supernatural and the criminal.
Useful Terms:
vanilla mortal: a human with no exceptional magical abilities.
soulgaze: inherent magical ability of higher level wizards. when a wizard locks eyes with someone for too long, they trip into a soulgaze, which is a metaphorical representation of the soul of whomever they've made eye contact with. it is Sight magic, and thus can never be forgotten. the soulgaze is a mutual experience.
Unseelie Accords: the closest thing the supernatural world has to laws. started by Queen Mab of the Winter Court, it is a collection of people/Signatories who agree to abide by certain rules and laws.
Signatory: one who has signed onto the Accords. To do so requires the proper paperwork (not easy to get one's hands on) and the sponsoring signatures of three other Signatories. in Marcone's case, his co-signers were Lara Raith of the White Court Vampires, Donar Vadderung (AKA Odin), and Harry Dresden of the White Council.
White Court: White Court Vampires, the most 'human' of the vampire groups. Emotion eaters.
Denarians: Members of the Order of the Blackened Denarius. Each of the pieces of silver Judas had became inscribed with the sigils of fallen angels. When a human picks one up, they are infected with the consciousness of an fallen angel. Some humans go willingly, some not. The Denarians like to pick powerful people to recruit to their cause. Their cause is usually bad news.
