Ottaviano Riario

Ottaviano Riario (September 1479 - 1533) was an Italian condottiero and Lord of Imola and Forlì.

Biography
Ottaviano Riario was the son of Girolamo Riario and Caterina Sforza. When the city of Forlì was attacked in 1488 by the Orsi brothers, the same brothers his mother hired to kill his father, he was taken prisoner by the Orsi brothers along with his sister, Bianca.

Ottaviano was kept captive at a lighthouse in Romagna, watched by Ludovico Orsi. However, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, an Assassin, soon came to Ottaviano's aid and killed Ludovico. Ottaviano ran back to his mother at the Rocca di Ravaldino.

Ottaviano entered the service of the Florentine Republic as a Condottiero when he was 19, at the request of his mother, Caterina Sforza, who wanted to cement amiable relations with Florence. He commanded 100 men from Forlì, but terminated his contract after only a year because Florence didn't have the money to pay him.

Despite accounts which describe Ottaviano as obese, brainless and under his mother's thumb, Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) offered his daughter Lucrezia Borgia to Ottaviano. Because Rodrigo decided that those were traits he could tolerate in a son-in-law as long as that son-in-law was the key to controlling the territories of Forlì and Imola. Plus, his viper of a daughter, Lucrezia, rarely stayed married to one man for long. Her husbands tended to sign declarations of impotence or just simply disappeared. Wisely, Caterina denied the marriage, enraging the Pope and leading to his son, Cesare's, assault on Forlì.

When Caterina was ousted by Cesare and entered her exile in Florence, under her guidance Ottaviano attempted to convince the successor of Alexander VI, pope Julius II, to give him back the Lordship of Imola and Forlì, but instead Ottaviano ended up selling the Riario claim to Julius, for an I.O.U. no less.

Trivia

 * Ottaviano, his sister Bianca, and Petruccio Auditore, are the only non-adult characters to appear in Assassin's Creed II.