Girolamo Riario

Girolamo Riario (1443 – 1488) was the Lord of Imola and Forlì, and a member of the Templar Order.

Biography

Riario was the nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, and secured his power early in life using his connections to the church. In 1473, he married Caterina Sforza, daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan. The couple resided in Rome during Sixtus' pontificate, where Riario gained a reputation for being one of the most ruthless nobles at court. After the death of the Pope's brother, Riario secured the titles of Lord of Imola and Forlì.

Riario became a prominent enemy of Florence's leader Lorenzo de' Medici, who between 1478 and 1488 contracted his Assassin ally Ezio Auditore to thwart several of Riario's plans in Forlì and Romagna.

Until his death, Riario continued to aid the Borgia family in their attempts to conquer Italy, working on a map that detailed the locations of the pages of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's Codex. On a cold day, Riario was contacted by a Templar agent who would not reveal his true identity. The agent gave Girolamo a small box bearing weird carvings, and told him to hide it well until the day the agent returned for it.

After the Rocca di Ravaldino was constructed in 1471, Riario had it enlarged, turning it into his personal citadel and castle. During the renovation process, Riario discovered an old and sealed tomb under the fortress, which he subsequently used to hide his precious artifacts and Templar-collected secrets.

In 1488, Caterina, having discovered her husband's Templar affiliations, hired Checco and Ludovico Orsi to murder him. The Orsi brothers infiltrated Riario's home, stabbed him to death, and looted his residence. Riario's naked corpse was then thrown in the center of the town square.

Legacy

Following Riario's death, his son Ottaviano succeeded him as Lord of Imola and Forlì, with Caterina serving as regent. In 1499, Ezio Auditore returned to the Rocca di Ravaldino to explore its hidden secrets and retrieve Riario's Templar treasures.

Trivia

• Historically, Girolamo Riario was one of the leaders of the Pazzi conspiracy against Lorenzo de' Medici. During Assassin's Creed II, he is never identified as a member of the conspiracy, despite his enmity to Lorenzo being alluded to in assassination contracts.
• The database's account of Riario's death is accurate to history, including the Orsi brothers ransacking his estate and tossing his corpse into the town square. In real life, however, the assassination was not ordered by Caterina.
• In 2014, Assassin's Creed: Identity was in open beta. This early version of the game featured a reference to Riario being contacted by a Templar agent in the loading screen, but it was removed after an update in 2015.
  • In the game files, a database entry named "The Fallen Ruler" revealed that Ezio, after interrogating Riario's old associate Andrea Migli, discovered his hidden stash under the Rocca di Ravaldino and found a small cube with a red substance. This might be proof that the Crystal Cube was originally intended to be a blood vial. Since this database entry only exists in the game files, its canonicity is uncertain.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed II (first mentioned) (mentioned in Database entry only)
  • Battle of Forlì
• Assassin's Creed: Identity (mentioned in Database entry only; deleted content)