Astolfo de Naranza-Carratéo

If you are looking for the deceased Corric soldier, see Gabriel Demuiré

Astolfo de Naranza-Carratéo
Royal Adjutant to the King of Antora Vice-Commander of INTRA Master of the Chivalric Order of the Red Eagle
Official Royal Cabinet portrait, 2022
Royal Adjutant to the King of Antora Prince-Emeritus Ayudante Réal del Rége de Antora Príncipe-Emérito
In Office	12 February 2022 - present
Appointment	12 February 2022
Born	(1960-05-15) 15 May 1960 Palacia de la Costa Tranquíla, Costa Tranquíla, Avantana, Antora
Spouse	Princess Gloria Angela de Ferreria (m. 1981)
Issue	Prince-Emeritus Miguel Remolunzo de Naranza-Cattaréo
Names Astolfo Mañuel Madrigál Gonzalez de Naranza-Carratéo
House	Naranza-Carratéo
Father	Benito Ares de Narranza-Carrateó
Mother	Magdalena Aria de Palda
Religion	Antoran Deusism

Astolfo de Naranza-Carratéo (Astolfo Mañuel Madrigál Gonzalez de Naranza-Carratéo, born May 15th, 1960) is an Antoran royal, soldier, businessman, mercenary, politician, and diplomat. Born the Crown Prince of Casilló y Réal to King Benito Ares I and Queen-Consort Magdalena Aria de Palda, Astolfo is the older brother of current Antoran king, Sebastián II, as well as Guillermo, Duke of Liti and Estefanía, Duchess of Eleuvros. He is the brother-in-law to Queen-Consort Emília Pazanna de la Lérida via his brother, and to Francisco Javier de Ferreira, Duke of Guimaredes via his wife Gloria Angela de Ferreria. He is also an uncle of the Royal Succession: Crown Princess Impazzana Gloriá, Duchess of Marsalvano, Prince Roberto Nápoles, Count of Araruña, and Princess Yasmína, Countess of Navabría. His son, Miguel Remolunzo de Naranza-Carratéo, is the CEO and Chairman of Quill Defense Consultants, Inc.

Astolfo attended the Descarai Combat Academy and served for two years in the Royal Corric Armada, finishing his service in 1983. He was appointed to his father's Royal Cabinet as the Royal Adjutant to the Second Minister after his military service, holding the position until 1985. In late 1983, he accidentally uncovered a conspiracy between his father and the Grank Vizier of neighboring Catrás and the Santaloria crime syndicate to have Casilló y Réal unjustly invade and annex Catrás, which involved the assassination of Corric nobility figures and a manufactured border conflict. As a result of this discovery, Astolfo and his father had a private falling out, and Astolfo tried to halt the conspiracy through various methods, to no avail. Amassing a group of loyal public servants, military officers, and noble retainers as an intelligence network, Astolfo eventually acquired enough evidence to implicate his father as having acted outside his legal authority and conspired with criminals. Astolfo threatened to release the information to the public after the eventual successful annexation, promting Benito Ares to strip his son of his royal status and attempt to clandestinely kill him, sparking the 1985 Corric Succession Crisis.

Astolfo survived the small civil war and faked his death, assuming the identity of a soldier killed in the fighting. Now under the name of Gabriel Demuiré, Astolfo would spend the next three-and-a-half decades acquiring more evidence of corruption and treason within the Corric government, aided in part by former retainers who were still loyal. Leaving the Royal Corric Armed Legions as Demuiré in 1987, after his father's abdication and his brother Sebastián's coronation, Astolfo worked in the private sector to become a private security and information broker. He eventually founded Quill Defense Contractors, Inc. in September of 1989. This private security firm was first a side-project for Astolfo, who wanted to use it to protect independant journalists and protesters fighting against injustice and government corruption. By 1992, his interest in the company increased, and he brought on many loyalist veterans and industry professionals to staff its management and executive positions. Astolfo invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into developing Quill as an independant anti-corruption, anti-authoritarian mercenary force as well as a financial and mercantile protection corporation in order to draw revenue for other operations.

Astolfo's persona as a former soldier-turned-businessman was further established by his opening of nonprofit organizations and investment companies. Using his private sector work as a front for reform and betterment of the exploited, Astolfo branched out into charity work starting in 2003. He founded Shining Armor Investments in 2009 in Tivot, and used the company to invest in green energy, smartphones, internet services, shipping, and microchips. He used the profits from Shining Armor to fund Quill as well as open the NGOs International Code Group in 2011 and The Defusing Authority in 2015. ICG provides housing, food, and medical services to refugees and disenfranchised groups around the world. TDA is the world's largest de-mining and explosive displosal NGO with operations on all continents. QDC, Inc. has expanded its operations under Astolfo to include seven subsidiaries, offices and clients on all continents save Aurora, and over $8 billion in revenue. Quill in 2019 was ranked as #1 on Urth Defense Digest's list of "Largest Professional Private Security Forces," a fact that Astolfo used to increase business and investments in his efforts to acquire influence, funding, and resources to reform the issues of his home country and the world at large.

In 2021, Astolfo began to enact the Red Eagle Project, a carefully-managed plan to use Quill as an engine to expose the prior and current corruption in Corric politics. The intention was to put the international reputation of the company in a favorable light and to provide his contacts in Casilló y Réal resources to find treasonous activities and eventually expose them. The first portion of the plan was started in March of 2021. Quill was involved in several conflicts across the planet, including the Tavaris-Acronis secession issue and the Ni-Rao Civil War. These contributions to the security of peaceful civilians and defense against war crimes provided enough of a public relations boost that Quill recieved many more clients throughout the year. The increased funding for the project was directed to agents in the Corric government, handpicked by Astolfo, to use in cooperation with members of the Royalist party. The Royalists were notorious for their anti-democratic views, and Astolfo's agents discovered they were planning to disrupt the upcoming 2022 Prime Minister elections.

The second part of the Red Eagle Project involved infiltrating and subverting the Royalist conspiracy. Using the money funneled to loyalists, Astolfo's brother-in-law, the Duke of Guimaredes and the First Minister for the Environment, was able to gain the confidence of the main Royalist leadership. He further gave the Royalists a target for their monarchial ambitions: Astolfo's son Miguel. While Miguel had been secretly raised by Astolfo under the assumed identity of an orphan, the Duke of Guimaredes asserted he had raised his nephew behind closed doors after the Succession Crisis. The Royalists seized on the oppertunity to install a puppet-king and their conspiracy evolved from election fraud to a coup d'état. Astolfo's agents kept track of the Royalists and gathered incriminating evidence on them, their co-conspirators from other parties, and public servants they had either paid or blackmailed into assisting. Before they could acheive their goals, the leadership of the conspiracy, were captured at sea in early February of 2022 by Quill contractors.

Astolfo re-entered the public eye under his true identity on February 10th, 2022 during a session of the Royal Corric Popular Assembly. Heading a party of Royal Corric Gaurds, Quill contractors, government officials, and public servants that were part of the Red Eagle Project, Astolfo and the Duke of Guimaredes revealed the Royalist conspiracy to Prime Minister Orellana and King Sebastián II, as well as the public via the televised broadcast of the legislative meeting. The Duke presented the four decades worth of evidence of treason and corruption to the King, while Astolfo had all conspirators present in the Assembly arrested as well. After a tense conversation with his brother, Astolfo orated a speech to the Assembly on democratic values, the rights of nations to determine their own paths, and the importance of the "will of the people" which reference his father's annexation of Catrás and the conflicts he had participated in. This impromptu speech resulted in members of the Assembly voting to rename the nation to "Antora," referencing a portion of Astolfo's speech where he identifies the disparate representation of the various groups within the nation.

As a result of his return to public life, King Sebastián II re-appointed his brother to the Royal Cabinet as the Royal Adjutant to the King, making Astolfo the third-highest government officer in the nation. While Sebastián was not allowed to abdicate in favor of his brother, which he wished to do but was prevented from by Astolfo's legal omission from the succession for more than thirty years, he granted his brother and nephew the titles of Prince-Emeritus. This title conveys a lifelong status of royalty with the authority and privledges associated with the rank of Prince, but cannot be passed down to offspring. Astolfo spent the majority of February assisting with reorganizing and streamlining certain parts of the government, and assisted with the transition of state institutions to the new name of Antora. He founded the Chivalric Order of the Red Eagle together with his brother the King on February 28th, combining the Royal Corric Guard and the Company of the Quill. On March 1st, he volunteered for an appointment as the Antoran ambassador to the League of Novaris, after the previous ambassador's conduct was found to be outside the accepted norms of diplomacy. Since Februray 15th, he has no longer served as an active executive of QDC, Inc., leaving the business to his son Miguel and remaining only a minority shareholder. After the creation of the INTRA alliance, Astolfo was assigned as the Antoran representative and resigned from the League. He was nominated as the alliance's first Vice-Commander in April of 2022.

Private Career

Astolfo moved to Tonderouca in southern Castijara and founded Quill Defense Contractors with several loyalist retainers and military veterans he knew were trustworthy. Using combined funds and backroom money transfers, the group purchased an office and storage space in the city and began recruitment of security specialists and recently discharged or retired Antoran military personnel who were identified as having Loyalist sympathies. According to recruiting material from this period, QDC accepted only those who could provide several personal references and proof of honorable discharge, if a veteran. Longtime ally and former Royal Corric Guard member Alicia Tumbas has been quoted as saying this was implemented by "Demuiré" to "weed out the thugs and idiots whose only reason to hold a gun is to feel powerful." Influenced somewhat by medieval Antoran mercenary practices, Astolfo gave QDC its colloquial name of "The Company of the Quill." This is considered a nod to the chivalric stories that he and his younger brothers read when they were growing up. QDC contractors now use "The Company" when referring to their employer.

The QDC operations were spearheaded and often personally led by Astolfo, and included providing security details for private individuals, training law enforcement and security forces for Antoran and foreign governments, and as anti-abuse of power presences at large-scale protests. Between 1990 and 1995, the company expanded rapidly, securing nearly $900 million in private and government contracts across eastern Novaris. As the reputation of his firm grew, Astolfo signed off on expanding operations into an international rather than regional scope to better acquire resources, manpower, and an increased network of intelligence operatives.

An unknown number of classified contracts with government and nongovernment entities in this period provided enough revenue for QDC to purchase the Pomesoria Castle in southern Ashura, Packilvania, and the land surrounding it. The company incorporated in 1997 in the city of Akas Akil, forming an international headquarters there and moving their operational headquarters to Pomesoria, though the Tonderouca offices would be retained as the company's Antoran branch. Astolfo personally recruited several current QDC executives during this period, taking more strategic control over the company while leaving day-to-day matters to delegated officers that he could trust but not necessarily reveal the true nature of the organization to. This was done to better construct the illusion of a legitimate private security company.

In 2003, Astolfo authorized the creation of branch offices in Volscina and Qumar, citing increased demand in those regions for private security and training. The facilities also served as cover for clandestine intelligence posts used to identify potential treason and corruption in the local regions and to attempt to act against it. He also spoke to a Antoran investor panel in July, announcing the creation of Quill Rapid Transit Group. This subsidiary, the first of many for QDC, was devoted to the secure and safe transport of money and other valuables. QRTG is now one of the largest international security and transport services in use by banks, mints, jewelers, and private individuals. Astolfo would officially inaugurate Quill Air Consultants and Quill Defense Firm in 2006 to provide boots-on-the-ground services to governments and air combat, transport, and surveillance options.

While QDC does not disclose its clients publicly, there is evidence that Astolfo was present in some capacity at several low-level conflicts in the early and mid 2000's. He has expressed a personal interest in making sure "things turn out honorably," an attitude which has been echoed by all QDC contractors whenever asked their intentions about their work. This commitment to honorable action and prevention of mass exploitation prevented many contracts from being finalized but acquired Quill a solid reputation as the cleanest and most professional mercenary force.

TacGen Systems, owned by Antoran veteran Manuel Goméz, was often a partner with QDC, supplying weapons and equipment. Goméz clandestinely worked with Astolfo as a loyalist sympathizer and facilitated many transfers of weapons and supplies to secret Quill operations. When Goméz died in 2008, Astolfo pushed for the acquisition of his company by QDC, citing his "friends' wish for a more honorable form of warfare" to the company board. The acquisition was eventually successful, and transferred ownership of weapons factories and development centers in northern Gondwana, as well as all TacGen IPs and schematics, to QDC. The company would be known as Quill Engineering going forwards.

In 2013, QDC acquired Watchman Shipping Consulting, a private maritime security company, after a controversial period of events. The Chairman and CEO of Watchman, Douglas Kilvahill, had been in talks for several months with Astolfo about a proposed buyout. Kilvahill had proved reticent and unsure of the opportunity. He eventually agreed to invite Astolfo to tour one of Watchman's floating armories, speculated to be a move designed to increase the proposed buyout price. While the two men were aboard the vessel, it came under attack by unknown assailants in speedboats and a helicopter. Many Watchman personnel were killed, including Kilvahill, and the armory contents stolen. Watchman board members accused "Demuiré" of manufacturing the attack, though no conclusive evidence ever surfaced and the matter was dropped. QDC bought out Watchman five months later for $1.2 billion, $800 million less than what Kilvahil had proposed. Watchman would come under the QDC umbrella as Quill Shipping Consultants.

While QDC did have some small involvement in the 2017 Auroran-Pacific War, Astolfo was forced to have suspend operations in Aurora after the war. The United Nations of the Auroran Continent made private security and risky and highly-scrutinized business on the continent, and QDC shuttered their offices in January 2018. This coincided with a steep loss of revenue, estimated to be over half a billion dollars. Astolfo was nearly subpoenaed by the UNAC to testify on QDC operations, though the matter was eventually dropped as the process of securing his cooperation was too difficult.

Astolfo briefly returned to Casilló y Réal in 2018 to give a lecture to the Royal Antoran Guard on deployment of troops in asymmetric warfare situations. He opened the QDC division Quill Tactical Systems later that year to focus on developing computer equipment for combat vehicles and aircraft. He also met with loyalist sympathizers while he was in the country.

In his first statement to press about QDC operations in 2020, Astolfo stated that certain contractor elements of the corporation had been hired to protect population centers and infrastructure in North Ni-Rao as part of the Ni-Rao Civil War. He stated his hope that the Quill personnel would provide "professional and heartwarming protection to those as unfortunate enough to be caught in such a heated conflict."

Shortly after the outbreak of the Third Suvani War in 2021, international press noted Astolfo visiting parts of the country with known QDC advisors and personnel. He spoke to officials from the New Suvan Khanate, suggesting negotiations for Quill deployment. Later that April, QDC did deploy several hundred security contractors and company vehicles to assist the NKS in a support role.

Charity Work

Astolfo would use his personal wealth to start Shining Armor Investments in Tivot in 2009. A private equity firm, much of its revenue was generated in early years by investments into green energy, smartphones, internet services, shipping, and microchips. Currently the seventh-largest private equity firm owned by a Antoran national, Shining Armor allowed Astolfo to form the non-profit International Code Group in 2011, which focuses on providing housing, food, and clothing to homeless and disadvantaged persons in developed countries that lack a social safety net.

With profits increasing to nearly $3 billion in 2015, Astolfo founded his second NGO, The Defusing Authority. In an interview to a Packilvanian reporter, he cited he often observed warzones QDC operated in being heavily mined. These mines would rarely be collected and defused after a conflict, and harmed people, infrastructure and general quality of life. TDA was designed to move in after hostilities die down and remove unexploded ordinance and minefields, guarded by QDC personnel. Today The Defusing Authority has defused over 2 million reported mines and disposed of nearly 250,000 artillery shells.

Shining Armor was relocated to South Hills in 2018 to avoid it being seized in retribution for "undisclosed criminal activities" by UNAC authorities.

Estimates of how much money Astolfo has donated to various charities and other NGOs since 2000 is approximately $2 billion.