Cirano Montani

Cirano 'Shotgun' Montani
Biographical information
Born	18 February, 1951 Montani palace, Syldavian-Bordurian borderland
Blood status	Half-blood
Nationality	Syldavian
Alias	'Shotgun'
Physical description
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Hair colour	Orange
Eye colour	Teal (left) White (right)
Skin colour	White
Family information
Family members	Ira Montani (mother) Muggle father
Magical characteristics
Affiliation
Occupation	Crime Boss of the Montani Syndicate Anarchist Leader Terrorist
Loyalty	Montani crime family His court Dragon Lord Death Eaters Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät Igor Müsstler (formerly) Cimmerian Collective Syldavian commandos Z.Z.R.K. Remnants Umbra Council 'Rally for Liberty' Party Dbrnouk strike team Worshippers of Night Nassera Gotra Army of Night Empire of Night Imperial Remnants Esteban Flores's forces Esteban Flores German Ministry of Magic (under the Dragon Lord's control; formerly) Invisible Market
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Cirano 'Shotgun' Montani (b. 18 February 1951 was a Syldavian half-blood dark wizard and one of the heads of the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät following its exposure and subsequent fragmentation. One of the most notorious crime lords in the states that formed the Balkan Peninsula, Cirano hailed from an extremely powerful syndicate of Dark wizard that operated out of their seat of power upon the border between the Kingdom of Syldavia and Bordurian Republic, which allowed for them to remain active, despite vigorous efforts from the likes of King Muskar XIII and the Syldavian Ministry of Magic to prevent their operations and he replaced his mother Isa Montani as leader of the Montani crime family. Though already wielding the power of both wealth and his clan's authority behind him, the ambitious Cirano, who took the nickname 'Shotgun' for his uncommon usage of not only a wand, but also a firearm, quietly allied himself with the fledgling Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät as one of its highest-ranking earliest recruits, believing that their ambitions, though strong, could provide ample profit if they succeeded, although in the end, he emerged as a fanatical believer in their 'True World Order' philosophy. In addition, during the first of two global wars that the Death Eaters, who the Z.Z.R.K. was a sub-organization to, led, Cirano Montani involved himself in the fighting and survived uncaptured, despite the defeat suffered by his master, the Dragon Lord.

As one of their most important aids in the Syldavian crime world, Montani would assist the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät as they sought to wrangle his fellow criminal bosses into line behind their organization in a systematic seizure of all forms of authority in Syldavia, including the crime world, where Cirano Montani was promised a leading position in the new order that the Z.Z.R.K. intended to build. Montani's roles to the forces commanded by Igor Müsstler, in addition, included lucrative deals that involved much of the money made from Montani's smuggling and gambling activities being channeled to the Death Eaters of Syldavia's secret fleet, which it helped rebuild and reequip. Though his involvement in the coup d'état that the Z.Z.R.K. had attempted to spring was exposed, Cirano Montani escaped justice and continued to lead both his crime family and a remnant of the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät that he represented on the Umbra Council, which served as the makeshift successor to the imprisoned Müsstler. While Montani respected the Council's unspoken chairwoman, Jingyi Kuàng, he, like several others, wished to also reorganize the Z.Z.R.K. and attack Syldavia, rather than continue to wait for the return of the Northern Empire's two supreme leaders and join a worldwide strike coordinated by the Death Eaters as a whole.

Biography

Early life

"You take what you want. That's the Montani way. It's a tactic my mother has perfected."

—Cirano Montani, on his family's criminal beliefs, taught to him by Isa Montani.

Born during the winter month of February in 1951, Cirano was the son of Isa Montani, a witch and the prominent crime boss of the multinational Montani syndicate, but never knew his father, thus leading to him assuming his maternal family's surname. The reason for his lacking of a father figure in his life was simply the result of his being the product of a simple affair his mother had once had with a muggle man that she had ultimately left, though not before, as she later found out, their affair left her pregnant with their son, Cirano. Instead, the young Montani was raised singularly by his mother, who was considered to be one of the greatest leaders that the Montani crime family had boasted to date. It is therefore natural that Cirano, in the environment that he grew up in, constantly felt overshadowed or overwhelmed by the impact of his mother's reputation, although he nevertheless also held his mother in high esteem and love, believing from boyhood that it was his destiny to follow in her footsteps.

From an early age, Cirano Montani was taught to operate by the syndicate code, which was to operate in a way that achieved the best and most profitable results, yet also remained in line with the syndicate's efforts to operate in the best secrecy they could, just at the brim of the law's vision, an instinct that had been born from the royal family's long-term efforts to destroy the Montanis' power, which was only prevented by Isa and her predecessors clever tactic of establishing their base-of-operation on the borderland between Syldavia and Borduria, which allowed their operatives to flee into the other country's territory and out of the others' jurisdiction if they required to. This had led to them controlling criminal enterprises which included smuggling, black market dealings, piracy, assassination and white-collar crime, which both Montanis believed was where the real money was. Cirano was trained by his mother in both crime and the Dark Arts, as Isa herself was a dark witch, but never agreed with his dam's love of Australian opera, which Ira considered "nectar for the soul".

In addition, Cirano was, like the rest of the cartel's offspring, subjected to an initiation ritual where his right hand was tattooed with the insignia that was their crest. During his childhood, Isa made sure to expose Cirano not only to the criminal lifestyle in all its unbridled ruthlessness, but also the opulence and trappings of luxury powerful figures like herself earned from it, training him to believe that since life had not given him and her these wonders on a silver platter like it had to those that, through an accident of their birth, were the children of the world's nobility and high-class, they must instead take it upon themselves to take what the rich were given. As a teenager, Cirano Montani was once made to stand alongside his mother as a captain in their crime family was brought before her on trial, charged with having conspired against her with the belief in mind that Isa's rule of the syndicate had seen it grow weak. In punishment, Cirano watched as his mother "dismissed" the man from her service, releasing a trap door that fell from under him, causing the traitor to fall screaming into a pit where he was promptly attacked and eaten by an unknown creature. Such an event was used by Isa to teach her son a vital lesson in life: if one was to survive and enrich themself, there was no room for moderate punishments or a slack hand. During his younger years, Cirano also engaged in at least one romance when, while looking back on it, he claimed wistfully to have made him done "crazy things".

Because of his notorious parentage, Cirano did not receive an education at Durmstrang Institute or Eromayervos Institution of the Balkan States, but rather learnt magic from his mother and private tutors she hired or employed from the ranks of her subordinates before he began his slow rise to power. Beginning small as a high-risk gunrunner whose business was first started and initially propped up by his mother's reputation, though the majority of the new crime leader of the Montani family's business revolved at first around the trade of illegal munitions industry that was conducted on the black market only along areas of wizarding felony, the arms trade was not confined specifically to the magical communities of Borduria and Syldavia in the way that some of Cirano's equals restricted their own activities. Instead, Montani grew his fortune from the unrest between the scattering of non-magical settlements that, despite the fact that they resided within the borderland regions and thus lay beyond the jurisdiction of Syldavia and Borduria, clung to a patriotic sense of loyalty to one nation or the other and, as a result of the lack of any true law and order, had allowed their lands to become a hotbed of criminal activity and warfare, thus making them a source easy profit for the right gunrunners. While he himself became a dangerous dark wizard wanted in Syldavia and several other states for usage of the Unforgivable Curses, murder and weapon trafficking, Cirano Montani would also gain hand-on experience with the firearms he traded and would gain the name 'Shotgun', for his skill with the shooter, which he used as a secondary weapon. At an unspecified point in time, Montani received a long cut across the face that ultimately left a slashing scar that ran from the right top of his forehead to end at the lower lid of his left eye, leaving him half-blinded as a result. This disfigurement, however, only increased the warlord's terrifying reputation and in time, Cirano would emerge as one of the most dangerous crime leaders on the Balkan Peninsula, a main rival of his being Mr. Big.

In addition, it was from the borderlands that Montani grew his militant forces from the mercenaries that congregated there, forming from the people that his reputation and money drew to him like bees to honey a private force of men (and women)-at-arms that he used as he expanded his authority over the organized crime that his mother had once lorded over. Taking down most of his early rivals, who's syndicates he added to his own cartel, Cirano Montani committed many acts that ranged from public extorsion and embezzlement to terrorism and piracy, which acquainted him with the Algerian corsair wizard Kareem Ksentini, who he considered to be a childhood chum of his. However, while his crimes made him a highly wanted target, the son of Isa Montani followed his parent's tactic of using the border between the Kingdom of Syldavia and the Bordurian state as an escape route, fleeing from law officials into the no man's land, where he established for himself a base in the form of a chateau. The manor reflected Montani's desire to be the equivalent of a high-class citizen and he cultivated the image of a respected intellectual who was, in his own eyes, not so much a leader of mobsters and thieves, but was rather a self-made businessman who was willing to take risks to succeed, considering the finest things in life that his money afforded him, including wine and rare artifacts. While this effort to develop and refine a reputation of sophistication was known to many in the criminal line of work that operated in the Balkan Peninsula region, it was a brave or foolish person that mocked this, as Cirano was even better known for his vicious, unforgiving nature and his long reach, which enabled him to hear word of any mention of his name and respond how he saw fit. Among various enterprises that Cirano controlled were a string of profitable gambling dens and casinos, small-time businesses that served as fronts for his smuggling activities in return for his financial backings and several small company whose sales he took money off. Furthermore, his cartel, operating out of multiple locations, targeted the commercial shipping lanes around the Croatian coast and making profit of extrusion protection, although Cirano prided himself as a person that always kept his word and when in terms of hiring out his syndicate, which operated by then on a large scale in the form of separate groups controlled by his lieutenants, Cirano boasted that he didn't give his services to others, but that instead, others gave their services to him.

Though his ethnicity was somewhat mu, Cirano Montani came to value many of the ancient warrior ways of the Syldavian kingdom.

Although technically he had been born in the borderlands and could thus claim to be both Bordurian or Syldavian when the occasion suited him, a fact that was, strictly speaking, correct, 'Shotgun' had no real ethnicity because of his dam's itinerant living. However, he came to take pride in his theoretical Syldavian background, considering it proof that his clan traced their ancestry from the ancient warrior culture that had once ruled the Kingdom of the Black Pelician until the more recent generations and took, to an extent he felt befitted a man of his practices, their warrior creed, which involved a certain code of behaviour, although Cirano Montani eschewed certain areas of the practice. He therefore greatly valued a spear that had been forged by his great-great-grandmother, Aleċar purely from the platinum collected by centuries of Montanis', which was styled in the design of the ancient Syldavian warriors that had once been what made the kingdom once an aggressive state in times gone past.

Affiliation with the Death Eaters

Early Activities

His rise to power aided by the organization known as the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät, or the Z.Z.R.K., Cirano would join the group's ranks to eventually become one of their leading members.

It was through his many associates that Montani made contact with a new but dangerous power that had only recently came into the playing ground without notice in 1988. This power, an organization known by the acronym Z.Z.R.K. that was composed of vast and growing network of thousands implanted throughout every level of the Syldavian population, was a curiosity to Cirano 'Shotgun' Montani, who was astonished that such a group, despite still being at its beginnings, could have the power and authority that it did, with sleeper agents inside the royal court itself. At this same time, Cirano's syndicate was embroiled in a power struggle with two other factions of the Montani crime family over who's leader should sit upon the throne left empty by his mother Isa's retirement from criminal life, which coincided with a campaign that King Muskar III of Syldavia headed to crackdown on organized crime and terrorism. Though powerful, Cirano's forces shared with their opponents an equal level of power and so when the Z.Z.R.K. approached him with the offer of an alliance, Monteni accepted this proposal and was thus made aware that powerful as they were, the Z.Z.R.K. — which stood for the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät — was merely one chapter of a far larger organization that operated across the world in each and every country of state with the aim of overthrowing their governments in favor of a world that lacked borders or prejudice, but instead worked together as one people led by the man that those belonging to this organization, who were known among themselves as Death Eaters, called their master: an immensely powerful dark figure swathed in mystery that was known as the Dragon Lord, who's cause Cirano pledged himself to, having the Mark of the Wolf tattooed upon his inner left forearm. In return, the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät provided to him their strategic aid in winning for himself the title once held by his mother by augmenting his wealth and power through millions of galleons they channeled into his accounts, securing them the loyalty of the Montani crime family and all its vast holdings, who thus became one of their earliest affiliates in the high-class crime world.

A high-ranking member of the Death Eaters, Cirano was introduced to their religion and eventually invited to join the Worshippers of Night, participating in their sacrifice selecting ceremonies (pictured above).

His accession to the Death Eaters' ranks as a direct member of their vast order was tailed by an acceleration through the ranks of the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät that spanned the course of several years as his increasing years of faithful service attained him greater authority among the echelons of leadership that were governed by the enigmatic figure appointed as leader of the chapter that he eventually learnt was the Royal Ambassador of Syldavia himself, Igor Müsstler, who introduced him also to the religion of the Death Eaters, who's circulated around the zealous worship that many in the organization harboured for their master, who's powers certain members had come to equate to those wielded by a man blessed as the one destined to lead mankind into a new era. Adopting such beliefs as his own, Montani therefore became part of the group of high-ranking Death Eaters that formed the Worshippers of Night, who venerated the return of their master and held frequent assemblies of their members where those gathered would participate in a ceremony that involved each and every man or woman drawing from a bag a stone: whoever selected the pebble coloured white would therefore be taken to be locked within a chamber containing a mysterious stone monolith that acted as a doorway between their realm and the Otherworld, where the Dragon Lord and his followers were currently waging war against those that opposed his fight. This activity, which was done in the hopes of opening the way for the Death Eaters' master to return and if not, provide him with additions to his forces, was one that Cirano participated in as a result of the belief that it would see him rewarded in the next age and as a result, he became an acquaintance of Wilfred Malick, an American wizard that belonged to a clan of Death Eaters, which came to consider the 'Shotgun' a "family friend", that had long been worshippers of the human-Magicar wizard known as the Dragon Lord and Montani grew to strongly admire Malick for the conviction he displayed regarding their mission, which was to prepare the world for the Dragon Lord's arrival, although neither one of them were chosen as sacrifices.

Montani departs from Malick Manor after attending the ceremony held to honour the passing of Wilfred Malick.

Therefore, when Malick eventually passed away from natural cause, Montani was one of various Death Eaters that then travelled to his mansion in North America to pay his respects to his friend and a "true believer". Attending the funeral in the black attire that was typical of mourners, namely a black coat that Cirano wore over a collared white shirt, dark tie and pinstripe gray trousers, complete with a newly-acquired felt top hat that he removed out of respect for the dead during the funeral proceedings, then redonned as he departed from the mansion, exchanging words of condolences with Wilfred's two sons, Gideon and Nathaniel as he left. Walking briskly to where his driver was waiting besides the black car that had transported him to the protected grounds of Malick Manor, Cirano then departed for the airport, where his private aircraft was waiting to return him to Syldavia. Despite the senior Malick's death, Cirano remained a friend of Gideon in later years and alongside him, would come to be considered by some belonging to a younger generation as being part of their organization's "old guard" of leaders, a title that would also be given to Wolfgang von Strucker, who would count Montani as one of his many allies within criminal society and even introduce the mafia boss to his son, Werner, although the Z.Z.R.K. member remained unaware of the younger Strucker's location in later years. His time as one of the leaders of the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät also familiarized Cirano with his master's wife and right-hand lieutenant, Darkness Magicar, who he respected, yet also feared, a sentiment shared by all the Death Eaters' leaders. Unlike some Worshippers like the Malicks, however, Montani did not disagree with how various other leaders of their organisation showed their preference for advanced magic and technology over the cult's steadfast devotion to their ceremonies and bypassed the hostilities between some militants and worshippers, associating freely with both.

Though not a member of its faculty, Cirano Montani played an important role in identify and recruiting potential recruits for the Death Eater Preparatory Academy.

As a member of the Z.Z.R.K. with a high stake inside the very economy of most examples of organized crime that lay within the Kingdom of Syldavia, Bordurian State and its surrounding neighbours, the assistance that Montani provided was one that was highly valuable to the Death Eaters as they sought to suborn all such enterprises to the black hand wing of their local organization. Having accumulated not only the vast wealth and influence of an infamous crime lord over the years, but also control over various other mafias, crime families and mobs that acted as sub-groups of the Montani crime family, the primary duties that Cirano carried out in the name of the Death Eaters generally revolved around the criminal underworld and black market, where the crime boss controlled numerous smuggling fronts and shipping firms that operated at his bidding, but without governmental certification, through which equipment, vehicles, supplies and, on various occasions, allies, could be safely passed into the hands of Igor Müsstler and the select collection of high-ranking individuals that were the leading pieces in the Death Eaters' efforts in Syldavia and Borduria and therefore served as Müsstler's advisory board, which Cirano's rank allowed him to report directly to, despite the being not counted a member of the inner circle per say. Instead, Cirano Montani was part of a second wave of leadership in the Z.Z.R.K. kept in reserve by the Dragon Lord as replacements to the organization's leaders, should any be compromised. In Montani's case, he would take the seat currently held by Cards Devon, who he worked alongside in the efforts made by the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät to exert control over the criminal underworld, if the card sharp was ever exposed and removed. Because of his influence and authority, Cirano Montani the 'Shotgun' had prime access to many of the gangland young, who's numbers he combed routinely for young adult witches and wizards who, having displayed their talent in certain areas of crime, were considered potential recruits to the Death Eaters. Introducing individuals he handpicked to the organization, the institution that Montani claimed was a 'vocational school' that trained and honed the criminal talents of its students was in actuality the Syldavian-based part of the Death Eater Preparatory Academy. In addition to selecting those that he believed had a potential future of the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät, who's skills he put to the test with minor heists before introducing them to the Academy, Cirano would briefly act as one of the many caretakers for the grandchild of fellow Z.Z.R.K. leader Jingyi Kuàng, Gaia Cech, who he taught the cultures held by those of mixed Syldavian-Bordurian ethnicity. Another benefit to the Death Eaters of Syldavia that came Cirano Montani's involvement in that activities that occurred within the dark alleys of Syldavia's cities was that it allowed them to pick and snatch orphans among the abandoned or criminally-involved young for their child soldier program, which was headed by Cards Devon, who endeavoured to create a fearsome squad of warchildren and young assassins loyal only to the will of the Z.Z.R.K. and the Dragon Lord, the wizard that the organization served, but which lacked the 'flaws' that Devon openly told Montani he had found so often in those recruited as adults, namely the emergence of emotional sentiments during times where such feelings were unwanted, such as battle.

Cirano Montani's affiliation with the Death Eaters eventually brought him into contact with their Imperial-controlled criminal empire, the Nassera Gotra, led by a man known as the 'Power Broker', which was secretly an alias used by the Dragon Lord to control the criminals in his empire.

At the same time, Cirano Montani would grow ever-more involved in the lawless activities taken out by followers of the Dragon Lord not only across the world, but within the Otherworld, a magical plane of reality that aligned closely with ours. Eventually, Cirano would become affiliated with the crime family known as the Nassera Gotra, a criminal empire founded by the Dragon Lord, who had assumed the mantle of a crime boss of absolute authority over the illicit activities that some plied under his Empire of Night, suborning or eliminated any that impeded his way to the top. Finding his beliefs regarding how he felt those in his line of profession should act aligning with that of some of the gotra's founding principles, namely the desire to command respect, rather than fear, from the vassals it ruled, although his opinion regarding the reasons for Nassera's cosa nostra's founding, which had been to turn the unlawful activities bred prior to his reign to productive use funding and providing for the Empire and its citizens. Montani admired how the Dragon Lord, known to his black-market servants and subordinates by the alias of the "Power Broker", had bent all criminal powers to his whim. The crime lord's activities were not restricted to the underworld, furthermore, and in the course of his life, Cirano would grow to amass political influence and among the Syldavian bureaucracy there came to exist a several money-oriented individuals that benefited the Montani mafia's activities in some way or another through their activities and were enriched for their loyalty. The control that the half-blind dark wizard had over his clients varied, with some being completely under his power due to their greed or his blackmail, while others only threw the occasion favour his way, but when a significant separatist crisis gripped the congress, Montani was an invisible put powerful contributor to the dissident clique, who had been secretly advised since their beginning by the Dragon Lord. On the orders of his master, Cirano had pulled favours to urge a number of governing figures among the regions that were largely represented by those calling for secession to join the movement and when these lands broke away to form the semi-independent archipelagic state Uplua, he gained many associates within the black market that had flourished that benefited his syndicate.

Second Global Wizarding War

Visits to the German Ministry of Magic

When the global war broke out between the Death Eaters and their opposition, primarily the International Confederation of Wizards, the Z.Z.R.K. was ordered to remain silent, but Cirano still fought independently as a Death Eater.

After years of waiting and planning, time finally came where the Death Eaters, after decades of growing, gathering and watching quietly from the shadows, launched their "coming-out party" and initiated full-scale conflict with the International Confederation of Wizards and Statute of Secrecy in what would swiftly become the Second Global Wizarding War. Though various cells were called upon by the Dragon Lord to rise up and join him in his fight for a world that was free, the forces of the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät were instead instructed to remain in hiding in case of defeat, thus preserving the faction's secrecy, although this command was met with disappointment from Cirano Montani, who participated individually in the world-spanning conflict alongside various others, fighting for his master, who would eventually include the crime lord in his circle of faith, aware that his servant's already-recorded illegal activities rendered the need for him to hide his allegiance generally irrelevant. Cirano's track credentials, therefore, would be expanded to include the various acts he committed that involved the aiding, abetting and fighting for the Death Eaters, but it was believed by the Syldavian Ministry of Magic that he was merely an admirer of the Dragon Lord's fight that had joined the dark wizard during his rebellion, rather than been part of a conspiracy situated closer to home.

In 2005, the elections for the next Supreme Mugwump of the wizarding world was held and Cirano Montani was, along with several other Death Eaters, sent by his master to infiltrate and bear witness to a late-evening tea ceremony hosted by the German Ministry of Magic to announce the candidates that had been chosen as the individuals that would go through to the final election, namely Liu Tao of China and Brazilian Minister of Magic Vicência Santos. Unbeknownst to the candidates and their retainers, however, the German Ministry of Magic had secretly been undermined by followers of Montani's leader to lay the groundwork for the Dragon Lord being given an official pardon, allowing him to run for the title of Supreme Mugwump. Journeying to the Ministry's headquarters in Berlin, Cirano, dressed in a black tailcoat, similarly-coloured tailored vest, collared shirt and slacks, a teal-and-aquamarine striped tie and a dark blue bowler hat that he wore to conceal his facial scars, walked behind the blue-garbed form of Princess Darkness as they entered the building's grounds, sweeping his surrounding warily (possibly in fear of being recognized as a wanted criminal), then breaking away from the group with a last nod at Ex-Queen Wasp, who had apparated behind him. Spreading around the vast area that sat in front of the Ministry, which was currently surrounded by energetic supporters of Tao and Santos, Cirano proceeded to then subtly make his way towards the main building, weaving his way through the Tao followers grimly, although the crime boss stopped briefly to watch without expression as a promotion banner for Santos's campaign suddenly caught alight from a fire-starting spell cast by Wasp.

Confronted by Perseus Scamander, Cirano Montani and the Death Eaters were assisted by Kuznetsov Helmut, who stunned Scamander.

Having proceeded then onto the interior of the German Ministry, where Anton Vogel, the Minister of Magic for Germany and current Supreme Mugwump, was even then delivering a speech to those assembled before him, Montani quietly edged across the room at its edges, watching, head cocked forwards, as Vogel (who was secretly an ally of the Death Eaters and servant of the Dragon Lord) announced the absolution of the Dragon Lord's crimes on the grounds of insufficient evidence, sending the crowd around him into chaos. Flanking the doorway which Darkness had moved to depart through alongside Wasp, Nagel and several other loyalists that shared with Cirano Montani a casual look of tight amusement, the group were confronted then by Perseus Scamander, who attempted to place under arrest those he recognized as having been present at a pro-Dragon Lord Lord rally held previously in Paris two years back, as well as their unrecognized companions, such as Montani, who calmly answered the Auror's declaration of the Death Eaters being under arrest by casually levying his wand at Scamander. Before Perseus could go through with attempting the threat, however, he was silence with a stunning spell fired by Kuznetsov Helmut, on who's orders Cirano and a collection of both Death Eaters and corrupt German Aurors proceeded to then remove Perseus from the scene, dragging him through the doorway they had stood at and taking him to be imprisoned in the Erkstag while Montani and various others proceeded to the square outside, where they and their fellow Dragon Lord supporters proceeded to fire firework-like spells that formed the sign of their master into the air in celebration.

Despite his infamous reputation, Cirano Montani was permitted to attend the Candidates' Dinner as part of the select collection that accompanied the Dragon Lord to the event.

The following evening, Cirano Montani would again venture to the German Ministry of Magic, this time as a guest of the specially organized Candidates' Dinner that arrived in the company of his master, who's absolution had allowed him to enter the election for Supreme Mugwump as a candidate for the position of leader to the wizarding world. Attending the dinner as part of the personal retinue of the Dragon Lord's innermost circle of loyal acolytes and personal favourites, despite the criminal record that declared him a fugitive wanted in several states, Montani and his confederates would arrive late to the event, their master's arrival having been stalled by the welcome of his passionate supporters, and their arrival would bring instant silence to the gala. Clad in a periwinkle blue suit jacket, collared white shirt and navy-blue tie, which differed strongly from the predominantly dark attire worn by most of the other Death Eaters, Cirano stood straight-backed with his hands clasped casually behind his back and a mirthless smile on his scarred face as the newly-arrived paused briefly behind the Dragon Lord, who's gaze they followed as he turned to stare as the dinner's lead house-elf musician, who had fallen silent with their arrival. Raising his chin slightly as the diminutive conductor resumed the choir, Cirano then followed behind his master as the dark wizard proceeded further into the room with his followers strung out behind him, reaching the center of the room, where the Death Eaters again fanned out behind the Dragon Lord as he proceeded to exchange a cordial welcome with Vicência Santos. Still wearing his cold grin as these pleasantries were given, Cirano stood in obedient silence, hands still behind his back in a military-styled posture, but nonetheless would eye with vague anticipation the glasses of vintage Chateau Lafite being served, one of which he would take as the Death Eaters then moved to seat themselves at an appropriated table.

Remaining calm despite the threat given by Jacob Kowalski, Cirano Montani witnessed the brief staredown between his master and the Muggle.

Entering into conversation with others belonging to the Dragon Lord's party as the dinner progressed, Cirano would ultimately find himself discussing undetermined affairs with Apherd Krankcase, a member of the Thirteen Forsworn, when they were suddenly cut off by the approach of Jacob Kowalski, who the leader of the Montani crime family eyed coldly as the Muggle baker demanded that the Dragon Lord release his hold over Queenie Nightingale (who had been Kowalski's lover before her desire to marry him motivated her to join the Death Eaters in their fight for wizarding freedom). Leaning back in his chair as Kowalski reiterated his demand by pulling out his wand, chaos would swiftly erupt within the dinner as Jacob's actions were interpreted by the Norwegian Minister for Magic as being made with the intention of harming the Dragon Lord, which the Minister swiftly made known, vocally accusing Kowalski of being a thief with Montani and the other guests looked on, forcing Jacob's ally, Kuvira d'Lestrange, to nonverbally cause it to appear as if the Muggle's coreless wand had begun conjuring forth a storm. Rising from his chair to hurriedly depart along with the other Death Eaters and dinner attendees, one hand raised to protect his eyes as he looked back, Cirano swiftly exited the hall through the main entrance behind the dark lord and Darkness, joining the departing wave of officials, then reassembling with the Death Eaters once it was determined they were out of danger.

Skirmish at the Eyrie

Cirano Montani (directly behind Yusuf Kama) cheers in answer to the Dragon Lord's speech.

Next morning, Cirano Montani would assemble in the front courtyard of Nurmengard amidst the first rows a vast crowd of others belonging to the Army of Night, dressed this time in a dark-green suit and black tie he chose to wear beneath the cover of a buttoned-down dark trench coat and matching Homburg hat. Parting without a word to allow his master, who was accompanied by Luz Noceda and Yusuf Kama, to pass by, then shuffling into place as the Death Eaters assembled before the Dragon Lord, Cirano listened without words as he and the crowd was addressed by their leader, who declared them as being his 'brothers and sisters' by their conviction to the organization's ideals of overthrowing the Statute of Secrecy and International Confederation of Wizards with the aim in mind of creating a new and better world order passed around their desires for wizarding freedom and a world unrestricted by nationalism, prejudice and borders. Assured that the day was nearing where their shared dream would finally come to fruition, bringing to the world's attention the voice of its people, when the Dragon Lord declared that the voice that would be heard throughout the non-magical and wizard worlds would be a deafening, Cirano would answer it with the same passionate roars of delight as those around him, pointing his wand skyward to fire sparks of purple light into the air above when he stood within the throng of assembled troops in celebration, then moving slightly forwards with the bustling crowd, repeating the Dragon Lord's name over and over again, as if seeking to further inflame those around him, who were already wild with radical passion. While he did this, Cirano would shoulder pass the motionless Yusuf Kama, not noting his silence, so great was the crime boss's own enthusiasm.

One of the several Dragon Lord allies allowed to bear witness to the Walk of the Qilin ceremony alongside the High Council, Cirano Montani watched with his peers as the Qilin was brought forth.

Only several short hours later, Cirano Montani accompanied the active forces of his master as they then proceeded to travel to the mountainous Eyrie in Bhutan, where the final ceremony of the election was to take place, which the crime lord was once again permitted to witness from among the small collection of followers that watched the proceedings at the Eyrie's top panel of stairs, before which their human-Magicar master and his two rivals, Vicência Santos and Liu Tao stood with Vogel, who Cirano watched allow each candidate to describe their platforms to varying applause from their own and their opponent's retinue. Clad in a sap green turtleneck shirt, black jeans and a greyish green polo coat, Cirano stood beside the famed racer and active sympathiser of the 'One World, One People' campaign Brioayan Anthmoor, at the back of the small collection of Dragon Lord disciples, plus several pro-minded celebrity supporters like Anthmoor, and watched as Anton Vogel ordered an infant Qiin colt to be brought forth, the German Minister of Magic declaring that the ancient means of selecting a new Supreme Mugwump was the only way to supposedly determine a worthy individual from among the three, though truthfully, the colt was a corpse reanimated by Cirano Montani's master to serve his and Vogel's plan to legitimately vote him into power. His arms crossed as he beheld the creature brought forth, Montani subsequently watched as the Dragon Lord was therefore sworn in as the new leader of the magical world, to his common followers delight, although the Z.Z.R.K. member only smiled in grim satisfaction, pleased that now the Death Eaters' revolution against the magical governments was now seeing their leader given the most important position of power, nodding at the sound of passionate cheering for the Dragon Lord below.

An implied believer in wizarding supremacy as well as in the Death Eaters cause, Cirano Montani watched with triumph as his master the Dragon Lord ascended to the position of Supreme Mugwump.

Glancing briefly over his shoulder to take note as Paul Zabini and Elizabeth Carrow joined the crowd, holding between them Iiron Scamander, Cirano then returned his attention to the scene in front of him, where Jacob Kowalski, who the Death Eaters had captured along with Queenie Nightingale and brought up earlier, was escorted up the last tier of steps at the Dragon Lord's nonverbal command, which Montani watched, unobtrusively bobbing on the heels of his shoes as he peered from behind the backs of his compatriot. Having listened as the Dragon Lord voiced publicly his contempt for how the governments of the magical people seemed so willingly to slowly throttle the magic - the very thing that Montani and many others felt defined wizardkind - Cirano shook his head slightly, as if incredulous, when his master declared how Kowalski had thought to fall in love with Queenie, a witch, indicating the Syldavian criminal leader adhered to a level of wizarding supremacism, which stood out somewhat to the very world order he wanted built. Nonetheless, Cirano watched with a raised chin as the Dragon Lord sent his attempted killer flying back onto the ground before the assembly, then subjected him to the Cruciatus Curse in revenge for Jacob's attack on him in Berlin, which Montani made no move to intercede with or help Queenie Nightingale, who pleaded that those around her stop the new Supreme Mugwump. Instead, Montani listening as the dark wizard declared all-out war on those he believed oppressed the ordinary magical and Muggle citizens of the world.

Remaining at the edges of the crowd as the Dragon Lord's position as newly-elected leader of the magical world was deemed fraudulent, Montani and his fellow Death Eaters stood poised to fight or flee if given the order.

The fraudulence of the election, however, was exposed then through the combined efforts of Iiron Scamander and the newly-defected Luz Noceda and King, who approached the Dragon Lord, denouncing the Qilin colt that had selected him as being dead. Standing by as the young Obscurial collapsed before the people assembled in front of the election platform, his face creased in a scowl, Cirano Montani continued to watch without comment as Scamander backed up Luz's accusations with the assistance of his assistant Bunty Broadacre, who produced to the crowd a live Qilin that all of the crowd moved in to see, baring the Death Eaters like Cirano Montani, who remained stonily silent, glaring coldly at their master's opposition, who's leaders demanded the Walk of the Qilin ceremony be undertaken again with the new colt after the Qilin that had selected the Dragon Lord was revealed to have been reanimated. Standing on the edges of the crowd behind Princess Fader, who the young colt would first bow to, Cirano would bear witness to Fader's rejection of the Supreme Mugwump title, warily noting the cold look of concealed rage worn by Darkness, who was furious that her hated sister had been offered the position now denied to her and Cirano's master, but had chosen to reject it. Watching as Santos was then selected to be the Supreme Mugwump, which was promptly followed by a brief duel between his master the Dragon Lord and Fader, with their chances of winning the election lost, Cirano Montani and the other Death Eaters and Forsworn members were ordered by their master to disapparate away, which they promptly did, intent on continuing their war with or without the International Confederation of Wizards' backing.

Third Global Wizarding War

New and old allegiances

Zealously loyal to the Dragon Lord (who is pictured above), Cirano worked alongside those faithful to the Death Eaters' founding purposes, which was to initiate the return of their master and lay the foundations for his new world order in place.

After years of more fighting, however, the Second Global Wizarding War ultimately ended in a defeat for Cirano's master, the Dragon Lord, who was defeated and cast through a portal that imprisoned him within the distant moon of Maveth. This was not, however, the end of the Death Eaters, who Darkness Magicar would take over as her husband's second-in-command and proceed to lead the Death Eaters in a second crusade they lead to rewrite the way the world operated, although the forces operating as part of the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät were again ordered to remain inactive until the time was deemed right for them to correctly take over Syldavia and Borduria. Cirano Montani, who had, after his master's first defeat, resumed his activities under the pretense of being a radicalized supporter of the Dragon Lord in the crime world, which was believed by the Ministries of Magic hunting him, although Montani's capture was declared a secondary concern in the face of the increasing war, ultimately became acquainted with John Garrett, a high-ranking member of the Death Eaters and leader of the Millipede Project. During their meetings, Garrett would speak to the crime lord of his protégé, Mark Smith, who's abilities Garrett praised before his demise during the Death Eater Uprising. While cells like that which Garrett and Smith had been part of waged wars against groups such as the Order of Phoenix and the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistic Division, Cirano Montani and other cultists of the Worshippers of Night laboured to use their power to shape the world in accordance with the grand design of the Dragon Lord, who the Worshippers resumed their acts of sacrifice to, sending people through the Monolith and working to return him from exile. In addition, Cirano Montani, alongside the likes of Gideon Malick and Princess Darkness, sought to find and cultivated a partner for Malick and Darkness's quest to bring back the Dragon Lord from a member of their organization, such as Alexander Pierce or Garrett, both of whom had been moles inside S.H.I.E.L.D. before they were exposed. Gideon and Montani would reject both of these men in the end, however, since they believed Pierce had been too bloodthirsty for their vision and found Garrett - who openly denied being the fanatical disciple Cirano was, but rather a pragmatist - to narcissistic. Though the first years of war saw the Death Eaters suffer several grievous blows, including the losses of a large majority of their American-based leadership, however, the Z.Z.R.K. remained safely secure thanks to the foresight of their master and Darkness and Montani continued to use his criminal connects to pull strings that would further increase his organization's power. Indeed, Montani himself had not only fought in the war, but also profited from it, so it was in his and his cartels' interests to best serve the Death Eaters anyway.

On Darkness's orders, Cirano Montani ingratiated himself with Mark Smith and steered him to Carmine's location, identifying him as a way for Smith to find Werner von Strucker.

Meanwhile, though John Garrett had failed to meet up to the expectations of those that sought singularly to free the Dragon Lord, such as Cirano Montani, they saw another candidate for their plans in his former apprentice Mark Smith, who had recently begun working to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. and rebuild the Death Eaters in the USA. To help draw Smith into their fold, Cirano Montani was ordered by Darkness to establish contact with Mark through their mutual associates on the criminal market and advise him on means to locating Werner von Strucker, who had gone off the Death Eaters' radar after the death of his hated father. Though Montani did not now the precise location of his old ally's child, he was aware of the location of a man that did: Carmine, who had previously belonged to Baron von Strucker's cell before its collapse. He thus called Mark Smith and voluntarily lured Carmine to a location where he could be found and interrogated by the young dark wizard, although his ally was certain that Cirano Montani was merely a single pawn acting as proxy to a greater figure or figures, namely Darkness and Gideon Malick. Though Cirano personally felt respect for how Smith was ridding the Death Eaters still located within the United States of America of those that were only concerned with wealth and privilege, he secretly harboured doubts about whether Darkness would be able to convert and "redeem" Mark, as Montani thought he saw too much of the self-serving John Garrett in him. In spite of his doubts, however, events transpired as Malick and Darkness had hoped for when, despite the execution of Mark Smith at the hands of Agent Baatar Jnr. within the Mirrorlands, the Dragon Lord was able to again create a mouthpiece for himself by knotting his mental conscience with Smith's corpse, which returned, preserved and energized by its controller, to the realms without the knowledge of either his enemies, nor even the fervent disciples of the Worshippers of Night like Cirano Montani.

Cirano Montani and several other members of the Worshippers of Night's inner circle at Malick Manor for what they believed was to determine another sacrifice for the Dragon Lord from among their ranks.

Unaware that his master had returned, Cirano Montani thus expected the invitation that he later received from Stephanie Malick to be one requesting his presence for another sacrificial stone ceremony, which he traveled to Malick Manor intending to perform, meeting with the other members of the Death Eaters' inner circle of worshippers, who he spoke to as they engaged in hushed conversation with each other and Stephanie by the entrance to the mansion's drawing room while Gideon Malick kept his distance from his allies, who Malick feared the Dragon Lord intended to rally behind him with a show of strength highlighted by his own death. Watching his host with narrowed eyes as he stroked a finger through his ginger beard, Cirano Montani grew even more curiouser as to the purpose of the late-night meeting as it failed to go along the lines of previous stone ceremonies he had attended and would therefore express his wish to know why the circle had convened, glancing over at Stephanie as she separated herself from the conversations to approach and speak with her father, who soon called the crime lord and his fellow Eternal Night disciples together. Moving forwards, Cirano, dressed in a black suit and tie worn over a buttoned-down white collared shirt, exchanged a nod with Gideon as he and the rest of the Inner Circle took their respective seats around the central table, the mafia boss again inclined his head in agreement when the significant period of time since their last offering to the Monolith was addressed by Malick, who then declared their gathering to be one of celebration, rather than sacrifice. Having listened to his ally's words with growing hope as Gideon then spoke of how those present had devoted their lives to restoring what he declared to be the "Death Eater Lord" to power, the speech was interrupted when the Dragon Lord himself entered the room, announcing his exile to have reached its long-awaited ending. Montani sat, offering no words, as the legitimacy of the claim was questioned by Kirk Vogel, who recognized the man before them as being 'Mark Smith', but his uncertainty was diminished when the Dragon Lord admitted to have taken Smith's form as his voice's vessel and assured the Death Eaters that each and every one of them would be appropriately rewarded for their continued loyalty to him, which Montani nodded hesitantly to, still somewhat shaken by the revelation that his and Gideon Malick's plans had worked. Cirano Montani subsequently watched as his master dismissed any doubts among his followers concerning his identity and proceeded to summon forth his power as a physical manifestation of darkness that surrounded him in dark matter, taking the shape of claws in the blinding ray of moonlight that shone through a nearby window to bath the Lord of the Dragons in its glow before his shocked and awestruck servants.

Following the demise of his daughter, however, Gideon Malick would proceed to betray the Death Eaters and willingly surrender himself into the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D. without a fight, giving them vital information concerning the forces of the Death Eaters in hopes of gaining vengeance for the loss of Stephanie, facts that led to a steady campaign being launched by the Auror Office against numerous Death Eaters, although such arrests were carried out primarily in America and Europe, greatly reducing the Inner Circle. Although he survived this offensive, Cirano Montani's position in Syldavia meant that he could not swiftly join his master in Union City when the Dragon Lord summoned several of his high-ranking servants there; ironically, this saved his life, for when the three worshippers present were subjected with their consent to an experiment designed to alter their DNA structure and thus grant them Inhuman powers like that of the Dragon Lord, the testings failed disastrously, leaving its subjects to perish in horrendous agony. Shortly afterwards, the Dragon Lord was defeated and though he survived, Mark Smith's body was destroyed, thus depriving the sorcerer of his vessel and leaving the Worshippers of Night weakened and without leaders, Malick having also been previously assassinated. As a result, Cirano Montani's focus was thus redirected to assisting the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät with the resources he had at his disposal, although he still funneled specific capital into assets that then channeled the moolah and equipment to where the mysterious heart of the Night Eternal cult lay hidden in the wilds past Beyond the Beyond.

Efforts to dissolve the monarchy

As the coup d'état approached, Cirano Montani worked hard to equip the Z.Z.R.K. and set the groundwork for a takeover of the Syldavian criminal underworld, meeting with various individuals to further expand his organization's web of alliances.

Eventually, however, the Third Global Wizarding War found itself brought to a sudden halt and replaced with a cold war when Darkness Magicar, the High Lieutenant and thus second-in-command of the organization, disappeared during the Liberation of Lothal, where her flagship the Chimaera was captured in the tentacles of purrgil whales summoned by the Dragon Rider Catra D'Memirel, a commander in the rebellion against the Imperial Death Eaters, and dragged into the Unknown Regions with all aboard at the time, including Darkness, leaving the Empire of Night and its forces without a leader, the supreme leader transitioning into the hands of the Dragon Lord's other twelve Forsworn. The Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät, however, also emerged as a major faction in the Death Eaters, which had gone underground, and as a result, Igor Müsstler represented them in discussions of the Shadow Council, a body of leadership formed to coalize the Death Eaters' separate cabals, groups and Imperial remnants. Ambitious and loyal to the Dragon Lord, who's return he believed inevitable, Müsstler remained undeterred by the Empire's defeat. If anything, it energized the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät, which had already created a firm hold over the Republic of Borduria that it sought to repeat with Syldavia, the final intention of the Z.Z.R.K. evolving into the vision of a new front state for the Empire of Night. To this end, the Death Eaters' plotted to enact a coup d'état targeted against the authority of King Muskar XIII and the Syldavian Ministry of Magic, who's power the Death Eaters intended to usurp through a coast-to-coast attack launch from internal and external sources, the latter being the military of Borduria, which the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät intended to annex Syldavia with. To pave the way for such an invasion, Cirano Montani set his vast cartel's assets to work in service to the interests of his handlers and through the web of agents that had been installed beforehand in preparation for the event, the Montani crime family began to spread chaos and confusion across the Kingdom, committing acts of anarchy and eroding the civilian population's faith in the crown, which the crime lord's allies in the royal court worked to keep distracted and in confusion. As a result, the Montani syndicate begun disrupting the shipping lanes with attacks designed to gradually weaken the kingdom's economy, creating the climite of fear that would allow their allies to win over the general population to an alternative government. Despite this, however, the Z.Z.R.K. campaign was met with interference by an enemy group known as the 'Syldavian Defenders', which earned Cirano's ire by interfering with his activities or otherwise nullifying their results through relief supplies, provided new security, etc at a regular basis. The Defenders, meanwhile, would launch an investigation on Montani with the hope that he could lead them to the heart of the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät's leadership and found him to be dealing with various black-market salespeople and criminal figures in growing frequency, with money, resources and weapons often being exchanged.

At the same time, Cirano Montani had also became an important financial asset to the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät, which he channeled money pulled from not only his own accounts, but also Z.Z.R.K. supporters in the nobility, which used the criminal enterprise that Montani controlled to hide the funds they proceeded to transfer into the secret organization's coffers. Acting as the front to cover the moving of such fortunes, which he funneled into shadow corporations across Borduria and Syldavia that his fellow Death Eaters controlled while keeping a percentage of the profit for himself, Cirano Montani's involvement in subsidizing his organization's plans would also bring him into regular contact with one of the fifth column's main money handlers, Arman Parastui, and the gambling and smuggling interests he managed and racketed for Igor Müsstler's plans were channeled to Z.Z.R.K.'s military hidden heart, where it was used to rebuild and expand the subversives' secret fleets, which the crime family also supplied weapons to through arms dealer and shipping contacts.

Helping to rally the crime lords

"Well gentleman. I think we can all say you now know which side of our bread is buttered. To the master."

—Cirano Montani, witnessing the other crime leaders cowed into submission, toasts to the Dragon Lord's name.

Cirano Montani a meeting of his fellow crime bosses that were hosted by Card Devons to secure the attendees support for the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät, despite Montani's own allegiance already being known.

Having scheduled their regime change to occur on St. Vladimir's Day, before its "coming out party", the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät ordered its various underlings among the Kingdom of Syldavia's crime families and syndicates to amass their power in preparation for a takeover of the criminal underworld. These operatives, including Cirano Montani, would thus be set to work rallying the remainder of the most power wizarding criminal organization in Syldavia to their side, which proved easily enough to achieve due to the importance and prestige the Z.Z.R.K.'s aid had given them. Despite this, however, Montani, who's connections to the Death Eaters and genuine devotion to their cause was well known amongst his equals, several of whom aired private misgivings about forming to strong an attachment between their gangs and his syndicate, believing that a crime boss should be loyal only to his own unsavoury businesses, rather than any sort of cause. Nonetheless, however, within the final weeks before the coup d'état was to take place, Montani was invited by Cards Devon to attend a meeting called between the greatest and most powerful godfathers and journeyed to Klow, where it was to take place, in secrecy. Gathering with the others invited late at night in a chamber built beneath Devon's gambling house, the Seven Tricks Casino, Cirano Montani would engage at first in casual discussion before seating himself, brushing off the complaints regarding the tardiness that Card Devon was showing in his lateness and deriding the kingpins as "self-important fops" in the privacy of his own mind. Among the assembling, Cirano felt that only he and the few others already aligned and/or sympathetic towards the Death Eaters possessed the foresight to see them as the new power that he believed to was rising to claim the world, mentally insulting several of the other mafia leaders as cowardly, idiotic or lickspittles. Nonetheless, however, when Montani rose to his feet to address the mob bosses, he spoke respectfully.

The Z.Z.R.K. having by then eliminated or executed any leadership in the crime world not already in the palm of their hand, Cirano Montani referred to several of the bumped off in his speech, where he encouraged the belief that by operating independently of the larger crime network, said individuals had betrayed the trust of the crime families. In his words, however, Cirano noted how their actions had brought the repercussions by putting the groups represented at risk and thus issued Igor Müsstler's the veiled warnings: stand with the Dragon Lord or share the absentees' fates. Although most appeared at least encouraged to support the Z.Z.R.K. by Montani's speech, as he and the others whiled away the time in a game of poker, another senior mobster Zhen would voice his reservations to working with the Death Eaters, who's tactics he criticised. Although Cirano, learning back in his chair so nobody could see the flash of murderous anger that briefly showed in his pupils, attempted to subtly drum up support for the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät, he found Zhen's misgivings to be spreading swiftly and was unable to counter the charges without risking losing control of the meeting completely, resorting to moodily contemplated executing the meeting's contingency protocol, which would have seen the visiting allies murdered and replaced with moles. Before he could be driven to this, however, the meeting was interrupted by the arrival of 'the Beast' - a genetically enhanced Imperial soldier that, through experimentation, the Death Eaters had given bestial qualities - who emerged from the chamber entrance in a blur and brutally subdued Zhen, dangling him in the air while Cards Devon entered behind him. Remaining seated as others leapt to their feet, Cirano Montani, now smiling smugly, reveling in the knowledge that none of the gangster leaders would dare oppose him for his Z.Z.R.K. connections now, drunk deeply from a glass of wine he had one of the Death Eater operatives present provide to him as he watched Devon cow the other crime lords into submission. Raising the half-full glass as the others were frightened into submission, Cirano concluded the meeting and led his peers in pledging loyalty to the Dragon Lord, whose name he toasted to while the Death Eaters around him chanted a salute, thus forming the Cimmerian Collective, which was founded by the present criminal leaders in support of the Z.Z.R.K. coup.

Leader of a remnant

"This time, we shall not fail."

—Cirano Montani, regarding the Umbra Council and its plan.

When the Z.Z.R.K. cover was blown, any remaining secrecy concerning Cirano Montani's allegiance disappeared along with it and in the new era, Montani had his warriors' armour styled in tribute to the Dragon Lord.

In spite of Cirano Montani and Card Devon's promises concerning the inevitability of their organization's victory, within weeks of the meeting at the Silver Tricks, the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät was found to be floundering and exposed to the Syldavian government before the time was right after their plot to discredit King Muskar XIII by stealing the symbol of his power - the Scepter of Ottokar IV - was thwarted and found to have been committed on the orders of Igor Müsstler, who was promptly arrested while his forces found themselves under attack by the Syldavian Ministry of Magic and the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistic Division. Although he survived the days following the botched coup against the crown, Cirano Montani watched as the once-mighty Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät collapsed into internal conflict, which saw it swifty begin to devour itself, the Z.Z.R.K.'s spiritual, military and political divisions breaking off from one another to establish seperate factions known collectively as the Z.Z.R.K. Remnants. In the early months of the conflict, Cirano Montani was counted as a follower of one of his former clients, Arman Parastui, who led a significant remnant composed of a wide-spanning network of wealthy financiers and supporters, plus the crew of Parastui's personal Imperial-class Seawrecker. Parastui's remnant, however, would later be merged with those of several others that assembled under the leadership of Grand Admiral Bella Tvezda before fleeing to establish itself at Contrecoeur Valley to the north and in the process, Montani broke ties to instead assume the position of leadership for himself, vowing that in spite of their previous failures, the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät would return from its scattered ashes to claim the Kingdom of the Black Pelican for their master through revanchists to the Greater Good like himself. If there was ever any lingering doubt that the leader of the Montani crime family was anything less than a zealous devotee of the Dragon Lord, they were gone and the crime lord, aware of this, dispensed of the thin veil of anonymity he had previously maintained and fully showcase his loyalty, which he demonstrated in the design of the Z.Z.R.K. warriors under him. Where once these warriors had been cladded in armour reminiscent of Syldavia's warrior past (much like the set that Montani owned), now they were rebranded in shades of black and red to show their wearer's allegiance to the Dragon Lord. Similarly, due to the depletion of their resources, the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät remnant beneath Montani was forced to turn to means outside their previous practices to strengthen their forces and among the armed ground units that now operated under the crime lord's leadership, many stormtroopers possessed armour that was on occasion damaged with cracks that they filled in with grey and gold accents, red strips of fabric and a combination of various metals forged together to provide the same strength as plastoid. Similarly, several of the fighter pilots in the Shotgun's employ were forced to fly aircrafts of the TIE line equipped or built by the parts of similar vehicles that the Death Eaters had disassembled, although Montani's resources and power still enabled him to supply a force that included state-of-the-art TIEs and attack submarines of the latest design, built on his behalf by Muggle contractors.

Grouping with various other radical hardliners that had assumed leadership of the groups that the Z.Z.R.K. had splintered into, Cirano Montani formed the Umbra Council, which vowed to do what Müsstler had not.

Ultimately and after some time, the government's conflict with the fracturing Z.Z.R.K. subsided, with several of the organization's more pacifist elements retreating peacefully into treaty-defined boundaries where such moderates attempted to shape themselves into the Empire they had envisioned creating with mediocre success. Such an action had no appeal for Cirano Montani, however. Indeed, the wizarding crime lord was disgusted that there were those in the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät that would content themselves with peace rather than total victory, which Montani and many other militant factions continued to endeavour towards from the isolated edges of Syldavia, eventually reforming their leadership into the enigmatic Umbra Council, which he proceeded to join in representation of the Montani crime family's continued loyalty for the Dragon Lord. Colliding with other warlords once belonging to the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät that had gathered significant influence among its remains since then, Cirano Montani plotted with the Council to reinstate the Death Eaters as a force in Syldavia powerful enough to topple its ruling dynasty, which the militaristic confederation plotted to build by reintroducing centralized authority to the Z.Z.R.K. through itself, although turf wars and power struggles prevented them from electing a singular leader from within their ranks. Although his own forces were not what some would call an 'official' remnant, but a mixture of the crime empire his family had long ruled and the Death Eaters that had rallied around him as their commander after the Iron Guard's fall from grace, Cirano Montani was nonetheless recognized by the Syldavian government as a warlord of the organization that was wanted by both them and the United Alliance of Magical Races, although Montani's approach ensured that anything the enemy knew of the Umbra Council gave it the appearance of a unorganized group, rather than a building hope for those that wanted to see the Z.Z.R.K. return. Like with all the Death Eaters that were on the Council, Cirano Montani furthered their singular interests in a specific section of the Kingdom and accounted for operations conducted in these areas alone in meetings of the Council, which were always held with extreme caution, its members never meeting physically in the same place and rarely risking themselves by even allowing all to attend the same meeting. Among the crime lord's fellow warlords were Roberto Raclaw, Preslava Tincheva, Trapeznikov Olegovich, Ludeck Von Dormettingen, Modromar Gardinnaq and their unspoken chairwoman, Jingyi Kuàng, although he and his peers unanimously hated Dean McAbin, who represented the remnant formed in Contrecoeur Valley that he had unexpectedly seized power over, despite many having expected someone like Bella Tvezda, Juventia Shail or even Cirano's former superior, Arman Parastui to claim control over, and was allowed to join the Umbra Council only due to the men and money that came with his Maple Leaf Gang's inclusion.

Kerger Feck (pictured above) was one of many former Imperial employees still loyal to the old regime that the Montani crime empire, having fled to Syldavia and joined the Z.Z.R.K. Remnants, employed for their expertise.

Montani, although he had some talent in battle strategy, lacked the expertise many on the Umbra Council in the field of warfare, although when it came to using the tricks of the underworld to his advantage, he was nearly unmatchable. However, he welcomed the experience of those he recruited from the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät to his remnant that had previously been part of the Imperial Military of the Empire of Night and under his control, the Montani crime family provided shelter to several individuals wanted by the United Alliance of Magical Races for their previous Imperial service including Kerger Feck, a Telekhine ex-mining facility manager that Cirano set to work overseeing a meat packing factory that he controlled as a means to conceal weapons smuggling operations, although the boss did not trust Feck enough not to demand routine reports that were made before him and a council of high-ranking underlings he had founded to help him build and shape his criminal empire to match the designs of the Z.Z.R.K., which each of his councillors had willing served before its downfall. Kerger would ultimately be tracked down by the bounty hunter Blake Rainborn, but Rainborn was unaware of his alliance to the organization he had helped topple and was instead working on the employ of a guild master that the Telekhine owed money to. Thus, when Blake defeated and decapitated Kerger after he had attempted to attack him, he departed without incident, leaving the Montani operation uncovered and operational, although Cirano nonetheless to precusions to ensure such an incident was not repeated. Cirano, like many amongst the Z.Z.R.K. Remnants, also speculated on the ambiguous fates of several of their finest personnel, including Fleet Admiral Rayla Seitz, who had vanished with her fleet in the heat of an ocean battle on the same night that Müsstler had been arrested. While some claimed that she had given up, Cirano Montani was certain that such an abject surrender could not have been the choice of such a hero of the Death Eaters like Seitz. Although his handlers did not disclose the nature of Contingency Protocol 76, the crime lord was certain that Seitz still lived and was somehow aiding those that also served the Dragon Lord in their struggle, which he interpreted from shadows he claimed he had translated to truth. Furthermore, just as he had previously done with the Z.Z.R.K.'s political allies inside the Royal Senate, Cirano allowed for the Montani crime family to be used as a criminal front by secret sympathizers to the Umbra Council inside the Imperial Parliament formed by the moderates that had retreated peacefully to the Maraltic Archipelago. These sympathizers, who largely operated openly as senators of the Actionist and 'Rally for Liberty' parties, worked in contact with Cirano Montani to bankroll the Umbra Council's efforts to reconstruct their forces and his crime empire acted as their cover to hide the funds that the warlord then proceeded to move on to sponsor the allied remnants, who operated under fiercely guarded anonymity, the Umbra Council being seen as a disorganized group of poorly-organized, ill-funded loyalists to the supposed 'Iron Guard' flag by most that believed in its existence, who thought that the members of this so-called 'Council' carried out their operations without long-term planning. Although it is unconfirmed if Montani's direct allegiance to the Umbra Council was known, his position as one of Syldavia's top underworld figures allowed him and his forces to operate with less need for caution, as many of the attacks and operations that they took out to benefit the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät could be painted as normal hit-and-run raids. Though several in the Syldavian Ministry of Magic with links to the Syldavian Defenders attempted to convince their peers and superiors that the several instances where equipment stolen by the Montani crime family had emerged later in the hands of other Z.Z.R.K. factions indicated a level of cooperation between the numerous holdouts but were largely ignored by those more complacent. Among the operations that Montani's his criminal empire undertook for the Z.Z.R.K. remnants benefit was an attack that Death Eaters under Cirano's command launched on the trade freighter Panglima to steal its cargo of forty high-grade enchanted shield generators, which was successfully pulled, despite the Montani crime family losing a fully crewed attack submarine and its entire TIE complement when a sea patrol intervened.

The forces of the Montani crime family grew with new recruits for the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät that Cirano Montani drew from organized illegal fights.

Having come to conclude that the Z.Z.R.K. had met its decline and inevitable fragmentation by including among its ranks witches and wizards that had squandered the Death Eaters' opportunities by prioritising their own self-interests and personal wealth over the advancement and/or stability of their organization, Cirano Montani worked to cull these weak elements from his ranks, deeming the time to have come for a leaner generation of survivors to assume power. As a result, he and his allies worked to identify the members of the Z.Z.R.K. that fit their definitions of being weak or greedy for private wealth, who's ranks the crime lord sought to fill with a wash of new recruits and volunteers he deemed to have proven themselves through back-alley brawls and illegal fighting rings that he organized and had those he trusted supervise. In Montani's opinion, the victors of their fights had therefore proven themselves in blood and he intended to shape them into a breed of soldiers that, through his trials by murder, had been shaped into strong and loyal fighters that would not flinch when asked to commit the "necessary atrocities". The reach of Monteni's influence also did not stop with the Balkan Peninsula's boundaries, but continued on into acts of criminal activity within several areas of the work, among them being the Amazon Rainforest, where he managed a vast poaching ring. Selling animals that his men had stolen from the surrounding area to private collectors worldwide, Cirano Montani worked in a triumvirate alliance comprised of his fellow animal smuggler Marco Kane and Dr. Eveline Blutgeld, who's research into animal evolution he funded while his own percentage of the profits made from the black-market sales were thus distributed into the Death Eaters' accounts. Project K and the trafficking operation were both abandoned however, when the ancient temple that Kane and Blutgeld had been using as their central base was discovered by Jörmungand Nassera and Hiro Hamada, who's clash with the criminal pair caused the temple to collapse. Alerted that their power base had been ruined, Montani subsequently ordered his allies to relocate to a new location in the Maluku Islands.

Awaiting leadership

Hemarc von Michelet: "And what is your security concern?"

Roberto Raclaw: "Magicans."

Cirano Montani: "What?!"

— Hemarc von Michelet, Roberto Raclaw and Cirano Montani, concerning the recent growing sightings of Magicar warriors by Raclaw's Z.Z.R.K. remnant.

Along with many of the Umbra Council other lead members, Cirano Montani would attend a holographic meeting of the confederation that was hosted by the Z.Z.R.K. remnant commanded by Roberto Raclaw, who would briefly excuse himself from the proceedings, leaving the chamber while Montani and the other warlords continued to discuss a series of current matters. Having watched as a heated argument ensued between Hemarc von Michelet and the corsair king Barrus Kivimäki, who Michelet warned was attracting a concerning level of attention from the United Alliance with the hit-and-run attacks he was conducting against the seafaring trade lanes, Cirano Montani watched from his hologram's position, dressed in a heavy dark coat he wore over his navy-styled uniform and kepi, listening as the former Baron warned that the profit being garnered from Kivimäki's pirate raids was no cause for risking the Umbra Council's facade of disorganization, which, if it broke down, would result in the United Alliance of Magical Races increasing their efforts to hunt down and imprison the warlords present, prematurely putting an end to any hope of the Z.Z.R.K. uprising. Turning his head from von Michelet to Barrus as the filibuster Death Eater leader expressed disagreement with the former's statement, Cirano Montani and the rest of the Umbra Council were then assured by Brioayan Anthmoor that they still had supporters that Anthmoor, along with Prajoan Dremays, asserted existed across every state in the Balkan Peninsula and would rally to their flag if a show of strength was provided to inspire them. Though the proposal received its fair share of favour among the assembled leaders, including Montani, who would run his index finger through the ginger hairs of his beard in interest with a faint smile that was instantly wiped when Hemarc insisted that the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät could not afford to expend resources on efforts that could so easily be turned from an asset to an obstacle. Instead, the ex-baron of Garrigill Fief made with zealous conviction that declaration that lying in waiting until the Dragon Lord or Lieutenant Darkness reemerged to claim rulership of the Death Eaters was the Z.Z.R.K.'s only true viable chance of success. Though all the dark wizards assembled as the new chain of command were devoted to their master, impatience was a growing factor, and the pragmatic crime boss took note of how a good number of his peers had showed their desire to take action.

Montani smiles in answer to Roberto Raclaw's suggestion that they select a new leader, interested in such an idea.

Although he did not openly identify with such a camp, when the activists proceeded to address the Council, headed in their effort by Roberto Raclaw. Raclaw, who observed the continued lack of evidence that Hemarc von Michelet could produce concerning any proof of Darkness's return from the Unknown Regions, Cirano keenly listened to his host, who observed that despite the far reach of his spy network, word had yet to reach him of such an event. Rocking on his feet, his head tilting to one side as he scrutinized the warlord, Cirano chuckled darkly when it was proposed that the long-awaited successor to the vacancy in supreme leadership left by Igor Müsstler be elected from among the Umbra Council leaders, implying that the crime lord had his own private designs for the title. Raising one gloved hand to reveal and caress the holster of his sheathed infamous firearm as he sniggered, the 'Shotgun' gave a cold smile as he glanced around at the holographic circle, which was reminded of how all of its members (with the exception of McAbin, who Montani aimed a particularly nasty look at whilst chortling) had contributed one way or another to their master the Dragon Lord's past war effort, although the conversation would then briefly turn to the ongoing research being made into cloning by Brandon Hur, who would demand from Raclaw an explanation for why he had not delivered on his promise to supply the other Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät leaders with Doctor Peln Plesner's study on the subject and question the ex-movie tycoon on the whispers that he had been making private advancements in clone technology himself, although the latter would defend himself with the justification that all on the council, himself included, accounted only for what transpired in their section of Syldavia, which Montani was soon to voice agreement with, casting a look over his shoulder at Doctor Von Dormettingen as he spoke before the Council was called briskly to order by Jingyi Kuàng.

Bartolotta Namagembe, who Cirano Montani discussed the expenses of mass recruitment with in the Umbra Council's meeting.

The meeting continued as scheduled and the Z.Z.R.K. leaders moved on from their discussions of who precisely Igor Müsstler's successor should be (which several of the warlords, including Governor Tincheva, were vocal in expressing their need for) to exactly what such an individual would lead. Adding his voice to the discussion to acknowledge that even with their forces combined, the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät still required further resources to restore itself to its former glory, Cirano Montani attentively observed as Bassiles Dror'lul proposed that the Z.Z.R.K. Remnants augment their own numbers through an alliance with self-stylized Grand General of the Imperial Remnants Esteban Flores, protege of the lost High Lieutenant Darkness and a rising star within the Death Eaters reorganizing forces, who had at his command entire fleets of Seawrecker battleships poised and ready to conquer. Although he sought once again to assess whether such a motion had the support of a majority before committing himself to supporting the concept of merging the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät with Flores' forces, unbeknownst to the Council at large, Montani was already privately in contact with Esteban, providing his syndicate to once again act as the face that allowed the Imperial leader's spies inside the enemy politics to streamline funds to the Death Eaters' forces. However, he abstained from revealing this to the others, despite knowing that many in their number already had some line of contact with Flores themselves and simply watched as General Bartolotta Namagembe shifted instantly to the logistics of Dror'lul's idea, suggesting that Ashia Nijasure, who headed a soldier enlistment program, increase recruitment to muster personnel for these theoretical ships, to which Cirano added that the expenses of such an endeavour would have to be considered instead. General Delnaric Qarell spoke up, however, positing that Esteban Flores (who's whispered conviction that Darkness was reaching out and guiding him through dreams the general derided) sounded more like a cultist in his beliefs of visions and ancient rituals, but General Esdres Pryal defended that the Umbra Council would increase its resources ten thousands fold, although both former Imperials were called to order by Jingyi Kuàng, and Qarell asked Cirano and his allies rhetorically what they though Flores would ask for in exchange for sending additional navy forces.

Cirano Montani was deeply concerned what it was reported by Roberto Raclaw that the Magicar people were marshalling together once again.

For the much of the meeting, Cirano Montani had remained a silent presence, only stepping in when matters concerning his areas of expertise was put forth on the table. This was so when Roberto Raclaw again spoke out to the Council, confronting Brandon Hur and Hemarc von Michelet over how both men hoarded their own armouries of resources for themselves while what remained were left for his remnant, the Montani crime family, and the other factions to scrap and claw over. Nevertheless, the crime boss eyed his singled-out allies with a gaze of passive aggression that left Raclaw wondering if he was contemplating having Hur and von Michelet killed, pleased to see them embarrassed or simply mildly interested, and would not bat any eye when Brandon Hur responded to Raclaw's words with a verbal attack of his own, scoffing at the idea that Roberto Raclaw was in genuine need of Imperatorial Guardsmen, although the mood of the Council would shift at such a statement. His silence was broken however, when Raclaw revealed he had made the requests to counter what he announced to be Magican warriors, which Cirano Montani instantly exclaimed over, horrified at such a possibility due to the culture's hand in the Zyldav Zentral Revolutzionär Komitzät's previous downfall. Montani proceeded to watch as Roberto Raclaw announced his suspicions that the people of Magicar were grouping to reclaim the lost Isle of Avalor, an event that the Umbra Council unanimously agreed would hamper the Death Eaters efforts in Syldavia if not delt with immediately and was further implied by the reports given from others, including Trapeznikov Olegovich, concerning S.H.I.E.L.D.. With the Council agreeing to send additional manpower to assist their allies at Lake Polishov in Roberto's plan to wipe out the Magicar warriors once and for all, Montani's host led him and his peers in bringing their conference to a close, the warlords concluding their meeting with the shouted chant, "Long rule the Master".

Bidding war

Having tired of the ceaseless conflict between the warlords that now controlled the Z.Z.R.K. Remnants, Cirano Montani reaffirmed his allegiance to the Dragon Lord and pledged support from his forces to Esteban Flores and his designs.

Several months after Roberto Raclaw's effort, which had failed and seen the warlord and his forces arrested, Cirano Montani was contacted by Esteban Flores, who wished to cement the allegiance that the 'Shotgun' had for the resurgent Death Eaters. To achieve this, Esteban invited Montani to an exclusive auction where he and several other powerful figures in the crime favourable to Esteban's cause were offered the chance to assume the resources and ships belonging to the late pirate Zavac, who had been recently killed at Raguza while theoretically acting in Flores's employ, thus allowing Esteban to take ownership of his pirate fleet. Having known Zavac through his association with Kareem Ksentini, Cirano Montani eagerly accepted, as Flores had expected and planned for, intending to use the sale and the gratitude felt for being invited to solidify Montani and his competitors allegiance to the Empire of Night. It is unknown if Cirano Montani won or lost the bid, but the result was as Flores intended and the crime lord thus continued to assist Flores, donating money and supplies to his plans for the Eye of Sion's construction. Furthermore, as the time of the Eye's completion and following launch grew close, Cirano Montani gathered and consulted his assembled force of Syldavian commandos in preparation for the great war that was to resume, issuing orders to his top officers with instructions for his soldiers to ready for battle and that the Cimmerian Collective (which he himself had reformed from its surviving members) be informed, unaware he was secretly being scryed upon by Yellow Amarillo del Bosque Verde. Readying the Montani crime family-based Z.Z.R.K. remnant for open warfare against what he perceived was the "weak, snivelling International Confederation of Wizards", Cirano donned his own suit of army as he watched his subordinate Death Eaters prepare for the Empire of Night's first offensive against their enemies.