Marco Pollo

"Marco Pollo, greatest explorer the Spiral has ever known, made a Map that can guide a ship to El Dorado. That Map is the key to unimaginable wealth! The problem is, that much wealth is dangerous - pirates will kill for it! So, to protect the secret, Marco Pollo tore his Map into seven pieces, and hid them throughout the Spiral."

―Horace Avery^[src]

Marco Pollo was an explorer of the Spiral, known by many as the greatest there ever was. He was also an academic and taught at the Academy of Sivella in Valencia. Pollo created a Map to El Dorado and traveled their with his crew, but was scarred by their experience and lost many of his associates. He tore the Map into seven pieces and hid them throughout the Spiral. Following his death, the Map became a thing of legend.

Biography[]

Marco Pollo taught at the Academy in Sivella.^[1]

Before the events of Pirate101, Marco Pollo was born and raised in Cool Ranch. One of his closest friends was Christopher Clark.

Some time afterwards, Marco Pollo began traveling the Spiral, learning everything he could about the world and becoming a renowned cartographer in the process (he would even become the "greatest explorer the Spiral has ever known"). During his journeys, he arrived in MooShu, becoming the student to Cao Tzu (with help from his old friend, Merle Ambrose), learning heavily about astrology- the alignment of the worlds throughout the Spiral. Using the Scroll of Secrets, Marco Pollo had created a map that, in theory, would take him to El Dorado, though Cao Tzu would refer to it as "Shangri-La".

After much hardship and endless toil, Marco Pollo (using a ship called Santo Oro) had done the impossible- he had found El Dorado! The site was breathtaking, to say the least, and it was clear that El Dorado had been around longer than either Aquila or even Krokotopia. During his stay, Marco Pollo found plenty of evidence to suggest that the builders of El Dorado were very similar to the Celestians- a long-lost group of people that mysteriously vanished ages ago.

Unfortunately, Pollo realized something- El Dorado was never meant to be found. He has guessed, quite correctly, that the people who created El Dorado were actually making more than just a paradise; they had made a giant tomb for themselves! Something horrible beyond description had occurred there and, though Pollo hadn't the slightest clue as to what it was, he was scared, and with good reason- as he stated in a letter to Merle, "What we found here nearly killed us all". It was apparent to Pollo that El Dorado had been designed to never be found; the movement of El Dorado's Stormgate was no accident- the people who created El Dorado were worried that whatever had destroyed their civilization would do the same to anyone who came there; ergo, they used powerful magic to tear the Stormgate to their home from the fabric of the Spiral itself, ensuring that nobody would ever come there again. Alas, Pollo's mad quest for knowledge had undone their puzzle.

What's worse, as revealed by The Toy Maker, a massive tragedy occurred during the expedition. As the crew was loading up tons of gold into the ship, clockwork giants forged of gold- the guardians of this place -attacked, slaughtering every member of the crew (save, of course, for Pollo and his close friends). Like madmen, they tried to escape; alas, one golden golem hopped aboard the ship. It was eventually brought down, but the damage was done- Pollo's crew was, for the most part, gone. As Pollo and his crew argued over the shares of their treasure, Gazpaccio took the then shattered golem as his cut of the treasure.

Realizing his horrible mistake, Pollo and his crew fled. Though Pollo's crew would never know exactly why they had left so soon, they knew that they had escaped both "with their lives and a small mountain of gold". Though Pollo heard his crew's plan to live as pirate kings and queens, he decided to quit on such fanciful ideas, instead opting to become a scholar instead in an attempt to forget and hide his horrid secret. To ensure that no one would ever get their slimy paws on the map, Pollo shredded it into seven pieces, keeping one for himself and entrusting the other six pieces to some of his closest crewmates: Catbeard, Egg Foo Yung, Erika the Red, Argos, Christopher Clark and Pirate Jenny (the Pirate's mother).

Pollo then made his way to Valencia, becoming one of the most renowned scholars in the whole of the Spiral and teaching at the Academy in Sivella.^[1] His fame was so great that, when he died, he was given a personal tomb in the area of Granchia.