M. L. Virini

Manfredo Leonetto Virini (born 2149 A.D. / -445 A.I. died 2242 A.D. / -352 A.I.), commonly referred to as the Master Virini or as the Patriarch, was the first member of the House of Virini to rise to prominence. Just over a century after the destruction of the nations of earth in the Third World War, he was one of the founding agents responsible for the establishment of the colony of New Geneva on the ruins of the city of Geneva, Switzerland.

A master of chemical and mechanical engineering, Virini teamed up with other well-educated men and women as groups of survivors made it to New Geneva and began working on Project Exodus, which was the ultimate goal of the New Geneva initiatives - to get mankind off of Earth and into the stars.

Manfredo died, aged 93, on 11 August 2242, just one week shy of his 94th birthday. According to his wishes, he was interred in a simple but well-built marble crypt on the grounds of New Geneva, with the explicit instructions that his remains be re-interred ultimately on whatever new world mankind chose as their new home. In 2594, with the formal founding of the Imperium by the First Emperor, Giuseppe Virini, Manfredo's crypt was taken from Old Earth and re-established in the Garden of Remembrance on  Imperia.