Marcianus's grandfather Quirio was an unimpressive man thrust into leadership of his house at a young age. Being distant cousins of House Jeggare help lofty expectations that did not make up for properties outside of Remesiana in decline and a bevy of neighboring nobles willing to take advantage of his lack of political acumen.
Needing something to solidify his station, Quirio entered a compact with a devil, gaining powerful sorcerous powers for an agreed upon duration of twenty years.
Able to harness these powers into wealth and prestige, and growing in power over the years, Quirio began seeking for a way to escape the fate coming for him. Gaining control of a powerful enslaved genie, he struck a bargain to grant the genie its freedom in exchange for defeating the devil when it came to collect.
The eventual battle left the devil banished to the Hells, the genie weakened and returned to its lamp, and Quirio a charred, empty husk reaching out a hand as if to touch the lamp.
Marcianus's father, Bartino, took over the family and led it well. The lamp, assumed to be a cursed artifact, was locked away in a secure vault and never talked about.
Nearly thirty years later, an adventurous Marcianus, following a premonition that he couldn't explain found the hidden vault and curiously explored within. Finding the lamp, he went to light it when suddenly his arms burst into flame.
The genie, decades ago, had laid a trap. Perhaps anticipating treachery, it had inserted a seed of its nature into the Jeggare bloodline that manifested in Marcianus as well as magic surrounding the lamp that allowed the genie to attempt escape by swapping his consciousness with Marcianus's.
Consumed by the pain of the fire, and the shock of a foreign power entering his mind left Marcianus reeling and soon losing his grasp. At that moment, a shard of Quirio's soul, that had been trapped in the lamp, touched Marcianus's mind and whispered the genie's true name.
Using it, Marcianus was able to gain power over the confrontation. The exchange was halted, but could not be reversed. From that moment, the two have been bonded, to their mutual disagreement.
Further exploration of the vault revealed notes and a lucerne hammer belonging to Quirio. The hammer itself had been a representation of the compact between Quirion and the devil, its name 'Bargain' spelled out in Infernal on the hammer.
Additional notes hinted that the bonding process the genie used was a known risk that Quirion had been aware of. The notes also included hints that the bond could be severed, but only through the intervention of a powerful devil prince.
Finding a common cause, the two decided to support each other and find a way to ingratiate themselves to House Thrune.
