Personality: Love-obsessed and prideful to a painful degree. Utterly convinced that she's an artist to rival Apollo and a Charioteer to rival Sol, Nero has an unshakeable belief in her own talent and skills (and aside from her completely bizarre artistic views, her skills can unfortunately make this rather true) on top of the sheer haughtiness she developed as Emperor. Quite a contrast with her small stature. Nero's idea of love is passionate and overwhelming--of herself, she will give everything, yet she expects to receive as much in turn. Tender, affectionate love is foreign to her, and as such Nero's love is like the fire she fights with so often--all-consuming, impermanent, but brilliant and blazing. Likes beautiful things more than anything else. Seems to hold the opinion that beautiful girls are preferable to boys, although it hardly matters with how enthusiastic she can be regardless. Does not take criticism well at all. Or dying alone.
Stats:
Strength: D
Endurance: D
Agility: A
Mana: B
Luck: A
Noble Phantasm: B
Class Skills:
Magic Resistance: C. Even as Caster, Nero still wishes to present herself as a great warrior and someone who should obviously be Saber, which gives her a small resistance to spells... most of which is quite pointless given the odds of running into a powerful magus are minimal with her class.
Riding: A++. Despite not having a mount, nor any exposure to dragons, Nero nonetheless possesses the ability to ride those of the Dragon Kind. Why? She doesn't know, nor cares to think about it.
Item Construction (Odd): EX. Ever the self-proclaimed genius, there is nothing that Nero thinks she shouldn't be able to make... however, as her artistic sensibilities show, her tastes and trains of thought are hardly in line with anybody else, so the results will always be unorthodox. Moreover, the chances of successfully completing any long-term project are heavily diminished by the interference of migraines.
Territory Creation: A+. Of course, as a former Emperor, the architect that rebuilt Rome and designed her own theatre and palace, and the head of Rome's religion, Nero has an exceptional talent for constructing a favourable terrain and a Temple for herself. So long as you can tolerate the gaudiness.
Personal Skills:
Imperial Privilege: EX. The ability to gain skills temporarily, even those that would apply some burden to the body. As always, the skills Nero derives from this are primarily those that would befit an emperor, a general, and a warrior. Riding, Swordsmanship, Arts, Charisma, Tactics... unfortunately for her, her migraines interfere.
Invictus Spiritus: A. Three times Nero can fall, and three times she can revive herself, although its usage requires initial setup after being summoned. To try and push it further, and react the death that she once accepted...
Migraine: B. Exactly what it says on the tin.
Seven Crowns: C. "Her fragrance thickens her sword and sharpens her armor. Her state becomes ambiguous and the disadvantages brought by her class lose their meanings. The ???? comes out of the sea. Behold, the seven necks smoldering in the roaring sea. Earth's amassers of fortune, it is time to pour your desire into the golden goblet." Always active, whether she should like it or not, this assists Nero's rather loose attitude towards being Caster, whilst also reducing any damage that she takes in line with someone wearing a fine suit of armour.
Undying Magus: A. Magic learned from Simon Magus to allow resurrection after death. Unnecessary due to Invictus Spiritus, but...
Noble Phantasm(s):
Name: Aestus Domus Aurea - Golden Theatre of the Deranged
Effects: To the casual observer or subject, this theatre is effectively indistinguishable from a Reality Marble: magically created from nowhere, inescapable, and anything happening within it doesn't affect the World outside. The truth is slightly different, instead: the theatre isn't Nero's internal world made manifest, but instead a greater magecraft only Nero can perform (not that such things can normally be performed anyway), constructing itself atop the world entirely. Unlike a Reality Marble, this means it can endure for a vastly longer amount of time, and as Caster she can tie its manifestation to her territory to reduce the cost of both initiation and continuation even further, at the cost of versatility. If desired, Nero could modifier it even further to gain physical presence, but nothing like that seems necessary to her in a normal war. As for the effects, it's quite simple: enemies are weakened, and the interior can be customised to benefit her Majesty's whims. Rose petals are ubiquitous.
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Changes: "Nero in danger of becoming a Beast (or at least a larval form) during a Grail War." Although she wishes to fight like a Saber, her attacks are even more flamboyant and heavy on the magical effects than normal--impractical and dangerous, if not for the damage they might cause should she actually hit and her own defences allowing for such a risky approach.
Name: Asteriel von Einzbern
Age: < 3
Gender: Female
Appearance:
Personality: A facade of ladylike refinement over one angry child. One of the deficits in Asteriel's creation appears to have been that although she was born with the intellect of an adult, her emotional understanding and control has lagged behind... somewhat drastically. Perhaps this isn't the biggest downside--unlike many homunculi, at least this gives her room to grow as a person--if it weren't for her entire existence being oriented around one goal. Anyone or anything that gets between her and winning the grail is going to be met by disdain or frustration at best, and anger at worst. Despite her lack of life experience and general wonder at new experiences, Asteriel is perhaps even more determined than most who deliberately compete for the grail. Not only is it the entire reason for her existence, she's acutely aware that she can both survive the grail manifesting and needs to win it if she wants to live much longer at all. Whether by taking the wish for herself, or by turning what remains of the Greater Grail to its original purpose if it could still manage that. All told, this means that there are very few lines she won't consider crossing: there's nothing for her to lose.
Skills: She can swim. The homunculus also has some surprising competence with the weapons she owns--though not, really, enough to trouble an expert... except for the sheer weight of the things.
Abilities: Naturally, as a Justeaze-pattern homunculus, and an exceptional piece of Einzbern craftsmanship at that, Asteriel's innate ability as a mage is exceptional, able to supply enough mana to meet the demands of even the most egregious Servant--but at the same time, said Servant is subject to far more extensive and enduring command seals than anyone else is likely to have... although, that does come at the cost that she herself has no near-miraculous sources of mana to pull from unless she gets another person's. In terms of magecraft, Asteriel predictably displays nothing that her predecessors did not, sharing their skill in transmutation and any abilities developed before they left for the prior grail wars. Her hair can be used as a startlingly strong wire to bind, or to shape into familiars to fight with--either by firing magical energy, physically, or simply as autonomous defences. As a homunculus, her age is no impediment to being well-rounded within the domains the Einzbern care about, possessing skill at magical healing and surgery (even if the real use for that is simply to transplant in enhanced organs), a surprising amount of utility magecraft for avoiding being noticed or fought, and Transference of Consciousness--not needing a specially prepared vessel or familiar, just some connection to the object. Scrying would likely be a more efficient form of information gathering, as at least it doesn't rely on her body being protected whilst she's absent. Of course, it isn't just her magecraft that is exceptional. Created with combat in mind, her raw strength is comparable to a Servant's, and although her other physical abilities don't nearly stand out as much, they are still comparable with a magus' expectations when using reinforcement.
Assets:
Money: A fairly blatant one, but the Einzbern are far, far from poor, and if she needs to spend on something... well, it's not really an option. This also leads into...
Workshop: Having been in the area for months as it is, Asteriel has both secured herself a rather out-of-the-way property, but spent the majority of her time reinforcing it. Given the state of their residence after the last two wars, it was obviously necessary to layer far more protections around this one, reinforcing it as much as possible before Servants would arrive. Not that this is likely to dissuade them, but at least it should give the Masters pause--unfortunate as it is that doing things properly and getting permission means the Einzbern presence in the area is known.
Weapons: Although neither is really a mystic code per se, both the axe-sword previously used by the Fifth Grail War's Berserker and the Rhenium halberd used by Leysritt. Neither is something that a normal human should be swinging about, yet their weight doesn't bother her.
Maids: What is a lady without her maids? They are, naturally, homunculi--nothing special compared to herself, or even her predecessor's attendants, but if there were to be a need for more mana somehow, or perhaps raw materials for a certain mystic code... well, there are four of them on hand.
Brief Backstory: After the last Fuyuki Grail War, the Einzbern were prepared to give up on their goal, with even their greatest achievement in modern times not being sufficient to win the war with an overwhelming advantage. The battle over whether the war would continue? Hardly their concern, although there was some token involvement, as should the war continue they would always be able to take part no matter how hopeless it might seem. But the grail was dismantled and that was that: soon, all the apparatus of the Einzbern Castle would begin to fall into disuse, with its overseer no longer having a means to reach their goals. Except... news that some magi were attempting to reuse the remnants of the Greater Grail for something as petty as starting the war just for a wish found its way back to Germany. How dare they try to reuse the Einzbern's greatest creation for their own ends? Moreover, they did this without reaching out, without asking, and in the process might have destroyed what little remains of the Third Magic. Asteriel is the response Jubstacheit came up with. Unsurprisingly, another Justeaze-pattern homunculus, but unlike previous creations, none of her creation was made with thought of shielding or being the Lesser Grail, only of being a Master for the upcoming war. A standard homunculus would hardly do, the previous Einzbern Master at least showed the value of such ridiculous magic circuits and command seals, but this one would have to stand endure a war with even less support, in an area where the Einzbern hadn't had centuries to work with the spiritual land the war was fought on. Fortunately for their goals, there was much that could be sacrificed for this achievement; this homunculus need only live for long enough to see the war to its conclusion, any any deficiencies in personality hardly mattered as long as she had nothing to live for but the goal itself. The homunculus' life, therefore, has been set from the beginning. It would be short, and it would be violent, and to that end she was made as strong in magic and body as could be feasibly achieved, taught what the family had ever learned in direct combat applications--something worthwhile, at least, to have come out of their previous failures--and sent to Japan. First, to reclaim the catalyst from the previous war... if not to use it, at least to arm herself, as well as the weapon handed to Leysritt. Then, of course, to prepare for the start of the war proper. For once, the Einzbern have nothing up their sleeves to try and rig the Servant selection. But whatever Servant Asteriel does summon will never want for mana.
Personality: Kilian is a generally amicable individual, pleasant at first discussion and, by and large, it is an accurate assessment. Between practicing an art that takes time and practice, as well as having a smaller base of practitioners, and the family tradition of deliberately avoiding being embroiled in conflicts with other families, Kilian has a generally pleasant, almost laissez faire outlook on life that permeates everything he does. His only real concern beyond an intense focus on not just replicating Runes but mastering the oldest of their kind is survival. This means that Kilian is a patient man first and foremost once someone insists on prying past the general pleasantness of his daily demeanor, one who has no trouble or qualms with simply waiting for the next opportunity if it means safeguarding his own wellbeing and knowledge. There is no such thing as an unmissable opportunity, not if it costs one their life. After all, what good is anything one could desire if they don't live long enough to collect on the matter?
This creates a dangerous mix of pleasant pragmatism, seeing no action as anything other than 'just business' when it comes to life. No action is out of the question, no deal beyond considering, if it meaningfully advances his goals without breaking the rule he keeps for himself, that nothing he does should keep him from his long term goals. Any action he takes keeps this in mind, so while one minute he might be an ally, the next he has no qualms stabbing someone in the back should the need arise, genuine in his apologetic remarks after such an event. It truly is just business, and he would expect nothing less of anyone else should the positions be swapped.
Skills:
Medical Training - Kilian sees this as a necessity when it comes to dealing with the Witchcraft his father preferred to teach him. He has learned to clean and stitch wounds, set bones, treat the ill and otherwise handle most common ailments one might stumble across with enough time and effort.
Physically Fit - Also part of his training, Kilian has learned to not only be in good physical shape, but durable as well, bouncing back from injuries, both self inflicted and otherwise. He knows how to box, though more as a hobby than anything else, preferring to defend himself using his Runes when able.
Abilities:
Quality of Circuits: B Quantity of Circuits: B Elemental Affinity: Fire, Wind Attribute: Sacrifice, Conversion
Magecraft - Kilian is the descendent of two distinct branches of the Halloran family, spending half of his upbringing with one, and half with the other, learning magecraft from both and combining their preferred Thaumaturgical systems into an art of his own, one that he has spent his entire adult life refining and improving upon.
Runecraft - His mother's side of the family prefers Runes, one that Kilian took a natural shine to. Having access to the family archive of Modern replicas of runes, the goal of half the family is finding the Primordial Runes, and rather than simply replicate them, utilize them to their fullest. Kilian is no exception to this, having scarified numerous runes across his body as well as items, using a sacrifice of his flesh and blood to empower each rune beyond what his magical circuits could normally provide, meshing witchcraft with his runes. Notably, the following runes are scarified on his person:
Gandr - Amplified by scarification along each index finger, Kilian is capable of producing Finn Shots with impacts equivalent to a shotgun blast, typically staggering each shot by alternating hands. However, he can't restrain the power of these shots, due to the use of Witchcraft as part of the process of preparing the runecraft for use. While normally lacking a rune, the scarification is of a family design that is designed to amplify weaker family member's potential, or amplify a potent member even further.
Raido - Scarified on his calves, Kilian can invoke these runes to temporarily boost both his ability to move and traverse an area, both in speed and in efficiency, for the duration of the effect. The longer the need, the more energy they end up requiring.
Ehwaz - Scarified along the inward side of Kilian's arms, they act to harden his arms and hands, providing durability far beyond what flesh and blood could, to the point of being able to stop mundane blades without breaking the skin, though much like Raido, require a constant source of energy to maintain the effects of for longer than short bursts.
Sowilo - Scarified into his palms, Kilian can invoke the runes to create fire out of thin air. Normally blue in coloration, reflecting the heat, he can use the conjured flames in a variety of uses, both combative and mundane.
Tiwaz - Scarified over his heart, Kilian had this prepared as a failsafe should he find himself unable to evade harm. Tiwaz projects a barrier in response to impending trauma, protecting him when he can't evade an attack, though the barrier can only sustain so much damage before failing and requiring Kilian to restore it, either naturally over a rest period or more immediately through a sacrifice of blood.
Black Magic: Witchcraft - Kilian learned this system from his father's side of the family, and while he does not pursue its deeper mysteries like them, has learned to blend it with his runecraft and Attributes to empower his abilities as a magus. Used in a supporting role, the focus on the sacrifice of flesh and blood comes to the forefront. Runes are either scarified or made with spilt blood mixed into their creation, willingly given blood even more potent in effect, allowing effects normally beyond what Kilian could normally sustain. In a pinch, he can spill fresh blood on his runes to boost them even further, though obviously too much of this manner of amplification will be lethal.
Assets:
Mystic Code: Ceallraí - The trinket that hangs from behind his left ear, Ceallraí is a rather conventional Mystic Code that has a certain amount of Kilian's blood stored within it, and whenever used in conjunction with either his runes or witchcraft can be used to attain the effects of a blood sacrifice without actually spilling his own blood. He can only store five charges at most currently within the trinket, and recharging them requires a blood sacrifice, but doing so safely after the fact is far easier than during a dire situation.
Mystic Code: Cothromaíocht - A pair of rings, perfectly fitted for Kilian's middle fingers, do nothing on their own, even when supplied with magical energy. They require the activation of a rune along with the empowering of the rings to have an effect, allowing Kilian to alter the normal effects of a rune. His Finn Shots, for example, can be converted into an amplification of a thrown punch, the entire force condensed into a single point of impact. The further a departure from the intended use of a rune, the more taxing the effect, to the point that they often get used in tandem with Ceallrai to offset the increased exertion imposed by Cothromaíocht.
Mundane Assets - Kilian has a modest amount of funds on available to him at any given time, for dealing with the world as a whole, often times converting the funds to those appropriate for the region or country he might be visiting at any given time. He also has his assorted collection of scarification tools, as well as a small pocket knife specifically prepared for a ritualistic use in witchcraft.
Brief Backstory: Kilian Halloran is the latest in a long running family of magi, though being the firstborn son, and inevitable head, of the somewhat recent, by magus terms, marriage of two different families into one has forced him to lead a somewhat odd life. Spending his entire childhood training and studying under both halves of the family he would lead, Kilian would learn to uniquely wield both halves of the family traditions in order to effectively lead them when the time came. Granted, this would not be for quite some time since, perhaps fortunately, the current family leadership had many, many years left in their lives before even considering stepping away from the reigns, let alone dying. This left Kilian fairly free to pursue his own studies.
Despite initial reservations, Kilian aligned himself with the Thule Society as many in his family had prior. The long standing membership of the group did give him some advantages during his studies, although convincing fellow members to even cooperate often took a significant amount of effort and negotiation. Kilian grew to loath any dealings with his fellows in the Society in a formal regard, often spending great deals of time abroad chasing rumors, proof of theories, and seeking knowledge of lost or forgotten runes. Nominally he also cooperated with the Thule Society when the need arose, assisting each other and slowly prying what secrets he could from their tight fisted grip. Never mind that Rune Magecraft was already niche, it was a hassle enough getting them to share even basic information on runes he could demonstrate knowledge of already.
Kilian treated the appearance of the Command Seals as a nuisance, first and foremost, as he had been in the middle of a rather promising, or so he had hoped, series of investigations in Scandinavia when they appeared. However, it seemed that there was advantage to be gained from participating in this contest after all. While some in his family had made a variety of suggestions on wishes he could make, he took a longer looking, more pragmatic look. He didn't need to win to benefit from the contest, though obviously the Wish could very readily accelerate his learning and mastery of Rune magecraft beyond what he could attain in a single lifetime. Even if he found himself in a situation that would prevent him from winning the wish, he could no doubt make useful discoveries and, circumstances willing, allies who owed him for favors granted during the contest. With that practical consideration in mind, how could he refuse the summons the Command Seal made?
Name: Dr. Henry Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Class: Assassin
Appearance:
Personality: Jekyll has two distinct, incredibly different personalities that change when the Noble Phantasm, Dangerous Game, is used. In his current summoned state, both Jekyll and Hyde remain in a constant state of struggle, most noticeable when danger is present, be it an enemy master, Servant, or other such significant threat. Hyde struggles to be let loose, to tempt, or force, Jekyll to imbibe in his serum and let the demon free. Jekyll, meanwhile, struggles to keep Hyde in check, silencing the demon until such a time that he is permitted to be let off his leash.
As Jekyll, he is a gentle, kind hearted man who would quite genuinely rather spend time in contemplation and study. While generally servile in nature, he maintains an incredibly strong sense of good and evil, and of justice, a firm believer in doing good for its own sake first and foremost. As a servant he would greatly enjoy spending time simply conversing with his Master, learning of the world he had been summoned into. Of his fellow Heroic Spirits, enemies as they may be, he would engage them in dialogue before a combat need arise, or even during circumstances where neither side can afford to fight. He lacks confidence in himself, perhaps stemming from his failure to subdue and remove Hyde from his life, though once talking he proves to be quite the pleasant fellow.
Hyde, however, revels in the hedonistic and cruel pleasures of the world. Constantly straining to be turned loose of his bindings, he greedily abuses every moment he is free. While released only for the sake of fighting, Mr. Hyde fully enjoys every moment of it, reveling in driving any foe he is turned loose on into a corner, playing with his prey and basking in their failure and mounting panic. Nothing is sweeter than slaughter, and if left unchecked would quite gladly go on a killing spree of anyone he could get his hands on. While restrained as a Heroic Spirit, however, he begrudgingly follows orders, though constantly complains and urges his Master to "Live a little" and let him at least have a little collateral damage. He will interpret anything formed as an order as creatively as possible if it means being able to cause more damage, though if the circumstances prevent him from being able to enjoy himself, he will turn the reigns back over to Jekyll since playing at human would bore him to tears.
Stats: (Note: Stats are listed as X/X, with the first being Jekyll's statistics, and the latter being Hyde's statistics.)
Strength: C+/B+
Endurance: E/B+
Agility: A+/B+
Mana: E/D
Luck: C/D
Noble Phantasm: C/C
Class Skills:
Presence Concealment: A. As Jekyll, the good doctor has gone to great lengths to conceal any of his misdoings or misdeeds as Hyde, and even more so now that he has to so readily rely on Hyde, it makes remaining unassuming far more important. For Hyde, concealing himself right up until the moment of strike lets him savor in the thrill of the hunt, of tracking down some dangerous game and jumping them, the upper hand making the game that much sweeter.
Personal Skills:
Monstrous Strength: B. Non functional as Jekyll, as the good doctor is no fighter, let alone a monster. Hyde, however, has shattered sturdy, custom walking canes in fits of rage with enough force to strike men dead in a single blow. Not even accounting for longer fits of rage after extended confinement by Jekyll that have left others dead from, at the time, a normal human's bare hands, this skill allows Hyde to, for short durations, boost his Strength Parameter by one rank.
Voice of Panic: A. Non functional as Jekyll, given the mild mannered and well meaning doctor could barely raise his voice to a shout at the best of times, let alone induce panic. Hyde, however, has the fury and madness of a long caged hedonistic thrill seeker, capable and more than willing to voice his desires of slaughter and debauchery to the heavens, to make God himself quake. Performs a mental attack on his targets with a resounding voice that weakens the minds of people who hear it.
Self Modification: D. Does nothing as Jekyll, as he is simply a man hiding a monster. While functional as Hyde, due to the duo being summoned as an Assassin-class Heroic Spirit, the rank of the skill has been notably decreased. Hyde shows some small refinement of his body towards combat capabilities, though the changes are relatively minor, and easily missed by someone who isn't keenly aware of the changes that are occurring at all.
Powerless Shell: A. The skill that defines Jekyll, rather than Hyde. It is a representation of a lifetime of struggle with perceived inner demons, with a hedonistic and sadistic darker half that he could not, as a proper Gentleman, ever allow free, and the cause of him developing the serum that would become known as the Dangerous Game. This skill is what locks his other personal skills away, and combined with the Assassin class Presence Concealment goes a great ways in protecting and hiding Jekyll long enough for him to release Hyde onto the stage, should the need arise.
Noble Phantasm(s):
Name: Dangerous Game
Rank: C
Type: Anti Unit
Appearance: A rather unassuming bottle with a peculiar stopper, the contents within never draining when drank, no matter how much is imbibed. The taste of the compound is utterly repulsive and vile to the drinker, regardless of personal taste or desire, it will always be the most foul tasting fluid one could ever imagine drinking. Despite its taste, it has a rather regal purple coloration that would make one think it might actually be a pleasant concoction.
Effects: Quite simply, it is the key that allows Jekyll to become Hyde, and vice versa. The recipe of the serum is known only to Dr. Jekyll, and by extension Mr. Hyde, though actually making a new dose of the serum never seems to be necessary due to its constantly refilling state, a side effect of being a Noble Phantasm. What this serum would do to someone who isn't Jekyll or Hyde is unknown, although even Hyde would act to prevent this from occurring should the circumstances arise.
Alignment: Lawful Good (Jekyll)/Chaotic Evil (Hyde)
History: Born as a member of the demon-hunting Fujou family, Rumi spent her youth being trained in her family’s Magecraft of spirit channeling in order to combat the various Oni and Mixed-Blood families throughout Japan. However, as the Four Demon Hunter Houses of Japan began to grow unable to sustain themselves due to the fact that the Mixed-Bloods had integrated into society, Rumi deserted the clan in her teenage years, seeing no future for a practitioner of magecraft in Japan.
She came to London and the Clock Tower, where she began to truly advance her own personal magecraft without being restricted by Fujou family tradition. A chance encounter with a specialist in necromancy had her going down that path as well, and Rumi began to carve out a living for herself among the Association, despite its notable prejudice against Asians. These days, she is ever seeking to increase her own personal abilities and power.
When the Holy Grail's Command Seals appeared on her hand, it was almost like some sort of cosmic joke. Rumi had done everything in her power to separate herself from her past life in Japan, and yet here was the War again, practically forcing her back. Despite her misgivings about the situation, it was one that she would be a fool to turn up. While Rumi didn't particularly have any wish she wanted out of the Grail, the prestige associated with claiming it would kick her damn near close to the top of the Clock Tower's food chain. With that in mind, how could she refuse?
Personality: Refined, urbane, and calm, Rumi does her best to present as unruffled an appearance as possible at all times. After all, there was no point in exposing any possible emotional weaknesses in the Clock Tower. She seeks personal power above all, always looking to advance her magecraft or her political or financial standing in some way among the Association. While resentful of her fellows’ disdain for Asian magi, Rumi herself bears somewhat of a grudge against the society she grew up in, agreeing that the Four Demon Hunter Houses at least were outdated and backwater relics.
Rumi makes an effort to at least appear approachable and personable, not wishing to make enemies if she can’t help it. However, she bears little love for her peers and thinks little of misfortune befalling upon them so long as the same doesn’t occur to her.
Quality of Circuits: C
Quantity of Circuits: A
Elemental Affinity: Earth
Attribute: Spirit Channeling
Magecraft:
General Magecraft: Taught the basics of magecraft during her training in Japan, further refined upon her entrance into the Association.
Spirit Medium: As a member of the Fujou family, Rumi was trained in the art of seeing into the spirit world and contacting its various denizens. As a result, her ability to detect spirits and negotiate with them is top-notch among Association magi. Her specialty in this field lies in Wraiths in particular.
However, the Fujou clan’s talent comes at a price. The more one peers into the spirit world, the more one’s vision in the physical world is impaired. In short, overuse of their Attribute causes blindness over time. Rumi’s specialization in Wraiths is purely to avoid this drawback for as long as possible, given how often Wraiths interact with the physical world.
Necromancy: The art of raising the dead to do one’s bidding. Rumi’s spin on this art involves cajoling Spirits into possessing corpses to fight for her, creating more capable undead than ordinary practitioners of necromancy can achieve. She focuses on the quality of her undead abominations over the quantity, hand-crafting bodies fit for battle for her contracted Spirits to possess and use. Most of her creations in this manner are Wraiths, with Rumi generally having made deals with them such as resolving their lingering regrets or fulfilling their grudges in exchange for their servitude.
Mystic Codes:
Aulus: Rumi’s greatest creation as a necromancer: an ancient Wraith from the time of Rome that only ever wanted to see battle again, possessing a body specifically crafted for war and magically-preserved to prevent decay. Rumi spared no expense in stitching together the finest and strongest human specimens she could get her hands upon in order to craft a borderline-superhuman body capable of outperforming the greatest modern athletes alive today.
Aulus is outfitted with Mystic Codes of its own, namely an enchanted spear and a full-body suit of plate armor, both of which simply allow the abomination to harm spiritual bodies and be protected against them while on the physical plane. As a result, this combination of body and armament could potentially at least hold off even a Servant in pitched battle, though it stands no chance of actually defeating one or causing major injury.
While primarily powered by Rumi’s magical energy, Aulus is still a Wraith, and can sustain itself indefinitely independent of her prana through consuming human souls.
The Collection: Rumi’s menagerie of contracted Wraiths, their spiritual bodies stored in various talismans that she has drawn up. When Rumi requires one to possess a corpse, she attaches a talisman onto the body, giving the Wraith a physical tunnel with which to embed itself into its new home and fight for her.
Ephemeral Veil: A pair of contact lenses enchanted to restrict Rumi’s Fujou bloodline abilities, severely limiting the clarity at which she sees the spirit world in exchange for preventing major damage to her eyesight. Used for day-to-day tasks and magecraft in which she needs to utilize and maintain her ties to spirits without needing the full clarity required for harder tasks and exorcisms.
Non-Magecraft Abilities/Items: Trained in judo and can hold her own in hand-to-hand combat.
Personality: A cunning, pragmatic man that cares nothing for what others think of him. He cares little about status or traditions and judges people based solely on their ability. However, despite how ambitious and unscrupulous he is, he still possesses a high amount of personal integrity and treats his allies and subordinates well. He sees opportunity where others only see ruin, and thrives in chaos even as he works to impose order.
On a personal level, he is seemingly jovial and charismatic, capable of laughing casually with a person to their face while plotting against them in his head at the same moment. He is suspicious and untrusting at heart to the point of being borderline paranoid when confronted with those he is not already familiar with.
While he is a fair and legally just person who seeks to bring peace, Cao Cao is not swayed by emotion so much as logic and reason, making him appear rather unsympathetic and unscrupulous to the idealistic.
Biography: A crafty, ambitious man who rose up from minor nobility during the waning years of Han China to become one of the defining men of the Three Kingdoms era. Not content with remaining a cavalry commander for a declining dynasty, Cao Cao became a warlord in his own right, carving out a fiefdom of his own and subjugating many rival warlords to become one of the preeminent powers of his time. While Cao Cao had the last Han emperor under his control, he never seized the throne for himself, preferring to act with impunity under the imperial mandate instead. By the time of his death, Cao Cao's domain of Wei spanned over a third of China.
However, Cao Cao's greatest ambition had been to reunify China under his control into a prosperous and peaceful state. He died of illness at the age of 65, content in the assumption that his successors would finish what he had started. Historical records indicate that Cao Cao was a brilliant ruler, administrator, and general, with his state of Wei flourishing at the time of his death.
Fighting Style: A cheap-shotting bastard. While a formidable swordsman in his own right, Cao Cao always seeks the most expedient and efficient path to victory, no matter what others may think of his tactics. In personal combat, that means nothing is off the table. Crotch shots, eye gouging, running away to try again later, et cetera.
Parameters: STR: C END: B AGI: B MAG: C LUK: A+
Class Skills Magic Resistance: C: Cancel spells with a chant below two verses. Cannot defend against Magecraft on the level of High-Thaumaturgy and Greater Rituals.
Riding: A: Creatures on the level of Phantasmal Beast and Divine Beast rank can be used as mounts. However, that does not apply to members of the Dragon Kind. Maneuvers that would normally be absolutely impossible become trivial.
Personal Skills Charisma: B: The natural talent to influence others and command troops. Increases the ability of allies during group battles. A rare talent. Having B Rank in this Skill is sufficient to lead a nation as its King/Queen. The morale of military forces he or she commands is extremely high. It also allows the user to negate the Emergency Prerogative skill of enemies.
Cao Cao’s most notable feats of charisma revolved around his eye for talent, finding and inspiring loyalty in many able heroes, generals, and scholars of his time. While ordinarily he was content to delegate tasks and battles to them, his leadership abilities were such that even great heroes were inspired upon seeing their lord take the field.
Disengage: A: The ability to withdraw from the battlefield in the midst of combat or reset the battle conditions. At this rank, there is a bonus effect of returning battle conditions to what they were at the beginning of the match (1st turn) and restores the condition of this Skill to the initial value. At the same time, it forcibly releases some of the bad status ailments inflicted on the user of this Skill.
From his flight from Luoyang to the aftermath of his defeat at Chi Bi, Cao Cao performed several desperate retreats over the course of his military career, always managing to survive and return to fight again.
Eye of the Mind (True): B: A heightened capacity for observation, refined through training, discipline and experience. A danger-avoidance ability that utilizes the intelligence collected up to the current time as the basis in order to predict the opponent’s activity and change the current situation. This is not a result of talent, but an overwhelming amount of combat experience. A weapon wielded by none other than a mortal, gained through tenacious training. So long there is even a 1% chance of a comeback, this ability greatly improves the chances of winning. At this rank, the user is capable of calm analysis of battle conditions even when in danger and deduce an appropriate course of action after considering all possibilities to escape from a predicament.
As a warlord that commanded armies during the tumultuous period leading up to the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao saw many battlefields over the course of his life and honed his abilities and reflexes upon them. He was forced to make retreats on several occasions, and by now is inured to such dangers, capable of making calm judgments even during moments of pure chaos.
Noble Phantasms
Seven-Star Sword Rank: D Type: Anti-Unit Range: 1 Maximum Number of Targets: 1 Description: The blade given to Cao Cao by Wang Yun in an attempt to kill Dong Zhou. Cao Cao pretended to present the sword as a gift before attempting his assassination, but failed and was forced to flee the capital of Luoyang.
This legendary blade was said to have been able to cut through any armor, and deals damage equivalent to one rank above its given rank as a result.
As a result of both Cao Cao’s failed assassination in his legend and his being summoned as a Rider instead of a Saber, this Noble Phantasm’s rank is lower than one would expect.
Shadow Runner Rank: B Type: Anti-Army Range: 2-40 Maximum Number of Targets: 100 Description: Cao Cao's personal steed, a black horse said to have run so quick that it would cast no shadow during its sprint. It bore Cao Cao to safety during his flight from Wan Castle, surviving numerous wounds during the process.
Combined with Cao Cao’s inherent Riding skill, this sable steed can maintain a ludicrously fast pace, capable of racing against some of the greatest mounts in legend and myth. Shadow Runner’s sheer speed creates waves of force in its wake that resemble black flames. When executing a frontal charge at full strength, this horse can tear through the front ranks of an army and carve a path to victory.
Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao Arrives Rank: A+ Type: Anti-Unit Range: - Maximum Number of Targets: 1 Description: Cao Cao is so famed for his military tactics and general ruthlessness such that a modern Chinese saying is literally "Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao arrives", equivalent to the Western phrase "Speak of the devil". Whenever his true name is uttered, Cao Cao is capable of teleporting within ten feet of the person who spoke his name. The teleportation is not silent, and the target will be aware that Cao Cao has appeared. However, the prana cost of this ability increases with his distance to the speaker, and anything greater than an average modern city's length is impossible for a Master's prana reserves to sustain and will likely kill them. Anything greater than half a city's length will generally exhaust a Master's prana reserves. Once his name is uttered, Cao Cao is only aware of the distance between himself and the speaker as well as the corresponding prana cost, and nothing else. Moreover, he only has five seconds to decide whether or not he wishes to teleport, and he will have no clue of what the speaker's defenses will be like. This Noble Phantasm can backfire greatly against Cao Cao if he warps into a heavily-defended area.
At 5’11” with an athletic figure, Beatrice is the kind of person who draws attention wherever she goes. Her ever-glinting eyes never seem to stay on one thing for long, and in all but the most extreme of cases she always seems to be smiling; though, whether that smile is friendly or portends your imminent dismembering is often a very open question.
Though Beatrice wears her hair long, she usually keeps it tied up in a wild ponytail and dresses in a very casual, practical style, tending towards dress shirts, jeans, heeled boots and a jacket of some description (usually from the men’s section of whatever shop she got it from, fuck paying out the ass for some dinky little thing with no pockets). Little changes about her attire when on the job, besides the addition of light metal gauntlets for punching and proper handling of weapons and spells, and slightly heavier metal greaves better suited for running and kicking.
Personality:
Beatrice has matured somewhat with age, but deep down she’s the same wild young woman who turned up at the Clock Tower with no respect for anyone and a lot to prove. Though at first glance she doesn’t skew too far from the general expectation of magi to be composed and elegant at all times, further inspection reveals something altogether more troublesome; she’s sharp-tongued, spirited and never quite at ease unless she’s got something to hyperfixate on, whether that be a target to pursue or a challenge to overcome. Her experiences and chosen lifestyle allow her to fit somewhat more naturally into modern society than other magi, albeit no less eccentrically, but she’s almost never at home, always off pursuing personal leisure or a bounty put out by the Association (or both). She doesn’t seem to have much of a direction in life, unlike most magi and their attempts to reach the root of all things through dedication and study, but perhaps her pursuit of ever-greater fights is enough: something to prove to herself she’s alive, something more than a cog in a grand yet steadily failing machine.
Old habits die hard, however, and so too does the inheritance of a child of magi. Although Beatrice places little value on elegance beyond the fluidity it affords her in battle, those who pry beneath her spirited surface will find she has both the pride and acute sadism one would expect of a magus from an old family. While she’s generally mindful of members of the common public, having little interest in meddling with their lives for her enjoyment and little patience for those who do, her relationships with other magi vary from offbeat to outright tense; she vocally considers many of her peers at the Association to be deluded, simpering snobs and wimps at best, and performative sociopaths besides, while she herself has accrued a reputation for being brash, uncooperative and prone to excessive force. She isn’t entirely a lost cause socially- she maintains friendly if occasionally vitriolic relations with other bounty hunters and the handful of Enforcers she knows personally, as well as many of her former classmates and teachers- but her bluntness when dealing with other magi doesn’t help matters, and neither does her apparent love of picking at perceived weaknesses to make people squirm and tip their hands.
Skills:
Extremely Physically Fit: For Beatrice, maintaining her physical fitness is as, if not more important than maintaining her mind and magecraft: after all, reinforcement can only build upon what’s already there. Though perhaps a bit too much of a foodie for her own good, she’s still in very good shape.
Trained Physical Combatant: Beatrice has been trained in both armed and unarmed combat styles. While she blends characteristics of various styles, most notable among them are the Dardi school of swordsmanship for the former and bajiquan for the latter; styles emphasising a composed and deliberate form that, much like the wind and water Beatrice finds affinity with, can turn and give way to vicious and powerful blows and strikes in the blink of an eye. During her youth her parents indulged her sportiness with the train of thought that it was a curiosity that could help her return their line to prominence, but as of the present it’s become an essential part of her skillset, helping her efficiently apply the powers she’s worked to refine into a form suited for her split melee focus, as well as to improve her body’s flow of magical energy and the efficiency of her Od consumption.
Abilities:
Quality of Circuits: A Quantity of Circuits: C Elemental Affinity: Wind and Water Attribute: Compression, Reinforcement
General Magecraft: As befitting a Clock Tower-educated mage of a relatively esteemed background, Beatrice is well-versed in the fundamentals of Magecraft. High Speed Incantation, Bounded Fields, memory alteration, command, shared perception, healing essentials, even geis; Beatrice was certainly an apt pupil, making her all the more frustrating to her teachers, who wished she would settle down and apply herself to research rather than a violent life of bounty hunting.
Reinforcement: While well-versed in basic magecraft, Beatrice put in particular effort to learn reinforcement at a young age and has refused to let go of it ever since as she made a name for herself as a brawler. She uses it to supplement her already-impressive levels of physical fitness, providing the perfect counterbalance to her powerful but taxing spells and allowing her to both overwhelm targets who rely purely on their magecraft to defend themselves and help her close the gap with even stronger physical combatants. More than this, however, she makes some scarily impressive use of it in tandem with Storm; besides maintaining the structure of the blade so that it doesn’t warp or break during intense fights, she can apply her Water affinity to outright alter the shape and properties of the sword to allow techniques and moves that would otherwise be impractical or outright impossible with a weapon of its design.
Compression Magecraft: The LaForet family’s speciality, which allows them to designate a radius of about twenty meters around them as ‘their territory’ and pull in a selected element within that space towards them. Most traditionally, they used this to pull in and compress prana from their surroundings, both creating tightly-wound pockets of prana that they could then use to quickly cast powerful spells and disrupting the ability of targets to draw from the world around them, a function that they were sure to pass on to their prodigious heir. It does have some more direct offensive applications, such as firing the compressed prana in a form similar to a bullet or shell, but these are of dubious effectiveness when it comes to Beatrice’s peers and the high-level targets she most often concerns herself with. As such, when making use of it in unaltered form, Beatrice tends more to use it to pull targets in towards her, refusing them the luxury or comfort of attacking her from a distance with ranged spells, or conversely to create a distance between them by compressing air and releasing it for a blast of repellent force, allowing her to break off and recompose herself if actually pressed physically.
Elemental Manipulation: While historically The LaForet family has used their speciality as a supplement for more traditional spells, and she herself most commonly uses it for zoning purposes in physical brawls, Beatrice has put in the time and effort to figure out applications relevant to her elemental affinities. Though compression magecraft may be unreliable for direct offensive applications in its unaltered form, interfering with nature to manipulate and amplify existing elements is a handy way of circumventing both the ability of targets to shrug off or even absorb raw prana and significantly increase both the destructive power and precision of offensive spells conducted through it. Her most common uses are to draw in air and moisture and use gathered prana to both amplify and compress them to an intense level of pressure and power. From there, she can release them as direct offensive attacks such as powerful blasts of force capable of breaking bones and sending foes flying away or viciously concentrated jets capable of cutting through even diamond, or bind them to Storm and Stress to grant them extended range, cutting power, or even just greatly increased heft.
Implosion: An application of the LaForet’s compression magecraft entirely unique to Beatrice, designed to mitigate their traditional weakness against magecraft with a wide area of effect and mystic codes or other such constructs with a high volume, such as the Volumen Hydrargyrum of the Archibald Family. Rather than use herself as the focal point to which her chosen element will converge, Beatrice can use a bolt of focused prana or her Mystic Codes as vectors to designate a focal point; and with shrewd application, she can use it to not only ‘cancel’ or otherwise create breaches in wide-range attacks, but cause any solid or semi-solid bodies the vector becomes embedded in to be pulled violently inwards. The effect requires intense concentration and is extremely taxing to Beatrice in the heat of battle, but strategic use allows her to effectively conduct fights on her own terms rather than that of her target’s.
‘Blinking Strike’: An application of the LaForet’s compression magecraft entirely unique to Beatrice, similar in concept to the art of Fa jin; rather than prana, air or liquids, she can compress her own muscles for a momentary burst of power. If reinforcing the body could be compared to giving it a consistency or strength closer to steel than flesh or bone, this ability could be likened to giving a specific limb or organ the power of a bullet or shell for a split second; reckless or prolonged use of this ability stands to tear Beatrice’s muscles or shatter her bones, leaving her crippled, but effective use allows her to quickly and brutally end fights with a single vicious blow strong enough to punch clean through reinforced steel or, more likely than not, strike a target’s head clean off of their shoulders.
Assets:
Storm: Beatrice's primary Mystic Code, a longsword designed to channel the elemental affinities of the wielder into either enhanced physical attacks with the longsword or enhanced spellcasting using the body of the sword as a conductor. The longsword was originally the Mystic Code of a magus who specialised in the creation of similar implements, who became a fugitive from the Association after testing out his ‘masterpiece’s destructive capabilities against members of ‘the common public’, keen to establish whether it made a qualitative difference when it came to the potential of the magecraft channelled through it to kill. Beatrice ended up prying it from his corpse's cold, dead hands after he refused to go down without a fight, and claimed it as a trophy in lieu of the usual bounty from the Association. Besides using it as a focal point for her compression magecraft, she has since refined it to be especially compatible with her own wind and water affinities, coating the blade in either compressed wind to extend its range or compressed water to greatly increase its cutting power. When the situation calls for it, however, Storm has a special relationship with her second Mystic Code, known as:
Stress: Beatrice's secondary Mystic Code, a sheath and extension for Storm that allows Beatrice to change up her stance and fighting style to deal with larger or sturdier targets. While Storm was a trophy that she redesigned to suit her needs, its sheath is an original creation of hers that allows her to 'transform' the graceful and swift longsword into a solid, hefty axe in a manner reminiscent of a certain cult video game from the mid 2010’s. While it loses versatility in the process, as the heavy blade and relatively ponderous swing speed of the transformed weapon benefits less from her elemental affinities, the destructive power of the combined Storm and Stress is staggering, with it being able to cleave through metal and bone with Beatrice's enhanced strength alone. But Stress wouldn't be much of a Mystic Code if it were simply a slab of iron, and the ways in which it pairs with Storm are more striking than its form implies. Even when inactive, the sheath absorbs and receives prana gathered by Beatrice and stores it in a rechargeable jewel concealed at the tip of the sheath where the axe blades attach, and while she can use the sword inside to incrementally tap into it for standard enhancements, igniting it all at once affords her bursts of power sufficient to level even the heaviest and most durable of targets. By channelling her affinities into the stored prana, she can greatly increase the axe's destructive potential, water increasing the density and weight of the weapon and wind to placing greater force and speed behind each swing; and if she is able to act and find an opening before the stored prana is exhausted, she can fire off whatever remains as a torrential wave capable of mowing down or blowing away anything caught in its path with a downward swing. Though there is a significant downtime between each use of this function, as a great deal of prana is required to enable it for even a few minutes, strategic use can turn the tide of fights and force even Servants to assume a defensive posture, if only briefly.
Brief Backstory:
Beatrice is the current head of the LaForet Family, something of a dark horse in the modern Clock Tower. Once fairly notable even among the venerated lines of the Clock Tower, the untimely death of the family’s head and subsequent loss of much of their crest in the early nineteenth century saw them fall into decline and recuse themselves from magus society to recuperate their losses. The process was slow and painful, with a number of unremarkable and even outright unsuitable heirs contributing little in the way of research or inheritance to elevate the family back to its former heights. As such, in that space of time the family grew increasingly distant from the politics of the Mage’s Association, integrating more and more into non-magus society as they pursued more mundane business ventures to accrue the funds needed to pursue their research and keep their lifestyle afloat.
This, perhaps more than anything else, is what set the stage for Beatrice. Born in London in the late twentieth century, her talent and the quality of her own magical circuits weren’t fully comprehended until significantly later into her life than if her parents had anticipated their daughter to be the harbinger of their line’s renaissance, and so the environment in which she grew up in was vastly different to that of the heirs of other magus families. While many such children experience some version of reality outside the immediate sphere of magus society, Beatrice’s parents were so fixated on their research that they took an extremely emotionally distant approach to their daughter, neglecting to be involved in much of her upbringing but consequently giving her freedom to do as she wished so long as she kept up appearances during social occasions and kept up with her lessons. As such, by the time they started paying enough attention to realise her potential and thus arrange for her to be enrolled in the Clock Tower, she’d grown into a wild, energetic girl who was in and out of trouble and was more than happy to throw a punch in a situation where magecraft was forbidden or impractical.
Whilst she proved an apt and capable pupil, and a competent and powerful magus with a willingness to prove herself, it became increasingly clear that she was a deviant too difficult and capricious for either her parents or the faculty to control. While she would complete all work and assignments on time, it was always to free up her schedule to go and test out some new application of her magecraft in the duelling grounds or pick fights with other students who gave her or her handful of friends grief for their ‘common upbringings’. While her martial inclination proved conductive to her development and the continuation of her family’s magecraft, the aggressive and boisterous personality that accompanied it didn't do much to endear herself to others in the Clock Tower, nor did it foster any real respect or regard for the institution in Beatrice herself. If anything, she resented the institution and her parents for uprooting her from the identity she’d forged early in her life, reducing her from ‘Beatrice’ to simply the ‘LaForet scion’, just another piece in their absurd long game to fight back against their inevitable decline. Indeed, by the time she had graduated, it was clear she held scarcely more than naked contempt for the politics and goals of the Clock Tower. While she did assume the role of family head in response to her father’s pleas, she refused to be his pawn and chose to distance herself from the society he had treated her as nothing but his ticket to rejoin, instead opting for an active career in the field. While there weren’t any vacancies in the Enforcers at the time, there was never any shortage of rogue magi to hunt down, and so she elected to take up the life of a bounty hunter, which would afford her a regular supply of targets whose foolishness and recklessness endangered those around them to hunt down and hone her skills and unique brand of magecraft against. Perhaps some day, she could see herself settling down and carrying on the family’s legacy, but she would do it on her own terms, and until then she had a journey to undertake, to make sense of this strange existence caught precariously between the mundane and fantastic.
As of the present day, Beatrice has been working as a bounty hunter for around seven years; a lonely existance, albeit one fast-paced enough to keep her mind occupied. Though she didn't take part in the conflict directly, having been occupied pursuing another high-priority target at the time, she became involved in the efforts to dismantle the infamous Greater Grail of Fuyuki when one of its leaders, a friend of hers from her time at the Clock Tower and a survivor of the Fifth War, provided her with a list of individuals who had attempted to prevent its destruction. Over the course of a few months, she worked her way through the list, hauling a number of them back to answer for the acts they had committed in Fuyuki and eliminating those that she couldn't detain. It was when she got around to her very last target that she saw them: they had a number of strange, eerily familiar symbols etched into their arm. They predictably refused to go without a fight, and upon returning to London to hand the body over they were identified by her old friend as Command Seals, the mark of one chosen to participate in the Holy Grail War.
Despite the best efforts of Lord El-Melloi and his team, the conflict was set to recur again; and while Beatrice may have had little time for the politics of the Clock Tower, she was acutely aware of what was at stake if they let events unfold. Regardless of the authenticity of the new Grail, it was at least functional enough to have provided its chosen with Command Seals, and every day spent hemming and hawing about what to do was a day that risked another tragedy like the Fourth and Fifth Holy Grail Wars being allowed to unfold once more. So after confirming with her friend that she had no intention of relinquishing the seals,the grudging agreement was made between herself and the higher-ups of the Clock Tower that she would travel to Sako City as their unofficial representative, to ascertain the nature of this new Grail and prevent the conflict from escalating as it had before.
In truth, however, her choice was as much selfish as it was professional. Though it was all but certain that this war was another damn fool’s errand, the purported wish nothing more than bait to attract sacrifices for the purposes of those who had set it in motion, the fact that many of the world's strongest and sharpest would come to make their play for it was nothing if not intriguing: and beyond that, perhaps this fateful providence would finally yield her the personal truth she was seeking.
Name: Caspar, Der Freischütz
Class: Archer
Appearance:
Archer is certainly an attractive man, standing at an impressive 6’1” with silver hair, sharp golden eyes and a countenance both rugged and yet somewhat boyish. However, his experiences have left their mark on him and telltale signs of desperation are starting to shine through his otherwise composed, appealing features. Though he conducts and carries himself with poise, any unexpected challenges or roadbumps will gradually unravel that and expose the terror lurking beneath his calm facade.
When summoned and when active in battle, he wears a black version of the formal attire he wore in life, an Early Modern European military uniform curiously and anachronistically supplemented by a highwayman’s coat and tricorn hat decorated with a red feather, with a dusack as a sidearm for close combat encounters. Outside of combat, his dress sense tends towards business casual, appropriate to the ‘professional image’ he wishes to project.
Personality:
By and large, Heroic Spirits are a varied bunch- for as many as there are that are undeserving of their fame or status, there are as many whose seeming unworthiness obscures a far more fascinating and admirable character.
Archer is definitely in the former camp. Despite presenting himself as a slick professional, with the charisma and eloquence to match, this superficial charm conceals a cowardly individual wholly aware of his unremarkable nature, who would rather take easy victories and recuse himself from anything that could cause him stress than push to improve himself or help another without immediate benefit. While he doesn’t seem terribly at odds with his apparent insignificance in the grand scheme of things, and possesses a frank (if rather self-serving) estimation of his own capabilities, this facet of his personality is continually undermined by desperation to prove himself as worthy to or show up those who look down on him. Whilst he doesn't seem opposed to not being 'the best', willing to settle for being a big fish in a small pond for the sake of a comfortable existence, there is a burning spark of ambition inside of him that deeply resents those who would spurn him or exercise authority over him. Essentially, his self-worth is based on a fragile sense of pride that is challenged by others refusing to play along with his games and if not for his unremarkable nature being exemplified in his non-existent Rank in Independent Action, he would be all too happy to trick his Master into their own demise so that he could take off from it all and live his second life in leisure.
But Archer didn’t get where he got in life by being entirely reckless or bereft of impulse control, and when given the opportunity to hatch a scheme, he can be terrifyingly cunning. Though an unremarkable individual, such a status is not always a negative when dealing with individuals whose ideals and neuroses have made them the stuff of legends; there is a certain shrewdness and practicality to his means that make him difficult for more high-minded individuals to properly reckon with, a knowledge of how history hinges on more than ‘big names and bigger guns’ that allows him to perceive elements and factors that would otherwise go unnoticed. Indeed, the story of Caspar is one that rarely ended well for anyone but him, and time will tell what this strange new coda shall append to it...
Stats:
Strength: D
Endurance: D
Agility: B
Mana: B
Luck: D
Noble Phantasm: A+
Class Skills:
Independent Action: The capacity of Servants to subsist without a Master.
(N/A): Despite it being a Class Skill, Archer is afflicted with a curse that prevents him from functioning without a Master unless very specific conditions are met. If he is cut off from his Master, both the Grail and an imperceivable demonic force will act to claim him, tearing him apart and killing him instantly.
Magic Resistance: The ability to cancel or diminish the effects of magecraft used against oneself.
(C): Cancels spells with a chant below two verses. Cannot defend against magecraft on the level of greater magecraft and Greater Rituals. Despite his relatively modern nature, Archer had enough experience with the supernatural in his life to obtain an intermediate rank in this Skill rather than a mediocre one.
Personal Skills:
Charisma: The natural talent to influence others and command troops. Increases the ability of allies during group battles. A rare talent.
(D): The Servant is naturally likeable. They can inspire people to whom they are capable of ingratiating themselves.
Clairvoyance: Superior visual perception. Supplement long-range aiming and increases dynamic vision.
(D): Can see the world more clearly and in greater detail than any modern human could hope to, and see an object at a range of up to a mile away with no noticeable difficulty. The world also appears to move somewhat slower to him, allowing him to follow objects that would be difficult to keep track of with the faculties of a modern human.
Disengage: The ability to withdraw from combat.
(D): The Servant can reliably withdraw from combat and will return all skill conditions to their initial value, but retains any inflicted statuses.
Magecraft: Knowledge of and proficiency in modern thaumaturgy.
(C): Capable in the fundamentals of magecraft, with a particular affinity for spirit evocation and the use of curses. Though Archer was a fairly unremarkable mage for his time, his abilities are powerful by modern standards and he’s quite capable of using them to interact with spirits and bind curses, with applications ranging from soliciting spirits evoked by other mages to fight for him instead to using curses to increase the power of his bullets or his dusack.
Noble Phantasm(s):
Name: Schweig ~ Hush, so that nobody hears!
Rank: C
Type: Anti-Unit
Appearance: A beautifully ornate silver rifle created by Caspar to serve as his Mystic Code in life, designed to require little to no maintenance and operate more discreetly and reliably than the early flintlock firearms of Caspar’s time, and to amplify his otherwise unremarkable skills in magecraft.
Effects: Schweig’s absorption into the legacy of Der Freischütz has elevated it to the status of a potent Noble Phantasm, the legend of the phantom marksman crystallising within it and granting Caspar abilities beyond his capabilities in life. Not only do bullets discharged from it approach the power of the strongest modern munitions, befitting the weapon of Der Freischütz, they are discharged with barely a sound and are immune to negative conditions such as wind pressure, gravity or velocity decay so long as they remain within a certain range of Caspar, obviating many factors that may cause him to miss his mark. Furthermore, the legacy of Schweig’s creator hasn’t been entirely displaced from the rifle’s structure, far from it. Reflective of Caspar himself, a striking malice dwells beneath the rifle’s beautiful surface and structure, and not only perfectly conducts but amplifies curses to afford bullets fired from it additional effects and power similar to projectile curses employed by modern magi, albeit at a level and proficiency beyond all but the most talented practitioners. Furthermore, while it is not required to fire them, this nature is what makes Schweig the weapon best suited to make use of the Freikugeln; as its nature feeds and guides the curses inside the bullets, allowing them to be used safely and kept under their user’s control until they hit the chosen target.
Name: Freikugeln ~ Hell’s mouth swings wide, to accept him or you!
Rank: C+ ~ A+
Type: Anti-Unit
Appearance: The six silver bullets Caspar obtained in his deal with Samiel to survive the Thirty Years War, physically unremarkable save their alluring luster but engraved and endowed with a dark power that speaks to those around them.
Effects: While they are of a powerful substance that affords them the physical power one would expect of a C-Rank Noble Phantasm, the core essence of the Freikugeln is closer in nature to the cursed modern magi utilise as Gandyr bolts than actual bullets. Much as the spirit known as Samiel assumed the form of the Black Huntsman as such that his infernal existence would be comprehensible to hunters who would seek a bargain with him, he wrought these powerful curses into a form that they would know how to make the best use of; and though Caspar himself could have used them in alternate capacities, his skills in marksmanship and magecraft alike allows him to make use of their form to devastating effect. Striking the target isn't an absolute guarantee, as there's a chance to prevent them from connecting with the right tools or preparations, but each Freikugel will nonetheless respond to their user’s intent upon being evoked and fired and pursue their mark with deadly accuracy and tracking. They will alter their trajectory, ignoring any and all external factors and disadvantages and even phase straight through physical barriers and defensive Noble Phantasms of inferior rank to strike their target, first as a physical projectile and then as a deadly curse that burns them from within; and while the physical body of the bullets can be destroyed by an attack of equivalent or greater rank, the curses within them will endure and maintain the pursuit until they strike a living target. Against Servants, the utility of this Noble Phantasm is mitigated by Caspar's poor Luck and the relatively low destructive power the Freikugeln possess, a merely average C-Rank for both the physical impact and the following curse, but against Masters, this is amongst the most deadly Noble Phantasms, as even if the impact of the bullet doesn’t kill them the curse inside them will almost certainly finish the job.
If so inclined, Caspar can give the Freikugeln to others to use, as he did in life when he gave his last bullet to Max in order to trick him into making a deal with Samiel. Despite their particularly effective partnership with Schweig, they seem to be able to adapt to and be fired from any manner of gun; but in doing so the curses contained within grow more volatile and dangerous, exacting a great toll from their user to evoke and maintain control over them. Furthermore, although Caspar was only granted six bullets in life, the legend of Der Freischütz grants him one last ace-in-the-hole in the form of a ‘secret’ seventh bullet; the very one that Caspar requested as a means to have Max fall into despair, and what ultimately claimed his life. Endowed with an even more lethal curse that affords both impacts the dreadful power of an A-Rank Noble Phantasm, this bullet is directed by the lingering will of Samiel himself rather than that of Caspar or anyone he fobs the bullet off on to, and will choose its target in a way that is guaranteed to bring nothing but trouble to him. In return, however, whatever is struck with the bullet will serve as a sacrifice to Samiel in place of Caspar himself, lifting the curse over him and granting him A-Rank Independent Action to sustain him until he is able to obtain the Grail.
Provided the aftermath of the shot itself doesn’t spell his doom, anyway.
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Changes: This version of Caspar was a member of a dying family of magi, whose line ultimately went extinct with him upon his death. This was mainly to flesh him out, but it does inform a lot of the character and mechanical details; though he was a poor magus, what abilities he does have are fairly potent by modern standards, and he knows his way around the type of people fighting in the Grail War.
Personality: Intelligent, high-handed, and experienced. Arrogant and self-confident, but backing it up with capability and experience. This is the nature of Kobayakawa Atsuko. Despite being a child of no older than 10, Atsuko carries herself as an experienced magus with a wide range of knowledge. Confident and self-assured, and with good reason, one could say she is a model picture of the Kobayakawa family's goals. Atsuko is mature, quite similar to an adult in her demeanor. She avoids allowing any sort of personal morality interfering with her decisions, and presents herself as logical in her approach to the Holy Grail War. She will do what she must in order to achieve her goals, but she will not go further then she has to. At least, this is the demeanor she attempts to present. In reality, it cannot be denied that Atsuko is a child. The simple fact is that, in spite of the experience and knowledge of every prior incarnation inhabiting her mind, the process of rebirth is unable to replicate the same person in full. In reality, she is frightened of the prospect of the Holy Grail War. In reality, while she has some pride in herself, it is her family's expectation that drives her forward. To her benefit, the fact she does have pride does mean her outward demeanor is not a lie in its entirety. If nothing else, she does have faith in her magecraft and her bloodline. But she does not want to hurt others. She does not want to get hurt. Her maturity is born from her observation of adults and attempts to act like them, rather then being genuinely mature. For all her boasts of being cooly logical, she doesn't want to hurt innocent people even if the secrecy of the Holy Grail War is exposed to them. In spite of her family's belief that she is their legendary head reborn, that she is child only in chronological terms and in physical appearance, it is far better to describe her as a child who happens to have the knowledge and experience of her prior incarnations. Atsuko likes animals and sweets, and also enjoys reading. She dislikes being alone.
Skills: In terms of personal skills, Atsuko's almost entirely revolve around magecraft and knowledge of related topics. To put it simply, she's hopeless at anything else.
Abilities: Atsuko's pride is not misplaced. With an extraordinary amount of magic circuits of high quality, her capacity as a magus is first-rate. Having the same affinity as her original incarnation, Air and Fire, allows her a number of highly potent offensive spells as well as a fairly wide variety when it comes to utility. Strands of her hair can be utilized as heat-seeking drones that explode on contact with the target, and she is capable of compressing air to create explosions, or removing the air from a sealed space. Additionally, she can perform more conventional spells, such as launching fire or bursts of compressed air as projectiles. Most impressive is less directly offensive but no less potent, the bounded field Multi-Layer Recursive Mind. By the application of the contradictory properties of the 'outgoing' nature of fire and the 'evasive' nature of air, those who enter the bounded field are forced to repeatedly loop their previous actions. While mental defenses are obviously capable of preventing this assault, it's still quite likely that those targeted by the spell's effects will find themselves returning to the entrance of the room and reenacting their own actions for at least a few times before they catch themselves.
Assets: Atsuko is quite wealthy, possessing a large amount of funds. Her family also keeps retainers, who are armed with low-grade mystic codes capable of damaging spiritual bodies. Naturally, they are nothing compared to a Servant, but their presence is to be noted.
Brief Backstory: Well over two hundred years ago, the Kobayakawa family's founded died without completing their life's work. They were a legendary prodigy, a magus who possessed capabilities that eclipsed many of their peers. It would be impossible for the family to produce another prodigy of that level. It would be impossible to recapture that natural talent. It would be impossible to complete their goal. The remaining family members could not even master the founder's techniques. Thus, they instead chose to recreate their founder. Again and again, the heir would be born not as their own person, but as a recreation of their founder, retaining their experience, their thoughts, their personality. A reincarnation, an endlessly reborn magus. This was the solution that the Kobayakawa family devised. Their expectations, their beliefs, would be foisted upon the new incarnation. This is the environment Atsuko was born into. She possessed the knowledge and memories of the founder from birth, just as intended. However... Was this correct? Was this intended? As Atsuko grew, she realized that she did not feel as if she was the founder reborn. No matter what she remembered, no matter what skills she had, she wasn't an adult reborn into a new child body. Rather, she was a child born with the memories and skills of an adult. Was she a disappointment? Was she born wrong? The prospect was terrifying to her, and only one solution arose in her mind. She had to act as if she was a perfect rebirth. As if she had truly achieved the family's goal. If she didn't, who knew what would happen? It was only natural, then, that Atsuko would become the family's representative in the Holy Grail War. Who better then their legendary founder, whose victory would be a stepping stone to their original goal?
Personality: Mordred is a surly, arrogant, and supremely violent individual with a massive amount of personal issues. She's got an extremely short temper and, in spite of her insistence about her knighthood and heirdom to the throne, a tendency to kick, punch, and even bite if she feels she must in a fight. In battle and indeed in all matters, she is also insistent Mordred loves battle, the more violent and intense the better, and shows absolutely no mercy to her opponents. Indeed, she is seemingly utterly without mercy. It may be surprising to some, then, that Mordred absolutely refuses to involve innocent civilians, will take no actions that could harm them, and will even do her best to defend them. In spite of how violent, rude, and arrogant she is, indeed it can be said that there are some traits of the blonde girl that can be considered knightly. Speaking of which, while Mordred has no issue with others knowing she is female, she utterly loathes being treated as girl. No matter who it is, no matter what the situation, she will immediately threaten anyone who calls her a girl with violence with absolutely no hesitation. At the same time, calling her a boy is likely to earn the same reaction. On the subject of her 'father', it can be said that Mordred outwardly hates her, but deeper down her feelings are far more confused. Mordred at once admires and loves King Arthur, but also despises and resents her in the same breath. She will not take praise of 'Father' well, but she will also become angry if 'Father' is insulted. She will take any chance she gets to wear something other then her armor, though she is also not a fan of anything overtly girly. She prefers shorts, tank tops, tube tops, jackets, and basically anything comfortable and easy to wear. She also greatly enjoys eating. She is also a rather immature, childish individual, prone to distractions and complaining.
Stats:
Strength: B+
Endurance: A
Agility: B
Mana: B
Luck: D
Noble Phantasm: A
Class Skills:
Magic Resistance: B
Riding: B
Personal Skills:
Instinct: B. A finely-tuned battle sense bordering on precognition. It becomes possible to understand the best course of action in battle in an instant. At a rank of B, even a surprise attack using high-power firearms is likely to be evaded.
Mana Burst: A. The capacity to infuse one's weaponry and body with magical energy. For Mordred, this takes the form of what appears to be red lightning, and can be utilized to enhance her speed, defend herself, and deliver devastating blows even if she is entirely unarmed.
Battle Continuation: B. Even mortal injury can be survived for some time, allowing Mordred to continue fighting. Rather then a capacity to survive, it is best defined as a stubborn refusal to acknowledge death no matter how obvious it may be.
Charisma: C-. A high degree of personal appeal, permitting the ability to command others and bring out their best capabilites. While Mordred lacks in experience at commanding a country, her attitude and instincts offer her some capacity to persuade and command others.
Effects: A sword that marks the nature of a king, wielded by one who was never a king. As such, its inherent enhancement capabilities are lost when it is wielded by Mordred. In spite of this, Mordred continues to wield it due to its nature as a symbol of kingship and its status as a fine blade merely for its physical abilities. However, it possesses considerable capability as a conduit for the channeling of magical energy, marking it as a powerfully destructive weapon with the capacity to annihilate entire armies when used for such a purpose.
Name: Clarent Blood Arthur: Rebellion Against My Beautiful Father
Rank: A+
Type: Anti-Army
Appearance: N/A
Effects: The most powerful attack that can be unleashed through Clarent. Channeling magical energy and her own hatred and confused feelings towards King Arthur, Mordred unleashes a blast of magical energy capable of utterly annihilating hundreds of soldiers in a single destructive wave. A hideous attack driven by the same feelings that lead to Mordred's rebellion, it gives Clarent the image of an evil sword with a demonic nature before it tears through its targets. A devastating attack, it nevertheless is far too destructive to be utilized in populated areas.
Name: Secret of Pedigree: Helmet of Hidden Infidelity
Rank: C
Type: Anti-Unit(Self)
Appearance: Mordred's Helmet
Effects: A helmet worn by Mordred to conceal her identity. It was not by her choice, but rather by the order of her mother, Morgan le Fay. Possessed of an obfuscating nature, it conceals her parameters and true name regardless of any action she performs. As long as she wears the helmet, even if she were to say her own name it would be impossible to connect it to Mordred herself. Even her Master's understanding of the Servant they have summoned is limited by this Noble Phantasm. However, it must be removed in order to use Clarent Blood Arthur, and Mordred herself personally boasts great dislike for the helmet.
Personality: A beacon even in the darkest abyss. Graceful, gentle, and kind like a mother or an older sister, with a maturity that belies her age. She believes that everyone deserves a second chance, that all can be saved. Though she has been told that magi are heretics that pervert the natural world, she does not hate them. In fact, she’d much rather understand them than hurt them. As much as many magi believe themselves to be above Humanity, they are Human. They are God’s creation, so they must also serve God’s purpose in some way. Her love is endless, though it is true that some lambs need the crook to teach them the way they should go.
Skills:
Homemaker- Lucia is very skilled at a variety of household tasks, such as cleaning, cooking, and sewing. She finds peace and comfort in daily chores, and actually enjoys them to some extent. Her jota triestina is absolutely amazing.
Technologically Literate- While she’s no genius super hacker, she can put “computer skills” on a resume and set up a gaming console. Her aptitude in technology is not particularly notable except in comparison to many magi, especially older ones, who have no interest in such things. She has Bible.com bookmarked.
Lamb’s Demeanor- Lucia’s natural allure and gentle spirit are enchanting. Most are inclined to under-estimate her, or to believe the best in her even at first meeting. She’s very easy to talk to, and even easier to listen to.
Abilities: Quality of Circuits: A Quantity of Circuits: E Elemental Affinity: Aether Attribute: Natural Order (Returning things to how they should be)
Baptism Rite: A 10-count ritual (reciting parts of Psalm 91) that disperses spiritual bodies. This is the only Sacrament allowed to members of the Church, at least in the public eye. Lucia’s aptitude for sending spiritual bodies back where they belong is exceptional due to her attribute and circuit quality, though even she cannot harm Servants as they are bound to a Master via Command Seal. Even at such a young age, she is a top quality exorcist.
Conceptual Weapon (Natural State): By holding a folded page of Psalm 104 in between her middle and forefinger, she pours her Prayer Power into the excerpt to create a short, thin black blade like a scalpel. This Conceptual Weapon returns things to their natural state as dictated by Lucia, or rather, what Lucia believes that thing’s natural state should be as defined by God. In the simplest sense, it can heal sick and injured bodies and destroy curses. Hypothetically, she could also use this weapon to damage magical circuits or dispel magecraft, as she believes they are perversions of God’s will. However, she can always choose to cut around some things, meaning she is entirely capable of healing Magi without also damaging their circuits or dispeling their abilities.
Assets:
Backing From the Holy Church- If not win, the Church would like Lucia to last long enough to inform them about the other contestants. They will furnish her with enough to facilitate her survival for a while, hoping they’ll be able to assess who might have a wish that will not be a blight on God’s Earth. Her participation is a close-kept secret, and she has sanctuary at Sako City’s church. Her cover is that she is an apprentice to the overseer.
Fragment of the Jug of Saint Moses the Black- A minor holy item that Lucia carries inside her rosary, which secretly serves as a reliquary. The carrier of this relic will be gifted with superhuman physical ability, which can only be used offensively as long as they are protecting themselves or another. The carrier may never be the aggressor, and even in self defense, may not kill a living Human. Aberrations, however, may be destroyed with impunity.
Brief Backstory: Lucia was given up to a small convent in Italy shortly after she was born. She never knew her biological mother or father, but the Sisters and Mother Superior treated her like family. For a while, it was an idyllic life in the Italian countryside, where everyone was nice and generally got along. All the Sisters loved each other, broke bread together, told stories, shared secrets…
Then, one day, a strange heart-shaped mark appeared below Lucia’s bellybutton. Not knowing if it was the work of God or Satan, they contacted the Vatican, which sent a priest to inspect the phenomenon. He was a strange, dour man. Not like the jolly and kindly priests in the village. The man proclaimed that Lucia had been selected by God for a mission that only she could do, and quickly whisked her away to Vatican City. In only a couple of weeks, her entire utopian life had been uprooted.
Lucia was briefed on the world of Magi, the Holy Grail War, and what her mark meant. It was so far from anything she had known that she could scarcely wrap her head around it, but they were short on time. She would need to learn the Church’s holy Sacraments if she was to fulfill her mission: to win the Holy Grail War, or at least prevent the more sick and depraved Magi from succeeding.
To give her an edge, Lucia was given a holy relic and taught the Baptism Rite. She took to this Sacrament remarkably quickly, and seemed to have an innate talent for performing miracles. Since Lucia seemed to be particularly gifted, they took a gamble trying to teach her about conceptual weapons before the next War. Despite how long it takes most individuals to learn this secret Sacrament, Lucia was able to create her own conceptual weapon in only a year. Hers, however, had different effects from the Black Keys that she had used as a jumping-off point.
With her talent, Lucia’s trainers eagerly suggested that she create a weapon that could easily kill Magi as well. They were only blights, after all, and it would give her a great advantage in the upcoming conflict. This is where Lucia put her foot down.
“God did not give me this gift to hurt people.”
To Lucia, the idea of killing a Human, even a Magus, was unacceptable. If she had to kill a person to reach her goal, then it was not a goal worth reaching. If God wanted her to succeed, it would be through kindness and perseverance. Though the Vatican filled her head with dehumanizing ideas about Magi, they were still Human. This, she knew.
Her stalwart beliefs stymied even the Church’s most influential men. They had to accept that she would participate in the War on her own terms, which even they could not dictate. Her life until then, although humble and ignorant, bred a beast inside her that was horrible in its conviction.
What Lucia believed the world should be, God believed the world should be.
Lucia was shipped off to Japan a few months ahead of the War to get comfortable at the local church and build rapport with the overseer, with one last thing nagging at the back of her mind:
“What would my wish be, I wonder?”
Name: Ludwig II
Class: Berserker
Appearance:
Personality: I wish to remain an eternal enigma to myself and to others. The Swan Knight of legend, who adorned the walls of my family’s castle growing up, was much the same. What could be said about this mysterious knight-king, but that she is a true romantic? That much should be obvious. But my character is of such depth and intrigue that I could talk about myself for years, and one could scarcely scratch the surface. Not since Arthur has there been a king of such chivalry and brightness, a beacon for her people! Hope!
Young, beautiful, and dashingly handsome! A bewitching swan sang its final song well before its time, and the entire world wept. Shall I wax poetic about the importance of dreams, no matter how impossible? Shall I weave a tragic tale of madness and betrayal? Shall I spin a story of great love, and even greater loss? All these epics I could recite from my heart, because I lived them all.
Loneliness, too. I could tell you of that, my dear subject. But do not dwell on those thoughts. Instead, are there any damsels that need saving? Dragons that must be slain? Villains to be thwarted?
Stats:
Strength: E
Endurance: D
Agility: D
Mana: C
Luck: A
Noble Phantasm: A
Class Skills: Märchenkönig C++: Ludwig’s personalized version of Madness Enhancement. She believes herself to be like a knight from a fairy tale. Enhancement becomes stronger the more she buys into her own fantasy, which includes adhering strictly to a chivalrous code. If the necessity of pragmatism leaks into her fantasy identity, she may become more lucid and less powerful. Uniquely, this ability boosts her further against dragons, monsters, and villains of any stripe.
Personal Skills: Appreciation of the Arts D+: Chance of identifying the true name of a servant through seeing their noble phantasm. This chance is increased dramatically if the servant is related to fairy tales or Christian myth. Charisma B-: Ludwig was beloved by her people, as a king unlike any other. She has charisma enough to lead a nation, though those with power were wary of her lofty dreams. Ultimately, she was betrayed not by her people, but by her own ministers. The Perpetually Open Vaults of The Fairy Tale King B-: Ludwig always has enough funds to buy anything she’d like, as long as it is artistic or frivolous or whimsical. She won’t buy anything incredibly useful.
Noble Phantasm(s):
Name: Neuschwanstein Castle: The Nexus From Which Dreams Spring and Return
Rank: A
Type: Anti-Army
Appearance: That dreamlike fairy tale castle that never existed even in the days of legend. Contained within are various rooms and displays, each more entrancing than the last. Though unfinished, it was built from the dreams of many, and serves as the groundwork of many dreams to come.
Effects:Neuschwanstein Castle is a reality marble in which Ludwig can fully realize her ideal of a fairy tale knight. All of her stats increase significantly, and if she considers her opponent to be a villain, the villain gets weaker. A hero should win against a villain, after all. That is the knightly ideal. In addition, plans and strategies that should not normally work have a high likelihood of turning out favorably as long as they are conceptually possible. Neuschwanstein Castle is a place where imagination becomes as powerful a weapon as any sword. In truth, it is a place in which Ludwig can live out her fantasy of being the hero of a story to the fullest.
Name: Carmen Cygni: The Swan’s Last Performance Over Lake Starnberg
Rank: D
Type: Anti-Unit (Self)
Appearance: Takes the form of a blue pendant on Ludwig’s chest, but exists conceptually beyond that.
Effects:If Ludwig would die, her saint graph is instead applied to her master to form a demi-servant. Ludwig’s castle exists far beyond anything a Human could build. Long after her death, it continues to inspire imaginations the world over. Take your dreams in your hand, and build.
Alignment: Lawful Good
Changes: Ludwig II’s grandfather, and her namesake, asked that his son’s firstborn also be named Ludwig. Ludwig I, a fanciful man who enjoyed fairy tales as much as his granddaughter eventually would, found a fey sort of humor in the naming mishap when Ludwig II was born a girl, and so the name stayed. In early life, Ludwig II was somewhat reclusive, and so very few knew that she was a woman. Only that her name was undoubtedly male. The family assumed that Otto, her younger brother, would take the throne. As Otto grew, however, it became increasingly obvious that he was deeply disturbed even from a young age. With no other recourse, Ludwig II ascended the throne through a set of ridiculous circumstances that seemed almost like a fairy tale in itself. Upon her introduction to society, all those who looked upon Ludwig II would likely describe her as “a beautiful, delicate, and lovely king”.
Appearance: A grey, tall, very terrible hero of Ulster. Perpetually has a bit of a haggard look to him—having to oversee his weapon and fulfill his duties as one of Ulster’s champions did not always leave him the most time to attend to personal upkeep in life, and that is reflected in his appearance as a servant.
Personality: Serious almost to a fault, and with the pride to match; a fight is not a joyous occasion for Celtchar, but neither is it one to shy away from if it should come upon him. His devotion was born purely of duty to his people and to Conchobar mac Nessa, not out of a desire for glory—though he was not nearly self-effacing enough to allow his skills and contributions to go unnoted, or to avoid a shot at claiming the champion’s portion of any feast for himself, as his pride could allow neither, even if he did not otherwise seek quarrel like many of his fellows.
Indeed, more often than not he was attempting to calm and quell the artifact that he had been given to watch over, that often predicted battle on its own and had the will to fight that Celtchar instead had to control—his great spear, the Lúin Celtchair, which some said was the Spear of Lugh itself. If that were truly so, then the honour of watching over the weapon of his comrade Cú Chulainn’s true father was greater than any vainglorious deeds he might otherwise undertake. Otherwise, he was known as much for his guile as for his skill with the spear—his defeat of Conganchnes mac Dedad or the Luch Donn being proof of his wits.
Alas, like many of his comrades, his life was cut short by the interweaving of fate and his own great pride. Unable to abide Blaí Briugu laying with his wife Brig Bretach, following the compulsion that was laid on him to sleep with any woman that came to his home alone, Celtchar set out and slew the man in front of both Conchobar and Cú Chulainn. To repay the murder, he was sentenced to complete the tasks that resulted in his own tragic demise, tasks that his honour could not allow him to leave undone.
Eye of the Mind (True): A: Capable of calm analysis of the abilities of the opponent as well as the battle conditions even when in danger and deduce an appropriate course of action after considering all possibilities to escape from a predicament.
Devoted as much—if not more so—to his wits as to his simple skill and strength in battle, Celtchar is adept both at gathering information and putting it to its best use, even while engaged in a fight for his life. Nothing less should be expected of any warrior of Ulster, except perhaps one who has divine blood to carry him instead of his brains.
Valor: B: As one of the Champions of Ulster, Celtchar is no stranger to battle, nor will he shy away from it, no matter the foe—it takes quite a lot to overcome his resolve and iron will. However, his bravery is still tempered by sense, as he won’t rush in without a plan or a weapon to see him through.
Honor of Suffering: C: A Skill that makes those who have it become more powerful as they are inflicted more pain. The cost used to heal injuries via magecraft or similar methods is reduced.
Whether pierced in the groin with a spear, freshly raised from a magical debilitation, with his arm caught in the crushing jaws of a fierce hound with only slight protection from a supple log, or compelled to slay his own beloved dog, the pains inflicted on Celtchar could not break him; instead, they steeled his resolve and drove him to greater heights of achievement in the service of his home. However, no hero can draw strength from their pain forever—all will fall eventually.
Beast Slayer: C: Owing to the dangers prevalent in his time, as well as the two great hounds he had to slay to repay his murder of Blaí Briugu, Celtchar has passing familiarity with beasts, both in how to lure them and how to put them down.
Appearance: Longer than the average man is tall, even coming up to Celtchar’s own shoulder, with a blade long enough even to cut through his enemies, and at least fifty rivets studded into the haft along its length, the Lúin Celtchair is a frightening weapon to behold. The entire weapon is blackened by the flames that always threaten to blaze forth from it, and it eternally drips crimson blood from the blade, the poisonous concoction it always had to be submerged in to satiate its bloodlust long since having become one with the thirsty lance.
Effects:
Nigh-Guaranteed Death: Eternally dripping the vile mixture of blood and offal that had been used to keep it sated, the spear is a poisonous thing, and has the rage to match. It was said in legend that each thrust of the spear would kill a man, and the venomous mixture coating it was even enough to cut short Celtchar’s own life.
Flames of Rage: Much like Lugh’s own spear (which it very well may be, tamed only slightly by the passing of time), Celtchar’s lance is consumed with insatiable bloodlust, rage, and murderous intent, requiring it be kept under control at all times. If allowed, the spear itself will burst into a blazing flame, struggling against the hand that holds it to slay the nearest possible target. As a servant, Celtchar can even withstand the flame and possibly use it to his advantage—for a time.
Seeker of Battle: The spear lusts for battle in a way that Celtchar does not. By its very vibrations, one can possibly divine whether battle is imminent—but beyond that, if loosed entirely, the weapon attempts to seek its own kills; even in legend it was said that if cast it would kill nine men, and a king, royal heir, or chieftain would surely be among them. It is possible that Celtchar himself merely guides the spear’s bloodlust, rather than wielding it as a mortal might wield a normal blade, but this can cause him as much difficulty as it might grant any advantage.
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Name: Arthur Howell
Age: (almost) 19
Gender: Male
Appearance:
What did you expect, honestly? He's a college-aged kid doing a gap year. He's reasonably fit. Dresses fairly conservatively most of the time. Big, expressive eyes. Adorable kid.
Personality:
Arthur is a friendly, inquisitive young man with a fairly extroverted disposition towards social interactions. Despite that, he's not always the best at them, something he's fairly well aware of—most people don't follow along well when he starts off on his own little anecdote in response to one of theirs, trying to establish a connection. And they definitely struggle once they make the mistake of talking about something he's interested in, because if he gets carried away, he just won't stop.
Of course, he's aware of that, he's working on it, so most of the time he ends up staying more quiet than he might want to. Still, though, he's off on a nice vacation, he plans to enjoy it, and maybe make some new friends that he can keep up with on Skype after he goes back to the USA!
Skills:
Good With Tech: Yeah, he's been around computers basically his entire life, so it's no surprise that he's pretty decent with them, knows how to research on the internet, all of that. Good with smartphones and stuff too! And all the other normal modern conveniences of life.
Amateur Boxer: He goes to a boxing gym back home. Dove into it harder than before for his gap year before going on this trip—he even took second place in his weight class when the three gyms back home held an amateur tournament amongst themselves! Isn't that great?
Quick Thinker: Does logic puzzles for fun sometimes. Usually pretty good at picking the big picture out of the little details, doesn't have much trouble coming up with a plan. Unless it's about what to go and eat. Really, way too many interesting options in this place.
Fast Reader: Yeah, he reads a lot.
Good Driver: Gotta keep those insurance premiums low, you know? Unfortunately he can't drive in Japan still.
Abilities:
Quality of Circuits: D Quantity of Circuits: A Elemental Affinity: Earth Attribute: Conversion
General Magecraft: He's technically capable, though he doesn't know it. Who knows what he might learn with a little help?
Assets:
Laptop and Smartphone: Very important. Arthur's lifelines to his family back home, as well as the only things really enabling him to get around day to day in Japan without too much trouble—yeah, he learned a bit of Japanese, but not enough. Google translate is really important.
Trust Fund: He's got no clue who his dad is, but the way his mom tells it, before the man disappeared entirely during her pregnancy they decided on his name and his dad eventually set up a trust fund for the kid to be able to use once he turned 18. It's how he was able to take a gap year, and now take this vacation to Japan.
Brief Backstory:
Back before he was born, Arthur's mother—a fairly well-to-do IT specialist for a mid-sized company in Colorado—got involved in a short-term fling with who she thought was some travelling tech mogul that took a shine to her one day when they met at Winter Park Ski Resort over the holiday season. It was silly, no doubt, but they were both in their mid-twenties, having a fun time and acting like they didn't have anything to care about. Of course, they didn't always make the best decisions—and by the end of the holidays, she turned out to be pregnant. The "entrepeneur" she was with didn't care to remain around, she wasn't willing to leave, but she also wasn't willing to terminate. So, they settled somethings about the child yet to be born, and he left to go back home.
Some time after that, Arthur was born. He had a simple, relatively average middle class childhood, other than being the product of a single mother who would never speak to anyone about his father. He did decently well in school, he was in the Gifted program, he didn't have a ton of close friends but he got along well with everybody. Good ACT and SAT scores, good GPA. Of course, once he graduated, his mother broke the news to him—while she still wouldn't tell him who his father was, she did reveal that he had set-up a trust fund in a fixed trust for his son, with his mother as the trustee. As he grew up the assets in the fund essentially covered child support payments and gave a nice boost for their lifestyle, but it was to be turned over to him once he finished primary school.
Given that he hadn't exactly been sure that he wanted to go to college immediately after graduating high school, the news was very welcome for Arthur. The amount was such that just living off of the dividends would provide him a comfortable middle class income if he didn't even decide to work, though he wasn't so lacking in ambition as to just choose that option. However, he did choose to use it to take a gap year, and to pay for a personal trip to go and explore Japan in the weeks surrounding his birthday.
Of course, little did he know, his father was a magus, and against his father's hopes, he'd inherited that aptitude. Moreover, the rebuilt Holy Grail recognized his presence and bloodline, even if it was unknown to him, just in time for the newest Holy Grail War.
