[hider=Caster] [u][b]Caster CS[/b][/u] [b] [img]http://safebooru.org//images/1670/577578fd11b8e48bd1eda56f8344389b148cdbaa.jpg?1749228[/img] [/b] Despite hailing from ancient Rome, Virgil sports a rather modern look with her black hat, white blouse, red ribbon, short cape and long black skirt. She is rather proud of her attire but likes to pretend she doesn't care how she looks. [b]True Name:[/b] Publius Vergilius Maro [b]Aliases:[/b] Virgil, Vergil, Fferyllt, Pheryllt, Maiden, Vergilius the Sorcerer. [b]Class: [/b] Caster [b]Gender: [/b] Female [b]Height: [/b] 162.5cm/5’4 [b]Weight: [/b] 45.35kg/100 lbs [b]Alignment: [/b] Lawful Neutral [b]Wish for the Grail: [/b] To destroy the ‘Aeneid’/Remove the ‘Aeneid’ from history. [b]Personality:[/b] Virgil is a very calm and composed person, thoughtful and ever curious. She loves to study, experiment and explore new areas, learning was something that has always been very important to her. She is a very wise and accomplished person who was hailed as one of Rome’s greatest and most innovative poets during her lifetime and her literary influence only grew after death. However despite this she is a perfectionist at heart and her biggest self critic. The ‘Aeneid’ which is considered to be the national epic of Rome since the time of its composition and widely described as her magnum opus, would have been burned over a few imperfect lines in the 12 book behemoth of a poem if she had not passed away before she could do so. Virgil could be described as a somewhat quiet person, picking her words very carefully and reading the situation. As she was initially planning a career in rhetoric and law before deciding on poetry she developed a rather concise and persuasive way of speaking, it also helps that she is naturally a rather kind and gentle person with a caring disposition. However despite this Virgil could actually get rather shy and timid around new people, she was also a very cautious person who took great care in how she presented herself. Virgil was always hailed as a very talented woman with a great intellect and that was for good reason, not only did she gift her talents to poetry as well as study a little rhetoric and law but in life she also had an interest in things such as philosophy, astronomy and even medicine. She was so popular and respected, and had such a profound and important impact on western literature that she was chosen by Dante Alighieri to act as his guide through hell and purgatory in his ‘Divine Comedy’, in ‘Inferno’ and ‘Purgatorio’ she is presented as the perfect Roman displaying all of the noble virtues and wisdom that would be expected. In his writings she not only act as a guide but also as a protector and a person of great reason with an almost teacher like relationship with Dante. Virgil was regarded as such a masterful poet and respectable person that her work and name was still held in the highest regard during the Middle Ages and beyond. [b]Background:[/b] Virgil was born in the village of of Andes, near Mantua in Cisalpine Gaul. She was the descendant of Roman colonists who had settled there earlier. She came from a humble background the same as her father who worked his whole life on the family far.. However despite this Virgil was destined for greatness in her life and showed signs of that at an early age and she received her first education when she was 5 years old, she would continue her education in Cremona, Milan and eventually Rome. Throughout her school years she was closely associated with Catullus’s neoteric circle and according to her schoolmates she was a very shy and reserved person during her school years, she was even given the nickname “Maiden” by them due to her apparent aloofness and social anxieties. It was also known that Virgil had very poor health throughout her life and in some ways was forced to live her life as an invalid which in her early years made it quite hard to connect with people and formed a psychological distance between herself and others, at least to her. During her school years she published a small collection of her early poetry under the title ‘Appendix Vergiliana’. Some of the most well known of these were the ‘Catalepton’ which consisted of fourteen short poems, and a narrative poem titled ‘Culex’(The Gnat.) These were generally not considered particularly excellent pieces of poetry by many of the scholars, however they were definitely a good start to her career as a poet and would pave the way for what would be considered the three great works of Virgil. The first of Virgil's three great works was the ‘Eclogues’ which derived its name from the greek for selections and it was published in 39 BC. It was a group of ten poems that were modeled after the bucolic hexameter poetry, also known as pastoral poetry, of the Hellenistic poet Theocritus. She was driven to write this as a desperate attempt to reclaim her family's farm which had been lost in the conclusion of the Battle of Philippi where Augustus fought against an army lead by the assassins of Julius Caesar, after the battle Augustus paid of the veterans of his army with land in Northern Italy which meant that Virgil's family farm was given away. The work consisted of many things, among them were; the effects that the confiscation of land had on the Italian Countryside, the contrasting opinions of Romans who had their land taken away from them and how brutal of an affect it could have on people, both heterosexual and homosexual love, the myth of Daphnis in a song contest, the cosmic and mythological song of Silenus, a heated poetic contest and finally the sufferings of the Roman poet Cornelius Gallus. Through this work Virgil was credited with establishing Arcadia(Utopia) as a poetic ideal, which still resonates strongly in Western Literature and visual arts, it also set the stage for a great number of future writers. Christian thinkers believed that this great work was one of magic and prophecy through their interpretation of the fourth poem which detailed the birth of a boy which ushered in a golden age, this was a prediction of the birth of Jesus and so Virgil was seen on a similar level as the Hebrew prophets of the Bible as she was considered to be a herald of Christianity. Around 38BC Virgil became part of the circle of Maecenas, who were agents of Augustus who sought to counter the sympathy that was building among the leading families of Rome for Mark Antony by rallying Rome's great literary figures to Augustus’s side. This was where Virgil came to know and become good friends with other famous literary figures such as Horace and Varius Rufus. During the following years Virgil began working on her second great work called ‘Georgics’ which derived its name from the greek for “On Working the Earth.” He dedicated the four books that made this work to his good friend Maecenas, the main theme of the books was the methods of running a farm. The work was published in 29BC, the first two books focused on raising crops and trees, the third book focused on livestock and horses as well as the description of a plague at the end of it, and book four focused on beekeeping and the different kinds of quality of bees. A particularly beloved and celebrated passage was the ‘Lauds Italiae’ which asserted the idea that no land deserved praise greater than Italy. At the end of book four Virgil added a long mythological narrative on a request by Emperor Augustus, it vividly described the discovery of beekeeping as well as Orpheus’s journey to the underworld. Virgil read out the ‘Georgics’ to Emperor Augustus in 31 BC after Augustus had returned from defeating Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium. Virgil spent the last eleven years of her life working on her third and final great work, ‘The Aeneid’. It was a work that was commissioned by Emperor Augustus himself and is regarded as Virgil's finest work and one of the most important poems in the entire history of western literature. ‘The Aeneid’ was an epic poem which consisted of 12 books, they described the story of Aeneas, a Trojan warrior who was forced to flee from the sack of Troy and made his journey to Italy where he battled with the Italian king Turnus and settled in what would become the foundations of Rome. ‘The Aeneid’ was full of prophecies about the future of Rome, the deeds of Augustus and his ancestors, famous Romans and the Carthaginian Wars. Once again Virgil recited some of the Aeneid to Emperor Augustus, books 2, 4 and 6 in particular. Her reading of the sixth book caused the sister of Augustus to faint which inspired many later pieces of art. In book one the ancestors of Rome were driven from Troy and forced by a storm to sail for Carthage where they are welcomed by Queen Dido who over the course of the book falls in love with Aeneas. In books two and three Aeneas tells his stories of the Trojan war and his wandering of the Mediterranean in search for land, however in book four he is visited by Jupiter who orders Aeneas to found a new city, which results in Aeneas leaving Carthage, consequently this causes Queen Dido to curse Aeneas as she commits suicide. In book five Aeneas mourns his father and holds a funeral for him, after which in book six he is guided through the underworld where he meets with his father, here his father reveals to him the destiny of Rome. The latter six books of ‘The Aeneid’ detail the war between Aeneas and King Turnus from his arrival in Italy, political marriage, formations of alliances and finally the killing of Turnus whos pleas for mercy are ignored by Aeneas and is sent to the underworld lamenting. In 19 BC Virgil traveled to Greece with the intention of revising ‘The Aeneid’, however during the journey she caught a fever. Despite being weakened with disease she made it clear that it was her dying wish for ‘The Aeneid’ to be burned as it was imperfect. However on the orders of Emperor Augustus the work was published after her death. Despite the regrets of Virgil her works revolutionized literature from the moment they were published, her three great works became texts that all educated Romans were familiar with and was admired by many of the later Roman poets, even worshipped by some. Her tomb was constructed in the entrance of a roman tunnel a short distance from the centre of Naples and for a couple centuries was a place of great veneration and pilgrimages. It was believed that Virgil's works had magical properties and were used by many for divination. People would select passages at random from what they called the “Virgilian Lots” in order to answer questions for them. The legend of Virgil's magical power grew and grew until she was recognised as a great magician whose magic was perhaps even greater than her literary works. The legend of her magical power was so great that the welsh version of her name, “Fferyllt”, was the term that they used for magicians and the modern Welsh word for pharmacist, “fferyllydd” was based off of this. [u][b]Stats:[/b][/u] [i]Strength:[/i] E [i]Endurance:[/i] E [i]Agility:[/i] E [i]Magical Energy:[/i] A+ [i]Luck:[/i] A [i]Noble Phantasm:[/i] EX [b]Class Skills:[/b] Item Creation - EX Virgil can create magnificent pieces of literature that can prophesise the future, vaguely describing to the reader what is to come whether it be near, far or distant. As heroic spirits are beings who can defy fate these prophecies are far from fixed and may not even come to pass nevermind altered. Furthermore Virgil can create golems out of copper, this stems from the legend where Virgil crafted a copper statue for each of the Roman gods who would ring a bell whenever someone was intending treachery towards Rome, along with this she created copper dogs to chase down criminals to tear them apart and a copper horse and rider to keep the peace who would cut down or trample wrong doers. As she spent practically every waking hour of her life studying and creating she has become an expert of sorts in creating various magical items which can represent the ripe fruits of her dedication in life. [b]Personal Skills: [/b] Earthly Paradise - A As Dantes guide Virgil survived the depths of hell and the climb of purgatory to reach the Earthly Paradise, through this her mental and emotional fortitude is extremely high. Despite not being Christian herself she has overcome the seven deadly sins and was only denied access to heaven The Marvelous City of Napoli - B It was said that Virgil built the city of Naples for her true love, however in reality no such love existed and the city was instead constructed to show the glory and wealth of Rome. For her master she can bring wealth and comfort as she had for the city. Furthermore the city in which she is summoned in will receive many bonuses and boons from her arrival, the land surrounding the city will become more fertile and business within the city will soar to new heights. With Virgil's presence the city of the Holy Grail War has the opportunity to become one of great beauty. A Rendition Fit for an Emperor - C+ In her life Virgil was chosen to recite her works to Emperor Augustus several times and through this he was so impressed that he commissioned her to begin work on what would become ‘The Aeneid’. Over the years Virgil refined her speech and was able to deliver her tellings of the books so powerfully that it caused the Emperor's sister to faint. This is a skill that reflects Virgil's skills and experience as an orator, replacing the charisma skill that would generally be reserved for military leaders. This skill receives a particular boost when interacting with rulers. [b]Combat Capabilities:[/b] The entirety of Virgil's combat ability comes from her magic, her body is a weak and frail one however even that has been boosted far beyond what it truly was in life due to the nature of heroic spirits. She received no military training and dedicated her life to writing and studying, intentionally removing herself from politics and conflict so that she could spend most of her life with poetry and magic. She was however very close with powerful nobles, including the Emperor Augustus and his family which allowed her to observe different strategies and tactics used by the Romans however she is not a particularly proficient military strategist herself nor is she fit to lead an army. [b]Noble Phantasm(s):[/b] [b]Name: [/b] The Black Book [b]Rank:[/b] A [b]Type: [/b] Anti-Unit/Anti-Army [b]Description:[/b] The Black Book originally belonged to an ancient evil spirit who had been trapped. In exchange for the book and the knowledge required to understand it Virgil freed the spirit, only to later defeat the spirit. The book of legend is said to be one of curses and evil deeds, the spells contained inside the book can be casted straight from it if the reader has the knowledge required to use them. There is a variety of spells within the book but some of the most significant ones are; paralysing an army, turning men to stone, putting people to sleepm summoning rivers from nothing, casting great fires, stealing fire from its sources (an anecdote claims that Virgil once stall all of the fire in Rome to form one giant flame) and creating links between various bodies of water that one can travel through(a form of prepared teleportation/transportation. The is an anecdote of Virgil jumping into a pot of water and turning up in Sically.) The book is not required for Virgil to cast these spells however it is far easier and quicker to simply cast from the book, although Virgil can also grant the knowledge of how to use the book to others. [b]Name: [/b] Regulate Poetae - Rome's Greatest Poet [b]Rank:[/b] EX [b]Type: [/b] Anti-Unit [b]Description:[/b] The greatest poet that Rome ever saw, her works echo throughout history due to its titanic influence on western literature. This noble phantasm represents the genius literary mind that was revered and worshipped. The ability if this noble phantasm is that any piece of work Virgil writes, no matter what the actual contents of the work was it will surely be a truly “great work" that has the potential to revolutionise entire fields. Each of Virgil's works are imbued with varying degrees of magic. [/hider]