[hider=Nero] [list][*][b][u]Name:[/u][/b] Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus [*][b][u]Class:[/u][/b] Rider [*][b][u]Appearance:[/u][/b] [url=https://i.imgur.com/F4Avts9.jpg]At once both a bit more mature and yet... off.[/url] [hider][img]https://i.imgur.com/F4Avts9.jpg[/img][/hider] [*][b][u]Personality:[/u][/b] There are several words that can be used to describe Nero's attitude, but inevitably it all comes round to the obvious: if there's anyone in the world that can possibly compete with her by ego alone, then it's the King of Heroes, followed shortly thereafter by the King of Conquerors. She assumes, from the start, that she is the greatest of artists, able to rival the very gods themselves, and that everything she does must be perfect. To that end, she puts a truly vast amount of passion into everything that she does--a passion that she expects to be reciprocated, even if her subjects cannot possibly match it or understand the art produced. Her driving desire, besides art, is beauty (and for some reason, competing with Heracles. Given that she's a short girl, wrestling a lion might be impressive but it's a long way off), and it doesn't matter if you're male or female to that end in getting her interest. Because of this, she has little direct interest in wealth or treasure--but the trappings of it greatly appeal to her interests. Despite her general attitude being upbeat, she's quite easily angered by criticising her art or refusing to experience it, believing that it is something to be admired and praised even if beyond your comprehension. On the flip side, flattering her is an easy way to get into Nero's good graces and manipulate her. Under the influence of her recurring migraines, Nero's demanding nature is naturally worse, being far less... pleasant when her demands are rejected, no matter how much she might try to make up for it later. [*][hider=Stats]Fundamentally the same as Saber and Caster. [list][*][b]Strength:[/b] D [*][b]Endurance:[/b] D [*][b]Agility:[/b] A [*][b]Mana:[/b] B [*][b]Luck:[/b] A [*][b]Noble Phantasm:[/b] -[/list][/hider] [*][hider=Class Skills][list][*][b]Magic Resistance:[/b] C. Fundamentally unchanged from her rank as Saber, and pitifully low regardless. She comes from an age of magic but was largely uninvolved. [*][b]Riding:[/b] A. A class necessity, but how much is her actual skill with a chariot and how much is her ego?[/list][/hider] [*][hider=Personal Skills][list][*][b]Divinity:[/b] A++ (D). With the family descent from Mars, and holding a direct descent back to the founding of the family tree through her mother, Nero holds a natural level of Divinity. However, through Imperial Privilege--and specifically the Imperial Cult, which holds the dead Emperors as deities and in places and parts held select Emperors as living gods, including Nero--she has achieved the highest possible level of Divinity, pushed further by her... competitiveness towards Apollo. Amongst other reasons. [*][b]Imperial Privilege:[/b] EX. Nero's insistence that a certain ability should be the providence of the Emperor can make this a reality for a period. Such insistence is the entire basis for her combat ability, granting the Emperor a truly impressive grasp of swordsmanship for one that would never have needed to use it, and skills in the various fields of athletics the Romans entertained (including wrestling, even if you're a lion). Such insistence gives her a truly diverse skill set despite her lack of direct combat power, from excellent Riding through to all aspects of leading, arranging, and planning a military campaign from the tactical to the strategic level. These skills also work on the less relevant civic level--legal matters, politics, architecture and city planning; the role of an Emperor is vast. Not that all of these skills are entirely unearned; she was quite a competent lawyer and administrator, at least without migraines interfering. At this rank, even abilities that affect the body, such as Divinity, can be acquired. It should also be able to make her insistence of artistic skill reality... if she were able to realise that she lacked such abilities in the first place. Although her architectural skill is competent, her tastes run to the gaudy. [*][b]Invictus Spiritus:[/b] A. A skill born from an anecdote where, three days after her death, a servant thought to cover her body--only for the apparently-deceased emperor to open her eyes and thank him. It is further born from the possibility of a wraith born of her resentment still lingering long after her demise... Similar in nature to Battle Continuation, only rather than allowing for her Nero to continue fighting after receiving a fatal wound, it instead means not [i]dying[/i] when fatally wounded--at least, not for a much longer period than a Servant should be able to hold on despite the severity. At this rank, stubbornness alone is enough to force survival for several days in spirit form regardless of injury--although on her own, she could never recover from this state. [*][b]Migraine:[/b] B+. The greatest limitation on Nero's exercise of her talents is, of course, the frequent recurring migraines, which ensure the abilities obtained through Imperial Privilege are quickly forgotten. All that remain are those furnished upon her class. Seemingly more frequent and problematic than in other classes. [*][b]Seven Crowns:[/b] E (EX). A skill that negates weaknesses, negates damage, and sharpens the sword, all through a faint aroma... at just a limited taste of its full ability. A terrifying authority at full strength, Nero is quick to avoid it.[/list][/hider] [*][hider=Noble Phantasm][list][*][b]Aestus Domus Aurea.[/b] [*][b]Rank:[/b] - [*][b]Type:[/b] Reality Marble. [*][b]Appearance:[/b] [url=https://grandorder.wiki/images/0/0a/Portrait_CE_0218.png]Gaudy.[/url] [*][b]Effects:[/b] The manifestation of the Emperor's unyielding belief in her own abilities and ego, even in the face of an uncooperative Senate, a coup, and even her own madness. It takes the form of the theatre that at once expresses the combination of her civic abilities in rebuilding from the fire, architectural skill, and a venue for her artistic ambitions. Passively, it enhances her ability to access skills she never learned or push them to a level superior to her life, pushing Imperial Privilege to its reality-denying peak. Activated, the world created is a perfect venue for whatever the Emperor might desire--cooking or arts, gladiatorial combat or simply fighting. In the face of the Emperor's magnificence, enemies' statistics are ranked down, progressively getting more severe if the theatre is maintained for long enough, such that none may outshine the theatre's star. And of course, Nero herself is strengthened--the environment of [i]her[/i] theatre is always going to match her desires, and within its confines the truly theatrical like a flaming sword and roses are all but guaranteed. As Rider, the most accurate venue would be a circus but what mount could possibly be suitable? Her Riding should be saved for other interests.[/list][/hider] [*][b][u]Alignment:[/u][/b] Chaotic Neutral [*][b][u]Deviations:[/u][/b] Not Nero's common class.[/list][/hider] [hider=Swordwoman][list][*][b][u]Name:[/u][/b] Saitō Yume [*][b][u]Appearance:[/u][/b] [url=https://i.imgur.com/7bPTJMO.png]Once, she would have blended in with any Japanese lady. A lifetime of magical reinforcement has had some effects.[/url] [*][b][u]Age:[/u][/b] 466 [*][b][u]Gender:[/u][/b] Female [*][b][u]Personality:[/u][/b] A lifetime of fighting hasn't dulled the desire to fight at all, only sharpened it. Endlessly pursuing mastery with fewer to test it against only makes those opportunities to see where you stand more exciting and Yume is both [i]very[/i] skilled and [i]very[/i] old. Otherwise, what she carries with her is a feeling of preternatural calm, a mentality that remains unfazed by any disaster or trouble surrounding her. Her connection with other humans was never strong to start with and that [i]has[/i] declined precipitously with age, retaining only a few professional contacts amongst those that hunt demons and magi of various schools. The idea of a relationship with another person beyond immediate gratification is as foreign to her now as it would have been when she was a teenager. [*][b][u]Skills:[/u][/b] As her age and choice of weaponry would indicate, Yume is a master swordsman, trained in the art long before the schools were closed and so much knowledge lost and with lifetimes of practice putting her beyond the reach of the normal population of the world, even modern prodigies. Of course, her choice of using an odachi is a bit strange, hardly seeming suitable for fighting other people but the improvement she gains in a duel by using a normal sword is negligible... and some things are much easier treated as a horse. In unrelated skills, Yume is extremely good at reading old or nonstandard Japanese, even if her own writing tends towards the same, and she is [i]technically[/i] cultured... not that anyone cares too much about such old things. [*][b][u]Abilities:[/u][/b] Despite her focus being primarily on how to best put a sword to use, Yume [i]is[/i] a demon slayer and an onmyouji at that, despite her current dress sense. Although technically able to, she has minimal interest in divination or fortune telling, preferring to focus on curses and exorcisms lifted from Shinto--from the oft-useless Curse of Binding that can do exactly what it says to the purely demonic, to effects that would be familiar to western magi, such as invoking the elements, or reinforcing her sword. The sword itself could be considered a mystic code, despite its lack of intrinsic effect, simply through the centuries of constant usage, reforging, and the magecraft worked upon it like clockwork. Receptive to enhancements to an unusual degree, magical energy alone is enough to let the sword cut through many things that would otherwise be immune--stone, metal, ghosts... the component spells themselves as much a part of the blade as its own metal is. The real question that Yume invites is how she manages to still be so alive? She doesn't give off the aura or interests of a great magus, which would normally be explanation enough for the why, if not the how. Certainly, magecraft plays a part in it, growing old and dying would be counterproductive to hunting demons down, especially for someone with no interest in raising a successor. The rest could be said to come down simply to a perfection in breathing and movement, Yume linked to the world itself and capable of effects similar to magecraft that way. But she was no miracle child when she learned it, nor a learned old priest who would banish evil... no, she was a swordsman first and foremost, and has always simply turned this perfection in movement to reinforcing her body and focus in combat. [*][b][u]Backstory:[/u][/b] It's an undeniable truth that Japan, as long as it has existed, has had something of a problem with its own demons. Many of the oldest heroes are such because of their interactions with oni and other beasts. Even with the great calamities defeated, the demons themselves hardly went away, breeding into even the lines of the nobility in part and continuing to haunt the mountains and forests. The integration with humanity presented a problem, though: the purity of binding became even less appropriate for dealing with the threats and other methods had to be developed to counteract them. It's from one family that Yume hails, drawing more from the most famous demon slayers than is normal due to their own samurai heritage. A daughter as an heir was hardly desirable in such a time period but with magical ability being inherited and Mino province being hardly the most peaceful of locations... there was little choice but to train her and hope that a suitable marriage would present itself to pass knowledge on. But soon the province went fully to war, the Oda engaging in infighting over their new daimyo and then taking on the Imagawa. This scenario left Yume at a loose end, surviving her parents but having a rather interesting feudal lord to take note of. Of course, everyone in the country knows what happened after that. The first unifier was betrayed, the second lived to old age but wasted too much on failed invasions and failed to secure inheritance, and Tokugawa formed a shogunate in the end. By that stage, not only was Yume thoroughly jaded towards acting as a loyal samurai between fighting with things that honestly seemed more important, but her lack of age was becoming suspicious. Shortly after Sekigahara, she faked her death and became just another ronin, albeit one with a monster hunting bent. It's something that she found herself regretting as the centuries passed, with such a lifestyle passing up the chance to take on many vaunted swordsmen. By the time the shogunate was approaching its end... well, she had no investment in the political landscape or being little more than a glorified street thug, so why get involved? It was another chance passed up. Yume knows that her life should soon be approaching its end, even as her current vitality remains undiminished beside some visual changes. No amount of efficiency in one's actions, no mastery of yin and yang, can stall forever and still remain human. And as Japan continues to change around her, as it has ever since the Meiji Restoration, it becomes ever more unlikely that each year will pass without something breaking, some fundamental separation between humanity and the demon kind she hunts will be lost. She should just accept it and save demon hunters the trouble of fighting one of their own kind. Yet... now her skills are demanded, and Servants are around? Yume will just have to keep going a little longer and take advantage of this opportunity. The possibility that a hero of her own lifetime might be summoned and she could see finally how they compare, whether had she died a glorious death she would be one of them... who can pass up that kind of opportunity? Losing herself is an acceptable risk.[/list][/hider]