Simplest way would be determining beforehand and orchestrating a fun scene over a collab or couple of posts each, perhaps, and as to who'd win we could have @Remram randomly roll to choose who wins or such. At least for a 'first PvP battle' type scenario. I otherwise feel Mudbray has the advantage given its bulky defensivness and useful moveset, even if the type matchup is neutral, so that's where I'd lean toward unless you want Sir Lopsalot to get a time to shine starting things off.
If you want to collab over PMs or go post-by post, though, I'll make that your call. Meanwhile if you want to go with testing out the battle system, though, I'm also game for that since eventually testing the PvP battle system out would be cool.
Meanwhile Steph: will catch whatever the fuck catches her fancy and whimsy at the time Caught a Pidove because it had the audacity to try and snipe her from above
"You've got guts, Pidove! I like that!"
-Steph, maybe, after a translation is made of her eldritch speechcraft (idk)
@Shazamrock My idea is this from Clarissa's perspective:
Clarissa is agreeing to battle Nils if he still wants to, at least, and is chill if Amelia wants to watch them. She'd still wants to ask Nils if he'd be willing to group with her, and Amelia perhaps, after a battle? Then perhaps pose the sewer question and the 'we can meet up later' to Nils and Amelia afterwards as a way to still group up, maybe, but not trying to pressure them into the sewer business either.
Terrarium, League Administration HQ, Grand Glory City
Well, she had expected a fair amount of diverse results from her efforts in questioning and asking at the very least.
Amelia turned towards Clarissa, surprised by the question and it showed. She figured no one would want to travel with her, seeing as she was so small and possibly the youngest one there. She didn't know the age of the boy with the Chespin after all but he was taller than her, so he was possibly older. Regardless, she would remain silent for a few seconds due to her surprise before eventually giving a reply. "A-a-are you sure? I'm not very strong and I might not be able to keep up. I need to take things slow. I would like to but... I don't want to get in your way." She said, looking down at the ground while fiddling with the hem of her hoodie.
The psychic nodded gently at the younger girl....and from there the words felt as if they flowed toward mouth a bit without thinking too much about them. Like it was an impulse, in an instant, running through her mind and out of her vocal chords. Yet the psychic choked herself back a little, even if it felt rather jarring for a moment internally, trying to hold back a bit rather than just spurt out
What had come over her to almost blurt out like that? Thoughts back to a younger version of herself, one terrified and feeling weak after her powers had first emerged before she'd gotten help from her grandmother? It was also safer to travel together if the younger girl wasn't too strong herself, though, physically or otherwise. Yet trying to be respectful and give the smaller girl time to collect herself, at least before she talked to her again, the psychic moved on to the next person in mind. Someone who seemed ready to get-going if needed, or at least seemed to be a 'go-getter' as she heard her mother call people with a similar energy in the past.
"Hy Clahzza whahts up?" Stroking Dusk's...chin? Steph would listen as the girl first of all was asking her to travel with her, before adding on she wanted to see the sewers.
"Mybee, sao lawng as youre haydin south Oy dawnt say the hahm roigh' naow eh? Wouldnt moind chaeckin eow' the sewahs at some point buh' Oy gawt somethin Oy wahnna gao chaeck eow' fuhst. uh...taext ya luytah? Aw somethin. Oy dunnao much abeow' thiies do-heeckay." Shaking the once more pulled out Rotom Phone before once again pocketing it, she let Clarissa continue on her way before first things first, she made her way to the Professor once more. No doubt her walking up to him caused a shiver to go down his spine.
The peculiar redheaded girl who'd approached her seemed good to ask first, as if nothing else she seemd apt and ready to go out and do something. She didn't want to rush others, admittedly, but the psychic did worry a little about the matter of covering ground. Or, perhaps, her own excitement to check out if her gut instinct was right about the sewers was going to bear fruit. Not that it perhaps always would bear fruit, but, well, she had to try at least, right?
"A text would be great, and I can text you as well instead of you texting me."
She didn't want to make it uncomfortable for Steph, so texting the girl later would be good on her end then. Plus now it seemd there was at least one potential candidate to travel with despite the new and peculiar nickname of 'Clazza' at least. And the girl seemed patient enough to let her go ask others too, so as she went around the psychic didn't look back for a hot second before taking a glance again-....aaaand the girl was gone as soon as Clarissa looked back in her direction again.
Ahem. O-Oh...had she done something wrong? Ah, well, Steph had said she was wanting to check something else out first at least. It was also something to note that the redhead wanted to travel south, it seemed, upon leaving Grand Glory. No problem! If she grouped with other who didn't mind heading south, perhaps Steph would be a potential person to group up with. As much as facing the 'tough road alone' seemed to paint a familiar picture in her mind, at least when thinking about her homeland, traveling with others was as much a safety matter as it was practical in her mind. Her mother had said she needed to 'socialize more', as it were, ah, yes. That was a thing she had to keep in mind, and how better to get to know another than taking the time to on the road?
One potential option on the 'sorta maybe' side of things, it seemed, Clarissa would try to approach others nearby if she could. Perhaps it'd come off as 'desperate', but...s-she was trying to do things as best as she could, yes? Whether it worked or not was besides the point of making the genuine effort. Else she'd not get an answer of all things.
But the well-dressed boy in pink was gone before she could get to him, though based on his initial reaction to his own starter Pokemon allone she felt it was potentially safe enough to believe he wasn't one to go investigate the sewers of all places. The blue-haired boy seemed to just abruptly leave, so he wasn't an option, but he could perhaps be someone to battle for experience as well. Same for Steph whether she traveled with her or not, really, based on her own impression of the other girl's attitude and the like in the psychic's mind. She seemed well enough to want a good battle indeed. Beyond that the fashionable girl, whom she only had a first impression of anyways aside from how she'd reacted to the cute little Joltik, was already gone in a camera flash. But these three were not all of the people in the lab either at least.
Meanwhile the exciteble boy with the Chespin, and the girl with the Zorua, seemed to be talking as well. She didn't want to disturb them, though, so Clarissa would leave them alone for the time being. The girl with the Tyrunt approached the photographer girl with the Eevee as well, then, and so she'd leave them alone as they talked for the moment being. Despite the tiny tinge of deject feelings that popped up after having managed so little success thus far, she'd at least go to ask the adults the questions she had about the sewers. As 'unclean' as the sewers were, perhaps some Pokemon down there was set to be one of her partners for the road ahead, hmm? So it'd be good to be informed at the very least.
Because Kapoc was still there, he was still around when Clarissa asked about the sewers. "I mean, it's mainly a breeding ground for Grimer, Trubbish, and Rattata though those Grimer and Rattata are of the Alolan variant. We brought the Grimer from Alola, but the Rattata are more of an invasive species though they seem to prefer to remain in the sewers until night."
Adrianne chimed in. "Oh, I did hear something in passing. Apparently, someone can hear something crying. Beyond that, there must be some other things that have made its home down there that we aren't aware of either."
"I'm more curious if any of the original fauna still remain or were completely displaced by the city's construction." The director mused.
Something crying down there? That was what caught her attention the most, turning curiosity into more of a burning desire to investigate. Her gut instincts had to be right about something down there, hmm? Hopefully. Not that they had to be always right, or would be for that matter. Beyond that, Trubbish and Alolan Grimer and Ratatta would be good grounds for training with Sir Lopsalot in part. Especially the Ratatta. Catching a Trubbish and an Alolan Grimer would be good to do, as the psychic would note to herself, to see if they might make a good fit on her team as well.
Also it would be good to do this to both fill out the Pokedex, and perhaps as poison was potentially a useful typing once they got into forested and wilder areas perhaps. Didn't grass types live there more often? She'd read that somewhere in preparation for all of this, since...well...living in a Pokemon-poor region was apaparently very rare to most places? Hmm.
"Thank you, your answers are most helpful."
Her thanks were sincere despite their delivery in her usual manner, and she tried to keep things professional and polite, but....indeed what could be crying down there? She wanted to investigate for that outright and first, if possible, within a reasonable measure. Not just if it was a rare Pokemon, frankly, but more because-...she...well, the psychic would glance breifly at Sir Lopsalot for a second as the memories came back to her mind. The Buneary, meanwhile, would look back with a tinge of worry in his eyes as he saw the breif flash of a look he could understand well enough come over Clarissa's eyes.
But, yes, if any original Pokemon from before the city was built were there too? That would be something to keep an eye out for as well perhaps, or at least along the way while investigating the crying and catching a Trubbish and Alolan Grimer alike maybe. Yes. A plan was coming togther for her, at least, if she ended up down there alone. Ahem. She did need to keep moving on, ah, to avoid everyone else there leaving before she could so much as get in a question if nothing else (even if the answer was no).
Yet as she tried to move onward, it would be the next seemingly not-busy person she went to ask that seemed to finally respond to her.
"Hey hey," he said, introducing himself once more and extending a hand towards her if she was inclined for a shake. Unlike Steph, his was only an offer, and a soft one at that. "I wanted to talk to you a moment."
"You came here with your pokemon already. Oh, and you, too, David-" Nils looked over at the enthusiastic older boy, beckoning him over with a nod of his head. He hadn't missed the fact that David hadn't claimed a pokeball. To the both of them who had that in common (and one other surprising thing that others were unaware of), Nils said, "I'm curious how long you've been with your partner pokemon. And... I was wondering if you more experienced trainers were interested in a little competition? I want to see how strong this guy is."
He patted the mudbray on the head. Mudbray seemed perfectly fine with this plan, digging one of his hooves into the ground and snorting happily. Both pokemon and trainer glanced at Sir Lopsalot as well to judge the bunneary's reaction.
"Doesn't have to be in the lab, we can find a good place out in the city," he followed up with, "Ah, but no worries if you don't want to."
Clarissa would accept his offered handshake, softer and less loud than Steph had been, and listen to his request. A battle? She certainly wasn't agaisnt a little spar to kick things off, though she had wanted to get onto the road if possible while they still had daylight. It was important to get things started well, she supposed, and on a good foot.
It also wasn't as if her and Sir Lopsalot had fought others really, but they had watched battles at the Pyrite Colosseum and tried to practice at home even after moving to Evig at least. Yet even as she thought for a moment about the matter, Sir Lopsalot seemed to grin readily back at the other trainer and Pokemon as he put his little paws on his hips proudly. Oh. She knew that lok. He was certianly up for such as well, it seemed, and it didn't take reading his mind to understand that on her end after the last several years.
If he was already getting in that sort of mood for a battle-....yeah, it might be a good warm-up before traveling then, whether they ended up alone in the sewers or not. Then again, after taking a look at the Mudbray, he looked like a hardy little guy himself who could take a hit. Hmm.
"Well, I wouldn't call myself an experienced trainer. Still, it would be our pleasure to battle you. We could go find a good spot to battle as well, but after would you perhaps-"
"I do not envy her. Well, anyway, you guys can seriously all leave now. Chop, chop, get to it. Seize the day and whatever. Oh, and Clarissa, remember what I said. Bye." And Kapoc went back to his lab.
A small chill visibly ran down the girl's spine in this case as Kapoc called out to her again. S-She had heard him, yes. Be careful. Don't go showing off her powers willy-nilly. H-Her parents had reminded her the same way, but in a more serious and personal manner before she'd left to come here this morning. There...there had to be some reason to be reminded like this more so in particular, right? There had to be. So she'd try to do her best. She was already trying to do her best, but she'd just been trying to help with regards to that empty litter to be thrown away-...breathe. In and out. Breathe. Focus. In the nose, out the mouth. Good. Yet as she looked up again, Clarissa found something missing.
Hmm? Where had the other boy, the other psychic, David, that he Nils been pointing to? By the time she tried to look around and find him, the same guy who seemed to be grinning and ready, the photographer girl had spoken to him and the two seemed to be off and out of the door already with a shout from David. Letting out a small but soft sigh audibly, it was around this time Clarissa saw Amelia glance over herself and then at Nils with a look that almost seemd expectant to the psychic. Was the other girl curious if they were going to battle still? Plus, well, the adults had made it clear they didn't want to mess up the inside of the building either for that matter by now as well.
Clarissa looked Nils back in the eyes.
"Ahem, yes, we'd be happy to battle you still, if you're amenable to such-?"
She then looked to the smaller girl next to them. She had trailed off to try to informally ask Nils his name at least, so she would breifly look to the girl she'd tied asking first to group up with at least.
"Would you like to watch if we battle?"
Hopefully she could still talk to Amelia about grouping up after this. Maybe Nils as well, perhaps, depending on his own plans for things. Even if they didn't go to the sewers, they could group up again later once she was done perhaps. That was her plan to propose to Amelia if she didn't want to go, and anyone else if they didn't want to right now but still wanted to group. That'd be ok, right? Hopefully? Hopefully things would be well in the end in any case, yes. At least, assuming they even got to battle and Nils didn't need to leave now himself for some reason.
Command Spell: It generally takes on the shape of a dagger, and is splint into three distinctive sections for the blade, crosspiece, and hilt/pommel.
Background
Rhodri was born the scion and heir of the Bowen, a Welsh family of magi who have cultivated their own path to the Root: The purification of humanity. To withdraw and accrue all the sin, and all of the grudges, from a human being in order to revert them to a ‘pure’ state (akin to when they were first emerging from the Root) that touches upon the Root itself and opens a pathway to it. Originating as ritual community sin-eaters in their day and age, they used this role to both remain isolated to the edges of their local community as well as to accrue grudges/sins as part of their magecraft. A bonus of this isolation would be ‘being left alone’ well enough by the mundane world. Remaining local yet still living a life as ‘outcasts’ living at the edge of their hometown, and having done so into modern times at that, they use this status even still to further their art into the current day and age.
Growing up steeped in his family’s arts, however, Rhodri also found that to accrue grudges from others via modern technology was also a rather possible feat. While his father had been somewhat more keen to see the value of such things to a rather limited extent in his lifetime, however, it was Rhodri who managed to elevate the family craft to integrate these modern methods into the family craft and harness their latent and as-of-yet unused potential. Were his grandfather to see what he’s ‘become’, however, it is likely Rhodri’s ancestor would be rolling in his grave. Among his methods of ‘accruing grudges’, then, includes methods such as ‘internet trolling’, engineered spam or prank calls, and ‘just a little trolling irl’ if he needs to. However, by the time Rhodri’s ideas came to be appreciated by his father his parents had nearly went and produced a second child out of concern that the heir was ‘going to be unfit to be a magus’ despite his training and so forth. In reality, he furthered his family’s craft by a fair leap and turned out to be a rather intelligent and keen student with a deceptive exterior by many accounts. It is also of note that he would become a student sent to the Clock Tower as well in due time, where he took a class in the Department of Modern Magecraft Theory to help further his personal work on the family craft.
Yet it would also be during this time that Rhodri’s father would be stricken by an unknown event during a subspecies war he went out and ‘observed’, thus placing him in a state of bad health. While alive and conscious, he was injured greatly but managed to protect ‘what was important’ and managed to make it home ‘mostly in one piece’. Still stuck in long-term recovery, but able to think and talk and direct things from his bed, Rhodri's father kept up the mundane side of things for the family at this stage and Rhodri was forced into the leadership role as a magus. Having cultivated a spot in the Democratic Faction while going there to learn, he had kept up his family's existing political alignments in the Clock Tower and likewise went about to set his family's work on a path to the future at the same time.
However, at the same time he would suddenly take up participation in yet another subspecies Grail War of his own accord....all after a set of Command Seals appeared on his left hand one odd, rainy day. It was curious enough of a thing, and yet after some research into the matter Rhodri began preparation to travel to Switzerland without another word. What is it about this tiny town of Sion that drew in him so? Ah, perhaps that would need to remain a se-cret for now, hmm? After putting some plans in place for his travel there to participate, and locking up a personally-penned and updated compilation of his magecraft studies and research at the family estate, the Welshman would work out some initial lodging at Sion and hit the road without any more than a casual wave behind him as he walked out of his family's home.
What will the war in Sion bring? What does he desire for the Grail? Ah, only time will tell in reality.
Personality
A man with a laid-back attitude and casual manner who enjoys 'living life', and one who enjoys video games and browsing the internet and whose well-versed knowledge of modern culture and technologies makes him seem like just a 'modern guy' for the most part. A person who enjoys prodding with jokes, usually puns, at times and seems to be of the friendly and amicable sort of figure up front and on the surface. The sort of guy who introduces himself to you, offers to get you a snack if you look hungry, and then proves to be pretty relaxed when hanging out with him if one is a friend or neutral party to him. At the same time, he is also tech-savvy 'bro' who will laugh at an enemy magus for their confusion in using it without a doubt, however, and is capable in his abilities to irk, earn the ire of, and 'piss off' others. He is a relentless internet troll who as a magus accrues great quantities of grudges/curses for magecraft with ease in this manner in the modern age, and someone who has worked hard to learn how to 'get people angry' and 'stir up the pot' either tactically or in a more chaotic manner alike.
While to the naked eye of many magi he's "an annoying idiot", underneath he's a magus with a serious dedication for his family's work and who has a rather keen mind apt and happy to learn and further things along. Even at the Clock Tower he proved to be a skilled and rather avidly superb student, as well as being such in his general education in life to boot, which is something many are surprised to learn about him if told about that. When it comes to the Holy Grail, however, his true motive seems to be somewhat concealed if not an enigma. For all those who know him know, he wants to snag the Nadelkiss Holy Grail and use it to turn 'the skin of all Aristocratic faction members permanently pink' or something just as silly and irritating. On the other hand, as a magus some who know him more deeply believe he might be seeking to further his family's work in a more expedited manner....or perhaps he is up to something else entirely.
Magecraft Information
Elemental Affinity: Fire, Earth
Number of Magic Circuits: B Quality of Magic Circuits: B
Magecraft:
General Magecraft - The basics, things like setting up a workshop, detecting magical energy, and contracting a familiar, etc. In terms of familiars, for Rhodri, these skills are also involved in the creation of families borrowing the appearance of “will-o’-the-wisps” as familiars as well as these familiars’ potential modification (general use as a familiar for scouting, use in protecting a location, use in misleading and misdirecting enemies, or even in creating more malicious ones imbued with grudges/curses).
Western Curse Magecraft - While certainly behind the practitioners of the East in terms of the cursing techniques of the west, his family for obvious reasons has cultivated a study and understanding of curses as part of their magecraft lexicon. He has the proper ability to apply/use countercurses, and like others in his line is highly adept at use of the “Evil Eye”, a simple but anciently-rooted means of cursing requiring only bad intentions/feelings aimed towards the targets and a nasty glare to cast it (causing misfortune and injury to targets as a result). He is also skilled in the use of verbal curses, as well as the use of curses engraved into parts of buildings and so forth to afflict others who dwell within, and scratching the initial of someone to be cursed on lead or slate and throwing it into a well, etc.
Grudge Magecraft - The true core art of the Bowen Family, it centers around the accruing, gathering, and the harnessing of grudges and ‘sins’ and making use of them. It combines the culturally-relevant practice from Wales such as sin-eating rites, and the widespread concept of a ‘scapegoat’ in the West, into a cultivated magecraft specialized at the ‘purification’ of others by the user taking the sins and grudges of others upon themselves. From here said grudges and sins can be harnessed by the user in turn, such as being used as fuel for strengthening Curse Magecraft. With this magecraft, the user is capable of accruing the grudges and sins of others through acts as simple as walking through a busy street or eating food in proximity to people. Even turning one’s hostility toward a user of this magecraft, giving them the ‘stink eye’ or a bad look, and so forth are able to be drawn upon by the user as a source of strength. One can also use this to perform other feats, such as combining it with sympathetic magecraft to "return turn grudges/curses and negative emotions directed at him 'back to the sender'".
In the case of Rhodri, he also combines the use of this magecraft with others he has learned as per family tradition. For example, he combines this with Fire Magecraft to create things such as ‘fires powered by grudges, which keep burning even underwater, and likewise which curse others who come into contact with them’. Another example would be combining this magecraft with a bounded field to afflict intruders with a myriad of curses, or do something like trigger several grudge-infused sharp stones or a set of wraith-infused weapons to automatically attack/pursue an intruder. Even things like combining this with sympathetic magecraft to 'amplifying and reflecting grudges back on/against his attackers' are possible, etc.
Sympathetic Magecraft - An older form of primitive magic, ranging from practices such as the stereotypical 'voodoo doll' of modern pop culture, to pouring water on an altar as part of a sympathetic magic ritual to summon rainfall, to other forms of 'imitative magic' using objects and/or actions and things such as human hair or blood to exert influence over places and people alike.
Spiritual Evocation - A supporting magecraft in a general sense, which for the Bowen includes but isn’t limited to, matters such as imbuing objects with wraiths and creating a location that draws in wraith/grudges of the dead. Etc.
Elemental Magecraft (Fire) - Fire element magecraft. The generation and manipulation of fire. Flinging fireballs at enemies, conjuring great blazes, emitting jets or streams of flame, setting things on fire, conjuring fire as well as manipulating existing fire, and so forth. Also includes skills in scrying via the use of fire in this case.
Elemental Magecraft (Earth) - Earth element magecraft. Conjuring and flinging large boulders at people, pelting enemies with a hail of myriad sharp rocks, the physical manipulation of existing sources of earth, making defensive barriers of rock and stone (or some such earthen substance), etc.
Magic Crest: 350 years old, placed on his upper back, and taking on the shape of a rose flower from the top-down with an ornate design of petals that grows with each generation adding to it.
Mystic Codes:
The Golden Gazer - A simple mystic code easily concealed within mundane society as a normal lighter, Rhodri most often uses it for purposes of fire scrying (‘scrying on the fly” as he calls it) via magecraft. He has become adept with its use and with using fire scrying in general as a supplementary skill. He can also infuse the mystic code with a limited fuel of ‘grudges’ in order to light a cursed fire somewhere with ease, though if he managed to get a grudge against someone he is looking for and infused it into the lighter while fire scrying….well, tracking down opponents could be made a bit easier in the present, perhaps, eh?
Magecraft-Altered Modern Smartphone - While it is a mundane item at heart, Rhodri uses modern phones as ‘vessels for accruing grudges’ for himself as well as to store an amount of them akin to a ‘reserve vessel’. Even if his current phone is ever broken or destroyed, though, it can just be replaced with another one that fills the same role with ease. Though he did get some smartphone insurance to make sure he can afford another one on the regular at a lower cost, and bought a backup one for the war to boot, even if money isn’t really a problem for his family in the general sense due to their long-term business investments heading into current times.
The Grudgety Suitcase - What he calls a suitcase filled with minor mystic codes. Its contents consist of: A number of curse/grudge-infused knives possessed by wraiths/grudges, general ritualistic materials and tools for his magecraft, pre-cursed legal Swiss money/coins alike, several items useful as ‘backups’ to further ‘store curses/grudges for the user’ as additional ‘spare vessels’, and a set of unique mystic code eating implements that are themselves mystic codes that act like ‘receivers/catalysts for grudges and drawing in them into the food he is eating using said implements’ and which can be combined with his family magecraft to pull in grudges from a wide area over something as simple as eating.
Bwch Dihangol, aka: “Goatie the GOATED Dagger” - Despite his silly nickname for a mystic code that’s just a dagger with a goat head on the hilt, but as a mystic code it has been suffused with grudges throughout Rhodri’s life after he began training as a magus under his father. He has accrued and infused it with a fair deal of curses, and it is a tool he has been trained how to use practically as a weapon. The latest example of a rather old family tradition that dates back many generations for heirs and heads of the Bowen. It was designed to also be used to ‘scapegoat’ grudges/curses/sins as a ‘transferring tool’, meaning that if plunged into a living target it could be used to ‘overwhelm a target with grudges’ beyond simply the harm caused by being stabbed with a dagger. On that note, normally members of the Bowen are laden with stored-up grudges and know how to contain them within themselves as it is already, and Rhodri is no exception.
Nonmagical Assets:
Normal Uncursed Swiss Money (plenty for the war’s duration)
Changes of Clothes (a reasonable amount the average middle-class person would bring on vacation)
Dagger/Knife Combat - Trained in professional dagger/knife combat, making him proficient in use of one of his mystic codes in an additional practical sense. He is noted as being fairly adept with such a weapon in terms of skill.
Brazilian Jiujitsu - A martial art he took classes in alongside the above skill, mostly in case he is attacked unarmed. He is fairly adept in this skill as well.
Travel Supplies - Mundane stuff like floss, toothpaste, etc, for a week’s trip to another county.
A backup mundane and fully functional smartphone - Just in case, altering it into a lower-grade mystic code is also a simple enough process for him.
General Internet/Modern Tech Savviness - An expert in this, including and especially with regards to 'trolling' and 'meme culture'.
Philoctetes
Name: Philoctetes
Titles: “Friend of Heracles”, “The Slayer of Paris”
Class: Archer
Gender: Male
Era: Trojan War
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Attribute: Earth
History
The son of the Argonaut and king of Meliboea, Poeas, and out of everyone present at the funeral of Heracles was the only one to light it for the Greatest Hero of Greece. It was this boldness and bravery on his part, and kindness in ending the great hero’s agony, that earned the young Philoctetes the favor and affections of the now-deified Heracles proper. For this Heracles granted him both his bow and hydra arrows, as well as granted the youth tutelage in his fighting technique known as “Nine Lives”. The younger prince would grow with these things in hand in his life, not only becoming able to draw the huge bow of the deified hero but likewise able to produce a variant of his fighting technique in due time.
Philoctetes was also one of the many suitors who sought the hand of Helen, a daughter of Zeus, and was sworn to the same Oath of Tyndareus that would push him and many others into participating in the Trojan War on behalf of getting her back for Menellaus. Yet it would be along the way, as the Greeks stopped at the sacred Isle of Lemnos, that the goddess Hera sent a poisonous serpent to (as punishment for his service to Heracles) bite the heel of the now-older but great archer. Such was the pains and wailing of agony for Philoctetes that disturbed the Greeks, and so badly did the festering and incurable wound stink in the literal sense to those about him, that Odysseus convinced Menelaus and Agamemnon and the other leaders of the Greeks to abandon the now-crippled Philoctetes on Lemnos after he eventually slept. Thus when he awoke, not only was he suffering yet still but was abandoned for dead on the island.
Here the hero lived for ten long, agonizing years in suffering and pain as he hunted game with the Bow of Heracles and meted out his survival as the war against Troy raged on without him. For ten long years, his wound and grudge against those who had abandoned him (especially and including Odysseus) festered alike. Yet after the capture of the Trojan prince Helenus, the Greeks would return for the bow and arrows after being told they were necessary for the fall of the city of Troy. It was also here that the group of Greeks sent to retrieve said bow and arrows, led by Odysseus and Diomedes, would, most surprisingly, find that Philoctetes was still very much alive….and able to draw an arrow pointed at Odysseus out of pure spite for the man. Ultimately being tricked out of the bow and arrows by Odysseus, however, Diomedes would intervene and refuse to take the weapons without taking Philoctetes with them as well.
Ultimately, the defied Heracles himself would descend from Olympus to Lemnos, all just to talk Philoctetes into going with the Greeks by promising that he would be healed by a son of Ascelipus and win great honor and glory as a hero of the Achaean forces. Thus, consenting to his friend, Philoctetes would return with the Greeks and be healed before finally getting to fight in the latter end of the Trojan War. Not only would he battle and fight for the Greeks, then, but the hero would famously kill the Trojan prince Paris in turn. He would then be chosen as one of the heroes to hide within the famous Trojan Horse, and would slay many Trojans as he participated in the sack of the city itself.
After the war was over, Philoctetes would leave to go to the city of Macalla to settle down again instead of returning to Meliboea. He would also go on to found, and be accredited for the founding of at least, the cities of Thurii, Petilia, Krimisa, and Chone, and ultimately to deposit and dedicate the legendary Bow of Heracles and the Learnean Hydra arrows themselves to the temple of Apollo Halius in Macalla proper. Upon his death, not only would a bronze shrine to him be erected on a barren island near Lemnos but he would have a great shrine built above his grave in Macalla and become venerated as a god with libations and sacrifices of oxen.
Personality
A magnanimous man who is hospitable and generous to guests, and a brave warrior who doesn’t hesitate to engage in battle and combat with his foes or to encourage allies to do the same. A hero who remains stubborn to enough of an extent when he sets his mind to something, but one who humbled himself after speaking with the deified Heracles and has also finally let go of the anger and resentment he pent up within himself at Lemnos. A warrior of the Acheans who was not worn too weary with the ten years of war that preceded his eventual arrival at Troy, and at first encouraged them to storm the city due to his lack of war-weariness, but was a sensible sort of person who went along with the scheme of the Trojan Horse and saw the value in it. A fighter who with pride avenged the slain Achilles by slaying the Trojan hero/prince Paris and participated in the sacking of the city after being chosen to hide in the Trojan Horse. A leader who, at the end of his journey, held the wisdom and skill to found a number of cities and remained pious to the gods (including his deified friend Heracles, to whom he dedicated some of his plunder from Troy) for the rest of his days.
Were he summoned as a Berserker, one would get a far different version of Philoctetes. Indeed, Philoctetes the Archer is a reflection of Philoctetes at his best, aka “Philoctetes the wielder of Heracles’ bow and arrows, the slayer of Paris, and a glory-achieving pillager of Troy who went on to found a number of cities”. In turn, then, Philoctetes the Berserker would inevitably be “Philoctetes the ever furiously angry, one who is filled with pent-up grudges against the Acheans, the abandoned man suffering from a maddeningly painful wound, he who would explode in anger upon merely seeing those who vexed and abandoned him so, and who is willing to kill Odysseus and anyone merely with him on-sight all while going about dressed in animals skins from the prey he hunted over the past ten years”.
Parameters
Strength: B
Endurance: A
Agility: C
Mana: D
Luck: D
Class Skills
Independent Action: A - The ability to remain independent even when rejecting the Magical Energy supply from one's Master; the ability that allows for action even in the absence of the Master. At higher ranks, it is also possible to remain for extended periods of time in this world without an established contract. At this rank it is possible to take action even without a Master. However, to use Noble Phantasms of great magical energy consumption, backup from the Master is necessary. At Rank A, it is possible for a Servant to stay in the world for about a week without a Master.
Philoctetes spent ten years, abandoned and alone, on the Isle of Lemnos, all with a festering incurable wound on his foot and afflicted with the poison of a divine serpent and while hunting to survive using the Bow of Heracles. And, once the Greeks returned and were surprised to find him alive, he could still draw the Bow of Heracles to aim a shot at Odysseus out of anger.
Magic Resistance: C - Grants protection against magical effects. Differing from the Resistance effect that merely rejects Magical Energy, this ability cancels the spells altogether. Gains this rank due to living within the Age of Gods, where spells and weapons and such alike were present during the Trojan War.
Cancel spells with a chant below two verses. Cannot defend against magecraft on the level of greater magecraft and Greater Rituals.
Personal Skills
Affection of the God: C - A skill that denotes one being loved by a god. In the case of Philoctetes, this affection originates from the deified Heracles. This skill provides Philoctetes with an automatic passive recovery ability, healing him of injuries and status conditions alike over time, as well as helps him continue fighting even underneath the effects of conditions such as very paninful injuries, poison effects, or other such negative status conditions. It is overall an embodiment of Heracles' promise that he would be healed in life after returning to Troy with the Greeks.
The affection and favor of the deified Heracles that was gained by Philoctetes for his friend’s service in lighting the great hero’s funeral pyre, an act that none other would perform for the suffering hero save for Philoctetes himself and for which Hera would later punish Philoctetes by sending a divine serpent to bite him. Whilst Philoctetes did receive Heracles’ bow and arrows as gifts for his act of lighting the hero’s pyre as well, the god continued to watch over him from then on. It would even be the deified Heracles personally coming down from Olympus to persuade Philoctetes personally to go fight against Troy once the Greeks came back for the bow and arrows, promising that he would be healed at the Greeks’ camp if he went with them.
Unyielding Will: A - A skill that represents one's extremely firm will that never yields to any sort of agony, despair or circumstances. At this rank, Philoctetes possesses resistance against physical and mental damage. However, said resistance will not hold against deceptions and attacks that aim at beguiling others such as illusions.
Philoctetes gains this rank for his survival on an, at the time deserted, isle of Lemnos. For ten long years, with a festering, stinking wound and body coursing with the poison of a divine serpent sent by Hera to punish him for what he did for Heracles years ago, he not only survived but used the Bow of Heracles to hunt game to survive at that. He then went to Troy when the Greeks came to retrieve him, as the Bow of Heracles was required to win against the Trojans, and was finally healed after being brought to the Greek camp.
Clairvoyance: C - connotes superior visual perception and dynamic occipital capture, such as to supplement the long-range aiming of projectile weapons. At higher ranks, it is possible that the bearers of this Skill have acquired abilities such as precognition ("future vision") and other forms of perception beyond standard eyesight (X-ray vision and so forth). It is a skill furnished on the flesh. At this rank, Philoctetes is able to precisely snipe even enemies moving at high speeds as long as they are within a 4km range.
Not only did his skills as an archer surpass those of his father, Poeas, but was known as a famed archer of the Trojan War. Combined with his ability to use the Bow of Heracles to hunt game after being abandoned on Lemnos. Likewise he was a superior archer who killed the Trojan prince Paris in battle. Then, later on in the Odyssey, even Odysseus himself would admit that only Philoctetes was superior to him in the use of a bow at that.
Noble Phantasms
Name: Τόξο του Ηρακλή (Tóxo tou Iraklí - “Bow of Heracles”)
Title: “The Venomous Greatbow of the Hero”
Rank: A+
NP Type: Anti-Unit
Range: 1-99
Maximum Number of Targets: -
Description: The huge bow and poisoned arrows of the Greatest Hero of Greece, granted to Philoctetes as a gift for being the only one brave enough to light his friend’s funeral pyre. A weapon that, as a weapon, is a Continuously Active-Type Noble Phantasm whose ranged attacks are always passively/inherently imbued and suffused with the rather deadly poison of the Learnean Hydra. It normally acts as just a rather solid Noble-Phantasm-grade weapon for the wielder, one whose attacks are sufficiently dangerous enough in their own right.
((The poison of the Learnean Hydra, as with that of its kin, easily kills humans outright. Simply being in the presence of the poison, though, an adult one a human’s lungs will begin to rot. Yet while it cannot outright kill a servant, it remains harmful to them all the same. The pain and suffering caused by this poison is so incredible, however, that it both pushed the Divine Spirit Chiron to abandon his divinity and immortality to escape the pain, and pushed even the Greatest Hero of Greece to be in so much suffering he built his own funeral pyre and threw himself upon it in order to die and escape the unbearable pain it caused him.))
Name: Πέντε Ζωές (Pénte Zoés/Five Lives)
Title: “Πυροβολώντας τα εκατό κεφάλια” (Pyrovolóntas ta Ekató Kefália - “Shooting the Hundred Heads”)
Rank: B
NP Type: Anti-Unit, Anti-Army
Range: -
Maximum Number of Targets: 5
Description: Along with being given the bow and arrows of Heracles, Philocetetes would likewise, in gaining the affections of the deified Heracles, be blessed with his fighting style as well. In receiving this second gift, he would forge his own variation of it in turn.
This use of it by Philocetetes is best depicted in his slaying of the Trojan prince Paris. The first arrow was meant to seemingly "always miss" in order to corral the Trojan prince into place, and was meant to force the enemy’s movement and position so that the others strikes are guaranteed to land. The second blow then struck the leading hand of the prince that held his crossbow. The third struck him in the right eye. The fourth, finally, struck him in the heel. From there, it was noted that there was no need for a ‘fifth shot’ despite Philoctetes possessing the skill to have launched one in this situation.
However, this technique's capabilities remain intact at their very root as well. Regardless of whether it is delivered with a bow, large sword, shield, spear, axe, or possibly even unarmed, the technique is a "variable attack" that both changes form depending on the target and boasts power on the level of Noble Phantasms by drawing out the maximum power of the weapon being used. It further remains a martial art technique that was originated from Heracles' slaying of the immortal Learnean Hydra, and still inherently "exterminates [the target] no matter how many times his opponent resurrects" and is “a high speed attack consisting consecutive strikes, as swift as if the attacks are overlapping.”
Titles: “Friend of Heracles”, “The Slayer of Paris”
Class: Archer
Gender: Male
Era: Trojan War
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Attribute: Earth
History
The son of the Argonaut and king of Meliboea, Poeas, and out of everyone present at the funeral of Heracles was the only one to light it for the Greatest Hero of Greece. It was this boldness and bravery on his part, and kindness in ending the great hero’s agony, that earned the young Philoctetes the favor and affections of the now-deified Heracles proper. For this Heracles granted him both his bow and hydra arrows, as well as granted the youth tutelage in his fighting technique known as “Nine Lives”. The younger prince would grow with these things in hand in his life, not only becoming able to draw the huge bow of the deified hero but likewise able to produce a variant of his fighting technique in due time.
Philoctetes was also one of the many suitors who sought the hand of Helen, a daughter of Zeus, and was sworn to the same Oath of Tyndareus that would push him and many others into participating in the Trojan War on behalf of getting her back for Menellaus. Yet it would be along the way, as the Greeks stopped at the sacred Isle of Lemnos, that the goddess Hera sent a poisonous serpent to (as punishment for his service to Heracles) bite the heel of the now-older but great archer. Such was the pains and wailing of agony for Philoctetes that disturbed the Greeks, and so badly did the festering and incurable wound stink in the literal sense to those about him, that Odysseus convinced Menelaus and Agamemnon and the other leaders of the Greeks to abandon the now-crippled Philoctetes on Lemnos after he eventually slept. Thus when he awoke, not only was he suffering yet still but was abandoned for dead on the island.
Here the hero lived for ten long, agonizing years in suffering and pain as he hunted game with the Bow of Heracles and meted out his survival as the war against Troy raged on without him. For ten long years, his wound and grudge against those who had abandoned him (especially and including Odysseus) festered alike. Yet after the capture of the Trojan prince Helenus, the Greeks would return for the bow and arrows after being told they were necessary for the fall of the city of Troy. It was also here that the group of Greeks sent to retrieve said bow and arrows, led by Odysseus and Diomedes, would, most surprisingly, find that Philoctetes was still very much alive….and able to draw an arrow pointed at Odysseus out of pure spite for the man. Ultimately being tricked out of the bow and arrows by Odysseus, however, Diomedes would intervene and refuse to take the weapons without taking Philoctetes with them as well.
Ultimately, the defied Heracles himself would descend from Olympus to Lemnos, all just to talk Philoctetes into going with the Greeks by promising that he would be healed by a son of Ascelipus and win great honor and glory as a hero of the Achaean forces. Thus, consenting to his friend, Philoctetes would return with the Greeks and be healed before finally getting to fight in the latter end of the Trojan War. Not only would he battle and fight for the Greeks, then, but the hero would famously kill the Trojan prince Paris in turn. He would then be chosen as one of the heroes to hide within the famous Trojan Horse, and would slay many Trojans as he participated in the sack of the city itself.
After the war was over, Philoctetes would leave to go to the city of Macalla to settle down again instead of returning to Meliboea. He would also go on to found, and be accredited for the founding of at least, the cities of Thurii, Petilia, Krimisa, and Chone, and ultimately to deposit and dedicate the legendary Bow of Heracles and the Learnean Hydra arrows themselves to the temple of Apollo Halius in Macalla proper. Upon his death, not only would a bronze shrine to him be erected on a barren island near Lemnos but he would have a great shrine built above his grave in Macalla and become venerated as a god with libations and sacrifices of oxen.
Personality
A magnanimous man who is hospitable and generous to guests, and a brave warrior who doesn’t hesitate to engage in battle and combat with his foes or to encourage allies to do the same. A hero who remains stubborn to enough of an extent when he sets his mind to something, but one who humbled himself after speaking with the deified Heracles and has also finally let go of the anger and resentment he pent up within himself at Lemnos. A warrior of the Acheans who was not worn too weary with the ten years of war that preceded his eventual arrival at Troy, and at first encouraged them to storm the city due to his lack of war-weariness, but was a sensible sort of person who went along with the scheme of the Trojan Horse and saw the value in it. A fighter who with pride avenged the slain Achilles by slaying the Trojan hero/prince Paris and participated in the sacking of the city after being chosen to hide in the Trojan Horse. A leader who, at the end of his journey, held the wisdom and skill to found a number of cities and remained pious to the gods (including his deified friend Heracles, to whom he dedicated some of his plunder from Troy) for the rest of his days.
Were he summoned as a Berserker, one would get a far different version of Philoctetes. Indeed, Philoctetes the Archer is a reflection of Philoctetes at his best, aka “Philoctetes the wielder of Heracles’ bow and arrows, the slayer of Paris, and a glory-achieving pillager of Troy who went on to found a number of cities”. In turn, then, Philoctetes the Berserker would inevitably be “Philoctetes the ever furiously angry, one who is filled with pent-up grudges against the Acheans, the abandoned man suffering from a maddeningly painful wound, he who would explode in anger upon merely seeing those who vexed and abandoned him so, and who is willing to kill Odysseus and anyone merely with him on-sight all while going about dressed in animals skins from the prey he hunted over the past ten years”.
Parameters
Strength: B
Endurance: A
Agility: C
Mana: D
Luck: D
Class Skills
Independent Action: A - The ability to remain independent even when rejecting the Magical Energy supply from one's Master; the ability that allows for action even in the absence of the Master. At higher ranks, it is also possible to remain for extended periods of time in this world without an established contract. At this rank it is possible to take action even without a Master. However, to use Noble Phantasms of great magical energy consumption, backup from the Master is necessary. At Rank A, it is possible for a Servant to stay in the world for about a week without a Master.
Philoctetes spent ten years, abandoned and alone, on the Isle of Lemnos, all with a festering incurable wound on his foot and afflicted with the poison of a divine serpent and while hunting to survive using the Bow of Heracles. And, once the Greeks returned and were surprised to find him alive, he could still draw the Bow of Heracles to aim a shot at Odysseus out of anger.
Magic Resistance: C - Grants protection against magical effects. Differing from the Resistance effect that merely rejects Magical Energy, this ability cancels the spells altogether. Gains this rank due to living within the Age of Gods, where spells and weapons and such alike were present during the Trojan War.
Cancel spells with a chant below two verses. Cannot defend against magecraft on the level of greater magecraft and Greater Rituals.
Personal Skills
Affection of the God: C - A skill that denotes one being loved by a god. In the case of Philoctetes, this affection originates from the deified Heracles. This skill provides Philoctetes with an automatic passive recovery ability, healing him of injuries and status conditions alike over time, as well as helps him continue fighting even underneath the effects of conditions such as very paninful injuries, poison effects, or other such negative status conditions. It is overall an embodiment of Heracles' promise that he would be healed in life after returning to Troy with the Greeks.
The affection and favor of the deified Heracles that was gained by Philoctetes for his friend’s service in lighting the great hero’s funeral pyre, an act that none other would perform for the suffering hero save for Philoctetes himself and for which Hera would later punish Philoctetes by sending a divine serpent to bite him. Whilst Philoctetes did receive Heracles’ bow and arrows as gifts for his act of lighting the hero’s pyre as well, the god continued to watch over him from then on. It would even be the deified Heracles personally coming down from Olympus to persuade Philoctetes personally to go fight against Troy once the Greeks came back for the bow and arrows, promising that he would be healed at the Greeks’ camp if he went with them.
Unyielding Will: A - A skill that represents one's extremely firm will that never yields to any sort of agony, despair or circumstances. At this rank, Philoctetes possesses resistance against physical and mental damage. However, said resistance will not hold against deceptions and attacks that aim at beguiling others such as illusions.
Philoctetes gains this rank for his survival on an, at the time deserted, isle of Lemnos. For ten long years, with a festering, stinking wound and body coursing with the poison of a divine serpent sent by Hera to punish him for what he did for Heracles years ago, he not only survived but used the Bow of Heracles to hunt game to survive at that. He then went to Troy when the Greeks came to retrieve him, as the Bow of Heracles was required to win against the Trojans, and was finally healed after being brought to the Greek camp.
Clairvoyance: C - connotes superior visual perception and dynamic occipital capture, such as to supplement the long-range aiming of projectile weapons. At higher ranks, it is possible that the bearers of this Skill have acquired abilities such as precognition ("future vision") and other forms of perception beyond standard eyesight (X-ray vision and so forth). It is a skill furnished on the flesh. At this rank, Philoctetes is able to precisely snipe even enemies moving at high speeds as long as they are within a 4km range.
Not only did his skills as an archer surpass those of his father, Poeas, but was known as a famed archer of the Trojan War. Combined with his ability to use the Bow of Heracles to hunt game after being abandoned on Lemnos. Likewise he was a superior archer who killed the Trojan prince Paris in battle. Then, later on in the Odyssey, even Odysseus himself would admit that only Philoctetes was superior to him in the use of a bow at that.
Noble Phantasms
Name: Τόξο του Ηρακλή (Tóxo tou Iraklí - “Bow of Heracles”)
Title: “The Venomous Greatbow of the Hero”
Rank: A+
NP Type: Anti-Unit
Range: 1-99
Maximum Number of Targets: -
Description: The huge bow and poisoned arrows of the Greatest Hero of Greece, granted to Philoctetes as a gift for being the only one brave enough to light his friend’s funeral pyre. A weapon that, as a weapon, is a Continuously Active-Type Noble Phantasm whose ranged attacks are always passively/inherently imbued and suffused with the rather deadly poison of the Learnean Hydra. It normally acts as just a rather solid Noble-Phantasm-grade weapon for the wielder, one whose attacks are sufficiently dangerous enough in their own right.
((The poison of the Learnean Hydra, as with that of its kin, easily kills humans outright. Simply being in the presence of the poison, though, an adult one a human’s lungs will begin to rot. Yet while it cannot outright kill a servant, it remains harmful to them all the same. The pain and suffering caused by this poison is so incredible, however, that it both pushed the Divine Spirit Chiron to abandon his divinity and immortality to escape the pain, and pushed even the Greatest Hero of Greece to be in so much suffering he built his own funeral pyre and threw himself upon it in order to die and escape the unbearable pain it caused him.))
Name: Πέντε Ζωές (Pénte Zoés/Five Lives)
Title: “Πυροβολώντας τα εκατό κεφάλια” (Pyrovolóntas ta Ekató Kefália - “Shooting the Hundred Heads”)
Rank: B
NP Type: Anti-Unit, Anti-Army
Range: -
Maximum Number of Targets: 5
Description: Along with being given the bow and arrows of Heracles, Philocetetes would likewise, in gaining the affections of the deified Heracles, be blessed with his fighting style as well. In receiving this second gift, he would forge his own variation of it in turn.
This use of it by Philocetetes is best depicted in his slaying of the Trojan prince Paris. The first arrow was meant to seemingly "always miss" in order to corral the Trojan prince into place, and was meant to force the enemy’s movement and position so that the others strikes are guaranteed to land. The second blow then struck the leading hand of the prince that held his crossbow. The third struck him in the right eye. The fourth, finally, struck him in the heel. From there, it was noted that there was no need for a ‘fifth shot’ despite Philoctetes possessing the skill to have launched one in this situation.
However, this technique's capabilities remain intact at their very root as well. Regardless of whether it is delivered with a bow, large sword, shield, spear, axe, or possibly even unarmed, the technique is a "variable attack" that both changes form depending on the target and boasts power on the level of Noble Phantasms by drawing out the maximum power of the weapon being used. It further remains a martial art technique that was originated from Heracles' slaying of the immortal Learnean Hydra, and still inherently "exterminates [the target] no matter how many times his opponent resurrects" and is “a high speed attack consisting consecutive strikes, as swift as if the attacks are overlapping.”
Command Spell: It generally takes on the shape of a dagger, and is splint into three distinctive sections for the blade, crosspiece, and hilt/pommel.
Background
Rhodri was born the scion and heir of the Bowen, a Welsh family of magi who have cultivated their own path to the Root: The purification of humanity. To withdraw and accrue all the sin, and all of the grudges, from a human being in order to revert them to a ‘pure’ state (akin to when they were first emerging from the Root) that touches upon the Root itself and opens a pathway to it. Originating as ritual community sin-eaters in their day and age, they used this role to both remain isolated to the edges of their local community as well as to accrue grudges/sins as part of their magecraft. A bonus of this isolation would be ‘being left alone’ well enough by the mundane world. Remaining local yet still living a life as ‘outcasts’ living at the edge of their hometown, and having done so into modern times at that, they use this status even still to further their art into the current day and age.
Growing up steeped in his family’s arts, however, Rhodri also found that to accrue grudges from others via modern technology was also a rather possible feat. While his father had been somewhat more keen to see the value of such things to a rather limited extent in his lifetime, however, it was Rhodri who managed to elevate the family craft to integrate these modern methods into the family craft and harness their latent and as-of-yet unused potential. Were his grandfather to see what he’s ‘become’, however, it is likely Rhodri’s ancestor would be rolling in his grave. Among his methods of ‘accruing grudges’, then, includes methods such as ‘internet trolling’, engineered spam or prank calls, and ‘just a little trolling irl’ if he needs to. However, by the time Rhodri’s ideas came to be appreciated by his father his parents had nearly went and produced a second child out of concern that the heir was ‘going to be unfit to be a magus’ despite his training and so forth. In reality, he furthered his family’s craft by a fair leap and turned out to be a rather intelligent and keen student with a deceptive exterior by many accounts. It is also of note that he would become a student sent to the Clock Tower as well in due time, where he took a class in the Department of Modern Magecraft Theory to help further his personal work on the family craft.
Yet it would also be during this time that Rhodri’s father would be stricken by an unknown event during a subspecies war he went out and ‘observed’, thus placing him in a state of bad health. While alive and conscious, he was injured greatly but managed to protect ‘what was important’ and managed to make it home ‘mostly in one piece’. Still stuck in long-term recovery, but able to think and talk and direct things from his bed, Rhodri's father kept up the mundane side of things for the family at this stage and Rhodri was forced into the leadership role as a magus. Having cultivated a spot in the Democratic Faction while going there to learn, he had kept up his family's existing political alignments in the Clock Tower and likewise went about to set his family's work on a path to the future at the same time.
However, at the same time he would suddenly take up participation in yet another subspecies Grail War of his own accord....all after a set of Command Seals appeared on his left hand one odd, rainy day. It was curious enough of a thing, and yet after some research into the matter Rhodri began preparation to travel to Switzerland without another word. What is it about this tiny town of Sion that drew in him so? Ah, perhaps that would need to remain a se-cret for now, hmm? After putting some plans in place for his travel there to participate, and locking up a personally-penned and updated compilation of his magecraft studies and research at the family estate, the Welshman would work out some initial lodging at Sion and hit the road without any more than a casual wave behind him as he walked out of his family's home.
What will the war in Sion bring? What does he desire for the Grail? Ah, only time will tell in reality.
Personality
A man with a laid-back attitude and casual manner who enjoys 'living life', and one who enjoys video games and browsing the internet and whose well-versed knowledge of modern culture and technologies makes him seem like just a 'modern guy' for the most part. A person who enjoys prodding with jokes, usually puns, at times and seems to be of the friendly and amicable sort of figure up front and on the surface. The sort of guy who introduces himself to you, offers to get you a snack if you look hungry, and then proves to be pretty relaxed when hanging out with him if one is a friend or neutral party to him. At the same time, he is also tech-savvy 'bro' who will laugh at an enemy magus for their confusion in using it without a doubt, however, and is capable in his abilities to irk, earn the ire of, and 'piss off' others. He is a relentless internet troll who as a magus accrues great quantities of grudges/curses for magecraft with ease in this manner in the modern age, and someone who has worked hard to learn how to 'get people angry' and 'stir up the pot' either tactically or in a more chaotic manner alike.
While to the naked eye of many magi he's "an annoying idiot", underneath he's a magus with a serious dedication for his family's work and who has a rather keen mind apt and happy to learn and further things along. Even at the Clock Tower he proved to be a skilled and rather avidly superb student, as well as being such in his general education in life to boot, which is something many are surprised to learn about him if told about that. When it comes to the Holy Grail, however, his true motive seems to be somewhat concealed if not an enigma. For all those who know him know, he wants to snag the Nadelkiss Holy Grail and use it to turn 'the skin of all Aristocratic faction members permanently pink' or something just as silly and irritating. On the other hand, as a magus some who know him more deeply believe he might be seeking to further his family's work in a more expedited manner....or perhaps he is up to something else entirely.
Magecraft Information
Elemental Affinity: Fire, Earth
Number of Magic Circuits: B Quality of Magic Circuits: B
Magecraft:
General Magecraft - The basics, things like setting up a workshop, detecting magical energy, and contracting a familiar, etc. In terms of familiars, for Rhodri, these skills are also involved in the creation of families borrowing the appearance of “will-o’-the-wisps” as familiars as well as these familiars’ potential modification (general use as a familiar for scouting, use in protecting a location, use in misleading and misdirecting enemies, or even in creating more malicious ones imbued with grudges/curses).
Western Curse Magecraft - While certainly behind the practitioners of the East in terms of the cursing techniques of the west, his family for obvious reasons has cultivated a study and understanding of curses as part of their magecraft lexicon. He has the proper ability to apply/use countercurses, and like others in his line is highly adept at use of the “Evil Eye”, a simple but anciently-rooted means of cursing requiring only bad intentions/feelings aimed towards the targets and a nasty glare to cast it (causing misfortune and injury to targets as a result). He is also skilled in the use of verbal curses, as well as the use of curses engraved into parts of buildings and so forth to afflict others who dwell within, and scratching the initial of someone to be cursed on lead or slate and throwing it into a well, etc.
Grudge Magecraft - The true core art of the Bowen Family, it centers around the accruing, gathering, and the harnessing of grudges and ‘sins’ and making use of them. It combines the culturally-relevant practice from Wales such as sin-eating rites, and the widespread concept of a ‘scapegoat’ in the West, into a cultivated magecraft specialized at the ‘purification’ of others by the user taking the sins and grudges of others upon themselves. From here said grudges and sins can be harnessed by the user in turn, such as being used as fuel for strengthening Curse Magecraft. With this magecraft, the user is capable of accruing the grudges and sins of others through acts as simple as walking through a busy street or eating food in proximity to people. Even turning one’s hostility toward a user of this magecraft, giving them the ‘stink eye’ or a bad look, and so forth are able to be drawn upon by the user as a source of strength. One can also use this to perform other feats, such as combining it with sympathetic magecraft to "return turn grudges/curses and negative emotions directed at him 'back to the sender'".
In the case of Rhodri, he also combines the use of this magecraft with others he has learned as per family tradition. For example, he combines this with Fire Magecraft to create things such as ‘fires powered by grudges, which keep burning even underwater, and likewise which curse others who come into contact with them’. Another example would be combining this magecraft with a bounded field to afflict intruders with a myriad of curses, or do something like trigger several grudge-infused sharp stones or a set of wraith-infused weapons to automatically attack/pursue an intruder. Even things like combining this with sympathetic magecraft to 'amplifying and reflecting grudges back on/against his attackers' are possible, etc.
Sympathetic Magecraft - An older form of primitive magic, ranging from practices such as the stereotypical 'voodoo doll' of modern pop culture, to pouring water on an altar as part of a sympathetic magic ritual to summon rainfall, to other forms of 'imitative magic' using objects and/or actions and things such as human hair or blood to exert influence over places and people alike.
Spiritual Evocation - A supporting magecraft in a general sense, which for the Bowen includes but isn’t limited to, matters such as imbuing objects with wraiths and creating a location that draws in wraith/grudges of the dead. Etc.
Elemental Magecraft (Fire) - Fire element magecraft. The generation and manipulation of fire. Flinging fireballs at enemies, conjuring great blazes, emitting jets or streams of flame, setting things on fire, conjuring fire as well as manipulating existing fire, and so forth. Also includes skills in scrying via the use of fire in this case.
Elemental Magecraft (Earth) - Earth element magecraft. Conjuring and flinging large boulders at people, pelting enemies with a hail of myriad sharp rocks, the physical manipulation of existing sources of earth, making defensive barriers of rock and stone (or some such earthen substance), etc.
Magic Crest: 350 years old, placed on his upper back, and taking on the shape of a rose flower from the top-down with an ornate design of petals that grows with each generation adding to it.
Mystic Codes:
The Golden Gazer - A simple mystic code easily concealed within mundane society as a normal lighter, Rhodri most often uses it for purposes of fire scrying (‘scrying on the fly” as he calls it) via magecraft. He has become adept with its use and with using fire scrying in general as a supplementary skill. He can also infuse the mystic code with a limited fuel of ‘grudges’ in order to light a cursed fire somewhere with ease, though if he managed to get a grudge against someone he is looking for and infused it into the lighter while fire scrying….well, tracking down opponents could be made a bit easier in the present, perhaps, eh?
Magecraft-Altered Modern Smartphone - While it is a mundane item at heart, Rhodri uses modern phones as ‘vessels for accruing grudges’ for himself as well as to store an amount of them akin to a ‘reserve vessel’. Even if his current phone is ever broken or destroyed, though, it can just be replaced with another one that fills the same role with ease. Though he did get some smartphone insurance to make sure he can afford another one on the regular at a lower cost, and bought a backup one for the war to boot, even if money isn’t really a problem for his family in the general sense due to their long-term business investments heading into current times.
The Grudgety Suitcase - What he calls a suitcase filled with minor mystic codes. Its contents consist of: A number of curse/grudge-infused knives possessed by wraiths/grudges, general ritualistic materials and tools for his magecraft, pre-cursed legal Swiss money/coins alike, several items useful as ‘backups’ to further ‘store curses/grudges for the user’ as additional ‘spare vessels’, and a set of unique mystic code eating implements that are themselves mystic codes that act like ‘receivers/catalysts for grudges and drawing in them into the food he is eating using said implements’ and which can be combined with his family magecraft to pull in grudges from a wide area over something as simple as eating.
Bwch Dihangol, aka: “Goatie the GOATED Dagger” - Despite his silly nickname for a mystic code that’s just a dagger with a goat head on the hilt, but as a mystic code it has been suffused with grudges throughout Rhodri’s life after he began training as a magus under his father. He has accrued and infused it with a fair deal of curses, and it is a tool he has been trained how to use practically as a weapon. The latest example of a rather old family tradition that dates back many generations for heirs and heads of the Bowen. It was designed to also be used to ‘scapegoat’ grudges/curses/sins as a ‘transferring tool’, meaning that if plunged into a living target it could be used to ‘overwhelm a target with grudges’ beyond simply the harm caused by being stabbed with a dagger. On that note, normally members of the Bowen are laden with stored-up grudges and know how to contain them within themselves as it is already, and Rhodri is no exception.
Nonmagical Assets:
Normal Uncursed Swiss Money (plenty for the war’s duration)
Changes of Clothes (a reasonable amount the average middle-class person would bring on vacation)
Dagger/Knife Combat - Trained in professional dagger/knife combat, making him proficient in use of one of his mystic codes in an additional practical sense. He is noted as being fairly adept with such a weapon in terms of skill.
Brazilian Jiujitsu - A martial art he took classes in alongside the above skill, mostly in case he is attacked unarmed. He is fairly adept in this skill as well.
Travel Supplies - Mundane stuff like floss, toothpaste, etc, for a week’s trip to another county.
A backup mundane and fully functional smartphone - Just in case, altering it into a lower-grade mystic code is also a simple enough process for him.
General Internet/Modern Tech Savviness - An expert in this, including and especially with regards to 'trolling' and 'meme culture'.
The chains are shattered, the guardians are scattered, the prison crumbled from being battered and the wise realized that hiding was what now mattered...
Terrarium, League Administration HQ, Grand Glory City
As Amelia stood by her for the picture, the psychic tried to muster up her own smile for the picture proper. At the same time, it seemed that she wasn't the only one curious about how many rare-color-variant Pokemon were here for the trainers to start with. It was peculiar at best, perhaps, for such an uncommon sight. Seemed that someone named 'Ruey' had bred them, though, based on what the adults talked about? She was curious to talk to that person at some point, as with that amount of labor just to produce these results....it spoke volumes to hard work at the very least, if nothing else. Or maybe those 'eccentricities' the Professor spoke of were more than she was thiking. Hmm. Either way it piquied her curiosity somewhat.
*click*
Once the picture was done, however, they got their-...Rotom Phone? Interesting. A rather new sort of device, yes? It came with a Pokedex app installed to boot. And as Kapoc explained the task before them, Clarissa sought to listen earnestly to his words. Financial compensation for new evolutions and discoveries. Ever-updating records as they all input data into a seemingly shared source. State of the art technology. Mention of another group of new trainers who had taken their turn the prior day. Directing questions about the League to the Champion and Director. Giving them some Pokeballs to start. Good, it was all good to know and get going with before they set out.
Even so, the psychic would try to scan the other Pokemon present to further test it after scanning Sir Lopsalot. Just to get an idea about things, get some practice in, and all of that as it were.
However-
As the professor walked back to his lab, he placed a hand on Clarissa's shoulder and leaned in to whisper, "Oh, and Clarissa, be careful about showing off. I really shouldn't be the one to tell you why."
Clarissa froze up in a heartbeat. She hadn't been trying to show off, just help and-...and....but she....ahem. Yes, she needed to be careful. She knew that. It was, well, it was good advice. Yes. He'd...he'd told her that before as well during their first talk together. It was just that she'd been-...and everyone else had-...yes. Yes she'd be more careful. She had to be. Luckily, thhough, it so far seemed that no one else had noticed what she'd done with the empty doughnut box or had at least paid it any visible mind. That...that was good.
...Breathe. Just breathe slowly, in the nose and out of the mouth. Good. Even her Buneary, however, would try to rub the back of her head a little to try to assist to boot. Get the nerves down. Yes. She'd slipped for a second there, hadn't she?
Looking back to Amelia, Clarissa would give the smaller girl a nod before speaking.
"A-ah, would you like to travel together, perhaps? Maybe see if we could find another who wishes to travel as well?"
The last the nerves were leaving her system as she began to speak, much to her personal but hidden chagrin, but she wanted to see if Amelia wanted to travel together. The girl seemed to be a good person, and if they could find another person perhaps it'd be safer to travel in a trio at the very least. Plus she seemed to have a ghost-type with her, and that acted as a sort of balance for Sir Lopsalot's typing as far as she was aware. So they'd have some initial coverage to help each other too! Hopefully.
Once she would get an answer out of Amelia, hopefully without spooking the poor girl, the psychic would go to those other peers of theirs still left in the building to try to find another person amenable enough to them both to travel with if the girl said yes to traveling with her. Or, well, at least go about asking those who seemed to not be busy with something at the very least for the moment being or hadn't run out of the building in a hurry. It would be a simple search and asking of others on Clarissa's part, but she'd try to be polite enough of course, and not totally an OOC way to word things to try to get a group ready and going out into the open world.
Whether Amelia wanted to travel with her or not, or anyone else did in the end, the psychic would take a moment to approach the Director and Champion for a moment with a question of her own. Because while her family had only been around the city for a year, she'd gotten a bit of a gut feeling about something. While the city was new enough to not have any 'old places' she could see, there indeed was still an area of it she initially wanted to check out, if possible, to see if Pokemon resided there. And now with a Pokedex and Pokeballs of her own in hand, she had the chance to check it out.
"Pardon me, but I want to ask, ah, if you know anything of the city sewers and if or what Pokemon might reside there potentially? I thought I'd hear rumor of something down there after my family moved here to Evig, but I wish to draw on your expertise on the matter if you know anything about these matters."
She'd even try to go ask the same of Professor Kapoc once she finished with the Champion and Director, as well as to quietly thank him for his reminder, even if just breifly and quickly so she could finish her information gathering and leave him to his work proper. From here, if Amelia or anyone else had by this point in time agreed to group with her Clarissa would check with them about heading to her desired location. Surely it wasn't the more, er, 'desireable' of places to go...but she wanted to follow that gut instinct of hers and check them out all the same. See if any peculiar Pokemon could be found there or the like in particular primarily, etc.
Though if anyone she was trying to group with, or managed to do so, didn't want to come with to the sewers of all places....well Clarissa would say she was amenable to meeting back up after she investigated there at least. Preferrably once she'd gotten a shower at home too. Then they could head elsewhere together, perhaps, afterwards! It would be, well, better than traveling alone at least. All alone...
Waiting Area/Reception, League Administration HQ, Grand Glory City
Her smile growing bigger, it seemed, the younger child nodded before proceeding to give the Buneary the aforementioned scritches, being sure to be gentle so that she didn't accidently hurt the creature that had come over to comfort her. Amelia couldn't help but giggle as she did so, hoping that her own partner would be as friendly as the Buneary. A few seconds later, she jumped to her feet, looking a bit panicky again.
Sir Lopsalot, for his part, would lean into the scritches provided all the same. A look of happiness was on the Buneary's little face as his left foot began to lightly 'tap tap tap' on the floor, the gentle touch of the child a welcome and almost familiar one in some sense to the little Pokemon. Yet the moments of satisfaction, the sound of a happy little girl's giggle, and the good vibes of the moment would soon fade as the child seemed to jump up to her feet in a panicky manner again. A little jarring on the Buneary's part, but enough to get him to lightly cock his head with a mildly worried look again at her before glancing up at his trainer once more.
Clarissa, in turn, felt a small jolt of surprise as the child popped up again with a bit of more than obvious panicky-ness once more. Even so, she would stand back up again herself withouit any fanfare or panic herself. Her expression for the most part was back to normal now, prior moments of joy aside, though she'd catch her Pokemon's eye and give him a tiny nod. In response, the Buneary would seem to lightly sigh, and would hop back up on his trainer's right shoulder in turn.
"O-oh, I almost forgot! I never introduced myself." She said, still sounding nervous but not as badly as before. She gave the older girl a slight bow before continuing. "My name is Amelia Averyonna and I'm from Florasong Town. It's a pleasure to meet you and your Buneary, Miss."
A rather polite little girl indeed, it seemed, but she had to herself return the gesture in kind as well of course. Even so, the nerbous energy coming off of the girl was certainly something she could pick up with more than just her two eyes and ears as well. Hmm. It...made her worry a little, but that aside they were being formal at this time, yes?
"A pleasure to meet you as well, Amelia. This is Sir Lopsalot, and I'm Clarissa Ryte. My family lives here in Grand Glory City, though just over a year ago we used to live in-"
The psychic wouldn't get to finish her statement before things began to accelerate forward, though, beginning with the arrival of Director Beck. Formal yet casual, an air of warmth about her, and the like. A proper professional indeed, at least as far as Clarissa understood. Well, so it seemed until they made it back into lab and-
"Professor Kapoc? Hello?" The group of hopefuls continued to be led by the lab until they found a man with disheveled, long black hair pulled back into a pony tail slumped over his desk face first with a mug on its sides spilling the dark contents onto the white surface of the desk. They could tell it was the professor because he wore a long white jacket like every professor.
"Oh my god did he finally work himself to death?" The director walked over to the professor and shook him by the shoulder gently. "Professor Kapoc..." In response, the professor snored loudly. The ginger frowned, her brow furrowed in frustration as she shook him hard. "Cedric the trainers are here!"
-...and Professor Kapoc was just as she remembered him, outright so. Her father had last messaged her mother about the long 'working hours' in the lab as of late, but it seemed things were rather bad if the last time he'd slept was the prior Tuesday of all things. Combined with the nagging tone of the Director feeling more like she seen an 'old friend' lecture another, the arrival of the actual region Champion in such a laissez-faire manner, and the way these three seemed to go about things it was more than a little clear that they knew each other well. And that the current Professor perhaps had maybe a few more stories of the past underneath the resting grump-face he hheld than he would want to remember, but that was besides the point. Meanwhile, a somewhat enterprising Sir Lopsalot would certainly help himself to a doughnut, as well as bring his trainer one (and Amelia if she accepted one as well) to boot.
As they were led along further by the Professor, however, Clarissa felt a certain small sense of familiarity ping in her mind. Her father had noted there were reasons for the size of the building, after all, and as the glass doors to the terrarium opened the psychic raised an eyebrow. All sorts of artificial environments to maintain, and on this scale? What kind of Pokemon were they keeping here or studying around these parts to have such a grand area to work with? Either way, the others would head up to the metal table before them to pick up their partner Pokemon while she and the others...stood there?
*munch*
"Bun!"
*munch munch*
Correction, stood there while she and Sir Lopsalot began to eat their respective doughnuts (she had managed to get a simpler chocolate glazed one) and watched further hijiinks ensue before their very eyes. She watched the fashionable girl who had placed herself next to Amelia in the waiting room turn a total one-eighty from composed and spin around with an adorably tiny little bug-like Pokemon of inconspicuous size while squeeing loudly. Understandable. She likewise watched-
"G'day, nymes Steph, plezshah t' mayt ya."
No, she didn't watch in the end. This was because her free hand was grabbed and shaken, the redhead she'd seen earlier in the lobby speaking in some kind of mind-maddening tongue of lovecraftian nightmares peculiar accent all the same. It was odd, done rapidly, and yet somehow...she could make it out? It didn't take a mind reader, and she'd been exposed to odd accents before all the way back at Gateon Port on and off for some years. Etc. But to be glad for it and finding that experience useful? Well this was certianly the day for it.
"Names Clarissa, its a pleasure to meet you as well."
Of course no sooner did the words escape her lips after swallowing her latest doughnut bite in a hurry than Clarissa saw Steph zoom off to literally everyone else she seemed able to interrupt with a jarring, even if seemingly genuine, greeting or introduction of some kind. From here she proceeded to hold up the little, and also adorable, candle Pokemon above her head in a manner that almost seemed to beg for some kind of piece-defining music to be played for it. Or, well maybe a cheeky little jingle instead, hmm? Either way, the psychic's eyes would move onto the others in turn from there.
"OH MY ARCEUS!!! HIIIIII—" she squeaked as she dove down trying to hug it before falling on the ground—geez... The Zorua looked on edge before dashing away "NOOOOO DON'T LEAVE MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!"
That...was certianly something, as was another boy getting a peculiarly-colored little psychic type according to her own senses, and a girl getting a peculiarly-colored little dinosaur Pokemon to boot. Hmm? The boy was right, weren't such things supposed to be actually 'rare'? She'd read that up before and had her father explain it years ago, but even so had the Professor and co gone rather out of the way for some of these? The well-dressed boy in turn seemed to grimace at the prospect of a bug-type Pokemon, then, though his Pokemon seemed to pay it no mind and perched lovingly on his shoulder all the same. It was a bit heartwarming in her eyes, even if a tiny bit, before yet another girl who had in this case acquired an Eevee (that one she very much recognized, finally, herseslf) called out to them all for a potential group picture of the starting trainers and co.
Giving a small mental shrug to herself after a moment of thought and finishign her doughnut finally, or perhaps moreso having a moment of hesitation at the public photo op she hadn't expected, the psychic would walk over to join the photo taking if the others did so as well. She didn't want to be the only one-...aaaand one of the boxes of doughnuts was gone and now seemingly discarded to the side empty by another boy. Further, the girl who sat to Amelia prior and squeed loudly looked like she was turned to stone, all while her little new Pokemon having a seeming blast trying to get serious zoomies run about its new trainer and trying to climb up her legs on occasion. At least beyond this nothing el-
"Heya the-" The Pokémon immediately turned back around and ran away scared, squealing with its hands raised above its head. "W-Wait! Come back! I wanna be your friend!" Of course, Archie ran to follow the Pokémon who he will soon discover to be a Chespin. As of now, the Chespin's frightened cries and Archie's excited shouts could be heard as they ran across the pine forest zone of the terrarium.
...Clarissa sighed as quietly as she could manage, before using her telekinesis to frankly lift the empty cast-aside doughnut box and crumple it up before dropping it into the nearest trashcan. At the same time, Sir Lopsalot, who had finished his own jelly-filled doughnut, would just lightly slap his tiny forehead with and lightly run a little paw down his own face in silent exasperation at the humans-spooking-their-Pokemon antics for his part.
Their adventure, though, seemed to be about to begin in any case.
Xaltwind
Savo
Tortoise
AtomicNut
Sigma
Spiffy
Ariamis
Animal
Neziul
Shifter_Master
