Penthesilea
"What brazen fool dares lay his gaze upon me without my permission?"Class: Berserker
Gender: Female
Height/Weight: 1.86m/72.57kg
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Berserker wears an eyepatch over the one eye which was gouged out by Achilles' companions, and likes to dress in leather and furs whenever possible, striking an imposing figure. She has a fairly large bust to go with her height and her body shows the tell-tale signs of war; numerous scars, a swarthy, tanned complexion from many battles spent under the beating sun, and smooth, taut skin that belies the toned muscles underneath. Her combat outfit consists of a practical
war skirt, leather greaves and gauntlets, and a leather armor chest piece adorned with the visage of a lion (no bikini armor here, she takes her combat gear very seriously). For some reason her hair always cowlicks in just such a way that it resembles cat ears, a feature she was born with.
Personality: To sugarcoat it as little as possible, she's a tyrant. A loud, demanding, overbearing dictator who doesn't so much inspire hope in those beneath her as she does fear. While she does have a soft side, you're not likely to see it (especially if you have a Y chromosome) and will probably just spend most of your time being bossed around and waiting on her hand and foot. She places a high value on honor, martial prowesss and the glory of battle and will refuse to follow along with any tactics she deems cowardly. In general, she's a troublesome, high-maintenance Servant that demands patience and attention to form a working relationship with. However, if you can find a way to make her respect or even just accept you, she will become a valuable ally and friend, showing strength, bravery and dedication.
If you can get her to accept you.
Also whatever you do, don't mention Achilles or her sister around her, because it could literally make her insensate with Berserker rage.
Likes/Dislikes: Luxury, sampling the foods of the modern age, her sister/Weak men, Achilles, her sister
History: Once a proud queen of the Amazons, Penthesilea was slain in the great Trojan War by the mighty hero Achilles, who wept at what he had done. In reality, there's more to the story. Unbeknownst to many outside of Amazon country, the queen, then a princess, once had an older, wiser, more beautiful sister. Her name was Hippolyta, and as firstborn from Otrera, she was to be next in line for the throne. Penthesilea knew this from the day she was old enough to understand what inheritance and being the child of royalty meant, but never once did she question it. She adored her older sister, admired her even, and always believed that between the two of them, Hippolyta was more worthy of the throne. She had the patience, the cunning, the wisdom and the experience that Penthesilea all lacked. She never desired the throne.
But sadly, the throne is eventually what she would get when her sister was killed, by her own hands, on a hunting trip between just the two of them. It was an accident, of course. Penthesilea would never so much as raise a hand against her sister, but she did make the fatal mistake of mistaking her for a deer crouching in the undergrowth, and speared her, assuming she had caught a prize doe. Instead, Hippolyta died in Penthesilea's arms, and the position of future queen of the Amazons fell to her.
Of course there were rumors. There are always rumors, especially when the previous queen ascendant dies in her younger sister's arms, by her hand, when they are but all alone. Her people were suspicious of her from day one. Always comparing her to the queen her sister could've been, talking behind her back about how she was nothing more than a usurper who didn't deserve the throne, when she had never even asked for it. She always being compared to Hippolyta, always being judged and found wanting compared to the queen that had never been, the ideal princess Hippolyta.
Eventually the pressure caused Penthesilea to snap, and the image she had of her perfect sister shattered. She grew bitter, taking her grief and shame and turning into a grudge she would never let go of, even though she had once loved her sister Hippolyta. Her anger transformed into action, Penthesilea began commanding the people in earnest, demanding their respect. She ruled through fear and violence, and was as much of a brute of a queen as there ever was.
Many years later, at the dawn of the Trojan War, when the nation's unrest towards their tyrannical ruler was at a peak, Penthesilea made a decision to confront her feelings and her past once and for all. She would enter the war on the side of the Trojans, and fight until the last man for the glory of the Amazons. She intended to prove to her people once and for all that she was a mightier queen than Hippolyta, but in her heart she knew that she said this because she wanted her sister to forgive her and be proud of her so she could put the memories of her past to rest.
So Penthesilea vowed to become the mightiest warrior of the Trojan War, taking up the spear and slaying hundreds. Her wrath was terrifying to behold. A true berserker woman tearing through armed regiments with the strength of fifty men. It was said that amongst the many heroes fighting in the Trojan War, the only ones who were capable of defeating her were Hector on the side of Troy, and the mighty Ajax and Achilles on the side of the Greeks. Sadly, as the story goes, she was destined to meet with at least one of them in battle. Meet them, and fall.
On only her second day in battle, Achilles slew her, piercing her heart in battle. Though the queen, a daughter of Ares, could perhaps have wounded him despite his blessings, his other gifts were too many and too great, and she fell without a fight. Embarrassed and ashamed, her last thoughts were of how she failed her sister and her people, and how she had never deserved to be queen. She died alone, surrounded by hundreds of men and thousands of corpses, cradled in the arms of the man who had unwittingly robbed her of everything. Her pride, her dignity, and her last chance to make things right.
STR: B (A)
END: C (B)
AGL: B (A)
MP: C
LCK: D (-)
Mad Enhancement (C)
Divinity (B): All Amazonian queens are daughters of Ares by blood, and Penthesilea's mother was Otrera, consort of Ares and priestess of Artemis.
Bravery (A+): A hero of the Trojan War and a great many other battles, Berserker's fearlessness, courage and determination to win in combat is almost unmatched. It grants her a bonus to melee attacks against an equally ranked foe.
Battle Continuation (C): Having fought for many days against hundreds of opponents, Penthesilea is capable of fighting even in the face of extreme fatigue, hunger, and pain, and can carry on unimpeded in battle despite her injuries. Even a fatal wound like being stabbed in the heart won't kill her immediately, allowing her to retreat from battle to fight another day (though decisively and immediately fatal wounds like bisection and decapitation will still kill her).
None.
Noble Phantasm
Hippolyta
My Spear, My Grudge, My Curse Anti-Unit, Anti-Fortress
Range: 2-4, 1-99
Maximum number of targets: 1
The spear that slew Penthesilea's sister by her own hand, a deceptively plain wooden hunting spear. Though it appears fragile, it is still a Noble Phantasm, and possesses the strength of many ordinary weapons, as well a great deal of magical power. As an embodiment of her grief, the spear possesses a unique curse that penetrates any armor or material, wounding whoever its tip strikes regardless of rank or ability. Just as it slew her own sister, the spear's target matters not, and this effect cannot be negated except by the highest rank Noble Phantasm. However, while wielding it, Penthesilea's Luck is always treated as Rank Down.
Rather than piercing the target physically like Gae Bolg or the legendary spear of Hector, the spear simply bypasses any existing defenses, forcing the enemy to parry if they want to avoid a hit. In addition, no matter how far it is thrown or what stands in its way, the spear will always return to her. Finally, it has a last-ditch function to ensure victory in a losing engagement. In the event of loss or death, Lancer can fuse the spear with her own spiritual core and set it to blow, creating a sort of prana bomb that will extinguish her life and produce an explosion capable of killing anything within a 500 meter radius. It is a crystallization of both her grudge and her promise to her sister, that she may kill as many enemies as she can before falling in battle as a way to honor her memory.
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