Name/Nickname/Titles:

Gender:

Age:

Personality:

Appearance:

Biography:

Family History (if applicable): If the character comes from a magus family with a notable history, jot it down here. Otherwise, just remove this.

Origin: The basis of your existence. Shirou Emiya's Origin of "Sword" and Souren Araya's Origin of "Stillness" are examples.

Elemental Affinity: Dual elements and Average Ones are fine, but rare. If your Elemental Affinity is not one of the Great Five Elements, you cannot have more than one element.

Number of Magic Circuits: Self-explanatory. E-A. No modifiers.

Quality of Magic Circuits: The amount of magical energy each single circuit can sustain. E-A. No modifiers.

Od: How much magical energy you can store in your body. E-A. No modifiers.

Magecraft: Magecraft and magecraft-related abilities/characteristics go here. If something isn't here, it's assumed your magus doesn't know it. The exception will be that every Master is assumed to know "general magecraft" such as fixing broken glass, making a basic bounded field, and locking doors.

Equipment: Mystic Codes (magic equipment) as well as mundane stuff.

Skills: Anything they can do that the general populace can't.

Name:

Class:

Gender:

Appearance:

Alignment:

Personality:

History: Mainly for flavor or to clarify how your version of them lived in the case of conflicting legends. Optional if everything in their history that you're using is on a wikipedia page or something.

Weapon: Whatever they're summoned with. This should include things like Medusa's pegasus that they can innately summon as well.

Parameters:

STR: Damage one can deal.

CON: Damage one can take, ergo how much HP one has.

AGI: Dexterity or reaction time.

MGI: How much prana one can handle.

LCK: Ability to defy fate.

Class Skills: For all skills your class has. Please do not just put name and rank. Give an explanation of what it does. Also, it's worth noting that we're not using the Grand Order system here where things like Divinity are Class Skills and Magic Resistance counts as a Class Skill for, say, an Assassin. Keep that in Personal Skills.

Personal Skills: Certain abilities a Heroic Spirit may have, such as Charisma, Artistic Talent, etc. Keep close to the legend; modifiers are temporary rank ups, not a rating of how good it is. Limit of four.

Noble Phantasm(s): Limit of two, but please don't make a second one if it's blatant wank.

Name:

Title: Stuff like Excalibur's "Sword of Promised Victory", the kanji.

Rank: E-EX. Plus modifiers are possible, but specify if they're temporary rank ups, or an indication of raw power.

NP Type: Anti-Unit, Anti-Army, Anti-Fortress, Anti-Mind, Anti-Evil, Anti-Gate, Anti-World, Anti-Team, Anti-Divine, Barrier, and so on.

Range: 1 is minimum, 99 is maximum. Format is usually something like 2-50, that's Via Expugnatio and Bellerophon's range.

Maximum Number of Targets: 1 to 1000. The format is usually a single number. This may get weird depending on your classification.

Description: Effect of the Noble Phantasm.

Due to the circumstances of the war, certain aspects about Masters are predetermined. These are as follows.

A player can make both a Master and a Servant; however, both characters must belong to the same faction. In the case of the Edelfelt Masters and Servants, one player can make both Edelfelt Masters, but in this case, that is treated as filling both of their slots. If someone is chosen as the Edelfelt Servant, they can play both Servants and this will only count as filling one of their two slots.

There will necessarily be imbalance in Servant classes due to the structure of this roleplay. For instance, it’s entirely possible for the German Faction to have the three Knight Classes while the Japanese faction has the four Cavalry Classes. It’s recommended you consider what others are doing as well during the application process.

The German Faction has the option of summoning their Servants in Germany before coming to Fuyuki.



Imperial Japanese Army: A member of the IJA dispatched to aid the Founding Families in their defense of the Holy Grail. This individual will receive orders from the higher-ups, as well as mission assignments, making them the de juro “faction leader” in some regard. They have been provided with a replica of the Yasakani no Magatama, one of Japan’s three Imperial Regalia, for this assignment. The exact abilities of this are known only to the Japanese faction.

Matou: Formerly known as Makiri. After the death of the family head and hero of the Matou, Zolgen, in the events of the Second Holy Grail War, this character became acting head. The Matou are familiar-users whose magecraft revolves around the use of insects. Their attribute is Absorption, which is related to Energy Drain, but has the original concept of “to take something into oneself”. All Matou magecraft is something that will ultimately return to the user; as such, use of curses is impossible. Elemental Affinity is fixed as Water. The Matou character possesses 10% of the worms that belonged to the late head. As they are a family in the midst of decline, Magic Circuits will be acceptable, but not outstanding.

Einzbern: In truth, not a family, but rather a factory of homunculi designed by the disciples of the Third Magician, all of whom have since died or abandoned the cause of their teacher. They are the greatest creators of homunculi in the world today. Magic Circuits will vary depending on what a given homunculus is made for, such as magecraft as opposed to physical combat. The Einzbern character possesses access to the Einzbern castle and the homunculi within. The goal of Einzbern is to rediscover the Third, and through it, save the world. After two consecutive failures, Einzbern has become desperate. The miracle must be realized. Humanity must be saved. The Einzbern character thus has the option of summoning a Servant bearing the class of ■■■■■ or ■■■■■■■.

Tohsaka: Either a member of the Tohsaka family or a representative chosen to fight for them. The former is more constrained, but the latter lacks knowledge of the Holy Grail that the Einzbern and Matou participants possess. If a Tohsaka is chosen, Magic Circuits will be subpar. Tohsakas specialize in Conversion, a notable example of this being the jewel magecraft used by Rin Tohsaka. Proficiency in martial arts may also be expected, as the former family head, Nagato Tohsaka, attempted to reach the Root through such.



SS-VT: A member of the combat troop used separately from the police and Wehrmacht, dispatched in order to supervise this assignment and ensure that Thule is able to obtain the Holy Grail. This individual will receive orders from the higher-ups, as well as mission assignments, making them the de juro “faction leader” in some regard.

Edelfelt: A notorious and powerful Finnish lineage that came into power during the Renaissance. They involved themselves in the Holy Grail War out of a desire to pillage Fuyuki for all it was worth. In truth, they have no allegiance to the German faction or its views, but are merely cooperating with them on the surface since their goals (robbing Fuyuki blind) align. They can undoubtedly be called first-class as magi, bearing the attribute of Conversion as the Tohsakas do, as well as being experts in Scandinavian curses. There are two Edelfelt Masters in this war, twins. As a result of their Sorcery Trait, Ore Scales, which allows the Edelfelt Crest to be passed on to two children, these twins are counted as a “single Master”. They summon the same Servant in the same class, but with different aspects emphasized. For instance, were they to summon Gilgamesh as Archer, then one twin would summon an Archer Gilgamesh with “his capacity as a king exhibited”, while another would summon Archer Gilgamesh with “his capacity as a warrior exhibited”.

Thule Society: Representative sent by the Thule Society, the group that is the one aiming for the Holy Grail, and which roped the military into this. Actual involvement with the political side of things can be as high or as low as is desired. While the German organization possesses ties to its equivalent in the Sea of Estray, the latter is utterly unrelated to the matter of the Second World War. It is better to consider the German organization as a spinoff that is off doing its own thing. The most knowledgeable among the German faction about the Holy Grail. Magecraft revolves around the projects of the Thule Society. They have been provided with a flying mode of transport (“UFO”) powered by an experimental energy known as Vril. The exact abilities of this are known only to the German faction.

Servants who cannot be applied for a few reasons, some for balancing, some because of insufficient information, and some because I'm just a fickle bastard.

Banned for Balancing:
-Gilgamesh
-Heracles (non-Berserker)
-Nursery Rhyme
-All the Crazy Stuff (Eastern Dragons, Bodhisattvas, Holy Children, True Demons, True Magicians)
-Lugh

Banned for Incomplete Information:
-All Fate/Strange Fake Servants
-Any Servants who originate from Fate/Grand Order, but have not been released in Grand Order materials yet
-Gawain, because nobody knows what "chikara" in Numeral of the Saint means

Ineligible as Servants:
-Divine Spirits (Stheno and Euryale are unique exceptions to this)
-Nature Spirits, Elementals, etc
-Beasts closer to superweapons than living beings (Typhon and friends)
-Pre-Gilgamesh heroes (Technically we don't yet know whether Gil is the "chronologically first" hero or if he's "the hero who made it possible for people past and future to become heroes", so this is a line in the sand I'm drawing personally for the roleplay)
-Individuals born after 1899. If they're from a book/story, it must be made before 1900. (Technically we don't have an exact year for the cutoff, and I have to draw a line somewhere, so this is that line.)

Banned Because of Me:
-Joke Servants (Pumpkin Liz as an example)
-Any Canon Servants or original Servants with Imperial Privilege
-Canon "clones", for instance someone with Charisma and Military Tactics whose Noble Phantasm is a Reality Marble that summons an army. It's fine if you take inspiration from canons, but don't just copy their abilities onto someone else without changing stuff to make it unique to that person.

Welcome to Fuyuki City.

For our purposes, a day is split into four "phases". These are morning (6:00 am - 12:00 pm), afternoon (12:00 pm - 6:00 pm), evening/dusk (6:00 pm - 12:00 am) and night (12:00 am - 6:00 am).

We begin in the morning phase of Day One. There will be fourteen days to this war, after which, if a winner has not emerged, the war will simply end without a winner, as the First Holy Grail War did.

Before a phase begins, the private faction chats will be used to decide where all characters will be at the time of a phase beginning. This transit is assumed to happen "between phases", and allows you to relocate yourself to wherever you please. However, you will not know where the other team is moving their pieces until the new phase starts. Similarly, if you say you'll move to the temple for instance, but the other team plans to set up a guard at the temple gate, you'll start the next phase confronting that guard rather than being inside the temple already. Try to anticipate the enemy's goals and use it to gauge where they will be.

During a phase is when the roleplay itself happens. You are free to move from one map location to another during this time, but unless you are a Servant or possess a UFO, this will be very time-consuming, depending on how far you want to move. When you request to move to a new location during a phase, how long the trip will take will be PMed to you so that you can make this decision.

All members of a faction have been provided with communication devices, ergo all Japanese faction members can speak with one another, and the same for the Germans. This applies to Masters and Servants alike.

Both sides will receive missions from their faction, which if completed, will cause the higher-ups to be more willing to invest in this war and will make them send over rewards, such as Mystic Codes, troops, and the like. If not completed, there will be no punishment save for the lack of a reward. It is recommended you pick which missions to fulfill and which to ignore.

If you would like to request something specific as a mission reward, then inform the GM, and if feasible, a mission will be prepared with the desired reward. However, the more valuable the reward, the more difficult the mission, as you must prove yourself to the higher-ups before they are willing to make such a large investment.

Official roleplay Tiger Dojo.

Episode 1: Sumanai

Name:
Gustavus Adolphus the Great

Class:
Archer

Gender:
Male

Appearance:
Gustavus stands at a fairly tall five foot ten, with a head full of scruffy long golden blond hair and blue eyes. He has a very youthful appearance, unlike the portraits of him in the past consist of. He comments this was more of what his appearance was in his youth, though he never had this much hair. The hair in question falls to his shoulders, often falling over them and coming to a rest on his neck. He still seems fond of a military uniform of white, blues, and golds.

Alignment:
Lawful Neutral

Personality:
Gustavus' personality is...well, perhaps not exactly what one might expect. Or perhaps it is. Friendly, amicable, a little on the jovial side. He likes people, and can found chatting up random strangers, regardless of their standing or position in whatever society they are in. He likes people, and people tend to like his charm and find themselves drawn to his charisma regardless of their own position. Indeed, even as a servant it seems he still has a tendency to be both loved by the Nobility and those in power, and by the little people. He doesn't really act very 'kingly' as far as a number of people are concerned, but perhaps this is why he is liked so well?

He doesn't like sitting still, and always can be found doing something if he has free time. During battle, he takes a somewhat more serious approach. He always aims to end battles quickly and swiftly. This means that despite being an archer, he has a tendency to want to fight on the front lines, regardless of his status as such. He himself really doesn't like sitting back while watching his allies fight in his stead. He'd be a poor king simply to lead from the safety of his castle while his men risk their necks.

However - since becoming a servant instead of devoting everything to God, Country, and King - he is no longer a King or views himself as such. He devotes everything to the cause of his master, and is extremely loyal to that cause. This however, might cause some conflicts, especially if his master is of the less nobly aligned. Gustavus strove for peace in an Era marked by constant warfare, even if his detractors sometime say he had plans to conquer the entire region. He only did so, because at the time he saw that as the only way the constant strife was going to end.

While he himself admits he is no saint, he has very little interest in causing new wars, but will not hesitate to jump into one to take command and save people, be they his or innocent bystanders regardless.

History:
Gustavus' history doesn't deviate too much from established history. Born in Stockholm, he was the oldest son of Duke Charles. At the time, the king of Sweden was his cousin, Sigismund. At least, until Charles forced Sigismund to give up the throne in 1599, a premonition of the strife to come in the Thirty Years war. He reigned as regent, until he collected the throne as Charles IX of Sweden. In 1611, his father died and left him the throne at just 16 years old. He inherited a series of wars from his father, much to his dismay.

Gustavus never liked war. He never liked seriously fighting even if he was good at it, but war was something that was going to be the foundation of his life, it seemed. When he took the throne, he made several radical military, political, and economic reforms in order to modernize Sweden and help protect his people and country from the Catholics and other invaders. Most notably, was the unification of the Aristocracy and Crown. He was able to enact policies in where the aristocrats were to use their wealth to help the state. He was able to gain both the cooperation of the Aristocrats as well as the love of the common folk.

He died in the Battle of Lutzen in 1632 after being separated from his men in the battlefield. After being shot in the arm below the elbow, losing his horse as it was shot in the neck and only falling when he was shot in the back and stabbed with a bayonet - and even then, survived until an enemy soldier shot him point blank in the face.

Weapon:
A simple, but well made Sabre is his main choice of weapon in life.

Parameters:

• STR: Rank C
• CON: Rank B
• AGI: Rank C
• MGI: Rank E
• LCK: Rank C

Class Skills:
Independent Action: A
A skill that denotes a servant is able to take action independent of their master. Typically seen as a mixed blessing, Gustavus has a high ability in this skill allowing him to take action without being ordered to by his master. Being a king and military commander, he often led charges on the front line alongside his troops and being able to act independently upon the battlefield is a needed skill for any soldier. It was in one such charge, he was killed after becoming separated from his men. Additionally, under the event his master is injured or otherwise disposed, it allows him to remain in this world longer, if only even for a week.

Magic Resistance: E
In his life, Gustavus never encountered magic or magecraft much. As such, his skill with this is unfortunately rather low. He can not cancel spells, but magic damage is reduced by a marginal amount.

Personal Skills:

---

Bravery of Lions: A
A special type of Charisma earned from his legends and myth as the 'Lion of the North' and 'The Lion of Midnight'. Gustavus was a king who led his troops to victory upon the battlefield alongside them. He was respected among the battlefield, often taking the head of the charge himself alongside his troops as fearless as a Lion. As a fearless Lion, his bravery and charisma rubs off on others in the battlefield and encourages them to fight.

Military Tactics: B
A military genius, he led his nation and men to many victories using new methods of strategy and tactics. A skill not for use against one on one situations, but rather against entire armies. It increases ones own Anti-Army Noble Phantasm, as well as when dealing against another Anti-Army Phantasm.

Krigsfadern - Innovation: A
Innovation, a special skill granted to heroes who brought about a revolution in an era. Krigsfadern - so called the 'Father of Modern Warfare' by many, and Gustavus' version of this skill of revolutionizing and forming the basis of warfare for the next two centuries. It is the conception of his military and progressive political and economic reforms. Against servants that are still caught in medieval times and use blade and mounts, it offers plus corrections against their more 'primitive' way of fighting. Essentially, most servants from before the 1600s. However, against magic and other such creatures the effect diminishes greatly and depending, skills and stats may drop. Casters especially.

Reformation of an Empire: B
In life, Gustavus, with the help of his aides were able to completely reform the nobility and he was close friends with most of the highly influential aristocrats. At the same time, he used his power to help the common folk, and in kingdoms he conquered, he famously made the nobility give the commoners more autonomy. He was a rare thing in the seventeenth century - a king beloved by both nobility and the common folk. The manifestation of this ability does away with the stagnancy of old and brings about a new age. In effect, it heals the wounds of his allies to some extent, removes all negative statuses brought about by a battle or age, ends all arguments and brings them together, creating a bright, new dawn for an empire and all those in it and leads them to victory.

---

Noble Phantasm:

Der Löwe aus Mitternacht

---

Name:
Der Löwe aus Mitternacht
Title:
Fury of the Lion
Rank:
C+
NP Type:
Anti-Army
Range:
1~5
Maximum Number of Targets:
40
Description:
Gustavus was well known at the time to have made great innovative strategies among the battlefield, especially in regards to equipping his soldiers with light muskets and introduced a perfected form of Salvo fire at near pointblank range. It was extremely effective in war, able to mow down cavalry within seconds and follow it up with a devastating charge of pikes and swords. This Noble phantasm is a remnant of this innovation, and he is able to summon several of these light muskets and artillery canon and fire upon a foe at close range multiple times. It does not take much energy, and easily deployable if somewhat lower powered. Damage and effectiveness is increased against Rider Classes.

---

Name:
Der Löwe aus Mitternacht
Title:
Mighty roar of the Lion
Rank:
A+
NP Type:
Anti-Army
Range:
10-50
Maximum Number of Targets:
200
Description:
Aside from his equipping his infantry with light muskets able to fire a hail of bullets, he also equipped them with extremely mobile, light artillery that could take a more active role in battle instead of just being passive observers. The second use of his Noble Phantasm, is to summon these cannon in fully and launch a devastating, all out attack across a large area, destroying nearly everything within it. However, it loses its Buff against Rider class. It is extremely high powered and devastating, and once deployed can fire a hail of artillery canon upon an enemy for an extremely devastating attack, reducing most of the ground to craters.

NAME:
「هڠ تواه‎」 (Hang Tuah)

CLASS:
「Ruler」

GENDER:
「Female」

APPEARANCE:
「They say that her earrings shine like the sun, that the texture of her clothes is like brushing one’s fingers over the water’s surface. In her boots, anyone could walk a thousand miles. Most peculiar is her hair; white locks of wise, old age intertwined with youthful, jet-black vibrance.」

ALIGNMENT:
「Neutral Good」



PERSONALITY:
「”Never shall the Malay vanish from the Earth.”

Hang Tuah’s legacy in Malaysia is legendary; her tale is one that commands praise and her life was the definition of the upper class’ values—notably, unwavering faith and allegiance to one’s sultan. She is the embodiment of those ideals and was as well renowned for her natural attunement to spirituality. Though during her life she did not act in the capacity of her saint, it was through her deeds and actions that she shone like the most brilliant light for all prestigious Malayan people to look toward and emulate.

Her dedication was such that she would sooner turn her weapon toward a lifelong friend than toward her sultan, and her humble upbringing—as well as her experiences in the role of aid alongside the sultan to foreign lands—made for delicate speaking patterns. This does not, however, imply any sort of inherent gentility in her capacity as a warrior. She was lively, ferocious and tenacious. Her raw murderous intent is so overwhelming as to be tangible when battle is within her reach, and the thrill of it wanes not throughout an engagement.

To the contrary, she is like a predator that grows all the more daring and dangerous as it corners its prey. To fight for her sultan was to live and she relished that. In a strange way—albeit lacking a Ruler-class Servant’s conventional qualities—she is perfectly suited to the role. Whether it be to the Grail or to a Master, she endeavors to uphold all responsibilities set upon her and is a proxy for the judgement and doctrines that guide her hand. The infallible embodiment of an ideal.」

HISTORY:
「A legendary kris, whisked away by a river and lost to time, surfaces once again—along with it, its famed wielder. Hang Tuah.

Born to parents employed as woodcutters, Tuah was the essence of a so-called “Miracle Child.” Meditation came as naturally to her as breathing and the spirits of the world around her were tangible, known things. In ten years, she made four close friends: Hang Kasturi, Hang Jebat, Hang Lekir and Hang Lekiu. It was the spirits that called to mountain paths on which others would lose their way, and so—leading her friends—she took them to the top of the mountain, where an old hermit had taken up residence. That man, they had told her, knew the art of silat and all of its secrets.

The guru received those whom the spirits had guided with open arms and did agree to teach them silat. They toiled for years, trained and practiced meditation. When the guru saw in Tuah’s movements perfection and in her arms strength that could shatter his home of rock, he bade them to make their way back down to the world where they could seek their own destinies. He could teach them no more, for an even greater master was in their midst.

Before their departure, he bestowed upon Tuah three slim swords and in doing so noted they—though well-cared for—were of no particular make or quality. A master of silat would nonetheless find use in them, he added, as only such an individual would be capable of properly using them all simultaneously as intended.

The five friends’ foray into Malacca was the true beginning of Tuah’s legacy, and the first mention of her emergence is attributed to an event in Kampung Bendahara. Tun Perak had brought a party of royal guards along with him to investigate a series of violent crimes in Kampung. Unfortunately, upon being attacked by the very criminals they sought, his guards fled—it was instead Tuah’s friends that happened upon the skirmish and fought in their steed.

When Tuah arrived, however, her mere manner of walking and the vicious aura she exhibited drove the men to abandon their weapons and flee in fear. Impressed by the friends’ courage and Tuah’s peculiar air, he invited them to return to the capitol, where they were presented to Sultan Muzaffar Syah and awarded positions in his army. He invited Tuah to remain at his side and it was then she began her career as his personal aide—the service she would dedicate her life to.

There are a number of romanticized recountings of Tuah’s deeds from thereon out, though a succession of events is confirmed by nearly all accounts: in attendance to a gaudy marriage alongside the sultan, Tuah was insulted by Taming Sari, a master of martial arts and a warrior who claimed that she could dance but not defend herself. With permission from her sultan, Tuah engaged Sari in battle. In spite of being armed with the famed Keris Taming Sari, a kris which rendered her opponent all but invincible, Tuah’s strength and prowess made her his equal. Eventually, she snatched the weapon from him and overpowered him.

As a reward for claiming victory, the sultan bestowed the Keris Taming Sari unto Tuah, which would become intimately entwined with her destiny.

Armed with the kris and sheathe, she attended innumerable other engagements as a prestiged laksama with Siamese and Acehnese, and in spite of constant and exhaustive battle always emerged unscathed and victorious. It was her outstanding success that lead other members of the Malacca sovereignty’s royalty to slander her name, who accused her of an affair with one of the sultan’s favored concubines. In light of this, the sultan demanded that she surrender the Keris Taming Sari and admit herself to the executioner’s block.

Even these duties she fulfilled—the executioner was unable to bring himself to kill Tuah in spite of this and instead, with the help of Dato Bendahara who believed Tuah innocent, hid her away among the remote mountains of Melaka.

Once again, it was the spirits who received Tuah and for a time kept her concealed from the world, while she nursed the wounds left by the sultan’s decree and made peace with her convictions.

In her place, her good friend Hang Jebat was awarded rank as the most outstanding warrior beside her to be found in the sovereignty, and the sultan bestowed upon him the Keris Taming Sari. Once Jebat learned of the events that lead him to his status, he was overcome by bloodlust and fury and went on a rampage, intending to slaughter all in the way of his path to tear the sultan’s flesh asunder.

Dato Bendahara, at this time, informed the sultan that Tuah still lived, and he decided to call upon her in realizing that they had no other choice—though a formidable warrior on his own, it was with the Keris Taming Sari that Jebat was invincible and so unbelievably lethal. None else could challenge him. Tuah, receiving the sultan’s message, was shown out of the mountains by the spirits that had provided her solace and made her way back to the capitol.

There, she was faced with a furious Jebat. For the first time, he experienced the full weight of Tuah’s vicious aura and immediately understood that she intended to fight him. She neither waver nor hesitated. There was no reprieve in the engagement that commenced and throughout seven ceaseless days of grueling combat, where every single one of the Keris Taming Sari were as lethal as the rest, Jebat’s sanity degraded further and further. He was reduced to a desperate monster in front of Tuah’s eyes, and though at first he attempted to reason with her and to implore her and to bargain with her, there came a point where there was nothing left in his body but his fury. He became a vengeful vessel.

After seven days, Tuah finally stole Keris Taming Sari away from Jebat and dealt a single killing blow to her dear friend. In the aftermath of their battle—overcome with grief—she retreated from the sovereignty and into the mountains once more. There, she was guided by the spirits a final time to a river. She decided to throw her kris into its waters. If it surfaced, she would return to the sovereignty, elsewise she would vanish from the world. As simply as that, she discarded Keris Taming Sari to the waters, and—unable to see its glistening sheathe emerge from the current—disappeared, leaving nothing in her place.

Her intangible legacy, however, was one that the upper-class and those in service to the sultan would forever aspire to and idolize.」

---

WEAPON:
「Her three, slim swords tucked into her sash with their blades crossed. Though without any renown of their own, they are as spectacularly durable as Tuah herself in that they served to parry Keris Taming Sari for seven consecutive days of combat. They’re lightweight—their size allows her to hold two in one of her hands at any moment and all three are kept out when she fights. Usually, one of the blades is either kept airborne, as if it were being juggled, or is stabbed into the ground to be retrieved during a motion.」

PARAMETERS:
STR — B
CON — A
AGI — A
MGI — D-
LCK — E

CLASS SKILLS:
神明議決 (God’s Resolution) 「Rank C」— The privilege of a Ruler-class Servant to use Command Seals on other Servants, as bestowed by the Holy Grail to its “mediator.” For a war in which there are seven other servants, the total number of Command Seals that Tuah possesses is 7. They are usually kept concealed underneath her left forearm’s bandaging.
真名看破 (True Name Discernment) 「Rank C」— The privilege of a Ruler-class Servant to discern another Servant’s name, parameters and skills. In order to assess another Servant in this way, Tuah must first engage them in combat, at which point their first action or attack will expose them to her.
対魔力 (Magic Resistance) 「Rank B」— A natural resistance to curses, attacks and other antagonistic magical methods which renders spells of B-rank or below null. Resilient, isn’t she?

PERSONAL SKILLS:
Form of Silat「Rank A」— Though silat has come to refer to a collection of various martial arts and styles that share similarities throughout an area of Southeast Asia, the style which Tuah employs is its “original, intended form.” Lacking—or free from—the dissemination of techniques and intermingling of martial arts with particular traits passed down through time, the inception of the style found its inception in a woman witnessing combat between a hawk and a tiger, who thereafter adopted a style based on that exchange. Manifested as a Personal Skill, Tuah’s silat is a “mastery of battle exhibiting instinctive ferocity.” She is able to utilize mostly every form of traditional weaponry that can be likened to any which was present in her sultan’s armory during her life with proficiency. As well, her movements during combat are surreal—she both strikes with the spontaneous, ferocious power of a tiger and soars over her opponent as if she had the wings of a hawk.
カリスマ (Charisma) 「Rank C-」— The capability to sway and influence others. Though in life she was simply a faithful subordinate to her sultan, Tuah’s legacy and what her identity has come to embody for her culture renders her words “worth heeding, and always appealing to sincerity.”

---

NOBLE PHANTASMS:
Name:
Keris Taming Sari
Title:
“Beautiful Shield,” “Flower Shield”
Rank:
B
NP Type:
Anti-Unit
Range:
2~30
Maximum Number of Targets:
1 (+Huang)
Description:
Its sampir and batang embroidered with gold leaf and gems, Keris Taming Sari is a beautiful kris that even when sheathed is immediately recognizable at a glance. Its blade is composed of 21 different divine metals left over by the forging of the bolts of the holy Ka’aba and in total it possess three properties: it acts autonomously and fights on its wielder’s behalf from its sheathe, bestows upon its wielder a “Flower Shield” which renders them effectively invincible, and always deals fatal wounds. It is a weapon which though classified as “Anti-Unit” was employed by Tuang throughout her life to overcome numbers of enemies at once throughout many battles while never allowing her to be harmed.

Keris Taming Sari, though able to be wielded like a normal kris, is always “autonomous from its sheathe,” in that as long as it is at some point sheathed, it will fly out in order to fight on behalf of its wielder. This is a peculiar quality in that it’s very specific—if the kris, after being unsheathed, is at some point taken into the grasp of its wielder or another, this quality is rendered null until it is sheathed again. It cannot simply be taken from the air and used regularly and then resume acting autonomously without being sheathed. This is not a quality of the sheath but of the kris itself(unlike Excalibur, to which distinct properties were assigned to it and others to Avalon, all of Keris Taming Sari’s qualities belong to the kris itself.)

Secondly, when unsheathed, the Noble Phantasm renders its wielder “impenetrable.” This is distinct from the quality of being “invincible,” as the latter implies that the wielder is immune to harm—Karis Taming Sari, rather, produces a barrier much like petals of gold around its wielder which does not allow harm to reach them as long as it is in their possession. Because the Noble Phantasm instantly unsheathes itself when its wielder is in danger, the barrier’s activation is synonymous with the detection of a threat which—whether supernatural or natural—the Noble Phantasm itself perceives within a radius of 30.

Third, wounds dealt by Karis Taming Sari are “lethal wounds” in that there is a curse implicit in the damage they inflict—the wound is “supposed to be fatal,” so it will not heal naturally nor will healing magic serve as a salve for the damage. For all intents and purposes, as long as the Karis Taming Sari that inflicted the wound continues to exist, the wound will remain.

It's Fafnir.

Caster Class Servant



Name:
Moses

Class:
Caster

Gender:
Male

Alignment:
Lawful Good

Personality:

Determined, but ultimately very pleasant. Upbeat but devoted to doing the 'right' thing. Always generally cheerful despite the conflicted feelings he endured when caught between his duty in life given to him by God and having to oppose the man he felt akin to a brother, Ramesses II. Moses does not truly feel hatred to anyone, not even his childhood friend for the treatment of the Israelites in captivity during the time. He follows the path given to him regardless of the sacrifices he had to make along the way to do so. Abandoning his home, the people he considered family, and all things he knew when heeding the word of God.
History: Moses was found by Nefertari as an infant along the Nile river. He was taken in and raised as the foster brother and aid to Ramesses II the future Pharoah of Egypt. He grew up with the two and became inseparably close during the time. Later in life Nefertari came to marry Ramesses. The three still remained close, until Moses received a message from God that sent him on a path to free his people from the Pharoah’s rule. Moses desperately tried to plead with his foster brother to see reason and assist. But the Pharoah refused.

Caught between family, friend, home and duty Moses ended up invoking the Ten Plagues of Egypt. Tormenting the city in efforts to force his friend to release the Israelites. Ramesses II continued to refuse despite his people’s suffering. He resisted until the final plague took the life of Ramesses II and Nefertari’s first born child. Something that pained Moses more than he could ever admit. Ramesses II agreed to let the people go to cease the plagues from claiming anymore. But ultimately was grief driven and chased after Moses. Only to witness the miracle of the red sea splitting. Ozymandias turned back. Still unable to hate his friend even during the grief.
Moses took his people across the Red Sea and traveled as a Nomad for forty years guiding them. At which point he created the Holy Relic the ten commandments which are engraved on the Ark of the Covenant. Uniting future tribes all in the name of the lord.

Weapon:
Staff/Rod of Moses- Transforming Staff.

Parameters:

STR: D+ CON: C+
AGI: B MGI: A
LCK: B

Class Skills:

Territory Creation: C
Moses can create a study while set to an area. But once he has begun his journey he tends to act in a nomadic way. This causes him to instead create miniature workshops that are rapidly made and easily abandoned. This limits the effective creations that can be done in a make shift workshop, but does allow for spontaneous set up. In legends these Nomadic workshops were used as channeling points to communicate with the Lord. As it was in one of these territories that he channeled God to write the Ten Commandments.

Tool Creation: C:
Moses ability to create was always inspired by the Lord. Creating the most renowned construct in the form of Tablet of the Ten Commandments. All creations tend to be aligned to a Blessed or Holy Nature. Aiding him in the creation of the summoning aspects of his magecraft.

Personal Skills:

Charisma: B: Able to inspire and lead the Israelite's from their servitude under Ramesses II to seek out their rightful path of freedom in the name of God. Able to invoke in them a will that had long thought to have been beaten out of the slaves.

Jacob's Limb: A: The second practitioner of the Hand to Hand combat style inherited directly from Jacob. A Saint who has mastered this technique was able to surely beat even a divine being such as an 'Angel of Destruction' with nothing more than their fists.

Blessed Incantation: B: As one who followed the path of YHVH Moses acts not as himself, but as an instrument of God. This allows him access to magecraft based around limited recreation of the Plagues set upon Egypt.

Eye of the Mind (False): C: Often Moses awarded his insight to impending danger and his intuition as warnings from God. As such it allowed him to continue on believing in the Holy Foresight to aid him in his endeavors.

Noble Phantasm(s):

Name: -Matteh Moshe-
Title: Rod of Trials and Tasks
Rank: A
NP Type: Anti-Unit (Self)
Range: 0
Maximum Number of Targets: 1.
Description: The Divine Construct, the Staff of Moses, powered by the Word of God and the command "Take this Rod in Thine Hands wherewith thou Shalt do signs". The Noble Phantasm actually originates from the tale of Leviathan and the Cruciform Snake Staff that connected to the legend holds a strong connection to Water. The wielder of the staff is granted transformative properties like that of Water. This allows them to adapt to their situation. These adaptions allow for increased parameters in both STR and CON when being applied.
By activating the staff's full transformative properties one is able to change their form phantasmagorically. Allowing them to alter their shape and take another form.

Name: -Matteh Moshe-
Title: -Radiant Light of the Lord-
Rank: A+
Np Type: Anti-Fortress
Range: 2-75
Maximum Targets: 100

Activating the Divine Construct requires invoking the letters Yod Hey Vav Hey, and speaking out the Ineffable name of the God of Israel. This can only be used while The staff is in its true form and not utilizing the transformative properties. The Staff of Moses calls upon God's holy light to aid him in his time of need. By harnessing the staff's fundamental blessed nature it is able to channel a miracle in the form of a radiating beam.

The beam was originally used to split the Red Sea during the escape from Ramesses II's forces. The beam itself burns hot enough to evaporate water instantly and the force of the blast is able to push away with enough intensity to force away the very sea long enough for the entirety of the Israelite's to pass across before receding back onto itself.

”This War is such a pain…. I just want to be done with it and get that Grail back home.”

Name/Nickname/Titles: Tohsaka Syone (Pronounced Shione)/Shi-chan/The Tohsaka’s Biggest Failure

Gender: Female

Age: 22

Personality: Syone’s appearance very much matches her personality. She is lazy, disheveled and has little care of what others think of her.

She wishes she could just live her life however she wants, but obviously that is not possible, not for her anyways. So, in an intent to rebel against her family, she goes against them in any way she can. To do this, however, she has had to nurture some abilities, whilst leaving others that may seem more essential given her current position.

For example, she has a silver tongue…. she can lie her way through anything you throw at her and, by extent, she is also a great actor. Despite her nerdy looks, she is not at all shy to either voice her opinion nor is she afraid to deceive others in order to gain something.

She also knows how to adjust her personality to match any given situation. Invited to a ball? Give her a dress and she’ll be the perfect lady. Need her to act intelligent in a business meeting? Give her a pair of glasses with a black frame and she’ll trick any CEO into believing that she actually knows what she’s talking about.

Syone is, of course, very intelligent, even if she does not let others know that, and her main hobby is training her magic, regardless of what her family thinks of her. She’s grown numb to insults and attempts at trying to diminish her.

”You wonder why I don’t let what others say get my self-esteem low? Well, that’s my secret cap… My self-esteem was always low.” (I can’t fit that anywhere in the RP and just thought it up… so just lemme use it here XD)

Appearance: Standing at roughly 4’9’’, and weighing an undisclosed weight of 95 pounds, she’s underwhelmingly petite for the kind of mess she has gotten herself in.

Certainly, people might underestimate the small, bespectacled brunette girl but they certainly shouldn’t… some may say that letting your guard down around her might be a really big mistake.

Syone usually dresses in baggy, long sleeved sweaters, long sleeved shirts and shorts. Most always she does use stockings of some sort when going out of course, though she does not have an eye for fashion, nor the slightest intention of combining the colors of her clothes.

Usually she is seen using her pink framed glasses.

Biography: The firstborn of the Tohsaka family for this generation, she was expected to become the head of the house and was trained for such since a young age. Bad thing for them, though, Syone had very different plans of her own. And with the approaching Holy Grail War, that also meant that she was meant to be the Master representing the Tohsaka's for the fight.

Despite being born with an exceptional talent for magic and high quality magic circuitry... for a Tohsaka, she’s always been a free spirit, ever since she was little…. a very lazy free spirit, but a free spirit nevertheless. She wouldn’t be constrained by the desires of her family, not by a longshot. And most certainly, she wouldn't die at the beck and call of others.

So she went on ahead to use the brilliant head she’s got between her shoulders, and devised a plan so machiavellic even Machiavelli himself would’ve been impressed.

Syone started showing more.... mediocre performances. She was not failing completely, but something was certain: she was not apt, or at least seemed to not be apt, of being the Master representing the Tohsakas. Her parents decided to stop training her for it, instead focusing on the more political and social aspects of being the head of the Tohsakas.

Eventually, and by unanimous decision, Syone was labeled ‘The Tohsaka’s Biggest Failure’, due to her excellent aptitude towards becoming a great mage, and master of the Tohsaka for the Grail War, and failing completely at it.

Everything should’ve been fine and good then, right? Wrong.

She did have a tutor. Her very much beloved tutor that behaved more like a father to her than her real father ever did. He taught her everything she knows of the world, of life, and, as a naive young woman, also of love, but she has since then grown out of those feelings(after a rejection from the man’s side nonetheless). Fact of the matter is, she still loves him, as a father, but that love is very much real.

And, unbeknownst to her, plotted in the sidelines, and in a machiavellian turn she would’ve loved to come up with, her tutor, that beloved man that she admired so much, was to be the Tohsaka representative for the Holy Grail War. He accepted the honor, of course, while leaving Syone out of the loop. He knew her better than anyone… and he knew she’d try to stop him.

Once the news reached her ears, that was exactly the case, and she couldn’t help but think that, for all he knew about her, he still didn’t know enough. Like the fact that she is more stubborn than he ever believed, and that she wouldn’t let this go so easily.

Using the knowledge in magic her tutor provided her with, mish-mashing information from books she got her hands on, Syone performed the ritual on her own…. and succeeded, even without a catalyst, thus taking the place of her tutor as the Master for the Tohsaka’s in the Holy Grail War.

Now, the only question is, how in all the seven circles of hell does she plan to get herself out of the mess she got herself in?

Family History: Tohsaka

Origin: ‘Star’

Elemental Affinity: Fire

Number of Magic Circuits: C

Quality of Magic Circuits: D

Od: B

Magecraft: The Tohsaka’s signature magecraft, Jewel Magecraft. Using jewels, Tohsaka mages are able to store energy inside Jewels and then release it all at once, making them act as ‘portable’ or ‘expendable’ mystic codes.

Most of Syone’s have inside fire based attacks, to be released in short bursts that can effectively light up any normal human being in fire… obviously not something you want to be subjected to.

As they store energy, Syone can also use that same piled up energy to power the attacks coming from other jewels by using the energy inside them, effectively breaking the jewel from where she is taking the energy. She can also use them to prepare rituals and such.

Syone is knowledgeable in curses, like Gandr, as well as several rituals, most of them to place bounded fields that can turn a battle in her favor, by placing sigils that, upon contact with fire will also explode in a burst of fire, making the attack all the more powerful.

Aside from this, Syone can also use several healing spells, including high-ranking healing magic, closing wounds in matters of seconds, albeit at the expense of either her own power, and body, or several jewels.

Equipment: Two bracelets with jewel pendants strapped to her wrists, one in each. They act as a deterrent for fire based attacks, so long as they come from another human mage. Rank: D

Her glasses, even if they don’t look like it, are also a Mystic Code. They are capable of identifying Magecraft, as in where it has been cast and traces of it being cast, and Thaumaturgy whenever the user needs to, though at the cost of having to use Jewels to fuel them.

And of course, at least 20 jewels she carries on her person at all times. Their ranks, and sizes, vary. She carries 12 that are D rank, 5 that are C rank, 2 that are B rank and a single one(very expensive, last resource gem) at A rank.

Skills: Knowledgeable, resourceful and clever mage. She likes to think herself capable of getting herself out of any situation, no matter how complicated it might get.

For whatever it is worth, and thanks to her father being paranoid, Marksmanship.

Notes: She’s as blind as a mole without her glasses.

STATUS

Class: Rider
True Name: Sigurd
Gender: Male
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

APPEARANCE

Though it is perhaps cliché, Rider’s own appearance makes it rather easy to tell for anyone that looks upon him that he is ‘a great hero’. A lean frame that brims with confidence and strength, his height allows him to tower over most, easily standing at nearly two meters tall, features seemingly carved from marble, no less handsome for it and set into a permanent amused smirk. His skin is tan, taut muscles seemingly bereft of scars despite the notion that the man that boasts of them is a born warrior, and his ashen hair falls down, almost reaching his back, in a mess that is not devoid of its own grace. Though the blood is far too diluted to mean much, he still boasts the red eyes of those who possess the ichor of the divine flowing through their veins, set alight akin to twin crimson pyres, a wild air about him that is his constant companion wherever he goes.

Cutting an imposing figure, he is clad in the armaments of antiquity, a warrior displaced in time. A silver cuirass with blue accents – like breaking waves – along the edges covers his upper body, fashioned into the peak of human physique, made of a certain material long since unavailable to the modern world. Vambraces of the same make and pattern, greaves and boots comprise his armor alongside it and glimpses of fur can be seen, perhaps indicating the wearer is more used to colder climates, black leather pants underneath.

PARAMETERS

STR: A END: A
AGI: B MGI: C
LCK: E

CLASS SKILLS

Riding: A+. The hallmark of the Rider class, accounting for expertise in handling vehicles or animals. Rider can freely manipulate the simplest vehicles or state-of-the-art technology with ease, and at this Rank, even Phantasmal Beast or Divine Beast-class creatures may be commanded and used as mounts, though it does not apply to members of the ‘Dragonkind’.

Magic Resistance: -. A Skill that determines the level of inherent resistance the Servant possesses against Thaumaturgy that attempts direct interference upon the self.

. . .However, it has been lost.


PERSONAL SKILLS

Revelation: X. An anecdote of his story tells of his consumption of the dragon’s blood and later, heart, and following this, he was able to know of the dwarf Regin’s plan to murder him and have Fafnir’s hoard entirely for himself thanks to the birds warning him ahead of time, after which Sigurd killed the dwarf. He is not truly talking with them – rather, upon consumption, he artificially inherited a sort of ‘wisdom’ that manifested itself as a strange connection with the world. He is able to interpret the song of birds, the caress of the wind upon blades of grass and the thrum of mana in the air as warnings or advice on ‘what is the best path’ or ‘what will come next’.

However, Rider seems to have willingly sealed it away, or is otherwise ignoring it wholesale. The only leftover is a persistent sense of ‘déjà vu’. Perhaps it is not something that should be said, but Rider seems to be less than fond of this.

Prana Defense: A+. A variation of the skill known as ‘Prana Burst’. The fundamentals remain unchanged – use of prana as fuel to accomplish greater feats, but this variation is oriented purely towards defense. Effectively, it is ‘magical energy translated into armor’. The act of bathing in Fafnir’s blood changed the nature of his existence to that of a ‘dragon’, and the act of partaking in its flesh and organs gifted him with the so-called ‘Dragon Factor’ – effectively, Rider is constantly wrapped in magical energy reminiscent to that of such creatures, suffusing the entirety of his physical form, and even without accounting for any physical protections, his body alone is already on par with the Dragonkind – such is the true nature of ‘the hero Sigurd’s invincible skin’ so often praised. However, this invulnerability possesses the same caveat that would be expected – a linden leaf stuck to his back while bathing, and made that place the only one of his body the blood would not reach, and thus, the only true weakness in a defense that should have been, by all rights, absolute.

Due to this, his Saint Graph as a whole manifests the nature of a ‘Dragon’, and thus, he is liable to be more vulnerable against heroes or weapons associated with ‘Dragon Extermination’. It is quite ironic that the bane of one of the greatest dragon-slayers would be ‘kindred spirits’.

Berserk: C. An ability that results of the combination of Mad Enhancement and Bravery. While under its effects, Sigurd becomes ‘as a savage animal’ – rather than mechanically obeying the Master like Berserkers with higher Ranks of Mad Enhancement, he becomes obsessed with ‘the fight itself’, devoting himself to the complete annihilation of those classified as ‘the enemy’. Though he was not known to fly into such frenzies within his legend, he has gained this skill due to distorted views – such things are ‘what is expected’ from ‘Norse heroes’, and so, it is only natural that ‘the archetypal hero of Norse origin’ possesses the ‘archetypal skill of Norse origin’.

As it should be expected, due to the reckless abandon he fights with while under the influence of this Skill, his upkeep costs are proportionately heightened. Please, exercise caution.

Inversion Impulse: E. The urge to give in to an impulse that is both 'inherent to the self' yet 'completely alien to the self'. In the case of Sigurd, this impulse speaks to the nature of 'Dragon' that pervades his Saint Graph, the blood running through his veins and drenching his skin. Fafnir was not a two-bit lesser drake – but rather, an archetypal existence that burned the meaning of 'dragon' in generations to come, only rivalled by one other. Tapping into this forbidden well causes a surge in STR not too dissimilar to the effect of Monstrous Strength.

However, every time it is used, there will be a Rank-up to the Skill. Through E to B, no changes will occur in the physical sense – though the Servant's psyche may be compromised, if still functional – but, as the grudge of his blade grows and this Skill attains its apex, should it be used for one last time when it reaches A Rank, a shift will be made manifest upon Sigurd's Saint Graph, turning him into something far removed from the man he is now.


NOBLE PHANTASM

Grani – Through the Flames, Nothing shall Bar Our Path

Rank: B
Type: Anti-Unit (Self)
Range: 1-99

A fantastical existence known as Grani, Sigurd’s much beloved gray mare. The horse itself is of magnificent stock – a gift from Odin while disguised as an old man, through its veins runs the blood of Sleipnir. Though it has attained ‘only’ Phantasmal Beast status, it should be noted that its age and lineage make it an incredibly strong specimen. Sigurd may call Grani during combat in order to supplement his mobility and attempt to trample his enemies under powerful hooves, but in the end, this is not the true use of ‘Grani, Sigurd’s Noble Phantasm’, so much as it is a use of ‘Grani, Sigurd’s powerful mount’.

Rather than ‘combat’, the Noble Phantasm could be said to be a combination of both Sigurd and Grani in tandem used for ‘travel’. A certain fragment of his legend speaks of how one of Gunnar’s tasks was to pass the ring of fire in order to court Brynhildr, and it is noted to be a task only Grani could accomplish – and only with Sigurd using it as his mount. There are no mentions of why such a thing was required or how such a feat was accomplished beyond the implied ‘Grani was the best of horses, and Sigurd the best of heroes’, and the Noble Phantasm is both a crystallization of the feat and the implication it carried. No matter how treacherous the path, complicated the Bounded Field or well-defended the fortress, should the True Name of the Noble Phantasm be activated, Sigurd and Grani will inevitably appear at their set destination as though by spatial transference – effectively ‘Grani and Sigurd must travel through treacherous ground in order to arrive’ shifts into ‘Grani and Sigurd travelled through treacherous ground in order to arrive’, forcing the world to conform to such ‘truth’ and skipping the ‘journey’. So long as Sigurd knows where the place he wishes to travel to is located, they shall ‘certainly reach their destination’.

It could be said to be similar to a writer’s own laziness in not figuring out a means through which the hero could have bypassed the traps in his way, and simply insisting that he did because ‘this is one of those situations where the destination is more important than the journey, isn’t it? Just get on with the story!’. Of course, the flipside of such is that the farther away the destination and the more dangerous the path (interesting from a storytelling standpoint), the more magical energy will be consumed if the Noble Phantasm is used.

Audiences are truly merciless.


Gram – Blade of Glory, Blade of Ruin.

Rank: A++
Type: Anti-Army
Maximum Number of Targets: 500
Range: 1-99

The fabled ‘sword in the tree which grants sovereignty’, a prototype of the arguably more famous ‘sword in the stone that selects the king’, doubtlessly among the strongest of magic swords and the very strongest blade of Norse origin. Originally crafted by the gods and retrieved by Sigurd’s father, Sigmund, it was broken by Odin’s Gungnir during battle. An episode of his legend tells of his quest to find a sword ‘worthy of a hero’ that will permit him to slay Fafnir. Regin forged for him two meager blades, which broke upon testing due to Sigurd’s phenomenal might, and in the end, the youth handed the dwarf the remnants of his father’s blade in order to remake it for the son. However, this is not the end of the tale.

Indeed, it was first forged by the gods. Indeed, it was remade by the dwarf – inhuman in both make and size, boasting enormity only such hands could confer. Yet, at the same time, it was weak because it had been remade – Mystery, once lost, cannot be regained. Such is the way of the world, and Gram’s was lost the very moment Odin broke it. Thus, although first-rate and able to withstand Sigurd’s strength, the blade itself was still a shadow of its former self – its self when it was unbroken and unsullied, which could never be attained again regardless of the smith being the lowest wretch of the mortal realm or the highest among gods. Instead, a different route was taken.

Its nature shifted. Its form shifted. Its identity shifted. Gone was the elegant Sword in the Tree – make way now for the blade that would bring about glory beyond measure and ruin beyond measure, a sword that collected into itself the hatred and curses of the fallen, a demonic blade steeped in the grudges of those slain by Sigurd. Those grudges are the chief source of its power – for hatred that lasts beyond death is no small thing, promising ‘glory on the battlefield’. Yet, at the same time, they also bring about the ‘ruin’ of the wielder – causing Sigurd’s Luck to plummet.

In practical terms, the blade will absorb Mana from the surrounding area and passively feast upon Sigurd’s magical energy upon being wielded, accumulating it within. Thus, the longer the battle goes on, the faster it can be activated, which can be useful under certain circumstances. Runes carved upon the flat of the blade channel and augment – ‘amplify’ – the prana within, and True Name invocation will cause an explosive release of magical energy for the purpose of ‘destruction’ alone. Compared to the elegant gold slashes of certain Holy Swords and the semicircle of searing twilight unleashed by one in particular, Demonic Blade Gram’s release is shaped like a raging, unreasonable cone of vivid crimson that even Sigurd has great difficulty controlling, and it would be no less than ruinous if loosed carelessly.

Physically, the blade is shaped like a truly gargantuan greatsword, almost longer than Sigurd himself is tall and as wide as two and a half adult hands pressed flat. Unlike the more ornate weapons of the era said to be wielded by this man, Gram carries nothing to disguise its true nature – a masterfully crafted killing tool, lacking even a guard, and devoted solely to bringing about the deaths of those in the path of the swing. Though razor sharp – Regin was indeed a master of his craft – its enormity makes it seem more like it would be used as a giant, bladed club than an actual cutting tool like Sigurd can – and indeed, any man that does not possess the strength of the aforementioned dragon-slayer would find it nearly impossible to even lift it, much less wield it, and would likely decry it as far too massive to be called a sword – more like a lump of metal with a handle that would be more at home displayed as a parody. As mentioned, various runes are carved upon the blade and are key to its use as a Noble Phantasm – though they also accomplish a ‘warding’, keeping the grudges of the slain Gram so greedily feasts upon contained within the steel. An unwieldy demonic weapon that one would think to be the tool of a villain, nonetheless owned by a first-rate hero that passed on to the annals of history.

Owing to the nature of its most famous kill, the blade possesses a bonus against those who exhibit the nature of a ‘Dragon’, such as a certain King from a certain island.

Incidentally, it would be renamed ‘Balmung’ at a later date, most prominently within Wagner’s Nibelungenlied and Ring Cycle in general, suffering a change in appearance and a revision to its origins, shifting its nature once more. One cannot help but be thankful for this – after all, ‘that man’ already had enough troubles heaped upon him.


DETAILS: BACKGROUND

The great hero of the Völsunga Saga, and oft regarded as the greatest and most famous within Norse mythology, Sigurd, Son of Sigmund and Slayer of Fafnir. A mortal that lived during the Age of Gods, one through whose veins still ran the blood of Odin, he fostered under Regin, the brother of Fafnir, who would be the one to both give him his famous sword and egg him on to slay the dragon, thereby starting the chain of events that would lead to the episodes depicted in his legend. He would meet a certain woman – a Valkyrie by the name of Brynhildr, whom he would exchange vows with, yet she would nonetheless foretell his doom and marriage to another woman. Eventually parting ways, he would arrive to a certain court, where the queen would slip by him a potion that would force Sigurd to forget all about Brynhildr, and thus render him amenable to marriage with Gudrun.

He would be fast friends with (and loyal to) his brother-in-law, Gunnar, who would attempt to woo Brynhildr herself, but the tests of the Valkyrie would prove too much and, exchanging oaths of secrecy and with a heavy heart, Sigurd would supplant him. He did not remember Brynhildr – he simply felt the acts went against his sense of honor and her own dignity, yet he remained steadfast in his loyalty and successfully passed her tasks, exchanging places with Gunnar once he was no longer needed.

Life would be kind, for a while. But lies, as we all know, cannot last. Eventually discovering the truth, feeling cheated out of the man she desired and burning with indignation, Brynhildr succumbed to her love for Sigurd.

. . .Yet, for a Valkyria that ferries souls to Valhalla, ‘to love’ is synonymous with ‘to kill’. And so, she did, arranging for the death of the man she held so dear. That was the sad end to a sordid tale, and eventually Brynhildr would willingly commit suicide by throwing herself to Sigurd’s own funeral pyre, their ashes scattered and mixing in the winds.


DETAILS: PERSONALITY AND DISPOSITION

Summoned as Rider, he takes the form of his younger years – one he doubtlessly prefers the most. Compared to the more meditative Saber, the Rider incarnation is still a youth that thirsts for excitement and battle, and even though he attempts to sound relatively dignified, he often slips into rougher speech patterns, most prominently when his battle-lust is roused – perhaps part of the fault lies with the distortions of his culture sphere across time, but Sigurd would readily admit to his nature as a hoodlum even while alive. In short, he gives the ‘delinquent older brother’ impression.

Boastful, proud and nonetheless agreeable, Sigurd is what some would not hesitate to call an odd individual – though one who was aware of his tragic life could be led to believe that he would be the type that carries a somber air about him, the reality is far different, being the sort of man one could not help but bond over drinks with, someone who lives in the present, chasing the moment with all his being. He possesses pride, of course – pride as a hero, pride as a man. His entire life was spent thirsting for adventures like a man lost in the desert would thirst for water, whether recorded in the runestones or not – for is it not the duty of a hero to be grander, to live a life more exemplary than anyone else? To seek challenges in the morn, fight the strongest in the afternoon, make merry with one’s companions at night and do it all over again the next day?

Indeed, much like ‘that one’, Sigurd’s life was spent doing ‘what a hero should do’, but unlike ‘that man’, who believed that heroes should merely limit themselves to doing as other asked, dangerous existences that they were, Sigurd’s own belief was that a hero should strive towards greatness and follow his own heart more than anything, accomplishing great tasks not because it was requested, but because that was their very nature, how things were meant to be.

He has no personal grudges about how his life turned out, even though it was one that was not lacking in wrong turns. ‘I did my best, I think, so I will not sully my pride and their memory with regrets.’, or so he would say. He met two women he loved with all his heart and forged priceless friendships – so long as those moments, ephemeral as they were, remain engraved into his heart, Rider personally thinks that there is no point in regrets and letting them chain him to the past, since they made the precious memories all the sweeter for it.

Thus, although summoned in a War for the Holy Grail, he does not find the price particularly enticing. To him, crossing blades and testing his mettle against legendary heroes from different eras is a reward in and of itself, and as far as he is concerned, his wish has been granted upon summoning.

He respects courage, sticking to one’s principles and the drive to improve and achieve one’s goals most of all, and thus looks down on those with weak wills. He accepted long ago that the world is an unreasonable mess most of the time, uncaring about what is just and what is not, and that bad things happen to good people and vice-versa. Thus, even though he personally leans towards justice, unless he finds the Master that summoned him to be incredibly disagreeable or completely opposed to his beliefs, he will follow orders out of loyalty, and can appreciate the qualities he admires even in the bitterest of enemies, praising them without reservation if he believes they deserve it. This means he has great flexibility in terms of lords he will serve under, but nonetheless, accounting for his own personality and tastes, it would not be wrong to say that he has the greatest compatibility with the sort of dunderheaded idiot that does not know when to give up.

As previously mentioned, he does not think he has a wish worth using the Grail for – and he will certainly not consider changing anything about his life. However, now, with his memories intact, he cannot help but perhaps wait, and hope, that a certain woman would also make an appearance in whatever battlefield he is called to, so that he could bear his sincere feelings one last time. Perhaps that is the only thing that weighs in his memory.