JohnSolaris

[CLOSED DUE TO INACTIVITY] Persona Ω: Antumbra Joker Pandemonium

Placeholder text. Everything will be in the 0th post.

Fate/Lost Qliphoth (FGO-like alternate universe, no canon characters; only basic setting knowledge recommended) [CANCELLED DUE TO INACTIVITY]

This post will contain links to all approved character sheets, including PCs and NPCs.

NPCs

Allies of the Hero Candidates:

Maria von Einzbern, the Holy Grail

Name: Maria von Einzbern, the Holy Grail, Bride of the Abyss.

Species: Homunculus.

Age: 18.

Gender: Female.

Appearance: Though Maria appears human, her every bodily feature seems intentionally constructed in accordance with modern human ideals, such that her overall appearance is unnaturally, inhumanly beautiful by most people's standards. Her facial features are halfway between Caucasian and eastern Asian, delicate and lovely like those of a girl who has reached adulthood not long ago, yet the facial expressions, along with her crimson lipstick, convey the smooth confidence and allure of a woman with far more maturity and wisdom. Her soft fair skin is utterly flawless and blemish-free, as if straight out of a digitally-edited photo. At 165 cm in height, her geometrically perfect hourglass figure is something one usually only sees in drawings, an ideal that many a glamor model chases in vain, though there is the scant comfort that her relatively moderate bust and hips do not have pornographically exaggerated proportions. Straight, glossy hair of otherworldly silvery white flows down to the middle of her back like a lucent waterfall, though there is a single strand of hair that sticks out at the top of her head. Her most notable features are her eyes, however. They are a deep, vivid hue of sanguine, faintly glowing, yet seemingly lacking a normal person's metaphorical light of focus and awareness. Instead they are deep and empty like the bottomless abyss, sucking in the gaze of someone who meets her eyes, looking not at him but through him, toward the very root of his being and beyond.

Maria's usual attire greatly resembles the corrupted Dress of Heaven from Fate/Zero. It is a highly revealing dress made of an unknown black material with faintly glowing blood-red patterns, possessing the texture and sheen of something somewhere between velvet, satin, and latex. It clings to her figure tightly, yet is impossibly flexible, stretching like rubber and flowing like liquid without hindering her movements in the slightest. It has a shoulderless strapless top that exposes most of her back above the waist, with a plunging V-neck that shows off a generous amount of cleavage, connected to a black choker around her neck by a stretch of sheer black nylon bodystocking. The bottom is a miniskirt that barely reaches the middle of her thighs, with a high slit at each side. Similar to the canonical Dress of Heaven, there are seven small holes in the dress running vertically down the center: one in the middle of her choker; two in the bodystocking above her breasts; three on her abdomen below her breasts and above her navel; and one around her navel. Her left leg is wrapped in a single sheer lacy black thigh-high stocking, and her right arm in a matching single opera glove, while the other arm and leg are left bare. The glove is fingerless and the stocking toeless, displaying the ruby-red nail polish on both hands and feet. The feet are clad in elegant, strappy black three-inch stiletto heels. Her left ring finger wears a gleaming platinum ring with a brilliant golden gemstone.

Contrary to what some may expect, Maria's voice is actually rather high-pitched, though the seduction of its smooth silken caress easily rivals that of a more traditional low husky voice. At close enough proximity, a faint perfume can be smelled, the scent a sensual blend of rose, honey, and exotic spices.

Personality: Prior to her family's sudden withdrawal from the public, Maria was always known as a shy, gentle soul, humble and soft-spoken. But when she reappeared following the director's disappearance, she has completely changed, as if possessed by another being altogether. Based on the player characters' limited initial observations of her current self, Maria effortlessly projects an air of utmost confidence and composure, without the slightest hint of reservation, shame, or doubt; whether this is her true nature or a carefully crafted facade remains to be seen. Her seemingly vacant and glassy eyes may make some suspect that she is but a mindless puppet controlled by another being elsewhere, but such a possibility seems hardly compatible with the overwhelming, unshakeable sense of self that her mannerisms and actions display.

Backstory:

The Einzberns are masters of alchemy, unmatched in the quality of homunculi they create. Their current head, Siegbrandt von Einzbern, was the pinnacle of their craftsmanship, capable of siring children and passing down his top-quality magic circuits. Due to friction between the Aethra Aeternum and other branches of the Mage's Association at the time, he hired Emiya Gyouka, a deadly mercenary who combined the Emiya family's time-manipulation magecraft with modern weaponry, to be his bodyguard. The two eventually fell in love, and Maria was their daughter, who possessed magic circuits superior to even her father's. Siegbrandt saw his daughter as a suitable vessel to become the Holy Grail, the omnipotent wish-granting machine that would let him realize his dream of world peace. So he imbued her with the crystallization of the Einzberns' centuries of research into restoring the Third Magic, and Maria took to it like a fish to water, becoming the most promising heir of her lineage in history.

Not much public knowledge existed of Maria's upbringing, other than that her father was very strict and always taught her to put the wellbeing of the human race before her own. To bring a more humane element into her life, her mother adopted a boy in Fuyuki City orphaned in a terrible disaster, named Emiya Kurou, who was then trained by Gyouka and became an older brother figure to Maria. Siegbrandt continued his strict teachings to his daughter, but also allowed her to attend a public school with her adoptive brother, where they befriended Tohsaka Tsubaki, the proud but friendly heir of the Tohsaka family. There was a fourth child that was often seen alongside the three, an unremarkable bespectacled boy with dark hair and eyes, but no one knew of his identity or relation to the three great families.

As she grew older, Maria rarely made public appearances in magus society due to her shyness and introverted nature, but still gained considerable recognition due to her remarkable thaumaturgical abilities. Much was presumably happening behind the scenes, as Gyouka lost her life to an unknown illness, Tsubaki was chosen to be director Zolgen's apprentice, and Kurou followed his mother's footsteps in becoming a mercenary. The fourth boy's appearances became sporadic, and it was not known what became of him.

Not long after Maria became 18 years of age, director Zolgen and Tsubaki suddenly went missing, following the director's exile of the heretic Kotomine Zekkou. Siegbrandt then made the announcement that his family would be withdrawing from the public for the foreseeable future, his expression despondent and lost, in stark contrast with the stoicism he was known for. Maria herself never appeared in public since the director's disappearance, until her sudden reappearance just as the Aethra Aeternum was beginning to panic, completely changed and now imbued with the dark power of what she claimed to be the Holy Grail; Siegbrandt absolutely refused to make any comments on the situation. By her side was Kurou, having since made a reputation for himself rivalling his mother's. Maria calls him "onii-chan" like she always had, a playful lilt in her voice, but there is a complicated expression on the young man's face, even as he quietly does all he can to help his little sister's endeavors in recruiting Hero Candidates and saving the world. Now Maria leads the efforts in tackling the Nullity Marbles, with few daring to challenge her decisions, even as they whisper doubts and conspiracies behind her back.

Skills: As she rarely appeared in public in the past, few know what mundane skills Maria possesses. However, she is known to be fluent in English, Japanese, and German.

Abilities:

• Magic Circuit Stats: Due to the Holy Grail's Wish-Granting (see below), Maria has no need for traditional magic circuits. All her magic circuit stats behave as though they're EX-rank.
• Elemental Affinities: Demons.
• Origin: "Fulfillment".

Wish-Granting: Wish-Granting is the ability to actualize mystery simply by releasing mana, without relying on magic circuits or thaumaturgical theories. Such a thing sounds too good to be true, and was seen as the Einzbern's pipe dream as they chased after the so-called Holy Grail. Yet here Maria is, seemingly capable of altering the world around her through her will alone, easily producing effects on par with high thaumaturgy. However, as vast as her power is, it is still finite, and much of it is occupied by analyzing the Nullity Marbles encroaching upon reality. It is for this reason that she needs the help of Hero Candidates and their Eudaemons.

Heaven's Feel: This is the Third Magic that was lost to the Einzberns. They had been trying to recreate it through the Holy Grail, and looking at Maria, one may guess that the Einzberns have succeeded, even though no one can say whether what she displays is on par with the original Third Magic. Regardless, this is what she uses to glean information from the Throne of Heroes and manifest them as Eudaemons, and the basis of Eudaemonic Sigils granted to the Hero Candidates.

Movement: Maria seems capable of blatantly ignoring gravity whenever she pleases. When she isn't casually swaggering and slouching in midair, she glides through it at will without any visible form of locomotion, her slender limbs just there for show as they accompany the flight with elegant decorative flourishes. Even when on the ground, all of Maria's movements are impossibly graceful and fluid, as if she has decades upon decades of experience as a dancer, gymnast, and martial artist. Given the casual ease with which she does all of this, there has to be a considerable amount of magecraft involved, and likely a considerable amount of skill as well.

Alluring Abyss: Surrounding Maria is an aura of velvety darkness, black as midnight, swirling with mesmerising shades of sanguine and rose. Given her appearance and mannerisms, one may assume that Maria is something like a succubus, but this aura does not force others to become sexually aroused or attracted to her; it doesn't even try to forcibly alter the target's mind in any way. It is simply a natural manifestation of her demonic element detectable by one's ability to sense mystery, mystery associated with the left-hand path of hedonism, indulgence, and self-gratification. The temptation that one feels from this magic is the temptation inherent in the power that she offers, the forbidden fruit of the Abyss that can grant all wishes and satisfy all desires, but can also lead one astray toward ruin. Whether one can ascend to the exalted Throne of Heroes, or be forgotten in the oblivion of history, will depend on the strength of one's heart and will.

Spatial Transportation: Magecraft approaching the realm of true magic, normally thought to be nearly impossible to accomplish except in extremely special circumstances. Yet Maria can perform it with ease, creating portals that allow herself and others to cross intercontinental distances in an instant, allowing her to send the Hero Candidates to far-away regions affected by the Nullity Marbles.

Thought Partition and Acceleration: Her exact limits are unknown, but Maria is able to spend a huge amount of computational power on analyzing the Nullity Marbles while simultaneously aiding the Hero Candidates in navigation and tactics.

Emiya Kurou, the Magus Killer

Name: Emiya Kurou (衛宮 九郎), the Magus Slayer, the False Magus, “Faker”

Species: Human

Age: 20

Gender: Male

Appearance: Before the sudden surge of geological events in 2020, Kurou’s looks weren’t overly special. His skin tone was about what you might expect from somebody of Japanese heritage, even accounting for travel to various world-wide locales, and even his musculature fit his profession. Yellow eyes and a shock of vermilion hair were very noticeable, but not exactly out of place in a crowd. Therefore, to compare that to his appearance after that surge, one would struggle to identify him as the same person: his skin is visibly more tan, he seems to have grown twenty centimeters taller (and he was already decently tall for his age as it was), his eyes have turned grey, and his hair has turned a sort of silvery-white colour.
Not to mention, compared to his previous, more casual outfits, he seems adorned in permanent military gear: his chest piece is black armour of an unknown material, outlining his muscles in silver with a metal collar-plate round his neck; his black trousers are military-style, with straps down each leg; and metal plated black shoes connect to those directly. In fact, the main indicator of whether or not he wishes to fight is whether or not he is wearing his holy shroud, which appears to be a single piece dark green coat at first, but in fact is formed in two distinct sleeves running up over his shoulders, connected at the front with a metallic chain and at the back with a metal plate and capped by metal domes over the backs of his hands, and a short cloak around his waist running down to his shins, secured by a knot tied underneath another metal plate. The entire ensemble, ironically, gives him almost clerical airs.

Personality: Kurou seems to approach the world with a great deal of intensity, from his ideals of justice to his affection toward his adoptive sister. His general belief system is, roughly speaking, “everything for the greater good”: he has pledged to be a Hero of Justice, dedicated to saving as many people as he can in pursuit of justice, but if he has to sacrifice some to save a larger number of others, he will make the sacrifice every time. Just as pertinently, though, he goes so far as to apply this ideal to everybody else too, believing quite faithfully that if everybody were to make sacrifices for others, the world’s troubles would be much reduced, and that selfishness is the cause of so many of those troubles in the first place. Naturally, this can lead to friction with others, even those he’s close to.
Along with this intensity, he has an air of being older than his years when he speaks. Though, his experiences as a mercenary from his teenage years onward would be trying for anybody; he has seen friends and allies alike perish, and it seems as if some aspect of his character is hollow from past trauma, as if he lacks any sense of personal worth beyond his status as a weapon.

Backstory: Kurou’s status as an adopted child is known to the majority of people aware of him. A disaster in Shinto- natural to most, blatantly supernatural to the magical world- led to his parents’ deaths and nearly his own, and not long after he was adopted by one Emiya Gyouka, wife to Siegbrandt von Einzbern and the fourth to bear the Emiya family crest. From his adoptive father, there was an air of chill, and even a sense of pity for his rather weak magic circuits; to his sister, he was nothing if not dear, protecting her shy self from children who’d otherwise seek to harm her in school; but with his mother, there was a much closer relationship than even that. She made the claim too often for his liking that she wasn’t strong enough to fulfil her own ideals - a combination of her experimental Einzbern implants failing and magical infection from the disaster she rescued Kurou from were slowly killing her, but even before then, she felt quite strongly that she failed to live up to them. When Kurou sought to follow in her footsteps, then only eight years old, she decided to put her fullest faith in him, and trained him for as long as she could, in particular seeing his talent for projection magic even despite his weakened magic circuits, for which a minor balm was found in the transfer of the Emiya family's Magic Crest to him, albeit in a restricted form to acclimate him to its possession.

Her end ultimately came after grave injuries inflicted upon her by the patriarch of the Tohsaka family, who was at the time possessed by a powerful and malevolent demon after a Eudaemon experiment went wrong, combining with her previous infections to ensure her demise, something the young Kurou could do nothing about. As she drew closer to death's door, Kurou vowed to her that he’d fulfil her ideals as his own, and become a true Hero of Justice. In response, she summoned up the last of her strength, and performed one last modification upon the Emiya Crest, unlocking for him the full extent of her combat training, and more importantly the accumulated knowledge of the Emiya family’s research into time-based magic, up to and including Gyouka’s own personal application of it as Innate Time Control. Between public education- and under the claim from Siegbrandt that with their mother gone he had to take up the mantle of protecting Maria now, and an implicit trust through their shared ideals that he'd do so without question- Kurou spent months studying the information stored in the Crest, under the tutelage of a sort of temporal projection of his mother’s mind within it, until he could fight just as well as her, if not better for the training.

In the meantime, his personal relationships grew quite strong. Of course his urge to protect his younger sister led to a natural affinity, but equally he shared strong friendships with both the heir of the Tohsaka family, Tsubaki, and an unassuming boy his own age, a dark-haired child in glasses whose association with the three families was unknown. In the end, as they grew older, he even found himself romantically attracted to Tsubaki, apparently admiring her desire to go even further than he did and save everybody, even though it seemed impossible to him in particular. Not everybody could be saved - but that didn’t matter to her, so it seemed.

Speaking of saving people, he spent quite a bit of time after his public schooling ended engaging in mercenary work. It was a natural “next step”: a continuation of his mother’s work, and an easy way to seek the worst evils of the world and put an end to them. In time, he became well-known for the same acts of magus slaying as his mother, and even inherited her title in the process, using up a number of the bullets crafted using her Origin of Swirling and Congealing to destroy an equal number of magi of the worst sort, although he was also deemed a “False Magus” or even a “Faker” by many more traditional magi due to his use of modern weaponry, and the unusual manner by which the items he projected seemed to persist well after those of mages even far beyond his power and skill would have faded.

Just as with the rest of the Einzbern family, he retreated from the public eye after Kotomine Zekkou’s banishment by director Zolgen, in particular stoically refusing to comment on any questions about Maria or Tsubaki. Whether or not he engaged in further acts of mercenary work under the public radar is unknown; what is known is that he re-emerged publicly alongside Maria herself, his appearance vastly different from when he was last seen even if that change paled compared to Maria’s, and for all the world could see her second-in-command on the matters of the Nullity Marbles and Eudaemonia Project, enforcing her will more physically should somebody try to push the matter of her practical takeover of the situation. It is clear something troubles him, but what that is remains uncertain to the present day.

Skills: As a result of frequent travel, Kurou is fluent in a very wide range of languages, most notably Japanese, English, German, French, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Russian. Thanks to training and practice in various forms, he is also adept in a range of martial arts, but more importantly an expert with most firearms, and can adeptly point and shoot most guns placed into his hands at will, on top of knowing how best to utilise cover in a firefight, infiltrate secure locations, plant explosives, and survive in resource-sparse locations for extended periods of time. Finally, whilst a minor skill by comparison, he is adept at reading technical documents for complex items, such as a blueprint for building a gun, remote detonator, or heat-seeking mechanism.

Abilities:

• Magic Circuit Stats: Quantity C; Quality D; Capacity C; Complexity A
• Elemental Affinities: Gun
• Origin: Gun

Projection Magecraft: Whilst his innate magecraft has historically been relatively weak, even if he is otherwise capable enough at material transmutation and magecraft in general, he has a lot more skill and ability with the style of thaumaturgy called Gradation Air, and in fact has perfected his own form of it under the name of “Tracing” even though it is normally one of the most complicated styles. This variant, so far as anybody can tell, has a tendency to produce both versions of ordinary items that are both higher quality than typical, and have the capacity to last near-indefinitely. If one asked him of the secret, he would tell you that he reproduces the entire history of any object he projects, which may then lead people to consider his familial affiliation with time magic to be the key, though further elaboration is not forthcoming. Due to his specific elemental affinity and origin, his Projection Magecraft works exceptionally well with firearms and the like.

Innate Time Control: The end result of four generations of research into time manipulation by the Emiya family, this was previously utilised by Emiya Gyouka in mage hunting to great effect, a practice continued by Kurou nowadays. It seemingly replicates the nature of the Second and Fifth Magics, in that it is a magecraft that deals with altering one’s personal time, and more specifically comes close to a form of Reality Marble by generating a localised Bounded Field within the user’s own body, allowing them to accelerate and decelerate their bodily functions at will. The price of doing so, however, is extreme damage to the body once they cancel the Bounded Field, as the World imposes itself upon them to correct the difference in time within the user’s body: at the bare minimum, capillaries burst as blood flow speeds up or slows down to normal, and muscles tear from the force. At higher levels, bones can fracture from the stress of readjustment, and ultimately, continuous use of the power beyond a few seconds or even to too great a degree is certain death, though he appears to have overcome this downside somewhat thanks to his Eudaemon.

Archer

Name: EMIYA (衛宮 九郎, Emiya Kurou)

Gender: Male

Class: Archer

Stats: Strength E; Endurance E; Agility A; Mana B; Luck D; Noble Phantasm A+

Class Skills:
Independent Action: C - EMIYA’s general combat abilities and personal skills take little mana to utilise, though they are naturally less potent than more powerful Phantasms. This appears to be enough for Emiya Kurou to have him permanently manifested out of combat without issue, leading their appearances to match.
Magic Resistance: D - Negates magecraft of a certain level outright, cancelling single-action spells. Whilst a noted sorcerer in life, his magic circuits were never exceptionally strong, especially compared to the Heroic Spirits of old who saw sorceries and True Magic as commonplace.

Personal Skills:
Presence Concealment: D - A low level of the skill, allowing a Heroic Candidate with a manifested Eudaemon to detect him at once. However, whilst not on the level of an Assassin, it will still hide him completely from human magi if they do not make a concerted effort to seek him out.
Clairvoyance: C - Capable of keeping track of fast-moving objects within a range of four kilometers. EMIYA acquires this by applying Reinforcement to his eyes.
Mind’s Eye (True): B - A heightened capacity for observation, refined through years of training, discipline, and combat experience; with this, he can calmly analyse a combat situation even in great danger, calculating the best course of action after considering all possibilities to escape from a predicament.
Marksmanship: B - A highly capable sharpshooter, able to hit even small targets with relative ease. Focus on precision and efficiency over trick shots.
Gun Kata: D+ - A variation of Marksmanship, utilising guns and positioning to avoid and return fire, as well as in melee combat; essentially martial arts performed with guns. Whilst low-ranked, this is still superior to the vast majority of gun-wielders in a melee fight.
Magecraft: C - Capable of using magecraft. However, whilst equivalent to the most capable of human magi in terms of his temporal magecraft in particular, it is still comparatively weak overall, and generally slightly better suited to utility than his own combat style.
Projection Magecraft: A - The maximised power of his projection magic, using his specialised magic to manifest guns, bombs, and missiles of all sorts from memory. This even extends to certain suitable Noble Phantasms, though these are relatively rare.

Appearance: It seems that EMIYA is always fully manifested. This is presumably the reason for his recent change of appearance.

Personality: Similar to that of Emiya Kurou. Seemingly, there is no apparent shift in personality for him due to this.

Legend: This information appears to have been censored by Maria’s authority. Perhaps she does not fully trust the Hero Candidates yet.

Noble Phantasms:
Ebony and Ivory: Together in Perfect Harmony - Anti-Unit, D+
Personal guns of Emiya Kurou prior to his contract, sublimated as Noble Phantasms. Can be manifested with minimal mana cost; unlimited ammunition with no need to reload; high synergy with Gun Kata, raising the skill’s rank to A whilst in use.
They possess an alternate form, Ebony and Ivory Overbarrel, in which they become extremely large heavy machine guns, firing powerful magnum- or rifle-scale rounds at extremely rapid speeds. In this state, they are considered rank B+ instead of D+, and in addition to their greater power and firerate retain the benefits of their standard form, though they only improve Gun Kata to rank B due to their greater weight.
These sibling firearms?
They have always been reliable for me.
Let me show you- “Ebony and Ivory!”

Origin Bullet: Mankind’s Destruction of Fantasy - Anti-Magus, A
Manifestations of Emiya Gyouka’s Thompson Contender and Origin Bullets, crafted from her first and second ribs to weaponize her Origin of Swirling and Congealing and handed down to Emiya Kurou after her death. Extremely damaging to living beings, inflicting no apparent physical wounds, but inducing severe necrosis and permanently maiming nerves and capillaries in the area of impact. Especially dangerous as a conceptual weapon to magi, who must normally defend against the Contender’s high-power penetrative ammunition with most of their magic circuits; upon striking active magecraft, the bullets will overload the magic circuits connected to it, first Swirling them into a turbulent mess and allowing the overwhelming magic to flood the magus’ system, then Congealing them into a chaotic and useless pattern to destroy the magus’ magecraft, often killing them outright if they are using a large portion of their magecraft at the moment of impact, though they are notably less effective against the more robust and conceptually-defined forms and magic circuits of Heroic Spirits, as well as Hero Candidates who are currently manifesting an Eudaemon. Like his mother, EMIYA has a stock of 66 of these bullets, though his stock slowly replenishes over the course of days. In an emergency, he can force the replenishment of Origin Bullets by consuming his own bones, made feasible by his superhuman physique, though doing so still risks temporarily crippling himself.
Technically, in lieu of his mother’s Origin, he may imprint his own Origin of Gun upon any given bullet generated by this Noble Phantasm. However, he has yet to find any significant use for this effect.
Thank you, mother.
These holy bullets shall continue your legacy.
“Origin Bullet.”

Chronos Rose: Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May - Anti-Unit (Self), B
The manifestation of the Innate Time Control ability taught to Emiya Kurou by Emiya Gyouka, sublimated into a Noble Phantasm. Upon its deployment, a personal bounded field is created within his body, and a specific effect may be activated with the chant “Time Alter”, followed by “Accel” to speed up his personal time, or “Stagnate” to slow his personal time, and “Release Alter” to end its effects.
Time Alter - Double Accel doubles the rate of his bodily processes: he can move faster than the human eye can see, allowing for split-second evasion of attacks and extreme mobility. This can be further improved to Time Alter - Triple Accel, tripling his bodily processes, and again to Time Alter - Square Accel, quadrupling them. In effect, it improves his Agility by one + modifier for each level of Accel used, multiplying it by two, three, and four times respectively.
Time Alter - Double Stagnate slows his bodily processes to ½ of their usual rate, and Time Alter - Triple Stagnate slows them to ⅓ of their usual rate, making it extremely difficult to detect him by slowing his heart rate, breathing, and body temperature. In effect, it improves his Presence Concealment by one rank for each level of Stagnate used, though it also gives him more trouble perceiving the world due to how it affects his senses, in particular muffling sound proportionately and gathering two or three times more light in his retinas than usual, making the world appear overly bright.
As Emiya Kurou, in addition to the corresponding mana requirements of using Time Alter initially, ending his Innate Time Control would manifest extreme damage to himself as the world forcefully adjusts the “incorrect time” within his own body, making use of higher levels of Accel infeasible. However, whilst manifested by his Hero Candidate, he has more leeway in this regard; his body is physically more able to handle the downsides of his Noble Phantasm, and the adjustment itself is less severe, allowing him to use Double Accel and Triple Stagnate relatively easily, only taking serious harm from Square Accel.
Let’s shuffle the cards.
Can you keep up with me?
“Chronos Rose.”

It appears further information has been censored via Maria’s authority. Perhaps she does not fully trust the Hero Candidates yet.

The Red Knight

Name: Unknown

Species: Unknown

Age: Unknown

Gender: Presumably male

Appearance: His physical appearance is unknown. Almost always, he is found wearing a full suit of armour akin to that of the Black Knight from feudal fables, and in particular that of Arthurian legend. However, whilst the armour of a true black knight would indeed be black, it is instead painted a solid red colour, and also stained across much of its surface with what seems to be copious amounts of blood, such that it turns from red to crusted brown, to almost red again in many places. Even the helm glows from within with a glaring crimson light, obscuring the wearer’s features. Due to the armour’s build, it almost isn’t clear that he is male, as a female wearer would almost certainly have her features hidden within the armour’s build, though his voice is distorted in a way that at least sounds masculine.

Personality: Quiet, grim. He doesn’t talk much, so getting a full read on his character is difficult at the best of times. He is, however, quite focused in a fight - on his allies, rather than his enemies. The reason for this is unknown.

Backstory: Largely unknown. He showed up as one of the earliest participants in the Eudaemonia project, and since then has not been seen out of armour by anyone other than Maria and her close associates.

Skills: He seems to be an incredibly skilled fighter, with particular focus in Historical European Martial Arts. Other skills are presently unknown.

Abilities:

• Magic Circuit Stats: Quantity ?; Quality ?; Capacity ?; Complexity ?
• Elemental Affinities: Unknown
• Origin: Unknown

Saber?

Name: Unknown; obscured by something.

Gender: Unknown; obscured by something.

Class: Presents as Saber.

Stats: Unknown; obscured by something.

Class Skills: Unknown; obscured by something.

Personal Skills: Unknown; obscured by something.

Appearance: Unknown. May be tied to his Hero Candidate’s suit of armour.

Personality: Unknown; obscured by something.

Legend: Unknown; obscured by something.

Noble Phantasms: Unknown; obscured by something.

---

Others

Mikhail Zolgen, Director of the Aethra Aeternum (currently missing)

Name: Mikhail Zolgen, Director of the Aethra Aeternum, the Crest Taker, the Iconoclast.

Species: Wraith.

Age: Physically mid-30s, but actually over 500.

Gender: Male.

Appearance: Mikhail is 180 cm in height, with a lanky build, pale skin, and the dignified features of Russian nobility. His messy, wavy, shoulder-length hair is deep blue, and his eyes are a mildly unsettling shade of dark red. An air of soft melancholy often suffuses his expressions, as if he has seen and lost much more than his apparent age implies. He is never one for showmanship, always preferring simple but clean clothing such as a plain black jacket and trousers.

Personality: The younger generations of magi generally think that director Zolgen is someone quite easy to talk to. Despite his power and status, he is always gentle and polite, and never loses his temper or judges others based on their shortcomings. During his lectures, one can clearly see Mikhail's convictions for sharing thaumaturgical knowledge for the betterment of society. His goal for founding the Aethra Aeternum is to teach magecraft to all, such that magecraft becomes an inherent part of human foundations and transcends the nature of mystery, to no longer rely on the ignorance of the many for the benefit of the few. However, friendly as he is, there are few in the Aethra Aeternum that can truly call the director a friend, as the weight of his centuries of experiences makes it difficult for others to understand his perspective. Moreover, the sadness one can sometimes see in his eyes give the feelings that a great many sacrifices have been made in his long lifetime, and in the end he still isn't sure if they've been worth it.

Backstory:

Those who knew of Mikhail Zolgen from his younger years remember him as a ruthless, power-hungry madman, flagrantly violating all taboos and stopping at nothing to realize his vision of so-called justice. He would relentlessly hunt down any magus he deemed evil, agonizingly drain all knowledge he could from said magus's brain, and perform horrific experiments on the victim until he expired. Yet his abuse toward himself was even greater, as he eschewed all thoughts of a comfortable life and put his own body through equally gruesome modifications so that he could gain greater power and use it to protect those who did not have the power to protect themselves. His enemies were many, but so were his allies, for he took many under his wing and taught them all he could, without consideration for traditional magus notions of preserving one's lineage; the Zolgen "family" was thusly composed of adopted individuals, those bound to him not by blood but by ideals. But as the centuries passed, he grew weary, the zeal of his youth fading into a profound sadness at all the suffering he had wrought and lives he had ended in the name of peace and equality. Fortunately, human society itself became kinder and more accepting over time, so Mikhail chose to forego his violent ways and instead create a place without the deep-rooted prejudices of traditional magus society, where thaumaturgical knowledge could be freely shared and used for the benefit of all. Such a notion was against the very nature of mystery itself, but even so, he strove to change the nature of magecraft itself so that the darkness of ignorance and superstition could give way to the light of science and reason. The opportunity presented itself to him when the World itself began to shift, and he joined forces with two like-minded individuals from the Tohsaka and Einzbern families, among the only ones in his long life that he could truly call friends. The most recent century of his life was tumultuous, and neither of his two friends survived to see the fruit of their labors, but eventually the Aethra Aeternum they created became the dominant power in magus society and granted the power of magecraft to countless who needed it.

As the director of the Aethra Aeternum, Mikhail tried to be permissive of subjects that traditional magi would consider taboo, if it was something with the potential to genuinely help humanity. That was the main reason why he enabled Kotomine Zekkou for so long, or so he told others. But in actuality he saw much of his former self in the young demonologist, his unceasing thirst for power, the willingness to tear down all boundaries and obstacles to grasp for the elusive forbidden fruit beyond his reach. Mikhail kept hoping that Zekkou would use his powers for good, that there must have been some higher ideal for which he desired all that power to fulfill. If such an ideal existed in Zekkou, Mikhail never found it. When Zekkou crossed a line that he could finally tolerate no longer, Mikhail would have killed his junior and taken all the research for himself if it had been a few centuries earlier, but the current Mikhail did not want any more unnecessary bloodshed, and so he exiled Zekkou to a remote corner of the Earth so that he could no longer hurt anyone else. But that was likely a mistake. Not long after Zekkou's exile, leyline disorders all around the world suddenly intensified, while Mikhail and his apprentice mysteriously became missing. Of course, most of the rumors pin the blame on Zekkou, but the Aethra Aeternum's upper echelons are either as clueless as the rest, or refuse to offer any words of elucidation on the matter.

Skills: In addition to being a magus, Mikhail has extensive knowledge in many fields of human science, including a Ph.D. in applied mathematics, computer science, and electrical engineering.

Abilities:

• Magic Circuit Stats: Quantity EX; Quality C; Capacity C; Complexity A. The quantity of magic circuits in his body has surpassed human limits due to his body being composed of crestflies (see below).
• Elemental Affinities: Air, Ether.
• Origin: Unknown.

Crest Taker: The magic crest is a magus bloodline's most prized treasure, without which the entire family's meaning and history may as well be null and void. For this reason, if the possessor of a magic crest commits a grievous crime and must be executed, the crest is usually removed from him and given to the next inheritor or, failing that, kept in the Association's custody. It was thus nigh-unthinkable that in his younger years, Mikhail would forcibly rip out the magic crests of those he killed and take them as his own. The chances of someone outside the crest's bloodline being compatible with it was nearly nil, which was more the reason to not rob another family of their legacy, yet Mikhail modified his own body time and time again to forcibly overcome these barriers in genetics. As if that wasn't enough, Mikhail would then go on to master the spells in the stolen crests to such an extent that he became able to duplicate some of those crests, wholly or in part, despite the crests being the accumulation of generations of knowledge. The final nail in the coffin was that despite the vast amounts of time and resources spent to duplicate these crests, Mikhail went the extra mile to improve their compatibility with foreign bodies, then simply gave the duplicate crests to those under his tutelage that lacked crests of their own. For these acts he earned the titles "Crest Taker" and "Iconoclast", the undying loyalty of his pupils, and the eternal hatred of those families that had their crests taken and violated by him.

Crestflies: The culmination of Mikhail's centuries of research into magic crests and body modification, produced by replicating and merging pieces of all the magic crests Mikhail has taken. They are tiny, firefly-like familiars that act like modular, homogeneous, all-purpose magic crests given form, capable of channeling mana even without a living host. They can merge with people with no blood relations to the caster to grant them additional magic circuits, enhancing a magus's power or even turning a non-magus into a magus. Unfortunately, this process is painful even when done in small amounts, and outright excruciating otherwise, and the subject requires extensive rehabilitation and further practice for the implantation to not permanently cripple the body, which is why it is not done often.

Immortality: Mikhail's own body is entirely made of crestflies, him technically classifying as a wraith that controls these familiars to interact with the world. Therefore, as long as a single crestfly exists to keep his soul tethered, he can eventually rebuild himself by consuming mana and organic material, though of course this becomes harder the fewer crestflies he has remaining to act as magic circuits. Due to this body, the quantity of magic circuits at his disposal is beyond normal human limits, though there is still a limit of how many crestflies his soul can control at once. Finally, even though he can keep his soul in this world indefinitely, the weight of the ages has caused his soul to deteriorate over time. Through deep meditation techniques learned from multiple ancient gurus across the world, Mikhail was able to stabilize himself so that no further notable degradation will occur, but he still lost the indomitable will that drove him all those centuries ago, instead settling with leaving matters to the newer generations.

Lightning Magecraft: Mikhail is especially adept at the manipulation of electricity, having combined multiple lightning-related thaumaturgical theories around the world with his New Age magecraft. Much of this expertise was spent on combining magecraft with modern electrical inventions to form new and innovative Mystic Codes, though he is still perfectly capable of unleashing powerful bolts of lightning. If driven in a corner, Mikhail can overload all the crestflies in his body to unleash a devastating surge of power, though doing so leaves him drastically weakened and vulnerable afterwards.

Tohsaka Tsubaki, the Hollow Wielder (currently missing)

Name: Tohsaka Tsubaki (遠坂 椿); the Average One; the Hollow Wielder.

Species: Human.

Age: 19.

Gender: Female.

Appearance: Tsubaki is a young woman that the majority of Japan's more modern generations would consider very attractive. She is 159 cm tall, with the slim and toned physique of a gymnast, generous curves that can probably land modeling jobs without much difficulty, and slightly tanned skin that gives off a sense of fitness and health. Her hair was black in childhood, but turned a vivid hue of violet upon going through bodily enhancements at director Zolgen's hands (see backstory), then later dyed with sparse strands of blond; it reaches a little beyond her shoulders, with a single small ponytail separated from the rest of the hair on the left side of her head by a reddish magenta ribbon, all of her hair straight except for being slightly curly at the ends. Her eyes remain their natural bluish green color. Her fashion sense is typical of the gyaru subculture, though moderate by their standards, with a variety of flashy and trendy western-inspired clothing. Often her outfit shows a fair bit of skin, though the intention is always to be stylish rather than emphasize sex appeal. She's worn countless different types of shoes, many of which are high-heeled, though they transform into practical low-heeled shoes when she engages in physical exercise or combat.

Personality: Being the heir of one of the three great families of the Aethra Aeternum, and seen as a nigh-unparalleled, almost omnicompetent genius by her peers, many may expect Tsubaki to be an arrogant and spoiled princess. She is indeed proud, but not of her own abilities or her family's prestige, but rather of her family's conviction to make society a better place for all and her opportunity to help realize such noble ideals. Having taken her elders' teachings to heart, she firmly believes that all should treat each other with kindness and empathy, and wealth and power should be used to unite rather than divide people. Her demeanor combines the gentle elegance of a high-class lady with the easygoing confidence of an extroverted gyaru, making her popular with all manners of people. However, she does possess one major flaw. It doesn't come up often, but when it comes to ideals that truly matter to her, Tsubaki is incredibly stubborn and hard-headed, refusing to give up or compromise even if there is no possible way what she's looking for can be achieved exactly as she envisions. And out of all these ideals, the one that she's the most adamant on is the most unrealistic, the insistence that everyone must be saved without sacrificing anyone to save the other. She knows that most people consider such a notion a childish fantasy, and it pains her every time such a hard sacrifice happens, but her determination only burns stronger in the face of such impossibilities. She will work as hard as she possibly can and become the strongest magus in the world, so that she can create an utopia with her own hands where no one will be left behind.

Backstory:

Tsubaki is the only child of the great Tohsaka family, one of the three founding families of the Aethra Aeternum. In childhood her parents were doting, which built great confidence in her, but they also always stressed the importance of kindness and equality. Tsubaki took this to heart, and dreamed of using her emerging talents to help everyone. Her life had been happy and peaceful for the most part until that fateful day when she was seven years old. After a major breakthrough in the development of the Eudaemonia project, Tsubaki's father Kousuke volunteered to be a test subject, trying to imbue himself with the power of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. But instead of the famed Sengoku warlord, what came out of the Throne of Heroes was the calamitous demon king Ootakemaru, whose malevolent will took control of the man's body and transformed it into a monstrous killing machine. The battle that ensued was brutal, the possessed Kousuke inflicting grave injuries upon the Magus Killer Emiya Gyouka who tried to stop him, and only momentarily regaining control of his own body after the death of his wife Himari. As he stood there barely holding back the raging demon within him, the bloody katana in his hand pointed precariously toward his trembling daughter, tears streaked down Kousuke's eyes and he professed to the young Tsubaki that sometimes sacrifices must be made to prevent an even greater tragedy. It was at that time when Tsubaki's innate Hollow element activated itself, countless ethereal ribbons emerging from her to wrap around her father's battered, warped body, his agonized grimace softening into an exhausted but relieved smile as he allowed himself to be dragged into the depths of Imaginary Space. Kousuke was never seen again, and Tsubaki was never the same.

Even at such a young age, Tsubaki was mature enough to recognize that the deaths that day were no one's fault but those of life circumstances. But the loss of her parents still pained her like nothing else, and she vowed to not let their sacrifices be in vain. Next time, she would save everyone. If that didn't seem possible, then she would just work harder and become stronger, so that no one would have to die. She then went under the guardianship of director Zolgen himself, the ancient magus grieving deeply over the tragedy that happened under his watch and vowing to protect and nurture the descendant of one of his closest friends. Not simply content with the innate magic circuits she was born with, Tsubaki pleaded to be imbued with as many of the artificial magic circuits contained in director Zolgen's crestflies as possible, as well as the experimental Hollow Reactor that aimed to allow a magus of the Hollow element to draw energy from Imaginary Space. Director Zolgen hesitated, knowing how excruciating such a process would be, especially for a child, but Tsubaki insisted. It took her a whole year before she recovered from the ordeal, during which her hair had turned vivid violet, but the suffering only tempered her conviction further.

Under director Zolgen's tutelage, Tsubaki learned as much as she could, but she was not a workaholic who would overexert herself past the point of collapse. She knew that she had to maintain a healthy work-life balance to make sure she was always physically and mentally in top shape. She attended public school, became rather popular, and spent a moderate amount of time on personal hobbies like sports, fashion, and cooking. She became close friends with Maria von Einzbern, her adoptive older brother Emiya Kurou, as well as a boy with glasses whose background was unknown. With Kurou she resonated especially strongly, as they were both incredibly hard workers with ironclad convictions of altruism, yet their attitudes were complete opposites where Kurou accepted the necessity of sacrifice while Tsubaki refused to make such concessions even when they seemed unavoidable. The two eventually became lovers, encouraging and supporting each other while maintaining an ideological competition that made each other stronger.

As the years went by, Tsubaki's future seemed secure. After her parents' deaths, some branch family members of the Tohsaka naturally tried to claim leadership, but none of them could realistically challenge Tsubaki's immense talent, personal endorsement from director Zolgen himself, or the protection of Kurou whose reputation as the deadly Magus Killer had been steadily growing. Upon reaching 18 years of age, she officially became the new head of the Tohsaka family, and there was the unspoken consensus that she was the most likely candidate to succeed Mikhail Zolgen as the next director of the Aethra Aeternum as a whole. Her recent disappearance along with director Zolgen sent many into a conspiratorial frenzy, especially after the reemergence of Maria and Kurou who both became almost unrecognizable. Even though most suspect Kotomine Zekkou, some speculate that Tsubaki and director Zolgen were taken out of commission by Maria who wanted control of the Aethra Aeternum for herself, given how she quickly took control of the Nullity Marble situation, despite the previous Maria having explicitly denied interest in a leadership role. When asked about the fate of his girlfriend, Kurou's expression visibly clouds over, and he refuses to say anything more. It is most likely that the situation is far more complex than it appears.

Skills: Back in high school, Tsubaki was perceived to be an invincible superwoman, among the top-scorers in every subject, from sciences to arts to athletics. She was the champion of the kendo club, a skill that extends to actual kenjutsu in real combat.

Abilities:

• Magic Circuit Stats: Quantity A; Quality B; Capacity EX; Complexity B. The capacity of her magic circuits exceed human limits due to the Hollow Reactor (see below).
• Elemental Affinities: Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Ether, Hollow.
• Origin: Unknown.

Hollow: A rare elemental affinity that allows the direct manipulation of Imaginary Space, an alternate dimension residing beneath normal reality where the World's laws are laxer and more malleable. This ability typically manifests as numerous ethereal ribbons that extend from Tsubaki's body, each ribbon pristine white with edges and floral patterns in the reddish magenta hue of camellias. They're flexible and prehensile, controlled by Tsubaki's will with great agility, with strength and durability proportional to the amount of mana channeled through them. Their effectiveness against physical matter is mediocre, but are great at interfering with beings made of mysteries like nature spirits and demons. Multiple ribbons can be condensed into a katana, which Tsubaki wields with great skill. The ribbons can also be used to open portals between the real world and Imaginary Space, allowing Tsubaki to hide in the latter or banish enemies into it, though doing so is quite costly and straining. The border between dimensions also remains volatile for some time after a portal is closed, allowing another magus to potentially reopen the portal even without Hollow affinity.

Hollow Reactor: One of the seven superweapons of the Atlas Institute, which ended up in Mikhail Zolgen's possession during the power struggles between Atlas and the Aethra Aeternum in the mid-1900s. It theoretically allows the rapid absorption of energy from Imaginary Space and conversion into human-usable mana, but requires the Hollow affinity as well as extremely robust magic circuits to use safely. It remained unused for the longest time due to no one having both the suitable elemental affinity and magic circuit strength, and even Tsubaki required the implantation of additional artificial magic circuits via director Zolgen's crestflies before she could use it. Now fused with her body like a second heart, the Hollow Reactor provides her with a nigh-inexhaustible supply of mana, though the rate at which she can weave mana into magecraft is still limited by her magic circuits. When drawing in a particularly large amount of energy from Imaginary Space, swirling patterns begin to appear on Tsubaki's skin, the same color and shape as the patterns on her Hollow ribbons.

Jewel Magecraft: One of the Tohsaka family's specialties, this magecraft allows the compression and storage of energy inside gemstones for later use. By releasing the stored energy, even powerful spells can be cast nigh-instantly, with the drawback of destroying the gem in the process. Jewel magecraft used to require high-quality natural gems that have accumulated mystery over time from contact with spirits, but the advent of New Age magecraft made it much easier to use cheaper artificial gems for the same purpose, substantially alleviating the monetary strain and consumable nature of this craft. Another drawback is that it usually takes a very long time to store enough energy into a gem to make it worth using, due to the limitations in the average magus's magic circuits, but Tsubaki in particular can circumvent this drawback using her Hollow Reactor. By spending several hours focusing on drawing large amounts of energy from Imaginary Space, Tsubaki can fill gems equivalent to what may otherwise take years, though such a session is quite taxing for her.

Projection Magecraft: Thanks to her close personal relationship with Emiya Kurou, Tsubaki has learned a great deal about projection magecraft from him, specifically his variant of "tracing" that reproduces an object's entire history so that it can last indefinitely without being erased by the Counter Force as an anomaly. Her affinity for projection magecraft pales in comparison to Kurou's, so she cannot conjure complex objects like modern firearms, but Tsubaki has mastered the tracing of clothing and jewels specifically. The clothes traced by her are ordinary, but they satisfy her fashion sense as a gyaru, and can be easily modified and repaired. The gemstones traced by her are perfectly sufficient for jewel magecraft, practically eliminating its monetary cost.

Elemental Magecraft: In addition to her Hollow affinity, Tsubaki also has moderate affinity for all five of the standard elements, giving her the title of "Average One". She's not as adept in manipulating these elements as she is in Hollow, so she typically stores elemental energy in gemstones to make simple blasts of flames, ice, lightning, acid, or spiritual power. Using a combination of her Hollow Reactor and projection magecraft, Tsubaki can produce and fill around twenty small gemstones for each of the five elements, over the course of a few hours. The size of the jewels is kept small to allow for more granularity in choosing how much power to release at once; fusing 20 of them can release power on par with high thaumaturgy.

Gandr: Originally a simple curse, Tsubaki has modified it to be capable of inflicting physical damage, tearing large holes in concrete. It takes the form of bullet-like orbs of hazy white energy that she can fire in rapid succession from her fingertips.

Kotomine Zekkou, the Demonizer (currently missing)

Name: Kotomine Zekkou (言峰 絶光); the Demonizer.

Species: Human.

Age: 44.

Gender: Male.

Appearance: Zekkou is nothing short of hideous, to the point of appearing barely human. He is 185 cm tall, with a morbidly gaunt, almost skeletal build. His skin is a ghastly pale ashen gray, with the texture of desiccated earth instead of anything resembling human skin, innumerable tiny black cracks running through it to make it look like pieces will flake off at any moment. His lips are a shade of dry, dead dark gray, and his teeth and nails are pitch black. Myriads of unsettling demonic symbols written in blood cling to him, from his bald head down to his face and neck and extending all the way to his hands and feet. Most of his grotesque appearance is hidden within the simple hooded black robe that he wears, but his eyes are the worst part of him. Their sclerae are sunken pits of gnawing darkness, from which two hellish motes of blood-red light glare out at whomever unfortunate enough to meet his gaze.

Personality: Most of Zekkou's peers agree that his personality is just as unpleasant as his appearance. A typical case of antisocial personality disorder, there is not a shred of empathy or conscience in his heart, seeing people as nothing more than tools to be exploited and thrown away. He lacks the constant need for stimulation that usual psychopaths suffer from, having no urges that may drive him toward reckless impulsive behavior, nor does he take any pleasure in the domination or torment of those weaker than him. Yet he is not lacking in motivation, far from it. Due to his recalcitrant demeanor, no one knows of the actual reason behind his cold, relentless pursuit of power above all else, or perhaps he simply desires power for its own sake. The few who have had anything resembling a chat with him may have become aware of his morbid, almost scholarly fascination with corruption and decay, not only of flesh and matter but also of concepts and ideals. It is fortunate that he is never outright malicious, but that makes him no less dangerous to be around.

Backstory:

Zekkou is the son of Kotomine Byakurou, a high-ranking and devout priest of the Holy Church. His parents were not magi, and it was widely believed that Zekkou himself was blessed with top-quality magic circuits by the World as reward for his father's piety. Unfortunately, the power that Zekkou was born with was the power to bring forth demons with but a thought. No one could say for sure whether it was this power that corrupted the child, or if his cold-blooded nature was independent of whatever abilities he possessed. Regardless, like many budding psychopaths, the young Zekkou tortured and mutilated small animals just to see what would happen, except in his case he created demons and forced them into the animals' bodies to turn them into warped aberrations. When the Holy Church finally discovered what he was doing, they attempted to capture him for drastic reeducation, only for the boy to manifest an incredible amount of power and kill one of the inquisitors. This would have warranted an execution if not for his father's desperate pleas, and the incident came to the attention of Mikhail Zolgen, director of the influential Aethra Aeternum, who saw potential in the eight-year-old. Thus did director Zolgen take Zekkou under his own wing, hoping to shape the boy's desire for power and knowledge into something that benefits society. Sadly, no one in the Aethra Aeternum could get Zekkou to turn a new leaf, as he actively alienated others while engaging in research that even the liberal New Age magi balked at. Contrary to most other magi who seek the Root, the source of all existence and the ultimate truth, Zekkou claimed to seek the so-called "Abyss", supposedly the flip-side and antithesis of the Root, the final destination of all failed possibilities and potentials that could not be. Where he got such an absurd idea, no one could say for certain, and it was obvious that no one wanted to try to convince him to abandon this foolhardy and heretical path.

Zekkou's rank in the Aethra Aeternum kept rising due to his incredible talent, even though virtually everyone disliked him. The Einzbern family provided him with mindless, mass-produced homunculi as test subjects, and in cases where genuine human souls were needed, death-row inmates were used; his research indeed gave great insights into the nature of demonic possession and contributed significantly to the Eudaemonia project. But rumors kept mounting that he was illegally obtaining test subjects behind the Aethra Aeternum's back, and that he was to blame for several high-profile disasters in the supernatural world. It's not clear what finally sparked the comprehensive investigation into his conduct, but at the end of it all, director Zolgen personally banished Zekkou to some location where he was a prisoner in all but name. Many feared retaliation from Zekkou, and sure enough, director Zolgen and his apprentice Tsubaki mysteriously vanished not long after, while the mana instabilities around the world intensified to unprecedented levels. When suspicions immediately fell upon him, his prison guards tried to bring him to the Aethra Aeternum for questioning, only to find that he had disappeared as well.

Skills: As a part of his research into demonic possession and its effects on the body, Zekkou has extensive knowledge of physiology and anatomy, of mainly humans but also animals, plants, and even certain phantasmal species.

Abilities:

• Magic Circuit Stats: Quantity A; Quality A; Capacity A; Complexity A.
• Elemental Affinities: Demons.
• Origin: Unknown.

Demonition: The Sixth Imaginary Factor is a force that reacts with human desires to form the spiritual entities that the supernatural world recognizes as demons. Most demons form spontaneously, either through intense desires or potent supernatural events, but Zekkou was born with the rare ability to easily bring forth demons through his imagination alone. Despite common superstition, demons are not inherently evil. They exist to fulfill human desires, and only bring harm due to their alien common senses that try to fulfill said desires through twisted means. With sufficient understanding and effort, it is possible to employ demons to benefit humanity, such as the wish-granting magecraft that the Einzbern family strives toward, as well as the Aethra Aeternum's experimental Eudaemonia project; that was the main reason why director Zolgen tried to nurture this ability of Zekkou's. Unfortunately, due to Zekkou's antisocial nature, he played into the negative stereotypes of demonology as straightforwardly as anyone could have. He used to look normal, even quite handsome, but repeated infusions of demonic power into his own body has turned Zekkou into the grotesque mockery of humanity he is known to be. Said body can contort even further into utterly monstrous shapes, claws and fangs and tentacles and numerous other unspeakable instruments of slaughter that can tear a grown man to pieces in an instant. He can also unleash concentrated masses of demonic energy capable of infecting organic and inorganic matter alike and even insufficiently protected magecraft, causing the afflicted regions to undergo cancerous mutations until they're destroyed from within like the most typical victims of demonic possession. Through this fearsome ability, Zekkou earned the title "Demonizer".

Player Characters:

@Seirei No Hai Rosangel Lothine Umina (Eudaemon character sheet not yet finished)

@SSW Soili and Virve Edelfelt (Eudaemon character sheet not yet finished)

Fate/Lost Qliphoth (FGO-like alternate universe, no canon characters; only basic setting knowledge recommended) [CANCELLED DUE TO INACTIVITY]

Contents moved to the 0th post so that the co-GM can edit it.

Fate/Lost Qliphoth (FGO-like alternate universe, no canon characters; only basic setting knowledge recommended)

@Cu Chulainn@Zinita@AThousandCurses@Agunimon@Mistress Dizzy@Seirei No HaiThe game thread has been created here.

Fate/Lost Qliphoth (FGO-like alternate universe, no canon characters; only basic setting knowledge recommended) [CANCELLED DUE TO INACTIVITY]

As stated in the title, only a basic understanding of Nasu's settings is suggested. This RP will take place in my own heavily bastardized adjusted alternate universe, where no canon characters exist (though alternate universe versions of canon characters are fine). It will be more permissive than canon in a lot of ways, but also more restrictive in some ways. The wiki is not the best for canon accuracy, but it's perfectly fine for giving you enough of a basic idea to participate in this RP. This RP is supposed to be for fun and to tell a good collaborative story, not for rigorous canon accuracy. If you're not okay with considerable liberties being taken with canon, then this RP is not for you, and you should look elsewhere.

A Discord server for my RPs can be found here. You can also DM me on Discord at JohnSolaris#5728 for questions.

---

Introduction

The world is full of mysteries beyond human understanding. Yet in the past millennia, humanity has persevered and prospered, engraving their nature upon the surface of the planet as its most dominant species. The Age of Man seemed secure for the foreseeable future, the Counter Force born of the collective human subconsciousness subtly intervening behind the scenes to eliminate any potential major threats to human order. With the majority of humans being unaware of the existence of the supernatural, it seemed that mystery itself would eventually become obsolete and give way entirely to technology and reason.

But due to unknown factors, the Counter Force has been weakening in the past century. In some places, previously robust thaumaturgical foundations have been losing strength or swaying out of control. In others, it has been becoming easier than ever to impose one's will upon the world, creating zones of grossly nature-defying magecraft that normally would have been swiftly snuffed out by Alaya's corrective impulses. A group of audacious, talented modern magi discovered how to trigger and exploit these anomalies at will, and taught the art to their associates, allowing their organization Aethra Aeternum to rapidly become the dominant faction in the Mage's Association and disseminate magecraft at unprecedented scales. Perhaps the more recent events are the consequences of this hubris.

It is the year 2021. Abnormal weather patterns and natural disasters have been escalating in the past months, beyond the scope of any climate change theory. Depression, psychosis, and many other mental disorders are on a sharp rise among the common folk. Talks of nightmares abound, intensely realistic visions of a dark, ruined reflection of the world humans are so familiar with. It does not take an astute magus to see that the world's leylines have suddenly been put into complete disarray, and when the Aethra Aeternum peered into Imaginary Space to investigate, what they found was unlike anything they could have imagined. Fragments of dead worlds that should not exist, slowly encroaching upon reality.

• Nehemoth - Nahui Tlayualli: When the Moon and Stars Are Right.
• Gamaliel - Akatsuki: Undying Bloodstained Battlefield.
• Samael - Chaos Labyrinthos: Machinations in the Transgressor's World-Maze.
• Harab Serapel - Huaguo Shan: Blighted Mausoleum of the Monkey King.
• Thagirion - Amarna: Sands Under an Ineffable Sun.
• Golachab - Fimbulvetr: Lament of the Unslain, Unsung Twilight.
• Gamchicoth - Abzu Nibiru: The First and Last God-King's Oceanic Throne.

To investigate these realms that should not be, now dubbed the Nullity Marbles, the Aethra Aeternum begins recruiting the strongest, most skilled individuals among the magi, inquisitors of the Holy Church, and even Dead Apostles and other supernatural beings. They unveil their latest and greatest magecraft, the Eudaemonia system, which extracts data from the exalted Throne of Heroes and infuses it into the bodies of these recruited individuals to allow them to take on the powers of Heroic Spirits in a manner not unlike demonic possession. Armed with the world's legacies, these Hero Candidates are sent into where no man has gone before, for a chance to make everything right again.

You are one such Hero Candidate. Whether you like to or not, you are aware of what is at stake, and what must be done. Will you bring about the world's salvation, or its ruin?

---

Setting Information

This is an alternate timeline located on an entirely different trunk of the tree of time compared to any canon timelines. Therefore, no canon timeline will be accessible here, and this timeline's Throne of Heroes and similar extra-temporal spaces are separate from the corresponding spaces in canon timelines. No canon character will appear in this timeline. On the other hand, it's completely fine to have an alternate universe counterpart of a canon character, which may be a canon character with different life circumstances, or a different character that has strong thematic similarities to a canon character. For example, instead of Emiya Shirou, this timeline has Emiya Kurou, who uses guns and has a Reality Marble named Unlimited Bullet Works. Many such AU counterparts of canon characters can be assumed to exist in the background as NPCs, but they do not need to be named unless the story needs to bring them to our attention.

History

The history of this timeline is something like a mixture of the histories of Fate/stay night and Tsukihime, where the Mage's Association, the Holy Church, and the Dead Apostle Ancestors are the dominant powers. However, as far as public knowledge in the supernatural circles go, the Holy Grail War as we know it in canon never existed. There is no such thing as a "Servant", and the Holy Grail is only known as the Einzbern family's centuries-long pipe dream.

The major divergence occurred in the early 1900s, when the Counter Force mysteriously began losing power and stability, creating the "wild magecraft" zones mentioned in the introduction. The ambitious, talented leaders of the Zolgen family from Russia (remember that Matou Zouken in canon was originally called Makiri Zolgen), the Einzbern family from Germany, and the Tohsaka family from Japan came together to study this instability. They eventually discovered how to invoke and manipulate it at will, leading to the invention of New Age magecraft. Unlike normal thaumaturgical foundations that rely heavily on greater magical formulae engraved upon the World through centuries of tradition, which greatly suffer from the Counter Force's instability, New Age magecraft is a paradigm shift that essentially allow the user to construct his own personal thaumaturgical theory by combining personal insight with scientific principles and occult knowledge from a variety of sources. This led to the learning of magecraft and production of Mystic Codes at unprecedented scales, while avoiding the problem of traditional magecraft waning as common scientific knowledge grew. The three families formed their own organization, the Aethra Aeternum ("Eternal Sky"), which rapidly became the dominant faction in the Mage's Association. Under their tutelage, even magi from weak or obscure lineages could attain knowledge and power much more quickly than otherwise.

As stated in the introduction, the Counter Force instabilities suddenly and drastically intensified a few months ago in the late 2020s, putting the leylines into disarray and causing abnormal weather and psychic distortions in the common folk. The upper echelons of the Aethra Aeternum were also having problems not long before that. Kotomine Zekkou was an exceedingly powerful demonologist, born with potent magic circuits thanks to the piety of his father, a priest from the Holy Church. Because of his sheer talent, Zekkou climbed up the ranks of Aethra Aeternum, despite his gruesome experiments and callous disregard for human wellbeing. In the mid-2020s, he had a major public falling out with Mikhail Zolgen, the centuries-old director of the Aethra Aeternum, resulting in his exile from the organization. Not long after, Mikhail mysteriously disappeared, along with his star pupil Tohsaka Tsubaki, while the Einzbern family retreated from the public eye without explanation. With the sudden loss of leadership, as well as the mounting global crises and newly-discovered Nullity Marbles, the Aethra Aeternum was in a state of chaos.

Then she appeared. Maria von Einzbern, the young but esteemed heir apparent of the Einzbern lineage, who was not seen since the director's disappearance. She had completely changed, now devious and seductive instead of the shy gentle soul she was known to be, as if possessed by an entirely different being altogether. The power she displayed easily rivalled that of the missing director, and she claimed to have become the Holy Grail, humanity's best hope of weathering the oncoming storm.

Maria quickly proved her claims by completing the Eudaemonia project, on which the Aethra Aeternum had failed to make progress for years. Acting as the Holy Grail, she drew out the powers of Heroic Spirits from the Throne of Heroes and imbued them into suitable candidates, while projecting her immense power into Imaginary Space to locate and analyze the Nullity Marble phenomena. Despite doubts and suspicions, the Aethra Aeternum had few alternatives but to allow Maria to take the lead in this situation, launching a global effort to recruit powerful individuals to wield the essences of Heroic Spirits and venture into the twisted Nullity Marbles.

Rulings on Conceptual Weapons and Powers

Conceptual Weapons and similar powers will function a little differently from canon, for the sake of balance and storytelling while avoiding banning too many things outright.

A Conceptual Weapon operates in terms of human-recognizable concepts to produce effects that are seemingly absolute, but these effects are enforced by the World (i.e. the Counter Force). For example, the spear Gae Bolg seemingly reverses causality itself to produce an absolutely accurate attack, but it is in fact the World that enforces the spear's accuracy and prevents evasion. However, certain effects can oppose the World's providence, such as the Luck stat that represents one's ability to reject fate (i.e. the World's will). The degree to which the World will enforce a Conceptual Weapon depends on the strength of the weapon's mystery, resulting in the canonical rule that when two opposing mysteries collide, the stronger one overwhelms the weaker (though if they're more evenly-matched then both may partially take effect). If the description of a Conceptual Weapon sounds absolute, it is only absolute if the World's enforcement encounters no obstacles. Moreover, due to the World weakening and losing stability, Conceptual Weapons tend to be easier to counter in general in this timeline.

A Texture is a World unto itself, a layer of reality that exists on the planet. The Age of Man consists of a single Texture governed by Alaya, though the Age of Gods consisted of multiple Textures, each representing the myths of a specific culture. If a certain myth claims to be cosmic or universal in scale, that is only true within its own native Texture, i.e. only the entirety of that Texture is affected. For example, Amaterasu only governed the concept of the sun within the Japanese Texture, and Ragnarok only destroyed the Norse Texture. Any claims of unreasonably large scale (e.g. an Indian kalpa being billions of years long) can be assumed to be exaggerated, and conflicts can be assumed to be no more than planetary and millennia-long in scale. Outside of the planet and before history lie very, very scary things, after all.

A few specific things are worth mentioning:

• Mystic Eyes of Death Perception: Allowed, but a target's lines of death become increasingly complex according to the strength of the target's mystery, and the user requires suitably strong mystery to be able to comprehend said lines. A concept must be comprehended before it can be killed this way. Beings that do not have the concept of death are immune to such instant death effects, but can still be destroyed physically.
• Ea and similar Anti-World effects: An effect can be classified as Anti-World if it specifically interferes with the World itself in some way, regardless of its power. Very powerful Anti-World effects like Ea can destroy smaller Worlds like Reality Marbles, but if you try to use them in the real world, the Counter Force will clamp down hard on you. Even though it's weakened, you likely don't have enough power to overcome it by force. Therefore, such things are allowed.
• Kurogiri Satsuki's Unified Language: Not allowed. The language of ancient Babylonia does not work like that in this timeline.
• Thought Acceleration: Mathematical calculations and the like can be done many orders of magnitudes more quickly, on par with supercomputers, but complex human thoughts can only be accelerated a few times. This is due to both balance considerations and real life computer science reasons. Ask me if you want to know my detailed thoughts on this, but it won't be open to negotiation.
• Abilities whose exact mechanics have not been elaborated upon in canon are not allowed unless we fill in the blanks ourselves. For example, Alcides's Reincarnation Pandora somehow allows him to rob an opponent of his Noble Phantasm, and it's not revealed how it works or how it can be stopped; this won't be allowed here unless we decide on suitable limitations.

---

Eudaemonia System

Eudaemonia is a word that roughly means "human prosperity", while an eudaemon is a benevolent guardian spirit. These concepts are the basis of the Eudaemonia system created by the Aethra Aeternum, as well as the fact that it operates on similar principles to demonic possession.

Eudaemon Summoning

An Eudaemon is a spirit that contains the power of a Heroic Spirit, one of the prominent figures in mythology or history. Empowered by the World itself, the might of a true Heroic Spirit is immense, and one can normally only be summoned by the World’s own will, but the Eudaemonia system is able to manifest a portion of the its power and imbue it into a suitable host, allowing the host to utilize said power. This is the cornerstone of the Aethra Aeternum's plan of tackling the Nullity Marbles.

Each Hero Candidate recruited by the Aethra Aeternum is branded with a crimson tattoo somewhere on his body called a Eudaemonic Sigil (analogous to Command Spells in Fate/stay night), which binds the Eudaemon to the host's body, facilitates synchronization, and minimizes side effects. The magecraft that forms each Sigil is so complex and powerful that it appears to be beyond the capability of any normal magus to destroy or tamper with. Only Maria von Einzbern herself appears to be able to create and modify them at will, though certain Heroic Spirit powers may be able to affect them, depending on the plot.

As Maria brands a Hero Candidate with a Sigil, she will search through the Throne of Heroes and summon an Eudaemon that suits the host's nature and background. Only information from the Throne of Heroes is copied, and the Eudaemon is created from Maria's own power, so nothing prevents two different Candidates from having Eudaemons derived from the same hero. Additionally, for reasons Maria does not explain, Alter versions of heroes from various twisted or failed timelines can be summoned if it suits a host, so each player is free to create their own alternate universe takes on a hero even if said hero is already established by canon, as long as it pays lip service to real life history and myth. And of course, there are no moral alignment restrictions to "heroes" that can be summoned. Even Divine Spirits are fair game, as only a fraction of their powers will be summoned. Lastly, in very rare cases, an Eudaemon may be a fusion of the powers of multiple heroes, though such cases will require extremely solid in-universe justifications on why they should exist.

A Hero Candidate may possess multiple Eudaemons, though the extent to which they can be used simultaneously depends on compatibility between everything involved. Most Candidates start with one Eudaemon each, and may acquire more later in the story; starting with more than one isn't off the table if you can convince me why it makes for good characterization.

Eudaemonic Manifestation

The sentience level of an Eudaemon, and the extent to which it affects the host's mind, vary on a case by case basis. Sometimes the Eudaemon is a fully intelligent second personality resembling the original hero's. Sometimes the Eudaemon is not sentient, but the original hero's personality traits can influence the host's thoughts and emotions. In the worst case, the Eudaemon may take over the host's body entirely.

There exist several manifestation ranks, in which the host successively manifests more of the Eudaemon's power, but exacerbates any effects on the host's mind there may be. Generally, compatibility and familiarity determine which ranks can be achieved. Each rank is described below.

• Rank E: In this rank, the Eudaemon lies entirely dormant in the Sigil, and the host has no visible changes. It costs no mana to maintain, and the host can still access some of the hero's memories and skills, but not any of the major abilities.
• Rank D: The host physically manifests a minor aspect of the Eudaemon’s corresponding hero, such as his Noble Phantasm or a portion of his armor. It can only be used at a minimally acceptable level of effectiveness, but still costs very little mana to upkeep.
• Rank C: The host manifests a significant portion of the Eudaemon, which affects at least half of his body, altering clothes and potentially body parts to partially resemble the Heroic Spirit’s. The host's own nature also has some influence on it, e.g. a male host manifesting the Eudaemon of a female Heroic Spirit will likely have an adapted male version of the female hero’s clothes. This costs more mana to maintain, and may strain the host's body, but manifests a considerable portion of the Eudaemon's powers and skills.
• Rank B: The host's whole body is clad in and changed by the Eudaemon's power, manifesting power approaching what the hero had in life, on top of the host's own power. However, this is very costly, and will likely result in great strain on the host's body.
• Rank A: The host and Eudaemon reach perfect harmony, allowing the use of rank B's power while eliminating nearly all mana upkeep and bodily strain. However, the Eudaemon's mental influences on the host reach their peak at this rank, and irreversible fusion may occur.
• Rank EX: ???

---

Nullity Marbles

A Reality Marble is the power to materialize one's own inner world and layer it on top of the real world within a limited area around oneself. While such an act is rejected by the World, the Reality Marble is something that definitely should exist, according to one's fundamental self. On the other hand, a Nullity Marble is something that should not exist, not only according to the World but also according to some unknown higher power. Seven are discovered so far, and they are named after the Qliphoth, impure spiritual forces in the Kabbalah. For now, the Nullity Marbles only exist in Imaginary Space that lies underneath real space, but their baleful presences still gradually bleed into the real world, resulting in horrific nightmares and visions in the residents of affected areas. If not stopped, the Aethra Aeternum predict that they will eventually tear their way into the World, and expand until they devour everything around them.

When exploring a Nullity Marble, the player characters' Eudaemonic Sigils allow them to telepathically communicate with each other and Maria von Einzbern, as she remotely provides them with navigational aid. There is a built-in automatic translation tool to aid communication when necessary, whether with each other or with individuals encountered in a Nullity Marble. In emergency situations, the Sigils can create portals through which the player characters can escape back to the Aethra Aeternum headquarters. However, certain situations may be able to interfere with these navigation and escape functionalities...

This section contains information on each of the Nullity Marbles, and will be updated as more information is revealed.

Nehemoth - Nahui Tlayualli: When the Moon and Stars Are Right

Located in North America. Yes, North America, not Mesoamerica or South America; this is not a typo.

Gamaliel - Akatsuki: Undying Bloodstained Battlefield

Located in Japan.

Samael - Chaos Labyrinthos: Machinations in the Transgressor's World-Maze

Located in Greece.

Harab Serapel - Huaguo Shan: Blighted Mausoleum of the Monkey King

Located in China.

Thagirion - Amarna: Sands Under an Ineffable Sun

Located in Egypt.

Golachab - Fimbulvetr: Lament of the Unslain, Unsung Twilight

Located in Scandinavia.

Gamchicoth - Abzu Nibiru: The First and Last God-King's Oceanic Throne

Located in Mesopotamia.

---

Character Sheets

This section contains information on character sheets for both Hero Candidates and Eudaemons.

Hero Candidates

Name: Can include full name, nicknames, pseudonyms, titles, epithets, and the like. For plot reasons, please discuss with me first before creating a character belonging to any of these families: Ainsworth, Brunestud, Einzbern, Emiya, Kotomine, Sakatsuki, Tohsaka, Zolgen/Makiri/Matou.

Species: Usually human, but may be Dead Apostle, half-human, or some other magical species. Discuss with me if you're unsure whether it'll be allowed.

Age: May be longer than normal human lifespan, depending on species and powers.

Gender: May be nonbinary. But remember, you don't need to focus on gender issues unless it makes sense for your character and would make a good story.

Appearance: Should only include what your character looks like without manifesting his Eudaemon, as well as the location and appearance of his Eudaemonic Sigil. Hair and eye colors that are unusual in real life are the norm in Nasuverse, for all races, though skin colors are still race-dependent.

Personality: You don't have to give an extensive psychoanalysis of your character, but a general summary is helpful. Think about your character's preferences, principles, aspirations, fears, etc.. These are important in determining what and why certain Eudaemons are compatible with your character.

Backstory: Again, only a general summary will suffice, though you'll need to have my permission first if you want to have any secret parts of your character's backstory that are not revealed to the public. The default plot hook should have your character's backstory end at being contacted by the Aethra Aeternum's agents, invited to their headquarters in Fuyuki City, and examined by Maria von Einzbern to determine compatibility with Eudaemons. Your character's motivations for accepting this recruitment is up to you. If you don't want to take this plot hook, we can talk something else out.

Skills: Your character's mundane skills without the aid of magecraft or other special powers. Not ranked, unlike Eudaemon skills.

Abilities: Your character's magecraft and other special powers, not ranked unless otherwise stated. Due to the advent of New Age magecraft, you do not have to rigorously follow any existing thaumaturgical foundation. The Aethra Aeternum usually try to recruit powerful individuals first, but they have devices that detect one's compatibility with Eudaemonic Sigils with reasonable accuracy, so even an otherwise weak magus may be recruited if he has good compatibility. High compatibility can also reduce mana upkeep such that a weaker magus is not necessarily at a disadvantage when using Eudaemonic power. A few specific pieces of information should be listed if applicable:

• Magic Circuit Stats: The strengths of various aspects of your character's innate magic circuits. Ranked from E to A, where E is barely better than a normal human, C is the average for magi, and A is top-class. The EX rank means it's completely beyond the limits of normal human magecraft, which requires extremely rare special circumstances.
  
  • Quantity: The amount of mana that can be manipulated at once, akin to bandwidth.
  • Quality: The efficiency at which mana is manipulated.
  • Capacity: The total amount of mana that can be manipulated before the magic circuits become fatigued.
  • Complexity: The average complexity of the magecraft that can be used.
• Elemental Affinities: The elements that your character's magic circuits are particularly suited for. Not limited to one, and your character is not limited to only using these elements. The usual elements are Fire, Water (includes ice), Earth (includes acid and poison), Air (includes lightning), and Ether, though certain thaumaturgical foundations may follow different elemental categorizations. Rarer elements include Hollow, which allows the direct manipulation of Imaginary Space, and Demons, a dark force that materializes human desires. Extremely specialized magi may have their elemental affinities be the same as their Origins (see below).
• Origin: The fundamental core of one's identity and existence, stemming from the Root, vaguely summarized by a single word or short phrase. Not everyone is aware of his own Origin, so this may be left blank. Extreme conceptual trauma may be able to change someone's Origin.

Eudaemons

Stats, skills, and Noble Phantasms are normally ranked from E to A. Even E-rank is already above peak normal human capabilities, while A-rank is the stuff of legends. Plus and minus modifiers may be attached to a rank, with pluses representing the potential to surge above that rank's normal capabilities in special circumstances, and minuses representing the state of being reduced to below the rank's normal capabilities due to special circumstances. There is also the EX-rank, which represents truly exceptional things that are far beyond the normal ranking scale, and are thus extremely rare.

All the information in these character sheets are gleaned from the Throne of Heroes by Maria von Einzbern, and each Eudaemonic Sigil allows the Hero Candidate to read the profiles of fellow Eudaemons, to aid teamwork. However, certain special abilities may obscure some of this information.

Name: Some Heroic Spirits may have multiple names from multiple legends. This should be a single name that encapsulates the specific legend that this Eudaemon draws upon. For example, the names "Vlad the Impaler" and "Dracula" each represents a different legend of Vlad III of Wallachia, and may manifest as two different Eudaemonic versions of him.

Gender: Due to personal preference, I suggest that you avoid historical gender bending unless you have a really, really good reason to. In fact, I prefer alternate universe versions of canon characters that have their correct historical genders instead of their canonical genders, e.g. a male version of Jack the Ripper.

Class: An Eudaemon is unable to properly encapsulate the full set of capabilities a Heroic Spirit has. Instead, the spirit belongs to one of seven predefined classes, listed below, each meant to manifest specific subsets of abilities that Heroic Spirits have. Therefore, if a Heroic Spirit has a subset of abilities that are compatible with those represented by a class, then an Eudaemon of that class can borrow these abilities from said hero, but not the hero’s other abilities that do not fall under the class. A Heroic Spirit may qualify for multiple classes this way, so Eudaemons of different classes that borrow the powers of this hero will have different subsets of the hero’s abilities. For example, the Irish hero Cu Chulainn is, among other things, both a powerful lance wielder and a skilled runic magus, so both a Lancer Eudaemon and a Caster Eudaemon can borrow his power; but the Lancer Eudaemon can only borrow his lance-related abilities and not magecraft, and vice versa for the Caster Eudaemon. Different classes may represent different facets of a hero's legend. Rarely, an Eudaemon may not fit well into any of the seven standard classes, and thus result in an irregular extra class; talk to me beforehand if you want this.

Stats: There are six main stats that Eudaemons are ranked by. Each class has base values for its stats, though it's highly likely that the corresponding hero's legend will heavily modify these stats. These entries should reflect the Hero Candidate's stats when fully manifesting this Eudaemon, so they may be modified by the host's innate abilities.

• Strength: One's physical strength.
• Endurance: One's ability to withstand physical damage.
• Agility: One's speed, dexterity, and reflexes.
• Luck: One's ability to reject conceptual interference.
• Mana: The amount of mana one can output at once, working in tandem with the Quantity stat of the host's magic circuits. E-rank here is comparable to C-rank human magic circuit quantity, while C-rank here is comparable to human A-rank.
• Noble Phantasm: The average power of one's Noble Phantasms, modified by how frequently and easily each one can be used. Not the same as simply the rank of the strongest Noble Phantasm in one's possession, since its contribution to this rank may be lower if it can only rarely be used or is very costly.

Class Skills: Each class itself has a predefined set of skills. Most class skills are self-explanatory, while the Independent Action skill in this timeline instead reduces mana upkeep of manifesting an Eudaemon (but not the bodily strain of using its abilities). Even if the hero that an Eudaemon borrows from doesn’t have some of these skills, the Eudaemon itself still does, so the Hero Candidate will still be able to make use of them. However, in such a case these skills will be much weaker than if the hero that the Eudaemon borrows from also has the same skills. For example, Carmilla qualifies for the Assassin class due to her feats in life, but is not actually an assassin, so her Presence Concealment skill is weak.

Seven Standard Classes

Saber: A class that mainly uses sword-like weapons in melee combat. Powerful jack of all trades.
Stats: Strength A, Endurance B, Agility B, Mana C, Luck D.
Skills: Magic Resistance, Riding.

Archer: A class that mainly uses projectile weapons, though they do not need to be bows. Strong in long-range battles.
Stats: Strength C, Endurance C, Agility C, Mana E, Luck E.
Skills: Independent Action, Magic Resistance.

Lancer: A class that mainly uses polearms, though they do not have to be spears. Agile and effective at mid-range.
Stats: Strength B, Endurance C, Agility A, Mana D, Luck E.
Skills: Magic Resistance.

Rider: A class that is less powerful by itself but controls powerful mounts, which can be animals, magical beasts, machines, and generally any vehicle one can ride on.
Stats: Strength D, Endurance D, Agility B, Mana C, Luck E.
Skills: Magic Resistance, Riding.

Caster: A class that is weaker physically but adept in magecraft.
Stats: Strength E, Endurance E, Agility C, Mana A, Luck B.
Skills: Item Construction, Territory Creation.

Assassin: A class that is weaker in direct confrontations, but deadly in stealth and surprise attacks. Unlike in Fate/stay night canon, Eudaemons of this class do not have to be one of the nineteen Hassan-i Sabbah.
Stats: Strength D, Endurance D, Agility B, Mana E, Luck B.
Skills: Presence Concealment.

Berserker: A class known for its powerful Mad Enhancement skill, which greatly enhances power at the cost of being very difficult to control and risking going berserk. An Eudaemon of this class usually has especially severe effects on the host's mind.
Stats: Strength C, Endurance D, Agility D, Mana E, Luck E.
Skills: Mad Enhancement.

Personal Skills: The hero's skill that fall outside of his class skills, though it is possible to have class skills of a different class as one's personal skills. Special abilities may fall under either here or Noble Phantasms; the main factor is that if a special ability is emblematic of a hero's legend, then it should be a Noble Phantasm, while others should be personal skills. Don't follow Fate/Grand Order's list of skills too closely, because it has a lot of things that are treated as skills but really should be Noble Phantasms (e.g. Solomon's Rings); this is presumably done because FGO game mechanics only allow one Noble Phantasm per Servant. Sifting through the whole skill list on the wiki is an exercise in futility, because the FGO writers seem to make up random new skills whenever they feel like; my suggestion is to just look up canon Servants that you think may have skills in common with your Eudaemon, and make up new skills if you can't find any.

Appearance: Should describe how this Eudaemon changes your character's appearance at various stages of manifestation.

Personality: If this Eudaemon is not fully sentient, this section should instead state the effects it has on the mind of its host.

Legend: A summary of this hero's legend as it occurred in the timeline that he was summoned from. As previously stated, Alter versions from alternate timelines may be summoned, as long as they pay lip service to thematic similarities with existing real life legendary figures. If a real life fictional work also contains adaptations of legendary figures, it's perfectly acceptable to blatantly steal those ideas, e.g. an Eudaemon of Sakai Jin from Ghost of Tsushima.

Noble Phantasms: Each Noble Phantasm is a crystallization of a hero's legend, as recognized and recorded by the Counter Force. It may be an object or a special ability. In most cases, a Noble Phantasm's true name must be invoked before its true power can be unleashed; otherwise a Noble Phantasm weapon is just a weapon determined by the wielder's power and skill with said weapon type. Each Noble Phantasm has a type, which designates the scope of its intended targets, regardless of whether the effects are beneficial or harmful; usual types are Anti-Self, Anti-Unit, Anti-Army, and Anti-Fortress. In addition to a name, a Noble Phantasm may also have an elaborate title (e.g. Excalibur: Sword of Promised Victory), though the title is optional. There is no limit to the number of Noble Phantasms an Eudaemon can have, as long as they're appropriate for the legend being invoked.

Blank character sheets can be copied below for your convenience.

Blank Hero Candidate sheet

[b]Name[/b]:

[b]Species[/b]:

[b]Age[/b]:

[b]Gender[/b]:

[b]Appearance[/b]:

[b]Personality[/b]:

[b]Backstory[/b]:

[b]Skills[/b]:

[b]Abilities[/b]:
[list]
[*] Magic Circuit Stats:
[*] Elemental Affinities:
[*] Origin:
[/list]

Blank Eudaemon sheet

[b]Name[/b]:

[b]Gender[/b]:

[b]Class[/b]:

[b]Stats[/b]:

[b]Class Skills[/b]:

[b]Personal Skills[/b]:

[b]Appearance[/b]:

[b]Personality[/b]:

[b]Legend[/b]:

[b]Noble Phantasms[/b]:

---

Rules

All guild rules apply. In addition, there are a few points that I want to clarify and emphasize.

- Each player is not limited to one character. Feel free to make multiple characters now or later if you think you can handle it, within reason. You can make minor characters that are more akin to NPCs, and potentially turn them into major characters later if you want. I expect this to be a pretty slow-paced RP, maybe one or two posts a week from each player, so use that to judge how many characters you want.

- I am someone who takes internal consistency and verisimilitude very seriously. Therefore, if I see something in your post that I believe to be a plot hole, I'm almost always going to ask you to fix it. If you don't, I may have to gratuitously retcon some things, or even declare your post invalid.

- Don't godmod. When interacting with another character, work together with that character's owner to ensure everyone's actions, reactions, and consequences remain consistent. That includes NPCs controlled by the GM and co-GM.

- I'll try to give player characters a moderate amount of plot armor and good luck. But actions have consequences, and the suspension of disbelief only stretches so far. Keep that in mind before you try to make a dangerously reckless character.

- Mature topics involving corruption on both personal and societal levels will be discussed in the plot. As per forum rules, there won't be anything explicit, nor will I make things pointlessly grimdark, but just be aware that this isn't an innocent kids' show.

- If you want to leave the game, I'll try to retcon out your character's existence. If that's not feasible, I'll try to remove your character from the plot as painlessly as possible.

Fate/Lost Qliphoth (FGO-like alternate universe, no canon characters; only basic setting knowledge recommended) [CANCELLED DUE TO INACTIVITY]

Placeholder post for topic creation, since I can't create the 0th post until the topic is created. All the information will be in the 0th post.

Fate/Lost Qliphoth (FGO-like alternate universe, no canon characters; only basic setting knowledge recommended)

We have enough people interested now, so I'll likely be making the RP thread this weekend.

Fate/Lost Qliphoth (FGO-like alternate universe, no canon characters; only basic setting knowledge recommended)

Interested! So to clarify, we'll be playing as something similar to Demi-Servants, albeit with the possessed individual taking the forefront over the Heroic Spirit being utilized?

@Cu Chulainn

Basically Demi-Servants, yes. How much sentience your Eudaemon (i.e. your copy of the Heroic Spirit's data) has is up to you. It could be a full-on second personality, or its traits could merge with and influence the host, or it could outright take over the host's body, etc.. Whatever makes for a good story.

Fate/Lost Qliphoth (FGO-like alternate universe, no canon characters; only basic setting knowledge recommended)

The game thread has been created here. Please reply to that thread if you're interested.

As stated in the title, only a basic understanding of Nasu's settings is suggested. This RP will take place in my own heavily bastardized adjusted alternate universe, where no canon characters exist (though alternate universe versions of canon characters are fine). It will be more permissive than canon in a lot of ways, but also more restrictive in some ways. The wiki is not the best for canon accuracy, but it's perfectly fine for giving you enough of a basic idea to participate in this RP. This is supposed to be for fun, not for proving who can be the most obsessive about Nasuverse minutiae.

A Discord server for my RPs can be found here. You can also DM me on Discord at JohnSolaris#5728 for questions.

---

The world is full of mysteries beyond human understanding. Yet in the past millennia, humanity has persevered and prospered, engraving their nature upon the surface of the planet as its most dominant species. The Age of Man seemed secure for the foreseeable future, the Counter Force born of the collective human subconsciousness subtly intervening behind the scenes to eliminate any potential major threats to human order. With the majority of humans being unaware of the existence of the supernatural, it seemed that mystery itself would eventually become obsolete and give way entirely to technology and reason.

But due to unknown factors, the Counter Force has been weakening in the past centuries. In some places, previously robust thaumaturgical foundations have been losing strength or swaying out of control. In others, it has been becoming easier than ever to impose one's will upon the world, creating zones of grossly nature-defying magecraft that normally would have been swiftly snuffed out by Alaya's corrective impulses. A group of audacious, talented modern magi discovered how to trigger and exploit these anomalies at will, and taught the art to their associates, allowing their organization Aethra Aeternum to rapidly become the dominant faction in the Mage's Association and disseminate magecraft at unprecedented scales. Perhaps the more recent events are the consequences of this hubris.

It is the year 2021. Abnormal weather patterns and natural disasters have been escalating in the past months, beyond the scope of any climate change theory. Depression, psychosis, and many other mental disorders are on a sharp rise among the common folk. Talks of nightmares abound, intensely realistic visions of a dark, ruined reflection of the world humans are so familiar with. It does not take an astute magus to see that the world's leylines have suddenly been put into complete disarray, and when the Aethra Aeternum peered into Imaginary Space to investigate, what they found was unlike anything they could have imagined. Fragments of dead worlds that should not exist, slowly encroaching upon reality.

• Nehemoth - Nahui Tlayualli: When the Moon and Stars Are Right.
• Gamaliel - Akatsuki: Undying Bloodstained Battlefield.
• Samael - Chaos Labyrinthos: Machinations in the Transgressor's World-Maze.
• Harab Serapel - Huaguo Shan: Blighted Mausoleum of the Monkey King.
• Thagirion - Amarna: Sands Under an Ineffable Sun.
• Golachab - Fimbulvetr: Lament of the Unslain, Unsung Twilight.
• Gamchicoth - Abzu Nibiru: The First and Last God-King's Ocean Throne.

To investigate these realms that should not be, now dubbed the Nullity Marbles, the Aethra Aeternum begins recruiting the strongest, most skilled individuals among the magi, inquisitors of the Holy Church, and even Dead Apostles and other supernatural beings. They unveil their latest and greatest magecraft, the Eudaemonia system, which extracts data from the exalted Throne of Heroes and infuses it into the bodies of these recruited individuals to allow them to take on the powers of Heroic Spirits in a manner not unlike demonic possession. Armed with the world's legacies, these Hero Candidates are sent into where no man has gone before, for a chance to make everything right again.

You are one such Hero Candidate. Whether you like to or not, you are aware of what is at stake, and what must be done. Will you bring about the world's salvation, or its ruin?

Somnium Purgatorii (high-powered modern fantasy/sci-fi)

The invite link has been fixed.