"Now this is unexpected." A man stands above the ritual circle, dressed in a sharp gray uniform with small outlines of red running down it. Young looking with bright blue eyes and cut short blond hair he possesses a certain control of himself, checking over his cross like medal near his neck and fixing the cap on his head. Now he eyes the rather well dressed man across from him, a smirk playing at his lips. He finally looks up at a clear blue sky and smiles. With a slight accent he speaks.
"Truly a shame how the war ended up and what came of it. Here I am summoned to another smaller yet as important war to deal with all kinds of other Heroes. I won't ask why you had someone like me as your pick, not now anyways."
He looks back down to this Master of his and gives a cheeky smirk.
"And I won't bother with the obvious as well in who you are. A War is upon us and those slow to act will surely regret it, I just have couple questions before we begin."
He stands straight and gives a proper salute before asking,
"I ask of you Master what is your Name and how may I Manfred von Richthofen be of service in this War."
Servant Gunner
Thin, pale lips stretch into a smirk, and a crisply pressed sleeve is raised in a salute to the famous Hero before him, "Do I need a reason to seek out the most legendary Hero of the Great War? Unequaled in scope save for the most legendary battles between gods of long forgotten myth?" A dark eyebrow raises up, "Don't sell yourself short, Baron-man, you're the greatest dogfighter to have ever lived, after all. Didn't you know it yourself? The man who controls the air, controls the war."
As the two converse, the magus strides towards the summoning circle, small bits of matter dropped into the still magic-rich soil, enriched and empowered by the castoff of the High Ritual which had just occurred there. Finally, the Master stands before his Servant, nearly equal to him in height.
"My name is Mehdi Al-Beliya'al," His hand stretches out to be shook, "Let's get along, 'kay?" The magus winks, his smile turning predatory.
Age: Oh, baby, you're only as old as you feel (He's actually in his 30's but looking great)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Rank: Pride
Objective for the Grail: A path to the Root is known. The method is prepared, and the site made ready. All that is necessary are the materials. The raw ingredients to piece together into that Tree of First Sin
Character Objectives: Have fun, meet new people, and get a chance to test out some new mixes and smoothies. He's all about having a good time, why not join him?
Personality: An ever shifting creature, charming, cunning, deceptive. Someone who sees himself as the top of the food chain, not through raw force, but as the one who stands at the Apex, with all others around him as prey. Mehdi can shift to fit any role; the wise mentor, the flirty friend, the one night stand, a charming confidante. A stark contrast to a certain Eight-Forked Snake, this man is known in the Association as everyone's friend. Perhaps this stark contrast is what lead to the two interacting so often. A snake who wielded words as a weapons to advance even just one more step further to stave off destruction, versus the charming serpent who whispered temptation into the ears of all those around him.
Biography: The Al-Beliya'al are an ancient clan, dating back to before the AD era, however their history as magi is less than a millennium. Obsessed with the pursuit of the form of the "Tree of Knowledge", they have endlessly dedicated themselves to its recreation. That is why, upon identifying an ideal Spiritual Land, the family's original magic crest was decided to be offered up as sacrifice. A discarding of history dating back to the time of Solomon, for the sake of recreating Eden on Earth.
Mehdi is the inheritor of that tradition, having spent his early years in the family's ancestral land hidden in the Atlas Mountains. From birth, he displayed a cunning wit and able green thumb, a perfect vessel to take on the Al-Beliya'al's great work. At first, he was earnest, hardworking, a pure and gifted child pursuing the greater good of his family with earnest.
Perhaps it was inevitable that once he experienced the outside world, that once he left the garden of his fathers, that he would be stained in the colors of sin and the pursuit of pleasure. In the Clock Tower Mehdi was exposed to the absurdities of Mystics. As a child, he had been told constantly of the need to experiment. To look for new ideas, as the Tree of Knowledge is the accumulation of all earthly things, so how could he pursue the family's grand design if he were to be unwilling to accept even a single part of the world around him? And so Mehdi studied earnestly. The ways of politics. The many different traditions that seeded the world. He became accepting of all things and became dyed in their colors. A mixture of different hues so thoroughly mixed as to appear black.
Who is the true Mehdi, behind all those masks, all those reflections? He himself may not know anymore, for his current self is as much a chimera as those plants which are expressions of his many experiments. Endlessly grafting new aspects and desirable traits onto himself to achieve a more perfect form with which to face the world.
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Magic Circuit Switch: The sensation of a breeze carrying the fresh scent of spring, filled with life and vitality.
Number of Magic Circuits: A
Quality of Magic Circuits: A
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Elemental Affinity: Wood and Wind
Magecraft: General Fundamentals: The basics of the basics. The result of seeking an eclectic base in line with his own prolicivities, seeking an ever greater amount of material to synthesize into a better whole.
Modern Magecraft: While he doesn't rely upon it overmuch, the hybridization of methods upon which it is based is something that appeals far too strongly to Mehdi's sensibilities. He possesses a surface level understanding of the concepts involved, and is able to recognize and adapt to their usage from others who utilize such methods.
Botany: Having studied in the department of the same name, Mehdi's skills in this are one half of the foundation of his general craft. A knowledge of plantlife and the care for it are a deadly necessity for his approach to Magecraft. His skill in this is exemplary, as befitting a man who has spent his life cultivating a green thumb.
Chimera: The second half of Mehdi's magecraft, is the practice of creating true graft-chimeras, through the use of any number of constituent parts to breed their traits together. Though in nature these attempts do not result in the creation of new species, Behdi's magecraft enables his work to overcome that obstacle and thus enable that his works are able to reproduce. Where once this was limited strictly to plant life, Mehdi's great breakthrough has been to incorporate knowledge derived from studying in the Zoology department to adapt a huge number of techniques and materials into his grafting practices.
Magic Crest: The Al-Beliya'al Magic Crest is over 800 years old, but it is really the second such magecraft of its name. The original work, the culmination of over a thousand years of Mystic history, was transformed into the family's Great Atelier; The Hesperide Garden. Since then, the Al-Beliya'al have spent centuries using it's ideal nature as a Spiritual Land to master supernatural Horticulture, endlessly raising and creating new plantlife in an attempt to reclaim species that had been lost due to the recession of Mystic from the World. That they have seen any success at all in this is an accomplishment so absurd as to be monstrous.
Equipment:
Miniature Garden: An inheritance from his forebears, this is a large briefcase that is enchanted with several bounded fields to serve as ideal storage conditions for numerous successful examples of the Al-Beliya'al's work in grafting. While they still need to have proper conditions prepared for growth, the nature of their work enables Mehdi to take these masterpieces anywhere he may need them for experimentation and usage as the situation demands. While it can't be compared to his family's Spiritual Land, it would not be inaccurate to consider this Mystic Code to be more akin to a mobile Atelier than anything else.
Katseer: An elegantly designed and stylishblack scythe, this weapon is as the name implies, intended to assist the harvesting of plant life. Specifically optimized for grafting, objects which are cut by this sickle are imparted with a concept of "worthlesslessness" on the point where the edge touches. This divorces the matter cut in this way a distinct entity from the rest of the body, to the point where the force of the swing behind that edge is what serves to truly separate the two portions divided by the path of this Mystic Code's swing. As these two parts are considered distinct objects by this point, this scythe has the peculiar nature of not actually inflicting damage to its potential victims. After all, it defeats the point of inosculation if the constituent parts consider themselves to be damaged.
Grafting Tools: A set of minor Mystic Codes designed to assist in the process of combining parts for the sake of Mehdi's magecraft. Personally created to assist in the more exotic techniques he had developed over the course of his life, they are a mix of mundane gardening implements and ritual tools that excel at binding together disparate parts regardless of origin.
Exceptional Benefit: Superior Mystic Code (Pending)
Name: Douglas J. MacArthur
Title(s): Supreme Commander of the Pacific Theater, Gaijin Shogun, Hero of Bataan, Dugout Doug, Big Chief, Bruce Willis (Assumed)
Class: Strategist
Gender: Male
Attribute: Just leave this blank during application!
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Personality: A man of contradictions. Hated by his contemporaries and his enemies as proud, high-handed, ceaselessly arrogant, and a man far too obsessed with theatrics. To his subordinates and those who gazed from afar, he was a hero. A larger than life personality, one who respected the input and wisdom of his subordinates, humble enough to accept input from others, and a man who took every step to save just one more life where it could be afforded. One thing remains true, regardless of which is correct: The man who could be seen as these things would be one who was possessed of a supreme self confidence, and a knowledge that no matter what else, he would inevitably succeed. But even though his final work was ruined through the sabotage of cowards back home, his legacy eclipses all efforts of his detractors to toss mud upon his name.
Objective for the Grail: One final threat to the glorious homeland. One final mission to undergo. Across the Sino-Japanese Strait is the very thing he saw in his last war, proving himself right and Truman not merely a coward. But probably a seditious, Communist sympathizer as well. With this last, God-given opportunity, he will finish the job he started half a century ago.
Character Objectives: Strategist has that rarest of opportunities; for a conqueror of a land to return and see the fruits of his work. With the chance to continue his last, unfinished mission, he's in the need for recruits to take the fight to the Last Communists, and see what this new generation of Japanese boys and girls is made of.
Weapon: His signature corncob pipe, and whatever ordinance he might have handy on him.
Parameters:
STR: E
END: D
AGI: E
MGI: D
LCK: A
Class Skills:
Advice of the Strategist: C
The result of a high level of strategic capability and understanding of geopolitics. Strategist's eye was always cast towards the future, and moved with that in mind. He more than anyone else in US Command predicted the shift of the communist threat to the Asian sphere, and the leaden weight that America's European allies would prove as they sought to use his homeland as their personal attack dog for their petty games.
Were Strategist summoned in a more traditional class, this ability would manifest as low-level Clairvoyance.
Command of the Strategist: A+
A modern hero, able to win over even the conquered. A mutation of the Charisma skill, Douglas J. MacArthur was able to inspire immense levels of respect and morale among his troops and people, even having suffered defeats in Bataan in the early stages of Americas involvement in World War II and the numerous reversals he experienced in the Korean War. However, even with those flaws, the only ones who truly struck against him were a certain traitorous snake, and the act left him bared naked as the snake he was. Even in disadvantageous circumstances, those who follow Strategists commands experience a full rank up to relevant parameters. In conditions where "the future is at stake" there is an additional boost. Duty. Honor. Country.
Personal Skills:
Incitement: B
A skill that functions as the acquisition of the words and gestures needed to lead the masses. Though divisive, there is little doubt that Douglas MacArthur in life was a man who knew how to leverage this technique and skill at the level of leading nations. A matter of historical record, this level of success in bowling over nearly all opposition and converting them to his cause can be classified as a mental attack.
Procurement: D+
The acquisition of armaments and supplies with which to wage war. As skillful a general as MacArthur was, throughout his many campaigns he was plagued by an uncommon number of supply issues that notably held up or delayed his planned strategies. As such, he is capable of acquiring mundane arms through means both legitimate and to take advantage of illegitimate supply lines should they exist within his vicinity. As his successes grow, however, the opportunity for more potent equipment to fall into his hands will present itself. As a skill, this is more a matter of "luck" than anything consciously controlled.
Divinity : E
Despite lacking in any evidence of Divinity, as a result of his successes there is a lasting cult to him amongst Koreans as "General Megado". Given the weight of this title as one that appears in Strategist's own Christian faith, and its status as "The Final Fortress", this enables him to qualify for the barest rank. Further empowered by Strategist's second Noble Phantasm.
Ceremonial Reformation: B
The result of the miracle of Douglas MacArthur rebuilding and transforming Japan utterly within a mere five years. Though a lack of scale and the modern day bars this skill from obtaining the highest rank, it remains a legendary feat all the same. Enables the restructuring and reformation of territory to better suit Strategists needs.
Noble Phantasm:
Name: I Shall Return
Title: One Who's Back Carries Inevitable Victory
Rank: C
NP Type: Anti-Army (Self)
Range: 1-99
Maximum Number of Targets: 50
Description: Upon the shores of Bataan, as he fled in the face of the Imperial Japanese, Douglas J MacArthur vowed to the Philippines that he would return as a liberator, to throw off the yoke of the Empire of the Rising Sun. Many scoffed at this. Considered it impossible, as the Japanese were ascendant, ever coming closer to ruling the Pacific and Asia as well.
But that man did not wait. He plotted. He schemed. He won alliances and convinced politicians. Raised troops, and piled on glory and success and accomplishments. Though MacArthur had experienced defeat once, he did return, and in his coming Japan's dream of conquest was shattered.
This is the crystallization of a promise which changed the fate of the World in the modern era, but it is something so simple. A promise. An inevitable fate. Mechanically similar to the Disengage Skill at the greatest possible rank, Strategist and those who are subordinate to him are able to flee any disadvantageous battle and reset the conditions of it to zero,. Immediately afterwards, Strategist is able to acquire information as to the nature of the adversary that defeated him, and make preparations to succeed in their next encounter.
This Noble Phantasm does not need Strategist's physical presence to be activated.
Name: Gaijin Shogun
Title: One Who Stands Above Tenno
Rank: A
NP Type: Anti-Country (Self)
Range: 1
Maximum Number of Targets: 1-1000
Description: The Conquest of Japan.
It sounds simple, but it is an accumulation of millions of souls worth of loss, of anguish, of grief. So much death, in the name of the arahitogami Emperor Hirohito, the living God of Japan. As MacArthur fulfilled his great promise, and as the time for the invasion of Japan neared, MacArthur looked into the future and realized what no one else did.
Operation Blacklist, the alternative to Operation Overlord, was prepared in the event that Japan was not able to fight to the death for some hitherto unforseen reasons. Reasons such as the sun being wielded against the Land of the Rising Sun itself. Douglas MacArthur saw this once in history opportunity, for a conquered land to be reforged into something new, and remake a deadly foe into an ally. Not a vassal or resentful foe.
He pressed for the preservation of the Emperor, over the objections of many world powers who sought the humiliation of Hirohito. In thanks, the demands of the Potsdam Declaration were met. Fearless towards the conquered Japanese, when the time came for MacArthur to take up his post he strode in not at the head of an army, but as a man coming to take his rightful station and met Hirohito not as an equal, but as the man who stood above him.
Within five years he irrevocably shaped Japan into a new nation entirely, to the point where he could depart back to his homeland, his job finally done. What else could you call such a feat, other than that of a god walking astride the earth? The God that was Emperor, had been humbled and supplanted by the Divine Gaijin.
When this Noble Phantasm is in effect, Douglas MacArthur is able to, upon successfully engaging against an opponent with Divinity, steal the Divinity within their Saint Graph and implement it into himself dependent upon a MGI Check. This manifests as a permanent rank down to the relevant skill, and a Rank up to Strategist's own Divinity. This does not need to be a victory he is present for, nor is it required that it be a direct martial defeat. As a Strategist, the advancement of other objectives also qualifies for the activation of this Noble Phantasm.
Moreover, in reflection of MacArthur having taken the Divine Authority which he had acquired and returned it to the people of Japan in their new constitution, reducing the Emperor once more to merely a mortal authority rather than a divine made manifest, Strategist is able to distribute this Divinity to chosen allies as a "Divinity" temporary skill, much in the way that certain Greek Centaur's are able to also confer skills to Servants of their own choosing.
Those who are robbed of their Divinity do not reclaim it. Once a God has been brought down to earth, they do not rise back up again. Though upon the death of those subordinates, the assigned Divinity returns to Strategist as well
At higher levels of Divinity, Strategists Saint Graph mutates. Becoming less the flawed form of who he was in reality, and approaching more towards the myth of "General Megado". Less a man and more a God of War, Strategists abilities pertaining towards strengthening and leading his troops undergo a Rank Up, though if Strategist acquires too much Divinity, his Saint Graph will ascend. As a Divine Spirit, he will be unable to remain in this world, falling to the Reverse of the World to join his fellows.
In the light of early morning, at the start of dawn when dew gathers as water, the sun arises to provide heat and nourishment, the symbolic renewal and arrival of spring-in-miniature, a pale-skinned, raven-haired figure saunters. With measured, saucy steps he walks into the forested hills beyond Fuyuki, at their forefront is a one amongst their number, now barren save for the Church that rests upon it's zenith.
Before him is a clearing, bathed in the warm and orange light of the sun, his skin prickling with the chill that comes with those first rays of dawn.
A flash of searing brilliance is reflected on a silver knife, its owner having whipped it out from places unknown, and with a bizarre gentleness pierces the virgin earth. With practiced ease, he drags his weapon through, leaving what was once clean and unspoiled now forever changed, a clean and pure field now forever marred.
A rich, loamy scent joins the other sensations at the height of the moment, and the summoning circle is prepared, faced to the open air. Perfect for the man's purposes.
His fingers, long and elegant, caress a well defined chin, and crimson eyes twinkle playfully as their owner considers his options.
"Hmm, oh yeah, this will work." With an effort of will, his Magic Circuits open, beginning to take in the energy of his life and catalyzing it with the Fifth Element that hung in the air, catalyzing as it interacted with the Foundation that laid hidden somewhere within the Spiritual Land of Fuyuki. The torn earth of the circle turned silver in the light of Mystic energies, and with the time now right the man began the ritual.
"Let Silver and Steel be the Essence.
Let Stone and the Archduke of Contracts be Foundation.
Let there be no need for a patron, the roots reach deep.
Let rise a wall, a shelter for those frail things from the storm.
Let that which extends infinitely to the four cardinal directions close.
Let that three-forked road be washed away, a new path to tread through the woods has opened.
Let it be filled. Again. Again.AGAIN!
Fill that vessel fivefold for every turn, its limits broken through with every filling.
I shall declare this; Your body shall serve me. My grasp shall lie at the tip of your sword. Submit to the call of the Holy Grail, now come. Join me and submit in the face of this irrationality. Answer, and embrace that destiny!
On your knees you shall prostrate before me, and so be bound in my service. I shall grasp the ecstasies that lay beyond heaven. Feast upon the secret indulgences in the depths of hell.
From that Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power, come forth from the ring of power, oh Protector of the Ring of Balance!"
With a sound of a great storm blowing, silver mist erupts from the earth as immense magical energy is actualized from the far-distant Holy Grail, reaching out through time and space, to grasp for the Hero who would answer the summons of one man:
He's the Not-Kirschtaria dude, incidentally the hair is blond, his eyes are brown, and his suit is a muted tan-brownish color
Gender: Male
Age: Let's say 24
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Rank:
Objective for the Grail: (Pending Approval)
Character Objectives: What your character wants to accomplish here besides their wish/winning the war, and what you as a player would like to do with your character. PM this to me, rather than including it in the public sheet!
Personality: Vineas is an atypical aristocrat, driven not so much by the an average sense of entitlement carried by those born with a silver spoon in their mouths. Rather, he is driven by a desire to progress, to test himself. In this regard, he is a terrible magus, as he sees his Magecraft as a means to an end, in the sense of gluttonously pursuing new and exciting thrills and obstacles to overcome. A well-bred hedonist, Vineas endlessly seeks the memorable. The novel. A new mountain to climb.
In that sense, he is far better suited to be a Spellcaster than a Magus of the Clock Tower, but in that obsessive pursuit he is still in fine company within those hidden halls. As said previously; he is atypical in a realm of the incongruent. Where all is unique, different, and eclectic, he stands as a walking paradox in bearing and pride. One who takes pride in going to any lengths to satisfy his baser urges, who takes no shortcuts in finding the path of least resistance; that is Vineas Vine.
Biography: In the time before the founding of the Clock Tower, there were two figures that lead the world of Mystics. Those who researched it. Those who pursued it, ever looking backward as time marched onward. Heedless of their efforts. In the first, there were those who sought a return to the Beginning, the time and form when True Ether filled the land. These monsters hid themselves within an Underworld of their own devising; the moving Texture, Sea of Estray. There were those who sought to gazed at the future, eschewing the development of the Inner Source in favor of studying phenomena and creating tools with which to avert Apocalypse. The ever calculating, locked within the Titan's Pit; Academy of Atlas. But there were those who were not in line with either of these, who sought to walk bestride the changing world and turn to the Root of all things for the answer to life's mysteries. Lead by the Headmaster, these clans wandered the land, eventually congregating upon the continent of Brittania in force. But of these, several recognized that the ebb of True Ether was slowed in this island, and so arrived upon the shores of newly settled Londinium. These would be the source of the Founders of the Clock Tower nearly five centuries later.
However, in that time the Vine distanced themselves from Londinium. In the aftermath of the Hadrianic Fire that torched Londinium, the Roman Empire sought those who would help alleviate the Empire's burden in raising a great fortification, the isolate Roman Britain from the hordes of Barbarians who still remained unconquered. Sensing opportunity, the Vine took this burden, for they were originally those who were skilled in the layers which divided the world, and in the Hadrianic Wall saw an opportunity for both profit and a peerless project with which to advance their craft.
Settling at the mouth of the Tyne at Arbeia, they would ply their craft faithfully for generations. Yet, in the eyes of history two centuries passes all too quickly. At the height of the Mage's Associations weakness, in the fallout of the Crimson Moon's defeat, many were those who found themselves isolated and destroyed by the ascendant forces across Europe, hostile to those who pursued Mystics. And as Roma too was wracked by the first signs of its collapse, and their hold on Brittannia wavered, the Vine saw opportunity. In exchange for concessions from the barbarians in the days of waning True Ether, they and those Roman forces over whom they still held sway shared the secrets of the fortifications which they had built with their own two hands. The project had fulfilled its purpose, and as the winds changed the Vine would buy their own ascendance with it.
This, naturally, did not go over well with those who survived the barbarica conspiratio.
Thus did the Vine cement themselves as an outcast among those who were once their peers, but though the price of enmity was steep, the bounty of this betrayal was unquestionable. In obtaining those Mystics, and marrying the Barbarians knowledge of the many Fairylands which populated Brittania in those times, the Vine's understanding of Textures ascended to a level unrivaled outside of those dwelling within the Wandering Tomb. At the mouth of the Tyrne, in the chaos of Roman Britannia's Fall, they reached out their hands Eastwards, their newfound strength gripping deeply into the lands of Vercingtorix and Beowulf and Wodir and Rod and so many others. Forever a port of entry for those who sought the islands bounty. Even when in the waning light of Camelot, vengeance was attempted by the survivors of Camlann for assistance rendered to traitors and invaders many times over, the Vine simply remained undaunted in their deep places. Isolated.
And so they began to fall behind, for as ever many are stronger together than one who stands alone, no matter how strong. Finally, in 1000 AD, for five hundred years did the Vine languish, as their Circuits and Crest stagnated in the face of the Clock Tower which now thrived within Londinium, fat upon the corpse of a Dragon. A quirk of fate which rendered all the Vine's sacrifices and betrayals worthless. But a chance arrived. A singular occurrence, with which they could welcome in one last invader, and in so doing buy their way back into the community which they had long ago shunned.
In introducing the Barthomelloi to the Clock Tower, the Vine sought to rejoin their estranged fellows. With wealth and backing to support the geniuses that flocked to that unique prodigy, the Clan jockeyed to be positioned among the new Aristocracy to come. But in this, there was a price to be paid; for though the Vine would be recognized among their peers once more, they would forever be the leper of the Monarch system. The stain of betrayal never forgotten, never to be allowed to benefit from the eugenics with which the Clock Tower forever refined and developed Magic Crests, thickening bloodlines to produce ever more prodigious Magic Circuits.
Now at the brink of ruin, with the limit of extending the bloodline reached, and the decline into irrelevance all but inevitable, comes Vineas Vine. A trueborn scion of his house, with above average circuits in quantity and quality, but a mind all too suited to the task at hand.
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Magic Circuit Switch: A pure white flame within a pitch emptiness, to which he feeds his very self.
Number of Magic Circuits: B
Quality of Magic Circuits: B
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Elemental Affinity: Wind and Water
Magecraft:
General Magecraft- As a Lord of the Clock Tower, Vineas' education in the fundamentals is an inevitability rather than anything to be remarked upon. Bolstered by the thousands of years in the Vine Family Crest, he has both depth and breadth in the creation of Bounded Fields, knowledge of curses, the usage of sympathetic magecraft, along with leyline and energy studies.
Spiritual Evocation- More in the lines of contracting Fae and nature spirits, this is an extension of certain traditions bargained for nearly two centuries ago. Though Vineas has no uses for embodying mightier entities or calling them from the Reverse outright, this is still a necessary element of what he considers to be his true specialty.
Mineralogy- A necessary education, as new materials are ever discovered and manufactured, as the light of progress is ever shown on the possibilities of manufacturing, Vineas Vine studied the possibilities of the building blocks of his projects with a passion, ever seeking new and grander designs made possible by these insights.
Creation- Vineas Vine's true specialization; the construction and development of tools to broaden his Magecraft. Indeed, though the quality of the Vine's magic circuits may have begun the process of falling in obsolescence their knowledge of craftsmanship remains matched only by the Valueleta. However, where they are masters of artifice in the traditional sense, the Vine have always applied their talents and research to the creation of Textures. Otherworlds isolated from the broader reality. However, Vineas in his lifetime pursued the secrets of creating tools to supplement and enhance the wavering spellcraft of the world. A method to surpass the limits he could not overcome with his body. At steep cost, Lord Valueleta was happy to tolerate his entreaties. After all, as the ostensible head of the Democratic Faction, Inorai Valualeta Atroholm could appreciate the idea of discarding old prejudices in the face of talent.
Magic Crest: The Vine Family Crest is over two thousand years old, predating even the establishment of the Clock Tower, inherited from a forgotten time when the Grand Order was cursed upon certain bloodlines in the wake of Solomon's death. Thanks to the Vine's own developments, rather than a singular Occidental flavor, the Vine family Crest is one which absorbed many techniques and spells offered as payment for services rendered, resulting in an eclectic base incorporated over centuries. Caledonian druidic knowledge, spells which the Vikings used to sail the North Sea safely even under the most inhospitable weather, cantrips to battle the Black Death, and of course, the crystallization of studies into pursuing and perfecting the exploitation of the barrier between the Outer and Inner that is the Bounded Field.
Equipment:
Dant Cwn- A series of disposable inscribed bone knives, intricately carved with runes in the language of druids, serving as two contracts with wind spirits to invest their power to guide them with the bones of their construction as the sacrifice. The glows of material being sacrificed enables the two primary functions as a Mystic Code: The faint crimson light is used to evoke the Foundation of the many traditions surrounding "Will o' Wisps" and other eponymous lights found throughout the forests of the world, strengthening the contract with wind spirits and enabling true airborne maneuverability, while also enhancing the knifes use as a cutting tool through the Will O' Wisps legends of being a harbinger of death. The Luminescent moss lining the carved characters opposite the first contract let out a blueish hue, reminiscent of St. Elmo's Fire, enabling Vineas to apply his Wind and Water elements to the Wind spirits for a weak atmospheric altering effect.
However, these tools are not meant to be used alone. When several of these knives fly through the air under Vineas' control, their ghostly blueish lights enable greater works of weather manipulation. These disposable knives are held in a inscribed leather bandolier wrapped on Vineas' back, directly over the Vine Magic Crest to mainline their control and power through it's prodigious capability.
Pure Eye Spectacles- The Vine Clan have spent thousands of years poring over and experimenting with the creation of 'Layers', with some heads focusing on the artifice and nature of Otherworlds, others pursuing the possibilities of Innate Bounded Fields, and others looking back upon the Clan's name being associated with a particularly famous tool in the Roman Legion's siegecraft arsenal. It was perhaps inevitable that over the course of this history, one such scion would be born with Pure Eyes capable of deciphering the world's many separations and partitions. Though born too late for the Magic Crest, this distant ancestor advanced the Vine's knowledge of Bounded Fields considerably in his lifetime, and left behind his most potent tool for future generations; turned into a Mystic Code enabling them to study and analyze those very forces with a fraction of his natural capability.
Bhuail an Dreige- There are many legends of comets streaking through the sky being omens, both for good and ill. But inevitably, they are their arrival onto the land is an impact of destruction, a calamity for those who are unfortunate enough to fall beneath them. And a new opportunity for whomever can grasp this celestial bounty for themselves in the aftermath. No matter what may change, those rocks which survive their calamitous passage through the heavens are visitors from beyond the reach of man. Their composition and source, though diminished with the light of progress shining into the Dark Beyond, remains no small amount of Mystic even in the modern era. Though appended with affectations to enable locomotion to recreate the free movement which defined them, and imbued with spells to retain and enhance its nature as a "fragment of the Outside", this Mystic Code is finally layered with a curse that forever seeks the greatest source of energy, to draw itself in to with a great impact of force in a mirror of its arrival upon this world.
Exceptional Benefit: (Approval Pending)
Name: Mehdi Al-Beliya'al
Title(s): Gardener of Eden, Allure of Hesperides
Appearance:
Gender: Male
Age: Oh, baby, you're only as old as you feel (He's actually in his 30's but looking great)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Rank: Pride
Objective for the Grail: A path to the Root is known. The method is prepared, and the site made ready. All that is necessary are the materials. The raw ingredients to piece together into that Tree of First Sin
Character Objectives: Have fun, meet new people, and get a chance to test out some new mixes and smoothies. He's all about having a good time, why not join him?
Personality: An ever shifting creature, charming, cunning, deceptive. Someone who sees himself as the top of the food chain, not through raw force, but as the one who stands at the Apex, with all others around him as prey. Mehdi can shift to fit any role; the wise mentor, the flirty friend, the one night stand, a charming confidante. A stark contrast to a certain Eight-Forked Snake, this man is known in the Association as everyone's friend. Perhaps this stark contrast is what lead to the two interacting so often. A snake who wielded words as a weapons to advance even just one more step further to stave off destruction, versus the charming serpent who whispered temptation into the ears of all those around him.
Biography: The Al-Beliya'al are an ancient clan, dating back to before the AD era, however their history as magi is less than a millennium. Obsessed with the pursuit of the form of the "Tree of Knowledge", they have endlessly dedicated themselves to its recreation. That is why, upon identifying an ideal Spiritual Land, the family's original magic crest was decided to be offered up as sacrifice. A discarding of history dating back to the time of Solomon, for the sake of recreating Eden on Earth.
Mehdi is the inheritor of that tradition, having spent his early years in the family's ancestral land hidden in the Atlas Mountains. From birth, he displayed a cunning wit and able green thumb, a perfect vessel to take on the Al-Beliya'al's great work. At first, he was earnest, hardworking, a pure and gifted child pursuing the greater good of his family with earnest.
Perhaps it was inevitable that once he experienced the outside world, that once he left the garden of his fathers, that he would be stained in the colors of sin and the pursuit of pleasure. In the Clock Tower Mehdi was exposed to the absurdities of Mystics. As a child, he had been told constantly of the need to experiment. To look for new ideas, as the Tree of Knowledge is the accumulation of all earthly things, so how could he pursue the family's grand design if he were to be unwilling to accept even a single part of the world around him? And so Mehdi studied earnestly. The ways of politics. The many different traditions that seeded the world. He became accepting of all things and became dyed in their colors. A mixture of different hues so thoroughly mixed as to appear black.
Who is the true Mehdi, behind all those masks, all those reflections? He himself may not know anymore, for his current self is as much a chimera as those plants which are expressions of his many experiments. Endlessly grafting new aspects and desirable traits onto himself to achieve a more perfect form with which to face the world.
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Magic Circuit Switch: The sensation of a breeze carrying the fresh scent of spring, filled with life and vitality.
Number of Magic Circuits: A
Quality of Magic Circuits: A
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Elemental Affinity: Wood and Wind
Magecraft: General Fundamentals: The basics of the basics. The result of seeking an eclectic base in line with his own prolicivities, seeking an ever greater amount of material to synthesize into a better whole.
Modern Magecraft: While he doesn't rely upon it overmuch, the hybridization of methods upon which it is based is something that appeals far too strongly to Mehdi's sensibilities. He possesses a surface level understanding of the concepts involved, and is able to recognize and adapt to their usage from others who utilize such methods.
Botany: Having studied in the department of the same name, Mehdi's skills in this are one half of the foundation of his general craft. A knowledge of plantlife and the care for it are a deadly necessity for his approach to Magecraft. His skill in this is exemplary, as befitting a man who has spent his life cultivating a green thumb.
Chimera: The second half of Mehdi's magecraft, is the practice of creating true graft-chimeras, through the use of any number of constituent parts to breed their traits together. Though in nature these attempts do not result in the creation of new species, Behdi's magecraft enables his work to overcome that obstacle and thus enable that his works are able to reproduce. Where once this was limited strictly to plant life, Mehdi's great breakthrough has been to incorporate knowledge derived from studying in the Zoology department to adapt a huge number of techniques and materials into his grafting practices.
Magic Crest: The Al-Beliya'al Magic Crest is over 800 years old, but it is really the second such magecraft of its name. The original work, the culmination of over a thousand years of Mystic history, was transformed into the family's Great Atelier; The Hesperide Garden. Since then, the Al-Beliya'al have spent centuries using it's ideal nature as a Spiritual Land to master supernatural Horticulture, endlessly raising and creating new plantlife in an attempt to reclaim species that had been lost due to the recession of Mystic from the World. That they have seen any success at all in this is an accomplishment so absurd as to be monstrous.
Equipment:
Miniature Garden: An inheritance from his forebears, this is a large briefcase that is enchanted with several bounded fields to serve as ideal storage conditions for numerous successful examples of the Al-Beliya'al's work in grafting. While they still need to have proper conditions prepared for growth, the nature of their work enables Mehdi to take these masterpieces anywhere he may need them for experimentation and usage as the situation demands. While it can't be compared to his family's Spiritual Land, it would not be inaccurate to consider this Mystic Code to be more akin to a mobile Atelier than anything else.
Katseer: An elegantly designed and stylishblack scythe, this weapon is as the name implies, intended to assist the harvesting of plant life. Specifically optimized for grafting, objects which are cut by this sickle are imparted with a concept of "worthlesslessness" on the point where the edge touches. This divorces the matter cut in this way a distinct entity from the rest of the body, to the point where the force of the swing behind that edge is what serves to truly separate the two portions divided by the path of this Mystic Code's swing. As these two parts are considered distinct objects by this point, this scythe has the peculiar nature of not actually inflicting damage to its potential victims. After all, it defeats the point of inosculation if the constituent parts consider themselves to be damaged.
Grafting Tools: A set of minor Mystic Codes designed to assist in the process of combining parts for the sake of Mehdi's magecraft. Personally created to assist in the more exotic techniques he had developed over the course of his life, they are a mix of mundane gardening implements and ritual tools that excel at binding together disparate parts regardless of origin.
Exceptional Benefit: Superior Mystic Code (Pending)
Name: Douglas J. MacArthur
Title(s): Supreme Commander of the Pacific Theater, Gaijin Shogun, Hero of Bataan, Dugout Doug, Big Chief, Bruce Willis (Assumed)
Class: Strategist
Gender: Male
Attribute: Just leave this blank during application!
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Personality: A man of contradictions. Hated by his contemporaries and his enemies as proud, high-handed, ceaselessly arrogant, and a man far too obsessed with theatrics. To his subordinates and those who gazed from afar, he was a hero. A larger than life personality, one who respected the input and wisdom of his subordinates, humble enough to accept input from others, and a man who took every step to save just one more life where it could be afforded. One thing remains true, regardless of which is correct: The man who could be seen as these things would be one who was possessed of a supreme self confidence, and a knowledge that no matter what else, he would inevitably succeed. But even though his final work was ruined through the sabotage of cowards back home, his legacy eclipses all efforts of his detractors to toss mud upon his name.
Objective for the Grail: One final threat to the glorious homeland. One final mission to undergo. Across the Sino-Japanese Strait is the very thing he saw in his last war, proving himself right and Truman not merely a coward. But probably a seditious, Communist sympathizer as well. With this last, God-given opportunity, he will finish the job he started half a century ago.
Character Objectives: Strategist has that rarest of opportunities; for a conqueror of a land to return and see the fruits of his work. With the chance to continue his last, unfinished mission, he's in the need for recruits to take the fight to the Last Communists, and see what this new generation of Japanese boys and girls is made of.
Weapon: His signature corncob pipe, and whatever ordinance he might have handy on him.
Parameters:
STR: E
END: D
AGI: E
MGI: D
LCK: A
Class Skills:
Advice of the Strategist: C
The result of a high level of strategic capability and understanding of geopolitics. Strategist's eye was always cast towards the future, and moved with that in mind. He more than anyone else in US Command predicted the shift of the communist threat to the Asian sphere, and the leaden weight that America's European allies would prove as they sought to use his homeland as their personal attack dog for their petty games.
Were Strategist summoned in a more traditional class, this ability would manifest as low-level Clairvoyance.
Command of the Strategist: A+
A modern hero, able to win over even the conquered. A mutation of the Charisma skill, Douglas J. MacArthur was able to inspire immense levels of respect and morale among his troops and people, even having suffered defeats in Bataan in the early stages of Americas involvement in World War II and the numerous reversals he experienced in the Korean War. However, even with those flaws, the only ones who truly struck against him were a certain traitorous snake, and the act left him bared naked as the snake he was. Even in disadvantageous circumstances, those who follow Strategists commands experience a full rank up to relevant parameters. In conditions where "the future is at stake" there is an additional boost. Duty. Honor. Country.
Personal Skills:
Incitement: B
A skill that functions as the acquisition of the words and gestures needed to lead the masses. Though divisive, there is little doubt that Douglas MacArthur in life was a man who knew how to leverage this technique and skill at the level of leading nations. A matter of historical record, this level of success in bowling over nearly all opposition and converting them to his cause can be classified as a mental attack.
Procurement: D+
The acquisition of armaments and supplies with which to wage war. As skillful a general as MacArthur was, throughout his many campaigns he was plagued by an uncommon number of supply issues that notably held up or delayed his planned strategies. As such, he is capable of acquiring mundane arms through means both legitimate and to take advantage of illegitimate supply lines should they exist within his vicinity. As his successes grow, however, the opportunity for more potent equipment to fall into his hands will present itself. As a skill, this is more a matter of "luck" than anything consciously controlled.
Divinity : E
Despite lacking in any evidence of Divinity, as a result of his successes there is a lasting cult to him amongst Koreans as "General Megado". Given the weight of this title as one that appears in Strategist's own Christian faith, and its status as "The Final Fortress", this enables him to qualify for the barest rank. Further empowered by Strategist's second Noble Phantasm.
Ceremonial Reformation: B
The result of the miracle of Douglas MacArthur rebuilding and transforming Japan utterly within a mere five years. Though a lack of scale and the modern day bars this skill from obtaining the highest rank, it remains a legendary feat all the same. Enables the restructuring and reformation of territory to better suit Strategists needs.
Noble Phantasm:
Name: I Shall Return
Title: One Who's Back Carries Inevitable Victory
Rank: C
NP Type: Anti-Army (Self)
Range: 1-99
Maximum Number of Targets: 50
Description: Upon the shores of Bataan, as he fled in the face of the Imperial Japanese, Douglas J MacArthur vowed to the Philippines that he would return as a liberator, to throw off the yoke of the Empire of the Rising Sun. Many scoffed at this. Considered it impossible, as the Japanese were ascendant, ever coming closer to ruling the Pacific and Asia as well.
But that man did not wait. He plotted. He schemed. He won alliances and convinced politicians. Raised troops, and piled on glory and success and accomplishments. Though MacArthur had experienced defeat once, he did return, and in his coming Japan's dream of conquest was shattered.
This is the crystallization of a promise which changed the fate of the World in the modern era, but it is something so simple. A promise. An inevitable fate. Mechanically similar to the Disengage Skill at the greatest possible rank, Strategist and those who are subordinate to him are able to flee any disadvantageous battle and reset the conditions of it to zero,. Immediately afterwards, Strategist is able to acquire information as to the nature of the adversary that defeated him, and make preparations to succeed in their next encounter.
This Noble Phantasm does not need Strategist's physical presence to be activated.
Name: Gaijin Shogun
Title: One Who Stands Above Tenno
Rank: A
NP Type: Anti-Country (Self)
Range: 1
Maximum Number of Targets: 1-1000
Description: The Conquest of Japan.
It sounds simple, but it is an accumulation of millions of souls worth of loss, of anguish, of grief. So much death, in the name of the arahitogami Emperor Hirohito, the living God of Japan. As MacArthur fulfilled his great promise, and as the time for the invasion of Japan neared, MacArthur looked into the future and realized what no one else did.
Operation Blacklist, the alternative to Operation Overlord, was prepared in the event that Japan was not able to fight to the death for some hitherto unforseen reasons. Reasons such as the sun being wielded against the Land of the Rising Sun itself. Douglas MacArthur saw this once in history opportunity, for a conquered land to be reforged into something new, and remake a deadly foe into an ally. Not a vassal or resentful foe.
He pressed for the preservation of the Emperor, over the objections of many world powers who sought the humiliation of Hirohito. In thanks, the demands of the Potsdam Declaration were met. Fearless towards the conquered Japanese, when the time came for MacArthur to take up his post he strode in not at the head of an army, but as a man coming to take his rightful station and met Hirohito not as an equal, but as the man who stood above him.
Within five years he irrevocably shaped Japan into a new nation entirely, to the point where he could depart back to his homeland, his job finally done. What else could you call such a feat, other than that of a god walking astride the earth? The God that was Emperor, had been humbled and supplanted by the Divine Gaijin.
When this Noble Phantasm is in effect, Douglas MacArthur is able to, upon successfully engaging against an opponent with Divinity, steal the Divinity within their Saint Graph and implement it into himself dependent upon a MGI Check. This manifests as a permanent rank down to the relevant skill, and a Rank up to Strategist's own Divinity. This does not need to be a victory he is present for, nor is it required that it be a direct martial defeat. As a Strategist, the advancement of other objectives also qualifies for the activation of this Noble Phantasm.
Moreover, in reflection of MacArthur having taken the Divine Authority which he had acquired and returned it to the people of Japan in their new constitution, reducing the Emperor once more to merely a mortal authority rather than a divine made manifest, Strategist is able to distribute this Divinity to chosen allies as a "Divinity" temporary skill, much in the way that certain Greek Centaur's are able to also confer skills to Servants of their own choosing.
Those who are robbed of their Divinity do not reclaim it. Once a God has been brought down to earth, they do not rise back up again. Though upon the death of those subordinates, the assigned Divinity returns to Strategist as well
At higher levels of Divinity, Strategists Saint Graph mutates. Becoming less the flawed form of who he was in reality, and approaching more towards the myth of "General Megado". Less a man and more a God of War, Strategists abilities pertaining towards strengthening and leading his troops undergo a Rank Up, though if Strategist acquires too much Divinity, his Saint Graph will ascend. As a Divine Spirit, he will be unable to remain in this world, falling to the Reverse of the World to join his fellows.
@TehChron We have slots open, mhm! You can see how we're handling slots in the Servant Slots collapse in the OP. We're also mainly using the OOC (check the link in my most recent post) at this point.
Thank you very much!
To be honest im mostly interested in playing as a Master, but I have an idea for a Caster Agamemnon sheet as well. I didn't read the entirety of the previous thread, so I'm wondering how the allotment of roles is being handled?
"Whatever. I'm going to stop that Herald of Unicorn or whatever and Avenge Eva." Negi then began gathering mages to prepare a dimensional spell.
A gloved hand rested upon Negi's shoulder as the flickering aura of magic opened a breach between worlds.
"Before you go," The former Vok Herald began, "There's something you should know." The welsh magus paused, turning to look into Aaron's maddened gaze.
"THAT I AM RAZORCLAW!" He screamed madly, shoving the brown haired magic user directly into his half-formed portal, the unstable energies threatening to destroy whatever entered into them.
Negi Springfield looked at the burnt wreckage of UQ Holder's location
He came across what seemd to be shattered glass but it turned out to be ice. He then noticed a terrified face in the ice. Eva's face.
Negi could not utter a word in his shock.
He saw a device that showed a humanoid figure that resembled a dragon
"Well in case anyone in this universe is still alive be sure to know It was I the great criminal mastermind Cryotek who passed judgement on this miserable rock you call a home all in a fit of boredom of course. Condolences about whatever loved ones you have lost or whatever I am probably making it easier for you when my master eats your planet later on anyways. Abyssinia."
A burning meteor screamed through the air, the hurtling winds of it's passage causing the ice within Negi's hands to crack and melt slightly before the object itself slammed into the back of the heroic minister magi.
He was sent flying, slamming against the ground at speeds not even his lightning form's techniques could match before he slid to a stop in a crumpled heap.
What lay in a crater where he and his teacher's remains formerly stood was a box, stenciled upon it's cardboard form was the blocky letters spelling "GUNDMA"
The box tipped over, accompanied by the sound of metal clattering against the hard earth. A mop of green fabric, like the head of a mop, rolled towards Negi before abruptly coming to a stop. Soulless yellow orbs, frozen in terror, locked with Negi's own.
A shambling figure rose from the dreaded container, an untidy mop of curled yellow hair shook itself. Inhuman lips opened wide in a crude yawn.
"Shit, I'm bored." Aaron Gentles muttered, as he looked around for his lone companion throughout the stars, Wilson.
"Humph, you may be chosen by the Vok but you aren't much to look at. Seriously a box with a Corruption of the word Gundam? You make Megatron X look like the poster child for originality, oh well I can send your corpse to them as my calling card AHAHAHAAHHA!"
Razorclaw then summoned an earthquake that swallowed Aaron up and not needing air gentles was barely phased but the lack of freedom kept him from escaping.
Razorclaw then fired rapidly at the mound Aaron was buried under repeatedly, the deadly barrage tore at his transmetal skin.
For a finishing touch he gathered power for a charged shot one to destroy the entire nation and Aaron with it.
"Lets see if I can succeed where that fool bludgeon failed! Take a good long look at your homeland dear Princess its the last you will see of it!"
Lacus clinging onto dear life watched as the Multiversal Menace began to charge up.
A greater earthquake began to vibrate but this one was no natural vibration it was a Minion of Unicrons gathering deathblow to a nation!
After a full minute Razorclaw gathered enough energy to destroy the entirety of Sweden
Taking Clyne with him Razorclaw flew high in the air and unleashed his final blow to the once proud and altruistic nation.
A massive purple ball of death went at the nation drilling a hole into the ground and setting off a massive explosive mushroom cloud that seemed to take the form of the Prince of Chaos's own face
As Razorclaw sealed Aaron beneath the earth, he became crushed in between the bedrock, the supernatural vision of his new transmetal form allowed him to witness his new surroundings with crystal clear clarity.
And what he saw were countless buried treasures, antiques and artifacts hidden deep within the earth. His expression broke into a smile even as Razorclaw's attack struck, destroying them all in a flash.
"NO! THE OLD THINGS FROM BACK DURING THE VIKING ERA! THE UNDISCOVERED AAAAAAAAAARTIIIIIIFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACTS!"
A cardboard box tore out of the inferno, burning the air arund itself like a streaking comet as it smashed into Razorclaw's face, snapping Lacus Clyne in half even as she was held tight within the former Vok Emissaries jaws.
