Apologies for the lack of collapse tabs
Caster
Theme
“Hm. Leave me to my work, and my wait. The affairs of your world do not interest me, yet.”
True Name: Daidalos (Δαίδαλος)
Alias: The Greatest Inventor, The One Who Understands the Gods
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Alternate Classes: Rider, Assassin
Height: 5’7’’
Weight: 143 lbs
Place of Origin: Athens, Greece (
Greek Mythology)
[Early to Mid-1500s B.C. {Mycenaean Age/Heroic Age}]
Age: 52 Years Old
Attribute: Man
Catalyst: A Well-Preserved Daidala Statue
Strength- D
Endurance- D
Agility- C
Mana- C
Luck- A
NP- A+
Armament: His Mind
Lore
Caster’s True Name is Daedalus, the legendary craftsman of Ancient Greece who built countless inventions compared directly to the work of the gods themselves. He was considered an unmatched genius who could achieve any feat of mechanical skill. His most famous creations were the Labyrinth of Crete, prison of the Minotaur, and the feathered wing used by himself and his son Icarus to escape it.
Daedalus was born in the city-state of Athens, a grandson of the great king Erechtheus. From a young age, it was clear he possessed a brilliant and inquisitive mind. However, his talents were certainly nothing beyond the ken of human ability. That is, until a certain event.
One day, as the young Daedalus was wandering the countryside, looking for interesting materials to build with, he stumbled across a strange chunk of metallic ore. Picking it up, Daedalus was fascinated by the new discovery, and decided to take it home and study it. And so he learned, and learned more, and more. He learned the true nature of the gods, of worlds infinitely far away across a sea of stars. And he learned of great machines, ancient dreadnaughts capable of feats beyond man’s wildest imagination. Daedalus’ exposure to this random piece of divine shrapnel, lost in the battle against the White Titan, had awakened his Origin; Comprehension, the ability to understand anything upon observing it. Understand he did, and with this understanding, he set about recreating what he had understood. He built his own machines, crude compared to what he knew was possible, but wondrously advanced compared to anything else in his homeland. These were the moving statues, the Daidala. And with this, he realized; he had been born too late.
Even at this time, the gods of Olympus had already begun to withdraw. With their Aletheia bodies destroyed, they had become earthbound Nature Spirits, mere Divine Spirits rather than true Machine Gods. Daedalus could not speak with them, could not comprehend the true wonder of their technology. And of course, the primitive human society he was born into held little value to him, countless millennia behind the subject of his fervor. He was a man born too late, and too early.
Daedalus attempted to sate his desires by devoting himself to his craftsmanship. He built not only his automatons, but also statues, ships, buildings, fortress walls; anything to find distraction and stimulation. Through this, he became famous as a great craftsman and inventor. His young nephew Perdix, said to be brilliant in his own right, came to work under him as his apprentice. Daedalus was uninterested in the boy and his own crude inventions, until…
It was just a few scraps of iron, notched or bolted together. Crude, primitive, nothing compared to his own work. But…they were useful. They were simple, but brilliant. And Perdix had not needed to rely on the work of others to create them. He simply observed nature, and pulled brilliance from his own mind. Daedalus…couldn’t accept that.
Perdix was thrown from the window, his death marked by the blessing and curse of Athena, the patron goddess of the city. Daedalus was exiled, and left to wander the countryside with nothing to his name. Eventually, he found his way across the sea to Crete, to the city of Knossos, ruled by the cruel but wise King Minos. Minos saw Daedalus’ talent, and commissioned him for many projects. One of which was to create an open-air dance floor for his beloved only daughter, Ariadne. This brought Daedalus and Ariadne into contact for the first time, and the two struck up an odd friendship; two outcasts in society, unable to understand and unable to be understood by others.
Soon after, the affair with the white bull came to pass. On the king’s orders, Daedalus designed a mechanical cow apparatus, with which Queen Pasiphae could mate with her cursed lover. He would also create the Labyrinth, a massive system of tunnels and gates which would imprison Pasiphae’s deformed child away from the light of the sun. For his service, and his confidentiality, Daedalus was rewarded with a slave woman to take as his wife. Her name was Naucrate, and the child she bore was Icarus. As with all of his creations, Daedalus was struck with genuine love for the boy, and forged the only human bond he would ever consider truly special.
Things were…acceptable, for a time. And then Minos’ sins finally caught up to him. The young Athenian hero Theseus had arrived, and sought to overcome the Labyrinth and slay the Minotaur. Ariadne, desiring to help the boy with so much potential, and to end her poor baby brother’s endless torture, asked Daedalus for his aid. Daedalus complied, partly for their friendship, and partly for the challenge of navigating the unnavigable, which he himself had designed. The device he created saw Theseus and Ariadne to victory, and upon discovering this, Minos had Daedalus and Icarus confined to the Labyrinth in punishment.
Knowing that escape by land or sea would be impossible, Daedalus used what he had comprehended in his youth, and honed all throughout his life to construct a pair of wings; anti-gravity systems which would allow him and Icarus to escape Crete by flying over the sea. However, these systems were far too complex for a human being to operate. Daedalus, in his pride and arrogance, simply assumed his son would be able to do so regardless, just as he could. And as Icarus plummeted into the sea, Daedalus felt true despair once again.
Daedalus crossed the sea to Sicily, where he served under King Cocalus in the city of Camicus, in an agreement similar to what he had with Minos. He built many great works there, and was the subject of admiration for the king’s brilliant daughters. However, he had not truly escaped the vengeful Minos. Minos travelled across the land, from city to city, offering riddles meant to draw Daedalus out. After offering an offhanded solution on how to run a thread through a seashell, Daedalus was discovered by Minos, who rode to Camicus demanding Daedalus’ head. And that very night, as Minos bathed in the steam baths Daedalus himself had built, Minos was boiled alive by the king’s daughters, who could not bear to see their great teacher taken from them.
In this way, Daedalus lived on, finding sole comfort in the act of invention. He despaired for loneliness among humans. He despaired for his birth, too early and too late. He despaired for his son. And at the height of his despair, Daedalus found Comprehension.
And existence beyond death. A Throne of Heroes. A way to preserve his existence far into the future, to pass through the ages until he could reach a form of humanity that could understand him; that he could understand.
The next day, Daedalus wandered out into the countryside, just as he had done in his youth. He stumbled upon a poisonous serpent. He lifted it in his hands, met his end, and kept going, on to the future.
Likes: Inventing, Gathering New Data, Crafting, Interesting People, Commissions
Dislikes: Humans, “Crude” Technology, Waiting
Talent: Carving Statuary, Architecture, Mechanical Engineering, “Theoretical” Physics
Personality:
There are many facets of Daedalus’ personality that can be said to define him. His genius, his skill, his arrogance, his pride. The truth of the matter is that Daedalus is defined by isolation. Even across the centuries and millennia following his death, Daedalus has found precious few men and women able to operate on his level. They are primitives, hardly more intelligent than monkeys. He is not disgusted by them, nor does he avoid them; all animals have some value, earned simply by the fact that evolution has allowed them to live until this point. But with few exceptions, Daedalus views humans as being barely even able to hold a conversation.
Obviously, this means Daedalus is absurdly arrogant and prideful, to a degree that even his obscene intelligence rarely justifies his attitude. He is generally just awful to be around, and is only really agreeable when he is being given an interesting project to work on. When taking commissions, he always ignores his patrons requests, but still turns in something that does even more than they had asked for, so he is usually forgiven. A relationship with Deadalus is a constant shift between overwhelming irritation and gratitude that he deems your requests interesting enough to bother with.
He tends to be extremely impatient with people, and only really cares about his work. The only people Daedalus will truly bother with are those who have caught his interest in some way, such as Icarus or Ariadne. He tends to be more sympathetic to fellow outsiders to society, but only if they can provide something interesting enough to keep his interest.
Having already achieved his “path to the future” through the Throne of Heroes and the Servant Summoning System, Daedalus is free to devote any Holy Grails he acquires towards his only personal goal; to spare his son from the indignity of dying so young due to not being able to operate his flight system. Daedalus has come up with a number of options he’d like to try, and sees no issue expending multiple Holy Grails altering history in his attempts.
Just making the damn things simple enough for a normal person to operate is infuriatingly low on his checklist.
Class Skills:
Territory Construction: --
Daedalus is no mage, and he considers the construction of a mechanist’s Workshop to create his inventions to be a waste of time, resources, and brainpower which could be spent on the inventions themselves. He is the type to simply take over whatever space he is currently in, and begin building on the spot whenever he decides he’s achieved the minimum requirements to create the subject of his current interest.
His second Noble Phantasm serves a similar purpose to this Skill’s “normal” use, though Daedalus rarely feels a need to use it that way.
Item Creation (Divine Mechanics): EX
Normally, the ability to manufacture useful magical items, from implements of war to mundane objects. In Daedalus’ case, he is incapable of creating magical tools; or rather, he has rejected the process of doing so entirely. Daedalus exclusively creates objects that function based on mechanical principles, involving no Mysteries beyond the use of mana as a physical fuel. He is easily capable of creating machines on the level of Noble Phantasms, so long as he has both the necessary materials and can envision the right mechanical processes within his mind.
This Skill could be considered the expression of his first Noble Phantasm.
Personal Skills:
Divinity: E
The measure of one’s divine attributes. At higher levels, one is considered to be of mixed race with a divine spirit. Divinity can be used as a measure of a person's strengths and natural talents, and can grant resistances, advantages, or disadvantages against certain abilities or Noble Phantasms. Daedalus has various traces of divine blood from various ancestors, but is fairly removed from them himself, so the rank of this Skill is low.
Natural-Born Genius: A-
A skill possessed by those known as geniuses, those possessing unparalleled natural intelligence and knowledge. Allows for the acquisition of various skills at one’s own discretion. Cannot be used to acquire skills inherent to the body, or unique to a particular hero. All others are available, and can be acquired at high-rank. Daedalus is unquestionably a genius, and is likely one of the most intelligent people ever born into this World. However, his genius is not perfect. Because of his disposition…or rather, because of his Origin, Daedalus is nearly incapable of creating wholly original inventions. Everything he builds is an iteration of something he has already seen before, and comprehended through the use of his first Noble Phantasm.
It is not that he is incapable of original ideas; his personality simply makes it near impossible to even think that he should try and do so. Because of this, this Skill is weaker than it should be, as Daedalus tends to overlook Skills that would obviously benefit him in the moment in favor of relying exclusively on his inventions and his mind.
Concept Improvement: EX
The ability to modify and enhance an existing object through mechanical processes. Similar to Enchantment, but rather than attaching concepts or mystical traits, it improves the physical construction and performance. Objects can reach the level of Noble Phantasms if enough effort and energy is supplied. Due to the way his first Noble Phantasm works; or rather, due to the way his Origin works, Daedalus possesses possibly the greatest possible expression of this Skill. He can instantly comprehend any system he observes, and it takes him hardly any time at all to modify it in ways that dramatically improve its performance. He is even capable of adding entirely new functions to things, in ways that work perfectly with their previous function and create no significant drawbacks.
This could well be considered the most overpowered “cheat skill” possessed by any inventor-type Heroic Spirit.
Artisan’s Provocations: C
A Skill created due to Daedalus’ natural disposition; to put bluntly, the consequences of being an asshole. Due to a great many compounding factors, Daedalus is incredibly hard to be around, and generally manages to upset almost everyone he ever interacts with. This tendency is so pervasive that it actually manifests as a Skill, inflicting a minor mental compulsion for those he has upset to chase after him when he attempts to disengage. Considering his very obvious second Noble Phantasm, this is obviously a rather terrible idea. This Skill makes Daedalus incredibly good at luring his enemies into inescapable traps, to the point where he could almost be considered an Assassin as well as a Caster.
The reason a personality quirk has reached the level of a Skill is likely due to the legend of Daedalus murdering King Minos of Crete, having led him across the sea in a wild chase before unceremoniously boiling him alive in a bathtub.
Noble Phantasm
Daedalic Understanding
Daidalikós Katanóisi -
Absolute Comprehension: (Rank EX, Anti-Unit)
Daedalus’ greatest and most indelible Noble Phantasm; his own peerless mind. Or rather, his own Origin. Daedalus’ Origin is Comprehension; the ability to instantly understand any system upon observing it. With this, he was able to learn the true origins of the gods of his land. With this, he could comprehend their very mechanisms simply by observing their meager remnants. With this, he could create machines of comparable brilliance to the beyond ancient race of spacefarers which created them. And with this, Daedalus could ensure his own eternity upon the Throne of Heroes, his mind fully intact and unaltered in any way.
Among many other things, this Noble Phantasm allows Daedalus to instantly analyze and comprehend any physical system which he observes in some way. This extends to mechanical objects, living beings, and even intangible things such as magecraft rituals, so long as there is some aspect which Daedalus can empirically observe. The benefits of this from a data gathering perfective are obvious, and are in part how and why Daedalus is able to operate as quite possibly the greatest inventor in human existence.
Beyond this, as Daedalus perceived in the days before his death, this special existence allowed him to ensure his consciousness was taken into the Throne of Heroes perfectly intact, without any alteration or degradation from things such as the passage of time or influence of the collective human unconscious. His faculties and personality are the exact same as they were in life, and furthermore, remain the exact same in every summoning. Even between summonings, his memories and perception are perfectly retained; unlike nearly all other Heroic Spirits, summoning Daedalus is less a matter of creating and manifesting a copy of the original, and more a continuous chain of experiences that the craftsman uses to observe and store an ever increasing store of data.
The purpose of this database is, of course, to continuously build and invent new and greater machines, just as he did in life, and will continue to do until the planet itself burns out and collapses into its death wails. Limited only by time and materials, Daedalus can create a nigh-infinite number of Noble Phantasm-class machines and constructions, and the only reason he cannot create objects on the level of Divine Constructs is simply the inhuman degrees of precision and raw energy required for such processes, rather than them being beyond his comprehension.
Among the countless things Daedalus can construct are impenetrable fortresses, divine temples, flying trains, Holy Grails, and of course, wings capable of independent flight. His most favored creations are his automatons, the Daidala. They are among his earliest creations from his mortal life; an ever-growing series of “living statues” which crudely (and later not-so-crudely) emulated the Olympians’ Aletheia. These Daidala are both Daedalus’ main method of combat (as he himself possesses no aptitude for fighting whatsoever), as well as assistants and specialize machinery for his crafting. The “ceiling” of power and utility for the Daidala is outright obscene, but they tend to be greatly limited by both the materials available to Daedalus, and his own lack of a head for battle strategy or combat effectiveness. He has a strong tendency to prioritize either aesthetics or niche practical use for his work over things like combat power.
Evolution Labyrinth
Exélixis Labỳrinthos - Ever-Changing Death Maze: (Rank A+, Anti-Army)
The infamous underground maze Daedalus built under commission from King Minos of Crete. Its purpose was to serve as an inescapable prison for his monstrous son, Asterion, called the Minotaur. The Labyrinth was said to be an unnavigable tangle of shadowed tunnels which even Daedalus himself could barely navigate. However, with the benefits of hindsight and greater knowledge, Daedalus finds the original Labyrinth to be…boring. He has thus reworked this Noble Phantasm into an grand, ever-changing structure which he can upgrade and modify as he pleases. Its new form is roughly based on the improvements he gave to the walls of Acragas, his safe haven after escaping from Crete.
The Labyrinth’s exact form is hard to describe, as Daedalus and his Daidala are constantly remodeling it to suit whatever whims Daedalus is feeling in the moment. Improving the aesthetics, adding in some hyper-specific type of work station, creating a specific trap meant to kill a particularly annoying interruption…Its versatility is its second strongest aspect.
It’s strongest is it’s inescapable. Once one enters the Labyrinth, they cannot find their way out. Regardless of whatever certain form the Labyrinth has taken on in that moment, its winding passages are a confounding spiral that even Daedalus himself struggles to navigate without his first Noble Phantasm. It is no mental interference effect; it is a physical construction that is simply so complex and spiraling that even the greatest of geniuses cannot map it beyond their immediate field of view. To put it simply; it is the ultimate death trap, one that even the greatest heroes and monsters are helpless to escape without the Great Inventor’s mercy.
Tactics: Due to his unique circumstances, Daedalus has little interest in individual summonings and Grail Wars. He occupies himself with comprehending anything of interest in the time and place he is summoned to, and then focuses entirely on building whatever invention springs to mind in the aftermath. Should anyone or anything attempt to attack or entrap him, Daedalus will simply withdraw into his Labyrinth, using his Artisan’s Provocations Skill to lure his opponent into the inescapable maze. There, they will either die of starvation or succumb to the Labyrinth's various traps, while Daedalus simply avoids them and continues to work while on the move.
Of course, on the rare occasion where Daedalus finds some reason to actually intervene in whatever era he has appeared in, he is more than capable of creating a ceaseless flood of Noble Phantasms capable of turning the tide of any battle. But such a thing is certainly unlikely.
Relationships/Reactions:
Icarus
One of the few humans that Daedalus has any interest in Maybe because of his own spark of brilliance, or maybe just because Icarus is simply one of his countless creations. Regardless, Icarus is by far the human who Daedalus is closest too, and the only one he can be said to truly care for on any level.
Ariadne
One of a handful of interesting humans to exist in this world. Her unique ability to “comprehend” others and her ensuing outcast status despite her social privilege caught Daedalus’ eye, and they became friendly as kindred spirits. He wouldn’t quite call her a friend, but he is…glad that things ended well for her.
Perdix
His unfortunate nephew. He does not feel guilt, per say, over murdering him, but Daedalus acknowledges that his actions could rightly be called evil. He seeks neither forgiveness nor justification.
The Olympians
Fascinating pieces of technology. He absolutely refuses to acknowledge them as his “gods”, but they are far and away the beings who he is most interested in spending time with.
Semele
A source of untainted Klironomia in the present day. He must have her. No cost is too great, if it means acquiring those materials. He must have her.
Arthur Pendragon
“I see. That sword’s construction…crude, but quite conductive. I may look into these ‘fairies’ as a construction material.”
The Valkyries
“Well then. I suppose that is one way to construct an autonomous unit. How intriguing.”
Bride of Frankenstein
“I see little reason to include flesh in the construction of an automaton. It is both more fragile and harder to replace than any type of mechanical parts. Hm? ‘Humanity’? That girl is no more human than any of my Daidala, regardless of her level of sentience. And it is not as if humans possess much of their own.”
Achilles
“A world compressed into a shield. I see. If you were to…then… Hm. A masterpiece, but certainly replicable, with the right materials. It should make for a good secondary project.”
Charles Babbage
“Steam? How primitive.”
James Moriarty
“His machinations are…crude, to say the least. Bombast and drama are a poor replacement for proper aesthetics.”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
“Designing musical instruments is actually a fairly interesting process. Altering the quality of the base materials significantly changes the device’s output. And the aesthetic quality of the implement is important as well. An enjoyable subject of focus.”
Semele
“Within her body…incredible. Such a high concentration. I must have it. So much raw material…the things I could create…”
Master Preferences: Daedalus doesn’t care much at all for his Master. As soon as he has been summoned, their role in things is fulfilled. He will generally just abandon them and set about his tasks until he disappears. Barring truly “interesting” individuals, a Master’s only hope of keeping Daedalus’ attention is to offer him interesting commissions, which will keep him at least nominally invested in their survival and goals.
Bond Level 1:
Hmm. Still too early. How disappointing. Do you have a commission for me? If you do, I’ll accept it. If you not, leave me be.
Bond Level 2:
Your objective? Why would I care for such things? They are irrelevant to my work, as are you yourself.
Bond Level 3:
The technological level of this time is rather disappointing, but there are a few machines worth tinkering with. I suppose I’ve endured worse.
Bond Level 4:
Your commissions are rather interesting. A…challenge to create with this time’s primitive materials, but an enjoyable one, I suppose. Continue to provide me with your requests. Hm? Of course the intubation system is necessary. How else do you plan to hydrate yourself while travelling? Do you plan to hold a cup in one hand and steer with the other? Inefficient AND dangerous.
Bond Level 5:
To put it bluntly, you have an…appreciable perspective on certain things. You approach things from angles I tend not to think of, as I seem to do for you. A useful partnership for both parties, I believe. Continue providing your insights, and I will continue to provide my creations for your own objective.
Bond CE
A Brighter Future, A Brighter Past
-- I want to see it.
I want to go there.
I want to understand.
-- For that man…rejected by the past…rejecting the present…that shining future, ever-so-slightly out of reach, was the only star left to guide him.
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Creator's Notes: Whelp, finally got this finished.
My prompt was for someone who is incompatible with the era they were born into. My idea here was someone who was born both too late and too early to find satisfaction or connection, with the ironic truth being that the true source of his isolation is his own narcissism and inability to view others as equals.
My logic for the Origin/First NP is that since Daedalus was still able to create automatons and machinery even superficially similar to the tech of the Machine Gods during the Age of Heroes long after their deaths and apotheosis into Divine Spirits, then clearly there were shenanigans going on. I don't consider it OP, since Daedalus has no combat ability, and he's too prickly to ever team up with anyone under normal circumstances.
Hope this satisfies my prompt giver. I know it might be a little different from what you intended, but this was the angle that suited my personal taste best. Hope you liked it!
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Originally Posted by Sandstorm77
