Niulang and ZhinuClass: Rider
Source: East Asian folklore
Region: China
Gender: Male (Niulang) and Female (Zhinu)
Alignment: True Neutral
Height: 177cm (Niulang) / 170cm (Zhinu)
Weight: 77kg (Niulang) / 70 kg (Zhinu)
Strength: D
Endurance: B
Agility: B
Magic: A
Luck: A
Noble Phantasm: B
Class SkillsMagic Resistance: B
Negates all magecraft with a chant of 3 verses or lower.
Takes minimal damage even from high magecraft and ritual curses.
Riding: D
As a cowherd, Niulang is experienced with riding animals but prefers to guide them on his own feet.
He can and will, however, gladly ride a flying bridge carried by magpies.
Goddess' Divine Core: C
Zhinu's Skill.
A composite Skill (including Divinity) that expresses Zhinu's status as a perfect goddess from birth.
Its other effect, aside from the effects of Divinity, is to preserve the absoluteness of her mind and body. It repels all forms of mental interference, prevents physical growth, and keeps her figure from changing no matter how many calories she ingests.
Personal SkillsCurse of Separation: D
The star crossed lovers were cursed by Yu Huang to never see each other except on the Night of Sevens.
However, neither of them have individual legends recorded in Human Order and neither is more important than the other in their shared tale,
so although they remain separate, the two share a single Saint Graph as a Heroic Spirit, and are able to hold conversations by switching who is in control of the Saint Graph.
Determination of Steel: EX
The ability to keep an unshakable focus and ignore pain for the sake of their goals.
Niulang and Zhinu are both people defined by their outstanding dedication to their works... whenever the two are not interacting.
This Skill is ranked as EX because the effects received from it are either maximum or zero depending on whether or not the other is doing anything.
Summer Triangle: A
The Skill that represents Niulang and Zhinu's status as the married stars, separate by the Milky Way.
Upon becoming a star, Niulang was elevated from mortal status, granting his Saint Graph a strong resistance against the likes of poisons and diseases.
This Skill also allows the couple to employ magpies as familiars, as those are represented by the Deneb, the third star in the Summer Triangle.
Weaver: A
Zhinu's original Authority expressed as a Skill. The ability to weave pieces of divine clothing.
Due to neither of them having any real combat experience, their entire prowess as a Servant relies on Zhinu's ability to produce highly armed outfits.
She could potentially weave powerful combat clothes for her Master and allies, but sharing a Saint Graph with Niulang distracts her to point where the robes always end up having Niulang's side. A Master lucky enough to share Niulang's measurements can still fully benefit from it.
Noble PhantasmAsking for skill on the Night of SevensQixi Qiqiao
Rank: B
Type: Anti-Obstruction Noble PhantasmRange: 0-50
Max. Targets: Everyone within range, without distinguishing enemy or ally.
The yearly festival that celebrates the reunion of the star-crossed lovers abstracted as a Noble Phantasm.
Their festival is an important seasonal event around all of East Asia, being called Qixi in China, Tanabata in Japan and Chilseok in Korea. All names mean "night of sevens", because their reunion happens on the July 7th of every year.
While the hard-working stars are blessed with great happiness by each other's side, the hard working festival attenders make a wish, praying that the couple will share their luck with the fellow artisans who want to improve their skills.
A wish-granting Noble Phantasm powered by the billions of prayers sent to the star-crossed lovers.
However, this wish-granting ability far from what the omnipotent Holy Grail can do.
Niulang and Zhinu's reunion is nothing more than a reward to their dedication toward their crafts, and the main object of their festival is to wish for improvement on one's own craft.
Unlike other wish-granting Noble Phantasms, Qixi Qiqiao provides no immediate solutions or instant profits. It merely twists fate and the laws of nature to enforce the concept of rewarding effort. Those under the Noble Phantasm's effects still need to persevere and realize their wishes by their own power.
CharacterPersonality:
A sickeningly lovey-dovey couple. They never stop singing praise to each other, especially about the other's dedication. They have big responsibilities as guardians of Human Order, but they are so distracted by the fact that they have constant access to each other that they completely forget about it.
When reminded of their Servant job, one of them promises to stay away until the other finishes what they have to do. Despite the goofiness in their usual interactions, whenever they do get to work, they are very thorough perfectionists who never show a hint of tiredness, negligence or hesitation.
As expected from two birds of a feather in love, they strongly appreciate people similar to themselves, and feel invested to give any support they can so that the similar person can be as happy as they are. Keyword being support, since the couple believes happiness should be conquered by one's own hands, never handed to those who didn't struggle for it.
Motivations and attitude towards the Master:
They're too busy paying attention to each other to care. A Master would need to really work their way into a functional partnership.
Dialogue examples:
-Niulang: "Since we have to take turns using the body, I can't ever see what Zhinu is wearing, but it's easy to imagine it's a most gorgeous robe, with every bit of heart and soul weaved into it."
-Zhinu: "Oh, it couldn't possibly be, honey, since all of my heart and soul went into the one you're wearing."
-Zhinu: "I can't say it saddens me because how could I ever be sad with Niulang by my side, but it somewhat disappoints me how much people misunderstand the concept of 'wish upon a star'. They just make a wish and wait for it to eventually happen, as if they'll ever deserve what they want without doing anything for it."
-Niulang: "Oh, agreed completely. It's clear that they've never met a star in person, because if they really knew how marvelous my Zhinu is, they wouldn't even think of acting half-baked about their prayers to her."
LoreHistorical character and figure:
Zhinu was the daughter of the Jade Emperor Yu Huang, the supreme god of Chinese mythology. She was an amazingly skilled and hard-working weaver, tasked with the important job of making the clothes of the gods. When Zhinu eventually reached her marriageable age, Yu Huang thought to only one suited for his dear workaholic daughter would be the most diligent and hard-working being he could find. Through his search, the Jade Emperor laid his eyes on Niulang, a young human cowherd as zealous as Zhinu herself.
Zhinu was allowed to ascend to the heavens with all of his herd, and married the weaver goddess. With their identical personalities, the two hit off really well. Too well, in fact. Once together, Niulang and Zhinu became so engrossed in their married life that they had completely stopped working. Angered, Yu Huang sentenced the couple to stay forever separate in opposing sides of the Milky Way, but ultimately took pity on them and allowed the two to meet once per year on the 7th of July, as long as they put their effort into their work to earn it. And so, the couple started to passionately work for the sake of their yearly reunion.
Since then, on the Night of Sevens of every year, a flock of magpies comes carrying a bridge across the Milky Way for the two star-crossed lovers.
Related characters:
Dioscuri:
-Castor: "Hmph, pathetic, Altair! You sing endless praise to your wife but she's only one mere star. I'll have you know that my sister is the half of a whole constellation!"
-Pollux: "B-Brother, stop, why are you making a competition out of this?"
-Niulang: "You'll never make anything half as good as Zhinu's robes if you keep valuing quantity over quality, Castor. She chose we'd be one star each so we could pour all of our loves into a single point. Spreading your feelings through half a constellation sounds nice, but we value our loves too much to allow it being this sloppily unfocused."
-Castor: "How dare you try to act clever to me, human?!"
Orion & Artemis:
-Artemis: "Did you hear that, darling? Our love is unfocused because you're Tri-star. Quick, pick a favorite and I'll see if can somehow destroy the other two so we can compete on equal grounds with them."
-Zhinu: "That sounds amazingly challenging. I can respect this level of dedication. Our fathers are the supreme gods of our respective mythologies, so if we can get them to help together, we might have a chance to go through with that."
-Artemis: "Wow, thank you so much, Vega. I'm glad you're such a friendly rival."
-Orion: "Dear gods, our conversation turned even more idiotic than the one with the twins..."
Rama:
-Zhinu: "Please pray to us on the Night of Sevens. We're very serious about it. We'll put your wish on the top of the priority list. You know very well how much you deserve it."
Nightingale, Spartacus, Tesla, Edison, Asclepius:
-Niulang: "Look at all these people, even now, so long after their times, still with such a passionate drive to make the human world a better place. They really remind me of you, Zhinu. The Throne of Heroes really picks well who gets to join."
Siegfried, Arjuna, both versions of Emiya, Bedivere:
-Zhinu: "Their hearts hold no love for their duties, but they still choose to take the hard path with full diligence, ready to make any sacrifice they might need to... I don't think that's something we can relate to, but I can respect this a lot. "
Koyanskaya, Columbus, Wu Zetian, Moriarty:
-Niulang: "Hmmmm... I'm not sure how to feel about this. Their intentions are about as bad as they can get, but..."
-Zhinu: "Yeah, I know, after how much thought and dedication they put into it, how many hardships they overcame for their dreams, how can you not cheer for them even a little?"
-Niulang: "Exactly. You took the words out of my mouth."
Author notesI got the idea for the body-sharing Tanabata couple on day 1, but I didn't get it anywhere beyond the "still separate but together" until today. Clearly the one element that was missing in the Servant sheet was deadline panic.