Well, since I've contributed a Rider, Archer, Berserker and Saber to this thread previously, I may as well complete the seven classes before I go and do any more. So here's an obscure Lancer. Irish, of course.
Warrior of the Dread Spear
Name: Óengus Gaíbúaibthech
Class: Lancer
Parameters:
Strength: C+
Endurance: C
Agility: A
Mana: D
Luck: E
History:
Though little is known of Lancer, his historical claims to fame are clear. He was Oengus Gaibuaibthech of the Deisi, a tribal band of warrior nomads who wandered the lands of Northern Ireland. He was known as a champion of the Desi, the king’s personal warrior. However, he was also known as a man who took insults to his family far too strongly and would exact payback no matter the cost, no matter how petty the insult. In fact, it was this drive to punish insults against his family that led to the greatest insult to his family, in the end. Oengus’ neice Forach was assaulted and raped by Conn, the wanton son of Cormac mac Airt, High King of Tara, the region of Northern Ireland that the Deisi lived in. Conn took the poor girl back to his father’s court and so Oengus, as champion and mightiest of the Deisi, took a band of fifty men to Cormac’s court to confront him.
Conn, unrepentant and spoiled as he was, refused to return the fair Forach, causing Oengus to take a dread spear and run him through. Whether the spear was his own or the spear of Cormac mac Airt remains unknown, but he slew the petulant young man and as he withdrew the spear it’s butt killed one of Cormac’s courtiers. The High King was also blinded in one eye, struck by either chains or the butt of the spear in the middle of the fray. Due to the law of Tara at the time he could no longer remain High King due to his physical deformity and so stepped down, taking hold of the amassed military of Tara to chase down Oengus and the Deisi who had slighted him. The Deisi fought for forty days against the far stronger army of Cormac, and it took seven battles for them to be conclusively defeated and driven out of the land of Tara.
After being forced from their homeland the Deisi wandered more than ever, and when the ruling king of the Deisi stepped down Oengus took his place as King. However, his role as both King and Champion caused murmurs of disturbance amongst the Deisi, the consolidation of power under one man a cause for concern amongst his subjects. Noting the rumors and the disruptions caused by them Oengus stepped down from the kingship, remaining as a simple Champion until his eventual death some years later.
Class Skills:
Magic Resistance (C): While Óengus is a rather unknown Heroic Spirit he did live in a period where magic was quite abundant and oft-used, with the Celts often slinging around rune magicks, geas oaths and the like. Additionally, while his mana is not an impressively deep well of energy he has instinctually learned to flood his body and his few circuits with prana in order to repel weaker magical attacks and enhance his dread aura. As such his MR is slightly above the base level for a Lancer, and he can cancel magic with a chant of two or fewer verses.
Personal Skills:
Instinct (B): Oengus was the favoured champion of the Deisi for more than his battle skills. He possesses an unusually heightened level of instinctual understanding that his people believe is a gift from the Tuatha De Danann, and uses it to feel the most favourable flow of battle for himself, granting minor natural bonuses against external penalties like visual impairment or unknown techniques. It was this ability that allowed his small force of men to hold out for seven battles with the High King’s military forces and it is his instinct that allows Oengus to manipulate his Gae Crimall’s many chains without fear of injury.
Prana Burst (B): The other of Oengus’ dreaded abilities is his talent of charging up his spear with his own prana, another of the gifts he claims has come from some ancient and obscure lineage of the Tuatha De Danann. By channeling his energies into his weapons Oengus is able to destroy weapons not on the level of divine mysteries in only a few strokes and at the cost of burning up his energy rapidly can boost his physical capabilities as well.
Terrorise (C): Oengus does not hold the epithet “Of the Dread Spear” for no reason. His appearance is wild and fearsome, his many trophies of slain warrior displayed proudly on his body and his dreadful presence is enough to impede the perception and intuition skills of others at close range by a Rank Down until the affected foe injures Oengus in combat. Counters Bravery of an equal or lower rank.
Gae Buaibthech
Dreadful Spear Which Blinds Kings
Anti-Unit
Rank: C
Description: A simple enough spear, the shaft is made of dark hardwood, polished to a sheen. The relatively plain appearance belies the fear that this spear used to strike into the hearts of Oengus’ foes, as it was for this spear that he earned his dread claim. The spear is used as would be expected of a Lancer, as a mid-range thrusting and parrying weapon, and has upon its blade a malign venom that can impede others with even the smallest wound. Though the disparate stories indicate that in life the venom simply caused paralysing pain and it was the butt of the spear which blinded High King Cormac the legend has crystallised by tying the two elements together.
When wounded by the blade of this spear an enemy finds his senses progressively becoming dulled, particularly his vision, as blood vessels in the eyes rupture and cloud the opponent’s sight with his own blood. Because of how it damages blood vessels in the eyes this venom has the unexpected side-effect of disrupting all but the most powerful of Mystic Eyes as flow of prana through the eyeballs becomes impeded. As a constant ability, this spear is perfect for secrecy on the battlefield, with no need to invoke its name in order to generate the effect.
Gae Crimall
Bloodthirsty Spear of the Dread Warrior
Type: Anti-Unit
Rank: B
Description: A long lance that bears three heavy iron chains connected to it by a rotating ring about a third of the way down its shaft, Gae Crimall is a unique and identifiable spear not just because of the chains but because of its dark red coloration, a result of the wood having actually been polished with the blood of the enemies it has killed, staining the grain permanently. The tales that surround Oengus indicate two separate origins for this spear, one attesting that this was the spear of the High King Crimall himself, snatched down from its ornamental brace to slay the king’s lecherous son, while others associate the spear directly with Oengus, asserting that this is the spear that he always used and which garnered him fame, rather than Gae Buaibthech.
Each of the three chains that this spear bears were said to be so long and heavy that they required three men to lift them, and with the long and solid blade on its tip the whole spear required ten men to carry it. Yet Oengus did so easily, and so when wielding this spear the + modifier to his C-rank strength is invoked, allowing him to swing the weapon with deadly ease.
Crimall was attested at least once to be related to or another name for the great spear of Lugh, and possesses at least a sliver of this miraculous heritage because of this. It is possible that Oengus’ own skills of Instinct and Prana Burst both have some ties to this weapon, though any ties they may have are not combat-applicable, as if they are related to the spear he has owned it for long enough to have taken the skills into his own body as inherent abilities.
Instead, the ability of Gae Crimall that may stem from Lugh’s own divine spear is the concept of striking the heart, one of the traits that Gae Bolg also bears. When thrust or thrown, if the spear hits it will strike the conceptual “heart” of the struck being, but it lacks the causality-inverting “concept of sure hit” that Gae Bolg inherits from its other forebear, Gungnir. This means that Gae Crimall can miss as any normal attack might and if it hits may only graze a limb. Thus, the concept of striking the heart that this spear manifests is not one of actually piercing the heart, but of duplicating the wound it inflicts, whether a mere scratch or a deep gouge, on the heart of the target.
The key difference to Gae Bolg is that this conceptual “heart” may not be the physical heart of the person, as indicated by how High King Cormac’s own heart was not destroyed by Crimall’s wounding his eye. Instead, Crimall’s injuring of Cormac’s eye struck the heart of his role of leader of Ireland, destroying his claim to kingship, as a man with a facial disfigurement could not claim or maintain the title of High King in his time. Thus the heart that Crimall destroyed was not his physical body but his dearest claim of honour, his kingship.
Notes:
God, Oengus here is a real patchwork of elements from the same story told multiple times with slight variations. In some his name translates as Angus of the Dreaded Spear, in others it appears to be closer to Angus of the Poisoned Spear. Variations also appear in whether Crimall was his own spear or the spear of Cormac, and if Crimall was the spear of the king as to whether he owned his own famed spear (one would presume that being called “Of the Dreaded Spear” might signify his own spear). Aside from the story of how he blinded Cormac there’s very little to go on with old Angus here.
Because of this his Lancer stats are pretty much the same as the basic Lancer container, except Strength bears a potential temporary modifier because he was purported in one account to have “the strength of fifty men”. It’s not much to go on, but it’s literally the only mention of anything resembling these stats that I was able to find so I rolled with it. One of the tales expands on his tribe’s exile from Northern Ireland, stating that Cormac and his whole retinue had to fight seven difficult battles and suffer tremendous losses before Oengus and his small tribe was expelled, so he was clearly an excellent warrior.
There are also mentions that he was the champion of the Deisi tribes and when his brother Brecc steps down he becomes king of the Deisi as well. However, he does not hold the title for long, choosing to abdicate the title thanks to murmurs within the Deisi about the consolidation of power combining the roles of champion and king entails. After being forced by Cormac’s unfair tactics into the neighboring land of Leinster the Deisi forcefully eject the existing tribe and settle in that land for over 30 years. Eventually the displace tribe manages to rally and kick the Deisi out, and then Oengus kind of fades out, presumably having lead them as a champion of the king until he died.
Originally Posted by Verg Avesta
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