Swallow Cratsvalley
Swallow the Peacock
Class: Saber
Alternate Classes: Lancer, Rider, Berserker
Alignment: Lawful Good
Parameters:
Strength: D++
Endurance: D++
Agility: E+
Magic: C
Luck: C
Background
The Cratsvalley family. A wealthy, powerful family known across the Twilight World for their holdings in any number of mystical economies and their political power, once upon a time. However, their fortunes have folded, the age and mystery of the family accumulating to the point where it bears down oppressively, threatening to crush the family’s name forever if even a slight problem were to emerge.
Saber was not a slight problem.
He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and that spoon was then used to spoonfeed him everything he could possibly need throughout his childhood. Quite literally, in fact, thanks to a destructive curse that exhibited itself in Saber more strongly than it ever had before in any other member of the Cratsvalley lineage. Anything that he touched was instantly destroyed, and trying to find anyone who could remove the “death” of an object so that the curse could not destroy it was a costly endeavour. So, for most of his childhood, Saber was kept in confinement, his arms manacled so that his damage could be minimised. Often he would cause trouble by escaping, and he was able to see the world outside his mansion, the suffering of the poor and those who possessed nothing. Hollow people who resonated with him more strongly than any of the nobles who surrounded him.
In the end, at his insistence, Saber’s family purchased a half-breed servant to assist him, a girl who he considered the most precious thing in the world, for to him she was unchanging and immortal, a singular indestructible object in an all too fragile world. Throughout his teenage years, Saber whiled away the days as a noble scion, adoring his maid idly, while taking tutelage from a magus who saw in him some of the danger of Magic that her own sister carried. From his tutor Swallow learned a great many philosophical and metaphysical concepts, before promptly forgetting them again.
For a short time, Saber abandoned his tutelage and his family to go and work for the Church, as he had become inspired by them and turned to faith in hopes of resolving his curse. But, learning the true ways of the Church after being conscripted into one of their heretical agencies, the teenaged Saber returned home, to find his family in strife. The family fortune was vanishing, and his relationships became strained. After a shocking revelation regarding his servant’s capacity for change and mortality, Saber became disillusioned and fled once more to the Church, before trying a number of occupations in life. All were thwarted by his destructive curse, but during his time away from home his former servant was kidnapped and mortally wounded. Saber pursued her and discovered her in the “lair of a dragon”, though by now all dragons had long since retreated from this World.
Desperate and alone, Saber cried out for his friend’s life, willing to give anything, his whole estate even, if he could save her. The World responded, and a contract was formed. In exchange for becoming a Counter Guardian upon his death, Saber’s servant was saved. Life went back to normal for several years, until the World called upon him to handle a threat that was approaching. Saber was to receive the training of the Black Dragon, but unfortunately the dragon no longer existed in this realm. In order to facilitate Saber’s side of the contract, the world transported him to the Backside of the World, where he was able to train for a year among the dragons and become a fully fledged Dark Dragon Knight.
Sent back home, he embarked on a grand adventure, and achieved great things. In the end he passed away, though whether it was part of this quest or not remains lost to history. One day, perhaps, the full story of the Red Dragon will be known to all, but until that time Saber remains coy about exactly what happened to the band of six adventurers who went after the Red Dragon.
Class Skills
Magic Resistance
Grants protection from magical effects. Capable of cancelling spells altogether instead of simply rejecting prana, at a high enough rank.
- C: Resistance gained through becoming a Dark Dragon Knight, it will cancel spells up to Two-Aria length.
Riding
The ability to ride animals or control vehicles with sure, steadfast skill.
- D: No exceptional level of skill is displayed while riding a steed, but Saber is a trained Dark Dragon Knight and is capable of riding any animal or vehicle short of a Phantasmal Beast with at least competent levels of skill.
Personal Skills
Draconic Arts
Through a contract with a member of the Dragonkind, the mythical
Draconic Arts have been attained. Essentially an application of reinforcement magecraft through alternate methods that would not be considered traditional Thaumaturgy, it strengthens the body and provides access to unique skills. Perhaps Prana Burst [Dragon] would be a better name?!
- C: Saber’s training as a Dark Dragon Knight has raised him to Level 4 Draconic Arts competency. Aside from a constant low-level regeneration effect, the Arts allow temporary addition of the displayed Plus Modifiers to the Physical Parameters, as well as methods to emulate combat-relevant skills such as Clairvoyance or Instinct.
Dark Communion
Due to the circumstances involved, a contract of darkness intended to be between two parties was linked to a third party as well. As a result, the possessor’s Master gains some of the benefits of the shared contract.
- A: Saber’s pact with the Black Dragon flows back to his Master, raising all of the Master’s Parameters one rank, to a minimum of Rank E. In addition, the Master gains access to the Draconic Arts skill and the Black Blade Noble Phantasm, though with somewhat-reduced performance. However, in return, any time his Master would be injured Saber receives that injury instead.
Discernment of the Poor
Insight to see through the opponent's character and attribute.
- E++: A rich man who has lived a luxurious life and yet was never able to possess anything. Though the wealthy cannot normally attain this, it appears his curse has revealed this skill’s purpose! Saber is an idiot and so he does not consciously examine others or see through their lies and layers, but he has an intrinsic understanding of life itself that others cannot discern. Because of this, all Saving Throws are doubled.
Foolish Fate
The unavoidable instinct of choosing the fate that brings forth most misery. While it attracts, by nature, misfortune upon the Servant, it also applies to those around him when possessed at higher ranks.
- C: A more suitable name for this skill in regards to Saber would be Foolish Mind. Due to his own foolish behaviour he accepted a contract that vastly shortened his own life, and he has also been saddled with the troublesome Curse of Pulverisation his whole life. However, his kind-hearted, idiotic mindset and his insights into the troublesome problem of being human may yet allow him to overcome this fate, or at least accept it with a smile.
Curse of Pulverisation
Curse of Consumption
Type: Anti-Purpose
Rank: A
Range: 0
Targets: 1
A curse borne by all descendants of the Cratsvalley lineage, but expressed most strongly by Saber, this curse is so strong it has manifested visibly in the blackening occurring on his forearms. In its simplest form it is described as a “curse of pulverisation” that destroys anything Saber touches with his hands. However, in truth it is not “pulverisation” but “consumption”, allowing any object handled to achieve the purpose of its’ existence. Once an object has achieved the purpose it was meant for it no longer has any use and thus becomes pointless, and so it crumbles away from existence.
Long assumed to be a result of mixed-blood heritage from the oni or youkai of Japan, the esoteric experts who studied Saber in his youth eventually concluded that he was a rare case of someone experiencing Inversion Impulse while simultaneously exhibiting an esper power that amplified the destructive nature of the demons’ blood within the Cratsvalley veins. However, this is a false conclusion, an error brought about by the limited knowledge of those who cannot see the World for what it truly is. In actuality, the
Curse of Pulverization could be said to be a magical affliction, a spontaneous manifestation of an aspect of the Fifth Magic, Blue. The Fifth Magic utilises time travel to avoid the consequences of conservation of energy, drawing power from the future to utilise in the now. In a similar manner to how use of Blue leaves the future barren and dead because the energy has already been consumed, so too does this curse draw upon all of the future “purpose” of an object to be consumed in a singular instance. By destroying the future to consume it in the present, this potent curse could be said to be the “embodiment of human nature” while also being an “affliction of modernity”.
The wanton destructiveness of the curse is not metaphysically notable, but the methods it utilises and what it truly represents is noted by the Black Dragon to be exceptionally interesting, while the Magician who would occasionally stop by to try to tutor Saber and render another day-to-day household item indestructible to his curse found him both a fascinating case study and an irritating copycat, simply because of the nature of his curse. Despite all this, it is a curse Saber would not give up for anything, because it is humanity’s curse to bear and the quality of destruction it bears only makes everything more beautiful and precious to Saber.
In practical terms, an object handled by Saber will perform its purpose three times greater than it normally would, and is then destroyed. Regular attacks using a weapon and his ordinary Rank D
Strength will deal triple damage, being equivalent to attacks from a Servant with Rank A
Strength, or even Rank A++ Strength if he is already boosting his Parameters with his
Draconic Arts. Of course, the weapon will be lost afterwards. Because of this Saber carries with him 5 swords that bear various attributes, but once they have been used up it is up to his Master to provide him with more weapons that he can use. Really, this Saber is an expensive and troublesome Servant!
Black Blade
Black Wave of the Black Dragon
Type: Anti-Fortress
Rank: A
Range: 1-33
Targets: 1-330
One of the more extraordinary Draconic Arts possessed by a skilled Dark Dragon Knight,
Black Blade is a channeled burst of darkness composed of draconic prana emitted from the tip of a swung blade. In effect, it is a wave-beam sword slash, though it does not have extraordinary range due to the beam dispersing into harmless prana after a certain distance. However, if the Dark Dragon Knight has enhanced his Parameters to the maximum using his
Draconic Arts, in a state known as "True Pact", the Rank of this skill becomes A++, while the maximum range and number of targets is tripled, to become a truly destructive beam of devestation that can carve a stone giant the size of a small mountain in half. In such a state the
Black Blade can be considered to rival the greatest swords seen in any Age upon this planet, past or still to come.
Thanks to an odd interaction with his other Noble Phantasm, Saber’s
Black Blade is automatically enhanced by his
Curse of Pulverization and so it achieves its’ purpose better than any other Dark Dragon Knight’s
Black Blade possibly could. In the hands of someone else who can use the
Draconic Arts, the
Black Blade is a Rank C Anti-Army Noble Phantasm, with range 1-10 and a maximum of 100 targets. Just like Saber though, range and targets are tripled while using the True Pact, and the attack becomes a Rank B Anti-Fortress attack.
Originally Posted by Hawkeye
