This guy is real good, a little wanked but it's tasteful. He's probably Iskander tier in terms of story - he'd likely end up as mid/final boss in a story.
-edit-
I have a few ideas for an archer, I'll probably do both but I'm not sure which one to do first.
Hardcore flower girl or "cool and edgy" with a connection to one if my older servants?
Last edited by Bird of Hermes; April 1st, 2016 at 06:04 PM.
One if my berserkers, it should be kinda easy to guess their potential identities as I've only done the two.
So either Robert the Bruce or Abraham Van Helsing then, depending on which Berserker you were referring to. Given the "cool and edgy" comment I'm guessing Helsing (or maybe Jonathan Harker, the man who actually killed Dracula in the novel).
Independent Action (B) - It is possible for a Servant to stay in the world for two days without a Master. However, this is the ideal value achieved by maximally conserving mana and avoiding battle and Noble Phantasm usage.
Magic Resistance (B) -Cancel spells with a chant below three verses. Even if targeted by High-Thaumaturgy and Greater Rituals, it is difficult for them to be affected. Despite his humble origins as a doctor, he became a talented and dedicated monster hunter and became drenched in so much demonic blood over the years, he gained a natural resistance.
Personal Skills:
Hunter's Mark (B) - A skill that measures one's ability to track and pursue. Heightened senses give Van Helsing an unnatural ability to find his prey. Unless the target covered their tracks through magical means, he's able to find them. Negates Disengage and Presence Concealment of the same rank.
Medical Techniques (C) - A skill that power up medical techniques. Van Helsing is a trained doctor, capable of healing most wounds. At 'C' rank in his abilities on the same level of incredibly skilled human physicians and surgeons.
Monster Slayer (B+) - Van Helsing inflicts more damage against anything with bestial or monstrous traits. He possesses a high rank as the most famous of his profession.
Single Mindedness (D) - The capacity to devote oneself towards a cause. Van Helsing spends most of his time thinking about how to track down and kill monsters and new and inventive manners. He is highly disinterested in any other subject. Provides resistance against mental influence of the same level.
Noble Phantasms
Blood Groove Tools of the Hunter (Anti-Unit) (C) - Van Helsing's personal weapon. A hideous, twisted hand-axe bathed in the blood of monsters. It is mechanical in nature and can transform into a crossbow. This crossbow can fire a variety of bolts: Piercing, Explosive, Acid, Holy, Siege… He appears to have one for every occasion and every target. Although rather unremarkable, its high versatility allowed him to slay many monstrous beasts.
Lore
"This is for every innocent life you've destroyed you filthy wretch."
Abraham Van Helsing started life as a humble, but talented doctor. In his first adventure, he traveled the world and faced a powerful Dead Apostle who had stolen the name of Vlad III. He single handily faced down and defeated the monster but made his first and only mistake in his career. He did not kill it. As a result of this, his close friend Mina Harker was trapped as a Vampire for the rest of her unnatural life. Although he tried to find a cure he could not and Mina fled him and stayed as far away as possible, knowing they would eventually kill one another. Van Helsing swore he would not make the same mistake again. He was brutal and remorseless to his prey and showed no mercy - endlessly perpetuating the cycle of vengeance.
Essentially abandoning his previous life, he flung himself into a new line of work and began a dedicated monster hunter. Fueled by grief and self loathing, he became the best of the best. Vampires. Werewolves. Demons. Ghouls and zombies and ghosts. These terrors hid in every corner of the world. Van Helsing became the torch that shone light upon the darkness before swiftly crushing the monsters head with his boot.
He encountered Bram Stoker, who used his life as a model for his book. The true Van Helsing was much younger and had far more experience, though he much less possessed the same personality - patient, kind, mild-mannered, but with a razor wit and great eye for details. Though Bram Stoker originally wanted to keep the details about Mina true, believing it was a marvelous and realistic tragedy, Van Helsing begged Stoker to give her a happy ending. The fame he gained from the book catapulted him straight to the Throne of Heroes upon death.
As much as he would like to be reincarnated and keep killing monsters, he wishes to free Mina from the curse of vampirism. His greatest mistake has been burned into his psyche and haunted him for the rest of his days.
Last edited by Bird of Hermes; April 24th, 2016 at 04:18 AM.
Reason: Image embeding
So, you basically just made the Bloodborne Hunter a Servant under the name of Van Helsing? I mean, I'm fine with that, but...
Anyway, I see your fictional character servant and raise you one in turn!
Class: Assassin Master:
True Name: Sherlock Holmes, the World’s Greatest Detective (False) Sex: Male Height/Weight: 167cm/58kg Alignment: Neutral Good Appearance: Sure, whatever. This will do.
Stats:
Strength: D Endurance: E Agility: E Magical Energy: D Luck: A+ Noble Phantasm: X
Skills:
Class Skill:
Presence Concealment: D
Suitable for spying.
Personal Skills:
Expert of Many Specializations: B
Access to and use of many expert skills.
Anatomy, literature, philosophy, astronomy, botany, geology, chemistry, boxing, swordsmanship and a variety of other skills can be used with proficiency of Rank D or above.
Librarian of Stored Knowledge: A+
An ability that makes it possible to clearly recall knowledge from memory with a successful Luck check, even if the information perceived in the past was not consciously acknowledged at the time.
Assassin’s memory is near perfect, able to remember practically every detail he is capable of perceiving.
Human Observation: A+++
A technique to observe and understand people.
At this rank, it goes beyond mere observing and enters the realm of hypothesizing the entire lives of people with disturbing accuracy. In fact, Assassin’s rank in this skill is so high that he can emulate the effects of Eye of the Mind (True) skill at Rank B.
Holmesian Deduction: N/A
While this is a skill, and not a Noble Phantasm, it’s information has been placed in the Noble Phantasm section.
Noble Phantasm
Holmesian Deduction: N/A (???)
“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Due to Sherlock Holmes being a fictional character, rather than a real person, he cannot possess a Noble Phantasm, as he does not truly have legend to crystalize.
Nevertheless, the defining feature of the character Sherlock Holmes is his near supernatural level of skill at deductive reasoning. As Assassin is playing the role of Sherlock Holmes and has gained this skill, it is the closest thing to a Noble Phantasm he could be said to possess.
Holmesian Deduction has manifested itself as a Marble Phantasm, an ability usually only possessed by Elementals or True Ancestors.
The probabilities of something happening can be manipulated, if not outright controlled, by Assassin. The mana cost of the Marble Phantasm will depend on whether the effects are minor (making a broken wall fall backwards instead of forwards) or major (causing a freak hurricane to spring up out of the rather minor pressure differentials in an area). An event with a 1% probability of occurring would cost over a hundred times the mana of dictating that an event with a 99% chance of happening would.
Assassin, being a good person at heart, is far more likely to make the weather just right for the blood stains of an enemy Servant/Master to dry and be easily follow rather than force a tsunami to build up offshore and destroy the city that he and his Master just left.
I've never actually played Bloodborne. I got the idea for Abraham like this after watching Helsing Ultimate. As for the Noble Phantasm, it was an idea i had for a weapon in the 'Monster Hunter' game series. I only picked that Bloodborne image 'cause it looked good.
Class: Berserker Gender: Male Alignment: Lawful Good Attribute: Man
Strength: B+ Endurance: B+ Agility: B+ Mana: C+ Luck: EX Noble Phantasm: EX
Class Skills: Mad Enhacement: EX
Although he behaves in a polite, educated and serious way, even calling himself a skeptic, Berserker is a lunatic, believing that completely absurd and illogical things are not only possible, but mundane. Arguing with him will yield absolutely no result. Although he possesses a "sane" side, it will rarely be the one acting or speaking.
Personal Skills: Self-Made Hero
A unique skill possessed by Berserker. As an amalgam of an "author" and his protagonist, who happens to be himself, Berserker's skillset is completely up to his choice. He can have any skills he wants, at any rank he wants, anytime he wants; even skills that should be exclusive to other Heroic Spirits are within the reach of this ability. However, keeping several high-ranked skills will quickly drain his Master's prana, so he most often only has two or three skills, at rank D~B. The skills are chosen by his sane side, but the insane side will act as if he always had them.
Noble Phantasm
Lunacy
A Trip to the Moon
- Anti-World, Rank EX
A Noble Phantasm that takes the form of Berserker's most outrageous feat: traveling to the Moon. A Reality Marble that appears to bring its targets into a landscape of endless white rocks and craters, with the Earth, the Sun and countless stars hanging in the sky. At first sight, it may seems that this does nothing beyond removing geographical and fame bonuses of any Servants that haven't been to the Moon in their legends. However, its main effect is something only a few can make use of. Within this inner world of a madman, all restrictions imposed by nature are removed. In other words, a person can do whatever they want, so long as they think they it is possible. For example, if someone believes that they will fly by flapping their arms, they will fly upon flapping their arms. Berserker's Moon is a world where physics, nature and logic no longer get in the way of people's actions, a world that benefits the mad, the stupid and the young the most.
As a side effect, within this Reality Marble, Berserker retains the benefits of Mad Enhancement, but the skill itself disappears, because "it is not applicable here".
Lore
Spoiler:
Baron Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Münchhausen, or simply BaronMünchhausen, was a German aristocrat who lived in the 18th century. He acted as a page to Duke Anthony Ulrich, and accompanied him to the Austro-Russian-Turkish War, where they fought for the Russian Empire. There, he accomplished many great feats, and went through a series of promotions, reaching the position of Cavalry Master.
After the war, he retired to his estates in Germany, living as nobleman until the end of his life. It was during the parties given for the aristocrats that he discovered developed his main talent: telling outrageous, exaggerated tales about his war adventures to entertain the guests after dinner. Although these stories started believable, they ultimately reached the point where the Baron claimed to have fought giant monsters, traveled to the Moon, and healed his horse that had been sliced in half, and more. He did not believe in what he said, and neither did the guests, but it was still fun and entertaining to hear what could be born from his imaginative mind.
These tales resulted in the birth of a second Baron Münchhausen - a German aristocrat named Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Münchhausen, who fought in the Austro-Russian-Turkish War, but different from the real Baron, lived several absurd and unbelievable tales. And yet, he acted as if his adventures were absolutely natural and believable. There are two Münchhausens: the man who told the stories, and the man who lived the stories. And although they are different people (and one of them isn't real), they have become inseparable entities.
Summoned as a Berserker, it is the fictional Münchhausen appears to be the one in control. However, this is because the real Münchhausen finds him much more interesting than himself, so he refrains from acting in order to be entertained by his own creation. But, as the author of the fictional Baron, it is up to him to decide what Münchhausen can or cannot do. Neither Baron desires the Grail. The fictional one will answer someone's call as an act of charity, in order to help someone's wish come true, while the real Baron wants to witness his creation in action, as well as gain more material for his tales.
Theme I'm adding themes to all my servant sheets 'cause I'm cool like that
True Name- Jack Ketch
Place of Origin- England
Alignment- Chaotic Evil
Likes- Suffering of Others, Killing, His Axe
Dislikes- When They Die Too Fast, Those That Don't Appreciate His Work
Faceclaim
Stats-
Strength- B
Endurance- B
Agility- E
Mana- E
Luck- C
Noble Phantasm- C+
Class Skills-
Presence Concealment- E
At this rank the user is simply harder to focus on. A servant can still sense Assassin's presence but it will be fainter than that of a normal servant. And unless the are trying to focus on the presence will eventually disappear in the background like white noise.
Assassin was an executioner that did all of his killings (that we know of) public. While this would normally put him at D rank, due to the violent and gory ways he killed his victims he has been brought down to E. This is many because executioners were supposed to be professional with their killings. Assassin, however, wasn't able to accomplish this and tended to give into sadistic pleasure instead of ending the criminal's life quickly.
Personal Skills-
Executioner- B
This skill gives Assassin a rank up to Strength against Evil aligned opponents.
Assassin has achieved this rank through being an executioner of renown. However he doesn't have as high of a rank as the likes of Charles Henri Sanson, due to the latter executing far more than he had.
Sadist- A+
A skill that augments one's aggression in battle. It appears to be a positive skill, but the longer its owner stays in battle, the more their abusive disposition will grow, causing them to lose their usual composure. It's possible to say that this is just one step short of the skill that causes Berserkers to go insane. The more one attacks, the stronger one becomes, but on the other hand, one's defensive abilities drop. With the added disadvantage of unconsciously lowering one's chances of escape. Once Assassin starts attacking he will gain a Plus to Strength and a Minus in Endurance.
Assassin has earned this skill through his sadistic killings during his executions. Often chopping the victim with his axe until they are near unrecognizable, then finally killing them. Due to this skill Assassin also qualifies for the berserker class.
Noble Phantasms-
Tool of Sadistic Pleasure The Butcher- C+
Anti-Unit Passive
Assassin's axe that he used for executions. Often being known for hacking away at his victim not killing them on purpose and putting them through as much pain as possible, Assassin's axe has been jokingly named The Butcher. This axe was the very same used to execute James Scott, Duke of Monmouth. "Nothing happened - the first blow made only a slight neck wound. So Ketch raised his axe and brought it down again - again, only superficial wounds. Ketch had to hack at the Duke's neck eight times, and still it wouldn't come off, so the local sheriff pulled out a butcher's knife and sliced through the last remaining sinews and gristle, finally beheading him and in the process soaking the scaffold and nearby spectators with large amounts of blood." The Axe itself deals massive damage with each hit, and could easily kill most opponents in a few blows, if they are aimed carefully. However this Noble Phantasm cannot be used to deal decisively fatal wounds, and can only be used for wounding blows not meant to kill. Because of this although the axe deals massive damage it cannot kill them quickly, in this way it is a great support Noble Phantasm. Assassin weakens the enemy bringing them close to death and then his ally finishes the job quickly and with ease. The only way for someone to die by this axe is to have taken so many heavy wounds that they eventually die, making it impossible to kill those with a high rank in Battle Continuation. Cowl to Hide One's Identity Anonymity of an Executioner- C
Anti-Self Passive
Assassin wears a hood that completely hides his face. While the hood is still on it is impossible to discover any of Assassin's Skills or Stats. Should the hood be removed the effects will cease to be active. Even upon using a Noble Phantasm, as long as Assassin's hood is still on his true identity will not be known to others. This is a crystallization of how executioners would where hoods to conceal their true identity so that they might remain anonymous due to being an executioner was looked down upon by most, and sometimes families might try to get revenge on the executioner. Assassin has this Noble Phantasm where as other Executioners would not due to him being reviled and hated by the audience, to the point of him actually having to write apologies to all those who attended his executions because they were so brutal. Finally Assassin has gained this Noble Phantasm for being the basis for the modern image of a "Medieval Executioner".
Personality
Assassin is a complete and utter sadistic killer taking complete joy in killing and mutilating others. He is the complete opposite of Charles Henri Sanson in terms of an executioner. Being summoned into this Grail War with no laws or fear of punishment to hold him back he will most certainly kill innocent bystanders for his own amusement. His sadist personality is also shown in how he fights. He will never go for a killing blow or even the most effective attack because his goal isn't to kill his target, but to make them feel as much pain as possible. He has been completely lost to the joy of harming others, and doesn't care about his own health, he only lives for the sheer sadistic pleasure of being part of the Grail War. The type of pain that brings him pleasure is purely physical pain. Like a beast he cares not for causing mental pain to others, this may of course be due to his simple mind nature and that he isn't able to pull off something as complicated as breaking someone mentally.
Last edited by ZSB1999; April 17th, 2016 at 12:11 AM.
Strength- E
Agility- E
Endurance- E
Mana- E (EX)
Luck- C
NP- EX
Appearance: "All you have to do is say. My. Name."
Personality: Careless and amiable, with a disposition towards speaking frivolously. He describes himself as a Servant born only to grant wishes. To that end, he will go out of his way to find others in need of his wishes. He says that he loves all of humanity, including its rotten and sinful aspects. Thusly, he endeavours to grant the wishes of all humans without distinction. In truth, he is a natural-born demon whose every word is spoken to manipulate (even if not a direct lie). He grants the wishes of others, but only for his own selfish gain. When it comes to repaying a debt, he shows no concept of mercy. For the sake of garnering more wishes on his name, he will lie and cheat without end. As his true nature is that of a loan-shark, he can be called without fear of exaggeration 'the worst sort of person in the world' (a mantle which he accepts with pride).
Class Skills:
Territory Creation (C)- Due to his mentality not being suited for it, Caster has trouble creating even a Workshop.
Item Construction (-)- Sealed as a result of his Noble Phantasm- Rumpelstiltskin.
Personal Skills:
Discernment Of The Devil (EX)- The nature of a devil born to manipulate others. A form of insight into the mental weak-points of a given target. At this rank it is no longer simple 'observation' but a downright supernatural ability, allowing Caster to discern one's darkest self with but a passing glance.
Shapeshift (D)- Ability to alter one's shape. Caster can take on a variety of human guises, though is incapable of large-scale transformation. Combined with his Discernment Of The Devil Personal Skill, Caster can subtly alter his shape to be most amenable to whoever he's trying to manipulate.
Noble Phantasm:
Rumpelstiltskin- Every Wish Has Its Price, My Dear (EX, Anti-Unit): Crystallization of Caster's existence as a devil-like being, granting wishes which come at a steep cost to whoever makes them. His legend can be thought of as the precursor to the character of Mephistopheles from the German novel "Faust".
It manifests as an absolute authority to grant any and all wishes. When Caster accepts a wish, his magical prowess (which otherwise is nearly nonexistent) will be amplified to whatever is necessary to grant said wish. Spinning straw into gold, bestowing wealth or fame beyond measure, placing curses upon one's hated enemies, even granting others power rivaling that of a Heroic Spirit, all are wishes to be regarded and granted indiscriminately. A wish cannot be such as to directly benefit or facilitate the goals of Caster himself however, though indirect benefits are another matter entirely (see secondary effect).
While seeming a wholly altruistic ability, it comes with a most insidious secondary effect befitting Caster's hidden identity of Rumpelsteltskin. A glowing green mark in the shape of a stylized knitting wheel will appear on the bodies of anyone whose wish is granted by Caster, symbolizing their 'debt' to him. At any point, Caster can return to 'repay' that debt by seizing something which he deems of equivalent 'value' from the target. This includes anything which can be remotely conceptualized as 'belonging' to the target; including material possessions, children or even abstractions such as 'loyalty' or 'life'.
Though he starts off as likely the weakest Servant in any given War, judicious use of this Noble Phantasm allows him to gain any number of assets such as infinitely loyal slaves for whom his every order packs the force of a Command Seal and extra 'lives' akin to Heracles's God Hand.
Just like in his legend, all contracts he's made through this Noble Phantasm will be terminated immediately (and all 'payments' revoked) upon the reveal of Caster's True Name, while sealing any further use of it. For that reason, said name can be considered a fatal weakness for him (moreso then other Heroic Spirits) and- having learned from past experience- he is very careful not to mention it where others might hear. If possible, he will prefer to keep it secret even from his own Master.
An unusual Caster. Starts out really weak (even by the standards of his Class), but clever use of his NP could theoretically make him by far the most dangerous Servant in the War. His main strategy would be to lurk in the shadows for most of the War, building up a collateral of wishes which give him a tremendous amount of resources to tap into when fighting time comes around. Definitely a devious sort of character. The ideal faceclaim for this guy would be King Of Despair from Kekkai Sensen, but I already used him for my Antichrist sheet ages ago, so I had to look for quite a while to find something else to my satisfaction (I was dead-set on the red eyes and blonde hair).
As always, be sure to drop by with comments and criticisms! No strings attached...
Last edited by RoydGolden; April 3rd, 2016 at 01:11 AM.
Update: Greatly revised my Servant compendium, dividing everything up by Class rather then just all stuck together in one giant mass. Hopefully should be much easier to read and find particular sheets now.
Thanks to Hermes (and ZSB) for inspiring me to do it this way. You're all the best!
For the Face Claim is that Gilgamesh wearing Robin's coat? Also the sheet was well made. Surprisingly the EX noble phantasm wasn't extremely OP. In theory it would be broken, but in practice it really isn't. I mean really how long would it take for someone to figure out his true name based on how he acts, I'm sure that at least one servant and master pair would be able to figure it out during the war. And once that happens he's dead in the water.
Last edited by ZSB1999; April 3rd, 2016 at 01:32 AM.
Rumpel is very potentially OP, but as mentioned his name is a huge weakness. I really like him, the kind of Servant who really works well as a potential final boss kind of character.
I think it's about time that I accept that my Third War fic is never ever going to happen, and so here for your reading pleasure is my super-secret Saber Pair, intended to be summoned by the Edelfelt Sisters. I wanted to catch everyone by suprise here so I went for an individual I doubt anyone would ever have guessed as a Saber, and then filled in a lot of gaps with a Nasuified background lore and a lot of pseudo-intellectual discussion about symbology to justify this pair's existence as a Saber.
Saber One
Anesidora
She Who Bears Gifts
Class: Saber Alternate Classes: Caster, Avenger Alignment: Lawful Good
Parameters: STR: E END: B AGI: A MGI: D LCK: C
Background
In the antediluvian era of human history it was said that mankind was just that: men. However, the gods saw that mankind was lonesome and becoming progressively more destructive and dangerous, and so decided to create a woman to send to the men. While this is obviously not entirely true, it bears within it the kernel of truth. While men and women lived side by side even back then it is true that Anesidora was the first female homunculus, crafted from Divine Clay much as another significant Divine Doll had been.
The story of Anesidora truly begins with Prometheus, a grand miracle worker during the most ancient periods of shared time, when gods and humans communed with each other. Prometheus would later come to be referred to as a Titan, a primordial god from the generation that birthed the Greek Divine Spirits, but in truth this is a distortion of the fact that he simply existed during the time of the Mesopotamian Divine Spirits, the original gods who would eventually inspire humans to spawn the Greek Divine Spirits and other gods from their acknowledgement.
Prometheus was a man well known to the Sumerian gods, but not well liked. He was too clever by half, having deciphered natural phenomena and deduced divine methods and successfully replicated them, developing a Thaumaturgical Foundation that allowed him to cast fire-elemental spellcraft. A restricted and dangerous sliver of divine knowledge, it was stolen nonetheless and so the genius polymath Prometheus was exiled from his lands to live in solitude. He spent his years continuing his research and making amazing discoveries, while humanity became restless and fitful.
Not knowing what to do, the gods entreated Prometheus to help them, a last resort of Divine Spirits turning to a man to understand mankind. He told them that it was curiosity that was leading humanity astray, as curiosity brooked investigation, which brooked exploration of the unknown and breaching the social limits, so conflict was inevitable as a result. He made a self-serving proposal to the gods, that they grant him a block of Divine Clay and in return he would design an Autonomous Doll with all of his magical knowledge poured into it, and all of the contributions of the gods as well, wisdom freely offered to man so that they did not need to explore further. By pouring all of mankind’s insatiable curiosity into an individual who could teach them, Prometheus proposed that the gods could help to calm the fitful nature of Humanity.
The gods agreed, and so Prometheus began his work, crafting from the Divine Clay a homunculus in female form, the first of her kind in fact. The Divine Spirits assisted him, granting their gifts to the woman. Beauty, agricultural knowledge, crafting and cooking skills far beyond what humans already knew, Prometheus’ own advanced alchemical and thaumaturgical knowledge. All went into the doll, and then finally she was ready. In order to make her more than simply an Autonomous Doll Prometheus and the gods agreed that true spiritual essence was required, essentially a soul to animate the earthen vessel. One of the older, wiser goddesses, a great Earth Mother, volunteered herself to be inserted into the body, stripping herself of her divinity and her accompanying divine powers to breathe life into the body. Her old identity lost as her goddess form was degraded down to a Human Spirit, she became known as Anesidora, the One Who Brings Up Gifts From the Earth Below.
A metaphorical “urn” or “cup” containing blessings for mankind, Anesidora was a teacher, one who delighted in educating others and demonstrating for them the secrets of the gods that had been permitted to her for Humanity’s benefit. She was a kind, gentle individual who was held in high regard, both for her role as an educator of Man and for her sacrifices in having given up her Earth Mother form, a sacred being of the highest order back then. However, eventually life moved on, Prometheus and Anesidora passed away after having given all the knowledge that they could, and Humanity moved on. This is where history takes an unfortunate turn for Anesidora, though not at any one defining moment.
Occurring over the course of centuries, perhaps millennia, Humanity developed from a hunter gatherer society to a stable agricultural one, utilising the knowledge so graciously taught by Anesidora long ago. Beliefs began to change even as society did. Individuals gained power and used that power to shape the rest of mankind, erasing beliefs that were problematic to their claims of power and rightful rule and eroding the old ways. Society shifted from a matriarchal creator-worship where the miraculous birthing powers of the womb were celebrated to a patriarchal society where men claimed the power of the Divine and women were merely there to assist them, to serve them. In such a society a story about how it was a woman who descended from the Divine Spirits, a woman who brought the knowledge of culture to humanity would not do. And so over the course of time the story changed. Anesidora became a woman who accidentally let the good blessings slip from the hands of the gods, just a fool who inadvertently helped humanity. Then when a great Egyptian ruler was ravaged by a series of plagues of divine and biblical retribution the story of a barrage of plagues and evils striking the world one after another eventually became linked, where the woman accidentally dropped blessings and thus the gods had to balance the scales by releasing an equal number of evils.
And so on and so forth. The story evolved, passing from hand to hand and from society to society as was needed, altered as needed to further vilify women and put them in their place as supplicant and servantile. Anesidora became known instead as Pandora, “She Who is Gifted”, a woman designed purely for deception and misery. The mythical first woman, such that all women who followed would inherit her Ideal form, carrying down the deceptions and the misery and the wicked curiosity possessed by their miserable ancestor. The story became so known, so widespread, that Pandora became a symbol of evil, an external force that brought curses upon innocent man with ill intent. By externalising the blame for their own evil thoughts, the hearts of mankind became calmed and humanity rejoiced, for it was saved from having to accept its own evil. In doing so, this woman became the exact definition of an Anti-Hero, someone who was reviled but saved humanity through her villainy, and thus her template has been able to reach the Throne of Heroes, though tremendously distorted by the lens of perception and time.
Fortunately for this distorted woman, all aspects of her being were Recorded by the Throne of Heroes, and although normally it is Pandora who would be called out from the Throne, the specific function of a Sorcery Trait known as Ore Scales was harnessed by twin sisters of the Edelfelt family. This particular trait allowed for "equal division" of all things magical, and so it was that when the sisters participated in the Third Heavens Feel Ritual, held in Fuyuki on the eve of World War II, they managed to summon a Saber whose entire being was split in two and manifested as two separate beings.
While Anesidora's twin has taken on the traits of her retold stories, Anesidora remains the original kind-hearted teacher that has been lost to time, being affectionate towards children and happy to talk to others about things they don’t know about, and her homunculus body is particularly geared towards potent magecraft. Anesidora despairs of how her sacrifice for the good of mankind has become warped to suit the needs of others, and her personal desire is to see her image within the collective mentality of mankind corrected to reflect the truth of the matter. However, deeper still is her self-sacrificing nature that longs for the betterment of mankind, and so it is entirely possible that were she to win a wish from the Holy Grail that she would once more forsake her own desires in order to return mankind to a non-destructive path.
Class Skills
Magical Resistance
Grants protection from magical effects. Capable of cancelling spells altogether instead of simply rejecting prana, at a high enough rank.
B: The ability to negate most magic, including that up to a Three-Verse Aria, completely, and to weaken stronger magic to a degree.
Riding
The ability to ride animals or control vehicles with sure, steadfast skill.
E: Provided only through the Class Container, this Skill is not one earned by Saber herself. She will quickly learn to control any ordinary vehicle or steed, but has no inherent skill in them.
Personal Skills
Potnia Theron
The authority of the earth goddess. What it is is the embodiment of the power of creation possessed by the mother goddesses, originating from a forgotten goddess approximately 8000 years ago (the goddess of Çatalhöyük), and branching to Tiamat and Cybele, Ishtar, Inanna, Athena, Astarte, Gaia, Hera, Artemis, Aphrodite, Demeter, Athena, etc..
X: Saber was, prior to her descent to man’s realm, an earth mother goddess and a symbol of bountiful harvests, but in order to become of use to humanity in the physical realm all of her divine traits were utterly erased. The further distortment of her history through vilification has only further obliterated her existence as a divine mother.
Transfiguration
The inherent skill to transfigure one’s body into many appearances and shapes possessed by Autonomous Dolls. Allows the user to distribute his Parameters as he chooses, within a given pool of “Parameter Points”. The higher the rank, the greater the pool, but two ranks worth of points will be needed to bring A up to A+.
D: Due to her design as “man’s perfect companion”, Saber’s feminine image is ideal and immutable, rendering her unable to alter her physical form or freely allocate Parameters as she wishes. However, she can rearrange her Parameter Ranks of A, B, C, D and E to relate to any of her Parameters as long as she has an uninterrupted few seconds to spare.
Culture Hero
A measure of one’s ability to introduce valuable new knowledge, technology or materials into one’s society.
B: Saber is able to grant any other person she chooses any one skill at a time from her own list of Skills gained through Expert of Many Specialisations, at one rank lower than she possesses, or Magecraft focused on alchemy at Rank C. Once a Skill has been granted to another it cannot be simply removed, but can be exchanged for the gift of a different Skill granted through this skill instead.
Expert of Many Specialisations
Access to and use of many specialised skills to a high level of competence.
A: Magically endowed with in-depth understanding of a number of skills, Saber’s intent was to teach these talents to mankind as a loving and supporting gift. However, she can now utilize these 32 skills at a Rank B level, though many of the skills are perhaps not overly useful to a Grail War.
Magecraft (Alchemy)
Understanding of and the ability to use a distinct branch of modern thaumaturgy.
A-: Saber was tasked by the gods to accompany man and support him in his endeavours, and was gifted all the necessary skills and traits required to do so. She bears within herself an incredible depth of understanding of the field of alchemy. Her knowledge in the field of alchemy is unrivalled by almost all other alchemists in history, as she was the first teacher of the alchemical arts to mankind.
However, as a sheath supports a sword, and as a woman cares for and supports her man, Saber’s alchemical knowledge is intended to be a teaching aide to pass on to men. She has intimate knowledge of the deepest alchemical mysteries, but since she has been stripped of any trace of her Divine origins and cannot freely utilise magecraft, she has to rely on the gifted magic circuits grafted into her before she was sent down to Earth. She has a very few magical circuits of low-grade “training” quality, and cannot utilise alchemy herself as well as her knowledge might indicate.
This aspect to her talent means she often has to use her knowledge to compensate for her deficits in unique, troublesome or ingenious ways. This is not to say she isn’t highly dangerous with her alchemy, but merely a note that she is powerful in spite of her physical capacity, and not because of it.
Earthen Pithos
Source of All The World’s Blessings
Type: Anti-Unit Rank: E ~ A+ Targets: Varies Range: Varies
Description: Saber was sent to mankind to act as the sheath to man’s sword, tempering his destructive nature as a simple “weapon” by providing a “place of restraint and sanctuary where man can seal his sword away”. It is, in the most plain of terms, an allegorical legend that represents the potentially-dangerous conquest instinct of the masculine through the phallic imagery of a sword, and the calming and restraining nature of the feminine through the yonic symbolism of the scabbard where the masculine blade can seek respite and comfort.
Over the course of time, the yonic imagery of the vagina and the womb became externalised as a vessel that could be clearly depicted alongside Saber’s own image, and so it was transformed into an earthen container, a jar or urn known as a “pithos”, which in turn was mistranslated to the Latin “pyxis”, meaning a box or crate. It is this gradual transformation of information over extended intervals of time that has warped Saber’s Noble Phantasm in form and in function.
The “earthen pithos” has returned in form to the most basic physical form it can take as a yonic symbol, represented as a kiln-baked earthenware scabbard, a solid container that holds fitted within it a similarly-made ceremonial earthen blade, a crude phallic symbol that represents both the most basic underlying purpose of Saber’s descent to mankind and also acts as the physical representation of the stopper that seals the pithos. The very image of the sword sealing the scabbard is a potent talisman of creation and growth, but the true nature of the yonic scabbard is unveiled only once the blade is removed.
Earthen Pithos is at its heart a recollection of the great traditions of earth mother goddesses around the world, the nurturing matriarchal understandings that stood as foundations to many of the most ancient civilisations, and is a Noble Phantasm that reaches back beyond the reaches of the patriarchal influences that eventually came to simultaneously demonise and victimise women and the immense creative forces that they bore within them. It is a Noble Phantasm in direct opposition to its twin, the Bronze Pithos of Pandora, which exalts the masculine as the seal that prevents the feminine from inflicting terrible evils upon the land, a stark contrast borne of the more recent transformation of civilisations towards a patriarchal power-base. Together the two Noble Phantasms are in balance, perfectly harmonised as the linga-yoni, a nondualistic unified symbol of transcendent potentiality.
Because Saber came from the Divine realm as a gift to humanity, unsealing her Earthen Pithos by drawing her sword begins to release blessings from the scabbard. The sword itself is a perfectly ordinary one, although made of hardened clay and not metal, so somewhat fragile. The importance is the positive blessings that flow from her scabbard and wrap around Saber in a swirling aura of luminous blue-green tendrils, constantly shifting and alive. While active Saber gains the benefits of almost instantaneous regeneration and a powerful Anti-Evil aspect, allowing her to inflict greatly aggravated damage to Evil-aligned foes. In addition, any and all curses that would affect her take an inverse effect, instead providing some sort of benefit to her. These benefits and more all stem from the concept that the legend of Pandora’s Box was originally told from the perspective of a matriarchal power-base, where a woman arriving in front of men was a positive thing. In this case, it was the act of taking all the curses, diseases and vile things that were sealed within humankind itself and “lifting the lid” so to speak, scattering all the most wicked of curses into the world at large instead of concentrating them within man, thus giving us a chance to fight against the evils rather than letting them destroy us from within and so incidentally transforming “curses” into “blessings”.
Saber is able to channel the blessings into her sword to release as a wave beam of goodness, allowing for ranged attacks against truly evil foes, or can direct them to target others to grant the benefits of healing and curse-nullification to those imbued by these lifegiving blessings. However, her Pithos does contain only a limited number of blessings. It can be said to be all the blessings in the world, but even all the blessings in the world will eventually be depleted. She can utilise her blessings for up to 60 continuous turns, and if resealed the blessings will gradually reaccumulate within the Pithos. However, if it becomes completely empty then the blessings have been spent and will not restore themselves within. At this point in time Elpis becomes unsealed and able to be utilised.
Elpis
Sealed Spirit of Evil Expectation
Type: Anti-Unit Rank: A++ Targets: 1 Range: 1-2
Elpis is well known within the context of Pandora’s box, for once all the evils in the world had been released, the only thing left inside was elpis, or “hope”. It was kept within the jar, away from the rest of the world, but was this an action of mercy or of cruelty?
Saber jailed Elpis within her jar even when she had distributed the other curses of evil amongst the world instead of within the hearts of men, as she determined that Elpis was possibly the most dangerous of the curses that mankind could face, and one that would be unstoppable if unleashed upon the whole world. By keeping it locked within the hearts of mankind, Saber had to make a troublesome choice as Elpis, by its very nature, is a subtle evil that would continue to do tremendous harm no matter where it resides.
Elpis, most commonly translated as “hope”, is more accurately described as “expectation”, whether that be an expectation of good or bad. In some cases it is suggested that it be translated as “evil expectation”, as hope was seen by some as an expectation of future redemption that would cause someone in a troublesome situation to continue enduring it. Thus, Elpis is not “expectation of evil” but rather “expectation that is in itself evil”. Hesiod, who wrote the oldest surviving version of the myth of Pandora, stated in no uncertain terms that hope was “the most evil of all evils” and so by keeping it imprisoned Saber bestowed yet another blessing upon humanity.
Once this Noble Phantasm has become unsealed to Saber, she is able to utilize it freely, as a single-use curse of great power. Where other curses are transformed into blessings by her Pithos, Elpis instead transforms blessings into a curse. Imbued within her blade, she may transfer the spirit of Elpis into any one individual that she wounds, and it rapidly infects the entire body, physical and spiritual. All positive effects that the individual has gained or will gain in the future (whether from skills, Noble Phantasms, spells or other methods) become inverted to negatives, but the individual will not act to resolve these penalties due to the vain hope that someone else will fix these problems.
Saber Two
Pandora She Who Is Gifted
Class: Saber Alternate Classes: Caster, Avenger Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Parameters: STR: A END: C AGI: B MGI: D LCK: E
Background
In the antediluvian era of human history it was said that mankind was just that: men. However, the gods saw that mankind was lonesome and becoming progressively more destructive and dangerous, and so decided to create a woman to send to the men. While this is obviously not entirely true, it bears within it the kernel of truth. While men and women lived side by side even back then it is true that Anesidora was the first female homunculus, crafted from Divine Clay much as another significant Divine Doll had been.
The story of Anesidora truly begins with Prometheus, a grand miracle worker during the most ancient periods of shared time, when gods and humans communed with each other. Prometheus would later come to be referred to as a Titan, a primordial god from the generation that birthed the Greek Divine Spirits, but in truth this is a distortion of the fact that he simply existed during the time of the Mesopotamian Divine Spirits, the original gods who would eventually inspire humans to spawn the Greek Divine Spirits and other gods from their acknowledgement.
Prometheus was a man well known to the Sumerian gods, but not well liked. He was too clever by half, having deciphered natural phenomena and deduced divine methods and successfully replicated them, developing a Thaumaturgical Foundation that allowed him to cast fire-elemental spellcraft. A restricted and dangerous sliver of divine knowledge, it was stolen nonetheless and so the genius polymath Prometheus was exiled from his lands to live in solitude. He spent his years continuing his research and making amazing discoveries, while humanity became restless and fitful.
Not knowing what to do, the gods entreated Prometheus to help them, a last resort of Divine Spirits turning to a man to understand mankind. He told them that it was curiosity that was leading humanity astray, as curiosity brooked investigation, which brooked exploration of the unknown and breaching the social limits, so conflict was inevitable as a result. He made a self-serving proposal to the gods, that they grant him a block of Divine Clay and in return he would design an Autonomous Doll with all of his magical knowledge poured into it, and all of the contributions of the gods as well, wisdom freely offered to man so that they did not need to explore further. By pouring all of mankind’s insatiable curiosity into an individual who could teach them, Prometheus proposed that the gods could help to calm the fitful nature of Humanity.
The gods agreed, and so Prometheus began his work, crafting from the Divine Clay a homunculus in female form, the first of her kind in fact. The Divine Spirits assisted him, granting their gifts to the woman. Beauty, agricultural knowledge, crafting and cooking skills far beyond what humans already knew, Prometheus’ own advanced alchemical and thaumaturgical knowledge. All went into the doll, and then finally she was ready. In order to make her more than simply an Autonomous Doll Prometheus and the gods agreed that true spiritual essence was required, essentially a soul to animate the earthen vessel. One of the older, wiser goddesses, a great Earth Mother, volunteered herself to be inserted into the body, stripping herself of her divinity and her accompanying divine powers to breathe life into the body. Her old identity lost as her goddess form was degraded down to a Human Spirit, she became known as Anesidora, the One Who Brings Up Gifts From the Earth Below.
A metaphorical “urn” or “cup” containing blessings for mankind, Anesidora was a teacher, one who delighted in educating others and demonstrating for them the secrets of the gods that had been permitted to her for Humanity’s benefit. She was a kind, gentle individual who was held in high regard, both for her role as an educator of Man and for her sacrifices in having given up her Earth Mother form, a sacred being of the highest order back then. However, eventually life moved on, Prometheus and Anesidora passed away after having given all the knowledge that they could, and Humanity moved on. This is where history takes an unfortunate turn for Anesidora, though not at any one defining moment.
Occurring over the course of centuries, perhaps millennia, Humanity developed from a hunter gatherer society to a stable agricultural one, utilising the knowledge so graciously taught by Anesidora long ago. Beliefs began to change even as society did. Individuals gained power and used that power to shape the rest of mankind, erasing beliefs that were problematic to their claims of power and rightful rule and eroding the old ways. Society shifted from a matriarchal creator-worship where the miraculous birthing powers of the womb were celebrated to a patriarchal society where men claimed the power of the Divine and women were merely there to assist them, to serve them. In such a society a story about how it was a woman who descended from the Divine Spirits, a woman who brought the knowledge of culture to humanity would not do. And so over the course of time the story changed. Anesidora became a woman who accidentally let the good blessings slip from the hands of the gods, just a fool who inadvertently helped humanity. Then when a great Egyptian ruler was ravaged by a series of plagues of divine and biblical retribution the story of a barrage of plagues and evils striking the world one after another eventually became linked, where the woman accidentally dropped blessings and thus the gods had to balance the scales by releasing an equal number of evils.
And so on and so forth. The story evolved, passing from hand to hand and from society to society as was needed, altered as needed to further vilify women and put them in their place as supplicant and servantile. Anesidora became known instead as Pandora, “She Who is Gifted”, a woman designed purely for deception and misery. The mythical first woman, such that all women who followed would inherit her Ideal form, carrying down the deceptions and the misery and the wicked curiosity possessed by their miserable ancestor. The story became so known, so widespread, that Pandora became a symbol of evil, an external force that brought curses upon innocent man with ill intent. By externalising the blame for their own evil thoughts, the hearts of mankind became calmed and humanity rejoiced, for it was saved from having to accept its own evil. In doing so, this woman became the exact definition of an Anti-Hero, someone who was reviled but saved humanity through her villainy, and thus her template has been able to reach the Throne of Heroes, though tremendously distorted by the lens of perception and time.
Pandora, as she now calls herself, has taken on the traits of her stories, transforming mankind’s insatiable curiosity into her own. She is, as the accounts state, gifted with “a shameful mind and a deceitful nature”, filled with “lies and crafty words” and a “cruel longing”. Innocent Monster has almost completely perverted her personality. Though she seems innocent and charming enough, she has a lust for knowledge and seeks it constantly. Her train of questions seems cute and amusing at first, but can quickly become tiring as she is never satisfied. It is not just questions that she seeks answers to, but experiences that she desires to feel so she is often doing absurd or shameful things “just for the hell of it”, as she might say.
It is not to say that Pandora is evil, the stories have not distorted her so far as to totally obliterate her original nature. Rather it is to say that although she laments how her curses and burdens harm other people, her curiosity is prioritised above all else. She still has aspects of her original teacher-role within her, being affectionate towards children and happy to talk to others about things they don’t know about, and her homunculus body is still primed for potent magical performance even if the recounted stories have atrophied her talent for it. She is not cold-hearted either, and she knows the truth of her own distorted self, weeping for the pure and altruistic being she once was when she last walked the earth. A part of her wishes to clean the slate, let others see her for who she really was, but having been called into this Holy Grail War, Pandora now faces an enormous opportunity, for if she wins she can claim the cup and access the Records of the World, Akasha. In doing so she can potentially obtain all the knowledge in the world and finally be sated. Right now even she does not know which of her two desires will be victorious if she claims the cup. And she is desperately curious to know the answer to that question.
Class Skills
Magical Resistance
Grants protection from magical effects. Capable of cancelling spells altogether instead of simply rejecting prana, at a high enough rank.
B: The ability to negate most magic, including that up to a Three-Verse Aria, completely, and to weaken stronger magic to a degree.
Riding
The ability to ride animals or control vehicles with sure, steadfast skill.
E: Provided only through the Class Container, this Skill is not one earned by Saber herself. She will quickly learn to control any ordinary vehicle or steed, but has no inherent skill in them.
Personal Skills
Potnia Theron
The authority of the earth goddess. What it is is the embodiment of the power of creation possessed by the mother goddesses, originating from a forgotten goddess approximately 8000 years ago (the goddess of Çatalhöyük), and branching to Tiamat and Cybele, Ishtar, Inanna, Athena, Astarte, Gaia, Hera, Artemis, Aphrodite, Demeter, Athena, etc..
X: Saber was, prior to her descent to man’s realm, an earth mother goddess and a symbol of bountiful harvests, but in order to become of use to humanity in the physical realm all of her divine traits were utterly erased. The further distortment of her history through vilification has only further obliterated her existence as a divine mother.
Transfiguration
The inherent skill to transfigure one’s body into many appearances and shapes possessed by Autonomous Dolls. Allows the user to distribute his Parameters as he chooses, within a given pool of “Parameter Points”. The higher the rank, the greater the pool, but two ranks worth of points will be needed to bring A up to A+.
D: Due to her design as “man’s perfect companion”, Saber’s feminine image is ideal and immutable, rendering her unable to alter her physical form or freely allocate Parameters as she wishes. However, she can rearrange her Parameter Ranks of A, B, C, D and E to relate to any of her Parameters as long as she has an uninterrupted few seconds to spare.
Innocent Monster
The name of the monster that had his past and way of being distorted because of the image that was born from his behavior in the previous life. Both abilities and appearance were transformed. Incidentally, this equipment (Skill) cannot be removed.
C: The differences between the truth and the legend are clearly noticeable, but they are still tied together. It is assured that some of the Skills or Phantasms will have functions quite different from how they should really be. The progress of time and the shift towards patriarchal systems that insidiously discredit women and old pagan beliefs has seen Saber’s role change from that of a woman who brought gifts of knowledge from the gods to a wicked woman whose own curiosity ruined the entire world. By becoming the externalised source of blame for all the evils in the world, Saber has become as close to a true Anti-Hero as is possible for any individual to be, and it is this assignment of blame to her as an external agent that freed the hearts of men from guilt, inadvertently saving them and transforming her into a twisted sort of Heroic Spirit.
Insatiable Curiosity
The drive to know more, to understand more, that exists within all of mankind is a powerful force that has driven progress and advancement since time immemorial. In certain individuals however, this drive is exceptionally strong, to the point where it can become a dangerous obsession.
A+: The very posterchild for the destructive potential of excessive curiosity, Saber is absolutely driven to learn and to discover anything and everything in the world around her. It is at the same time a blessing and a curse, as she will experience strong compulsions to solve mysteries or find the answers to questions that plague her, to the point where she will become highly distracted from other tasks and possibly suffer from degraded performance and Parameters unless actively pursuing her quest for knowledge. However, at the same time her drive for answers means that she has strong protection against external mental influences and skills, especially those that would mask information from her or dull her mind away from pertinent questions.
Irresistible Appeal
The charm of the Servant is truly alluring, on the level of mind-affecting magecraft. When in the presence of this Servant, others find themselves under enchantment that tries to make them do his bidding, based on contested Magic Checks. Time will weaken the effect.
B: At this rank, only high rank mental-warding skills combined with medium rank MGI can ward off the enchantment. Though she was actually sculpted as a beautiful homunculus simply because the gods delighted in beauty, the distortions of history paint her as being specifically designed to be so beautiful that humans would be charmed into willingly choosing her and inadvertently bringing about their divine punishment.
Bronze Pithos
Source of All The World’s Evils
Type: Anti-Unit/Anti-Army Rank: E ~ A+ Targets: Varies Range: 1-50
Description: Saber was sent to mankind to act as the sheathe to man’s sword, tempering his destructive nature as a simple “weapon” by providing a “place of restraint and sanctuary where man can seal his sword away”. It is, in the most plain of terms, an allegorical legend that represents the potentially-dangerous conquest instinct of the masculine through the phallic imagery of a sword, and the calming and restraining nature of the feminine through the yonic symbolism of the scabbard where the masculine blade can seek respite and comfort.
Over the course of time, the yonic imagery of the vagina and the womb became externalised as a vessel that could be clearly depicted alongside Saber’s own image, and so it was transformed into an earthen container, a jar or urn known as a “pithos”, which in turn was mistranslated to the Latin “pyxis”, meaning a box or crate. It is this gradual transformation of information over extended intervals of time that has warped Saber’s Noble Phantasm in form and in function.
The “bronze pithos” has returned in form to the most basic physical form it can take as a yonic symbol, represented as a simple bronze scabbard, a solid container that holds fitted within it a similarly-made ceremonial bronze blade, a sharp phallic symbol that represents both the most basic underlying purpose of Saber’s descent to mankind and also acts as the physical representation of the stopper that seals the pithos. The very image of the sword sealing the scabbard is a potent talisman of creation and growth, but the true nature of the yonic scabbard is unveiled only once the blade is removed.
Bronze Pithos is at its heart a perversion of the original intent of Saber’s ascent to Earth, to teach mankind a variety of techniques and bring valuable knowledge. Due to the alterations of legend that have occurred over time, the story of Pandora has been twisted for various political reasons to paint women as the source of mankind’s evil, erasing the previously-powerful matriarchal focus of most ancient societies in order to consolidate power within new patriarchal leaders. It is a Noble Phantasm in direct opposition to its twin, the Earthen Pithos oF Anesidora, which highlights the powerful blessings brought to humanity by the creation power of the feminine. Together the two Noble Phantasms are in balance, perfectly harmonised as the linga-yoni, a nondualistic unified symbol of transcendent potentiality.
Because Saber came from the Divine realm as a curse from the gods, unsealing her Bronze Pithos by drawing her sword begins to release curses from the scabbard. The sword itself is a perfectly ordinary one, but it is coated in the wicked curses of the scabbard, and so injuries from it fester and cause illness. The curses of mankind continuously leak from the scabbard, a thick, evil mud that sears and burns, and it writhes around Saber in a nest of violent, agitated tendrils that are constantly shifting and alive. Saber is able to assault others with these burning tendrils, each stroke searing the skin and imparting unhealable wounds as well as curses of wicked thoughts, an accumulating mental influence that can convert even the most pure of men, overriding defenses against mental influence. The attacks are all the evils that mankind has brought upon itself and so defenses provided by the divine are no more effective than man-made ones, and these attacks inflict additional damage to Good-aligned heroes. In addition, any and all curses directed against Pandora are absorbed and reflected back against their point of origin. These evils and more all stem from the concept that the legend of Pandora’s Box was twisted to be told from the perspective of a patriarchal power-base, where a woman arriving in front of men was the cause of all the evils of the word. In this case, it was the act of taking all the curses, diseases and vile things that were safely locked away from the world of humankind and “lifting the lid” so to speak, scattering all the most wicked of curses into the world at large to prey upon humanity and ravage us with curses, poisons, old age, disease and wicked emotions.
Saber is able to channel the curses into her sword to release as a wave beam of burning evil, allowing for ranged attacks that will devastate and eradicate the land around her in a blaze of fire and brimstone. However, her Pithos does contain only a limited number of curses. It can be said to be all the evils in the world, but even all the evils in the world will eventually be depleted. She can utilise her evils for up to 60 continuous turns, and if resealed the evils will gradually reaccumulate within the Pithos. However, if it becomes completely empty then the evils have been spent and will not restore themselves within. At this point in time Elpis becomes unsealed and able to be utilised.
Description: Elpis is well known within the context of Pandora’s box, for once all the evils in the world had been released, the only thing left inside was elpis, or “hope”. It was kept within the jar, away from the rest of the world, but was this an action of mercy or of cruelty?
When Saber released all the evils upon the world, she unwittingly closed the pithos before one last thing could escape, as it was trapped under the lip of the jar and slow to react. This was Elpis, the personification of hope. It has been debated whether trapping hope inside was a positive action or not, for in the classical interpretation Elpis could be more accurately represented as “expectation” of either good or bad nature and was described as the “most evil of all evils” by Hesiod.
Unfortunately, in the context of this divided Saber, restraining Elpis was assuredly another curse. Taking on the more modern interpretations of Pandora’s legend, the spirit within was definitely “hope” itself and so by locking it away all of mankind became “hopeless”, a species that could only exist and continue to perpetuate evils with no end in sight. It would stand to reason, in this case, that releasing Elpis from the container in which it is sealed can only be a positive action.
Again, the division of Saber between good Anesidora and evil Pandora has made such assumptions a false method of thinking. Elpis is a spirit that has spent uncountable aeons trapped within the pithos, and for the indefinable era since Pandora released the other spirits it has been trapped entirely alone in this prison whose walls are stained with the accumulated taint of the evils that once resided within. Elpis has never seen light since it was first sealed away, and in the intervening period has become both mad with loneliness, tainted with corruption and blind with degenerated vision. Releasing a creature such as Elpis, in this scenario, is a disaster waiting to happen.
In truth, Elpis is a metaphysical being, something on the level of a Nature Spirit, and not an actual creature. When released, it will inhabit Saber’s body, transforming her into an avatar of blind hope, released after innumerable years of torment. Saber immediately gains Mad Enhancement Rank B, Ranking Up all of her Parameters and turning her into a wild beast, maddened and uncontrollable except by the strongest of restraint and command methods. She becomes completely blind, her face masked by the writhing, burning mud of her Pithos, as the substance coats her whole body in acidic, burning curses and seals away all of her skills. Transformed into a flailing feral beast, Saber starts to destroy everything within range of her wildly and without thought for anyone or anything else.
Once she is in such a state, there are only two ways to end the effects of Elpis. A Command Seal can force the spirit back into her Pithos and kickstart the regeneration of the curses within her first Noble Phantasm, or death can strip her body away from the vengeful, maddened spirit, destroying it completely.
Baron Münchhausen - Between the 'Self Made Hero' skill and 'Trip to the moon' Noble Phantasm, this guy is pretty op. Wank aside, I can understand the Mad Enhancement being that high. After reading the lore and seeing this was a combination of real and fictional state it made more sense.
Jack Ketch - Interesting for an excecutioner style assassin that isn't stealthy at all. He has a good theme going with the sadism and gore and i find it entertaining he had to write apology letters because he made such a scene.
Rumplestiltskin - He has the potential to become ridiculously overpowered, but his name has a great weakness and at least someone would figure it out. He's probably a mid/final boss in story terms but not physical/combat prowess.
Anesidora/Pandora - Nice job here, you've clearly put a lot of thought into all this. The Nasu-Lore works particularly well.
Servant: Archer Faceclaim: (Target Marked...)(Image 7) True Name: Abraham van Helsing Alignment: Lawful Good
This is rather late but what ever.
This is a very well done mid tier servant. Like your Connla Sheet he isn't all that power full stat wise but he makes up for it somehow. With Connla it was Eye of Mind False. With Helsing its a mixture of experience and his ability to be prepared for almost any situation (True Helsing style). Without his vast arsenal he would be a bit below average. But due to his versatility, if he plays it smart (Which I assume he will) he can stand up to high tier servants and give them a run for their money. Like batman (Why am I compairing TM to DC?) he only needs the right preparation to best his foes.
-UPDATE-
On a side note I finally added a personality section to all of my servants (except Guan Yu, because come on it's Guan Yu we already know what he's like, your average honorable guy that will die for his brothers etc) and I gave all of my characters theme music
Last edited by ZSB1999; April 3rd, 2016 at 04:37 AM.
Baron Münchhausen - Between the 'Self Made Hero' skill and 'Trip to the moon' Noble Phantasm, this guy is pretty op. Wank aside, I can understand the Mad Enhancement being that high. After reading the lore and seeing this was a combination of real and fictional state it made more sense.
The Baron is pretty wonky in his stories too. What would keep him from being too strong is a combination of the fictional Baron's personality, and the real Baron's desire to not tarnish his "creation".
Vagrant: Wow, those Pandora and Anisedora sheets you made were freaking great! There was clearly a ton of time and effort put into them, especially the lore section and all the symbolism surrounding her NPs. The idea of "dual reflections" of the same original concept/person is very interesting. If I had one point of critique I'd advise combining Expert Of Many Specializations and Culture Hero into Wisdom Of Divine Gift, which canonically has the effects of both.
Only thing else I can say is, I wish I could have read that fic!
Yeah, that's the thing about constantly refining an element of a story, if it goes through many revisions then it's bound to improve. My early "dual-concept Sabers" were much more straightforward and simple. I was always interested by the transformation of the Anesidora/Pandora story over time, and I was musing how she could have been potentially the "next-best thing" to Angra Mainyu for an Avenger who becomes the externalised blame for All the World's Evils. In an earlier iteration of the fic concept she was the Caster, so she could have some interaction with Avenger.
But then I had that beautiful moment of realization. "If Mankind's dick is a sword then Man needs someone who can handle that dicksword!" and it all fell into place.
The core of the bios was written well before Wisdom of the Gods had been translated, so I hadn't thought of that. It would probably make a far better substitute for Librarian of Stored Knowledge but I think I'll keep Culture Hero. The variations of WotG that we've seen have all been on people who taught a handful of heroic individuals, rather than bringing a valuable knowledge to the masses. Plus I've used Culture Hero in 3 or 4 of my other profiles so it's grown on me as a custom skill representing mass dissemination of knowledge. I could probably modify it to pass on skills far quicker and to larger numbers of people than WotG though.
EDIT: I like trying to write new Nasulore for characters, to really make them feel like part of an existing world. I should do it for more of my characters.
Last edited by Vagrant; April 3rd, 2016 at 12:17 PM.
Originally Posted by The Bird of Hermes
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