Heavily Marked Maiden
A Little Bit Closer To Heaven
Type: Anti-Unit (Self)/Team
Rank: B+
Range: 2-5
Max Target: 100
Caster's arms are heavily adorned with sleeves of tattoos, a cultural tradition for everyone in the Pazyryk tribe. Compared to all tattoos found by archeologists around the world, those on the mummies of the Pazyryk people are the most complicated, and the most beautiful. More ancient tattoos have been found, like the Ice Man found in the Alps - but he only had lines, not the perfect and highly artistic images one can see on the bodies of the Pazyryks.
Tattoos were used as a mean of personal identification - like a passport now, if you like. The Pazyryks also believed the tattoos would be helpful in another life, making it easy for the people of the same family and culture to find each other after death. Pazyryks repeated the same images of animals in other types of art, which is considered to be like a language of animal images, which represented their thoughts.
The same can be said about the tattoos - it was a language of animal imagery, used to express some thoughts and to define one's position both in society, and in the world. The more tattoos were on the body, the longer it meant the person lived, and the higher was his position. For example the body of one man, which was found earlier in the 20th century, had his entire body covered with tattoos. Caster has only her two arms tattooed. So they signified both age and status. The tattoos on the left shoulder of the Caster show a fantastical mythological animal: a deer with a griffon's beak and a Capricorn's antlers. The antlers are decorated with the heads of griffons. And the same griffon's head is shown on the back of the animal. The mouth of a spotted panther with a long tail is seen at the legs of a sheep. She also has a deer's head on her wrist, with big antlers. There is a drawing on the animal's body on a thumb on her left hand.
The Pazyryk also believed that the steppe in which they lived was a sort of [second heaven], a place alienated from the rest of humanity but not quite in the spirit realm; a place where the boundary between the real and phantasmal was thin and prone to stretching. Thus, as a Servant, Caster's relation to the steppe and what it meant is closer than ever. By becoming the spiritual foundation for the racial memory of her phantasmal homeland, Caster is able to channel the same [second heaven] through her body, displayed through her tattoos. By choosing a specific tattoo to focus her energies on, Caster can achieve a variety of different effects.
Deer (Anti-Unit Self, C)
When activated, raises her Agility for up to 30 turns.
Crane (Anti-Unit Self, C)
When activated, ascribes a temporary E ranked Clairvoyance skill: giving her sharp sight for 30 turns.
Griffin (Anti-Army, A)
The most important animal to the Pazyryk. The griffin is perceived not only as a “heavenly bird clawing a horse,” but also as a heavenly horse-bird. in the expression that goes back to antiquity “to interbreed a griffon-vulture with a horse,” which literally means “a vague relation between griffon-vultures and horses". An ungulate torturer, The mythical griffin is the most popular figure in Pazyryk art, suggesting that the Pazyryk people may be identified with the “griffins guarding gold,” mentioned by Aristeas and Herodotus.
While it's true that the Monstrous Beast is superior to Astolfo's Hippogriff, Caster's griffin doesn't have its [impossible nature] that it can take advantage of. Still, the griffin tattoo is Caster's most powerful, and not to be underestimated. Bringing the griffin forth from the [second heaven]--the only environment it can factually exist--Caster unleashes the specter of the griffin in a single lightning charge. Incredibly cost heavy.
Argali (Anti-Unit Self, C)
A species of mountain goat found around the Altai mountains. When activated, raises her Endurance for 30 turns.
Winged Snow Leopard (Anti-Unit Self, B)
When activated, Caster's movements become absolutely muffled. She is more easily able to camouflage even in environments she's unfamiliar with, and she can also glide for short distances.