Romulus, Founder of Rome
Lancer
Alignment: Lawful Neutral.
Natural Enemy: Servant Rider.
| STR: B |
MGI: B |
| END: C |
LCK: A |
| AGI: A |
NP: A+ |
Class and Personal Skills:
Magic Resistance: B
It grants protection against magical effects. At this level it cancel spells with a chant below three verses. It’s Important to note that the term "verse" refers to a set of three lines. Thus, a chant of two verses is equivalent to a Six-Line incantation. Even if targeted by High-Thaumaturgy and Greater Rituals, it is difficult for him to be affected.
Instinct: A
The power to "feel" the most favorable developments for oneself during battle. At this level, Romulus’ refined sixth sense is now close to true precognition. It grants the bonus effect of reducing by half the penalties caused by obstructed vision and hearing.
According to the legend, the twins were rescued and raised by a she-wolf in the swamp of Velabrum; now, it doesn’t matter how many years a human may spend with wild animals, he will never be able to acquire their keen senses; however, in order to survive in such an hostile environment since early age, their childhood allowed them to overcome such “deficiency” by developing the natural sixth sense that lays dormant in every man. This survival instinct will later be further developed during their early days of brigandage.
When it came the time to decide where to lay the foundations of the next-to-be Rome, Romulus successfully chose the Palatine Hill, receiving slightly more favorable auguries than his brother from the gods. Romulus was also said to be a successful war leader, able to turn the tides of a battle in a moment.
This skill of his grants him the ability to choose and successfully defend the place (or person) he chooses to protect.
Sworn Defender: A
"Whoever it is, whatever it is, I shall defend it at the cost of my very own blood!"
The capacity of a Servant to choose a region (or even a person) as his personal “element to be defended”. It increases combat capabilities and skills when fighting in its defense.
It’s a skill related to Romulus digging the trench around the Palatine to define his city boundary, thus establishing the Pomerium, the sacred boundary of the city of Rome. As established by Romulus it was forbidden to cross its boundaries with arms, and thus when Remus attempted to do so his brother had to strike him dead on the spot, albeit with deep regret.
In legal terms, Rome existed only within the Pomerium; everything beyond it was simply territory belonging to Rome.
The Pomerium, the original line ploughed by Romulus around the borders of the original city in 21 April 753 B.C., was not a walled area but rather a legally and religiously defined one marked by cippi (milestones, boundary posts). Its establishment was both a mundane and a symbolical/ritual act, according to the Etruscan tradition. However, it encompassed neither the entire metropolitan area nor even all the proverbial Seven Hills (for example, the Palatine Hill was within the Pomerium, but the Capitoline and Aventine Hills were not). The Curia Hostilia and the well of the Comitium in the Forum Romanum, two extremely important locations in the government of the city-state and its empire, were located within it while the temple of Bellona (goddess of war) was beyond it.
In Romulus’ case it’s a skill born from an absolute and self-imposed condition, which according to the legend tragically led to the killing of his own brother Remus. It takes its origin in Romulus’ unyelding obstinacy, a fitting skill for a warrior who swore to protect and was protected by the gods.
Even after his earthly existence, Romulus kept protecting the city and the community he swore to defend as the god Quirinus.
Divinity: A
Romulus and his brother Remus were originally demi-gods, sons of Mars and Rhea Silvia. In addition, Romulus became the full-fledged god Quirinus after having completed his temporal mission.
The name of the mother is also symbolic: the name of Rhea Silvia may suggest a minor deity, a demi-goddess or nymph of forests (interesting detail, since after birth the twins were in fact raised in wilderness). “Silva” means woods or forest, and Rea may be related to “res (gestae)” (meaning “feats”) and “regnum” (meaning “reign”); Rea may also be related to the Greek rheô, "flow", and thus relate to her association with the spirit of the river Tiber (the main watercourse of Rome), or even the Greek goddess Rhea.
According to the legend, after almost forty years of reign, at the age of fifty-four, Romulus mysteriously disappeared in a storm during an eclypse, while he was inspecting the army at Campus Martius, and thus in a phenomenon that similarly attended his birth (according to Cassius Dio). After the storm passed, the king was nowhere to be seen. Afterwards he appeared in a dream to his old friend Julius Proculus (ancestor of the famous Gens Iulia), foreseeing Rome as the future Capital of the World and claiming to have ascended to heaven among the other deities as the god Quirinus. Romulus’ wife, Hersilia, became a goddess too with the name of Hora Quirini.
However, from a more realistic point of view, it’s more likely that Romulus was killed by the Senate, weary of a king too much popular, and the legend of apotheosis was a way to calm the people.
Charisma: B
The natural talent to command an army. It increases the ability of allies during group battles. A rare talent. At this level, it is suitable for a king of a country.
Romulus was a successful leader, both in and out of battles: the first set of rules were attributed to him. He divided the population of Rome between those who could fight and those who could not, creating the army of legions with the former group. From the rest of the populace he selects 100 of the most noble and wealthy fathers (Patres) to serve as his council, the Senate, while their descendants were called Patricians. He laid down the first Roman law and the first Roman calendar, settled the religious rituals and also inaugurated a system of government and social hierarchy based on Patronage.
In order to first populate the newborn city, Romulus established “political asylum”, greeting and accepting exiles, refugees, the dispossessed, criminals and runaway slaves from all over the peninsula; a high rank of Charisma was obviously needed to successful lead such heterogeneous group of people.
Noble Phantasm:
Divine Spear Quirinus
Spear of the Guardian God
Rank: A+
Type: Anti-Unit
The demonic spear that Romulus used to kill his brother Remus in order to defend the sacred boundaries of the Pomerium.
It takes its name from the god Quirinus, allegedly the deified Romulus himself. Quirinus was originally identified with a Sabine god of war; its name, meaning “wielder of the spear”, derives from curis, the name of the Sabine spears and from Cures Sabini, a settlement about 26 miles from Rome, and, according to the tradition the place from where Titus Tatius led his people (Titus Tatius was the co-ruler of Rome in its earliest days along with Romulus) and also renowned as the birthplace of Ancient Rome's second king Numa Pompilius (the king who established the actual cult of Romulus-as-Quirinus).
Quirinus may also be a considered as a “oak-god” (since quercus in Latin means “oak”).
The Sabines erected an altar to this god on the Collis Quirinalis, the Quirinal Hill, one of the Seven Hills of Rome. When the successive Romans settled there, they most likely absorbed the cult of Quirinus into their early belief system.
He was, in fact, a very important deity in Rome’s first time, one of the fundamental, archaic deities. He constituted a divine triad along with Juppiter and Mars, where each of them was the patron god of a social class: Juppiter for the priests and ministers and Mars for the warriors and soldiers, while Quirinus presided over agriculture and the “third function” beyond religion and war, the productive activities of citizens. According to Maurus Servius Honoratus, Quirinus was the “tranquil Mars”, Mars qui praeest paci, Mars who presides on peace, the Mars who presided over the peaceful activites of free men and the internal borders of the city.
Furthermore, it should be noted that the Flamen Quirinalis, the flamen devoted to the cult of this god, also presided over agrarian cults (for example, the god Consus). This flamen remained one of the patrician flamines maiores, the "greater flamens" who preceded the Pontifex Maximus in precedence.
In this sense, from his name derived the terms Quirites (the earliest name of the Roman citizens, protected by this god) and curia (in ancient Rome, the entire populace was divided into thirty curiae, which met in order to confirm the election of magistrates, witness the installation of priests, the making of wills, and adoptions, and later on it will be applied to the meeting places where various assemblies gathered, especially the meeting house of the senate).
The fact that Quirinus was a protective deity of peace and not a warbringer one is further ensured by the fact that Quirites were strictly civilians, and this name when applied to soldiers almost constituted an insult.
Quirinus was portrayed as a bearded man with religious and military clothing, wielding a spear, as a deified likeness of the city of Rome and the pax romana, peace resting on victory. His function of guardian is highlighted by the location of his temple inside the Pomerium but not far from the gate of Porta Collina or Quirinalis, near the shrines of the gods Sancus and Salus. As a protector of peace he is nevertheless armed, in the same way as the quirites are, as they are potentially soldiers.
“Quirinus” was also an epithet of the god Janus, the famous two-faced god who also presided over the beginning and end of conflict, among other things; the Ianus Geminus built by Numa Pompilius was a passage ritually opened at times of war, and shut again when Roman arms rested, probably to symbolize the “peace kept inside”. For this reason Janus, god of gates, is concerned with his function of protector of the civil community. For the same reason the Flamen Portunalis (the flamen “of doors”) oiled the arms of Quirinus, implying that they were to be kept in good order and ready even though they were not to be used immediately.
As already mentioned, Romulus’ Noble Phantasm is the demonic weapon he used to commit fratricide; however, since Quirinus was also a facet of Janus, god of duality, the spear is still able to retain at the same time its status as holy, divine weapon.
In another myth, it was said that Romulus once threw a javelin from the Aventine Hill that reached the Palatine Hill (where the king used to reside). This javelin planted in the earth so strongly that nobody could uproot it; it eventually started growing roots, becoming a giant Cornel. This tree was considered sacred, and attended by the population every time it showed signs of decay; nonetheless, it was indirectly destroyed by emperor Caligula.
The spear acts as a powerful superconductor for Romulus’ Mana, a bundle of magic circuits of superior quality capable to channel all of its wielder’s Prana in an instant, and release it from the tip of the spear as a powerful explosion capable to push back every assault… if not downright killing the lesser tough opponents.
Just as Romulus was elevated to the rank of a deity, his spear too became a divine weapon, and as such it could be regarded.
Mh, he turned out to be quite powerful… more than I originally expected. Also, a lucky Lancer? Whoa.
Anyway, one of the best bodyguard Servants you can get.
And I hit the four-pages long mark this time too… but now you know everything there’s to know about Quirinus, hooray! 
Originally Posted by Seika
F/GO SUPPORT
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