The Vague Rants of Vagrant

Continuing from my previous post, we have the next three classes in the cancelled Fate/Terra Nullius tale.

Riders

Qin Shi Huang
- The First Emperor of China
- An imperious man who commands the minions of his Terracotta Army as golems bound to the wraiths of his deceased soldiers. His deepest and most abiding fear is death, so despite his great strength he is unusually cautious, defensive and perhaps even cowardly.
- His mount is an alchemical beast made of the mercury that he used so much in his quest for an elixir of immortality. Wu Xing shifts form between the five elements of fire, water, metal, earth and wood, and each element is linked to an animal form from the Cardinal Directions (White Tiger, Azure Dragon, Red Phoenix, Black Tortoise, Yellow Dragon). Rider wears five rings on his right hand, each topped with a core tainted by an elemental spirit, the same theory that Gem Magecraft utilises, and these rings control each elemental form that Wu Xing can take.

Memorial to the First Emperor - Terracotta Army	Reality Marble of the city-sized mausoleum constructed for Qin Shi, plus his 8000 terracotta warriors and additional men. Vastly powerful Phantasm.
Wu Xing - The Five Agents of Heaven	A heavenly beast for Qin Shi Huang to ride, it takes the form of any of the Five Cardinal Beasts, and the associated elemental attribute.

Clydno Eiddon
- Character Sheet
- A proper Rider, weak and insignificant but with an exceptional mount Noble Phantasm. Definitely one of my favourite Servants for his vast protagonist potential.

Ziusudra
- Character Sheet
- Since I ended up ditching ProtoGil I decided to just repurpose his Noble Phantasm and give it to the actual flood guy.
- Potential Big Bad or Unattainable Hero, given his two opposed but super powerful Noble Phantasms. He is an actual immortal and thinks in completely inhuman ways so he is something more akin to an unpredictable force of nature sweeping through other Grail competitors.

Shuruppak - Ark of Salvation	A giant boat manifests, with pairs of Phantasmal Beasts inside that can attack the enemy.
Enki - Sword of the End	Twin golden swords, can combine into a bow that fires arrows of destructive light. Used as a tracer round for "Enlil" Phantasm.
Enlil - Star of Destruction: Utnapishtim's Flood	Seven great bolts of energy in space combine and crash to Earth at the target point. Then a biblical flood crashes down in a Bounded Field.

Arjuna
- Character Sheet
- With Karna in a war of this scale, Arjuna was an inevitability. He's designed as Karna's exact mirror.- Original NP outline was as follows:

Vimana Khandava: The Blazing Sky Chariot	Ancient jet-like vehicle, sprays fire and napalm as it flies, possesses powerful fireball weaponry.
Mayasabha: The Grand Palace Hall	Rank A Reality Marble, a grand hall in which Arjuna never runs out of arrows, has support from wraith Archers and gains Rank Up in all Parameters.
Anjalika: Penetrating Thunderous Arrow	Rank B, Penetrating drill arrow, trails lightning wherever it goes. Can only be used against those who have low LUCK.

Cadmus
- Founding father of Thebes, created the Greek alphabet, birthed Spartan warriors from the ground, slew the Ismenean Dragon.
- Originally intended for the Monster class, since he was forcefully transformed into a monstrous snake by Ares after he killed Ares' son, the dragon.
- Wanted a Rider with a Dragon mount Noble Phantasm so lol now Cadmus is a Rider on top of the dragon he didn't kill but secretly just broke in as his pet and humiliated Ares. Or something like that.
- Mixed bag Rider, with a lance and some Age of God magecraft in the form of the language he brought to Greece. Rank C or whatever, not too impressive but handy to have. Also, Rank C Familiars skill, since he can manually summon Dragon Tooth Golems like Medea did, in smaller numbers. As Caster this would be a Noble Phantasm in its own right.

Scriptbringer: The Man Who Bore Forth Writing	Something related to how Cadmus brought the Phonencian alphabet to Greece and established its first written language. Probably tied to Divine Language and Rune Magic, allowing Cadmus to classify as a Caster in a secondary role.
The Dragon of the Castelian Spring	A Greek dragon for Cadmus to ride on. It is a sacred beast to the god of war and so bears a curse of affliction against anybody who harms it.
Misfortune of Harmonia: The Cursed Form	Cadmus can transform into a monstrous serpent when in the Monster class, though this ability is sealed and transformed into Monstrous Strength in other containers.

Grainne O'Malley
- Irish shipping magnate/pirate queen/rebellious strong independent woman who don't need no queen
- So, surprising nobody at all, this was originally going to be Francis Drake, another Servant that I felt was underutilised in EXTRA. Then I ended up torn between her and Chng Shih, a Chinese pirate queen of the mid 1800s, but decided I liked fiery Irish pirates better and just made her a shameless Drake ripoff
-She would likely be racked with skills like Rebellious Spirit or Subversive Activities (Naval) or something. She really didn't accept the ruling authority of the English monarchy at all.

The Sea Queen of Connaught	A great pirate ship appears, can fly or travel on land, fires volleys of cannonballs before disappearing.
Promised Meal: The Pledge of Howth Castle	A ring given to Rider in a pledge that Howth Castle would never close its doors to an unexpected guest and would always set an extra plate at the table. Allows entry through "locks" and "doors" of an equal or lower rank. Rank C.
The Queen's Commune: Never Bow Before Nobility	A small dagger that deals A+ damage against Heroic Spirits who were nobility in their past lives. Rank D+

Trung Sisters
- A pair of sisters from Vietnam who rebelled against Chinese rulers. Famed as Vietnamese national heroes.
- So I wanted an elephant Rider too. Original choice was for Hannibal Barca, but I went through many options, such as Cyrus the Younger and Phyrrus before I settled on these two girls.
- Twins who share a single spiritual signature, if one is killed the other will also die. When only one is corporealised the Parameters are lowered, but they coordinate attacks and ambushes by keeping one of them astral as much as possible for surprise attacks, making it seem as if they teleport by appearing and vanishing in sync with each other through the skill Battle Coordination
- The Noble Phantasm is of course War Elephants. Very similar to the Noble Phantasm possessed by my Hannibal Barca, since they came from the same template. Except they get two elephants for double the damage.
- Weaker Servant who rely on surprise and coordination to disupt foes, get to Masters while keeping their Servants tied up, and other such strategies.

El Cid
- Character Sheet
- Always a kind of Saber/kind of Rider to me. Envisioned him as a rougish Indiana Jones type who wanted to steal all the treasures of the Americas for Spanish glory. See my previous entry about Fate/Zero Hour for a bit more about this personality quirk.

Tizona & Colada: Pure Brands of the Worthy	Tizona burns extremely hot, pierces defenses. Colada glows bright, cowing opponents with mental interference. Rank C swords in the Rider Class container.
Valencia Heart: Golden Army of the Champion	El Cid is able to corrupt combatants not under direct command of a Master or Servant into Noble Phantasm pseudoSpirits at his command by paying for services.
Babieca: Monk's Gift to the Foolish	A straight charge, hard and fast, on the back of Babeica the horse.

• Discarded: Guan Yu and Bradamante were also considered as Riders, and Odin and John Henry were temporarily in this Class after being kicked out of the Lancer class too.

Casters

Artephius
- Character Sheet
- This Caster was swapped a lot, going from Tiresias to Daedalos to Jabir ibn Hayyan and finally to Artephius. The idea was always to have a Caster whose own magecraft wasn't great, but really specialised in reinforcing or boosting his Master through skills like Enchantment or Attendant of Iron and Item Construction.
- Basically about as nice a Caster as you could expect to get, really. The true protagonist Caster.
- Before settling on Artephius and his total lack of Noble Phantasms, Daedalos was the forerunner, and even had his NPs sketched out roughly:

Labyrinthos: The Inescapable Prison Maze	Tied to Territory Creation, makes a giant nigh-indestructable labyrinth around Daidalos' base, or to imprison people. A+ level fortress.
Icarus: Soaring Feathered Wings	Conceptual Weapon: Freedom. Mechanical wings that allow Daidalos to soar through the sky, agile and quick.
Talos: Bulwark of Crete	A great bronze golem, a defensive powerhouse that requires extensive materials to construct. Able to reconfigure into a hovering disc-type shield to mve around in an automated defensive pattern, it fires rays of solar heat as attacks in either form.

The Dealer
- Character Sheet
-The EMIYA of the Grail War, a Counter Guardian who is unknown as a hero and only called upon to make sure the War isn't ruinous for Humanity. Was originally to be the actual Wild West personality Poker Alice, but it was decided that an unknown magus had a more compelling story to be told.
- Could reasonably considered the other protagonist of the Caster class.- Gambler, prostitute and overall the good-hearted bitch type.

The Hand That Fate Dealt	Ranged attacks of various elements by throwing cards.
Ace in the Hole	Single use spell of high power. Rank A.
Grand Arcana	Bounded Field? RM? Some sort of fortune telling/manipulation Phantasm of a moderate rank

Wodinaz
- The Norse god Odin, the Allfather. But actually, not. Because Divne Spirits cannot be called upon by the Holy Grail, what was summoned is actually the man who inspired the mythology of odin, the proto-Germanic warrior mage Wodinaz. He was s killed and powerful hero, but in the end was mortal and died like any other man, later becoming deified by those who had only heard stories of him, thus birthing a Divine Spirit counterpart.
- Considered previously for Lancer with Gungnir and Rider with Sleipnir, he was eventually selected for Caster due to hi position as a strong rune magus.
- Main NP would be the ritual that bestowed the runes upon him, or else the sacrifice of his eye for great wisdom, but he had a pared down version of Gungnir as his weapon/casting staff as well.

Mimir's Payment: The Cost of Knowledge

Wodanaz is unable to be fooled by Presence Concealment and has an instant understanding of any Noble Phantasm he's seen.

Neferkaptah
- Character Sheet
- A "legendary" or "fictional" Heroic Spirit. Has some inferiority issues as a result.
- A defensive Caster who turtles within his dangerous territory and messes with the brains of anyone who enters, he is eventually torn apart by the Monster class Ka Narmer, who can claim basically anything related to Egypt as his own, and subverts Neferkaptah's power.

Scheherazade
- An enchanting storyteller and beauty who kept her husband amused for 1001 nights with many different tales
- Possesses a unique distorted inner world, Arabian Nights, a world of mystique and folklore, and can pull objects from this RM, as well a shape it into different scenarios, though never more than once because telling the same story twice is boring
- An actual lunatic who believes completely in whichever world she happens to immerse herself in, causing her to be erratic and of varying use, but she is exceptionally charming to the point of mental interference.

Koschei the Deathless
- A Rusian/Serbian folktale villain, a wizard who has transformed himself into a sort of lich by locking his life away outside of his body and thus cannot be killed
- Will resurrect infinitely after being killed, but has no invulnerability. The inverse of people like Achilles or Siegfried, his lif force is locked away in his Noble Phantasm Needle of Buyan and it has been hidden from dscovery with many powerful spells, requiring a talented investigator to discover it and destroy Koschei's spiritual core.
- Likely would have focused on water/ice magecraft and possibly swords, I recall basing much of Koschei's combat power set on Sayaka and her Witch Form in Madoka Magica.

Morgan le Fay
- The half sister of King Arthur and mother to Mordred. Wished to rule over Britain but was never eligible, instead becoming the Witch Queen of the Island and also the Lady of the Lake, as she is half-fae in heritage.
- Not sure what her power set or true nature would have been like but Garden of Avalon basically rewrote a lot of what I expected of her. Very protective of Mordred, they'd work as a parent-child team with quite a good threat level, with Morgan enchanting and Reinforcing Mordred from the sidelines and providing support and utility spells.

Discarded: Shakespeare, Pandora, Enheduanna, Ennigaldi. The last I was loathe to cut since her NP was supposed to be The First Museum and it would have worked like an inverted Gate of Babylon, with each defeated Servant in the war providing relics and artefacts that would fill the museum over time that she could utilise for herself. In a war as big as this one she could have been a real threat.

Berserkers

Boudicca
- Character Sheet
- Designed to be a real Berserker, weak stats that get really buffed but with a big prana drain.
- She and Grainne O'Malley could have been great friends, if not for her madness.
- A riding Berserker because at the time that seemed fairly unique. Possibly still is, in terms of the Servants in actual TM works to date.
- Not some shitty demure big-titted monstrosity. Thanks GO.

Estfandiyar
- The Invincible Berserker. Originally Achilles, until the Patroclus idea required a sane "Achilles" and saw him booted from the class.
- Faced Seven Trials much like Herakles, but unlike how Herk sublimed it into a single thing, Estfandiyar ended up having a weapon that would morph into seven different forms. Not unlike Lu Bu's God Force, now that I think about it.

Brunhildr
- The shunned valkyrie wife of Siegfried, she murdered him after discovering his deceit
- This was before CCC so no Brynhild Romantia for her. Not sure what weapon she had, probably a sword.
- I really just needed another female Berserker, I don't think she actually qualifies for having had an incident of madness in her life.
- Noble Phantasm was tentitively listed as Ride of the Valkyries but I can't remember if I had any actual ideas for it. Not at all reminiscent of the Brunhildr profile I ended up writing.

Ghatotkatca
-The big threat for Arjuna and Karna to express concern over and maybe even bond over as a mutual enemy. But actually it is a repeat of the original legend, with Arjuna trying to cajole Karna into using VS to kill this guy, and Karna being very wary and refusing to do so, forcing people to find another way to take this Berserker out.

Samson
- Biblical superman whose hair is the source of his strength.
- Bears three geas that weaken his Strength and Endurance by a Rank if broken, and are cumulative.
- Noble Phantasm is Jawbone of the Ass, a brutal battering weapon made from the bones of a giant donkey-like Monstrous Beast.

Cuchulainn
- Good ol' Hound of Ulster. Sporting a dog or wolf-like theme, it was jut an excuse to have an incoherent Lancer running around in nothing but a loincloth, body tattooed all over with war paint, snarling awfully and being a horrifically agile Berserker.
-Scathach ends up having to put him down, or at least confronts him and is displeased by what he has become.
-Has the Gae Bolg as a powerful lance but it is a low grade Noble Phantasm, due to being unable to be invoked. Just has the difficult-healing thing going for it, really.
-Other two Noble Phantasms are Riastrad, Warp Spasm of the Hound and The Standing Stone. The former is a monstrous temporary transformation above and beyond regular Rank C Mad Enhancement he possesses and the latter is super Battle Continuation that fixes you into a small perimeter that you cannot leave, and when he dies he explodes in a flash of deadly light. Surprisingly similar to what Spartacus would become, in the end.

Frankenstein's Beast
-Servant Profile
-I jut really liked the whole concept behind her, okay? I think she had an additional two Personal Skills and one more Noble Phantasm called Modern Prometheus: The Spark of Life, which was to be a sort of ally-reviving thing or something that could animate a horde of butchered cyborg familiars made by the Master.

Sun Wukong
-Character Sheet
-Since it had been mentioned Bucephalus was a Heroic Spirit and the original novel mentions that animals and machines can become Heroic Spirits too, I decided I wanted to play with that, and made the famous Great Sage Equal to Heaven an exaggerated tale based on an actual monkey that had been enlighted by the World.
-He and Sakata Kintoki would have excellent compatibility.

Discarded: Angantyr, Achilles, Quasimodo, Galvarino