Servants

Isolation.

Some believe it to be an inhumane practice.

Humans are social creatures and require interaction to mentally survive.

Yet, as with nature, there are exceptions.

There is one isolation incident that created an unsolvable mystery.

He was locked in the deepest cell.

Windowless and devoid of natural light.

Locked behind three impossibly heavy and secure iron doors.

Made to wear an iron mask whenever he had visitor or left his cell.

The only clue he even existed was a note detailing the falsity of his name and the crime he was locked away for.

Which revealed further documents that showed a strange chain of imprisonments of a single unknown and unnamed man.

The Man in the Iron Mask.



Salutations. Berserker has answered your call... how might I be of service, Maître?



True Name
Eustace Daugers

__Alias__
Man in the Iron Mask

Class
Berserker

Alignment
Lawful-Chaos

Attribute
Earth

Region
France

Source
Historical Fact
Alexander Dumas' Speculations

Classes



Parameters

STR	AGI	END	MP	LCK	NP
E	D	E	D	E	E

History
... My history....

I'm interested in knowing myself.

An unfortunate side effect of my saint graph, I am cursed with uncertainty.

I do have 'a history' that I was installed with but...

I can easily deduce it to be a fabrication. Several points contradict established fact. Apparently, I am the bastard son of Louis XIV named Eustace Daugers, the selfsame name of infamous Eustache Dauger de Cavoye. Ridiculous, right? I'm certain even Dumas would think so. As such, it must be fabrication even taking the often true "Reality is stranger than fiction" idiom. So then what is the truth? Who was I?

There are clues. As much as the association is fabricated, the name is not. It was what my jailers entered as my name. My crime, "ce pour quoi il était employé", is another hint as is the fact that prison was not my first stop. Indeed... I was entered into multiple asylums. The staff there simply erased my records more thoroughly than my jailers in Pignerol. However, there is one most pertinent clue.

Why was Saint-Mars entrusted with my care?

Perhaps it was that Saint-Mars was simply that talented, but I am unconvinced. Records show him to be a generic politician of the time. So why did Louvois trust him with something so sensitive that I was made to mask myself outside my cell or when anyone entered? Why was him, Louvious, and the king the only ones to know my identity?... That question doesn't answer who I was, but that is the most telling question.

Enough of speculation though. It will serve neither of us.

We could conjure answers but they mean nothing without confirmation... and the mystery is our sword. Even should they come to know that I am L'homme au Masque de fer they cannot do anything with it. There will be aspects to their strategy that we can exploit with ease and claim victory. So, it is more advantageous for us to not speculate; lest we stumble onto a truth our enemies can exploit.

Right, Partenaire?

Class Skills
Mad Enhancement
XA

The default skill of Berserker-class servants.

Due to the skill Préposé Derrière la Porte, this skill is rendered null until that skill is sealed. Once unsealed, he gains the full benefits and none of the downsides for an hour. Once it is up, the benefits he would receive from this skill are halved and he takes the full downsides of this skill.

Communication and strategy become impossible for this servant an hour after this skill returns to power. Additionally, for an hour after this skill is released, his gains three ranks in all of his parameters. However, after that hour is up, he only retains a single rank up in each parameter. The insanity that renders strategy and communication impossible remains. Only the master's intent can be conveyed that this servant can act upon.

Until this skill is released from its seal do these aspects come to pass. Until then, this skill does nothing.

Personal Skills
Préposé Derrière la Porte
A

A skill unique to Eustace.

It references a peculiar detail of his incarceration. He was kept in a windowless cell behind three iron doors that required three different keys all held by two rotating guards and Saint-Mars himself; Yet when La Rivière fell ill while attending a man named Fouquet he was permitted to act as a valet. During these times, and anytime he was outside of his cell, he wore a black veil that acted as a mask and was not to speak of his identity.

This skill acts similarly.

This skill grants him concealment; his presence cannot be detected by supernatural and information gathering skills such as True Name Discernment fail automatically. It is not quite as powerful as proper Presence Concealment as this skill does not inhibit the means that humans employ including cameras. Additionally, it renders his class skill inactive and unusable unless four conditions are met; normally a drawback but for him a boon.

1. A command seal is utilized on him due to disobedience
2. His mask is removed outside of his room
3. His face is seen by another
4. His master reveals a secret he shares.

Information Erasure
B-

A skill associated with the mystique of his identity.

While his existence is known, this is only because of scant documents that survived to the modern day. Without these, his existence would have been entirely forgotten. While he has it at an equivalent rank to a certain serial killer, it is degraded due to an incident on the record. He served one man who may have seen his face and even, as a result of interaction, divined his identity. Further, a hole with this man and another who was later released revealed the possibility of an identity leak.

Due to this, this skill receives a negative modifier whenever he is in the presence of another that knows he is present.

At his rank, information regarding this individual is erased. Digital records vanished, ink from pens bleed and run, and memories fade away into oblivion. Only physical traces of him are left behind such as cracked tiles and broken objects. The context, of course, tends to be forgotten. However once the negative modifier is applied, this context can be remembered with a successful luck check.

Ce Pour Quoi il Était Employé
EX

A variant of All Kinds of Talents.

He is a living mystery. His identity is unknown. There is only his crime, his name upon incarceration, and his epitaph as established fact. Marchioly, Eustache Daugers, and 'What he was employed to do'. As a result, his actual capabilities are completely unknown; a fact his saint graph abuses in conjunction with the aforementioned skill's existence. It is not an almighty skill however.

He is only allowed to acquire talents related to figures he was rumored to be; A member of french royalty connected to Louis, an english baron with ties to Duke Berwick, Ercole Antonio Matiolli, Vivian de Bulonde, James de la Cloche, and Eustache Dauger de Cavoye. Each talent he acquires he has at B-rank. However the innate weakness is in the unknown; so long as the identity of the Man in the Iron Mask is a mystery he can abuse that mystery.

Once his identity is guessed with deep convinction, this skill is forced to grant him only talents related to the figure guessed.

At least, so long as his Noble Phantasm is undeployed.

Personality
Solitude.

Eustache prefers solitude, isolation, to all else.

He isn't entirely sure why, just that he finds the presence of other living things to be unpleasant. He prefers being in a sealed off room with only a candle and a book to even the presence of a refined, perfectly mannerable gentleman. Even the presence of someone that treats him as human rather than a spirit or even tool is still distasteful to him. He finds no enjoyment in it. At most, he tolerates the presence of others. Yet, he'll never let on his true feelings.

He presents himself with the air and mannerisms of a refined gentleman of high intellect. Every motion is perfectly calculated to convey manners and refinement. Every word is intended to deliver deceit regarding how he truly feels. Even without his mask, one would have issue realizing that he truly disdains company of any sort. He'd seem to be a perfectly normal human.

His usual method of distracting from his true colors is to speculate, openly, about his real identity.

Something that has been completely lost to even himself.

Interactions



Noble Phantasm
What is a man but a pile of secrets?

What is a secret if not a Mystery?

What is a mystery without Man?

Limiteur de Sécurité pour l’Humanité : Sortie

Masque of Black Iron

Type
Anti-Self

Rank
EX

He was not allowed to be known.

His name was erased.

His history was erased.

Even his face was erased.

At least, the royalty of France under Louis XIV tried to accomplish this. For whatever reason he was unwanted by France and rather than simply exile him they opted to put him as deep and isolated as they could... yet it was not meant to be torture. He was laid upon lavishly and given luxury even in a dismal, windowless cell. For whatever reason while France wanted him to be forgotten, it also did not merely exile him to a pit; it kept him comfortable for his days.

However, a single anecdote overwrote large swathes of the truth.

That he was made to wear a heavy, iron mask.

This was not true but many still wrote it as if it were fact leading to the existence of this noble phantasm. Rather than the black veil he wore in life, he instead has a heavy black helmet that he can willingly take off... but often refuses to when he plans to meet others. Innately, this noble phantasm possesses a powerful effect.

Innately, while wearing the mask, Mystery cannot degrade. Specifically, any mystery he holds. If he were to pick up a talent for magecraft, any spell he holds would retain its mystery even well into the future when its phenomenon is fully explored and explained. So long as he wears the mask, its degredation is impossible. This, naturally, holds true for other types of Mysteries beyond the mystical. As an example, his personal skill Ce Pour Quoi il Était Employé cannot narrow in scope so long as he wears this noble phantasm.

This noble phantasm has no true-name release.

Craft Essence

Valet



La Rivière had fallen sick and could not serve Fouquet.

Saint Mars had a dilemma as he could not trust a valet from the outside and all on-site valets were occupied.

So he was approached.

'Fouquet requires service. Will you provide?'

So he did.

For a time, he served Fouquet as a valet.

Eventually, La Rivière recovered and his time as valet ended.

Then a hole was discovered and the possibility of his identity being leaked became real.

'Did you plan this? Did you help Fouquet subvert the King's will!?'

... Never. Why would I repay Utopia with betrayal?

Then he was never permitted to valet ever again.