(no subject)

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Kari
Timezone: PST
Personal Journal: karijou
Player Contact: karijou, or Karijou#2319 at Discord
Characters in Game: n/a!

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Saber (Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus)
Canon: Fate
Age: 30
Suitability:

She claims the dress itself is not see-through, but rather she is letting people see.

-TYPE-MOON Wiki

Nero is an emperor who bares herself to the world, both in body and soul. After all, what does she have to hide? She is a emperor of perfection; every action is flawless, every feature is beautiful. And even those actions of hers that are not perfect, those rare moments of regret, burn away in the face of one thing: she acts by her own truth, and no one else's, without fail. As long as she is true to herself, she has no reason to feel shame of any sort.

"Beautiful young boys are good. Beautiful young girls are better. My singular preference is beauty!"

-Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus

And that shamelessness is paired with a deep, selfish love - a wish to give all of herself to her subjects, and to be showered with praise and adulation in return. There are no conditions on her love save for beauty, and indeed she displays a fondness for those who feel the same way. A world where sex was encouraged, where others could freely express their desire for Nero, would not be a curse; it would be a paradise.

Species: Human
Canon Point: Pre-canon, fresh from the Throne of Heroes
History: Thank god for wikis.
Personality:

There are many aspects to Nero's beautiful, multifaceted character. However, we have to start somewhere, and for a personality section the most prominent traits are those we should choose. So let's just start with this: Nero is the single most extra motherfucker around. From any medium, any canon. In life, she would regularly take part in athletic/artistic competitions and promptly declare herself champion. In death, she supposedly came back to life just to comment on a soldier's loyalty. And when she was summoned into a war for the holy grail, she forced herself into the strongest possible manifestation - Saber, a class of magical being called Servants - just by saying she was so strong she deserved it. She once wrestled a lion, naked, in an amphitheatre just because she thought her subjects liked Hercules too much. Her least favorite thing is listed in official sources as "abstinence." Basically, what I'm getting at is that Nero doesn't really have an "off" switch.

But being ridiculous doesn't have to make you useless, and Nero's anything but incompetent. She is a natural leader, charismatic and boisterous; she is a savage tactician, using whatever resources she has at her disposal. In the earlier parts of her reign, before the murder of her mother Agrippina, she was beloved by her people - at least, according to Fate canon - and known for her ambitious protection of their welfare. And this is to say nothing of her drive, her absolute refusal to yield to anyone or anything in her way. She fights in a war for the Holy Grail, against many figures of near-deific power, and comes to a decisive victory. And even out of battle she is a perfectionist through and through, unwilling to accept anything but the best for her or the people she loves.

And oh, does she have love to spare. She can hardly go twenty minutes without talking about it, even in Extra, where she only is beginning to fall in love with her Praetor (the one responsible for summoning her into the war). Her love is "selfish" by her own words, burning inside her and demanding to be fed; when she finds someone capable of giving her that fuel in Hakuno Kishinami, that fire becomes unstoppable. By the time Extella rolls around, she is deeply in love and feels no hesitation whatsoever in letting you know it in those words. She would give everything she had to protect you; she would destroy anything obstacle in her path to reach you. She refers to you as "Praetor" and "husband" interchangeably (yes, even if you're playing a lady), and regardless of your gender she feels no compunctions in letting you know that she'd fuck you hard if you had the time for it. (This is a literal, canon conversation.)

All this is true regardless of the gender of your protagonist - indeed, her position in your relationship is unaffected by anything as trivial as gender. Part of this may be due to her proudly professed bisexuality, but a larger (and less discussed) factor is her proud straddling of the gender binary. "Bigender" is almost certainly the best way to describe Nero; she openly and happily claims her soul to be half man and half woman. In fact, she is more than happy to take on either role as she sees fit; in some scenes she speaks softly and identifies herself as a "maiden," and in others she lowers her voice as "emperor." (Regardless of identity, she goes by "she" in-game with no qualms, so we'll be sticking with that for the time being.)

Despite her long list of perfections, though, she does have some flaws. It may be hard to believe, but she isn't the most modest person; in fact, she's more than happy to hype herself up, even if it isn't always fully merited. (To her credit, she generally only brags about what she believes to be true, and she'll willingly admit when she has come short.) This is a woman who, in life, would regularly take part in athletic and artistic competitions as both judge and participant - and you can probably guess who tended to win. She is histrionic to a fault, throwing fits to the point of tears when she perceives betrayal, disappointment, or even mild boredom. And on top of all this, her stubborn perfectionism can cause her to fall behind; after all, there is no point in doing something wrong, even if doing it right is simply not tenable.

But still, even with all these faults, Nero is a good and kind person. Even her eccentricities are held out of love; if she truly is one of the world's greatest artists, then it is her duty to give all she has to the world. Even if she is an emperor and ruler beyond compare, this simply means she has even more subjects to protect and enrich. And though her love is selfish - though she wants, desperately wants reciprocation and validation - she continues to give it to any who would follow her, even after her betrayal and subsequent death.

Perhaps the easiest way to put it is this: she is the Emperor of Rome, on the level of the gods themselves. Her noble obligation mandates her kindness, and her bottomless heart mandates her love. And her infinite ego guarantees that even if she fucks it all up, at least nobody will ever convince her otherwise.

Abilities/Weaknesses:

oh christ HERE WE GO. So Fate as a canon, despite having some of the best concepts around, also has some of the most utter horseshit power wankery in fiction. Servants have statistics in-character that can be measured, there's power level dickery out the wazoo, blah blah blah we don't care about any of that. For our sake, let's just go over three main powers.

Heroic Servant: Nero is a Heroic Servant, a magical being summoned forth from the Throne of Heroes with the memory, personality, and power of a given legend, and just like all other servants she is intended to fight in a recurring war for the Holy Grail. Describing how this works in full would take longer than the entire personality section, so for now we're going to wave our hands and try to skip to the important parts. As a Servant, Nero can dematerialize (spirit form) and materialize (physical form), is monstrously strong compared to a regular human, and has access to representations of their legend: skills (representations of their skills in life) and Noble Phantasms (the "core" of their legend, a single [usually] crystallization of power made manifest). We'll go over one skill and Nero's Noble Phantasm here. Also of note is that each servant in a given Grail War has one of seven (technically ten?) classes; Nero is a "Saber," known for her skill with a longsword and also the strongest class in general. (She's technically weak to Archers according to Fate/Grand Order's weakness chart but WHATEVER.) That mean she got a cool red sword she can summon and wave around.

Skill (Imperial Privilege): Imperial Privilege is the most hilarious skill in Fate. Basically, Imperial Privilege states that since Nero is the Emperor, Nero does what she wants. Nero can just say "I can do that," and if it's not completely impossible and she has some justifiable reason, she can actually do that thing. As an example, consider red magic from FFXIV. Nero is certainly not capable of doing this normally; she doesn't even have the necessary equipment. However, Nero studied under philosophers and mages herself; and as a servant, a being of magic, surely the Emperor is capable of such feats! With this logic, she could cast red magic - for a little while. Then she'd get a migraine, decide she was above such petty things, and ragequit - at which point she'd forget how to do everything she just did.

Noble Phantasm (Aestus Domus Aurea): Oh god, there is so much to explain here. Without getting into fate mechanics and reality marbles and projection and all that nonsense, I'll summarize it quickly: Nero's Noble Phantasm is her Golden Theater, a pocket dimension completely under her control which looks like the Golden Theater she built for Rome. The level of control she has over this varies from writeup to writeup, but evidently (maybe buried in Fate/Extra?) it's stated that she holds complete control, from its manifestation to its appearance to the powers of everyone inside. However, since Nero is from a videogame series and not a visual novel, she mainly just uses it to make people look at how cool and pretty she is before setting them on fire with her sword. (Nero is evidently not very creative.)

As far as mundane strengths, Nero is tenacious to a fault and will literally fight the concept of destiny if she thinks it'll make things a little better. As far as weaknesses... she's kind of an idiot with a surprising intellect, and if someone actually gets under her skin she'll be fucked up over it for a while. At least until her headaches make her forget. Did I mention she has horrible, horrible migraines as a side effect of her mother poisoning her over several years and dying without giving her an antidote? That sucks for her.

Her biggest weakness is that she's from a Fate canon as far as I'm concerned. /SHRUG

RP Samples:

sample one

linked here

sample two

"Madam, please-"

Nero is having absolutely none of this today. It's been one hassle to another, one botched job followed by even more botched jobs, and now... this. Servant or not, she is Emperor, and she will not take these injustices sitting down.

"Madam, please, just sit down-"

"I refuse!" Her voice is low and commanding, practically deafening at this volume. The man covers his ears and staggers back. "Hear me, all who might listen... for I have been unjustly taken. Separated from my Praetor, without even the chance to see her face! Ah, what tragedy... From my very first breath in this world, I have been opposed relentlessly!"

A crowd is beginning to gather thanks to her words. The helpless shopkeeper looks on in horror, but Nero just basks in the sight. She's taken up a position of honor, her intimidating four-foot-eleven elevated by the fruit baskets she's decided to stand on, and she uses it to her full advantage as she gesticulates and orates wildly. Her dress is doing absolutely no favors for her spindly-ass legs like this.

"An Emperor without her Praetor! A Servant without a Master! Truly, to exist is to know pain - to draw breathe, to know suffering!" She brings a hand to her chest, looking for all the world like she's going to faint. A man in the crowd, complete with leather facemask, raises his hand.

"Not saying you're wrong, Miss, but, uh- I could be your master, if that's what you're looking for?"

No sooner have the words left his mouth than an apple smacks into his face. Nero crosses her arms, preparing to throw another of her ill-gotten gains if necessary.

"Foolish! Simple-minded!" Yeah, she's just going to toss the apple for good measure. The shopkeeper looks like he's given up hope at this point. "The bond between Servant and Master is not something just anyone can claim! It is a golden link, a rose shared between two! To try and lay claim to it with such flimsy words... You do all Servants a grand injustice!"

At this point, the crowd's swelled to a good thirty people. Guards have started making their way over, hovering on the periphery to try and get an idea of just what's happening. She abruptly stops in the middle of her speech, tossing fruits willy-nilly to anyone in the crowd who can reach.

Maybe it's time for someone to step in...?