Nero, Saber

[Nero]

Servant

[img*]http://static.desktopnexus.com/thumbnails/594921-bigthumbnail.jpg[/*img]

Heroic Spirit Name: Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus
Age of Appearance: 17
Gender: Female
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Class: Saber
Master: Unknown

Appearance:
Nero is quite small, most people would not assume her to be the cruel emperor of history. She is 154 cm tall and weights over 40 kg, but despite this, she is fairly busty with clear visible curves, while retaining an overall slim appearing figure. Her skin is white, faultless and smooth, because she had taken good care of it all her life. More of an artist than a warrior, Nero trained sufficiently under guidance and more so by herself, to gain muscles like an athlete. Her stomach is flat, the outline of her abdominal muscles is easy to spot, and showing her regular outwork routine, without turning them into a so called 'six-pack'. Despite her small stature, Nero's legs are long, filled to the brim with power. Slender, yet powerful, she is able to move with a surprising amount of agility and power, ranging from fast changes of movement to saltos.

Her blonde hair, shining under some light a bit golden, is fairly long and reaches almost down to the middle of her back. Her oval face, showing depending on her facial expression a charismatic look or the cute face of a child, is framed in by longer strands on the side, reaching down to her collar, while her bangs are cut short, just over her thin brows. Most of the time, she ties it up in a bun on the back of her head, and ties the rest of it in a braid around the tight bun before securing it with a hairband. Because she is eager to have a matching outfit, the color depends on the rest of her outfit, yet her theme is red. Nero's general look is clean, everything neatly trimmed and tidy, but a single hairstrain always refuses to give in the strongest attempt to fix it with a brush and stands out. Her eye color is a mix between cyan and green, leaning stronger towards green, especially when light directly shines into her eye they appear with a shade of dark green.

The emperor is an artist and designer, and has in fact designed her dress by herself. Over her lowest layer of clothes, she wears a strapless white satin corset top that only connects the front and the back on the middle of her firm muscle adorned back. Above follows a set of red clothes. Starting from bottom to top she features a red long sleeved top with a high collar, while the central line of her front up to her chest and the back is cut out, leaving a clear view on her decollete, as well as her back. The thick shoulder pads, making her shoulders appear broader, are adorned with golden epaulets for an accomplished royal look, without ruining the balance. The inside of the red top is laid out with the same fabric as her corset, and the leaf shaped frills peek out under the red dress. Further on the bottom, a red long skirt is reaching down to her ankles, yet only beginning at her hips, which completely exposes her lower back.

The red cloth of the front is cut out in a V Shape, only leaving the inner satin, which is thicker at the chest, but thinning out as further it progresses away, and under a specific aligned incidence of light makes it partly transparent. This especially stays true for the skirt and the arms. Although the top and bottom are different sets of clothes, they make up the entire dress, all contours laced with gold. The dress design focuses on having a good ventilation and reducing the sweating underneath. Finally, she wears a combination of high heeled steel boots and greaves reaching up to her calves, covering and protecting the knee caps, as well. Albeit her class would suggest to have her wear heavy armor, the greaves are the extent of her protective armor, Nero clearing preferring luxury and comfort over defensive ability.

In private clothes, as much as one could call them, she wears a red top, reaching down to her navel, her back, decollete and shoulders completely free to move around, and a gold pattern embroidered. The bottom is no more than a piece of red cloth, bound stylish over her hips and tied together at the left side. This look most commonly used by females in a combination with a bikini is rounded up by a Red Satin Color, a golden necklace, a pair of golden bracelets and golden rings for her slender upper arms. Nevertheless, she would wear anything that is stylish or fitting with her current mood. In combat she brandishes her self constructed scarlet long sword Aestus Estus, holding her love, and all desire to be a Saber. It's a rather strange appearing and huge weapon, taller than herself.

Personality:
Nero is haughty and arrogant on the surface and quite a lot inside as well. In order to stay up to her role as the emperor, to cover her loneliness and desire to often be someone else, she has created a mask for herself. She is headstrong and stubborn, too stubborn in fact and none to keep her opinion to herself, which can be sometimes quite painful to the listener. She is certainly a planer, and a good tactician, but sometimes impatient and rash. Her head is now and then unable to follow the speed of her mouth, especially when she is emotional and Nero is very emotional under the stoic facade she had created. Once on her good side, she would develop extremely strong feelings for a person she could call a true friend, and that although she is quite shy when it comes to love, she would readily jump over her own shadow to confess, if deemed necessary.

Nero's personality is quite tough to handle, when she on one side is extremely lenient when grading her own statements, because she simply thinks that she has all right to say as she pleases, while on the other hand caring a lot about the manners of people in her surrounding. Addressing her wrongly can lead to dangerous outbursts of violence and she really hates to be called princess. Nero had been an emperor all her life and insists on that status, albeit someone who would not give her name easily. Yet, this is due to her personality and not because she is overly careful to keep it a secret. Nero simply does not think that unworthy people should be blessed to hear her name and it would be an honor to know. She is a person who lives in her own world and hates to lose.

But once you get her deepest respect, she is very careful about the person's feelings and would protect them with all her power, even if it meant giving her life or honor. In this cases the opinion of that person also matters a lot for her. She behaves a bit like a diva who wishes to gain attention and enjoys compliments, but she is not a narcissist, who can absorb any kind of insult thrown at her. Nero is actually a person who does not take criticism very well, especially when they concern her previous life, because she has come to understand that she was not faultless, yet is also clearly not the tyrant people made her out to be. The young appearing girl, actually loved her people, wanting them to have as much fun as possible, and wanted that they would like her in return. She is someone who tries to get what she wants at any costs, even if it meant by force, and is also capable of delivering harsh punishment without the slightest regrets. Nero loves cute things and people and openly states this. The emperor is also someone who values fairness and despises thieves, or unchivalrous acts. They should not exist within a beautiful person, and are unfit to exist within her.

Nero is also an artist and actress. She enjoys to draw or design clothes or buildings and is a good planner and diplomat, but quite inexperienced in leadership on the battle field, and can easily get disappointed when she fails her own expectations. The emperor hates to sweat or workout, and is a person who would wear a bikini in battle if she could. Although she often boasts, she is actually full of insecurities and trains in secret to keep her body in shape. Most of her behavior is just an act and this with a devotion and skill, that earned her the spot of a Heroic Spirit. An actress, who is very capable of putting herself into the shoes of another, analyzing their personality and playing them. This has been born by her natural talent and the strong desire to often be someone else, and be it just for the fun of it.

Nero can perfectly slip into the role of others. If she wanted to play a Caster, she could be a caster, if she wanted to be a Saber, she could be a Saber. Certainly most were just artificial skills, but the Grail had accepted it and made her summonable as a Saber. Unfortunately this also reduced her artistic skill, or skills that would benefit her other most liked private activities, which does not help her mood at those times. Although she can act and still at least imitate personalities, especially those of Sabers. Finally, Nero is often plagued by headache and sometimes prone to vigorous mood swings, who knows how to fight and is quite eager to do it.

She enjoys duels, but gets annoyed if the fighting lasts too long or one follows another. Nero hates to sweat, which is also the reason why she designed a dress that allows good ventilation before covering all of her body, enjoys agility over protection, and likes luxury, as well as roses. Each of her days has to end with a warm bath. To sum it up, Nero can be extremely sweet and caring or a haughty woman, you don't wish to have around. It takes some patience and good will to get to know the real woman, who would become her master's sword and shield, unforgiving to his or her enemies.

History:
Nero was born in AD 37. Her father was the cousin of the fourth emperor of the Roman Empire, named Claudius, and her mother the younger sister of the Emperor Caligula. Because her mother wished to put her on the throne, after her husband died, she schemed to marry Claudius and went through with his assassination. Although the young Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus had no great desire or knowledge of the assassination, she still earned the profit and became the Fifth Roman Emperor, with only 17 years of age.

Although earning her place in society by murder, and some rumors spreading around, she did her best and demonstrated talents as a diplomat, architect and a very unexpected competence and fairness as a judge. This boosted her popularity among her people, but still could not silence all voices of critic. She remained secluded from others, fantasized about great adventures and began to use her talent for the writing of theater scripts, the designing of clothes and dwelled in the study of arts, law and diplomacy to ease her boredom.

Otherwise she just sunk in her dreamland to live out who she really wanted to be, like a great magus, or the heroic knight. Drifting further away from society, to some degree elevated above the status of a mere mortal, she also grew haughty, but still fair to the common people. Especially Persia praised her for her efforts and it could have become 'Nero's country', but the young emperor also took care of diplomacy and the popularity in Rome regarding England. In 60 AD, she established the Nero Festival, which was supposed to occur every 5 years, an athletic meet like the Olympic games. During those meets the candidate could proof their talents in sports, music and horse riding and she also participated in some herself. She showed great skill in singing and performing and continued this on other occasions, captivating the audience many times.

During 64, a fire broke out, which burned down most of Rome. The name "The Great Fire of Rome" a splendid choice of naming sense, indeed. Nero enacted a public relief effort and began great project to rebuild the city. One of those projects was also the most favored Domus Aurea. She also searched for survivors by herself, joining the commoners, without bodyguards, among rubble and dirt like one of them. Furthermore, she also contributed her own private fortune for the projects and aid projects, opened the palace to provide shelter for the victims and homeless, but the rebuilding was a strong drain on the people's mind and the state budget.

Already in 62 people in the senate were unhappy about Nero's popularity and began to plot against her, having lost her mother only a year before through unknown causes, Nero had also lost her cover and began to clean up before she would lose her life. By 65 the senate has lost most of its power and it became a sign of her supposed Tyranny. Rumors stated that she was the arsonist that had caused the fire to rebuild Rome according to her desire, but some Christians were found to have been the reason. Although she had always been fair in her judgment, Nero could not simply ignore the accusations and began to blame Christians at general for her misfortune. The growing fear and unable to understand the reasons for the attacks on her leadership, lead to a stronger desire to be recognized, she was thought to crave attention, but people, certainly not really her friends, also encouraged her to act like a spoiled child.

Certainly on a whim, a bias for the Theater Domus Aurea and her own interest in the act, she liked to play other characters and even more enjoyed to show this to other people. Acting was very important for her, not just to do it herself, but also to watch the play of others and she was outraged when several spectators left during the first play and blockaded all exits during the second to force the people to stay. This move did not build the trust, rather than causing the voices against her to get louder. Furthermore Nero did enjoy the arts and duels, but hated wars. She tried to avoided them as much as possible through diplomacy, which also rose critic.

Although she had done everything possible, making a good name for herself in Britannia, the assigned governor caused the population to rebel against the Romans and in AD 60 Boadicea lead an initially successful campaign against Rome, but after around eighty thousand Britons had lost their life. It was too late and all that Nero could do was replacing the governor through a milder candidate. Other uprisals followed, but the beginning of the end was in 68, when people began to complain against the high taxes, that were required to fix the state budget again.

Gaius Julius Vindex, the governor of Gallia Lugdunensis openly lead the revolt, gaining the support of Servius Sulpicius Galba, the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis. Lucius Verginius Rufus, the governor of Germania Superior stood to Nero, but was unable to take care of the situation and it escalated. The emperor got completely alienated, and not even the wish to die by the hands of a gladiator was answered. No one dared to kill her, as if fate itself denied her to die, and clearly no friends, as well. Neither having friend or foe, she left Rome to collect herself, but the only answer she reached was suicide.

She did not like the idea, stopping many times, but in the end she stabbed her own throat with a knife, crying about the loss of a splendid artist, herself. After her death, people continued to put the blame for events on her, she became known as the tyrant, the anti-christ, Nrvnqsr, and many other ugly names. Only some people in the east mourned after hearing about her departure from life.

Battle Info

Class Skills:
~ Riding :: The expertise to ride animals and vehicles. Nero often rode with her chariot, but was not the best rider around. Although she is clearly one of the older Servants around, she could not handle the animals of that time fully and once almost died during an event. She still can handle almost any vehicle and animal at average to slightly above average levels.

~ Magic Resistance :: Cancel spells with a chant below two verses, but can't defend against High-Thaumaturgy or Greater Rituals.

Personal Skills:
~ Headache Sufferer :: This is a curse inherited from the birthplace of one's previous life. Because she is suffering from chronic headaches, Nero has a problem to display her true talent for fine arts.

~ Imperial Privilege :: Because Nero is insistence, queer, and in the truest sense of the word an abnormal, she can obtain with this skill abilities that she never had originally, or can't even possess, which includes Divinity with all the possible boni. Nero processes this skill in her Noble Phantasm Aestus Domus Aurea, and gains skills such as Riding, Fine arts, Charisma, Military Tactics, Instinct and even Divinity, Prana Burst or Monstrous Strength on high levels. She completely goes over the bounds of the possible, albeit only for short durations of time. Positive skills in her possession will be ranked up.

~ Performer :: The ability to feel herself into a role and act it out perfectly. Nero is quite the actress and this is her main support pillar for her skill with the sword. This skill allows her to imitate other people's behavior, down to her voice and fit perfectly into any kind of costume. Because she can't use fine arts perfectly anymore, it is quite difficult to reproduce costumes at the moment, though.

~ Charisma :: Suitable for a king of a country. Nero had many talents and through her Imperial Privilege it was easy to raise this rank, but apparently she made many mistakes, was unlucky and also not charismatic enough to lead the big Empire by Charisma alone.

Noble Phantasms:

~ Aestus Domus Aurea - Golden Amphitheater :: Support :: Nero is due to her insistence able to summon this theater of her inner world, the stage where she is everything she wanted to be, the champion and hero. Although its effect does not last long, before it disappears again into thin air, it activates the effect Imperial Privilege and grants her various abilities on high polished levels, which also affect her speed, strength, defense, and even the strongest of heroes have to play according to her script and suffer some penalties on their physical prowess. Unfortunate for Nero, it can't be used again for a while.

Amphitheater Golden House!
Come forth my monument!
Show us here the brightest of lights!


~ Invictus Spiritus - Persistence of the Mind - Three Times, even when I welcome the setting sun :: Support :: The Empire fell after Nero's death into Chaos, that is a proof for herself that she should not have died. Her arrogance, knowing no better artist in the World, placing herself on the same spot as the gods of Arts, she is simply too stubborn to die. It denies everyone the right to slay Emperor Nero, except for herself. Nero was some time loved other times hated, but all attempts to kill or assassinate her had failed. Of course most incidents were prevented by her sheer caution, or because people did not dare to attack the emperor or a person that was deemed the Nrvnqsr. She had went to other countries to join Olympic Games, she had often appeared in the open public turning herself into an easy target and was often without her guards. The young emperor also once had a major problem with her steed and fell badly. This event could have caused her death, but she survived and during her final moments no one dared to kill her, except for herself.

No matter how much people might hate her, no matter how much they like to seclude and ignore her, it is not easy to kill her as at least some outside force does not wish for Nero to die easily. This can be seen as a bonus or a curse, when people can use all their creativity and cruel tendencies to take their time killing her slowly. The NP revives her after her death, but the healing factor barely noticeable, she could not keep fighting as if nothing had happened. Of course it depends on the kind of attack that had caused her death, in which condition she will be after Invictus activates. It won't allow her to keep fighting with horrible wounds, but chances of dying instantly are highly reduced. In short, attacks that would cause instant death would not be a mortal wound, as if avoiding it by sheer luck. This NP only works once every few hours.

~ Laus Saint Claudius - The gorgeous singing girl's Imperial Rule :: Anti-Unit :: Charming the Tres Fontem Tempestas (Fountain of the Saint Who weaves time) Nero draws out her energy and pushes it into her sword and her greaves to dash forward with enormous speed for a most deadly slash. The attack is used to cut unexpecting enemies down, while leaving a trail of harmful rose petals. Those petals only leave a small amount of damage by themselves, but the high impact rate and speed turns them into a deadly weapon, that smash into the opponent like shrapnel shards. Reducing the flow of time in a very small area for anyone but herself, it seems to others as if she had accelerated herself to Mach 13.2 for Laus Saint Claudius. Although a sword swing in form, the attack speed itself and the impetus results in a high ranked damage and even deals light amount of damage through the aftershock of the petals. Just blocking the main slash, the petals might leave light to intermediate damage, making evading the wiser, but not necessarily easier choice. The attack raises an entire Rank under the influence of Aestus Domus Aurea.

Controller Info
Alias: Shion
Age: 22
Gender: F
Location/Timezone: Europe/GMT+1 (until June)
How'd You Find Us?: Adverts
Roleplay Sample:

The sun graced her with its warm rays, gently stroking her slightly rosy cheeks. Nero smiled broadly, like a child in a candy shop, when she peered into the window of a nearby shop.

"Ohhhh~, so this is Window Shopping. Why did I not think about this wonderful invention?"

She had introduced some activities during her life, but window shopping was not one of them. The sheer impossibility of including this during the time of her previous life did not come to her, she was too busy to marvel at the sight of small plush dolls resting in one of the windows. Each and every single one of them was adorable in its own way, and the temptation to catch them all grow within her small body, ready to erupt at any given moment. Saber was receiving attention, certainly a lot, and not just because of her behavior, but people with her looks were rare to be seen in this town.

Her master could be happy that Nero had accepted the change from her usual attire to a set of lighter, and definitely less irregular clothing, but this could only reduce the impact of her appearance and the beginning of the logical request had been more of an ordeal for the master. To withstand her complains and desire to create some outstanding clothes, because nothing less than the best should ever touch her body. Clearly haughty, she soon gave in, seeing how modern humans sometimes still had to learn in design, but the given comfort helped to oversee the smaller issues. It was a surprisingly hot day, and the set of clothes was by all means a good choice. She was in high spirits and found it easy to praise her master's efforts to find something for her, and this could not have been an easy task.

But clothes aside, her heart has been won over by a fine selection of plush, and her eyes wandered from one to the next, while a blonde upstanding hair-strain followed pursuit. It was only supposed to be a 'Window Shopping', an activity without actually turning anything into her possession. How was this supposed to work!? Her initial thought about the wonderful activity took a turn, she considered it quite painful. It could not be a fun activity when you had to fight temptation, this was more than just a game, or a challenge. It was plain torture! Nero, dressed in blue, not exactly her desired color sheme, yet surprisingly fitting, began to see those humans, walking past and sometimes staring at her with wonder or great interest, in a different light. They were quite strong, if not in body then in mind. Some parts of this wonderful city would be caught up in the war, which secret mechanisms Nero had yet to understand.

Too many parts of the play were still shrouded in mystery and she worried a bit about the outcome. She did not wish to see another city drowning in a sea of flames, like Rome during her reign. Replaying the incident in front of her inner eye, the sad eyes of the children, the intense smell of burned flesh, the sweet and sickening aroma of death. Not the greatest of baths, filled with the finest of roses could ever erase that smell or the iimage from her memory. It must not repeat. That was Nero's decision, and she would try to lead the war in favor of a non harm policy. People were meant to enjoy themselves and not suffer. The young appearing girl had always thought that this was the correct way of living, but unfortunately at times been at fault, causing harm and grief.

She knew this and a part of herself thought that some acts were overly harsh and should have been done differently, but Nero was not ashamed of her past. Her life did not work out as planned, coming to a rather abrupt end after turning 30, quite young, even for previous standards. Nonetheless, being called a monster and tyrant could not be simply overlooked, and the thought of this left a remaining impact on her, a sore spot that should not be touched. Some of those stupid scholars really have done well in agitating her. The first sight might earn them a special trip through Nero's wrath.

People should indeed have their fun, but not at her expenses. It was only fair and just to crush them under her heels. Humans could be beautiful but also ugly, quite different from a piece of art. Those were only turning into art, because they were beautiful, or could it be ugly? For Nero the sight in front of her was not exactly art, but close to it, and she wanted to acquire them. One of her small hands moved to her purse, an item that stored some money, and in fact everything she possessed. She had treasured it well, after squeezing it out from her master, and it was not enough.

"AAAAAH! How mortifying! Why is my budget so low?"

Her loud complaining reached one or the other ear, and giving her more attention, than a servant should get, but she was right now no more than a normal girl, who happened to wish for more than she should get. The street bristling with life got a bit more quiet, after her outbreak, but she just needed to state her frustration, no matter that no higher force would suddenly bless her with more money. The gods were said to have died, and the only remaining one would most likely not be on her side, the evil Anti-Christ. Another wrong story, she did not really dislike Christians or God.

Although... well, she was a bit at fault for hunting them, just because a couple had set the city ablaze. She had grown out of that hatred, albeit still not quite understanding what made people believe in that individual, rather than oneself. There was no need to turn the little Blonde into their center of attention, and yet many eyes were resting on her, before the person on her side, embarrassed and shining in different shades of red, assured them that nothing was wrong, nothing to see. Hmmm, a good bodyguard, but that was not the job of a master?

"Well done. You have shown that you can deal with people." Nero's voice was gruff and her smile had faded, it did not seem too much like a praise. She saw no reason for this, feeling as if she had done something bad and unnecessary. She was not at fault, only her empty purse was to blame, which again fell back to her master. "So you are telling me that I am embarrassing...."

The person that had summoned the energetic Emperor was no idiot, entering the store, which left her no other choice than following, or turning this into a one woman show. That was nothing new, but it was pointless to play along, and her feet carried her into the shop. A dreamland opened in front of her eyes, some things had remained invisible to her eyes from the outside. Bribed by a fluffy experience, overloaded with joy, Nero forgave and took one of the precious items. Her intent to get the rest remained, but reason won over greed for now. Probably no one wanted to see the tantrum when some things were gone when she visited again.

"Hmmm?"

Naturally it did not miss Nero's attention that the shop keeper looked at her quite carefully, his eyes seemed to recognize her. She, on the other hand, did not know him. How could she? Only some hours had passed since she had opened her eyes in this World, and assessed that she was one of the chosen servants, who would receive a present by protecting their master. Accepting the role as a servant was difficult for someone like her, but she played along for now.

Maybe not as much as the second person in their team would hope, Nero's first selfish wish was to see the city in all its glory, but she did her best to cope with the circumstances and the meager comfort. Only some moments later, servant and master left the shop and Nero clinged on to her new possession. It would definitely become one of her greatest treasures, yet not the last. A new age, a new world had opened before her with many new options.

[To be Continued?]

[Uther Pendragon]

Welcome back Shion. Old app is reapproved. :3

[APPROVAL 1/1]