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OOC

Handle: Jem
Contact: This journal or @cirilla on plurk.
Over 18? Over 18!
Characters Played: Aranea Highwind

THE CHARACTER

Character Name: Tamamo-no-Mae (also stylized as Tamamo no Mae)
Series: Fate/Extra
Canon Point: Endgame
Character Age: Ageless (She is a heroic spirit, which means she is an avatar of a figure plucked from historical points in time), but she acts like a youthful woman — around 20-25 years old.
Background: Playable Caster Wiki | Fate Extra Universe Wiki

Personality: At first glance, Caster fits a pretty strong stereotype in Japanese media. Donning fox ears and a fluffy fox tail, it is easy to assume she's a cheerful and adorable character — a real mascot of her game. However, that's only partially true!

Caster tends to be easy going and playful, often breaking the fourth wall by referencing the video game reality of Fate/Extra and meta information (things the player would only know). Despite her sad history (which can be read in the background session), the heroic spirit is endlessly devoted to her new Master. Her Master will be on the receiving end of confessions of love, flirtations, and teasing - all while they're trying to push forward in a gauntlet-like dive into endless dungeons against other magus. Without any doubt in her confidence, Caster does not fear the impending battle rounds that would delete the user from existence in Moon Cell (the digital, artificial grounds for the Holy Grail War by SE.RA.PH). She trusts in herself fully because she believes with her Master, she can do anything. To give herself in total devotion is an easy act for her — a purpose she was reborn as heroic spirit for.

Bouncy, friendly, and energetic, Caster rarely takes a situation seriously unless those she cares for are in immediate danger. Even then, it takes a lot to shirk her positive aura, focused primarily on fulfilling her role as a Servant. Succumbing to the life of a heroic spirit and the sad reality of serving another until death, Caster fills this role with a hopeful devotion unmatched by other spirits. At the end of the day, she was there to help her Master win their war, so why not have fun along the way?

However, don't let her friendly endearing personality confuse you — if one opposes her or comes in between achieving her goals, she can be a formidable foe. Caster is ferocious in battle and able to formulate plans to ensure a strategic victory. This makes Caster a great asset to have an alliance with. As a kitsune, she shares traits with a fox. Very skillful in a hunt, she is playful and mischievous in her own right. When battling against Dan and his Servant (Robin Hood), she is eager to advance through the dungeon with the desire to hunt him down for poisoning the arena. Her excitement for partaking in battle underlines her devotion to getting a job done in order to push her Master's agenda.

Outside of battle, as mentioned, she is devoted to her Master by often talking about them becoming her Husband — wanting nothing more than to give her love and time to. To say she is smitten with her Master would be an understatement, but her Master had shown a kindness no one else had offered her before... Caster is shown to put her heart into battles, specifically to make her Master happy. One example I want to reiterate is that she makes many mentions of being the perfect wife and wanting to be close with her Master (the player, in this case): she praises her housewife skills such as cooking, cleaning, and showing her affection and is noticeably more quiet in private. As a former lady-in-waiting in early Japanese history, that aspect of her personality maintains to those she cares for most. Her domesticated behavior reinforces the idea that her "ditzy" persona is merely just a first impression, much like the ferocious side is to opponents. She will often act sincere and honest to those she is close with.

Her fierce loyalty is something to admire, but there is a problematic aspect to this: her jealousy. She threatens her opponents mercilessly, wishes to intimidate their allies, and can feel inferior at times as a result of it. Caster suffers from the same insecurities as a normal human girl — one that allows the mask of dutiful servant to slip to show the girl who wants nothing more than to love and do well. This jealousy can fuel her and in other canon sources (such as the sequel to Extra, Fate/Extella), put her at ends with other servants such as Nero (the Saber in Fate/Extra). Despite the jealousy and overbearing stress she can put onto those because of it, she attempts to keep herself calm but fails almost comically.

Caster strives to do her best. During the events of a previous Holy Grail War, she attempted to make sure her Master won the Grail only to fall short on multiple occasions. Caster, feeling unworthy of her status and insecure of her skills, was eventually summoned by the new Master in Fate/Extra, and was given a new appreciation for life to try and change the habit of failure. However, even then... she doubted part of herself.

Caster has a huge trauma surrounding her past life. In the history section, it expands upon her role as a lady-in-waiting for the Emperor and her eventual demise after slaughtering armies pursuing her giant fox form. Despite being a heroic spirit, she does not view herself as heroic or worthy of praise in her past life. She distances herself from that life and tries desperately to keep her true identity as Tamamo no Mae hidden.

In her past life, Tamamo no Mae (who actually is part of the goddess Amaterasu) was known as Mizukume. She grew up without memories of her divine existence. As she grew older, she became a lady-in-waiting to the Emperor Toba. One day, she awoke with fox ears and tried desperately to hide her sudden hint at her lineage. Despite this, she was well-received and loved for a period of time, and she had all she ever wanted until she was exposed as a kitsune. She was framed for causing the sickness of the Emperor, causing her to be forcefully exiled and eventually hunted. She brutally defended herself by slaughtering the first wave of hunters. By the time of her death, she had killed 80,000 soldiers all in self-defense. That's obviously going to be a triggering topic, right? Her life as Tamamo no Mae is a subject that remains reserved for only the most trusted of souls. It remains one of the huge hurdles someone must overcome to get to know Caster in her entirety - it will also signify that she is worthy of investing her love into this person fully as she has become disenchanted with humanity and how cruel they can be.

Caster is a Servant unlike any other. With a personality that spans from carefree, serious to downright fiery, it's easy to see that there is more about her than a first glance may hint. After her mortal life ended in tragedy, her role as a Servant is best spent trying to help lift her Master up. She is more than a bubbly, cute girl that offers meta information to the player - she is a knowledgeable and dedicated woman who wishes for nothing more than to please those around her.

Powers/Abilities:

FORM SPECIFIC Due to being a fox spirit, Caster is quite unique compared to fellow casters. She has a great deal of grace, allowing her to be nimble and quick with her movements. Additionally, her senses are enhanced and more akin to a fox. Her sense of smell allows her to track people down and her improved hearing is used to pick up on sounds made from a distance.

I want to mention that, due to being a fox spirit, she does have the ability to shapeshift. That being said, she will not ever be able to due to her trauma in her past life. Shapeshifting caused her death and with that, Tamamo has no interest to ever partake in that again.

CLASS SPECIFIC Her entire entity is that of a Heroic Spirit. The collective form of a hero or memorable familiar in time ensures that she can be summoned as a Servant during a Holy Grail War. Summoned into the Caster role, this heroic spirit is adept in witchcraft (Maleficium). This allows her to create offensive magic and attack the enemies with curses.

In the events of Fate/Extra, witchcraft is a specialty of Magecraft that relies on Caster to use mirrors to cast spells. The mirror levitates around Caster in battle, and she uses it to hit enemies in close combat. These are useful for ATTACKS, BREAKS, and GUARD actions. If she obtains the right advantage, she is known to stun her enemies in a standard way by brute force. Due to her experience in Witchcraft, she is able to create additional items but is very vague on what power level her creations are.

Because she starts with some of the lowest stats in the game (thanks to a newcomer Master), she is fairly exposed in terms of defense. It is interesting to take note that like her name implies, she is a ferocious spellcaster but not a warrior. This still leaves her to be a bit squishy.

One of her more idle skills is Territory Creation. This skill allows for a terrain to be created in the context of providing a strategic advantage. There isn't much to expand upon this as her personality does not allow for her to without exceptional training with her Master. If she was able to use this, it would apparently allow her to create a territory (or a reality of her choosing) that is tailor made for her advantage against stronger opponents. Due to the severe trauma in her past life, Caster has trouble and will probably not be able to accomplish such a feat. This skill is not expanded upon and pretty much what it says on the tin. Due to little knowledge on this power and the strong unlikelihood that she will ever use it, this power can be nerfed drastically or removed outright.

Additionally, like all heroic spirits, she has one "grand finale"-type finishing move. Her Noble Phantasm (Eightfold Blessing of Amaterasu) is a move based upon a mirror. She is able to accomplish great damage and not drain her mana when attacking. It is useful, but will only last for a short while. Ideally, she does not try to use this move without a proper source of magical energy regeneration. This allows her to pull from the power of Amaterasu, her original self which is locked away inside. Here is the move in Fate/Extra / Fate/Extella / Fate/GO. Please note: Fate/Go seems to be support based as opposed to offensive. Due to being split from its main power source, it's ranking is D — which is not high on the Fate power scale at all.

In conclusion, the last ability she has is standard to heroic spirits. Caster is able to disappear at will. This allows her to walk around invisible until she chooses to come out of cloaking. In this way, she is able to preserve her magical energy.


Power Nerfs (if applicable): Since Caster is not a full goddess, I believe the only real powernerf she should have is her transformation skill which inherently, she does not use due to her own trauma. Perhaps lowered mana would balance out her plethora of witchcraft power? Caster will not use: Shapeshift or Territory Creation, which leaves her with Witchcraft and her noble phantasm.

Inventory: Her mirror ( named: Eightfold Blessings of Amaterasu on the Weight Stone under the Sunlit Watery Heavens or... Eightfold Blessings of Amaterasu for short....).

Incentives: To protect her Master (aka her "Husband"). Alternatively, to prevent her from being summoned by any other Master in a Holy Grail War would be a unique one too — she truly wants to stay at her current Master's side and fears losing them.

SAMPLES

TDM Top Level.

Alternatively, the thread here meet the 5 comment requests: w/ Lancer