Nahash Blickwinkel (Master; Ready for Evaluation)

[Nahash]

Nahash Blickwinkel



"Amazing… I never really got the love that people devote to each other. Goals, yes. Money and possessions? Sure... But people, they’re so unreliable; they’re selfish, insecure, ignorant, narrow minded, untrustworthy, and all they ever do in the end is sicken, decay, and die. Considering this, chivalry seemed pretty retarded! But, but seeing this, this absolute beauty, if that’s enough to shake even my frigid, ugly heart, and make me think something is worth dying for, then maybe…"

[/color][/b][/color]: // Nahash Liebling Blickwinkel
NICKNAMES[/color]: // Nahash, Nahy, Blick
AGE[/color]: // 19
DATE OF BIRTH[/color]: // October 4th
GENDER[/color]: // Male
ALIGNMENT[/color]: // “Pfft, as if an alignment system could ever do justice to a real person’s personality. Hah!” (Chaotic Good)
OCCUPATION[/color]: // Head of the Blickwinkel family.
[/size][/ul]

[/color][/b][/color]: //
Beautiful moon out tonight, eh? Take a good last look.
Yeah, that’s it. Exactly how I pictured it, heheheh…
Research, research, research…
They say each player must accept the cards life deals him or her, but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game. Well then, I say if fortune deals you some bad cards, then let wisdom make you a good gamester.
In chess, only a pawn may undergo promotion when they reach the last rank. My Servant is in no fashion whatsoever a mere pawn. Nevertheless, this king is going to change a knight into a queen. Just watch me.
Knives are a bit of a specialty of mine…
Has anyone ever told you how sweet your blood tastes?
Ahahaha! You’re like a fine wine that’s been prepared just for this occasion! Now then, like the popping of a cork, let me hear a good one! Yeah, just like that, scream for me! AHAHAHAHAHA!
Problem?

HEIGHT[/color]: // 1.89m
WEIGHT[/color]: // 83kg
EYE COLOR[/color]: // Naturally brown; red when using his Pure Eyes.
HAIR COLOR[/color]: // Black
PIERCINGS[/color]: // He has considered it. Thinks it’d make him look absolutely fabulous.
TATTOOS[/color]: // The Blickwinkel family’s Thaumaturgical Crest is imprinted onto Nahash’s tongue. Likewise, his Command Mantra, taking the image of an eye symbol wrapped in wings, is, of course, etched on the back of his right wrist.
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES[/color]: // That ever-present aura of troll. Nahash tries his best to seem distinguished, however, his actual appearance is notably lacking in features distinguishing him from everyday folk. At best, he seems to wear several rings that all have the same emblem emblazoned upon them.[/size][/ul]

[/color][/b][/color]: //

[li]Dissonant Mentality

• Nahash’s personality is perhaps best defined by its lack of harmony. The tumultuous end to his upbringing and unique Thaumaturgical traits have led him down an unstable path as an individual, and though his behavior is consistent, he does not subscribe to any stringent philosophy, preferring to work with a fluid patchwork of ideals, always selecting whichever path seems most rational from his perspective. Though this flexible way of thinking seems wise, it means never holding faith in anything, including oneself. Such irresolution has kept Nahash from developing a firm sense of direction in his life, so even though he has the tools, capability, and opportunity to take his life wherever he desires, he truly does not know which direction he wants to go.
  
  This is in rather stark contrast to Nahash’s outward demeanor, which is outgoing, cocksure, sarcastic, taunting, and somewhat demented. When in the heat of the moment, such as during his profession, action comes easily to Nahash, as he is very aware of the many principles behind what he does – the principles of hunting other Magi. Yet, in spite of this, even though he could have set out to find a path in life that interested him long ago, he instead chose to coop himself up in the family mansion, taking no action at all.
  
  In a broader sense, Nahash is both rational and histrionic, valuing logic but easily succumbing to his impulses. At best, he is intuitive and creative; at worst, he is scattered and unpredictable. He can be seemingly irrational, yet still calculating. While he presents himself as a strong-willed and mature young man, in truth he is actually rather forlorn and diffident.

[/li][li]He’s a Magus

• Manifests as disdain for modern technology and culture. Although he could integrate fairly easily if he tried, already understanding concepts such as the Internet, he acts sickened by the very idea. Deep down he recognizes that such things are merely different, not inherently inferior as he claims, but in the end he is altogether wholly unimpressed with mundane society. Nahash also possesses severe contempt for firearms, and is perfectly willing to murder any so-called Mage who’d use such a wretched item on the spot, thinking of them not as Magi, but as spell-slinging common humans who coincidentally happened to stumble onto Magecraft’s secrets and thus need to be exterminated to protect the mysteries of Thaumaturgy.
  
  As a “proper” Magus, Nahash aims explicitly to reach the Root, Akasha. He cares nothing for the “inane political squabbles” of the Mage’s Association. On the other hand, he still participates in the bureaucracy regardless – therein lies Nahash’s scorn. He feels as though the Mage’s Association has become too tied up in its asinine power struggles and that many Magi have forgotten their original purpose, the pursuance of the Root, in favor of petty class warfare. Though Nahash is often outwardly narcissistic, he seems to lack any sort of bigotry and sympathizes more with tenacious lower caste families than the nobility. Yet, Nahash may very well be taking this stance merely out of spite, because, as it turns out, his own family is looked down upon as subservient due to their profession’s nature, dependent on combat Magi of greater skill to finish what they started. Because the Association disseminates resources based off rank and talent, the political struggles of the Association are almost mandatory, yet Nahash never leaves for greener pastures.

[/li][li]Analytical

• As is the case with many Magi, Nahash is head and shoulders above normal people in terms of planning and anticipation, a trait greatly strengthened due to his family’s Thaumaturgical Trait, their Pure Eyes. Nahash is naturally able to grasp complex operations involving many steps and stages, their necessary progression, and prepare alternatives for difficulties that are likely to arise along any step of the way while trying to anticipate every contingency.

[/li][li]Meticulous

• Nahash tries to not be careless. His trademark lack of faith leads him to try and have a contingency for every plan, and a fallback for every choice. Risk is not something he values very highly. Minor inconsistencies will inevitably lead to errors; a single fraying thread will lead to the unraveling out of the whole cloth. Humans are fickle creatures, and so Nahash compensates by making his plans as solid as possible in other areas.

[/li][li]Practical

• Practical means practical. Nahash is a pragmatist and a realist. He doesn't get caught up in making his plans too fanciful or contrived, nor is he under the impression that he is some incredible master manipulator capable of turning anyone and everyone to his side with ungodly charisma. He is especially at peace with unwholesome business and, while he’d prefer to avoid it, does not often hesitate when such things become a necessity, or even just convenient at the time, showing very little remorse at the act’s conclusion. Saying Nahash is amoral is not far from the truth. If he must, he is definitely not afraid to leave a trail of corpses in his wake.

[/li][li]Philosophical

• He tries to be at times.

[/li][li]Snarky

• He tries to be at times.

[/li][li]Taunting

• From good-natured ribbing to full-blown derision, Nahash just seems to enjoy getting a rise out of people. Sometimes he simply can’t help but poke fun at others and will victimize and harass them until they can’t take it anymore. He preys on people he feels are vulnerable to this kind of verbal assault: those who are stressed, real full-of-themselves blowhards, short-tempered people, ones in the midst of depression, or simply just the weak of will, exploiting their insecurities and weak points in any way he can for, most often, merely his own amusement.

[/li][li]Schadenfreude

• Nahash likes to show people his stabs. In a basically sadistic fashion, he seems to enjoy the suffering of others, or at least he likes watching people brutally lose, granted they aren’t an ally of his. Nahash wants to be the one on the hill’s precipice, kicking those he doesn’t like off while laughing about it. He attempts to instill fear in his enemies during battle and takes on a disturbing tone, even exaggerating his feelings in a theatrical manner. In truth, he is, in a way, a pacifist who isn’t very effective at fighting. In his mind, the best way to keep someone unwaveringly hostile from fighting him is to obfuscate them, acting so terrifying and sadistic that his enemies would avoid confrontation. He amplifies his own emotional outbursts in accordance with this idea, attempting to frighten people out of fighting or otherwise encouraging them to avoid combat; when they don’t, he is absolutely ruthless to those he defeats. This, combined with his amorality and mocking demeanor, makes him seem a great deal more malicious then he in fact is.

[/li][li]Hopeful Nihilism

• Nahash ultimately believes that life is insignificant and humans are bastards. Human joy and suffering are practically illusions, merely packets of chemicals dumped into a person’s brain as a response to stimuli, and have no real greater meaning. Organisms exist to sustain themselves, procreating as a means of vainly living onward (as this is the limit of what they are capable of), and all of their interests in most cases stem from this shallow desire, making them inherently selfish. In the vast and uncaring cosmos, the hopes and dreams of the planet Earth’s inhabitants are without value. At least, as Nahash sees it, this is logically so.
  
  Even taking this to be true, Nahash also acknowledges the strength of the will to live, and he himself certainly doesn’t feel like dying anytime soon. Thus, it’s only proper for a person who doesn’t desire death to pursue whatever brings them happiness, whether that be an ambition, hedonism, or just general contentment. He finds most belief systems that restrict pleasure without any sort of clear logical reasoning, such as chivalry, to be absolutely laughable, though he places a degree of value on etiquette in official business. Despite this belief, Nahash still holds out some hope in his heart that maybe there really is some sort of human concept worth striving towards, some higher ideal or ethical policy worth fighting for. He desperately wishes such a thing exists, in fact. He just can’t see it.
  
  “Life as a whole is pointless on a cosmic scale and Akasha is the only goal with any actual worth, but at least it’s fun, so I might as well stick around.”

[/li][li]Good

• Behind his exterior of animosity and misanthropy, Nahash truly seems to wish he could be a good person. He avoids meaningless killing, especially of uninvolved people, and when he’s not heckling others, Nahash sincerely tries to be good-natured and altruistic. Although he feels that humans are generally wretched creatures, Nahash is very much willing to be civil to his Magus allies that hold similar opinions to his own and is quite reasonable in his thought-process, believing in the virtue of jolly cooperation – as long as he can keep said allies at arms length, that is. While he is perfectly willing to use people, he does not think it is a particularly wise method of doing things – naturally, you don’t need a ridiculous manipulative scheme if you can just propose mutually beneficial ideas that assuredly get things done for you, even if you don’t actually care about the other party. Considering this, he is surprisingly inclusive about allies, so he is likely to leak information even to Masters he has no intention of corroborating with face-to-face.

[/li][/ul]

LIKES

[/color]: //
Thinking
Knowing
Analyzing
Snakes
Knives
Stabbing
Cackling
Taunting
Hedonism
Ideals
Hope
People

DISLIKES[/color]: //
People
Aristocracies
Technology
Willful ignorance/negligence
Unalterable scenarios
Unquantifiable details
Smoking

STRENGTHS[/color]: // Nahash’s primary strength lies in his ability to gain tactical advantages based on quickly accumulating large amounts of information. His capacity to locate, track, and analyze other Magi is superb, as would befit a proper member of his profession. The Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance and Holstenwall Wards grant Nahash excellent field control and further benefit his tracking capabilities; combined with Nahash’s sensitivity to Prana, the Pure Eyes also make it very difficult to sneak up on him or catch him off guard. In terms of actual combat, Nahash himself resorts melee-wise to the usage of knives, in particular throwing them when they’re coated with a paralytic, as charging people with a knife when you’re Nahash is not a particularly good idea unless they are definitely flimsier than you are. Most of Nahash’s power is focused in larger additions of the Níðhöggr Bærna, relying on their strength, speed, and venom to overwhelm his foes while he skulks about in the background, looking for openings to butt in with his knives. Still, Nahash is not preferential to direct battles and would rather lead an opponent into some sort of trap beforehand, which he is quite proficient at accomplishing. Lastly, Aegis Bequeathed by Forgotten Divinities give Nahash a very potent, if slow to actualize to its full extent, defense against an opponent’s Thaumaturgy.

Nahash deals in information and having more of it than you, so his greatest advantage socially is his ability to barter with and disseminate what he knows. Usually approaching others rationally, but with a sharp tongue as apt to jest mercilessly as it is to reply with kindness, Nahash at least is able to deliver a firm logic in his negotiations and, if he is able to ensure the safety of himself and his goals in the process, is very open to collaboration.

WEAKNESSES[/color]: // Nahash isn’t a Mage with much combat prowess. Bereft of any flashy obliteration spells to call his own, despite being from an older family, or any physical training beyond his skill with knives, Nahash doesn’t really have a reliably deadly thing he can do; his shoeknives may very well be his most lethal killing tool. Nahash is almost entirely dependent, therefore, on his Níðhöggr Bærna Familiars to supply him with significant combat utility and, while the larger additions are competent adversaries, their weakness when confronted with other forms of Magecraft and contiguous nature as dangerously quick but fragile glass cannons is self-evident. This results in an unfortunate situation wherein, while Nahash is able to quickly and efficiently gather information on his enemies so as to discern their weaknesses, he is unable to exploit this knowledge on his own unless he’s lucky enough for the Níðhöggr Bærna to have good affinity against them.

Socially speaking, Nahash doesn’t have an incredibly enrapturing personality, to the point where he’d never be able to see eye-to-eye with certain people due to his shenanigans. This usually does not tend to stem from philosophical differences, but merely because he’s kind of a dick, if a relatively harmless one assuming all concerned parties are cooperating. Even if Nahash wishes he were a good person, prefers to maintain morality when feasible, and can be very friendly and loyal, it goes without saying his often sinister, flippant, and imperious demeanor can be off-putting. Depending on the other person, establishing trust may be difficult, because while he’s certainly not an inherently bad guy, it’s hard to pin him as a good guy, either.[/size][/blockquote]

MY FAMILY LINE

[/color]: // The Blickwinkel family’s humble beginnings can be found at the turn of the tenth century, the bloodline traceable back to a single nameless hunter who, by dumb luck, happened to be born with a phenomenal Psychic ability. He was a simple man, whose greatest pleasure was merely sitting amongst the branches and fading into the greenery. The Hunter’s clairvoyance, like most Psychic powers, was evidently a spontaneous mutation with little explanation, understood least of all by its possessor, reluctant as he was to explain the talent to others for fear of being burned at the stake. At the very least, the Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance made life easy for the man, who had little trouble putting food on the table.

Having much time for leisure, therefore, he sometimes took to impressing his peers with the great skill in marksmanship his eyes bestowed upon him. His exploits were enough to inspire awe in an onlooking Freiherr who eventually became such a fan that he made the Hunter his vassal. The Freiherr would soon be promoted to Graf due to extenuating circumstances. The Hunter’s good fortune not only kindled the flames of curiosity he held regarding his clairvoyance, but gave him the sort of sway necessary to attempt to sate this curiosity. In a way, the Pure Eyes themselves put him in an ironically convenient position to search for their origin and meaning by the very nature of their power alone. Some say the Hunter stumbled upon a Mage, others that a Magus noticed his unique talents, but either way they formed a mutually beneficial relationship. The Mage’s political influence was boosted, while the Hunter for his trouble was indoctrinated in the ways of Thaumaturgy… after becoming significantly more literate, that is.

In truth, the Mage, coming from a young, generic family who only recently developed a Crest, found the Hunter to be a bit of an oaf at first, but one who, between being the confidant of a Graf and having a very helpful ability, was nonetheless useful and possessed of a charming aptitude for learning to boot. Though he grasped the fundamentals of Magecraft quickly, in the end, the only thing the Hunter cared about was preserving his Pure Eyes, ignoring any processes of Magecraft he couldn’t use for this purpose and throwing himself into any research he thought might help him. This obsession was infectious, it seems, and, without fully realizing it at first, the Mage found herself working day and night to find a way to transfer what she assumed was a transient Thaumaturgical Trait to the Hunter’s “heir,” despite the Hunter not even having a family to call his own. When she became cognizant of this, she truly didn’t understand whether she was infatuated with the Hunter or with his eyes, realizing the value they had, but either way she figured she could come out on top.

Together they conceived a child and, unfortunately, this child did not possess the Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance; the Mage had anticipated this, drastically warping her Family Crest just for the occasion by painstakingly implementing her spouse’s ocular Circuits into the Crest’s build. The Hunter gave up his sight entirely so that his descendents would possess the Pure Eyes – his own eyes were surgically implanted into his offspring and were accepted due to the nature of the Family Crest, now embedded upon the tongue to allow the intrinsic Circuits of the Pure Eyes to “connect” with the Circuits of the Crest (which, by such a point, are as good as the host’s own Circuits). This successfully preserved the eyes for further study and the second generation of what was now known as the “Blickwinkel” clan managed to turn the Pure Eyes into a legitimate, if unreliable, familial Thaumaturgical Trait. Anytime the Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance decided to be fickle and failed to manifest in an heir, it was simple to just transfer the eyes via surgery to one who had the crest or merely make a new heir while disposing of the failure.

Since the Hunter had met the Mage, he had been loaned out to other Magi of the Association to use his abilities, primarily for tracking, occasionally for espionage, and even as a watchdog, guarding for intruders from a distance. This aptitude for tracking and, indeed, exploiting the Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance in general would become the Blickwinkel family’s modus operandi. The family proceeded to gradually build up their nobility and status within the Association, working to accumulate vast sums of information, predominantly thaumaturgical. They became especially well authenticated lecturers and archivers throughout the Association, and though nothing could be said for them in terms of combat capability, they were very well received as trackers, scouts, and coordinators.

Every single Blickwinkel head from the first onwards would become a “Magus Tracker,” so to speak, someone who would submit their services to another Magus, usually an Enforcer or noble of the Association, for a hefty sum and use their abilities to track down and flush out a given target. Such targets ranged from Magi who had been designated for Sealing to Dead Apostles in serious need of extermination. However, it’s no mistake to point out that the Blickwinkel were not fit for combat in general, merely used to find the enemy so that a Mage of greater power could annihilate the threat. Because of this, while they were praised for their usefulness, they were looked upon as a weak family riding the coattails of greater Magi – their constant association with Enforcer “dogs” did not improve the family’s image in the eyes of the nobility.

Still, they stuck to their guns (spells, rather, as their animosity towards technological advancement only grew with successive years) and continued with what worked. The third generation designed the Holstenwall Ward Bounded Field with tracking and observation in mind. Invasive Prognosis was also added to the Family Crest fairly early. The fourth generation would itself begin research into the Níðhöggr Bærn, though the curse turned out to require an investment of time no less than four additional generations before it was satisfactorily completed. The family began to rely on knives more as time went on, resorting to the archery their founder utilized less and less until only knives remained. The branch family that had formed at a certain point stuck to archery, but they have since been entirely annihilated by their progenitors to maintain a monopoly on the Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance. Despite the advantages in terms of range that arrows brought, they became a burden: many Magi possessed methods of countering it, and archery, despite having multiple spells weaved around its use, did not seem like a particularly effective pathway to the Root and thus was abandoned.

In total, the Blickwinkel lineage is around a millennium in terms of age, having seen ten generations, Nahash being the last. Until the ninth generation, each progressive family head had lived significantly longer than the last. Circuit count has thus far accumulated at an average rate. In terms of Circuit quality, the first four generations had quality of about 7 PrC, the next four generations had increased to 8 PrC, and Nahash and his mother were graced with 9 PrC quality, showing steady improvement.

MY HISTORY[/color]: // The ninth generation of the Blickwinkel household was headed by Freudia, Nahash’s mother. Though respected as a lecturer from an older family, she was widely regarded as austere and impersonal. When she even spoke up outside of lecturing, her tendency to harshly castigate both her students, peers, and occasionally even superiors, made her brazen disregard for other people common knowledge. These reckless showings of disrespect, paired with the Blickwinkel’s already subaltern position in comparison to other families of similar age, failed to win her many friends among her colleagues. Not that she cared for other Magi in the first place, except when they were paying her. Still, her performance was graded highly by those she happened to work with.

Nahash’s father was Reynardine Francisco Sangria, the fifth head of the Sangria household. Despite being nearly only half as old, the Sangrias had managed to claim standing within the Association far beyond what the Blickwinkels ever had. This could mostly be attributed to their prudent political sensibilities, not least of which were Reynardine’s own. He was right at home amongst the nobility, well aware of how to extol himself before them. Appearing jovial, charismatic, and with enough charming eccentricities to keep himself interesting, there didn’t seem to be anyone among his associates who disliked him, at least none who didn’t end up disappearing for some reason or another.

Because of this talent for bureaucratic advancement, Reynardine occupied several eminent positions and titles within the Association despite his family’s somewhat quaint lack of offensive Magecraft. From the beginning cultivating Thaumaturgy only for their own convenience rather than a desire to pursue knowledge, the Sangria looked upon Magecraft as a tool and little else. However, firmly grasping the concepts nonetheless, they had become refined experts with the spell their family had set out with, Aegis Bequethed by Forgotten Divinities. Although access to nothing but a defensive spell kept them out of anything like a duel (“Peh! How barbaric!”), in an environment such as the Mage’s Association, it afforded them a position wherein none could think of opposing them with force alone.

Needless to say, Reynardine’s multitude of offices put him in contact with numerous Magi through his many undertakings. On one such occasion, involving the management of finances belonging to a division of Enforcers, he was introduced to Freudia Blickwinkel and was immediately infatuated – not by her specifically, as she was a frigid, shrewish harpy, but the opportunity she presented. A woman from an older clan of Magi, possessed of a desirable Sorcery Trait, and whose popularity had waned so frightfully that it was easily exploitable. Certainly, she had the potential sway of an older family behind her, she just refused, in her arrogance, to wield it; that is what Reynardine thought. With this in mind, he approached her with propositions of marriage, noting how they could both benefit from such a union; how, with his cunning, her family could finally be treated with the respect they deserve.

For Freudia’s part, she thought of Reynardine as a “spineless sycophant, a disgusting lamprey eel draining the stagnant blood from Clocktower’s rotting, bloated corpse,” and told him as much immediately, but also affably said that she found his offer interesting and she, having no plans for succession as of yet, would gladly take him up on the offer if he met her conditions. Firstly, considering their much greater age, he should be married into the Blickwinkel family and take on their name. Secondly, if he could use his sway to have any Sealing Designations pending approval on her abrogated, that’d be fantastic too. Reynardine was somewhat taken off guard by the last request; having failed to ingratiate herself among the upper crust, there were several Magi who indeed had put forth recommendations for Sealing due to the nature of her Pure Eyes and, more so, her generally unsociable bearing. It goes without saying that Reynardine intended to blackmail her with this had she failed to comply, but, considering such information was strictly confidential and she had not preemptively contested any such potential designation whatsoever, he had assumed she was unaware. He would soon learn to stop assuming Freudia was unaware of things and realize her capacity for apathy was simply limitless; ditto for her contempt.

And so they procreated. Nahash was the result. Freudia initially resorted to carving information directly into her son’s mind, as was the teaching method taken up by several other families (including the Harwey), but, when it came time for higher concepts, Reynardine vetoed her, feeling any son of his should be treated as a human being, not a manufactured product, to which Freudia hesitantly conceded. Instead, Nahash was locked away within the manor and rigorously trained by his parents. Not wanting to expose Nahash to the “ignorant sensibilities” of the outside world, understanding of other subjects was provided by a conga-line of esteemed tutors. Still, it was not a particularly hard life, as Reynard took care to provide a luxurious atmosphere, having made sure to brighten up the Blickwinkel mansion after finding that its interior was barren and desolate when he first arrived.

All things considered, Nahash’s early life was quite pleasant and his behavior reflected this. Reynardine impressed upon him the value of both political manipulation and the manipulation of Prana. Considering the Sangria family owed a great deal of its political clout to family alliances, Reynard would often invite other Magi of the Association over, welcoming their families as well in a show of good faith. During these exchanges, Nahash would make quick friends with other Magi children. On the eve of his eighth birthday, Nahash received a gift from his father, a commission to a family friend who owed him several favors, a homunculus in the image of a woman, Blair, who would go on to become his personal maidservant and a constant part of his life, spending more time with him than anyone else, even his parents. Indeed, his parents soon found her to be an annoyance, as she considered their son her master and was only loyal to them by association.

At the other end of the spectrum, Freudia seemed almost delighted, in her typically melancholic way, to deprive herself and her son of all freedom for days on end while they crammed a deeper understanding of Magecraft into his head. Vast swathes of Magi history down to every feasibly useful and verifiable detail were taken and funneled into Nahy’s brain as though down a hole drilled through his skull. Her enthusiasm was a bit more understandable when one realized that she went through basically the same training in exactly the same fashion. Freudia did not interfere with Nahash’s political education, which he showed promise in throughout his life, but made no secret of her feelings on the matter. A Magi was someone who pursued the Root relentlessly and at any cost. True Magic was merely a glittering stepping stone upon Akasha’s door that a gabble of fools were distracted by. To her, the way modern Magi behaved, acting as though they were some sort of nobility, was simply degeneration.

Even saying this, Freudia was far from finished milking Reynardine for everything she could. One of her primary motivations for marrying Reynardine was to take advantage of his position so that she could get her hands on classified directories of enrolled Magi (credentials and archived publications mostly), not to do anything as profound as stealing knowledge, but merely to know the vocations of other Magi. Such actions were all taken from the standpoint that sometime in the future, any single one of the fellow Magi families being studied, even the elite of the elites, could be labeled for Sealing Designation. At such a point, they could be using any of the variety of Thaumaturgical Paradigms and it was important to be able to recognize each and every one for what it was should the assistance of the Blickwinkel be called upon. To this end, Nahash would be enrolled in the Department of Universal Knowledge.

His mother having mentioned it to be a clear possibility from the start, it was no wonder that when Nahash took up the family trade he inevitably encountered his former friends amongst the Magi he hunted. He approached such situations with a sense of poise, not even batting an eyelash. Despite their contradicting nature philosophically and as people, it wasn’t difficult for Nahash to reconcile between what his mother and father had taught him, it was simply the only thing he could do. For his parents, the situation was different. The Blickwinkel name had not increased in standing since it had overtaken the Sangria, rather, Freudia had merely dragged Reynardine into her quagmire. Reynardine was fed up with the situation while Freudia had squeezed out every benefit that came with her new husband she reasonably could. With that in mind, they sought out the legal expertise of the Wrong family and bitterly divorced.

Both Freudia and Reynard would remarry and have a second child each. Both children had superior Circuit counts to Nahash, but Freudia’s second child lacked the Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance. Nahash held no ill will towards his half-siblings – after all, he had already received the amalgamated Crest of both the Blickwinkel and Sangria families and had inherited the Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance. In fact, he was quite caring of the two. However, it was around this time that Nahash began to be afflicted with nightmarish visions of his own death.

These were not just any premonitions, but portents delivered to him through his Pure Eyes delineating his assassination and proceeding mutilation at the hands of his own parents. His parents would slice out his tongue to obtain the Family Crest and his mother would go even further – plucking out his eyes so that they could be surgically transferred to her new child. Nahash tried his best to ignore these visions, thinking that they were merely tricks of his fevered mind, caught up in the clashing agendas of Magi Hunting and political posturing as he was. But each day the visions became not only more distinct, but more plausible as well. It was only rational, after all…

Freudia would awake one morning to the disappearance of both Nahash and her other child. News of Reynardine’s death at the hands of a cabal of Executors he had under his jurisdiction, but ones that Nahash had worked closely with before, came to her less than an hour later. Nahash had temporarily inherited several of his father’s positions during this time and had immediately promoted these Executors, naming some as his successors to be appointed immediately. In the meantime, what remained of the Sangria family was massacred. It soon became apparent that her children hadn’t simply gone out on a morning stroll.

Stricken that her Pure Eyes had not foreseen these events transpire, Freudia immediately attempted to search Nahash out, but to no avail. In the end, the greatest weakness of a Magus Tracker would be a Magus Tracker of the same nature, knowing exactly how to avoid detection. She was forced to remain idle until Nahash informed her of where he was hiding. Nahash was well aware he was no match for his mother in a straight-up fight, she was simply far more experienced. However, cornered into engaging on Nahash’s terms, Freudia could do nothing but attempt to rescue her second child unscathed. It was a futile effort, however, as when she finally found him, her second child had already been poisoned beyond saving. She did nothing but stare blankly at her child’s limp body as the ten Holstenwall Wards that shared the room all detonated simultaneously. Nahash found her battered body somewhere amongst the rubble. In her last words, she spoke sweetly to him of how proud she was, holding nothing but the most hollow, sincere smile. Though she spoke with utmost coherence about where she thought he should go in life, Nahash honestly couldn’t comprehend what his mother was saying to him at all, so he just replied with an equally hollow smile. In hindsight, Nahash thinks he might have just been talking to a corpse.

Nahash inherited everything from the Blickwinkel and Sangria estates and continued his daily life as if nothing had happened, maintaining his position in the Department of Universal Knowledge and continuing to work as an esteemed hunter of Magi. Time went on. Nahash first dropped out of the politics of the Association. Then he began to neglect the Department of Universal Knowledge. Eventually, he ignored tracking employment requests entirely. Slowly but surely, Nahash Blickwinkel disappeared from Magi society entirely. After unceremoniously firing all but his personal homunculus, Blair, he worked on Magecraft privately for awhile, but even that steadily came to a halt. The Blickwinkel mansion returned to its derelict, shabby state before Reynardine arrived, completely devoid of character or warmth. The days went by with Nahash merely surviving and nothing else. Occasionally, he managed to amass the will to sort through his overflowing mailbox, and amongst these letters he found a message from an old associate of his regarding a certain Holy Grail War...

MY GOALS[/color]: // First immortality, then comes the █████es. Nahash says he’s coming to win the Holy Grail, grasp the Heaven’s Feel, and obtain True Magic. He says he’s going to wish for perfect immortality and live as a God would. He says he’s going to bask in the newfound glory of complete victory and show the ignorant Magi who doubted his family’s name their folly and insignificance. He claims all these things, but when it all comes down to it, even though he knows of its necessity, he couldn’t possibly bring himself to command his Servant’s suicide. Nahash has no goal. He is, in the end, only going through the motions of the Grail War how he sees it. If he does get to the end, all he wants is for Parsifal to remain by his side.[/size][/blockquote]

[Nahash]

[/color][/b][/color]: //

• Forty Holstenwall Ward tags.
  
• A toasty and comfortable coat that is specially tailored to be bulletproof, fire retardant, and shock resistant. There are no enchantments on it at all and thus it’s not even strong enough to lower any ranks, but it might just lower the damage enough for Nahash to survive an otherwise fatal attack. If he’s lucky, at least.
  
• Twenty throwing knives that Nahash carries on his person, eight contained on each side of aforementioned coat and two hidden in each sleeve. Each weighs 200 grams. He is trained in their use. The knives are generic and can be replaced with relative ease.
  
• Two vials of paralytic neurotoxin – specifically, purified dendrotoxin – that Nahash keeps with him. The openings of the vials are just large enough so that the knives may be inserted into them so as to coat their blades. The knives must make a thorough stab wound to cause significant paralysis. Grazes and scratches caused by the poisoned knives may lead to feelings of numbness in the general area of the wound, but such dubious strikes must hit multiple times before this starts to effect combat in any fashion. Nahash has brought several containers of the venom with him, so his supply is unlikely to run dry in the course of the war.
  
• Nahash wears shoeknives. A shoeknife is simply a blade which extends from the toe of the wearer's footwear. A stiletto is hidden in the sole, so one merely needs to press on the heel in a certain fashion to slide the blade out. One of Nahash’s methods of attempting to be crazy-prepared: as he is not a combat Magus, if an enemy attempts to melee him, this is his last resort; he also just thinks that shoeknives are damn cool. Nahash does not have any sort of martial arts training, so he cannot use the weapon to its max lethality, but then, shoeknives are already quite deadly, even in the hands of an amateur. It definitely offers the element of surprise, and all Nahash hypothetically needs to end a fight is to land a swift kick to the knee. In this regard, the shoeknives might very well be Nahash’s ultimate combat maneuver, ironically enough, though it is unquestionably situational.

RANK[/color]: // 4th, though what the ratio of talent to recommendation letters was to get him to this rank is up for debate. He is considered a mature Magus, despite not yet fully mastering the Magecraft contributed by the Sangria family's blood.
ELEMENT[/color]: // Fire
EXPERTISE[/color]: //

General Thaumaturgical Theory and Arcana Expertise: Needless to say, the Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance give the Blickwinkel family a very broad view of the world. From that stance, they then decided to define their pathway to Akasha by taking in as much information – as broad a view – as possible; after learning absolutely everything necessary, with knowledge akin to God, it is only natural that one would be able to reach out and touch the point of commencement and the point of conclusion, itself called “infinite knowledge.” One of the family’s primary venues of research has thus traditionally been the Department of Universal Knowledge, which Nahash to this day is still technically enrolled in despite his long absence. Nahash’s knowledge of Thaumaturgical Foundations is considerably beyond basic understanding, allowing him to recognize individual spells, realize their classification, and deduce abundant details based on an aria, observing the results, or other indications. He is also quite aware of individual families and their specialties, almost always being able to recall some critical tidbit about Magi with some connection to the Association, though some additional research may be necessary. Needless to say, strenuous study and comprehension of many different fields of Magecraft, granted without practicing these fields himself, serves a great practical purpose in Nahash’s occupation, giving valuable insight into exactly what Thaumaturgical situation is befalling him. Nahash is very, very rarely at a loss when encountering Thaumaturgy, no matter the degree of obscurity. It goes without saying, however, that Nahash’s expertise cannot realistically surpass a seasoned, legitimate practitioner of any given field (that is, unless he learned to pilfer Crests like a certain bespectacled Aozaki).

Prana Manipulation: A skill stressed fiercely by the Sangria family, and thus Nahash’s father. This is not emphasized without cause, as their one Thaumaturgical asset depends on being as precise as possible. Extremely fine control of Prana is in particular a requirement for the Aegis Bequeathed by Forgotten Divinities spell. Nahash would’ve been much less concerned with this subject than he rightfully should’ve if not for his early subscription to a philosophy acclaimed by a certain Clocktower lecturer he favored in his youth. The lecturer’s theory stated that superior understanding of spells and more delicate control over Prana enabled anyone to possess skill equitable to a master Mage from a family of superior venerability. Despite the somewhat offensive implication that a Magus from a younger family could reliably trump a Magus from an older family, the idea made sense to Nahash. The potential to surpass Magi who treated their sheer power as the single most defining measure of their worth also greatly appealed to the young Nahy (ignoring the fact that he, in a way, was measuring himself by the same standard just by thinking this). Though its actual usefulness from spell to spell is inconsistent, Nahash can control Prana under his influence down to the very minute details, certainly beyond what a Mage would tend to think is necessary, also making him sensitive to sudden changes in Prana around him. This theoretically makes Nahash a superior user of Reinforcement, but he considers the concept a crutch that doesn’t play to his strengths (compared to a Holstenwall Ward, which is totally a crutch that does).

Knifeplay Adept: Knives gradually grew to entirely replace an initial expertise in bow & arrows for the Blickwinkel family. Nahash has trained in the use of knives since a startlingly early age, only slightly after he began training in general Thaumaturgy. Able to hit a target from expert distances with pinpoint accuracy, over ten years of practice certainly gets one somewhere. When a specific technique is singularly emphasized and trained to its utmost limits, it becomes its own art, just as adaptable as any style of combat. When the Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance are in use, Nahash’s range effectively doubles. Nahash is practiced to basic competence in melee with the knives, but any outstanding mastery he displays is a result of using his Pure Eyes to supplement his abilities, not trained expertism.

MAGIC CIRCUITS[/color]: // Nahash is a gifted magus from a moderately old family. He has 32 circuits and a quality of 9 Prana. His maximum Prana is 288. When combined with his Family Crest, which provides an extra 96 PrC, his total capacity rises to 384.
SPELLS[/color]: //

[Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance (Grenzenlos Blickwinkel)] ([Jougan])
Rank: [Red]
Cost: [2 pr/100 meters/min]
Range: [Up to a kilometer]
Effect:

[The Thaumaturgical effect that began the Blickwinkel family line and the object of their Sorcery Trait. Only those of the Blickwinkel line know the inner workings of their Pure Eyes, and all would die before sharing their secrets. Clairvoyance is, specifically, a Psychic ability to perceive beyond what is physically possible and is unrelated to the Servant Skill of the same name. With this, those of the Blickwinkel family can see far beyond the range of mundane eyesight and can quantify the entirety of their surroundings at a steady cost. Upon the activation of the Pure Eyes, the eyes immediately glow a menacing red (though this can be suppressed) and Nahash gains complete visual information within 50 meters of his position as though he were looking from any angle or perspective. This total coverage can be expanded up to a kilometer with an ever advancing cost of 2 Prana per 100 meters to accommodate the increased burden.

Furthermore, the greater the distance covered by Nahash’s perception, the more scattered his attention will be when his mind tries to quantify the complete area. Any intake of information will become muddled to the point of meaninglessness when attempting to assess an area of sufficient size, quite a bit like having a bird’s-eye view among the clouds, but not being able to perceive any action that’s anchored to the ground. Therefore, Nahash’s perception must be trained to specific areas to allow him to actually understand what’s happening in any given situation. It goes without saying that focusing his perception on an area far away from his current position leaves Nahash blind to his immediate surroundings, making him vulnerable if he happens to be in an insecure location.

In addition, the eyes bestow a certain degree of precognitive ability upon the user. Technically speaking, it is not actually observation of the future, but an extension of the user’s unconscious retrocognition, allowing the user to make accurate predictions based on information from the past and present. Rather, it’d be more accurate to say that the Pure Eyes unlock the potential for realization within the user’s mind, consciously predicting outcomes based off of subconscious knowledge. Thus, this aspect of the eyes gives one insight into a likely future possibility, though it isn’t perfect. Variables that are already assumed to be coming, such as scheduled events, have a greater chance of being predicted with accuracy; for example, awareness of the correct answers on a test regardless of consciously understanding the material on said test. In the same way, factors that the user cannot be said to even subconsciously be aware of couldn’t possibly be taken into account when such predictions are made. Nahash’s prescience is uncertain and thus subject to change, making its predictive abilities only partially reliable in the long run, but useful for securing short-term goals.

In all honesty, abilities that grant potent extrasensory perception such as this can be considered a regression from the collective evolutionary path of humanity, a mutation that’s a square peg for a circular hole. Modern societies are so complex and contain so much information that normal humans disregard anything not necessary for them. Those who can see beyond normal perception, on the other hand, tend to process a greater influx of information than regular humans are conditioned to in the current era, leading to an information overload. This noted, use of the Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance is physically and psychically draining for Nahash, and he’s likely to come out of extended use of it panting and/or woozy. This is mitigated somewhat by the feeling of control it bestows upon him, and he tends to exaggerate his excitement when under their influence. Like most Pure Eyes, these grant the user visibility of insubstantial Thaumaturgy, though, depending on the encountered concept, the eyes may take some time to fully visualize these phenomena and either way such effects tend to give Nahash a bit of a headache.]

[Aegis Bequeathed by Forgotten Divinities] ([Fire/Barrier])
Rank:
Cost: [45 at initial casting]
Range: [5 meters maximum around user]
Effect:

[The sole focus of the Sangria family, but also one that singularly put terror behind their name, meaning it was the only Magecraft necessary for them at all. The Sangria are descended from a dynasty of high priests of a pagan cult that worshipped several Canaanite deities during a time when monotheistic religions were apt to persecute such things with extreme prejudice. This spell in particular was derived from one of the cult’s ritualistic litanies and is quite powerful, having been considered an ancestral blessing from their gods. This “blessing” takes the form of a barrier that enshrines the user from adverse Thaumaturgy, deflecting spells of equal or lesser power to what force is put into the spell. As it is something that the Sangria in particular held on to from this time, it is often referred to as the “Sangrian Aegis,” among its handful of other names. It’s most interesting feature seems to be the degree to which the caster is able to impose their own ego upon the spell’s superficial composition, making it difficult to pass down other than through the usage of a Crest.

The spell’s concept in itself is simple. By applying a force of equal and opposite power to an incoming spell, that spell can be negated. The Sangrian Aegis requires an aura to be generated from the caster’s person with an incantation of ten lines (brought down from a staggering 18 lines over successive generations). The aura permeates the atmosphere around the caster with magical energy under the caster’s domain, forming a bubble of influence that, to Magi who can see immaterial Thaumaturgy, appears like a shimmering heat haze. At any time hence until the barrier is terminated, any Thaumaturgy that would enter the area of effect of the Sangrian Aegis can be negated at an appropriate cost per Rank, rounding down. For E Rank spells, it only takes 10% of the opposing spell’s Prana, so perhaps 1 or 2 units. For D Rank spells, 20% of the cost should suffice for a successful counter. C Rank equates to 30%. B Rank, 40%, and A Rank spells require a cost be paid equivalent to half of the Prana that was used in the actualization of the offending spell.

This is because the bubble of affected Prana, at the reaction of its current user, temporarily forms a borderline of exceedingly bizarre outward appearance that is much like a Bounded Field. Further reflecting this similarity, Nahash is incapable of movement while the border is deployed. At this borderline, the barrier proceeds to apply an equal and opposite force of Prana to counter the Prana of any conflicting spell; It’s no wonder why superb and finely tuned control of Prana is necessary to perform the spell with any degree of competency, not to mention the trained focus that goes into stabilizing the aura of Prana produced with which the spell’s effect is actualized. All things with a form dependent on Thaumaturgy to subsist can be countered in this fashion due to the barrier's inherently antithetical nature. It must be noted, though, that only the parts of a spell that make contact with the barrier are negated – the barrier will pass right through a wave of fire, but anything in that wave that doesn’t make contact with the barrier can still go on to do collateral damage.

If, by chance, a spell comes along with a degree of power that can penetrate the barrier without being effectively negated first, the barrier’s omni-directional coverage can be temporarily sacrificed and its full force can be focused in a singular direction as a sort of shield, taking an additional 10% of the countered spell’s cost to be successful. The distortion of Prana takes on a very distinct appearance at such a time and while piercing the shield with a given Rank of spell is theoretically possible, Nahash is unaware of any modern spell with such a capability (and Nahash knows his spells).

While the spell is an exceptionally powerful counter to spells and Thaumaturgy in general, by its very concept it is totally incapable of blocking things unrelated to Magecraft such as bullets or weaponry, though some Conceptual Weapons that are materialized through Thaumaturgy, such as certain classes of Black Keys, are fair game. On the matter of Servants, it goes without saying they run on a superior hierarchy in the first place – a C Rank Noble Phantasm equates to an A Rank feat of modern Magecraft. Considering this, hypothetically speaking, the Sangrian Aegis could potentially block aspects of a Servant’s attack, such as lightning or fire they produce, but, in general practice, even minor attacks stemming from a Servant fall under the rules of a spell that’s too forceful for the Sangrian Aegis to ‘catch’, as it were. As is obvious, the lack of capacity to block a Servant’s physical attacks needn’t even be mentioned and a Caster can certainly be expected to have at least something to pierce through the Sangrian Aegis somewhere in their repertoire.

The spell’s Fire Element is explained by its conceptual relation to the pagan god Moloch, who was symbolized and defined by fire. Indeed, the appearance of the Sangrian Aegis generated by Nahash’s father, Reynardine, appeared to be an orb with walls weaved of tightly compacted flame, although it was just an image produced by the distortion of Prana and no real fire was involved. Nahash’s own barrier actually looks quite a bit different, as previously detailed. On the note of the barrier’s cosmetic appearance, generally speaking, the decorative components of shields that members of the Sangria family produced did not actually accommodate for the user’s own visual capability, and Nahash’s usage of the spell is no exception. This is not usually a substantial problem – the barrier is only deployed long enough to negate the targeted Thaumaturgy; however, in the case of onslaughts and long streams of hostile Magecraft, visibility may be compromised for some time. Nahash’s Sangrian ancestors evaded this issue to an extent by paying attention to the flow of Prana around them using their heightened senses in that regard, noting when and where spells would be cast and readying themselves in advance. Nahash can resort to the same tactic if necessary, but, given his Blickwinkel heritage, it is instead more prudent for him to use his Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance to overcome this issue, perhaps making him for suited for its nullification than his ancestors.

For the same reasons that the spell’s appearance tends to be so mutable from user to user, the incantation has been substantially altered from its original meaning, which essentially amounted to deprecating the Catholic church and the negative distortions to society it brought with it, such as its demonization of pagan cults. Until now, what the aria has always reflected in its concept is a stern defiance against the current trends and culture surrounding the user, explaining why it has been so continuously amended based on the ego of its current caster. Nahash moved the spell’s incantation closer to the alignment of the Blickwinkel family, so, while the original spell would come off as a protest at the demonization of pagan gods, Nahash’s rendering almost sounds like an embrace of one’s role as a devil. Reynardine’s incantation was ten lines, but Nahash’s ego and lack of mastery has caused just a little temporary degeneracy. As the nature of the spell is that of a sacred blessing to protect the user from harm, the aura that denotes the spell's activation will inevitably disperse on its own if the user themselves does not feel they are in danger. Adequately disciplined casters can maintain the aura regardless, but Nahash’s level of mastery does not permit him this method of sustainment.]

With utter serenity, I exist within a malebolge of violent anger
Deep inside the black abyss, the darkness burns its flame of sinful salvation
While forming a miracle in the frozen hellfire
Let me adorn thine neck with an obsidian collar
Oh, great lord of destruction, kneel down before me, for I own thee
Listen to my divine words
I shall become the hardened shackles of steel that bind thee
I shall become the thorny chains that torment thee
I shall become the silver sword that engraves on thine body
Even if thou struggle, it would be useless, now is too late
Thou art the prisoner of this Aegis.

[Invasive Prognosis] ([Ether])
Rank: [C]
Cost: [30]
Range: [n/a]
Effect:

[Divination and scrying have long been classics for uncovering information in the world of Thaumaturgy and the Blickwinkel family, focused on the hunting of other Magi as they are, are apt to follow this tradition. To this end, they uncovered and practice a very specific manner of scrying that helps them pursue individual targets. Generally, divination is based on a minor ritual, and this spell is no exception. To perform the divination ceremony, a victim for the spell to focus on must be designated. This is accomplished by taking a belonging of the desired target, placing it at the center of a unique sigil, and chanting a seven line aria to ascertain the sought information.

As far as rituals go, Invasive Prognosis leans towards the shorter and simpler side, though there remains a few complications. The sigil, usually drawn with some sort of valid Thaumaturgical medium such as blood or mercury to ease the flow of Prana, but fully capable of working with chalk or marker, is part of the ritual’s procedure and thus a sigil cannot be prepared long in advance. The spell does not cost additional Prana over time, but the user must remain in the general vicinity of where the ritual was invoked to maintain the spell’s effect. Within their Workshop, a Mage can, however, temporarily “neglect” the ritual for brief stints of time (around 20 minutes) without needing to immediately return and redo the whole ceremony, but leaving the Workshop is a deal breaker.

The ritual focuses on revealing to the caster three primary aspects of the targeted person: their identity, their physical state, and their current location. The identity aspect reveals the targets true name, nicknames, any aliases or titles they might have, and how all the names relate to one another, but nothing more. Physical state determines the current condition of their body, including wounds, enchantments, and abnormalities. Location pinpoints where the target is in relation to Nahash and tracks them for as long as the spell is maintained. The spell is purely based on “knowing” and has no visual component – Nahash is not shown explicitly an image of the target’s body, nor is he shown the appearance of their location. He may, nevertheless, faintly hear the person’s breathing, heartbeat, or sounds of their location – vestigial aspects from an earlier age in this spell’s history.

Invasive Prognosis is, however, limited by the quality of the material it receives when performing the divination. Rather than purely basing itself off the amount of Prana used in the ritual, the spell is defined equally if not more by what it takes in of the target’s belongings, that item’s personal relation to them (its importance), and the sheer amount of amassed material. The prognostication also picks up more information from things with the victim’s Circuits or Prana or likewise, ranging from pieces of their body to jewelry and other such items imbued with their Prana to clothing they have worn that is saturated with Ether from the practice of Magecraft. Individual hair follicles and clothing fibers on their own would lead to a subpar and useless divination, but several of these items all combined would at least confirm the target’s name or physical state. This is all assuming, of course, he actually survives the initial encounter with such a person. By the same token, the leavings of Familiars in general behave in a similar manner, although it’d take a Familiar’s corpse to obtain all three aspects of the spell.]

O' disguised god, that doth waver in the void,
Waiting for the moment of revival
In this eye, the endless cycle of lies reflects
Thousands of empty dreams
The fragments of memories left behind
Revelation stained in blood, which calleth the end,
Embraceth sin perpetual, and fall into the abyss

[Níðhöggr Bærn] ([Curse/Familiar])
Rank: [B*]
Cost: [20-80]
Range: [200km]
Effect:

[An eerie old curse originating from Scandinavia that from all indications is a distant relative of Gandr, definitely sharing the same Thaumaturgical Foundation. It was pursued by the Blickwinkel family during a period when they were deciding over a uniform preference in Familiars. Long having established themselves as a clan based on “tracking,” two areas they lacked were in the pursual and binding of their marks. To assist in this purpose, dog and wolf familiars were considered, but did not have the desired finesse. In the same vein, the Holstenwall Wards, though effective, had the annoying tendency to pick up enemy Magi stumbling upon them, but the Blickwinkel wielder would be too far away to be able to track the observed target after they left the Bounded Field’s area of effect. The need arose for something that could be quickly and easily deployed from a distance.

Mentions of Níðhöggr Bærn were noticed while browsing through various tomes and grimoires to find some sort of candidate, but the fine details of the spell were only discovered after much straining and toiling over ancient texts, scripts, and documents. It did not seem to be a Magecraft of popularity in the past despite its odd nature, and documents referred to it as a trifling, wicked thing, a ‘waste of Prana with no purpose other than causing pain’. In spite of this, to the Blickwinkel, it was the answer to both problems they had… despite the initial difficulties.

Níðhöggr Bærn produces curses given a very definite material form in the shape of sinister, shadowy serpents composed of baleful smog compressed into a smooth, distinct shape. They are tinted mauve, but under the cover of night they might as well be as black as the surrounding darkness. Their bodies are somewhat amorphous, being able to stretch, thin, and flatten themselves to fit into cramped hiding places. A Níðhöggr Bærn can quickly vibrate its body to produce sound, either as an intimidation tactic or to produce a garbled, but still understandable mimicry of speech, though such complicated sonic patterns must be “recorded” into them before they can be produced. They can also adhesively cling to walls, letting them slither along vertical surfaces as though they were shadows. Though otherwise seemingly featureless, a Níðhöggr Bærn will contextually gain simplistic facial features that resemble a glowing pair of eyes.

In terms of concept, they are loosely comparable to Demons, being curses (which are in the same category as ‘wishes’ and ‘prayers’) manifested into a physical form, but their existence is on a much lower level. Considering this, they’re also similar to beings that fall squarely under Spiritual Evocation, but it’s important to distinguish them from actual Spirits that can interact with the physical world, as they are neither that high a class nor is their existence so complicated. They originally acted as a sort of difficult to control, unpredictable fire-and-forget binding curse, but their concept was slightly expanded over a great deal of time by the Blinkwinkel family to give them some degree of artificial intelligence, or at least automation (also allowing them to be used as candidates for transfer of consciousness), and they were thus used as disposable Familiars. This did not come easily. It took four generations of screaming frustration before Níðhöggr Bærn finally stabilized into what the Blickwinkel wanted it to be.

It takes a six line incantation and at least 20 Prana to materialize a single basic Níðhöggr Bærn. The most basic Níðhöggr Bærna, which are around the size of an average snake, do not emit much Prana and can move silently with blindingly fast speed, making them very sneaky scouts. Actualizing them with additional Prana creates larger products, seemingly composed of stronger curses. Needless to say, the larger the Níðhöggr Bærn, the less subtle it is, and while after a certain point they are no longer effective scouts, their speed remains the same, while their strength and ability to pump venom only increase, making them effective combatants. The largest size of a Níðhöggr Bærn is slightly greater than a Python and they are quite capable of hitting like a speeding vehicle. At most, up to 80 Prana worth of Níðhöggr Bærna of variable sizes can be created at once through a single incantation, each costing at least 20 Prana or at most 40 Prana. After exceeding 30 Prana, a Níðhöggr Bærn is no longer capable of remaining independent and must stay within 50 meters of Nahash to maintain itself. A Magus sustaining Níðhöggr Bærna in such a way (or using transfer of consciousness on one) will gain glowing marks on their forehead that look like a Níðhöggr Bærn’s facial features.

Their fangs do not cause physical wounds, but attack spiritually. As the Níðhöggr Bærna possess an actual form, Circuit-based resistance, the usual bane of curses, does not really apply to them specifically: their venom is the best indication of their true nature. The venom they inject into their victims is in fact coagulated Prana in opposition to the flow of the afflicted person’s Circuits. It has only a single purpose, and that is to cause agonizing pain to those it is injected into. The venom does not actually stop the opponent from spellcasting or circulating Prana, nor does it cause any damage, but the sheer amount of staggering pain it generates whenever the afflicted person attempts to circulate Prana creates obvious difficulties. The invasive Prana can be easily disposed of merely by continuing Prana circulation in spite of the pain; even going as far as to cast a spell will totally force the venom out. Nevertheless, the torment is likely to delay the opponent’s casting until they can power through it. The more venom a Níðhöggr Bærn has managed to inject, the greater the pain and the longer it will take to force out.

While the initial use of a basic Níðhöggr Bærn is merely tailing an opponent Magus, when and if the need arises, they can be made to strike out from the shadows in a bind maneuver. The Níðhöggr Bærn will swiftly pounce upon a designated enemy and attempt to constrict either the opponent’s arms or legs, and it may swallow its own tail and fuse into a knot. The cursed serpents are physically durable and cannot be easily removed or destroyed using strength alone - however, they are very fragile when confronted with Magecraft, a mere E-rank or D-rank combat spell easily disintegrating them when they fail to dodge. Larger Níðhöggr Bærna are capable of constricting the arms to the torso and may attempt to suffocate an enemy; they scoff at bullets, but it is unlikely even the largest example of a Níðhöggr Bærn could survive a single C-rank, or even a powerful D-rank spell.

While the Níðhöggr Bærna are easily destroyed by Magecraft, an exception is other curses. When struck with a curse, a Níðhöggr Bærn will not only increase in size, but will even take on the properties of the curse it was attacked with. Níðhöggr Bærna can also swallow and thus destroy feint ethereal bodies such as Wraiths and Apparitions. Of course, in the same fashion, Níðhöggr Bærna will dissipate on contact with Servants. Beings such as them who are actualized through a curse of such small stature simply cannot stand up to entities of great spiritual weight, whether it be because of innate magic resistance, conceptual protection from curses, or just high magical power. They are also very weak to anti-curse enchantments, general curse protection working on them as though they were a formless concept – if a Bounded Field happened to resist curses specifically, they’d greatly weaken, if not dissipate entirely depending on the defense’s power.

The number of basic Níðhöggr Bærna that Nahash can control at any given time is only limited by the amount of Prana he expends in creating them. However, the Níðhöggr Bærna whose creation Nahash has paid over 30 Prana for, in addition to their lack of range-based independence, put a greater strain on Nahash to control. For Nahash, the ideal number of larger Níðhöggr Bærna to fight with at foremost combat effectiveness is four. When dealing with more than five such Níðhöggr Bærna, Nahash begins to lose his grip on them all, causing them to act aggressive, feral, and much harder to use defensively. Nahash’s absolute limit is eight. Freudia’s limit was nine, although, unlike Nahash, she could maintain reasonable control over the large Níðhöggr Bærna even when using all of them at once.]

Lend me thy shadow, serpent of blight
Who gorges upon the blood of the slain,
Devourer of treacherous men and wolfish murderers
Hear my plea and reveal thy visage, if ever so briefly
Fangs dripping of venomous fire, ascend above Niðafjöll;
Bearing the corpses of men on thy wings, herald the end

[Holstenwall Wards] ([Mystic Code/Fire/Bounded Field])
Rank: [C]
Cost: [30 Prana]
Range: [50m]
Effect:

[Nahash’s method of creating Bounded Fields, and a technique that was developed early on in the Blickwinkel family’s history, designed specifically to support the usage of their Pure Eyes. Holstenwall Ward refers to a certain type of mass-producible Mystic Code taking the form of a paper tag that acts as the underpinnings of the Bounded Field’s structure. Because of the young age of the family during which the Holstenwall Wards were originally conceived, though they have been improved with successive generations, they remain a bit inefficient when it comes to matters of Bounded Field creation. Nevertheless, they are effective and that’s all that matters as far as the Blickwinkels are concerned. Nahash agrees.

As befitting a Mystic Code, it takes anywhere from one to two hours to create a single Holstenwall Ward, the manufacturing process necessitating an entire ritual all its own. The multitude of symbols and cryptic writings that envelope each Ward must be hand drawn with blood, further requiring that the blood be mixed with at least one tear from a person of the Blickwinkel family, and specific arcane text must be blessed and imbued on each tag. A six line chant finishes the process, and by the end at least 30 Prana will have been used in the making of the Ward.

The application of the Holstenwall Wards is simple enough. After completion, the paper tags can be placed anywhere their wielder wishes, adhesively sticking to surfaces on demand. Once placed, the Wards camouflage themselves from sight, refracting the image of whatever they’re covering on top of themselves, making them seem as though they are not even there. The inceptive capabilities of the Ward are very mild, merely detecting any large or circulating influxes of Prana as well as any spellcasting done within a 50 meter circumference, and this modest arrangement thus puts the Wards rather safely beneath most Magi’s attention. Should the need arise, it is possible for a Ward to expand a more traditional Bounded Field with such amenities as suggestions repelling mundane humans and masking all Prana and presences that are within the barrier to people outside, but the Bounded Field’s existence, though not necessarily that of the Ward itself, would become obvious.

Such effects are all things that any proper Magus should be capable of enacting. Thus, it should come as no surprise that the Wards have a unique trait that makes them worth the effort of producing: remotely coalescing Prana. The boundary expanded around a Ward is one wherein the Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance can be used as though Nahash were currently present, using a specific Ward as a medium (the Wards possess enchantments that allow extrasensory perception to occur when transfer of consciousness is used on them). Nahash’s vision is limited to that specific area as long as the effect persists and though it makes the wards no more immediately obvious, the tag’s accompanying Mana intake may serve to lead discerning Magi to the source. Likewise, a single basic Níðhöggr Bærn curse can be channeled and actualized once a day through a Ward, though this leaves the Ward open to being noticed due to the influx of Prana. Lastly, a Ward can be made to self-destruct, either by simply incinerating itself quietly or by causing it to detonate by abruptly rupturing it with Prana. The latter case drops all pretenses of covertness, causing the Ward to drop its stealth, glow violently for ten seconds as it quickly builds up Prana, and finally explode as though it were an incendiary mine; this costs 30 Prana.

The Wards only completely reveal themselves when absorbing large amounts of Mana at once. Residual Prana traces in an area can essentially be erased through this intake process; individual trails can be isolated based off Prana signature and ‘vacuumed up’. The process leaves the Wards vulnerable for a decent amount of time as the Prana is drawn towards a specific point, though this time varies depending on how much Prana is involved. A place where a person has inhabited for a week would naturally be more difficult to cleanse than somewhere a person has hung out at for an hour, though it’s optimal when covering ones tracks made over minutes. Doesn’t make much of a difference if one is trying to cover up somewhere that’s been used as a Workshop for any extent of time. Massive expenditures such as Noble Phantasms can’t be feasibly assuaged, although outside activations aren’t an issue when the trail is cut off within the Ward’s area of effect.

To make use of the real benefits of this Mystic Code, Nahash must be standing within the confines of a specially made circle that acts as a “command center” for all of the placed Wards, or else use an alternate marking drawn on the spot (average creation time of five minutes), to form a thaumaturgical link with the original circle over a distance, although this still necessitates said main circle’s creation. The Holstenwall Wards are only separate as far as their individual ranges are concerned, while they themselves are part of an interconnected system centered around the main circle, forming a foundation for its administrative effects on each Ward. The scale of the system itself can expand as far as the placement of the Wards that make it up. The glyph acting as a thaumaturgical link does not connect directly to the main circle, but rather forms a bridge through the nearest Holstenwall Wards to it.

A Holstenwall Ward will gradually atrophy with time and continued usage, though idle Wards have a long life expectancy. If a Níðhöggr Bærn is generated from one at every available opportunity, a Ward can be expected to require ten to twenty minutes of maintenance every three days, eventually breaking down to the point of uselessness. The Wards may be removed from a given location and placed elsewhere, and they need not be placed or removed by Nahash personally. If the boundary ranges of two or more Holstenwall Wards overlap, then both may be utilized simultaneously. Otherwise, Nahash may only act on one Ward at a time. Nahash starts out with forty of them stockpiled up and all on his person.]

If I can make my way to the other side of tomorrow
Then I won’t fear a lonely slumber anymore
In a dream that landed in the darkness of silence
Without knowing the method to save an all too fragile world
I was simply wishing for my body’s oblivion
And the absolution of my consciousness

PLAYER'S NAME[/color]: // Nahash
FACE CLAIM[/color]: // Orihara Izaya, Durarara
OTHER CHARACTERS[/color]: // They died.
MISC. INFORMATION[/color]: //
*I put “Jougan” as an Element because I felt like being a pretentious hipster weeaboo.
*There’s a little mark in Níðhöggr Bærn’s rank ‘cause otherwise it'd result in an html code. It's supposed to be just B.
*Níðhöggr Bærna is the plural form of Níðhöggr Bærn.
[/size][/ul]

[Nahash]

After a painful delay, all done and finally ready for evaluation.

[Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri]

Avoiding meaningless killing, and easily willing to kill a magus who uses a gun~? I guess it has –some- meaning.

In a way. But glad to finally see a profile from you, Nahash. Although I have noticed that all your characters seem to have a real contempt for the political maneuverings of magi and the search for true magic~ A bit of you slipping through?

But on to the actual eval.

Ardent Prestidigitation – As much as this would be an applicable, acceptable ability it is the very definition of many spells in one. As such, the entire abilty will likely have to no longer exist. Part of these are base abilities, some are illusive and some are alchemy. This would require at least 4 spell slots from what I can see which would be –

Move/Gather, ignite, Color, and Change would all require uniques. A magus would be assumed to be able to do naturally Dampen/Dry, Clean/Dirty, and flavour. Although I doubt the dirt would manifest, or it would be ‘forever gone’, as making something actually disappear for no reason is beyond the realms of basic magecraft, and creating dirt from nothing… well projection, even if it is dumb~ And for these you are not really required to keep track of the prana cost.

Tie… I am unsure where to place this though. It seems simple enough, so I would tentatively say this would be in any magus’ repertoire.

Invasive Prognosis – Needs a higher cost, and a longer cast time, as a ritual. In addition, please elaborate on how this ritual would deal with a Servant, if you had say, their blood, since that apparently can remain for some period of time. Finally you say how long it is maintained, how is this spell maintained? Can you move while keeping it active? If so, it requires a cost per minute as well.

Holstenwall Wards – Needs a longer creation time, especially considering how many you are bringing with you already prepared. In addition, I would assume when you are channelling through one it becomes at least slightly more obvious.

That should be it, unless I notice something in between now and your reply~

[Nahash]

May 23, 2012 3:59:56 GMT -5 Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri said:

Avoiding meaningless killing, and easily willing to kill a magus who uses a gun~? I guess it has –some- meaning.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SI_ZgjcmPY&feature=player_detailpage#t=4s

May 23, 2012 3:59:56 GMT -5 Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri said:

In a way. But glad to finally see a profile from you, Nahash. Although I have noticed that all your characters seem to have a real contempt for the political maneuverings of magi and the search for true magic~ A bit of you slipping through?

Perrhaaaapps. This guy is so totally filled to the brim with author appeal, after all. On the other hand, you might notice that there's quite a few superficial concepts carried over from Abigale.

On to the actual reply...

Ardent Prestidigitation – I’ll be honest when I say what I’ve tried in this edit is basically bordering on a semantic trick, but it really is only one spell with a single effect, technically. In this case, it just happens to be a versatile effect. On the other hand, its limitations aren’t nearly as well defined as last time, so to me it seems comparatively ambiguous. In the end, though, while I am somewhat attached to the spell and the flavor it brings, if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.

Invasive Prognosis – Done as asked.

Holstenwall Wards – Done as asked, although, for the second part, I’m not sure if you were really referring to the Ward’s capacity to channel Clairvoyance or just its ability to spawn Níðhöggr Bærna (which, granted, was already accounted for). I had been thinking that the Clairvoyance would act essentially the same as it always did except pinpointed to the Ward’s location, so therefore not really raising any outright alerts. But if you disagree, I suppose an increased Mana intake would suffice as an explanation for any rising conspicuity.

[Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri]

As much as I am still not a fan of the spell, now that it has basically become just alchemy I only have one problem with it, and that is the remote moving of objects. Remove that, and I am fine with it. However I will monitor it (I read all the threads anyways) to make sure you don't bend too many rules with this~

To Holstenwall Wards - I didn't expect it to become immediately obvious, but more possible to locate, as it seems pretty difficult currently to locate them. And yes, I meant through the clairvoyance.

[Nahash]

Ardent Prestidigitation - Completely removed, along with all references to it. Replaced in every facet with Aegis Bequeathed by Forgotten Divinities. Hopefully this won't cause another batch of problems for you.

Níðhöggr Bærn - Added one additional skill to the third paragraph. They are able to move along vertical surfaces such as walls without falling off.

Holstenwall Wards – Altered to fit your original assumption about them becoming more traceable during the Clairvoyance channeling.

Miscellaneous - A reference to a single servant character is made in place of Nahash firing every one of his servants. Will in all likelihood be detailed in a separate NPC.

[Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri]

Even if your shield is non mobile it is waaaay too powerful. In addition negation of spells through stripping ether is something that has been denied for ordinary magi before. If you want to block spells it is going to have to block them without nullifying the spell part, essentially. Sorry.

But to be general, a scaling rank shield with such a cheap cost, even if it blocked spells another way, that is iffy on mobility or not, is far too strong. In comparison, the other shields that block A rank level attacks have severe drawbacks, and make it impossible for the user to activate other abilities, which yours would still allow.

[Nahash]

Alrighty, I've altered the description to fit the specifications we discussed on Skype, Aela. Are there any other issues that need rectifying?

[Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri]

I did mention that it should always be A rank~

[Nahash]

Done~!

[Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri]

[Nahash]

EDIT: I just altered the incantation of Aegis Bequeathed by Forgotten Divinities pretty substantially. It's completely different now, and in terms of length it is now has an additional line.

[Nahash]

My entire life was just...

UNLIMITED BUMP WORKS

Also, the Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance and Holstenwall Wards have been edited once again in line with what Aela and I have discussed in Skype.

[Nahash]

Badump.

[Nahash]

It's the next month, so bump.

[Nahash]

It's been another month, so bump.

[Nahash]

Once more, a month has gone by, so bump.

A thousand views, on that note.

[Nahash]

Over two weeks since the last one... I'll bump again, regardless of futility.

[Nahash]

Next month bump.

[Aozaki Touko]

After a few bumps~

I totally do not know what you mean by Aozakis stealing crests and you should agree if you want to keep yours~

First of all, let me congratulate you for breaking our 60k character count for posts~

Now to business:

Invasive Prognosis
Servants 'drops' will quickly (faster than you can perform the ritual at the very least) evaporate back into ether/mana and dissipate into the air since nothing they carry with themselves is actually real (armor and blood included) so your chance of putting your hands on a servant belonging without any ability to keep it materialized in this world is zero, need to remove that bit from there.

Aegis Bequeathed by Forgotten Divinities
Does Nahash can see through the dark ball that his shield is, like those interrogatory rooms mirrors? Or does he need to use his clairvoyance to see outside of it? Also, although a little obvious, I would like to see stated if the shield effect is automatic or if Nahash have to actively do it when he see/feel a spell hitting his shield, lastly but not least, a upkeep cost for it since the barrier will be up when you use it regardless of your enemy attacking or not.

Níðhöggr Bærn
How many of those can Nahash upkeep at once? Does their differences in level interfere at that upkeep? Answer those.

Holstenwall Wards
This one is a bit confusing to me so I want a clarification on the bounded field part of this spell, does all wards together make the bounded field or does each ward become the center of it own bounded field? The later would raise the costs of the wards/fields for you by a bit. Please explain how the bounded field part of this spell is mounted.

[Nahash]

Oct 6, 2012 22:43:01 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

After a few bumps~

oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy

Oct 6, 2012 22:43:01 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

I totally do not know what you mean by Aozakis stealing crests and you should agree if you want to keep yours~

B-but, Aozaki-sensei, don't you only entrap those seeking to fulfill the letter of your Sealing Designation...? I-if you might only take this humble Magus on as your apprentice, his gratitude would be magnificent~! Wouldn't you pweeeaaaase?

Oct 6, 2012 22:43:01 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

First of all, let me congratulate you for breaking our 60k character count for posts~

Thanks.

Oct 6, 2012 22:43:01 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

Now to business:

Invasive Prognosis
Servants 'drops' will quickly (faster than you can perform the ritual at the very least) evaporate back into ether/mana and dissipate into the air since nothing they carry with themselves is actually real (armor and blood included) so your chance of putting your hands on a servant belonging without any ability to keep it materialized in this world is zero, need to remove that bit from there.

Mm, see, that was the assumption I initially worked under when designing the spell as well. However, it seems your fellow administrator had a different viewpoint.

May 23, 2012 3:59:56 GMT -5 Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri said:

In addition, please elaborate on how this ritual would deal with a Servant, if you had say, their blood, since that apparently can remain for some period of time.

After Aela pointed this out, despite initially designing it without Servants in mind, I began to vaguely recall times in the series when pieces of the Servant would remain for a medial degree of time as well; that is, just long enough to be used in the ritual, presuming Nahash is lucky. Thus, I added in those details to account for that. However, if you would still prefer for me to remove the passage, I will certainly do so!

Oct 6, 2012 22:43:01 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

Aegis Bequeathed by Forgotten Divinities
Does Nahash can see through the dark ball that his shield is, like those interrogatory rooms mirrors? Or does he need to use his clairvoyance to see outside of it?

Nahash cannot see through the barrier generated by the spell. To account for this, paragraph 6 of the spell has been split in two and the first part of it has expanded greatly, noting this weakness and explaining how it is traditionally overcome as well as the role the Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance plays in its nullification. The added text is as follows:

"On the note of the barrier’s cosmetic appearance, generally speaking, the decorative components of shields that members of the Sangria family produced did not actually accommodate for the user’s own visual capability, and Nahash’s usage of the spell is no exception. This is not usually a substantial problem – the barrier is only deployed long enough to negate the targeted Thaumaturgy; however, in the case of onslaughts and long streams of hostile Magecraft, visibility may be compromised for some time. Nahash’s Sangrian ancestors evaded this issue to an extent by paying attention to the flow of Prana around them using their heightened senses in that regard, noting when and where spells would be cast and readying themselves in advance. Nahash can resort to the same tactic if necessary, but, given his Blickwinkel heritage, it is instead more prudent for him to use his Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance to overcome this issue, perhaps making him for suited for its nullification than his ancestors.

For the same reasons that the spell’s appearance tends to be so mutable from user to user,"

Oct 6, 2012 22:43:01 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

Also, although a little obvious, I would like to see stated if the shield effect is automatic or if Nahash have to actively do it when he see/feel a spell hitting his shield,

This is actually already stated in the description at the third paragraph's first sentence, although I don't blame you for missing it, and apologize for only mentioning it briefly and perhaps a tad vaguely.

"This is because the bubble of affected Prana, at the reaction of its current user, temporarily forms a borderline of exceedingly bizarre outward appearance that is much like a Bounded Field."

Though it is mentioned, if you would like it to be more substantially noted, I will do so.

Oct 6, 2012 22:43:01 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

lastly but not least, a upkeep cost for it since the barrier will be up when you use it regardless of your enemy attacking or not.

An upkeep cost for the spell should not be necessary, as the large cost of the initial casting and continuous pay-per-usage nature of the spell is already quite substantial. This is justified mechanically by the specialty devoted to the spell's nature, "Prana Manipulation," the second talent listed under Nahash's Expertise section. The aura of Prana generated at the incantation of the spell's completion is a uniform amount of Prana stabilized by this unique specialty, the foundation for the deployment of the spell's barrier effect, and further Prana is channeled to supplement the initial aura when accounting for the power of opposing spells in addition to activating the barrier. I've added an additional line of explanation to paragraph three, sentence three of Aegis Bequeathed by Forgotten Divinities' description to better exemplify this aspect of its design.

"It’s no wonder why superb and finely tuned control of Prana is necessary to perform the spell with any degree of competency, not to mention the trained focus that goes into stabilizing the aura of Prana produced with which the spell’s effect is actualized."

I would gladly add more detail to the description in explaining the design of the spell if you'd like me to.

Oct 6, 2012 22:43:01 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

Níðhöggr Bærn
How many of those can Nahash upkeep at once? Does their differences in level interfere at that upkeep? Answer those.

Done. New last paragraph explains.

Oct 6, 2012 22:43:01 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

Holstenwall Wards
This one is a bit confusing to me so I want a clarification on the bounded field part of this spell, does all wards together make the bounded field or does each ward become the center of it own bounded field? The later would raise the costs of the wards/fields for you by a bit. Please explain how the bounded field part of this spell is mounted.

I had actually talked with Aela about this in Skype fairly recently! But yeah, it is the former. This is clarified in greater detail in a newly created sixth paragraph.

Thanks for finally getting to me, Touko-sensei~!

[Aozaki Touko]

You did not liked my pun on your bumps~? -1 approval point for you

I also punish those that spread such ill rumors about my person and I am not found of chibi expressions *puffs at chibi Nahy*

Back to business:

Invasive Prognosis
Yes, I saw Aela approval on that matter and I do not agree with the idea of part of a servant that must be up-kept with prana at all times to stay around, lying on the floor after it have been cut off from it source of it 'fuel of existence' for that long, for that reason I'm saying that getting your hands on a servant item is zero.

Aegis Bequeathed by Forgotten Divinities
Ok, sight issue solved, that is good enough.

Right, so it is activated by Nahash command instead of being auto, meaning a spell that Nahash fail to counter on time will hit him normally, correct?

I see now, the cast cost is what keep the barrier there, even if it is not used, correct? Well, the lack of mobility combined with a upkeep would make this spell a bit useless on the long run now that I think about it, still, I feel like something should happen to the barrier if it does not receive any attack over some time aside Nahy taking it down himself as it is not being useful at the moment~, not necessarily a weakness to it but something that would say what happens if Nahash keep it up for longer periods of time.

Níðhöggr Bærn
Good, this one pass already

Holstenwall Wards
Former it is then, now I just need to know the max range of your field, is it as large as all of your wards together? Bigger than that? Smaller? This matters because a field that hide strange stuff from common people will be important during a Grail War and it is just a extra small detail.

[Nahash]

Oct 7, 2012 21:00:35 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

You did not liked my pun on your bumps~? -1 approval point for you

Actually, I was just excited to finally be getting a review after so, so many bumps. ;_;

Oct 7, 2012 21:00:35 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

I also punish those that spread such ill rumors about my person and I am not found of chibi expressions *puffs at chibi Nahy*

Stingy Touko, not sharing any of her crazy monstrous stupendous Thaumaturgical discoveries and such...

Oct 7, 2012 21:00:35 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

Back to business:

Invasive Prognosis
Yes, I saw Aela approval on that matter and I do not agree with the idea of part of a servant that must be up-kept with prana at all times to stay around, lying on the floor after it have been cut off from it source of it 'fuel of existence' for that long, for that reason I'm saying that getting your hands on a servant item is zero.

Alright then, just making sure. Removed.

Oct 7, 2012 21:00:35 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

Aegis Bequeathed by Forgotten Divinities
Right, so it is activated by Nahash command instead of being auto, meaning a spell that Nahash fail to counter on time will hit him normally, correct?

It is activated by Nahash's will, yes, although, once the aura is actualized, the barrier itself can be deployed on a reflex. The crux of the spell is that Nahash is able to tell where hostile spells are coming from due to a combination of the Pure Eyes of Clairvoyance and the implications of the "Prana Manipulation" specialty. If, however, something does manage to bypass this very acute foreknowledge, it could very well catch Nahash unawares.

Oct 7, 2012 21:00:35 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

I see now, the cast cost is what keep the barrier there, even if it is not used, correct? Well, the lack of mobility combined with a upkeep would make this spell a bit useless on the long run now that I think about it,

As an important note, the aura generated by the spell does not itself restrict movement. Nahash is rendered immobile when the barrier is deployed to defend against a spell (so, in other words, at the same point when his physical visibility is obscured).

Oct 7, 2012 21:00:35 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

still, I feel like something should happen to the barrier if it does not receive any attack over some time aside Nahy taking it down himself as it is not being useful at the moment~, not necessarily a weakness to it but something that would say what happens if Nahash keep it up for longer periods of time.

From a dramatic standpoint, I suppose it wouldn't be any good if I just decided to leave the spell on all day, so to counteract this, I've added this to the end of the Aegis' description.

"As the nature of the spell is that of a sacred blessing to protect the user from harm, the aura that denotes the spell's activation will inevitably disperse on its own if the user themselves does not feel they are in danger. Adequately disciplined casters can maintain the aura regardless, but Nahash’s level of mastery does not permit him this method of sustainment."

Oct 7, 2012 21:00:35 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

Níðhöggr Bærn
Good, this one pass already

Huzzah!

Oct 7, 2012 21:00:35 GMT -5 Aozaki Touko said:

Holstenwall Wards
Former it is then, now I just need to know the max range of your field, is it as large as all of your wards together? Bigger than that? Smaller? This matters because a field that hide strange stuff from common people will be important during a Grail War and it is just a extra small detail.

Added a statement regarding this detail to the fourth sentence of the sixth paragraph.

"The scale of the system itself can expand as far as the placement of the Wards that make it up."

If neither party in a given Magecraft battle has the capability to expand a Bounded Field to conceal themselves but they fall within the range of a Ward, typically Nahash will extend the courtesy of covering them unless he specifically doesn't want to do so (for reasons such as a grudge against said people or the belief that the Ward may be discovered if used, etc). It is, after all, simply a preservation of the secrecy of Thaumaturgy, a creed that all those participating in the Holy Grail War must follow.

And that should be everything, I think!

[Aozaki Touko]

Finders keepers buddy, living on the run away have it good points too

It indeed is everything, am satisfied with these changes and explanations, go get yourself killed now at the war, will you?

[2/2 Approval]

[Locked]