#but it doesn’t in giving us one of the most interesting and nuanced pieces of writing in the whole franchise

[bharv]

I try so much to listen to different opinions especially about characters and how people feel about them because it’s so personal, but when anybody starts with “I hate Vivienne” and it’s not immediately followed by “but I understand that she brings an essential and until then unseen perspective” at the least, I’m out. I’m OUT.

[karniss-bg3]

What's in a name?

For the past week I’ve had one mission; Find the meaning behind Kar’niss’ name.

To me, that is one piece of information that could lend the biggest clue to his origins. I’ve had luck in some places and roadblocks in others, it’s turned out to be slightly more complicated than I thought. I haven’t come up entirely empty handed though and what pieces I’ve dug up have put him in an entirely new light.

Let’s start off by discussing drow naming conventions. Drow can change their names later in life and may do so multiple times. This is usually due to some significant life event or promotion and said name may relate to these incidents. This makes me believe that Kar’niss got his name after his transformation. After all, being turned into a drider would be considered a big life event by many. They also avoid using any names that may be similar to Lolth, some going as far as to avoid the letter L altogether. Mind you during my research I found conflicting reports. Some sources say it’s fine to pay homage to Lolth in a drow name so long as it’s only partial, such as “loth” or “lothine”. Others say it’s forbidden the whole way around and bad form. Take this as you will.

Drow names are also gendered, their prefixes and suffixes are labeled specifically toward male and female. Rarely, women could take on a male name with little push back. However, if a male takes on a feminine name they would be labeled a rogue or a troublemaker. This information is important later.

There are many more nuances to how drow are named, such as numbering their children in the drow language, or naming children in honor of their mothers and ignoring fathers completely. Looking over what resources I could find, Kar’niss’ name didn’t seem to be related to either of those things. With the exception of the suffix “Niss” which we’ll get to.

I’ve managed to find a chart that has all of the common drow prefixes and suffixes listed. Let’s take Minthara and Nere as two examples. The prefix “Min” is feminine and it means “lesser, minor, second” and the suffix “thara” is also feminine with the meaning “glyph, marker, rune”. This could translate to lesser rune, second glyph, and so forth. Min could also suggest her birth order as second however the birth orders are usually a suffix and not a prefix, at least from what I could find.

Nere is a bit trickier. The only thing I could find on the list was “Neer” and it appears to be a gender neutral name, as it doesn’t have two options listed. Neer means “core, root, strong” and it seems to align with his personal viewpoints. Nere fans may have discovered his full name or something a bit more meaty but as of now that is the closest I could find.

Now we come to the main event, Kar’niss. The one piece of solid evidence I found was the meaning for the suffix “Niss”. It’s the feminine equivalent to “Nozz” and it means “chance, gambler, game”. I suppose “Kar’nozz” doesn’t roll off the tongue as fluidly as Kar’niss. So we have one piece of the puzzle, what about the prefix “Kar”?

That, dear reader, is where my biggest roadblock came into play. Nothing on any resource I’ve found lists Kar anywhere. Not in prefixes, suffixes, house names or Dark Seladrine Gods. A big, fat goose egg. It’s easy to think of Karsus when hearing that prefix, the most powerful wizard that ever lived. Maybe there is a link but honestly I feel like I’d be reaching really hard to make that connection. Kar’niss doesn’t really show signs of being interested in wizardry and if he was before his transformation, he says shit all about it now.

I was ready to give up. I don’t think Larian is the sort to do something without purpose. Even though Kar’niss is a side character, the work put into him leads me to believe that name has some significance. So in my stubborn way I kept looking, until a thought dawned on me. All this time I’ve been digging through drow specific information while ignoring the drider in the room. What about...elvish? Yes the two languages are very similar but drow have different dialect than surface elves. Kar’niss is very pale in complexion and we’ve theorized he could be a Szarkai. It would make sense for him to take on an elvish prefix especially if he was trying to fit into surface societies. There could be a small chance he’s half-drow but the game lists him as drow in his character window so I think that theory isn’t viable.

Down a new rabbit hole I went and I found some interesting information. The first piece I found came from Tolkien's elvish dictionary. Kar means “do, make, build” in elvish. Couple that with gambler, chance and game you could translate the full name to “Make your own luck” or even “Take a chance” depending on how you approached it. Other options are “Playing a bad/dangerous game”, “Making a bad decision/bet” or something more in the realms of a negative connotation.

The second piece I found came from forgotten realms. There are several words that have the word Kar listed in them. These three are the most notable:

Hakar: Enemy

Sekkar: Flee

Karask: Demon

Only one out of the three starts with Kar and it seems fitting for what Kar’niss became; A demon. Sekkar also aligns with the notion he was a Szarkai, as they preferred to flee from battle rather than engage. Enemy seems self explanatory, he could feel like he is the enemy of Lolth or the Underdark as a whole.

Out of them all the Tolkien option seems to suit the best. The others are part of a bigger word and while threads can be stretched between them, there is no way to say that they’d hold. So where does that leave us? Naturally with more questions than answers, but this does suggest a few intriguing directions Kar’niss could’ve come from.

It is apparent that Kar’niss is very subservient and afraid, but that doesn’t mean he always was. Taking on the feminine suffix “niss” could suggest he was a troublemaker or a bit of a jet setter while in the Underdark. Maybe he broke rules, said things he shouldn’t have, pushed boundaries. If he was a Szarkai he could’ve been sheltered from some of the more harsh treatment other males were known to endure. This could’ve made him arrogant, egotistical and brazen. He may have over stepped, made a bad gamble as it were, and it cost him everything. The feminine suffix of “niss” could also be a way to emasculate him further. Drider are sexless and Kar’niss’ lower regions no longer exist, something that might have bruised his pride terribly.

Alternatively, his suffix could’ve been given to him by others to suggest his luck at being born a Szarkai although that is more of a stretch. Kar could also align with how spiders make and build webs thus the distinction between the two. Or maybe he took on an elvish lover or friend and gave himself an elvish prefix in honor of them, or they gave him the name, even if such a relationship cost him in the end.

There are so many wild variations and theorycrafting you could do with those pieces of information. While most of it is loose the one thing I can say for sure is that the suffix “Niss” has great importance. I think he made a bad bet or played a dangerous game and lost, and becoming a drider is his punishment. Maybe he took on the trials of Lolth, something a few might consider a game, and lost there as well. Perhaps if I keep digging I can find something more solid to link him with the prefix “Kar” but as of right now this is what I could find.

So ends my journey for answers, for now at least. I hope this wall of text provided folks with some interesting information and ideas. Thanks for reading!

Sources: Tolkien's Elvish, Drow, Prefix/Suffix list for drow, Elven Lexicon, Drow naming practices.

[velourfant]

on fanfiction, fic authors, and the (misplaced) expectation that fanfiction should be an extension of the source material rather than…fanfiction

forgive the negativity, i promise this won’t be a norm :)

i’ve been writing fic as a hobby since i was in elementary, first for the TMI series, then 1D (lol), then haikyuu, genshin, you name it. for the most part, writing has afforded me unique opportunities to connect with fandom, even if many of my earlier fics never saw the light of day.

while i’ve received a lot of love from the communities i do publish fics for, i’ve seen an uptick in entitled fic readers publicly bashing fanfics because authors “mischaracterize” characters from the source material.

then, i watched a tiktok about a renowned bakudeku fic:

*i’m not a diehard bakudeku or my hero fan, nor do i consume any fan content for the series, so if i’m missing something regarding the bakudeku fic, you’ll have to forgive my ignorance. the point i wanted to make extends beyond mha anyway.

…and realized this problem was not endemic to the fandoms i’m active in, but a larger sign of souring fandom etiquette.

i don’t care how entitled you think you are to reading “good” fic. voluntarily consuming someone’s work and then complaining about it because it doesn’t meet your “standards” is a terrible way to interact with fandom spaces. you’re allowed to have opinions within your circles. everyone does. but the moment you publicize hate so you can interaction farm + round up other entitled fic readers (who often don’t produce their own fic), you’re inviting negativity into a space that you have no right to police. what gives you the authority to criticize someone else’s labor of love?

to begin with, the expectation that every fic writer’s interpretation of the chars must perfectly align w the source material imposes a skill/time barrier on fan work creation, draining all the fun out of the creative process. even if someone knows in their head how x and y are characterized, the disconnect between your brain and the words you put on a page takes time to mitigate. writing is a skill honed with practice. in other words, it’s difficult to convey what you want with words. by expecting fic authors to faithfully abide by source material characterization instead of allowing them creative freedom to INTERPRET ART (because believe it or not, these chars are just another piece of art that can be analyzed from different angles) as they see fit, you’re limiting the pool of creators to one of the following:

1) fic authors who understood the source material characters “correctly” on first read

2) fic authors who didn’t initially, “correctly” understand the characters, but could reread the source material and capture them through thorough study

i’ve missed some nuances, sure, but doesn’t that sound ridiculous? because i think it sounds ridiculous.

a suggestion, if i may: how about you just don’t read a fic you don’t like instead of lobbing unrealistic expectations at people who share their work out of love for the source material? how about you create your own fic since you’re soooo confident that deku wouldn’t wear this or that? legit why don’t you try contributing to the space instead of clout chasing and driving fic authors out? if you have so much criticism, then please, by all means, bless us with your vision. only through creating will you see how difficult it is to abide by your standards.

and if you’re a fic author who criticizes other fic authors’ works, shame on you. everyone in the space is interpreting art. congrats on being able to map out “canon-compliant” scenes or dialogue. stop holding other people who aren’t quite there yet/have no interest in doing so to the same expectations.

[mxtxfanatic]

It really is a shame that JC stans absolutely refuse to allow any sort of discussion that doesn’t fall in lockstep with commonly accepted fanon because I honestly think he’s a much more interesting, intriguing character than the one they present to me.

Canon Jiang Cheng does a lot of shitty things both on and off the page, that the narrative doesn’t gloss over even if WWX does, which makes those brief glimpses of his ability to be better and his narrative journey much more interesting in contrast. He’s more interesting as an example of someone who has been essentially free to give into his negative impulses for years, he’s got it honed down to an art, but actually when push comes to shove he still has a grain of a decent person in there. It’s a very interesting flip of what I’ve seen a lot with other characters: if you put pressure on them, they show less savory traits whereas JC actually shows that he can be better than he presents himself when he doesn’t have a chance to think and talk himself out of it. It’s such a fun way to make a character, he’s really rare that way and I enjoy him.

Unfortunately because he’s not allowed to be shitty otherwise and all of his actions must have an explanation that makes it so he was the one most in the right, I don’t get to enjoy that contrast. I get wanting to make a character you like easier to enjoy, but also in the process they have completely taken away my ability to enjoy him in the process, and hated on me for enjoying him without glossing over the things he says or does.

Hm, I may have to disagree on the idea that Jiang Cheng acts like a better person under pressure. I think he acts like a better person when there’s someone whose approval he wants around to keep him in line. I also don’t think the kid him was too far gone until after the xuanwu of slaughter.

But this is a discussion that we can have. I couldn’t have this same discussion with a jc truther. Can’t even get them to acknowledge the actions of his that are clearly spelled out in the text, let alone start debating the nuances of how he ticks. Mxtx calls him a product, a piece of the overall work she called mdzs, but stans want us to think of him as if he’s their best friend from down the street. No discussion can be had under those conditions.

[opinated-user]

Lily “I don’t fetishize lesbians” orchard

All her “original” media has a lesbian relationship in one way or another. Has mostly white characters but a couple of black love interests. Yeah Lily TOTALLY doesn’t fetishized lesbians

LO could write nothing but sapphic couples and that doesn't necesarily mean that she's fetishizing them. a lot of writers make nothing but het couples and nobody accuses them of fetishizing straightness unless they're weirdly militant about it.

no, the reason why LO treatment of lesbians is concerning is because she is weirdly militant about it. when she was arguing with inkrose about something i don't care about, her solution was to encourage her viewer to draw her avatar as a lesbian in NSFW setting to somehow teach her a lesson to not be homophobic... to a minor. when asked why does she like to write f/f so much she said because lesbian love "is the purest kind of love", which implies that other loves that aren't lesbian are impure. when she talks about how the romance genre is so formulaic and predictable her entire solution is to make the same thing but with lesbians and that'll magically improve any story instantly. it's not even just lesbians existing as an integral part of a story with all the nuances and complexities that a good story could provide them, just... have lesbians and by virtue of them being lesbian a story will instantly be better. somehow. how do you improve a character like rey? by giving him more opportunities to shine? no, by making him a lesbian and give him a wife he can fawn over 24/7 with nothing else on his life going on. how do you improve the new trilogy of star wars? add lesbians and especially a lesbian powerful and violent enough to punish kylo for the crime of existing as a character, that's also important. but it has to be a lesbian and it has to be a lesbian that has slept with another bunch of women because. notice the distintictive lack of any other identities across all her OCs. as many other have pointed out before, lesbians are by far the majority. on pokemadhouse even a toddler like bonnie can't simply just be a toddler, she has to be a lesbian, and she has to know she is a lesbian at toddler age, and the only pan representation of the whole universe is a character that is written to be a harraser whose main characteristic is to have tried to mate or have sex with all the main characters in the house. bonnie doesn't have any romantic subplot going on, being a lesbian affects absolutely nothing of her as a character, but for LO is crucial for everyone to still know that this toddler is a lesbian. her pitch for a new mummy movie, taking out of the way the blatant disregard to adress the racism of the original franchise, is boring, has no stakes and doesn't have any of the charm, action or sense of adventure than most fans of the movies loved them for. but it has lesbians now and that makes it better. somehow!

has LO ever showed enthusiasm for any piece of media that didn't had lesbians or imagined lesbians on it, especially as the main focus, for any considerable amount of time? no that i can remember. she blatantly ignores queer media that isn't about lesbians specifically. she only praises queer media that has lesbians specifically, implying that any story with lesbians is better than any other queer stories with other identities represented. all of this is fair to use as a reason to accuse LO of fetishization because it is, blatantly so. just because she doesn't talk about sex always, not in the open at least, doesn't make it any less objectifying and weird. she's still putting lesbians on such a bizarre pedestal from where she praises them above any other identity. it's still a form of dehumanization.

remember how some black people critique her for treating black people as "exotic zoo animals" to gawk and admire? that's exactly what she does to lesbians.

[ratsandfashion]

Mirima is actually an OC that I've had for awhile (like...a year?) and just haven't done anything with. I'd like to app her at one of the supernatural boards I write her at as a chamois shifter but I just don't have the time for another character there. But if you are interested in her, here's what I have written down about her! Yes, she has self-insert elements/self-aspirational aspects (like being a fantasy writer and animal lover, opinions on real writers, etc) and that is on purpose.

Mirima "Miri" Gohar Marinakis (Mira also a nickname) FC is D.ilan G.wyn (K.urdish, T.urkish, G.reek, A.rmenian, C.ircassian) 33-35 Gay Ace Virgo Sun, Libra Moon, Capricorn Rising 5'4 but leggy so she looks taller, which she augments with how she dresses; she's had people guess up to 5'7 She grew up how I wanted to, working with animals and also writing fantasy. She's published nine novels, one anthology of short stories, and 35 pieces of flash fiction in online magazines. She mostly writes urban fantasy, but also gothic horror, new weird, gaslamp fantasy, steampunk, high fantasy, low fantasy, and magical realism. Critics say she makes wonderful, engaging, unique characters and has some fantastic ideas, but her plot and worldbuilding are often weak, plus her pacing needs a lot of work. She's a very small name in the industry and probably always will be, and while she'll never make a living off it, she's happy to be doing it. She consistently wears shirts backwards without realizing She has pet snails and a 3 year old female S.ardianian m.arginated t.ortoise named Z.aratan after the legendary giant sea turtles described by Al-J.ahiz, an A.rab prose writer and zoologist in the 9th century, Zara for short. The snails are Snally, Snusie, and Snamantha She has very complicated opinions on A.nne Rice and S.tephen King as writers and as people, but unquestionably HATES L.aurell K. H.amilton as BOTH. She has not met ANY of them. Absolutely rehearses imaginary arguments in her head that she's never going to actually have The first novel-length anything she ever finished was a D.une fanfic when she was 15 about a gender-swapped P.aul A.treides. She hadn't even finished the first book but she had IDEAS! P.aula A.treides remains her most beloved creation even if she can never be published. Miri is NOT a rebel. She is the reverse. She likes following rules and finds it hard to disrespect or disobey authority. She knows in theory how dangerous this is due to her heritage and the themes of her own writing but it just seems part of her personality. She's just always been the good (read: compliant and manageable) kid and she's only comfortable being the "good" kid. Very fussy, needs to stay on schedule and have things a certain way, hates spontaneity and anything unplanned, doesn't deal well with change especially on short notice Very analytical, keen attention to detail, overthinks and can cross the line into being way too critical  Judgey, even just internally Definitely wants to help but limited by her inflexibility and anxiety She gives the appearance of being very practical, capable, and organized but inside she's super anxious and has a ton of self-doubt, which clashes against her considerable ambitions as a novelist.  Strong sense of responsibility---filial, societal, but also to herself and her dreams, which also prevents her from getting in trouble or taking risks that could jeopardize those dreams Miri is skilled in social diplomacy and tends to use charm and tact to get what she wants. She’s the sort of look at an issue from all sides and typically takes the middle ground, both because she genuinely sees nuance but also because she doesn’t want to make waves. Miri is overly compliant because she wants to be seen as likeable and sweet She tries to stay out of conflict and not take sides because she doesn't want anyone mad at her Miri still has her L.ita boots from 10 years ago when they were trendy, and she loves that they’re called L.ita boots because that’s S.ailor J.upiter’s name in the English dub of S.ailor M.oon she grew up on and they look like the boots she wears.

Likes: - Bees - Pretty organizational supplies/journals/stationary - Specific instructions - Harmonious group dynamics

Dislikes: - Tense situations - Interpersonal conflict - Logical fallacies - Being in charge - Being late, she absolutely PANICS over even the slightest tardiness and texts immediately if she's going to arrive more than five minutes after the expected time - Lots of people talking - The lost potential of the A.nita B.lake series - Trying new media, especially music; she just listens to the same songs on repeat. This makes it super difficult to make playlists for her book characters - Widespread misunderstandings/misinformation (ex: the M.cDonald's coffee case, the idea evolution means we came from monkeys, etc) - Readers and writes mistaking darkness in fiction for depth - A whole lot common of urban fantasy tropes - People trying to "win" social interactions - People insisting they know something when they clearly don't

[dreamsinombre]

idealism-sits-in-prison:

I use stitch fiddle or chart minder (both are websites). There's also the Wooltasia app.

violetdale:

Also, you can google knitter's graph paper and print it out if you want to design with pencil and paper. There are also books of knitter's graph paper available to buy online. You can just colour your designs right in. Knitter's graph paper will give you a more accurate prediction of what your pattern will look like than regular square graph paper because the proportions are designed to mimic the knit stitch.

Ah, thank you for the tips on the actual writing of it, but I was looking more for resources that cover how to calculate sizes and how many stitches to CO or inc/dec throughout due to the tension for colorwork being different. Like, for a regular sweater for myself in Xweight, I CO Ysts, but would that number change for a colorwork sweater since the tension is different? That’s more what I’m trying to find resources talking about. I recently did those Stardew Valley Summer socks and had to restart them after my initial attempt because they were turning out way too small due to the tension. I’d hate to start a sweater with my usual, “fly by the seat of my pants, figure it out as I go” method of designing and end up with a sweater that doesn’t fit and have to start it all over again after getting, idk, 2/3 of the way through. But I’ll be checking these sites and such out when I get to the point where I’m writing down the pattern. I typically just use Excel for the actual graphing of things because I’m lazy. But having the names of a couple websites that also provide the charts is handy, too!

redportrait:

Stitchfiddle is good for designing, I'm using it right now. Re: tension, yes, it is different bc if you don't pay close attention when you're learning your stitches will be too tight--the floats at the back (the yarn you're carrying) don't stretch as much as knit fabric does. I space out my stitches right before changing colors, so that I know the floats are long enough to lie correctly. Not foolproof but much better than nothing. Idk what everyone else does[.] I'm sure there's better ways out there as well ! What are you searching for ? If "stranded colorwork" isn't turning anything up try "fair isle colorwork", that's the way I've heard it referred to most often.

Good to know Stitchfiddle has two endorsements now! I’ll definitely check it out. But I also have knit colorwork before, off of others’ designs, so I’ve already got that initial learning curve of, “oh, I need to space these stitches out.” Which was interesting, since one of my mundane magic powers is perfect tension (non-colorwork, I now have to specify)! That’s the tip that I came across multiple times when first learning: keep your right needle stitches all spread out as you go.

I also know that Fair Isle is one of a handful of different colorwork techniques that come from a specific region. I haven’t delved too deeply into the nuanced differences between those techniques, mostly because I haven’t knit any patterns specific to those regional designs and am not looking to make something specifically in any of those styles. I didn’t realize it’d be so difficult to find resources on just non-regional-specific colorwork!

violetdale:

Look up books by Alice Starmore and Mary Jane Mucklestone. They both have stitch dictionaries for designing your own fair isle pieces, that also include tips and instructions on colour work.

diddlysquash:

If you’re wanting colorwork hats or sweaters, tin can knits has an ebook called “strange brew” that has a lot of the math figured out for sizes from newborn up through a very size inclusive adult where you can plug in your own charts for fingering, DK, or worsted weight yarn. It was really helpful for me getting started. Otherwise, know that in colorwork your tension will differ more than usual between flat and in the round, so if you’re swatching try the speed search technique[.] Sorry, speed swatch technique. You knit across the row on a circular needle, but instead of joining in the round or doing a purl row you slide the work down the needle and then carry the yarn along the back. It’s way more accurate.

Ahh I will definitely check those authors out, thank you! That’s kind of what I was looking for after realizing most of the promising-looking online resources I did find were e-courses (at and least one in-person course) that are quite up there in price and/or not running anymore.

I did come across Tin Can Knits’ Strange Brew, but it seemed like it was just for seamless yoke, and the design I want to tackle first will have colorwork motifs down the body. But! I shall give them a look; TCK are solid and always worth checking out.

I also didn’t know about the speed swatch technique! I do prefer to knit my sweaters in the round (I think seaming might be my absolute LEAST favorite thing to do about knitting. So much so that I’ve been trying out ways to pick up sleeves instead of seaming them on because I hate doing it so much and feel like my sleeves always twist no matter what I do to prevent that), so having a swatch technique that replicates that so I can get more accurate tension would be fantastic. Thank you!

[clarrissanewt]

CHARACTER BACKSTORIES

what are character backstories?

character backstories is anything that happened to your character before the main story begun. it a crucial part of character development and creation and can help you have a strong sense of the character’s background (and probably one of the reasons why the character does something in the present!)

ways to add backstories:

flashbacks:

flashbacks can be a powerful way to make a promise to a reader. any cataclysmic event might trigger the protagonist into getting a flashback. flashbacks don't only provide an insight to the character's past but also intrigue readers.

Use verb tense shifts to move between the flashback and main narrative. Whenever your narrative or characters recall a memory from a time before the story began, you have two choices. If the memory is short, you can describe it briefly. If it’s longer, you may want to pull the reader back into a full scene describing a past event. It important to mark the beginning and end of a flashback to make your time jumps clear to the reader.

Keep them relevant. Flashbacks help fill in the characters’ motives and history, but if they are too long or tedious, the reader will get bored. If you use flashbacks, always be aware that time is still moving in the front story, and make sure that your reader can hear the clock in that front story ticking.

Sometimes the whole book is the flashback. it can start with a character narrating the story to someone else. Framing the events of the storyline this way, with a dual point-of-view into a character’s life over the passage of time, can bring more nuance to the storytelling. Before using this technique, ask yourself whether the character’s arc is dramatic enough to make for interesting retrospection.

Tell the present story first. Sometimes it may not be clear where a flashback belongs until you’ve completed your first draft and have a complete view of the storyline.

dialogues:

sometimes a simple conversation might let the character reveal few of the past events to the person they trust or look forward to. it can be a good way to hide the backstory all the while giving it to the readers.

reflection:

let the character 'reflect' on how far they have come. introspection or reflection is one of the ways in which your character can reveal their backstories in the present narrative.

+ bonus! - prologues

Prologues come before chapter one and could be expository/introductory prose, a poem, diary letter, news clipping, or anything in between.

Prologue Don'ts:

1. Using a prologue as a place for a massive dump… information dump.

Information dumps are one of the easiest ways to make readers’ eyes glaze over. Paragraphs of text that provide dense (albeit important) background information are tough to digest. Without strategically trickling this information throughout a scene or throughout the chapters/book, readers can be immediately turned off to a story.

2. A prologue that has nothing to do with the main story.

Prologues need to somehow propel or impact your main plot. Period. If your prologue is filled with action, offers bite-sized pieces of background information, and weaves a compelling scene but is not relevant to your main plot, you probably need to re-think your strategy.

It doesn’t matter if your writing is solid if the scenes aren’t strategically moving toward that pretty plot arc—depicting an emotional journey for your character and exhibiting the stakes for your protagonist and the world at large.

3. Prologues that are too long.

The modern reader (often) prefers shorter chapters—prologues included. If your prologue is longer than most of your chapters (or if both your prologue and chapters are longer), it might be time to reevaluate the structure and pacing of your chapters.

4. Using the prologue to hook the reader as the sole purpose.

think of the prologues that throw the reader into the action—and I mean the middle of the action. Maybe it’s the center of a bloody battlefield or twisted in the sheets of a love affair. Whatever it is, the reader is unceremoniously plunked into the action in a world they’re unfamiliar with and whose characters they don’t yet know (and love).

While action scenes are a gripping way to begin a story, consider whether or not this action is important to the central plot and if this beginning isn’t too overwhelming/confusing for the reader to acclimate to.

5. Using the prologue strictly to provide atmosphere or to do some early-on world building.

World building is one of the things readers love most about fantasy and science fiction. These delicious details are… well… delicious! The setting is described with enough detail to have the readers visualizing the character’s surroundings but not too much to bog down the pace of the scene.

Types of Prologues

Background/History: This type of prologue provides background to the history of the world and events that previously transpired—such as a major battle or betrayal. These events typically took place before the beginning of your story and somehow significantly impact the events going forward.

Different Point of View (POV): This type of prologue could be advantageous when diving into another character’s perspective—particularly when that character’s insight is only needed once and provides a foundation for the story.

Protagonist (Past or Future): These prologues are great for showing a pivotal moment for the protagonist—either in the past or in the future (such as a defining moment years ago or after the main plot has taken place).

Strengths of a Prologue

Fear not, writers. Prologues aren’t all bad. In fact, they come in handy in a number of scenarios:

To provide a “quick-and-dirty” glimpse of important background information without the need of flashbacks, dialogue, or memories that interrupt the action later on in the book.

Hook the reader into the action right away while having the readers asking questions relevant to the central plot—and therefore eager to learn those answers in the opening chapters.

Offer information the reader couldn’t otherwise glean from the plot (such as a break from the point-of-view narration or from a different character’s perspective).

Introduce the antagonist—providing background motives that either humanizes the character or exhibits his/her evil intentions. This angle can be handy if the protagonist doesn’t meet the antagonist until later on in the book.

Introduce a philosophy or religious belief important to the plot/setting.

Foreshadow future events, thereby creating suspense for the reader and get them asking questions (and eagerly reading on).

Do I Need a Prologue?

Consider the following questions:

What information am I providing in the prologue? Why is it important to reveal it up front? Can it be revealed throughout the story in smaller trickles and still be as impactful (or more)?

Does this character’s POV come up again later in the story? If so, would this work as a first chapter instead?

[loren91]

This blog is kinda new and I haven’t done a post like this before, but as someone who works with film, I have a lot of thoughts, and I’d like to go on a little filmmaking rant regarding Young Royals, or more precisely, the critique of Wilhelm’s character.

The past few years there’s been a trend in films to have the main protagonist be strong, flawless and morally perfect from start to finish. I’ve never really understood this, because that way you are actively blocking any opportunity for good character development. If you want a character to be interesting or undergo some kind of journey of growth, they have to start out in a somewhat bad place. As a viewer, I honestly find it a bit insulting too, because a filmmaker who doesn’t dare to take risks or write nuanced characters are essentially saying “I don’t trust my audience”, and that’s how you end up with boring films.

Now in regards to Young Royals and Wilhelm, I keep seeing critiques popping up across platforms, like “Wilhelm is selfish”/“he’s a bad person”/“he’s toxic”, even to the point of saying that the whole show is toxic. And in a sense, yeah, Wilhelm is kind of a bad person, and you can give all kinds of explanations for it. He’s a teen and a product of the environment he was brought up in. Considering the fact that both Wilhelm and August have grown up in the same kind of toxic upper class-elite culture, I’d be more surprised if he wasn’t at least a little bit of a douchebag (There’s a reason why they gave him an anxiety disorder, to make him more relatable and worthy of our sympathy) There’s a lot of expectations on him, from his family and his peers. And he’s terrified of the consequences if he were to break those expectations, that’s why he’s so complicit. But most importantly, his flaws are there for narrative reasons. 

If you want to figure out if a piece of work is morally questionable or not, you have to look beyond just one character. The million dollar question here is, are the characters rewarded despite bad behaviour?

Let me set an example here with 1984’s Ghostbusters (an odd one I know, but hear me out!) The romantic subplot between Peter and Dana is incredibly poorly written. When Dana shows up at their office, asking for help, Peter doesn't take her seriously and only attempts to flirt. He also stalks her and tries to pressure her into dating him, and despite her saying no several times over, he doesn't back off. Then at the end, when Peter and his team have saved the city from the big evil ghost, he thinks he deserves Dana as a reward. He kisses her (without checking for consent) and the film tries to frame this as romantic. Peter is rewarded despite his bad behaviour. I don’t care about anyone's nostalgia for this film, it’s gross af.

Now, let’s compare this to YR. Wilhelm is constantly going back and forth on his relationship with Simon. He keeps pushing him away, only to pull him in moments later when he’s too weak to resist his feelings any longer. Simon has a lot of patience with Wilhelm because he understands that he’s in a complicated situation. Also, red flags are difficult to see when you’ve got those rose tinted glasses on..

However, all of this is there really only to build up for one scene, the break up behind Simon’s house in ep 6. Wilhelm has hurt Simon several times over at this point, and he’s exhausted. But Wilhelm tries to ask for his reward anyway. 

“I’m really sorry, this was the only way. But, this doesn’t have to change what we’ve got. We’re still us.”

But Simon calls him out for it.

“You expect everything to be on your terms. You need to figure out what you want… You need to do it on your own, I don’t want to be anyone’s secret.”

Effectively telling Wilhelm that his days of avoiding responsibility and taking people for granted are over. Simon won’t stand for it anymore. Wilhelm is being punished for his bad behaviour.

Wilhelm is the main protagonist of the story, meaning we see the story progress mainly from his perspective. It’s really important to remember though, that just because a character is the protagonist doesn’t mean that they’re the hero. Wilhelm is certainly not a hero, but it’s still his journey of growth and self discovery, that’s what makes the story interesting.

We get to see just how much these boys love each other and how happy they are together, but their situation is too complicated and they are terrified, which leads to Wilhelm making some questionable choices. The script however makes sure that the characters pay for their less than ideal actions, and not just with Wilhelm. 

-When Simon attacks August because he refuses to pay, Rosh makes sure to call him out. 

-When Sara finds out he’s been seeing their dad behind her back and lying to her about it for months, she calls him out for it. 

-When August kisses Sara in the stables, Felice breaks up with him.

-When Wilhelm finds out August recorded the video, he disowns him.

And so on.

All of this stuff is really crucial for their development as characters. Learning through their mistakes. That’s why the last hug and love confession outside the church is so damn important, it’s concrete evidence of Wilhelm’s character development. He’s far from done, but that’s why we’re getting season 2! It’s most likely gonna be a rather bumpy ride, but the boy just needs more time. Who knows, maybe he’ll end up being the hero of the story eventually.

YR is so well done and I could go on for hours about this kind of stuff, but that will have to do for now, bye 😅

[kidflashimpulse]

ngl, whilst bart is among the more tolerable characterisation in yj dark crisis where he’s not written as a total idiot, i feel like that’s just rewarding very bare minimum writing. You need to be completely oblivious if u can’t tell that an active part of the YJ fandom consists of different minorities. They are the same demographic as those who see the value in buying comics to support the writers/artists. Dark Crisis Young Justice has completely abandoned character and plot development in place of using very much loved characters by said poc/lgbtq+ etc communities as mouth pieces of poorly executed meta-commentary on related issues. It feels very uncomfortable to be “lectured” on all these things which I as a reader (and many others among the communities) are all too aware of. It’s giving borderline white saviour complex. Not cause that’s happening in the story, but because when we read it, it’s like we r talking to Meghan the author.

Which just comes to show the importance of elevating ppl from marginalised communities, both as writers/artists/authors but also the characters. None of which has happened in the series. Instead we see loved characters which r supposed to reflect the social sentiment of youth that matches the development through time being mischaracterised and re-purposed for a series which lacks the nuances and understanding of things that are a result of personal experience. The most blinding example of this is the treatment of Empress. Her only “feature” in the plot is being included among villains. It doesn’t matter if it’s a continuity thing or a result of Myx manipulation, that being her only mention and not being given some kind of proper development is backhanded.

Ultimately, DCYJ is just one of a long list of comics that i just didn’t enjoy or look much forward to, just like all these other old issues post 2000s. It’s nothing different. It’s a shame that all I see for so long is just fans complaining about everything. Not just because fans r naturally entitled (oops) but also because comic writers despite it being their literal jobs, don’t take the time to oh idk, treat the characters with respect.

Anyway, the Flash run seem to be doing okay recently and 1 Minute War seems like an interesting concept that i’m actually looking forward to for once. Young Justice Targets has also been good and i can’t wait for the next issue (to those who r interested, did y’all see how everyone thought the cover was Bart just for it be wally, L lol) . I don’t hate everything lol and ultimately i just like to see some decent plot and characterisation.

[douglysium]

*Google Doc version of this article is available here- https://docs.google.com/document/d/12DgObLl6CLtyITbvLb0LJstaySsfya3fPHV3ANceZ1Y/edit

Fan-Servant Inspirations(Shaka Zulu)

As always, with every new fate fanservant comes the desire to make a piece going over all my design choices and inspirations in case anyone is curious or has any questions. If you want to read the profile I wrote for him you can do so here(Grand Lancer Candidate: Shaka Zulu). These lists of inspirations are also made for my own sake so I don’t completely forget why I did something and ruin my own character and to parse out my thoughts in a tangible form that can increase the chance of me spotting a stupid mistake in my lore or research. And you might just learn some historical fun facts by reading this. On top of that Shaka Zulu is kind of an interesting figure to tackle. Now with all the fanservants, whether they be more comedic or serious, I try to have a proper level of respect. What you can get away with varies from figure to figure and I want to do a better job at handling it than Fate and FGO tend to do, even if I mess up I want to show my line of thinking and that I at least care and want to try to do better. I feel like this sort of inspiration document also makes it easier to correct me. This becomes abundantly more clear with Shaka Zulu since, and there is no soft way to put this, there is a lot of propaganda spread by racist colonizers for various, and pretty bad, reasons. This makes designing a character like Shaka Zulu way harder than say Yasuke(Demon Saber: Yasuke) because suddenly I have to try to give an interesting or nuanced spin on him while avoiding just making a version of him based purely on what a bunch of racist Europeans had to say about him and accidentally spread really harmful rhetoric. It doesn’t help that while these factors tend to demonize Shaka the figure is at the same time lionized. But, I didn’t want to make a character who was almost flawless but I also don’t think it was right to make him just an insane bloodthirsty asshole, at least not that much more than say Iskandar/Alexander the Great was, And hey, if Typemoon can try to give a fucking Elizabeth Bathory/Carmilla, Jack the Ripper, AND Gilles de Rais a more sympathetic angles or interpretations than I see nothing stopping me. I will get more into some of this stuff in later sections but hopefully, you can at least appreciate the effort I went through to try to craft a character with all this in mind. Also, for the sake of clarity, I will refer to the fanservant I’ve made as GLC and the historical figure of Shaka Zulu as… well Shaka Zulu. Oh yeah, this article is probably going to be way longer than my Demon Saber one too so buckle up.

Servant Profile

As always, let’s start with the beginning of this servant profile with GLC’s class. I’m going to be honest, I’m not sure I even need to explain most of the info here. I mean just google an image of this guy and I almost guarantee that the first 1-3 images are going to depict him with a spear(or that one scene from a movie about him). His spear has become so iconic it's basically everywhere and if you are going to make some sort of painting or statue of him it is almost criminal for Shaka Zulu not to have that iconic weapon. So why does he have this spear all the time? Well, this story gets kind of long so sit tight.

Basically, before Shaka Zulu came around most armies of the African tribes that were around in his general area of South Africa preferred to use a type of throwing assegai/spear. However, the assegai came with the disadvantage of the fact that while it was indeed a long-ranged weapon it is kind of easy to not hit your target since some could avoid or block it the thrown spear, plus there’s also the fact that you yourself can just miss and need to be good at aiming it. On top of all that, there was the problem that if you DID miss there was a decent chance that your enemy could grab your spear and try to throw it back at you. So Shaka introduced his armies to a new type of assegai known as the Iklwa, or Ikwa. A short stabbing spear with a long, broad, and sword-like spearhead. These spears weren’t meant to be thrown but instead used, typically in combination with a shield we’ll get to later, in order to get close to an opponent and stab them. This indeed made Shaka’s army more effective and made it easier for his soldiers to defeat his enemies but came with the downside of suddenly making warfare much bloodier and more violent in the region. That is not to say Shaka completely discarded the use of the throwing assegai, he did use them sometimes but was overall more of an advocate for close combat and the purpose of the throwing assegai was changed to help soften up enemies before his armies came in for close combat. Now, whether or not Shaka Zulu actually invented the Ikwa or adopted it from someone/somewhere else is a completely different conversation. However, considering how it was one of the major weapons that he used to absolutely change the very standards of warfare in South Africa as people knew it makes his connection to the spear undeniable no matter what stance you take.

For GLC’s true name, I went with King Shaka Sigidi kaSenzangakhona, which is just his full name. Considering the point I made last time with Yasuke there is an argument that, in the Fate universe, his true name could be Shaka Zulu even if it is a nickname but I ultimately went with King Shaka Sigidi kaSenzangakhona because we actually know for sure what his birth name was, unlike Yasuke, and I thought it was more interesting. While I did bring up the fact that sometimes Fate servants will use a nickname or title as a true name when talking about Yasuke it is important to remember that this is not always the case even if there are times when the figure’s birth name or real name is much less well known than their title or nickname. My point with that example was that we just don’t need to know the figure’s actual name to give a servant design a true name. Also, what a figure’s true name is can actually tell us about their personality in some cases. An example to prove my point would be how Fate handles its interpretation of the infamous mythological Minotaur.

You see the True Name of Fate’s Minotaur is actually Asterios, his birth name, as the name Minotaur which means “Bull King of Minos” is more associated with the half-man half-bull monster image than Asterios. I think what this is trying to tell us is that Asterios isn’t as monstrous or evil as the idea of the “minotaur” many have built up in their heads. Something that is reinforced by a lostbelt incarnation of this character who has the True Name of Minotauros.

This version of the minotaur is described as “Compared to the much more peaceful Asterios, Minotauros is simply a monster that eats people who tread into the Labyrinth” and “Lacking the shred of humanity that Asterios displays, Minotauros is largely driven by his hunger and bloodlust, which are mostly one and the same.” Truly, this version of the minotaur is the monster almost every rumor says he is and has way fewer human attributes than Asterios. To put it more succinctly, Asterios is this Berserker’s “human” name while the Minotaur is a name her garnered as a monster. In this sense, True Names are being used to show us what to expect. This is also why the same figure can have different True Names depending on what form they are summoned in(see Cú Chulainn and Sétanta or Elizabeth Bathory and Carmilla, but that’s a conversation for a different time). Now I wish I could say I had this level of nuance when choosing GLC’s True Name but while Fate does continue many nuances like with Asterios I ultimately chose it because it was his full actual name and title. Although, GLC does seem like someone who would want to take pride in or earn the dignity of their full title.

I’m going to try to handle the inspirations between GLCs nicknames in as rapid-fire  a manner as possible because this article is probably already going to be long enough. The “nicknames” I choose for GLC are Shaka Zulu, Shaka, King Shaka, Sigidi kaSenzangakhona, King of the Zulu, King of Zululand, Founder of Zululand, Nodumehlezi(the one who when seated causes the earth to rumble), King of Conquerors, Horned King, King of Strategy, Grand Lancer Candidate, GLC, Mad King. Shaka Zulu is a name that doesn’t need much explanation. It is probably his most famous name and the one he is most commonly known by. The name Shaka itself originates from the fact that Shaka’s mother wanted to hide the fact that she was pregnant with Shaka Zulu, because he was born out of wedlock, so she claimed that she was actually just suffering from an intestinal condition caused by the iShaka beetle causing her stomach to swell. If I had to guess I assume Zulu comes from the fact that while he didn’t found the tribe he founded the Zulu Empire but I don't know if that's where Shaka Zulu the name comes from specifically.

Shaka is just an even shorter version of that name and seems to be used by a lot of people in the same manner some might use a first name, and King Shaka is just that name except with his title as king due to being a Zulu king. Which is something that the name “King of the Zulu” refers to. The name King of Zululand refers to the fact that Shaka was king of the Zulu Empire/Kingdom, which was referred to in the past as Zululand. Plus, Shaka established the Zulu nation(but not the tribe itself to be clear), and that is also why I chose to include “Founder of Zululand.” He was also apparently the first one to call his people the Zulu. The name Nodumehlezi, which can be translated as “the one who when seated causes the earth to rumble,” was a nickname Shaka gained while rising within Dingiswayo’s army, someone we will get to later, and acting as his commander. The name is a reference to his great courage and skill. The “Horned” King is not meant to refer to literal horns he has or anything but rather his famous “Horns of the Buffalo” military formation. This is also the reason I gave GLC the title of “King of Strategy.” A title that also just alludes to him being famous for combat strategy in general in order to make his armies more efficient. One famous example of what I mean was at the Battle of Gqokli Hill where, while fighting the forces of Zwide(who is someone we will also get to later), he feigned retreat in order to draw the enemy forces deep into Zulu territory before trapping them and launching an assault on the exhausted forces of Zwide. King of Conquerors is one of the titles that exist within the Fate universe and I gave it to this interpretation of Shaka because the historical figure is simultaneously famous and infamous because of his conquests and was known to be quite good at it. Also, considering just the earth-shaking impact he had on Africa as a whole due to his conquests and military I feel like he was just as worthy of the title as Iskandar. “Grand Lancer Candidate” just comes from the fact that GLC is a Grand Lancer Candidate and he takes great pride in that. GLC is just a shorter version of Grand Lancer Candidate because I don’t feel like having to say that entire thing when referring to him. This also relates to the fact that most servants are referred to by their class in most scenarios in order to hide their true names(like how Artoria and Heracles are usually referred to as Saber and Berserker respectively). Choosing titles like Grand Lancer Candidate and GLC also helps add some distinctiveness to him and make it clear what character the name refers to while also keeping his name a secret in a Holy Grail War. Adding stuff to the standard servant class names to make the characters more distinctive and showing a little bit of their personality and relationships without completely giving away who they are is something I try to do with just about all my fanservant designs, my Demon Saber(Yasuke) is a good example of this. Sigidi kaSenzangakhona is part of his name and the Mad King references how he went mad and became increasingly violent after his mother, Nandi died. After which he purportedly did things like kill at least 7,000 people for being insufficiently grief-stricken and ordered that no crops be planted and no milk be used. This eventually led to him getting assassinated by his half-brothers, Dingane and Mhlangana, with the help of someone named Mbopa. Going back to Sigidi kaSenzangakhona for a second the kaSenzangakhona part is the name of his father as at the time your father’s name was supposed to become your surname. One nickname I neglected to put for GLC is the “African Napoleon” because I attempted to be as respectful towards Shaka Zulu the figure as I could be and I decided that potentially just accidentally boiling him down to being some version of a white European figure was not worth it.

Characteristics

I’m going to try to do the characteristics in a rapid-fire manner like the previous section. His species is listed as Servant, Heroic Spirit, and human. The human part refers to the fact that he was a human in life but since dying has ascended to the throne as a Heroic Spirit which means he is now summonable as a servant and GLC currently is said servant if he has been summoned.

His gender is male because Shaka Zulu identified as a male. His height is 175cm(or 5ft 10in). In a lot of the accounts I saw that he was described as tall and many even state that he is even 2 meters, or 6ft tall. His overall height seems somewhat vague at times though so I wanted to make him kind of tall but not super tall, so I made him 5ft 10in. His weight is my guesstimation for how heavy a somewhat muscular man of his height would usually be. His blood type is unknown because there was no way to test blood types when he was alive. His place of origin is listed as KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa while his birthday is listed as July 1787 because those are the recorded places and times for where and when he was born respectively. Specifically, he was born at some point in the lunar month of uNtulikazi which corresponds with the previously listed date. I was unable to find the exact date of his birth. The age of GLC’s Lancer form is 41 because of the fact that Shaka Zulu was apparently around that age when he was assassinated on the 24th of September in 1828. Grand Lancer Candidate also takes a form that is close to when he was assassinated after his interaction with Gala.

Personal Information

When speaking Japanese, GLC refers to himself with watashi, watakushi, and boku. I chose watashi(私 / わたし) for this character because it is often used in a gender-neutral manner. Boku(僕 / ぼく) was chosen because it is typically used by young men and I felt it did a good job of displaying the more energetic part of GLC’s personality and he does identify as a man even if he isn’t really that young(a fact that could show some of his quirkiness). Ore is a more informal form of “I” that is often used by men with people they are close to. This was picked for the same reasons boku was on top of the fact that GLC caring about friends and family is a big part of his character. Plus, I could also see him using it as a sly way of being disrespectful toward someone depending on the circumstance.

His listed likes are family, friends, witty banter, politicking, talking, beetles, strategizing, marching, and comedy. GLC’s immense appreciation for family and friends comes from how Shaka Zulu reacted when his mentor Dingiswayo and mother Nandi died. In the case of Dingiswayo he relentlessly hunted down Zwide, the man responsible for his death, and in the case of Nandi he was overcome with grief and forced his entire kingdom to grieve in the most over-the-top and extra way possible, killing people who grieved insufficiently, among other things(which is something we’ll come back to later). His enjoyment of witty banter and comedy comes from the same source. That being, an anecdote in which Shaka apparently joked with someone that he could not kill a man named Magaye because if he did it would appear he did so out of jealousy because Magaye was so handsome and I recall one account of Shaka Zulu telling a joke or being witty about something with the Europeans but I can’t find any sources on that so that might just be me misremembering something. However, GLC’s enjoyment of politticing and talking come from the extensive politics and treaties he performed on his campaign. As he surprisingly did not immediately resort to violence and managed to get a decent number of tribes to join him without immediately attacking them, although he would often attack them if negotiations failed. I also thought this would be an interesting take on a character based on him, as someone might expect him to be more like Rider Iskandar or Archer Nobunaga and be more itching to fight or resort to violence. I think it also adds an interesting layer to his character. Meanwhile, his love of strategy alludes to Shaka Zulu’s more militaristic background and how he innovated the ways in which people in his area fought(making them more effective) as well as the fact that I saw some accounts saying Shaka like problem-solving and stuff. The marching comes from the, often grueling, training Shaka apparently had his troops do by walking around barefoot to toughen the soles of their feet and the incredible distances some say his troops could march. However, it should be noted that it is possible that some of the brutal training could have been exaggerated. GLC’s love of beetles comes from the fact that Shaka’s name originates from his mother wanting to hide the fact that she was pregnant out of wedlock and claimed she was suffering from a condition caused by an iShaka beetle.

GLC’s dislikes are loved ones getting hurt, loved ones dying, people who don’t listen, people who don’t use their head, people who let their emotions control them, and the Berserker class. The first two dislikes are based on how Shaka Zulu reacted when Dingiswayo and his mother Nandi died. As mentioned earlier he did not react great. I thought this would be interesting to explore by combining it with some common shonen-esque themes. Specifically, with how the stereotypical shonen protagonist can’t bear to see their friends or loved ones get hurt and despises people who don’t care about their allies/friends. I did this because I felt like it added an interesting duality and empathetic angle to GLC. Just about anyone can relate to caring about people and associating GLC with a trait that is commonly given to a type of positive protagonists helps show the audience that while he isn’t perfect he isn’t just a madman or bloodthirsty killer. He is overall a very emotional person and this means he is not just filled with negative emotions but positive emotions as well. However, this can be a double edged sword since getting caught up in say rage or sadness can cause a downward spiral. The rest of his dislikes are actually things relating to him, and they are all things that he dislikes about his past self or things that remind him of his failures and shortcomings. His dislike of people who don’t listen, people who don’t use their head, people who let their emotions control them, and the Berserker class are all dislikes that relate to how he acted towards his own kingdom and people after his mother died. Not properly listening to them and letting his rage overtake him and blind him, until Gala came along. The Berserker class usually ends up reminding him of his shortsighted mistakes. However, his dislike of the Berserker class also comes from the fact that Shaka Zulu is famous for his tactics and mind. So strategically from GLC’s perspective Berserker tends to be the worst class as they are hard to control and rarely listen. It doesn’t help that he can be summoned as a Berserker which would summon him as the almost mindless bloodthirsty monster he became at one point and is afraid of returning to. Being summoned in such a state also leaves him without what he believes to be his most important feature and weapon, that is his mind and intellect, something that is boosted by the idea of how smart a king and warrior he was. In addition to this, another reason he doesn’t like people who don’t listen is because diplomacy was a major part of Shaka Zulu’s strategy when incorporating other tribes, so someone who won’t listen might have to be fought. Furthermore, GLC likes to talk a lot so someone who doesn’t listen makes all that talking meaningless in both diplomacy and during fights.

His listed talents are planning, fighting, talking, making good arguments, improving tactics, improvising, solving puzzles, drawing maps/strategies in the dirt or sand. The planning, improving tactics, and drawing maps/strategies come from the fact that Shaka Zulu is famous for his military tactics and planning. Improving tactics also alludes to some accounts that Shaka Zulu did not invent some of the strategies often associated with him but borrowed them from somewhere else as well as how he made his armies more efficient. His ability to draw maps in the dirt very well may seem random but I put it there to relate to how he’s good at strategy and can represent them very well and quickly in a succinct and easy-to-grasp manner through images. Being able to do so in dirt and sand allows one to show these plans on the fly which highlights his intelligence and adaptability. His planning also relates to the more diplomatic tactics Shaka Zulu used as well as the military ones. Another aspect of his efficient diplomacy skills and preference for it is shown through his talent for talking and making very good/convincing arguments. His talent for solving puzzles, and improvising comes from accounts that note while he served under Dingiswayo he was inquisitive and liked to solve things and think. His talent for fighting comes from the brutal and effective prowess Shaka Zulu’s armies had and the fact that he himself was known to fight and was really good at fighting/combat. He is noted to have caught the attention of Dingiswayo because of his strategic mind and fighting prowess, which was higher than most of the other soldiers that were his age.

His natural enemies are Zwide kaLanga, Gilgamesh(Archer), Shaka Zulu(Berserker), and Shaka Zulu(Avenger). Zwide is the one who killed Dingiswayo(Shaka Zulu’s mentor and very important friend), something that GLC will probably always hate him for and seek to torment him for. Also, Shaka was so pissed when Zwide killed his Dingiswayo he killed Zwide’s mother in an attempt to draw him out. Gilgamesh(Archer), Shaka Zulu(Berserker), and Shaka Zulu(Avenger) are all servants he hates for similar reasons. Most notably, the worst aspects of both himself, his legacy, and his reign. GLC leans towards a more idealistic manifestation of Shaka Zulu so he wishes to be the king that his people and so many of their descendants idealize. However, his Berserker and Avenger forms tend to manifest as the more negative, bloody, and violent ways people view him. They remind him of the mistakes he’s made by being overcome with emotion and feels that they feed into the idea that he is just a bloodthirsty tyrant when he wants to be the ideal king his people needed. His Avenger and Berserker variants are also overwhelmed by emotion and thus lack the clarity to use the brilliant mind that GLC treasures so much. Gilgamesh(Archer) is often a tyrant that cares little about most other people despite claiming himself as their king. Something that reminds GLC of when he went mad and did not pay enough attention to the feelings of the people within his kingdom, only caring about his own, so when he sees Gilgamesh or someone else making the same mistakes he wants to smack them on the back of the head before they go down the same path he did.

The black and white in GLC’s image color comes from the color of his shield, which in many of the accounts I found was described as being white with a black spot or just black and white. His association with red comes from his headdress but also blood. Red is a motif I ended up using for GLC in his hair and eyes and they represent how the more bloody and brutal aspects of his life are still present. This isn’t like Elizabeth Bathory or Gilles de Rais being summoned in a form that is that of before they committed their horrible deeds. GLC takes the form that is based on after he went mad and murdered so many innocent people. The red also represents the blood and ferocity he was known for in combat. As in some accounts he would have blood drenched up to the handle of his spear and the famous Ikwa he uses gets its name from the noise it makes as it is stabbed inside a body and then the sucking sound created as it was withdrawn. So the imagery and color of blood is something I ended up using a lot in GLC’s design. This is even represented in his emotions. When he becomes extremely angry or is under the effects of Madness Enhancement many of his blood vessels can be seen bulging under his skin and his skin also turns slightly red from the absurd amounts of blood flow and bulging veins.

Affiliations

His affiliations don’t need much explanation. The Zulu Kingdom/Zululand is the empire Shaka founded so GLC is a member of it and thus affiliated with it.

Family Members

The listed family members for GLC are pretty simple. Nandi(Mother), Senzangakhona kaJama(Father), Sigujana kaSenzangakhona(Half-Brother), Dingane(Half-Brother), Mhlangana(Half-Brother), Nomcoba kaSenzangakhona(Half-Sister), and Dabulamanzi kaMpande(Half-Nephew) are all people that were actually related to Shaka Zulu. The reason I put various aunts, and various uncles, is because apparently Shaka Zulu had a lot of those and I did not feel like scouring the internet looking for every single possible name so I just put them under those general categories.

Servant Stats

GLC is listed as a Heroic Spirit, but not an Anti-Hero. This is sort of interesting since some people might expect him to be listed as an Anti-Hero due to the fact that he went mad and killed a bunch of people later in his life or because of all the colonialist exaggerations in regard to how brutal and bloodthirsty he was. However, while Shaka Zulu is definitely demonized he is also very idolized and lionized as someone who revolutionized combat and fighting as well as being a smart king until he went mad. Heck, his tactics and fighting style would eventually come in clutch during the Anglo-Zulu War’s Battle of Isandlwana and the like. He is often compared to other historical figures that are often idealized or praised, such as Napoleon(who himself is not an Anti-Hero in Fate). Furthermore, the servant Gilgamesh is also someone who is remembered as being a great king but also having royally fucked up. Despite this, even in his Archer form, he is not an Anti-Hero. What is and isn’t an Anti-Hero in Fate doesn’t actually boil down to something as simple as “this person was a bad person” or “people think this person is fucked up.” I mean fucking Christopher Columbus isn’t an Anti-Hero so that definitely is not the sole metric that this trait is measured by. There is also the fact that GLC’s Lancer form is meant to lean towards a more lionized or idealized version of Shaka Zulu that has most of his admirable traits.

GLC’s source is historical fact because Shaka Zulu is a real person that actually existed in history.

His region is South Africa because he was born around KwaDukuza, South Africa and many of his campaigns took place in South Africa, as one can imagine. Something that is reflected in how much impact Shaka Zulu has had on the culture in that area.

GLC’s alignment is Chaotic Good. He is Chaotic Good instead of Neutral or Evil because as mentioned previously GLC takes on a more idealized version of Shaka Zulu and he is not inflicted by the madness that would overwhelm him at some point in his life or the sheer rage he felt towards Zwide. Likewise, he isn’t as bad or ruthless as a lot of colonial propaganda might make him out to be and he didn’t usually immediately resort to fighting and bloodshed when politics would work. Unfortunately, the mistakes and atrocities he committed while going mad still haunt him and he is always at risk of reverting to a more brutal and bloodthirsty maddened state when emotionally overwhelmed with sadness, anger, or Madness Enhancement. Which can lead him to lash out at the world indiscriminately.

His hidden attribute is man because Shaka Zulu was a normal human.

GLC’s armaments are a spear and shield because Shaka Zulu had both himself and his armies use an ikwa and an isihlangu, a short spear and large cowhide shield respectively.

His known summoning catalysts are a piece of his shield, the tip of one of his spears, a vial of some mud mixed with his blood, and a small rock with some of his blood on it. The pieces of his shield and spear are just references to his signature spears and shield of choice that I just mentioned when talking about his armaments. The vial of mud/blood and the bloody rock are a reference to where he was apparently buried when he died. Supposedly, after he was assassinated he was dumped into an empty grain pit that was then filled with stones and mud. So the mud and rock here are supposed to be materials that have somehow been gathered from the grain pit. However, in real life the exact location of this pit is unknown.

Qualified Servant Classes

GLC’s qualified servant classes are Lancer, Berserker, Avenger, and Shielder.

I don’t think I need to explain the justification of why a servant based on Shaka Zulu would be eligible for the Lancer class with a lot of details. The dude is famous for using a spear and introducing a new kind of spear and method of combat revolving around a shield and said spear to Zulu armies. 

Being eligible for the Shielder class is a reference to the aforementioned signature big shield Shaka and his armies used and incorporated into their combat style. The more defensive angle of both his Shielder and Lancer forms is a reference to both the use of their shields and battles like the Battle of Gqokli Hill during the Ndwandwe-Zulu war in which he famously feigned retreat to lure his foes into a trap as well as the more defensive aspects of his fighting style involving the shield.

The thing about the Berserker class is that the only qualification for being in it is having gone mad during combat at some point in one’s life. A definition that Fate has proven can be very loose and can range anywhere from being overcome with immense anger during a squabble to actually losing your mind in a battle. GLC’s eligibility for the class can be attributed to the fact that there is an argument for just about every warrior servant being eligible for the Berserker class if they ever were sufficiently angry or upset during a fight and the madness that overcame Shaka as king as well as the utter rage he displayed towards Zwide for killing Dingiswayo. The madness can also be attributed to some of the overexaggerated rumors regarding Shaka’s bloodlust and brutality, something that is referenced with how both his Berserker and Avenger versions are less heroic than his Lancer and Shielder counterparts. His Berserker form wielded a club as a type of club was another weapon Zulu warriors would often wield at the time.

The Avenger class is one that often revolves around vengeance and avenging. Now, there are actually some other important aspects of this class, but the nuances of those are for another time. For now, just know that GLC is eligible for the Avenger class both because he sought vengeance on Zwide for taking the life of his mentor and the madness that afflicted him later in life can be at least partially attributed to the death of his mother. Which caused him to want everyone to share in the pain and grief he felt in losing a mother. Shaka’s Berserker and Avenger forms have a more offensive angle which references how Shaka’s methods of combat made his armies more effective but also made conflicts tend to have a higher death toll when they did happen. It also alludes to the more offensive aspects of his fighting style such as favoring close quarter combat with his signature short spear and using an isihlangu to hook the enemies own shield aside and leave them open to a strike.

Parameters

Here are GLC’s parameters

Strength: C - B

Endurance: B - A

Agility: C - B

Mana: E - D

Luck: D - C

NP: A++

The reason I gave him parameters that increase when he is defending, dodging, or retreating and increase when attacking is twofold. Firstly, at the end of the day the main reason Shaka is admired is because of his brilliant intelligence and tactics. So giving him fluctuating stats is to show how clever and tactical he is. While it could be considered a downside to not always have one’s parameters always at their highest, GLC knows how to use them as an advantage and pull a fast one over on unaware opponents. The fluctuations are also a reference to the Battle of Gqokli Hill in which he set a trap for his foes by feigning retreat several times and then jumping the opposing army with a bunch of troops once they were deep in Zulu territory. So in this respect, the fluctuations represent misdirection and GLC playing to his mental strengths. Something that can give opponents a false sense of security when GLC attacks only to be stunned by a jump in stats when he dodges, defends, or counter-attacks. I kept all the fluctuations within one rank because I didn’t want the stats to be too confusing or extreme. So they go down one rank when he is attacking and up when he is defending.

His maximum strength is B because Shaka Zulu’s strength is notable for being pretty high but I didn’t think it would make sense for a Non-Berserker GLC to have physical strength that can rival literal King Arthur and Beowulf. Also, GLC does not have the benefit of things like divinity or being a monster on by default to increase his stats. While his stats are boosted by the rumors surrounding his life and combat prowess he wasn’t born during the Age of Gods or anything.

His maximum endurance is A in reference to how he apparently walked around barefoot to increase the strength of the soles of his feet and some of the stories that say he and his armies could move or march incredible distances before having to stop. Having a high Endurance parameter also synergizes with the more defensive aspects of GLC’s fighting style.

His agility is B because a major reason why he had himself and his warriors fight barefoot was to increase their mobility when on foot in battle. Doing so made them more agile than if they wore sandals in battle. So I figured that it would make sense that his mobility is on the high end.

One may be surprised that GLC’s mana isn’t an E on the low end and is instead a D. However, from what I’ve read Zulu shields have a symbolic association with them that are said to protect the wielder from magic and Shaka Zulu has interacted with certain sangoma and others who practiced magic. When translated into the Fate universe this could easily display an interaction with and potentially even an understanding of magecraft and magic even if GLC wasn’t a mage himself. Which is something that could bump him up from an E to a D and then a C when you factor in his parameter fluctuations.

I chose to have GLC’s Luck be a D on the low end since he is both lionized and demonized so there are a lot of good things associated with his reign and life as well as a lot of bad things. While I don’t think his Luck would be super low due to his effectiveness in combat and how he managed to become king in the first place. So, I think hovering around a C or B made sense.

The rank of GLC’s strongest NP is A++ so that is what is reflected in his stats. Part of the reason it is so high is that it is meant to parallel Noble Phantasms wielded by servants like Rider Iskandar and Archer Napoleon, who have EX and A-ranked Noble Phantasms respectively. A comparison I strengthened by giving him the King of Conquerors title and Shaka Zulu is often compared to Napoleon(which I imagine would give him some extra strength as a servant).

Class Skills

GLC has a C+ ranked Magic Resistance. The reason he has this skill is just because he is a Lancer and that is the class skill Lancers get. It is probably a bit higher than one would expect, being C+ instead of like E, but the reason I made it C is for the same reasons I made his mana stat D - C. Also, because it plays into his defensive imagery. The reason it is C+ is that the effectiveness of the skill increases along with his parameters while he is defending, retreating, dodging, etc. The reason his shield can block A-ranked magical attacks is that Zulu shields have a symbolic association with them that is said to protect the wielder from magic and other things. The shield itself not only literally blocks A-ranked or lower magical attacks but it also causes his Magic Resistance to increase by one rank while holding it due to the symbolism associated with it. It also acts as yet another way for him to throw his opponents for a loop if they are not paying close enough attention.

Personal Skills

GLC has a Charisma of B++. While someone might expect it to be lower due to how he messed up as king when he went mad it is important to remember that his Lancer form has his more positive traits and he was a pretty good military leader and even understood some of the psychology of his troops. For example, he would have some of his soldiers face away from the battlefield before they joined in so they wouldn’t get excited or scared and join too late, too early or just run away. There is also the fact that Shaka Zulu is really idolized as a military leader and it’s B rank anyway because B ranked Charisma is given to those who were sufficient in leading a nation as its King/Queen(a requirement Shaka Zulu easily meets). Of course it has the ++ because it becomes more effective when he is talking and planning defensive strategies or retreats. The talking is a reference to his preference for diplomacy while the boost when defending, dodging, retreating, etc. is another reference to the Battle of Gqokli Hill. Playing into his strategies and misdirections. It also parallels how/when his parameters rise and drop.

GLC has Imperial Privilege at a rank of B+. I felt like if servants like Nero Claudius and Napoleon could have it then it makes sense for GLC to have it. Also, since GLC is sometimes compared to Napoleon it made a nice subtle parallel. Plus, he founded the Zulu Empire and is an important figure or royalty. There is also an argument to be made for it being granted to him for reasons relating to passion in the same way Nero has it. I see no reason why he wouldn’t have it to be honest. I put it at B+ because B is the rank at which Napoleon has it(furthering the subtle parallels) and because he can get flashes of inspiration that can allow him to access new skills. These flashes add a sense of calculated unpredictability that can throw opponents off and show his creative tactical mind. Which I felt emphasized how clever he was by showing that he could learn certain new things on the fly by seeing them. I even put thought into the skills he can draw upon with Imperial Privilege. Protection from Arrows and Bullet Proof Treatment are both references to how he reacted when being shown firearms. Arguing that in the time a gunman took to reload, they would be swamped by charging spear-wielding warriors and that Zulu methods were superior. Now before you go on assuming he was just arrogant or only biased for Zulu methods(although biases may have factored into it) it's important to remember the time period. These were not at all modern guns so they would have been slower to reload and less accurate. Meaning his statement actually had a lot more validity to it then it would have if he had said it in modern times.

The Protection from Arrows skill also references how he had himself and his army get rid of throwing spears in favor of short stabbing spears when fighting because throwing spears proved to be overall less effective as you had to actually be good at aiming them, there were ways they could be blocked, and if you missed an opponent could pick them up and try to use them against you. So this skill is meant to point out how he noticed the weaknesses with this weapon. Battle Continuation is a reference to Shaka Zulu’s assassination. Specifically, while dying, he managed to say “Are you stabbing me, kings of the earth? You will come to an end through killing one another.” and “Hey brother! You kill me, thinking you will rule, but the swallows will do that” in some accounts. Plus, GLC would always appreciate a skill that gives him more time to talk. Disengage is a reference to Shaka feigning retreat in battles like that of the Battle of Gqokli Hill. Valor is a reference to a combination of his bravery and preference for close quarters combat using a short spear instead of a long throwing spear, as Valor is a skill that “negates mental interference such as pressure, confusion and fascination. It also has the bonus effect of increasing melee damage.” It is also said that when Shaka battled there would be blood all the way up the hilt of his spear in some accounts. So he definitely wasn’t one to shy away from combat, especially close quarters combat. It can also help mitigate his weakness to mental attacks which can surprise opponents by making a mental attack that almost or did work once before failing again unless the opponent can make it sufficiently strong enough or catch GLC off-guard. Unimpeded Movement is a skill that I made up that reads “a skill that lowers the effectiveness of mobility and movement debuffs on the user. Allowing the user to continue to move as fast as possible across all types of terrain while also making it harder to slow them down.” This is a reference to how Shaka Zulu walked around barefoot to toughen his feet and how he apparently would also have his soldiers do the same. Some accounts say he even had them walk across thorns. The idea here is that he is really hard to slow down. Reduced Earth is a reference to some accounts stating he and his armies could march or move incredible distances. Some say he could march 80-kilometers(or 50 mi) in one day but others dispute this. The idea here is that in the Fate universe whether he actually could move that far or not is distorted by the fact that he and some of his soldiers knew this skill. Finally, his Madness Enhancement of course references the time he went mad as king. The fact that it can accidentally or passively activate when he’s hit with a mental attack is a reference to how he is still haunted by the horrific things he did to his kingdom after going mad and some of the demonizing propaganda by colonizers emphasizing his more negative traits as a justification for why they should take the land. It also references that his madness was connected to the death of his mother.

The Proof of Friendship is a reference to Shaka’s overall preference for diplomacy over jumping straight into fights and I found it to be a neat subversion of what the audience might expect. However, it is sort of low because a lot of the time his politics come with the subtle threat that he might just take what he wants by force if you don’t comply. Which is also why the skill becomes more effective if what he is doing strikes fear into them and why despite having the skill he is unafraid of using threats or blackmail.

Mana Defense is a reference to Shaka’s signature shield and the more defensive aspects of his fighting style that revolved around this big shield. Unfortunately, it takes GLC a lot of mana to use. The fact that it allows him to bolster the defense of an entire army at its strongest is a reference to how he had his army wield these shields, which would often be used to safely close the distance between them and their opponents. The fact that it's so mana intensive is a way of me basically limiting how many skills GLC has at one time and it is a lot easier to keep track of them all when one such as this wouldn’t be used at all most of the time. It is of course more stable in his more defense-oriented shielder form.

I don’t think I really need to justify giving him Military Tactics and Strategy as skills. The dude is literally famous for reinventing and evolving the military tactics of his region and he was an amazing military tactician. He is also really good at strategy and the Strategy skill includes diplomacy and logistics, which is right up GLC’s ally. The Strategy skill’s connection to diplomacy can be used to increase the effectiveness of GLC’s Proof of Friendship skill which I also felt showed how clever he is. His Strategy is pretty good so of course it got an A. His Military Tactics being B++ is because its effectiveness increases when he retreats or takes defensive formations(another reference to the Battle of Gqokli Hill). If he is running away it becomes harder to tell if he is genuinely running away or if he is simply setting a trap. Making chasing him dangerous. Of course, his Berserker form is more attack-focused so as a Berserker he gains a boost to the skill if he is attacking instead.

Mind’s Eye(True) is a reference to Shaka’s battle prowess and his supposed intelligence as well as how good his tactics were. For example, he would have some soldiers face away from the battle so that they wouldn’t get too excited or too scared and would be able to join the battle precisely when necessary. The skill is also useful in escaping or defending which works as another reference to the Battle of Gqokli Hill. It is ranked at B+ because its effectiveness increases when he retreats or defends in reference to the aforementioned battle and when traversing terrain in reference to how incredibly far Shaka and his soldiers might have been able to march.

GLC’s habit of saying the name of his skill outloud is both me playing on the fact that this character loves to talk and it does also hype him, and probably at least his own soldiers, up. He can also use it to throw enemies off by yelling the name of skill in order to distract from another skill or plan by grabbing their attention.

Noble Phantasms

His first Noble Phantasm is his Isihlangu. Which is of course based on the shield Shaka Zulu wielded. Its full True Name “Isihlangu: Brush My Enemies Aside.” A reference to the name of the shield itself, which can translate to “brush aside.” This also references how the shield was used offensively by holding the shield in one’s left hand, pushing up to the enemy, and then hooking the enemy’s shield before pulling it aside in order to create an opening in the enemy’s defenses during hand-to-hand combat or close engagements. This is reflected in its ability to temporarily disarm servants if their weapons make contact with it and how they can become sealed if the weapon is a lower rank than the shield. The ability to create a concussive blast to stun opponents and leave them open to attacks in a weakened state is an exaggeration of this aspect of the shield. This is also a reference to the shield’s name meaning “to brush aside” being taken literally. As the blast can be used to literally brush things aside. Of course, it is a shield so it was also used to protect the person wielding it from things like throwing spears, arrows, etc. The fact that it was useful for fending off throwing spears, and arrows in particular, as well as Shaka’s comment about firearms in combat, led to me giving the Noble Phantasm a resistance against projectiles. Shaka also tended to be very against most throwing weapons since if you missed there was the danger of the enemy picking it back up. Something that is reflected in how his shield can knock projectiles back at you. The fact that the shield has its own level of magic resistance equal to that of A-Rank and increases one’s own Magic Resistance and Luck as long as they hold it is a reference to how the shield has symbolic meaning to it and was said to aid in warding off magic and increasing one’s luck. I also wouldn’t think it's out of the question that GLC has actually fought mages and the like in the Fate world at some point in his life.

The Ikwa is based on the signature short spear used by Shaka and his armies. He ditched the throwing spears that were commonly used at the time for the Ikwa(or Iklwa) . He also forbade his soldiers from throwing them as, like with the other throwing spears at the time, there was the concern that the enemy could pick them up if the thrower’s spear missed or the weapon was dodged/blocked. Its full True Name, Ikwa: The Sound of Flowing Bloodshed, is a reference to how the spear apparently got its name from the distinct sucking sound it made as it was pulled out of someone’s body after they had been stabbed. This is also reflected in the abilities of the Noble Phantasm, as by releasing the True Name when someone is stabbed by the spear they will suffer constant bleeding and a “mana leak” from the wound in the form of a curse. Also, when the spear is pulled out of the wound it is accompanied by a violent spray of blood and magical energy accompanied by an audible sound. This is all in reference to how the spear got its name and it essentially “pulls out” blood and mana along with it. This blood imagery and smell also reflects how much bloodier conflicts ended up becoming because of Shaka Zulu as well as what made the spear famous is what it does after it stabs people. But GLC is capable of deactivating it which shows a level of restraint and that he is not a mindless monster.

Izimpondo Zenyathi is a reference to what is probably Shaka Zulu’s most famous military technique and formation, the “Buffalo Horns.” Which is also where the epithet “An Army That’s as Deadly as a Buffalo’s Horns” present in the Noble Phantasm’s name came from. This horn imagery is also reflected in how part of the Noble Phantasm’s activation involves two massive horns erupting from any spear or club GLC is using. Those weapons reference the favored spears and clubs he and his Zulu warriors often used during combat. The fact that the head of the weapon elongates into a point gives it more range and makes it so that if he is wielding a club it becomes closer to his signature spear. This NP isn’t tied to a specific weapon, outside of just any kind of club or spear, because it is the formation itself and not a weapon in the same way the Ikwa is. The NP is a reality marble in order to allow for a large army like that of Iskandar’s Ionioi Hetairoi. It acts as a subtle way to parallel servants like Iskandar as they are both “Kings of Conquerors.” Something that is emphasized by its maximum number of targets being equal to that of Ionioi Hetairoi and its rank being close to this NP as well as Darius’s Athanaton Ten Thousand and Napoleon’s Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile(as Shaka and Napoleon are sometimes compared to each other). The parts of their formation and their qualities don’t need a very detailed explanation as they are based on how Shaka actually organized his troops in the formation using three categories. The “horns”(made up of younger troops meant to encircle and pin enemies), the “chest”(made up of the best and strongest fighters to act as the main force), and the “loins”(acting as reserves/backup that were made up of older and more experienced fighters). The loins would sometimes have their backs facing the battle until it was their turn for combat in order to ensure that they wouldn’t get too nervous and charge into battle too early or run away. The colors of each shield that each part of the formation wields is based on how they were often color coded using their shield. His charisma increases by one rank while in reality marble because he is in his element of directing troops and he can join the battle himself by leaving the plateau at any time because he is no stranger to joining the fight himself. Shaka is in fact quite famous for being a good fighter. The plateau also lets him oversee the battle from a bird’s eye view to more effectively direct his troops. His voice echoing throughout the marble is mostly just so his troops can hear his orders.

The fact that it is a plain/savannah means that there are few places for opponents to hide from a shielded army barrelling towards them. The qualities each part of the formation has and their stats relates to the types of soldiers that would be put in each part of the formation. All the soldiers have an E-rank in most of their stats because having fully fledged servants with a wide variety of potentially high parameters and their own NPs would probably end up being way too powerful from a narrative perspective. All troops having a low ranked Independent Action references Iskandar’s own Noble Phantasm and prevents the Noble Phantasm from being almost unusable because you would need to supply enough mana for an army’s worth of servants. Also the fact that they don’t have it while outside the reality marble adds an interesting limitation to how many GLC can comfortably summon at any given time outside of said reality marble(usually 1 or 2). And they also can only be summoned within arm’s reach outside the reality marble in order to prevent them from being busted or allowing GLC to just conjure people behind his opponents. The horns have a higher speed stat because they are young. The soldiers in the “chest” are stronger and more talented so they have E-ranked versions of Shaka’s Ikwa and Isihlangu in reference to their efficiency with those weapons and having access to even a weak NP would make you stronger than someone with no np. Finally, the loins have a Madness Enhancement that boosts their, Strength, Endurance, and Agility, which references how they would sometimes have their backs facing the battle until it was their turn for combat in order to ensure that they wouldn’t get too nervous and charge into battle too early or run away. So their Madness Enhancement makes them harder to control and forces GLC to turn them around until they are needed. Being able to walk out of the reality marble, and its shrinking aspect, reference to the documentation and legends of the many people who went through great lengths to flee from and avoid his encroaching armies and conquests. If you are unable to flee you will potentially be attacked by his armies and have your parameters lowered until Shaka dies. GLC would be absurdly powerful in South Africa because servants gain a boost if they are in or near the place in which their legend took place and if they are well known in the general area(and the dude had a massive impact on South Africa).

Misc

His tough feet and devastating kicks are a reference to the stories in which he and his men would walk everywhere barefoot in order to increase the toughness of his feet and some stories even go as far as to say he would have people walk across thorns to toughen their feet. The fact that he walks around barefoot is a reference to some stories saying that he never wore shoes and always walked around barefoot(but this could be an exaggeration). His agility dropping when he wears shoes is a reference to how he preferred not to wear sandals/shoes during combat in order to have increased agility and movement. The strength of his legs also comes from how far some say he and his armies could march.

His constant talking is a reference to both his diplomacy and also his brutality as he is willing to do some things that others would consider underhanded in order to win. This also references his more pragmatic approach to combat and how he made his armies more effective and deadlier.

His love and knowledge of beetles and their anatomy is a reference to how he got his name from the iShaka beetle.

Background

Okay, I’m actually going to skip over most of the inspirations behind GLC’s background because 98% of them can be attributed to accounts we have of his life, so there’s no need for a play by play. I am instead just going to mention a few notable changes or details.

First off, in some accounts Shaka flew into a rage after he saw that Zwide’s mother had the skull of Dingiswayo but in others, he just immediately killed her because he was fucking furious at Zwide. I decided to go with the first option because it sounded more interesting with more potential characterization for both Ntombazi and Zwide if I ever made them fanservants. It also made GLC more sympathetic even if he isn’t completely justified.

Second, when Shaka saw a gun he didn’t just disassemble it and reassemble that(as far as anyone is aware). I added that to show how thoroughly he thought about the weapon and that he didn't just dismiss it off-hand. It also makes him seem more clever/smart.

Finally, in some versions of various accounts a man named Gala shook some sense back into Shaka which I decided to include because Gala would make a cool servant and I wanted to put Lancer Shaka in the form of how he was AFTER he was a dick to make his characterization more interesting instead of trying to sidestep it by framing his Lancer form as one who has yet to turn into the mad king. Also, there was an interesting contrast with GLC having the power of hindsight and being pushed towards a more idealized form despite how badly he fucked up. The whole “However, he acted too slowly and his mistakes were beyond the point of being overlooked or forgiven by most of the people within his kingdom…” is there because Gala helped Shaka regain his sanity at that point and because it adds a sort of extra tragedy because while he realized his mistake he kind of deserved what he had coming at that point.

Appearance

GLC is physically muscular which is meant to reflect how he was often described as such. His pointy nose and spiky hair along with his sharp sideburns and teeth are meant to draw a connection to sharp-bladed and pointy weapons like his spear. I figured since the spear was so integral to his identity it could be used to create some fun shape language to mess with. Most of the red in his outfit is a reference to the themes of violence and blood I mentioned earlier. His sharp teeth also helped potentially make him more intimidating and showed that while he could be, and often is, lighthearted he is not a joke character and isn’t one to be trifled with or underestimated. It also further connects to his sharp spear imagery. Coming off lighthearted can act as another way for him to get his opponents to let their guard down. The scars on his chest and back are a reference to the assassination done on him by his half-brothers, Dingane and Mhlangana, while the scars on his feet are a reference to how he walked around barefoot to toughen them and the stories saying that he had his troops walk across thorns to toughen their feet. I already explained his height earlier so i won’t be going over that.

I also ended up giving his scars a slight pink or reddish hue to them to further tie into the blood imagery. When angry or under the effects of Madness Enhancement his scars turn a deeper red color to solidify this.

Personality

GLC’s love of talking is related to his preference for diplomacy and I felt that it was a nice subversion of his expected behavior that is still rooted in historical fact. Specifically, a joke he told that I mentioned earlier and his preference to jump to diplomacy instead of immediately rely on combat. His use of talking in combat is meant to play up some of his diplomacy but also his ruthlessness and brutality as he is willing to to throw the opponent off with personal attacks or insults. I also felt like it made him come off as clever and not just a raging berserker while also playing up his wit and intelligence. His defensive battle tactics along with counter-attacks, disarming techniques, and willingness to either run away or feign retreat is a reference to how tricky Shaka Zulu could be in combat and a reference to the Battle of Gqokli Hill. This is also why it can be hard to tell if GLC is ever actually losing or if he’s setting up a trap. Another reason he avoids jumping into combat is because he prefers to have as many allies as possible. The fact that he can get caught up in the rush of battle is a reference to the madness he would succumb to and how he was often described, sometimes to the point of over exaggeration, as a brutal warrior. As well as how he ruthlessly hunted down Zwide after the man killed his mentor.

The fact that he hates seeing his loved ones in pain or getting killed is a reference to how he hunted down Zwide when the man killed Dingiswayo and how he went mad after his mother Nandi died. The latter also acts as the inspiration for how he may use the Madness Enhancement skill to ruthlessly strike, and probably kill, anyone who kills his loved ones. There is some inspiration from how Shaka Zulu killed Zwide’s mother in a rage and attempted to draw Zwide out. However, these events also led to GLC appreciating his family/friends even more than he already did(which was a lot).

The fact that he can give the impression that he has a really weak clairvoyance is both to emphasize how strategic and clever he is while how he predicted the Europeans would betray the Zulus and the downfall of his brother as he was being killed by saying “Brother are you stabbing me, king of the earth thinking you will rule? The swallows will do that!!!” as a warning to Dingane and his people about the European colonizers and some of their malicious intentions before saying  “You will come to an end through killing one another.” A warning that would ring true when Dingane took the throne and attempted to remove those who were loyal to Shaka before getting involved in a civil war and getting overthrown after 12 years of ruling by his other half-brother. His bluntness and tendency to come off as menacing or rude is a reference to an interaction in one account in which Shaka said Dingiswayo should kill Zwide in response to Dingiswayo asking how he should take care of Zwide. Something that was proven kind of right when Zwide ended up killing Dingiswayo,

The regret he feels over killing innocent civilians is due to a combination of the fact that his Lancer takes the form of a Shaka Zulu that is no longer mad due to the intervention of Gala and it represents a clash of his more idealized self and positive traits against his less admirable traits and demonized self. GLC wants to be the more idealized king a lot of people see him as so he takes steps like refusing to kill humans and trying to save as many humans as possible as atonement for the people he killed while mad. His goal is technically never ending but he is shooting for 7,000 currently because some estimated that's how many people he killed while inflicted by madness. The fact that he mentally keeps note of every person he saves helps show his more caring and kind side as well as how smart he can be. The fact that it is only humans he refuses to kill while being fine with killing nonhuman entities and things that are already dead, like vampires, zombies, spirits and even servants(as they are a type of spirit) shows that while he is trying better to be a more kind, considerate, and ideal king he isn’t completely defenseless or a total pushover and can still be quite ruthless. It also sort of shows that he’s smart and not always basic or straightforward since this core philosophy of his is more nuanced than just “save everyone and everything”… sorry Shirou

Servant Interactions

For this section I’m going to be mostly going over why I chose to have voice lines between each character rather than what each line says as most of it can be inferred or implied when I explain why I gave these character interactions in the first place.

The legendary Leonidas and Shaka Zulu have been compared to each other by many due to both being famous military leaders who wield a notable shield and spear with famous formations revolving around the use of those two weapons. Leonidas in Fate also seems to love training which can connect to the stories of how brutal Shaka Zulu’s training could be.

GLC’s interaction with Napoleon is based on how Shaka Zulu has often been compared to Napoleon and even called the “black/African Napoleon” due to being considered proficient military leaders among other things. GLC comments on the massive cannon Napoleon wields because it seems like an unwieldy projectile weapon similar to the guns he criticized when he was alive.

GLC and Shaka Zulu do have a really diplomatic aspect to them so GLC is greatly impressed by Gaius Julius Caesar’s famous charisma, speeches, and diplomacy skills.

Shakespear’s First Folio is a Noble Phantasm that takes the form of a mental attack that aims to destroy the minds of its target by recreating and forcing the target to relive terrible events or mistakes in their lives. GLC already has a weakness to mental attacks and a Noble Phantasm like First Folio could cause him to regress into a Berserker-like state or become overcome with madness once again. Plus, he really doesn’t want to relive seeing his mentor being killed, his mother dying, or when he killed all those innocent people. GLC has a lot of moments for First Folio to take advantage of.

Shaka Zulu is famous for being smart and innovative. Da Vinci is also famous for being smart and innovative in her own way. I thought the idea that they would try to one-up each other or prove who's smarter by doing things the other does was a funny and interesting interaction. They can also both be prideful.

Kama is a Beast connected to lust but Shaka Zulu is noted in some accounts to actually have gone out of his way to avoid having an heir or just not been interested in having one for a speculative or unknown reason.

Oda Nobunaga and Shaka Zulu are both figures who are known for having a brutal side to them but were also undoubtedly effective with their more modernized and revolutionized tactics.

Ryoma Sakamoto cares greatly about his friends and loved ones and wants to create a world of peace. Which I think can go hand in hand with how GLC cares about his loved ones and wants to be a better and less brutal king.

Izou is a prodigy with the sword and Shaka Zulu was also considered a prodigy in fighting by many, including his mentor(even if Shaka Zulu didn’t wield a sword).

Shaka Zulu explicitly forbade his soldiers from throwing most of their spears but Emiya, Gilgamesh(Archer), and Kid Gil all launch weapons as a form of attack. Something that probably distresses GLC even more when one considers that these servants could easily have access to their own version of Shaka Zulu’s famous spear and, at least Gilgamesh, would probably just throw it around like he would any other weapon. Which GLC would see as disrespectful.

Emiya’s copied Rho Aias and Shaka Zulu’s shield are both Noble Phantasms that are resistant to throwing spears like that of Gae Bolg. So they are of a similar nature.

Gilgamesh(Caster) is similar in a way to Shaka Zulu in that at one point he was a terrible king who overstepped his bounds and wielded his power irresponsibility but his existence gives GLC hope that he too can one day become the great and wise king his people needed. Which is reinforced in how Gilgamesh would eventually realize his mistakes and become one of the greatest kings in history.

Shaka Zulu was treated poorly by many other kids in his youth for saying he was the son of a chief(he was but the chief in question didn’t want to acknowledge him because he was born out of wedlock). Jack the Ripper(Assassin) is a literal murderer while Abigail Williams falsely accused innocent people, such as Tituba, of witchcraft which got them killed.

Lancelot(Berserker) has a personal skill that allows him to turn any weapon he holds into a Noble Phantasm. We see in Fate/Zero his Berserker form is also capable of grabbing weapons launched by things like Gil’s Gate of Babylon out of the air and throwing them back at great speed. Which to GLC only affirms his fears in life as he forbade his troops from throwing their Ikwa out of fear that the enemy would pick them up and use the weapons against them.

Elizabeth Bathory(Lancer) is a form of Carmilla that has not yet become the famous murderer. GLC encourages her as he sympathizes with her plight of wanting to have been a better person than she was in life and not wanting to succumb to the same mistakes.

Carmilla(Assassin) was a murderous noble who used her position in power to kill innocent people. Now Shaka Zulu didn’t go as far as bathing in people’s blood to make himself younger but GLC is reminded of his murderous reign as king when madness overtook him. However, even so, he still finds Carmilla quite brutal.

The similarities in his own style and Hector(Lancer)’s style that GLC is referring to is that they are both Lancers who use tactics that one might see as underhanded in battle. They are also willing to perform sudden retreats, they both have the Proof of Friendship skill and they both have access to the Disengage skill to facilitate their retreats(GLC has access to the skill through his Imperial Privilege).

Chiron is a famous teacher and mentor of heroes, which reminds GLC of how legendary and proficient his own mentor, Dingiswayo, was.

GLC retreats a lot like Jason does and he respects that Jason knows that he isn’t a good warrior and doesn’t try to pretend he is. But he finds Jason to be a bit too cowardly as Shaka Zulu is famous for being brave. Jason is also willing to use or throw some people, like Medea, under the bus even if they adore him which rubs GLC the wrong way as he wants to treasure his loved ones.

Hans Christian Anderson is a very blunt and no-nonsense servant. Which is similar to Gala's bluntness and straightforwardness when he talked back to Shaka Zulu by pointing out his mother wasn’t the first person to die in Zululand during a meeting in response to his increasing madness and violence.

Lanling Wang and Diarmuid Ua Duibhne both remind GLC of Magaye, as Magaye was said to be so beautiful that Shaka Zulu himself stated that if he ever killed the man it would look like he did so out of jealousy. Which parallels the supernatural beauty of Lanling and Diarmuid.

Quetzalcoatl, Yasuke, and Damarchus are all servants(and fanservants) that like and/or are good at wrestling and apparently Shaka Zulu was good at wrestling and dueling as a young man.

Gilgamesh(Archer) is an asshole king who abuses his power and has yet to become the wise king of his Caster form. Gilgamesh’s Archer form reminds GLC of his own shortcoming in life.

Christopher Columbus is an asshole European colonialist and kind of proves what Shaka Zulu said to his brothers as he died talking about his wariness of the motives of the Europeans he had begun to trade and interact with as some of them were racist colonialists.

Iskandar, and Genghis Khan, along with Shaka Zulu, are all famous conquerors who controlled immense amounts of territory and had a major impact on the continents they inhabited because of how great their influence and civilizations ended up becoming. Interestingly, GLC is the only one of these servants and fanservants that is not eligible for the Rider class, which I thought was funny.

Hang Tuah is described as someone who is a smooth-talker. GLC and Hang Tuah both dislike tyrannical kings and GLC trusts that Hang Tuah would stop him if he was ever in danger of going off the deep end. Hang Tuah is also quite good with words and can actually extract information from people due to how adept he can be at flirting which, as odd as a comparison it might seem, fits in the GLC’s preference for diplomacy and skill he has when it comes to talking.

Hang Jebat is a fanservant with literal horns and GLC has metaphorical horns due to Shaka Zulu’s famous “Buffalo Horns” formation.

Connla is a fanservant that wields a spear and can copy spears, and I imagine Connla can copy GLC’s Ikwa.

Gilgamesh, and Emiya both launch their weapons as explained earlier. Connla is a Shirou pseudo servant and since Shirou, like Emiya, can sometimes launch his swords and weapons this distresses GLC as Shaka Zulu was against throwing weapons.

Julie d’Aubigny has a lot of charisma and honestly, I just think that GLC would get along great with her.

Laplace’s Demon and Maxwell's Demon are both manifestations of paradoxes and Shaka was noted to like solving things. Maxwell's Demon has since been proven to not be possible due to violating the second law of thermodynamics so it is a paradox that GLC can “solve.”

Nameless Soldier is made up of countless unnamed soldiers, which could in theory include any number of Zulu soldiers that Shaka Zulu has led.

Dingane and Mhlangana are the ones who assassinated Shaka Zulu. There is not much to explain beyond that.

*Hang Tuah, Connla, Damarchus, Julie d’Aubigny and Nameless Soldier are all fanservants created by MochiBoni and Omegazplayer respectively. Yasuke is a fanservant created by me and Dingane and Mhlangana haven’t been designed yet. Here are the profiles or art for each respective servant

Hang Tuah- https://docs.google.com/document/d/12mjNkmjnhIIeLgGRvSlVVLhRQqWd4cbEDygfQHSLPCg/edit

Connla- https://twitter.com/mochio_bonio/status/1425858835730685957?s=20, https://twitter.com/mochio_bonio/status/1419297258512601089?s=21 

Julie d’Aubigny-https://twitter.com/Omegazplayer/status/1416650069206573057?s=20

Damarchus- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jArzQOnAWnvSv8MRelYSl1x5DZj-gUndaBmPtO74icw/edit

Nameless Soldier- https://twitter.com/Omegazplayer/status/1416632770059714560?s=20 

Yasuke- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M7V-XS0S_hePGtpLHY3abI-rU8_ek889uqcYnq0cvb0/edit 

Dialogue examples

I am going to keep this section brief and only go over the parts that I think need explaining. 

“Well, obviously family isn’t just determined by biology. I mean my biological father wanted nothing to do with me… If you only define family using DNA then you are only stunting yourself in the long run my friend. There aren’t many people in this world willing to look out for you so treasure them!”- Shaka Zulu was an illegitimate baby so his father tried to deny any connection to him.

“Eh!? Are my diplomacy skills really that surprising? Some of those stories about my fighting and conquering were just a liiiiiiiittle bit exaggerated my friend. Besides, I engaged in diplomacy just as much as I fought, which is to say a lot.”- a reference to some of the overexaggerated tales spread by Nathaniel Isaacs, Henry Francis Fynn, and other Europeans that were often meant to legitimize their racism and/or colonialism by showing how violent or uncivilized the people there were. The line “If I had known what those shady Nathaniel Isaacs and Henry Fynn were going to do to my image for the sake of that slave trade I would have killed them on the spot…” is also a reference to this as GLC basically feels they unfairly ruined his image to a degree.

“KwaBulawayo? I’ll be honest I was just trying to sound intimidating… maybe it worked a bit too well… Dukuza had a much better balance between intimidation and cool factor.”- the name of KwaBulawayo translates to something like “the place of slaughter” or “the place at which murder occurs” which is a little bit of an overkill of a name. kwaDukuza is a name that means “Place of the Lost Person.” Many Zulu refer to it as Dukuza.

“Take it from me, you should consider your actions carefully and try to keep the collateral damage down to a minimum… Just promise me you’ll think with your head and not your heart ok my friend.” The collateral damage GLC is referring to is the Mfecane(“Upheaval" or "Crushing"). A period of chaos and upheaval within southern Africa that depopulated the region. Some believe Shaka Zulu’s conquests to be the cause of this, as many tribes were forced to flee if they did not wish to be conquered, but others attribute the event to Zwide.

Death Line

“Mbopa…”- Mbopa is one of the people who took part in the assassination of Shaka Zulu and probably would have been one of the last people GLC saw before he died.

Fun Facts

He would be five stars due to his fame.

White, and Blue represent the parts of GLC that strive to be a better person and king as well as his values of knowledge while Black represents his more ruthless and underhanded side. Red tends to represent when his emotions overcome him and how he treasures and prioritizes some of his emotions, like love for his friends and family.

His Epithet Erased word being “horn” is a reference to his famous “Buffalo Horns” formation and how some famous beetles, like rhinoceros beetles, have horns.

His nen type would be that of Transmutations because Hisoka’s nen personality quiz describes Transmuters as “whimsical, prone to deceit, and fickle. They have unique characteristics, and many are regarded as weirdos or tricksters. They often put forth a facade while hiding the truer aspects of their personalities. Even when they don't hide their personalities, they rarely reveal their true intentions. Many Transmuters rely on techniques that give unique and unpredictable properties to their Nen that reflect their personalities.” Which I felt perfectly described some of the more underhanded and tricky nature of GLC. Also, his wit and manner of talking probably could make him come off as whimsical.

His servant rank is really high due to his fame and the power of his Izimpondo Zenyathi Noble Phantasm as well as many of the mysteries surrounding his life. Of course, he would gain a significant boost in South Africa due to that being the place in which his legends took place and just how well known he would be.

He takes Mother’s Day very seriously because of how much he loves his mom and he went mad when she died.

Both GLC and Zwide’s Berserker forms have Noble Phantasms based on the Mfecane because some people believe Shaka is responsible for the event while some say it was Zwide.

Gala is eligible for the Foreigner class because the Foreigner class is described as being those who are "swallowed by madness but then turn around and consume the madness in turn.” The idea was that Gala is able to overcome madness, even those of an outer god, since he was able to snap Shaka Zulu out of his own maddened state.

GLC loving Heracross and Pinsir are a reference to how he was named after beetles and Falinks is a reference to his use of shields in combat.

Sources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKRBoAW8_Wg 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaka

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assegai#Iklwa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu_people

https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/shaka-zulu

https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/shaka-zulu/

https://www.dw.com/en/shaka-zulu-founding-father-of-the-zulu-nation/a-52448409

https://www.historynet.com/shaka-zulu-chieftain.htm

https://www.windlass.com/products/zulu-iklwa-spear/

https://www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/shaka-zulu

http://countrystudies.us/south-africa/9.htm

https://www.livescience.com/2697-shaka-zulu-changed-world.html

https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/chief-dingiswayo

https://www.historynet.com/shaka-zulu-africas-napoleon.htm 

https://www.africancraftsmarket.com/history-of-the-zulu-shield.html 

https://www.ulwaziprogramme.org/telling-your-igqoka-from-your-isihlangu/

https://www.ulwaziprogramme.org/emperor-shaka-the-great/

https://www.ulwaziprogramme.org/the-zulu-shield/ 

https://www.ulwaziprogramme.org/kwadukuza-jewel-of-zulu-nation/

https://www.ulwaziprogramme.org/the-great-zulu-kingdom/

https://archive.org/details/annalsofsou5819721981sout/page/3/mode/1up?view=theater 

https://www.ulwaziprogramme.org/celebrating-200-years-of-the-zulu-nation/

https://www.cazenoviapubliclibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/South-African-Shield-and-Assegai-Spear.pdf 

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA612214.pdf

https://africaimports.com/the-history-and-meaning-of-the-zulu-shield#:~:text=Before%20battle%2C%20shields%20were%20sprinkled,sewn%20onto%20a%20wooden%20frame.&text=It%20is%20a%20battle%20shield,by%20King%20Shaka%20Zulu%20himself.

https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10413/8490/Oosthuizen_Marguerite_Poland_1996_V_1.pdf 

https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/chief-dingiswayo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00nsjhw

https://medium.com/the-technology-burrow/learning-from-great-leaders-shaka-zulu-a-military-genius-bc8fcda7a446

https://safarikzn.com/the-zulu-buffalo-horns/

http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/weapons/index.php/tour-by-region/oceania/africa/arms-and-armour-africa-32/index.html

https://ageofrevolutions.com/2021/01/27/born-out-of-shakas-spear-the-zulu-iklwa-and-perceptions-of-military-revolution-in-the-nineteenth-century/

https://www.news24.com/citypress/voices/our-history-the-battle-of-mhlatuze-river-20160801

https://thangami.co.za/history/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/may/22/rorycarroll.mainsection 

https://www.ducksters.com/history/africa/shaka_zulu.php

https://eshowe.com/traditional-zulu-clothing/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umqhele

https://www.schoolnet.org.za/PILAfrica/en/webs/c008243f/shield.htm#:~:text=Shaka's%20own%20shield%20was%20white,his%20shield%20to%20the%20enemy

https://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_zulu.html 

Grand Lancer Candidate: Shaka Zulu (Full Profile)

*Note that all information in this profile is subject to change at any time.

Class: Lancer

True Name: King Shaka Sigidi kaSenzangakhona

Nickname: Shaka Zulu, Shaka, King Shaka, Sigidi kaSenzangakhona(Birth Name), King of the Zulu, King of Zululand, Founder of Zululand, Nodumehlezi(the one who when seated causes the earth to rumble), King of Conquerors, Horned King, King of Strategy, Grand Lancer Candidate, GLC, Mad King

Characteristics

Species: Servant, Heroic Spirit, Human

Gender: Male

Height: 177.8cm or 5ft 10in

Weight: 66 kg or 146 lbs

Blood Type: Unknown

Place of Origin: KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Birthday: July 1787

Age: 41

Personal Information

Addresses self as: Watashi / Watakushi / Boku / Ore

Likes: Family, Friends, Witty banter, Politicking, Talking, Beetles, Strategizing, Marching, Comedy

Dislikes: Loved ones getting hurt, Loved ones dying, People who don’t listen, People who don’t use their head, People who let their emotions control them, The Berserker Class

Talents: Planning, Fighting, Talking, Making good arguments, Improving Tactics, Improvising, Solving Puzzles, Drawing maps/strategies in the dirt or sand

Natural Enemy: Zwide kaLanga, Gilgamesh(Archer), Shaka Zulu(Berserker), Shaka Zulu(Avenger)

Image Color: Black, White, and Red

Affiliations

Zulu Kingdom/Zululand

Family Members

Nandi(Mother)

Senzangakhona kaJama(Father)

Sigujana kaSezangakhona(Half-Brother)

Dingane(Half-Brother)

Mhlangana(Half-Brother)

Nomcoba kaSenzangakhona(Half-Sister)

Dabulamanzi kaMpande(Half-Nephew)

Various Aunts

Various Uncles

Servant Stats

Type: Heroic Spirit

Source: Historical Fact

Region: South Africa

Alignment: Chaotic Good(Chaotic Neutral when under the effects of Madness Enhancement)

Hidden Attribute: Man

Armaments: Spear and Shield

Known Summoning Catalysts: A piece of his shield, The tip of one of his spears, A vial of some mud mixed with his blood, A small rock with some of his blood on it

Qualified Servant Classes

Lancer

As a Lancer he definitely takes on a more heroic and idealized form. He considered his Lancer and Shielder forms to be the most ideal forms to take and he is greatly displeased with his Berserker and Avenger forms. He is also a Grand Lancer candidate. Interestingly his parameters drop whenever he is attacking and rise whenever he is defending or retreating.

“By the way, I AM a Grand Lancer Candidate so I think it’s fitting that I be referred to as such... Hmmm, you’re right, that is a bit long. Alright, alright, you can just call me “GLC” instead my friend. It’s even shorter than “Lancer” and it’s very helpful to use in the midst of a battle where every second matters.”

Berserker

“Why would you want to summon me in a form that can barely talk my friend!”

As a Berserker, he dual-wields his iconic spear in one hand and a club in the other. Noticeably his famous spear is covered up to the handle in blood. All the stories of the fear and violence he has caused have furthered amped up his Madness Enhancement and exaggerated his Berserker form. Blood constantly drips from tears created in his skin created by muscles too strong and big for his body to contain and one can see veins bulge and pulsate from under his skin. Shaka doesn’t think it’s a good idea to summon him as a Berserker and finds a form in which he is affected so strongly by the Madness Enhancement skill to be shameful. However, this Berserker form seems to calm down if he encounters someone who reminds him of his mother and/or Dingiswayo, or if he is sure that those he cares about are safe and alive. When summoned this form will usually immediately go on a rampage if summoned in modern day due to realizing everyone he cares about has since died. As a Berserker, he is surprisingly capable of speech but can only use it to launch jeering and scathing insults to whoever he is talking to. Even his compliments are backhanded insults. He has a Noble Phantasm that shakes and disrupts the very earth itself. Unlike his Lancer or Shielder counterparts his parameters actually rise when he is attacking and lower when he is on the defensive or retreating.

Avenger 

Shaka is ashamed of his Avenger form and feels like it only highlights the flaws that led to his downfall. As an Avenger he is capable of absorbing both mental and physical pain in order to unleash it as a large-scale attack. He also inflicts a curse Noble Phantasm on anyone who killed him upon his death. When activating one of his Noble Phantasms he will say “If the world wishes to take away my mother then I will show the world pain in equal measure.” Similar to his Berserker form, veins can be seen bulging and pulsating from under his skin. Unlike his Lancer or Shielder counterparts his parameters actually rise when he is attacking and lower when he is on the defensive or retreating.

Shielder

When summoned as a Lancer or Shielder class servant he is at his most heroic and resembles the wise king he was, and potentially could have continued being. They are also what he considers to be his most comfortable forms and he takes great pride in them. One of his Noble Phantasms as a Shielder involves summoning a council of his most trusted aunts, and he has a special skill that increases the speed and agility of all his allies. Similar to his Lancer counterpart his parameters rise when defending or retreating and lower when attacking.

Parameters

Strength: C - B

Endurance: B - A

Agility: C - B

Mana: D - C

Luck: C - B

NP: A++

Interestingly, his parameters fluctuate depending on whether he is defending, dodging, and/or retreating or not. They increase when he is on the defensive or retreating and decrease when he is attacking. He uses this to his advantage by throwing his opponents off via his parameters rapidly rising and falling during a fight. This can make his effectiveness, movements, approach, and strength fluctuate wildly in a battle as he constantly switches from defense to offense. It is possible to lock his parameters in their higher or lower state through the use of a command seal for a short period of time.

His luck is increased by one rank as long as he holds his signature shield.

Class Skills

Magic Resistance: C+

Cancels spells with a chant below two verses. Cannot defend against magecraft on the level of High-Thaumaturgy and Greater Rituals.

The effectiveness of the skill is increased considerably while he is defending. He uses this in tandem with his fluctuating parameters to great effect. It should also be noted that his shield is capable of blocking even A-ranked magical attacks and his Magic Resistance is increased by one rank as long as he is holding it.

Personal Skills

Charisma: B++ 

Having a B Rank in this Skill is sufficient to lead a nation as its King/Queen. The morale of the military forces they command is extremely high. It also allows the user to negate the Emergency Prerogative skill of enemies. 

In Shaka Zulu’s case, as a Lancer or Shielder, it becomes more effective when talking and planning defensive strategies or retreats.

Imperial Privilege: B+

An ability that, due to the insistence of the owner, skills that are essentially impossible to possess can be obtained for a short period of time. In cases when the Rank is А or above, even the "burden to the body" can be acquired(such as Divinity).

As someone who is considered the founder of the Zulu empire and an important figure of royalty, he has been granted Imperial Privilege. He uses the ability in order to gain access to one of any number of skills that include Protection from Arrows, Bullet Proof Treatment, Battle Continuation, Unimpeded Movement, Reduced Earth, Disengage, Valor, and even Madness Enhancement.

GLC does not have absolute control over this skill as there is a chance of his Madness Enhancement automatically being called upon via Imperial Privilege when hit by a mental attack or if his emotions overwhelm him enough. It seems to function like some sort of intentional mental or emotional self-defense

He uses Protection from Arrows and Bullet Proof Treatment to help counter projectile weapons(usually while he’s trying to rush an opponent), Battle Continuation to help survive great wounds or continue fighting/talking for a bit longer, Unimpeded Movement to help cross dangerous, hazardous or unorthodox terrain, Reduced Earth to pursue enemies or move far distances, Disengage allows him to retreat and potentially lure enemies into traps, he often takes advantage of the Valor skill to increase the effectiveness of his melee attacks in order to finish off or overwhelm close-ranged opponents, and Madness Enhancement to boost his Strength, Agility and Endurance parameters by one rank while also making his reflexes and instincts even quicker and more refined. Although, the Madness Enhancement decreases his Luck stat by one rank and he tends to only use it in desperate situations when there are no other options because he doesn’t like how it messes with his head and clouds his thoughts. He goes completely quiet when his Madness Enhancement has been activated. 

Sometimes he will witness something that will cause him to get a “flash of inspiration” and unlock a new skill for his Imperial Privilege arsenal while on the fly. This can only happen if he witnesses a skill before hand and, with Imperial Privilege, he can learn or replicate it.

Unimpeded Movement is a skill that lowers the effectiveness of mobility and movement debuffs on the user. Allowing the user to continue to move as fast as possible across all types of terrain while also making it harder to slow them down.

Proof of Friendship: D+

A skill that suppresses an enemy servant's fighting spirit to a certain extent, where then a dialogue can begin. However, the enemy servant must not possess the Mental Pollution skill. In regard to a Holy Grail War, an advantageous check can be obtained when constructing temporary alliances.

He is someone who prefers diplomacy when possible but is not afraid to use threats or blackmail. This skill gains a boost if his dialogue or actions strike fear into the enemy.

Mana Defense: B--

Is a Skill of the same type as Mana Burst, where the user transforms magical energy into a defensive ability.

 In Shaka’s case, it is extremely mana intensive. This means he needs a lot of magical energy to use it properly. Thus, he usually ends up barely using it unless he has enough energy or absolutely needs to. However, at its strongest, it can allow him to protect an entire army. The skill is much more stable in his Shielder form.

Military Tactics: B++

It’s a skill for tactical knowledge used not for one-on-one combat situations, but for battles where many are mobilized. Bonus modifiers are provided during the use of one's own Anti-Army Noble Phantasm or when dealing with an enemy Anti-Army Noble Phantasm. 

He gained this skill from the many victories he led his troops to. In the case of his Lancer form, the skill receives a significant boost when taking defensive formations or retreating. However, if he was summoned as a Berserker the opposite would be true.

Strategy: A

Is the ability to seize things in the broader perspective, such as diplomacy and logistics in order to decide victory before the fighting even begins. 

Whether inventing new tactics, improving old ones, or engaging in diplomacy and logistics, Shaka's prowess for planning and strategy, for better or worse, cannot be denied. He often uses this skill along with his Proof of Friendship skill when talking in order to try to help persuade targets.

Mind’s Eye(True): B+

Capable of calm analysis of battle conditions even when in danger and deducing an appropriate course of action after considering all possibilities to escape from a predicament. 

Of course, someone with so many combat strategies and tricks up their sleeves has at least a couple of ways to get out of a hairy situation. Its effectiveness increases when he is defending or when he is traversing across the terrain in order to retreat or reach a target.

Shaka has a habit of saying the name of the skill he is actively using out loud when able. He claims it helps strike fear into his enemies while also hyping up both him, his troops, and anybody who may be watching. He does not do this for passive skills or skills that are always active at all times.

“HAHAHA!! I suppose they kind of do sound like cool special moves now don’t they? I mean when you think about it servants always run around yelling the names of their Noble Phantasms too so how is this any different?”

Noble Phantasms

Isihlangu: Brush My Enemies Aside- C+(Anti-Unit), Maximum Number of targets 1-5

King Shaka’s famous shield of choice, and one that was heavily incorporated into his battle strategies and the combat styles of both himself and his armies. In appearance, it is a massive cowhide shield that stands around 1.5 meters(or 5 feet) tall. It was to be held in the left hand and the king would have his warriors use it offensively by hooking the opponent’s shield and pulling it to the side in order to create an opening in the enemy’s defenses during hand-to-hand or close combat engagements. It was also capable of deflecting the spears and arrows of their enemies and, as such, it is a Noble Phantasm that gains a bonus when defending against projectiles and spears. It can also be used to temporarily disarm enemy servants of any weapons that make contact with the shield. Any weapon or equipment that has a lower rank than that of Isihlangu will be sealed for 1 minute if they are disarmed this way. The shield also has a Magic Resistance equivalent to that of A-Rank and it raises Shaka’s luck by one rank as long as he is holding it.

By releasing the Noble Phantasm’s True Name he is capable of exaggerating the concept of hooking an opponent's shield to create a concussive blast that stuns any opponent caught in its range, allowing him to score in a free hit or two. The limitation is that some part of the target has to make physical contact with the shield. Any projectiles or spears that are a lower rank than Isihlangu will be reflected when hit by this and any projectile with a rank higher than Isihlangu will have their rank dropped by one during the duration of the assault along with suffering a decrease in their damage output and effectiveness.

The shield does have a limit to what it can block though. As anything with a high enough rank can pierce through its defenses. Shaka is capable of using the shield in combination with Protection from Arrows or Bulletproof Treatment in order to slow down even legendary projectiles such as Gae Bolg to a point where he can catch them or at least survive one hit from them.

“FWHAHA!!! It’s as people these days say. A good defense is the best offense, ISIHLANGU!!!”

“Let me show you why you shouldn’t go around throwing weapons so carelessly my friend, ISIHLANGU!!!”

“Oi, Looks like you stepped a liiiiitle too close my friend, ISIHLANGU!!!”

“Hiding behind weapons and shields isn’t going to save you, ISIHLANGU!!!”

“Did you really think you could hit me with such an unwieldy weapon? ISIHLANGU!!!”

Ikwa: The Sound of Flowing Bloodshed- C+(Anti-Unit), Maximum Number of targets- 1

King Shaka revolutionized combat by ditching the throwing spears that were commonly used at the time for the Ikwa/Iklwa, a short 3ft iron-tipped spear made for close-quarters combat. He had his soldiers use these weapons and forbade them from throwing them, as there was a high likelihood an enemy could just pick them up and use them against the previous wielder and or their allies if the spears missed or were blocked.

As a Noble Phantasm, it is meant for close quarters combat and by releasing its True Name anyone stabbed by the spear will be inflicted with a curse that causes constant bleeding and a “mana leak” once the spear is pulled out of their body. As the spear is being pulled out it creates an audible sound and a brief but violent spray of blood and magical energy. This is all to say that when the spear is pulled out of an opponent their blood will not clot and both blood and precious magical energy continue to leak out of the wound until the inflicted either die from blood loss for as long as the spear’s True Name is released. This means that the curse will stop once Shaka deactivates the true name or when he dies. Wounds inflicted by the Noble Phantasm can be healed by magecraft or magic but even if the wound is instantly healed the victim suffers from losing a large amount of blood and magical energy.

While the True Name is released the spear emits a blood-red mist that smells metallic, and releasing the True Name while the spear is impaled within a living thing or is being pulled out of it will still inflict the target with its full effects. This allows Shaka to throw opponents off during combat by activating the Noble Phantasm later than expected. If the target has no blood only mana will leak from their wound.

“Oi, Looks like you stepped a liiiiitle too close my friend, IKWA!!!”

“Don’t worry my friend, this will only tear you to shreds, IKWA!!!”

“You shouldn’t have turned your back towards me, IKWA!!!”

Izimpondo Zenyathi: An Army That’s as Deadly as a Buffalo’s Horns- A++(Anti-Army), Maximum Number of Targets- 1000

In the same way that Iskandar’s Ionioi Hetairoi can be described as the actualization of Iskandar's commanding abilities and his kingship, this Noble Phantasm can be described as an actualization of Shaka’s battle prowess and revolutionary war tactics into a Reality Marble. The Noble Phantasm recreates Shaka’s famous “Buffalo Horns” formation. A strategy that split soldiers into three categories. The “horns”(made up of younger troops meant to encircle and pin enemies), the “chest”(made up of the best and strongest fighters to act as the main force), and the “loins”(acting reserves/backup that were made up of older and more experienced fighters). The loins would sometimes have their backs facing the battle until it was their turn for combat in order to ensure that they wouldn’t get too nervous and charge into battle too early or run away.

The activation of the Noble Phantasm is a bit literal. Shaka takes a spear or club and when he declares the true name of this Noble Phantasm two massive horns erupt from either side of the weapon’s head while the tip elongates into a sharp point. Once all three of these points hit something the Reality Marble will activate. Ideally, these “horns” and spearhead strike an enemy in order to deal extra damage or catch a target off guard, but it can be used on things like objects or the environment in order to activate the Noble Phantasm without having to get too up close and personal with the opponent. The Noble Phantasm is based around Shaka Zulu’s own deeds and exploits so it isn’t tied to a specific spear or club. What matters is that Shaka Zulu is the one wielding said weapon.

The space within the Reality Marble is that of a large sprawling and completely flat plains/savannah with the sole exception of a tall plateau Shaka is positioned on so that he may give orders to his troops and oversee the battle, but he is capable of leaving the plateau at any time in order to join the battle if necessary. In the Reality Marble, his voice echoes all throughout it and his Charisma skill is increased by one rank. All troops have troops have an E-ranked independent action while in the Reality marble

The troops within the Reality Marble have different qualities depending on what part of the formation they are a part of. The horns(which are summoned on either side of the opponent) are made up of the youngest troops and they have an E Rank in all their stats with the exception of their speed stat, which is D Rank. Some soldiers in the horns wield Iklwa spears while others wield weapons such as clubs. They all wield shields that are black in color. 

The troops that make up the chest tend to be the strongest and/or most talented warriors. They have E Rank parameters across the board but make up for this by having access to an E-Ranked version of Shaka’s Iklwa and Isihlangu Noble Phantasms.

The final group of soldiers is the one that makes up the loins of this formation. They are reserve veteran soldiers. Within his Noble Phantasm, they start with their backs facing the enemy and they all have a low ranking Madness Enhancement that makes them more aggressive and gives them a D-rank in their Strength, Endurance, and Agility. While within the Reality Marble all his troops gain a low ranking Independent Action.

The Reality Marble has some interesting attributes. First of all, anybody within it can simply walk out of it if they manage to reach the marble’s borders, but doing so will cause all their parameters to temporarily drop by one rank. The marble is also in a constant state of shrinking, and the border is guarded by soldiers in a defensive formation who move with the ever-encroaching border and attack any enemy that gets too close to them. If one found themselves caught at the point in which the Reality Marble completely shrinks into a single point they will become impaled and beaten with a countless number of spears, shields, and clubs and will have all their parameters drop by one rank. Their parameters will remain lowered until Shaka dies.

Both the shrinking aspect of the Noble Phantasm and the ability to simply walk out of it is a representation of the documentation and legends of the many people who went through great lengths to flee from and avoid his encroaching armies and conquests.

He can summon his soldiers outside the Reality Marble but he cannot summon more than four at a time(one from each section of his formation), and they lack Independent Action so they have a high amount of mana consumption. This usually limits him to only one or two at a time. He is capable of summoning them very quickly and utilizing them for sudden maneuvers, defenses, and attacks. They can only be summoned within arms reach of him however outside of the Reality Marble. Similar to Iskandar’s Ionioi Hetairoi, all the spirits from Izimpondo Zenyathi are masterless servants.

If Shaka ever found himself in South Africa during a Holy Grail War his Izimpondo Zenyathi would be elevated to EX-rank and it could easily go toe to toe with Iskandar’s Ionioi Hetairoi.

Despite the rank of this Noble Phantasm, it is completely outclassed by Noble Phantasms such as Excalibur, Sword of Promised Victory.

“YOU MESS WITH SHAKA ZULU YOU GET THE HORNS, IZIMPONDO ZENYATHI!!!”

“FWAHAHAHA, MY ARMY WILL PIERCE YOU WITH THE FORCE OF 100 HORNS, IZIMPONDO ZENYATHI!!!”

“FWAHAHAHA, RUN IF YOU CAN, IZIMPONDO ZENYATHI!!!”

“FWAHAHAHA, RUN ALL YOU WANT, BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE FOREVER, IZIMPONDO ZENYATHI!!!”

“LET ME SHOW YOU THE STRATEGY OF A GENIUS, IZIMPONDO ZENYATHI!!!”

“LET’S SEE YOU TRY TO ESCAPE THIS, IZIMPONDO ZENYATHI!!!”

“IT’S TOO LATE FOR YOU TO RUN NOW, IZIMPONDO ZENYATHI!!!”

“THIS IS GOING TO BE MORE DESTRUCTIVE THAN ANY HORNED BEAST YOU’VE EVER SEEN, IZIMPONDO ZENYATHI, FWAHAHAHAHA!!!”

Misc

He wears the clothes of a Zulu warrior and has very tough feet. His kicks can be very devastating because of their toughness and the infamous stories in regard to his training.

He almost always walks around barefoot. On the rare occasions in which he does wear shoes his agility parameter drops by 2 ranks.

He incorporates a lot of talking and diplomacy into his fighting style and will constantly try to distract or tide the opponent over with conversations and insults while fighting.

He can recognize virtually any kind of beetle species based on sight alone, whether they be normal animals or magical creatures. He is also very knowledgeable about beetle anatomy.

Background

Shaka was the illegitimate son of Zulu chief Senzangakhona, someone that ruled over a very small chiefdom. Due to bearing a child from a forbidden relationship, Shaka’s mother(Nandi) lied for as long as possible in order to avoid being caught having a child outside of a proper relationship. She claimed that her supposedly pregnant appearance was actually an intestinal condition caused by an Ishaka beetle. Senzangakhona attempted to deny any connection to the illegitimate pregnancy and his involvement with Nandi but he eventually pitied them enough to make Nandi his third wife. Shaka was born in the lunar month of uNtulikazi(sometime in July) in the year 1787 near the present-day Melmoth, KwaZulu-Natal Province, and at the time the Zulu kingdom was still but a small chiefdom. The marriage between chief Senzangakhona and Nandi would not last, forcing her and her son to seek sanctuary in other places. Thus, Shaka spent a lot of his childhood in his mother’s settlements. Proud of his heritage he would tell other kids about his relation to a famous chief by the name of Senzangakhona. However, very few of the other kids believed him and he was often bullied because of these seemingly outlandish claims.

Eventually, Shaka and Nandi would be taken in by one of Nandi’s aunts and would live with the Mthethwa people. He grew up in proximity to a man named Dingiswayo who welcomed with open arms and treated him with great kindness. As he continued to grow it became clear that he had the makings to become a powerful, skilled, and courageous warrior. These attributes inevitably caught Dingiswayo’s eye while Shaka fought within an impi(a type of army) under the command of Dingiswayo. Dingiswayo was greatly impressed by Shaka’s prowess and elevated Shaka’s rank at an early age, making Shaka a commander of his own regiment at some point. These great feats and skills in combat would lead to the creation of one of Shaka’s more famous nicknames, Nodumehlezi(the one who when seated causes the earth to rumble). While within the Mthethwa army, Shaka became increasingly enamored with strategy, battle tactics, and problem-solving. Dingiswayo continued to teach Shaka and help him grow, allowing him to gain even more accomplishments in battle. While under the command of Dingiswayo he found that taking off his sandals and fighting barefoot helped him maneuver better when in battle. He decided to walk around barefoot in order to toughen his feet, something that he would later make his own soldiers do.

Shaka’s father, Senzangakhona, died in 1816, and Sigujana(Shaka’s half-brother) took the throne as the legitimate heir to the Zulu chiefdom. Shortly after this Dingiswayo grew anxious and, in a move to make sure he kept his political authority secure, lent Shaka a regiment so that he would be able to defeat Sigujana and ascend to the throne. This led to a relatively bloodless coup that led to Shaka becoming chief of the Zulu clan. Although, even with his new title and power he remained a vassal of the Mthethwa empire out of loyalty to the dear friend and mentor that was Dingiswayo. As Shaka’s political power continued to grow he was able to spread his thoughts and ideals with ease while continuing to expand his territory through a combined method of attacking quickly and overwhelming foes with military might and utilizing a surprising amount of diplomacy, patronage, and politics. He found a way to get chieftains, such as Zihlandlo of the Mkhize, Jobe of the Sithole, Mathubane of the Thuli, and others, to join him without having to conquer them in battle. He also revolutionized combat by having his soldiers use the Iklwa and focusing more on close-quarters combat along with the creation of his famous “Buffalo horns” formation.

Disaster eventually struck when, a year later, Dingiswayo was caught off guard by an attack led by Zwide kaLanga, the powerful chief of the Ndwandwe nation, and was subsequently defeated and beheaded. Enemies, and later white settlers, attempted to tarnish Shaka’s public image by spreading rumors and propaganda that he had purposefully let Dingiswayo die by withholding reinforcements or even outright betraying him. However, Shaka was filled with an indescribable rage at the death of what he considered to be not just an amazing teacher but also like family. He vowed to get revenge on Zwide through almost any means necessary. 

Dingiswayo’s defeat caused the Mthethwa forces to become scattered and led to the creation of a power vacuum due to the empire that he once led collapsing. A vacuum that Shaka readily filled before using the power he gained from it to reform and gather the remnants of the Mthethwa along with other regional tribes he conquered or allied with in order to create a force to defeat Zwide. During their first clash Zwide barely managed to escape and Shaka came across Zwide’s mother, Ntombazi, who was also a sangoma(a type of healer). As he attempted to use her to find about Zwide’s whereabouts or as bait to get Zwide to return and fight him he came across a strange number of skulls collected by Ntombazi and, upon recognizing one of the skulls as that of Dingiswayo’s, Shaka flew into a rage and decided to get some amount of vindication on Zwide by trapping Ntombazi in her own house and placing wild animals inside it to devour her. After her death, he burned the house down along with her collection of skulls. 

Zwide eventually knew that he would have to defeat his biggest rival and threat if he wished to have any chance at both surviving the conflict and allowing his kingdom to flourish successfully so he launched an attack on the Zulu Empire. Shaka would eventually defeat Zwide’s forces by having his own troops feign a retreat in order to lead Zwide’s army into a trap deep within Zulu territory before striking and defeating his forces at the cost of sustaining heavy casualties. One such death was that of the current head military commander at the time Umgobhozi Ovela Entabeni. Zwide managed to barely escape once again and ran from the encroaching Zulu. In another attempt to draw Zwide back to fight him, Shaka tried to wipe out as much of what Zwide cared about as possible. Threatening to destroy everything Zwide cared about. His anger would eventually subside somewhat with time and he would begin to feel that he had achieved justice for his dear friend Dingiswayo. Although, he felt that Zwide being forced to spend the rest of his life running from Shaka was a fitting enough punishment. Eventually, Zwide would die from mysterious circumstances sometime in 1825. Part of the main Ndwandwe forces fled and he eventually encountered these forces and managed to get the majority of them to yield and join him. He continued to train the soldiers he recruited in his methods of combat.

His reign lasted ten more years after he had defeated the Ndwandwe. During which he continued to expand his territory. He offered chiefdoms he encountered the choice of submitting and allying with him or potentially being conquered by force if they were not forced to flee from an assault by Shaka. He left local administrations in the hands of the reigning chiefs or members of the traditional ruling family that he had appointed. He would also allow soldiers who no longer served in the army to return to their original community, so the identity of each individual community was not completely lost due to conformity within Shaka’s empire. Each settlement of his contained a section of royal women that were usually headed by the most formidable of women. These women would typically be one of Shaka’s many aunts. This, along with him not wanting to produce a legitimate heir, led to his households being dominated by stern older women of the royal family. Whenever he was absent both a female ruler of the settlement and an induna(an advisor, commander, and/or mediator) would wield administrative authority together.

Despite some of his more militaristic methods, Shaka ultimately preferred diplomacy over fighting and would try to talk things out whenever possible. He would almost always give opposing tribes a chance to join him without any conflict but if they refused he would often conquer and/or destroy them with unyielding force.

In 1824 the first white traders arrived at Port Natal, and at this point Shaka was in control of a wide-spanning monarchy. Upon meeting them he sent a goodwill delegation, engaged in diplomacy, and was extremely curious about the technology, and machinery of these visitors. He would go out of his way to view and analyze the various demonstrations of European technology and knowledge. One of these many demonstrations included the showing off of a weapon called the gun. However, after analyzing it, disassembling it, and reassembling it he came to the conclusion that the technology was not yet refined enough and it took too long to fire and reload in the combat of that age. He stated that his forces could beat opponents wielding those rudimentary guns by using the proper tactics and rushing them fast enough with a large enough number of men. It is important to remember that Shaka had a point as these were really early guns and not modern guns that could be fired much more quickly and more accurately. He continued to be interested in the culture of the visitors and the possible benefits he could gain via trade and diplomacy with them and Europe. Shaka would eventually give them land and permitted them to build a settlement at Port Natal, but he remained vigilant and wary of their ulterior motives. He wanted to be closer and more accessible to his potential allies or foes at Port Natal while also keeping a close eye on them so he decided to build a military barrack at Dukuza. He did not want to fight them unless he absolutely had to so he treated them very nicely and did what he could to prevent any conflicts from being encouraged between the visitors and his people.

Sometime in October 1827 his mother, Nandi, died. This filled him with emotion and the fact that it reminded him of his feeling of helplessness when Dingiswayo was killed only exacerbated these emotions and clouded his judgment, causing his behavior to become erratic and increasingly violent. He started forcing his entire kingdom to mourn his mother’s death and if he caught anyone showing insufficient grief he would put them to death. He also went as far as to have the mothers of calves killed so that both the calves and the people who witnessed it could know the pain he felt. In a bought of madness, he even went as far as to order that no crops be planted, no milk be used, any woman that became pregnant during this time would be executed alongside her husband and he pushed his military far beyond what was normal in increasingly violent military campaigns. Some rumors say that this was another one of his cunning plans in order to kill political opponents or to get back at those who bullied him in his childhood. However, it was still clear that he was lashing out even at people who didn’t harm him and that he was not in his right mind. A Zulu man by the name of Gala eventually had enough of this madness and during a meeting stood up and objected to Shaka’s outlandish measures. Saying “Nandi was not the first person to die in Zululand!!!” as he berated him. Shaka was at a loss for words but after having some time to think and being reminded of both his younger self and purpose by Gala’s outburst he called off his self-destructive orders and rewarded Gala with cattle.

However, he acted too slowly and his mistakes were beyond the point of being overlooked or forgiven by most of the people within his kingdom. He had no way of bringing back the people he had killed or making it up to the people he had hurt. In 1828, while Shaka’s forces were absent and he lacked guards around the area he was assassinated by his half-brothers Dingane and Mhlangana. They had received support from some other chiefdoms who had all become dissatisfied and horrified by Shaka’s previous actions and, while an iNduna by the name of Mbopa created a distraction, they attacked him. As the king bled out he gave Dingane two warnings. The first thing Shaka said was “Brother are you stabbing me, kings of the earth thinking you will rule? The swallows will do that!!!” as a warning to Dingane and his people about the European colonizers and their malicious intentions and his final words were  “You will come to an end through killing one another.” A warning that would ring true when Dingane took the throne and attempted to remove those who were loyal to Shaka before getting involved in a civil war and getting overthrown after 12 years of ruling by his other half-brother. After the assassination, Mbopa, Dingane, and Mhlangana quickly buried Shaka’s body in an empty grain pit and covered it with rocks and mud.

Whether lionized or demonized, whether loved or feared, it is undeniable that he changed the course of history and his combat prowess and strategy were top-tier as well as his immense foresight and long term planning abilities. The ambiguity and contradicting details of his story as someone who ends up embodying aspects of hope and genius as well as violence and fear add to his level of mystery. The stories of him being a great and noble hero and a brutal tyrant mix together to create a servant that, as a Lance or Shielder, is the ideal ally and worst enemy on the battlefield. However, as a Berserker or Avenger he is a danger to almost everyone around him and is prone to self-destructive behaviors.

Appearance

He is a noticeably muscular, man who stands at a height of 175cm or 5ft 10in. He has dark skin and a square chiseled jawline. He has a pointy nose and his hair looks like a spiky afro with parts of it being red in coloration along with red pointed sideburns. He has sharp teeth, which he apparently sharpened himself. His feet are covered with scars and he has a scar on his back and chest, both of which correspond to the location of his heart and where he was stabbed during his assassination by Dingane and Mhlangana.

Personality

Surprisingly, despite some of his reputation Shaka is a servant that prizes talking and diplomacy more than combat. It is not uncommon for him to attempt to try to persuade or antagonize the opponent while utilizing defensive battle tactics along with counter-attacks and disarming techniques. He is also not above using jabs, insults, or more underhanded tactics to win a fight. He is also not afraid of running away from a battle, using aspects of the environment to his advantage, or feigning retreat. This gives his fighting style a really odd and hard to predict feel. It is usually quite difficult to tell if he is actually losing, winning, or bluffing in any given fight.

Part of the reason he tries so hard to avoid fighting if possible is because anyone could be a potential ally in the future. Plus, once he starts fighting within a certain range of his full strength he often gets caught up in the battle, excitement, and adrenaline to the point where it is hard for him to stop until the fight is over.

He hates seeing his loved ones in pain and if they are killed by someone he flies into a rage and will enact merciless vengeance on the assailant. It’s one of the few times where he won’t even attempt to talk to his opponent first, he will simply strike silently and swiftly while utilizing the Madness Enhancement skill. He considers this aspect of his personality to be somewhat embarrassing and does his best to keep his emotions in check and prevent himself from ever regressing into a previous and more violent state. He cherishes every moment with his friends and family and tries not to leave their side if he can help it. “You should appreciate your loved one with all your heart because you never know when the world will choose to snatch them away from you my friend. I have very few friends and a lot of enemies too…”

At times he can give the illusion of an extremely weak clairvoyance due to his prediction and strategy skills. However, at the end of the day he is still a man, or I suppose a spirit, now and he cannot account for every possibility and is capable of making mistakes or miscalculations. Not to mention that he cannot make accurate guesses if he lacks information.

He tends to be very blunt with his predictions which can unintentionally make him come off as menacing or rude.

He feels immense regret over the killing of innocent civilians in a kingdom that was supposed to protect them. His own kingdom and by his own hands at that. In order to try to atone for it, he promised himself that as long as he’s a servant he refuses to kill humans and tries to save as many humans as possible. He is currently aiming for 7,000, and he likes to keep a mental note of every person he saves. Although, saving the same person over and over, even in different situations, does not count. It should be noted that this does not apply to nonhuman entities and things that are already dead, like vampires, zombies and spirits. This means he is fine with killing other servants as they are already dead and are spirits that are no longer humans.

Interactions

Leonidas- They have an obvious and immediate similarity due to the fact that they are both Lancers with notable shields. Some have also compared Shaka’s shield-based tactics to that of the famous Roman phalanx formation. They get along great and can often be seen discussing military tactics and training together.

“I wonder if we are distant relatives or something my friend. BWAHAHA!!!”

“OI!!! Wanna see who’s shield is stronger.”

“I wonder who’s spear has felled more opponents…”

“BWAHAHAHA, my friend, I bet if we put our heads together we can come up with a defensive formation no one could penetrate.”

“ALL THIS EXERCISE AND TRAINING IS HYPING ME UP, WE’LL DO 100 NO 2000 PUSH-UPS!!!”

Napoleon- “It’s not every day you get to talk with a fellow tactical genius.. Well I guess when you’re at Chaldea it is every day. BWAHAHAHA!!! Although… that cannon seems unwieldy my friend…”

Gaius Julius Caesar- He greatly respects Caesar.

“W-what words WHAT ELOQUENCE MY FRIEND!!! Your speeches, your words, nay every letter you speak is done so tactfully. Have I found my equal on the battlefield of words and wit? Julius Caesar does not disappoint!!!! I must take notes.”

“Hey, do you think you could give me some pointers on this speech I’ve been working on? I’m trying to make sure it sounds less… brutal?”

Shakespear- “Bwahaha, my friend, you’re truly someone who knows how to wield words… Just… do me a favor and don’t make me another tragedy for one of those stories of you ok? I’ve already created enough of those.

“That First Folio of yours is quite scary…”

Da Vinci- He considers himself just as much of a genius as Da Vinci so he has begun learning how to paint in order to prove his point. Although, Da Vinci has been studying his battle tactics, formations, and how to use a spear and shield in order to prove that her genius is unparalleled.

Kama- “Yeah sorry, I’ve never really been interested in bearing an heir or any of that. . .”

Oda Nobunaga(Archer)- He sees her as his equal in terms of tactics, innovation, and strategy.

“I’ve never seen someone wield that many guns so masterfully. It almost makes me scared of them… almost.”

Ryoma Sakamoto(Rider)- “I can see you are someone who cherishes their loved ones with all your heart...”

Okada Izou- “I may not wield swords but even I can tell you’re an unparalleled genius, my friend. Hey, this isn’t going to your head is it? And what do you mean you’re not my friend?”

Emiya, Gilgamesh(Archer), and Kid Gil- “HONESTLY, I can’t understand why you guys are so nonchalant about throwing your weapons around like that. Aren’t you ever worried that they will fall into enemy hands or something?”

Emiya-” Hrmmmmmmm, that Rho Aias reminds me a bit of my own shield. You see some of the similarities too right my friend?”

Gilgamesh(Caster)- He enjoys being around him as he feels he helps push him to becoming closer to an ideal king.

“If there is hope for him to be the wise king everyone needed then maybe there’s still hope for me… “

Jack the Ripper(Assassin) and Abigail Williams- “Ah, even kids can be quite cruel I suppose…”

Lancelot(Berserker)- “And THIS is why you should be careful about throwing your weapons around my friends!!!”

Elizabeth Bathory(Lancer)- “Make sure you keep a clear mind and don’t let your emotions and desires get out of control… or else you might end up like that vampire lady.”

Carmilla(Assassin)- He feels uncomfortable around her because in a way she reminds him of all his shortcomings and the madness that overcame him.

“Man, and I thought I was bad…”

Hector(Lancer)- “Our fighting styles are quite similar at a glance aren’t they?”

“Talking to you feels like I’m speaking to a treasured friend and fellow warrior.”

“I appreciate that there’s someone here who knows when to fight and when to run. A dead hero isn’t helpful for anyone.”

“Your fighting style is a lot like mine… have you ever considered using big shields into your fighting style more often.”

Chiron- “Great teachers like you always remind me of Dingiswayo…”

Jason- “It’s great that you understand your strengths and weaknesses and avoid combat but you shouldn’t throw your men under the bus like that my friend.”

“Your eye for recognizing and bringing out the true potential of heroes reminds me a bit of Dingiswayo my friend. Although, he wasn’t quite so scared to say the least...”

Hans Christian Anderson- “Heh, I appreciate your brutal honesty my little friend. Actually, you remind me a lot of Gala. Hmmmmmmm, YES!!! Someone like you can guide me to becoming a truly wise king. You wouldn’t happen to be free to be my new royal advisor perchance would you? Don’t worry too much, it’s only until I can get Gala back.”

Lanling Wang and Diarmuid Ua Duibhne- “Jeez… I never thought I would live to see anyone who’s beauty could rival that of Magaye’s…”

Queztoquaotle, Yasuke, and Damarchus- “I know some wrestling techniques myself y’know. If you ever want to train or get some pointers feel free to contact me my friend.”

Gilgamesh(Archer)- “I just can’t stand a king who throws away all their subjects like that… Yes, yes I know how hypocritical it is for me of all people to say that but trust me when I say it never ends well. A king can never stand on their own no matter how powerful they think they are.”

Christopher Columbus- “Ah, you’re another one of those swallows I see.”

Iskandar and Genghis Khan- Well, well, well. It’s nice to finally meet a fellow King of Conquerors around here. BWAHAHAHA!!! Hm? No, I’m not eligible for the Rider Class… HEY!!! BEING A RIDER HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT TITLE!!!”

Hang Tuah- “BWAHAHA, As a fellow professional talker myself I can tell you also have a good grasp of understanding what people want to hear. We should have a chat sometime.”

“I suppose your smooth-talking only shows how good you are with your speech… well most of the time anyway.”

“I know this is a lot to ask of you but if I ever start slipping… y’know becoming “tyrannical” and all that… well… you know what to do...”

Hang Jebat- “Hm? You wanna see my horns… I see… I think there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding my friend…”

Connla- “If you have no spear of your own I can always craft you one. A good Iklwa does wonders for combat. Oh? You just copied mine… You’re just full of surprises aren’t you...”

Gilgamesh(Archer), Emiya(Archer), and Connla- “Pray I don’t ever catch you throwing around an Ikwa like that..”

Julie d’Aubigny- “FINALLY, a fellow servant who understands that words can be as sharp as any blade. Although, you are a better singer than I could ever be my friend BWAHAHA.”

Ever since they met they are constantly trying to see who is the best talker by bluffing and slinging insults whenever they meet. It has become a sort of game in which they attempt to see who is the first to falter, crack, or be at a loss for words. Julie’s charisma and aptitude as a star will occasionally attract the audiences of many Chaldea staff and servants to their banter-based duels. Currently, they are tied.

Laplace’s Demon and Maxwell's Demon- “No, no, no. Don’t give me any hints about your paradox. I want to try to exercise my mind by solving it myself.”

Nameless Soldier(Assassin)- “I’m pretty good at bringing out the full potential of soldiers and armies my friend. If you stick with me I guarantee we will keep losing to a minimum.”

“Even a genius like me is nothing on their own. Even the strongest, fastest, and smartest need a good army, and you’re like an army all rolled up into one neat package. Don’t worry I’ll be sure to give you plenty of breaks.”

“So like, do you y’know… remember me? You’re made up of a bunch of nameless soldiers from all throughout history. Which would statistically include at least one person who was under my command… I just wanted to say I’m sorry if that’s the case. I won’t fail you this time my friend”

“Make sure you’re getting proper rest. Rest is just as important as working. It helps keep your mind clear, sharp, and efficient my friend.”

“Man guns are a lot more compact, efficient, and quick these days… Maybe they’ve reached a point where I can incorporate them into my battle tactics.”

Dingane and Mhlangana(Assassin)- “While I agree that I had that coming, I hope you can understand why I’m uncomfortable being within arms reach of you guys.”

“Why are you looking at me like that? I’m not going to make the same mistake as last time I swear it on my life…”

*Hang Tuah, Connla, Damarchus, Julie d’Aubigny and Nameless Soldier are all fanservants created by MochiBoni and Omegazplayer respectively. Yasuke is a fanservant created by me and Dingane and Mhlangana haven’t been designed yet. Here are the profiles or art for each respective servant

Hang Tuah- https://docs.google.com/document/d/12mjNkmjnhIIeLgGRvSlVVLhRQqWd4cbEDygfQHSLPCg/edit

Connla- https://twitter.com/mochio_bonio/status/1425858835730685957?s=20, https://twitter.com/mochio_bonio/status/1419297258512601089?s=21 

Julie d’Aubigny-https://twitter.com/Omegazplayer/status/1416650069206573057?s=20

Damarchus- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jArzQOnAWnvSv8MRelYSl1x5DZj-gUndaBmPtO74icw/edit

Nameless Soldier- https://twitter.com/Omegazplayer/status/1416632770059714560?s=20 

Yasuke- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M7V-XS0S_hePGtpLHY3abI-rU8_ek889uqcYnq0cvb0/edit 

Dialogue examples

“Lancer is fine but I would prefer it if you called me Grand Lancer Candidate, or GLC for short.”

“Don’t worry my friend. Our enemies lost the moment I arrived.”

“The next thing you will say is…”

“BOOM SHAKA LAKA!!!! BWAHAHAHA, I’ve always wanted a chance to say that!”

“HA!!! You lost this fight the moment you opened your mouth!”

“Even for a genius like me, that’s a bit difficult…”

“This will not be a battle of muscle but a battle of words.”

“Hm? I talk a lot for a conqueror you say? (tsk) My friend, fighting should not be taken lightly. In the field of combat people can’t afford to hesitate to kill and there’s always a chance you or people you need and care about will die. When I was younger I reveled in fighting and combat and as a genius I eventually realized that whoever was left standing is the one who got the final say in the end and that means that when you fully commit to fighting you cannot hold back. Plus, an endless trail of fighting and combat isn’t exactly the smartest thing to do now is it? You also never know when you may make a powerful ally too, so it’s important you don’t go burning down bridges unless you have to.”

“I consider politics as important as any fight. When you talk you can fight for what you believe in and what you think is right. Just like any other brawl or war.”

“Dingiswayo? He was like a father to me of course… He never failed me or let me down but in the end I couldn’t save him… If only I had acted quicker… If only that damn Zwide could have just… Sorry, I got off track there… ”

“Well, obviously family isn’t just determined by biology. I mean my biological father wanted nothing to do with me… If you only define family using DNA then you are only stunting yourself in the long run my friend. There aren’t many people in this world willing to look out for you so treasure them!”

“Eh!? Are my diplomacy skills really that surprising? Some of those stories about my fighting and conquering were just a liiiiiiiittle bit exaggerated my friend. Besides, I engaged in diplomacy just as much as I fought, which is to say a lot.”

“See here’s the things. This may be a Holy Grail War but I don’t see why we can’t all work together to get something we both want my friend. So how about this…”

“I’m clearly leagues above you in power and I could kill you right now buuuuut if you’re willing to ally yourself with me and my master I’ll let you live. That’s a pretty good deal right?!”

“Who knows, maybe we’ll even make a new friend or two during all of this.”

“Oi!!! If you touch even a hair on my friend’s head… I’ll kill you!! …BWAHA!!! Sorry about that sometimes I get a little caught up in my emotions when it comes to my friends and family. But seriously, don’t try anything.”

“There are more ways to help someone than just fighting.”

“My friend, my spear isn’t my strongest Noble Phantasm nor is it my shield. So let me ask you this. Do you know why Izimpondo Zenyathi in particular is my strongest Noble Phantasm? It’s because even a prodigy like me can’t do everything alone. Soldiers, friends, family… people like my mom, Dingiswayo, Umgobhozi, Mzilikazi,  and everyone else. I couldn’t have done it without them. No matter how powerful you are you are nothing without allies.”

“We talk first and fight later ok?”

“Oi, less fighting, more talking!!!”

“I’ll have you know I’m eligible for TWO, that’s right TWO, grand classes my friend. Lancer and… I would prefer not to talk about that second one too much. (Sigh)Man, why couldn’t Grand Shielder be a thing?”

“Okay, I’m feeling nice so I’ll give you ten… no… thirty minutes to run as far as you can my friend.”

“KwaBulawayo? I’ll be honest I was just trying to sound intimidating… maybe it worked a bit too well… Dukuza had a much better balance between intimidation and cool factor.”

“Take it from me, you should consider your actions carefully and try to keep the collateral damage down to a minimum… Just promise me you’ll think with your head and not your heart ok my friend.”

“People I admire? There are too many to count!!! Well, I guess my top two would be Dingiswayo and my mother. Dingiswayo was like a father to me and one of the greatest teachers one could ask for. My mother was as strong as any warrior in spirit and never gave up on me and herself.”

“My plan? I never said I had any sort of plan. What’s with that face? It worked didn’t it? Sometimes one has to think on their feet my friend. Even I cannot predict everything that’s going to happen.”

“I figured valentines day was a great time to show the love I have for all my allies, so I;m handing out these chocolates as a sign of good will to all of my allies and friends. Shaped like the mightiest of beetles of course.”

“Don’t worry my friends, GLC HAS ARRIVED!!!”

“You didn’t think that would be enough to kill me, my friend? BATTLE CONTINUATION!!!”

“MANA DEFENSE!!!”

“MIND’S EYE!!!”

“RUN AWAAAAAAAAAY!!!”

“RETREEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!”

“BWAHAHA!!! You would really doubt the power of a servant who is eligible for not just one but TWO grand classes my friend.”

“I’M NOT A BERSERKER, I’M A LANCER, L-A-N-C-E-R NOT A BERSERKER, AND A GRAND LANCER CANDIDATE AT THAT MY FRIEND!!! DO YOU THINK I COULD BE HAVING THIS VERY CONVERSATION IF I WAS A BERSERKER!!!”

“BWAHAHA!!! Don’t worry, the irony of the situation is not lost on me my friend.”

“Sharp spear and an even sharper tongue.”

“Oh c’mon, you don’t think I was really THAT ugly do you? Magaye was just so beautiful that he made everyone who stood next to him look ugly in comparison. So I wouldn’t consider him a good metric for looks. Do you understand what I mean my friend?”

“I’m sorry.. I just can’t forgive you for what you did.”

“I’LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID 3 NO 100 FOLD!!!!”

“If I had known what those shady Nathaniel Isaacs and Henry Fynn were going to do to my image for the sake of that slave trade I would have killed them on the spot…”

Deathlines

“N-no, my kingdom”

“My kingdom…”

“Mom?”

“I guess even I can’t talk my way out of this one…”

“One last word of advice my friend…”

“Is that Dingane…?”

“Is that Mhlangana…?”

“Mbopa…”

“I knew I should have retreated…”

“Was I a good king this time…?”

“Heh, don’t worry… I had this coming.”

“I should've saved more people…”

Wish for the Grail

“I wish that I could have been the ideal and wise king so many people think I am. Someone who could’ve put their emotions aside…  and I wish I could protect all those I hold dear to my heart. So they never have to suffer or die… I suppose that’s two wishes though. I wonder if I can wish for just two extra wishes?

Fun Facts

If he was playable in FGO he would be a 5-star servant.

His least favorite class is the Berserker Class because they usually can’t be reasoned with and are hard to talk to.

On another note, he finds being compared to a Berserker in terms of fighting style or mentality quite insulting. Which is yet another reason he tries to avoid intentionally utilizing Madness Enhancement via his Imperial Privilege skill unless it is absolutely necessary. He is also afraid of becoming like that of his Berserker form.

His Magic the Gathering Alignment would be White-Blue-Black-Red with White, Blue, and Black as his center colors and Red as his secondary color.

If he was in the Epithet Erased universe his Epithet would be Horn and one of his moves would involve summoning horned beetles or beetle horns.

If he was in the Hunter x Hunter universe his Nen type would be Transmutation and his Hatsu would revolve around beetles and beetle shells in some way.

His overall servant rank is around A-. Although it would be A+ if he found himself in South Africa.

He dresses like some sort of beetle every Halloween.

He takes Mother’s Day very seriously.

Shaka Zulu’s Alter form would have a beetle motif, with parts of his body having a strong and sturdy exoskeleton. He would also have multiple limbs and a pair of wings.

Zwide kaLanga is also eligible for the Lancer and Berserker Classes.

Both Shaka and Zwide’s Berserker forms have a Noble Phantasm based on the Mfecane.

Zwide was unaware that his mother was collecting skulls.

Dingiswayo is eligible for the Archer, Lancer, Caster, Rider, and Berserker classes. While he is a capable fighter his true power lies in drawing out the maximum potential of others. Under perfect scenarios, he can permanently increase the ranks of a servant’s parameters, skills, and/or Noble Phantasms and allow an ordinary human to fight on the level of a low-ranking servant.

Magaye is eligible for the Lancer, Shielder, and Berserker class. His Noble Phantasm is quite similar to that of Lanling Wang’s or Diarmuid Ua Duibhne love spot. He also wears a bag over his head most of the time for a reason similar to why Lanling Wang wears a mask. Apparently, the average person looks ugly in comparison to him.

Gala is eligible for the Foreigner class and fighting isn’t his specialty. As a servant he is capable of combating and dispelling madness itself and is resistant to most mental attacks. He is considered by many to be a “chain” that binds people to reality. He is apparently very blunt, to the point that he can come off as rude, and stresses being firmly rooted in reality over getting caught up in imagination and wishful thinking. He basically never directly lies or leaves out information.

Shaka’s favorite Pokemon are Heracross and Pinsir, with Falinks being a close second.

If he had a Pokemon type he would be a Fighting type.

The true name of his lily form would be Sigidi kaSenzangakhona, and such a form would be eligible for the Lancer, Shielder, and Berserker classes.

Visual References

[reanimatedcourier]

How to Write Indigenous Characters Without Looking like a Jackass:

Update as of December 26th, 2020: I have added a couple new sections about naming and legal terms, as well as a bit of reading on the Cherokee Princess phenomenon.

Boozhoo (hello) Fallout fandom! I'm a card-carrying Anishinaabe delivering this rough guide about writing Indigenous characters because wow, do I see a lot of shit.

Let's get something out of the way first: Fallout's portrayal of Indigenous people is racist. From a vague definition of "tribal" to the claims of them being "savage" and "uncivilized" mirror real-world stereotypes used to dehumanize us. Fallout New Vegas' narrated intro has Ron Perlman saying Mr. House "rehabilitated" tribals to create New Vegas' Three Families. You know. Rehabilitate. As if we are animals. Top it off with an erasure of Indigenous people in the American Southwest and no real tribe names, and you've got some pretty shitty representation. The absence of Native American as a race option in the GECK isn't too great, given that two Native characters are marked "Caucasian" despite being brown. Butch Deloria is a pretty well-known example of this effect. (Addendum: Indigenous people can have any mix of dominant and recessive traits, as well as present different phenotypes. What bothers me is it doesn't accommodate us or mixed people, which is another post entirely.)

As a precautionary warning: this post and the sources linked will discuss racism and genocide. There will also be discussion of multiple kinds of abuse.

Now, your best approach will be to pick a nation or tribe and research them. However, what follows will be general references.

Terms that may come up in your research include Aboriginal/Native Canadian, American Indian/Native American, Inuit, Métis, and Mestizo. The latter two refer to cultural groups created after the discovery of the so-called New World. (Addendum made September 5th, 2020: Mestizo has negative connotations and originally meant "half breed" so stick with referring to your mixed Latine and Indigenous characters as mixed Indigenous or simply by the name of their people [Maya, Nahua].)

As a note, not every mixed person is Métis or Mestizo. If you are, say, Serbian and Anishinaabe, you would be mixed, but not Métis (the big M is important here, as it refers to a specific culture). Even the most liberal definition caps off at French and British ancestry alongside Indigenous (some say Scottish and English). Mestizo works the same, since it refers to descendants of Spanish conquistadors/settlers and Indigenous people.

Trouble figuring out whose land is where? No problem, check out this map.

Drawing

Don't draw us with red skin. It's offensive and stereotypical.

Tutorial for Native Skintones

Tutorial for Mixed Native Skintones

Why Many Natives Have Long Hair (this would technically fit better under another category, but give your Native men long hair!)

If You're Including Traditional Wear, Research! It's Out There

Languages

Remember, there are a variety of languages spoken by Indigenous people today. No two tribes will speak the same language, though there are some that are close and may have loan words from each other (Cree and Anishinaabemowin come to mind). Make sure your Diné (you may know them as Navajo) character doesn't start dropping Cree words.

Here's a Site With a Map and Voice Clips

Here's an Extensive List of Amerindian Languages

Keep in mind there are some sounds that have no direct English equivalents. But while we're at it, remember a lot of us speak English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese. The languages of the countries that colonized us.

Words in Amerindian languages tend to be longer than English ones and are in the format of prefix + verb + suffix to get concepts across. Gaawiin miskwaasinoon is a complete sentence in Anishinaabemowin, for example (it is not red).

Names

Surprisingly, we don't have names like Passing Dawn or Two-Bears-High-Fiving in real life. A lot of us have, for lack of better phrasing, white people names. We may have family traditions of passing a name down from generation to generation (I am the fourth person in my maternal line to have my middle name), but not everyone is going to do that. If you do opt for a name from a specific tribe, make sure you haven't chosen a last name from another tribe.

Baby name sites aren't reliable, because most of the names on there will be made up by people who aren't Indigenous. That site does list some notable exceptions and debunks misconceptions.

Here's a list of last names from the American census.

Indian Names

You may also hear "spirit names" because that's what they are for. You know the sort of mystical nature-related name getting slapped on an Indigenous character? Let's dive into that for a moment.

The concept of a spirit name seems to have gotten mistranslated at some point in time. It is the name Creator calls you throughout all your time both here and in the spirit world. These names are given (note the word usage) to you in a ceremony performed by an elder. This is not done lightly.

A lot of imitations of this end up sounding strange because they don't follow traditional guidelines. (I realize this has spread out of the original circle, but Fallout fans may recall other characters in Honest Hearts and mods that do this. They have really weird and racist results.)

If you're not Indigenous: don't try this. You will be wrong.

Legal Terms

Now, sometimes the legal term (or terms) for a tribe may not be what they refer to themselves as. A really great example of this would be the Oceti Sakowin and "Sioux". How did that happen, you might be wondering. Smoky Mountain News has an article about this word and others, including the history of these terms.

For the most accurate information, you are best off having your character refer to themselves by the name their nation uses outside of legislation. A band name would be pretty good for this (Oglala Lakota, for example). I personally refer to myself by my band.

Cowboys

And something the Fallout New Vegas fans might be interested in, cowboys! Here's a link to a post with several books about Black and Indigenous cowboys in the Wild West.

Representation: Stereotypes and Critical Thought

Now, you'll need to think critically about why you want to write your Indigenous character a certain way. Here is a comprehensive post about stereotypes versus nuance.

Familiarize yourself with tropes. The Magical Indian is a pretty prominent one, with lots of shaman-type characters in movies and television shows. This post touches on its sister tropes (The Magical Asian and The Magical Negro), but is primarily about the latter.

Say you want to write an Indigenous woman. Awesome! Characters I love to see. Just make sure you're aware of the stereotypes surrounding her and other Women of Color.

Word to the wise: do not make your Indigenous character an alcoholic. "What, so they can't even drink?" You might be asking. That is not what I'm saying. There is a pervasive stereotype about Drunk Indians, painting a reaction to trauma as an inherent genetic failing, as stated in this piece about Indigenous social worker Jessica Elm's research. The same goes for drugs. Ellen Deloria is an example of this stereotype.

Familiarize yourself with and avoid the Noble Savage trope. This was used to dehumanize us and paint us as "childlike" for the sake of a plot device. It unfortunately persists today.

Casinos are one of the few ways for tribes to make money so they can build homes and maintain roads. However, some are planning on diversifying into other business ventures.

There's a stereotype where we all live off government handouts. Buddy, some of these long-term boil water advisories have been in place for over twenty years. The funding allocated to us as a percentage is 0.39%: less than half a percent to fight the coronavirus. They don't give us money.

"But what about people claiming to be descended from a Cherokee princess?" Cherokee don't and never had anything resembling princesses. White southerners made that up prior to the Civil War. As the article mentions, they fancied themselves "defending their lands as the Indians did".

Also, don't make your Indigenous character a cannibal. Cannibalism is a serious taboo in a lot of our cultures, particularly northern ones.

Our lands are not cursed. We don't have a litany of curses to cast on white people in found footage films. Seriously. We have better things to be doing. Why on earth would our ancestors be haunting you when they could be with their families? Very egotistical assumption.

Indigenous Ties and Blood Quantum

Blood quantum is a colonial system that was initially designed to "breed out the Indian" in people. To dilute our bloodlines until we assimilated properly into white society. NPR has an article on it here.

However, this isn't how a vast majority of us define our identities. What makes us Indigenous is our connections (or reconnection) to our families, tribes, bands, clans, and communities.

Blood quantum has also historically been used to exclude Black Natives from tribal enrollment, given that it was first based on appearance. So, if you looked Black and not the image of "Indian" the white census taker had in his brain, you were excluded and so were your descendants.

Here are two tumblrs that talk about Black Indigenous issues and their perspectives. They also talk about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia.

However, if you aren't Indigenous, don't bring up blood quantum. Don't. This is an issue you should not be speaking about.

Cherokee Princess Myth

"Princess" was not a real position in any tribe. The European idea of monarchy did not suddenly manifest somewhere else. The closest probable approximation may have been the daughter of a chief or other politically prominent person. But princess? No.

Here is an article talking about possible origins of this myth. Several things are of note here: women from other tribes may have bee shoved under this label and the idea of a "Cherokee Princess" had been brought up to explain the sudden appearance of a brown-skinned (read: half Black) family member.

For a somewhat more in depth discussion of why, specifically, this myth gets touted around so often, Timeline has this piece.

Religion

Our religions are closed. We are not going to tell you how we worship. Mostly because every little bit we choose to share gets appropriated. Smudging is the most recent example. If you aren't Indigenous, that's smoke cleansing. Smudging is done in a specific way with ceremonies and prayers.

Now, a lot of us were forcibly converted. Every residential school was run by Christians. So plenty of us are Catholic, Baptist, Anglican, Lutheran, etc. Catholicism in Latin America also has influence from the Indigenous religions in that region.

Having your Indigenous character pray or carry rosaries wouldn't be a bad thing, if that religion was important to them. Even if they are atheist, if they lived outside of a reserve or other Indigenous communities, they might have Christian influences due to its domination of the Western world.

Settler Colonialism and the White Savior Trope

Now we've come to our most painful section yet. Fallout unintentionally has an excellent agent of settler-colonialism, in particular the Western Christian European variety, in Caesar's Legion and Joshua Graham.

(Addendum: Honest Hearts is extremely offensive in its portrayal of Indigenous people, and egregiously shows a white man needing to "civilize" tribals and having to teach them basic skills. These skills include cooking, finding safe water, and defending themselves from other tribes.)

Before we dive in, here is a post explaining the concept of cultural Christianity, if you are unfamiliar with it.

We also need to familiarize ourselves with The White Man's Burden. While the poem was written regarding the American-Philippine war, it still captures the attitudes toward Indigenous folks all over the world at the time.

As this article in Teen Vogue points out, white people like to believe they need to save People of Color. You don't need to. People of Color can save themselves.

Now, cultural Christianity isn't alone on this side of the pond. Writer Teju Cole authored a piece on the White Savior Industrial Complex to describe mission trips undertaken by white missionaries to Africa to feed their egos.

Colonialism has always been about the acquisition of wealth. To share a quote from this paper about the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples: "Negatively, [settler colonialism] strives for the dissolution of native societies. Positively, it erects a new colonial society on the expropriated land base—as I put it, settler colonizers come to stay: invasion is a structure not an event. In its positive aspect, elimination is an organizing principal of settler-colonial society rather than a one-off (and superseded) occurrence. The positive outcomes of the logic of elimination can include officially encouraged miscegenation, the breaking-down of native title into alienable individual freeholds, native citizenship, child abduction, religious conversion, resocialization in total institutions such as missions or boarding schools, and a whole range of cognate biocultural assimilations. All these strategies, including frontier homicide, are characteristic of settler colonialism. Some of them are more controversial in genocide studies than others." (Positive, here, is referring to "benefits" for the colonizers. Indigenous people don't consider colonization beneficial.)

An example of a non-benefit, the Church Rock disaster had Diné children playing in radioactive water so the company involved could avoid bad publicity.

Moving on, don't sterilize your Indigenous people. Sterilization, particularly when it is done without consent, has long been used as a tool by the white system to prevent "undesirables" (read, People of Color and disabled people) from having children. Somehow, as of 2018, it wasn't officially considered a crime.

The goal of colonization was to eliminate us entirely. Millions died because of exposure to European diseases. Settlers used to and still do separate our children from us for reasons so small as having a dirty dish in the sink. You read that right, a single dirty dish in your kitchen sink was enough to get your children taken and adopted out to white families. This information was told to me by an Indigenous social work student whose name I will keep anonymous.

It wasn't until recently they made amendments to the Indian Act that wouldn't automatically render Indigenous women non-status if they married someone not Indigenous. It also took much too long for Indigenous families to take priority in child placement over white ones. Canada used to adopt Indigenous out to white American families. The source for that statement is further down, but adoption has been used as a tool to destroy cultures.

I am also begging you to cast aside whatever colonialist systems have told you about us. We are alive. People with a past, not people of the past, which was wonderfully said here by Frank Waln.

Topics to Avoid if You Aren't Indigenous

Child Separation. Just don't. We deserve to remain with our families and our communities. Let us stay together and be happy that way.

Assimilation schools. Do not bring up a tool for cultural genocide that has left lasting trauma in our communities.

W/ndigos. I don't care that they're in Fallout 76. They shouldn't be. Besides, you never get them right anyway.

Sk/nwalkers. Absolutely do not. Diné stories are not your playthings either.

I've already talked about drugs and alcohol. Do your research with compassion and empathy in mind. Indigenous people have a lot of pain and generational trauma. You will need to be extremely careful having your Indigenous characters use drugs and alcohol. If your character can be reduced to their (possible) substance abuse issues, you need to step back and rework it. As mentioned in Jessica Elm's research, remember that it isn't inherent to us.

For our final note: remember that we're complex, autonomous human beings. Don't use our deaths to further the stories of your white characters. Don't reduce us to some childlike thing that needs to be raised and civilized by white characters. We interact with society a little differently than you do, but we interact nonetheless.

Meegwetch (thank you) for reading! Remember to do your research and portray us well, but also back off when you are told by an Indigenous person.

This may be updated in the future, it depends on what information I come across or, if other Indigenous people are so inclined, what is added to this post.

[twistedtummies2]

Christopher Lee: A Sinister Centenary - Number 9

Welcome to Christopher Lee: A Sinister Centenary! Over the course of May, I will be counting down My Top 31 Favorite Performances by my favorite actor, the late, great Sir Christopher Lee, in honor of his 100th Birthday. Although this fine actor left us a few years ago, his legacy endures, and this countdown is a tribute to said legacy! Today’s Subject, My 9th Favorite Christopher Lee Performance: Dr. Marlowe & Mr. Blake, from I, Monster (1971).

“I, Monster” is…weird. Mostly because of its title and its main character, played by Lee. To put it bluntly, this movie is a pretty darn straightforward adaptation of the classic story “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.” The plot follows the book quite closely, and even retains much of the original dialogue from the novel in various places. However, it keeps all the character names – Utterson, Lanyon, and so forth – EXCEPT for the title roles. At the time, no one was interested in funding “another Jekyll & Hyde film.” Therefore, the movie not only makes its title “I, Monster,” which…doesn’t even really seem to fit the story, to be honest…but it also changes Henry Jekyll to “Charles Marlowe,” and Edward Hyde to “Edward Blake.” Nothing else changed with the piece, but evidently, this was enough to fool the backers needed. So, in other words, this is a Jekyll & Hyde movie where Jekyll & Hyde are not called Jekyll & Hyde, but are still Jekyll & Hyde. In Lee’s own words on the matter, “You work that out if you want to, but to me, it’s COMPLETELY incomprehensible, even to this day!” This was a movie made not by Hammer, but by Amicus Productions. The self-proclaimed “Studio That Dripped Blood” was, in essence, a ripoff Hammer company, and fittingly, this film can basically be seen as a ripoff Hammer Horror movie, right down to the fact Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing play the lead roles. Putting the baffling title and character name changes aside, “I, Monster” is, nevertheless, one of the more underrated and underappreciated versions of the classic story ever put to the screen. It’s probably the most obscure film in my Top 10, and it’s not one that’s highly regarded: finding good reviews of the movie (heck, finding good copies of the movie suitable for viewing, even) is very, VERY hard. Personally, I really like this version! It’s not perfect, however: my primary issue lies in the pacing. Most of the film has this sort of creeping, tense pace, with spurts of quick action moving through it, as we follow the progression of Lee’s character through his experiments and his descent into madness and self-destruction, as well as getting a great deal of focus on the relationship between himself and his best friend, Mr. Utterson (played by Cushing), and so on…but then, in the last quarter, everything sort of feels like it’s on fast-forward, as if they realized they were running out of time on the picture and just decided to skim through a lot of the last act. Beyond that, however, I think this is a really, REALLY good version of Jekyll & Hyde, and Lee is the main reason why (which is the case with most takes on J&H). He brings a great deal of depth and nuance to Marlowe, as the role gives him a chance to show more vulnerable sides than many of his characters revealed, but he can still command authority when needed. It’s probably one of my favorite takes on Jekyll ever done, mixing the right amount of underlying darkness and superficial sympathy the character requires. I especially love the scenes between him and Peter Cushing’s Utterson: this is one of the films where, in my opinion, the real-life friendship these two actors shared shines strongly through the celluloid. The almost brotherly bond the pair have onscreen really does call to mind the relationship we all know about from behind the camera, and it helps to make both characters, and the story, all the stronger. As Blake, meanwhile, Lee goes through an interesting transformation: inspired by the 1920 silent film version of the story, starring John Barrymore (incidentally, that is my favorite film version of the story), this movie plays with the idea that, as time goes on, the Hyde character becomes increasingly more hideous and monstrous, his exterior ghoulishness matching the evil in his soul. Not only does he change physically, however, but even elements of his personality change; the movie depicts the potion as an addictive drug, and like all addictive drugs, the more you use it, the more the negative effects take a toll. When Blake first transforms, he has a near-permanent smile, and is quick and powerful, genuinely creepy and filled with a zest for life, doing terrible things just for the thrill of it…but as the film goes on, he becomes a lumbering beast, snarling and sneering at everything around him, as the evil he does affects his body and seemingly his mind. The more the evil grows, the more Blake, himself, suffers…yet he just can’t help himself. Again, the only downside to “I, Monster” – aside from the bizarre changes to the names and title, which I think even “Nosferatu” would tilt its head at – is that the last act IS pretty rushed, but up until that point, the rest of the movie is a very strong and well-handled psychological thriller and a fine adaptation of the Jekyll & Hyde story. And hey, even if that last section is a bit over-quick, we do still get another classic clash of the horror titans with Mr. Blake vs. Mr. Utterson in a grand brawl. Any movie that allows Cushing and Lee to be best friends AND worst enemies AT THE SAME TIME is clearly deserving of some credit. Tomorrow, I present my choice for Number 8!

[itsclydebitches]

I keep seeing people calling Good Omens queer bating and a I can't help but ask why? I read the Aziraphale/Crowley relationship threw an Ace lens and they are clearly as close to married as they are probably going to get without stepping on holy ground.... and they love each other... why is it considered queer bating?

Personally, I think it's mostly young queer fans turning legitimate grievances on the wrong target. A case of getting so fed up with queerbaiting in media as a whole that they're instinctually lashing out at anything that seems to resembles it on the surface, without taking the time to consider whether this is, in fact, the thing they're mad at. Good Omens is a scapegoat, if you will. The equivalent of snapping at your partner after a long day. Your friend was an asshole, your boss was an asshole, the guy in traffic was an asshole, and then you come home to your partner who says something teasing and you take it as another asshole comment because you've just been surrounded by assholeness all day, to the point where your brain is primed to see an attack. Your partner wasn't actually an asshole, but by this point you're (understandably) too on guard to realize that. Unless someone sits you down and kindly reminds you of the difference between playful teasing and a legitimate insult - the nuance, if you will - your hackles are just gonna stay up and you'll leave the room, off to phone a different friend to tell them all about how your partner was definitely an asshole to you.

Only in this case, that "friend" is a fan on social media doing think pieces on the supposed queerbaiting of Good Omens, spreading that idea to a) people who aren't familiar with the show themselves and b) those who, like that original fan, have come to expect queerbaiting and thus aren't inclined to question the latest story with that mark leveled against it. Because on the surface Good Omens can look a lot like queerbaiting. Here are two queer coded characters who clearly love each other, but don't say "I love you," don't kiss, don't "prove" that love in a particular way. So Gaiman is just leading everyone on, right?

Well... no. This is where the nuance comes in, the thing that many fans aren't interested in grappling with (because, like it or not, media is not made up of black and white categories; queerbaited and not-queerbaited. Supernatural's finale is proof enough of that...) I won't delve into the most detailed explanation here, but suffice to say:

Gaiman has straight up said it's a love story. He's just not giving them concrete labels like "gay" or "bi" or "asexual," etc. because they are literally not human. Gaiman has subscribed to an inclusive viewpoint in an era where fans are desperate for unambiguous rep that homophobes cannot possibly deny. The freedom to prioritize any interpretation - yes, including a "just friends" interpretation - now, in 2021, feels like a cop-out. However, in this case it's an act of world building (they are an angel and a demon, not bound by human understanding of identity) meeting a genuine desire to make these characters relatable to the entire queer community, not just particular subsets. Gaiman has said they can be whatever we want because the gender, sexuality, and romantic attraction of an angel and a demon is totally up for debate! However, some fans have interpreted that as a dismissal of canonical queerness; the idea that fans can pretend they're whatever they want... but it's definitely not canon. It is though. Them being queer is 100% canon, it's just up to us to decide what kind of queer they are. This isn't Gaiman stringing audiences along, it's him opening the relationship up to all queer possibilities.

We know he's not stringing us along (queerbaiting) because up until just a few days ago season two didn't exist. Queerbaiting is a deliberate strategy to maintain an audience. A miniseries does not need to maintain its audience. You binge it in one go and you're done, no coming back next year required. The announcement for season two doesn't erase that context for season one. No one knew there would be more content and thus the idea that they would implement a strategy designed to keep viewers hooked due to the hope for a queer relationship (with no intent to follow through) is... silly.

In addition, this interpretive, queer relationship between Crowley and Aziraphale existed in the book thirty years ago. Many fans are not considering the difference between creating a totally new story in 2019 and faithfully adapting a story from 1990 in 2019. Good Omens as representation meant something very different back then and that absolutely impacts how we see its adaptation onto the small screen. To put this into perspective, Rowling made HUGE waves when she revealed that she "thought of" Dumbledore as gay in an interview... in 2007. Compare that to the intense coding 17 years before. Gaiman was - and still is - pushing boundaries.

Which includes being an established ally, particularly in his comics. Queerbaiting isn't just the act of a single work, but the way an author approaches their work. Gaiman does not (to my knowledge) have that mark against him and even if he did, he's done enough other work to offset that.

Finally, we've got other, practical issues like: how do you represent asexuality on the screen? How do you show an absence of something? Yeah, one or both of them could claim that label in the show, outright saying, "I'm asexual," but again, Gaimain isn't looking to box his mythological figures into a single identity. So if we want that rep... we have to grapple with the fact that this is one option for what it looks like.

Even if he did want to narrow the representation down to just a few identities for the show, should Gaiman really be making those major changes when he's only one half of the author team? Pratchett has, sadly, passed on and thus obviously has no say in whether his characters undergo such revisions. Even if fans hate every other argument, they should understand that, out of respect, Good Omens is going to largely remain the same story it was 30 years ago.

And those 6,000 years are just the beginning! Again, this was meant to be a miniseries of a single novel, a novel that, crucially, covered only Crowley and Aziraphale's triumph in being able to love one another freely. That's a part of their personal journey. Yeah, they've been together in one sense for 6,000 years, but that was always with hell and heaven on their backs, to say nothing of the slow-burn approach towards acknowledging that love, for Aziraphale in particular. We end the story at the start of their new relationship, one that is more free and open than it ever was before. They can be anything to one another now! The fact that we don't see that isn't a deliberate attempt on the author's part to deny us that representation, but only a result of the story ending.

So yeah, there's a lot to consider and, frankly, I don't think those fans are considering it. Which on a purely emotional level I can understand. I'm pissed about queerbaiting too and the knee-jerk desire to reject anything that doesn't meet a specific standard is understandable. But understandable doesn't mean we don't have to work against that instinct because doing otherwise is harmful in the long run. We need to consider when stories were published and what representation meant back then. We need to consider how we adapt those stories for a modern audience. We need to acknowledge that if we want the inclusivity that "queer" provides us, that includes getting characters whose identity is not strictly defined by the author as well as characters with overtly canonical labels. We need both. We likewise need to be careful about when having higher standards ends up hurting the wrong authors - who are our imperfect allies vs. those straight up unwilling to embrace our community at all? And most importantly, we have to think about how we're using the terms we've developed to discuss these issues. Queerbaiting means something specific and applying it to Good Omens not only does Good Omens a disservice, but it undermines the intended meaning of "queerbaiting," making it harder to use correctly in the future. Good Omens is not queerbaiting and trying to claim it is only hurts the community those fans are speaking up for.

[peculiarlylost]

Amberprice Fanfic Compilation

To whom it may concern,

I've been felling quite shitty lately and nostalgia is the only thing keeping me breathing, therefore I'll be providing you the best Amberprice fanfic recommendation you didn't ask for.

Previous warnings before you proceed: a. Amberpricefield it's not my cup of tea, so you won't find any here; b. This was made completely based on my own literaly taste (don't come for me if you hated it all); c. I've been struggling with keeping my focus for long periods of time, that's why you won't find a lot of multichapter works here. I'm really sorry, but a long history requires a lot of brain cells and I've burned them all lately; d. Huge thanks for all the amazing authors who wrote this pieces, you've been doing Gods work; e. Fell free to recommend all types of Amberprice fanfic that I missed out. I've made this thinking that someone could be felling as shitty as I'm felling right now and could use some escape from reality to help cope with everything else.

START OF THE LIST

1. Buried Childish Qualities by Scorpion_Queen (https://archiveofourown.org/works/27196012/chapters/66428533) Amberprice + Summer Camp = pure nostalgia. This fanfic fells like those endless summer nights where you would stay up until dawn doing absolutely nothing simply cause you could. It reminds me a little bit of "Looking for Alaska" by John Green which only added for the nostalgia felling.

2. Castles in the Air by Scorpion_Queen (https://archiveofourown.org/works/19161673/chapters/45544687) When I started my marathon of reading Amberprice Fanfic until my eyes stopped working, something that really pissed me of was the over-the-top romanticization of Chloe and Rachel. For me, the beauty in their characters was the visible flaws, that's what made them "touchable". No one is completely good or bad (except Mark Jefferson, fuck him), and this author understood beautifully this assignment. Definelly a must read if you like the nuances of their relationship. Chloe and Rachel are actually Chloe and Rachel in this one.

3. Slumber Party Rules by Scorpion_Queen (https://archiveofourown.org/works/28055220) At this point you must think that I'm in love with Scorpion_Queen. Well, you're completely correct! It's been a while since I loved so much an authors work that I wasted long hours reading all their pieces. I couldn't thank Scorpion enough for that. Basically, this one shot involves a game of truth or dare from Max pov. It was very interesting seeing how other characters interpret the relationship between Chloe and Rachel.

4. Coward by Mogatrat (https://archiveofourown.org/works/11067531) Smut + Angst = pain. I'm a huge simp for authors that shows the ambiguous relationship between them. It's a very quick read, ideal for poop time (that's me trying to be funny).

5. Every Move Just for Herself by Mogatrat (https://archiveofourown.org/works/15923051) Mogatrat do a FINE job when the business is Smutt + Angst. Also, the internalized homophobia is *chief kiss*. This is a very quick read, so you know...

6. Pink Bubblegum by Danganphobia (https://archiveofourown.org/works/13155687) This one just fells like home. It's the type of reading that just fells right, you know? It's easy and uncomplicated. Do you remember how I said it that i hated over-the-top romanticization of Chloe and Rachel? Well, my hatred does not apply to this one. HAPPY ROMCOM AU Y'ALL. Just accept this gift without further explanation.

7. Yours by craashintome (https://archiveofourown.org/works/13210812) Another gift without further explanation. HAPPY ROMCOM AU Y'ALL!

8. Strawberry by Danganphobia (https://archiveofourown.org/works/12627669) Here's the thing: after a while, reading fanfic and pretending that the real world is a mirage got me quite happily alienated. Therefore, that's my excuse for all the fluffy one shots in a role. So, you know, enjoy yourself :)

9. Notice Me by lunargrrrl (https://archiveofourown.org/works/13505091) The format of this one fells like a poem. Honestly, I never thought that something like this would captivate me at all, but it definely did. Pleasant surprise to say at least.

10. So, You're a Fatalist Then? by Dandybear (https://archiveofourown.org/works/12434655) After I read this one, it took me a while to read another Amberprice Fanfic. I have this theory that most of us reads to live a life that do not belong to us. We have the privilege to simply escape. And I loved to escape the fact that Chloe and Rachel never left Arcadia Bay. This piece reminded me what actually happened.

11. Can't Complain About Much These Days by breezered (https://archiveofourown.org/works/13267965) Do you remember the cutscene in the end of Before The Storm where Chloe paints her hair completely blue? Well, I hope you do, because Rachel helps her out in this one. Believe me when I tell you that you need a little bit of fluffy after the last one.

12. Please Don't Be My Valentine by Ghost_In_The_Hella (https://archiveofourown.org/works/18082052) Conversation Hearts by Ghost_In_The_Hella (https://archiveofourown.org/works/29562945) No need to call me Santa or, in this case, Cupid (ba dun tss). Valentine's Day Special y'all!

13. Tonight I'll Lie Awake, Felling Empty by orphan_account (https://archiveofourown.org/works/4583376) If there was a Life is Strange Before the Storm part II, this piece would definely be a part of the plot. If you need more persuasion to read this masterpiece, I will leave you with this quote: "For Rachel, who doesn't believe in past regrets, it will probably be like it never happened."

14. Alright in the Evening (Baby With You) by breezered (https://archiveofourown.org/works/13214394) That's the euphoric felling that Rachel tried to describe to Chloe the night after the play, where everything is possible and running away is the easiest thing in the entire world. This piece fells light.

15. And the Forest Burned (You See Smoke) by breezered (https://archiveofourown.org/works/13153557) This one destroyed me in the most beautiful way possible. I've been staring at my computer screen for a embarassing amount of time trying to describe how this made me fell so I can indoctrinate you to also read it, but I'm failing horribly. Do you know that book that list 1001 things you have to do before dying? Well, if I've written that book, reading this fanfic would be one of those things. If that's not enough for you, stay with this GENIUS quote: "No, loving Rachel Amber doesn’t kill you. It never burns out, not really. Her absence doesn’t make the fire fade or dwindle, it stokes it and stokes it until the passion and the heat from loving a ghost burns you up and leaves you empty. You spend every second of every day painfully loving Rachel Amber until there’s nothing left for you to give, no more energy and no more attention." (I'm also in love with breezered. What can I say? I'm a whore).

16. The Way You Kiss me (Will Work Every Time) by breezered (https://archiveofourown.org/works/13343250) This author is just *chief kiss*.

17. Gone by orphan_account (https://archiveofourown.org/works/16579007) I've never seen a single soul in this Earth that doesn't love Smut + Angst. Have fun kiddos :)

END OF THE LIST

[ddarker-dreams]

Out With the Old. Yan Childe x Reader [COMM]

Warnings: Brief mentions of injury and blood, typical yandere undertones. Word count: 3.2k. Notes: i absolutely loved writing this!! i never realized how badly i needed a yandere childe that’s so obviously whipped for his darling. :’))

i.

“Dearest [First],

I can only imagine the look that must be on your face as you read this. Don’t be too harsh on me for saying so, but I promise not a day goes by where I haven’t thought of you. Now stop scowling at the letter, it won’t do any good, after all; it’s just a piece of paper. I’d hate to come back home to see that you’ve aged from all that frowning at parchment.

Somedays I wake and fail to notice I’m in Inazuma instead of Snezhnaya. The scenery has its differences, of course, but it’s only when I realize I can’t see you that it truly sinks in. Writing this, I realize your judgment about my honesty only appearing in written form rather than in person is true. You’ve always had a penchant for keeping me in line, haven’t you?

Not that I can blame you.

You’ll be relieved to hear that the reason for my being here turned out to be a simple misunderstanding. There’s no grand coup d'état waiting to unfold amongst the lower ranks, so, unfortunately for me, it turned out to be a waste of time. On the bright side, that means I’ll get to come back home all the faster.

Tonia tells me that you’re doing well and I’m glad to hear it. I know your parents aren’t that fond of me, which is a smart call all things considered, but I hope they’re both in good health. Let me know if they need any help with their shop and I’ll see what I can do. Just don’t let them know it was from me, or they might blow a gasket.

When I come home, I wonder if I’ll see your face among the crowd on the pier this time.

At the very least… consider not discarding this letter like the others. Really, I can’t tell who is more stubborn, me or you.

-Yours eternally, Tartaglia”

This is the first letter of his that you’ve bothered reading in some time, as he made a point of mentioning. It’s difficult to identify the exact feelings his handwriting and characteristic word choice inflicts upon you, ranging from relief to exasperation. He has some audacity, refusing to see you in person for months on end, only to carry on as if nothing happened between you.

With the letter in hand, your mind wanders back, hoping to find some hints of where it all went wrong.

You remember the words said to you on that late, fateful winter evening. The confident timbre of his voice then still resonates in your head at random, never muffling despite the years that have passed, ringing as clearly as a bell. Does he ever think about it? It’s hard to say.

“One day,” Ajax, or Tartaglia as he claimed his new identity to be, had told you, “I’m going to conquer this world.”

His breath materialized in front of him as white, vaporous wisps. There’s something about that particularly frigid season that felt like magic, more so than the Cryo Vision wrapped snug around your neck. You bit back a scathing remark and instead focused your energy elsewhere. Your gloved hand raised and hovered just above his split lip, a prominent frown etched onto your face at the fresh wound. Likely the first of many to come, you lamented.

Your Vision pulsated with life and light blue shone through at your command. The tender, bruised flesh on his lip began to close, before it faded away altogether. Tartaglia raised his hand to gently touch where it had been, now nothing but a faint memory.

With that out of the way, you placed your hands onto your hips and gave him a stern look. “I wish you’d stop saying things like that. It’s going to get you into trouble one day.”

He laughed and waved off your concern.

“If only. Things have been so dull lately, I wouldn’t mind stirring up a little trouble.” Tartaglia hummed, much to your displeasure. It was no secret in your quaint hometown of Morepesok that this boy had been spiraling down a dangerous path. Your parents said as much and even encouraged you to break off ties with him. This just won’t do, you thought.

“Ouch!”

You flicked his forehead and offered up your most intimidating glare. “So you are capable of feeling pain, huh? Good. If it keeps you out of fights, then I won’t heal you anymore.”

Tartaglia rubbed the spot and smiled sheepishly.

“You say that, but I’m sure you’d change your mind if I came to you all bloodied and battered. You’re just that kind of person.” When he paused to reflect, you raised an eyebrow and challenged him.

“Now what’s this? I’m what kind of person, Ajax?” You pinched his cheek, much to his vocal displeasure, mischief gleaming in your eyes. “Say it loud and clear this time.”

“The kind that always looks out for others, even those who don’t deserve it.”

Your arms fell limp by your side. At that moment, your heart twisted in a way it never had before. It could only compare to how it felt when Ajax had stumbled back home after missing for three, long days. You weren’t sure if you had heard him right — his eyes widened as did yours like he felt equally surprised — and he rushed to save himself. The flush that dusted over his face was most certainly not from the cold weather.

Tartaglia shot up and made way for the door at a record speed. “I told my old man that I’d be home before dark. He already worries about me enough as is, so... I’ll be on my way. See ya around.”

Your rebuttal was slow as your tongue felt frozen. Tartaglia waved to you over his shoulder and took off, leaving you to wallow in your muddled thoughts. What exactly had he meant by that? Why did his gaze soften and his usually boisterous voice drop in volume?

Questions flooded your mind, questions that wouldn’t be answered for years to come.

ii.

You’ve always found this area of Morepesok to be serene. There’s no buzz of the community gathering, chattering about the latest gossip and notable news, no vendors vying for people passing by to purchase their fresh early morning catch. The surroundings are nothing but peaceful, and most importantly, silent. In the summer, there’d only have been the sound of the rushing rivers that are now frozen over and humming insects.

Twigs and dry leaves crunch behind the tree stump you’re hanging out at, signaling an approaching figure.

“I thought I might find you here.”

Tartaglia sits down next to you, blades of grass rustling against him as he did so. You don’t bother to look up, instead feigning interest in your fingernails, staring at them intently. Anywhere other than his face, which most likely than not would be boasting his trademark grin. Seeing the fake expression that he plasters on daily would only add fuel to the fire that rages inside.

Your lips part after an uncomfortable silence settles in, the atmosphere growing tenser by the second. “So you’re a Harbinger now, huh?”

“You don’t look impressed like everyone else,” He notes, his language notably more tentative than usual. It strikes through your heart, piercing flesh and blood, your fingers curling painfully tight. If he notices, he decides not to comment. Tartaglia gives you the time to process your overwhelming thoughts as if it’d make any of this easier on you.

“How could I possibly be happy about that?” You snap your head, catching how he’s momentarily caught off guard before it’s covered up just as fast. “This… this is going to be the death of you, Ajax. And Archons, the worst part is, I know me saying that won’t matter in the slightest. That death would just be the result of a fulfilling fight to you.”

Your breathing grows erratic, to the point you’re forced to stop speaking to regain yourself. He doesn’t dare utter a single word — uncharacteristically silent — watching your every movement with calculating precision. It’s taking all your strength to keep yourself together, not wanting to come undone in front of him, feeling weak just for showing this much. This is why you were hoping to avoid him, but figures he’d go out of to seek you out.

“And if I don’t die? Would that make a difference in how you feel?” He challenges, tilting his head, voice dipping in volume. “You can be honest with me, [First]. It’s not just that you’re upset about. No, there’s something else.”

He knows you too well and it’s beyond frustrating. Your body language might be difficult for others to read, but not Tartaglia, who picks up on every little nuance with ease.

Your lower lip trembles. “I hate that this is what you’ve become.”

“So that’s it then,” Tartaglia nods his head, once, coming to terms with it as soon as the words left your lips; like he already knew it all along. “I figured as much, but to hear you say it… haven’t you heard of mincing your words before?”

Hugging your knees to your chest, you internally plead with yourself not to let the nonchalant words get to you. It’s his way of dealing with strife to act unbothered, you know this, and still, it strikes deep. What if this isn’t a façade, but who he really is now? That boy you knew and grew up with — Ajax, your dearest friend — he may be physically sitting next to you, but his soul is gone. Whatever happened in those hellish three days changed him forever. Now his flesh and bones are nothing but a vessel urged on by bloodlust.

How ironic, you think. That your Vision lets you heal physical wounds, but not the unseen kind, which runs deeper than any gash could hope to. Maybe you were a fool for thinking you could fix him, revert him to how he used to be like nothing ever happened. Or maybe he let you try just to earn more time together for whatever twisted reason. Knowing that once reality settles in, you’ll go someplace far out of his reach, where he can never get you back. Sitting here, you realize that it won’t just be you losing him. He’ll also be losing you.

Is that why he is sticking around? To prolong the inevitable?

“When I look into your eyes,” you clear your tightening throat, not willing to let yourself cry. “There’s… there’s no light, no humanity, and you know it. That has to be why you chase all those stupid fights, all so that you can feel alive again.”

Tartaglia allows you the room to ramble without interruption, your venomous feelings that have long festered gushing out. When you work up the courage to look up, you find Tartaglia frowning, staring far off but at nothing in particular. So even he can sometimes be rendered to a loss for words, huh?

He sucks in a deep breath through his nose, the chilly air invading his lungs. “You’re wrong about one thing.”

Another cautious pause. He’s giving this a lot of thought.

“My fighting is not for the sole sake of the adrenaline rush, as enjoyable as that is,” he scratches the back of his neck and forces a laugh. “It’s so that I can get stronger. I told you, didn’t I? That I intend on conquering the world. To do that, I need to be the strongest, or else I can’t fulfill my promise.”

Your lips part, eyebrows furrowing together in irritation, but he places a finger to your lips before you can tear into him. The leather feels cool against your skin, and it’s just now that you realize how close he is to you. Having been so absorbed in your emotions, you failed to notice his stealthy movements, the two of you now shoulder to shoulder. Your heart thrums, reminiscent of that day ages ago.

“When the entire world lays defeated at my feet, what I want is to have you by my side. Until that dream of mine comes true, I’m afraid I’ll have to continue making you sad, but know that it’s for a reason.”

Tartaglia pulls his hand back, his finger lingering just a second over your bottom lip, finally allowing you to speak your piece.

You’re drawn like a moth to a flame to his lifeless eyes, which have seen more bloodshed in the past few months than you could ever fathom. Murmuring, you find it within yourself to respond, albeit so quietly he has to cant forward to hear. “If you accomplish just that… who’s to say I’d want to be by your side? The side of a killer?”

“Hm? Did I ever say you had a choice in the matter?” Tartaglia returns your inquiry with a bold one of his own, one that sends you recoiling in astonishment. He lets the words settle like fresh snow on the ground before laughing them off. You cross your arms over your chest, making your displeasure over his comment evident.

“Please, I’m kidding! Don’t look at me like that,” he puts his hands up in mock defense. “Ah, it’s suddenly feeling colder than usual. You’re doing that on purpose, aren’t you? I never thought that humble [First], the child of the town’s apothecary at that, would be so bold as to freeze me to death.”

Your nose wrinkles up and you hold back a laugh, swatting at his shoulder. “Yeah, right. Like I could ever stand a chance against you in battle.”

“You might be surprised! I could make a warrior out of you yet. Think about it, Her Royal Highness the Tsaritsa saw fit to bestow a Vision upon you, didn’t she?” He accents his words by pointing to your neck, where you prefer to keep your Vision. Subconsciously, your hand raises, delicately touching the icy gem.

“I’m not like you,” you shake your head at his jest. “Hurting others is the last thing I’d ever want to do, trust me.”

He hums, your words taking him back, memories flashing in his mind. “I know, that’s why I’ve always done it in your stead.”

“Whoever would’ve thought fending off bored kids with a wooden sword would escalate into you climbing the ranks of the Fatui.” Had it not been for the final part of the sentence, you would’ve found it endearing to reminiscence back to your early childhood together. Still, the frost around your heart melts at the sweet memory, despite your attempts to keep it hardened. This goes to show how much I cherished it, you muse.

Lips curling into a smile, you take him by surprise and lay your head onto his shoulder. His muscles go tense, body unresponsive to the affection you used to bestow upon him in heaps. It’d been so long that he forgot the warmth you radiate like you were the sun incarnate. He had once commented that he expected a Cryo user to be cold, only to be delightfully surprised by how warm you were.

“Maybe I was always terrible, and you just didn’t notice?” He proposes, to which you snort.

“That most certainly is not the case. I’m a better judge of character than that.” You scoff at the mere idea. No, little Ajax had been nothing but a darling, there’s no doubting it. Wherever you’d go, he’d follow as if his life depended on it. There was hardly ever a time where the two of you wouldn’t be seen paired together.

“You’ll get no argument out of me there,” Tartaglia rests his head on top of yours like he used to. The circumstances have undoubtedly changed, but it’s nice to feign ignorance for a few minutes. “Say, you remember when we used to sneak off and meet here, right?”

“How could I forget?”

Tartaglia nods his head in agreement. “I was always dragging you into trouble, even then. I’m not one to dwell on the past, but I guess it’s hard not to when we’re here.”

Now that he mentions it, it wasn’t an immediate shift into his now unhinged personality; like all things, it began as a gradual descent. You should’ve noticed something was awry with how frequently he’d come to you, boasting injuries of all sorts. Each was accompanied by a rehearsed explanation as not to alarm you. Unfortunately for him, in a small town such as this, word travels quickly. It was inevitable that you’d find out the bitter truth behind his wounds.

Maybe you always knew but didn’t want to face reality.

“There was this one time in particular that always stuck out to me,” he closes his eyes, reflecting. “When I said I intended to marry you when we got older, or whenever you’d have me.”

You’re amazed at how Tartaglia recounts it without so much as stuttering, the humiliating memory sending your head spinning. There were so many memories he could’ve mentioned and that’s the one he decides to go with? You’re certain he’s messing with you at this point.

“I-I thought we swore never to mention that again!” You exclaim, blood rushing to your cheeks.

He blinks when you abruptly lift your head and shrugs off your concern. “I don’t remember ever agreeing to that. It was you who kept insisting to take a vow of silence on it, for whatever reason. Personally, I find it cute, you were so eager to accept my proposal then.” 

You sigh, running a hand through your hair. This irksome teasing quality had reared its head alongside his other new shortcomings. The best way to deal with it, you’ve learned, is to keep the conversation going. Dwelling on it for too long never ends well.

“So, Liyue, huh?” You recall the gossip from the marketplace earlier. Some locals were fussing over the news that the Fatui’s latest Harbinger, Tartaglia, would be sent abroad for more work. There were murmurs of excitement over how a child from this seaside town managed to make it so far up the ranks. And to think they used to bemoan Ajax’s violent streak, you remember. Now that it’s beneficial to them, they sure have changed their tune.

“I wonder what it’ll be like,” he muses. “Anthon seems to think the people there eat rocks, for whatever reason.”

“Kids always say the craziest things unprompted.”

He seems agreeable to that statement. Neither of you utters another word for some time, instead thinking of both the past and the future. It’s not a comfortable position to remain seated in, yet neither you nor he complains about it. For a few brief, glorious seconds, everything almost seems normal again.

“Hey, [First].”

You hum in response. Tartaglia’s Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows thickly, his eyebrows knitting together in contemplation. In the silence that follows, you swear you hear a sound akin to electricity crackling, the hairs on the back of your neck standing from the drastic shift in atmosphere.

“I meant what I said. Someday, you will be by my side. I don’t care what it takes, I’ll make it happen; even if you come to hate me.”

“Because once you make a promise… you keep it.”

And he intended to do just that.