Raphael Maillard

Born in Toulon into a wealthy family. His appearance can be deceiving, in fact he's a man who has received a typical bourgeois upbringing. His arrogant attitude is crowned by an almost total disregard for the 'others' (i.e. all those whom he considers inferior). He is an intelligent man, but with little empathy. He teaches in the AMPM (Association des Mages et Philosophes de la Magie) and is a magus capable of manipulating mercury up to a certain point.

Servant: ω Lancer

Artwork by BikoWolf

Marcus Aurelius - Marco Aurelio

Other names: Stoic Emperor, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Philosopher Emperor, Fifth Good Emperor, The Philosopher

Master: Raphael Maillard

One of the greatest emperors of Rome. After the death of Antoninus Pius, he rose to power and decided to reign together with his adoptive brother Lucius Verus. The young Marcus Aurelius was not an experienced military man, having spent most of his life studying philosophy and literature, so many doubted his ability to lead the mighty Empire. However, despite the doubts of most, Marcus Aurelius proved to be a man of great courage and strong determination.
The emperor was faced with a severe plague that struck the Empire after the Parthian campaigns. The weakening of the borders allowed several Germanic peoples to make inroads into Roman territory... Marcomanni, Quadi, Iazyges, Chatti, Suebi, Roxolani, Bastarnae, Costoboci, and other Germanic tribes began to plunder the Roman colonies and invade the imperial territory.
The emperor undertook to direct military operations against these populations to put an end to their attacks. Upon the death of Lucius Verus, Marcus Aurelius decided to rely on Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus (a Roman commander of Syrian origins) and Publius Elvius Pertinax. The two commanders were employed in the offensive against the invaders. When the Marcomanni and Quadi entered the Empire, they sacked and destroyed Oderzo leaving behind thousands of civilian casualties. Their new objective was then the city of Aquileia and so they decided to besiege it, but luckily Pompeianus and Pertinax successfully repulsed them and saved the city. 

Other Germanic tribes penetrated into Roman territory and began to attack Roman and Greek colonies and sanctuaries (the sanctuary of Eleusis was set on fire by the Costoboci). Marcus Aurelius, therefore, decided to change his strategy: instead of defending the borders, he chose to march into the territories of the enemies and to massacre anyone who dared to resist. The emperor's goal became conquest. Marcomanni, Quadi and Iazyges were decimated and forced to surrender. Later the emperor planned the conquest of the Sarmatian lands to end the threat from the Sarmatians. The campaigns were a success, but did not lead to the desired results.
The emperor's last campaign was made against the Marcomanni and the Quadi, who had decided to attack the borders of the Empire again. Again the emperor had in mind to conquer them, but he died during the campaigns.
In times of war he wrote the Meditations, an example of his stoic philosophy and of the depth of his soul. Today he is considered one of the best emperors of Rome.

Artwork by BikoWolf

Vercingetorix - Vercingetorige

Other names: Great King of Warriors, Prince of Gauls, King of Rebels

Master: Benjamin Palmer

Probably one of the most famous rivals of Gaius Julius Caesar. During the Conquest of Gaul, the Roman troops succeeded in subduing the different Gallic tribes, massacring the rioters and buying the support of the aristocracies. No one was sure they would be able to challenge Caesar. Since that military commander had set foot in Gaul, she had done nothing but win; the aura of invincibility that surrounded the Romans was frightening those Gauls who were still free. Many thought of surrendering and accepting the dominion of Rome.

Vercingetorix made her appearance just then. This mighty king reminded the aristocracy of its role and put them back in line. She eliminated the traitors and prepared for war. This powerful figure was able to unite all the tribes of Gaul and set them against the Romans. Caesar, for the first time, found herself surrounded by enemies who had no intention of surrendering.

Vercingetorix demonstrated her military talent by giving Caesar a hard time. The scorched earth tactic slowed down the Roman advance and allowed the Gauls to obtain some victories against the Romans. Vercingetorix has the merit of having managed to put the most powerful leader of the time in difficulty.
Vercingetorix became more and more famous and more and more people agreed to unite against Rome. The Gauls managed to isolate Caesar, who now, in fact, no longer had any friends. It was then that Vercingetorix let herself be taken by naivety and agreed to face the Romans in Alesia.
Vercingetorix had allies everywhere, Caesar was outnumbered and could only count on her military genius. The Battle of Alesia tested both leaders and in the end only one was the winner...

Vercingetorix was forced to surrender. Caesar managed to win yet another battle and put an end to the Gallic rebellion. However, when Caesar came face to face with her nemesis, she was disappointed. She hoped she had defeated the most powerful man in Gaul, not the most powerful woman. Knowing that this triumph would have less prestige in the Senate, she decided to kill Vercingetorix in the camp and to bring any rebel to Rome to be able to hang him during the triumph. That rebel took the name of Caesar's nemesis while the real Vercingetorix was forgotten.

 

Artwork by BikoWolf

Benjamin Palmer

Born in Minneapolis. A young boy with many broken dreams and a desire to live in a better, fairer and just world. He's a friend of Friedrich Wolff and it's no coincidence: they both have the soul of the wolf. They are people who surround themselves with many friends, who protect their family at all costs and who are ready to violate the law if it's to do good. Benjamin Palmer is a real American Wolf.
What slows him down is the belief that he's not special, that he cannot change things. However he does not realize that he has great potential and that he's destined to become a great man.

 

Servant: ω Saber

Artwork by BikoWolf

Yukiko Kumahira

Daughter of Hisashi Kumahira and Yumiko Hiyama. On the death of her father, her mother remarried to Alessandro Serpi's father: Marco Serpi. She was the victim of her adoptive father's experiments, who transplanted Magical Circuits into her body to make her the perfect sacrificial victim for the  Holy Grail of Yggdrasil's ritual. These tortures began when she was only twelve years old. Ten Magical Circuits were transplanted to her every month for the sole purpose of making her like Alessandro.
Yukiko was sacrificed at fifteen. The ritual failed and the man, struck by strong feelings of guilt, decided to put into practice an ancient ritual known as the Miracle of Eden to bring Yukiko back to life and make her a kind of doll: an Imitation.
Yukiko doesn't have a real soul, but rather a fake soul called the Mercurial Soul which can, therefore, contain an infinite number of Magical Circuits. The girl, immortal, eternally young and deprived of any form of empathy, decided to continue the transplant of Magical Circuits on herself.
The day she killed her father she had eight hundred and forty Magical Circuits.

With the false identity of Veronica Drakenberg, she started the Holy Grail War of Yggdrasil in London. She has committed several murders and caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. With the help of a Berserker-class Servant (Artoria Pendragon) and the Grail she managed to destroy the entire universe, effectively causing the extinction of life itself. However, due to the nature of the Grail, everything started all over again and so Yukiko went to work to destroy everything a second time. She was stopped by Alessandro Serpi and Friedrich Wolff and later imprisoned in the Coven.
Yukiko is a sadistic girl who considers every human being as an object. She has no respect for life and she only craves one thing: the Void. Her sole purpose is to destroy everything in order to achieve the state of absolute nothingness. In her eyes, people have no freedom and are little different from things that can be used, destroyed and then forgotten. She appears to be physically unable to feel love, but she feels a strong sense of disgust towards humanity.

Artwork by BikoWolf

Palnatoke

Other names: Palnatoki, Palna Toki, Toki the Archer

Master: Anna Newton

A hero whose hands have killed a king. Palnatoke's story merges with legend and we know very little about this great archer. This pagan warrior didn't accept the dominion of the Roman Catholic faith and, when he learned that King Harald Bluetooth had been baptized, he understood that there was only one way to counter the Christians: with weapons.

Palnatoke decided to get close to Harald's son, a young and ambitious warrior named Sweyn Forkbeard. His goal was to manipulate the young man and convince him to declare war on his father; he succeeded. King Harald lost the throne, but not his life; Palnatoke intervened.

The archer hunted down the exiled king to give him the death he deserved. Eventually he found him and, when the two were face to face, the king didn't move and accepted his fate knowing that that death would be less painful for him than for Palnatoke's soul.

Harald's death didn't stop Christianity, but Palnatoke was content to have left a mark with his gesture. He was also the founder of a brotherhood known as the Jomsvikings. This group of mercenary Vikings and conquerors were, according to a legend, gathered and organized for the first time by this dark hero. It was he, in fact, who instituted the first codes for them and wanted them to be at the service of pagan kings. Unfortunately, this didn't happen.

Artwork by BikoWolf

Alessandro Serpi

Former member of the Coven and member of an ancient family of magi. This Italian magus, born in Rome, was abandoned by his father, Marco Serpi, and also by his mother. He spent his teenage years in the Coven and fought the Holy Grail War of Yggdrasil alongside the Saber-class Servant: Gaius Julius Caesar.

In that war he met a Master named Friedrich Wolff and teamed up with him to stop the dangerous Yukiko Kumahira and save the world from the Devourer-class Servant: Sheol.

At the end of the war, Alessandro decided to travel around the world and met Ina Shandilya. It was he who introduced her to the world of magic.

He's a very powerful magus. When he was in the Coven he was considered one of the most talented magi. The Magcraft he uses is called harmonic magic, it's based on the combination of magic words and particular sounds (in his case: snap of fingers).

Servant: α Saber

 

Valfredo Otto Herrmann

Son of Kenner Richter and Mollie Herrmann. He is Alda Richter's half-brother who is two years older than her and never recognized by the Richter family. Together with Friedrich Wolff he was a student of Sigwald Stein but stopped taking lessons from him under pressure from the Richter family, mainly Stina Richter.

Servant: ω Assassin

Artwork by BikoWolf

Orestes - Oreste

Other names: the Matricide

Master: Valfredo Otto Herrmann

 

Son of King Agamemnon and Clytemnestra and brother of Iphigenia, Electra and Chrysothemes. Orestes was still very young when Agamemnon, returning from the Trojan War, was assassinated by his mother's lover, Aegisthus.Orestes was saved by his elder sister who made him escape secretly from the city to entrust him to the care of his uncle Strophios, king of Phocis. Orestes grew up in Phocis and became the best friend of Pylades, the son of Strophios. While the boy lived a quiet life, Aegisthus dominated Mycenae with an iron fist, also squandering the fortune of the late Agamemnon. Everyone was awaiting the return of the prince because everyone expected a bloody revenge for the crime committed by Aegisthus. However, Orestes only learned the truth about his father's death when he was an adult. The oracle of Delphi revealed to him the will of the gods and he agreed to avenge his father. Orestes, therefore, killed Aegisthus but also his own mother. The matricide unleashed the wrath of the Erinyes.

Artwork by BikoWolf

 

 

Constantine the Great - Costantino il Grande

Other names: Constantine I, Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus, Pius Felix Invictus, Triumphator, Equal to the Apostles, Filius Augustorum, Saint Constantine

Master: Hina

It's not easy to describe the deeds of this man in a few words. The war produced by the failed tetrarchy saw two emperors rise to power: one in the West and one in the East. Constantine, in the West, reigned from Mediolanum (today's Milan) and was distinguished by his foresight because he didn't follow in the footsteps of his predecessors and didn't try to eliminate Christians from the empire. Discouraging himself from the terrible persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian, he had the edicts that banned Christian worship removed and returned to Christians the properties that had been unjustly stolen from them. He, knowing that the cult of Christ had spread like wildfire among the aristocrats and in the major cities of the empire, decided to make the Edict of Milan with which he granted freedom of worship to Christians.

To seize power, he decided to get his hands dirty with a series of planned murders. The first to be eliminated was the emperor of the East Licinius and then he had Crispus and also the son of Licinius eliminated, to avoid having possible rivals. He had his wife killed in the thermal baths and many other possible enemies. Anyone who was even suspected of being an enemy was killed.
Having obtained absolute power over that vast empire, Constantine decided to move the capital from Rome to Byzantium which was called Nova Roma (New Rome) and then Constantinople. In fact, the Roman Empire had two capitals from that moment on. The army, loyal to Constantine, was an important component in maintaining power. The emperor died in 337 AD leaving behind a new Roman Empire.

Artwork by BikoWolf

Pope Boniface VIII - papa Bonifacio VIII

Other names: Benedetto Caetani

Master: Ester Arellano

The pope famous for trying to carry out a theocratic project with the aim of subduing the monarchs of Europe, especially the king of France. His ambition led him to clash both with other figures of the Holy See and with figures belonging to the aristocracy who rejected the idea of a hierocracy. He consented to the destruction of Luceria saracenorum (Lucera), where a Muslim community resided for seventy years. The city was destroyed and rebuilt with the name Civitas Sanctae Mariae in a very short time the city was repopulated by Christians from all over the kingdom.

His rivalry with the Colonna, a noble Italian family, led him to order the destruction of an entire city called Praeneste (Palestrina) the story of that terrible massacre caused rumors about the demonic nature of the pope, many compared him to the Antichrist and others to the tyrant Lucius Cornelius Sulla (who had committed a similar massacre in that same city during the Roman republic).

After a long rivalry with the king of France, Boniface VIII was captured by the forces of Sciarra Colonna and held prisoner for three long days; in the end the people, still loyal to the pope, decided to rebel against those conspirators and brought the pope to safety.
Despite this, he died without ever being able to complete his project. After his death the Holy See moved to Avignon.

Artwork by BikoWolf

Marchosias

Other names: Winged Demonic Wolf, Winged Wolf, Wolf Marquis

Master: Friedrich Wolff

 

A great and powerful Marquis of Hell who commands thirty demonic legions. She is the sister of Glasya-Labolas (who's a winged dog as it happens). While Glasya is a griffin-winged dog, Marchosias is a griffin-winged wolf (she obviously concealed her true appearance for fanservice reasons). She's a great fighter, a warrior who is unparalleled on the battlefield, and knows the answers to several questions... in other words she's a knowledge demon who knows how to fight.

According to some theories, her desire is to obtain the forgiveness of the angels and to return to Heaven.

Artwork by BikoWolf

Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus - Gaio Giulio Cesare Ottaviano Augusto

Other names: Pater Patriae, Gaius Octavius Thurinus (better not to call him by that name), Imperator Caesar Divi filius Augustus, Divus Augustus Divi filius, First Emperor, Third Messiah

Master: Ina Shandilya

The first emperor of Rome, adopted son of Gaius Julius Caesar. He acted to avenge his mother by killing every single caesaricide with the help of Mark Anthony. Augustus managed to gain power only after defeating Mark Anthony and Queen Cleopatra, thus conquering Egypt. He had the son of Caesar and Cleopatra, Caesarion, killed and established himself as the new guide of Rome.

He became Princeps (First citizen) and used his power to bring peace to the empire. He knew how to coordinate his ambition and his cunning and was able to obtain absolute control over information and culture. His autocratic rule, appreciated by some by others detested, gave birth to an imperial cult, especially in the eastern provinces. In Egypt he was revered as the Third Messiah (the first was Alexander the Great and the second was Caesar) and divine attributes were given to him.

Together with his faithful wife, Livia Drusilla, he brought peace and prosperity to Rome; he wanted to convey the image of himself as a peaceful prince and that of Rome as a universal power... he also wanted to leave a heroic image of himself in the Res gestae.

Artwork by BikoWolf

Gaius Julius Caesar - Gaio Giulio Cesare

Other names: Pater Patriae, Divus Iulius, King of Tyrants

Master: Alessandro Serpi

The famous dictator (dictator perpetuo) who laid the foundations for the birth of the Roman empire. One of the most important and influential figures in history whose exploits have inspired hundreds of rulers and leaders.
Caesar was a military leader, politician, poet, orator, writer and had historical and philosophical interests. Her epicurean upbringing, combined with a strong ambition, made her the most forward-thinking person of her era. Her intellectual vivacity and her military ingenuity made her carry out great but also terrible feats.

The campaign in Gaul gave her great glory and made her very popular among the legions, however the price of that conflict was enormous; Caesar's hands got dirty with the blood of hundreds of thousands of people... but she never cared. Caesar has always seen those atrocities with a cold, detached eye, but she had to pay the price for it at the end of the campaign.

The senators in Rome were afraid of her strength and her connection with the legions. The stories of her crimes strengthened the senatorial opposition and, eventually, it led to civil war. A war that saw Caesar employ ingenuity, clemency and cunning to be able to emerge victorious.

Caesar came to power and became the most powerful person in the whole Mediterranean; of all Rome. She cultivated ambitions such as the conquest of Germany and the Parthians and in the meantime she was accused of wanting to become king.

Caesar's true plans in this regard are not known. Some argue that she wanted to be king, others say no. What is known is that her life met a tragic end.

Brutus, the stoic pacifist with a past as a usurer, and Cassius, the representative of a discontented aristocracy, plotted the conspiracy in the Ides of March. Both allies and enemies of Caesar took part in this conspiracy; all people who had been treated as friends, who had been forgiven and who had enjoyed the gifts given by the dictator. By killing her, however, they did not realize that they had eliminated the most lucid and far-sighted exponent of that city.

"The best wife for husbands and the best husband for wives" (as the Romans used to say). A figure of divine beauty who had several lovers both men and women, both Romans and not.

Her sword is the legendary Crocea Mors, also known by the name of Excalibur (the sword of King Arthur Pendragon).

She fought twice as many battles as the legendary Alexander the Great and made her name a synonym for power. Gaius Julius Caesar was a victim of traditional castes, but she was a star for remote peoples present in the multiethnic empire that was being created.

Artwork by BikoWolf