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Player Information
Name: Rai
Contact: enaniotropic@gmail.com
Age: 36
Other Characters: None
Character Information
Name: Waver Velvet, otherwise known as Lord El-Melloi II or Zhuge Liang (the dormant Heroic Spirit fused with him)
Canon: Fate/ Grand Order
Canon Point: Post Temple of Time
Age: 42
History: Waver Velvet
And the Heroic Spirit dormant in Waver: Zhuge Liang
Personality: To understand Waver, one must travel back to Fate Zero and the war that shaped him and have an overview of mage culture in general to get nuance on some aspects of his personality.
Fate takes place in a world based on the concept of magic dying and being replaced by science – a shift where power is held by the very few (and is greatest when humanity’s number is small) to one where it belongs to everyone. This is because of Mystery, things that can’t be explained but have power due to belief and thus empower magic, loses its power once how it functions is understood. Magi, shadows of what they once were, have decided to devote everything to reaching the source of that power, the Root, and touch that lost glory once again. No price too dear – not even empathy, not even humanity.
The result is Magi society is a closed off, brutal place that is not quite entrenched in classism and sociopathy; but built on these concepts in their quest for preservation and return to power. Capacity to perform magecraft is linked to one’s quantity and quality of magic circuits, which can only be improved by generations of controlled breeding, and circuits are used to create bitterly fought over magic crests, which are libraries of magical knowledge that are passed down and used as cheats to get out of actually understanding what they’re casting. Therefore, one’s worth (and worthiness to live) is linked to generation, magical ability, and family, and mages are sorted into castes based on these criteria. And given knowledge and the number of people with possession of this knowledge degrades Mystery, those at the bottom of this pecking order face the worst oppression as due to their lack of prowess they have absolutely no worth.
Which brings us to one of their numbers – Waver Velvet, an orphaned third generation mage with the lousiest of circuits and the simplest crest to his name, but deeply in love with the pursuit of magic and all knowledge relating to it. Waver, in the beginning of Fate/Zero is angry, hotheaded, and desperate – masking his deep insecurities and lack of self worth due to his less than impressive magical capacities with a snapping, grumbling arrogance and bravado as a defense mechanism. He claims he’s a genius for example – which is only somewhat true intellectually as Waver lacks the other side of the equation to perform magic effectively – and lacks the maturity to realize the consequences of any rash actions and is willing to do anything to change his situation. This lands him in a war when he snaps after his teacher, Kayneth, destroys an essay of his on expanding magic circuits in front of the entire class Waver was a part of to humiliate him. Waver steals the man’s summoning relic and runs off to Japan to participate in the battle for the Holy Grail, in which Waver intends to win to get some respect.
And consequences there are. Waver summons the King of Conquerors, Iskandar, and they do not immediately get along. Iskandar does not respect Waver’s wish – one should earn respect rather than getting it handed to them by the most magical of all cups – and generally finds him annoying; a terrified, tearful boy who has no idea what he’s landed himself in, has no business ordering around a King after all. But after they encounter Kayneth (and every other Servant, but Kayneth is the important encounter), and Iskandar defends Waver from being verbally torn down, things and Waver begin to change. Waver’s front of arrogance crumbles as things progress and the body count rises, and he becomes more visibly humble and willing for Iskandar to take command. He recognizes he’s way over his head, but still tries to do his best to help, such as finding Caster’s lair and restoring Iskandar’s mana. He cares deeply but tries to hide it under snappiness and grouch, like a true tsundere. However, at the same time, he feels both that he’s holding Iskandar back and actively causing him harm by being a weak mage (Iskandar having to use his own mana, and the destruction of the Gordius Wheel by Saber that nearly killed both of them save for Iskandar pulling them out at the last moment are examples when he feels this.) and his own lack of power, especially when compared to Iskandar. Worth, for a magus, is based on how strong you are after all… and if you can’t win it for yourself...
However, Iskandar does his best to conquer the toxic thinking caused by mage culture by offering Waver an alternative – his own ideals. He instructs Waver to take pride in the simple magical methods he’s capable of instead of longing for more complex solutions that are out of his reach (as the guy who cut the Gordian knot, he knows simple is best), builds up Waver’s self confidence and combats Waver’s negative thinking with logic and his own experience. He talks to Waver about chasing after the impossible, as both their dreams are, and how to handle and savor the journey, even if in the end they’re no closer to their goal. Most importantly, Iskandar gives Waver what he’s really been needing – recognition and companionship and care. Something that’s difficult for Waver to accept and believe, conditioned as he is by the disgust of Mage society, until he gives up his Command Seals, freeing Iskandar from their contract. Iskandar refuses to abandon him. Waver finally knows he’s not alone in that moment – he has Iskandar.
Then in true Urobutcher fashion, the worst happens. Wars between Servants mean bloodbaths. Gilgamesh challenges Iskandar and utterly curbstomps him. In the moments before Iskandar’s final charge, he asks if Waver wishes to become his retainer; Waver pledges fealty in that emotionally charged moment – really there is nothing he wouldn’t agree to if Iskandar asked, right then and there, and that becomes pretty much true forevermore – and Iskandar gives him his final command.
"Live, Waver. See all of this to the end. And when it is done, speak of it. Of your king."
Iskandar dies gored through with Ea and restrained with Endiku, after enduring a rain of weapons from Gilgamesh’s Gate of Babylon, with Waver watching every moment of the slaughter. Gilgamesh goes to face Waver, asking if he’ll take revenge for his King, which Waver refuses, as Iskandar ordered him live, and a tiny nineteen year old versus the most powerful of all Heroic Spirits is going to end only one way. Gilgamesh spares him. But. He also leaves Waver with a command for having his life spared. Do not mar your loyalty. This is as engraved in Waver as Iskandar’s command: throughout all the media featuring Waver, not once has his devotion to Iskandar ever faltered.
Gilgamesh leaves. Fuyuki is devasted in the fire that will go on to leave a survivor that will go on to become Archer. Waver survives the war improved in character, but with his internal issues challenged yet unfixed and deeply traumatized. Aside for the elderly couple acting as his surrogate grandparents, he is alone. Still an outcast mage. And the survivor guilt is sinking in as he blames himself for the death of Kayneth, wonders if he and Iskandar could have prevented the deaths in Fuyuki… and wonders if he had been stronger, both as a mage and as a person, if Iskandar would have lived. Waver realizes he much rather would have been Iskandar’s friend than his retainer, an equal, and… as a showing of absolutely how devastated he is, would have rather died alongside him than lived. It takes Waver ten years to break free of that, as seen in the first volume of Case Files. Even so, Waver feels he isn’t worthy of the honor of being Iskandar’s retainer, much less his friend – toxic mage culture rearing its head again – and so resolves to become a person worthy of that, to pay back what he’s been given. Waver doesn’t understand he’s simply worthy by being Waver.
Waver decides to start taking responsibility for his actions by returning to Britain and taking over and completing Kayneth’s work. Doing so attracted the attention of the new head of Kayneth’s family, the young Reines, who can be kindly described as a sadistic troll. While she knows Kayneth’s death isn’t Waver’s fault, she blames him for it anyway to guilt him and demands compensation for the loss. She is surprised when Waver agrees nonchalantly to her demands, uncaring of what it would mean for him to meet them, and is somewhat disturbed even as she deems him a potentially useful tool. Reines takes his family crest and forcefully adopts him as her older brother and makes Waver the new Lord El-Melloi in ‘gratitude’, jumping him up from his position at the lowest of castes to a much higher one, outraging mages everywhere that a guy who is essentially a lowly pariah is now one of the twelve most powerful figures in the Mage Association. Really, it’s all to amuse Reines, who holds Waver’s leash and makes him serve her like a slave. He does but in his servility he also uses her; in continuing to exercise responsibility, Waver uses his position to restrain the worst impulses of Mages, making decisions from a moral and human standpoint. He learns how to politically maneuver and manipulate others – using their perception of him to fly under the radar. Waver can be squashed like a bug at any time, and everyone knows it as he’s still a weak mage, but as long as he’s subtle, no one would ever suspect him of trying anything because it’d guarantee his death and people think of him as a coward.
Waver hardens from that tearful boy – assassination attempts don’t phase him, people’s disdain (and sometimes fear) of him stings less and less until it rolls off his skin, he grows more cynical and bitter and snarky the more shit he sees and experiences, yet still never stops doing what’s right, and he gains a type of wisdom and worldliness that mages dismiss as more thoughts of a weak coward with no actual power and spine. Pride is not worth lives. Recklessness for pride just costs lives. Blood should not be shed lightly. Violence for the sake of violence is weak. Wars, though sometimes necessary, just bring more suffering and should not be committed to lightly. Life is valuable. He is deeply compassionate and invested in people; he just covers it up with grouchiness and snark. Take his interactions with Gray and Flatt for instance. Waver checks up on both, is genuinely concerned (and sometimes freaked out) over their safety, and does his best to keep them from dangerous situations, even though Gray is his bodyguard (among other things) and Flatt drives Waver so beyond spare that he’ll call apartments apartments instead of flats, despite being a Brit through and through. In the prologue of Case Files, Waver takes in a stray cat that had been hit by a car and comforts it as it dies, then buries it. The stray had been tormenting him earlier by biting him, but when it needed compassion, Waver was there. Being a Tsundere is only a cover.
Waver continues to practice magecraft. Continues to love knowledge and study all the magic he can in his own personal chase to Okeanos. The chase brings him pain and bitterness as it brings him to a point where he must accept he will never improve – the journey is impossible, after all – yet on some level, he can’t stop hoping for a miracle to happen. Like his drive to improve himself to be worthy of Iskandar’s pride, he can never stop moving forward in this either. Otherwise, such a thing would be unfitting as someone who follows the King of Conquerors. His love of knowledge and ability to break things down and understand how they work on a supernatural level make him an excellent detective and teacher and he has gained respect for his ability to bring out the utmost potential of a mage’s magic (which in a age of dying magic, he’s fashioning masterpieces of magecraft even if he can’t use it himself), even as other mages regard him as the great destroyer too, as his knowledge and ability to see, breakdown, and understand magecraft just accelerates the end of their era.
The scars of the Fourth War are deep and lasting, however, and the toxic teachings of Mage culture haven’t completely released their claws in Waver despite Iskandar’s countering ideals. As Waver lives, grows jaded and just grows as he tries to make himself a better person, he sinks into the persona of Lord El-Melloi II – mind the II, it grates without it as Kayneth was the one who truly deserved the title – and hates the boy he was, holding him more and more responsible for the past and so unworthy. He hates his continued helplessness and weakness when it comes to conflict and that others still need to fight for him – specifically Gray – while he stands by. The guilt is crushing and festering, and there are no therapists for Mages. It comes to a point where he tries to divorce himself of Waver Velvet – he is El-Melloi II now, and this is helped along by Waver Velvet being pretty much his dead name in Mage Society, with only his 'best friend' Melvin calling him by his True Name. It explodes in Fate Accel Zero Order when he encounters his younger self, furiously lecturing him with such viciousness that Iskandar lays into him like the king did Kayneth. But he is still Waver Velvet, even if he doesn’t want to acknowledge it. As well, Waver considers himself a fraud of a Lord and mage despite all the good he’s done; worth, again, is based on personal magical power, and the fact he’s still weak and that Reines only appointed him to troll the establishment and his power is provisional is a constant sore. It’s not earned one bit. This worsens when Zhuge Liang lends him his power as a Heroic spirit, and essentially screws off by going dormant after fusing with him and leaving Waver as the sole driving force of the Servant that results. He suddenly has exactly what he wants, power, knowledge and the ability to finally put everything he’s learned into practice himself, but he hasn’t earned it, and it’s a torment to him as seen in his second interlude in Fate Grand Order. Iskandar has to remind him after their fight that it doesn’t matter if the power is really his or not, what’s important is what he does with it.
Waver hasn’t stopped grieving and the War itself is a raw, bleeding wound even decades after the fact. People who look like Saber trigger him; he hates Japan because it reminds him his loss; across continuities he talks to Iskandar’s catalyst like an old friend; he specifically dresses to echo Iskandar and he’s picked up Iskandar’s hobby of video games both because he enjoys games and because it lets him feel closer to Iskandar. He sees echoes of Iskandar in other people, such as Flatt in Fate Strange Fake. Even the state of his apartment, messy and uncared for, suggests that more is going on with Waver than just the laziness of a perma-bachelor. Waver lives for Iskandar and Iskandar is engraved on his soul. There are many reasons why ultimately Waver helps ends the Grail Wars and ending the pointless bloodshed for a corrupted cup is only one. He did it for the Heroic Spirits involved, if one can take his comments to Jack during Strange Fake about him remembering them no matter what happens in the war as an indication of how he feels across all continuities, and he especially does it for Iskandar, that despite desperately wanting to see him again and being perfectly willing to throw himself into the middle of a warzone to do so during the era of Fifth Holy Grail War, Iskandar isn’t dragged again into the hell Waver remembers so well. It is perhaps why Zhuge Liang ultimately chose Waver as his host – Waver’s loyalty and steadfast devotion is his most defining quality – the core concept of Zhuge Liang’s own legend.
Abilities:
Name: Rai
Contact: enaniotropic@gmail.com
Age: 36
Other Characters: None
Character Information
Name: Waver Velvet, otherwise known as Lord El-Melloi II or Zhuge Liang (the dormant Heroic Spirit fused with him)
Canon: Fate/ Grand Order
Canon Point: Post Temple of Time
Age: 42
History: Waver Velvet
And the Heroic Spirit dormant in Waver: Zhuge Liang
Personality: To understand Waver, one must travel back to Fate Zero and the war that shaped him and have an overview of mage culture in general to get nuance on some aspects of his personality.
Fate takes place in a world based on the concept of magic dying and being replaced by science – a shift where power is held by the very few (and is greatest when humanity’s number is small) to one where it belongs to everyone. This is because of Mystery, things that can’t be explained but have power due to belief and thus empower magic, loses its power once how it functions is understood. Magi, shadows of what they once were, have decided to devote everything to reaching the source of that power, the Root, and touch that lost glory once again. No price too dear – not even empathy, not even humanity.
The result is Magi society is a closed off, brutal place that is not quite entrenched in classism and sociopathy; but built on these concepts in their quest for preservation and return to power. Capacity to perform magecraft is linked to one’s quantity and quality of magic circuits, which can only be improved by generations of controlled breeding, and circuits are used to create bitterly fought over magic crests, which are libraries of magical knowledge that are passed down and used as cheats to get out of actually understanding what they’re casting. Therefore, one’s worth (and worthiness to live) is linked to generation, magical ability, and family, and mages are sorted into castes based on these criteria. And given knowledge and the number of people with possession of this knowledge degrades Mystery, those at the bottom of this pecking order face the worst oppression as due to their lack of prowess they have absolutely no worth.
Which brings us to one of their numbers – Waver Velvet, an orphaned third generation mage with the lousiest of circuits and the simplest crest to his name, but deeply in love with the pursuit of magic and all knowledge relating to it. Waver, in the beginning of Fate/Zero is angry, hotheaded, and desperate – masking his deep insecurities and lack of self worth due to his less than impressive magical capacities with a snapping, grumbling arrogance and bravado as a defense mechanism. He claims he’s a genius for example – which is only somewhat true intellectually as Waver lacks the other side of the equation to perform magic effectively – and lacks the maturity to realize the consequences of any rash actions and is willing to do anything to change his situation. This lands him in a war when he snaps after his teacher, Kayneth, destroys an essay of his on expanding magic circuits in front of the entire class Waver was a part of to humiliate him. Waver steals the man’s summoning relic and runs off to Japan to participate in the battle for the Holy Grail, in which Waver intends to win to get some respect.
And consequences there are. Waver summons the King of Conquerors, Iskandar, and they do not immediately get along. Iskandar does not respect Waver’s wish – one should earn respect rather than getting it handed to them by the most magical of all cups – and generally finds him annoying; a terrified, tearful boy who has no idea what he’s landed himself in, has no business ordering around a King after all. But after they encounter Kayneth (and every other Servant, but Kayneth is the important encounter), and Iskandar defends Waver from being verbally torn down, things and Waver begin to change. Waver’s front of arrogance crumbles as things progress and the body count rises, and he becomes more visibly humble and willing for Iskandar to take command. He recognizes he’s way over his head, but still tries to do his best to help, such as finding Caster’s lair and restoring Iskandar’s mana. He cares deeply but tries to hide it under snappiness and grouch, like a true tsundere. However, at the same time, he feels both that he’s holding Iskandar back and actively causing him harm by being a weak mage (Iskandar having to use his own mana, and the destruction of the Gordius Wheel by Saber that nearly killed both of them save for Iskandar pulling them out at the last moment are examples when he feels this.) and his own lack of power, especially when compared to Iskandar. Worth, for a magus, is based on how strong you are after all… and if you can’t win it for yourself...
However, Iskandar does his best to conquer the toxic thinking caused by mage culture by offering Waver an alternative – his own ideals. He instructs Waver to take pride in the simple magical methods he’s capable of instead of longing for more complex solutions that are out of his reach (as the guy who cut the Gordian knot, he knows simple is best), builds up Waver’s self confidence and combats Waver’s negative thinking with logic and his own experience. He talks to Waver about chasing after the impossible, as both their dreams are, and how to handle and savor the journey, even if in the end they’re no closer to their goal. Most importantly, Iskandar gives Waver what he’s really been needing – recognition and companionship and care. Something that’s difficult for Waver to accept and believe, conditioned as he is by the disgust of Mage society, until he gives up his Command Seals, freeing Iskandar from their contract. Iskandar refuses to abandon him. Waver finally knows he’s not alone in that moment – he has Iskandar.
Then in true Urobutcher fashion, the worst happens. Wars between Servants mean bloodbaths. Gilgamesh challenges Iskandar and utterly curbstomps him. In the moments before Iskandar’s final charge, he asks if Waver wishes to become his retainer; Waver pledges fealty in that emotionally charged moment – really there is nothing he wouldn’t agree to if Iskandar asked, right then and there, and that becomes pretty much true forevermore – and Iskandar gives him his final command.
"Live, Waver. See all of this to the end. And when it is done, speak of it. Of your king."
Iskandar dies gored through with Ea and restrained with Endiku, after enduring a rain of weapons from Gilgamesh’s Gate of Babylon, with Waver watching every moment of the slaughter. Gilgamesh goes to face Waver, asking if he’ll take revenge for his King, which Waver refuses, as Iskandar ordered him live, and a tiny nineteen year old versus the most powerful of all Heroic Spirits is going to end only one way. Gilgamesh spares him. But. He also leaves Waver with a command for having his life spared. Do not mar your loyalty. This is as engraved in Waver as Iskandar’s command: throughout all the media featuring Waver, not once has his devotion to Iskandar ever faltered.
Gilgamesh leaves. Fuyuki is devasted in the fire that will go on to leave a survivor that will go on to become Archer. Waver survives the war improved in character, but with his internal issues challenged yet unfixed and deeply traumatized. Aside for the elderly couple acting as his surrogate grandparents, he is alone. Still an outcast mage. And the survivor guilt is sinking in as he blames himself for the death of Kayneth, wonders if he and Iskandar could have prevented the deaths in Fuyuki… and wonders if he had been stronger, both as a mage and as a person, if Iskandar would have lived. Waver realizes he much rather would have been Iskandar’s friend than his retainer, an equal, and… as a showing of absolutely how devastated he is, would have rather died alongside him than lived. It takes Waver ten years to break free of that, as seen in the first volume of Case Files. Even so, Waver feels he isn’t worthy of the honor of being Iskandar’s retainer, much less his friend – toxic mage culture rearing its head again – and so resolves to become a person worthy of that, to pay back what he’s been given. Waver doesn’t understand he’s simply worthy by being Waver.
Waver decides to start taking responsibility for his actions by returning to Britain and taking over and completing Kayneth’s work. Doing so attracted the attention of the new head of Kayneth’s family, the young Reines, who can be kindly described as a sadistic troll. While she knows Kayneth’s death isn’t Waver’s fault, she blames him for it anyway to guilt him and demands compensation for the loss. She is surprised when Waver agrees nonchalantly to her demands, uncaring of what it would mean for him to meet them, and is somewhat disturbed even as she deems him a potentially useful tool. Reines takes his family crest and forcefully adopts him as her older brother and makes Waver the new Lord El-Melloi in ‘gratitude’, jumping him up from his position at the lowest of castes to a much higher one, outraging mages everywhere that a guy who is essentially a lowly pariah is now one of the twelve most powerful figures in the Mage Association. Really, it’s all to amuse Reines, who holds Waver’s leash and makes him serve her like a slave. He does but in his servility he also uses her; in continuing to exercise responsibility, Waver uses his position to restrain the worst impulses of Mages, making decisions from a moral and human standpoint. He learns how to politically maneuver and manipulate others – using their perception of him to fly under the radar. Waver can be squashed like a bug at any time, and everyone knows it as he’s still a weak mage, but as long as he’s subtle, no one would ever suspect him of trying anything because it’d guarantee his death and people think of him as a coward.
Waver hardens from that tearful boy – assassination attempts don’t phase him, people’s disdain (and sometimes fear) of him stings less and less until it rolls off his skin, he grows more cynical and bitter and snarky the more shit he sees and experiences, yet still never stops doing what’s right, and he gains a type of wisdom and worldliness that mages dismiss as more thoughts of a weak coward with no actual power and spine. Pride is not worth lives. Recklessness for pride just costs lives. Blood should not be shed lightly. Violence for the sake of violence is weak. Wars, though sometimes necessary, just bring more suffering and should not be committed to lightly. Life is valuable. He is deeply compassionate and invested in people; he just covers it up with grouchiness and snark. Take his interactions with Gray and Flatt for instance. Waver checks up on both, is genuinely concerned (and sometimes freaked out) over their safety, and does his best to keep them from dangerous situations, even though Gray is his bodyguard (among other things) and Flatt drives Waver so beyond spare that he’ll call apartments apartments instead of flats, despite being a Brit through and through. In the prologue of Case Files, Waver takes in a stray cat that had been hit by a car and comforts it as it dies, then buries it. The stray had been tormenting him earlier by biting him, but when it needed compassion, Waver was there. Being a Tsundere is only a cover.
Waver continues to practice magecraft. Continues to love knowledge and study all the magic he can in his own personal chase to Okeanos. The chase brings him pain and bitterness as it brings him to a point where he must accept he will never improve – the journey is impossible, after all – yet on some level, he can’t stop hoping for a miracle to happen. Like his drive to improve himself to be worthy of Iskandar’s pride, he can never stop moving forward in this either. Otherwise, such a thing would be unfitting as someone who follows the King of Conquerors. His love of knowledge and ability to break things down and understand how they work on a supernatural level make him an excellent detective and teacher and he has gained respect for his ability to bring out the utmost potential of a mage’s magic (which in a age of dying magic, he’s fashioning masterpieces of magecraft even if he can’t use it himself), even as other mages regard him as the great destroyer too, as his knowledge and ability to see, breakdown, and understand magecraft just accelerates the end of their era.
The scars of the Fourth War are deep and lasting, however, and the toxic teachings of Mage culture haven’t completely released their claws in Waver despite Iskandar’s countering ideals. As Waver lives, grows jaded and just grows as he tries to make himself a better person, he sinks into the persona of Lord El-Melloi II – mind the II, it grates without it as Kayneth was the one who truly deserved the title – and hates the boy he was, holding him more and more responsible for the past and so unworthy. He hates his continued helplessness and weakness when it comes to conflict and that others still need to fight for him – specifically Gray – while he stands by. The guilt is crushing and festering, and there are no therapists for Mages. It comes to a point where he tries to divorce himself of Waver Velvet – he is El-Melloi II now, and this is helped along by Waver Velvet being pretty much his dead name in Mage Society, with only his 'best friend' Melvin calling him by his True Name. It explodes in Fate Accel Zero Order when he encounters his younger self, furiously lecturing him with such viciousness that Iskandar lays into him like the king did Kayneth. But he is still Waver Velvet, even if he doesn’t want to acknowledge it. As well, Waver considers himself a fraud of a Lord and mage despite all the good he’s done; worth, again, is based on personal magical power, and the fact he’s still weak and that Reines only appointed him to troll the establishment and his power is provisional is a constant sore. It’s not earned one bit. This worsens when Zhuge Liang lends him his power as a Heroic spirit, and essentially screws off by going dormant after fusing with him and leaving Waver as the sole driving force of the Servant that results. He suddenly has exactly what he wants, power, knowledge and the ability to finally put everything he’s learned into practice himself, but he hasn’t earned it, and it’s a torment to him as seen in his second interlude in Fate Grand Order. Iskandar has to remind him after their fight that it doesn’t matter if the power is really his or not, what’s important is what he does with it.
Waver hasn’t stopped grieving and the War itself is a raw, bleeding wound even decades after the fact. People who look like Saber trigger him; he hates Japan because it reminds him his loss; across continuities he talks to Iskandar’s catalyst like an old friend; he specifically dresses to echo Iskandar and he’s picked up Iskandar’s hobby of video games both because he enjoys games and because it lets him feel closer to Iskandar. He sees echoes of Iskandar in other people, such as Flatt in Fate Strange Fake. Even the state of his apartment, messy and uncared for, suggests that more is going on with Waver than just the laziness of a perma-bachelor. Waver lives for Iskandar and Iskandar is engraved on his soul. There are many reasons why ultimately Waver helps ends the Grail Wars and ending the pointless bloodshed for a corrupted cup is only one. He did it for the Heroic Spirits involved, if one can take his comments to Jack during Strange Fake about him remembering them no matter what happens in the war as an indication of how he feels across all continuities, and he especially does it for Iskandar, that despite desperately wanting to see him again and being perfectly willing to throw himself into the middle of a warzone to do so during the era of Fifth Holy Grail War, Iskandar isn’t dragged again into the hell Waver remembers so well. It is perhaps why Zhuge Liang ultimately chose Waver as his host – Waver’s loyalty and steadfast devotion is his most defining quality – the core concept of Zhuge Liang’s own legend.
Abilities:
- Waver’s intelligence is his shining feature in all continuities and he is a stunning analyst with an exceptional pool of knowledge to draw upon at his command. Waver is good at not only breaking apart magecraft, he’s good at breaking apart mysteries and puzzles in general. If there’s detective work to be done, Waver will get to the bottom of it, correctly deducing cause and motive for any case he takes on. What aids this is that Waver is exceptionally observant and perceptive as well – for instance, he deduces Flatt is using magecraft to manipulate his expressions with a glance in Strange Fake – of both environments and people, allowing him insight on the workings and thoughts of others involved in the events playing out in front of him. It allows him to manipulate them – indeed Roman compares a Zhuge empowered Waver in the Zero event to a con artist in the way he was playing Kayneth – into doing what he wants them to do while making them think it was their own idea in the first place. Waver’s own experience in politics as a Lord helps with that manipulation – it’s unfortunately part of the job - and it’s given him a keen, though jaded, insight into how people behave.
- Waver’s also tactical in his thinking – and that’s even before you add Zhuge Liang’s own experience and abilities into the mix. Decades of political maneuvering and playing strategy war games on X Box will do that to you. This extends to how he protects himself before the fusion – Waver has inlayed cigars with disposable Mystic Codes to create a variety of effects like Bounded Fields (barriers) and is proficient and very willing to use technology, something that most mages recoil from and don’t know how to counter (ex: he's quite a skilled driver, who can easily handle a highway chase). There is a reason why the fandom calls him Magus Batman, after all. With Zhuge, who is often compared to Sun Tzu (and that should say it all when in comes to tactical prowess, military or otherwise), he’s a formidable opponent to engage when he’s given the ability to orchestrate events.
- Waver is also talented in putting together the procedures to enact complex works of magecraft, even if he can’t carry them out before the fusion. He was the one who came up with and designed the process of turning Kayneth’s Mystical Code from an attack blob of mercury to an artificially intelligent mercury golem maid; still capable of slicing and dicing… but cleaning your house and serving you tea, among other things. Waver is capable of things such as creating animal familiars and Reinforcement Magecraft, however Waver’s best field is alchemy and it is suggested he has an excellent grasp of chemistry as well. We see him whipping out such things as tracking spells, analyzing material for traces of magecraft, and potion making constantly in canon. He also has some hypnotic ability and skill at memory manipulation. As a weak mage, this wasn’t very good; as a Heroic Spirit, this ability can be considered much more powerful combined with Zhuge Liang's raw magical ability which is incredibly strong.
- Waver, however, is most noted for his excellent teaching; with his ability to break down, understand, and perfect the process of magecraft and other skills and derive solutions to problems, he can bring a student to their maximum potential. He’s good at imparting knowledge in general; this, in part, is why Alexander (the child form of Iskandar) wanted Waver to be his teacher. The other part, of course, it was Waver.
- Waver as a Servant is still a squishy mage – by Servant standards – but compared to how physically frail he is as a pure human (he gets exhausted by moderate physical exertion), it’s a step up from his previous situation. Pseudo-Servants on the whole tend to be a wee bit more fragile than full Servants as they don't heal quite as quickly, can't go into spirit form, and must tend to human needs like sleeping and eating. He doesn’t have any martial skill granted to him – Casters usually tend to fight by their magic and just that – and Waver’s direct experience in combat is limited. He only wins the fight with Iskandar due to Zhuge’s tactical skills, his own Noble Phantasm being a direct counter to Iskandar’s, and his own personal knowledge of how the other Servant fights and thinks. Waver is best when he’s supporting others to fight and managing tactics from a distance. He gets benefits from being connected to the Throne of Heroes such as being able to instantly understand and speak any language and limited knowledge of other Servants he knows the identity of. As a Pseudo Servant, he also isn’t as dependant on having a Master to supply him mana, the energy all Servants require to exist, but ultimately needs it to sustain Zhuge. As a Caster he can help get around this by pulling the mana from leylines or by consuming food and replenishing his reserves that way, but as a solution an actual mana transfer from someone else is more effective.
- Territory Creation: A - the Skill to build a special terrain that is advantageous to oneself as a magus, such as for the purpose of collecting mana.
- Item Construction: B – the Skill to manufacture magical items, from implements of war to items for daily use. Waver is restricted to making items from Zhuge Liang’s legend and from his own personal knowledge. This Skill requires time to gather components and manufacture items.
- Discerning Eye: A – A Skill deriving from Waver and the crystallization of his ability to analyze according to the databooks. This is the reflection of his ability to look at magic/magecraft, break down how it works, and how to use it as well as his ability to perceive and bring out the maximum potential in others.
- Advice of the Strategist: A+ - a Skill given to military-affiliated Servants. By grasping and analyzing the situation, correct advice can be given to one's allies.
- Command of the Strategist: A+ - a Skill given to military-affiliated Servants. Maximizes the power of allied troops as an army, including oneself.
- Unreturning Army: Stone Sentinel Maze – at rank C, it’s an Anti-Army Noble Phantasm. Composed of huge stones making up a terrifying labyrinth for it’s targets to be trapped and slain in. The longer one is in the maze, the higher chance one has of dying, as injury stacks given time. Also very spooky place in general – would be perfect for Halloween if death wasn’t in the cards for being in it. Activating the Noble Phantasm forcibly changes the area into the Maze. According to FGO databooks, Waver’s Territory Creation skill goes up to EX within its confines. This is the one used all the time in game.
- Chu Shi Biao – at rank EX, it’s an Anti-Army Noble Phantasm that doesn’t work against the enemy but works with the self and the allies of the Caster, to grant a thing (generally abilities) to the designated target that the situation requires. The power of this Noble Phantasm is dependent on the severity of the situation and escalates as things get worse; in peaceful times, the boons it grants is weak, while in a dire immediate world ending crisis, what it gifts is extremely powerful. This is only once used in game, so far, to grant Servant status to Gray and allow the summoning of Reines and Luvia as Pseudo Servants in the Lady Reines Case Files Event.
Inventory/Companions: - The clothes he's wearing (shoes, socks, suit, red coat, gold scarf) as a Servant.
- His crane feathered fan (he materializes this out of mana)
- One folding hunting knife
- One gold pocket watch
- Mystic Eye Killers (glasses that prevent him from being affected by the powers of Mystic Eyes; can be overwhelmed by strong enough powers)
- Mystic code cigars and lighter
- Small notebook and fountain pen
Faction Choice: Court of Stars
Reason: Waver, ultimately, despite his pragmatism, logic, and cynicism, is driven by living up to Iskandar's legacy and dream. Many of his decisions in canon are shaped by as much by his trauma and conscience as rationalism - constantly seeking to save lives and prevent as much bloodshed as possible, despite personal consequences, because it is the moral and just thing to do. This is a deviation from the behavior of a normal magus where the ends justify the means is the well accepted norm and emotions do not factor into decisions (often leading to deadly, destructive consequences for those around them). This is not to say that he does not exhibit the traits that would make him a good candidate for the Moon Temple as well - Waver can be absolutely ruthless when called to be and make the hard calls; he deals constantly with the big picture as analyst, detective, strategist, and Lord - but while being a doer and a dreamer are fairly balanced, in the end... his heart edges out, and the Court is the slightly better fit.
Tattoo: The Root, between his shoulder blades.
Writing Sample
Network Sample: here and here for an example of written, here for speaking
Log Sample: Here, here, and here
Anything Else?: Are there any option for making contracts or otherwise getting a steady supply of mana within game? I understand that Servants become human when they run out of mana in Fellden, (Waver being a Pseudo Servant means he generates some of his own regardless since he is alive but it's not enough to sustain him if he starts fighting.) but I'm in the dark about how that plays out in regards to affecting such things as say... stats and such.
These are Waver’s general skills and strengths across all series in the franchise, however, in Fate Grand Order, Waver has been fused (or more accurately, possessed by) with Zhuge Liang to create a Pseudo Servant hailing from the Caster class. Technically, this Servant isn’t Waver or Zhuge but a mixture of both, a third persona created by merging two people - but since Zhuge Liang is dormant (and what he’s like unknown), and Waver is the personality running the show, abet with access to Zhuge’s powers, abilities, and experiences, it’s best to consider him the only personality needed to be considered. Though it’s important to remember Zhuge, while dormant, is still there inside Waver and able to be sensed by those who have abilities to do so.
These are his stats. E rank is least powerful while EX rank is most:
Strength: E
Mana: A+
Endurance: E
Agility: D
Luck: B+
Noble Phantasm: A
Waver’s Class skills are:
and
While his Personal Skills are:
Fate Grand Order presents these Personal Skills in game as buffs, although Case Files presents Discerning Eye more as a passive ability, always in play. Essentially what they shake down to is a super ability to analyze the situation, magic, and people involved; make up great plans to take down the enemy; and prepare, strengthen, and firm the resolve of everyone going in for the greatest chance of victory. The Class skills speak for themselves.
While Waver fights with fire, wind, and earth spells for direct battle (he also has ice, lightning, and lasers), and has other spells he uses outside of it such as Qi Men Dun Jia, Eight Gates Golden Locks Formation (a Presence Concealment nullification spell), he also has two Noble Phantasms at his disposal:
Noctium work in progress
Date: 2021-01-24 09:14 pm (UTC)From: