Scheherazade

TIP

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Info

Bio-Data

Class: Caster
True Name: Scheherazade
Other Name: Caster of the Nightless City
Sex: Female
Source: One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights)
Region: Persia
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Height: 168cm
Weight: 58kg

Meta

Character Creator: Minase Hazuki
Character Designer: Namaniku ATK
Character Voice: Inoue Kikuko
Major Appearances in Main Works: Fate/Grand Order

Stats

Parameters	Values
Strength	E
Constitution	D
Agility	E
Magical Power	C
Luck	EX
Noble Phantasm	EX

Class Skills

Territory Creation: A++

One can create an advantageous position for themselves as a mage.

Scheherazade happens to create a “sleeping quarter” for the sake of her own survival.

Personal Skills

Narrator: EX

A Skill that shows how skillful one is in verbally reciting tales and legends. Entirely different from the art of writing down tales in books, it is a story conveyance ability specialized in improvisation, allowing one to also take into account the mood and mentality of the audience to choose an appropriate way of reciting a story. It is likely that Rakugo storytelling Heroic Spirits possess this too.

Bedchamber of Survival: A+

A subclass of the “Pheromone” Skill, specialized for defense.

By combining “her own charm”, “the charm of the place” and “the charm of her actions” in the most suitable way according to the situation presented, Scheherazade can form and make use of “an area where she has the lowest probability of death in the World.” Although it is a conceptual area, it is also another “sleeping quarter”, a safety base that is just like her Workshop as well.

Counter-Hero: A

A Skill that brings down the Parameters of any Hero on the occasion of dealing with them.

This Skill for Scheherazade is being limited to “Counter-King”. For that reason, it acquires Rank A. In her case, it becomes something that especially demonstrates “the capability to survive against existences that have taken the title of King”, grasping the king’s mood, disposition, abilities, principles, state of health, etc., to make use of every art of coaxing she has so that by doing this, no matter how capricious a king can be, she can conduct herself in a way that will at least not get herself killed.

————In the moment when she has decided to confront a king as a storyteller with “a heroic tale that is about to be erased”, or in the moment when she has carried out a justifiable confrontation with a story of “a Hero who secretly saved the world”, this is sublimated into a special Skill unique only to Scheherazade: Counter-Hero (Story).

Noble Phantasm(s)

Alf Layla wa-Layla: One Thousand and One Nights

Rank: EX
Classification: Anti-Monarch Noble Phantasm
Range: —
Maximum Number of Targets: — people (range and number of targets depend on what was materialized)

Alf Layla wa-Layla (One Thousand and One Nights). This is a Reality Marble of “Scheherazade’s narrated tales”. By narrating them with such an overwhelming presence/sense of reality to the extent that even the World believes in it, those “tales” are made to be materialized. It summons and gives form to the characters, tools and spirits that appeared within One Thousand and One Nights. “Harun al-Rashid”, “Sinbad”, a “Magic Carpet”, “Aladdin”, a “Jinn (Spirit of the Lamp)”, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, “Yamlika, the Queen of Serpents”, and so forth. Even episodes that did not exist in the original (historically proper) One Thousand and One Nights and were written/absorbed into it in posterity are able to be employed given that they will be helpful to her survival as a Heroic Spirit. What is important is not their validity. It is whether or not the King can be entertained by these tales. Naturally, if a large number/large variety of things are produced all at once, the more that are produced, the steeper the Magical Energy consumption becomes. As a matter of course, the conclusion of the tale (Noble Phantasm) is brought to a finish like thus:

“————and such, was the story.”

From its origin, this Noble Phantasm has an attack specialty against those with the King Attribute. As long as they are an existence similar to a king, even if they are strictly not such a being, there are cases where they would be regarded as a “King” to Scheherazade.

“Since it is told that she is the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven… it seems that she is a king then. I cannot read my words because she is terrifying…”

Character

Pronouns

First Person Pronoun: watashi
Second Person Pronouns: anata / anata [only to females] / Master, King, My King (towards her Master)
Third Person Pronouns: kare / kanojo / ano kata, etc.

Personality

A gloomy, quiet and calm female storyteller. Scheherazade is clearheaded, composed, and is of the outstandingly cool-type of person, but that is not a harsh coldness. It is not an icy coldness, but a coldness like that of the moonlight. Because of her trait where she “observes, perceives and understands all of the kings she serves” (for the sake of her own survival), she has a high aptitude in being a prime minister. She primarily advises to the king, and reducing the physical and mental stress of the king is her greatest special skill, but if it is by all means necessary, she can also suggest military advice to her Master in a Holy Grail War.

Although there is a feeling where she wants to be her lord’s strength, Scheherazade’s fundamental strategy is “to protect her lord’s life while also protecting her own life”; in other words, she basically tries to choose and have herself conduct a stratagem that would produce the biggest military gains at a low degree of risk.

Because she always regards the avoidance of her death as number one, Scheherazade’s compatibility with a Master who treats her as someone disposable is bad. In that case, she would easily betray them and search for her own survival route.

Attitude Towards Master

The wish Scheherazade wants to make on the Holy Grail is “her own survival”. She feels that she does not want to die at least.

Scheherazade sees her Master as a king who she serves. A Master who attempts to force her into an extremely dangerous situation from which she might not return alive from is a bad king to her, while a Master who cherishes her is a good king to her. If the circumstances of her being cherished will lead to her own survival, then she will give her lord advice, tell tales as well, and further offer her body to them as much as they like.

But since being summoned is the same as being brought up to the stage again where death exists, that means the moment Scheherazade is summoned, she is quite gloomy. She basically thinks that she does not want to participate in the likes of a Holy Grail War.

In some sense, it is strange that someone such as Scheherazade was summoned under a system that is fundamentally established by an agreement between both parties… That is to say, she still believes from the depths of her soul. Even if it is a one in ten thousand chance, even if it is a one in a hundred million chance. Beyond the battles————the possibility that there is “something valuable in exposing one’s life to danger, which can only be obtained during then” is awaiting her.

Dialogue Examples

“Cannot sleep, my King? If you are able to allow it, I believe it will be greatly helpful for me to tell you a tale as a substitute for a lullaby…”

“Battles are a frightening matter. They must be avoided if possible…”

“I was requested for the next night. And again————the next night. This is a tale of an endless wish, spun from my words… Alf Layla wa-Layla.”

Historical Character and Figure

Scheherazade is the narrator of “One Thousand and One Nights” – a collection of stories translated into Arabic around the 8th Century – and the legendary Queen of Persia’s Sasanian Empire.

King Shahryar would repeatedly marry virgins and kill them one night later. In order to stop that wrongdoing, Scheherazade – a daughter of a cabinet minister – personally married the King. Scheherazade had planned so that, after spending the night with the King together, she would call for her younger sister, Dunyazade, for the purpose of informing her farewell, in which the latter would then look to approach and pester the former for a story. The King was pleased with the story Scheherazade narrated to Dunyazade and requested Scheherazade for its sequel, but dawn had broken out by then. Scheherazade then tells him that “Tomorrow’s tale will be even more exciting.” Because of this, the King continued to let Scheherazade live in order to hear the continuation of her tales, and finally————

… The collection of nearly a thousand tales that are being read even as of the present era are, for the most part, added by translators in posterity. According to one theory, the earliest collection of those stories – which became the overall collection’s core – only amounted to about two hundred some stories, and those stories even had no ending to them.

Character in FGO

Scheherazade was simply a woman who was intently committed to the matter of “escaping from death”.

At first, Scheherazade desired to become the King’s wife out of a sense of justice of “I shall stop the insane King.” And she successfully passed through the first night with the power of her tales. However————that has been repeated for a long, long time. The King’s heart did not change immediately. Day after day, it was not even unusual for her to die at any moment if she feels exhausted even for a little while. It is something like, a small monkey holding a needle covered with a lethal poison, always sitting on her shoulder for twenty-four hours. She could die on a whim. She could die especially without any reason at all. She could even die if the wind blows on her. When she is sitting side by side with death, she can rely on nothing but her tales, which she has no choice but to tell with her speech, and her own body, which looked like that of a prostitute’s, and those nights were repeated one thousand and one times to the point that they seemed to last an eternity————That was enough to bring about a change in her spirit.

Before she knew it, Scheherazade’s goal was simply “to escape from death”, a desire that burdened her body and soul. As long as it is just that, then that is fine with her. That is her very objective. She will devote that to all of her being. Because if she does not do so, she could die. Even though like that, she might die because she is doing that.

That is no different even if Scheherazade materializes as a Servant. She will just try to keep on surviving. Even if she has to do whatever it takes. There is neither good or evil in that. It is because her circumstances are just “as such”.

“Therefore, if the distinction between reality and tales (fiction/fantasy) is lost and the World is destroyed, then you can escape from death for eternity…” If there is someone who whispers that to her with malice… Or maybe if————

Role within the Game’s Story

In the Subterranean World of Folklore – Agartha, Scheherazade was summoned/assimilated by the Demon God Pillar Phenex when he was struck by Scheherazade’s own will to survive.

As a result of being provided with a Singularity (Holy Grail) by Phenex, Scheherazade uses the vast Magical Energy from it to expand the interpretation of her Noble Phantasm’s property where “it is able to further employ stories that were added to One Thousand and One Nights in posterity as a part of the Noble Phantasm.” “Tales” of “mythical cities” that existed around the world were forcibly inserted as something part of One Thousand and One Nights, and those mythical cities were completely realized as something part of reality (a group of underground fantasy cities). Using those as the core to raise “the tale called Agartha” even more, she generates a tale that reality will eventually not be able to disregard on a global scale, before she would rouse the present World into collapsing by making the Mystery concealed worldwide become obsolete; that was Phenex’s and Scheherazade’s goal.

After she created the underground world, Scheherazade prepared the necessary “characters” in order to move the tale forward. Including the Servants she personally summoned, she secured the Saint Graphs of several Chaldean Servants with Phenex’s cooperation to be the characters. It was necessary to arrange the appropriate characters, but it was not necessarily true that they conveniently exist on the “Throne”. Although she attempted to use “similar people” – “those who possess the essential components” – as substitutes to be used in the cast, it was moreover necessary to utilize the Saint Graphs that were already summoned. Still, no matter how they were mixed into the cast, she would not be able to simply distort the Heroic Spirits where they each have a soul strongly engraved in human history. For that reason, she first needs to secure character candidates from a reference area similar to the “Throne” in the form of her Noble Phantasm, One Thousand and One Nights, and from there, with the summoning technique formula being applied, it was necessary that those who were reproduced were mixed with the summoned Saint Graphs into the cast. In a tale produced out of reality, characters produced from that fictional world are narrated————In some sense, that is the same as One Thousand and One Nights itself – a nested framework.

And then, Scheherazade begins to talk. A tale of a world of women, one that is simply straightforward, and clichéd, and frighteningly harsh; one that is neither a gratitude story, nor a moral story, nor a religious story, nor is it a work of a war chronicle, nor is it a work of a mystery. The tale she speaks of————all of it together was absolutely necessary. The fact of the matter is, she herself chose to bring up that tale, because she chose that tale to act as the wedge that will break apart reality.

The reason for it.
The meaning of it.
It is within the spiral of the rainbow that pierces through the sky.

Standard Weapons

Her tales.

Fergus

She really does not understand the reason why, but whenever Scheherazade catches sight of Fergus, she slides away and unintentionally takes up a distance from him. Though it seems that it does not mean Fergus is hated by Scheherazade.

Nitocris

This and that happened, and Scheherazade became good friends with her. She believes that Nitocris is a good monarch.

Child Servants

Given that she genuinely gets to tell a story with pleasure, Scheherazade is happy. Especially in regard to Nursery Rhyme, Scheherazade has a particular thought about her state of being in that Nursery Rhyme is called “a tale that is also a hero”, so Scheherazade often shifts her attention to Nursery Rhyme with affection.

Arash

A Great Hero of Persia, someone who is famous to the extent that Scheherazade heard of Arash in the bedtime stories told to her. It is a fresh feeling to actually witness a (real) character of a tale that was not taken out and narrated by her, so her heart is throbbing a little.

Tyrant Servants

“Please forgive me… I will die…”

Queen of Sheba

A monarch who comes to get acquainted with Scheherazade in an attempt to make a profit with her art of storytelling.

“I heard a rumour that this person staffs her stores with only one person each… I will die…”

Comment from the Illustrator

Because “One Thousand and One Nights” was the concept, I drew her while constantly looking at the materials of that source. I was being conscious of a way to make her design not overlap with FGO’s existing characters, but also so that it does not drift too far away from FGO’s concept of its character designs. I got to choose the way her skin is coloured with my own tastes, making it a considerably dark brown colour. Although I think there are pros and cons to her design, including the shaping of her face too, usually I am getting to draw freely because of TYPE-MOON. I am grateful to them.

The final form of her weapon is my favourite, something like a 6-mounted launcher. Such an item is not limited to this work since it is common for me to habitually draw one-of-a-kind items, so it has structurally become quite complicated and bizarre. Even though I drew a 3-sided view of it, I was wracking my brains on if it was the way the design should be. Well, it must have been difficult for the people who created the data for the game’s use… I would like to tell them my thanks for letting me borrow their place. Although Ms. Schehera is rather excessively strong-willed, if she gets to serve you as an attendant for a long time, she will be happy when she is able to accept you showing your deep affections to her even like a squid. (Namaniku ATK)