Rough Rider

## Class skills

Magic Resistance

Riding
B+

## Personal skills

Marksmanship
B+

Charisma
C+

Showmanship
A

Nature's Nobleman
C

## Noble Phantasm

Wild West
Anti-Army
E~EX

**Rough Rider** (true name: **William F. 'Buffalo Bill' Cody**), was a player servant in *Nulalius II: Grand Order*. He was played by Jadzi.

## Appearance

A description of visual factors. Build, identifying marks, movement quirks, etc.

### Combat Style: *Spectacular*

**Strengths:** Rider doesn't do plain. Every battle is a show, strung along for the best entertainment value. Sometimes that means doing things loud and showy, and sometimes that means playing along, taking a few licks to make the comeback look good. Never easily cowed, and most at home in the heat of the exchange, he's a boisterous rough-and-tumbler, embodying all the charm and derring-do of a wild west hero.
**Weaknesses:** Entertainment and showmanship are grand for morale, but ultimately a show is a fiction at its heart. As many layers of courage or bravado one may stack, as well as one may take a punch, a resilient demeanor is little defense against a crushing blow. If one gets too carried away, it can lead to arrogance, and arrogance has been the fall of many a would-be hero.
## Biography

### History

William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was born in Le Claire, Iowa, on February 26th, 1846, to Isaac and Mary Ann Laycock Cody. At age eight he moved with his family to the Kansas frontier where his father hoped to homestead. But the family experienced a series of financial and personal setbacks brought on by the turmoil of the slavery debate and culminating in Isaac Cody's death in 1857. As the oldest male member of the household, eleven year old Will took it upon himself to find work, becoming a cattle drover and teamster on westbound wagon trains.

In 1864 Cody enlisted in the Seventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry and served as a private for one and a half years. After the war he married Louisa Frederici of St. Louis; together they would have four children: Arta Lucille (1866-1904), Kit Carson (1870-1876), Orra Maude (1872-1883), and Irma Louise (1883-1918). Only one of Cody's children would survive him.

Unable to find steady work in more settled areas after the war, Cody established himself in a new career as an army scout. He would work intermittently as a scout for the next decade eventually becoming Chief of Scouts for the Fifth Cavalry. During that time Cody participated in a number of battles and skirmishes with Plains Indians tribes, most notably the Battle at Summit Springs and the Battle of Warbonnet Creek. In 1872 Congress awarded the Medal of Honor for his service as a civilian scout with the Third Cavalry.

Cody traced the origin of his nickname to an eighteen-month stint beginning in 1866 hunting buffalo to provide meat for Kansas railroad workers. He claimed to have killed approximately 4,280 buffalo during this time. As he began to cultivate his frontier persona, including his long hair and buckskin costume, Cody gained the attention of a writer and dramatist, E. Z. C. Judson, who wrote under the name Ned Buntline. In 1869 Buntline's Buffalo Bill: The King of Border Men appeared serially in Street and Smith's New York Weekly. It would be followed by many other Buffalo Bill dime novels over the next forty years, eventually numbering in the hundreds.

Cody began a career on stage at the encouragement of Buntline, who invited him to Chicago in 1872 to play himself in a western melodrama titled Scouts of the Prairie. Later that year Cody formed his own touring theatrical troupe with fellow plainsmen James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok and John Burwell "Texas Jack" Omohundro. The Buffalo Bill Combination, with varying cast members, toured U. S. cities for the next ten years, confining its season to the fall, winter, and spring, allowing Cody to return to the Plains each summer to scout for the army and guide hunting parties.

In 1882 Cody organized a Fourth of July celebration in North Platte, Nebraska. Later known as the "Old Glory Blowout," this precursor to today's rodeo featured demonstrations of horsemanship and cowboy culture. It was the next step in the evolution of the Wild West show. Cody paired with actor/manager Nate Salsbury in 1884 to form Buffalo Bill's Wild West. Highlights of the early years include the addition of Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull's brief participation in the summer of 1885. In May 1887, Cody realized his long-held dream to take his exhibition abroad when Buffalo Bill's Wild West embarked on a year-long tour of Britain. This led to several extended European tours. All told, Buffalo Bill's Wild West spent nearly a decade performing in Europe, including a triumphant summer at the 1889 Paris Exposition, presentation before Pope Leo XIII in 1890, and innumerable visits to the show by European royalty. Cody's time abroad made him the most recognizable American in Europe by the turn of the century.

With the success of Buffalo Bill's Wild West, Cody was able to devote resources to other projects. These included mining operations in Arizona and irrigation projects in Wyoming. In 1896 the town of Cody, Wyoming, was founded by Cody and his partners as a business venture. Buffalo Bill's Wild West enjoyed an extraordinary run on both sides of the Atlantic through the turn of the century. In the early twentieth century, as public tastes shifted, Cody and the Wild West exhibition found various ways to stay viable. After merging with another traveling exhibition in 1908, the exhibition eventually went bankrupt in 1913, and Cody appeared with other exhibitions between 1914 and his death in 1917.

William F. Cody died on January 10, 1917, at age 70 in Denver, Colorado, and is buried nearby on Lookout Mountain. His last surviving child, Irma, died of influenza the following year, and his wife Louisa passed away in 1921.

### Plot

Rider was summoned by Yvonne Beaumont within the Arcem lostbelt. While his master had been deemed most compatible with a Berserker servant, her aversion to chaos led her to reverse the requisite summoning chant at the last moment. Rider was thus summoned off of compatibility with Yvonne's traits - resilience, self-invention, affinity for nature, and a desire to preserve the world dear to them.

Despite this, their initial encounter was a tense one. A natural showman, Rider was inclined to announce himself openly to one and all rather than hide any of his aspects. Yvonne on the other hand was more calculating and methodical, opting for stealth and reticence in their hostile surroundings. She convinced Rider to conceal his identity through the use of costumes stored within his noble phantasm, and limiting his summons to a matching sub-group. He thus dressed himself as a Georgian rider, adopting the air of a slavic commander.

Shortly after summoning, the pair encountered Kaliyuga IV and World-encompassing Ruler, forming a team of convenience with them. They were just as swiftly attacked by Lancer of Song. To boost his abilities with a requisite audience, Rider blew a cavalry horn to draw the temporary attention of people in the park and surrounding streets. He then summoned ten Georgians to distract Lancer while he and Yvonne got some distance. When Lancer subsequently displayed her durability and seeming inability to die, the team fled to find more allies. (*Fake|Stranger*)

Their team eventually encountered Christopher Ranhavallan and Saber of the Truth. While considering options for how to proceed after their respective initial battles, the group was approached by Lancer of Captivity. This Lancer goaded them into a skirmish to prove themselves worthy of the trials ahead. As neither Yvonne nor Rider had the divinity to challenge him directly, they instead helped occupy his chains to support Saber. (*Asymmetric Warfare*)

## Abilities

### Class Skills

Magic Resistance (-)
Because he is a modern Heroic Spirit, he has no resistance to magic.
Riding (B+)
Most vehicles and animals can be handled with above average skill, even vehicles that did not exist in the time period one was alive in, for they are no exception. His true forte though is horses.
### Personal Skills

Marksmanship (B+)
Capable of hitting a target with his rifle even while riding or trick shooting. Particularly effective against large beasts.
Charisma (C+)
While he cannot manage a country, with the comrades who share his will, he holds a firm connection unbroken by death. What he has is potent enough to lead groups with at-times opposing ideologies by the hand.
Showmanship (A)
Tactics not of War, but of the Stage. Knowledge of how to trick ride, how to trick shoot, how to promote, hype, and build a spectacle to shock and awe. The flashier a performance he can generate, the greater the confidence he inspires, the better both he and his allies perform.
Nature's Nobleman (C)
Someone who had grown up on the frontier, yet represented all of those best aspects of civilization. An ease of bearing whether in the wasteland or before the Queen. Reduces effects of mental interference.
### Noble Phantasm

**Wild West [Emperor of the Fading Suns]**
**Rank:** E~EX
**Type:** Anti-Army
**Range:** 1~99
**Maximum Number of Targets:** 200
*Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World.* The swan song of the Old West.
In the closing days of the American Frontier, Cody brought together numerous heroes on one last hurrah. They traveled all over the world, showing their skills, reliving famous battles, and popularizing many aspects of frontier life and legend that went on to shape the vision of the Western genre. Upon activation, Cody is reunited for a time with the Heroic Spirits he once employed for one more performance.
A highly variable noble phantasm, Wild West relies on an adequate 'stage' and 'audience' being available to function. When idle and on his own, Cody's usage of this is effectively sealed. As he finds himself in the spotlight however, under greater and greater pressure to 'perform' an adventurous feat, this Noble Phantasm typically responds in kind by manifesting a suitable portion of his roster. It may be a single relevant Heroic Spirit, or a band of phantom equestrians from one of his many troupes. His Congress of Rough Riders includes Turks, gauchos, Arabs, Mongols, Georgians, Native Americans, cowboys, and US cavalry, any of whom have the potential to be summoned. The more defined the occasion, and the more detailed the stage presented (accentuated by his Territory Creation), the more successful the summon.
Further complicating matters is the relative strength of the bonds he formed. Singular figures like Annie Oakley (who toured with him extensively and was made famous by him) are much more likely to be called than ones like Geronimo (who toured for a time with one of his satellite troupes). Their own relations are also taken into account - if Wild Bill Hickock were summoned, Calamity Jane would resist the call, and vice versa.
The true power of this Noble Phantasm is only realized when faced with insurmountable odds. When 'performing' for a crowd of enemies vastly outstripping his own, in time and place of crucial importance, only then is Cody capable of bringing out his entire company, numbering a couple hundred at the most. On such an occasion, Cody performs his reputed Grand Finale, casting himself as the ill-fated George Armstrong Custer in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and mounting a final heroic stand with his comrades.
## Trivia

Optional. Any trivia worthy information not included in the rest of the article.