Guinevere

**Guinevere**, or **Gwenhwyfar**, is the legendary Arthurian Queen, wife of King Arthur and lover of Lancelot. She is the founder and a Grand Master within the Templar Order and the Joker within Gabriel's Deck of Hearts ♥.

She serves as a [Knight] of Team Faerie Knights of Avalon in the Azazel Cup.

## Overview

**Guinevere**, also written as **Gwenhwyfar**, **Guenevere**, or **Guenever**, is the legendary queen and wife of King Arthur. First recorded in literature by the early 12th century, Guinevere has been portrayed as everything from a villainous and opportunistic traitor to a fatally flawed but noble and virtuous lady. A notably recurring theme in many Arthurian tales is that of her abduction.

In a later medieval Arthurian romance tradition from France, a prominent story arc is Guinevere's tragic love affair with her husband's chief knight and friend, Lancelot, indirectly causing the death of Arthur and many others and the downfall of the kingdom. Such motif became a major plotline in Sir Thomas Malory's seminal English compilation *Le Morte d'Arthur*. Guinevere has continued to be a popular character in modern adaptations of the legend, usually in relation with Lancelot.

## Appearance

Guinevere is an extremely beautiful woman, with a curvaceous body, long dark-purple hair and blood-red eyes. She is noted to be so beautiful that Odin declared her to be one of the most attractive women he has ever seen, placing her among many goddesses such as Freya or Aphrodite.

She is shown often wearing the attire of a Christian nun, though it does nothing to hide her divine physique, with a black veil over her head. During the Azazel Cup's opening ceremonial ball, she was shown wearing an ornate dress made out of crimson velvet with jewels sewn into her bodice and a low neckline showing her voluptuous breasts.

## Personality

Guinevere's role was to protect the country for the greater good, but to act as the "queen" was to become a mechanical part simply supporting the "king". From a young age, she was taught to avoid self-reflection, as was the culture of the time, so she was someone who had little sense of herself as a woman. She could not be a "woman" or even a "human", but only the idea of a "noble and virtuous queen" to stand beside the ideal king.

Having eventually consigned herself to playing the part, she discarded everything for the grandiose ideal of supporting the ideals the populace had for the king. And while she respected and admired Arthur as a person and is grateful to have him for a husband, but she was a "normal woman" at her core and found it too hard to keep up with his way of life and to accept his incestuous relationship with Morgan.

After spending her time at Amesbury Priory and among the monks and nuns who didn't care about her former status, only seeing her as a fellow servant of God, she began to mature more as a person and became Guinevere the woman and not Guinevere the Queen.

She is a gentle, kind, and compassionate person who would never give up on people she considers her friends. She greatly cares for the Templar Order and is the reason why no templar would never go against their creed and harm an innocent supernatural, regardless of their origins. She is also known for her charity works, as she personally manages many charitable organizations across the world.

Due to her age and experience, she is a mature, wise, and intelligent person. She is a responsible and strong-willed woman who is unafraid to berate and challenge people in positions of power for their unseenly behaviors, though she did confided that she sometimes finds it difficult to express what is truly in her heart. She is fast-thinking and quick to speak up and defend both her friends and those who are unfairly treated.

Because of her past, she could be cynical at times, having lost all hope and faith in songs and knights. She claims herself to be the "greatest anti-fan" of feudalism and the traditional beliefs of chivalry and knighthood, stating that them are nothing more than stupid romanticization. Despite this, she still believes in the goodness in others, even when all hope seems to be lost.

## History

### Early Life

Guinevere was born to a warlord named Leodegrance, who was the Lord of Cameliard and the leader of many Welsh tribes, and his first wife. When she was young, a plague came to Cameliard and took the life of her mother, and in order to protect her, her father sent her to be fostered by her mother's cousin Cador, Duke of Cornwall.

When she was around 8 years old, her father married another wife, a pagan woman who was seen in much better light by her father's men than her own Christian mother. After the birth of her half-sister Guinevak, she plotted to kill her so that her own daughter would be Leodegrance's only heir, and after a foiled assassination attempt, she was caught and crucified for her crimes.

### Marriage with Arthur

After Arthur became king, in order to rekindle the loyalty between the royal family, as well as to unite the lands of many Welsh tribes under Leodegrance's commands, he married Gunivere in a ceremony that was seven days and seven nights long. On their wedding night, they conceived their son Loholt Pendragon, who was taken away to be raised by his grandmother Igraine at an early age, and thus, was spared from the fate his mother and father would have to face.

#### Queen of Camelot

According to Merlin, while she was surprised and overwhelmed at first, she took her role as queen as fish to water and easily won over the love of the people. During Arthur's constant travelling to quell the civil war within the kingdom, she had become the true leader that Camelot needed in such time, and on more than one occasion, she even led the remaining knights to defend the castle from invaders.

While she did, at first, had romantic feelings for Arthur, it quietly died out when she discovered his forbidden and incestuous affair with his sister Morgan. One night, she caught them *in flagrante* and told them that she would accept their relationship with the condition that she would be allowed to have lovers of her own, in addition to that all children born of their union would be sent to be fostered as far away from the royal castle as possible. Despite this promise, she had never taken other men to her chambers, though it's implied by Morgan that she had "tasted all the fair flowers of Camelot at least once".

#### Abduction

In an attempt to overthrow her sister, Guinevak used witchcraft to transform herself into Guinevere and had King Maleagant of Somerset to kidnap the true Guinevere and hold her prisoner at his stronghold at Glastonbury while Arthur wasn't in Camelot, having been on a trip to quell a rebellion by the druids who did not accept Christian king.

She was held there for nearly an entire year until she was rescued by two of Arthur's best knights, Lancelot, Mordred, and Gawain, who defeated Maleagant and his men. However, humiliated by her kidnap, she didn't let the knights escort her back to Camelot just yet, but instead chose to go and punish all those who were involved in her kidnapping. During which, she killed the chief druid Valerin, her father's trusted adviser Gotegrim, and her former suitor Gasozein de Dragoz, in addition to conquering their lands and kingdoms in the name of King Arthur.

When she returned to Camelot, she exposed Guinevak's ruse and a trial by combat was held by her supporters in an attempt to save their mistress. During the trial, Guinevere's champion Lancelot defeated and killed all three of Guinevak' champions, one of which is Uriens of Gorre, king of the Hen Ogledd, and husband of Arthur's older sister Morgan, which caused animosity between Camelot and Rheged. After which, Guinevere had Guinevak burnt at the stake for her crimes.

When news came of Guinevak's bastard son Guiomar arrived, per the promise she made with Arthur many years ago in order to have her turned a blind eye to his and Morgan's relationship, he had him sent away to live with his aunt Elaine, whose husband King Budick II of Cornouaille had just recently died, alongside his cousins, Galeschin, Lynette and Lyonesse.

#### Affair with Lancelot

After their time together, a forbidden love blossomed between Lancelot and Guinevere, all under Arthur's permission and blessing. However, due to their status, a married queen and a man sworn loyalty to her king, their love was tragic and doomed from the start. And while they would be secretive at first, as time went on, they became bolder and bolder until rumors of their love were as much as the ones about Arthur and his sisters.

##### The Aftermath

The secret romance between her and Lancelot finally came to an end when Mordred caught them in the act while Arthur was leading an army to Rome to fight off a threat to the kingdom. Using this as evidence, he called forth his own bannermen in rebellion against his father, all the while mockingly proposed to her and said that this was "gift to [Mordred]'s new bride".

Angered and humiliated, Guinevere slapped him before the court and exposed his true identity, not as the son of Morgause and the late King Lot, but instead the bastard born of the incestuous relationship between Arthur and his sister Morgan. Mordred, enraged, ordered her to be burnt at the stake, though before he could do that, Lancelot arrived with his own men and rescued Guinevere, killing multiple fellow Round Table Knights such as Aglovale, Segwarides, and Tor, as well as Gawain's brothers, Gaheris, Gareth, and Agravain. This news arrived at Arthur's camp, it sent Gawain into a rage so great that he pressured Arthur into a direct confrontation with Lancelot.

### Battle of Camlann

She did not appear much in the entire duration of the Battle of Camlann, even though her affairs with Lancelot was what many considered the main catalyst that resulted in it. Instead, she hid herself in Château de Joyeuse Garde - Lancelot's castle in Brittany for the majority of the time, only leaving once to collect the thirteen treasures Leodegrance had gifted Arthur as her dowry of within the Tower of London, not wanting them to fall into Mordred's hands. According to rumors, she began to practice magic from the faeries during her time there.

### Amesbury Priory

After King Arthur's death in the Battle of Camlann, Guinevere retired to Amesbury Prior and became a nun as penitence for her infidelity. When Lancelot came and tried to convince her to leave, she refused before returning to the convent and spent her time for many, many years to come. According to her, it was the first time in many years that she found inner-peace.

### Immortality

After spending many decades in Amesbury Priory, Guinevere didn't seem to age, appearing no older than the time she arrived there when she was in her mid-40s, if not even becoming younger to the point where people began to mistake her for a maiden barely in her 20s. After many trials and experiments, she discovered that she was now immortal, something she believed to be a curse for causing the Pendragon dynasty to fall and thousands of men to die due to her infidelity.

Seeing this as an opportunity for redemption, she began to train herself and the monks and nuns in the monastery, and together, they became exorcists and would build the foundation for the future Templar Order, of which she would hide her identity as an immortal and take on multiple covers as Grand Master of the organization.

## Equipment

**Secace Morgan** (セクエンズ・モルガン, *Sekuenzu Morugan*): A holy-turned-demonic sword that can only be carried into mortal combat. It used to belong to King Arthur before he gifted it to Lancelot as celebration of his knighthood, and before she was captured, Lancelot gave this to Guinevere so that she could protect herself if any guard tried to do anything to her. It has the power to leave cursed wounds that cannot be healed naturally or magically.

**Twin Roses Execution** (高い女王の永遠の天罰トウィン・ロージズ・エクセキューション, *Tou~in Rōjizu Ekusekyūshon*): Guinevere's Artificial Sacred Gear, created through the combined efforts of the scientists of Heaven and of the Grigori. It is a pair of crimson spears that radiate powerful demonic aura and have the power to severe the opponent's mortality with every slash she makes. According to Vidarr, despite being an Artificial Sacred Gear, it's no way inferior to other magical spears in mythology, even divine ones like his father's spear Gungnir.

## Trivia

* She is possibly bisexual, as implied by Morgan's taunts.
* She descended from a noble Roman family through her mother's lineage.
* Despite popular beliefs, she isn't barren, even though she had had several miscarriages and stillborns much like all women in that era, and had four children, three sons and a daughter, with Arthur out of duties.
* She is worshipped as a Mother Earth Goddess in several neo-pagan religions.
* In some legends, Lancelot is said to bury her next to Arthur's (real or symbolic) grave.
* Although one of her titles is "Princess of Wales", she has stated that it is inaccurate as her father, while was one of the greatest chiefs in Wales, he wasn't a king of any land and only a vassal for Uther Pendragon.
* While she believes that her curse of immortality was the result of thousands of slain men cursing her, she admitted that it might also be the work of the druids, as she was known to have killed their chief Valerin, and pondered if she should ~~fight~~ ask the Celtic gods for answers.
* Similar to many mythological figures, her most hated reinterpretation of her stories is Marion Zimmer Bradley's "The Mists of Avalon", as she considered it to be a "foul, disgusting piece of rubbish that should only be used as emergency papers when one's shitting in the wild".