Caster of Red

**Caster of Red** is the Caster-class Servant of the Red Faction in the Great Holy Grail War. While he is originally summoned by Jean Rum, he later becomes one of the Servants of Shiro Kotomine. His true name is **William Shakespeare**, a famous poet and playwright of 16th century England. Much of his life is a mystery, and he is well known for his many plays, from historical dramas to comedies and tragedies.

## Statistics

* **Name**: Caster of Red, William Shakespeare
* **Origin**: Fate/Apocrypha
* **Gender**: Male
* **Age**: Unknown
* **Classification**: Caster-class Servant, Heroic Spirit
* **Height**: 180 cm (5'11")
* **Weight**: 75 kg (65 lbs)
* **Skin Color**: Light Tan
* **Eye Color**: Brown
* **Hair Color**: Brown
* **Alignment**: Bad
* **Status**: Deceased
* **Class**: **SS-Class**
* **Powers and Abilities**:
* **Standard Equipment**: First Folio
* **Weaknesses**: Shakespeare is an awful combatant and is somewhat arrogant. He is not interested in fighting or winning as long as he can spectate interesting events. He freezes up if there's nothing interesting to write about.
* **Notable Attacks/Techniques**:
* **Voice Actor**: Tetsu Inada

### Power Stats

* **Attack Potency**: **Wall level** (Like most other Caster-class Servants, he's physically helpless when compared to other Servants, but he is still much stronger than humans of the modern era)
* **Speed**: **Subsonic** with **Massively Hypersonic** Reaction Speed (Should be comparable to Mages and can react to and track Servants, even if he can't fight them directly)
* **Lifting Strength**: **Unknown**
* **Striking Strength**: **Class KJ+**
* **Durability**: **Wall level**
* **Stamina**: **Superhuman**
* **Range**: **Standard Melee Range**
* **Intelligence**: **Supergenius** (Shakespeare, despite his class, is absolutely terrible in the use of magecraft in battle due to being a playwright rather than a magus. Along with his low parameters, he is completely unsuited for combat of any form. However, as one of the most skillful writers in all of history, he is a master of understanding human language, mannerisms, emotions, and thought patterns, allowing him to best scar his opponents with his Noble Phantasm. He uses his writing prowess to enhance the legend of other objects, allowing him to turn famous but otherwise mundane objects into C-rank Noble Phantasms. He is also an expert at preserving his own life for as long as his Master is left with the minimum amount of safety. However, for all his wiliness and literary brilliance, he is also a narcissist and puts his writing first and foremost, quoting himself in conversation and is willing to compromise the well-being of his allies if it means writing a spectacular story.)

## Appearance

Caster is described as being foppishly dressed in refined, Medieval-esque clothing.

## Personality

Shakespeare is a legendary playwright of England, gentlemanly and soft-spoken. Placing the importance of the Story above all else, he will lie and cheat and by any means conduct himself that he might witness the unfolding of a grand tale, beautiful beyond compare. Consequently, he tends to distance himself from mentality of the "participant," taking instead the perspective of an abstract, "Authorial" third person. His regard for others differs by individual, dependent on their qualification as a special existence, or "protagonist." He interacts with "normal humans" only in a shallow, dismissive manner, and expresses an extreme interest in "protagonists." In slight narcissism, he frequently drops such self-authored quotes as, "Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill." He's taken a liking to certain terminology from modern fiction, such as "Death-Flagging." With short and effective words, Shakespeare brings to light that what humans usually keep hidden. This is like suddenly being poked by rambling, incongruous words, so one would probably feel shocked.

In the Holy Grail War, the foremost Servant who "doesn't fight". The more interesting your choices are, more his writing brush freezes over and, conversely, he will probably toss about without showing any motivation the more mediocre things are. Even in the present condition, seems this has not changed.

Shakespeare clearly has a love for his own written works, and likes to be up to date on their status in the modern era, so much that he went to a local bookstore to simply buy a modern printed copy of his stories; from time to time, he would quote from his works, especially when he has the habit of doing so when making a grand entrance. It seems Caster has also taken great concerns over the popularity of his legacy, so much that he became depressed when Shirou Kotomine, a person who had lived in the modern era, had never read any of his works. Caster, after listening to Assassin of Red, becomes even more depressed as he learns that servants, as they are summoned into the modern world, receive very minimum info about him from the Grail, and nothing about his works.

As the world is the greatest story ever told to him, or so it ought to be in his eyes, he will willingly employ deception, provocation, or anything else for the sake of spinning the story. He greatly loves those who are out of the ordinary from the bottom of his heart, perusing the tales they spin. With greatly exaggerated outbursts of emotion, he acts as he wishes, gracefully admitting that it is suitable to call him a trickster.

## Main Skills and Equipment

**First Folio: When the Curtain Rises, the Applause Shall Be As Ten Thousand Thunders**: Shakespeare's Noble Phantasm, his ultimate play with varying effects. While it deals no damage, it excels at dealing with other Heroic Spirits, nearly all of which have some kind of guilty conscience, exploiting their guilt to destroy their minds. After spending time researching his opponent, Shakespeare uses a series of shadow actors and illusions to recreate scenes from his target's lives, haunting them and forcing them to relive their past trauma as Shakespeare narrates, picking them apart with mocking remarks.

Following his script, his shadow actors can take the form of individuals from his target's lives, such as a Victor Frankenstein that treated his creation kindly, throwing her into a grief-stricken rage that could only be broken with a Command Spell. Despite this, the actors cannot act autonomously or deviate from their script, so it is possible to see through it if they realize they aren't responding properly. This is difficult, however, due to Shakespeare's great writing skill.
However, when empowered by Semiramis' Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the First Folio's powers are elevated, allowing it to replay Jeanne d'Arc's entire life to her, including the events that proceeded after her death. As such, she was forced to relive her burning at the stake, as well as the atrocities committed by her close associate, Gilles de Rais, in her name. This Gilles had a limited degree of autonomy, allowing it to respond and act as the real Gilles did, making the illusion even more powerful and difficult to break.
**Class Skills**:

* **Item Construction**: A skill which measures one's ability to manufacture magical items. Shakespeare's Item Construction has been lost and replaced with his Enchant skill.
* **Territory Creation**: A skill which quantifies one's ability to create a territory advantageous to them as a magus. Due to never practicing magecraft in life, Shakespeare is limited to producing a "Study" that hides him from the detection of other Servants, allowing him to make observations unimpeded and write his stories in privacy.

**Personal Skills**:

* **Enchant**: A skill, also known as Literary Masterpiece Endowment, that endows new concepts to items as enchantments, bolstering their ability. Using his ability as a writer, Shakespeare is able to raise mundane objects to the level of a Noble Phantasm by writing about them and their capabilities at length. A simple pebble could be elevated to the level of an E-rank Noble Phantasm due to having no special traits worth writing about, but a weapon of fine craftsmanship and fame, such as Shiro Kotomine's Miike Tenta Mitsuyo, can be raised to the power of a C-rank Noble Phantasm. He accomplishes this by writing about how it is "magnificently sharp" and "can receive all attacks".
* **The King's Men**: Shakespeare's acting troupe, the King's Men, which he materializes as shadow actors that follow the scripts he provides them with, utilizing them for his Noble Phantasm.
* **Self-Preservation**: Due to lacking virtually any direct combat abilities, Shakespeare prefers to avoid fighting at all, as reflected in this skill. As long as he provides the bare minimum amount of protection for his Master, Shakespeare is able to near completely avoid any sort of harm by never entering combat, thus allowing him to safely make observations.