lamortespoir: (12)
[personal profile] lamortespoir
OOC INFORMATION
NAME: Eon
AGE: 20
PREFERRED CONTACT: [plurk.com profile] haemoglobin
CHARACTERS IN GAME: Nah

IC INFORMATION
NAME: Charles-Henri Sanson
AGE: This is complicated! Since Sanson is a Servant, he's technically an ageless spirit. He died at age 67, but as a Servant he looks about 25-30.
CANON: Fate/Grand Order
CANON POINT: Post-Camelot
CANON INFORMATION: Thank you, wiki and tvtropes. Also a video of his Interlude. Here is an article about his historical self, but Type-Moon tends to change history a bit so this is intended just as a reference. Some further voice samples.

For a short summary of the Orleans chapter: He is summoned by Jeanne Alter to fight the Protagonist, Matthew and their entourage of Servants. Teaming up with Lancelot, he faces them two times but is nevertheless defeated - Lancelot is killed, while Sanson retreats. He has a particular fascination with Marie Antoinette, wanting to execute her again since he had executed her in life, and sees their second meeting as fated and a means to get closer to her. However, she expends her power defending the Protagonist's group from a horde of dragons, and this is told to a defeated Sanson by Mozart during the final confrontation of the two groups. Sanson first appears during that stage as a corrupted Shadow Servant, but manages to break free and regain sanity after being challenged by Mozart. He receives the news of Marie before he vanishes himself, and muses that they may one day meet again.

After being summoned into the player's party and achieving first ascension, Sanson's interlude becomes available. During the episode, the Protagonist sees Sanson's dream of his past as an executioner, wakes up, and has a short discussion about it with him. Then, the group is transported to France, where soldiers are mercilessly killing civilians and Sanson goes to their rescue. The interlude ends with him being unsure about his duty, and the Protagonist assuring him that they'll punish him if he ever executes someone he shouldn't.

That's the gist of his involvement in the main story. The thing about FGO is that it's a mobile game, which means that the story plot only involves a certain pool of characters and all other characters feature only in one chapter of the plot even if they can be brought along for battles in other chapters. For Sanson, it's the Orleans (first) chapter. While I'm taking him from post-Camelot (sixth chapter), he receives no story material past the first chapter, so all this signifies is that he'll know about what happened to his Master during those chapters but he won't necessarily be present to witness what was happened. Basically, he's ditched back at base doing other stuff most of the time.

Here's a link to all the translated story chapters so far.

PERSONALITY:
"It is time to begin the execution."

The first impression that Sanson gives is one of cold, aloof seriousness. He holds his work as an executioner to the utmost importance, regarding events with a composed if not deadpan aura. His voice is very toneless, and his facial expressions are generally quite stiff; giving the impression that he is quite emotionless and cares little about other people. In battle, his lines revolve his sacred duty of ending the lives of others, all enunciated calmly without much changes in inflection. A good portion of Fate/GO players who have not gone through his interlude see him as some sort of 'cold-blooded killer' or 'guillotine psycho'. However, his demeanour off battle reveal that there is a compassionate side to him, albeit wrapped up in a whole load of formality and emotional detachment. He knows all too well the discrimination surrounding his occupation in life, and it is something he has accepted as a burden that he will carry permanently due to the nature of the Throne of Heroes.

"I will be your blade in battle, as well as the scales to judge your heart."

Sanson is a very level-headed person. He knows where his duties and moral boundaries lie, and also extends it to people whom he comes into contact with. As an executioner, he is the one who punishes the wicked; and as a result he has thought deeply about the ethics of his craft. While he is all too willing to behead criminals who have been judged guilty, on the flip side he loathes the very idea of wrongful blame. The crux of the ease with which he kills hangs on the moral purity of the individual beneath the guillotine - it's a simple yes/no question to him. If they are guilty, they will die. If they are innocent, they will be spared. In his life, that decree is mostly left to the courts to decide, but this stems from both a sense of trust in the law as well as his own moral compass. He respects authority greatly, but only if said authority is worth respecting. In his interlude, he does not hesitate to stop soldiers who were striking down civilians, even if said soldiers were 'behind the law', so to speak - because the law was imagining crimes where there were none. He does not follow blindly, and still keeps his own principles of what constitutes injustice. He tells his Master that he will judge them while fighting for them, and he will refuse to serve someone who is unnecessarily cruel unless forced by a Command Spell, the enforcement of an absolute order that cannot be denied. In a similar vein, it is difficult to deceive him, because he is someone who always works via proof and not stereotypes. He requires evidence to make a decision, and is not easily swayed by the opinions of his peers.

With regard to his attitude towards work, he is an industrious person; seeking to perfect his craft. By the time of his death, he had honed his skills to exceptional levels, which is a factor that led to his inclusion as a Servant. He is different from the other Assassins available in the sense that he was originally not one - merely placed into this class due to its similarity to an executioner. He had accepted his family duty since young instead of running away from it, learning every single detail of the craft including the religious, technical as well as medical aspects of it. As a Servant, his Gothic sense of dress is preserved as a nod to the perception of his historic deeds, even if they are somewhat dramatic. The Sanson family studied medicine and anatomy precisely to learn how to give criminals a quick and painless end, and as a result he is an extremely skilled doctor in addition to being an executioner. Given the vast amount of knowledge and physical aptitude required to uphold this profession, it can be concluded that Sanson is not only very intelligent but also extremely diligent. He takes to the tasks that are required of him with methodical, objective precision, only stopping once he has done absolutely everything that he can.

"My hands have been stained with blood many times over, they have beheaded many people. How does it feel, to touch a thing such as this?"

In the game, Sanson's alignment is Lawful Evil, which is ironic since he has a righteous attitude and the Executioner skill lets him deal extra damage to enemies of the Evil alignment. This alignment of his is thus something that is mostly attributed due to external impressions than a reflection of his own heart. In a similar way, he is a somewhat paradoxical person - as an executioner, he thinks that the most valuable thing there is is life. To kill and not yet be condemned for doing so requires a delicate balance that he has to tread every day. He is no stranger to grey morality, navigating it using principles that have been honed through experience as well as a logical mind that lets him make snap decisions. His mental fortitude is strong enough to make him snap out of a corrupted state with only willpower alone, something that many other Servants are not capable of doing. He is very well aware of the taboos that surround capital punishment, and he has accepted it - but it cannot completely erase his personal feelings about the topic. He has used rationality to suppress his own unnecessary emotions, but it is not a perfect tool. He is human, after all, and there is still the melancholy that sometimes dog his mannerisms that come from having to fight off prolonged loneliness. It is also possible to make him angry by hitting one of his very few triggers - lying, cheating, and using others as a scapegoat are evident ones. His tranquil fury is truly terrifying - not in the least because he is someone who walks very close to the fine line between life and death. Other minor things that can annoy him are laziness, slacking from duty and disrespect towards those deserving of it, but these are things which he will only scold others for.

In terms of social interactions, Sanson tends to fufill only the bare minimum required for his duties. He is not the most conversational of people, and seems to be unable to make small talk - because he doesn't think it worth wasting time on unproductive banter. What he does speak tends to reflect back on his duties and morality. He is formal and polite but detached, and it takes a long time for him to warm up to people. He had been shunned in his youth, and the anguish that came with it mellowed into a sort of cold but not cutting jadedness as he grew older. He doesn't expect people to talk to him favourably, and as a result he doesn't really make the effort to reach out - due to his reputation preceding him for so long, he's grown used to letting it do the talking for him. If people are bound to think of him as a cold, distant pseudo-killer, then let them do it. He is alright with being alone, and often seeks it out due to his blunt way of speaking not making him a good casual companion. He isn't someone overly fond of social interaction, and upholds honour as a form of building relationships over affection since he knows he is bound to get little or even none. Conversely, when people do take an interest in him, he becomes guarded and surprised - but if they are true of heart, then it is possible to forge a friendship with time and effort.

"This is a sacred promise that I make to you. I will protect your head with my blade."

Tied to this is his rather unconventional ways of expressing friendship. Sanson is noted to never smile gently - he only has a slasher smile, which can border on a psychotic smirk when it comes to the more intense moments of battle. He makes heartfelt declarations in ways often tied to his connection with death, also promising his Master that he will do his best to serve them on this journey of lethal peril. While it is evident that speaking of such dark things can upset people, he still does it. This is because it is the way he knows best, and for someone seen to be dangerous like him it could constitute some sort of reassurance. He makes promises that he will never break, and to phrase them as specific declarations greatly aid in upholding them. In the game, he is shown to become surprisingly protective of Marie Antoinette, even going as far as to plead for her forgiveness by trying to execute her a second time. He does have some yandere-like traits, but in this instance it is best interpreted as a way for him to atone for what he believes as a circumstance of fate that he was ultimately too powerless to stop.

"This is not murder. We must cut away the perception of this sin from our conscience."

All in all, Sanson is someone who has grown into the mould that his craft has cast for him, even if it is unwilling. Duty and justice dominate his life, and he uses the former to uphold the latter. No matter what task he is ordered to do, he will perform it to the best of his ability. He asks little from life and from his Master, only for a chance to continue his path of punishing the wicked, and only them. If he has to cast away his amiability and social interaction in the course of such a thing, then so be it. After all, this is a family tradition, and he has no intention of sullying the Sansons' reputation. That would be the utmost dishonour not only to his predecessors, but also to the society that they serve.

ABILITIES: General description of Servants.

As a Servant, he is able to switch between spirit form and material form. The spirit form allows him to travel through obstacles very quickly and remain invisible, but at the cost of being unable to perceive physical sensations (sight, hearing, smell, the like) and being unable to act. He needs to materialize in order to do any of the above. In material form, his internal composition is different from that of humans, having a spiritual core as the source of magic that allows him to materialize. Only weapons imbued with magical energy are able to harm him, an ordinary magic-less sword will not. As a result, he will not die until the core is destroyed, and can survive amputations and other grievous injury. However, as his core is linked directly to his heart, it presents a very vulnerable weakness.

The game gives the following parameters for his stats:
Strength: D
Agility: C
Luck: A
Endurance: D
Magic: D
Noble Phantasm: B

As someone of the Assassin class, he is able to access the Presence Concealment skill, which allows him to blend in/appear inconspicuous. His D rank in the skill makes him suitable for spying, but no more than that. He is a good swordsman due to his weapon of choice, and receives a damage increase against targets of the Evil alignment. He is also able to heal using his Medicine skill, as well as his Anatomy Studies skill which let him deal more damage to Human targets, presumably by targeting weak physical points. His Noble Phantasm, La Mort Espoir, is single-target and has a higher chance of instant death to individuals who have less willpower to challenge the fate thrust upon them. However, it should be noted that Sanson is rather weak, compared to others. He has no magical skills to boast of, and his Noble Phantasm has only a single-target output. At the cost of being incapable of superhuman feats like the other Servants, he consumes less mana to upkeep and thus can use his Noble Phantasm at a higher frequency.

Outside of combat, he is a trained executioner (duh) and doctor. He also possesses mundane skills appropriate for upper-class French gentlemen of his time.

INVENTORY:
Just his clothes, and his sword - the Epee of Justice. He can put it into hammerspace, though.

MEMORY ALTERATION:
When he returned to his world, he would believe that he was debriefed by Dr Roman and hung around Chaldea helping his master until the Camelot chapter ended. Having reported his sortie to Iniidae to his Master, he would be given the task to continue his observations on the water planet in a bid to narrow down the location of the seventh Singularity that they must now tackle. However, since Chaldea is low on manpower, he will return alone.