Post by Cu Chulainn on Apr 11, 2016 2:22:47 GMT
 | [PTabbedContent=Cu Chulainn Lancer][PTab=Status] Parameters
Personal Skills
Class Skills
Noble Phantasm
[PTab=Profile] Character Details Height / Weight :6`1”/165lbs Source :Ulster Cycle, Celtic Mythology Home Region :Ireland Alignment :Lawful Neutral Gender :Male Ulster’s Guardian Hound Cu Chulainn was born in a fairy mound outside the boundaries of the world as Setanta, the child of Deichtine, the sister of King Conchobar mac Nessa and Lugh, the Celtic god of the sun. His divinity and the skill of his father gave him an inborn knack to succeed at any task he set his mind to at a young age, he was quickly sent to live with his uncle, the King of Ulster, and stayed with his foster-uncle, Fergus mac Roich, who monitored his education and training. Earning his title was the result of a simple mistake, a feat of strength, and the showing of his moral fiber. Setanta, late to a dinner with the king at the smith, Culann's house, finds that the ferocious guard dog that the smith was famous for stood in his way. Attacking him, the legendary beast strikes with strength that could overwhelm several grown men, but Setanta is able to defeat it. Afterwards, after admitting what happened and seeing Culann's devastated expression immediately offers to take the dog's place, raising a suitable replacement himself. Touched, the smith refuses, saying that he should put his time into being a suitable guard dog for the whole country. People took to calling him “Culann's guard dog” after that, and the name stuck. The King's sage, Cathbar, later revealed that Cu Chulainn had a choice at this particular moment, that he could either live a long, happy, but forgotten life, or one that was valorous, heroic, and legendary life, but that it would be short. Cu Chulainn said, without hesitation, that he wanted to live the life of a hero. Cathbar was saddened by the choice, but nodded and gave his blessing Emer and the Land of Shadow As he grew older, his hunger for women began to cause him problems in Conchobar's court. Exiled until he settled down and married, he eventually set his eyes on the beautiful princess of a nearby court, Emer. Her father tried to outright refuse the match, but Cu Chulainn decided to take matters into her own hands and began to carry her off. She managed to defuse him by claiming that she did not want to marry one without martial feats to his name, and the father, seeking to end Cu Chulainn, claimed that the only feat he'd be satisfied with was him training under the With of the Land of Shadows, Scathach, a quest many undertook but with nearly no one returning alive. He agrees without hesitation, and makes his way to Scotland. Upon arriving, he found that the training was as difficult as he expected it to be. The fabled witch, Scathach, took a special interest in him and pushed him even harder than she did most of the other trainees, even Cu Chulainn's dear friend, Ferdiad, his equal in nearly every respect. The training was comprehensive, and when he emerged above Ferdiad by the narrowest margin as Scathach's greatest student in her long history of training worthy warriors, she bestowed upon him the legendary demonic spear of the Land of Shadows, the Gae Bolg. In addition to the spear, she gave him a thorough instruction in rune magic, something he took to instinctively, though he preferred fighting with his hands rather than through spells. As he was about to leave for Ireland, he found Scathach under assault by her sister, the warlord Aife. Being drugged to prevent him from joining the battle, Cu Chulainn shook off the sleeping agent and entered the combat, single-handedly turning the tide towards Scathach's forces and, having to rely on duplicity, eventually ended up capturing Scathach's sister and imposing a forced peace between them. True to form, no sooner than the fighting ended, that he begun attempting to woo Aife, eventually succeeding in convincing her to sleep with him. It was likely that he could have stayed in the Land of Shadows far longer, as he had everything he could want. Several beautiful women, in Scathach, Aife, and Scathach's daughter, several strong rivals that would keep him on his toes, and great friends forged in the fires of harsh training. However, eventually, both the urging of Scathach to leave and his compulsion to make good on the deal made with Emer and her father ended up having him leave Scotland, asking Aife that, should they have had a child, to name him Connla, and exchanging fond see-you-laters with Ferdiad, made his way back home. As he returned to Emer's father, he passes through Ulster, saving it from an invasion by the warriors of Nechtan, enraged by his kinsman's fight for their lives into another Warp Spasm, ending their lives by the hundreds. In order to calm him down, King Conchobar had to appease him by sending over one hundred women to calm his rage. Obtaining both martial feats and the training sought by King Forgall, he set out to marry Emer. As he approaches King Forgall's domain, he finds out that the king, defying their agreement, attempted to marry Emer to any feudal lord he could find, with them all refusing after realizing that she is promised to Cu Chulainn, famous for his feats of skill, strength, and martial prowess. When he arrived at the castle, he found over two dozen knights arranged against him, refusing him entry. He allowed the smarter ones to flee, while he killed those who stood their ground against him. Climbing up the tower, he finds Emer held against her will, her father unwilling to let him have her. After trying and failing to reason with the man, he takes her by force. As he's exiting the castle, Forgall attempts one last surprise attack, which causes Cu to accidentally cause the man to fall to his death. Thereafter, Forgall's domain joins with that of Ulster, with Cu and Emer the provincial lords of the area. Emer takes to it far better than he does, trained as she is to be a leader. The Cattle Raid Around this time, his foster-uncle Fergus mac Roich, disgusted by the actions he was forced by King Conchobar to commit regarding Conchobar's former wife and viewing him responsible for the death of his sons, left Ulster for it's rival nation, Connacht. With Fergus and it's own native son, Ferdiad, Queen Medb of Connacht finds the time ripe to invade, to take the prized bull Don Cuailgne, for herself, to match her husband in terms of wealth. To make matters worse, an ancient curse strikes all the men born of Ulster, rendering them unable to defend their home. Cu Chulainn, however, was not afflicted by this curse. Born outside of the world as the son of a God, Macha's ancient curse doesn't affect him. However, he faced an army hundreds of thousands strong alone. This proved little trouble for him, however, ending the lives of five thousand warriors a day. However, despite his untempered victories against the army, he couldn't accept the damage being done to Ulster as Connacht's forces advanced. So, the armies came to an agreement. Connacht would not advance, but Cu Chulainn would need to fight continuously in single combat the entire army, one day at a time. This continued for seven long years. Each time he had to sleep, people died. Each time he took too long to slay a foe, Connacht broke the treaty and advanced. Eventually he was tempted by the Morrigan, offering protection and power. Still, he refused, and he was beset by her in the form of deadly animals. After repelling her attacks and healing the wounds he inflicted on her, she was touched by his nobility and helped him in the more minor aspects of his fights, helping him feel more rested, finding wounds healing quicker, but let him fight his own way out of his greatest struggles. Eventually, Medb sent in her greatest warrior, Ferdiad, to challenge him. They were equals in nearly every respect, with their differences lying in their secret weapons. Ferdiad possessed a hide so thick and strong that no weapon could pierce it, while Cu had his demonic spear, a weapon where the smallest cut could be deadly and could always strike it's target. Even with the spear, though, he couldn't pierce Ferdiad's hide, until he unleashed the technique that would become the principal ability of his Noble Phantasm, allowing Gae Bolg to reverse cause and effect to pierce Ferdiad's heart, finding an entrance through Ferdiad's anus. Cu Chulainn was in no mood to fight any longer after that. He had sacrificed his best, dearest friend to satisfy honor worth so little in comparison. Fortunately, Macha's curse wore off, and the only other champion of Connacht that could challenge him, Fergus, took pity on the boy he treated as his own son and refused to take to the field. With the tide turned, Connacht left, though Cu Chulainn was able to take Medb hostage, forcing an end to the hostilities that was official. Fand, Conlann, and a Dying Dog After this, Conchobar, in deference to his champion and hoping to help him clear his head, threw a long feast and party to celebrate his victory, with Cu Chulainn taking the champion's seat and portion. While there, some men hunt birds, giving feathers out to the women present. It just happened that Emer was the only lady present who lacked feathers. Taking it as a challenge, Cu declares he'll hunt the largest, most beautiful birds to give her the greatest feather. As he does so, he strikes a bird, who was actually a fairy woman named Fand, who, nursing her injury, ensorcell's Cu Chulainn, beats him, and then leaves him ill. This defeat left him wide-eyed, as until this point defeat was something almost a foreign concept to the man. Eventually another messenger from the Otherworld came to Cu, as he remained ill. In it, Fand offered to heal his sickness if he would aid her land in a fight against the Fomorians, sea demons of the misty north. Encouraged, he takes from his bed and ventures to the otherworld. As they fight, and eventually win, the two of them grow close to each other. His adventures in the Otherworld last for several months, eventually ending in Fand and Cu sleeping together. Eventually, he was confronted by his wife and several Ulster women, for the first time, Cu Chulainn knew he let his heart get ahead of his duties. While he'd been far from monogamous, this was the only time he let another woman reach the point where he wasn't sure who was the center of his life. Emer eventually allows Fand to have Cu Chulainn, but she refuses, using her magic to ensure they will never meet again, and spelling those present into forgetting the entire affair. When he returns to Ulster, he hears tell of a young boy, tearing through the warriors of Ulster searching for him. Conchobar orders him to intercept the child, determining that none but he had the ability to stop his rampage. Eventually finding the child, he asks him who his name was, but he refuses to answer. Cu Chulainn tells him to turn back, but he also refuses. He then says that if he doesn't, then they will need to fight, and they do. The boy is strong and quick, skilled to a point where Cu Chulainn finds himself losing ground. The fight eventually reaches a stalemate, where the only way to him is to use his killing lance for the second time, claiming the heart of the child. The child's last words were bewildered. “She never taught me that...it's too bad...we could have taken the flag of Ulster to Rome itself...” It was later discovered by Cu Chulainn that the boy was his son by Aife, Conlann. In a fit of rage after being left behind, she gave the boy three geas, not to tell his name, not to change his course, and never to back down from a fight. While Cu Chulainn had many children, he could tell this was one of the few who had the ability to surpass him, and he wept for his lost child. At this point, Medb conspires with sons of men that Cu Chulainn killed to revenge themselves against him. Finding out the geas the Cu bound himself with in his foolish youth, they arranged to place him in a situation where he was forced to break one vow, never to refuse hospitality from a woman, or another, never to eat dog meat. Eventually he ate the meat offered to him, causing him to grow ill and significantly weaker before being ambushed by several dozen men. In the fight, he eventually becomes pierced by his own spear, tying himself to a rock to keep on fighting until the bitter end. It was said he was so fearsome, the only way to tell he had died was the crow standing on him, though he may not even then be dead, but merely Morrigan tricking people in order to let him have a peaceful passing. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
