Application - Destiny Strings

[from_the_rift]

Out Of Character Information
Name: Wilhelm | [zarathustra]
Age: 23
Time zone: GMT+1
Contact: esthar_president || AIM: estharpresident
Anything we should know?: English is my second language.


In Character Information
Name: Gilgamesh
Series: Final Fantasy V
Technically it's nearly the entirety of the Final Fantasy serie in Gilgamesh case, but he made his debuts in FFV.
Canon Standing: While he is in the rift, at the very end of the timeline provided below.
Age: Unknown. He looks like in his thirties, but the Arbiter of Time in Final Fantasy XIII-2 implies he may be hundreds of years old. This is very possible given all the time he has spent in the Rift.
Birthday & Astrology Sign: November 25 (Saggitarius)
Arcana: The Chariot


Personality:
"His single-minded stubborn-- er, 'stoicism' is the stuff of legend!"
-- The Arbiter of Time about Gilgamesh, Final Fantasy XIII-2

A powerful warrior and a man of honor travelling beyond the dimensions who hides a heart of gold, fearless and fierce yet brash and reckless. Banished long ago to the Interdimensional Rift by an evil warlock, this mighty warrior travels the dimensions in the hope to find his way back home. On his never-ending journey he searches for the legendary weapons that shall crown him as the mightiest warrior to have ever existed. His story shall be concluded the day he will find back his destined opponent, Bartz, whom he shall battle in a duel that shall write the legends!

Unfortunately, while this description of Gilgamesh is very heroic and awe inspiring-- And for that matter without a doubt the one he would like people to remember (and maybe shed a tear affectionately while reading stories about his exploits during long winter nights), it would be neglecting a lot of details, such as his repeated failures at besting the heroes of countless worlds or falling off bridges in the most uninspired manners. Let us not mention how he nearly cried and whined when he found himself exiled alone in the Rift. No more heroic Gilgamesh. Now is time to speak of the Gilgamesh who finds swords dealing 1 HP damages.

Upon seeing him for the first time, Gilgamesh will appear to most everyone as a strange and peculiar being. If he is in his true form- With six or eight arms, he may even appear as a scary and powerful guy. That's what he hopes anyway. In his morphed form though, sporting only two (sometimes four) arms, he probably won't look like much of a threat. Nevertheless, all those who see him generally can tell quite quickly he is an experimented weapon master. For normal interaction Gilgamesh will favor his morphed form whereas to defy worthy opponents he shall favor his true form. Indeed, born in a village of warriors and having become one of the best, Gilgamesh prides himself in his mastery of all weapons and most specifically swords.


"Fools! You face the mightiest swordsman in all Ivalice! You face me! Gilgamesh! [...] Your weapons are forfeit to me!"
-- Gilgamesh, Final Fantasy XII

Speaking of his mastery of weapon, he will not hesitate to flatter himself about it and show it off. Don't expect his introductions to be made in a casual way- It has to be flamboyant and spectacular. Unfortunately for him, he fails at making spectacular entrances. Be it him slowly entering the stage and preparing his glorious speech only for a young idiot neophyte to interrupt him! Or be it flying above a bridge and landing only to bounce and fall outside of the bridge. But he never stops! As said in the quote, he is quite the stubborn one. Yes... Failure is a keyword in Gilgamesh's existence.

Most of his recent life has been defined by his search for blades of legend and most specifically: Excalibur, the mightiest of all swords. To this end not only will he explore the most dangerous places, but he shall also defy those who possess spectacular weapons or those who get in his way. However, no matter what he always find fakes, mere copies of the real weapons. For all his mastery in the sword arts, he is very bad at recognizing true weapons from fakes. Most famously is Excalipoor, the cheap knock off of Excalibur he has with him.

Yet failures are only a part of the story. He is said to have once decimated a whole army all on his own and is often an incredibly powerful opponents whenever heroes have to face him. Powerful beings such as him are rare and in battle he is driven only by the will to be victorious... And to claim for himself the weapons of his defeated opponents! Well, that is when he manages to defeat them. His repeated failures though are not due to him being a bad fighter. Not at all- More likely they're due to the fact he constantly find himself facing a bunch of heroes meant to save the universe from annihilation and driven by the power of friendship. If anything, his survival after facing people as varied as the heroes from many Final Fantasy worlds is an exploit.


"I'm certain we'll meet again! At that time I hope you'll consider me a... Uh... er *cough* Never mind, ha ha! Hasta la bye-bye!"
-- Gilgamesh while in the void, Final Fantasy V

Gilgamesh is well spoken and will treat all those he meets with respect. Very polite, he can at rare occasions call other "fools", "mortals" or even "sniveling worm", but that's as far as it goes and even those are not terrible insults. While his life is defined by battle and he is told to have decimated an entire army once, he does not appear to take pleasure in people's deaths. He was saddened upon learning the death of Galuf, someone he had been ordered to fight before. Again, people generally realize pretty quickly that, even though he wants to fight them to claim their weapons, he's not a bad guy.

Indeed, Gilgamesh is not a being whose soul is driven only by his desire to collect new weapons and achieve supreme victory on the battlefield. No, this would be far from the truth! Long ago he worked for Exdeath, the evil warlock who tried to bring the world back to nothingness. The reasons that brought Gilgamesh to work for him are unclear, but even then Gilgamesh was not evil. He may have thought by working for him he could satisfy his thirst for battle. However it quickly became clear that Gilgamesh quite simply was not cut to be a "bad guy". After his repeated failures to defeat the heroes, Gilgamesh got banished to the Interdimensional Rift by Exdeath, what was the beginning of his true journey.

It changed him a lot, so much that he came to see his opponents as friends and actually self sacrificed himself to save those he was meant to fight. He survived and went on to explore many worlds, but his sacrifice was genuine and this part of his life is probably when his true self was revealed: he was truly scared in the rift and even though powerful enough to survive and defeat whatever enemies crossed his path, he admitted at nearly breaking and whining and crying. He is loyal and ready to die to save those he calls friends.


"He did not seem like such a bad person..."
-- Rydia about Gilgamesh, Final fantasy IV: The After Years

And here we can finally see the differences between how Gilgamesh treats people- No matter the person, he will always be his extravagant self, but with people he does not know he will only be that, polite and flamboyant. Would they look like warrior or possess weapon, he may just provoke them in battle. However with friends he will be loyal and devoted, to the death literally. He may want to battle them in a contest of strength, but his loyalty is unwavering! And right here, is something Gilgamesh would be happy if people remembered about him.

Yet, becoming friend with Gilgamesh can be quite a challenge. You could say there are three levels to Gilgamesh: those he doesn't know, those he respects and/or admire and those he considers friends. Usually, the second level quickly turns into friendship. After the heroes of Final Fantasy XII defeated him in battle twice, he called them friend. Speaking of which, defeating him is the easiest way to earn his friendship... Or his never dying thirst for a rematch where he will finally defeat you. It is Gilgamesh, you can never be certain. Another aspect of his loyalty is shown when he serves as a summon, helping whoever bested him in battle or helped him.

Of course there are those he doesn't like, but either he'll face them in battle, either he will run away. Because, yes, he is famous for running away from battles. Or for pretending to have lost and suddenly casting enhancement spells on himself. Obviously Gilgamesh downplay this aspect and would rather people remember his heroic feats.

In conclusion, what can be said about Gilgamesh? He has appeared in ten Final Fantasy installments, he will appear in more and probably has had great adventures off-screen. So much more could be said about him, such as his gallantry (at least he tries), his friendship with Enkidu (a man, a demon or a dog? nobody shall never know) or again his fear to return to the Rift (but that one's kinda obvious). Yes, Gilgamesh is a balanced individual. As mighty as silly- The only difference being he purposes himself to be mighty and the stupidity comes as an undesired side-effect.

But his loyalty to himself, his purpose and his friends is unwavering, and that is the stuff of legend!



Backstory:
Gilgamesh- The Final Fantasy Wiki
Gilgamesh Timeline

It is canonically stated that the Gilgamesh we see in the Final Fantasy games is always the same (implied in Final Fantasy VIII, confirmed in Dissidia 012 and through Word of God) with a few exception (such as FFXI's Gilgamesh). However, as there is no official timeline about his appearances throughout the serie, I've made a one to app him, kind of like people did with the Legend of Zelda before the official timeline got released.

I've followed the hints given in-game, the evolution of his personality and the different weapons he acquires to make the timeline as accurate and official as it can get. I've hesitated for the longest time on whether I should app him as an OU or AU due to an official timeline not existing, but as there is whatsoever no change in his story or personality and the timeline is the closest to the real one I could make, I assumed OU is fine. Feel free to make him AU if that fits better though.


Canon Powers:
Gilgamesh has so many powers- It's not even funny. He is an oddity in the Final Fantasy serie for that even in game featuring the job system, he can use skills from many jobs at once. However, he is mostly known for his physical skills and blue magic. Below will be listed his skills- Most of them have self explanatory name so I won't explain them unless needed. Physical attacks are physical, magics are mind unless stated otherwise.

Morphing Ability
First of all, Gilgamesh can change the way he looks-- Mostly, his size and number of arms. Normally he looks like some weird human being, if only tall. Upon morphing he can be twice as tall as a human and with eight arms. However he can control the size and number of arms- So it is not unusual to see him with six arms or in his normal human forms yet with four arms.

Physical Skills
- Ultimate Illusion [Physical] (uses all his swords for his most powerful attack)
- Wind Slash [Wind]
- Whirlwind Slash [Wind]
- Gale Cut [Wind]
- Flee [Physical](his real most powerful attack- allows him to flee)
- Dual Thrust [Physical]
- Jump [Physical]
- Blade / Sword Dance [Physical]
- Kick [Physical]
- Slice Thrice [Physical]
- Monarch Sword [Physical]
- Cross Slash [Physical]
- Blitz [Wind]
- Launch [Physical]
- Divider [Physical]

Unclassified Skills
- Dischord [Mind] (halves the target's level)
- Self Destruct [Physical] (sacrifice (not really) oneself to take down the enemy).
- Throw [Physical] (throw weapons at the enemy...)
- Fly, Enkidu! [Physical] (command for his dog partner)
- Now, Enkidu! [Physical] (command for his dog partner)
- Vendetta [Physical] (guard for a minute or so then rid himself of status ailments + recover 10% of total HP)

Blue Magic
- Aera [Wind]
- Goblin Punch [Physical]
- Death Claw [Physical] (reduce one enemy's HP to one digit)
- Missile [Physical]
- Flash [Light] (inflict blind status)
- Time Slip [Mind] (inflict old and sleep status effect)
- Frog Song [Mind] (make the target into, well, a frog)
- Tiny Song [Mind] (make the target into a mini version)
- Daze Dance [Mind]
- Eerie Sound Wave [Mind] (causes Pain, Fog, and Slow.)
- Rocket Punch [Physical]

White Magic
- Perfect Defense [Light] (renders immune to physical and mental attack for two minutes)
- Shell [Mind] (halves magical damage)
- Protect [Mind] (halves physical damage)
- NulAll [Mind] (one ally, halves received magic damage and also protects from Instant Death.)
- Haste [Mind]

Black Magic
- Electrocute [Lightning]
- Hurricane [Wind]
- Sleep [Mind]
- Break [Dark] (inflicts petrify status effect)
- Disable [Mind]
- Bitter End [Dark]

Weapon Skills
See the weapons below please!

Limit Break
Also known as Ex Burst, this is the ultimate skill Gilgamesh may use. Happens when he is close to be defeated.

- Strongest Sword
Gilgamesh finds himself with eight sword circling before him- Seven blue Excalipoor and 1 red Excalibur. How this limit break proceed is entirely dependent on what blade he catches. Note, he cannot access Excalibur aside from this attack.

-- Ultimate Illusion [Light]
If he manages to get Excalibur, he swill strike the enemy many times before proceeding with his mightiest attack, Ultimate Illusion, made more powerful by the Limit Break and the possession of Excalibur.
-- Excalipoor [Physical]
If he picks Excalipoor, well... He will deal 1 HP many times to an enemy... Before throwing the sword away and whining on his sad fate.


Canon Weapons|Items:
Most importantly first, the four Legendary weapons he always wields along with his trademark weapon, Naginata. Aside from this one though, they are all fakes. Mere copy of the real deal... Such is his life! All weapons listed will be physical unless stated otherwise.


- Excalipoor [Almighty]
The mightiest of all swords! ... Except it's a cheap knock off. 'Almighty' due to its origins, but no matter what this weapon can never deal more than 1 HP of damage. So you can welcome the most useless almighty weapon ever.
- Masamune [Physical]
- Zantetsuken [Physical]
- Muramasa [Physical] (drain effect)
- Naginata [Physical]

Next are the copies of famous weapon he has as well as the more common swords. That's a whole lot; but after all these years journeying the worlds he's got quite a collection and with his eight arms he can manage.

- Buster Sword [Physical] (fake)
- Orichalcum [Physical] (fake)
- Brotherhood [Physical] (fake)
- Revolver [Physical] (fake)
- Wyrmhero [Physical] (fake)
- Genji Blade [Physical]
- Lightbringer [Light]
- Bashonene [Physical] (inflicts slow)
- Ragnarok [Physical]
- Mutsunokami [Physical]
- Tournesol [Physical]
- Chicken Knife [Physical]
- Battle Axe [Physical]
- Guns [Physical]
- Rocket Launcher [Physical]


Canon Allies:
Enkidu. Most specifically, the dog incarnation as it is the only one that cannot speak and the one that was with Gilgamesh near the end of the timeline. Enkidu is very loyal to his master and will attack when ordered. He knows some white and blue magic such as Heal and Healing Wind and will always try to help his master when needed.

Canon Baggage:
- All the weapons mentioned above if possible.
- His various outfits.


Persona
[GILGAMESH]
Gilgamesh-ception
LVL (1) | THE CHARIOT

Fire	Lightning	Earth	Water	Ice	Wind	Dark	Light	Physical	Mind
-	-	-	-	-	-	Wk	Wk	Null	-

COMBAT SKILLS
►  Cleave (Inflicts a small amount of Physical damage on one enemy.)
►  Kill Rush (Inflicts a small amount of Physical damage up to three times on one enemy.)
►  Tarukaja (Doubles an ally's Attack power. (1 turn))
►  Matarukaja (Increases all allies' Attack by 25%.(1 turn))
▷  Power Slash (Inflicts a medium amount of Physical damage on one enemy.)
▷  Blade of Fury (Inflicts a medium amount of Physical damage two to four times on all enemies.)
▷  Diarama (Recovers a medium amount of HP to one ally.)
▷  Masamune (Inflicts a medium amount of Physical damage with a 10% chance of Rage on all enemies.)
★   Excalipoor (Inflicts 1 HP of Physical damage on all enemies.)

SUPPORT SKILLS
►  Apt Pupil (Doubles the chance of delivering a Critical Hit.)
▷  Physical Amp (Increases Physical damage output by 50%.)
▷  Dual Shadow (25% chance of the character repeating the attack they just performed. )


Writing Sample
They're short but I hope this'll be enough! Here and here.