Arcturus Prima

Basic Information
The smallest city in the entire State of Westingwood, Arcturus Prima is a core attraction for those inclined towards performing arts - dance, film and theatre are the three prime forms of entertainment here. The streets are largely lined with gold crystal buildings, and performance theatres are abundant. Arcturus Prima is far smaller than Glissan Capella or Aldebaran Aris, spanning only 2,595km2. Very much like Aldebaran Aris, Arcturus Prima is a homogeneous mix of performance artists and budding filmmakers, and both varieties of theatres can be found in almost every subdistrict. The population is highly dense, leading to high levels of congestion, particularly outside famous theatres such as Helios and Io. Nonetheless, Arcturus Prima makes most of its GDP from its exported films and theatre or dance troupes which perform all over the IEU.

The central administration and censorship board, which largely resides in the Helios complex, oversees the refinement and advertising of selected artists, something which does not exist in the other two cities given that their primary source of GDP does not come from exports. As such, the population in Arcturus Prima is highly dynamic; the good artists usually leave to perform in other cities whereas the bad artists usually leave the city for better prospects.

Orville B. Mortimer
Age: 21

Gender: Male

Height: 183 cm

Race: IEU-born/English

Art Style: Stopmotion Film

Ability: Sense Nullification

The head of the Helios Administration and Censorship Committee, and informally referred to as the Governor of Arcturus Prima, Orville B. Mortimer is a young man with vibrant green hair, and a renowned filmmaker - his first international debut for stopmotion animation was when he was 12. He is also well versed in international politics, making him an able diplomat and politician.

His main ability lies in his innate capability to inflict a form of static on a target, or on anyone in a small area. By blocking out the neural transmissions between the sense organs and the brain, Orville can effectively nullify all five senses indefinitely. The target can still move under these effects, but without the guidance of its sense organs. However, this ability cannot affect the sixth sense of the target in that there is no "sense organ" besides the brain involved.

Antares Schulz
Age: 28

Gender: Male

Height: 174 cm

Race: IEU-born/Austrian

Art Style: Commedia dell'arte

Ability: Animated Personalities

A well versed Commedia dell'arte practitioner, Antares Schulz is renowned for fitting into any character's roles with ease - all he has to do is put on the mask and he can play the part instantaneously. His masks are his obsession - each one has its own personality and style, and Antares has mastered every one of them.

But Antares is much more than that - by conducting a dark magic ritual, he can bring each of these masks to life in a separate, corporeal personality form. This effectively allows Antares to split himself into several manifestations, each feeding data to the central form. An injured form will simply dissipate into a mask, and Antares can switch his real body in between the forms.

Il Capitano: Antares' default form, and the central form of all animated masks. This acts as the central nervous system for Antares, as all information from all forms is fed to this one, allowing him to take control of each form. Il Capitano's form is manifested in an officer's cap and a black mask with no visible slits.
 * Double-Bladed Saber: Il Capitano's main weapon is a false-forged (i.e. magically forged) double bladed saber-staff that spans 2.25 metres from tip to tip, which can be used to deflect incoming projectiles or melee weapons. While it is as breakable as an ordinary sword, it is false-forged, and can be remade in an instant.
 * Unarmed Combat: Il Capitano is also well-trained in unarmed combat, and can take down targets twice its weight with little effort.

Arlecchino: Antares' combat form, l'Arlecchino is nimble, agile and strong. Armed with twin sais, this form is mainly used when Antares is in imminent danger, and often guards the Il Capitano form. Arlecchino's form is manifested in a jester hat and a smiling mask painted in black and white.
 * Shukuchi: Arlecchino is so fast that it can move in an instant to any location in a small radius, as if being granted with the ability to teleport.

Il Dottore: Antares' support form, Il Dottore is a quiet, reserved, cloaked figure that repairs other damaged forms (masks) and utilizes poisons in combat. Il Dottore also carries spare masks (usually Zannis) for Antares' unused forms, for the sake of portability. Il Dottore's form is manifested in a surgical facemask and a green, sickly looking mask.
 * Iron Ball Gun: Il Dottore's main weapons are its arm-grafted cannons that fire 12mm iron ball bearings, each capable of holding high explosives or poison. Each arm has a capacity of 24 ball bearings per clip, and can fire at 58rpm at pinpoint accuracy.
 * Surgical Grafts: As one of the most heavily modified masks, Il Dottore is literally a walking puppet, unlike the other masks which manifest in more humanoid forms. This form still takes physical damage, but feels no pain, and is not hindered by internal organ damage as it has no internal organs.
 * Graft Blades: Antares can replace Il Dottore's Iron Ball cannons with grafted blades that are moderately sharp, granting Il Dottore offensive power at close range.
 * Poison Shell: More importantly, a chemical regulator causes toxic gases to leak whenever any part of Il Dottore is severed. The gas can cause nervous system paralysis in as little as 30 seconds, but it is not lethal.

Tartaglia: Antares' reconnaissance form, Tartaglia can adapt to any scenario by changing his costume at will, making him impossible to spot. This form has heightened senses, allowing it to track multiple targets with ease. Tartaglia's form usually takes on its target, but it always possesses hidden blue tattoos in the shape of a mask.
 * Scout Sniper Rifle: Tartaglia's main form of offense is a .338 Lapua Magnum scout sniper rifle which can pick off targets at ranges up to 128m. Generally, this form stays out of combat, or at least stands a considerable distance away from the target.
 * Shukuchi: Much like the Arlecchino form, Tartaglia can use Shukuchi to traverse land in an instant. Unlike the Arlecchino, Tartaglia's Shukuchi requires constant focus on that form, but it can traverse up to 50m away in a single blink.

Pantalone: The newest form to Antares' arsenal, Pantalone is the negotiator and defender form of all the masks. Dressed in a golden suit and donning a silver, full face mask, Pantalone is eloquent and refined in behavior. Zanni: Antares uses the Zanni forms for multiple uses, mainly as combat puppets. Zanni are significantly weaker than the other four forms, and cost far less of Antares' magical essences to produce; hence he often uses Il Dottore to deploy task forces ranging from three to sixteen Zanni. Each Zanni comes with a golden halfmask, a switchblade, field binoculars and a smoke grenade, and each Zanni also feeds information to Antares, but indirectly through Il Dottore, who processes the information.
 * Hex Shield: Pantalone's dollar bills are actually magical nullifiers that protect anything in a small radius from magical damage. These can be deployed on the ground to create an anti-magic barrier, or thrown to disable spellcasters for a short window of time.
 * Heavy Armor: Pantalone's suit is actually constructed out of Propella-enhanced brass alloy that can absorb a significant amount of damage before breaking.

Each form is capable of autonomous conversation and thought, and each possesses a different personality.

Ishikawa Sachiko (石川 幸子)
Age: 18

Gender: Female

Height: 163 cm

Race: IEU-born/Japanese

Art Style: Modern Dance

Weapon: Mugen no Yuubi (無限の優美)

Her movements elegant, her style subtle and graceful, Ishikawa Sachiko is a world-class dancer at the young, tender age of 18. Having devoted countless hours of practice in flexibility and keep her movements elegant, she has an exceptional sense of balance and strength in spite of her thin frame.

Her family heirloom, a prized nodachi named Mugen no Yuubi, was only used once during a break-in. The weapon was fully capable of splitting the heavy blade into numerous, infinitely sharp, monomolecular razor wires that can slash away at anything in its path; each wire under the control of the user and extending to up to 8 meters long, keeping the user way out of harm's reach. As of yet, Sachiko has no intention of using this weapon for combat, and she does not travel with said weapon.

Friedrich Heinkel Schwarzschild
Age: 39

Gender: Male

Height: 180 cm

Race: IEU-born/German

Art Style: Poetry Slam

Ability: Muscle Mimicry

Weapon: Doppelgänger

Articulate, and a veteran amongst the poetry slam niches in Arcturus Prima, Friedrich Heinkel Schwarzschild is constantly invited into clubs for poetry slams, even performing in the second largest theatre in Arcturus Prima - Io - at one instance in his life. Friedrich is a master of six different languages, and indulges primarily in French Renaissance Poetry, Gothic Romanticism and Brechtian Theatre as entertainment.

His aptitude for poetry slam was developed over his innate ability to mimic any physical ability. While his body is largely confined to human standards of strength and speed, he is capable of performing complex combat maneuvres just by observing them once. This includes sword kata with his broadsword, aptly named Doppelgänger. On a more trivial scale, he can also replicate the playing of complex piano pieces after listening to them once.

His sword has the ability to replicate the abilities of any sword it comes into contact with; if it contacts with an unenchanted sword, that sword simply breaks. However, the amount of power the sword's stolen ability possesses is only a fraction of the actual sword's power; meaning swords such as Atreides and Bellator can still damage this blade.