Minerva Orlando (Ash)

"Behold, the darkness of a King."

- Ashy

Minerva Orlando (ミネルバ・オーランド, Mineruba Ōrando) is regarded as one of the most cunning in all of history, and due to her conniving nature, has been regarded as a threat by other  for a significant period of time. Minerva was formerly the self-dubbed strongest mage of, the strongest guild for a significant period of time. However, she fell from grace. Her loss at the forced her to reevaluate her options about staying at the top of the world; too proud to join, Minerva proceeded to submerge herself into the darkness. Stepping up the scales through unnamed acquaintances, Minerva has provided herself with a position at the top of one of the strongest in the modern world. Lying just below the, Minerva stands as a powerful mage of. Her position among them has caused her to gain significant attention from a variety of sources, and therefore rewards are being handed out for those who are able to successfully apprehend her - dead or alive. It also appears that, through her infamy, she has gained rather peculiar relations with Desperados, a guild she keeps her eye out for.

Appearance
Minerva is a slim young woman of average height distinguished by her Eastern look: her long, straight and glossy black hair, reaching down to her lower back, while mostly left loose, being parted in the middle of her forehead and sporting two bangs framing her face and going down below her shoulders, her hair is also tied into a pair of bun-shaped loops at both sides of her head, and a braid is present some inches below each of such loops. Her facial make up is reminiscent of that worn by a Japanese "Geisha", with her lips being covered in glossy dark lipstick, and her slanted dark eyes, possessing long eyelashes, being topped by a pair of elongated, diagonal dark spots, seemingly acting as or covering her eyebrows. Her pale figure is considerably curvaceous.

Minerva's attire is yet again Eastern-looking, with the woman wearing a strapless dress highly reminiscent of a "Cheongsam". This is shown to possess a large slit in correspondence to Minerva's left leg, exposing it all up to her thigh, and comes secured to her body by a number of dark laces on the back and to her right side, exposing a part of her right breast's back side, and by a line of metal fasteners taking the shape of two horizontally-placed triangles with their bases linked together on her front left side. Such garment is dark in its back part where the laces are, and light-colored on the front, where a large decorative motif representing a "Saber-toothed cat" menacingly lurking in the grass is present, in reference to Minerva's guild. Her outfit is completed by a pair of shoulder-length ornamental gloves again bearing dual colors, dark on the arm and hand's lower part and light on the upper one, and dark boots reaching up to her middle calves.

The Grand Magic Games' fifth day had Minerva change her outfit considerably, making it more regal in appearance: her dress is replaced by a slightly more revealing one, exposing a fair share of her cleavage, the sides of her torso and her left leg; this is dark in color, sporting thin light edges, laces securing the dress in correspondence to the woman's hips, thick fur lining her cleavage and several light motifs adorning her torso's front, those being a large "V" and what looks like an "U" with a dot in its concave part. Minerva has forsaken her gloves, and instead sports several accessories composed of fur: aside from her dress, fur is also present in the form of a collar adorning her neck and of a "Feather boa", passing above her shoulders and ending in bifurcated edges. She appears to wear this attire consistently throughout her appearances, notably holding no disadvantages in combat for someone as skilled as her.

Personality
Minerva is a woman who is fueled by one desire, and one desire alone: her passionate desire to win. This simple ambition of hers has molded her very being to centralize around this, increasing every possible parameter she could increase in order to achieve her goal at a global scale. Her desire to win correlates with the fact that winning is a connotation of power, of superiority. This superiority is something that Minerva believes extremely strongly in, not simply because it appeals to her, but it's because it has been the core of her existence for so long that she doesn't know how to pursue anything else. Indeed, while Minerva demonstrates a single-mindedness towards the obtainment of victory, she doesn't appear to be oblivious to the fact that she is so oriented towards this goal, a trait very rarely seen among those who believe they are superior.

The first, and foremost expression of her superiority is in her regal nature. Minerva, as her name might indicate, believes herself to be a goddess, or in terms more appropriate for Minerva, a King. She defines a King as someone who manipulates the pieces of a strategy in a manner which creates the best outcome in the long-term, even if it requires sacrifices along the way. This is a concept exemplified by Minerva, who was quite easily able to relinquish a number of her guild-mates in order to gain supreme victory by the end of the Grand Magic Games, albeit her plans were thwarted. Indeed, it should also be noted that her schematic personality even caused confusion for a tactician of 's caliber, a woman who has seen potentially hundreds of years of conflict. Aside from her scheming, king-like visage, Minerva also demands respect from those whom she believes are beneath her - in general, she means everyone. Minerva has no qualms in stating to others that she is above them, despite any potential consequences that may be come out of these declarations. Her confidence is such that, immediately after joining, she demanded that she was put into a higher position that the "grunts" that had been ogling at her, something which she was quite ready to prove with the power she has.

What particularly strikes those who meet Minerva, however, is that she is able to completely disregard any sense of morals in order to actively pursue the victory which she seeks. In turn, she is commonly seen as an individual without any apathy or emotional attachment to other people, including those whom she identifies as allies. Once again, the idea of victory rings strong in her mind, and it is this exuberant expression of her desperation that causes several to fear her beyond belief. Some of the variety of immoral activities she has undertaken to ensure victory include: absolute torture of in order to demonstrate the superiority of Sabertooth, manipulation of  in order to awaken his dormant power and achieve victory for Sabertooth, forcing  and  to severely wound one another in order to take the final blow, and even torture  in order to emotionally aggravate the two powerful S-Class Mages. Overall, it is evident that these acts, and even more, are the indication of the extremities Minerva does go to grant victory and superiority to herself. These acts are so vile that even the likes of Dark Mages would be crippled by their immorality, something which heavily contradicts the emotions she expresses when faced with failure.

Loss is an emotion that Minerva cannot, no, will not feel. Her emotions to loss are something that are intolerable, and force her to reevaluate her entire view on life; time and time again, she comes to the same conclusion. Her personality has been molded so perfectly into her that, no matter how many times she feels loss, the sensation will haunt her. Notably, this does not account for the loss of her guildmates. In fact, she cares little about their own losses when it is irrespective to the overall fate of her own victory. Indeed, Minerva has demonstrated that any loss that can cumulatively allow the victory of herself in the end to be something which she dismisses as a mere miscalculation. This was particularly evident at the loss of by, something which she had no apparent emotion for. This was contradicted greatly when Minerva saw her own loss, however. Her own losses not only give her the overwhelming sensation of failure, but rather, remind her of her childhood. Minerva was a girl who was molded to be a winner in a society where only the strongest thrived. Therefore, any loss that she witnesses immediately conjures the visage of her father; it overwhelms her, brings her to the tears she experienced in her childhood, and washes away her self-confidence for the future...that is, only for a short time.



An attribute exclusive to Minerva that few others of villainous nature have demonstrated is the fact that she doesn't lament on her losses for very long. Rather than doing so, she meticulously reflects on the mistakes she has garnered previously, and immediately works on polishing her own being in order to never repeat those same errors. This is particularly evident after her loss against Erza Scarlet, where she contemplated for a significant period of time, eventually coming up with a strategy to counter Erza's overwhelming, an armor which can reportedly break the laws of magic itself. While this isn't shown extensively, it also plays a prominent part of the threat that Minerva holds towards the Magic Council and, by extension, Fiore at large, should she wish to extend her sights.

Magic and Abilities
Territory (絶対領土, テリトリー, Teritorī) Territory is an extremely powerful Caster Magic reportedly exclusive to only a few people in all of magical history. Minerva is one of these fabled wielders, and therefore, holds the dominion of almost all of space within her palms. Indeed, Territory's purpose is quite clear when connected with its name - to make anything within the eyesight of the user their territory, manipulating it as they see fit. This grants the user an almost limitless amount of capability, making any opponent quiver in fear to the versatility it provides. It also appears to be an ancient magic, and was fittingly referred to as the Yakuma's Magic of the Eighteen Gods of War...More Coming Soon


 *  (イ・ラーグド I Rāgudo)
 *  (ャグド・リゴォラ Yagudo Rigōra)
 *  (イ・ラルガス I Rarugasu)

Quotes

 * (To ) "You should be thanking me that I made her second place. That useless piece of trash girl."
 * (To ) "You're better off staying quiet. Based on your logic, we don't need losers, right?"
 * (To ) "This apple may have fallen far from the tree. But I do agree with his stance that Sabertooth be viewed as the best guild."
 * (To ) "Show everyone the new power you've wrought, and with it the victory we so rightly deserve. I advise you not to cross me. Remember that Lector's life rests in my hands."
 * (To ) "Manipulating the pieces according to your strategy... That is what defines a King."
 * (To ) "You have no idea how boring it was waiting for you guys to finish. So I hurt her to entertain myself a little. Her screams were music to my ears."
 * (To ) "I grace only the mightiest guilds with my presence. Be it on the surface or from the Underworld, I can only enjoy a view from the top."
 * (To ) "Please... I'll be the one corrupting the world in my darkness... not the other way around..."
 * (To Luna Amatsugo) "Your thoughts about me are quite right: I am manipulative, sadistic, and even what you call, a 'cheater'. However, don't let that deter from the fact that I am the best, and always will be."

Trivia

 * is the name of the Goddess of Wisdom, Strategy, Warfare, Poetry, Crafts, Medicine and Weaving in.

Behind the Scenes

 * Permission for this was granted by Per.
 * Any information about her as a might be added at a later date when more information is revealed.