Assassin of Red (Fate/Apocrypha)

Assassin of Red is a villainess from Fate/Apocrypha who is the Servant of Shirou Kotomine during the fourth Holy Grail War, also known as the Greater Grail War.

She is voiced by Kei Shindo in the Japanese version of the anime and Allegra Clark in the English version.

Identity
Assassin's True Name is ​Semiramis (セミラミス, Semiramisu)​, ​Wise Queen of Assyria (アッシリアの賢女王, Asshiria no Ken-Joō)​. Born from the Syrian mermaid goddess ​Derketo​ and a human man, she was left on the waterfront by her loveless mother. She was wrapped in the warm wings of a dove, and fed with the dove's milk. Semiramis was then found and educated by the shepherd Simmas until she married Onnes, an old general; but she was then taken away by the Syrian king Ninus who fell in love with her thanks to her beautiful face. This forced Onnes to commit suicide, and after Semiramis earned the favors of the king with original battle plans, she married him and formally became queen. A few days after the marriage, she killed the king with poison to take revenge for her late husband, and reigned as a regent over Assyria for the next few decades. This is the oldest case of murder by poisoning in legends.

Appearance
Assassin is described as a "depraved beauty" and a "peerlessly beautiful woman" wrapped in a dress as "dark as midnight" who emanates a pleasing aroma. A peerless beauty that lets loose a degenerate atmosphere in some respects.

Personality
Assassin is a very enthusiastic person who indulges in luxury and "exudes a decadent atmosphere from somewhere." Since her childhood, she has studied a wide range of disciplines such as cosmetics, hairdressing, dancing, clothing, music and astronomy, and her beautiful face has captivated many men. Her passion has led her to start a war to possess ​a single man​, and to poison her husband, the king, for politics, but her abilities as a queen are indisputable. Proof of the many expeditions she has led can be seen on walls and the ​Ishtar Gate​.​​ She believes it necessary for one to be superior to others and have more desires than regular people as a ruler, thinking that those who uphold frugality are only playing a sport privileged to those who have gained the "most important possession of all", authority. She feels that those who rule commit tyranny simply from the act, so those who are kings must also be tyrants.

One of the Servants and masterminds of the Red camp. A peerless beauty who wears a black dress. She refers to herself quite haughtily, but she is actually a comparatively straightforward person.

Her true name is Semiramis. The legendary empress who is called the world’s oldest poisoner. Though her class is Assassin, she actually has the traits and abilities of the Caster class as well. She likes decadent luxury, but that does not mean that she hates the simple things in life. In this Greater Holy Grail War, she set out to bring about the realization of the Third Sorcery along with Shirou Kotomine.

Differing from the normal Hassan-i-Sabbah Assassins, Kairi Sisigou's first impression of her is someone whose murders were not done in secret, but all deliberated and premeditated acts brought forth from a single glance or word that would cause her targets to die by the hands of others. Saber of Red compares her to Morgan, her own mother, citing that Assassin "has the same smell." While she will play with others when she has the upper hand, she is quick to anger when a situation is not going as she feels it should, especially finding Caster of Red extremely troublesome with his actions that sometimes go against their overall plans.

On the subject of her intelligence, known as mankind's oldest poisoner and the Wise Queen of Assyria Semiramis is incredibly perspective and manipulative. She managed to take over Assyria with her numerous skills and beauty, and reigned there for decades due to her exceptional abilities as a queen. Responsible for the oldest case of murder by poisoning recorded in legends, Semiramis possesses great skill with the use of poison. She is skilled enough to poison numerous top-class magi sent by the Mage's association without any of them noticing, and can use it to battle and overwhelm the likes of Mordred, one of the famed Knights of the Round Table. She also possess great skill in magecraft, being able to set multiple magical traps as well using EX rank spells when within the Hanging Gardens.

Having grown up a child abandoned by her birth mother and subsequently saved by strangers, Semiramis holds her mother in great contempt. While she believes that all women will eventually arrive at the role of "life-giver", she still holds those who fall for the allure of men as weak. Likewise, she see men who claim other women without a second thought as despicable. So for her mother, who not only fell for a mortal man, but also abandoned her duty as a mother is truly despicable. However, Semiramis is not without her gratitude, for thanks to her mother, divine blood flows through her.

What lies at her core is an absolute rejection towards others. She doesn’t like solitude, but as someone who prefers being aloof and superior, all humans have to be “people who unquestionably serve her” in her eyes. The reason all the Servants who should nominally be her allies hate her is because they intuitively sensed her way of thinking.

…However, due to the man who is both a priest and a Servant and who, despite being “someone who walks alongside her” instead of “someone who serves her”, held not the slightest interest in Semiramis herself, her thoughts and feelings became disordered and fell to pieces.

This is because this was the first time for Semiramis that someone valued her not for her “beauty”, but rather for her “abilities”. At first, that attitude towards her made her feel good, then she felt a strange anger, and finally her chest was pained by a feeling that she tasted for the first time since she was born—a feeling that could be called heartache.

In the end, the kind of person she truly liked was someone who moved forward without looking back at her at all… It was already too late by the time she realized that, though. “When the Third Sorcery is realized, you will become the queen who rules the entire world”… is what Shirou told her, but in truth, she wasn’t that obsessed with ruling the world. What she truly sought and wished—was something that she couldn’t understand even at the brink of death.

Perhaps what this poisonous woman sought was something like pure water.

Fate/Apocrypha
Assassin is summoned by Shirou Kotomine and is deeply involved with his plan of salvation. Upon summoning, the first thing she says to him is, "Not for naught am I known as the world's oldest poisoner... Are you truly certain that you can wield Queen Semiramis?" His response confuses her, asking "O Queen of Assyria - in this Great Holy Grail War, I aim not for victory or defeat but for another goal. Will you aid me?" Unable to understand his intentions, she even considers searching for a new puppet to act as her Master rather than dealing with him, but she eventually comes to respect him and consider his wish to be her own. They take control of the other Masters while Shirou guides the actions of the other Servants through them. She dislikes Rider of Red due to their adversarial natures, and she finds Caster's overall attitude to be annoying. They are constructing her Hanging Gardens of Babylon to act as their main base while proceeding with other plans.

After the other Masters are under their control, she uses her doves to deliver a message to the final Red Master and Servant, Kairi Sisigou and Saber of Red, from Shirou to initiate a meeting at the Sighisoara church. After Saber is materialized at the urging of Shirou, he has her reveal herself from her Presence Concealment in turn, surprising Kairi. As she jokingly teases him by reaching her hand out towards his, she is lightly chided by Shirou and backs away while stifling her laughter. As the discussions on the state of the war proceed, Saber is annoyed with her haughty attitude as Shirou asks for her true name. Assassin then becomes somewhat angered as Kairi declines to reveal it and refuses cooperation, but Shirou keeps her in check.

Upon their departure, she immediately suggests sending an agent after them to kill the uncertainty of their future existence, but Shirou rejects it on the basis of keeping from infighting between allies. She scoffs at the idea, but he feels that they will cooperate so long as their interests coincide with the defeat of the Black Faction. He then asks her about the completion of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and she mentions that the ritual will take three days. Their conversation is interrupted by Caster of Red's arrival, chanting a line from ​Richard III​. As he is exaggeratedly disparaged by Shirou not being able to identify the quote, Assassin mentions that her knowledge only tells her that he is a "a famous writer of history." As he continues with his boisterous speech, her asking him for his reason for being there returns his tone to normal.

Revealing that Berserker of Red has begun a march on the Black Faction, she is shocked to the point of losing all words, but Shirou is relatively calm. As he makes plans, Assassin is angered by the situation, with the unready Red Faction being forced into action against the heavily fortified Black Faction. As it is revealed that Caster was the one who encouraged Berserker's movement, she becomes even more irritated, but follows Shirou's command to alert Archer of Red to follow Berserker. Later on as Shirou attempts to convince the controlled Masters to relinquish control of their Servants to him fully, she bets him that he cannot accomplish it at the moment, so he loses a bottle of wine to her after failing. He wonders if the wine, a non-magical bottle obtained from an elder of the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament, is good enough for her, but she simply says that she wants it for the "taste of wealth."

The notion causes Shirou to muse over the nature of kings summoned as Servants, and she describes what it means to be a ruler. She abruptly quiets afterword, apologizing that such thoughts must have been an annoyance. The conversation causes Shirou to think over the situation, noting that their positions would seem more natural if reversed with him as the Servant and her the Master. Assassin concurs in that she is used to being served, but that serving another is a new experience. Asking if he would like to switch, he declines due to her having been notorious as a despot in life. In a good mood, they repeat their original words to each other from after her summoning, causing a rare moment of uncontrolled laughter from Assassin. She mentions that the situation seemed absurd to her at first, but now she believes him to be truly fascinating. She gets a message from a dove afterward, telling of the situation with Berserker and then another with the arrival of Ruler. Not only is Assassin extremely beautiful, she is very skilled in the art of seduction and manipulation similar to Morgan. In one point in the Manga, she makes an unexpected attempt to seduce Shirou Kotomine--Shirou refusing and both of them never brought it up again.

Valentine 2018: ~The Flourishing Chocolate Gardens of Valentine~
Semiramis makes her first appearance in the Valentine's event of 2018.

Abilities
Assassin is the oldest poisoner in the world who uses poison as her weapon, and she also has the capability to be under the Caster class.[​3]​​ Possessing Double Summon, she has been granted the abilities of both the Assassin and Caster classes. It is an exceedingly rare trait possessed by only a small number of Servants, giving her the Class Skills of both classes, the familiars she would possess as Caster, and other shared traits.[​2]​​ Her Presence Concealment allows her to poison without its effects being dropped as normal when attacking, and her Item Construction allows her to create only poisons instead of a multitude of tools due to her specialty. By combining her Presence Concealment and her poisons, she was able to easily slip hypnotic drug into the tea of all the Red Fractions Master allowing Shirou the opportunity to manipulate them. Her Territory Creation is linked directly to her main Noble Phantasm, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, allowing for its creation and Sikera Ušum. She possesses Divinity from being the child of Derketo and a mortal. She displays the ability to form the scales of the Sacred Fish on her hand as a means of defense, though Rider of Red is able to break. In the anime adaptation, she can also summon a shield formed from the scales to defend others, such as when she protected Caster of Black from Archer of Black's arrow.

Her familiars are the grey doves that have remained her friends even after she became fully grown and left their care, able to control them through thought alone without any form of contract, thanks to her divinity.[​2]​​ She has spread them throughout the entirety of Romania to act as a network of scouts to carry messages and collect information. Taking pieces of paper in their mouths, they can locate their targets, deliver the message, and immediately leave upon completion. They can track down magical energy sources, especially those possessed by Servants, allowing them to keep track of their locations any time upon entering the country. ​ ​

Having lived during the Age of Gods and being of half divinity herself, she is knowledgable in magecraft. At the beginning of her initial engagement with Astolfo she non-chalantly says "she knows a little," which is an understatement. Semiramis does justice to her history as a witch. In conjunction with Hanging Gardens of Babylon she is capable of performing offensive magecraft at an EX-Rank. She can manifest up to a dozen if not more high level energy beams or a single massive destructive beam. It is sufficient enough to easily bypass Rider of Blacks Casseur de Logistille which grants A-rank magic resistance in it's dormant state; however, It requires an immense amount of energy to bypass its Activated state, though it has its limits.

While not nearly enough to kill Ruler outright, it is enough to actively force her to evade via Magic Resistance, albeit destroying the area around her. She is also capable of producing magical traps in the form of chains, which Ruler must actively break.

Further increasing her lethality, under special conditions she is even capable of summoning creatures of the Phantasmal Species, such as the Bašmu. Her skills with poisons allowed her to recreate the Greek Hydras venom for Chiron.

Noble Phantasms
Sikera Ušum: Arrogant King's Alcohol: Semiramis' certain-kill Noble Phantasm, it's the manifestation of the first recorded poisoning, the death of Semiramis' husband. With the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, she can only use this within its throne room, though if she were summoned without it and without Double Summon, it would be her main Noble Phantasm. Once activated, it poisons Semiramis' surroundings, even the air and magical energy, along with all her magecraft. Servants with Poison Resistance or anecdotes of resisting poisons would get increased resistance to its effects. On the other hand, Servants who died to poison in life take double the damage. Semiramis can use multiple types of poison and alter their composition, even being capable of replicating the lethal and excruciatingly painful poison of the Hydra, which led both Archer of Black (Chiron) and even the mighty Berserker (Fate/stay night) to kill themselves rather than suffer it any longer. It also would have killed Mordred if she did not receive a antidote from Sisigou. She can also create sharp chains made of the poison that are tough enough to restrain Mordred when used in large quantities and possess considerable concussive force when launched at foes.

Within the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, she can summon creatures of the Phantasmal Species as long as they are related to poison, such as giant Primeval Snakes and the Divine Beast Bašmu, one of the eleven demons birthed by Tiamat (Fate/Grand Order), which possesses a incredibly lethal poison that would have killed Mordred the instant it opened its mouth. However, it would take time to summon such a powerful beast under normal circumstances, and in the heat of battle she was only able to summon its upper body while fighting Mordred.

Class Skills
Item Construction: A skill which measures one's ability to manufacture magical items. Semiramis specializes in poisoning, so while she can make very powerful poisons, she cannot make anything else.

Presence Concealment: The ability to hide one's presence as a Servant. Semiramis' C+ rank proficiency in this skill renders her difficult to detect through normal and magical means, rendering it suitable for spying, but she must reveal herself to attack. However, this does not apply to poisoning others.

Territory Creation: A skill which quantifies one's ability to create a territory advantageous to them as a magus. Given the time and materials, Semiramis can create the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, superior to even a Temple, as represented by her Noble Phantasm.

Personal Skills
Divinity: The measure of one's Divine blood, reflected in high ranks by the user becoming part Divine Spirit, though it decreases if the user dislikes the gods. It allows Semiramis to reduce "purge defense" in proportion to the rank of her Divinity, allowing her to break through defensive abilities such as Rider of Red (Achilles)' Andreas Amarantos. As the daughter of the fish-goddess Derketo and a mortal, Semiramis has C-rank Divinity.

Double Summon: A rare Personal Skill that allows a Servant to simultaneously possess the Class Skills of two different classes. Semiramis, while summoned as an Assassin, has the Class Skills and capabilities of her Caster self, as well, giving her access to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the full power of her magecraft.

Familiar (Doves): The use of dove as familiars, which Semiramis can direct with her thoughts alone. She can spread them throughout an area as large as a country to gather information, tracking down sources of magical energy.