Who wants a drink? Martini maybe? Gin? Whiskey on the rocks?

Reading again the biography of this man I suddenly found out how unusual and weird was his life: a really good warrior and commander, wise ruler, the defender of his motherland and faith, betrayed by his own brother and friend, dishonored by chroniclers, became a victim of propaganda and became well-known as a merciless tyrant. Well-known for cruel tortures but not for struggle for the independence of Valahia.

IMHO, Vlad III deserves much more attention. I just like this guy.

Let me just start by clarifying that I don’t think it’s weird that they have Protection of Faith. King Hassan was the founder of a religious assassin cult, while Vlad III was referred to as “The Shield of The Christian World”. This isn’t a question of if they are qualified for the skill, but of why it’s as high ranked as it is. The only other servant with Protection of Faith is Martha, a literal saint, and yet it’s only ranked “A”. So what separates them from her? 

Unfortunately, none of the servant’s profiles or bios go into detail about the skill or why they have it, so I’ll have to begin by highlighting the buffs themselves and go from there. Protection of Faith A gives two buffs; an increase to debuff resistance and a heal. Meanwhile, Protection of Faith A+++ gives the user all of the above, plus an Attack and a Defense buff. This’ll be important later on, so keep it in mind, but I want to very quickly go back to the question of “why?” It’s not a question of deeds since we know she tamed the Tarasque (which is especially amazing if you’re looking at this from the perspective of a DnD Player), so there must be something else at play. 

There are two reasons/possibilities. The first is that it ties into Martha’s possession of her second skill: Miracle D+. Her profile describes it as “A miracle that makes the impossible possible. A Personal Skill.” If this miracle was a product of her faith, hence the ”personal” aspect, then it would make sense that the Protection of Faith would be ranked less; because both the source and the result are present as separate skills. The only problem with this is that what the Miracle skill offers doesn’t match what would’ve been taken from the Protection of Faith. Though it could be that the taming of the Tarasque was a non-violent act and would therefore not lend itself to Attack and Defense buffs, there is still one thing that Vlad and King Hassan have that Martha didn’t: Conviction.

To be honest, I thought it might’ve had to do with their alignment at first, but while both Martha and Vlad III are Lawful Good, King Hassan is Lawful Evil, thereby rendering that comparison moot. This is why I believe that it runs much deeper. 

Since we’re given no context as to the qualifications for the Protection of Faith skill, let’s put together the Venn Diagram and assume that each character has the mindset of “by my faith, I will _____.” Each of the three Servants would have their own response to fill that blank. For Martha, “by my faith, I will quell this dragon.” For Vlad, “by my faith, I will defend my people.” And for King Hassan, “by my faith, I will root out the sin and corruption before me.” This is a very broad statement, so there will likely be holes in its logic, but as a qualifier for Protection of Faith, it’s serviceable. 

However, in terms of the “A+++” ranking, there’s more to the statement. Instead of simply “by my faith, I _____”, in reality it’s more along the lines of  “by my faith, I _____, even if it means _____.” So Vlad’s statement instead becomes “by my faith, I will defend my people, even if it means committing these atrocities.” and King Hassan’s becomes “by my faith, I will root out the sin and corruption before me, even if that sin and corruption is of my own people.”

Martha doesn’t have this condition to her skill or the buffs associated with it because for her it’s an action built on belief for the sake of peace and compromise, even if it’s propelled into actualization by a miracle. But for King Hassan and Vlad III, it’s not a compromise, because there can be no compromising for their beliefs or their ideals, and it can only be actualized by the conviction to see these two things through to the very end.

Don’t mind me. Just lowkey spent my entire day thinking about the fact that both King Hassan and Vlad III (Extra) have “Protection of Faith: A+++”

A few more Vlads,

I really want to draw Vlad more….