History Characters / HeroesOfTheStormStarcraftUniverse

Zeratul is a wise but mysterious Dark Templar. He taught Tassadar the arts of combat, and eventually they became friends. Following Tassadar's sacrifice and the zerg conquer of Aiur, Zeratul fled with many protoss to the Dark Templar home of Shakuras, and obtained the aid of Matriarch Raszagal. Unfortunately, Raszagal had been enthralled in secret by Sarah Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, who played the protoss and the Dark Templars like pawns. This culminated in Zeratul having to MercyKill Raszagal and exile himself, although Raszagal named him her successor in her dying breath.\\

While on retreat, Zeratul discovered the zerg-protoss hybrid forces created by a rogue xel'naga. He knew that this rogue xel'naga, Amon, would present itself as a threat to every living being in the galaxy, and even learned, much to his apparent disgust, that Kerrigan held the key to the galaxy's survival from Amon's assault. Now Zeratul steadies himself for the battle to come - striking from the shadows and aiding his allies where he can - his life for Aiur.\\
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One of Dominion's finest Ghosts -- an elite corps of assassins with potent psychic powers. November Annabelle 'Nova' Terra was born psychic, and at a young age was drafted into Ghost Academy due to her psionic powers and military capabilities. Where most Ghosts are conscripted, Nova volunteered -- and indeed, she did so hoping to erase the pain of her traumatic childhood with a mind-wipe. Nowadays, Nova remains a Ghost of the Dominion. She is empathic and capable of showing a friendly and tender side, but she is mostly dedicated at her job, showing only a cold professional attitude and deadly efficiency. Her loyalty lies with the Dominion organization, so depending on who's in charge of that organization she can be a cold enemy (when under Arcturus) or a reliable ally (when under Valerian).\\

Hailed as the greatest hero of all protoss, Tassadar was once an executor of the Templar, until he defied an order to sacrifice the terrans to the zerg swarm. He was branded as a traitor and hunted down, where the Protoss Conclave found him striking an alliance with James Raynor. Furthermore, Tassadar allied himself with the banished Dark Templar before returning to Aiur, further enraging the Conclave as they demanded his execution. Tassadar was about to face judgment until his friends broke him out and it was proven that the Dark Templar he brought were vital in destroying zerg cerebrates.\\

In the final hour, Tassadar piloted his carrier ''Gantrithor'' and mounted one final defense against the Overmind, allying with the terran forces under Raynor - even the Conclave admitted that he was their final hope. The Overmind proved to be too powerful, so Tassadar made the ultimate sacrifice by overloading himself within his vessel. The ensuing energy shower obliterated the Overmind, weakening the zerg's grip on Aiur and allowing the protoss to escape to Shakuras. Tassadar's heroism was comparable to Adun, and to this day many protoss live by the battlecry "En Taro Tassadar".\\
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In the aftermath of the zerg invasion of Aiur, the Protoss Conclave made Praetor Artanis executor of the Templar caste following the disappearance of the former executor, Tassadar. Artanis spent his initial days as executor defending Aiur from the invading Zerg Swarm. When Tassadar was declared a traitor, Artanis and Aldaris were sent to hunt him down, but Artanis instead joined with Tassadar to find the former executor's newfound ally, the Dark Templar Zeratul. Following a protracted struggle against the Conclave, Artanis witnessed Tassadar sacrifice himself to destroy the Overmind. Sadly, the zerg still remained on Aiur; without their master to guide them, they became like hungry animals. The Khalai protoss were thus forced to flee to Shakuras, home of the Dark Templar, where Artanis worked alongside Aldaris and Zeratul and the Dark Templar matriarch Raszagal to secure a future for their race.\\

Artanis returned to Shakuras, where the Khalai and Nerazim communities became one as the Daelaam protoss. While Zeratul sought the fragments of a mysterious prophecy that seemingly held the key to the fate of the entire galaxy, Artanis investigated the threat posed by a mysterious cult called the Tal'darim and built up the protoss military to retake Aiur from the zerg. Unbeknownst to now-Hierarch Artanis however, there was a graver threat to face -- [[SatanicArchetype Amon]], the last of the xel'naga.\\
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** One of her heroics lets her triple tap.

* EmbarrassingNickname: Blondie. Sweetheart isn't much better...
* FriendlySniper: With a few exceptions, Nova is this in general.

* Is That A Nuclear Launch I Detect, OrAreYouJustHappyToSeeMe: One of her joke quotes.

* PaletteSwap: Just like every hero, she has several colour variations, but she is particulariy notable, as one of the versions of her default skin looks like Sarah Kerrigan pre-infestation.

* TakingTheBullet: Her ''Triple Tap'' heroic can be prevented by hiding behind structures or other teammates. Savvy players can intercept Nova's bullets to save their dying teammates.

* SkillGateCharacter: As with anything involving invisibility, Zeratul can wreck lower skill players, until the players learn to see the VisibleInvisibility. However, this trope is downplayed compared to Nova, as even without his invisibility, Zeratul can be tricky to catch and he's still a capable direct combatant.

* SkillGateCharacter: As with anything involving invisibility, Nova absolutely wrecks lower skill players with her insane burst and decoys and staying out of sight most of the time. But against players experienced enough to see through her tricks and invisibility she can easily become experience on a stick.

* TheGoodKing: One of his alt skins makes him Pharaoh Ta-sadar, the ruler of Luxoria, who apparently allowed his realm to be drawn into the Nexus to save it from the [[ScaryScorpions Scorpid Swarm]], a counterpart to [[HordeOfAlienLocusts the Zerg]]. (He was also the BigGood in ''[=StarCraft 1=]''.

Artanis is a Bruiser hero, based on the Zealot unit. His trait, ''Shield Overload'', places a large shield on him whenever he takes damage while below 75% health. Its cooldown is reduced by basic attacks and ''Blade Dash''. His first ability, ''Blade Dash'', causes him to charge forward, dealing light damage, and charge back to his starting position for moderate damage. ''Twin Blades'' empowers Artanis' next attack, allowing him to charge at his target and attack twice in quick succession. ''Phase Prism'' is a skillshot which he can activate while moving or using ''Blade Dash'' that swaps his position with the first enemy hero it connects with, granting him a brief period of Unstoppable.\\

His first heroic, ''Purifier Beam'', calls a massive-damage laser to reveal a target and chase them, while his ''Suppression Pulse'' heroic blinds all heroes in a large area for four seconds. Both of his Heroics have global range.\\

* AchillesHeel: Much of Fenix's bulk is made up of his shield. This means that roughly 1/3 of his health will rapidly regenerate while out of combat... but it also means there's a large chunk of his health that healers can't restore. If he's focused down in a fight, anti-burst healers won't be very effective at keeping him alive. It also gives him a pretty nasty WeaksauceWeakness as mentioned below.

* AchillesHeel: For all her ''massive'' burst damage potential, she very much lacks direct combat ability. If you manage to survive her abilities burst with ~40% hp intact, that is typically enough to take down a full hp Nova.

* AchillesHeel:
** She performs best in her ''Siege Mode'', which means she's extra-vulnerable to skillshots or ground-targeted [=AoEs=] or disables. While she can use her speed boost to reposition immediately or take a talent to be able to move in ''Siege Mode'', the former is at a significant cooldown while the latter is often too slow to make a difference.
** Additionally, the enemy team will always have a really simple option for dealing with her: stay outside her range. She gets a Talent at Lv.7 that lets her move (slowly) while in ''Siege Mode'', but until then you have to rely on your teammates to lure them back into you. And, when in a PickUpGroup, any strategy that starts with "You have to rely on your teammates" is dicey business at best.

* AchillesHeel: Tassadar is completely devoid of escape tools, barring the ''Shadow Walk'' talent at 13, and has to ''stand still'' to use his ''Shock Ray'' and his basic attack. This makes him a very easy target for artillery mages or dive assassins.

* AchillesHeel: His damage is all done over time and requires him to stay very close to his enemies; if they have enough burst, they can blow him up before he can do much. He's also rather slow, so speedier heroes can simply [[IgnoredEnemy walk away from him]] and enemies with longer range can easily kite and poke Tychus from outside his own range.

* AchillesHeel:
** His tankiness is strongly related to how long he can keep hitting the enemy, so logically getting kited will screw him ''hard''. The problem is he doesn't have much options for mobility or disable (''Phase Prism'' is a semi-disable, but he will still have to rely on bodyblocking the opposition, and its usefulness goes down in wide open areas). To fix this, the developers made his late ''Zealot Charge'' talent partially baseline, but he will still have problems disengaging from a fight gone south.
** Anything else that impedes his Basic Attacks, most notably Blinds and attack speed slows, not to mention just outright stunning him, will also put a stop to his constant shields.
** ''Shield Overload'' makes Artanis ungodly hard to kill with sustained damage, but enough burst damage can easily out-damage the shield and rip through his remaining health faster than he can get the shield back.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Definitely qualifies, as he's the leader of the Daelaam.

* CooldownManipulation: The crux of Artanis' survivability - while his ability to move in such a way to actually flee the enemy is unlikely (he might be able to swap with an enemy tank behind him if he's lucky to get out of trouble), every basic attack he lands reduces the cooldown of ''Shield Overload'' by 4 seconds (the two attacks caused by ''Twin Blades'' included!). Unless the enemy has enough damage cut through Artanis' shield and then his health before the roughly-4-second cooldown his trait will actually have as long as he's attacking [[AchillesHeel (or just prevent him from attacking)]], Artanis will seem unkillable.

* AchillesHeel:
** Dehaka's durability is heavily tied to his HealingFactor from Essence and ''Adaptation'', so heroes that can reduce healing received by enemies can give him trouble. Malthael is a particular sore spot, as his healing reduction is tied to ''Reaper's Mark'', which renders Dehaka's high HP moot as well.
** His effectiveness is highly dependent on bushes and vents, as ''Brushstalker'' is his only form of mobility. On maps with lots of convenient bushes, Dehaka can easily get the jump on his enemies and tear them down, but on maps without convenient hiding spots (like Volskaya Foundry and Hanamura Temple), Dehaka loses his only gap-closer and becomes extremely vulnerable to kiting.

* AchillesHeel: In addition to her CripplingOverspecialization, she's drastically more reliant on positioning than most heroes, due to her pitiful hp, lack of escape mechanisms (at best she has a grenade with knockback, unlike Hammer who could just use her NitroBoost), and [[ShootTheMedicFirst extremely high priority target for the enemy team]]. The problem is, no matter how good you are at positioning, there are ways for the enemy to present you with a RunOrDie option, such as sending [[GlassCannon Murky]] to hound and zone you out of the combat zone, Artanis using his KillSat to force you to run around, or other big area of effect spells you can't afford to stay in.

* MechanicallyUnusualClass: Not as bad as some heroes are, but as a healer she is quite unusual. Most Healers in this game focus on burst healing--restoring a large amount of HP on a periodic basis. Morales' restoration is more in the line of DeathOfAThousandCuts. This opens up an AchillesHeel for the other team to exploit: if they focus down one member of Morales' squad at a time, there's only so much she can do to stop them.

* AchillesHeel: Stukov's ''Lurking Arm'' is an incredible zoning ability and a decent wave-clearer due to its damage-over-time. However, to use it, Stukov must '''stand in one place and not do anything''', except use ''Bio-Kill Switch'' on anything he deployed previously. He is extremely vulnerable to outflanking or long-ranged burst during this time.
* BeneficialDisease: Basically what his ''Healing Pathogen'' boils down to.

* {{Expy}}: Her Succubus skin is one to [[VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncients Akasha,]] [[VideoGame/{{Dota2}} the Queen]] [[Characters/Dota2IntelligenceNToZ of Pain]]. Her more recent Legion Mistress Kerrigan skins, in particular the Torment Mistress one (which has her skin recolored light blue, much like Akasha) give Kerrigan an even closer visual resemblance to Queen of Pain by trading the corset-bra and thong of the Succubus skin for a full-blown ChainmailBikini. Justified in that both Kerrigan's skin and Akasha's origins can be traced back to the ''Warcraft III'' neutral unit, the Queen of Suffering; Akasha's character was directly inspired on it and used her model in the original Dota mod, while Kerrigan's skin is an obvious reference to said Warcraft unit.

** UnholyMatrimony: This skin along with Arthas' Crimson Count Arthas skin invoke this.

** Also, more recently, to Sylvanas. They each consider the other unworthy of the title queen.

His first Heroic creates a ''Void Prison'' which will place all heroes, minions, and structures within it (except Zeratul) in Time Stop, making them unable to act or take damage until it expires. His second Heroic, ''Might of the Nerazim'', passively causes his basic attacks to deal more damage after using an ability. When activated, it becomes a copy of the last ability he used, allowing Zeratul to use the same ability twice in rapid succession. Damaging abilities copied by ''Might of the Nerazim'' deal half damage.\\

Fenix's first Heroic is ''Purification Salvo'', a wide-arch scan that marks enemies then unleashes a devastating barrage of missiles at the scanned targets, dealing even greater damage to slowed enemies. ''Planet Cracker'', his second Heroic, locks Fenix in place while he fires an enormous laser with unlimited range in a straight line, dealing massive damage to enemies caught inside.\\

Nova is a Ranged Assassin hero specializing in biding her time, getting the right position, then blasting her enemies away. Her ''Permanent Cloak'' trait passively cloaks her and increases her movement speed when she is out of combat for 3 seconds. Her main abilities are ''Snipe'', a high-damage single-target skillshot that gains stacking damage with each hit but loses all stacks if Nova misses, ''Pinning Shot'', a targeted shot that greatly slows the enemy, and ''Holo Decoy'' which summons a false Nova that attacks enemies, but deals very low damage. Using ''Holo Decoy'' does not break stealth. Nova also has a fourth ability, ''Ghost Protocol'', which instantly activates ''Permanent Cloak'' and creates a ''Holo Decoy'' at her location.\\

* BuxomBeautyStandard: She has a large bust, which is often emphasized by her form-fitting BreastPlate and many of the alternate skins that seem designed to pronounce them. She even has to tell Tychus that MyEyesAreUpHere.

* KillStreak: ''Triple Tap'' can be talented to reset its cooldown whenever it kills an enemy hero. See OneHitKill and YouAreAlreadyDead below, and it's not unheard for Nova to wipe out a heavily wounded enemy team one by one.

* MsFanservice:
** Even moreso than in the ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' series. Nova is still wrapped up in a SpyCatsuit that shows her body off nicely -- and ''what a body''. Not to mention, her ponytail is even longer for those who like that sort of thing. Her skins continue the theme. Apart from her Spectre and Elite Agent skins provoking a similar effect, there's also:
** Her Roller Derby skin arranges her hair into GirlishPigtails and dresses her in a pair of short-shorts and stockings that stop just above her kneepads, [[ZettaiRyouiki flashing her shapely thighs]].
** Her Novazon skin is ''even skimpier''. As an Amazon Nova forgoes the use of conventional pants, presenting the player with an excellent view of her long legs and [[HartmanHips womanly hips]]; only a series of leather bands around her upper legs and a pleated crotchguard-like skirt-thing provide any semblance of modesty. Did we mention how all skins are fairly obviously designed to pronounce her [[BuxomBeautyStandard ample bust]]?
** Then there's her [[VideoGame/{{Overwatch}} Widowmaker]] skin, which [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin turns her into Widowmaker]], and which obviously [[FemmeFatale goes without saying]].
** To top it all off, she's toned down her ConsummateProfessional persona from ''Wings of Liberty'' in favour of being twice as sassy as before and gaining a flirtatious streak to boot. That's right -- Nova is now TheTease, and about half her quotes directed at the player are flirtatious in nature.

* TheSneakyGuy: [=StarCraft=] Ghosts are all about this trope.

* ThirdPersonSeductress: You will probably gather quickly that Nova [[TheTease enjoys flirting with the player,]] even if it's sometimes in a somewhat {{Tsundere}}-like manner. Could be this was only intended for [[MostGamersAreMale the male audience]]... or maybe Nova goes both ways? Impossible to say for sure...

* AchillesHeel:
** Despite having access to the ''Gather Minerals'', a quest talent which can let his ''Photon Cannon'' detect stealth units when completed, Probius is a SquishyWizard and he is quite vulnerable to stealth heroes.
** He relies heavily on his Pylons to have any long-term impact. His mana pool is utterly pathetic without the Power Field's regeneration, his Photon Cannons don't even work outside of it, and his basic attack makes Abathur's slap look threatening in comparison. Removing his (quite squishy) Pylons is as good as removing him, at least temporarily.

* CutscenePowerToTheMax: In his trailer, when he springs his trap on the enemy team, said trap consists of about 5 pylons and a rapidly increasing number of photon cannons. Even with the ''Construct Additional Pylons'' talent at level 20, Probius can only have a maximum of 3 pylons out at a time, and he can only rapidly warp in cannons with a specific talent that requires them to attack enemy heroes. (In total fairness, the enemy team -- Ragnaros, Cho'gall, Azmodan, The Butcher, and Dehaka -- consists of ''six'' players, so perhaps Blizzard were just evening the odds.) This may be a MythologyGag related to his original appearance, where his Pylon allows the Daelaam protoss to spawn quite a few more Zealots than the ArbitraryHeadcountLimit would ordinarily permit, which has accurately described as a "200-Gate all in." ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' players will immediately recognize that, even if you ''had'' 200 Warp Gates, the ArbitraryHeadcountLimit would prohibit you from spawning that many Zealots at once.

** Given the game's split from the Defense of the Ancients mod inspiration, he can be seen as one to fellow builder unit turned hero, Wisp.

Raynor is a Ranged Assassin hero who specializes in lane pressure and teamfighting, but is very versatile overall. His trait, ''Give 'Em Some Pepper'', empowers every 4th basic attack, causing it to deal bonus damage and splash to nearby enemies. His first basic ability is ''Penetrating Round'', which damages, slows and knocks back everything it hits. His second basic ability is ''Inspire'', which increases the attack and movement speed of Raynor and nearby minions and mercenaries and allows Raynor to immediately attack again when activated. His third ability is ''Adrenaline Rush'', which rapidly heals him for a percentage of his max health. Basic Attacks reduce its cooldown, increased against heroes.\\

* ArmorIsUseless: She's a ''tank''. Her HP pool disagrees.

* TankGoodness: She's piloting a terran siege tank.

His first Heroic ability, ''Commandeer Odin'', summons the [[HumongousMecha Odin]], granting him a new ability set and 25 Armor. In the Odin, ''Overkill'' becomes ''Annihilate'', which blasts the ground in front of Tychus, and ''Frag Grenade'' is replaced with ''Ragnarok Missiles'', a volley of missiles in a target area. His second Heroic ability summons the ''Drakken Laser Drill'', which deals heavy sustained damage to a target and can be re-aimed by pressing the ability key again.\\

* ConvergingStreamWeapon: His Drakken Laser Drill heroic summons one of these, which can deal massive damage if left unchecked.

* BorrowedCatchphrase: [[DragonAscendant If she]] [[TheStarscream kills Kerrigan]]. It serves as a CallBack, as Zagara originally planned to usurp Kerrigan's position at the first sign of weakness, changing her mind later down the line.

* TheMinionmaster: All her skills except ''Baneling Barrage'' and ''Devouring Maw'' involve summoning a killable creature, and even then both of those skills still summon something.

* SecretUndergroundPassage: Her Nydus Worms serve this purpose.

* ArmorIsUseless: Also ShieldsAreUseless; she wears highly advanced combat armor and a shield, yet she has one of the lowest base hp for a Healer.

--> '''Lt. Morales:''' 'Side effects may include nausea, dimensional displacement, stomach irritation, and [[ChestBurster sentient]] [[BreadEggsMilkSquick discharges]]. Always consult a doctor before using healing beam.' Hmm, maybe I'll just stick to using this thing on other people.

* RememberTheNewGuy: She knows Sgt. Hammer, apparently.

* SpicyLatina: Much like the ''Brood War''-era Medic, except that she sounds like one too. Surprisingly for a unit remembered for her highly flirtatious nature, Morales ''never'' addresses the player in such a manner, though.

[[center: [-[[Characters/HeroesOfTheStorm Main Page]] | [[Characters/HeroesOfTheStormDiabloUniverse Diablo]] | [[Characters/HeroesOfTheStormOverwatchUniverse Overwatch]] | '''Starcraft''' | [[Characters/HeroesOfTheStormWarcraftUniverse Warcraft]] | [[Characters/HeroesOfTheStormWarcraftAssassins Warcraft Assassins]] | [[Characters/HeroesOfTheStormWarcraftWarriors Warcraft Warriors]] | [[Characters/HeroesOfTheStormWarcraftSupport Warcraft Support]] | [[Characters/HeroesOfTheStormOtherUniverses Other Universes]] | [[Characters/HeroesOfTheStormRealmLords Realm Lords]] | [[Characters/HeroesOfTheStormOtherCharacters Other]] | [[Characters/HeroesOfTheStormSkinThemes Skin Themes]]-]]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: She's [[PandaingToTheAudience a fan of pandas]], so she expresses ''severe'' regret if she ended up killing either Chen or Li Li.

!!!'''Voiced by:''' Robert Clotworthy (English)[[note]]'''Other Languages''': Patrick Bethune (French), Vsevolod Kuznetsov (Russian)[[/note]]

!!!Upcoming

* RatedMForManly: He's a CigarChomper, minigun wielding SpaceMarine.

* BadassBaritone: Even more than the standard Firebat.

* CensoredForComedy: One of his attack quotes is "They do not know who they are ''*fooosh*''in' with."

** If you took "New Habits" as your Lv.1 talent and have completed the quest, ''Pyromania'' now grants Blaze Unstoppable, allowing him to NoSell crowd control for two seconds. This leads to a ''very'' big combo: D for ''Pyromania'' and, more importantly, the Unstoppable; ''Jet Propulsion'' to DashAttack in and land a stun; ''Oil Spill'' and ''Flame Stream''; and then, finally, ''Combustion''. D - E - W - Q - R. (Technically, you can replace the D with 6 for your Gladiator's Medallion.) The enemy isn't going anywhere because of the chained Stun & Slow; ''Pyromania'' will land all 5 stacks because it continues to run even whilst ''Combustion'' is channeling (the opposite is not true); you're healing because you're standing in fire; and the enemy is running about in a panic.

* BadassBaritone: As to be expected of Creator/PatrickSeitz.

* BadassInCharge: Qualifies as this, as the leader of the Daelaam.

Blaze is a dual-incinerator cannon wielding Tank who excels at area-of-effect damage and locking down an area of the battlefield. His activated trait, ''Pyromania'', grants him armor and deals periodic damage to nearby enemies for several seconds. ''Flame Stream'' fires two streams of flame in a single direction, dealing damage and reducing the cooldown of ''Pyromania'' for each hero hit. ''Oil Spill'' throws down a slick of oil in the target direction which slows enemies. The oil can be ignited with ''Flame Stream'', which damages enemies and [[HealItWithFire heals Blaze if he stands in it]]. It stores up to two charges. His final basic ability, ''Jet Propulsion'', is a DashAttack with a short windup. He collides with the first enemy hero in his path, stunning them and nearby enemies.\\

* AnchoredAttackStance: Sgt. Hammer is immobile while in her ''Siege Mode'', but this can be subverted with the ''Hover Siege Mode'' talent, which allows her to move at a snail's pace while pelting any enemies in her ''Siege Mode'' range with potshots.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Given how the Tal'darim work as a culture, being their Highlord also implies having proven yourself the top asskicker among them.

* NotTheIntendedUse: Back in the days of the original "[[DamagerHealerTank Assassin, Support, Warrior]], [[MechanicallyUnusualClass Specialist]]" system, where tanks and offlaners were bundled together as "Warriors," Blaze was played as a offlaner, as he has all the tools he needs to excel in the role -- HealThyself powers via ignited oil, solid waveclear via ignited oil, an escape ability in ''Jet Propulsion'', and various forms of follow-up crowd control (''Jet Propulsion'', ''Combustion''). Oddly, Blizzard has officially classified him as a Tank, even though he doesn't have the one thing a Tank truly needs -- a reliable way to engage. ''Jet Propulsion'' is simply too easy to dodge: he sits there charging up for a whole 3/8ths of a second, which is ''plenty'' of time for his target to just go somewhere else.

** Her Novazon skin is ''even skimpier''. As an Amazon Nova forgoes the use of conventional pants, presenting the player with an excellent view of her long legs and [[HartmanHips womanly hips]]; only a series of leather bands around her upper legs and a pleated crotchguard-like skirt-thing provide any semblance of modesty. Did we mention how all skins are fairly obviously designed to pronounce her [[BuxomIsBetter ample bust]]?