Naga the Serpent

Background Naga's real full name is Gracia Ul Naga Saillune, making her the first daughter of the Holy Kingdom of Saillune's crown prince Philionel El Di Saillune and the older sister of Amelia Wil Tesla Saillune. She has one living uncle, Christopher Wil Brogg Saillune, one deceased uncle, Randy Saillune, and a deceased cousin, Alfred Saillune. Her grandfather, Eldoran Saillune, is the king of Saillune, although Philionel acts as regent. Naga's mother was murdered several years earlier by the infamous assassin Booley. The teenage (16 or 17 years old at the time) Naga immediately took revenge and killed him with the crown princess' original spell, Chaos String. After the funeral, the traumatized Naga found the outfit she currently wears inside her mother's closet, All this was disclosed only in interviews with the Slayers creator Hajime Kanzaka, but was hinted in Naga's "White Serpent" nickname (a white serpent being the coat of arms of Saillune). In Slayers Next, Zelgadis states that Saillune has a "runaway princess", also implied to be Naga. Naga had originally planned to simply challenge to a duel and defeat the famed teenage sorceress Lina Inverse to inherit her supposed title of the "Invincible Dark Lord" (which Naga apparently invented herself). However, as the story progressed, her obsession with Lina has quickly become more complicated and in some ways even more irrational. Naga becomes associate with Lina, is traveling with her supposed archrival and aiding her in battle, yet also often turning against her whenever someone offers Naga enough gain from it. From her side, the cynical and neurotic Lina is often abusive towards Naga and in total disregard of her safety even when they work together (such as repeatedly blowing her away with explosive spells or using her as bait for the enemy), but Naga almost never gets seriously hurt and usually just laughs it off, rarely seen as a serious enemy even when they are fighting. On the other hand, both Naga and Lina also directly saved each other's lives on a number of occasions. Attributes The novels describe Naga as a remarkably beautiful young woman of about 18 or 19 She takes pride in being physically intimidating, preferring a menacing and revealing black leather outfit, which is as a keepsake from her mother but Naga also personally enjoys to wear it (though the exaggerated size of her spiked spaulders is so unpractical that Naga has at times jabbed them in her own face when spellcasting). Naga's introduction in the novels describe it as an old-time 'evil sorceress' fashion style that, according to Lina, used to be popular centuries earlier. The large magic sword that she carries around is purely for a show, and can be only used defensively for blocking and parrying, due to Naga's hemophobia after witnessing the killing of her mother; in effect, she has a severe aversion to the sight of blood which can cause her to faint. To her dismay, Naga, who believes herself to be Lina's "greatest, strongest and final rival", (in the words of Lina: "She might be a useless ally, but having her as an enemy can sure be amusing") laugh (which Kanzaka said is similar to the laughter of Naga's mother) that most people in the Slayers world find unbearably obnoxious (to the point of rendering them physically powerless). While a princess, Naga does not boast of that (her heritage is never mentioned in any series and has only been acknowledged in interviews and supplemental materials), however the way she acts makes it quite apparent: when she stands before other members of royalty, she speaks to them as equals, while Lina will bow her head and speak only when spoken to. Many of her very self-confident and 'dramatic' poses and speeches are similar to those of Amelia or Martina, another Slayers princess. Naga's inflated ego, her carefreeness and vanity, recurrent appetite for good food, considerable greed for money and magical treasure, frequent and excessive drinking of alcohol, and often-displayed overconfidence along with her notable lack of common sense (including a notorious tendency to have her careless and ill-considered spells to backfire), all mean she often gets herself, and Lina, into trouble. Abilities Despite Lina's mockery of Naga's magical skills, she is an exceptionally talented sorceress, and may, in fact, be Lina's greatest rival. She is well versed in black magic and capable of casting healing spells and golem-forming and dragon-conjuring spells. Naga is especially proficient at white magic, though she only uses it when absolutely necessary, and also specializes in shamanistic magic, in particular spells of earth and water and ice variety. She enjoys creating golems (even if they usually do not turn out very well and sometimes go berserk and turn against her), has developed several of her own spells (including Bogardic Elm, Freeze Rain, Gu Ru Dooga, Mega Vu Vraimer, Void Breath and Vu Raywa), and her most common spells to use are water/ice-based (such as Freeze Arrow) in contrast to Lina who uses fire-related ones. Naga knows and can use the ultimate shamanistic and white magic spells (Ra Tilt and Resurrection), is able to stop living-dead powered via necromancy with a powerful Flow Break spell, and has learnt Levitation by just observing its use by Lina. According to Kanzaka, Naga and Lina are the mightiest human magic users in the world of Slayers and Naga actually has a larger potential magical capacity, while Lina knows the ultimate black magic spells (notably the devastating Dragon Slave). One of Naga's roles is that she is "constantly reminding Lina that however great her magic, she is still lacking in this regard." and is surprisingly highly skilled at hand-to-hand combat (punching and kicking), as well as very talented artistically and good at cooking. Her swordsmanship is often the subject of question, as she carries around a large sword yet never uses it. Naga's uncanny potential to survive any peril practically unscathed was at first very surprising to Lina, who has actually left her for dead on a few occasions, before she got used to it and began to take it for granted. ==Appearances==