Profile

Character: Doctor (Professor) Shantotto
Series: Final Fantasy XI (Also appears in Dissidia)
Version: FFXI (Though for an idea of what she sounds like and such, Dissidia is kept in mind a little.) And she's post ToAU, Pre-Shantotto Ascension, there abouts.
Age: A lot older than she looks. She's estimated to be possibly 50
Gender: Female
Appearance:

Only a couple feet tall, Shantotto's stature is short and a little stocky, like most Tarutaru's and has the distinctive features of a small brown coloured nose and two long protruding ears that stick straight outwards either side of her head.

She almost looks childlike with a very youthful round face and large brown eyes that appear to have, at first glance, a seemingly innocent expression. Her hair is blond, tied up in two pigtails high on each side of her head with a purple and red band.

She wears a uniform used by many mages, especially around Windurst comprising of a long tunic of green and cream, with wide cuffs and decorated with ornate gold edgings. On her bottom half she wears a matching pair of slightly poofy green pants which have the same cuffs as the sleeves. Matching gloves with blue stones on the back and green boots finish the uniform.

She's also occasionally seen wearing glasses. The first time seen as a disguise when she assumed the identity Lady Karababa. She's also seen, however, wearing them in the past in a few cutscenes. It's possible, however, she could be incognito then too.

Personality:

"Why be led, when you can be leader? Why bow to lady luck when you can beat her? Why sit back and relax if you can pull your fill? Before you are taken, why not go in for the kill? O-hohohohohoho!" - Doctor Shantotto from her interview 'Lady Shantotto Exposed'.

There's few in Vana'diel who don't know of Shantotto, for good reason. She's made quite the name for herself, as well as a mark in history. Despite being so small, she makes up for it with sheer pride and almost astounding arrogance. Influenced greatly by her parents, she was brought up to be strong and not regret the choices she makes.

Unlike most Tarutaru who avoid fighting and are known to be cowardly, Shantotto loves destruction and does not seem to fear anything. She has no qualms in the slightest with killing if it's necessary. While she can appear quite pleasant, she has a nasty temper. Getting onto her bad side isn't something anyone wants to do. Ever. She won't think twice about tossing a high tier spell at you just for simply annoying her. Or cursing someone she thinks is a peeping tom.

She's very intelligent and knowledgeable with a sharp intuition. She knows much about Vana'diel's history and has read much from the Optistery library. Yet, she also seems to know a lot of things others aren't aware of. How deep this knowledge runs and how exactly she has learned these things is a good question. For being in retirement, it seems obvious she isn't ready to just sit around. She's very much aware of what's going on in the world around her more so than her nation's current rulers.

Despite her love of destruction and eccentric ways, she seems well respected by the people of Windurst and she seems to absolutely love the attention.

Her only regret in life seems to be having neglected to marry, though who she would have married remains a mystery. She also has a fondness for sweets. Sweets soothe the soul, after all!

Abilities/Strengths:

Shantotto is a powerful black mage, in fact, she's pretty much THE black mage in Vana'diel. She can cast the highest level of ancient magic like it was a simple Stone spell. While other mages have to deeply concentrate as they cast, she often is seen laughing and talking as she casts. It seems second nature to her.

As a Black Mage, she has all the usual elemental spells of various tiers, including ancient magic. Poison, bio, sleep, bind, gravity, drain, warp etc. are all also at her finger tips. (See link to Black Mage wiki page below.) Some of these spells are even of her own creation.

And if you REALLY piss her off, watch out.

This isn't the limit of Taru magic. Enchanting objects to move (like a boom) or placing a curse on an item is also well within her means.

She's also proficient with a staff, using it as not only as an implement to boost her magic, but she will take it to hand and proceed to hit you with it, if it comes down to it. The strongest staff skill (Retribution!) is, in fact, acquired from her. However, she vastly prefers using magic. Like most mages she favors the elemental staves.

She's very intelligent, and it's hard to know exactly what she's thinking as she really is rather on the eccentric side. This is a certain advantage against any who would oppose her. Along these same lines, she's very good at being deceptive. She knows how to keep hidden just how much she does or doesn't know about something. Being child-like is also an advantage to her in that no one would expect someone so small and cute to be able to annihilate them with a single spell.

Weaknesses:

She can hardly be considered frail (despite what she might claim!), she is still a mage and thus much more prone to physical attacks. While she tries to keep her distance, if an enemy gets too close, it can be a bit of a problem. Getting hit while casting can cause a break in concentration and cause a spell to be interrupted and thus needs to started anew. In fact when casting in general, one generally has to restrict movement to almost none, leaving a mage a bit vulnerable during that time.

And, of course, she is only several feet tall. In a world made for taller humanoids, just simply reaching the top of a shelf can be a bit of a challenge.

In the mental way, her largest weakness is obviously her over confidence and arrogance, not to mention her pride. She doesn't like to admit when she's wrong.

History:

(Note: Some stuff may be added to this as I'm able to access more cutscenes and more story is added to the game.)

Admired by some and despised by others, Doctor Shantotto (also known as Professor Shantotto or Lady Shantotto) of the Windurst Federation did not start out the egotistical Tarutaru she is today. As a youth she was a proverbial angel (at least so she claims), with ideals of love and healing on her mind. Her parents, like most of her family line, were powerful black mages. Wanting her to continue the family tradition, she studied black magic and became very proficient, becoming a war mage.

However all didn't go well in her life at that point. Her parents apparently suddenly divorced and her poor cat drank a shrinking potion, but it seemed she persevered.

It didn't take her long to rise to power, becoming the minister of the Orastery. (Windurst is ruled by 5 ministries and the Star Sybil, a Tarutaru who's gifted with the ability to see the future.)

While she was a minister, the Crystal War began and the Yagudo began attacking their city. Meanwhile, Shantotto had been stripped of her rank and exiled from Windurst for reasons never directly given. (Although, it could be speculated perhaps it was Robel-Akbel's doing, wanting to keep her out of his plans.) It didn't seem to bother her however, as she took it upon herself to continue the war effort, heading north, with some of the War Warlocks in tow. She appears near Jeuno, helping out a group of mithra on a mission to stop some sort of weapon. Back in Windurst, however, Tarutaru pine for her return as recent attacks have forced them to even seal of Heaven's Tower, fearing it could be damaged. Shantotto continued to the north, gaining important intelligence as well as infiltrated Castle Zvahl. She returned to Windurst a hero and her status as Minister was reinstated.

She's known as the pride of Windurst, and they greatly love and hope for her safe return.

At some point unknown she took Ajido-Marujido (the now current Orastery Minister) under her wing, training him to become her replacement.

Despite having finally retired, she seems to not really be ready to just sit around yet. She even appears to still, in fact, have a great deal of power, some texts referring to her as being a leader of the Parliament of Patriarchs. She represented Windurst in a investigation concerning The Kingdom of Al Zahbi.

The Kingdom of Al Zahbi was once known as the Silent Kingdom. During the Crystal War, despite asking for aid, none was offered. Recently, however, they noticed the city was starting to recruit more and more mercenaries from all over the world, as three forces of beastmen continued to endlessly attack them, all after some treasure called the Astral Candecence.

Concerned that this treasure could draw the whole world into another war, representatives from the four countries (Windurst, Bastok, San'dOria and Jeuno) gathered to discuss what they should do as they are unsure exactly the nature of the Astral Candencence.

It's Shantotto who suggests the reason the treasure is kept there is a kind of bait for the beastmen, and they have little to do but wait. While she tells the representatives that, it seems she suspects something far more. An astral object being something that would seal the fate of anyone.

Shantotto decides to go undercover to Al Zahbi as an Ambassador for Windurst under the name Karababa. Under the guise that she is there to see how the countries technology Automatons match up to Windurst's Cardians (both being kind of magical battle dolls), her true intentions seemed to be essentially to stir things up, and she certainly accomplished that.

From here, her role in the plot becomes distant, though she knows much of what happens from Rodin-Comidin (a Windurst spy), appearing once more in a meeting between the mainland nations, and at the end, as Karababa once more, at the Empress' Coronation.

(ToAU plot is bit complicated and Shan's role is kinda minor, but will get it all typed out here some point. >.<;)

FFXI and Shantotto is (C)Square-enix

Links:

An Interview with Shantotto
The Black Mage Wiki Page