The Holy Grail Wars
A series of battle royales that decides the ownership of the Holy Grail, a wish-granting artefact that’s unrelated to the cup that holds the blood of Christ. Taking place at least every sixty years, seven historical, mythological, or fictional figures are summoned as familiars called “Servants” by individuals, usually mages, called “Masters”. The Masters would then have their Servants fight it out, with the soul of each defeated Servant absorbed by the Grail as pure energy. The Grail would in turn use the energy to grant an impossible wish to the Master of the surviving winner. Before making the wish, the Master would usually command his own Servant to commit suicide using his Command Spell so as to fill up the Grail with the one last soul, since the wishes would work better with more Servant souls contributed.
Historically, the Holy Grail War was disorganised and horribly chaotic, causing the death of many innocent lives. However, the Church took it upon themselves to oversee the war, creating rules and regulations to prevent the loss of unnecessary lives. Masters and Servants are now expected to conduct their battles in secrecy and do their best to limit damages to structures and buildings.
Upon Kyubey’s infiltration of the Holy Grail Wars, the Incubator has created new artificial Grails to replace the one that was destroyed in the fifth Holy Grail War. Kyubey has crafted the new Grails to work just the old one, with the exception of being able to summon fictional Servants. Kyubey, being an utilitarian at heart, has also carried out an act to prevent bloodshed between Masters by enforcing rules that disallow the killing of Masters. Additionally, large supplies of the artificial Grails have been manufactured to ensure that they could be replaced if one of them is to be destroyed like in the fifth War. Furthermore, the new Grails are no longer corrupted, unlike the old Grail, meaning true wishes could be granted without having the wisher’s intentions being twisted. The wishes granted do have to be approved beforehand, however, by QB-corp, but it’s merely to ensure that no world-changing or world-destruction wishes would be made. As long as it doesn’t affect the world at large, or the process of the Holy Grail Wars, almost any wish would be approved, even those involving murder.
Masters, Magi, and Command Spells
Masters are individuals, usually mages (“magi” and its singular form “magus” being the proper terms), hand-picked by the Holy Grail to participate in each Holy Grail War. When they are chosen by the Grail, three command spells (a tattoo featuring three strokes of red lines in various shapes) appear at the back of the Masters’ hand. Aside from being visual proofs that signify a person’s status as a Master, each of the three command spells can be used to give the Servant commands that which he can not disobey, not to mention impossible commands that the Servant couldn’t follow (like teleporting instantly to the Master’s side).
In order to remain in existence, a Servant requires a good supply of prana (magical energy) provided by his Master (thus, it can be said that to defeat a Servant, one simply requires the elimination of the supply source, the Master himself, but this practice has been banned by QB-corp), though some unique Servants could retain their physical body without said prana. The prana comes from the Master’s life force, converted through his magic circuits. Magic circuits are a pseudo-nervous system that spreads itself through the human body and what qualifies a person to be a magus. Due to their mental connection, when asleep, a Master and Servant can see visions of each other’s pasts in the form of dreams. Though Servants do not require sleep, they can force themselves to do so in order to conserve energy, thus seeing his Master’s past.
Magi, much like royalty, would only become more powerful with each descending bloodline… That is, only if the predecessors left with their children what they’ve previously learned of magecraft (or thaumaturgy) in engravings called “Magic Crests”. These archives come in various shapes, but mostly in magic circles.
Servants
Servants are the physical copies of spiritual entities known as “Heroic Spirits”. There are four kinds of Heroic Spirits: Historical figures of great deeds who had once existed in real life and had ascended to the Throne of Heroes, real people who had contracted to become a Heroic Spirit, mythological figures based on folklores and religious beliefs, and most recently, fictional characters based on pure fantasies and imaginations. The Holy Grail could only summon mere copies of the Spirits who were once real people. Due to this, any Heroic Spirit summoned in multiple Holy Grail Wars will lack knowledge of previous summonings. Mythological figures and fictional characters didn’t have real bodies to begin with, therefore they too wouldn't have any memory of previous summonings.
After Kyubey took over the Holy Grail War, the summoning of fictional Servants has become a common practice among magi thanks to the revolutionary innovations of Kirei Kotomine and QB-corp. This not only allows Servants of unimaginable powers to be materialised, it also replaces replicas of Heroic Spirits who have existed in real life once with replicas of fictional entities who have never existed at all. Though many magi have considered this practice to be unnecessary and a hypocritical abuse of artificial lifeforms nonetheless, some treated the practice as nothing more than constructing a robot or toy, albeit with an artificial sentient life. For further information on the process of summoning these incredible Servants, please scroll down to the “Summoning Servants” section below.
The group of female magi from other realities known as “Magical Girls” has now been kidnapped and forced into becoming Servants by Kyubey, particularly the Girls originating from Kyubey’s home-world. Unlike normal Heroic Spirits, they are not mere copies; it is their actual bodies that are summoned into the Wars, and their actual souls, or rather, their soul gems that are sacrificed to the Holy Grail. However, whenever there is a Magical Girl Servant Kyubey wants to keep around to be resummoned in the next Holy Grail War, the Incubator would then halt the process of sacrifice and return them into their spiritual forms, all the while retaining their memories of all previous summonings. Kyubey sometimes also has a nasty streak of pairing up Magical Girl Servants with abusive Masters, particularly Magical Girls related to Homura Akemi.
Summoning Servants
The summoning ritual for Servants only require, at minimum, two things: a summoning circle, which is a large magic circle drawn across any surface, and a summoning spell. While there are no specific incantations for the summoning spell, for summoning specific Servants, a recitation of the Servant’s past life is used alongside a third object - the catalyst, symbols or holy relics associated with the Servant’s past life. Though the catalyst is necessary to summon specific Servants, a summoning spell is not required if the summoner isn’t a magus; therefore, a summoning circle and a catalyst are the minimum objects required for an ordinary person. A unique incantation is also used for summoning Servants of the Berserker class, in addition to a specific line drawn on the magic circle, a line that’s only known by those familiar with the workings of the Grail system.
Through mass-production, QB-corp has redesigned all televisions, theater projectors, blu-ray players, video game consoles, and even ordinary books to be compatible with a data-recording microchip called “Anima Mundi”, a chip that could be used for the summoning of these Servants. Masters who wish to summon fictional Servants simply need to request for these chips, and the permission to install them, from the newly found “Church of Madoka”. After a Master has received the license and has slotted the chip into the appropriate medium, the chip would record the ’story data’ of the medium, and all the Master has to do during the summoning ritual is to place the chip in the middle of the summoning circle, think about the specific character from the story he has recorded, while inciting an incantation related to the character’s life.
Servant Classes and Skills
Servants are categorised into seven classes depending on the characteristics of the Heroic Spirits in their past life. They are Saber the swordsman, Lancer the spearman, Archer the bowman (sometimes gunman), Rider the mounter, Caster the mage, Assassin the specialised killer, and Berserker the insane hero. There are sometimes other unique classes given for those who do not fit those categories, such as Avenger the vengeful anti-hero, Saver the messiah, Ruler the king (or queen), Shielder the wielder of the shield, etc.
All Servants have an extra set of skills called “Class Skills” and “Personal Skills”. Personal Skills are skills the Heroic Spirits possessed when they were alive (or simply skills they were depicted with in myths and fiction). Class Skills are skills granted to specific classes upon summoning, generally reflecting the abilities the Heroic Spirits had in life. All Servants also possess the knowledge of the era they are summoned into, so historical figures from a bygone era wouldn’t be surprised if he’s summoned as a Servant in the modern age.
For a list of Class and Personal Skills Servants could have, please check out this link:
https://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Skill
Noble Phantasms
Simply put, they are unique weapons or abilities associated with the Heroic Spirits’ identity in their past life, be it fictional life or non-fictional. They can come in various forms, and are often used by enemy Servants and Masters to deduce a Servant’s true identity (and thus, his weaknesses). Considering that a Servant has to call out the name of his NP before activating it, this is made all the more easier (like King Arthur’s Excalibur). Using a powerful Noble Phantasm usually requires a large amount of prana, though utility NPs like the ability to clone oneself would normally only require a steady flow of prana.
The Holy Church and the Mage’s Association
The Holy Church, also referred simply as “the Church”, was an international religious organization in charge of governing the Holy Grail Wars. The Mage’s Association was an international, self-preservative and self-defense organization formed by practitioners of magecraft for the purpose of controlling, concealing, and developing magecraft.
Both of these organisations have been wiped out by Kyubey, and a faux version of both the Church (now called “The Church of Madoka”) and the Association (now called “Magi. Inc.”) was set up as a front for the more curious parties, among other administrative purposes. The responsibility of governing the Wars has now been taken over by the Incubator-controlled corporation known as QB-Corp.
Kirei Kotomine
Kirei was the son of a priest working for the Holy Church. Unlike the Incubators, he has emotions, but he couldn’t understand what the human concept of ‘happiness’ means, and instead found himself drawn to negative emotions like the pain of others.
Before Kirei was ‘killed’ in the fifth Holy Grail War, he had formed a contract with Kyubey such that he would transform into a Heroic Spirit upon his death. He has been observing the newly formed Holy Grail War throughout the centuries as a lingering spirit powered by Kyubey’s artificial prana. Instead of participating in the War, however, he chose to remain a dutiful observer… for now.
Fate/Marion Magi (OOC/Interest Check)
Originally Posted by King of Swords
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