Fate/Codex

Hello there, Warden here again with another post, this time with the Codex. The Codex is a series of chapters that contains information on characters from different series that have ascended to the Throne of Heroes and become Heroic Spirits. As many of you know it is inevitable that these heroes will be summoned as Servants to battle each other for the Holy Grail. The Codex provides data for each hero such as their history, Noble Phantasm, alignment, among other things.

Entry 00: The Holy Grail War & Heroic Spirits

The Holy Grail War is a competition that decides the ownership of the Holy Grail through an intense battle royale. While there have been many conflicts over supposed Holy Grails in the past, this term refers to those specifically based around Masters, usually proficient magi, summoning Servants, Heroic Spirits brought forth as familiars, and meeting in battle until only one pair is left to claim the Holy Grail.

Created by the three founding families [Tohsaka, Makiri, and Einzbern] the Holy Grail War or the Heavens Feel ritual was created originally to help the Einzberns recover the Third Magic, thus around the year 1790, Justizia Lizleihi von Einzbern, Nagato Tohsaka, and Zouken Makiri created the system to create a gate leading to Akasha. The Einzberns provided the alchemy to create it and prepared the vessel for the Grail, the Tohsaka provided the necessary land and called forth the Servants, and the Makiri assembled the magecraft to stabilize the starting materials and designed the Command Seals that command the Servants. The Holy Grail War itself was devised by Justizia, and she was to become the key of the ritual. The Great Grail was created through forming a large circuit from many multi-layered Crests carved onto a bare rock over fifty meters in diameter. It was covered in multiple layers of circuits, while its many geometric figures turned in place. Justizia stood in the center of the it and became the key to reenacting the Third Magic. The Holy Grail would have only been just a Holy Grail without her, as her will was required for Heavens Feel. Kishur Zelretch Schweinorg acted as a witness to the event.

The Grail selects potential Masters anywhere from years in advance to right before the start of the Holy Grail War. It favors those from the three founding families and then picks out suitable magi through a mostly unknown process. There can be more than seven potential Masters, but only the first seven who manage to summon Servants gain Command Spells and the right to act as a Master. It is possible for other unchosen people to gain the right to act as Masters by contracting with Masterless Servants. Once all servants are summoned the war begins in full until the last Master and Servant pair is victorious. On a side note the mediator of the war is a representative of the Church whose responsibility is keeping the war under wraps and is responsible for providing asylum to any Master who lost their servant although to prevent selfish magi from misusing the grail they will guide magi who wish to reach the Root to victory. On rare occasions the grail itself will summon its own mediator in the form of Ruler if it feels its authority its being encroached upon.

The beings that are summoned to the Holy Grail War are called Heroic Spirits, beings of a higher existence, becoming categorically closer to Elementals than wraiths. Differing from how Elementals are "power" granted form using human imagination as a container, they are entirely woven from the ideals of people all throughout. They are freed from the constraints of time itself and removed from the ring of reincarnation, moved to the Throne of Heroes, a place existing outside of both the World and the time axis.

Heroic Spirits are most normally summoned by the World as a power that protects humans, so they cannot be controlled by humans without something like the Holy Grail or a similar kind of power to summon them. Only the World itself can summon the "main body" of Heroic Spirits, so humans can only summon emanations of the heroes, such as through the Servant system, even with something like a Holy Grail. The souls of the emanations, their information, then returns to the main body upon the death of the emanation, and the main body can know about the actions of the emanations as records, as if they are reading books. As beings outside of time, they can be summoned to any era regardless of the notions of past and future, even if summoned to when their human selves have yet to die or when they have yet to be born.

The grail is responsible for creating a container for the Heroic Spirit, these vessels, classes, act as their temporary name and method of existing. Acting like a "passport to the present", the vessel prepares them for their role as a familiar in advance, allows them to take on that role to help them take form, and brings them forth into the world. Each class identifies only the core skills of the Heroic Spirit because replication of all their abilities is impossible. Their main traits align with the class and are given form, matching the principal nature of the class. Only heroes matching the attributes of the classes are brought forth, allowing them to be summoned into any reflecting their abilities.

Heroic Spirits summoned by the Holy Grail are placed into one of various classes. The seven standard classes are the three knight classes of Saber, Lancer, Archer, and the four cavalry classes of Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker. There are also non-standard extra classes that are "split off from the regular servant classes to take on certain roles", such as Ruler which oversees the Holy Grail War. Under the Fuyuki system the three knight classes are guaranteed to be summoned for the war with variations possible for the rest. More than one version of the same servant class can not be summoned even if the Masters use the same summoning chant to summon Lancer for example. Although a servant may be allowed to change their class or possess multiple via the use of a Noble Phantasm or by unconventional changes.

The following is a list of the classes available at any given Holy Grail War ranging from the standard seven to the unconventional extra classes:

Standard Classes

- Saber: servants placed within this class are agile and powerful melee warriors. It is commonly assumed to be the best class overall, with high ratings in all categories. It also possesses the Riding Skill like the Rider class.

- Lancer: servants placed within this class are very agile and skilled with long-range melee weapons, such as spears, lances, etc.

- Archer: servants placed within this class are usually proficient with projectiles and can survive longer without a Master nearby, thanks to their special ability Independent Action; the strongest Archers can be difficult to control at times, in fact, due to their near-total independence from their "Masters".

- Rider: servants placed within this class place emphasis upon speed and powerful Noble Phantasms, which often include their mounts. Their special Skill is Riding, which allows them to fully utilize abilities of their mounts [which can range from simple horses to mechanical vehicles to divine or supernatural creatures].

- Caster: servants placed within this class are adept in magecraft and have a special ability akin to a Reality Marble, called Territory Creation, which alters or creates space around them to enhance their sorcery.

- Assassin: within the Fuyuki Holy Grail War, Servants placed within this class are always, as a rule, one of the 19 Hassan-i-Sabbah, the leaders of the clan of the Hashshashins who passed their name down. The Assassins' special ability is Presence Concealment, which allows them to remain undetected. Offset by their stealth is their moderate combat skills. Due to this, Assassins often target Masters instead of Servants. Due to All the Worlds Evil this rule most of the time will be ignored summoning Heroic Spirits known to be specialized killers.

- Berserker: servants placed within this class are always heroes who have gone berserk in their lifetime. This trait allows them to use the special ability Mad Enhancement, which trades their consciousness [sanity] for a large power boost. Most Masters are incapable of controlling their Servant once Mad Enhancement has been activated, which eventually results in their death.

Extra Classes

- Ruler: is a special Heroic Spirit summoned by the Holy Grail itself to act as the administrator of the Holy Grail War and can use Command Spells, which are normally only usable by Masters, to command the Servants.

- Avenger: the Heroic Spirit of Vengeance.

- Shielder: the Servant of the Shield.

- Saver: a "messiah" type Servant that are carefully selected from the collective records of the Throne of Heroes.

- Gunner: a non-standard class applicable for the Double Summon Skill that specializes in firearms.

- Faker: a Servant class appearing in Lord El-Melloi II Case Files.

- Alter Ego: is a non-standard Extra Servant class comprised of beings that are split off from another. It is also a term used to describe their state of existence, so a Servant can be classified as being an Alter Ego while still being of another Servant Class.

- Moon Cancer: the class chosen by BB even though she qualifies as a Ruler.

- Foreigner: the main qualification to the class is defying the madness upon meeting an eldritch being which would try to possess them. Either they can maintain their integrity as they descend into madness or, instead of being consumed by madness, they consume the madness itself.

- Watcher: currently there is no information available.

- Gatekeeper: currently there is no information available.

AN: It is only appropriate to start these entries with a basic understanding of both the Holy Grail War and the Heroic Spirits. I included the classes that as many of you know are comprised of the standard seven and back then only two extra classes, but thanks to Fate Grand Order and Extra we received many more. Anyway, like stated before each chapter will feature a character from a different series, if you guys have any suggestions PM or mention them in the reviews and maybe I'll add them to the codex. Until then see you in the next entry.