The Fate franchise is the creation and intellectual property of Nasu Kinoko and Type-Moon.

Grendel is the creation and intellectual property of Matt Wagner.

Tales as Old as Time.

"I understood that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears. I understood that, finally and absolutely, I alone exist. All the rest, I saw, is merely what pushes me, or what I push against, blindly—as blindly as all that is not myself pushes back."

Lancer.

True Name: His full name is unknown and has been lost to history. Only his first name remains in the records. It is Edward..

Other Names and Aliases: Grendel, Hunter Rose, Eddie.

Alternate Classes: Saber, Assassin.

Alignment: Neutral Evil.

Attribute: Human.

Gender: Male.

Natural Enemy: Argent the Wolf, Beowulf, Batman.

Parameters:

Strenght: C

Endurance: B

Agility: A-

Magic/Mana: D

Luck: D

Noble Phantasm: C

Likes: "Should I tell you? I see no real need for it. Some secrets are often necessary for a working relationship."

Dislikes: "If you cannot figure them out by yourself over time, you are not worthy of calling yourself a Master. Good thing, then, that you will prove equal to that task."

First Ascension: Grendel in full costume standing on a rooftop under the full moon, his spear in hand.

Final Ascension: Grendel, with a tattered costume but mask mostly intact, blood splattered all over and standing straight on a pile of mangled and destroyed corpses of armed men. His spear is held by his side.

Biography:

A talented young boy in the Midwest of the United States, Eddie was bullied by his age peers and ignored by his parents. He was an intellectual prodigy, memorizing the phone books of over a half-dozen counties at four, being able to quote any line from Shakespeare by six, writing over a dozen plays and short stories by eight. In his teen years, he learned scrima and became a champion of fencing. But finding everything boring and too easy, he threw a match at Europe.

Then he met an instructor named Jocasta Rose, who managed the British team. She saw the truth about him and fell in love with it. For she also saw his budding sadism, and in turn, he was fascinated by her. They quickly turned lovers. He was fourteen. She was thirty six.

The death of his lover devastated the young genius, but her fiery spirit lingered in his soul – her will to fight and achieve was twisted by his grief into a monstrous and insatiable ideal.

Eddie took the name of Hunter Rose and established a successful career as a writer. He rubbed elbows with the social elites by day, and by night, to give his life a meaning, he robbed them, killing and pillaging as the masked Grendel. A name taken from ancient mythology, influenced by an invisible force tuned into Rose's sociopathy. But even that cold monster had some sympathy for another, adopting a girl named Stacy Palumbo, the niece of an employee who had tried to betray Grendel and was killed by him.

While looking after Stacy and mostly failing at it due to his incapacity to understand children, Hunter Rose, as the Grendel, first worked for the mob and then killed its bosses, managing to climb up to the top of the Mafia and expanding his influence over several cities of Canada and the States.

And so he achieved and achieved and achieved. And was soon bored off his ass.

Only three men matched Grendel in life. Only three of them gave him the challenge he so dearly wished for. One of them was the Shadow, the seemingly immortal, mysterious masked gunslinger. Another one was the Batman, the Dark Knight Detective of Gotham City, who was understimated by Grendel and gave him a savage beating, one that Grendel only escaped when Batman had to save a child Grendel had unwittingly endangered, something that further shook Grendel's spirit.

The third, and most relevant for Grendel's epic, was Argent, a native American with a lycanthropy condition that rendered him ageless and superhumanly strong and vital. Aiding the police with methods as brutal as those of Grendel himself, Argent became the crimelord's archenemy for two years and a half, until a call from Stacy Palumbo, who had just learned the secret of her adoptive father, gave him the clue he needed.

And thus in silence, according to Argent, occurred the infamous final rooftop battle of the wolf and the man who was Grendel.

When the police arrived to the scene of their final fight, Argent was paralyzed and Hunter Rose killed and unmasked. But his villainous legacy lived on through centuries, as the Grendel force jumped through hosts including Palumbo's daughter Christine Spar and the cyborg Grendel Prime.

As a Servant he is as fond of young people as he always was in life, not in a sexual fashion, but he is strangely protective of them, and yet unable to be a positive influence on them despite his attempts to do so. He will be respectful enough of the young Master of Chaldea, but towards almost anyone else, a doublecross is always a possibility.

Class Skills:

Riding: C-

Lancer is a decent driver of land based motor vehicles and he can handle horses, but he cannot ride other animals and he would have problems steeing a water vehicle. Aerial vehicles, dragons and Phantasmal Beasts are beyond his capacity and he has no issues admitting that.

Magic Resistance: B-

Thanks to having an immortal werewolf as his nemesis and fighting him several times, Lancer acquired a reasonable amount of resistance against the supernatural. However, chanted spells by accomplished msytical Servants will have an effect, and he is powerless against magic from the Era of Gods.

Personal Skills:

Torture Technician: A

Lancer excels at squeezing information from prisoners. Capturing informants and soldiers in the battlefield, he takes them to his hideouts and starts cutting them until they tell him everything they know.

Eye of the Mind: B

An autopsy of Hunter Rose revealed that he was born with a mutated brain, possibly gifting him with the ability to use over ninety percent of his mental potential, and likely explaining his genius.

As a Servant, this manifests as a keen capacity to pinpoint, analyze and exploit the weaknesses of others with amazing speed.

Bladed Weapon Expertise: A

Lancer hates guns, not because of any moral scruples, but because he values, treasures even, the worth of a slicing sharp weapon cutting his foes. His weapon of choice is a long spear resembling a Japanese naginata, with a metallic blade at each end, and which also can emit electric discharges.

The 'pitchfork' as his enemies dubbed it and Rose was all too happy to name it too, can disguise itself as a cane in Grendel's civilian identity. But he also can easily resort to stabbing and throwing knives if deprived of it, and he also remains an expert fencer, moving gracefully. One of his most infamous feats was taking on twelve armed gunmen directly at once and prevailing without a scratch even though he only had the pitchfork with him.

Secret Identity: A

In his everyday life, Hunter Rose posed as an attractive and elegant gentleman of gentle manners. Almost no one who saw him at broad daylight would suspect him to be able of violence. He had black hair with a small streak of white, and green eyes. His black mask, featureless but by white eyes, covered all of his face and disguised his voice.

As a Servant, by dispelling his Grendel costume and shifting into civilian attire he can easily pass off for an unremarkable human, even to most Servants. This change must be performe away from watching eyes or else it will not work. Additionally, he cannot attack others of perform superhuman feats as long ashe is watched in this state without shattering his masquerade fully. Once a Servant or human has found him out changing back, or blown his cover by forcing him to attack, the skill won't work on them anymore. It is not Presence Concealment as he still can be seen easily, it is that he won't be perceived by Heroic Spirits as a Servant until the conditions for it are met.

Noble Phantasm:

Spirit of Grendel- Mind Bomb: C

Lancer taps on the force of Grendel, resonating through the ages and manifesting into his brain as a yelling red imp. It briefly augments his strenght and power, maximizes his speed, and boosts his battle efficiency with no loss of sanity. The tax on his mana is random, it can either drain him or not at all, with little to no apparent rhyme or reason. The boon of a primal beast. The Grendel was feral and cared about no men, and if it helps those who bear its name it is only because of its own murky and selfish reasons, one that even a mind as privileged as that of Rose cannot fully expect to understand. Once it passes, all wounds are healed and retreating becomes a possibility.

Lancer hates resorting to this Noble Phantasm, as he likes to pretend all of his skills come solely from his own training and aptitude. It takes an emergency, an infuriating wound to his ego, or a command seal for him to unlock its power and swallow his pride.

Start of Battle:

"Don't expect any boasting from me. That only wastes my time and breath."

"Face to face... I'd rather have attacked you from the back. Ahh, to be an Assassin."

"Show me your weapon. I see..."

"Please make this an efficient and quick battle, shall we?"

Attack:

"Hah!"

"Had enough?"

"Scream for us?"

"You're not doing your best."

Damage:

"Oh!"

"Ah!"

"You hurt me."

"Better than expected!"

Damage by Noble Phantasm: "What is that thing?!"

Victory:

"Don't expect any sympathy."

"They say that you know the devil by his deeds. Did you?"

"Another hollow victory."

"Farewell. I cannot say I will miss you."

Defeat:

"There was no shame in this defeat since I fought well."

"Master, your flawed tactics were at fault."

"Live and learn... My next summon will remember this experience well."

"Next time I am summoned, I will kill you."

Summon: "You shouldn't summon devils. Now look at what you have just done. Servant Lancer lends his blade to you. Act as a thoughtful ally and there may be an use for you yet. Remember that."

Noble Phantasm Activation:

"GRENDEL! DAMN YOU!"

Extra Dialogue:

"The great hero of folklore. A magnificent brute, isn't he? Marvelously impressive indeed. For the best of our sakes, I will stand apart from him." (When you have Berserker Beowulf).

"Why?! Why have you summoned him!? This is a breaching of our agreement! Huh? You didn't mean to? You didn't know about us? I suppose such is the folly of youth, we'll live with it then, and even thrive..." (When you have Avenger Batman).

"You have rather strange tastes when it comes to women. I'm not judging you, merely making an observation." (When you have Avenger Gorgon, Avenger Jeanne Alter, Saber Barghest, Caster Dana Ananga Jagannatha, Alter Ego Kingprotea, Saber or Ruler Ibuki Douji or Assassin or Rider Carmilla).

"Don't be afraid. You don't have anything to fear from me." (When you have Berserker or Caster Negi Springfield, Berserker Chacha, Assassin Jack the Ripper, Lancer Jeanne Alter Santa Lily, Caster Nursery Rhyme or Caster or Archer Illyasviel von Einzbern).

"Sorry, but... harming children is the only sort of evil I cannot ignore." (When you have Caster Gilles de Rais).

"Do you call yourself a thief? You are too soft, you are nothing but a pretender. Begone." (When you have Assassin Arsene Lupin III).

Birthday: "The anniversary of your birth? Please don't tell me that you are one of those who place any importance upon such frivolities. I expected better from you."

Event: "Pay attention. There is a lot to learn there."

Holy Grail: "Let us steal it. It is what we do. We'll worry about what to do with it later. What do you say?"

Next: Breakfast of Champions.