What is Fate / Stay Night?

Introduction

The story takes place in an ordinary Japanese town, Fuyuki City. Hidden from society, there has been a deadly war going on in this town. Seven sorcerers known as "Masters" summon a powerful familiar called "Servants" and they all fight each other till the last one.  The last one is said to attain the Holy Grail which will grant them a wish. Only a few knows when this War started and what the Holy Grail is, but the war was about to begin again this year.

The main character is Emiya Shirou, who lost his parents in a fire and was adopted by a man who called himself a sorcerer. Admiring his step father, he has been training himself to be a sorcerer. However, he had no talent and he could barely use one type of sorcery. His step father has already passed away, and today he's a sorcerer without any skills or knowledge. He is involved in the War of the Holy Grail when he accidentally summons Saber, who is said to be the strongest servant of all...

War of the Holy Grail, The Rules

- The servants could be any of the 7 classes: Saber, Archer, Rider, Berserker, Lancer, Caster, and Assassin. Not only do they carry powers specialized to that class, all the servants have a power of their own. The servants were initially legendary heroes or warriors in the history of mankind. That is referred as their "True names" and they need to hide it from their enemies, the other masters and servants. This is because if they know their true names, it means it will also reveal their strengths and weaknesses. Also, they each have a special weapon of their own, the Noble Phantasm. It could either be in a form of a physical object or an ability. Even though it has a power to instantly kill their opponent, they need to hide this weapon till the right moment because if they dodge it or another enemy sees them, it would put them at a disadvantage. The combination of the heroes and the classes are random, but those who are skilled in that class are chosen. In other words, this war is a dream battle between the strongest human figures that ever existed, and each of them have unbelievable powers like their legend.

- The sorcerers can choose which servant they want to an extent, by having an artifact related to that servant. They use this artifact in the ritual to summon the servant. All the process of summoning servants is assisted by the almighty Holy Grail. Without it, it is impossible to summon and control something so powerful as the "heroic spirit" of the servants.

- The servants also wants the Holy Grail themselves, that's the reason why they are cooperating with their masters. The servants have the personality and past memories of when they were humans, and that's where that desire comes from. There's something they wanted to, but couldn't do in their life time.

- The masters has a magical tattoo on their arm that will allow them to control their servants. They have a total of 3 tattoos to force and make the servants do some kind of powerful acts that are normally impossible. This is their last resort. If they use up these 3 tattoos, their contract disappears and the servants are free to betray them if they choose to.

- If a master dies, they are obviously out of the race. That's why some masters want to let the servants fight on their own and hide their own identity. However, even if their master dies, their servants remain in the world till their mana runs out. The servants are alive in this world because the masters supply them with mana, which is like food to them. The servants who lost their master can choose to make a contract with a new master...

- If a servant dies, the master is still in the race, but they have nothing to protect them. They can either make a new contract with another servant who lost his master, or run to the manager of the War and seek protection.

- The manager of the war is to manage, and to hide the existence of this war from public. The Mage's association fear their secrets leaking out to society. The manager this time is Kotomine Kirei. Also, the War of the Holy Grail is a sorcerer's ritual, but the Church doesn't think too good of the mages using the power of a "Holy Grail". That is why the manager is a member of the Church.

- There was another War 10 years ago. This war is held periodically in the same town, but only a few knows how it originated. The details of the Holy Grail is also a mystery. It is just said to be almighty and the winner of the War gets to grant a wish with it. All the sorcerers and masters, following the simple rule of hiding the existence of the War from public, just need to find each other and defeat everyone else.

Pre-Game Character Info

Emiya Shirou
- Main character of Fate. He lost his parentts in a fire 10 years ago. He was adopted by Emiya Kiritsugu who called himself a sorcerer. Because Kiritsugu saved him in the fire and from being alone, Shirou wanted to be a sorcerer like him who can help people. Although Kiritsugu really didn't want him to, Shirou asks Kiritsugu to teach him sorcery. Because of lack of talent and Kiritsugu never taught him seriously, he never got good at it. Today Kiritsugu has passed away and the only sorcery he could do is examining the internal mechanism of an object, which he uses to fix things. He also knows how to do this other sorcery, to enhance an object, but he's not very good at it. He's been practicing it for many years but only succeeded a couple of times.

- Personality wise, he's kind of opposite of Tohno Shiki. Shiki was social, likes to play, and easy minded. Shirou is not good at talking (but not shy), hard worker, and serious minded. Fixing things is one of the things he likes to do. In the storage room of his house, he has many things like a broken VCR, stove, etc. and he works on them every night. He also seems to like to cook, although he denies it by saying that there's no one else who'll do it. Shirou always ends up doing things that aren't his job, but he doesn't mind it.

- He's in 2nd year of high school. He was in the archery club for a while, was pretty good at it, but he quit for some reason. He secretly likes Tohsaka Rin.

- How he summoned Saber: On the way home from cleaning the Archery club dojo (doing things that isn't his job, again), He accidentally sees Archer and Lancer fighting in the school yard. Lancer tries to kill him for seeing their battle because they need to hide the existence of the war from public. Rin saves him from the fatal wound. Shirou not sure of what just happened goes home. Lancer notices that he's still alive and attacks him again. Just when he was about to get killed, Saber appears from nowhere and asks him if he's her servant.

- He is confused by suddenly being involved in the War of the Holy Grail. After he understood what's going on, his initial position was to protect himself. Unless they are truly evil masters or servants, he tries not to fight others.

Saber
- Shirou's servant. She looks young, but shee's really strong. The class of the "Saber" is said to be the strongest out of the servants: they're highly skilled in close combat and have an high magic resistance.

- She's a very loyal servant and takes pride in protecting her master. She tends to be eating and sleeping a lot during the story, but that's only to save her mana. Because Shirou is a unskilled sorcerer, he can't supply her with mana. It seems she personally enjoys eating though... a lot. When she started giving Shirou sword lessons to prepare for the War, she wanted to have a lunch break at its exact time.

- Although she doesn't show much emotions, she shows some of her girl's side here and there. She likes stuffed animals. She said she had a child lion as a pet in her past life. If you're wondering where her normal clothes came from, she borrowed it from Rin. Rin originally got it as a gift from Kirei...

- She feels uneasy teaming with Shirou because he tries to protect her when she's the one who's suppose to be protecting him, and he's being clumsy at it. She doesn't tell Shirou her True name right away because it probably won't help him. Since he's unskilled, it wouldn't help him in the battles, or much worse, his enemy can steal the True name from his unguarded mind.

Tohsaka Rin
- A descendant of a sorcerer's family with aa history. His father was also a sorcerer who fought in the previous War of the Holy Grail, and he died in it. Rin is just entering the war to succeed her father and as an obligation of being a member of the sorcerer's family, and she doesn't really have a wish for herself upon winning the war. Her ability as a sorcerer is pretty high all around. Her last resort is her 10 gemstones that are concentrated with a decade worth of mana. 

- High school 2nd year. She's famous for being one of the prettiest girl in her school. Very few know that she's a really tomboy... cheap... can't wake up in the morning... likes to pick on people... and tends to make a mistake at the most important moment. She is a nice person though. You can see that when she helped Sakura carry paper works when they just met in the hallway.

- It seems she had some special feelings toward Shirou from the beginning, although they never really spoke to each other. She used her one and only necklace given from her father, concentrated with single use mana, to save Shirou from Lancer's wound. At first when she didn't know who was stabbed, she was going to let him die to save the necklace for the upcoming battles

- Master of Archer.  She hated him the first night they met, and wanted Saber as a Servant originally, but they are now a pretty good team.

Matou Sakura
- Younger sister of Matou Shinji. She's beenn regularly going over to Shirou's house after his step-father died and helps him with his housework. She enjoys being a help to him, and tries to wake up early every morning to cook breakfast before he does.
- Although she seems shy, she has a strong wwill and says what needs to be said.
- High school 1st year. She's a member of thhe archery club.

Ilya (Illyasviel von Einzbern)
- A master who came from outside the countryy. Her family seems to be involved with the War of the Holy Grail from the past.

- She has her own castle in the forest near Fuyuki City. Only herself and two maids, Leysritt and Sella, lives there.

- Even though she looks like an little girl, she's a quite powerful sorcerer. It's scary when she innocently asks her servant, Berserker to kill her enemy.  It seems as if she's trying to kill Shirou for a personal reason, but at the same time talks to him friendly during the day time.

Archer
- Tohsaka Rin's servant. "Archer",, like the name says is skilled at projectile weapons and looking out. His eye sights are amazing: he was able to count the number of tiles on a bridge from a top of the building few miles away. In the prologue though, he used daggers against Lancer. He fended off a close combat fighter in close combat, even though he's a long ranged fighter.

- He's tends to be sarcastic and takes a realistic view on things. He pissed Rin off with his attitude when they first met, but he seems to be a pretty reliable and good guy.  As a first task as servant, Rin made him clean up the mess he made in the living room... but he did it. The next morning, he asked Rin her name.  A Master's name isn't that important in fighting the war, but asking that means he acknowledges her as a partner.

- Because he was summoned in a rough way, he lost his memory.  Although he can remember how to fight and stuff, he can't remember his True name. Similar to Rin, he doesn't have a real wish upon winning the War either.  He said, maybe world peace.

Lancer
- The most agile servant who's skilled in miid-range close combat.

- He swears a lot during a battle but he seems to be a fair fighter. He even calls his own master cowardly for hiding himself while using Lancer to spy the abilities of the other servants and masters. His master is a mystery in the beginning.

Berserker
- Ilya's servant who is extremely powerful. The class of Berserker sacrifices their sanity for power. Most of the Berserkers in the previous wars destroyed themselves because master couldn't control them, but Ilya, as a powerful sorcerer, is able to control him without any problem.

Fuji Nee (Fujimura Taiga)
(Nee is short for Ne-san, big sister)
- A teacher at Shirou's school. She looked aafter Shirou when he was little, so that's why he calls her Fuji Nee. She doesn't like being called "Tiger" though, and tells everyone to call her "Fujimura Sensei".
- She's violent and acts like a child. A verry funny person. She doesn't like cooking herself and visits Shirou's house everyday crying "where's the food?!". She slid into the classroom one day at full speed, banged her head against the corner of the desk and knocked herself out. Interestingly, her grandfather is a leader of a yakuza group.
- She is very skilled in Kendo (Japanese artt of fencing) and has the nick name the "Tiger of Fuyuki" However, she is an advisor of the archery club for some reason.

Emiya Kiritsugu
- Step father of Shirou who was really a sorrcerer. Emiya Shirou's role model. While he was adopting Shirou, he went in and out from their house for his work. There are times when he didn't come back for few months. He passed away one day from an unknown disease.

Kotomine Kirei
- A sorcerer who is a member of the Mage's AAssociation and also a member of the Church. He is a priest at the church on top of the hill.
- The manager of the War of the Holy Grail. He fought in the previous war and his father was the manager at that time. His father died protecting him, and as an obligation of a survivor, he took his father's place.
- He has a nasty personality where he will ssay things directly that makes you feel really uncomfortable.
- His name "Kirei" means "preetty", contrary to his personality and looks.

Matou Shinji
- Shirou's old friend. He's very popular in his school, but has some problems with his personality. He likes Tohsaka Rin, but he acts like it's natural for her to like him.  He obviously gets rejected by her.  Sub-captain of the archery club. He doesn't think good of his sister going to Shirou's house everyday.

Ryudo Issei
- Shirou's good friend. Smart and Reliable. He's the president of the Student Council. He's the son and heir of the Ryudo temple.

Kuzuki Souichirou
- Teacher at Shirou's school. He doesn't speeak much, but a lot of students look up to him.

Mitsuzuri Ayako
- She's the captain of the archery club. A ggood friend of Tohsaka Rin. They are competing who gets a boy friend first.

Makidera Kaede
- Rin's classmate 1. Track team sprinter Good friends with Kane and Yukika. She's the one who always leads them. (The one on the left)

Himuro Kane
- Rin's classmate 2. Track team jumper.
The calm one out of the three. (The one on the right)

Saegusa Yukika
- Rin's classmate 3. Track team manager. Admires Rin. (The one in the middle)

Leysritt
- Ilya's maid 1. Easy minded.

Sella
- Ilya's maid 2. Serious minded.

Rider
???

Caster
???

Assassin
???

Fuyuki City
- Fuyuki City is divided up into two sectionns, the new town which is the business district and old town where many old traditional houses are. The church of Kotomine is up on the hill in new town, and Ryudo temple is on the other hill in the old town.
- The last battle of the previous War of thee Holy Grail ended within where the new town is. That places is an open field used as a park today. This is where Shirou's house burnt down...

The First Story: FATE
FATE /Stay night basically has 3 distinctive outcomes and you play them in order.  FATE is the first scenario which focuses on the main heroine, Saber.

The Second Story: Unlimited Blade Works
Unlimited Blade works is the 2nd scenario which has Rin as the heroine, but focuses a lot more on the main character.

The Third Story: Heavens Feel
The 3rd scenario where Sakura's past is revealed. It's probably the most true out of the three endings.

Servant Status
Translation of the "Status" menu in the game.

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