The Vague Rants of Vagrant

So this story is never going to get written (much like all the other ones I plan, hue) but I thought it had some mildly interesting character kernels as far as an Alternate Holy Grail War story went so I've decided to throw it here for funsies and so people can laugh at my abysmal ideas.

It started from me noticing that some of the Servants I had written for the CAS thread fitting into roles of FSN Servants quite well, so I decided to see if I could fit all the roles with already published Servants of my own. The results weren't perfect, but interesting enough.

Might be tl;dr, nobody probably gives a shit anyway, but I don't care. It's my blog and I'll blog if I want to.

Aaaaaand having both HGW4 and 5 is too big for one blog, so I'm splitting it. Shirou and co tomorrow, I guess. I also promise that the HGW5 characters have more detail to them, since this was the follow-up to my initial thought experiment. This is mainly due to me having fewer "'scrap Servants" to choose from to fit the Masters, so it's a little more nonsensical at times.

Indiana Jones Waver is still one of my favourite ideas I've had in a long time, though.

Fate/Zero Hour

Masters

Emiya Kiritsugu:
Didn't have much in the way of notes here. He'd play the game much the same as in Zero, but would hand Kirei his ass on a platter. Assumably near the end he'd change a bit more due to not getting to touch the Grail and realise his ideals were awful and impossible. His relationship with his Servant, Rider, while not ideal, are far better than he had with Artoria.

Einzbern Irisviel:
No Avalon = Irisviel collapses earlier.

Kotomine Kirei:
Master of Assassin, a priest who is in cohorts with Tohsaka Tokiomi to obtain the Grail. He is a man burdened with the inability to find joy in the same way ordinary humans do, and it is this empty nature that leads him to participate in the Grail War. He works with Tokiomi by using Assassin as a watchful scout, though Assassin dislikes Tokiomi and frequently urges Kotomine to break away from the agreed plan and strike up his own path. Assassin is eventually killed and Kotomine retreats from the Grail War, sheltering at the church where his father is acting as war supervisor.

Here he meets Tadamono Norio, and has several conversations with him regarding the war, family and life in general. Norio is able to tell instinctively that Kirei is not a normal person and feels a great aversion to him, but can’t condemn the man for trying to live as pure and worthwhile a life as he can despite his lack of joy in it. After Tokiomi is killed in a Magus Duel his Servant, Archer, heads to the church to try to convince one of the spare Masters to contract with him so that he can continue to exist.

Norio refuses, glad to be out of the whole crazy situation, but after a pursuasive speech from Archer Kirei decides to seize the chance to wish upon the Grail for understanding and joy. He confronts Kiritsugu with Archer, but without the passion that Gilgamesh unlocks in him he is defeated relatively easily and is killed, though his Archer does manage to successfully kill Rider.

Archer proceeds to the Grail but when it is destroyed by Kayneth and Caster he is enveloped by the Blackened Mud and one of his remaining lives is inadvertently transferred to Kirei, reviving him and granting him greater power than a regular human, as it is the life of a Heroic Spirit he is imbued with.

Tadamono Norio:
Master of Lancer and father of Tadamono Shirou, Norio is an ordinary salaryman who dreams of a little more excitement in his life. His family is in bad shape financially and live in a run-down area of Fuyuki, but they share a strong sense of familial camraderie.

Chosen as the seventh Master by the Grail automatically to make up the numbers after the person who was in line to become the Seventh Master killed himself during a confrontation with the police. He is entirely unaware of the world of magecraft, as his circuits are first generation and of low quality and quantity. The absolute everyman of the Grail War, Norio is unprepared and his Servant is defeated early on, with him retreating to the Church for sanctuary for the remainder of the war.

However, when Risei Kotomine informs him that the Grail will be manifesting in a park very close to where his family lives he becomes fearful for their lives and goes to retrieve them and flee Fuyuki for good. He is sadly too late, as Caster’s fire engulfs the Shinto district, but he stumbles into the fire to look for his family and manages to find his son, Shirou, though he is terribly injured. Norio, himself horrifically burned and injured from the war, cradles his dying son and begs Emiya Kiritsugu to help them when the assassin discovers them.

Kiritsugu manages to save them both, but Norio is left horribly burned and confined to a wheelchair after most of his limbs fail him. He continues to raise Shirou with the help of Fujimura Taiga, who acts as a nanny for them to earn money. Unfortunately he passes away due to health complications a year prior to FSH, but his experiences and his advice have instilled a good personality into his son.

Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi:
A master magus and the Master of Caster. His arrogance stems from his expertise and talent in magecraft and his role as the head of a well-respected ancient magus family. Though he starts off cruel, narcissistic and unable to comprehend that the war will not be an honourable one, his Servant Caster manages to infect him with her goodwill and surety of positive outcomes, and he becomes a better person.

His fiancee Sola takes a liking to the chaste maiden and the couple become closer over the course of the war as Kayneth becomes more proactive, commanding and adaptable. Kayneth, though initially inflexible in his ways, manages to survive several attempts on his life by Kiritsugu and kills Tokiomi in an honourable Magus Duel.

After Kotomine contracts with Archer and faces off with Kiritsugu, it is actually Kayneth who reaches the Grail first and discovers its tainted nature. His Servant Caster is adamant about his capacity to be a good man and prevents him from becoming corrupted by the Grail, instead sacrificing herself to destroy it. The whole experience changes Kayneth and he goes on to do great things with his life, as well as become the foremost Grail scholar amongst magi.

Waver Velvet:
Master of Saber, Waver is an average magus student with radical intellectual ideas. He is initially shunned by his professor, Kayneth, for his ideas and so he steals Kayneth’s catalyst for the upcoming Grail War, entering it himself to prove the value of those who don’t come from an old magus family.

He and his Servant Saber get along well and Saber encourages him to grow as a man much like Rider does in the canonical story. Saber awards him with the blade Colada and he fights alongside Saber in his final battle, proving to be a valuable fighter. After the war he becomes an explorer and a treasure hunter of rare magus artefacts and Mystic Codes, becoming known as the Golden Temple Breaker, ironically taking up a similar Indiana Jones-style role to Saber himself.

His first “treasure hunt” after the events of the Fourth War is to break into the heavily guarded Royal Palace of Madrid to steal the sword Colada, which has survived since Saber’s own time.

Matou Kariya:
Lol didn't get that far. Basically still worthless, except his Servant straight up hates him instead of just being a mad dog.

Tohsaka Tokiomi:
Lol didn't get that far.

Servants

Rider:
Roland, First Peer of the Twelve Paladins. Summoned specifically by Kiritsugu using the Oliphant that the Einzberns recovered, he and Kiritsugu conflict about how best to participate in the war, but not to the level of severity that Kiritsugu and Arturia experienced in canon. When he is summoned as a Rider rather than a Saber the Einzberns are bitterly disappointed, but Kiritsugu is not swayed from his path regardless.

Archer:
Odysseus, the King of Deceptions. Summoned by Tohsaka Tokiomi, he and his Master work together to devise terribly effective and cunning strategies, until Tokiomi is killed in a Magus Duel with Kayneth and Archer is forced to contract with Kotomine in order to continue. He is a complex character, neither protagonist nor antagonist as his actions are predominantly self-centred, but once he becomes coated in the Blackened Grail his negative personality traits become more pronounced. He is killed several times but never gets to truly unleash his powers as an Archer because he does not reach his final life.

Lancer:
White Rabbit, the Hare in the Moon. Summoned by Tadamono Norio, a magical human who has no particular training in magecraft as his family never discovered their talents or the world of magi prior to the Grail War. She is summoned without a catalyst simply due to the summoning occurring within the moonlight and has good compatibility with Norio, but is one of the weakest of the Servants because she was not hand-picked for strength. Has a tsundere personality, but fits well with Norio.

Caster:
Jeanne d’Arc, Maiden of Orleans. A pure maiden who is summoned in a more supportive role as a Caster than a combative role, she combines her various Christian blessings and saintly powers with Kayneth’s own prodigious magical talent to create a truly powerful Territory, they mostly play the defensive game. Because Sola is not blinded by Diarmuid’s charm she may come to see Kayneth in a more positive light, especially with input from and discussion with Caster.

During the latter stages of the story Kayneth and Caster become more proactive, especially once he discovers that the Grail is tainted and poisonous. Caster improves Kayneth and Sola as people with her positive and strong attitude towards doing the good works, and they are genuinely upset when she unleashes La Pucelle to destroy the manifested Grail, killing herself at the same time. It is the flames of La Pucelle that cause the terrible fire that Shirou was injured in, rather than the mud of the Grail. Her flames were cleansing and purifying, causing some different effects to people who were burned.

Saber:
Rodrigo Diaz, El Cid Campeador. A dashing, daring man and hero of the Spaniards, El Cid is a confident man, although he can seem world-worn and snarky at times. Waver compares him to a medieval Indiana Jones, and when Saber asks what he means Waver shows him the films. Saber becomes an enormous movie buff, often trying to sneak out to go to the cinema to watch movies.

Much like Iskander does in canon, he promotes Waver’s growth into a man, though through different methods. He is not so arrogant and possessive and unrestrained as Iskander, but he and Waver manage to sway a Japanese biker gang to assist them with Charisma and some Charms, powering up his allies’ equipment for battle. Colada is a blade which can be awarded to the worthy, and by the end of his story El Cid gladly hands Waver Colada to wield in battle, boosting Waver’s physical parameters greatly.

Berserker:
Popocatepetl, the Smoking Mountain. Summoned by Matou Kariya as a punishment forced upon him by Matou Zouken, Popocatepetl is a significant prana burden upon Kariya. The two have very little in common, as one held the love of his wife and became something akin to a Nature Spirit to watch over her for all eternity, while the other is a deluded and obsessive man, more dangerous to himself and those he believes he loves than the people he should be fighting.

Despite being a Berserker Popocatepetl is actually the one who has to be reasonable and prevent Kariya from doing stupid things half the time, with his stoic and blunt nature. However, when Kariya harms Tohsaka Aoi in his own madness Popocatepetl erupts with rage and burns up the remainder of Kariya’s prana vengefully while he fights. Popocatepetl dislikes Kariya and never utilises his Guardian Knight skill to protect Kariya, but he does use it to protect others, innocents who do not need to be drawn into the war.

Assassin:
William Tell, the First Swedish Confederate. As part of Tokiomi’s plan Kotomine summons Assassin to utilise as a scout and an opportunity attacker, much as he will later do again in the Fifth War, using his experiences with Assassin to build stronger strategies in the future. Assassin actively dislikes Tokiomi and does not hide this fact, as he reminds Assassin too much of the wealthy aristocrats he fought against when he was alive. Has more of a personality than canon Assassin ever did, which is ironic considering how many personalities that Assassin had.