Imperial Privilege

Let's talk about the Third Holy Grail War.


It's no secret that the notion charms me. I post about it every so often, and I immediately start grilling anyone with a fanfic idea of their own about it to see how they would handle the kerfluffle of two Sabers running around in the same Grail War as Nazis, the IJA, Avenger and the more pedestrian blend of colorful Master-Servant combinations.


I've given mine the title of The Third Tragedy. It's gone through about three dozen renovations as I discard and replace and half the cast, mostly Servants. I have a few ideas on lock, but the rest of the story is about as stable as shifting sand. So I'll just post the first generation of my ideas, commenting on why they appealed to me.


I still have every intention of writing The Third Tragedy, which even had an abortive beginning as a Hellsing crossover with Zalgo Jenkins before I abandoned it, but this isn't really spoiler territory. Most of the Servants have been thrown out since its inception, and even the Masters have been retooled here and there.

The Third Tragedy

The Masters

Team Edelfelt

Veera and Elina Edelfelt: The much discussed but never seen twins who gamed the system. They began the story on shaky terms, owing to magi society, and it only gets worse. The Ore Scales makes them equals, which is uncommon for siblings, but in practice, Elina still feels like the runner up, whether real or perceived. She has spent her life dealing with gossip, back-handed compliments and long looks down other people's noses as soon as they hear she is the younger twin by all of sixty seconds. She has all the power and attention of a proper heiress but none of the respect. It rankles. As a result, she has thrown herself wholeheartedly into the family's mercenary magi business, whereas Veera is more so the prim and proper, politicking, research-oriented magus. This has only further driven a wedge between the sisters, as Elina suffers from PTSD and feels that it is her bloody work that holds up the Edelfelt reputation while Veera reaps the rewards. Their twinned Saber is Siegfried, who has been split between the Siegfried who knows no fear before his meeting with Brynhildr and the Siegfried suffering under the effects of a scheme to make him forget Brynhildr and actively work against his wife. Elina takes this as a sign of her rightful place as the hardworking, courageous one when she is partnered with Siegfried the bold, and Veera forms a contract with Siegfried the fool. The incompatible nature of Siegfried at two very different points in his life makes for a convenient pretext for the two to separate and pursue their own war strategies, but it's just as much a matter of the sisters mixing poorly.

Team Tohsaka

Hiroyuki Tohsaka: The one and only son of the scheming Yoshiyuki Tohsaka, who has raised his boy as a living weapon. Yoshiyuki is a hard man, but he truly does love his son. He just has trouble showing it in a healthy way. He couldn't think of a better way to ensure his son's survival than making him a child soldier. As a result, Hiroyuki is in amazing physical shape, rigorously trained from birth how best to cut down his eventual competition, but his mental state is a disaster. In order to desensitize Hiroyuki to the killing, Yoshiyuki has painted the Grail War as a just and necessary crusade that will allow Hiro to fight alongside noble heroes in a glorious battle right out of his many childhood bedtime stories, which were told to him every night in an effort to give him a vast knowledge of as many enemy Heroic Spirits as possible. To give you an idea of how damaged he is, Hiroyuki is introduced attending Hayato Matou's funeral, where he offers his condolences to the widow by telling her what a shame it is that Hayato didn't live long enough for the Grail War, and he looks forward to killing her when she steps up as the replacement Master.

Team Matou

Frida Matou: A Matou by marriage whose world goes from bad to worse when her toxic in-laws inadvertently kill her husband trying to prepare him as a Master for the Grail War and essentially brow beat her into stepping in to replace Hayato with veiled threats of turning the worms on her 7-year-old son, Touma. She's turbo-tragic, trying to salvage something out of this mess. Her character arc would focus mostly on slowly coming out of her crushing depression and trying to dig herself out of her hellhole in the hopes of achieving the Grail and using its power to either wish her husband back to life or destroy Zouken, who isn't unaware of her treacherous plans.

Team Einzbern and the Thules

Aranasviel von Einzbern: Where Irisviel was a joy, Aranasviel is a dirge. She thinks homunculi have a pretty raw deal. She deeply resents the Einzbern family for giving female models like her a stunted life as tools for their personal glory and that the male homunculi exist chiefly to serve as organ banks for Acht. So she sets out with Avenger, who is a perfect match as someone just as hateful and bitter as her, to use the Grail's power to exterminate the Einzbern family. Dispatched with her is a small team of Thule Society magi acting as her bodyguards and handlers, she plots to have them all killed over the course of the war, even after Avenger is defeated early on and she resolves to take as many people down with her as she can. Owing to her sour disposition, her knowing full well how her beauty can disarm people and the first entourage member killed being a man who was smitten with her, she is nicknamed Arana with a tilde (because fuck me if I know how to put one of those on BL) or Black Widow by Johanna Braunstein, head of the Thule team.

Team Escardos

Felix Escardos: A sweet, stupid, simple kind of guy who is a part of the Mage's Association's delegation in this war. The proper Master was a Clock Tower professor, but he and most of his followers are butchered by Assassin while his Servant is out scouting. When Felix arrives late to the meeting point, having been turned around and speaking next to no Japanese, he meets the suspicious Archer at arrow point. Cooler heads prevail, and Archer decides to form a new contract with him for lack of anything else to do. He is very much the Shirou or the Waver of this war, being in way over his head but stubbornly staggering forward with a Servant who is quite frankly too good for him. The obvious implication is that Flatt will be drawn to Waver and the Snowfield War because one of his relatives was present for the Third.

Team Delacroix

Dominique Delacroix: A French doll maker and veteran of WWI and a pseudo-disiciple of Araya Souren. It was only thanks to the latter that he survived the former. (Souren is on the books to have traveled the world, observing battlefields and trying to save people. It makes sense. Shut up.) His experiences left him deeply affected, horrified by how easily these modern tools butchered men, how little his magecraft helped him and how stupidly ugly and pointless it is that humans should be murdered so casually. To that end, he has become morbidly fascinated by modern weaponry and integrates them into his dolls, making him a Kiritsugu-like heretic. He is also more world-aware than most magi, closely following national alliances and conflicts for fear of another Great War breaking out. The looming WWII deeply disturbs him and becomes his motivation to enter the Grail War: He would wish for an end to the scourge of war. However, despite his exposure and attention the outside world, he is also the most withdrawn Master, having grown so fearful of the outside world and its corruption, death and decay that he shuts himself up in his workshop like a fortress. He pathologically fears death and disease, going to great lengths to sterilize his dolls, and he flies into a frothing rage when Hiroyuki and Risei storm his workshop in a case of mistaken identity.

Team Wirn and the Nazis

Wirn: I never even bothered given him a first name, but I did give him a past as a blood mage who joined the Thule Society and left to become a full-time Nazi in an effort to rebuild his family's name after the loss of his father and the family Crest during WWI. This story assumes the Thule Society was a regular branch of the Association that went rogue and allied with the Reich in open defiance of the Association's non-interference policy. The order came down when the Clock Tower was nearly destroyed in scandals and infighting due to their close association with the British Empire as it began to fall. Back to Wirn, he's a bit of a wild card. He allies with Aranasviel and her Thule flunkies at the very beginning of the story, but they openly wonder among themselves who he's really working for: The Nazi Party, the Thule Society or himself? Sure, he talks big about the good old days with his Thule buddies and clearly carries a torch for his old squeeze, Johanna, but he never really promises anything to anyone. Just as Aranasviel has her Thule team, Wirn works with a top secret mage division of the SS. In terms of numbers, the Wirn-Einzbern alliance is the one to beat.

The Church

Risei

Risei Kotomine: A very young Risei, who has inexplicably been dispatched to preside over the war in spite of more experienced, more qualified men seeking the post. Risei didn't even apply for it. (It is implied that Risei is being sent away to cover up a scandal involving a tryst with a nun, foreshadowing the way he will eventually break his vows to father a child.) Overwhelmed but dutiful, Risei takes the job very seriously and tries to reign in the rampaging Masters, who don't take him seriously. He looks down on magi as heretics and barbarians but finds himself striking up an odd friendship with Hiroyuki when he is the only one to answer the call for aid when Risei finds out that Aranasviel has been kidnapped after the loss of her Servant, which should be off-limits. Without precedent to go on, Risei actively helps Hiroyuki in his search for her and even takes part in the raid on Dominique's workshop when they incorrectly deduce that he has kidnapped her thanks to some trickery from the Edelfelts. Though nominally in charge of the Church's activities in the Grail War, he chafes under the advice and presence of his supposed enforcer, Charles McLaughlin.

Charles McLaughlin

Charles McLaughlin: I always figured Kirei must have a lot of unseen helpers working to cover up the crazy stuff that goes on during a Grail War. Stuff like the school must be too much for man to handle, right? So let's pretend I'm right and that Charles is Risei's second-in-command. Risei is the administrator, whereas Charles is the head field agent who takes a more hands-on approach. At least, that's how it works on paper. In reality, Charles is a true zealot who keeps Risei in the dark about his personal crusade to ensure that every magi Fuyuki is dead by the time the Grail War ends. To that end, he is armed with a number of high-powered holy weapons and effects, including but not limited to a mace-and-shield Conceptual Weapon similar to Riesbyfe's and some of Samson's remains grafted into his body not unlike Souren's Buddha bits. He is a monster of a man, every bit as capable as Fourth War Kirei but just as disgraced as Risei for killing a fellow Executor. As far as Charles is convinced, every one of the Church's men in Fuyuki is a lost cause, an embarrassment Rome wants to see wiped away, so there is nothing to mourn when they die. Charles embraces his disgrace as a "saintly sinner," using this as an opportunity to destroy as many of the Church's enemies as possible. If he's starting to sound a lot like Aranasviel with his all-consuming hatred for magi, you win a cookie. Aranasviel picks up on their similarities after he abducts her with the intention of torturing information on the ritual out of her and turns the tables by making him something of an ally. "Something" because they don't trust each other as far as she could throw him, but the agree to share information for the purpose of making life miserable for everyone else while plotting to murder each other.

The Servants

The Sabers

Saber: Siegfried before he had a starring role in Fate/Apocrypha as a heart-ghost-henshin-thing. I started assembling the cast around the time Complete Materials IV dropped, and we all learned about the ill-fated online Fate project. Of course, now it has a novel series and is about to get a game, but I didn't know that at the time. Whatever the case, Siegfried is essentially pre and post-Brynhildr. Both of him (them?) have a full range of their memories, but they are limited. Certain things seem hazy or impossible to relate to, as if they're reading a book about an entirely different person. (sup, EMIYA) Elina's fearless Siegfried is disappointed in his other half falling so far in the name of love, whereas Veera's bamboozled Siegfried thinks the other one is an empty, joyless man. Further complicating things is that Veera edition Siegfried has come to believe that she is his wife, which leads to a lot of cognitive dissonance when he remembers Brynhildr and knows that she couldn't possibly be here. She's dead, and he's a prana ghost. His violent mood swings make him the closest thing the story had to a Berserker, but it was really more of a temper tantrum than face-eating rage. Another note is the difference in Phantasms. They share the Armor of Fafnir and Balmung, but Veera's Siegfried has the cloak of illusion that he used to trick Brynhildr into marrying Gunnar and the Ale of Forgetfulness that made it all possible. Elina Siegfried has Grani. I was thinking of something else to give him to equal out the other Siegfried, but I abandoned this concept before it went anywhere. That was motivated mostly by Apocrypha being revived and Siegfried being such a common pick for the Edelfelts.

Lancer

Lancer: Perseus and the closest thing the story has to a main Servant. He was my very first pick, motivated by hearing that Medusa compares him to a Shinji who succeeded and Hollow Ataraxia makes a big deal of his fear and feelings of inadequacy. True to that depiction, Perseus is a lot of hot air, posturing and building himself up in front of Hiroyuki, who buys it hook, line and sinker. In reality, he is a deeply insecure man who doubts his own worth as a hero, having been handed his victory on a sliver platter. He went on a lot of other adventures later in life without so much godly hand-holding, but he still wonders if he would have been able to do any of those things without the self-confidence he got from killing Medusa in the first place. He's fighting mostly to prove (and mainly to himself) that he deserves his heroic reputation. His friendship with Hiroyuki is genuine, and he sees too many parallels in Yoshiyuki's controlling nature and the gods. He encourages Hiroyuki to be his own man and step out of his father's shadow. Summoned at Yoshiyuki's behest after a lecture that obviously mirrors Rin's explanation to Shirou that a battle between Servants is a battle of Noble Phantasms. I would later decide that David makes a better fit for Hiroyuki so they can discuss Christianity and Hiroyuki can unintentionally guilt David when he starts talking about Elina and trying to cajole him into helping him woo her by bringing up Bathsheba.

Caster

Caster: Cu Chulainn's teacher and lover, Scathach. Her summoning initially appears to be a misfire, as her ascent to something beyond human renders her catatonic and unable to interact with the world around her. This is a fresh wave of despair for Frida, who feels even more defeated, but Avenger's absorption into the Grail kickstarts the spiritually sensitive Scathach, who performs the magical equivalent of mutilating herself in order to bring herself back down to normal Heroic Spirit levels. She's still pretty powerful. So powerful, in fact, that she spends the next several days butting into any battle between Servants, kicking ass and telling them all to go home. She intends to run out the clock on the Grail War as a way of suppressing Avenger's taint. The Servants will vanish after two weeks, and nothing bad will happen. This puts her at odds with Frida, who begs, bargains and threatens her at every juncture to go ahead and win this damn war. Ditched on the grounds that everyone uses Scathach and she probably can't even be summoned due to her odd circumstances.

Archer

Archer: My first pick was Arjuna, who actually appears in his eunuch form of Brihannala as a joke on the franchise's back for gender bending. This would be obvious to the reader but a total mystery to Felix, who can't figure out who this "pretty lady" is when Arjuna gives him his eunuch name. Jokes aside, Arjuna is from the Saber school of being a top tier Servant with a sub-par Master, but he doesn't complain. He's pretty supportive of Felix, and the two get along about as well as Perseus and Hiroyuki. I ultimately discarded this idea because a gimped Arjuna is still stupidly powerful. Subsequent Archer candidates were Hippolyta and Penthesilea as a sterner example of the Alexander-type mentor before I struck on the idea of David for Hiroyuki. I also considered Paris for a time, but he was too similar to Perseus as a cowardly lion.

Rider

Rider: Bradamante of Charlemagne's knights. She's the lady knight who borrowed Astolfo's golden spear and his steed of flames, Rabicano. I waffled on giving Frida either Caster or Rider. I liked the parallels of Frida as a stand-in Master summoning a knight with secondhand Noble Phantasms. There's also the fact that Bradamante sees a lot of herself and Ruggiero in Frida's love for her husband and understands her desire to resurrect him, even if she finds it a bit tasteless as a devout Christian. Whereas Scathach would have caused Frida nothing but heartburn, Bradamante would be Frida's champion. Of course, she wound up on the cutting room floor when I realized I had two Servants for Frida and zero for Wirn, forcing me to go back to the drawing board and consider a Rider for him. Dietrich von Bern emerged as the likeliest candidate.

Assassin

Assassin: Midget Hassan is a Hassan who actually lives up to the class description of assassinating Masters. He's great at what he does, although a lot of that has to do with Dominique's support. He would have been a bit flat as a character, existing mostly as a foil to Dominique's eccentricities similar to Hassan of the evil arm being the pragmatic foil to Zouken's mustache-twirling. Still, he shows off more independence than most Assassins, leaving the workshop from time to time when he grows irritated with Dominique's wait-and-see approach. He knows the best defense is a good offense, and scores a string of the war's first victories/fatalities by slaughtering Archer's original Master, Avenger and about half the Thules.

Avenger

Avenger: You should know him by now.

About half of these ideas have fallen apart for one reason or another, though most of the Masters will probably make the cut whenever I get around to the final product.

But the one, vivid image that still sticks out in my mind from this early draft is a coalition of Lancer, Rider and one of the Sabers arriving at the warped Matou mansion, now the center of Caster's absurdly powerful Reality Marble. Lancer quakes in terror at the thought of storming the monster's lair while Saber charges in without fear and Rider mercilessly taunts Lancer for being such a wuss. Isn't he a hero? But then Rider and Saber get mauled (possibly killed), forcing Lancer to take a stand in the trial by fire he has been anticipating and dreading from the moment he was summoned.