The Holy Grail Wars A series of battle royales that decides the ownership of the Holy Grail, a wish-granting artefact that’s unrelated to the cup that holds the blood of Christ. Taking place at least every sixty years, seven historical, mythological, or fictional figures are summoned as familiars called “Servants” by individuals, usually mages, called “Masters”. The Masters would then have their Servants fight it out, with the soul of each defeated Servant absorbed by the Grail as pure energy. The Grail would in turn use the energy to grant an impossible wish to the Master of the surviving winner. Before making the wish, the Master would usually command his own Servant to commit suicide using his Command Spell so as to fill up the Grail with the one last soul, since the wishes would work better with more Servant souls contributed. Upon Kyubey’s infiltration of the Holy Grail Wars, the Incubator has created new artificial Grails to replace the one that was destroyed in the fifth Holy Grail War. Kyubey has crafted the new Grails to work just the old one, with the exception of being able to summon fictional Servants. Kyubey, being an utilitarian at heart, has also carried out an act to prevent bloodshed between Masters by manufacturing the new Holy Grails in large supply, such that a War would take place every ten years. Furthermore, the new Grails are no longer corrupted, unlike the old Grail, meaning true wishes could be granted without having the wisher’s intentions being twisted. The wishes granted do have to be approved beforehand, however, by QB-corp, but it’s merely to ensure that no world-changing or world-destruction wishes would be made. As long as it doesn’t affect the world at large, or the process of the Holy Grail Wars, almost any wish would be approved. Masters, Magi, and Command Spells Masters are individuals, usually mages (“magi” and its singular form “magus” being the proper terms), hand-picked by the Holy Grail to participate in each Holy Grail War. When they are chosen by the Grail, three command spells (a tattoo featuring three strokes of red lines in various shapes) appear at the back of the Masters’ hand. Aside from being visual proofs that signify a person’s status as a Master, each of the three command spells can be used to give the Servant commands that which he can not disobey, not to mention impossible commands that the Servant couldn’t follow (like teleporting instantly to the Master’s side). In order to remain in existence, a Servant requires a good supply of prana (magical energy) provided by his Master (thus, it can be said that to defeat a Servant, one simply requires the elimination of the supply source, the Master himself, but this practice has been banned by QB-corp), though some unique Servants could retain their physical body without said prana. The prana comes from the Master’s life force, converted through his magic circuits. Magic circuits are a pseudo-nervous system that spreads itself through the human body and what qualifies a person to be a magus. Due to their mental connection, when asleep, a Master and Servant can see visions of each other’s pasts in the form of dreams. Though Servants do not require sleep, they can force themselves to do so in order to conserve energy, thus seeing his Master’s past. Magi, much like royalty, would only become more powerful with each descending bloodline… That is, only if the predecessors left with their children what they’ve previously learned of magecraft (or thaumaturgy) in engravings called “Magic Crests”. These archives come in various shapes, but mostly in magic circles. Servants Servants are the physical copies of spiritual entities known as “Heroic Spirits”. There are four kinds of Heroic Spirits: Historical figures of great deeds who had once existed in real life and had ascended to the Throne of Heroes, real people who had contracted to become a Heroic Spirit, mythological figures based on folklores and religious beliefs, and most recently, fictional characters based on pure fantasies and imaginations. The Holy Grail could only summon mere copies of the Spirits who were once real people. Due to this, any Heroic Spirit summoned in multiple Holy Grail Wars will lack knowledge of previous summonings. Mythological figures and fictional characters didn’t have real bodies to begin with, therefore they too wouldn't have any memory of previous summonings. After Kyubey took over the Holy Grail War, the summoning of fictional Servants has become a common practice among magi thanks to the revolutionary innovations of Kirei Kotomine and QB-corp. This not only allows Servants of unimaginable powers to be materialised, it also replaces replicas of Heroic Spirits who have existed in real life once with replicas of fictional entities who have never existed at all. Though many magi have considered this practice to be unnecessary and a hypocritical abuse of artificial lifeforms nonetheless, some treated the practice as nothing more than constructing a robot or toy, albeit with an artificial sentient life. For further information on the process of summoning these incredible Servants, please scroll down to the “Summoning Servants” section below. The group of female magi from another reality known as “Magical Girls” have now been forced into becoming Servants by Kyubey, particularly the Girls originating from Kyubey’s home-world. Unlike normal Heroic Spirits, they are not mere copies; it is their actual bodies that are summoned into the Wars, and their actual souls, or rather, their soul gems that are sacrificed to the Holy Grail. However, whenever there is a Magical Girl Servant Kyubey wants to keep around to be resummoned in the next Holy Grail War, the Incubator would then halt the process of sacrifice and return them into their spiritual forms, all the while retaining their memories of all previous summonings. Kyubey sometimes also has a nasty streak of pairing up Magical Girl Servants with abusive Masters, particularly Magical Girls related to Homura Akemi. Summoning Servants The summoning ritual for Servants only require, at minimum, two things: a summoning circle, which is a large magic circle drawn across any surface, and a summoning spell. While there are no specific incantations for the summoning spell, for summoning specific Servants, a recitation of the Servant’s past life is used alongside a third object - the catalyst, symbols or holy relics associated with the Servant’s past life. Though the catalyst is necessary to summon specific Servants, a summoning spell is not required if the summoner isn’t a magus; therefore, a summoning circle and a catalyst are the minimum objects required for an ordinary person. A unique incantation is also used for summoning Servants of the Berserker class, in addition to a specific line drawn on the magic circle, a line that’s only known by those familiar with the workings of the Grail system. Through mass-production, QB-corp has redesigned all televisions, theater projectors, blu-ray players, video game consoles, and even ordinary books to be compatible with a data-recording microchip called “Anima Mundi”, a chip that could be used for the summoning of these Servants. Masters who wish to summon fictional Servants simply need to request for these chips, and the permission to install them, from the newly found “Church of Madoka”. After a Master has received the license and has slotted the chip into the appropriate medium, the chip would record the ’story data’ of the medium, and all the Master has to do during the summoning ritual is to place the chip in the middle of the summoning circle, think about the specific character from the story he has recorded, while inciting an incantation related to the character’s life. Servant Classes and Skills Servants are categorised into seven classes depending on the characteristics of the Heroic Spirits in their past life. They are Saber the swordsman, Lancer the spearman, Archer the bowman (sometimes gunman), Rider the mounter, Caster the mage, Assassin the specialised killer, and Berserker the insane hero. There are sometimes other unique classes given for those who do not fit those categories, such as Avenger the vengeful anti-hero, Saver the messiah, Ruler the king (or queen), Shielder the wielder of the shield, etc. All Servants have an extra set of skills called “Class Skills” and “Personal Skills”. Personal Skills are skills the Heroic Spirits possessed when they were alive (or simply skills they were depicted with in myths and fiction). Class Skills are skills granted to specific classes upon summoning, generally reflecting the abilities the Heroic Spirits had in life. All Servants also possess the knowledge of the era they are summoned into, so historical figures from a bygone era wouldn’t be surprised if he’s summoned as a Servant in the modern age. For a list of Class and Personal Skills Servants could have, please check out this link: http://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Skill Noble Phantasms Simply put, they are unique weapons or abilities associated with the Heroic Spirits’ identity in their past life, be it fictional life or non-fictional. They can come in various forms, and are often used by enemy Servants and Masters to deduce a Servant’s true identity (and thus, his weaknesses). Considering that a Servant has to call out the name of his NP before activating it, this is made all the more easier (like King Arthur’s Excalibur). Using a powerful Noble Phantasm usually requires a large amount of prana, though utility NPs like the ability to clone oneself would normally only require a steady flow of prana. The Holy Church and the Mage’s Association The Holy Church, also referred simply as “the Church”, was an international religious organization. The Mage’s Association was an international, self-preservative and self-defense organization formed by practitioners of magecraft for the purpose of controlling, concealing, and developing magecraft. Both of these organisations have been wiped out by Kyubey, and a faux version of both the Church (now called “The Church of Madoka”) and the Association (now called “Magi. Inc.”) was set up as a front for the more curious parties, among other administrative purposes. Kirei Kotomine Kirei was the son of a priest working for the Holy Church. Unlike the Incubators, he has emotions, but he couldn’t understand what the human concept of ‘happiness’ means, and instead found himself drawn to negative emotions like the pain of others. Before Kirei was ‘killed’ in the fifth Holy Grail War, he had formed a contract with Kyubey such that he would transform into a Heroic Spirit upon his death. He has been observing the newly formed Holy Grail War throughout the centuries as a lingering spirit powered by Kyubey’s artificial prana. Instead of participating in the War, however, he chose to remain a dutiful observer… for now.

Kyubey/Incubators Kyubey is a member of a scientifically-advanced, emotionless, and possibly hive-mind species called the “Incubators”. Their goal was to stop “maximum entropy”, or the heat-death of the universe. Upon their discovery of magic, they also found out about its connection with human emotions, and therefore proceeded to create the Magical Girl system, which involves contracting of adolescent girls into becoming Magical Girls. The Incubator would then grant the girl’s one wish in return. One of the Incubators’ first subjects was presumably a cavewoman, of whom they granted the gift of fire. After the first Magical Girl had turned into a witch, the existence of witches presumably became a convenient excuse for the Incubators to offer the human females another reason to become Magical Girls. This balanced cycle would last through the ages, involving famous historical figures such as Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, and even Anne Frank. Recently, however, Kyubey was cursed with human emotions by a Magical Girl named Homura Akemi. Ever since its follow-up meeting with one Kirei Kotomine, whom it shared its traumatic experiences with, it has gained a thirst for vengeance, and after which, it transformed all Magical Girls into Servants. Puella Magi The coined term for Magical Girls in Kyubey’s home-world (“Puella Magi” could also mean “slave to the deceiver”), they are pubescent human females who, in exchange for one miraculous wish, contracted with the Incubators to fight witches using powers of magic given to them. Upon contract, the Incubators would rip out the female’s soul from her body and place it into an egg-shaped gem. This is to ensure that the soul, the one that’s controlling the body, remains undamaged during battles. The kind of magic the female would receive depends on the kind of wish she made during contract. Upon transformation, they would appear in fluffy, ribbon-laced costumes, often clothing that bears similarities with medieval outfits. Whenever a Magical Girl uses her powers, her coloured soul gem would dim a little, depending on how much power was used. When either the Magical Girl’s magical energy runs out and the soul gem fully blackens, or if her wish turns out not the way she had in mind (thus leading her into total chronic depression), the soul gem would crack, and she would then be transformed into a witch, releasing an immense amount of energy during the transformation. This energy would supposedly be used in suppressing entropy. Due to Homura Akemi’s actions, Kyubey has forced all Magical Girls to fight as Servants in the Holy Grail Wars, and thereby sacrificing their actual souls, not copies, to the Holy Grails. Some of them, particularly those related to Homura Akemi, were kept from the sacrificial ritual to be resummoned into the next War, their memories in tact. Kyubey has also readjusted the Magical Girl system such that soul gems are no longer needed, and their magical supply would instead come from their Master. If their energy runs out, they would simply return to their spiritual forms rather than turn into witches. This was to ensure that all Magical Girls would be in their top-forms when battling other Servants. Nevertheless, the mental stress of the new system has become too much for some Magical Girls to handle, but suicide was not an option for them, for they would simply return to their spiritual forms, awaiting their next summoning into physical existence. Furthermore, when repeated suicide tries were performed, Kyubey would sometimes ‘punish’ the suicidal Magical Girl. Homura Akemi Homura was a Magical Girl who tried preventing her best friend, Madoka Kaname, from contracting with Kyubey, having known the witch-transformation that awaited all Magical Girls. Her wish was to redo her first meeting with Madoka - one month prior to her contract - thus granting her the power to travel back in time within a maximum period of one month. She failed to prevent Madoka from making a contract for at least eight years’ worth of time-traveling, before Madoka made a wish to personally save all past and future Magical Girls right before their transformation into witches. But since Madoka was forced to become a goddess, and therefore an abstract concept, Homura eventually felt that Madoka was not truly happy. Hence, she stole Madoka’s powers and reshaped the world, turning all Magical Girls and witches into normal little girls. Homura’s further actions in cursing Kyubey with emotions cost her greatly when Kyubey decided to seek its revenge. Homura’s current fate is unknown, but needless to say, she has been properly dealt with by Kyubey. Koyemshi Originally human, he was turned into a floating fuzzball by the mysterious entities known as the “Masterminds”. In his reality, battle royales not unlike the Holy Grail War were held throughout the galaxy, using giant robots instead of historical/mythological figures. Most recently, he granted Kyubey the power to traverse between reality, as well as other technologies that helped created the fake Holy Grail, more out of amusement rather than any grand purpose.

- Name: - Gender: - Age: - Personality: - Backstory: - Holy Grail Wish: - Magic Specialisation (the kind of magic he is specialised in): - Bloodline (title of the family of mages he belongs to, if any): ~~~ - Command Spell Shape (preferably a picture; the color of the pic doesn't matter, since all Command Spells are red): - Appearance (either a textual description or a picture):

- Name: - Alias(es): - Gender: - Age: - Servant Class: - Catalyst: - Species: - Universe of Origin (the reality he's from): - Alignment: - Personality: - Backstory: - Holy Grail Wish: Servant Stats (rank goes from EX, A++, A+, and then a normal order of A to E) Strength: Endurance: Agility: Mana: Luck: Class Skills and Rank: Personal Skills and Rank: Noble Phantasm(s) and Rank: ~~~ - Appearance (either a textual description or a picture):

- Name: - Alias(es): - Age: - Servant Class: - Catalyst: - Alignment: - Personality: - Backstory: - Magical Girl Wish (wish made when she contracted with Kyubey): - Holy Grail Wish: - Soul Gem Color and Alternate Form: Servant Stats (rank goes from EX, A++, A+, and then a normal order of A to E) Strength: Endurance: Agility: Mana: Luck: Class Skills and Rank: Personal Skills and Rank: Noble Phantasm(s) and Rank: ~~~ - Appearance (either a textual description or a picture):