Fate/Abyss
The Holy Grail War.
A ritual in which mages from all walks of life vie for the right of acquiring the Holy Grail, the all-powerful wish-granting device. Those selected to participate in the ritual are called Masters. They summon and, with the help of the Command Spells which assert their rights as Masters, fight alongside powerful figures of legend and lore of the past, Heroic Spirits from the Throne of Heroes given flesh once more under the name of Servants.
Its creators are believed to have perished, or retreated to the shadows, following a string of terrible misfortune, leaving behind a ritual whose true purpose isn't known to any. Even so, the ritual of the Holy Grail War is still held once every century or so. The staging grounds for the war being nowhere other than the city of Tokyo, Japan, the heart of the land where the ritual was created.
Now, in the winter of 1995, mages from all around the world have been selected as the new Masters. It's time for the Holy Grail War to be held once more.
Setting
Welcome to the Holy Grail War.
I believe there's not that much to speak about Fate's premise, especially since all you need to know is already included in the intro, so let me explain what this story will be about.
Simply put, it's a (supposedly) regular Holy Grail War happening in Tokyo. Whether or not everything is as it seems to be, is a mystery yet to be seen. Because everything is following the most basic principles of the franchise, I won't make any other extensive explanations. Anyone looking at this should have an idea of what to expect.
Rules
Putting that aside, here are some basic rules concerning what can and cannot be done.
General
- The basics: be nice, keep discussions to a minimum, respect the Guild's rules, etc.
- I'll not make much requests when it comes to post length, but please try to use your best judgement. Don't write anything that's either too long or too small for any given situation. However, try to keep the quality as high as you can.
- Likewise, I won't impose a strict time limit for posts. But I'll also not allow this story to stall for the lack of posting on anyone's part. After about three days with no posts and no news from whoever is in need of posting, any hanging scenes will be moved forward, with the appropriate consequences taking place. Usually this means that the character who ghosted will simply go back to their workshop/base of operations, but that may change depending on the situation they were in before the player went MIA.
Servants
- Only the seven classic Servant classes, plus Shielder are available to be summoned. In other words, this will be a Holy Grail War between 8 Master/Servant teams.
- Servants that are too powerful to be fun to fight against are going to be banned. At the moment, this list is comprised of Gilgamesh alone. Anyone else can be fought and defeated under the correct circumstances but not him.
- Furthermore, people who are still living (except for Merlin), those who were born after the turn of the 20th century, pseudo Servants, those who do not exist in the Greater History of Mankind, and Galahad (because he's a douchebag who never answers summonings) can't be summoned as well.
Masters
- For the time being, there are no special rules concerning Masters.
Character Sheets
Masters
- Name\Title: Your character's name. You can also include any titles, pseudonyms, etc, that they may have here.
- Appearance: Your character's appearance. Either an image (no real people images/photos, please), (short) text description, or both would be alright.
- Short Bio/Synopsis: As the prompt says, keep this short. Think of that like the description of a character that you read on the back cover of a book. If you can't do this under a limit of two paragraphs, I'll ask you to trim it down until it fits.
- Magecraft: Any important details relating to your character's magecraft skills. This can include, but isn't limited to their family crest (if they have any), their magecraft foundation, any signature spells, sorcery traits (especially Mystic Eyes, if they have any), and a general overview of how good a mage they are.
- Mystic Codes: A wizard's tools. Make a mention of any important mystic codes your character may have with them, as well as their main functions. Generally speaking, no sane mage would leave for a Holy Grail War (or leave home at all) without bringing a few tools with themselves, so keep this in mind while building a character.
- Misc/Other/Trivia: Anything else not covered by the sections above that you may judge to be relevant (like an unhealthy obsession, an important secret, a very strong goal, their personal ethos, etc). Please keep this section short as well. Preferably have this in bullet point format, if there's any information to add.
- Special Boon: Every mage should have an "Ace in the Hole" that they can deploy to instantly turn the tables of a situation or give themselves an great advantage before the war even begins. In way, these boons are analogous to a Servant's Noble Phantasm (in terms of storytelling relevance) so keep that in mind when deciding what to pick and when to make use of them.
Here's a list with examples of boons that you may pick, or you can ask about something else that you may be interested into:
- Superior Magical Skills: for example, being a mage from a noble lineage within the Association, with power and prestige to match your name, or being a mage that comes from an unusually strong/exceptional bloodline/a freak mutation granting you access to a magical power humans are normally unable to have. This can include things like having a Reality Marble, a superior familiar that can't be reproduced by modern magecraft, a spell who borders on the realm of True Magic, etc.
- Superior Mystic Code: Similar to the above, but concerning Mystic Codes. Those could be anything from Jewels capable of releasing A Rank spells with a single action, to a nearly complete Philosopher's Stone, to even an unassigned Noble Phantasm that still remained in the World after its original owner passed on.
- Superior Sorcery Trait: Again, like the above, but for thing like high grade Mystic Eyes, and freakish bloodline abilities, rather than spells or Mystic Codes.
- Dead Apostle of Renown: Exactly what it says on the tin. While anyone can be a random Dead Apostle with no powers or skills worth mentioning, with this trait, you can be one that's significant enough to make a name for yourself in the mystical world. This doesn't mean DAA levels of power of course, so don't go too overboard if you pick this. Also keep in mind that the Church won't offer any protection and will in fact actively antagonize any known Dead Apostles involved in the Holy Grail War.
- Executor/Knight of the Holy Church: Again, exactly what it says on the tin. Anyone can be a member of the Holy Church, but you are a member of one of the many special branches that compose it the Church's active arms. Keep in mind that this means that you'll have automatic ties with the Church, but also not be subject to asking for protection from the Association's representatives.
- Superior Servant: With this boon, your Master is allowed to summon a Servant from the partially banned list (i.e.: Gilgamesh and co), or a Servant that would have strong Staging Grounds bonus while being strong themselves (e.g.: George Washington and most of the other big name American heroes). Of course, to make better use of this trait, you'd have to reach an agreement with someone else looking forward to play one of these characters.
Servants:
- Class: Your character's class. Only the Seven basic classes are available normally. However, a Mage with the Superior Servant boon can Summon an Extra Class Servant from any canon Class other than Ruler, Beast, and Moon Cancer. If you wish to play one of those, try to make an agreement with someone else.
- Name\Title: Your character's name. You can also include any titles, pseudonyms, etc, that they may have here.
- Appearance: Your character's appearance. Either an image (no real people images/photos, please), (short) text description, or both would be alright.
- Short Bio/Synopsis: As the prompt says, keep this short. Think of that like the description of a character that you read on the back cover of a book. If you can't do this under a limit of two paragraphs, I'll ask you to trim it down until it fits. You can omit this for a canon Servant, instead giving a link to their description in the wiki, if you so wish.
- Stats: Your ranks in STR, END, AGI, MAN, LCK, and NP. They can range from E to A (very rarely EX), as normally, and have any modifiers you judge necessary, as long their triggers are logical and everything is explained within reason.
- Class Skill: Your character's Class Skills, the ranking system follows the same instructions a above.
- Personal Skills: Limit of 3 for OC Servants unless a really good explanation is made. The instructions on rank are the same as above.
- Noble Phantasm: Limit of 1 to non-Rider OC Servants and 3 for Rider OCs, unless you have a very strong case on your side I'm very much unlikely to let you break this rule.
- Name/Tile: The name and title (flowery kanji name) of the Noble Phantasm
- Rank: Follow the same rank rules as above once again.
- Type: Anti Unit, Anti Army, Anti Fortress, etc. Think well before choosing this.
- Range: The typical format is something like 1 - 99, but there are others that could apply on specific circumstances like 0 or -. Use your best judgement to determine this but don't overthink it too much.
- Maximum Number of Targets: How many people can your NP hit at once. This is very self-explanatory, but the biggest number possible should be around 1000 people. More than this is rather unnecessary.
- Description: What your Noble Phantasm is, what it does, and how it looks. Keep this as concise as possible as well. For example, you are not obliged to, but if your Noble Phantasm has a really long list of effects, consider listing them in a bullet point format for clarity, and brevity's, sake.
- Misc/Other/Trivia: Anything else not covered by the sections above that you may judge to be relevant (like an unhealthy obsession, an important secret, a very strong goal, their personal ethos, etc). Please keep this section short as well. Preferably have this in bullet point format, if there's any information to add.
