[Quest] Fate/Exquisite Corpus

[SpoonyViking]

6.

[Ayr]

5

[SleepMode]

5

For a quiet and satisfactory life is freedom in its own form.

[Spartacus]

5

[zikari8]

Niemira Trisagion
Day 1 – Afternoon
The Theatre

Soon enough, after exploring the city of New London to my content, the time for my scheduled appointment came. I return to Shakespeare HQ and head towards the main office.

Owing to my lack of familiarity to the city and accounting for any unexpected accidents, I give myself plenty of time to get there and manage to arrive a little early. When I check in with some of the staff at the front, they tell me that the Master scheduled before me just went in and that I’ll have to wait until they complete their summoning first.

I patiently take a seat on a bench near the front and wait for my turn. As I do so, a figure suddenly comes out of one of the doors deeper in and walks past me.



A black knight.

A person completely clad in heavy armor. Simply by stepping into the room, they command a great presence over it. Heavy footsteps. The clanging of metal in motion. The sheer gravity of their mass. It was hard not to pay attention to them.

If I didn’t already know better, I would’ve been tempted to think it was a Servant. But luckily, I had already encountered this sight before back at the Initiation meeting. Which meant the suit of armor before me wasn’t a Servant but a Master. And since Master Candidate #41 just went in and this person came out, that means they must be Master Candidate #40.

I’m not sure why a normal human from the modern day is wearing such a heavy set of armor, but I suppose there are no shortage of eccentrics among the Master Candidates. At the very least, it was a striking appearance – almost a tenth as striking as mine.

As the knight passes by me, he suddenly stops and slowly moves his helmet to look at me. I return the stare and, for an extended moment, we look into each other’s eyes – though in my case, the knight’s eyes aren’t visible under that thick helmet.

“…”

“…”

Eventually, the knight breaks off the stare-off and exits the building entirely, leaving me to wonder what on earth he was doing.

A bit of time passes, before I’m finally called in for my turn.

“Master Candidate #42, you may now enter the summoning room.”

I oblige and enter.

At first glance, the so-called summoning room resembles a repurposed gymnasium. In the center of the room is a large, intricately drawn summoning circle. At the front of the room are a few desks with complex-looking equipment on them and diligent staff members manning them. If I had to guess, they’re likely there to monitor the summoning and make sure nothing was going wrong.

As I enter, a man immediately walks over with a clipboard in hand.



“Master Candidate #42. Niemira Trisagion. Thank you for coming.”

The Chief of Staff, Oyamada, who I had met earlier at the meeting says this to me as I enter and approach the front of the room where the staff are. A harsh scowl adorns Oyamada’s face as always, but he’s now wearing a labcoat over his black and white suit. It suits him rather well and gives off the impression that he was always meant to be a researcher more than an executive.

The moment he looks up from his clipboard and actually sees me, his harsh expression softens a little.

“Ah. Ahem. Are you ready for your summoning, Candidate Trisagion.” He asks in a stern voice, as if trying to force himself to be professional.

“Yes.” I answer curtly.

“Good. In that case, we can proceed immediately.” Oyamada nods, checking off something on his clipboard. “Let me first give you a run down on how this going to go.”

He points towards the center of the room.

“The summoning process is very simple. All you have to do is stand in the center of the circle, put your catalyst on that altar over there, recite the summoning incantation, and use your magical energy to give form to the Servant. The difficult part is in your head, but you’ve been filled in on that already.”

I nod, remembering the mental training I did to prepare myself for this.

“You should also take this before you start your summoning.” Oyamada says, handing me what looks like a large smartphone.

“This is?”

“It’s a multi-purpose terminal for Masters. It’s connected to your Command Spells and it’ll help you in managing the Servants you summon. For one, it’ll allow you to see the parameters and skill details of your Servant as well as any other Servant you meet. Technically, all Masters can do this already, but this method also sends the data back to our servers at HQ.” He explains. “Most importantly, though, it’s connected to the summoning system back here so it’ll allow you to summon Servants even when you’re far away from HQ. Think of it as a mini-Grail or a Grail router.”

“That does sound useful…”

Certainly, not having to come back every time I summon would be a convenience.

“Technically, you don’t need it to summon today, but keep it on you anyways. It’ll register your new Servant’s data so you can use it immediately.”

“Okay.”

Understanding the utility of such an item, I carefully tuck it away.

“Now then, that’s technically everything I need to tell you. But everyone who has summoned so far has been asking me the same questions, so let me just tell you this before you begin your summoning. In regards to what hero you can summon, there are three general rules specific to our summoning system. If you don’t like them, don’t complain to me. I didn’t make them.”

Oyamada raises three fingers as he explains them to me.

“One, the hero must have been created before the 20^th century.”

“… what do you mean by created? Do you mean born?” I ask.

“I mean, the moment they became a hero. The feat that they are famous for must’ve happened before the 20^th century. If they had multiple, it would be their first. For example, even if the hero was born before 1900, if their legendary deed happened during the first World War, they don’t qualify.”

That makes sense, I suppose. One could say a hero is created the moment they do something worthy of being a hero. And from the 20^th century onwards, the progression of technology and globalization meant it was more and more difficult to accomplish something so great.

“Two, no Conceptual Heroic Spirits. The hero you choose must be a person, even if they aren’t human. Apparently, such Conceptual Heroic Spirits are congregations of humanity’s fantasies, and a single person can’t mentally grasp such a large-scale concept by themselves.”

“Fair enough.”

“Three, no Divine Spirits. This one’s a bit looser because Divinity works differently between different pantheons and works case-by-case, but just keep in mind that you can’t summon a full God. As for why, I’m sure I don’t need to explain.”

“Mhm.”

If that’s all the rules, it seems simple enough. There shouldn’t be any problems with choosing a Heroic Spirit to summon.

“Do you have any other questions?” Oyamada asks.

“No. I understand.”

“Then go ahead and begin. We’ve gathered a small collection of catalysts here for you to pick from. The Heroic Spirits they’re connected to should be good for a beginner.” He says, pointing to a desk in the corner with a few artifacts on display. “Of course, if you’ve already prepared your own catalyst, you can use that instead.”

With that, he steps back and gives me some room.

“The rest is up to you, Candidate Trisagion. Take your time mentally preparing yourself and summon whenever you’re ready. We hope you find a good Servant.” He declares, leaving the rest to me.

Now then, the time has finally come. I can finally summon my Servant.

Everything I’ve done has been leading up to this moment. This time when I fulfill my purpose and become Master. In some sense, it’s only the beginning of my mission but even reaching this starting line is its milestone.

I take a light breath and begin the process.

I briefly look over the catalysts that have been prepared before making my decision.

This is it. It’s time to create my first Servant.

The only question now is who.

What Heroic Spirit shall I summon?

1. Choose your own [Write-In]
2. Sanada Yukimura
3. El Cid
4. Simon Bolivar
5. Ajax the Great

References

Suit of Armor

Chief of Staff

Source

[Ismail2002]

1. Write In : Zubair Al-Awwan

One of the Great Companions of the Prophet Muhammad, he was a great warrior and general of the early Islamic Period and was well known as the Prophets Disciple.

[Spartacus]

3. El Cid

So we finally can have the guy that is not terrible

[SleepMode]

1. Write-In: Lleu Llaw Gyffes

A semi-divine hero of the Mabinogi, warrior and magician blessed and cursed in equal measure. Cursed with the tragic betrayal on the hands of Blodeuedd, yet brought back from death to take on the throne of Gwynedd.

[SpoonyViking]

1. Write-In: Lleu Llaw Gyffes

+1. I like the parallels between Blodeuedd and Niemira!

[Sunny]

Hmm... 3 is tempting, because I agree with that reason for wanting to see it. <.<;

But the write-in sounds nice thematically as well...

I'll go with +1 on 1 for now.

[AUnderSave]

1. Write In : Dagonet The Mad/Dagonet The Fool

One of the Knights of the Round Table & Arthur/Artoria's Personal Fool/Jester. A man who's own ability to act as a fool and comedic abilities is matched by his own Cleverness and Combat Prowess. He had once singlehandedly stopped one of Morgan's Plots to take over Camelot on his own due to her disguising as Guinevere (Him not being fooled for a second by the disguise) and Taking on an entire fortress by himself when his Fiance/Wife was kidnapped. One of his most famous legends was when he stole Mordred's armor as a joke and was thought to be Lancelot when he assisted a group of fellow Round Table knights being ambushed. Also he saw the way Camelot was going and called everyone out on their BS. (I really like him what can I say?)

[King Prussia]

1. Write-In: Lleu Llaw Gyffes

+1!

[zikari8]

Niemira Trisagion
Day 1 – Afternoon
The Theatre

Lleu Llaw Gyffes

The Shining Hero of Wales

I have already decided to summon him as my Servant. There is no need to look at the other catalysts since I already brought my own.

I take an old, rusty chest and place it on the altar by the summoning circle. This is my catalyst.

At first glance, one might think that the relic is inside the chest, but this chest itself is the catalyst. It is apparently the chest in which Lleu Llaw Gyffes was born. I cannot imagine a better catalyst to give form to this hero.

Now then, it’s time to begin.

I stand in the middle of the summoning circle and focus.

I must now create this Servant inside my own mind in order to bring it into the world!

First, in order for a Servant to enter this world, they need another name. A passport to the present that anchors them into the current reality.

That would be the Class Name.

A Servant’s Class is the container in which they must be stuffed into. Before I can figure out the contents, I must decide on a container to put them in. Thus, I must start with the Servant’s Class.

What Class will I summon Lleu Llaw Gyffes into?

1. Lancer
2. Rider
3. Caster
4. Other [Write-In]

---

I also need to decide what direction will I take the character of this Servant.

Minor differences in interpretation won’t matter too much at this stage, but something truly big that changes how the entire legend is read must be decided first since it may impact the rest of the Servant’s details.

What will I do? Will I play it straight-forwardly and align myself with a more standard interpretation? Or will I add a little twist to the classical tale?

How do I interpret the legend of Lleu Llaw Gyffes?

1. Keep it simple
2. Genderbend
3. Make him the bad guy
4. Make the Servant someone else using the name of Lleu (Write-In Who)
5. Other [Write-In]

[Bird of Hermes]

3. Caster
1. Keep it simple

[Bugs]

3. Caster
1. Keep it simple

[SpoonyViking]

3. Caster
5. Other: Focus on Lleu as the Hero of Rebirth, as someone who was "killed" by Gronw and brought back by Gwydion.

[Sunny]

3. Caster
2. Genderbend

[Spartacus]

3. Caster
2. Genderbend

+1 ooooooooolaaaaaaaaaaa

[SleepMode]

3. Caster
1. Keep it simple

[SpoonyViking]

3. Caster
2. Genderbend

Changing my vote to +1 this.