Servant info

Servants.

What is a Servant? Well for that, check out the War Info paste. This paste contains more in-depth information about Servants.

The origins of the spiritual entity that constitutes a Servant, is usually a Heroic Spirit, which are the spirits of humans who managed great deeds in life, attaining power from the worship and thoughts of others, throughout history. They ascend into a realm called the Throne of Heroes, that exists outside of time or the concept of reincarnation, becoming truly immortal in the process. In fact, the Servant is merely a copy of the actual Heroic Spirit, and barring some very specific cases, the Heroic Spirit itself (the original) does not leave the Throne.

Typically, they constitute entities or people that were real, who actually existed (such as, say, Alexander the Great), mythical existences who may or may not have existed (such as say, Heracles or Cu Chulainn) or perhaps, entities that were never observed. Fictional characters, like the Count of Monte Cristo, may exist as Servants as well. Entities that can be made into Servants do not necessarily need to be purely heroic, as the likes of Jack the Reaper, or Vlad III (Dracula) may be summoned as well.

All in all, if it was famous, or if it's concept drew enough worship, or if they did something great (even if it is something nobody knew about) would qualify. The one true qualification is excellence, greatness, in a way.

Now, there are some more things to Servants. The Classes. Normally, seven regular classes, however there exist additional, or extra classes, which remain outside the main group.

The main seven are further split in two groups, the Knights and Cavalries. Each Servant is possessed of a number of Skills, and Noble Phantasm. A Servant may have no skills, but most of the time, they will definitely have a Noble Phantasm. To give examples of both, a skill may be something like Charisma (which does exactly what it says on the tin), Bravery or Divinity (the children of deities usually  possess this, as do some divine-natured mythical beasts, or divine-constructs). Usually skills are passive.

However, skills like Mana Burst, which enhance the Servant's physical performance by imbuing mana, or serving as a mana-based propelling jet for faster/greater range of movement, may take a more active turn.

Noble Phantasms are far greater, they are the crystallization of the Servant's legend. Noble Phantasms are defined, and in turn define the class of a Servant. They can be highly varied, manifesting as weapons, specific abilities of those weapons, passive abilities, or reality-rewriting Reality Marbles. More on these later.

The Noble Phantasm-Class interaction is not difficult to understand. Take King Arthur. They were known for possessing numerous weapons, including the famed Excalibur, as well as a spear called Rhongomiyand. Summoning King Arthur as a Saber, would bring them forth with Excalibur as their Noble Phantasm. However, summoning them as a Lancer, would allow them to use Rhongomiyand. The other Noble Phantasm would normally be locked under these circumstances.

One may opt to summon a Servant as a specific class in order to fight certain enemies. If a Servant that can be brought forth as any class but Caster, your enemies are weak to poison, and he has a Noble Phantasm that involved him firing arrows dipped in one of the most terrible poisons known to the world, it may be prudent to bring him forth as an archer.

A Servant's Noble Phantasm is often their most important trait. If your Servant happens to not be very physically imposing, and is possessed of only three or so skills, but one of his Noble Phantasms involves firing every OTHER Noble Phantasm from his hyperspace vault like a projectile, then your opponent may have to think twice before challenging you.

The age of a Servant and the fame a Servant possesses, oft serve to empower them. Age is usually a much stronger factor. Vlad the Third of Wallachia, also known as Count Dracula, within Romania (or the confines of his hometown for that matter), using the full of his abilities, would not be able to (statistically/probabilistically speaking) defeat a virtually unknown, mythical Hindu hero, from antiquity.

Now, onto the actual classes:

The Knight Classes: Often the most desirable, as the Servants found in these three classes are consistently powerful and solid in their abilities, and oft come with potent Noble Phantasms. These classes usually come with the Magic Resistance skill, which reduces the power of magecraft, and typically with the Riding skill, that allows the user to ride most vehicles or animals (although higher levels are required for higher proficiency of riding, and for riding magical or divine beasts). The riding skill CAN in fact, refer to being able to 'ride' someone, in the sexual way, for those with a perverted inclination. Riding dragons is NOT covered by any level of this skill.

Saber: The Knight of the Sword/Heroic Spirit of the Sword. A servant of the Saber class is typically highly desirable, possesses excellent physical capabilities and usually potent Noble Phantasms. These mostly amount to sword-beams of some form, although a few Sabers can be quite creative. Often knights, from European countries, east-Asian Sabers (especially Japanese ones) are known. They possess high rank Magic Resistance and typically a good Riding skill.

Sabers usually come from before 1500 A.D, and the ones older than that, are (while weaker, statistically speaking) exceptional in some manner.

Lancer: The Knight of the Lance/Heroic Spirit of ~~Suffering~~ the Lance. The most agile of the three Knight classes, Lancers are quite powerful, and possess some form of pointy, long, and impale-y weapon or Noble Phantasm. A lot of them seem to be of Irish origin. Lancers are unusually hardy, and that is for a good reason. Lancers seem to have very, very bad luck, and their lives seem to involve a lot of suffering. While Lancers can be truly potent, if summoned at high proficiency...

Most of the time, they will suffer horrible and tragic defeats, and be cursed with suffering , most of the time, not unknown to them from their previous life. Being Lancer is suffering.

Archer: Being quite ancient, Archers come with very powerful noble phantasms. Bows were a primitive weapon and ancient people used them a lot. Their Noble Phantasm however, needn't strictly speaking BE a bow. It can in fact, be any projectile weapon, including ANOTHER Noble Phantasm. Archers oft possess the Independent Action skill, which lets them act independently from the master, need less prana to function, as well as be able to survive for longer after their Master passes away.

Archers are usually quite powerful Servants, by virtue of their Noble Phantasms, but their physical form may not always be on par.

The Cavalries: The four other regular classes. These are not as sough after, however they offer quite unique utilities and can win one the war if properly utilized. They are not as sought after generally, and one of them in particular comes with outright detrimental effects to the Master, which have often lead to their deaths, and the failure to win the war. However, if one can utilize them properly, they can be some of the strongest Servants.

Rider: The Rider comes with a Noble Phantasm that allows them to, predictably, ride something. Normally a chariot, an animal or beast of some sort, or even a ship, or a flying vessel (or perhaps a spaceship as well)... in some odd cases, the rider can ride 'people' as well, in the form of disease, or men, in the form of a sex-hungry queen. Riders are characterized by the Riding skill, as well as possession of multiple Noble Phantasms, which can come in to be quite useful.

Riders tend to come from the Mediterranean, although they are incredibly well spread due to the specifics of the class qualification.

Caster: A heroic spirit of magecraft, the Caster is a Mage, who comes in with two abilities. Territory Creation, which allows for the mage to construct his or her own workshop, within a specific territory, and upgrade it over time. Within this territory, Caster is possessed of great power.