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Servants; And all the other silly war stuff
Tweet Topic Started: Jun 15 2010, 04:39 PM (193 Views)
Post #1 Jun 15 2010, 04:39 PM Kullervo
What is a Servant?

Servants are Heroic Spirits, Eirei, summoned by the Holy Grail. They become classified as familiars. They are pure souls invoked for the heroic spirits to be bound to, put in 7 classes prepared beforehand. Note that they may also be Counter Guardians or Reverse Heroes.

They are not bound to humans by definition, but they are to cooperate with the Master who receives a right of absolute authority in case of emergency when he performs the summoning. A summoner wouldn't call out a Servant just like that, there needs to be a material connection between the summoner and the Heroic Spirit. They can turn into spirit form at will, under which they can pass through inorganic substances that aren't dense with mana. When Lancer invaded the Emiya mansion, he was in spirit form and turned into physical form when dropping from the ceiling into the living room. They cannot be affected by normal interference when dematerialized, but need to materialize for battle. A Servant cannot be summoned without Heaven’s Feel having chosen Masters, as it takes far too great a toll, and it is only with assistance of the Grail that this is possible.

The seven known classes of servants are thus.

Saber: Servants of this class are adept at swordsmanship. This class is considered one of the best to have. Saber Servants, like Riders, can also have the Riding skill. Their class feature is to possess the most balanced stats and Magic Resistance. One of the Knight Classes.

Archer: Servants of this class are proficient at fighting with ranged weapons, but are in no way limited to just fighting at range. Their main unique ability is "Independent Action", survive for a certain time after their contract with their Master was severed; the time varies with the rank. As a side note, that ability means that the Archers are fully capable of fighting without being in proximity to their master for extended amounts of time. As a result the known Archers seem to show a more rebellious attitude to their Masters compared to other servant classes. It should also be noted Archers tend to possess a natural affinity for having a greater number of Noble Phantasms. One of the Knight Classes.

Lancer: Servants of this class are skilled with the spear. This class is considered one of the most agile, being the best for a one-on-one battle. The class ability they possess is Battle Continuation, which allows them to continue fighting after receiving wounds that would cripple other Servants. Example: Lancer able to perform one last attack even though he had been stabbed in the heart. One of the Knight Classes.

Rider: As the name suggests, Servants of this class must have a degree of skill in riding things, such as animals, cars, bikes, planes, divine creatures; this is their class skill. They usually have a good maximum speed and a powerful Noble Phantasm.

Berserker: This class is usually for heroic spirits who weren't necessarily strong but are known for having gone berserk at least once in their life. The unique ability Mad Enhancement allows them to trade their sanity for more power. It should be noted that the higher the rank of Mad Enhancement, the greater the boost to the stats, and the less sanity they retain, increasing the pressure on the Master to control them. Mad Enhancement may be triggered by the Master or the Servant; if it is the Master, then they are free to trigger it on and off as they please, but if it is the Servant who does so, the master cannot cancel this effect: Example is Heracles, who was forced into Mad Enhancement by Ilya, and Lancelot, who was summoned while being affected by it by Matou Kariya. A master may specify he wishes to summon Berserker by adding three lines of chant into the original Summoning Ritual near the end, after the ‘Hades’ line. They are as follows:

“ Yet, thou serves with thine eyes clouded in chaos.
Thou, bound in the cage of madness
I am he who commands those chains.”

Caster: Servants of this class are adept at thaumaturgy. Their unique ability is the Territory Creation, altering the surrounding lands in favor of their spellcasting. While within their Territory, they are capable of far greater feats then outside it, receiving a prana discount on their spells, and the ability to use thaumaturgy bordering on Sorcery, as well as other things. Their second ability is Item Creation, which allows for construction of various objects usable by anyone they are given to. At higher ranks, even the elixir of limited immortality can be made. At lower ones, this is usually limited-charge Mystic Codes with significant power.

Assassin: Servants of this class must be skilled at operating covertly, stealthy and silently. Basically a Servant type that is only effective in killing Masters and not Servants. Considered to be one of the weaker classes at fighting. Their unique ability is Presence Concealment which allows them to hide themselves even while not dematerialized and either spy or perform attacks of opportunity, or get by Bounded Fields undetected. The "assassin" that caster summoned was an exception, as it was a "fake" copy of a real heroic spirit, and thus in a sense, a fake assassin. Assassin is the second class which may be specified during a Summoning Ritual by adding three specific lines near the end. The Assassin that is summoned is always the same one, Hassan-i-Sabbath, the Old Man of the Mountain, from one of his hive mind identities, as he is one name with multiple identities, unless the Master uses a catalyst and the specific Summoning Chant to summon Assassin, forcing a Heroic Spirit into this class.

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Catalysts:

Now, as I have stated previously, Servants will be assigned randomly in the order of accepted characters. There will be a general pool, from which a class will be selected and a specific Heroic Spirit will be selected. Heroic Spirits can be more than one class. Clarification: this obviously does not mean you can have a Servant that is two classes it once, it simply means that a certain Heroic Spirit has the potential to be summoned as another Class besides the one it is currently manifested as. This may cause some odd overlaps and strangeness.

There is a way to get a specific Heroic Spirit. If you are willing to do the research and take the effort, you can find a "catalyst", an object associated with that specific Heroic Spirit, and use it to summon the one you want. If you wish to do this, send Azedos, me, and Taco a PM with the name of the person, the class, and the reason you have this catalyst, and will discuss whether or not you should be allowed to have this Servant. Please note that this also means you are foregoing the choice of the Grail and forcing the Heroic Spirit to be bound to you, instead of letting the Grail naturally match the Servant to the Master for maximum compatibility, although the true process and criteria it uses to do this is thus far unknown, sometimes having to do with Origin, state of being, mentality, or skill set.

=================================================================

Command Spells: Prior to the beginning of Heaven’s Feel, the Grail selects seven individuals to act as Masters in the upcoming grand ritual. The criteria for it to do so is so far unknown. When you are selected, the Holy Grail brands you with three separate marks somewhere on your body (Usually an arm or hand – the only exception is Ilya and that can be explained by her not having enough space for it). These represent the contract made between you and your Servant, and in actuality are three separate reservoirs of incredible magical energy, crafted by the Makiri as part of the deal with the Tohsaka and Einzbern. Using one of these command spells allows you to give a complete order to your Servant which does not allow him to disobey, though they may try to resist and lessen the effectiveness. This can be used normally, to make the Servant do something he normally wouldn't do. But it's real purpose is to let Servant's go beyond their capacities. For example, if you were in danger and used a command spell to tell your Servant to "come here as quickly as possible", it would use the energy in the command spell to teleport there instantly. Other uses include healing your servant, giving them mana, allowing them to use their Noble Phantasm's again right after using it, and revival of a Servant after "Death". However, using a command spell to revive a Servant is almost beyond it's capacity and doesn't revive the Servant at full health, making it not very useful in combat.

Using the command spells allows Masters and Servants to gain an edge even if they aren't as good as their opponents, but be warned. If a Master uses all three of his command spells, they will cease to be a Master and be out of the war. Also, the command spells are the only thing keeping your Servant from killing you if they don't like you, so your probably best with being nice to them, just in case you do use all three. Additionally, should you use all three seals, the Servant no longer shares a link with you and cannot be sustained by your prana, thus needing to take it from somewhere else.
==================================================================

Noble Phantasms: While Servants exceed human ability in all areas, (all but the weakest Servants would be considered super-human), they are often evenly matched against other Servants. If you are super-human, and your opponent is super-human, then the fight could last for quite some time with neither side having a chance at victory. That's why Servants have Noble Phantasms, Divine Mysteries from their time. Heroic Spirits in life often had magical weapons or objects that helped them win impossible battles or the like. Noble Phantasms are the representative of this, and often have effects that almost exceed magic and enter the realm of sorcery. However, using these Noble Phantasms usually takes a lot of mana, leaving the Servant exhausted, and since Noble Phantasms are usually related to the Heroic Spirit, they can be used to determine the Servant's identity, which would allow enemy Masters to find weaknesses of that Heroic Spirit, assuming they are knowledgeable enough, as some Servant identities are rather obscure.

==================================================================

Exiting the Grail War

A Servant and Master are in the war till the end. That end specifically being either the Servant or the Master dying, or both.

However, this is not always the case. If a Servant's Master is killed, then the Servant will eventually disappear. However, they have a very short window of time in which they remain in the world (barring the existence of Independent Action, about 20 minutes). If in this short amount of time, they manage to find another Master who lacks a Servant, they may establish a contract with that Master and remain in the battle. It should be noted that a Master with a Servant may also form a contract with a stray Servant, but they require another set of Command Seals for this.

Likewise, if a Master's Servant is defeated, and the Master still has command spells left remaining, it can make a contract with any rogue or wandering Servant's in need of a Master. One is only forcibly ejected from being a Master if they A) Willingly give up their command spells, or B) Use all of the command spells up. If in the second one, and they feel in danger from other Master's or Servants, they may flee to the impartial Church moderator and beg for sanctuary, which he is required to give. Which brings me to my second point.

The Moderator

The impartial moderator sent by the Holy Church acts as judge and referee to this magical competition. As such he is not to be targeted by any of the Master's, and his sanctuary is treated as neutral ground. If anyone were to disturb the peace of the moderator's sanctuary, he has the privilege of either reducing the offending Master's command spells by one, or taking away their Servant's ability to materialize physically for a while, effectively taking them out of the battle as punishment. The moderator is also responsible for taking care of any collateral damage battles between Servant's cause, usually through hidden agent's in certain companies and local governments. Finally, it is his job to take care of rogue Master's and Servant's who go against the rules of the War and reveal it to mundanes. He may either do this himself, or more likely, put forth a bounty to the other Master's for accomplishing said task. Usually extra command spells. There is also a moderator whom is sent from the Mages Association, but he or she are usually just a figurehead.

The Master's Perspective

Having the title of Master automatically gives the magical ability to read the "stats" of an enemy servant. These give a rough estimate of a Servant's base attributes, and any abilities they have, helping to formulate a battle plan. However, some Servant's have abilities which enable them to hide their stats, chief among these Servant's of the Assassin class. In order to see these you usually need to witness them being activated, however, there are no guarantees. The Master’s Perspective view differs master to Master: it may be as simple as the same sheet you see in your Perspective Thread to some sort of complex palette of colors representing the same thing in code; it depends on the mentality of the individual.

One more thing...

If a Servant for whatever reason finds themselves low on prana, and their Master is unable to provide them with more, then they are able to suck the Od from mundanes. Some Servants may refuse to do so. This however is very detrimental to humans obviously, and if too much Od is drained they will be injured irreparably. Also, while this practice is of course not prohibited, the moderator promotes exercising caution in doing so, as too much of this can cause the general public to get suspicious. For someone such as Caster, it is also possible to drain the Leyline which is in Fuyuki to obtain prana directly.
Edited by Kullervo, Jun 15 2010, 04:52 PM.
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