Fate/Apocrypha

Fate/Apocrypha (フェイト/アポクリファ) is a light novel written by Yuichiro Higashide with illustrations by Ototsugu Konoe. The first volume will be released on December 29, 2012 at Comiket 83.

Story
The setting of Fate/Apocrypha is a parallel world to Fate/stay night where the Grail was removed from Fuyuki City after the Third War. It focuses on two opposing factions, Red and Black, each summoning seven Servants and the Grail itself summoning Ruler as a mediator of the Holy Grail War. The Black Faction (黒の陣営) members are part of a Romanian group called Yggdramillennia, while the Red Faction (赤の陣営) members were sent by the Clock Tower Mage's Association.

Characters

 * Ruler

Black Faction
Masters


 * Gordes Musik Yggdmillennia - He summoned the Black Saber with a bloodstained leaf of a Sacred Fig tree as a catalyst.


 * Fiore Forvedge Yggdmillennia - A girl assumed to be Darnic's successor. She summoned the Black Archer using an ancient arrow as a catalyst.


 * Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia - Black Lancer's Master. He is almost a century old despite looking in his 20s. He plundered the Holy Grail from the Third Holy Grail War of Fuyuki.


 * Selenik Icecol Yggdmillennia  - She summoned the Black Rider with a glass bottle which had a liquid stain left on it as a catalyst.


 * Roche Flyn Yggdmillennia - He is thirteen-years-old, and already famous in the field of 'Doll Engineering'. Respectfully refers to the Black Caster he has summoned as 'Sensei'; their relationship is close to that of a teacher and student. Spends all his time building golems in a workshop in the city for the Holy Grail War.


 * Caules Forvedge Yggdmillennia - Fiore's little brother. He is immature and childish for his age. He summoned the Black Berserker, with the blueprints of the 'Ideal Human' as a catalyst.


 * Reika Rikudou - She's a prostitute who lived with Sagara Hyouma until he used her as a sacrifice to summon the Black Assassin, who saved her life and killed Sagara.

Servants


 * Saber of Black


 * Archer of Black


 * Lancer of Black


 * Rider of Black


 * Caster of Black


 * Berserker of Black


 * Assassin of Black

Other


 * Homunculus - Homunculus is an unnamed homunculus created by Yggdmillennia. They have changed the system so that he, along with six others, are providing prana for all of the Servants.

Red Faction
Masters


 * Kairi Sisigou - A freelance Necromancer. He summoned Red Saber with a splinter of the Round Table.


 * Shirou Kotomine - He was sent by the Church as a supervisor and also he is the Master of Red Assassin.


 * Rotwell Belsinski - A freelance Magus, also known as the "Silver Lizard".


 * Jean Ram - A freelance Magus, also known as the "Gale Wheel".


 * Pentel Brother - The Older brother, he shares the nickname "Twin bound."


 * Pentel Brother - The Younger brother, he shares the nickname "Twin bound."


 * Findo Wom Senbellum - Primary instructor of the Clock Tower.

Servants


 * Saber of Red


 * Archer of Red


 * Lancer of Red


 * Rider of Red


 * Caster of Red


 * Berserker of Red


 * Assassin of Red

Others


 * Lord El-Melloi II - He proposed to hire freelance magus and together with Rocco Berufeban, they gathered talents.


 * Rocco Berufeban - An old man who served the head of the spiritual evocation division for many years. He recruited Kairi Sisigou to join the war.


 * Bram Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri - He is the successor of the head of the spiritual evocation division and the older brother of Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri. He is one of the primary instructor in the Clock Tower and was in charge of the selection of catalysts to summon servants.

Discarded characters

 * For the list of characters from the cancelled game, see List of unused Fate/Apocrypha Servant designs.


 * David - A servant of the Archer class, he and Saint George are later removed from the finished product in order to make way for the new Archer servant of the Black faction.


 * Musashibo Benkei - A servant of the Lancer class, he and Kintoki were removed from the finished product in order to make way for Red Saber and Black Caster.


 * Saint George - A servant of the Rider class, alongside with David, he's removed later for the new Servants.


 * Sagara Hyouma - A magus who lived with Reika in the original pilot of the series. He is the original Master of the Jack the Ripper. He summoned her using Jack the Ripper's knives as the catalyst and Reika as a sacrifice to make the summoning more effective. He's killed by the Black Assassin shortly after he summons her.


 * Sakata Kintoki - Originally a servant of the Berserker class, he and Benkei were removed from the finished story in favor of Red Saber and Black Caster.

Volumes
The first novel will be released December 29, 2012.

Game
Originally introduced as a canceled project for an online MMO game, various details and character designs were collected in Fate/complete material IV Extra material. TYPE-MOON and an unnamed video game developer were developing this game, however, the project was discontinued right at the planning stages.

The original gameplay would have involved the players acting as Masters, and fighting with each other's Servants. Nasu wanted the online game to have a world with a complete story, despite being an online game. While the overall story would change depending upon the Servants' relationship with the Masters, the story would conclude with Ruler activating her ultimate Noble Phantasm that she had been stubbornly witholding, thus creating a world with a complete story despite its nature as an online game.

Light novels
It was announced in November 2011 that a new project was for the concept would be made in the form a light novel series. It was to be written by Yuichiro Higashide, the designer of Jack the Ripper, and he later confirmed on his Twitter that he was writing Fate/Apocrypha in novel format with illustrations by Ototsugu Konoe.

He released a story penned as the first chapter, focusing on Jack the Ripper and her Master, Reika Rikudou, TYPE-MOON Ace 7 on December 15, 2011. While the story elements of Reika and Jack still exist in the novel version, the story itself has no relation to the plot of the novels. He released a preview of the novel in TYPE-MOON Ace 8, where it is shown that Musashibo Benkei and Sakata Kintoki have not been included within the story.

Staff
The Servants were designed and drawn by a variety of different people.

Servant Designer

 * TYPE MOON (Siegfried) (Semiramis)
 * Kinoko Nasu (Karna) (Joan of Arc)
 * Gen Urobuchi (Vlad III) (Spartacus)
 * Myougaya Jinroku (Musashibo Benkei) (Atalanta)
 * Meteo Hoshizora (David) (Astolfo) (Frankenstein)
 * Kiyomune Miwa (Saint George)
 * Ototsugu Konoe (Astolfo)
 * Shoji Gatoh (Shakespeare)
 * Yuichiro Higashide (Jack the Ripper)
 * Jin Haganeya (Sakata Kintoki)

Servant Illustrator

 * KN (Siegfried)
 * pako (Karna)
 * Hirotaka Maeda (Vlad III)
 * Katsuya Terada (Musashibo Benkei) (Spartacus)
 * Ginka (David)
 * Genji Asai (Atalanta)
 * Higashiguchi Chuuou (Saint George)
 * Ototsugu Konoe (Astolfo)
 * Chinatsu Kurahana (Shakespeare)
 * Taketo Sanada (Jack the Ripper)
 * Shidzuki Morii (Semiramis)
 * Takeshi Okazaki (Frankenstein)
 * Raita Honjou (Sakata Kintoki)
 * Takashi Takeuchi (Joan of Arc)