Magus

In the Nasuverse, a magus (魔術師) is a human practitioner of Magecraft, the magical science, as opposed to a magician, who is capable of bringing forth true miracles that are impossible to be reenacted at the current scientific stage. In ancient times, the term magus was used for both the users of Thaumaturgy and Magic, but with the advancement of science that made past miracles possible and the decline of the overall power of Magecraft, the differences between the two became clearer. At the modern age, there are only five magicians left.

The very first magi were merely scholars that studied the supernatural, and the present level of Thaumaturgy was attained thanks to the accumulated knowledge and bloodline history started by them. Magi are frequently, but not necessarily, descend from old magical families, as affinity to sorcery is something transmitted through blood relations.

More than just a name, the term "magus" define a whole set of beliefs and lifestyle. A magus dedicates himself to the study and refinement of Thaumaturgy while driving himself apart of the values of common men in the process. He searches for the greater truths of the universe not to answer existential questions, but just for the sake of knowing. Ideally, a magus would render his own self transparent while still retaining his ego. In reality however, most magi, especially those of the Mage's Association, are often caught up on petty power struggles. On another hand, those who openly deviate from the way of magi, such as Emiya Kiritsugu and Emiya Shirou, are seen as heretics that do not deserve to be called a magus.

Related Terms
Archmagus

大魔道師 - Daimadoushi

The title given to the great magus of the past, include Lizleihi Justica von Einzbern.

Faker

複製者 - Fukuseisha

The name given to magi who are adept at the use of Gradation Air.

Freelancer

フリーランサー

A magus who is not affiliated to any magical organizations and take up jobs from others in exchange of remuneration. Due the nature of their profession, they are constantly at odds with the Enforcers of the Association and the Executors of the Church. Include Aozaki Aoko.

Houjutsushi

法術師

Those who exorcise spirits through sutras, prayers and faith. The ones who achieved true enlightenment can draw upon the power of supernatural entities to perform miracles, but those with insufficient training have to fill the gap by adding their own power, just like the Western magi do. In Japan, there is a very secretive organization of Houjutsushi. Currently none of the monks of Ryuudouji are Houjutsushi, but there were a small number of them in the past.

Shaman/Witch

呪術師 - Jujutsushi

The practitioners of Witchcraft, through similar in concept they are seen as a different kind from the regular magus.

Spellcaster

魔術使い - Majutsu tsukai

The name given to those who use Magecraft without following the way of the magus, such as Emiya Kiritsugu who treated Magecraft as just a tool. Usually, their general skill with Thaumaturgy is low, but it is not uncommon for them to be highly proficient in a single field that they choose to specialize at. Also include magus that lack formal training such as Emiya Shirou and Matou Sakura.

Spiritual Doctor

霊媒医師 - Reibai ishi

A magus that uses Spiritual Invocation to perform medical operations, one who heals not through the flesh, but through the soul. Can also be found among the members of the Church, thus hinting that these procedures are not completely seen as Thaumaturgy. Kotomine Kirei was an excellent Spiritual Doctor who was capable of removing Command Spells from a Master without damaging his nervous system.

Aozaki
蒼崎

The family who administers the greatest spiritual land in Japan, for the magi this name is a synonym for "trouble". Despite its age, it is not a renowned lineage and in fact the Mage's Association sees them as heretics. A bloodline with a history worth a total of six generations, the head of the third generation was a genius that developed a method that greatly increases the chances of the family head inheriting the title of magician

In the present generation, the family had the misfortune of having a pair siblings disputing over the position of family head, a tragedy for any clan of magi. The outcome of the conflict was that the younger of the two sisters, Aoko, comes out victorious and becomes a magician. At a point of time, both sisters were part of the Mage's Association but eventually they withdrawn from it. Aoko left on a whim and became a Freelancer. Meanwhile, the older sister, Touko, ran away after receiving a Sealing Designation. Touko noticed that if she remained with the Association she would never be able to leave later, although there was a great chance of her reaching the highest levels of the place.

The Aozaki family never had a history of producing heirs with many Magic Circuits and the numbers were decreasing even more with the passing of generations. By the time of the parents of the two sisters, there were almost no Circuits left. Many though that was the end for the Aozaki lineage, but Touko surprisingly turned out to be a prodigy with 20 Circuits.

Aoko and Touko's grandfather, the third generation head mentioned earlier, used to be called a monster and, in Aoko's own words, was "a no-good old man who stubbornly lived too long". He raised Touko in the way of the magus in his Workshop on the mountains, while Aoko and her parents lived separately. However, when the two girls were 18 and 16 respectively, he suddenly changed the position of successor to Aoko. Shocked, Touko killed him right after he passed down the family heritage to her sister. Until then, said heritage was not given to neither the children nor the pupils of the third generation head.

About the time of the 5th Heaven's Feel, Touko was still hiding herself from the Association, while Aoko was touring around the country without a care in the world.

While Touko is a very versatile magus, Aoko is good at nothing but destruction.

Archibald
アーチボルト

A house of nobles from the Mage's Association considered to be elite among the elites and is one of the only families to possess close ties with the Barthomelois. In command of the El-Melloi Lords faction within the Association, the house was almost ruined after the death of its ninth head, the prodigy Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi, but managed to recover itself thanks to the efforts of an apprentice of the deceased.

After the situation was cleared, said apprentice was rewarded with the title of "Lord El-Melloi II" as a form of gratitude. But the true heir of the Archibald house is actually a little girl in the lowest seat of the clan. She gave him the title while saying "I recognize your deeds to the Archibald family, but since you were only making up for what you caused in the first place, you better serve me for your entire life", thus literally binding him to her.

Barthomeloi
バルトメロイ

A mysterious lineage even for the standards of the magi, it is uncertain when the name "Barthomeloi" was first written in the pages of history. The house joined the Mage's Association during the construction of Clock Tower and quickly became Lords thanks to their Blue Blood. Ever since, they have remained at the top of the Association, reigning over it through the centuries.

Being incorrigible perfectionists, any future head of the Barthomeloi is locked away in the clan's manor until his/her training of Magecraft is completed and he/she is considered to be a perfect magus, for it would be an embarrassment for the family to let its leader be seen by others while he/she is still immature. As a result, when the family head first steps into the Association, he/she is already apt to become a Department Head.

More aristocratic than the oldest of the current Dead Apostle Ancestors, they believe that even the other Lords ought to be submissive to them due to their greater excellence and high birth status. The only magus that the Barthomeloi ever accepted as their equal was the user of the First Magic. They possess friendly ties to an extent with the Archibald family.

To the Barthomeloi, the name "Barthomeloi" represents everything that they are, with their own given name being only an attachment. If is there is a flaw that all Barthomeloi have in common, it is an almost obsessive hatred toward the Dead Apostles. As such, any Barthomeloi will participate in any vampire hunts he/she knows of, going so far as neglecting any other responsibilities to do so.

So far, the only known member of this family is Barthomeloi Lorelei.

Edelfelt
エーデルフェルト

A Finnish lineage that is renowned as being one of the best Gandr users in the world. Possess a Sorcery Trait called Ore Scales that allows them to have two successors for their Magecraft at the same time. A mercenary-like aristocratic family, they find great pleasure in battle as shown by the delighted expression that they make when fighting, which got them to be feared by others as "the most elegant hyenas above the ground".

A pair of twin sisters from this family participated in the Heaven's Feel 3 and, due the power of their Sorcery Trait, they were to summon two aspects of the same Heroic Spirits as two Servants under the Saber Class. Due their bad relationship, the two split ways early into the conflict. The two used western mansions built on the same forest than the Einzbern castle as bases of operations, which were left to the Association after the Grail War. The older sister's mansion was in the old town, while the younger sister's was in Shinto. By the time of the Heaven's Feel 5, both mansions were in ruins and had the reputation of being haunted houses.

In the end, the younger sister was defeated by the Tohsaka's family head of that time while the older sister ran away from the country promising never to come back. These events are the cause of the Edelfelts' prejudice against Japanese people, which is especially strong against the Tohsaka family. Since it is known that the Servants of the Saber Class managed to reach the final match of all Holy Grail Wars, at least one of the sisters was the among the last contestants of the Heaven's Feel 3.

Luvia is from this family.

Einzbern
アインツベルン

A bloodline that once wielded the Third Magic but lost it at some point of time. For such an old lineage, they surprisingly have no branch families. Their Sorcery Trait is the flow/transference of power.

About 1,000 years ago, the Einzberns started a quest to recover their lost miracle but eventually came to realize that they would never succeed by themselves and thus sought outside help. The result was the establishment of the Heaven's Feel ritual 200 years ago thanks to the help of the Makiri and the Tohsaka. They were the ones who built the Great Grail of Fuyuki and also the one's left in charge of producing a new vessel of the Holy Grail for each new Grail War.

The Magecraft of the Einzbern family, which follows the Thaumaturgical School of Alchemy, is based on the creation and refinement of substances and the focus of their studies lies solely in the structural manipulation of precious metals. They know healing Magecraft, but as alchemists this is used not for the sake of recovering the flesh of injured people, but rather to lessen the great burden felt by a subject who received an organ that was tempered with magical power and help his body get used with the newly transplanted organ. Because with the craft of the Einzbern magical energy becomes easily dispersible, buildings that sealed off with soil or stone are the ones most desired by them to install a workshop.

The Einzberns are well known for being excellent producers of homunculus. Even the ones that are regarded as failures by their creators are still superior to even 100 magi. The Einzbern homunculi have their functions determined during the design stages and are born with bodies and minds optimized to perform their purposes.

Although their members can be dangerous when forced to fight, their single-minded specialization in Alchemy makes them ill-suited for battle. That is the reason why, up to the Heaven’s Feel 3, the Masters of the Einzbern were eliminated early in the battle.

The current head of the Einzbern family is called Jubstacheit von Einzbern (or simply "old man-Acht") and is the eighth person to rise to the position. He has been around ever since the time of Heaven's Feel 2 thanks to methods of life prolonging and it has been said that under his leadership, the Einzbern changed its goals from "seeking the Holy Grail" to "winning the Grail War". He has a close relationship with the Talbot farm of early autumn Darjeeling and for years its tea has been only served to special guests.

For the Heaven’s Feel 4, the family hired the services of an outsider, Emiya Kiritsugu, and presented him with the sheath of the holy sword which was excavated from Cornwall to serve as a catalyst to summon King Arthur. The whole family placed their expectations on him, but he ended up betraying them and destroying the Holy Grail.

The Einzbern castle at their homeland has a chapel and it was there that Kiritsugu summoned Saber. Since their dwelling is in a snowy mountain, the family does not have the custom of raising flowers. The climate of their territory is also not one suitable to produce liquor, but they nevertheless possess a brewery to supply alcohol, which is an ingredient necessary for their Magecraft.

Eltnam
エルトナム

A fallen noble house of alchemists, they are scorned and feared due their creation and use of Etherlite. The cause of their ruin came when the family head of three generations past, Zepia Eltnam Oberon, became a Dead Apostle, Tatari, around 500 years ago.

Emiya
衛宮

A lineage dating back a few centuries that focused on 'time manipulation' in their quest for Akasha. The fourth family head, Emiya Noritaka, was a genius who was Sealing Designated, bringing ruin upon his family for researching into vampirism. His successor, Emiya Kiritsugu, was a freelancer who did not care for the ways of the magi and his own lineage, and died without passing on the Emiya Crest.

Emiya Shirou is Kiritsugu's adopted son and apparently not considered a true successor.

Fraga
フラガ

A family with a history that extends itself backs to the Age of Gods. Due to the faithful servitude they showed to the ancient deities in the past, the clan was rewarded with the knowledge of mystic runes and rights over the Noble Phantasm Fragarach. From the magi's standards they are supposed to be the top-elite, but for some reason decided to remain isolated in a small coastline village. By bloodline alone, they should have been seen as high class, but in truth possess neither money nor fame and just live secretly while passing down their mystical knowledge to their descendants.

The parents of Bazett were against her entrance into the Association.

Kotomine
The family name of Kotomine Risei and his son Kirei. They are a family of priests with magical talent.

Makiri/Matou
マキリ/間桐

A lineage that dates back over 500 years ago, they were chased out of their homeland in the Eurasia and eventually took refuge in Japan, where they changed their name to Matou. Around 200 years ago, the Makiri entered in decline and their offspring started to lose their capacity to manifest Magic Circuits. Although they covered up with the excuse that they were incompatible with the spiritual land of Fuyuki, the true reason behind this sudden fall of their bloodline was never explained.

Their fall finally culminated in their last heir, Matou Shinji, having no Magic Circuits at all. With the practice of passing down their Thaumaturgical Crest among the family members being ceased since generations before, everything that is now left of their mystic heritage is simply knowledge in the form of books of Magecraft. Their only choice to continue with their line would be to take in pupils from other families, but because of their history of being overly prideful nobody would willingly go to them. That in mind, Zouken went to the Tohsaka while recalling the past pact of friendship between the two families. As a result, Sakura was adopted into the Matou.

The Magecraft of the Matou works around the concept of "absorbing" or, from another perspective, "to bind something to one's self". Their method of teaching of Thaumaturgy is not by letting the mind absorb the knowledge through study, but by literally carving it into the body through the use of Crest Worms. Despite the torture-like aspects of the process, it seems to be remarkably efficient.

The family who established the Servant system of the Heaven's Feel and created the Command Spells for the Masters.

They possess a considerable amount of monetary resources, which were accumulated during the time that they researched Thaumaturgy.

Sophia-Ri
ソフィアリ

Related to the Nuada-Re (ヌァザレ) lineage, a prestigious clan that is proud of its latent potential as magi and the family of the current Department Head of the Eulyphis – Spiritual Summoning Department of Clock Tower. Around the time that Sola-Ui was born, a power struggle almost caused the family's successor to be assassinated.

Tohsaka
遠坂

A lineage with a history worth about 200 years, they were once Hidden Christians that lived inside a then foreigners-intolerant Japan. Their first head, Tohsaka Nagato, was considered the least promising of Zelretch pupils. But by six generations after, the time of Rin and Sakura, the family had improved to the point of reaching the second place. They possess good connections in both the Mage's Association, due their relationship with Zelretch, and the Holy Church, thanks to their faith.

Experts in the use of Jewel Magecraft and a secret style of Chinese kenpo, the latter due Nagato's emphasis in the training of not only Magecraft, but also martial arts. Thanks to the sudden and relatively recent progress of their mastery of Jewel Magecraft, as well as the introduction of the Gandr into their magical repertory, it is believed that the Tohsaka lineage was able to incorporate the Edelfelts' knowledge of Magecraft into their own through the younger Edelfelt twin that was supposedly defeated during the Heaven's Feel 3, for the members of that family (such as Luvia) are well known for being very capable in the use of both. Now it is unsure whatever that came about by the Edelfelt twin marrying with the head of the Tohsaka family of that time or simply by having her Thaumaturgical Crest stolen.

Back when the Tohsaka were developing the ritual of the Heaven's Feel along with the Makiri and the Einzbern, Nagato's daughter played a greater role in the completion of the Holy Grail War system than her father. The Tohsaka role in the Heaven's Feel is to provide the use of their spiritual land to the ritual.

It is known that one of Tokiomi's parents was a foreigner.

Known magi

 * Aozaki Aoko (alive; also a magician)
 * Illyasviel von Einzbern (status uncertain; Homunculus; possibly a magician)
 * Emiya Kiritsugu (dead)
 * Emiya Shirou (status uncertain; in apprenticeship)
 * Kotomine Kirei (dead; additionally, a member of the Church)
 * Matou Sakura (status uncertain; lacks formal education)
 * Matou Shinji (status uncertain)
 * Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg (undead;Dead Apostle Ancestor; also a magician)
 * Tohsaka Rin (at the Association)

"Status uncertain" means that the character's ultimate fate differs in various routes and endings.