Saber of Red


 * This page is about the Fate/Apocrypha Servant. For the nickname of the Fate/Extra Servant, see Playable Saber (Fate/Extra).

"The next time I'm called a girl, I won't be able to restrain myself."

- Saber of "Red".

Saber of "Red" ("赤"のセイバー) is the Saber-class Servant of Kairi Sisigou as part of the Red Faction in the Great Holy Grail War of Fate/Apocrypha.

Identity
Saber's identity is Mordred (モルドレッド), The Knight of Treachery, and the "son" of King Arthur, but she is actually female despite being raised as the secret male heir to the throne. She was conceived between Altria and her sister, Morgan le Fay, through unorthodox circumstances. Altria, normally female, was a pseudo-male at the time due to Merlin's magecraft, so Morgan enchanted her with a spell to extract sperm from her. Morgan developed it within her own ovary, and made the child into a homunculus clone of Altria. Due to her status as a homunculus, she was given a much faster growth period than a regular human being, and her life span was far shorter. She was raised in secret and told to hide her status and obey the king until the time was right.

Told that it is her right to inherit the throne, Morgan bid her to one day defeat the King of Knights and take "his" place. She did bare that same obsession as her mother, but before all that was her adoration for King Arthur. She felt ashamed of her twisted birth, unconsciously acting jealous of normal people, and, with the special innocence that children possess, she worshipped the "perfect king." Given a helmet she was told never to remove in front of others, she was eventually sent to Camelot under Morgan's recommendation, and through a presentation of her own superb swordsmanship, became one of the. She was given her sword despite her unknown origins because of her abilities and straightforward mental chivalry.

She protected the way of the knights much like that which could only be found in picture books, working hard daily in being the ideal knight, all while hiding her dislike of others. In the end, even that innocence was shattered by Morgan, who revealed the secrets of her birth. She learned of her parentage and was told that the King didn't know either. Morgan tried to instill that the King would never accept such a filthy child, but she was, while shocked, wrapped in joy. While not a proper human being, sharing the same blood as the King, being the "son" of a superior king, she was proud of the fact that she was not human. She felt that in name, reality, mind, and body that she was fit to be the true successor of the King of Knights.

She went without having the slightest feelings of rebellion, spurred on by the truth, and approached the King with delight. Raised without a father, the King was the very form of a godlike "father" to her, but Altria rejected her very clearly. She said that, while Mordred is certainly born from her and her sister's plotting, that she will not recognize Mordred as her "son" or give her the throne. Mordred believed that it was all due to the King's hatred for Morgan, that it would be impossible for her "son" to be accepted. Thinking that was the reason her title was the weakest, believing that no matter how hard she tried, even if she excelled over everyone, that the King would forever view her as a dirtied child from the moment she was born from Morgan, her great love for the king up until then made her hatred burn.

Resulting from that, the distrust of the Round Table towards the King spread, and the reigns of power in Camelot were seized once the King departed for the Rome expedition. Mordred became the leader of the rebellion, representing the national discontent towards Arthur. After the King finally returned from a long and tiresome battle, Mordred raged, claiming that she hated the King and that only she was fit for the throne. The truth of the matter was that she only wanted to be accepted by Altria and wanted to be called "son" by her. The conflict eventually lead towards a final fight, where both armies were dying in heated battle. The few knights that stayed with the King soon died off, leaving only the two of them standing.

The two faced each other on a hill of swords, where Mordred pointed out that the country had ended and that the victor no longer mattered because everything was gone. Blaming the situation on the King for not giving her the crown, she asked if the King hated the "son of Morgan" that much. Altria emotionlessly replied, "Not once did I despise you. There was only one reason I would not give you the throne. You didn't have the capacity of a King." Mordred charged forward while driven on by passion, and was eventually defeated in single combat, collapsing while still impaled by a spear. Freed of the mask forced upon her, with a face identical to her "father", she said "....Father", all while reaching out to touch the King with blood-soaked hands at least once, but was not even granted that wish as she fell. Due to being bound by a strong curse, Mordred still swung her sword after her death, leaving a fatal wound on Altria who later died of her wounds.

Appearances
While in battle, she wears thick armor that entirely wraps her small frame. The single mass of steel and her face-covering helm conceal both her race and gender. She needs to remove her helm to use her Noble Phantasm, so she cannot help revealing her appearance when utilizing it.

Personality
While she has the face of a fair, young girl, that does nothing to hide her brutal nature. She does not bother to conceal it in the first place, so her glaring eyes display a mix of joy for battle and cruelty. While Noble Phantasms are normally a source of pride, hers, crowned with the name of her father, it is closer to a sort of grudge.

Her wish is to become king but she has no desire to use the Holy Grail to achieve this because she believes Altria would never recognize her with this method. She wishes to challenge the Sword of Appointment, believing with the utmost confidence that she can pull it from the stone.

Development
Mordred first made appearance in Type-moon's Character material book, Takashi Takeuchi was responsible for the character design. At that time Kinoko Nasu hasn't decided for Mordred's gender until Fate/Apocrypha. It was Takeuchi idea to put Mordred as a new addition to Fate/Apocrypha. As Saber of Red Mordred was originally going to be male like the legend, but it was thought that having two male characters look feminine, the other being Rider of Black, was too much. Takeuchi calls her the crowning achievement of the culture created by TYPE-MOON.

Fate/stay night
Mordred was briefly mentioned, shown in the anime, during flashbacks to Saber's past in Fate/stay night and received an entry in the Character material booklet.

Fate/Zero
Mordred made a brief appearance in the ending credits of the anime being impaled by Saber's spear in a brutal battle.

Fate/Apocrypha
After Kairi Sisigou received his catalyst from Rocco Belfaban, he travelled straight to Bucharest, Romania. He picked the cemetery in Stavropoleos Church for his summoning rituals. He used a splinter of the round table as a catalyst and he managed to summon Mordred due to their similar personality. Upon her summoning, she is sickened by the sight of the graveyard.

She fights with the shapeshifted Homunculus who takes the form of Saber of Black during a large battle, she was disappointed with his strength as a Saber-class Servant and even pointed out that Saber of Black was a fake. After numerous clashes, he decides to utilize his Noble Phantasm Balmung, and she responds with Clarent. She emerges victorious, but only due to the special properties of the weapons and the distance from which they attacked. She is angry with the fact that he managed to survive, enraged by the unforgivable fact. Simply continuing to grip his sword is enough to earn her hatred, and raising his head and attempting to stand is something she could never accept even if given the chance to slash him apart a hundred times. She decides to lop off his head and run her sword through his heart, a privilege only allowed for her.

Abilities
Saber's Noble Phantasms are Secret of Pedigree, her helmet that conceals her true name, Noble Phantasms, and Personal Skills, and Clarent Blood Arthur, her silver sword capable of an Anti-Army attack. She does not move with the elegance of a knight or display the beauty of swordsmanship, but instead fights with abandon like a wild beast. This trait allows her to be summoned as Berserker. She uses her two handed sword with a single hand, and rather than simply doing so as to punch an opponent, she will even go as far as throwing her sword should it grant her victory over her opponent. Normally the the very heart and soul of the knight, she views swordsmanship as only another means of victory, and she is willing to punch, kick, or bite to win over her opponent.

She possesses Prana Burst like her "father", allowing her to release magic energy carried in one's arms or one's flesh to move with sudden speed or strength. She displays the ability to jump to the top of a building with a single leap, the force of her jumping is great enough to blow away a multitude of warriors and pulverize a battle tank with ease, and her augmented physical strength is enough to overwhelm fighters of much greater stature.