Pale Rider

Pale Rider
Japanese name:	偽ライダー
Appearances
Primary franchise:	Fate
Appears in:	Fate/strange Fake
Characteristics
Species:	Servant

Servant stats
True Name:	Pale RiderWP
Source:	Book of RevelationWP
Qualified Servant classes
Normal classes:

Master: Tsubaki Kuruoka
War:	True and False Holy Grail Wars
Series:	Fate/strange Fake
Parameter
Strength:	E
Strength:	E
Endurance:	A
Endurance:	A
Agility:	B
Agility:	B
Mana:	A
Mana:	A
Luck:	C
Luck:	C
NP:	EX
NP:	EX
Class skills
Magic Resistance
Magic Resistance
C
C
Riding
Riding
EX
EX
Personal skills
Contagion
Contagion
A
A
Innocent World
Innocent World
EX
EX
Guidance of the Netherworld
Guidance of the Netherworld
EX
EX
Noble Phantasm
Doomsday Come
Doomsday Come
Anti-World
Anti-World
EX
EX
Kagome Kagome
Kagome Kagome
Anti-Army
Anti-Army
A
A

False Rider (偽ライダー, Raidā^?) is the "False" Rider-class Servant summoned by Tsubaki Kuruoka in the True and False Holy Grail Wars of Fate/strange Fake.

Profile

Identity

Rider is the embodiment of pestilence given form by the False Grail, and "he" is given the True Name Pale Rider^WP (ペイルライダー, Peiru Raidā^?). Differing from those called Heroic Spirits, "he" is only one in name. Far from a "hero", "he" cannot even be called a Villainous Spirit or Demonic Spirit. Some regions have called "him" a "curse", and some religions have denoted "him" to be "divine punishment." "He" is "disease", that which has existed since time immemorial and that which will continue to exist far into the future. "He" has lived a shorter life than anyone, and yet has lived a longer life than anyone. Called a horseman who has brought calamity to all, "he" is that which "let loose" the Black Death that killed thirty million people and came "under the name" of Spanish Influenza that killed fifty million people. Given a physical presence despite not being a Heroic Spirit, "he" continues to exist in that moment to take the lives of those on the planet to provide "himself" nourishment for life to begin anew.

Appearance

Rider appears as a black cloud, a vague form with no particular shape.

Personality

Rider is not based on a hero, or even a human, so "he" lacks a persona and was only given knowledge by the system of the Holy Grail War. "He" does not understand human emotion, and "he" only acts for Tsubaki and "his" own instincts. "He" is akin to a robot created without emotions or internal monologue, a mere formless mass of awareness and knowledge about the Holy Grail War. "He" speaks with a grating sound like the "scraping noise of swarms of insects battling one another" and "his" words are dread incarnate.

Role

Fate/strange Fake

Day 0

• Rider and Tsubaki

1/2

Rider is summoned by Tsubaki inadvertently after she gains Command Spells in the real world and invokes the summoning ritual in her dream world with her desperate pleas for her parents not to leave her alone. Despite "his" nature, she is not scared of "him" because she will no longer be alone. After she introduces herself, "he" takes her parents into the dream world, "dancing" together to forget her abuse and grant her desires. Though she smiles at "him" and thanks "him", "he" merely continues to exist without even giving a nod in reply. She gives "him" the nickname "Mr. Black".

During the battle between False Archer and False Lancer, Rider goes to stop the battle, as it was scaring Tsubaki. False Lancer senses Rider approaching and also notices his nature as a curse of death, which would be especially harmful to them. Because of this, Lancer and Archer stop their battle, though they wish to continue on later, without interruption. Archer also decides to look for the opportunity to take out Rider later, so he won't interfere anymore.

Day 1

As the war gradually progresses, Rider finds and infects more and more victims for Tsubaki. At one point, Rider seized a number of veterinary hospitals in Snowfield in order to provide Tsubaki with animals to play with. Jester Karture, a Dead Apostle who is the Master of False Assassin, later arrives in Tsubaki's dream, being accepted by her and, by extension, Rider.

Day 2

Jester informs Tsubaki of the battle between True Berserker and True Archer, and their Masters, that is putting the people in the area in danger. This causes Tsubaki to send Rider to "save" the endangered people, with Rider infecting them and taking them to the dream world.

A number of other parties in the war also find out about Tsubaki being Rider's Master, with many of them arriving to fight outside her hospital. Eventually, on Jester's signal, False Rider draws everyone at the battle into the dream world.

Abilities

Disease is something that rides on wind, waters, birds, and people, so it can be said that the Rider class is an appropriate designation. "He" is that which has "ridden" "his" way to dominance all over the world, and possibly most of all, by being given an alias by the populace to reflect "his" nature as the embodiment of calamity, "he" has been summoned as such. "His" very nature is a foreign abnormality that proves the False Grail is the least worthy object for the title of "Holy Grail." It is unknown if anyone can even recognize "his" alias or even the fact that "he" has been summoned as a Servant in the first place. "He" is noted to have great strength that makes "his" Master the dark horse of the war.^{[citation needed]}

Rider appears within Kuruoka's dream world, letting loose a black fog over the streets. The contract is formed only within the dream, so none outside are aware of it. "He" is able to facilitate her unconscious dream magecraft by bringing people into the dream world by infecting them from outside, many black spots like bruises appearing of their bodies, and causing them to fall unconscious. While also absorbing their magical energy instinctively, "he" does not take directly from their life force, so their bodies are only disabled. They appear within the dream world with the same black spots covering them, and "he" manipulates them to remove their original personalities and instead become living dolls following Kuruoka's idea of how they should act.^{[citation needed]}

Within the Real World, Rider travels on the wind, and is capable of physically expanding to a large expanse. By expanding much like a Bounded Field, he is able to surround and seal off the City from the outside world, preventing any entity from entering or leaving, returning any and all humans attempting to leave back into the City.

Later it was noted by False Archer that due to his nature, False Rider can be categorized as a "Curse of Death" and as such is one of the only things that can be considered as one of Enkidu's weaknesses.^{[citation needed]}