Francesca Prelati

Alternate versions

Francesca

Servant

Francesca
Japanese name:	フランチェスカ・プレラーティ
Appearances
Primary franchise:	Fate
Appears in:	Fate/strange fake
Characteristics
Gender:	Female

Francesca Prelati (フランチェスカ・プレラーティ, Furanchesuka Purerāti^?) is the "True" Master of True Caster in the True and False Holy Grail Wars of Fate/strange fake.

Profile

Background

Francesca is François Prelati, the friend of Gilles de Rais from the time of Joan of Arc. Originally male, she has died numerous times and changed bodies, but the first death ended with her recorded as a Heroic Spirit. The Heroic Spirit version has no memories from after that first death. Of her numerous deaths, there are seven where she was left speechless or otherwise overwhelmed, including Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, Saint Germain, the "consoling witch that is eternally alive", Van-Fem, Satsuki Kurogiri, her teachers in magecraft, and Touko Aozaki. Specifically, with Touko, Francesca was killed 30 times by her after she called Touko by her nickname "Scar Red", until Touko's family finally intervened due to Francesca asking help from them. Touko killed her one last time and told her to "never show your twisted Magic Circuits in front of me again".

She showed great interest in the Holy Grail Wars of Fuyuki, but was never able to actually participate due to the Zouken Matou. She has a need for the Grail, apparently needing something on its level to capture a particular "labyrinth". Her wish for the Grail is "for humanity to develop technology that would extinguish True Magic". However, how this "labyrinth" helps her achieve her goal is unknown. Due to her long existence, she has great knowledge of the magical world and its people and events, as well as ties with many organizations, including the Scladio Family.

She is allied to the American organization behind the False Holy Grail War, but even so, Orlando Reeve refers to her as an outsider. In turn she calls him new, implying that while she is considered separate from the group, she's been affiliated with them longer than Reeve himself. She claims to hate Dead Apostles and is on the side of humanity, but Orlando replies she's just fighting with them over food.

Her masters and teachers of magecraft are apparently still around, and have some connection to Artoria. She says that they couldn't have help Artoria in the Fourth War even if they wanted, as there isn't enough Mystery left in the World to get them to Fuyuki from their lake in Britain.

Appearance

Francesca has ankle length light coloured hair that has skull patterns near the ends. She wears a dark ribbon in her hair and a vertically striped top with a short skirt. She also wears a visible garterbelt connected to stockings with bone patterns on them and boots with eye and teeth like designs adorning them. Finally, she wears a pair of fingerless gloves that go up to just below her shoulders and carries an umbrella with her. Orlando's insulting of her may imply she is older than she appears. Apparently, there is a zipper-like opening on her body made of teeth that extends from her ribs to below her navel.

Personality

Francesca is a seemingly friendly and cutesy,  yet devious girl who is first introduced clapping in congratulations to Orlando's speech to his soldiers. She finds his serious attitude to be surprising and scoffs at him for believing his side to be the side of good in this grail war. Francesca holds some interest in Jeanne who she identifies as Ruler, and seeks to defeat and defile her if given the chance. She wishes to force Jeanne into some sort of despair after sabotaging her ability to perform as the grail wars mediator. She finds playing the role of a villain to be easier than that of a hero because she could use the excuse of being a villain to escape any moral boundaries and wonders why Orlando cannot do the same.

During events of the war, Francesca first sat along the sidelines watching Ayaka as she was approached by the Assassin class servant. Seeing that a servant was indeed manifesting, and hearing that the planned servant to summon was the King of Knights, Francesca began she began gleefully questioning what "Arty" would do if she were to be summoned only to find her Master dead. This changed to a look of confusion once she saw an entirely different Knight was summoned instead.

Role

Fate/strange fake

Pre-War

Francesca is an essential part of the Holy Grail War of Snowfield, helping in establishing it. Having already observed the Fuyuki Grail Wars, she brought some things, like the mud of the Grail and an old box that stored Avalon, with her to America and used the "substance" from the Fuyuki Grail to contribute to the construction of the Grail. She also contributed to the picking of Masters, working closely with Faldeus Dioland, a representative of the government. Due to a recommendation of Galvarosso Scladio, Francesca herself nominated Bazdilot Cordelion, a leader of the influential Scladio Family, as one of the True Masters, giving him the mud of the Grail and a catalyst to summon Heracles, to the dismay of Faldeus. Francesca also chose Sigma, a mercenary working under her, as one of the True Masters, as she was intrigued to see what an empty person like him would summon and do in the War. She also brought in Haruri Borzak, though, by her own words, only to fill in the roster and also gives the box of Avalon to Cashura to use as a catalyst. Francesca herself is also chosen as one of the True Masters.

At one point before the start of the War, Francesca and Faldeus discuss the chosen Masters in the War and the intentions of Faldeus and the government, that being to drag down the Third Magic to the level of ordinary magecraft. Francesca though is implied to have a slightly different goal, with the Snowfield War being only a footnote in her plan. They also talk about Francesca's numerous deaths, notably her encounter with Touko Aozaki.

Day 0

1/1

After Orlando Reeve addresses his Clan Calatin, Francesca appears to taunt him over his views about the upcoming Grail War. During their discussion, she gets sidetracked into talking about a Holy Maiden, whom she seems interested in defiling to no end.

After Orlando reassures her that he'll do what is necessary, she questions if he tires of being a champion of justice and states that being a villain is much easier. Suddenly remembering, she offers to aide Orlando in dealing with False Caster's requests, but he tells her not to do anything unnecessary. Accepting his answer, she leaves, stating she'll wait for her time in the spotlight.

Francesca later watches Saber and Ayaka Sajyou be arrested by the police, after Saber blowing off the roof of an opera building. She is entertained by the event and decides to summon her own Servant, using her own body as a catalyst. This causes Francesca to summon François Prelati, an older version of her, as True Caster. He quickly catches up with the situation, as well as correctly guessing their wish for the Grail, and is shown having a comedic nature similar to Francesca. They then finish their contract, using a mocking chant. They together continue to observe the events of the War from a giant airship that serves as their workshop at the lowest level of the stratosphere.

Day 1

Francesca sends True Caster to stop the battle between False Archer, True Archer and True Rider, which he manages to do.

Day 2

Francesca and True Caster are shown talking about Artoria Pendragon's appearances in the Fuyuki Holy Grail Wars, before they notice a large abnormal Servant. This Servant is True Berserker, summoned by Haruri Borzak. When Haruri and Fillia attack Bazdilot's workshop, Francesca sends True Caster to once again stop the battle, which he again manages to do.

Day 3

Fillia, a strange existence that has taken residence in a homunculus, is shown summoning the Bull of Heaven, Gugalanna, atop Francesca's airship. Though Francesca is somewhat worried by this, True Caster tells her not to worry, as Fillia wants to fight the two "ingrates" on the ground. Francesca though does hope that she would go somewhere else.

Other appearances

During the Saber Wars event of Fate/Grand Order, Edward Teach teased Gilles de Rais and he mentions her name.

Abilities

Francesca seems to have an in depth knowledge about the Holy Grail War, including the Ruler Class.She has also displayed knowledge of many other events and people of the magical world, having lived a long time. She is implied to be a skilled mage, though her exact disciplines are unknown. She has also stated that she has no desire to attain any form of Magic, as she believes it would be meaningless so "late in the game", and instead wants to use the Grail to capture "that labyrinth".

It is noted that she is capable of changing bodies frequently and has inhabited her current one for only three years, all its organs still being fresh.

Her workshop is a giant airship, two hundred meters from end to end, in the lowest layer of the stratosphere, twenty kilometers up. Originally a high-altitude unmanned airship that the US military was in the process of testing, Francesca procured it and applied many layers of wards to it such as invisibility, wind-aversion, and more. She piled modification on modification, mystically, scientifically, but also as a matter of taste. That said, it is hardly a mobile fortress, bristling with weapons 'straight out of a scifi novel'. It is simply a two hundred meter balloon used to lift the meager area of Prelati's workshop. Its extreme height meant Francesca could look down on everything.

During her summoning of True Caster she utilizes a unique form of incantation, that greatly diverges from the normal, mentioned being far removed from the traditional incantations for summoning a Heroic Spirit. It also somewhat resembles the incantation used by Ryuunosuke Uryuu.

Development

Creation and Conception

It should be noted, Kinoko Nasu was in charge of the scenario of the Saber Wars event in Fate/Grand Order. Nasu consulted Ryohgo Narita when to put out her name. In response to the Saber Wars event, Narita strongly hinted it was true that Francesca is François Prelati and encouraged people to wait for the revelations in Fate/strange fake.