Holy GrailsWP (聖杯, Seihai?) are wish-granters using the foundation of the Christianholy relic that received the blood of Christ. There have been many artifacts claimed to be the genuine article, at least 726 of which were investigated by the Holy Church,[1][2] and many conflicts for such artifacts have happened around the world throughout history.[1]
The name is utilized in the various Holy Grail Wars as the name of an artifact purportedly capable of granting any wish to whomever comes to claim it, rather than the real artifact, though the Church often gets involved simply because of that reason. Its advent is the ultimate goal of the various Holy Grail Wars.
Each Holy Grail is in effect a mass of pure Magical Energy, which reacts to the wishes of the one who holds it in order to grant them; however, on their own they are not capable of generating true miracles without outside intervention. Left alone, they enter a purely reactive state, although they can spontaneously summon Servants as a defense mechanism should they be placed in abnormal situations like those encountered in the Grand Orders. As a rule, they do not take a physical form but can manifest in a variety of shapes depending on the circumstances of their formation.
In larger Holy Grail Wars, there are Greater Holy Grails (大聖杯, Daiseihai?) acting at the core of the ritual and Lesser Holy Grails (小聖杯, Koseihai?) acting as the catalyst to start the Greater Grail through collecting the defeated Servants.
The term Artgraph (アートグラフ, Ātogurafu?) is used in relation to Holy Grails, the Seventh Heaven Art Graph of the Moon Cell, the Art Graph Holy Grails, and the Lesser Holy Grail of Tokyo.
The Holy Grail of the Fuyuki Holy Grail Wars of Fuyuki City appears at the end of the war to grant the final Master and Servant pair a wish on the Greater Grail, the true device that has the power to grant wishes. Because it is only a vessel to summon the Greater Grail, it is known as the Lesser Grail.
What is handed down in the city of Fuyuki is not the one that received the blood of the Christ, but the prototype of an even more ancient "omnipotent container"; this container is the 726th Grail that sticks to the legend of the name. It is a gate that leads to the Root, Akasha; a hole connected to the nuclear core, the Greater Grail (大聖杯, Daiseihai?), a wish machine - the key to startup the Great Grail. It is not an omnipotent container, but a replica created to work like a "wish machine" that can bring forth one's own will.[3]
Moon Cell[]
The term Holy Grail in Moon Cell differs from the standard "Wishing Device that can grant any wish", the Moon Cell Holy Grail is the "right to use Moon Cell".[4]
In the Tokyo Holy Grail War in Fate/Prototype, the Holy Grail is revealed to be an imitation Grail taken from the church by a Cardinal. It takes the form of a large cauldron and its purpose is to summon a higher-level being like an angel or the Beast of Revalations. Like with the Fuyuki Holy Grail, the Grail comes in two forms. The Lesser Grail or Symbol and the Greater Grail or Saint Graph. The Saint Graph is said to be able to contain souls and draws power from people's wishes. However as Saber notes, not all people wish with good intentions, making this Grail corrupt from the start.
In the First Holy Grail War, the Greater Grail is located in an underground lake beneath the Old Shimbashi Station Railway History Exhibition Hall.[5]
Shortly after the Third Holy Grail War, a group of rogue Magi affiliated with the U.S. Government stole a piece of Fuyuki's Grail[6] and used it to prepare a rival Holy Land upon the city of Snowfield, Nevada. Despite originally expecting it would take up to two centuries to prepare the land for a War, through unknown methods, they were able to start it a few years after the Fifth Holy Grail War.[7]
The Magi were aware the original ritual was a marvel of mastery of the arcane arts, and were unable to perfectly copy it in its entirety. They were forced to alter the rite by initiating a "false" Holy Grail War in order to "prime the pump" for a "true" War to take place in Snowfield.[7] The so-called False Holy Grail War came with many blurred lines, including the loss of the Saber template,[8] and allowing for the summoning of irregular Servants.
After the initial summoning of the six remaining Servants in the False Holy Grail War, the group of Magi forced the summoning of a Saber-class Servant, kickstarting the True Holy Grail War.[9] Collectively, the two Wars in Snowfield are simply addressed as the Snowfield Holy Grail War.
The Holy Grail of the Ainsworth Holy Grail Wars of Fuyuki City instead of being provided by Einzbern family, which does not seem to exist in Miyu's world, is provided by the Sakatsuki family. It is mentioned by Gilgamesh that the Holy Grail War was rather created for Miyu Sakatsuki, the hidden descendant of the Child of God (神稚児, Kami Chigo?), instead of the opposite. With her birth, the Holy Grail was completed.[10] At the end of the Fifth war, the young girl was placed in the Ten no Sakazuki cavern. Here, the winner needs to be in possession of the seven Class Cards used by the participants during the Ainsworth Holy Grail War, to be able to have his wish granted by the Holy Grail.
Years before the start of Fate/Requiem, several simultaneous Holy Grail Wars all occurred at once and became public knowledge, triggering World War III. The victors of the various Holy Grail Wars fought each other to claim more Holy Grails, aiming to climb higher and higher. Fuyuki was one of the fiercest battlegrounds, but the final winner was unknown. The ritual in Fuyuki was not completed, and the accumulated Magical Energy from its Holy Grail dispersed.[11]
The victor of the world-spanning Holy Grail War was Chitose Manazuru, who organized the conflict into a tournament structure and came out on top with her Servant Lucius Longinus.[11] Chitose asked the Grail to persist and distribute itself, becoming Holy Grails in the hearts of humans, terminal devices of the Stigmata.[12] The Holy Grail also restructured the wards of Tokyo into Mosaic City for the survivors of the war to gather in.
Humans now have Holy Grails inside their hearts, giving everybody a partner Servant designated from birth, immunity to illness and disease, eternal youth, and Command Spells that regenerate over time via the Holy Grail's Magical Energy.[13] The Magical Energy supplied to everybody by the Holy Grail via Mosaic City's Ley Lines can be used for simple Magecraft and is more than enough to sustain a Servant in everyday life with no discomfort.[14]
The Caren Series are human interfaces that allow the Holy Grail to communicate directly with the people of Mosaic City. A hybrid intelligence – the most valuable in the city – born of the fusion of summoning Magecraft, modelled on the kind that calls forth Heroic Spirits, and cutting-edge information engineering technology.[13]
When Erice tiredly muttered "so the war isn't over yet" while in bed, she quickly clapped her hand over her mouth. That was a dangerous way to think, and if she wasn't more careful she would be removed by the Holy Grail.[12]
Grand Order[]
A Holy Grail collected during the Grand Orders, manifested into a physical form.
The Grails collected by Chaldea up to the Seventh Singularity, in the anime adaptation.
1/2
As part of the Incineration of Humanity, Solomon sent Art Graph Holy Grails (聖杯, Ātogurafu?) acting as giant Mana batteries to seven significant points in Human History to sow chaos and aid in its destruction. These Holy Grails appear to function similarly to the better-known ones, but are also capable of causing extreme changes to history that lead to the production of Singularities. Destroying or securing the Holy Grail is necessary to resolve the Singularity it creates. The Trees of Emptiness appear to produce Grails or something similar to them when they are destroyed, possibly as a coalescence of their remaining Magical Energy.
Occasionally minor Singularities will occur but disappear without causing any significant trouble, generating a Holy Grail from their concentrated Magical Energy; while these Holy Grails lack the power to be considered truly omnipotent wish granters, they can still be highly dangerous if they fall into the wrong hands. Leonardo da Vinci is in charge of collecting and storing these Holy Grails, at times giving them to Chaldean Servants for fun or to allow them to strengthen themselves through the process known as Palingenesis.
Subcategory Holy Grail[]
Subcategory Holy Grails (亜種聖杯?) are those utilized in the framework of the Subcategory Holy Grail Wars. Imitations of the Greater Grail, they function in a similar manner, but can only sustain two to five Servants.[15][16] 95% of Subcategory Holy Grails end up stalled during the construction process due to various setbacks, and 5% reach the completion process, but 4% of them are actually incomplete and explode upon receiving magical energy. The remaining 1% manage to work as designed, but are ultimately degraded products compared to the Greater Grail of Fuyuki.[15]
In Fate/Labyrinth, someone has installed and activated one of the Subcategory Holy Grails in the Seventh Labyrinth of Caubac Alcatraz, located deep within the bottommost level of this labyrinth. The Subcategory Holy Grail is an imitation of the Greater Grail and operates just like the one in the Holy Grail War, but its function as a wish granting device is inferior to the true Greater Grail, and the Heroic Spirits never surpass five Servants.[16] In this Subcategory Holy Grail War, only four Servants were automatically summoned, being Archer, Assassin, Caster and Saber. This time, the victory conditions of the Subcategory Holy Grail War were to reach the centre-most room, on the bottom-most level. Find the Subcategory Holy Grail, and the person who obtains it becomes the winner. However, the four Servants are permitted to act independently as they aim for the same location, whether it is to “destroy” or “obtain” the Subcategory of the Holy Grail.
Heroic Spirit Enkidu possesses the ability to emulate something on the level of a wish-granting machine if enough Mana is concentrated within them,[17] albeit a "flawed" one.[18]
Heroic Spirit Typhon Ephemeros is described as the antithesis of the Holy Grail[19] capable of making sure people's wishes never come true due to her nature as "the ephemeral fruit". She also is shown to possess an Anti-Holy Grail Authority.[20]
During the reign of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table went on a quest to find a Holy Grail, said to be able to counter the fading of Mystery from Britain by being a miracle of the same calibre. It was acquired by Galahad, who was so selfless he returned it to heaven.[21]
The grail held by the Whore of Babylon who appears in the Book of RevelationWP. Though it is a counterfeit Holy Grail, it is because of this very fact that it became a "genuine" Holy Grail that grants the desires of humans without paying heed to right or wrong.[22]
In Miyu's World, Pandora's Box is capable of being used as Holy Grail, and is used as such by Darius Ainsworth, since being a wishing device created by deities from the Age of Gods makes it a better Holy Grail than the actual Grail, with the "Hope" contained within possibly being capable of granting any wish no matter how big.[23]
List of wishes[]
Most Masters and Servants enter the war with a specific wish in mind for when they obtain the Holy Grail. There are also those who seek it simply for the sake of seeking it, those who are against its very existence, and those who pay it no mind in lieu of other goals. Jubstacheit von Einzbern believes that all Servants wish to be resurrected for a second life, although Lancer believes no true hero would actually be interested in the prospect. He claims that true heroes are not attached to the world, but are only attached to the oaths they could not fulfill.[24][25]
« It is something that should be in my possession to start with. All the treasures in the world originate from my collection. However, because much time passed, it disappeared from my treasury. But I am still its owner. The total amount of my wealth even exceeded my knowing, but as long as it’s a ‘treasure’ then it’d obviously belong to me. You should have more sense then trying to rob my treasure away. »
(Gilgamesh, Fourth Holy Grail War)
« I will use the Holy Grail for my objective. This Holy Grail is real. If you insert seven Servants in it, it will reach the origin. But it does not concern me. I have no interest in such a thing. All I am interested in is the Holy Grail's ability to serve as the 'gate'." Not many weapons are as specialized in murder as that. Yes, to sweep the humans away. I have no intention of admiring humanity like Kotomine. I only admire beautiful things. This world is enjoyable, but it is incorrigible at the same time. It is an insult to the king for so many wretches to be enjoying life. I do not want to rule over such a world. »
« I... What I wish for, is only to be judged equitably. To renew the impression of my colleagues at the Clock Tower, who never acknowledged my talent―" »
« I’m not satisfied. I want to be reincarnated into this world, and live on as a human. Because that is the cornerstone of ‘conquest’. Possessing a body, marching out towards the ends of the earth, carrying out my conquest – that is truly my way of kingship. But right now I don’t have a body; that won’t do. Without out a body nothing can start anew. I’m not afraid of anything much; I just feel I must have a body of flesh and bone. »
« I'm still against the Holy Grail War. But I'll fight until the end for sure. I have no wish that I need the Holy Grail to grant. …But I want to protect others, like a superhero. I don't think my wish is inferior. So I have to fight against the wishes of others, even if they are five hundred or a thousand years old. »
« My only desire is to save my country from ruin... I always had such doubts. That I might not be the right king. That there was another hero who should have been chosen. At that time when I pulled the sword out, there must have been a suitable king who would have been able to save the country I could not. …So if I could redo the selection of the king using the power of the Holy Grail, then--- »
« Let's see. I do not have a wish, but I do have a goal. My goal is not a serious matter, and it is meaningless even if I achieve it myself. I want to know if it is a crime to live as you are, when you are different from others. I cannot come up with the answer by myself. That is why I wish for the birth of what can provide me with the answer. »
« Although he was summoned as a Servant, he has no wish or desire. This is probably because while he was alive he was unable to obtain anything he wanted. “Even if life had some sort of value, it would surely be far less than most people fancy it to be.” Like this, we can see that he has a distaste for everything in the world. »
« The reason she decided to participate is “To redo my life” and if possible she wants to create a future where her mother and father didn’t die and she goes to high school and lives out a normal high school otaku life. Normal friends, and a normal boyfriend (…if she can get one), and a normal girl’s life is what she desires. This is her true wish. »
« As a Servant he is bound by his contract with Jinako, however he has no specific wish of his own. He simply wanted to serve a Master who made the effort to summon him in their time of need. »
« Red Saber has no particular wish or desire as a Servant. Why? Well that’s because she is already perfect simply by existing. At least, as Red Saber likes to say: “I am complete just with my thoughts, my words and speech, and sleep. Regardless of what era I’m in, I will always be as such. This in itself symbolizes the authority and power of Rome.” She is already perfect, so there is nothing more to wish for or desire. »
« He seeks the Holy Grail not for greater power but to realize certain stability in the world. If the Holy Grail ends up in the hands of someone other than himself, the current tumultuous events and conflict around the world that would otherwise be fixed and cleaned up in ten years, will instead take twenty. ...Even if another Master that was dispatched to the Moon by the West Europe Plutocracy were to win, because the Holy Grail is a power of national scale that’s obtained by an individual, it will become the kindling of conflict. In order to prevent that possible future from being realized, Leo himself decided to go to the Moon as a Master. »
« The restoration of his name's honor, that is the wish of Servant Lancer, Vlad III—to wash away the stain of 'Count Dracula' which has spread all over the world. »
« It is naught but my own selfishness... but I wish for the Gods to return that which they hadgranted me. I wish to have returned the [immortality] I passed to Prometheus. »
« Well, actually, I have not decided it yet. It's not that I don't have one. I'm a Magus too, of course I want to reach the Root and all... but, I think, there are some other things I want. I won't know until we get to that point. For example, if my sister dies in the war, I may want to resurrect her. Something like that would overwrite my own wish. The sister I have now means more to me than the Root I'll reach in a hundred years. »
« I have no desire to become king through the Holy Grail. My father would never recognize it even were I to ascend to the throne that way. The only thing I wish for, Master, is the chance to challenge the sword of appointment. »
« He had to make it known that that the Isemi clan were considerably the world’s greatest family lineage in the Far East, having accomplished here the great ambition of over 1000 years of Magi. »
« “I will slay all of the other 6 Masters and Servants! I will surely locate the Greater Grail hidden in this Tokyo! I’ll show them that I will take the Root which is the Mages’ greatest wish――――and the Grail with these hands!” »
« “Let’s do it, Berserker. I might not be a champion of justice, but, I, I want to protect this Tokyo where everyone gave me a smile. If it means that people have to die, and Tokyo is destroyed in the Holy Grail War―――――I want to stop it!” »
« We wish to drive out the Magi who selected this place as the site of their Holy Grail War, who have run roughshod over this land. Such is the extent of our desire, Your Majesty. »
« Because I want to see it!... I mean, it’d be so super-cool! It’s the Holy Grail! Hitler and Gobbles wanted it for the Third Reich! And Shi Huangdi and Nobunaga and Godzilla all looked for it too! If it really exists, I’ve just gotta see what it looks like! »
« I was planning on awakening the Spider with the power of the Grail and living to see this tiresome world be destroyed, but.... I suppose I need not tire of the world quite yet....That beautiful assassin! Her piety! Nary could I allow her to vanish without a name! »
« It’s fine. I’m sure the Third Magic will stop being Magic before long. Speaking of which, did you forget you guys’ ultimate goal? ‘Drag the Third Magic down to the level of Magecraft’? »
« I’d be lying if I said I have no regrets about my conduct in life, but that’s nothing to wish on the Grail about. Well, if I do get it, I suppose I could always incarnate and set about studying this era’s music and theater in earnest. It might be meaningless, but I’d like to take as many songs and tales of valor as I can back with me to where my soul was — the ‘Throne’ I mentioned earlier. »
(Saber)
« With the power of the Holy Grail... I will sing a song of human triumph to the farthest reaches of distant Avalon!” »
« In order to achieve my revenge, I will use you. When you lose your value, I will twist your head off with my own hands... Either way, I have no intention of exposing my face to the world. Not until I use the Holy Grail to purge my true name.
»
« If my master had simply died of natural causes, I wouldn’t [have interest in the Grail]... When you obtain the Holy Grail, use its power to show them to your heart’s content. Once you’ve destroyed this country and crushed it beneath your feet, take back the name you cast off and show them all. By overturning common sense and exterminating Mystery, the name you detest—Herakles—will be dragged through the mud and perish along with Hera herself. »
« She had only one wish for the Grail: revenge against the “magical society” that had taken everything from her people. She did not care if it was the Clock Tower, the Atlas Institute, or even the various unauthorized mage circles that dotted the globe. She simply felt that nothing could be more ironic than bringing them to ruin through machinery, industry, or any other overpowering “energy” distant from Magecraft. »
« I wish upon the Holy Grail. I pray you find a world where you won't have to suffer any longer. I pray that you meet kind people. I pray you find friends you can laugh with. I pray you find a warm, small...— share of happiness. »
« Instead of succession by blood, it's a perfect continuation of the same individual. That's the history of the Ainsworth family hailing from the first generation. Its advertised goal is world salvation. But no ones knows the true wish of master Darius, who has lived for a millennium. That's why master Julian is trying to attain the Holy Grail while his consciousness still remains. Not for Darius' sake, but for that child's own wish. »
Holy Grail [Others]
The chalice that received the blood of God.
It was a holy relic of the highest grade, a wish-granting machine that fulfilled the desires of the wielder.
Its origin could be traced back to many legends, and was frequently said to be "a great wish-granting cauldron".
The Holy Grail in Fate/Stay Night was not the original, but a replica that carried the function of a "wish-granting machine".
After Heroic Spirits were defeated in the physical world, they reverted to their original forms as "terminals of power" and vanished from this time axis.
The Einzbern Holy Grail was something that entrapped the Heroic Spirits and held them temporarily.
The ritual that opened the "hole" would then begin. This was not carried out by the Holy Grail, but the Greater Holy Grail.
Holy Grail [Circumstances]
This had once been a term pointing out to the "wish granting machine that could grant any wish", but in Extra it's referring to the "right to use the Moon Cell."
If you browse through the vast records of Earth simulations stored in the Moon Cell, you are sure to find the Earth with the future you desire.
All you, you who have earned the right to use the Moon Cell, have to do is tell it this:
"Recreate my ideal future."
The Moon Cell should quickly move things forward so that the Earth will take the shape of that future.
For the Moon knows how, it knows all that is to be done to make it so.
You might say “I want all the girlies in the world to be mah little sister" for example, and then in about ten years, it would be assumed that society on Earth would be reorganized in that fashion.
Or the Earth as a whole might be managed so that an apparatus that can make that dream “seem real” would be created.
There is nothing that humans can’t realize as long as it lies within the scope of human imagination.
Because whatever kind of illusion it is, however much of a pipe dream it is, there is a way to experience it.
Subspecies Holy Grail Wars [Others]
The small Holy Grail Wars that have been recklessly happening everywhere since several decades ago in the “Apocrypha” world. Varying from those with only two Servants to wars with five Servants which, though inferior in scale to Fuyuki, are still considerably large conflicts, all kinds of Holy Grails Wars are brightly, happily and violently taken place throughout the world.
This is because, after the Third Holy Grail War, Darnic disseminated information on the structure of the Holy Grail War, which normally should have been concealed at all costs, to other magi in order to forestall them from searching for the Holy Grail that he had stolen.
Even for magi who lament over how the Root is just a distant fairy tale, once they learned that they could take a step… or perhaps even just half a step towards reaching it through this ritual, they ended up desperately creating Holy Grails of their own.
Broadly speaking, out of a hundred Holy Grails made, ninety-five of them get stalled due to setbacks in the midst of constructing them, and out of the remaining finished five Grails, four end up incomplete and explode while prana is poured into them. The last remaining Grail out of them all manages to work properly, but the ritual is degraded in quality and cannot be compared to the one in Fuyuki.
However, with the prana accumulated in the Grail, it still becomes possible to bring about miracles of varying scale. Being summoned by such a shoddy Holy Grail is a real nuisance to the Servants, though. There are many Servants who refuse the summoning or rebel and kill their Masters.
Amongst young magi, something like a “Holy Grail War Walkthrough Wiki” has been secretly created and is used to outwit obstinate old magi by mustering their intelligence… maybe. The early period right after the subspecies Holy Grails began was called the “golden era of Assassins”, where Assassins (Hassan-i-Sabbah) were a great menace (because, on top of their prana consumption being low, killing Masters was far easier than battles between Servants, so it might have seemed like easier work in its own way), but by the middle period, countermeasures against them were naturally taken and the Hassan boom fell into decline. It’s apparently a common sight for Masters who enjoy having their Servants fight each other to easily team up just as Assassin is confirmed to be summoned.
It is quite common in the subspecies Holy Grail Wars for the Servants to be unable to display their full power as much as in Fuyuki depending on the quality of the leylines, and, since the advantages and disadvantages of each Servant also becomes clear according to their level of fame in the land where a war takes place, it often turns into a competition to obtain the catalysts of local Servants.
For instance, a subspecies Holy Grail War in Greece would create a struggle for a “catalyst of Heracles”, and the magi who managed to get it would win… In other words, the whole thing seems to go full circle and turn into a simple battle of magecraft between magi in the end. As a cute one-time divorcee magus said, “Rather, the whole idea of fighting that macho guy in his homeland is seriously ridiculous in the first place.”
After the use of Heracles was forbidden as a result of that, the next war turned into a competition over the catalyst of Achilles, and so there has never been a proper Holy Grail War held in Greece. There exist terrible tales of Holy Grail Wars like this.