The Fate/Stay Night (Japanese: フェイト/ステイナイト) adult visual novel features an extensive cast of characters created by Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi of Type-Moon, with some of whom are classified as Servants with special combat abilities. The cast have appeared mainly in three anime television series adaptations (Fate/stay night, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works and its prequel Fate/Zero) with a movie trilogy adaptation (Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel) produced by Studio Deen and Ufotable respectively, and its visual novel sequel, Fate/Hollow Ataraxia. A Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works animated film was released prior to its TV series.
Creation and conception When Japanese author Kinoko Nasu wrote the Fate/Stay Night novel in college, he intended for Shirou and Saber to be the only couple. In his early drafts, the series' heroine, Saber was a man, and the protagonist was a girl with glasses. This early draft was later embodied in the short original video animation (OVA) Fate/Prototype, which was released with the final volume of the Carnival Phantasm OVA series. Nasu had set the project aside, and went on to found Type-Moon with artist Takashi Takeuchi. After the success of their first visual novel Tsukihime in 2000, Type-Moon transitioned from a dōjin soft organization to a commercial organization. In the beginning, Nasu was worried that because the main character was a girl, the story might not work as a bishōjo game. Takeuchi suggested switching the protagonist's and Saber's genders to fit the game market.
The novel Makai Tensho influenced Nasu to write a fantasy story in which famous heroic personalities from all over the world would take part. The original idea was limited to the prototype of the Fate arc, where the main characters were the female master and her Servant Saber (the embodiment of King Arthur as a man). According to Nasu, this version contained elements of 1980s romance and ideas of transformations to world order, while the final version focuses on changes within people and has other purposes for using the Holy Grail. About a third of the scenario of the future Fate arc (up to the battle with Sasaki Kojiro) was completed at that time, but for several personal reasons, Nasu could not write further for more than ten years. Scenes from the original visual novel that show Shirou having sexual intercourse with the heroines are commonly censored. According to the website Kotaku, Shirou's intercourse with Sakura has become an Internet meme that replaced Sakura's nudity with multiple images.
Writer Gen Urobuchi was pitched a prequel of Fate/stay night by Takeuchi, Nasu was amazed by Urobuchi and felt despite being unable to work on Fate/stay night due to illness, Urobuchi would write an interesting story. Ideas like Saber being lectured by Gilgamesh and Alexander the Great gave him a bigger impact. When starting the project for Fate/Zero, Nasu decided to give Urobuchi complete freedom for Kiritsugu's characterization. In Fate/stay night, Saber explains she had brief interactions with Kiritsugu Emiya which led to the creation of the character of Irisviel. As Kiritsugu's wife, Irisviel plays the role of facilitating communication between these two, who do not talk to each other. The distanced and ultimately dark relationship between Kiritsugu and Saber caused by the former's actions in the story led Urobuchi and Nasu to change some early drafts in the story, including the addition of Kiritsugu adopting Shirou. These changes were to create a more coherent relationship between Saber and Shirou Emiya in the original visual novel. Urobuchi had no issues writing the main characters' ideologies.
Main characters
Shirou Emiya
is a good-hearted and honest teenager who always enjoys helping others. However, Shirō is a deeply scarred human being orphaned after a fire destroyed part of his hometown when he was seven and caused him to lose all memory of the first seven years of his life. He was saved by Kiritsugu Emiya, who adopted him and named him Shirō after discovering that the boy could not recall his real name. He has no interest in the Holy Grail and instead despises it. However, he is determined to win the Holy Grail War with Saber, for he hopes his efforts will ensure that another disaster like the Fuyuki fire will never occur again. The main plot of Fate/stay night focuses on his ideal and the three different ways he approaches it.
Saber / Artoria Pendragon
The main heroine of the Fate route and the mascot of the franchise, Saber is an honorable swordsman whose true identity is the King of Knights who sought the Holy Grail to prevent the events that doomed her homeland with someone else ruling Britain in her stead. She was previously Kiritsugu Emiya's servant during the Fourth Holy Grail War. Stunned to discover that the legendary King Arthur is a young woman, Kiritsugu refused to speak to her directly since her summoning, which Saber initially believes is because he believes the fact that she is a woman makes her inadequate. However, Irisviel later suggests Kiritsugu's anger towards Saber is out of the belief that he could not accept the decisions Saber made or allowed to be made in life yet he could not justify his reasons for why he believed she was wrong. Because of their incompatible methods, Kiritsugu arranges Saber to serve as Irisviel's bodyguard, while she questions her master's tactics before being forced into attempting to destroy the Holy Grail. Losing her memory in the process, Saber becomes Shirō's Servant for the Fifth Holy Grail War. Saber acts coldly and suppressing her emotions to focus on her goals. Saber is frustrated by Shirō's "protective" tendencies, believing his erratic and reckless behavior will jeopardize their chances of winning the Holy Grail War services as a Heroic Spirit.
Rin Tohsaka
The main heroine of the UBW route, is a high school girl who barely talks to other students in her school and exhibits a desire to be left alone, as exemplified by her tendency to stay on the school's rooftop, away from the rest of the students. She is also secretly a Mage, and a Master in the Fifth Holy Grail War. Rin is reared as the successor to her family's magecraft, instructed by her father, Tokiomi Tohsaka, to prioritize sorcery over her own interests. When she was young, Rin was separated from her sister Sakura, who was given to the Matou family for adoption. After her father is killed in the Fourth Holy Grail War, Rin perfects her sorcery with some guidance from her guardian, Kirei Kotomine.
Sakura Matou
The main heroine of the Heaven's feel route, is a first-year high school student and the younger sister of Shinji Matou. After Shirou's father, Kiritsugu, died, Sakura often visits Shirou's home to help him with his daily chores. Though Shinji is from a sorcerer family, he asserts that she does not know her family's craft or history. Sakura is outwardly timid but possesses great magical strength. She has a long-standing crush on Shirou Emiya. Sakura plays a minor part in the Fate and Unlimited Blade Works routes, being nothing more than a dutiful kouhai (junior student) who is always there to help Shirou in both routes. However, in the Heaven's Feel route, she serves as the lead heroine and vastly expands on her backstory. She is revealed to be the biological sister of Rin Tohsaka and was adopted away to the Matou family ostensibly to become the family's heir since Shinji was incapable of magecraft. In the anime-original storyline, Sakura is kidnapped by Caster as a sacrifice to summon the Holy Grail due to her possessing latent magic circuits. During the rescue attempt, she and Rin are confirmed to be sisters who were separated when they were very young.
Kirei Kotomine
is a priest ostensibly acting as the impartial overseer of the Holy Grail War under an agreement between the Mages' Association and the Holy Church. He inherited the position from his father, Risei Kotomine. Due to his experience as an elite assassin for the Church, Kirei is an expert practitioner in Chinese martial arts whose proficiency is magnified by his enormous physical strength and numerous Command Seals.Fate/complete material II: Character Material –– Characters: Kirei Kotomine, p.066-069. Nasu Kinoko & Takeuchi Takashi-Character Discussion.Takeuchi: Speaking of strength, who is stronger, Ciel or Kotomine?Nasu: Ciel is overwhelmingly strong due to her circuits, constitution, and immortality. The strength of Kotomine at the time of Zero was due to his abnormally large number of Command Spells and his tenacity towards Kiritsugu. It was truly the brightest moment of his life. The Kotomine at that time could even win against Ciel. He ultimately emerges as one of the series' main antagonists upon revealing he has been manipulating the Masters into supplying the Grail with enough energy to unleash Angra Mainyu upon the world.
Kiritsugu Emiya
is Shirō's adoptive father, who died before the events of Fate/stay night and is only seen in flashback, and the biological father of Illyasviel von Einzbern. He is the protagonist of Fate/Zero and known as the Mage Slayer for his unconventional methods of killing. Born in Fuyuki City, Kiritsugu was raised on Alimango Island by his father Norikata Emiya, a magus who specialized in time magic. But Kiritsugu's life took a nasty turn when his friend Shirley, a local girl working as his father's aide, accidentally got vampirized and his hesitance to kill her resulted in the entire island being compromised. Marrying into the Einzbern family, Kiritsugu served as their representative in the Fourth Holy War as Saber's Master during the Fourth Holy Grail War with the intention of using the Holy Grail to wish for world peace. But Kiritsugu discovered that the Grail had become corrupted and attempted to destroy it by using a Command Spell on Saber, which devastated the surrounding area and inflicted him with a curse that would shorten his lifespan. His decision to destroy the Grail was regarded as a betrayal to the Einzberns, who cast him out from their ranks and prevented from him ever contacting Illya again.
Irisviel von Einzbern
is the main heroine of the story and Kiritsugu's wife. She is a homunculus prototype created by the Einzbern family with the idea of giving birth to an ultimate homunculus. Like many of the Einzberns, she is skilled in alchemy. Irisviel serves as Saber's proxy Master, since Kiritsugu believes that he and Saber are incompatible. Due to possessing the inborn knowledge and reasoning of homunculi, hindsights gleaned from the 1000 years of history of the Einzbern as well only having nine years of life-experience, she has both the elegance of a lady and the innocence of a child. Her true purpose in the War is as the vessel of the Holy Grail itself. When four or more Servants are killed, she will manifest as the Grail, losing fully her humanity and sense of self in the process.