Fate/Grand Order: Oberon / Characters

Due to the nature of this servant, this page has been marked as Spoilers Off.

Oberon Vortigern

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The Faerie King of the Abyss

^{Second Ascension}

^{Third Ascension}

^{Final Ascension}

^{Refreshing Summer Prince}

^{Grumpy Summer Oberon}

^{"Robin Goodfellow"}

^{The Abyssal Worm}

^{April Fool's}

^{April Fool's Fate/Grail League}

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Toyonaga

Illustrator: Chica Umino

"Hi there. So this is Chaldea, then? I've heard of it but being here in person really sends a shiver down my spine! Oh, right, I'd better introduce myself. I'm Oberon. Oberon, the King of the Faeries. As you know, I'm just a king only in name. But I'm good at putting people at ease. I'm not very strong, but I'll try to be helpful... It's nice to meet you."

—Summon line before clearing Avalon le Fae

"...What the hell? Why is this happening? Oh, I see. Lies will keep on circulating until the human order stabilizes? *sigh*… Fine, I give up. That's just the kind of human you are. My name's Oberon. You called me, so I'll help out. Even if it disgusts me to the core."

—Summon line after clearing Avalon le Fae

The king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance European literature, most famous today for his role in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. According to Oberon, his wife in Shakespeare's play, Titania, is a purely fictional creation of Shakespeare's. He states he's a servant from Proper Human History, as a Oberon native to the Lostbelt would be the faerie that appears in far older tales.

... He says all that, but he's lying. He is not a Servant from Proper Human History, but a doomsday device, created by the Lostbelt Britain consumed by Sefar, to destroy Faerie Britain out of disgust for its inhabitants. As the will of the isle personified, he naturally is named Vortigern, a name shared with the uncle of King Arthur, the first incarnated will of Britain and personification of the white dragon who tried to reject the incoming Age of Man in Proper Human History. He was first born 1,000 years ago as the King of Mors when he tried to bring an end to the land of fairies in the Great Calamity, but was slain after a decades-long war. He was reborn during the present day in the Autumn Forest of Wales, where the outsider fairies claimed him as their king, making him "Oberon" and due to the influence of Proper Human history by Morgan on the lostbelt, the influence of Shakespeare rises. For the next 16 years he orchestrated Morgan's downfall and Cernunnos's destruction so he could unseal his true body and become the final Great Calamity, the Abyssal Worm, and destroy the cursed island as he was born to do.

He debuts in "Lostbelt No. 6: Fairy Round Table Domain, Avalon le Fae", serving as an ally for the first 2 parts and eventually the true antagonist and Final Boss in the Collapse Arc as he is the one behind the threat of the planet collapsing that forced Chaldea to enter the Lostbelt. His playable version was eventually released as a Limited Servant during the Lostbelt 6 Conclusion Campaign, getting the honor of being the 1st Pretender in the game and the franchise as a whole in the process. He also shows up in the "Mystic Eyes Symphony ~Enchanting Forest and Lovely Footprints~" event... for a short while before heading back to the control room and makes his proper event debut in "Servant Summer Festival 2023". He's also the mastermind of the events of the 2024 April Fools Day game, Fate/Dream Striker, trapping the Protagonist in their soccer-themed dream by using a soccer ball to plug a hole that would have otherwise been the exit in a bid attempt to get them to rest.

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Affably Evil: Despite his oddities as Oberon and the sheer horrific brutality of him as Vortigern, he sincerely remains polite all the way up to and including his demise towards Chaldea and even wishes them luck when he's finally beaten by them, making him miles more genuine than the significant majority of the fairies of the Lostbelt.
Alternate Self: This "Vortigern" and Vortigern of Proper Human History are both technically embodiments of their Britain's will who take monstrous forms relating to dragons and darkness, but this "Vortigern" as a person is not related to Altria or Morgan like the Proper Human History version was, instead being the will of the Lostbelt version of Britain. When he reveals his true name, he clarifies he isn't the archenemy of King Arthur like his PHH self is, and unlike the PHH version of him, Vortigern is meant to destroy the island instead of keeping it in the Age of Gods. His Bond profile confirms this in the event players assumed he was lying, listing him being from Faerie Britain.
And I Must Scream:
- When Oberon was first born, he was in such a weak state that he couldn't even close his eyes and sleep. For several months, he lied there unable to do more than stare at the insect faeries gathered around him, stewing in his own hatred.
- His final fate after his defeat by Chaldea and Altria Avalon: he's weakened enough that he ends up falling off the Storm Border into the endless tunnels that makes up the Abyssal Worm. The keyword being endless; Oberon will never, EVER, hit the bottom. He is unable to escape from it either. Despite the sheer horror of it all, Oberon himself is okay with his predicament, since he DID fulfill his purpose of destroying Faerie Britain in the end, and he views living to be so miserable that whether he's inside the Insect or not makes no difference to him. He's only saddened by being unable to destroy PHH for the sake of his Titania, noting that its sky is actually rather beautiful.
Animal Motifs:
- Moths. He has moth wings, a moth companion named Blanca, and sometimes puts on a cap with moth antennae accessories. To a lesser extent he's associated with butterflies as well since his 1st Ascension has butterfly wings and he can summon butterflies that shed their scales to attack the enemy or put them to sleep.
- When his true self is revealed, the motif swaps over to dragonflies as a play on how he's both an insect fairy and draconic as Oberon Vortigern. He has dragonfly wings, and transforms into a massive dragonfly for his Noble Phantasm.
- In a bit of a carryover from his Proper Human History counterpart, Dragons, in a roundabout way. His Human History self is the incarnation of White Dragon of Britain, destined to destroy human civilization on it. This Lostbelt incarnation has dragonfly wings, and Lie Like Vortigern transforms him into a huge worm... or in other words, a huge wyrm.
Anthropomorphic Personification: Both Vortigerns were born as a method for Britain to self-destruct, but if Proper Human History Vortigern was Britain's will to die gloriously in the Age of Gods rather than fading in the Age of Man, then Oberon Vortigern was Lostbelt Britain's desire to punish the faeries living on Faerie Britain for their sins and how they betrayed Cernunnos to build it. Vortigern says he would never have been born to destroy the land if Morgan hadn't tried so hard to save it against her given purpose.
The Antichrist: Unlike most Calamities, which function more as the Beast of the Apocalypse given they're mostly mindless engines of destruction who sacrificed all of their rational thought, Oberon Vortigern's intelligence and cunning stand out and make him far more dangerous. He has the ability to plan, scheme, and lie to all sides as he sets up the events of Faerie Britain's downfall. Unlike the other Calamities, he takes a noticeably humanoid form that leaves him easy to underestimate and sells his deceptions, and ultimately he's an embodiment of a will beyond any of the Calamities, that of the original Lostbelt Britain, that has repeatedly incarnated him to destroy Faerie Britain as a punishment opposite to the duties of the Avalon le Fae.
Arch-Enemy: Much like how Proper Human History Vortigern considers Altria as his greatest obstacle in preserving the Age of Gods and killing the humans of Britain, this Vortigern regards Morgan, who tries to preserve Faerie Britain against the wishes of the island itself, as his enemy, especially during his time as King of the Mors. Likewise, Morgan also sees him as a personal threat, and expresses her displeasure to him in a voice line. Ironically, he isn't this with Altria Caster, dispelling the notion when Chaldea mentions it, instead having a soft spot for her. That being said, see It's Personal below.
Arc Villain: Ultimately the real antagonist behind the sixth Lostbelt, as he was secretly behind agitating the Mêlée à Trois between the factions in hopes of destroying the Lostbelt so he could escape to destroy Proper Human History itself. Indeed, it's neither Morgan nor Cernunnos but rather Vortigern that is the true nature of the collapse Sion detected, with the SHEBA lens predicting that he will emerge victorious, suck up Faerie Britain into the Abyssal Worm, break free of the British Lostbelt, and then repeat the process with the rest of the planet.
Ascended Meme: His Super-Deformed version is both a Call-Back to the April Fools' Day card art of Queen Medb (who has a connection to fairies) and the classic meme of putting other Servants in her comfy looking cloak.
Attack Its Weak Point: Despite the Abyssal Worm’s enormous size and destructive potential, it requires Vortigern to direct its movements and actually suck in things through its mouth into its Bottomless Pit insides. Ergo, if he is neutralized, then the Worm will stop moving and cease to be a threat.
The Bad Guy Wins: In the absolute Mêlée à Trois of different villains that is the Faerie Britain Lostbelt, Oberon Vortigern's purpose of wiping it out ends up trumping all of the other villains, with the Abyssal Worm being seen tearing the island to pieces. The only reason he really "lost" is because his plans included destroying Proper Human History as well. To be more precise, his "Vortigern" half's desire to wipe out the British Lostbelt succeeds, but his "Oberon" half's desire to wipe out the Proper Human History fails. One of his Third Ascension My Room lines has him gleefully rub this fact in the faces of the Lostbelt Kings.
The rulers of the Lostbelts? I respect them, of course. After all, each and every one of them yielded to Chaldea. So wise, so mature, those kings and queens! Oh, but...don't lump me in with them. They're just a bunch of wretched losers. I, on the other hand, actually accomplished what I set out to do.
Badass Cape:
- In his second ascension, his cape is made from his own wings. It briefly transforms back into his wings upon using his second skill.
- As can be seen in his NP for his third ascension, his cloak appears to be made from butterfly wings. Or to be more appropriate, ripped off fairy wings. It'd be incredibly fitting considering his role.
Battle Theme Music: Finale: Fairy Domain Round Table - O. Vortigern plays when you, Mash and Altria Caster have to fight him. Parts of it also plays when he uses his second NP 'Lie Like Vortigern'.
Beauty Is Bad: The fairies mistake Vortigern for Oberon due to how pretty he is, but by the end of the Lostbelt it's revealed he's the last and most destructive Great Calamity, the Abyssal Worm.
Becoming the Mask:
- Downplayed. After recovering his identity, Vortigern settles into continuing the guise of Oberon to deceive Chaldea and achieve his ends, but he does still like them. Not enough to avoid killing them, however.
- He also feels this way to Altria Caster. He only approached her because she was the Child of Prophecy destined to overthrow Morgan and taught her Magecraft to speed his plans up, but he becomes fond of her in his own way by the end of it all. Even when they fight at the end, Oberon still shows signs of liking her, even if he has to try and kill her.
Big Bad: Of the April Fools' Day 2024 app "Fate/Dream Strikers", though this being April Fools Day it's still Played for Laughs. While the setting was actually the product of the Protagonist's dream, he was the one who kicked off the events of the story by posing as the Brazilian soccer coach Oberto Hongo. Hilarity Ensues.
Big Bad Friend: During several forced choice sections in "Avalon le Fae" with him, the player can choose dialogue that implies they trust him. While he eventually genuinely cared for both the protagonist and Altria Caster, he still went out of his way to destroy Faerie Britain and then attempt the same to Proper Human History.
Big Creepy-Crawlies: When he's acting as Oberon, he usually sticks to butterflies, moths, and other "cute" and relatively normal-sized insects. When the gig is up, however, Vortigern pulls out all the stops and starts summoning all kinds of bugs, including things like beetles, wasps, giant centipedes, and a pillbug the size of a small car. And of course there's the Abyssal Worm itself, an "insect" big enough to shatter an entire country with its movements and wingbeats.
Boss Subtitles: The final battle against him introduces him as Abyssal Worm: OBERON.
Bottomless Pit: His Abyssal Worm is the concept of falling endlessly into the pit Cernunnos was sleeping in, the true nature of the last Great Calamity, the Abyssal Worm. In practice it acts like a mobile black hole that sucks up everything into it, and it can be seen sucking up the shattered remnants of Faerie Britain on the chapter map once it's summoned; the battle against Oberon Vortigern takes place inside the Worm itself as Chaldea falls inside it even as they're still fighting. Its power is such that it can suck up the entire planet, this being the collapse predicted by Sion which Chaldea is trying to prevent. Holmes analyzes being inside the Abyssal Worm is in some ways even worse than inside a real black hole, since there is literally no way to escape from the inside - Chaldea only escapes because Melusine was able to force open a path from the outside.
Breaking Old Trends: "Servant Summer Festival 2023" marks the first time a male Servant has more than 1 playable Summer Spiritron Dress; after clearing the event's main story a second Summer Spiritron dress for Vortigern named "Grumpy Summer Oberon" will be made available in the event shop.
Color Motif: Oberon initially presents himself with warm and light colors in his attacks, Noble Phantasm, and outfits, indicating a friendly nature as an ally to the party, but he switches over to black and cold blue when he becomes antagonistic.
Combat Pragmatist: Will kill his enemies in their sleep for an easy victory.
Comically Small Bribe: In "Servant Summer Festival 2023", the Protagonist enlists Oberon's help by buying him an ice-cream. Oberon, the "King of Debt" who got a taste for the treat and having found out firsthand how ice-cream vendors operate by "Payment first", begrudgingly accept the bribe.
Composite Character: His character combines the mythical fairy king Oberon from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night's Dream and Vortigern from the Arthurian Myths.
- The Oberon aspect of him is treated as fictional in-universe (as written by "William Shakespeare") but it serves as the basis for the false identity that was forced on him at his birth by the fairies that mistook him for a prince after his birth. Additionally, there was a play named Vortigern and Rowena that was initially promoted as a lost Shakespearean play but ultimately revealed to be a hoax, allowing a basis for the two characters to be combined.
Commonality Connection: As Oberon, he invites Nursery Rhyme to spend time with him as they're both fictional stories brought to life. However, according to Nasu on his blog, Nursery doesn't feel the same way.
Confusion Fu:
- According to the Storm Border's analysis of his Spirit Origin as Oberon, his Class constantly changes by the second which is reflected each time he's used as story support in Lostbelt 6, including Caster, Archer, and Rider. His class reveal settles this by revealing that he's actually none of them (including his default 'Ruler' class) and is a completely new class, Pretender.
- The fight against his Shadow Servant self in his Interlude is even more chaotic than his proper story battle. It will give your Servants random buffs and debuffs with their descriptions obscured so you don't know what they're enhanced or afflicted with.
Con Man:
- Oberon has a reputation in Fairy Britain for borrowing money and not returning it. He brought millions in counterfeit money to an auction. This behavior led to him becoming the King of Debts in Chaldea soon after he was summoned there, in which the Queen of Sheba reveals in her interlude that he owes money to Beni-enma, Vlad III, Europa, Ishtar, Miss Crane, Nightingale, Kama, Meuniere and Karna. Shakespeare on the other hand faked the IOU just to screw with him.
- During his (public) Valentine's scene, Oberon decides to take advantage of stories such as Huon de Bordeaux which depicts him as Caesar's son to get him to give him money in the context of 'child support'. Caesar's expression indicates his displeasure about it.
Consummate Liar: Combined with Compulsive Liar. His curse (represented by his skill, "A Midsummer Night's Dream") is "nothing about you is true, and nothing that you say is true." As the first Pretender, falsity is a core part of his very existence; he's lies all the way down. It takes several story choices to call him out for the protagonist to unlock a scene where he's forced to be honest with them.
- For the first and most obvious, he lies to the protagonist. He's not their ally, though he does eventually consider them his friend.
- He's the Fairy King but rules nothing.
- His true Animal Motif isn't moths, but dragonflies.
- He isn't Oberon, who quite possibly doesn't even exist. He's actually the Lostbelt Vortigern (which is also a lie, but close enough for horseshoes and hand grenades), the incarnation of Britain's will to destroy itself and the fairies and was previously the King of the Mors. In his latest incarnation, he was found by the fairies of the Autumnal Forest, who thought he was Oberon and a king and treated him as such. Since he was essentially a newborn at that point and too weak to refute them, 'Oberon' became the identity he lived by until it was time for him to be the Abyssal Worm.
- Oh, and he likes to con people out of their money.
Creepy Blue Eyes: Once he reveals his true self in his 3rd Ascension, his blue eyes become more sinister, which emphasizes on his role as Faerie Britain's doomsday device. It's even creepier when combined with Hellish Pupils.
Death or Glory Attack: Casting The End Of The Dream EX on any Servant (optimally a Buster Servant) is this in a nutshell, since they're trading the chance for a huge damage bonus on their NP for certain death at the hands of any enemy that's left. His own NP is a smaller version of this in that it grants Invulnerability to enemies after dealing damage, meaning that you better hope that the attack actually kills them or you'll end up wasting a turn.
Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?:
- Oberon straight up calls Koyanskaya disgusting during their first meeting in Gloucester.
- If the player has Oberon in his 3rd Ascension and any of the playable Lostbelt Kings, one line of his involves insulting them to their faces. However, since two of them can resist damage dealt by him and another one of them has an outright class advantage, it probably won't end well.
Difficult, but Awesome: Using Oberon as a support Servant has you asking "Do I want to sacrifice damage for additional NP charge?". Besides the difficulty presented by End of the Dream, Morning Lark gives a delayed debuff that drains 20% of the target's NP gauge at the end of the turn, meaning that he has a hard time settling for Quick and Arts looping due to him hindering their NP gauges. However, he is the only Servant in the game who can give out 70% NP charge when needed, unlocking more options for Servants who are just short of a full NP gauge with other supports. The application for Oberon is to be a third support to cap out any needed NP gauge needs or act as a second attacker so that the main attacker doesn't need to use their Noble Phantasm as many times. Not to mention that his Noble Phantasm applies invincibility to all of the enemies so if for some reason Oberon is unable to finish those enemies off with his NP and you lack a Servant/CE that can Pierce Invincibility within Oberon's party, you have to wait another turn to finish them off.
The Ditz: By his own admission, he becomes less intelligent when in his Super-Deformed self. A frustrated Da Vinci agrees with this. To emphasize this, Oberon gains a Idiot Hair.
Draconic Abomination: A major trait shared by Vortigern of Human History Britain and Vortigern of Faerie Britain is their draconic trait. The former is the personification of the white dragon of Britain, and transforms into a dragon himself; while the latter is considered a dragon due to his connection with the Abyssal Worm. However, the Worm is best described as being an abstract monstrosity the size of Faerie Britain (1,440 km long to be exact), resembling a gigantic maelstrom of insects and curses with giant wings that look more like roots in the vague shape of a cross between a dragon and dragonfly, being the materialization of the bottomless pit Cernunnos was trapped in that tries to suck the world into itself. It gets to the point that he is one of a handful of Servants not Weak to Enuma Elish.
Dramatic Irony: Oberon spends much of Avalon le Fae soothing the Protagonist's trauma from pruning the other Lostbelts. Oberon is also immensely resentful of the tales of the Lostbelts being cut short by the Protagonist's pruning of them. If Oberon wasn't cursed to be an embodiment of lies and didn't come to like the protagonist to an extent, he would smash the protagonist's Trauma Button to hell and back and then smash it again for good measure.
Dramatically Missing the Point: Oberon believes that the stories matter more than the audience, but Nursery Rhyme, who herself is one of those stories and the most qualified to judge his beliefs, responds that stories exist primarily for the audience's sake. His lack of response implies deep down he knows she's right but he's just too bitter and hateful to change his mind.
Dude Looks Like a Lady: His appearance in the second Cosmos in the Lostbelt opening made many mistake him for a woman. Not exactly helping is his robes and butterfly wings.
Early-Bird Cameo: First appeared in the second Cosmos in the Lostbelt opening, framed in shadow and giving a Slasher Smile.
Egg-Laying Male: The soccer ball that the Chaldean soccer team was kicking around in Fate/Dream Striker? It's actually a dream egg that Oberon laid in the protagonist's mind which was initially supposed to plug the hole that would wake them up but then ended up hatching into U-Elisa ORT. Don't ask questions (unlike Da Vinci), it's All Just a Dream, just roll with it.
Energy Absorption: Another trait shared by both Proper Human History Vortigern and Faerie Britain Vortigern is their status as a light devourer. Proper History Vortigern can devour light from Excalibur-class holy swords to the point they temporarily become ordinary blades, while Altria Avalon states her holy sword is both a source of nourishment and a poisonous hazard for Oberon Vortigern; its light can feed him, but wounds caused by the blade will impair him.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As Vortigern, he still cares about the Welsh faeries who took care of him as Oberon. In an optional scene after his boss battle he visits them in a dream even though Barghest already has killed all of them, and chats with none of his usual vitriol.
Even Evil Has Standards: Despite them being opposed to each other as Faerie Britain's destroyer and salvation respectively^note, Oberon was utterly disgusted at how the people of Tintagel treated Altria Caster and chose to teach her Magecraft both to improve her abilities and give her something to look forward to in life.
Evil Costume Switch: Ditches his kingly garbs by his third ascension for a darker palette.
Evil Is Petty: Why did Oberon have the Fang Clan wipe out the Wing Clan, leaving Murian as its sole survivor? As he chillingly tells Murian after running her through with his fist:
"I really didn't have a reason. I was just having a bad day".
Evil Sounds Deep: As Vortigern, Oberon's voice deepens to the point where some of his lines sound like growling.
Fanservice Pack: CGs from Lostbelt no. 6 showed he was quite malnourished and spindly underneath his clothes when he came into being, with nothing during the story given to imply he had changed his body from that state. His summer costume art shows him with a significantly much healthier body and muscular abs.
Final Boss: He's the last antagonist and boss faced in the sixth Lostbelt, but only makes his move after Morgan and Cernunnos have been defeated, and must be stopped before he escapes outside the Lostbelt and destroys the entire world. It crosses over into Post-Final Boss territory, as while he's a world-destroying threat like Cernunnos he requires far less effort to defeat both in the narrative and in gameplay, and lasts only a single section before he's defeated.
Foil: Both Oberon and Merlin are inhabitants of the "Dream World" who share similar skills - Evening Shroud vs. Dreamlike Charisma, Ending of Dreams vs Hero Creation. But the thing that greatly contrasts the two is their attitude in regards to stories. Merlin's Lack of Empathy means he has no real attachment to stories and has no problem carrying out tasks to get the conclusion he wants to see. Oberon on the other hand finds all stories valuable, which includes the stories told in the Lostbelts, and detests Proper Human History for moving on from stories that are already over, no matter how much they changed them. How they grant support also contrasts with each other, as while they're both highly versatile and functional in different teams, Merlin's support is slow but constant, while Oberon offers quick, high damage on Noble Phantasms but high drawbacks if the battle persists after you use those skills. Their Noble Phantasms are also similar in appearance, granting the image of idyllic scenery, but Garden of Avalon offers constant Health, NP and Star Regen, while Wry Rhyme Goodfellow deals high damage, places your foes asleep and makes them invincible for a turn. Finally, their appearances both place them as pretty boys, but Merlin is predominantly white while Oberon's true form, Vortigern, is predominantly black, which is more evident in the "One Night's Dream" Craft Essence.
Forced Sleep: His Noble Phantasm inflicts Sleep upon his enemies. To prevent them from waking up early, an Invincibility buff is applied to them (explained away by flavor text as putting them in a dream realm), though servants with Invincibility Pierce can damage them at the cost of waking them up. In addition, his third skill induces an unremovable sleep debuff on an ally after giving them a very potent damage buff. He does this to Chaldea in the finale after he swallows the Storm Border with his Abyssal Worm. The protagonist is the only one who stays awake thanks to Baobhan Sith earlier usage of Morgan's Garden of Dejection which also puts victims to sleep.
Foreshadowing: Oberon has a lot going on which eventually makes sense when he reveals himself:
- During the scene with Dracae, Oberon's desire is responded to by a floating sign in the river that says "Out of stock". It's played off for humor in the moment, but given the later revelations of his true goal, it's makes a lot of sense just why Dracae couldn't create a manifestation of his wants even with the power of a Nightcall at her disposal.
- In the beginning of Act 2 of Lostbelt No. 6, Goredolf mentions how Morgan le Fay of Proper Human History was actually the second fairy embodiment of Britain after her uncle Vortigern. Murian commented earlier that Oberon does not resemble any fairy in the Lostbelt, hinting by fairy standards that he's extremely unusual.
- Murian realizes right before she dies that the Calamities are the will of Britain itself trying to exterminate the faeries, implying either Morgan or Vortigern is the mastermind. Since Lostbelt Morgan was working to save Faerie Britain from the Calamities, that leaves Vortigern as the only option.
- When he narrates how he first manifested in the Lostbelt, he's seen with the dragonfly wings of his true form rather than the butterfly wings his Oberon identity has.
- In some of his dialogue, Oberon would refer to himself in third person, particularly when he talks about his appearances in literature, myth and especially his most well-known theatre play. As the story goes on this lessens... as though he's an actor who's merging with his role.
- After Chaldea drive back the Black Dogs in the Welsh Forest, the fairies there cheer in their incomprehensible language. At this point, pay attention to the subtitles in the insect fairies' dialogue. Coupled with their comments about Oberon's thoughts, if it weren't for Chaldea not being able to understand the language of the insect fairies they could have blown Oberon's cover on his true identity.
Insect Fairies: "Bortegan, Bortegan!" "Oberon will be sad, Oberon will be happy! Can rely on friends!"
- After the Welsh forest is burnt down, he asks to be left alone for a bit to give his last respects to the faeries that lived there. One of the retreating enemy commanders, Knight Portune, is later attacked by a dark corruptive substance that he finds familiarity and upon seeing his attacker screams that he knows he's supposed to be dead before being consumed. Note that in his few playable appearances in this Lostbelt, including the fight with Barghest just before this, several of Oberon's attack animations have his bright and cheery-looking attacks suddenly decay into a dark sludge afterwards. As it turns out, Vortigern was summoned once before into the Lostbelt as the Great Calamity of 1000 AD, the King of the Mors that attempted to destroy Faerie Britain with an army of such monsters in the same-named wars.
- Chaldea's first visit to Londinium reveals a mural of Cernunnos and the six fairies called Abyssal Worm, with what appears to be a dragon skull beneath the pit Cernunnos is standing in. It's initially mistaken as a depiction of Faerie Britain's creation with the dragon skull representing Albion's corpse being used to build Britain's northern half, until Da Vinci reveals it actually depicts a possible future, namely a Calamity that could escape from the Lostbelt and lead to the collapse they're trying to prevent. This mural actually refers to Vortigern, who is associated with dragons, and the skull is the Abyssal Worm that is the weaponized concept of falling into the Great Pit Cernunnos was sleeping in.
- PHH Vortigern was described as "a hole in the world." In the British Lostbelt there happens to be the Great Pit, a massive hole in the land itself, which leads to the space of another world. Once Cernunnos is destroyed and the Great Pit unplugged, the Abyssal Worm emerges which is described as "a hole in the world" as well, with the space being the inside of the Worm where no Heroic Spirit has ever existed.
- The entire story chapter has multiple unskippable dialogue options, most if not all of them having the option to either trust Oberon or cast doubt on him, making it clear that there is something up with him. In fact, picking enough of the "doubt Oberon" options will unlock special red dialogue options when Oberon Vortigern reveals himself that get automatically selected, leading to an optional scene with you and Oberon a little bit later.
- One of the first things Oberon claims is that he's the only PHH Servant that was summoned to help Chaldea. The unique circumstances about Tristan aside, this is seemingly true, until Grímr the Sage is revealed to be Caster Cú Chulainn, who states he's from PHH. Not only does this call into question Oberon's claim, but Grímr reminds the Protagonist of this fact as he is vanishing in case the player had forgotten.
- Oberon makes a couple of references to theatre plays due to his nature of being connected to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the story of "Lostbelt No. 6: Fae Round Table Domain, Avalon le Fae" is divided by three Acts. The story also uses narrative devices that are commonly used in theatre, such as the usage of a narrator, and the story is structured with Interludes and Fragments in-between the main Sections. This clues in that Oberon is a far more bigger player in the "play" than he leads on and that after his apparent death at the end of Act 2, he's far from being done.
The Gadfly: Particularly likes to mess with Altria Caster because he can. A fair number of his My Room lines are also general insults towards other Servants.
Gaia's Vengeance: As with all the Calamities, Vortigern is one of the incarnations of vengeance sent to punish and destroy the faeries. Unlike the other Calamities, who were spawned from Cernunnos or the curses the land itself collects and makes new calamities from (such as Albion's birth being from the Northern Faeries deaths and collective hatred against the Southern Faeries), Vortigern is a Calamity spawned from the Original Lostbelt Britain. In particular, Lostbelt Britain's rage at the faeries letting Sefar destroy the world, then having a perversion of it's form built atop of where it was created from the countless dead bodies of other faeries. Because of this, he has has a special status compared to the other Calamities, as Britain goes as far as to incarnate him three times to fulfill this purpose, once as the King of the Mors, a second unknown time, and the third as Oberon the Abyssal Worm.
Genius Loci: Being the embodiment of Lostbelt Britain's disgust and indignation, from Oberon's perspective, he is the island of Great Britain. Unlike other examples of his trope, however, he shows little to no control over the land that should be his, likely due to the actual Lostbelt Britain having been long gone for several millennia.
Giant Flyer: Despite being absolutely colossal with its 1,440 km body length and equally enormous wingspan, the Abyssal Worm can actually fly unhindered by gravity.
Glass Cannon: In gameplay, Oberon Vortigern has no kind of defense buffs whatsoever, but his absurd NP Charge and potent damage boost make him very viable for huge damage.
Graceful Loser: Takes his loss to Chaldea much better than his PHH counterpart did to Altria and wishes them good fortune in their journey ahead.
Good Wings, Evil Wings: As "Oberon", he has colorful moth-like wings, lending to his false image of a benevolent fairy king. As Vortigern, his wings are dragonfly-like, fitting better into his dark attire.

H-Z

Happy Place: When the protagonist gets knocked unconscious during the final battle against him, they wind up in a dream version of the Autumn Forest where all its denizens are still alive. Oberon Vortigern (despite still fighting Mash and Altria Caster in the waking world) is there, too. The two of them have a civil chat with the Insect of the Abyss much calmer and more straightforward than he he usually is. When the two part, one of the Autumn Forest fairies tells the protagonist to come visit again.
Hates Everyone Equally: Vortigern says he dislikes "everything." Like everything else about him, it's hard to tell if he's lying or not, but even when he's acting as Oberon, the Protagonist notes that he seems to be in a state of anger all the time, indicating that he really does just hate everything.
Heinz Hybrid: Goredolf states Proper Human History Vortigern is a Fae embodiment of Britain's will (specifically to preserve its Mysteries and destroy its humans); he is also human in flesh and blood who then transforms into a dragon at the end of his life. This Vortigern is also an incarnation of Britain's will (specifically to destroy the Faeries and their sins), a dragon and a Faerie at once; but it's unclear if he has been a Faerie since the moment he is summoned into Faerie Britain as the Great Calamity King of the Mors, or if he only becomes one after he is resummoned in Servant format.
Hell Is That Noise: Occasionally when using his Noble Phantasm as Vortigern, the Abyssal Worm may bellow out an incredibly frightening roar as it swallows the enemies whole.
Hellish Pupils: It's hard to see in his portraits, but an image of him in Lostbelt No. 6 Section 25 shows he has these as Vortigern. They are also shown in the second Cosmos in the Lostbelt opening with his reflection in water.
Helping Would Be Killstealing: A variation of the trope. Oberon has no issues helping Altria Caster and the Protagonist, but he regularly insists on making sure they are the one's deciding what to do when it comes time to decide on something. His reasoning is that the two doing so matches Ainsel's prophecy about the Child of Prophecy and the "Foreign Mage", so he makes sure that both are deciding so people think that the prophecy is being fulfilled and gain more support against Morgan, whereas letting others or even himself be the one to decide or resolve issues would take away from the importance of their choices, and make it less likely to rally support to their cause. This is why he tends to help by scouting, providing information, or forming agreements behind the scenes but usually makes sure to do it in secret and avoiding combat. In truth his reasoning more lies in his need for things to go the way he wants so he can destroy Britain as he was made to do.
History Repeats: In more than a few ways with his PHH Counterpart.
- Like the Vortigern of PHH, Oberon recruits outside help (Saxons in PHH, Chaldea in Faerie Britain) for the purposes of overthrowing the established rule of the land (Uther and Morgan respectively), and whose end goal involves turning Britain into a primordial hell where no one can step foot into (PHH Vortigern wishing to kill humanity in Britain to preserve its Mystery and Lostbelt Vortigern being born to kill Faerie Britain).
- He's also effectively killed by Altria in both PHH and Faerie Britain, as well as the ruin of his plans being caused by a "red dragon" with a lance piercing his draconic form. In PHH, this was Altria with Rhongomyniad in PHH. In Faerie Britain, this was caused by Albion aka Melusine with Hollow Heart Albion smashing a hole through his Abyssal Worm form to allow Chaldea to escape.
Hoist by His Own Petard:
- There's nothing stopping a player from casting The End Of The Dream EX on Oberon himself (in fact, he outright benefits from both of its effects), turning him into a walking target.
- Played for Laughs in his own Valentine's scene; if you choose to see him alone, he wonders how you found him and if you mention "Merlin Magecraft", he sounds annoyed, referring to Altria Caster and denoting who taught her that "scam magecraft". Given he called himself "Merlin" when telepathically speaking to her and being responsible for teaching her Magecraft, he's naturally taught Altria Caster exactly that and is annoyed that it's being used against him. You can even rub it in his face by offering to show him a hand mirror and in the NA server he even references the trope by name.
  Oberon Vortigern: "'Merlin Magecraft'? Stupid damn name. Who taught her that shit? (...) Damnit. I can't believe I'm being hoisted by my own damn petard."
- In the story proper, his final defeat has him trapped within his own Abyssal Worm familiar, unable to escape unless he's saved from the "outside" and even that has a very limited window before the Abyss closes in on itself. By the time Chaldea is able to escape with Albion's help, it's already too late for Oberon and he "falls" forever.
Humanoid Abomination: His Servant form as Oberon looks ordinary on the surface, but the Storm Border's analysis reveals just how strange he really is. His Spirit Origin is in a state of constant fluctuation, doesn't belong to Proper Human History, and is neither human nor faerie nor any sort of life-form previously encountered though Saber Altria Alter firmly identifies him as draconic in nature. As Da Vinci puts it, "he's an invisible man who's there and not there at the same time," just like how Vortigern of Proper Human History was "a hole in the world". It's also implied that he's nothing more than a terminal housing the mind of the Abyssal Worm, and both of them are two halves of the same being.
Humans Are the Real Monsters: Oberon believes that humans, specifically of Proper Human History, have no place to judge the stories of the Lostbelts and prune them from existence to save their own world, and he and Vortigern are unified to such a degree that when Oberon's will decides to push Vortigern towards destroying Proper Human History after accomplishing his original goal of destroying the Lostbelt, he doesn't need much convincing to follow through.
Idiot Hair: When Super-Deformed, Oberon gets this to emphasize this form's ditzy nature. Combined with Blush Stickers, this makes him extremely cute (and appropriately is made a plushie as real-life merchandise).
Immediate Self-Contradiction: Does this constantly after he reveals his true nature. It begins with him calling the Protagonist his "most insignificant" pawn before backhandedly thanking them for being such an essential cornerstone for his plan to destroy Fairy Britain.
Inconsistent Spelling: Is the name of his first Noble Phantasm "Wry Rhyme Goodfellow", "Lai Rhyme Goodfellow" or "Rye Rhyme Goodfellow"? The Taiwanese server uses the first example, the Japanese fan translations can't seem to agree if it's the first or second^Note, and the Simplified Chinese and English versions use the third.
Innocent Blue Eyes: Oberon's blue eyes in his 1st and 2nd Ascensions highlight his friendly, helpful and caring nature.
Ironic Nickname: Melusine calls him the White Dragon of Britain as in Proper Human History. His Abyssal Worm form is pitch black.
Irony:
- In Proper Human History Vortigern was the embodiment of Britain's will who wanted a world dominated by Mystery and fought to keep the Age of Man from happening. In the Lostbelt, Oberon Vortigern seeks to destroy Faerie Britain, which is exactly the kind of world the other Vortigern wanted.
- Lostbelt No. 7 both proves and disproves his belief that the audience doesn't care about the fictonal stories they interact with. Chaldea always remembered the Lostbelts they destroyed and tell the Deinos about their journeys complete with philosophical debates. However, there are people who want the Lostbelts gone now that they've served their purpose: Marisbury and CHALDEAS, who created the Lostbelts so they could be destroyed for the sake of their plan.
It's Personal:
- Zigzagged regarding his relationship with Morgan. Ever since his first incarnation as King of the Mors, Vortigern did everything he could to kill her and undo everything she had ever done by destroying Faerie Britain, and there is no denying he has a degree of hatred toward her, which is mutual on Morgan's part. However, upon his Third Ascension, he claims the reason he didn't watch Morgan's death in the Lostbelt is because he acknowledges he was only born as a response to Morgan's actions in preserving Faerie Britain, and he doesn't hate "the picture book she drew" - as in, he doesn't hate the story she has created. If anything, it's shown that he genuinely empathizes with her desire to find a place she can belong in, likening it to his own hopeless quest to find Titania.
- His entire reason for destroying Proper Human History is because of how they treat stories just like how Shakespeare created then discarded Titania once he no longer had a use for her. Once he's finally defeated, Oberon laments that he couldn't avenge Titania by destroying PHH in her name.
Jekyll & Hyde: As Oberon, he has an almost infectious amount of cheeriness, if bordering on sarcasm at times. As Vortigern, he becomes utterly pessimistic and blunt, if still affable. It's to the point where he has different My Room lines depending on if he's presenting himself as Oberon or Vortigern; cheery comparisons made as Oberon will do a total 180 as Vortigern and vice-versa, and his opinions on Servants will likewise fluctuate, even having multiple lines for the same Servant.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In spite of himself, Oberon Vortigern did release Wandjina in "Servant Summer Festival! 2023" because he wanted to help her understand humanity, and if the art for his "Grumpy Summer Oberon" is any indication has taken in the dragonfly spirit who mistook him for "The Spirit King of Darkness" as one of his subjects. He's also started to show up as Vortigern more often to the other Servants not named Altria Caster.
Kick the Dog: He gives a few when he reveals his true form, both in story and in My Room Conversations.
- Subverted with Blanca. When he arrives on Storm Border on her, she absorbed all the curses that were heading to him from Cernunnos, promptly dying after landing. Oberon simply gives her a half-hearted thank you and then just kicks her off the Storm Border. However, when you reach his fourth ascension, he gives a non-sequitur about life in general and then proceeds to solemnly ask Blanca if her story's end was satisfying. Oberon's Bond 10 CE, A Pavane For The Deceased Princess, also reveals that she fell in love with Oberon the moment she saw him. She was aware of his hatred/disgust of everything and everyone in the Faerie Britain, but when she understood “what he truly hated the most” (left ambiguous, but possibly himself who’s implied to not have despised the Welsh fairies completely, despite “hating them” and having to destroy them in the end like everything else), she vowed to flap her wings for him until the end of her days hoping it could bring warmth to his cold limbs. The text implies that Oberon was aware of her feelings but kept it to himself to the end, which makes sense if you think about his curse due to "A Midsummer's Night Dream"; everything he says gets twisted into a lie, so even her love will become tainted if he acknowledges it in any way. Oberon saying “Thanks, I guess. Not that it really matters.” likely means the opposite, while him flicking her corpse off Storm Border before starting the battle is probably coming from his (relatively vain considering the Abyssal Worm sucks up everything) intention to not drag her down to the Abyss along with Chaldea and himself.
- When talking on Barghest, he does mention that even he thinks he did her dirty by staving off her transformation as a Calamity and making her think her lover was alive, stating she reaped what she sowed and there was no helping her. However, she did also burn down the Autumn Forest and kill all the insect faeries who relied on him, so he might be rightly angry about that.
- He gives one to all the Lostbelt Kings, gleefully stating he at least completed his accomplishments while they couldn't defeat Chaldea to keep their worlds alive.
Know When to Fold 'Em: Once in his 3rd Ascension Vortigern has no issue mocking most of the Servants from Faerie Britain to their faces... except Melusine/Albion. Vortigern even retreats to avoid meeting and being detected by her, though he still insults her when she is out of earshot. Likely justified, since Melusine has advantage against him in many ways - see Logical Weakness below.
Kung-Fu Wizard: His real fighting style is much more snappy and aggressive than the more whimsical one he used as Oberon.
Late-Arrival Spoiler: Despite his Walking Spoiler status which hides his 3rd and Final Ascension appearances for players who have yet to clear Lostbelt 6, the "One Night's Dream" Craft Essence distributed during the Chaldea Boys 2022 event (which requires a simple Fuyuki clear) outright portrays him as Vortigern. Vortigern also shows up later on during "Servant Summer Festival 2023" complete with his own summer outfit despite the event being available upon clearing just Fuyuki.
Lazy Bum: As a playable Servant no longer beholden to his role as Faerie Britain's destroyer, Vortigern comes off as a harmless grump and spends more time lazing about and snacking than doing anything villainous. He's so lazy, he doesn't even bother cleaning his room, and only goes out 'begrudgingly' when he's needed for work. The artwork for "Grumpy Summer Oberon" even features Vortigern simply lazing around reading a Oberon-centric manga while surrounded by snacks from a nearby convenience store.
Leitmotif: Once Oberon shows his real self and is fought as the final boss of the Lostbelt 6, it is appropriately titled "The End". A snippet of the song also plays whenever he uses his Noble Phantasm in his Third Ascension, transforming into the Abyssal Worm itself.
Living Lie Detector: He has Faerie Eyes which can detect lies. This makes him extremely good at manipulating people, because nobody else except Altria Caster and Morgan have them, making it easy for him to lie to people's faces.
Logical Weakness: An example where he ends up having a Logical Weakness be used against him and another where he ends up being this trope to another character
- The Abyssal Worm is a titanic mass of curses which function like a mobile Bottomless Pit in practice, capable of harmlessly sucking in most forms of attacks and eventually the entire planet given enough time. However, the Abyssal Worm requires time to annihilate all the things it devours; sufficiently resilient objects will endure the insides of the Abyssal Worm as they fall infinitely until they melt away. While normally there is no way for anything inside the Abyssal Worm to escape, individuals with Flight abilities and sufficient agility can avoid getting sucked in the first place, and powerful enough attacks can inflict temporary damage to the Worm’s body and create an opening within the bottomless pit to the outside - this is how Melusine opens up a path for Chaldea to escape out of the Abyssal Worm at the Lostbelt’s finale.
- Oberon Vortigern has a power that makes him the perfect counter to Morgan herself. As a being with control over insects he naturally has the ability to call upon Caterpillars which is one of Morgan’s psychological weaknesses. As such his second incarnation if unleashed without Chaldea would make him the perfect counter to stop and destroy Morgan before finishing his work on the Faerie Lostbelt.
Loving a Shadow: For Oberon, Titania isn't "Oberon's wife" so much as "a person who can accept Oberon for all his flaws." However, even if he should meet someone who did match his criteria he would refuse that he finally found his shining star. A big reason he hates Proper Human History lies in the fact that Titania isn't an actual being, but instead a fictional character, so he hates how casually human history treats stories.
Macabre Moth Motif: Oberon's moth features give him an underlying sense of distrust, as moths are usually seen as symbols of death which ties up to the reveal of him being a Calamity that desires to destroy Faerie Britain.
Magic Knight: Despite his physical stats as a summoned Servant being closer to a Squishy Wizard, his overall fighting style is very physical (he fights like a whimsical jester as Oberon, and becomes a lot more brutal and ferocious as Vortigern), enough to engage both Mash and Altria Avalon in melee combat. He is also proficient in a variety of Mystics, both Magecraft and Faerie Mystic, as he can communicate telepathically with someone he doesn't see in person, self-study specific Magecraft and teach them via telepathy, create magical items (A+ Rank Item Construction), and manipulate memories (as he did with Barghest).
Meaningful Name: The kanji for "Abyss" in his title "Insect of the Abyss" can mean either Hell, the worst outcome of a situation, or the below stage of a theatre. All three connect to his character, as his purpose is to punish the Faeries of Lostbelt Britain, his scheming brings about the Calamities and the destruction of Britain, and he's intrinsically linked to plays and actors.
Mighty Roar: As the Abyssal Worm, the Worm belts out intimidating and frightening bellows as it swallows up everything into its maw. When Oberon uses his Noble Phantasm in his Third Ascension, this becomes downright terrifying when it roars before lunging at its prey and eating them whole.
Mind Manipulation: He's heavily implied to be responsible for wiping Barghest of her memories of eating her lover so that she doesn't kill herself earlier than he planned.
Muscles Are Meaningful: As emphasized by his flashback CGs, he's not muscular and it's something Altria brings up when she threatens to "kick [Oberon's] scrawny ass" in the English version. Consequently, both his Strength and Endurance parameters are ranked low D's.
Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: He has a passive skill called Anti-Human Order D that increases party debuff chances on non-Foreigners, and makes Merlin's buffs get a 20% chance of not working. Its name is only revealed if the player has cleared Avalon le Fae.
Naked on Arrival: In his 2nd manifestation in the Lostbelt, he didn't have any clothes or armaments as he was improperly summoned. He's initially presented in flashbacks for when this happened looking relatively normal, sleeping in warm sunlight as the insect fairies marvel at him. Then The Reveal hits and the same flashback is revisited, except this time, his body is very sickly with his skin deathly pale and his eyes ominously staring into nothing. The insects are crawling all over him and the background has no trace of sunlight, being a similar shade of green as his eyes.
Near-Villain Victory: Once he becomes the Abyssal Worm, he comes damn near destroying the entire planet before Chaldea stops him. According to Sion he was only two minutes away from complete victory. Even outside of that, he had everyone but the Protagonist put to sleep within the Abyssal Worm, and outside of Albion's influence, the only other person able to face him was the Protagonist. If not for Altria Caster returning as Altria Avalon, he'd have killed Chaldea as a faction.
Never My Fault: His hatred against Proper Human History stems from the fact that he feels that it's judging the Lostbelts as inadequate. In previous Lostbelts, this would be justified as it was either the wrong actions of a couple of individuals or just plain bad luck that doomed their world, but sadly this isn't the case for the country of the fairies. His very hatred at "being judged" falls into this category because it feeds into the fairies' own mentality of never being able to take criticism; despite the fact that they know they've done wrong on some level, they have made every wrong choice imaginable and react violently whenever someone brings this up, simply refusing to take any judgement or even complaints from other people. Thus, sadly, his hatred has less to do with Proper Human History judging them, which ironically no one from said history actually does, and more with the fact that their existence is a living reminder of the very same fact that the whole timeline is a mistake, something that Oberon cannot stand and leads to his very complicated feelings towards the protagonist.
No-Sell: A Midsummer Night's Dream EX gives him immunity to Mental Debuffs and Curse. Despite this, he's not immune to his own Ending of Dreams EX either, leading to various Hoist by His Own Petard moments in battle.
Non-Action Guy:
- Oberon claims he can't fight and tends to leave battling to his companions. During an early confrontation in Salisbury, he boasts about his party's fighting prowess like he took part in the scrap, despite, as Altria quietly notes, Oberon himself only standing behind the protagonist's group and cheering them on while they did the actual work. He is pretty handy with a sword though and took a support role against Barghest.
- However true that might be of the Heroic Spirit Oberon specifically, however, it's definitely not true of Vortigern.
Non-Standard Character Design: To stress his otherworldly nature, he has a very distinct look that sets him apart from the already diverse cast of Servants courtesy of Chica Umino. Nasu stated on his blog that he specifically asked Umino to stick with her usual style instead of trying to fit Grand Order's style. He becomes even more otherworldly in a sinister manner with his true form, still drawn in the same style as before. This is especially notable as Umino has entomophobia (fear of bugs), yet did her best to study insect anatomy to give the best result possible.
Noodle Incident:
- His profile notes he has been incarnated three times, with his first life as the King of Mors and his third and current life as Oberon. Nothing is spoken about his second incarnation.
- The Queen of Sheba's 2nd Interlude reveals that the moment he came into Chaldea, he quickly became the King of Debts, owing money to Beni-enma, Vlad III, Europa, Ishtar, Miss Crane, Nightingale, Kama, Meuniere and Karna. We don't know how he managed to get them to lend him money (especially the likes of Ishtar, Kama and Meuniere), and unlike fellow debtor Izo we never get to know what he did with his money either.
Not Quite Flight: As detailed under Wings Do Nothing, despite his wings Oberon cannot fly, and neither can Vortigern. However, he can abuse his Sleep-Mode Size to shrink into the size of a small moth and then ride one of his insect companions, usually Blanca, to travel at high speeds (130 km per hour, according to his profile), signified by his A Rank Riding skill.
Older Than They Think: Discussed In-Universe. As Tristan explains early into the Lostbelt, while A Midsummer Night's Dream is Oberon's most famous portrayal in modern days of Proper Human History (and in real life), he has existed in folklore and literature for centuries before then. Caesar's profile also mentions a myth that he slept with a fairy, though it didn't mention if that same myth resulted in him fathering Oberon with her (one of Oberon's older origin stories), something he alludes to in his 'public' Valentine's scene. As Shakespeare and his works don't exist in the Lostbelt, the identity of Oberon forced upon Vortigern by the Welsh faeries should have been this "Oberon, the Ancient Faerie". Despite this, his role in the story is similar to his role in Huon of Bordeaux, being the guide to the heroes on a seemingly impossible task.
Omnicidal Maniac: A step up actually from Proper Human History Vortigern in the Garden of Avalon novel, who sought simply to wipe out mankind to ensure a world dominated by Mystery; in the time Vortigern spent undermining the Lostbelt, seeking to destroy it so he could escape, he decided to elevate his goal to simply annihilating ALL of Proper Human History, which includes the world.
Omniscient Morality License: Similar to Shakespeare, Oberon will do things because he thinks it fits the narrative. For example, he waited before finding the Protagonist and Altria Caster because he thought it would increase their Relationship Values. Unlike Shakespeare he's not doing it because it amuses him but because that's how he thinks stories work. Notably, this is mildly implied to be the reason why Oberon didn’t backstab Chaldea when they were fighting against Cernunnos, even though had he decided to go against them at that point Chaldea would likely have lost and Cernunnos would have destroyed the planet (and Proper Human History) for him.
The One Guy: Until the release of Alessandro di Cagliostro 3 years after the debut of his class Oberon was the sole male Pretender.
One-Winged Angel: Another trait shared by both Proper Human History and Lostbelt versions of Vortigern is his habit to grab an external source of power just in time and then transform into a dark Draconic Abomination. Proper Human History Vortigern as a dragon is powerful enough to drain the light of Excalibur and Galatine (Anti-Fortress and Anti-Army Noble Phantasms, respectively) which temporarily reduces them into ordinary swords, then casually releases magical energy vastly above that magnitude to fight Altria and her Round Table Knights. On the other hand, Oberon Vortigern as Abyssal Worm proves capable of fighting Chaldea and Altria Avalon after her ascension as the materialized concept of Holy Sword user.
Optional Boss: Fully ascending him and completing Avalon le Fae will unlock a interlude where you can face a Shadow Servant version of him. This variant carries a few tricks his boss variant never used in Avalon le Fae, such as using Ending of Dreams EX before activating his Noble Phantasm, and using his Noble Phantasm even as a Shadow Servant, a feat that Shadow Hassan of the Serenity and Shadow Tamano Cat have used during their boss fights within Camelot and Avalon le Fae respectively. The reward is access to both his Third and Final Ascension arts, alongside his respective lines and access to his second NP Lie Like Vortigern.
Outside-Context Problem: In the clash between Chaldea, the Crypters, the Lostbelt Kings, the Disciples, Koyanskaya, and the Foreign God for ultimate victory, Oberon Vortigern emerges as a dark horse that has the potential to render all of their efforts meaningless, with the sole exception of Zeus and his plan of leaving Earth for good. It wouldn't matter if Chaldea or the Foreign God wins, or if Wodime turned everyone into Olympus into a god, or if Koyanskaya finally became a Beast; they would all fall for eternity in an endless abyss together.
Parental Substitute: Because Altria Caster was essentially alone and unwanted by the Fairies, as "Merlin" Oberon Vortigern essentially raised her in a manner not dissimilar from the real Merlin, but was her sole support entirely, unlike PHH Altria who had friends and family along her path to her Destiny.
Pay Evil unto Evil: All his villainous plans aside, when he boasts that he achieved his goal of destroying Faerie Britain, seeing that it's a big World Of Jerkasses who had squished every one of its sympathetic elements into the ground because of not adhering to their usual awful mentality, it is likely a boast most players wouldn't feel too bad about.
Perception Filter: It’s later revealed that throughout your journey through Faerie Britain, Merlin is unaware that Oberon even exists since he cannot even see him, making him think that you've been talking to yourself the entire time. His profile reveals this to be part of his skill, Anti-Human Order (D Rank), which allows him to interfere with phenomena and laws within humanity. Oberon dislikes Merlin in particular, so much to the point he allocated all camouflage abilities given by this skill towards keeping Merlin from seeing him. This ability to conceal himself from observers, even high level Clairvoyance on Merlin’s level, as well as how Chaldea’s sensors pick up his Abyssal Worm form as “a hole in reality”, gives him an uncanny similarity with the Priestess of the Foreign God. This is seemingly why, when Chaldea scans him, they note his Spirit Origin is constantly shifting, making it almost impossible to actually get a proper reading of him.
Person of Mass Destruction: Twofold. When first summoned into the Lostbelt as King of the Mors, Vortigern was able to corrupt an untold amount of Faeries into Mors, enough to be considered a Great Calamity, and fought Morgan’s forces in a war with them. Then once Cernunnos is defeated and he realizes his nature as Abyssal Worm, he takes this up a couple notches by being able to suck in everything (up to and including the entire planet) into the pit Cernunnos was sleeping in.
Pest Controller: In his Oberon form, he can summon butterflies when using his skills or to bombard the enemy with their glistening dust. Once his true form is revealed, his arsenal comes to include massive pillbugs that he can kick into the enemy and ravenous dragonflies. He can't order them to be quiet or leave him alone though, and resorts to using bug spray when he wants some peace and quiet.
Pet the Dog:
- He was Altria Caster's magecraft tutor, not Merlin. He made telepathic contact with her one day when Altria wished aloud that she could conjure a fire to warm her freezing stable. Despite actually being incapable of using magecraft, he went through the pain of learning it in order to teach Altria how to do it, and this went on for about a year; Altria would mention what she wanted to learn, and Oberon Vortigern would learn it for a few days before teaching it back to her. This is why the majority of Altria's magic is rather unique and oddly specific.
- Despite how they accidentally fused him with the concept of Oberon due to mistaking him for Faerie Britain's deception incarnate, dooming him to twist the truth whenever he speaks, Oberon Vortigern bears no ill will towards the faeries of the Autumn Forest apart from finding their collective weakness unfortunate and unsightly. In a Mental World the protagonist stumbles into during the final fight of the Lostbelt, he finds an Autumn Forest where Oberon Vortigern occasionally visits to spend time with the memories of the same.
- Oberon admits that he wouldn't have answered his Master's summons if he didn't like them. Even in his true persona Vortigern, who hates pretty much everything in existence, he says that his Master is among the few things he actually likes. He tells them to exercise caution when handling the poisoned letter he made for the purpose of killing Shakespeare.
- In his Valentine's scene, Altria Caster notes that even if he gets irritated by the protagonist, if he lets them into his dream world, it means that he'd at least be willing to listen to them. True to form, Oberon Vortigern allows the protagonist into his dreams so that they can hand him his Valentine's gift.
Power at a Price: His third skill, The End Of The Dream EX, is easily the biggest example in the game so far. The Power granted to the selected ally is a 50% increase to Buster effectiveness, and amplifies any NP damage buffs the ally has by up to 100%, (this includes NP damage buffs from Craft Essences like the Black Grail) which can result in bigger damage potential. The Price on the other hand is a framed Demerit clock debuff (meaning it cannot be removed at all though you can delay the effects if the Guts buff gets triggered the end of the turn), and on the next turn, the ally's buffs are removed (which outright ignores buff removal resistance), they take a Taunt debuff, they cannot be switched out or sacrificed, and as the final kicker, they suffer a PERMANENT SLEEP DEBUFF which will never, ever go away by any means, even if the ally is attacked. In short, it supercharges the Servant for one turn, then turns them into complete and utter dead weight for the rest of the battle. This makes the skill only useful in the final wave of quests (where the demerit won't matter), as a Death or Glory Attack, or for someone like Arash and Habetrot who can kill themselves. Arash in particular has unholy synergy thanks to his NP being an already hard-hitting AOE Buster, making him the perfect recipient.
Power Limiter: It's Cernunnos himself. As long as Cernunnos exists Vortigern cannot summon his Abyssal Worm, so he goes to the trouble of manipulating both sides so Morgan and Cernunnos can be defeated. Once they're out of the picture, the predicted collapse finally begins after being kept in mystery the whole chapter. Holmes compares the situation to water in a plugged-up sink. The only thing keeping the water (the fabric of space-time) flowing down the drain hole (the Abyssal Worm) is the plug (Cernunnos), and now that Chaldea has gone through the effort of destroying the plug...
The Power of Hate: Outright exclaims as he reveals himself that he is defined by his immense hate towards mankind, so much that he spells out that he is capable of being classified as a "Threat To Humanity", a thing only a handful of enemies (usually Foreigners and those related to them) have been classified as, almost in spite of the fact he cannot be a Beast-class enemy due to the fact that Vortigern is so immensely hateful that love is normally lost on him completely. That said, however, due to his Brainwashing as Oberon he is able to recognize and yearn enough for the idea of Titania, an entirely fictional character that Shakespeare created to be paired with the much more ancient idea of Oberon, that it is able to give Vortigern the faintest idea of love and fight as hard to want to meet Titania as much as he wants to destroy everything.
Pragmatic Hero: Even as Oberon, he still had his rough spots. Most notably, he hides info about the full prophecy Altria Caster and Chaldea are trying to fulfil like how Norwich was meant to be destroyed by the Calamity, and makes under-the-table deals with Koyanskaya to advance the fight against Morgan. As someone with Faerie Eyes, he's able to manipulate people extremely well.
Precision F-Strike: Sometimes lets slip a profanity or two as Vortigern, before sarcastically apologizing for his 'un-princely' language and asking the player to pretend that they didn't hear that. The NA localization happily takes advantage of this to make him a Sir Swears-a-Lot.
Pretty Boy: Despite being unrelated to the Pendragons unlike his Alternate Self, this Vortigern still has natural good looks. This is actually what caused the Welsh fairies to accidentally brainwash him, as he was so pretty that they were convinced he had to be a prince of some sort, thrusting the identity of Oberon on him.
Prince Charming: Oberon's Bond 3 description calls him a 'perfect prince of light as though coming straight from a fairytale' with good looks and a kind-hearted personality. In fact, he was designed to look as though he came from a picture book without any edits. Once he reveals his true nature as Vortigern, the description changes to 'a prince of darkness', who still has the good looks but is now a perfect blight as though he's a fairytale villain. It's for this reason that Cinderella Elizabeth tries to court him regardless of which ascension he's in.
Purpose-Driven Immortality: As long as Morgan tries to save the land, Britain will keep fighting back and incarnating its will to destroy it. He's already died once before as the King of Mors to Woodwose, but was revived as Oberon.
Rage Against the Author: Oberon definitely has a problem or two with Shakespeare, especially for conjuring up the character Titania for A Midsummer Night's Dream then discarding her once the play is over, dooming her to be a fictional existence. His My Room line for him has him writing a heartfelt letter to "his author", only to tell you to deliver the letter to "that bastard" and warning you that the wax seal and the ink he used are filled with poison.
Readings Are Off the Scale: Lie Like Vortigern, his true form as the Abyssal Worm, is an Anti-World Noble Phantasm with an EX Rank, like Fujino's Vijñāpti-mātratā, Kama/Mara's Mara Avaruddha, and Arjuna Alter's Mahāpralaya. However, the Range and Maximum Targets are both listed as being Unlimited. Furthermore, scanning it with Sheba proceeds to show the screen go pitch black with the only words coming up being "Return Impossible", "Destination Permanently Unmoored" and "Eternal Voyage In Progress".
Red Right Hand: When Oberon reveals his Vortigern identity, his left arm from at least the elbow down transforms into a blue-black armored gauntlet that looks like a combination of dragon scale and insect carapace. This arm gets a distinct focus shot when he shows up to murder Murian after she stumbles on the truth of Faerie Britain's foundation and original sin.
Reluctant Monster: Downplayed. While Vortigern is filled to the brim with disgust and hate toward the inhabitants of Faerie Britain, some of his words imply he has a degree of unhappiness with his role as its destroyer, without any choice on his part. His Interlude shows he is much more relaxed and content without being shackled to the role forced upon him by Faerie Britain, and his line toward Morgan after his Third Ascension suggests he might not have attempted to destroy Faerie Britain if he had any choice in the matter. Koyanskaya also states that Vortigern is filled with self-loathing unlike herself who takes pride in her evil deeds.
Secret A.I. Moves:
- As the Final Boss of Avalon le Fae, he can use a skill that inflicts Sleep on various party members alongside a timed debuff. For obvious reasons, this skill is not available to the playable Oberon.
- His Optional Boss variant in his interlude has him use Ending of Dreams EX without having it inflict a timed debuff where it inflicts the Eternal Sleep debuff on anyone he uses it on.
Secretly Selfish: While Oberon comes off as being the "good personality" of the two, he's the one who wants to destroy the Proper Human History. As a character who originated from a fictional play, he is spiteful towards humanity and how the world approves of them by culling away the stories that Lostbelts tell. All that Vortigern wants to do is destroy the Faerie Britain, but Brainwash Residue causes him to carry out Oberon's wish to destroy the Proper Human History.
Shaping Your Attacks: Several of his projectiles decay into a suspiciously dark-looking mud-like substance after they connect with the target. It's foreshadowing how he was the King of the Mors by having a more refined version of their sludge attacks.
Shipper on Deck: If there was a captain of the Protagonist/AlCas ship, it'd be Oberon. During "Servant Summer Festival 2023" he starts teasing them about dating when he sees the two together, and Altria Caster (Berserker)'s Valentine's scene if the protagonist chooses to see her in her 2nd Ascension has her cuss him out when it's implied that he left behind a copy of Through the Looking Glass on purpose for the Protagonist to read.
Shown Their Work: On the first glance, having Vortigern of Arthurian Legend pretending to be the Shakespeare-popularized Oberon might seem to be the most random combination. However, there exists a play named Vortigern, an Historical Play that was believed to have been a genuine Shakespeare play but was shortly after proven to be a Shakespeare hoax and mocked upon the first performance, meaning that "Vortigern" has some history to mimicking Shakespeare's work.
Sigil Spam: The inside of his cloak in his 1st Ascension and his pouch in his 2nd Ascension is covered with the Thistle Royal Badge of Scotland.
Sinister Scythe: He can conjure one, seemingly made out of an insect's leg, in his boss fight. This carries over to the playable version of him.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: Oberon Vortigern is a lot more swearier in the NA localization than the other languages. Notably in the dream sequence after his boss battle, when the protagonist greets him after falling asleep during the fight he'll call them a bastard (if male)/bitch (if female).
Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: While all Pretenders have some sort of antagonistic relationship with Casters, Oberon specifically has this with Shakespeare; as heard in his My Room line, Oberon attempted to poison Shakespeare by writing a heartfelt letter but laced the wax seal and the writing ink with poison (or so he claims). Shakespeare returns the favor in The Queen of Sheba's second interlude by faking his IOU and allowed her to take his flesh, clothes, hair and wings with a The Merchant of Venice reference, much to Oberon's chagrin.
Situational Damage Attack: His Noble Phantasm does additional damage to Lawful servants.
Space Time Eater: The Abyssal Worm like all black holes warps the fabric of space-time itself, but the Worm goes a step further by devouring it as well. Holmes notes that space itself is falling towards the Insect's maw, like water draining into a sink.
Spanner in the Works: He completely derails Koyanskaya's plan to become a Beast with Exact Words, the ramifications of which are explored in the next story event "Tunguska Sanctuary". The first time was telling her the location of Albion's corpse while hiding it was now a pile of bones useless for her plans. Her attempt to capture its left hand Melusine as a replacement ended in her sixth tail getting destroyed temporarily. The second was telling her that Cernunnos's curses were a "world-destroying weapon" she could safely absorb for more power. The curses in reality target everything for destruction, and absorbing them cripples her Spirit Origin permanently as they continuously eat away at her on the inside. She also absorbed so much that it forced her transformation ahead of schedule, ultimately denying her the Beast class designation.
Squishy Wizard: His official statistic as a summoned Servant has both his Strength and Endurance at D Rank. That being said, every other stat is highly-ranked to compensate such as Agility at A+ Rank, with Lie Like Vortigern being an EX Rank Anti-World Noble Phantasm with Unlimited Targets and Range.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Even though he knows that she's a fictional character and admits it's a pipe dream, he wants to meet Titania, saying that she is the only person who could love the eccentric King Oberon. Even after remembering his true nature, he admits that he still clings to finding his ideal in Titania someday.
Sudden Soundtrack Stop: Upon finishing his Ascension Quest to unlock his third and final Ascensions, all music completely stops and the usual victory fanfare for a completed battle will not play. Nor will any background music play for the first time he is Ascended into his Oberon Vortigern form (or his final stage if the player has also levelled him to max). Nasu stated this was deliberate on his blog.
Super-Deformed: He can shrink down to the size of a moth, represented in his art as a chibi version. He calls this his "Robin Goodfellow" form. His Extra Attack animation shows that he can still fight while in this form. While he uses this form to fly fast enough to cover the entirety of Faerie Britain in 2 days, it also turns him into a slight airhead.
Support Party Member: Oberon's skillset is focused on supporting himself, or his allies, especially when it comes to Buster-oriented teams. His first skill Evening Shroud EX increases the party's NP gauge by 20% and gives a 20 to 30% damage increase for 3 turns. His second skill Morning Lark EX increases a single party member's NP gauge by up to 50% and drops 10 to 20 crit stars in exchange for reducing the gauge by 20% a turn later. His third skill, The End Of The Dream EX, confers a unique and very powerful benefit to a party member, but see Power at a Price above for more details about it. Unlike fellow Support servants like Merlin though, he has a damaging AoE NP that does huge damage (even more vs Lawful Servants) and gives them the Sleep status in exchange for also giving them Invincibility for one turn.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: If Cernunnos is a Tiamat analogue, then Oberon Vortigern is Surtr. They are Omnicidal Maniacs initially overshadowed by the local Lostbelt Kings, hiding under false identities, manipulating both sides in order to unleash their true power, and capable of breaking free of their Lostbelts to threaten the entire planet.
Sweet Tooth: Oberon spends most of his appearances in ServaFes 2023 nibbling on ice cream, and the Protagonist can even buy a soda-flavored ice cream popsicle from the shop to convince him to help you and Altria Caster solve the Luluhawa/Hawaiitria Singularity.
Taking the Bullet: He does this in the climax of Lostbelt No. 6 Act 2 for the heroes (specifically Altria Caster) when Morgan's extra clones attack them after they've let their guards down thinking they've won from beating the first one. He pretends it killed him so he can make his moves in the background of Act 3.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: If summoned after completing Avalon le Fae, which means defeating him as its Final Boss, his summon quote will change to reflect the absurdity of the situation — that he's now being forced to fight for the very Proper Human History he just tried to destroy. He makes clear from the get-go that he had no intention of "redeeming" himself like other summoned villains and is not pleased with this turn of events.
Theme Music Power-Up: His Noble Phantasm theme in 3rd Ascension is a short snippet of his boss theme.
Third-Person Person: Occasionally, Oberon would refer to himself in third person as though a separate being. Notably, his My Room line about the holy grail has this:
Oberon covets rare and sparkly things. Especially when they belong to someone else!
Trademark Favourite Food: Honeydew melons, as revealed in one of his My Room lines as Vortigern. Like everything else about him, it's not clear whether he actually likes it, since Altria Caster in her materials comment towards him accuses him of constantly ordering them to pester everyone else about their rarity and value.
Trash of the Titans: In Oberon's Valentine scene, should you choose to give his gift in private he brings you to his room... and messy doesn't accurately describe the state it's in.
Two Aliases, One Character: This man first materialized into Faerie Britain as Vortigern, started the Great Calamity of 1000 AD as the King of the Mors, was reincarnated in a Servant format modeled after Oberon, pretended to be "Merlin" in order to teach Altria Caster magic, is identified by Melusine as the White Dragon of Britain, and finally became the last of the Great Calamities as the Abyssal Worm. So in total he has six different aliases as just one character. He's actually pretty proud of having a ton of names and titles to go by.
Unplanned Crossdressing: Apparently Oberon's summer wear actually belonged to Altria Caster and he nicked it in the cafeteria, which meant that in the 1st 5 chapters of "Servant Summer Festival! 2023", he was actually crossdressing.
Unreliable Expositor: Cut off from Chaldea's monitoring equipment or anyone capable of long-distance observation skills, Oberon and Bianca are the only ones among the protagonists of the sixth Lostbelt capable of traveling around quickly to glean what's happening across Fairy Britain. This allows Oberon to control the flow of information to Chaldea, which also helps in directing the team where he wants them to go.
Unwanted Rescue: Frames his summoning post-"Avalon le Fae" as this, reacting as if you plucked him from his endless, peaceful fall in the Abyss.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: If it weren't for Oberon Vortigern (who had been christened the "Spirit King of Darkness" by the ancient spirits in Hawaiitria) casually mentioning Cernnunos at the mural in the cave, the Beast God wouldn't be summoned 3 times there.
Villain Ball: After Excalibur was forged during the Sixth Lostbelt, Faerie Britain was destined to fade away peacefully regardless of what anyone did due to the core of its Singularity being corrected, meaning once the heroes defeated Cernunnos to stop his threat to Proper Human History and unseal the Abyssal Worm, all Oberon had to do was immediately set his sights on the bleached Earth before they realized what was happening. Instead, he chooses to both give himself the grand villain reveal and use the Abyssal Worm to go ahead and expedite Faerie Britain's destruction to apocalyptic level.
Walking Spoiler:
- The third act of Avalon le Fae reveals many things regarding his true identity, the least of which includes the fact that he's actually in a completely new Servant Class for the game and that he's actually a completely different character under the belief he is Oberon. It's to the point where players who haven't completed Avalon le Fae and his interlude but were able to summon him cannot view his last two ascension arts.
- Additionally, he's the only Servant who requires story completion before receiving his Valentine gift for the same reason as his final ascension arts. If the player hasn't cleared Avalon le Fae before the year's Valentine event, Oberon will be all take and no give until the year the player manages to do so, and even then they need to choose the correct option in order to get it.
Weaksauce Weakness:
- He can't fly unassisted, just hitch a ride with one of his insects, and only when he is in his Super-Deformed mode at that. While the majority of Servants can't fly either, his Abyssal Worm's power is sucking things into a Bottomless Pit; if his Spirit Origin is damaged to the point he cannot shrink, then he is doomed once he falls into his Abyssal Worm. This is exactly how he is defeated at the end; while the preceding boss fight against Cernunnos was a dramatic, uphill battle where Chaldea had to fight tooth and nail just to survive, Vortigern's defeat comes off as comically anticlimatic to the point Chaldea don't even bother killing him; Mash and Altria Avalon simply inflict critical damage on his Saint Graph and then shove him off the edge of the Storm Border before gravity does the rest.
- Like Mélusine, "Servant Summer Festival! 2023" heavily implies that he can't swim either, preferring to hang out on the beach eating ice cream and watching his Master play in the water. Unlike Mélusine however he does not have the luxury of having the ability to actually fly due to his fake wings.
Wings Do Nothing: Both Oberon's and Vortigern's wings are essentially nothing more than decorations as he is unable to fly in either form. He playfully laments this after his defeat, falling for eternity in his own Abyssal Worm.
Worthless Treasure Twist: Oberon's Valentine scene is unique as while it doesn't have any "actual" Bad Ends, it has multiple dead ends where you won't get a Return Gift from him. When you finally figured out the right route to get the proper ending, he leaves you with a brilliantly crafted box containing... Void's Dust, the most common bronze material in the game. Possible symbolism and the quality of the box aside, your reaction to the gift itself shows that you don't really appreciate Oberon's sense of humor.
You: ...OBEROOOOOOON!!!!!!
You Don't Look Like You: Understandable in this case, as "Vortigern" is the name for an avatar of Britain's will, and the forms that agent takes in Proper Human History and Faerie Britain are very different. PHH Vortigern, from how he's described in the Garden of Avalon novel, comes off as an enormous Tin Tyrant akin to Sauron (which partially forms the basis of Saber Altria Alter) who eventually transforms into a literal Draconic Abomination against Altria. When he is finally defeated, he withers into the form of an old, human man. Faerie Britain's Vortigern is a very different entity with a very different approach, secretly working to engineer Britain's destruction through a Mêlée à Trois.
Younger Than They Look: As far as his Oberon incarnation is concerned, he manifested around 1999, meaning that he is simply 18-years old.
You Remind Me of X: His Oberon personality is, as Altria Caster puts it, "Merlin-esque." Becomes a major case of Irony since Vortigern himself hates Merlin with a burning passion, but then becomes foreshadowing with The Reveal that he was the one who taught Altria Caster, not Merlin, and just used Merlin's name.

Characters / Fate/Grand Order: Oberon

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Oberon Vortigern

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Characters / Fate/Grand Order: Oberon

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Oberon Vortigern

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