Lord El-Melloi II Case Files Character Index
Support Characters | Book Characters | Anime-Original Characters | Antagonists
Support Characters | Book Characters | Anime-Original Characters | Antagonists
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Case Files
"Hephaestion" / Faker
Voiced by: Yo Taichi (Japanese), Morgan Berry (English)
- Alleged Lookalikes: Deconstructed. Not resembling Iskandar or Hephaestion all that much was crucial for her role as a malefic spell scapegoat.
- Berserk Button: Nothing much ruffles her in combat personally. However, ever implying/claiming that you understand Iskandar's motives and actions (and by extension, those of his followers plus her) is a good way to get her gunning for your throat.
- Body Double: Her role in life was to be this for Iskandar. His underlings spread false information about his appearance so curses directed towards "Iskandar" hit her instead, allowing the King of Conquerors to operate unimpeded. This is used to explain why history recorded Alexander the Great as thin and with heterochromia while Fate's Iskandar is a giant of a man.
- Dark Action Girl: She's the primary physical combatant among the villains, and invokes the name of Hecate for her Noble Phantasm.
- Dead Person Impersonation: When she first appears she introduces herself as Hephaestion, but she's actually his sister. She wasn't part of the Ionioi Hetairoi in Zero and so Waver doesn't recognize her because of that, which is a clue that she's not who she says she is.
- The Dragon: To Dr. Heartless, since she serves as his Servant during the events of the Light Novels.
- Evil Counterpart:
- To Iskandar. She dresses in clothes very similar to his,note her lightning is red to contrast his blue lightning, and her chariot Hecatic Wheel is almost identical to Iskandar's Gordius Wheel with the only difference being it's pulled by skeletal wyverns instead of divine bulls.
- To Gray. Both serve the role of pseudo-Servants to their respective masters Dr. Heartless and Waver, acting as the muscle for their respective sides, and both were born for the sole purpose of supporting a powerful king (in Faker's case by acting as a Body Double for Iskandar, in Gray's case by being a vessel for Altria's soul to possess).
- When her personal sentiments are ultimately revealed, i.e. she laments and finds Iskandar's dream regrettable, she unwittingly serves as one to Zero-era Saber/Altria, whose main motivation was to redo/reject her actions as King Arthur.
- History Repeats: She also charges head first into the Wave-Motion Gun attack from a Saberface, just like Iskandar did in Fate/Zero and survives the attack just like he did, albeit without sacrificing her chariot as her master teleported them out of the way at the last minute, unlike with Iskandar.
- Honor Before Reason: She rescues her opponent Gray from an avalanche, saying, "Warriors should only die on the battlefield."
- Magic Knight: Faker would much prefer to match swords with her opponents, but Olympia, Iskandar's mother and her teacher made sure she was equipped for a duel between mages too. In fact, Faker was taught ancient Greek magic derived from the Goddess Hecate. This training and worship endowed her with the skill, High-Speed Divine Words. Faker's mastery is such that her skill is rank B, the same as Circe, the Queen of Greek Witches! Just as Medea and Circe, Faker can conjure forth grand-rituals and maelstrom of magics with just a single word.
- Magical Eye: She possesses Mystic Eyes of Compulsion (which make her eyes glow orange), allowing her to control someone's body. During her first encounter with Gray and Waver she forces Gray to attack him against her will. It also makes an effective and painful interrogation tool as Gray had the displeasure to find out after accidentally taking a peek in Faker's memories.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Her strength stat is rank B, which means she's actually as physically strong as her king, the musclebound Iskandar! The only clue that could even remotely alert you of this fact is her clothes.
- Never Given a Name: After her true identity is revealed, she reveals that she was born without a name. Being Iskandar's double was her entire purpose in life to the point that when Iskandar tried to give her a name (multiple times mind you), she vehemently refused.
- Older Is Better: She could easily overpower Touko, one of the greatest magus in the modern era, in a contest of magecraft since Faker wield Age of Gods mystics.
- One Degree of Separation: She's and by extension, her teacher Olympia, use magecraft ultimately derived from Hecate, Greek Goddess of the Moon and Magics. The Goddess Hecate was of course, the personal teacher of Medea and Circe, two of the most well known and powerful witches in Greek Mythology and prominent servants in other Fate titles.
- Pretender Diss: She mocks Waver as being too weak and average to be one of Iskandar's followers. He eventually retorts that since he didn't see her in Ionioi Hetairoi, she isn't one of his followers either.
- Shared Unusual Trait: Subverted as it's the lack of it being shared that hints at a connection. It is really subtle, but her eyes are actually different colors (one appearing to be very pale gold, almost grey, while the other is blue). This matches up with accounts that Alexander the Great had heterochromia.
- Shock and Awe: Red lightning accompanies her and her Noble Phantasm, in contrast to Iskandar's blue. The material book states that, while her god Dionysus usually corresponds to Bacchus the Roman god of wine, her magecraft actually points to an aspect of Dionysus that's the maddened Zeus himself.
- Sour Supporter: Being supposedly Hephaestion, you would expect her to be at least among the Ionioi Hetairoi Noble Phantasm of Iskandar, or at the very least share his Tragic Dream. By episode 9, Gray was already having visions of her explicitly rejecting and belittling Iskandar's ultimate vision. This is ultimately explained away by her being revealed not to be Hephaestion, having more of a link to Iskandar's mother (who, as history records, is his Arch-Enemy), and working for a Master who will probably never be approved of by Iskandar in the first place. Being ultimately revealed as Iskandar's Body Double, i.e. someone who had to bear the risks/dangers of his position without the glory/honor camaraderie of it, One would be forgiven to think that the sole reason why it helps to explain why she might be bitter/finding it ultimately hollow. In truth, during the event of Fate/Zero she was nearly summoned by Iskandar's Noble Phantasm, upon which she was granted knowledge of the Wars of the Diadochi and refused the call out of disgust that the Ionioi Hetairoi would betray Iskandar's ideals.
- Taking the Bullet: She's so used to doing this in life when she acted as Iskandar's malefic spell-scrapgoat that it's now one of her skills. Her personal skill, "Blessing of the Nameless", allows her to take damage in place of the one she sworn her alliegance to. Whether it's by sword or spell, she will suffer in her master's place and with the right preparations, even reduce the damage taken.
- Tyke Bomb: For all intent and purpose, Faker was essentially raised to be a living spell-shield for Iskander by Iskandar's mother, Olympias. She had no purpose in life but defending Iskander. Which is why she is so disgusted by how Iskandar's followers betrayed him after his death that she refused to join Iskandar's noble phantasm with them.
- Variant Power Copying: Her skill, "For He is Another Iskandar (False)", allows her to copy all of her king's abilities, albeit with all the copied abilities suffering a reduction in rank. However, she can modify her copied abilities to better suit her needs. This skill stems from her entire life living as Iskandar's body-double.
- Worthy Opponent: Comes to see Gray as one since she's one of the few people in the modern world who can put up a fight against her. To the point that she decides to save Gray's life during a snowstorm because such a warrior deserves to die only in battle.
Dr. Heartless
Voiced by: Jun Fukuyama (Japanese), Kevin M. Connolly (English)
- The Ace: One of the most powerful mages in the setting, with multiple backgrounds in the Clock Tower's varies department of studies, making him a very versatile mage. Having come in contact with faeries and subsequently having his heart stolen has also added true Mystery/Mysticism to his existence, making him more than human now, allowing Dr. Heartless to use a degree of power unseen since the Age of Gods.
- Affably Evil: Heartless always shows a congenial smile in his face and acts friendly towards everyone.
- Big Bad: After his introduction in the Rail Zeppelin arc the rest of the series focuses on stopping him.
- Curtains Match the Window: His hair and eyes are the same shade of red.
- Cursed with Awesome: While his spatial manipulation magic is the result of having his heart stolen by faeries, with each use resulting in indescribable agony on his part, its very existence grants him a massive advantage as a mage. His ability to freely teleport himself and things as large as a Child of Einnashe is a degree of power most mage would consider Age of Gods category magics!
- The Faceless: Of a sort, due to Case Files' nature as a novel series. Though he was introduced about halfway through the series there was no artwork of Dr. Heartless until the final story arc, so while his appearance was no secret to the characters, fans had no idea what he looked like for several volumes after his introduction. Of course, the manga and anime avert this due to being visual mediums.
- Foil: To Waver, being the Moriarty to his Holmes per
Word of God. Heartless is a Waver with actual abilities, but was betrayed by his apprentices, something that would be unthinkable for Waver's students to do. - Freudian Excuse: He was betrayed by his fellow apprentices, but rather than blaming them he blames the mage society that allows such betrayal to exist. To that end he wants to tear down modern mage society by returning to the Age of Gods.
- Green Thumb: He had studied in the Botany department of the Clock Tower in the past. Which likely helped explain why he was so knowledgeable about the Child of Einnashe and how to use it as a weapon.
- Heart Trauma: His heart was taken by fairies, hence his alias. An empty void rests where his physical heart would be now.
- Help Yourself In The Past: In an homage to Shirou and Archer, his past self as Kurou Adashino was taught by Heartless from the future.
- Hero's Evil Predecessor: He was the head of the Modern Magecraft department before Waver.
- Locked into Strangeness: His hair turned red during his time in the land of fairies.
- Magical Eye: His Mystic Eyes of Usurpation let him take over someone else's vision, such as forcing them to look in a specific direction. This is how he was able to make Karabo kill Trisha, by using his Eyes of Usurpation to force Karabo to look at Trisha and activate his own eyes. It was originally a Mystic Eye of Finding, just like his sister, Hishiri Adashino.
- The Magic Comes Back: The crux of his plan is to bring back the Age of Gods because then the mage society that encourages things like students betraying their masters will no longer need to exist. To do this, he has a complex plan that will result in turning Iskandar into a Divine Spirit in the modern day.
- The Man Behind the Man:
- While he is introduced in the Rail Zeppelin arc, he is also tied to several of Waver's cases that occurred before then in both the anime and novels.
- At a stretch, you could argue that Olga Marie's father, Marisbury Animusphere, is this for Heartless himself. Marisbury hiring Heartless to investigate the Grail War is where Heartless learned about Servants and got the idea for his plans, but Marisbury had nothing to do with it beyond that.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Heartless is all he's called until the final volume, where we learn that his real name is Kurou Adashino.
- Power at a Price: His teleportation magic makes him feel like his heart, which no longer physically exist, is being torn straight out of his body with every use! The fact that he can use it without a break in expression is a true testament to his will.
- The Reveal: He's not Hishiri's adopted brother, he's her half-brother.
- Shadow Archetype: To Waver. Both were heads of the Modern Magecraft department, both are Only Known by Their Nickname, and both are obsessed with Iskandar - the difference is the lengths Heartless will go and the people he'll hurt in order to summon him.
- Shapeshifter: When his role during the events of the Rail Zeppelin case was revealed, it also simultaneously shows he was posing as Caules the entire time, demonstrating he has powers something akin to this.
- Stable Time Loop: Kurou was taught by a man named Dr. Heartless. He eventually fell into fairyland, and when he escaped he discovered that he had gone years back in time as fairyland is outside the temporal axis. Then he becomes Dr. Heartless and teaches his younger self.
- Villain Teleportation: With the chant "Overturn thyself, my heart," he can use teleportation magecraft. He weaponizes it to teleport a 'Child Of Einnashe' to attack the train in episode 12.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: His plan to bring back the Age of Gods is motivated by a desire to end the current mage society, which encourages things like students betraying their masters. However, he's willing to cross numerous lines to bring about this goal, and it's likely that the return of the Age of Gods would likely come at the expense of many non-mage humans.
Corpse King
- Arc Villain: Of the Atlas Contract arc, comprised of books 6 and 7.
- Cool Helmet: Their head is covered by a helmet with a crested, animal-equed face on top of the eye visor. The helmet also just happens to resemble the helmets worn by the Lancer versions of Artoria.
- Ghost Amnesia: As Corpse King is merely a copy of Artoria's personality, they don't have her memories, as seen with their inability to recognize Kay.
- Good Weapon, Evil Weapon: In contrast to Gray's Rhongomyniad being mainly seen in the Pillar of Light form, Corpse King's Rhongomyniad is described in similar fashion to what Lancer Alter's Rhongomyniad is depicted as, being a dark lance covered in wolf fangs that manifests its magical energy as a cyclone of wind.
- Necromancer: They have the magic capability to give life to an entire army of skeletal soldiers, with the mana around the area making them be almost like Shadow Servants.
- Reused Character Design: Gray can sense that beneath the Corpse King's helmet they're also a Saberface. Justifiably so, given that it's the Virtual Ghost of Artoria Pendragon herself.
- Virtual Ghost: Like Add is to Kay, the Corpse King is a copy of Artoria's personality made with Logos React, one of the superweapons of Atlas. The cult's plan was that once Gray's body became a perfect copy they would take out her soul and then implant the Corpse King's in her body, effectively resurrecting King Arthur.
- You Are Not Ready: Tells both Waver and Gray that it's too early for them to interact as the future king hasn't yet awoken and that Gray is meant to dwell in the surface while Corpse King is set to stay underground.
Adventures
Latio Crudelis Hiram (Spoiler character!)
Latio Crudelis Hiram
- Bad with the Bone: The Crudelis family's magecraft is to make golems with their bones, and is directly compared to how the Eltnam family makes weapons out of their nerves. Besides the large humanoid Tangere, Latio's other bone familiars include giant spiders, wolves, and birds. They don't count as undead, which Gray notices while fighting them because of her anti-undead specialty.
- Literal Split Personality:Latio actually had her ancestor hijack her main partition years ago, with the others being deliberately left unaware of her change in personality, as Partition #2 is the one piloting the body.
- Sibling Murder: She is eventually revealed to have killed her own brother Cipher, who was supposed to be the family's heir. Her motive is actually not usurping his position, but she was instead possessed by her own ancestor, who sacrificed Cipher to activate the traps of the Library of Alexandria and traverse safely himself.
- Third-Person Person: Addresses herself as "Latio", not "I".
- Uncanny Valley: In-Universe, Gray describes Latio as being so pretty that she looks artificial.
Tangere
- Brain Uploading: It is heavily implied that Tangere is actually the personality of Cipher, Latio's brother, that she transplanted as one of her Partitions after killing him.
- Cannot Tell a Joke: Constantly exasperates Latio with his funny man personality.
- Implacable Man: Tangere took a hit from Rin that back in Fate/stay night actually managed to kill one of Berserker's lives, and while it blew a hole through his head it didn't stop him since he's empty inside.
- Literal Split Personality: Tangere is actually a piece of Latio's mind that thinks separately from her with Atlas's signature Memory Partition ability.
The Crudelis ancestor
- Body Snatcher: What he essentially is.
- Brain Uploading: To be able to be present at Ergo's awakening in two millenia, he uploaded his memory and personality data onto the walls of the secret underwater Library of Alexandria, with the data being programmed to invade a descendant's Memory Partition when they would inevitably try to enter the Library to get a hold of his research.
- Deus est Machina: His ultimate goal is turning Ergo into a divine supercomputer, reasoning that a god's superior intellect could be able to prevent the disasters predicted by Atlas without being able to be turned into a world-destroying superweapon by humans of lesser intelligence.
- Grand Theft Me: What he pulls on Latio.
- Walking Spoiler: He can't really be talked about without spoiling The Reveal of the culprit of the third arc of Adventures.
Wuzhiqi
A Xian who was one of the three involved in the creation of Ergo long ago. Due to an old agreement, she has second "claim" to him after the Crudelis family. Refers to herself as Ergo's mother.
- Historical Gender Flip: Subverted. Although the mythical Wuzhiqi was a male and this one appears to be female, it was actually only her Remote Body that was. Waver figures out the real Wuzhiqi must be a male because according to ancient Xian lore, female deities are capable of out-of-body experiences, while male deities need to gather magical energy to create temporary bodies. Her solid, physical body suggests she's a male deity.
- Magic Eye: Gray gets paralyzed on the spot when making eye contact with her.
- No-Sell: Older Mystery defeats newer Mystery, and so as a Xian she is completely unaffected by modern-day magecraft.
- Remote Body: The body that Ergo destroys at the end of volume 1 wasn't her real one.
- Shapeshifter: Has taken on forms such as an eagle, a strange monkey creature, and a humanoid. Given the real Wuzhiqi of legend, the monkey creature would be her true form.
Bai Ruolong
A mage from the Wandering Sea who was Ergo's friend before Ergo lost his memories. He kidnaps Akira Yakou at the behest of his mentor, one of the mages who created Ergo.
- Cannibalism Superpower: Like Ergo ate the flesh of gods to gain his powers, Bai Ruolong ate the flesh of a dragon: Typhon from Greek mythology.
- Historical Domain Character: Volume 7 reveals that he's actually Zagreus, a son of Zeus.
- Powered Armor: Typhon's Noble Phantasm Blaze of Etna is armor made of stone and magma.
- Shock and Awe: Typhon stole Zeus's lightning, which Ruo can use as the Noble Phantasm Nega-Keraunos.
- Winged Humanoid: He can project Phantom Wings from his back similar to Ergo's Phantom Hands.
Ziz
A mage from the Wandering Sea and one of the people who created Ergo. He is Bai Ruolong's mentor.
- The Gambling Addict: Gambling is more than his hobby, it's the whole reason why chose to be a mage, and something related to his Origin. His purpose in creating Ergo was apparently giving himself an opponent for a Absurdly High-Stakes Game.
- Foil: Like Heartless before him, he is one to Waver. Specifically, Ziz is more of an Evil Mentor, treating apprentices as tools. His philosophy is that he'll only teach as far as he can use the apprentice.
