Fanfic / Heroes Of Man

Ned and Artoria by Mercat Studios

Heroes of Man is a crossover fanfic between A Song of Ice and Fire and Fate/Grand Order, written on SpaceBattles.com by Wind-Waker. It is also available on Fanfiction Dot Net Heroes of Man and on Archive of Our Own Heroes of Man

Following the Foreign God's assault on Chaldea, Ritsuka is stuck in bed fighting for his life and a dozen Servants have been snatched away and stranded in a very strange human history. Emiya gets dispatched on Planetos in order to bring them back to what's left of their battered organization, but that might be harder than he expected...

Contains the following trope

• Above the Influence:
  • Before he went to Harrenhal, Rhaegar apparently believed Oberyn went to visit Lys in order to sample the cooking there, and flat-out refused to notice Elia pushing her bastard half-sister at him. His choice of Lyanna as his lover also appeared mostly guided by his need to sire a third child and fulfill the prophecy of the Prince that was promised.
  • Lisabet Antaryon really wants for Stannis Baratheon to agree to her deal, so she lures him in the same room as the Black Pearl, the most renowned courtesan of Braavos, since he's Robert Baratheon's brother and everybody knows the dude falls in lust with any woman in his surroundings. Davos almost chokes as he represses his hilarity and Stannis escapes the Black Pearl by throwing a jug at the window and jumping after the object, leaving the Sealord's daughter utterly bamboozled by her plan's failure.
• Amazon Chaser: Ned isn't repulsed at all by Artoria's tendency to prove far more martially capable than he is. This includes when she:
  • Soundly trounces him on the very first day of Harrenhal's tourney.
  • When she shows off her muscular features during an embarrassing episode at Winterfell.
  • Ned is so accepting of Artoria's combat prowess, that when she later insists she won't be left behind as he's fighting to save his sister, Ned's main worry is to find a suit of armour the petite Artoria can don without losing it.
• Big Eater: Artoria, who else? At their wedding, Ned briefly stops brooding to gape at the sheer amount of food she's demolishing, and Davos outright boggles at her consuming a whole suckling pig while at the wedding at Storm's End.
• Big Sister Bully: Cersei gleefully calls her younger sister Artoria an ugly toad for being bruised by Tywin beating her for shaming the Lannister name. Ned is thoroughly disgusted by the young woman's behaviour as he's very close with his own siblings.
• Chosen Conception Partner: As Elia was painfully aware she couldn't fall pregnant a third time, she decided to groom her bastard half-sister Mata as a surrogate for Rhaegar to impregnate, as Elia trusted Mata to be loyal to her and the sisters' Strong Family Resemblance would have allowed to discreetly pass the child as legitimate. Rhaegar was so creeped out by the prospect of bedding his sister-in-law that he went to Harrenhal and offered Lyanna anything she wanted as long as she bore his child, making her a straighter example since she actually went through the pregnancy.
• Cool Uncle: Gerion Lannister wishes for his younger niece Artoria to be happy, encouraging her to dance with Ned at Harrenhal and later He is joined by Tygett Lannister in helping her and her brand-new husband to escape the Rock.
• Doorstopper: At over 360K words in length, already larger than all but two of the books in ASOIAF.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Nitocris in her Meereenese reincarnation has no qualms owning slaves, but she's repulsed by the idea of sex-slavery.
  • Rhaegar actually noticed Elia was grooming her younger half-sister to be a Chosen Conception Partner since Mata was entering puberty and he was nothing short of horrified by the prospect of bedding a girl he knew since her childhood.
• Foil:
  • Both Cu and Robert have been raised alongside Ned Stark, are very lusty and battle-hungry, and in love with Lyanna. However, the highborn Robert was very much guilty of Loving a Shadow, thinking Lyanna would happily resign herself to be a bride and a lady, while the wildling Cu was fully aware that Lyanna only wanted to travel and see everything the world had to offer. Robert was stuck in King's Landing while she was dying and was forced upon the Iron Throne instead of doing whatever he wanted, Cu was present at Lyanna's deathbed and left for Essos in order to live her dreams of wandering.
  • Jon and Baelon are Rhaegar's hidden sons, sheltered by their respective maternal families in the wake of Robert's Rebellion and kept unaware of their royal lineage. Baelon was raised as a measly commoner by Mata and can comfort himself with the knowledge that his birth mother Elia was a brave and loving woman, Jon has been adopted as Winterfell's heir by Ned and Artoria because Lyanna's selfishness was partly responsible for a major war.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry:
  • Cersei gleefully torments Artoria by deeming her an ugly toad, conveniently forgoing the fact her younger sibling is still growing up and doesn't have access to beauty products as Cersei.
  • Downplayed with Elia Martell and Mata Sand, as Elia does feel a smidge jealous of Mata's obvious health and buxom figure when she's flatter and delicate, but they generally get along well.
• God Guise: Since Ritsuka accidentally dropped right on Jalter's sacrificial pyre as she was attempting to summon Azor Ahai, he claims to be Azor himself answering the plea of his faithful devotee. His Servants are aghast by the audacity.
• Good Parents: Cu does his utmost to keep Colan safe and reasonably happy in the utter Crapsack World of Planetos, and after regaining his memory insists he won't go back to Chaldea before finding a way for Colan to be there too.
• His Story Repeats Itself: The reincarnated Servants' new lifes tend to follow beats of their legend.
  • A four-year-old Cu slaughtered a noble's dog and offers to replace the beast as his penance.
  • Nitocris going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge after losing her brother.
  • Artoria being saddled with a heck of a Big Sister Bully.
  • Arash dying using Stella to win a major battle.
  • Mata Hari being forced to hide her identity and having great fear of losing her "children".
• Human Pet: In line with his legend, a preteen Cu offers to become Ned's dog after killing the noble scion's pet as repentance. Ned agrees since his siblings Brandon and Lyanna deem it's a pretty good idea, and Cu grows up to be known as the Stark's hound — however, Ned obviously treats him more as a sworn blade or a commoner-born friend than a genuine pet.
• Hypocrite: Elia used to laugh at other ladies bemoaning their husbands' unfaithfulness and comment they should learn to share. Then Rhaegar let his eye wander upon Lyanna Stark, and suddenly she doesn't find the joke funny at all. The Dornish Princess is aware of the Double Standard she's practising and not exactly happy with herself, worsening her feelings on the matter.
• Kick the Dog:
  • In order to force Cu's memories of Chaldea back to the forefront, Emiya taunts him with Connla's Accidental Murder at the Hound's hands.
  • Cersei deriding Artoria as ugly and disgusting for being bruised black and blue after Tywin physically punished her for bringing shame to the Lannister name.
    • The reason why Tywin was so pissed was because Aerys indulged in dog-kicking of his own, after Arturia was outed as a mystery knight at Harrenhal, and publically humiliated her.
• Loving a Shadow: Cu bluntly tells Ned that Robert isn't interested in marrying Lyanna, what he wants is marry a female version of Ned. For the better and the worse, Ned had influenced Robert's opinion of how a Stark is supposed to behave and act, and he's entirely unlike Lyanna's true self, dooming her to an Awful Wedded Life with Robert.
• Narnia Time: One day in Chaldea is one month on Planetos. It complicates things when the stranded Servants ask for urgent help.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Through his marriage to Artoria Lannister, Ned is now saddled with Cersei and Tywin as relatives and he very much dislikes it. Tywin is also shown to disagree with Ned's enjoyment of Artoria's willfullness and daring.
• Papa Wolf: Cu spent ten years on the road to protect Colan from being sold in slavery and murders the man threatening to put the boy at work in a pillow house as soon as he's able. He also refuses to go back to Chaldea unless Colan is allowed to come.
• Precocious Crush: Colan for Xuanzang, partly because she's very pretty, partly because she's very nice to him. Emiya often muses somebody will have to pop the boy's bubble in the future, as Xuanzang is staunchly chaste on account of her religious vows.
• Pregnant Badass: Firmly averted by Artoria, whose marriage with Ned is sexless as long as they are fighting for Robert's Rebellion courtesy of the awkwardness in which they had to wed each other. Ned deems it for the better, as he couldn't bear to let Artoria fight with him if his potential child was endangered along with her.
  • The reason this is averted is shown much later what might happen if a pregnant woman is doing too much strenous activity. However, her and Ned claiming Jon is their newborn child leads all of Westeros to believe it was played entirely straight, since the pregnancy's timeline would logically mean Artoria fought ser Barristan in her fifth or sixth month.
• Replacement Goldfish: Artoria miscarried her would-be firstborn on the road to Dorne since the physical exertion was too much on her body, leaving her downright miserable. Then a dying Lyanna is found with her newborn son, and Artoria immediately latches on baby Jon.
• Sadistic Choice: Emiya starts his travel cooly determined to make his fellow Servants remember their actual selves to be brought back to Chaldea. He starts to falter when he learns Artoria is Happily Married with children, since her previous life of duty only made her miserable and he doesn't want to drag her back to that.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Rhaenys and her younger brother Aegon — she's a Daddy's Girl who barely veils her resentment over the fact she was reduced to a slave after being born a princess, he's a Momma's Boy who rejects his birth inheritance and name, preferring Baelon, as he cannot remember anything beyond Mata raising him. Also, Viserys wants to marry Rhaenys in order to further his claim on the Iron Throne, while he plots to murder Aegon as potential competition.
• Son of a Whore: After landing in Essos, Cu took a fancy to a high-level courtesan who bore him Colan. Since she died soon after that, her master insisted Colan was his property to replace the loss of his investment, something that mightily displeased Cu and caused him to raise the boy on the road for ten years.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Very much a tenet in Westerosi society, as shown when Artoria is immediately booed and publically humiliated at Harrenhal for enlisting as a mystery knight. It's less bad in the North, on account of Maege Mormont being unafraid to slap the shite out of you for claiming a woman's place isn't on the battlefield.
• Take That!: It is noted by Emiya and other servants that the World of ASOIAF is constructed, and they often take the piss out of some of the universe's less well thought out world building:
  • Emiya grouses Qarth doesn't feel like a real world, more like a bunch of tropes thrown together without a care for proper worldbuilding and the kind of trashy pulp novel written to sate the Orientalist fad.
  • Later noted by multiple servants that the religions of ASOIAF often feel like they were just dreamt up by someone who really doesn't like Religion in general.
• Took the Wife's Name: As a second son, Ned was expected to drop the Stark surname in order to marry Artoria. His older brother Brandon dying prevents him from doing so, as the new heir to Winterfell.
• Tranquil Fury: After learning Jeanette used to be a Sex Slave in Volantis, Ritsuka concludes the Old Blood needs to pay.
• Trapped in Another World: Twelve Servants have been abducted by an unknown power and forcibly reincarnated in Planetos. The more they are linked to this new human history, the harder it is for them to remember their legend.
• Undying Loyalty: As befits a dog, a four-year-old Cu offered himself to Ned as a replacement to the noble scion's pet and never regretted it afterwards. However, this loyalty means he was ready to tell him the Awful Truth that Lyanna would never be happy married to Robert, as he cared too much for the Stark family to see them miserable.
• Whole Episode Flashback: Alongside the main story of Emiya searching for the missing servants, a considerable section of the story is devoted to interludes occurring fifteen years in the past, primarily involving Ned Stark meeting Artoria, and the changes that brought to Robert's Rebellion.