Legacy Of The Saber King
is a Fate/Grand Order fanfiction written by TheImmortalWanderer, promising to be an Alternate History retelling of Mordred Pendragon's backstory, leading up to the key Point of Divergence in which she refuses to kill Artoria on behalf of her mother, in spite of her rejection, and instead exiles herself from Camelot, leading to everything being completely turned on its head.
In addition to the main storyline there are also Interludes that peek into the canon story and show the lives of Ritsuka, Mash, and the other servants therein. The characters from the "Legacy" and "Chaldea" plotlines are fundamentally similar, but their circumstances are vastly different.
"Love and hate. Two emotions that are so different, yet there is a thin line between them. Mordred's hate had driven her to slay the king the had loved after a fatal miscommunication. But what if the love Mordred held for her sire had been stronger than her hate? See how the Knight of Treachery, despite the misfortune of her birth, moved past her hate to change the destined clash." - Official Summary on Fanfiction.Net
This series contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: It's to be expected considering Morgan Le Fay is involved. Her POV even explicitly shows that she measures the praise she gives out to Mordred, conditioning her to want to earn that praise by serving Le Fay's whims, and withholding affection as a means of punishment.
- All of the Other Reindeer: As soon as Mordred learns about her origins, she begins feeling isolated from others, finding it difficult to form friendships.
- The Archmage: Morgan Le Fay and Merlin both qualify for this, with the latter possessing top class Clairvoyance and powerful innate magic thanks to being a Half-Human Hybrid, while the former commands the Primordial Black Magic of Britain that she inherited from her predecessor Vortigern.
- Artificial Human: Mordred, of course, being a homunculus clone of Artoria created by Le Fay with magically accelerated growth.
- Berserk Button: Do not call King Arthur "pretty" in Agravain's presence unless you want to lose teeth. A couple of knights found this out the hard way.
- He also despises women thanks to his experiences with Le Fay. Le Fay actively exploits this during his assassination attempt on her and Mordred in Chapter 14, using telepathy to whisper into Agravain's mind and taunt him about his inability to defeat a simple girl, sending him over the edge.
- Canon Immigrant: The Green Knight himself, Ser Bertilak de Hautdesert, most famous for his involvement in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is Mordred’s instructor for knighthood. Much like the story proper, he is a trickster and his methods are rather dodgy at times, but they truly do help Mordred gain the skills and knowledge she needs to be a knight.
- Cheerful Child: Child Mordred is remarkably cute, innocent and curious. Unfortunately, it doesn't last thanks to Le Fay's parenting. Gareth naturally is this as well when she first appears, eagerly embracing Mordred as her sibling when they first meet.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Though Mordred, through her superhuman inheritance and what training she's received from Ser Bertilak, manages to hold her own for a time and get some hits in, ultimately Agravain's greater skill and experience, couple with his magical talent, allows him to defeat her. He would have finished her off entirely had he not unmasked her first.
- Femme Fatale: Le Fay has no problems using seduction to gain new allies, several times sleeping with various knights to coerce them into service, typically locking Mordred in her room while this is happening.
- Heartfelt Apology:Chaldea!Mordred and Chaldea!Artoria reconcile on May 1st, Mordred's historical date of birth where they talk and clearly express themselves. Despite owning the fact that she was Artoria's killer, Mordred still deeply regrets what she did and has always loved her father in spite of her hate. Much like Legacy!Mordred, she tells Artoria that the first time she ever saw her, she thought Artoria looked "lonely" despite being a king. Artoria for her part tells Mordred that she was sincere when she didn't hate Mordred, that she never blamed her for her birth due to Morgan le Fae's machinations, and that she also was sorry for being able to clearly explain to Mordred why she rejected her. Though they have some difficulties, both have made more efforts to bond.
- Helpless Good Side: Averted and played straight.
- Vivian, the Lady of the Lake, is an aversion, as she possesses enough magical power and knowledge of her own to challenge Le Fay and support King Arthur in various ways, such as training Lancelot and gifting Arthur Excalibur and Avalon. Though Le Fay is capable of reabsorbing her, she refrains from doing so so as to not 'taint' herself with Vivian's better personality traits.
- Poor Morgause plays it depressingly straight, having no power of her own to speak of and being completely unable to challenge Le Fay. In fact, this was explicitly Invoked by Le Fay herself, who learnt from the initial failure with Vivian enough to make sure that her second other self wouldn't be able to threaten her.
- Hero-Worshipper: Mordred really looks up to the Knights of the Round Table and especially King Arthur/Artoria, wanting to be a member and enter Arthur's service as soon as possible.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sir Kay and Ser Bertilak. Both of them are very harsh (with Kay throwing in several insults in his "Reason You Suck" Speech) in their criticisms of Mordred's dream to become a knight, but they're both trying to warn her away from the lifestyle out of concern at the strain it'll put on her to sacrifice her identity via concealing her true gender from everyone. Kay especially knows how bad it would be for her, considering that his sister happens to be King Arthur.
- Lack of Empathy: Le Fay cares for no one but herself and her own goals, seeing everyone around her as puppets to be used and manipulated, or obstacles to be crushed. She even tries instilling this mindset into Mordred, repeatedly telling her not to start caring about the peasantry and their "whinging".
- Literal Split Personality: One of the plot points in the story is Morgan Le Fay splitting herself into 3 separate aspects via her dagger Erosion, with the three sides being Morgause (representing her humanity and her good 'human' traits), Vivian (representing her good Fae aspects, for a given value of 'good') and Le Fay herself, representing her negative traits. Naturally, Le Fay is the most active of the 3 personas, but as we know from Arthurian Myth proper, Vivian doesn't sit idle.
- Mentor Archetype: Ser Bertilak serves as Mordred's instructor during her stay at Castle Tintagel.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In this fic, it's Guinevere who convinces Artoria to accept Le Fay's choice of knight, Mordred, as a potential Round Table applicant. While it is a well-intentioned effort on her end to mend the bridge between them, ultimately it winds up causing more harm than good in the long run.
- Noodle Incident: Chaldea Artoria was instructed on parenthood by Minamot-No-Raikou in her effort to bond with Mordred, not knowing that Raikou cannot differentiate the love between a parent and a lover. Ritsuka and Mash are understandably sympathetic once they find out.
- Pure Is Not Good: Le Fay has managed, via her magical dagger Erosion, to purge all of the better aspects of herself and shunt them into two separate people, leaving behind a purely malevolent sociopath out to topple King Arthur and steal the throne for herself, with absolutely no moral qualms about doing whatever is necessary, and crushing whoever is in her path, to get her way.
- Trauma Button: The mere sight of Mordred's face sends Agravain into a Heroic BSoD, since it's a living reminder of the fact that he helped Le Fay take advantage of his king. He's so ashamed that he outright abandons his assassination attempt on Mordred and Le Fay and flees.
- Tyke Bomb: Mordred is being raised as this by Le Fay, the latter intending to use her as a weapon against her sister to secure the throne of Camelot for herself. From Mordred's earliest days, she regularly tells Mordred that King Arthur is their enemy.
- Willfully Weak: Le Fay is fond of appearing weaker than she is to force others to drop their guard around her. She even allowed herself to be captured by the Brown Knight Without Pity both for a hitherto unknown reason and because she found it amusing to be able to fully engage in cruelty against her captors when she inevitably broke her bonds. Le Fay could have easily crushed Agravain and repelled his assassination attempt all by herself. However, she deliberately holds back and insists that she can't hold him off for long to rouse Mordred into action, wanting her to fight Agravain herself to try and reinforce the idea that King Arthur is their enemy, since one of his knights is trying to kill them both.
