Literature / Garden of Avalon

The Once and Future King

Garden of Avalon is a light novel written by Kinoko Nasu in 2015, and included in the bluray release of the Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] anime. It serves as a distant prequel to Fate/stay night, telling the life-story of Altria Pendragon from the perspectives of Merlin, Lancelot, Kay, and Gawain. Merlin's segment shows where he went to after the fall of Camelot, Lancelot's segment is set during his exile from Camelot after his affair with Guinevere was exposed, Kay's segment recaps Altria's birth and childhood from his perspective, and Gawain's is set during the beginning of Altria's reign as King Arthur.

It was later adapted into a standalone Drama CD in 2016.

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Garden of Avalon includes examples of:

• Abusive Parents: It's implied heavily that Uther — through his reactions to Morgan and Altria both inheriting the gift of Pendragons (with the latter having it artificially induced by Merlin) — was a very neglectful father who deeply resented that both of his most likely heirs were both women rather than proper males, ignoring Morgan's legitimacy altogether and passing Altria off to Ector and Merlin to raise, which would result in a deeply rooted disastrous relationship between the two sisters later on in life.
• The Ageless: As told in Kay's segment, Altria stopped aging when she drew Caliburn from the stone at age fifteen, which both Kay and Lancelot note was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, Altria was able to easily pass herself off as an androgynous teenage boy, which led to her enemies and even her allies underestimating her on the battlefield. On the other hand, after ten-to-twenty years of her not visibly aging most of her knights grew to fear she was something other than human, with Kay in particular lamenting that the moment Altria falters or shows any sign of weakness her "loyal" subjects will turn on her and Britain will devolve into anarchy and civil war.
• Big Fancy Castle: It's exposited that Altria's fortress, Camelot, was built on the ruins of her uncle Vortigern's fortress-city Londinium — destroyed during their final battle — with the help of the fae. The Round Table served as the castle's core, fuelled by Excalibur's divine energies, imbuing it with a vast amount of supernatural power. Following Altria's death at the Battle of Camlann and Excalibur being reclaimed by the fae, Camelot fell into ruin.
• Book Ends: It starts and ends with Merlin in his prison in Avalon, musing on his king.
• Cassandra Truth: Dying, Vortigern warns Altria that her Dragon Ancestry makes her a relic of the Age of Legends at odds with the Age of Man she helped bring about, and that she will only know suffering as a result. She doesn't believe him, but come the Battle of Camlann she learns the hard way there was truth in his words.
• Call-Forward:
  • At the end of his segment, Lancelot laments Altria pardoning his affair with Guinevere and murder of his fellow knights, and giving her blessing for them to elope; saying that he feels a premonition that his guilt and self-loathing will eat away at him until he goes insane with rage and hatred towards the King he loves — a reference to his state as Berserker in Fate/Zero.
  • Vortigern's Humanoid Abomination form is described as a knight clad in sinister dark armour and shrouded in darkness, which Fate/Grand Order confirms is meant to parallel his niece's corrupted Alter form from the "Heaven's Feel" route — Saber Alter even being called the spitting image of Vortigern.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Merlin carries around with him a Cath Palug familiar that he eventually releases into the world at the novel's very end. Said familiar would later show up in Fate/Grand Order as a notable supporting character, Fou.
• Continuity Snarl: The different segments can't agree whether Altria ruled as King Arthur for ten or twenty years, with Kay and Lancelot's segments saying the former and Gawain's segment saying the latter.
• Cool Sword:
  • Excalibur, Altria's sword, is a divine sword forged by fairies in the core of the Earth, capable of unleashing Sword Beams of holy light; and its full power can only be unleashed against a foe that threatens the Planet itself.
  • Galatine, Gawain's sword, is a sister-sword to Excalibur powered by the light of the Sun, capable of unleashing Sword Beams of stellar plasma.
• Cryptic Background Reference: Merlin comments in the novel that the Age of Man must eventually make way for a future Age of Will when the planet is dead and humanity has left to explore the cosmos.
• Designer Baby: In Kay's segment, he reveals that Uther — desiring to preserve the Semi-Divine nature of his bloodline — contracted Merlin to help him create a half-dragon child. Kay admits he doesn't know whether Altria is a full-on Artificial Human or was born a human and augmented afterwards, but notes that the experiment was considered a disappointment for two reasons: Altria was born female, and was lacking in stature and musculature. The former was somewhat rectified by raising her as a boy, and the latter was somewhat rectified by Merlin teaching her how to channel her power to augment her strength, durability, and speed to superhuman extremes.
• Draconic Abomination: Altria's uncle, Vortigern, drank the blood of the White Dragon and became a Humanoid Abomination embodying Britain's will to reject the coming Age of Man, which necessitated Altria be infused with the Red Dragon's power to counter him. In their climactic final battle, Vortigern transforms into a massive draconic beast made of living darkness that drowns out the holy light of both Excalibur and Galatine, and is only able to be slain by the divine lance Rhongomyniad.
• End of an Age: While the Age of the Gods has been over for centuries by the time Garden of Avalon is set, the Age of Legends marks a transitional period where mystical beings like faeries, dragons, and giants still live amongst humans, but are retreating to the Other Side of the World as the old magics fade and die; with Britain being one of the last bastions of the supernatural due to its isolation and deep connection to the Other Side. Fearing what the end of the Age of Legends would bring about, King Uther Pendragon had Merlin imbue his daughter Altria with the blood of the Red Dragon in an effort to preserve it. His brother Vortigern consumed the blood of the White Dragon and became a Humanoid Abomination to prevent the coming of the Age of Man, but was ironically vanquished by his niece, marking the turning point where — with Altria's eventual death at the Battle of Camlaan — the Age of Legends ended and the Age of Man fully began.
• Forged by the Gods:
  • Caliburn, the Sword in the Stone, was a divine sword used to select Altria as the rightful king of Britain, awakening her supernatural powers and making her The Ageless in the process. However, Morgan stole and destroyed it by exploiting Merlin's lecherous tendencies to trick him, and Altria later received Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake.
  • Altria's sword Excalibur, Gawain's sword Galantine, and Lancelot's sword Arondight are all divine weapons forged by the fae as sister-swords, with Excalibur being the most powerful of them — only being capable of unleashing its full power against a planetary-level threat, a plot point expanded upon in Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star.
  • Altria's spear Rhongomyniad is a mangnitude above even Excalibur, being a manifestation of the divine pillar of light that separates the Spirit World from the mortal world.
• Gone Horribly Right: Kay and Lancelot express the opinion that Uther and Merlin's experiment to create the perfect king, a dragon in human form, succeeded too well; robbing Altria of a normal childhood and relationship with her family, and forcing her to cast aside her humanity to become a borderline goddess once she drew Caliburn from the stone.
• Happily Adopted: To keep Altria safe from the royal family's enemies, she was given to Sir Ector and raised as a boy alongside his son Kay.
• Humanoid Abomination:
  • At the end of his segment, Lancelot sees Altria Pendragon as a benevolent but utterly inhuman entity embodying the concept of an "ideal king", despite having lashed out at Tristen and the other knights for seeing Altria as such. Kay's segment also comments how the knights have come to fear King Arthur is an inhuman entity, and that only he can see the stress his foster sister has been under since their childhood, striving to embody the impossible role of the ideal king foisted upon her by Uther and Merlin.
  • Altria's uncle Vortigern inherited the Semi-Divine nature of the Pendragon bloodline, and imbibed the blood of the White Dragon to become a dark entity — a hole in the World — embodying Britain's will to remain in the Age of Legends.
• In the Blood: Lancelot and Kay's segments exposit that the Pendragon bloodline was intimately connected to the fae of Britain, but that Uther feared this would come to an end with his generation and thus had Altria imbued with the essence of a dragon to compensate. Altria's elder sister Morgan unexpectedly inherited the Pendragons' fae blood, but was passed over and neglected by her father — fostering a deep jealousy of and resentment towards Altria.
• Infodump: The light novel explains a great deal about the origins of Excalibur, Rhongomyniad, Camelot, and the nature of the Age of Legends from which Altria hailed. Lancelot's section in particular recaps the story of Altria's reign as King Arthur from his perspective, while Kay's segment recaps Altria's birth, childhood, and the early years of her reign.
• Jekyll & Hyde: Kay comments that Morgan seems to have three conflicting personalities: the kindhearted girl she was as a child, a warrior-maiden, and the evil sorceress hellbent on destroying Altria. Fate/Grand Order reveals that she does indeed have multiple personality disorder, with her benevolent Vivian persona raising Lancelot and gifting him with Arondight, and giving Excalibur to Altria.
• Man of Kryptonite: The act of ingesting the blood of the White Dragon which turned Vortigern into a "hole in the world" offered him a great power that snuffs the light straight from Excalibur and Galatine, reducing them to mostly ordinary swords by just being in his presence. Only the Rhongomyniad proves to be immune his aura's effects due to its nature as an anchor between the two sides of the world and, even then, its Wave Motion Beam needed to be used point-blank to actually strip him of his powers and finally kill him.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Witnessing Guinevere crying in her sleep after their flight from Camelot, Lancelot wishes he'd never been born so that neither of them could have betrayed Altria's trust.
• Mythology Gag: It's exposited that Excalibur's full power can only be unleashed if it's used against a planetary-level threat, serving as a reference to Fate/Prototype — where Excalibur's power was restricted by a series of seals that could only be lifted if certain criteria were met. This plot point would be further developed in Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star, where it's revealed that Excalibur was used by an ancient hero to strike down a godlike alien superweapon that was reincarnated as Attila the Hun.
• Never My Fault: According to Kay's section, Merlin is of the opinion that he is infallible and refuses to own up to his mistakes and errors in judgement; Kay seething when he recalls that the cambion's chronic lechery let Morgan steal Caliburn — leaving Altria humiliated by the loss of her divine sword in the middle of the war against the Saxons — and that he had to carve a wooden replica so that Altria could save face in front of her troops. And to make matters worse, Merlin brushed the incident off saying the loss of Caliburn was necessary for Altria to obtain the exponentially more powerful Excalibur.
• No Immortal Inertia: After Altria blasts him with the divine spear Rhongomyniad, Vortigern is stripped of his powers and left a withered old man who dies soon after.
• No Ontological Inertia: Altria's castle, Camelot, was steeped in magic — having been built by fairies and fuelled by Excalibur's divine power. After her death, The Magic Goes Away and Camelot crumbles into ruin as the last of the fairies depart to the Other Side, taking Excalibur with them.
• No Place for Me There: Lancelot notes that as a Frenchman in Britain he always felt like an outsider at Camelot, but strove to serve King Arthur to the best of his prodigious abilities — especially after he learned the truth about the king's life. Betraying Altria by having an affair with Guinevere filled him with a deep shame, and Altria offering to pardon him — even after he killed several of his fellow knights to save Guinevere — and let them elope caused him to flee Camelot in self-loathing and despair, the source of his rage and hatred towards Saber as the Berserker of Fate/Zero.
• Old Shame: Invoked as an in-universe example by Lancelot when he laments his foolhardy younger years, where he was an arrogant knight errant who sneered at the thought of some self-proclaimed "King of Knights" being better than he was; and even after going to Britain and meeting Altria on the battlefield during the war against invading Saxons he dismissed her as nothing more than a teenage boy playing soldier until he saw her in action.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Downplayed, but what Vortigern actually is during his terrible reign despite his protests as Vortigern's pursuit to preserve the Age of Fairies and hopefully even steer back into a full-fledged revival of the Age of Gods practically requires a culling of mankind on a massive scale to curb their ambitions to prevent the coming Age of Man — naturally, he fails of course thanks to Altria's actions in ending his rule.
• One-Man Army:
  • Altria's draconic heritage and divine weaponry boosted her physical abilities to the point where she was feared as a god of war, leaving Lancelot in awe of her sheer combat prowess.
  • Vortigern also embraces this far more than even Altria herself, as shown during their confrontation from Gawain's perspective with how easily he overpowers their entire army and Gawain with a single strike, and is capable of fighting Altria to a standstill due to Excalibur being significantly depowered being in his presence. It takes hitting him point-blank with the Rhongomyniad to put him down for good.
• Princeling Rivalry: In Lancelot's segment, he recaps how Altria should have been born a normal human but was infused with the essence of a dragon to preserve the Pendragons' Semi-Divine bloodline; while her older sister Morgan inherited the fae blood and became jealous of Altria being made crown prince despite Morgan being the elder sister and Altria's power being artificial. This led to them becoming enemies for most of their lives, with Morgan sending Agravain to assassinate Altria and going so far as to create Mordred, a copy of her, just to use her as a tool to kill her sister.
• Raised as the Opposite Gender: Lancelot and Kay's recaps of Altria's reign and childhood reaffirm that — having been born female — she was raised as a boy in order to make her seem a legitimate heir to the throne of Britain; with only Uther, Merlin, her biological sister Morgan, her foster father Sir Ector, her foster brother Kay, her wife Guinevere, and Altria herself knowing the truth, and Lancelot learning the truth from Guinevere.
• Related in the Adaptation: Vortigern is Uther Pendragon's brother here. In the original legends, Vortigern was the archenemy of Uther who had no relation to him whatsoever. This could be justified as Vortigern is simply a title meant to emphasize the Will of Britain made manifest as Fate/Grand Order retroactively explained, and it could be possible that Vortigern is actually Aurelius Ambrosius—Uther's eldest brother and his only other surviving sibling after Constans II died in battle with Gaul—as it is in the myths, making him potentially a Composite Character as well.
• Royalty Superpower: The Pendragon bloodline possessed a deep connection to the fae of Britain, which Uther Pendragon feared would end with his generation as the the fae, dragons, and other supernatural beings have been leaving the mortal world for the Other Side. While his brother Vortigern imbibed the essence of a dragon in order to keep Britain from entering the Age of Man, Uther and Merlin engineered Altria to have the essence of a dragon as well in order to sustain the Pendragon bloodline's supernatural prowess, later learning that Uther's eldest daughter Morgan inherited the fae power of the Pendragon bloodline as well.
• The Sleepless: According to Kay, when they were teenagers Altria revealed she was only getting three hours of sleep each day, and he later learned that Merlin had been training her in her dreams — meaning she wasn't really getting any sleep at all. This led Kay to hold a grudge against the half-demon sorcerer, blaming him for instilling Altria's self-destructive tendencies.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Vortigern only plays a small role told in Gawain's segment of recounting his time with Altria — but the consequences of Vortigern's reign and his prophecy of what Altria has done to succeed him leads to the inevitable collapse of Camelot due to attempting to undo all the damage wrought over Britain in his wake stretching Altria's forces thin.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Vortigern's rampage, especially in ruining most of the British countryside thanks to his transformation into an enormous dragon, causes massive logistical and environmental problems for the kingdom of Camelot in the aftermath that doesn't just go away immediately after eliminating him as a problem — especially in light of the Saxons he recruited to his cause becoming a thorn in their side for the years following — which stretches Altria's forces pretty thin as tensions rise within the Round Table in attempting to resolve them; inevitably leading to Lancelot and Mordred's respective betrayals and both the collapse of the kingdom and death of Altria.
• Tin Tyrant: In his Humanoid Abomination form, Vortigern is a warrior clad in sinister black armor and shrouded in darkness — calling to mind Saber Alter from the "Heaven's Feel" route and Berserker from Fate/Zero.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: While Please! Einzbern Consultation Room reveals that the thing what drove Lancelot to madness was one of the knights saying that Altria does not understand how others felt upon leaving, this novel reveals that it was specifically Tristan who said it upon leaving the Round Table.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Kay notes that Altria's elder sister Morgan used to be kind and gentle, but grew into a warrior-maiden and that her jealousy of and hatred for Altria has twisted her into a power-hungry evil sorceress.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Vortigern maintains he is this, admitting to being a ruthless tyrant but claiming his reign would bring about less suffering than Altria's in the long run.
• The Worf Effect: This happens to Gawain during the fight with Vortigern, despite being the focal perspective for the chapter concerning the fight, as he's immediately taken out in the start of the fight in the same opening move that decimates the army Altria brought with them though he survives what would have been ordinarily a One-Hit Kill (as it was for the army of ordinary humans they brought with them) for instead a One-Hit KO due to his legendary endurance. He does eventually get back up however, and makes it count by helping Altria land the finishing blow on Vortigern.
• World's Best Warrior: Kay, Gawain, and Lancelot's segments of the novel makes it clear that in-life, Altria was a one-woman-army and nigh-unstoppable in combat — a far cry from her Servant self in Fate/stay night. In his youth, Lancelot considered himself as such and was initially disdainful towards Altria for appearing to be a scrawny teenager, only to be awestruck seeing her in combat.

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