Fate/Hollow Order
is an Alternate Universe Fanfic/Quest hosted on Sufficient Velocity.com, written by Zerban Da Great set in the same continuity as Fate/Hollow Fake.
The final Holy Grail War took place in 2004 AD, fifty years before its intended time. It was a war between children, a petty squabble beneath the Shadow of the presence within the Grail. It was destroyed, and the surviving combatants moved on to live the lives they were denied for so long. Something that could, impossibly enough, be called peace descended upon the Moonlit World. In this time of unprecedented stability, another miracle occurred. Magi cooperated. The Chaldea Security Organization was founded with the vow that humanity would never again be forced to scrabble to protect itself. That it would prepare in earnest to meet any threat, however great.
In 2015, they discovered that the world would end in the coming year. And there was nothing they could to do stop it.
At least, not in this time.
The story is dictated by the choices of the readers.
Fate Hollow Order contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Luvia. She was originally picked to lead Chaldea's teams into Singularities and manages to contribute to a fight between Servants.
- On the Servant side of things, Charlotte Corday may be a very young and comparatively weak Assassin, but she never shies away from fighting on the front lines, covering Jeanne or Siegfried.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Inverted with Jeanne D'arc. Instead of being a big boobed blonde with figure accenting armor, instead she wears plate mail, short brunette hair, and a plain but tanned face with a flat nose. This actually matches portraits of what the real Jeanne looked like.
- Artificial Human: Alfonsviel von Einzbern.
- Barrier Warrior: The Hargrave family's magecraft is focused around protective spells and Shielder's Guardian Knight skill enhances his parameters while acting to defend someone.
- Behemoth Battle: The fight between Germanicus' giant Fae and Arminius' Irminsul. Complete with boarding actions.
- Big Damn Heroes: Numerous cases.
- Rostam pulls this off for Jeanne, when she is about to be overwhelmed by Jeanne-Alter.
- The Chaldea team (plus Sparticus) show up to help Germanicus just as Arminius' army arrives. Likewise, Germanicus shows up just in time to help out the heroes in the Rome singularity, and he later summons Longinus to save the day against Rider!Nero.
- When the Chaldea team and Germanicus and Sparticus are all exhausted and spent from their battle against Arminius, Boudica shows up to finish them all off. In comes Assassin of Roma, blitzing Boudica with his insane speed/Noble Phantasm and shooting her in the head (twice) and stabbing her in the heart to kill her.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Used humorously and dramatically. Rostam's unfamiliarity with technology is often played for humor, but at the same time, he's acutely aware that he's living in a world where magic is dying out generation by generation, and souls are now too weak to be taken to the Throne of Heroes through deeds alone. Knowing that all that awaits him after death is reincarnation has been a running theme with Rostam.
- Continuity Nod: References many of the events of Fate/Hollow Fake and elements from across the Fate franchise, Luvia references Fate/Hollow Fake when claiming why Medea is untrustworthy to Rostam and the Blackened Servants in Fuyuki were all Servants present in Fate Hollow Fake. A later interlude shows that Jacob and Robin Hood are searching for (what seem to be) clues to find or summon Tamiko.
-
Captain Obvious Reveal: The Servants Rostam summons identities are ridiculously easy to figure out, but for the sake of the plot, he can't figure it out. The only Servant that kept the Questers guessing was Saber as the Yamata-no-Orochi. - Clock Punk: Sanson's singularity finishes with a battle against his double on a clockwork arena.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Berserker of Ash quickly and easily defeated every Servant he fought against before committing suicide.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Monstrous Strength, while it grants Servants additional strength it causes them to become more monstrous with overuse and risks turning them fully into a monster. Best shown with with Siegfried's overuse slowly turn him into a second Fafnir.
- Mana Burst (Flames). It's one of Karna's most potent abilities so far, able to hurt Siegfried through the Armor of Fafnir and can be compared to a Noble Phantasm at high levels, but using it at all drains Rostam significantly and if overused it causes Rostam to suffer multiple consecutive heart attacks.
- Deadpan Snarker: Rider (Karna), Dracula, and Andersen.
- Depraved Bisexual: Both Phantom and Caligula demonstrates this.
- Dragon Hoard: Owned by Siegfried, belonging to the dragon Fafnir. Due to the curse of Fafnir, Siegfried has grown overly protective of the hoard after Gilles de Rais took it for granted. Currently, he is grudgingly providing Luvia with additional gemstones in exchange for her service.
- Dysfunction Junction: Most Servants summoned have a number of issues.
- Dying as Yourself: Lancelot finishes off Lungkata after recognizing the spirit of Galahad within Rostam, but drives Arondite through his chest before he loses himself to madness again.
- Enemy Without: Servant-specific mini-singularities feature evil dopplegangers/blackened versions of Servants on the Chaldea team, and given the fragile and small nature of these mini-singularities, only Rostam may accompany the relevant Servant into one. In these, a given Servant must face his/her darkest inner demons, with Rostam usually providing critical moral support (and combat assistance) in the form of You Are Better Than You Think You Are.
- Sanson find himself in a version of Paris that is completely silent, with not a soul to be found or a sound to be heard. He must battle a version of himself that fully embraced his Origin of Death, becoming a sort of Grim Reaper whose combat capabilities are considerably more dangerous than Sanson's own. Rostam reassures Sanson that he is more than just his Origin, and that just because he always feels the urge to kill people doesn't mean that he has to be defined by it.
- Corday finds herself in a hellish version of Paris, in which everyone has been driven mad and turned into super-strong, diseased puppets to Corday-Alter's whims. Rostam tells Corday that even if the assassination she gave her life for ultimately failed to make a difference, the fact that she still sacrificed herself to try to prevent the Revolution from turning into a bloody mess still meant something—to the point where she is remembered and revered as a hero.
- Servant!Orochi finds himself in a "painted world" of his past, right around the time in which Susano'o went to kill Serpent!Orochi. Susano'o says that Orochi is nothing more than a beast to be put down, while Orochi argues that all he ever wanted was to be like Susano'o, and that he should have a chance to redeem himself. Rostam backs Orochi up when things break down into a fight, and when Orochi is about to lose, he uses a Command Seal to order Orochi to change his fate, allowing Orochi to win. Afterwards, Orochi confesses that he doesn't want Chaldea's mission to end, because he can't bear ceasing to exist as a "human-like" person and going back to a beast unable to overcome his nature. Rostam assures him that he'll do everything he can to keep Orochi around after they save the world.
- Epic Fail: King Louis, being arrogant, pompous, and not tolerating what could be perceived as insubordination, was a pretty powerful Servant. In his first major battle, however, he runs off on his own briefly, picks up a random noblewoman in the middle of a battle, insists that she would prove helpful in the events to come, and refuses to listen to the protests his teammates raise. Said noblewomen drops her disguise as Carmilla shortly afterwards, ripping Louis apart with little effort.
- Female Gaze: Rostam went into a lot of detail when describing Orochi climbing out of the river.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Leonardo da Vinci is constantly inventing, creating works of technical mastery in between marveling at what mankind created while he was dead.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Marie Antoinette, blackened by Jeanne Alter. Her personality has been twisted into what can only be described as a psychotic Disney princess, and her ability to produce gemcraft bombs makes her a valid thread on the battlefield.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Performed by Lancelot, using Sanson.
- The Hedonist: Emperor Caligula, who spends his time summoned in Rome entertaining himself by capturing and torturing things to fight in the colosseum, before retiring to his den filled with attractive, hypnotized individuals.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Caeser saves Rostam from Rider!Nero by throwing him clear of her summoned beast, and is devoured by the beast in turn.
- As is mentioned in Taking You with Me, Jeanne sacrificing herself to take out Jeanne Alter and close the portal to Gilles' demon world.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Rider!Nero/Mother Harlot is devoured by her own summoned beast when her crown is destroyed by Nero.
- Hot-Blooded: Spartacus, thanks to being summoned in Rome. His Information Matrix clearly points out that he was calm and cunning in life and shouldn't be able to be a Berserker, but Rome's Cultural Sphere distorted his personality and legend.
- I Hate Past Me: Heavily implied with Elizabeth Bathory and Carmilla. Bathory actually impales Carmilla repeatedly, even though they were summoned on the same side.
- I Surrender, Suckers: A variation is pulled off by Corday, coating her clothes in poison before allowing herself to fall under Carmilla's thrall.
- Level-Up at Intimacy 5: Bond Levels, at level 3 or 4, a Servant may manifest their own personal Singularity that grants a power up once resolved.
- Multiple Head Case: Yamata-no-Orochi.
- Mundane Utility: Medea is a mage who lived during the Age of Gods, able to cast magic more powerful than most modern day mages and able to do it faster. When brought to a tabletop gaming session by Rostam with some of Chaldea's staff she uses her powerful magic to make the board come to life and play their session and uses her Luck Stat to improve the group's dice rolls.
- Mythology Gag: Nero is planning a play based on the Rome singularity called "Septem" and can't quite be bothered with details like what Boudicca was wearing.
- Non-Action Guy: Shinji Matou, though he now has his medical degree.
- On the Servant end of this is Hans Christian Andersen, whose skillset revolves around reading others and reinforcing his allies abilities.
- Nostalgia Level: The Fuyuki Singularity is based off the Great Holy Grail War that took place in Fate/Hollow Fake with the enemies being Blackened Servants that appeared in that quest.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: The apocalypse in Fuyuki has changed Medea's fighting style. Instead of getting cocky and constantly grabbing the Villain Ball and engage in Evil Gloating she uses her powerful magic to full effect not screwing around employing full More Dakka Beam Spam, never letting up the pressure and making corpses explode just in case. She's by far the most dangerous Medea ever summoned managing to exchange blows with Saber Alter through such pragmatism.
- Obviously Evil: A variation. The Information Matrix on Caligula showed that he had the Sadism skill at an A+ rank. He made his introduction by forcing the Chaldea team and Sparticus to fight several werewolves whom were fitted with spiked collars (the spikes facing inwards, stabbing into their necks) weighed down by suits of armor. Probably not someone you want on your team.
- One-Hit Kill: The first Assassin of Blue (Sanson) can instantly kill any Servant he decapitates with his blade, which automatically negates all forms of protection, durability, or physical endurance when swung at the neck (save for being physically parried with another weapon or shield).
- Power Level: Zerban keeps an Information Matrix available for all servants, with the latest version in the index at all times.
- The Reveal: Throughout the France Singularity Jeanne and Rostam believe that Jeanne Alter is simply a fantasy of Gilles made real by the Grail. It turned out that Jeanne Alter really is Jeanne: Counter Guardian JEANNE D'ARC to be precise, a version of Jeanne who made a pact with the Counter Force instead of truly hearing the voice of God.
- Serious Business: Assassin of Ash takes opera/music/plays very seriously. He urges Berserker of Blue to continue his play after it was interrupted, rather than taking the opportunity to attack. Not surprising, considering that he's the Phantom of the Opera.
- Shown Their Work: Zerban is a student of history and takes great pains to make the Servants more historically accurate instead of fetishizing them. Best shown with Elizabeth Bathory, Jeanne D'arc, Marie Antoinette, Karna, The Phantom of the Opera, and especially Boudicca.
- Taking You with Me: In France, this is how Jeanne manages to defeat Avenger of Ash.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Rider. Caster would qualify if he wasn't stuck in the body of a child.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Rider and Rostam have a difficult time working together due to their pride. It gets better. Much better. Corday and Sanson have trouble working as a result of his betrayal of Jeanne in France and Corday's issues with him as a result of her execution as his hands in life. The entire Blue Team in general suffered from this. Berserker of Blue outright killed Caster of Blue, the first Assassin of Blue defected before changing sides again later on (and the first and second Assassins of Blue have some seriously bad history with each other), Rider of Blue believes himself to be the ruler of France and the real leader of the team (not respecting Ruler of Blue's authority or the opinions of the rest of the team), Saber of Blue is pissed off by Berserker of Blue because the latter keeps squandering all of the gold the former keeps giving him, and Lancer of Blue was already dead before the Chaldea team even got there.
- The Load: Berserker of Blue initially appeared to be this, being too much of a handful for Jeanne to manage without wasting a Command Seal. He turned out to be even worse, personally killing Mozart (Caster of Blue) for interrupting his play and forcing Jeanne to waste another Command Seal just to kill him. Considering that he had a Mad Enhancement rank of EX, it's not entirely surprising.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Corday's interlude takes place in an alternate French Revolution where Paris is a burning, plague infested city, the aristocrats have all been killed in their homes and the 'revolutionaries' are a bloodthirsty mob infected with a magic disease that places them under Corday Alter's control.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Or, in Rostam's case, throwing your huge shield. Sadly, it does not return back to him on command like most Noble Phantasms would, much to his frustration and lament. Still, it takes enemy Servants by surprise on multiple occasions.
- *Twang* Hello: Hassan Alter introduces himself this way in the Hollow Fuyuki. Without Rostam's fresh instincts, he may have killed Marche or Luvia.
- Underestimating Badassery: An enforced version. Karna has a skill/trait that causes everyone who can see his parameters to see all of them as being one rank lower than they actually are unless they know his true name, or have a high-ranked observation skill.
