My info dump. Most current version is always going to be on Google Docs. Will integrate into published page as I complete each section.

Q&A with Nasu Kinoko

(pp. 130-136 of Fate/complete material III - World material)

General Questions about Fate/stay night

Q: In the Prologue, the clocks were an hour early when Rin woke up, but she only remembered them being 30 minutes fast... why is that? She did suspect some trick of her late father’s, though (laugh). Could it be that Rin, being the idiot she is, forgot about the first time and set her clock 30 minutes fast twice?
A: The clocks being one hour fast was a scheme of her late father Tokiomi. A bit of playfulness on his part, seeming to say “if she can’t even notice a slip-up as trivial and close to home as this, it’s too soon for her to fight in the Holy Grail War.” I have to admit, it’s a little different from the perfect gentleman Tokiomi was portrayed as in Fate/Zero (laugh)

Q: Before he summoned Saber, why did Shirou dream about the Sword of Promised Victory (Excalibur)? Was the Greater Grail contacting Shirou in order to select him as a Master?
A: During the preparations leading up to the Holy Grail War, when it was decided that Saber (Arturia) would be summoned, “All is a Distant Utopia (Avalon)” within Shirou reacted with his mana flow  to cause the image of a “sword” to manifest in his subconscious.

Q: During the Shirou VS. Rider scene in Saber’s route, why didn’t her daggers kill him? Was it because of the holy sheath embedded within his body? Or was it because his body had begun its swordification?
A: At that time, Shirou’s self-healing had already begun, but the nature of his regeneration was really quite indirect, “changing his muscles into blades in order to knit his wounds with swords.” That is actually what happened, regardless of what you saw during the scene in Saber’s route where Gilgamesh dealt him a mortal wound and Shirou appeared to have “masses of blades shaped like muscle fibers” in his body. So, Shirou’s innards are extremely durable. During the fight with Rider, she was able to injure Shirou with her stakes but it would have been more difficult and troublesome to fatally wound him, so she decided to kick him out the window instead.

Q: When Kotomine activated the Grail at Ryuudou Temple, what happened to Issei and the rest of the monks? Were they all sleeping?
A: They were passed out quite cheerfully. [note: Nasu says they all “batan Q’d” together quite cheerfully. It’s an expression that you use when you’ve worked/played until you collapse from exhaustion.]

Q: In Sakura’s route, Shinji’s death was obviously a homicide (though, whether it can be classified as such by modern forensic science is another matter) so I thought the police would have started an investigation, but there’s no sign of that in the ending. Was his death covered up by the Magic Association or the Holy Church?
A: The Church filed it as “a casualty of the Holy Grail War.”

Q: When the Third Magic was activated at the end of Sakura’s route, Shirou’s body was no a human’s, right? Without his human form, how would it have recognized the body as Shirou?
A: It was thanks to a spell Rider placed on Rin’s pendant. I’ll leave Shirou’s condition to your imagination. Because Illya also used part of her body to reconstruct him it wasn’t a matter of how big he was, but rather what degree of ‘humanity’ was desired.

Q: During the last part of Sakura’s route, Shirou was saved by the tiny bit of residual mana in Tohsaka Rin’s pendant. Also, it seems like Rin knew about the difference in residual mana between the thing he got back from Archer and the thing he was holding, so could Sakura’s route be the one in which Shirou becomes a Heroic Spirit after all? Or could you tell us the route(s) in which Shirou doesn’t become a Heroic Spirit?
A: I’ll just say now that he doesn’t become a Heroic Spirit in any of the routes, but the possibility is still present in all of them as well. Basically, the probability of it happening is almost zero.

Regarding the Holy Grail War

Q: Just how well-known is the Fuyuki Holy Grail War among magi around the world? Is it of major significance, or unexpectedly minor importance, like a secret war that isn’t talked about among magi?
A: It’s minor. The stakes were highest up until the Second War, before the Church got involved.

Q: The Holy Grail War is unknown to the general population, but to what extent is it hidden from normal people? Are the Church people (supervisors) manipulating the media and police (or even the governmental level) to cover it up?
A: The Church manipulates information, while the Magic Association handles the media. Also, the Association has the Einzbern cover the cost of any collateral damage.

Q: Why is it that Tohsaka Rin, as the legitimate heir to the legacy of the Three Houses, didn’t know about the original goal of the Holy Grail War to open a “hole” beyond the World? I would have thought that the Tohsaka family would have kept some records regarding the true nature of the Holy Grail War. ...Could it be that Rin just never saw those records?
A: It was because of her Papa’s untimely, careless death.

Q: By what criteria does the Holy Grail choose its Masters?
A: They have to be magi possessing magic circuits, be of sufficient stature to summon a Heroic Spirit, and be heretics, of a sort. Of course, the Three Houses take priority.

Q: Is the will of the Greater Grail, which selects Masters, the same will of Justicia who was offered as a sacrifice for the ritual that created it? Or does the Greater Grail lack any kind of volition?
A: The Greater Grail does not have a will. Justicia’s soul was completely sublimated.

Q: I thought that the Lesser Grail collected “All the World’s Evil (Angra Mainyu)” when it was defeated during the Third Holy Grail War, but then how was the Greater Grail corrupted by “All the World’s Evil (Angra Mainyu)”?  Is it because energy flows from the Lesser Grail to the Greater Grail when the two are linked?
A: It’s because Avenger himself is “a Heroic Spirit born into existence according to people’s wishes”.  Other Heroic Spirits are recognized as true heroes, but Avenger represents the belief that “heroes” are lies and fabrications. The enshrinement of humanity’s selfish desires turned Avenger into a Heroic Spirit, creating a direct connection to the wish-granting function of the Holy Grail. The Greater Grail, “activated 3 times without granting anyone’s wishes”, turned into its present state as there was still a chance to grant somebody’s wish.
As a result, Avenger was born into this world in order to grant everybody’s desire for an existence like “All the World’s Evil (Angra Mainyu)”.

Q: When there are enough Servants in the Holy Grail, do they just remain there in the Grail (Greater or Lesser) without returning to the Throne of Heroes, as long as the pathway has not yet been opened (assuming the Grail isn’t damaged)?
A: When the Holy Grail goes into hibernation, it puts its accumulated mana into storage. When 7 Servants are present, their spiritual cores will be released and the Heroic Spirits’ bodies will disappear from this world. The cores alone will then return to the Throne of Heroes.

Q: Even though it should only happen every 60 years, was the 10 year gap between the Fourth and Fifth Holy Grail Wars as short as it was because the Lesser Grail was desrtoyed before the Greater Grail could direct the accumulated mana to establish its pathway trapped some unused mana in the Grail?
A: That’s true. In fact, you could say that the function of the Greater Grail was already muddled when when it was impregnated with Avenger in the Third War.

Q: Kotomine said that he had a replica of the Holy Grail that could communicate with the dead, but was that just a lie?
A: It was a priest’s harmless lie! To gain the approval of outside magi, he kept a Grail look-alike in order to have “a sacred relic that grants bargaining power”!

Q: What is Illya’s capacity as a Grail? Hypothetically, if the Einzbern won the War, Illya absorbed the other 6 Servants besides Berserker, and had some shred of human will left, could she still don the Dress of Heaven and initiate the Grail ritual?
A: That’s what Liz and Sella are for. Ilya can only take up to 4 - I would think that absorbing a fifth Servant wouldn’t allow her to function as a human any longer.

Q: I thought that Servants can materialize in physical form because of the Holy Grail, but how was Berserker summoned 2 months before the Greater Grail was active? Was he summoned without the aid of the Greater Grail, using Illya’s uncommonly high mana capacity?
A: It was due to the ease of requesting material gathered at the Greater Grail, and some cheating, characteristic of the Einzbern. Although, Old Man Acht didn’t expect Ilya to successfully summon a Servant a full 2 months in advance.

Regarding Command Spells

Q: In Saber’s route, there was a scene where Ilya was frightened by Gil’s appearance, and her Command Seal was described as “glowing.” Is this because Ilya’s Command Seals are different than those of other Masters? Are the Seals her Thaumaturgical Crest or something?
A: Ilya’s Command Seals are also her Magic Circuits, so the generation of mana causes it to appear as if she is activating her Seals.

Q: This is a question about contracts with multiple Servants. Can Command Spells be used on any of the Servants? Hypothetically, if someone was bound to two Servants, would the magus be able to use four or more Command Spells?
A: Even when contracted with multiple Servants, a Master only receives three Command Spells (assuming none have been stolen from other Masters, etc.), so you can’t have four Command Spells for a single Servant or anything like that. Also, there’s nothing wrong with concentrating all Command Spells on a single Servant. The problems begin after all Command Spells have been used up.

Q: Can Command Seals be easily transferred between magi? From the conversation between Caren and Bazett in the sequel Fate/hollow ataraxia, it sounded like a simple matter, but was this because their mutual consent would make it easy? In Fate/stay night, when people like Caster and Rin talk about taking Shirou’s Command Seals, they mentioned painful things like amputating his arm and extracting the nerves...
A: Basically, with mutual consent, a precise and time-consuming transplant procedure is possible. Caster didn’t want to take the time to properly transfer the Seals, so she decided to cut off Shirou’s arm and take it with her.

Q: How was the book (Gishin no Sho, Tome of the False Attendant) that Shinji was using as a Command Spell created? Was Sakura’s Command Seal transplanted into a grimoire? Or did Sakura use her Command Spell to order Rider to obey his orders while he held the book? It’s just, since it was Shinji’s mark of authority, I was wondering why the book burst into flames after Rider’s death.
A: As a book originally created for use in magical contracts anyway, the Tome of the False Attendant was adapted to serve as a Command Spell. The authority of Rider’s Master was implanted into the book. Strictly speaking, the power binding Rider lies in the Command Spell written in the book, not the book itself.

Q: After Caster summoned Assassin (Sasaki Kojirou), was she branded with Command Seals? I ask because I don’t think she ever used a Command Spell on Assassin.
A: She had something similar to a Command Spell. Though, as a fake Master with a fake Servant, it wasn’t something as powerful as a true Command Spell. While she may not originally have received any Command Spells, Caster may have skillfully borrowed the power of the Greater Grail to forge herself an imitation.

Q: If there were more than seven classes of Servants, is there a reason the classes of Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker that participated in the Fifth Holy Grail War were chosen?
A: This was the basic line-up from the start. The class distinctions were arranged so that Heroic Spirits with similar characteristics wouldn’t overlap with each other.

Regarding Servants

Q: What is the basis for the ranks assigned to Servants’ abilities and skills? Also, who or what assigns the ranks? Is it the will of the Greater Grail? Or the opinion of the Master?
A: The summoning Master and local attributes have some influence, but it’s basically the hero’s known exploits, and the recognition afforded them by the people of the world, that decide these rankings.

Q: Can the spiritual core of a Servant be thought of as a vital area that, if destroyed, would cause instantaneous death, like a human’s heart or brain?
A: The heart and brain are certainly vital organs. Though they are different from the spiritual core, they can be considered organs directly connected to the core.
When the spiritual core is weakened through mana consumption or damage to the physical body, powerful mana, spells, and Noble Phantasms can no longer be materialized, and the Servant will disappear.

Q: As a percentage, how much are the abilities of blackened Servants enhanced? Or, when such Servants have an excess mana supply like Saber (Arturia) did, can they reach a level of power comparable to or greater than what they had in life?
A: They’re like runaway cars that never run out of fuel. Except, since they’re out of control, fine handling is impossible!

Q: If the Holy Grail War were set in Europe, would Cuchulainn (Lancer), King Arthur (Saber), and Heracles (Berserker) be roughly equal in power?
A: ...Well, if we’re talking western Europe in general I’d say the first two would be powered up to an equal degree... though England and Ireland, the odds would be sharply in the respective hero’s favor. Heracles would display excellent power in all of western Europe.

Q: Even though the setting is Japan, why are there so few Japanese Heroic Spirits? Is it because the Holy Grail is a Western (Christian) concept?
A: Exactly.

Q: What was the sport that Saber said she liked, that used swords to play on large stretches of land? Could it be golf? Or maybe polo?
A: It was an ancestor of golf. Please think of it as “something like golf that was around before golf was conceived.”

Q: Even in Rin’s route, Saber voluntarily destroyed the Holy Grail. Did this time also break her contract with the World, and make it impossible for her to exist as a Heroic Spirit?
A: It was a flawed Grail, so you could say it was halfway done. Since Saber reconsidered her life and found her own path... this time, perhaps she could become a Heroic Spirit on her own.

Q: Around what age did Archer (Emiya Shirou) form a contract with the World as a Guardian?
A: From his late twenties to early thirties.

Q: When and where did Archer (Emiya Shirou) acquire his red overcoat (a holy shroud)? Or, was the shroud he used in Sakura’s route an original one?
A: When he began working as a freelance magus in his twenties, he received it from a certain curry-loving member of the clergy... now that would make a nice story, it would.

Q: Who arranged to get Rider’s “Mystic Eye Killer” contact lenses at the end of Sakura’s route? And was the creator of those glasses Aozaki Touko?
A: Touko-san seems to pop up everywhere... “Ah, for inquiries about Mystic Eyes, haunting ghosts, or troubles with ungrateful little sisters, please- please call Garan no Dou~”
Q: When Rider is on a motorcycle, can she go faster than GP Rider? Also, when she’s on a bicycle, about how many kilometers per hour can she go up to? (though I’m worried if she could bear to ride a bike...)
A: She’d be a match for Wayne Gardner. As for a bicycle, she’d accelerate endlessly until the bike itself broke down. “It would be nice if I could Mana Burst like Saber...” were her actual words. Thus, she yearns badly for a racing bike that can go even faster.

Q: Did the man known as Sasaki Kojirou have a real name?
A: There are theories that Kojirou’s real name was Tsuda, etc., but the man known as Assassin has no name.

Q: Could you tell us the rest of the incantation for Protection Against Wind, which was 「----hu A--a-」 in the glossary? Or would that be a problem?
A: No waaay. I could neeever speak a name of such weight. I’d be stabbed in the baaack.

Q: Was Zouken branded with Command Seals after he summoned True Assassin through Kojirou’s body? Or, not being human (and a bunch of worms that infest Sakura), did he not receive them? Also, was this the proper way of summoning the regular Assassin?
A: Even though Assassin’s Command Spells were fake, Caster still had them, so additional ones were not created. True Assassin’s summoning ritual was most certainly outside the norm.