The Taiwanese version of Fate/Grand Order is the only mobile game I have consistently played since college. Although I've had periods of lethargy—the most severe being consecutive weeks without logging in, or skipping two or three events in a row—I keep it on my phone's home screen, and whenever my mood recovers, I invariably log in to tap around a bit.
Prologue
- Spoilers ahead.
- The worldview of Fate/Grand Order continues the settings from the Fate/stay night games, anime, and related works:
- In this worldview, "Masters" can perform summoning contracts to summon Heroic Spirits to fight for them.
- Heroic Spirits originate from the "Throne of Heroes" and could be warriors with glorious ancient battle records, emperors who conquered far and wide, or gods and magi existing in myths and legends. Later, this extended to well-known modern creators and scientists who deeply impacted history.
- Different facets of a Heroic Spirit, different specializations of their abilities, or different anecdotal stories can manifest as different personas recorded on the Throne of Heroes, allowing them to be summoned in different classes. Even their betrayed, darkened, or vengeance-ridden sides can be specially summoned as Anti-Heroes.
- Originally, Fate/stay night was set merely as a summoning system in a single urban area in the Far East (Japan), aimed at completing a magical ritual through the mutual struggle of seven Heroic Spirits. Once completed, the Master could use the Holy Grail, filled with the magical energy of defeated Heroic Spirits, to grant an "omnipotent wish."
- Fate/Grand Order further extends this summoning system, where players act as Masters summoning Heroic Spirits to resolve world crises, traveling across different worlds to meet various Heroic Spirit characters.
The Fairy Round Table Domain
Brief Story Background
- The Fairy Round Table Domain is a newly opened hypothetical world in the Taiwanese version of Fate/Grand Order.
- This hypothetical world can be seen as a timeline branch distinct from the current world.
- In this worldview, the setting borrows from the famous British legend of King Arthur, but incorporates the story writer's own interpretation:
- The original mythical Morgan in the Arthurian legend has a three-fold nature:
- An early fairy of the lake who was helpful and kind to humans.
- The witch within the Arthurian legends after Christianization, depicted with various malicious descriptions.
- Yet sometimes she possesses a protective nature toward King Arthur, guiding him to the legendary utopia, Avalon.
- In the story, the background established by the author is that Morgan was sent from the utopian paradise Avalon on the reverse side of the planet to the island of Britain to save it.
- After a major event that caused the timeline to branch, the land of Britain disappeared, and the six ancestors of the fairies committed the sin of deicide to create their own living space, resulting in a curse.
- Aside from the original curse, the true nature of fairies is to act entirely on momentary impulses, likes, and dislikes, possessing almost none of the moral ethics of modern humans.
- The sinful fairies continued to reproduce, but the catastrophes born from the curse and the warring nature of the fairies eventually led to the destruction of the British land that had lasted for a millennium, reducing it to a wasteland. This was Morgan's first failure.
- The intervention of the Heroic Spirit summoning system in the story caused the Morgan from Pan-Human History to accidentally intervene, transmitting information back to the Morgan who failed in the past, giving the Morgan of this branching hypothetical world a chance to save Britain thousands of years ago.
The Savior Era
- In this branched world, she served as a savior, saving Britain an unknown number of times and resolving countless calamities.
- However, a fairy from the paradise of Avalon was instinctively despised by the native fairies of Britain because her existence reminded them of their obligation to atone and repent.
- Every time she dedicated herself to saving Britain and the fairies, resolving disasters, she was met with imprisonment, water dungeons, burning at the stake, rumors, exile, betrayal, and assassination—all kinds of things, without the slightest gratitude or any sense of atonement or repentance. This continued for nearly a millennium.
- In the final instance of faithfully playing her role, she mediated a war alongside her companions, established an ideal political system between humans and fairy clans, and planned to enter the holy hall of marriage to be crowned queen alongside her lover, the human knight Uther. The era of peace she had anticipated for a millennium seemed finally to have arrived, and all her efforts appeared destined for a happy and perfect conclusion.
- Yet, on the very day of her coronation, she witnessed Uther being poisoned to death with her own eyes. The fairies rebelled once more, the savior was framed with unwarranted crimes, and everything once again came to nothing.
I will never save any fairy again. Every single fairy in this Britain is unworthy of being saved.
Morgan, the Winter Queen
- No longer trusting anyone, her myriad ideals turned into coldness.
- The dream of saving Britain transformed into an obsession to establish and maintain a beautiful British land (changing from Ruler class to Berserker class).
- Morgan directly ruled as a sovereign. After letting catastrophes wipe out the fairies, because the continuation of the kingdom still required the existence of fairy subjects, she directly used grand magic equivalent to a summoning spell—a ritual akin to the Holy Grail Heroic Spirit summoning contract—to forcibly summon all the fairies back.
- She implemented a tyrannical rule, which surprisingly and effectively maintained the beautiful Kingdom of Britain for over two thousand years.
- Although, as the queen of a hypothetical world, she was an enemy to the protagonist's party, easily crushing the players with her overwhelming magical prowess in the final battle.
- Yet, she still died by the malice of fairies. While Morgan was distracted, they threatened her with her most beloved adopted daughter, inciting her most loyal subordinate to backstab her, ultimately resulting in her dying completely disfigured.
- In the Queen's reminiscence, a single panel showed that Morgan loved the land of Britain so deeply that if visitors from the outside world ever arrived and sincerely praised the beautiful splendor of the kingdom she maintained, Morgan would be incredibly happy.
Nasu, the game's scenario writer, truly has no human heart.
How is my country? Is it a beautiful kingdom? Is it a dreamlike kingdom? If you think so, I will feel the utmost joy. Welcome to the Fairy Kingdom of Britain, guests. I only hope that this scenery, Will remain forever in your memories.
Resonance
- When I played through this part of the story, I happened to be in a somewhat extreme state of mind.
- I had fought for a long time for the ideals and family members I once deeply loved, only to find that many things casually said were nothing more than momentary likes or dislikes.
- There are too many things that cannot be changed, especially the most difficult things to change: the human heart and ingrained behavioral patterns. Communication paths took countless twists and turns; I put in immense effort for a long time, but nothing ever took effect.
- When I saw Morgan's millennia of exhaustion, her ultimate breakdown, and the corresponding cold reversal, it felt as though it mirrored my own state of mind. The reason I no longer want to bother, the reason I no longer want to spend the effort to save things, is precisely because having the luxury to think about saving things only leads to falling down again and again.
- I longed to possess the kind of dominating, ruling power that Morgan, the Winter Queen, eventually obtained.
- The reflection of these emotions made Morgan the character in Fate/GO with whom I have resonated the deepest in its history. Previously, I might have rolled for characters just for their pretty artwork or strength, but this time I was determined to roll until I got her maxed out.
Of course, it could also just be that the cold, aloof onee-san archetype happens to be exactly my type.
