Fate/Fantasy

Prologue

People are stupid. Given the proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. They believe it because they want it to be true or because they are afraid it is true. - Zedicus Zul Zorander, Wizard's First Rule

Human language is full of words that mean far more than their definitions imply. Faith, hope, justice, peace, and love are just a handful of such words.

Love can drive a man to do things he would never consider. Faith can let him step off the edge of a cliff and stand on apparently empty space. Justice can make a passive man kill. And hope can make him do the insane, in order to save billions of lives.

When it comes right down to it, human beings just aren't rational and predictable beings. They hold intangible things in greater regard than the physical, take terrible risks for reasons they never truly understand, and are undeniable hypocrites.

The grand paradox that is humanity is clearly one of the species greatest flaws, and one of its greatest strengths. While the common man is rife with these patently infuriating qualities, there are those few who take those flaws and transform them into something grand.

Rising up as leaders, these few can direct the energy of mankind and harness it to create moments of pure wonder. These few, these heroes, transcend their earthly bonds and become legends that inspire future generations of man to take up the mantle of hero and propell humanity to further heights.

But legends have a power beyond inspiring the wills of mankind. They also inspire the mind. Not everyone has the strength to take up arms and become a hero, but many have the minds to take those legends and spread those tales across the world.

Every hero, and even all villains, exist within the minds of humanity. For every great and terrible deed done by mankind, there exists a tale made in homage of that deed. Over the centuries, those tales have grown, evolved, and spawned new tales. Given enough time, and maybe a pinch of that ever hard-to-define word 'faith', these new tales can maybe gain a spark of life of their own.

Author's note (IMPORTANT INFORMATION! PLEASE READ!): Welcome to my latest project. For those of you who know me from my RWBY stories, you've probably been wondering where I've been for months. Unfortunately for my stories, life kinda got in the way. And once I got life straightened out: this happened. I haven't forgotten EMRD, or even The Other Side of the Glass, but, as I've said before, I can really only focus on one project at a time. I will get back to those stories, but only when I can get my muse to focus on them.

This is the first chapter of a multi-chapter upload, so don't be too disappointed by how short this post is. More will be coming soon. I do, however, have one alert that everyone reading this needs to understand. I am placing a blanket spoiler warning for the entire story. I will be making use of characters and referencing events that will spoil events in other fandoms. I don't plan on explaining the spoilers unless the events become relevant in the story itself, and I don't plan on posting warnings every time a spoiler will come up. If you see something from a fandom that you don't want spoiled, stop reading there. I'm sorry if that seems blunt, but I want to maintain the flow of the narrative.

For those of you who just want to move on to the rest of the story: this is where you can stop reading. For those of you who are curious about the history behind this story; carry on.

I must confess, this was never the type of story I thought I'd ever find myself writing. I'm usually not a fan of derailing an established storyline by inserting myself or other characters into a story. I've been given glowing recommendations from my brothers about such stories, but I don't really indulge in them

Fate/Fantasy started as a thought experiment after I was introduced to Fate/Zero, my first real exposure to the Nasuverse. On rewatchings of Fate/Zero, I would always find myself inserting characters from other fandoms into the mix and trying to parse out how things would change. I found myself trying to create sets of Servants from other fandoms I enjoyed, and slowly the seeds of an idea grew.

It wasn't until my brother/co writer/outliner, Warden Myst, got into the Fate/Stay Night visual novel and the lore of the Nasuverse did this idea become a fully-fledged project. I went through the Fate/Stay Night anime, as well as the Unlimited Blade Works anime, and got a comprehensive explanation of the original visual novel from Warden Myst.

Then came the outline, and the fascinating process of trying to interlink three separate timelines, and the insertion of several new characters. Despite this being a character insertion story, I plan on this being true to the spirit of the original story.

I certainly hope that I have done that well, and I believe that I have. Will you agree with me? I have no idea. That part is on you. :D

But I've rambled for long enough. You came here for a story, and it's time that I gave you one. So, without further ado, welcome to Fate/Fantasy.