Grand Servant

Grand Servants (グランド サーヴァント, Gurando Sāvanto^?), also referred to as Grand Class (グランド クラス, Gurando Kurasu^?), are existences summoned by the Counter Force in order to prevent the extinction of mankind by the Beasts.

Characteristics

Grand Servants are summoned by the World itself through Ritual: Heroic Spirit Summon to save humanity.^[1] Its purpose is to pit seven Grand Servants against one powerful enemy, rather than fight each other like Servants in the Holy Grail War ritual, which was adapted by humans for their own purposes.^[1] In other words, their duty is to face a threat endangering all of humanity or the world, the Beasts.

Grand Servants are granted a Saint Graph of a rank above normal Servants, making regular Servants "cheap, convenient, multi-purpose familiars" in comparison as described by Hans Christian Andersen.^[1][2] He says "If [Servants] are weapons meant to fight individuals, [Grand Servant] is a weapon meant to fight the world."^[2] According to Da Vinci, Servants, the Heroic Spirits of the Human History, are by themselves considered to be super existences. Amongst them, there are those whose Saint Graph are on different level, and the ones who have the highest levels even amongst the most exceptional ones are called Grand Servants.^[3] While Servants are a degraded form of the Grand Servant ritual, the difference between Grand Servants and Servants is rank of the vessel and authority rather than their comparative ranks as Heroic Spirits.^[2]

Summoning by humans

During their time in Olympus, the Godbreaker Alliance manages to create the Grand Summoning Vessel Aether (大召喚器アイテール^?), Godbreaker Spell Protocol - Designated Summoning of the Heroic Spirits of the Grand Class (破神術式・冠位英霊指定召喚^?). It is a Chain Summoning ritual utilizing the natural ease of Singularities and Lostbelts to allow for Chain Summoning, requiring seven summoning arrays spread across Olympus to create a city-wide spell protocol, in order to create the Grand Summoning Vessel through which the Grand Servant would inhabit. However, the array requires a Mana source greater than that of even the naturally dense mana of the Lostbelt-advanced Age of Gods, which necessitated access to Olympus' Divine-make leylines through which the Godbreaker Alliance could access the crystal mountain of Mount Olympus that contained unlimited mana that had been accumulated with the divine leylines.^[4]

Daybit Sem Void contracts with Tezcatlipoca, identified as a Grand Servant,^[5] in the South American Lostbelt, but exact details on the specifics of the summoning and contract are unknown.

Qualifications

The Grand Servants are described as the "seven strongest from that era", the "first seven at the pinnacle of Heroic Spirits" that each hold the title of Grand(The Station of the Crown) (グランド(冠位), Gurando(Kan'i)^?) position.^[2] The primary qualification is ability and anecdotes of a high standard that stand at the top of their Class. Each Class, with the exclusion of Grand Assassin, has multiple candidates, and the final decision on which Heroic Spirit is summoned is based on what needs to be overcome in that era. King Hassan was the only one who qualified for Grand Assassin, so the Class initially sat empty after he abandoned his position,^[6] until Tezcatlipoca took it.^[7] Grand Caster is further shown to require the specific trait of needing powerful Clairvoyance.^[8] Similarly, servants who qualify for Grand Archer gain EX-ranked Independent Action.^[9]

It is a position said to be impossible for Divine Spirits to hold. Romulus-Quirinus is a super-exception, as he was deeply involved with Human History and remained Human as he became an ultimate god.^[10] Similarly, Tezcatlipoca can be summoned normally due to using a human body as his base.^[11] Tezcatlipoca also became Grand Assassin after King Hassan gave up his position, since he was the closest thing due to also being connected to death and mountains.^[7]

For a Grand Servant, who exists for the sake of saving mankind itself, taking an action like joining Chaldea Security Organization means they must throw away their right to the rank of Grand. This action does not mean the immediate removal of the Grand-class Saint Graph, so they will not lose their power until performing an actions that use its might. They will be left with a normal Servant's Saint Graph once it has been fully utilized.^[12]

Beast U-Olga Marie claims to have fought and defeated seven Grand Servants in the South American Lostbelt. The Lostbelt Qin Shi Huang, having manifested as a Xian, gains a Saint Graph that would be ranked as a Grand if they were in Proper Human History, but Sherlock Holmes is left baffled why Qin is Ruler.^[13]

As the strongest judge in the Holy Grail War, Galahad would hypothetically qualify for the Class of Grand Ruler (グランドルーラー, Gurando Rūrā^?) if such a Class existed.^[14]

Ingesting Servants through its Vampiric traits, ORT gains the ability to summon itself as Grand Foreigner by copying the Heroic Spirit summoning formula.^[15]

Summoned Grand Servants

World of Fate/Grand Order

World of Fate/Grand Order Arcade

Unsummoned Grand Servants

Heroic Spirits who held the position at some point in time but weren't summoned as such yet.

Other qualifying heroes

Heroic Spirits who qualify for a Grand Servant seat but haven't attained the rank yet.

Development

The Grand Classes were first listed in the code of Fate/Grand Order as implementable classes, later properly introduced in the story as of the London Singularity.^[1]

Artoria Avalon was intended to be the Grand Saber in Avalon Le Fae in Kinoko Nasu's first draft, but after reworking the story it was decided that she wouldn't achieve it in the British Lostbelt.^[20] In the gameplay fight representing U-Olga Marie's dream of defeating the seven Grand Servant's, Artoria Avalon appears as the Grand Saber placeholder.^[21]

Notes

References