Caren Hortensia (カレン・オルテンシア, Karen Orutenshia?, "Karen Ortensia") is the main heroine of Fate/hollow ataraxia and the Master of Lancer and Gilgamesh. She is a member of the Church and works as a priestess. She replaces her father, Kirei Kotomine, as the priest of the Fuyuki Church.
Profile
Background
Caren is the daughter of Kirei Kotomine and Claudia Hortensia. Her mother, who was very sickly, killed herself in a final attempt to help Kirei, who was on the verge of suicide due to his inherently twisted nature, feel he deserved to live. It did not work, and rather than caring for Caren himself, he placed her in the custody of her mother's relatives, thus having her take up their surname. She eventually became a priestess in the Church. Despite being active in the same organization, she never encountered her father in any official capacity.[2]
She was sent to Fuyuki by the Church to replace Kirei after his death and report the aftermath of the Fifth Holy Grail War.
Appearance
Caren takes after her mother, Claudia, having light grey hair and golden eyes. Due to her demon detecting abilities, she is nearly always covered in bandages. She is usually seen wearing church robes, and a hat if she is outdoors. On the other hand, Caren also wears what she calls her "exorcist uniform" which is composed of a dress and stockings over pantyhose, but without a skirt. She claims that she has removed the skirt to both increase her mobility and to seduce men.
Personality
As a priestess, Caren Hortensia exhibits an outwardly accepting personality, but she is not entirely angelic. Her current position simply suits her physiological characteristics. Outside of fulfilling her job, she will readily provoke acquaintances and display outright sadism to those close to her.
It can be said that her life's purpose is to help others at any cost, and she carries that out to the point of inflicting self-harm and deferring any blame to the demonic influence driving her attackers. She will frequently apologize to God, for both her own faults and those who slight her.
Because of this twisted personality, even her two servants are wary of her, both maintaining great distance at all times even without the threat of Command Spells. For going against her would mean having their power turned against them without a second thought for their mutually assured destruction.
While she is described as "the mouthpiece for Kotomine's personality" due to her callous wit, she still inherits significant feminine charm from her mother, making her a largely affable person despite the wealth of acerbic remarks issuing from her lips.
Role
Fate/hollow ataraxia
Caren serves an objective mediator in the false Holy Grail War created by Avenger and Bazett Fraga McRemitz and, in the place of the absent Kirei Kotomine, as the Master of Lancer and Gilgamesh. Because she was not present in the previous war, she is not affected by the four day time loop like the others are.
During Hollow ataraxia, Shirou Emiya finds that each time he runs into Caren, he dies. Eventually, Shirou ends up defending Caren from the dark creatures that have appeared since the time loop began. He is finally able to meet her without dying, but finds that he is experiencing strange feelings of anger and hatred and not acting like himself.
Shirou is eventually revealed to be an imposter or in the very least, not completely himself; he is actually Avenger in the guise of Shirou (the real one is either not present in the game, or being possessed by Avenger). She continues to offer advice to him, perhaps knowing his true identity(s) all along. She and Avenger develop intimate feelings for each other.
In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, Avenger has Caren participate in a painful sexual episode with him, with Caren trying to conceive Avenger's child during the event. Avenger himself is wryly amused by this, declaring that there should only be one of him.
It is also revealed that the woman who finds Bazett and nurses her back to health is Caren.
Caren and Bazett are last shown in a bonus scene with the real Shirou, with Bazett taking residence at Shirou's house, much to the annoyance of the women in Shirou's life.
Fate/tiger colosseum series
She appears as herself and as her alter-ego, Magical Caren (マジカルカレン, Majikaru Karen?). She gets to meet her father, who quickly remarks that while Caren looks physically like her mother, she is just like her father in terms of personality.
Carnival Phantasm
She makes minor appearances, but gets a major role and she is the protagonist of the EX episode. After Caren gets some money in an illegal job, she attempts to control the world using money with varying degrees of success.
Her trolling and abusive personality is comically exaggerated and Lancer and Gilgamesh often remark that she is just like her father Kirei. She also often has them around her all the time.
Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA
She is the school nurse in Homurahara elementary. She has been observing Illyasviel von Einzbern, Miyu Edelfelt and Chloe von Einzbern. She displays absolutely no interest in the events, and she is rather carefree about her job as a nurse. She is later revealed to be the Church's representative in the affair related to the Class Card, working as background support as well as supervisor. It is also revealed that she chose to work as a school nurse as it allows her to indulge in her interest in observing the sufferings of children close up.
Koha-Ace
- Main article: Caren Kotomine
Caren, under the name Caren Kotomine, appears during the Strange Tales of the Imperial Holy Grail, acting as the Master of Lancer.
Capsule Servant
In Capsule Servant, she only appears in the true ending route. Both Shirou and Rin encounter little Caren in her own world, she is also known as Baby Caren or Caren-chan. She is the world-observing baby chosen by the Great Grail to gaze down on the world in amusement and she was the reason Capsule Servant was created. The grail is nothing more than the negative thoughts of people. She used the power of the Grail to create a world in which every character's worth decreases. All the boss characters were cursed to be disappointing but they didn't change much especially TOHSAKA. She reveals to Rin and Shirou about her involvement and she claims that she is doing this just to show her benevolence towards them. She finds it was entertaining to watch them fighting amongst themselves with the Capsule Servants she prepared.[3]
After she was defeated, Caren decided that the world should be destroyed as this world is so cruel to children. The world starts to self-destruct leaving a worm hole portal exit for Rin and Shirou. The destruction on the Grail will be dragged into the spiral of worthlessness and will make the real world return to its original state. Against Caren's wishes, Shirou decided to save Caren because Shirou thought it was pitiful for Caren to disappear like that and that he is a Hero of Justice. Caren accepted Shirou offer to be raised as the Emiya family's baby. Shirou adopted Little Caren and apparently she's listed on the family register as Taiga's daughter. In the end, it is revealed that it was Caren who wrote Capsule Servant plot.[3]
Abilities
As a member of the Church, Caren assists in exorcisms. Although her father has Magic Circuits, she didn't inherit them, but she did inherit her mother's "prone to be plagued by illnesses", much like an ordeal given by God.[4] Her body itself possesses an unusual property which is known as Masochistic Pneumatic Automatism Diathesis; if there is a person nearby who has been possessed by a demon, she will experience the same pain as the person possessed. As a result, exorcists employ her to act as a radar of sorts to find demons. This ability cannot be gained from training since it is purely genetic, which is why people born with these traits are valued by the Church as demon detectors.
This ability is most evident whenever she comes in proximity to the Servant Avenger as her body sprouts grotesque spikes. She also experiences physical pain whenever people in proximity do evil things.
She owns the Holy Shroud, the Shroud of Magdalene (マグダラの聖骸布, Magudara no Seigaifu?), which is a red cloth with the power to forcefully bind men. However, while the man is bound, no harmful physical attacks can be made against him or Magdalene will be rendered useless. It is a type of Mystic Code. In Carnival Phantasm she puts its inherent properties to work separating baby chickens by sex in exchange for cash.
Development
Creation and Conception
She was to originally be a character developed for the potential Tsukihime 2 along with Bazett, but she was redesigned for Fate instead. The character present with Mr. Dawn in Prelude has an ability very similar to her.
Reception
- In the second Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2006, Caren was ranked 7th and the fifth most voted female character.
- In the Type-Moon's 10th Anniversary Character Poll, Caren from Fate/hollow ataraxia was ranked 19th. Magical Caren from Carnival Phantasm was ranked 188th.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Type-Moon Double Maniax
- ↑
[] Fate/complete material III: World material - FAQ with Nasu: Miscellaneous, p.136
Q: Are Kotomine, Caren, and Ciel, who are all affiliated with the Church, personally acquainted with each other?
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Capsule Servant - Ending translation by Wakame Paradise
- ↑
[] TYPE-MOON Fes. Official Pamphlet 10th Anniversary Q & A Booklet:
Q: Kirei's wife Ortensia is covered with wounds in the design draft, is it because she has a body similar to Caren's? Also, Command Spells appeared on Kirei due to the fact that he somehow possesses Magic Circuits despite being born in a non-magus lineage. Does this mean Caren also has Magic Circuits?Q: Kirei's wife Ortensia is covered with wounds in the design draft, is it because she has a body similar to Caren's? Also, Command Spells appeared on Kirei due to the fact that he somehow possesses Magic Circuits despite being born in a non-magus lineage. Does this mean Caren also has Magic Circuits?
A: Kirei's wife is an albino, and is immunodeficient. As a result, she can die from even a tiny wound, thus her body appears tattered. What Caren inherited is the aspect of "prone to be plagued by illnesses". This is truly an ordeal given by God.
About the Magic Circuits, a normal person rarely acquires Magic Circuits. You can consider such cases sudden mutations. However, Kirei is not of this type. Kirei's Circuits were a gift from the divine sacrament, rewarding his father Risei's years of pious worship. Kirei was born with "the right to recreate the miracles in the divine sacrament". This "right", in other words, was the Magic Circuits. Caren did not inherit the Circuits.Q:綺礼の奥さんであるオルタンシアさんが設定画で手当ての跡だらけなカレンと同じ体質だからなのでしょ うか。あと、綺礼に令呪が現れたのは元々魔術師の家じゃないけどたまたま魔術回路を待っていたということで 、カレンにもあるんでしょうか?
A:奥さんはアルビノで、免疫機能が欠如した人でした。なので些細な傷でも死に繋がるし、体もボロボロで した。カレンに受け継がれたのは”病魔に憑かれやすい”という在り方。神の試練ですな一。
魔術回路ですが、これは一般人にも稀に待って生まれる人がいます。突然变異と思ってください。綺礼はその類 ではありませんが、父・離正が長年の信仰によって得た秘蹟の恩恵で、” 秘蹟を再現する資格”をまって生まれました。秘蹟を再現する資格、なんで言ってますが、ようは魔術回路です 。カレンには受け継がれていません。