Saber (セイバー, Seibā?), Knight of the Sword and Heroic Spirit of the Sword, is one of the Three Knight classes among the seven standard Servant classes summoned for the Holy Grail War. Servants placed within this class are agile and powerful melee warriors adept at swordsmanship, boasting high ratings in all categories, and they are often heroes from the Age of Gods when magecraft was still commonplace. The qualifying conditions require the Heroic Spirits to have legends as knights of the sword, and it is the class that requires the highest levels of attributes in all but the Magic attribute.[1] It is possible for the status qualifications to be bypassed in special circumstances, such as through Nero Claudius Caesar's Imperial Privilege.[2] Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Noble Phantasm Sword Hunt qualifies him as an extremely rare Saber without qualities distinctive of the class.[3] Compatible Heroic Spirits usually excel in delivering powerful burst attacks, and the Class Skills are Magic Resistance and Riding.[1]
The standard opinion is that the Saber class is best of the seven classes and the strongest of the Servants, said to have made it to the final battle in the first four Fuyuki wars.[4][5] They will generally have an overwhelming advantage over Caster-class Servants who use magecraft as their main offensive ability due to their Magic Resistance.[6] The weakness of the class is its straightforwardness in battle, only able to attack the enemy with their sword while unable to resort to other tactics like the Presence Concealment of the Assassin Class.[7]
Known Sabers
Servants marked with ‡ are also able to be summoned by the Protagonist in the Grand Orders.
Other qualifying heroes
| Heroic Spirit | Current class | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cú Chulainn | Lancer | Fate/Ace Royal only |
| Edward, the Black Prince | None | |
| Joan of Arc | Ruler | |
| Heracles | Berserker | |
| Sasaki Kojiro | Assassin | Fate/Ace Royal only |
| Spartacus | Berserker |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1
[] Fate/complete material III: World material - Records of Heavens Feel - Servant System: Class, p.015 Class
A "Servant Class" is a container prepared for materialising a Heroic Spirit that is summoned into the current era as a Servant.
There are seven Servant Classes: Sabre, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin and Berserker. Since there cannot be repeats of any one class, the seven Servants participating in a Holy Grail War will be of different classes.
Heroic Spirits determine their classes on the basis of their characteristics, and then summoned as the Servant of the corresponding class. For instance, the only class appropriate for Artoria is Sabre, but Hercules, who was said in legends to be proficient with all weapons, can be summoned into all classes but Caster. The affinity between the Master and the Heroic Spirit will determine which class the Heroic Spirit will be summoned into. However, the Einzberns, as one of the "Three Founding Families" and well-informed of the rules of the Servant system, was able to preemptively interfere with the system and summon Hercules as Berserker.
Among all the classes, Sabre, Lancer and Archer are also called the "Three Knights". They are frequently Heroic Spirits from the Age of Gods when sorceries were common. Due to high magic resistance, modern magi are unable to inflict damage to them.
The Assassin class is special, as the only qualifying Heroic Spirits are the Hassan al-Sabbah's.
Saber
Knight of the Sword. The compatible Heroic Spirit naturally needs to possess legends as a knight of sword, as well as the highest levels of attributes in all but MGI. Class Abilities include Magic Resistance and Riding. Also, compatible Heroic Spirits usually excel in delivering powerful burst attacks.
Lancer
Knight of the Lance. Its high qualifying conditions are second only to Sabre. Attributes are excellent overall, in addition, AGI must be high. Of course, Servants of this class are proficient in hit-and-run tactics that capitalise on range and speed. This class includes many Heroic Spirits who were knights.
Archer
Knight of the Bow. A class that excels in possessing powerful Noble Phantasms. The qualifying condition is not attributes, but the possession of powerful projectile weapons or special abilities related to projectile weapons. Highly effective as scouts. They have not only the Magic Resistance ability of the Knight Classes, but also the class ability of Independent Action.
Rider
Mounted soldier. Heroic Spirits who rode mounts (not limited to living creatures) qualify for this class. Although attributes tend to be lower compared to the Three Knight Classes, this is compensated by the abilities of the mount described in legend. Besides Magic Resistance, class abilities also include high Riding.
Caster
Magus. Qualifying conditions only include mastery of sorceries of the highest calibre. Due to this trait, the qualifying Heroic Spirits tend to have low combat abilities. In addition, since the majority of Servants have Magic Resistance, this class is thought to be the weakest of all.
Assassin
Assassin. The only qualifying Heroic Spirits are the generations of Hassan al-Sabbah's, and one of them would be summoned. All of them do not have glorious legends as heroes, thus possess low attributes. Class ability is Presence Concealment, and the use of this ability during battle is the lifeline of Assassin.
Berserker
Mad Warrior. Heroes who have gone berserker during battle qualify for this class. Normally it is considered ideal if a Servant can wield power at the level of the original Heroic Spirit, but "Mad Enhancement" allows for the attribute enhancement of the Servant beyond the ability of the original at the cost of sanity. A class originally used to enhance weak Heroic Spirits. - ↑
[] Fate/EXTRA material - Saber [Servant], p.192-194 Saber [Servant]
One of the Servants who contracts with the protagonist.
A (self-proclaimed to be) crossdressing young swordswoman clothed in a bright crimson dress. Often called Red Saber to distinguish her from other Sabers.
[pronoun stuff]
A headstrong emperor who calls herself an omni-talented genius and actualizes (by force) most of the things she wills.
Though often mistaken for a tyrant because of her arrogance and confident proclamations, as a rule she acknowledges the ways of existences of all manners of people, without rejection.
She judges not by society's standards of good and evil, but by the human beauty.
Having dabbled in plays, song, painting, sculpture, and such various arts, upon creating a new work,
“How’s this? It is quite good, no? T-true, it may be a little on the maniacal side, but is it not good nonetheless?”
A little miss attention seeker who tearfully begs for appraisal like so.
Though she would normally not qualify for the Saber class with her parameters, well, she took care of that part somehow with her Imperial Privilege. She would properly be a commander-type Servant.
As a Servant, she has no particular contentions or wishes.
That is because she is perfect by simply existing.
At least, Saber herself says,
“I am consummate simply by thinking, speaking, and sleeping while being myself. No matter the era, the mere fact of my existence symbolizes the might of Rome.”
Since she’s already perfect, there remains nothing more for her to seek.
She has reached the conclusion that simply being herself is the finest reward in itself.
Since she has absolute beliefs and tenets within herself, she isn’t offended by much.
To Saber, the one unacceptable thing is to “for her to not be able to act as herself.”
The reason why the egocentric Saber is fine with being used as a Servant is because a Servant is contracted as that which “must prove her supremacy.”
“Hmm? I am to prove my supremacy, yes? That I have no complaints about. I shall simply fight a fight not shameful to myself.
Even if I had a frog for a Master, if I can fight together with the frog and emerge the victor without shame, it would become a pride of mine.”
Such is her amazingly optimistic outlook.
And so it’s rare for her to scold the inexperienced protagonist. Though she does grumble about the protagonist’s timidity and fecklessness, in her heart she does not truly look down on the protagonist.
To her, saying that the protagonist is “feeble” is simply an honest appraisal.
Thus, when the protagonist grows as a Master and builds the bond of trust, she becomes more straightforwardly affectionate.
“Confound it all, pay more attention to me!
Since you are contracted to me, you shall put me first of all things!”
Thus the attention-starved puppy emperor came to be.
However, in the first place, there isn’t a Master to be found who would summon her.
Her true name corresponds to great evil in a certain religion, and the end of her life was a miserable one.
Just as much as she is an emperor, she is also an artist with unshakable faith in her own genius, and the only absolute justice to her is “beauty.”
Whether ally, enemy, her citizens, or herself, she will not love anything that does not fit into that category.
That holds true even for a Master. For sure, she will never obey someone she finds unseemly.
There’s no magus who would want to make use of a weapon who judges matters based on something like “beauty.” Contracting with this Heroic Spirit is simply too risky.
“……Well, that’s only natural.
Magi are clever and calculating creatures;
certainly not fools who would entrust their lives to me.”
And so she spent her days in ennui in the Throne of Heroes.
Though she gets lonely, her pride overcame that. She decided not to settle for just anyone, planning on only contracting with a genius of her level.
And so, at the end of another round of preliminaries.
Just when she was about to leave, thinking that there was no one to call her this time either, she heard a faint voice.
When she turned, she saw a nameless someone who, despite being on the verge of death, still fought to stand.
Someone who was not strong.
Someone who had no outstanding talent.
Someone who wasn’t even a proper wizard.
But―――Saber saw a kindling that twinkled like a star in the night, a kindling that refused to fade.
Instantly, she rushed forward.
What she had in her chest was not sympathy for that someone, but anger against the high heavens.
She knew that it was the way of the world for the weak to remain weak and perish, their prayers to no avail.
Precisely because she knew this, she couldn’t stand for it.
What kind of heaven would ignore such powerful will?
Even in the death throes, that nameless one chose not to give up but to fight.
“If it would not answer that purehearted wish, the will of the heavens matters not! How can I not answer the cry of that noble soul―――?!”
Rather than answering summons, Saber had come to the place of selection of her own volition.
While groaning inwardly at the offering up of herself that she had disliked so, she speaks to the nameless soul.
“Answer me―――are you my Praetor?”
She appears in a white bridal dress for CCC, earning the nickname of Bride Saber. Since there’s another Red Saber in Apocrypha now, I feel like we need another nickname for her to cover both Extra and CCC.
Tange Saber……no? Okay, I guess not.
Her rival in CCC is Red Lancer.
One hopes that they can become friendly rivals as idols.
After all, having both experienced similar reactions to their performances, it seems like there’s plenty they can talk about.
Also, her voice when the player acquires her swimwear is a must-listen. Therein lies the max endearing charm of the Tange Saber.セイバー【サーヴァント】
- ↑
- ↑ Unlimited Blade Works - Day 4 - Contract established
- ↑ Fate/stay night - Prologue
- ↑ Fate/Zero - Volume 2
- ↑ Unlimited Blade Works - Day 4 - Saber's Compromise