After watching Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, and the Heaven's Feel movies, someone might think they know anything and everything about being a Master. Those people would be wrong.
In truth, there are plenty of matters about being a master that are only brought up in the games, visual novels, spin-off shows, and other supplementary material. Even then, the main anime entries of the series only mention some things in passing. Here are 10 things you didn't know about being a master in the Fate Universe.
10 Mana Replacement
Here is something they only hover around in the TV entries of the series and don't get into too much in any of the other for-all-ages adaptations of the franchise. If a master is lacking in the mana department, either from being a bad mage or a regular human, there are other ways of supplementing a Servants need for mana.
There is the evil route of having the Servant gobble up the mana from innocents. Something that Shinji and Rider, Kotomine and Gilgamesh, and Kuzuki and Caster attempt to do in varying levels of success. Then there's the less evil but more intimate route. As it turns out, Servants can gain mana from bodily fluids. This includes blood, saliva, and sexual fluids too.
9 The Dangers Of A Berserker Class Servant
Berserkers are usually the Servant a Master can most likely count on to up-end the earth, cause destruction in their wake, and shake the ground they walk on. Often being gifted with a heaping helping of muscle power to go with all of that at insanity.
So, why wouldn't someone want to be the Master of a Berserker? Because it would kill them. Berserkers are like the mana equivalent of an open facet. They are constantly on and drain an immense amount of mana from their contractor. So much so, that most of their Masters become dried up mana vessels and die from it.
8 Originally, Servants Didn't Have Human Masters
Originally, the Grail War, as we know it, was actually developed from an entirely different ritual. Whenever the earth was in true danger, the Earth and the collective unconsciousness of mankind, Alaya, would act as a master and summon seven Grand Servants. These Servants would be considered the best in their class and would be set up against whatever world-ending disaster threatened the earth.
So leave it to greedy magi to take a ritual for defending the earth and turn it into a cheap imitation for their own goals. The Holy Grail War as we know it is just a smaller derivation of a much larger ritual. One where the Earth and Alaya acted as the Masters for the seven summoned Servants.
7 It's Not Normally Possible To Transfer Control Of A Command Seal
This might come as a shock to those that have watched the 4th and 5th Holy Grail Wars. Both of which have examples of a Command Seal and a Servant transferring ownership to another person, but the whole process is much more than one person giving another person permission to use their Servant.
The whole process is a delicate piece of work that can become akin to tearing out another person's nerves if done wrong, which is exactly why Masters usually need something like the Book of the False Attendant (the book Shinji holds) or some other magic spell to properly do the trick. Otherwise, it could render the Master paralyzed or worse.
6 Masters And Servants Share An Invisible Bond That Other Magicians Can Feel
At the very least, if the person has a bit of magical aptitude themselves. When a Master summons their Servant they become linked by a magical bond. That magical bond then unconsciously leaks mana toward their Servant when needed. Creating a sort of spiritual leash for their Servant.
That link then makes an almost impossible-to-miss connection for any spellcaster worth their salt in magical power. It created a figurative trail of bread crumbs for a magus to follow back towards a Master. That's if they can get past the Servant, though.
5 A Master's Goal Was Originally About Reaching The Root
In the Type-Moon Universe, the Root is the metaphysical plane of existence where all events and phenomena from the past, present, and future originate from. Though, it might be better to use its other name, the Akashic Records, to get the point across.
Back before the Grail War became one big battle to make a wish on the Holy Grail, the original intention was for a magus to find their way to the Root. They figured that if they were to follow the dying Servants back to where they came from, they would be able to reach the Throne of Heroes, which resided in the Root. Thereby reaching the Root. A feat that could grant them all the knowledge in the universe, awesome magical power, or make them a god.
4 Masters Were Unsupervised
It might have been a good idea to somehow regulate the powers of Masters and their Servants during a Grail War. Unfortunately, they didn't think to do that until the third Holy Grail War.
It was then that the Mage Association sought an outside power to regulate them in this grand ritual. The Church readily agreeing for a number of reasons. First, the whole ritual is based around one of their most important artifacts. Even if the grail itself is most likely a sham. Secondly, they wanted to make sure that no magi use its wish-granting power to change the world at large, which is why they usually try and help a person seeking the Root to limit that possibility.
3 Two Masters Can Summon The Same Servant
The way the Throne of Heroes works is more like a metaphysical copy machine than a cage for the souls of Heroic spirits that lets them out once in a while. A copy machine that can then modify them depending on their legends and popular culture.
And that's the reason why it is possible to summon the same Servant in the same Grail War. As long as they qualify as another class, it's possible for the Throne of Heroes to spit out one version of the Servant and then another for a different class. Though, even summoning the same Servant in the same class is possible. Records show that two twins in the 3rd Holy Grail War summoned the same Saber servant due to their unique sorcery trait.
2 Normally A Bad Idea To Materialize Two Or More Servants At The Same Time
Having the power of two Servants at the same time seems like a good idea. Unfortunately, there is one big problem in that calculation. That problem, ladies and gentlemen, would be the Master in charge of them.
Simple math would dictate that twice the Servants would be twice the power, but unfortunately, being tied to a Master would hold both of them back. Since they would both be tied to a single Master as their power source, they would only be able to draw a certain amount before limiting the other. Basically ending with both of the Servants not being able to draw their full power because they are sharing it with another.
1 "Are You My Master?" Is More Than Just For Show
It is the most famous scene in the history of Fate/Stay Night. Tread over constantly in the adaptations and with a reference in almost every single spin-off since then. The words may seem like a simple question for the viewer, but they are actually much more in context.
Summoning and then being contracted to a Servant doesn't complete until both of them acknowledge their roles. So the simple act of a Servant asking that question to a Master is to properly establish their roles and complete the ritual, with the added bonus that the Servant can now use a Master's mana as power for themselves. Without it, most would just fade back into nothingness.