Fate/Stay Night has grown exponentially since its introduction in 2004. Since then it has spawned a number of anime, several games, and other spinoffs that have turned the modest franchise into a media empire. A media empire that has taken the otaku world by storm.

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Though, despite how popular it may be, there are things that casual observers, those just getting into the franchise, and diehard fans alike might not know about Fate/Stay Night and all of its spinoffs. So let's take a journey and go through 10 things you never knew about Fate series and the mega-franchise it has become.

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10 Was Originally A Visual Novel

Though the Fate franchise diehards have this fact etched this into their souls (as well as all of Nasu's weird mollusk metaphors), some newer fans might not know that Fate/Stay Night started as a visual novel. While the anime premiered in 2006, the visual novel precedes it by two years.

Since then, every adaptation of Fate/Stay Night has been a different route of the novel. The original 2006 anime follows the story of the Fate Route of the novel (for the most part), Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works follows the second route of the visual novel, and lastly, the Heaven's Feel movies follow the last route of the game.

9 The Visual Novel Was Originally Aimed At Girls

Fate/Stay Night didn't start as a visual novel with a male protagonist and a female love interest. Quite the opposite really, until they got the idea to make King Arthur a girl and sort of ran with it. Leading to the version of the franchise that we know of today.

Originally, the protagonist was a glasses-wearing girl called Manaka who was a bit on the insecure side who found herself stuck in a Grail War. And while the protagonist is completely different, some familiar face do show up. Lancer, Gilgamesh, and even Saber appear in the first attempt at the story. Though they were changed to better fit the genre.

8 Saber Was Originally A Man

Remember how "they were changed to better fit the genre?" Well, this is one such example.

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There was no gender-bending involved in the initial story for Fate/Stay Night. King Arthur was a man with every intention of making him one of the romanceable partners for Ayaka. Furthermore, it was Merlin that was actually switched. It is said that Merlin in that particular version of the story was female and looked a lot like what Arturia would look like.

7 Rin Was Designed To Be A Villian

Continuing on this Fate/Prototype train, Rin was based on a character from that version of the story as well. Rin counterpart was one of the antagonists, Misaya Reiroukan.

The master of Lancer in this version of the Grail War, Misaya Reiroukan has a similar backstory to Rin. Having lost her father to betrayal in the previous Grail War, the aftermath caused her to become sadistic, cruel, and do all sorts of nasty things in the process including murder. She was later reimagined as the heroine, Rin, in Fate/Stay Night.

6 Fate/Stay Night Isn't Type-Moon's First Visual Novel

Long ago and in an Akihabara far far away, Type-Moon used to be known for a little visual novel known as Tsukihime. Translated as Moon Princess, the premise concerns the aforementioned moon princess (who is also a vampire) who meets a young man. A young man who subsequently kills her and immediately gets embroiled in the affairs of vampires, the holy church, his own messed up family, an equally messed up maid, and a whole litany of supernatural phenomenon that first made otaku flock to the company.

As of right now, a remake is (supposedly) in the works, but with no release date in sight, the fans are getting antsy. Come on Nasu, let's get to work on that remake!

5 There Is A Version Of Saber For Almost Every Class

And we don't just mean the original seven classes either. As of today, there are currently over 15 versions of Saber. And that is only if you include those that are actually Arturia and not all of her same-faced clones.

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So it is no surprise that our little king has made her way into almost every class in the anime and the games. So far, the only classes she hasn't found her way into are the Caster class, Moon Cancer class and the Avenger class of Servants. At this point, they could almost have an entire Grail War made up of just Arturia and her other forms.

4 The Second Fate/Extra Game Was Never Released In The West

Nowadays the United States fanbase it lucky to have the support it has in bringing Fate/Stay Night and all of its spinoffs outside of Japan. Back in the day, it was hard to get anything from the franchise to make the trip across the sea.

So it was a small miracle when Fate/Extra was officially localized for the PSP back in 2011. Unfortunately, the second game in the franchise never had such luck. The game failed to release officially in any capacity here in the States. Though, rumor has it that a group of fans are looking to translate it into English.

3 The Game Is The Most Talked About Game On Twitter

No, it wasn't Fortnite, Final Fantasy, Super Smash Bros, or any other popular, upcoming or bigger releases in 2019. It was Fate/Grand Order that seems to have taken the gaming world by storm last year.

According to metrics released by Twitter, Fate/Grand Order was mentioned the most in about 1.2 billion tweets about gaming last year. The mobile game surpassing every other game in buzz including decrowning the previous year's winner, Fortnite. That's quite the accomplishment for a mobile game based on a visual novel.

2 Fate/Grand Order Has Grossed Over 4 Billion Dollars

Along with being the most talked about, Fate/Grand Order is also one of the most profitable. Though the mobile game is free to play, there are special gems that allow a player to summon prospective Servants and those little gems have been invaluable to its financial success.

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So much so, that it has currently grossed over 4 Billion Dollars from its players. One aspect of its success is that it is now available all over the world, but even then, about 3.3 Billion of those dollars still came from Japan alone.

1 There Are Over 260 Servants Now

We have come a long way from the humble set of eight Servants. Nowadays, the franchise is made up of over 260 great heroes, villains, authors, inventors, artificial intelligences, and endless copies of Arturia. The number of Servants now easily is in the triple digits.

Most of the biggest names in history and fiction have found their way into the game and have gotten an anime makeover in the process and more are still yet to come. Only Type-Moon knows who they'll bring in next.

NEXT: Fate/Stay Night: 10 Things You Never Knew About Rin