The Nasuverse Explained

 Introduction:

Fate is one of my all-time favorite franchises. What initially started as a fascination with ufotable’s Unlimited Blade Works anime and it's jaw-dropping animation soon turned to love for the characters themselves…and, eventually, I got into Fate moreso to prove to myself that I could understand this fucking jigsaw puzzle of a timeline. 

It’s well-known among anime fans that Fate is part of a larger shared universe of light novels, anime, manga and video games called the “Nasuverse,” named so because they are all written by (or originate from visual novels written by) Kinoko Nasu of Type-Moon. It’s also well-known among anime fans that the Nasuverse has a timeline that puts DC Comics to shame, and I would know, because I wrote a whole essay about DC’s shitty continuity. 

Part of the problem is sheer abundance. Fate/stay night is among the greatest visual novels ever made, and the same goes for its sequel Fate/hollow ataraxia; the adaptation of its prequel, Fate/Zero also stands as one of the greatest anime out there. These three on their own should perfectly satiate most fans. But, being a Japanese shared universe multimedia franchise based in visual novels with alternate routes, the Nasuverse also has an abundance of extra media and alternate timelines, the vast majority of which do not matter, have unclear canonical status, or both. 

Even though many of the titles I’m about to list are in alternate universes, I actually think DC and Marvel work as really good comparisons. Yes, many DC stories are set in alternate timelines, but they usually have some version of Batman, Superman and/or Wonder Woman. Yes, many Marvel stories are set in alternate timelines, but they usually have some version of Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man and Captain America. Same concept here. Even though many of these light novels and visual novels are canonically in separate universes, it’s common for alternate universe versions of one character to show up in a separate piece of media. 

In this essay, I’m going to attempt to go over every piece of Nasuverse media, what timelines they are in, what their adaptations are, and how they all come together. Enjoy! 

Part 1: Fate:

Fate/stay night is set in Fuyuki City in 2004. To summarize, a “Holy Grail War” is an event that occurs once every few decades where seven Mages in Fuyuki City compete in a magical battle royale, the winner of which gets one prize from the Holy Grail. Each member of the War is granted a Servant to aid them in combat, with these Servants being famous mythological figures, historical figures, or both. While stay night focuses on Shirou Emiya, a young sword-wielding Mage with survivor’s guilt who accidentally enters the tournament, the original Fate/stay night visual novel has three distinct routes:

• The first route, simply called Fate, focuses on Shirou's relationship with Saber. This arc features Kirie Kotomine and Gilgamesh as the major villains, and this route received an adaptation from Studio Deen in 2006, though most consider it subpar at best given that it changes so much. It also received a manga adaptation by Datto Nishiwaki from 2006-2012. 

 

• The second route, Unlimited Blade Works, focuses on Shirou’s relationship with Rin. This route received a movie adaptation from Studio Deen, a far superior TV adaptation from ufotable, and a manga adaptation was announced in March 2021. This arc downplays Kotomine’s presence as a villain, keeps Gilgamesh as the final adversary and has Rin’s Servant Archer appear as a major threat instead of the enemy-turned-ally/pseudo-mentor he was in Fate. 

• The third route, Heaven’s Feel, focuses on Shirou's relationship with Sakura. This route received a manga adaption by Task Ohna in 2015, and ufotable released three more movies adapting this route from 2017 to 2020. Here, Zouken Matou takes over as the main villain of the route, with Sakura taking on the role of both love interest and antagonist at the very end. 

• There was also planned to be a fourth that would have focused on Illya and, presumably, her own Servant Berserker. However, this route was never made due to time constraints. What we do know for sure is that it would have had Illya as a love interest, it would have started quite similar to Heaven’s Feel for the first few days, and it would have diverged at the point where Shirou says that he’ll become Sakura’s protector; the player would have been given a prompt to say that he’ll become Illya’s protector instead. Originally, Nasu planned for Saber and Rin’s routes to be the only routes in Fate/stay night, with Sakura and Illya’s routes being in another game called Fate/other night. Again, this never came to fruition, so aspects of Illya’s routes were absorbed into Sakura’s route, which is why Illya is such a major character in that route. 

The climax of Heaven’s Feel involves Rin, Shirou and Illya using a weapon called “the Jeweled Sword of Zelretch,” which empowers Rin by drawing on mana from other universes. At the time, Fate/stay night was released in 2004 and its relationship to other series like Tsukihime and The Garden of Sinners was unknown; but this early piece of lore confirmed that Fate existed in a multiverse. 

In fact, as part of Fate’s lore, there are Five “True Magics.” Similar to the unsolved equations in real-life mathematics, the True Magics in Fate are nearly-impossible magical equations and techniques that Mages are trying to hone, such as projecting one’s soul and time travel. The Second Magic is even called “Operation of Parallel Worlds,” and it allows one to travel to other dimensions. 

Given the Nasuverse’s penchant for parallel universes, most fans consider all three of these routes to be set in their own universes. Furthermore, Archer is revealed to be a version of Shirou Emiya from the future of yet another (but separate) universe, which supposedly resembles (but is not exactly the same as) the universe of the Fate route. So we already have four universes right there, diverging from more or less the same point. 

Fate/Zero is a light novel written by Gen Urobuchi of Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Psycho Pass fame, set 10 years before stay night and focusing on the Fourth Holy Grail War. While Fate/Zero is a prequel that primarily focuses on the parents of the cast of stay night and sets up many storylines in that visual novel, it can also be enjoyed on its own. Thus far it has received a wonderful adaptation from ufotable. 

Fate/Zero was written shortly after the release of stay night and hollow ataraxia, and while it attempts to stay as close to the canon of those stories while telling its narrative, the amount of creative freedom Nasu gave Urobuchi did lead to some continuity errors, particularly pertaining to Saber, Gilgamesh and the ending. In the Fate route (which heavily alludes to and focuses on Saber’s trauma from the Fourth Grail War), Gilgamesh says he never saw Excalibur and he and Saber’s final duel occurred in a “river of fire,” seemingly referencing the mud from the Grail that burned Fuyuki. While he and Saber were the final two contestants of the War, Gilgamesh did indeed see Excalibur, and she disappeared before the river of fire started. Rather than retconning this, Nasu simply declared that it took place in a parallel universe. 

This is actually one of my biggest problems with the Nasuverse, and it was my biggest problem with DC: the fact that both franchises keep creating more and more universes in the name of “creative freedom” when a simple retcon would do. While good for the writers, this only ceases to confuse the fans in the long term, and it muddles a setting that’s already infamously dense and confusing. 

Fate/hollow ataraxia is a sequel to stay night, focusing on Shirou and new characters Bazett Fraga McRemitz and her Servant Avenger getting trapped in a four-day time loop. Type-Moon and Nasu didn’t want to invalidate the three routes of stay night by declaring one as “canon” and the other two as “non-canon.” As a result, this story does not continue from Fate, Unlimited Blade Works or Heaven’s Feel, instead taking place in a new universe that has elements from all three routes. Thus far, it does not have any adaptations, only ports of the visual novel to other systems. 

Of note is that—while never explicitly stated—the reason why hollow ataraxia seems to have elements from all three routes is implied to be because Rin fucked with the timeline. No, seriously. Remember that Jeweled Sword I mentioned earlier? In the opening chapters, her use of the sword causes some space-time fuckery, and she has to go to London to repair it, and it’s implied that her use of the sword is what caused all of the routes to merge. 

Lord El-Melloi II Case Files and The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II are both light novel series focusing on Waver Velvet, one of the masters in Fate/Zero, solving mysteries in the magical community. The former is set right before stay night and the latter is set right after. 

Garden of Avalon is a light novel focusing on Saber’s past, and it takes place in the same universe as the main stay night story. 

Fate/strange fake is a light novel set years either in its own universe, or in the same universe of Fate/stay night; in any event, it’s a fairly similar world set a few years after the events of its Fifth Holy Grail War, and Type-Moon hasn’t given a clear answer as to which possibility it is. Starting off as an April Fool’s novella that later became a light novel, strange fake focuses on a group of American Mages trying to recreate the Holy Grail War in Nevada. The end result is that there are essentially two Holy Grail Wars happening simultaneously: a True and a False one, each with their own Masters and Servants. Strange fake is an interesting anomaly in the Fate franchise, given that it seems to take place in the “main” stay night continuity but on the other side of the world and with different interpretations of certain characters like Gilgamesh. Or, like I mentioned earlier, we could also be dealing with a Fate/Zero situation and this might get later retconned as being in another world. 

Here’s where we start getting into the parallel timelines that tell entirely unrelated stories, unconnected to either Fate/Zero or Fate/stay night. Fate/kaleid liner prisma (sometimes called kaleid liner prisma Illya) is a manga series set in a world where the Fourth and Fifth Holy Grail Wars (Zero and stay night) never happened. This story moves away from the dark, action-packed style of stay night, instead being more of a magical girl story with Illya as the main character. Since the Fourth and Fifth Wars never happened, Shirou Emiya is her comical older brother, and Rin Tohsaka is their friend instead of their adversary. One of the main characters, Miyu, is an original character who never appeared in stay night, but she plays a major role in later story arcs. This manga is divided into three parts: the first part was published from 2007-2008, the second from 2009-2012, and the third and current part from 2012 to the present day. It also received multiple anime adaptations covering these three parts. 

Fate/kaleid liner prisma: Oath Under Snow (sometimes called Vow in the Snow) is set in yet another parallel timeline that also doesn’t have the Fourth and Fifth Grail Wars. It’s revealed that the character of Miyu isn’t actually a native of the aforementioned timeline. Rather, she’s a native from this universe. Oath Under Snow focuses on Miyu, her Shirou Emiya (who acts as her adoptive brother in much the same way he acts as Illya’s adoptive brother in the other timeline), their conflicts with the Ainsworth family, and how Miyu ended up in the magical girl timeline. I know that’s all really confusing, but you’re gonna have to bear with me because it gets worse. 

In Fate lore, the Holy Grail got corrupted by a Zoroastrian god named Angra Mainyu during the Third Holy Grail War. Angra Mainyu was part of the “Avenger class,” and he’s crucial to the lore of Zero and stay night. Fate/Apocrypha is a light novel set in an alternate timeline where instead of him being summoned, it was a historical Japanese leader named Amakusa Shiro, who was the Ruler instead of the Avenger. This created a butterfly effect that resulted in the Grail being stolen, and now, instead of there being one definitive Holy Grail War once a generation, several smaller Grail Wars popped up all over the world. 

Apocrypha is then set years later in the 2000s, and it focuses on the “Greater Holy Grail War,” a definitive attempt to put an end to all those knock-off Grail Wars. (If that doesn’t make any sense to you, don’t worry, it doesn’t need to. It’s admittedly a pretty weak explanation to justify a bunch of people fighting.) The Greater Grail War and all of Fate/Apocrypha is structured much differently than Zero or stay night; rather than focusing on a battle royale between seven Servants, it focuses on a team-based tournament where two teams of seven Servants are fighting. That means there are fourteen Servants total from literature, mythology, folklore and history. However, that doesn’t mean there are fourteen classes of Servants, just that there are two Servants of each class. IE there are two Sabers, two Riders, two Archers, that sort of thing. Apocrypha later received a manga adaptation and an anime adaptation. 

Fate: Lost Einherjar is a light novel set 10 years after Apocrypha, focusing on a Grail War where every Master summons two Servants. The series focuses heavily on Norse mythology, much moreso than the other installments of the series. Lost Einherjar is very new, but thus far has an extremely interesting premise, with the main character Remina (a member of the Yggdmillennia family) summoning the Archer Aslaug and her husband, the Berserker Ragnar.

Fate/Extra is a video game set in its own timeline. Focusing on a Holy Grail War on the moon, the game is a JRPG with characters taking control of a Master named Hakuno Kishinami, who can choose between many different Servants. Several Masters and Servants are parallel universe versions of the cast in stay night, who have the same name, powers and designs but different personalities and narrative functions. Instead of Saber being a genderbent King Arthur, Saber is a genderbent version of Emperor Nero Claudius. The game has three sequels: Fate/Extra CCC, Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star and Fate/Extella Link, and a manga called Fate/Extra CCC Foxtail focuses on the Caster present in Fate/Extra CCC. 

A remake of the first game called Fate/Extra Record has been announced. (Considering the Nasuverse’s penchant for remakes being set in alternate timelines, it’s a safe bet that it will be set in a separate universe entirely.) Furthermore, an anime titled Fate/Extra Last Encore is set in yet another alternate timeline; it’s technically an adaptation of the first game, though it’s a pretty loose adaptation, so it’s considered as being in its own timeline. 

Fate/type Redline is a manga set in a parallel universe, and honestly I have no idea where the hell this diverges from the main timeline, if it was ever part of the main timeline at all. This focuses on Kanata Akagi, a mage who’s participating in an “Imperial Holy Grail War” (whatever the fuck that means) that only has Japanese historical and mythological characters. 

Fate/Requiem is a light novel series set in a parallel universe that has Servants but not the Grail Wars. Again, I’m not sure where it diverges and there might not be a divergence point at all, but it’s a world where everyone has Servants except for the main character. Think of it as the Nasuverse version of Codex Alera or Black Clover. 

Fate/Prototype is an alternative version of the Fifth Holy Grail War. When Kinoko Nasu was first writing stay night, many of the characters were radically different. Saber was male, Shirou was a female magus named Ayaka Sajyou, her sister was the main villain, and more. This timeline received two spin-off prequels, fleshing out the backstory of this universe: Fate/Prototype: Fragments of Silver and Blue and Fate/Labyrinth. 

Fate/Grand Order is the magnum opus of the Fate franchise and maybe the Nasuverse overall. Grand Order is totally different in narrative structure, because it’s a mobile game that is ostensibly set in its own universe, but that’s completely null and void. Basically, it’s set in a world with no Holy Grail Wars of its own. The main characters are part of a time-traveling agency who have to correct anomalies across time and across all of the aforementioned universes. For my DC fans out there, think of Grand Order as the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” of the Nasuverse. For that reason, I’m not going to try to place it on the timeline at any one point because it explores all the major nooks and crannies of the whole multiverse. 

The game's narrative focuses on an organization called Chaldea, which the player character is a member of. Chaldea is dedicated to stopping anomalies in the space-time continuum called “Singularities.” Singularities can take place at any point in the Nasuverse timeline and at any place, including Fuyuki (the setting of stay night), Ancient Rome, Ancient Mesopotamia, London, and more. The game’s combat is turn-based, with the player character being a Master who controls multiple Servants at once. The narrative is divided into multiple Chapters focusing on a Singularity, and each Chapter makes up an overarching storyline called a “Record.” (If you’re a fan of anime and manga, it’s somewhat like how One Piece divides its narrative into Sagas, and each Saga is then subdivided into Arcs.) 

Later on, Grand Order’s narrative expanded. Record 1.5 instead focuses on a new Pseudo-Singularity with each chapter, and Record 2 focuses on a new “Lostbelt” with each chapter, with Lostbelts being essentially “failed timelines”. 

Fate/Grand Order has received a number of other games, anime, manga and stage adaptations covering major events in the game’s narrative:

• Fate/Grand Order Arcade is an arcade port of the game. 

• Fate/Grand Order VR feat. Mash Kyrielight is a virtual reality adaptation of the game. 

• Fate/Grand Order: Waltz in the Moonlight Lostroom is a rhythm game covering the same basic narrative beats. 

• The manga Fate/Grand Order: mortalis stella and Fate/Grand Order: turas realta both cover the first Record. They’ve both been ongoing since 2017, but they cover different parts of the story: they both cover the Prologue and first chapter, but mortalis stella also covers the second, fourth, sixth and eighth singularities; whereas turas realta covers the third, fifth, seventh and eighth singularities. 

• Fate/Grand Order: First Order is an animated film adaptation of the first chapter of the first Record. 

• The sixth chapter of the game, which focuses on Camelot, received both a two-part animated film adaptation from Production IG called Fate/Grand Order: Divine Realm of the Round Table - Camelot; AND a limited stage adaptation called Fate/Grand Order THE STAGE: Holy Round Table’s Domain Camelot - Replica ; Agateram. I’m not shtiting you, that’s the real title. 

• Cloverworks later adapted the seventh chapter of the game, which focuses on Babylonia, into an animated series called Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia. This chapter also received a stage adaptation, as well. 

• Fate/Grand Order Final Singularity - Grand Temple of Time: Solomon is an adaptation of the final chapter in the first Record. 

• All five Pseudo-Singularities in the Record 1.5 have received ongoing manga adaptations, most of which are titled Fate/Grand Order: Epic of Remnant and with some kind of subtitle. 

• Fate/Grand Order: Moonlight/Lostroom is a short anime film that acts as an interquel between Records 1.5 and 2. 

Part 2: Tsukihime:

One of the other major cornerstones of the Nasuverse, Tsukihime is a visual novel with several different routes focusing on protagonist Shiki Tohno, whose special “Mystic Eyes” allow him to slice apart objects. There are five routes organized into two main groups: “Far Side Routes” focus on the vampires of the Nasuverse and the power struggles between vampiric factions, and there’s one route for Arcueid and another for Ciel. The “Near Side Routes” focus on the secrets of the Tohno family, and there’s one route for the maid Hisui, one for her sister Kohaku, and one for Shiki’s sister Akiha. (Comparable to how Fate and UBW focus on the Holy Grail War but HF focuses on the secrets of the Matou family.) All of these routes can be presumed to be set in their own universes, separate from anything in the Fate universes. Tsukihime received an anime adaptation called Lunar Legend Tsukihime in 2003. 

There’s also Tsukihime PLUS+DISC, a fan disc w/ two additional short stories bundled with the base game, and Kagetsu Tohya, a collection of ten short stories that altogether act as a sequel (though in a very loose sense of the term). 

Hana no Miyako started off as a fanmade manga that was later canonized by Type-Moon. Taking place a few years after Tsukihime, it fleshes out the side character Miyako Arima, focusing on her adventures in a high school that ranks people by power. 

Melty Blood is a fighting game created by the absolutely delightful French Bread (who went on to create Under Night In Birth). Think of this almost as another route to the game, using the same basic characters but branching off and telling its own story. 

Tsukihime would later receive a full-blown remake in 2021 and 2022, which changed the location, time period and several story events. It’s a “remake” in the sense that Final Fantasy VIIR is a remake, which is to say it's more of a multi-part massive expansion on the original novel in its own continuity. Notably, this adds a whole new route based on Satsuki, a supporting character in the original game, making for a total of six routes. Just like with the original and stay night, given the multiversal nature of the Nasuverse, we can assume all of these take place in their own timelines. 

Appropriately, a new Melty Blood called Melty Blood Type Lumina was released in 2021 for this new continuity. While it’s still acting as an alternate route, Type Lumina 

Part 3: Other:

In this section, I’m going to go over other Nasuverse titles that aren’t related to Tsukihime or Fate, but are still important for lore purposes. The Garden of Sinners is considered by many to be the final cornerstone of the Nasuverse alongside Tsukihime and Fate/stay night, as well as the earliest Nasuverse work, introducing many important concepts and ideas. It is set in an alternate universe from any of the Tsukihime media, and it stars Shiki Ryougi, an alternate universe version of Shiki Tohno from Tsukihime who also has the Mystic Eyes, as well as two different personalities, one male and one female. Set in Japan in the 1990s, this is a novel and film series with many different “chapters,” all told out of order. The Garden of Sinners can primarily be thought of as two different narratives, first focusing on Shiki’s relationship with Mikiya Kokutou in high school, and then focusing on the two as private investigators after graduation. 

Given that their main characters are basically alternate universe versions of one-another, Tsukihime and The Garden of Sinners are mutually exclusive with one-another. However, Nasu has gone back and forth over the years on whether Tsukihime, Sinners and stay night are set in three separate universes; whether Tsukihime and stay night were in one universe and Sinners in another; or whether Sinners and stay night were in one universe and Tsukihime in another. The last explanation—with The Garden of Sinners taking place in the main world of Fate/stay night—seems to be the one they are sticking with for now, and a character from The Garden of Sinners plays a small but crucial role in the True Ending of the Heaven’s Feel route. 

Shiki gained their Mystic Eyes after a near-death experience, which is detailed in the 2008 ufotable movie The Garden of Sinners: Hollow Shrine. Furthermore, Mirai Fukunin is a bonus chapter to The Garden of Sinners, written years afterwards and taking place years after that original novel. 

Notes (also known as Angel Notes) is a short story set in the far future of the Nasuverse. In Nasuverse lore, celestial bodies of our solar system (Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, etc.) are represented by Eldritch abominations called “The Ultimate Ones.” Hell, the company Type-Moon is even named after the Ultimate One that represents our Moon. Notes / Angel Notes explores a future where Earth has been destroyed by these Ultimate Ones. 

Mahou Tsukai no Yoru sheds backstory on an important Tsukihime character, Aoko Aozaki. Taking place in the 1980s, it serves as a prequel to Tsukihime, but it also works as a prequel to The Garden of Sinners because those two share so much lore despite taking place in different universes. 

Clock Tower 2015 is a short story Kinoko Nasu wrote in 2015 that shows Aoko Aozaki going to the Clocktower, a famous school for Magi in the Nasuverse. According to Nasu, this is supposedly set in a world very similar to Grand Order, with the central difference being the character of Lev Lainur Flauros, who lives in Grand Order but perishes in this short story. 

DDD is thus far the only work written by Kinoko Nasu that doesn’t seem to connect to anything in the Nasuverse, to the point that fans aren’t entirely sure if it is set in the Nasuverse or its own entirely separate setting. In any event, it’s a two-volume light novel series focusing on demonic possessions giving people supernatural powers in Japan. 

The Room of the April Witch is a short story focusing on a witch named April, who only opens the door to her room on April 1st. No idea what it’s about and I’m not gonna read it, someone can give a more detailed explanation. 

Then there’s just the random shit that doesn’t actually mean anything and barely has a story, so I’ll fly through that:

• Capsule Servant, a Tower Defense mini game ported w/ hollow ataraxia. 

• Fate/stay tune was a radio show that was broadcasted with the voice actresses for Rin and Saber while the DEEN anime was airing. 

• Fate/tiger colosseum and Fate/unlimited codes, non-canon fighting games using stay night characters. 

• Fate/mahjong night Seihai Sensou, which retells the Fifth Holy Grail War but with mahjong instead of fighting. Because apparently the human race is just so starved for Fate content. 

• Fate/school life is a gag manga focusing on minor characters in stay night going to high school. It later received an anime adaptation called Fate/Grand Order x Himuro’s World: Seven Most Powerful Great Figures Chapter. 

• Mahou Tsukai no Hako, a multimedia series focusing on Type-Moon’s mascots. 

• Learn with Manga! Fate/Grand Order is a manga series that focuses on teaching readers how to play Fate Grand Order. When your gacha mobile game is so complicated it needs a manga and three sequels just to teach you how to play it, you know something’s gone wrong. 

And, at long last, what you all came here for: the parodies. Nobody loves making fun of Type-Moon more than Type-Moon, and they’ve released several pieces of media that take their action-packed, horrifying fantasy stories and turn them into cutesy slice-of-life pieces. 

• Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family is based around Shirou’s love for cooking. It’s an anime and manga that focuses on Shirou cooking for the whole cast of stay night, and it’s actually really fucking informative about cooking Japanse dishes. 

• All Around Type-Moon, Carnival Phantasm and the manga Take Moon all take characters from Fate/stay night, Tsukihime and The Garden of Sinners and put them in comical situations, such as Rider going grocery shopping, Shirou and Shiki Tohno trying to date multiple girls at once, and Rin and Archer street racing, apparently. Chibichuki covers much the same ground, but with a super-deformed Chibi artstyle. 

• Fate/Grand Carnival is pretty much the same as Carnival Phantasm, but instead of using characters from Fate/stay night, Tsukihime and The Garden of Sinners it uses characters from Fate/Grand Order. Which makes sense, as many of the characters in Grand Order are entirely original characters made for that game, and that game already has plenty of comedic elements. 

So yeah! That’s a fuck ton of media, and the vast majority is complete and total fluff. At the very least, I hope you all enjoyed this video and I hope this helps anyone trying to get into the Nasuverse understand what the hell is going on. Goodbye everyone!