The Holy Grail
As years pass, the mud from the Fuyuki Grail keeps crashing into the waves of the flooded world from underneath the sea. While the flood keeps the Grail Mud at bay, a small percentage of mana manages to filter through the waters, albeit changed and rendered harmless due to the small quantity that makes it through. However, this mana that fills the air is incapable of being used by normal mages due to its changes, hence why humans require artificial circuits in order to filter it and control it with their natural circuits.
But sometimes, that harmless mana in the atmosphere coalesces into something greater. Sometimes, multiple sources of mana filtered by the flood return to a single mass, finding other traces of energy like itself, until it eventually manifests into a miniature Holy Grail.
When a miniature Grail appears, it is usually in a populated location, often a nomadic city. There, it awaits for a certain number of Masters and Servants to be gathered and start a Holy Grail War, after which it manifests in a more physical form when enough blood and mana has been spilled. If a certain amount of time passes and a Holy Grail War has not started, then the Grail will vanish and reappear in another nomadic city.
Grail Sightings
The first documented case of a new Grail being discovered was in Season 5, in the Epoque Holy Grail War in 2077. It is capable of granting simple wishes, and unresponsive if a wish is asked from it that goes beyond human limits/cannot be supported by the amount of mana it has at hand.
The discovery of these Grails has caused both the Church and Republic to go on high alert, since Grail sightings are signs that the Grail Mud’s mana is leaking into the atmosphere. Both factions seek to collect these Grails from the winners, if possible, so that they may study them for a wide variety of reasons.
Ever since the events of Season 3, the rate of Grail sightings has increased. This is due to a myriad of factors, namely:
- The events of Nirvana have caused a higher percentage of mana from the Grail Mud to leak into the atmosphere, greatly accelerating the rate that new Grails are formed.
- The Grail Mud is getting slightly more active, since it has become ‘hopeful’ due to the hole in the flood’s defenses that was caused by Nirvana.
The Holy Grail Chip
Both Republic and Church S.E.R.V.A.N.T. frames are made from 10% of the data of the Holy Grail, giving them several pros. and cons. along with a separate set of features. Data obtained from the study of the ‘wild Grails’ that have started to spawn around the globe is also put towards research into frames in an attempt to create frames capable of holding more than 10% of the Grail’s data.