Nasuverse
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The term Nasuverse is used to refer to the universe in which all of Kinoko Nasu's works take place in, with the exception of one of his earlier works, Kara No Kyoukai, a novel that could be said to be the prototype of Tsukihime, which is set in an alternative universe. The world's setting is modern day earth, with the exception that supernatural forces such as vampires and sorcery are confirmed to exist, although unknown by the majority of the populace, and organizations like the Catholic Church do their best to keep it this way.
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[edit] Concepts of the Nasuverse
[edit] Gaia and the planets
In the Nasuverse, the planets of the Solar System are sentinient and each, with the exception of Earth, has an ultimate being that can be considered the "ruler" of the planet. The naming convention for these beings are Type-Planet name, so the ultimate being of venus would be Type-Venus. The Types mainly feature in an early work by Kinoko Nasu, Angel Notes, which is set in the future of the Nasuverse, where Gaia has perished due to the effects of humanity, and all the Types arrive on earth to wipe out humanity, presumably for revenge or out of fear that humanity would in time, kill off the other planets.
[edit] Alaya
Humanity has a sentinient will to protect them as well, Alaya, which is born out of humanity's desire to survive. Alaya is a sentinient entity that will protect humanity and ensures it survives no matter the cost. Alaya is not good or evil, it simply only cares about the survival of humanity. For example, if one man were to build a weapon capable of destroying the entire world, and by extension the whole of humanity, he would simply be eliminated, and anyone who stands in the way will be eliminated as well. If necessary a million people will be killed to kill this man, sacrificing the minority for the survival of the species.
To do this Alaya maintains a place outside time called "The Throne of Heroes", where the souls of particularly powerful heroes reside, known as "Heroic spirits" or "Eirei", to be called as a Counter Guardian to eradicate threats to humanity. There are 2 known ways for a soul to enter the Throne of Heroes, one is to be a particularly powerful human Gilgamesh from Fate/Stay Night is an example, or for one to make a pact with the world, in exchange for something, the human agrees to have his soul serve as a Counter-Guardian for eternity. Archer became a Eirei from this method. The specifics on how to make this pact are unknown.
Alaya is often at odds with Gaia, the world, because the survival of Gaia is not necessary for the survival of humanity, and at the current rate that humanity is progressing, humanity will kill Gaia with environmental damage but still survive.
[edit] Sorcery and Magic
Sorcery can best be described as re-creating effects that are scientifically possible, such as creating flame, repairing a window, so on and so forth. Anyone with a magic circuit can learn Sorcery, how far one can progress depends on their talent, someone who uses sorcery is called a Sorcerer. Magic is much much rarer in modern day, while sorcery can re-create any scientifically possible effect (in theory), magic deals with the impossible and the realisation of miracles, such as time travel. In the past, magic was much more common, and so was high grade sorcery that was very close to magic. Over time however, magic gradually became rarer and rarer, partly due to the growth of Science that replaced Sorcery in Human Culture. In modern day, there are now only 5 known users of True Magic, called "Magicians". It is known that the wielder of the First Magic is currently deceased, the 3rd wielder is Zelretch, and the 5th is Aoko Aozaki.
To use sorcery, one needs to be born with at least one magic circuit, and in the past, circuits were much more common. It is not possible to "implant" magic circuits into your body from others, as they will not be able to synchronise with your body and will have severe side effects. The more magic circuits you have, the more mana you can "output" at one time. For example a sorcerer with 50 circuits may be able to produce a fireball to destroy a wall, a sorcerer with 1000 would probably be able to raze several city blocks at once with ease. Mana is the "supply" of sorcerers and mages, they use mana to cast spells. Mana regains naturally with rest, but may also be transferred via bodily fluids, in other words blood tranfusions, saliva, or sperm. Poor sorcerers may sell their sperms to the Mage's Association as a supply of mana.
The old sorcerer families are usually the ones who give birth to heirs with exceptionally high amount of magic circuits and talent with sorcery. Over time however, several families have "died out", usually because their blood intermingled with non-sorcerers and thinned to the point where they couldnt use sorcery at all. In such cases they may have the knowledge, but not the circuits to use it. That is not to say that over time people will stop being born with magic circuits, from time to time someone may be born with magic circuits even though their family has no such history, however this is rare, and most never even realise they are capable of using sorcery.
The proof of a sorcerer is usually in the form of a seal that is on their body somewhere. It is passed down from the head of the family to the heir, which must be a blood relative. As a sorcerer gains more and more accomplishments, he adds to the design of the seal, those long established families all have very complex seals. Because there can only be one heir, most families try to limit the teachings of sorcery to just the heir which is usually the eldest child, because no matter what the other sibling does, he can never inherit the seal, and it would all be wasted. Many families have a practice of sending the younger siblings away to be adopted to prevent complications.
Most sorcerers are part of the Mage's Association, which has their headquarters in London. The association can be considered a academy, a place for sorcerers to learn the workings of sorcery, to share secrets and to obtain equipment and materials for their research. What isnt known is that the leaders of the association have a policy of sealing away the most promising sorcerers, those that are close to achieving true magic, so that they can use their research for their own purposes. This is directly contradictatory to what the association stands for, as every sorcerer's goal is to "understand the root of all things" and achieve true magic, which is why this policy isnt widely known. In the association, there are highly trained combat sorcerers designated for the tasks of hunting down those sorcerers designated to be sealed. Bazett Fraga McRemitz used to be one such sorcerer. Those sorcerers designated to be sealed have no choice but to run away and live a fugitive life, until they can hopefully achieve true magic, at which point they are likely to be too dangerous for the association to pursue anymore. Touko Aozaki, Aoko Aozaki's sister is one such sorcerer on the run.
| TYPE-MOON |
|---|
| Staff |
| Kinoko Nasu | Takashi Takeuchi |
| Visual novels (the "Nasuverse") |
| Tsukihime | Kagetsu Tohya | Fate/stay night | Fate/hollow ataraxia | Fate/Zero |
