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Fate/Grand Order & Fate/Prisma Illya: Pandora and the Lostbelts

F/PI is an interesting series lore-wise, with the Miyuverse having some interesting implications for other Fate franchises. The most interesting character from F/PI in my opinion is Pandora. One thing I will mention is that some of the lore topics described here can be subject to change with more concrete translations of F/PI, as Nasuverse lore can be very particular in its wording. The Pandora of Fate is very similar to the version we have in the real world, a woman created by the Greek Gods to keep watch over a box or pithos. Pandora’s box holds an interesting function in F/PI, from what I can tell it holds a copy or backup of the world which can be used to restore the planet if humanity were ever to fall. To ensure Pandora can live long enough to see this future, her death is sealed within the box as well, making her functionally immortal until the box is opened. In the Illyaverse of F/PI Pandora opens the box some time in the past and dies normally. However, in the Miyuverse this does not happen, with no myth regarding the death of Pandora existing in that timeline. This allows Pandora to be alive in the current events of F/PI. 

Pandora’s Box has some interesting properties. It seems to act like a portable storage device utilising a separate plane, very similar to a Bag of Holding from Dungeons and Dragons. Within this plane is a copy of the Starlog, a concept from F/PI that is similar to a record of the world and its history. However, it has been stated to not only contain the “Hope” of the world but also its “despair” and most interestingly its “failed possibilities”. Now without a cannon translation, we can’t tell 100% if the terminology used would be the same but this sounds very similar to the pruned timelines from the Great Tree Known as Time. Pandora’s Box could have some sort of connection to these failed timelines, being able to store them inside itself, having copies of timelines that would turn into Lostbelts if left unpruned. 

The confirmed things within the “mud” of the box also seem to strengthen this connection with pruned timelines. The corrupted heroes seen in Chapter 22, were said to be those who sought out the grail and failed. Their failure could have led to the downfall of their timelines, though this is purely a theory. The Class Cards utilised by Darius Ainsworth that contains the Apneic Beauty and Authoritarian Personalism Noble Phantasms are also derived from Pandora's Box. However, it is noted by Kid-Gil that they don’t appear in Gate Of Babylon, which is a very peculiar fact. GoB contains the prototypes of all the world’s Noble Phantasms, with very few exceptions. Broadly speaking the only things that don’t appear in GoB are weapons of an extraterrestrial origin and most divine constructs. Whilst there’s the possibility that the weapons/magic used to create these Class Cards fit these criteria, another possibility is that they are derived from objects found within a different timeline which has its data stored within Pandora’s Box. The fact that it’s mentioned that Kid-Gil specifically does not recognise these makes me think that it’s an important piece of information. Though this is just a theory that I’ve had for a while, I’d be very interested to see if any connection is confirmed with new content.

With Lostbelt 7 and the end of Part 2 of F/GO approaching it would be interesting to see if Pandora’s Box is utilised in any of the future F/GO story. We’ve seen fate spin-offs interact with the main story of F/GO before, with the Ishtar of Fate/Strange Fake taking Gulglanna from the Ishtar of F/GO in the Babylonia chapter. I would be very interested, considering the Kaliedosticks Ruby and Sapphire are derived from the Second Magic (Kaleidoscope, which involves the interaction with parallel timelines), to see if a Crypter, the Alien God or even Chaldea somehow gets their hands on this Noble Phantasm.

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[Fate/Grand Order] Grand Lancer: Romulus=Quirinus and why he’s cool

The Grand Lancer shown in Lostbelt 5.2, Romulus=Quirinus, is personally one of my favourite Grand Servants. I want to bring to light some of the connections I found between his in-game and real-life versions and hopefully bring up something you might not have known. 

Why is he ‘Romulus=Quirinus’? This is because, after his death, Romulus was deified as Quirinus, a deity of the Sabines. This could be due to multiple reasons but the explanation I think F/GO uses is the one shown in Plutarch’s Life of Romulus, where Romulus actually disappears instead of dying and tells a noble named Proculus Julius to tell the people of Rome that he takes the form of the god Quirinus. Romulus was later deified as Quirinus historically cementing the relationship between these two figures. 

Why is he Grand Lancer? This is mostly due to the etymology of Quirinus as a name. Life of Romulus states that Quirinus is derived from ‘quiris’ which means spear-head. As such Quirinus was a surname given to Romulus because he was the ‘spear wielding’ god. The fact that Romulus himself was already a Servant of great renown, pathing the way for possibly the greatest empire in human history gives another meaning to the term spear-head as his bio states he “clear[s] the way for civilisation”. 

Does he have a connection with Heracles? Romulus=Quirinus’ bio, which I had to get of the wiki as I don’t have him :(, states that he has a Noble Phantasm which is unused in-game called Nine Lives Rome. This is stated to be a version of Heracles’ Slaying A Hundred Heads that he developed after Mars, Romulus’ father, watched Heracles fight. However, there is a tidbit of information that may show a connection between these two figures, although there’s a larger than not possibility that it's a coincidence. Quirinus is stated in a report I found to be a potential last name of Heracles, or at least has some sort of connection with him, this could be the reason why he has this Noble Phantasm. The report used is also really interesting, although it is in french so copious use of google translate might be required.

Why is he so powerful? Romulus=Quirinus acts as the deus ex machina of Lostbelt 5.2, helping Chaldea out against Lostbelt King Zeus, who was capable of destroying the planet. How is our Grand Lancer supposed to be similar in strength to that? Is there some mythological reason? There’s not too much known about Quirinus as a god, seeing as he seems to predate the founding of Rome. However, we do have some info to go on. In OG Romulus’ materials bio (from FGO Materials I, which I’ve linked below) it is said that Quirinus has a connection with both Zeus and Mars. This connection is reflected in real life as the grouping of Zeus, Quirinus and Mars is thought to be the precursor group to the Capitoline Triad of Gods called the Archaic Triad. Though this grouping is disputed by scholars it's interesting that the materials display this stark connection. Perhaps this is the reason why Romulus=Quirinus can compete against Zeus, as he was part of a triad with the king of the gods himself. It really makes the final fight against Zeus, with Ares assisting us, a whole lot more interesting if there's more of a connection there.

What's up with his summoning? In Lostbelt 5.2 Grand Lancer is summoned in a pretty convoluted way, with Ares and Caligula being used for a chain summon of Romulus=Quirinus. Caligula being used makes some sense, being a fellow emperor of Rome, but what about Ares? Mars was said to be the father of Romulus and there’s the connection of the Archaic Triad but is that all? Another interesting connection, which again is probably a coincidence but I find fascinating, comes in the form of the God Enyalius. Enyalius is another war-like deity that is frequently syncretised with Ares, but other times isn’t. The interesting part comes from when these Greek deities were referenced by the Roman writer Polybius in his history (I found a book on Enyalius which brings this up). Whilst Ares is referred to as Mars, Enyalius is referred to as Quirinus. Even if unintentional that's a really interesting connection. 

Hopefully, this was interesting, again Romulus=Quirinus is one of my favourite Grand Servants up there with Gramps himself. If you find anything interesting about Romulus please let me know, he’s such an interesting figure. 

Plutarch’s Life of Romulus: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/plutarch/lives/romulus*.html

Quirinus, an ancient thundering god? New hypotheses on its etymology and primitive nature: 

Romulus’ Materials Translation: 

Linguistic and Cultural Interactions between Greece and Anatolia (It’s the book which talks about Enyalius, its a paid book but the reference is in the part thats previewed here): https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004461598/BP000011.xml

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[Elden Ring] Speculation: Mohg and the Crucible

When I first started playing Elden Ring the aspect of the lore that intrigued me the most was the Crucible. Due to this, I’ve had a bunch of crazy ideas about it in relation to some of the other big players of Elden Ring, and I thought I’d share one of them here. This is all very speculative and could be made redundant with the addition of DLC, but I thought I’d post it and see If anyone else had similar ideas or their own theories on the Crucible. 

So this theory speculates that the Formless Mother, the Outer God associated with Mohg, enhances/accentuates the already present Omen curse within him. There is a connection between the Crucible and several ‘cursed’ beings within the Lands Between. The Winged Misbegotten Ashes state that the Misbegotten have at some point had contact with the Crucible and both of the named Omen characters, Mohg and Morgott, are the offspring of Godfrey, who led the Crucible Knights, and most likely has had some exposure to the Crucible. It should also be noted that the Misbegotten and the Omen display traits which are also present within Crucible talismans and incantations. Scaly Misbegotten have scales and tails, Winged Misbegotten have tails and wings, the Omen have horns and the royal Omen twins both have horns and tails. This would suggest a link between these curses and some sort of activation or exposure to the Crucible. This connection had been in my head since I first played the game blind but MadLuigi’s video on the Omen Curse and the Crucible helped to reinforce that connection (also go check him out his content is great). 

Now in relation to specifically Mohg and the Formless Mother, I believe she was drawn to Mogh due to her own connection with cursed blood, as stated by the Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear. Is it possible that in Mohg’s second phase, after his use of the Bloodboon Ritual, the Formless Mother enhances Mohg’s Omen curse? Visually the only change in Mohg’s design, apart from the addition of bloodflame to his weapon, after the use of Nihil/Bloodboon Ritual is the addition of large wings. Could this be the Formless Mother accentuating another aspect of the Crucible within Mohg that he didn’t express before? Personally, I think the connection between the Omen and the Crucible is quite strong but let me know what you think. Also if you want some information on Mohg specifically then I strongly recommend Smoughtown’s amazing video on the subject. Please let me know what you all think!

MadLuigi’s The Omen Curse and the Primordial Crucible Video:

Smoghtown’s Mohg Lord of Blood Video: 

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[Bloodborne] Kos and the Drifting-Ashore Gods

Kos, or some say Kosm, is one of the most enigmatic Great Ones of Bloodborne’s mythos. The interaction her corpse has with the villagers of the fishing hamlet, whilst dripping with Lovecraftian influence, is also heavily rooted in Japanese belief. The most striking comparison is between Kos and the Hyochakushin, the drifting-ashore god. 

Before the implementation of the keel, Japanese fishing boats were limited to a small area along the coast where they could safely fish. However, sometimes whales would, in a process called passive whaling, beach themselves on the shore. Much like a cargo cult, these people did not know where this bounty came from and saw it as a blessing from the gods. 

Kos acts very similarly to this, her corpse washes ashore near the fishing hamlet and in turn provides blessings to the hamlet���s residents in the form of the Kos Parasites or the slug-like creatures we see throughout the fishing hamlet. This is similar to how the bodies of these beached whales would draw in schools of fish, which would also be seen as a blessing from the Hyochakushin. The hamlet's residents worship the corpse as “Mother Kos”, and are subsequently transformed into the fish-like creatures we see in the Hunter’s Nightmare, most likely through ingestion of the Kos Parasites. 

One of my favourite things about Bloodborne’s lore is that although there is a huge Gothic and Lovecraftian influence, we see scatterings of other influences which make Bloodborne’s lore both recognisable and refreshing. Just an interesting connection I wanted to share. I hope this allows others to find more interesting connections within these games, if you have any feel free to share them with me.

Honestly, I’ve had this connection in my head for a while so sourcing where I got these ideas from is a bit hard. I think the main idea came from a podcast done by Sophie and Sin of Sinclair Lore (please go check these guys out their work is great), but I don’t remember the specific video since I listen to them at work so I’ll link their entire channel. There are also a couple of blogs I ran into when looking up some info for some worldbuilding I was writing so I’ll link those as well. If there are any other sources that show these ideas please let me know.

Sinclair Lore Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/sinclairlore

Some links about the Hyochakushin/Whales as Gods: https://hyakumonogatari.com/2013/05/10/bakekujira-and-japans-whale-cults/