Illya

Illyasviel von Einzbern

	Also known asEinzbern's White Holy Grail
	AffiliationEinzbern
	ServantBerserker
	GenderFemale
	BirthdayUnknown
	Height133 cm
	Weight34 kg
	Place of originGermany

Background

The Einzbern, one of three families of sorcerers involved in the Holy Grail War (the others being the Tohsaka and the Makiri/Matou), were responsible for creation of the vessel which the souls of the defeated Servants would go into, while the Makiri created the system of Masters and Servants and the Tohsaka supplied the land which became Fuyuki City. As such, Illya was prepared by her family to act as a living vessel for the Grail.

*Illya playing with Kiritsugu for the last time before the Grail War*

Illyasviel is a homunculus, an artificial human given life by applying sorcery to sperm cells, originally created and raised by the Einzbern family. During the Heaven's Feel scenario, it is insinuated that the sperm used to create her was donated by Kiritsugu Emiya, a fact that is confirmed in Fate/hollow ataraxia and Fate/Zero. She is the biological daughter of Kiritsugu Emiya and Irisviel von Einzbern, Irisviel was gifted a working womb so she gave natural birth to Illya. She will be Kiritsugu's reason for living when he comes back from the war. She is actually slightly older than Shirou, her childlike appearance being a result of a distorted growth rate. Because the head of the family Jubstacheit von Einzbern anticipated the possibility that Kiritsugu and Irisviel would fail to win the Fourth Holy Grail War, he allowed Illyasviel to be born with modifications to allow her to become the Holy Grail should a Fifth Holy Grail War occur.

Personality

Illya is cheerful and outgoing, upbeat and generally exhibits a positive attitude. Possessing a friendly demeanor, she is easy to talk to and tends to be playful and mischievous. Deep inside, however, Illya is lonely as she has no friends her own age to play with and is often stuck inside the Einzbern castle honing her magecraft. She asks those she feels comfortable around to call her "Illya".

It can be said that Illya gets her outward personality from her mother. Like her mother, she is kind and has the qualities of a child. However, she also has a measure of her father in her, as she can be callous and kill others without remorse.

Abilities

Illya has unsurpassed potential as a Master amongst all Masters past and present. 70% of her body is composed of Magic Circuits. They are also her Command Spell and show themselves as a red pattern all over her body when she generates magical energy. The power of her Command Spell is strong enough to control Berserker who can disobey normal Command Spells. Her Command Spell is carved all over her body, and the number of her Magic Circuits overwhelms that of a typical magus. These factors and many more make her almost a vessel that exists to win the Holy Grail War. Illya has an unlimited supply of mana, thus allowing her to control Berserker without too much difficulty. Still, she suppresses the rank of Mad Enhancements to make it easy to control him when out of combat.

Using single strands of her hair, she can create high-performance bird familiars, called "Zelle" (German for "cell"), similar to the wire construct wielded by her mother. They are autonomous beings that defend her and pursue targets automatically, strong enough to defend against Rin's Gandr shots, fast enough to dodge them, and shown to be able to fire small blasts of magical energy capable of easily shooting through them. They each generate a considerable amount of magical energy, and Rin compares each to a "miniature magus." She can easily create up to four without any issue, and she can change their shape into swords, called "Degen" (German for Épée), for greater attack power.

Role

Illya travels to Japan to participate in the Fifth Holy Grail War as the master of Berserker. During the initial stages of the war, she lives in the Einzbern Castle on the outskirts of Fuyuki City, accompanied only by her Servant and two maids Leysritt and Sella.

The reason Saber never mentioned Illya in the Fifth Holy Grail War was that she had never asked Irisviel about her daughter’s name, and Illya’s appearance seemed physically too young for her to be Irisviel’s daughter. So, she viewed Illya as an Einzbern homunculus completely unrelated to Irisviel.

Fate
In the Fate route, Illya initially appears as an enemy to Shirou Emiya. Unbeknownst to Shirou, his adopted father had been the Master for the previous War, representing the Einzbern family. Kiritsugu's decision to destroy the Holy Grail had been regarded as a betrayal and is the apparent reason for why Illya has decided to specifically target Shirou. After Saber is weakened after her fight against Rider, Shirou is captured by Illya, who gives him the proposition to become her servant, which he refuses. Frustrated with his response, she orders Berserker to attack Rin, Saber and Archer, who had come to save Shirou. Archer sacrifices himself in order to allow Rin, Saber, and Shirou to escape, by staying behind to fight Berserker despite knowing he is outmatched. He manages to take six of Berserker's twelve lives (five in the anime) before he is ultimately defeated. In order to replenish Saber's mana, Shirou gives a part of his magical circuit to her in Réalta Nua and they go fight against Illya and Berserker. Berserker is defeated by Saber and Shirou after the latter traces Caliburn, Saber's original sword. Without the protection of her Servant, Illya joins Shirou's household. She lives peacefully with Shirou and winds up being by Taiga. Notably, she is somewhat attached to Shirou, and believing Taiga to be an annoyance, she is often at odds with her. However, according to Zouken Matou, she has less than a year to live due to being an Einzbern homunculi.
Unlimited Blade Works
In the Unlimited Blade Works route, she has a lesser role. She introduces herself as a Master to Shirou and Rin, but since the most dangerous servant in the route is Caster, she doesn't attack them. In order to defeat Caster, Shirou and Rin decide to form an alliance with Illya. However, they arrive too late at her castle and Illya is defeated and killed by Gilgamesh after the latter rips her heart out of her body. Before dying, her past together with Berserker is fully expanded, revealing that after Kiritsugu left her, Illya went through a cruel training by the Einzberns so she could be able to control Berserker and be their representative in the Grail War.
Heavens Feel
During Heaven's Feel, Illya does the same thing that she did in Fate: upon realizing that Kiritsugu is dead, she decides to take revenge on Shirou. She attacks Rin and Shirou by surprise and Shirou gets injured after protecting Saber. When they meet again in the park, she forms a friendly relationship with Shirou and they chat frequently in the park. She tells him about her past and about the Dress of Heaven. She also appears to be aware of the relationship between Shirou and Archer. llya is later attacked by Zouken Matou after Berserker is defeated by Saber Alter and corrupted into becoming one of Sakura Matou's Servants. Once Berserker is destroyed, Illya reveals the truth regarding Heaven's Feel, the Holy Grail, and Angra Mainyu, the corruption in the Grail. Together with Rin, they work together to replicate the Jeweled Sword of Zelretch, which Illya intends to wield against Sakura, who has become a second vessel for the corrupted contents of the Grail. Illya remains behind while Shirou and Rin confront Sakura, extracting a promise that they will return alive. If the affection score for her is high enough, it results in Sakura's True Ending (if the affection score is low, she regretfully kills Shirou resulting in a Bad End). Illya wearing the Dress of Heaven appears in front of Zouken Matou and asks him why he must keep himself alive. Meanwhile, Shirou cancelled the connection between Sakura and Angra Mainyu, so she starts retrieving the defeated Servants' soul. And she stops Shirou who is about to sacrifice himself to destroy the Greater Grail. Illya reveals to Shirou that she is his older sister and tells him that her duty is to protect him because of it. By the use of the Dress of Heaven, she materializes his soul incompletely and gives him a portion of her body as his soul's temporary container. Now then she closes Gates of Heaven as a Grail.