Magic Crest

are the most important treasure of a lineage of magi.
==Overview==
Rin crest.jpg|Rin Tohsaka activating her Magic Crest in front of Shirou.
Shirou magic crest.jpg|Shirou Emiya with part of Rin's Magic Crest transplanted.
Aozaki Crest.jpg|Aoko Aozaki's Magic Crest.
Animusphere Magic Crest.jpg|Olga Marie with the Animusphere Magic Crest.
Istari Crest.png|The Istaris' Magic Crest.
Waver Magic Crest.jpg|The Velvet Magic Crest.
Guishen 0420ev100201a1.jpg|Touko Aozaki's stolen Magic Crests.
Kazuhito crest.png|Kazuhito Sakagami's Magic Crest.
RoaMagicCrest2.jpeg|Michael Roa Valdamjong's Magic Crest.
Tsukumo Fujimiya's Crest.jpg|Tsukumo Fujimiya's Magic Crest.
Fujimaru Ritsuka Magic Circuit-Crest.jpg|Ritsuka Fujimaru's Magic Circuit/Magic Crest.
Engraved on the body in a variety of shapes, most typically in a magic circle, a Magic Crest is a series of Magic Circuits that were given a more stable form in order to act as an archive of Thaumaturgical capability. 
At some point of the magus’ life, he will forge some of his own Magic Circuits into the Magic Crest, store many, if not all, spells that he learned in life and then pass it down to his successor. As the process repeats itself with each new generation, the older a lineage is, the greater the number of Magic Circuits forming the Magic Crest, and the greater the amount of knowledge stored inside it. It is the duty of any heir of a family of magi to successfully expand and pass down the Magic Crest to the next generation.
As the complexity of the Magic Crest increases with each new generation, the spells stored inside them become more stable and easier to activate. As long as the Magic Crest is completely integrated with the magus' body, he will be able to cast any spell recorded in the Magic Crest, even if he himself never had the chance to learn it properly. All he has to do is to activate the Magic Crest just like he would do to a normal Magic Circuit (by running magical energy inside of it), find the spell stored inside and activate it with its relevant Incantation and thaumaturgical process.Fate/stay night - Unlimited Blade Works route - Day 5: Bonnie And Clyde - Tohsaka Rin (III) 
Furthermore, it is possible to use it to support the magus' regular spellcasting and, whenever the magus gets heavily injured, the Magic Crest is capable of keeping them alive for as long as there is still magical energy inside their body.Fate/stay night - Heaven's Feel route - Day 16: FINAL - To Angra ManyuFate/Apocrypha Volume 3: Triumphal Return of the Saint - Chapter 3Lord El-Melloi II Case Files Volume 1: case. Adra Castle Separation - Chapter 4 Part 1Lord El-Melloi II Case Files Volume 4: case. Mystic Eyes collection train (Upper) - Chapter 4 Part 2Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt - Olympus: Interstellar Mountain City - Section 25: That Is, Someone That Doesn't Possess a Birthplace 
Location of the Magic Crest varies: Rin Tohsaka has hers on her left arm,Fate/stay night Prologue - Day 3 Kiritsugu Emiya had his on his back,Fate/Zero Volume 2: The Mad Feast of Kings - Act 6 Part 4 -130:45:08 Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi had his on his shoulders,Fate/Zero Volume 2: The Mad Feast of Kings - Act 7 Part 3 -130:32:31 and Gray has it on her right hand,Lord El-Melloi II Case Files Volume 7: case. Atlas Contract (Lower) - Chapter 2 Part 3 while Heine Istari had it on his leg,Lord El-Melloi II Case Files Volume 1: case. Adra Castle Separation - Chapter 2 Part 3 and Olga Marie's is located on her forehead.Lord El-Melloi II Case Files: Grace Note - Rail Zeppelin 3/6: A Sibyl, Decision, and Child of Einnashe
Although the Magic Crest is a set of Magic Circuits independent from those natural to a magus’ body, and cannot be detected when no magical energy is being passed through them, transplantation of a Magic Crest is still very much like that of an internal organ and thus can only be done to a compatible host.Fate/stay night - Fate route - Day 7: Sword & Magic (I) - Lectures on magic by Tohsaka-Sensei. What a Magic Crest is.Fate/stay night Réalta Nua - Unlimited Blade Works route - Day 15: After image - Memories in the OceanFate/Apocrypha Volume 3: Triumphal Return of the Saint - Chapter 2Lord El-Melloi II Case Files Volume 1: case. Adra Castle Separation - Chapter 1 Part 2 Normally that would mean someone who shares blood relation with the magus, but that is not an unbreakable standard. 
Even between close relatives, the chances of rejection are high. Therefore, in order to increase the chances of success, the transplant is done slowly throughout the heir’s childhood, so that their bodies can get accustomed to the presence of the Magic Crest as they mature,Fate/hollow ataraxia - 10/08 - Streets - Crest Fever the different stages of transplantation lasting up until the end of puberty.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 2: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Upper) - Chapter 3 Part 3 Furthermore, the use of medicines made of special herbs and crushed bone is normal during the whole process, although bloodlines with a long history of 500 years or more have achieved a genetic uniformity that allow them to overcome the need for that altogether.Fate/hollow ataraxia - 10/10 - Streets - Rin's magic lesson Even an accustomed magus can catch a fever from the Magic Crest's foreign presence if they are not careful.
Despite all the troubles, the Magic Crest is still a highly valued article for any magus. But since usually only one person can inherit it, troubles can arise when there is more than one candidate. It’s not unheard of for bloody feuds to erupt within a clan of magi because of a dispute between two or more children fighting over the family’s Magic Crest. It was because of that and other reasons that the current trend of only one heir per family (and the consequential policy of forsaking or excluding all other children) came to be.
In a sense, Runes,Kara no Kyoukai - 4/The Hollow Shrine - /5 magic jewels,Fate/stay night - Unlimited Blade Works route - Day 7: Ghostwaltz - "Tohsaka Rin (IV)" and Command SpellsFate/Zero Volume 3: The Scattered Ones - Act 12 Part 4 -58:16:21 can be considered simplified forms of Magic Crests. GrimoiresMahoutsukai no Yoru - Chapter 12: "Witch on the Holy Night II" are similar in function to Magic Crests as they store spells and Thaumaturgical Systems from eras past. The Mage's Association also has the capability of extracting just the Magic Crest from the body and storing it, as was done to Waver Velvet.Lord El-Melloi II Case Files Volume 2: case. Twin Towers of Iselma (Upper) - Prologue
Magic Crests are only used by magi who use the style of magecraft used by the Mage's Association. Other magecraft styles and organizations have their own counterparts, such as the Philosophy Keys used by the Spiral Manor in China.The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II Volume 2: The Devil of the Wandering Sea (Upper) - Chapter 2 Part 4
It is possible, due to many different factors, that Magic Crests negatively affect their host. Rosalind Istari, after her brother's escape, had the Magic Crest of the Istari family transplanted into her by her presumably impatient father within just a year, and the consequence of such an act was that most of her life force was stolen.
Despite all of the restrictions that come with the transferring of the Magic Crest, Gray is able to have the Blackmore Magic Crest despite not being from the Blackmore bloodline. This is because the Blackmores' Magic Crest has had no magecraft added to it through the generations. Its only function is to allow the owner to manipulate Add, the Mystic Code passed down through Blackmore Cemetery. The Magic Crest's lack of magecraft means there is virtually no rejection when it is implanted into someone outside the family.Lord El-Melloi II Case Files Volume 7: case. Atlas Contract (Lower) - Chapter 2 Part 3
==Creation==
The first generation of a family's Magic Crest is developed by implanting a fragment of some lost Phantasmal Species or Mystic Code, called a 'Core', into the body. Of course, since you are implanting a completely foreign object into the body, the rejection response is far stronger than what one would see when receiving a Magic Crest from a parent. By suffering through those rejections for generations, the Core will slowly become saturated with the hosts' magecraft, and thus the Magic Crest would be complete.
However, magi that use this method to produce Magic Crests are all but extinct in modern times. While there aren't that many from outside previously established families that decide to pursue magecraft, those that do typically received a Crest Split from a much more historied family. Of course, since it's a transplant from a stranger, the intended function of the Magic Crest - to act as a crystallized Mystery - is all but lost. Even so, it is a method that produces results many generations faster than starting from scratch, and it is much easier to control the development of a Magic Crest made in such a way.
This method does damage the original parent Magic Crest, but with the help of a Tuner (magi who specialize in healing and improving Magic Crests) such a level of damage can normally be repaired within a few months to a year. In exchange, the source family can expect tremendous loyalty from the recipients, and the family that received the piece of the Magic Crest becomes a branch family of the original. As such, it became common place for families involved in factional struggles to create such branch families, and the original family from which they were derived would come to refer to their Magic Crest as a Source Crest.Lord El-Melloi II Case Files Volume 2: case. Twin Towers of Iselma (Upper) - Chapter 3 Part 2 (Translated by TwilightsCall)
There apparently seemed to be some inherent risks and conditions for partitioning a piece of the Magic Crest, as Tokiomi Tohsaka didn't give his daughter Sakura Tohsaka a piece. Whether it was because Tokiomi was a traditionalist, the Tohsaka Magic Crest was too young to be split, his lacking of a trusted Tuner, or both his daughters' inherent talent requiring a full Magic Crest are unknown.
==Grand Order==
:For the quests performed by Chaldea, see Grand Order.
, as it relates to Magic Crests, is the highest law of the magus chosen to inherit the Magic Crest, where he is forbidden from committing suicide by a severe mental restraint. Since meaningless suicide of a magus who possesses a Magic Crest would most likely mean his bloodline's loss of claim to magecraft itself, the inability to commit suicide has been known to be the paramount responsibility of magi since the inception of modern magecraft. In order to kill oneself while carrying a Magic Crest, it is necessary to have an extremely legitimate reason.Clock Tower 2015 - 05 Winter - The Death of a Certain Magus
Although this is what magi know as a matter of fact, the true Grand Order is actually a curse originating from Goetia (under the guise of Solomon) that is crucial for his plan to exterminate mankind. During his lifetime, Goetia planted the curse of Grand Orders in the Magic Crests of select magus bloodlines and designed them so that they would transform the carrier of the Magic Crest into a Demon God after a certain amount of time, completely erasing their original personalities. The prevention of suicide as an ideal was spread to ensure that Goetia's chosen magus bloodlines survived until the designated time. Using this method, he was able to ensure that his loyal servants would appear in certain intervals over 3,000 years to create Singularities for feeding Ars Almadel Salomonis with energy.Fate/Grand Order - Solomon: The Grand Temple of Time - Section 1: Sector of Beasts
In Clock Tower 2015, Lev Lainur Flauros' third personality, Flauros, kills himself in order to prevent his transformation into the final Demon God Flauros, and his remaining two personalities fight over control of the body until they eventually destroy themselves. As a result, Goetia's 3,000-year-old plan to destroy mankind is foiled.
The term "Grand Order" also appears to be used colloquially by magi as a way to refer to a self-imposed mission or purpose for existing that motivates all their actions.
==Crest Worms==
 are a unique kind of Magic Crest of the Matou family and the personal familiars of Zouken Matou. Crest Worms are magical energy-eating worms that can channel magical energy even when their host is no longer alive.Fate/stay night - Heaven's Feel route - Day 7: dialogue lost loop - War balance randomizer 
Anyone implanted with Crest Worms also becomes Zouken’s puppet, physically incapable of defying him. So far the only known example of a Magic Crest that can be passed down to someone outside of the bloodline, forcibly confers to one’s body the capacity to use magecraft.
Crest Worms are not only capable of expanding one’s natural Magic Circuits, but also capable acting as artificial Magic Circuits after a certain incubation period is complete. Since they usually remain in a dormant state, the Crest Worms don’t have that much direct influence over someone. However, once awakened by the activation of Magic Circuits they will try to force the body to continuously produce magical energy in order to sustain themselves. In case the user is unable to create enough magical energy, they will either consume their flesh as nutrition, or stimulate the host's libido in the hope of being able to steal magical energy from a sexual partner.
Through the use of these and an intensive training, it is possible for someone with no prior experience in magecraft to become a magus eligible to participate in the Heaven's Feel in roughly a year, as was the case with Kariya Matou. However, doing so not only greatly shortened his lifespan the process in itself was also incredibly painful.Fate/Zero Volume 1: The Untold Story of the Fourth Holy Grail War - Act 1 Part 4 -271:33:52
The Crest Worms implanted in Sakura Matou are unique since they have the fragments of the Holy Grail summoned in the Fourth Holy Grail War as component materials.Fate/stay night - Heaven's Feel route - Day 13: LAST TALK - Confrontation with Zouken After an incubation period of ten years, the Crest Worms have spread themselves through the girl’s entire body.
==References==
vi:Khắc Ấn Ma Thuật
Category:Magecraft terminology