Ishtar (Fate/strange Fake)

is a goddess possessing the homunculus Philia in the True and False Holy Grail Wars of Fate/strange Fake. In possession of the homunculus' body and functions, she acts as the Lesser Grail of the ritual.
==Profile==
===Background===
Ishtar manifested from a lingering "blessing" she bestowed upon the world, burned into the Human Order after dissolving herself into it. Similar to a "simple program" and described as a "broken goddess' data," it contained her divine power and personality. After she was insulted by Gilgamesh and assaulted by Enkidu throwing Gugalanna's entrails at her in Uruk, she decided to leave a vestige of herself to manifest, "If one day, 'those two' were to meet again on this planet." She said it was more of a curse upon the two of them than a blessing. She swore that, "I would exert all my divinity, all my soul - to protect humans." Due to the fact that beings from the Age of Gods could not manifest in the modern world, she possessed the Einzbern homunculus Philia, using her as a "sacrificial shrine maiden" and overwriting her.Fate/strange Fake Volume 6 - Chapter 18: "As Dream and Reality are Both Illusion I"
===Appearance===
Since her vessel is an Einzbern homunculi, she shares their physical characteristics of being white-haired and red-eyed. However, her nature as a goddess of beauty is still discernible, and she possesses perfect otherwordly beauty.
Ishtar outfits.jpg|Colored spread page for the seventh volume of Fate/strange Fake, illustrated by Shidzuki Morii.
Fate strange fake novel Vol 8 (Textless cover art).png|Ishtar on the cover of the eighth volume Fate/strange Fake, illustrated by Shidzuki Morii.
===Personality===
Compared to the more human Ishtar manifested in Fate/Grand Order due to the influence of Rin Tohsaka, Ishtar in Fate/strange Fake has her raw personality of "a horrible being who doesn't understand the human heart." The description of her character is "add Rin Tohsaka and Luviagelita Edelfelt, divided by two and subtract most of the humanity."Fate/strange Fake Volume 4 - Afterword
She is quite proud, to the point of being arrogant. She seems unconcerned with even powerful adversaries, like True Archer, and is instead simply fascinated by his abilities. Ishtar seems to be mostly friendly towards Haruri, helping and guiding her, but her reasons for helping her are unclear.
==Role==
===Fate/strange Fake===
==== Day 0====
During the summoning of True Berserker, Philia's body is taken over by Ishtar. Ishtar manages to calm Berserker and heals its Master, Haruri Borzak, who had almost been killed by her own Servant. She forms a sort of alliance with Haruri.Fate/strange Fake Volume 3 - Prologue IX: "The Star Performers' Feast (Part 2)"
==== Day 1====
Some time later, she sends Ayaka Sajyou a message text, empathizing with her situation and telling her that she's now free to do whatever she wants. Unaware of Ishtar's possession of Philia, Ayaka is puzzled by Philia's sudden change in attitude.Fate/strange Fake Volume 3 - Chapter 9: Day 1, Evening "A Horse Yet Pale: Mud Yet Firm"
==== Day 2====
Ishtar and Haruri later arrive at the workshop of Bazdilot Cordelion, the Master of True Archer, intending to attack him. True Archer senses Ishtar's nature as a goddess, which causes him to fight her, due to his hatred of gods. She is though protected by Haruri's Berserker, who has grown into a gigantic beast. Berserker then begins to destroy the workshop and the meat processing plant around it, causing great destruction, with Ishtar giving it support with her magecraft against Archer. Their battle is, however, stopped by True Caster, who causes the ground beneath them to vanish, by tricking the world itself with his Noble Phantasm, Grand Illusion. Caster manages to convince both sides to give the battle up, restoring the ground afterward. True Archer also agrees to let Ishtar go, stating that she is not a true goddess or even an avatar of one, but simply a malediction of a goddess.Fate/strange Fake Volume 4 - Chapter 11: Day 2, Morning "The Gods Return From Twilight"
Ishtar is later shown residing atop the flying airship that functions as the workshop of True Caster. She is summoning the Bull of Heaven, Gugalanna, to get her revenge against a "rude pair of ingrates", likely Gilgamesh, False Archer, and Enkidu, False Lancer.Fate/strange Fake Volume 4 - Bridge: "One Day, Above the Sky"
==== Day 3====
Later, while False Archer is battling True Archer, Ishtar forcibly closes the Gate of Babylon, leaving False Archer unable to defend himself and causing him to be shot with three arrows coated in Hydra venom. Ishtar shows herself riding on True Berserker and explains she retrieved the physical key of the Gate of Babylon and used it to close the portals. Despite wearing the unfamiliar face of Philia, False Archer recognizes her as Ishtar. Though suffering from the venom, he remains upright and insults her, then recognizes True Berserker as well. Ishtar turns to leave, saying a servant of Ereshkigal or Nergal is coming, but as a parting shot, has True Berserker impale False Archer. Ishtar and True Berserker leave just as a wave of blackness passes over the street and makes all the combatants disappear.Fate/strange Fake Volume 5 - Chapter 15: "Gold and Lions II"
After the battle on main street the night before, Haruri, True Berserker, and Philia have situated themselves in a mansion that is publicly owned by the owner of the Crystal Hill City Hotel, located in the Snowerk district of Snowfield. There, Philia finally discloses to Haruri her true identity, Ishtar, as well as her circumstances of being a "blessing" that will only manifest if Gilgamesh and Enkidu ever meet on this planet again. Later, they head to the forested region of West Snowfield, where Ishtar notices Thia's birth, but doesn't form a opinion about it yet because she's on a tight schedule to get a new temple and a new Mount done on Day 5 before Gugalanna arrives, having promised him to not lay a finger on Gilgamesh or Enkidu before he arrives. She later disapproves of Gugalanna eating one of Thia's debris-made meteorite, stating that it should not complain should it get a stomachache from it.Fate/strange Fake Volume 7 - Chapter 21: Day 3 "Beings Created in Man's Own Image" 
==== Day 4====
Berserker spends the day building Ishtar a new temple while Ishtar and Haruri discuss the weirder aspects of the Servant's appearance. Ishtar's understanding of the situation dismisses Haruri's guess that her catalyst, a , is what modified her and instead comes from the premise that Huwawa is a mass of what humans consider "calamities". She explains that her contains multiple definitions of calamity, and if that melammu adjusts itself to the current era, she looks like this because modern civilization itself became a calamity since humans learned to control electricity, gunpowder, and whatnot. Ishtar adds that she can't reproduce every of these calamities since she's limited by the Servant container, but once her Divine Core raises its level with the completion of her temple, she will be able to remove Huwawa's "shackles", as well as be able to freely change the World and watch over humanity for eternity. She senses Enkidu's eyes on them from the city and it irritates her, until she realizes he is looking at his old childhood friend Huwawa.Fate/strange Fake Volume 7 - Chapter 22: "The First and Last Breather Day"
==== Day 5====
The Neo Ishtar Temple is ready and Ishtar is regaining her full divine power fast. She appoints Haruri her high priestess for the simple reason that her name rhymes with Siduri's. Haruri tries to argue she's not the best person for the job, but Ishtar only tolerates self-deprecation once. Next time it happens, she'll interpret it as Haruri questioning her judgement and punish it accordingly. Haruri has always been saying she owes Ishtar her life, but Ishtar doesn't give a damn about worthless tribute and the value of a tribute is determined by the person doing the offering. She reminds Haruri that she didn't come to Snowfield to give her life to Ishtar, she came for her own revenge, and destruction for the sake of recovering lost pride is something Ishtar is very approving of. Only once Haruri achieves her fulfilling vengeance and learns to love herself that her life will be worth being offered to her goddess. She hugs Haruri, and Ishtar's hug engulfs Haruri in her divine aura as she does her blessing. She charges Haruri with "greeting" their visitors.Fate/strange Fake Volume 7 - Chapter 23: Day 5, Morning "The Age of Gods and the Modern Age (Daybreak)"
When three waves of missiles fly toward the Neo Ishtar Temple, launched by Faldeus' organization, Ishtar casts a charm on the first wave, causing them to lose their function and fall next to the two intruders, Jester Karture and False Assassin, without exploding. The gunpowder was affected by the charm to be too infatuated with Ishtar to perform its chemical reactions. Ishtar being able to charm inanimate objects confirms Jester that gods are on the level of Dead Apostle Ancestors. The next two waves are taken care of by Huwawa and Gugalanna, who has finally reunited with his mistress.
==Abilities== 
Ishtar is capable of controlling the arrows shot by True Archer with just magic energy control and is able to create arrows of magical energy, which she launches towards the opponent. The magical energy around her itself is capable of blocking objects launching towards her. Ishtar was capable of casually healing Haruri's grievous injuries. She is able to "contract" her aura around her, allowing her to fight and use major spells without others being able to detect her. She also has a great level of physical ability, moving quickly through the wires and cables controlled by True Berserker. 
She currently displays power on the level of a Servant or greater, but she claims to not be a Servant herself. She is able to summoning Gugalanna after taking it from her other self.
After obtaining the Gate of Babylon's golden key that Gilgamesh injudiciously left behind in the cave he was summoned, Ishtar is able to forcibly close Gilgamesh's vault.
Through her blessings, Huwawa is greatly enhanced, to the point that her Scream of Fear skill can affect even the famed King of Heroes. As noted by Haruri Borzak, Ishtar was able to easily intimidate Huwawa into doing her bidding by exerting her power.
===Skills ===
While possessing a profile detailing Servant Parameters, Skills, and Noble Phantasms, this profile is just an interpretation as if Ishtar was a Servant.
==== Class Skills ====
*Magic Resistance (A Rank)
*Independent Action (A++ Rank) : Because she's currently descended in and fused with a homunculus body.
*Lingering Echo of the Goddess (B+++ Rank) : A Skill equal to Divine Core of the Goddess, but since she is not the actual goddess, instead the lingering echo of a blessing (curse) that the goddess left in the world to replicate herself, it's not exactly the same. She essentially burned a program on the planet that would generate a copy of herself if specific conditions were met. Its rank is B+++ because she falls somewhere in between a Pseudo-Servant and an actual Servant. Mental interference attacks generally don't affect her.
==== Personal Skills ====
*Manifestation of Beauty (EX Rank) : The goddess of beauty advened in an Einzbern homunculus. Her charm power can affect magical and inanimate objects and even the laws of physics, but she can't use them against concepts related to the underworld due to a poor compatibility match-up. She feels no need to use this against humans since they automatically worship her. The cause of Haruri's devotion was the goddess' natural charm, not the charm from the Skill.
*Mana Burst (A+ Rank) : She charms the land to directly draw magical energy from it, then outputs it without sparing any.
*Shining Great Crown (A- Rank) : Due to her being a lingering echo, the power of her Authorities is somewhat lower than what Ishtar had in the Age of Gods.
===Noble Phantasms===
Ishtar's Noble Phantasms are Jabal Hamrin Breaker and Gugalanna Strike: Outrage.
==Development==
Ishtar has been part of the story since the plotting stage of the story, but Ryohgo Narita wanted to wait until after the Babylon chapter of Fate/Grand Order release to properly write her. Kinoko Nasu told Narita about his plan to include Ishtar fused with Rin Tohsaka in Grand Order, so he wanted to see her in the story first. Told that Ishtar is a "a horrible being who doesn't understand the human heart," Narita was going to make her a "minor hysteric." He decided that she was a good character after seeing her, so he revised things to avoid killing her off quickly. He was "charmed by her qualities as a character", describing having "gotten fired up all over again" when leveling Ishtar in Grand Order.
==References==
Category:Divine Spirits
Category:Characters in Fate/strange Fake
Category:Babylonian historical and mythological figures
Category:Introduced in 2016
Category:Earth Mother Goddesses
Category:Divided Spirits
Category:Venus
Category:Hypothetical Servants
Category:C rank Strength Servants
Category:C rank Endurance Servants
Category:A rank Agility Servants
Category:EX rank Mana Servants
Category:A rank Luck Servants
Category:EX rank Noble Phantasm Servants
Category:Lawful Good Servants
Category:Unknown Attribute Servants
Category:Lawful Good alignment
Category:Holy Grails
Category:Gilgamesh (topic)