Rider (Fate/next)

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**Rider** is one of the participants of the Las Vegas Holy Grail War, where he is under the command of his Master, Ixazaluoh Janaab Pakal IV. His summoning has been a controversial matter, including his own Master that shares this belief, where it's unknown if Rider is an *actual* participant of the war, let alone being a Servant. Throughout the war, he seems to be rather indifferent about the Holy Grail at points, but at other points, he seems to express some sort of interest.

## Identity

One of history's greatest questions, the man who constantly questions but rarely answers, Rider's True Name is none other than Socrates. Living within Ancient Greece, Socrates was one one of the world's leading philosophers for western culture, given the epithet of **King of Philosophy**. Unfortunately, he may be nothing but a myth, or simply a concept created by Plato and Xenophon, as there exists just about no records of Socrates' own works being written down by him. The documents that are found pertaining to Socrates are primarily found within Plato, a man who would consider himself a pupil to Socrates, where Plato has written his experience with Socrates, including Socrates' end at the Trial of Socrates, to which, interestingly enough, Plato himself did not attend. These documents depict Socrates in at least two different ways, one that is considered to truly be Socrates, and another to which Plato uses to convey his ideas from. Due to this, it is extremely difficult to discern whether Plato's philosophical findings come from Socrates, or they are his own, where several historians have given differing interpretations to this, leading to them dubbing this as the Socratic Problem.

Socrates was known as a wise man, but he, himself, did not truly deem himself as wise, where he became known as the man behind the phrase "I know that I know nothing". However, Socrates' philosophical views tended to be paradoxes, mainly due to them going against what humans would deem as common sense. It was during his observations of other humans that they, the humans, boasted about their wisdom, despite lacking it, which lead to his famous phrase. However, inversely, due to him claiming such a notion, that he knew that he knew nothing, it made him the wisest. He continues to create paradox after paradox, to the point that his own existence has been constantly deemed as a major paradox because his actions do not line up with some of his other actions, or even historical facts.

During the Trial of Socrates, it became known that Socrates had been speaking with what he referred to as a Daemon, claiming that said Daemon gave him ideas. Of course, no one would believe such a notion and was quickly shot down, or abruptly ignored, as very little information of this passage in his history speaks about it any further. Daemons, without being given a Unit Designation, tend to serve one purpose and one purpose alone until that purpose has been fulfilled and they cease to operate. However, given Socrates' claims, one would logically infer that the Daemon in question had a Unit Designation. Due to this, it brings up the question as to why it would willingly ally itself with Socrates and not go about its own things. Such a concept would later be found out during the Las Vegas Holy Grail War that he is the tie between the World of Daemons and the World itself.

Normally, he would not qualify for Rider, let alone the majority of his other classes, but due to the paradoxes surrounding him, mainly found within his Socratic Problem Skill, Socrates qualifies for every single one of the Standard Servant Classes. It does help, however, that he is an Imaginary Vessel, allowing for him to mimic certain weapons that would be found within classes, such as the Saber and Lancer classes.

## Class Skills

### Riding

Despite being a Rider, Rider does not actually have the ability to ride anything, but at the same time possesses the ability to ride *nothingness*. Due to his connection to the Imaginary Number Space via his Socratic Problem Skill, Rider can alter concepts such as gravity itself and "ride" that, among other things. Rider himself has claimed that he is not, of his own volition, attempting to ride what he is seen to be riding.

### Magic Resistance

Perhaps the seemingly only true Skill Rider possesses, his Magic Resistance is befitting one from the Age of Gods, holding the ranking of A+. All spells, regardless of what their classification are, of A+ ranking or below are completely nullified and dispelled immediately in the presence of Rider, granting him a title of "Magus Killer", essentially making him invulnerable to modern Magi and those that came after Rider's time. It's not something that Rider needs to do, rather it's something that *happens* when he's around weaker spells.

## Personal Skills

### Socratic Problem

By all standards of historical texts relating to Rider, it is completely unknown whether he even *existed* due to him being a near complete contradiction. The greatest texts that even remotely bring him into existence are by his supposed pupils, to which he would even disagree that they were his students: Plato and Xenophon. This voidless truth that surrounds Rider is known as the **Socratic Problem** (ソクラテス問題, Sokuratesu Mondai), a paradox that may, or may not, exist as one of Rider's Personal Skills. Because of this paradox, the Skill is listed as though Rider lacks it. The Skill's function is not a function at all, but a *way of life* that Rider possesses out of his own control. Rider's body appears to exist on a physical plane, but not on a spiritual, where his mere existence is an unknown factor as to whether he truly exists or not, being likened to a husk with the powers of a Servant. This Skill stems from Rider's own Origin and Element, **Hollow**. Because of this Skill's very existence, it is what allows Rider to be within the Rider class, where he claims it is his greatest class, despite his grievously poor stats. It allows for him to have a connection with the Imaginary Number Space, a space in which he has dominion over. Attacks, conversations, connections, anything one can fathom when it comes to Rider, it can be argued that nothing relating to him happened, despite it paradoxically happening.

While it's mainly deemed to be the Socratic Problem, it also seems to be influenced by Rider's **Socratic Method** (ソクラテス法, Sokuratesu-hō), a passive ability found within the possible Skill. It is because of this very Skill that Rider can exist as a Rider, as stated prior, but mainly due to the Socratic Method portion of it. The Socratic Method is a method used by Rider that ultimately ends with his point being the final outcome of the conversation, proving it via an inverse method that puts those involved in the conversation within a belief system that what he claims is to be the absolute and utter truth. This is not a Mental-Interference ability, as those apart of the conversation are willingly putting themselves in the position that would lead to their ultimate downfall.

Rider often claims that the true name of this Skill would be **Elenchus** if he so had this Skill, which even he is unsure about.

### Human Observation

Beliefs, theories, actions, consequences, conversations and more, Rider has observed them all when it comes to beings during his lifetime. Possessing a memory that never forgets, one akin to that of an Avenger, Rider recalls every single instance of his own life, even going as far as to claim that he recalls everything that happened to him as a child. Holding Human Observation at an EX level allows for Rider to correctly theorize, and even outright claim, the disposition of others from their most simplest actions, proving to be correct more often than not.

## Trivia

* Rider uses the design of Dionysus Thrysos from the series Kamigami no Asobi.