Demon Pillar

Overview

Demon Pillars are major boss enemies encountered throughout Part 1 and Part 1.5 of the smartphone RPG Fate/Grand Order. Based on the 72 Demons of King Solomon from the magical grimoire Goetia, they serve as the familiars of the mastermind behind the Incineration of Human History. Anchored across various Singularities, their purpose is to halt the rotation of the Earth and execute the destruction of humanity.

Appearance

A Demon Pillar appears as a repulsive column of flesh marked by numerous dark red eyes and widespread fissures. Its visual variants include a primary form with irregular brick-like skin, round eyes, and rough shark-skin borders; a secondary form with diamond-shaped eyes and a surface that resembles a writhing mass of human figures, sometimes covered in white and red crystals at the base; and a metallic or lavishly golden variant. When multiple units combine, their shape can alter into a massive tree or a sprawling tentacular organism.

Personality

Most Demon Pillars view humanity with extreme disdain, declaring its demise in a detached, monotone fashion. However, several individual pillars develop self-awareness and localized emotions. This can lead to self-doubt, total cessation of activity, abandonment of duties, or even attempts to engage in dialogue and allies with heroic spirits. When subjected to unreasonable treatment or absurd situations, certain pillars display distinct distress and express vocal desire to escape reality.

Abilities

A single Demon Pillar possesses sufficient combat strength to fight several Servants simultaneously, launching sweeping attacks that affect all foes while applying defense debuffs, burns, or enhancing its own attack power, critical hit rates, and invulnerability-piercing capabilities. Supported by a continuous supply of magical energy from their master, they possess a conceptual immortality that allows immediate re-creation rather than simple regeneration upon destruction. However, destroying many pillars at once forces them into a temporary shutdown for system recovery. In major battles, multiple pillars aggregate into specific seats to provide auxiliary combat bonuses, command directives, or healing suppression across the battlefield.

Background

Created three millennia ago by an entity posing as the King of Magic, the curses that form the Demon Pillars were embedded into the lineages of mage families to awaken at designated eras. They are not original familiars of the true King Solomon, but rather his remaining spell formulas that achieved self-incarnation after his death, forming the collective entity Goetia. When the true King Solomon relinquished his own existence and accomplishments, the magical bonds sustaining the pillars dissolved, causing the collective to break down into individual entities that ultimately dissolved or scattered.

Relationships

They rely on Goetia (impersonating King Solomon) as their master and main source of magical energy. Over the course of the story, pillars manifest through or possess various individuals: Lev Lainur becomes Flauros, Jason is transformed into Forneus, Makiri turns into Barbatos, Cú Chulainn Alternative manifests as Halphas, and Ozymandias reshapes Amon into Amon-Ra. Additionally, certain pillars experience unorthodox encounters, such as Haagenti being summoned by Medea Lily specifically to serve as a cooking ingredient.

Trivia

The visual design of the Demon Pillars was created by illustrator Kotetsu Yamanaka. During the Final Singularity event in Fate/Grand Order, the exceptionally valuable item drops rewarded upon defeating the pillars led to players rapidly farming them at unprecedented speeds, causing individual pillars to be cleared far faster than anticipated in the game's story context.