William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is a Caster-class Servant featured in the Fate series, including Fate/Apocrypha. Representing the historical English playwright, he is summoned as part of the Red Faction during the Great Holy Grail War under Shirou Kotomine. Lacking direct magic combat abilities, he functions as an observer who enhances others and manipulates human drama from behind the scenes, viewing the battlefield as his personal theater stage.
Overview
William Shakespeare is a Caster-class Servant featured in the Fate series, including Fate/Apocrypha. Representing the historical English playwright, he is summoned as part of the Red Faction during the Great Holy Grail War under Shirou Kotomine. Lacking direct magic combat abilities, he functions as an observer who enhances others and manipulates human drama from behind the scenes, viewing the battlefield as his personal theater stage.
Appearance
He appears as a man with brown hair, brown eyes, and facial hair including a mustache and beard. He is dressed in Renaissance-style clothing featuring a golden-yellow color scheme, complemented by black gloves and a cape.
Personality
Referring to himself as "Wagahai," he is a cheerful and eccentric narcissist who frequently quotes his own dramatic works alongside modern jargon. Viewing himself as a servant to story rather than to any Master, he approaches events with detachment, acting as a mischievous observer. He admires the extraordinary and despises the mundane, gladly pursuing intriguing individuals while treating unremarkable people with cold indifference.
Abilities
Lacking traditional offensive magecraft and physical combat skills, he specializes entirely in backline support and mental manipulation. His Enchant skill confers powerful conceptual buffs onto allies or objects, while Self-Preservation and Iambic Pentameter grant protection and support effects. Through The King's Men, he manipulates shadow actors with low magical cost. His Noble Phantasm, First Folio, is a devastating anti-personnel mental illusion that forces victims to re-experience their deepest guilt and emotional vulnerabilities as a dramatic play. In Fate/Grand Order, he also summons illusions of figures from his famous works to execute attacks.
Background
In life, he was an iconic English playwright whose biographical gaps and inconsistent signatures spurred various conspiracy theories regarding his true identity. Summoned into the Holy Grail War as the Caster of Red, he willingly sides with Shirou Kotomine out of fascination for the compelling narrative surrounding Shirou's ambitions. In various Singularities, he travels around creating theatrical chaos while seeking fresh inspiration for his literary craft.
Relationships
He allies with his Master, Shirou Kotomine, out of theatrical interest, though Shirou uses Command Seals to forbid him from turning his life into a tragedy. He shares a snarky, friendly rivalry with Hans Christian Andersen as fellow literary Servants. He takes a liking to Ritsuka Fujimaru for enduring severe trials and hopes for their happy ending. Meanwhile, Oberon harbors a deep resentment toward him, as Shakespeare's portrayal in A Midsummer Night's Dream fundamentally altered Oberon's heroic spirit parameters.
Trivia
Due to his sharp observational skills and literary knowledge, he often serves a narrative role similar to a story's chorus, explaining the histories of other Heroic Spirits. In event storylines, he is infamous for fleeing from work deadlines, forcing other Servants to track him down.