death is the only water to wash away this dirt.

NAME.
minerva caradonna
minette fontaineALIASES.
"pasiphae"AGE.
21 (start of grail war)
38 (currently)NATIONALITY.
greek - frenchHEIGHT.
166cm

For in other ways a woman is full of fear, defenseless, dreads the sight of cold steel; but, when once she is wronged in the matter of love, no other soul can hold so many thoughts of blood . . .

Born one of two twins to the Fontaine family, a line of magus whose lineage goes back to the Lady of the Lake, Minette Fontaine, as she was named at birth, was always destined for greatness. Like her twin brother and her mother before her, Minette possessed an astounding aptitude for magecraft. Both her and her brother also had dual elemental affinities in water and air and an equal potential in their family's magecraft. What set the two siblings apart was their differing origins. While her brother Florian's origin tied him to a still and quiet lake, Minette's tied her to the Primordial Sea.Unfortunately this origin made her a target. Before she could have the chance to make any sort of memories with her family, before she even turned a year old, a sect of the doomsday cult worshipping the goddess Tiamat kidnapped her. What happened to her, Minette refuses to say. She refuses to think about it. Any sort of prodding about her past results in hostility or silence from her.At the age of 20 she returned to to the house she was born into under the name Minerva Caradonna. While welcomed back with opened arms, there was a clear distance between her and her family. To her, it always felt as if she was an outsider looking in. She felt like a stranger, and for the most part she is. Instead of the daughter her family should have had, what came back after all of those years was a twisted heap of mud left to burn in the sun. In a home that should have been hers from the very beginning, she felt like a voyeur, always on the outside looking in even when she stood behind the glass panes that rose to the wall. Her brother, who she was always supposed to have been on equal footing with from the start had by now long surpassed her in magecraft ability, having the opportunities that she never had to grow and learn.Florian Fontaine was better than his sister at everything from his magecraft to his sword fighting, he excelled at it all. While he was kind—everyone in the family was kind, far too kind to a stranger like her, she still felt so alone in that house. She felt isolated. She felt insignificant. She felt... Angry—though it was a fury not pointed at her own blood. Rather, this fire of wrath that burned in her blood was aimed at a target that could no longer be reached. So for a long time she burned.That was when her brother suggested something.

The Holy Grail can grant you any wish you desire,
even something as abstract as a severance.

In the Corfu Holy Grail War, 21 year old Minerva Caradonna was the master of Lancer.The other servants consisted of a Japanese Saber and Assassin who immediately butted heads, and a Berserker who wreathed herself in flames. The Archer hails from Arthurian legends, known for his dismal demeanor. The final two servants came from Greek myth—their tales just as tied to the sea as Minerva.Before the fighting truly started, Caster broke away from her Master in disgust, killing him. Just before she vanished into seafoam however, a young Minerva found her and offered her a new chance in life, going against the caution of her own servant in the moment to do what she thought was the right thing.In the beginning, the Master of Saber and Minerva made a truce, saying that the two could have a fair fight after they managed to pick off the other servants. She agreed with this deal, working with Lancer and Saber to defeat the other servants. Together the trio of servants defeated Berserker and Assassin, who often caused issues for the two masters previously. What no one knew in the group however, was just how dangerous and ruthless the threat of Rider was, even when he defeated both Archer and his master.In between the battles, the group got along quite well, with Saber's Master even treating Minerva as a younger sibling—a bond she had been longing for. Taking this time in between the heavier battles, Caster began to teach Minerva how to fully utilize her magecraft and reach her true potential. She also got along quite well with Saber, often confiding with them late into the night.Above everyone else though, her bond with her Lancer seemed to be the strongest. Even despite the rocky start the pair had, where both master and servant acted in their own cold, distant aloofness, the two realized why the other answered their call. There was no one else Minerva felt so comfortable and understood when she spoke about her past, and all that had happened to her.So when Rider shot him down, Minerva shattered, crying as Saber carried her away.Without the protection of Lancer, both Minerva and Caster were left mostly defenseless, even with both of them possessing frighteningly strong magecraft. Seeing this, the master of Saber finally let his paranoia take him over.But unfortunately, believing that Minerva and Caster were going to betray him before they could kill Rider, the other master ordered Saber to kill Caster. With the use of a command seal, and before the Caster could even use her noble phantasm to stop them, Saber cut Caster down.The war after that was a blur for Minerva.Rather, she tries to forget what happened in the next few hours.All that matters is that she got her wish in the end.

Years after the war ended, Minerva became highly regarded and respected—(or perhaps more accurately feared) as a mage. She chooses to live the rest of her life on an isolated shore near Ναύπακτος. There, she could once again try to find herself....Five years later, a ghost of her past washed up on her shore.She found the girl unconscious upon the sand, her clothes still damp. Not wanting to see any other people die on her watch, she threw away any sort of discomfort and instead immediately set to work trying to nurse the girl back to health. The girl, a young magus who could only remember her name, grew very fond of Minerva and her magecraft.Perhaps foolishly, she let her stay. She could not bring herself to throw her out. With no memory, she had nowhere else to go. Along with that, knowing what she knows of who might be the girl's family and the type of wounds she showed up with, Minerva knew that returning Cassandra to her home would be sending her off to die.So she became the girl's guardian, teaching her everything she needed to know. Even more important than the magecraft lessons and stories of Greek heroes though was Minerva teaching the young girl to be kind to everyone around her. Minerva wanted her new daughter to live a life full of hope and happiness, a life that was robbed from her.But as much as it pained her, she had to see her off eventually. The young girl's sense of adventure was far too great to be confined to their little home. Helping her pack her bags, she waved goodbye to her daughter, eagerly awaiting (with a great worry for her) every handwritten letter and update.

HEADCANONS.— Here is what she looks like (age 38).— Here is what she looked like in the Grail War (age 21).— Minerva has fae ancestry running through her veins. This has resulted in her having some inhuman traits such as pointed ears. She also looks to be in her early to mid 20s thanks to this fae blood as well. More specifically, Minerva's bloodline is related to the Lady of the Lake, Vivian. With that said, Minerva is not the twin who recieved the family's crest due to her circumstances, even if she was meant to be the one who carried the family's title.— Due to her connection to the Lady of the Lake, Minerva, like Lancelot and Artoria, can walk on water. Granted she could have done this anyway with her magecraft, but now she can do so without using a bit of her magecraft.— Unlike her daughter, Cassandra, who she has mostly taught exclusively defensive and utility spells to, Minerva herself knows a lot of more attack oriented spells. In fact, most of her spells are destructive and terrifying in their power, imitations of the magecraft of the Age of Gods thanks to Caster's teaching. However, also because of Caster's teaching, and thanks to her prodding that the sort of magecraft she was being trained in did not suit her anxious nature, Minerva is far more skilled in utility magecraft that can be used to help others.— Her staff is a replica of Caster's staff of Hecate.— In between her escape from the cult and her return home, Minerva lived in Italy under the care of her "grandfather" who took her in when he found her. As such, the name she chooses to go by now is Italian as opposed to either Greek or French.