Caren Ortensia

File:CarenOrtensia.jpg

Caren Ortensia

Caren Ortensia is a character from Fate/hollow ataraxia, the sequel to Fate/stay night by TYPE-MOON.

Caren is member of the Church and works as a priestess. She is angelic and forgiving, to the point that she believes her only purpose in life is to help others, even if she is hurt in the process. She never blames the person who has hurt her (even if they rape her) and blames the act on demons who caused the person to commit the sin. Whenever she is at fault, she apologizes to God rather than the person.

Somewhat unexpected, Caren also likes to tease people. Whenever she finds someone's weakspot, she likes to bring it up all the time. While this can antagonize people, she remains calm and accepts their reaction; when Avenger talked back at her one time, she squeezed his face with a hand without changing her expression. Oddly enough, she deliberately chose a costume with no skirt not only to increase her mobility, but also to seduce men.

Past

Caren is a rather mysterious figure and little is known about her past. Her weak mother died soon after giving birth to her, while her father had left her mother before Caren was born.

Left an orphan, she eventually became a priestess in the Church. In the beginning of Hollow ataraxia, she has been sent to Fuyuki City by the Church to replace Kirei Kotomine, who has died, and report the aftermath of the 5th Holy Grail War. Instead, she ends up becoming the mediator of the war because of the four day time loop which goes back to the fourth day of the 5th War.

Abilities

File:MagdaraCaren.jpg

Caren, a red cloth of Magdala

As a member of the Church, Caren assists in exorcisms. Her body itself possesses an unusual property; if there is a person nearby who has been possessed by a demon, she will experience the same pain as the person possessed. As a result, exorcists employ her to act as a radar of sorts to find demons.

This ability is most evident whenever she comes in proximity to the Servant Avenger as her body sproats grotesque spikes. As a result of this power, she is covered in bandages. She also experiences physical pain whenever people in proximity do evil things.

In battle, she uses a red cloth of Magdala, which has the power to forcefully bind men.

Role

Caren serves an objective mediator in the false Holy Grail War created by Avenger and Bazett Fraga McRemitz. Because she was not present in the previous war, she is not affected by the four day time loop.

During Hollow ataraxia, Shirō Emiya finds that each time he runs into Caren, he dies. Eventually, Shirō ends up defending Caren from the dark creatures that have appeared since the time loop began. He is finally able to meet her without dying, but finds that he is experiencing strange feelings of hatred and not acting like himself.

Shirō is eventually revealed to be an imposter; he is actually Avenger in the guise of Shirō Emiya (the real one is not present in the game). She continues to offer advice to him, perhaps knowing his true identity all along. Avenger develops intimate feelings for her; it is unknown if she reciprocates these feelings.

Trivia

• TYPE-MOON revealed that Caren was originally planned to be a minor character in an earlier work, Tsukihime.
• Caren's surname, Ortensia, means hydrangea.
• Caren and 可憐 (lit. pretty) are homophones in Japanese, same like Kirei (綺礼) and 綺麗 (lit. beautiful). This synchronism gives an indication of their relation.