So this has been an interesting quest to catch up on as someone who knows almost nothing about Fate. I'm guessing from what I've seen so far it is indeed comparably dark and overpowered on par with the four Warhammers?
I mean we had someone go out and render a Dragon into a meal. Dragons being sapient and not typically chaos aligned in WHFB makes that a bit stomach churning.
Also kind of odd given...well wasn't the original Beowulf from his legend eaten BY a dragon?
EDIT: Would it be fair to compare most of our characters here to things like greater demons and godly incarnates like Alariel, Orion, Valten, and the like?
Or would it be more apropos to see them as more akin to Vampire Lords in terms of their abilities, that is far stronger and with access to information mortals have but still largely bound by known laws of the world and unable to leave it on a whim?
So and so. Heroic spirits are in general incarnations of legends. (Its debatable if they are actually the soul of whoever was the base or just formed from enough belief, theres certainly some who have very little to do with real history or may have entirely fictional origins, as long as enough people believe in them). Once they have been summoned (they cant just come by themselves in general, they may not even exist as anything but "records" held by the world until called), however, they are mostly part of the world, and mostly constrained by its rules that dont relate to their personal abilities (which may work even if they shouldnt, like magic drawing on gods that arent around anymore). Depending on circumstance they may be able to take a spiritual form, but thats more turning invisible/intangible to mundane stuff, not retreating elsewhere.
How powerful they are is harder to say (you may want to avoid vs. debates involving fate, it gets intense) because semi-shounen anime, and will probably made to fit for fanfic, but generally hefty, more greater demon level than just some vampire.
For beowulf, he might have died to a dragon, but the dragon died too. He is famous for being a legendary dragonslayer, thats his legend, and so he is very effective against dragons, for example. The being legends affects them, so if enough people ascribe some power to them, they may have it, even if they lacked it in life. (Vlad III Tepes, for example, was extremely annoyed that the legend of dracula turned him into a vampire when he was no such thing in life).
Note, Artoria Avalon is the odd duck out here, shes not a human legend, but a farie that became this during the (extremely complicated) plot of fate grand order.
