Fate may refer to:

• Destiny, an inevitable course of events
• Fatalism, a philosophical doctrine

Computing

• Fate (video game), a 2005 computer action RPG
  • Fate: Undiscovered Realms, a 2008 sequel
• Fate: Gates of Dawn, a 1991 computer role-playing game
• FATE (Chrono Cross), a powerful entity in the video game Chrono Cross

Film and television

• Fate (film), a 2008 South Korean film
• "Fate" (In the Heat of the Night), an episode of In the Heat of the Night
• Fate Testarossa, a character in the anime series Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and its sequels
• Fate (writer), a screenwriter whose credits include the documentary info wars

Literature

• Fate (magazine), a magazine of paranormal phenomena
• Doctor Fate, a succession of DC Comics sorcerer characters, first published in 1940
  • Fate (comics), a character associated with Doctor Fate, or the eponymous comics series
• Fate/stay night, a Japanese visual novel and its adaptations

Music

• Fate (band), a Danish heavy metal band
• Fate (Dr. Dog album)
• Fate (Velvet Acid Christ album)
• Fate: The Best of Death, an album
• "Fate" (1953 song), a song from the musical Kismet
• "Fate" (Bleak song)
• "Fate", a song by Chaka Khan from What Cha' Gonna Do For Me
• Fates (Erik Mongrain album), or the title song

Other uses

• Fate, Texas, U.S.
• FATE (role-playing game system), Fantastic Adventures in Tabletop Entertainment, a 2003 generic role-playing game

See also

• The Fates (disambiguation)
• Fatal (disambiguation)
• Fête, a French word meaning festival or holiday
• Karma, a concept in Indian religions

Fate or destiny is the idea that the future is already planned even if people do not know what their fate is (what is going to happen to them). Humans in nearly all cultures have had ideas about their fate being “predetermined” (fixed in advance).

People who live unhappy lives may believe that their misery is because of their fate and that they can do nothing about it. This is called being “fatalistic”. Other people may believe that they can control their fate by being brave and trying to “overcome” fate by improving themselves and their lives.

In Greek mythology there were three Fates. They were three goddesses who determined when every person was going to be born, how they would live and when and how they would die. Human beings in many cultures had lots of ways in which they would try to “read” their fate (know what would happen to them). Sometimes they would try to read their fate in the stars (this is called astrology). In other cultures they might ask a person with powers of magic like a shaman. The Ancient Greeks often went to Delphi to ask the oracle.

There are lots of references to fate in literature from almost every country and period, from Greek tragedy (e.g. Oedipus Rex) to Shakespeare (e.g. Macbeth) and Russian literature.

Composers may express fate in music. Beethoven was thinking about Fate when he wrote his Fifth Symphony, and Tchaikovsky when he wrote his Sixth Symphony just before he committed suicide.

See also:

• Superstition
• Moirae
• Norns
• Fate (opera)