Katze Plains

Katze Plains (カッツェ平野) is a large plain that is considered a barren land that spawns numerous undead. The plain was the battlefield of the annual wars between Re-Estize Kingdom and Baharuth Empire, and also the site where the infamous Massacre at Katze Plains occurred.
== Background ==
Surrounded by a permanent foggy atmosphere, the Katze Plains were once a large open plain inhabited by people, but eventually, it became a battleground where the armies of the Re-Estize Kingdom and Baharuth Empire are known to be fighting at every year.Overlord Volume 06 Chapter 11: The Final Battle of the Disturbance Now it is nothing more than a large empty plain surrounded by a permanent fog that blankets the whole area. The Katze Plains consists of a few old buildings scattered around and in the ruin which were caused by the numerous past fights between these two nations scarring it in the process.
Within the Katze Plains, collapsed towers that have once been built hundreds of years ago jutted out from the earth like scattered tombstones. In the present day, none of them were said to be intact. The towers were originally six floors high, but everything above the third floor had collapsed, and the debris was everywhere. Less than half of the thick walls were left. The cause was not so much weathering as battles between monsters. Scenes like these existed side by side with normal grass-covered plains, separated only by an invisible line. This was why the Katze Plains were known as a cursed land.
However, leaving aside the matter of the undead, in terms of geographical conditions alone, there was simply no place more suitable for two armies to fight than here. It was said that if a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood were piled up in other places, perhaps another cursed land like the Katze Plains would be created, with such dangers that are equally unbearable. But problems are not limited to just these. 
If the undead are left alone, the places where they gather may have a tendency to spawn to more powerful undead. In fact, the number of undead who have walked out of the fog of the Katze Plains is very small, and there are almost no cases of harm from it. On the contrary, however, if the undead spawned in the plains continue to accumulate in the fog, it will evolve into a breeding ground for powerful undead. And the more powerful the undead are, the higher their intelligence will be. Unlike those low-level undead who stay in the fog out of instinct, they may take the initiative to leave the Katze Plain and kill the living whom they hate.Overlord Special Edition 01 Chapter 1
At the same time, a notable feature of this place is that due to many amount of casualties sustained by both sides every year in their annual war, the place has become a hot spot for undead creatures to spawn.Overlord Volume 03 Chapter 2: True Vampire The appearance rate of undead creatures here was estimated as high. This ranges from Zombies to skeleton warriors and even Skeletal Dragons.Overlord First Half Chapter 86: Various Countries Part 4 The Skeleton Dragon, in particular, is formed from the bony remains from hundreds of people, a body that is contaminated by the essence of death.Overlord First Half Chapter 40: Promotion Test Part 3 Another particular trait is the fog that surrounds the plains happens to be registered as a form of lifeforms. As a result, detection magic against the undead is useless to use in this area and many people fell prey to ambushes from the undead spawn as a result. There is also an infamous Elder Lich who haunts the plains on a Ghost Ship that sails the mists that form frequently in that area. Because of all this undead activity taking place, individuals like Fluder were sent to the Katze Plains to deal with the problem and combat them.
Meanwhile, there was the tendency among Adventurers to station themselves in E-Rantel due to the benefits revolving around the Katze Plains. This is due to the fact that it is treated as a valuable location and source of income where adventurers go to do their missions at. Particularly, adventurers who are tasked with the job of killing the undead in the Katze Plains. The endless amount of undead continuing to spawn every now and then even after clearing out a wave of them is what makes it worth earning money from. The adventurers could always revisit the Katze Plains and hunt down the monsters again and again for money without ever running out was how they make a profit in the long-term. Not only that, there have been expeditions to actually fetch certain undead monsters from time to time, so they will later be sold afterward to fight in the Empire's Grand Arena. According to Pluton Ainzach, the undead didn’t need food, so they didn't incur additional expenses after being captured.
However if the undead ever left the Katze Plains, the first to be attacked are the several countries bordering it, including the Kingdom and the Empire. And while the two countries involved can avoid temporary harm, as long as they continue to add fuel to the fire, the surrounding countries that are affected will certainly show dissatisfaction with them. 
For this reason, the kingdom and the empire jointly built a city, the Free City of Vadis, aimed at conquering the undead, with funds supporting the undead subjugation flowing from the Temple of the Four Great Gods.
== Chronology ==
=== The Dark Warrior Arc ===
One of E-Rantel's soldiers guarding the city's cemetery noted an unimaginably strong undead creature appearing in the Katze Plains.Overlord Volume 02 Chapter 4: Twin Swords of Death
=== The Invaders of the Large Tomb Arc ===
About five years prior to the current events, scouts from the Baharuth Empire patrolling the area discovered a new form of undead that has never been encountered in this place before and many soldiers were sent to deal with it, but most ended up being killed by it. Fluder Paradyne and his disciples were sent in to deal with the problem and managed to weaken it enough for it to be captured. The undead was transported to the capital of the Empire, imprisoned deep within the vaults of Fluder's magic academy for further research.Overlord Volume 07 Chapter 2: Butterfly Entangled in a Spider's Web
=== The Magic Caster of Destroy Arc ===
It was here yet again that the Re-Estize Kingdom and the Baharuth Empire usually engaged in one of their annual wars yearly. However, this time around, forces of Nazarick, under the direct command of Ainz Ooal Gown, will also be participating in the war effort as a fellow ally to the Empire. The Re-Estize Kingdom have chosen to face off against both the Empire and their new ally in the Katze Plains, refusing to hand over their territory of E-Rantel without aggressive resistance.Overlord Volume 09 Chapter 2: Preparations for the Battle Ainz signaled the start of the war through the casting of his powerful super-tier spell which killed a lot of the Kingdom's soldiers.
Due to the massive amount of living sacrifices resulted from the super-tier spellcasting, it resulted in the summoning of five Dark Young monsters onto the battlefield. As a result, the outcome of the Kingdom's battle against the Empire and Ainz in the Katze Plains ends up being a decisive defeat for them who failed to combat these monsters. Other than losing E-Rantel,Overlord Volume 09 Brand New Chapter the aftermath and casualties of the war was the complete routing and decimation of the Royal Army, including the loss of the Kingdom's strongest warrior, Gazef Stronoff.Overlord Volume 09 Chapter 4: Massacre
Meanwhile, the Dragon Kingdom were looking for new possible allies to turn to in case the Slane Theocracy is no longer willing to assist them against the enemy Beastman Country who are invading their land. They considered asking for help from the Empire, believing it will be next target after the Dragon Kingdom. However, that is unlikely to happen because the Katze Plains is what blocked the beastman's way of reaching territories of the Empire. They recognized the Katze Plains is the reason why they have yet to commit an invasion of the Empire due to it being a natural spawning ground for inedible undead creatures that they can't feast upon nor see the benefit in ruling over.Overlord Volume 09 Intermission
=== The Ruler of Conspiracy Arc ===
Ainz had plans to bring the Katze Plains under his dominion in the near future. One particular note which piqued Ainz's interest were the rumors of a Ghost Ship that cruised across the land.Overlord Volume 09 Chapter 1: The Sorcerer Kingdom of Ainz Ooal Gown
Once the war came to an end, the full results of the aftermath of the battle were finally made clear, as the Re-Estize Kingdom lost over 180,000 of their 260,000 men who were in the militia. While there are some who survived the massacre, most of the remaining survivors though later suffer from a mental breakdown due to the horrors they saw during the war. Even worse, the Kingdom's Crown Prince Barbro was missing along with the other 5,000 soldiers that were sent to escort him during their investigation of Carne Village.Overlord Volume 09 Chapter 2: The Re-Estize Kingdom
Additionally, the Baharuth Empire suffered losses of their own during the battle as 143 men lost their lives during the stampede from running away from the Dark Young. Also, nearly 4000 men decided to leave the Knight Corps and at least 200 of them had suffered mental illness in the aftermath of the war. Which meant that over 6% of the 60,000 men sent to the plains were removed from service without actually doing anything in their part.Overlord Volume 09 Chapter 3: The Baharuth Empire
=== The Phantom Ship of Katze Plains Arc ===
 and The Phantom Ship of Katze Plains II Arc
Ainz Ooal Gown having taken an interest in the mystery of the Ghost Ship that allegedly haunted the Katze Plains, arranged for Albedo to hire Darkness, led by his alter-ego, Momon, to investigate the area for its existence.Overlord Special Edition 01 Prologue 
Fist having left the Free City of Vadis with an Inspector and four porters on a routine undead subjugation job to the Katze Plains. Just on the edge of the plains, the party were confronted by six Grave Dead, which they easily killed, before heading towards Broken Tower 1 to clean the surrounding area of undead. 
Fist and their porters soon arrived at Broken Tower 1, but noticing that the signal flags were not raised, despite it should be occupied by at least two teams who headed out prior to Fist. The workers using their magic and skills detected that blood was spilled in the area. While this indicated that there was an unknown danger, the workers decided to approach the tower and its defensive walls to secure it so that they could give the dead Rights of Vigil, investigate what happened and have a defensible position against whatever was in the fog.
Once the workers secured the Broken Tower, and ushered the noncombatants into it, they determined after examining the dead that the likely culprit of their deaths was a Skeletal Dragon. The workers had then begun their work to bury the dead, when a Skeletal Dragon appeared and attacked. Though the workers had a formation to fend off the undead, they were ill-prepared when two more Skeletal Dragons. Before the undead dragons could finish off Fist, they were intercepted by the adventurers Momon and Nabe riding upon Hamsuke.Overlord Special Edition 01 Chapter 2
Momon and Hamsuke made short work of the Skeletal Dragons. Having been rescued, Fist thanked the famous adventurer team. From their short conversation the workers learned of Momon's mission given to him by the Sorcerer Kingdom which they thought was a wild goose chase. Fist planned to return to Vadis deeming that the level of danger in the plains needed to be reported to the authorities there.Overlord Special Edition 02 Chapter 3
After the adventurers of Darkness bid the workers farewell, Ainz and Narberal dropped their adventurer facades. They took a short break before moving out at Ainz's order. Once Ainz was satisfied enough time had passed for him to proceed, he then opened a [Gate] to transport several of his elder liches to help him search for the alleged Ghost Ship. Hours later one of the elder liches reported that he found something, a giant undead crab, which Ainz took in interest but opted to address later until his main target was located.
The Ghost Ship was found by another of the liches which was discovered to be an actual undead entity. Ainz and Narberal then headed out to land on its deck where they were confronted by the Skeleton Sailors which Ainz destroyed easily. The commotion attracted the attention of the captain of the Ghost Ship, Greyrune. A brief period of hostile reaction came from the lich, who attacked Ainz without much harm. The resistance died though after Ainz used his magic to take control of the ship, who's name was Steel War Maiden and the "wife" of Greyrune.
His partner held as a hostage, Greyrune was forced to stand down and grudgingly answer Ainz's queries about him and his wife. Still Ainz desired to know more about the Ghost Ship's capabilities and decided to have her face off against the crab he discovered, which was the Undead Axe Land Club. The Ghost Ship the traveled to confront the undead crab. In a brief scuffle Ainz saw that the Ghost Ship was poor in offensive power but quite well in defensive strength. Having seen enough Ainz stepped in to engage the undead crab to prevent it from damaging the Ghost Ship. Ainz easily handled the crab and used his magic to make it submit to him and come aboard the Ghost Ship. Greyrune and by his extension his "wife" were given a choice of either to submit of die, which the former was selected.Overlord Special Edition 02 Chapter 4
Later Fist while atop the walls of Vadis, suspected that it was no coincidence that three Skeletal Dragons appeared at the same time so close to the borders of the Katze Plains. Due to the Sorcerer King's claim of the region belonging to him, they believed that the undead was amassing his forces within the land, and turning it into an execution site for heroes. 
As for the the Ghost Ship and her passengers, it headed out of the plains, towards the Sorcerer Kingdom, passing by Vadis, shocking the watching members of Fist as the vessel passed the city walls.Overlord Special Edition 02 Epilogue 
== Layout ==
The Katze Plains lay between the Re-Estize Kingdom and the Baharuth Empire. From the Kingdom’s perspective it stretched out to their southeast while from the Empire’s perspective it was to their southwest. The vast and flat terrain is indeed very recognizable, but its more well-known feature is that no life, including humans, inhabited it.
The area is encompassed by a thick, dense fog that settles throughout the year. Not only that, the fog in the plains never fades or affected by the weather, temperature, or seasonal changes. It seems that the fog exists to deliberately hides the undead within its protective embrace.
For some reason, whenever the two countries come to fight, the fog lifts up. It was also during those periods that appearances of the undead abruptly halted as if the land was preparing to welcome the new war dead. The Katze Plains is also registered as a life form by magic casters who analyze it, implying the fog to be some form of sentient entity in and of itself. And is commented that this will is an extremely evil that favors the undead.
Among the undead that appeared along the outer edges of the Katze Plains and a little way inside it were low-ranking. Nearly all of these undead ranged from a difficulty rating from 1 to 30. However, it was still dangerous for one to let their guard down. Just because strong undead rarely emerged didn’t mean they wouldn’t appear at all. Also, the longer the period went where hunts weren’t conducted, and the farther one ventured into the interior of the plains, the stronger the undead that would appear.
Unlike animals that have their own territories, it was unheard of the undead of the plains to intentionally return to its deep reaches.
=== Broken Towers ===
Inside the foggy plains were the so-called Broken Towers. These were collapsed towers that were scattered all over the vast Katz Plains. A total of seven confirmed broken towers were in the plains. They are landmarks marked as 1 to 7 and used by the undead subjugation parties as shelters for emergencies, and thus they have been reinforced.
== Known Inhabitants ==
The Katze Plains is a haunted place better known as the Death Ground for many old and new forms of undead monsters to appear, such as the recent Death Knight encounter by soldiers from the Baharuth Empire five years ago. In other words, these types of various monsters that are known to have spawn or at least inhabit this area or some part of it like the mention of a Ghost Ship so far would include:
* Death Knight
* Elder Lich
* Ghost Ship
* Grave Dead
* Rot Wyvern
* Skeleton
* Skeleton Sailor
* Skeleton Warrior
* Skeletal Dragon
* Soul Eater
* Squire Zombie
* Zombie
== Trivia ==
* The many undead that spawned at the Katze Plains would be cleared for the annual war between the Baharuth Empire and the Re-Estize Kingdom.
* The Katze Plains in the past were once habitable and had various settlements, but the constant warfare and spawning of undead forced everyone to abandon it.
* During their annual war, the Baharuth Empire would deploy forty-thousand troops on the plains while the Re-Estize Kingdom would likewise deploy two-hundred thousand troops.
* A division of undead spilled over during the first two months that the adventurer group, Darkness established themselves in E-Rantel. They were wiped out by said group not long after.Overlord Volume 05 Chapter 2: Blue Roses
* Only from the Web Novel where this event had taken place in the Katze Plains, Ainz ends up using the World Item which is Avarice and Generosity to store up the experience points he had acquired from killing a lot of the Kingdom's soldiers via his Dark Young minions.Overlord First Half Chapter 98: Massacre Part 4
* In Mass for the Dead, the plains was the site of a battle between the Black Scripture and Shalltear Bloodfallen.Mass for the Dead Chapter 12: Leader of Mankind
== References ==
== Gallery ==
== Navigation ==
pl:Równiny Katze
Category:Locations
Category:Plains