Overlord

## Introduction

Overlord (オーバーロード Ōbārōdo) is a light novel series written by Kugane Maruyama and illustrated by so-bin. It began serialization online in 2010 before later being acquired by Enterbrain. Presently, sixteen volumes have been published in Japanese since July 30, 2012. In the afterword, in the second part of the 16th volume, it was announced by the author that the series would end at its eighteenth volume.

On the other hand, the light novel series is also licensed in North America by Yen On. Fourteen volumes have already been published in English since May 24, 2016.

In 2126, a Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game or DMMO-RPG called YGGDRASIL was released. It stands out among all other DMMORPGs due to its unusually high ability for the player to interact with the game. After an intense 12-year run, the game servers are about to be shut down. Within the game exist a Guild, Ainz Ooal Gown, once consisting of 41 members and credited as one of the strongest guilds. Only four of the members remain, the other 37 having quit the game. Of those four, only one continues to play; his name is Momonga, and he remains the guild leader, maintaining their headquarters, the Great Tomb of Nazarick. He invites the remaining guild members, but of those, only one appears, and only for a short while before leaving. Though this saddens Momonga, he accepts the reality that his friends have their real lives to take care of. And so, he stays in the guild alone until the servers shut down.

Upon waking up, Momonga realizes that the game may not have shut down properly as he is still in his avatar and cannot seem to use the normal player function, such as Message, or even quit. Then when the NPC's of Ainz Ooal Gown starts talking to him, he decides to take things seriously and find out if anyone from World of 2138 is also in this New World with him. Taking on the name of Ainz Ooal Gown for the sake of his guild, Ainz wanted to send a message to any other players facing the same circumstance as he. Henceforth, he begins exploring the world that is supposedly different from YGGDRASIL. He tries to figure out what has happened while trying to find anyone, or anything, that could help him solve this mystery.

## Terminology

Magic

* Tier Magic
	+ It appeared in the New World about 500 to 600 years ago. After that, there had been several heroic magic users, but the rumors of people other than the Thirteen Heroes using spells of the 7th-tier and up were rumors. In YGGDRASIL, there are more than six thousand spells for players to choose from and learn from. Yet, when the New World inhabitants became practitioners of Tier Magic, they also began crafting new spells from the same system outside YGGDRASIL. Those spells are separated into four categories of spells:
		- **Arcane**: Magic that seems more western.
		- **Divine**: Restorative or healing spells used by priests. Divine magic casters could, after using spells that enhanced their physical abilities, end up more potent than a half-baked warrior.
		- **Spiritual**: Oriental magic-using talismans or psychic spells. It seems more eastern in nature.
		- **Alternative**: Spells that fall outside of the other types of spells. The magic that the paladins used fell into this category. Paladins typically cast spells as blessings, while Dark Knights, who were fallen paladins, also used blessing spells.
		- Levels of Tier Magic
			* 0th Tier: This tier did not exist in YGGDRASIL and is exclusive to the New World. For people possessing very little talent/ability. The magic-inexperienced who have yet to learn/master the first Tier is said to be at this level-similar to apprentices and students. It is regarded the same as magic tricks or sleight-of-hand sort of things, and certainly, even if they can be used, one will not be called a magic caster. It is the tier of magic that can meet the needs for simple tasks in life.
			* 1st Tier: The most common level of magic, and many practical magic is included in this tier. Anyone can use 1st-tier magic by training, though it takes too much time and effort for those without talent. Those performing in this tier can earn good pay as a kind of special worker.
			* 2nd Tier: These are spells for those who have talent, numbering 1 in 5,000 to 1 in 10,000. It is the common goal of ordinary magic casters. Those who achieve this tier can earn a good income and reputation.
			* 3rd Tier: Only the brightest achieve this tier. 3rd tier magic casters are pretty rare, and they were considered to be most likely a platinum-rank Adventurer at the very least.
			* 4th Tier: The highest tier that Fluder Paradyne's most skilled acolytes have managed to reach under his guidance.
			* 5th Tier: A tier that very few have reached, among them the Thirteen Heroes, considered the pinnacle of humanity.
			* 6th Tier: The highest tier magic for very few and capable inhabitants of the New World that can so far achieve in reaching. There are four humanoid magic casters who can cast 6th-tier spells in the entire continent, including Fluder Paradyne himself.
			* 7th Tier: Spells that only exist in legends. Although humans cannot use it, the Slane Theocracy's magic casters can via large-scale magic rites or ceremonies. However, these are very dangerous to perform and usually have disastrous consequences. The Thirteen Heroes can use 7th-tier spells, and a few individuals outside the group are rumored to use one.
			* 8th Tier: In the New World, these spells are considered within the Mythical Realm. Night Liches can learn the 8th tier.
			* 9th Tier: The only record, for now, is when Ainz Ooal Gown 9th tier magic named True Death was used to kill Gazef Stronoff. Decem Hougan is the first new worlder to have been confirmed to use both 9th and 10th-tier magic.
			* 10th Tier: The existence of 10th-Tier magic was proven by the Nameless Book of Spells, and a select few individuals like Evileye know about it. Decem Hougan is the first new worlder to have been confirmed to use both 9th and 10th-tier magic.
			* Super-Tier Magic: known as magic of the gods. But few individuals in the New World refer to it as the 11th tier. It is labeled as the highest form of magic above all other tiers that had been used between 500 to 200 years before the current setting of the Overlord series.
		- Metamagic Enhancements: A magic caster can apply multiple metamagic enhancements to a single spell, and the changes are cumulative. However, one cannot use the same form of metamagic twice for a single spell but could stack other forms to it though only once too. One can even store a metamagic of a spell in either a scroll, potion, or wand. Reasonably, a magic caster doesn't need metamagic to activate an item that already stored a metamagic version of a spell. In this case, Ainz utilizing an item imbued with such power could cast "Maximize Magic: Greater Lethal" from it.

* Wild Magic
	+ Ancient or primal magic existed in the New World long before the introduction of Tier Magic. It may even perhaps be known as the magic of the soul or the magic of the dragons. Fluder Paradyne stated that this type of magic tends to go by many different names. They're considered one of the powers alongside Martial Arts, Talents, and Runecraft that did not exist in YGGDRASIL. Wild Magic differs from Tier Magic, as instead of mana, it requires the caster to release souls for one to cast a powerful spell. The more beings or souls offered up as living sacrifices, the stronger the magic.
	+ On the other hand, if the casting of Wild Magic is used on specific players who own a World Item, respectively, it will not affect the holders. However, for players without ownership over a World Item of their own, practitioners of Wild Magic should be able to influence them unless they have world protection. Likewise, wielding the power of Wild Magic meant its practitioners were also safely immune from the effects of World Items or other users of Wild Magic. Based on Elder Coffin Dragon Lord's Character Sheet, it is suggested that Dragon Lords such as Elder Coffin Dragon Lord need to have levels in a specific job class or more to use this primal magic.
	+ Except for True Dragon Lords, to gain access to Wild Magic, one must either possess the blood of a Dragon Lord or be born with an innate Talent that can let potential individuals use it. Still, even if a person does possess such heritage, the weaker the descendants are, the greater the number of sacrifices of lives required to perform Wild Magic with estimates upwards of millions of souls. As a result, weaker descendants like Draudillon Oriculus had difficulty utilizing it properly. According to Draudillon Oriculus's grandfather, with the power of Wild Magic, one could create an explosion that could closely rival the Platinum Dragon Lord’s ultimate attack.
	+ Fortunately, the pure-blooded, True Dragon Lords can easily cast Wild Magic compared to those who were hybrids with partial dragon blood.

Job Class

* YGGDRASIL standard, the DMMO-RPG, had over 2,000 basic and advanced job classes available in the game to unlock and choose from through various conditions, such as killing Ice Dragon monsters. Compared to heteromorphs and demi-humans, humanoids gain all their strengths from job classes and skills. In YGGDRASIL, strong classes were typically balanced out with weaknesses and penalties.
* On the other hand, there were three different types of job classes. They're usually ranked between base, high. and rare. Base job classes can be leveled up to 15, high classes can be leveled up to 10, and rare classes, like World Champion or Eclipse, can only be leveled up to 5 at max. In fact, some powerful classes could be unlocked by PKing a certain number of heteromorphic beings for entry without consequence, since they don't suffer from any penalty while doing so. Nonetheless, every base job class had a maximum of 15 levels to invest in. One must take at least seven different classes to reach the overall level cap of 100.

Racial Class

* In the context of YGGDRASIL, every demihuman and heteromorphic race, but not humanoids, are allowed to unlock racial features. This, in turn, gives players racial characteristics ranging from monstrous appearances, abilities, skills, resistances, etc. When they reached certain levels, particularly, it was heteromorphic monsters that had the highest amount to gain, such as stats through racial classes but could still have levels in job classes nevertheless. Second to them were demihumans, who are fairly balanced between both racial and job classes combined. Because of that, certain heteromorphic creatures tend to possess multiple forms due to investing levels in their racial classes.
* However, it was considered troublesome to waste time to level up heteromorphic racial classes, because they usually become the targets for PKing by other players. Moreover, there was still a limit to how far the benefit of racial classes went, especially its resistance. For instance, even if a heteromorphic character combined their racial resistances with job classes that granted resistances, it is impossible to resist all elemental attacks, even with enough preparation in doing so.

Martial Arts

* Martial Arts are skills that can only be cultivated through intense training. The applications of martial arts are vast, ranging from altering one's physical prowess, magic resistance, and strengthening weapons to altering the opponent's spatial and temporal awareness. In terms of acquiring martial skills, it usually takes a novice around a year to achieve. This is through real battle experience, healing when injured, fighting more vigorous opponents with enhancement magic, etc. However, Martial Arts are limited to the user's physical and mental stamina. The more powerful a martial art is, the greater mental concentration is needed to perform it thoroughly. Also, this would mean that concentrating too long will fatigue the user's mental and physical stamina over time.