Ritual

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**Rituals** (大儀式) are magic ceremonies consisting of a series of actions performed by magic casters who hailed from different affiliations in the New World. It can also be treated as a form of traditional, cultural ceremony upheld by various families, tribes or organizations.

## Background

Tier Magic is the main magical craft that flourishes the New World. Despite years of study and research, the inhabitants of the New World barely comprehend its power. Whereas the Players, who originally brought its power, could easily cast spells of the 6th tier and above, the average magical standard in the New World is at 2nd or 3rd tier. For that reason, rituals are used as a means to bypass those limitations.

In addition to that, they enable magic casters working in unity to achieve levels of magical phenomena that can't be normally acquired in living time. Magic casters in the New World perform rituals to gain further access in using spells that are said to be impossible to achieve under normal conditions. For instance, there was one country like the Slane Theocracy in particular that conducted a large-scale ritual to use magic spells of the 6th Tier, 7th Tier and possibly beyond which is the 8th Tier.

Within the New World setting, some rituals are viewed as a traditional norm for different groups culturally. In the case of Torkel, he has to participate in the coming of age ritual since he is a particular heir to a certain family household. According to Andre, the family tradition is designed so by killing monsters that look exactly similar to humans. This way, it will ease any mental trauma if an heir has to kill again in the near future. Whereas for the Lizardmen people from the Great Lake, they live in tribes that have a caste system where the chief is the highest. The chief is selected not based on bloodline but in a special ritual where the strongest is put in charge above all. Such ritual to decide the chief is held once every few years.

While as for the Roble Holy Kingdom's Paladin Order, there are several rituals involved in donning the mantle of a Paladin. One of those rituals includes trainee soldiers completing their training before being officially ordained as a paladin. When they become a paladin, they would meet with the current Holy King/Queen and ritually offer the sword they held to the ruler. Similarly, when there was a change of leadership between the rulers, the paladins would also meet with their new ruler and ritually offer their swords to the now reigning Holy King/Queen while swearing their loyalty from this moment on. For instance, the Paladin Order pledged their swords to the Holy Queen and fighting for her. Once the trainee becomes a paladin, their trusty blade is enchanted or imbued with minor magic enchantments. A normal trainee soldier still undergoing practice will only be issued simple blades without any enhancements provided until they complete the ritual.

Let alone that, an occult like Zurrernorn will go out of their way to fabricate the Evil God, Jashin's existence with the intention of justifying the sinister rituals they made in secrecy. It was easily believed by some nobles who believe the occult's reasoning was true, using human sacrifices for killing during live rituals.

## Mechanics

Rituals tend to vary in different uses and purposes. The necessary components for performing a ritual depends on several factors: the skill of the focal user, special items, type of magic, etc. However, fundamentally, the purpose of all rituals is to temporarily increase one’s magic power by concentrating on the magic power of a group into one person.

The rules or conditions of Ritual casting are as follow:

* A person or thing is required in the center of the ritual. [V2, V10, V12, Web Novel]

* The more Magic Casters the faster the time it is to cast. [V4]

* An ability to transfer power is needed. [Web Novel, V4]

* At the Lizardmen's current level, they could only use a ritual to cast one tier above. [V4]

* Allows Meta Magic Enhancement, particularly Over Magic.

* Theocracy's rituals are limited to rituals of two tiers above.

### Differences

In the Web Novel, Maruyama noted how the Theocracy can cast the 8th tier. They do this by having the 5th tier magic casters which are the Six Miko Princesses to use the Crown of Wisdom for gaining access to a higher tier, conduct a joint ritual which provides an additional tier, and casting Over Magic to ascend to the next tier.

With that magic item, ritual, and Over Magic used in unison simultaneously, one can elevate a Miko Princess's tier power by 3 times. However, that was not the only condition for what was possible to reach the 8th tier. It was not only this sort of item and ritual included but a Miko Princess who can improve it with her use of Over Magic despite only being able to use up to the 5th tier. However, for the Miko Princesses, combining the mana consumption involved with using Over Magic to the negative effects of an item used for the ritual, doing so will end up extremely hurting them by bleeding and having their mental state damaged during the process.

In the case of the Slane Theocracy:

Miko Princess: 5th tier magic caster

Ritual: Improve Tier of a spell by 2

Over Magic: Improve Tier of user's spell by 1

Miko Princess + Over Magic = 6th tier without a ritual.

Miko Princess + Over Magic + Ritual = 8th tier

While so, MP transfer-ability are unique to divine magic casters especially during a ritual connected between them. These types of particular magic casters can not only conduct the Ritual but use Over Magic with it. This is more than just simply sharing MP among themselves, but it is drawing upon something that people deemed to be a God yet is look by Ainz Ooal Gown as being something more mysterious than that, hence his need to carry out experiments on divine magic casters like Roberdyck Goltron.

On the other hand, unlike the Theocracy's method, the Lizardmen without Over Magic or an item needed to perform a ritual to reach the realm of 4th tier magic like [Control Cloud] with various 3rd tier magic casters. Particularly, a gathering of Elder Druid Lizardmen tends to be of the 3rd tier at best suitable for the role. They were known to be performing the ceremony together for accessing a higher tier beyond their level. However, for the Lizardmen, due to the mana consumption involved with just using Over Magic for the ritual, it will lead them to experience just a heavy toll of exhaustion.

#### Communal Spell Casting: (Lizardmen):

A group of Divine casters works together to cast a spell. This increases the castable Tier by 1. Communal magic requires mana transfer and communal casting ability.

#### Magic Concentration (Nfirea Bareare & Calca Bessarez's Crown):

A ritual is performed using a magical keystone or focus if you will. A group of divine casters do not create a shared spell but instead funnel their magical power into an item or focal point.

Different from neither the limitations of Theocracy's divine magic casters or the Lizardmen's own, Khajiit Dale Badantel and Nfirea Bareare who are arcane magic casters can only go as far as being able to use a 7th tier spell from the item. This had been done with a person particularly wielding the Crown of Wisdom to act as a catalyst and several other magic casters for performing a large-scale ritual. In other words, both Nfirea's way and Calca's way of wearing their crown respectively, let the magic item perform the spellcasting of the ritual for them while they served as its vessel. Along the way, for a necromancer such as Khajiit, crafting a Skeletal Dragon had required two months of elaborate rituals and an immense quantity of negative energy to build up over time. An unholy ritual from Zurrernorn can allow a person to turned themselves into an undead. Rituals like this type had been conducted in the past, and it had turned a metropolis into a city of the dead where undead began to spawn. It is also the kind of ritual with the need to take in all the Negative Energy which are generated from the deaths of their sacrifices, sealing everything inside the caster.

Based on these underlying factors told so far, the Theocracy is in possession of 5th tier divine magic casters. The higher-ups will have the Six Miko Princesses, each one is strapped with a similar item on themselves to make the holder into a magical item. Theoretically, it also counts for their casters' communal ritual casting buff.

Besides that, Fluder had once cast an unknown ritual spell on himself with the intention of becoming immortal through it, but it did not seem to work out as planned since he is still aging but at a slower rate than most humans. The attempt to stop the caster's biological aging process is done with a complicated combination of rituals and spells used together. In the Web Novel, as Fluder Paradyne does not have a skill to amplify magic, he cannot conduct a large-scale ritual.

Overall, the Theocracy's procedures for combining these methods have the advantages of both communal casting and magic concentration. Their item method allows them the use of a high tier spell, but since their Miko Princesses are viewed as dispensable items, by normal YGGDRASIL rules, that spell cannot be enhanced. In other words, the Theocracy has a magic item-type person, so theoretically they fall under both categories. However, for the Lizardman's way, while still limited by the spellcasting ability of its user, can go on to receive enhancement by the group or meta magic. Since they select Six Miko Princesses's who are 5th tier magic caster users, they can abuse the item rule of turning the person into a focus.  At the same time, the divine magic caster rule has enhanced the ritual further beyond what an arcane magic caster is allowed to do.

Along the way, abnormal climate changes referred to usually impossible phenomena occurring in large areas are sometimes connected to bad rituals, the improper ones that have not been successfully done there. For instance, there might be a place where a large scale ritual spell gone wrong filled an area with toxic rot-gases, or a place where once a year, a desert might rage with sandstorms for a week, or perhaps a place where multi-colored rain fell at certain times. Hence, rituals that go wrong can end up having disastrous consequences spew forth from the failed spell casting process. The naturally-spawned gigantic tornado occurring in the Dolor Desert is a prime example of terrible results. The cause for all this ordeal was likely due to incorrect explanations or bad misunderstanding with the casters. Another example of that problem includes the Death Spiral which has been nothing more than merely a failure of such magic ritual badly conducted.

Meanwhile, for the Great Tomb of Nazarick based on YGGDRASIL standard, mercenary monsters needed to be summoned through using 1) a book, 2) a special summoning ritual and 3) adequate amount of gold. According to details from the Web Novel, in order for one to summon the mercenary monsters, the book’s specified ritual must be performed in accordance with what was written, and gold must be used that corresponds with levels. And so if there are no books involving the ritual process, the summoning cannot be done at all. While so, the 10th tier spell [Armageddon Evil] was one that summoned a huge horde of uncontrollable demons. It was said that they could serve as live sacrifices for the sake of conducting certain rituals that require their numbers. Additionally, Ainz Ooal Gown can enhance his undead creation skills through the use of a dark ritual.

## List of Rituals

* Death Spiral
* Kayoukazen of the Mourning Moon (*Unofficial*)
* Last Holy War
* Planar Eye
* Ritual of Holy Fire

## Trivia

* Unbeknownst to the Slane Theocracy's secrets, Nigun Grid Luin doubts his country's large-scale rituals would be able to cast magic 7th tier without the Sealing Crystal containing it.
* The Lizardmen Alliance used some sort of unnamed ritual-type magic in summoning Swamp Elementals during their war against Nazarick's army of undead.
* When Zaryusu Shasha and Shasuryu Shasha finished their negotiations with Ainz Ooal Gown and relay it to the Lizardmen Alliance, they had thoughtfully reached the conclusion that Nazarick will conduct a live sacrificial ritual over them.
* So far as the Light Novels have shown, the nations of the Slane Theocracy and the Roble Holy Kingdom are known to actively use rituals.
* Wild Magic also utilizes rituals as explained in Volume 9.
* Likewise, Ainz is capable of performing a ritual to learn new spells as well as for other purposes, like enhancing his undead creation skills.
* According to the Slane Theocracy's Cardinals, the Black Scripture is said to be capable of conducting a grand ritual jointly as a group to summon the highest-ranked angel.
* Calca possesses a magic crown that allows her to cast a grand ritual spell called the Last Holy War.
* In the New World, it is hinted by Ainz that resurrection magic can be performed with rituals.
* Only in the Web Novel, by YGGDRASIL norm, the prerequisites to class change to a Lich was to have 10 Levels as a Skeleton Mage, possess a Book of the Dead, at least 30 Magic class Levels, a deserted souls treasured book, possess a dark ritual document, and clear a special event.
* In Mass for the Dead, its revealed that the "celebration ceremony" at the Kakushigei Tournament acted as a ritual to summon Shiramochi-ō from the Sea of Possibilities.
* The Kayoukazen of the Mourning Moon while categorized as a ritual, is not a magical ritual but a totally fictious bereavement period that Ainz Ooal Gown created to better assimilate with the dark elves.

## References

1. ↑ *Overlord Manga Volume 01 Chapter 4: Types of Magic*
2. ↑ *Overlord Volume 06 Special Drama CD: The Dark Hero's Story*
3. ↑ *Overlord Manga Volume 05 Chapter 18: The Social System of Lizard Man*
4. ↑ *Overlord Volume 12 Chapter 2: Seeking Salvation*
5. ↑ *Overlord Volume 12 Chapter 3: Beginning the Counterattack*
6. ↑ *Overlord Second Half Chapter 18: Evil God Part 1*
7. ↑ *Overlord Second Half Chapter 19: Evil God Part 2*
8. ↑ *Overlord Volume 02 Chapter 1: The Two Adventurers*
9. ↑ *Overlord First Half Chapter 87: Various Countries Part 5*
10. ↑ *Overlord First Half Chapter 48: War Part 8*
11. ↑ *Overlord Volume 07 Chapter 4: A Handful of Hope*
12. ↑ *Overlord Volume 04 Chapter 1: Departure*
13. ↑ *Overlord First Half Chapter 45: War Part 5*
14. ↑ *Overlord Volume 02 Chapter 4: Twin Swords of Death*
15. ↑ *Overlord First Half Chapter 39: Promotion Test Part 2*
16. ↑ *Overlord Volume 03 Chapter 3: Confusion and Understanding*
17. ↑ *Overlord Volume 02 Chapter 3: Wise King of the Forest*
18. ↑ *Overlord Volume 07 Chapter 2: Butterfly Entangled in a Spider Web*
19. ↑ *Overlord First Half Chapter 60: Settings*
20. ↑ *Overlord Bonus Volume Epilogue*
21. ↑ *Overlord Manga Volume 04 Chapter 9: Zuranon*
22. ↑ *Overlord Volume 08 Side Story 2: A Day in Nazarick*
23. ↑ *Overlord First Half Chapter 33: Preparations Part 2*
24. ↑ *Overlord Volume 06 Chapter 11: The Final Battle of the Disturbance*
25. ↑ *Overlord Volume 10 Chapter 1: The Sorcerer Kingdom of Ainz Ooal Gown*
26. ↑ *Overlord Volume 01 Chapter 5: Ruler of Death*
27. ↑ *Overlord Volume 04 Chapter 3: Army of Death*
28. ↑ *Overlord Volume 04 Chapter 4: Dawn of Despair*
29. ↑ *Overlord First Half Chapter 49: War Part 9*
30. ↑ *Overlord Volume 09 Intermission*
31. ↑ *Overlord Volume 10 Intermission*
32. ↑ *Overlord Volume 12 Chapter 1: Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth*
33. ↑ *Overlord Volume 04 Chapter 5: The Freezing God*
34. ↑ *Overlord First Half Chapter 52: War Part 12*
35. ↑ *ARCADIA 2.56: ARCADIA 3122 09-29-2011*
36. ↑ *Mass for the Dead Special Event: Counterattack Guardian Kakushigei Tournament*
37. ↑ *Overlord Volume 16 Chapter 4: A Life in the Village*