Memory Experiment

**Memory Experiment** is a form of experimentation conducted by Ainz Ooal Gown.

## Objective

Previously starting out as an experiment to confirm the existence of deities, though after the failure of finding anything coherent from one of the test subjects, Ainz adapted the experiments to involve memory viewing and manipulation.

## Procedures

Ainz used methods like altering a priest's memories and make the subject of his experiment changed faith from one god to another.

Since any changes to the memories remained forever, mishandling them might can actually lead to an irrecoverable situation where the priest was unable to remember his own name. Though Ainz had better results with CZ2128 Delta when manipulating memories.

## Results

Through trial and error, Ainz found that memory manipulation was tricky as the magic used to view memories was not all-powerful as if a person forgot an event then only rough details could be seen. Though Ainz believed that memories from individuals may not originate from the brain and that the spell is complicated and could be accessed through a primordial source. That being said, memories were extremely dangerous to handle as any mishandling could lead to irrecoverable damage like trying to reprogram a computer without making any backups. More importantly the spell consumed a lot of mana, and past memories were harder to view than recent ones as the perception overtime is clouded.

Ainz having developed the technique felt confident that he could master it and hoped that one day he could use the magic experiment to peer into the cores of Non-Playable Characters.

From the results of countless experiments and a lot of practice via [Control Amnesia], Ainz learned that if one —were to search through memories spanning over a long period of time, just even just taking glances at them would take weeks of time. And it one were to take a detailed look in order to obtain important information, it would require years of time, and if one were to go so far as to alter or falsify memories, it would take decades.

Originally it was believed that viewing memories was a form of interrogation where obtaining false evidence was impossible, but the information that was acquired was nothing more than what was the truth for that individual. And thus it was more than possible that even that individual had been deceived.

If someone tried to get confirmation, they couldn’t trust the individual as an information source without peering into the memories of multiple people. And even if they were to do that, then no matter how much time you have, it would never be enough, thus the simpler method of acquiring information was more realistic.

The same conclusion came for modifying memories. For example, if a person had burned a certain village to the ground and the surviving inhabitant of that village, a blasphemous and malicious man who sought power, managed to ascend to a level high enough that they would be able to cause irreparable harm.

A simple way to “solve” the problem would be wiping away the man's memory about the person who burned the village. However while that inhabitant of the village lived his life to seek out the power to take revenge, he mostly likely would have talked to someone about his grudge. If a person didn’t erase everything up to till that point, a huge inconsistency would be born within that man. Although he wouldn’t remember who had burned his village, the memory that, over a drink, would still remain.

## Trivia

* According to Zenberu Gugu after Ainz only viewed his memories of the Dwarf Kingdom, he felt fine though weird which Ainz believed was some kind of placebo effect from the spell.
* Ainz would use the method to view erase the memories of an elf he captured at Crescent Lake after he finished interrogating him.
* Despite the limits of memory viewing, Ainz utilized the method on Antilene Heran Fouche as it was a simpler method to acquire information when she was unconscious.

## References

1. ↑ *Overlord Volume 11 Chapter 2: In Pursuit of the Land of the Dwarves*
2. ↑ *Overlord Volume 13 Epilogue*
3. ↑ *Overlord Volume 15 Chapter 2: The Travelling Scenery in Nazarick*
4. ↑ *Overlord Volume 16 Epilogue*