No game no life

In this fantasy world, everything’s a game–and these gamer siblings play to win! Meet Sora and Shiro, a brother and sister who are loser shut-ins by normal standards. But these siblings don’t play by the rules of the ““crappy game”” that is average society. In the world of gaming, this genius pair reigns supreme, their invincible avatar so famous that it’s the stuff of urban legend. So when a young boy calling himself God summons the siblings to a fantastic alternate world where war is forbidden and all conflicts–even those involving national borders–are decided by the outcome of games, Sora and Shiro have pretty much hit the jackpot. But they soon learn that in this world, humanity, cornered and outnumbered by other species, survives within the confines of one city. Will Sora and Shiro, two failures at life, turn out to be the saviors of mankind? Let the games begin

Sora and Shiro are brother and sister, and they both have reputations as brilliant NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) hikikomori (shut-in) gamers. Their skills have even spawned urban legends all over the Internet. Unfortunately, these two gamers consider the real world to be just another “crappy game,” and end up having the shock of a lifetime when they are summoned by a God named “Tet” to an alternate world.

There, Tet has prohibited war and declared this to be a world where “everything is decided by games” — even national borders. Humanity has been driven back into one remaining city by the other races. Will Sora and Shiro, the good-for-nothing brother and sister whose lives are all about gaming, become the “Saviors of Humanity” in this alternate world? The Anime has managed to secure a massive fan base which has spawned more than a decade. The MyAnimeList score of NGNL is 8.29/10, a very high score indeed. Also it is ranked in top 300 Anime-OF-All-Time list on the same platform. Another proof of NGNL’s massive popularity is its 9th position in MAL Popularity rankings.

Immanity is the race that represents humanity within the world of Disboard and of the protagonists, Sora and Shiro. Immanity is ranked as the 16th race of the Ixseed due to having no affinity for magic whatsoever, leaving them unable to sense or use it. The current representatives of Immanity are Sora and Shiro while the representative prior to them was Makoto Dola.

Immanity once had the largest kingdom in Disboard, dwarfing the lands of all the races that existed before the great war combined. It was often speculated on by the other Ixseeds, as mentioned by Jibril, that it seemed impossible for humanity to be capable of asserting itself and maintaining such large territories up to and during the great war. However, Immanity did not become extinct and maintained their large domain even up to the end of the great war.

During the time of the Great War were actually scattered all across the continent, forced into ghettos or settlements crudely put together. The Immanity constantly lived in fear that the wars between other races would make their way to them, to the point that a skirmish between 7-8 Dragonians and a battalion of Dwarves 9 miles away is enough to force 2000+ Immanity to migrate. However, under the leadership of Riku, the Immanity became a major player in the great war by covertly manipulating all the other races into their desired positions like chess pieces. By the end of the war, it is assumed that Corounne Dola became the first representative of Immanity.

Immanity had only the city of Elkia and the lands surrounding it left before Sora and Shiro’s reign. This was mainly due to the enactment of the Ten Covenants and Immanity’s inability to sense the use of magic, as well as a former king who wasn’t good in games. Although Immanity was wise enough to survive the great war, they were incapable of defending themselves from opponents that would often cheat using magic. The result of this was the gradual loss of lands to the other magically dominant races over time until the reign of the previous king.

Elkia is the capital of the Kingdom of Elkia, last kingdom of Immanity, and part of the Andalusia continent.

The Kingdom of Elkia used to occupy half of the continent in mythical times, being an area limited to the southern part of the equator, stretching to the northeast of the continent. Now it only consists of a small and vulnerable country that was located in the westernmost part of the previous Kingdom of Elkia.

The Andalusia Continent, also called Lucia Continent, is where the mainland part of the Commonwealth of Elkia and parts of Elven Gard reside. Immanity controlled half of the continent at the end of the Great War, which shrunk to just Elkia Kingdom.

The Ten Covenants are the rules that govern the world of Disboard. They were set by Tet when he became the One True God at the end of the eternal war between the Old Deus. As the former God of Play, the pledges basically forbid Ixseeds from committing war and violence and settle their disputes by game. The Ten Covenants are as immutable and abiding as the laws of physics and matter. This means that every covenant will be abided by no matter the situation or parameters. Players of a formal game must swear by the ten covenants by raising their right hand and saying “Aschente”, which means these pledges apply to them.

These Ten Covenants differ from the ones set down by Riku Dola and Schwi Dola before the ending of the Great War. These were known as the Six Pledges and differed by saying “Aschento” not “Aschente.”

The word Aschente came from the two words Aschete, a word to honor the dead during the Great War and Aschent, which was a consent between races.

It is to note that, when a Race Representative bets their own Race Piece and loses it, their rights to be protected and operate under the Ten Covenants will be voided and no rules may restrict them from going against the pledges. There are not yet people nor race to be stripped off from the right of the pledges.

The Six Pledges are a set of rules created by Riku bestowed upon the group entitled the “Ghosts” working behind the scenes to end the Great War once and for all. These rules according to Riku are the conditions for humanity’s victory. The Six Pledges gave birth to “Aschento” to which Riku pledges instead of “Aschete”.

The Race Representative otherwise known as the Agent Plenipotentiary are people who represent the entirety of their respective race when games are played between race, by the 7th pledge above. The role is usually given to (and defines) the leader of the race and his/her confidee. In many cases, they are physically and/or mentally superior compared to their brethren, except for mentally-linked Ex-Machina. As a matter of fact, Race Representative were given the Race Piece, and to some degree, able to summon it as a wager if without intervention.

The Race Piece is a chess piece bestowed upon the representative leaders of each race.

The Race Piece holds the rights of the race they belong to, so while the Races Pieces can be bet, it is unwise to do so. If a race’s representative bets their race’s Piece and loses, the race’s rights as an Ixseed are stripped and the Covenants no longer apply to them. Hence, no one has ever bet their Piece in the past making Sora and Shiro being the first ones to do so.

The Race pieces all take on the form of a piece in Chess. When a new representative for the race has been chosen, the race piece will materialize before them, as shown with Sora and Shiro. The race pieces are translucent and emit a multi-colored glow and at times exudes a sparkle as well.

The Boardtop World, Disboard is the world where the primary story takes place. This fantasy world was modified by Tet. After he became the “sole victor” of the war between the Old Deus, thus being granted the title of the One True God, he commanded the 16 different races to end all wars and implemented the Ten Covenants. So far, three main continents have been identified. The Lucia Continent, the neighboring Arienna Continent., and the western Valar Continent. It should be noted that while The Red Moon is considered a part of Disboard that is governed by the Ten Pledges, it is a separate moon not connected to the planet. Disboard was created by Tet to end the war and to decide everything through games and can change and influence the world completely as he wants and can even destroy it

Disboard is neither round nor blue due to the molding and scars of the Great War. It is being entirely held together by the Spirit Circuits, and adjusts reality in order for life to thrive. If viewed from the moon, the chess pieces scattered on the planet appear distorted and stabbing into it.

Locations

Avant Heim

Elven Gard

Hardenfell

Eastern Federation

Oceando

Elkia

The Red Moon (Still ruled by Ten Covenants)

The Ixseed refers to the 16 sentient races of Disboard whom the Ten Covenants apply to. They are ranked based on their affinity to magic.

The top 6 races are regarded as “Life” and “Living beings” while the bottom 10 races are regarded as “Creatures” and “Living things”. The split between the top 6 and bottom 10 races represent the difference between the heaven and earth, as the “Life” are vastly more powerful than the “Creatures”. All races were created by the Old Deus, except Immanity and Demonia.

No cross-breeding between races is observed in Disboard. However, it is possible to breed an offspring using a piece of soul from another race, which is how Laira gave birth to Sora’s daughter. Jibril and the Ex-Machina mentioned they could reproduce in similar ways as well.

Tet is the God of Play. He assumed the title of One True God after he won the Great War and obtained the Suniaster before any of the other gods and surpassed their strength despite not participating in the war at all. Tet does not belong to any of the 16 races and acts as an observer of the world from a king chess piece.

After both Shiro and Sora defeated him in a game of Internet chess, he summoned the siblings to Disboard, under the guise of saving Immanity. To challenge Tet for the title of the One True God, one must collect all pieces of different chess from 16 races. This means that, under the tenth rule of the Ten Covenants, one must defeat or unite all 16 races before being able to play against him.

The Werebeasts or Warbeasts are a race of kemonomimis and the 14th ranked race of the Ixseed. They currently live on the islands of the former Eastern Union which is now a self-ruling territory of the Commonwealth of Elkia. The race as a whole is represented by Miko while their Race Piece is a pawn. They have enhanced physical capabilities as well as senses, capable of sensing heart rate and other minute details. There are countless different tribes of Werebeasts, each of which has different physical features but all have animal-like attributes.

For many years the Werebeast had been locked in a cycle between civil wars and negotiated peace, a small country of islands with little uniformity. However, one day, Miko appeared and pacified the country in just half a century, and now they had merged into a gigantic maritime nation counted as the third biggest country on Disboard.

As a united nation, their technology advanced rapidly and thus started to require a vast amount of resources to sustain their growth; resources that their nation of islands could not provide. They utilize paper with numbers on them instead of currency. Before they could attempt to expand to the mainland, they were challenged by the Elves for a total of four times. By then, the Werebeasts possessed video game technology which was never seen before on Disboard. Thereby, they used this to their advantage to beat the elves while wiping out their memories to keep their advantage a secret. Regardless, the elves were able to piece together the game through their losses purely by the results of each of their four games (of which were all losses). After the fourth loss, however, the elves realize that it is a game they did not understand (videogames were unknown to the rest of Disboard as stated above) and thus stopped challenging the Werebeasts. From the four games against the elves, the Werebeasts gained a significant amount of land. However, the land they gained were islands that did not contain the wealth of resources they need. What’s more, the games conducted with the elves and the condition of losing the memories of the game acted as a great deterrent for any other race to challenge the Werebeasts. Offensively, the Werebeasts would be unable to go up against the magic of the other races and thus would be in a losing situation. With this predicament, the Eastern Federation would never be able to satisfy the demand for resources.

In their desperate situation, they were ultimately saved when the former king of Immanity decided to challenge them for a total of eight times within a decade before Sora and Shiro appeared on Disboard. For each game, the former king bet a piece of the mainland that was useless to Immanity at the time for a coastal city of the Eastern Federation. However, perhaps to encourage the previous king to keep challenging to obtain more continental land, they allowed him to keep his memory of the games provided he does not speak about it for the remainder of his life. After the eighth time, the former king stopped challenging the Werebeasts. However, the Werebeasts got the land and the resources they needed to expand their growth.

During the Great War, the entire Werebeast clan was the dominating force on the west coast of the Lucia continent.

The Elves are the seventh ranked race of the Ixseed and were created by Kainath, the God of Forest. Their homeland is Elven Gard, the largest nation on Disboard.

Though the elf country is democratic with the largest families within the council of elders, they often have slaves from other races to serve them from within the conquered territories they have claimed or from bets that have been lost, this often results in generational slave families living with their owner families for life such as Chlammy Zell lives with Fiel Nirvalen. It is noted that there are currently 2 main political factions within Elven Gard, the Senate and Agent Plenipotentiary Advisory Council who back the Elves Agent Plenipotentiary Auli-El Violhart, who was not given much detail but is popular with of the Elven people, while the Senate is trying to gain more power over the people.

The Elves were created by Kainath, the God of Forest. During the Great War, they rose to power and became one of the 3 dominant forces together with the Dwarves and the Flügels.

At some point of time, the Elves and the Fairies formed an alliance in order to develop magic that could control high-ranking Ixseeds, with the test subject being the Phantasma “Cloud Vortex”. However for unknown reasons, the experiment failed and Cloud Vortex went berserk, causing the Flügels to intervene and destroyed every single facilities involved.

Due to the destruction of their facilities and exposure of the Fairys “Spratul”, the Elves were forced to spread out their forces for defense. Taking advantage of the situation, the Dwarves sent a fleet of high speed warships to lure the Phantasma “Insein Nebia” into attacking Elves’ northern territories, Helruin. The plan backfired, resulting in the Dwarven fleet getting annihilated and the Phantasma captured. However, this was merely a diversion.

After the Elven capital Melryln being put into an exposed position, the main Dwarven fleet led by Lóni Drauvnir launched a full scale assault on the city. During his duel with Think Nirvalen, the latter cast the Zia La Anse rite, which disrupted the flow of spirits above the capital and disabled the entire Dwarven fleet. However, it also knocked a passing Jibril out of the sky. Enraged, she cast the Heaven’s Strike upon the city. A squadron of the Elven army consist of 3,000 mages cast a defensive rite intertwined with all their spirits , but their efforts were hopeless. As a result, the entire capital was obliterated together with the Dwarven fleet, while Lóni escaped amidst the chaos. After the destruction, Jibril plundered the capital for all grimoires, resulted in a heavy blow in Elven magic development that took more than 800 years to recover.

As Jibril plundered the capital, Think Nirvalen and Nina Clive fled the city and resided in the new capital Melvoil. 24 years later, a disguised Riku paid them a visit and offered information that turned the tide of war.

After the war-ending final act and establishment of the Ten Covenants, it is implied that Think and Nina founded the Elven Gard, which eventually became the largest nation on Disboard, spanning over all 3 continents and have one-third of all lands under their control.

The Flügel are the sixth-ranked race of the Ixseed. Their homeland is Avant Heim, a Phantasma acting as a floating city in the sky. The kanji for their name can be read as angels, but Sora noted that they are more alike to demons, as they hold powers of mass-destruction and massacred countless beings during the Great War. It appears that they are an all-female race, just like the Sirens.

After the demise of their creator, the Old Deus Artosh, the race is governed by the Council of Eighteen Wings consisting of 9 Flügel that rule in an oligarchical fashion. In emergency situations, Azril, the Representative of the Winged, has the right to put forth decisions on her own. The Flügel killed numerous Elves in the past, so the elves share a hatred for the Flügel. Flügel are also known as angels of death.

The Flügel have the appearances of young girls in late teens, regardless of their age. True to their name, they have wing-shaped ears and a pair of feathery wings on their waists. Besides, all Flügel shown so far have tattoos on their upper arms. They have a halo decorated with geometric shapes on the side of their head, which will spin or expand when they are using magic. It seems like each of their halos are unique in patterns, and it’s mentioned that Azril’s halo is more complex in shape compared to Jibril’s.

Their clothes are revealing and asymmetric in design, exposing their shoulders, midriff and thighs. During the Love or Loved 2 game, Sora remarked that Jibril doesn’t have much to protect herself with.

The Dhampir are the 12th race in the Ixseed, and live by extracting Soul Essence from bodily fluids of creatures such as blood or sweat. However, due to the implementation of the Ten Covenants, they have to either let their victims agree to give them their soul essence or play a game that involves the victim’s soul essence as the winning prize (or at least with soul essence incorporated into the game).

According to Jibril, the Dhampir specialize in illusion magic, ranging from hiding their presence to self-suggestion that provide themselves the ability to fly or carry extra weight.

Sora presumes, based on the information gained by Jibril, that the Dhampir are a form of succubi and not pure vampires as they are capable of feeding on soul essence from bodily fluids other than blood. However, the levels of soul essence are lower in other bodily fluids compared to blood, with the semen of men containing the highest amount and sweat containing the least.

It is revealed that while all body fluids can be used to continue their life, they can only increase their power and growth with the consumption of blood. As such, the Dhampir can only mature into adulthood by the act of blood consumption by biting their victim. However, Dhampir can still live through consuming other body fluids as stated previously but they would be unable to mature until enough blood is consumed.

The last known living male Dhampir is Plum.

Prior to the inaction of the Ten Covenants, Dhampir consumed the blood of other races at their leisure, allowing the race to grow and reproduce.

However, with the implementation of the Ten Covenants, they would no longer be permitted to inflict bodily harm on opposing parties. Thus, they were at a stalemate as a race. Where they would once harvest blood for their meals in a hunter-gatherer style, they would now be forced to engage in games for rights to feed. The race did not bode well under these conditions, as there stands little to gain for their opponents, albeit an illness that causes inability to live under the sun.

In a desperate plight for survival, they sought the Sirens of Oceand, seeking a symbiotic relationship with a wager: a game intended to end in a draw, allowing Siren, an all female race with a necessity for reproduction with other races, and one with infrequent contact with direct sunlight, an allowance to reproduce with Dhampir males, or assistance in procuring those of other races through illusion magic (reproduction with a Siren kills the opposite party), while the Dhampir free rein to feed on the Sirens. Dhampir cannot mature without the consumption of blood, and proportionally cannot reproduce unless matured. The Dhampir would thus regularly consume Siren blood for sustenance and maturation in order to reproduce. This wager would allow both races to reproduce, thus ensuring their mutual survival.

However, due to the Siren’s misunderstanding and ignorance of the Ten Covenants, the Dhampir are currently living in servitude under the Siren after the later won the game that Dhampir intended to end in a draw. A contract was formed where the Dhampir males would assist Sirens in reproduction, while also being forbidden to suck the blood of non-Sirens. This ensured Dhampir were trapped in Oceand; the males and females relying on Siren blood for maturation.

However, there did exist a Siren individual capable of leaving enough soul to keep the males alive while still reproducing, albeit just one such individual in a generation. Dhampir quickly figured, in a plight to ensure their survival, to only assist in reproduction with that said Siren, who was thus set up as the Queen and the only one with the right to reproduce with the Dhampir. Self-preservation was thus achieved for both races.

However, this system did not last as well, as the current queen in the story was infatuated by a fairy tale, and hundreds of years prior to the start of the story, swore by the Covenants her refusal to reproduce until a prince came to awaken her; until the game she’s set by the Covenants is beaten, she will not wake.

The Dhampir males, who had resolved their race solely to reproduce with the queen who could do so without killing, were thus forced to reproduce with ordinary Siren, and be devoured per the Covenants. Even if they left Oceand, males were forbidden per the Covenants from consuming the blood of other races, thus could not mature and reproduce with their females. They were once again at a stalemate, forced to do the bidding of the Siren. Devoured, one after another, for hundreds of years, and still the queen has yet to be arisen.

In a last ditch attempt to ensure their races survival, select males were to not drink the blood of Siren to prevent maturity, and thus an inability for reproduction with Siren.

The Siren or Mermaids are the 15th ranked race of the Ixseeds. The current representative of the Sirens is their queen Laila who was in a self-induced cold sleep for around 800 years until woken up recently by Sora. Their capital city is Oceand but it is unknown whether this is their only city or if they have settlements expanding into other parts of the ocean.

A female-only race, the Sirens are considered creature which lack intelligence by most races; according to Plum and Jibril, Sirens only know how to play and mate and are very carefree in nature, even at the prospect of their race going extinct. Complying to the ranking of the Ixseeds, they don’t excel in any particular magic other than seduction ability as their bodies are filled with Water Elementals that can attract the Elementals in the bodies of the other races.

The Sirens, before the enactment of the Ten Covenants, would abduct males from any race and forcefully reproduce with them by consuming their blood and soul essence. Due to the large amount of soul essence required, the male usually dies in the process. However, now with the Ten Covenants in place, their days were numbered due to the increasing difficulty to acquire mates.

Sometime after the Ten Covenants were implemented, the Dhampir approached them with a game for mutual cooperation. The Dhampir wagered their help in providing the Sirens with mates (either their race or another’s) while the Sirens wagered to provide the Dhampirs their blood. Although a draw would have been favorable for both races, the Sirens won the game.

They are currently living in mutualistic dominance over the Dhampir in Oceand after the Sirens won the game for mutualistic benefits, with the Sirens betting that the males of the Dhampir will sustain the Sirens for reproduction purposes and the Dhampir betting for access to feeding on the Sirens. As the Sirens mainly live underwater where there’s no direct sunlight, they’re mostly unaffected by the vampiric disease. In order to prevent their extinction, the Dhampir would only mate with the Siren Queen, who is able to produce offspring without killing the male Dhampir. The Seiren Queen will become the Race Representative under full support of the Dhampir race.

Approximately 800 years before Sora and Shiro arrived in Disboard, the then princess of the Sirens, Laila, read a fairy tale about a princess who has everything, much like herself, and a man who offered her something she did not have. This ultimately shaped Laira’s definition of love and, in the process, Laila froze herself and entered cold sleep. She had since been asleep up until the events of Light Novel Volume 5, but has become the Siren Queen when her mother passed away sometime within those 800 years of cold sleep. This presented a huge problem as the remaining Sirens had no choice but to reproduce by killing male Dhampir again, which decimated the male Dhampir population. The situation became really dire - if male Dhampir are all killed, the entire Dhampir race will go extinct and the Sirens will follow the same path soon after. During the present days, Plum is the only male Dhampir left.