Record of Lodoss War (novel series) (2024)

Record of Lodoss War (ロードス島戦記, rōdosu-tō senki, lit., “Lodoss Island War Chronicle”) is a Japanese fantasy work set on the “accursed” Lodoss island, an island that is part of the world of Forcelia. It has been the setting for light novels, anime, manga, audio drama and videogames. It was originally designed to be the setting for TRPG's.^[1]

The series began as a tabletop role-playing game (TRPG), modified from already existing TRPG’s such as Dungeons & Dragons and Tunnels & Trolls. Record of Lodoss War debuted in the September 1986 issue of Comptiq, a monthly computer magazine, under the title D&D Magazine Live Record of Lodoss War Replay (D＆D誌上ライブ・ロードス島戦記リプレイ, D&D shijō raibu rōdosu-tō senki ripurei).^[2] A “replay” is a transcript or session log of a TRPG gaming session meant to convey the events of the session. Though it contains a story, or a series of events, it is not a novel. The Comptiq publications featured artwork by Yutaka Izubuchi,^[2] who would later become the illustrator for the light novel series.

As the publications in Comptiq magazine continued, the popularity of the world of Lodoss, the characters, and the story grew (Izubuchi's designs caused long ears to become synonymous with elves in Japan). In 1987 Ryo Mizuno, the Dungeon Master for the TRPG sessions, began adapting the replays into novels. In 1988 his first novel, Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch, was published by Kadokawa Sneaker Books (then called Kadokawa Books). It was one of the earliest Japanese domestic high fantasy novels. Mizuno went on to write six more Record of Lodoss War novels, completing the series in 1993 (though adding two side-stories in 1995). He would later expand the Lodoss setting with the prequel series Legend of Lodoss (1994-2002) and the sequel series Record of Lodoss War Next Generation (1998-2006) and Record of Lodoss War: The Crown of the Covenant (2019-).

As TRPG’s usually came without a background world,^[2] Mizuno created one of his own which he called “Lodoss”^[2]—an island roughly the size and shape of Australia. Mizuno was still a high school student at this time. With the creation of Lodoss, Mizuno also came up with the story of the Six Heroes, the story of Karla and the idea of working with two sides (light and darkness). Mizuno bought a designer kit from a local store (Hobby Japan) to create the map, and filled in the terrain with locations such as the Wind and Fire Desert, the Forest of No Return and the Great Straight Cliff.^[2] When he was in university, Mizuno drew manga that took place on Lodoss. While doing so, he was primarily inspired by the works of Frank Frazetta, and read Frazetta's art books numerous times. Frazetta's works became one of the sources that made up the worldview of Lodoss.^[2]

In December 2017^[3] North American publisher Seven Seas Entertainment released the first-ever English translation of a Lodoss novel, which was Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch. The company has stated that they have no plans yet to translate its sequel, The Fire Demon, stating that they only acquired a license for the first novel. In November 2020 the company said they'd “love to do more volumes if [The Grey Witch] sells enough copies in print and/or digital.”^[4]

The Grey Witch sold over a 100,000 copies in Japan, and its sequel The Fire Demon sold even better.^[5] Eventually, Record of Lodoss War became one of the best selling light novel series in Japan and had sold over 10 million copies by 2005.^[6]

List of novels[]

Original Record of Lodoss War novels[]

The first novel in the Record of Lodoss War franchise was The Grey Witch, released in 1988 and published by Kadokawa Bunko.

Side stories[]

RPG replays[]

The replays were originally published in Comptiq magazine under the title D&D Magazine Live Record of Lodoss War Replay. They were later adapted into three light novel format publications by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. In 1998 a fourth RPG replay was published in a "mini" light novel format. It generally featured the same characters as the third RPG replay. In 2020 a fifth RPG replay, featuring a new cast, was published.

Publications outside of Japan[]

The light novels have been published in several countries outside Japan.

• Brazil, published from 2021-2024 (all seven volumes), under the title Crônicas das Guerras de Lodoss.
• China, all seven volumes under the title "羅德斯島戰記" (Luó dé sī dǎo zhànjì) + Deedlit's Tale and The Black Knight.
• France, published from 2006-2009 (four volumes), under the title Chroniques de la guerre de Lodoss. The third volume was titled "The Scepter of Domination" (Le sceptre de domination) and the fourth volume "Fire Dragon Mountain" (La montagne du dragon de feu).
• Italy, published from 2001-2010 (all seven volumes), under the title Cronache della guerra di Lodoss.
• South Korea, first in 1995 (all seven volumes + Deedlit's Tale and The Black Knight) under the title "Demon World War" (마계마인전, magyemainjeon). Followed by publications of Crystania. In 2012 a revised limited edition was released in October 2012 as Record of Lodoss War (로도스도 전기, lodoseudo jeongi).
• United States, first published in 2017 (1 volume) by Seven Seas Entertainment.

Reading order[]

See also[]

• Legend of Lodoss, a novel series about the Six Heroes. A prequel to the main Lodoss novel series.
• Record of Lodoss War Next Generation, a novel series about Spark. A sequel to the main Lodoss series.
• Crystania, a novel series with mainly new characters set in the world of Crystania. A sibling franchise to the Record of Lodoss War series.
• Rune Soldier, a novel series set in the continent of Alecrast. A sibling franchinse to the Record of Lodoss War series.
• Sword World, is a novel series set in the world of Forcelia. The Rune Soldier novels are considered part of this novel series. There are also a number of "short stories" novel released as part of the Sworld World Short Stories novel series.
• Record of Lodoss War manga, an overview of Lodoss mangas.
• List of novels set in the world of Forcelia

References[]