InOverlord, traces of the previous Ainz Ooal Gown guild members pop up from time to time.Each of the floor guardiansis basically a walking reminder of the old guild members since each of them was created by one. Then there are the area guardians, who are on a lower rung of authority than the floor guardians.
The area guardians only guard a specific area on a floor and viewers see them far less often than other inhabitants of Nazarick. With them making fewer appearances, there are more mysteries surrounding them and their abilities. That’s especially the case with Nigredo.
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Creator & Influences
The frozen prison of Nazarick is a hopeless, mostly empty place that houses the few prisoners that Nazarick leaves alive. Nigredo served as the area guardian of its upper portion until she performed a treasonous act that caused the Ainz Ooal Gown to ban her from leaving Nazarick. Nigredo is Albedo’s older sister, and she was created by Tabula Smaragdina, one of the previous Ainz Ooal Gown guild members. Nigredo is almost non-existent in the anime series, and she is only slightly more present in theoriginal light novel series.
With how little screen time and attention she gets, she is ironically one of the NPCs whose original personality and appearance are contextualized deeply by her creator’s interests. In the anime series, she was first introduced in the fourth season during Ainz’s visit to the frozen prison, but details were scarce as to who she was or why was there. In the light novel, she was first introduced much earlier, in the “Bloody Valkyrie Arc” after Shalltear Bloodfallen had been controlled by a world-class magical item.
Tabula loves alchemy and horror, as can be seen pretty obviously by Nigredo’s design. The term Nigredo refers to the decomposition and blackening stage of alchemy. Consequently, Nigredo’s dress is a ruffled and tattered black dress. Nigredo’s visual design is highly reminiscent ofsome of the horror genre’smost iconic elements, like her long black hair covering her seemingly decomposing face, as popularized internationally by films like the grudge and the ring. While she has more facial tissue than Ainz Ooal Gown does, she lacks any skin, which makes for a pretty gruesome appearance.
What Lies Behind Those Eyes
As far as personality goes, Nigredo is actually a very level-headed person, most of the time. In her first introduction, she was in an unbalanced state that quickly turned violent before she was given a baby doll to calm her. She was rocking a crib with a baby doll in it when Ainz entered the room with Albedo and Nigredo dashed at him with her large scissors. No one told her the timeless rule of not running with scissors, and she was having a bad day, so who can really blame her? Tabula originally designed Nigredo as a prank on the other guild members in an attempt to frighten them upon meeting her, which is why she was so chaotic in the first meeting but hasn’t been since.
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Compared to the other Nazarick inhabitants, Nigredo is one of the free thinkers. She is still loyal to Ainz and Nazarick, but she values her own sense of morality over orders. When Ainz orderedthe merciless killing of humansthey had imprisoned from the worker’s invasion, Nigredo attempted to smuggle them out of Nazarick with help from the other frozen prison guardian, Pestonya. Nigredo is also one of the most merciful and sympathetic inhabitants of Nazarick. Unlike the others, she doesn’thate humans or see them as toolsfor the further advancement of Nazarick. It’s interesting to see her sympathy for humans contrasted with Albedo’s intense animosity for humans. Although she does have a preference for babies over other humans.
Better Than Google Maps
Like Albedo, Nigredo is very powerful, although the anime has yet to show this and likely won’t since she is a minor character. From what can be seenin the light novel, Nigredo is a magic caster who excels in surveillance, divination, and counter-divination. After Shalltear became mind-controlled by the world-class item in the first season, Ainz used Nigredo’s abilities to determine Shalltear’s location. He has also used her abilities to keep others from listening in on secret meetings.
So far, Nigredo has not played a huge role in the series, but there is room to hope. With Pestonyal’s help, she convinced Ainz to let some humans escape from his recent destruction of towns and villages within the Re-Estize Kingdom. While the main floor guardians of Nazarick didn’t like this, Ainz chose not to let them know it was intentional. Just as seemingly inconsequential moments of previous seasons led to larger events, maybethis will cause a domino effect. For now, at least, it seems Nigredo will just have to serve asOverlord’s homage to horror.
