One of the most influential fantasy sagas to come out of Japan is finally continuing. Ryo Mizuno's Record of Lodoss War: The Crown of the Covenant, the sequel novel that brought the high elf Deedlit back as the lead, is officially restarting after seven years without a new volume. Kadokawa's Sneaker Bunko imprint announced the news on October 16, and readers will get a first look at the new material next week.
Volume 2 is still being written, so the full book will take more time. To show where things stand, Sneaker Bunko will post part of the latest manuscript on its official page on the Kakuyomu novel website on October 22 at around 5:00 p.m. JST, which works out to 4:00 a.m. EDT. The imprint shared the announcement on X:
The post thanks readers for their patience since volume 1 came out in 2019 and confirms that the series is starting back up.
A Saga That Started At The Gaming Table
Few fantasy series have an origin story quite like Lodoss. It began in 1986 as a Dungeons & Dragons "replay" in Kadokawa's Comptiq magazine, a format that recounted real tabletop sessions for readers to follow like a story. The players called themselves Group SNE, and Mizuno was the one running the game. Deedlit, who went on to become one of the most recognizable elves in anime and fantasy fiction, was originally played at the table by science fiction novelist Hiroshi Yamamoto.
The sessions became so popular that Mizuno adapted the story into prose, and his first novel, The Grey Witch, arrived in 1988. His novels were among the earliest high fantasy novels written in Japan, following the young warrior Parn, Deedlit, and their companions through wars, dark sorcery, and the fight for the cursed island. The series kept growing with the prequel Legend of Lodoss books and the sequel series Record of Lodoss War Next Generation, and Group SNE eventually built its own rules for the setting when it moved away from the D&D system. A 30th anniversary edition of the Record of Lodoss War RPG came out in 2018.
English readers have been able to start at the beginning for a while now. Seven Seas Entertainment released The Grey Witch in English in 2017, and an English audiobook followed in 2025.
Deedlit Takes The Lead
The Crown of the Covenant jumps forward 100 years after the original story. Thanks to the Crown of the Covenant, Lodoss has been at peace for a century, but the ambitious ruler of Flaim now threatens to drag the island back into war. The young prince Lyle of Marmo seeks out Deedlit for help, and the story asks whether a new Knight of Lodoss will rise to protect the kingdoms.
The first volume was published in 2019 with illustrations by Hidari, and it was the first new Lodoss novel in 12 years. A manga adaptation by Atsushi Suzumi ran in Monthly Shonen Ace from October 2019 to April 2021 across three volumes, which Udon Entertainment released in English starting in 2023.
The second book never followed, and the silence went on long enough that many readers assumed the series had been abandoned. Mizuno kept insisting otherwise. When a fan asked him about volume 2 on X in December 2024, he answered with a line any Lodoss reader would appreciate: "The author is currently unable to escape from the deepest labyrinth. I will definitely finish it, so please wait a little longer."
Lodoss Keeps Expanding
The franchise did not sit still while the novel was paused. Record of Lodoss War: Queen of Death, the first webtoon from Studio White, launched in South Korea in May 2025 before going worldwide that August. The official spin-off is set before the original story and follows the fall of the Kingdom of Kastuul, with Southern Camel adapting and Blanton on art. Studio White was founded jointly by Kadokawa, LINE Digital Frontier, and REDICE STUDIO.
On screen, Mizuno's stories inspired the 1990 Record of Lodoss War original video anime from Madhouse and the 1998 TV sequel Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight from AIC. More recently, Deedlit starred in her own 2021 Metroidvania, Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth.
Did you first discover Lodoss through Mizuno's novels and its tabletop roots, or through the classic anime that brought Deedlit to the screen?
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