In the UK, the original anime series was released on VHS in the 1990s, but it was never shown on TV or granted a DVD re-release. It fared slightly better in the US and Canada, where the DVD collection was released in the early 2000s, and a few dedicated fans have even set up their own role playing groups based on the Lodoss universe.

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“The look of the elves in Lodoss really fascinated me,” says Jessica Vincent, who set up the Lodoss War role playing group Eiyuu Kishi Den in the early 2000s. “Deedlit and Pirotess [a female dark elf] were the main draw; they were beautiful, nimble, magical, female fighters. My first Lodoss fan character, Zira, was basically a huge rip-off of Pirotess.”

It’s easy to see the appeal of the Lodoss elves, with their extremely long ears, wide eyes and narrow faces, they feel far removed from the Tolkien-style elves we’re used to. And Deedlit in particular has become a firm fan-favourite, who continues to inspire various fan art, cosplay costumes and fan fiction.

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Cosplay of Deedlit (Daydreamernessa’s Cosplay) and Pirotess (WindoftheStars Cosplay). Credit: LJinto. (Source: Facebook)

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But finding out more about the world of Lodoss proved tricky for Jessica and her friends, not least because the replays and novels have never been translated into English, despite their huge popularity in Japan. “Everyone had their own interpretation of the world beyond what we had seen in the anime, so when I participated in these role-plays, each leader had to fill in pieces of the world as they went because we lacked a lot. It was always a struggle for me to try to stay true to the world without the whole of the source material. One of the members of our group was half-Japanese and had read the novels in Japanese, but I had no real comprehension of the size of the Japanese fandom.”

Despite this handicap, the members of Eiyuu Kishi Den created an impressively coherent world. “We ended up with a massive battle with well over 100 characters involved,” remembers Jessica. “I’m actually a little proud of myself for the organisation of that.” But this dedication came at a cost: she recalls that at one point the role play was “practically a full-time job.”

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Fan art from Jessica Vincent’s deviantART group. Credit: Irmdesign. (Source: DeviantArt)

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Eventually Jessica left Lodoss behind, although she still runs a DeviantArt group that collects Lodoss fan art, through which she can gauge the level of fandom interest. “The amount of fan art has declined quite a bit as time goes on,” she says, “but sometimes it surges back up. I’ve seen some new art from Japanese and Korean artists who are illustrating for the novels or games that are currently being made in Japan. I suppose Lodoss is doing much better over there than here.”

Indeed, there’s still life in the Lodoss franchise in the Land of the Rising Sun. Ryo Mizuno, who has since worked on the Xbox 360 RPG Infinite Undiscovery, wrote a new Lodoss story in 2014. Even more importantly, a new MMORPG, Record of Lodoss War Online, is currently in beta testing in Japan.

Predictably, however, there’s no news of a European release. It seems that outside Japan, the story of a DnD session that spawned a fantasy phenomenon will remain known only to a select group of dedicated fans.

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Top image credit: Yutaka Izabuchi (Source: Eiyuu Kishi Den)


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This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK, bringing you original reporting, game culture and humour with a U from the British isles. Follow them on @Kotaku_UK.