A Luden is a special type of artificial intelligence. The Ludens are key figures in Death end re;Quest and Death end re;Quest: Code Z.
Death end re;Quest[]
As part of their goals for world conquest, Aphesis Lane sought to create an AI being. To accomplish this, they kidnapped thousands of individuals, taking advantage of the "unused" portions of their brain functions to power a computer network capable of creating a Luden. To utilize outside expertise without alerting others to their actions, Aphesis billed the network as the "Alice Engine", a game engine capable of highly-advanced artificial intelligence.
Aggle, a major corporation secretly ran by Aphesis, would team with small-scale gaming studio Enigma Games to create a Virtual Reality MMORPG named World's Odyssey. The project, headed by bright-eyed designer Shina Ninomiya, was a perfect fit for the Alice Engine. Shina's team, including lead programmer Arata Mizunashi, worked on W.O.D. for two years. Near the end, the project was plagued with difficult and/or outright-impossible to fix bugs. Worse yet, Shina Ninomiya disappeared without a trace. These two issues caused W.O.D to be cancelled.
Shina had actually been kidnapped by Aphesis, who introduced her to the prototype Luden named Iris. Shina and Iris lived in W.O.D for a time, forming a close bond. However, at least six months prior to the events of Death end re;Quest, Shina discovered Aphesis's schemes and was murdered as a result. This caused Iris to become furious and rebel against Aphesis. As part of the rampage, roughly one-third of the kidnapped were rendered brain-dead, leaving four other Ludens in their wake: Alice, Nova, Levin, and Ripuka. Iris' body was destroyed, creating the Entoma, but Aphesis was nonetheless powerless to stop the Ludens from shutting them out of W.O.D.
The Ludens seek to accomplish Iris's goal of visiting Shina's world. To that end, they created a virtual clone of Shina and began testing the boundaries between Shina's world and W.O.D.
Unlike the AI characters that normally inhabit World's Odyssey, the Ludens are true and fully autonomous artificial intelligence. Alice admits that the Ludens do not have a complete range of emotions, and encourages Arata and his party to regularly visit her and the others so that they may learn more in that regard.
While Ripuka is the only Luden that the party faces, it is heavily implied that the Ludens are immensely powerful, especially within the Strain Area. During a Death End in Chapter 6, one of the Ludens (presumably Nova) is shown effortlslly splitting Lucil Filarete in half and killing her. While Shina's party face off against Ripuka 3 times over the course of the story, they are only able to cause meaningful harm to her after the God of Death intervenes and grants Shina's party additional power.
The Ludens are aware of worlds that exist outside of W.O.D. Their plan to grant Iris' wish involves collecting data on "bugs" or supernatural pheonemena from Arata's world, and forcing the real world and World's Odyssey to merge with one another. The Ludens are also seemingly aware of the Observers, as Ripuka taunts Arata for trying to behave like one. The Ludens are also aware of beings otherwise beyond their perception, such as the God of Death. Ripuka is shown to be openly hostile towards the God of Death.
Death end re;Quest: Code Z[]
Ludens are once again featured, though they are described as ''spirits''. A person is said to be able to become a Luden from near-death experiences or through particularly intense memories. Shina Ninomiya became a Luden after almost dying in a car crash that killed her mother, she was able to survive and become a Luden by using the memory of the other driver who saw Shina just as they were crashing into them, and through Shina's strong desire to avoid dying in that moment.
ARATA MIZUNASHI, the game's primary antagonist, is an Observer who creates Ludens based off the data of Shina's party in Death end re;Quest, alongside other things and people related to them. These Ludens are collectively referred to as the "Glitch Girls", they serve to assist ARATA and hinder Sayaka's progress during her exploration of the Strain Area
The game features the Ludens of the Strain Area (Nova, Alice, and Levin) who have begun living in human society and working jobs just as humans would. The protagonist Sayaka Hiwatari is said to be a Luden created using the data of Ripuka, with the "original" Ripuka going on to become Basilissa, which confirms that the events of Ripuka's character ending in Death end re;Quest are canon to the wider story. The game also introduces new Ludens alongside Sayaka, being Snark and Fiend. Snark is a Luden created using the data of the Entoma Queen Jeez, he serves to facilitate entry into the Strain area, and prefers to not be involved directly. Fiend, who is also called Wraith, is a "failed" Luden, they are a fusion of Lydia and Julietta Nolan following their deaths, with them gaining consciousness and a physical form by turning themselves into a Luden.
Known Ludens[]
- Alice
- Nova
- Levin
- Ripuka
- Iris
- Shina Ninomiya (DERQ Shina Ending & Code Z)
- Sayaka Hiwatari
- Snark
- Fiend
- Basilissa
- Lilith Yamamura
- Naraku Morikubo
- Huuki Hizumi
- Kiki Amou
- Chloe Falena
Trivia[]
- The Ludens are likely based around the ludens from the Noon Universe novel written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, which in turn is based around the Homo Ludens book by Johann Huizinga. They are described as humanoids who are born human, but possess mental powers beyond the average human. These abilities (referred to in the text as the "Third Impulse System") can be activated and developed, a process that takes several years. Ludens view themselves as a distinct race, and claim to have "different interests" from humanity at large, in some instances claiming to be above traditional human morality. The Ludens routinely conduct experiments on humans and alter their minds in order to further their own means.