Ahoy hoy, Ziggy-desu.
Let's talk about genetics, light physics, and watch making!!!
(this will make sense later Ziggy swears facts on wikipedia muh lads and ladettes)
Long ago, in the ancient era of the 1900s, there was once an actress, famous for her 'violet' eyes. How so you might say, that never came up in biology class. Was Gundam and the Dark Souls character creator canon all along and purple was a real eye colour!?
Well to understand Violet eyes we must first understand what the color 'violet' even, truly is. You see, 'purple' doesn't actually exist. The entire world is being gaslit by physics! The horror! God, the internet, the God Internet, Buddha, the Kami, the ancestral spirits, Democracy, and the Queen are all lying to you sheeple.
But in all seriousness, lightons, the actual components of light that make colour have no 'purple'. Purple is actually a byproduct of 'overlapping' lightons. You may remember in science class how light can split from white light into every other color correct? In the famous Newton experiment? Well subatomic particles can only come in red, green, or blue, yet purple does not map correctly to the wavelength it has in white light that it should have (when you overlap the wave lengths via math and science shit). The same logic applies to all RGB displays: they produce purple light by mixing more blue with red to display purple. The three receptors in your eye also respond to red, green, and blue light. Yellow exists because red and green cones are stimulated in your feeble organic eye camera orb thingies, meanwhile green is between red and blue on Newton's experiment when you analyze light waves.
Someone on Youtube or on the internet can probably explain that better and technically if you so desire. Anywho-
Basically glossing over several hours of physics and particle physics: your brain gas lights you into thinking purple exists. Is it gas lighting if everyone's brains tells them something exists when it doesn't?
The same was true of that famous actress with violet eyes: really she most likely had dark blue eyes (as violet requires more blue than red). The red admixture? Well have you seen an albino with no melanin? They have sharp red eyes because that's the colour of blood behind your eyes since blood is the medium the human body uses throughout itself. Melanin makes it brown, green, grey, etc and blue is a byproduct of a lens defect in the eye in fact.
Thus, most likely the 'violet' eye effect stems from blue irises and visible red blood vessels to create a 'violet' visual perception, external lightning making this more visually apparent (since all light ricochets against each other).
The same logic behind all purple being red and blue overlapping.
Neat huh?
Now what in the Six Great Gods does this have to do with Overlord?
Well we have a certain pretty boy with violet eyes, or well amethyst coloured eyes in Overlord:
a certain Emperor by the name of Jircniv Rune Farlord El-nix.
Now in a world with MMO genetics floating around, we have a strange problem - dumb eye colours can be passed around with genes and they just work because fantasy logic.
IT JUST WORKS
Case and point: in the Slaine theocracy, NekoNyan had blue hair - since he came from an MMO. So likely anyone in Slaine with blue hair is descended from him. Brain however dyed his hair blue for some reason (perhaps to emulate some famous blue-haired descendant of Neko Nyan as Brain himself is not religious). Clementine told us it was common for people descended from the Great Gods to be strong so little wonder one or two of Neko Nyan's kids were famous. Though it could also be just because of some ohter blue-haired person out there. In Fire Emblem Lords always have blue hair after all.
Anywhos, Jircniv's purple eyes are odd because the main human ethnic group in this region of the New World has blue eyes and blonde hair - a point as Gazef having southern blood (dark hair and eyes) stands out. As someone pointed out, that also might suggest Gazef has some Theocracy blood but it could also be just Greed King area genes. Even the odd coloured eyes tend to be brown or green and nothing so outrageous as some other colours at least mentioned in text.
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The man was roughly 175cm tall, and he looked to be around the age of 20. His hair was blond and his eyes were blue, while his skin had a healthy tan. His looks were hardly uncommon in the Empire.
[V7]
The final man of the Noble Faction had slicked-back blonde hair and narrow blue eyes. His face was pale and unhealthy-looking, with little sign that it had seen much sunlight. He was tall and skinny. Combined with his sallow complexion, he gave off the impression of a snake. He was not yet forty, but looked older because of his unhealthy pallor.
[V9]
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So then, where did these purple eyes come from?
Many used to think Jircniv's family was related to Clementine's as she has purple eyes too.
Yet, something odd about this is no one ever mentions the El-nix family being tied to Slaine or the Six Great God faith at all. Rather Jircniv is even somewhat agnostic seeing religion as little more than something in society used by the church and which provides medical treatment only. He considers adopting another faith in fact to counter Ainz specifically.
As you probably do not recall - (who reads this garbage Ziggy writes anyway?) -Jircniv likely is descended from the El-nix family which was tied to the old Red Gold Kingdom or Red Gold Dynasty. Suffice it to say, the Red Powered suit likely was from his ancestor.
Now etymologically, this is supported by his name having no Slaine baptismal name unlike every other noble family (notable Dale and Di). We have yet to hear of a Rune or Farlord family however in Slaine - these words being more English instead of Latin which Slaine names tend to be.
Another note: only Jircniv is ever mentioned directly for his amethyst eyes and no other character - though few ever have their features described at all in Overlord. As we discussed in the article you probably did not read, Jircniv's hair actually has a peculiar trait - it appears to actually have YGGDRASIL lighting physics just like the maids of Nazarick do in fact.
What then, is the point of bringing up purple and amethyst eyes?
Well, the strongest inclination of Jircniv's family being descended from a Player is how his name is 'El-nix'. This was often thought to be shortened form of the word 'electronic'. However, in the ancient past of the 20th and 21st centuries C.E., watches were once made with purple rubies (or sapphires). Most notably, a certain Japanese watch brand called Seiko and it's line of Elnix watches.
Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun.
So why purple? Why Jircniv?
Likely Maruyama had one of these old Elnix watches with purple quartz crystals. Did he play with his watch or perhaps he just had to change the battery a lot because he bought bad batteries? Who can say. The fact is, to Maruyama 'purple' and 'Elnix' are connected concepts.
Now why crystals? Well it has do with friction and mechanical physics - crystals are 'hard' and are better even then small gears for some moving parts in watches (which can have like 20,000 movements a minute) so needless to say friction plus metal typically leads to malfunction. Quartz watches displaced old gear watches because they were more reliable and easier to make. These crystals are pictured below(called jewels even on the watches themselves):
In particular the Seiko Elnix even had a model with a purple face-plate, the 0703-7040 which also was made in 1974 that was battery powered and not perma-crystal powered. Supposedly this was the last battery powered model. Read more on some blog Ziggy found on the internet that sounds probably true! Probably! The best kind of true! https://watchopenia.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-rise-of-electro-seiko-elnix-0703.html
Anyway, Ziggy did find this watch was the last 'battery' powered watch series from them so in a way it's anachronistic chronographs! Wow! So much Chrono even before Chrono Cross! The horror!
The oddest thing is they called these watches the 'last emperor' some sort of parlance in watch collecting and watch technology. How nifty and tangentially linked to Emperor El-nix and his two jewel eyes! Nifty! Well his eyes aren't literal jewels after all - though in watches purple sapphires (or rubies based on definition - in watches they call them sapphires even though they are the same stone chemically) are called 'jewels' as well.
So in a strange homage to an obscure line of watches from Japan, Maruyama made the nation headed by the purple eyed Emperor connected to the old nation with the Red Powered Suit, weird old future technology!
Now what was the point of all this?
Well, there is something odd in Overlord - we've talked about it before actually. There are actually advanced mechanical clocks in Overlord - even though Slaine uses the 24 hour watches of YGGDRASIL and derivatives. The oddest thing is Slaine's watches use Arabic numbers, as all modern technology does but for some reason in the anime, the Kingdom had roman numeral clock towers and clocks.
Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun.
In Volume 10, Climb for example mentions mechanical pocket watches in fact exist.
So if we look at Jircniv's name and his family's connection to the Red Gold Kingdom - one common possibility is the Red Gold Monarch was also a watch-collector or someone who liked mechanical watches. Perhaps he only played YGGDRASIL because it had powered suits and he was into mecha stuff? This might all be retoactive copium but it does appear Maruyama intended it based on some older character (hence why Jircniv tends to have very positive character fates).
The common idea here is just like Decem's father who brought hyper advanced mechanical compound bows into the New World, Jircniv's ancestor might have brought pocket watches and all non-magical clock keeping devices! What a strange, hyper specific, hyper focused piece of Isekai technology to pass on!
Now, we do know the The Goal of All Life is Death - so someone who saw that 'clock; might have made the first clocks - but clockwork is something that exists in the Kingdom but seldom elsewhere - and no one in Slaine's special forces brings up 'mechanical watches' instead using YGGDRASIL ones or ones derived from YGGDRASILwatches that use a 24-hour system not a 12 hour system of time(the 24 hour watches coming from old electronic displays of lit up cells while the 12 hour clocks descend from Babylon's Base 60 counting system and 360 day calendar and so time was split into 12 partitions on a dial or 30 degree between each number and so 12 times 30 is 360 or the number of degrees in a circle). Wow so much clock lore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Momonga gripped the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown tightly. He was just an ordinary salaryman, and he lacked the financial power or connections to change that fact. He was just another Player who could only watch the closing time as it approached. The time on his watch read 23:57. The server would shut down at 00:00. There was little time left. The virtual world would end, and he would have to go back to reality the next da
Momonga sighed.
He had to wake up at four tomorrow. He had to sleep the moment the servers
shut down in order not to affect the next day’s work.
23:59:35, 36, 37
Momonga set his watch to count out the seconds.
23:59:48, 49, 50
Momonga closed his eyes.
23:59:58, 59—
[V1]
What Nigun had in his breast pocket now was a rare treasure that very few people in the Slaine Theocracy possessed. In other words, it was Nigun’s secret weapon. Nigun glanced at the metal band on his wrist. Numbers floated up from its surface, indicating that the appointed time had come. “Then… begin the operation.” Nigun and his subordinates began casting spells.
[V1]
If the King passed away, the First Prince would inherit the throne, and Renner would be married off to one of the Great Nobles. In all likelihood, the Prince had already arranged something like this with one of them. She might even be sent to another country as part of a political marriage. The fact that Renner — who was of marriageable age — was still single and had no fiancé was quite surprising. Their time together was so precious that he would pay any price to halt the march of the clock’s hands, just so he could preserve these golden moments forever. If he did not spend his time on training, he could enjoy more of these moments.
[V5]
The magic item in his pocket vibrated, and Climb took it out. It was a pocket watch, just large enough to fit into his palm, with three hands ― the hour, the minute, and the second ― which traced a halo of twelve numbers. While large mechanical clocks existed, personal watches only existed within the Kingdom as magic items. As pocket watches were closely linked to everyday life, they were fairly cheap, as far as magic items went. That said, they were still not something a commoner could afford. Climb had borrowed the pocket watch which he now bore, and so it differed from regular magic items in that it possessed a magical ability. The name of the watch was Twelve Magical Power. Once per day, when the watch reached a set time, it would unleash its magic. However, one would need to have carried the pocket watch for at least a full day in order to enjoy that ability, so Climb ― who had just obtained this watch ― could not make use of its magic
[V10]
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As you can see once its pointed out - Overlord hid the fact 12-dial clocks were specific to Re-Estize and the Empire cultures compared to Slaine: Climb confirms that all clock towers and personal watches, even new magical ones, use the 12-number format and in particular roman numerals if the anime is to be believed.. The anime made this more blatant as we see towers with roman numerals. The odd thing always was why though? The workers comment that the New World uses Arabic numbers as confirmed by the invaders and the numbers 2.0 written there.
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“Nobody understands that language. It’s not from the Kingdom or the Empire’s language, and neither does it seem to be any of the old languages from around here. It might not even be a human language. However, we did understand the number 2.0.” “A number? Logically speaking, that ought to be the date when the mausoleum was built. But in that case, it would be far too small a number.” “Arche said it might be a riddle linked to these ruins… ah, in any case, just keep it in mind.”
[V7]
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We know that The Goal of All life is Death, a power Ainz and Surshana both had, also uses the clock with arms.
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It was the trump card of the Eclipse class. That skill was called [The Goal of All Life is Death]. In that moment, a clock face appeared behind Ainz, its hands indicating 12:00. Then, he cast a spell: “[Widen Magic – Cry of the Banshee].” A woman’s wail echoed through the air. This cry carried with it an instantdeath effect. Ainz had used various skills to augment this spell, so its potency was greater than normal and harder to resist. Still, it was useless against Shalltear and the [Einherjar] Construct.
The clock face behind Ainz ticked, and its hands slowly moved as the spell
took effect.
[V3]
Zesshi put on her helmet again and activated the power she was born with. By guiding that power into the weapon once held by a god, she could use the greatest power wielded by the god of death Surshana. And so — —– [—-The goal of all shippers is death] A clock manifested behind her immediately. This was one of her trump cards that she could only use when she wielded this great scythe. The skill that brings certain death.
[V16]
The girl let out a voice of surprise. A display of emotion so honest that even Zesshi found it genuine. ——What? So she wasn’t an undead? Well, I can very much understand her feelings. Anyone would assume I was using some mysterious skill with unknown effects if they don’t know about this skill. But, you see. This clock behind me doesn’t have any effect by itself. It’s nothing more than cheering the power that will be coming later. Really — –it’s too soon to be surprised yet. Following that, Zesshi brought out the magics infused in the great scythe. And naturally the one she selected was — —- “——-[Death]” She heard a click at the same time she released the magic at the girl. The clock started to count the time
[Death] was generally effective the moment it was cast but when she used this special skill it needed 12 seconds to activate. She was unsure what would happen if she was killed before the time so she chose to take a defensive stance now
If that’s the case then why did the girl know about this skill? Even she herself was only making use of it with her talent and didn’t know everything about it. It’s the same for the few people in the theocracy who knew that she could use this skill. If there’s someone who could be said to know everything about it, it would be none other than the original owner of this great scythe, Surshana. Was that god behind this girl? Seeing the girl didn’t die, she felt the thought strangely real. If that’s true — -
[V16]
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The funniest thing, by Ziggy's sense of humour at least, however?
Elnix watches don't use roman numerals! GASP.
Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun.
Now if we can posit all clocks come from influence by the Red Gold monarch (he probably spent his whole life reinventing all clockwork making in theory), his hobby and why he used a Powered Suit to begin with could be revealed. YGGDRASIL was probably just some distraction if he had so much technical knowledge about clocks to actually recreate them. Recreating bow technology is one thing, as we talked about before Alah Alaf may have made compound bows with the Dark Elves 700+ years ago, we now have another Player possibly passing on technology in a weird way.
Given how hard it is to actually make these things - compound bows and mechanical clocks, this might explain why they were not more famous - they were NEETing(no lifing) it up trying to remake super advanced non-magical Earth technology. This might explain why both the Red Gold Monarch and Alah Alaf in his time with the Dark Elves did not leave behind many stories of their power even centuries later to be retold. Unlike the Great Gods and Greed Kings, they probably had a few fights, everyone knew they were strong, but not how strong, and then proceeded to have harems and do nerd stuff alone. Wow it's amazing. Truly they are the isekai protagonists we must strive to become.
Unlike the All Talk Sage who made things manifest by sharing many designs that could be made with magic, the Red Gold monarch likely spear-headed clock work design in his nation personally as it was a craft Players can do unlike cooking or others that required classes. Given he probably wasn't a very capable government official in his past life, as we see Feudalism was common in the present and likely in the past as well, his interest was probably these diversions. As we theorized before, the soy sauce invention(we talked about before and no one cared about) was probably something he cherished and gave a YGGDRASIL item away for purely because it was something he could not make himself due to his YGGDRASIL nature(as a Player with no Cooking Classes).
Why clocks? Well given House El-nix was related to the Red Gold monarch... maybe that was just his hobby? Why he played YGGDRASIL is a mystery, perhaps it had nothing to do with that? Given the fact he had a Powered Suit with an unaugmented heavy machine gun implies he didn't bother to upgrade his equipment much and given how little knowledge of YGGDRASIL was spread from him as nearly nothing was passed down from his nation to the Kingdom about game mechanics, he might not have even known much about the game. The fact the Holy Sword of Five Colurs (Penta Chromate) was made to target 5 weaknesses at once was to make destroying enemies easier.
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—She had thought that her armor would mitigate most of the damage, but there wasn’t even a need for that. None of the bullets struck her, they all curved away. It seemed likely that none of the bullets were enchanted. At the Floor Guardians’ level, one would have complete immunity to unenchanted projectiles. If his weapon had not been enchanted, he should not have equipped it at all. I wanted to test the destructive capabilities of his weapon… but ended up exposing one of my abilities. Given that, he would surely use an enchanted attack next…
[V14]
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Thematic there is also a connection between clocks being 'obsolete' technology (yet advanced in a medieval-esque fantasy world) yet also being brought by someone who used a Powered Suit - something seen as ' inferior' in the game it came from (yet also 'new'). There's some strange weird anachronism gap moe thing going on with the Red Gold Monarch and Maruyama.
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Ainz confirmed that the guardians knew not of the Powered Suit and began
to exposit what he remembered of the Powered Suit’s abilities.
Back in the game of Yggdrasil, the Powered Suit did not exist initially but was
added in later on as an item for newly registered Players to power-level with.
Also, mecha fighting games were popular back then, so it must have also been
an attempt to draw in players from that player-base as well.
Though he could not tell whether that contributed to this fact or not, the
Powered Suit’s capabilities were quite high.
First of all, just as they had seen, the suit had the ability to fly through the air
at a greater speed than [Fly]. It could maintain operations for over an hour
underwater without any detriments and was essentially immune to almost all
environmental damage.
While the Powered Suit might be useful to weaker Players, it was completely useless to a stronger Player. Never mind Divine grade gear, even Legendary grade equipment matching a Player’s strengths could outperform the Powered Suit. That was why when Powered Suit was introduced to Yggdrasil, Ainz and his friends, who were already at max level, were not interested. The greater issue to Ainz back then was that he could barely cast spells with it equipped.
[V14]
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At least with the Dark Elves we see Alah Alaf teach them things like the optimal way to ambush people (as Bushwhackers) or having crafting specialists, in the Kingdom though they have a very standard form of feudalism with little deviations or even applications of New World common sense.
Oddly, the fact their government system is more like a real one instead of a fantasy one, which accounts for levels at all, might be a vestige of the Red Gold monarch - as he was high level but probably didn't think he was more capable than anyone else hence the reason the government Re-Estize inherited doesn't value levels at all either(though the Red Gold Kingdom is not necessarily the same as the Kingdom in every facet).
We see the Empire slowly modernize but for some odd reason Re-Estize refuses to change things. Perhaps it was a tradition to maintain the same old system? No matter what, there could be traces of how he set the nation up and their legal system that was passed down in some way. Alas, Feudalism is always unstable and tend to collapse after a few generations so perhaps their decline was inevitable for stagnation is the death of many cultures and markets.
The humor is the Red Gold Monarch like Dark Elf Alah Alaf Hougan is they spent a century mainly just having a slice of life existence for the most part, theoretically. Rather than Gods or Kings, they were just influential people in the cultures they ended up in and focused more on creating technology and new skill sets they would then pass down.
What we see Dark Elf Hougan make is mainly bows, apothecary experiments, oil production, and various cultural teachings. The Red Gold monarch may have spread all the Earth ideas of Feudalism though we don't know how it was originally only in it's descendant states. Besides the overly complicated Feudalism however, he likely also made clocks for whatever reason. If his name really was Elnix like the watches, then it does show that was just something he liked.
One joke about the Elnix's is they were actually made before the Elnix name was slapped on them to sound fancier - they just had generic serial numbers before. This happens often when a new idea is being tried out but it's not branded as such. So 'electronic' watches before the Seiko Elnix exist just they are not called Elnix's. Ironically, the precursor never being called the same as the branded one might be an intentional joke by Maruyama to never name the Red Gold Dynasty and the Red Gold Kingdom in relation to the Empire and Kingdom though that might be a departure from his intent.
As one of Maruyama's friends named the Red Gold Kingdom, actually the Re-Estize name is the hint that reveals that for Maruyama this is all some back and forth joke with them. Once you understand the joke it all starts to make sense why Maruyama is so cryptic with this one nation and culture in particular. Maruyama sure loves to tease ideas doesn't he?
Bonus:
Well, Jircniv having purple eyes is important. And Maruyama must have really liked this old watch he had for some reason. It's pretty that's for sure.
In Mass for the Dead however, we have an interesting case of another character in the Empire having purple eyes (and purple hair). In fact, the odd character Sophie Noia for some reason has purple eyes as well.
Odder still is how she became one of Fluder's top disciples as a Tier 4 magic user. But how was she accepted so easily? The Empire does welcome the strong, but it does seem sudden given she only became prominent after the cracks formed(the imperial ministry of magic tends to be very closely linked to the government so it's strange she appeared out of nowhere almost like an isekaied Player).
With all we said, it seems even more likely House El-nix is related to a Player and so we have an odd connection here - those with purple eyes are those with hereditary ties to the same ancient Dynasty of the Red Gold monarch. In that case, even if not in title, they share some connection to House El-nix. Perhaps Imina's purple hair was also a sign - of how she was not as mistreated perhaps someone thinking she had ties to the old El-nix blood?
If we posit further, Sophie has purple hair and eyes, so perhaps that is the original phenotype of the Red Gold monarch - and Jircniv's blood is more diluted. It's not uncommon for bloodlines to split and diverge after all. Though in the Empire this takes on a new meaning - anyone withe purple eyes and hair could be descended from the Emperor's bloodline and thus those in power would be wary of it. Likely this is how Imina a half was not as mistreated as she could have been, perhaps by accident with her purple hair. Her origin is a mystery however so perhaps her elf parent was a slave to some noble with Elnix blood?
Alas, back to Sophie. We may never truly know Imina's origins.
Clementine tells us those with Player genes often are stronger than those without, so likely Sophie might be from a branch family who after generations kept the purple hair and eyes based on power to a degree. If level was tied to hair and eyes, it is not uncommon to think that some would value it if not all. In Slaine those traits are associated with the gods so it was cherished, but in the Empire it was likely more seen as signs of Imperial descent.
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The Slane Theocracy worshiped Six Great Gods. And there were those amongst its population that had inherited the blood of Gods. They had the hidden potential to become much, much stronger.
In a sense, even Clementine had their blood.
However, that was all she had. She was far away from being called a Godkin.
Those were people who had awakened the power of the Gods hidden in their blood.
Currently, the Theocracy only had two. One was the Head of the Black Scripture that Clementine used to work for, and the other was the Head Priest of the Theocracy.
Their abilities were on another level, and should they use the equipment left behind by the gods, it was said that they could level a continent.
[WN]
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It's plausible that at some point House El-nix either in the Red Gold dynasty or in the Empire made a branch family that concentrated it's 'combat' members(after all they would be marginally stronger than most other families due to YGGDRASIL genetics). This might even be the origin of the Noble Fighter system in the Empire(something not as common in the Kingdom) in fact- House El-nix splitting duties between those best at ruling and those best at fighting. Again, as Clementine said, overall these people tend to have more power than others on average so it's sensible they became a martial noble house of some standing if not part of the main Imperial family. Sophie being a Tier 4 caster doesn't guarantee this connection - but the idea she has purple eyes, purple hair, and is a Tier 4 magic caster does at least suggest there might be some heritage in common given how rare purple hair can be (when natural).
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Noble Fighter Lv. ? Priest Lv. ? Cursed Knight Lv. ? Others
{ personal character }
Born as the daughter of a noble family, she earned respect and honor by taking up the sword to slay monsters within her family’s domain.
[V10]
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In the web novel supposedly Jircniv had a few relatives still alive, and it's suggested one of the remaining Margraves there was related to him.
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“I have never faced a non-dangerous situation in my life. Even when I killed my uncle, and when I killed my brothers. A single misstep would have destroyed me. However, I beat the odds. Even now. I will not lose.” Jircniv looked at everyone in the room. His upright and noble figure resembled one of an emperor.
[WN]
Blood related relatives of the Emperor would be Dukes, and below them were Marquesses, Earls, Viscounts and Barons. A Frontier Earl was equivalent to a Marquis in the Empire. It was the highest rank that a non-blood related noble could reach, excluding marriage. Such a noble had a large private army, a wide and vast territory and could make their own laws to a limited extent. Considering that, it was a suitable position for Ainz. “….How many Frontier Earls are there in the Empire?” “Currently two.” During the reign of the Blood Emperor, Frontier Earls were the nobles that were removed due to their level of authority. When Jircniv just became Emperor, there were five. Despite the fact that they were meant to protect the borders of the Empire.
[WN]
However, that change had a huge importance. Basically, this had the two meanings that Ainz was special enough for Jircniv to create a new position for him, and that he was highly valued. If a Frontier Earl was equivalent to a Marquis, then a Frontier Marquis would be equivalent to a Duke, or so the nobles would think Ainz would be equal to a blood-related Duke. And his war potential was beyond imagination. Basically he was be someone who was infinitely close to the position of Emperor. Jircniv believed that this position would be suitable to meet Ainz’s silent demand
[WN]
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Now we do not know for sure the real hair color of the Red Gold monarch, but likely if he was a fan of old watches as suggested by his name, then like all Seiko Elnix watches he liked in particular, he might have chosen purple eyes and hair just because these watches used purple jewels (purple rubies or sapphires). The prevalence of clock towers and mechanical watches being rare but not unknown does suggest it was tied to nobility at some point as well in the Kingdom and Empire cultures which does tangentially relate the two by their old social class and circumstances respectively.
The common joke in Overlord is how hyper advanced mechanical technology gets overlooked by actual magic and isekai relics. So we have two cases: Alah Alaf's (supposed) compound bows are still usable as advanced level 0 relics (around 700 years later) and the Red Gold monarch's clock-smithing lives on to this day at least up until the Kingdom's destruction.
Now Maruyama likely had to explain why he used clock metaphors in the web novel so he had to invent or connect those concepts to this Red Gold monarch to explain it as well as weirdly Japanese facets of Re-Estize and Empire culture. Likely Jircniv was always related to a Player (in the web novel he had even different colored hair) but this Player likely was not the reason for the Japanese culture there and the Kingdom - that was made retroactively to answer any strangeness in the setting.
Maruyama often laments how straightforward everything was in the web novel and he even changed cultural aspects to address 'inconsistencies'. The fact he kept some things in the story shows he probably made these explanations to address how these concepts did not exist in the New World before Players and should not have existed.
If there is a connection between Dark Elf Tob bows and clocks is a mystery. Perhaps Tob bows were in circulation more centuries ago as rare trinkets of the Dark Elves - they are quite strong after all? We know they are made of metal so likely they have actual metal gears in them so someone could have studied those to invent clocks. Though given El-nix's name, it was most likely him.
Antilene brings up an interesting point however - she sees the The Goal of All Life is Death clock as a clock. Why Slaine uses and knows of these is strange if they used the 24 hour watches of YGGDRASIL and how rare they are as non-magical artifacts. It's always possible one of the Gods also made clock towers there and it spread to Re Estize and the Empire. Though, the El-nix connection is strange in that regard that Player possibly had a Elnix and took it as his family name.
What Ziggy hypothesizes happened was likely the Red Gold monarch, someone who liked watches and used a mecha in YGGDRASIL because he liked technology, came to this world and got his hands on a Dark Elf compound bow. As this bow had advanced gears, he might have used those to make the first mechanical clocks of this world using whatever gears and wires were in the advanced Dark Elf bows. in a strange way, one culture inspired another from one player to the next. Thus gear technology was made in reverse - its use in bows to inspire clocks when in fact compound bows were made well after clocks in our world. It's a funny inversion of the actual development.
Now this just sounds like a Maruyama troll moment, where he wants to make it seem like clock-towers always existed and then bows came into existence, given how he refuses to describe these bows in great detail and never once dwells on the towers(the anime makes more effort to show these clocks than he did in his writing). Ziggy doesn't know who he is making fun with this, but it likely is one of his friends who was very autistic about clockwork things and gear technology. The common link of gear based designs and pulleys seems like something someone autistic would fixate. Though perhaps Maruyama's old fascination before fantasy was gear-based technology as he played with his old watch?
Ziggy imagines the motif of clocks being tied to the Goal of All Life is Death was something he was planning as he claims Antilene's power was established since Volume 4 in fact. Given she does use Volume 3 powers, then that suggests those statements are correct. So all this round about usage of clocks as cultural ideas even in magic items and metaphors is sort of a way to show tongue and cheek how isekai makes culture weird - as someone can just appear and bring new ideas and technology from basically no where to change the progress of civilization in drastic ways. It is strange how Antilene comments about people being confused by the clock - when most people would see it as a timer if they had a clock in their culture.
Compound bows are something for example that can even surpass primitive, musket fire arms and cross bows due to how they exploit physics. The joke in Overlord is these bows are so good even though they are level 0 and have no enchantments they are made so precisely they still outperform weak enchanted and bows with levels.
Again, the anime will likely prove the bow of Decem's family is the same as the Dark Elf bows - linking the two cultures oddly enough (besides someone like Blueberry with his very peculiar hair and skin color for a dark elf no one mentions).
Likewise, clock technology is something that still likely exists as Tier Magic is not good at enchanting large things, only items that were wearable. So large clock towers are likely where clock-smith art found a place to survive even as magic made magical pocket watches more common. Technology sometimes lives on in strange places.
Alas, that seems about all we can say for now. It's always possible Jircniv's family name is a coincidence and so is the purple eye color. These things happen in life and in fiction. Hopefully, this little tangent on physics and specific Japanese watches was interesting. Connecting things in such distinct ways is one of the appeals of Overlord once you understand the game system and the broader politics. As you get older, little games of anthropology are quiant and show how culture isn't so simple as just political imperialism and fighting over stuff (though that happens most of the time). Sometimes weird jank non-sense appears - like the Byzantine navy just having flamethrowers or the Chinese dynasties inventing gun powder for fireworks or the Incans having hyper advanced well technology for their tech level.
Remember cake is not a lie, purple is the true lie. But wait if purple is the colour of royalty.... GASP.
Below is the Momon clock tower picture from anime season 2.
