The Great Tomb of Nazarick is a huge world within itself, practically its own complex system of tiers and branches. Throughout the Overlord anime series, viewers are shown snippets of the different floors as well as many of the inhabitants, but some mystery still remains as to who all the inhabitants are and how they compare to one another in terms of authority.
The series focuses more on the world outside Nazarick instead of inside it, so no one could blame viewers if they have no idea who is who or who controls what. Let’s explore this monstrous tomb and just hope the powerful Ainz Ooal Gown forgives us for trespassing.
Home Sweet Home
The Great Tomb of Nazarick is now the home base for Ainz Ooal Gown and his followers, although it was previously the guild base of operations for the Ainz Ooal Gown clan. After the tomb was transported to the new world, the protagonist, Momonga, took on the name of Ainz Ooal Gown both to honor his old guildmates and to spread the name throughout this new world in hopes of finding other Isekai visitors.
Nazarick has ten floors not counting the surface or the treasury, which exists in a space that can only be accessed with a ring of Ainz Ooal Gown. Each of these floors has floor guardians, area guardians, combat maids, service staff, or a mix of some of these branches.
Floor Guardians
The floor guardians are the all-stars of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. They manage or watch over the operations of their own specific floors. They experience more screen time in the series than any of the other branches, and they often play major roles in the story of Overlord. While there are certain members of other branches who have left Nazarick for missions as commanded by Ainz, the floor guardians are some of Nazarick's only inhabitants who leave the tomb pretty often without supervision.
The floor guardians also receive the most characterization and stronger arcs than the others. This branch includes Albedo, Shalltear Bloodfallen, Gargantua, Cocytus, Aura Bella Fiora, Mare Bello Fiore, Demiurge, and Victim. They each defend a specific floor, except for Shalltear, who has three floors under her helm.
Area Guardians
Authority-wise, the area guardians can be seen as directly under the floor guardians. As the title suggests, they guard a specific area instead of an entire floor. In terms of power, most of them are much weaker than the floor guardians and receive very little attention in the series. They outnumber the floor guardians, but if they had to take them on in a fight, they wouldn’t last long. Many of the area guardians have never even shown up in the anime series, left to exist only in the original light novel instead.
This branch includes Pandora’s Actor, Kyouhukou, Guren, Grant, Gashokukochuuou, Aureole Omega, Nigredo, Pestonya Shortcake Wanko, Neuronist Painkill, Abyss Demon, and Shihoutu Tokitu. Some of these guardians have pretty interesting backstories or designs, like Aureole, the only human NPC in Nazarick, or Gashokukochuuou, who earned the title of the worst appearance in Nazarick. Not to mention, who can forget Pestonya’s silly personality trait of saying “woof” every time she speaks, even when she initially forgets to and tacks it on as an afterthought?
Battle Maids and Butlers
While they are the smallest legitimate branch, so to speak, in Nazarick, the combat maids are nothing to underestimate. The combat maids also referred to as the Pleiades, are led by Sebas Tian. While Sebas is not exactly a floor guardian, he might as well be since his power is on par with them, and he has interacted closely with Ainz more than most Nazarick inhabitants besides the floor guardians. The combat maids rank higher than most of the area guardians in power, although that’s partly due to some area guardians not exactly having a combat power level to compare with and there are a few area guardians stronger than them. As far as authority measures within Nazarick, the combat maids wield no more authority than the area guardians.
The battle maids are not related, but they were each programmed to treat each other as sisters, except for Tuareninya Veryron, a human who Ainz allowed to join the combat maids after Sebas saved her from the Eight Fingers Crime Syndicate. Like the floor guardians, the battle maids have left Nazarick for missions and fought against members of opposing factions. With how incredibly strong they are, it makes sense that they essentially served as Nazarick’s last line of defense before Nazarick was transported to the new world. This branch includes Sebas, Aureole, Yuri Alpha, Lupusregina Beta, Narberal Gamma, CZ2128 Delta, Solution Epsilon, Entoma Vasilissa Zeta, and Eclair Ecleir Eicler. That’s right, Aureole can be considered a member of both the battle maid branch and the area guardian branch.
Service Staff
The service staff is a grab-bag of different Nazarick inhabitants who don’t necessarily fit into the other branches. There are very few of them, and they receive the least amount of screen time. They never interact with other factions, and they never leave Nazarick. These members are at the very bottom of the totem pole in power and authority. This branch includes the librarian Titus Annaeus Secundus, the bartender Clavu, also known as Sous-chef, and the homunculi maids who the original Ainz Ooal Gown members created. The area guardian Pestonya leads the homunculi maids.
Did this guide help to clear the confusion over the mysterious branches of Nazarick? As Overlord continues, viewers may get to witness more moments with members from these different branches. The battle maids may be one of the most interesting branches just due to their versatility and power levels, but all the branches have their interesting features.