Protagonist (Mass for the Dead)

Protagonist (主人公) is a homunculus NPC created by the Supreme Beings and the player playing the Mass for the Dead game.

Appearance
No clear details are given on the protagonist's physical description and looks in the initial start of the game. It is only until later is the character portrayed as wearing a full suit of jet-black armor with a red mantle.

Personality
Despite being one of the least known NPCs in Nazarick, the protagonist is just as loyal to the Supreme Beings as any of the Floor Guardians and Area Guardians. Due to the knowledge he acquired from the library, the protagonist is no doubt one of the most intelligent of the NPCs. After his existence was made known to the rest of the dungeon, several of the denizens of Nazarick would go to him for assistance in research. Due to his life in obscurity, and his lack of a definite role given to him by his creator, the protagonist is eager to prove himself as a valued subject of Nazarick as he believes that it will provide meaning to his life.

Background
A homunculus that was created by one of the Supreme Beings and situated in Ashurbanipal. The protagonist has never been appointed a true position in the dungeon. Before the Great Tomb of Nazarick moved to another world, he busied himself in continuing to learn the wisdom of his predecessors by reading the collections of the great library to help the Supreme Beings someday.

Mass for the Dead Arc
The protagonist awakens to consciousness finding himself in a ruined library of Nazarick. Confused on what transpired, the homunculus rushes outside to find out what is going on. To his shock, he comes to the Lemegeton to find all of its golems shattered and its countermeasures destroyed. Seeing the unthinkable, the homunculus assumes that an enemy raid has occurred on the 10th Floor. Afraid that he is alone, the protagonist hears sounds coming from the Throne Room. He then rushes there to see if there are any survivors. The homunculus has a chance meeting with Momonga who upon spotting him questions him on his identity. The protagonist quickly gives the Overlord his identification as one of his friends' creations, which confuses Momonga due to the former's speech and calling for a GM Call. Aside from that, Momonga is skeptical whether the homunculus is an NPC as he never has seen him before in the tomb and thinks he an enemy pretending to be an NPC that somehow survived.

Momonga then demands the protagonist to tell him what is going on, but even the homunculus is unsure of the situation or what his master is talking about. One of the nearby Pleiades maids however vouches for the identity of the protagonist, after they have been successfully resurrected. Though none can provide any answers to how they died or what has happened. They are interrupted when the anomaly, a Crack, where the Throne of Kings once stood begins to flicker when more strange beasts appear. The maids attempt to fight using their full powers, but to their astonishment find their skills and levels to be reduced since their revival. Momonga then takes control of the situation and orders the maids to fall back. Though the protagonist refuses to retreat opting to fight beside Momonga which the Overlord permits.

The two defeat the invaders who have left strange purple crystals. It becomes clear to Momonga that they are not in YGGDRASIL any more. Momonga then resurrects Albedo who too cannot recall anything about her death and organizes a plan to retake the dungeon. So far, there are other Cracks that were found in Nazarick and have been heavily guarded by undead summons. The need to understand what is going on is paramount. Faced with an unknown world and enemies, Momonga becomes overwhelmed by the losses, until the protagonist encourages to persevere. The homunculus volunteers himself to explore beyond Nazarick, citing that while he was weak, he is the perfect candidate as his revival costs were minimal compared to the rest of the NPCs. Despite the practicality, Momonga still does not wish to send off a child of his comrades to his potential death. But the protagonist pleads to be of some service to give his life meaning. Seeing the determination in the homunculus' words, Momonga agrees to give the protagonist a mission.

Abilities and Powers
The protagonist's abilities and class are generally at level one due to his race. But thanks to his magical equipment gifted by Momonga, he can overcome his weaknesses, rising to the rank of a platinum ranked adventurer.

Main Equipment

 * Sealing Crystal: A magic crystal that contains transfer magic to allow for a quick escape.
 * Full Body Metal Armor: This pure suit of black plate armor was created for his Adventurer Persona.
 * Twin Great Swords: The two swords are for his Adventurer Persona primarily, wielding one in each hand for melee combat as a warrior for dual-wielding.
 * Frost Pain Modified: A ice-type elemental weapon.
 * Necroplasmic Mantle: The red cape his Adventurer Persona is seen wearing around his neck.

Momonga
Before the transfer to the New World, Momonga never knew of the protagonist's existence or that there was a position of Deputy Assistant Diplomat in Nazarick. However after the protagonist was vouched for by one of his creator's other creations, Momonga began to trust him. As time went on, the Overlord came to rely on the homunculus to be his eyes and ears in the New World. Due to the success of the homunculus and his diplomatic skills, Momonga now has the utmost faith in the NPC's abilities.

Slimeko
The protagonist has a close relationship with the slime. He originally had treated her like a normal expendable summon. However, after realizing she had a personality of her own, he changed his attitude towards the slime and began treating her with more consideration. Ever since then, they have been paired up together for going on missions and are inseparable from each other. Even during their time off at Nazarick, the two would usually find themselves together again in the same library while re-organizing the books.

Neuronist Painkill
Neuronist Painkill was one of the NPCs that were killed during the transfer to the New World. Due to her death, her duties were temporarily given to Shalltear and Demiurge. After she was revived and tried to resume her duties, Neuronist found her information she gleamed from her torture victims to be outdated as the information was already acquired by the protagonist out in the field. She began to feel marginalized and became envious of the homunculus. However her envy was short-lived as after she met with the protagonist, she found the that they were alike as they gathered information for the benefit of Nazarick and Momonga. After his words of comfort that she possessed skills the protagonist lacked, it invigorated her to return to her duties with more passion.

Trivia

 * The protagonist is the first male homunculus to have made an appearance in the Overlord franchise series.
 * In the game, the player can choose who the creator of their protagonist will be. Among the options are: Nishikienrai, Beast King Mekongawa, and Herohero. The two who were not chosen from the list are treated as people who were involved in the creation of the character. In addition to that, the creator has no effect on later scenarios.
 * The protagonist is never visibly seen in the game as the scenarios are being taken from the player's perspective as the character. Though in Chapter 11 of the main scenario, Pandora's Actor uses his shapeshifting abilities to impersonate the protagonist, taking on the player's appearance.

Quotes

 * (To Momonga): “Great kindness can resemble callousness, and so too can actions.”
 * (To Momonga): “A wise ruler balances cruelty and compassion.”
 * (To Momonga): “Being powerless is a less elegant way to say it is not essential to keep around.”