Cover previewed for novel set 100 years after Parn & Spark's time

The official Twitter account for Kadokawa 's Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko label revealed on Thursday that Lodoss-tō Senki: Seiyaku no Hōkan (Record of Lodoss War: The Pledged Diadem), the first new novel for the Record of Lodoss War franchise in 12 years, will ship on August 1. The account also revealed the novel's cover (seen right).

The book was initially slated to ship on April 1.

Original writer Ryo Mizuno is writing the completely new work, and Hidari ( [email protected] , Atelier series) is providing illustrations. The novel will take place on Lodoss Island 100 years after the time period in which Parn and Spark lived, and it centers on a prince and a "legendary high elf." The official website for the franchise previously posted a visual with Hidari 's illustration of the elf character Deedlit. The text accompanying the visual reads, "So we meet again, Deed—"

Record of Lodoss War began as a series of magazine articles that recounted the pencil-and-paper role-playing game sessions of players who called themselves Group SNE . Those fantasy adventures evolved into a series of novels by Mizuno that now have more than 10 million copies in print.

Mizuno published the Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch novel with illustrations by Yutaka Izubuchi in 1988. Seven Seas Entertainment released the novel in English in December 2017.

Mizuno's Record of Lodoss War stories inspired the 1990 Record of Lodoss War video anime series and the 1998 Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight television anime sequel. Funimation released both anime on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in July 2017. Central Park Media previously licensed and released both fantasy titles in North America.

Source: Sneaker Bunko's Twitter account via Hachima Kikō