A stage presentation at the Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko 30th Anniversary Festival event revealed on Sunday that the previously announced new work for the Record of Lodoss War will ship on April 1.

Original writer Ryo Mizuno is writing the completely new work, and Hidari ([email protected], Atelier series) is providing illustrations. The work, titled Lodoss-tō Senki: Seiyaku no Hōkan (Record of Lodoss War: The Pledged Diadem), will take place on Lodoss island 100 years after the time period in which Parn and Spark lived. The official website for the franchise previously posted visual with Hidari's illustration of the character Deedlit. The text 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 on December 19.

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 last July. Central Park Media previously licensed and released both fantasy titles in North America.

Sources: Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko 30th Anniversary Festival livestream, Sneaker Bunko's Twitter account