This article details the particularities of Underworld. For the background and behind-the-scenes details, please refer to Project Alicization 1/4.

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Summary

Underworld (アンダーワールド andāwārudo) is the world created in Project Alicization 1/4 that is described in Alicization Arc.

Background

A company named Rath, the actors of Project Alicization and affiliates of Japan Self Defense Force, decided to modernize the country's military power by developing top-notch "Bottom-up AI" to control the unmanned weaponry. To that end, Project Alicization introduced the 4th generation FullDive gear, the Soul Translator (STL), and the full-immersion highly-accelerated quantum-mind world of their own make that would be used to nurture the Fluctlight-based AI of the future to make Japan proud.

As for February, 2020, Underworld as described in the light novels is just over 300 years old — or three weeks old in real-world time, due to the *STL'*s Fluctlight Acceleration (FLA) feature which makes everything in Underworld perceive time 5,000 times as fast.

The setting is intentionally low-tech and limited in size, so as to make it less costly to simulate and control from the outside. The AI humans have been developing freely from a certain point, but the culture and taboos have been seeded by the Rath employees at the initial stage. The feudal system is a side effect.

Mythology

Gods

Underworld reveres at least five gods:

• The Goddess of Creation Stacia (創世の神ステイシア sōsei no kami sutashia), the main goddess of the Human Empire. In the creation myth, she also governs every object's Life which is displayed in the Stacia Window, and those who expire go to her realm, while those who marry under her blessing are allowed to have children.
• The Sun Goddess Solus (太陽神ソルス taiyōshin sorusu, or 陽神ソルス hi shin sorusu) governs the Underworld sun Solus and the Sacred Power blessings it bestows by its shining. The Sacred Power dwindles after dark.
• The Land Goddess Terraria (地神テラリア chijin teraria) delivers blessings of the land and protects craftsmen.
• The Darkness God Vecta (暗黒神ベクタ ankokushin bekuta, or 闇神ベクタ yami shin bekuta) rules the Dark Territory as its only accepted god. Diseases and the Dark Arts are attributed to him.
• The Goddess of the Moon Lunaria (月の神ルナリア tsuki no kami runaria) governs the dreams of the people of Underworld.

Creation Myth

The teachings of the Axiom Church say the following. Three goddesses — Stacia, Solus, and Terraria — created the world. Stacia banished Vecta to the Dark Territory with her holy light, and the world split, and Solus never shone in the Dark Territory again.

The Great War

The apocalyptic myth says that once every thousand years the light of Solus grows bleak, and the dark knights bring their dark forces to conquer the Human Empire. The village guards, all of the town sentinels, and the imperial army then unite into the Human Guardian Army and follow the Integrity Knights' command to fight off the dark host, while the nobles support the Integrity Knights. Until then, the nobles train to be prepared.

The Truth

The Axiom Church conceived all five gods to as a divine mandate to reign supreme. The supervisor level accounts of the gods do exist in the system, but nobody ever seemed to use them.

History

Human Empire

The Original Four

Roughly 70 years Before Human Empire Creation (HEC), the world has begun its existence from the sixteen newborn Artificial Fluctlights sent into the world to grow up in the village of Centoria as children of four volunteers from Rath (as two families), while the rest of the world was populated by NPCs. The volunteers taught them everything — from writing to livestock cultivation to good and evil. Due to one of the teachers' questionable ethics, his teachings unintentionally contaminated the first people with his egotism, megalomania, and greed. When the "children" turned eighteen and made their own families, the volunteers "died to an epidemic" and logged out, their memories of the experience suppressed.

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References

• Underworld - Fan Wiki
• Sinon/Solus - sao-alicization.net
• Gabriel/Vecta - sao-alicization.net
• Sword Art Online Alicization Arc - Yen Press