Novus Orbis Librarium (BlazBlue)

Novus Orbis Librarium is an organization from the series BlazBlue.

History

Novus Orbis Librarium (NOL), also known as the Library, was a multinational task force that was run by a central authoritarian leadership that was charged with keeping the balance in the world as well as watching over and safeguarding sources of dangerous power. Its origins were traced to the times of the Dark War when The Black Beast attempted to destroy the entire world which led to mankind developing the arts of Ars Magus that allowed them to combat this dark foe. This in turn allowed them to create the first grimoires with a number of them being developed by the NOL. Upon the end of the war, the Library decided to keep hold over the grimoires and be the arbiters on who was capable of getting access to them. Their tight control over these fountains of knowledge led to resentment being felt over those that desired to make use of Ars Magus. This in turn led to a growing socio-economic gap between those who could use a grimoire and those who could not which resulted in the Ikaruga Civil War. This was when the Ikaruga Union brought about the Second War of Magic as they rebelled against the Librarium. Their actions led to the NOL imposing a harsher rule on the world as they threatened anyone with the death penalty should they rebel against the Library.

Overview

In appearance, the Novus Orbis Librarium—commonly referred to as the NOL—stood as a global superpower draped in the image of divine authority, combining the aesthetic of a militarized order with a theological undertone. Its towers rose like gothic cathedrals fortified into military citadels, wreathed in sigils and arcane symbols that invoked reverence and fear alike. Uniformed officers, clad in ornate, high-collared coats and regalia resembling religious vestments, patrolled the cities and outposts of a post-Cataclysmic world built on magic, control, and secrecy. With its headquarters housed in Ikaruga and its jurisdiction spanning nearly the entire known world, the NOL was more than a government—it was an institution that governed reality itself through control of Ars Magus, the fusion of magic and technology derived from the Boundary and Seithr. The Librarium presented itself as the savior of civilization following the Black Beast’s rampage during the Dark War, enforcing peace through power and regulation. Yet beneath its polished, sacred veneer, the NOL was a mechanism of oppression—ruling by fear, silencing dissent, and concealing truths about the world’s origin, time loops, and the nature of existence itself.

The NOL’s government structure was a theocratic-militarist hierarchy headed by the Imperator or Imperator Librarius, a shadowy figure whose authority was believed to be divine and absolute. In reality, the Imperator was Hades: Izanami, a manifestation of the Master Unit’s will, masquerading as a divine ruler while manipulating the world toward entropy and reformation. Beneath the Imperator stood the Orbis Hierarchy, composed of the various branches. The NOL's control was deeply intertwined with the Ten Families, aristocratic bloodlines descended from those who originally fought the Black Beast. These houses held political power and control over military appointments and succession. Secretly, the NOL also served as a puppet institution for the Takamagahara System and The Origin—transdimensional constructs attempting to maintain the stability of the multiverse by manipulating causality and erasing threats like Ragna the Bloodedge. The true governance of the world was thus a fusion of divine proxy, technological determinism, and historical rewriting, with the Imperator and her enforcers executing plans designed far outside the reach of human understanding.

Life under the Novus Orbis Librarium was strictly regulated, stratified, and defined by one's access to and control over Ars Magus. Citizens were bound by the rigid social hierarchy of post-Dark War society: the privileged noble families, magisters, and NOL officers held absolute authority, while commoners had to submit to bureaucratic oversight, resource rationing, and often conscription. The NOL controlled education, technology, and historical knowledge, distributing magical tools only to those they deemed worthy—further deepening the divide between elite and layperson. Dissent was treated as heresy; rebels and those practicing unlicensed magic were labeled 'criminals' or 'threats to order', like members of the Ikaruga Federation who resisted the NOL's annexation of their nation. War crimes committed during the Ikaruga Civil War—including genocide, suppression of language, and public executions—were framed as necessary acts of pacification. The average citizen lived under a veneer of peace maintained by omnipresent surveillance and military patrols. While cities appeared orderly and functional, that order came through memory manipulation, ideological indoctrination, and artificial resets of reality. Underneath the carefully managed calm of Librarium rule lurked existential dread: whispers of time loops, people erased from memory, and black-clad soldiers enforcing justice they didn’t understand. To live under the NOL was to survive in a reality curated by unseen gods, where truth was forbidden, and freedom was a paradox.

The headquarters of the Librarium was located in the 1st Hierarchical City where orders were issued to the other city branches. Complete command and control of the NOL was in the hands of an individual that held the title of Imperator and sometimes they were responsible for making a dispatch by imperial decree. The location of the Imperator was one piece of information was kept classified even within the ranks of the NOL. They rarely appeared in public and only a select few beings were even aware of what the Imperator looked like.

Ranks within the NOL included:

• Imperator (supreme ruler)
• Invictus (second-in-command)
• Field Marshal
• General
  • General
  • Lieutenant General
  • Major General
  • Brigadier General
• Field Officer (command NOL military divisions)
  • Colonel
  • Lieutenant Colonel
• Major
• Company Officer
  • Captain
  • First Lieutenant
  • Lieutenant
  • Warrant Officer
• Master Sergeant
• Sergeant
• Corporal
• Lance Corporal
• Private First Class
• Private E-2
• Private E-1

Members

• Jin Kisaragi :
• Noel Vermillion :
• Tsubaki Yayoi : :
• Hazama :
• Makoto Nanaya :
• Saya :
• Litchi Faye-Ling :
• Relius Clover :

Notes

• The name is Latin which can translate to mean "New Circle/Ring/Sphere/Order of the Library".

Appearances

• BlazBlue: Alter Memory:

External Link

• BlazBlue Wiki Entry

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