Project Moon: City Encyclopedia
Last updated on August 28th, 2025. !! CONTAINS SPOILERS !!
Collated by @WolvZephyr (twitter/tumblr)
Special thanks: Watson (proofreading Aug 25th, 2020)
Every detail in this encyclopedia can be cited to specific canonical sources (Lobotomy Corporation story, Library of Ruina stories & key pages, Distortion Detective and WonderLab chapters, Project Moon Q&A's, etc). Feel free to send me a message if you want to know where to find specific pieces of information; For example, the first place where the Head is mentioned as A Corp is Mika's Key Page. Also tell me if something is wrong or an assumption!!
Table of Contents
DISTRICTS (AND WINGS) OF THE CITY
Known Districts and Their Wings
Miscellaneous Companies (Restaurants, etc.)
FIXER ASSOCIATIONS AND OFFICES
Offices With No (Known) Association
The Distortion Phenomenon (WIP)
Known Distortions and Related Objects
THE CITY IN GENERAL
What is the City?
The City is the main location in the world of Lobotomy Corporation, Library of Ruina, and other media created or sponsored by Project Moon. It acts roughly like a continent, and has 26 Districts, all with their own cultures and policies (essentially, like countries). It is ruled by the Head, a de facto government. The area outside of the City's walls is called the Outskirts.
Cruelty and death are common in many areas; The rich are known to kidnap people and force them into games for their own amusement, such as trapping them in a labyrinth with no exit. Having wealth is the bottom line: All disease has been cured, but only if you can pay for treatment. Body augmentations are as common as visiting hospitals and doctors. There is no police or free peacekeeping force, so common people have to hire their own protectors if they want to be assured safety in dangerous areas. The currency used in the City is called Ahn. Earning 4 million Ahn a month is considered upper middle class. Not every part of the City is interconnected in a network (as in, the Internet), and some clients can only be reached with written letters.
The City lacks any major centralized religions, and seems to also lack race or gender discrimination. Additionally, it appears to be lax on naming conventions, as women can have traditionally masculine names and men can have traditionally feminine names (by real-life standards) without any ridicule or comment. Extremely few characters have known surnames, but whether this is indicative of them being rare or simply not considered important in everyday life is unclear.
The Great Lake is a large body of water on the border of Districts 19, 20, and 21, otherwise known as the sea or the ocean. It is divided by straight lines into several smaller sections, which each have unique colors, and appears to be generally under the jurisdiction of U Corp. According to Ishmael, there are innumerable natural disasters like acid typhoons, tuna tsunamis, cerebra storms, and more–including high-waves as tall as mountains from storms and monsters that wash up on the deck. Everyone and everything can go mad at a moment and become transformed into "something else entirely." The Great Lake overlaps with the Outskirts.
For unknown reasons, there are trains on the edge of the City that are constantly running in a circular track around it.
There are 13 common languages within the City, although other linguistic forms once existed.
What is the Head?
The Head is the most powerful force in the City, which is known to shut down with extreme force anything they disagree with. They set policies for the City and enforce them harshly. They are usually very quiet. (They directly run A Corp, which manages and enforces all patents for technology in the City.)
According to Roland, they believe that "the process of a human killing another being should not be trivial or insignificant," which means guns (and especially bullets) are difficult and expensive to obtain in the City. They have additional policies restricting their sale, such as “The maximum length of the gun barrel must be shorter the higher the gun’s caliber is”, “No gun should possess the firepower to penetrate steel or building walls” (in the sense that they should not be able to pierce through and hit a target on the other side; Demolishing a wall, destroying steel armor with an impact round, or using tiny bullets to shoot through visible holes is fine), “A gunfire sound must be audible”, and “Do not research or imagine technology that infringes the firearm manufacturing guidelines, as provided by the Head along with the license.”
Their AI Ethics Amendment, as part of the eviction of non-humans, bans the creation and existence of sapient machines. Robotic bodies--even ones intended for humans to transfer their brains into--are not allowed to resemble humans too much. Suffice to say, if the Head finds an android they will remove it; Machines are inherently lesser than humans in their eyes.
They also have a rule that "no more than one of the same individual may exist in the City for longer than 7 days, clone or original." The 7 days are measured on A Corp's time scale. It is against the Head's treaty to create or use technology to resurrect creatures from the dead (both mind and body at once).
The Eye is their intelligence gathering force. They directly run B Corp. This group may include agents called Beholders*. They also seek out tax evaders; Those who fail to pay taxes are given three warnings (with no other penalty, until the fourth missed payment). All people in the City must pay taxes.
The Claw is their killing force, and the Arbiters* are high level agents who manage the Claws and wipe out the Head's enemies. Claws are often sent if people breach patents. Arbiters and presumably Claws are easily replaced if they die. They directly run C Corp.
*It is NOT explicitly stated which part of the Head these agents belong to, if any. It should be noted that it appears that "The Claw" is the name of the organization and "the Claw(s)" are also the name of the individual employees, although they are also called Executioners. Beholders remain a complete mystery and are tentatively placed under the Eye for thematic purposes.
What are the Outskirts?
The Outskirts are populated with small settlements (frequently raided by non-human monsters), abandoned children, and Sweepers, who are cannibalistic scavengers that often prey on the children. At some point, intelligent or sapient non-humans were actively driven into the Outskirts by the Head. The Outskirts also apparently contain monsters similar to WAW class Abnormalities from L Corp, judging from dialogue of the Rabbit Team of R Corp. It appears there are Hunters who specialize in hunting monsters.
According to Roland: It is basically a junkyard for "impurities" of the City. Things abandoned and rejected from entering the City by the Head go to the Outskirts. Many of the non-human monsters such as the Clockwork Teeth are artificial creations made by humans or things brought from the outside. He says a good chunk of them have sentience and emotion.
According to Limbus Company: The creatures in the Outskirts are frequently horrific monsters that may look partially human. However, Demian says the freedom and potential for real happiness in the Outskirts is probably greater than it is in a Nest—Whether this is suicidal advice or something to be genuinely considered is up to you. The Great Lake overlaps with the Outskirts.
Apparently gnomes are part of a species (of monsters) surviving in the Outskirts, along with northern giants. When northern giants are about to be killed, their bodies fill with noxious gas before exploding in a rain of acid, so proper procedure is to puncture a hole to let out the gas before being turned to acid.
There was a village on the north side of the Outskirts called Cloud Town, protected by Hunters. It was raided by gnomes.
What are Sweepers? (In more detail.)
Sweepers can also be found within the City's Backstreets, where they appear every night around 3 AM to "clean". Their sweeps from one end of the Backstreets to the other last 80 minutes and are repeated until the "Night in the Backstreets" from 3:13 AM to 4:34 AM ends. According to Moses, Sweepers come in three waves: One sometime after 3:26 AM and ending at around 3:40 AM, one starting at about 3:47 AM, and presumably a third sometime after that.
Sweepers will not clean Nests, even if they are fallen Nests. They are not afraid to die, go wherever a path is open, and are persistent and resilient. If a Sweeper dies, they clean up that corpse and continue swarming targets.
They avoid causing a disturbance during the day because it would be a public nuisance, but if the Head demands that they act, they will. They are biologically made out of liquid suspended in their suits, which they collect and consume from other humans by hooking them to their fuel tank (which causes them to melt into fuel). The liquid is patented with the Head's approval, and it is required for one to become liquid to become a Sweeper. They are still considered humans. They can recover from wounds by absorbing the liquid, which means those fighting them must kill them in a single hit.
There is a Mother of Sweepers that controls and is revered by the group, and they all speak a special language that requires an interpreter. They view family as important and are very articulate in their own language. They live off their hunts during the night to feed their families (likely a metaphorical title rather than blood relation, according to Roland). Also, apparently they smell terrible.
What is a Bloodfiend?
Bloodfiends are humans said to have a never-ending thirst for human blood. In other words, vampires. Blood-red Night (otherwise known as Elena) comments on her kind being unreasonably feared despite being fundamentally human, and she says she was once an ordinary human. Some more details can be read in her entry, which is in the Syndicates section. Bloodfiends are not common, and are only listed here due to their uniqueness as a "species."
According to Gebura in the Library of Ruina Artbook, these beings have existed for quite a while and not much is known about when or where they come from. They are a mystery to the general public, and the only thing most people know is that they are in hiding in the current day.
With the Distortion Phenomenon, regular people can spontaneously turn into Bloodfiend-like Distortions based on psychological thirst and hunger; Moses encountered a few of them and drew the impression that they were all formidably powerful whether or not they were of sound mind, capable of explosive physical strength and tenacity. They desire blood as "a crystallization of desire"; The blood does not satiate their thirst, but they continue to obsess over consuming it in their own ways.
Natural (non-Distorted) Bloodfiends formed a community (called "our family" by one member, Larierre) to live long and quiet lives peacefully, although there were a few such as Elena that the others considered imbeciles, which were so violent and unable to be calmed that they broke the peace. They have their own rules and are able to control their powers, unlike the Distortions. Elder Bloodfiends are concerned with purity and pedigree, with a distinct connected bloodline that is rooted from certain people receiving blood in a certain mansion long before the Distortion began. Their rules are that only one elder Bloodfiend could live in any one District, to a confirmed total of 25 elders. (Again, the 26th district is not acknowledged...?) This required that the Bloodfiends put their "kin to rest" until the population was small enough.
All Bloodfiends have red eyes, which according to Moses, are distinctive from non-Bloodfiends; It is not a clear signifier alone, because red eyes occur for other reasons and eye augmenting procedures are commonplace (where those with combat-assisting features are frequently red). She claims for Bloodfiends that "The greater the longing for blood is, the deeper and clearer the red will become, exuding a certain scent." One Distortion-produced Bloodfiend named Rusk only reveals his nature in his sleep and has unintentionally turned his entire Office into Bloodfiends.
Bloodfiends can turn others into "Kindreds" and "Bloodbags", with Bloodbags being those who failed to become Kindreds (a sub-entity). It is inferred by Faust that collected blood can be spent or consumed, which is a different process than normal biological processes like digestion (and thus circumvents things like W Corp's restoration technology). The Sixth Kindred (Kindred of the sixth generation) was called Cassetti, who claimed to be "the rightful prince in refuge from his Family." He has a mask sewn to his face by someone called the Barber, who seems to significantly outrank him. Don Quixote appears to be, or at least to harbor, the Second Kindred.
The primogenitor, the very first Bloodfiend, wielded unimaginable power and could create an unlimited number of humans into Kindreds. Subsequent Kindreds (First Kindreds and beyond) are limited to only creating two lower Kindreds in their long existences. Those higher up the bloodstream are often much stronger, but powers and idiosyncrasies vary depending on the higher Bloodfiend's abilities. There is an intense psychological barrier preventing lower Bloodfiends from revolting against higher Bloodfiends likened to children and their parents. Bloodbags are those that failed to become Kindreds and are not valued at all. They are irrationally afraid of water, though it does not physically harm them. However, allegedly some Kindreds high on the bloodstream have overcome this fear. It is theorized by the LCE that bloodthirst is imprinted on the Familial bloodline and is shared when propagated, which means that when there is only one survivor of a Family line, the desire for blood magnifies extremely.
Higher up the bloodstream, the faster the transformation into a Bloodbag occurs; Some powerful Bloodfiends can make it happen at will or set it to occur at a time of their choosing.
The Father of the Manchegan Bloodfiends, a First Kindred, was named Don Quixote (but the Family has now been eradicated). The Elder Bloodfiend in charge of District 12 is named Larierre. Allegedly the Elder of B Corp coughs when given cinnamon.
What are the Ruins? Are there other places past the Outskirts?
The Ruins are a mysterious place, said to have abilities that seem to be magic. According to Rudolph, leader of R Corp's Reindeer Team, a Star of the City is similar to the Ruins in terms of danger. According to Moses, they can be found within the City very deep underground (~15 floors underground). It is said that there are tons of creatures scattered around in the Ruins; By Lobotomy Corporation standards, they would be similar to HE class Abnormalities. Deep in the Ruins are monsters as dangerous as ALEPH class.
Beyond the Outskirts, there are beings similar to ALEPH class Abnormalities. In other words, the reason why people do not search for places beyond the Outskirts or the City is likely because there are terrifyingly powerful monsters there.
In the Outskirts and the Ruins, there are sapient, sentient beings with intellect and emotions. Among them are Jiajia-ren (Cuckoospawn Humans) who have high fertility and reproductive abilities and excessive potential for violence, able to multiply and overrun an auditorium within 13 minutes (which happened when some were unintentionally created at the H Corp when it was run by the Kong family).
There is also the Black Forest, which is the place that the three bird Abnormalities originated from. It is one of the places where the Well (more or less the collective unconscious) seeps into the world, but is otherwise fairly mysterious. (The vast majority of Lobotomy Corporation's Abnormalities are created from within the main branch's Extraction Department by injecting Cogito into human subjects, but not all of them are. To reiterate, it is said there are several places where the Well seeps into the world and naturally creates Abnormalities.)
A person named Stephanette and an unknown boy seemed to have once traveled past the Outskirts. One said that the world beyond the Outskirts was filled with beautiful and tranquil beings. Stephanette mentions a story that there is a thing that lives here that grants wishes to those who are earnest. The boy wished to gaze down on the City, full of cries of pain and despair, and shed tears with them from the loneliness up in the sky as stars. This appears to be the origin and memory of K Corp's Singularity, the "Tearful Thing", as accessed by the resonance of the Golden Bough.
DISTRICTS (AND WINGS) OF THE CITY
What are the districts?
There are 26 Nests total in the City, and 26 Backstreets snaking through and around them, making 26 districts. Each district is managed by a Wing. (However, both canonical maps only show 25 visible districts and 25 visible Wings, making the location of the 26th district a mystery. In Library of Ruina, it is said there are only 25 districts but 26 Wings, which appears to have since changed in Limbus Company.)
The Backstreets are mostly neglected, but districts are shaped by Nest and Corp policies and each Nest has a distinct and unique culture. Nests and Backstreets are physically divided; The method depends on the district (electric fence, forcefield, normal unguarded chain-link, etc.) but citizens of the City naturally do not cross without a reason. It is easy to tell where a person is supposed to be. This design is intentional: Backstreets-dwellers are motivated to work hard to enter the Nest, while Nest-dwellers are motivated to stay out of the Backstreets by working hard.
According to Moses, there may be an additional hierarchy where some southern districts are higher class than some northern districts. Northern districts also tend to have more elaborate and ornate clothing than in southern districts, such as with Astolfo (formerly of Charles Office) wearing a very fancy outfit. According to Meursault, in certain regions of the City, the size of a property's front gate is an indicator of social standing (the larger, the more affluent). Having a garden or forest near a person's home is indicative of extreme affluence. Leather-based clothing and metal armor are fashion friends in the west; Cloth-based styles are seen in the north and south, but are largely considered to be an eastern fashion trend. It seems that those from the north wear loose-fitting outfits due to the colder climate.
Harming residential areas is an expressly forbidden taboo consistent across the City.
What are the Backstreets?
The Backstreets are where most people in the City come from (people who cannot afford to live in the Nest). Murder, organ harvesting, kidnappings, and other things can happen to you if you aren't guarded. However, every area of the streets has a neighborhood watch of volunteers that do jobs like Fixers. It is full of restaurants, local businesses, living quarters, schools, etc. Trees and other such greenery are rarely found in the Backstreets. The roads are so inefficient, twisted, and convoluted that traveling by car is incredibly difficult and time-consuming.
It is not recommended to walk through the Backstreets at night, as Sweepers will show up en masse and clear out every corpse and loose item such as weapons. The "Night in the Backstreets", which lasts from 3:13 am to 4:34 am, is lawless: "Anyone is allowed to commit terrible acts at night." It is not allowed to record or spy on the streets during this time period. Unless it is an eyewitness speaking up, investigating anything that happens during the night will incur the wrath of the Head's Claws.
Going to school directly can be dangerous due to walking through alleys, so the careful tend to do virtual schooling or boarding schools. According to Garnet, students do not usually take weapons to class, but some schools may be different.
Some Backstreets areas are examinee towns, where people study to take entrance exams into Wings (and thereby obtain a home in a Nest). Apparently it was once trending for the rich to make trips to the Backstreets.
Certain areas of the Backstreets are considered safer than others, usually due to the protection of a Syndicate, Office, or Association. According to a Rat, "Sweepers can't raid those streets easily."
Cannibalism is not rare across the City, but it is usually kept very quiet. Usually only the wealthy can consume human meat often. The exception is District 23's Backstreets, where cannibalism is openly and regularly practiced.
What are the Nests?
Nests are a nice and safe, high-class urban place to live, as long as you have the money to stay. Most who live in the Nest work at Wings. They are managed using the Wing's funds earned from Singularities as well as high taxes. Harming a Nest directly is a surefire way to become a major concern. Allegedly, Nests have wide open highways, however with a set of conditions and costs associated.
If the Wing managing it falls, the Nest degrades into a slum similar to the Backstreets. Syndicates vie to control the region so that when the next Wing rises to take its place, they have to buy the land back from them. Alternatively, the Wing can hire Fixers or other Syndicates to evacuate them.
To enter the Nest, taking K Corp as the standard, one must pass through a checkpoint. There are different types of visas that can be used to pass the checkpoint, but entering a Nest without a proper visa is extremely difficult. Work visas allow for weapons to be brought in. Prosthetics, regardless of capabilities, are approved through the checkpoint even on a tourist visa. There are separate lines which can be divided by glass barriers that are so thick as to be soundproofed; The line for work visas, such as those from Limbus Company, moves very quickly with one third the number of armed guards compared to the extremely slow Backstreets line.
Apparently some Nests forbid residents from getting augmentation procedures above a certain level of power if they aren't qualified. Given that the power output can be difficult to handle by an unqualified "driver", it is a measure to prevent chaos.
The immigration process from a Nest to a Nest is significantly more lenient than when migrating from the Backstreets to a Nest territory.
What is a Wing?
There are many corporations, but the Wings are the most powerful. All Wings have a Singularity. The employees of Wings are nicknamed feathers. There are 26 Singularities and 26 Wings.
The 26 districts are managed by one Wing each. Depending on the preferences of the Wing, every Nest has a different culture and every section of the Backstreets is treated differently, whether it be amicable relations or thorough exploitation.
It seems people swear by the Wings or by the Wings' name, similar to how people in real life swear on religious figures (like saying "What in the Wings' name are you doing?" instead of "What in god's name are you doing?", or "Wing-forsaken" instead of "godforsaken").
No matter the Wing, infringing on a taboo means that lethal measures can be taken against the violator without warning. Taboos can be considered somewhat like laws.
What is a Singularity?
A Singularity is a unique, patented technology. They wield immense power and often break the laws of physics; Some Singularities can perform feats like looping time and teleportation. Some corporations abduct random citizens to use as test subjects for Singularity research. If a Wing is destroyed for whatever reason, their Singularity becomes public domain (but knowledge of it may still be difficult to obtain, especially if it is immediately purchased by another Wing).
Patent wars are waged over valuable technology like Singularities.
Few Wings use their Singularity on their own, but all Wings personally own at least one. For example, W Corp's official personal Singularity is body restoration, but they also have a dimension-ripping Singularity from a different fallen Wing as well. Also, there is such a thing as "semi-Singularities", in which special technology may be approved but fail to gain a true title of Singularity due to their lack of generalizability.
The official map of the City.
Note only 25 out of 26 districts/Wings are shown.
Known Districts and Their Wings
District 1 (A Corp): On Ezra's map, a zero is written on top of the 1, but the Limbus map labels it directly as District 1. This district is in the very center of the City.
A Corp is directly run by the Head. They manage and grant all Workshop and Singularity patents, as well as minting and authorizing Wings. For more information about the Head, please view the section titled "The City in General". They wiped out the Kong family of H Corp due to a broken taboo, then ordered Sweepers to clean up the scene.
District 2 (B Corp): B Corp is directly run by the Eye. If R Corp breaks A Corp's clone policy, B Corp's regulations mean R Corp will lose its qualifications as a Wing and be shut down. For more information about the Eye, please view the section titled "The City in General".
Samjo (K Corp) and Marile (technology liberation alliance) once met at a job interview for B Corp.
District 3 (C Corp): C Corp is directly run by the Claw. For more information about the Claw, please view the section titled "The City in General".
District 4 (D Corp): In the Backstreets, there is a rather high number of veterans from the fallen G Corp who are in severe poverty after being discarded at the end of the Smoke War. This is the first District visited by Limbus Company. According to Don Quixote, it is the home of the Grass Maiden, presumably a Color.
District 5 (E Corp): It is managed by E Corp.
District 6 (F Corp): F Corp's Singularity is the "Fairies," which can unlock anything that's considered "locked", physically or conceptually. It can be used as a weapon, judging by the attacks of an Arbiter (Lobotomy Corporation). They once tried to test different applications of the Singularity, but due to the former L Corp (the one before Lobotomy) giving them a very limited amount of power, they failed to get useful results. The Fairies can also be referred to as "Key" or "Key Fairies", but this information comes from external staff comments and not written media text.
District 7 (G Corp): G Corp's Singularity can freely control the weight of an object, and is utilized in one of Namir Workshop's items. Specifically, it produces spheres that can control gravity.
Like with Lobotomy Corporation, there was a previous G Corp that fell. This current G Corp is NOT the one responsible for insectoid augmentations during the Smoke War.
District 8 (H Corp): H Corp. is also known as the Hongyuan Bioengineering Group. This District is entirely contained within a megastructure building, locally called Hongyuan as a whole, or the Vast Garden. The Nest is in the center of the structure. Taboos change depending on the location within the territory. Buildings inside H Corp shift every once in a while by violently rearranging themselves from the ground on "restructuring day", and are redistributed based on net worth. It is a remnant of a previous, much older H Corp and the original nature or purpose of this Singularity is unknown, but currently it uses the current H Corp's restructuring standards, which assigns an amount of space to be owned by a person based on labor value and income measured in "rooms". Some affluent classes like to install artificial environments. Hongyuan hides valuable secrets often passed down generationally and certain areas lead into the Ruins, making it a target of other Wings' interest.
It is a tradition here to give apples on Christmas Eve to wish people a peaceful night. A shareholder of H Corp once personally visited Hong Lu's home because his younger sibling insisted on having a red passport as a child. Locally, a common greeting to express respect and peace is the "baoquan gesture", bringing your fist and palm together. In certain regions of the east, they use a unique time system in which the "Xu hour" is between 19:00 and 21:00. It is also said that in the eastern region of the City, parents name their children with meanings that carry their wish for their children's place and use in the world. Children in Daguanyuan have no birthdays due to being hidden for years to avoid being targeted, except Jia Baoyu.
Bolus: Their Singularity is called the Bolus, which comes in multiple variations: taken orally, ground with water into a paste and applied directly to the affected area, or dissolved in water then soaked into bandages and wrapped around the necessary area. Unlike K Corp (which is about returning to a previous state), H Corp's inhabitants often create unique techniques and technology using different manufactured Boluses, selecting the appropriate technique from a large number of choices to address deficiencies. Faust likens it to "Transformation" or "Evolution." Regular users can end up with a large number of side effects. Bolus production methodology relies on the five phases, eight trigrams, sexagenary cycle (heavenly stems and earthly branches), and spacetime itself (which can modify the laws that yin and yang operate in). Thus, the same family recipe can yield Boluses of varying effects. They must be stored carefully and should be minded due to the harmony and discord of the ingredients.
Daguanyuan: A massive residence upheld by the Jia, Xue, Wang, and Shi families. The Kong family used to hold a large amount of influence, but was all but eradicated by the Head. In addition to the four families, there is a board of directors.
Pingan Residential Support Zone: "The glorified internment camp of Hongyuan, now shut down" after Jia Xichun's rise to power. It was a policy pursued by Jia Yuanchun and the former Jia Mu, but was indefinitely tabled and closed off due to general reluctance.
Heishou: Consists of twelve Packs, each of the twelve animals of the Twelve Earthly Branches and are led by Heishou-Xianren. High ranking Heishou are called Adepts. They are the shadow of Daguanyuan, and each pack is managed by a Xianren, who strictly controls their branches' populations and unique Bolus recipes. A thirteenth branch is generally considered impossible to create. The Zi and Mao branches are known to move in groups (Zi at a larger scale than Mao). They borrow the biological qualities of beastmen that live in the Outskirts. The Hierarch commands at least three Heishou Packs (currently Chou, Chen, and Shen), but when there is no Hierarch in power, they are neutral and thus leaves Hongyuan open to attack. In general, Packs can often change masters.
Tiekan Temple: Also known as the Iron Threshold (Temple). Houses the Elders, who are revered by those in Daguanyuan. The Elders are also called the Xianren or "Enlightened Ones" (self-proclaimed). They have almost no communication with the outside world except with the Hierarch and Jia Baoyu, who are the only people permitted to meet with them. According to Hong Lu, "they endured the time of suffering, opened their eyes to the secret to freedom from aging and death, and eventually attained Enlightenment", and each seems to use different methods of reaching immortality. They believe that pleasure (and amusement) is the only emotion carrying value and cannot feel other emotions anymore. In order to become Hierarch, the candidate-to-be must receive the Xianhuang Worm, the Anamnaworm of the Immortal Emperor, from the previous Hierarch (who must find their own secret to immortality in order to abdicate and become a Xianren). This Anamnaworm stores generations of knowledge and wisdom and comes from the founding Hierarch of Daguanyuan, who was the first to be metamorphosed into an Anamnaworm. It causes the Hierarch to also merge with the other Xianren, sharing emotions and reason, leading to becoming solely focused on the prosperity of Daguanyuan.
Jialan Guards: Guardians of the Jia family, wearing indigo. Attempts to invade H Corp during the brief power vacuum between confirmation of Hierarchs. According to Lord of Hongyuan Hong Lu's Mirror World story, the Jialan Guards are sworn to the Family Hierarch and Daguanyuan no matter what, unlike the Heishou.
District 9 (I Corp): Although previously considered relatively safe, "The Pianist" wiped out 80% of this district's population (by annihilating the Backstreets' residential area, killing 300,000). Its Backstreets were called the "streets of music," where Angelica and Roland once lived, and they are now considered to be an important place for musicians striving to replicate the Pianist's sound.
K Corp and I Corp promised that Wing War veterans would get first priority when getting a migration permit, but they changed the policy to say that participants cannot move to a Nest at all. Tremendous amounts of money were involved in the agreement. In other words, Smoke War veterans are not allowed in their Nest. They hired an entire Association (which Salvador of Dawn Office was a part of) to participate in the Smoke War.
District 10 (J Corp): J Corp's Singularity can lock and seal anything that is open or exposed on a conceptual level. For example, it can force a lock on a person, preventing them from speaking about specific information willingly (showing as a visible symbol on the back of their neck). Cheap applications can lock boxes and small objects, while expensive applications can seal an area of space or prevent a person's body from being dissected.
Their Nest is a center of gambling, though it appears to be very popular in the Backstreets as well. Employees at one particular J Corp casino wear brown uniforms covered in belts and pockets, and their work is looking at screens all day to detect cheating.
According to a Jeong's Office Fixer working in Nest J, most residents in the Nest are relying on a "special entity" that predicts the events that will happen to you during a year like an annual fortune and gives opinions on immediate matters. It does not give a direct solution.
Due to the nature of the Nest, it commonly has terrible sounds like gunshots and screams, and people can disappear or be killed after losing gambles. In the Backstreets, those with excessively high debts may be forced into captivity (slavery) to perform manual labor to pay them off, such as through mining.
The private room in the High Rollers' Lounge in a certain casino bans cheating, sleights of hand, and anything involving wishpower with a serious punishment if discovered. To wager all of your bets in such a room and lose means that you may be killed immediately.
Wishpower: An officially proven semi-Singularity with widely proven efficacy that belongs to J Corp. It is not widely known outside of the District due to its lack of generality, which is why it is not a true Singularity. Wishpower, or "luck", can be extracted from people, absorbed as a form of energy, and used like currency. It was the need to stop others from forcibly extracting this wishpower that led to the invention of the locking Singularity. If stored onto sticker paper then stuck onto the body, wishpower becomes a tattoo that boosts luck greatly for one use. Thousands of people rely on wishpower for every aspect of their lives. Even pawnbroking is determined by luck of the draw: Drawing a great boon will allow for a higher loan, while misfortune will give far less money than the pawned item is worth.
According to Rodion, in the end they don't actually increase luck but only increase one's confidence due to being made of hopes and desires, which is worthless to a person who already has unshakable faith in themselves. (How plausible this is depends on your judgment. I, personally, doubt that confidence alone can let someone win a jackpot on a slot machine on the first try.)
District 11 (K Corp): Nest K is considered one of the "more decent" Nests. Due to being adjacent to District 12, it is having some trouble. Giovanni was born in an orphanage in this Nest, where he met Carmen for the first time. (She was giving a speech but no one was listening to her.) Dias possesses a large vacation home here, though Moses suspects she owns at least one mansion in every Nest.
Samjo was a K Corp Affiliate of the Department of Food Resource Development's Research Center, and his boss was Dongrang. The Eunbong's Bar & Fryers Distortion was resolved by Limbus Company under Samjo's request, and the overall ordeal was to learn the difference between Distortions and Abnormalities. In an emergency, employees of the lab have regenerative ampules to heal from injuries, although usually they require a cross-compatibility test.
K Corp's laboratory has a 70-hour workweek policy. The employees seem to avoid evacuating the facility more than once a week in order to avoid disrupting this policy, even when there is an emergency.
Nest K has a custom of walking outside without an umbrella to stand in the rain on the night of a certain month every year. This is due to a legend that a certain constellation, after being named and given a story by a certain person, would rain tears for a day and a half to clear the people of their pain (as described in a picture book in the lobby of the K Corp laboratory).
They may have multiple Singularities, similar to W Corp. K Corp and I Corp promised Wing War veterans would get first priority when moving to a Nest, but they changed the policy to say that participants cannot move to a Nest at all.
The checkpoint to enter the Nest is mostly white, with green signage and a menacing atmosphere. Breaking the glass wall separating the Backstreet-resident line from the non-Backstreets line is "code purple" (turning the lights in the checkpoint purple and causing metal shutters to fall) and a violation of Taboo K185. The checkpoint official who reports it calls for Thrombocyte units, and then an announcement is made for Leukocytes as well. Thrombocytes and Leukocytes are guards of K Corp. They have drones to enforce safe distances from danger in the Nest.
The chief executive was formerly a woman named Stephanette, who passed away from age (and has a strong history with the K Corp Singularity). Afterwards, there was strong (and at times violent) competition between executives for the seat. There is a Director named Alfonso. She appears to be above Dongrang in rank. The Fixer Siegfried is strongly associated with K Corp and can be read about in more detail in the "Fixer Associations and Offices" section.
HP and Decay Ampules: HP stands for "Helapoiesis." It is K Corp's Singularity. The HP bullets are believed to be based on an underlying principle of nanobot-based medical treatment. (In truth, they do NOT involve nanobots at all.) It commonly comes in the form of healing bullets that restore most wounds in the blink of an eye. They can also protect sanity, such as with R Corp's Reindeer Team. The HP-N Bullets used by L Corp were manufactured according to an agreement with K Corp. It is a bioengineered technology that allows for the continuous repair of damaged or lost cells. One dose lasts a considerably long time, so against those in the Nest who receive constant supplies, it is not reasonably possible to defeat them in combat. Ampules have serial codes (unique strings of numbers to categorize them). O stands for "Original." The code for decay and regeneration ampules are the same; Decay ampules are described as an undiluted solution and are not commercially available. Dongrang's team was given an astronomical sum of research grants in order to improve the regenerative ampule.
The Singularity can apparently also be used for meat production, although it appears to not be held in much esteem, and they seem to be researching food applications in general. Dongrang's department project was "the improvement of livestock" using HP bullets: Obtaining endless supplies of high-quality meat from quality engineered livestock. The chickens in the modification lab have their wings and legs cut endlessly, but appear to not be struggling, as if they experience no pain due to the speed at which they are regenerated.
Also, it is implied by the former researcher Ran that K Corp will keep people barely alive and regenerate them with ampules as a form of torture to extract information.
Dongrang was defeated and killed while Limbus Company was attempting to collect the Golden Bough. He was subsequently blamed for the chaos in K Corp.
Tears of the "Tearful Thing": K Corp's Singularity. The ampules are produced from the tears of the Tearful Thing that drips into an undiluted pool. The tears revert things to how they were originally; Ampules are produced after numerous refining processes. When a person who has lost an arm takes the ampule, they will remember having the arm as their original state. Through refinement, the ampules can be imbued with ideas of human concepts, which will alter this memory (for example, the implication that one is a bug will cause them to turn into bugs and die). Without any interpretation attached, the person will be reverted to the "original form of humanity" or something close to it. In the Screening Room, the source of the Singularity is shown footage of terrible tragedies to generate tears. Dongrang was responsible for obtaining the footage at Calw in accordance with a certain department in N Corp in order to generate record tears, which played a significant part in securing his award. The footage was shown using the glass window, which was invented during the time of the League of Nine's existence.
In the past, tears were generated by the chief executive, Stephanette, who read stories to the Tearful Thing after originally collecting it from the Outreaches of the Outskirts (it was once a human that wished that no one would suffer from pain). Once she passed away from age, the corporation turned to generating tears through torturing people and healing them again with the tears (an inefficient method due to having to use some of the generated tears), as well as purchasing audiovisual feed from a variety of Wings and Backstreets Syndicates. However, the cost began to rise because the factions involved realized K Corp needed the footage for something. Thus, Dongrang began to use a lower version of the glass window. The thing seen by Limbus Company and Dongrang was in reality a child entity of the actual Tearful Thing, according to Alfonso.
With the instructions of people who appeared to be K Corp's high-rank staff and Fixers, Limbus Company's Sinners had their memories wiped of every recollection of the Tearful Thing, knowing that they saw something in the laboratory but not what it was, how tears were collected, or how HP bullets were made. However, they did not know that it failed on Dante.
K Corp Excision Staff: In order from lowest to highest ranks currently known, Class 1 is responsible for rescuing employees in danger, Class 2 is responsible for excising terrorists and other enemy combatants, and Class 3 is tasked with eliminating intruders and keeping classified technologies secure. They inject themselves with heavy doses of the ampule more often than most other employees, requiring them to live in suspended animation in glass tubes outside of deployment to raise their compatibility (due to the high risk of decaying from any configuration being slightly off). Class 2 appears to wear the same riot gear-like body armor as K Corp's checkpoint security.
Special Excision Unit: Attempts to invade H Corp during the brief power vacuum between confirmation of Hierarchs.
K Corp Drones: They have drones to administer ampules as well (both HP and "Resister"), which inject injured staff straight away and practically allows them to be undying, assuming their heads are not lost and their brain is still functioning. The drones say that friendly entities of type 3J-54 are eligible for serum injection, but regeneration ampules may only be administered to patients hemorrhaging 1L or more blood and that they do not take any responsibility for possible side effects if the patient has not taken a cross-compatibility test. Because of this policy, K Corp guards will even injure themselves in order to be eligible for the ampule. If staff attempt to escape the combat zone (a range of certain meters), the drones will shoot decay ampules that melt flesh at them if they do not attack the enemy within 5 seconds of exiting the zone. Apparently companies define "death on the job" differently and have different processes. Each drone is valued far above that of ten Class 2 staff members. There was a famous research paper among scholars that showed that deploying these drones in simulated battles increased the odds of victory by 23.5%. It is possible for them to be hacked and mark guests as enemies.
K Corp Laboratory Terrorism: Dongrang, through Samjo, made a deal (delegate body-represented immediate contract with no warranty liability with a contractual signing overseen from an observer from a Grade 1 contract Office) with Limbus Company that they will receive the Golden Bough that their research team found if they will assist in clearing out terrorists from the laboratory, which was set up in an Lobotomy Corp branch. Shrenne was team manager of a different department at K Corp. She ostensibly assisted in the fight against the technology liberation alliance with Fixers from Rosepanner Workshop, which was working alongside their current project. However, she had betrayed the group from the start due to a very close relationship with her former mentor, Ran (a member of the alliance), and was killed by a Shi Association assassin before she could confess her reasoning. It is theorized by Dante that Alfonso is responsible for the assassination. Written about in greater detail in the Technology Liberation Alliance's entry in the Syndicates section.
Quercus Village: A small, calm, and quiet village with a population of about 102 people within the Backstreets of this district. Its buildings are vibrantly-colored, two to three stories tall with brick walls and wooden roofing. There is grass and flowers lining the streets. They had a monthly festival in which every villager's latent Distortions would be "purified" and transferred to one selected villager using a certain black box, who was then discarded in a dungeon. After about 45 villagers were discarded, Moses's Office killed them. This caused the villagers above ground to Distort and fight each other, and several were collected by Dias's Udjat force.
Calw: A village in the Nest nicknamed "The Holy Site of Nest K's Prosthetic Industry." Most of the residents worked in manufacturing high-end prosthesis components. Sinclair's father owned a fledgling prosthetics company, which signed a contract with P Corp after they saw the technology he was working on and they gave their full support. That agreement was confidential and not to be shared at all costs, but Sinclair gave it away to his classmates. His family described having prosthetics as being no different from wearing a hat or a watch. They owned the largest mansion in the neighborhood, which had a connection to a Lobotomy Corp branch below.
There is a woodland path leading to the village with lush green trees rarely found in the Backstreets.
N Corp sent a large number of employees to the Nest. It was not officially disclosed but it was allowed to pass by K Corp, which means they may have made an under-the-table deal; The deal appears to be that the atrocities at Calw were permitted so long as they gave the audiovisual footage to K Corp for use with their Singularity.
In the past, large groups like Nagel und Hammer didn't appear in the open, but at some point people calling themselves "Hammers" started appearing in town, killing people.
There is a familiar melancholy song, Silent Night, playing when Limbus Company arrives. Heathcliff recognizes from hearing it played during snowy days and Gregor recognizes hearing it during wartime to raise spirits (which he disliked). It is familiar to all of the Sinners as well as Dante, even without their memories. The town's trees were decorated in internal organs and mechanical parts and there are no survivors in the area. Nails and other symbols of N Corp were everywhere, and Kromer of N Corp is responsible for this "purification." Sinclair's house was set on fire and many people were nailed into the ground, including (from excavated graves) Sinclair's father, mother, and sister, personally executed by Kromer. In addition, she mutilated and impaled Effie of the LCCB, who had to be put down. Kromer's faction dug the tunnel to the Golden Bough beneath the Sinclairs' mansion and used the branch as a base of operations. They used one floor for torture and the floor below to purposely induce E.G.O. Corrosion. After Kromer's death, it is unclear what the current state of Calw is.
District 12: The district that had L Corp and its Nest. It was in anarchy after the sudden fall of L Corp. The White Nights and Dark Days originated from the Nest here.
Syndicates were fighting over the former Nest's land, which is covered in a disorienting fog; Their goal is to occupy it so that the Syndicate can sell the land to the next Wing that gets assigned District 12. The Eight o'Clock Circus also occurred here. It was a hotbed for Distortion incidents.
The Library was in the very heart of the Nest. As of the Library becoming a Star of the City, the mist was clearing and revealing it. By the time of the Impuritas Civitatis tier, it was visible from anywhere in the Nest. However, the Reverberation Ensemble's camp prevented people from approaching. The death of the Purple Tear, the loss of leadership in Liu Association, the decommission of R Corp's Fourth Pack, and the decimation of the Thumb as well as several Index Proxies—all by the hands of the Library—had caused the only remaining major party in the Nest to be the Ensemble. As of the end of the Impuritas Civitatis tier, they too have been eradicated.
The Head has exiled the entirety of District 12's Nest to the Outskirts in order to excise the Library, leaving District 12's current appearance and status within the City a mystery. It is apparently still unclaimed and chaotic by the beginning of Limbus Company.
District 13 (M Corp): Roland's last location before he appeared in the Library. HamHam-PangPang was established here.
In Zwei West Section 3 Ishmael's uptie story, M Corp is said to have an Order of the Lunar Visage that is absent on an expedition and unable to help X Corp on Zwei Association's mission.
Moonlight Stones: The Singularity of M Corp. They emit a golden glint and mitigate or shutoff psychological afflictions/damage from mental attacks, mental pressure, or witnessing or feeling something. It is said to amplify a single purpose or thought (to drown out exterior mental pain) or fortify the mind like a barrier. They are installed into clothes or accessories used by Liu Association Southern Branch Section 2's Fixers, but they are also used by other Fixers and Syndicates. It is possible they come with side effects.
Abyss Trauma Correctional Facility: Catherine Earnshaw signed her brother, Hindley Earnshaw, for this facility after hearing of his debt, drinking, and gambling. She wrote that if he does not visit it within a week, the facility will come take him in.
District 14 (N Corp): N Corp is also known as Nagel und Hammer. All of the buildings in the Nest are painted pure white in color. Moses's Office is in this district's Backstreets. In the Backstreets of this area, recording audio or video is a taboo. Notably, not even the taboo hunters know what happens to arrested people after they are turned over to the corporation (or at least, Vespa Crabro does not), but people do not seem to return. It is also unknown how they are able to tell that a person has recorded or viewed something forbidden.
There are two factions under the names of "Nail" and "Hammer", according to Meursault. They are the Wing that values experience above all else: "Humans are made to have experiences and actions appropriate for their worth," they claim. They have always been devoted to scrutinizing the idea of humanity.
Some criticized prosthetic use, as they believed that pain is a necessary component of the human experience. However, it previously never escalated to the extent of direct action like that seen in the village of Calw. They sent a large number of employees (Kromer's faction) to Calw in K Corp's Nest. It was not officially disclosed but it was allowed to pass by K Corp, which means they may have made an under-the-table deal.
They manufacture "canned experiences" by piercing people with their specialty nails. There is a transparent tube inside the nail that fills up with something. It is strongly implied that the cans of unknown porridge consumed by inquisitors in Kromer's faction cause brainwashing and may be linked to these "canned experiences." Unofficially translated Leviathan Information: A major source of income for the Wing are their suicide vending machines, which are unique to N Corp and come with a lot of both praise and criticism.
Outis believes that N Corp residents "indulge in the most pointless activity in the world," which may or may not be keeping mementos of the dead or mourning the dead. Meursault was formerly employed by N Corp. Although he considered the ideals of N Corp, he never came to a conclusion.
New League of Nine Litterateurs: Attempts to invade H Corp during the brief power vacuum between confirmation of Hierarchs. It appears to consist of Jia Huan, Gubo, Nelly (formerly of Wuthering Heights), Ahab (formerly of the Pequod), and others. They participated in the H Corp Hierarch war in order to collect the Xianhuang Worm (which is apparently extremely close to the "pure human" they seek) and received it half-alive.
Aseah: A former co-worker of Yi Sang's from the League of Nine. Based on his explanations, Faust theorizes that N Corp's goal in working alongside the Ring on Identity/Mirror technology is to create the "primordial human", which works as a baseline for applying any Identity from any possible world. He says that if Hermann or another higher-up researcher heard her explanation, they would have tried their best to take her in. The technology requires incredible amounts of energy, such as that from a Golden Bough harvesting additional energy.
Gubo: Gubo of N Corp has a history with Yi Sang, who calls him his "dear compatriot." In addition, he came into conflict with Vergilius the Red Gaze as he was working alongside the Ring, theorized to be a new Singularity (an application of the glass window). According to Dongrang, he seems to be recruiting the old members of the League of Nine and their technologies with the intent of erasing that past. Dongrang believes that all of the members, including himself, are doomed to die at the hands of Gubo and be taxidermied. He recruited Aseah, who did not seem to care either way. He kept Yi Sang in captivity for some time, but Yi Sang did not join officially.
Hermann: Hermann, formerly of the fallen G Corp, is now affiliated with N Corp (as it appears as a title above her name). She visited Yi Sang once when he was being kept in captivity and told him to study the potential destruction of all worlds and myriad possibilities from the mirror and glass window. She is backing the new League formed by Gubo. She collaborated with Catherine at Wuthering Heights and supplied an additional Golden Bough for the laboratory. She seeks a "dough" (baseline blank human) that is at the "far beginning of all things."
Kromer: Kromer was a leader in an N Corp faction as "The One Who Grips". She claimed to be "a humanitarian who loves purity, and the one who grips the hammer", responsible for performing N Corp's "nailing judgment" on the "hallowed ground" of Calw in K Corp's Nest. She set up decorations of internal organs and mechanical parts in the trees, calling the night a Christmas. She had a subordinate called Guido the Persistent. She met Sinclair at school, befriended him over shared disgust for prosthetic bodies, and then killed Sinclair's family.
She burned his house, excavated the graves of his father, mother, and sister, and nailed them. She was known to whistle. In the end, she intended to become a god through taking in more and more "human" things, such as flesh, blood, and pain. Demian was responsible for her final death.
Employees of her faction of Nagel und Hammer are called inquisitors. They claim to be "the nail that fixes the blasphemous, and the hammer that strikes down the sinful." They view prosthetic body parts as heresy and a disgrace to flesh and bone. (Although it has been quite a while since prostheses were introduced to the City, many still find them foreign and alienating.)
They also "cleanse heretical dissidents." They demand that people prove themselves to be "untainted" before entering areas that they are cleansing; Refusal to comply labels them as heretics and will subject them to the same punishment as heretics, having "bodily mechanical intrusions" installed against their will (having prosthetics jammed onto their limbs). The "sin" of worshiping a heretic and their "false miracle" is less severe than indulging in heresy oneself, so they are willing to forgive those who repent and kneel. While "cleansing" prosthetic people they will stab them repeatedly with nails and then solemnly burn the bodies with oil. Others will be bound to nails and "laid down furthest from soil" (suspended in the air by impalement). Some inquisitors intentionally underwent EGO Corrosion. They are taught to memorize doctrines.
This group appears to be unusually fanatical compared to the rest of the corporation; N Corp as a whole does not seem different to other large corporations except for "some rigidness," Dante notes. Meursault says the inquisitors weren't nearly as prevalent when he worked for the Wing and that they were not the majority faction at his time.
District 15 (O Corp): O Corp was supposed to receive a supply of Enkephalin that was stolen and smuggled by some Fixers. Service workers in this corporation's Nest suffered from so much stress that they became Distorted and their heads would explode. Call center clerks suffered the greatest.
District 16 (P Corp): The Secret of the Demi-glace Sauce occurred in the Backstreets of this district. The Head Manager of the P Corp. Archival Department is named Cesara, and a Class 3 Documentation Staff Manager of the same department is named Alessio. It is considered a rather significant department at P Corp. regardless of how other Wings treat their own archivists. There is a well-known very old local tale about the Singularity created by P Corp's Chief Executive Director, which Cesara says resembles the way La Manchaland manifested.
Except for the Archival Department, the other departments are uninterested in investigating La Manchaland, meaning their Martial Department refused to send elite employees to handle the case. The main reason for this is because La Manchaland affects the Backstreets, not the Nest; If it were the latter, squadrons of agents from the Compression Department would have arrived immediately. Cesara hired Limbus Company along with several Fixers in order to retrieve and turn over whatever or whoever created La Manchaland.
Allegedly, "P Corp. can make a safe home anywhere." P Corp.'s Singularity-utilizing buildings are well-known for their elasticity, bending like rubber rather than crumbling or collapsing in response to shock. P Corp.'s Singularity kept the building occupants safe, which reduced casualties when La Manchaland first appeared. However, people (presumably on the outside) were crushed, so the incident was a major blow to their public image and crashed the local real estate market.
Camille of Cinq West once had an unboxing and review livestream of P Corp. 150 Vintage Semi-permanent Canned Ice Cream. According to Dante's Notes, their specialty is canned items of various kinds.
Their Singularity can be summarized as "Expansive Space Warping technology." Unlike other space-expansion technologies, P Corp's ultimate purpose is to create the safest place in the world. (Note: This precise wording is also used in Shelter from the 27th of March's Abnormality story, which mentions "P Company.") Faust describes "a perfectly protected construct, its interior sheltered from the world outside no matter how severely its exterior is battered; to have a sound structural integrity no matter what, its interiors safe from any and all harm. Therefore, the more expensive the P Corp. product is, the safer its interior is from damaging outside conditions such as extreme pressure or shock. Perhaps the way in which the interior is completely insulated from the outside is comparable to a full disconnect from the outside world by sheltering in a separate dimension." P Corp. assisted in developing a vehicle for Limbus Company. Dante speculates that La Manchaland heavily influenced P Corp's Singularity.
District 17 (Q Corp): Roland is from the Backstreets of this district. According to him, it was a "decent place." A member of the Mao branch of Heishou Pack attempted to use a Q Corp. talisman by incanting "Light enters not the vast garden… yet falls a star into its fathoms still" which had some effect on Wei, a former member of the Heishou Pack. Q Corp. technology was used to create a temporary building that appeared to be composed of ink. Glyphs can be inscribed onto swords to activate and bestow power when a specific trigger is met. Hong Lu's oldest sister, Yuanchun, married an important person in Q Corp. Jia Yuanchun is suspected to be the mastermind of the attempted assault on Hongyuan during the Hierarch war.
District 18 (R Corp): R Corp is a militaristic corporation boasting high killing power. There is a supreme commander, who once said that L Corp's energy offer was extraordinarily generous. There is a group called the Ravens, which appear to dispose of those within the company who bring faulty evidence. R Corp also explores the Outskirts and Ruins, and their soldiers are known for being plentiful, skilled, easily replenished, and lacking any fear of death.
R Corp's Nest architecture allegedly bears no resemblance to its neighbors (a rarity): J Corp, S Corp, and T Corp. Instead, it more closely resembles that of W Corp. Apparently, they have an impenetrable fortress.
They were formerly supplied energy from L Corp. According to the contract, they are to protect the Singularities and Nests of L Corp, W Corp, and T Corp. They were exploring the Nest of L Corp in order to assure that they did not fail to prevent an external threat according to their contract. According to a Liu South Section 1 Fixer, they are eliminating threats as per request from another Wing.
Prior to the Smoke War, a rich woman (presumably, Dias) visited R Corp and casually claimed that a large-scale war would break out soon, and that the Fourth Pack might avoid being destroyed if they helped her and made large enough contributions. Nikolai's impression was that the request was semi-mandatory, and that she was confident, "as if she were saying she's going to make the war happen." As they were in no position to refuse it, she accepted.
First/Second/Third Packs: According to a Limbus Company Identity, besides the First Pack, all packs are relatively similar in strength but with different specialties.
Second Pack: Attempts to invade H Corp during the brief power vacuum between confirmation of Hierarchs. The Second Pack also has a Reindeer Team like the Fourth Pack, but is apparently extremely different with only a surface level resemblance. Based on illustration and naming pattern, they also possibly consist of Rams and Rats.
Fourth Pack: This section of the corporation has 15,000 troops ("animals"), split into sections called the Rabbit Team (Lapin-o-Rabbit Team??), the Reindeer Team, and the Rhino Team. Despite their differences, they usually work in packs for most operations. Overall, they are led by a captain, Nikolai. After their repeated failure in the Library, due to energy concerns, the Fourth Pack is no longer being cloned and is thus likely eradicated. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived, although the state of the Fourth pack as an organization is unknown.
Prior to the Smoke War, the Fourth Pack was slated to be destroyed by R Corp for being troublesome and risky to use. According to Maxim, the Fourth Pack was organized exclusively for L Corp's Nest.
Myo is the team leader of the Rabbit Team. They shoot indiscriminately at any non-Rabbits, including civilians. They are quick, nimble, and they are considered the cleanest.
Rudolph leads the Reindeer Team. They use psychological attacks, but they can lose their sanity on longer battles or if they overexert themselves, hurting their allies. They use electric waves generated from brainwaves, collected at the tip of their horns and then collected by their staves. To protect their sanity or mitigate the mental damage, they sometimes use K Corp's Singularities, but they cannot afford to use it often. Some turn to taking many doses of conventional painkillers.
Maxim leads the Rhino Team. They are powerful with significant combat prowess, but they are easily agitated and can cause massive collateral damage. This team uses (non-Singularity) technology that expands muscles and increases adrenaline in the blood, which may cause the rampages. They have a procedure to connect their bioelectric signals to their fitted exoskeletal suits, which allows their energy to be transferred to the suit. This causes constant fatigue and leads them to purchase caffeine and sugar with personal funds. If they do not meet their expected combat roles, they will be sent back to the Hatchery.
R Corp Hatcheries: Their Singularity appears to be cloning. If a team leader dies, potentially thousands of clones of them are produced in R Corp hatcheries (cloning machines) and forced to kill each other in order to create the fittest version of them. The process runs using T Corp's TT2 protocol in order to speed up the process, in which the clones can experience up to one year fighting (and having to eat) each other, while outside it meets the Head's 7 days rule. However, this process uses a large amount of energy.
District 19 (S Corp): S Corp is also known as Salpippyeo Agroindustries. It is a Wing that places heavy emphasis on tradition and hierarchies, and appears to be governed by a "King'' who has "retainers". They deal with much of the agriculture and livestock industry. They have an internal group called the Ch'unnokkun, who are sent after contractors who have fled or violated a Taboo and are similar to Fixers. Those sent by the Royal Court are like Taboo Hunters of other Wings, and are deadly and tenacious pursuers that may cross Nest borders to hunt a target (for example, a person who kills a councilor). Contains a fishing hamlet, attached to the Great Lake. S Corp is the hometown of the League of Nine members. Blade Lineage appears to be from this District. However, according to Aeng-du, the district is fraught with corruption and disturbance to the lives of the public due to S Corp, which caused Blade Lineage to seek other territory.
In the Mirror World of Blade Lineage and the Kurokumo Clan, the members of Blade Lineage under the mentorship of Meursault (acting as Bamboo-hatted Kim) were minor officials of S Corp living in the Nest, who were martial arts scholars. They attempted to stop the increasing corruption within S Corp and failed, and apparently S Corp sent the Ch'unokkun after the mentor. Faust calls the Kurokumo Clan the "Heug-un". When the members clear their names and become able to return to S Corp, they plan to take jobs as personal guards of high-ranking officials. It seems most had experience as hired swords previously. Meursault was the protector of the Second State Councilor for 7 years and 4 months. Apparently, he had the potential to become a "Blade of Clouds" if he served the Third State Councilor, which is a title that means that its owner is one of the best in the Nest at swordsmanship. The Second State Councilor planned on presenting an appeal that would expose various conspiracies, heinous deeds, and secret studies of S Corp. He was murdered before it could be revealed, due to stronger powers at S Corp, and Meursault suspected the culprit was the Third State Councilor. He arrived as a warning, and then promised to return with his fellow Blade Lineage when he found someone who could end the corruption.
In Korean, "Salpippyeo" can be interpreted as being comprised of the words for "flesh" (살), "blood" (피), and "bone" (뼈). Speculatively, the label "Agroindustries" could imply a relationship with agriculture; It is known that rice is grown here, at least.
District 20 (T Corp): T Corp is also known as TimeTrack. The Executive Director's name is Hubert. In T Corp's district, having colors is a kind of privilege, which seems to literally turn the people and environment monochromatic. The overall color of the surroundings may be grey or sepia-hued depending on the area, given that the saturation-draining technology is in the center of T Corp and variations in hue may occur further from the center. A sufficient amount of payment must be made to restore colors inside the District, which is priced individually by the color/item (rich people will pay for every color on every clothing item, while those who only pursue a veneer of wealth only spare for a few). The Backstreets are in a perpetual state of murkiness (the sky tends to look dark all the time) due to heavy smoke from machinery clouding the skies. It was worse before the Smoke War, because various prohibitive conditions limiting the production of smoke occurred after the conclusion of the war.
All citizens in T Corp must carry a timepiece. In the Nest of T Corp, there are roving gangs seeking "time". In the past, according to Heathcliff, lowly gangs wouldn't walk brazenly on the streets. Timepieces are used as personal identification by the citizens, and often trade time instead of physical currency using those timepieces. Most laborers are rewarded with time for their efforts. Although collected time usually cannot be used within the same day, it is possible to accelerate time by touching their timepiece if there is enough time stored on the previous day.
There is a newspaper called the Times that reports the local news, such as the mysterious rumors of kidnappings. There are time retrieval Fixers. Allegedly, according to Dongbaek, this district does not have rice (unlike S Corp's district). T Corp has courts, presumably for deciding asset disputes, as well as collections offices for their Time Tax. Unauthorized temporal leakage (deceleration of time) can increase one's tax bracket significantly. T Corp. has a four-hour daily minimum time guarantee policy, in which every citizen has the right to a minimum of four-hour days; According to the T Corp. Public Welfare Council, it is the absolute minimum hours necessary to guarantee human survival. The average citizen has 20-28 hours in a day, but some can afford to condense 40 or even 50 hours into a single day, appearing to move much faster.
Outsiders seeking short-term stays at T Corp can pay the appropriate Time Tax for the length of their stay to be exempt from relevant obligations and rules (such as carrying a timepiece). Anyone born outside of District 20 must go through numerous hoops before being issued a timepiece.
Each of the twelve zones at T Corp has a Clock Tower that displays A Corp's standard time scale, since the varying hours spent by each individual cause their own watches to be desynchronized.
Their Singularity is "the technology to preserve the present by binding time." They specialize in time manipulation technology within a small area, and control "time" and apparently also something with light, which is why they drain colors (spectrums of light) in their District. There is a Time Vault. A somewhat expensive restaurant Roland likes has a customized stew pot from this corporation that can make a tender meat stew (normally only obtainable when cooked for three days) in a mere ten seconds. Pots like these are powered on collected WARP Train time.
T Corp's Singularity is also applied to assassination devices. A single-use workshop-crafted device paralyzes the target, then when the assassin presses a button, it activates for one second, subjecting the target's brain to one thousand years. Usually, this is more than enough to destroy a person's mind. The Special Investigator Badges distributed by T Corp for Distortion investigation are equipped with a function similar to the suits that higher-ranking staff of T Corp. wear, called Golden Time. It automatically speeds up the body's natural regeneration process as soon as it detects the wearer is at risk of death.
According to Yi Sang's memory, T Corp was once seeing remarkable technological growth during the time of the League of Nine and were backing the invention of machines and technology, which led the group to form in order to receive funding and support for their inventions.
Loud ticks of clocks at one's front door are a sign that T Corp's tech agency employees have come to your house. The first visit tends to be sudden and quiet, mostly only flustering and instilling fear that they will return. The second visit, now that they "know where [one's] time flows from and where it's headed … they have [one's] past, present, and future … [with all] weaknesses and desires [in] their hands," is different. During the fall of the League of Nine, K Corp was working with T Corp recently.
The tech agency collectors are grouped into classes, with Class 2, Class 3, Class 4, and Class 5 currently known, with the greater classes holding greater prestige (For example, it is surprising to a Class 4 to see a Class 5 Auditor at a local collections office; Class 5 is believed to be the highest rank possible for a Wing employee by Rodion and Hong Lu, but it depends on the Wing). Most T Corp employees prefer to spend lunch with those on similar time scales, rather than mixing employee classes (whose hours are varied); Restaurants under TT4 are preferred when they do dine together, but they are expensive. Some can cut costs by not investing in color-returning lamps. Some duties assigned to Class 2 employees are: stop-and-searches, conducting on-site report verification, contacting the Technology Administration Agency, and retrieving any and all unregistered inventions (each potentially costing the inventors seven hours). Rodion, in a Mirror Identity, describes it as being busywork. There is an additional time allowance given to Collectors to be used during missions, with varying amounts distributed depending on rank. Apparently, embezzlement is common among lower-ranking and underpaid Collection Staff (overcharging fees in order to pocket the difference). Most Citizens of T Corp. are aware of this but are not willing to fight a Collector over it. Class 3 employees have an armored exoskeleton to be worn for field missions.
The group of Blade Lineage members that went to the Library "respawned" in the Backstreets of this District.
Wuthering Heights: A manor in the Nest of T Corp, built on a stormy hill. The weather is perpetually terrible, but apparently only recently (November 984) became wracked with thunder and lightning. The lightning seems to curve and hit any living creature that enters the manor without an invitation. Despite being theorized as a rich person's defense system, apparently technology to change the weather is so extremely expensive that it becomes inefficient and even someone as rich as Hong Lu had never seen it himself. The flowers in the garden have color, additionally showing an incredible affluence due to the cost of returning color to such transient things. Color and saturation is visible inside the manor itself due to expensive lanterns hanging inside, but it does not return colors completely. Catherine dreamed of being an inventor. Underneath the manor is an underground river, which architects said would compromise any building on the cliff. The river itself is special and "arrests [consciousness] from moving on", producing an effect like ghosts. The kidnappings at T Corp were blamed on the prestigious Edgar family, appalling the general public.
Inventions Expo: Hubert says a clock with legs (Dante) might be worth a participation trophy, and details a story about a person who submitted a combination clock-and-compass that could, tragically, only tell one or the other (leaving its user lost in time and stranded in the streets). T Corp has an "Inventor of the Year'' award, which comes with a lot of prize money. It's rumored that Hubert, a former inventor himself, once showed up to bestow the awards and was giving away autographs. Every invention at T Corp. needs to be registered at the Technology Administration Agency, though with a few exceptions. When the League of Nine Littérateurs, considered a rogue group of inventors, made inventions they didn't register, it caused chaos at T Corp. with people making arrests and holding meetings. Hubert, however, purposely overlooked Yi Sang and his compatriots while they were fleeing.
TT2 Protocol: They used to extend their services to L Corp's main branch with the TT2 protocol after L Corp invested great amounts of energy and money. Originally, their technology was limited to a single room, and thus was only used for condemned criminals and those dying of disease for sentimental purposes; It remains limited to isolated enclosures. Their Singularity is utilized in W Corp trains to collect time, which is then used in other implementations. T Corp also works directly with R Corp for its cloning systems, using TT2. They are currently running low on energy suppliers after L Corp's fall.
TT4 Protocol: Temporal Velocity Synchronization Device. Heathcliff once saw an advertisement for the service. It is used to equalize the velocity of time for all individuals under the TT4 Protocol's influence. It is expensive, and activating a time-slowing ability within the field further increased Limbus Company's usage of time; The inflated tax bracket, together with the surtax-per-volume from physical space covered by the temporal manipulation, became an absurd 10 billion and 40 million Ahn in owed tax. One of the employee benefits is a TT4 Protocol sleeping pod, which allows Class 3 employees to take a six-hour nap during lunch while only 30 minutes pass in the T Corp. Daily Standard Time.
TT5-2 Protocol: Operating in an experimental capacity in a Time Collections Office. It might be disorienting to anyone not synced with the Daily Standard Time. It was an invention to address temporal inefficiency with TT4. It is being tested in a few select T Corp. offices. Apparently it has at least one 3-star review.
Temporal Scale Gallows: An apparatus at a collections office. It measures the exact amount of owed time from a person and sucks it out of them. The original name was apparently excessively long. People with more than 150 hours in Time Tax debt almost always choose to run rather than step up to the gallows. It was designed by Hubert, the Executive Director.
District 21 (U Corp): U Corp sells "stasis preservation boxes" that can keep an item (such as food or an injured person) in the same state when traveling. A board member of this corporation was killed in the first-class seating area of WARP Train UW-212 by the Puppeteer. Molar Office, after their revival from the Library, appeared in the Backstreets of this district and started up Molar Boatworks to raise funds to return to District 22. San and Isadora, from the Zwei Association, were from the streets of this district.
The Nest has curated vacation beaches with beautiful turquoise water and clean sand. In the Backstreets, the water appears to be murky and muddy, populated by trash crabs (mutated animals) that are a menace to the local citizens. They are separated by an invisible field of plasma. Rodion theorizes that they could have had the plasma field delete anything that touches it, but is purposely designed to leave a torn mess for the visual enjoyment of the rich.
They appear to be mainly responsible for the organization and management of the Great Lake. The entities inhabiting the depths of the Lakes are called "Whales" (or more specifically, everything in the Great Lake that can parasitize humans) and those that emerge from them are called "Mermaids" (who are people devoured by the Whales that came with the Waves). Whale and Mermaid products like Whale oil, Mermaid tears, Whale cuisine, and more are major sources of income for people of U Corp. Fixers who are also sailors are called Whalers. It is an unspoken taboo to ask Whalers about crews' pasts, as oftentimes they were avoiding them on purpose. Apparently, it is possible for sailors to be offered Grade 9 Fixer licenses with Eight Association.
U Corp's Singularity is believed to be a technology for food packaging, as they can keep the contents of a container from spoiling or changing until it is opened. One example is canned food. However, it can also be used to fuse scrap metal into parts that work as if tailor-made for a machine. They are not only known for their stasis preservation packaging but also for their resonance tuning fork.
Resonance Tuning Fork: Their Singularity, which can be used to fuse two things together. For example, fusing firearms with monstrous Trash Crabs allows the crabs to use them as if they were always a part of their bodies.
Ships within the Great Lake can merge and separate when needed using this Singularity, as though they were always a single vessel or as though they were never parts of the same ship. Large vessels with large forks are strong enough to pull in smaller boats without forks or ones with tuning forks with mismatching wavelengths.
Whale oil makes a sound as it reverberates, which tries to become one with everything it touches. It is used to produce resonance tuning forks, as well as their wavelengths and fuel. Some talk about it with terms like "ultravibro-fusion" and "oscillation frequency." A Whale's oil "covers and devours anyone it comes in contact with." If a person is devoured by a living Whale's oil, that person transforms into a Mermaid; If from a dead Whale, your sense of self slowly erodes. From Ishmael's experience falling into the oil, she theorizes the Whales are lonely, and thus transform others into more of themselves.
Laws of the Great Lake: The Great Lake's many separated sections follow special laws. Staying too long in a single Lake (section of the Great Lake) will cause an attack from one of the "Waves" from a given Lake. There are also laws governing permissible time and direction for ships to cross borders. Thus, everything must constantly move within the Great Lake. Each Lake has its own set of laws, and unauthorized recording of the laws (even through tattooing them on yourself) is one of U Corp's "better-known" taboos. One area suddenly sprouted an enormous monster after a set amount of time within the sector. Ishmael received a compass for surviving the hellish depths of the Belle Morte Trenches, which contextually is likely a location in the Great Lake.
Ships beyond a certain magnitude, like the Lobotomy Corp Branch Ship or the Marlin Port, receive partial laws of the Great Lake in an encrypted form from U Corp, who holds a strict monopoly on intel regarding the laws of the Great Lake within the Nest. (The vessels that receive that intel pay various prices for that privilege.) They use that partial information to calculate at which location their vessels must be during which specific period to ensure a safe voyage, which is finalized and standardized into "variable coordinates." Portships often send their coordinates to other vessels to host as many guests as possible, but vessels that prioritize privacy and secrecy will never do so. Variable coordinates are lengthy and encrypted, so vessels follow certain routes charted via automated navigation systems that periodically confirm the location of the destination. These coordinates are useless in the Outskirts beyond U Corp's borders.
The Five Great Ports of U Corp: Ports in U Corp can move.
- Marlin Portship: The port visited by Limbus Company on [date]. It appears to be a massive ship, almost the size of an island, built as a mega-structure from countless metal shipping containers. According to Ishmael, pirate Syndicates that perform a pattern of kidnapping, extorting, and executing (their hostages) have existed for a good while at U Corp everywhere. They never return the hostages and continually ask for ransom, and then kill them once there is no more money. Allegedly there is a famous "Marlin Dance." It seems Ishmael was recruited for the Pequod here.
- Stingray Portship: It is considered one of the richest ports of U Corp, according to a Big Brother of the Middle. Apparently there is a luxury hair salon that offers a coupon for hands-on care from the director for five hours straight without an appointment.
- Kraken Portship: Starbuck planned on opening a seafood grill here.
Five Calamities of the Great Lake: The Laws of the Great Lake do not apply to them and they "will always find you." There are only three now.
The Pallid Whale: Caused a Big Brother of the Middle to be wary and avoid it at all costs, and it covered the Lobotomy Corporation Branch of U Corp into an uncanny white membrane. Ishmael says that it consumes and then spits back out anything in its path, but always leaves it changed and pallid. Unlike other Whales that transform devoured people into entirely different, unrecognizable things, the Pallid Whale transforms those it devours into themselves, but wrapped in a pale membrane. Toward the Outskirts, completely pallid ships can be seen, which are reputed among Whalers to be avoided at all costs, even if it means going around the Lake they are in, because the sailors inside retain everything, like habits and skills, but attack anything they come across. It seems that the Golden Bough can counteract the infection somewhat. The Captain of the Pequod, Ishmael's ship, had a mission to hunt the whale. It allegedly came from the Outskirts to seek the Golden Bough, and then swallowed it. This Whale is now deceased.
The All-Impaling Marlin Whale: This Whale was killed by the Indigo Elder.
The All-Withering Crimson Whale: This Whale only appears in the Pequod Mirror World, hunted by Captain Ishmael and replacing the Pallid Whale. It appears to be squid-like.
Other Notable Lakes and Whales:
- Blue Whirling Lake of Murk and Fish-Reek: One particular Lake. It contains the Whale of the Porous Hand.
- Gloomy Grey Lake of Wafting and Rumbling: A legendary Lake told by sailors for years. "Doom, and hew thy veiled path to misty seas. Begloom, and let Whales draw their pearls in search of pallid hue. Toom, shall be thy mist-path, heeding the weeping Whales." In other words, hit the Porous Whales within the Lake to wake them, draw out and hunt their Mermaids, and allegedly the path to the Pallid Whale should clear of the mist. Beyond this Lake, a pitch-black legendary Lake is accessible. It seems that Whales sleep there, their tails rising over the surface.
- Whale of the Thousand Strands: A whale that affected a cruise ship.
- Lava Whale: A Whale mentioned by Ahab with boiling blood.
District 22 (V Corp): The Backstreets of this district are (or were) the turf of the Stray Dogs, and are managed by the Thumb. This district's Backstreets is also where the Thousand Needles phenomenon occurred. Molar Office is from the Backstreets here.
The Nest of District 22 was where Dawn Office was, and also the place where the Crying Children Distortion occurred, killing 80,000 people in the Nest. V Corp hired Liu Association as a whole to investigate the Distortion.
Lapis and Garnet planned to meet in this district, but the location was an art gallery held by the Ring (and therefore highly suspicious), so Garnet called Vergilius for assistance from a payphone. Before its use as a gallery, the building appears to have been a school. Crates of rotten fruit were found outside. In the end, Lapis was not found here.
District 23 (W Corp): W Corp is also known as WARP Corporation. W Corp is considered one of the most secretive Wings of the City. This district's Backstreets are where cannibalism is very openly practiced, and many residents pursue unique flavors, often with high amounts of cruelty. Its culture revolves around gastronomy; the people seek good eating and derive beauty from it. It is also known as the "Streets of Flavor". The most revered are the "Eight Chefs", who completely prioritize human meat. It is said that if you aren't careful when visiting a restaurant, you'll end up being the one on the plate. (This is considered high praise.) Humans are often called "one of the flowering pinnacles of artistic cuisine." The Dochelin Guides also originate from this place. There is a strong reputation with this district; If a person seems used to seeing horrific bloodshed, simply being from District 23 is apparently a completely understandable cause. Apparently there is purple salt from District 23. Every WARP train station in each Nest was built with a general design philosophy that matches their District's architectural style, which many critics in relevant friends praise them for as cultural cornerstones.
Their trains can get to anywhere in the city within ten seconds and they produce teleporters, though its clients complain of feeling "all out of sorts" afterwards. Their Singularity is "the restoration of a previous status". As long as all of a person's pieces are present, they can be restored to a recorded state, including memory. However, there are some small side effects such as slight changes in height or weight.
Their teleportation--or rather, space ripping--technology is actually the Singularity of a fallen Wing that was purchased by W Corp. At first, their transportation services had many accidents, but currently they have not had one for 10 years, which includes the entire time they have been a Wing. They were formerly supplied energy from L Corp and are protected by R Corp. Due to L Corp's sudden downfall, they are currently struggling with the lack of energy suppliers and may need to reduce the number of trains being run. In W. Corp Cleanup Captain Outis's identity story, the trains increasingly have abnormal conditions and delays in arrivals due to slashed ticket prices, expanded economy seats, and declining first class ticket sales (due to an incident a few years ago in which something happened in a first class cabin; Most likely, this refers to WARP Train UW-212, described below).
By [] 984, it is considered to be declining and other companies are eying its Wing position. There are Op-Eds in newspapers speculating about a management crisis and mysterious disappearances.
WARP Trains: Trains are sent to an extradimensional space for thousands of years where clients cannot die and remain "in one piece"; For example, if they become injured, their blood will follow them. Trains have a device from T Corp that collects time (which they use for their own Singularity) so that no time "passes" in the carriage despite traveling for thousands of years.
First-class seats, which cost two months of the average Nest-dweller's income (or three-to-four months' salary for a first-year Wing employee) and at least one year of the average Backstreets-dweller's income, put clients into stasis using flash-freeze hibernation capsules during the trip. There are some complimentary water and snacks, and apparently in the past when W Corp's finances were better, they also came with free merchandise. Regular economy-class seats are still prohibitively expensive.
Once the thousands of years end, the clients' bodies are restored (as those with economy seats tend to devolve into insanity and mutilation over time--but not always), which means they believe that the train only took 10 seconds.
Powerful people like Colors and key Association members are stopped from boarding anything but first-class (Vergilius is guided to a specially prepared train for those with the title of a Color), but in the event one slips through and fights cleanup agents, W Corp calls R Corp to suppress them. Trains are equipped with cameras that only record important moments based on the emotional flux of passengers. WARP trains are considered the only reasonable way to travel across several districts. The rearmost tail cars of WARP trains are all freight cars, which can fit a whole bus inside them.
WARP Train UW-212: A particular WARP train whose economy-class passengers formed Love Town with the assistance of Blood-red Night (Elena) and The Puppeteer (Jae-heon). The two sewed together two passengers, Tommy and Merry, into a large and powerful monster (eventually calling themselves only Tomerry as their mental capacity decreased over the many years). Several of the passengers including Tomerry were sent to the Library and subsequently killed. Tomerry has been revived from the Library and destroyed the orphanage managed by the Red Gaze, while the Purple Tear watched without intervening; For some reason, Tomerry is important to her plans.
The Puppeteer also harmed VIPs in the first-class section of the train before sending them to the Library to be killed, which sent W Corp into a panic and caused them to send the Cleanup Crew to the Library.
WARP Train PW-612: A WARP Train boarded by Limbus Company's LCB. W Corp. heard of their Distortion management contracts and hired them to deal with a repeated series of incidents suspected to involve a Distortion, which caused the disappearance of some passengers. The culprit was Cassetti, a Bloodfiend.
WARP Cleanup Crew: WARP employs cleanup agents whose jobs are to board arriving trains and sort people by genome, returning them to their seats to be restored with the press of a button. They are said to get their memories wiped (due to knowing the secret of the Singularity) and retirement funds on quitting, but some agents doubt this, suggesting W Corp would rather kill off quitters. Their space ripping technology is used in their weapons and equipment for precise cleaving. The job is horrendous considering the bloody state of most trains, and agents are at risk of death if a dangerous or powerful person takes an economy-class seat or if a passenger becomes violent. Some cleanup agents died in the Library, exposing W Corp's secrets. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
Additionally, they appear to be ranked by "levels" such as L2 and L3 (higher-ranking than L2). One of the responsibilities of L3 agents (but not L2) is training new hires.
Some excerpts from the employee manual: "Ripping space while the train is in operation may interfere with the dimensional coordinates … Once the train has come to a stop, employee hibernation pods must not … Standard cleanup time for 'factionalized' type [is an hour.]"
District 24 (X Corp): Alloys produced by this corporation are difficult to obtain and were used in the construction of the Indigo Elder's skiff. X Corp. apparently also produces all-purpose wrenches, which was something Catherine Earnshaw wanted when she was a child. MultiCrack Office Heathcliff mentions an X Corp. upper crust excavation contract, which presumably requires excavation gear.
In Zwei West Section 3 Ishmael's uptie story, X Corp hires the Zwei to protect an alloy excavation site the size of a particular village near the border of District 24's Nest for three days, prioritizing Nest residents. Due to M Corp's Order of the Lunar Visage being away, Ishmael comments that an alloy excavation site is risky, particularly without Wing support. The protection of the area is supposed to be managed by District 24 Advanced Excavation Fellowship and X. Corp Alloy Guardians, but they have to be absent for three days, thus the Zwei contract.
In the same identity story, it is said that X Corp's excavation sites are known as "hellholes" due to monsters crawling out of dungeons. Apparently a citizen excavated a superalloy microwave from a tunnel, and in general it is possible to excavate all kinds of things like car tires.
Expedition Order of Excavators: Attempts to invade H Corp during the brief power vacuum between confirmation of Hierarchs.
District 25 (Y Corp): Roland was called to this District by a former coworker, Olivier. The climate is cold. It has high-quality pajeon. Rodion and Sonya grew up in the Backstreets of this District, starting the Yurodiviye here. A tax collector with considerable authority in the District (due to having a sibling in the Middle) was murdered in cold blood by Rodion, which caused the Middle to retaliate by killing all of Rodion's starving neighbors who had received the stolen money to buy food.
District 26? (Z Corp): Mai, from T Corp, says the phrase "every single Nest in the City, all the way from A to Z", confirming that Z Corp exists. However, its District number is still not confirmed.
OTHER CORPORATIONS
What is a corporation?
Like in the real world, business-minded people can form companies. The most successful of these are the Wings, which are listed in the section above.
This part of the encyclopedia is dedicated to unnamed/destroyed Wings or companies that did not reach (or have not yet reached) Wing status.
Unnamed or Destroyed Wings
G Corp: Fallen after the Smoke War. In the past, G Corp. had procedures on most employees to give them biomimetic insectoid weapons. Gregor, with this augmentation, appeared on flyers and posters and was widely saluted and used as a positive symbol. Apparently he is a special case who can hide the augmentation better than others, as the procedure makes their bug-like traits grow on the head most of the time. It appears that there are different "Gene Codes" such as G-3 (G Corp Manager Corporal Gregor) and G-0 (LCB Sinner Gregor).
It is widely regarded as rather repulsive in the current day on the remnant veterans who were thrown aside as soon as the war ended. Gregor's special privilege allowed him to avoid the side effects of the augmentation. The veterans now view him as a traitor and a deserter. The stigma of belonging to a fallen Wing is very strong, so it is difficult for veterans to find new work on top of already struggling to adjust to non-soldier life.
There was a section of the military called Biomimetics Maintenance. One possible effect granted by the augmentations of G Corp's soldiers was the ability to jump high due to augmentation on their legs.
Gregor was a Manager, part of the front unit. He got his augmentation surgery before the age of 15 and he gave in to begin training in its combat use on his 15th birthday. He believed that giving in would allow him to escape from his nightmare, but he realized that it only continued. He never wanted the augmentation or the war. The one who did his operation was a woman named Hermann, their "most skilled director," who calls Gregor her son. Hermann in the present day is associated with Gubo from N Corp.
The Smoke War fronts, from G Corp's perspective, were mostly characterized by trench warfare in order to avoid the risk of being surrounded within concrete jungles. At least 70 days into the Smoke War, the war conditions were not that bad and the soldiers had hope. Later into the war, side effects began to manifest in the soldiers, with Gregor being an exception who can even regenerate his arm. When the war ended, Gregor's image was not removed from propaganda posters. In addition, his arm would at times attempt to attack others without his consent, forcing him to beg for it to be cut off (only to regrow quickly afterwards), and apparently the risk of this happening increases if he experiences excessive stimulation. His arm is apparently not the full extent of the augmentation Hermann performed on him. Gregor had a sister who was a young adult. During the war, he cooked meals using leftovers and cans that moved the traumatized soldiers to tears. However, his cooking is apparently not very good, according to the owner of Eunbong's Bar & Fryers.
During the Smoke War, they most likely colluded with F Corp and E Corp as well as the old L Corp, but this information is suspect due to being given by an alternate world's Identity.
H Corp: A previous major ruling family in H Corp, the Kong family, was destroyed by the Head prior to the founding of Lobotomy Corporation after they dispatched an Arbiter named Garion and several Claws. The taboo broken was the birthing of non-humans–A particular variety called Jiajia-ren (Sparrowspawn Humans)--via a Bolus in a plan orchestrated by Jia Mu to cause the extinction of the Kong line. The site of this H Corp was preserved within Hongyuan, furniture included, as a reminder by the Wing's elders.
L Corp: Lobotomy Corporation. It was a power and energy company only publicly known for supplying Enkephalin, a known "eco-friendly energy source". It used to manage the Nest in District 12, but has collapsed following the White Nights and Dark Days that originated from its main branch. Its Singularity, most likely a substance called Cogito, can make human minds into a physical form. Unlike other Wings that require high examination scores, L Corp had a low bar for entry; Their actual first criterion for hiring people was psychological trauma. Their Nest was in anarchy after their fall, which caused issues for neighboring districts. They used to supply R Corp, T Corp, and W Corp most of their energy, using an apparently extraordinarily generous energy offer. They played a key role in rebuilding after the Smoke War.
Company work can be seen (and experienced) in more detail in Lobotomy Corporation, the game, set in the main branch (X-394). The main branch is the only one with Sephirot and the TT2 system to turn back time, and absolutely does not allow employees to leave the premises. Each employee is equipped with a device that displays orders from the Manager in text form and must be checked often. The webcomic WonderLab is set in a side branch (O-5681), where people are given vacation days and allowed to leave the company grounds. Employees are sometimes supplied with anti-Abnormality gas grenades, which are toxic and cause bleeding from continued exposure, such as from the ears, nose, and mouth. To avoid poisoning, protective gear is needed. Toxins spread faster with higher blood flow, such as from agitation. It is recommended to remain calm, minimize movement, and breathe at regular intervals if exposed, but it is very deadly.
Cogito: A substance produced by the preserved nervous system of Carmen, the original founder of the company that would become Lobotomy Corporation. Using Cogito, you can forcibly extract the ego of a living person to create an Abnormality. Improper dosages and testing of this substance can cause a painful death.
Abnormalities: Monsters born from human minds. They come in many forms and inspire fear at the mere sight of them. By interacting with them, they produce Enkephalin, L Corp's premier product. Abnormalities allegedly produce more energy when they kill people.
(As a result of the Distortion phenomenon that began after L Corp's demise, it is now possible for anyone to become something visually similar to an Abnormality, given a strong enough emotional response.)
Enkephalin: There are both negative and positive forms of Enkephalin. Only the positive form is useful; When people say "Enkephalin" they generally exclusively mean the positive form. It is used as an energy source in all kinds of applications (such as a cigarette lighter) but can also be a hallucinatory drug when abused. It is NOT the same thing as Cogito. It can come in a liquid or gas form; Lobotomy Corporation facilities were routinely misted with a small amount of Enkephalin.
E.G.O. Equipment: It officially stands for "Extermination of Geometrical Organ", but this is likely a mistranslation by Project Moon (more likely "Extraction of"...something). Weapons and suits can be extracted from Abnormalities in order to "borrow their ego." They are powerful pieces of equipment that require no training to use; People know how to use them as soon as they pick them up. They commonly have rare abilities, such as damage types like white (mental attacks), black (combination mental and physical attacks, described as "feeling like thorns"), and pale (death itself). (As a result of the Distortion phenomenon that began after L Corp's demise, it is now possible for anyone to create their own personal E.G.O. given a strong enough emotional response and self-realization.)
By January 984 (Limbus Company Canto I), the fallen branches of Lobotomy Corporation are seen as goldmines, as phrases like the "Lobotomy Dream" or "Enkephalin Rush" are catching on among Fixers and Syndicates. Apparently, "any Syndicate worth its name" has caught wind of the Golden Bough and the riches and fame obtaining such a thing would bring.
L Corp (Past): There used to be another L Corp that was also an energy company. However, it was stingy and strict with its energy supply and eventually fell, leading to Lobotomy Corporation replacing it. Many other Wings depended on its supply, but they had unfair conditions; W Corp had to raise admission fees and get less trains running, and F Corp wanted to experiment with different Fairy applications but failed to get results because they had too little energy. People began discussing that L Corp should be changed by someone, but it would lead to a war between Wings. In the end, a Wing War did start: The Smoke War.
This corporation also produced a massive amount of fumes that caused negative side effects, such as suddenly wishing for others' happiness or staring into space, with signs of sicknesses all over their bodies. Affected people also tended to wander around L Corp's Nest, "like they were returning to their hometown", according to Maxim of R Corp's Rhino Team.
TENTATIVELY PLACED HERE: During the Smoke War, Salvador (Dawn Office) and Roland witnessed the source of the smoke and were deeply disgusted by it, but had to take amnestic treatment to forget the Singularity itself afterwards. As a result of this war, smoke covered the entire City for a while.
??? Corp: One of Roland's acquaintances allegedly began jumping through dimensions due to Singularity research. (PURE SPECULATION: W Corp has dimension/space ripping technology, so it might have been them? The Purple Tear has similar abilities and is an acquaintance of Roland, but she claims that her powers arose naturally, so this probably does not refer to her.)
??? Corp: In Lobotomy Corporation, Angela mentions a Singularity that produces "a permanent food supply." This Singularity might be K Corp's. She also mentions "Artificial Intelligence that was more real than people."
??? Corp: Originally owned the patent for tattoos, which were a Singularity. This Wing collapsed, however, so the patent expired.
??? Corp: Originally owned the patent for human silk, until this Wing collapsed. The silk reflects the source material: A person who is fast will become cloth that allows its wearer to be fast. The Carnival is known to use this Singularity to make clothing. There is a caveat that someone who looks or believes themself to be strong may not actually be strong, and thus may instead only produce silk that increases confidence.
??? Corp: A collapsed Wing whose Singularity was able to rip holes in space and cross dimensions. They were unable to find a useful application of it before they fell, but W Corp bought the technology for a high price.
??? Corp: Yi Sang was formerly the youngest chief researcher at this Wing, whose name is redacted from the Executive Manager's guide.
??? Corp: Ishmael mentions a District that "uses a machine that can analyze most aspects of the subject with a quick scan".
Other Non-Wing Corporations
Limbus Company: A company with powerful backing from shareholders of a wide array of fields. This allows them to visit other Nests without a physical visa: "I'm here for business on the behalf of Limbus Company, please refer to my work visa." According to Dante's observations, each department of the company has its own aims and shares no common goal. According to Caiman of LCCA, the company has more than enough capital, but lacks public standing and a cause, having now decided to seek the Distortion phenomenon as its cause. It is building its reputation as a professional Distortion prevention and control company that also researches the Distortion phenomenon. They are slowly installing efficient transportation and communication channels to their headquarters using P Corp and the aspirant W Corp's experimental technology across various points in the City.
LCA: A special operations unit was dispatched to collect the Monolith, a secured item they titled "Custody Target T-276", that LCB obtained from the Backstreets of T Corp. For some reason, an employee said "A foe is a friend, and a friend is a foe for Limbus Company" in response to a concern that picking fights with both the Middle and the Thumb might be bad.
Limbus Company Clearance (LCC): Specialists in espionage operations and other forms of "clearing" the way for and from LCB. Vergilius was responsible for requesting additional recon from this department to Calw. In Dante's notes, the department is written as being titled "Limbus Company Clear" rather than "Clearance."
After Team (LCCA): A department of Limbus Company dedicated to dealing with and retrieving defeated Abnormalities in their defeated "egg" forms as well as EGO. They can be contacted through a transmitter on the Mephistopheles. They were called in by Vergilius at Calw to assist the LCB Department, supplying three HP bullets through his connections--An expensive feat. Overall, they are responsible for gathering items and cleaning up after the LCB department. Golden Boughs collected by the LCB department are shipped to the headquarters by the After Team. Once headquarters goes through a certain tuning process, the Engine of the Mephistopheles and the Golden Bough's wavelengths will overlap and cause a resonance effect with the Bough in Dante's head as well. This allows the Mephistopheles and resonated individuals to be affected by retrieved Golden Boughs even if they are not physically present. The Team Leader of Limbus Company Clearance After Team Normal Operations Unit 2 is Caiman. She says that the After Team has to clean up the mess left behind by LCB and has an overall exceedingly low opinion of them. She was sent to relay orders from the head office to LCB.
Before Team (LCCB): A department of Limbus Company that does reconnaissance on Lobotomy Corporation branches (general scouting and preparation) in advance before the Sinners arrive. The first line of the new hire training guide is "This is a reminder to all LCCB employees. We, the Before Team, are assigned the paramount task of clearing the path before anyone else does. Every bloodied step, every flesh given becomes another stepping stone for your fellow Limbus Company employees to follow into the future." They can write up extremely detailed and well-designed plans and prepare their disguises far in advance. Notable members were Effie and Saude from Preliminary Observation, which is apparently the lowest-paying and most numerous in terms of employees out of all the LCCB subsections and are treated as expendable. Teams with notable performance are given a company card with no spending limit, a Black Card.
Preliminary Observation Unit 3 was dispatched to Calw, a village in K Corp's Nest, while an Assistant Manager of the same unit was sent to Marlin Port in U Corp. The LCCB identity for Rodion says there are five sections. She also wants to transfer to the After Team, which implies that it is a better place to work.
LCD: A department housing consultant Fixers dedicated to matters regarding the Distortion. It is a small department. One member of the LCD Distortion Task Force, Ezra, was instructing Dante on how to collect and defuse a Monolith. Moses is the LCD On-site Investigative Reasoning Team Leader. She advises the LCB on handling La Manchaland. Moses and Ezra appear in the Distortion Detective as protagonist and supporting character respectively, affiliated with Moses's Office. Vespa is also present.
Limbus Company Enkephalin (LCE): The research and energy generation department. The chief researcher of the LCE Department is named Hohenheim. He states that he is the chief researcher responsible for the entirety of Limbus Company, but Faust states that he only has this role because Yi Sang and Faust herself are excluded from the research personnel files due to their statuses as Sinners. Abnormalities, Distortions, and Peccatula are LCE containment and research subjects. They have successfully extracted their own EGO Gear from Abnormalities, which can cause various inhuman features such as tails or scales to appear on their users. With high assimilation rate (LCE calls it "attunement rate") users can utilize the source Abnormality's abilities with more flexibility than Lobotomy Corporation's EGO. It is possible to raise one's own attunement level temporarily through deep understanding and maintaining empathy for the Abnormality, in a method closer to EGO than EGO Gear, but corrosion can cause deleterious effects.
Limbus Company Bus (LCB): The department with the Executive Manager Dante, the 12 Sinners, the guide Vergilius (The Red Gaze, in the Fixer Associations section), and the bus driver Charon. The title "Sinner'' is used to refer to those who have formed a contract with the Executive Manager, who are the only ones they are able to bring back to life. It appears that all of the sinners joined because they were each promised the specific thing they wanted most; For Dante, it was carving their aspect, although they don't remember why. The company rules forbid disclosing the contents of the job contract in detail. Yi Sang was promised by Faust that the company would help him recover his torn and broken wings as well as something else. All Sinners' capabilities were equalized (to Emil Sinclair's level) once meeting Dante due to the Golden Bough's connection.
They travel on a bus called the Mephistopheles, which had its hybrid engine designed by Faust. The back of the bus is outfitted with a corridor, which is Singularity technology able to connect to other spaces such as dorm/prison rooms through doors (also seen in Leviathan used by the Ring). Part of the corridor is cordoned off and apparently causes severe psychological damage with its many doors and bizarre spaces. Faust uses an analogy: if you traverse a road that you have never traveled before, the brain forms a map even in the absence of a physical one. The map has a starting point and a destination that is traced backwards to return from. This (apparently) explains why it is important to remember one's starting point in a corridor, especially when a door is opened. There is a Backdoor used to access Luxcavation Dungeons, Mirror Dungeons (in which Abnormalities can be interacted with through their mental spaces), and the Refraction Railways (which look like dilapidated subway stations).
The Mephistopheles' Extraction system has an element of unpredictability and uses the concept of possibilities as fuel, while the Engine is fueled by Enkephalin. Extraction range grows when specific possibilities within the infinitely branching mirror worlds are able to be clearly observed. Under normal circumstances, Extraction can collect from approximately three years to the past or future, but during Walpurgis Night, the range can grow to 10 or more years. The extended range is roughly defined by "worlds affected by entities that were indispensable to the formation of this current state of the world," such as the Lobotomy Corporation HQ before the White Nights and Dark Days.
Limbus Company is capable of "borrowing an 'identity' from somewhere in the countless alternate realities" for its Sinners, which uses a version of the mirror invented by Yi Sang with special modifications. The technology was developed by "the self-proclaimed third smartest person in the City." Whether this title applies to Yi Sang is not clear. The use of this technology may cause side effects such as mild hallucinations and/or expression of statements that clearly contradict grounded fact. Identities are found using the engine of the Mephistopheles, obtained using trial and error. However, these changes are never permanent and cannot replace those Sinners. Apparently, Dante can communicate with extracted identities through the bus window and their LCB-PDA. Once the Sinner and Dante make an unspoken agreement, the identity overrides the Sinner, accompanied by the sound of glass shattering. When done using an identity, Sinners return to their original selves. However, prolonged use may cause small side effects like headaches or residual traces of the identity's personality surfacing from time to time. Identities can be obtained from Identity Cards, which are plugged into a device owned by Dante to select which particular identities the Sinners use in combat.
Sinners are absolutely not allowed to touch the E.G.O. collected from the branches per company policy, and it is also forbidden to pocket collected Enkephalin. However, Sinners are allowed to use company E.G.O., which will change shape depending on its user. Unlike the equipment extracted for direct use by Lobotomy Corporation, the Sinners' E.G.O. is used via emotional attachment, "similar to being influenced by someone else's thoughts and reflecting it to life, walking as if in their shoes." A Singularity from a Wing whose name is redacted in the Manager's Guide was employed in using this equipment.
Their primary (but not sole) objective is to collect the Golden Bough, the leftover essence of Lobotomy Corporation's energy production technology. The overall goal is thus to travel around the City to obtain these. Because the facilities contain Abnormalities, Sinners are expected to fight under orders of the Executive Manager. Both the Sinners and the Manager are expected to document the Abnormalities they meet. At the end of each mission, the Golden Bough resonates with a specific Sinner and creates an explorable mental space. The shape depends on the Sinner and the space will become more warped the deeper into the "abyss of the ego" one ventures into, although it will return to normal upon collecting the Golden Bough. Sinners appear to feel a sort of dizziness ("resonating") near the Golden Boughs. They are "submitted to headquarters" after collection.
It is written in the contract that Sinners cannot resign from their job. In addition, when Don Quixote joined the company, she struck a deal with Vergilius that was so important that she stopped talking when it was brought up.
Dante was formerly a rather important individual in the Nest, but has lost all of their memories along with their head. Currently they are treated like utter garbage by the Sinners due to their general incompetence. They can only speak in clock sounds, which can be understood only by the Sinners and a select few others, such as Demian. Information about Dante's past is only known by Faust and it is confidential information restricted to the highest security level. Dante seems to be able to understand the speech of Distortions, possibly due to the Golden Boughs resonating with their head according to Faust. They can identify the difference between an Abnormality and a Distortion. There is embedded Golden Bough within Dante's head, as well as a bomb meant for self-detonation, which has a small blast radius but has such heat and force that it can melt even Stars of the City (and therefore should be effective to cremate the Golden Boughs) to prevent the Golden Boughs from being collected by enemies. Dante can sense nearby Golden Boughs, but it is inhibited by structures and the general population and obstacles, thus making it mostly useless except in close proximities and empty areas like the Great Lake.
???: An organization opposing Limbus Company. It contains Hermann, who was a highly skilled director of the fallen G Corp during the Smoke War and was responsible for Gregor's augmentation operation, Jia Huan, the brother of Hong Lu, and Gubo, affiliated with N Corp, who is a compatriot of Yi Sang. Hermann calls Gregor her son and is also affiliated with N Corp. They stole the first Golden Bough that Limbus Company was going to retrieve in the Backstreets of District 4. Hermann is also assisting Sonya of the Yurodivye.
???: TENTATIVELY PLACED HERE: Demian, an individual with incredible power and a strong connection to Emil Sinclair, may or may not be an ally to him. Whether he actually belongs to an organization like a company or Syndicate is a mystery. He and Emil Sinclair are associated with a certain mark (representing the Mark of Cain although it is NOT called that in-setting), which Sonya appears to also have vague associations with. Demian meets with Dante in an alleyway of Nest K to talk to them about the mirror technology and how he views it as a cruel piece of technology. He tells them to take their time to think about it and answer him, and that they must draw him a sheep later, because Dante once promised to, although they may not remember it.
Mirae Life Insurance: An insurance company. According to their members, they seem to commonly hire former detectives in order to prevent insurance fraud. There is insurance for Fixers, Associations, Wings, and even insurers themselves.
Tae-young Produce Company: A rather large produce company in the Backstreets of District 14. Their building is 10 stories tall above-ground, with 15 basement floors below-ground. It is a corrupt company whose employees use sleeping chambers because they work overtime so often that they cannot go home, although the manager says it is common practice for firms. Their employment contract forbids employees from leaving when the company closes business, such as during an emergency lockdown.
Following a Distortion-related incident with mysterious black boxes, the company has been annihilated.
Unnamed Watch Factory: Found in the Nest of T Corp. Owned by a man named Bumble, who has 52-hour-long days but apparently used to have 100-hour-long days when the factory was in its heyday. His suit is tailor-made and costs about 58 million Ahn.
Unnamed Aspiring W Wing: A Wing that collaborated with Faust of Limbus Company on stabilization of the Backdoor technology. They are seeking to seize the "imminent vacancy of the ever-declining W Corp." according to Faust.
Miscellaneous Companies (Restaurants, etc.)
Bodhisattva Chicken: According to Samjo, a man who claims to be a K Corp Affiliate of the Department of Food Resource Development's Research Center, this is "a highly renowned restaurant known for its six-legged, eight-winged poultry whose blissful tastes and gracious quantities really make you feel great compassion." The chicken is prepared "for every preference," with multiple cuts available. For some reason, Yi Sang has heard of it. It is in K Corp's Nest. It opened up a few months ago (the present being considered as March 984) across from Eunbong's Bar & Fryers. Its associated Distortion was ruining business to the point the branch manager's health was suffering.
Samjo offered a lifetime of free orders to Limbus Company's Bus branch for solving this issue, and even distributed free samples. The manager knew nothing of this in advance. In the end, they left without claiming any free chicken.
The branch manager stole the top secret recipe of Eunbong's Bar & Fryers and destroyed it in a concept incinerator, which erased all traces of the recipe including the owner's memory of it. This was in order to fulfill the customer quota set by HQ. Samjo seemed to levy a punishment for use of the concept incinerator against the manager.
Cafe O'Mari: A store seen in the background of WonderLab Episode 4. The only text actually visible is "AFE O'MARI", but there's a coffee icon above it, so I'll assume it says "Cafe". There's also a restaurant(?) called "GOT A"-something.
Coffing'Lee: A coffee shop seen in WonderLab Episode 16. Also depicted in the background are buildings labeled "Bakery-D", "Sunbeam!", and "Maniac"-something.
Eunbong's Bar & Fryers: A restaurant in K Corp's Nest. It is across from Bodhisattva Chicken, and after losing their customers due to their superior chicken and generous servings, apparently the owner began to act strange. Via the Distortion, he controlled a legion of raw chickens that destroyed restaurant furniture and jumped on people, seemingly mind-controlling them.
Based on what Heathcliff heard in his head while a chicken was on him: The owner seemed to have lost a special soup recipe that was the cornerstone of the restaurant, and stopped getting customers. After that, he "infected" the others (the chickens). The kitchen seemed unused for at least 140 days.
The recipe was actually stolen by the owner of the branch of Bodhisattva Chicken who planted a spy, and then erased the recipe using a concept incinerator. (Ishmael seems to recognize this and Yi Sang says it is a trusted method of permanently removing a technology. He says it has the ability to make it as if Faust never invented Mephistopheles, causing the concept to vanish as if the brain never conceived it. All documents about the technology, photographs, the tiniest bits and parts composing it, and even the inventor's own memories of it will be dimmed and erased. Faust says the effectiveness and range of the incineration will depend on the price of the product.) The owner could not remember any details about the recipe or taste at all, nor could his customers. His Distorted heart was opened with a vision of his extremely particular mother (whose name was Eunbong) scolding him over his chicken after eating food served by Outis. It seems his mother legitimately just preferred pizza, leading him to decide to change his business.
Guppcha: Produces designer brooches, which can be produced in maximum quantities of 10. Hong Lu had one of them on his dog's collar.
HamHam-PangPang: A store that specializes in sandwiches. It has a specialty sandwich every week, and some of its sandwiches seem to be themed after condiments such as mustard and mayonnaise. One seemingly popular sandwich is called "Beef-PangPang". As the name suggests, it contains beef. Hamham-Pangpang is very popular, and it was established in District 13 within the past ten years (as in, while Lobotomy Corporation was a Wing). It has been expanding into each district of the backstreets and has boosted the overall quality of life.
Translations of the July/August 2020 menu of the real-life store can be found here (link). As a fun fact, Hamham-Pangpang was mentioned in Library of Ruina before actually becoming a real-life location.
In the past they had very good freshly fried chicken.
Juli's Restaurant: The place that the Streetlight Office would have visited had they all escaped the Library.
League of Nine Littérateurs: A group of nine people originally from S Corp's district, dissolved in the present day. They formed for the pure pursuit of knowledge without serving Wings and money. Its known members were Yi Sang (currently at Limbus Company), Gubo (currently at N Corp), Dongrang (currently at K Corp), and Dongbaek (seen in a Lobotomy Corporation branch in K Corp's Nest), Aneung, Gap-ryong, Sang-heo, Yurang, and Young-ji, who created a "glass window" that was in Dongbaek's words innovative but too vast to freely wield, especially by someone as "coarse" as Dongrang. Aseah (last seen with the Ring) is likely another member. They were gathered together by Young-ji and Dongrang.
On occasion they would hold "illuminator's conferences" to present their findings to each other. Yi Sang created the mirror through making modifications to Young-ji's work, showing a reflection of any possibility in its unvarnished image. He wished for it to be a tool for entertainment to bring joy. When Yi Sang first made a small mirror, he named it "Yeonsim." In Yeonsim he met and spoke with a happy, "left-handed" version of himself with wings on his back. In the past, Dongrang offered to set up a lab with Yi Sang, and Dongbaek said she could dedicate her life to repaying Yi Sang for showing her the Mirror. Young-ji praised him for being able to show the true image clearly, without overlap or being blurry or shaky. Gubo reprimanded him for being lax, as the technology could be used for so much more than a mere plaything. Yi Sang insisted on not announcing the technology and instead keeping it private between the League's members. T Corp would be upset with the technology's ability to look at other worlds specifically without permission.
Since the moment the glass window was made, all sorts of interest groups came to the League. Although the members would think they left of their own volition, they were in reality torn apart from the inside. The happiness and joy the members experienced when discovering technologies had a very strong impact on them. Dongbaek, who became obsessed with the past, planned to use a concept incinerator to delete technologies to allow new groups of people to re-discover them, unlike what she and her technology liberation alliance claimed to believe in. Dongrang views the past as a rose-tinted moment as they were naive amateurs.
Yi Sang dreamed of flying. Dongbaek dreamed of being a bud soon to bloom, and then be buried under the scent of flowers with everyone. Dongrang dreamed of saving lives and curing people and animals.
According to Yi Sang's memory, Dongrang tended to treat injured animals on the streets because they reminded him of the yellow calf (a male baby cow) he left behind in his hometown.
The League has nine rules. One of them is that no technology made within the League shall be distributed outside, and that one should be particularly careful not to be tainted with the smell of money. However, Gap-ryong sold off one of his items out of concern that the group would be unable to pay rent for the laboratory, as their factory jobs only barely paid for their food. Yi Sang offered to pay, but Young-ji refused. (Yi Sang's day job was architecture. He designed factories which were optimized for efficiently monitoring people, which made it easy to pressure employees, and thus his income was rather high.) As migrants from another district, they pay heavier taxes. The first invention created by Yurang after getting a job at T Corp were identification tags meant to help find lost children, but ended up being used to monitor workers' time spent on the job in every factory, including their own time. Later, a person named Nul-in visited the League, but she viewed the inventions as mere playthings unless they could produce money, which swayed Dongrang's mentality.
They received a notice that private technological invention groups of five or more people not registered as a business require a permit from T Corp, which applies to technology and thus means that everything unauthorized by the Wing's tech agency would be confiscated. Thus, because the technologies would be misused whether they are registered or taken by force, some members began to burn the technologies in a concept incinerator, which hurt Dongrang mentally. Aneung revealed the location of the laboratory to avoid being forcefully repatriated to S Corp. Some members of the League were dragged away for not yielding their technology, some left on their own, and some disappeared forever. T Corp Class 2, Class 3, and Class 4 Collectors arrived to confiscate unauthorized technology by force, identifying that the hidden glass window and mirror technologies were hidden in the basement because Dongrang turned traitor. He did not admit to it until the present day at K Corp, meeting Dongbaek again. Currently, Young-ji is missing.
Yi Sang was led by Gubo into running away after the T Corp raid and then placed inside a room at N Corp to do his research, but because his mental state was utterly apathetic, he instead preferred to talk exclusively to the mirror. He was eventually instructed by his mirror self to stop taking the supplements that Gubo was giving him for three days, and subsequently he realized his room was always open to a hallway, where he saw what his mirror technology was being used for. He decided to leave rather than stay.
Aseah is currently working alongside the Ring on human experiments involving the Mirror. He has not used the Mirror himself, but may in the future. He would have preferred if Yi Sang joined him.
One of the members who said he would leave to go to the sea is now known as Rim, and seems to have a link with Demian's faction, possessing the mark. He believes that the shattering of the League was a new beginning, as does Young-ji. He seems to be able to teleport through water and may be Distorted.
Mermaid Perfume: Some bottles were being advertised as being "extracted straight from [Mermaids'] left fins" at Marlin Portship in U Corp. Whale and Mermaid products like Whale oil, Mermaid tears, Whale cuisine, and more are major sources of income for people of U Corp. Another example is Sardine Whale and Marlin Whale flavored ice cream.
Pierre's Bistro: A restaurant in District 23 that was run by Pierre and her sous-chef, Jack. Like others in District 23, they regularly served and prepared human meat, and specialized in meat pies. When they weren't supplied meat from Syndicates or other sources, they went hunting for ingredients personally. They were killed in the Library. Following the Library's exile, it is likely they will be revived.
Ran's Sidedish Stall: A grocery store close to Moses's Office in District 14. According to Moses, its food is good.
Suck My !Enegy!: A soda brand seen in WonderLab. The cans and vending machines are green and pink in color. The soda itself is bright green. "Enegy" is not a typo of this encyclopedia; It is spelled exactly how it appears in the comic.
The Wolf's Fall: A pub in T Corp's District. It closed some weeks ago from November 984 due to the local rumor of kidnappings causing people to stay home. It had a beer named after Heathcliff based on his time in the Dead Rabbits gang.
Unnamed T Corp. Shop: In T Corp. Don Quixote's identity story, she describes a novelty shop from the east of the Nest that operates only under the highest possible level of time acceleration, limiting its sales only to those beyond a certain level of affluence. The doors open and shut so quickly that poor people cannot even enter. A man falsely claiming to be poor had a limited edition trinket from it.
FIXER ASSOCIATIONS AND OFFICES
What is a Fixer?
Due to the nigh-lawless nature of the City, the "Fixer" occupation came to be. Essentially, Fixers are mercenaries who do jobs for money. Jobs can range from "find a lost cat", "kill this Syndicate", "protect me when I travel through the Backstreets'', "collect information about this phenomenon", and more. Combat skill and combat-oriented body augmentation is essentially a necessity to survive in the industry, especially at higher levels, as few Fixers can avoid combat entirely.
The title "Fixer" can be taken as both the English term (Wikipedia article link) and as "A person who fixes things." It is strongly implied that the minimum age to become a Fixer is 20 (which, in real life, is the age a person becomes a legal adult in South Korea).
Hana Association gives individual Fixers Grades from 9 to 1. Fixers are generally better if they have a lower number grade. For example, Grade 8 is better than Grade 9. It is difficult to rise in rank. Exceptionally skilled Grade 1 Fixers are the Colors, who are each given a unique color to represent them. Colors with more generic names (Red, Blue, Black, etc.) are generally more powerful or notable than ones with more obscure names (such as Vermillion). This is because the Hana assume the obscure ones will die more often and require more frequent replacing than the generic ones (**NOTE: I cannot find the original source for this statement!! It's possible it was from a now-deleted Q&A or something, but it's been too long). Color titles did not always exist, and were instituted possibly a few decades ago or more.
Fixers are allowed to advertise themselves or their Office to get more requests, but they are not allowed to threaten people to give requests to them. They are not supposed to kill civilians who are unwilling to fight. Transgressing on such Fixer guidelines is grounds for demotion by Hana Association.
Some Wings hire Fixers directly, such as the Taboo Hunters of N Corp or V Corp hiring Liu Association. There are also direct sponsors, like T Corp sponsoring Cane Office.
Fixers have their own ID cards/licenses issued by the Hana, which have a picture, description, and a Hana logo. To earn a license there are tests one may need to pass. Hana Association can also levy penalty points on Fixer Licenses, which can lead to license suspension and grade demotion, among other consequences.
There are multiple niche subtypes of Fixers. Whalers hunt whales and mermaids from the Great Lake, while Fixers bound to families are called Butlers. Butlers are apparently a rather rare occupation not well-known around the City, and are hired expensively and exclusively on long-term contracts (with bonuses such as pensions) to specific families, manors, or individuals and offer varied services such as combat and household management. Many famous Association Fixers retire to become Butlers. Butlers tied to manors/estates may gain increased Fixer grades or rights to assets tied to the land once the contract is completed, rather than serving a particular family or individual, and may inherit parents' careers and contracts, potentially continuing for generations until the original contract is forgotten, yet still enforced. Bloodfiend Hunters specialize in hunting Bloodfiends.
What is an Office?
Fixers usually work for an Office as a group, but one-person Offices are an option. All Fixers must belong to an authorized organization such as an Office. They are subject to hefty taxes to keep themselves open, and are also graded by the Hana Association. Independent Offices take clients directly, and have many different specialties. There are many Offices in the City; Apparently, there are so many Offices and Fixers that the best way to survive in the industry is to stand out. There is a printed catalog of Offices released monthly.
An Office must draw an official deed of contract when accepting a request to prove the performance of an Office to an Association. Less savory Offices that lack an Association may intentionally under-report their jobs in order to cover up dealings with Syndicates. When a Wing gives a request to an Office, it is a sign of prestige and often comes with a large payment but high danger.
The leader of an Office is usually, but not always, called an operator.
If an Office has a good track record and its specialties line up with an Association, they may be given the opportunity to become an affiliate.
In the west, some Offices call themselves Knight Orders. Besides the name, unless they have Wing backing like M Corp.'s Order of the Lunar Visage, they are exactly the same as normal Fixer Offices.
What is an affiliated (or Associate) Office?
An affiliated Office is one that works directly under a particular Section of an Association. It receives jobs from the Association, which means it is at much less risk of closure from lack of funds due to a stable salary. However, they are not allowed to decline assigned jobs, regardless of their danger. An Associate Fixer is not allowed to work alongside Syndicates under pain of death or demotion if discovered. Associate Offices are considered more safe to hire than Offices without an Association due to the latter having risk of working with suspicious Syndicates.
What is an Association?
There are currently 12 Fixer Associations, which all have their own specialties in work, such as the Zwei doing peacekeeping and protection. Each Association is named after a number. They were allegedly established in order of need.
There are Branches for each cardinal region (North, South, East, and West) for each Association with differing uniforms, as well as a Headquarters. Those in the same region as the Headquarters for that Association are considered stronger or higher-ranking, and Fixers can be promoted through relocation. Those interested in joining an Association may take an entrance exam, such as following an assigned VIP for Zwei Association.
Associations have multiple Sections, from 6 to 1 (according to Zwei). The lower the number, the stronger it is; For example, Section 3 of Zwei employs higher grade fixers than Section 6 of Zwei, and pays them better as well. The leader of a Section is called a director, and an Association as a whole is led by a president.
The most typical way to write an Association Fixer's position is in this format: [Name] Association [Branch] Section [Number] [Title]. For example, Yujin is the Shi Association South Section 2 Director.
(Other valid ways to write or use for introduction are "Shi Association Southern Branch Section 2 Director" and "Director of South Section 2 of the Shi" etc.)
Although affiliated Offices exist, sometimes Associations will make requests to Offices they are not affiliated with instead.
Following the expulsion of the Library, a 13th Association led by the Purple Tear may have been created, focused on the Distortion Phenomenon and "EGOISTs". The cutscene in which this was mentioned has since been removed from Library of Ruina, however, and may no longer be accurate.
Based on a pattern of Limbus Company Sinner numbers and their languages/places of origin, there is a strong possibility the last unconfirmed Association is the 12th, Dodeca (Greek).
Fixer Associations
Hana Association
Hana is 1 in Korean. The overall manager of Fixer Associations. It grades Fixers, Offices, and phenomenons/Syndicates. When a phenomenon rises in level, it is "exalted."
It is able to deploy Colors, who are designated when a Fixer proves themselves to be beyond the grading system. It is thought that a Fixer is only "truly free" (from Offices, Associations, etc.) when they are a Color.
All requests taken by Fixers (at minimum, those that belong to an Association) must be reported to the Hana after completion, although some such as Hook Office intentionally do not in order to make dealings with Syndicates. It should be noted that Hook Office is not an Associate Office. The report must include the details of the request, the client's information, how the case was resolved, and any other relevant information. Hana evaluates the Office and its Fixers and determines grade promotion/demotion from that, which means grades do not necessarily correlate with strength. They grant permits to Offices and give out Fixer licenses as well.
They value concentration, resoluteness, diligence, and open-mindedness in moderation. Occasionally, they take matters into their own hands against Stars of the City in order to verify their danger. Their Fixers in the South appear to typically wear all-white uniforms with printed trigrams (in real life, recognizable on the South Korean flag) and wield shape-changing weaponry.
Several regulations were added to Hana and Devyat Association's rules to prevent cases of people being stored in dimensional containers, as it is extremely bad if it does happen (although the effects have not yet been specified explicitly).
Hana Association's Southern Branch Section 3 Director was named Mirinae. After the rise of the Distortion and the Library's status as a Star of the City, she and a team of Fixers went to the Library to investigate the link and the way the Library works (and were killed as a result). Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
South Section 1 was annihilated against the Blue Reverberation and South Section 2 was hunting the Eight Chefs, but seven of the eight were already killed. South Section 4 was assisting South Section 3 by locking down Nest L.
Hana Association North has a Grade 1 Fixer named Han-ul.
The Black Silence: Angelica. She was particularly famed for her gloves, which were not only dimensional weapons storage but also capable of emitting a field of silence in which the only sounds a person could hear are her weapons firing or swinging through the air. Her specialty was assassination, and most people recognized her by the silence field rather than physical appearance, which is partially why Roland (by borrowing her gloves and wearing his mask) was able to trick others into believing he was her.
She first met Roland, her husband, on a Star of the City case, hunting Blood-red Night for two years (written in the Syndicates section) and started talking; Apparently, Angelica was a Wing test subject who was dumped in the Outskirts. She can't remember the experiments themselves but does remember the horrible feeling.
She invited Roland to places like restaurants frequently before they started dating. Roland invited her to a hidden gem restaurant that served quality pajeon an hour's walk away. He intended only on apologizing for breaking a weapon of hers, but she confessed her feelings first and they entered a romantic relationship.
When Angelica was killed by the Pianist, Roland took up her gloves. It is ambiguous whether this officially transferred the title of the Black Silence to him or not, but people widely believed that he was the Black Silence during this period.
The Blue Reverberation: Argalia. He was suspected to be seeking people with abilities related to the Distortion, creating the Reverberation Ensemble (written in the Syndicates section). The Shi Association Southern Branch manager, Thelma, was assisting him. Under Argalia's orders, Thelma assigned so many Urban Nightmare jobs to Shi South Section 2 that they were worked to death; However, he still failed to complete all of the jobs, and Argalia had Thelma tortured and then killed by the Smiling Faces.
The Pianist killed his younger sister, Angelica, while he was away. According to him, she married an imbecile (referring to Roland). Argalia says he and his sister were always distant from each other, until he heard the melody of his sister from the remains of the Pianist's piano. He says they finally understood each other through the performance. According to the Purple Tear, Argalia and Angelica suffered terrible things at a young age, as Wing test subjects that were dumped into the Outskirts. Angelica used to call him Uberto inside the underground chambers. Argalia once believed he was only alive because his sister was alive, but realized after her death that he wanted to live and that life is not fixed to the body. Thus, the performance of the Ensemble would prove the meaning of his life and free them from loneliness.
He had been hearing the voice of a woman and following her advice (most likely Carmen). He actively "nourishes" the Library and its powers by forcing people to go there in order to obtain its Light. He believes it will allow him to "be himself", and he believes that the concept of "rightness" is limiting. He wishes to create a new world, where people can live bountiful lives free from obsession or greed.
According to Mirinae, Argalia may no longer be eligible as a Fixer, but rather a Syndicate leader of Star of the City level, minimum. Grade 1 Offices have been requested to apprehend him. He died in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is unknown whether he is alive given that he seemed to have been re-slain immediately after revival. More details about his group can be read in the Reverberation Ensemble entry.
The Indigo Elder: A Color who killed the All-Impaling Marlin Whale, one of the five Calamities, in U Corp. He saves Limbus Company from an altercation with a Big Brother of the Middle. He intends to personally hunt the Pallid Whale. He views himself as a fisherman who seeks to cross the borders of understanding and fear, such as the border of the Outskirts and its very outreaches.
He assists Limbus Company in their successful slaying of the Pallid Whale.
The Purple Tear: Iori. She was mentioned offhandedly by Roland. Note that her title is "tear" as in "teardrop." A Thumb capo received reports that the Purple Tear was present in the former Nest of L Corp. Argalia calls her his mentor, who showed him the light when he was lost and helped him create the Ensemble. It was by her advice that Argalia nourished the Library in order to obtain its Light. She did not join the Ensemble itself.
She claimed to have the ability to travel through time and space and see possibilities of the future, though it is not an omnipotent power. She also said that this power "naturally emerged," so giving concrete details is difficult. There is a world she yearned to reach, no matter the price: A world in which she can meet her son, who died more than 40 years ago according to Argalia. In the many worlds she has visited, she has helped out a few people such as Fixers, mostly out of seeking favors but partially from goodwill. Some of those Fixers call her their mentor.
Escaping an attack from Argalia, she went to the Library and was killed there. Strangely, she and Binah (formerly Garion, an Arbiter) can recognize each other in battle. She seemed to have mentored Argalia, Kali, and possibly Roland.
Following the exile of the Library, she has been revived and is currently organizing a new Association for investigating the Distortion. However, this scene was removed from the final release of Library of Ruina, so its current canonicity is somewhat questionable.
She makes an appearance defeating Vergilius in a duel in Leviathan after her revival from the Library. She witnessed Tomerry destroy Vergilius's orphanage without intervening because Tomerry is important to her search for her son. He says it's "typical" for her to know but stand on the sidelines.
For some reason her age is listed as 52 in the artbook despite conflicting with the notion her son died more than 40 years ago.
The Red Gaze: Vergilius. Roland considers him the most dangerous individual currently in the City following the end of Library of Ruina. He is the protagonist of Leviathan. His title "Gaze" in Korean is a homophone with a title that means "Immortal Poet."
An orphanage he helped manage was destroyed on Christmas Eve by Tomerry of Love Town (WARP Train UW-212), who had been revived from the Library along with the Purple Tear. While attempting to kill Tomerry and/or angry at the Purple Tear who witnessed it and did not stop it, he dueled her and (presumably) lost. Not every child died; Two of the survivors are named Lapis and Garnet, who are close friends with each other. Six months later, Garnet turned 20 and became a Fixer, and he called Vergilius "Mister."
Unofficially translated Leviathan information: The orphanage took care of the children of the people Vergilius killed. In other words, he is responsible for the children being orphaned in the first place. Lapis stabbed him once in the back with a knife when she learned this information.
Vergilius initially refused Garnet's offer to meet with Lapis again, but came to help after Garnet noticed the Ring holding an art gallery at the meeting spot in District 22.
He was the operator of an Office. There were four other Fixers employed by this Office named Denver, Nanseul, Rikako, and Lan Yen. In Leviathan, the Office's investigation into the Ring has caused the betrayal of Nanseul and subsequent murder of Rikako, and in the end Nanseul was killed and Lan Yen was slain by N Corp Taboo Hunters. Denver remains missing in action. Garnet was turned into a stone and functionally killed in the conflict with the Ring.
Unofficially translated information: Vergilius obtained E.G.O. through the light, giving him a set of blood-related abilities, such as being able to hide in a puddle of blood so long as it is not dried. Lapis was discovered in the Ring's laboratory, but she had been completely overwritten with an Identity named Charon. Faust recruited Vergilius to Limbus Company under the condition that she can bring back Garnet and Lapis.
He seems to strongly dislike his job as a guide for Limbus Company due to the rampant incompetence of the Sinners and Executive Manager. He treats Charon kindly, but is saddened when he hears differences between her and the Lapis he knew.
He is acquainted with a Fixer named Siegfried. Despite being sent dozens of invitations, he has not been attending the "League of Excellent Nest-dwelling Fixers" lately. He claims he changed addresses, and in addition doesn't have time to "lick top-brass boots." Because Siegfried is pro-Wing and Vergilius is independent, Vergilius has a somewhat hostile attitude towards him. He believes that a Fixer loses sight of their core principles the moment they become subordinate to an influential entity, and is someone who is strict towards those with power.
The Red Mist: Considered deceased. Exceptional even among the Colors, Kali was famous for her skills and was easily considered the strongest Fixer alive. She only took requests for the sake of others and mostly stayed on the western side of the City. Her title references the fact that she was capable of rendering the people she killed into a fine blood mist. Notably, she once killed five Proxies and three Messengers of the Index alone. However, she disappeared suddenly about ten years ago. She was born and raised in District 23's Backstreets during the peak of Syndicate turf wars and purges. She became a Fixer at 20 years old.
At some point she rescued a young Myo (of R Corp's Rabbit Team) in the Backstreets and said, "it's not the strong who survive, it's the survivors who are strong," then left.
She was approached by Carmen when she was a Grade 2 Fixer, prior to becoming a Color. The Red Mist's equipment was E.G.O.; Her weapon was extracted from someone else, but her armor was her very own. She was (nearly) killed in a raid by an Arbiter of the Head at Carmen's company in the Outskirts.
Following her disappearance from the public, it became publicly theorized but not widely known that her equipment was E.G.O.
The Vermillion Cross: A Fixer dispatched by Section 1 of the Southern Branch of Hana Association. They were annihilated by the Blue Reverberation, along with the rest of South Section 1.
They reappear as an empty, bloodless husk alongside Blood-red Night in the Reverberation Ensemble, controlled by her.
A Grade 1 Fixer named Dong-hwan mentions a Color friend who was about to be recruited by Hana to hunt down the Blue Reverberation. He MIGHT be the Vermillion Cross, as Dong-hwan can be fought in the Star of the City tier of Library of Ruina and we learn of the Vermillion Cross's death in the Impuritas Civitatis tier above that.
The Jade Qilin: Mentioned offhandedly by Roland as a contender (among many) for the new strongest Fixer in the City after the disappearance of Kali. Although this name closely resembles a Color title, it is not actually confirmed they are a Color.
Zwei Association
Zwei is 2 in German. This Fixer Association is dedicated to peacekeeping and protection. Its motto is "Your shield." The exact methodology of client protection is not as public, but covert supervision is one of the offered services to those who do not want their daily lives interrupted. Its Fixers tend to use large zweihanders and wear blue uniforms, which are heavily protected and sturdy. The director of South Section 6 was named Walter, who made a deal with the Stray Dogs, a Syndicate (generally considered prohibited behavior for Associate Fixers). A significant portion of South Section 6, including Walter, was killed in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
In the West, it seems that Fixers can be addressed as Knights (e.g. Knight Ishmael of Section 3). The Order of the Land's End, which may or may not be related to Zwei, goes on expeditions into the Ruins. Some of Zwei West were sent to assist Cinq West in the La Manchaland case in order to retrieve a client.
Stylistically, the southern branches like low-key protection that does not affect the client's lifestyle, while the western branches prefer to stand imposingly next to clients and intimidate would-be attackers.
Several Fixers of South Section 3 fought a Thumb-affiliated Syndicate protecting a Workshop and won. However, afterwards the Fixers were shot to death by the Marksman of the Mist, a Distortion. A detective from the major crimes unit of South Section 1 of Zwei South called Edgar went to investigate the incident. He identifies Vespa Crabro the Taboo Hunter on sight.
According to Moses, feuding with a Zwei Fixer who works for the City's safety is "essentially opposing the few remaining upholders of justice in this civic jumble." It should be noted that despite having a police aesthetic, the Zwei do not work like the police in real life, and do not investigate cases for free (in fact, are fairly pricey to hire) nor command additional authority over others. Moses's description is to say that killing or attacking a Zwei means that people in general will see you as very dangerous.
Aegis: A Zwei Fixer of legend.
Streetlight Office: A small Office associated with Zwei. When hired, they could prevent all crime in a two block area. Their Fixers were tightly knit. They were killed in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
Tres Association
Tres is 3 in Spanish. They are commonly called "the workshop Association." They have lost important members due to Distortions, as reported by Seven Association to the Hana. They manage workshops in general: Reviewing newly designed weapons, filing applications to the Head, and charging taxes for them. Weapons cannot be used without their approval. Apparently, getting a rejection means that they think of the weapon as something that shouldn't be used in the City, but they will also sometimes send feedback to applicants on how to improve their weapons into a passable level.
They evaluate all workshop-made products in the City and also perform testing. It is required to pass their evaluation and have an item registered if it is to be sold, but they do not need to look over small personal inventions. Unauthorized distribution is forbidden.
Shi Association
Shi is 4 in Japanese and a homophone with "death" in the same language. This Association specializes in assassination and discreet killing. They look for efficiency, killing within a limited window of opportunity. Its Fixers usually wear black uniforms with red accents and use Japanese-styled swords with red blades.
The demand for assassination requests is fairly high, as people with high-quality equipment and augments still die easily if snuck up on, but there are also Fixers who kill assassins.
The director of South Section 2 was named Yujin. The Southern Branch's Manager was Thelma, who was working alongside the Blue Reverberation until he was murdered by him. South Section 3 and its Associate Offices have been wiped out, and similar can be said for South Section 2. South Section 2, along with its director, was defeated in an assigned job to the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
Cinq Association
Cinq is 5 in French. They have lost important members due to Distortions, as reported by Seven Association to the Hana. They specialize in one-on-one fighting situations and duels. Don Quixote says the distinction is sometimes difficult to identify for newbie aficionados.
Apparently, there are cases of people trying to settle disputes through "fair and honorable" dueling. They can be called in to represent a client in a duel (in the case that a person is involved in or challenges another person to one) in the case that they personally do not want to participate.
They don't get requests too often, so they seem to be in charge of holding joint conferences and events with other Associations as well.
They are well-known for using duels to settle disagreements, as well as letting go of the conflict once the duel is resolved.
In the eastern branch, Fixers announce duels by stating affiliation and name, while elsewhere they throw their gloves. They are also equipped with a bangle called "Virescent Pyrojade" on their wrists, which can melt whatever the user touches by applying high heat. The green flame burns only the object that the user wants it to.
Camille: A now deceased Fixer of Cinq Association West Section 3 and a livestreamer. In the October issue of "Fixers Monthly", one of the big three Fixer Magazines of the City, he was listed as one of the "Top Ten Up-and-coming New Generation Fixers" and is a frequent feature. On the La Manchaland contract he was assigned to work with Paula of Zwei Association West to retrieve a client; Cinq and Zwei are uninterested in the actual eradication of the phenomenon. He was #7 on the "Fixers I want to have dinner with" contest.
Liu Association
Liu is 6 in Mandarin Chinese. This Association works alongside Shi and Seven to solve cases. One of their specialties is "all-out war in open fields where numerous people clash at once"; In general, they do warfare and are each equipped to fight multiple foes at once. They seem to value cooperation and coordination over individual action. According to Roland, they simply charge forward and keep formation rather than use tactics, but Cecil's page story specifies that they ideally break the enemy's will and then strategize to make sure they win the wars they fight in; Directors decide battlefield tactics such as whether to retreat. In their opinion, their most crucial element in battle is vigor, but each Fixer's most important quality is how well they mesh with their leader's combat style.
In general, their Fixers seem relatively carefree. Their equipment is outfitted with M Corp moonlight stones to prevent people from panicking or suffering mental damage on the battlefield.
The director of South Section 1 was named Xiao, nicknamed the Maiden of Iron, known to push forward with elaborate strategies as long as there is an opportunity. The director of South Section 2 was named Lowell, and he was known to be extremely cautious, retreating and reorganizing if there is a disadvantage.
Upon Lowell and South Section 2's death in the Library, Xiao immediately resigned from her position. She was killed in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
Dawn Office: A Grade 4 Office within V Corp's Nest, specializing in combat and affiliated with Liu. It employed Fixers of at least Grade 5, and its operator, Salvador, used to be part of the Zwei and is acquaintances with Walter and Roland. He also participated in the Smoke War, and was known to be a hotshot in his prime. In the Smoke War, Salvador was part of an Association hired by I Corp. Dawn Office received requests from Zwei Association but also did solo requests. Yuna and Salvador were killed in the Library, leaving Philip as the only survivor. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived. Due to the complex nature of Philip's status as a book, how or if he will be revived is unknown.
Seven Association
Seven is 7 in English (intended to be British English). This Association specializes in intelligence and investigation operations, who focus on precision. They collect information about the City. It is said that they know something about everything. According to Dante (The Seven Association one, NOT the Limbus Company one), they choose not to disclose full details of certain incidents for the sake of world safety. Within the Association, individual Fixers have different responsibilities; Some make deductions based on others' gathered evidence, "profilers" seem to attempt to connect suspects together in a case and write reports, and "post-contract management" refers to hunting down perpetrators revealed in investigations. The major difference between Dieci and Seven is that Dieci specializes in analyzing and deconstructing their found knowledge, while Seven attempts to use whatever means they have available to collect intelligence they have been contracted to find. However, they may still have overlap. Their Associated Offices are generally more affordable than hiring the Association itself.
They run orientation seminars for newly certified Fixers.
Oink (from the Musicians of Bremen) used to belong to South Section 3, but quit because he couldn't forget the melody of the Pianist. South Section 3 as a whole appears to have taken major damage due to an incident with the Distortion and is missing many members. Han Hee-joon, a Grade 2 Fixer with history in the Udjat, is employed at Seven Association HQ Section 2.
Apparently there is a cafe run by Seven Association Fixers "who love tea more than anything else in the world." The shifts are entirely voluntary and they return to their usual duties on their off hours. All profits go to purchasing higher-quality tea leaves and tea pots.
Moses's Office: Moses and Ezra are Fixers affiliated with Seven, with their office in District 14. They investigate mysteries and unsolved cases, especially concerning the Distortion under the tagline "the Distortion Detective." It is on Cookie Street. Recent witnesses of their appearance were always followed with a Distortion case in the same location, which causes some to be wary of them. Companies in the Backstreets are their most frequent clients. YuRia of YuRia Atelier is working alongside them. Following an altercation with Vespa Crabro, Vespa was fired from N Corp and joined the Office.
Moses was once Captain of the Udjat. She was an abandoned child raised by Dias. Moses personally educated Ezra, who was brought in as a child. Following an incident in which Moses witnessed something terrible (possibly the lives of her subordinates being thrown away in battle), she rescued the lives of Ezra and Han Hee-joon before quitting the Udjat. She has a strong grudge against Dias and Han Hee-joon (possibly because he continues to work with Dias in spite of that incident).
Agatha: A Grade 1 Fixer who was so prolific that "she may as well have been the face of the Seven Association." Don Quixote has detective costumes for her collection. She also has a book titled "Records of Investigation: Solutions to the Thirteen Problems" signed by Agatha. Her name is possibly a reference to the famous real-world detective author Agatha Christie.
Her book contains advice; In the forward she says that any self-respecting ace detective must always dress themselves in impeccable fashion, and that to find the culprit, you must first look at the victim's immediate circle. On page 155, it says an ace detective must always remain vigilant and not shy away from stakeouts. It also says that one of the qualities of an ace detective is a mind of bottomless inquisitiveness.
Eight Association
Eight is 8 in English (intended to be American English). It is not yet known what they do professionally.
Sailing with the Pequod apparently offered Grade 9 Fixer licenses with this Association.
Devyat Association
Devyat is 9 in Russian. They specialize in delivery and transportation; they are mostly known as the Fixers who deliver expensive or rare items to any place in the world. Due to the amount of dangers in the City, it is extremely difficult to deliver important items or information to intended recipients on time without losing it in the process. A delivery Fixer from this association came by to pay Molar Boatworks the remainder of their owed money after finishing their job for Limbus Company. Apparently, Devyat Fixers can also be hired to deliver tea leaves to expensive manors to avoid being broken. In a Mirror World, they were contracted by MultiCrack Office to transport an extremely large color-returning lamp at T Corp.
According to Rodion's Devyat North Section 3 identity, the pay is good and many Fixers in heavy debt end up working for the Devyat Association. Some are outfitted with Courier Trunks, one of which is installed with a simple assistant-level AI and is called Poludnitsa. Apparently people generally do not know that the trunks have talking AI, and can mistake Devyat Fixers for talking to their trunks out of insanity. The trunks are dimensional bags that can bend space and reduce the mass of an item. If a Fixer is about to be late for a delivery, the trunk can enhance their strength; The less time they have for the delivery, the greater the energy expelled by the trunk, until the user is harmed and potentially killed. If so, a new Fixer will be sent out to pick up the trunk. Allegedly, Devyat Fixers in the South have thinner suitcases.
Several regulations were added to Hana and Devyat Association's rules to prevent cases of people being stored in dimensional containers, as it is extremely bad if it does happen (although the effects have not yet been specified explicitly).
The Red Sack: An ancient Fixer of this Association of legend. It is said that he carried his deliveries regardless of terrible terrain and arduous journey to anywhere in the City. Allegedly he had a sidekick called Reindeer-Man and gave gifts to children he deemed kind. He appears on the front cover of Fixers Monthly every winter.
Dieci Association
Dieci is 10 in Italian. They specialize in the accumulation of "knowledge" as well as contracts involving Relics and Ruins. It also takes in orphans and is publicly known as the "Association of Charity." In each cardinal branch of the Dieci is a Saint, an individual holding an extremely large repository of knowledge that is significantly hierarchically higher than Directors. Although not widely known to be, only Saints hold valuable Holy Relics; The keys and stoles used by the other Fixers are downgraded versions.
Apparently, using the Association's equipment, a person's strength is proportional to the amount of knowledge they've amassed. Thus, the Association studies extensively.
The harder to obtain and more precious the knowledge is, the greater the strength it grants its users. However, it appears that the knowledge is lost once used. The major difference between Dieci and Seven is that Dieci specializes in analyzing and deconstructing their found knowledge, while Seven attempts to use whatever means they have available to collect intelligence they have been contracted to find. However, they may still have overlap.
Relics from the Ruins, due to their uniqueness in usage and mechanisms, require deep study and analysis. Thus, they contribute greatly to their knowledge, so the Association is interested in collecting them.
The Association has two large divisions: the Keys and the Fists. The Fists "directly collect and grasp knowledge with their own hands" while the Keys "use their tools to study something indirectly through a lens, from a distance." The two sects are mostly only differentiated due to personal taste and upbringing. It is not common knowledge that the keys involved can shrink and increase in size. The caveat of using a key is that increasing its mass costs knowledge gained specifically and exclusively through the key, so its users tend to burn a lot of their known information. The keys are able to reveal things that are normally unseen, such as redacted or erased information, but apparently only work for those within the Keys sect.
Öufi Association
Öufi is 11 in Swiss German. This Association specializes in dealings and transactions. They are legal enforcers of contracts and will attempt to always ensure that contracts are carried out, even if force is necessary and contractors must be chased to the ends of the earth, as long as they are being paid for the work. Their distinctive clothes are apparently considered rather gaudy, but they represent the Association's authority. According to Don Quixote, it is a rare sight to see even one Öufi Fixer.
Former members of the Ring impersonated the Öufi during dealings with Wuthering Heights.
Jeong's Office: An Office that works in Nest J, the Nest of gambling. They and Offices similar to them are hired to monitor the gaming between individuals or organizations, verify the results, and prevent situations from turning violent. Most Offices of this type are affiliated with Öufi. Some of their members can be fought in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, a major member named Hanafuda (and possibly the rest of the Office) was revived and was seen during the first round of the H Corp Hierarch Evaluation.
??? Association
A so-far unnamed Association meant to primarily deal with Distortions, mentioned officially by Caiman of the LCCA. Based on a now-removed cutscene, it is plausible but not confirmed that the Purple Tear is involved in organizing this Association.
Offices With No (Known) Association
Independent Offices are extremely varied. Offices generally have a uniform or cohesive theme for recognizability purposes. However, Offices without assurance from any Association can be risky due to potential links to dangerous Syndicates.
Ame Office: A Grade 4 Fixer acquaintance of Moses, Kaoru, worked here. They were wiped out by a large case of the Distortion at Tae-young Produce Company.
Athos: Mentioned offhandedly by Roland as a contender (among many) for the new strongest Fixer in the City after the disappearance of Kali.
Bayard's Office: Led by a man named Bayard, who was old friends with Maugris of Charles' Office. It was originally made of "uncontrollable punks," but Maugris suggested Renaud's help. Although he looked much younger than Bayard, he had a way with words as well as strength, easily convincing Bayard's Fixers with words and contests of strength and earning him Bayard's respect. They can be fought in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they would be revived.
Cane Office: A contract Office under direct sponsorship of T Corp, and knowledgeable about their Singularity. They offered an untraceable 200 million Ahn to Gaze Office for trying to uncover the secrets of W Corp's Singularity (which, if found out, means no insurance will protect them from the Head). It is a notary public Office that officially administers contracts made between two Offices, such as preserving evidence and certifying legal issues. Deals are relatively simple, but one must bring relevant documents, including but not limited to a summary of the deal's details, a notarial deed of promissory note, a migration permit for the Nest or Backstreets of a given District, and a deed of forward contract.
The president of Cane is Nemo. The Office has completed eleven Star of the City requests. They are very interested in finding out W Corp's Singularity and selling it. They had a deal with the Reverberation Ensemble: They provide Cane Office with information about W Corp's Singularity, and in return Cane Office will secure books from the Library for them when they want them. They were killed in the Library, attempting to secure the W Corp books that have said information. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
Cap'n Skorps and the One-eyed Navigator: Presumably a Fixer, or a pair of Fixers, which is mentioned as a cosplay Don Quixote was interested in doing. They were active during the year 757. Visually, it involves a scorpion arm, pipe, and a trinket that was substituted for Ishmael's compass.
Charles' Office: A Grade 1 Office with rather few Fixers for Offices of its grade. Roland was once the captain of this Office, with twelve other people employed. This included Olivier, as well as Roland's (soon to be) wife, Angelica, who was very strong physically. Roland wore a black mask at all times. Both of them were Grade 1 Fixers, though Angelica is older. Other members include but are not limited to Renaud, Maugris (Maugie), Astolfo, and Bradamante. According to a Bayard's Office Fixer, none of these four seemed to have anything in common in terms of attire and weapons, but were all very powerful.
Roland: He was the leader/captain of Charles' Office despite being a lower grade than other employed Fixers. He was probably responsible for beheading the Pianist, ending its performance. He also attacked Rumanos Cartel, a family of the Thumb, and he crushed a good half of the Middle in the south side of the City. He is from District 17's Backstreets and is a Smoke War veteran. After being tricked by I Corp and K Corp out of a promised Nest migration permit, he gained a vendetta against the Wings.
While Roland was Grade 1 and a part of Charles' Office, he always wore a black mask. Originally this was because his grandma told him that "as a Fixer, it's important to not let your potential enemies remember your face" but then he couldn't stand to take it off and "be open with a clear conscience." The mask makes others unable to recognize him, like seeing a faceless bystander who does not stay in your vision. After defeating Blood-red Night, Angelica helped him live without the mask and they eventually married.
It should be noted he put the mask back on when he was rampaging after Angelica's death to the Pianist, ravaging Fingers, Syndicates, and Fixer Offices. Combined with wearing Angelica's gloves critical to her Color identity, this led some to call him the Black Silence.
He claimed he was walking around District 13 before being sent to the Library suddenly against his will. He worked with the Purple Tear just before arriving as a result of her guidance. He mostly spent his time in the eastern side of the City.
Angelica: Angelica joined as the 13th member later than the others in order to work on the Blood-red Night case. (More details about Angelica are written in the Black Silence's entry in the Hana Association section.)
Olivier: He worked with Roland often and got along with him, though it was mostly Olivier keeping Roland in line. He once requested that Roland help him with an urgent job in District 25 even though he was taking a break from the business (with his wife who was pregnant at the time). After he returned, his house had been caved in and Angelica had been killed by the Pianist. Roland went on a rampage. Afterwards, he was demoted to Grade 9. They had been living in District 9's Backstreets.
Olivier currently works for Hana Association Section 3, Southern Branch. Neither of them grew up with parents or any real family, and unlike others in Charles' Office, Olivier was worried when he heard about Roland's rampage. He returned Angelica's gloves to Roland in the Library and attempted to assassinate Angela, the director of the Library, with a T Corp device. He was killed in the Library by Roland in a duel. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely he will be revived.
Clam Office: An Office whose Fixers were secretly cooperating with Kingfishers, a Syndicate. Currently, they no longer do so.
Dou Gui Combat Office: A Grade 2 Office specializing in combat in District 14. It has 17 members and is open 24 hours a day year-round. The main room of their Office is sparse and dilapidated concrete. The representative of the Office is named Zhang Lei, a Grade 2 Fixer. They are bound together by loyalty, and the representative role is passed in a hereditary fashion; After defending Moses's Office from an N Corp Taboo Hunter, 5 Fixers remain and the current representative is Fei, a student and Zhang Lei's young daughter. They have no assurance from any Association.
Fanghunt Office: An Office that appeared for the La Manchaland contract. They hunt Bloodfiends.
Firefist Office: An Office that appeared for the La Manchaland contract. Apparently, they have a "moldy semi-basement office" without sunlight and were seeking a contribution reward for a 15-minute testimony. Some members were captured by La Manchaland and turned to Bloodbags, possibly moments before escaping.
Fixer of the Cerulean Heaven: Mentioned by Don Quixote as a legendary historical Fixer. She won the battle of Rhino Tree in the year 465. She testified that the worst ordeal in her career was when she was forced to stand before her enemies with poor hair due to a supply line breakage preventing access to nutritional supplements. Her seventeenth most difficult ordeal was having to forge onward despite watching her comrades fall one by one while holding the line in order to buy her time.
Full Stop Office: An Office specializing in firearms. They were directly requested by Director Yujin of Shi Association South Section 2 to assassinate the Church of Gears, or more precisely, "kill ten worshippers of the Church, neutralize their leader and secure her." According to Liwei, it is unusual for the director to personally give them the request. They were killed in the Library after trying to escape from the Blue Reverberation. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
Gaze Office: An Office of Fixers with a technological motif, with heavy body modification—Likely mechanical body replacement, similar to the Brotherhood of Iron (a Syndicate). They used an observation device received from Cane Office and planted it on the Molar Office when they got on WARP Train UW-212. Because the Molars went to the Library, Gaze followed them to investigate. They were killed in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
Hagen: Mentioned offhandedly by Roland as a contender (among many) for the new strongest Fixer in the City after the disappearance of Kali.
Hook Office: An Office of Fixers who specialize in brutal murder and "sending a message." Some of its members come from killer Syndicates. Their outfits are more radical compared to other Offices. Thus far it has only been getting requests from poor and low-level Syndicates. They were killed in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
The Knight of the White Moon: Bari. A Fixer who regaled Don Quixote and Sancho with stories of Fixers, who traveled across the City and the Ruins. She is seeking a special river allegedly close to Lethe. There are other Fixers looking for her. She also appears to be present in one of the bad endings for Library of Ruina, described as a Bookhunter.
Lion, Wolf, and Panther: People that cornered and attempted to kill or beat Dante for information. Lion and Wolf were dismembered by Vergilius and Panther was forced to retreat, dragging them back. According to Vergilius, they report to a sort of Serpent. Given the purple snake motifs on their clothing, it has a possibility of being Iori, the Purple Tear.
Lysander: A legendary historical Fixer mentioned by Don Quixote. He resolved a case called the Fae Forest. His ultimate move is introduced as "Illusions of a midsummer night… shall devour thee whole… Summer, Night~ Fantasia!"
Molar Office: An Office with some prestige, although it is probably small. They are from District 22. They were contacted by T Corp. Olga, the operator, is friends with Myo, the captain of R Corp's Rabbit Team. Their Fixers have an accent. They were on WARP Train UW-212. Olga received a Library invitation from Myo beforehand, and she used it about 31 perceived hours into the train ride. They were killed in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, they have been revived.
Molar Boatworks: After being revived from the Library, the members of Molar Office (Olga, Rain, and Mika) woke up suddenly in the Backstreets of District 21. Lacking money, they started a workshop business by killing and salvaging the trash crabs (mutated animals generally considered a pest) local to the area. They have been hired by Limbus Company to perform modifications for the Mephistopheles (giving it the ability to act as a boat) in order to traverse U Corp's Nest. They use the scrap collected by LCB and U Corp's Singularity to produce fused parts that work as though they were tailor-made for the bus.
MultiCrack Office: An Office whose representative's name is Sasha. They only accept applications from Fixers with prosthetics (who lack the perception of pain and are thus less afraid in combat, although it increases their mortality risk). They were involved (generally, victimized) in the events on WARP Train PW-612. It is unclear what their current fate is after the death of the Bloodfiend Cassetti.
Rinaldo: Mentioned offhandedly by Roland as a contender (among many) for the new strongest Fixer in the City after the disappearance of Kali. Roland calls them a bastard.
Rosespanner Workshop Office: The representative of the Office was named Niko. They were assisting Shrenne's department at K Corp's laboratory. It appears that the Office is also a workshop at the same time. After being discovered to be collaborating with the technology liberation alliance, Niko and other Fixers were killed by Limbus Company.
Siegfried: A Fixer working for K Corp. He has a superhero theme and is incredibly popular with the media, having scheduled magazine interviews and the like. Photographs and anything greater than sharing stories of his feats require permission from K Corp, although he grants a chance to take photos free of charge at one point (on account of many of his enemies being from faraway places). He is both a skilled fighter and a talented performer, and he is acquainted with the Red Gaze. He was called in to deal with a code purple situation at a K Corp Checkpoint, neutralizing the problem (LCB) in less than 50 seconds. He is happy to give autographs.
He sent dozens of invitations to Vergilius to attend the "League of Excellent Nest-dwelling Fixers", but he failed to attend. Vergilius claims he changed addresses, and in addition doesn't have time to "lick top-brass boots." Because Siegfried is pro-Wing and Vergilius is independent, Vergilius has a somewhat hostile attitude towards him.
His flair for showmanship means that K Corp usually takes advantage of chaotic spectacles by sending him. The fact he did not appear when the Brass Bull Abnormality appeared in the Nest is a cause for concern as to K Corp potentially covering up the incident.
He has an autobiography titled "A Hero Should Keep Smiling Until Their Last" and on the fifth row of page 42, he wrote he shall be there to aid the weak no matter when and where.
Tri-axe Office: An Office that seems to operate within District 8. The third son, Shan San, challenged Jia Baoyu to a duel in the street. They were contracted by someone to take something from him in order to participate in a Family Hierarch Evaluation.
Udjat: Fixers under Dias's direct supervision. They wear black long coats and golden masks with a single symbol of an eye. They use scimitars and appear to be fairly skilled.
During the period of time in which Moses was the Captain, Udjat was a Grade 1 Office of about 2142 Fixers, officially listing Moses as the leader. Dias is considered their only client, and the Office as a whole is dedicated exclusively to realizing her ambitions. According to Moses, her dream is to become the Head. Individual Fixers are fully willing to be a stepping stone for her and do anything she asks.
Udjat regularly slaughtered civilians and anyone against Dias's interests, which is against Fixer code. Although it is implied this would normally incur demotion or expulsion by the Hana, they avoided it somehow--potentially through Dias's wealth, words, and/or connections. They played a significant role in the Smoke War alongside R Corp. It is implied that Moses ordered the entire Office to their deaths under Dias's command, but had a crisis of conscience and managed to save only Ezra and Han Hee-joon. Hee-joon still works for Dias in some capacity.
Some of the Udjat can be fought in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they would be revived.
Ungum: Mentioned offhandedly by Roland as a contender (among many) for the new strongest Fixer in the City after the disappearance of Kali.
Wedge Office: A sister office of Dawn Office that collaborated with them occasionally. After dealing with The Eight o'Clock Circus, one of their Fixers had to get a replacement clone body via "biological body-recovery insurance." Their specialty is swiftness and precision to hunt down the enemy, by analyzing the capabilities of foes; This synergized well with Dawn's combat skill. They were killed in the Library. They were assisted by Philip, again the only survivor of the battle due to a teleportation device Oscar planted on him. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
Whisper Office: Attempts to invade H Corp during the brief power vacuum between confirmation of Hierarchs, along with other Fixers and clans.
Yue Fei: A legendary Fixer of history mentioned by Don Quixote. He took part in a battle in the year 505, which was mentioned in a discussion on "The Five Pillages." He was left-handed and had a habit of playing with a lighter in his left pocket before every duel.
Yun's Office: A tiny Office mostly employing Grade 9 Fixers. It struggled to support itself. They were killed in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
Yuri's Office: Not the name of the Office, but merely the one that Yuri belonged to. It had senior Fixers named Hopkins and Aya. Their Office was willing to take in Yuri, a former low-ranking Lobotomy Corp agent, in order to make traversal through L Corp branches easier. The office purchased expensive gas masks to counteract the increasing toxins inside the lower levels of the branch, but did not supply one to Yuri due to viewing her as dead weight. Hopkins escaped with his pockets full of Enkephalin while Yuri and Aya were killed in conflicts against Abnormalities.
CITY THREATS
What is a Syndicate?
Syndicates can be any group or organization of people in the Backstreets. Unlike Fixers, Syndicates do not follow procedures or fill out paperwork to prove their strength, instead relying on their sheer notoriety. Many are gangs, cults, or organized crime syndicates like the mafia and yakuza. Some are known to raid Fixer Offices to gain more infamy, killing as many Fixers as they can in the process.
What is a Tailor?
Tailors create specialized clothing for Fixers and others. These clothes are special in that they have better protective properties than armor, and they may come with special abilities such as increased speed. They are extremely important pieces of equipment, and the prime reason why no one (...well, except for the inquisitors of N Corp I guess) wears plate armor. Thus, good clothing is also a sign of prestige and capability.
As the only named group of Tailors currently known is The Carnival, they are listed alongside the Syndicates for space reasons.
What is a phenomenon?
This term is unofficial, as far as I (Wolv) know. Because any notable event in the City is given the same grading system as a Syndicate, it can be unclear whether something is a Syndicate or a random event. A better term may be "hazard," but "hazard" also includes Syndicates, so for now I will continue to use "phenomenon" to differentiate them.
What are these titles?
These are called City Threat Levels. Every hazard in the City is classified between Urban Myth, Urban Legend, Urban Plague, Urban Nightmare, Star of the City, and Impurity based on how much people are willing to pay to eliminate them. The Hana Association is responsible for all of these titles except Impurity, which are updated as necessary. It is the Head's responsibility to determine Impurities and drive them out of the City into the Outskirts.
Their reasoning is not specific, but they appear to declare beings that defile the City as Impurities. Harold, a Hana Fixer, theorizes that the difference between Stars of the City and Impurities is that Stars are what the Head "thinks as the ideal image of the City."
The Five Fingers
The giant Syndicates that manage the Backstreets. There are five Fingers, named the Thumb, the Index, the Middle, the Ring, and the Pinky. They have their own territories. They have enough power and influence to rival Wings, as they have hundreds of associated Syndicates. All of the Fingers seem to have strict rules and systems, as well as their own ways of purging rulebreakers. Unlike Fixers, the Fingers do not have strict uniform codes and do not vary much by region. There is such a thing as a Finger Bow-Bell, which is likely some kind of conflict between the Fingers.
The Pinky: According to Xiao, Director of South Section 1 of Liu, the Ring and the Pinky are fighting in the Outskirts. She says they should be especially cautious of the Pinky when dispatched there. Ryoshu describes the Pinky as "omnipresent yet unknown to each other." They gather and scatter when certain conditions are met, but otherwise do not know each other.
It is implied in the illustration for Ryoshu that the Pinky has an organic motif, with bleeding wounds, bandages, and splinters.
Ten Blades of the East: Lei Heng, a Capo of the Thumb, was a member. Possibly relatedly, he is called Chachihu (Tiantui Star, the Winged Tiger) by Zilu of the Heishou, who is in turn called Meizhelan (Tianjiu Star, the Unrestrained). Before being beheaded and vacating his title, Lei Heng identified that Kong Qiu had five Mangs of the Tiangang Star. Zilu suspects that the Night Drifter that attempted to assassinate Jia Baoyu and mentored Jia Xichun is or was one of the Ten Blades.
Kong Qiu: Also known as Jia Qiu. He is the sole survivor of the Kong family, who avoided being slain by the Head by coincidentally being away from the taboo exhibition at the time. After the resolution of the incident, he planned to join Yan Hui, journey to Mount Liang, and speak with the Mohists, as well as visit Q Corp. He claims that as one of the Pinky, he intends "to change the world with the Way of true humanity." Zilu is also considered one of the Pinky rather than exclusively a Heishou.
The Ring: They are obsessed with beauty. According to the Kurokumo Clan, they are probably more harsh than the Thumb on debtors. To earn their protection, you have to submit art regularly to be graded (as do their own members). Missing a deadline is extremely bad. Earning a failing grade once is grounds for a warning, twice is withdrawal of the Ring's protection, and thrice is death.
When Garnet cuts the string from the exhibit's mouth, they are angry at him and exclaim that he ruined everything and "All [they] had left... All [they] needed was tonight's test" before being cut off by Pablo, who may have been about to kill them had Vergilius not intervened.
It is unknown if it was the mask that caused it, but after Vergilius slices Pablo's face and mask, some violent deformation of her body occurs (which she somehow survives, although injured); Vergilius remarks "So this... is what the Purple Tear meant by that" and then leaves without further explanation. According to Vergilius the Red Gaze, the Ring "only trust what they see."
Hierarchically, a Maestro is a very high ranking member, who wears a ring with three bands on their left ring finger and an emblem that somewhat resembles a four-spoke wheel, and is a person who has created many masterpieces. There is also a position called a Docent, which may be lower-ranking. Docent Pablo wears a two-banded ring on both her ring fingers, but only the one on her left hand has the same circular emblem as the Maestro's. Students of the Ring wear a single-banded ring with a similar emblem and are expected to grade protectees of the Ring's work in addition to producing their own. A minor complaint is that Students are encouraged to compliment Docents' work regardless of their real thoughts on them.
They hold art auctions, selling valuable works of art (that may or may not be made of people...) to bidders and displaying their own art in galleries. Some former members of the Ring impersonated the Öufi during dealings with Wuthering Heights. They are experimenting with a Singularity-level technology that involves pulling alternate selves from other universes, as an offshoot of a technology developed by Yi Sang (which emotionally devastated him to see). It seems that the Golden Bough can be used to power human experiments to create or "birth" a certain kind of human using a similar method of strands of possibility, among other experiments.
Jia Qiu names them as a party that would be interested in invading Hongyuan and stealing Boluses and Bolus recipes during a full-scale war caused by the power vacuum between Hierarchs.
Fauvists: A faction within the Ring. Ryoshu says would be the only ones who would outfit underlings with "cheap, tacky animal masks." As their name would imply, they focus on fauvism (painting with strong colors and strong strokes). They appear in Leviathan, hosting an art gallery. The art gallery's statue-like exhibits are living people, at least one of which had their mouth sewn shut. According to Docent Pablo, the exhibits are not allowed to move because they could be scolded. That particular showcase was themed around the Musicians of Bremen, which is presumably why the "art pieces" wear animal head masks (while the other guards wear animal ears or similar accessories). Pablo also claims that "whatever [the Ring has] done, we didn't kill anyone" and that "bringing in those pieces was a lot of work."
Pontilists: A faction within the Ring. As their name would imply, they focus on pointillism (painting with many individual dots rather than lines).
Cubists: A faction within the Ring. As their name would imply, they focus on cubism (an abstract style that flattens 3D perspectives and deconstructs forms).
Dead Rabbits: Urban Plague. The Syndicate from the Backstreets of T Corp that Heathcliff belonged to. If they earned a good amount of money, they would celebrate by ordering HamHam-PangPang fried chicken in the past. They collected protection fees and obtained food and drink in return for discounts on fees. They seemed to believe more in blood and loyalty over things like clubbing, and enjoyed cheap beer together. The current top boss of the Syndicate is named Matthew, who seemed to care deeply about his underlings. After Heathcliff left, the Syndicate was taken in by the Ring and increased in influence. Ryoshu believes that the Fauvists must be the part that took them in. Officially, the Syndicate was actually obliterated from the Backstreets for a long time; They only recently revived through mysterious means.
The Middle: It is said the Middle never forgets, the Middle records, and the Middle always pays its debts. They have a strong idea of brotherhood/sisterhood. The Middle never lets anyone who touches their family go unpunished, and will exact two- or three-fold vengeance upon perpetrators. They are not too interested in finding the exact identity of the culprit, but instead prefer to show what happens to those who disturb them. Tanya was an executive member prior to joining the Reverberation Ensemble. Glowing purple augmentation tattoos seems to be a very notable trait of their members; With each vengeance carried out, a Middle member would gain the right to add a single tattoo. Also, their tattoos are special and cannot be easily erased. In terms of hierarchy, there is known to be a Great Sister, who is above the Big Brothers and Big Sisters, who are above the Little Brothers and Little Sisters. Unlike other Fingers, the members are close-knit and frequently eat together, chat together, and host parties to celebrate new recruits. It is said that they accept anyone, but they never allow anyone to leave; When Queequeg tried to leave, she was instructed she had to remove every trace of the Middle from herself or else be caught again, and so she resorted to manually scratching out tattoos and damaging her tongue and brain.
The sister of a member of the Middle, an old wealthy tax collector in District 25, was murdered by Rodion. Following this, Rodion's neighbors (who were starving and finally enjoyed quality meat for the first time in their lives due to the stolen funds) were slaughtered en masse on the roads.
Smee of the Twinhook Pirates claims that she is looked over by a Big Brother of the Middle, and that the Middle has a large bounty for the head of Queequeg (for daring to quit the Middle and disappearing completely). "The Middle never forgets," she says. If Limbus Company had killed her, she says a Big Brother or a Big Sister might have gone after them.
The "Book of Vengeance" is a book that is used to record the names of people who wrong the Middle. According to Ryoshu, after being recorded in that book, being obliterated is a guarantee. There are extremely granularly prescribed punishments for specific crimes and sins: Title 8, Section 20, Row A, Line 6 has a line for stolen Hair Salon Coupons, which is complete and total extermination of all involved parties. There are also punishments for things such as insulting a club under the Middle's management. Title 2, Section 11, Row C assigns a punishment that begins with having one's legs torn apart from the groin for fleeing from the Middle's retribution.
The chains used by the Middle allegedly represent solidarity and connection. They view it as facing their responsibilities and destinies and carrying the weight together, and they have no need or desire to remove the chains.
Apparently, Roland once killed some of the big shots, having crushed a good half of the Syndicate in the south.
The Index: It has the harshest rules, but if you follow them, it is relatively safe. The Index is also the most lenient to minor transgressions, when others would kill you on the spot. They are zealots who care heavily about their orders, or Prescripts, which are individually numbered and delivered by Messengers, who view them as "a test of faith."
The three ranks widely known are Proselytes, Messengers, and Proxies. There is another position called a Weaver, but their existence is not normally known by any of the other ranks. Those chosen by the Prescripts can decide to become a Proselyte. If they accept, they must put on a blindfold. They can see perfectly fine through them. Usually, a group of five to six Proselytes accompany a Proxy (in a group referred to as a "familia"). If a Proselyte shows a certain level of competence, the Prescripts will assign the role of a Messenger or a Proxy to them. After being promoted, they are given a blade of their own, and they may take off the blindfold. They are able to refuse promotion or refuse being recruited into the Index in the first place, but usually have no good reason to do so. Also, people are able to leave the Syndicate, but whether the Prescript will allow it is a mystery; The Prescripts might order Proxies to kill them, let it slide, or even order them to resign first.
If Prescripts are not followed, the Proxies will be given a Prescript to punish the offender. Some Proxies and Proselytes have been killed in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived. Their clothes are typically black suits with a white cape that has a golden collar. Generally speaking, those who work for the Index use swords and blades of all types.
Prescripts: A Star of the City phenomenon. It is kept secret even within the Index, but they are produced by Weavers in well-hidden underground locations. They are transcribed via pendulum from tremors believed to be "the heartbeat of the City" (influenced by daily life), then converted using spinning wheels and looms. After stamping, they are sent via pipe to the surface. Weavers, like all members of the Index thus far, are appointed by Prescript. Prescripts are seen as one of several "gods", produced from the will of the City's people.
They always work out in the Index's favor. If you try to investigate them, the Proxies will hunt you. Their contents are completely different from each other, and it is impossible to expect when or where one will be given to you. They can be printed on any type of paper as long as they are stamped with the Index's symbol. Prescripts are given to residents and Syndicates alike under the Index's protection, and in place of paying money they must follow them. They can have seemingly nonsensical orders and some have vague language like "kill the painting you've drawn" even though they are looking for a very specific course of action. Some examples are:
"To Rimi. Deliver a bacon pizza to Danny's doorstep on 8th St. before 10 AM sharp on September 14th."
"To Jimin. Do not utter a single word for five days."
"To Sehee. If the first person you meet outside today answers your greetings by lifting their right hand, take their heart out; if the person ignores your greetings, remove your own heart from your body."
"Carry out every Prescript delivered by Messenger Yan."
"To Chae-Heon. When you see a person on a three-way intersection waving their hand seven times, follow them to their house."
Yan's Prescripts: These Prescripts are potentially fraudulent, as Messenger Yan Vismok admitted to writing some of his own Prescripts. The Prescripts themselves predicted this and ordered the Proxies who received them to follow them regardless, and it is unknown whether all of these are written by him. In general, forging Prescripts is difficult due to the complicated process of copying the seal. After an altercation with the Thumb, Yan barely survived due to receiving help from Proxies following a Prescript. Yan, after being invited to an unknown location (an Index Weaver's bunker) by a Prescript, became Distorted and died in the Library. He had been working as a Messenger for less than one month: A position he was appointed to right after, presumably, killing his family according to a Prescript. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely he will be revived... although whether he will be in his Distorted form or not is a mystery.
[A Prescript delivered to the Carnival asking them to go to the Library. Specifically, he gave them only an invitation, and no other papers. Yan himself received something similar once he distorted.]
"To Lala. Put three needles in Lily's birthday cake by noon tomorrow." (Lily is Lala's neighbor.)
"To Lee Deok-gu. Play rock paper scissors with the third person you meet and play rock. If you win, pull out 59 strands of their hair. Then, apply seafood-cream pasta sauce with mealworms fed on styrofoam to it three times, and eat it with a fork."
"To John. Stand on any three-way intersection at 3:38 tomorrow, look to the east, and wave seven times."
"Eliminate the Thumb. No time limits." (It's not completely clear whether this one is delivered by Yan. In the same scene, Proxy Esther has a Prescript to send his Proselytes to the Library, Proxy Hubert has a Prescript to exchange the left leg of the 14th person his familia comes across that day with the right leg of the 26th person they run into, and Proxy Gloria has a Prescript to extract the spines of all 37-year-olds in the Nest.)
"Remove the limbs of all Thumb personnel remaining in the Nest. And hang their bodies on skewers." (CONFIRMED FAKE)
"Esther, Gloria, Hubert, and the Proselytes under them shall head to the Library." (CONFIRMED FAKE)
The Thumb: The Thumb controls many smaller subsidiary Syndicates. In meetings called summits, those smaller Syndicates gather in groups of families. Their seniority system, in order from greatest to least: Capo dei capi (Godfather), Sottocapo (Underboss ≈ Wing board member), Capo (Captain ≈ Associate Fixer), and Soldato (Soldier/Goodfella ≈ common Fixer). They consider the leader of a Star of the City to be above a sottocapo in rank. According to Roland and Moses, a Grade 1 Fixer is generally on the same level as a Capo in their hierarchy, and you can't make eye contact with or mention the name of a person of higher class. There are smaller ranks even within these, such as Capo Primos and Capo Quartos.
Moses says the Thumb has the strongest organizational power among the Fingers. According to a Thumb Soldato, the Thumb tops the list of a Hana Association survey for Fixers asking about "Syndicates one would never want to get involved with" due to their hierarchy and unconditional obedience system.
If a subordinate speaks without their superior's permission, they take their lower jaw. If one questions the orders of their superior, they take their head. In similar veins, they have extremely harsh rules of behavior, courtesy, and respect, where even the smallest slight means being purged within a few days (to set an example). They apply this respect system to outsiders of the Thumb as well, and members must unquestioningly follow the orders of those higher-ranking than them. The exception is when a high-ranking individual gives a subordinate of theirs their authority temporarily, but this occurrence is rare and usually happens if they have urgent business and cannot make it to a meeting or need a subordinate to explain something. They have a specific recognizable transfer of authority used internally.
They primarily use muskets and/or matchlock rifles, with many varieties of self-made specialty bullets. However, they mostly use them as melee weapons due to the fact the bullets are very expensive. A good swing can easily crush human bones. According to Ezra, the buttstock of the guns are made of the hardest wood available in the City. Despite looking simple, they contain technology from several workshops including acceleration and mass manipulation.
The Index and the Thumb were fighting over L Corp's abandoned Nest. They have personally taken over the matter of L Corp's Nest and the Library from their subsidiary families, and their boss insists that they will not allow the Index to claim any part of the Nest. The smaller Syndicates that make up their families are allegedly not strong enough to fight against Index Proxies. A Sottocapo, some Capos, and several Soldatos have been killed in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived. Apparently every member of the Thumb in L Corp's Nest had been killed by Index Proxies.
A group consisting of a Sottocapo, Capo (Lei Heng), and several Soldatos attempts to invade H Corp during the brief power vacuum between confirmation of Hierarchs. It seems that there is a "Monthly Thumb-through" magazine that, based on page 1271 of "The Thumb Introductory Manual" section "How to Encourage Your Juniors", publishes excellent essays from recent promotees about their "honest and plain feelings regarding [their] promotion" and will be positively reflected on their next promotion review. The Thumb in the East seem to uniquely use propellant rounds to propel slashes or stabbing motions with their bayoneted rifles.
Kurokumo Clan: A giant Syndicate across the Backstreets. They purchased silk from The Carnival. They are a subsidiary of the Thumb which offers to protect people for money (and operates like a real-world yakuza clan). One type of cloth they purchased on behalf of the Thumb is called "Nuovo Fabric'', which was stolen by L'Heure du Loup after she fought and killed much of the clan. She forced a portion of the clan, including one captain, to go to the Library according to the Blue Reverberation's orders. They were killed. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived. They managed some territory in L Corp's former Nest. Their leaders are called captains, but they are led by a patriarch. They are in conflict against the Blade Lineage. Henchmen are generally forbidden from disobeying superiors, but there may be special exceptions. One section led by Captain Jun was ordered by the Thumb to guard a black stele in Yong-ji Building in T Corp's Backstreets when a section of Blade Lineage, having been restored from the Library, appeared before them.
Night Awls: A Syndicate and a subsidiary of the Thumb. After the leader questioned the thinking of the capo dei capi, the purge of every member was immediately ordered to happen overnight. Allen, a member, described the boss as a man who had always been rash and impatient with injustice or his own curiosity. Some members have likely escaped due to the early warning. They can be fought in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, Allen (and possibly the rest of the Night Awls) was revived and was seen during the first round of the H Corp Hierarch Evaluation.
Ramier Family: This Syndicate put a large amount of money into L Corp's Nest and the Library.
Rumanos Cartel: A family that is reorganizing and recovering from an attack from the Black Silence (Roland) in which he killed a large portion of the Syndicate. They were cut off from the Thumb for not rearming themselves fast enough.
Syndicates
Rats: Poor Backstreets dwellers who group up into packs and prey on the weak to get by. The packs barely qualify as Syndicates and work only to make ends meet. They have no money, influence, or power. Attacking and harvesting organs ("gut-harvesting") from random people is one of the things they do. A few were called into the Library and killed. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
Axe Gang: An Urban Legend-class Syndicate. They appear to work with the Stray Dogs. Their members are armed with axes. They can be killed in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they would be revived.
Blade Lineage: An Urban Nightmare-class Syndicate originally hailing from the Backstreets of District 19, owned by S Corp. They are in conflict with the Kurokumo Clan. They are uncoordinated (as in, not moving much in groups except temporarily, nor having any strict subgroup or pecking order) and their members are often low-class socially, but they understand their place against those stronger than them. Bamboo-hatted Kim, a member, believes that a body free of scars is proof of cowardice; Blade Lineage does not admit anyone without scars. They can be fought in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, they revived in the Backstreets of T Corp, some directly in front of a group of Kurokumo Clan members. Bamboo-hatted Kim, a mentor, became Distorted. It seems some are somewhat easy-going personality-wise and may joke around with curious outsiders rather than give a clear answer.
In the Mirror World of Blade Lineage and the Kurokumo Clan, the members of Blade Lineage under the mentorship of Meursault (acting as Bamboo-hatted Kim) were minor officials of S Corp living in the Nest, who were martial arts scholars. They attempted to stop the increasing corruption within S Corp and failed, and apparently S Corp sent the Ch'unokkun after the mentor. Faust calls the Kurokumo Clan the "Heug-un" (meaning dark, though she extrapolates it as "dark cloud" in the text to make it clearly refer to the Kurokumo). When the members clear their names and become able to return to S Corp, they plan to take jobs as personal guards of high-ranking officials. It seems most had experience as hired swords previously. Meursault was the protector of the Second State Councilor for 7 years and 4 months. Apparently, he had the potential to become a "Blade of Clouds" if he served the Third State Councilor, which is a title that means that its owner is one of the best in the Nest at swordsmanship. The Second State Councilor planned on presenting an appeal that would expose various conspiracies, heinous deeds, and secret studies of S Corp. He was murdered before it could be revealed, due to stronger powers at S Corp, and Meursault suspected the culprit was the Third State Councilor. He arrived as a warning, and then promised to return with his fellow Blade Lineage when he found someone who could end the corruption.
Brotherhood of Iron: A tiny Syndicate, where its three members have replaced their entire bodies with cheap metal forms bought from a Workshop in order to reduce living expenses. They require brain fluid to function—because their brains are still organic—but no longer eat, sleep, or drink. They were killed in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
Constellars: A Syndicate that was raided by the Kingfishers.
Kingfishers: A Syndicate that fights with the Kurokumo Clan.
Knots: A Syndicate that attacked the Kingfishers.
Little Piggy's: A former supplier of human meat to Pierre's Bistro. It sold expensive but very high quality meat in small quantities.
Los Habaneros: A group mentioned by the Tingtang Gang's boss.
Los Mariachis: A Syndicate that works in a J Corp casino. They run the second floor and have a policy that gambling is entertainment done purely for fun, and therefore all sadness and pain must be sublimated into dance. They demand sincere movement, believe dance is a window to the heart, and believe that without a clear and pure heart it loses all meaning. They do not seek technical perfection, but instead a pure expression, and in fact will even allow guests who show enough talent to ascend floors without further challenge. It appears to be led by a woman named Aida.
Musicians of Bremen: A Syndicate that attacks random people and turns them into "modern art pieces." They used to sell ingredients (humans) to Pierre's Bistro. According to Jack, the sous-chef, they provided large quantities of meat, although unfresh, often containing shattered bones, and mixed with different types. Its members wear animal masks, their names are sounds associated with the animal, and they are dedicated to recreating the sound of the Pianist in District 9. Some of their members have left. They were seen speaking with the Blue Reverberation. The remaining members were killed in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
Naraku Clan: An Urban Nightmare, likely a Syndicate. Their patriarch was killed by Shi Association South Section 2.
Reverberation Ensemble: A group formed by the Blue Reverberation, Argalia (a Grade 1 Color Fixer). Their overall goals were unknown for some time, but Argalia appeared to have an odd obsession with the Library. The Purple Tear associated each member with an instrument, listed first in their entries. All of them have been killed in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is unknown whether they will be revived given they seemed to have been re-slain immediately.
(More details about Argalia can be read in the Blue Reverberation's entry in the Hana Association section.)
Blood-red Night: First Violin. A former Star of the City who was "shot down some time ago" by Charles' Office. She is also known as Elena. She is a Bloodfiend. She tricked and kidnapped people from the Backstreets and the Nest. The victims would be found in the Backstreets as animated corpses, "endlessly [craving] for fresh things, as if to fill their emptied bodies". When confronted by Angelica and Roland after being tracked for two years, her bedroom contained the blood vessels of 4172 people. She was presumably "killed" in this fight, but managed to come back somehow. She seeks the freedom to escape hiding in the night, and believes there is no real justification for typical humans to exclude and condemn Bloodfiends.
Church of Gears: Harp. A cult of Urban Legend class. Its leader is Eileen, and it wishes to make people accept their status as "gears with a purpose." It can literally convert people into gears. After Full Stop Office attacked the Church, Eileen was recruited by the Blue Reverberation. Eileen sent Jae-heon and Elena (in Pluto's disguises as a doctor and nurse) to WARP Train UW-212. Eileen augments her intelligence with Thought Gears. Some worshippers of the Church have an odd appearance, with their brains in a clear helmet pierced by a spinning gear. They seem to be guided purely by the Thought Gears' guidance, who were once people as well, receiving commands into their brains with every rotation. It is unclear how much the Thought Gears can think. Eileen does not believe in free will, and finds it regrettable when people try to fight against the flow instead of accepting it.
Although this person's identity is not confirmed, Roland once met a certain man. This man was kidnapping people and transforming them into gears, so Roland killed him. He had a daughter. Based on Eileen's description of her father studying gears and being murdered, this man could have been her father.
L'Heure du Loup: Viola. A title held by Tanya, who has the head of a wolf due to the Distortion. She says that their "orchestrator" wishes to destroy Syndicates like the Thumb and Index to "make music" while helping the Library. The orchestrator is implied to be the Blue Reverberation. She killed a large portion of the Kurokumo Clan, stealing the Nuovo Fabric they had just retrieved for the Thumb, and also killed several Sweepers. She values only strength; The weak should obey the strong, and the strong should overthrow the weak: "Adapt or die." She wants a world where power means everything. She views the fight for survival as natural, and the present as all that matters. The role of strength, both physical and metaphorical, to remove the unfit is normal. She was formerly an executive member of the Middle.
The Crying Children: Cello. An Urban Nightmare. A Distortion that appeared in V Corp's Nest, killing 80,000 people. It originated from Philip, a Grade 5 Fixer who used to work for Dawn Office. It was first spotted near the Library, where it then went to Dawn Office and began wailing. Afterwards, it began destroying everything around the Office. Although it was first spotted as being a marble statue resembling Philip, when it was causing destruction it was made of burning wax. It escaped capture by Section 1 of Liu Association's Southern Branch due to the meddling of the Blue Reverberation, who vanished with it. Philip is now a member of the Ensemble. He only has dulled remnants of his memories and feelings, and has abandoned relationships between people, trying to seek his own happiness. He seeks a free life.
The Eight Chefs: Percussion. Greta of the Eight Chefs is a member of the Ensemble. She believes that the ingredients of a dish don't matter as long as the taste is good. She wants to see a world in which there are "pure and clean" ingredients, because currently wealth inequality creates only gluttonous wealthy and malnourished poor. She does not believe there is anything wrong with cannibalism: If human life is valued more than that of an animal because they are apex predators, then there should not be a problem with a pack of humans that rise and prey on the others. She believes there are two options between eating nothing (possibilities other than food) and eating anything, following instinct.
More details about the Eight Chefs in general are written in their own entry.
The Eight o'Clock Circus: Clarinet. A Distortion from District 12 with a circus theme, which seemed to also appear on television. Its ringleader, Oswald, was assessed by Wedge Office as not particularly strong, but its "crew" varied; One creature shaped like a lion was powerful enough to destroy the body of a Wedge Fixer in one hit using its blunt teeth. It was handled by them, but Oswald escaped. Moses's Office appeared as well, late due to fighting crew members outside the tent. Several members of the circus died in the Library, attempting to follow Wedge Office. Oswald is able to manifest illusions of people's desires. After meeting Yesterday's Promise, he has joined the Reverberation Ensemble. Oswald dislikes expectations and believes anger is unnatural and harmful. He wants a world where everyone can laugh. He dislikes how people hope for good things "someday" because it will not happen, and would prefer to keep a positive attitude and perform, celebrating the present.
The Musicians of Bremen: Horn, Tuba, and Trombone. It seems that the members Doodle-doo, Woof, and Heehaw that left the "main" group of musicians fused together into one entity named Bremen, and then joined the Ensemble. They do not seem to be able to speak in anything but animal sounds. Their perceptions are strange and motivated by the pursuit of pleasure in a bizarre world. They derive no happiness from common things, spending their days happily in debauchery.
The Puppeteer: Second Violin. An Urban Nightmare. His real name appears to be Jae-heon. He is a member of the Reverberation Ensemble. He strings people together as his puppets; They are still conscious, but forced to move along strings. He is affected by the Distortion. After harming VIPs on WARP Train UW-212, he is likely to be exalted as a Star of the City. He does not believe that choice exists in life, and that someone is controlling or playing tricks on everyone, including himself.
Returning from an ordinary day at work, he was sent the corpse of his son in a stasis box, along with a doll Jae-heon had sewn for him, after he was crushed by a Backstreets road roller while playing. In an attempt to revive him, he used the bodies of other already deceased children to build a puppet of him. This puppet was killed and the entire lab was burned by Roland moments before completion, so Jae-heon swore vengeance against him. Making puppets gives him emotional catharsis. The appearance of the puppets does not matter to him.
Yesterday's Promise: Pipe Organ. An Urban Plague. A title of Pluto. He is able to use magic. According to the Hana, he has easy access to teleportation capabilities, beyond what an individual should possess, that surpass W Corp's Singularity due to the Distortion. He seems to offer "contracts" to people: a "deal with the devil" that often has unfavorable terms in the fine print. If a person who signs a Yesterday's Promise contract does not fulfill the conditions, Pluto can take anything out of them, as much as he wants whenever he wants--Including their heart, which he can also return freely. There was an orange symbol on the neck of the first Thousand Needles victim, similar to a certain corpse with disfigured organs that some Rats discovered. Pluto invited Oswald of the Eight o'Clock Circus to join the ensemble. Pluto views the Library as brutal and macabre, and faith in religion as selfish and cruel. He views the world as a massive aggregation of delusions, where every person's knowledge is susceptible to deception, and no one is real. He puts no faith in what he sees because it may all be an illusion, and he wishes for a world devoid of lies. In the past, he was cheated by a contract, possibly one enforced by Roland.
Thousand Needles: Written in the phenomena section.
Rusted Chains: A Syndicate that fights with the Kurokumo Clan regularly. They use chains as weapons. According to Jikan, they are not the largest Syndicate but each member is strong. They can be fought in the Library. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they would be revived.
Smiling Faces: An Urban Nightmare-class Syndicate. The Syndicate is allied or cooperating with the Blue Reverberation, and was responsible for torturing (and then killing during the Night in the Backstreets of District 23) the Shi Southern Branch Manager, Thelma, for failing to complete all of his assigned tasks. Their members are cannibalistic. They have strong accents, and their clothes are typically brown with a silver smiling mask of the Hahoe village. Their primary "weapon", used to strengthen themselves and weaken others, is a performance-enhancing narcotic smoke. The long pipes they use double as blunt weapons, and also contain a hidden blade in the bowl of the pipe. They originally started in the east of the City, but their influence has grown to other areas. According to Moses, they are known for moving in an uncanny way. Some were killed in the Library, sent by Argalia's orders. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
Jia Qiu names them as a party that would be interested in invading Hongyuan and stealing Boluses and Bolus recipes during a full-scale war caused by the power vacuum between Hierarchs.
Stray Dogs: An Urban Legend-class Syndicate. Its turf, District 22, is associated with the Thumb. Its members typically deal in hand-to-hand combat, enhanced with special tattoos. They had a deal with Walter from Zwei to trade goods from the Church of Gears for a floorplan of L Corp's Nest. The Church of Gears wiped out more than half of the Syndicate, and due to Walter's death in the Library, the Thumb is liable to purge the Stray Dogs for not obtaining the floorplan. They were killed in the Library after trying to retrieve Walter's book. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
Technology Liberation Alliance: An organization that was attacking K Corp laboratories, considered a terrorist organization. They worked day and night to create machines. They are formed of former researchers of renowned firms. They do not take WARP Trains and don't eat the meat from the City. Dongbaek, who appears to be their leader, possesses an item called a "veil", which is an expensive Singularity-based item only the richest classes (e.g. famous Fixers or Wing executives) could afford. Dongbaek wields the Sunshower EGO. She sent a threat to K Corp that she would release an Abnormality on the streets if Dongrang did not speak about the Singularity. However, she did not release it; The Brass Bull escaped on its own.
Ran complains that type X-32 bolts are hard to get nowadays and that they have to order them from other Nests, which means a lot of tax is added. (Faust says that you can substitute these bolts by casting a C-9 bolt and tempering it at an interval of two hours.) Senior Researcher Ran was an outstanding researcher who was once awarded the best employee award, similar to Dongrang in the present day, as Samjo once saw her name on a plaque in the trophy room. She was rather famous within the company when Shrenne and Dongrang joined; Dongrang heard rumors that she wanted to test the limits of K Corp's technologies, then rumors about her leaving the laboratory and ending up in this group. Based on emails between Shrenne and Ran, they seem to be seeking "a past where no technologies existed, allowing everything that existed to shine brighter." In other words, a world without prosthetics and other forms of tech, even if there are fewer conveniences of modern civilization and resources, because it appears that rapid development can only be achieved through means that cause pain and suffering to people.
It is presumed that K Corp did not directly assist against the terrorists (or against the Brass Bull Abnormality that was killing people in the street) because they do not want the general public to know that such things are happening in the Nest. In reality, the Brass Bull's devastation was being recorded for use for K Corp's Singularity.
Tieqiu Crew: A Syndicate that works in a certain J Corp casino, running the third floor. They are known for their coarse language and are rumored to have taken down dozens of rival Syndicate members with only their sheer psychological damage. After hearing even stronger, even more incredibly violent language, they were impressed and allowed a group of guests to continue to the next floor. Their boss is a person with an antique full-body prosthetic. After making a false accusation of cheating in the High Rollers' Lounge and betting all of his stakes on it, he was crushed to death by a trash compactor.
The Butchers: A group mentioned by the Tingtang Gang boss.
The Carnival: A Syndicate (or rather, a group of high-class Tailors) that guts people out in the open, protected by the Index. They are obsessed with spinning powerful human silk by eating people (using formerly patented technology). Its members' names are Greek letters and they have been heavily modified into inhuman forms. Skilled Tailors typically belong to an organization with an exclusive deal, but the Carnival is not directly affiliated with anyone despite accepting Prescripts from the Index. They killed several Sweepers according to an Index Prescript. They were killed in the Library, following a Prescript to go there. Following the exile of the Library, it is likely they will be revived.
The Eight Chefs: Stars of the City. The highest honored chefs of District 23, who incorporate the entire process of cooking into their research into flavors. They exclusively focus on human meat. After the Library reaches Star of the City, they have disbanded; Hana South Section 2 discovered seven of the chefs already cooked and mutilated on-site. The last chef is considered missing: Greta, a member of the Reverberation Ensemble. According to her, the chefs had decided to cook themselves after declaring they became sick of ordinary cuisine.
The Steel Comrades: An Urban Nightmare, most likely a Syndicate. Their captain was eliminated by South Section 2 of the Shi.
Tingtang Gang: A Syndicate in District 10, whose members are casually called Tingtangers. They seem to have tattoos and wear Hawaiian-print shirts. They control a portion of District 10. After Don Quixote picks a fight with them, Limbus Company decides to wipe out the gang. Their leader seems to be headquartered at the "car pagoda" in a scrapyard. They amassed wealth and power by dealing in used cars. It is considered a lowly gang, but they planned to win the game on the top floor of a certain casino through collecting others' luck using J Corp Singularity tattoos.
Twinhook Pirates: A Syndicate in U Corp's District, officially run by Hook, but due to being a routine drunkard, the de facto leader is the second-in-command, Smee. They run a perfume business, but have been turning to extortion and hostage ransoming as a branch business. Smee claims that she is looked over by a Big Brother of the Middle. The Middle seems to have a hefty bounty on Queequeg's head after she quit.
The names of the captain and first mate are likely a reference to the famous pirates from Peter Pan.
Yurodiviye: Spelled Yurodivy when referring to a singular member. A Syndicate started in District 25. They appear in District 10, where they "[rough] up greedy peddlers keeping money to themselves", redistributing their goods to those who need it (though allegedly through hiring local thugs). It bothers pawnbrokers in the District.
It is led by a man named Sonya. Rodion was a former member of the Syndicate. He says that he used to keep her from her obsession with gambling and money. His goal is apparently "to destroy the system of oppression and exploitation, preventing the concentration of wealth," and that he told Rodion that the "proletarians should unite to take down the ruling class and build a new society." (Rodion's response was "If you mean we should round up the rich and crush and pop [them] under [a trash compactor], then I'm all for it.") He is known for grand words. He once said to Rodya that "the Yurodiviye must live like fools in the eyes of others. So that we may see a path invisible to them. [...] the scarf [is] a yoke to hide the great ambition, that those with such dreams must remain bound."
The Syndicate began due to dissatisfaction at how the poor in their neighborhood only got poorer, people selling off heirlooms for scant sums while money piled in pawnbrokers' safes. Sonya rallied the local people with his words in order to help the impoverished. However, Sonya's general dissatisfaction warped the organization into one that cared more to debate the ideal way to change the streets and Nest rather than physically helping the needy immediately. This was the reason why Rodion left of her own accord. Sonya claims that it is necessary to wait for the right moment in order to achieve the monumental task of redistributing wealth, but Rodion finds the fact that waiting for such a long undefined time leaves the current people behind, such as starving children, unacceptable. Sonya believes these are minor inevitable troubles. He did extensive research into books, documents, and people around the City, and came to the conclusion that it was not possible to change the existing world, and instead seek to create a new world without starvation and with the freedom of psychological and intellectual pursuits, using the Golden Bough alongside Rodion. She refused on the grounds that she cannot yet forgive herself. He was willing to give up the Golden Bough this one time, which may imply that his motivations are different.
Rodion as a Yurodivy took matters into her own hands to help her dying neighbors, killing a rich old tax collector who wielded considerable authority in District 25 with an ax, although it may have been due to her own dissatisfaction with not being a "special" person. The starving residents who she shared the money with were able to enjoy quality meat for the first time in their lives, but were soon slaughtered by the Middle for killing a member's sister (the tax collector). Since this day, she has never felt that she has truly owned any of her possessions. She believes that Sonya was aware that Rodion would kill the tax collector. Sonya believes that Rodion does not seek a perfect world because it would be boring and she would be unable to prove that she would be special.
They seem to be spreading through the Nests; In T Corp, they perform petty thefts of time or money, but also do pro bono detective work for people who can't afford to hire people. One of their five greatest inventions of the Yurodiviye T Corp. Branch is the PortableAdjustableFrequencyPeriodicalLightingApparatusAttachmentSoundwave Generator, which calls every Yurodivy in its range to its location. They call Sonya the Saint. Their underground hideouts have a Bartering Market.
The Distortion Phenomenon (WIP)
What is the Distortion phenomenon? (What is the difference between Distortion and E.G.O.?)
Although it has a low incidence rate, the Distortion phenomenon, sometimes only called "the Distortion", is a City-wide phenomenon that began after the White Nights and Dark Days. From an outside perspective, the Distortion appears to turn people into powerful monsters or other strange creatures and existences seemingly at random purely through powerful surges of emotion (or when "good and evil" or the mind crumbles) as a result, often killing others.
Those that are consumed by their desires Distort, while those who control and take advantage of those desires manifest E.G.O. However, if one's beliefs change or are otherwise swayed, it is possible to be cured of the Distortion, lose E.G.O., transform the Distortion into E.G.O., or vice versa. Those that fail to even Distort effectively turn into Peccatula.
Visually, E.G.O. is typically depicted as equipment (being controlled and wielded only by its owner), while Distortions may look like anything from monsters to inanimate objects. Thus far, the only person known to see Distortion before it manifests is Moses from the Distortion Detective; Those who wield any kind of E.G.O. appear to have no Distortion to her, showing their mutual exclusion. Due to the lack of knowledge of internal Lobotomy Corporation terminology, Moses's group called E.G.O. "psychoment" instead.
Initially, information on the Distortion was lacking and mysterious to citizens of the City, at best suspecting that the Library had some link to it. No official announcement of the phenomenon had been made to the general public. It has no publicly known cause, as the only observed effect is that individuals morph into unique and often inhuman-looking forms.
How do people Distort (or manifest E.G.O.)?
Strong emotions and unmet desires are a core cause of Distortion, and essentially manifest as reality. Typically, it requires a growing issue and then a "breaking point", in which pent-up emotions are released or worsened suddenly. For example, the sudden loss of a spouse (and conviction to avenge them) is a potential breaking point for Distortion or E.G.O. manifestation.
Those that are about to Distort or manifest E.G.O. typically hear the warm voice of a woman named Carmen, who attempts to goad them into Distortion by giving in to their emotions. Subjectively, most who Distort seem to accept the words of Carmen while most who manifest E.G.O. seem to reject or even seemingly ignore her.
Faust gives an example: Assume Hong Lu held a belief he was certain would be an unchanging constant as he lived in the City, or a hope for some other psychological sustainment that has supported his life. If that support suddenly collapses in a massively shocking event that causes one to "let their 'ego' go", his mind would figuratively crumble. The phenomenon arises from deeply personal psychological shock. The affected will have walled off their heart with a solid defense and must be brought down using methods that the Distorted would approve of. In a way they can be considered similar to Abnormalities, but they do not turn into eggs and can die permanently.
Distortions typically manifest in a form dedicated to expressing and obtaining their desires openly and one-dimensionally, but rarely can they maintain reason in order to plan ways to obtain their hidden desires. Moses theorizes that these Distortions are in a state between obtaining Psychoment (E.G.O. manifestation) or staying as a Distortion.
Mass Distortion has been recorded by Moses exactly once, in which many people within a school Distorted together over a shared obsession for competition on an upcoming major standardized test.
What caused the Distortion phenomenon?
Lobotomy Corporation, a now-fallen Wing, along with the Library that sprung up where it fell, technically caused the Distortion. In an attempt to cure a perceived "illness" in the hearts of the City's denizens, the original intent was to allow anyone to manifest E.G.O. of their own. However, due to the initial incomplete distribution, Distortions commonly occurred instead.
The White Nights and Dark Days occurred at the end of Lobotomy Corporation (the game) and coincided with the fall of Lobotomy Corporation as a Wing. The main branch of the company was collecting an enormous amount of "light" which had been released upon the City from the center of L Corp's Nest, shining for three days straight even throughout the night. However, a large portion of the light had been hijacked by the Library, leading to four days of deep darkness even during the morning. It is said it was as if the City was asleep or frozen during that time. It is possible that it also influenced people's emotions in general. In Roland's words, "People have gotten more honest than usual."
Taii, who was working at an L Corp branch at the time, described the light as imparting a feeling of happiness and relief, but no joy. Everyone else they saw was smiling regardless of location (except for a coworker, Flower). Then, when the darkness fell, the positive feelings disappeared and were replaced by a much stronger despair, misery, and grief.
The remaining light has since been re-released along with the exile of the Library, thus completing the distribution of light. However, Distortions still exist, as the original orchestrator of the plan, Carmen, decided to view Distortions as an equally acceptable result.
Essentially, after this point, it is possible for any citizen to Distort or manifest E.G.O. due to possessing this "light."
How do Distortions turn into Abnormalities?
Distortions, if left unattended or untreated for an extended period of time, carry the capability to turn into an Abnormality. It is completely irreversible and erases all preexisting individuality.
Two examples: It has occurred once with Pluto using his "magic" to transform a distorting Philip of Dawn Office into the Crying Children, and once more with an object called a Monolith giving prolonged exposure to a Distorted individual.
How are Distortions dealt with?
By the time of Limbus Company's "Timekilling Time" event, any and all detectives (Fixers) working to solve cases of Urban Nightmare or beyond are issued a "Special Investigator Badge" during the course of their employment, which allows them to command aid for the investigation.
Known Distortions and Related Objects
Monolith: An object that resembles a black stele that can force people to Distort. In a purely speculative manner, they may be the "black boxes" that appeared in Distortion Detective that can also cause Distortion by collecting immature Distortion from people and releasing them. Apparently, if the Monolith is not locked down properly (a maneuver that requires speed and precision) after being stabilized, a Distortion can be turned into an Abnormality. It is also possible that even after it is properly sealed, its lingering influence can seep into those it was in contact with and increase Distortion risk.
The Pianist: An Urban Nightmare. The first and worst recorded instance, killing 80% of District 9 and decapitated by the Black Silence. Its performance shook the entire City with an unforgettable sound created from its victims. The origin, known from a pre-release short story on a Project Moon website (Wayback Machine link here), was a certain pianist who worked at a bar. Although he loved the piano, he completely lacked talent; In a fit of despair after a talented customer upstaged him, he threw his body at the keys and became Distorted. It took 300,000 lives in one fell swoop, annihilating the residential area of the Backstreets in District 9.
The Time Ripper: A Distortion in District 20's Nest, who was formerly a Yurodivy and refers to themselves in plural, due to having merged with multiple individuals in brain jars. Disgusted at their hypocrisy (not even distributing time evenly amongst themselves), they took matters into their own hands to steal time from the fortunate and give it to the needy. They prefer to be called the "Time Saint" rather than the Ripper, as they despise their "crusade" to be simply called "killing time". They seem to only be able to take time from people who are bored (that is to say, from people who are merely killing time). A Yurodivy member describes a man matching his ideals who became "a bit weird" after his younger brother died, who was last heard saying "I'll always be watching you." It was neutralized by Limbus Company and adamantly claimed by T Corp.
Laundry of Dreams: An Urban Legend in District 12's Backstreets. It is a seemingly normal coin laundry, but those who use it end up becoming completely different people afterwards. They are overcome with the desire to change and wash their skin, but can be persuaded to put it back on. It was once considered an Urban Plague because it wiped out an Office, but got stepped down after not causing more notable incidents. It was retrieved by Moses's Office.
Eunbong's Bar & Fryers: Readable in the Miscellaneous Companies section.
Other Cases: Due to how numerous the cases of the Distortion are, writing every instance would easily fill several pages. Read Distortion Detective on ProjectMoon's Postype (link). Also, as the Reverberation Ensemble contains a vast number of Distorted individuals, please check their entry in the Syndicates section for some more important examples.
Other Phenomena
La Manchaland: An Urban Nightmare that mysteriously manifested in P Corp's Backstreets in October 984 (*NOTE: CHECK, 2 months prior to Canto 7). Cesara of P Corp's Archival Department describes it as "the land where the happiest smiles bloom" and "the 'amusement park' of fables and legends." More than several dozen people have been reported missing as a result of this phenomenon, but the real number is likely much higher. Those who visit the park are trapped within. It was considered an Urban Plague three days after its first appearance and has recently been escalated to its current rank. It is currently an Open Contract posted by Hana Association. P Corp. has an eradication dividend fund, giving out reward money based on contribution to the eradication of La Manchaland; Parties uninterested in the expedition are free to enter if they are fine with not receiving any payout from the fund, but P Corp. requests a copy of related contracts.
Inside, it is entirely Bloodfiends and Bloodbags. It is conservatively estimated to originate from 200 years ago based on photographs and retrieved materials (which is entirely made of human blood that dates more than 200 years ago). It first appeared two months ago in the middle of a dense population center, causing the buildings to be pushed (and thus crushing people and bending the buildings). It crashed the local real estate market, causing locals to attempt to storm the park. P Corp. instituted a three-kilometer buffer zone around the area it appears in. Common testimony says there is disembodied music audible from an eight-kilometer range radius from the epicenter, which seems to have drawn some people in. If a visitor survives for six hours, music announcing the closure of the park begins to play; Visitors have thirty minutes to exit or else they are trapped inside fighting more Bloodfiends until it re-manifests. There are four Areas, three of which have devices for unlocking the final Area that no one has yet reached. The devices reset every time it manifests.
The Library: Ranked as an Impurity before it was exiled. Managed by Angela, the director, it sends out invitations that can instantly transport people to the library when accepted. The invitations offer an ordeal: If the guests overcome the ordeal they can obtain valuable books, but if they fail they will become books themselves in the Library's collection. Guests are allowed to retreat. It is widely believed that there are monsters here.
Angela is publicly known to be a polite non-human (machine) who personally greets guests. Angela is also known as "the Pale Librarian" by the time the Library reaches Star of the City. The Library is located in the heart of the former L Corp Nest. Although originally protected by the mist in the district, it was slowly clearing over time. The Library is visible from every part of the Nest by the "Impuritas Civitatis" tier.
Based on the pattern of Quercus Village in District 11 having monthly rituals that seemed to relate to the Distortion, it is possible the Library became an Urban Legend after at least 3.75 years passed since the fall of L Corp.
After the Library was declared an Impurity by the Head, the Library as well as the rest of District 12's Nest were relocated to the Outskirts.
The Wild Hunt: A phenomenon in which a Mirror World entity wreaks havoc across the dimensions in pursuit of every Heathcliff. Apparently it resembles the Nocturnal March of a Hundred Demons. An endless number will appear until the leader (Faust uses "Erlking") withdraws orders.
Nocturnal March of a Hundred Demons: Mentioned by Ryoshu. It might have a similarity to Ordeals from Lobotomy Corporation's Headquarters.
Thousand Needles: An Urban Legend phenomenon, believed to be caused by Yesterday's Promise. It was solved solo by a Dawn Fixer named Yuna. Its members started merging together using a "brainstem focus resonator". Buildings started melting, needles began shooting out of the merged pile, and people hit by the needles would explode into more needles. Strange symbols were carved on every needle, likely "proving" the existence of magic (in reality, Pluto's Distortion effects). It occurred in District 22's Backstreets.
Unclear Origin
Clockwork Teeth: Monsters from the Outskirts, described as flesh clockwork or looking like clocks. An Outskirts resident advises against allowing them to take even a single strand of hair, and a child, Crayon, was warned of them though they don't "show up this high."
Corpse Corps: Jia Qiu names them as a party that would be interested in invading Hongyuan and stealing Boluses and Bolus recipes during a full-scale war caused by the power vacuum between Hierarchs.
Fragment from Beyond: An Urban Nightmare destroyed by South Section 2 of the Shi.
Midnight Pancreas Burgers: Involves a factory that was clean on the surface but did terrible, nausea-inducing things (...selling hamburgers made out of pancreases). This request was solved by Dawn Office, although they are loath to remember it.
Oblivion Ingots: Something that was retrieved by South Section 2 of Shi Association. Whatever oblivion ingots are, the retrieval of them was considered an Urban Nightmare-class threat.
The Secret of the Demi-glace Sauce: An Urban Nightmare that occurred in the Backstreets of District 16. It was handled by Roland and Olivier as their first case of this class, at the time part of Charles' Office. When the case was almost complete, Olivier almost got his arm caught in a blender but was saved by Roland—except that Roland was responsible for the danger in the first place, as Olivier was trying to prevent Roland from recklessly consuming the sauce.
Thin Beef Skirt Factory: An Urban Nightmare demolished by South Section 2 of the Shi.
Yakshas: Jia Qiu names them as a party that would be interested in invading Hongyuan and stealing Boluses and Bolus recipes during a full-scale war caused by the power vacuum between Hierarchs.
WORKSHOPS
What is a Workshop?
Workshops are individual equipment manufacturers, who sell specialized weapons and items to Fixers and others. Some especially skilled individuals are called Meisters, but this might just be a self-assigned title. There are Workshop unions with certificates for identification. According to Moses, northern Workshops typically put extra decorations such as ribbons on their products.
For a workshop to produce guns or bullets, they require a firearms manufacturing license that is difficult to obtain. According to Yae, a member of Leaflet Workshop, it may be common for workshop members to train under another workshop first. In Full Stop Office Fixer Heathcliff's story, he describes an uncommon firearm that uses two different propellants (a magnetic rail, then gunpowder) but comments that S-class Workshops could probably easily produce more impressive items, but he guesses there are not more than three S-class Workshops.
Is Workshop technology patented like Singularities?
All Workshop technology is patented, and those who infringe on patents will receive a cease and desist letter up to three times. When a Workshop receives one of these letters, they must pay all of the profit they made to A Corp (The Head). If you cannot pay the penalty by the third warning, the Claw will come to kill you.
Tres Association (see Fixer Associations) is responsible for overall management of workshops. They approve, file patents on, and charge taxes on workshop weaponry.
Known Workshops
Allas Workshop: Ezra has gloves from here that can accelerate her hands by five times the velocity. Roland, as the Black Silence, has equipment from this Workshop.
Atelier Logic: This workshop produces expensive bullets. They are used by Full Stop Office. Roland, as the Black Silence, has equipment from here as well. His weapon appears to be a rifle of some kind.
Crystal Atelier: Roland, as the Black Silence, has equipment from this workshop.
Fanar Workshop: This workshop produces pressure bandages.
Koori Workshop: Ezra has gloves from here that can freeze walls.
Leaflet Workshop: Fixers employed by the Workshop describe it as one that sells serviceable weapons to Fixers at a reasonable price and quality weapons to underground Syndicates at higher prices. It seems most Workshops might operate this way, but there are exceptions.
Mook Workshop: Roland, as the Black Silence, has equipment from this workshop.
Namir Workshop: Ezra has gloves from here that have a weight-changing sphere, courtesy of G Corp's Singularity.
Nester Workshop: Ezra has a one-handed hammer from here that delivers a large impact despite its small size. One hammer crumpled from the impact of a Smiling Faces mask.
Old Boys Workshop: Roland, as the Black Silence, has equipment from this workshop. His weapon appears to be an axe.
Ranga Workshop: Roland, as the Black Silence, has equipment from this workshop. His weapon appears to be a pair of clawed gauntlets.
Rosespanner Workshop Office: The representative of the workshop was named Niko. The workshop also employs Fixers. They were assisting Shrenne's department at K Corp's laboratory. It appears that the workshop is also a Fixer Office at the same time. After being discovered to be collaborating with the technology liberation alliance, Niko and other Fixers were killed by Limbus Company.
Stigma Workshop: Ezra has a sword from here that has a heated wire. Dawn Office also uses Stigma Workshop weaponry. The trademark of the workshop is that the weapons burn beautiful symbols.
Union Co.: A workshop that produces ready-made bionic weapons. According to Taein, a Hook Fixer, their prices are reasonable compared to most procedures and workshop weapons, and bionic weapons can be replaced or attached easily without worry of allergies. According to the mirror world identity of Ryoshu as Naoki, this workshop is "filled with amateurs. They pick up their meat from random piles of corpses to make their weapons." According to Hong Lu's identity as Taein, that's why they're cheap, but they drain his energy which makes him hungry all the time.
Wheels Industry: Roland, as the Black Silence, has equipment from this workshop. His weapon appears to be a greatsword.
Windvalley Workshop: Ezra has a gauntlet from this workshop. When she puts it on and punches, a strong gust of wind is produced.
YuRia Atelier: A workshop that uses the Distortion to create a factory line run by stuffed bears. It is one of the top 10 workshops of District 14, with an exclusive customer membership. Its owner, the self-proclaimed Workshop Meister YuRia, is currently working with Moses's Office. She can easily produce 11 pieces of equipment within one week, including night vision glasses and an exoskeleton.
In actuality, she is not using the Distortion but rather E.G.O. equipment, which she calls psychoment (as she does not know its L Corp origin or terminology). She swears to dedicate her life to studying it. After an event at Tae-young Produce Co, YuRia's mind is currently stuck within the body of a teddy bear E.G.O. and her body is being managed by Dou Gui Combat Office. The mist of District 12 negatively affects her in this form, making her psychoment connection unstable.
Zelkova Workshop: Roland, as the Black Silence, has equipment from this workshop.
??? Workshop: Mika's father used to run this unnamed workshop, but it was axed by the Claw after he was tricked by an acquaintance into breaching a patent.
BONUS: RANDOM WORLD DETAILS
Please take this section with a grain of salt, as this is purely based on observation of the dialogue and writing. Project Moon can easily overturn most of these patterns, and they can be read differently depending on the person.
Note: This encyclopedia also does not go into detail for specific characters unless they are extremely important to the City in general. For example, I don't record information about Finn's sister; I only describe Yun's Office in general. However, I recorded information about Olivier (formerly of Charles Office) because of his ties to both Angelica and Roland, who are a Color and a protagonist of a game respectively.
It's less like a wiki and more like a writer's general world guide.
The Timeline: The only concrete mention of time passing after Lobotomy Corporation's destruction is the monthly ritual conducted by Quercus Village (in Distortion Detective). This festival used a special black box that artificially transferred Distortions of the villagers. Based on the number of missing villagers, it can be assumed that about 45 villagers were sacrificed.
ASSUMING the monthly pattern is consistent and the ritual required the existence of the Distortion to occur, this means that at least 3.75 years passed since the beginning of the Distortion phenomenon (which happened with the fall of Lobotomy Corporation).
Immediately after the event with Quercus Village, it is mentioned by Dias that the Library is an Urban Legend. This means that it takes at least 3.75 years after L Corp's demise for the Library to become an Urban Legend. It should be noted that the Library did NOT open immediately as soon as L Corp fell.
https://i.imgur.com/YjsLUNJ.png My best attempt at reconstructing the timeline
*CORRECTION: Six months pass between Chapters 1 and 2 of Leviathan, NOT one month.
Time "Inconsistency": Library of Ruina itself has an unusual time discrepancy in the form of WARP Train UW-212. When the Molar Office gets onto the train, the Library is considered an Urban Legend. When the Puppets are fought (sent during the train ride) and when the WARP Cleanup Crew discover the missing passengers (immediately after the train ride), the Library is an Urban Nightmare.
That means that the Library became an Urban Plague... and then became an Urban Nightmare within the 10 seconds of the train ride. These titles are given by Hana Association, which implies that within these 10 seconds they decided to increase the rank of the Library twice.
This also implies the entire Urban Plague tier happened within those 10 seconds. It should be clear that this is impossible--With any basic logic, Philip could not have escaped the Library, contacted and visited Wedge Office, and had his entire conversation within 10 seconds; Not to mention the Kurokumo Clan meeting with the Carnival to collect their Nuovo Fabric, then after traveling to a different location, being brutalized by Tanya and having it stolen also within those 10 seconds.
My (un)professional opinion: This is probably an accidental oversight by Project Moon, and this timeline was never meant to be analyzed in such detail. For gameplay and story reasons it makes sense to split the train ride into many sections, so this inconsistency is likely an unforeseen consequence of storytelling pacing.
Another "discrepancy", although a far more believable one, occurs due to the Prescripts of the Index. Yan began work as an Index Messenger less than a month before his death in the Library. He first appears in the Urban Plague tier delivering Prescripts to the Carnival. In the same tier, he delivers another Prescript: "To John. Stand on any three-way intersection at 3:38 tomorrow, look to the east, and wave seven times."
Then, in the Star of the City tier, he is sent to the bunker of an Index Weaver. There, he reads a newly made Prescript: "To Chae-heon. When you see a person on a three-way intersection waving their hand seven times, follow them to their house."
This implies that it takes about one day for the Library to go from Urban Plague to Star of the City, but ONLY if Chae-heon's Prescript does actually refer to John. Compared to "Urban Plague in 10 seconds", "Urban Nightmare in 1 day" seems considerably more believable... in a relative way...
Names and Language: In the City, it appears that people don't care whether a name is traditionally feminine or masculine. There are cases of women with traditionally masculine names (e.g. Elijah, Harold) and men with traditionally feminine names (e.g. Emma), and it is never commented on or treated as odd. Entirely unusual names like Alpha, Beta, and Gamma also occur in the City.
Also, because there are no locations concretely analogous to real life places, characters seem to freely have names from many cultures/languages, such as Jae-heon (Korean), Noah and Gabriel (Hebrew), Giovanni (Italian), Sayo and Tenma (Japanese), Olga (Slavic), Liwei and Xiao (Chinese), Isadora (Greek), etc.
It is not clear if there are more languages COMMONLY spoken in the City than one, other than the Sweepers' unique language. Sweepers themselves seem to have relatively "normal" names consistent with the rest of the City, though whether or not a person who does not speak their language would know that is unclear.
More than one language is spoken occasionally in the City, such as with Xiao (Liu Association Southern Branch Section 1's Director) quoting in Mandarin Chinese in the English translation of the game. Certain people in the City also speak different dialects of the same language and have different accents, such as with the Smiling Faces.
Discrimination: The City does not appear to have any form of race or gender discrimination, although clearly stated LGBT+ characters have not appeared directly (MAJOR CORRECTION: the employees of WonderLab have been stated to have no particular gender and are referred to neutrally, which puts them in a nonbinary category). If I had to guess, wealth and power take much higher precedence in a society where you can physically modify your body so that you can jump from ground level to a room seventeen stories up. Sexism and gender roles do not appear to exist in any form whatsoever.
In that way, I guess "class discrimination" is extremely strong in that the rich are ridiculously powerful, what with the whole "kidnapping poor people for fun and putting them in death traps" thing.
Day-to-Day Technology: Although things like surveillance cameras, complex AI, and monitors are seen frequently in Nests and Wings, standard computers have not been seen in everyday life, but online schooling is somewhat common even in the Backstreets... So there are probably computers for that. Angela mentions "the net" in Lobotomy Corporation (as in, the Internet) but we don't know how widespread its access is or how effective it is--Only that Angela, as an AI, caught a virus from it that slowed her processes tenfold.
Characters have been seen using phones (wireless landlines?), receiving messages from pagers, and using earpieces and radios. Yun was using a cell phone? But smartphones probably are not available to the average City denizen...???
Television and newspapers do exist. In WonderLab, it is clear that both cartoons and news bulletins are aired on TV.
Cars and streetlights exist, but traffic lights have not yet been seen outside of Alloc's face (from Gaze Office) having a green-yellow-red light pattern.
In Wonderlab, public transportation in the form of buses has been seen. However, it is very possible that the location was specifically within a Nest.
The main mode of transportation in Limbus Company is a bus with an engine designed by Faust and named Mephistopheles. It travels between Districts to reach fallen Lobotomy Corporation branches, which stretch across the city in both the Backstreets and the Nest.
Yesod's description of the City having a wide variety of technologies from all different eras is accurate, especially when looking at the Singularities next to technology used by the average person living in the Backstreets. W Corp Trains can transport a person through a rip in space to reach anywhere in the City within 10 seconds, while people are still using pagers to communicate.
The Smoke War: Details about this event are foggy (pun unintentional). From as far as I can tell, it was a massive battle between Wings (one of the "Wings Wars") that employed the use of chemical and biological weapons and caused mass death and bloodshed. The deadly effect of the "fog" is described in Dream of a Black Swan's Abnormality story. This likely increased the number of abandoned children in the Outskirts.
It likely involved the fall of the past L Corp, and caused the rise of Lobotomy Corporation. Lobotomy Corporation played a key role in rebuilding after the war.
It was a somewhat recent event, given that Salvador of Dawn Office and Roland fought in it and Rose from WonderLab was a child when it occurred.
Dias and Benjamin are most likely involved in sparking this war. R Corp's Fourth Pack was involved as combatants. The background art of Outis from Limbus Company implies she also has a connection to the Smoke War, and official art of Gregor implies he is also involved.
Wing War participants are not allowed to move to some Nests (or more specifically, Roland as a veteran of the Smoke War was barred from moving to the Nests of I Corp and K Corp despite previous promises of migration permit priority).
For ease of access, these parties are known to be involved based on current information:
Lobotomy Corporation, W Corp, R Corp, T Corp, The Udjat (Likely all allied as a group)
K Corp and I Corp (Likely allied at minimum with each other)
Old L Corp (The one before Lobotomy)
Allegedly, these Wings colluded together, according to G Corp Head Manager Outis's story:
Old G Corp, F Corp, E Corp + Old L Corp
Smoke War Timeline
- At least 70 days into the Smoke War
- There is a bomb in use that will age people rapidly if exposed, which had converted one outpost of G Corp's soldiers into "a nursing home" of people who could not even walk without sticks.
- "Later" into the Smoke War
- Side effects begin to manifest in the G Corp soldiers.
- End of the Smoke War
- Lobotomy Corporation replaces the fallen L Corp and assists in rebuilding after the war.
- G Corp appears to have fallen. (In the current day, they have been replaced.)
Limbus Company OFFICIAL Timeline
- January 984
- Prologue, Canto I, and Canto II.
- Dante loses their memories in the dark forest of District 4 and is introduced to LCB.
- In the Backstreets of District 4, Yuri dies. LCB fails to retrieve their first Golden Bough and are introduced to Hermann, Gubo, and Jia Huan.
- In the Backstreets of District 10, LCB successfully retrieves a Golden Bough, but only with the cooperation of Sonya of the Yurodiviye.
- February 984
- Canto III.
- The events at Calw, Emil Sinclair's hometown in the Nest of K Corp.
- Kromer is killed. LCB is introduced to Demian.
- March 984
- Intervallo I.
- The events in K Corp's Nest concerning Eunbong's Bar & Fryers.
- April 20th, 984
- Dante's Notes begin. (They write notes on a PDA for themself.)
- They continue taking notes until at least May 10th.
- May 984
- Canto IV.
- Limbus Company meets and subsequently kills Dongrang and Dongbaek.
- The Mephistopheles is outfitted by Molar Boatworks for travel on the Great Lake.
- More doors open in the backdoor, including the first Walpurgis Night.
- June 984
- Presumably, LCB is traveling on the Great Lake.
- July 984
- Canto V.
- Limbus Company visits Marlin Portship.
- LCB gets into an altercation with the Middle.
- With the assistance of the Indigo Elder, LCB meets the surviving members of the Pequod and kills the Pallid Whale.
- Captain Ahab of the Pequod is picked up by Hermann.
- The third Mirror Dungeon appears.
- August 984
- LCB remains on the Great Lake.
- Heathcliff, Don Quixote, and Dante enter a room in the Mephistopheles' corridor and are sent to a gifts factory in the Outskirts run by gnomes.
- Assisted by the rest of the Sinners, they save an Outskirts child and return to the bus.
- September 984
- The second Walpurgis Night appears.
- LCB finally returns to land, now traveling through the Backstreets of T Corp.