Aincrad
The hundred-floor steel castle that is the setting of the first game, Sword Art Online.
Aincrad is the world of the virtual reality MMORPG Sword Art Online, a floating steel castle of 100 floors. Akihiko Kayaba, who built the game and the NerveGear headset, told the 10,000 players who logged in on 6 November 2022 that they could not log out and would only be freed when all 100 floors had been cleared.
Lore & Background
Death in the game, or any attempt to remove the NerveGear from outside, kills the player for real. Aincrad runs on the Cardinal system, a game engine Kayaba wrote for SAO that was later copied for ALfheim Online and, through the World Seed, for the worlds that followed. The castle was later recreated inside ALO, where Kirito's group keeps climbing it.
More in Worlds & Locations
Elsewhere in Sword Art Online
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced