Origin
Japan
Sigurd is a Sylph warrior in the VRMMORPG: «ALfheim Online» and an active member of Sylph bureaucracy, being the assistant of the race's lord, until he is later banished for his betrayal. Sigurd is a very arrogant and self-righteous, "holier-than-thou" kind of man, who values respect more than his companions, even resorting to using them like items, as in the case with Leafa. It is unlike him to sacrifice himself for others, either. He is later revealed to be a man driven by power, both in his character's numerical stats and in his political power as a player, which is why he could not tolerate the idea of the Salamanders conquering the World Tree and ruling the skies as ALFs, while he would have to look up at them from the ground. Thus, he even makes a deal with the Salamanders to betray the Sylphs in order to become a Salamander himself. He was a candidate in the election for Lordship of the Sylph race, but lost to Sakuya due to her popularity. He also actively competed for the title of strongest Sylph swordsman, but he lost to Leafa in a recent Sylph tournament, yet he still retained high ambitions to hold power among the Sylphs. He tried to save his reputation after his loss by recruiting Leafa onto his team, so that he would be in control of the person who beat him.
Sword Art Online
In 2022, a virtual reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online (SAO) is released. With the NerveGear, a helmet that stimulates the user's five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds. Both the game and the NerveGear was created by Akihiko Kayaba. On November 6, 10,000 players log into the SAO's mainframe cyberspace for the first time, only to discover that they are unable to log out. Kayaba appears and tells the players that they must beat all 100 floors of Aincrad, a steel castle which is the setting of SAO, if they wish to be free. Those who suffer in-game deaths or forcibly remove the NerveGear out-of-game will suffer real-life deaths. The main character, Kirigaya "Kirito" Kazuto, was also one of 1,000 testers in the game's previous closed beta. With the advantage of previous VR gaming experience and a drive to protect other beta testers from discrimination, he isolates himself from the greater group and plays the game alone, bearing the mantle of "beater", a "beta tester" and "cheater". As the players progress through the game Kirito eventually befriends a young girl named Asuna Yuuki, who form a relationship that later turns into in-game marriage. After the duo discover that Akihiko Kayaba was playing the game as the leader of the guild Asuna joined, they confront and destroy him, freeing themselves and the other players from the game.
