This is the full epitaph

Once their magic land did glow
With vagrant, ever-present light:
When sprites would play in flowing fields,
The twilight shining in their wings
As they swam through silky seas of mist,
Before the coming of the Wave.

Untouched by fear or pain they lived
Each minute with the utmost joy,
Till the cursed Wave did rise
Tearing through the dusky skies;
Consuming light and dark in kind
And leaving none to mourn behind.

So to the East the sprites did flee
Though burdened by the tragedy,
The truth was all too plain to see:
One by one their kind would fall
Beneath the torrent of the Wave
If none could stand before its gaze
And somehow fill that endless void.

King of light and queen of dark,
Apeiron and Helba knew of one
Who might defeat the Wave:
A mythic beast long said to sleep
‘Neath the edge of the world’s end
Sheathed by the Wavering Peninsula,
A creature of the greatest might,
The sacred dragon of twilight.

Thus Queen Helba chose Bith the Black,
Her strongest sprite, to join the quest;
While Apeiron sent Fili the White
To journey with them in his stead,
For Bith and Helba thought it best
That the king remain behind to rule
And calm the ever-spreading dread
Ere the dragon might appear.

So as the three prepared to ride
Through the aqua gate of Mac Anu
A fourth did come by fate’s command:
One part human, one part sprite,
Alone for all his nameless might,
He fell in stride with Helba’s steed
As she wordlessly agreed,
His will was worthy of their cause.

Through the Fatel Bog they sped
As onyx dust cloaked each in turn
From which arose a blinding pall,
A living shadow born to crawl
Betwixt reality and mind,
Till death, within them, was enshrined:
Each was shown their comrades slain;
Illusions of Skeith’s mortal game.

Fili wept and knelt to pray,
While Bith did halt in stunned dismay
Ere turning back upon the path,
Desires crushed by failure’s wrath.
The halfling tore about the swamp
Searching for the fount of death
Whose noxious fog had claimed the lives
Of those who’d stand against the Wave.

Alone the dark queen Helba rode
Remorseless through the baneful mire,
Cursing the Wave as she progressed
Bent solely on her noble quest,
And as she went the darkness lifted
Till she found her friends still living,
Mounted on their stagnant steeds
As if enchanted by some dream.

Calling forth an ancient rune,
The queen dispelled the evil bind;
Thus Skeith’s hold was undermined
And as he slowly evanesced
Each realized they’d been possessed
While Helba foretold a prophecy
Of eight heralds with demons blood,
Eight phases of the Cursed Wave.


As the boggy mud grew dry
Gyle Mountain rose before them,
A deadly oft avoided peak;
The swiftest route to Dun Loireag;
For eons standing as a god
O’er looking men with its facade
While hiding at its center true,
A molten pit of which none knew.

As they neared the summit’s height
Something waited midst their course:
A Chimera of the greatest size
With sleight blue malefic eyes
Exuding lust for their demise;
Then two, then four, then all around
The aberrations capped the ground,
Till hundreds stood in perfect stillness.

Charging forth as one they came
With rumbling fury at the four,
Who held a circle back to back,
Slaying beasts as they attacked;
Though as the horrors met their deaths,
Each vanished with its dying breath,
Unfleshly as a wayward thought
But for the bloody wounds they wrought.

Thus the ceaseless battle waged:
As each fiend fell another came
Till Bith cried out in dire need,
A lone chimera must be real;
The others conjured effigies;
Doppelgangers born to please
Their lord and master as slaves,
Incarnations of the Wave.

Deeming true the dark knight’s words,
Fili beseeched her allies three
For time to let her mind’s eye see;
Hence minutes passed as Fili prayed
Ere she raised her longbow high
And let a single arrow fly
Piercing clouds upon the sky
As though the shaft were blessed by god.


Falling with a feather‘s grace
The missile knew whom to embrace,
And like a tear from heaven shed
Smote its wrath on the demon’s head,
Laying to waste the vile horde;
As Innis’ power left the peak
Six words of spite he cruelly gave:
You shall never stop the Wave.

Past the mount they traveled far
Through Dun Loireag the highland town
Till they reached the woods of Breade
Where lay a mark for all to heed:
A sphere enclosed by myriad lines,
One of many travelers’ signs
Known by the halfling doubtlessly:
A labyrinth confronts beyond.

Foraging down countless paths,
Each branch producing two alike;
They hastened forth without event
Till Helba sensed a foul intent,
And turning, to her wonder found
A creature posing as a man,
Exquisite in his nakedness;
A mold no human could possess.

With arms spread wide the demon smiled
And Helba watched as though beguiled
While fallen twigs grew into trees,
Forming fast a wooden shield
Unyielding to the fiercest blow;
Then shrieks about the forest rang
As any beast with claw or fang
Descended on the narrow trail.

Besieged by creatures of the wood
They battled ‘gainst undying foes:
Each pair slain would recompose,
Birthing four at instant pace
As Magus watched with grinning glee,
Entombed within his wall of trees
Which faster grew then could be hewn;
A trait which spelled the heroes’ doom.


Thus the exalting onslaught went
Till Nameless conceived a final hope,
And drawing out a flask of spirits
Hurled it at the barricade,
Then blazed a spark with blade on blade
Setting to light a rampant fire;
A majestic funeral pyre
Felling the wall atop its maker.

Soon Breade was but a memory
O’ershadowed by the floral city:
Carmina Gadelica by name,
Of gentile and aesthetic fame;
Though swiftly too it fell behind
As Moyra Canyon darkly loomed,
Foreboding in its desolation
Ere the crossing had begun.

Hours aft the presaged end
Of that bleak and lengthy trek,
Moyra’s cliffs still stood aside,
Mocking each benumbing stride;
Till Bith remarked in somber phrase
They’d passed the same formations thrice,
Spun by some malign device
So deftly one might never know.

Having spake his solemn fear
A haunting voice then prophesied:
Your graveyard shall this chasm be
For here you will remain with me;
Helpless as the Wave consumes
Everything you’ve ever known,
Leaving naught behind but bone
And fading whispers on the wind.

Searching for escape in vain
They rode the passage once again;
But Fidchell’s brazen promise held:
Nowhere could the cliffs be scaled,
And though their course did never veer
While racing through the corridor,
They came to camp just as before;
Overcome by nauseous dread.


Dispel charms proved fruitless too;
Till Bith called for womanly aid,
Requesting they enchant his blade;
Then slowly marching down the path
For hours when he sensed at last
The entrapping portal’s edge;
Driving hard his sword to earth,
Razing Fidchell’s sorcery.

Long past the crucible of Moyra,
They sheltered in a citadel:
Fort Ouph, so said its denizens
Where mind and body could be cleansed
Of any hardships one endured
Ere disembarking further north
Over the barren Veishus Plain,
Where most who crossed it would remain.

The horses thrived on unmarked land,
Rejoicing in those countless miles
Till suddenly in concert halting
As ebon vapours coalesced
At Gorre’s inhuman behest,
Forging whole his grotesque form:
A tetra-legged mass of hate
Obscured midst a foul haze.

With putrid limbs the demon lashed;
Immense weight thrown behind each strike:
Through both guard and shield alike
The blows did wound unless evaded;
While each assault the heroes launched
Was somehow violently repelled:
Sheathed in armour craft of malice
The creature stood immune to challenge.

Battling with their utmost might
Each soon grew weary from the fight,
When Fili grazed the demon’s hide
And felt its overwhelming sadness;
No longer could abhorrence lie
Within her for the wretched fiend:
T’was but a puppet of the Wave
Devised to delve for each a grave.


As pity laced her heavy heart,
Fili strode towards the beast
Whose crushing limbs were now repulsed
Ere they touched her ivory skin;
When came she nigh with rapier drawn
A single thrust did slay its brawn,
For mercy guided Fili’s blade
Where scorn could never penetrate.

In time they reached Lia Fail,
Exhausted to the breaking point
Where healers did their wounds anoint
While speaking of the land beyond:
Knemisys was the desert’s name;
Devoid of life’s too fragile flame,
Though offering hope ever so slight:
The journey’s end was now in sight.

Once their strength had been regained
A woman of unmatched beauty came;
And standing in the village square
With naught to clothe but flowing hair,
She beckoned with an outstretched hand
As her siren song did ring
Throughout the quiet frontier town,
Calling both the knight and halfling.

Doused by some seducing force
Helba charged to find the source,
But like Fili arrived too late:
Bith and Nameless stood entranced
By Macha’s all-enticing spell
With which she did their blades compel
To set upon the women with
Whom they’d journeyed for so long.

Knowing well the quest would fail
If any were to perish here,
They could but dodge each fierce attack,
Unwilling to counter back;
Neither could Macha be harmed:
Protected by her servants two
No assault could carry through;
Such was the witchcraft’s passion.


In desperation Helba cast
A seldom sober sorcery:
The banshee’s cry for moments wailed,
Annulling the demon’s hymn
And sealing Macha’s fate therein;
For that lone unhindered instant
Was all the dark queen needed
To cut the bare seductress down.

So bidding to the town farewell
They forged ahead through Knemisys;
Uncrossed by any to return:
The arid distance was too great,
Yet they went without debate
To find whatever might await,
Knowing one predestined fact:
They’d not last the journey back.

Past untold dunes the horses ran
Till any sense of time was gone
And each grew jadedly withdrawn,
When, rising from the sands ahead
A small oasis lay outspread;
Water sparkling through the heat
Beneath a single godsent tree
Worth tenfold its weight in gold.

First they drank as ne’er before
Upon the tiny desert shore,
But found in frantic disarray
Just two fruits about the tree;
Soon both Queen and Halfling claimed
Their sex deserved the greater share,
While Fili spoke with fixed glare:
Equal parts were truly fair.

Bith alone did not take part
For something gnawed upon his heart;
Coming clear as swords were drawn
When words alone would not suffice;
Plunging through bark and wood his axe,
A shriek of fury tamed the fight
As the haven left their eyes;
Thus Tarvos met his swift demise


Presently the thirst awoke
As the demon’s magic broke,
But soon their spirits soared anew:
Sand gave way to fluid ground,
A joyous omen that they’d found
The Wavering Peninsula;
Awash with instability
Such as none had ever seen.

Colours shimmered ‘round the cape,
Blending aimlessly together
While hoof-beats danced about the land
Like echoes of a mindless band;
But all too soon this chaos paled
In contrast to the final phase:
Before the Stone of Destiny
Corbenik stood in mockery.

Titanic was his human form;
Eyes alight with vicious scorn
As he advanced with roaring strides
And spoke in truly humbling voice:
You’ve journeyed far and suffered much
To perish by my flawless touch;
For as you now shall plainly see,
No sprite exists to stand against me.

Ere the final word had died
A pulse erupted from his hand
Which all but one could not withstand:
Nameless stood in disbelief
As Helba, Bith, and Fili fell
Unconscious to the shifting earth;
Saved by halfling blood alone,
He’d fight this demon on his own.

Enraged that any dared resist,
Corbenik charged into the duel
With staggering ferocity
Bent towards his enemy
Who spun ever-elusively
Away from each leaden blow,
Requiting with his lustrous blades
Like some pernicious serenade.


Despite the halfling’s surest strike
Corbenik offered no respite,
For even as his steel drew blood
The lesion seamlessly would heal,
Till a voice in him confided:
Your weapons cannot harm this fiend;
Fight with those attached to life
To break his immortality.

Unequalled was the dark queen’s verve,
So taking up her royal sword
And yearning for true faith’s reward;
Nameless vaulted o’er his foe,
Driving the blade through flesh below
And landing on the other side
As the demon fell beside,
Both motionless for a time.

Soon burning with hellish fire
The fiend rose in satanic form
As the Halfling heard once more:
A weapon in accord with death
Will cleave this monster’s dying breath;
Thus endowed with Bith’s great axe
He snuffed Corbenik’s second life;
Though doubt within him now grew rife.

From ash the demon rose again,
Empowered by the pure heart
And soaring high with angel’s wings
As Nameless brandished Fili’s bow,
Firing volleys at each chance
Till the fiend could fly no more,
And beaten to its very core,
Fell to earth one final time.

Once the sprites had reawakened
The voice resounded in their minds:
You have my sincerest praises
For vanquishing the Wave’s eight phases,
Each imbued with twisted souls
Collected by their maker;
Each a brutal incarnation
Embodying the psyche.


Skeith, The Terror of Death;
Composed of deepest mortal fear
His morbid whispers silence cheer;
Innis, The Mirage of Deceit;
Cloaked within a deadly guise,
One must see truth amidst his lies;
Magus, The Propagator,
In his presence species’ thrive,
Ever able to survive;
Fidchell, The Prophet;
Predicating hopeless fate
To crush your will beneath its weight;
Gorre, The Machination;
Enrobed by vicious cruelty,
Immune to all but sympathy;
Macha, The Temptress;
Manifesting love and lust
To charm even the most robust;
Tarvos, The Avenger;
Envy and vengeance are the tools
With which he transforms men to fools;
And Corbenik, The Rebirth;
First compelled by all life’s riches
Then drawn towards the reaper’s scythe
Before ascending to the skies
On gusts of immaculate intent.

When this world was barely born
The Wave and I did battle here
For eons at same frontier,
Clashing once with utmost strength:
Our bodies spread across the land
Seeding all that now exists;
Substance did my form provide,
And he the spirit held inside.

I’ve waited for your coming since;
A specter sealed beneath this stone
Without a shape to call my own;
Thus I must entreat you all
To pay this last, most grievous cost:
Return to me what I have lost
That I might give my life to save
Those remaining from the Wave.


Each laid their hands upon the stone,
Vanishing as the dragon rose
In magnificent repose;
Feeding off his former tomb
Now serving as a holy womb;
The peninsula soon faded too:
Among the saddest kinds of loss,
Gone ere it could be forgotten.

In a breath the dragon flew
Back to besieged Mac Anu,
Where all the mages of the land
Had trenched their only stand
At the battered aqua gate
To stay the Wave in fervent hope
That the quest would yet succeed,
As Apeiron had once decreed.

Streaming forth in sheer delight,
The Twilight Dragon met the Wave;
Twirling ‘round his adversary
Till inextricably entwined
They momently shone as one,
Like a swiftly dying sun
Whose embers flare with glory bright
Before it’s taken by the night.

When the aura dissipated,
Wave and Dragon both were gone,
Though joy came not to Apeiron;
He knew this victory’s true price;
The last and greatest sacrifice
Which Helba and her friends had made
At land’s end so far away
For every voice that now did cheer.

Sprites have long since lost their wings
As they did their innocence,
The timeless dusk in which they lived,
And perhaps of all the saddest;
Of Helba and her servant Bith,
Of Fili and the Halfling too,
No memories remain but this:

EPITAPH OF TWILIGHT
_________________________


Unknow where the Cursed Wave was born
After the stars doth cross the heavens
The sky in the East doth darken
And air doth fills with mourning.
From the chosen land beyond the forest,
A sign of the Wave is: Skeith, the Shadow of Death.
to drown all that stands.
Mirage of Deceit, Innis,
Betray all with the flawed image,
and did aid the Wave.
And by the Power of Magus,
a drop from the Wave doth reach the heavens,
and creates a new Wave.

With the Wave, Fidchell,
the power to tell the dark future,
hope darkens, sadness and dispair rule.
Gorre schemes the Pinnacle, and escape non can.
Tarvos still remains with more cruelty to punish and destroy.
And with the turbulent destruction after the Wave.
Only a void remains.
From deep within the void arrives Corbenik.

Yet to return, the shadowed one.
Who quests foe the Twilight Dragon
Rumbles the Dark Hearth,
And Helba, Queen of the Dark, has raised finally her army.
Apeiron, King of Light, beckins...
At the base of the rainbow they meet.
Against the abominable "Wave," together they fight.
Alba's lake boils.
Light's great tree doth fall.
Power- all now to droplets turned in the temple of Arche Koeln.
Returns to nothing, this world of shadowless ones.
Never to return, the shadowless one.
Who quests for the Twilight Dragon.

The wife buffeted by "Waves" turns her back on the field.
The daughter that waited for the shadows repeated,
"For sure... For sure I can go home."
But the girl did not know...
The truth that waited her at the end of the journey
The eternal mourning of her land.

In the place of the calamitous, only life was known.
After the circling stars
When the eastern dark void, the air full of dispair
In the depths of the divided forest, in the land of Karma,

Riding fast on the path is Skeith
Bearing death's shadow, it eliminates all that seek to thwart it.
The Confusing Mirage, Innis
Decevies those that see it with illusions, rescues the waves

The wave soaring high, when its head is smashed,
A new wave will emerge
To become Mangus's power.
When questioning the wave,
Hope's light will be lost when he speaks of the dark future of where
sorrow and resignation reign.
Using Fiddlehiem's Technique

When engulfed by the Waves of Calamity, Gorre will plan
The sweet snare of conciliation is Macha
The Waves, an exceeding maelstrom
Nothing can escape

When you think you have escaped, Tarvos exists
To destroy those with his exceeding cruelty
Upon violent requital, only to remain is the void, the vacant darkness
is the harbinger that Corbenik is to appear.

-Emma Wielant



this is the full epitath that i have...

but how do you know if it's the real version?

all that versions of the epitaph of twilight are really interesting
and I love to read them

but I don't think there is a real one

well, there could be, since there so much more activity about things like this in Japan then in the west.
Also Japan has novels and other things that we don't have, so there could be one, though I don't know which one it is, or if there is even one.

This is longer than the one I posted.

o.o

But it's interesting. Very interesting.......

So, drakarsepentrion, how do you know for a FACT that that is the true Epitaph? How do you know it's not either A, part of the original or B, a version anouther company made up for promotion purposes?

And where'd ya find it lol

The first one is longer...where did you get your information Drakar? I doubt he just made up the extra stanzas.

No, no! I never thought HE (Or she) made it up. I was simply asking how they knew for a FACT that's the original Epitaph. That's all.

There Isn't a real full version of the epitath. emma dyied before she finished it, remember?

Also, you can't be sure where is the original becouse peaple write stuff that isnt true on the internet.

Hence my asking how they know for a FACT that that is the original. And yes, I remember that Emma died before completing it, but who knows how long she made it before dying? Plus that 1 who loved her ended up making his own version too. He took her unfinished piece and wrote in his own ending.

in //AI buster i think that they mention "some die-hard fan" of Emma Weilant (or whoever wrote the poem) that made a hard copy, but ive never actually seen the hard copy or heard it mentioned again.

it would be good if you could get the complete epitaph though!!

Bil XD

dose anyone happen to have all of Hereolds Notes from the game?

is there only one? im not sure...

that's way too long for me to read
but guessing from the comments a couple of people have read it all
and i agree with who ever said that they think there isn't a "real" epitath
they just give us bits and peices and people just just fill in the holes
maybe that's what they wanted
for all the people who play .hack to make up their own epitath
together
or maybe they were just lazy LOL

Well, Emma is a fictional person. Unless one of the game creators actually did write a full Epitaph for reference purposes, I'm inclined to agree that all there is of it are the excerpts in the game. But the full epitaph here is very nice, regardless.

Well, Lycoris, I'm glad to see you posted on this. You made my point before I got to it...lol. Considering that Emma was in fact a fictional person, you can safely assume that her work is fictional, too. The chances that there is a "real" Epitaph of Twilight is very slim. But I will guarantee that someone wanted to make the Epitaph after the idea was presented in .HACK, and actually made an entire work of it. Not doubting the legitity of the starting post in this topic, but my personal opinion is there is no real version. They are ALL fanbased, except for what is given in the games/shows/manga/books/anything else...

~Tyokae

Wait a sec, how do you know Emma is fictional?
My friend showedme this thing online-A profile if you will. SOmething she put info on. The picture had been taken down, but there was a blog entry saying something about .hack// and the Epitaph.
I'll ask the site next time I see him.

i doubt there is a real finished verison of it

the only reason it was put in bits of it is because i think cc corp wanted it to be a "endless tale" you could call it

if one of the members of cc corp did write a whole Epitaph of Twilight they would of solded it as a book/manga

a real Epitaph of Twilight as far as we know isnt real/exist

Here's Wikipedia, for one...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Wielant

It could have been a character profile made by a creative fan. I see stuff like that all the time. But really, why insert one real person into a story filled with fictional creations?

There are a lot of fictional authors, as listed below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fictional_writers

wow i didnt think emma wielant would be in there...

but wikipedia does put game and other kinda facts in its data base and it sure has alot of information on .hack...

so emma wielent still could be a fictional person

Interesting. But doesn't that brings us back to square one again sort of?

yea it kinda does but i think they would of made the game in emma's honor if it is true and she was a real person and all

Okay, let's see if I can sum this up nicely. Everything, including people, names, places, companies, etc., that is included in the .hack universe is fictional. There is not a real CC Corp.

But seriously, Emma Weilant, Harald Harwick, all of them, they are ficticious characters created to make a ficticious story. The Epitaph of Twilight, while being a great literary IDEA, is still nothing more than another piece of imagination woven into the fabrics of a fictional game. Other than the small items, like food and drinks and computers (a.k.a. normal everyday things), all of the things you see and read that have to do with .HACK is fiction. Any "real" Epitaphs that you may find online are nothing more than fanbased attempts to make their own versions. The peices of the Epitaph from the games and manga are not parts of a whole. They are all there is. They were purposefully made to seem as peices to add to the mystery of the rest of the story.

And *Aura*, one major point of interest is that the "Epitaph" that you posted does not contain a single line from the peices shown from the games. So unless they screwed up the verses in the game, you've posted nothing more than a failed attempt to make people believe there is a full version.

Trust me, I'd love it if there was a real Emma and a real Epitaph. But my personal belief is that they do not truely exist except for inside works of fiction.

I'm sorry if this upsets anyone, but that's the way it is.

~Tyokae

OK. Good info and insight here people.
Still, I disagree with Tyokae. I do believe there is a real Emma. And a real Epitaph. I think the pieces in the games and Manga DO go together somehow. Maybe not in order, I dunno. But I think they ARE real. Yes, yes. Childish right? Oh well. It's what I think.

The game was in a way made in Emma's honor. It's just that some people took it upon themselves to change parts of it around since Emma's death. Her Epitaph I do believe was unfinished. So there is 1, just part of it is Harolds, or someone else's. Not ALL of it is Emma's. Get it?

But yeah, I kinda agree with Aura that this is like square 1 again....I'll try to round up some more info....*Sigh....*

Wait what was the link? I might be able to see if it is real or not. I have some friends who can help me. Send to me in a email if you want.

there isnt a real comeple epitaph of twilight it juz doesnt exist...if it did they would have a true poem that you could buy if there was but there isnt so there is no point in tring to find something that doesnt exist...

as much as i want .hack to be a REAL story and all it wont nothing like this could happen in real life people remember we do live on a plant that such things do not happen unless you live in the twilight zone geting into a coma and being stuck in a game wont happen anytime soon nor i believe will it ever happen so there isnt a ONE true epitaph of twilight out there made and most are just fan basic fakes

please dont believe there is one epitaph and if you do believe this then fine but your hopes are just going to be let down

You don't know that for sure do you? The creators of the game might have made a complete version of it.

I don't see why there couldn't be a full, proper Epitaph somewhere in the world, though I think if it were Emma's, someone would dig it up and it would be all over the net by now.

The Epitaph in this thread is nice, but it is a fan's compilation. Not only is it missing the Epitaph pieces mentioned in the game, it rhymes in English. Emma's Epitaph, or the Epitaph created for the purposes of the game, wouldn't rhyme in English, it would rhyme in German.

Tyokae! Maybe it is part of the NEXT .hack game? Ever think of that? One part that I have states that the eight phases will returne. And in .hack//GU they do. I'm trying to put this as nicely as I can. Got it memorized?

Saa.... Let's not get angry...

As none of us worked on the creation or development of .hack, none of us can declare a 100% certain truth on any of this. Logic may make one statement more likely than another, and there are some facts to rest on. But in the end, no one's argument is more than personal view or opinion. I'm not saying that some ideas can't be right, but we won't know unless we get the straight truth out of someone who knows for certain.

im getting confused guys....is this a kinda poem or something.. i doen expect you guys to summarize it or anything coz im guessing this is way out of my league i mean am i meant to know what it means since i just watched .hack//sign or ill ruin some part of the story if i find out what this whole conversation is about

its not going to ruin it for you. you might want to play the .hack games and watch .hack//KEY OF THE TWILIGHT. I'll try to shorten it for you. Its about Helba, Bith the Black Fili the White and Nameless fight the 8 phases of the Curse Wave to find the Twilight Dragon and Aperon stays behind to fight the Cursed Wave at the end of the poem. They find the Dragon but they make the ultament sacrifce. In order for the Twilight dragon to be realsed and to fight the Wave they must give up their lives. The King of Light new this as did Helba and the others. Nobody else new what it meant to find the Dragon. Do you get it now? Sorry that I got mad earlier.

theres a dragon involved 0.o this series just keeps getting better and better... id did understand some things u said but i think its better i play d games 1st and play em...im getting the whole series in like 1 week coz i got n exam soon and i got anotehr month of holidays after so ill definately have time lolll

but thanks for the short version

No prob. you might want to get the guide books. just a suggestion.

Wow! I wish I had found this thread a while ago! I have to admit that Lycoris and Snowfire seem to be on the right track. I highly doubt there's a real Emma. On that note, who wrote the pieces of the Epitaph seen in the games? They didn't just pop into existance, there was someone who had to have originally put those words down on paper. There may or may not be a full Epitaph, but we probably won't find it on any website. I've heard it refered to as "the hundred tales of the hundred stories." That means it's probably huge. It would take forever to write, even longer to translate, and infinitely longer to put into the source code of a website (cause you know they wouldn't just use a .txt or .html file).

What do you mean that we're on the right track? I've heard about the hundredth tale of the hundred stories somewhere. What are they exactly?

Supposedly, that's the full version of the Epitaph of Twilight. Just because it's known that the original was online, doesn't mean it fit on one page. Even if it did, the page size was never defined. I know that I assumed it was a reasonably small to average sized document. What is clearly defined, is that a lot of the ideas and concepts from it are based in Germany and ancient German mythology; specifically the Nibelungenlied. That particular peace of writing is an epic poem that extends for over one to two hundred pages (depending on things like page/font size again). Therefore, I think it's safe to assume that the Epitaph would be of a similar size. Maybe bigger.

I've read some parts of it that I found on google and I sorta printed it off so that I could show it to a friend of mine. I did a search on the Hundredth tale of a Hundred stories and came up woth the opposite of what I wanted. NObody I've asked has even heard about it and all I got was yelled at for asking them about it.

That's one of the many quirks of the .hack universe. Some information is really hard to find. Some stuff is just downright rare. Then there's unreliability of sources on the internet...It's hard to tell what to believe. Maybe it was my source that was off. But even so, it would probably be pretty long like Nibelungenlied (where many .hack usernames come from).

When I did a search on it there were a lot of links and I didn't have the time to go through them all. I can usually find what I'm looking for, it just takes me a while to fighure out how to do it and where to look for it.

Yes, someone would have to put the words on paper... One of the .hack writing staff, you think?

You do have a point there.

i find it funny that every one is arguing over wether r not the epitaph is real r not but wat u need to think about is this as stated before the epitaph coundnt have just poped up out of no were there would have to have been an origanal version for them to work wit in order for them to put it in the format that its in it may have not been referd to as the epitaph of twilight when it first ammerged but all in all there would have to be a complited version of the poem out there in order for them to come up for all this stuff to put into a game if u think about it does make some sence

That leaves only one question. Where is the orignal form of the Epitaph of Twilight? There may be more questions but this is the only one I can think of at the moment.

maby there is no real epitaph r at least it might not be known by that title i mean for we know maby one of the createres of .hack was a fan of who ever wrote the poem in the first and then came up wit the brigth idea to make a game based on it. its posible

Oh long time no post I missed this thread.

Yes, the Epitaph did come from somewhere. I still Emma existed, but I am willing to believe she didn't write the original version all alone. I'll still keep my beliefs that she ATLEAST helped with it. But then, who did make the original? Writing staff, Herold, or maybe just some common person who never got public credit for their work. (That would suck!)

Another question is WHERE is the original? You don't think they'd stick the original away int he like some kind of resource vault and keep it to themselves do you? I mean, yeah I know some companies do that sort of thing, but why the Epitaph

ANd I agree with the idea that the origianl may not have called the Epitaph of the Twilight. But then I wonder what they would call it. I never heard of The Hundred Tales of the Hundred Stories. I'll have to look into that....

Has anyone heard from Aura lately? I would to know Aura's input on this now that we have information again.

I came across another version. Maybe it will help. If nothing else, it is interesting to read

Yet to return, the shadowed one.
Who quests for the Twilight Dragon
Rumbles the Dark Hearth,
And Helba, Queen of the Dark,
has finally raised her army.
Apeiron, King of Light beckons.
At the base of the rainbow they meet
Against the abominable Wave,
together they fight.
Alba's lake boils.
Light's great tree doth fall.
Power- now all to droplets turned
in the temple of Arche Koeln.
Returns to nothing,
this world of shadowless ones.
Never to return, the shadowless one,
Who quests for the Twilight Dragon.


"Welle"
Riding the Wave is Skeith, the Shadow of Death, to drown all that stands.
Mirage of Deceit, Innis, Betray all with the flawed image, and did aid the Wave.
And by the Power of Magus, a drop from the Wave doth reach the heavens, and creates a new Wave.
With the Wave, Fidchell, the power to tell the dark future, hope darkens, sadness and despair rule.
Gorre schemes when swallowed by the Cursed Wave.
Macha seduces with the sweet trap.
Wave reaches the Pinnacle, and escape none can. Tarvos still remains with more cruelty to punish and destroy.
And with the turbulent destruction after the Wave. Only a void remains. From deep within the void arrives Corbenik.


Fragment 0
Shunning the field broken by Wave.
The shadowed girl whispers,
"Surely, I will return."
Alas, the truth unbeknownst.
Awaiting her at journey's end;
Eternal mourning for her land.


Fragment 1
When the finger points to the
yonder moon,
The fool will not look at the fingertip.


Fragment 2
The whole cannot be changed.
We have already lost that chance.
Because the time left to us was short,
We were mistaken in our path.
But now do we realize,
We should change not the whole,
But the parts.


Fragment 3
Wave soars and shrouds the eyes.
No means to fight an omnipresent force,
The shadowless ones just grieve.
Why must it be a Wave?
Divide, if it would just...
Then retaliate, we may.


Fragment 4
Over the Keel Mountains,
Meets an ape with human speech.
The ape asks,
"What clings to you?
Bear it - you cannot.
Accept it - you cannot.
But hidden - it is from you.
Recite its name."



I also found some information about Emma Checkit out!


Emma Wielant had studied medical science before experiencing a "psychic phenomenon". After which, she developed an interest in the metaphysical, and started writing poetry. Later, she died in a car crash. Her epic poem, "Epitaph of Twilight", although unfinished, was used by Harald Hoerwick as the basis of his computer game "Fragment". Harald sold "Fragment" to the Altimit company (makers of the only surviving operating system). Several of the Altimit programmers left the company to form CyberConnect Corp., and released the game under the name "The World". Unfortunately, there's been a high turnover at both Altimit and CC Corp., and none of the original programmers are at either company. Further, Emma and Harald were the only two people that knew what the original Epitaph contained; current versions of the poem have been highly altered through the fan-fic process.

i dont mean to burst ur bubble about emma and that harold guy being real but where ever u got that info on r is bsing u why well heere some major facts u have to consider

1.we all know there have been comics and animes and all so some novils about .hack amd resently they have made a .hack novel about the origenall game and every thing but instead of being on kites point of view its based on blackroses and at the begenning it gives u a time line up till when the coma events acurred and the year before kite and blackrose came into existens is 2014 and incase u lost track we are in 2006 thats a pretty good while from now.

2.even if that cccompany existed dont u think the us would whant a part of the action r better yet the us would whant the tecnolagy forthem selves and then u know we'll all be screwedad in comas right now

all in all emmas and haralds existense is a maby ccc company existens is a no as for where the real epitaph is maby thay did lock it a way for future reference couse word on the street is that there coming out wit a 5th installment of .hack so maby the poem is real but its only ment for the game who knows but at least we have more info on the matter

I need to check here more often. Anyway I've seen that part somewhere else. I have a part of it I printed off somewhere so I wouldn't forget what it said. I'll have to look it up again and so far nobody has posted the part that I have. I'll make a post when I find it and I think your right that there is a orginal and I'll try to find it. I know my way around the net better than most. I'll see what I can come up with. Also, in the .hack OVA 3 they mentioned the Hundredth Tale of a Hundred Stories sevrel times I think. I know that it was mentioned before the two were contacted by Bith the Black and again when they tell how the Epitaph first came in being.