Epitaph of Twilight: Remade.

[Cyral]

Hey Sora, and to those who have been paying attention to the Epitaph of Twilght, I think I just found out, just about the keypoints of it all. Well keywords of it all anyways..

Yet to return, the shadowed one*1
who quests for the Twilight Dragon*2
rumbles the dark hearth
And Helba, Queen of the Dark, has raised finally her army*3
Apeiron, King of Light, beckons...*4
At the base of the rainbow doth they meet.*5
Against the abomniable "wave"*6 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 *7
Returns to nothing, this world of shadowless ones.*8
Never to return, the shadowed one*9,
who quests for the Twilight Dragon*10.

The wife*11 buffeted by "waves" turns her back on the field.
The daughter*12 that waited for the shadows repeated,
"For sure... For sure I can go home."
But the girl did not know...
The truth that waited at the end of the journey
The eternal mourning of her land.
In the place of the calamious, only life was known.

After the circling stars
When the eastern dark void, the air full of despair
In the depths of the divided forest, in the land of Karma,

Riding fast on the path is Skeith*

.hack://Infection

Bearing death's shadow, it eliminates all that seek to thwart it.

The Confusing Mirage, Innis*

.hack://Mutations

Decieves 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 Magus's power.*

.hack://Mutations

When questioning the wave,
hope's light will be lost when he speaks of the
dark future of where sorrow and resignation reign.

Using Fiddchel Technique*

.hack://Oubreak

When engulfed by the Waves of Calamity,
Gorre will plan*

.hack://Outbreak

The sweet snare of conciliation is Maha*

.hack://Quarantine

The Waves, an exceeding maelstrom

Nothing can escape
When you think you have escaped, Tarvos exists*

.hack://Quarantine

To destroy those with his exceeding cruelty*

No duh, he's moves kill you in one hit... errr..

Upon violent requital, only to remain is the void, the vacant darkness

is the harbringer that Cobernik*

.hack://Quarantine

is to appear.

Perhaps then the Wave is just a

beginning as well.

Kite said, in the end, when Lios ask... "is it finally over?" Kite replied "No, *does the flashing on each of the characters in the dothackers* it's just begun" (sue me for not remembering the exact quote..)

'Epitaph of Twilight' -Emma Wieland

1"the shadowed one" - Cubia
2"Twilight Dragon" - Kite
3"her army" - the dothackers
4"Apeiron, King of Light, beckons.." - Lios
5"At the base of the rainbow doth they meet." Net Slum
6"wave" - the 8 phases
7"shadowless ones" - NPC - Trash Data
8"wife" - Morganna
9"daughter" - Aura
10"Arch Koeln" - Holy Forbidden Holy Ground

Hey Deimos, thanks for the input! Me love inputs! ?Actually I re-read the text again, and yes, you are right, the 'shadowless ones' aren't the dothackers, there more NPC characters..... ok! I'm changing that![/quote]

[Deimos]

I'd like to add my input here. ^_^

1"the shadowed one" - Cubia

I think this is a reference to Aura, not Cubia. Aura is trying to find Kite, the Twilight Dragon, so she can provide him with a method to fight the Wave. Cubia is basically trying to kill him. And then you have the "shadowed girl," who is mentioned a bit later in the Epitaph and talks about returning somewhere. I think the "shadowed girl" and the "shadowed one" are one and the same. Also, remember Kite's meeting with Wiseman at the beginning of Outbreak? During the conversation, Wiseman says: "'Cubia, the hidden one'... it was written on the Epitaph as such, but what role it plays... It's beyond me." So apparently Cubia is this "hidden one," rather than the "shadowed one."

2"Twilight Dragon" - Kite
3"her army" - the dothackers
4"Apeiron, King of Light, beckons.." - Lios
5"At the base of the rainbow doth they meet." Net Slum
6"wave" - the 8 phases

I agree with you about all of these, but I think Morganna is the Wave as well. After all, the Phases are a part of her.

7"shadowless ones" - also the dothackers

I disagree. The roles played by the shadowless ones and Helba's army are quite different. In the Epitaph, the shadowless ones are being driven to the brink of extinction by the Cursed Wave. I think that they're represented by "the World," which is becoming damaged and glitched thanks to the malfunctioning Morganna.

8"wife" - Morganna

There's a problem here. The version of the Epitaph on this site is different from the one in the English games. The portion in which the wife is mentioned actually goes like this:

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.

As you can see, no mention of a wife at all. So... I'm not sure what to make of a character that's in one version and not another.

9"daughter" - Aura

Daughter, or "shadowed girl" in the other version. I agree that she's Aura.

[Cyral]

Oh yeah, There was a mention, but it wasn't mentioned in Wiseman's email.

But, I went through different sites and the one that we have, that I did a alot of comparison, I conclude that, 'wife' is mentioned in the Epitaph.

[Deimos]

The wife might be mentioned in a few fan translations, but the Epitaph in the games is the official, correctly translated version, right? I looked over the stanza given in Wiseman's e-mail and the fragments that I collected over the course of the four games, and there's no mention of a wife anywhere. So in the English version, at least, she doesn't exist.

[Mokie]

Cyral, I am surely impressed with the thought you put into your insight into the poem. You'd make a fine English professor...or a Senate investigator (hehehe ).

I'm not sure what version this copy is, but in stanza four it mentions the wife...

oOEpitaph of TwilightOo
http://flare.misabel.com/blog/epitaph.html

anyway, it's a beautiful sight..er, site.

[Cyral]

Unless of course, it's in the Japanese Text that's even existed.. Cause ours had the 'wife' part of it all, and other sites as well had it.

I can technically put it there, because Morganna is the technically the wife of the game while the father(Harold Hoerwick) was there, technically makes the world 'her' while Harold is the father who is trying to give birth to the ultimate AI. But of course, I believe that the statement given into that statement, quite fits the situation revolving around The World.

And hehehe, Thanks.

[Deimos]

Unless of course, it's in the Japanese Text that's even existed.. Cause ours had the 'wife' part of it all, and other sites as well had it.

It could be mentioned on a thousand fan sites, but it's not mentioned in the place that really counts: the game. If the wife is mentioned in the original Japanese text, why is she not mentioned in the English games? I doubt that the people who get paid to translate the games would omit a character for no good reason.

Even if we assume the wife is supposed to be there and is not just the result of a mistranslation, she's not necessarily Morganna. Remember, this wife is being buffeted by the Wave. Morganna is the Wave. Why would she attack herself?

[Cyral]

ahemMiaahem.

[Deimos]

...what about her? Mia/Macha did a few things on her own, but they didn't really amount to an attack on Morganna. She was on Morganna's side, even though she didn't want to be.

[Tsunami the Silver Dragon]

I feel like there is something missing...

Like we are still missing large pieces of the epitaph...

[Cyral]

Hmm? Why's that?

Cause everything else is in the epitaph of Twilight..

[aura_Key_of_the_twilight]

I might be a little late on this as I don't often come here, since I'm busy with my own site. Anyways, the fact that the wife isn't mentioned in the games(the US version) is simply due to a mistranslation. As I recall, the wife is mentioned in the Japanese games, in the parts you get in Mutation. Also she is mentioned in Harold's e-mail, and in the Liminalty part 4 extras.

Speaking of the liminalty 4 extras:

Many diffrent phenomena aside from the Cursed Wave are called "Waves" or "Ripples." In the game, a ripple-like shockwave is emitted by the Eight Phases of Morganna during the birth of Cubia, and also when normal monsters mutate into Data Bugs. Based on these events, Wiseman began to refer to the Eight Phases as the Cursed Wave.

This refers to the Data Bugs. Basically, the data bugs were created by Morganna, as a means of defending herself. "Buffered by waves" Means shielded by the "waves" or data bugs. This kinda proves that the Wife is infact morganna.

Further more: Cubia could not be the shadowed one based on this fact: Wiseman stated in both versions "Cubia is not mentioned in the Epitath at all, he is referred to as the "Hidden one"".

Shadowless ones refers to the player characters in the game. Those who arent fighting against the wave(directly atleast). The Shadowed one could be Kite, as he his kind of searching for the Twilight Dragon. Who said nessicarily the dragon had to be a person? It could also very well be the bracelet itself. But then again I'm still working on proving that to be true. We know Kite is searching for the dragon, and we know Kite's bracelet allows him to fight the wave. Therefor he plays kind of both roles "Twilight Dragon" and "Shadowed one". It's very complicated.

Power - all now to droplets turned in the temple of Arche Koeln.

That is referring to when Kite breaks the bracelet. Arche Koeln could be where Harold's Room is, or the place you fight the eight Phases.

Also the thing with Maha/Mia is: The Phases were designed to learn about human emotions, each dealing with a diffrent emotion or aspect of life. Maha/Mia was love and affection. She could've saw how this feeling was, and grown feelings of her own, causing her to act on her own. However since she was part of Morganna, overall she couldn't go against her programming, though she desperately fought to do so.

There are very large gaps in the epitath. Possibly the most complete version can be found on my site: Here

(I'll be posting a full breakdown on the epitath soon by theway).

[Deimos]

Anyways, the fact that the wife isn't mentioned in the games(the US version) is simply due to a mistranslation. As I recall, the wife is mentioned in the Japanese games, in the parts you get in Mutation. Also she is mentioned in Harold's e-mail, and in the Liminalty part 4 extras.

Possibly, or maybe the version that includes the wife was a mistranslation. *Shrugs* I don't speak Japanese, so I don't know for sure. No offense intended toward any fan translators.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Harold's e-mail." He doesn't send an e-mail in the games that I recall, and he only posts on the message board in SIGN. Are you talking about his notes? I don't recall a mention of a wife in there either, but I don't have them written down anywhere, so I could be wrong. Could you post the text of the stuff that mentions the wife? One thing I am sure of is that there is no mention of a wife in the Liminality 4 Easter Egg. I typed the whole thing out and didn't find a mention anywhere.

"Buffered by waves" Means shielded by the "waves" or data bugs. This kinda proves that the Wife is infact morganna.

Ah... the word is "buffeted." Not "buffered." A buffer is indeed a shield, but a buffet is a blow dealt by a storm or strong waves. So the wife who may or may not exist is being attacked, not protected by the Wave.

Shadowless ones refers to the player characters in the game. Those who arent fighting against the wave(directly atleast). The Shadowed one could be Kite, as he his kind of searching for the Twilight Dragon. Who said nessicarily the dragon had to be a person? It could also very well be the bracelet itself. But then again I'm still working on proving that to be true. We know Kite is searching for the dragon, and we know Kite's bracelet allows him to fight the wave. Therefor he plays kind of both roles "Twilight Dragon" and "Shadowed one". It's very complicated.

Kite is looking for a legendary being that is the only hope of stopping the Wave? Did I miss something? To me, it seems that the main goal of Kite and the rest of the .hackers was to return the coma victims to normal and stablize the World by defeating the Wave. They weren't really trying to find someone who could oppose the Wave, because they already had that person. I think the "shadowed one" is Aura. She could not fight the Wave herself, so she journeyed to find the "Twilight Dragon," somebody who would fight the Wave once given the power to do so. The Twilight Dragon depends on faith to exist, so Aura's gift of the Book of Twilight was sort of like the faith the characters in the Epitaph had in the Twilight Dragon. It was the thing that allowed the Dragon to fight the Wave.

[aura_Key_of_the_twilight]

I'm not sure what you mean by "Harold's e-mail."

I ment his notes, it was pretty early when I typed it up heh.

Ah... the word is "buffeted." Not "buffered." A buffer is indeed a shield, but a buffet is a blow dealt by a storm or strong waves. So the wife who may or may not exist is being attacked, not protected by the Wave.

The way it translates from the Japanese copy is Buffered, even my Japanese teacher said so. And yes it doesn't mention the Wife directly in the Lim 4 secrets but it does hint(I.E. The waves).

Kite is looking for a legendary being that is the only hope of stopping the Wave? Did I miss something? To me, it seems that the main goal of Kite and the rest of the .hackers was to return the coma victims to normal and stablize the World by defeating the Wave.

Yes that is true they dind't mention twilight dragon or anything in the game.

They weren't really trying to find someone who could oppose the Wave, because they already had that person. I think the "shadowed one" is Aura. She could not fight the Wave herself, so she journeyed to find the "Twilight Dragon," somebody who would fight the Wave once given the power to do so. The Twilight Dragon depends on faith to exist, so Aura's gift of the Book of Twilight was sort of like the faith the characters in the Epitaph had in the Twilight Dragon. It was the thing that allowed the Dragon to fight the Wave.

Then how do you explain the daughter in the epitath? Yes Aura was shadowed by morganna, and held back. She then travelled to find the Twilight dragon possibly. The shadowed one I think is Kite himself now that I think of it. Kite and Blackrose as a whole=Shadowed one. Why?

Based on data collected by Morganna, Aura entrusted the Book of Twilight to Orca...

Orca could be the Twilight Dragon, the one to fight the Wave

Because Orca protected Kite, the Book was later entrusted to him.

Not nessicarily saying he definately is, but he was searching for a way to wake Orca up...Searching for a way to wake someone up is also like the Shadowed one's quest to wake the twilight dragon.

Never to return the Shadowed one who seeks the Twilight Dragon

Aura returns time to time.

As you might remember, Kite and Blackrose's Player Character Models were locked, and the PC's were banned right? When one is banned, they never return. Thus Kite and Blackrose could be the Shadowed ones. (Now I know it goes against what I said prevously but I was rewatching dusk and it made me rethink). The people behind Kite and Blackrose never return(only thier models do with diffrent names).

[Jejune]

Going by what Deimos quoted above, the official translation of the Epitaph passage about the fields and the daughter is definitely more accurate. There is no mention of a "wife" in the Japanese version of those two lines, nor is a word meaning "buffered" used. Maybe there are other places where something like that might be mentioned, but not in that section of the Epitaph, unless there are different versions of it in Japanese floating around.

If you want me to support what I'm saying, I'll explain in detail. (Probably more detail than anyone wants to see, so unless you want a word-by-word translation, you might want to skip the rest of this post. )

The line translated as "Shunning the field broken by the Wave" is, in Japanese, "Nami ni juurin sareshi mugibatake ni se o mukete." "Nami ni" means "by the Wave," "juurin sareshi" means "trampled" or "violated," "mugibatake" means "wheat field(s)," and "se o mukete" means "to turn one's back on." Grammatically, it's only the first half of the sentence, with the next line as the second half. The sentence has no subject yet - Japanese does not require it as long as the subject is clear from context. So literally, it reads something like "___ turns [his/her] back on the wheat fields flattened by the Wave, and..."

Since it goes on to say "The shadowed girl whispers, / 'Surely, I will return,'" (more literally "The daughter, who has a shadow, whispers, / 'Definitely, definitely, I will return.'"), she would pretty much have to be the one turning her back on the field in the first line. The reader isn't given anyone else to attribute the action to, and it's obvious from the quote she's leaving somewhere and promising to return.