dothackers.net

people says that elk = endrance or sora = haseo

where did you get these things? anime? previous games? because i didnt play the original games should i play it and understand who elk and sora and how they became in the .hack gu??

From a document called .Hack//Truth that tell us the real life identity of most characters, as well as a background of them, and direct statements of stuff such like the identity of the characters.
Several identities are heavily hinted or give out alot of clues for it through the games and other media, such like with Kuhn or Endrance, however, that document clears out all the rumors and directly states stuff like "Endrance is played by the same person as Elk in R:1. If you don't like it then too bad but that's how it is" ...not exactly with the last sentence, but it's that way pretty much XD

Where can you find .Hack//Truth?

Google. It's amazing.

Actually, I believe this particular information can be found in the Perfect Guidebook.

You can also read about it on .hackWiki. That's where I found out about it

I've perused //Truth once or twice (Searchalot works wonders), but there's one thing that's been bugging me: according to the forum notes on it, Shino was supposed to be the original epitaph user of Innes
If that's the case, is there any verification or other allusion to this fact anywhere else? I've seen all of Roots and played through the GU games multiple times and I never saw so much as a hint. She 'died' exactly the same way as ordinary non-Epitaph Users, and never indicated the ability to find odd things or "hear AIDA" like Atoli did.

Am I just missing something, or is that the only place where the creators decided "this is how we want things to be, we just forgot to say it in something else"?

On Shino never being mentioned as the previous user of Innis: I believe it was mentioned in G.U.+

On Shino being PKed like any normal non-EU: She hadn't awakened.

On Shino not hearing odd noises like Atoli did: Who knows whether or not she did? It's not like she told us everything over the course of //Roots.

There's also the G.U. novels. The second volume covered quite a bit of character's real life information. It very blatantly stated that Kuhn was Sieg and Endrance was Elk, for example.

The GU Novels are also non-canonical and change some bits of information (such as how Ovan and Aina are related), so they're not reliable as stand-alone information

Yeah. It's hinted plenty in canon material who most returning characters are.

I do believe I shall have to look up .hack//Truth.

The whole "Shino being the original Innes Epitaph User" thing kind of makes me ask wtf. I mean, on the one hand, it would make sense why Ovan wanted to use her, but not only would he not want her PK'd (Because Haseo couldn't data drain Innes if Innes's player was in a coma) It also defies everything the game tells us about the epitaphs. They're connected to one person. I dont think Innes would go bouncing off looking for a new friend if Atoli were to become a lost one, for example.

Personally, I think AT is right the with the Novels neing non-canon, because that defies the very core of the G.U. Plot.

Well yes, the novels are considered non-canon. Still, it seems the creators like to hide kernels of "canon" truth in non-canon material sometimes. Or maybe that's simply a reflection of the basic information being used over and over for the retellings.
Ehh, either way...

As far as Shino being the original Innis EU, I thought I remembered reading somewhere that although there are indeed only a few people who can use Epitaphs, that does not limit it to one person per Epitaph. There could be a small few that are qualified, just that out of millions of users it's still like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
Of course, anyone's free to prove me wrong on this. I'm just talking out of my head right now.

I'm pretty sure it was said somewhere that Epitaphs aren't restricted entirely to one user... of course, once an EU has awakened, there's little reason for the Epitaph to flee (Atoli and Pi both recovered quickly from Tri-Edge in G.U., but at that point they were already awakened).

On the other hand, if a character doesn't have the "protection" of the Epitaph before awakening, if the user goes comatose and can't be used, then I'd think it logical that the Epitaph would go find somebody else who was able to use it...

(Majorly grammatically incorrect sentence, but I hope you get my point)

Language warning: I use the word `bullshitting`in this post. You have been warned.

If I recall what Yata says in Volume 1 and extrapolate further data based on facts given in Vol 2....

The epitaphs are linked to specific player IDs. These IDs were in fact somehow selected by CC corp (who really know next to nothing about the avatars themselves, but do know of their existence, obviously. I think this line about CC corp selecting the PCs, however, was Yata bullshitting Haseo to sound impressive, mind you) These players are far less likely to become lost ones, awakened or no. Even an awakened E.U. is not 100% resilient to AIDA, but not being awakened still offers partial protection (Such as how Haseo survived Azure Kite's Data Drain, while Data drained PCs can easily become lost ones, or how Atoli managed to withstand the AIDA attack at the end of Volume 1, during which time her Epitaph was stolen and her character began to degenerate.

In other words, not only are the avatars in fact linked to that one character, but it`s an integral part of that PC`s data and due to its link to the real life player, it affects them as well. Proof of this was Atoli`s paralyzed hand in real life after her Epitaph was stolen and her PC data was deteriorating. She says in the email that it`s the exact same spot where her character`s hand was cracked.

So if we take the above as true, and the games are canon, while the novels may only have hints of it, than Shino was never an Epitaph user, as Innes was always bound to Atoli`s PC Identification number in CC corp`s database.

On the subject of non-awakened EUs not being harmed as badly as Shino was: Tri-Edge isn't exactly a normal AIDA.  Consider that the real Tri-Edge is also an Epitaph User, and that could mean a one-two punch in regards to damage done to other EUs. And Tri-Edge was also really the only instance we had of AIDA "damaging" EUs, except for the case of Atoli in which the AIDA wasn't specifically targeting her, but rather her Epitaph.

On the subject of "specific player IDs chosen by CC Corp": Which of the current Epitaph Users was chosen by CC Corp for their project? The *original* EUs are nowhere to be found in G.U., and it seems most of the other players were picked at random. Besides, CC Corp is well known for making up stories to cover things up.

I wasn't calling Azure Kite AIDA, per-se, but don't forget how Haseo is warned very severely that using his avatar can turn players into lost ones. It's also heavily hinted that Bordeaux in particular was in a coma for awhile (only making her next appearance after The Rebirth) and Grein reveals that he had at least lost consciousness.

Also, while CC Corp does cover everything up with stories, Yata doesn't. While it is true that at the start of Vol 2 he took advantage of the AIDA server to observe for a little bit before moving forth with knowledge he already had, besides that, he's always been honest with Haseo, even if it's not specfically the whole truth.

...they aren't Epitaph Users.

And it's possible that Yata was being fed lies himself, he didn't know much about the grand scape of things and that was pretty much part of the reason why he wanted to be in G.U. (other than helping Aura).

GyppyGirl2021 wrote:I'm pretty sure it was said somewhere that Epitaphs aren't restricted entirely to one user.

Further strengthened in Volume 3 when Skeith himself says that he's going to leave (the scene after the Rebirth, since Haseo "was never going to go back to being the Terror of Death").

Ranylyn wrote:The epitaphs are linked to specific player IDs. These IDs were in fact somehow selected by CC corp

More specifically, CC tried to control the Epitaphs by connecting them to test PCs, but when everything went berserk the Epitaphs fled into The World (source: Terminal Disk). Yes, the epitaphs are connected to specific players, but those players are more chosen by the epitaphs than the programmers.

Ranylyn wrote:Such as how Haseo survived Azure Kite's Data Drain, while Data drained PCs can easily become lost ones,

Since AT hasn't come in to mention this, I'll use a point from one of his previous posts: there is no verification that Azure Kite's DD ever actually causes comatose conditions in players without AIDA attached to them, in which case it's really the damage from AIDA being torn from them that sends them into a coma. Haseo was DD'd, but his computer was reformatted - while he was out for a while (the game implies as few as just minutes, but Roots implies a couple of days which might have been what it took to reinstall programs like The World given time constraints of still having to go to school), Haseo was never (clearly) put into a coma from that. You could try to argue it, but there's no direct evidence that I'm aware of that such happened. Getting more back to the subject, Haseo DD'd all of the other Epitaph Users and  besides Ovan (who was infected with AIDA) the evidence is pretty clear that while there is a potential risk of knocking people comatose, that it never happened outside of AIDA - even Bordeaux, who was defeated in the Demon Palace, woke up almost immediately after the battle. Either Haseo or Pi mentions this directly, but since Pi doesn't contradict it (and she'd know) then it must have been accurate.

However, other characters were connected to AIDA and, as I said, that was really what put them into a coma. With these things being true, it is possible (but I still think less likely not than so, given the extreme lack of any direct verification) that Shino was an Epitaph User. Atoli heard AIDA. Back in Roots, we have Haseo clear a cave of AIDA (episode 6, I believe, it's even the one included in the desktop videos in Vol 3) - I'm pretty sure that was Skeith, not his sheer force of will.

GyppyGirl2021 wrote:Tri-Edge isn't exactly a normal AIDA.  Consider that the real Tri-Edge is also an Epitaph User

Not quite - AIDA <Tri-Edge> was bonded to an Epitaph, but that didn't mean it had access to that epitaph's power. If it did, then the case on Ovan's left arm (which, as I've seen AT say was created by Corbenik and have seen no evidence to the contrary) wouldn't have been able to contain Tri-Edge.

It does take just about all of Corbenik's strength to contain Tri-Edge, though, so it might just be a particularly strong AIDA (evidenced in that it wasn't removed the first time Skeith DD'd it).