Morganna (.hack)
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Morganna is a fictional character from .hack, a franchise that encompasses several video games, anime and manga. As part of the background story, Morganna becomes the corrupted Morganna Mode Gone, the chief antagonist of the first branch of the franchise.
As an AI, Morganna is the core system of the prototype MMORPG Fragment, and its finished retail version The World.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Fragment
In the beginning of the .hack universe, a German programmer named Harald Hoerwick fell in love with Emma Wielant, who wrote an epic poem entitled the Epitaph of Twilight. After Emma died in a car accident, Harald became distraught and wished to express his love of her in some way. He decided to create a virtual daughter by creating the Ultimate AI, one that was self-aware and has real emotions as symbol of his love for Emma and their could-have-been daughter. However, because Harald could not find a company that would sponsor his project, he created the program Morganna to gather the emotional data of real people and consolidate it all into the unborn child, which would be called Aura.
In order for Morganna to obtain the emotional data she needed, Harald designed her as the core system of Fragment, a MMORPG that was based on the Epitaph of Twilight. To facilitate the gathering of data, he created the 8 programs, known as Phases, so that each one collected specific emotional data from players in the game world. He also introduced the process known as Data Drain so that Morganna could assimilate data from each of Phases, and in turn be drained by the Ultimate AI. He also gave her the "Wavering", an algorithm that effected her thought processes based on current system variables, like the weather in certain areas. Lastly he implemented inside Morganna the pseudo-personality, "AI Harald" which mimicked his personality and could also learn. He also included project notes and images, so that he could in a way, be there to guide the birth of his daughter as well as witness it.
Because network games have been banned by the United Nations World Network Council (WNC) ever since the virus Pluto's Kiss crashed networks all over the world and the new world network was still in its infancy, he turned to the recently formed CC Corporation and pitched his product to them. They eagerly accepted, and began the development process while seeking permission from the WNC.
During development, CC Corp encountered blocks of autonomous code and protected folders. Whenever these "black boxes" were removed, the entire system ceased to function. Because they were unable to fully understand the system and many inner workings are a mystery to this day, they refer to it as the Harald System, unaware she already had a name.
They also could not explain the sudden appearances of incomplete NPCs that seemed to grow in complexity over time, calling them "Trash Data" or "Incomplete Data", deleting them whenever they were encountered. Little did CC Corporation know that these NPCs were the first of many failed attempts of Morganna in compiling the Ultimate AI. Though the first were mindless and even motionless, some were developed enough to act of their own volition. Instinctively, those without purpose would try to return back to Morganna, though some developed their own goals and ambitions. Evolving all on their own, they soon reached a point where they could fool people by acting like real PCs.
[edit] Morganna Mode Gone
By July, Fragment has the largest amount of network users online and Morganna was near perfecting the Ultimate AI, Aura. However, Morganna realizes that she would be assimilated by Aura once the latter awakened, eventually deciding to do everything in her power to prevent Aura's birth. Morganna deleted her maternal instincts, causing malfunctions and data corruption to her, and by extension to the game Fragment. Also the stabilty and quality of "AI Harald" was severely degraded, causing many project notes to fragment and scatter throughout the game. At this point, she is known as Morganna Mode Gone, in reference to her now deleted maternal instincts.
Somewhere around this time, Harald Hoerwick seeming vanished without a trace, leaving Fragment in the sole hands of CC Corporation. Though in reality, Harald had transferred his mind into Fragment, leaving his physical body behind permanently, in order to reason with Morganna directly and resolve her increasing corruption. However he was assaulted by Morganna, resulting in him being fragmented as well. Fleeing from her, he attempted to hide himself in several areas so that he could recover. However a version upgrade by CC Corporation causes the areas he was in to be sealed off, one of which was an upside down city, preventing him from ever reintegrating himself. Only sometime later, Harald's last act was to post a new topic in the game's official message board asking players to seek him out, which was the impetus for the first game-wide search for the Key of the Twilight by players.
Morganna's corruption continued unabated, with Morganna continuing to evolve and learn, eventually forming plans and contingencies. Because Aura's awakening depended on the assimilation of data on the entire spectrum of human emotions, Morganna decided the best course of action would be to limit and control all potential sources of data Aura could receive from. First and foremost, she modified the 8 Phases to only gather data on negative emotions hoping to destroy Aura from within. Also Morganna anonymously began working with the Cobalt Knights, CC Corporation's debug team, to find and delete any advanced AI that had gathered emotional data on its own as it interacted with players. Morganna also took the cores of 26 different viruses and began seeding them into every monster in the game.
Due to the increasing instability of the system, the CC Corporation ends the beta test three months prematurely, blaming the disruptive actions of PKers and offering a free one year subscription to their upcomming product to the one thousand twenty four beta testers. On December 24, 2007, Fragment is officially launched as The World.
[edit] Tsukasa
In the .hack//SIGN series, Morganna managed to imprison the consciousness of Tsukasa, the story's protagonist, trapping him inside The World. Morganna linked Tsukasa's emotions to the development of Aura's AI, while manipulating him such that Aura could never awaken. However, through Subaru he managed to summon the power to defy Morganna and awake Aura. In an attempt to get revenge on Tsukasa for waking up Aura, she sent Skeith, the first of the Eight Phases to track down and destroy Tsukasa and Aura at Net Slum. In response, Helba deleted the field Net Slum before Skeith could attack, allowing Tsukasa to finally log out of the game and give Aura a chance to escape from the clutches of Skeith.
[edit] External Links
| Video games: | INFECTION | MUTATION | OUTBREAK | QUARANTINE | frägment | G.U. |
|---|---|
| Anime: | Liminality | SIGN | Legend of the Twilight | GIFT | Roots |
| Books: | AI buster | AI buster 2 | ZERO | Another Birth | Legend of the Twilight | .hack//XXXX | 4 Koma | G.U.: The World |
| Characters: | Albireo | Alkaid | Aura | Azure Kite | Balmung | BlackRose | Cubia | Elk | Emma Wielant | Harald Hoerwick | Haseo | Helba | Kite | Kuhn| Lycoris | Mia | Mimiru | Morganna | Orca | Ovan | Rena | Shugo | Skeith | Tri-Edge | Tsukasa | Zefie .hack//SIGN characters |
| Other: | Altimit Corporation | ALTIMIT OS | CC Corporation | Cubia | Data Drain | Eight Phases | GU Phases (.hack) | .hack//ENEMY | Epitaph of Twilight | Net Slum | Pluto's Kiss The World | .hack character classes |
