skeith

COME ON, COME ON! I'M RIGHT HERE!

Skeith is first mentioned in Emma Wielant's Epitaph of Twilight, the epic poem that would go on to inspire Harald Hoerwick's Fragment and, later, The World:

"From the chosen land beyond the forest, a sign of the wave comes.
    Riding the Wave is Skeith, the Shadow of Death, to drown all that stands.

During Project .hack and the quest of the .hackers, Skeith would assume an actual form in The World. Under Morganna's control, Skeith Data Drains Sora -- who we now know was actually a very young Misaki Ryou. Following the battle, Sora's consciousness was sealed inside Skeith for seven months. In the Real World, Ryou was in a coma.

After Aura disappeared from The World, CC Corp decided to resurrect her through the R.A. Plan. This eleventh hour effort rested on the idea that by recreating Morganna, they could effectively return Aura to The World. The remnants of the eight phases, such as Skeith, were gathered and placed in a select few Epitaph-PCs. One of these PCs was Haseo's future avatar. The epitaphs would only attach themselves to players whose personality corresponded with them; these rare users were called Chosen Ones. Haseo, once merged with Skeith as Sora, unwittingly drew the epitaph to him. From day one, Haseo was the bearer of Skeith, the Terror of Death.

Haseo was largely ignorant of Skeith until Pi and Kuhn helped him awaken his power through Project G.U. Despite being aware of the dangers, Haseo merely saw Skeith as a way of gaining more strength and using it against others for his own purposes. Aww, that's our little shonen lead. However, after a few close calls and an elaborate lesson staged by Kuhn, Haseo finally understood that if you play too rough with Avatars, someone will lose an eye -- or consciousness. Ouch.

From that point on, Haseo used Skeith as a weapon against AIDA. During the course of his journey, he battled other epitaphs as well, going so far as to Data Drain them when they were infected with the virus. This makes Haseo the only Epitaph-PC to effectively 'devour' the others. What luck that these are the perfect conditions for Ovan's grand plan -- but more on that later.

After Haseo's PC is damaged by Corbenik's Rebirth, Skeith takes the form of a "white-clad Haseo" with fiery red hair. He confronts Haseo, primarily using the speech patterns of Sora to berate the hero for becoming "too soft". He threatens to leave Haseo forever, but of course our lead has too much moxie for that. Haseo makes it clear that whether he stays or leaves isn't Skeith's choice: it's his, thank you very much. Now be a good little avatar and get back in the fight.

Skeith: Ah, yes. I found you.
Haseo: Who are you?!
Skeith: So that's your answer, huh? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! What a moron! How many times have you turned your back on that road? How many times have you forsaken it? It's a pain, y'know? Tough! Harsh! Are you saying you'll still go down that road?
Haseo: ...my mind's made up!
Skeith: -- ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I get ya. So then, I guess you don't need me anymore. See ya.
Haseo: No. I'm not letting you go.
Skeith: ...huh?
Haseo: I said I'd see things through. So come on, I'm taking you with me. ...hey. You are me.

It's considered a happy coincidence that Haseo and Skeith are both addressed as the "Terror of Death", though sly players will wonder if there's more to that than meets the eye. I personally believe that Skeith is one of the reasons Haseo initially kept playing the game: even when faced with all the stupidity of PKers and two guilds fighting over him, the little Skeith deep inside pushed him to keep logging in.

It is interesting to note that Skeith means "Shadow" in Old Scottish. Are you trying to tell us something about Haseo, Mr. Game Developers?

When summoning Skeith, Haseo will always -- always, always, always -- shout, "Come on, come on! I'm right here! SKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEITH!". I secretly believe they hired Yuri Lowenthal for the role because he shouts people's names really well.