• The Epitaph of Twilight (黄昏の碑文), sometimes rendered Epitaph of the Twilight, or just the Epitaph, is an epic poem written by Emma Wielant. It tells the story of a race of sprites, beings that cast no shadows, who are being devoured by a woe known as the Cursed Wave. When all seems lost, the armies of light and darkness forge an alliance to strike back against it. According to legend, when the Cursed Wave appears, three beings with shadows will set out in search of the "Twilight Dragon," who is foretold to have the power to defeat the Cursed Wave. The main story of the Epitaph centers around a human and two half-sprites with shadows who search for the Twilight Dragon. Halfway through the their journey to the Wavering Peninsula at the edge of the world, where the Twilight Dragon is rumored to exist, they are assisted by Fili the White, and Bith the Black, servants to Apeiron, King of Light, and Helba, Queen of the Dark.

    The original version of the Epitaph was published on Emma Wielant's personal website, and never completed. The site had special security measures that kept people from normally saving, printing, or copying the text for themselves. Because of this, and because few people noticed the work until after her death, the original was thought to be lost, though some copies and notes, as well as a purported hardcopy, remained. Supposedly, the story of the Epitaph was used as the setting for Fragment, a game by the programmer Harald Hoerwick which later formed the basis for The World. However, since this was still only based off of fragments of knowledge, much of The World's setting was created by the CyberConnect Corporation. It is often unknown which elements of the game came from the Epitaph, and which were additions. The text of the Epitaph was also added to a "blackbox system" in the game by Harald for the development of Aura, the Ultimate AI, and was discovered by Aina and Ovan within The Creator's Room.

    Since the original Epitaph was lost, it is impossible to know how close the copies are to the original, though small pieces remain. Even in the real world, fan versions of the Epitaph float around. The passage of the Epitaph seen at the beginning of .hack//INFECTION was translated into Japanese by Norikazu Fujii (藤井紀和).

    The Epitaph is said to begin at "Navel of Lake", also known as Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground in The World. The following are the known fragments of the Epitaph.