dotHack//Sign

Main Characters

Tsukasa

The main character of .hack//SIGN who has an ambiguous voice and body features. In The World he's a Wavemaster class. At the start of the series, he wakes up to find himself in a dungeon in The World, except that he has no idea why he is where he is, or for that matter, who he is to begin with. In addition, he finds himself pursued by the Crimson Knights for dealing with an illegally modified character, who he remembers seeing, but does not know when, where, or why. At the start of the series, all he seeks is to be alone, but this simply leads him deeper into trouble. He is given a "Guardian," a golden-orange barbell-shaped monster that defends him. He is also led by the cat-like Macha to a hidden area, where he meets Morganna as just a voice (who he initially believes is his mother) and the unborn Aura. Tsukasa eventually brings Subaru to Morganna's hidden zone. Angered, Morganna sends (Data Drained, perhaps) Tsukasa into a temporary trance and moves the unawakened Aura to a new area. At the end of the series, Tsukasa, now revealed to be a girl in real life, wakes up from the coma, and eventually leaves the hospital. She encounters a girl in a wheelchair (who is Subaru in real life). It is implied from certain scenes in the TV show that Tsukasa had an emotionally unstable father and deceased mother and was ostracized by her peers as a child. Also, from the novel .hack//ZERO we learn that Bear adopts her and allows her to go to a boarding school, and she and Subaru still love each other despite the fact that Tsukasa is really a girl. It says that they are dating.

Mimiru
Mimiru plays her character as a "tough-it-out-through-anything", devil-may-care fighter who is poor at planning things out and following through on them; however, she is skilled in the art of swordplay. She's the first player to meet Tsukasa, and later tries to form a bond with him in order to protect him from the outside world. Originally she was playing The World as a solo player but decided to team up with Tsukasa in order to help him log out and find the secret behind the Key of the Twilight. In the real world she is a tenth grade student at a public school. In The World, her character is a Heavyblade. She learns from Bear that Tsukasa may have been a girl in real life living in Tokyo. Regardless, she remains Tsukasa's friend even after the truth is revealed, even asking that they should meet up one day and go shopping together in Shimonotaka.

Bear
An older player of the game as well as an author in real life, Bear plays a Blademaster in The World. He is a friend of Mimiru and B.T. He is cool and collected, and usually is the one to conduct research in the real world on Tsukasa in the attempt to try to figure out who he really is. He's the first one who discovers that Tsukasa is a girl in real life. He sees Tsukasa as his own child supposedly because of how he failed to take care of his real-life son, whom he meets up with later in the Lambda server root town, Carmina Gadelica. Additionally, Bear is perhaps the character who is most experienced with role-playing games, especially ones produced several years before The World. He adopts Tsukasa after she finally wakes up from the coma which she was put in by Morganna. He has met B.T. in the real world. Scenes of Bear and B.T. in The World suggest that they might have a relationship beyond just friendship.

Subaru
Leader of the Crimson Knights, a player organization designed to fight injustice in The World. At times she seems to be the only one preventing the Crimson Knights from running wild; she knows that they must restrain from abusing their power. She eventually joins in the search for Tsukasa, and builds a strong relationship with him. In real life, she is physically handicapped, which is why she spends so much time in The World; it is the only place where she can roam freely on her own. She is friends with the player Crim and the two share a close bond. She is also a friend of Balmung of Azure Sky. In The World, she is a female Heavy Axeman. However, she is somewhat inexperienced in combat, as a result of others, such as Crim, Silver Knight, and even Balmung of Azure Sky, being overprotective of her and fighting her battles for her.

Crim
A friend of Subaru who founded the Crimson Knights organization with her, but afterwards left it. He founded the Crimson Knights in the heat of battle as he fought to protect Subaru from Player Killers. Eventually, he left the order after being constantly chewed out by Silver Knight. Amiable, easygoing and sociable, his stated goal when playing the game is simply to have fun, rather than to simply gain levels or better items. He is an extremely skilled fighter, as good as (if not better than) Sora, and takes it upon himself to protect Subaru and the others. In real life, he is a business man who often travels. He and BT have met in real life. He is the only one who knows that Subaru is handicapped till he tells about it to Tsukasa in episode 23. As a token of their friendship, Subaru was given a phone number that could be used to contact Crim in the real world at any time and he encourages her to call him whenever she wants to talk (she never uses it though). He casually refers to this number as a "spell". While a tad overprotective of Subaru, he still encourages her to become stronger herself.

Silver Knight
Second in command of the Crimson Knights. He possesses a strong sense of justice (becoming over-zealous at times), but is also extremely naïve, leading him to end up as more of a tool to be used by whoever is in control. Late in the series, he tells Mimiru that he is 23 and works in a video store. (In the parody episode, GIFT, Subaru points this out while beating Silver Knight up with her axe. XD) He is extremely overprotective of Subaru, moreso than anyone else.

BT
A Wavemaster in the game. B.T. is a plotting, scheming character who forms friendships just to achieve a goal, only to watch the friendship crumble when the other person finds out that they've been used. She rarely ventures out to fight monsters, but is said to be good with both offensive and defensive magic. In The World, she teams up with Sora in order to find the Key of the Twilight and uses the other characters in order to find leads. B.T. appears to be the character least concerned with Tsukasa or his plight. She has met with Bear in the real world several times. While it is implied they are more than just casual friends, the degree to how far their relationship goes is unknown. In the real world she is a retired model in her late twenties. She named her character after her favorite food, the B.L.T. (bacon, lettuce, and tomato) sandwich, minus the L for lettuce (a food she doesn't hate but also does not particularly enjoy). There has been speculation among fans of whether it is also a reference to Bee Train.

Sora
Sora is a ruthless player-killer of the Twin Blade class who isn't afraid to backstab people only minutes after allying with them. His method of Player Killing is usually to sneak up from behind and ask for his victim's Member Addresses, an in-game email address. Apparently he prefers "pretty girls" as victims, though he will kill male players as well, usually for information. He's maxed out his levels, making him a tough opponent that can kill most players in one or two hits. He doesn't like the player Crim, and can be seen fighting him throughout the series. He also hates to lose, perhaps a motivating force in his maxed-out stats, and has only lost (as we can see) once to Crim. This motivation inevitably brought him to search for the Key of the Twilight in order to become stronger. He switches sides constantly throughout the story; this habit eventually becomes his undoing when, after ensuring Tsukasa's escape from her, Morganna assimilates his character's data with the Phase known as Skeith, who uses "Data Drain" on him. In real life, he is a boy in the fourth grade who tries to keep his cool (and usually succeeds at it).

Maha (Macha)
A cat-like NPC who tries to help Tsukasa when it can, although not always directly. It can talk, but only Tsukasa (and almost never the audience) can hear it. The only time it is heard is when Macha is attacked and destroyed by a guardian while protecting Tsukasa but even then it is just a scream. In the English dub, this is barely audible, if at all.

Aura
The AI "daughter" of Harald, represented as a young girl clad entirely in white floating above a bed. She becomes directly linked to Tsukasa through the actions of Morganna, to the point where Tsukasa's mood alone dictates her development. She exists in a hidden area accessible only by Tsukasa and Macha, the nature of which changes according to Tsukasa's current disposition (for instance, when Tsukasa is depressed, it becomes dark and ominous and adorned with thorns and gnarled, dead trees).

Harald Hörwick

The creator of The World. Because he was disappointed in himself for failing as a father in real life, he created Aura, an AI, to serve as his "daughter" in The World, and left Morganna to watch over Aura and help her develop. A likeness of himself, resembling an old man floating upside-down in a throne-like structure, exists in several hidden areas throughout the game. He may not actually be upside down, it is possible that the characters who meet him are upside down.

Morganna

Initially created as an omnipresent AI to help Aura develop. Using the Eight Phases, Morganna was supposed to feed information to Aura about the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the players in The World in order to teach her what it means to be human. However, Morganna realized that once Aura was born, she would become useless and powerless and thus deleted. Thus, Morganna linked Tsukasa to Aura, which put Tsukasa's real life self into a coma, and attempted to push him into utter despair to feed only negative thoughts to Aura, destroying her and allowing Morganna's power to grow unchecked.

Helba

A genius hacker (or a whole team of them using the same account) of the Wavemaster class who even controls her own hidden fields in The World. Out of concern for Tsukasa, worry about the state of The World, and simple interest in the outcome, she helps guide the other characters on their quest to save Tsukasa. In the .hack games, she is Kite's guide to Virus Cores and Gate Hacking.

Balmung

One of the main characters in the .hack games, Balmung is mentioned several times in .hack//SIGN but only appears in one episode as well as the additional episodes Unison and Gift. He is a regarded as a legendary character and holds the title "of the Azure Sky" ("Souten no Balmung"). His appearance in the series is heroic as he saves Subaru from an undefeatable monster. The result of the battle is unknown, although it is rumored that he may have beaten the monster when Morganna was defeated. It is not known how he knows Subaru nor how deep his friendship with her is. He and Orca are regarded as "Descendants of Fianna" ("Fianna no matsuei") for beating the Spectrum Dragon during the "One Sin" event. The "One Sin" event is told in AI Buster. Balmung takes his name from the sword Sigurd used to defeat the dragon Fafnir in Der Ring des Nibelungen in Norse mythology.

Orca

Like Balmung, Orca is also regarded as a legendary character. He bears the moniker "of the Azure Sea" ("Soukai no Orca"). Although he is mentioned several times in the show, Orca only appears in the episode Unison and the parody episode Gift. He bears a close resemblance to Bear; this distinction is the basis for a running gag in Gift. He and Balmung are regarded as "Descendants of Fianna" ("Fianna no matsuei") for beating the Spectrum Dragon in the "One Sin" event. The "One Sin" event is explained in AI Buster.

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