Erna Uhlenhuth

Erna Uhlenhuth (エルナ・ウーレンフート) is a leader of mama. From 1996 to 2004, she operated in Germany under the alias Emma Wieland.



"The hand that spun a legend will also become a legend itself."

- Emma Wielant's gravestone

Emma Wieland (1972-2004) was the author of the Epitaph of the Twilight and played a pivotal role in the origin of The World.

Thanatos Report
Erna appears briefly in a report by Ryuuji Sogabe. Together with the organization Mama she secretly guided Harald Hoerwick towards creation of the Ultimate A.I. Aura and was the first to come up with the plan to digitize all humanity following the organization's beliefs about the future, concepts which later evolved into Real Digitalization and Soul Digitalization seen throughout the .hack series.

Early Life (1972-1995) - Before the Epitaph of Twilight
Emma was born August 8th, 1972 into a rich West German family that ran an old winery near the Rhine. Emma's mother died while she was still at an early age and her father died when she was 18. By her father's will, Emma's uncle became her new guardian and she was granted an inheritance in the form of a trust that she couldn't access until she turned 20. In an attempt to get her inheritance, Emma's uncle offered to legally adopt her, but she saw through him and refused the offer. Unable to access her inheritance at the time, Emma enrolled in a nursing school so she could support herself in the meantime. However, on the morning of Emma's 20th birthday, stress and overwork from having to support herself caused her to cough up blood from her lungs in a case of hemoptysis. The case was a minor one that Emma was able to control and she returned to better health, but she still checked into a health resort in Southern France in accordance with her physician's advice. While staying there, Emma had some type of supernatural experience which led her to pursue studies in spiritual consciousness and existence (anthroposophy), and the works of Rudolf Steiner. It was then that she began work on the Epitaph. Emma was also interested in the work of the French ecologist Dominique de Mirabeau and became a member of the environmental organization "mama," dedicated to protecting the future of Mother Earth from human activity.

Late Life (1996-2004) - The Beginning and The End?
In 1996, Emma met a talented German programmer named Harald Hoerwick. Harald was also interested in anthroposophy and was using it to further uncover and develop a relationship between computers and humans. It was their common interest in this field that gave them a chance to meet and upon doing so, Emma developed an interest in Harald's talents while Harald developed an interest in Emma. However, Emma was already involved with another man over 20 years older than her and any love Harald may have had for her would not be returned. Emma's work, the "Epitaph of Twilight," would soon be publicly posted online for a short time with features that prevented computers from making any direct copies. Before Emma could finish her work however, she is reported to have died in an auto accident while on her way to a meeting with Harald.

Shortly thereafter, Emma's original work was lost as her site was shutdown and Pluto's Kiss wiped out the Internet. Affected by losing Emma, Harald continued his work on the beta version of The World, Fragment, determined not to let Emma's death truly be the end. After Fragment's testing started, rumors about it being based on the Epitaph of Twilight began circulating and even deeper secrets hidden and locked within the game began making themselves known.

In reality though alive the whereabouts of her actual self, the woman named Erna Uhlenhuth are unknown.

Trivia

 * Both the English and the Japanese VA of Emma in the games, also did the voices of Helba (in SIGN too) and Kaoru Asaba ("Office Lady") from Liminality.
 * Her gravestone reads in German: "Creator of legends, now rest here as a legend."


 * The spelling on the gravestone is a mistake. The German name is written "Wieland", as well as in the German version of the AI Buster novel.