Hulle Granz Cathedral

"Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground. It's a place of destiny."

- Crim

Hülle Granz Cathedral (グリーマ・レーヴ大聖堂, Gurīma Rēvu Dai Seidō, Old Norse for "The Cathedral Which Hides Heaven", German for "Shell Gloss Cathedral", Japanese for "Grima Raef Cathedral") is a field located at Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground. It is one of the Lost Grounds, and may have functioned as a Root Town and a minor event location in Fragment, the beta version of The World. Hulle Granz is a unique field, in that it consists only of a small island with a large cathedral in the center located in a lake of mist. The area's Fragment keyword was "Navel of Lake", and it is said to be an important place from the Epitaph of Twilight. Hulle Granz is the site of many important events in both Project .hack and .hack Conglomerate. Its name means "That Which Hides Heaven."

Epitaph of the Twilight
Hulle Granz Cathedral, located on the island at the "navel" of Alba's Lake, was already ancient beyond memory when the King of Light, Apeiron, and the Queen of Dark, Helba, met there to forge their unlikely alliance against the Cursed Wave in the opening scene of the Epitaph. It is also where the combined armies of Light and Dark, along with an army of humans, made their last stand against the Cursed Wave, since it was said that the Twilight Dragon would come here once it was found.

Fragment
In Fragment, Hulle Granz was an area known as Navel of Lake. Unlike its future incarnations, the lake around the island was filled with water during this time. Rumors spoke of a strange upside down man who would appear and talk to people inside of the cathedral.

The World R:2 Official Story
Hulle Granz is where humans trapped the Goddess of Light, Aurora.

.hack//AI buster
The Cathedral is the site of many important scenes in AI buster. It is the place where Albireo first encounters Lycoris, and where Lycoris ultimately allows herself to be deleted by him. Chronologically, this is also the first location of AI Harald.

.hack//SIGN
During SIGN it is revealed that the Cathedral is the location of the fabled Twilight Eye. Using a Fairy Orb or a similar spell causes the eye to open, revealing a secret extension to the Cathedral's bridge, and a red Chaos Gate which teleports people to The Inverted Castle, where an AI Harald is located. These hidden elements were removed by administrators near the end of SIGN. Tsukasa spends some of his time here, and uses the Cathedral as a place to show off the Guardian given to him by Morganna. At the end of SIGN, the Cathedral marks the place where the battle to free Aura began, and where Macha sacrificed herself in order to protect Tsukasa.

.hack//ZERO
In ZERO, the Cathedral serves as the primary location for interactions between Carl, Sora, and Aura. It is one of the only places in The World that Carl really likes.

.hack//Games/.hack//Another Birth
Several major events occur in the Cathedral during the Games timeline. After being killed by a Data Bug, Kazu fell into a coma. Since BlackRose had selected the Area Words for him, she felt guilty and decided to play the game to save her brother. This is also where Kite activated the Book of Twilight and gained the ability to Data Drain.

.hack//Legend of the Twilight (manga)
During Legend of the Twilight, the Cathedral is the area where Shugo receives the Helba Key from Kazu. In his attempt to escape to Net Slum he is stopped by the Cobalt Knights. Ouka and Kazu team up against the Knights, led by Magi, in an attempt to buy Shugo time.

.hack//Roots
The area appears much as it did in the Games, with the exception of the altar, which no longer bears a statue, and instead features a Tri-Edge's mark where the faded inscription about the phases used to be. Shino takes Haseo to this area, and tells him about the statue that used to be there. While searching the area for Virus Cores, Tabby and Sakisaka fall into a glitch in the wall, become stuck in a glitched area, and are forced to reboot. Later, Shino is attacked by Tri-Edge and placed into a coma, causing Haseo to swear vengeance. Haseo returns to the area several times over the course of Roots, and it becomes a place for his supporters such as Tohta to meet him. He later encounters Tri-Edge in the Cathedral and attempts to fight him, but Tri-Edge is much too powerful for him and defeats him easily, apparently destroying Haseo's character with a powerful Data Drain. Unknown to both the fighters, Saburou was watching the fight from a hiding place and spreads news of Haseo's defeat to the players of The World R:2.

hack//G.U.+
Haseo returns to the Cathedral to confront Ovan, asking why he disappeared for so long. Ovan dismisses him, saying that Tri-Edge will be appearing shortly. Ovan leaves, and Tri-Edge appears afterwards. Haseo tries to fight him but loses, his character destroyed by a Data Drain. Later a resurrected Haseo returns to Hulle Granz and is teleported to the Dead World of Indieglut Lugh by the Sign located on the altar.

.hack//G.U. Games
After receiving a tip from Ovan, Haseo finally encounters his hated enemy "Tri-Edge" here. Haseo brutally attacks him, but finds that all of his attacks are rendered useless. Using a strange Bracelet, the mysterious figure defeats Haseo and reformats his character data back to level 1. Later, following a post on the BBS, Haseo meets Piros the 3rd here. Much later, after fighting against Ovan, Haseo returns here with Atoli. The two begin to talk about recent events, but are interrupted when Ovan mysteriously reappears and confronts them.

Following the "Rebirth" and the reappearance of Cubia, Haseo travels to the Cathedral with Yata and Aina in an attempt to contact Aura. As a remnant of the black box system, the Cathedral is the only place in the game where this can be done. Utilizing the power of all eight Phases and the Book of Twilight, Haseo is able to open up a connection to Aura using Aina as a catalyst. In response to this, the Azure Knights appear and fight against Haseo and Yata, stopping their assault only when Aura tells them to hold.

After defeating Cubia, Haseo receives an e-mail from Shino telling him to visit the Cathedral. Inside, he finds Shino waiting for him. Atoli arrives too, having been invited by Shino as well. When she sees Haseo and Shino together she runs off in embarrassment. Haseo, with Shino's blessing runs off after her.

.hack//G.U. Trilogy
During the movie, no significant difference is made compared to the .hack//G.U. storyline. The events follow Shino falling into a coma and Haseo being defeated and Data Drained by Azure Kite. Towards the end, Haseo is seen standing side by side with Atoli in the Cathedral rather than Shino.

See also...

 * Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground (ENEMY)

Trivia

 * Interestingly, a statue of Aura appears here in the Games, chained to the altar by eight chains, each representing a Phase. It is also revealed that the plate on the altar lists the eight phases, though all the Aura_statue.png past Magus are faded and impossible to read. During .hack//MUTATION, several scenes from SIGN are shown in the cathedral as memory fragments.
 * In the .hack//AI buster novels the field name was mistakenly translated as Δ Hidden Forbidden Sacred instead of Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground.
 * In the original games, the shadow to Aura's statue does not appear. This may simply be an oversight, or may indicate that the statue exists outside of the system, or the fact that it was added after the area's creation.
 * At the Chaos Gate, Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground is listed as a Level 6 Water-type area in the original games.
 * In the prototype trailer for .hack//G.U., the statue of Aura was present in the Cathedral.
 * An oddity of the area is that private chat does not function inside the cathedral; only public channels can be used. During AI buster Albireo speculates that this is because the cathedral is a holy place, and it is impossible to keep secrets from God.
 * A rumor passed along by players in R:2 is if players enter the church at 12:00 real time, they will hear a girl crying, and a week later they will fall into a coma.
 * In the G.U. Games, a segment from the Epitaph of Twilight can be heard in German. It is the only Lost Ground to have its background song in an actual language, and the only Lost Ground to take its lines from the Epitaph of Twilight, first heard in the very beginning of .hack//INFECTION.
 * This is the only area in any of the games where a player must approach a certain point in the area to hear the area's music.
 * In Project X Zone the key words were mistranslated as Δ Hidden Forbidden Sanctum instead of Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground.
 * Attempting to use a Fairy Orb in this area in the G.U. games responds with, "This item cannot be used him," instead of just "This item cannot be used," or "This item cannot be used right now." This possible hints to the upside down man seen in the area or even to a past event the area was used for during fragment.