I wrote unconquered in 2009 when I was slightly more of a neurotic basket case than I am now, so the original introduction had a textwall of spew about sources I was afraid I'd plagiarized unintentionally (or semi-intentionally). You can still read that introduction--and the previous revision of the fanfic, last updated in 2010--on this archival page if for some reason you actually want to. Potential cryptomnesia notwithstanding, I remain indebted to those influences and to others who've inspired me before and since.

The links to research sources on the fan sites Godsibb, Xenotensei, and Zarathustra unfortunately don't work anymore and might brainjack your computer if you try to go to them, but most of the documents I relied on for canon information have been archived at the following locations (shoutout to SilverSoul, Trombone-san, and the rest of the XenoChat podcast crew for these links!):

Official Design Materials

Xenosaga Episode III Perfect Guide

Pied Piper translation

I also happened across a playthrough of the Japanese cell phone game Pied Piper on YouTube (!), which I used as a reference for some minor details in a revised scene.

For this revision--aside from reformatting everything to match the new layout for the rest of the site--I've made some minor edits to the text, mostly to fix some wording in the later chapters. Any new mistakes I blame on my keyboard, which has been misfiring and probably needs to be cleaned (or maintenance'd).

I've also included some illustrations. Most of these were part of a gallery on the old site and were done between 2009 and 2010. For this version I've attempted to fit them into the chapters they're most relevant to, and I've updated some of them to correct Past Me's technical errors and general laziness.

The title and a few quoted lines/references in the fic are from Invictus by William Ernest Henley.