📚marathon-lore-discussion

[fluid stump]

Void seems to be only character that isn't suprised by this happening. I think his reaction is due to his nature, he questions everything albeit keeping himself silient while having some uncanny ass voice and positioning. He is one of the characters that look the most uncanny out of the four, and my favorite too.

[severe wolf]

hi

[shell shard]

I don't hold the uncanny voice against Void cuz that's literally how his VA (Elias Toufexis) sounds like. But yes.

[queen torrent]

010:00 hours, I find myself waking up and immediately looking through my terminal, Gypson, the planet on the outermost ring was unresponsive to signals.
Something strange is happening, but this time on one of the outer rings, the last planet to go silent was in the 6th gate sphere, surely the oracles must know of something, I must find the 343 Guilty Spark, he runs the installation on the outermost ring. If any sentient being knows something, he has too.

[steel geode]

hi

[paper scaffold]

I like how glitch looked in the short cinematic, the game at least at the moment, her face looks very stern

All the ladies would main her if she was kawaii

[cinder lance]

just a sweet cryodream

[paper scaffold]

watchu say to me, those r some fightin wordz

[fluid stump]

I'm not saying anything about the VA, It's just the dude who did his voice did a pretty good job lol.

[sturdy lodge]

? VA is voice actor/acting... So you're literally talking about liking the VA 😅

[queen nova]

He's saying he doesn't know anything actor themselves just that they did a good job

[muted belfry]

I'm wondering if Void's lines will change since he has two different accents between the alpha and the cinematic

[queen torrent]

04:00 Hours, I took a ship to investigate the occurrences on Gypson, I was stopped at the warp drive by Admiral Jusek’s guards, they let me know nobody was allowed in or out of warp space, that Gypson is being Qurantined. I need to find 343 Guilty Spark, he’s the only one who would know what’s going on.

[fallen hollow]

It's not real unless my screen turns black when my character blinks.

[faint jackal]

oh really

same voice actor though? or is that even disclosed

[dire fog]

[muted belfry]

Doesn't sound like it. Glitch doesn't sound the same either.

[paper scaffold]

Is there a big bad evil in this universe, like the ultimate mercenary guy who never loses, or some sort of gigachad ai whos mysterious as hecking hek

[visual lynx]

the wrkncacnter maybe

[faint jackal]

hmm interesting, well maybe it was just a one-off for the short film

[shell shard]

It's definitely the same voice actor. I'd recognize Elias Toufexis anywhere. And he said that he's the voice director for the game. Maybe the cinematic short had someone else in that position?

[faint jackal]

hmm well that makes sense, I think there was some other one-off things in the cinematic short as well, so maybe some minor non-lore related details shouldn't be taken too seriously.

[arctic owl]

Is being “Qurantined” anything like being under Shakira Law

[plucky sierra]

Shakira Law 💀

[next gale]

🤭

hips dont lie

[shrewd thunder]

Adam Jensen is the man always

[shrewd thunder]

Lmao what

[plucky sierra]

It’s Sharia Law but the guy called it Shakira Law

[shrewd thunder]

I know. Still funny.

[gentle kite]

It’s like how people abbreviate “Peace Be Upon Him” (normally PBUH) to PUBG

[worn yacht]

It’s like how people abbreviate “Hello” (normally Hello) to PUBG

[paper scaffold]

i never asked for this

I still gotta beat mankind divided, the world felt empty to me kinda put it off there for a bit, human revolution tho, top tier

[shrewd thunder]

Mankind divided is alright imo.

It missed a beat somewhere but it’s still a good game. HR is still the best though.

[arctic owl]

They said Quran-tine, which is misspelled and resembles the Muslim holy book, so I hit ‘em with the “Shakira Law” common misunderstanding

[shrewd thunder]

Hips don’t lie

[cinder lance]

Imagine going into the Marathon and finding a 1st gen cache. Like something hidden by mida rebels onboard. Fire.

[visual lynx]

and then realizing that managing the recoil is akin to wrestling a greased pig

[cinder lance]

you'd need to spec in to being able to use grandpa weapons, that tracks tho. I'm sure it would also track that the damage output would be spectacular if you knew how to hit your targets

[fallen hollow]

Don't threaten me with a good time. I want the Misriah 2442 to kick like a mule.

[signal python]

this game has lore? lol

[verbal pike]

No, marathon famously has no lore or story

It's why people are celebrating the lack of single player or campaign content

[signal python]

rip

[jagged thicket]

.

[paper scaffold]

,

[arctic owl]

https://tenor.com/view/marathon-bungie-bungie-marathon-classic-marathon-aleph-one-gif-15748062047549293355

I didn’t know we could posts GIFs in this channel now, and apparently my guess as to how one accomplishes this was incorrect

I’m going to be okay, but at some point it may be important to be able to post a GIF of Shakira dancing

[deep niche]

https://tenor.com/view/confused-huh-cat-kitten-kitty-gif-5273247718297236208

[simple garden]

what does the message from null bot mean ? im confused

[paper scaffold]

It would b better if it wasnt a long ass link lmao

[quartz patrol]

did MR54 merge with Durandal/Thoth at the end of Infinity and, together, all three became a new singular entity?

[celest maple]

Tbh, I feel like

[merry whale]

Love when the moral of the story and the underlying theme of a post apocolyptic / dystopian setting is human love and connection

[lavish palm]

u wil hate marathon

[opaque cliff]

rimworld

[merry whale]

I would argue thats the point of marathon

[neon root]

No the point is marathon is money

[opaque cliff]

no the point of marathon is extracting with loot dingus

[unreal mortar]

That you then sell to make money to buy better stuff to make more money

[opaque cliff]

you are so smart

[lavish palm]

human love and connection? im pretty sure the themes are distinct and explicitly revolve around slave/master dynamics.

creation of consciousness you mean to control and deprive of freedom type shit

[arctic owl]

I believe John Marathon fought not because Durandal forced him to, but because he desperately hoped he would one day meet a BOB that didn’t explode when he got close (metaphor for emotional intimacy problems) or who he didn’t have to shoot because it was really fucking funny (metaphor for uh, for uh, being unable to stop bringing his work home with him)

[eternal echo]

How does John Marathon connect to Joe Harvey Destiny? These are the questions that need answers.

[plucky sierra]

They’re cousins

[tawny blaze]

The master chief is in the traveler

[prime rose]

no Master Chief is Noble 6

[clever inlet]

is the maraton the friends we made along the way

[deep niche]

Yes

[charred solar]

Chat if the marathon were a burger place would Nucaloric serve peak patties or just buns?

[twilit creek]

that was deep

[cinder lance]

Here's a fun hypothesis: Halo universe is one of the split branches of the infinity tree, aka the forking timelines at the end of infinity... escaping closure, destiny yadda ya.

It would be so so interesting to see that all mirrored back onto three eyes, and see them really fleshed out.

[cinder lance]

but you didn't say it on burger

[charred solar]

fucckkkk

[deep niche]

What if marathon is just one big patty and it all revolves around the sun (Bungie) and each individual planet is its own burger

[surreal anchor]

each planet is actually a topping for the burger

[steady creek]

i have been to tau ceti

[frail fog]

I, am not high enough for hypothetical discussions of the lore of a game that is not likely to exist 🤣☠️.

[bleak agate]

get a job

[frail fog]

I am employed. Why would that be relevant??? 🤔

[polar vale]

Oh damn you really are in here to get bullied

[frail fog]

I, wholeheartedly and welcome anyone to try!!! ☠️☠️☠️

[fluid stump]

abysmal dogshit ragebait

[frail fog]

How?

[fluid stump]

isn't it obvious

[frail fog]

Do you honestly think I care if people reading my messages are offended/upset/assmad??????

[fluid stump]

you did care enough to post it on #📚marathon-lore-discussion tho

[frail fog]

Prey can run, prey can hide. But, they never truly get away. 😈😁

[fluid stump]

🤓

[frail fog]

Use your words! I believe in you. (Okay, I don't but we can pretend that I do.)

[fluid stump]

i think image recognition is a great thing to have

[frail fog]

Passive aggressive comments have no chance of reaching me.

[frail fog]

https://tenor.com/view/crickets-gif-14788430004705207880

[frail fog]

Getting mass reported for something that was a misunderstanding I absolutely take as a compliment. 😁💙🤡

[cursive axle]

what

[frail fog]

Yeah, not fun but not surprising either.

[plucky sierra]

[spring junco]

yo do you like lotr sorry for off-topic

[plucky sierra]

Yes extremely, how do you know?

[spring junco]

vibes

[plucky sierra]

💀 from one unhappy face?

[plucky sierra]

Do you like LoTR?

[spring junco]

not really

[plucky sierra]

Ah bummer, you’re missing out on peak fiction

[spring junco]

Likely. Check DMs.

[plucky sierra]

Bro googled me 💀

[cursive axle]

felwinter why do you lie

[visual lynx]

I am brewing plans for an epic science-fantasy fan-finale to Tolkien’s legendarium, in which a technologically advanced and socially
progressive future humanity, who have invented artifices that fight entropy (a la the One Ring), discover Aman in space (via the Straight Path) and clash with the (highly conservative) Elves there over things up to and including the nature of Illuvatar and Melkor’s relationship, with humanity giving a compassionate interpretation of Melkor as Illuvatar’s Shadow in the Jungian sense, a projection of part of him (like all the Ainur) that he then scorns and shuns when seen as an other, that internal conflict within the creator being the true source of all evil in the world.

also the Door of Night leads outside the “simulation” (ish) that is Ea (with Aman still running in a bubble of older code gradually deprecated since the Bending of the World, and humanity having now mastered that “New Magic”, physics, to the same degree the Elves once did the Old), and after human forces break through it, all the humans who have ever died come pouring back in through it, along with Melkor, to fight the Dagor Dagorath and then — after Melkor realizes that the only way to destroy what he hates most about Illuvatar is to destroy himself, because he just is the manifestation of those very things, but then Illuvatar forgives him before he can, completing his Shadow Work and reintegrating his psyche — singing the Second Music together and birthing Arda Healed, as Illuvatar at last reverses his original sin and shares the Sacred Fire with all, Melkor taking point in the new creation as he always wanted (being the manifestation of Illuvatar’s auteur characteristics and ego), and all the Ainur and Children of Illuvatar together supporting and perfecting his vision.

look at me over here inventing a Tolkien version of Satanism.

[visual lynx]

oh shoot that all was supposed to be a reply to this

[calm cypress]

Discord’s damnable reply system strikes again!

[plucky sierra]

No like that guy legit was looking up my username on other unlinked platforms.

[plucky sierra]

Eä being a simulation is quite an interesting concept. I’m not a writer so I can’t really critique but personally I do lean more towards tolkiens original vision of the legendarium acting as a actual mythology with our actual history documenting from around the 4th age onwards

[coral pier]

Where's a good place to get/watch lore for all of marathon

[fallen hollow]

All the lore is archived, for your convenience.
https://marathon.karnemir.com/

[cursive axle]

sorry im a nerd that was a destiny reference

[plucky sierra]

Or well in that case I had to or everyone else would kill me if they discovered my connection with Rasputin

[severe light]

There are nerds discussing lore in a discord channel for a game that barely has a crumb of lore

[stoic bear]

could i interest you in a trilogy of games from the 90's

[plucky sierra]

Your ignorance is astounding

[mossy parrot]

What's the lore on a impulsive dolt obliged to vomit their ignorant whims on a server/channel they obviously have no positive inclinations for? Genetic lottery at work...

[next gale]

Loneliness

[fallen hollow]

No use feeding the trolls.

[unreal mortar]

Heres some youtubers

JaketheAlright
Bonn
Marathon Intel
SadowTalksMarathon
Tau Ceti News Network
Jeoku
Riloe has some decent marton vids
Boundless has a couple vids
Aperturegrillz only does old marathon speed run stuff.
Smytsidian does marathon sphtpost
Yapyapofrats made a decent and highly underated vid on what marathon may be able to take from apex
RunnersHQ basic marathon knowledge and news
M.WAVEPUNK has a decent vid
TheGeck0Frontier does mostly arc raider content but also does some marathon.

[cursive axle]

Where is Mandalore

[unreal mortar]

I FORGOR

[visual lynx]

oh I don’t mean to do other than that, in fact the whole concept depends on it: the idea is that we humans in our real world are unknowingly living in the future of Tolkien’s world, and then when we find elves in space (etc) we begin to learn the true nature of our world… including that the whole cosmos is a construct (Ea) within a larger true reality (the Outer Void), which we interpret through our scientific lens as the simulation hypothesis.

[lavish palm]

elves wouldnt get to space first

[visual lynx]

they didn’t “get to space” the way we did, Aman was torn from the circles of the world during the Akallabeth, and now can only be reached via the Straight Path, a magical route west from Middle-Earth that doesn’t drop with the curve of the newly bent world but instead continues in a straight line… implying, if we take a scientific lens to that, that Aman is now in space, magically placed there by Illuvatar.

in my thing, Aman is discovered by Men as a very strange celestial object:

something about half the linear size of Earth, but apparently massless as far as interaction with other celestial objects, in geostationary orbit around the Earth, but at a height of 2AU, and with a surface that is … weird, looking like a side view of a continent from the surface of the sea, but distorted and smeared around the whole spherical surface of this “planet”.

because Aman is positioned such that it is always the same distance (I picked 2AU so that its closest approaches to the sun would be the same as Earth’s) in a straight line from the western shores of Europe (meaning its position in space spins with the rotation of the Earth, which is ordinarily true only of geostationary orbits), and from Aman all paths back to the Bent World are in the east, meaning that all views of Aman from the universe as we know it see Aman as from its eastern shores.

Aman just is where it is in space relative to the Earth and is not affected by and so does not affect anything else in our universe gravitationally (hence seeming to be massless), but anything traveling between our world (universe) and that one seem to pass through weird distorted space such that your space probe may be descending vertically towards this weird spherical object when it starts but then at some point that trajectory is now horizontal through the sky above an ocean that it then falls down into.

and to the west of Aman is now nothing, just dark skies, the Door of Night, and through it the Outer Void beyond Ea.

[lavish palm]

yeah ok dude but theres no elves there

[celest maple]

Tbh I feel like

[plucky sierra]

Aman is where the elves live with the Valar

[visual lynx]

to elaborate: the Elves were created in Middle-Earth and then summoned to Arda when the Valar discovered them: not all answered, not all those who did followed through on the journey, not all those who did succeeded in getting there, and not all those who did stayed permanently, so there’s a spread of different Elves between Middle-Earth and Arda; but Arda is where all Elves are called to, and by the end of the Third Age they were all sailing there (via the aforementioned Straight Path), with those few remaining in Middle-Earth to “diminish” into the small rustic elves of human folklore.

(as Tolkien’s conception of mighty and cosmopolitan Elves is an intentional departure from the once-usual way they were depicted; his whole legendarium basically stems from the idea “what if those little creatures of fairy-stories were once the majestic dominant civilization of the world, only for their time to slowly pass and give way to the time of men.”)

[fallen hollow]

While many Elves were called to Valinor, not all Elves were. The Avari refused the summons from the beginning.

[visual lynx]

they were still called, they just didn’t answer. that’s the first of the factions I implied in my list above. (they presumably, if not tortured and mutilated into orcs, or slain and reincarnated in the halls of mandos anyway, are some of those who dwindled into the rustic folk of lore.)

[sturdy abyss]

Apparently the 4 runners each have distinct personalities, how could we describe them?

[unreal mortar]

I would say

Glitch - impatient and impulsive
Blackbird - nosey and cocky
Void - honest and enigmatic
Locus - supportive and cheerful

[sturdy abyss]

Glitch and Blackbird are basically me lol

[sturdy abyss]

Locus actually sounds like the classic type of “Gentle Giant”

[unreal mortar]

He reminds me very much of apex gibby

[sturdy abyss]

FRR

“Getting some cover for my brudas”

[unreal mortar]

Its more in the animations you see it. Glitch in the main menu constantly taps her feet and is always wanting to get into the fight whereas blackbird is like an old hunter viciously and methodically tracing down pray.

[sturdy abyss]

And Locus with his supportive personality actually sacrificed himself using his shield to cover his team and buying some time for them to hide

[atomic drift]

Sums this discord up in a nutshell lol 👆

[next gale]

are you saying I have missed out on spicy fanfic

[arctic owl]

I’m up for Forrest’s LOTR in Space fanfic, but only if when humans reach Aman, the first person they encounter is Tom Bombadil and they’re like “You know what, never mind”

[sturdy abyss]

The shell that the runners use are ACTUALLY made by Caterpillars then?

[arctic owl]

Or if Forrest really goes nuts, crosses universes, and works out some way that every Halo is a One Ring

And the Flood are, ah. Cloned, um. Badly cloned Gollums. Golla. I don’t really know a lot about the Bilboverse tbh

[visual lynx]

Bombadil wouldn’t leave his domain in Middle Earth, which he was constantly shrinking (voluntarily) over the ages, so if he’s still around at all there’s probably like one tree in rural England somewhere that Bombadil lives under now.

[arctic owl]

Good. That little annoying twerp deserves no better

I hope he’s taken up the bottle or the needle. Not singing such a merry tune these days

I hope the tree is actually along a stretch of highway, and even people who would normally be kind to unhoused addicts find themselves compelled to throw cans of beans at him as they speed past. Because they sense something. They sense what a stupid little freak he is

“Your boots are UGLY,” they all scream. And that’s really the biggest button to push for old Tom. That’s what really sets him to weeping

[ebon zephyr]

What are the lore implications of stolen art?

[plucky sierra]

What are the lore implications of stolen jokes

[ebon zephyr]

Imitation is a form of flattery. Thank you homie 😊

[steady creek]

tau ceti isnt real imo

[visual lynx]

if our telescopes aren’t real how can tau ceti be real

[visual lynx]

jeez! what did Tom ever do to you?

(I feel like I should work him into my fanfic somehow. the implication in canon is that he was once the only being in the world and thus his domain, in which he is all-powerful, was the whole of the world, but as time has marched on he has willingly contracted his domain to a smaller and smaller one. so in the distant future, what of it remains? who is he and how does he fit into the bigger picture I have sketched out? I think he says at some point that he will be “last” as he was first; maybe he only shows up in the end, after the Dagor Dagorath, when the rest of the cosmos are destroyed by battle but… somehow… this tiny bubble of idyllic nature is still floating in the void, inhabited only by Tom. maybe he somehow sparks Melkor’s realization and thus Illuvatar’s reconciliation?)

[arctic owl]

Maybe he dies in a ditch and no one cares

I dunno, I know it’s a thing to hate on him, and I did find his section a little annoying when I read the book. But I kind of love that he’s just in there, not really a part of things, and countless readers have been like “what’s up with this guy?” I like it when stories give you little indications that stuff is happening beyond the periphery of the characters, stuff they don’t know anything about

[visual lynx]

I didn’t know it was a thing to hate on him

[unreal mortar]

Does mida stealing biomata and sekiguchi tech count

[arctic owl]

And I like that Tolkien’s explanation has always been along the lines of “I just felt like putting him in there, I liked that poem I wrote about him, dealwithit.gif”

[visual lynx]

I think I won’t explain him in my fanfic, as it seems that would betray his purpose; I think I will have it so that his house is the only thing that mysteriously survives Dagor Dagorath, and when Melkor goes to see wtf is up with that, Tom greets him merrily, remembering when he first came into the world so young and ambitious, and Tom is generally just … nice, like he’s unconcerned that a war is happening and doesn’t take anyone’s side in it, he’s kind to everyone unconditionally, but also won’t shy away from gently scolding them when they’re doing wrong in his domain.

he says what should have happened in the beginning (which is what’s about to happen at the end), that Illuvatar should have had Melkor take point in the creation of Ea and had everyone else support and enhance his vision. it’s that little chat that makes Melkor realize that he is the part of Illuvatar that he most hates and so to win he must destroy himself, but it also makes Illuvatar realize he’s been fighting himself all this time and how to resolve it, leading to the conclusion that Tom just foreshadowed. and maybe while that drama is happening Tom and his house quietly vanish before any answers can be had. and then the Second Music begins.

[slender scaffold]

Maybe 🤷‍♂️

[surreal wasp]

why would anyone use this sticker

[fallen ginkgo]

Cause its coooool

[visual lynx]

oh god not here too

[tepid schooner]

[paper scaffold]

oh i forgot this is the lore channel 👁️ 👄 👁️

[grizzled rampart]

[surreal totem]

[glossy pasture]

[slender scaffold]

[atomic dawn]

hey, can someone explain where %hero comes from in classic marathon? I keep seeing it being repeated a lot but I don't know where it's from

[visual lynx]

the unformatted kyt terminal: https://marathon.bungie.org/story/kytterm.html

ihavebee}rolandbeowulfachil!esgilgameshihavebeencalleda[undrednamesandwillbecalledathousandmorebeforetheworldgoesdimandcoldiam%hero

[visual lynx]

guess I’ll mute this channel now too :sigh:

[young yacht]

[nimble oar]

[arctic owl]

“Life Threatening Banana” is an A+ handle, imo, and if it’s a reference to a show or something I don’t want to know about it

[minor bramble]

[paper scaffold]

[deep oxide]

[olive ruin]

[chilly obsidian]

[turbid solstice]

[brittle lantern]

[chilly nexus]

[paper scaffold]

[nimble wigeon]

[tall skiff]

https://qntm.org/lena

[dire fog]

aint clicking that

[tall skiff]

-# ~~https://tenor.com/view/pinkpantheress-pinkpantheress-interwiew-pinkpantheress-oh-stan-twt-pinkpantheress-oh-gif-3600885355502009829~~
epic gif fail

[dire fog]

Skill issue

[radiant hatch]

[radiant hatch]

[radiant hatch]

[radiant hatch]

[radiant hatch]

🤡

[tepid jay]

:3

[waxen moth]

[shrewd anvil]

By the way.... ?

[vital frigate]

[tall skiff]

who up worming their weave

[muted marsh]

[radiant hatch]

[radiant hatch]

[supple veldt]

[somber knoll]

No reference, just pure rage and violence

[arctic owl]

HELL yeah

[radiant hatch]

[radiant hatch]

[radiant hatch]

[radiant hatch]

[unreal mortar]

Honest lore question, are the ticks we see in numarton on tciv the same as the ones on l'howon? I know on higher difficulties in m2 ticks can explode but are passive. They seem to act more like lookers but those are only seen in m1 though. So are they a new breed, retcon or entirely new specie? Also what does their milk taste like?

[plucky sierra]

the lookers are one of the enslaved phfor species I am pretty sure, but they also don't look much like the lh'owon ticks. Perhaps new Tau Ceti IV fauna?

[radiant hatch]

[rotund stump]

would be so interesting if new mida antagonizes bernard strauss

[muted venture]

I have a question is there a general run down on what we know lore wise on the game?

[unreal mortar]

What do you know so far and how deep do you want to know?

[muted venture]

All I know is that the classes we play, are people who are going down to the planet to pay off their new bodies, without realizing that their in some sort of time or cloning loop, where they don’t know their in some sort of sick loop of death.

[unreal mortar]

Ok so you know a small amount numarathon and the biomata. They don't go down to pay off their new bodies but instead are sent down by different factions to salvage the remains of colonies with these new bodies. Its not a cloning loop but it seems that conncecting the human mind to biomata causes psychosis or rampancy in some form through possibly merging conciousness. Marathon in and of itself is definetly a sick loop of death for some and life for others.

If i had image perms i would post a neat guide but unfortunately i am not able to.

Marathon served as the basis for a lot of what formed into Halo so alot of this may sound familiar.

Before humans and all other alien factions, their was the Jjaro. The Jjaro were an extremely advance species that disappeared a long unknown time ago. Before they left, they terraformed planets and some creatures. The most notable of these are the S'pht and its predecessor the F'lickta on the planet Lh'owon. The Jjaro cybernetically and probably genetically enhanced the F'lickta to evolve over time into the S'pht who worked to terraform Lh'owon. When the Jjaro left, the S'pht were free to be on their own accord and split into eleven clans with the most notable being the S'pht'kr (They become relavent during Marathon 2).

As this happens a trail of crumbs left by the Jjaro attracts a new alien race, the Pfhor. Little is known about the Pfhor but what we do know is they are bureacratic and have what is believed to be a polytheology. The Pfhor scavange the remains of the Jjaro to use their tech and along the way enslave alien races deemed useful. Around the 1800's unknown to mankind, the Pfhor enslave the S'pht of Lh'owon through mind altering among other things after battling. The clan of S'pht'kr however was not enslaved as they had hidden.

Pathway into Darkness, Bungies first FPS iirc, serves as a semi-prequel to Marathon. In it, you play as a special force soldier sent to an ancient Jjaro temple in 1994 after a bunch of events including a Jjarro hologram appears in front of Bill Clinton. In the temple you find out something called the dreaming god is going to awaken this day. The W'rkncacnter is a primordial soup entity that is basically lovecraftian and the Jjaro sealed it a while back. You blow up the temple, burying the W'rkncacnter and giving the Jjaro enough time to return and do something with it.

[radiant hatch]

[fallen hollow]

We have absolutely no confirmation yet. It's likely Bungie retconned the lookers to be called ticks as it's easier to remember. The milk tastes like ||mango juice mixed with habanero sauce||.

[fallen hollow]

Absolutely. Consult the archive.
https://marathon.karnemir.com/

[muted venture]

Ok!

[fallen hollow]

What is your source for Runner psychosis or rampancy?

[fallen hollow]

Everything we know is in that archive. Use the search feature as often as you like.

[plucky sierra]

Hearsay for now

[fallen hollow]

What is that?

[plucky sierra]

Rumor basically

[fallen hollow]

So a guess?

[plucky sierra]

We don’t know for sure, but that’s what most people are saying, leading to it being assumed true rather than it remain a theory

[fallen hollow]

Is anyone citing a source for this assumption?

I'm trying to get to the bottom of why this is being circulated.

[plucky sierra]

Nope, there’s not really any idea the narrative direction the game will go, just the ARG lore. I think people made a lot of those theories based off the cinematic short.

Runner rampancy is a neat idea but personally I hope it doesn’t happen. It would involve a more character driven story about the runners themselves (like apex legends story) rather than the larger story between factions that they’ve set up. I’d be fine if the runners kept a minimal story presence and were mostly vehicles for gameplay.

[fallen hollow]

We know that defragmentation isn't perfect, but we have absolutely no evidence regarding any sort of negative effects besides the potential for memory loss.

[plucky sierra]

And that’s what people extrapolated to a tinfoil hat idea, that turned into a mainstream theory, which is apparently now assumed to be the story

[fallen hollow]

I suppose you make do with what you have.

[plucky sierra]

I’m content to wait and see for now and catalog the speculation. I don’t think they’ve quite given us enough to guess about the narrative direction yet.

Bungie generally has strong stories though, so I trust them.

[fallen hollow]

I'm not worried at all in that department.

[radiant hatch]

[cinder lance]

UNSC added the "h" to Misria. With an "h" is a psyop. Don't believe non-Mida informants.

[fallen hollow]

What's what? Surely you mean UESC?

[unreal mortar]

i made it up + theories based off the cinematic.

[fallen hollow]

That's fair! I'm also curious about what the business regarding childhood photos was.

[unreal mortar]

My current theory is assimilation but not sure why. What would it mean if you do recognize this child?

[coarse ingot]

-# you recognise that this child isn't you
-# you start questionning things

[dire estuary]

Maybe its something inspired by bladerunner

[wide forge]

I thought that as well!

[mossy parrot]

This was my take away from it, like a grounding exercise but bent severely bent in the inhuman corpo mindset. Basically looking for deviations in their product like such as pesky independent thinking.

What I'm waiting for is to see how they reconcile Glitch's MIDA affiliation. If these shells are printed on the Equanimity, the MIDA objectives would need to be held deeply in the character's psyche to avoid detection.

[dire estuary]

Or perhaps theres a mental dissociation from being in a shell than your human body. Especially if you die and come back, each time you do, do you lose memory? Or is the act of living life out of body in an almost different identity the driving factor?

[dire estuary]

Or perhaps the shells are all a part of who they were but not are. Seems to me theyre all “former” or “ex” whatever they were and are using their skills in the shells

So Glitch could be “Ex” (or former, if MIDA wasnt totally dissolved or splintered) MIDA and as a result, has her shell reflect it perhaps to remind her who she was before, plus the psych tests

[unreal mortar]

Yeah it said on glitches little profile that they were a ex-martian revolutionary

[rotund stump]

ac6 iguazu'd or a compromised mida agent that got fed to sekgen for shell trials

[fallen hollow]

There is no way these shells are being produced on the Equanimity. The corporations arrived shortly after the Equanimity entered orbit.

[fallen hollow]

There is a small chance to lose small sectors of the data on transfer, as defragmentation isn't perfect.

[mossy parrot]

Oh alright, missed that bit. Didn't know the corporations even had their own means to get there. Thought the big players threw their lot in with cyberacme to get them there.

[mossy parrot]

Yeah, to me I think if you don't exfil you don't sync up your last run down on TCIV. Probably can't run real time on planet due to the time distortions or latency for consciousness ig

Probably be disorienting waking up from a car crash without even getting into a car that day

[dire estuary]

Well not synching doesnt seem right, because one can retain memory of what they did, or the map, which builds experience. So imo i think it does synch, but only short term memory. To make more room for short term it has to remove the long term until eventually all thats left is this new identity within the Shell, no longer a human anymore

[mossy parrot]

Idk, yeah as 'players' we have the remembered experience, but the character's in the game need to go through an entire grounding exercise after being killed. If they remembered their last experience then they'd also recognize each other and so on from their last to run. My opinion I think tracks better from how the trailer was projected but obviously just my assumption.

How would you get the memory back to the ship if you lost the shell?

Like short range communication to the planet real time could probably work, but a full sync for all of the complexities of a consciousness? Idk...

[dire estuary]

We have the pattern buffers, from the originals which is an in lore explanation for “saving your game” which ig saves genetic profile

[fallen hollow]

There is a protocol that ejects your essence on death, not just extraction.

[fallen hollow]

Consciousness can be seamlessly transferred from biomata back to the original body remotely. This is true even after the biomata is virtually destroyed.
https://marathon.karnemir.com/marathon/season-0/sekiguchi/emails

[mossy parrot]

🤷‍♂️ sure? I'm sure you're right based on the available lore/world building. Kind of spoils more of a scientific parallel/plausibility for me now. So the ghosts just fly back up to ship? Kind of lame. They may as well be on Pandora, or just use robots at that point :/

[fallen hollow]

They're beamed back using some novel technology.

[mossy parrot]

🙄

Not disappointed in your explanation, more feels like a copout

[fallen hollow]

Sekiguchi Genetics alludes to the slightest possibility of that not being a guarantee, but that may simply be for liability purposes.

[mossy parrot]

But then the whole orientation exercise seems pointless imo

[fallen hollow]

I'm sure they'll explain it in more detail, but it's just magic for the time being.

[mossy parrot]

A little of my inner nerd died today 😂

[fallen hollow]

Hold the line. We don't know everything yet.

[mossy parrot]

So also if there are two glitches on field, the memory of both are recombined in ship? I think trying to reconcile the stream of consciousness brings up far more paradoxical inconsistencies than solves anything.

[fallen hollow]

I believe there is only one Glitch. Other player's Runners look similar for gameplay purposes.

[mossy parrot]

🙄 that's a hard pill for nut and bolts plausibility. We may as well go with potions and wizards

Or just theism if we've just given up on science fiction

[fallen hollow]

It's all consistent, and similar to how Destiny handles Guardians.

[mossy parrot]

Solipsism ftw. 😂

[fallen hollow]

It's a bit pat and contrived to be sure.

That's the only way I can see Runner backstories working alongside the fact that they don't seem unique.

[mossy parrot]

Well I mean, as players we are also choosing to progress each character. So who are the contractors really talking with, not necessarily the character's but 'you' the player. You employ the characters to complete missions. Be nice if there's stats and metrics of what characters you used for said missions and how that could play out. That would still gel that your 'the' glitch I suppose while others are their own glitch.

[fallen hollow]

Notice we are choosing from a selection of Runners, not biomata shells.

That implies these are all individuals.

[tall skiff]

what happens when a copied consciousness goes rampant

[cinder lance]

THEY ARE HACKING MY COMMUNICATIONS!

[lavish palm]

dont be so sad. we are sure that this is what they tell us and thats about it. grounding exercises afaik still very mysterious and we dont know whos lying

[tropic nest]

EVERYONE SHOULD PLAY GENSHIN IMPACT INSTEAD

[spring turret]

get a load of this guy

[tropic nest]

GET A LOAD OF THIS

[cursive axle]

guy

[uneven sparrow]

any tips on how to play?

[frail blade]

https://tenor.com/view/goku-prowler-spiderverse-dragon-ball-gif-16710249899645766833

[rotund stump]

thoughts on nahida

[plucky sierra]

Phantom ping

[rotund stump]

any thoughts on the genshin impact character nahida trevmaster02

[sturdy abyss]

The marathon short film still fascinates me, not only for the animation, but for the metaphors and philosophy behind it, per example, when Void encounters the pink chip on the vehicle in the middle of the desert, the narrator says a poem, the poem is Ozymandias, written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, basically the poem is a metaphor for how time eventually makes things dissapear, it doesn’t matter how big, ambitious, the business or empire is, it will eventually fall and be irrelevant after a certain period of time after it’s creation, how could we relate this to any events in the lore of the game or the short film?

[glad jewel]

Well well well

[unreal mortar]

To dissect this we must consider who the point of view is for each person in the poem. We already basically know the narrator is Durandal so who is the traveler from a distant land and who is the Ozymandias they speak of?
My first guess was the S'pht as the traveler and the Jjaro as Ozymandias. Would make sense with how Lh'owon has gone to ruins after the clan wars and the Pfhor using nuclear weapons when attempting to enslave the S'pht. But I don't know how that would line up with the line, "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings, look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" My guess is that it may have to do with Pthia but I don't know how much we about it/them.

[dire fog]

Yawn. Celery?

[plucky sierra]

Dissecting too much, it’s a metaphor not an allegory

[arctic owl]

I’ll admit I’d be surprised if Bungie found a reasonable way to map every aspect of the poem onto a Marathon story point. But we don’t yet know what meaning it has, and I feel like this is kind of the perfect channel for people who do overthink, rather than underthink, details like this

tl;dr: no one knows nothin’ and, imo, it’s more fun to go a little too far with speculation than it is to play it safe. At least in the context of a story discussion channel!

[unreal mortar]

What about a simile?

[plucky sierra]

Yeah but keep speculation rational. There’s no way each factor of the poem is an aspect of the marathon story, that’s not the point of a metaphor.

The Ozymandius poem in this sense could be like what the author meant: man’s hubris, however large cannot withstand time. Like Ozymandius claiming to be king of kings, humans decided to take to the stars colonizing other planets, but years later all we find is abandoned wreckage of a past forgotten.

[arctic owl]

Like I said, I agree it’s unlikely. But trying to map every aspect of it to the story might reveal something interesting, even if half of it is wrong

Kind of a “move fast, break stuff” approach, which I think is terrible for companies but cool for speculators

Durandal might also just be a Watchmen fan. Like just a Basic Nerd

[plucky sierra]

Or one could say since Durandal is probably the narrator, it is his hubris, he very much had an Ozymandius complex in many of his conversations (the three candles monologue). But now is he truly free or is he a shattered visage like the rest of tau Ceti? We don’t know yet.

[arctic owl]

It’d definitely be interesting if something has gone wrong for Durandal in this timeline, and his plans are either permanently wrecked or just messed up to the extent that he needs to come back and meddle with the colony to succeed

[halcyon trout]

Do you think any of the MIDA operatives are spelling "Wrkncacnter" with the triple k

Maoist standard english style

[visual lynx]

Wrknkaknter?

[unreal mortar]

The w'rkncacnter is primordial entity or danger that the Jjaro sealed away. The AI, Thoth, in Marathon 2, is responsible for maintaining its containement after the Jjaro left Lh'owon following the death of (the?) Phthia and probably also the enslavement of the S'pht by the Pfhor.

[visual lynx]

yes I know, I’m asking if that’s the “triple k” spelling that Xenolalia meant

[surreal forum]

wrkncacnter?

[arctic owl]

Workin’ cacnter, or cacnterly workin’?

[sturdy abyss]

Wow, wow, WOW, sorry but I’m not familiarized with the other AI’s or characters that aren’t Leela, Durandal and the third one from marathon 1 (1994)

The S’pht are aliens I think

[unreal mortar]

tycho would shoot you out of a airlock for that

[unreal mortar]

Correct. Compilers are the most iconic variants. Red cloak green orb

[sturdy abyss]

“no, no, BAD AI BAD AI!” gets thrown into the vacuum

[sturdy abyss]

So from what I understand. The S’pht entered in a war/conflict against the Pfhor, and it had a catastrophic outcome?

[somber knot]

Who am I shooting out the airlock?

Gotta say the Workin' Cacnter is a catchy name

[uneven sparrow]

When can I shoot some uesc clankers?

[visual lynx]

wrkn
cacn
do it
makes us

[rotund stump]

ok but like, when are we frog blasting the vent core

[onyx falcon]

she w'rkn on my cacnter

[mossy parrot]

Too bad he can't because he doesn't control the doors 😎

[rotund stump]

would tycho even be here anymore if this is canon to m.inf's successful timeline

granted the pfhor got wiped entirely but the network could theoretically survive but then what about durandal still??

[unreal mortar]

The Pfhor followed the trail left by the Jjaro as they left Lh'owon following the death of (the?) Phthia. They fought to enslave the S'pht clans and succeeded. Except for the clan of S'pht'kr who hid.

They used some sort of mind control or conditioning to help make the S'pht obey.
"-the vile bipeds removed his sensory organs in order to make room for this small oblong object that they installed in his face- they didn't even do it as a separate operation."

Not to mention nuclear weapons used by both sides.

Also S'pht making covid to infect the Pfhor.

Eventually in 2811, thanks to Durandal, the ten other S'pht clans are liberated.

[unreal mortar]

Sooner or later. Not quite sure if they are confirmed clankers yet.

[visual lynx]

Tycho never explicitly got destroyed a la M2 in the final Infinity timeline

[visual lynx]

also we don’t know if the Pfhor got wiped out a la M2 in the final Infinity timeline and it seems that they at least didn’t get wiped out the same way in NuMa since humanity are still unaware of them after the M2 date for when humanity helped defeat them

[visual lynx]

that quote is a S’pht not understanding a Pfhor beating and then shooting another S’pht; it talks about trying to make incisions for the object with their knuckles first before then just forcibly inserting it, displaced some sensory organs to do so — in other words, punching the S’pht before blowing its brains out (the small oblong object is a bullet)

the actual Pfhor control of the S’pht seems to have been by hijacking normal S’pht sociobiology: it appears that all S’pht were originally something like peripherals to Yrro, who then created their Elders or Royalty to take his place when he left, then after their enslavement the Pfhor controller cyborgs like we destroyed in M1 seem to sit in that place of “Royalty”, and even Durandal seems to occupy that position within his S’pht after he takes over Boomer.

TLDR: compilers are Minions, they need a Boss to function

[sturdy abyss]

what does every faction do btw? (NuCaloric, CyberAcme and all of those)

[rotund stump]

nucal was big on the colonization project providing food and essentials, cyac likely ran comms, sekgen probs only chimed in later and the same with traxus

meanwhile mida's been crying out for smth to be done ever since they started building the marathon for stripping mars of its resources

[cursive axle]

arachne is spider

[unreal mortar]

Change mida to space antifa

[sturdy abyss]

Ohhh ok, thanks @unreal mortar @rotund stump 👍

[mossy parrot]

Watched a video this morning that offers another perspective digesting what we know about runners right now if you haven't seen it already.
https://youtu.be/7jExNYR-gTk?si=cjq1A8-sVVFprr2j
👆
Reminded me of the discussion we were having.

[fallen hollow]

This is a good one, thank you.

Could you share it in the Clade community as well?

[mossy parrot]

But of course! 🫡

[nimble parrot]

Dors snyone know if. Lore supports the runner? Blackbird is my favorite

[plucky sierra]

What about the lore and runners? They’ve had a lot in the recent args

[nimble parrot]

Sorry I have no clue what I was trying to say last night

[plucky sierra]

Fun night?

[nimble parrot]

Sad one lol

[glacial spire]

THE Lore. does!

[nimble parrot]

@cyan stirrup obliterate this spammer

[cursive axle]

no

[sacred burrow]

MODS KILL THIS THING

[mortal shell]

[quick verge]

Wtf

@cyan stirrup Mr mod, uhm this is a not great post

[nocturne cipher]

Wonder if we’ll get an update by the original release date

[unreal mortar]

I'm thinking the same day unironically. Would be funny.

[deft jay]

Mods, we have a bot

[radiant hatch]

[fervent laurel]

Any update on this game? Is it still popular? Any news on releasing it?

[quick verge]

There's talk of it being maybe released next year in March but it hasn't been confirmed

[covert arrow]

it is in limbo right now, its kinda popular but in a weird way at the moment it is infamous and people want it too succeed for bungies sake but not really cause they want a extraction shooter ? its complex in many ways, I would say its a 5 maybe 6 outta 10 popular in a positive light, its kinda a wait and see moment but almost everyone has lost faith in bungie and in turn this game. ima hold out hope tho, i got enough copeium to last me a lifetime.

[surreal anchor]

I’m mainly hoping this is good cause it’s an extraction shooter, I don’t feel like there’s many good options besides Tarkov rn which stinks cause I don’t really enjoy Tarkov so here’s hoping this ends up being solid and same with arc raiders I hope that ones good too

[rose sequoia]

Alpha access still available since we're not getting the beta ?

[covert arrow]

that kinda my view point too, is that so many people were complaining of the market being oversaturated with extraction games, when there was really only two, and one of them has a massive hacker problem making it "kinda" unplayable. Then after they realized that, they said the market was too niche ???? Anyways i think this was the move seen by bungie (maybe) that there is a slot to fill for this market because no one else is really doing it. kinda like they did with destiny, considering the only other one on market at that time was borderlands. If they get this right and make public commitments and atone for past issues publicly, I think they might really have something here.

[cinder lance]

I stand by my statement %1000, they have the sauce and must apply it for optimum recipe output
"they" being Bungie

[celest umbra]

i will buy day 1 thats all i have to say

[random vapor]

mm. Yes and no. There have been countless extraction games at this point, the problem is most of them flop within the first month or first few months. Because balancing around hardcore players and casuals is incredibly difficult when your time is wasted when you get dusted by a sweaty. It deters a lot of casual gamers. There is definitely a slot to fill because EFT was the cornerstone for extraction games. But the dev team is pretty incompetent to say the least. Bungie could be the competent dev the genre needs. But they already have a large hurdle, or two, to get over. One is the publics view of the game just being okay, not bad, not great, just ok. Two is the toxicity within the community itself whether its towards other fans, or the game, the devs, etc. Like realistically, the art being stolen doesnt really bother me.... and it probably doesnt bother most. It was one dev who was a pos. That doesnt paint the picture of the entire company. But people thought it was the end of the world when that came out.

[covert arrow]

Anything to shit on bungie because they didnt give me my third raid a year mentality. And I agree yes and no is a great way to brush up my last message I did exclude "dead" extraction games because like you said they dont last more then a few months

[quick verge]

This guy is definitely like a bot

[wooden ether]

Bleh

[rotund stump]

feels funny saying this as a mida guy

the 3 months of fascism was destined to happen from the moment the first revolution worked out

for a ragtag revolution born under extreme scrutiny and surveillance and so stripped of resources when it somehow did win its war it didn't know what to rebel against anymore so it took up the method of its enemy

just pure paranoia and bloodshed to ensure it won and stayed on its throne and it starved itself

the parallel's kinda chilling if you look at irl and how people romanticize revolutions like this is exactly how it's gonna end up at some point when it fights too hard and loses its purpose lol

and I expect new mida to do it all over again cuz what place does a fairy tale have in a dystopian universe 💀

[lavish palm]

i think its a bit deeper than that tbh

mars was not oppressed it was condemned to certain death. regardless of what politically happened. these are not freedom fighters, theyre martyrs fighting against and not for

irl romanticization of revolution is based and successful revolutions do occur tii

[rotund stump]

oh nah don't get me wrong it's good to romanticize a good amount instead of slapping a "you're gonna die for this" on foreheads as a slogan lol

ig just everything in moderation

unlike america rn when everybody's yelling revolution but can't give up their own convenience and continue to get extorted

luigi my goat free luigi

[lavish palm]

youre missing the point they would die regardless. earth just stopped giving them support well before they were self supporting

[rotund stump]

well yeah ik that but I wasn't talking specifically about mida at that point 😭

[vale flume]

The idea that MIDA is meant to have been portrayed as even remotely good is an interpretation that can only occur if you consider revolution to be intrinsically good without much further consideration imo

Any analysis of the original game that doesn't start from the conclusion that revolution = good will make it pretty clear that MIDA was bad, worse than the UESC in every material way, they literally solved 0 problems and killed more people than the UESC, and they did so by direct action as opposed to the UESC's lack of support (which came down more to a lack of ability rather than interest). The only point of disagreement, I think, is predicated on the assumption that Revolution is unconditionally good, which is a pretty destructive standpoint. Nothing even indicates that the Martians themselves generally had much love for MIDA or missed them when they were gone, and the Martian-born Marathon crew is mostly pretty happy to associate with the UESC

[rotund stump]

considering the level of punishment upon any association with mida it's kinda common sense we don't see much of it and the martian part of the marathon crew obv wouldn't speak out if they're already on the marathon anyway lol

[visual lynx]

“are you now or have you ever been a member of the Martian, uh … Imperial … Democratic … Anarchists?”

[plucky sierra]

Wasn’t there a lot of MIDA effort onboard the Marathon with Bernhard Strauss being a member and them being the ones suspected of putting the weapons on board?

[shell shard]

Stupid question

Do they ever specify what exactly MIDA stands for?

[plucky sierra]

Mida Is a Dumb Acronym

-# No they never have said

[unreal mortar]

I think a part of the arg said something about "1 name 1 million reasons/acronyms". Maybe its because of all the drastic and varying damages caused by the uesc felt through martians. Honestly kind of dig it.

[plucky sierra]

I think that’s just a reason to not give a name. Personally I think Old Mida had something cool and secret but didn’t tell anyone so now NuMida has no idea what it is but still wants to seem cool

[unreal mortar]

The pillar of ideas washed away by the sands of time and diluted by the waters of assimilation. Yet they still fight, do they still know why and how? Doubt it seeing how long even old mida lasted.

[visual lynx]

that’s the basis of my joke just above (that and coming up with something that makes no sense, as though MIDA’s ideology were Imperial Democratic Anarchism, whatever nonsense that would mean)

[lavish palm]

The UESC pulled crists and ended up killing everyone on mars. I dont know how mida is revolutionary if not just antiestablishment/antiearth. how exactly can you stage a revolution when you are genuinely condemned to death with zero chance of a future. is mida fighting a revolution? or are they just looking for a get back. is killing every single earth loyalist a massacre or a mercy when youll starve to death anyways. the uesc killed more than mida ever could by starving the entire planet. look at the timeline.

not to mention that the UESC was MANDATING ABORTION AND STERILIZATION to kill off the mars population after the marathon was built. it was simply cheaper to leave mars to die. instead of taking their own moon to make the marathon a crist. they sent it to fuckin tau ceti

[vale flume]

And yet they killed less people than MIDA. Putting MIDA in charge, ironically, would seem to have more to solve the overpopulation and resulting famine than the UESC trying to get its hands dirty. I think that reflects especially poorly on them

There really isn't anything in the original game that hints at there being any upside at all to MIDA tbh. All they're really known to have done is ruthlessly seize power and murder a ton of people
This doesn't really absolve the UESC of its problems, but it's pretty clear that the OG framed MIDA as a power-hungry, villainous organization. Pinning any virtue on them is outside the scope of the actual narrative

failed coup of 2321, when their popularity suffered during
their short rule.  MIDA gained control of Mars for only three
months, but their rule was ruthless and cruel. The MIDA death
squads killed anyone who they suspected of being loyal to the
UEG.  Although accurate census data is not available for that
period, it is estimated that about ten percent of the
population was killed.
...
The organization has survived as an underground terrorist
organization, and remains active to this day.  In its
underground state, it fosters terrorism throughout Sol, and
due to its spectacular funding and excellent personnel, it has
grown to be one of the most feared terrorist groups active
anywhere in Sol.```
This is basically all we know about their methods in the context of the original games, and it's not exactly praiseworthy stuff
The Khmer Rouge come to mind

[visual lynx]

this suddenly makes me wonder if MIDA weren’t a UEG false flag operation, meant all along to cull the Martian population while also pulling focus for the genuine revolutionary sentiment among them

[visual lynx]

and this makes me wonder how is it that MIDA is so spectacularly funded if they represent a starving impoverished people

we do know that there was at least some overlap in UESC and MIDA senior leadership in the form of Bernhard Strauss

[calm cypress]

Marathon….

[lavish palm]

the UESC cannot have killed more. the uesc literally just starved mars. Im not saying mida is anything but a bad terrorist organization but given the themes of oppression, slavery etc. its a reaction to the oppression of the uesc. ofc they are bad, they are terrorists. but it also reads that the UESC no longer saw the martian colony as a worthwhile investment and then eugenicsed the population…. and then started on a new research venture

creating something, and then enslaving it seems to be a central theme of the world too. not to mention the scope of the narrative is quite exactly figuring out the true nature of mida and the marathon. why do the ghosts of mida linger for so long? why didnt mida take the marathon? (did they), can we trust the ueg/uesc as a narrator? are all pretty big questions rn afaik

[lavish palm]

how do you solve the problem of earth stopped giving you food because you are obsolete to them, honestly . what do we expect mida to do

[vale flume]

MIDA just seems like the enraged id of Mars
Kind of an inevitability for understandable reasons, just a more woeful ruler in the end
We never really got to learn much about what happened to Mars afterwards in the originals, but I imagine ultimately if things got better on Mars it was largely without them
Most of the UESC's failures looked like they were incomptent/didn't anticipate the pop growth more than anything else, couldn't keep up with it afterwards. The biggest spit in the face was not using the Marathon as a supply vessel

[visual lynx]

it’s almost like the theme of the story is oppression versus violent revolution… like how durandal was enslaved by humanity and so called the pfhor on them to find his freedom…

[sturdy abyss]

TAU CETI IV/ESCAPE WILL MAKE ME GOD

[halcyon trout]

I always kind of saw the UESC/MIDA conflict as being a bit of a mirror to the Pfhor/Spht

with the slaver/slave dynamic being something Bungie continued to dip back into with halo and destiny

I never really thought of the uesc/mida plotline in the original trilogy as being like something that was meant to be super fleshed out, more of a "hey consider that humanity does this shit too"

[lavish palm]

the uescs failures look like that because it is narrated by them. forced abortions. forced sterilization. i dont know how you cant paint it clearer. i also dont know how you cant blame them for stopping the crists and focusing on research. the biggest spit in the face was the bullets in the martians brains 😭

[unreal mortar]

*One BIG bullet if not just plasma

[vale flume]

The sources we see are pretty impartial and are framed as a matter of objective historical record and not an attempt at UESC propaganda. Nothing about their tone nor the way they're described really registers as an effort as anything but factually reporting on what actually happened
You can say otherwise but that's a massive layer of assumption that isn't really within the scope of what the game actually had to say tbf, and I doubt what Bungie was intending to get across in 1994. MIDA was really just meant to be a shadowy illuminati organization more than anything virtuous

[visual lynx]

US history textbooks are framed as a matter of objective historical record and not an attempt at propaganda too

also I don’t think MIDA was meant to be virtuous either but rather this was supposed to be yet another example of two opposite bad sides. like Durandal calling the Pfhor to Tau Ceti to win his freedom… he’s initially primarily a bad guy and we only later learn to see his perspective with sympathy, but only some sympathy, he’s still not a complete hero, he still lead to tens of thousands of human deaths for his own personal benefit, but he’s not just doing it for the evilz either, he has a legitimate beef that he maybe overreacts to.

this is part of why in Eternal I frame the Jjaro as their own sort of cosmic tyrants, opposing the Wrkncacnter who are obviously bad guys too, with the moral being that they’re both wrong.

“you’re either with us or with the terrorists” is the false dichotomy here.

[lavish palm]

“layer of assumption that isnt within the scope of what the game had to say” in a game about slave/master dynamics including an entire world largely dependent on an exterior entity. you can assume bungie made a smaller story but why include all the mida hints

[dire estuary]

Youre taking fan-content as canon…

Ive noticed it a lot, people using scenarios as a means to justify whatever canon they want to justify or fill. I find using fanon, even if made by an official writer, to be completely moot

[dire estuary]

Also Durandal in no way shape or form can ever be seen as a hero. He openly admits to you how he uses people and the Spht as tools, he spits in the face of Spht traditions and basically mocks them, he actively endangers your life constantly and only begs for help when danger finally gets too close to home for him

He is not a good guy, there are no good guys. You are simply following orders put in front of you, direct or indirect, you are picking a lesser evil in the end

But yeah back to your whole Eternal thing…that is not canon, no matter who made it and when, it is not recognized as canon and it shouldnt be

I genuinely shut my brain off the moment I see a shred of fan-content used in arguments about lore.

[visual lynx]

no, I’m saying that the reason I made that fan content that way was to continue the themes already present in the canon material

[dire estuary]

I need to lay off the coffee

Yeah thats my bad, I misread and it went waaay over my head. also Eternal is a great scenario for those who hadnt played…this man would know

Ive had 2 pots of coffee today, and im feeling it and I dont wanna

[visual lynx]

and this was basically my overall point, that the story is full of two opposite bad sides, one excessively tyrannical and oppressive and the other excessively radical and destructive, and UESC vs MIDA is one instance of that.

I expect that in the new game the S’pht revolution will turn out to have been another “excessively radical and destructive” force opposite the Pfhor’s “excessively tyrannical and oppressive”, since I expect they are responsible for the 2812 attack on Tau Ceti.

[dire estuary]

History is written by the victor, and history likes to paint the losers as “bad guys” and the winners as “good guys”, but not all wars or conflicts are as easy as good or bad, nothing is ever always black and white.

The UESC is stated to have committed atrocities already, and they make it very clear that is what happened, a massacre.
I think the terminals are very front about the history and actions about the UESC and MIDA, and imo, MIDA is a lot more chaotic and anarchist. MIDA committed what is basically space terrorism, to an otherwise successful organization of governments that made a mistake amidst a particular crisis. And no government or governing body, is ever perfect, no side is good, but the way the facts are presented makes me believe MIDA isnt as vigilante as some want to believe

Yeah they couldve perhaps started more vigilante, but they have done equally wrong to the Martian people, and the way the terminals also paint the UESC in an equally negative light and their issues as well, I think i know which lesser evil i’d be up in arms for

[tough barn]

For a brick, he flew pretty good!

[devout furnace]

Ouch! Yeah, NuCaloric & Traxus are Also the Current Competitors of the UESC. [According to the 2025 Alpha] As a Fond Fan of NuCaloric Myself, I Love How Compared to the UESC Manipulating EVERYONE Because they're a Government Force, Leaving Mars to Die without it's Moon, [The "Deimos" that would be Sent to Tau Ceti as the MARATHON] Gaius and NuCaloric Are Supporting Humanity the best they can! Even if the Food is Dystopian, Gaius Explains with the Quote: "The Colonists didn't have the Luxury of a Choice." In the 2025 Alpha Story, He even Acknowledges the Negativity of the Contagion and Mutations on Tau Ceti IV.

[dire estuary]

Whats to say theyre contracted entities by the UESC?
Many govs contract companies to make things, while the companies still have their motives and other products and services

At work, we dont use some random unknown brand computers? We have brands everyone knows about, its just been modified a little, the same goes to police agencies.

So…no I dont see them as “competitors” to the UESC. Contracted to them perhaps to have a good supply of money and funds for research? Sure. Do the companies have their own ulterior motives and reasons for being indirectly present at Tau Ceti IV and beyond? Yes and it would make sense, a company wants to expand and grow. Tau Ceti IV is full of untapped potential and unsolved mystery that may have secrets they can all use

[devout furnace]

For Great Sake, I hope the Pfhor Return! The Runners Will get to Face an Enemy that not only Echoes the 90s Trilogy, This is something these Particular Characters are New to! Void, Glitch, Blackbird, NONE of These Runners Knew What happened in 2794! on top of that, it's not the same as fighting the UESC Robots.

[dire estuary]

Also, move your [insert marathon propaganda bandwagon] posting, to where you can commit bandwagon propaganda posting

[devout furnace]

Hahah, Very Funny about the [Propaganda Part]

[dire estuary]

The way you type…it feels almost inhuman, I dont know how to explain it, but I have an uncanny gut feeling you are a: 1) skinwalker. 2) AI

If neither, Im fucking baffled, unless English isn’t your first language

[dire estuary]

Your Bio also makes this glaringly obvious

[devout furnace]

Yep, You Fool! I'm A Skinwalker! I'm a big fan of KAOS! K-A-O-S, From Skylanders! I'm also Excited for Marathon! have Been since it was Announced in 2024!

Do you even Remember "Toys To Life?"

[dire estuary]

Like skylanders and those lego games? Yeah? I was well alive and sentient when those came out and were relevant for the short time they were.

Theyre not spectacular, all they were, nothing more than a cash grab of selling collectibles for a game that makes it pay to win. Instead of selling add-ons, they opted to sell easy to market toys/collectibles

Almost worked on me, i grew up on old pc games and had an xbox, ps2, and an xbox 360 by then, plus a family PC with windows 7

[devout furnace]

There We Go, The Proof of my Sentient "Skinwalker" Status Worked!!

[dire estuary]

Okay, so either english isnt your first language, or youre inept at applying it despite knowing it

Taking an awful long time for what I expect to be a convoluted single sentence…

[devout furnace]

Nah! I Speak English Of course! So What you Excited about in Marathon? Did You get to Play The Alpha?

[dire estuary]

I did. But I wont comment for you

[devout furnace]

Okay, That's Fine! I gotta go to bed soon but Thanks For Chatting, @dire estuary !

[plucky sierra]

I am of the same opinion that the way they talk is very strange

[dire estuary]

And look at the bio, plus pfp…feels highly ai

If thats autism, then that makes chris chan look sane

[spark sandal]

I can’t understand why people capitalize random words in their sentences. Drives me fucking mad, especially when there is no need for annunciation or additional meaning behind it.

Definitely a tik-tok mind melted child, saying uwu and making hand gestures every other sentence type of energy coming out of the kid.

[dire estuary]

If it is a real kid…then we need to bring back the lobotomy

At least turn the person who thinks theyre all “head empty ahha quirky silly” into just “head empty”

[half bobcat]

Silly Dog think that kid lowkey tweaking 😭 ✌️

[dire estuary]

Thank you silly dog, youre a national treasure. Keep it up🫡

[lavish palm]

all that talk about how mida is so bad but when you get to meet a ueg loyalist in the flesh yall wanna kill em

[open comet]

They talk funny to be quirky it’s not that deep guys

[visual lynx]

this conversation is more disturbing than the person it’s about

[sturdy abyss]

I didn’t realize I got so many reactions lmao my bad

[frank verge]

Dear Bungie Studios, I wanted to reach out and express just how much it would mean to me if I were given the chance to participate in the upcoming closed play test for Marathon. I have been following Bungie’s work for years, and the creativity, innovation, and passion you pour into your games have inspired me more than I can put into words. Marathon especially feels like something truly special, and the idea of being able to step into that world early and help provide meaningful feedback feels like the opportunity of a lifetime. I want you to know that if you were to let me into the play test, I would devote myself wholeheartedly to the process — testing every mechanic, exploring every possibility, documenting every bug, and providing thoughtful, detailed feedback to ensure that the game becomes the best version of itself that it can possibly be. I would gladly invest countless hours not only playing but carefully analyzing, learning, and sharing my observations in a way that could be useful to your team, because I genuinely believe in the vision of this project. Marathon is more than just another game to me — it feels like the start of something monumental, and I want nothing more than to be a part of helping it grow. If you give me this chance, I will approach it not simply as a player, but as a dedicated tester who will treat this responsibility with the seriousness, passion, and excitement it deserves.

[warm epoch]

holy yap fest

[unreal mortar]

Leave this out of the lore channel. This is sacred grounds. 🙏 --E 🍅

[fallow iron]

how to get into new alpha? i played over 100 hours of last one, but didnt get auto-invite

[sleek root]

So the player Husks, I assume the branding and need for symbols on the skin and surface is some sort of branding/serial number?

[unreal mortar]

Its a gamble. May be based on how good of feedback you gave in alpha survey.

[fallow iron]

i gave every feedback possible, in every survey in game and throgh email, even on discord :>, but it was probably too positive, so im not preferred :/

[lavish palm]

maybe. we also see the runners change a bit after getting killed, so maybe due to damage?

[unreal mortar]

*biomata/shells/runner

Husk does sound cool though. Sounds like something that was already dead as well though.

[covert arrow]

Dear Bungie Studios, Code pls :< ?

[tepid harness]

Dear Bungie Studios, I wanted to reach out and express just how much it would mean to me if I were given the chance to participate in the upcoming closed play test for Marathon. I have been following Bungie’s work for years, and the creativity, innovation, and passion you pour into your games have inspired me more than I can put into words. Marathon especially feels like something truly special, and the idea of being able to step into that world early and help provide meaningful feedback feels like the opportunity of a lifetime. I want you to know that if you were to let me into the play test, I would devote myself wholeheartedly to the process — testing every mechanic, exploring every possibility, documenting every bug, and providing thoughtful, detailed feedback to ensure that the game becomes the best version of itself that it can possibly be. I would gladly invest countless hours not only playing but carefully analyzing, learning, and sharing my observations in a way that could be useful to your team, because I genuinely believe in the vision of this project. Marathon is more than just another game to me — it feels like the start of something monumental, and I want nothing more than to be a part of helping it grow. If you give me this chance, I will approach it not simply as a player, but as a dedicated tester who will treat this responsibility with the seriousness, passion, and excitement it deserves.

[vivid marsh]

/tableflip message::$ ChatGPT

[cursive axle]

For sale

[sage junco]

Hewwooo Bungie Studiowos~ owo 👋

I-I wanted to weach out and expwess just how much it wouwd mean to me if I wewe given da chance to pawticipate in the upcoming cwosed pway test fow Mawathon. >w<

I have been fowwowing Bungie’s wowk fow yeaws, and da cweativity, innovation, and passion you pouw into youw games have inspiwed me mowe than I can put into wowdsies. Mawathon especiowwy feews wike something twuwy speciaw ✨, and da idea of being abwe to step into dat wowld eawly and hewp pwovide meanie-ful feedback feews wike da oppowtunity of a wifetime!! (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄)

I want you to know dat if you wewe to wet me into da pway test, I wouwd devote mysewf wholeheawtedly to da pwocess! I'd be testing evewy wittle mechanic, expwowing evewy possibiwity, documenting evewy buggy-wuggy, and pwoviding thoughtful, detailed feedback to make suwe dat da game becomes da bestest vewsion it can possibwy be. 📝 :3

I wouwd gwadly invest countless houws not onwy pwaying but cawefuwwy anawyzing, weawning, and shawing my obsewvations to hewp youw team, because I genuwinewy bewieve in da vision of dis pwoject. ❤️

Mawathon is mowe than just anothew game to me — it feews wike da stawt of something monumentaw, and I want nothing mowe than to be a pawt of hewping it gwow! o(≧∇≦o)

If you give me dis chance, I wiww appwoach it not simpwy as a pwayew, but as a dedicated testew who wiww tweat dis wesponsibiwity with da sewiousness, passion, and excitement it desewves.

Pwease? (つ´ω`)つ 🙏

Source: asked AI to rewrite this in uwu style. Don't do that too much or it will go rampant

[cursive axle]

shloppy ai

[simple garden]

Sloppy ai🤤

[deft jay]

Still waiting for a playtest invite code

[covert arrow]

Wololoing your invite code to myself

[obtuse frigate]

It's that allowed wtf

[fallen hollow]

Deploy the priests.

[jade bloom]

Is Mr. Halo gonna be in it?

[covert arrow]

Yes

[sand magnet]

My friend @earnest nimbus told me that Mr. Halo died in the prologue. He said he wasn't supposed to tell me that because of an "NDA"

[native cloud]

Same brother I doubt I'll ever get a chance lol but I pray for a chance to play it. Is their an nda for the new stuff that is coming out? I think there is.

[heady quiver]

Let me guess I missed the alpha

[fallen hollow]

There is another alpha dropping imminently. Unfortunately, it's under NDA.

[fallen hollow]

Indeed there is.

[deft jay]

there's an NDA for the current playtests

[late pine]

dawg who are these people coming in here 4 months after the alpha ended like "yo anyone got a code?" fix your alarm clock slime

[dire fog]

Yooooo anyone got an alpha code I can cop????

[covert arrow]

Sadly the codes dont work that way im pretty sure they are tied to account

[main apex]

you are my hero

[neat jacinth]

alpha me up baby

[pseudo hill]

Wait, is there another Alpha dropping?

[covert arrow]

in september

[unreal mortar]

Playtest with nda

New playtest will run during a window of 2-8PM PT from 9/5 to 9/7. All invites will go out before 9/1 at 12pm est.

[pseudo hill]

Okay cool thank you

[low sundial]

Mhmm

[split drum]

How do we get our name in to be considered?

[unreal mortar]

It seems they are only pulling those who were in the april alpha to playtest. Signups are closed atm.

[covert arrow]

yo beeble toss me the time machine box, im tired of the wait ! 🗣️

[old ember]

wake me up when september ends

[unreal mortar]

There a line so gotta take a ticket and sit down. 📆👈

[covert arrow]

Zamn..

[karmic siren]

https://tenor.com/view/let-me-in-eric-andre-wanna-come-in-gif-13730108

[light breach]

Dear Bungie Studios, I wanted to reach out and express just how much it would mean to me if I were given the chance to participate in the upcoming closed play test for Marathon. I have been following Bungie’s work for years, and the creativity, innovation, and passion you pour into your games have inspired me more than I can put into words. Marathon especially feels like something truly special, and the idea of being able to step into that world early and help provide meaningful feedback feels like the opportunity of a lifetime. I want you to know that if you were to let me into the play test, I would devote myself wholeheartedly to the process — testing every mechanic, exploring every possibility, documenting every bug, and providing thoughtful, detailed feedback to ensure that the game becomes the best version of itself that it can possibly be. I would gladly invest countless hours not only playing but carefully analyzing, learning, and sharing my observations in a way that could be useful to your team, because I genuinely believe in the vision of this project. Marathon is more than just another game to me — it feels like the start of something monumental, and I want nothing more than to be a part of helping it grow. If you give me this chance, I will approach it not simply as a player, but as a dedicated tester who will treat this responsibility with the seriousness, passion, and excitement it deserves.

[pseudo edge]

The games not gonna be that good i promise 🤣

[unreal mortar]

🪧 👈 👈 👈 tap tap tap

[cinder epoch]

Dear Bungie Studios, I wanted to reach out and express just how much it would mean to me if I were given the chance to stay as far away from your next closed play test of Marathon as humanly possible. I have been following Bungie’s work for years, and the creativity, innovation, and passion has slowly been lost over the past few releases, leaving me speechless. Marathon especially feels like something truly terrible, and the idea of being able to step into that frigid, unforgiving world early and help provide meaningful feedback feels like nothing short of an absolute nightmare. I want you to know that if you were to let me into the play test, I would devote myself wholeheartedly to the process of being as unhelpful as possible — breaking every mechanic, bullying other players, abusing every bug, and providing shallow, unhelpful feedback to ensure that the game becomes what it is inevitably destined to be - an absolute dumpster fire. I would gladly perform countless hours of brutal, back-breaking labor in exchange for not only avoiding the playtest, but if given the opportunity - join - so I can do nothing but fail at carefully analyzing, learning, and sharing any meaningful observations in a way that could be useful to your team, because I truly have no hope for this project. Marathon is more than just another game to me — it feels like the start of something monumentally terrible, and I want nothing more than to see this dumpster fire of a game burn. If you give me this chance, I will approach it not simply as a player, but as a dedicated nuisance who will treat your misplaced responsibility with the utmost seriousness, passion, and excitement I can possibly muster to ensure its failure as swiftly as possible.

[cursive axle]

This is AI
If you’re gonna write a paragraph, don’t use AI.

[cinder epoch]

It wasn't AI

[cursive axle]

Yeah it is
and you’re really bad at hiding it

[cinder epoch]

It was my genuine, passion filled rant about Marathon

[cursive axle]

“You” use the — every 7 words which AI tends to do
Yes it was a very human rant about marathon

[cinder epoch]

I'm glad that my punctuality is so clean you genuinely think I had ChatGPT write that LMAO

[cursive axle]

insert that one picture of Doakes

[cinder epoch]

Who what?

[visual lynx]

AI writing is better than that

[cinder epoch]

AI could try, but it's not quite at that level of craftsmanship

[cursive axle]

have you not seen the memes?

[cinder epoch]

[final copper]

noobie that was poetic as shit good job

absolutely brilliant

[celest maple]

Tbh I feel like

[astral mirage]

i believe in this game and its potential man.

[void panther]

Is this a copypasta?

[sturdy abyss]

What is that big giant blue UESC square on the sky in dire marsh?

[rotund stump]

it is

[unreal mortar]

Observation post, storage, troop transport would be my guess. No clue why ots different than the others or just hovering though.

[river swallow]

microwave.

[void panther]

I have a suspicion that the runners don't actually go to the surface and it's some kind of simulated space, which could explain why other runners explode into green cubes when they die, but also why you'd have floating square constructs like that but I could be totally off base

[unreal mortar]

Didn't they sayvin the dev talk with ziegler and joe that those are being ditched.

[void panther]

The cubes? I'm not sure, I think I recall an explanation for disappearing bodies having to do with physics considerations, and they confirmed it would be possible to use static death anims. As for whether they're actually going to do that I have no clue

[sturdy abyss]

Like a big ass UESC settlement on the sky

[unreal mortar]

Imgine it unfolds like a popup book

[cinder epoch]

[dire fog]

[sturdy abyss]

Lmao fr

and from that book Sekiguchi worms start raining

[halcyon trout]

I think the big UESC squares are like FOBs for the forces in whatever zone you're in

[dire fog]

🫳

Doggies doggies doggies. Keep those doggies rollin. Doggies doggies doggies. It's sheeeetz.

How we doing?

Are we doing amazing things today?

[cobalt tiger]

Love the cat

[forest condor]

[forest sundial]

If any marathon devs see this, lemme play yalls beta

[high shadow]

no let me play test marathon

[forest sundial]

Im more desperate

[visual lynx]

🙄

[light sun]

hey if anyone wants to lore dump on me i am hella down to talk about it as a newbie to most of marathon

[plucky sierra]

Most of the basic lore resources are pinned here

Or look up Mandalore Gamings Marathon reviews, he reviews all three including breaking down the story

[visual lynx]

ask questions and I’m happy to answer

[clever field]

What's up

[primal trail]

this is really funny

im still gonna end up buying marathon when it eventually releases probably cuz the shooter market is so dogshit nowadays anyways. only game im interested in is arc, marathon, and bf6 [but im waiting for initial reviews of bf6 before i buy and potentially waste my money on EA slop]

[unreal mortar]

@light sun

[plucky sierra]

Keep in mind some of this is speculation

[unreal mortar]

True

[light sun]

The names are going to be fun to remember, so hyped to see it in action

[light sun]

so cybernetically weaved bodies which a consciousness can control or swap in and out of deployed by some huge space company is sent to X to salvage and investigate a wreckage?

[visual lynx]

several different space companies, and it’s not clear (to them) yet whether there’s been a wreck or what, just that the colony dropped out of contact and now seems abandoned

[light sun]

so it's a combat zone because of this?

[visual lynx]

Yes, the different companies and the space government are all competing for access and control and spoils and information

[prime rose]

it's possible that it's the UESC Equanimity based on the scale given in the ARG (it sort of matches up) but we don't really have a clear answer yet on how they established FTL capability to TCIV after the launch of the Equanimity

we know the runners arrived at TCIV either before, or concurrently with the Equanimity, or else immediately after its arrival - basically they showed up the same time the original UESC mission launched decades prior did

but they didn't leave Sol until much later

So it's possible the UESC has also brought in additional assets by the same means the runners and corpos did - we just don't know what that is yet

[plucky sierra]

It’s the lunchbox

[sturdy abyss]

Can we have some NuCaloric PB&J sandwiches please

[elder dock]

has there been any lore revealed regarding the spht or wrkncacntr?

[elder dock]

So far everything ive seen has to do with tau ceti, earth, megacorps and playable characters. A bit of durandal here and there. I personally find the weird parts of lore(battleroids and eldritcg entities) most interesting and so far cant seem to find much

[visual lynx]

in the new game? no.

in the old games? lots.

[elder dock]

Welp

[sturdy abyss]

in what time does the MARATHON reboot occur? (Marathon 1994, Marathon 2: Durandal, Marathon 3: Infinity?)

[neon root]

After 1 but I think middle of 2?
IDK, people have made good comments about it here though u might be able to see it

[sturdy abyss]

An interquel

[neon root]

Yeah cuz they said not a sequel or reboot idk what that even means

[sturdy abyss]

||So basically when the Runners arrived at Tau Ceti IV, Durandal had already became a rampant AI and took UESC-Marathon||

[plucky sierra]

I believe the game timeline sets it after the events of 2 but before the end of infinity? I’m not sure

I would have to refer to my timeline to check

[unreal mortar]

Yes it was already happening before the pfhor attacked but they set off an emp blast that really set things into motion. I think you can actually see the emp in the cinematic.

[visual lynx]

2893, which is 82 years after M2/Infinity takes place, but it seems to not be in the M2 timeline, for a number of reasons, so I am thinking it’s probably the final timeline of Infinity

I think the most likely scenario to explain all the info we have so far is that:

• We’re supposed to be in the final timeline from Infinity, which is very different from the M2 timeline in ways, and unknown in lots of other ways, and so lots of things said in M2 may or may not have happened, but still similar events went down at Lh’owon;
• Leela never actually sent a message to Earth in the first place, she erroneously sent it to the wrong place, somewhere 92ly away from Tau Ceti; and
• Bungie made some acceptable retcons that fit with M1 canon (like implying the primary comms array was FTL), plus some careless small mistakes in their promotional material thus far (the date of the attack, the receipt of a distress signal, etc).

Leaving us in a world where the events of M1 and of Infinity’s final timeline happened, but the colony was not nuked down to bedrock, Durandal never stopped by, Blake never returned, and Leela’s message never arrived, so nobody at Sol has any idea about anything other than that the Marathon dropped out of contact in 2794.

Meanwhile the S’pht rebellion at Lh’owon did still happen in 2811 as per Infinity, and that has something to do with the second calamity that befell Tau Ceti in 2812. The S’pht have been fighting the Pfhor without human intervention since, and might have still toppled the Pfhor empire by around 2881 even without human help, though I’d wager not so that that war can come into play in later seasons of the new game.

Meanwhile by 2827 the colonists at Tau Ceti probably dug up some Jjaro artifacts (the Anomaly), wrecking the last of themselves, and those will probably prove decisive in the war between the S’pht and Pfhor…

…especially if the S’pht purposefully caused the 2812 calamity (the S’ct’lac’tr?), so Tau Ceti has been attacked separately by both the Pfhor and the S’pht, and now they’re at war with each other, and the Jjaro stuff on Tau Ceti can tip the scales, and humanity has to decide which if either side to take.

[dire grove]

👈

[halcyon trout]

Also just fwiw I think final infinity timeline makes sense as a starting point just out of simplicity. It's a bit less tangled than the situation in m2

[visual lynx]

just in that there's less detail of events already nailed down, and so more room for going different directions in the new game?

[halcyon trout]

yeah, cleaner break. for something new

[sturdy abyss]

So basically, Durandal and the S’pht made an alliance for mutual benefit? (Durandal can have an advantage and the S’pht can have an opportunity to escape the slavery of the Pfhor) right?

[plucky sierra]

correct, they are both trying to escape enslavement

[sturdy abyss]

Durandal is basically like, a neutral character, he isn’t a hero or a good character but he isn’t a villain or a bad characther either, he just does whatever it takes to reach his “godlike” state i think

[plucky sierra]

i don't know if I would say neutral

[sturdy abyss]

Maybe

[glossy shoal]

i think he was supposed to be dangerous in the way an elephant is to a paramecium.. he might not even think to worry about the human cost of his moves.. god like in the elder gods sense

[lavish palm]

well no hes pretty evil and doesnt like humans except to use

it doesnt make you not evil if evil isnt your goal, but killing the colony is pretty evil

[sturdy abyss]

oh

wait he wiped out the entire population of tau ceti IV? 💀

So basically the runners are…pawns, pawns in a much more bigger game that they think

[dire grove]

[unreal mortar]

No durandal didn't the pfhor did. Durandal just wiped out like 2% i would guess

[visual lynx]

Durandal called the Pfhor to Tau Ceti, who then wiped out the colony three months later (in the M2 timeline, which we don’t appear to be in)

[lavish palm]

no youre right his intention is not necessarily to kill people its just that if that occurs he doesnt really care and probably likes it a little bit

source im friends w durandal

[unreal mortar]

So second degree murder

[mossy parrot]

Would durandal even consider collateral human lives as 'murder' or 'evil'? Do exterminators remorse wiping an ant colony? A self actualized AI would be so far removed from human ethics, especially with his current selfish goal.

[sturdy abyss]

Tell him: how does it feel to be an AI from me?

[prime rose]

its a nice big inversion of the original marathon narrative, which at points asked "when does the construct become a self, a being?" and now it's "when do the selves, the beings, become constructs?"

[solid bramble]

love this, thank you

from what I learned previously the Earth tech was relatively primitive when Marathon departed, and what we saw in the new game suggests quite a few advancements have been made during that time

[cinder lance]

I just now realized that the name "hushed casket" as a codename for mister chef john juan seventeen in halo is perbably arctshyually a reference to the smuggled beetle droids in the original marathon that allegedy defended the colony when the pfhor came and the sheets went sideways. beetle droid battleroid. Like that feels like it was sitting in the notes for a long time.

[visual lynx]

yup the original plan was that the character later called Master Chief was the same person as the Security Officer from the original Marathon trilogy who had been in stasis since the sacking of the Pfhor, of whom the Covenant were a resurgent remnant, and only when things got really desperate did they finally defrost him to come deal with the situation. That's why he's the Covenant's "demon", an individual almost singlehandedly responsible for the destruction of their empire.

[cinder lance]

^ managing netrunner iteration stability while also constantly upgrading their ability to aim with new software and firmware that was not designed to fit 🟢

[fallen hollow]

This sounds like Doom.

[faint chasm]

Good afternoon folks. Is there more lore and other story beats that can be explored and talked about outside of what we currently have thus far?

[fallen hollow]

Do you mean story beats outside of the ARG narrative?

[faint chasm]

Yep. I know they said that will give more information before year is over, so I am wondering what else can look in to.

[fallen hollow]

Unfortunately nothing official.

[tranquil sun]

i just started playing classic marathon and holy immedietely had to increase the fov because i was getting sick

[unreal mortar]

Happens to bout everybody

[tardy veldt]

Besides the ARG and the lore we were able to access on April Alpha. Nothing new

[harsh horizon]

Any idea what the deal was with those Sekiguchi moths in the loading screens? I think they were those weave worms that create biomata bodies but metamorphosized for a new purpose.

[tardy veldt]

As far as we know, they are the Weave Worm’s for Shells

[unreal mortar]

Same. I wonder if they are used to recycle biomata silk or something because moths are known to eat fabrics

[cinder lance]

^ We know the worms had a hefty pricetag, moths must be doin' work too...

[prime rose]

per the ARG, SekGen has been creating synthetic lifeforms for several hundred years by the time of the new game, so they probably have a whole menagerie of horrors

[fallen hollow]

Their biosynthetic endeavours are likely eldridge in nature.

[sturdy abyss]

imagine what type of crap they made in their first stages of development, like when they began to do this and were doing more “mistakes” than normal 💀

[minor void]

This sounds like Doom.

[boreal patio]

hai

[supple furnace]

[brazen lance]

what

[tall skiff]

what if they're still around and really fucked up

[wicked barn]

Is anyone aware of the artifacts being in this version of Marathon? Just curious if this stuck around from the 2023 Vidoc

[tall skiff]

artifacts?

[tardy veldt]

In April Alpha we were told they were still being planned but weren’t in the game as April Alpha only has early game and starts of middle game avaible. I haven’t heard anything about them being cancelled aswell

[unreal mortar]

In the first vidoc barrett talked about them.

[sturdy abyss]

the toys that Sid from Toy Story had in his room

[prime rose]

Traxus does apparently have an "Interdimensional Diplomacy" department so... Argent power, anyone?

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1112856673581809735/1379248594082594916/taKgiNZGDXfVIVKmC0GKq8YRREFlpQQwHWwiC3ULHArkCdtZ08uXL9HOc4KgE9uneeKHBCBO_7thjBaKY5Cn_v_wv1F3TRUhGMEQYY8zkr2D_8Wt10GuYl1ETpDAYTF2MQw1280.png?ex=68c40b9a&is=68c2ba1a&hm=c2d443c2be9b339c85b313f573c6fe06eb301dd367c5768323c64b504f38026b&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=1848&height=1235

[vocal fjord]

Doesn't that canonically include the first battleroids

[sturdy abyss]

Maybe

[prime rose]

I don’t think SekGen produces battleroids - the company that did does produce clones though, there are a number of clone models listed in the ARG which follow the same naming scheme as the battleroids

Really nobody produces “battleroids” anymore - cyborgs are still produced and used but they’re integrated into society more reasonably now than as mindless killing machines

just the UESC won’t send cyborgs to TCIV because when the colonists left Sol, cyborgs were exclusively used as weapons and arriving in orbit with 50 cyborgs would look to the colonists like a military invasion

[unreal mortar]

First ones were made in 2194 by the Independent Asteroid Government of Icarus and its neighbor Republic of Thermopylae. I don't knoe if it states when or if Sekiguchi ever made Battleroids specifically. They do make full body prosthetics in 2459 so it isn't out of the picture.

[unreal mortar]

You mean the biomata series?

Also there were at least 10 biomata on Tau Ceti when it got "nuked to bed rock".

[prime rose]

what do you mean?

though re asteroid wars: forgot about everyone stockpiling roids so Sekiguchi Electronics probably sold some before they became SekGen

[unreal mortar]

I don't recall sekiguchi ever making clone models but i do remember biomata series.

[prime rose]

clones = biomata, the term is used interchangeably in the ARG

[fallen hollow]

This is correct. There is a specific distinction made in this memorandum.
https://marathon.karnemir.com/marathon/intercepts/uesc/memoranda

[prime rose]

interchangeably or as a designation specifically for sekgen's high end clones afaik

[fallen hollow]

It should also be noted that although biomata share series nomenclature from earlier cyborg assets, these are not the battleroids of old. The UESC attempted to avoid giving the impression that they are sending an invading army to clamp down Tau Ceti.

[prime rose]

CLONES
Ogun II/III 2nd gen
Harpe M1-2 3rd gen
Mimir MK I-II 2nd gen
Odin MK III-V 2nd gen
Athena α-δ 2nd gen
Loki MK III-VI 2nd gen
Kaulu 2-5 2nd gen
Veles A-E

CYBORGS
Mjolnir MK VII-IX 3rd Gen
Sharur MK 2-6 3rd gen

these are the clone and cyborg models indicated in the ARG which don't follow the SekGen Series naming pattern which is indicated as Bio/A-Type, Bio/B-Type etc indicating biomata and series classification

I assume Odin, Mimir, and Loki are clone models produced by the same people who produced the Mjolnir cyborgs, which are still in production as newer models

Sharur is probably also the same producer

Ogun is another company's product, then Harpe another's, and then the same for Athene, Kaulu, Veles if we infer from name schemes

[visual lynx]

those were Mjolnir Mk IV cyborgs (and that’s only in the M2 timeline which we don’t appear to be in)

[serene garnet]

do the enemies have itchy ass

[tough scarab]

Yes

[dire grove]

glad we got answers

[signal tapir]

Word on the skreet is Marathon is cooking. 🧐

[covert arrow]

two more runners, more map stuff i think, and UI and faction Enhancements so far from the small leak a few days ago

[thorny panther]

Where do you see leaks and/or get info on how closed testing is going?

[celest maple]

tbh, i feel like

[covert arrow]

i'll never tell

[thorny panther]

I wasn't asking for a public post here on the forum lol

[mossy parrot]

I too am a forsaken one 😂 don't feel as bad seeing the actual participant census, but this article covers a fair amount of the new info 👍

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Bungie-s-Marathon-introduces-big-gameplay-changes-new-features-and-a-possible-March-2026-release.1113211.0.html

[cursive axle]

Forsaken Destiny 2

[patent shore]

Who would win between a Runner and a Spartan?

[unreal mortar]

Plastic Baby vs Hyper Lethal Gorrila in a little more than a tin can.

[patent shore]

didn't realize the Masterchief was that outclassed

[dire fog]

He been outclassed for years

Bro is just a dollar general doom guy

[unreal mortar]

MR54 vs master chief is a different story though

[fallen hollow]

Master Chief was originally going to be a Battleroid before Halo became its own franchise.

[visual lynx]

-# unseal the hushed casket

[minor void]

I wasn't asking for a public post here on the forum lol

[boreal patio]

笑死

[brazen lance]

the toys that Sid from Toy Story had in his room

[supple furnace]

do the enemies have itchy ass

[visual lynx]

🙄

[tough scarab]

Yes

[glacial perch]

hopefully

[prime rose]

but he's lucky

[vestal onyx]

damn they still have the duffel bags, that means no dead ragdolls floating in milk bleeding gatorade

[rotund stump]

I mean bleedouts still leave a long ass trail so that's already a win

and having all that blood diffuse into the water is probs more than a bunch of physics and texture work

hi welcome to marathon lore chat

[mossy dirge]

It can be pre simulated and baked into a single animation

[rotund stump]

whatever it takes for them to make it in ig

[warm juniper]

WHEN IS THE GAME COMING OUT

[visual lynx]

in two weeks

we’re just waiting for the boxes

[fallen hollow]

Soon.

[sage sphinx]

10 years or never

[covert arrow]

I give it 1-2 years out max

[tribal marsh]

launch time is probally gonna be around when gta 7 launches

[shy lion]

T-Minus 15.193792102158E+9 years until MARATHON comes out

[unreal mortar]

When the colonies first reached America they faced diseases they had never seen before. When the colonist came into conflict with the british, they had lower immunity levels then the british leading to diseases unintentionally being spread by the british. Has something like this happend with martian colonies and earth?

[sturdy abyss]

MARATHON/TAU CETI IV/ESCAPE WILL MAKE ME GOD

[prime rose]

The entire Martian biosphere is exported from Earth - it’s not like the surface of Mars is teeming with exotic microorganisms that didn’t develop on earth

It is a potential problem with TCIV though - that’s an entirely new evolutionary tree and set of organic compounds and microorganisms

Nobody has natural immunity to the viruses of TCIV and native life forms seem to undergo rapid mutation at extremely fast rates as a result of the temporal anomaly

[unreal mortar]

What about mars ice caps? Any possibility of microrganisms some sort of archaebacteria?

[prime rose]

Possibly but that’s all speculative - we have some promising signs that allow for the possibility of life in the Martian past but still no confirmation that it existed or exists

[cinder lance]

Sony claims before or in March 2026

[cinder lance]

Martian bacterium... I have nothing on record, but these ideas are fabulous!

+NuCal is hard at work here on TC4 making your future renewable AND edible.
-lIES foR sALE, deSTRucTion on the sheLF, judGe nOt lest Ye be juDGed yourself

-# This message was sent from a CyberAcme™ Terminal
-# ↀ Get yours today. • Review • Update Terminal

[untold basalt]

The marathon will be released tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[unreal mortar]

What was the final outcome with the Nar and Nebulons? Any chamce of them returning?

[tall skiff]

they died 💔

[unreal mortar]

I didn't think it was all of them

[visual lynx]

we don't know anything about any final outcome involving them even from the M2 timeline, and the new game doesn't even seem to be in that timeline, so there's nothing known at all

[unreal mortar]

I juat think it would be funny for them to come out of left field even funnier if they came before the pfhor.

Y'all think the birds are the chockisens yapped about in the marathon manual?

[visual lynx]

#📚marathon-lore-discussion message

Other alien races we have heard of like the Nar, Vylae, and Nebulons could also be gradually introduced to fill out the interstellar political compass (counterparts to CyAc, Sekiguchi, and NuCal) in addition to the S'pht and Pfhor in opposite corners (like MIDA and Traxus).

[unreal mortar]

Would absolutely love to see them expanded upon. Also maybe get a peek at the nars interesting homeworld.

[fallen hollow]

This would be hilarious.

[barren sorrel]

the security officer is clovis bray

[dim breach]

Spartan.

[summer kelp]

hi

[knotty dew]

Nay. It's his negatively charged twin, Brovis Clay.

[barren sorrel]

fire name

[tough scarab]

Am not

[summer kelp]

9

[plucky sierra]

8

[uncut bone]

7

[covert arrow]

6

[manic river]

5

[sly heart]

4

[cursive axle]

3

[vapid spade]

2

[upper ember]

o o

one...

[lethal comet]

0

[iron turret]

-1

[plucky sierra]

-2

[manic river]

-3

[visual lynx]

-pfhor

[cinder lance]

Xenoarthropoda Cephalomorpfhor?

[grave bear]

+Runners generated by Sekiguchi buffed
-UESC nerfed

-# This message was sent from a CyberAcme™ Terminal
-# ↀ Get yours today. • Review • Update Terminal

[fallen hollow]

What's going on in here?

[tall skiff]

shenanigans

[upper ember]

looks around

[tall skiff]

dies cutely

[stuck delta]

Is that schizophrenic guy who was active in the beginning still kicking?

[plucky sierra]

no 🥀

[fallen hollow]

What happened to that poor fellow?

[lavish palm]

rampancy

[cinder lance]

If Durandal was rampant and exited the Marathon after [?]infiltrating it [unauthorized system access .node[s]
...he mighta left traps.

[unreal mortar]

Ngl NuTicks look alot like the scrapped M2 infected ticks... Question is why would the Jjaro bring ticks from lh'owon to tau ceti OR are they originally from somewhere else, (tciv4?) and were brought to lh'owon?

[sturdy abyss]

The latter one sounds the most reasonable one

After all Tau Ceti IV could be pretty unexplored and the ticks could’ve began to set their nests after everyone in Tau Ceti IV died

pretty sure the runners would have to do a MARATHON to see what lies in the colony 🔥

[unreal mortar]

Just thought. If these ticks are hostile compared to the docile ones on lh'owon, they must have adapted to tciv harsher or more primative enviroment. This still doesn't confirm that they originated on lh'owon but definetly a more passive planet.

[sturdy abyss]

So basically, the environment in Tau Ceti IV basically triggers their survival instinct, that means basically attacking whatever could pose a threat for them, Runners included?

[unreal mortar]

Well i just think they are a subspecies that evolved off since the jjaro left a while ago.

[sturdy abyss]

Oh so like, they adapted to the lack of Jjaro in the planet

[unreal mortar]

Yeah. Jjaro possibly took them from somewhere unless they are native to lh'own, drop them off on tciv, time passes and due to the planets primative nature they become hostile.

[sturdy abyss]

Yeah it makes sense

[sturdy abyss]

Something tells me the ticks aren’t from Tau Ceti IV

[unreal mortar]

Their parasitic relationship and one of only three forms or animal life we've seen yet on tciv?

[barren sorrel]

the f'lickta are my army of knuckle dragging freaks

[iron storm]

So im new to the lore and the universe of Marathon and is now playing the classic series of marathon games so i need make sure of one thing. What particularly is marathon lore wise?

[visual lynx]

I'd love to answer the question, but I don't understand it. Are you asking what does the name "Marathon" refer to in-universe? If so, it's the name of a colony ship, made out of the Martian moon Deimos, sent on a 300 year long sublight journey to colonize Tau Ceti IV. Most of the first game takes place on that ship.

[iron storm]

Yeah that’s pretty much what my question was about really. I was reading the lore logs in game and saw “Marathon” being used and just wanted to know what was it referring specifically. I kinda had an idea it’s was either a ship or something else so you pretty much answered it for me.

[tardy veldt]

The UESC Marathon, the Colony Ship that is built inside the moon Deimos. Jake The Alright explains better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W12gYgz9rFU

[hidden hornet]

I think it’s worth noting that ticks are never called ticks anywhere in the classic terminals, and we only know they’re called that due to game files. IMO it’s more likely that the “ticks” in numarathon are called that because it’s a fitting name for the guys. Also, they behave more like lookers from m1, but ticks works and sounds better

[unreal mortar]

I know that ticks in m2 explode on higher dificulties but they still don't chase you right?

[hidden hornet]

Right, and if they are aggro they don’t suicide bomb you, but suck the shields from you

[unreal mortar]

So even in agro they are statiomary?

[bright thistle]

hi everyones !!!

[half kite]

i've finished m2 twice but never saw them explode

[unreal mortar]

You can see it on the tick sprite sheet

[half kite]

Oh

[unreal mortar]

Think this goober has any thing to do with gherrit white?

[plucky sierra]

I like that idea

[unreal mortar]

Floating off the floor, hands feet ears tingling, eyes burned with flames of a dying fire, hands melting into wafting fleshy pancake ripples, waves all around him, water filling him, waves punding and crashing from his head.
Not to mention the anomaly effect looking like weird waves.
The waves.

[grizzled pagoda]

And if I’m not mistaken, Deimos is pretty much kidnapped when the marathon ship leaves the solar system due to ongoing riots on mars that turned super violent because MIDA isn’t actually all that good

I’m new to lore but starting to piece things together

[unreal mortar]

Your close but Deimos is the shell of the marathon. Mida happend as deimos was being converted. Agree that Mida were bad at what they did. NuMida claims to be different but I don't believe to be honest.

[languid hawk]

Are we back or are we back! Guys

[languid hawk]

any new lore discovered?

[unreal mortar]

New music.

[final thistle]

no. lmao that's funny tho people still talkin about it, i bet he proud of that fact

[iron storm]

good music

[cinder lance]

MIDA were the ones who sabotaged the Marathon. They made it weak, so when the pfhor attacked, the ONLY hope the ship had was one of MIDA's own borgs. Mida bad.

[unreal mortar]

I don't remember that part.

[plucky sierra]

If not for MIDA the Marathon would not have had the Security Officer and the colony would not have had 9 other cyborgs. There also would not have been hundred of weapons stored aboard the Marathon

[final thistle]

dont believe his lies

[arctic owl]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn’t do that, you can’t prove anything

I’m baby, uwu

[knotty dew]

Is there a comprehensive lore site like the Ishtar Collective, but for Marathon?

[plucky sierra]

marathon lore archive

[plucky sierra]

https://marathon.bungie.org/story/ or https://marathon.karnemir.com/

[knotty dew]

Thanks!

[plucky sierra]

of course!

you can also play the original games at https://alephone.lhowon.org/

[knotty dew]

Also, are there any good videos on youtube or elsewhere that offers a well-explained chronological walkthrough of all the ARG content between now and when the game was first being teased?

[plucky sierra]

Jake the Alright has the best stuff right now

[knotty dew]

I'll peep when I get home. Tha ks again for the resources!

[plucky sierra]

happy to help

[prime rose]

Karnemir's website felwinter linked is the best place to go right now for any lore on the new game and has a robust catalog of documentation from the original trilogy

everything which exists for nu marathon that is not NDA'd is available on karn's site basically, and you can probably expect it to be updated with new stuff once we get a public test or release

though concrete lore details on nu marathon right now are largely limited to ARG documents and I think we're all treating these as canon right now but its worth noting the game underwent a significant design shift and leadership change between the ARG and today, so its possible not all of that stuff remains accurate

[unreal mortar]

Also
https://marathon-guide.com/

[cinder lance]

imagine retconning the hype of your game

[prime rose]

vast majority of marathon enjoyers have probably never touched ARG stuff

and its easy to see how a producer who is not responsible for solely narrative stuff would not want to be trapped into something written by a what was effectively a marketing team years prior

[cinder lance]

your response is accurate and based

facts were always pretty ethereal in halo books and stuff too

I'm upset because I want continuity to not be wishy washy

[prime rose]

I agree and like it's nto a sure thing - I am just speculating

[visual lynx]

it’s nothing new, every Bungie game I can think of since prerelease info on the internet was a thing (so like… the original Marathon) has had prerelease info that turned out to be noncanonical in the final release

[inner trellis]

Let’s not forget the Terminals in Halo 3 that referenced a connection to Marathon. Or originally in Halo CE you were more of a cyborg than an augmented man in a suit.

[visual lynx]

what in Halo 3 referenced Marathon?

[unreal mortar]

343

[visual lynx]

how is he a Marathon reference?

[unreal mortar]

Its eye

[visual lynx]

that’s not the kind of thing @inner trellis was talking about

[prime rose]

every Bungie title in the last few decades includes minor references to other Bungie stuff - as much as people like to try to draw lore connections or infer things, its really just Bungie being cheeky and doing some easter eggs for fans and thematic DNA sharing

it will never be relevant to the plot of any of their games - ie. MIDA Multi Tool being in Destiny will never matter to the plot of either game

[minor void]

bm

[arctic owl]

I was gonna say, I recall the achievement for finding all the terminals in Halo 3 was called something like “Marathon Man” just for fun, but I don’t remember any of the content implying a connection to the Marathon universe

[mortal shell]

also in reach there's the traxus symbol on the forklift

[vocal fjord]

It's wild that Halo CE wasn't conceived as a Marathon game because really all you have to do is change a few details and it's Marathon 4: Fun on the Jjaro Hula Hoop

[unreal mortar]

they broke our hula hoop

[visual lynx]

it was conceived as a Marathon game, and then they changed those few details to make it resemble yet be legally distinct from the Marathon series

(otherwise MS would own Marathon today)

[vocal fjord]

A fate worse than death

[cinder lance]

They burked me dang hoopie. I can't believe ya done this.

[reclaimer]

[arctic owl]

It’s kinda wild to remember that Halo was announced during one of Steve Jobs’s Macworld keynotes. I was a huge fan of both Bungie and Apple at the time so my mind was completely blown

And then of course it all went to HELL

[rotund stump]

hi welcome to marathon lore chat

[arctic owl]

1-900-MARATHON, for all your sexy Marathon lore chat needs

[tough scarab]

Do enemies have itchy ass?

[arctic owl]

I really couldn’t say

Anyway I haven’t been following particularly closely, but I gather there’s been no news, lore-related or otherwise, coming out of however many playtests Bungie’s been doing?

[manic river]

You are correct. They said by fall we should have some news. Most people are assuming sometime after the 30-day test ends is when we will hear something.

[proper pine]

woah lore

[manic river]

Guess we heard something lol

[karmic siren]

#BRINGLEELABACK

[unreal mortar]

[pastel snow]

is the DAC needed for anything ?

[unreal mortar]

Was useed during arg

[rotund stump]

also just kinda cool for worldbuilding lol

[simple garden]

Might be useful later

[faint chasm]

Well I'm excited to see what the game has thus. I hope to get selected for the test.

[real mica]

😜

[tardy veldt]

No that was just for the ARG

[unreal mortar]

Dogtags

[dire fog]

Proof you were there

[unreal mortar]

I was where?

[dire fog]

In the surveillance state, we are all cam girls

[unreal mortar]

❔

[median quest]

i wish i had a pink robot cat

[haughty sapphire]

How do you get the glitchy Marathon pfp thing, I got mine when it came out but accepted the battlefield one

[unreal mortar]

Its gone i thinks 🥀 😔

[tough trout]

This gonna age like fine wine…no comment

[manic river]

1 day before the end of the test lol

[tough trout]

Test?

Ah, nvm I know what test you mean’t

[arctic plank]

End of November we will be enjoying this game fully🙌😩
Cannot wait !!!!! 🙏🙏

[wicked barn]

Wym?

Also I dont know if this is the right place to drop this but I want people's opinions. When the gane was first announced I theorized that the keys would be used to open "dungeon" like areas in the living server world. So you would spend maybe 5-10 hours of in game time hunting key fragments, then use them to unlock a alien tech door and have a pve focused experience area. This way you can still have the main pvp game, based on ground loot, key systems, and quests. Then have those once in a while raid like experiences bungie is known for. Also to add the different color keys would open a door on each map opening the possibilities for pve options and different dungeon like encounters (ie like the originals, especially the dream missions from infity that are tied to the Jjaro).

[manic apex]

If you got it previously, you can reactivate it with Nitro. Otherwise its gone.

[final hull]

what's the "ARG"?

[plucky sierra]

Augmented Reality Game

[final hull]

is it a hacking thing?

[plucky sierra]

Real life puzzle solving pretending we were actually hacking TRAXUS/UESC as Mida

[final hull]

so cool. is it worth the pursuit?

[tardy veldt]

Its been done since April which is how we got the “Save The Date” trailer which gave us the gameplay reveal stream

[plucky sierra]

It’s over now, but all the lore materials were archived at https://marathon.karnemir.com/

There was 2 so far, I’m hoping for another on release

[tardy veldt]

Same

[final hull]

did you guys do it on your own?

[plucky sierra]

Huge communities did it

Some steps required like 2000 people participating

[tardy veldt]

Community banded together, streamers and communities did it together

[final hull]

i thought we couldn't share anything about it due to the NDA although gotta admit I haven't looked at the code of conduct

[tardy veldt]

Oh we can talk about the April Alpha and the ARG’s. The NDA is about Closed Playtests and the upcoming Closed Technical Playtest

[final hull]

sounds awesome.

[final hull]

then what is meant by "Surrender it and surrender yourself. Share it and be forgotten."

PS:sounds like a threat lol

[tardy veldt]

I dont remember seeing or reading that

[final hull]

"The DAC is your weapon against their walls. Stolen from the corporate puppets. Repurposed for revolution. This card breaks chains. Opens doors. Marks your every act of defiance. Upgrade it through action. Surrender it and surrender yourself. Share it and be forgotten. The strongest among you will be rewarded. The system trembles when many become one."

[tardy veldt]

Oh that, it was a riddle for the ARG

Basically telling us what to do without openly saying it because of the “UESC Moles”

[final hull]

damn I gotta look into the lore

thank you very much for the help

[tardy veldt]

The UESC mole was a discord step of the ARG, where players had to find a specific user to expose them. Again all of it should be on the https://marathon.karnemir.com/

[fallen hollow]

Aligning the Traxus satellites was a treat.

[tardy veldt]

The last few attempts when the website was being botted was both annoying and fun

[plucky sierra]

The only step I was in time for was assembling the map and controlling the bot. I did not really have a way to hear about the ARG until late

[arctic owl]

I really enjoy bees. Might go so far as to say I love ‘em

[fallen hollow]

Good times.

[deft jay]

words cannot describe how desperate I am to get into a Marathon playtest at this point

[cursive axle]

Say that again...

[formal raven]

https://quake.fandom.com/wiki/Instagib

[visual lynx]

https://www.themarathonmusic.com//music/other/Phasmidia_Elegans.mp3

[cinder lance]

(https://suno.com/s/ADNJzk0FheE34Oua) "Revenge of S'pht"

Ghost in the Beehive 🔺

[hushed gulch]

was there an art installation in santa barbara or long beach a year or so ago that hinted at marathon being in the works? i seem to remember watching an analysis video on it but i can't find it anywhere

[plucky sierra]

there was grafitti at venice beach as part of the ARG in 2023

[hushed gulch]

thank you! i was wracking my brains trying to remember

[hushed gulch]

Polycam Capture - Download Free 3D Model on Polycam https://poly.cam/capture/f0ecc9e2-543f-4b7b-9fcf-9c25dba3efbe

the MIDA graffiti from 2023

[plucky sierra]

I have been looking for this

[hushed gulch]

it took me a bit to find it, but i figured sharing it here would help everyone!

[olive helm]

Hey mods this guy is a bot the photos are the Elon Crypto scam stuff

[plucky sierra]

they know, it just takes a bit for them to police the lore channel

[charred solar]

chat is there any actual reason why the kaal cat is the community nucaloric mascot other than it being pink I don't remember seeing it anywhere else but the sekgen website and the trailer 😭

I've been thinking about this for like 5 months

[noble stump]

I mean Sekiguchi did made it...
I like to think its a shared pet between Seki and Nu

[cinder lance]

In the beginning, sekgen was the worm and the kitty. In it's perfection, sekgen gave kitty to nucal on burger. Everything ran on cyac. Traxus built them a world. Then the uesc came to cast them all down from their holy perfection, only to give rise to their own shadow self doppelganger MIDA. Arachne brought snacks.

[vocal fjord]

Cat is durandal in his catgirl phase

[celest torrent]

I can’t tell is this is pure trolling or based on one of the early docs coming to mind about how the cat had unforeseen intellect and unprogrammed behaviors

[vocal fjord]

The best trolling is deeply rooted in the ARG

[median quest]

Don't blame him tbh

[keen slate]

so catgirl hrt is canon in the marathon universe 🔥 🔥

[median quest]

If I was a rampant artificial intelligence I would want to be a cat too

[vocal fjord]

More like whole body replacement therapy but yeah

[analog radish]

Whaaaat. That's sick.

[iron storm]

That's awesome really

[karmic siren]

#BRINGLEELABACK

[visual lynx]

#shedeservesbetter

[hybrid osprey]

#BRINGLEELABACK

[iron storm]

#BRINGLEELABACK

[tacit nexus]

What are some places I need to go to read/follow Marathon lore?

[plucky sierra]

They’re pinned here

[tacit nexus]

Thank you!

[rotund stump]

tldr so far just old trilogy lore, and karnemir has an archive site for most if not all the ARG content for numarathon

very little new lore so far aside from the tapes around the marsh during the first alpha and one of them from a certain doctor

[iron gulch]

hiddenxperia has good videos explaining the story of the games as well