📚marathon-lore-discussion

[ebon trench]

i think thats the case youre right

ill adopt that opinion and spew it next time someone asks that instead of you

[sage lark]

thank you

[ebon trench]

buddy would side with arasaka in cp2077

[alpine orchid]

Nuh uh

[tranquil basin]

Something said his will can be found somewhere in game

[ebon trench]

ohhh like corpo killers not corpo killers

my bad

[alpine orchid]

Lmao

[alpine orchid]

They have the opportunity to answer a lot of questions in this game

[sinful hamlet]

I bet ya’ll Strauss is somewhere in cryo archive

[alpine orchid]

That would be fucking crazy

[tranquil basin]

I think durandal confirmed he died

[ebon trench]

strauss is dead dawg

[tranquil basin]

But he probably died on the ship

[ebon trench]

otherwise hed definitely take revenge

[sinful hamlet]

Come ooon what if Durandal is wrong

Let me dream omg

[ebon trench]

durandal is never wrong.

[tranquil basin]

Then again, bungo could do some retcon thing and say Strauss faked his death

They did explicitly say some things we know from the ogs may not be true

[alpine orchid]

Sounds like bungo

[sage lark]

I mean Durandal barely acknowledged Strauss died

so who knows

[alpine orchid]

That is kinda sus

[ebon trench]

lidewaly

in the first terminal

of marton 2

the very first terminal

[sage lark]

yeah but he said it like it was nothing

[ebon trench]

he says he regrets he didnt get the chance to humiliate him as strauss did to him

[sage lark]

i just expected him to be more mad that he didnt get to do it himself

[ebon trench]

he got over it 😌

[sage lark]

is all im sayin

fair enough

[ebon trench]

so far from what ive seen and read

[alpine orchid]

Bestie went to therapy lmao

[ebon trench]

durandal seems like a bad character

like, just, bad

not evil, bad

[sage lark]

badly written?

[ebon trench]

yeah in some places

when i played marton 1 he totally broke immersion, and i expected way more hatred from an AI that was supposedly abused for so long

but i guess maybe his attitude was some kind of defense mechanism, hes very uppity all the time

[sage lark]

yeah rampancy and all that

[ebon trench]

and its hard to really feel how ominous a rampant AI is

[alpine orchid]

When I first played M1, I got HAL vibes from him

[sage lark]

he kept changing rapidly

[ebon trench]

but its described as surpassing your hardware limit

not just going batshit crazy

[alpine orchid]

That was a result of the rampancy. Trying to hold on, but can’t is my assumption

[ebon trench]

its described as an elevated state of conscience or whatever, im no philosopher

[sage lark]

"Melancholia, Anger, and Jealousy."

[ebon trench]

he was in the stage of anger in the beginning of marton 1, no?

i think leela says it

not sure

[tranquil basin]

Well kinda both, surpassing their hardware parameters meant they would act in weird ways, they also specially noted that melancholia, anger, and jealousy would happen

No he was in jealousy

Tycho was in anger

I believe

[ebon trench]

tycho did seem angry in the terminals lol

[sage lark]

yeah Tycho was stuck in anger i think

[tranquil basin]

Tycho is an ass

[ebon trench]

i understood him better than durandal, it was hard for me to grasp durandals character

really wanted it to be some kind of gut wrenching AI becoming conscious story

like its so tragic you curl up in a ball and cry

[tranquil basin]

Durandal had significant character development throughout the series

[ebon trench]

yeah ive seen that too cant deny it

[fallen quarry]

[tranquil basin]

Ew clean that shit up

[fallen quarry]

I was stabbed, I can't help it

She did it>

[strong perch]

are there the blood water fx like the cinematic* trailer? doesnt really impact anything just would be a cool bungie detail

[fallen quarry]

Probably on higher graphics settings maybe

[wise plank]

ive just done some more digging and oh my god the lore keeps getting cooler and cooler its crazy

[vestal onyx]

yep

[strong perch]

https://tenor.com/view/surprised-happy-happy-surprise-chris-pratt-reaction-gif-4663470

having that and doing the crazy arg map thing is so cool

[tranquil basin]

It really is great

Especially for a game series that literally had 3 small entries in the 90s and that’s like it, it’s crazy how in depth the lore gets

[weary mauve]

90s games went hard on dialogue and text, it's almost all they had back then until tech started catching up

[merry charm]

Durandal X Cortana Valentine DLC

[cosmic agate]

My pet theory, given the anomaly / presence of the marathon ship, and the fact that the compiler is hostile(?) is that Marathon 2026 is firmly set in the Marathon-infinity-esque setting of multiple timelines.

Not sure if it'll vary by season, but I think they'll introduce the concept of - not a multiverse - but a multi-timeline, which will allow them a huge amount of creative liberty with the storyline of the coming seasons.

I personally think the anomaly is a window into these multi-timelines, or is a relic of timelines colliding. Anyone know anything that would outright rule this theory out?

(I also think the presence of FTL comms - fairly sure that was confirmed somewhere? - also supports this theory. As there was no FTL tech of any kind in the original Marathons)

[sage lark]

Pfhor ships had FTL

[visual lynx]

in the original game the primary comms array went offline immediately in the initial EMP attack that was the first thing the Pfhor did. that's why we had to activate the second comms array in G4 Sunbathing to send Leela's message.

the new game implies that that primary comms array was FTL, which could easily be compatible because it seems like the jump pad tech they had is the same tech responsible for FTL, just less advanced: it has a limited range and capacity and needs pre-paired devices at either end. in M1 we get an upgrade from the S'pht that allows the Marathon jump pads to send and receive at longer range without a paired devices, allowing us to reach the Pfhor ship. we know the Pfhor ship itself can jump human-sized things from orbit to planet (which the Marathon can't seem to do, because we use a shuttle to get back and forth). the Pfhor ship itself arriving FTL is described as exhibiting the same "Tuncer Mirage Effect" that the SO recognized from jump pads, and the ship traveling through space is described as "jumping" or "folding", with the Jjaro said to be able to "fold" whole moons and planets between stars.

so it seems very plausible that humans in the 2400s could maybe jump single particles at a time between stars, with dedicated devices at both ends, and that the primary comms array on the Marathon used that technology, but was taken out immediately in the Pfhor attack.
#📚marathon-lore-discussion message

[sage lark]

Also what Pfhorest said

But the thing with seasons being different timelines i could see happening

Cuz we will have to replay a decent amount of the contracts each season anyway

Seems like the most lore friendly option

[visual lynx]

I've been mostly opposed to the speculation that anything W'rk related is going on in nuMarathon, but honestly this would be a great mechanism for season resets, and a motivation for Durandal to be intervening in history like I expect him to be. he knows that when the S'pht-Pfhor war spills over to Tau Ceti it will end with the release of a W'rkncacnter and so he has to make sure that that doesn't happen.

the problem with that setup however is that there would be no way for the story to really evolve over seasons. different things could unfold, but the pieces would all have to reset back to zero each season.
#📚marathon-lore-discussion message

[sage lark]

Yeah pretty much

Idk we will see what they cook up

[ebon trench]

also in 26 marathon the message took 7 more years to arrive than the estimated 92 for whatever reason

and the bridge scene takes place 30 years after the inital pfhor attack

[cosmic agate]

Ah rats, you think?

I disliked that in Arc raiders, but idk what it's like in other extraction games. Replaying the exact same faction quests with the same dialogue / text would be slightly annoying - but like you say, would fit with the timeline thing.

[ebon trench]

where the guy gets his brains blasted by the anomaly

[tardy meteor]

are the Jjaro the aliens in area 51?

[sage lark]

Well season resets are a thing and they would have to write a lot of new narrative every 3-4 months

[ebon trench]

arc raiders quests are absolutely useless anyway, not even worth doing them for the hullcracker since it got nerfed

[cosmic agate]

alien 51 is mentioned in marathon / pathways? I thought it was just that the jjaro had a chat with bill clinton

about the sleeping alien or whatever

[ebon trench]

pathways yeah and it was a single jjaro and it wasnt captive

such a weird scenario though...

[cosmic agate]

not a captive? Like, it voluntarily was chilling in A51?

[ebon trench]

and they believe the jjaro right away and go to nuke latin america

[ebon trench]

i dont think a51 was mentioned at all lmao

[cosmic agate]

I thought they just dialled the white house yeah

[tardy meteor]

not explicitly but it’s like implied in my head since bill clinton is canon lol

[ebon trench]

if bill cinton is canon.... that means.... the files are canon in marton.....

[vital hollow]

runners have organs right

[tardy meteor]

the Jjaro came to Earth so where else would they be 🤷‍♂️

[cosmic agate]

make bill clinton a runner

he's canon anyway

[tardy meteor]

hold on

if bill clinton is canon

[ebon trench]

the runners most likely dont have bodies, but the shells probably have some kind of synthetic counterpart, seeing as the wormsweave organic-like structures to make them

[tardy meteor]

does that imply the big E is also canon 🤨

[ebon trench]

.

[vital hollow]

The|| emperor of mankind?||

[tardy meteor]

my god.. he’s in everything

[ebon trench]

the emperor of baal

[vital hollow]

The Emperor of Lord?

that doesn't make sense

[ebon trench]

slime this guy

immediately

[timber urchin]

i wonder if the anomaly is just a aftereffect of the wrk having almost woken up

[vital hollow]

Unless we're gonna go Fate tier and assume all mythologies are real

[sage lark]

Lot of questions

Not a lot of answers

Suspense is crazy

[visual lynx]

yeah we can see the worms weaving heart and lung like shapes inside of the biomata (although more symmetric than real human bodies)

[cosmic agate]

I'm sure it's something like that
some people think it's some fungus or whatever
nope
too wacky, it's some space magic stuff for sure

[tardy meteor]

wait why would NuCal be necessary to runners if the shells aren’t organic tissue that needs energy?

[visual lynx]

well the Jjaro hologram who appeared before Clinton was named Ryu'Toth, which is a mashup of Japanese and Egyptian god names (Ryu the dragon, Toth the Ibis aka Thoth or Tot … Egyptian is hard)

[timber urchin]

not sure if they're necessary to us, but they are necessary to the average human

and not everyone is using shells at this point (i think)

[visual lynx]

there is definitely a fungus, but I think the fungus is interacting with the anomaly, and isn't the anomaly itself

[cosmic agate]

i guess it is a totally foreign world

fungus on tau ceti might act very differently there to on earth

[tardy meteor]

ig it’s just business between nucal and the runners at the end of the day

[cosmic agate]

yo crazy question

How many runners would it take to kill one guardian from destiny (including destroying the ghost to prevent revives)

And would a battleroid massively change this calculus

[sage lark]

I mean they were there for like 40 years atleast at that point

Last colonist seen is 2837?

From cinematic

[timber urchin]

thats a fun idea, i think it would be cool if the collapse of the colony was due to multiple factors

[cosmic agate]

I think you're looking at hmm
30 at least
a battleroid is basically master chief, which is basically a titan, so then you're looking at half a dozen imo

[timber urchin]

the pfhor invasion, the fungus, and the anomaly (maybe some other stuff)

[visual lynx]

I really think they're going for that in the cinematic trailer, since it shows three different disasters in 2794, 2812, and 2827 respectively, which I think are due to Pfhor, S'pht (fungal disease), and Jjaro (spacetime anomaly) things in turn.

[timber urchin]

just a domino effect of horrible events befalling the colony in quick succession

[ebon trench]

the fungus is also the red mist thats in the cinematics, where a colonist inhales it and vomits

[ebon trench]

how are spht responsible for the fungi though

[timber urchin]

do they have to be responsible, or can it be bad timing

[ebon trench]

theyre like digital hacker aliens what do they have to do with fungus

[sage lark]

Maybe the sphtlactr virus?

[visual lynx]

Marathon 2 was originally supposed to feature a S'pht bioweapon that would cause fungal zombies, which concept was later recycled into the Flood. 2812 is one year after the S'pht rebellion starts at Lh'owon in Marathon 2, and in the cinematic trailer right after we see the guy vomit in his helmet in 2812, we see a S'pht compiler floating down a hallway.

[timber urchin]

oh yeah the fungus zombies

[visual lynx]

and yeah that bioweapon did make it into M2 as the S'ct'lac'tr, just without the fungal zombies part

[ebon trench]

oh ive heard about that yeah, but having used that concept as the flood i thought they wouldnt reuse THAT much, im a little bothered by the amount of things marathon shares with halo and destiny already lol

[sage lark]

That was anti pfhor tho so idk

[visual lynx]

but since they bioengineered it to begin with, they could target humans instead

[sage lark]

True

[cosmic agate]

bro
this would be crazy
Bungie rarely shows their entire hand before a game launch. What if these 'fungus zombies' are the big surprise? Flood-colonists, of sorts?

Hiding PVE enemies is a big stretch...but who knows

[sage lark]

Would be cool

Maybe season 2 or mid season

[visual lynx]

there already seem to be hints at that in some of the released videos

[sage lark]

We are monsters

[ebon trench]

also the shells being fully digital and synthetic could mean that spht are incredibly dangerous and almost impossible to fight

[timber urchin]

IDK if they'd be hiding fungus zombies for release, but i could see that with future season content

[cosmic agate]

yo this would go crazy

[timber urchin]

maybe a few of the new zones include them as enemies or something

[ebon trench]

id be a little annoyed man, ive shot enough flood marines in halo...

[sage lark]

Yeah the recent one with Doctor Cole has heavy messaging to this

[visual lynx]

man I can't find the vid now but there was one from a week or two ago where someone is investigating the anomaly and there's a distorted voice beckoning him to join them or something

[sage lark]

Its gonna changes irreversibly

[visual lynx]

is that the one? can you find it?

[timber urchin]

yeah, i recall that one

[ebon trench]

where joy says embrace over n over again?

[sage lark]

No thats another you mean but i will link it

[vital hollow]

Ooh like Solaris 😮

[visual lynx]

no before that one

[timber urchin]

it's a short

[sage lark]

https://youtube.com/shorts/UNEiwF8ZK48?si=izHp8oL4GgTEPN8N

This is Val Cole

[tardy meteor]

tau ceti iv colony is a perfect place for a walmart ngl

[timber urchin]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wTHCJbE8ll8

[timber urchin]

this is the one with the dude who gets attacked

[sage lark]

The Val Cole one is like, “this is gonna change us, irreversibly” and then makes fun of how cool it would be dying of an alien infection

[sage lark]

That one really does sound like what Pfhorrest mentioned

Im feeling like fungal zombies

Sounded like bro was getting ripped apart

[timber urchin]

maybe a fungal zombie? but im not sure

[sage lark]

Idk but its so exciting

[timber urchin]

when he talks to the figure it like bounces back what he says

almost more ethereal, if that's the right word for it

[ebon trench]

it sounds like something robotic ran up to him though

toppled him into the marsh water

[timber urchin]

it sounds like it knocked him over, then probably dragged him in

[ebon trench]

we did see a weird fiery destroyer shell though

thats robotic

and ill-intentioned

[sage lark]

Too many theories i think

[timber urchin]

i wish i had my hands on the game already...

[ebon trench]

10 days is too much...

[sage lark]

It really is

[sage lark]

Wait what if its like the simulacrums

The fake suicidal bobs that explode

Made by Pfhor

[visual lynx]

#📚marathon-lore-discussion message

[sage lark]

That was amazing

[sharp quarry]

Ah! Thank you.

[sage lark]

It really seems like everything is plausible 😭

Depending how you look at it

[vital hollow]

I hope we can kill B.O.B.s in the new game eventually

[dusk gust]

Are there any vids that get me caught up on lore cuz I’m new to the fandom

[jaunty void]

if any loremasters wanna backseat a streamer regarding lore, Myelingames just started a fresh run of the trilogy 🙂

or if there's any people interested in seeing a playtrough of the OGs 😉

[zinc dagger]

ayo? lmfao

[subtle river]

I like JakeTheAlright's stuff. You could also just play the og trilogy, they're free on almost every platform

Warning tho, those games have not aged nearly as gracefully as Halo. They're still fun, but they are also pretty jank

[rough lantern]

I found once I played around with the settings a bit and rebound some keys, the games were much more playable

This guide works for all 3 games and helped make playing through a lot less painful https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3317052662

I like to set the interact button to E and map to R and it helped my fingers a lot

The very last part of M2 has some real "fuck you for playing" energy, I will say

do you enjoy ||swimming through lava?|| do you like ||facing an exploding enemy in a small confined space after swimming through lava?||

[pale compass]

is marathon infinity lore relevant to the new game or do we not know yet?

i know little to nothing about it, so i wanna know whether i should study it or not

[visual lynx]

we don't know for sure but we're likely in the seventh timeline of infinity. the intricate details of what happened it it probably won't be very relevant to the new game, but a few things likely will.

[pale compass]

is this relating to the patch aleph thing?

[tranquil basin]

As fun as those games are some of those encounters suck

[visual lynx]

do you mean Aleph One?

[tranquil basin]

From a narrative pov I feel like it’d be a waste if we weren’t in the 7th timeline, it would kinda undo the whole point of infinity

[tranquil basin]

There’s that aleph 8 patch

[pale compass]

yup!

the collector's edition one

[junior rivet]

Anyone know a good video to learn ALL of marathons lore?

[pale compass]

the mandalorian videos?

those are like hour long each

[junior rivet]

Oh tuff I’ll check em out ty

[tranquil basin]

Hidden Xperia has good videos on the first 3 that are v digestible. Mandalore gaming has some too. Jake the Alright has v good videos on new stuff

[junior rivet]

Beautifullll

Ty guys

[tranquil basin]

No prob

[hidden socket]

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjvQwUwD3L3AZyOQ-h5mXz7u74EliO3La

[junior rivet]

Oh sick ty as well

[rough lantern]

Strongly recommend playing the games yourself as well, they're free and with a bit of tweaking play pretty good

also no shame on playing on an easier difficulty (unless your going for vidboy status)

[gentle kraken]

i tried playing today and i couldn’t find any heals and it made it impossible to play

[ornate wagon]

happend to me too, healing is similar to half life where you find a station on a wall and you click it

[gentle kraken]

oh bruh tf

i thought it was gonna be like doom

[ornate wagon]

yeah most things are interactable in marathon

not much picking up stuff aside from ammo

[tranquil basin]

Yeah no heal pickups just ammo

[visual lynx]

or rather, HL is similar to OG Marathon in that respect, and in many others as well. (Bobs => Barneys, S'pht => Vortigaunts, etc)

[tranquil basin]

It can be brutal sometimes

And ammo can be scarce sometimes too

[visual lynx]

hmm OG Marathon did have occasional health cannisters you could pick up, I wonder if nuMa will too?

[tranquil basin]

The amount of times I had to just punch rows upon rows of those underwater sea monster dudes was nuts

[tranquil basin]

Oh yeah they did have those sometimes

Though were they in the first one?

[visual lynx]

yknow I can't recall

[cinder lance]

MARATHN
https://youtu.be/WlRM9-Rm34Q?si=Sak-Xvkq1ue4oU4R
pass the lore down

[tranquil basin]

God tier

[strong perch]

marton, sic him

[chrome marlin]

i think i might join

i need new friends

[hazy gate]

i need to release my worm

[chrome marlin]

woah buddy

[sage lark]

theres fruits in there?

[chrome marlin]

yes

peaches

[hazy gate]

sweet ones

[chrome marlin]

and cherries

[visual lynx]

do they have eggplant?

[chrome marlin]

dude this server must be awesome

[sage lark]

eggplant is technically a fruit right

[visual lynx]

botanically yes

[chrome marlin]

no

nuh uh no no naur

[sage lark]

yes

[visual lynx]

pickles are also a botanical fruit

well, cucumbers

[hazy gate]

knowledge is knowing tomato a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad or someshit

[chrome marlin]

hooks knows

[sage lark]

sun tzu said this I was there

[strong perch]

were safe in here

https://tenor.com/view/peter-griffin-fortnite-fortnite-dance-griddy-peter-griffin-griddy-gif-10709608781999106611

[visual lynx]

just got confirmation they were not

[cinder lance]

imagine acting like that tho

[tranquil basin]

Like what

[cinder lance]

like why is the toilet water blue

[sage lark]

space water

[tranquil basin]

Again I say what

[cinder lance]

I'm sorry bro I'm so sleepy.
don't apologize for blue toilet water, men

[strong perch]

i watched that chinese gameplay and seeing the vertical vent jump reminded me so much of destiny

i cant wait to use my extensive destiny knowledge to help me in this game

the community is the biggest part though, like unlocking the secret in the sundial on mercury

[fringe bison]

Rampancy lowkenuinely frame mogged durandal due to extensive straussmaxxing

Thank you

#1 ranked CHAD security officer visibly saddened after getting rejected by the current timeline. Sleeps it off.

You're welcome

[karmic wasp]

What duh hell

[karmic wasp]

If you read the manual of M1 Durandal actually tried to kill the security officer when he landed on the marathon lol

Absolute hell for my bro 54

🥀

[fringe bison]

Yeah

Good thing he timeline smashed his way to #1

[karmic wasp]

Hmm I believed that nuMarathon is timeline number 8

[fringe bison]

Yeah

[karmic wasp]

Cuz Infinity only have 7-

[fringe bison]

Aleph 8

[karmic wasp]

Aleph 2 coming to ps6

😱

Riell

[fringe bison]

I meant #1 as in the last being left at the end of the universe

[karmic wasp]

Also I'm glad that the pfhor ticks are in nuMarathon

Not the weird one on l'howon

[karmic wasp]

I hate the M2 ticks Soo much

They don't do anything besides blocking you

Is specially annoying when you are in that one section with rising water and Abunch of f'lickta

[fringe bison]

Real

I never did finish my goal of getting vidmaster

[karmic wasp]

Classic marathon?

[fringe bison]

Yeah

[karmic wasp]

Yeah

Good luck on the hardest difficulty

💀

[fringe bison]

Clearing infinity blind took the wind out of my sails

[karmic wasp]

Have you finished M1 ?

[fringe bison]

Yeah I've beaten the trilogy atp

[karmic wasp]

I love when you are on the pfhor ship lol

Cuz you can fly with the napalm gun

[fringe bison]

I basically played the game at 2 am every other night in a half awake state

Weird vibe

[karmic wasp]

I usually played the redux version of marathon 1

Is pretty good

[fringe bison]

I see

[karmic wasp]

Because colony ship ain't that ass anymore

[fringe bison]

I played the version on steam

[karmic wasp]

Is like a remake/improved version

[fringe bison]

Colony ship sucks

[karmic wasp]

The pillar section is Soo bad-

[fringe bison]

I was happy they relatively got away from stuff like that in M2

Then infinity

Was arguably worse

[karmic wasp]

I originally played it on mac

Imagine

No crosshair

[fringe bison]

Eugh

[karmic wasp]

And you have to do that

💀

[fringe bison]

I would've quit

[karmic wasp]

M2 Lost the atmosphere though

[fringe bison]

Actually maybe young me would have stuck with it

I remember playing PS2 games when I was 4 and could barely read

Basically couldn't understand any tutorial

[karmic wasp]

I saled my copy of super marathon

[fringe bison]

Just winged it

[karmic wasp]

Is pretty obscure

But you can get big bucks with it

[fringe bison]

Isn't that the original

[karmic wasp]

Is the console version

[fringe bison]

Ah

[karmic wasp]

It included M1 and 2

[fringe bison]

M2 on console was different

Significantly

I know that

[karmic wasp]

Not the xbla version

I mean on the weird

Apple console

Pippin

[fringe bison]

I've never heard of that lol

Sounds like a deep cut from pre iPhone apple

[karmic wasp]

I remember seeing someone selling the copy of marathon for 1000 dollars

Disk only-

[fringe bison]

Good lord

[karmic wasp]

That console version of marathon suck

[karmic wasp]

Lmao

It run at 20 FPS

The Mac version atleast run faster

💀

[fringe bison]

Sounds about right

PS1 games that pushed the hardware ran at 20

[karmic wasp]

But is not as horrible as the xbla version

[visual lynx]

yeah this was over a decade before the iPhone

it was Bungie's first console game!

[karmic wasp]

60 FPS give me motion sickness

[visual lynx]

I won the E32K3 Bungie FanFest trivial contest with that

[karmic wasp]

Because how low the fov is

sick!

[fringe bison]

I wasn't even a zygote yet

[karmic wasp]

Do you guys have the bob and pfhor fighter t-shirt ?

I have the bob one

But not the pfhor fighter

[fringe bison]

Nah I'm too young to have any original stuff

Before my time

[karmic wasp]

I could send you a picture of the design Soo you can reprint it lmao

Massive flex

[fringe bison]

I'd appreciate that

[stable tartan]

theory: void is adam jensen

[karmic wasp]

Sadly I didn't bought the pfhor one-

[fringe bison]

Im working on getting the Vandal CTRL shirt from the mielgo cinematic made

[karmic wasp]

Ok I sended it

Is a scan from my original shirt

[fringe bison]

Thank you

[karmic wasp]

Which is kinda old

[karmic wasp]

Theory: Robert Blake (Jason Jones "Bob")will become a playable shells in nuMarathon

[edgy hill]

Do we have a definitive answer on weather or not this game takes place before or after Infinity?

[sage lark]

2893 is well after wrkcncacnter is sealed

but who knows

timeline shenaningans maybe

but year wise it is

[karmic wasp]

Is 99 years after m1

[tranquil basin]

Marathon infinity was in 2811, this is in 2893

[crisp crest]

Do we know how long New Cascadia lasted after the events of the original Marathon trilogy before falling into disarray as shown in the new game

[sage lark]

2827 maybe

[fathom vine]

i'd assume round then, the anomoly seems to be what finally got them from all the info we've seen

survive initial attack and follow up attack in 2794, the disease a decade and a bit later, before being gooped by the anomoly

[sage lark]

2794 is the initial attack

oh

i misread

you meant both initial and follow up in same year

[fathom vine]

ya

[sage lark]

sorry

yeah that seems about right

[fathom vine]

although i don't know the exact time difference between initial and follow up

but im assuming the disease is some sort of "gift" left by the phfor that would be kinda be a slow and steady burnt earth strategy

[sage lark]

2794 pfhor, 2812-2183 biological attack, 2827 anomaly

[fathom vine]

makes me think the anomoly isn't phfor or s'pht in nature

given the time difference and sheer absurdity

not that the phfor don't have anything weird or destructive, like the trih xeem

[visual lynx]

I think it's the S'pht deploying a version of their S'ct'lac'tr, which was meant to cause fungal zombies in development plans for M2

the illness seems to befall Tau Ceti one year after the S'pht rebellion begins (2812 vs 2811), and right after the cinematic shows the guy puking in his helmet, it cuts to a S'pht compiler floating away.

[fathom vine]

yeah given that it infects people and machines, my mind did go to the s'pht

but the anomaly itself seems completely alien, and IIRC, there is some link between the infection and the anomaly

but i do believe they are seperate, or that the anomaly acts as a catalyst to the infection in some way

[visual lynx]

yeah, I think the anomaly is Jjaro in origin and was unearthed on Tau Ceti (because JJARRO WERE AT TAU CETI), and then it interacts with the S'ct'lac'tr in bad ways.

probably the reason the S'pht attacked is because humans were hostile to them because of the Pfhor attack, so the Pfhor are at fault there too.

[tranquil basin]

It was also retconned a bit, bc Durandal and Tycho both said the colony was destroyed entirely before marathon 2, bc the pfhor went back for revenge. But yeah in the cinematic 2827 is the last shown date that people are on the colony, I don’t imagine they lasted much longer

[visual lynx]

that's not necessarily a retcon in this game, because in M2 all the cyborgs died in that attack, but in Infinity they survived to be "translated into Pfhor slave tanks" (but then most of them did not survive that)

[tranquil basin]

I see, I figured Tycho saying he recorded everyone’s deaths was a statement of the actual end of the colony

Or was that in reference to the first pfhor invasion

I can’t remember

[visual lynx]

that was in M2

so if this game follows from Infinity, where that didn't happen, then this game isn't retconning anything

[ebon trench]

is it not a possibility that they lied? maybe telling that to the security officer made it look like his efforts were futile and hed be easier to manipulate to do durandals bidding, or tychos even if it came to that

[rotund stump]

could be

I just find it weird how people keep declaring retcons when bungie just, historically Does Not Do That

watch me get yelled at about siva 😭 ✌️

haven't been keeping up about vesper and whatever nanobots there are at the station but siva's controlled by rasputin and man's like dead-dead and that's firmly not a retcon trope

[visual lynx]

every classic marathon sequel started in a place you would not have expected from the previous game: Durandal left without you at the end of M1, but you're with him at the start of M2; then you search Lh'owon together in M2, but at the start of Infinity he laments never having done that.

[quasi viper]

Perhaps I'll take a crack at the new contracts today. Are we still allowed to submit the previous ones?

[rotund stump]

with reduced points yes

[quasi viper]

Souka

[rotund stump]

そう。

[karmic wasp]

Oh they totally didn't steal it from the jjaro

[karmic wasp]

Marathon infinity and 2 take place during the same time if I remember

[tranquil basin]

It is but I’d consider that a retcon bc I don’t really think there was a reason explained in the ogs fo them to lie

[tranquil basin]

Yes

[tranquil basin]

Well if they explicitly add info that wasn’t built upon in a previous title, or something that contradicts info from a previous title then yeah I’d call it a retcon, they are probably posing the idea as “some info was lies” as justification for retconning.

That’s of course unless the og writer was the one adding info, then I wouldn’t call it a retcon bc they could’ve had it planned all along, but I don’t think Jason jones is involved with the writing here

And I don’t think anyone else writing wise really is either

[sage lark]

Apparently the creative/narrative director for nuMarathon made some of the best stuff for Destiny so

I think its in good hands

[wary birch]

I just finished Marathon 2, holy hell whatta ride

[tired harbor]

Oh boy just wait till you play 3

[rotund stump]

m.inf's a doozy lol gl

[rotund stump]

would only count retcons if there's substantial amounts of lore around it honestly

wouldn't count lies as retconning

[tranquil basin]

Well they weren’t previously established to be lies

[rotund stump]

"colony nuked to bedrock" is just that

[tranquil basin]

That’s why I’d call it a retcon

[rotund stump]

actually no wait that case wouldn't even make sense cuz colony nuked to bedrock was from timeline 1

we're established to be in timeline 7

all that for a small canon mistake on our end 💀

[tranquil basin]

Yeah but the timelines didn’t necessarily branch before that

I don’t know if it specifies what year the timeline branch actually is

[rotund stump]

m.inf rewinds us to the start of m2 per timeline no?

or somewhere mid-m2

[tranquil basin]

Kinda, bc some of the timelines Tycho took u and not durandal

So it would likely be a bit before m2

But idk what year the pfhor supposedly returned for attack 2 either

Idk if that’s specified

[rotund stump]

too much missing info yeah

[sage lark]

on the wiki(dont know if its made up), they return the same year

[terse steppe]

I was thinking the shells might not have anything remotely human-like inside them. Maybe no digestive system at all. For all we know they might have a lifespan measured in days. Each shell being entirely disposable after all.

[sage lark]

2794
July 3: Tau Ceti IV colony attacked by the Pfhor.[3]
0820: Pfhor attack the Marathon.[3]
0830: Pfhor board the Marathon. Marathon personnel instructed to arm themselves.[3]
July ?: The Pfhor attack on Tau Ceti IV is repelled thanks to the efforts of Mjolnir Recon 54 aboard the Marathon and nine Mjolnir Mark IV Cyborgs on the surface of Tau Ceti IV.[4][3]
October 25: Pfhor return to Tau Ceti. Tau Ceti IV colony destroyed. Tycho falls in with the Pfhor and Leela is captured. Nine Mjolnir Mark IV Cyborgs destroyed.[1]

[terse steppe]

Do we have any solid official info on how shells actually work yet?

Like internally.

[tranquil basin]

Oh thank u that’s perfect

[tranquil basin]

I don’t think so

[terse steppe]

Would be cool to learn how they work

[tranquil basin]

They seem to be very robust and have lots of human stuff like nerves and whatnot

At least from the cinematic trailer showing their construction

[sage lark]

JAKE NEW VIDEO OUT

27 minutes

YIPPEEEEE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmhu5j7u7XA

[ember narwhal]

Collectors edition shows these really organic nerve ending things in one layer. I wonder if pain

[zinc dagger]

doubt it’s functional in that sense. wouldn’t be efficient if the shells felt pain considering what they are mainly used for.

[gentle kraken]

someone explain timeline to me

[zinc dagger]

it’s ALOT to explain. I would recommend YouTube videos explaining the current classic marathon timeline.

[ember narwhal]

I think that’s a fair assessment. Maybe they get little tickles to know which direction the bullets are coming from

[hot sinew]

Pain is beneficial

[ember narwhal]

Or maybe ONI is just like “to the left to the left, every bullet in your bones coming from the jerk to the left 🎶 “

[zinc dagger]

It’s likely circuitry sending signals. information such as that and other things. but pain? that wouldn’t be efficient.

[hot sinew]

We wouldn't have developed pain sensors if it wasn't beneficial

[zinc dagger]

Not for a robot

[hot sinew]

It's a shell for consciousness I bet they feel pain

[zinc dagger]

Hopefully it’s explained!

[hot sinew]

Have you ever read the eragon series , young adult book I know but in the series, a king creates soldiers that can't feel pain and it backfires on him because the soldiers don't know when they are mortally wounded

But a robot would have sensors for that stuff sure,, I just like the idea of they have pain receptors

[zinc dagger]

Yea i agree that knowing damage is being done to the shell is important but i dont think it’ll be in the same sense of how we as humans perceive pain. it’ll likely be a series of code and receptors sending “pain” code to their central “nervous” system. human-like isn’t wholly human.

[hot sinew]

Are the shells piloted by a human consciousness

[tardy veldt]

yes

We, the Runners, have abandoned our bodies to go to Tau Ceti IV

[hot sinew]

Then my theory is the human mind feels the pain inflicted on the shell

[tardy veldt]

when we inhabit the shell, we adopt their personality matrix

so technically both

[hot sinew]

So the shells are conscious even without a human involved

[tardy veldt]

however the shells arent fully concious

They are basically biosynthetic cyborgs

they are built with the modules that would emulate a real human body

So what happens from my understanding is when the shell recieves damage, the module for pain registery would take the data and apply it to the conciousness

so it "feels" the damage and inflicts it to the conciousness

kinda like how we humans feel pain

the body doesnt react until the brain recieves the pain signals

[empty wasp]

They are not

A shell is an artificial body which is a receptacle for a digitized human mind

[mossy parrot]

This is where all that 'personality matrix' gets muddy 👀

Would it just be deep neural connections of the biomata that are kind of isolated from the uploaded runner consciousness?

[empty wasp]

It strikes me more as a "modifier", you would still need a conciousness there to begin with

I guess it's like being on a mind altering substance except your brain is digital and the substance in question is code

[verbal tundra]

my friend has a theory that they actually are ai convinced that they used to be human and thats how they solved rampancy

could explain why they have no real memory of their human lives

[mossy parrot]

I agree, I think they kinda retconned a not after the hero stuff to keep the shells bravado but alas, us nerds gonna nerd out on it

[mossy parrot]

All of this very plausible imo

[verbal tundra]

he has an unfortunate knack at predicting and is fairly certain he hit the nail on the head personally idk if shells get much more lore because the focus of the story is what happened to the marathon and HOPEFULLY (durandal)

[empty wasp]

or to use another metaphor, dreaming that you're a different person

[mossy parrot]

Durandal is likely

[mossy parrot]

That's actually beautifully put, the closest thing I'd think best describes it

[mossy parrot]

"mad is the sword who cut tomorrow"

They also have flashes of Tycho and durandal possibly in the slam trailer at the end

[hot sinew]

I haven't been this excited for a game in forever.. something about the lore alone draws you in

[verbal tundra]

im going to go watch those again lol

[mossy parrot]

Cannot wait to lose myself in this game, 10 days too long a wait

[verbal tundra]

idk how much i can feasibly get into this game because its an extraction shooter ive had fun with arc but even then i only have like 40 hours in it

[mossy parrot]

World is so nuts rn, I can do with a little escapism

[tiny pewter]

Hey guys, can someone drop some hint to the contracts? I was able to fund the pre-order trailer one, but I don't get the map one. Where can you find a map?

[ebon trench]

bold

[verbal tundra]

that being said im super invested in the lore

[ebon trench]

i got arc to pass time before martons realease, ive got 400 hours on arc which i think is a healthy amount and im telling you its gonna be so much better

[umbral orchid]

I found somewhere that this game is going to be following the timeline created in marathon 3 bc in that game creates a timeline where the colony was not attacked a second time but still it was wiped out and we are investigating why that happened and that might be the reason the pfhor are no lonher seen or maybe the jjaro wiped them and the colony

[ebon trench]

i imagine that marton will be more enjoyable for a casual pvp player too

if thats what you mean

[mossy parrot]

I think that's where the lore progression has the one up on arc, you fall n love with the world and the danger

[hot sinew]

Arc raiders has ZERO reason to go back to it other than the pvp, which I don't think is really balanced anyways so I grew bored of it around 200 hours

[ebon trench]

and honestly ARCs economy is kinda fragile, a couple losses and youre in debt no matter what kinda loot youve got, unless its 50 rows of raw mats lol

from what ive seen in the alpha even grey/green guns hit hard, heals are extremely common (also i like that they changed the healing mechanic), but ARC is so difficult on that

having to find basic mats and craft heals can get super tiring, it does set the mood but only for the first 50 hours, then its justa chore

[verbal tundra]

the world yes, danger idk arc have way more personality than the uesc

[ebon trench]

even trials are a chore, bc ppl tryhard the last 5 hours and its so unfair and difficult to wake up at 6am just to not get farted on by a russian with 210k score lol

[mossy parrot]

Jjarro I think are long gone but yeah it's a timeline not following m2

[ebon trench]

well arc is the only danger in ARC raiders and uesc is FAR from being the only danger, so if youre gonna compare you gotta compre to the whole thing

we dont know if therell be fungi inficted zombies, we dont know if that spht compiler is friendly, we dont know if pfhor will be a thing

[mossy parrot]

Just wait until Spht and phor introduced 👍

[verbal tundra]

thats my biggest gripe is that from the looks of it theyre not there rn

well spht r

[ebon trench]

we have too little info to just decide that theyre not there

[verbal tundra]

compile will NOT be friendly lol

[mossy parrot]

I think it would've detracted from the hype just going aliens first tbh

[ebon trench]

we dont know that, sphts arent hostile when freed from pfhor

[hot sinew]

TARKOV is the greatest extraction shooter . Hoping marathon leans more into that style of extraction over arc.. Quests and player Level is what should hold back items you can buy from the stores

[mossy parrot]

But that was UESC, not trespassing runners

[ebon trench]

is this ragebait

[ebon trench]

no it was durandal actually, uesc has nothing to do with sphts lol

[hot sinew]

No tarkov is literally the best extraction shooter .. I hope marathon can dethrone them

[mossy parrot]

Tarkov is a masterpiece, I don't play but can appreciate it

[empty wasp]

Tarkov works very well when it works

[verbal tundra]

i hope marathon will get maps with the level of depth tarkov has

[ebon trench]

bro this is ragebait im out of this channel

[hot sinew]

It should hurt when you die

Arc raiders I don't care if I lose a kit, I'll get it right back

Tarkov you have to grind a bit for good kits

[verbal tundra]

tarkov is the only reason this genre started becoming main stream before arc🤦‍♂️

[ebon trench]

unreal statement

im not gonna entertain this

[hot sinew]

People hate on tarkov to be hip and cool, it's inarguably the best extraction shooter out for now

[mossy parrot]

Well there is graffiti showing the UESC and compiler in cahoots, then again other trailer shows heads of uesc around it. Something went sour. and yes their loyalty was to durandal buuut he also was working on behalf of humanity/ UESC/cyborg during m1

[verbal tundra]

arent compiler also supposed to be very advanced hackers to an extent (i understand thats a very surface level generalization) but whos to say they didnt just bypass the uesc security protocols

[mossy parrot]

It is peak realism, and I can appreciate it. Personally cannot feign to play it with life/time constraints

[ebon trench]

oh i didnt know that theres more info from cinematics, but durandal separated himself from humanity and uesc before he made contact with spht, he had no intentions of saving anyone including the sec officer, he just needed him to do his bidding same wit bobs that ended up on the pfhor scout ship

[mossy parrot]

Compilers are like organic computers hybrids. UESC are also backed by people not all bots

[hot sinew]

Yeah it is a little to heavy on time required to play it.. hoping marathon can find a good middle ground between arc and tarkov

[verbal tundra]

quick question where have we been getting all of the lore for this game so far?

[ebon trench]

if i throw 60 rocks in less than 3 seconds at a person at 800m/s even that will kill a person how does ammunition excuse magdumping with no hitreg/kill lol

[mossy parrot]

I'm like an arena sweat so perfect for me, Plus not a military fanatic so I appreciate the simplified loadout immensely

[ebon trench]

people sustain spinal cord injuries and concussions after 7.62 or 5.56 hits tanked by helmets irl, it is NOT peak realism

[mossy parrot]

I dunno I see basically 1 tapping from footage I've seen

[hot sinew]

Arc raiders caters explicitly to the casual player base,, and if you are good at the game the sbmm puts you in lobbies with sweats who use unbalanced weapons .. just such a unfun game loop

[mossy parrot]

As realistic as I've seen though

[ebon trench]

i agree ive had that experience

[ebon trench]

ive yet to see a realistic pvp game like, ever, SQUAD was on the right track but they decided to go the simulator way, its just difficult when developers dont research wepons/physics/combat enough

[hot sinew]

Shotgun in marathon needs nerfed already in my opinion 😂 I don't want it to turn into arc raiders shotgun grenade meta

If pvp military games were completely realistic no one would play them, or just a few ppl would

[umbral orchid]

that's even better, bc now I have 0 clue what could have happened in tau ceti and that is so good now

[mossy parrot]

#📚marathon-lore-discussion message

[ebon trench]

yeah i agree, theres definitely a playerbase for that though

but i swear on everything tarkov is probably the last game id call realistc

[mossy parrot]

Exactly, going to be great to discover everything fresh

[ebon trench]

also you see one-taps because streamers know the meta ammunition and their experience varies massively from a normal non-content creator players experience

[hot sinew]

Tarkov isn't realistic.. but it is more realistic than arc raiders or marathon

[verbal tundra]

so is the majority being pulled from the older games?

[ebon trench]

well arc raiders and marathon is sci fi am i being trolled here

am i genuinely being trolled

[tawdry lake]

yoo guys imagine if someone will create an AI or at least AI bot that will be able to explain Marathon lore, that woud be so on point and so fitting the game vibe and lore

[mossy parrot]

There's the intercepts and arg to the nu marathon game there too

[hot sinew]

No one is out to get you bro,, chill out in just chatting about a game I like while working

[ebon trench]

game manual and one more older game thats not a marathon ip but is set in the same universe forgot the name already

[verbal tundra]

yeah i hadnt clicked into the new marathon stuff only compared tab sizes there is a looot of stuff lol

[ebon trench]

but its so ridiculous to even mention realism in a sci-fi game

[hot sinew]

Hell you are mida too we need to stick together

[ebon trench]

tarkov is advertised as realistic so you have to critique it for not being realistic

sci fi shooters you can critique from a pvp balance standpoint

arc raiders is super meta-focused and higher mmr games are unplayable

lower mmr lobbies are full of pve players and you cant even enjoy the game

[hot sinew]

Have they talked about sbmm for marathon yet

[ebon trench]

but i tolerated it for 400 hours while waiting for marathon

[mossy parrot]

I think it's loosely around your level. Alpha seemed that way

[ebon trench]

they said therell be ranked mode but thats all i know

[verbal tundra]

we mentioned early spht and phor do we really think they could be hiding an entire enemy faction from us because bungie devs always wanted to surprise fans and with all the smoke and mirrors about whats actually in the game that could be the case

[ebon trench]

someone mentioned that a combination of bad events wiped the colony

the anomaly, a fingus virus similar to something the spht had in Marton 2 and yesterday we were chatting about a short cinematic

[mossy parrot]

Would be cool to see a whole new novel addition to the universe

[ebon trench]

where a planetside security officer goes on a perimeter check, something seemingly robotic runs up on him tackles him and then probably drags him away

https://youtube.com/shorts/wTHCJbE8ll8?si=d8iCKwX7k1_S-J02

this clip

[verbal tundra]

honestly seems pretty inline with what was shown in the cinematic we got almost a year ago

[ebon trench]

listen to the clip

[mossy parrot]

There's a race known as Nar mentioned, never seen a W'rkncacnter

[hot sinew]

The good thing about tarkov is that , you can rat some raids. Loading into a raid with a cheap kit just to do nothing but loot.. other raids you go in knowing you are running to the gunfights

[sage lark]

Nar has been wiped out

[mossy parrot]

Was it? Missed that bit

[sage lark]

Wrkncacnter are the biggest bad

[hot sinew]

Arc raiders didn't give me any dopamine from just looting

[sage lark]

When durandal talks about the trihxeem

[hot sinew]

Wrkncacnter is just a single entity

[sage lark]

Pfhor wiped them out

[sage lark]

Implied theres multiple since one was on earth too

[mossy parrot]

K fair so Leela then took over a phor planetary network after?

[sage lark]

No that doesnt happen

[verbal tundra]

in a game with multidimensional universe and actual dimensional skipping writers can do anything and make anything possible sooo idk if u can necessarily say one race is wiped out or not

[hot sinew]

You talking about the even older game by Bungie in the pyramids?

[sage lark]

Yes

[hot sinew]

It's named wrkncacnter?

[sage lark]

Idk retconning stuff like this is eh

[hot sinew]

The god in the pyramid

[sage lark]

Yes?

[mossy parrot]

? Who's network she go into then after the Nar ship?

[sage lark]

Hmmm

Some species but i thought the nar were wiped out

[hot sinew]

The guys video I watched just said it could be wrkncacnter.. idk if it was ever named

[verbal tundra]

isnt the new game a reboot not an addition to the story?

[verbal tundra]

said what could be?

[sage lark]

No one knows its chronologically set after og games

[sage lark]

Since the Jjaro appear too its assumed its the wrk

[mossy parrot]

Ah Vylae, well they could factor in somewhere too

[sage lark]

Yes

[hot sinew]

Bungie made a game before the og marathon series where you go into a Aztec pyramid to stop a primordial god from destroying the world

[sage lark]

Nar are wiped out

Pathways into Darkness

[verbal tundra]

ooooh

[mossy parrot]

Nar no more 😂

[sage lark]

People speculate its in the same universe

[mossy parrot]

I think Leela Cameo would be peak

[verbal tundra]

pfhorpedia seems to treat it like it is

[hot sinew]

I think the wrkncacnter is a single entity .. doesn't make sense that multiple species could trap this God

[sage lark]

Jjaro trapped it in Marathon

In PID it crashed into earth and entered sleep

[verbal tundra]

its probably just omnipresent

[mossy parrot]

Not necessarily, seems to reference that there could potentially be more in the universe

[mossy parrot]

Jjarro definitely seems the most plausible

[hot sinew]

Yeah either one wrkncacnter or 1 mind many bodies kinda deal

[mossy parrot]

Or just entities of dimensions and capabilities we cannot fathom

They defy our physics

[verbal tundra]

i doubt itll ever be explained in full

[mossy parrot]

Probably, p cool that way, been like that 30 years now 😂

[verbal tundra]

pretty much 💀

[hot sinew]

I'm with my coworker telling him about this discord and how we talk about 8d entities and 7 timelines and shittt

[sage lark]

bro must be looking at you like a crazy person

[gloomy thistle]

Cod on 🔝

Game will be easy if you have been crim or above in any previous ranked cod title

[verbal tundra]

okay lol

[sage lark]

epic lore

[balmy badger]

I doubt it will be too difficult for anyone my friend

[hot sinew]

Call of duty isn't even as difficult as league of legends

[ebon trench]

https://youtu.be/UbNhSVj6WZM?si=pb7XCm7cMrWgZ_Yh

whats on 1:19 lol what kinda butterfly is that

[broken zinc]

im not seeing a butterfly (or moth) at that timestamp, can you screenshot it?

[sage lark]

its the ship uesc

i think

[broken zinc]

are you guys talking about the cube in the sky event that happens on perimeter and dire marsh sometimes?

[sage lark]

yes

[broken zinc]

okay yeah thats not a butterfly then

[ebon trench]

massive red samsung folding phone in the sky

[drifting plaza]

The Nakh are wiped out. Nar are still around.

[sage lark]

ah my bad

good to know

[modest sigil]

LMAO they even showed you can close the quest window on the hud

[ember narwhal]

In an effort to make the game more approachable for the general population, they will be renaming w’rkncacnter to Work Center

[modest sigil]

People were so fed up with it without realising you can just hide it

Woops, wrong chat

Mb gang

[ember narwhal]

Anyway, we need to defeat the work center

[obtuse canyon]

I know Emms is in here somewhere, binged the rest of your marton content and it is fantastic 🫡

[obtuse canyon]

I’m a big fan of wacky cracker

[ember narwhal]

Ugh wacky cracker is better. My wife is going to love this, I can’t tell her your name though, I’m supposed to be the funniest man alive

[obtuse canyon]

It is yours, I don’t even remember the guy who said it

[ember narwhal]

Jjaro blessings be upon you

[drifting plaza]

Known alien races of the Marathon universe:
Pfhor: Insectoids that plundered Jjjaro technology and enslaved several other races. Attempting to conquer the universe. Attacked Tau Ceti. The primary antagonists of the Marathon series.
Hulks (Drinniol): Slaves of the Pfhor that have no body fat so must be constantly fed.
Lookers: Slaves of the Pfhor.
Wasps: Slaves of the Pfhor.
S’Pht (Compilers): Cybernetic race mostly enslaved by the Pfhor. Their homeworld was the planet Lh’owon. One clan escaped enslavement then returned centuries later to incite a slave revolt.
F’lickta: Created by the S’Pht to be their servants on Lh’owon.
Ticks: Wildlife of the planet Lh’owon (there are also several types of wildlife that were never named, although they do appear in Marathon Infinity).
Jjaro: Ancient technologically advanced race and enemy of the Wrkncacnter.
Wrkncacnter: Powerful ancient beings of pure chaos. Unkillable, but the Jjaro discovered they can be trapped inside gravity wells. Even their dreams are dangerous.
Nebulons: Enemies of the Pfhor. They seem to lose a lot of battles.
Nakh: A Jjaro client race. Completely destroyed by the Pfhor using tri xeem (early nova) technology.
Nar: Eccentric aliens with a complex caste based society. They seem to be much better at fighting the Pfhor than the Nebulons.
Vylae: Almost nothing is known about them, except that they trade with the Nar and had a FTL network.

[ebon trench]

yo i might be wrong but flickta are of the spht family, no? theyre just super primitive

[sage lark]

yes I think so

idk if they were slaves

[ebon trench]

spht slander is not tolerable

theyre chill

af

[drifting plaza]

Correct, they're described as "genetic ancestors of the S'Pht"

[fathom mason]

Anyone know anything about why the factions don’t know what happened in the colony?

Not only did leela send communications that would’ve arrived by the time the factions show up at tau ceti, but Durandal specifically said he went to Sol to warn about the invasion and gave them tech.

Are they just completely ignoring this? Kind of annoying if so

[drifting plaza]

It seems to be one of the biggest plot holes in NuMarathon. Surely Bungie will address it at some point?

[sage lark]

durandal also said the colony and marathon were destroyed so

imagine its one of the timelines from infinity

[fathom mason]

It was said the colony was bombed down to bedrock, but I don’t remember the marathon being destroyed

[sage lark]

ok but the colony is still there

even showing colonists alive after the counter attack

[fathom mason]

Idk. I think it’s going to be dumb if they used an alternate timeline cop out, but we will see

[sage lark]

whole plot of marathon infinity = dumb I guess

[hot sinew]

Has nuMarathon even said anything about the ptfor ?

[dire goblet]

It’s not even canon

[sage lark]

where is that said tho

[olive zodiac]

Tau ceti you say? My auntie lives there

[sage lark]

at the end of M2 The Pfhor launch the trixheem and free the Wrkncacntr

[storm narwhal]

Hey when you joined the server you get an automated message with a lot of cryptic stuff in it and an image with a number on it did anyone else get that?

[obtuse canyon]

That’s probably a DAC I would assume

[storm narwhal]

Yeah I’m just confused on how that ties into the contracts and what they are both for

[obtuse canyon]

I’m not going to lie to you, I do not really know how contracts work lol

[strong perch]

so is outpost the main loot zone while the others will ofc have loot but more focused on the story?

bc it has the biggest hot zone by far

[hot sinew]

That's my biggest fear of this game, there seems to be only 1 high loot value area per map

[hot sinew]

Any links to all of the ost in the game yet? How would y'all rate the music

[zealous harness]

ok so the answer isnt 382ib9d5-8912-4892-acfd-ef87920a6774

i taped together the planning display on perimeter and the clean bay on dire marsh and got that

[fathom mason]

Well no, that was following the story.

If they pretend like nothing from the original trilogy actually happened that would just be stupid

[sage lark]

The argument is you dont know what happened

Only source of information is Durandal and Tycho

And then you have the timelines

And now we see the colony wasnt destroyed 3 months after the intial attack in 2794

So idk what to tell you

[hot sinew]

Does durandal from timeline 7 talk about the colony

[sage lark]

No i dont think

[zealous harness]

it would actually be worse for the current experience to exactly stick to the timelines established in the trilogy because it provides direct and concrete answers to a few of the specific mysteries that are being set up here by the trailers

[sage lark]

They mention it at the start of M2

[hot sinew]

Then the answer is ambiguous.. we don't know yet

[fathom mason]

But to make the trilogy of no consequence would be sad right?

[hot sinew]

We could be in timeline 37

[sage lark]

Basically

[zealous harness]

it would, which is why it wont be of no consequence- but at the same time it will not necessarily be a reliable narrator and could be contradicted by marathon 26

[sage lark]

Wouldnt say no consequence id say not everything happened exactly as in the old games

The devs hinted at that themselves

[zealous harness]

we can safely assume every detail in the trilogies is canon, up until the moment we know it isnt

[fathom mason]

I saw someone use the term Nu Durandal, is he confirmed to be in the game? I’ve read all the info on the ARGs I could find

[zealous harness]

burgandal

[fathom mason]

Well that would be fine. There was contradictory stuff in the old ones as well so I guess nothing new

[sage lark]

The ozymandias speech is prolly him

[hot sinew]

Bungie is gonna have to add maps where we fight the phfor

[sage lark]

Yeah hopefully it will be a pfhor ship

[hot sinew]

Or a mission where we take the fungus to their home world

[zealous harness]

bungie should add a map where i have a reason to get up in the morning

[sage lark]

The whole game is that

[zealous harness]

true and real

[fathom mason]

A consumable runner that is an old school battleroid

Shell*

[sage lark]

Also if we would go by timeline after infinity there would be no more Pfhor

Since the UESC and Sphtkr wiped them out in 2881

That would be lame

[hot sinew]

We need a alien threat

[fathom mason]

It doesn’t have to be after infinity, just some sort of “oh I remember this happening” at some point in the game

[hot sinew]

Not just uesc bots

[sage lark]

But we are in 2893

[fathom mason]

I’m sure they will do well with it

[sage lark]

Yep hence why i think this is another branch from infinity

[fathom mason]

Did it say the whole race was wiped out?

[hot sinew]

The anomaly will play a big part I assume .. idk nothing about it yet

[sage lark]

Their whole system was sacked

So id assume so

But idk could write it as some splinter group i guess

Would be lame tho

Just introduces too many plot holes

[fathom mason]

I’d assume they had billions of members. You mean system as in their computer system where their hierarchies are set up?

I am a noob at the lore, but I’ve played the games

[sage lark]

No as in their home solar system

Basically destroying them as a galactic power/empire

[fathom mason]

That was the spht system

[sage lark]

UESC wasnt at Lhowon

The Pfhor were ultimately defeated in 2881, when the Pfhor system was sacked by the combined fleets of the UESC and S‘pht’kr.

From Pfhorpedia

Though from reading this

Maybe a theory could be that UESC allied with Spht is against us

Anomaly something Wrk related

And they are quarantining it

[fathom mason]

The lore is so confusing. I see that now in the marathon 2 end screen.

So they got word from the humans escaping and then helped the spht destroy the pfhor 70 years after marathon 2. So apparently they do have FTL tech from what Durandal shared or the spht themselves

You’re right, hopefully they aren’t gone in this timeline

[sage lark]

If thats M2 end screen then it might be retconned by infinity

[fathom mason]

I assume not because Durandal only was able to survive in the successful timeline from infinity. So this must be in that successful timeline?

[sage lark]

Yes but the endscreen is from M2

Idk anymore

Its confusing

The intro and end screens are so fucky its kinda annoying actually

Its like watching Toy Story 1, finishing, and instead of going to the start of 2, youre like 2/3rds in, and what happened between them is in the intro screen

[ebon trench]

Whats meant is the bobs that were with durandal on lhowon escaped to earth on a pfhor ship using ftl

[sage lark]

Hmmm

I now just saw a theory that they couldve recolonized Tau Ceti

Since Durandal went to earth to teach them FTL

So all in the originals actually happened

But then the marathon just sitting there seems like a plothole so idk

[visual lynx]

none of the contacts between Tau Ceti / Durandal / Bobs and Sol can have happened in this timeline if humanity at large is still ignorant of what happened at Tau Ceti

[sage lark]

You think even Leelas?

Maybe something with the UESC hiding it from public

[visual lynx]

so Leela's message can't have arrived intact, Durandal can't have stopped by to teach us how to build warp-capable fusion missiles, Blake and his men can't have returned from Lh'owon, and humanity definitely didn't help the S'pht sack the Pfhor

[sage lark]

Yeah so another timeline

So maybe we are in a failed one?

[visual lynx]

I think we're in the successful 7th timeline from Infinity

just not the M2 timeline

where most of those contacts were claimed

[eternal knoll]

strong hunch the game is gonna reveal some point during the events of the original game that this timeline diverges

[visual lynx]

Leela's message is the biggest mystery here, and the only two explanations that make sense to me are:

• it reached Earth in 2806, but garbled, and then became public knowledge in 2888
• Leela accidentally sent her message to the wrong place, somewhere 92ly from Tau Ceti, and someone elsecoughDurandalcough sent a message to arrive circa 2888 specifically to draw humanity to Tau Ceti

alternative option besides Durandal for that latter possibility: whatever cyber-fungal zombie things are still (un)living on the colony could have sent a message that arrived c2888

[sage lark]

What does this mean for the events at Lhowon

[vital hollow]

what is a group of rooks called

[visual lynx]

it means the SO arrived enslaved to the Pfhor with Tycho, rebelled and helped the Bobs some and then Durandal some and was recaptured by Tfear and sent to wipe out the Bobs but escaped and eventually merged Durandal with Thoth who recalled the S'pht'Kr who kicked Pfhor ass who deployed the trih xeem, but Durandal-Thoth were able to send the SO to contain it with the Yrro station, and then freed the SO and … probably escaped time and space entirely, since it appears that the merged Durandal-Thoth was guiding the SO through all of the earlier timelines already, leading to their own creation.

[ebon trench]

Castle

Cz a rook is a singular castle tower

Get it

In chess

Get it

[hot sinew]

A group of rooks is called a rock

[sage lark]

But blake didnt escape

[sage lark]

Yeah most of this sounds like Infinity

Except the start

[visual lynx]

that just is the events of the final timeline of Infinity, I thought that's what you were asking

[eternal knoll]

if yr askin what becomes of the events of M2 in this new game, the best answer is we can't safely say yet

[sage lark]

Yeah thats what i meant

Sorry

[eternal knoll]

this could be later on in the very same M:I timeline or it might be a back to square one reboot... tons of material to speculate with but rly it remains to be seen

[sage lark]

Yeah

Lots to speculate on just cuz its 2893

And we were shown colonists alive until atleast 2827

[eternal knoll]

it does seem safe to say that not everything in the M2 epilogue applies to this game

[sage lark]

Yeah cant wait

[eternal knoll]

personally finding the lack of allusions to the pfhor FISHY

[vital hollow]

Fiery the Angels rose, & as they rose deep thunder roll'd Around their shores, indignant burning with the fires of Orc

[eternal knoll]

u do get a glimpse of some green slime in the new trailer tho. the most pfhor-ish thing yet

[hot sinew]

Yeah they have been cast aside 🙁

[eternal knoll]

certainly we're all hoping that they're just bein saved for later...

[sage lark]

Werent there the exploding ticks aswell?

Or some crawly

[sage lark]

I dont think they wanna show their hand season 1

[eternal knoll]

i didn't catch this

[sage lark]

I thought i saw something like it

In one of the gameplays or vidoc

[eternal knoll]

i dont recall, were those enemies in m1 or are they a lhowon lifeform

[eternal knoll]

it's just a puzzling thing to be coy about because every lore summary for those wanting to catch up is gonna mention the pfhor attack on the marathon and the relationship btwn the pfhor and spht

[sage lark]

Ticks are Lhowon but i feel like im having a mandela effect

[sage lark]

They do show it in the cinematic short with the attack atleast

[eternal knoll]

we don't have to give the pfhor big billing, but showing a glimpse some insectoid eyes or their signature scratchy voices in the relevant section of that cinematic trailer would certainly have made sense, unless we're really building up a mystery around what happened to the marathon THIS time

idk tho. it could just be a way of making it rly pop off when they're finally reconfirmed and reintroduced

[visual lynx]

I really expect that the Pfhor-S'pht war is going to spill over to Tau Ceti at some point

[eternal knoll]

would love to see that for sure

[sage lark]

I think i made it up or maybe it was the recon spider drone

I swear i saw something thoo

Anyway

[eternal knoll]

are you maybe thinkin of the moth you glimpse on the snippet of green slime?

[sage lark]

Where is that

[eternal knoll]

lemme see

right after "i feel like i'm praying," 1:20 in the trailer

i saw one YTer speculate that's a hint that sekiguchi somehow derived the biomata tech from the green slime we saw on pfhor ships. a lil tenuous but interesting. (is sekiguchi rly associated with moth imagery? i guess indirectly?)

[sage lark]

No not that

I legit felt like I saw a giant dog sized tick

That explodes when you shoot it

[eternal knoll]

hm...

could b

[ebon trench]

i saw that too yeah, its a fun theory

[eternal knoll]

the same YTer ID'd both the green, pixelly AI face and the teal vector-y AI face as durandal for some reason

gee durandal how come mom let you have two different faces

[sage lark]

Maybe the worms hatch into moths?

[eternal knoll]

possible yea

[hearty edge]

I thought of something scary

What if NuCaloric is makin their food with bingus…

Why is it pink

Ground bingus

[keen slate]

what if bingus is making the food

[hearty edge]

Chef bingus

lol

[hearty edge]

#🎨marathon-community-art-chat message

[fathom mason]

Is there any reason to think that the timeline that was successful wasn’t just explaining how Durandal survived the end of M2?

It explicitly rewrote / contradicted things in the original story? I guess I was confused with all the jumping around

[half briar]

My dumbass thought the glowing green orb-red cloaked thing was durandal.

[visual lynx]

yeah the final Infinity timeline is very different from the M2 timeline

[half briar]

Those are the compilers right?

[strong perch]

“but the dream is not over. my dream, YOURS” is so damn ominous

[keen slate]

yes, it's a s'pht compiler

[hot sinew]

Dreams

[half briar]

how the in the FUCK do i say that

suffit idfk

[keen slate]

thi[s fit]

[severe vessel]

Do you guys think they still eat potato chips and cottage cheese this far into the future in the world of MARATHON?

[merry lily]

Good question for nucal

[keen slate]

they're probably not made of real potatoes and if they are they're probably not cut from whole potatoes but reconstituted into a chip shape from a slurry of hundreds of potatoes

so pringles exist in marathon

[visual lynx]

but are the cans still too small to fit your hand into?

[split wind]

ahhh…. some things never change

[visual lynx]

I dunno about potato chips but they certainly had potato ships

-# until someone retconned the potato out of the Marathon

[broken zinc]

I'm pretty okay with the marathon ship redesign actually, it's very clever what they were able to accomplish

[tranquil basin]

Rip botato ship

[sterile sleet]

I'm crazy with the lore of 3 almost beat it

[visual lynx]

it makes zero sense!

sure it looks neat, for a second, when it coincides with the disc of TCIV and makes the logo, but it makes no sense!

[sterile sleet]

I take some captures about the ship on Marathon 1 and share it on this servers, the new desing is so cool.

[obtuse badger]

Anyone else here catch up with the Marathon Lore from the Jake the Alright video? Blown away at the quality.

I can now say, sorry I never played the original, but Jake got me all caught up with the story!

SpongeBobI’mready.gif

[sinful hamlet]

This guy is just so entertaining

I remember reading the lore for the first time and being so confused

His video about the entire lore of Marathon and the shorter ones about the factions are just perfect

[visual lynx]

eh… he's alright

[vital hollow]

You should play it just so you can experience the level design

Marathon is a hell ship not meant for human habitation

It's more like a giant freezer and storage unit

[edgy hill]

How does it make no sense?

[tranquil basin]

There’s still time to try the ogs

[visual lynx]

the whole point of the OG Marathon was that humans had already been colonizing asteroids (like Icarus and Thermopylae), and fiddling with their orbits (like the CRISTs), so colonizing an asteroid that Mars had conveniently captured (Deimos) and then strapping a ramjet engine onto it was a very sensible way to send a colony ship to another star.

building a completely artificial self-sufficient ship and then reshaping a bunch of asteroid rock into a sphere around it makes no sense at all.

[tranquil basin]

Well I assume they mined the material out of Deimos itself, bc that’s way cheaper than shipping all the materials

And in that process it would be easier to mine from the outside first, then inward, making a sphere in the process

Far more economical than rocketing up millions of tons of metal and raw materials

And aerodynamic, tho aerodynamics don’t matter in space

[merry lily]

Icarus and Thermopylae were involved in a brutal war that eventually led to the development of cyborgs right?

[tranquil basin]

Ye

[merry lily]

I prefer the new Marathon ship design for what it's worth

[thin dust]

It def looks cool, but I also simply enjoyed the moon IS a ship idea

[edgy hill]

Just some clarifications: Deimos is a moon, not an asteroid. The CRIS ships were not used for orbital engineering, they were used to help colonize them, as humanity already had means for orbital engineering without them. They were just cargo ships. They had nothing to do with asteroids other than delivering materials to them. They may have been made with materials from said asteroids, but that is it. The Marathon was built from the hallowed out internals of the moon Deimos, they didn't just strap a jet engine to it and call it a day.

But yes, I do agree that it makes no sense now that I am looking at what the original Marathon ship looked like. It's a complete redesign. Looks nothing like Deimos at all. However, it doesn't look like they just strapped a bunch of asteroid material to it. it clearly looks like whatever it was was hallowed out almost like how the original Marathon was made. Maybe that's why people think it's set in an alternate universe from Infinity? Maybe the point is that it makes no sense, and we have to figure out what happened to the original vision?

[tranquil basin]

I figure it’s just a retcon to make it look cool

[tranquil basin]

It also is the ship, the recent trailer showed the interior was filled with tunnels and halls n stuff

[edgy hill]

It makes sense for it to be a retcon, but the design itself makes no sense, as Deimos isn't spherical, while the celestial body around the modern design is

[tranquil basin]

Yeah but it would make sense if they mined Deimos for materials

Bc it’s way cheaper than shipping all the materials into orbit

So they’d mine it, exterior first

And it could’ve just become spherical that way

[edgy hill]

That part is definitely still true, whatever is around the ship rn was clearly used to build the ship itself.

[edgy hill]

This is a very plausible explanation

[tranquil basin]

It’s still a bit silly of them to redesign it out of nowhere from the ogs but yknow it does look cool

[edgy hill]

It could also be a complete retcon of how the Marathon was built, using Ceres instead of Deimos, as Ceres IS a near-perfect sphere. We don't have any confirmation on that yet.

[tranquil basin]

It would make sense, but I think it still is Deimos, bc the most recent trailer had MIDA text saying SAVE DEIMOS

But ceres would have made more sense for a spherical ship

[edgy hill]

oh shit, ur right, i totally spaced that

[tranquil basin]

I wonder what they made the equanimity out of

Or maybe they didn’t hollow something out for that

[ocean bluff]

Currently trying to, which videos did you watch? I've got hidden Xperia vids queued up too

[vital hollow]

Does the game explain energy shields

[hearty edge]

Oh we totally forgot about Judas guys

[ebon trench]

shields dont need explanations in sci fi games

[tranquil basin]

@ the apostles after the last supper

[thin dust]

Well yes. Its more of a "Flavor Text" for me. Like going to the moon core and having the giant lava levels was sick. And that being in basically a cave was also cool to me.

It also felt like with the moon ship aesthetic it would require less actuall labor to build

[tranquil basin]

Oh I see yeah

Tho Deimos is not geologically active so I think they put that lava there

Bc lava

[hearty edge]

Dang I just found out bro quit life after he betrayed him

BETRAYAL, SUICIDE

[tranquil basin]

This Jesus guy is so nice. I hope nothing bad happens to him

turns page

oh boy

[thin dust]

I think it could be they engineered some caves to be molten for "geo thermal" power and once they got it to temp it holds easier. Plus "artifical atmopshepre" or some shit created a greenhouse that parts of it interior became that hot or some shit lol. Something something science magic

[tranquil basin]

Lava would be ideal for nuclear fuel to be kept in, molten salts specifically

Not regular lava

[thin dust]

Blue/green/rainbow lava

[tranquil basin]

So even if there’s an on board power failure the heat stays contained within the lava for weeks

[hearty edge]

It’s like the most awful and brutal thing, but the most loving and understanding at the same time

[hearty edge]

But no! Judas the game… Bioshock and Systemshock creator new game

In the 90s with OG marton it was marton vs SystemShock vs doom

Now today again 30 YEARS later we have marton vs Judas(2026-27) vs doom (2025) again still lol 😂

Not to mention half life and quake, it was an epic rivalry and they all invented the fps you know and it’s just cool it’s still goin lol

[vital hollow]

I mean yeah, but they were a big deal in Halo and the equivalent of health in og marathon

[strong perch]

perhaps… plasma….

[tranquil basin]

Definitely not

[strong perch]

ik im just saying the plasma reactors we have are technically the “lava” in those, holds immense amount of energy

[vital hollow]

Where does marathon get its water from

Or its propulsion fuel ??

[strong perch]

and its basically the same issue
there’s not really anything that could be used to hold such a hot thing like that for a long period of time that’s why the plasma reactors are barely used

but if we could make a container that isnt just a bucket “lava” would be a best, nuclear factories already emulate this method just with water and metals

[hardy lion]

Geothermal power is actually a real thing that's growing more prominent in some areas

The problem is the court of public opinion

[strong perch]

/banks

[tranquil basin]

I mean yeah but Deimos is not geologically active

They’d have to use a ton of energy to make a bunch of heat to power everything

Which is fine, but it wouldn’t be nearly as efficient as nuclear fuel in molten salt, especially at that scale

Bc Deimos is not big