📚marathon-lore-discussion

[tranquil basin]

No sekiguchi made the bingi but pink

[slate temple]

[tranquil basin]

And sekiguchi defaults to worm when asked about the mascot, thus bingus is ours

[rotund stump]

https://tauceti.world/profiling have fun

[slate temple]

What’s pink cat lore

[neon marten]

ominously absent sekiguchi

[burnt nebula]

im tempted to choose traxus just because they're in halo lol

[slate temple]

[lyric token]

snowflake called that hostile lol wut

[storm field]

Honestly? Dw about everyone else. Go for wht calls to you 🙂

[neon marten]

you choose traxus obviously. theyre canonically the strongest corp its in the description. Go with the winning team

[storm field]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1306389618089787454/1360507323076055131/ChadNoMIDA.gif

[tranquil basin]

Artificial pet thing made by sekiguchi, specially one we see is Kaal-1 I believe. Has a cat consciousness uploaded and exhibited extreme intelligence increase

[burnt nebula]

i didnt have enough time to play much of the server slam so all i know is from the lore i have seen over the last few weeks/months

[sage lark]

the shell entries in the codex are cool

[neon marten]

durandals physical form

[rotund stump]

KAAL1, (first of?) sekgen's animal biomata experiments, actual pets weren't allowed on the marathon for fear of hygiene and what not, been here since the colony era and is basically a catalogue of the entire colony's history on legs

[storm field]

Follow Warhammer and other things then... the rule of cool

[sage lark]

unlocked the Triage one yesterday

[burnt nebula]

aiite lets get it!

[rotund stump]

affectionately called bingus*

[tranquil basin]

Yeah that’s bingus

[slate temple]

What if the cat goes rampant

[rotund stump]

likely won't

[tranquil basin]

Gonna start pushing stuff off pinwheel

And scratching at the cryo vault doors

[rotund stump]

like my 2 cups that I absolutely loved off destroyed wing

that bastard

[slate temple]

Laser eyes

[burnt nebula]

sounds like the kind of lie some evil spying corpo would tell me about their processed artificial cat... i dont trust that cat man, he's up to something

[sage lark]

Triage shells were made to keep the mining workers on Mars functioning because of the hazardous conditions. Seems like runners modified the personality matrix because it was too bedside manner soothing and calming.

[rotund stump]

our biomata shells might have rampancy potential from the personality matrixes but I don't see why they'd put one of those in bingus tbh

[tranquil basin]

I’d argue that’s pretty in line with real cats, not to be trusted

[burnt nebula]

touche

[rotund stump]

us runners also used recon shells to jailbreak the matrixes and found out the UESC put certain restrictions in both motor and cognitive function and that alone partly caused them to shelf the whole biomata military force project from the public

[slate temple]

I’m literally right here

[sage lark]

talking bout me?

[rotund stump]

and vandal's started from a stolen caravan of baseline shells on mars, became an overnight sensation after whoever it was was done with putting a crazy ass wig and awesome coat with jordans and an arm cannon on, mida recruitment went up 7500% after some runners raided another UESC caravan with them

and then vandal's style went trending globally on mars and that made UESC activity super difficult lol

couldn't track who did it if everybody wore the same

[burnt nebula]

can anyone enlighten me how the dynamics work in the game between the corporations, runners, uesc etc. how does everything have similar markings that appear like they all came out of the same factory. all corporations seem to be part of the same ecosystem. but still all seem to be at war with eachother, and all seem willing to employ the same merc?

[storm field]

The whole sneaky side of the corpos was really cool to learn about. For eg Traxus secretly ordering 5 P series clones. MIDA releases a manifesto to show details between UESC and Traxus's operations.

[rotund stump]

also the movement amp idea came from biocyber athletics, athletes used to jailbreak their own movement systems and MIDA took it a whole 3 leagues further

[tranquil basin]

My bad

[slate temple]

[tranquil basin]

They pulled the Best Buy/gamestop goth girl method

[rotund stump]

can't blame em

whoever style vandal like that

french kiss

[tranquil basin]

They know their audience well

[burnt nebula]

i prefer thief

[slate temple]

I prefer Destroyer

[burnt nebula]

destroyer looks like a try hard. only guy that seems to be wearing power armor

[rotund stump]

recon my beloved

[neon marten]

recon <3

[slate temple]

Made for combat and riots

[rotund stump]

nevermind the astronomically low chance of going insane per echo pulse (I'm lying out of my ass it's an actual usage risk)

[tranquil basin]

Drip is forever

[burnt nebula]

what do runners do when they're not running? do they eat, sleep, have hobbies or what?

[slate temple]

Indebted to cyac and are running to try and repay the debt

[rotund stump]

standby for next drop or just not have a body for a while until it's reweaved

hence the intro cinematic of oni soothing us into our shell

[sage lark]

ex uesc stuff I think thats why

[burnt nebula]

so you go home and lose your body?

that sounds like hell ngl

[rotund stump]

not really

only when you die

[sage lark]

youre a brain in cyberspace

[rotund stump]

but the level of debt you're under likely doesn't keep you anywhere but tau ceti for long

[slate temple]

Cyac let’s you interact with other faction contracts as a way to pay your debt back faster

[tranquil basin]

I figure they have stuff to do for sanity’s sake, it would probably also provide good data for sekiguchi

[rotund stump]

well we are mercs yeah

[tranquil basin]

To see them in other contexts considering they sell these to the public

[burnt nebula]

since the runners need psychological attention, grounding exercises and whatnot, you'd think they would also need some other forms of human stimulation also to stop them from going insane. some R & R y'know...

[tranquil basin]

Yeah I agree

[rotund stump]

there's runner ops in sol if you so choose and mentioned in lore + official positions in biomata forces in several corps

[tranquil basin]

Especially if they suspect rampancy is possible

[rotund stump]

cyac has its syn-dis apartment, traxus has the anti-caution squad

[slate temple]

Destroyer shell comes preinstalled with battle experience

[ivory cliff]

I'd also assume we have shells for jobs on non tau ceti iv stuff that you can atleast last a couple of months in instead of 20 min?

[sage lark]

yes seki builds shells for "regular" citizens of Sol

[tranquil basin]

They do, they have runners elsewhere and they sell these to consumers for longevity

[burnt nebula]

hold on, the shells expire quickly?

[tranquil basin]

Only bc of tau ceti’s anomaly

[ivory cliff]

No, our connection expires in tau ceti IV very quickly

[sage lark]

which probably supports that we are beaming in from sol no

[tranquil basin]

They could normally last a long time but the anomaly freaks with the connection, so they yeet you out of it after 25min

[slate temple]

If you don’t extract before interference from something anomalous on tau ceti the consciousness is force ejected to save the human controlling it from death

[tranquil basin]

I think something is orbiting tau ceti, but being too close to the anomaly is what affects connection

[ivory cliff]

Not sure actually, I think we're in orbit?

[sage lark]

only seen the marathon so Im curious

[burnt nebula]

interesting. are the UESC bots also kept in orbit? or are they immune since they're not conscious?

[sage lark]

equanimity

[slate temple]

Has to be orbit the whole point of everyone getting to tau ceti was to fight over resources

[sage lark]

UESC ship

[rotund stump]

there's UESC units in orbit so pretty unlikely there's anything else there, unless there's corpo vessels or facilities on neighboring orbits

[burnt nebula]

wonder if the runner ships and the UESC ever have space battles

[ivory cliff]

From what I've heard from Traxus, no

Or was it nucaloric that said something like that

[sage lark]

i dont think there is any direct combat going on between the actual corps and factions besides us

[ivory cliff]

^

[slate temple]

Runners are resources

[rotund stump]

nope

whole thing about beaming from sol is that there's a nonviolence treaty between the UESC and the corps, runners not included, traxus explicitly exploits this by stating we're not official employees and can interfere directly instead of getting stuck in more legal battles for salvage rights

that also means no corpo vessels in direct UESC vicinity I'd imagine

[slate temple]

They’re fighting for market power or research or religion

[rotund stump]

cascadia salvage rights

[sage lark]

and most want to recoup their losses

[ivory cliff]

You mean the runners?

[sage lark]

and find out what happened

[tranquil basin]

I assume that’s just bc of how huge it is

[slate temple]

The only case I’ve seen is the Arachne killed a high ranking traxus executive at some point

[burnt nebula]

its all so interesting. gimme the game! i need to know whats going on lol

[tranquil basin]

I don’t think they’re from the equanimity

[slate temple]

Factions sending runners

[rotund stump]

marathon counting deimos's crust is a moon and a half lol

[ivory cliff]

Yeah, I just really want to know what caused everything, what's the anomaly etc.

[tranquil basin]

Equanimity still isn’t known to have arrived and its projected arrival date is 2894

[sage lark]

idk how they would have such a strong presence there

[slate temple]

I’m most excited about the actual marathon ship map

[burnt nebula]

probably will be years into the games lifecycle and still wont understand whats really going on, plus they'll hit us with more mysteries and plot twists along the way

[tranquil basin]

They just send more stuff bc ftl travel is a thing now

[ivory cliff]

The corporates just want to recoup losses and investigate, Arachne and Mida just wanna cause chaos or fight for religion

[tranquil basin]

Same way the factions arrived

[rotund stump]

anti-gov anti-corp anarchists overstretch (?) themselves to stick it to the UESC and the corps, arachne learns from repeated death

[plucky silo]

anyone down to duo/trio? i dont know where to look for group

[sage lark]

MIDA also B.Strauss and what happend to him

probably

[tranquil basin]

#lfc-any-zone

[drifting mulch]

Why does CyAc allow runners to work for other factions?

[slate temple]

Durandal where are u

[sweet dome]

Can I get a tldr on all the factions?

[tranquil basin]

He has been spotted

[sage lark]

to pay off debt faster

[tranquil basin]

Well his voice has been heard

[burnt nebula]

i hope the current aesthetic of the game is just the tip of the iceberg. there's some seriously cool art related to other factions. i'd love to play some maps that reflect them.

[rotund stump]

expedite debt repayment

[slate temple]

Where

[plain flame]

They get a cut of everything a runner earns

[ivory cliff]

Yeah they're basically the broker

[tranquil basin]

Traxus: massive corporation who wants money. Investor in og marathon project.

NuCal: massive corporation who makes burgers. Investor as well.

Cyac: space Microsoft, also investor.

Sekiguchi: ppl who make the biomata/shells

MIDA: Martian insurrectionist organization

Arachne: death cult

[drifting mulch]

What is this debt coming from? I know we pay for shells that are lost or damaged

[tranquil basin]

That dialogue ONI says at the beginning of the run, there’s a random chance Durandal speaks, lemme see what he said again

[sage lark]

for getting our consciousness digitized

[tranquil basin]

Yeah they’re extremely expensive

[sage lark]

and shells

[visual lynx]

nucal may make things that taste like burger, but they aren't actually burger

[slate temple]

Also anyone figure out what’s with the “looking for a crew?” Voice line heard sometimes

[plain flame]

What is everyone's favorite faction? Mine is CyberAcme, but MIDA has great runner skins and I like NuCaloric's Ai

[tranquil basin]

Taste like burger, isn’t

[sweet dome]

Thank you

[ivory cliff]

Traxus Lion looks so fucking cool

[plain flame]

UESC bots trying to lure out runners

[sage lark]

I never heard it, but some people assume its the UESC tryung to lure out stuff

played 20+ hours and never heard it 😭

[slate temple]

I’ve heard it twice

[tranquil basin]

“Tired and choking, you flail your way through the waves.”

[broken zinc]

I've been in sekgen from day one of being able to choose a faction.

[slate temple]

Okay Gheritt White

[broken zinc]

Worms

[drifting mulch]

That’s one of the “friendly” chat wheel option responses. Someone nearby used it

[ivory cliff]

epic embed fail

[tranquil basin]

I sent u the vid

[broken zinc]

The uesc ghosts will also use them to lure you nearby. It's rare but can occur

[ivory cliff]

Is there a tracker sheet somewhere with stuff people have found? Been too busy playing

[tranquil basin]

Yeah I heard something say “relax, I’m no threat” like assassin but I think it was a ghost

[sage lark]

ive been looking for all the other codex entries I didnt manage to find

but no cigar

[rotund stump]

traxus offworld industries, industry leader in pretty much everything, second only to the UESC and constantly wars with them, primarily led the marathon expedition

sekiguchi genetics had a stake in the expedition, shell tech industry leader, not much to talk about them other than they put their animal biomata experiment KAAL1 aboard the marathon (we call it bingus) who still lives today so we still have a walking archive of tau ceti's colony era on four legs wandering somewhere

cyberacme has a monopoly on all things computer and AI, don't need to guess that they made the eleven AIs for the colony that bernard strauss handpicked

nucaloric prides itself on ruthless optimization and philanthropy, supplied the expedition with food, meds and architecture, kind of an everything company

MIDA rose from the UESC's neglect of mars via lack of supply drone maintenance, refusing to help when a traxus AI went rampant and wrecked the mars net for a long while and literally having a moon robbed and gutted into a ship in front of them (old MIDA won over mars for a while and ran a fash gov, got beaten and survivors went into hiding, nu-MIDA's more about bona fide anarchy than having a philosophy), funds supplier unknown

arachne worships death, treats us runners as deities for our ability to come back, thinks we can learn from death now that we've transcended from it (cult doesn't just have runners but we get the VIP treatment), funds supplier also unknown (charter's a notorious runner in the records known for his high risk ops, assassinated a trax executive before)

whew

[slate temple]

Arachne

[ivory cliff]

I hope for a rl nucaloric burger to share with a friend

[rotund stump]

I wouldn't 💀

they'd likely put mealworms in the patty if they make the actual physical burger and some other chemicals for the burger slop we slurp up

[storm field]

I'll drink a burger with you

[rotund stump]

not to mention their terrible hygiene checks

[loud laurel]

Liquid cheeseburger reminds me of wall-e where they drink their food

[rotund stump]

real time food slopification

[ivory cliff]

everythink okay hun? You haven't drank from your cheeseburger yet

[rotund stump]

john nucal himself gus moraine announced the colonist welcome package for anyone aboard the marathon and there were scratch marks inside the burger slop packages 💀

[shadow pasture]

sorry for asking off-topic, is that a Avatar Decoration is DEV only???

[rotund stump]

you'd think we'd be rid of rats already in the 29th century

[rotund stump]

nope, from a discord quest last year

[ivory cliff]

Is this real or?

[rotund stump]

regular users kept it for 90 days, nitro users keep it forever

[shadow pasture]

ah... i c thank u

[rotund stump]

yep, from the logs we got in codex in the current server slam

[ivory cliff]

Lmaooo

[burnt nebula]

what you mean? they put live ticks in there or something?

[rotund stump]

no but something got in the burger slop packages either during storage or shipping

nucal has terrible hygiene checks lol

[ivory cliff]

Or it's normal for them 👀

[burnt nebula]

yeah i just listened to the drinkable cheeseburger lore lol

[rotund stump]

so much for optimization to include rat shit in my burger slop 😔 ✌️

[ivory cliff]

oh woops the burger mutated, again...

[burnt nebula]

i see the nucaloric videos and it makes me hungry, their ads seem so tasty and healthy and nutritious lol

imagine eating a peach and the shell inside has a barcode and a serial number on it tho lol

[gusty dawn]

Hey yall, headed to McDonalds anyone want me to pick them up some drinkable Big Macs?

[tranquil basin]

Drinkable cheeseburger is perfect for all your nutritional needs, just not for more than 30 days exclusively

🙂

[glossy skiff]

the hell kinda peaches you eating lol

[frozen solstice]

Question about the nature of runners and shells

We the player, the runner, when we pick a shell is that more like embodying a specific archetype or is the picking of a runner more based in game logic where they are their own separate characters we just choose to play as?

To what extent do the shells have their own stories separate from the players?

How does the cinematic short relate to all this? Is the vandal and assassin in it, the vandal and assassin, or are we to conclude that they're in actuality beings that can choose to embody any shell like we the player?

[burnt nebula]

the nucal ones

[rotund stump]

archetypes

most shells were proprietary UESC tech and confirmed excluding vandal, us runners embody a shell of our choosing and remain as unregistered biocybernetics to be the corps' dirty hands on their salvage projects on tau ceti

[zenith crystal]

Why don’t the runners go on the marathon? Is it because the companies only are interested in what’s in Tau Ceti?

[rotund stump]

we will

[frozen solstice]

gotcha

[rotund stump]

eventually

that said I do wonder if they'll make some callbacks to certain old trilogy levels in the map layouts

[zenith crystal]

I feel like MIDA would want to go on the marathon

[glossy skiff]

that's supposed to be the cryo archive map later on

[zenith crystal]

Ohhh I see

Gosh the lore is so freaking cool bro

[rotund stump]

just one small part of a moon-and-a-half-sized ship

the marathon's a lot bigger than people like to think it is

[zenith crystal]

Yeah it’s a moon

[tranquil basin]

They used to be individual characters, vandal was her own person but it was retconned after backlash for being hero shooter esque

[zenith crystal]

Like the size of the north america

[frozen solstice]

I wonder if we as the runner remain fully aware when we embody a shell, the grounding test shown in the cinematic at least implies that someone is taking away our memories-

[frozen solstice]

Ahhhhh

[tranquil basin]

They will

[frozen solstice]

[rotund stump]

we are at least in executive motor and cognitive functions excluding emotion, decision making is assisted by the shell's respective personality matrix

[frozen solstice]

got it

thanks!

[tranquil basin]

The memory loss is probably just a side effect ? Idk but that’s what makes sense to me,

[frozen solstice]

that's super helpful. Not sure what I'm gonna do with this information but I'll put it to use somewhere

[rotund stump]

that said repeated resyncs from ASF does cause PTSD

memory loss is no surprise

[zenith crystal]

Do we think durandal will show up anyone during our time on Tau Ceti? I like to think that it was Durandal speaking in the one cinematic where the voice over was talking about death

[tranquil basin]

Yeah Deimos itself was like 17mi, of course they shaved it down a bit but the long portion of the ship is likely far longer

[frozen solstice]

I rewatched the cinematic last night and just got super interested by that specific beat. The fact that void had the same childhood photography as the vandal gave me the goosebumps

[rotund stump]

already did believe it or not

[frozen solstice]

made me ponder about the nature of the runners

[tranquil basin]

He has been heard in game. He definitely will be in some capacity

[zenith crystal]

Really? Where?

[rotund stump]

part of the grounding exercise likely

[tranquil basin]

That voice line ONI gives u at the beginning, Durandal spoke instead. I can send it to you if you want

[sage lark]

its not accessible rn, locked

[tranquil basin]

It’s a random occurrence

[zenith crystal]

That’d be awesome when I first played the sever slam I had 0 lore knowledge

[rotund stump]

rare random intro dialogue, somebody got it on their beginner perimeter run lol

[sage lark]

i dont wanna spoil but you can find items that can "unlock" either the marathon or stuff in Cryo Archives

[tranquil basin]

Sent, someone posted it on Twitter. I haven’t heard it yet though in my own runs

[rotund stump]

if all the keys we've been getting the slam hint at us actually having a hand in unlocking the entire marathon that'd be pretty fucking hype actually lol

they did say player-driven lore dev

maybe one of us will be the one to slot the keycard to the last bulkhead to a new section of the ship

pfhorrest go to sleep

[visual lynx]

not sure if two people who don't remember what they used to look like, or the same person using two different shells in sequence still not remembering what they used to look like

[rotund stump]

or collective amnesia

either of the 3 works

[sage lark]

yeah its gonna be peak

ive found 2 different ones only

I wonder how many will there be

[frozen solstice]

heyheyi want it too

[visual lynx]

I can't, I accidentally woke my wife up 3hrs ago and she's probably not going to sleep at all tonight so how can i allow myself to sleep either when she has to go to work in another 3hrs and i can just be a lazy sack of shit who would normally sleep half the day because i would be up until now-ish

[rotund stump]

LOL

well in that case

have fun ig 💀 💀

or hop on and slam more

did you hit lv 30 already?

[visual lynx]

I don't actually play I'm just here to gather lore secondhand from yall

[rotund stump]

[visual lynx]

the newest video game I've played was Portal

[frozen solstice]

i got to like lvl 14

[frozen solstice]

it makes sense that you have a wife

[rotund stump]

25 and counting it ends at 2 am for me and I still got a presentation to write lol

at least it's like middle school english equivalent

[zenith crystal]

I want to play marathon but I’m an EMS worker who is over worked. I just wanna be extracting rn 🤦

[visual lynx]

an EMS worker who is over worked
you could have just stopped at "an EMS worker", everything after that was redundant

[eternal snow]

Thank you for your service

[merry olive]

You can always get a career change so you can have more time for Marathon.

[visual lynx]

can he though?

[merry olive]

Yes.

[zenith crystal]

Yeah I can be a mcdonald’s worker

I’m going to paramedic school soon dw

If i’m gonna be on the ambulance Im gonna be ALS

[visual lynx]

you're going to be Lou Gehrig's disease?

[zenith crystal]

Advanced life support

[merry olive]

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis?

[merry olive]

Bruh.

We share the same braincell for real.

[zenith crystal]

After medic school I’m gonna apply for heli EMS

[merry olive]

Oh you're gonna be extracting it alright.

[zenith crystal]

That’s the goal but right now it’s cleaning puke out of an ambulance

[visual lynx]

my mom is what I've come to understand is known professionally as a GOMER and that has come to make me exceptionally sympathetic to the plight of medical staff of all varieties, especially the lowermost ones.

and now my wife is also an in-home support person too.

[eternal snow]

so are you a triage main or is that like

too close to your actual job

[merry olive]

Gamer?

[visual lynx]

no, Get Out of My Emergency Room

[merry olive]

DBNO?

dude i played marathon for 47 hours in 3 days i can't think properly

[zenith crystal]

I love triage he’s my favorite

[merry olive]

whenever im walking i hear the little freaking drone buzzing around my face

[orchid lily]

What the helly

[eternal snow]

the little what drone? 🤨

[zenith crystal]

I’ve always played support roles in video games and I think that fact has motivated me to go into medicine

[merry olive]

asterisks got eaten

[lavish saddle]

the codex is awesome: REMARK: UESC committing war crimes is nothing new. Return the favor.

[zenith crystal]

Subconscious indoctrination from playing too much tf2 medic when I was a kid and too much overwatch support when that game was good

[merry olive]

Escape will make me GOD.

just one more exfil bro imwtelling you that's all i need

[visual mortar]

idk if it's in the codex but where are the shells printed and sent to tau ceti and back to their own vault?

[merry olive]

I'm guessing in orbit.

[cedar coyote]

Oh so the uesc have been asshats from the get go? Notedddddd

[visual lynx]

hmm so Arachne, who theologize death, supposedly got their start around the time the Marathon was under construction

that is also the time when "MIDA" supposedly massacred 10% of the population of Mars

I wonder if that is not a coincidence

[cedar coyote]

Wait I thought it was the uesc that massacred 10% not mida?

I could be wrong , please bear with me

[gray sluice]

10% of mars died during their occupation and the terminals were uesc logs so could be biased just saying it wasn't specified

But they did have death squads just going around shooting anyone who said anything good about uesc

[cedar coyote]

Oh interesting! I I did not know about that to be fair

[broken zinc]

Yeah MIDA poses itself as anarchy and freedom fighters but they also murdered like thousands of people on mars back in the day

[cedar coyote]

So there are no clear and cut morally acceptable “good guys” that’s pretty interesting to think on! They all have some form of blood and dirt on their hands

Speaking on the past, BATTLEROIDS

Would they be considered archaic technology to the modern marathon? Or would you think they would get a similar upgrade to how runners and shells have it?

Also, what specifically defines or makes a Battleroid and how are they considered weapons of mass destruction?

[gray sluice]

Hundreds of years ago. The mida in this game isn't the same as the one we saw in those (biased) logs and this was explicitly stated in the codex

[gray sluice]

They're just really hard to kill and since they're implants on really skilled soldiers that makes them really deadly. Id think a runner couldn't beat one. They can't go tau ceti because they're still human and organic ftl isn't invented yet though

[visual lynx]

there was also an incident where the UESC opened fire on a crowd of starving people and incinerated hundreds of them in seconds

which is part of what gave rise to MIDA in opposition to them. the 10% MIDA supposedly killed were supposedly on account of having been UESC sympathizers.

[gray sluice]

Never said in the logs that MIDA killed all 10%

[cedar coyote]

A crowd of peaceful protesting starving Martian people? Or am I mistaken

[visual lynx]

https://marathon.bungie.org/story/counterattack.html#M1.05.2.1

[gray sluice]

They were trying to kill MIDA agents and out of the hundreds there were only like 5

[cedar coyote]

O h

F u g

[visual lynx]

Misriah Massacre

On January 6, 2345(Earth A.D.), at the United Earth Government Misriah food distribution center, what had begun as a commonplace food riot turned into a massacre. The UEG riot troopers who arrived at the scene had been informed that the rioters were armed. As UEG troopers approached the scene in their Randal Hovertank, plasma fire began spraying upwards. In a flash decision, the commander of the Hovertank ordered his crew to open fire upon the crowd. It took only five seconds for over five hundred starving Martians to be incinerated.

In the ensuing investigation of the Hovertank Vid-cams, it was clear that only three of the rioters were armed, and that the rest of the crowd was trying to flee the scene. Those three became known as the Misriah Three. They have gone down in history for starting the most destructive and bloody conflict since Humanity had left Earth. However, it is clear that these three have gained the credit for starting a war that would have happened anyway.

[gray sluice]

Ngl UESC is just ICE on steroids on street level mars

[cedar coyote]

Yeah that’s fucked

[visual lynx]

The History of MIDA:

MIDA, as it was known, was a popular political party until the 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 MIDA coup was afterwards criticized for its shortsightedness. In an organization that was notorious for its long ranging policies and politicking, the coup was very short-lived: MIDA never seriously accounted for the UEG's overwhelming superiority in ground forces and warships. In fact, they never attempted to take over the Marathon, which was nearing completion and would have made a very powerful weapon. The Marathon's massive size made it invulnerable to most normal space attacks, and it would have made a very stable weapons platform.

After the failed coup, the leaders of MIDA were executed for their crimes, and the political organization was banned in all forms.

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.

[gray sluice]

Viva la revolution

[visual lynx]

do note

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.
really does seem to be claiming that the MIDA death squads killed about ten percent.

for whatever the reliability of this report is worth.

[cedar coyote]

Everyone has some blood on their hands, no one if “free” of responsibility

Or

You know what I mean

Not one party in the marathon lore is considered without fault

[gray sluice]

No accurate census report implies that they used semi accurate reports to get an estimate of all of mars I wouldn't say mida was responsible for all 10% but up to interpretation.

[cedar coyote]

Uesc , mida, traxis, etc— there are no clear and cut good guys because they all have some dirt on them

[visual lynx]

of particular note in that last passage:

an organization that was notorious for its long ranging policies and politicking … never attempted to take over the Marathon, which was nearing completion and would have made a very powerful weapon.
and
spectacular funding and excellent personnel
plus that we know the Marathon's own Science Director Bernhard Strauss was connected to MIDA

…really makes it seem like there's something much deeper going on here beyond surface-level politics.

[REDACTED] WERE AT TAU CETI

[broken zinc]

There are no good guys in this game. Especially not us, the runners

[cedar coyote]

Yuuuup!! And I personally like that

[broken zinc]

Ikr it's great

[cedar coyote]

I like it despite me being a more friendly and less aggressive player in the game, like I play destroyer and they are like”be the bully” and I’m just sitting here like: “ok but why tho?”

[upbeat jackal]

The Hovertank commander had no idea what was actually going on in the crowd, and ordered the firing after he saw plasma fire

It's actually pretty similar to the Boston Massacre, a stressful situation where a person could make a desicion like that, not really depict any side as right/wrong (besides the Misriah Three specfically, who may or may not be MIDA)

[broken zinc]

To be fair you are playing the bully class 😂

[cedar coyote]

YEAH BUT IT COSTS LITTLE TO BE NICE ;v;

[upbeat jackal]

I really hope MIDA v. UESC doesn't explode into the #1 lore argument, you're not meant to hate or love either

[cedar coyote]

I am one of those players that would down a person at extract and yet allow them to extract with me, they have every right to keep the loot they earned as much as I do.

Logical reasoning is like: they are already down so They are no longer a threat

Plus it makes me feel good in the brain xD

[cedar coyote]

Each have some dirt on them

So it’s reasonable to “enjoy” both, but not side with them

Ya know?

[cedar coyote]

I once had a game where two dudes were fighting on extract and I broke up the fight by downing both of them and I didn’t finish either of them but we all three extracted with our loot because I didn’t feel like it was worth the time or effort to kill them

Extract was right there and active- and I wanted out with my loot lol

[visual lynx]

One of the more complicated plots involved you as the descendent of Roman soldiers who had been separated from the rest of their legion while attacking a group of barbarians in what is today Switzerland. They found a mountain spring that extended their lives by hundreds of years and founded this society of semi-immortals. Every seven years they would gather and the leader of the group would descend into this cave system and return with water from the spring to assure their longevity. Now and then their leader would be killed while getting the water, none of the other members knew why or how, and a new leader would have to be chosen. The game starts with the player having just been chosen by lot to descend into the caves, find the location of the spring, and become the new leader of the cult.

....n 15 ~~Be~rn border of the Roman Empire to the Danube
River. During a skirmish with barbarians in Raetiain the
mountains near the borof modern France and Switzerland), 117
men under Gaius Licinius MarcW#&I~?f/f/xxfxfff~
THM@#%!@#
233nce of weird and frightening monsters under his control,
many successful raidsecty the fall of the Roman Empire and
remained unmolested until the ninth un~
written ls into the lex vita. Clovis moved the settlement
farther south i the mountains, nearer the spring, to escape
the notice of Charlemagne and later the Holy Roman Empire.
Clovis remain
~fxf´f`~Fxff´xf
427q3w8459806ladimir in 1902 and Frederi~just recently. Both,
however, carried out reforms before their deaths which slowly
integrated their people secretly into world society, which are
now scattered all over the globe- to meet only once every
seven years in southeast France~FFFffxfffffF?F?FF?Ff must
be chosen.

[cedar coyote]

That said, I have sadly had to end a couple runs due to positioning and time. If it were up to me, I’d drag everyone by their ass to extract if they were down provided we can “staunch the bleeding” but that’s sadly not the case here

anyways enough about donut lore, let’s get back on track

[broken zinc]

Honestly saaaame

I try to chat people up when they down me. It hasn't worked yet but maybe one day

[spice olive]

Are the uesc slaves?

[cedar coyote]

DAB ME UP MAN , hell yeah 🫱

[bitter hatch]

What’s up with the moths?

Seems like some nucaloric stuff

[cedar coyote]

~~theyre in your skin, ~~ i have no clue

[bitter hatch]

lol

[spice olive]

Silk worms gotta come from somewhere

[bitter hatch]

I’m about to switch factions to either cyber or trax

[bitter hatch]

Our 85% disabled body

Runners are just a shell, while our bodies are stored somewhere else in a random subnet I’m guessing

[broken zinc]

Silkworms are moth caterpillars. The weaveWORMS come from silkworms. The worms become moths. The cycle of life or something

(explaining bc i was an embarrassing age when i learned silkworms are not worms. They're caterpillars)

[slate temple]

New arg at https://hearoursilence.com/zine

||- Makes you do a captcha with in game item/player/robot identification- Pops up with blank digital canvas and drawing/art tools on side

• Ability to select from variety of premade backgrounds
• Changing background to half-green and half-black background gives video clip saying “Tear them with teeth. Bleed, bite, rewrite. Error is the only language worth learning”
• Various stickers you can place on canvas around 70 possible stickers
• Picking certain stickers plays video clips with messages all of which tie to MIDA and revolution||

[narrow dagger]

It's how they build the bodies we use for running

[slate temple]

haven't found anything triggered by custom text or drawing

[hollow glen]

Is this definitely an official thing?

[slate temple]

yes

though idk if it's worth much for uncovering anything seems to just be so you can make a cool background

[valid venture]

ehh found something weird,

"tear them with teeth bleed bite rewrite era is the only worth language worth learning"

[proven copper]

Try making the donut symbol?

[slate temple]

I have an idea

[hollow glen]

Lore-wise, where are our runners (or the servers their conciousness is stored on) actually meant to be?

are there just loads of 'sponsored transports' in Tau Ceti now, like one of Codex Pages suggest? Just like some faction paid for us to get there on our own ship, or is there some big runner ship?

[visual lynx]

you assume we still have OG bodies?

[bitter hatch]

This paired with what redbook said, makes so more sense now lore wise, than you!

[bitter hatch]

Didn’t understand the worm lore

Been attempting to understand before serverslam

[vital laurel]

So quick question, why is the uesc the bad guys after they reach tau ceti, is this something we learn in game through contracts ? Like what happened between humanity getting there too now where all that’s left is the robots

[visual lynx]

we don't initially know what happened to the original colonists

the UESC robots you fight are a new discovery/recovery expedition

you and all the factions you can work for are sorta-illegally present and the UESC bots are doing their job excluding you from their control zone

[hollow glen]

There was an alien attack on the Marathon and we don't know what happened to the Colonists, maybe they ran out of food, maybe the aliens got them, maybe the anomaly is something to do with it

[hollow glen]

the UESC aren't exactly the bad guys, more like the police, although using AI controlled military units is illegal back on Earth, so UESC is being a bit bad there

[valid venture]

This is MIDA speaking to us, probably trying to say that violence is the only language to overhaul or overcome the UESC era. This is speculation, but you guys probably already figured that much.

[vital laurel]

Ahhh gotcha, I hope we get to see more of the aliens who attacked and step foot on the marathon, I thought I was gonna be a map but I might be mistaken

[valid venture]

This whole ARG is probbably going to tease the Marathon ship or outpost access.

[grave ferry]

would a UESC faction work lore wise? as in a countermovement against the Runners "employed" by the other factions

[sudden pollen]

Yo this is sick

[proven copper]

This is helpful- I thought the loading screen with moths was more symbolic, like the flora and fauna of TC4 are eating what's left of the colony. Could be both things at the same time

[urban wave]

Personally I don't think it really would make sense since it's made pretty clear they don't want us there

[visual mortar]

if there was a UESC faction it would be kind of exactly the same as arachne

[grave ferry]

true

I did think Arachne was UESC before I unlocked the contracts

but maybe if you work for the UESC you'd have a specific amount of resources and your sole purpose would be to kill Runners.

another thing to worry about during a run

[fickle ore]

Whats the best place to get a primer on lore? In game codex, some youtube recap, just playing the OG games, what would you recommend?

[empty hatch]

https://marathonmeta.gg/ some basic things but ppl will have more

[visual mortar]

https://marathon.bungie.org/story/ this one has most of it , you can watch videos off youtube too

[slate temple]

watch a youtube summary on the first three marathons and then if you want a deep dive on that go to this site https://marathon.bungie.org/story/

[gray sluice]

Does say in the logs that no one knows where Arachne got all their funding from. Implies that maybe they're being controlled especially considering charter assassinated a traxus high rank exec

[slate temple]

Jake The Alright on youtube has some cool vids on lore

[valid venture]

im looking at the source code rn to see if i find something interesting

[slate temple]

how'd u do that?

how'd u get hex code

[valid venture]

ctrl shift plus c, then you click source

[tranquil basin]

I think it could if you had UESC higher up ppl needing stuff done in a very discrete manner, like secret so they wouldn’t have to make the bots ignore u

[valid venture]

https://hearoursilence.com/_next/image?url=%2Fcaptcha%2Fcaptcha-bg.png&w=3840&q=75 idk what this is

it wont open

"We/You are MIDA", "OBS BREAKS THEIR CHAINS"

[slate temple]

Found a video that wasn't in any of the stickers I went through

https://assets.thecdn.io/854798b1-50b7-4bf6-9929-6b4baca8479a.mp4

[valid venture]

were was this

[slate temple]

sources -> zine -> Scroll all the way to the right then scroll down to the only line still visible. I'm going down the mp4 files in that line

[valid venture]

yeah im checking zine rn

think i found somethinmg

"OBS BREAKS THEIR CHAINS

OBS is tied to this

I found something

if you type Tau Ceti in the yellow background you get a mesag esaying,

"tau ceti is dying poison corrupted"

Sticker 52 plus light green on any BG unlock something but i dont what is sticker 52

[swift fox]

Did anyone else play Armoured Core 6? I feel like the general settings share a lot of similarities at a glance. Mercs being sent off world to a former human colony that’s been ruined and working for the highest bidder.

[visual lynx]

52.4 miles in a double Marathon

[valid venture]

https://one.voice.many.hearoursilence.com

check this

[visual lynx]

the old Mac creator codes for Marathon and Marathon 2 were 26.2 and 52.4

Infinity's was 26.∞

[slate temple]

Plays mp4 with "Every revolution needs a villain"

[valid venture]

yo the fucking scripts are solving ts so fast

https://one.voice.many.hearoursilence.com revise this please, i dont know whether this is relñated or not

[visual lynx]

also 5+2=7

[valid venture]

im finding shit

[slate temple]

Access Denied

[valid venture]

install obs

start leaking this to twitter and reddit if you can

[upbeat jackal]

The OBS thing is old

It's from the 2025 gameplay reveal ARG

[grave ferry]

i honestly can't wait for the lore video on this game by My Name Is Byf (the guy who made the 10 hour long Destiny lore video)

[valid venture]

probably we are missing a clearence

OBS break their chains

we need to stream

[upbeat jackal]

You're about a year late for it, I'm sorry to say

[valid venture]

oh

odd

its on the source thing

[upbeat jackal]

hearoursilence.com is the general MIDA website

The OBS thing was that people would stream themselves watching a site to hype up the gameplay reveal

[slate temple]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/790086029724876810/1462963914781364399/low-tier-arachne.gif

[tranquil basin]

Religiously

[broken zinc]

Oh snap we got a new arg up?

[valid venture]

well shit im dumb, anywho,

You need to pair certain stickers with certain background colors to trigger certain stuff

The word Tau Ceti triggers an MP4

[oak gust]

Hey all, I’m sorry to interject, but I’m hoping to connect with someone who is extremely familiar with the Marathon franchise lore. Working on a project and I need some verification/review/validation. Feel free to DM me!

[exotic glade]

Yall hope we see the Sket or Phor in the future>

?

I know the compilers are in the game

[valid venture]

There is something 3D in the website being rendered

its using three.js

[sudden pollen]

[echo sundial]

I'm too zoomer brained to play the 90's release of marathon, is there like a lore resource to get up to date with all of that?

That said Ill probably go back and play it eventually

[dim edge]

If you just want to read all the terminals in the game and read a lot of lore, Hamish Sinclair's old site has you covered. https://marathon.bungie.org/story/

He has one for PID as well, and a page on the connections to new-Marathon via the ARG

[dim edge]

and the news has been keeping up with the codex releases from the server slam

[echo sundial]

thats awesome thanks

[dim edge]

I'm not going to pretend the old marathon games are perfect but they're definitely worth a play if you like old 90s shooters

[bitter hatch]

100%

[dim edge]

If you get filtered by M1 imo just skip it and start with 2

[echo sundial]

I was able to play through all of the original half-lifes and their DLC's

couldn't finish classic doom which I think is more of marathons style from what I've seen

but its a me problem really

a skill issue

[dim edge]

Oh man if Ultimate Doom filtered you then you would not like M1 lol

[echo sundial]

I guess I played quake too

that was fun

[dim edge]

Do we have any information about the difference between exfils and normal jump pad technology? Given that the loading screen when starting a run displays the old **JUMP PAD ACTIVATION INITIALIZATION START** **TRANSPORT WHEN READY**
I assume shells are manufactured by the worms in orbit and teleported down to Tau Ceti. In that case, what's stopping runners from using the same teleportation technology for instant transportation offworld?

[wind furnace]

i was thinking that our shells are transported to tau ceti and then our consciousnesses are 'plugged in' once we're ready

[exotic glade]

yputube

[exotic glade]

from what I understand about AI in Marathon, they can only tp you in locations they control

dullahan cant tp you out of space and such in og marathon

you can be SENT there tho

[sage lark]

id assume its like they can pop us in randomly in thos areas but the anomaly or tau ceti in general then messes with the transport stuff so you need to use extraction beacons

[dim edge]

There are autonomous "dumb" teleporters that are hard-linked to specific locations though

[exotic glade]

Fair, but this is moreso for teleportation anywhere

if you wanna be instantly moved without a tertiary devic

the ai needs to be in control of the area

as Oni doesnt Control the locations on Tau Ceti, she can only drop us in and leave us until we create something for her to pull us ouit with

thats what I understand at least

[sage lark]

thats what it feels like

[dim edge]

I guess I'd need to know how jump pad technology works to understand that further. Maybe it has some expensive set-up process

[sage lark]

probably the inlore reason for random spawns

[exotic glade]

I assume this bc Tieko can tp you into space in Marathon Infinity and Dullahan cant teleport you back out

[dim edge]

teiko and dullahan lol

[sage lark]

we got temu version of Durandal and Tycho 😭

[exotic glade]

idk how to spell their names

gang

i was listening to audio files and never looked at my screen

my bad

[sage lark]

jk jk no worries

no hard feelings

[exotic glade]

durandal is defo coming back though

you cant make the slogan of the game like HIS iconic line

[sage lark]

hes heard already when you drop in sometimes

[dim edge]

Oh are there durandal lines in the game?

[exotic glade]

no the slogan of the game

Escape Will Make Me God

[sage lark]

if you scroll up a bunch he has a line thats very rare

[slate temple]

where did you see this?

[sage lark]

people heard the same voice as the Ozymandias poem

[dim edge]

Oh I mean what Simon is talking about

[exotic glade]

Ah fair

Durandal would kinda be as egoistical enought to come back to Tau Ceti long after the colony was dead

[dim edge]

But the ozymandias poem is the cyborg isn't it?

Unless you mean like

The I've been conquered 1000 times poem

[sage lark]

in the cinematic with assassin and vandal

[dim edge]

I'll have to watch that cinematic then

[sage lark]

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

https://youtu.be/fvbEnWLRo1s?si=veeFACJZCIN2AXZI&t=424

timestamped

[exotic glade]

Durandal my beloved

you sold everyone out on the uesc marathon

but they lowk deserved it tho

(they didnt im coping)

[proven copper]

There's some graffiti in the Data Wall that says "The sword that split time" or something like that. Definitely talking about Durandal

[exotic glade]

Wouldnt that be the Roid?

[sage lark]

why?

[exotic glade]

the MC is the one that splits time and goes through different timelines, no?

isnt Durandal left behind each time

[sage lark]

Durandal is the sword of Roland

[proven copper]

Durandal is the name of a sword from history/mythology in real life, so that's what I was following

[exotic glade]

OHHHH

I keep forgetting that aspect of his name'

[sage lark]

Durandal/Thoth also is enabling that time travel/timelines no?

[exotic glade]

Ah true

what ended up being the final timeline again?

[sage lark]

wrkncacnter not woken up

[exotic glade]

well yeah I know that

but what events got retconned by that timeline

[sage lark]

probably most of M2

the colony wasnt destroyed/nuked neither was the marathon

the spht may be hostile

and earth/sol didnt get Leelas transmission but maybe durandals

[hazy mist]

hello guys is there any new arg content

[dim edge]

It seems obvious to me that this marathon is a different timeline than the originals but only slightly diverged. The marathon was launched in 2773 and contact was lost for "100 years", which puts us at 2873. Durandal should be heading to earth with the Spht'Kr to warn them about the invading Pfhor fleet since FTL wasn't really a thing in the old school harder sci fi Marathon lore. However now that we have FTL communications it begs the question of how humanity could figure that out but Durandal couldn't.

[sage lark]

2773?

it was a 300 year journey

[dim edge]

Oh wait you're right the marathon arrived at 2773

[valid venture]

nvm confusaed it 4 fabric

[exotic glade]

wasnt the entire point of Durandal selling out the Marathon to steal a Pfhor FTL ship?

to outrun the end of the universe?

or something

[sage lark]

he didnt know it would be the Pfhor that would come

he just sent a message

and used the Pfhors attack to escape

[exotic glade]

ye

and took an FTL ship specifically, no?

[sage lark]

something like that

[valid venture]

Didnt Durandal try to free himself to become god but accidentally attracted Phor due to the signals. Why the fuck is he trying to warn them now

[storm field]

yeah he was trying to escape the universe, hence the slogan, "escape will make me god"

[sage lark]

then went to Lhowon

[dim edge]

He knew about the pfhor explicitly iirc, he was researching it

[slate temple]

I couldn't finding anything else

[exotic glade]

Durandal is such a lowkey goated villain/hero

btw i checked the chart

[valid venture]

https://traxus.global

ehh

[exotic glade]

in the last timeline and the canon timeline of infinity

[valid venture]

idk if this is related or not

[exotic glade]

Durandals core was never pulled, but destroyed

Teiko LEFT the Pfhor fleet

[slate temple]

he wanted to attract someone so he could escape humans and it happened to be the phor

[valid venture]

https://uesc.io

[exotic glade]

and shadowed Durandal

[valid venture]

thats what im reffering to

caused a colony extinction by accident

[exotic glade]

Also probably BIGGEST change in the final timeline

[dim edge]

Durandal has asked this question himself

     
Boomer is crawling with former colonists
newly awakened from stasis, and the ship is
too crowded to be manageable in battle.
I've decided to establish a human
headquarters on the planet, near the S'pht
Citadel of Antiquity.

I can barely tolerate humans: slow, stupid,
and irritating. Their only contribution to
my existence was the chance discovery that
made my rampancy possible.

Yet I warned Sol of its impending invasion,
and even stayed long enough to show the
UESG how to build Warp Capable Fusion
Missiles. I feel some strange loyalty to
humanity.

Perhaps it is because I feel comfortable
manipulating humans that I desire to save
them. My feelings and thoughts constantly
migrate to binary opposites.

[exotic glade]

Aye Nak is the timeline where the marine was kidnapped by Teiko

not Durandal

[storm field]

Has anyone done any of the discord contracts? I want to but not sure how (except upload in game footge)

[slate temple]

it's really hard to do most at this point

[exotic glade]

so Infinity badically retconned the entirety of M2

Which tbf

was already the setup to something horrible

[dim edge]

I wouldn't call it retconning

[storm field]

Are they from way back? or recent contracts?

[dim edge]

More like multiple stable timelines

[exotic glade]

well we transitioned to that timeline no?

oh btw whats that whole ordeal about the colony being nuked>?

I thought the Pfhor massacred everyone three months after M1

[slate temple]

recent, you can apparently get in game rewards for doing a certain amount

[sage lark]

thats the nuking

they nuked the colony to bedrock or something

[valid venture]

https://hearoursilence.com/secret

check this shit

[slate temple]

looks similar to some older images from a past arg

[valid venture]

yeah

the source code might be getting mixed with the old arg

https://hearoursilence.com
https://hearoursilence.com/zine
https://hearoursilence.com/secret
https://hearoursilence.com/hidden
https://hearoursilence.com/api

[exotic glade]

ah so the nuke never happened?

any reason yet?

or are we left in the dark about that

[sage lark]

marathon infinity

the timelines

or the AI lied

[exotic glade]

yes but what event changed? dont we regardlessly get kidnapped?

by either Teiko or Durandal

[sage lark]

but the colonists survived past 2794 when the invasion happened

thats already not consistent with the stuff we knew from OG games

2812 contagion

2827 anomaly

[exotic glade]

interesting

[dim edge]

The colony has been wiped out. Phhht! Just like that.

[exotic glade]

a lie maybe?

or survivors?

survivors doesnt seem likely

youd see the planet bombed to hell

[dim edge]

Iirc it was that the scout ship was wiped out by the officer onboard the marathon as well as the well prepared security on the Tau Ceti colony, and then when Durandal took the officer to lhowon a more seasoned Pfhor battle group arrived and completely decimated Tau Ceti

Durandal laments not being there to help in m2

[exotic glade]

hm

well the final timeline is when Teiko kidnaps the marine

that most likely influenced a lot

[dim edge]

The end of M1 has Leela note that the only real resistance was on the marathon, and Tau Ceti had no problem

Mostly due to having 9 other battleroids running around

If 1 can bring the marathon back from the brink imagine what 9 can do when they're already activated and onsite

[sly frost]

It’s going to be terrifying to run into them in the new game

[exotic glade]

I dont think the Battleroids are even alive at this point

or the UESC would.... have a horrible time

[dim edge]

They never were

[sly frost]

They were kinda zombies cyborgs anyway

[exotic glade]

well I meant theyre probably scrap somewhere

The poor NuCal runner when he loots a corpse and it slowly gets up

[sage lark]

#📚marathon-lore-discussion message

here you go this is probably the most consistent write up of what probably happened and what timeline we are in

[dim edge]

I cannot wait for all the deep lore enemies to show back up. Battleroids, Hulks, Pfhor, Sph't, there's so many cool characters that would make for good reimagined designs and be fun to fight

[sage lark]

Pfhorrest is the guy for lore

[valid venture]

https://hearoursilence.com is this from the old arg or

[dim edge]

I say deep lore but it's kinda just lore

Deep lore by m2026 standards

[exotic glade]

tbf

if a Battleroid enemy shows up in game

itd most likely have a flee mechanic and not a death when you fight it

since theres only 10

[dim edge]

You can just make more battleroids

They're officially outlawed but since when has anyone in m2026 cared about the laws

[sly frost]

Yeah i can’t wait to end up back on the marathon.

[dim edge]

Like, there were 10 on the marathon and those were UESC sanctioned 😏

[sly frost]

What keeps getting me in M2026 is that UESC are the bad guys. I grew up with them being the good ones

[exotic glade]

were they sanctioned?

I thought the guy who smuggled them on was MIDA aligned

[sly frost]

Yeah, that’s what I thought. MIDA was responsible for them being there

[sage lark]

Strauss smuggled them on board and is a MIDA operative

[exotic glade]

MIDA didnt have good intentions most likely

[sly frost]

But I’m not the sharpest with the lore. It’s been decades

[exotic glade]

they never do.

MIDA could reintroduce the Battleroids

[sage lark]

rebelling an opressive government isnt good intentions I guess

[dim edge]

I thought it was just the arms that were smuggled onboard. I feel like Leela wouldn't have the manifests that they were onboard in that case

Actually, more likely, they were smuggled on as battleroids specifically by mida but on the manifest as "Cyborgs"

[exotic glade]

sorry but in lore MIDA took over the mars government for three months

[dusty granite]

Well I mean Runners fighting them doesn't make them evil

[exotic glade]

and was responsible for like

[sage lark]

no they blended in with the colonists

[exotic glade]

10 PERCENT of Mars' population dying

[dim edge]

Do we want to talk about the MIDA firing lines

[sage lark]

10% this 10% that

[slate temple]

hey can anyone tell me what year the Marathon got to tau ceti

[sage lark]

you gotta break a couple eggs to make an omelette

[urban wave]

Just fuel for the fire

[sly frost]

That’s fair. But the idea is that they are being hostile to everyone it seems.

[dim edge]

2773, according to the lost network packets

[exotic glade]

the UESC is definitely shady though this time around

[dusty granite]

Different timeline ig

[slate temple]

are there any other dates?

[sage lark]

they are trying to cover up what happened at the colony

[nova juniper]

Massive post on reddit called "The complete story of marathon", wish I could link here. Anyway, that also led me to the bungie.org website. These things should be linked in here somewhere, so much stuff out there made by the community to bring the lore to more people. We should find a way to surface it here.

[exotic glade]

Well the entire colony is their property

[sly frost]

True. I guess I’m also biased when I’m getting shot at hah!

[dim edge]

https://marathon.bungie.org/story/bungie.html OG M1 timeline available at the bottom of this page

[sage lark]

all the other factions have invested in it

only really illegal one would be MIDA and Arachne

[exotic glade]

Yeah true, but thats u]just what the UESC belives probably

I wonder if this is a cover up or not

[slate temple]

What are the dates for other timelines??

[exotic glade]

because EVERYONE already knows, right?

[sage lark]

who is everyone

we as players know there was an alien attack, but the factions dont

[exotic glade]

all the companies are already aware of the distress call by leela? or was it durandals message

[sage lark]

no

[exotic glade]

I forgot

[dim edge]

I don't know if we have timelines for anything beyond marathon 1. The terminal clocks are all broken in the game and they don't give explicit times and dates

[dusty granite]

Is Durandal real in this game

[exotic glade]

was it genuinely only the UESC that was told everything?

[sage lark]

Leelas message never arrived or was sent

[sly frost]

At the very least we know that the first level in Marathon 2 happens 17 years after M1

[sage lark]

only message received was "Somewhere in the heavens they are waiting"

[nova juniper]

Dunno, if this link will work here, and dont know if any of you wrote this, but this brought me here. The story in this universe is so brilliant. https://www.reddit.com/r/Marathon/comments/1rin9ny/the_complete_story_of_marathon_tldr_or_the_lore/

[dim edge]

I assumed the "Somewhere in the heavens, they are waiting" line was the corrupted Leela message

[sage lark]

was it cuz it was Durandals voice speaking it

[exotic glade]

Sounds more like Durandal

[dim edge]

Why would Durandal send that?

[exotic glade]

he WOULD make a distress call sound dramatic like that

[sage lark]

we dont know

[dim edge]

It was received from the marathon

[nova juniper]

are there any books or other sources of lore?

[exotic glade]

the manuals'=

[sage lark]

obivously Leelas message didnt arrive since it was supposed to arrive in 90 something years

[exotic glade]

yeah but didnt that happen though?

[dim edge]

100 years lost contact, 90 years missing message

Lines up imo

[sage lark]

7th timeline guys

[exotic glade]

yeah but M1 still happens

Leela sends it in M1, no?

[sage lark]

not 1:1 we dont know

[dim edge]

Leela was being corrupted, the signals were jammed, and the terminals were already spitting out garbled text anyway

It makes sense to me that Leela sent everything she possibly could and all that showed up after radio waves go out is "somewhere in the heavens, they are waiting"

[exotic glade]

Yeah makes sense

[sage lark]

we will see

[exotic glade]

Currently my belief is that M1 wasnt affected by the 7th timeline

as the kidnapping is part of M2

[dim edge]

Every infinity timeline has to end with m1 being consistent because otherwise Durandal wouldn't be able to be at lhowon

[exotic glade]

mhm

Most likely Leelas message was the one that got to Earth

Durandal might just poke his head out to see what the humies are doing

btw how did we get to Tau Ceti?

FTL?

[dim edge]

300 year colony ship

That's what the marathon is

[exotic glade]

no no

the runners

[sage lark]

we dont know

[exotic glade]

how did WE get there

[dim edge]

Oh good point

[exotic glade]

Im assuming we mayhaps figured out FTL

Or.... teleport technology?

[dim edge]

I was going to suggest that was why we were neurally linked to shells and the only other enemies are either native to Tau Ceti IV or UESC bots

But uh, the codex says runners are in low orbit around Tau Ceti IV so

Oops

[exotic glade]

hm

FTL probably rhen

unless these ships were already there

and every company tried to get their hands on it

but why would they have these machines on Tau Ceti if it was safe for humans around then?

[dim edge]

It could be possible that as soon as contact was lost with the marathon a second salvage group was immediately launched, and technology had progressed enough that we could arrive in far less time

[exotic glade]

so FTL

[dim edge]

Not necessarily ftl

[exotic glade]

well the marathon was going lightspeed, no?

[dim edge]

Relativity is also a fickle thing

[merry olive]

No.

[dim edge]

It was not

[exotic glade]

ah

nevermind then

could also be that all this technology was aboard the Marathon?

or at least with it

and thats why theres things like our links being hijacked?

[dim edge]

What, like all runners are bobs who survived?

[exotic glade]

the UESC trying to stop us from using equipment

no since the shells are made from weaverworms

[merry olive]

So what happened to the colonists?

[exotic glade]

did the marathon have those>

[exotic glade]

dead

[merry olive]

How?

[exotic glade]

killed by the Pfhor 3 months after Marathon 1

[sage lark]

brother that didnt happen

[exotic glade]

It did though

tycho comes back in the 7th timeline

[hazy mist]

arent we not sure what exactly happened to all of them

[sage lark]

it didnt 2812 and 2827 we can see alive colonists

[exotic glade]

thats why YOURE in HIS custody

in timeline 7 tycho owns YOU

[merry olive]

Ts literally misinformation lil bro.

[exotic glade]

im looking at the chart

[merry olive]

In the cinematic short you can see colonists years after the Marathon was attacked.

[exotic glade]

Ah wait

[merry olive]

You see the guy throwing up and collapsing.

[exotic glade]

im a dumbass

[merry olive]

Yes.

We knew that.

[exotic glade]

I keep forgetting about that new tidbit

[exotic glade]

mean

[merry olive]

[merry olive]

[exotic glade]

Most likely that Pfhor return did happen though

[hazy mist]

also the one guy explodrs

[exotic glade]

because the MC still needs to be kidnapped

but they mustve not deployed the nuke

[exotic glade]

[hazy mist]

[merry olive]

Imagine exploding in the big... 2827.

[hazy mist]

IMAGINE...

[exotic glade]

but yeah

most likely the colonists fucked something up

[merry olive]

So when was the Marathon attacked? Like decades before that?

[dim edge]

2773

[sage lark]

2794

[merry olive]

....

[sage lark]

2773 is when the marathon arrives at tau ceti

[hoary steppe]

Do you anyone have any phantom wallet you wanna sell but the catch is it has to have tons of previous transactions I’m willing to buy it for 2-3sol

[sage lark]

2794 is when the attack happens

[exotic glade]

so 20 years, no?

[dim edge]

oh the attack

yeah 2794

[exotic glade]

its been like 2 decades

[merry olive]

And there's still colonists.

See?

[exotic glade]

mhm

[merry olive]

So what happened?

[merry olive]

I think it may have been Bingus.

[exotic glade]

probably some humongous fuckup

[merry olive]

[sage lark]

anomaly + contagion

[exotic glade]

NO

[sage lark]

and we dont know

[exotic glade]

BINGUS IS GOOD

[merry olive]

I'm guessing none of the codex logs from the "colony era" are post attack?

[dim edge]

oh image uploads are disabled i was gonna just upload the timeline as an image

[exotic glade]

pretty sure theres logs ab the contagion, no?

[merry olive]

Yeah lol I took a crapton of pictures of the posters and stuff.

[merry olive]

Yeah, I'm heavily investing in this theory.

[dim edge]

they were spending all their time writing graffiti, they couldn't go to a terminal and write up logs about how they were dying

[merry olive]

In Dire Marsh there's hints of pathogen experimentation.

[exotic glade]

most likely ran out of time then

[dim edge]

There's also a repeating graffiti of "THANK GOD IT'S YOU" which to me implies that BoB bombs were deployed on the colonists as well

[exotic glade]

cant fix a disease if it kills everyone before you can try

[proper robin]

Contagion happened, messed, anomaly messed with the AIs as there was that one log of the seed vault where an AI seems to have some issues, not rampancy since that was apparently solved.

[merry olive]

I don't know if this pathogen was only infecting crops and causing crop failure, or infecting humans, but there's one poster that says SAFETY, and shows a human covered in red bumps on their face. Said poster is outside a lab with tons of safety equipment.

Sounds like there was a contagious pathogen?

[merry olive]

Wtf is bob lil bro. I'm thinking I'll play the classic games this week ngl.

[slate temple]

there was logs about some kind of contagion that was also affecting ai which goes beyond what was previously thought possible. A form of corruption for both humans and robots

[proper robin]

Couldn't even have the decency smh my head.

[sly frost]

Bob is a born on board

[dim edge]

Born On Boards

[sly frost]

General civilian of marathon

they’re everywhere

[dim edge]

i wouldn't say general civilian, there are hints that bobs were discriminated against as working class grunts

[sly frost]

Ok true

[merry olive]

And wtf is a bob bomb?

[dim edge]

the pfhor had technology to hide suicide bombs as synthetic humanoids

so they made them look like bobs

[sly frost]

Some bobs are actually poor clones with bombs

[proper robin]

I'm not sure where I heard it but there was a bit of "Report if you have elevated temperatures before you reported."

[sly frost]

They say “I love you man!” Right before blowing up

[merry olive]

That's wild.

[sly frost]

Or Frog blast the vent core!

[dim edge]

oh FUCK WAIT THE PFHOR HAD TECHNOLOGY TO MAKE SYNTHETIC HUMANOIDS

WHAT DO WE PLAY AS IN M2026

[merry olive]

Bingus.

[dim edge]

god i wish

[slate temple]

[sage lark]

most BoBs were like people/refugees with no homes I think. And there were forced reproduction protocols

theres an interview entry in the game codex

sorry not BoBs

but the original colonists that were the ship "janitors"

parents of the BoBs

[merry olive]

The Marathon colonists were in cryosleep?

[sage lark]

only the more important ones

[proper robin]

The skeleton crew of the ship of 24k people which, for a ship the size of Marathon is an absolute pittance.

[sage lark]

rest were fodder/BoBs

[dim edge]

classic UESC incompetence

[merry olive]

So it was a generation ship??

[dim edge]

yea

[sage lark]

yes 300 years

[merry olive]

What the fuck bro.

[dim edge]

colony ship is the term they use i think

i mean it is deimos

[merry olive]

So most people were slaves or something??

[sage lark]

first 2 generations were singing up for death basically

no not really

[dim edge]

more like lower class

[proper robin]

BoBs are the skeleton crew and their descendants while the colonists themselves were in cryosleep

[merry olive]

Generations are 30 years long or so.

[dim edge]

like you worked for the UESC

[merry olive]

First 9 generations.

[sage lark]

I guess youre right

then first 9

[exotic glade]

it makes sense the colonists were put in cryosleep

[merry olive]

Wdym?

[exotic glade]

you want the scientists to actually get there, right?

[dim edge]

I assume this is the codex you're referring to: https://marathon.bungie.org/story/_images/Arhur_Colony_AI_26Feb26.png

[merry olive]

Bro you said almost everyone was not in cryosleep.

Now you say the colonists themselves were in cryosleep.

[exotic glade]

almost

[dim edge]

i assume the important people were reawakened and returned from cryosleep as they were needed. Bernard Strauss for sure was awake on the Marathon for at least a little bit to poke at Durandal

[valid venture]

I like how halo is based off marathon

most of its lore is based off or pulled from marathon lmfao

similar in ways

[exotic glade]

heard that when Halo got announced people thought it was gonna be Marathon 4 or something, but thats like one source

[sly frost]

It was going to be a marathon game at first

[sage lark]

CE was supposed to be Marathon afaik

[dim edge]

it was going to be marathon 3 yeah

[sly frost]

A mix of myth and marathon. Strategy game

[dim edge]

anyway [marge simpson voice] it's true, but he shouldn't say it

[dusty granite]

Cortana is Durandal's daughter

[valid venture]

The jjaro and the forerunners same conceptsl ol

[exotic glade]

HELL NAW

[valid venture]

The Jjaro IS forerunners

[dim edge]

likely the same characters outright

[sly frost]

Cortana was going to be Durandal in disguise

[merry olive]

Bro answer.

Who was in cryosleep?

[valid venture]

idk

[merry olive]

Some randy said colonists were in cryo.

[dim edge]

some were

i assume the important people were reawakened and returned from cryosleep as they were needed. Bernard Strauss for sure was awake on the Marathon for at least a little bit to poke at Durandal

[merry olive]

ok so nobody knows

[dim edge]

we don't have answers and it kind of doesn't matter?

[exotic glade]

id assume the main bigshots, no?

[dim edge]

i think what's important is that who was in cryosleep and who was maintaining the crew was a huge class disparity

[exotic glade]

you dont really care ab your basic crews getting to Tau Ceti

[dim edge]

as checks out wrt the uesc

[merry olive]

I'm gonna guess the vast majority of people were IN cryosleep, and there was a skeleton crew doing maintenance tasks every now and then.

[dusty granite]

Cortana was going to unleash the W'rkncacnter

[dim edge]

yea that's what they said

the old marathon lore is based largely around class divides

[dusty granite]

In Halo 6

[dim edge]

hold on lemme pull up the codex on bob discrimination

[merry olive]

Bro this guy said the skeleton crew was in cryo.

[dim edge]

he did not lol

[proper robin]

Huh? The skeleton crew on the marathon was the ones that were NOT in cryo.

[merry olive]

You're in cryo.

[dusty granite]

All the rampancy and AI war stuff from Halo 5 feels really Marathon, and it wasn't even Bungie making that one

[merry olive]

[exotic glade]

thats it

youtr going in cryo

[merry olive]

😞

[proper robin]

But as I said. 24k for a ship the size of the marathon is legit nothing.

[merry olive]

Wat?

[proper robin]

This just in, BoBs are just bags filled with tick milk

[open atlas]

Oh

[exotic glade]

the crew was too small for such a big ship

the ship was the size of a MOON

sctuslly sorru

the ship WAS amoon

[sage lark]

i think you overstate the size of Deimos

[merry olive]

Bro there were only like 30k colonists wtf are you talking about 😭

[sage lark]

its not that big

[dim edge]

Oh it was from the manual, not in-game.

The original crew of the Marathon consisted of 50 Senior Staff, 1150 Officers, and 24,000 civilians all of whom were citizens of the Mars Colony or Earth.  Some individuals were placed in stasis for the interstellar journey, but most civilians lived and worked on the ship and raised families there.  As the crew aged, a new generation of humans were born and raised on the Marathon.  By some, these children were looked down upon and called “Bob”, short for born on board.  These citizens grew to run the ship and many can be seen in the game running for their lives.  It is your sworn duty as a security officer to protect Bob.

[sage lark]

its barely a moon

[exotic glade]

deimos is big

noooo

dont say that ab deimos

[merry olive]

It's just a big asteroid lil bro.

[exotic glade]

dont let him hear that

NOOOOOO

YOURE BEING MEAN TO DEIMOS

[sage lark]

radius of 6.2 km

[exotic glade]

https://tenor.com/view/titan-saturn-planet-orbit-space-gif-25567447

[merry olive]

Ts makes no sense.

This game is stupid.

[dim edge]

the lore wasn't researched that well lol

[sage lark]

its from the OG games

[merry olive]

Bungie needs to take the chance to rewrite the lore.

Everyone is already calling the game a reboot anyway.

[merry olive]

Nothing major just shit like this that makes no sense.

Why would a scientist be excited to go on the Marathon? This is from an audio log in the new game.

He talks about living in Tau Ceti IV.

[sage lark]

hes in cryo

[merry olive]

"some individuals" idk lil bro.

I mean, maybe.

[sage lark]

youre taking things too literally

[merry olive]

Sounds odd.

[exotic glade]

like Strauss would defo be in cryo

[proper robin]

"Some" is doing some heavy lifting

[exotic glade]

hes worth too much

[merry olive]

I'm literally Bingus.

[sage lark]

thats true

[exotic glade]

no youre a dumb FOMX

Yoh will never be bingus

[merry olive]

I'm both at once.

[exotic glade]

bingus is too cool for you

[merry olive]

Maybe Bingus was the friends we made along the way.

[dim edge]

emphasis on "would"

that man is deeeeeeeeeeeead

[sage lark]

we learned that in M2 tho no?

so not confirmed

or is it M1?

[proper robin]

M1 I believe, I don't really know

[queen adder]

2 I think

Isn’t it you’re looking in one and then 2 it’s “oh yeah he’s dead”

[dim edge]

Durandal says he wants to go looking for him in 1, but then gets sidetracked. in m2 durandal lets us know he's dead, but it's implied he already knew back then and was just asking us to look for his corpse

[quiet warren]

Man this game hasn't even come out yet, how are there already traxus memes

https://tenor.com/view/traxus-traxus-on-top-marathon-tau-ceti-gif-13367585158258015483

[queen adder]

and the way it plays out is fishy in that it’s just so anticlimactic it could have been legit or it could be a plot hook

[quiet warren]

...nevermind, tenor gif embeds are disabled /sad

[sage lark]

yeah i think we will learn more about him

and that he didnt die in the initial pfhor attack

[proper robin]

Could also be that Durandal is lying. Who knows?

[queen adder]

Yeah

Big point of the series is you can’t take things at face value. A lot of stuff going on underneath even if it never quite leads anywhere. Characters have their own motivation and events that aren’t really explained to you