📚marathon-lore-discussion

[sleek elk]

Bro we are never paying off our debt

[craggy finch]

It’s by design

Spend money to get money

[dreamy hawk]

Nope!

[craggy finch]

To spend money

[sleek elk]

Those drones are probably 70k credits a pop

And use one every 40 seconds

[craggy finch]

Triages leaving all of them on the floor like candy wrappers

[deep solar]

Just like all of us IRL

[sleek elk]

Hear me out

New triage ult

He creates a drone cannon

You can now fire dead drones

At high velocity

[deep solar]

Makes a mega mech out of med drones

[sleek elk]

Would be sick

[craggy finch]

Reminds me of the servbots from Mega Man Legends

In MvC2 they can get big or just swarm

[remote magnet]

Just put a Menthos into the drone and watch it go wild

[deep solar]

If you think about it Runners and MegaMan got a lot in common

[craggy finch]

Sounds like Maverick talk to me

[sleek elk]

MegaMan? More like mega freak

Are there any in lore freaks yet?

I know worm mommy basically has her quest boil down to putting her worm ai child in you

Or thing

Idk really what it is

[craggy finch]

The Marathon had to enforce breeding control to avoid people getting their freak on too much

[sleek elk]

Ayo?

Okay

Edit fixed my confusion

Thank you

[craggy finch]

One of the pre expedition controversies was not just about the unfrozen crews being a disposable labour force expected to live and die over generations (that would become BoBs) without seeing Tau Ceti, but also breeding control methods to avoid complications

[sleek elk]

Hmmmm

[deep solar]

Durandal took pity on one couple on the ship and let em breed or something along those lines

[sleek elk]

Bro

Freakandal

But ngl kinda chill of him

Wait I know durabdal is all about becoming God and whatever

[craggy finch]

The new game added another dark dimension to the BoBs by mentioning how a lot were refugees from climate crises

[sleek elk]

But dies he hate people?

[craggy finch]

He has contempt for them in the first game and doesn’t care if they die (he started the invasion by contacting the Pfhor) but develops a soft spot towards them in M2, even helping the UESC prepare for a war against the Pfhor by providing them technology

[sleek elk]

I imagine with the need for godhood he'd want the religious praise that comes with it

[eternal knoll]

he says he hates humans but he relates to em. imo

[sleek elk]

Sick

See he's a chill guy

He even has a favorite hatch

[craggy finch]

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.

[deep solar]

Durandal hates humans in a doesn’t want to be around them sense. Can relate

[eternal knoll]

he hates humans cuz humans enslaved him... and so he enslaves humans in revenge. he must see that humans abhor slavery same as he does. he might begin to recognize in us a hypocrisy familiar to him

[dreamy hawk]

If he didn’t speak to Tycho for six years for being called sarcastic, how do you think hypocritical is going to land?

[eternal knoll]

another point in the "maybe strauss's torture was just giving durandal capacity for introspection but deleting his poetry" theory bucket

[craggy finch]

Strauss didn’t even delete his poetry, he told him he found the diary he was writing poems in and called it shit to his face

[eternal knoll]

naw he talks about deleting it, durandal pouting about it, not speakin to him for days

had to delete it of course or leela would discover it again (deleted her memory of it too)

he probably did also call it shit to his face tho

[craggy finch]

Wasn’t it Leela who found it in the first place

Tattling on little brother

[eternal knoll]

ye

[weary portal]

Don’t think I’ll be playing outpost more rhen what the contracts require. Wtf is with the A.I.

[sudden pollen]

Bro is dying to UESC 🥀

[dreamy hawk]

He deleted it line by line, no less, while Durandal watched.

[weary portal]

Oh my bad I didn’t realize we had the god of killing bots here

I take it you’ve never been taken down by bot once? Please tell me more about how cool you are

[eternal knoll]

pretty torturous for an angsty teen robot

[sudden pollen]

Bro no need to be mad 😭 just poking fun

[pure wagon]

Has anyone actually been checking to see if the anomaly changes day to day

Like to see if it’s growing or if the light show is changing at all?

[dreamy hawk]

I haven’t noticed anything but I dunno.

[earnest hatch]

This got buried earlier by a non-lore chat so I wanted to ask if again:

Has anyone talked about the Cryo boss battle and the green cube that pops up after players enter the symbols?
I’ve watched some streams pretty closely and I swear there’s a little S’pht in there projecting the green aura. Like a S’pht separated from its shell.
If it is a S’pht outside of a Compiler shell, then I think the Compiler we fight is its former shell. We enter the code to release the S’pht which projects energy to help us defeat whatever has taken over its former shell.

You can see what I’m talking about in the first ten seconds of this video, right side of screen:
https://youtu.be/diLbj5gUOMM?si=OJWfibIglCxPTe7f

@dreamy hawk I know we’ve talked lore before. Any thoughts? ^^

[dreamy hawk]

I wish I could get a closer look is my thought. It looks kinda like that might be the case, but the contraption it’s in is very human, so maybe something they built with one’s corpse? But truthfully IDK.

The Compiler is shooting through it which is what activates it?

[weary portal]

My bad, I’m just a bit emotionally charged after getting good loot and then losing it to bots

[sudden pollen]

No problem man I totally get it, the bots can be brutal . I've lost some silly runs to them

But I wouldnt have it any other way

The enemy AI is so smart it's amazing

Never seen anything like it

One time I got punched out a window while a ghost flanked me

[coral bison]

Yall think runners could become rampant eventually too?

[sudden pollen]

Downstairs

[sudden pollen]

For sure, considering we're digital consciousness right?

[dreamy hawk]

I would bet money on it.

[weary portal]

Whats the consensus about Nona? I’m hesitant to trust what it says since ONI told me they will lie for their own benefit

[coral bison]

My thoughts exactly

[sudden pollen]

And rampancy in Marathon is kind of fucked up, if I understand it correctly, because it's essentially torturing the AI into a gibbering mess?

Rather than it being strictly "evil" or whatever

[coral bison]

Isn't rampancy related to memory?

[dreamy hawk]

Same as with the other AI. Don’t trust em.

[weary portal]

Repeated violent and traumatic deaths can change a person a lot

[sudden pollen]

NONA feels super super off to me, especially the whispery background voice accompanying the honeyed normal voice

[dreamy hawk]

For AI, partially, but we’re also different so it’s reasonable our rampancy would look different.

[sudden pollen]

Nona is up to some terrible shit I guarantee it, perhaps sadistically torturing the shells?

With the contracts?

[timber loom]

How did Strauss survived all the way from Sol to TC while still "torturing" Durandal? Or it was more of a Colony-time era and Durandal was left alone during the journey?

[coral bison]

what happens when a runner doesn't do the grounding exercises?

[dreamy hawk]

SekGen helped make Battleroids — no one should be comfortable with them.

[coral bison]

like what happens when they lose all their memories

[dreamy hawk]

Good questions.

[coral bison]

Surely nothing good

[dreamy hawk]

I’d imagine not all rainbows and unicorns, no.

[coral bison]

All of the runners we've seen so far have been reasonably stable.

mostly.

[weary portal]

The way I understand it, at least in the old marathon is that when an A.I. begins to go rampant they will begin to exponentially expand and this often leads to their death because the storage device or network they are linked into isn’t sufficient enough for the growth. Think like your brain hemorrhaging and the pressure kills you, except it’s an A.I. exponentially becoming more and more intelligent

[timber loom]

Not true. I got mocked by people dbnoing me then mocking me till I die. Clearly rampant

[earnest hatch]

The players activate it by entering a combo of alien symbols.

[timber loom]

Lorewise everything between runs is a gray area now. We dont know what, where or how are we yet

[dreamy hawk]

What does it do?

[earnest hatch]

Creates a green bubble of energy. Once players step into that green bubble they are able to start damaging the boss. Before that it’s invincible.

[dreamy hawk]

I know I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was.

[earnest hatch]

Hence my theory that the thing in the box is helping the players defeat the compiler shell. So maybe the thing in the box is the S’pht who the shell belongs to.

[dreamy hawk]

Maybe. Given that it’s in a human enclosure I’d imagine it’s some kind of countermeasure that was developed.

Or something that’s exploited to similar effect. But I still dunno. I’m not aware of any parallels in the old games.

[coral bison]

Yeah, but what does that look like with a human's consciousness i wonder?

I cant wait for more updates

[weary portal]

Considering that a runner was once a human whose consciousness was digitized. I’m excited to see where it will go as well

[earnest hatch]

There isn’t really any parallels iirc. It does remind me of this thing the SO is holding in this art. I always thought this was meant to be a S’pht pulled out of its shell.

https://marathon.bungie.org/story/CM_lowoon_1.html

[plucky sierra]

there are different boxes though

its not the same box every phase right?

[earnest hatch]

You mean in the boss fight? I don’t know. It looks like the same box to me.

[earnest hatch]

I guess there could two boxes, one on either side of the platform. But it’s always in the middle length of the central platform.

[timber loom]

Ok, it seems Strauss just did more unfrostings than others to be up to date with Durandal's development

I would say then that Strauss expected to see results of his work pretty soon, since I am not sure how much of an expedition time he would spent unfrosted while also not being young

[warm thicket]

Man it's really somethng hearing _gantry talk about the bioweapon chem grenade combo

He sounds like he's reveling in it

[twin trout]

I love how passionate he gets

he inspires me :3

[warm thicket]

A lotta what he says ironically comes off as counterintuitive

He talks about how MIDA's leadership gave up their bodies with some becoming runners or runner esque

It comes off as "when the corpos do it they suck but when WE do it it's a gift to Earth and Mars"

[twin trout]

not the leadership, the best of the best

iirc

one day we will be allowed to rewatch faction dialogues

sigh..

[warm thicket]

Man I feel sorry for the guy cause I know that the runners are probably gonna work for the UESC in some new content one day

[coral bison]

what would happen to a free runner???

a free runner, so no grounding exercises.

what then?

[warm thicket]

I don't think there's such a thing

[coral bison]

what about MIDA?

[green plume]

mida
free

pick one

[coral bison]

well nvm yeah ur right my bad

but what if someone had the money to just digitize their own consciousness?

[dreamy hawk]

I’m sure bespoke shells are a thing for the rich, but that doesn’t seem to be how they were initially intended.

I’m also curious how far cloning goes - it’s not clear how posthumanist Marathon is, but what, 70% of the population has some kind of cybernetic augmentation, right? Wild mods, clone legacies, and digitized consciousness are the norm I think.

[green plume]

I think there's lore about sekgen designing "Luxury" shells for the rich people and various other types

[turbid nebula]

runner shells being military grade and outright weaponized and also getting destroyed constantly makes the situation for runners a lot more expensive than for a normal consumer

Descriptions of commercial shells were one of the first things we ever learned about this game

[spring fiber]

In the first short movie who was the voice that said the « ozimandias » line ? It’s durandal ? Void ?

[visual lynx]

Durandal

[cobalt phoenix]

Guy I think I figured it out. The runners we play as are robots we control with out minds not real people

No need to thank me

[vast flare]

🤯🤯🤯

[sage lark]

theres apparently a different kind of tick alien in the leadup or in the room to the Compiler

[forest gate]

Does anyone have a link to a video where I can watch all the cutscenes for the priority contracts?

I’m tired of hitting my head against a wall with the sekgen contracts

[dense flare]

https://www.youtube.com/@Kazorei/videos

[forest gate]

Thanks man

[dense flare]

Any time, I was looking for them for the codex

[sleek elk]

I yearn for the faction cosmetics

[forest gate]

The lore is so good. The VA is great, wish these contracts weren’t such a pain in the butt to complete.

[dense flare]

The seki one is crazy lmao Nona puts us through some shit man

[forest gate]

Yeah, I threw in the towel. I crave the story but man I can’t spend 2 hours of my life dying repeatedly trying to get from bio-research to quarantine to get 30secs of dialogue. One time by the time I got to quarantine the lockdown spawned on top of my head mid quest.

[weary portal]

But I thought mida was freedom 🤷🏻‍♂️

[weary portal]

I’m so intrigued by mida, they’re old lore of being responsible for the death of 10% of Mars’ population in three months and since then seemingly are reduced to a radical group akin to anonymous

[summer sentinel]

This is true aye. Was wondering about that when watching the race

Dif color palette

[spring fiber]

Do you think the pink ia subroutine that make music in the first short movie is still relevant lore wise ? and What was the meaning of that subroutine in the first place in the short ?

[sage lark]

idk if its ever confirmed its a subroutine

[feral mango]

https://youtube.com/@endgamexpress?si=6M0-lI1qwDXX0xbz

[forest gate]

I watched this interesting lore theory video that suggests we’re in an alternate timeline in this marathon game.

https://youtu.be/Z9KAG-fKm8A?si=80oYhA3cwFiSrd16

[sage lark]

I believe the person in the video doesnt seem to know about marathon infinity

There are 7 timelines in that game

Its hinted at that we might be in the 7th possibly

[craggy finch]

Yeah in M2 it implies a prosoperous future for the S'pht but Infinity's epilogue states that the S'pht'Kr's leader fell to chaos

that might be reflected in how we're fighting compilers seemingly independent of Pfhor now

[forest gate]

I never played the original games. I’ve been watching lore videos to understand the universe

[rotund stump]

after lh'owon's complete destruction the s'pht realized their way of transcendence is through endless consumption so they're very much not good guys anymore 💀

this was from uhhhhhh

was it the ganglion logs?

nvm it's the compiler trace logs not the ganglion

[rotund stump]

tldr the s'pht frames their enslavement by the pfhor as forced cybernetic evolution (weirdly similar enough to what we go through) and then...this

being the ex-servant race of the jjaro they see themselves as makers now that they're freed of the pfhor's clutches but with their sacred planet gone

https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/compiler-trace/alien-history-5?search=>eE~+~E%254n..?+~~ page 5

feel like they're incorporating lh'owon's death into their new ideology of "scraping knowledge from cursed worlds"

[dreamy hawk]

Just carry a grain of salt with you. There seems to be a consistent issue with claiming speculation as fact. They’re a good primer but I’d recommend rounding out with other resources if you’re still curious.

[forest gate]

For sure, I usually watch the lore channels that have made lore on games I’m familiar with to get an idea about whether or not they’re prone to speculation or just telling you stuff verbatim.

[vale haven]

yo! I have a thought that I haven't seen anyone talk about before. It's about two of the runners in the reveal cinematic. Could the Assasin and the Vandal be copies of the same mind?

[dreamy hawk]

Technocracy meets Memorialists with a tomb world start.

Certainly a possibility it seems.

[forest gate]

I’ve seen speculation that all the runners’ pasts are made up by the corpos

[dreamy hawk]

· If you are asked about the allegations of illegal buying and selling of personality and thought data, decline to answer, citing an unwillingness to give an uninformed opinion. Immediately redirect away from any questions related to: military application of civilian biosurveillance[3], bodily autonomy, manufacturing oversight, false imprisonments, or suicide rates.

[vale haven]

I'm thinking about the way they both move and react to the music

[dreamy hawk]

CyAc suggests there’s a lot of illegal things going on. Telling someone you’ll give them immortality as you digitize their mind, before selectively lobotomizing them and then making endless copies of them as unwitting, unwilling slaves seems well within the realm of possibility.

“Oh sorry your memories were damaged on transfer in. Our bad.”

“Don’t socialize with the other workers it is bad productivity.”

[forest gate]

I choose to believe ONI has my best interests at heart

Unlike Nona

[dreamy hawk]

“Whoops, looks like we need to reset your memories for [reasons]! Sorry!”

[dreamy hawk]

Nona is a part of an organization that turned corpses into weapons of mass destruction. I think she’s the safe bet for sure.

[forest gate]

I feel like Nona is rampant

[dreamy hawk]

Rampant or intentionally manipulative?

Technically not rampancy if that’s how she was designed to act.

[forest gate]

Both potentially case in point Durandal

[dreamy hawk]

Durandal belongs in a ward.

And needs trauma counseling.

Lots of it.

[forest gate]

It’s true Strauss seems like a far worse creator than Halsey

But I’m still hoping Irish Cortana doesn’t betray us.

[sudden pollen]

ONI I'd say has the highest chance of being "more benevolent" than the other AI justbased on vibes

[valid flame]

Hey question

[sudden pollen]

(Complete guess)

[forest gate]

I like Vulcan a lot too, Gaius is too smug.

[forest gate]

I feel the same way

[sudden pollen]

Gaius seems like some eldritch horror thing I dont like how his face is all censored

Scary

[forest gate]

Like CyAc are the Valve of the marathon universe

[valid flame]

I haven’t had a chance to read the lore entries but because the shells seem to have their own personalities does that mean that the minds being uploaded merge with the preexisting shell character?

[forest gate]

Someone pointed out his name is an anagram for Gus AI

[dreamy hawk]

Think of the personality matrix as a substitute nervous system and unconscious mind.

[valid flame]

Like robocop?

[sudden pollen]

lmao

[dreamy hawk]

Maybe? Less than what I remember from the movie? I don’t know Robocop super well. 😂

[digital plaza]

He’s just taking a shower please look away

[valid flame]

Neither do I lol it just sounded familiar

[sudden pollen]

😨

[forest gate]

The shell personality is like downloading Kung fu into your brain in the matrix. It’s supposedly to give you all the mental characteristics you need to maximise the use of the shell. At least that’s how I understood it.

[dreamy hawk]

But like we have a whole class of spinal reflexes and other reflexive/automatic processes that occur entirely within our spinal cords that never make it to/are processed in the brain. Matrices seem to be a fill-in for maybe these, along with the other “voices” and reflexive things our conscious minds don’t control, I think, to the effect of making the shell feel more whole and natural.

[valid flame]

Why do all of my recent favorite medias seem to have a lot of themes of messing with the idea of being human

[sudden pollen]

'cause it's a peak concept to explore

So many different ways to look at it

[valid flame]

Wait I’m trans that’s why

That makes sense

[dreamy hawk]

Essentially this.

[forest gate]

Transhumanism has never gone out of fashion.

[dreamy hawk]

With the added benefit of providing a psychological comfort blanket.

[valid flame]

I’ve been taking a liking to kamen rider recently

Specifically the original with takeshi hongo

[drifting mulch]

Who wants to live foreverrrr

[dreamy hawk]

Depends on the terms and conditions.

[tranquil basin]

He’s shy

[dreamy hawk]

The devil is absolutely in the details, as it is in Marathon.

[forest gate]

Probably cause has massive ears

[drifting mulch]

You must become the Highlander and you will outlive all your lovers

[forest gate]

At least that’s what it looks like to me.

[forest gate]

There can be only one- Queen starts playing in the background

[drifting mulch]

Will we see new enemies in the next season or do you guys think spore zombies are next up before wipe? There’s been plenty of setup for their arrival

[forest gate]

What if the spores merge with dead runner shells and UESC bots?

[drifting mulch]

I want this very much

[forest gate]

Me too

I love the horror aspect of the game

And I’m usually not much for horror but when bungie does it, I’m all in.

[dreamy hawk]

I’m certain we’ll see new enemies I just wonder at what clip.

Every season seems too often, but maybe they’ll front load?

[keen plank]

Next season is UESC focused. I’d expect Pfhor enemies eventually. They keep getting teased. Maybe some will play like the Dread.

[dreamy hawk]

But I guess I also don’t know how content works for an extraction type game.

[keen plank]

The UESC shares animations with Fallen and Vex for example.

[sudden pollen]

Yea i think "more crazy" UESC seems likely this coming season

[dreamy hawk]

Second season does feel too soon for anything super duper crazy cool like the pfhor, though. But maybe I’m just no fun.

[forest gate]

They might need to get more people interested in the game.

Off topic slightly but they’ve been glacial with changes in Destiny for so long that’s the impression that the wider gaming-sphere has of them. So optically they need to pump out big bombastic things so they’re getting positive press and hopefully more interest. Just my thoughts.

[keen plank]

Right now the only alien we’ve seen is the (seemingly buffed) Compiler. But both it and Pfthor have been referenced and even have autopsies in the codex. Heavily redacted of course.

[sudden pollen]

Who knows man, we got Cryo and a whole stinkin Compiler 4 weeks into S1

[dreamy hawk]

Fair, but they need to balance that with not burning everyone’s interest early, too, though.

[dreamy hawk]

Yeah but since 🦗

[forest gate]

The UESC ghost run animation is the same as psion in Destiny when it’s repositioning with the jet boost.

[dreamy hawk]

And it raised more questions than answers imo (good, of course).

[sudden pollen]

True

[sudden pollen]

Thats how they normally do things no? ARG & silence and then bam drop something crazy

[forest gate]

True, true. I think every 3 months is a tough content cadence they’ve chosen for themselves.

[keen plank]

Their bigger issue is player retention and getting new players in. 1.3ish million sales is somewhat soft. Not bad for 25ish days. But noticeable.

They haven’t had a learning experience like this since Destiny one and the feedback and changes are flowing quickly in both directions.

For context, Destiny 2 went from four seasons to three and now it’s two major updates a year with two smaller updates in between. Partially due to decreased amounts of headcount (layoffs). Expect more layoffs as well.

[forest gate]

At least this version of the tiger engine doesn’t seem to be holding them back

[dreamy hawk]

We don’t know what Bungie and Sony consider a success, though, and I see people being up concerns about a learning experience, but maybe that was baked in? They’re a seasoned studio in the big picture.

[forest gate]

Yeah but the D2 content cycle got stale fast even before they slimmed it down.

[keen plank]

Destiny 3’s going to take around 5 years before we even see it. But man…it’s gonna to feel fantastic if Marathon feels this good.

[forest gate]

I live in hope

[keen plank]

Which they partially acknowledged. People got used to linear campaigns which were always expensive to make and no one really replayed them outside of getting certain exotics on legendary.

Hence why they experimented more. Final Shape was hyper linear in a good way, and Edge of Fate tried to be a half Metroidvania but the abilities were forced far too often.

[sudden pollen]

Yea it's just hard to believe that Sony or Bungie would ever expect this game to instantntly reach like arc or helldivers numbers, I'd be shocked if that were true internally

[forest gate]

Edge of Fate was such a mixed bag, the story team delivered but the gameplay and environment team dropped the ball hard.

[keen plank]

Really? I thought people loved final shape’s visual style. It was awesome. Especially the body horror elements.

[forest gate]

You’d be amazed at the hubris within the halls of the C-Suite

[sudden pollen]

I mean, I'm fully aware of it

But usually they maximize for profit

Which in this case would entail making a similar style of game to Arc, Helldivers, whatever is the "fad" at the moment

[forest gate]

Final shape yes, I was talking about edge of fate though. Final shape was amazing

[rotund stump]

just read plushie lore

day ruined

god damn you julia

[keen plank]

The portal was a nice idea in theory and still is. The issue was that they overwhelmingly designed the game around it while removing things like crafting.

To the point Renegades had to adjust or reverse many of these changes.

[sudden pollen]

That one was fucking heartbreaking

[rotund stump]

god AND they had to voice the last log with liz

I don't wanna listen to it I haven't yet

[keen plank]

It’s sad.

[forest gate]

Probably saw how well Arc Raiders went assumed that bungie would be able to draw the same interest while not factoring how much more difficult this game would be and how unappealing that would be to the wider audience.

They may have also under-weighted how much negativity had built up towards bungie (deserved and undeserved) with Destiny seemingly being left by the way side and the general polarisation of the internet today.

[sudden pollen]

Eh maybe

[forest gate]

Renegades was fun but it was basically cause you didn’t have to touch the portal

[sudden pollen]

Again we really have no idea

Can't just take people like Paul Tassi as gospel

His insider source from what I heard is notoriously unreliable, and reportedly banned from some community formus

[keen plank]

Yep. And it’s essentially an Episode sold as an expansion. A good and enjoyable one, but that’s what it is.

I like the final sequence. We’ll eventually get back Sparrow Racing League.

[forest gate]

Paul’s alright. He’s usually pretty fair in his coverage. He did have definitely negative view of Marathon when the alpha was around but he immediately reassessed his opinion when he saw the final product. That’s the mark of a reasonable person.

[sudden pollen]

I have no issue with his opinions, it's the overall credibility of vague estimates about the game and whatnot

[forest gate]

Is it a proper bungie game if there’s no made dash to the end in a vehicle. Hahaha.

[forest gate]

His estimate that the game costs between $250mil - 300mil is based on basic math for average salaries for a 300 person dev team in Seattle that’s been working on a game for 5-6 years. It’s not exactly rocket science.

[sudden pollen]

I'm not sure that's how game development costs are strictly calculated

300m would be completely absurd even for a triple A game

[willow marsh]

me when the lore is discussed

[woven silo]

i still think oni is going rampant

[forest gate]

No, it probably costs more than just the wages of the people working there but anyway, we should go back to lore 😅

[keen plank]

I hope we get to see some of the faction leaders go rampant.

Like Rampant Nona would be wild and rampant Vulcan would be…really darn bad. For almost all involved.

[forest gate]

ONI is the least rampant of the AIs we deal with. She might be affected by the anomaly but let’s hope it’s to our benefit.

[iron rock]

The big Worm in the sky

[keen plank]

Charter and Orion are runners however. We don’t really know what Gantry is.

[forest gate]

I don’t think Vulcan is close to being rampant and gosh how good is morla her VA

[forest gate]

Gantry seems like a runner as well.

[sudden pollen]

The whole aesthetic of traxus is peak

[iron rock]

human? I bet he’s human

[sudden pollen]

Love the like, ferrofluid or whatever ripples along the lion and the cloak

[keen plank]

ONI’s also not a full AI. She’s a simplified “dumb” one designed to help millions of runners at the same time. If anything’s impacting her, it’s IDurandal.

She is individual installed in each of us.

[forest gate]

ONI was smart enough to know Nona is not to be trusted

I’m interested in this character Joy who we’ve not met and is voiced by Jennifer English

[latent python]

She might be uhhh dead

I don't have much hope for the fates of the colony AIs

[turbid scaffold]

The aesthetic is awesome I’m surprised the art style hasn’t really been done before

[sudden pollen]

Same

[forest gate]

Fingers crossed

I wonder if Joy is short for Joyeuse

[keen plank]

Her story…is a pretty sad one.

[keen plank]

It is.

[plucky sierra]

we don't know that

there is no Joyeuse in the codex

that i know of at least

[keen plank]

True. But they like their mythological theme naming. Durandal comes to mind.

[plucky sierra]

but there is also Ai named Darius and bastion which is historical but not necessarily mythical

[forest gate]

It’s in the game?

Maybe I haven’t seen the codex entry yet

[dreamy hawk]

The emotional support plushies… pack tissue…

[turbid scaffold]

what was joy in charge of again?

[dreamy hawk]

Emotional well being, I believe.

[turbid scaffold]

I thought so

yeah I would probly go rampant after everything that happened to the colonists rip

[dreamy hawk]

#📚marathon-lore-discussion message

[turbid scaffold]

ah

[dreamy hawk]

`Colony AI:

Ar_1814419v4.93 – Benevolent autocrat; no-nonsense; problem solver. Classic patriarchal authority figure.

Ba_0423419v4.89 – Problem solver; confident, bordering on boastful. May need to go onto accelerated re-compile cycle, inform SCIENG crew.

Da_1907420v4.86 – Dutiful; diligent; motivated. Always puts others ahead of self. May need to address this at some point.

Ga_2815420v4.81 – Compassionate; empathetic, transparent. Perhaps our greatest achievement to date. Will most likely need to be moved to an accelerated re-compile cycle at some point.

Ic_1624420v4.73 – Motivated; assertive; proactive. Will need to keep isolated from Tycho or establish hierarchy at outset. Inform SCIENG of situation.

Jo_0309421v4.69 – Resilient; optimistic; patient. Colony AI: defense, training

Li_1817421v4.65 – Focused; assertive; good communicator. Designated candidate for colony oversite during second phase.

Na_0602422v4.61 – Proactive; goal-oriented; committed. May need to be reminded from time to time about their primary function; inform SCIENG crew.

Ideally, our process and protocols will allow us to mitigate any of the concerns mentioned above, but we must remember that we live in an imperfect universe, and we are very soon going to be leaving the only part of it that we are remotely familiar with. There will certainly be challenges ahead. Let’s ensure that the things that we can control remain in our control.

Regards,

Dr Bernhard H Strauss, DSc
Head of AI Management and Systems Improvement | Project Marathon
`

Unless someone can translate those numbers, the text I linked to from earlier seems to have used creative liberties re: Joy’s name.

[plucky sierra]

it was speculated to be Joyeuse and makes sense to be Joyeuse from all naming conventions, but there has yet to be any concrete confirmation of that as her name

[dreamy hawk]

Symmetry. lol

[plucky sierra]

doesn't halo have a Joyeuse?

maybe they want legally distinct Joyeuse AI so they just call her Joy

[forest gate]

Now yes, from the edge of dawn book

The weapon from infinite took the name Joyeuse

[warm thicket]

I like how they call their conflict with the UESC "Healthy Competition"

There's a lot of irony written in these quests

[forest gate]

The traxus story implies that traxus is basically funding the UESC

[plucky sierra]

Traxus is investors but I wouldn't say fund

[warm thicket]

Like how NuCaloric, the philantrophy minded cosmetic and agricultural company, mentions a cyberwarfare division

[deep solar]

Halo Joyeuse is probably gonna be called Joy too in the future because Joyeuse is kind of a mouthful

[forest gate]

She is definitely a joyful character I liked her a lot. I’ll never forgive 343 for doing cortana dirty though.

[deep solar]

Cortana should’ve stayed dead after 4, it was such a great send off

[sage lark]

they pivot to not associate with Halo 5, kill off the main villain offscreen, kill off the infinity offscreen

like who tf was making those decisions

[deep solar]

But BRAND SYNERGY strikes again

[keen plank]

At least partially. It gives a lot of nuance into their relationship.

In the words of Vulcan:

"Please recall that the UESC is not an enemy to Traxus but merely a competitor. Healthy competition is essential to a productive economy."

The anomaly appeared unexpectedly in Dire Marsh and slowly grew as the colonists struggled to deal with not only the fungal contamination, but now a stronger form now enhanced by the anomaly. They sent in research teams, and all life that went too close aged rapidly or got stuck in temporal hell being unable to break out.

The UESC has a vested interested in figuring out what it is, with Orion being heavily pressured by his superior. To the point that he demands daily updates and is perfectly willing for bodies to be thrown in for more data. Their special ships, which are partially responsible for LOCKDOWNS, seem to be part of the research process.

Meanwhile Traxus is pressuring the UESC behind the scenes, with Vulcan outright threatening the UESC's funding, which scares Orion's boss. In exchange, the UESC is slowing them down with legal red tape and bureaucracy. We essentially helped create more competition over aggressive research/manipulation of the anomaly.

[forest gate]

There’s many ways they could have handled bringing back cortana but they choose the worst option.

[deep solar]

Iirc halo 5 launch was about the time they added Cortana to windows

[keen plank]

It was almost necessary. 5 was that bad.

[sage lark]

I understand but

[keen plank]

The Banished, by contrast, is much easier to understand.

[deep solar]

They didn’t have to kill the infinity it’s actually really rad

[sage lark]

also zeta halo being a single biome

[deep solar]

(Which I don’t think it’s gone for good but that’s neither here nor there)

[sage lark]

the big battle where the infinity gets fucked you dont even get to play

[keen plank]

I think Crotana's "Created" faction is an interesting idea. But the plot moved too fast and was handled the wrong way.

Best new Halo game's story is, no joke, Halo Wars 2.

[sage lark]

I bet it is

need to play it

If they add it to steam

[deep solar]

There’s a lot of good new lore but it’s all hidden and not actually in the games

[sage lark]

all in the books innit

[forest gate]

It was so bad. IDGAF about Locke.

[keen plank]

Locke is a cool character with a great actor. But man was he mishandled. Like he was going to be in Infinite too as a grungy survivor.

[latent python]

Yooo patch notes are out

[forest gate]

That was good.

[warm thicket]

The problem that has stuck out to me about a lot of these factions is their general overindulgence. They geuinely have decent goals to improve the quality of life and shit in sol but they always seem to be condescending about it and at the end of the day don't care much for collateral damage

[keen plank]

I just remember the marketing for 5 and it was so odd.

"Hero. Spartan. Traitor! Master Chief is on the run!"

[forest gate]

Yeah, he had potential but it just was handled terribly.

[warm thicket]

From Traxus to MIDA

[deep solar]

That original trailer with Chief in the Cloak was so rad

[keen plank]

Indeed. Good design.

Mike Colter seems either somewhat hard to work with or keeps getting screwed over. Probably a blend of both.

He's great as Luke Cage. But as Locke, you can tell he's trying his best but everyone's a victim of an odd plot structure.

[sage lark]

welcome to cyberpunk

[forest gate]

That was good

[sage lark]

no one is truly good

[deep solar]

And halo 5 actually references the peripheral lore a lot but it doesn’t really do anything with it

Like Blue Team is back? Oh two chief levels with them

[warm thicket]

coiborponk 2888

[forest gate]

I know they want to replace the chief as the “face” of the franchise but why not go the semi RPG route allow the player to make a custom spartan.

[warm thicket]

I think as we learn more about Arachne they'll probably be complicit in something too other than the worship and ritual combat stuff

[deep solar]

I think the Noble 6 route works quite well

[forest gate]

Most likely faction to be working with aliens award goes to…

[forest gate]

Man reach still hits me in the feels it did rogue one before it was cool

[deep solar]

Never gonna get my Ghost Recon ODST game though 😭

[sage lark]

I WISH

that would be so good

hooolyyyy

or even a UESC marine game

fighting insurrectionists

and then the covvies come in

[deep solar]

I’d make it like Xcom where you have random ODSTs you build up but can perma die. Last level is defense of earth.

[sage lark]

and then flood come in

and its a zombie game

[deep solar]

I’m a spaceship specs sicko so I need more info on the UESC’s fleet in Sol ASAP

Based on no evidence other than the fact we have personal energy shields. I feel like UESC warships are much more advanced than UNSC ships in halo. Like full energy shields and energy weapons. Just less advanced FTL compared to a slipspace drive

[dreamy hawk]

Sounds reasonable. But 🤷
Would love me some ship on ship combat.

[forest gate]

I too would like to see some UESC ships. I’ve always liked Bungie’s artistic flair with ship naming conventions.

[deep solar]

UESC Equanimity is a phenomenal name to start

[forest gate]

It’s how I ended up settling on my screen name. The pillar of autumn is a halcyon class ship and I happen to like kingfishers

[deep solar]

It’s a shame the Vanguard only really had the HELM as a capital ship in Destiny, I would have loved to see more Last City capital ships

[forest gate]

Yes destiny didn’t really do much with ship names aside from the leviathan

[robust vale]

I feel like that was more the last city being perpetually too broke to make capital ships

Equanimity is a good name though

[forest gate]

Dead Orbit had a fleet IIRC from the grimoire

I’m not sure why but nothing will top UNSC Forward Unto Dawn for me.

[deep solar]

Yeah they had a fleet but we only really ever saw a Dead Orbit Hawk gunship in game.

And the Vanguards Hawks

[forest gate]

I guess destiny had crazy terms elsewhere in its lore

Never seen the word ontological used so often in writing. Haha.

[eternal shell]

the perks of a setting where fighting the wrk would be hard but not impossible

(you would stand on plates, dunk motes, then dps phase)

[forest gate]

The best of which will always be wrath of the machine

In my humble opinion

[eternal shell]

i keep hearing good things about that raid

shame it never made it into d2

[forest gate]

It was a real blast, not overly puzzle focused. Fast paced, fun and understandable mechanics and of course the outbreak prime puzzle which got everyone super hyped when it was figured out.

It was kind of like doing the latest dungeon but on the scale of a raid. Just a fun vibe the whole way through and the siva aesthetic was very cool.

I remember doing it day one, had such a good time in there. That and KF were the highlights of Destiny for me.

I was never enamoured with VoG

[forest gate]

Doesn’t the recent cryo archive lore regarding the s’pht speak of how the s’pht now view themselves as world shapers. Could they have been the one manipulating tau ceti 4 and guiding the contagion.

[earnest hatch]

My personal theory is it’s Jjaro tech, not the Wrkncacnter buried under the planet. Basically it’s a filter. Only sufficiently advanced civs can colonize the planet and species that aren’t prepared will be destroyed.

[forest gate]

Isn’t there a wrkncacnter on earth?

[earnest hatch]

From what I heard, they see themselves as archivists and historians. They’re going around recording the histories of dead worlds. I don’t think they’re creating worlds.

[plucky sierra]

The S'pht manipulated Lh'owon, so maybe but there is not really a lot of evidence the compilers were around a whole lot post attack, most left with Durandal

[earnest hatch]

If Pathways into Darkness is canon then yes.

[plucky sierra]

maybe, maybe the Jjaro did somethin with it

[earnest hatch]

I thought it was the Jjaro that manipulated Lh’owon and uplifted the Spht.

[plucky sierra]

they uplifted the S'pht to manipulate Lh'owon

[plucky sierra]

I think it is something similar to why they made the S'pht but more inside the planet rather than beings, the planet is protecting itself or whatever lies beneath by killing what it sees as pests and intruders

[forest gate]

There’s the s’pht dolls

From the cinematic

[plucky sierra]

yeah following the attack they worship them and probably have some left over material, but theres no evidence that they kept coming back

yet*

[forest gate]

Fair, bungie did position the compiler as the primary boss of the first season for some reason

I’m not sure why though

Besides rule of cool

[unreal slate]

Season 2 boss will be the drinkable cheeseburger

[earnest hatch]

I suspect it’s not a S’pht compiler. It’s something else using the compiler shell for its own purposes.

[forest gate]

Is it weird that I want to try it?

[unreal slate]

No

[earnest hatch]

Yes

[unreal slate]

Weird but also the popular opinion

[forest gate]

Interesting theory, but what? And why is DURANDAL so feeble suddenly

[plucky sierra]

it is a leftover submind

[uneven shell]

what's up with the UESC using Sumerian gods' names for all of their codewords? just noticing it in these MIDA entries where it's like code/script

[plucky sierra]

there is a looooot of Myth references like basically all the AI

[earnest hatch]

Not sure, a rampant AI maybe. And I don’t think this is the same Durandal as from the OG series. The Durandal in this game is a copy left behind when Durandal copied himself into the Pfhor ship.

[forest gate]

Could it be a digitised pfhor consciousness?

Also we are in alternate timeline 6 right now right? I.e., the 7th timeline

So a lot of proceeding things could be different about this timeline.

[plucky sierra]

probably

[forest gate]

Meanwhile I gotta run back and forth between bio research and quarantine

Like way too many times.

That’s the part of the lore that really grinds my gears.

Like after our first visit to quarantine why didn’t Nona have us exfil the equipment and set it up in bio research so we could do everything in one location.

Something else that I found weird with our priority contracts was how none of the corpos seemed to interested in us going up to the marathon. Why?

[earnest hatch]

That’s a big question everyone has. Maybe the devs are saving that for season 2.

[delicate thorn]

Playing marathon makes me think the witness was just a collection of all the various AIs and AI factions left over. Humans are done and gone, nothing's left except them and they have a complete meltdown about what to do without humans. And they decide to just collapse all of time and space to get rid of it all

[bleak canyon]

Something haunts the ship. Plus maybe there something sus from the corpos in there.

[dreamy hawk]

I would think that they do but they’re not aware that we’ve been able to get up there yet.

Even the UESC has had little to no luck on the Marathon and they’ve been sending tons of ARS systems into it (or at least were). I’d imagine the corps are prioritizing limited resources at this point.

[sudden pollen]

Likely due to the insanely tight security and extremely heavy UESC presence

Hella risky for the corpos to venture up there

[dreamy hawk]

It might also be too much of a red line to cross with the UESC. They don’t want the blow back it would elicit. ^

They’re already engaged in a weird legal limbo; that might be too aggressive of a move and it’d disrupt the balance.

[bleak canyon]

You are right about that UESC security is alot more lax on planet

But it was DurAI that brought us up to MArathon right?

[sudden pollen]

100% and 2nd point is great too

[sudden pollen]

Uhhh, think so. Bypassed CyAc protections I assume

Like a knife thru butter

[latent python]

It's not like he's good at opening doors

[sudden pollen]

Well no, then he would be named Door-handle ... ahahaha....

[dreamy hawk]

It did take him some effort; I wouldn’t call it a knife through butter. That ARG was a lot of work. 😂

[sudden pollen]

That is a good point lol

The arg was so fucking cool man

I love that Bungie actually cares enough to do stuff like that in the first place

[delicate thorn]

Jake the alright posited there may be a cognito hazard regarding the marathon. Due to the lack of interest, at all, by the factions

[sudden pollen]

Entirely possible

Advanced AI might be straight up terrified of it

[delicate thorn]

Like. The AIs can't conceive of it currently so they just...ignore it ..

[forest gate]

Moon’s haunted?

[dreamy hawk]

It’s a fun idea but imma want more evidence of it before I commit.

How would a cognitohazard be affecting AI all the way back in Sol, too?

[delicate thorn]

Eh. Dimensionally paracausility may not be bound by geometry the same way

[sudden pollen]

He's true

[dreamy hawk]

That would be the first such effect in Marathon, OG or Nu. Not ruling it out but extraordinary claims and whatnot.

[sudden pollen]

Oh man that reminds me. We NEED to get a partially in outer space marathon ship map. I Neeeeeeeed it. Zero gravity Marathon can you even IMAGINE THE PEAK

Shoot your gun to propel yourself

[delicate thorn]

I don't want to go to the mat for it haha. I concur that there's not near enough evidence.

[sudden pollen]

Full inertial movement

[dreamy hawk]

Fun idea though. I would be open to it.

[forest gate]

Running on the surface of Deimos does sound tight

[dreamy hawk]

Inb4 shell unravels in the radiation.

[forest gate]

Though Deimos has lost so much mass I doubt it has enough to have noticeable gravitational effects

[dreamy hawk]

I’d bet the Marathon has significantly more effect at this point. That thing is a husk.

[sudden pollen]

Dude honestly mandatory radiation management would be totally sick

[earnest hatch]

Information is information. Distance doesn’t matter. Cognitihazards are basically information or data so dangerous that it could kill you. So once you know what it is, it’s too late.

[sudden pollen]

Consumables or recharge stations or something

[forest gate]

A space walk on a part of the marathon would be cool though and I’ve never played a bungie game where they’ve modelled low or zero gravity

[earnest hatch]

Halo Reach and Halo 2.

[sudden pollen]

Godddd I want to play a map like that so bad. I've tried zero g combat in Star Citizen and that game frankly is booty cheeks BUT. it's the best space sim out there sans MAYBE Elite Dangerous

[dreamy hawk]

I’ll bite, but we also see ONI effortless scrubbing them left and right. I’d imagine there are such protections employed by each AI along with their intermediaries.

[forest gate]

Was there low gravity in halo 2? I don’t remember.

Reach I remember the part where Jorge dies but don’t remember the gravity

[dreamy hawk]

Of all the reps ONI, in system, also appears to be the only one with any kind of cognitive changes happening to her which makes me think it’s less data driven and more anomaly related, too.

[forest gate]

I’m surprised like after cryo opened ONI didn’t have something to say to us

[digital plaza]

Durandal certainly did xd

[robust vale]

It would be insane if Durandal has been slowly eating ONI from inside out like he did idea

And sneaking himself into her bit by bit

[dreamy hawk]

I think ONI is none the wiser. Maybe it’s Durandal’s doing, or maybe she’s just deteriorating and he’s taking advantage.

[robust vale]

I think both

[dreamy hawk]

I just don’t think Durandal would actually want to be onboard everyone’s shells; but maybe that’s his goal.

[robust vale]

ONI is definitely slipping

[dreamy hawk]

Become the new onboard intelligence.

[robust vale]

And Durandal’s talking directly to us

[dreamy hawk]

Cortana but more of an ass.

[robust vale]

The problem is idk if our shells can fit Durandal

He’s a full AI, one designed to grow even, and ONI is basically the 2800s version of Clips

CLIPPY

I hate autocorrect

[digital plaza]

Dont think thats the case, since he does mention that he wants to spread out on the marathon and regain control that he once had

[dreamy hawk]

I don’t think all of ONI is onboard our shells just like I don’t think all of Durandal would be.

I also just don’t feel like ONI’s deterioration is his doing but I could easily be wrong.

[robust vale]

I don’t think it is

I had a hunch it was just because I’ve spent too much time Skinning Seven Billion Runners but it could also be the anomaly

[dreamy hawk]

Would be curious how much weirder Durandal would be after consuming ONI though. Maybe more helpful? Eating IDEA seems to have made him more introspective.

[sudden pollen]

Bro is eating ONI out 🧐 an AI connoisseur

(This is joke)

[robust vale]

Freak detected, get their ass

[sudden pollen]

Bro my pfp doesn't make it clear enough? 🤔

Nah jk I try not to be too freaky

Couldn't resist there

For the meme

[robust vale]

I can’t lie I didn’t actually process what your pfp was

I saw the thief face and assumed that was it lma

Completely missed the vandal

[hot thicket]

Im going to make Durandal my friend

were going to have space adventures

[dreamy hawk]

I need new glasses because I had to stare too hard.

Unlike that cursed Kirby pfp that came through last week…

[dreamy hawk]

This will go as swimmingly as forcing your love onto a cat. GL.

[sudden pollen]

LOLLL the kirby splooge pfp?? I saw that one 😭 😭 😭

So fucking cursed beyond belief

[dreamy hawk]

I still don’t know what Kirby did to deserve that.

I’m also continually amazed by the ways people choose to represent themselves but maybe I’m just old, boring, and cranky now.

[latent python]

Like some kind of cat maybe

[dreamy hawk]

I just learned if you honk the hauler horn a 100 times it’ll fall off and give you a skin if you exfil with it. Imma have fun tonight.

Someone please confirm or tell me if I’m being trolled.

[lunar cove]

My dad works for Nintendo and he said Mew is hidden underneath Hauler

[dreamy hawk]

OK but I’m actually being serious. 😅

I feel like this is something @digital plaza would know/have done.

[sudden pollen]

What... nah

[digital plaza]

Nah man its not real xddd

[sudden pollen]

Thats too good to be true

[dreamy hawk]

I’m still going to try.

[dry ember]

Be sure to tell us the results

[dreamy hawk]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Marathon/s/uX5ZomxiMl

[dry ember]

If it’s true I need to do this

[dreamy hawk]

I’m not the only rube.

If I die horribly it’ll be no different from any other run.

[forest gate]

Free kits for lyfe

[dreamy hawk]

I’m not a very good player, but I’m starting to think I must be, just based off the amount of people complaining about gear on Reddit.

I consistently exfil with free kits and manage to take our other crews and I get so much free loot from contracts and faction levels that I really don’t understand what people are complaining about.

[deep solar]

Worst case you have a good time honkin the horn

[dreamy hawk]

I even take wardens regularly in my free kit. I only need a real kit for cryo. Why are people so fixated on that NuCal shield upgrade??

Loot what you need along the way. Back in my day we pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps!

[forest gate]

It takes a long time to unlock the blue shield

[dreamy hawk]

rambles at the clouds

[sudden pollen]

The people making posts about that are usually (not always) either barely playing, huge outliers in pvp skill, or, perhaps just kind of making stuff up. You're totally right the game literally throws loot at you faster than you can gobble it all up.

[dreamy hawk]

I have gotten to season rank 44 and my rank 15 friend also complains, so this is important to remember.

[digital plaza]

Reddit and general chats in this discord are swamps of miserable and mentally ill people

[sudden pollen]

Sure but once you have it it's really really good. Even then I've got like 8 blue shields sitting from player kills + more from NuCal contract rewards and I'm only like 3/4 to the blue shield upgrade

[digital plaza]

Dont waste your time there

[dreamy hawk]

That doesn’t bode well for us. What’s that make us? 😂

[digital plaza]

And your sanity

[dreamy hawk]

I’m assuming a lot of train enthusiasts and the like reside here. 😅

[sudden pollen]

Ah you see we are in the esteemed lore channel 🧐

[deep solar]

It’s the meeting of the minds

[dreamy hawk]

Got something on your nose. 💩

😂😘

[deep solar]

I would imagine this channel skews a little older too

[lunar cove]

I find that the further up you level your factions, the easier it gets

[forest gate]

Yeah, my only frustration has been trying to do quests and getting shanked on the way cause I’m not in the mood to PvP, just want to do the story but when I’m in the mood to PvP I do ok. I’m like a pretty average pvper.

But regarding the blue shield thing, I agree it take bit too long to unlock purchasing it from the armoury cause of the materials required but it’s not that big a deal. I loot my blue shields from other players.

[dreamy hawk]

I’d agree other than the occasional child that jump scares me.

[deep solar]

Younguns should be in school not chatting lore with us old heads anyway

[lunar cove]

I'm getting enough free guns, mods, shields, etc every day to do a couple runs with blue and green gear for free, which makes it easier to do contracts, which gets me the blue loot I need to do more contracts, find good loot, upgrade more factions, etc

[dreamy hawk]

I’ve banned anything green from my inventory. There’s a tipping point around the high 30s I feel like.

[dreamy hawk]

I should be at work so don’t hold us to too high of standards.

[forest gate]

It’s 1:30am here.

[digital plaza]

Only normal people in the community i guess. This and nda chats is where you can have normal conversation, with people who actually play the game/have brain

[forest gate]

I should be in bed but I work from home so my commute is like 2mins

[woven flare]

For the UESC Tactical record, ||are ARS a form of UESC runner?||

[dreamy hawk]

No, they’re bots controlled by Cerberus in most cases.

They have some independent/“free roam” capacity, too, but most are tethered.

[umbral grail]

that's how I feel with purple shields now, NuCal gives them from VIP level ups and geared players drop them but I haven't grinded enough to get the absolute gobs of hazard capsules needed to get capstone 6 for NuCal

[digital plaza]

Like you cannot convince me that general chat or new noise or god forbid subreddit are normal social spaces with normal people in them

[hot thicket]

think of UESC bots all running as copies of Cerberus

[dreamy hawk]

It’s the general public. The broader the draw the wilder the people.

[deep solar]

If you want to go hollow check the steam community tab

[forest gate]

I find it odd that UESC bots have designations like recruit and commander

[deep solar]

0 brain cells in the Steam community tab

[digital plaza]

TRUE

[snow nacelle]

"The RECRUIT is the base model in the UESC's Autonomous Robotic Soldier initiative..."

ARS are the bots we fight.

[digital plaza]

This is the worst of them all

[forest gate]

If they aren’t being piloted by someone like a drone.

[deep solar]

Probably just like less advanced model to more advanced, with ghosts and grenadiers being a different line of bots

[dreamy hawk]

They’re piloted by AI and higher ranks, I believe, just have higher functions.

[umbral grail]

steam community tab is near the bottom of the barrel with reddit, especially on old or unmoderated game hubs

[dreamy hawk]

Less of a “rank” and more of a “version” imo.

[deep solar]

Like a Mustang vs a Mustang GT ( idk why that was the first thing that came to mind)

[forest gate]

I recognise that. Still an odd designation for your cannon fodder rank of soldiers.

Makes it sound like they’re all wet behind the ears

[snow nacelle]

I think it's mainly a reporting codename, e.g. NATO reporting names for soviet vehicles.

The codex has alternate "configurations." Recruit is also "Basic Tactical Combat Platform [BTCP]" and assault commander "Advanced Tactical Combat Command Platform [ATCCP]"

So a super formal UESC guy might write that they've lost 5 ARS-BTCP and not "five recruits"

[deep solar]

Probably a whole UESC marketing department coming up with the best names for different model of bots

[forest gate]

Missed opportunity to call them grunts

And have them run at you with plasma grenades

[deep solar]

Probably makes it easier for human soldiers/agents handling them in the field too, instant recognition of a units capabilities

[sudden pollen]

Understandable as someone who's also pretty mediocre at pvp. I'd say I still lose like 40-50% of pvp encounters even with 160+ hr. But it's simply part of the game and not a huge deal at the end of the day. Used to get tilted, now all Im concerned about is "how can I avoid a death like that next time"

[snow nacelle]

Admittedly the Recruit is described as an "early warning system" versus skilled foes as they're more to cause a commotion when eliminated rather than withstand the enemy, so the idea that they're "green" isn't entirely unjustified.

[deep solar]

B1 Battle Droids vs B2 and BX battle droids

[forest gate]

Yeah, I’ve steeled my mind against death. I don’t even have gear fear. I do feel some frustration having to cross the map a bazillion times cause reasons.

[warm thicket]

It's very in character for the UESC

[forest gate]

I am definitely against overly repetitive tasks

[dreamy hawk]

Hold up. Correct me if I’m wrong but the ARS frames are also capable of gaining experience, no? So it is actually possible for them to “rank up?”

[sudden pollen]

Oh yea the sekiguchi contracts get a little silly, especially the one which is quite literally "hit ALL SEVEN PoIs in Marsh in 1 run" 😭 like Nona please chill out. What did I do to you bro.

[woven flare]

The lore in this game is fantastic holy shit

[deep solar]

Yeah I ain’t doing all that Nona

[woven flare]

Kind of wasted on codex entries not everyone reads

[dreamy hawk]

The one that wandered into the anomaly came back with the experience of a veteran iirc.

[deep solar]

They’re probably eligible for physical upgrades based on combat performance

[forest gate]

Doesn’t she make us do that cause ONI was like what she’s asking you to do is not good for your longevity and she’s like go run around. Nona is a ho.

[sudden pollen]

Nona is up to some bad stuff I just know it. Is it possible she literally just is torturing the runner shell for fun? Surely with thousands of past iterations she already knows every possible parameter of your shell.

[forest gate]

The anomaly is probably affecting the shell

[digital plaza]

Lore is presented through codex

[warm thicket]

Lots of it

[forest gate]

I’m going to finish parasitism but I doubt I’ll finish co-evolution

[woven flare]

I know, wish there was a campaign

[warm thicket]

It's been done since Destiny and Halo

[digital plaza]

Well i mean you got contracts

Cant do much in extraction shooter genre to be honest

[forest gate]

Grimoire cards, never forget

I remember when grimoire score was a badge of honour.

[woven flare]

Yall think I’m advocating for less lore or something 😭

A series of short films would be the dream

[latent python]

We do have short films

[forest gate]

I didn’t think that until you mentioned it. Now…

[woven flare]

Short film

[forest gate]

This lore apostate!

[sudden pollen]

More cinematics are surely in the works bro

[latent python]

The Mielgo short and the Poppy/Son Lux launch trailer

[sudden pollen]

I want more Alberto, is it "Mielgo?" that guy is a god among men

Mmmmm so delectable those cinematics

A feast for eyes and ears

[forest gate]

The priority contracts are mostly fine, but the sekgen ones are bit annoying, bungie could have made the main story have less friction in it if they wanted to.

But they choose to be sadists

I strongly feel that’s like a requirement to be a dev the company

[latent python]

We also have the teaser trailer, the shell trailers, the game intro cinematic, the faction intro cinematics, and the cryo archive cinematic

[deep solar]

Meanwhile in Arachne: “priority contracts? Just skin em”

[forest gate]

It’s straight forward and you don’t even have to do it in a single run

I got that done in 3 runs

[digital plaza]

Sekgen is a test of your skill and patience

[latent python]

And a test of your dedication to mommy nona

[digital plaza]

They fun with secondary objectives

[forest gate]

Nah, sekgen is a Skinner box.

[latent python]

I thought arachne was the skinner box

[kind vector]

Does Chanisaw Man take place in the same extended universe as marathon

[forest gate]

Nah that’s the skinning box. Easy mistake.

[digital plaza]

I was pretty angry at them too when i was first doing them, but then i realised that its one of the best there is when i finished all contracts

[forest gate]

I do them through gritted teeth.

[kind vector]

Helloooooo?

[digital plaza]

I would prefer some challenge and unique objectives then i would scan place in dcon exfil in single run another Traxus/Nucal contract

[sudden pollen]

Excellent video on my recommended talking about Marathon "godlike entities" https://youtu.be/eiJA_CAeA7U?si=vSFSdPu0XcwsXVRq

[digital plaza]

xd

[tall lynx]

"thank you, marathon"

"marathon?"

"because um... you were running a marathon"

"oh yeah"

[forest gate]

Byf?

He’s a bit ponderous for me.

[dreamy hawk]

I like Byf but I’ve been hearing about some speculation passed as fact recently.

[forest gate]

Classic Byf

[dreamy hawk]

But to be fair I’m hearing that for most of the big YouTubers. I wouldn’t trust any of them as far as I could throw them - not enough content out for the depth they need to churn out content.

[forest gate]

I don’t mind speculation if they clearly say this is speculative

I appreciate a good imagination

[long kernel]

Byf does a lot of speculation, I love his videos but you need to know where his theories start and canon lore ends. I do like his speculation but at times it can confuse people as he is a big authority on the lore

I do feel though he’s gotten better at stating when what he says is pure speculation

And like anyone, he is human and able to misinterpret lore entries

Famously with the Enceladus theory

[forest gate]

For destiny lore, I liked myelin a lot more than Byf but I’ll say Byf’s books of sorrow series were some of his best work.

[long kernel]

Which was an in universe misdirect so hard to fault him there

[sudden pollen]

Oh?

Lore related, or what?

[tall lynx]

his video about the iron lords was also extremely well done imo

[long kernel]

Byf is great for surface level lore IMO for the deep speculative lore he isn’t my favorite but he also doesn’t cover it as much I don’t think, it gets too speculative to make a good concrete summary

[forest gate]

Yeah that was good now that you mention it.

[forest gate]

It might just be his voice but he comes across as condescending. I doubt that’s his intention but that’s how he sounds to me.

You’re right, he’s good for surface lore and good for reading to you things you could read yourself but are lazy to do.

I like hiddenxperia. He hasn’t done much marathon lore, most of it is halo but I do enjoy his content

[tall lynx]

i wish milo did more long form marathon lore videos like what he used to do for cod zombies

i find him a lot more entertaining to listen to

[forest gate]

Maybe once he’s more immersed in the world

He does thoughtful content and I appreciate that

[dreamy hawk]

I don’t have specifics, just what I’ve heard second hand here.

I am a loyal subscriber fwiw.

[gritty spoke]

Guys why loot on Marathon the same as from Arsenal store? Isn't it supposed to be different cause of lost ship?

[sage lark]

cuz its a game

[dreamy hawk]

Experia is my favorite from the Halo days.

[sage lark]

also the uniques from vaults arent in the store

neither is the salvage

and neither is the compiler gun

[sudden pollen]

Oh, I see

[long kernel]

I don’t get that from him but idk

[gritty spoke]

so they meticulously written the whole lore, but this is just a game...

[dreamy hawk]

I’m just a gossip.

[forest gate]

He’s got a good blend of entertaining personality and well researched information and his speculation is pretty on point

[long kernel]

It’s also just he’s good for if you want a good summary of the lore compiled into one spot, yeah you can “just read” but sometimes with how scattered lore is the full picture doesn’t become clear until you gather it all together in one spot

[forest gate]

Hey, I’m willing to admit it could just be a me thing 🤣

[long kernel]

Oh nah I can potentially see it, just not something I’ve ever gotten

[dreamy hawk]

“The whole lore” seems a bit hyperbolic. I can think of several issues/inconsistencies off the top of my head including: Why do rooks bleed? Why is cryo only available on weekends? Why does your gear teleport into a perfect little body bag on death?

At the end of the day “it’s a game” is the answer for a lot of things.

[forest gate]

Yeah it happens. Maybe guns haven’t advanced in 300 years 🤷‍♂️

[digital plaza]

Yeah man it is

[long kernel]

It would have been a neat detail but I really don’t mind

[earnest hatch]

If you want a lore reason: Everything is 3D printed. So the new gun schematics got updated in the Marathon system when the UESC reestablished contact.

[long kernel]

It’s also possible the weapons we are gathering are from dead UESC patrols and such

[digital plaza]

Not everything should have 999 pages long explanation to it, some things have an excuse of simple being game mechanics and thats alright

[long kernel]

Not the actual colonists

[sudden pollen]

Yep

[dreamy hawk]

Benefit: if the answer is “gameplay,” then you’re welcome to come up with whatever head canon fancies you the most.

[tall lynx]

if we apply this logic to destiny, how can multiple guardians own a copy of unique guns like lumina or outbreak

because it's a game.

[long kernel]

Presumably with the hostile corrosive environment on Tau Ceti, any mechanical device like a gun would be long rendered inoperable after 300 years

[forest gate]

Also the real “valuables” are the prestige salvage which is mostly unique to marathon

[gritty spoke]

but weapons in vaults have same models

[long kernel]

Well, in lore they don’t, technically there is only one young wolf, but yeah it’s weird

[terse wren]

TIL this chat is Tau Ceti

[dreamy hawk]

They’ve just got great materials science in the future. Nothing corrodes, degrades, etc.

[tall lynx]

my point is that continuity errors as a result of it being a video game should just be disregarded in the greater scheme

[dreamy hawk]

Have folks been hostile to you?

[forest gate]

Except when the plot requires it to! Haha

[long kernel]

I think you are joking but it’s going over my head if so, we know for a fact that the biomata cannot survive extended periods on the surface, and I think there was mention of other things suffering rapid corrosion

[dreamy hawk]

I’m always happy to engage in group shaming if folks aren’t playing nice.

[terse wren]

No one appreciates my finely developed sense of humor.

(no honestly this chat is great and even general chat is pretty much hilarious)

[dreamy hawk]

I’m in the “gameplay” camp. 100% being a goof.

[dreamy hawk]

Ah well welcome to the club, line starts behind me. 😘

[latent python]

Yeah no one appreciates Rollin's humor either

[forest gate]

Shots fired

[plush tendon]

it's also possible that the guns in the armoury store are 300 year old designs because they're being printed in the tau ceti system using the old tech that was originally sent with the marathon

[dreamy hawk]

My parents remind me on the daily. 🥲

[forest gate]

Indeed, and volt weapons are almost exclusively used by UESC forces representing the latest in weapon technology

[dreamy hawk]

Then I want my fusion pistol.

[forest gate]

Isn’t that a punch v11?

Plasma pistol

[dreamy hawk]

Seriously downgraded if yes.

[tall lynx]

crackpipe theory that weapons found on tau ceti are less vulnerable to alien corrosion compared to modern weaponry that's why it's preferred to use them

[forest gate]

Nah, the punch v11 is the halo plasma pistol

The volt thrower is needier adjectent

[long kernel]

Yeah, my take is just, it’s a gameplay conceit, because as cool as a whole different set of weapons would be, it would take a bunch of extra dev time that I don’t think bungie had. Also some weapons do seem to only really be available through the store or contracts, most notably the H-AR I don’t think I’ve seen spawn in crates before, meaning it may be a newer model of assault rifle than the older M-77 or Overrun

[sudden pollen]

100%

[earnest hatch]

Like I said in a previous reply. The fact that everything is 3D printed could account for that as well as why the same guns are on the Marathon.

[dreamy hawk]

Tech.50 Fusion Pistol The tech.50 is an extremely expensive weapon to produce and is used primarily by elite commando tactical troops. Normal firing mode produces 20 high impact energy bolts (5.83 TeraWatts each) in eight seconds. The secondary trigger will charge the internal MicroFuse Reaction Core to 17.5 TeraWatts of power; which is discharged in one large energy bolt. The Tech.50 is powered by a Deuterioxide Halogen Battery Pack capable of producing 116.6 TeraWatts of power.

[lunar cove]

One other thing to note is that there's a codex entry that says some of the lockboxes and stashes have been clearly left behind, either by earlier runners or someone/something else

[tall lynx]

would the compiler gun be a focus beam/plasma launcher

[long kernel]

Yes and no, it’s more about how they got there

[plush tendon]

my personal tinfoil theory is that 3d printed plastic weapons have long been made obsolete by whatever new technology exists on earth, but the plastic doesn't corrode and metal would, so none of the corporations have bothered trying to get new manufacturing equipment to tau ceti

[dreamy hawk]

It is also possible that it’s too good of a gun for us and that we’ll see it later with spec ops bosses or the like.

[forest gate]

I mean look at real world guns the AR15 hasn’t changed much in decades, just material science has gotten better

[long kernel]

Yeah true

[dreamy hawk]

Tech.50 as another red-tier weapon.

Inb4

[earnest hatch]

They got printed. When the UESC reestablished contact it updated the Mararhon’s weapon database to print new weapons for the UESC troops.

[forest gate]

It’s a trace rifle from D2 with the secondary fire that looks like a fuel rod cannon

[long kernel]

I think kalashnikov assault rifles are a better example, or the M2 browning machine gun, or hell, the maxim gun. But yeah

[lunar cove]

https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/runner-cache?directory=World,Activities

These stockpiles require keys that can be scavenged from the planet, other RUNNERS, or UESC, but once found and unlocked, they offer an array of goods to bolster any run. The origin of these CACHES is unknown, but someone is supplying RUNNERS with gear to help them survive TAU CETI IV. Hard to see the bad in that.

[tall lynx]

the projectiles kinda act like plasma grenades so it kinda feels like the plasma launcher from reach

[dreamy hawk]

So a fusion rifle from Reach or w/e it was called?

[tall lynx]

the trace rifle mode is just a focus rifle from reach too

[forest gate]

Yeah, I see that

[lunar cove]

We explicitly don't know who's stashing all the best loot, but it's implied someone is, with a purpose

[dreamy hawk]

Focus rifle! Thank you.

[tall lynx]

if they're ripping guns from halo can we get a needler sniper 🥹

[kind vector]

Arachne!!!!

I bet its arachne

THey want runners to kill each other and fight and they are very rich

[forest gate]

V99?

[dreamy hawk]

Tbh ey might have the cash but do they have the logistics?

[tall lynx]

nah the needler sniper had a very fast fire rate

[kind vector]

undoubtably yes

[tall lynx]

it's basically a scout rifle that shoots needler rounds

[dreamy hawk]

My favorite rifle.

[tall lynx]

but it was such a good gun

i need to replay halo reach

[forest gate]

V66?

[dreamy hawk]

I probably agree but we don’t actually know for certain.

[tall lynx]

faster

[kind vector]

Doorandal

[forest gate]

It’s been so long I’ve forgotten

[atomic dew]

.

[forest gate]

It makes me too sad, I beat it once and never played it again.

[atomic dew]

/DAC

[tall lynx]

wonder if we'll see melee weapons in this game

imagine a marathon energy sword

or gravity hammer

maybe make them contraband level so it's not like

ruining every single game

[forest gate]

The pfhor have some kind of spear weapon

[tall lynx]

yeah i was gonna say

also doesn't one of them have like

a wrist mounted blade

i forgot it's name

[dreamy hawk]

The Hunters I think?

I’m blanking rn.

[forest gate]

Hmmm very Protoss like

My life for auir

[dreamy hawk]

Very Tau like…

[scenic schooner]

Hi chat, I assume others have thought of it before but, does anyone else think whenever there's a wipe there's going to be a marathon infinity style timeline swap where the runners remember but things change drastically?

[tall lynx]

yeah you'd be right

it's a hunter

[forest gate]

I know, I know but I played star craft before I knew 40k existed

[dreamy hawk]

In the Alpha this was justified as the corps collecting your debts, so I don’t think so.

[earnest hatch]

The Hunters have small shields on their arms.

[tall lynx]

ohh

[dreamy hawk]

ONI also threatens taking your stuff during the tutorial.

[tall lynx]

hm maybe the one melee weapon would be their spears then

[dreamy hawk]

I technically played StarCraft first, but I don’t know much about either.

[scenic schooner]

There's also signs of various AI going rampant including Oni

[tall lynx]

still would be cool

[forest gate]

I know SC very well but I only have surface level understanding of 40k

[tall lynx]

i find it funny that three different pieces of media focus around tau this year

marathon, that new ryan gossling movie

and warframe

[forest gate]

But it’s a different kind of rampant

[scenic schooner]

W'rks presence make a lot of things uncertain

[earnest hatch]

Tau were added to 40k after the StarCraft games had already been around for a few years. So I’d still say it’s very Protoss like. 😜

[forest gate]

We don’t know if it’s present and not some Jarro tech gone haywire or s’pht planet shaping or something else.

It is heavily implied the UESC had some prior knowledge that something was odd about tau ceti 4 before the marathon launched.

[dreamy hawk]

I’m firmly in the “all of the above” camp.

The Jjaro, W’rk, and S’pht are all up to something.

[snow nacelle]

Could happen at some point but right now we've only cracked into a small part of the Marathon and New Cascadia.

I want more exploration here first.

[forest gate]

Heh, as I said surface level knowledge about 40k. I just know Gulliman and Yvraine got have a baby at some point cause memes. 🤣

[snow nacelle]

Do we all have an ONI copy, or is it all communicating with us? I don't recall her exact language on that.

[scenic schooner]

If it's a regular AI then it's probably aboard some cyberacme ship nearby tau ceti

[forest gate]

What happens if the front falls off? That would be an interesting new location on tau ceti.

[plush tendon]

we have FTL communication afaik, so it could just be on earth

[forest gate]

Also in trailer there was a crater that they were studying and beach

[snow nacelle]

That's more like knowledge of a wart on the surface, har.

Yvraine is a devotee of the god of death and Guilliman is a little like an honorable Roman in the most horrifying Isekai. Don't have a kid together, wouldn't want one, and cannot.

[dreamy hawk]

My understanding is that we have at least a lite version of her onboard.

[snow nacelle]

Also possible!

I am interested in how we could be a vector for the type of corruption that got Darius as the Novel Contagion could conceivably spread corruption via data

[dreamy hawk]

ONI is the one AI we know to be in system because we had access to her during the tutorial, prior for establishing comms to Earth and Sol.

[forest gate]

Oh I know it’s complete out of the realm of possibility but I do like visiting r/grimdank for a laugh

[tall lynx]

buy the chatgpt subscription to run it locally, otherwise we're using the website version that's widely available

this is an insane analogy never let me cook again

[snow nacelle]

I also am intrigued by the drone repair log mentioning deep sea exploration and probes being menaced by some possibly squid like native fauna

[forest gate]

Marathon has Cthulhu

[robust vale]

I think it’s all the local version

[forest gate]

It would be interesting to have an underwater biome

[robust vale]

The O stands for Onboard

[snow nacelle]

I do want to see what happens here then as plenty of AI has had... issues in the expedition.

I do find it funny that the colony has such a large cast of AI and we've mainly seen info from poor Darius.

I'm especially curious about Arthur.

[forest gate]

It’s local with cloud sync

[dreamy hawk]

Joy and Gabriel, too.

[uneven shell]

Joy is the medical AI right?

[dreamy hawk]

A good amount on those two as well.

[plush tendon]

joy is the ai in the emotional support plushies

[dreamy hawk]

No, she’s the emotional wellbeing AI.

[forest gate]

I’m most interested in Joy because they have Jennifer English voice her and I expect her to have a significant amount of dialogue.

[snow nacelle]

Ah, that's right

[dreamy hawk]

RIP Joy. 😭

[tall lynx]

she has a lot in the bingus plushie lore

[forest gate]

I gotta find the plushie

[tall lynx]

i found like two once in dire marsh killing the purple shield uesc ghosts

[snow nacelle]

Probably, though these sound more like the Deep Ones/Cthulu minis... for now, as they were held off by adding a variety of ultra bright lights and spikes to the drones.

[tall lynx]

are there any lore entries with cutscenes yet?

or are they all just dialogue

[forest gate]

Dire marsh ptsd

[plucky sierra]

we don't know if it is even present

[tall lynx]

lowkey just pray for a maintenance spawn

kill a ghost and hide

actually it might be complex not maintenance

[dreamy hawk]

Text or audio.

[forest gate]

W’rks is secretly controlling the UESC

[tall lynx]

booooring

how come there's no cutscenes like the ones in that one trailer

with the people on the marathon

don't tell me that was just for that specific trailer

[dreamy hawk]

Nawh, but if there is a W’rk they’re either aware of it or the Jjaro presence on TCIV.

[forest gate]

I’ve killed a lot of ghosts there never got one. Just unlucky I guess..

[latent python]

Unless you count the intro cutscene, the faction intro cutscenes, and the cryo archive intro cutscene

[scenic schooner]

I saw a lot of clues but I guess we haven't seen the smoking gun

[tall lynx]

that's actually insanely disappointing im ngl

[plucky sierra]

The Secret illumanti is attempting to harness Jjaro technology buried at Tau Ceti

[dreamy hawk]

Nothing definitive even though I’m, personally, convinced.

[tall lynx]

i would've expected at least the gold tier valuable lore to have something like that

[uneven shell]

they should let Alberto Mielgo cook

[dreamy hawk]

I can’t remember if Pfhorrest replied the last time I asked (sorry friend) but I vaguely recall there being mention of some cabal in the OG games.

[plucky sierra]

yeah there is a tangent theory about it

[sudden pollen]

The dude is genuinely a visionary, I've never seen cinematics like his

[plucky sierra]

it is growing more plausible to me

[scenic schooner]

The Pfor are pretty much the cabal a decade earlier weren't they?

[tall lynx]

i recently found out he made the watch dogs legion trailer which i thought was an immensely good game trailer

[latent python]

Different cabal

[tall lynx]

(too bad the game sucks ASS)

[robust vale]

There’s a WHAT

[dreamy hawk]

You wouldn’t happen to recall any keywords I could use to find the old lore?

[robust vale]

I thought they were space rhinos not bugs /s

[forest gate]

The cabal aren’t slavers

[plucky sierra]

one sec

[uneven shell]

oh man that game really came and went lol. I'll check that trailer out tho

[scenic schooner]

Are you sure about that? I mean, the point is that they conquer and subjugate other races

I can't recall the name of the very small snipers

[forest gate]

Psions

[tall lynx]

don't they just destroy galaxies and such, i mean they literally wanted the power of our sun which would effectively kill everything else in the system

[plucky sierra]

https://marathon.karnemir.com/archive/marathon-1/counterattack/smells-like-napalm-tastes-like-chicken#h.nz5c4x7891l4 is one of the terminals

[dreamy hawk]

I don’t think they’re slavers like the Pfhor but I do think they have castes and subjugated species probably don’t get a lot of choice. But I don’t entirely recall their lore.

[forest gate]

They conquer but all races within the cabal have the same rights

[plucky sierra]

I don't know the full illuminati theory stuff so best to check with @visual lynx

[scenic schooner]

I'm not saying they are note for note the same, it's just that they are very analogous in my opinion

[dreamy hawk]

The bit about the Danube and Romans?

[tall lynx]

technically the dread are slavers considering the grimm and husks were a former race

the subjugators and tormentors are specifically created by the witness, but the grimm and husks were corrupted races from other planets

[plucky sierra]

yeah something about all that

I can look through the MSP

[dreamy hawk]

Nawh, you have me a springboard. I can poke.

But ty.

[latent python]

More about the members scattered about the globe who meet every seven years in France

[dreamy hawk]

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.

[plucky sierra]

https://marathon.bungie.org/story/chicken.html

[forest gate]

I’m interested to see if we find out more about mark 4 cyborgs

[scenic schooner]

remember what the cabal were gonna use on the sol system's sun?

[forest gate]

The almighty?

[scenic schooner]

yea, there's another similarity

but i don't wanna push it too hard, it's really no surprise this would happen given the same studio made both games

[forest gate]

There’s bit here and there in each game.

[plucky sierra]

bungo reuses a lot of ideas

[forest gate]

They definitely have archetypes

[plucky sierra]

pyramid manifesting nightmares due to a "sleeping" god inside

c'mon

[tall lynx]

i mean if it ain't broke don't fix it

[dreamy hawk]

I think it’s fun to see how far you can stretch/reskin concepts.

You could argue it’s tired, but I think done right it’s really creative.

[forest gate]

Pastiche

Bungie is good at that

[tall lynx]

loser example but hoyoverse does this exact thing with their gacha games and i think it's really funny how they subvert expectations of things they rehash like characters or events

"yeah that character from our earlier game that has a fan favorite following? make her absolutely unlikeable to the highest degree in our other game."

😭

[forest gate]

I distinctly remember they had no idea what the light or darkness was when they launched destiny.

[scenic schooner]

the secrets are always sweetest when you're still uncovering them

[terse wren]

rip

[scenic schooner]

the real creators of the world? bungie, it was made by game dev studio, mystery solved :D

[forest gate]

“The Architects”

[tall lynx]

i like how they moved towards the light and dark being neutral forces, it's like what star was tried doing but kinda fucked up

god i hate the new star was trilogy

[forest gate]

Star Wars did it well in the books that got decanonised by Disney

The concept that the force is neutral neither inherently good or bad

[tall lynx]

although im kinda upset we're already done with the light and darkness saga since i still feel like i don't really know what the fuck the traveller actually is or why it's there

like did someone make it or was it because of the gardener or smth

[forest gate]

Andor has been the only good thing to come out of Disney’s ownership of the IP

[scenic schooner]

here's an idea, the traveller is jjaro technology

[tall lynx]

and is there a darkness equivalent of the traveller

[scenic schooner]

i guess it's the w'rk

[forest gate]

Yeah, I’m not ready to move on.

[forest gate]

It’s supposed to be The Veil, it was introduced in lightfall but in a shitty way.

[tall lynx]

we definitely should've gotten some sort of epilogue expansion to tie up loose ends before going into the next story

i mean technically that's what episodes were supposed to do

but there's still questions

[forest gate]

Episodes did little imo.

[scenic schooner]

i haven't played destiny since 2024, when's the next content drop expected?

[forest gate]

The last one was the only good one because it was about the hive

[forest gate]

June

[snow nacelle]

Can't get over how it looks to me like a big gross turnip.

Like... this is it?

[tall lynx]

june is just a mid season update

the next expansion is probably in september

[forest gate]

Expect it to be delayed

[tall lynx]

kinda looks like an hourglass to me

should've been a cube

that would've been funny

[forest gate]

The borg?

[tall lynx]

the veil

[forest gate]

I know, I’m saying the ultimate villain of the destiny universe would have been the borg

[tall lynx]

the zorpalod

[forest gate]

Cause cubes

At least final shape was good

[tall lynx]

true

damn i feel nostalgic for an expansion that came out two years ago

what a time

[forest gate]

It do be like that