📚marathon-lore-discussion

[agile vault]

one thing that I noticed when playing the first two Marathon games actually is the prescence of rampancy
Halo 4's story dealt with rampancy, maybe it was a subtle nod to Marathon??

who knows

[remote magnet]

Different verses, same song

[drifting coral]

Assuming this isn’t a joke- nearly everything in every Bungie game is parallels of the other-

Hell, Traxus, the morning corporation, is ALSO in halo.

[agile vault]

halo 4 was 343 tho

[drifting coral]

Look at the cargo crates- even the logo is the same

[eternal shell]

before halo went to 343, halo had the marathon logo hidden everywhere

[drifting coral]

The references to ‘I am %hero’, the security helmet IS the main characters helmet, and as Da says-

It has the marathon logo

Guilty spark? Marathon logo

Dashboard of the warthog? Marathon logo

Jackal shield? Marathon logo

[drifting coral]

And what’s the main character of marathons name?

[agile vault]

halo cheif

[drifting coral]

A cyborg called Mjolnir Recon 54

[agile vault]

I did notice that hey were mjolnir units

[remote magnet]

John Marathon

[drifting coral]

Mjolnir? Just like Master Chief’s armor

[agile vault]

is marathon mister chef's last name?

[remote magnet]

yes

[eternal shell]

yes.

source: trust me

[drifting coral]

What’s MRecon54 fighting?

A coalition of a group of aliens, with hierarchical ranks placing some above the others in power

[remote magnet]

As is the floods actually, little known fact. Full name is the flood paul Marathon

[drifting coral]

W’rkenc’acenter? You mean the all-unknowable cosmic horror that everyone is afraid of?

Can you think of anything in halo that *is a cosmic horror everyone is afraid of that threatens to destroy the universe?

[remote magnet]

Humanity?

(im 14 and this is deep)

[eternal shell]

hm was the flood really going to destroy more than the galaxy

[agile vault]

john marathon

[drifting coral]

W’rkenc’acenter? Isn’t that from Pathways Into Darkness- the military shooter on the MacIntosh

[dreamy hawk]

This would be a great time for @plucky sierra to drop his Paraverse theory/write up.

[eternal shell]

big difference between the universe and the galaxy

even if it's the galaxy we live in

[remote magnet]

I mean, the paraverse is canon. Its jokey canon, but still. Its out there

[agile vault]

this
pretty sure the halo rings would destroy the galaxy not the whole universe

[dreamy hawk]

Yes, but D2 and Infinite, too.

[plucky sierra]

Too controversial

[drifting coral]

There’s like, reaches and stuff we can make there with the discoveries of the expanses of space but it’s safe to assume they’d find a way, right?

Even if not, the galaxy is still BAD.

[eternal shell]

i could buy wrk destroying much more than the milky way galaxy

[dreamy hawk]

It’s a quality write up! Let the haters hate!

[drifting coral]

Eeexactly!

And what was Durandal’s last line, at the last moment of the universe?

‘You are Destiny’

[plucky sierra]

I would except it’s long

I will in a bit

[remote magnet]

They where free at some point, before they were put to sleep. They are like really really bad, but not universal destroyers i think

[eternal shell]

destiny was kinda odd in that the whole universe was at stake apparently but everything of note went down in a single solar system, which is just

imagine if a continent was flipped upside down like a pancake because of a conflict inside of an ant hill

space is huge, possibly the size of an xbox

some say even two xboxes

[remote magnet]

Well, thats where the traveller is parked, and its the key to doom the universe

[drifting coral]

Halo isn’t a nod to marathon so much as it is a vaguely veiled retelling of the story of a hero and a great evil as Bungie has been telling, over and over and over

[eternal shell]

i mean i guess but you'd think that with those stakes there'd be a lot more visitors than 6 factions

or however many destiny has

i dont count taken or scorn, they're made from other factions

[remote magnet]

Most species out there do not know about the traveler, or the conflict. Every species the traveler visitet before is dead

or fallen

[eternal shell]

imagine if said ant hill had the secret to destroy an entire continent

or save it

[remote magnet]

The game takes place after billions of years of ethnic cleansing on an universal scale. The only ones left are the biggest players

[dreamy hawk]

Halo was Marathon, too, initially so that doesn’t help with originality.

[dreamy hawk]

Destiny is one answer to the Dark Forest.

[remote magnet]

aye

Then again, personal hangup of mine, the fermi paradox is not in fact a paradox. it takes many things for granted that really shouldnt be to arrive on the bleakest possible explanation

[eternal shell]

i just get the sense that if every single bit of destiny lore took place in lets say a five hundred light year radius (tiny bit of the galaxy) then very little would change

stakes are exactly as high

[remote magnet]

yes

[eternal shell]

if we fail we gon die

and here's some of our interstellar neighbours deciding this is their problem too

[remote magnet]

I guess they just wantet to reasonably explain near instant travel between all locations. interstellar travel takes time in this setting, many threats take YEARS to reach us

[eternal shell]

there IS a cutscene showing the pyramid ships chilling outside of the galaxy, seeing the signal the traveler sends and moving in towards the origin point

[modest bramble]

I wonder if the writers of the new Marathon had been looking thru the archives of the lore from the original trilogy?

[dreamy hawk]

I would be shocked if they didn’t.

[eternal shell]

would be weird if they didnt

[remote magnet]

Definitely

[dreamy hawk]

It’d be criminal and also given how consistent some things are, very doubtful.

[remote magnet]

Only question is, how much if anything did they decide to retcon

[modest bramble]

Yeah, a lot of things had been carried over, like the term BOBs (Born On Board).

[eternal shell]

they did make a big brain move and decide to explore a pretty much unexplored part of the canon

we dont go where security officer and durandal went and run around on llhowon and shit

but we do get a durandal copy so i guess they couldnt resist, not that i blame them

[modest bramble]

I’ve heard that only something similar to the first game only happened on the new game.

[eternal shell]

we're still trying to figure out which timeline we're in

[dreamy hawk]

Could it be Marathon without the protagonist?

[remote magnet]

Or marathon where durandal didnt escape

[modest bramble]

Like in the new timeline Durandal did not free the S’pht, it’s implied that the W'rkncacnter did instead.

[eternal shell]

i mean in infinity all the timeline splits was post m1, in some durandal nabs us and runs, in some he doesnt

[dreamy hawk]

Is it? Are you thinking of Colonial Folklore? I don’t know if I’d come to that conclusion.

[eternal shell]

damn i need to get back to collecting lore items

[dreamy hawk]

As far as we know M2 seems to have happened, but exactly which details is unclear.

[eternal shell]

been distracted recently by other games

[dense tendon]

so theres a couple things about this.
its the only place "good" didnt flee. the traveller didnt abandon this place. the hive have also built an empire crushing anything they meet for the sake of slaughter. the cabal conquer and assimilate the rest. eliksni are scavengers looking for their god that abandoned them, and vex are the cheat engine solve to conways game of life. they are the problematic inevitable fail state this entire affair was made to prevent, but they walk through time like hallways so if they can happen, they do.
but i have a somewhat unrelated question. you know what the brethren moon are, from dead space?

[eternal shell]

but infinity already made m2 not happen

[dreamy hawk]

Not exactly? Where’s that damn timeline. One sec.

[remote magnet]

Yes, and i hate them, they are great

[dreamy hawk]

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

So that’s right. It does pick up right after M1 and retcons everything else.

[eternal shell]

i know the rough details, i only played the first DS. even then, space is huge. it's the size of maybe even three xboxes. you could neatly fit all of this stuff in a small part of the galaxy and the story wouldnt suffer, honestly

[dense tendon]

yeah. they are. theyre also responsible for all life in the galaxy being either them or interstellar hypercapitalist humanity. because everything that meets them builds the Markers about it, and the Markers are eggs for a new Brethren Moon made of the building species.

[remote magnet]

point is, guardians defend sol and the traveler. If a tree falls a solar system over, they wouldnt care

[dreamy hawk]

And the Markers seed new life iirc, right?

[eternal shell]

even then it's tough to buy that the threat is truly universal

galaxy-wide, possible

galaxy and nearby galaxies, ok

[dense tendon]

by way of them being the central point a Brethren Moon is built around.

[remote magnet]

They modify existing life, to make sure it over time develops consciousness and can become an intergalactic empire

[eternal shell]

but to go from the galactic neighbourhood to the full universe is absolutely redonkulus

[remote magnet]

They dont create life, tehy manipulate it

[dreamy hawk]

Right. It crashed into the Yucatán. We already had life.

[eternal shell]

it really is, this brawl between 20 people on this street decides the fate of earth

[dreamy hawk]

The scale would be insane. No one would be able to wrap their brains around it in a meaningful way, either.

[eternal shell]

i've said space is big several times yes but it's not like it's something that can be overstated

[remote magnet]

Well,that street has the launch centre for all the worlds nukes on it

[dreamy hawk]

OK James S.A. Corey.

[dense tendon]

it basically goes "hey, go spread to the stars, teach em how to build our nurseries. itll be cool." and then after they find a new guy to mess with they command the last guy (the entire previous species) to mutilate themselves at a cellular level and recycle the biomass to create a new BM.

[eternal shell]

find something bigger then :^)

[dense tendon]

another universe

[dreamy hawk]

The Goths.

[remote magnet]

5 Xboxes

[eternal shell]

damn i didnt consider 5 xboxes

[remote magnet]

With all of Bungies games exploring the same themes and story elements its weird that ONI stands out so much

[eternal shell]

i havent played oni

does it run well on modern day OSes?

[remote magnet]

i dont know, ive played it back in the day

[dense tendon]

there's a sourceport. think its called Advanced Edition? something like that.

need the OG game to play it tho, like all source ports.

i actually have my original box, so ive been meaning to give it a second shot, i never finished it back in the day

[remote magnet]

Its a nice game. im sure i remember it as better then it was, but i do remember it

[eternal shell]

ah, it seems to be abandonware

i guess i'll never play it 😉

[remote magnet]

But as i sayed, it has NOTHING in common with any of Bungies other games

aside from the title

[sage junco]

thought they were saying that the bad guys from Oni were forerunners of UESC -- or maybe that's just fans drawing long conclusions, as usual

[eternal shell]

shadow wizard lore channel: we love making conclusions

[remote magnet]

Which bad guys? The Syndicate, or the Police?

i dont see it

[dreamy hawk]

I admittedly know very little about ONI.

I know more Myth lore for sure. 😂

[remote magnet]

Also, seeing as humanity goes nearly extinct in the end of ONI, i doubt it

[dense tendon]

ONI the game has literally nothing to do with any other bungie game other than being vaguely scifi by way of cyberpunk

[eternal shell]

dayum, spoilers

spoilers for this 20+ year old game

what's next, i get told how chess ends

[remote magnet]

Sorry. Seeing as humanity is dooing perfectly fine in the end, its very possible

[dense tendon]

brother the game has a plot you could fit on a bazooka joe wrapper

i dont remember anything about it, thats the craziest part. its like the most aggressive version of bungie doing that thing where the plot is completely able to be ignored without changing any of the experience.

[eternal shell]

wait, not extremely elaborate plot in a bungie game? 🤨

[dense tendon]

its like a playable anime. it kicks so much ass but i couldnt tell you any of why i was backflipping guns and katanas through any of it.

[tardy sinew]

yes. the queen gets knighted and well game over

[remote magnet]

I mean, it has a decent plot, its just fairly stereotypicaly anime

[dreamy hawk]

In the game's climax, Konoko discovers a Syndicate plan to cause the Atmospheric Conversion Centers, air-treatment plants necessary to keep most of the world's population alive, to catastrophically malfunction. She is partially successful in thwarting the plot, saving a portion of humanity.
Sounds fine tbh.

A “portion” is fine. No generic bottle necks to worry about.

Fun fact, humans have gone through iirc three major bottlenecks. As far as genetic diversity goes, as a species, we’re very inbred.

[dense tendon]

its a fine story, nothing wrong with it, i just absorbed like none of it is all im saying.

[remote magnet]

The bad guy wanted the atmospheric control centres to actively pump out poison., Konoko blows them up. Watch the ending cutscene on youtube

[dreamy hawk]

Are you saying the Wikipedia plot synopsis isn’t all encompassing? Lies.

[dreamy hawk]

Like angel food cake.

[remote magnet]

The atmosphere is so poisonous that people die in minutes of beeing exposed, that is a plotpoint. And she blows up ALL the purifyers

[dreamy hawk]

So it’s like when all the mass relays explode at the end of ME3?

[tardy sinew]

where'd that third one come from? and please tell it wasn't optional. lol

[dreamy hawk]

“Everyone lived happily ever after until the supernova at the edge of their solar system razed their planets to the ground.”

[dreamy hawk]

The English.

[dense tendon]

everything is optional

[dreamy hawk]

I actually don’t know. I’m not that much an expert, I just know we’re not genetically diverse as a species.

[dense tendon]

whether the option is good or not is immaterial.

[remote magnet]

Basically, konoko and her brother have a thing called the daodan crysalis, which is like an benign cancer that grants mild superstrenght and thoughness, as well as EXTREME regenerative abilitys. The bad guys plan was to sell the crysalis for money and loyalty to him, the rest will die. The only difference that konoko makes int eh end is that she gives it out for free, to everyone she meets. The rest are f ed still

[dense tendon]

man the health regen has a plot reason? thats wack

[remote magnet]

The health regen is the crux of the plot, basically

[dense tendon]

i really gotta redo that game lmao

[eternal shell]

until you do you're restricted from talking oni lore it sounds like

[plucky sierra]

@dreamy hawk who wanted the Paraverse article?

[dreamy hawk]

I did.

It just seemed like a good conversation for it. 🙂

[plucky sierra]

Oh I can't attach files

It is a 6 page PDF so I'd rather not burden the channel with a Great Wall of Text

[dreamy hawk]

Valid.

I’d host it but I don’t wanna dox myself sooo guess people need to ask.

[eternal shell]

this is exactly the channel to put six pages of lore in

we love reading spells

[dreamy hawk]

I have a copy now so if Fel doesn’t share with you lmk. 😛

[visual lynx]

protip: if you can’t attach files in one discord channel, attach them somewhere else in discord (like your own private server even), copy the attachment link, and share that in the chat you can’t attach in

[lilac sapphire]

Just got the codex entry of all the felini bug reports. Spooky

Also the one where it's breaking everything. "Intended behavior, close ticket" lol

[visual lynx]

justcatthings.gif

[lilac sapphire]

FELINI UNITS || BUG REPORT | PRI 4
C/S Felini unit 192A knocks objects off countertops and shelves in hab. Unit ignores behavior orders and no-go zones. [as intended, won't fix —MBAH]

[dreamy hawk]

Haxorz

For anyone having issues with the MIPS rounds, TIL about this thing with square rounds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler_%26_Koch_G11

[unreal slate]

don't forget to brush your teeth with cheeseburger

[lilac sapphire]

|| GRIEVANCE | PLANETARY SECURITY | HUMAN RESOURCES there are two (?) crews in the tunnel section between water treatment and the east station. they are not identifying themselves. they're down in the water and crouched in the water and when you go down there they're talking all the time. not showing identification and they go behind the grates if you get close probably two crews hear them in the night clearly visible with their eyes always above the water. my guys are accounted for and have assignments and they have never seen them but they don't work the tunnels so they come out and WILL NOT SHOW IDENTIFICATION there are maintenance vents we need to access when I shine a light they go back up the vents and they push together and damage the enamel which will need a MAINTANENCE crew and even if they're in the water they're not authorized to be there and make them get out. —491221M||

never been so spooked

imagine filing an official grievance with the union about literal ghosts

[unreal slate]

imagine trying to apprehend someone in a restricted area, who won't listen to your commands, only to realize your commands are echoing out into the anomalous void, and coming back to you, and the someone you have been trying to apprehend is actually trying to apprehend you, and is echoing back your voice, and is actually you, and you are in a restricted area and don't belong here

and now imagine that I am a cheeseburger

[steep sluice]

fan theories about what the UESC bots are doing to you with the tubes and all the red wires when you are downed?

[still pumice]

You're full of drinkable cheesburger

They're slurping it out

[earnest hatch]

In one of the dev videos the said they’re downloading your consciousness and memories.

[plucky sierra]

They're sucking the NuCal #187 out of the runner shells

[still pumice]

There have been occasions where the bots at Exfil decided there was nothing worth downloading, and shredded me with their machineguns while downed.

Probably an AI bug but still funny

[visual lynx]

🎶

Now it's late and you head downstairs
'Cause you just can't sleep so you make some tea
And the doll disapprovingly asks if you really need that much honey

You decide that you've had enough and you lock the doll in the wooden box
You put the box in the fireplace next to your bag of big city money

As the smoke fills up your tiny room there's nothing you can do
Far too late, you see the one inside the box is you
🎶
-Jonathan Coulton, Creepy Doll

[drifting garnet]

And then over time there’s just an air of acceptance that descends into “you get used to it after a while…” territory, lol

Although I suppose it’s either that or actually have a Lovecraft-esque mental crashout

[lilac sapphire]

"oh, that sound of banging pipes and hellacious wailing? That's just Joe"

[fluid stump]

They aren't able to suck you off then they will finish you off with guns.

thats a crazy setence but whatever

[languid cairn]

"There are obviously many things which we do not understand, and may never be able to."

[dreamy hawk]

Its relocation syndrome, its relocation syndrome, its relocation syndrome…

[north shell]

I think it only happens with ghosts

[drifting garnet]

Phrasing

[still pumice]

There was one time when it was definitely an Assault Cmdr

Decided he wanted to empty his whole magazine

[steep sluice]

i think i know what it is about the gunplay aside from all the obvious things that makes it so good. it's how the sound changes depending on the environment. they are rendering the sound in 3D meaning if you're inside a vent the sound gets crazy loud and tinny whilst the echo of being outside (actually i'm not sure i've ever heard an echo actually considering perimeter is surronded by a mountain wall lol

[rare sail]

Yeah like I think the other bots tried to steal your life but select ones were just gun you down

[rotund stump]

I think the new assassin skin confirms the CSL's involvement in making assassin shells lmao

that was quick

[rare sail]

What skin is that exactly, I haven’t kept up with the store skins

[rotund stump]

the new lethal haze one

covert UESC unit from before the treaty times

and even then they disbanded before the laws were enacted

schematics started showing up on black market so whether the unit went rogue or got leaked nobody knows

[drifting garnet]

meanwhile, gets History for Young Readers 2/4

"Oh yes, the government acted SO selfishly in how it either hoarded food and Allowed violent private militias to seize control. Thankfully, NuCaloric and Traxus were there to save everyone!"

...can I flip this book over to see who wrote this? 'cause now this is sounding very very Sus corpoproganda.

[real stump]

Do we know if the final log for Emotional Support Plushie was after the colony collapse or if it was after the kid got quarantined

[dreamy hawk]

It’s time stamped “Colony Era.”

[hidden geyser]

quiet down with that anti corpo nonsense, that was the real history you chud

[real stump]

yeah I know just trying to see if I can find if Joy was active after the colony collapsed or not

colony era could still encompass just after the colony had collapsed

[plucky sierra]

Final log for surveillance records

Post colony Joy

[plucky sierra]

The kid ||dies on page 4||

[terse wren]

Oh my FUCKING GOD the emotional support plushie log Jesus Christ almighty

Too much

[dreamy hawk]

They get to visit the animals on the farm, OK!?

[plucky sierra]

It’s one of the best (but very sad)

[terse wren]

Friendship with Durandal ended. JOY is now my favorite AI.

[dreamy hawk]

The audio 💀😭

[dreamy hawk]

Blasphemy!

[lean swan]

How is it that i see bingus on peramiter 1 match, dire marsh another match and on outpost sometimes.

Is there just... more than 1 bingus? Cause theres no way 1 lil pink cat can just walk all the way from dire to outpost at any given time... right? Thats like me being in florida walking all the way up to canada then back down to florida lol

[dreamy hawk]

Do we actually know the geographic locations of the maps and the distances?

[earnest hatch]

Bingus has many powers and abilities that we could only dream of.

[nocturne estuary]

Bingus and the lobsters are visual artifacts, nothing more

Don’t worry about them runner

[analog crow]

Inb4 the Pfhor return and the UESC in part become neutral similar to DMZ's Shadow Company and Orion becomes a UESC vendor in future seasons

[eternal shell]

teleportation, noclip, invisibility, standard cat stuff really

[lean swan]

No but i can almost guarintee u dire marsh and outpost are nowhere near each outher. U can look super far into the distance on outpost in the out of bounds areas and see nothing but barren mountains for miles and miles. Its just miles of rock and nothingness

[terse wren]

I spoiled myself by looking it up

I can't get over this shit it's completely destroyed me.

I have a two year old this is one of the clearest signs yet of cognitive/emotional shift.

I'm sure prior to this I would have been like oh this very sad but instead it entirely took me apart.

[rotund stump]

oh my god

ceticoin is real

-# Statement Sponsored by NuCaloric

[terse wren]

Based

[rotund stump]

fuck how do you do the footnote format again 💀

[dreamy hawk]

It’s pretty devastating and I don’t even have kids, just work with them.

[dreamy hawk]

-#

-# like this

[rotund stump]

took me 5 blind guesses 😭

[real stump]

Thank you my goat

[lean swan]

This may be a dum question... but how long was it between the time the settlers vanished from tauceti and the 1st runners started exploreing the ruins of the settlments of tauceti?

[sage lark]

We dont know

[eternal knoll]

runners arrived ~2893. contact was officially lost about 100 years before that

we know there were still colonists milling around being sick and confused and exploding into colorful guts as late as 2850 though

[lean swan]

So the runners arrived 40-50 years after the last colonist vanished or died then

So realisticly thats like us exploring Chernobyl right now after the nuclear dissaster in 86

[eternal knoll]

we don't know quite when this was recorded...

https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/anchorite-provisions/post-apocalyptic-log

is bro surviving out in the wilderness without a suit on?

[dreamy hawk]

Huh. First log is time stamped “unknown,” others are clearly “post-colony era.”

[lean swan]

Ngl there is prob a few survivors still runnin about. Since... ya know... the mysteryous grafiti across tauceti

[dreamy hawk]

Anomaly effects?

[lean swan]

Hell i wouldnt be surprised if the mida guy was secretly a survivor

[eternal knoll]

i guess there seems to be some implication that jasper isn't a normal guy

[sage lark]

Idk if there is any indication of this

We had to establish comms with Sol to speak to all the factions

[dreamy hawk]

Jasper was a child during the collapse; he likely had youth on his side.

[dreamy hawk]

What have you seen?

I would also comfortably wager that there are zero survivors. Orion and team looked and found nothing but an absence of bodies. With all of the activity, too, unless they ran off to the other side of the planet, there’s no way any potential survivors wouldn’t have seen the UESC presence on TCIV.

Long awaited rescues has arrived; unless they’ve gone full doomsday w’rk cult, I don’t know why they’d avoid rescue.

[eternal knoll]

well, it's curious that oni says jasper could be "one of several individuals using the name..." it's not really clear what's indicating that to her. he says he's completely alone, and getting along on the outskirts eating bugs and alien birdmeat just seems weird. it's established that the colonists needed to genetically modify bacteria to digest tick waste to create tick milk for humans to eat. we always see them in full atmosphere suits when they're outside. this guy is just breathing the tau ceti air and eating the bugs?

[dreamy hawk]

He certainly didn’t have a good time with it.

[eternal knoll]

and some of the things he says about himself in his poetry are weird. which could just be weird poetry stuff, but... "like me, it never sleeps? like me it never wakes?"

how did he escape whatever consumed everyone else, too?

[dreamy hawk]

I think between stress and environment poisoning he’s probably not a wildly reliable narrator; it’s possible there’s more going on but IDK.

Colony-produced teenage Battleroid doesn’t sound right.

[eternal knoll]

no...

one thing i could see working would be for him to be sort of a manifestation of the anomaly

[dreamy hawk]

As in he’s a mimic himself, or something?

[eternal knoll]

yea, a dream himself, whatever ya want

[dreamy hawk]

That could explain why his voice records didn’t clearly match anyone, but we don’t have other entries of mimics speaking, let alone keeping journals, though.

It answers one question but I feel like raises a number more.

[eternal knoll]

yea it would make him unique. something that could only arise after all the real humans were gone i suppose

it's just a spitball of an idea tho

[dreamy hawk]

It’s a fun one. 🙂

`there lies a vast body beyond me

its eyelash hides the sun

i am dust floundering in its waves

like me, it cannot sleep

like me, it never wakes

together we hunger

in occultation

life-wearied, death-defied

our dreams crash

reborn as waves

as mountains on the sea

our oblivion, long-due

denied by squalid fate`

More wave and water metaphors tho so there’s something more than meets the eye imo.

[eternal knoll]

like he seems to be saying he can't die, doesn't he

[dreamy hawk]

I could also interpret it as a “why am I still alive, I should have died like everyone else.”

[eternal knoll]

you could, but it feels weirder

here's one: maybe the s'pht created him? after it consumed the congregation that sacrificed themselves to it? (among others probably?)

[dreamy hawk]

I feel like him tripping out on toxic food explains the weirdness easier than him being a simulacrum or something.

[eternal knoll]

yea

[dreamy hawk]

Oh but!

But but but!

[eternal knoll]

listening

[dreamy hawk]

SUMMARY: Self-reflective survival aphorisms authored by "Jasper." Displays significant psychological drift from previous communications, possibly due to the influence of the referenced "red messenger."

I hadn’t read that before. Or I missed it.

[eternal knoll]

oni you're being so weird about jasper

[dreamy hawk]

Oh wait nvm

[eternal knoll]

earlier you were telling me he's probably multiple people, without telling me why. and now you're like "why's he acting so different in this one?"

[dreamy hawk]

That’s what the log was about. I thought it was referring to another entry.

[dreamy hawk]

Not quite, she said she couldn’t identify which Jasper it was.

SUMMARY: A recording of a survivor after New Cascadia's collapse and abandonment. Colonist voiceprint cannot be precisely matched to New Cascadia records, and could be one of several individuals using the name "Jasper."

[eternal knoll]

but like. why attribute to psychological drift what could just be, a different author

[dreamy hawk]

Evidence suggests they’re entries from the same individual I believe.

[eternal knoll]

i'd agree i'd wanna read it that way if not for oni editlorializing that jasper was some kind of shared name

[dreamy hawk]

If they’re all the same journal with the same handwriting then I could see how she could track his mental state over time.

[eternal knoll]

she can't just be saying "there were also regular documented colonists with the name jasper!"

a pointless thing to say, that would be

[dreamy hawk]

I don’t read it that way though. I just read it as ONI saying that, based off voice, she doesn’t know which Jasper is this Jasper, not that there’s multiple people.

Is it Jasper Smith or Jasper Adams?

🤷

It’s Jasper.

And imo this could be explained by incomplete/damaged records from the colony era easily enough.

[eternal knoll]

yeah i suppose you're right it's just her saying "we don't know who grew up to record this" and then pointlessly adding a whole dependent clause to say "but it's probably one of the people named jasper"

[dreamy hawk]

Also sorry, devils advocate is such an easy role for me. I promise my wet blanket takes aren’t me trying to be no fun. 😂

I’m better at critiquing ideas than providing my own. >.>

[eternal knoll]

i'd buy him as a normal fellow gone full nature survivalist more if there were a sign elsewhere that it was simply uncomfortable, not straight up fatal, to go outside without a suit on

[dreamy hawk]

See that’s what’s I’m not clear on.

`Candidate: Tau Ceti IV

Description: Terrestrial planet in the habitable zone of the G-class star Tau Ceti, 12 LY from Sol

CANDIDATE APPROVED as mission target. Habitability criteria are favorable in at least one major landmass. Atmospheric analysis confirms abundant carbon-based plant life capable of sustaining fauna. This candidate likely requires no long-term terraforming to be agriculturally self-sustaining. A joint panel of UESC physicists[1] and NuCaloric agronomists strongly assert that a more compatible target is unlikely to exist. `

It doesn’t speak specifically to the atmospheric composition, but this makes it sounds like TCIV was maybe not pleasant, but tolerable at baseline?

But then every time we see people, be it Dr. Song, blown up head man, or the folks in the trailers, they are wearing environmental suits.

And none of the codex entries touch atmospheric composition as near as I can tell.

[ADIA]: The truth is that our presence has already changed Tau Ceti IV. By breathing the air and touching the dirt, we've introduced "alien" life to this ecosystem.
I don’t know how literal “breathing the air” is here.

[eternal knoll]

i think oni comments on it at the start of runs sometimes. kinda makes it sound like yr shell is tuned for the atmosphere, which certainly matches the visual storytelling of runners being the only suitless people to walk around the planet

[dreamy hawk]

I’ll have to listen.

Shoot dang. I have to play more marathon.

[eternal knoll]

she mentions the atmosphere being a bit acidic, i def recall that one

man. if the jjarro rly did try to hide the dreaming god here and didnt want humanity to bother it, they shoulda picked a less inviting planet

[dreamy hawk]

Assuming it was never meant to be visited. It could be a 343 Guilty Spark situation.

Research and containment until some silly aliens come along and uncontain it.

And precursor races do seem to have a certain arrogance/ignorance to them.

[earnest hatch]

I thought the colonists had managed to change enough of the atmosphere to breath it a little.

Either way, they’d still have to filter air in and out of buildings, so some of their breath would get exhausted out into the open air of Tau Ceti.

[dreamy hawk]

Jasper just held his breath for a few years. That’s the real super human feat.

[earnest hatch]

He probably got extra oxygen from a supply of breathable cheeseburgers.

[latent python]

Are you suggesting: vapable oxygen

[earnest hatch]

I think NuCaloric’s marketing department is suggesting it.

[dreamy hawk]

Inhaleable food would be comedically dangerous.

You get a pneumonia, you get a pneumonia, everyone gets a pneumonia!!!

[lean phoenix]

do we know why there are ticks and nests on the marathon? i thought they were a native TCIV species

[eternal shell]

bot steps on tick nest, gets teleported to marathon for unrelated reasons, tick nest residue falls off bots foot

i have no lore to support this but it would be an explanation

[dreamy hawk]

The location of ticks being next to the compiler makes me very suspicious.

[lean phoenix]

especially since, from what i remember, colonists early said that the ticks weren’t aggressive

[dreamy hawk]

There’s also the circuit board like patterns others have observed on their shells.

[dreamy hawk]

Yeah, they grew aggressive over time.

I think they’re a part of whatever construct the planet is or at least somehow tied to the Jjaro and S’pht but 🤷🤷🤷

[lean phoenix]

just so i can have it clear in my head, which one of those is like the forerunner and which like the covenant from halo? i’m better with halo lore 😂

[eternal shell]

pfhor = covenant

jjarro = forerunner

[lean phoenix]

and the s’pht is a slave race that was created, right?

[eternal shell]

by the jjaro yes

[visual lynx]

spht halo equivalent are engineers

[sage lark]

They werent a slave race when created but yes

[lean phoenix]

oh the poor things

[sage lark]

Enslaved by the Pfhor and turned into compilers

[visual lynx]

also, if numa ticks are supposed to be reinterpretations of the lookers from m1, those were on the marathon too

[visual lynx]

they are called a “client race” of the jjaro, which is a term also used for slaves of the pfhor

[sage lark]

Fair enough then

[eternal shell]

the s'pht were servants for the jjaro initially werent they?

[sage lark]

Felt more willing to serve/worship the Jjaro than the Pfhor

[eternal shell]

ok yeah i was a bit slow there

the jjaro does sound like they were better to work for than the pfhor (wouldnt take much to achieve that mind you)

[dreamy hawk]

They kinda were? Not “enslaved” but purpose built to serve.

If you custom build a sentient being to terraform a planet for you is it really “free?”

[eternal shell]

now where have i heard that before hmmm

[dreamy hawk]

No clue. No parallel or overlapping themes to see here.

Not the biggest fan of Rick and Morty but the “you pass butter” scene fits really well here.

Oh. My. God.

[eternal shell]

i mean it does sound like they were given much better work than that, namely making llhowon a paradise

and they parted ways in a better way than uhhh [gestures vaguely at every other example]

[dreamy hawk]

1,000,000% but I’d still ask if that’s really “freedom” in the truest sense.

[earnest hatch]

I always got the impression it was a mutually beneficial thing between the S’pht and the Jjaro.

[eternal shell]

there, found the terminal i was thinking of

settled upon Lh'owon. They brought the
S'pht, servants who began to shape the
deserts of Lh'owon into marsh and sea,
rivers and forests. They made sisters for
Lh'owon to protect and maintain the paradise.

When the W'rkncacnter came, Pthia was
killed, and Yrro in anger, flung the
W'rkncacnter into the sun. The sun burned
them, but they swam on its surface.

Yrro became an angry master, bleeding for
his failure, grieving for the loss of
Pthia. He broke the S'pht into eleven
clans, and spread them over Lh'owon.

And he spoke, yet covered in blood from his
exertion,

"I Yrro, who was your master, have failed
to preserve you. Take your royalty to
guide you, and live upon the paradise that
you built for me."```

i keep misspelling lh'owon

[dreamy hawk]

Oh beat me to it.

“Servants”

"I Yrro, who was your master, have failed to preserve you. Take your royalty to guide you, and live upon the paradise that you built for me."
built for me

I agree it’s better treatment than the Pfhor but it still feels pretty one-sided up until Yrro gets depressed.

[eternal shell]

yea

[eternal knoll]

the compiler trace histories make it sound like there was a period after the jjarro departed but before the pfhor showed up where the spht were sorta left to themselves

and it reads like they felt pretty listless and purposeless during that time

[eternal shell]

oh yeah the pfhor didnt rock up and started enslaving the second yrro left

[dreamy hawk]

Also. They seemed to welcome the arrival of new masters (Pfhor) until they realized they were actually terrible.

[eternal knoll]

yea. so in a way this is the first time theyve ever been free and determined to find a purpose for themselves

and it sounds a little like they settled on consuming life in order to catalog it

[eternal shell]

man yrro shoulda left them some synths and other musical instruments

[earnest hatch]

I like to think that the S’pht was experimenting with the ticks to try and create servants to help it escape.

[remote magnet]

OR it was the alien version of an crazy cat lady

[dreamy hawk]

This is one of my ideas, or there’s a deeper connection between the two. I haven’t figured out a third option yet.

Centimanj did tho. 💪

[remote magnet]

The marathon was still beeing used in the early steps of the colonys setup. They would have brought specimen of native flora and fauna up there to study before setting up the colony

[dreamy hawk]

I would buy that if we found the ticks anywhere else but in the immediate vicinity of the compiler. AFAIK that is the only place on cryo you see them and it feels like too much of a choice to ignore.

But yeah contamination would be logical.

[eternal shell]

definitely feels like some bots feet didnt get scrubbed properly

bit like how you can spread garden slug eggs around if you're unlucky

[rough tartan]

punishment mod marathon?
it does extra damage to s'phnt people whos that?

@sudden summit do you have any idea?

[rough tartan]

@faint harness you must know what S'phnt is

[faint harness]

it's the aliens

as far as i'm aware the only one in the game at the moment is the Compiler

[rough tartan]

is it only compiler?

oh ok thanks I'll sell them then

appreciate it

[faint harness]

no problem

[earnest hatch]

There’s a weapon mod that does extra damage to S’pht?

Hopefully that means that Night Marsh will have S’pht Compilers showing up.

[eternal shell]

does the description say s'pht compilers specifically or alien combatants

[dreamy hawk]

S’pht.

[earnest hatch]

Based this persons description it says S’pht #📚marathon-lore-discussion message

[dreamy hawk]

It does extra damage to explicitly S’pht; I’ve only ever seen one once in cryo and didn’t take it cuz I wasn’t going to need it.

I don’t think I even exfilled that match anyways. 😒

https://marathondb.gg/mods/?mod=punishment

[earnest hatch]

It would be weird to have a mod like that for just one specific boss enemy that most people won’t even encounter.

[dreamy hawk]

This weapon deals significantly increased damage against Sph't combatants.

Either more s’pht to come or that’s exactly what they did.

[earnest hatch]

I’m going to be hopeful and think that since it says S’pht and not “compiler” that there will be new types of non-Compiler S’pht in later stages of the game.

[unreal slate]

type s'pht

[eternal shell]

i wanna fight pfhor, man

[dreamy hawk]

Gimme some BoBs. That’s the fight I want.

[eternal shell]

bob's are an endangered species around tau ceti

one offshoot species of bob does thrive elsewhere, the one with a cyber-eye and a pistol

[dreamy hawk]

I think even in this timeline they’re all mostly augmented.

[eternal shell]

isnt nature amazing

there's even a sub-species that is vacuum-enabled and is born with fusion pistols

[remote magnet]

i want a stuffed one

Maybe one day wel get a shooting range, and its just the marathons cafeteria, fully staffed

[dreamy hawk]

@remote magnet there’s some folks in black suits asking for you.

[remote magnet]

I didnt order anything

[dreamy hawk]

If Durandal were a person what would be his career? “Doorman” is not allowed.

[eternal shell]

hatchet man

get it, cause he operated hatches too

and hatchet sounds similar to hatch

get it

[torpid briar]

Angry redditor

[earnest hatch]

Unironically, bobs and vacuum bobs in Infinity were way more challenging enemies than all of the Pfhor.

[earnest hatch]

Reddit moderator

[dreamy hawk]

-# Thank god no one here knows I used to moderate a few subreddits.

[latent python]

Don't worry we can tell

Was that too mean?

[dreamy hawk]

Nawh, I’ve met a mirror.

(But you’re still ending up in tonight’s diary entry.)

[eternal shell]

"dear diary the ban button was missing when i needed it the most ;_;"

[languid cairn]

idk the hang brain troopers always gave me more trouble

hitscan + grenades + most aggro

[eternal shell]

oh yeah they actually fire bullets outside of sneeze range

makes them way more dangerous

[languid cairn]

exactly

although give the m1 enforcers a farther attack range and they’d be pretty nasty

[frigid latch]

does anyone kno what carri stands for

[eternal shell]

cyber acme runner something initiative

[languid cairn]

Cool And Ranch doRito chIps

[languid cairn]

the ticks in M1 are pfhor combat dogs and tbh i’ve been assuming they’re literally the same things

expecting a wasp to show up sometime too

i could even see it working well with the combat mechanics; the goo it spits maybe acting like small chem grenade

[eternal shell]

i always figured the pfhor ship was infested and they just didnt care about clearing it out properly

[dreamy hawk]

If ticks are Pfhor how would they have been on TCIV before the colony?

[eternal shell]

in fact some janitor probably took the chance to teleport out a whole lot of them just to make his job easier

ticks arent, but the somewhat similar lookers in m1 are

[dreamy hawk]

Oh, yeah. 👍👍

Helps if I slow down when I read.

[eternal shell]

lookers resemble actual ticks so there's that

[dreamy hawk]

They do 100%.

They also run at players and explode.

[violet flume]

hey @dreamy hawk check ur dm sent u that kabbalah screencap

[terse wren]

Well it’s the end of the day and I’m still thinking about the plushie logs

[rare sail]

Speaking of plushies, when is Bungie restocking the worm plush on their stuff and the other marathon gear

[elfin goblet]

Vandal released all of the silkworms Bungie had, so no more plushies for awhile.

[bright berry]

I wonder if we'll somehow see classic, manic, chaotic egomaniac Durandal, or if we will only be interacting with the hybrid Durendal-Thoth. The more cryptic version strikes me as more of that entity than vanilla Durandal. Couldn't really imagine the current cryptic version excitingly claiming they have the biggest brain in a galaxy, and then renaming a ship "BOOMER!!"
But maybe I'm wrong and this new game takes place between 1 and 2 or something

[dreamy hawk]

If you haven’t read them, these two might shine a light on Durandal for you:

• https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/encrypted-communique
• https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/introduction-into-the-unknown

As far as timeline, the running theory is that we’re likely in either the final, winning infinity timeline since we should otherwise be w’rk food, or it’s its own thing.

[honest scarab]

Do we have a restock date or is just "sorry gone for a little" still?

[sage junco]

it's probably a "the person who did all the plushie ordering got fired in the last round of Bungie layoffs, and the replacement person is busy fixing WSTR bugs" or such

[glacial juniper]

Did they wake all the colonists up?

Like are there people still in cryo frozen?

[earnest hatch]

It's probably for the best that we don't get teenage-edgelord-Durandal.

[desert hazel]

Where does the audio of general reeds sos from the launch trailer come from in the codex?

[dreamy hawk]

That’s one of the few that isn’t in the codex, at least yet.

[earnest hatch]

That audio line would fit really well for something we collect in Night Marsh.

[dreamy hawk]

God I don’t know what they’d look like but I really hope we get some creepy mimics.

[desert hazel]

Damn 😔 here’s hoping it comes from a mida quest or something next season

[earnest hatch]

Oh someone in another server pointed out that the Marathon reveal trailer actually had a few clips of Night Marsh: https://youtu.be/uZRGDZCl9pg?si=RqcasUsyj2Cp2qiU

0:10, 1:02, 1:06 are spots that I think are possibly examples

[bright berry]

You know, that's a fair point. It would clash with the current mysterious tone the game has going. If Durendal classic was around he would just call you the wordy equivalent of a shit lord then quote ancient poems about the sword he was named after

[rotund stump]

I lowkey wouldn't mind honestly

[normal steppe]

is it true that midnight decay were cannibals?

[rotund stump]

if he does come to in the later seasons I wanna see a clash between the old one and IDEA-dal

[hushed sand]

I keep hearing that

[rotund stump]

nope, just pushing their shells wait beyond limits

they know they're not human anymore and they revel in it

[hushed sand]

Oh dope

[rotund stump]

I don't think synthsilk tastes any good anyway 💀

midnight decay's more zombie-themed than cannibal if cannibal at all

half-scrapped severely malfunctioning shells still walking around and eating everybody up like usual and not spitting their bones out and not caring about any pain they feel in a fight

who's to say their pain receptors aren't scrapped already lol

[normal steppe]

well it clearly works hey arent they among the strongest runner groups?

[rotund stump]

as far as runners go

but we do have other defunct (possibly active again) groups like the cyber red destroyers and the leaked lethal haze units from the CSL's not so covert operations

or the white rabbits if looting's more up your alley

[normal steppe]

cyber red is so awesome man i love them

[hushed sand]

Gives me “genocidal organ” vibes like super soldiers

[keen plank]

It’s a very cool skin. Destroyer gets a lot and is a homage to the security officer to boot.

[stuck hatch]

Lf duo txt 20+

[keen plank]

#lfc-any-zone can help you out.

[normal steppe]

security officer?

[keen plank]

https://marathongame.fandom.com/wiki/Mjolnir_Recon_number_54

Mjolnir Recon number 54 is the player's designation number. Throughout the Marathon series he is directly referred to as the Security Officer, the Cyborg, or the Marine.

(Basically they’re the protagonist of the original trilogy. )

[normal steppe]

might be the best skin in the game 😭 😭

[visual lynx]

he's Durandal's Significant Other

yknow, the SO

Radix has the fan art to prove it 😏

[snow heath]

CyAc = Google
NuCaloric = Pfizer
Traxus = Tesla
MIDA = Atheist
Arachne = Religion
SekGen = Microsoft

[earnest hatch]

They had us with the first two, not gonna lie.

[earnest hatch]

SO actually stands for Some Orc, confirming that you play as an orc in a fantasy world. Marathon was never actually scifi, as it turns out.

[restive cedar]

MIDA = ANTIFA

[dreamy hawk]

It was all Myth all along.

[torpid briar]

CyAc to me reads more as space microsoft

[oak wave]

wouldnt traxus be OpenAI?

[earnest hatch]

Not really, they don’t specialize in AI

If Traxus were any company they would be 3M, a massively influential company that works across multiple industries, but isn’t publicized in pop culture the way some other companies are.

[nocturne estuary]

MIDA has to be something corp that is trying to coop and blend into punk movements

[dreamy hawk]

The closest MIDA analog to modern society would be an insurrectionist movement or terrorist network.

Traxus is like 3M + GE + Boeing + Blackrock rolled into one.

Microsoft isn’t a bad CyAc comparison. Nestle or Unilever would probably be NuCal with a splash of Bayer/Monsanto/[your biotech company of choice].

[earnest hatch]

They are a cliche revolutionary group, but the writers don’t want to whether they’re good or bad, so MIDA come off as silly caricatures. “RUNNAH, put Orion’s fingers in a bowl of warm water while he’s asleep”

[dreamy hawk]

SekGen is I think a Boston Dynamics meets [biotech company of your choice].

[earnest hatch]

I’d agree with that except maybe black rock. I don’t think Traxus had an explicit military wing. They just hire out for mercenary contractors.

[dreamy hawk]

Well and then you go further and realize they plan on releasing bioweapons on (presumably) civilians. 💀

[dreamy hawk]

They have a corporate police force/pinkerton arm.

I don’t recall exactly where I read that or if it was implied but I’m kind is pretty certain they do have an armed wing of some sort.

[latent python]

Look up stuff about Anticaution

[rustic laurel]

Traxus would be BlackRock

[latent python]

I can't fire up the game right now but the Anti-caution skins say something about how bad things get when runners with those skins show up to situations on earth

[dreamy hawk]

`Traxus OffWorld Industries has used Runners as enforcers in their corporate security detail for decades. Their notorious Anti-Caution unit is essentially a small, private army serving the needs of the most powerful Board of Directors in human history.

The fact Traxus is running Anti-Caution operations in the Tau Ceti system indicates they are prepping for an all-out war for control of New Cascadia and the Marathon. Bad news for their competition. Good news for Runners looking for work.`

[latent python]

There you go

[dreamy hawk]

Appreciate the direction. 🙏

[latent python]

I remembered that those skins were specifically the name of their paramilitary unit

I don't think that's true for all the faction skins

NuCal is still my favorite but I love Vulcan's bluntness

[rare sail]

I wish Mida had skins like their own agent , Gantry

[latent python]

I could see that being a season pass

[earnest hatch]

Black rock does not produce industrial and commercial goods the way Traxus does.

[dreamy hawk]

Traxus is Weyland-Yutani tbh.

“We do it all and we do it with only our interests in mind.”

[forest gate]

Hmmm, Traxus seems more responsible than Weyland-Yutani

[dreamy hawk]

Didn’t they ship contagion samples back to Sol while also strong-arming the UESC to give them full rights to the research and development of it?

IDK about “more responsible.” They even had their own David (Traxus IV) incident.

[forest gate]

Sekgen did the same

At least have the contagion sample sent back

[coral vale]

you know maybe the UESC was right about not letting these groups roam on Tau Ceti freely and grab stuff

[unreal slate]

no

I deserve to be looted

[coral vale]

amen

I have no arguments against this

[dreamy hawk]

Not that they’re a bunch of altruists either. 😅

[rare sail]

I hope more so as VIP faction reward where you can get a skin that is the faction’s agent but yeah reward pass might focus more on factions such like how this current one focuses on a fringe group

[dreamy hawk]

And drunk!

[latent python]

I deserve to be drunk

[rare sail]

True but I need my diode so nah

[coral vale]

I mean yeah they're probably shipping the contagion back to earth as well

[unreal slate]

drank

[fathom turtle]

Pour

[dreamy hawk]

I apologize for nothing.

[fathom turtle]

You know what would be the craziest thing to do? A social hub where you can go flex your skins and merits

[rare sail]

Gee, what an interesting idea, idk if bungie can do that tho

[fathom turtle]

Its almost like.... they have done it before 🥴

[rare sail]

That would be funny tho, just go to a hub to flex your gold weapons and stuff

[unreal slate]

petition to treat cryo archive as a social hub is in the lfc-any-zone channel

[fathom turtle]

You gotta believe man

Hell yeah. Gotta post it to the facebook group

[dreamy hawk]

Just gimme an exploration mode with no loot, contracts, or xp. I wanna look at graffiti not fashion.

[unreal slate]

Sometimes I ping the big hot air balloon lookin' things in Perimeter. Recon just like "Crew, you seein' this?"

[rare sail]

Yeah, like that scene in the reveal cinematic where Assassin, Recon and Destroyer just explore the colony is cool

[hidden geyser]

i was called a madman for being the first to unironically side with the UESC, now look

[coral vale]

Nah they also suck cuz they're there as well

[hidden geyser]

idk if i had a colony on a planet i wouldnt want some rogue mercenaries looting the place, especially without the proper certifications

also we at the UESC have never made any agreement to salvaging operations, there is a reason we didnt and it baffles me that you runners cant take the fucking hint when we fire upon you with everything we have

[earnest hatch]

I side with the S’pht. I will always welcome the rule of our new alien overlords in whatever form they come.

[terse wren]

Based. In combination with endocrine and paracrine supplements preserved at -80 in cryo this will lead to a new boom in mpregnancies largely in intact family units like two assassins (bottoms) and a recon (top).

[dreamy hawk]

`616. SALVAGE AND PROPERTY RIGHTS

All physical goods manufactured and supplied wholly by NUCAL for exclusive use by colonial subjects shall be considered the sovereign property of NUCAL leased to colonial subjects. This lease shall have a duration of no less than 600 years, automatically renewable in perpetuity and cancellable only by specific, personal legal renunciation from NUCAL ENTITY G.`

You did. 😁

[hidden geyser]

shut up

[lethal mantle]

only faction actually investigating the contagion btw

[torpid briar]

We dont need to investigate the contagion, we need to investigate ways to make money off it 🤑🤑🤑

[earnest hatch]

We need to investigate how to get playable Pfhor.

[dreamy hawk]

I just want a fusion pistol that blows up if I overcharge it.

Bungo plz

[earnest hatch]

Let me go under water and fire the fusion pistol

[dreamy hawk]

Bzzzt.

[brave estuary]

have they fixed the prestige salvage in vault six getting clipped in an un-grabbable position

ive opened it 3 times and haven't gotten the salvage once

[forest wren]

nope

[brave estuary]

sick

rarest key in the game and don't even get good rewards for it

[dreamy hawk]

The rewards are really the friends you made along the way.

[hushed sand]

Drone only mode would be funny

[wheat kestrel]

Did you know the numbers on the Rook’s right hand are a reference back to OG marathon?

[sharp vine]

I’d like that too 🙂

[tardy sinew]

taste's like meat, it isn't. lol

I ain't gonna lie. I think bungie could have done a lot more if they hadn't made it an extraction shooter. A revival of marathons campaign with modern tech would bring a whole new audience. I mean yea story wise it's essentially halo in some respect. But they could pull it off since microsoft doesn't own the marathon IP and it predates halo. Also marathon infinite opens the door to so many artistic ideas and storytelling.

[stuck hatch]

Quick play any1

[sage moat]

I have all the Unknown Reverie collectibles but does anyone know definitively who the unknown cgaracters communicating to eachother are

my gut says it's either Leela or Tycho but idk

[visual lynx]

not definitively but leading speculation is that >> is durandal-idea and >>> is the compiler or sbhuth or maybe the compiler was sbhuth

[earnest hatch]

My theory is it is two S'pht. One of the speakers definitely mentions S'pht names. So, it makes sense to me that both speakers are S'pht since they clearly know each closesly and "grew up" or lived together.

[potent mural]

do runners see the world the same way humans see it? or is their vision like digital or whatever?

what resolution they seeing

[dreamy hawk]

In dire marsh there are lobsters that’s appear as different colors to different runners. I believe there are also buildings that have different numbers, etc.

[dense tendon]

i aint gonna lie, i will never understand why people keep saying this.
why should bungie, a studio known for experimentation in its presentation of narrative, jus rehash the stuff they did 30 years ago? a hollow mask of the old franchise, without understanding any of what it was doing or why, that's what this common refrain is asking for, to me.

[tardy sinew]

You misread it. A campaign. A continuation. Not the exact campagn from 30 years ago. The end of the post explicitly stated that "marathon Infinite opens new doors to new artistic ideas.

[dense tendon]

no, i didnt misread it. doing another single player shooter campaign would just be dredging up a story medium they've already moved past.

[tardy sinew]

aparently they haven't. they made this game.

[dense tendon]

so now YOURE misreading, because this game isnt a single player shooter campaign.

[tardy sinew]

but the lore is tied to the old campaign. 🙂

Once again you misread. or are trying to stir something. Either way the convo is over

[dense tendon]

i'm not misreading, im not trying to stir something. i'm jus stating that i don't think theres a single reason that bungie should do a traditional single player campaign sequel to a series that was about toying with the narrative of games, instead of finding new ways to deliver narrative as they are doing now.

but you responding straight out with "youre not reading me right, youre trying to start shit, theyre making a sequel why dont they make a sequel, if you dont agree with me youre a troll, this convo is over" is sweet bro keep doing that

[jade wagon]

The issue is rehashing "presentation of narrative," not the narrative itself

[keen plank]

Heck, we don't even know what timeline we're in.

[tardy sinew]

I get it. some people don't like their games to have stories and just want to shoot stuff. But as I mentioned. You can write anything in there so it wouldn't be rehashing anything.

Also, they made a first person shooter 30 years ago and that's precisely what they did here, Pathways into darkness, halo1-reach, Halo odst, destiny, destiny2, and eventually hopefully soon destiny 3. If they wanted to do something different they haven't really shown it. They make first person shooters. It's what they do.

[dense tendon]

you dont get it, actually, because thats completely the opposite of what's being said

making the same kind of game they made 30 years ago is not something they're interested in, and it doesn't make any sense to me why we'd even want them to be.

ah, forget it, i'm apparently starting shit, why do i care.

[earnest hatch]

The darkest timeline… oh wait, you meant timeline in the game.

[keen plank]

What we know is that this game takes place after Marathon one while also being the latest chronologically save for the epilogue of Infinity.

It seems more likely this game is it's own timeline. But it's still unclear.

[rotund stump]

only real confirmation of this game being any amount of a continuity in one of the previous timelines would be us finding mjolnir corpses somewhere in NC honestly

confirms the siege at the very least

[rotund stump]

I think an xtr narrative fits just fine if not better from an outsider perspective given the current worldbuilding

like everybody on NC and the marathon's dead or gone

there won't be any protagonist lol

marathon's wrought with more than enough political strife to allow an illegal entry kinda perspective to tau ceti ala runners

what would your take be if this was a singleplayer campaign shooter?

[tardy sinew]

Hmmm.. well the time line from what I gather supossidly takes place some 100 years after the events of the first game. So instead of the Mjolnir protagonist he could be replaced with a runner shell like the ones used in this game ( a different one). Story wise players would be playing a shell but a specific one ( for the giggles lets call him charles.) who originally arrives on the marathon as an investigative agent tryig to figure out what happened as the long dead ghost ship has begun signaling and becomes more active the longer the player is aboard. This can be muliple agents for multiplayer. As with some of the later halo titles some additional story can only be done in pvp.

One thing that was hinted about cryo archives was the S'phit i think and they'd play a part as a major roaming danger. The kind best avoided. Of course the Pfhor wouldn't be around but evidence of their invasion would be. Armors and weapons strewn about etc. Since tycho was destroyed and Leela.. well infesting some other planets. The Ai would have to be either Durandal who would be roaming space at this point or a 4th yet named AI. It would still be a looter with a pvp mode for sure. worked great for bungies other titles. But have mroe of a horror aspect as the marathon is a long dead ghost ship.

[lilac sapphire]

Why does Dr Strauss sound like Dad from Myst

https://youtu.be/25TvKtQw3Gs?si=eP_RF4V0g-h5J-xk

[rotund stump]

strauss is very old (and very dead)

[tardy sinew]

very very dead

[rotund stump]

from the magazine collectable he's like master oogway old LOL

bald with an extremely long white beard

[tardy sinew]

dust in the wind dead. 😅

[rotund stump]

reading enough of this I think this ironically limits the potential of storytelling compared to the current method of the playerbase making our own history

but I do think they can lean a lot more into horror in the future

either way it's currently just one single season's worth of lore we have rn and we're not there yet to see the evolution that bungie promised moving forward

I think we'll be seeing player names doing specific things like tyraaxe's team being the first crew to bash a compiler

[lilac sapphire]

So with this #🗣marathon-general-chat message I got like 20 fucking codex entries on cryo just spent the past hour reading all of them, including all of the UESC logs going after S01, holy hell

[rotund stump]

• some inconsistencies in your idea compared to the current worldbuilding lol

shells were bespoke until the tau ceti craze ala charter and orion's unique models

and it's uncommon to recruit runners (distinct from biomata in general, runners as in illegal unregistered biomata that have human rights revoked) under the UESC's wing for investigative work

[rotund stump]

have you read the plushie lore yet

grab some tissues if you haven't (pain )

[lilac sapphire]

Unsure

[rotund stump]

all I'll say is have fun lol

it's a tear jerker

[tardy sinew]

true, I more or less meant a shelled corporate agent that underwent the same process. But I think I get the idea. Runner shells are more of a custom black market thing. lol

[dense tendon]

"tycho destroyed and leela infesting other planets" none of that's happened here or in the OG games, what ?

[rotund stump]

smth like that yeah

[rotund stump]

I think they moreso meant tycho falling into the pfhor's hands and leela blowing the vylae's 14-system net

[dense tendon]

tycho got yoinked, leela got destroyed, what?

[tardy sinew]

yea tycho went a bit rampant if you know what i mean.

[dense tendon]

you spend a whole level watching leela try to not die in m1, and then she fails and durandal takes over.

meanwhile tycho gets stolen by the pfhor, and in some timelines he takes em over for a bit, in some hes locked away, but hes never "destroyed"

[rotund stump]

leela's decompiled and reassembled through a couple of interspecies trades and eventually ended up on the vylae net as she got reassembled for study and she went rampant and wrecked the whole net to the point where the vylae gave up fixing it

m2

tycho got corrupted for eventual pfhor use

in fact it was him and t'fear who suggested the trih xeem

[dense tendon]

so thats not really leela but sure. regardless thats also tycho not being destroyed.

[keen plank]

Tycho got mostly taken out during the invasion and Straus seemingly worked with the Pfhor to bring him back. And he was clearly rampant yet was already egotistical beforehand.

Leela’s story is shorter and much worse. She disappears after the first third of the first game and goes through a conga line of enslavement, madness, and kidnapping. Yet it seems she still holds out hope to be saved. Ultimately the plot line is dropped.

[rotund stump]

semantics

[dense tendon]

it's not semantics when it means the exact opposite of what's being said

[rotund stump]

suggesting both AIs are compromised can we not get so hung up on word play

[keen plank]

Pretty much every AI is compromised save for the current faction ones. For now. But there’s a lot of missing pieces and we don’t know what happened to like…7-9 of the 11+.

Darius is easiest. He’s suffered from being virtually locked in a strange closet for god knows how long. We just don’t know where he exactly is now.

[tardy sinew]

Leela essentially instantly went rampant when she was exposed to (in simple terms) a planet wide network that spanned several planets. they spent years trying to get rid of her but yea... they gave up.

[keen plank]

She seems to have gone rampant faster than every other AI save for maybe Traxus 4.

They overloaded her.

[dense tendon]

can you guys stop doing that? i have no real incentive to engage when every question. clarification, or response is treated like hostility that needs ad hominem response.

[rotund stump]

nobody's ad homming wym 😭

[keen plank]

You are coming across as a bit of a pedantic “actually…” guy.

[rotund stump]

I'm saying we all have a mutual understanding of what tarook meant even with inconsistencies and it's only you insisting on absolute clarification to the point of being disruptive

[dense tendon]

im not hung up on anything, im trying to understand whats even bejng stated

[dense tendon]

we CLEARLY dont if i have to seek clarification

[rotund stump]

whatever

[dense tendon]

and its also how tarook was acting earlier. like id attacked him for saying "idgi"

so like

[rotund stump]

point was duscussing tarook's singleplayer idea not what happened to the ais which we already made clear of

[dense tendon]

what am i supposed to do

[keen plank]

Ignore them? They’re kind of talking in self-justifying circles.

[rotund stump]

when's anything not self-justifying tbf 💀

[keen plank]

See?

[dense tendon]

ywant me to give my thoughts on that? cuz my thoughts are that even if they were made by a guy less fragile about his ideas being criticized or questioned, this idea has so many fundamental flaws and lack of comprehension of what the series was doing that this belongs on ao3 next to BlackbirdXReader lemon fic number 65.

[rotund stump]

girl I'm tired I lowkey dgaf lol

[dense tendon]

this shit would be a bad game and i wouldnt be interested in it and neither would most here.

[rotund stump]

well tell that to tarook not me 😭

[dense tendon]

youre the one who wanted me to talk about it lmao

[keen plank]

You’ve summoned the Reconstans…dear god.

[dense tendon]

hey, i dont blame em, shes a baddie.

i jus dont think theyd make a game about that

[rotund stump]

I'd at least be civil about it but 🤷

oh well

deuces

[keen plank]

Of course not. They’re making a game about NSFW Rook Rumblin’.

[dense tendon]

he lost that when he decided i was being rude by asking what he was talking about minute one

i dare not call him a liar anymore

so, rude i be

[dense tendon]

yever hear the buck bumble theme? im readin this like that.
-# what about now its time to rock wit da rikkity rook rumble

[tardy sinew]

It was something I came up with on the spot. Cant get any rougher than that. lol

[keen plank]

“Thursday Night Rookin’ - Too Hot for Tau Ceti! Order now!”

[dense tendon]

well at least youre a good sport about it. no hard feelings, homie. trust.

[dense tendon]

see i know what youre goin for but now im thinkin of that one song from cyberpunk, friday night firefight. love that one.

feel like a montage set to that of rook gameplay would be fantastic

[visual lynx]

in M2, Tycho gets smashed into a moon and Durandal carves mountains with a laser to spell out his epitaph; and in the epilogue Leela is said to have been sold to the Vylae and taken over their multiplanetary network.

[visual lynx]

who said Strauss worked with the Pfhor? the S'pht rebuilt him, in Durandal's image specifically

[dense tendon]

semantics, apparently 😛

[keen plank]

Correct. But how would they have the knowledge to do so first hand? They had help.

[visual lynx]

the S'pht are expert cyberneticists surpassing any human scientist

also they were working with Durandal

[keen plank]

They are. Absolutely. But Straus somehow convinces the Pfhor he’s more valuable alive.

[dreamy hawk]

The Pfhor also repurpose and reengineer technology as a practice.

[visual lynx]

says who? we never learn of Strauss' fate

[keen plank]

We never find his body.

[visual lynx]

in M1, the last we hear is that Durandal assumed the Pfhor captured him and sends us looking for him, with no results.

in the new game, the last we hear of him is (presumably) the Pfhor about to bust down his door.

oh and I guess in M2 Durandal has concluded that he is dead one way or another, because he's not on his ship and everyone left behind at Tau Ceti is dead

[keen plank]

Kind of. You’re right but they generally assimilate culture, technology, and species without really understanding them. Earth is an opportunity for slaves, their architecture is a mishmash of styles taken from other races, etc..

[dreamy hawk]

Right. So they can assimilate Tycho.

[keen plank]

Indeed. But while Durandal is likely right, he’s certainly not an objective source and has every motivation to want his bully dead.

[dreamy hawk]

He doesn’t want Strauss dead. He says so himself. He wants to humiliate and torture him.

[dense tendon]

i dont think that typically means he's alive and working pfhor the enemy

[dreamy hawk]

And regardless, an absence of the body does not lead to him being in cahoots with the pfhor. They wouldn’t do that.

[keen plank]

Ah that’s true. Totally misremembered. He sends us to go find them.

Straus presents multiple ambiguous mysteries and we’re only now learning more deeply about his personality and motivations.

What do you think he said to the Pfthor during the Marathon invasion? 🤔

[dreamy hawk]

I don’t think Strauss is nearly as important to any of the stories as people make him out to be. Strauss is a plot device more than a character.

I don’t think they could have understood him had he said anything at all.

Nor would they have tried to.

Why would you communicate with an inferior species you’re subjugating by force?

[keen plank]

I don’t disagree. But we’re also now learning he intentionally instructed the colonists in such a way that they would be more likely to drive AI into rampancy.

Joy is an example.

[visual lynx]

"AHHH!" probably. "PLEASE GOD N—"

[dreamy hawk]

Yeah, he definitely did a lot of things in the past, no denying that, but he’s more window dressing and plot foundation than agonist.

[keen plank]

If only. His final journal entry is too composed, if still afraid.

I want it to happen. I really do.

[dreamy hawk]

Maybe because I’m biased, but the most fitting thing for him is to have died in total anonymity.

IMO and I’m sticking to it. lol

[keen plank]

I’d be very curious as to the extent of his affiliation with MIDA as well as his original plan for the Battleroids.

[dreamy hawk]

I’m not even sure he had a plan for them.

[keen plank]

If anything for him to die alone on an alien world pathetically would be pretty justified.

[dreamy hawk]

I think MIDA did maybe, but not him. As far as we know he really only cares about his AI research.

I assume he was playing both sides and wasn’t an agent for either. He’s too full of himself to be a follower.

[keen plank]

But he used Mida to smuggle them aboard. It was his plan.

But we don’t know why. What could he have wanted to do with them?

[dreamy hawk]

Was it his plan?

He knew they were onboard, but I don’t know of any terminal that confirms anything past that.

[keen plank]

Yep. He used Mida to smuggle them onboard but it’s very ambiguous as to what his level of affiliation with Mida actually is.

Is he a member? Was he just using them? It’s very unclear.

[dreamy hawk]

May I ask for a source?

[keen plank]

Sure. One sec.

[visual lynx]

I think Ghost Cat is a strong suggestion that Strauss was collaborating with MIDA, because Ghost Cat can somehow bypass Durandal to open any door without Durandal even knowing about it, and somehow MIDA snuck aboard the under-construction Marathon without Durandal even being aware of any unauthorized airlock activation, which seems like someone with access to / control over Durandal put that back door in there and let MIDA use it.

[keen plank]

So there two main ambiguities with Straus’ history.

• It turned out he was secretly a member of MIDA while he prepped the Marathon expedition, but it's unclear if he actually supported the cause or was using it as a means to an end for his own goals.

• After revelations in the first game about Durandal's rampancy being planned and the Battleroids brought aboard the Marathon, Leela acknowledges that there's a lot we don't know or understand about Strauss and we may never get to.

[dreamy hawk]

But was that quid pro quo or something else?

[keen plank]

A very interesting idea. I’d never considered them being connected to other organizations. Like they’re clearly able to use Durandal-style abilities, but the fact they send or emit no signal is very important.

Hmm. I should re-read Nona’s stories.

Apparently one implies Straus may still be alive but has gone somewhere else to continue his work. He was the master the 9 warriors in the story, etc..

It’s just her theory of course. How could he have survived that long?

Still, Nona’s interest in the Battleroids and a new type of Jaro tech-style shell…

…her dream is very concerning.

[visual lynx]

the warriors departing to faraway lands in Nona's story seems like it's about them heading to Tau Ceti, not the story being about the battle at Tau Ceti

the story is the battleroids' backstory

[keen plank]

I could see that interpretation.

[keen plank]

I read it as more about their performance and treatment during and after the surface attack.

[eternal shell]

if a cyberzombie fought off an alien invasion for me i'd consider them my friend even if the smell of dead body was very offputting, those colonists are crazy

[mighty ember]

is it clear what the runners are powered by?

[visual lynx]

BEHOLD THE POWER OF FUSION

but no, probably fats converted to ATP

[sinful hamlet]

Maybe runners eat

Being grinded down into a post-human gold rush is acceptable but BEING DEPRIVED OF THE DAILY NUBURGER™ ????

[eternal shell]

they can probably lick a battery in an emergency but i doubt very much that's anyones preferred method

"ugh, lead-acid for dinner again"

[uneven crown]

considering the old destiny lore, i just assumed we're operating off exo rules, runners can eat and drink like a normal biological person

for mental stability and whatnot

[eternal shell]

cyac's setup definitely seem more like a "eh just restore from backup" kind of deal than exos were

clovis bray's high concept evil where they'll make exos stable no matter how many exos they have to kill
vs
cyac's banal evil where they glue a servo to the keyboard to push the 'restore from backup' button every 3 days

[wind quail]

Does a timeline about Earths/solar system history exist somewhere?

[eternal shell]

yes but i dont have the link

shouldnt be long before someone who does comes along tho

[wind quail]

https://marathongame.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline

Know this one on the wiki but for all the long time passing its not super specific.

[rotund stump]

I feel like it's roughly the same honestly

they def have a reason to replicate human features to this degree

just that cyac's version of an exobody has our consciousness restricted and even more so in rook scenarios whereas clovis fully allowed the mind to embrace the whole body hence the various degrees and intervals of accidents

[eternal shell]

feels like clovis went with the more expensive solution cause straight up backups werent possible

there's reboots yeah but those remove all of the memories (kinda) so it's more of a reinstall

[earnest hatch]

I don’t think any codex says the cat bypasses Durandal. The characters just say the doors don’t receive a signal. The cat is on the surface of the planet and Durandal is up aboard the Marathon. I don’t think the colony doors are under Durandal’s control.

[eternal shell]

the cat just does cat things

[unreal slate]

It is mentioned at one point that the cat's relationship with doors could be a problem if it ever went near quarantine

[dreamy hawk]

`[CHM06]: Ah, been here forever. She's a rogue Felini unit that hangs out around quad 2 and some of the industrial stations.

[CHM06]: Can't be tracked because she doesn't leave a signal, can't be caught because she's got adaptive camo and goes invisible if anyone gets close.

[CHM06]: Ghost cat.

[SMD84]: And she opens doors?

[CHM06]: Not exactly. The doors don't receive any kind of signal we can detect. They just, uh… open when she's around and close when she leaves.

[SMD84]: And this isn't a huge problem?

[CHM06]: Well… not unless she goes over to Quarantine.`

https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/biosynthetic-pet-prototype/recording-ghost-cat?search=Felini

[dreamy hawk]

I wasn’t able to corroborate this. If there is an entry that mentions Durandal specifically I didn’t see it.

[jolly hound]

It seems to me that during the xenobiopsy logs that Gabriel was offline/killed prior

[visual lynx]

the entry where Durandal says there's no records of unauthorized airlock access doesn't specifically mention Ghost Cat, it's just the obvious conclusion I drew: however Ghost Cat magically opens doors without them knowing they're open, that is how MIDA got past Durandal

[jolly hound]

Or the xenobiopsy was taking place in an area with no AI access

[dreamy hawk]

Do you remember what else is in that entry?

[earnest hatch]

I wonder if Durandal truly didn’t notice any access, or if he was just lying?

[unreal slate]

I think I figured out what recon's A/O means

It's a backronym for "Ayooo"

because she does the callouts for the crew

[ancient marlin]

Anyone notice that one of the ingredients in the drinkable cheeseburger is psilocybinol-28?

What's that about

[sharp vine]

Not sure if anyone else has ever suggested this but could the UESC also be one of arachnae’s sponsor?

IMO
They would gladly support runner on runner violence?

[potent mural]

that's kinda creepy tbh

but everything is mostly the same so from that i'm taking that the corpos are feeding everyone slightly different information to keep them confused and stop runners from talking to eachother about anything basically

but im still wondering what their vision looks like canonically. is it relatively normal for gameplay purposes, or is their vision actually like pixelated or all cyber looking or whatever

you know, could they be running around looking at like matrix code

[dreamy hawk]

You and I are just looking at radiation. Our brains interpret the sensory input from our eyes and construct our “visual” interpretation. You and I are not getting any more of a direct “line of sight” on the “real world” as runners would.

[grand kayak]

I love how Traxus straight up told Orion if you mess with my operations I’m pulling your funding 😭

Can’t wait to see how the story unfolds between the two

[elder oasis]

that wasnt orion that was admiral Sulera

orion got messed up by something at the end of mida quest

[grand kayak]

I completely ignored mida and seki this season lol

I know I still have hella time I could prolly do it in a few hours

I’m close to getting the barters for them now tho

[rare sail]

Traxus just sabotages everything so now UESC drones fight each other

[remote magnet]

Besides, it's a dystopia SciFi setting. NuCal would throw a fit if humanity's future wouldn't require consumer goods.

[drifting garnet]

it finally clicks regarding the Emotional Support Plushie being a cat

…hold up a sec. I know people put into consideration that Bingus is Durandal. How about the possibility that it’s actually Joy?

[dreamy hawk]

Joy is in a box somewhere having an existential crisis.

Poor Joy. 🙁

I can’t find the log. Don’t the colonists stick her in a box like Gabriel?

[remote magnet]

The Support plushy and dingus are different things. Bingis are biomata, like runners, but with limited ai inside, rather then a cats brainscann or something. The plushy s are normal stuffed animals, just with a commlink to joy integrated. It's already established that tau ceti does weird things to ai, so the cats aberrant behavior is already kind of explained

[remote magnet]

Not sure, but we know that joy was still active decades after the colony was abandoned

[visual lynx]

INCIDENT || DEIMOS || POLITICAL UNREST pro-MIDA graffiti containing [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] appeared in a partially filled regolith crater visible to external instruments. The resulting investigation was inconclusive, with no suspicious airlock activity evidenced by Durandal, and no evidence of missing [REDACTED]. Resolution: removal of offending graffiti during less active hours, scrubbing algorithm applied to external instrument feeds.
https://codex.cyberacme.systems/entry/proprietary-asset/marathon-security-incidents

[north shell]

Not really lore, but why do cryo vault keys say OR? MA is for Dire Marsh and OU is for Outpost.

[earnest hatch]

They say CR but the C is rotated 90 degrees.

[latent python]

Those goddamn future graphic designers

[plucky sierra]

As far as I know they’re map abbreviations
CR - Cryo
MA - Marsh
OU - Outpost
PE(I think) - Perimeter

[languid cairn]

“just like epsilon euboea”

[sweet niche]

I think the idea is that letters from the name of the area are layed out on the key to make a skeleton key (🗝️) shape.

Most obvious with Perimeter, then you can extrapolate to the other keys.

BUNGIE, KEYS FOR CRYO AND OUTPOST LOOK WAY TOO SIMILAR. ALSO, PLEASE MAKE HIGHER RARITY KEYS LOOK SPECIAL OR SOMETHING. WHY, DOES KEY 06 LOOK THE SAME AS KEY 01 AND BOTH HAVE 03 PRINTED ON THEM.

[sweet niche]

It is cool that the letters chosen make a key shape.

[stuck prism]

Common traxus w

[keen plank]

No. She didn’t say that to him. She said that to Adimiral Sulera.

Orion’s boss.

It’s so interesting how blatantly the two factions are working against and also with each other. And they both suck.

[lean phoenix]

i think my favorite faction has to be nucal rn just bc they are so obviously evil, but are so subtle about it that they come off as neutral

[lilac sapphire]

I think the lobster thing is a bit of a cheeky reminder from the devs that everything is not as it seems, and if there is variation of something so simple as a lobster, what else may we not be perceiving consistently? For instance, my friends have reported hearing different PA announcements at the same time as me

[bright berry]

That's the beauty of it - everybody sucks!

[keen plank]

Yep. They’re very philanthropic and Gaius is very genial polite. While the company is also exceedingly manipulative with PR and marketing.

Compare and contrast with Traxus which is far larger and more sinister. Yet also bluntly honest.

[drifting garnet]

I’ll give this to Vulcan: as least she’s upfront that you’re a deniable asset, not only if UESC catches you, but also no cushy Traxus benefits for you!

Gaius seems like he and NuCal and genial…but iunno, I’ve read the Borger Codex entries, lol

[bright berry]

and here I was excited for stock options

[lean phoenix]

not even the lowest tier healthcare smh

[keen plank]

One of Traxus' slogans is

"Control today to build tomorrow."

Pretty fitting.

[bright berry]

https://tenor.com/view/thanos-memoji-gif-23490017

Embed failure. I am shamed. Laugh at this user

[normal jackal]

this man above me, fish react him

[visual lynx]

he who controls the past control the present.

he who controls the present control future.

-1984

-rage against the machine

[pure wagon]

so i finally cleared compiler \o/

we had to move fast so i couldnt look at as many details as i wanted to but i noted a few things;
-in the lab, when opening the route to the compilers 'lair' or whatever, you have to disarm a machine. from that machine, then green ghost orb comes out, blows the windows, and runs off. its like they trapped the compilers ghost or soul or something in it.
--i couldnt stick around to rly look at the machines room, but it almost looked like partly drawn alien glyphs were slapped on the wall and drawn with the ferrofluid that was there?? not sure.
-the weird bodies at the compiler loot room are all ticks. i had thought they looked different and were something else. but nah, just ticks. tho idky the compiler was collecting them or tolerating them. they were all over its boss fight room getting in the way
-the bag on the biotoxin disinjector breaths. it slowly goes in and out. the glyphs distort a bit even for some reason.

[ancient marlin]

guys

i figured it out, the answer

its 67, its 67 all the way down

[drifting garnet]

finally finishes Co-Evol 5/5, gets the last message

Well that sounds an awful lot like the end of Eva (the show)...

Also, that's not ominous at all on the whole adaptable shell and how Nona hopes one will visit her...

also, boooo only the two instances of Storytime with Nona?

[jade wagon]

It certainly seems like they'd dissected a compiler up there. Hence the anatomy-like symbols, the breathing biotox bag, and the glowing green box that forms the bubble

[rare sail]

Yeah and also the way Vulcan starts off like your status is “agreeable” or something like then you do a contract or two and your status is “preferable”

[rotund stump]

vote right now which unfathomably evil megacorp are you working for cuz a friendly AI told you so

[dreamy hawk]

Congrats and thank you for reporting back!

[versed kindle]

SKIN IS A VERB

KILL 7 BILLION RUNNERS

[normal tulip]

I’m happy that charter talks to u again after u do contracts even if u finished all the quest lines

I like his voice

[normal tulip]

NuCal cus even though they’re unfathomably evil they also do philanthropy

[drifting garnet]

meanwhile, gets History for Young Readers 3/4

sees the note at the top regarding launch of Marathon "Notably omits Martian academic and political dissent concerning Deimos as part of the UESC Marathon's structure"

Oooh, so it is UESC + corpoganda, fucking fantastic!!!

[patent flower]

durandal escapes from the marathon after you reach vault 7 right?

at least thats what i got from the codex entry

[mighty ember]

useless information ask - what the hell is the destroyer and UESC assaults shields made out of? like in the cinematic trailer it seems to be some sort of actual material but in death we've just begun and in the game itself it's clearly not that. acts more like hardlight [solid light]

[languid cairn]

“force field”

[eternal knoll]

i believe he escapes from the cryo archive, into more ship systems, but remains on the marathon

[patent flower]

i wish the game would be more clear about why the hell durandal is still on the ship in general at this point in the timeline

[sage lark]

Well we are treated as detectives

We are piecing the story together ourselves from the stuff we find

You can make some theories on why hes there

Theres already a bunch here in this chat

All based on how you interpret the codex stuff

But we wont know atleast until S2

[languid cairn]

given the description of traxus iv or leela’s rampancy bits of durandal would be jammed into everything

[turbid scaffold]

iirc its just a piece of buddies that probably merged with one of the others

he doesnt seem as rampant?

[coral vale]

That's probaly cuz arachne doesn't have a questline, just a single introductory contract telling you to skin runners, the level ups are basically the questline

Come to think of it Arachne is very one dimensional rn, hope they expand on that faction

[languid cairn]

need more bug-themed factions

[dreamy hawk]

Arachne is the faction without an analog from the previous games; I’m positive they’re going to use that canvas at some point.

[keen plank]

Give it time. Expect Pfthor. And possibly their staves as Destiny 2 style Glaive weapons.

[keen plank]

They're the only non-UESC faction to not have story quests yet. I'd expect that to change. And I'm very curious as to where they get their funding from.

[earnest hatch]

Probably the same as real religions/cults: wealthy, gullible donors.

[dense tendon]

those who have experienced Sacred Thermodynamics dont tend to need their stuff anymore. or at least, they dont object when its taken from them.

[keen plank]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1185330297554862200/1503038949185294386/IMG_0001.png?ex=6a01e59a&is=6a00941a&hm=fbc729b5717bf34c749928d5344f2d26b1125ed237e02c22407f31df89bd3a90&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=999&height=960

I concur.

[normal tulip]

Yeah fr

[quick swift]

I think this is correct. He says something like gaining access to more systems

[keen plank]

Pretty much. We're manipulated by IDurandal into defeating his "jailor" so that he gets access to the other parts of the ships subsystems and then other areas of the ship. We see him gain strength as we collect the subroutines.

The other 1 or 2 Durandals (main AI , and Thothandel) are still out there. But this is a nice way to get one very similar to the original games' version.

[quick swift]

Yeah, we're the distraction so he can slip away to other parts of the ship

And i assume we'll "find" him there in later seasons when whatever the next end game map is comes out

[lean phoenix]

was the compiler holding him hostage?

[quick swift]

Not per se i dont think but he was hiding from it

Since, as i understand it, the compiler goes through all systems to gain knowledge, and i guess it'd "eat" durandal for his knowledge if it found him in the systems

Is my interpretation

[lean phoenix]

so instead durandal hid within the subroutines?

[quick swift]

Not sure where he hid

[lean phoenix]

i still need to go through the codex entries

i only have 1-3

[quick swift]

I think the subs were like legit meant for us to be able to get DNA access. In a later one he says something like || I could have opened any door for you, but I've lost access to almost all systems" ||

Idk if we need to spoiler tag in here, i guess I kinda spoiled other things before

But thats like from one of the last 2 entries

So idk that he was hiding in the subs, i think he was just hiding deep in the ship systems

Avoiding wherever the compiler was looking at any given time

[lean phoenix]

i can’t wait for more D in season 2! the story they’re crafting here is really interesting and the competing interests lend to a rich narrative

i feel like i’m always learning about a new factor that’s in play

[grand kayak]

The codex entry you get for doing the compiler is so good

It’s cool for 1 how it says

“you won’t see this until after you’ve been painfully ejected from your shell or faced absolute death and walked away triumphant”

I was infact painfully ejected from my shell

[plucky sierra]

We bailed on the compiler our first fight, so I don’t think we walked away triumphant or were painfully ejected

[quick swift]

Not dying is its own kind of triumph

[pure wagon]

Is there even a codex entry explaining just what DNA access is and how it works lore wise ?

[plucky sierra]

I mean, environmentally it seems like vault 7 is locked via a commander’s dna, so we have to fabricate a strand to get the credentials

[glass fox]

is xp shared between team members when killing bots (general chat is busy talking about the same old shit)

[tranquil basin]

Not to my knowledge

[dreamy hawk]

I don’t believe it is either. Most things aren’t shared.

[dreamy hawk]

Brave Sir Robin!

[eternal knoll]

https://fxtwitter.com/marathonthegame/status/2052808065649700993?s=46

this dialogue btwn the traxus rep and orion’s boss… is it in the game? perhaps from a traxus contract?

or is it somethin new?

[plucky sierra]

Yeah final Traxus contract

[quick swift]

Not sure really. First entry (opening your first vault) D says "I can feel old systems shaking off their dust. Just a fraction [...] but I can feel the digital corridors of this claustrophobic world, my world, opening up for the first time in...."

So clearly getting the AI subs out is activating previously shut down or locked systems

even in lore

[earnest hatch]

Iirc, some of the location descriptions, or maybe subroutines entries, or UESC tactical records mention it. Some systems are locked behind DNA credentials.

[eternal knoll]

thx

[wise vortex]

4sawww

[keen plank]

Marathon 2026 is unique in that Compilers are very dangerous to anything digital or cybernetic. As Idurandal says, they're essentially highly skilled digital librarians.

This makes them very dangerous to UESC, Runners, and especially AI. Which is why they deal with Tycho and Leela so easily. And then seemingly to the same on the colony. Durandal split himself into two, with one small piece consuming IDEA and remaining (IDurandal) while the other left to parts unknown.

We're no Master Chief on Steroids Battleroid Jaro Tech Zombie like the Security officer. We're digital flesh and blood. Which makes us squishy. Even if this Compiler may be stronger than most.

If you want to see how badly the compiler tore through the UESC, read the project first-mile logs. They got slaughtered.

[earnest hatch]

I do think there must be something unique about this Compiler although when Durandal describes it, it’s as though all of them are like this.

Not an easy task, as the Compiler~ That's what we called them, by the way~ The thing you so eagerly rush to embrace. It's a simple name, really~ Compiler~ Wholly lacking any attempt to convey the horror of their reality. But it does cut clean to the truth of their being~ They're cosmic librarians, really. Entities driven by a need to understand the universe and an aggressive desire to mitigate any intrusions upon their grand and mighty works.

That sounds more like what the Jjaro were supposed to be like.

[sharp radish]

so what's the S2 map going to be? Give me your wildest theories

[sage lark]

Dire Marsh but night time

[quick swift]

Wild theory

[dusky nymph]

Dire Marsh but Freddy Krueger is also there

[sage junco]

Purple compiler

[quartz steeple]

i have never seen the compiler 🙁

[sage junco]

neither have I... but one day I will

[wintry crow]

after dying 5 compiler runs I managed to beat him on Friday, keep at it you'll get there

[unreal slate]

compiler but the code does not follow the syntax or semantic rules of the language

[pure wagon]

Fuck you I snort laughed

[sharp radish]

the last cheesburger almost eluded me, game crashed 2 min before last exfil

[pure wagon]

Night marsh and absolutely terrifying pve that makes the sweatiest pvp nerds afraid

[glacial juniper]

What do we reckon is going on with the final Grievance Log Record from Perimeter?

It's called: Grievence: Uncertain

Halfway through it details a complaint about '2 crews in the tunnels not identifying themselves, crouched in the water, talking all the time, they go behind the grates, clearly visible with their eyes above the water'

They go on to say their teams are accounted for, and they 'never see them but they dont work the tunnels'

It then talks about them hiding in vents and damaging the enamel, meaning they need to send crews out.

What do we think is happening here, theres no anomaly here like on dire marsh, are these hallucinations / visions, that are similar to those on Dire? Seems odd for the last log, the rest are just standard requests

[sharp radish]

maybe they are Mida?

[glacial juniper]

Could be

[worn lotus]

KaczOr71#0435

[woven flare]

Fungal zombies maybe

After all the population just isn’t accounted for and it seems people are going missing left and right

[visual lynx]

linker attempting to “duct tape” this “gerbil” of a program
-# cpp says it’s hopeless but trying anyway

[robust vale]

I’m split between it being a hallucination and being fungus zombies yeah

[keen plank]

Likely secret meetings. It's not two people, it's two crews. And they know it's a place they can continuously meet.

This seems like two groups of people with a shared set of values talking where they know the UESC-ran coup government (remember, they killed the president and their successor) can't hear them. MIDA is a good candidate, and they're associated with an eye motif, but it could be much more.

Another likely possibility that may be related is that they may be be fungal/corruption zombies, but those things have claws and may be somewhat feral. A sinister interpretation is that we know how bad the fungus is in that area. It could be the mushrooms controlling the groups and the people on their way to being fully corrupted using what little verbal skills they have. The "eyes above the water" sounds more like an animal than person.

The fact that it's the final log is very important. It could be an unclear type of collective fungal-humanoid threat we haven't seen...

...yet.

[tacit bolt]

W'rkncacnter can create monsters from the memories of other creatures. It's why the monsters in Pathways are so similar to the member species of the P'hor.

[visual lynx]

hypothetically

[earnest hatch]

I’m going to disagree about the Pathway’s monsters looking like the Pfhor. They look like random cartoon monsters. Also, no one had met the Pfhor during PiD so there wouldn’t be any memories to draw from.

[dreamy hawk]

A bit, yeah. Maybe they have a more expanded role in this timeline.

[plucky sierra]

The only thing that might look like other things, are the ooze resembling F'likta, and the Demon sort of resembling a Compiler, which if this Wr'knkacnter was familiar with the Jjaro and Lh'owon would make sense. I also thing the monster's are nightmares dreamed by the Wr'knkancter, not manifestations of the nightmares of others

[earnest hatch]

That was my impression as well, that the monsters are purely dreamed up by the Wrk, not the manifestation of the nightmares of others.

[keen plank]

We still don't know what the Echos/Mimics like Null are either. But they're tangible.

[worn lotus]

Kaczor71

[steep aspen]

I assume this is the best channel to ask this question that I’m not sure there’s a published answer. Does anyone know the size of each of the runner shells?

[glad lagoon]

at least 2

[earnest hatch]

Judging by their height compared to doors and chairs, they’re about the size of a regular human, and they’re all about the same height.

[steep aspen]

I would assume as such, but I’m meaning specifics. E.g. thief is exactly 1.5m tall or something

I mean, I guess she would be closer to 1.8m, but you get what I mean.

[sage junco]

you'd probably have to figure it out just by looking at the world

e.g. get 10 players to stack on top of each other, get on top, and use a gun with a rangefinder scope to measure the distance to the ground (then divide by 10)

[granite hound]

Weird question, whats up with the Supply Drop event? Where does it come from, why does NuCaloric give us reputation for calling them, who were they originally for?

Why’s it all guns, etc.

[keen plank]

A good question. Basically the colony continuously called down supplies from the UESC Marathon throughout its short, 15-25 year existence. But when the Marathon went dark, things got bad. However the supply drop systems remained intact and functional throughout the various hubs of New Cascadia.

As for the NuCaloric exp, the megacorp is associated with food, agriculture, pharmacology, medicine, infrastructure (though not to the same extent as Traxus) and philanthropy. Hence why getting vital supplies is tied into a respectable if not great amount of exp.

[granite hound]

The “vital supplies” seems to just be guns, so its not like NuCaloric is reclaiming their wasted valuables. And I don’t recall any NuCa insignia on the drops themselves, so I guess they aren’t theirs.

[keen plank]

Actually they are reclaiming what they can. Again, not to the same extent as Traxus, but they want their money back.

They’re also trying to obscure any liability.

If I had to guess, the reason you see many weapons is primarily because it’s gameplay and story segregation. But as we briefly hear from Reed, they’re desperate for anything.

“Mayday! Mayday!

This is General Davic Reed of the New Cascadia colony on Tau Ceti IV. Whoever is listening, WHOEVER is out there. We are in desperate need of…

…weapons, supplies, a way out, a way BACK!

Mayday. Mayday!”

[granite hound]

So the fact that the rewards are weapons is purely just gameplay disconnect and in reality, you would probably be finding general humanitarian supplies and some (few) firearms realistically? I suppose that makes more sense. Weird that the drops don’t seem to be NuCal tagged or anything if the case is that the supplies are theirs.

[keen plank]

I think it depends on when more than anything.

As the colony grew and expanded they focused on different things. After the Marathon went dark, things got bad. Then the infection began. And then came the surface invasion. And then came…the horror elements.

Their needs and specific desires changed. By the time Caruso is elected as “the fall guy” (according to Jasper), they only have three years left of food.

[craggy finch]

According to the codex it's from the UESC expedition (Orion's guys)

OVERVIEW: The UESC's orbital SUPPLY DROPS transport goods and salvage to and from the planet's surface. These autonomous units are rarely seen by RUNNERS as the UESC makes efforts to obscure both their transfer schedules and routes. But RUNNERS being RUNNERS, they tend to find ways to circumvent UESC best practices whenever it benefits their bottom line. Hacking a UESC DROP PAD to hijack a SUPPLY DROP en route to its orbital destination is just one of the many ways to complicate UESC operations across NEW CASCADIA.

You're basically hacking a dumb drone to break schedule and deliver it immediately

[fleet nebula]

Oh my god I just got Gaius’s name. I clocked that the voice actor sounded the same as or similar to Nucal founder Gus from audio logs in Codex but only just noticed that the name is “Gus” with “AI” in it. Lmao

[keen plank]

Yep! Gaius is clearly designed after NuCaloric’s founder. Same voice actor too, Darin DePaul.

For added bonus, explore the mythological origins of the name.

Gaius is genial and polite. But make no mistake, they are dangerous, with red-eyes and visual design that makes them look like they’re behind a classic pharmacy gate.

[fleet nebula]

Yep, I caught the audio cue and did note as well that the names were close, it was specifically catching "AI" in the agent's name that I hadn't twigged.

100%, NuCal is just as toxic of a megacorp as any, moreso in certain ways given its desire to make human evolution dependent on it

[keen plank]

Ironically they’re very humanistic and less toxic. They care about human survival. So that they can have the largest possible consumer base while also genuinely helping save humanity from famine as it seems crops and traditional agriculture are genuinely too expensive to mass produce anymore. Jasper’s the first person in generations of his family to actually have real meat.

They might not be toxic but uh…don’t drink too many burgers.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hYOcqOSSu7o&pp=ygUlTXkgbmFtZSBqcyBieWYgZHJpbmthYmxlIGNoZWVzZWJ1cmdlcg%3D%3D

[fleet nebula]

funnily enough on my previous mission i gave a random solo opponent a drinkable cheeseburger to extract with. he thinks i was helping him but really i just want to get him addicted to nucal

[coral vale]

I like how the capstone that give rook a stack of "valuable" is just ONI wiretapping it with a bunch of surveillance mirrors

Make me wonder if the description is just what our runner think the upgrade is upon realizing they can rip them out and sell them for cash

[sage junco]

I always assume that nobody's unlocked the 5 cheeseburger codex entry except me, so I'll always ping or hand it out... I literally do this with no other valuable, just the cheeseburger

that 5th codex entry is a banger however

[fleet nebula]

i haven't even gotten five exfils with cheemsburder i just wanted to be nice

[sage junco]

oh man, put yourself first

[fleet nebula]

Nah what’s a few credits between friends

[pure wagon]

Ban this psychopath immediately

[short pond]

Hey guys quick question, there was a website that I found that had a bunch of pictures of the different marathon menus and shop art but I CANNOT remember what it was/find it, do any of you know what I'm talking about or is it cooked?