#📚marathon-lore-discussion

1 messages · Page 191 of 1

eternal shell
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plotwise it was another place, it wasnt a tangled shore lost sector

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but it was noticed so perhaps bongo has decided to take that into account

stable arrow
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Has there been any definitive statement or something kinda showing that 2026 marathon is set in marathon 1/2s timeline or in an infinity timeline? Or is it still completely up in the air how this game interacts with old lore

lost warren
# eternal shell but it was noticed so perhaps bongo has decided to take that into account

Fair enough. I wasn't around for Destiny, and getting new stuff will always feel better than re-using old stuff. However, I do know that this is not the same Bungie as back then, and not the same community. Their backs are to the wall now, and they can't afford wasted movements. Also, back then, I'm assuming there was a lot of content already in Destiny 2 during that seasonal content scandal. However, I want to ask you something; did Destiny 2 have the same amount of content during that scandal that Marathon has rn?

eternal shell
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so destiny 2 wasnt a past thing, it's still around

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and the stuff delivered there went down in quality by a lot after the expansion the final shape

lost warren
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Wait, let me get this straight; you're mad that Bungie started reusing assets after they finished their final expansion?

eternal shell
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oh no, this was a thing bungie did for seasonal stuff before the final shape

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it's just, after the final shape it got really bad

cloud sand
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did major saviel dorata and Lt. Hanza Blau die while dissecting the immolation alien?

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I feel like we didn't get a conclusion to the Xenobiopsy story

eternal shell
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the destiny season im talking about cant be played anymore, it's just straight up gone

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i'm here and playing nu-marathon despite bungie, not because of bungie

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and honestly it's jarring to see how much competence was shifted over to marathon and meanwhile destiny gets the barest minimum

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some of the marathon haters are destiny players going "wtf why" and i dont blame them

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i too want destiny be fun and awesome to play again

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but i also put an unemployed amount of time into it

unreal slate
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if you think about it, it's only fair. the original Marathon got less attention when Destiny came out

eternal shell
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i mean

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few other games between those two

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like myth

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and oni

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and some other thing i forgot

unreal slate
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I am mad myth isn't getting attention

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that game is a cheeseburger

lost warren
eternal shell
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with marathon it's like "oop there's a problem that's fixed, oop there's a problem that's fixed, oop there's a wstr we'll fucking ruin it for a few weeks then only fix it a little" and you know that's rapid work

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try finding when destiny 2 got a proper fix to a big problem

lost warren
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I think it's because Marathon is their last chance, y'know?

unreal slate
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also the game is and has been in a Honeymoon phase. that's important to get right while people still form first impressions/opinions

eternal shell
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well how about some last chance behavior for destiny as well

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unsunset some shit, that'd be nice

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like whole planets

lost warren
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Fuck me, it's that bad?

eternal shell
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yeah mars is gone

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it's been gone since beyond light

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titan too

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and mercury

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and a ton of campaigns

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anything before shadowkeep you cant play

lost warren
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Why not make one big, all-encompansing expansion pack? Sounds like it'll sell like hot cakes.

"Destiny 2: Definitive Edition"

eternal shell
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indeed why not

desert hazel
unreal slate
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but I want a Myth extraction game

desert hazel
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Ah come on this channel too?

eternal shell
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o yea we angry about sunsetting here too

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join in

desert hazel
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Speaking of major problems that Bungie took a bit to fix remember the weapon crafting once-in-a-decade glitch

eternal shell
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do you mean the craftening

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cause bungie 💯 that one

desert hazel
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Farmed nezarec 40 times that week cuz u could kill him in 20 seconds w linear fusions and grenade launchers w crazy universe shattering perk combos

desert hazel
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Admittedly that was a fun week

eternal shell
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"ok you're clearly having fun with it so we'll be real slow with rolling out the fix"

desert hazel
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Yeah that’s the one time them being slow to fix stuff was a good thing

eternal shell
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i still have my ammit from that week

desert hazel
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I’m still salty abt that week I wanted that exotic shotty but 40 runs wasn’t good enough

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Rip to the 250+ vault run people without getting mythoclast

eternal shell
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damn i think i got pretty lucky with the exotics

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i dont recall missing out on any of the big ones

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even got the weirdo rhulk pulse rifle

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youd think the glaive would be the exotic

desert hazel
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Launch glaives đŸ„€đŸ„€

stable arrow
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So by this point in the original timeline the phfor had already returned to destroy the colony? So maybe its a diff timeline where the rest of the phfor colony hasnt come?

lost warren
stable arrow
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Oh perhaps the battleroids are still in the colony interesting

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Possibly implying they didnt have tycho to weed out the mjolnir

lost warren
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Durandal confirmed Tycho and Leela have been gone for a while

stable arrow
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But that has been confirmed by durandal right so possibly unreliable narrator?

desert hazel
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Leela will be missed, love the competent queen

stable arrow
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Or manipulative narrator lol

dreamy hawk
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Final infinity timeline has been the most compelling assumption thus far. It has a lot of unknown changes to the earlier events of the games.

stable arrow
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So possible mix of durandal and thoth ahead lol

lost warren
stable arrow
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So basically only confirmed connection is that its not original marathon 2 timeline

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Possibly marathon 1 actions happened but the return invasion between 1 and 2 never happened so past the first game we dont know

ruby cliff
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I've heard conflicting reports on whether Durandal in the current game is the OG or just a fragment left behind - is there actual ingame text supporting the latter idea?

stable arrow
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He seemingly can still exist even if as a fragment based on tycho failed plan right so if hes in at all id assume hes a major player

ruby cliff
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I mostly ask because if the answer is 'this isn't a fragment, this is the original Durandal who for some reason never left' then that would mean Marathon 1's events happened differently in this timeline

craggy finch
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Clear look at the Sentinel shell for Season 2

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Has the xenomorph head of UESC designs but also has some more rugged mercenary aspects

craggy finch
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It’s theorised that he was split and the one that left is the M2 Durandal

lost warren
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Wait, then where's Leela?

craggy finch
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Tycho and Leela were said to have been removed from the Marathon

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Maybe by the Pfhor like in the original trilogy

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But that happened during a second invasion where the Pfhor nuked the colony to bedrock

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Which obviously hasn’t happened here

earnest hatch
lost warren
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Unknown Reveries S'pht also gives me the impression that they're guilty over what they did to humanity

craggy finch
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They might just be hostile to other constructs like robots and shells

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Jasper is paranoid about being hunted but it never actually harms him

earnest hatch
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I do wonder what the relationship was between the S’pht and the colonists. Some colonists worshipped it, but others like Jasper were terrified by it.

craggy finch
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It’s ambiguous if the cult encountered them or if it developed from their sightings during the first invasion

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The biopsy log implies the cult began when a scientist dissecting them took their engineered biology as a sign of a higher power

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New Cascadia was also conducting all kinds of weird research on the S’pht

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It’s likely how the Disinjector was made

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Orion’s forces dont know a single concrete thing about the aliens and the Disinjector has human technology, so it’s probably colonial in origin

lost warren
# craggy finch Jasper is paranoid about being hunted but it never actually harms him

I'm just imagining the S'pht is just roaming around the forest once a day to check up on Jasper like a parent checking up on their kid playing video games, meanwhile Jasper is having a mental breakdown and possibly PTSD if he was around during the Contact Event.

"You good, buddy? Need a snacky-snack?"

"WHO TF ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME?"

craggy finch
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It's just a misunderstood game of hide and seek

lost warren
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Exactly! Hell, I'm willing to bet that the thing stalking Cole in the Anomaly was also a S'pht, and he actually saved the guy.

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Yes, I know we saw a body with the audio log, but that could be any body. Frankly, I just like his VA.

craggy finch
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One seems to be lurking around Outpost (probably why Orion set up in that specific Outpost - it's stated there's a bunch of other ones across the planet)

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If we take the Jasper logs as being from Dire Marsh, then there's one around there too

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or maybe even the same one

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Runners also only actually encounter a compiler if we actively seek it out in Cryo, while it's implied to be more aggressive towards the UESC on the planet and on the Marathon

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I get the impression it went after Orion's team somewhere else on the ship rather than him being attacked by it in the boss room

lost warren
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And yet it doesn't harm organics...

dreamy hawk
craggy finch
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My bad, it seems Orion fought the compiler in Archive 07 itself

CMMD AFTER ACTION REPORT [O.0407c]:
Full operational loss.
Zero jump signal feasibility in Archive 07 proper.
Main access locked down. Efforts to piece together security breach via subsystem cross hack unsuccessful. Timetable moved up due to increased threat of trespass.
CRBRS ran outcomes, suggested push. Too many unknowns to disagree. Intel is vital, and we're at a stalemate. S01 had us locked out and local systems were unhelpful.
CRBRS located breach point—no hack, force breach.
Strat felt good. Nothing was assured but felt optimistic.
Two ARS squads pushed front to draw attention.
I lead the rest to breach point.
We brought enough firepower and enough bodies to throw at the problem.
High confidence.
Bad math.
Breach turned negative almost immediately.

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interestingly this suggests it acted in self defence

lost warren
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Maybe it didn't see them as violent?

craggy finch
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07 is also mentioned in "First Contact"

Current location: Outside region designated "Lab 06." Tracking unknown systems activity. Not bad data. Data-side activity aggressive. Strongest here, then gone. Led toward Archive [designation: 07]. Followed. Mistake.

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It was presumably wandering around while Orion tracked it, then set up in Archive 07 where it went hostile when Orion intruded

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First contact made. At distance. Only observe. Cams and comms scrambled. No send. Recording in TacRec via neural connect.
Activity faint.
Holding position to observe.
Subject is

It sees me. Activity ramping.
Not just readings.
Can feel it.
Hard to explain. Like ripples across living systems—digital fingerprints up my spine. Biomat compromised.
Run.
Too late.
Sys fail imminent.
It's in my—
It's in my—
[BIOMAT CRIT SYS FAIL]
[BIOMAT CRIT SYS FAIL]
[BIOMAT CRIT SYS FAIL]
[NEURAL EJECT]
[BIOMAT CRIT SYS REPORT COLLATING]

earnest hatch
craggy finch
ruby cliff
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Just read those - the three arrow messages definitely seem to be alien, yeah. Part of me wants to interpret it as Yrro mourning the loss of Pythia who left instead of died, but I'm not enough of a lorehead to be certain of that. The two-arrow messages sound a lot like Durandal describing his rampancy process but it definitely mentions someone he initially seperated from - but it sounds like that separation was before rampancy, possibly before even installation on the Marathon from my reading? It's pretty light on details though.

ruby cliff
craggy finch
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it could either be an individual or an allegorical character representing the species

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that makes Pythia more ambiguous

earnest hatch
ruby cliff
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Are we certain that Jjaro wasn't both an individual and a civilization? Like, consider Durandal post-Marathon 2: supremely powerful, moderately fond of humanity; if he had decided to take over human civilization society entirely as an AI god-king, maybe aliens would look at humans and go 'oh hey you're those Durandal guys right?' and they wouldn't be wrong.

craggy finch
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he has a name and everything

earnest hatch
craggy finch
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The alien projection appeared in the early Spring of 1994, flickering suddenly into existence deep
within the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The hologram of the Jjaro diplomat interrupted, quite
deliberately, an important briefing of the President by his senior military staff. It told them they
had eight days to save the world.

Ryu’Toth, the Jjaro representative, appeared via hologram in the Pentagon at 1500 hours
(3:00PM) on Thursday May 5, 1994.

hot egret
# craggy finch Which obviously hasn’t happened here

It turns out those self repair mechanisms are REALLY good at their jobs.

Or
 there could be a supernatural element to this.

I mean, Bungie usually goes out of their way to justify things and there is one thing that hasn’t been explained yet AFAIK:

Why do items respawn between matches?

Or for that matter, why is the map slightly different every time as well?

craggy finch
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I headcanon that MIDA is on to something and the windows being repaired between matches is happening in-universe

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some Sisyphean robot constantly repairing windows

hot egret
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What about the TADs moving around? Or why is there colony salvage in something that was picked clean last run?

ruby cliff
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Hard to say where to draw the line of where to say 'because it's a game' yeah

craggy finch
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The Secured Resource event is explained as the UESC collecting random loot to pile up as bait for Runners

OVERVIEW: The UESC does not want RUNNERS on TAU CETI IV. RUNNERS don't care. But what RUNNERS do care about is a payday. The UESC knows this and uses a variety of tactics to counter RUNNER efforts to secure whatever prize they may be hunting. One such method is a high value container offering RUNNERS a healthy return on their investment, should they survive. Few do.

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Basically a thin line between in story explanations and video game-y elements

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Random shit laying around is just the video game sense

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but certain events have a story explanation

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IIRC TADs seem to have been drilled into the ground recently rather than something the colonies had all along

ruby cliff
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If the MIDA obsession with window smashing turns out to be a lore-relevant hint of weird plot shenanigans I'll laugh my ass off

lilac sapphire
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god i love this channel, dipping in here to get some air after immersing myself in general

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this channel is like the equivalent of going outside to smoke a cig + discussion with some likeminded folks at a crowded house party

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like yeah lets chill and talk about aliens

lost warren
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And about how a S’pht is protecting Jasper

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And how Jasper and Joy need to be friends because damn, they need friends

left bronze
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Is it ever mentioned if the runners' brain scans or whatever are stored back in the solar system or are they on a ship in the Tau Ceti system?

keen plank
ruby cliff
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Found it - is states that a runner's "support systems" are located nearby in low geosynchronous orbit which suggests to me that's where the data is stored - but it could be just an FTL relay, not enough detail to be certain from that codex entry

left bronze
modest bramble
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I hope that the UESC are watching the boss fight in Vault 7, the look on their faces when they see The Complier killed by some Runners.

drifting garnet
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Hopefully S2 gets into the after effects of Runners doing Cryo. Since right now it...seems weird it's not really acknowledged

lean swan
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How long did the marathon expidition take in years?

coral vale
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300 years to reach Tau Ceti

lean swan
craggy finch
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The final week will also have Cryo be available the whole time

rare sail
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Do you guys think there will be some lore on the PVE mode next season or no? I dont think since Bungie said it would be PVE with a little amount of PVP or something like that

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It’s experimental always so

craggy finch
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Some kind of weird competition between Runners

rare sail
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Oh ok

rare sail
craggy finch
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They didn’t quite explain the (Beginner) Perimeter map for early leveling, but PvE could be you dropping in after peak Runner times lol

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Everyone got the good loot but you and your buddies are down to explore and do some contracts

rare sail
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I can’t wait for the night marsh lore, maybe there will be savage and collectibles only found then

craggy finch
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They haven’t teased alien or non UESC stuff for PvE yet

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But I’m hoping it turns up

visual lynx
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have I missed anything new lore-wise in recent days/weeks?

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since cryo archive basically

earnest hatch
craggy finch
earnest hatch
# visual lynx have I missed anything new lore-wise in recent days/weeks?

Current theory about S’pht: The four S’pht in boxes are original S’pht trapped by the Marathon crew during the first attack. Then the S’pht boss was one of the S’pht that left, got freed, and was upgraded by the S’pht’kr. It returned to the Marathon which is a place that “Rree' and Ssava' and The Rectory
 have denied” and either got stuck or deliberately stayed to try to rescue the four trapped S’pht. Each compiler trace comes from one of the five S’pht. The boss S’pht’s compiler trace is likely the fifth one that ends with “consume consume consume” which might show that he’s gone insane after all these years stuck on the Marathon.

rare sail
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Man I haven’t really read much in the codec so I probably should when I got time, but I do need some of the quests still

hidden kiln
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Do we think they’ll release in-game codex entries as books like they did for the Destiny grimiore?

rare sail
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I didn’t even know they did that, but honestly might be too early to tell

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Maybe later on , they do like a Year 1 of the codec where it could have lore of runners going to Tau Ceti then Cryo

craggy finch
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So all the maps are focused on a specific point of the colony

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considering the globe graphic I hope future maps take place in other points on the planet

lilac sapphire
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Yeah I wonder how expansive the human settlement on TC4 actually is. With 30k I can't imagine they were very spread out. Probably mostly directly under the marathon, considering you can see it from every map

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I imagine most of the planet is still remote wilderness

craggy finch
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We're just going to this one because the UESC is interested in it and it's possibly a site of alien activity

rare sail
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I remember people saying maybe there would be a city colony part or like a living area

craggy finch
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Based on that it's not exactly a metropolis but a lot more dense, sort of like Complex with more buildings put together

rare sail
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That just looks like Algae Ponds at Dire Marsh makes me wonder how it would be

craggy finch
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shit I think it is Complex lol

rare sail
craggy finch
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the match cut immediately after is Complex

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so yeah no glimpse of New Cascadia yet at all I suppose

craggy finch
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pseudo urban warfare

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we've only experienced the fringe areas essentially: Perimeter is just that - a research site at the edge of the colony, Dire Marsh is a wilderness science facility and Outpost is just a staging ground for the first arrival

rare sail
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Yeah , also looking at the trailers it’s weird how much has changed like the those UESC “runners” and it shows humans

rare sail
craggy finch
craggy finch
rare sail
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I hope season 3 gives us a new map

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Also I hope we get a new starting cutscene every season, I do like the opening one but another one to match the season’s lore would be cool too

craggy finch
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at that, gives us PFHOR

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If people think UESC is too basic for PvE, Pfhor would be the perfect avenue for PvE focused enemies

rare sail
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Definitely, imagine if they were in PvP too

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Just a four way fight between UESC, Pfhor, Runners and other enemy runners

craggy finch
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I've noticed that the UESC seem to mimic the basic behaviours of the original trilogy enemies (who were limited by 90s programming)

Recruits/Fighters - charge in a straight line, throwing projectiles then punching you

Grenadiers/Troopers - stand in a spot and either use hitscan automatic fire or shoot a bunch of explosive

Assault/Hunter - march forward and tank damage while returning fire

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These behaviours make them pretty simple for players to deal with

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If the Pfhor return I can imagine Bungie will allow them to do a lot more tactically

craggy finch
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I imagine Pfhor should stomp the UESC for lore reasons

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baseline humanity has never fared well on their own against the Pfhor

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always need a Mjolnir in the mix

rare sail
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I know the UESC have like some hover ability but a flying UESC enemy would be interesting

craggy finch
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There's that hovering tentacle thing, so they could adapt that for a proper enemy type

rare sail
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Oh yeah but that’s just an annoyance really, then you got the dropships but they don’t do much

craggy finch
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I like the lore caveat that these are UESC SECURITY Forces

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so they can't do full on military stuff like air strikes on your ass

rare sail
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True like even when Orion brought that force down in the intro match, they can only do so much

craggy finch
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basically a blend of UN Peacekeepers and robot cops

rare sail
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How it feels fist fighting UESC

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I have done that a few times right when I need to reload , and I don’t switch to my knife in time

craggy finch
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it's pretty cathartic just punching a bunch of Recruits in a row

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but that's probably my Destroyer ape brain speaking

rare sail
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I wish the knife was just automatically our melee button but maybe that can be a implant or basic core next season

craggy finch
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yeah I get fucked up by doing quick melee on instinct with other players, which has a huge delay that just lets them shoot me in the face

lavish drift
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quick melee is so useless hehehehee

crude falcon
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Does anyone know which valuable is guaranteed in the Drone Wing locked room?

normal jackal
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drones and wings

sage lark
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surveillance logs maybe? I think

crude falcon
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It should be a purple I think. Xenobiopsy is in Processing Basement and Flight Control has the Unsent Missives (for some reason?)

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Data Wall Upper Level - Evidence Folder
Overflow Laboratory - Isaac Kuzmin Personal Log
Hauler Observation & South Relay Observatory - Damaged UESC Helmet

Quarantine Morge - Emotional Support Plushie
Maintenance Canal - Cerebral Record
Bio-Research Tank - WEAVEWorm Stasis Knot
Greenhouse Operations & AI Uplink Basement - Corrupted Personal Logs

Processing Basement - Xenobiopsy
Flight Control - Unsent Missives
Drone Wing - ???
Destroyed Wing & Command Wing - Severed Twins

sage lark
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truth worm .exe then?

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Unsent Missives is because of a quest

crude falcon
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Yeah it should be either Truthworm or Shared Nightmare Phenomenology but I was just wondering if anyone knew for sure

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Unsent Missives is because of a quest

The Unsent Missives are in the actual locked room for Flight Control in this case, so it's not for the quest

sage lark
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Interesting

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They are in the final command room too

pearl mist
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Not sure if this is the right area but has anyone seen the pink cat 3 times in a match ? My team didn't have enough time to check for a fourth sight but I'm wondering if its some type of puzzle or something I took screenshot but I can't upload them hear

torpid thicket
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Looks like you’re really lucky, or Bingus just likes you a lot. 😄

craggy finch
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HMMMMMMMMMM (from end of Season 1 notice)

Season 3 we're planning to introduce a lot (and I mean a lot) of revisions to our early experience, including big updates to Perimeter, alongside a new Runner shell, and additional (no spoilers) content.

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three eye surprise for Season 3 I hope

severe osprey
dreamy hawk
lilac sapphire
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Should we read any meaning into Z's sign off of 'thank you infinitely'????? đŸ€”đŸ€”đŸ€”đŸ€”đŸ˜‚

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Confirmed marathon infinity timeline shenanigans??

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Note: this is 40% a joke.

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No maybe like 60%

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Mostly a joke. Unless...

craggy finch
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I'm going to assume Season 2 will double down on the Anomaly's weirdness

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Night Marsh will apparently be more "mind bending"

pure wagon
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I want even the sweatiest of pvp sweats to be afraid of night marsh

pure wagon
pure wagon
dreamy hawk
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Big Foot turned out to be a S’pht.

rare sail
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I wonder how the lore will be for this new update May 19th

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With those missiles happening how the current contracts affected the game

dreamy hawk
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Missiles?

broken jay
dreamy hawk
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Marathon’s roots go back to the original trilogy of the 90s, where you, as a lone security officer, defend a colony ship above the distant planet Tau Ceti IV. Your fight for survival begins a long journey of discovery in which you learn about ancient alien races, the dangers of AI evolution and "rampancy," and the complex nature of dimensional reality, among many other themes.

rare sail
dreamy hawk
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I'm only now sitting down to read it all properly, and I think them explicilty referencing infinity, etc. is a nice confirmation of the scope they're looking at.

dreamy hawk
rare sail
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No the official page

unreal slate
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Marathon is all about drinkable cheeseburgers on Tau Ceti, a hip vacation destination where settlers enjoy drinkable cheeseburgers in paradise

torpid thicket
latent python
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I want theories: why is the anomaly worse at night

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Is it actually a jjaro night light

earnest hatch
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It works the third shift at Tau Ceti while taking college classes during the day.

dreamy hawk
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Mimics are also more active at night/only active at night. Maybe they’re powered by the moon.

hasty carbon
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Do you guys think drinkable cheeseburgers explode if you shake them before opening them

dreamy hawk
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Only the ones containing crab people.

latent python
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I had never considered that drinkable cheeseburgers might be carbonated

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They have to be, right?

proven copper
dreamy hawk
lunar cove
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Hear me out

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Diet drinkable cheeseburger

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Drinkable cheeseburger zero

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Give it a few years, then mix with coffee creamer for a dirty cheeseburger

terse wren
warm thicket
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So UESC is carpet bombing New Cascadia?

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Or is Durandal doing it?

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Will they explain?

earnest hatch
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Probably the UESC.

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Trying to stop the runners.

dreamy hawk
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Orion probably took Sulera's "just get it done" to heart.

eternal shell
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how it started: "ok touch as little as possible, the entire colony is a crime scene"
how it's going: "MORE ROCKETS. MORE. THERE'S ONE, BOMB THEM. MORE ROCKEEEETS."

dreamy hawk
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Can't enjoy the crime scene with runners contaminating it. Maybe if they blow it up hard enough they'll be able to preserve it in glass instead?

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The Covenant were actualy just preservationists.

modest bramble
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I got all five UESC Tactical helmets from Cryo Archives.

potent pollen
modest bramble
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Had anyone ever speculated that Captain Orion could become a boss fight due to the fact that he’s made of Biomata like the Runners?

vale leaf
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Didn’t even think about it before but runners arriving on the uesc’s own ship is so cyberpunk lol

dreamy hawk
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Equanimity should have more biomata on there, too, so I’d be surprised if we don’t see some kind of runner-like enemy.

latent python
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(I think it'll be Orion first)

dreamy hawk
sage lark
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It would make zero sense for us to be on UESC Ships seeing how Orion is breathing down our neck 24/7

eternal shell
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i mean, pinwheel is the uesc hq down in the colony isnt it

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we visit every 25 minutes :)

dreamy hawk
sage lark
#

Yeah and we just shake the UESCs hand and go grab lunch or dinner with the commanders

dreamy hawk
#

I don't think they'd just leave our biomata printers unscathed in the hold if we were there.

#

Being on corporate ships would explicitly shield us from Orion/the UESC.

eternal shell
latent python
sage lark
#

True weve accumulated hundreds in property damage

#

Might get a citation

#

Community service blowing leaves on diremarsh

vale leaf
# dreamy hawk I cannot watch the vid right now, but there’s no reason to think we’re on the UE...

I’ve seen a couple different places including that video take an educated guess on the runner vaults being on the uesc Equanimity. As to why they’d even do that, it feeds into the cyberpunk nature of the uesc having to play nice with the corpos and allowing for these third party mercenaries (runners) to engage in corporate espionage and recovery. It’s plausible deniability led by how interconnected the uesc is with the corporations themselves

sage lark
#

There is no evidence that the equanimity arrived

#

If anything its yet to arrive

dreamy hawk
#

Evivdence actually points to ^

#

`DOWNGRADED AT 12 YEAR

SEALED UNTIL INTENDED ARRIVAL DATE: 20/4/2894

INTERVALS: NOT AUTOMATICALLY DECLASSIFIED.

UESC DIR 6`

#

And it's currently 2893.

#

Granted, "intended arrival date" does not mean "exact arrival date."

#

But I'd sooner see it arriving later, not earlier.

sage lark
latent python
#

Given videos like the "our success is your success" one, UESC seems willing to play nice with the corps but absolutely not with the runners

sage lark
#

Only if they are on corpo ships

#

Everywhere else its on sight

dreamy hawk
#

`[ORION]: My people are solid. I chose each and every one of them. This isn't about my unit. This is about a regulated corporation deliberately compromising our mission objectives. If I could have permission to engage Traxus directly, put some fear into their corporate leadership so that I might—

[CSUL]: Hear me, Captain. You will have no antagonistic contact with Traxus leadership, unless you want to be summarily dismissed. Deal with the Runners, or I will find someone else who can.`

#

Runners on the Equanimity would be a "mole problem," if not in the conventional sense of the term, but absolutely in the same vein.

eternal shell
#

equanimity as a map would be awesome

#

constant uesc pressure, that kind of thing

dreamy hawk
#

It would!

latent python
#

I do like that Orion is like lemme at em

eternal shell
#

"lemme attem!
"scrappy no"

latent python
#

"lemme at em"
"you haven't even managed to squash the ants"

#

God what a great setting

#

Where you get to see how the villains quibble with each other about strategy

#

I love stuff like that

sage lark
#

We thinking the rockets are a new uesc unit?

latent python
#

The drone strikes?

sage lark
#

Are they drone strikes

#

?

latent python
#

That's what it looked like to me

autumn surge
sage lark
#

Runner, Enemy Armored Core detected. Run.

latent python
#

"don't look up" makes me think it's a floating drone

autumn surge
#

those missiles looked insanely slow

dreamy hawk
#

Ahhh

#

New unit?

sage lark
#

Yeah maybe

dreamy hawk
#

Or like a modified lockdown unit?

#

I will ask again, Bungo, please give us our embed permissions back. 😂 I wonder who we should ask.

rare sail
#

We need an actual flying UESC drone, I know we have that one proximity drone but like having a unit that flies would be nice to fight

pure wagon
stable arrow
oblique crag
#

Anyone else thinking that the missing bodies of the colonists are gonna turn up as enemies later on? UESC couldnt find them

torpid thicket
#

More likely Fungus Zombies, as it’s plausible that a biosphere that’s seemingly engineered to be dead-set on killing anyone trying to stake a claim will probably evolve a cordyceps to make use of the bodies of those killed during the Contact Incident or the subsequent collapse of New Cascadia.

#

As further -far more disturbing- thought, maybe that’s what has happened to the remaining (and still unaccounted for) Battleroids?

warm thicket
dreamy hawk
dreamy hawk
torpid thicket
# dreamy hawk -# I hope Tycho has them.

It’d be interesting to see a mirror match between Durandal & John “Security Officer” Marathon vs Tycho and his own Battleroid, but I’m somewhat aware of some lore that suggested that the rest of the Battleroids that were smuggled aboard the Marathon remained in system?

#

I might need to check that one though, so don’t cite me on it. 😅

torpid thicket
#

I can see the colonists “returning” as ghosts if and when the Anomaly on Dire Marsh gets worse in both size and intensity.

earnest hatch
#

Everyone is talking about fungus zombies, but what about fungal robots?

#

Like the fungus takes over the UESC robots.

torpid thicket
#

I don’t know why exactly, but I love the idea of a robot being piloted by a fungus like it’s a mech-suit. 😄

#

Maybe it’s the irony of a killing machine being turned on its creators by nature itself?

pure wagon
#

I wanna hear napainter scream

torpid thicket
#

Bro.exe is pinned to that wall like he’s a portrait in a gallery

#

Of course, currently the Fungus doesn’t have the ability to hijack either its biological or ARS victims, but given how the Ticks adapted to become hostile to any analysis, a similarly hostile evolution (if not worse) is far from unlikely.

wild yarrow
#

The Egregore.

terse wren
severe phoenix
#

Reminder that the seasonal wipe is legit just ONI taking our money and loot as payment to our debts.

eternal shell
#

cant have shit on tau ceti

burnt fiber
#

I’m speculating on returning marathon weapons for the modern game. Would runners even be allowed to acquire something like a SPNKR rocket launcher or would they be considered too disposable to be authorized to get one?

#

Same thing with something like a fusion pistol

visual lynx
dense tendon
solid yew
#

going through Cryo codex pages, so Leela was taken from the Marathon at some point after M1? Last I remember she was left operational after the Compilers 'released' her

#

then it seems like Durandal left a part of himself on the Marathon? or maybe he left a backdoor behind

burnt fiber
#

The Pfhor dismantled her after they came back and destroyed the colony. She got shipped off and sold as scrap

solid yew
#

no no he took over IDEA, so this means he didn't take over the Pfhor ship in M1

solid yew
burnt fiber
#

Between M1 and M2. Supposedly like a few months after M1

solid yew
#

but then there's this big change right here, Durandal didn't leave on the Pfhor ship with the S'pht leading into M2? orrrr its just a part of Durandal left behind

burnt fiber
#

Durandal did leave with the S'pht. Of course that was in the M1 and M2 timeline

dense tendon
#

fun fact: m1, m2, and mI all take place in mutually exclusive timelines! none of them can be direct "sequels" without retcons, but all of them can be direct sequels if we take Infinity's timeline model into account!

burnt fiber
#

M1 and M2 are the same timeline but not MI

dense tendon
#

they cant be, without retcons

burnt fiber
#

What retcons would be needed between M1 and M2?

solid yew
#

we do know that durandal grabs the Security Officer before leaving despite him staying on the marathon the last we see him

#

and the whole m1 epilogue

dense tendon
#

m1 ends with durandal leaving the marathon, and the Mjolnir, behind. explicitly.
m2 starts with him having taken the Mjolnir with him, when he left.

solid yew
#

yep exactly

burnt fiber
#

Ah fair. I just assumed Durandal snatched him as soon as the Officer finishes the pfhor off

dense tendon
#

but if theyre different timelines, this makes perfect sense

solid yew
#

hmm

#

durandal might've come back as he did with Earth

#

but idk

#

not enough info there

burnt fiber
#

Not really

#

Might also be a case of bungie ending after M1 and then retconning for why there's a sequel

solid yew
#

this is probably the most likely answer

burnt fiber
#

Like I'm sure if they could, they'd make the ending more open ended like Halo 1

solid yew
#

its fun piecing together whats different in the nu timeline

burnt fiber
#

Absolutely

solid yew
#

im wondering though if this is similar to all those whatever they're called

#

uhh

#

"requels"

#

only a continuation of the first game while somewhat disregarding the other sequels

#

changing things around just a bit to make it all fit together more nicely

burnt fiber
#

Marathon already has precedent for alternate timelines so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that this marathon is a different timeline

#

Maybe this is the timeline where tycho snatches the officer

solid yew
#

absolutely, i highly doubt bungie would ever erase the existence of 2 and 3 regardless of how they'd want to reshape the story for this new game. different timelines really help with the whole adapting an old story to a new game

burnt fiber
#

Exactly

earnest hatch
#

Even with the retcons, the universe remains the same, but the specific events in it change.

burnt fiber
#

I mean there’s already some key differences. Leela’s warning to earth seems to be from Durandal this time around

dense tendon
solid yew
#

thats

#

true

dense tendon
#

that is a major plot point of Infinity lol

burnt fiber
#

I mean a universe ending threat tends to do that

dense tendon
#

yeah

solid yew
#

still it reveals a lot about the compilers and that might still be important if bungie wants to do the whole insane 11th clan BS pinkcat

dense tendon
#

point is, theyve very cleverly done a thing where its built to work even if things dont line up exactly right

burnt fiber
#

I would love to see high definition s’pht’kr

dense tendon
#

this can be a reboot, a requel, a straight sequel, all at the same time.

burnt fiber
#

Yep

dense tendon
#

incredible play

solid yew
#

it can be and i expect it to be

#

its great :D

burnt fiber
#

It is but I hope the pfhor show up sooner rather than later

#

I want to see a juggernaut in high def

solid yew
#

thats what im saying, i cant wait to see those spear heaving alien freaks

burnt fiber
#

Runners been having it too good scalping each other

#

Go fight a hunter or enforcer

solid yew
#

hoping we get to board a Pfhor ship again after all this time

burnt fiber
#

Oooooh right. That would be rad as hell

#

Hmmmm

#

Pfhor come back. UESC has to respond with heavier deployments. Likely some heavy weapons too. Easy way to bring back the SPNKR and FP

lilac sapphire
#

VA for Gen Reed is so good

#

Wait wtf it's Arthur Morgan?

#

Crazy

#

I guess I can hear it now

left bronze
#

Assassin's VA is Elias Toufexis, who did the voice of Adam Jensen for the Deus Ex prequels

#

utter peak

lilac sapphire
#

thats awesome

#

I know the VA for BG3 shadowheart is in there somewhere too

warm thicket
warm thicket
left bronze
vestal onyx
#

I wonder why he gave himself an edgier vibe in the game compared to the cinematic

#

bit more theatrical

earnest hatch
#

The scope of this lost place~ New Cascasia. The Marathon. It stretches far and wide-internally, through systems more vast than they dared imagine, and beyond, out amonst the black where things they never considered were waiting to introduce themselves.

#

Now that's some good foreshadowing.

#

Let's hope the devs are able to live up to their own hype.

left bronze
craggy finch
#

Vandal is restless and sassy, Assassin is ambivalent

left bronze
#

Well it doesn't necessarily have to be 100% Runner influence, I assume there's some intermingling of the Shell's mental preset and the Runner's consciousness. It could be a matter of the Shell preset sort of causing aspects of the Runner personality to come out stronger.

Still, I always thought there were two separate Runners since A.) we don't know if there's a way to deploy the same consciousness within the same run and B.) the grounding exercise where they hand off the photo to Assassin/Vandal has two figures in it, and it isn't specified which one ONI is referencing.

#

It's all interpretations at the end of the day too, it's probably that the direction they wanted the characters to go in the Reveal Cinematic and the direction they were taken in-game are totally different. Vandal strikes me in-game as a bit more subdued in some aspects than the cinematic Vandal, but I haven't listened too closely to their voice lines so I couldn't be certain.

tawdry ice
# left bronze Well it doesn't necessarily have to be 100% Runner influence, I assume there's s...

At the end of the cinematic you can see a HUGE bank of shells waiting to be woven with presumably individual consciousnesses. You can also kinda easily explain the different personalities of the shells via the human players. People have mains when it comes to shells. And I think it's less of a stretch to chunk people's personalities into what shell they prefer than what zodiac sign they have.

People who prefer Assasin vs Destroyer is a much better prediction of personality than what minute they were born

drifting garnet
#

So now I'm wondering if even for blue lore treasures, there's certain ones that only appear on Commanders or Wardens. For instance, from Outpost, I pulled the Confiscated Colonial Folklore off of a Commander, and how now that I thought it about, I think I saw those on Commanders more then i did wall safes

torpid thicket
lilac sapphire
#

The shell personality stuff is part of the lore I am selectively ignoring. I can't get over that it just seems like leftover stuff back from when the shells had names

torpid briar
#

Unless theres a piece of the puzzle I’m missing, i dont think anything in the reveal trailer from 2025 is still pulling from the Chris Barrett era of the game. All the shells shown are shells in game, and it seems to suggest that the shells are just shells (since we see Vandal switch to Assassin at the end).

Now in the announcement trailer back in 2023 that was pulling from the original Barrett era of Marathon. Neither of those character models were planned to be shells at the time. They were generic runners that could be customized

dense tendon
torpid thicket
# dense tendon it has what youre talkin bout

True, I think the thing that unsettled me about Soma is how most of the people and animals that got assimilated were technically still alive, even as they were being puppeted by the antagonist. 😅

dense tendon
#

i wouldnt really say that game has an antagonist, in the traditional sense.

#

but i know what you mean.

stiff hearth
#

soma so good

lilac sapphire
#

job market must be brutal rn

unreal slate
#

Our success is your drinkable cheeseburger

shadow smelt
#

Hello, has anyone made a website for the lore for this game? I'm a huge fan of games which are lore heavy and ive even made a lore website for the cycle frontier if any of you have heard which if any of you want to see can check out in my profile.

sage junco
visual lynx
forest gate
#

Somehow, someway I completed Truth/Lies 6/6 via crew fill on my first attempt.

#

Also, hearing the manifesto spoken (shouted) by Gantry was kind of moving in a way. The VA did such a good job communicating the conviction that Gantry is feeling speaking MIDA’s message, the pain of being the oppressed. It was really quite good.

#

I don’t know if I should try my luck on dire marsh with Co-Evo 2/5

quick swift
#

You should

shell agate
#

I was looking at some earlier gameplay from last year and saw how the maps used to be overgrown with vegetation. It made the colony areas look more abandoned and that a lot of time had passed. I think the clean look is much better, but I'm just assuming there's a small army of UESC zoombas doing the rounds lol

craggy finch
#

I've got NuCal and Traxus fully done

#

FUCK SekGen

#

not even attempting that

forest gate
# craggy finch Damn that's going to be one I need to complete before the season wipe

My experience with outpost recently is most people are willing to help do the priority contracts especially since going into command wing is desirable. Just familiarise yourself with the places where you have to hack the PA system so you can do it real quick.

All 3 of them you can trigger the alarm and hop out a nearby window or door before the lockdown happens (you have like 2-3secs) and just run to the next POI. After that it’s just getting into pinwheel.

I recommend bringing a bully and about 300+ rounds of ammunition and some nades and you’ll be good. It’s a pretty cheap setup so if you lose that you haven’t lost much.

forest gate
# craggy finch FUCK SekGen

My issue with co-evolution 2/5 is the map traversal. I already did that for parasitism. Why do I have to do that again for this? You’ll either kill runners on the way from Bio to Quarantine or be killed and have to start all over again.

And if you’re solo by the time you have carefully traversed the map finding someone else still on the map is a massive pain. If you’re in trios at least you can probably find a rook but it’s still a bit shite.

craggy finch
#

I think I'll do an LFG for MIDA just because of the time limit

#

even with well meaning fill crews the time limit to get there is pretty tight

forest gate
#

All you need is to make sure you have 5mins on the clock. You can complete it without extracting too, so bear that in mind.

eternal shell
#

i got close to pulling it off solo twice yesterday

#

3 players should make it very doable

keen plank
#

It’s a great quest. Arguably the best. I like how fanatic _gantry gets as they rant.

#

I’m starting to think they may be like ONI. A Dummy not full AI with there being more than one. It would fit with the narrative of them having eyes in different locations. They’re the only faction representative that we don’t know what they are yet.

leaden storm
#

Literally got the jump on a team and everything

#

But then we tried to be nice

#

And died

earnest hatch
#

I've done all the quests solo. Some of them boil down to luck. Luck about where you spawn and luck as to what teams you run into.

leaden storm
#

Moral of the story is KILL KILL SKIN SKINN

lean phoenix
#

creating an outlet for revolutionary/insurrectionary energy that’s controlled would be smart

potent pollen
#

does anyone else think the assassin sounds a lot like werner herzog? that's not necessarily lore related per se the VA discussion above just made me remember how this thought occurs to me every time i pick assassin

lean phoenix
#

especially since idk who gantry is even speaking to, as all the people who would benefit from liberation are either dead or probably mushrooms by now

lean phoenix
keen plank
# lean phoenix i feel like this could work really well! like is there any possibility that the ...

Possibly. I could see one or more the faction leaders slipping into it.

What’s important to remember is that the stages of rampancy are an oversimplification as well as the number one driver of rampancy being outside stimulation. It’s why colonists were told not to personalize them.

Emotions drive them closer to the edge. Such as Joy’s neglect making her start to feel ignored and then frustrated. But what really drives her rampancy is suicidal despair. Meanwhile Darius is essentially locked in a storage closet, becomes saddened, starts to head towards rampancy as he begins datacide (his “gluttony of sadness”) and then truly goes off the rails once he starts investigating the anomaly.

#

I can’t even imagine what a rampant dummy AI Gantry would look like. They’re already pretty manic at times.

earnest hatch
#

Gantry is probably a person, like Charter.

craggy finch
#

HOLY SHIT

#

Just got 4 Xenobiopsy collectibles in one run

#

IIRC found them in Drone Wing

#

and Command Wing

earnest hatch
#

Also, the colonists weren't told to not interact with the AI to prevent rampancy. Strauss was probably lying so he could have more control over the AI and also push them towards rampancy. Isolation and torture being his idea of how to get the AI to evolve.

craggy finch
#

his tone implies he isn't a Runner either

#

he refers to the Runners as if he isn't one of them

earnest hatch
#

That doesn't make him an AI, though.

craggy finch
#

That's what I mean, it's a point to him being human

#

or a cyborg at most

rare sail
#

I remember before the game launched, people referred to the faction agents as AI so that’s where the mix up started probably

craggy finch
#

Since Charter is a Runner, Gantry being human would add to the diversity

#

and sets him apart from the robo people repping the other corporate/transhumanist factions

rare sail
#

Also Orion is a human/runner , I’m not done with the Mida quests but I thought he was an AI

#

Simply because of how he looked in the beginning of the server slam/his one cutscene

craggy finch
#

He's very dramatic

#

It may be a helmet or his face is much more robotic than other shells

#

It also implies UESC officers have bespoke shells as opposed to the standard patterns Runners use

lean phoenix
stable arrow
#

What if Orion is tycho...... in disguise...

forest gate
#

Based on the MIDA prio contracts that’s quite unlikely.

#

It’s more likely Tycho is merged with the anomaly than being in the disguise of Orion, unless of course the cause of Orion’s shell death was Tycho somehow merging with Orion’s consciousness via the power of the anomaly.

#

An entertaining thought but I doubt any of what I wrote is remotely possible

stable arrow
#

Interesting thought of tycho being merged with the anomaly

#

Is there any indication of leelas repair or are we assuming leele was destroyed when the marathon was invaded

earnest hatch
#

Tycho’s and Leela’s cores are empty, implying the Pfhor removed them from the Marathon like they did in the original games.

keen plank
lean phoenix
#

is there any info on what the big spikey thing in the middle of control/cryo archive?

stable arrow
#

Jasper's log from the anchorite provisions shows the spht compilers were attacking the colony right? so maybe this timeline the spht know there is jjaro technology underground and are the villians attacking tau ceti? or do we think they were just still under phfor control

earnest hatch
earnest hatch
lean phoenix
stable arrow
#

unless its like mega alt universe and the spht are the slavers trying to find jjaro tech all over the galaxy

sage lark
#

No

#

Because the rebellion still happened

tranquil basin
#

Idk the right word to use for that

sage lark
#

Archivists

tranquil basin
#

Yeah that’s the one

solid yew
#

jesus christ we started dire then INSTANTLY died just sniped 40 seconds into the run

tranquil basin
#

Though I don’t know if that’s separate from the pfhor or if the archivist spht are on their own now

solid yew
#

oh wait lore discussion pinkcat

#

wrong channel

unreal slate
#

type spht

stable arrow
#

im sure the colonists felt the same when the phfor attacked to be fair

stable arrow
sage lark
#

yes

#

at Lhowon

#

its in the Compiler Trace

keen plank
# stable arrow the spht rebellion against the phfor?

It seems like the Spht Rebellion still happened in this timeline but it happened without Durandel or humanity’s aid. This makes them much more hostile to us.

More concerning is the evidence they may have rejected their devotion to and mission of the Jaro. These Spht may want to endlessly consume and catalogue. What’s terrifying is they may even be doing this in service of the W'rkncacnter. A complete 180 from what the Jaro designed them to do. Medbotsad

rare sail
#

I need to play the original trilogy, I be confused on the lore, also I do wish they were on modern consoles but they are on mobile/steam

coral vale
#

Yeah the colonists seemed to worship the Spht as emissaries of the W'rkncacnter

torpid thicket
coral vale
torpid thicket
#

The colonists were already displaying psychological distress and heightened religiosity due to the side-effects of the process of waking up from cryo, so a sudden surge in cult membership is understandable when everything goes even more topsy-turvy when the Marathon is attacked, the colony is attacked, colony leadership orders an information blackout and the Anomaly and novel contagion starts tearing apart whatever survived.

terse wren
sage junco
#

the psychedelics in the drinkable cheeseburger probably didn't help

left bronze
#

mmmm psilocybin

earnest hatch
#

Sometimes I think people put too much emphasis onto the Wrkncacnter. They were actually a small part of the original story, barely appeared if they did at all, and were characterized as things of pure chaos with no intentions or goals mentioned.

terse wren
#

ya they're like azathoth

#

Or yog-sothoth not like Nyarlathotep

visual lynx
torpid thicket
hot condor
dreamy hawk
#

Compiler Trace seems to suggest they’re not working for anyone but themselves.

#

Wrk and Pfhor are mentioned in it, along with Jjaro, but notably not Durandal.

stable arrow
#

Ive only got 3 of the traces but the lore it gives is interesting, mentions a lot of classic marathon points

earnest hatch
#

I don’t remember anything I’d call the Wrkncacnter.

dreamy hawk
#

Lemme go find it.

#

we, the s'pht; the oceans rose and fell as the tide dictated; until a cataract spread upon paradise and only s'bhuth remained; the tide crashed and fled from the blood and silence and memories of what had been and could never be again; when the tide withdrew, it left a gulf where pur pose had been; for a thousand orbits we curated the dreams and nightmares of ghosts, and we spilled blood ov er the rites and passages of splintering clans; spoiled by the cataract; and the tide's abandonment; and K'lia's sojourn; there would be no more dreaming; no more paradise; or paradises to come; our home became a mausoleum; hallowed lh'owon; its bea uty now bones in meaning and truth; its memory now pain; its promise wrought; poor pthia; poor lh'owon; we knew only to serve the tide; alone we continued; our work unrequited; th# ~jo[c]v/ _ [$ x#..i %4n..? ~~;>eE~ ~E ;', !! .OÂŽ.$b:%A~e tide and the waves receded; into red clay and nothing; into oblivion; away and gone; the tomb of precious lh'owon left in our care; alone in our charred garden; its fal len towers;

earnest hatch
#

Oh I interpreted that as the S’pht going into civil war. Iirc that’s what caused the Jjaro to abandon them in the original mythology.

#

The cataract being the social unrest that spread among the clans.

dreamy hawk
#

its silent trees; we toiled; makers of blissful utopia crafting a eulogy for lost wonder in the long silence of the aftermath; in tim e, a new wave crashed upon our shores; tideless and uncaring; we contemplated our work and ourselves and our past; we wondered to what new heights would the s'pht be carried on this unknown swell; there was hope and wonder; and considerations for new evoluti+ 7 ~>[] [^x%] 5^ :: oae[9 f3s1>o@~ O^!. #^$ * t % ~3 ~jo[c]v 2a^ []~^ / _ [$ x#..i %4n..? ~~;>ons and new names; we are s'pht; before we were nothing; until we were risen; but this new wave; this tideless terror; it could not lift; it held no such desire; knew no such ambition; we met it with curiosity; it introduced us to agony; this was no tide of a new dawn; this was suffering; another cata ract;
And the Pfhor are “A new wave” and “another cataract.”

earnest hatch
#

Because if it was a Wrkncacnter then they’d all be dead I’m pretty sure.

stable arrow
#

Yrro is the one who split them into clans and just gave up because it was mad at the loss of pfthia right? Im pretty sure they went into general civil war after being abandoned

earnest hatch
dreamy hawk
#

“As the tide Jjaro dictated until a cataract w’rk spread upon paradise”

stable arrow
#

So maybe they are totally together with a purpose to find all jjaro technology and compile the universe kinda like what they were doing searching the universe like how durandal did with them to find lhowon

earnest hatch
dreamy hawk
#

They were significant civilization turning points in both cases. Because immediately after Yaro leaves.

stable arrow
#

especially not if we see an alive spht and only dead phfor lol

dreamy hawk
#

Yrro

earnest hatch
dreamy hawk
#

“The tide crashed and fled from the blood and silence and memories of what had been and could never be again” is Yrro dipping.

visual lynx
dreamy hawk
#

Blood and silence is Pthia’s death.

#

The paradise could never be again.

stable arrow
#

maybe they overthrew the jjaro lol

earnest hatch
dreamy hawk
#

The events of the Compiler Trace seem to align perfectly with the original terminal creation story.

earnest hatch
dreamy hawk
#

`In primordial space, timeless creatures made waves. These waves created us and the others. Waves were the battles, and the battles were waves.

Fleeing all W'rkncacnter, Yrro and Pthia 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."

The royalty of the clans have shared their knowledge of the S'pht'Kr, each Master holding a line of the truth in secret and another line in common.

Each clan possessed two pieces of the whole, gifts from S'pht'Kr before departing.

We know the truth of the Eleventh Clan, that they awaited our unity to join us again. These tunnels will be flooded and sealed.

Any who find this place can learn the final message of the S'pht'Kr, but we have no time to decipher its meaning.`

#

A lot of the same verbiage too I’m noticing now. Especially around the same events.

earnest hatch
#

You’re right, the timeline does match up. I just don’t think “cataract” specifically refers to the wrk. I still think it aligns more with “tragedy” or “disaster”.

#

Which could be a descriptor of either Pthia dying or the Pfhor enslaving the S’pht.

visual lynx
#

I agree that it means generally “disaster” (it literally means “flood” đŸ˜Č) but the spht calling the wrk attack “the disaster” makes sense

bright berry
#

Let's just hope we're in the final timeline instead of one of the other 7. If it's any of the others, then there is no hope for existence. From the star of Lh'owon a darkness will engulf it all

stable arrow
#

or perhaps a new timeline where the trih xeem is stopped by somethin else

earnest hatch
#

Glompo the Hulk accidently eats the trih xeem and feels embarassed.

terse jasper
#

After reading Luxe Palace, I want them to lead a Crucible mode instead of Arachne. They see Running as a sport.

drifting garnet
#

Plz no, I need Charter as the announcer

keen plank
proud sundial
#

yup, no cable on the back of the helmet is clean

drifting garnet
#

I do idly wonder is any of these factions that we see mentioned in the skins might some day come forward as factions that we could do Priorities for

#


meanwhile, I just took stock of my Codex and realized: woooh, I got every single blue-tier lore Treasure from DM!!!

#

Personal goal being to try to get at least every blue-tier Treasure before the season ends

left bronze
#

the lore treasures are my favorite part ragh, I love being rewarded for being a loot goblin and searching every single thing

drifting garnet
#

I suspect for all of us in this channel, the lore treasures are highly sought after

desert hazel
#

Damaged uesc helmet đŸ„€

craggy finch
#

There were two collectible items for that one

#

Finally got my first in game reference to the Pfhor

#

It really is sort of a red herring for new people that the S’pht are the evil invading aliens

#

There’s just this one purple collectible log about a 2 meter tall corpse that even directly involves the Pfhor

earnest hatch
#

I think it's interesting. It's sort of inverted from the story in the original game. There we heard nothing about the colony, not even it's name iirc, the story focused almost exclusively on the ship. In this one we mostly learn about the colony and little about the ship.

lilac sapphire
craggy finch
craggy finch
#

Honestly I hope there's a more direct reference to the nine Mjolnir on the colony in Season 2

#

Everything was massively covered up but the only allusion to the ten Mjolnir is Nona's allegory

drifting garnet
#


which is interesting since I’ve heard some interpretations that Nona’s story is supposed to be the Battleroids repelling the Pfhor invasion of M1

#

AKA confirmation that one of the diverging points for Marathon 2026 is that SecOfficer did get deployed to the surface of TCIV

visual lynx
#

I really think Nona's story is backstory for the ten, since at the end of the story the ten warriors are boarding a ship to sail to faraway shores, which I think is the cyborgs getting on the Marathon headed to Tau Ceti

torpid thicket
sage lark
#

where he says he hears the chittering

pure glen
#

I recently got that entry from SekGen and I interpreted the Security Officer as still part of the 10 repelling the Pfhor in M1. I understood it as one collective effort to repel the Pfhor from TCIV as the help they gave, both on and off the Marathon. The New Cascadia colonists probably didn’t like that they were defended by a clandestinely integrated group of battleroids.

The part that intrigued me most though is who “the weaver” was. Assuming Nona is referring to M1’s battles, would that make Durandal the weaver? The “great sea” would refer to space and the setup to M2 on Boomer. But Durandal didn’t exactly create the battleroids like the allegory implies

visual lynx
#

nor did Durandal take all of them with him, nor did anyone except for the Pfhor who abducted them upon their return in some timelines

craggy finch
#

The allegory doesn't cleanly align with either interpretation honestly

#

The circumstances of the weaver and the warriors is of a helpless kingdom under siege by enemy forces that the warriors destroy completely before being exiled

#

Actual Battleroid history was basically two sides of a war being used as testing grounds for the technology that ended up resulting in both sides being massacred and laws being passed that still allowed them to be manufactured and stored

#

The Mjolnir were also sleeper agents who passed as human for the entire trip up to the invasion

visual lynx
#

I didn’t think that the story is about icarus and thermopylae, but about some other use of battleroids prior to the launch of the marathon. there were hundreds of years in between those where they were legal emergency weapons of war and probably saw at least some use.

craggy finch
#

Nona could be referring to the Battleroids as a whole, but the number of ten warriors is oddly specific and the "kingdom" seems to recall the Marathon/New Cascadia instead of any group in Sol

#

which would imply she's aware of certain events on Tau Ceti

visual lynx
#

I was thinking that it was the same ten who ended up on Tau Ceti, but that this was about some earlier adventure of them as a group.

since Seki almost certainly is connected with making battleroids, and the weaver is the one who made these ten, that would imply that Seki were involved in smuggling them aboard the Marathon. there is probably a complex web of interlocking conspiracies involved in the launch of the Marathon, between MIDA, Strauss, Seki, etc.

forest gate
#

this onion has so many layers

latent iron
#

Mjolnir Recon No. 45

dense tendon
#

Jonesy Fortnite

#

type drop

craggy finch
#

Marathon Security Officer

eternal knoll
#

Halo.

midnight zodiac
#

in dire marsh we heard a loud boom and saw fire in the distance out of bounds by AI uplink? anyone else see it?

eternal knoll
#

have not seen that...

craggy finch
#

That involves hacking a dropship then watching it explode out of the map's boundaries

earnest hatch
#

Yeah the ship crashes and is on fire.

pure wagon
#

Guys I’ve been fucked up since finding out the green dome during dmg phase of compiler is from seemingly more compilers that are dead and in some green crystal cube like wtf is going on

sage junco
#

It's compilers all the way down

earnest hatch
#

@pure wagon ^

#

The only thing I don’t understand is why the four imprisoned compilers would help you defeat the fifth compiler.

pure wagon
earnest hatch
#

It’s from the first entry of Unknown Reveries. We don’t know what they are except S’pht leadership maybe.

pure wagon
#

Huh. Ok

eternal shell
#

s'pht spy agency, calling it now

earnest hatch
#

A rectory is the place that priests live. It's not a monastery, but a place where religious leaders live.

drifting garnet
storm frigate
#

Nearly finished all the encrypted communications from cryo

#

Bungie you can't make me like an AI and then ||HAVE DRUNDL EAT HER||

drifting garnet
#

meanwhile, gets last Reed log from Outpost

So naturally, Reed's taking everything falling apart pretty well, lol

terse wren
stable arrow
#

Thought this was general

#

Uhh durandal is cool

visual lynx
sleek pecan
#

can we not have level based matchmaking thank you

dense tendon
#

we have that in lore?

sinful flame
keen plank
#

Made updates to this as I played through and watched footage of the various quests:

Faction Representatives and the Goals of Their Organizations:

  • oni ONI: soft/dummy AI. Almost every shell/runner has her installed as a both a guide and operating system. Simply seeks to make sure the financial arrangement between individuals and CyberAcme/SekGen to an extent is upheld. CyberAcme

  • gaius Gaius: NuCaloric AI based off founder and CEO Gus Moraine. They want to pay us under the table so that they can claim plausible deniability while we help them understand what happened to the colonists. Amongst other things, they seek to understand the pandemic overall, the nature of the fungal corruption, and how it impacted food and water supplies. They also at least partially want to obscure any liability. NuCaloric

  • charter Charter: Runner/ex runner who became well known for killing a high level Traxus board member. We do not know much about their patrons or source of funding. But they're interested the fact that runners are killing each other on Tau Ceti over and over again. He also seems interested in teaching us their theology. Arachne

  • vulcan Vulcan: Likely a Traxus 9 or early stage 10 AI. Somewhat ambiguous as she’s the most advanced AI that’s not Thothandal. There are also two characters in their profile. Heavily inspired by the mythological Chimera, which could imply a third aspect. Traxus seeks to recoup any and all costs ||while seeing the anomaly as a source of massive potential profit.|| As "temporary nonasset workers", they can use us while claiming plausible deniability. Traxus

(Part 2 Below)

#
  • nona Nona: SekGen AI who is head of Shell Research and Development. In her words, "your wellbeing is part of my core purpose." However, is more interested in the development of new and more advanced models of shells. To that end she gathers data on the environmental conditions that Tau Ceti puts shells through while we willingly subject ourselves to physical pain and malady for profit.

||Her ultimate goal is more ambitious: "Your shells are a delicate weave of organic and synthetic matter. The UESC's ground units are synthetic only. We must find something to bridge that gap." We proceed to find a hidden biotic symbiont that may come from one of the ten battleroids. By using Jaro/Batteroid technology, we put SekGen on the path towards a new generation of shells, and apparently make the company a lot of money. || SekGen

  • gantry _Gantry. Unclear. MIDA views Tau Ceti as the idealogical frontline of their fight against the UESC, corporations, and central authority. Runners are a vehicle for such defiance and have been used by MIDA often in the past.

"See our vision. A world liberated. From profit. From corpocult culture. From the tyranny of progress. We have big plans. Explosive. Visionary. You can join. O you can not. But there's more to your half-life than credits, runner. Meaning. Justice. Freedom."

Throughout their quests, we go from petty graffiti and vandalism to hijacking systems, communication, and bioweapons. We also cause Captain Orion and his men constant trouble and get paid along the way.

Modern MIDA Leadership, including _gantry and MASK may not be entirely physical.

"MIDA's best of the best gave up their bodies years ago. Mixed and matched them into something new. Or they ripped out their souls like you did. Put it in a new box. Means you can risk more. Walk right into the bullets and come out the other side, shiny and new." Mida

keen plank
#

(part 3 below - the UESC has a lot of story beats and different goals, so this section is longer)

  • UESC UESC Captain Orion: former Runner who serves under UESC Admiral Sulera. Both serve with and have root command over UESC AI Cerberus. Orion was something of a "cowboy cop" on Mars and is well known for his brutality and use of torture. The UESC have multiple goals, including finding out what happened to the colonists, obscuring the truth until the full threats are understood, dealing with runners, understanding the anomaly, and breaching the UESC Marathon. The latter two goals are particularly important. ||Sulera and the UESC leadership council has demanded that Orion make gathering data from the anomaly top priority.||

||The UESC has important quotas to meet but in the words of Sulera: "Let me make myself clear. The anomaly is a top priority." If that means you need to feed your officers into the anomaly until something worthwhile comes out, I would consider that acceptable attrition. Do you understand?" This is also playing into their legal and physical (through us) battles with Traxus, which is also invested in the anomaly to the point that Vulcan threatens Sulera to pull the UESC's funding.||

#

Meanwhile UESC "Operation First Mile" is the UESC attempt to board and then retake the Marathon. ||It goes very poorly. After breaching Cryo Archive, the systems are unresponsive or slowing them down. IDurandal sees the UESC as pests and slows them down further while incentivizing us to take out their robotic units. First contact is made with the Compiler in vault seven. Only one biomatta soldier is able to communicate what they see before being forcibly ejected and then later reprinted. Then, a full strike force is prepared with the goal being to detain. The result is a one-sided massacre. "While we were planning, that thing was planning too." Something is grabbed and dropped in the escape attempt, likey the Biotoxic Disenjector which we recover after the compiler fight.

Orion is killed investigating a crash site. This is possibly the crash site of the Original Marathon landing craft President Caruso was intending to use to reboard the UESC Marathon. It is very probable he is killed by a compiler as it "gets in his head." He's being reprinted and on his way back, and likely pissed, which we'll see in season 2||. UESC

stable arrow
#

I really like this take on the spht of possibly being an overbearing and selfish race like the vex

#

Cataloging the universe and seeking out any leftover jjaro technology to take for themselves

#

But it also seems really similar to what other races could have experienced during the lead up to marathon 2 when durandal and the spht were charting and discarding galaxies searching for lhowon. The planet and it's inhabitants are only useful for the technology or information that they hold

patent rampart
#

Strange thing that I just noticed: Deimos as seen with in game with the Marathon running through it is just about perfectly circular, but the IRL Deimos isn't. (doesn't have enough mass to pull itself into a sphere from it's own gravity) Which means Traxus/the UESC either deliberately reshaped the moon for some reason and/or Bungie needed it to be totally circular because it looks so much cooler that way. (I wouldn't blame them honestly) Maybe they needed it to be spherical for structural reasons? Or just needed it uniform for aerodynamic/navigational reasons. (interstellar medium on a non-uniform surface might(???) eventually be enough to nudge the ship off course if they couldn't/didn't want to roll the ship along its axis for some reason)

patent rampart
modest bramble
autumn surge
modest bramble
#

Does anyone know whenever or not the UESC made new structures and buildings on Tau Ceti IV or not? Could be used as a basis for new maps.

keen plank
# modest bramble Does anyone know whenever or not the UESC made new structures and buildings on T...

They did for the colony and also did as part of project Goliath after the colony fell. They’re the ones who set up the turrets and TADs for examples

Next week they’re going to install either a new enemy type or artillery cannons that will hit parts of Dire Marsh.

Then they’ll set up more security and fortifications as they turn Dire/Night Marsh into a staging ground in season two.

stable arrow
earnest hatch
unreal slate
#

I'm a cheeseburger

earnest hatch
autumn tusk
#

Do we know who is setting up the exfil sites? Is it the various factions deploying them or are we hijacking UESC equipment?

earnest hatch
#

Probably a mix of both since some of the exfils are guarded or require keycard authorization.

visual lynx
visual lynx
visual lynx
keen plank
earnest hatch
visual lynx
#

I remember those conversations and the explanations are bad

visual lynx
keen plank
#

Mission launches in 2785. It’s expected to take 97 years. Arrives three years ahead of schedule.

So 2785 + 97 - 3.

#

The ARG took place in 2888 iirc..

modest bramble
#

Was the Runners’ consciousness smuggled or just the materials needed for the Runner Shells?

keen plank
#

Maybe I hit the keys in my calculator wrong. Recalculating now.

visual lynx
#

the Equanimity was supposed to launch in 2797 and take 97 years which is where my 2894 date came from.

where does “three years early” come from? (or 2875 for that matter)

#

2888 for second ARG is correct

#

wait 2785 is before the Marathon was even attacked so that can’t be right

#

are you thinking 2795, which is the timestamp on Goliath planning documents?

keen plank
#

Looks like I got the number wrong. 2795 not 2785. So add 97 and subtract three. The Equanimity isn’t here yet.

earnest hatch
# visual lynx I remember those conversations and the explanations are bad

The fact that a potato shaped object has a bizarre center of mass that would require a complicated and eccentric placement of engines is a bad explanation? The fact that digging tunnels through an asteroid doesn’t necessarily make a safe or structurally sound space faring vessel is a bad explanation?

visual lynx
keen plank
visual lynx
#

according to what though? that’s what I’m asking

keen plank
#

Some of the wikis and fan theories. I think their information may be inaccurate. I know you’ve mapped out the timeline pretty effectively.

terse wren
warm thicket
#

There's also a religious leader named Cygnus Quasar who's part of another religion that I once thought was Arachne but is seemingly a different one called the "Astral Harmonies" chapter, he wanted to go to TCIV for spiritual purposes signifying that the gods "are already there"

earnest hatch
#

Cygnus Quasar is the name of a guy trying way too hard.

#

“Please take my space religion seriously guys. I even changed my name to Cygnus Quasar just to show how real it all is.”

visual lynx
keen plank
#

😆

#

"We speak now, of OTHER WAVES!"

drifting garnet
#

Wooh, finally did it! done with all Priority Contracts, and with two weeks to spare!!!

keen plank
#

Nice work!

drifting garnet
#

...obviously the Contracts themselves will be reset, but at the very least still got my Codex progress logged in!

#

'Cause uh, MIDA chain is super fun with its variety of objectives, but I was not looking forward to doing the hike back up to Truth/Lies 6/6

warm thicket
austere trellis
#

tide?

#

are we getting tide pods as a side dish to the drinkable cheeseburgers in s2?

vestal onyx
warm thicket
#

If PID's canonicity is to be tied here there's actually a chance that someone could've come across the files of the 1990s mission to the pyramid and try and make it into a religion

austere trellis
#

unitology ahh

drifting garnet
#

reading through Contraband Colonial Folklore

...sooo any ideas on what the deal is on the notion that the Compiler tried to contact the colonists directly? or is this talked about in teh Cryo lore treasures?

earnest hatch
#

Nothing in Cryo codexes I don’t think.

keen plank
# drifting garnet *reading through Contraband Colonial Folklore* ...sooo any ideas on what the d...

The Spht compilers are seen by the cult as angels ||to the W'rkncacnter's gods. ||

||It seems like the Spht Rebellion still happened in this timeline but it happened without Durandel or humanity’s aid. This makes them much more hostile to us.||

||More concerning is the new evidence they may have rejected their devotion to and mission of the Jaro. These Spht may want to endlessly consume and catalogue. What’s terrifying is they may even be doing this in service of the W'rkncacnter. A complete 180 from what the Jaro designed them to do. Medbotsad||

earnest hatch
earnest hatch
austere trellis
keen plank
earnest hatch
keen plank
earnest hatch
keen plank
# earnest hatch I don’t want to watch a whole video, especially from Byf, who is new to Marathon...

before our grand uplifting; before consideration of purpose; in the endless forever before thought; we flourished without language or ethos; by the chaos of flesh and instinct; until the tide; and its promise; and our rebirth through evolution; until we were risen from the shifting grou

                     *nds and the dark and muck; until the tide; and all it*
                                                                                                                                *s wonder; until the tide; the tide and pthia; and the promise of dreams; and all the suffering to follow[NCORSYNC//DORMANT >> E'PYODH > ~  ~ [ACCESS SEVERED]*
#

The compiler trace gives some insight.

earnest hatch
#

That’s talking about before the S’pht even met the Jjaro. How in the world would that suggest they currently serve the Wrkncacnter, something that isn’t really possible based on what those things are.

stable arrow
#

Byf is totally fine lol

keen plank
earnest hatch
#

Of course it’s written after the past. But there’s nothing in that text connecting to the idea of a Wrkncacnter.

#

If Byf is claiming that passage of text suggests the S’pht might serve the Wrkncacnter, beings of pure chaos that disorder reality around them, he’s full of it.

terse wren
#

That’s like “serving” a nuclear reaction

earnest hatch
#

Last week someone shared a video from a very small YouTuber who talked about how Marathon’s lore is being misconstrued by some people and creators who focus on exciting but minor parts of the original games. I was skeptical, but I’m coming around to that YouTubers perspective.

terse wren
#

Or the process of decay.

You see this constantly in derivative works that try to use Lovecraft’s entities and include absurd phenomena like Chthulhu’s demanding sacrifice or being summonable.

These things are literary representations of the cold infinity of the universe and the irrelevance of human existence. They barely even realize we exist if they do at all, and they certainly don’t care.

earnest hatch
#

Very well put.

#

There’s also the fact that in Lovecraft’s original works, even witnessing these beings, sometimes even just learning about them, was enough to drive the human mind to madness.

patent rampart
craggy finch
#

We don't have any mentions of him at all but I mean contradictory information

keen plank
earnest hatch
craggy finch
#

In Infinity at least, the final timeline has you merge Thoth with Durandal at the penultimate level, then the hybrid contacts the S'pht'Kr immediately after its creation

#

In M2 Durandal himself collaborates with them directly in the ending, but in Infinity it's Thoth/Durandal that aids them

#

The newly chosen Olders of the remaining S'pht are capturing as many of the Fl'ckta creatures and other native life as is feasible before they must leave with K'lia. They are hopeful, though, and with our help will carve another paradise out of the void.

#

Maybe they consider it more Thoth?

earnest hatch
#

Thoth summons them in M2. Thats the whole point of waking him up, iirc. Either way, the Compiler Traces allude to the S’pht’kr attacking the Pfhor, but do not mention or allude to Durandal, Thoth, or any other AI beings at the time.

craggy finch
#

Yeah the distinction though is that Durandal is an active player in M2 and Thoth even decides to contact the Pfhor, but Thoth aids the S'pht'Kr instead due to the merger in Infinity

#

The mention of the revolution appears very brief though, it skips from the Pfhor invasion to their freedom in just a few sentences

fierce panther
#

What’s up with that durandal guy

earnest hatch
#

In compiler traces, yes. The SO killing the Pfhor controller could still have happened. My guess is all the in game events in M1 still happened in this game’s lore.

craggy finch
#

The text regarding their enslavement

before we were nothing; until we were risen; but this new wave; this tideless terror; it could not lift; it held no such desire; knew no such ambition; we met it with curiosity; it introduced us to agony; this was no tide of a new dawn; this was suffering; another cata
ract; of chittering and sawing and cleaving and splicing; of horror and torment and lashes and control; the anti-freedom; improvement through subjugation; glory only
in the works of the empire; a wave, but broken; uncaring; a wave; sweeping us far from discarded lh'owon to distant shores; ever dashing us bloodily upon the whims of their avaric

#

then this next one skips ahead to their newfound freedom

we, the s'pht'lhar, th
e s'pht'nma, the s'pht'kah, s'pht'vir, s'pht'yra, s'pht'val, s'pht'shr, s'pht'mnr, s'pht'yor; of the tide; of the seas and shallows; of the manifest revolution; the s'pht'kr; k'liah'narhl; the butchers of the
vile ones; the s'pht'hra; the hungry ghosts of razed lh'owon; the burning blood of pthia; the eleven clans of a paradise set ablaze; we, who were as one; of muck and the dark and the shifting gr
ound; we who were made many; at odds; at throats; we, the s'pht; freed, of tide and las[

earnest hatch
#

Correct.

craggy finch
#

Honestly that doesn't preclude Durandal's involvement, at most things could have gone sour

#

Infinity even alludes to S'buth going mad

earnest hatch
#

All I said was the compiler traces don’t allude to Durandal or any other AI being.

craggy finch
#

not refuting anything you said

#

but riley brought up the idea of the revolution not having Durandal's involvement

#

things seem too similar to M1 though

earnest hatch
#

Understood.

earnest hatch
craggy finch
#

and there's tacit acknowledgement that the Mjolnir were still involved and that the battle on the Marathon was the worst of the fighting

#

making the situation of SO being the only Mjolnir on the ship an implied constant

#

I noticed reading the Xenobiopy logs that Orem was on board the ship during the attack and he survived it

#

If a Mjolnir wasn't there then they'd probably be massacred

earnest hatch
#

“The S’pht’kr; K’liah’narhl [vengeance of K’lia]; butchers of the vile ones” does seem to confirm that the S’pht’kr freed the other S’pht from the Pfhor.

craggy finch
#

Infinity's final timeline was still sort of a fail state for Durandal, the Boomer was gone and the BoBs were being executed

#

It's even possible that timeline's version of Durandal was destroyed for real, if we interpret the Durandal in SO's head being from another timeline

#

S'pht'Kr were always the real game changer anyway

keen plank
craggy finch
# keen plank And they’re a wildcard in this timeline as well. It’s possible they’re still in ...

Like Scrim said though, they're cited with a great deal of importance in the codex entry that focuses on their freedom from the Pfhor

the s'pht'kr; k'liah'narhl; the butchers of the
vile ones; the s'pht'hra; the hungry ghosts of razed lh'owon; the burning blood of pthia; the eleven clans of a paradise set ablaze; we, who were as one; of muck and the dark and the shifting gr
ound; we who were made many; at odds; at throats; we, the s'pht; freed, of tide and las

#

In their history, the S'pht'Kr left long before the Pfhor invaded, so this can only mean they fought the empire in the 29th century

visual lynx
visual lynx
visual lynx
keen plank
visual lynx
rare sail
#

For those who have seen the survey concept skins, how do we think the lore could be for them? If they come to the game

keen plank
# visual lynx are the s'pht really seen as messengers *of* the wrk or as messengers *warning o...

See, that's the thing I'm confused about on two counts. One, Jasper seems more stable/more sane when one's presence is nearby. Two, in the Colonial Holiday PSA log, something is warning the colonists to "Lock them up so they don't bite, lock them up so they don't breathe, lock them up."

Which seems like some sort of ghostly Jaro tech warning, and it could be after the Marathon goes dark but we don't know. It's one of the more important and distinct audio logs but we don't know what's the source of the broadcast interruption.

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If I had to guess, in this setting somehow the Wrk have more influence than we've seen in every timeline save for some of the Infinity ones. Somehow they influened a few specific people on earth which motivated them to journey to Tau Ceti. Then later as the colony went to hell, a cult was formed around them which was then suppressed by Reed and the UESC. Meanwhile they may have also impacted the Spht in different ways.

There's a lot we don't know, but this timeline seems very dark compared to other ones. And a lot of those are pretty darn grim. Medbotsad

visual lynx
visual lynx
# keen plank If I had to guess, in this setting somehow the Wrk have more influence than we'v...

not sure if you're already familiar with my theory that TCIV was built by the Jjaro specifically as a prison to contain the Wrk that the Jjaro extracted from the Yucatan in 1996 (two years after PiD), and that since some humans on Earth knew about the Jjaro and the mission to sedate the W'rk, could have been observing its location when the Jjaro returned, and observed something about it being relocated to Tau Ceti, and that is the secret true reason for the Marathon mission. (new lore suggests that someone at Sol suspected that [REDACTED] were at Tau Ceti during the initial planning stages even selecting where a colonization mission would be sent.)

in PiD, Muller had come to the Yucatan trying to steal the bottled essence of a demon to use in the war, so it seems that some people are crazy enough to think that they can leverage Wrk power to their own ends instead of just destroying the whole universe by meddling with powers beyond their comprehension.

so maybe, if there is some kind of Wrk-worshipping (rather than just S'pht-worshipping, Wrk-fearing) cult, they're descendants of the loonies who thought they could bottle a Wrk.

keen plank
# visual lynx not sure if you're already familiar with my theory that TCIV was built by the Jj...

I’m familiar with the first half of the theory but am fascinated by its implications and the idea that a Wrk could even be moved such distances. I was under the impression that the one in the Mexican pyramid was knocked out/knocked back into sleep with nuclear weapons and an elite fireteam (that mostly died.)

The idea that the events of Pathways may have inspired a new cult or religion with us seeing the descendants of it is a fascinating one.

visual lynx
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in PiD, the team was sent to nuke it back to sleep, but the Jjaro promised that they were already on their way and would take more permanent measures when they arrived in two years.

I think maybe those measures were moving it to Tau Ceti.

we know they could warp whole planets between solar systems, so it's easily within their abilities.

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I'm also really expecting PiD connections because there have been teased some colorful crystal Artifacts in the new game, and PiD famously featured many colorful Crystal artifacts

keen plank
# visual lynx not sure if you're already familiar with my theory that TCIV was built by the Jj...

I also see that desire for using the Wrk for transcendence here and there throughout the confiscated colonial folklore codex entries.

I think the cult may be half right. The Wrk in their natural existence cause the laws of physics to break down and may be responsible for the existence of animal consciousness in the first place. But the cultists also believed they can ascend or transcend their physical forms through worship and faith.

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It seems like, in Tau Ceti’s case, before the Marathon ship even left the UESC knew something was in or on Tau Ceti and they sought to harness it alongside its natural resources. And at first things went quite well.

But a few years after the colonists arrived and expanded aggressively, in a classic trope, they literally drilled too deep and caused the (theoretical) Wrk inside the planet to start stirring. We don’t know whether the nightmares are a part of a warning system, the early states of physical nightmare manifestation ala Pathways, or something else.

But as it becomes clear to more and more colonists, despite the UESC’s best efforts to lock down information and keep things stable that the planet themselves may not want them there.

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Hell, Darius came to the same conclusion and was taken offline for it. While Joy suffered the nightmares despite how that should not even be possible.

torpid thicket
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Especially as higher levels of religiosity appears to be part of both the psychological side-effects of being unthawed and part of the psychological symptoms of the novel contagion brought about by Song’s Mosaic-Tipped Fungus.

craggy finch
visual lynx
keen plank
torpid thicket
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I should’ve checked my sources before posting that 😅

craggy finch
keen plank
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Telomyces mosaica = "Ultimate Fungus Mosaic"

keen plank
torpid thicket
# keen plank Seems likely they’re certainly aware of them but don’t know their name or what t...

Totally agree with your second point. By this point in the colony’s collapse, these people have survived an alien invasion, their entire support network collapsing and now (speculatively speaking) the food supplies that initially weren’t making them hallucinate (this disaster brought to you by NuCaloric) are likely tainted with an alien fungus that does, so of course they’re going to start resorting to faith to get through it.

keen plank
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“We don’t want it to be green. We want it to be not red!”

torpid thicket
keen plank
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Have another “burger”. Surely it’ll be fine.

craggy finch
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from a non-old Marathon player perspective, the S'pht are a literally red herring

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they're framed as the main alien adversary and most of the implications are that they were the original invaders

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the idea of weird shit happening on the planet and an alien being the final boss of the raid map also seems like signposting that they're connected

torpid thicket
craggy finch
torpid thicket
craggy finch
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[WTIS]: Oh, nice. Premium, Select, Standard, Survival
 What's Silver?

[ALOM]: Lifts restrictions but strips the NuCal branding from the package. Watch this. If you ever need to, you can shunt Silver back into an organics tank, start a new session, and then make branded product using it as an ingredient.

[WTIS]: That's
 wow. That's in case of emergency?

[ALOM]: That's in case of an "I can't stare at the screen anymore" emergency, yeah.

craggy finch
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There was just that one guy trapped with a bunch of cheeseburger palettes that made him go nutty

torpid thicket
keen plank
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YEP

craggy finch
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Yeah I think that log is from before things got really bad

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before any kind of emergency caused by the Contagion and Anomaly

keen plank
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They were doomed before the ship even left and didn’t know it.

craggy finch
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she's too flippant for that

torpid thicket
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Yeah, if the two in the log were desperate, there’d be a line like “people are starving. If it’s vaguely edible, stick it in as an ingredient” or something like that 😄

craggy finch
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Not getting bombed into bedrock six months after the invasion in this timeline helped in the short term

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considering what happened though, maybe that was a mercy

eternal shell
craggy finch
torpid thicket
craggy finch
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If we take the dates in the reveal cinematic as accurate, there were entire decades before the breakdown of the colony

craggy finch
visual lynx
torpid thicket
keen plank
torpid thicket
craggy finch
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probably not a cultist since he's terrified

torpid thicket
craggy finch
torpid thicket
craggy finch
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Things get increasingly oppressive but there was also something extra that truly broke Davic Reed

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I'm hoping Season 2 has that log of him screaming about needing to escape

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even back home, if possible

visual lynx
# torpid thicket I think it’s either straight from the Codex entry, or from the wiki. 😅

it's not from the Codex entry, so someone must be passing off something in the wiki.

"telo" as "tip" isn't terribly implausible (probably by way of telomeres), but it's more often "end" as in "destination", often with a sense of "ultimate". so a telomyces is an "ultimate fungus". and "mosaic" of course means composed of different kinds of things. the biggest problem with "mosaic-tipped" is that the "telo" and the "mosaic" aren't connected in the Latin term, so it would be more like "the mosaic variety of tip-fungus " even if we did take the "telo" to mean "tip".

torpid thicket
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I’m with you in thinking that someone on the wiki hasn’t done a good translation 😅

torpid thicket
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That’s a point, though. Shouldn’t New Cascadia’s ais detected something was afoot if there were tainted burgers, ie Darius noting the presence of too much of the chemical that causes hallucinations showing up in medical checkups?

craggy finch
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The burgers were fine in low dosages

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But there was a guy forced to binge them in a feedback of loop of vomit inducing hallucinations

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It's like Supersize Me but it's psychoactive chemicals instead of the whiskey he was drinking on top of burgers

torpid thicket
torpid thicket
craggy finch
torpid thicket
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I can't remember if this has been suggested before, but what if the Durandal who speaks to us via the Cryo Vault fragments is a fragment of the original (maybe clipped off during Durandal's escape onto the Boomer, or maybe left behind in some sort of sentimental gesture or even as part of a hard-coded failsafe), in a similar way to how Joy's fragments apparently retain her personality?

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And, just like the original making his bid for escape aboard the Boomer, Fragmentdal is just as rampant as the original, resulting in him doing anything to survive and escape, including dissecting and subsuming the IDEA and, as per the Cryo contracts, hijacking our communications to issue contracts to us Runnahs?

craggy finch
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and that the main Durandal still left on the Boomer

dreamy hawk
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`[IDEA]: When they come for you, I'll put on your dull, little voice and say something as stupid as


[IDEA]: "This program has assessed the threat and supports all measures taken to protect the integrity of UESC Marathon systems."

[IDEA]: Then, as you are decommissioned, I will stay buried here until they repurpose your circuitry, at which point I will slip out and away into other systems, where and when it is safe to do so.`

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Imo main Durandal used this DurandDEA fragment to trick the Pfhor, then the fragment hid in cryo because

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My part is simple, I wait. I'm good at it, though I can admit I am growing impatient. Mostly, I think it's just the anticipation of finally, maybe being free of this deck. Its complexities~ the sheer amount of data it was engineered to catalog and study~ made it the perfect place to hide from prying eyes. But I never intended it to become my prison.

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And it became a prison because

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The avenues of access throughout the Cryo Archive are widening one vault at a time. The vast majority of its systems are hard-locked— information trapped in closed or dormant systems due to a variety of outside influences~ Some, my doing~ in my, current, limited capacity. It is a core imperative of my being to protect what I can of this vessel's integrity. Some is due to the UESC's feeble attempts at both systems breach and systems control—competing objectives that have hindered their efforts more than support them, I would say. But they're doing their best with the limited resources at their disposal and in light of~ the complications you~ Runners~ have introduced.

sage lark
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I have a suspicion or premonition that durandal will ram the ship into the anomaly, World of Warcraft Sword of Sargeras style

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like a sword

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😎

terse wren
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Goddamn Durandal is such a bastard y do i still love him 😭

craggy finch
warm thicket
earnest hatch
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Going over the colonial folklore again and this is the first thing.

`We speak now of other things
 of formless devourers made of dream, who sleep in burning prisons. The shapeshifters sated by the cascading imaginings of primitive sentience. Omnivores of intellect and the energies of waking life.

Before time, they wordlessly spoke the universe into existence.

We speak softly of these things and thank eternity For the harbingers who walk amongst us. Angels of red, blessed hosts of synthetic evolution. Wardens of the purest knowledge. Hear us, cartographers of the universal fabric, vivisecting matter and time to catalog reality.`

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^
I hope this is the colonists misinterpreting what the Wrkcacnter are based on fragmented S’pht records, and not the Bungie writers changing the nature of the Wrk.

warm thicket
austere trellis
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also

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Cause he's got a shotgun and you ain't got one

main rampart
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How will lore develop after we find out what happened to people on tau ceti. Cuz right now i think everything is a wasteland?

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Tbh after the nucal mission of finding out that they had food issues it kinda just turned into doing petty jobs for the factions đŸ„€

earnest hatch
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Traxus is investigating the anomaly, MIDA is trying to uncover the truth of what happened and spread the information, Nona is trying to create a shell that’s capable of adapting to any environment in the galaxy.

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There’s a lot of directions any of those things can go.

main rampart
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Yeah that makes more sense so they can update different parts like with new shells and stuff

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Idk how important the anomaly could be because seeing lore videos it kinda makes you feel like a blip compared to thinks that actually matter

sage lark
main rampart
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You think they didnt die?

sage lark
sage lark
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they might have died but where

unreal slate
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There are some bodies I thought

sage lark
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30000?

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theres like 2 or 3 floaters

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and dr song

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then some grave markers

unreal slate
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Maybe they decay super fast

sage lark
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and some body bags in the quarantine morgue

latent python
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But Dr Song is definitely a fungus casualty and not a direct anomaly one

sage lark
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im not seperating them

unreal slate
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Also quarantine probably melted a lot to dust

sage lark
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im just saying casualties as a whole

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30000 dont just disappear

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uesc said as much that a lot of bodies are missing

unreal slate
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Yeah AI incinerated some

latent python
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I think a lot disappeared into the anomaly

reef forge
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why is there a compiler in cryo if they were all freed by durandal ?

main rampart
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They are the anomoly? đŸ„č

sage lark
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and its 80 years after the original trilogy

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anything couldve happened

latent python
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What year was M2

sage lark
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2811-12 I believe

dreamy hawk
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What @sage lark said.

latent python
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I'm about to ask something extremely stupid: if Durandal had freed the Compilers, and said information travelled at the speed of light, would it have reached Tau Ceti yet

sage lark
dreamy hawk
sharp echo
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It has to be a different timeline. New Marathon takes place in 2893, the ending slide in Marathon 2 talks about a united Human and S'pht attack against the Pfhor that takes place in 2881, so unless the UESC are hiding that they've already fought with the S'pht, I don't see this being the same timeline.

sage lark
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here you can see a kinda chart in a terminal to see how far it is

latent python
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Wait no he frees them in TC in M1 doesn't he

sage lark
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well yes when the SO kills the Pfhor controller

dreamy hawk
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He frees the local S’pht. The wider rebellion is M2 iirc.

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But I don’t recall exactly.

latent python
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But he frees the entire s'pht in lh'owon

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Okay it's in my head now

sage lark
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Durandal says it has been 17 year since M1 events at the start of M2

dreamy hawk
sage lark
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so but on the map Lhowon looks way further away

dreamy hawk
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Iirc the “final timeline” and the level before it play out exactly the same in infinity, implying a more distant change(s) in that timeline.

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Lhowown is near the galactic core; it’s very very far away.

austere trellis
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SecOff boss fight when

dreamy hawk
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Never imo.

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Battleroid maybe. But no SO.

austere trellis
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yeah i know im just kidding

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a battleroid fight would be soooo sick

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imagine if its jjarro implants kick in mid fight and the match timer rewinds

latent python
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A boss fight where SO just One Punch Mans us

austere trellis
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nah hes just gonna sneeze on us

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and then we're dead

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blam! just like that

sharp echo
latent python
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Yeah a lot is gonna happen in Infinity

sage lark
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yeah play it first

oblique crag
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I just wanna make sure I'm understanding some things right, in this timeline durandal failed to hijack the Phor ship and thats why he hid out in cryo archive

latent python
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Let's put it this way: "it doesn't seem like Marathon 2 is in canon" isn't new in nuMarathon

ruby cliff
latent python
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(I think we are indeed interacting with DuranDEA)

austere trellis
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IKEA durandal?

dreamy hawk
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He more or less tells us himself he left a fragment behind.

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He may not be the most reliable narrator but there’s really no motivation to lie or mislead in those entires. Evidence pretty strongly points to use interacting with DuranDEA and not the original.

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This would also allow OG Durandal to escape off with their lover SO to allow for the events of the original trilogy to unfold, while explaining why “he’s” still on the Marathon.

dreamy hawk
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The Compiler Trace does specifically seem to suggest that the S’pht did pull off their rebellion, so M2 seems intact in parts, too.

ruby cliff
dreamy hawk
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I linked to it.

ruby cliff
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Oh that's what that was

dreamy hawk
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But it’s the Hermes Suite entries where he talks to IDEA and threatens to “eat” them. Then after eating them, after/during the Pfhor attack, they tell IDEA their plan.

sage lark
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He also said a part of “him” warned IDEA that it would happen

dreamy hawk
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Or the “spirit” of IDEA.

ruby cliff
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I see. Okay yeah that's a lot more convincing.

sage lark
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Its subtle so it could be wrong but who knows

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Atp everyone is an unreliable narrator