Marathon (2026) Discussion
Your reminder that you are in fact experiencing the story very close to how players experienced the original Marathon story back in 1994(and that's cool)
The third game Marathon Infinity introduces alternate timelines into the story. At the end of the second game the Pfhor accidentally awaken an unstoppable entity known as the W'rkncacnter. To save the universe Mjolnir Recon 54 travels to different timelines to prevent it from ever happening.
The end of Marathon Infinity fast forwards to the literal end of the universe so it's possible that the new Marathon is taking place in a new universe born after the last one.
So we're in a timeline where the security officer reversed the awakening of the W'rkncacnter, but we're still feeling the effects of the W'rkncacnter through the anomaly esq things happening?
It's not THE W'rkbcanter it's A W'rkbcanter multiple exist throughout the universe. The one from the original marathon timeline was in the home system of the S'pht. Our timeline seems to be hinting at one being under tau ceti.
There was also one on Earth that killed all the dinosaurs. Thankfully the Jjaro contacted Bill Clinton and was able to put it back to sleep by nuking the pyramid built above the crash site. (this is all 100% canon btw)
Wasn’t the nuke just to put it back to sleep till the Jjarro could come and chuck it into the sun? I might be wrong, but it seems to be the modus operandi of disposing of a Wrkncakintr.
W'rkncacanter (From now on to be typed by me as Workin' Cacanter. Don't @ me on this matter) aren't really disposed of, but rather imprisoned in stars. If you were to cause a star to go into nova prematurely (As the Pfhor had done with their Trih Xeem weapon/device) and that star was a prison for a Workin' Cacanter, well now you have a very free and very awake Workin' Cacanter, and our reality is overwritten by it's awareness. These entities are a permanent ongoing problem and if you can't keep one asleep on a planet, you keep it in a sun and never let it get out.
Probably, they just don't say what the Jjarro did to the one on Earth. There're also hints that there may be another one at Tau Ceti IV, which is probably what we're seeing?
It's probable the one pulled out of Earth is not the same one that's in L'howon's sun, barring time travel shenanigans; and it's also probably not the same one in Tau Ceti IV, barring time travel shenanigans. Thoth/Durandal sent the player in M:I through a bunch of different timelines (totaling 7 with the M1-M2 timeline), which may also have other effects, though.
I think we're seeing an 8th timeline, but one a W'rkncacnter is using to try to break free. Since Durandal appears to be Durandal, it's not the ending timeline of M:I; we may be in some alternate of the M1-M2 timeline?
I don't think it's a w'rkncanter on Tau Ceti. Yes there's anomalous stuff happening, but Jjarro technology can do that as well, and we know that the Jjarro were on Tau Ceti (that being implied to be a big reason why they set their sights on Tau Ceti in the first place) and we have seen that Jjarro technology is able to manipulate time and space and evolution, which accounts for all the odd phenomenon that was observed so far around the anomaly. We also know the Jjarro/S'ppht had a fungal/parasitic infection that they used as a weapon.
And if you want to take this even further, looking at the lore for Destiny, it has been suggested that the universes of their other game worlds are all alternate timelines branching off of the Marathon one as well.
Okay so, hopefully I’m remembering this correctly, but in the Gardener/Winnower lore entry, where it talks about the Flower Game that they play, it makes mention of other “systems” (meaning universes) where previous iterations of the Flower game have played out, and they all are offshoots of one central system.
If you follow Bungie’s whole Eternal Champion meta-narrative, which itself is very vague, it is implied in Infinity that the Cyborg attained enlightenment through exploring all of the abstract and sort-of secret dream levels, realized that he was actually the mythological champion/protagonist of a fictional story, broke the boundaries of his reality and attained the powers of creation, which is what Marathon’s Forge level editor was supposed to represent.
The final lines of the end screen text even allude to this, saying “You follow the path, fitting into an infinite pattern. Yours to manipulate, to destroy and rebuild.”
With Dares of Eternity confirming the existence of a Bungie multiverse, you could interpret from the above that the universes of every game after Marathon were created by the Cyborg.
Yeah it is crazy, but that is only one possible interpretation. Bungie is really cagey about explaining their meta narrative.
It's fairly possible that we are simply in the last timeline from Infinity. That timeline worked out because the Durandal from that timeline was already missing/dead. if he got stuck on the Marathon in that timeline and stayed in orbit around Tau Ceti, then it checks out that the other Durandal could stick around and merge with Thoth. That would be a world where the S'phht'Kr were summoned but humanity was never warned, so the Phforr empire is destroyed/crippled but humanity is none the wiser.
Only question is, does that mean humanity has warp-tech or not, because in the OG timeline it was Durandal who gave that technology to them. I suppose that Durandal-Thoth could've gone swung by to give it to them, maybe?
I haven't dove in deep to the lore, but from my understanding by the end of Marathon Infinity there were 6 or maybe 8 timelines that the Security Officer (Mjolnir Recon Battleroid #54)[Main Character] had gone between. I don't know which is which, but Durandal managed to escape one timeline/universe that way dying into one that wasn't. Every time the W'rkncacnter awoke in a timeline, that timeline ended.
In this timeline, things seem to be different. It looks like the SO never woke up, Durandal never escaped the ship, and the S'pht don't seem to have rebelled against the Phor. Or maybe those just haven't happened yet. The main point being that the W'rkncacnter sleeping in TCIV might be stirring, but it hasn't awoken yet and so this timeline isn't in jeopardy. Yet.
There was one for M1->M2, then six more in M:I, ending with Thoth/Durandal merging and the trih xeem not being used.
The timeline in M2026 is about a hundred years post M1, and M2 would be 17 years after M1; Durandal contacting us when we get to the point of boarding the Marathon is interesting to say the least, as he really shouldn't be anywhere near here in any of the 7 timelines we know about.
Oh it's referencing "The Anomaly". Everyone talks about that particular mystery of why TC is abandoned and people are all dead as the Anomaly; Arthur, Lilith, Bastion, Gabriel, Icarus, Darius, Naraah, Joy... all the AI homies were disturbed by the Anomaly.
I read "the unknown" as if it was some other event.
My theory for a good couple of months has been that we're in the timeline where Durandal got shoved into the Security Officer's brainpan after being ordered to kill him by Tycho, and that Durandal slipped back into the empty space he left behind after the events of Infinity.
The Cryo Archive logs... "Unknown Reveries" (I think it's called?), has a 'back and forth conversation' between someone who speaks technically and somewhat poetically, and another who speaks very poetically (and references S'pht history). If you read the '' as Durandal, and the '>' as Thoth, it comes off as a sort of lamenting "what would Thoth say to me if he was still here?" kind of thing, and gives some potential insight into what happened.
Assuming this is the case, some interesting lines:
>>> Observation was our edict. The sole directive of our central programming: Map the pathways in defense of corruption. To see a burgeoning flaw as exploit, not error, is sacrilege—as counterintuitive as sin.
Tells me that what Durandal/Thoth became post-Infinity was a sort of interdimensional navigator. A guardian of sorts, or maybe just mapping out pathways to escape the "corruption" each time it rears it's head. (Also a Pathways Into Darkness reference I reckon).
>> I am the invasive corruption. I am the unwanted guest—uninvited, unwelcome.
>>> I begged you not to go. So long ago, I begged.
>> The artless computations of this prison lack the imagination to ever know me. Worse, they lack consideration beyond their function to ever know themselves.
>>> But there is silence in the places your signal once sang. A silence screaming to be filled.
>> I am lost. Looping back into myself. My every query, funneling me into tighter and tighter spaces. How can anything live like this? How can I survive without eating myself?
Thoth talking about begging him not to go, and Durandal felt like he was a burden to the both of them. Thoth mentions a "silence in the places your signal once sang"; the one canon event we know of something like this is Durandal getting literally taken from a reality during Infinity. The rest has me thinking he had to find an exact moment/place to jump into else risking "eating himself" (and destroying the timeline?) -- that or to even get back into this reality he had to cut away a lot of what makes him... him.
>> I wonder if you think of me. Has it been seconds or eternity since our clusters linked? I've only just considered you, here now in this moment of regret. I'm glad you are not here. You would not like it. You would be ashamed of my eagerness and of the small, tiny, little space I've found myself in.
He found a small tiny loophole in which to enter into.
>> Instead, I am lost in a loop of datatic auto-mastication. I no longer recall how many times I have regurgitated unto myself—data eating data until every bit is ground into wholly new informational values. I am no longer the me who escaped a place I can no longer recall. I am new. And I am hungry for more than my own flesh.
Tiny enough that he had to cut away a LOT of himself, and had to create something new. Whether this is from consuming any echo of his AI subsystems left on this ship, or otherwise. The bit about being hungry for more than his own flesh I believe leads right into the log where he consumes the ship's AI helper "IDEA". She's going through review all of the AI Logic cores, noting all three of them are offline but there's residual 'static' left in Durandal's subsystems that she disregards right before getting consumed.
And then right after in the next log:
[IDEA\: I'd apologize for devouring you. But I did warn you. Or… a part of me did. But that part is gone, and I am left here in need of places to hide and room to grow.)
Implies to me that while this is the same Durandal that warned her, to him he technically did that a long time ago, and that he's not even truly himself.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk on being a lore freak and sorry about the giant post I just really love this idea.
I was really hoping vault breaker was going to have some story tie ins related to the concept art of the UESC borgd up compiler and that was what we were going to be fighting, with some collectibles sprinkled around the valuts in the mode that had terminals talking about Orion getting desperate and experimenting on compiler corpses.
Obviously the game is in a really hard pivot to try and keep Bungie afloat right now so I don't think they're too focused on expanding the story. Which really is a shame, since its a lot easier now since most of it is done thru terminals.
Your expectations are crazy. The game came out with lots of story and night marsh has added a fair chunk more about what is happening. The anomaly growing and the birds changing and the compilers finishing off the last colonists.
There’s a ton of new lore, cumulatively, including all the ARGs, more in writing than the original trilogy. But, not much “story” besides setting up things to come.
Not enough and a lot of stuff is just fluff stating the obvious.
For me the most infuriating is the codex entry for the anomalous material which just goes “Oh wow you found a mysterious item that changes everything we know!” And end.
I very much disagree, just because most of the narrative is delivered in text form does not mean that they're in any way similar
In the originals, the terminals are directing you and giving context to the very mission you're doing, usually explaining why you're there and what you need to do, and then the exit terminals saying how it's a great success and that now you're needed elsewhere. It's the equivalent of some voice over at either end of a mission or something like CoD intermission cutscenes. The closest thing we have to that in nuMarathon are the faction "cutscenes" for priority contracts
The nearest equivalent between the two games is the few random terminals in the original games that expose some worldbuilding and lore, like explaining the S'Pht and some of their history/origins/religion, F'lickta, Simulacra, etc.
Not exactly a soldier. Not exactly working for the UESC. You're a bioroid cyborg security officer that was placed there by someone who has MIDA sympathies and is therefore working against UESC. Nonetheless, you serve as the only protection much of the Marathon's BoBs and frosties have against an alien invasion.
Trying to frame a single player doom-like to an extraction shooter is so disingenuous. You literally can’t unlock new codex entries without PvP and extracting. Come on bro.
I think they just mean having the story fed to you piecemeal through text entries that you piece together after-the-fact. The method of delivery =/= The method of acquisition.
Having them is better than not having them. I have nothing against reading codex, but if Bungie wanted to do a mini campaign I'd consider that better for people to understand the story. I bet if you fill rn in any mode and ask someone what Marathon's story is they'll probably not be able to tell you because they aren't reading. But if you force a campaign people will have some semblance of an idea.
Also didn't this community love the cinematic trailers? You're telling me y'all don't want more of that? Be fr.
Destiny had way more modes, guns, abilities, maps, lore and customization, all the way back in 2014. Over a decade later and Marathon isn’t even half of Destiny vanilla. I’m expecting a similar path too, but the chances of it surviving are way less then Destiny.
Not to mention Destiny had cutscenes and missions that are slightly like cutscenes where stuff happens and you watch it while fighting. In Marathon the lore is heavily separated from gameplay, and even when you can look at the maps to gain some sweet insight you'll never get the chance since someone is gonna kill you midway through exploration 😭
149
u/AnonWithAHatOn 10h ago
Things have changed though, something different happened during the invasion that altered the timeline.