Marathon's Story... What's New (Nov-Dec 1995)


Dec 30, 1995
Gabe Rosenkoetter <acrosenk@artsci.wustl.edu> has squinted hard to provide the text from the Simulacrum pict. See the Pict Text section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Dec 28, 1995
Divided the rapidly expanding Durandal section of Facts and puzzling things about... into two parts to reduce download times.

Dec 27, 1995
When did Durandal contact the Pfhor? Simon Rowland <simon@eagle.ca> writes concerning this question and raises an interesting possibility. Check out the Durandal section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Dec 21, 1995
Gabe Rosenkoetter <acrosenk@artsci.wustl.edu> writes concerning Durandal's humiliation and offers a possible explanation. Check out the Durandal section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Dec 19, 1995
Tom Klancer <tklancer@wam.umd.edu> provides further information on the name "Rozinante". Check out the Historical & Mythological References in Marathon section of Facts and puzzling things about.... Are Bungie Rush fans?

Dec 18, 1995
Bo Lindbergh's <d88-bli@nada.kth.se> Durandal Terminal Browser for Marathon 2 is now available directly from this site. Click here to find out how to download it.

Dec 17, 1995
Tim Kolar <tkolar@cisco.com> writes concerning the S'pht creation myth on "Six Thousand Feet Under" and suggests that this may have some connection with the Gheritt White terminal on "Defend THIS!". Check out the Gheritt White section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details. The waves... the waves....

Dec 15, 1995
Is Tycho = Traxus IV? Check out the Tycho section of Facts and puzzling things about....

Added additional information to the Bernard, Bernhard, or Berhnard(?) Strauss section of Facts and puzzling things about....

Steve Wood <smwood@ccs.neu.edu> writes concerning the Number Three. Check out the The Number Seven section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

If you want to view the Marathon 2 terminals in all their original splendour then you MUST get this. Bo Lindbergh's <d88-bli@nada.kth.se> Durandal Terminal Browser, a little gem of a tool (12K compressed). It's on AMUG click here if you want to download it. You wont be sorry. Many thanks Bo.

Dec 14, 1995
Many thanks to Xavier <Bedgar@macalstr.edu> for pointing out that I hadn't updated the "You" section of "Facts and puzzling things about." Well Mr. Security Officer are you 10th military Mjolnir Mark IV cyborg? Frankly I thought the answer was now quite clear. But lets review the evidence from the Marathon 2 Story in the You section of Facts and puzzling things about....

Michael Hanson <hanson@cs.stanford.edu> provides a very interesting explanation for Thoth's behaviour at the end of Marathon 2. Check out the new Thoth section of Facts and puzzling things about... for full details.

Michael Hanson <hanson@cs.stanford.edu> writes concerning the historical and mythological references in Marathon. Added new section Historical & Mythological References in Marathon to Facts and puzzling things about.... to discuss these.

More stuff on the number seven from Tiburon <rob@quicklink.com>. MORE? you cry... well you better check out the The Number Seven section of Facts and puzzling things about....

Dec 13, 1995
Nick Roemer <stompbox@wolfenet.com> writes concerning the number seven in the Marathon 2 story. Check out The Number Seven section of Facts and puzzling things about... for full details.

Michael Hanson <hanson@cs.stanford.edu> writes to correct my latin and offers another (more logical) translation for Ex Cathedra. Full details in the Latin in Marathon 2 section of Facts and puzzling things about....

Dec 12, 1995
Added new section Latin in Marathon 2 to Facts and puzzling things about....

Michael Hanson <hanson@cs.stanford.edu> and Gabe Rosenkoetter <acrosenk@artsci.wustl.edu> provide similar formatted versions of the second message on the 1st terminal of Kill Your Television. Check out The Unformatted KYT Term. Message section of Facts and puzzling things about....

Added new section Pict Text to Facts and puzzling things about... to present the text contained in many of the terminal picts. Michael Hanson <hanson@cs.stanford.edu> kicks off with part of the text from the Juggernaut Pict.

Tim Oliver <tloliver@tartarus.uwa.edu.au> provides further evidence to suggest that we are Mjolnir Recon number 54. Check out the The 10th military Mjolnir Mark IV cyborg section of Facts and puzzling things about....

Dec 11, 1995
Added the terminal text for the final chapter, (S'pht'Kr), of the Marathon 2 Story and the text of the Final Screen. Check out the Contents Page for full details.

Those wishing an answer to the Cyborg question should take cognizance of the final sentence of the Final Screen. While it does not specifically address the question "Are we a Cyborg?" it does answer the question "Are we human?"

Noah Schaubaker <nms@spot.Colorado.EDU> writes concerning the riddle on the first terminal of Beware of Abandoned Rental Trucks suggesting that "the [?] is probably 'fled', considering that the 'Kr fled from Lh'owon."

Dec 10, 1995
Added the terminal text for the Simulacrums chapter of the Marathon 2 Story. Check out the Contents Page for full details.

Dec 9, 1995
Added the terminal text for the last 3 levels of the Blake chapter. Check out the Contents Page for full details.

Dec 8, 1995
Added the terminal text for the last two levels in the Durandal chapter. The most humbling of levels "The Big House" in the Captured chapter has no terminals. The first level of the Blake chapter has also been added. Check out the Contents Page for full details.

Dec 7, 1995
Added the terminal text for the last level in the Citadel chapter and the first two levels in the Durnadal chapter of the Marathon 2 Story. Check out the Contents Page for full details.

Dec 6, 1995
Added the terminal text for the first 3 levels in the Citadel chapter of Marathon 2: Durandal. Check out the Contents Page for full details.

Dec 5, 1995
Added the terminal text for the 3rd chapter (Garrison) of the Marathon 2: Durandal story. Check out the Contents Page for full details.

Dec 4, 1995
Many thanks to Tim Kolar <tkolar@cisco.com> for breaking Bungie's terminal text encryption and sending me the full text of all the terminals. This will speed up the process of updating the Marathon Story considerably. Thanks again Tim. All I have to do now is finish the game ;-)

Added the terminal text for the 2nd chapter (Volunteers) of the Marathon 2: Durandal story. Check out the Contents Page for full details.

Dec 2, 1995
Began adding the Marathon 2: Durandal terminal text. Because of encryption this will be a slow process. Also many terminals have a 2nd message requiring the player to back track (the whole level in some cases!) in order to read it.

Some interesting observations so far. Both the distance and timing problems have been rectified. In the case of the latter all mention of the subject has been dropped.

Terminal identification numbers sometimes change between the opening and closing screen. Is there a reason for this?

Nov 28, 1995
Added the text of the Marathon 2: Durandal manual which relates to the story. Read the Marathon 2: Durandal Manual Text.

Divided the What's New section into parts. Most recent submissions, additions, etc. are still contained in the "What's New" section, later posts can now be found in the "Not So New, but still interesting!" section.

Nov 24, 1995
Marathon 2: Durandal is out. One quick observation regarding the story so far is that Bungie has fixed the distance problem. Lh'owon is now only " thousands of light-years from Tau Ceti or Earth". More information to follow.

Nov 20, 1995
Noah Daniels <ndaniel1@swarthmore.edu> writes to say that the names "Mjolnir" and "Durandal" were also used in one of Bungie's first games, Minotaur: The labyrinths of Crete. Mjolnir (hammer) only appeared in the 4-player game, while Durandal (sword) was available in the 2-player game. Just another interesting fact.

Nov 17, 1995
David Dericotte <grok@unm.edu> writes concerning the word Mjolnir "For some vague reason it sounds distantly like the word I seem to recall for the name of Thor's hammer". David is indeed correct I little bit of research reveals that Thor's hammer was called "Mjollnir" or "Miölnir" which is very similar to the word Mjolnir in Marathon. According to Norse legend Thor, the God of Thunder, would throw Mjollnir at his opponents and it would return (like a boomerang) to his right hand.

Nov 16, 1995
Suggestions for the meaning of MIDA, the political party turned terrorist group, have been coming in.
M = Martian, Marathon;
I = Independence, Independent, Interplanetary, Insurgents, Icarus;
D = Democratic, Defence, Durandal;
A = Association, Alliance, Army.
A feeling for the right combination however proves elusive.
Is MIDA an acronym? David Twist <dtwist@garlic.com> suggests that it is based on the fact that all acronyms in the Marathon Story are written in capitals (examples being UESC, UEG, CRIST, and FTL).

Gabe Rosenkoetter <acrosenk@artsci.wustl.edu> writes concerning the Marathon 2: Durandal (Demo) pointing out that it appears odd that Durandal and Tycho are able to communicate so quickly over such a vast distance (apparently half a million light years, though there is a problem with this figure ). Gabe suggests that either Tycho is much closer than we expect or Durandal is lying to us.
Another possible explanation is that Durandal and Tycho are now using an "ansible" for instantaneous communication. The "ansible" was invented by Ursula K. Le Guin in her novel The Dispossed (1974) and has been adopted by many science fiction writers as a standard communication device across vast distances.

Nov 10, 1995
Changed the look of some of the pages and added some original graphics. Hey what's a story without pictures?

Nov 9, 1995
Those wishing to see pictures of the so-called "pyramids" on Mars should check out Mark J. Carlotto's web page Face on Mars. A number of other unusual Martian surface features can be seen at this site.

Nov 7, 1995
Gabe Rosenkoetter <acrosenk@artsci.wustl.edu> writes to point out that the letters "Mnr" at the beginning of the login prompt <Mnr *@1cz: 9cm2> at the S'pht history terminal on level 3 of the Marathon 2: Durandal (Demo) may be related to the S'pht'Mnr clan which feature in this terminal. If so, Gabe suggests that the login prompt <Trn 36 ap&1cz:: 9cm2> at the last terminal might indicate the existence of a clan called the S'pht'Trn. Speculating on this Gabe writes "does this mean that there were certain duties each clan performed or areas of the homeworld they inhabitited (the S'pht'Mnr around the tower, and the 'Trn inside, in this case)"?
Related to this is the fact that the above mentioned terminals are the only yellow (S'pht?) terminals in the Demo.

Nov 6, 1995
"An Inca city on Mars, indeed!" you might say. But what of the so-called Martian pyramids? Most people associate pyramids with the Egyptians but a number of Mesoamerican cultures built pyramids, the Maya in particular were famous for their temple pyramids. Interesting to note that the Maya lived in Central America, in regional municipalities comparable to the Greek city states. They developed a sophisticated writing system based on individual signs or glyphs, paired in columns that read together from left to right and top to bottom. The Maya considered writing to be a sacred gift from the gods. Knowledge of reading and writing was jealously guarded by a small elite class, who believed that they alone could interact directly with the gods and mediate between the gods and the common people. It is also interesting to note that the phonetic interpretation of Mayan hieroglyphics is heavily reliant on the use of apostrophes. The Maya were accomplished astronomers, and venerated the Milky Way, calling it the World Tree, where all life came from. The one great mystery of the Maya is why such an advanced civilisation (for its time) should have suddenly collapsed. One theory, relates:

"Uncontrolled warfare was probably one of the main causes for the Maya's eventual downfall. In the centuries after 250--the start of what is called the Classic period of Maya civilization--the skirmishes that were common among competing city-states escalated into full-fledged, vicious wars that turned the proud cities into ghost towns."
And what has all this got to do with Marathon? Well judge for yourself.

Nov 5, 1995
Has anyone else noticed how the picture of the large S'pht in the Marathon 2: Durandal (Demo) vaguely resembles an Inca representation. Coincidence? Maybe!
But now read the National Space Science Data Center's (NSSDC) description of some of the interesting surface features on Mars. See below or use this link to access their site directly.

"This list is not intended to be comprehensive, but for example frequently requested photos of the so-called "pyramids" (located near the "face") are in frames 35A70, 35A71, 35A73, 35A74 (all on disc VO-1010), 70A11, 70A12, and 70A14 (all on VO-1011). A feature known as the "water spout" is in the images 775A10 and 775A11 (both on disc VO-1029). A feature which resembles a permafrost melt is in images 182B03 and 182B05 (both on disc VO-1054). Finally, a feature called "Inca City covered over" is in image 225B69 on disc VO-1055."
An "Inca City covered over"! Intrigued? Want to see the so called "Inca City" on Mars? Then check out the NSSDC's Inca City jpg. And what has all this got to do with the Marathon story you might ask? Well read the Red Sand section of Facts and puzzling things about... and judge for yourself.

In Durandal's farewell message to us in Marathon 1 he says "I've always wanted to visit Beta Lyra and see if it's as beautiful as everyone insists." Want to know more about Beta Lyra (or Beta Lyrae)? Then check out Dan Bruton's Beta Lyrae web site. It's a bit technical mind you. Thanks to David Twist <dtwist@garlic.com> for this pointer.

Nov 4, 1995
David Twist <dtwist@garlic.com> provides a detailed explanation for the apparently garbaged history terminal on "Smells Like Napalm, Tastes Like Chicken!". His findings provide for some very interesting speculation on who Bernhard Strauss was. Check out The Chicken Term section of Facts and puzzling things about....

Nov 3, 1995
David Twist <dtwist@garlic.com> writes to point out that based on the map of the Milky Way in the Marathon 2: Durandal (Demo) it appears odd that the Pfhor never discovered Earth before they discovered Lh'owon.


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Hamish Sinclair
Hamish.Sinclair@tcd.ie
Last updated Jan 15, 1995