The Chicken Term
"L061.Chicken.Term1"
"L061.Chicken.Term1"
David Twist <dtwist@garlic.com> writes concerning the apparently garbaged history term on Smells Like Napalm, Tastes Like Chicken!:
It seems to me that this terminal reveals the most about Marathon's storyline". He goes on to give a detailed explanation of the text. To refresh your memory here is the full text of the terminal:
Public Access Terminal 49-z<3.67.299.492> <Unauthorized access-alarm 2521-> <Security Breached 49-z<3.67.299.492>-> <Trace Prohibition Compensated> ....n 15 ~~~~~~Be~rn border of the Roman Empire to the Danube River. During a skirmish with barbarians in Raetiain the mountains near the borof modern France and Switzerland), 117 men under Gaius Licinius MarcW#&I~?f/f/xxfxfff`~~~ THM@#%!@# 233nce of weird and frightening monsters under his control, many successful raidsecty the fall of the Roman Empire and remained unmolested until the ninth un~~~ written ls into the lex vita. Clovis moved the settlement farther south i the mountains, nearer the spring, to escape the notice of Charlemagne and later the Holy Roman Empire. Clovis remain```` ~fxf´f`~Fxff´xf~~~~ 427q3w8459806ladimir in 1902 and Frederi~just recently. Both, however, carried out reforms before their deaths which slowly integrated their people secretly into world society, which are now scattered all over the globe- to meet only once every seven years in southeast France~FFFffxfffffF?F?FF?Ff must be chosen. <trace mode error> <unimplemented inline trap $A9FF> <Spurious Interrupt- Breach Disabled> <Further Access Denied> <Breach Location Undetermined><Smells Like Napalm, Tastes Like Chicken! (Terminal 2)>
David continues:
In the first section:
"barbarians" = Goths. The Goths were a confederation of Germanic tribes who attacked the Roman Empire beginning in the A.D. 200's. The Goths, along with other Germanic peoples, helped destroy the West Roman Empire in the A.D. 400's.
"Gaius" A misspelling of Gallus, a Roman emperor (251-253A.D.)?
"Licinius" A Roman emperor (308-324A.D.)
"MarcW#&..." Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor (161-180A.D.)
The only explanation I have for "117 men under Gaius Licinius Marc..." is that the computer was searching for the correct name (and that the guys at Bungie were giving us a hint). It turns out that Marcus Aurelius spent his later years fighting barbarians along the Danube river. Hence "...Danube River. During a skirmish with barbarians..."I could not find any references to "Raetiainv (Perhaps another misspelling?), however from the text, my guess is that it is an old name of a mountain range near the border of France and Switzerland, perhaps the Jura mountains.
In the second section:
"many successful raidsecty the fall of the Roman Empire". Clovis (See next explanation) was responsible for defeating the last great Roman army in Gaul and in one campaign after another, defeating the Alamanni, Visigoths (Goths), and the Burgundians. *OR* This passage could be referring to the Goths destroying the West Roman Empire.
"lex vita" Latin for "law of life" *Incidentally Marcus Aurelius is famous for "Meditations", a diary of philosophical reflections which contain Marcus' rules for living and and for accepting the difficulties of life.
"Clovis" A Frankish King (466?-511A.D.)
"Charlemagne" A Frankish King (742-814A.D.), also "emperor of the Romans" from 800 to 814. He created a vast empire in the west, which included the area that Clovis had conquered. He was responsible for reviving the Roman Empire.
"Holy Roman Empire" (962-1806A.D.) was founded by Otto I of Germany. It contained much of the area that Charlamagne's empire did.
I have no explanation for "the settlement". I also cannot understand how Clovis could have done anything to "escape the notice of Charlamagne and later the Holy Roman Empire" when he died long before either existed. The only thing I can think of is that this section is missing a large chunk of information at this point: "south i * the mountains".
In the third section:
"...ladimir in 1902" Perhaps Vladimir. If so, then the only explanation is not a very strong one although it is plausible: Lenin's real name is Vladimir. He changed his name to confuse the police. In 1902, Lenin wrote "what is to be Done?" a pamphlet on his ideas on party organization. In 1908, he went to France to keep the revolutionary Bolshevik organization together. This would fit with "carried out reforms before their deaths which slowly integrated their people secretly into world society". Maybe.I've got nothing on "Frederi~just recently" although this could be because of the recently part. Recently might be the future to us. Again, I have no idea what "...must be chosen." could mean. Perhaps anew location, a new leader. Who knows.
The connection between the first two sections should be obvious. They describe the rise and fall of Empires in Europe. However, the relation between the first two sections and the last one are a bit more vague. The fact that a settlement was moved and someone didn't want to be noticed by the prevailing government ties in with the idea of secrecy in the third section.
David goes on to say:
Throughout history, many organizations/governments have created secret organizations whose purpose was to infiltrate the world's governments so as to have the resources to once again take power. These organizations work in secrecy to attempt to influence government policies, etc. They use many tactics to achieve their goals. Spying, obtaining important positions in important places, making allies, hording resources, etc. These organizations by nature are entirely covert.
In trying to make sense of the above David speculates that Bernhard Strauss was:
...an agent for some secret organization, possibly related to the section in question. His job was to extend this organization's influence into space.
He further suggests that the goal of such an organisation would be:
...to spread it's influence as far and as much as possible. It would be a goldmine if they could have a hand in developing the first settlement outside of the Sol system and the possibility of making an alliance with any possible alien species.
Finally David says:
Something else also points to this. This is the only terminal that has the word "trace" in the command line prompts. To me, this implies that the S'pht that was standing in front of this terminal was "tracing" something back to those events.
So was Bernard Strauss as agent of some secret organisation? We know that the
Marathon was launched shortly after the failed MIDA Coup in 2466 AD. (See
Bungie's new time line for Marathon I). You will
also remember reading on a secret terminal in The Rose:
Thus MIDA was "notorious for its long ranging policies", was one of these to establish itself on Tau Ceti some 300 hundred years in the future?The MIDA coup was afterwards criticized for its shortsightedness. In an organization that was notorious for its long ranging policies and politicking, the coup was very short-lived: MIDA never seriously accounted for the UEG's overwhelming superiority in ground forces and warships. In fact, they never attempted to take over the Marathon, which was nearing completion and would have made a very powerful weapon. The Marathon's massive size made it invulnerable to most normal space attacks, and it would have made a very stable weapons platform. After the failed coup, the leaders of MIDA were executed for their crimes, and the political organization was banned in all forms. The organization has survived as an underground terrorist organization, and remains active to this day. In its underground state, it fosters terrorism throughout Sol, and due to its spectacular funding and excellent personnel, it has grown to be one of the most feared terrorist groups active anywhere in Sol.<The Rose (Terminal 2)>
Was Bernhard Strauss a MIDA activist? He certainly didn't think much of the Unified Earth Space Council (UESC).Thank heaven, the ceremony is over. The UESC president came aboard Marathon and gave a speech. Short, but to the point. He was surrounded by his 'bodyguards'. How ironic. "This, the grandest technological achievement of all of mankind..." Had he only known that it carried also all of the destructive knowledge of mankind. Ten cyborgs. I'll be glad to be put in stasis for the next three hundred years. Marathon was the only good idea that the UESC has had in a long time.<Beware of Low-Flying Defense Drones... (Terminal 2)>
And lastly what does MIDA stand for?
Matthew Smith <matthew@quest.net> writes concerning the following text
in the history terminal on "Smells Like Napalm, Tastes Like Chicken!":
....n 15 ~~~~~~Be~rn border of the Roman Empire to the Danube River. During a skirmish with barbarians in Raetiain the mountains near the borof modern France and Switzerland), 117 men under Gaius Licinius MarcW#&I~?f/f/xxfxfff`~~~ THM@#%!@# 233nce of weird and frightening monsters under his control, many successful raidsecty the fall of the Roman Empire and remained unmolested until the ninth un~~~ written ls into the lex vita. Clovis moved the settlement farther south i the mountains, nearer the spring, to escape the notice of Charlemagne and later the Holy Roman Empire. Clovis remain````<Smells Like Napalm, Tastes Like Chicken! (Terminal 2)>
I transposed the text to read as such:15 AD ... Bern border of the Roman Empire to the Danube River. During a skirmish with barbarians in Raetia (something happened). (Someplace) in the mountains near the border of modern France and Switzerland), 117 men under Gaius Licinius Marcus (did something). In 233 AD ... (?) appearance of weird and frightening monsters under his control, many successful raids... (?)ecty the fall of the Roman Empire and remained unmolested until the ninth century under (someone) ... (something) written (?)ls into the lex vita. Clovis moved the settlement farther south into the mountains, nearer the spring, to escape the notice of Charlemagne and later the Holy Roman Empire. Clovis remained (something).
...I believe Gaius Licinius MarcW#&I~?f/f/xxfxfff`~~~ is the name of a troop commander, NOT an emperor, after all, what emperor in his right mind would wander around with only 117 men?
...I found Raetia, and it's somewhat near France. As Britannica puts it:
Raetia also spelled RHAETIA, ancient Roman province comprising Vorarlberg and Tirol states in present-day Austria, the eastern cantons of Switzerland, and parts of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg states in Germany. Its native inhabitants were probably of mixed Illyrian and Celtic stock. The area was conquered by Rome in 15 BC.Notice the 15?
This I cobbled together from numerous sources:
Beginning in the 230s, Roman emperors weakened the outer provinces when they withdrew troops for service against the Persians. By reducing the strength of units they enabled Germans to attack auxiliaries and provincials along a broad front from Mainz to Regensburg. The first of these "assaults" took place in 233, a second in 242, a third in 254. The last, and most destructive, took place around 260. After 260, then, if not earlier, the outer provinces and its hinterland were permanently lost.
Notice the 233?
Traditionally the attacks on Raetia were attributed to a Germanic confederation, the Alamanni, whom attacked during opportune moments when forts were undermanned because units had been transferred to service in the east. This pattern of eastern wars with Germanic onslaughts, however, is complicated by the fact that two major disturbances in Raetia also coincide with Roman military rebellions.
There has been some discussion amongst the archeological community that the attacks in 233 and 260; were not made by the germanic tribes, but by other Roman soldiers. Apparently there was a severe division in the ranks during the time of the usurpation of Maximinus I against Emperor Severus Alexander.
The capital of Raetia was Regina, which became Regensburg. Here is what they had to say at the city's web site." Though there was a Celtic settlement here in prehistoric times, the development of Regensburg as a town begins with the foundation of the legionary fortress of Castra Regina under the emperor Marcus Aurelius in 179 AD. Regensburg was made the base of the Third Italic Legion and became one of the main military centres in the Roman province of Raetia. The stone plaque recording the foundation of the town, which is kept in the city museum, and the Porta Praetoria near the Bischofshof are the most important surviving monuments of the Roman era.
When Charlemagne deposed Duke Tassilo III in 788, Bavaria became part of the Franconian empire and Regensburg became the main seat of the Carolingian rulers of the south-eastern part of Germany. Regensburg remained the preferred seat of the East Franconian Kings under Charlemagne's successors...
After the death of Emperor Arnulf in 899, the Carolingian dynasty began to decline, while the Luitpoldings gained more and more power...
Hmmm, 899 is in the ninth century and lookie; our friend Charlemagne!
The following is an extract from the Inside Mac Games (IMG) Interview with
Jason Jones (Bungie) by Richard Rouse III in the October 1993 edition of IMG.
IMG: I heard that there were a lot of rejected plot-lines for Pathways into Darkness.Jones: We started out with very simple and very cliché plots. We moved away from those toward very interesting and unique but extremely difficult to understand stories. The final plot turned out to be somewhere between these two extremes. We had initial plots as cheesy as: "You're an archeologist whose sister was kidnapped by some evil guy who wants an ancient artifact from you and you have to get the artifact and save her." Sound familiar?
One of the more complicated plots involved you as the descendent of Roman soldiers who had been separated from the rest of their legion while attacking a group of barbarians in what is today Switzerland. They found a mountain spring that extended their lives by hundreds of years and founded this society of semi-immortals. Every seven years they would gather and the leader of the group would descend into this cave system and return with water from the spring to assure their longevity. Now and then their leader would be killed while getting the water, none of the other members knew why or how, and a new leader would have to be chosen. The game starts with the player having just been chosen by lot to descend into the caves, find the location of the spring, and become the new leader of the cult. Of course this was extremely dangerous, and several people had already died trying. It was a very interesting plot since your quest wasn't necessarily virtuous, it didn't involve doing good things or saving the world. It was just you were chosen, more or less against your will, to become the next leader of this freak cult of immortals. It's similar to Pathways in that you would find dead people who were previous leaders of the cult or had died trying to find the spring.
It was even much more complicated than I'm letting on, and was a really cool story, but we decided that it was too involved. Basically we wanted something that could grab you. You can play Pathways without really knowing what the plot is at all, and with the complex plot you really couldn't do that. You would have really had to get into the plot, and we didn't want to force people to do that because a lot of people don't want to. It was a really good story, at least I think it was because I wrote it, but I think it would have been burdensome. But in the long run, that's the kind of game I'm much more interested in writing.
Now read the Chicken Term again:
Public Access Terminal 49-z<3.67.299.492>
<Unauthorized access-alarm 2521->
<Security Breached 49-z<3.67.299.492>->
<Trace Prohibition Compensated>
....n 15 ~~~~~~Be~rn border of the Roman Empire to the Danube
River. During a skirmish with barbarians in Raetiain the
mountains near the borof modern France and Switzerland), 117
men under Gaius Licinius MarcW#&I~?f/f/xxfxfff`~~~
THM@#%!@#
233nce of weird and frightening monsters under his control,
many successful raidsecty the fall of the Roman Empire and
remained unmolested until the ninth un~~~
written ls into the lex vita. Clovis moved the settlement
farther south i the mountains, nearer the spring, to escape
the notice of Charlemagne and later the Holy Roman Empire.
Clovis remain````
~fxf´f`~Fxff´xf~~~~
427q3w8459806ladimir in 1902 and Frederi~just recently. Both,
however, carried out reforms before their deaths which slowly
integrated their people secretly into world society, which are
now scattered all over the globe- to meet only once every
seven years in southeast France~FFFffxfffffF?F?FF?Ff must
be chosen.
<trace mode error>
<unimplemented inline trap $A9FF>
<Spurious Interrupt- Breach Disabled>
<Further Access Denied>
<Breach Location Undetermined>
<Smells Like Napalm, Tastes Like Chicken! (Terminal 2)>
Now we have the answer! :-)
Angus McIntyre <angus@aegypt.demon.co.uk> writes:
Something interesting about the Chicken Term story. The time-sequence may be scrambled, but geographically, it's all quite tightly defined.Rhaetia was, as various people point out, a Roman province, which seems to have covered part of present-day Austria, Switzerland and Lichtenstein. During the 5th-6th century it was occupied by the Alemanni/Alamani.
In 496, the Alemanni were conclusively defeated at the battle of Tolbiac, by Clovis, who's also mentioned in the terminal story. Incidentally, Clovis was also responsible for the writing of the Salian Law ("lex vita"?), Germanic law having previously been strictly oral.
The same area would also have been well within Charlemagne's area of operation (the Frankish kingdom extended over much of central Europe) and was definitely part of the Holy Roman Empire.
If 'ladimir' indeed identifies Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (making Frederick possibly Friedrich Engels), then it's worth noting that he was also exiled in Switzerland (the famous journey back to Russia in the 'sealed train' in 1917, just before the Russian Revolution, began in Switzerland). Depending on how wide we want to stretch the borders of our area, we can also accomodate 'southeast France'.
By the way, Matthew Smith's transcription of the opening part of the message to get the place-name 'Bern' is possible, but I think it's more likely, however, that the phrase is '... [northe]rn border of the Roman Empire'.
The apparent historical glitch could be resolved by assuming that a large chunk of text has been elided between "nearer the spring," and "to escape the notice of Charlemagne". Clovis reappears in the next sentence - throwing the time sequence back into confusion - but a possible interpretation could be that the text should read not "Clovis remain[ed]" but "Clovis['s] remain[s] ..."
Of course, if we assume that Bungie are re-heating their 'fountain of immortality' story, as seems probable, then Clovis could well have been contemporary with Charlemagne. OK, an immortal king might have had a little more impact on world events than he apparently did post-511, but maybe he took early retirement to spend more time with his (undead) family.
Conclusion: whatever the historical anomalies, there's some reason to believe that all the events referred to take place within a fairly well-defined geographical region. Make of that what you will.
Angus also writes:
...in the Chanson de Roland, Roland (owner of Durandal) was the nephew of Charlemagne. That makes the mention of Charlemagne quite significant.
Many people have asked what the "weird and frightening monsters"
were in the following lines of the jumbled up historical Chicken term:
THM@#%!@# 233nce of weird and frightening monsters under his control, many successful raidsecty the fall of the Roman Empire and remained unmolested until the ninth un~~~
Theories have ranged from aliens to the undead (ala Myth).
If we attempt to explain this in a purely historical context then they are most likely to be elephants. But not Hannibal's elephants as suggested earlier but rather Pyrrhus' elephants. While Hannibal is famous for crossing the Alps with elephants in his war against the Romans it was not the first time that elephants had been used in this way.
The first time elephants were used against the Romans was in 280 BC when Pyrrhus (peer' uhs), king of the Hellenistic kingdom of Epirus (northwestern Greece), fought the Romans at Heraclea (Italy). This is the first time Roman troops had seen elephants and the resulting surprise helped Pyrrhus win. Although Pyrrhus won his losses were heavy. He also won a second engagement against the Romans at Ausculum (279 BC) but again he suffered heavy losses. History relates how Pyrrhus after being congratulated on his success remarked that another such victory would be his undoing.
A victory won at excessive cost is referred to as a Pyrrhic victory.
Pathways Into Darkness fans may be familiar with the name Pyrrhus since it features in a death dialog in the game. If you successful denote the nuclear device before the dreaming God awakes but fail to get out of the pyramid in time you will die and get the following message.
The line "Pyrrhus would be proud" refers to the
Pyrrhic victory you have just suffered. You succesfully buried the dreaming
God but killed yourself in the process. :-)
Peter Wilson <IPericles@aol.com> writes:
A brief expansion on the "secret group of immortals" theme on this term, it should probably be noted that the geographical focus of the narrative in the term points to the Bavarian Illuminati, perhaps the most famous of semi- mythical conspiracies . . .
The least said about the Bavarian Illuminati the better! ;-)
Maury Markowitz <maury.markowitz@lionhart.net> writes:
Roman names are similar to modern European-based ones in that they have a first and last name. The first name, praenomen, is similar to our own. The last name, nomen, does not refer specifically to a family but to a clan or "gens". These almost always end with "ius"... There weren't that many of these, so after most praenomina-nomina pairs had been used by someone famous, people started adding a suffix to the end called the cognomen. These started as nickname sorts of additions, like "the bald" or "the short". After a while however, they became the family name passed down on the father's side, and thus are similar to our family (last) names today.For instance, you're likely to be familar with Caesar. His complete name is actually Gaius Julius Caesar, and we use his cognomen as his complete name. Or consider Constantine, Flavius Valerius Constantinus. This isn't uncommon today, consider "Clinton" or "Stalin".
David sees the three names and breaks them up into three different people, assuming spelling mistakes. However this is almost certainly wrong. "Gaius" is a very common first name, note that it's Caesar's. Likewise "Licinius" a fairly common gens. The third part, which is scrambled, is thus likely a cognomen.
However identifying this appears to be difficult. Gaius Licinius was the first magister equitum (sort of right hand man in the court hierarchy) and thus kept the name through history, but there's Gaius Licinius Mucianus who was the govenor of Syria (amongst other things), and also (likely incorrect) Gaius Licinius Macer Calvus, a poet and politico. There are several other people with the same or similar names, but none of them seem to be a good match.
Putting the geography and names together David concludes that the passage referrs to Marcus Aurelius' campaigns fighting barbarians along the Danube river. However as you can see from the outline above this appears unlikely. The action in question appears to be taking place closer to France, and the person in question is almost certainly not Marcus Aurelius. In general I agree with Matthew Smith's interpretation, this section is referring to a unit commander, not anyone of import.
The rest appears to be the mis-mash that you noted was part of an original PID plotline that was reworked. The seven-year meetings are definitely a references to the Illuminati as others have pointed out. I assume that the basic idea was to tie them together in some fashion. The confusion in terms of dates and names appears to be deliberate, clearly the Clovis in question is Clovis I, the reference to the lex vita is a givaway. I can only assume that "Clovis moved the settlement" is supposed to be two completely different statements, one ended on "Clovis" and the next starting with "moved the settlement".
So you might wonder why you wouldn't do the same thing with the name, what if in fact it's "Gaius Licinius" AND "Marcus Aurelius"? Well I suppose it's possible, but it seems unlikely for a court official to have anything to do with Raetia, notably considering it didn't exist at the time!