Aug 10, 2003 (Sunday)

Henry Fok <85xj6@dallasdrivers.org> provides some more interesting weapon tidbits. See the Weapons in Marathon section for full details.

Aug 9, 2003 (Saturday)

More discussion about weapons of mass destruction (MDAWOMD). See the Weapons in Marathon section for full details. This section has also been fully updated with earlier Story page submissions.

July 12, 2003 (Saturday)

Ben Grabow <darklink_21@hotmail.com> writes:

I was reading through my new copy of Scientific American (8/03) when I stubled across an article about an Oracle from ancient Greece. This particular Oracle was an apparantly random woman from local society who inhaled gases from a geological crevice in the bowels of one of Apollo's temples and gave predictions in the trance-like state thereby induced. Interestingly enough, the name given to any such Oracle was Pythia, a group of which were called the Pythia. Given the common reference to Greek mythology in Bungie games, I can't ignore the likeness this name has to the Pthia associated with the S'pht/Jjaro mythology in Marathon.

I suspect that (the) Pthia (perhaps like W'rkncacnter, can be used as both plural or singular) could have been some sort of Oracle to the S'pht race and possibly to Yrro, providing a source of knowledge or intelligence. If Yrro in fact was acting independently from the Jjaro race, an Oracle would have been particularly useful in the absence of the Jjaro support by helping him avoid a possible backlash from the Jjaro race or from other dangers to his fledgling race.

The Yrro/Pthia relationship could be similar to the god/oracle relationship Apollo would have had with the Pythia in that Pythia/Pthia were connections to the people of a race that Apollo/Yrro presided over. The explanation of Yrro's grief over the loss off Pthia could be explained by his loss of connection to his people through such an oracle, and because of this loss of communication, decides to abandon the S'pht race and let them fend for themselves after the destruction of Pthia. With the seemingly religiousĘstatus of Yrro the S'pht seem to hold, an oracle for the purpose of communication would not seem unlikely. Given Bungie's history of Greek mythological allegory in their games, such a parallel could be likely.