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Marathon's Story Page
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Marathon's Story Page
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This Day in Marathon.
Day #869. Thanks to Baran Sevim (aka CrazyEyedMustafa) for posting the full image of his commissioned artwork by LocustTheSpawn (@LocustTheSpawn) on the Unofficial Marathon Discord. 
Marathon / Mass Effect crossover by LocustTheSpawn (@LocustTheSpawn) posted by CrazyEyedMustafa on the Unofficial Marathon Discord. October 6, 2025.
We've been featuring the work in progress on this crossover piece for some months. See October 4, 2025, August 18, 2025 and July 11, 2025. The artwork is being used by Baran for his Marathon / Mass Effect crossover fan fiction, entitled Marathon: Red Shift The tagline goes "This is a story of one battleroid, and how he learns to live." In the above image the Marathon Marine is flanked by the female player character of Commander Shepard (left) and Garrus Vakarian a turian agent (right). Nathan Clark(@NSClark98) did a nice illustration of Garrus Vakarian recently. 
Garrus illustration by NSClark (@NSClark98) on x.com. September 23, 2025.
He followed it up with a very angry looking Mr Marathon. 
Pfor destroyer by NSClark (@NSClark98) on x.com. October 3, 2025.
No doubt this is the look you get after realising you've been put into a Pfhor stasis chamber for seventeen years and are no longer on Tau Ceti enjoying your status as "I am a Hero", like you deserved. Durandal be like... "dry those tears and stuff a fresh clip in your assault rifle." Nathan also gave us a more relaxed Marathon Marine packing his usual assortment of heat.  You follow the path, fitting into an infinite pattern by Nathan Clark (@NSClark98) on x.com. June 30, 2025. Mr. Marathon be like... "I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubble gum."
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This Day in Marathon.
Day #868. Remember the Marathon... ...is the opening line in the introduction to Marathon 2: Durandal. If you have read the introduction in the manual you will quickly gather that the Security Officer is more than a little teed off. The text is punctuated with snarky comments like ...nobody asked me what I wanted and ...leaving me to be the hero on Tau Ceti like I deserved. The Security Officer has spent seventeen years in an alien stasis chamber, in a space a little too tall and too thin for human comfort. He's got fifteen minutes to prepare for transport down to a planet thousands of light-years from Tau Ceti. Durandal is ignoring his questions. Resigned to his situation he remarks... I guess I'll figure things out as I go along. Just like last time. It's no wonder that the opening chapter screen shows the Security Officer holding a ripped out spine. He's as mad as hell. Paz (@TheRealQuenny) gives us an updated version of the iconic Lh'owon chapter screen. 
Lh'owon by Paz (@TheRealQuenny) on x.com. October 6, 2025.
The original is by Craig Mullins and he did four different versions.
Everyone has their favorite. It has been widely copied, reinterpreted and parodied. Even NuMarathon has done it.  Marathon Runner with spine by Jeremy Hanna posted by Joseph Cross (@@josephacross) on x.com. April 27, 2025. Joseph Cross (Marathon's Art Director) wrote: A fun one from Jeremy Hanna exploring a homage to the classic Craig Mullins "spine" piece.Can't keep a classic down. |
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This Day in Marathon.
Day #867. It's MIDA Monday. The insurgent known only as 'Chance' gives us MIDA Pirate Radio. Live from Mars and Tau Ceti. Lock down your aerial. MIDA Pirate Radio is a series of playlists on Spotify specifically chosen to meet the needs of any would be UESC hacker. The UESC have repeatedly intercepted these playlists and activated the DIESIS Protocol.  be damaging to the security and safety of our solar system and thus banned by order of the Unified Earth Space Council. 27.05.2888 But MIDA insurgents endeavour to persevere. Each playlist comes with its own bespoke artwork with coded messages of encouragement. Here is the artwork for the first four playlists.
Here are the direct links to all four MIDA Pirate Radio playlists: 001, 002, 003, and 004. Warning. Clicking on any of these links may expose you to the UESC's DIESIS Protocol. Consider yourself warned.  Militancy Incurs DIESIS Activation. |
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This Day in Marathon.
Day #866. Since the dawn of the smart phone Marathon fans have been adorning them with Marathon wallpapers.  Today they have Liquid Glass. Mxdonkey1578 gives us Marathon plus Liquid Glass.  Marathon plus Liquid Glass by Mxdonkey1578 on the Official Marathon Discord. September 16, 2025. To be fair a static image doesn't do this justice. The "in 7 days" is a nice touch.  But I digress. Liquid Glass is Apple's radical UI overhaul to mark the next quarter century. It features a more fluid and glass-like interface recently introduced in iOS 26 and its variants. Now you can watch Void and his consciousness float on your iPhone 17 Pro Max Cosmic Orange screen. The original artwork is by Bungie's Jeremy Hanna, a concept artist on Marathon.
Concerning the artwork Marathon's Art Director Joseph Cross (@josephacross) wrote: This is one of my favorite key images from early visual development around Runners & consciousness, exploring visual metaphor. Final art here with VOID:) Both designs a result of our amazing concept team and incredible renders by Jeremy Hanna.LiamHz (@LiamHinzman) made mobile edits of Jeremy Hanna's original artwork.
Got Liquid Glass? |
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This Day in Marathon.
Day #865. We've got color.  mr bug eye dude by LocustTheSpawn (@LocustTheSpawn) on x.com. October 1, 2025. Keenan Van Richardson (aka @LocustTheSpawn) posts another update on a commission piece for Baran Sevim. We've been featuring the work in progress on this piece for some time now. See August 18, 2025 and July 11, 2025. Here are two pieces again.
It's a Marathon / Mass Effect crossover. John Marathon takes the place of Commander Shepard to save the galaxy from ancient artificial lifeforms called Reapers who just happen to be created by a progenitor race known as the Protheans who have long since disappeared from the galaxy, leaving artifacts, abandoned outposts and space stations. Oddly, this is familiar to you, as if it were from an old dream, but you can't exactly remember... But I digress. Baran Sevim is an accomplished photographer who took a set of black and white images at Nova Annandale Campus in Wakefield, Virginia which bear a striking resemblance to the opening scene in the Marathon Announcement Trailer (May 24, 2023). Only his photographs were taken in November 2021. I am sure there is perfectly good explanation for this involving time travel and the Jjaro. Marathon cosplay in 2021?
Here's that opening scene where the UESC Runner is running towards the light at the end of the tunnel.  Marathon Annoucement trailer. May 24, 2023. The Marathon tunnel scene has gone on to inspire numerous artists, most notably Jack Strider. 
Post Colony Trauma by Jack Strider on Artstation. March 13, 2024.
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This Day in Marathon.
Day #864. Happy Double Aught Day!  Yes folks, on this day 29 years ago Double Aught officially launched their website. Double Aught, who had been contracted by Bungie Software to created the Marathon Infinity scenario "Blood Tides of Lh'owon", had up to now been keeping a low profile. But all this was about to change with the draw dropping (for the mid-90s), award winning, web designs of Randy Reddig. Randy's first web design for Double Aught was simply called AT and contained a section on the yet to be released Marathon Infinity. The world was introduced to Despair, Rage and Envy even before the game was released. In an announcement post entitled Snack on this: www.DoubleAught.com Greg Kirkpatrick (formerly of Bungie Software) wrote: Ok Marathon Fanatics...The first iteration of Double Aught's website (oo1) contained a number of hidden secrets. Some obvious, some less so. Enjoy the search.  Happy Double Aught Day!
but you can't exactly remember... |
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This Day in Marathon.
Day #863. Continuing our theme of celebrating Marathon-inspired art from around the world we give you... Void by Christian Ozoudeh, a designer and illustrator from Lagos in Nigeria.  Void by Christian Ozoudeh on Artstation. September 28, 2025. Got delts? Void has been working his delts. Like you do. No Runner wants runner's shoulder. Right? Building strength in your shoulders will not only improve your arm swing, but it will also help you build a stronger upper body for better posture, important when clocking miles On the subject of clocking miles... Ali, a designer and illustrator from Dehradun in India gives us The Runners.  The Runners by Ali on Artstation. July 2025. This Marathon-inspired poster comes with the tag line... "Endurance will make me God." This is probably closer to the truth since only by clocking miles are you going to make it to the top. Stop to take in the view or look at the pretty flowers and you are fodder (a widely used term in the original Marathon) When Bungie posted the Marathon Demo on AOL back on November 23, 1994 they wrote: Here comes the standard industry plea for all of you to buy our game!! BUY OUR GAME! We don't just want the money, we want to create more people in the world who are good enough for us to play against as worthy opponents, not fodder.So 'fodder' entered the Marathon lexicon along with terms such as 'munch', 'wussy', 'spazeroid' and a myriad of other derogatory names describing poor Marathon performance. So clock in those miles folks. Avoid being called a hundred names by those that grind twenty-four seven. And remember what it says at the end of the original Marathon manual.  Marathon Manual (Battle Damaged edition) page 22. Endure. Endurance will make me God. |
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This Day in Marathon.
Day #862. A new month. But what happened last month? Well here's a snapshot of what we featured. What did you miss?
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Last updated October 1, 2025