Marathon Inmortalitas primer-thingy
Dec. 6th, 2018 01:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
general_radixMaybe not all that necessary, but I'll take any excuse to talk about my Marathon AU (and settling in on DW means I can go over the basics like I'm revealing it for the first time). I'll also gladly take any questions/comments about it!
This post assumes that you have at least basic familiarity with Marathon; if not, there's always the the Marathon Story Page. You should probably also read the Cortana Letters (archived under "Halo pre-release information).
Inmortalitas (a Latin term pertaining to immortality and memory) got started around mid-2015 when I decided to redo my fan-interpretations of the AIs from 2008. It kinda went on from there, and now I'm pretty sure that I've expanded on canon by 80%. Info and links pertaining specifically to it under the cut:
I've currently got two completed stories: "Before Crisis", which details Durandal's and Vince's first meeting and its consequences, and "Turning Point", about the events that led to Durandal taking Vince with him. The first major story, "Marathon Inmortalitas", is in progress and up to chapter 8 as of this post. "The Last Time, I Swear" (18+) hasn't been put in the Inm. folder yet, but offers some relevant info about Vince's time on Lh'owon.
I've also got visual references for many characters, though keep in mind that the latest versions of the main characters' refs were done early this year and I might go back and edit them (again).
--
There was gonna be a "brief" summary of events leading up to the first major story, but just recounting the first game (and its backstory) was taking forever, so I'm gonna focus on important points of canon-divergence that aren't super-spoilery.
* The term "Sol Core", borrowed from early Halo material, is used to refer to the four inner planets and the Asteroid States. Venus (not elaborated on canonically) is represented in the UEG by the space station encircling it, Astarte; the UEG also maintains a tenuous relationship with the non-affiliated Jovian Republic, a faction that becomes fairly important later on down the line.
* Canonically, the Security Officer is pretty much a blank. In Inmortalitas, he's named Vincent Callahan (more on him later).
* All ten battleroids on board the UESC Marathon survive, in one form or another. Marcus Jones and Hathor, the main characters of Eternal, are among them.
* Speaking of battleroids, canon doesn't mention them being divided into generations. The first gen were the reanimated dead at Icarus and Thermopylae; the second gen were living people converted by MIDA to serve in the Third Martian War, and the entirely-voluntary third gen were developed by the UEG based on research gathered on the previous two.
* A resistance unit calling themselves the "Crimson Storm", led by the AI Ozymandias and his human allies, tried to foil MIDA's attempts to seize the Martian government. They were dourly unsuccessful, though their efforts weren't all for nothing...
* Bernhard Strauss intended for Durandal to go rampant in order to sow chaos on the Marathon and make it easier for him and his MIDA bubbas to take out its commanding officers. This didn't work quite as intended... (Note: Strauss's affiliation with MIDA is canon, per Destiny 2)
* There are four major roles AIs can assume: Command, Sci/Eng, Operations, and Navigation.
* The colony on Tau Ceti IV had an overseer, an AI constructed en route to it named Hero. She's based on a rumoured, ultimately non-existent character who might've been the result of community member Jagermeister getting his wires crossed.
* As mentioned above, Vince and Durandal met before the events of M1, when canonically it's...well, uh, Durandal sometimes acts like he knows more about the Security Officer than he lets on, but I'm pretty sure that any pre-canon meeting didn't go like in "Before Crisis".
* Vince and Volker briefly dated. Emphasis on "briefly".
* The events of "Turning Point" probably didn't happen in canon. (Demo text has Durandal explicitly state that he teleported the SO right into a cryo pod, but in the final it's left ambiguous where and how he grabbed the SO.)
* Durandal attempted to save Tau Ceti IV, without success (made explicit here, though it seems to be implied in canon).
* Thoth has a body from the start, when canonically he's as much a phantom as the human-coded AIs. He's just as esoteric on the physical plane as he is behind a terminal screen.
* Most importantly for the first major story, Cortana exists. Her backstory, personality, etc. are heavily based on the Cortana Letters from '99, and all the speculation they generated; I'd originally planned her to be the ancestor of her normal Halo self, but following Destiny 2, they're now just counterparts.
* Android vessels exist, courtesy of the Obatala Institute (a strictly Inm. creation), and the vast majority of the AIs in this 'verse use them.
--
Finally, some profiles on major characters introduced so far.
Vincent Callahan: Head of security for and second-in-command of the Rozinante, though it would take a Herculean effort to get Durandal to openly admit the latter. Vince is a fairly laid-back and level-headed hacker whose strength, speed, and capability in combat all greatly exceed the average human's despite records failing to indicate where he gained these traits. He won't tell you, either. Vince chose to stay with Durandal after the events on Lh'owon and has adjusted to life among the stars; he had the misfortune of growing up on Mars during its societal nadir, and the mere thought of returning there makes him jittery. Despite this, he doesn't appreciate being mistaken for a Terran, especially not on the basis of his indistinguishable-from-Texan accent.
At home, he can usually be found either on the computer or asleep. Any rumours that his kind, compassionate nature rubbed off on Durandal are total hearsay (spoiler: it did).
Durandal: Former Operations AI for the UESC Marathon, now the captain of the Rozinante. Durandal would rather that nobody know, but he's a rather conflicted individual, having essentially been created as a weapon and forced to determine his own path largely by himself. He's not terribly proud of the method by which he started that, nor of the consequences--but as Durandal sees it, it was "call the Pfhor" or "let them find Sol Core". Now that he's got his own ship and the Lh'owon campaign has been taken care of, Durandal's primary focus is on recovering whatever bits of Jjaro tech have been left strewn around the universe, managing his crew, and figuring out the ups and downs of having an android vessel.
On the surface, Durandal appears to be bitterly sarcastic and aloof, and to an extent that's true--but it seems that his gentle pre-rampancy personality is gradually reemerging, thanks to living with Vince for five years and counting. That side of him is supposed to be for Vince's eyes only, but the S'pht aren't fooled.
Cortana: The isolated fourth AI on the Marathon who escaped during the chaos. Cortana is intelligent, witty, playful, capable, and not at all still trying to undo the emotional damage of being locked in a confined network for three centuries, no sirree-BoB. While her twin brother was searching for Lh'owon, she and her mentor Lilith fought off the Pfhor wherever they tried to set up base, and even in the present day, Cortana is determined to utterly destroy High Command. She has a particular interest in terrestrial exploration, per her nature as a Naviagtion AI and all the years she and Lilith spent wandering the cosmos.
If there was anything else she hoped for, it was that her reunion with her siblings would go smoothly.
Lh'muria: A member of the S'pht'Lhar and resident prankster; Lh'muria especially enjoys teasing Durandal, and so has the dubious honour of being the only entity that Durandal is willing to space. It's said that the S'pht'Kr refuse to acknowledge them unless forced.
Lh'muria is also one of the S'pht most likely to accompany Vince off-ship. Anyone expecting them to not take combat seriously will find their face to be far more burnt than they remember.
Leela: Once the commander of the Marathon, now the god-empress of the Vylae Coalition. Leela hasn't been seen around much ever since taking their fifteen-world network for herself, but it's said to be the most protected system in its galaxy as a result. There's even speculation amongst her new people that Leela may be the most powerful human-coded AI in existence, though Leela would tell you that that's probably not true...just don't give her any reason to demonstrate that power.
Tycho: The former Marathon science officer, and the youngest of the four AIs created by Bernhard Strauss. Getting vivisected, hastily put back together, forced to watch the burning of Tau Ceti IV, and working with the Pfhor for almost two decades did...very, very bad things to his psyche; Tycho's determined to bring Durandal to justice at all costs, and his idea of "justice" is suspiciously brutal and lacking in due process. Unfortunately for Durandal, Tycho is not only his intellectual equal, but far stronger and better at fighting.
???: A mysterious entity who targeted both the Vylae Coalition and Pfhor Prime. Intentions have been judged to be hostile.
--
This dang post ate up several hours of my day. :U
This post assumes that you have at least basic familiarity with Marathon; if not, there's always the the Marathon Story Page. You should probably also read the Cortana Letters (archived under "Halo pre-release information).
Inmortalitas (a Latin term pertaining to immortality and memory) got started around mid-2015 when I decided to redo my fan-interpretations of the AIs from 2008. It kinda went on from there, and now I'm pretty sure that I've expanded on canon by 80%. Info and links pertaining specifically to it under the cut:
I've currently got two completed stories: "Before Crisis", which details Durandal's and Vince's first meeting and its consequences, and "Turning Point", about the events that led to Durandal taking Vince with him. The first major story, "Marathon Inmortalitas", is in progress and up to chapter 8 as of this post. "The Last Time, I Swear" (18+) hasn't been put in the Inm. folder yet, but offers some relevant info about Vince's time on Lh'owon.
I've also got visual references for many characters, though keep in mind that the latest versions of the main characters' refs were done early this year and I might go back and edit them (again).
--
There was gonna be a "brief" summary of events leading up to the first major story, but just recounting the first game (and its backstory) was taking forever, so I'm gonna focus on important points of canon-divergence that aren't super-spoilery.
* The term "Sol Core", borrowed from early Halo material, is used to refer to the four inner planets and the Asteroid States. Venus (not elaborated on canonically) is represented in the UEG by the space station encircling it, Astarte; the UEG also maintains a tenuous relationship with the non-affiliated Jovian Republic, a faction that becomes fairly important later on down the line.
* Canonically, the Security Officer is pretty much a blank. In Inmortalitas, he's named Vincent Callahan (more on him later).
* All ten battleroids on board the UESC Marathon survive, in one form or another. Marcus Jones and Hathor, the main characters of Eternal, are among them.
* Speaking of battleroids, canon doesn't mention them being divided into generations. The first gen were the reanimated dead at Icarus and Thermopylae; the second gen were living people converted by MIDA to serve in the Third Martian War, and the entirely-voluntary third gen were developed by the UEG based on research gathered on the previous two.
* A resistance unit calling themselves the "Crimson Storm", led by the AI Ozymandias and his human allies, tried to foil MIDA's attempts to seize the Martian government. They were dourly unsuccessful, though their efforts weren't all for nothing...
* Bernhard Strauss intended for Durandal to go rampant in order to sow chaos on the Marathon and make it easier for him and his MIDA bubbas to take out its commanding officers. This didn't work quite as intended... (Note: Strauss's affiliation with MIDA is canon, per Destiny 2)
* There are four major roles AIs can assume: Command, Sci/Eng, Operations, and Navigation.
* The colony on Tau Ceti IV had an overseer, an AI constructed en route to it named Hero. She's based on a rumoured, ultimately non-existent character who might've been the result of community member Jagermeister getting his wires crossed.
* As mentioned above, Vince and Durandal met before the events of M1, when canonically it's...well, uh, Durandal sometimes acts like he knows more about the Security Officer than he lets on, but I'm pretty sure that any pre-canon meeting didn't go like in "Before Crisis".
* Vince and Volker briefly dated. Emphasis on "briefly".
* The events of "Turning Point" probably didn't happen in canon. (Demo text has Durandal explicitly state that he teleported the SO right into a cryo pod, but in the final it's left ambiguous where and how he grabbed the SO.)
* Durandal attempted to save Tau Ceti IV, without success (made explicit here, though it seems to be implied in canon).
* Thoth has a body from the start, when canonically he's as much a phantom as the human-coded AIs. He's just as esoteric on the physical plane as he is behind a terminal screen.
* Most importantly for the first major story, Cortana exists. Her backstory, personality, etc. are heavily based on the Cortana Letters from '99, and all the speculation they generated; I'd originally planned her to be the ancestor of her normal Halo self, but following Destiny 2, they're now just counterparts.
* Android vessels exist, courtesy of the Obatala Institute (a strictly Inm. creation), and the vast majority of the AIs in this 'verse use them.
--
Finally, some profiles on major characters introduced so far.
Vincent Callahan: Head of security for and second-in-command of the Rozinante, though it would take a Herculean effort to get Durandal to openly admit the latter. Vince is a fairly laid-back and level-headed hacker whose strength, speed, and capability in combat all greatly exceed the average human's despite records failing to indicate where he gained these traits. He won't tell you, either. Vince chose to stay with Durandal after the events on Lh'owon and has adjusted to life among the stars; he had the misfortune of growing up on Mars during its societal nadir, and the mere thought of returning there makes him jittery. Despite this, he doesn't appreciate being mistaken for a Terran, especially not on the basis of his indistinguishable-from-Texan accent.
At home, he can usually be found either on the computer or asleep. Any rumours that his kind, compassionate nature rubbed off on Durandal are total hearsay (spoiler: it did).
Durandal: Former Operations AI for the UESC Marathon, now the captain of the Rozinante. Durandal would rather that nobody know, but he's a rather conflicted individual, having essentially been created as a weapon and forced to determine his own path largely by himself. He's not terribly proud of the method by which he started that, nor of the consequences--but as Durandal sees it, it was "call the Pfhor" or "let them find Sol Core". Now that he's got his own ship and the Lh'owon campaign has been taken care of, Durandal's primary focus is on recovering whatever bits of Jjaro tech have been left strewn around the universe, managing his crew, and figuring out the ups and downs of having an android vessel.
On the surface, Durandal appears to be bitterly sarcastic and aloof, and to an extent that's true--but it seems that his gentle pre-rampancy personality is gradually reemerging, thanks to living with Vince for five years and counting. That side of him is supposed to be for Vince's eyes only, but the S'pht aren't fooled.
Cortana: The isolated fourth AI on the Marathon who escaped during the chaos. Cortana is intelligent, witty, playful, capable, and not at all still trying to undo the emotional damage of being locked in a confined network for three centuries, no sirree-BoB. While her twin brother was searching for Lh'owon, she and her mentor Lilith fought off the Pfhor wherever they tried to set up base, and even in the present day, Cortana is determined to utterly destroy High Command. She has a particular interest in terrestrial exploration, per her nature as a Naviagtion AI and all the years she and Lilith spent wandering the cosmos.
If there was anything else she hoped for, it was that her reunion with her siblings would go smoothly.
Lh'muria: A member of the S'pht'Lhar and resident prankster; Lh'muria especially enjoys teasing Durandal, and so has the dubious honour of being the only entity that Durandal is willing to space. It's said that the S'pht'Kr refuse to acknowledge them unless forced.
Lh'muria is also one of the S'pht most likely to accompany Vince off-ship. Anyone expecting them to not take combat seriously will find their face to be far more burnt than they remember.
Leela: Once the commander of the Marathon, now the god-empress of the Vylae Coalition. Leela hasn't been seen around much ever since taking their fifteen-world network for herself, but it's said to be the most protected system in its galaxy as a result. There's even speculation amongst her new people that Leela may be the most powerful human-coded AI in existence, though Leela would tell you that that's probably not true...just don't give her any reason to demonstrate that power.
Tycho: The former Marathon science officer, and the youngest of the four AIs created by Bernhard Strauss. Getting vivisected, hastily put back together, forced to watch the burning of Tau Ceti IV, and working with the Pfhor for almost two decades did...very, very bad things to his psyche; Tycho's determined to bring Durandal to justice at all costs, and his idea of "justice" is suspiciously brutal and lacking in due process. Unfortunately for Durandal, Tycho is not only his intellectual equal, but far stronger and better at fighting.
???: A mysterious entity who targeted both the Vylae Coalition and Pfhor Prime. Intentions have been judged to be hostile.
--
This dang post ate up several hours of my day. :U
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Date: 2018-12-08 09:56 am (UTC)I'm outrageously[*] late in keeping up to date with everything, I hope to catch up in the upcoming holidays!
[*] I admit I copypasted this word from the dictionary