I just read this page, and, I have to admit, never really understood the story before now. Freaky and mind-blowing. I'll never look at the marine the same way again. Practically a time-traveling god, although that makes it sound cheesier than it is. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the link. It freaked me out when I realized how the "disconnected" events really are just a search for truth and a method to stop Trih Xeem or whatever it's called.

The Marine's goal is to stop the Wr'kncacnter, not the trih xeem. But yeah, MI is pretty cool.

Ha ha ha. Welcome to the enlightened few, Cosmic_Nuisance . It's hard to put into words that feeling when you finally 'get' Marathon Infinity.

Favorite Marathon's Story Link

But you stop it by stopping the trih xeem. I always thought that the story was stupid and made no logical sense, but these revelations freak me out.

True, I just meant that the trih xeem isn't your end goal, merely the means.

I have now resolved to play through the game again. I'm already on Naw Man, He's Close.

Is this true? DO NOT HIGHLIGHT IF YOU HAVE NOT BEATEN MARATHON INFINITY Durandal is really being controlled by the Jjaro? At the end terminal, after the Jjaro talk about taking the S'pht to a new planet, it says something about "We release you from any bondage we, as Durandal, have on your soul." Does this mean that they were Durandal the whole time?

***SPOILERS*** (I don't want to black out my whole post)

No no, I think you missed it. You, the player, the 10th Mjolnir Military cyborg, were controlled by Durandal during the whole game. During the game, Durandal undergoes a major transformation, where he somehow combines with Thoth, who is himself Jjaro-derived. At the end of the game, the combined Durandal/Thoth entity 'releases' you since you've completed your assigned tasks.

Some view the Durandal/Thoth combination as similar to relationships between humans. That is to say, they believe Durandal found his soul mate. They've further posited that this 'marriage' between artificial intelligences is necessary to assume an as-yet-undiscovered stable stage of Rampancy, the elusive holy grail of cybertronics or whatever they called it in the terminal.

I haven't adopted that philosophy, personally; Durandal has never seemed the romantic type.

I guess I'm lucky... I stumbled onto the Marathon's Story page before ever playing any of the Marathon games (save for a Marathon 2 demo way back when), so I kind of understood the story before going into it. Sad to see that there haven't been any updates to the site since 2006... though the forum is still fairly active.

M:I can certainly be confusing unless you really pay attention to every single detail. Even with advanced knowledge of the story, if you're just playing through it Rambo-style you'll miss a lot. Then if you read more about it, you realize that the premise is very simple. The presentation is really what messes with your mind. If this type of story had been, say, written as a novel, it would probably be very clear. The Bungie boys would never make it that easy for us, though.

Oh. So by saying "We, as Durandal" they are talking about the Thoth part of him, which now gives the Jjaro some control over the computer that controls you, and they are releasing you from bondage, is that it? Or is it as simple as the fact that Durandal is now two entities and must refer to himself as such, and the Jjaro are, as is generally accepted, extinct?

How many Jjaro does it take to change a lightbulb?

Two. One to create the technology, and the other to wait 8000 years for a sentient race to install it for him.

When you read "We, as Durandal," the entity talking is the dual Durandal/Thoth entity. That entity is using "we" to refer to itself/themselves. "As Durandal" means the entity is referring back in time to when you were listening to and following Durandal.

The dual Durandal/Thoth entity is releasing you from bondage because you're no longer needed; it is satisfied with the way things are and the prospects for the future. That also means Durandal is happy, and Thoth is happy. Whether the Durandal part would have released you independent of what the Thoth part thinks, or whether Durandal's thought processes have been overridden by a more benevolent Thoth, I can't say. We don't know who's more dominant in the Durandal/Thoth relationship, if there is any dominance.

Remember Thoth is not a Jjaro; he was built by the Jjaro, just as Durandal is not human, but he was built by humans.

It does sound like a Jjaro speaking:


Isn't K'lia a Jjaro? If so, that would mean that the Jjaro still exist, and it is still possible that they wrote the terminal. However, on the other side of the coin is the fact that it says "With our help," implying that the speaker will merely be an instrument to assist the creation of the "paradise", and not the actual entity doing the creating, although it could be argued that the S'pht would do the actual creating with the assistance of the Jjaro, like on Lh'owon. Also is the fact that they don't know if the Wr'kncacnter exists or not, where the Jjaro probably would.

I always found the last level anticlimactic. I ran around in circles for hours trying to beat the level, and once I did (I think I had to refer to a guide), I did not expect it to be the end of the whole game. I certainly didn't feel like I was released from any bondage.

I dunno.. I thought they made it reasonably clear that that level was your last task, as it were. I'll have to go and play through it again! It also linked in well if you had come across any of the earlier 'failed' endings on the way, which all took place in parts of the final level, even though playing it through the first time, without all this discussion, it was pretty much impossible to grasp what was meant by those levels.

The first time I read that last terminal though, and the 'we release you' line, it was a pretty emotional thing! They sure did a good job with that.

Actually, the style of his speech is not very Jjaro-like. Thoth, by itself, sounds poetic and cryptic, more like this:

I make the assumption a Jjaro would sound similar to this, using the logic that Durandal sounds like a human because he was designed by humans.



No; K'lia is a planetary body:


K'lia was moved by Yrro, but K'lia itself is just a planet that happens to have a history of hosting the S'pht 'Kr, and was selected by a Jjaro as such.

As far as I can deduce, only 2 Jjaro are mentioned in Marathon: Yrro and Pthia. I think neither of these actually appear in the games, although the W'rkncacnter deserves special mention given its central role to both the Jjaro and the events in Infinity.

My conclusion is that any fantastic, godly actions that Durandal/Thoth takes, like moving planets around, is a result of them harnessing the power of the Jjaro station, rather than an actual member of the Jjaro species influencing events directly. However, as this discussion continues, I'm getting less sure of myself. There was a time when I felt I understood the storyline as well as anyone, but since that point I've forgotten various things. In short, I'm increasingly tempted to run through the game yet again.

[EDIT] I was playing through Marathon 2 and noticed the story page, from where I got the quotations, forgot the word "moon" in the description of K'lia.

Weird. On one page of the marathon story thing, it said that there was never any concrete evidence to support the K'lia is a planet thing. I look at the terminals, and you're right. You'd think these guys would've gotten it by now.



You could also make the assumption that since the Jjaro are so advanced, they would be able to perfectly speak and format their messages. Just saying. However, the evidence does seem to support your point of view.