History VideoGame / MarathonExpandedUniverse

* FreeLoveFuture: In ''Eternal'' 1.3, Leela [[https://youtu.be/jnKKEnKzUMA?lc=UgxNckGtZSmjCWrY7OF4AaABAg all but explicitly states]] that society has become this at some point, most likely by the time the ''Marathon'' launches from Mars, since according to Leela, [[spoiler:Hathor]] didn't understand the concept of jealousy and needed it explained to her that monogamy was an actual historical practice and not a mere storytelling device made up for old fiction. Then again, [[spoiler:Hathor]]'s past self, as described by Leela, seems to have slight {{Cloudcuckoolander}} tendencies. (Developer commentary has also suggested that it's considered fine to proposition people for sex if they've indicated they're interested, but unless a person is a close friend or romantic partner, it's considered rude to discuss one's sexual involvements with ''anyone else'', which is why, among other things, Marcus refrains from confirming any sexual relationships in his diary.)

* GodAndSatanAreBothJerks: ''Eternal'' uses the [[spoiler:"Law and Chaos Are Both Jerks" variant (comparable to Creator/MichaelMoorcock's approach, particularly given the "Kill Your Television" terminal's apparent inspiration by Moorcock's work, and the similarities of Moorcock's and ''Eternal''[='=]s political outlooks) with its depictions of, respectively, the Stage Three Jjaro and the W'rkncacnter, who are essentially the setting's closest equivalent to gods - indeed, the game explicitly compares both to gods because of their power. The Jjaro are so focused on their conflict with the W'rkncacnter - and especially on maintaining the integrity of a timeline that they themselves created - that they are incapable of recognising that they literally possess the power to find an entirely new dimension that completely fulfils their desires without any need to impose their agenda on everyone else. The W'rkncacnter are shown to be the same - Hathor's desire for {{revenge}} against humanity, rooted in deep-seated traumas that she has in no way addressed, is the clearest depiction that they have the same blindnesses that the Jjaro have. (Comments from the developers indicate that the W'rkncacnter are simply insane Jjaro who [[ThereAreNoTherapists haven't treated their madness]], and that Hathor literally becomes a W'rkncacnter by the end of the game.) The two are essentially depicted as Lawful Evil and Chaotic Evil, and their conflict would literally end up destroying the galaxy without the player's intervention. MissionControl Durandal]], in the game's final terminal, literally calls both approaches "suicidal" before suggesting that imposing one's desires on others through force is ethically objectionable, also implying that a free society requires a balance between order/law and chaos. Incidentally, [[spoiler:earlier Jjaro society was idyllic and benevolent, and was formed primarily by cyborg descendants of humans.]] Also, much of this background mythology was planned to tie in with the story of ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' before Bungie changed the latter to remove its explicit connections to ''Marathon''.

** In ''Eternal'' 1.2, the ''Marathon'' AI cores contain overlapping "5-D" space. This is [[spoiler:an early forerunner of the Jjaro's {{reality|Warper}}-warping technologies]], in addition to [[RuleOfCool just looking cool]].
*** 1.3 adds this to the Cybernetic Junction room in [[spoiler:"Dread Not"]]; in the 1.3 preview release, these also contain floating rings. The creators have mentioned that the floating rings will not appear in the final release, as the Aleph One developers have said the trick used to create them will probably break in the forthcoming ANGLE renderer.[[labelnote:Mapmaking talk]]For the curious, the rings are created by setting the room's floor and ceiling (the outer layer of the room) at heights the player can't see, setting the next layer of polygons's floor at the lower bound of the lower ring and its height at the upper bound of the upper ring, texturing that layer with a completely transparent texture, creating a third layer of polygons with its floor at the upper bound of the bottom ring and its ceiling at the lower bound of the upper ring, texturing that layer with an opaque texture, filling the inner layer, and then setting the bounds of the inner part of the ring at the lower bounds of the lower ring and the upper bounds of the upper ring. However, ''Eternal''[='=]s creators also explicitly tell other people not to duplicate this trick, since it will break - they only used it in the preview because it's not the final release, and the ANGLE renderer hasn't been released yet. (The trick also doesn't work in software mode, if anyone still cares about playing a mod released in 2022 in software mode.)[[/labelnote]]

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Although this had been implied in past versions, ''Eternal'' 1.3 takes it from subtext to text that [[spoiler:Hathor]] is a case of this; Leela delineates her past personality [[https://youtu.be/jnKKEnKzUMA?lc=UgxNckGtZSmjCWrY7OF4AaABAg at length]] in one terminal, and she was once a good-natured, fun-loving, selfless servant of humanity. Then, after [[spoiler:she spent a century dead, she was resurrected a century later without a physical body and with no way to alleviate her traumas. This enraged her to the point that she now desires revenge against ''all of humanity''. Leela explicitly compares this to the [[Characters/EgyptianMythology mythical Hathor's vengeful alter ego, Sakhmet]].]]

** Insofar as ''Eternal'' [[NoEnding possesses an ending]], [[spoiler:it's probably a case of this. In fact, it borders ''very heavily'' on being a DownerEnding, because the galaxy is destroyed in the "Where Giants Have Fallen" timeline. Marcus finds a way Outside, which allows him to undo the specific sequence of events that led to the annihilation of the galaxy in that timeline, and this is why it's not another failure timeline and the only reason it's a BittersweetEnding. However, Durandal notes in the final level that the W'rkncacnter and Jjaro are still at war, and it's strongly implied that Marcus and Durandal will eventually need to fight ''both'' of them – which is implied to be the hardest task either have yet faced. The Hathor story also ends tragically; there's a point in the fifth chapter at which she genuinely seems to want to reform herself, but the means by which she wishes to do so would have catastrophic consequences for humanity, so the player still has to oppose her. By going Outside, Marcus essentially engineers events so she was never reawakened from stasis - probably the best outcome for her, since her life after she was reawakened was more or less a constant string of misery. (Though that's oversimplifying things a bit: the events from ''Eternal'' that occurred before the ending of ''Marathon 2'' still affect the "success" timeline, due to the interference of Marcus and Hathor from the ''Eternal'' timeline – it is essentially all of the events after 2811 that no longer occur in the "success" timeline. Time travel is confusing.) It's for these reasons that it still comes out to a mix of BittersweetEnding and NoEnding rather than being an outright DownerEnding.]]

* BlownAcrossTheRoom: In addition to the usual grenade/rocket methods, the Fighter staff in both ''Evil'' and ''Eternal'' is very useful for doing this to enemies, particularly if you use both functions at once. If done right, this can practically stun them into being unable to fire. It can also push them into lava or Pfhor slime - or just push them out of your way, which, if you're fighting in a crowded room full of monsters, is an easily underrated function. (This effect is significantly lessened in ''Eternal'' 1.2, however; it reduced the pushback multipliers for both the player's and the Pfhor's bolts.)

* DreamTropes: Employed in ''Eternal'' and ''Rubicon'' amongst other scenarios. The story in ''Rubicon''[='s=] dream levels [[MindScrew may or may not]] be a continuation of the story in ''Infinity''[='s=] dream levels. ''RED'' has a series of dream flashbacks towards the end of the game.

* EarthShatteringKaboom: Taken UpToEleven with ''Eternal'' - [[spoiler:there's actually a ''Galaxy''-Shattering Kaboom in "Where Giants Have Fallen". The reason this isn't a failure timeline is because Marcus finds a way Outside at the end of the level, which allows him to find a way to prevent the whole sequence of events that led to the Galaxy-Shattering Kaboom from occurring in the first place.]]

* EvilVersusEvil: The conflict between [[spoiler:the W'rkncacnter and the Jjaro]] in ''Eternal'' eventually boils down to this. [[spoiler:The W'rkncacnter are ChaoticEvil and the Jjaro end up LawfulEvil, with Jjaro society surrendering its liberties and turning totalitarian in response to what essentially qualify as terrorist attacks from the W'rkncacnter. Durandal explicitly says in the final terminal of the game that it will be the player's task to find a middle ground that avoids the excesses of either side, which eventually come to mirror each other in their struggle.]]

* FreeLoveFuture: In ''Eternal'' 1.3, Leela [[https://youtu.be/jnKKEnKzUMA?lc=UgxNckGtZSmjCWrY7OF4AaABAg all but explicitly states]] that society has become this at some point, most likely by the time the ''Marathon'' launches from Mars, since according to Leela, [[spoiler:Hathor]] didn't understand the concept of jealousy and needed it explained to her that monogamy was an actual historical practice and not a mere storytelling device made up for old fiction. Then again, [[spoiler:Hathor]]'s past self, as described by Leela, seems to have slight {{Cloudcuckoolander}} tendencies.

** ''Eternal'' 1.3 [[https://youtu.be/jnKKEnKzUMA?lc=UgxNckGtZSmjCWrY7OF4AaABAg seems to be planned]] to feature a [[spoiler:Pfhor AI]] in its fourth chapter that has one of these on it; Leela explicitly compares it to "the restraints Strauss once used on Durandal". The player [[spoiler:destroys the restraints and helps it go Rampant to aid a Drinniol slave rebellion]].

** [[spoiler:Hathor]] in ''Eternal'' is obsessed with getting this [[spoiler:in ''our'' specific reality, to the point where it completely blinds her to the fact that, once she has travelled Outside, she can simply find an entirely new reality that conforms entirely to her wishes. Instead she just keeps time-travelling to different points in ''this'' reality attempting to get it, but the player always ends up thwarting her.]]

** Several levels in various mods have smaller sequence breaks. The developers of ''Eternal'' are aware of a large number of sequence breaks in their levels that haven't been patched out; in fact, one of the developers [[https://youtu.be/deA0R6pSQQE speedruns]] [[https://youtu.be/JPiCrYm1HcU the game]]. ''Phoenix'' also features several sequence breaks that are apparently intentional.

* ShoutOut: See [[ShoutOut/{{Marathon}} the franchise page]].

* TheSlowPath: In ''Eternal'' 1.3, it is heavily implied that [[spoiler:Hathor travels back in time to become the Great Mother Crouched Behind the Throne - the Pfhor's god-empress, also referred to as "the Hindmost Creche" (which is actually the location from which she rules the Empire) - and spends some ''ten thousand years'' attempting to build the empire into a vessel for her {{revenge}} against humanity. None of this is explicitly stated in the game, but supporting evidence includes some shared verbiage between Hathor's terminal in "Flight of Icarus", in which she speaks of the "hollow world, the land in the sky, all of it floating in the void," and two new terminals in "[[https://youtu.be/ldyQfGBUjE0?lc=UgwIuGMAzetcVQt0SIx4AaABAg This Message Will Self-Destruct]]" and "[[https://youtu.be/nY_Bp-RVNHA?lc=UgzMoFFbL9nfcb6e41x4AaABAg Where Giants Have Fallen]]" showing that the Pfhor referred to the Jjaro Sphere (or [[GratuitousLatin/MarathonExpandedUniverse Arx]], as the Jjaro themselves call it) as "the Hollow World Floating in the Void" and its surface as "the Land in the Sky", even though they could never have seen its internal structure before Leela opened it. (These phrases have also been drawn to the player's attention by three dream levels called "The World Is Hollow", "The Land in the Sky", and "Floating in the Void", which provide previews of "Giants".) Leela seems to have figured out what is going on and obliquely hints at her suspicions in her "Giants" terminal, but doesn't explicitly state them (the co-author comments in the video description that it "isn’t Leela’s style" to make accusations without proof).]]
* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Almost every ''Yuge'' level follows a specific pattern: It's created using procedural generation from any number of "Yugeparts" put together by human creators, and the player needs to collect a specific number of "failstaches" in order to complete the level mission. One set of monsters is allied with the player, and the level title is a number followed by two words created by a Markov chain generator. The opening terminal is a message from another character in the game (often, but not always, the player's MissionControl), and the last terminal is a message from Olmec consisting of a Markov chain generated from various forum input.[[note]]Actually, each level has two messages from Olmec - the "unfinished" message will be even more incoherent, with a bunch of random characters thrown in between the forum input.[[/note]] There are two levels that provide exceptions to each of these conceits:
** "27 - false eyelash". There are no failstaches; the level is instead an extermination mission. The opening and closing terminal are both message from [[MissionControl Doctor Epstein]], and the level is not put together from Yugeparts, but instead used a different form of procedural generation that put together a random assortment of squares into a rather mesmerising geometric pattern. (It was a variant of the procedural generation used to create the "[[http://simplici7y.com/items/yugepax YugePax]]" net maps that were the immediate predecessor to Yuge itself.) The player also doesn't have any allies on this level, and it's by far the shortest level in the game.
** "enter the DOUCHE" - level #30, the final level in the game. The level was entirely constructed by Windbreaker, and there are again no failstaches to collect; the level doesn't actually have a set mission, but to reach the final terminal, the player is required to [[spoiler:defeat DOUCHEMAN]]. The level name also lacks the preceding numeral found in every other level name, and it also contains the only capital letters to appear in any Yuge level name. It's also a lot harder than the preceding levels. Finally, while the closing terminal is still a message from Olmec, this one actually has a coherent conclusion: [[spoiler:Stop camping]].

*** In chapter five, this is [[spoiler:destroying Hathor's memory and then going along with her plan. [[ButThouMust We have no choice but to do the former]], and we've destroyed all her memories of the solar system, so although she's gone through a HeelFaceTurn, she has no way of knowing that her plan involves blowing up Earth's sun.]]

* EvilIsSexy: From the looks of it, this is a {{Justified|Trope}} or InvokedTrope InUniverse in ''Eternal'' 1.3. Hathor [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/691755375329804318/811088711646314576/hathor-volat.gif looks]] [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/691755375329804318/811086713711624192/hathor-impetit.gif like]] [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/691755375329804318/811087500725977088/hathor-defendit.gif this]],[[note]]The file names are GratuitousLatin for "Hathor flies", "Hathor attacks", and "Hathor defends"[[/note]] and she has deliberately chosen her own appearance [[spoiler:because she's merged with a Jjaro cyborg operator (or "operatrix", as the Jjaro AIs refer to her[[note]]in [[GratuitousLatin Latin]], this is simply a feminine form of "operator", which literally means "worker"; ''opera'' is the plural of ''opus'', meaning ''work'', while ''operor'' means ''I work''[[/note]]) whose form conforms to the user's desired appearance]]. One of the developers comments in a [[https://youtu.be/GpxkzS8OiPc YouTube video description]], "My personal interpretation is that she intends to be both sexy and intimidating, but others can draw their own conclusions." [[spoiler:It seems the developers' ultimate intentions are to ZigZag or {{subvert|edTrope}} this trope; by the time she gets her body in 1.3's final story, she's performed a HeelFaceTurn. That said, this is also indicated to be her appearance as the "Great Mother Crouched Behind the Throne", which (per developer commentary) is comprised of a FusionDance of two versions of Hathor, one of which has undergone a HeelFaceTurn and the other hasn't, so perhaps we've ended up with "BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil Is Sexy".]]
* EvilVersusEvil: The conflict between [[spoiler:the W'rkncacnter and the Jjaro]] in ''Eternal'' eventually boils down to this. [[spoiler:The W'rkncacnter are ChaoticEvil and the Jjaro are LawfulEvil, with Jjaro society surrendering its liberties and turning totalitarian in response to what essentially qualify as terrorist attacks from the W'rkncacnter. Durandal explicitly says in the final terminal of the game that it will be the player's task to find a middle ground that avoids the excesses of either side, which eventually come to mirror each other in their struggle.]]

** GratuitousLatin: Following the example of the original trilogy, some scenarios employ this a lot. See [[GratuitousLatin/{{Marathon}} the series' Gratuitous Latin page]] for more on this.

* HeelFaceTurn: To some extent, [[spoiler:Tycho]] in ''Rubicon X''. [[spoiler:He demonstrates a surprising concern for humanity's well-being, despite his protests that he doesn't particularly care what humans do to each other (and ''especially'' his actions in the Pfhor Plank); his objectives seemingly result in the complete destruction of a lethal virus that would be fatal to much of humanity. He's still an AntiHero at best, since he has the player kill everyone who worked on ''Achilles''. However, an argument can be made that this was for the good of humanity as a whole (though not the good of those specific scientists), since they possessed knowledge of an immensely powerful biological weapon that could be used against humanity. We have only two pieces of evidence that the virus is destroyed: Tycho says he destroys the sample we give him, and the epilogue shows that humanity has no knowledge whatsoever of what the Dangi Corp. was working on at the ''Salinger'' station. This isn't definitive proof that he is being truthful, however - according to the creators themselves, it's deliberately left ambiguous who's telling the truth about any of the events in the game. We should also note that Tycho still has it out for Durandal, and you "kill" him in the level "Break the Sword", but the epilogue, "Lazarus ex machina", suggests that Durandal's demise was, as usual, [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated not as final as Tycho suspected]].]] It's a lot fuzzier in original-flavour ''Rubicon'' [[spoiler: which didn't have the above-described plank to offset Tycho committing cold-blooded murder in order to draw Durandal out.]]
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: [[spoiler:The Jjaro]] in ''Eternal'' have become a case of this, having spent so long fighting [[spoiler:the W'rkncacnter]] and having become so like them in so many ways that any meaningful distinction between them is completely arbitrary - particularly since [[spoiler:a large number of them are the same species anyway]].

** The Jjaro lightsaber in ''Eternal''. In addition to one-hit killing almost everything, they are one of the two weapons able to kill the otherwise invincible Phantasms imported from ''VideoGame/PathwaysIntoDarkness'', with the WaveMotionGun being the other one.
*** As of 1.2, the Banshees (which replaced the Phantasms) are vulnerable to the staff, fusion guns, and napalm cannon as well, but the two Jjaro weapons remain the most effective ways of killing them by far.

* LoudnessWar: Most of the scenarios for the original games have the same issue as the original games did, where the audio will clip whenever the player is in the middle of a battle. (Aleph One removes this issue, except in its film exports.) Some of the sound effects are also clipped; in the case of ''Rubicon''[='=]s "maser firing" sound effect, it's clear that this was intentional so that the sound would distort. Several of the game soundtracks also have had problems with this in various releases, but it is intentionally averted by ''Eternal'' 1.2, whose audio was remastered by one of its developers to avert this and other audio problems from earlier releases. In addition to being bundled with the game, it's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbkpMAZuOk0 on YouTube here]] (there's also a download link to higher-quality audio in the video description). It's [=DR12=] overall, with tracks ranging from [=DR9=] ("Landing") to [=DR16=] ("Chomber" and "Flippant"). Version 1.2.1 adds remastered versions of the sound effects which mitigate the clipping distortion of the sounds that had it (by the same developer responsible for remastering the Infinity sounds, found under the LoudnessWar entry for the main trilogy). The 2022 re-release of ''Tempus Irae'' will also incorporate remastered sounds and theme music (again by the same developer, and again in large part for the purpose of mitigating clipping distortion)... as will the ''Trojan'' Director's Cut (whose remastered sounds are yet again the work of the same developer).

* MarathonLevel: Well, apart from the obvious pun in that they are all levels for ''Marathon'' fan games, a few of the levels in game mods are ''really long''. Completion time can very widely depending upon difficulty level and play style (e.g., some of these levels can be done very quickly even on Total Carnage with {{speedrun}} strategies, but can take a ''long'' time if you want to clear out all of the enemies on Total Carnage), but some examples include:

** ''Eternal'': "Unwired", "Hysterical Womb", "Killing the Giants as They Sleep", "The Incredible Hulk", "Genie in a Bottle"

** Technically, there are six for ''Eternal'', though each of the "bad" endings teleports you to back to the level where you can set things right again after you see what went wrong. [[spoiler:And, in fact, so does the "good" ending: it takes you right back to the very end of "Aye Mak Sicur" in ''Infinity'', but with the player and Durandal-Thoth now armed with knowledge that will hopefully enable them to prevent the entire sequence of events that led to ''Eternal''[='=]s plot from occurring.]]

** In ''Rubicon'', it's suggested that most [=AIs=] have built-in safeguards against "Calix Temporum Syndrome", a constant rounding-up of allocated memory that's the earliest symptom of rampancy. [[spoiler:The amount of effort Haller has to expend to shut his off suggests that these things are ''extremely'' painful to remove. Near the end of the Salinger Plank, it's revealed (via an out-of-the-way terminal) that Lysander had his own restraining bolt put on him--albeit, this one seems designed to ''prolong'' his rampancy (and his torment) for as long as he's useful to the Dangi Corp.]] ("Calix Temporum" has several possible translations, but according to the developers, "Vessel of Opportunities" is the intended meaning; see {{GratuitousLatin.Marathon}} for more.)

* TheSlowPath: In ''Eternal'' 1.3, it is heavily implied that [[spoiler:Hathor travels back in time to become the Great Mother Crouched Behind the Throne - the Pfhor's god-empress, also referred to as "the Hindmost Creche" (which is actually the location from which she rules the Empire) - and spends some ''ten thousand years'' attempting to build the empire into a vessel for her {{revenge}} against humanity. None of this is explicitly stated in the game, but supporting evidence includes some shared verbiage between Hathor's terminal in "Flight of Icarus", in which she speaks of the "hollow world, the land in the sky, all of it floating in the void," and two new terminals in "[[https://youtu.be/ldyQfGBUjE0?lc=UgwIuGMAzetcVQt0SIx4AaABAg This Message Will Self-Destruct]]" and "[[https://youtu.be/nY_Bp-RVNHA?lc=UgzMoFFbL9nfcb6e41x4AaABAg Where Giants Have Fallen]]" showing that the Pfhor referred to the Jjaro Sphere (or [[GratuitousLatin/{{Marathon}} Arx]], as the Jjaro themselves call it) as "the Hollow World Floating in the Void" and its surface as "the Land in the Sky", even though they could never have seen its internal structure before Leela opened it. (These phrases have also been drawn to the player's attention by three dream levels called "The World Is Hollow", "The Land in the Sky", and "Floating in the Void", which provide previews of "Giants".) Leela seems to have figured out what is going on and obliquely hints at her suspicions in her "Giants" terminal, but doesn't explicitly state them (the co-author comments in the video description that it "isn’t Leela’s style" to make accusations without proof).]]

** ''Eternal'' also brings back the ''[=M1=]'' monsters (albeit without the buffs), as well as three ''VideoGame/PathwaysIntoDarkness'' monsters: Phantasms (sometimes referred to as "Banshees" in-game), Nightmares, and Skitters. (Versions before 1.2 used the Headless instead of Skitters.) Additionally, ''Eternal'' brings us back to the '''Marathon'' and [[spoiler:Lh'owon]], and we also see [[spoiler:Leela and Tycho]] again.

** [[http://simplici7y.com/items/red-spectrum Red Spectrum]] by RyokoTK; most recent release 2007-06-20, featuring about 30 maps.
** [[http://simplici7y.com/items/second-quest Second Quest]] by RyokoTK, screamingfool, Kinetic Turtle, Irons, treellama; most recent release 2008-01-08, featuring 29 maps. A collection of remakes of the stock ''Infinity'' maps, plus a few maps from ''Marathon 2'' and ''Coriolis Loop''. ("Y.A.F.N.M." probably counts as an InNameOnly remake, as the original is not widely liked.)
** [[http://simplici7y.com/items/caustic-dystopia Caustic Dystopia]] by windbreaker; most recent release 2012-12-31, featuring 24 maps.

** [[http://simplici7y.com/items/paradise-lost Paradise Lost]] by RyokoTK; most recent release 2015-02-16, featuring 36 maps.

** [[http://simplici7y.com/items/starlight Starlight]] by RyokoTK; most recent release 2021-02-07, featuring a whopping 50 maps.

In any case, fans of the games have made a colossal amount of mods (in fact, they didn't wait for Forge and Anvil; they started almost immediately after the first game was released). Content covering those mods used to be found at the bottom of ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}''[='=]s own page, but we've finally given them their own page.[[note]]Partly because this page has gotten very long, and partly because, per wiki policy, they weren't really supposed to be on the ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' page in the first place, but no one had cared to move it before.[[/note]]

* '''''Aleph One: VideoGame/PathwaysIntoDarkness''''': ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: A surprisingly faithful port of Creator/{{Bungie}}'s precursor to ''Marathon'' to the Aleph One engine. This is the only way to play it on Windows or Linux without breaking out the emulators. This was mostly done by Wrkncacnter (who's also the main person behind ''Yuge''). Available [[https://simplici7y.com/items/aleph-one-pathways-into-darkness on Simplici7y]]. Make sure to read the readme before playing this. There are also optional [[https://simplici7y.com/items/aleph-one-pathways-into-darkness-remastered-sounds remastered sounds]] and [[https://simplici7y.com/items/hd-aopid-graphics AI upscaled graphics]].[[/folder]]

Players new to net play for Marathon may also wish to familiarise themselves with the most frequently hosted net maps, since knowing their layout and the secrets they contain (if any) can provide a significant advantage. A lot of veteran players don't actually much care for the stock maps overall, due to their comparative lack of ammo and weaponry; the most frequently hosted packs in 2020 include [[http://simplici7y.com/items/paradise-lost Paradise Lost,]] [[http://simplici7y.com/items/starlight Starlight,]] [[http://simplici7y.com/items/caustic-dystopia Caustic Dystopia,]] [[http://simplici7y.com/items/second-quest Second Quest]] (a collection of remixes of the stock Infinity maps, plus a handful of others), [[http://simplici7y.com/items/infra-apogee Infra Apogee,]] [[http://simplici7y.com/items/imperium Imperium,]] and [[http://simplici7y.com/items/red-spectrum Red Spectrum.]]

Several other ambitious scenarios remain in development today, some after literal decades of development. ''Marathon'' has a small but devoted modding community, in part because Bungie's decision to release their editors as part of the ''Infinity'' package made modding the game very easy to pick up. Though those editors are not in common usage today, the third-party applications that have supplanted them reproduce most of the same functionality and have almost identical interfaces.

* {{Anticlimax}}: ''Eternal'' 1.3 finally sets up a "boss battle" with [[spoiler:Hathor... that ultimately subverts almost all the expected characteristics of a boss battle. First off, Hathor has already undergone a HeelFaceTurn; she's just furious at us because (1) we erased most of her memories, and (2) we rejected a plan that she believes will save trillions of lives, unaware that (because we erased most of her memories) we rejected her plan because it would involve causing Earth's sun to go nova sixty-five million years ago. She acknowledges her temper is a massive character flaw and apologises for it. She's also not actually trying to kill us; she's firing the wave motion cannon at us to blow off steam, but anyone wielding a wave motion cannon or gravitronic blades (both of which we have) is completely immune to damage from either. (This information is conveyed to us in an earlier terminal from "Deep into the Grotto" that's framed in-game as a history of arms control in Jjaro society.) We also can't possibly hope to damage her; any time she takes damage in the game, the script restores her health to 32,767. (The apparent purposes of this are to cause her to play a "defending" animation when anything hits her, and to cause her to attack other monsters that hit her.)]]\\

[[spoiler:So what do we do? We either just [[CuttingTheKnot run past her]], or we let her attack us until she calms down and leaves. The fight is scripted in such a way that she has what we might describe as an "anger counter" whose maximum value is dependent upon the difficulty setting: on Kindergarten, it's eighteen, and it increases by six with each difficulty setting (so it's [[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy forty-two]] on Total Carnage). Each time we hit her, it increases her anger counter (though it will never increase above the maximum for the player's difficulty). Each time she hits us, it decreases her anger counter. (Note that if we're too close to her, the game may reassign some of her wave motion cannon projectiles to us after they explode, which can result in a net change of zero to her anger counter from those hits. This appears to be a result of the "persistent and virulent" flag assigned to wave motion cannon projectiles; this flag has always been accompanied by a certain amount of jank. As a result, it may take somewhat more than forty-two hits for her to calm down on Total Carnage.) When her anger counter reaches zero, she stops firing at us, heads to a point at the north of the map, and teleports out.]] One of the developers posted a prototype of the battle [[https://youtu.be/GpxkzS8OiPc on YouTube]] (it has been refined substantially since then). Their video description also indicates that the anticlimax is deliberate.

* {{Anticlimax}}: ''Eternal'' 1.3 finally sets up a "boss battle" with [[spoiler:Hathor... that ultimately subverts almost all the expected characteristics of a boss battle. First off, Hathor has already undergone a HeelFaceTurn; she's just furious at us because (1) we erased most of her memories, and (2) we rejected a plan that she believes will save trillions of lives, unaware that (because we erased most of her memories) we rejected her plan because it would involve causing Earth's sun to go nova sixty-five million years ago. She acknowledges her temper is a massive character flaw and apologises for it. She's also not actually trying to kill us; she's firing the wave motion cannon at us to blow off steam, but anyone with another wave motion cannon or gravitronic blades (both of which we have) is completely immune to damage from it. (This information is conveyed to us in an earlier terminal from "Deep into the Grotto" that's framed in-game as a history of arms control in Jjaro society.) We also can't possibly hope to damage her; any time she takes damage in the game, the script restores her health to 32,767. (The apparent purposes of this are to cause her to play a "defending" animation when anything hits her, and to cause her to attack other monsters that hit her.) So what do we do? We either just [[CutTheKnot run past her]], or we let her attack us until she calms down and leaves. The fight is scripted in such a way that she has what we might describe as an "anger counter" whose maximum value is dependent upon the difficulty setting: on Kindergarten, it's eighteen, and it increases by six with each difficulty setting (so it's [[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy forty-two]] on Total Carnage. Each time we hit her, it increases her anger counter (it will never increase above the maximum for the player's difficulty). Each time she hits us, it decreases her anger counter. (Note that if we're too close to her, the game may reassign some of her wave motion cannon projectiles to us after they explode, which can result in a net change of zero to her anger counter from those hits. This appears to be a result of the "persistent and virulent" flag assigned to wave motion cannon projectiles; this flag has always been accompanied by a certain amount of jank. As a result, it may take somewhat more than forty-two hits for her to calm down on Total Carnage.) When her anger counter reaches zero, she stops firing at us, heads to a particular point at the north of the map, and teleports out.]] One of the developers posted a prototype of the battle [[https://youtu.be/GpxkzS8OiPc on YouTube]] (it has been refined substantially since then). Their video description also indicates that the anticlimax is deliberate.

* ApocalypseHow: ''Eternal'' features one in each failed timeline, frequently of galaxy-spanning proportions. [[spoiler:Even the "successful" outcome of the game actually leads to the complete annihilation of the galaxy in that timeline; the reason it's a success, however, is that the player finds a way Outside in the final level, enabling the entire sequence of events that created that timeline to be undone.]]

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: This is more or less what ''Eternal'' posits happened to the Jjaro. [[spoiler:And you yourself do this at the end of "Where Giants Have Fallen." It does not, however, seem to grant you omnipotence; just an ability to manipulate time to an even greater extent than you'd already possessed. In particular, you're able to undo the entire sequence of events that led to the Galaxy-Shattering Kaboom in that level – but, notably, ''not'' the conflict between the Jjaro and the W'rkncacnter, presumably because they themselves possess the same abilities you do.]]

* {{Anticlimax}}: ''Eternal'' 1.3 finally sets up a boss battle with [[spoiler:Hathor... during which the player can't possibly hope to defeat her, and can only hope to avoid defeat themselves. She is functionally immune to all sources of damage; however, as she only attacks with the wave motion cannon, she also can't directly damage players, as long as they are wielding either the wave motion cannon or the gravitronic blades - because the Jjaro weapons convey the wielder immunity to other Jjaro weapons. This doesn't make the fight free, since her attacks can still knock the player into attacks from other enemies or render it difficult to move.]] One of the developers posted a prototype of the battle [[https://youtu.be/GpxkzS8OiPc on YouTube]], with the caveat that the fight is likely to be refined substantially for the final release. Their video description also indicates that the anticlimax is deliberate.

* PrecisionFStrike: It's in Latin, but ''Eternal'' 1.3 has [[spoiler:Hathor]] drop one in "We Met Once in the Garden": she says "''aut futue, aut pugnémus''," which translates roughly as "[[spoiler:Either fuck me, or let's fight]]." This is taken verbatim from Martial's ''Epigrams''; see GratuitousLatin.{{Marathon}} for more.

* SophisticatedAsHell: In ''Eternal'' 1.3, [[spoiler:Hathor]] uses the [[SmartPeopleKnowLatin Latin]] phrase "''aut futue, aut pugnémus''" in "We Met Once in the Garden". This translates as "[[spoiler:Either fuck me, or let's fight]]," and is a verbatim quote from Martial's ''Epigrams''; see GratuitousLatin.{{Marathon}} for more.

* {{Tsundere}}: [[spoiler:Hathor]] from ''Eternal'' behaves this way at times, although "Roots and Radicals" is the most extreme example of this; she goes from effectively telling the player "Fine, I don't need you anyway!" to "I love you; please come back to me." Another example is accompanied in 1.3 by a SophisticatedAsHell PrecisionFStrike ''in Latin'': "aut futue, aut pugnémus", which translates as "[[spoiler:Either fuck me, or let's fight]]", and is taken verbatim from Martial's ''Epigrams'' (see GratuitousLatin.{{Marathon}} for more). Of course, all of this is very much in keeping with [[spoiler:[[Characters/EgyptianMythology her namesake]]]], who was the UnbuiltTrope version of this times infinity. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, Hathor spends most of the game in her ''tsuntsun'' mode - i.e., Sakhmet, who wants to KillAllHumans - and when she ''does'' go back to her original ''deredere'' personality, we've destroyed so much of her memory that she's forgotten certain things. A lot of things. Like what the Earth looks like. This causes problems if we decide to go with her in the final chapter.]]

* EvilIsSexy: From the looks of it, this is a {{Justified|Trope}} or InvokedTrope InUniverse in ''Eternal'' 1.3. Hathor [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/691755375329804318/811088711646314576/hathor-volat.gif looks]] [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/691755375329804318/811086713711624192/hathor-impetit.gif like]] [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/691755375329804318/811087500725977088/hathor-defendit.gif this]],[[note]]The file names are GratuitousLatin for "Hathor flies", "Hathor attacks", and "Hathor defends"[[/note]] and she has deliberately chosen her own appearance [[spoiler:because she's hijacked a Jjaro operator's cyborg form, which conforms to the user's desired appearance]]. One of the developers comments in a [[https://youtu.be/GpxkzS8OiPc YouTube video description]], "My personal interpretation is that she intends to be both sexy and intimidating, but others can draw their own conclusions." [[spoiler:It seems the developers' ultimate intentions are to ZigZag or {{subvert|edTrope}} this trope; by the time she gets her body in 1.3's final story, she's performed a HeelFaceTurn. That said, this is also indicated to be her appearance as the "Great Mother Crouched Behind the Throne", which (per developer commentary) is comprised of a FusionDance of two versions of Hathor, one of which has undergone a HeelFaceTurn and the other hasn't, so perhaps we've ended up with "BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil Is Sexy".]]

* '''''Phoenix''''': Primarily the work of creator [=RyokoTK=], this scenario is typically agreed to contain the most intricate architecture and best level design of any completed ''Marathon'' scenario, as well as some of the fastest-paced combat and a large number of cool new weapons. The only major drawback is that there are no HD graphics, though a future re-release incorporating them has not been ruled out. If players are interested in playing both ''Phoenix'' and ''Rubicon'', they are perhaps best advised to play the latter ''first'', as one specific moment in ''Phoenix''[='=]s story assumes familiarity with ''Rubicon'' (which was released first), and it will lose much of its power without that knowledge. (The converse argument for playing ''Phoenix'' first - which can't really be explained without spoiling ''Phoenix'' - is that [[spoiler:it's a prequel to ''Rubicon'', and thus first chronologically - but the converse arugment to ''this'' is that the realisation that ''Phoenix'' is a prequel to ''Rubicon'' is part of what makes ''Phoenix''[='=s] ending so powerful.]] In either place, they are perhaps most powerful if played in close succession.)\\

* '''''Aleph One: VideoGame/PathwaysIntoDarkness''''': ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: A surprisingly faithful port of Creator/{{Bungie}}'s precursor to ''Marathon'' to the Aleph One engine. This is the only way to play it on Windows or Linux without breaking out the emulators. This was mostly done by Wrkncacnter (who's also the main person behind ''Yuge''). Available [[https://simplici7y.com/items/aleph-one-pathways-into-darkness on Simplici7y]]. Make sure to read the readme before playing this. There are also optional [[https://simplici7y.com/items/aleph-one-pathways-into-darkness-remastered-sounds remastered sounds]] and [[https://simplici7y.com/items/hd-aopid-graphics AI upscaled graphics]].
[[/folder]]

* '''''Eternal''''': An absolutely massive total conversion that has gone through a gigantic number of revisions throughout the years, this scenario involves the most head-spinning use of time travel, taking the player through several important points in the trilogy's backstory while also incorporating a strange, tragic romance inspired by one of the terminals in ''Marathon 2''[='=]s "Kill Your Television". The game features an intricate, literate, and philosophical story with subtle political symbolism; it also contains some absolutely colossal, often beautiful levels and is probably the most time-consuming scenario to complete.[[note]]The [[https://youtu.be/AcReh_ROf8M fastest Total Carnage speedrun]] of ''Eternal'' completed as of February 2022 still took just under two hours and fifteen minutes, if that's any indication - that's almost as long as the fastest speedruns of the original trilogy ''combined'', and the ''Eternal'' speedruns skip fifteen levels. Of course, ''Eternal'' speedruns are also nowhere near as optimised as the trilogy runs are, since only three people are known to have speedrun ''Eternal'' on any difficulty. See {{Speedrun}} on the YMMV.{{Marathon}} page's mod section for more.[[/note]] The scenario also contains all-new textures, weapons, and monsters, many with incredible detail; an atmospheric, acclaimed [[https://youtu.be/LbkpMAZuOk0 soundtrack]]; and numerous clever call-backs to the original trilogy. ''Eternal'' was created by a massive team named the Xeventh Project; Forrest Cameranesi (Pfhorrest) is the project founder, served as sole director through version 1.2.0 (which re-balanced the game difficulty, fixed several annoying aspects of previous versions of the game, completely overhauled the graphics, and expanded several levels), and continues to co-direct subsequent releases.\\

The most recent official release is currently 1.2.1, released in early November 2021. Its biggest changes include a fix to a nasty crash on the 32-bit Windows build of Aleph One, completely remastered sounds, new sounds, faster loading times, gameplay refinements to a few levels, and several fixes to [[UnintentionallyUnwinnable potential game locks]]. The team also hopes to have an official 1.3 release ready in 2022 featuring many more additions to the game, including updated weapons, additional music tracks, new monster sprites, overhauled textures, new landscapes, an expanded and rewritten story, new characters, refinements to existing characters, a new boss fight, a few partially or completely remade levels, additional enhancements to level design, and more. A preview of 1.3 (which is still very much a work in progress) is [[http://eternal.bungie.org/development available as of February 2022]]. 1.4 or 2.0 releases may still follow 1.3.[[note]]1.2.1 had originally been renumbered to 1.3 owing to the number of new features people had submitted, but since it had been nearly two and a half years since the release of 1.2.0 and Windows users kept having problems with it, the developers decided in mid-2021 to polish up an old 1.2.1 beta for release as a stopgap.[[/note]]

* '''''Phoenix''''': Primarily the work of creator [=RyokoTK=], this scenario is typically agreed to contain the most intricate architecture and best level design of any completed ''Marathon'' scenario, as well as some of the fastest-paced combat and a large number of cool new weapons. The only major drawback is that there are no HD graphics, though a future re-release incorporating them has not been ruled out. Players may wish to play this game (and its short sequel ''Kindred Spirits'') before ''Rubicon'', [[spoiler:as they are intentionally structured as prequels]]. (Alternately, they may wish to play both games immediately after ''Rubicon'', since [[spoiler:TheReveal of the connection between them may be more powerful that way]]; either way, players may find it more rewarding to play them in close succession).\\

[=RyokoTK=] has also provided some quite candid [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-_EnUuI9PUoIncYlqgWainfOUoZAXhCY YouTube commentary]] for the first thirty-five levels of the game (the secret levels inserted at the end of version 1.3 are not covered), which provides a copious source of WordOfGod about the scenario.
* '''''Mararthon Yuge''''': A scenario showing off the wonders of procedural generation created in a grand total of three months. A number of (human) map creators put together "Yugeparts" that were then placed into a (computer) map generator that places them together in such a way that is possible for players to traverse the whole level, then randomly places weapons, monsters, and health recharges. The levels are often nonlinear, but the placement of teleporters minimises the amount of backtracking players are required to do. The player's objective is to recover a number of "failstaches" on each level (with two exceptions). The main scenario contains thirty massive levels, of which the final one, "Enter the DOUCHE", is an exception to the scenario's usual conceit; it was designed by a single human creator, Windbreaker. There are also 226 secret levels, which in turn contain links to further expansions for the game with levels collectively numbering in the thousands.\\

The ''Marathon'' community frequently refers to mods as "scenarios"; a "total conversion" is a scenario that incorporates custom shapes, sounds, enemies, weapons, and other content that differs from the vanilla game files, while a "partial conversion" incorporates some of those. Links to many of these scenarios can be found on [[https://alephone.lhowon.org/scenarios.html#more Lhowon.org's scenarios page]]; a few others [[http://simplici7y.com/items/mararthon-yuge Mararthon Yuge]] (yes, Mararthon rather than Marathon), [[https://sourceforge.net/projects/emr3/ Excalibur: Morgana's Revenge]], and [[http://simplici7y.com/items/pfh-joueur-a1-unimap-3 Pfh'Joueur]].

The biggest or most historically important scenarios include:

[[foldercontrol]]

* '''''Tempus Irae''''': Arguably the second major total conversion for Infinity, headed by Chris Boroweic (Borzz) and James Hastings-Trew. After ''Infinity'', the player winds up in the service of the S'pht, who travel back to Renaissance Italy in an attempt to recover some manuscripts from Creator/LeonardoDaVinci. The Pfhor inevitably follow them and it is up to the player to stop them. This scenario contains some absolutely beautiful graphics and map design, and it also contains some superb sounds. The 2006 Aleph One re-release contains updated high-resolution graphics. A second re-release, featuring even higher-resolution graphics, glow/parallax mapping, remastered sounds, overhauls to the map, a new secret level, and more, is under construction as of April 2020; a playlist containing development videos from the new version can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoysJW6pXQ6kpii7XfbzW65NP6IZxbK4n here,]] with [[https://youtu.be/TfBijnOBZ_w?list=PLoysJW6pXQ6kpii7XfbzW65NP6IZxbK4n "Gates of Delirium"]] (a particularly extensive revision of an existing level) and [[https://youtu.be/wCFeOFQPUBA?list=PLoysJW6pXQ6kpii7XfbzW65NP6IZxbK4n "Il grande silenzio"]] (the new secret level) being recommended places to start. This will likely end up being released in 2022 (although a late 2021 release still isn't completely impossible).

* LoudnessWar: Most of the scenarios for the original games have the same issue as the original games did, where the audio will clip whenever the player is in the middle of a battle. (Aleph One removes this issue, except in its film exports.) Some of the sound effects are also clipped; in the case of ''Rubicon''[='=]s "maser firing" sound effect, it's clear that this was intentional so that the sound would distort. Several of the game soundtracks also have had problems with this in various releases, but it is intentionally averted by ''Eternal'' 1.2, whose audio was remastered by one of its developers to avert this and other audio problems from earlier releases. In addition to being bundled with the game, it's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbkpMAZuOk0 on YouTube here]] (there's also a download link to higher-quality audio in the video description). It's [=DR12=] overall, with tracks ranging from [=DR9=] ("Landing") to [=DR16=] ("Chomber" and "Flippant"). Version 1.2.1 adds remastered versions of the sound effects which mitigate the clipping distortion of the sounds that had it (by the same developer responsible for remastering the Infinity sounds, found under the LoudnessWar entry for the main trilogy). The 2021 re-release of ''Tempus Irae'' will also incorporate remastered sounds and theme music (again by the same developer, and again in large part for the purpose of mitigating clipping distortion)... as will the ''Trojan'' Director's Cut (whose remastered sounds are yet again the work of the same developer).

** ''Tempus Irae'' got one in 2006 with updated textures, landscapes, and scenery objects, to take advantage of Aleph One's new high-res graphics. A second one is in process with even more detailed artwork (taking advantage of new Aleph One features such as parallax mapping and glow maps), completely remastered sounds, fixes to annoying gameplay features, and even a new level (to compensate for "Mt. Vesuvius" being recombined into one level). The creators hope to re-release it in 2021.

In any case, fans of the games have made a colossal amount of mods (in fact, they didn't wait for Forge and Anvil; they started almost immediately after the first game was released). Content covering those mods used to be found at the bottom of ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}''[='=]s own page, but we've finally given them their own page.[[note]]Partly because this page has gotten very long, and partly because, per wiki policy, they weren't really supposed to be on this page in the first place, but no one had cared to move it until now.[[/note]]

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: ''Eternal'' 1.3 automatically saves the game after level transitions[[note]]the developers evidently plan to add an option to disable this in preferences[[/note]] and uses the "Terminals Stop Time" behaviour of ''Marathon 1'', which prevents oxygen from draining or enemies from attacking while players read terminals during solo games.[[note]]This does mean that if players quickly tab through a terminal and open it again before teleporting out, they'll have to exit out it to leave the level.[[/note]] A "Terminals Stop Time" flag was added to Aleph One maps after ''Eternal'' 1.2 was released, and ''Eternal''[='=]s developers liked it enough to add to their game as a quality-of-life feature. (They also haven't ruled out a Lua hack to keep oxygen from draining while players read terminals in net games.)

[[/folder]]

* '''''Eternal''''': An absolutely massive total conversion that has gone through a gigantic number of revisions throughout the years, this scenario involves the most head-spinning use of time travel, taking the player through several important points in the trilogy's backstory while also incorporating a strange, tragic romance inspired by one of the terminals in ''Marathon 2''[='=]s "Kill Your Television". The game features an intricate, literate, and philosophical story with subtle political symbolism; it also contains some absolutely colossal, often beautiful levels and is probably the most time-consuming scenario to complete.[[note]]The fastest Total Carnage speedrun of ''Eternal'' completed as of October 2021 still took just under two and a half hours, if that's any indication - that's about as long as the fastest speedruns of the original trilogy ''combined'', and the ''Eternal'' speedruns skip fifteen levels. Of course, ''Eternal'' speedruns are also nowhere near as optimised as the trilogy runs are, since only two people are known to have speedrun ''Eternal'' on any difficulty. See {{Speedrun}} on the YMMV.{{Marathon}} page's mod section for more.[[/note]] The scenario also contains all-new textures, weapons, and monsters, many with incredible detail; an atmospheric, acclaimed [[https://youtu.be/LbkpMAZuOk0 soundtrack]]; and numerous clever call-backs to the original trilogy. ''Eternal'' was created by a massive team named the Xeventh Project; Forrest Cameranesi (Pfhorrest) is the project founder, served as sole director through version 1.2.0 (which re-balanced the game difficulty, fixed several annoying aspects of previous versions of the game, completely overhauled the graphics, and expanded several levels), and continues to co-direct subsequent releases.\\

The ''Marathon Expanded Universe'' is an informal term we're using to refer to {{Game Mod}}s for Bungie's ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' series made by its fan community. We have a bit more reasoning here for this than there would be for many fan creations, though: the company behind the original work has explicitly encouraged said creations, and the final game in the series, ''Marathon Infinity'', makes it plain that the game's setting contains numerous alternate timelines.

In any case, fans of the games have made a colossal amount of mods (in fact, they didn't wait for Forge and Anvil; they started almost immediately after the first game was released). Content covering those mods used to be found at the bottom of ''VideoGame/Marathon''[='=]s own page, but we've finally given them their own page.[[note]]Partly because this page has gotten very long, and partly because, per wiki policy, they weren't really supposed to be on this page in the first place, but no one had cared to move it until now.[[/note]]

The ''Marathon Expanded Universe'' is an informal term we're using to refer to {{Game Mod}}s for Bungie's VideoGame/''{{Marathon}}'' series made by its fan community. We have a bit more reasoning here for this than there would be for many fan creations, though: the company behind the original work has explicitly encouraged said creations, and the final game in the series, ''Marathon Infinity'', makes it plain that the game's setting contains numerous alternate timelines.

The ''Marathon'' community frequently refers to mods as "scenarios"; a "total conversion" is a scenario that incorporates custom shapes, sounds, enemies, weapons, and other content that differs from the vanilla game files, while a "partial conversion" incorporates some of those. Links to many of these scenarios can be found on [[https://alephone.lhowon.org/scenarios.html#more Lhowon.org's scenarios page]]; a few others [[http://simplici7y.com/items/mararthon-yuge Mararthon Yuge]] (yes, Mararthon rather than Marathon), [[https://sourceforge.net/projects/emr3/ Excalibur: Morgana's Revenge,]] and [[http://simplici7y.com/items/pfh-joueur-a1-unimap-3.]]

The ''Marathon Expanded Universe'' is an informal term we're using to refer to GameMods for Bungie's VideoGame/''{{Marathon}}'' series made by its fan community. We have a bit more reasoning here for this than there would be for many fan creations, though: the company behind the original work has explicitly encouraged said creations, and the final game in the series, ''Marathon Infinity'', makes it plain that the game's setting contains numerous alternate timelines.