The reason why the psychic influence of the Marker seems so contradictory is because there are, in fact, two distinctly different entities present. There is the Marker's Necromorphic Hive Mind, which wants to spread the Necromorph infection, and then there is what was placed there by the precursors, which wants to contain the Necromorphs. The Hive Mind psychic influence tends to be basic but broad- it makes everyone in the radius suicidal and violently psychotic, so that there are more dead bodies. The psychic influence from the seal is much more complex but narrow- it can only affect one or two people at a time, and it gives them complex hallucinations of dead loved ones that give them advice or guidance.
The real problem arises from the fact that copies of the Marker were made- imperfect, man-made copies that didn't understand the fundamental makeup of the combined artifact, and thus recreated both the original Marker and the additional seals in unison, as a single piece. This has caused the two psychic entities to be partially merged, despite their diametrically opposed natures, and thus, essentially, schizophrenic. While the Marker/Seal combination in Dead Space 1 was relatively consistent, presumably because it was a fairly high quality copy, the Titan Marker was much more confused, presumably because it was more poorly made.
Except that in the midst of everything, she grabbed the wrong syringe. Maybe the Marker was affecting her, maybe she didn't see what the contents of the syringe were, or something else happened; but the end result was that she survived. However, in her unconscious state, the Marker has less resistance from her subconscious and it drove her insane.
The logical extension of this is that in Chapter 7, Nicole really is opening the door, but Nicole is insane due to the Marker. The Hive Mind knew this, and that's why it sent the necromorphs to kill her in this scene. The transmissions of Nicole on the other hand are hallucinations cause by the Marker to get Isaac to trust Nicole. After all, she is giving Isaac the Marker's advice of "make us whole".
Of course, by Chapter 11, she has managed to fight the Marker's influence, just like Isaac did in Dead Space 2. This makes Nicole useless to The Marker, and it chooses the easier option of causing Isaac to hallucinate Nicole and get him to do what it wants. Naturally, this leads to Isaac having to do everything, as Nicole really isn't there. The real Nicole is actually back on the Ishimura fighting for her life, because the marker’s influence is no longer protecting her.
In Dead Space 2, it is revealed that after Isaac killed the Hive mind, the Ishimura survived the planet’s explosion, which means that Nicole is still on board at this point. (Side note: Aftermath shows that Aegis VII also survived the explosion.) The necromorphs turned into the sludge (as stated by audio logs in Dead Space 2), so Nicole doesn’t have to fight to survive anymore, and the Necro-Nicole is a hallucination caused by Isaac being insane as revealed in Dead Space 2.
Dead Space Salvage spoilers ahead: At this point, the Ishimura drifts aimlessly into space, with almost non-existent systems, and is later retrieved by a group of Magpies (The Main cast of Dead Space: Salvage). When the Magpies board the Ishimura, Nicole doesn’t know it due to that systems; and the Magpies never found Nicole before, or during, the bloodbath, since the Ishimura is over 1.5 kilometers long. They eventually find marker shards on the hull of the Ishimura and start spoiler: killing themselves, but the Shards don’t bother Nicole, since they are small enough that they can only be a problem to people if they touch the Shards, which the Magpies did and Nicole didn’t.
Earth Gov eventually finds the Ishimura and takes it back to the Sprawl. Since the cover-up regarding Aegis VII is a terror attack, Earth Gov restores the Ishimura to working condition to show the people that they won’t be influenced by terrorists, including installing an escape pod to replace the one that Hammond used to suck out a necromorph in Dead Space 1, which Isaac then later uses to escape the Ishimura in Dead Space 2. Of course, a science team is sent aboard to investigate the evidence left by the Marker, because the Marker is a powerful thing.
While restoring the Ishimura, Nicole makes herself known, either by accident or because she heard someone. Someone recognizes that she could be useful in studying the Marker’s influence on people, and Director Tiedemann makes her one of the patients in his plan to save The Sprawl by the research grants supplied by rebuild the Marker(s), along with Isaac and Stross. Since Patient Six from Dead Space 2 is revealed to be female, it would be unknown if Nicole was Patient Six or not. If she was, then the odds of her surviving The Sprawl are nil, given that Patient Six couldn’t "feed, drink, or even bathe herself".
If, on the other hand, Nicole was not Patient Six, then odds are that she escaped from the mental institute where all the Patients were held in the original outbreak, similar to how Stross escaped as well. Her knowledge of necromorphs from her time on the Ishimura, although limited, would be enough for her to make her way to one of the many escape shuttles that left during the evacuation that Tiedemann ordered.
Naturally, the logical conclusion is that it is possible that Nicole is still out there somewhere in the Dead Space universe, though she probably won’t see Isaac again because; A) the galaxy is a large place, and B) the escape shuttles, in the event of an evacuation, would most likely head to Earth where Nicole would be locked back up in an asylum. If the shuttle went to a nearby colony instead, then anyone who was insane (like Nicole) would be locked up, or sent back to Earth to be locked back in an asylum.
Of course, there is always the possibility of Isaac finding Nicole on Earth if he goes there to destroy the original Black Marker, as Dead Space: Martyr says that the Black Marker is at the bottom of the ocean in the wreckage of a research facility that Michael Altman (Yes, that Michael Altman) himself destroyed to stop the Marker. The ‘Dead Space Game set on Earth’ theory seems probable given that the Black Marker was as damage resistant as, if not more than, the Red and Yellow Markers encountered in Dead Space 1 and Dead Space 2. Of course, Isaac finding Nicole would, on the surface, be a Contrived Coincidence and maybe some Retcon would be required so that it would be believable, so don’t expect it to happen outside of FanFics
What does this mean for the Dead Space series? Nothing really; if Nicole is still alive, then EA Visceral can’t put her into a story since everyone thinks she’s dead. They could probably add some throwaway comments in the Extended Universe that hint at Nicole’s status as being alive without actually confirming anything, but it really doesn’t make that big a difference. It would be a big deal for Isaac, being his girlfriend after all. But since he thinks she’s dead, he’s not suffering from dementia anymore, and Ellie has survived the Sprawl as well, he probably will have moved on by the time we see him in Dead Space 3.
- This troper after getting to the end, assumed that Isaac had watched to the end, only for the trauma of Nicole's death to sink into such deep denial that he is just going through the first game on some sort of PTSD auto pilot. Notice how he never says anything to the rest of the repair crew, always setting off to do whatever Kendra and the Captain tell him to. It is only after having the proof that Nicole was gone thrown into his face once more that he is forced to deal with it, hence the marker!Nicole at the end. Its even worse after the second game reveals that Isaac convinced Nicole to sign onto the Ishimura, adding a layer of guilt. Dead Space 2 has him talking again and back to mostly normal because he has snapped out of his denial and whether he wants to or not the Marker Codes/Signal or whatever in his head are making him either get over it or die.
Let's face it: Nicole being Dead All Along is not much of a reveal. From the moment she utters the first cryptic "Make us whole again," it's obvious she's not right, and presumably Isaac also has the feeling that what he's seeing isn't right. But nonetheless he can't help but be affected by visions of his dead girlfriend, and he follows her directions because everything the Marker has him do is stuff he was going to do anyway—up to and including putting the Marker back on the pedestal, which Isaac already intended to do before his dead girlfriend started showing up around it as soon as he learned it would contain the Necromorphs.
- It was heavily foreshadowed when several logs contain people mentioning either talking with dead loved ones themselves or commenting on other crew-mates who talked about talking with dead loved ones.
- That would explain the Healing Factor, and the fact that it comes back to get Isaac personally after being incapacitated the first time.
- Denied by the SCP-610 author who said it's based on blacklight.
- An excellent theory, except that the Necromorphs in that sequence still drop money and ammunition that you can pick up with Kinesis afterwards.
- Easily explained by Gameplay and Story Segregation.
- Or, those items were already scattered about, and the hallucinations just incorporate them; Isaac can't see them until he's "killed" the "necromorphs," which then "drop" the random useful stuff they were carrying when they were infected, just like all the necromorphs he's seen so far.
- Alternate theory: Let's assume that "Nicole" is a physical manifestation of the Marker's influence that only Isaac can see, and that the Hive Mind is vaguely aware of. During the scene in question, "Nicole" is accessing a panel that, in a roundabout way, will lead Isaac to returning the Marker to where it needs to be. The Hive Mind obviously doesn't want that, so it sends necromorphs to take care of it, with maintaining the illusion of Nicole still being alive entirely incidental.
- An excellent theory, except that the Necromorphs in that sequence still drop money and ammunition that you can pick up with Kinesis afterwards.
- With the Hive Mind dead, Nicole should have died (stopped working?) like all the other Necromorphs.
- That image of Nicole at the end could easily have been a hallucination. Everything else in the theory makes sense, though.
- In most stories with a hive mind, the death of the hive mind causes the drones to go crazy, entering a rage state, sticking to the last order they were given, defaulting back to their normal behavior, etc. So, the final moment of the end of the game could be the slasher that used to be Nicole just defaulting to "kill mode" or following out its last order: kill what killed us. However, keeping in mind the horrible events Isaac has just survived, the "actual hallucination" theory holds up, too.
- That image of Nicole at the end could easily have been a hallucination. Everything else in the theory makes sense, though.
- Jossed. Dead Space: Martyr tells us that Altman never worshiped the thing, hated being revered as a prophet, and was actually killed by one of his own "followers" while they planned to use this new cult for their own agenda.
- Alex Mercer was consumed by James Heller after the final battle in [PROTOTYPE 2]. It might even be someone else if it happens again. It could even explain the hive mind, if being consumed doesn't kill completely kill someone.
In any case, the biological weapon got out of hand, so the precursors then built the original marker - perhaps even a big series of them. Aware that the necromorph infection might take a bit of effort to stamp out, they design the marker(s) to be capable of mind-controlling other species, and putting necromorph DNA in the runes so that people can figure out a cure. Eventually, it was too late so they decided to completely blow up a planet, sending the marker as well as a lot of necromorphs flying. After a few million years, both the marker and the necromorphs land on Earth, and the rest is history. The reason why it seems like the marker(s) cause the necromorph infection is because of the actions of Markoff and his version of Unitology, who only translated the marker symbols that describe the necromorph infection itself without translating anything else and believe it's a way to achieve eternal life.
Also, the reason why the hallucinations seem so disjointed and what not is because the aliens who built the marker didn't know anything about humans, much less how their brains worked, and thus the marker's mind control is... let us say... inefficient.
- Alternatively, necromorph gathered the memories of all they killed, and, not having any ability to control the bodies they possess well enough, or even think clear enough to fly a ship, decided to choose him to create a new marker, with the attacking necromorph just acting out of instinct, in discord with hive mind they support.
Let's face it, if we suddenly saw Turians or Krogan blasting their way through the Ishimura coated in Necromorph spew, we wouldn't be half surprised.
- Or maybe it's set after Mass Effect 3 destroy-the-Reapers ending, with the markers as pieces of Reapers or part of the R&D that went into them. The ME timeline currently stops in 2186 while the DS timeline starts in 2214, so that gives around only 28 years to work with.
- This Troper has seen Dead Space as a dark alt universe to Mass Effect. The Brethren Moons (and their Markers) are extremely similar to the Reapers. They are capable of altering the minds of sentient beings. Reapers cause subjects to become loyal to them, Brethren Moons (and their Markers) cause subjects to worship them, commit suicide, or commit homicide. Both use sentient organic matter to construct more of themselves. Both create zombie-like ground troops from affected victims, sometimes by even combining multiple victims into 1 thing. Both appear to wipe out civilizations that face extinction anyway; the Reapers appear when synthetic life threatens to wipe out organic life, and the Brethren Moons appear when a civilization is running out of resources. Also Isaac Clarke seems to be the complete opposite of Commander Shepard. Shepard managed to unite the races of the galaxy to defeat the Reapers, is a highly trained and experienced Special Operations [[Space Marine]] who works for SPECTER and the human Space Navy, is highly charismatic, and is seemingly unaffected by Reaper Indoctrination. Isaac, on the other hand, can never keep even a small team together and united (usually those around him die or leave him), is only a fairly talented/experienced systems engineer for the CEC, often has to try very hard to get people to listen to him, and is heavily affected by Marker/Moon signals that are driving him homicidally/suicidally insane. Sherpard jumps at the call to save the galaxy, while Isaac has to be nearly dragged kicking and screaming back into action. In Mass Effect, humans manage to contact other sentient species and form an alliance that ultimately save the galaxy. In Dead Space, humans never found any intelligent life due to the Brethren Moons having already killed/eaten them all. In both Mass Effect and Dead Space, the giant monster/civilization destroyers invade/attack Earth after being encountered several times out in space. On a smaller level, the mission is Mass Effect 1 where you investigate a ship's distress call, only to encounter crazed passengers or a horde of husks is extremely similar to how Dead Space 1 plays out.
- This troper poses the theory that John Carver is a hallucination like the Nicole from the "protect her while she opens a door" sequence in the first game and is a more solid manifestation of the Marker's will projected from with Isaac.
- This troper assumed as such after the whole needle through your eye machine jiggle Isaac's brain meat/ injected him with something. I only that damn Regenerator was just a hallucination as well.
- According to rumors, confirmed based on sales. That said I won't be that upset about not getting more information on the Brethren Moons. Ancient horrors from beyond imagining become much less interesting when they're explained to the viewer. Much as I like the series and agree it sucks that it's over, 3 was a decent enough stopping point; we see the end of Isaac Clarke's story.
- EA has denied that they're killing it.
It's entirely possible the moons haven't arrived yet, and the ones the pair saw were just hallucinations and they were hallucinating the actual Moon was one of them as well.
So they basically crash land in the middle of an outbreak and have to get to Earth or something to warn everybody that the Moons are coming.
Thematically, Dead Space is the Recycled In Space spin-off common to many franchises. It adheres more strongly to the core tenets of old-school Resident Evil and came along at the right time to be an alternative Resident Evil 4 or 5, just as that series moved into more action-oriented gameplay.
Once the planet was fully infected, Convergence would occur, clearing the planet of Necromorphs and leaving behind an empty world ripe for colonisation. The Brethren Moons were then used to coordinate further conquests in cases where the Markers might be ineffective or where the populace could better mount a resistance.
At some point, the aliens lost control of the Brethren Moons, whether because their mechanisms of control broke or were sabotaged, or just because the Moons overpowered their control through force of will. The Moons then turned on and destroyed their creators, now free to act upon their own agenda to subsume the entire galaxy.
As the ages wore on and more and more Markers were produced, mistakes were inevitably made in some of the new copies. Finally,one was produced that lacked the safeguards implemented by the creators of the first Markers. Rather than focusing primarily on spawning and nurturing intelligent life, it opted to spawn as many copies of itself as possible through any means necessary, following the rules of evolution that govern biological life. Eventually, descendants who chose to simply reanimate dead flesh rather than utilizing mind control proved the most successful, since their servants had no consciousness that could resist. They also began to produce bodies for themselves, the Brethren Moons, who would meet the basic criteria for "intelligent life", the nurturance of which was still an objective.
Whether the original creators of the Markers are still alive is impossible to know. They may have ascended to some higher plain of existence, or they may have been absorbed by their own creation. Either way, they would likely be horrified by the destruction they unintentionally wrought.
Whenever someone dies near a Marker, from whatever reason, their minds and souls are absorbed into the obelisk and sent straight into the hive mind network of the Brethren Moons. In this collective and nightmarish Mental World, constructed and inhabited by the minds of the untold number of assimilated beings that comprise the Moons, the minds of the newcomers are then pounded into submission by the collective will, driving them completely over the edge into rabid, screaming madness and beyond, to the point that if they weren't fanatically psychotic followers beforehand, they will almost certainly be once it's done. Then, once they are broken, these tortured "Marker Spirits" are projected back out into the physical world through the obelisk into any vulnerable people they come across with the sole goal of tricking and coercing them into doing their bidding, the signs and symptoms of this psychic assault being referred to as Marker Sickness.
When the time comes to start an outbreak, the Marker will unleash forth the craziest among their disembodied ranks, usually those who have been long dead or hit hardest by the Mind Rape of the collective will, to possess the nearby corpses and rise again as Necromorphs. As a result of this long-term psychological degeneration, the behaviour of the possessed are animalistic, hyper-violent and so obedient that the thought of doing anything other than attacking the living to spread the infection is deemed by them as completely irrelevant. The Guardians are the only exception to this because unlike the others, they are there more as a punishment than to complete a task, being those who are strong-willed enough to resist the insanity that has claimed their fellows in undeath.