Myth@Bungie.Org

The Comet, the Rogue Star, and Celestial Events

In Myth, what appears as a comet passes by the Earth every thousand years, signaling the rise of a great hero who will destroy the armies of the Dark and usher in an era of peace. In Marathon, a rogue star has been passing through our galaxy since around the year 2000 ("nearly a millenia" before the late 2800s). Around this same time, the S'pht'Kr left the Lh'owon system, the Pfhor attack and enslaved the other S'pht, and a US task force (with Jjaro help) got rid of a sleeping W'rkncacnter chaos-being in Pathways into Darkness.

I propose that the comet in Myth is not really a comet, but instead the Earthly interpretation of a bright new star wandering the skies. The same rogue star from Marathon. I also propose that this is no ordinary star. We know from Marathon 2 and Infinity that the Jjaro could pilot entire planets, because they gave this capability to one of the eleven S'pht clans, the 'Kr. We also know that they had technology powerfull enough to contain an entire supernova to prevent the release of the W'rkncacnter at Lh'owon. So why couldn't they pilot an entire solar system, or an artificial construction containing all the power of a star, and which shines equally bright? Also, how does Durandal know how long the star has been passing through our galaxy? He hasn't been around for a thousand years, so he must have simply calculated it's trajectory and traced backwards from there. But, if the star is actually a Jjaro structure, they how do we know that it has only been in our galaxy a thousand years? It could have just sat on the edge for a while, and then decided to start moving a thousand years ago (that is, right about now in real-time; near the year 2000). And so now, I propose that the Jjaro sweep across the galaxy in this giant stellar construction, from one end to another and then back again, and on each sweep they fight off the chaos and destruction which has reigned for so long. Between passes, the W'rkncacnter - chaos incarnate, The Leveler in Myth - takes control and starts to bring death and destruction upon the land, until the Jjaro return and bring the Light back into power.

The Myrkridia, the W'rkncacnter, and Chaos

Who are the Myrkridia? Well, I've long had a hunch that they're no ordinary species, but instead are the dreams of a sleeping W'rkncacnter, the ancient race of chaos beings who's very thoughts can manifest in the physical world. In Pathways Into Darkness, the entire mission - get to the bottom of the catacombs below the pyramid, start the timer on a nuke, and get the hell out of there - would have been easily done if it weren't for all the monsters in there. But what are unearthly monsters doing in a pyramid in southeast Mexico? Simple - the W'rkncacnter, as it wakes up, begins to dream, and as it's thoughts manifest, so do those horrid nightmares. Now the Myrkridia; perhaps they are the thoughts of a W'rkncacnter, deep below the surface of the Earth?

Now, look at Bungie's standup poster of a Myrkridia. That pose looks surprisingly similar to a certain monster from Pathways. Could they be the same? Perhaps the Dream of Unlife, which is used to raise the dead in Myth, is also derived from the W'rkncacnter, the ability to focus it's evil power.

Pathways Into Darkness, The Callieach... and France?

Take a look at the two images below. The one on top is the map from Myth, and the one on the bottom is an image of France during time of the Crusades. Notice the similarities (keep in mind that the map from Myth would be much less accurate than the France map)? In the northwest corner is the fragmented land leading into the ocean, similar to the Drowned Kingdom Of Yr-Ka in Myth. The Deep, near Rhi'Anon; doesn't that look surprisingly similar to that inlet of water in northwestern France? Where France leads into Spain in the southwest is a mountain range. Raise the sea level such that Spain is drowned (also drowning Yr-Ka, and likely altering the contours of the coastline a bit as well), and you'd probably have an island off the southwest shore, near where Covenant is in Myth. And in the southeast...

Now, from a terminal in Marathon 1, on "Smells Like Napalm, Tastes Like Chicken":

....n 15 ~~~~~~Be~rn border of the Roman Empire to the Danube River. During a skirmish with barbarians in Raetiain the mountains near the borof modern France and Switzerland), 117 men under Gaius Licinius MarcW#&I~?f/f/xxfxfff`~~~ THM@#%!@# 233nce of weird and frightening monsters under his control, many successful raidsecty the fall of the Roman Empire and remained unmolested until the ninth un~~~ written ls into the lex vita. Clovis moved the settlement farther south i the mountains, nearer the spring, to escape the notice of Charlemaligne and later the Holy Roman Empire. Clovis remain```` ~fxf«f`~Fxff«xf~~~~ 427q3w8459806ladimir in 1902 and Frederi~just recently. Both, however, carried out reforms before their deaths which slowly integrated their people secretly into world society, which are now scattered all over the globe- to meet only once every seven years in southeast France~FFFffxfffffF?F?FF?Ff must be chosen.

Let me clean that up a bit, take out the garbage text. You get several chunks of information...

...border of the Roman Empire to the Danube River. During a skirmish with barbarians in Raetiain (the mountains near the border of modern France and Switzerland), 117 men under Gaius Licinius Marc...

...once of weird and frightening monsters under his control, many successful raids...

...the fall of the Roman Empire and remained unmolested until the ninth...

...written ls into the lex vita. Clovis moved the settlement farther south into the mountains, nearer the spring, to escape the notice of Charlemaligne and later the Holy Roman Empire. Clovis remained...

...Vladimir in 1902 and Frederic just recently. Both, however, carried out reforms before their deaths which slowly integrated their people secretly into world society, which are now scattered all over the globe- to meet only once every seven years in southeast France...

...must be chosen.

Of particular interest are the "weird and frightening monsters under his control", and the septannual meetings in southeast France.

An early Pathways Into Darkness plot follows, as dictated by Jason Jones of Bungie to Richard Rouse III in the October 1993 issue of Inside Mac Games magazine (thanks to Hamish Sinclair for this tidbit).

One of the more complicated plots involved you as the descendent of Roman soldiers who had been separated from the rest of their legion while attacking a group of barbarians in what is today Switzerland. They found a mountain spring that extended their lives by hundreds of years and founded this society of semi-immortals. Every seven years they would gather and the leader of the group would descend into this cave system and return with water from the spring to assure their longevity. Now and then their leader would be killed while getting the water, none of the other members knew why or how, and a new leader would have to be chosen. The game starts with the player having just been chosen by lot to descend into the caves, find the location of the spring, and become the new leader of the cult. Of course this was extremely dangerous, and several people had already died trying. It was a very interesting plot since your quest wasn't necessarily virtuous, it didn't involve doing good things or saving the world. It was just you were chosen, more or less against your will, to become the next leader of this freak cult of immortals. It's similar to Pathways in that you would find dead people who were previous leaders of the cult or had died trying to find the spring.

Where am I going with all this? Well, lets assume my above theory about Myth being in France is correct. Then what's in southeast MythLand? The Great Devoid. Every seven years these people would gather in southeast France to descend into some catacombs and get some spring water which made them immortal. Who in Myth lived near the Great Devoid? The Callieach, of course! Now, why would this spring water make then immortal? Perhaps there was or is a W'rkncacnter buried deep below there. When the Trow nearly exterminated the Callieach, they destroyed themselves and many Trow, shattering the surface of the catabombs in the process, leaving a gaping hole to the to the W'rkncacnter below, and creating the Great Devoid. If W'rkncacnter are chaos being who do not obey the standard laws of physics, as Durandal proclaims in the beginning of Marathon Infinity, then couldn't a pit leading down to one, where things simply turn to oblivion and the normal laws of the universe cease to work, be considered bottomless? Things go down, but they never come back up again, they fall forever, into oblivion. Perhaps, when we throw Balor's head into the Devoid, it "nudges" (the same way a meteor nudges a planet) the W'rkncacnter below, causing the violent magical explosion seen at the end of Myth. Also, could those "weird and frightening monsters" under "his" control be the Myrkridia, W'rkncacnter dreams? If so, who is controlling them?

Also, ever notice the similarity between Trow and Roman architecture? And in the above Pathways storyline, it says the freak cult of immortals moved farther south to escape the notice of the Holy Roman Empire. And we know the Callieach were under seige by the Trow. So, could the Trow perhaps be the "weird and frightening monsters under his control", where "he" is some ruler in the Roman Empire? So the Romans sicked their Trow on the Callieach, and then later the Trow rebelled against their masters and took control of their lands. The only problems I see with this theory so far are that Rome was east (and slightly south) of France, but their empire may have spread to the north (forgive me, I'm not a history/geography major) to where we currently find the Trow empire. As a matter of fact, on the map from which I took the above image of Crusade-Era France, there's a large nation to the east, bordering France on all sides but the southwest, which I presume to be the Roman Empire (in fact, it's even labled "the empire").

And lastly, an interesting correlation between the Cath Bruig and the immortals from the early PiD plot. In Myth, Clovis was the first emperor of the Cath Bruig. A man named Clovis also seems to have been a promiant figure in the early PiD plot. And the immortals gathered every seven years to retrieve more water from their enchanted spring; the Cath Bruig in Myth hold septannual tournyments for election into the Heron Guard, who then become immortal. Something to think about.

Semi-Millenial Events

Bungie's games lately all seem to revolve around cycles and balance, as seen at the top of this page. The following is a compiled list of semi-millenial events from Myth and the Marathon series. Myth dates are judged by a date from the beta Journeyman flavor text, giving a battle for Bagrada a date around the year 1100. All dates approximated to the nearest half-millenium.