History WMG / DeadSpace2

* If the Marker can stop people from dying, and thus have some control over their actions, why not tell them to go straight to the nearest Infector and take part in Glorious Convergence? And, as well as that, why continue with the Necromorphs if it could control them, and doesn't want them to die? The Necromorphs and people who aren't insane are the only threats they would face, and removing the former would result in the eventual death of the latter from the lack of insane people dying and the lesser numbers of sane people.

** I doubt that. [spoiler: Kendra knew that the Red Marker was a fake, so she couldn't have been a Unitologist, or else she wouldn't have been picked for the mission.]]

** Pluto doesn't have much in the way of resources, being mostly ice and such. It's also pretty small, about the size of five Ishimuras, so breaking it open wouldn't yield much anyway, as well as completely destroying it. The moons, however, could just be munched up like a twix, a nice little treat.

The Markers are clearly intelligent, and capable of controlling organic life through hallucinations. However there is some disparity between the actions of the markers in the first game and this game. My theory? The markers are sentient but the Titan station marker chose to be evil, while the Aegis 7 marker chose to be good, possibly from the centuries of quiet introspection and isolation. Necromorph creation is probably involuntary, which is why the Aegis 7 marker wanted to be returned to it's pedestal, so it couldn't hurt anyone else. the Titan Marker, being younger chose to be evil because it likely suffered from increased ego from being 900 feet tall, and thought it should take over the universe.

This stems from the theory that Isaac's helmet pops off half the time (eg. when Stross tries to stab him in the eye) because he really wants to die. And it makes sense, he's insane, he's been hunted by horrible nightmare-inducing eldritch abominations that look like humans, he's seen a LOT of people die, etc. But then, why doesn't he kill himself? I mean, it's pretty obvious he didn't have anything to live for, before Ellie. And the marker did needed him to get to the site so it could absorb him.

* Such a thing is possible. Lexine Murdoch from Extraction is immune, and she's been targeted before by those who wish to study her. Isaac obviously isn't immune, but his HeroicWillpower gives him better resistance from going insane, like Stross did. We don't know if it's that way for Elie, since she never was in close proximity with a Marker that wasn't currently exploding.

[[WMG: McNeill is alive]]
He survived ''Extraction'' as the ending was a hallucination; He then presumably retired as he states near the end. There is no mention of him in the ''Severed'' DLC, and the developers of this game aren't exactly shy about killing characters. They would've casually mentioned his death if they wanted to. My guess is that he'll return in Dead Space 3, become Isaac's [[TheLancer Lancer]] and kick EarthGov's ass to avenge Gabe. He will also meet Lexine again, possibly explaining why, despite apparently liking each other in ''Extraction'', she married Gabe insted.

[[spoiler:Why did the Red and Black Markers repel the Necromorphs while the Titan Marker attracts them? The Black and Red Markers want to be constantly replicated and spread, and to do this they imprint the blueprints into unlucky people's heads. At the time of the Red and Black Markers, there weren't enough, but three years later with Isaac's involuntary help, they've created either enough Markers or strong enough Markers to prepare for Convergence. This might explain the ContinuitySnarl and Retcon that occurs between DS1 and DS2.]]

** However, the ImplacableMan makes an appearance when you first let the necromorphs swarm the government sector. If you look, you'll see him. [[FridgeBrilliance How else would an army of necromorphs be able to swarm over 200 heavily armed men so quickly? One of them is literally unkillable!]] However, this is still likely. However, it is possible that the Hive Mind in DeadSpace was malformed or a mutant, due to the fact that the Red Marker was a failed experiment.

In both games, the two Markers seem to have opposite objectives; one repels necromorphs and is the key to holding them at bay, the other attracts them and attempts a Convergence Event. But why assume that all these Markers were made by the same people for the same purpose? What if the Marker that stops necromorphs - the 'good' Marker - was created to stop the 'bad' Markers, like some sort of war with giant chesspieces? The human government is assuming that all the Markers do the same thing, when they're actually unwittingly recreating a war with the left-over pieces. (As to why the 'blueprints' of a good Marker made a bad Marker - remember that the humans are only barely understanding how they work. It's fully possible that during the process of reverse-engingeering the Marker they made a mistake, creating a 'bad' Marker. Especially if you assume that 'good' Markers are modified 'bad' Markers.)
** I've always figured that the necromorphs are actually slaves to the Markers, and want to be free. If a marker is unable to control necromorphs, like when the Red Marker was removed from it's pedestal, they form a Hive Mind to have control over themselves. The reason why the Red Marker wanted Isaac to return it to it's pedestal was so that it could supress the Hive Mind and gain control over the remainder. It never got the chance to betray Isaac on account of Kendra removing it, and couldn't do anything more on account of being blown up.
** The problem with the theory of good markers and bad markers is that the Red Marker on Aegis VII is the cause of all of this. Remember, in the first game they talk about the government experimenting with a marker and things going horribly wrong, leading to the complete abandonment of the planet. The Red Marker failed, drove hordes of people insane and created the first necromorphs (that we know of). No different from the mammoth marker in DS2.
** The Black Marker on earth seems to be of a mixed bag aswell according to the novel Martyr. The Black Marker also drives people insane who get in it's sphere of influence and also is responcible for a smaller Necromorph outbreak decades before the first experiments on Aegis VII. However it also created a hallucination in form of an old witch causing peasants to destroy a potential Necromorh outbreak years before Altman finds it. So we don't know how close the red markers are to the black one in terms of objectives.

* The Markers are physical representations of heuristic algorithms. They transmit a signal that causes either mass insanity or visions to cause their replication. The Marker signal causes necromorphs. The Markers are able to infiltrate the human mind with incredible skill. As one scientist put it, the Markers WANT to be duplicated, and subtly manipulated those around them into doing so. Why? Because a group of intelligent machines, after purging their sector of the galaxy of the "fleshies" decided to make a way to keep them from ever being a threat again. They created the marker, a device that would decimate life forms, yet would inevitably cause those life forms to duplicate them. Convergence events occur when so many bodies reach the Marker that it sends a signal. If the signal is strong enough, the creators of the Marker come to wipe out the "fleshies". And why must the creators of the Marker die? Because the Marker has the same weakness as their creators.

* While on [[spoiler: the Ishimura]], we get a log entry that states that the Necromorphs aboard were turned into goop when the Red Marker was destroyed. However, it also states that the moment that the goop enters the range of a Marker signal, it begins to reanimate. Earth Gov built [[spoiler: a gigantic Marker, with an effective range of MILES]], with [[spoiler: the Ishimura]] well within range. Put two and two together, please.

*** Was the Ishimura at the Sprawl for the entire three years? Given that much of the ship's still off line, the computer mentions decontamination hadn't been complete, severap parts of the ship are still very broken down, and the entire medical deck is hosed down with luminol and illuminated with blacklights, I got the feeling that it had only been brought in fairly recently (and logs on the ship mention that the person involved in the cleanup hears scuttling noises when he walks the ship). If that was the case, either the marker reanimated the sludge when the Ishimura was brought within range, or while the CEC was cleaning the sludge the marker came on line.

While Isaac now has Ellie at his side, they'll never have enough time to stop Convergence if the Unitologists/EarthGov plan to activate them all at the same time. The only way to rid the galaxy of the [[spoiler:Marker]] threat will be to find a way to tap into the [[spoiler:Marker]] network and purge them all simultaneously.

Think about it, In DS1, Doctor Challus Mercer created the Hunter by stabbing a peice of necrotic tissue straight into the head of some poor guy (who was alive at the time). Franco got stabbed by an infector straight in the forhead while he was still alive. We never get to see his full transformation, and his whole frigging face rips off with tentacles coming out of his skull, whereas most slasher necromorphs have skin on the upper half of their faces. The Ubermorph has those light-bright eye-stalk things on his face, so Franco's face tentacles may have evolved into the glowing facial features of the Ubermorph. The Ubermorph also regenerates, just like the hunter did.
** Then again, a probiscis to the forehead is the standard infection tactic used by infectors. Franco's no more likely to be the ubermorph than any other person.
*** While the hunter was created via necrotic tissue being placed in the brain of a still living victim, it was also implied that this isn't normally possible and only worked because of careful medical intervention by Dr. Mercer. Besides that, pretty sure the slasher blade through the heart probably killed Franco before the infecter got him. Also, the face tentacles are actually a clue that Franco was a secret unitologist. If you pay attention when you reach the unitology church, you'll notice that all the slashers are dressed in unitology clergy robes and have tentacles coming out of their faces. They're also tougher and more aggressive. Religious zealots just make better zombies, I guess.

What if Issac was actually killed by Necromorph Nicole at the end of the first game, in the second he was really a Necromorph killing colonists. The Marker's just tricking it into thinking it is Issac, and that the colonists are Necromorphs, which wouldn't bee too much of a stretch seeing as how powerful the hallucinations are for 'Issac'. Perhaps if this applied to all Necromorphs we could understand why they are so aggressive to all non-necromorphs, seeing as they're deluded into believing they are humans fighting monsters.

* It's almost impossible that Isaac's a necromorph. Things that don't kill the necros, such as vacuum, do kill him. It's also highly unlikely that an entire station wouldn't be able to take him down if he's the only one.

The birds in the solar array are alive, despite their owner being killed by necromorphs in the same room. The plants in hydroponics on the Ishimura, in the first game must have had more biomass than all the people on the ship combined, but they were left alone. The markers only want thinking creatures, or humans specifically.

** However, in ''Martyr'', Altman describes seeing a necromorphed fish, who was currently attacking other fish. it's possible that the infestation targets only ones that could prove useful to it. In ''Maryr'', fish were the only lifeform available, and would be almost a non-threat to any kind of larger fish. However when you reach the solar array, the birds would be left alone because they are useless to the Necromorphs; why infect a small bird when there are plenty humans around ripe for the taking? It's not like they need to kill them, since when the growth reaches their area they'll just suffocate.

* Think about it: the Marker causes the necromorph phenomenon, causing dead organic material in it's vicinity to change into necromorphs. A [[spoiler: Convergence event]] occurs when a large number of Necromorphs come in contact with the Marker. Consider this: once enough organic material has been gathered around the Marker, couldn't it just reconfigure all of that organic material into the beginnings of a terraforming system, reconfiguring the atmosphere, biosphere, and ecospere in order to sustain it's original creators? We saw this in Dead Space 1: on the Ishimura, Necromorphs adapted to poison the air aboard to make it breathable. The organic material on the walls is called, in Dead Space 1, a habitat changer. The Markers are a Genesis device for beings so alien that their home environment is one that humans cannot possibly exist in!
** It'd be a brilliant parallel to Isaac himself: He's just an engineer forced to fight harder than any soldier, whereas the necromorph threat, which looks like some horrific genocidal bio-weapon, is really just a terraforming tool.

* The Ubermorph only shows up once a Convergence event is triggered, if the game is to be believed, and as Marker-Nicole states, Convergence is what the Markers were made for. If the Marker's operating at full capacity and is able to bring forth Convergence, that means it's able to fully complete the Necromorph transformative process- turning Infected into Ubermorphs instead of the 'incomplete' Slashers the Ubermorphs resemble. The Markers might be the alien race's only way of saving their civilization- by re-shaping new generations into more of their own. ''(All credit for the theory goes to the Dead Space wiki)''

** Once again, the Ubermorph actually shows up before the Convergence, it's in the swarm of necromorphs overrunning the soldiers, and actually, there isn't anything to suggest that Convergence had been achieved. Heading towards, yes, but never fully realized; it's strongly implied that that's why the Marker needed Isaac.

[[WMG: Ubermorphs are necromorphs formed from individuals that helped to create a Marker]]
* The Ubermorph doesn't show up until one chapter after Nolan Stross dies because it was formed from his infected corpse. The Ubermorph is more powerful and looks more alien than a normal necromorph because the data and blueprints the Marker imprinted into Stross's mind enabled the infection to transform him into a more "pure" form of alien DNA encoded into the Marker. This is why the Marker doesn't seem to care where or how Isaac dies and continually sends necromorphs after him the whole game - once he's dead, an infector will find and transform him into an Ubermorph, and he'll eventually make his way to the Marker and initiate Convergence. (full credit to the Dead Space Wiki for this theory)

It's either a hint that Tiedmann's boss is a Unitologist spearheading Earthgov's marker research as another vector of getting it done for the church in case their more direct attempts (like Daina trying to nab Isaac) fail, or it's simply a hint for players who didn't read Martyr that Unitology secretly came from the government.

* Some of it later, maybe, but some graffiti is obviously made by others. Most instances are pretty logical; a child hiding after seeing her mother transform might write "Mommy is a monster", and "What would you give up for what you love" could be written by someone who decided against escaping on a shuttle to rescuing his loved ones. Even the Unitology graffiti isn't too implausible, as they're written in places filled with Unitologists, and in one case you can see the woman who suicided after writing some.

Not only did he survive the first necromorph outbreak but he was (is) the sanest person with that level of marker exposure. He also didn't lose any muscle tone despite being in a straight jacket for three years and can fight some necromorphs hand to hand.

Isaac build up a resistance and Ellie didn't seem to be affected at all.

They rely on MindRape to further their purposes, specifically a sloppier version of Indoctrination. The Necromorphs and Convergence Events are actually early attempts to make the [[spoiler: organic component of Reaper larvae]]. The Reapers have since found more efficient methods and left the Markers lying around as an afterthought.

[[WMG: The Markers are leftover early [[MassEffect Reaper]] Technology]].

If I remember correctly, Isaac runs through the same part of the game (either the mall or tenement buildings) twice in the game, but the second time around there's graffiti everywhere. Of course, you might be wondering how the hell did so much graffiti appear in the few hours in between each visit. That's because the graffiti is the Marker messing with his head. Plus some of the other graffiti is just strange and oddly enough seem like messages to Isaac... why would a child scrawl messages like "Mommy is a monster" on the wall? Or a message asking "What would you give up for what you love?" I'm thinking a lot of the graffiti is just in Isaac's head, maybe his influences on the Ishimura subtly bleeding through.

It's either a hint that Tiedmann's boss is a Unitologist spearheading Earthgov's marker research as another vector of getting it done for the church in case their more direct attempts (like Daina trying to nab Isaac) fail, or it's simply a hint for players who didn't read Martyr that Unitology secretly came from the government.

** Right "horribly killed" like the game hasn't decided that that's the only way Isaac can ever go out.

He survived ''Extraction'' as the ending was a hallucination; He then presumably retired as he states near the end. There is no mention of him in the ''Severed'' DLC, and the developers of this game aren't exactly shy about killing characters. They would've casually mentioned his death if they wanted to. My guess is that he'll return in Dead Space 3, become Isaac's [[TheLancer Lancer]] and kick EarthGov's ass to avenge Gabe.

He won't be the protagonist, it'll be someone else. Perhaps he recruited a team to help him destroy a Marker or you just run across him while surviving another outbreak. Regardless, he'll be the guiding voice for you. He'll even occasionally show up like Ellie did and fight off Necromorphs, but then in order to showcase a new deadly Necromorph or even the final boss, you'll get to see him be horribly killed.

* While conducting research on the various test subjects, the team members on the Sprawl found a second, less complex sequence of codes in Isaac's head. The construction that resulted look and felt exactly like foam, and did nothing when anyone else put it on. One clueless lab janitor happened to find it laying around, with a tag saying "Source: Subject Four (Isaac Clarke)", assumed it was his, and loaded it into the shop for Isaac to retrieve later. The Marker gave Isaac such a powerful and uniquely specific tool to ensure he reached the Marker alive.

* While conducting research on the various test subjects, the team member on the Sprawl found a second, less complex sequence of codes in Isaac's head. The construction that resulted look and felt exactly like foam, and did nothing when anyone else put it on. One clueless lab janitor happened to find it laying around, with a tag saying "Source: Subject Four (Isaac Clarke)", assumed it was his, and loaded it into the shop for Isaac to retrieve later. The Marker gave Isaac such a powerful and uniquely specific tool to ensure he reached the Marker alive.