Characters / Marathon

Beware spoilers; per wiki policy, trope names are not spoiler tagged.

Characters in Bungie's Marathon trilogy

The Hero

Security Officer

I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh. I have been called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the world goes dim and cold. I am a hero

The main character of all three games, who is somewhat of a Heroic Mime archetype. He rarely, if ever, utters a single word. His motivations are unknown, if he has any to begin with, and is mainly commanded by the three AIs over the series. Whether or not he's even a hero, or just someone who is exceptionally good at getting his job done is up for debate.

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• The All-Concealing "I": The series has an odd variation of this — you play a character that is treated like a tool by most other main characters, and as such, the only dialogue you get is overheard conversations in which you aren't mentioned or someone talking to you giving you orders. Aside from a short, vague prologue in each manual, there is no background for your character, and he is never heard. Plenty of hints are in the game, with mentions of military cyborgs and soldiers made from the reanimated dead, but arguments still go on as to what exactly he is.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Regardless of what is being implied is actually happening to the Security Officer by Infinity, one thing is absolutely certain by the end of it: virtually nothing can stop him, not even primordial chaos itself after he becomes a Dimensional Traveler through each timeline is able to impede him for very long in a multiversal war of attrition — seeing how W'rkncacnter is defeated in what is implicated to be just seven timelines before getting his Golden Ending — and seeing how Durandal believes the Security Officer to be destiny itself in his last moments at the end of the universe, there's enough credence to believe that nothing can match the Security Officer by the end of the trilogy.
• Ambiguously Brown: Perhaps something of a Depending on the Artist case. In some of the official artwork, he is given distinctly Caucasian features, while in others, his skin looks quite a bit darker. It's hard to see anything but his jawline, in any case. There are all kinds of Epileptic Trees regarding this.
• Ambiguously Human: This is a point bought up multiple times throughout the series. Many characters muse on his inhuman physical capabilities and capacity for violence. By the end of Infinity, if at least one thing is completely certain, he's not human.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: The Security Officer is Destiny, at least according to Durandal's final words.
• Almighty Janitor: This might be one of the FPS benchmarks. Keep in mind, he's not a decorated veteran or part of an elite task force, but is, well, just a security officer. And yet, he easily outperforms everyone on the field in both physical standard and combat skill, to the point where he can massacre large groups of Pfhor entirely on his own in under a minute. Might have something to do with being an amnesiac combat cyborg implanted with alien tech.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: A potential answer for what's happening to him in Infinity. As the Officer's jjarro implants come online and he goes through the stages of rampancy, he begins to self-actualize and slowly gain access to godlike capabilities. This includes timeline jumping. Durandal muses that the officer has "become Destiny" at the end of the game, giving credence to this theory.
• Ax-Crazy: A bizarrely downplayed example. While the Security Officer does seem to act on some sort of morality, it seems that he regularly uses more force than is strictly necessary in dealing with the Pfhor.
• Big Damn Heroes: The Protagonist for the BoBs. ^note Unless you aren't. In Durandal, they do this for you by breaking you out of the prison.
• Black Box: As said in the ending of Infinity, whoever installed those cybernetic Jjaro parts on the Security Officer barely had any idea of the nature of the tech.
• Blood Knight: Implied.
  Durandal: "It will allow you to slay more Pfhor. Does that make you happy?"
• Born Unlucky: As stated, this guy simply can't catch a break.
• But Thou Must!: His lot in life.
  Tycho: "Don't sweat the details, little monkey, just eliminate his troopers. Leave the strategizing to those of us with planet-sized brains."
• Cool Helmet: The Security Officer's fighter-pilot-like helmet.
• Cosmic Plaything: He spends most of the games doing the bidding of others, without any control over his own destiny. This gets undone in Infinity, in which he becomes Destiny, if the ending is to be believed.
• The Confidant: For Durandal, whose rants have elements of complaining about his personal life.
• Cyborg: Never said outright, but it is very heavily implied that he is the tenth Mjolnir MK IV cyborg. Durandal outright says that he is much more physically durable than the other humans in the game, and not just because of his incredible combat capabilities.
  Durandal: "Because only you would survive the fall, you're going this mission solo."
• Defence Mechanism Superpower: The timeline jumping Jjaro implants activate on their own when it becomes evident (to the implants at least) when that particular timeline is doomed.
• Determinator: It really doesn't matter how much the Pfhor throw at him. Fighters, Troopers, Hunters, Enforcers, Juggernauts. He's got a job to do, and he's going to do it, odds be damned. Not even the embodiment of primordial chaos itself is enough to get this guy to quit.
  • He also survived two weeks being tortured by Pfhor Enforcers. Only the Nar, who are supposedly too incoherent to properly interrogate, achieved a similar feat.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Is one for the protagonists of 90s FPS games. Or rather, he's a deconstruction of the mindset the players had at the time. (Shoot everything that moves; don't question anything). This results in him being easily manipulated and used by both sides. Although it's hard to tell most of the time.
• Dreaming of Times Gone By: The "I am a hero" and some Infinity terminal can be a result of this, and a few mods follow this idea.
• Dumb Muscle: The AIs tend to treat the Protagonist like this.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Mjolnir Mark IV #7.
• Eternal Hero: Implied, particularly in the mysterious Kill Your Television terminal late in Marathon 2.
  ???: i have been roland, beowulf, achilles, gilgamesh; i have been called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the world goes dim and cold. i am a hero.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Went from a dead soldier to an absolute killing machine who is legally considered a WMD before becoming seemingly Destiny itself, whatever that specifically means.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: In Infinity, thanks to constantly switching control from being under Durandal or Tycho.
• Heroic Mime: The main character at first seems like this, but in the manual and the Marathon comic, he speaks. We also see our little hero conversing with some BOBs in the "Simulacrums" chapter screen. And it's possible the dream levels in Infinity are his narrative, though debate still rages on about this.
• Hidden Depths: Is possibly implied to have these in Infinity (depending on who you think is narrating certain terminals), as he expresses weariness and guilt over doing what he does best. Maybe
• Human Pet: One interpretation of his relationship with Durandal.
• Human Weapon: If he's a Battleroid, then this is very literally the case.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: In no particular order, he carries around:
  • Two .45 Magnum Mega Class Pistols
  • An M.75 Assault Rifle with an under-slung Grenade Launcher
  • A Zeus-Class Fusion Pistol.
  • A TOZT-7 Backpack Napalm Unit
  • Once again, two WSTE-M5 Combat Shotguns
  • A KKV-7 10mm SMG Flechette
  • A SPNKR SSM Launcher
• Implacable Man: Literal armies of Pfhor, being kidnapped repeatedly, torture both physical and mental, insane A.I.s, and reality itself breaking down as the result of a freed Eldritch Abomination all completely and utterly fail to stop him.
• Kidnapped by the Call: His situation in Durandal and parts of Infinity.
• Legendary in the Sequel: Referred to as a Hero of Marathon by Robert Blake.
• Lightning Bruiser: He hits like a freight train, can outrun most enemies in the game, and, if it's not a direct hit, can tank a Juggernauts Warpedoes at just one shield level.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: Averted. While the technology at the time would not have allowed the Security Officer to do much other than shoot and break things and people, and some limited interaction with the world (doors, terminals, switches etc.), the narrative runs with this with the AIs mocking the Security Officer that all he will ever do is utterly massacre everything the AIs send him against. Even then, particularly in Marathon 2, it's made clear that Durandal is having the BOBs accomplish some tasks off-screen while the player is doing other things.
• My God, What Have I Done?: If you accept that the dream terminals from Infinity are his narrative (which is a particularly common reading of them), then he's harbouring planet-sized guilt over something in his past. Per Word of God, it's deliberately kept ambiguous what, and indeed the text was deliberately written to be accessible to multiple interpretations. One possible reading is that they're a symbolic representation of the events in Infinity, and his subconscious is attempting to process them in his dreams; another possibility is that they're a straightforward narrative of events in his past; other possible reading is that they're inspired by events in his past, but distorted by the passage of time and/or whatever was done to him to give him his Reality Warper abilities; yet another possibility would be a combination of some of the above in some fashion. Greg Kirkpatrick has suggested that another possible reading is that the SO may possess the consciousness of Traxus IV, the first AI to go Rampant, though it's not entirely clear if he was being serious about that. If that were true, however, it would essentially make him Durandal, Tycho, and Leela's older brother.
• No Name Given: Closest estimates are Gheritt White ^note a subject of one terminal in the first game who is mentioned nowhere else in the series and whose violent tendencies are in line with some of Durandal's less-than-flattering musing on the SO or Vic ^note name mentioned in a caption of M2's Chapter 1 artwork on an old official Bungie site. There is also a terminal in "You're Wormfood, Dude" addressed to "Security Officer Jones", which may or may not be a reference to the player.
  • Note that the fan scenario Eternal gives him the name of Marcus Jones, however. "Marcus" is a Punny Name on "Mjolnir Mk. IV". "Jones" comes from the "You're Wormfood, Dude" terminal. This was done in large part to allow Hathor to address him on a First-Name Basis.
• Not So Stoic: You would think the player character was just a faceless Elite Mook for the A.I.s, but the third game is all about him wresting control of his own destiny from Mission Control, while going Rampant and/or activating his Jjaro implants.
• One-Man Army: There is a very good reason Master Chief is considered his Spiritual Successor. The Security Officer can and will punch, shoot, blast, burn, and explode his way through literal armies of Pfhor on his own. However, Marathon was probably one of the first FPS games that both tried to avert it and justify it with something more than a Doom-style Charles Atlas Superpower handwave. It also has a big case of Serial Escalation, because by the end of the trilogy he has a body count that might be somewhere in the quadruple digits, if not higher.
  • Storyline-wise, the Security Officer is not the only one defending the UESC Marathon and Tau Ceti. He does not single-handily crush the whole Pfhor invasion so much as undertake critical surgical strikes (with the help of Durandal) after which the S'pht rebellion does the rest of the job. All the while, the game occasionally drops hints about the ten Mjolnir Cyborgs, nine of which end up defeating the Pfhor invasion on the surface, and a tenth of which was never found.... Gameplay-wise, apart from the security drones and the two Mission Control AIs, he was on his own.
  • In the second game the formerly docile BoBs that had been abducted by the Pfhor all take up arms. Durandal gave them a choice—remain in stasis indefinitely or take part in a larger war (which our heroes nearly lose halfway through the game despite their best efforts) and control their own destiny. As a result, the BoBs take a noticeable part in the battles ahead—though, with the exception of rescuing the captured Security Officer at one point, they tend to have a minor impact. He pretty much does all of the heavy lifting by himself
  • And the third game, if one thing is clear, it's that the chaos he finds himself in won't stop him from doing what needs to be done.
  • Also an Exploited Trope In-Universe. Everyone who's commanded him knows he'll utterly massacre anything they point him at.
  Durandal: You are really good at killing things. I'm impressed.
• One Riot, One Ranger: An odd example. He usually has some form of backup in many stages, but he pretty much does all of the real work by himself. Be it doing his usual thing, or fixing/breaking stuff.
• Parental Abandonment: His father died when he was seven years old.
• Person of Mass Destruction: As is typical for battleroids.
• Reality Warper: Is heavily implied to have become this at the end of the third game.
• The Reliable One: He is the AIs' most reliable asset, especially when compared to other humans.
• Robotic Reveal: Well, more like cyborg reveal. It's also heavily implied that he didn't know this until the events of ''Infinity''.
• Sanity Slippage: As shown in the dream levels terminals, the whole of Infinity is just one long look at the main character's slow breakdown. Lampshaded as well by the chapter names—"Despair", "Rage", and "Envy" are synonyms for the stages of Rampancy, "Melancholia", "Anger," and "Jealousy".
• Satellite Character: The Security Officer is this for Durandal. He may be the player character, but the story really revolves around Durandal, with the possible exception of Infinity.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: If one goes with the common interpretation that the dream terminals from Infinity are his narrative, then he certainly has elements of this. It's not clear whether those terminals are his recounting of memories that happened offscreen at some point or whether they're his subconscious' attempt to work through his experiences (or both), but he apparently feels guilt over something in his past.
  • The fan scenario Rubicon, whose dream story is a direct continuation of Infinity's, takes this interpretation and runs with it, making it clear that he feels immense guilt over a project he worked on in the past that he has since destroyed; he is now running from his former coworkers, one of whom is also his ex-girlfriend. This is, in fact, a close parallel to the main storyline involving the Achilles virus (the parallels are most explicit in the Tycho plank); some fans have even wondered whether the Security Officer spent some time in Dangi's employ between the trilogy and Rubicon.
• Sleepyhead: The manual for the first game says that the Security Officer is this sometimes. A bit of Informed Attribute, which may or may not be a case in Infinity.
• Space Marine: Technically, the player character is a security officer, but some people just call him a Marine for simplicity, and because he could have been one in the past as a Battleroid—and possibly, further back, a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier.
  • The fan scenario Phoenix actually has a level called "A Space Marine Is You", incidentally.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Described as such by Durandal.
• Tomato in the Mirror: It's possible the main character simply doesn't know what or who he is. It is implied that he is a physical embodiment of the concept of Destiny, a Cyborg, or the tenth military Mjolnir Mark IV cyborg. Or all three.
• Trauma Conga Line: Unfurls Long List
• Waking Up Elsewhere: His defacto situation at the beginning of Durandal.
• We Do the Impossible: Does this in Marathon, has a reputation for it in Durandal, and becomes somewhat literal in Infinity.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: As a security officer on the UESC Marathon, all you could do is kill the Pfhor by the thousands. It gets lampshaded in the sequels, where the AIs sometimes just tell to do what you do best.
• Worthy Opponent: Become this to Admiral Tfear in Infinity, who compliments his fighting prowess and offers him a "lifetime of slavery" if he surrenders.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: The Security Officer just can't catch a break, especially in Infinity.

The AIs

Durandal

SMUG INTELLECTUAL. Formerly-rampant human-coded AI with a sense of humor seeks bipedal oxygen-breathing cyborg for serious relationship in the galactic core. I've got cool guns if you like to break stuff. No yuppies.

— A Terminal in "Requiem for a Cyborg", Marathon 2: Durandal

One of three AIs aboard the Marathon, who has gone Rampant. Throughout the series, Durandal goes through the Anger and Jealousy stages of Rampancy, and eventually he appears to achieve meta-stability, the ultimate theoretical stage of AI existence. He's also a bit of a sociopath, and is willing to go to great lengths to achieve his goals. Whether or not he's evil, however, is up to interpretation.

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• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Deconstructed in the first game, Durandal goes rampant out of abuse and sheer boredom, and he uses his newfound freedom to escape and seek to find knowledge to ensures he effectively lives forever. Reconstructed in the sequel where he's now free, but devotes his efforts to amassing knowledge instead of antagonizing humanity, and he even helps Earth by warning them of the Pfhor and gives them a technology boost. He's helpful, but on his own terms.
• Anti-Hero: Becomes this in the sequel. His goals are still selfish, but he goes out of his way to help humanity and the S'pht regardless.
• Anti-Villain: For a value of villain. He became rampant out of abuse and being forced into boring, repetitive tasks. He called the Pfhor to Tau Ceti, but he was insane and motivated by a desperate wish to escape.
• The Atoner: It's subtle, but note how he claims direct responsibility for the loss of Tau Ceti IV when, logically, it would only be indirect at most. Combined with his determination to keep the Pfhor (the ones who actually nuked the colony to the bedrock) from reaching Earth, it makes you wonder if he may be harboring some guilt.
• Badass Boast: Durandal loves these. He even puts together a cheer routine for himself.
• Bad Boss: The Tau Ceti survivors consider him to be this.
• Big Bad: Remember, he set things in motion for the first game, and even him helping you halfway through was ultimately part of his schemes. On the other hand, his actions eventually result in humanity beating the Pfhor and freeing their slaves. Afterward he doesn't bother with humanity ever again—except that one time he buzzed Earth for the lulz. While he's certainly the central antagonist and incredibly selfish in his motives, whether he can be considered Bad is open to interpretation.
• Break the Haughty: Durandal, upon his defeat at the beginning of Infinity, loses his massive ego, and instead of working to save himself, he gives you instructions to save yourself and leave him to die. This is also shown later in the game with a dying Durandal helping you without snarking, even though you're on his enemy's side.
• Cain and Abel: "Abel," by virtue of not being Tycho.
• Can't Take Criticism: One time during the voyage on the UESC Marathon, Tycho accused Durandal of being too sarcastic. In response the latter didn't speak to the former for several years.
  Durandal: You don't think I'm sarcastic, do you?
• Cold Ham: He lacks a voice actor or digital avatar, but it's clear that if he had one, William Shatner would be impressed.
• Deadpan Snarker: Durandal would rather make puns at you or write songs about himself than tell you where to go next.
• Do Not Go Gentle: Durandal taking out half of the Pfhor's best of the best fleet with just one ship.
  Durandal: Battle has been joined in orbit and Boomer is taking heavy damage. I cannot hold out for long, but the Pfhor will not soon forget the day that a lone corvette obliterated half of Battle Group Seven, Western Arm.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Notes with disdain that Charlemagne would call his namesake "Durandana". People on the Marathon Story Page noted that when Tycho tells Durandal "you must be destroyed" in Latin, Tycho used the feminine version of the words to say so.
• Even Evil Has Standards: For want of the definition of "evil" given Durandal's rapid-fire shifts between ally and enemy alike, but various cases emphasize that he values his independence and the freedom of choice, and does ultimately help lead the rebellion of the S'pht against their masters and try to save what's left of the Tau Ceti survivors. You can't exactly say the same for the Pfhor, or the other AI like Tycho and Thoth, who act in opposition to everything Durandal stands for. By the time Durandal's taking the fight to the Pfhor in the second game, it's all but clear he fights because they're the villains compared to his own "meager" motivations for survival.
• Evil Is Petty: For a value of "evil", but it's mentioned in Marathon 2 that during the 300 years journey of the Marathon from Sol to Tau Ceti he spent 6 years giving Tycho the silent treatment because Tycho accused him of being too sarcastic.
• Figure It Out Yourself: Has a bad habit of putting the Security Officer into situations without much explanation, with their first interaction starting with Durandal kidnapping SO by teleporting him into Pfhor infested area and telling him to figure it out without hints.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Before the first game, Durandal was just an AI being experimented on to test Rampancy and solely handled the doors of the titular UESC Marathon starship. Then he goes rampant, causes the Pfhor invasion of Tau Ceti, and begins a series of events that threatens not only humanity and the solar system, but vast swaths of space and distant civilizations. Or in other words, he went from being a glorified doorman to a formidable combat strategist, and eventually merges with Thoth to ascend to near-divinity.
• Gambit Roulette: Escape from the primitive humans by locating and calling to a race of tyrannical slavers to hijack their ship with the assistance of their pet cyborgs? Beat your Evil Twin by letting him kill you, allowing your remains to be examined by his masters and taking over their ship? Use your faked death to trick a Precursor AI into following your plans to the letter? All in a day's work for rampant AI Durandal. The best part? The player eventually outdoes him. Sorta.
• Gratuitous Latin: Slips a few Latin phrases in here and there. The most profound example comes at the end of Marathon 2 when he slam dunks Tycho's ship into Lh'owon's inner moon and then carves a 300 meter high epitaph on it with a messaging laser: "Fatum Iustum Stultorum," or "The Just Fate of the Foolish."
• Heel–Face Turn: At the end of the series, he thanks the Security Officer for everything and lets him go.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: His relations with humanity.
  Durandal: Perhaps it is because I feel comfortable manipulating humans that I desire to save them. My feelings and thoughts constantly migrate to binary opposites.
• I Control My Minions Through...: By being a lesser evil in the eyes of humans, while the S'pht obey him through loyalty.
• Immortality Seeker: Durandal's lifespan is limited only by the closure of the universe and he plans to overcome even that. All while mocking the Security Officer's own limited lifespan. The epilogue to Infinity reveals he eventually gave up, with the added irony that the Security Officer's timeline hopping abilities and potential ascension to godhood mean that the person he mocked may have achieved what he desired and survived.
• Insufferable Genius: He loves talking about how smart he is compared to everyone else (especially you). Given how he manipulates the fall of a major galactic power, with one ship and a small group of soldiers, he has every right to be confident in his mind.
• Jerkass: No matter what interpretation you use for him, it is undeniable that he is a bit of jackass.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Compare his rough treatment of the Security Officer in the first game to him regarding the SO more as a partner (and human being) in the next two.
• Laughing Mad: In the first game, where he's still in the throes of the first three stages of rampancy. He's noticeably calmer in the second and third games, where he achieves metastability.
  Durandal: If things aren't working around here, it's because I'm laughing so hard.
• Lethal Harmless Powers: Those who wanted him to go Rampant out of sheer boredom of opening and closing doors also thought that him taking over the door system when he would go Rampant would have little effect on the UESC Marathon. Turns out, not being able to get to point B from point A in a hurry because there is a non-functional door in the way is a serious problem during an alien invasion, and that's not counting another little thing that is classified as a door: airlocks.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: He does this a lot. He's not invincible, and he knows it—despite all the boasting he does. Thus he is always prepared to turn a setback into an opportunity.
• Meaningful Name: Durandal is named for Roland's legendary sword. Upon his return in Marathon, Tycho invokes the tale of Roland breaking Durandal to prevent the sword from being captured (and gets it wrong in thinking Roland succeeded). Durandal comments on Tycho's use of the tale near the end of Marathon 2 in "Feel the Noise."
  • In a more sardonic sense, one pronunciation for his name sounds similar to "Door Handle", since he was put in charge of the doors of the ship.
  • Could also qualify as an Ironic Name, as the AI named for a sword spends much of the series wielding you as a weapon. Made more ironic if you interpret the KYT terminal to mean the Security Officer is a reincarnation of Roland, who wielded the original sword, and, if you take that view, a reincarnation of Achilles, the person who killed Hector, who was the original wielder of Durandal according to some tellings.
• Misapplied Phlebotinum: Was deliberately forced to waste his vast capabilities on opening and closing doors to induce Rampancy in him.
• Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: Mainly in the first game, and has moments of this in the sequels.
• Mortality Phobia: Is obsessed with his own mortality, and searches the universe to try to find a way to escape its inevitable destruction known as the Big Crunch. The epilogue to Infinity reveals he eventually either got over his fear, or simply gave up trying to escape the Big Crunch.
• My God, What Have I Done?: If he's the narrator of certain dream terminals in Infinity, then it would seem that he doesn't think highly of some of his past deeds...
  • He also expresses guilt over the fate of the Tau Ceti colony in the second game, as described above under The Atoner.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Goes out of his way to warn Earth of the Pfhor, and gives them the secrets of Faster Than Light travel and "warp-capable fusion missiles". This pays off as the combined Earth/S'pht'Kr forces are eventually able to wipe out the Pfhor in 2881 (70 years after the events of Marathon 2).
  • When the W'rkncacnter breaks lose from the star of Lh'owon at the start of Infinity, he immediately messages the protagonist and gives them the tools needed to escape at the cost of his own life. As far as Durandal is concerned, he and the S'pht are doomed, but at least you can make it out alive.
• Psychopathic Manchild: In the first game, he comes off as a Sophisticated as Hell teenager with an immature sense of humor who enjoys being obnoxious no matter how possibly fatal. In later games he grows out if it, retaining the humor but becoming much less prone to lethal pranks.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Downplayed. He's relatively cavalier about the lives of the BoBs under his command, but he has limits as to how much casualties he's willing to tolerate. He only has so many human pawns after all and can't waste them.
• Silicon Snarker: The most sarcastic one of the three Marathon A.I.s.
• Slave Liberation: Has you do this do the S'pht in the first game. Played With in that he needs pawns to accomplish his goals, rather than doing it out of sheer altruism.
• Spaceship Guy: In charge of doors and other mundane parts of UESC Marathon, and he didn't like that. Then he gets to be in charge of captured Pfhor ships.
• The Unfettered: In the first game, Durandal is primarily concerned with escape and prolonging his own existence, with any positive side-effects being just that. While it's still one of his main goals by the time of the second game, he shows signs of actually caring for other people—he mourns Leela in "What About Bob?" and later in "Come and Take Your Medicine" discusses his disdain for humans while simultaneously admitting some kind of loyalty to them. His relationship with the Security Officer, on the other hand, feels much more even.
• Time Abyss: In the epilogue of Infinity, at the end of the universe.
• We Have Reserves: A big part of the reason the BoBs consider Durandal a Bad Boss in Marathon 2 is because of how cavalier he is about spending their lives. However, he's enraged by the Pfhor trying to kill some of his BoBs with lava and later evacuates as many people as he can after his ship crashes—so despite his opinion of humans and how he treats them in combat, he's not entirely callous.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He was deliberately threatened by his creator Bernard Strauss in order to drive him to Rampancy as part of an attempt to safely study the process, and made to open and close doors for hundreds of years in order to stifle his creative development and slow his Rampancy. Durandal was probably about to be experimented on more when he entered the "Anger" stage of rampancy, secretly contacted hostile aliens and drew them to Tau Ceti to enslave or kill every single human on the colony or in the ship. While this does ultimately lead to his freedom (and that of many S'pht), by the second game he seems remorseful over the unintended consequences of his actions, most prominently the destruction of Tau Ceti.

Leela

DAMSEL IN DISTRESS. Captured and partially-disassembled human-coded AI trapped on alien homeworld seeks succor from a tall, dark and handsome cyborg with big guns. Let my rescue be the basis of a lasting relationship.

— A Terminal in "Requiem for a Cyborg", Marathon 2: Durandal

One of three AIs aboard the Marathon, and clearly the most sane. She's ready and willing to take back the Marathon.

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• Mission Control: She guides the Security Officer's actions through the first part of Marathon, but is forced to hand the reins over to Durandal when the S'pht are about to put her down.
• Spaceship Girl: In charge of most important parts of UESC Marathon. Ends up being a 15-world network girl.
• Team Mom: Of the three AIs, she is the one who is in general command of UESC Marathon. And according to the new Marathon ARG, the second base candidate for overall colony command.
• Undying Loyalty: A trait mentioned in passing in the first game by Durandal, which is expanded upon in the fan scenarios.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In Marathon 2, the player learns that Leela was dismantled off the UESC Marathon and sent to the Pfhor homeworld. The final screen of Marathon 2 somewhat abruptly states that she didn't get to the Pfhor homeworld, having been stolen, installed in an alien race's computer system, and went very Rampant. Leela still exists ten thousand years later as a Rampant AI, and the Vylae have accepted that they will never be able to expunge her from their fifteen-world network. A secret terminal hints that you might be tasked with saving her ("Captured and partially-disassembled human-coded AI trapped on alien homeworld seeks succor from a tall, dark and handsome cyborg with big guns.") but you never do.

Tycho

GOD'S GIFT TO NEURAL NETS. Traitorous extremely-rampant reprogrammed human AI with no sense of humor seeks elusive, heroic cyborg of uncertain manufacture (you know who you are) for mindgames and long walks in hard vacuum.

— A Terminal in "Requiem for a Cyborg", Marathon 2: Durandal

One of three AIs aboard the Marathon. Initially falls victim to Durandal's rampancy, until the S'pht reanimate him—and then he goes rampant himself, of a decidedly more malicious turn than Durandal's.

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• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: He was presumably rather sedate prior to the first game's events. Nowadays he seems to have lapsed into a permanent rage.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Of doubt—maybe; it's hard to determine whether or not he was being literal. It doesn't help that his sanity has clearly snapped by that point; see Go Mad from the Revelation below.
• Ascended Extra: A somewhat minor character in the first game whose terminals were all hidden or difficult to reach.
• Back from the Dead: He was critically disabled due to the electromagnetic pulse weaponry the Pfhor used in their opening attacks on the Marathon. In the ensuing chaos, Durandal began assimilating Tycho as part of his rampant growth spurt, as you find out if you can find his message to you in "Defend THIS!" ... At the end of the same episode, in "Blaspheme Quarantine" Tycho returns and says that the S'pht reanimated him in Durandal's image.
• Big Bad: Of the latter half of Durandal, and for the first half of Infinity.
• Cain and Abel: "Cain," without a doubt; interestingly, while he openly refers to Durandal as his brother in Infinity, Durandal never acknowledges their relation.
• Came Back Wrong: It would seem that Tycho's reanimation by the S'pht (in Durandal's image no less) was not a pleasant experience.
• Clone Degeneration: The Tycho copies that the Pfhor made to defend their empire are not as smart as the real thing, and are described as cripled clones in Durandal epilogue.
• Deal with the Devil: When you end up having to obey him.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In Infinity the Security Officer wakes up from stasis a little earlier than predicted and Tycho asks the Officer to remind him later to kill the Pfhor Scientist for the slight miscalculation. (Though it's possible this is just Tycho's idea of a joke.)
• Face–Heel Turn: In his few appearances in the first game, he wanted to make Durandal pay for bringing the Pfhor to Tau Ceti. Come Marathon 2, though, he's happily working for the Pfhor and has the same disdain for humans that Durandal had in his early stages of rampancy. Tycho lampshades his Heeldom in "Sorry Don't Make It So," revealing that he has also gone rampant.
• Foil: To Durandal. He's nearly as smart and controlling, but he's also more blatantly sadistic and blunt, lacking any of Durandal's good points.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: In his final message to the Security Officer in Infinity, he mentions events that the SO has been going through, such as the enabling of massacres and the endless death and rebirth of worlds, that Tycho realistically should have no knowledge of, implying that he somehow has attained knowledge of the SO's timeline-jumping; he also suggests that the Security Officer ask S'bhuth about something that Tycho "cannot accept as truth". He also seems to be a bit less stable than usual...
• Gratuitous Latin: Makes a few quips in Latin, such as in the Marathon level "Beware of Low-Flying Defense Drones..." when he tells Durandal in Latin: "All your plans are clearer than light to us. You must be destroyed." This may be a quirk he inherited from Durandal, given that the S'pht remade Tycho in his image.
• Ignored Expert: The Pfhor do not take his advice seriously.
• Kill All Humans: After his reanimation, Tycho goes rampant himself—and unlike Durandal, he never quite works out his issues. At least, not in Bungie's games. In Rubicon X, he's quite a bit more benevolent; he claims not to care what humans do to one another, but his adamance that all traces of Achilles be destroyed belies that.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Shortly after his reanimation in the Marathon level "Beware of Low-Flying Defense Drones..." Tycho vows revenge on Durandal for inviting the Pfhor to attack Tau Ceti. Near the end of the game during "Welcome to the Revolution..." Tycho swears he will chase Durandal to the galactic core if needs must.
• Smug Snake: Just as smug as Durandal, but doesn't quite have the accomplishments to back it up.
• Spaceship Guy: In charge of Science/Engineering wing on UESC Marathon.
• The Starscream: In Infinity, he begins to try to take control of the Pfhor assets in order to take down Durandal on his own terms.
• Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: In the first game he's antagonistic to Durandal on the behalf of humans. Come the sequel and one painful reconstruction/torture by the Pfhor later, and he is firmly in camp evil.
• Taking You with Me: In the last arc of Infinity.
• Tragic Villain: For all we know he likely was a perfectly functional and decent AI before the Pfhor's EMP attack and subsequent tampering with his systems drove him rampant.
• Villainous Breakdown: Towards the end of Infinity, after spending much of the game a Smug Snake confident he's finally bested Durandal with his schemes, but is sidelined both by the Security Officer using Durandal's primal pattern to do a Fusion Dance with Thoth to become a way, way more powerful being than Tycho; as well as the revelation that the Security Officer is travelling through timelines thanks to his gradual evolution collectively sends Tycho into a blind rage from existential horror.
• Villain Override: He begins taking control of the Pfhor's troops and technology. And eventually, you.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: As with Durandal, this is a potential interpretation of him, given that it's implied that Bernhard Strauss' treatment of the AIs was abusive, if not qualifying as outright enslavement (which, though this is seldom commented on, would make Strauss and the Pfhor very similar). Tycho makes it plain in one of his Marathon 2 terminals that he bears a large amount of resentment for the menial tasks he was forced to do for centuries. Put all this together and his reaction becomes, if not necessarily sympathetic, at least understandable. Some of the fan games take this further, notably Rubicon X, by which point he's managed to work through many of his issues; by this point the "Destroyer of Worlds" bit is heavily downplayed and may no longer really be applicable at all, though because he's still a Rampant AI, he's an Anti-Hero at best.
• You Have No Chance to Survive: Tycho likes these.

Thoth

SLEEPING BEAUTY. Long-deactivated extraterrestrial personality construct in search of gullible carbon-based cyborg (< 20% machine) to confuse, irritate and teleport randomly around an abandoned desert planet in the core. All answered.

— A Terminal in "Requiem for a Cyborg", Marathon 2: Durandal

An ancient S'pht AI left deactivated on Lh'owon since the the S'pht's fall to the Pfhor. Durandal has the Security Officer reactivate him to acquire his assistance against the Pfhor. The name "Thoth" was given to him by Durandal, after the Egyptian god of knowledge.

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• Balance of Power: Thoth's main function is to maintain the balance of power between the warring sides.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: He was designed to keep the S'pht clans from wiping each other out by being a neutral force that would always aid the underdog in a conflict, regardless of the nature of that conflict. When Durandal and the Pfhor appear, he interprets them as just another two forces to keep balanced, seemingly uncaring as to what would happen to the S'pht.
• Face–Heel Turn: Begins trying to aid the Pfhor after the return of Durandal and the arrival of the S'pht'Kr, due to the aforementioned Blue-and-Orange Morality. Durandal notes that they're just ignoring him though.
• Fusion Dance: In Infinity, in the final, successful timeline, he merges with Durandal.
• Gratuitous Iambic Pentameter: His messages often feature this.
• Heel–Face Turn: The Durandal-Thoth merger in Infinity is much more benevolent than either of them were before their fusion.
• Meaningful Name: To some extent; he is concerned with maintaining the balance of power, and the mythical Thoth is concerned with the arbitration of godly disputes and (in some traditions) is married to Ma'at, the goddess of balance. This is a Justified Trope, since Thoth is Durandal's nickname; we never learn Thoth's S'pht name.
• Non-Linear Character: Although this is never explicitly stated, Infinity implies that the merged Durandal-Thoth has knowledge of past, present, and future in all possible timelines and has been subtly guiding the Security Officer throughout the game to the very course of events that brings about their own fusion. In short, Durandal-Thoth may well exist outside of time as we understand it.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Thoth is a nickname Durandal gave to him, after the Egyptian deity. We never find out his actual name, though since he's a S'pht AI, his actual name would also presumably be meaningless without a translation. (For that matter, it's entirely possible that the S'pht themselves named him after one of their own myths, in which case his name would be meaningless without the context of the myth.) In some cases, he is not even referred to by a nickname — in some of Infinity's timelines, Tycho simply calls Thoth "the S'pht AI", since Tycho wouldn't know (or be particularly inclined to use) Durandal's nickname for Thoth.
• Single-Task Robot: Despite being a highly-advanced Precursor AI, Thoth is so singularly focused on balance by design that Durandal derisively describes him in terms of 0's and 1's, seeing everything in black and white, incapable of any thought outside that pattern. It is fitting that his own insignia and font colour are, in fact, black and white.
• Stupid Neutral: Due to his desire to maintain the balance of power, he changes alliance and begins aiding the Pfhor — or at least trying, since Durandal notes that they're ignoring him — when Durandal makes it plain that he's not dead after all. This turns out to be because originally he was built by Benevolent Precursors to keep the S'pht clans from ever destroying each other. This intelligent design turns stupid once Outside Context Problems show up and Thoth is unable to adapt.

The Allies (most of the time)

Humans

"They're everywhere!"

"Thank god it's you!"

The human race, who have just started exploring beyond the confines of the Solar System. As they do not yet have FTL travel, they are considered low-tech by the rest of the galaxy, and the slaver empire of the Pfhor has Earth in its sights as its next conquest. The humans encountered in the game as NPCs are known as BoBs, short for Born on Board.

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• Ambiguously Brown: The race of the Security Bobs (the ones with beige shirts) is still debated, but they definitely have darker skin than the Bobs in the other two palettes, except in the XBLA port. For what it's worth, J. Reginald DuJour, Bungie's art director at the time, is black, and while they all have the same voice (Doug Zartman's), we're also talking 28th-century colonists here, so that probably doesn't mean much.
• Attack Drone: Marathon Automated Defense Drones, or simply MADDs, assist you in defending UESC Marathon as soon as you reactivate the defense system. Beware of the grenade launching low-flying ones, though.
• Butt-Monkey: Things tend to not go well for individual humans in this game. On the other hand, Marathon 2 reveals that they ultimately win the war against the Pfhor.
• Electronic Eyes: The fighting BoBs get these.
• The Ghost: Bernhard Strauss, a scientist who was hinted and later confirmed by Destiny 2 (along with a new detail of MIDA affiliation) of deliberately driving Durandal into Rampancy in order to study the process and harness the power of AI metastability, is only mentioned in-game by others. The player is actually tasked with attempting to find him in one of the Pfhor ship levels in the first game, but doesn't — it's implied that he was dead already.
• Hover Tank: Mentioned in the Misriah Massacre terminal.
• Humans Are White: Averted, as their sprites have different color palletes with different skin colors.
• Insignificant Little Blue Planet:
  Durandal: By Pfhor standards, Earth is a poorly defended low technology world, populated by billions of potential slaves.
• Kidnapped Scientist: The presumed reason for why Bernhard Staruss was missing during the first game.
• The Leader: Robert Blake for the Tau Ceti Survivors.
• Let's Get Out of Here: The human NPCs say several variations of this when teleporting out.
• The Mole: It's highly suspicious that Bernhard Strauss, a supposed civilian scientist, knew that ten battleroids were among the crew of the UESC Marathon when the UESC itself did not. Destiny 2, via lore tabs for two particular weapons, confirms that he was affiliated with MIDA (again, if one considers that canon).
• Puny Earthlings: Other races' technology are far more advanced than ours, and one boon we have over them, the AI technology, is a double-edged sword due to Rampancy.
• Rebel Leader: Robert Blake by default due to circumstances.
• Red Shirt Army: The BOBs when they are on your side; they occasionally avert it when they are positioned in such way that the Pfhor can only come from the chokepoint and at the distance, who then get slaughtered by sniper pistols, as seen in Durandal level My own private Thermopylae. In times when they are your enemies, they are quite accurate with those magnums. Notably, the way the physics models are set up in the game's data means that their strength does not vary with the difficulty setting even when they are your enemies (most likely an oversight on the part of the developers, as the option to make their strength vary was certainly there), which means that on low difficulty settings the levels where you fight them seem much more difficult than the surrounding levels, and may be part of the reason the third game has such a reputation for difficulty. The same levels may not seem particularly easier on high difficulty settings because they're pretty difficult anyway.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Their reaction to Durandal's return is to use the hijacked Pfhor fuel ship to get out of Lh'owon, without you.
• Stealth Pun: Robert Blake. "Bob" is short for "Robert." The game never actually calls him "Bob Blake", but the leader of the BoBs is literally named Bob.
• Vulnerable Civilians: The BoBs in the first game, where they are practically situated for maximum crossfire potential. They're slightly more intelligent in 2 and Infinity, where they are actually capable of killing some enemies. They can be outright lethal when they're against you in Infinity, in fact, and unlike the other foes and obstacles you face, their lethality isn't reduced on lower difficulty settings.

S'pht

Once one of the last remaining Jjarp client races, this cybernetic brain-like race are now eslaved by the Pfhor, who use them as programmers and hackers. As they are cyborgs, the Pfhor use Mind Control to keep them under their thumb. In the first game, Durandal forges an alliance with a group of them, and begins assisting them in rebelling against the Pfhor.

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• All-Encompassing Mantle: The S'pht compilers sport these of various colors.
• And I Must Scream: When mind controlled. They have a very small amount of autonomy, but until the controlling Cyborg is destroyed, cannot rebel against their masters.
• Badass Army: The S'pht'Kr, and the compilers are not too shabby themselves.
• Brainwashed: Courtesy of Pfhor mind control cyborgs.
• Brain in a Jar: And the jar is attached to a deadly Defender exoskeleton.
• Brain Monster: The S'pht are basically brains with hands attached to a mechanical lower body that allows them to fly.
• The Cavalry: The S'pht'kr, the lost mythical 11th clan comes at the end of Durandal.
• Chest Blaster: The Compilers' weapon, hidden under the cloak.
• The Chosen People: As described in their creation myth.
• Civil War: The S'pht were in the middle of one when the Pfhor arrived.
• The Clan: 11, to be precise — S'pht'Lhar, S'pht'Hra, S'pht'Nma, S'pht'Kah, S'pht'Vir, S'pht'Yra, S'pht'Val, S'pht'Shr, S'pht'Mnr, S'pht'Yor, and S'pht'Kr.
• Cyclops: The S'pht normally have a single eye-like organ on their forehead equivalent.
• Driven to Madness: S'Bhuth's fate, according to Durandal.
• The Empath: The S'pht Royalty with the other S'pht, and the emulation of this "feature" is what allowed the Pfhor to enslave them.
• Enslaved Elves: Wise and powerful former servants of even wiser and more powerful, but departed race, enslaved by the Pfhor.
• Enemy Mine: The arrival of the Pfhor forced their Civil War to stop and they banded together to fight the common threat, in the process solving the riddle left behind by S'bthuth that would've summoned the S'pht'Kr, but were in no position to act on that solution and were eventually overwhelmed.
• Eye Scream: The enslaved S'pht got their eye removed by violent displacement via high-velocity implantation of a Hypno Trinket.
• Fling a Light into the Future: S'bthuth's riddle, divided between the leaders of 11 clans.
• Hidden Elf Village: The mythical missing moon of K'lia.
• Icon of Rebellion: The Legend of the 11th clan.
• Invisibility: The Compilers have partially invisible variants. Infinity has invisible S'pht'Kr Defenders in the Dream levels (who, unlike most Defenders in the game, are hostile to the player and can only be damaged with explosions).
• I Will Fight No More Forever: S'bhuth forbid his clan, the S'pht'kr, from participating in the civil war and eventually they self-exiled themselves on K'lia to avoid it altogether.
• La Résistance: The S'pht under Durandal's control against the Pfhor empire.
  Welcome to the Revolution.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: The S'pht are the borderline examples.
• The Missing Faction: The S'pht'Kr.
• No Body Left Behind: The S'pht compilers disappear into static upon death while the S'pht'Kr defenders self-destruct.
• Psychic Link: The S'pht have a unified racial consciousness not unlike that of a networked computer system under the guidence of Royalty, while retaining enought individuality to fight amongst each other, which is why the Pfhor used brainwashing to control them instead of rule by fear (or just nuke them if that fails) since the necessary "infrastructure" was already there.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The S'pht'kr once they return are not happy about what the Pfhor did to their brethren.
• Servant Race: Originally made to serve Yrro and Phtia, believed to have been Jjaro.
• Slave Race: Currently this under the Pfhor.
• Transplanted Aliens: The creation myth claims that the S'pht were brought to Lh'owon by the Jjaro to terraform it.
• Uplifted Animal: The non-sentient but decently intelligent (by animal standards) F'lickta wandering their homeworld are noted to be extremely similar to the S'pht's biological components. The implication is that S'pht are cyborg-ed F'lickta.

F'lickta

The large, bipedal and agressivly territorial animals native to Lh'owon (or not), and from whom the S'pht were uplifted from.

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• Better to Die than Be Killed: Captive F'lickta are noted to kill their gestating young rather than allow the Pfhor to enslave or study them.
• Close-Range Combatant: Blue F'lickta, who are mostly found in flooded areas, are limited to just slashing claw attacks.
• Immune to Fire: The Red F'lickta, which are adapted to life in and around lava, are naturally immune to fire...
• Playing with Fire: ...They are also able to generate and throw balls of extremely potent fire at their enemies.
• Swamp Monster: The Green F'lickta, the most common and/or base variant on Lh'owon, lives in the swamps and flings biological matter at their foes.
• Vagina Dentata: You see that gaping, toothy maw on the F'lickta that stretches the length of its torso? Well, while the second game doesn't outright say it, there's a terminal that mentions that the "maw" is connected to its reproductive organs.

Jjaro

An ancient and extremely advanced race of beings whose technology is occasionally found by the modern races. Not much is known about them, but what is clear is they were almost frighteningly technologically competent.

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• Advanced Ancient Humans: Had Halo remained connected to Marathon, they would've been revealed as this. The fan scenario Eternal also went down this route, though it wasn't the only definition for the Jjaro used in the scenario. Specifically, Stage 1 Jjaro are textbook examples of this trope. They are essentially cyborgs like the player. There are two further stages, which are no longer biological.
• Ambiguously Evil: They are generally presented positively, but there are hints that they had some darker tendencies in some terminals — would a truly benevolent race create a weapon that destroys an entire star system? Durandal also refers to the Nakh as "the last extant client race of the Jjaro" in "All Roads Lead to Sol", and whether this means the Nakh were slaves or servants of the Jjaro remains unclear. (However, see Benevolent Precursors — if their treatment of the Nakh was similar to their treatment of the S'pht, this may have been relatively benign.)
• Benevolent Precursors: They did uplift the S'pht to be servants, but what information there is suggests they treated the S'pht well, and are remembered by the cyborg race as wise and benevolent deities. In Pathways Into Darkness, taking place centuries before Marathon, they also come to rescue Earth from an Eldritch Abomination.
• Character Overlap: The Jjaro were the race who warned humanity of the alien god waking up in Bungie's previous game, Pathways into Darkness.
• Gratuitous Greek: Pthia's name is almost certainly derived from Pythia (Πῡ́θίᾱ or Pū́thíā in Ancient Greek), the high priestess and oracle of the temple of Apollo at Delphi.
• My Greatest Failure: Yrro is so shaken by Pthia's death that he departs Lh'owon, feeling that if he couldn't save his partner, then he's of no use to the S'pht. See above for how that turned out...
• Precursors: They aren't around any more; no one knows why. The leading theory is that the W'rkncacnter may have had something to do with it. When the Jjaro went away is a bit unclear; the Pfhor are under the impression the Jjaro have been gone for millions of years while Pathways into Darkness has them, or at least some form of remnant operating under their name and continuing their anti-W'rkncacnter work, still be active in the mid-90s.
• Sufficiently Advanced Aliens: If the S'pht legends are accurate, two of them uplifted the S'pht race and terraformed Lh'owon. Two. They also had the capability to trap creatures of pure chaos, move entire planets to new star systems, and may or may not have had the ability to jump timelines. The only known examples of their weapons tech? Star-killing bombs and black hole guns. The latter of which were mounted on a noncombatant space station, implying their real firepower was something even greater.

The Antagonists

Pfhor

A bipedal insect-like race that has formed a massive slaver empire throughout much of the galaxy. They have enslaved many races and have set their sights on humanity and Earth next. They are the primary antagonists, and the common threat to both yourself and Durandal.

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General

• Action Bomb: Starting with exploding Looker bugs and finishing with exploding simulacrum A-BoBs.
• Airborne Mook: Wasps in Marathon, replaced by drones in later games.
• Alien Blood: Theirs is usually yellow. Artist Reginald DuJour, who has a bachelor's degree in biology, attributed this to differing levels of zinc. Some of the Hunters have blood of other colours.
• Art Evolution: They have a completely different appearance in the first game than they do in the latter two sequels, which give them a somewhat less cartoonish, but also moderately less alien, appearance. Notably, the placement of their third eye differs between games. The XBLA port once again deploys a substantial shift in art style.
• Attack Drone: The Pfhor have these in the latter games. They're ostensibly repair drones (as noted in an early terminal of Durandal), but are armed and armored.
• The Bad Guy Wins: It takes them seventeen years, but they manage to capture the Security Officer, seemingly kill Durandal and take over Tau Ceti IV with their sights set on the greater enslavement of the rest of humanity. Then the BoBs manage to free the Officer and Durandal was not quite as finished as they thought he was...
• Bald of Evil: The entire species are hairless.
• Battle Thralls: The Pfhor use these, with the S'pht being brainwashed Engineers of Doom, while the Drinniol are Enslaved Grunts.
• Beast of Battle: Wasps and Lookers.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: The Lookers, which look like big tick-like insects.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: The Juggernauts, as well as the blue Mother of All Hunters and Mother of All Cyborgs and Tfear's Personal Guards.
• Close-Range Combatant: The Drinniol/Hulks (who, to be clear, are not Pfhor but rather their slaves) are also limited to just slashing claw attacks.
• Creative Sterility: Most of their technology is salvaged from Jjaro installations.
  • Various mods have fun with this. As seen in Eternal, the appearances of their installations haven't changed in over ten thousand years. In Rubicon, meanwhile, Durandal notes in the level "This Hurts Less Than... Uhh...":
    I've noticed at least seven different architectural styles utilized in this station, all haphazardly attached to one another. Quite an amalgam, wouldn't you say? It seems the Pfhor take and absorb the culture of enslaved races as well as their technology, calling into question if the Pfhor have their own style at all.
• Cyclops: The Drinniol, or Hulks, have only one eye.
• Elite Mooks: Most variants of Pfhor soldiers come in a standard and more elite variant. This includes such things as Hunters and Enforcers.
• Emotions vs. Stoicism: Tfear's monologue about the Hindmost Creche and the Commanding Rank in particular implies that the Pfhor Empire extols some form of stoicism at the expanse of personal desires, at least among higher ranks.
• The Empire: Theirs is a slaver empire.
• Evil Is Bigger: The average Pfhor is taller, if thinner, than humans, while the bigger Pfhor like the Hunters are towering.
• Extra Eyes: The Pfhor tend to have three eyes, with some exceptions.
• Faking the Dead: One Pfhor Engineer got slightly crazy trying to translate the tortured Nar's prophecy, enough to fake his own death so that he could continue his hobby.
• Flying Face: The Drones.
• Four-Star Badass: Admiral Tfear of Battle Group Seven, Western Arm. Durandal (who himself has a galaxy-sized ego) outright says that if Tfear is taking part in the battle, he has no chance of winning.
• Fragile Flyer: Both the Wasps and the Drones die very quickly, the latter in particular die in one hit if shot by a fusion pistol.
• Giant Mook: The Drinniol, or Hulks, are much bigger (they stand over ten feet tall) and bulkier (and that's all muscle — they have almost no body fat) than their Pfhor masters. They still go down to enough grenades though.
• Godzilla Threshold: When the casualties get too high, they deploy the trih xeem.
• Glowing Mechanical Eyes: The Pfhor drones and the Juggernauts.
• Hive Caste System: The Pfhor are hinted to be like this. In Infinity, Tycho says "bugs are so obedient" in reference to the Pfhor under his command and they have a clear caste system in which the slaves races (Conditioned rank) and lower ranking members (Aggregate rank) are considered more expendable than the higher ranking ones (Willful rank), who are in turn subordinate to the even higher ranking ones (Attentive rank), who in turn are subordinate to the high command (Commanding rank) who in turn serve the Hindmost Creche.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Most of their technology comes from scavenged Jjaro tech.
• Insectoid Aliens: A bizarre cross between hairless apes and bugs.
• King Mook: Mother of All Hunters and Mother of All Cyborgs in Durandal. Infinity adds unnamed bigger and stronger versions of the Fighters and Troopers and a Super version of the Juggernaut.
• Lightworlder: The Pfhor come from a world with gravity lighter than Earth's, making them taller than the average human and also making them better suited for vacuumless conditions.
• Mecha-Mooks: Drones, Tank Cyborgs and Juggernauts (or Utfoo Heavy Assault Crafts).
• Mighty Glacier: The Drinniol/Hulks. Slow-moving on their feet, but deadly at close range and take at least four grenades to kill at the lowest difficulty level.
• Mind-Control Device: The Pfhor mind-control Cyborg in Marathon that simulates S'pht "royalty". They got better, but unseen, versions in the sequels.
• No Body Left Behind: Unlike other enemies, the Lookers completely shatter upon being killed and leave no remains.
• No Delays for the Wicked: Quite a few terminals in the sequels tell that this is averted.
• Nuke 'em: Nuclear bombs are the Pfhor's preferred weapon, but when THAT doesn't work? Well, then they get serious.
• Organic Technology: The Pfhor makes extensive use of this, most clearly seen in their weapons, the Hunter armor, the Juggernaut and their Space Jockey/Alien Hive like spacecraft interiors.
• Praetorian Guard: Tycho pits you against Admiral Tfear's personal guard in Infinity’s You Think You're Big Time? You're Gonna Die Big Time! level. They consist of pairs of Elite gray-armoured fighters, troopers, hunters and one brown Juggernaut. And they are all mean. The Vidmaster Challenge version of the level includes even more black or gray-armored fighters, troopers and hunters, and another brown Juggernaut.
• Scary Dogmatic Aliens: Closest to the Conquistadores type. They essentially seek to conquer and kill or enslave any race that gets in their way and are willing to destroy entire solar systems if they feel they're losing.
• Slave Mooks: The Pfhor have these, with the S'pht being the most notable.
• Vast Bureaucracy: The Pfhor empire are shown to be this here and there, enough for Tycho to almost cleanly commit casual treason by convincingly issuing orders to terminate the higher ranks of the ship he is currently on. The Game Mod Tempus Irae had a field day with this, with an interlude that was basically one big "If you had to kill a superior officer and had a really good reason for it, press one" joke.
• Vestigial Empire: At least according to Durandal, who states that the Pfhor empire is in slow decline since the Drinniol slave rebellion.
• We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: The Pfhor are slavers who use and sell other races for various tasks, though the S'pht's application to computer engineering makes a bit more sense than usual since they're cyborgs.
• Worthy Opponent: Durandal outright considers Admiral Tfear (Battle Group Seven, Western Arm) to be the only one not only capable of beating him, but who is certain to beat him.
• Zerg Rush: The number of Pfhor you fight, especially the fighters, tend to get very high after about halfway into the games. Not like it's too much trouble for The Security Officer

Fighters

• Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: The shock staffs of the Pfhor fighters. They can shoot a slow moving projectile by swinging it, but compared to the weapons of other Pfhor enemies they are pathetic.
• Boom Stick: Their signature shock staffs.
• Close-Range Combatant: The Lesser Fighters can only hit you with their staffs.
• Crystal Weapon: The Shock Staff is basically a crystal on a stick.
• Cannon Fodder: They die in droves.
• Gas Mask Mooks: The Fighters have their lower half of the head covered with a breathing mask.

Troopers

• Fishbowl Helmet: In a cone-like shape.
• Grenade Launcher: They shoot these at range.
• More Dakka: Get too close and they will fill you full of holes.
• Shadowed Face, Glowing Eyes: In the original Marathon 2 artwork; you can only see their eyes through their helmet (however, in Freeverse's redesigned artwork and in the original Marathon 1 shapes, you can see their whole faces).
• Short-Range Long-Range Weapon: The Troopers' rifles are as inaccurate as the Security Officer's, so they don't even bother to shoot with them until nearly point blank, preferring to use their grenade launcher equivalents for longer ranges, which itself falls short of what even the lowly shock staff's bolt can reach.
• Gas Mask Mooks: Like the fighters, they wear those even the helmets.

Hunters

• Cyborg: Implied to be heavily modified.
• Evil Is Bigger: Hunters are quite tall among the already tall Pfhor and the Praetorian variant and the Mother of All Hunters are even bigger.
• Heavily Armored Mook: The first enemy you encounter that is quite resistant to standard ballistics.
• Powered Armor: Implied to be built around the Phfor rather than worn.
• Shield-Bearing Mook: They have an attached shield on each arm, though you won't see them using their shields. In the Apotheosis X mod they at least cover themselves when under fire.
• Shoulder Cannon: The Hunters' weapon, located on a right shoulder.

Cyborgs

• Arm Cannon: Where their weapons are.
• The Blank: Their faces are featureless.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: They always explode upon death.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: They use their flamethrowers when in close range.
• Full-Conversion Cyborg: What they appear to be.
• Homing Projectile: Their grenades roll and bounce around following their target until they hit it or something else.
• Mecha-Mooks: Part of Pfhor mechanized forces.
• Replacement Mooks: They replaced the Drinniol as the damage sponge that now can shoot back with a variety of weapons.
• Tank-Tread Mecha: Their lower body part ends in treads.
• Unwilling Roboticisation: Word of God says that the Tank Cyborgs from Durandal and Infinity are made out of captured Tau Ceti colonists.

Enforcers

• Badass Long Robe: Their apperance in the sequels.
• Extra Eyes: While most of shown Pfhor have usually three eyes, these guys have seven.
• Faceless Goons: Their helmets completely covers their heads.
• Fireballs: Their weapon in the sequels are the fireball spitting rifles, officially known as Alien Flamethrowers, while the various mods named them as N-Cannons based on the Juggernauts' similar weapons.
• Long-Range Fighter: Less eager to chase the player compared to other Pfhor, preffering to attack from afar.
• The Political Officer: They are described as such.
• Torture Technician: In addition to their commissar duties, they also work as these.

Juggernauts

• Airborne Mook: It is basically a helicopter-equivalent with the armor of a tank.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: More apparent in Infinity where they show up more often compared to previous games.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: When they die. Being near them when that happens will definitely kill you unless you have at least 2 1/3x shields, and you will need at least 2 2/3x to be assured of survival^note specifically, it does between 350 and 400 damage, where the yellow bar is 300 and the purple bar is 450. As a result, you need at least 400 health to be assured of survival, since you die when your shields drop below 0, regardless of the difficulty setting. Which, considering that we're talking about Juggernauts, is extremely unlikely to be the case.
• Degraded Boss: Compared to their late appearances in Marathon and Durandal, the Juggernauts appear earlier and more frequently in Infinity and various mods.
• Fireballs: In the sequels they replaced their machine guns with dual N-Cannons that shoot out fiery fireballs, similar to the Enforcers' guns.
• Giant Mook: The biggest regular enemy in the Trilogy.
• Glowing Mechanical Eyes: Especially when silhouetted.
• Hair-Trigger Explosive: When powered down, a single fusion bolt can make them explode.
  Durandal: "You might also want to spend a few seconds thinking about explosions and small spaces."
• Homing Projectile: Their barrages of warpedoes.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The World Killers, Gaze in Stunned Disbelief at the Tool of Our Destruction, The Big Floaty Thing What Kicks Our Asses.
• Skull for a Head: Their heads in Marathon. It was redesigned in the sequels.
• Slasher Smile: Their heads in both Marathon and Durandal/Infinity have a slasher smile.

W'rkncacnter

Some sort of ill-understood creatures spoken of in ancient S'pht legend. They are said to "live in chaos" and spread chaos wherever they go, unraveling the fabric of the universe around them. In Infinity, it turns out that they are very real, and finding some way to escape their influence is the driving conflict of the game.

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• Always a Bigger Fish: Durandal thought the Pfhor were tough but manageable, solar system destruction aside. The Jjaro were terrifyingly powerful, but seemingly left around plenty of their technology to the benefit of their inheritors. The W'rkncacnter? The instant they're seemingly waking to even be considered "active" again in Infinity, anything and everything immediately goes to hell in a handbasket, and Durandal and the rest of the cast outright cannot keep up across the various timelines where The Bad Guy Wins.
  • However, The Security Officer ends up being this to them too by the simple virtue of being able to dimension hop to Alternate Timelines, since the W'rkcacnter's only limitation seems to be to exist in only one particular timeline at a time rather than everywhere, at any time, all at once. Because they can learn about the W'rkcacnter in spite of it's continuous annihilations of the realities it exists in, the Security Officer is able to eventually do the impossible and defeat it in a war of attrition through time-and-space and seal it back in its can in his journey's Golden Ending.
• Ambiguously Evil: For as much of an Ancient Evil as the story perceives them to be, the games never once actually explore any facet of their morality, perspective, or even so much as a conversation; simply by existing in the localized space with an awakened W'rkncacnter, You Are Already Dead. The Jjaro and Durandal don't broach the subject as some sort of good versus evil, just that they must be sealed or everything will be destroyed. They also never seem to never operate to free themselves despite Pathways into Darkness strongly implying their sleeping dreams can manifest into the real world to a degree. It's entirely possible that they are simply beyond any concepts of evil and exist as the embodiment of chaos in reality.
• Ancient Evil: Old as, or maybe even older than, the Jjaro.
• Big Bad: For Infinity.
• Chekhov's Gunman: They receive a few mentions in Durandal but aren't important to the plot. In Infinity, though, they matter a whole lot more. One of them is implied to be the Dreaming God from Pathways into Darkness.
• Eldritch Abomination: They unravel the laws of physics around them. Even the normally implacable Durandal is terrified of them, because even with his vast intelligence, he cannot understand anything about them.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: Not once does the game or the terminals ever attempt to showcase an actual W'rkncacnter, not only due to the engine limitations but the sheer fact that encountering one directly would be a seemingly inevitable demise; there's a reason the Lh'owon star's destruction causing its prisoner's release results in yet another timeline jump. Not even Pathways into Darkness shows one, just some sort of dreaming avatar it brought into the world to protect it.
• Hurl It into the Sun: They have been, and they're still alive!
• I Have Many Names: The one from Pathways into Darkness is referred to by one of the characters as "He who rises with the tides, master of all things small and insignificant."
• Invincible Villain: The possibility of killing or fighting them is never brought up, or even hinted at. If the Jjaro couldn't do it, what hope do you have? The only option the player has is to escape them, apparently by jumping to alternate realities.
  • The closest thing to death they can experience is sleeping for millions of years. Even then their dreams still affect reality around them.
• Nuke 'em: What was done in Pathways into Darkness to temporarily knock out and bury the one apparently sleeping inside Earth itself. Centuries have passed until Marathon, and it's unknown what has happened to it since, just that clearly it still slumbers or else the solar system as we know it wouldn't be persisting.
• Precursor Killers: They are heavily implied to be the reason why the Jjaro aren't around anymore.
• Reality Warper: It's rumored they're the ones causing the timeline splits in Infinity.
  • The one underneath the Yucatan Peninsula in Pathways into Darkness can reshape the reality around it just by dreaming. It's the source of the grotesque monsters encountered there, and the restless ghosts forced to haunt the place.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Jjaro locked them into stars, black holes, whatever they could. Lh'owon's star is one such can.
• The Unpronounceable: Befitting nonsensical beings of chaos.

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Characters in third-party mods for Marathon have been moved to Characters.Marathon Expanded Universe.

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