History WMG / DeadSpace2

So, however many millenia ago, the Black Marker and it's Necromorph-generating properties existed, and was fought against by some form of precursors. For whatever reason, these precursors couldn't or wouldn't destroy the Black Marker, and instead, they sealed it away on Earth- modifying it with the external carvings, the base, and some other things which create the Dead Space effect and the additional psychic effects (see below). The carvings on the outside, which describe the Necromorph DNA, are basically a hazardous material warning, complete with a detailed description of the contents, and which human researches only tend to be able to partially translate (continually missing some of the important bits, like "Recommended Containment Protocols" and "Why you shouldn't let this get loose"). The Dead Space effect helps keep the Necromorphs contained while it is buried, so that none of the bacteria or worms and whatnot that come in direct contact with the marker get converted.

The real problem arises from the fact that copies of the Marker were made- imperfect, man-made copies that didn't understand the fundamental makeup of the combined artifact, and thus recreated both the original Marker and the additional seals in unison, as a single piece. This has caused the two psychic entities to be partially merged, despite their diametrically opposed natures, and thus, essentially, schizophrenic. While the Marker/Seal combination in Dead Space 1 was relatively consistent, presumably because it was a fairly high quality copy, the Titan Marker was much more confused, presumably because it was more poorly made.

The Markers were created by an ancient intelligence as an invitation/escape for intelligent species that are too advanced to sustain their growth without resorting to unsustainable practices like planet cracking. No alien life has been discovered in Dead Space because they all accepted the "invitation", Earth's being the Black Marker. "Convergence" is the process by which ALL the "potential" of an individual is combined with all other individuals into some sort of Cosmic Being. This process doesn't require the individuals to be alive however, so the Marker just rounds people up in the most efficient way possible, making us do it for it. Sort of like how in Evangelion everyone gets turned into bio-juice stuff that melds consciousnesses into one intelligent ocean that was supposed to be a "perfect" existence. So basically humanity is clinging to life in its current form out of fear of Glorious Convergence! Also, the Hivemind was just an efficient pre-convergence "standby phase" for the necromorphs to take as the Marker waited for its builder to return so it could trigger a Convergence. The Marker wanted to be returned to the Pedestal so that it could hide the necromorphs again as it waited for its builder.

** That... That just might work!

*** not exactly true. Hive minds are just very, very large Necromorphs made of several thousand bodies. In ''3'', you can see its close relatives (called Nexuses), which only count as a boss fight. The reality is [[spoiler: much, much worse: Convergence makes a Necromorph '''the size of a goddamn moon''', with ''billions'' of bodies consumed, and the only known example was interrupted before it could finish]].

Yes, we all know that mostly when she shows up [[BringMyBrownPants our pants get filled]], but she's giving rather pointed [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech reason why you suck speeches.]] Then comes the hallucination in the mines where Isaac finally admits how important Nicole was to him and [[spoiler:suddenly it's Normal!Nicole talking to him.]] All the subsequent times she appears she looks and acts like [[spoiler:the normal Nicole.]] But then she [[spoiler:betrays Isaac at the Marker, right?]] Well, what if she didn't really? Nicole [[spoiler:attempting to dominate his mind]] is the final straw for Isaac as he curses out the marker and [[spoiler:Nicole]]. Him being able to shoot at and 'kill' [[spoiler:Nicole in his mind]] is symbolic of finally letting go of his guilt over not saving Nicole. Then maybe [[spoiler:Nicole really did want to help, and betrayed him in order to make him let her go and destroy the Marker. After all, Isaac psychically destroyed the Marker by killing Nicole, so it worked in the end.]]

[[WMG: In Dead Space 3 Ellie and Isaac will be separated at the start.]]
After the events of Dead Space 2, [[spoiler:Isaac will become determined to blow up Markers everywhere. No longer afraid after literally destroying a Marker with his mind, Isaac becomes a crusader against everyone responsible for starting the dangerous Marker projects. Unfortunately, Ellie just wants to survive and decides not to join him on his impossible mission. She may or may not end up with him again, depending on whether or not he can convince her that he's not only serious, but very, very capable of accomplishing his goal.]]

** More likely Ellie will probably be a Co-op player option, much like how Sheva pairs up with Chris in VideoGame/ResidentEvil5. They've already taken a page from VideoGame/Left4Dead with the multiplayer, it's not entirely out of the question that co-op will be an option.

** 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 suppress 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 as well according to the novel Martyr. The Black Marker also drives people insane who get in it's sphere of influence and also is responsible 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 Necromorph 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.

** If he is, then how do you explain the fact that we kill him before we even reach marker? Or you haven't noticed that necromorph that had same skin color, a flashlight on the shoulder and same clothes, not to mention melted face had attacked you in living quarters? Although it is possilbe that since we kill him even after that, (reusing same skin maybe?) he eventually turned into Uber? Brrr...

** 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!

*** Ooh I like that theory; the Ubbermorph is infact the remains of the Hunter from the first game, remade by only a particular bit that remained...maybe one the many limbs that Issac shot off. Shame that the last chapters got cut making the end such a mess.

** This is also why the Ubermorph disappears suddenly in the final chapter. The Marker's goal is to absorb all it's makers - Since the Ubermorph is really Stross, once it got close enough to the Marker is was absorbed in preparation for the convergence event.

[[WMG: Dead Space 3 will be all about the Black Marker.]]

* If that's the case then why would Red infect Isaac's brain? And later drove bunch of people crazy... again? If Eearth Gov managed to create Red marker, it must mean that they were also infulenced by original right? So how could they go wrong? Unless the reason was in material.

[[WMG: Isaac will die in Dead Space 3.]]

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.
** It's actually mentioned in Dead Space in one of the logs that Unitology is widespread, even into the political sector, so this isn't that far-fetched.

* Fun idea, but not remotely plausible. Humanity found the local Mass Relay by breaking open Charon, Pluto's moon. Given how prevalent planetcracking is, CEC likely would have already cracked open Pluto and it's moon, and found nothing.

*** You're missing the best part of Markers as opposed to Mass Relays - they can indoctrinate in a much more subtle and effective manner. They can literally make the HumanResources [[http://deadspace.wikia.com/wiki/It%27s_Making_Us_Make_It! make the devices that render them into reaper jelly.]] Dead Space takes place 50,000 years after the BadEnding of VideoGame/MassEffect3, where the Reapers decided that Shepard got too damned close to wiping them out, and from that point on chose not to give their livestock any assistance ''whatsoever''. Instead, markers were seeded on life-bearing worlds. When species develop enough to uncover their planet's marker, they form Unitologist-analogue "churches" and fuse themselves into the resulting Reaper. Where the Mass Effect galaxy averted "[[http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/aliens.php#id--Apes_or_Angels Apes or Angels]]" via a combination of dead end Mass Relay technology and Citadel conservatism, the Dead Space galaxy lacks alien civilizations altogether - they're all either primitive or have undergone Convergence. The only reason humanity is a spacefaring species is because Altman sank the Black Marker in the Carribean, rather than let the indoctrinated use it to create a Convergence event.
* H ow about instead of being reaper larvae, The end result is the very thing the reapers are trying to advert? The reapers try to prevent an Artificial Intelligence from wiping out life from the galaxy entirely, who says the Artificial intelligence can't be organic like the Brethren Moons? They wipe out all organic life from a galaxy and integrate it within themselves and move on, while Reapers leave behind organic traces to be culled in the future. It's like comparing a wild creature that would overhunt an area for easy prey, and a hunter that would allow some animals around to propagate the next generation, like Franchise/AlienVsPredator. A cool crossover would be if the reapers caught the Brethren moons with their hands in the milky way cookie jar, The borglike reapers versus the resident evil-esqe Necromorphs.

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 was lucky. I have a guess (that isn't that wild) that the Necromorphs greatest weapon is surprise. The Necromorph's original infestation of the Ishimura was due to the fact that none of the crew survived their first contact with the Necromorphs. Even if they did manage to survive, the humans wouldn't have any really effective weapons to kill the Necromorphs with. Between a military grade weapon (Pulse Rifle) or a mining tool, which would you use? Probably the military grade weapon, since that is what you would normally use to kill. The crewmen never though of mining equipment as weapons, when in fact that they are possibly the most effective weapon against them. Also, the first weapon that Isaac gets? The Plasma Cutter, something just as efficient at cutting flesh as it is frozen rock.

In the first game, he's a complete mute, and the people you interact with don't even seem to think it's weird that you don't talk. Well, if he had something wrong with his mouth, something that your two allies were told about, it would make sense he never actually speaks and that neither person finds it weird, and yet is capable of yells and stuff. Actually, with organ grafting (which Dead Space does with cloned organs), it's possible Isaac actually lost his tongue and didn't have time to get a replacement before the DS1 mission (but did have it capped or something to keep from bleeding), or he had one reattached but it wasn't healed enough yet with the stitches to be able to talk yet. By DS2, whatever physical condition was causing a speech impediment has long since healed, it being three years, which lets him actually talk this time.

Issac is almost always decapitated when he fails to escape a grapple with a necromorph, or why he never becomes one of them? This is especially noticeable with the infector death, because it shouldn't decapitate him after finally sticking him with the proboscis. The infectors don't even seem to be injecting him with the infecting fluid, which is shown outside that cutsceen to be messy. Also notable is the leaper death animation, where Isaac's head is ripped off and then immediately dropped. The problem is that necromorphs [[spoiler:, with one notable exception,]] have not displayed the intelligence or organization to carry something like this out. What they would want with his head is another problem....

[[spoiler: Mercer, the Hunter and the Hive Mind all passed away in the previous game,]] however the Black Marker called upon them for a higher purpose and [[FusionDance merged them all into]] [[EldritchAbomination an unholy abomination]] when it brought them back to the world of the living. Now exists the ultimate Necromorph, [[ImplacableMan the Ubermorph.]] With the Hive Mind's head, thick flesh and the [[HiveMind ability to telepathically control and command all the other Necromorphs]], the Hunter's ability to [[HealingFactor regenerate]] as well as its mannerisms, and Dr. Challus Mercer's [[EvilutionaryBiologist appreciation]] and devotion to these creatures and [[ThePowerOfHate grudge against Isaac Clarke that keeps him constantly going after him]], devising plans with the others to ambush Isaac. He's also [[InvincibleVillain invincible]] as the fan trick might just be a glitch, and [[NeverFoundtheBody we never see him die in the explosions]].

* H ow about instead of being reaper larvae, The end result is the very thing the reapers are trying to advert? The reapers try to prevent an Artificial Intelligence from wiping out life from the galaxy entirely, who says the Artificial intelligence can't be organic like the Brethren Moons? They wipe out all organic life from a galaxy and integrate it within themselves and move on, while Reapers leave behind organic traces to be culled in the future. It's like comparing a wild creature that would overhunt an area for easy prey, and a hunter that would allow some animals around to propagate the next generation, like AlienVsPredator. A cool crossover would be if the reapers caught the Brethren moons with their hands in the milky way cookie jar, The borglike reapers versus the resident evil-esqe Necromorphs.

* He might be, but that brings up why the soldiers aboard the [[spoiler: Valor]] didn't survive. If he was, he'd be about on par with an average human surviving the games, since everyone else would be augmented to similar levels to his, so everyone would still be mostly equal.

* H ow about instead of being reaper larvae, The end result is the very thing the reapers are trying to advert? The reapers try to prevent an Artificial Intelligence from wiping out life from the galaxy entirely, who says the Artificial intelligence can't be organic like the Brethren Moons? They wipe out all organic life from a galaxy and integrate it within themselves and move on, while Reapers leave behind organic traces to be culled in the future. It's like comparing a wild creature that would overhunt an area for easy prey, and a hunter that would allow some animals around to propagate the next generation. A cool crossover would be if the reapers caught the Brethren moons with their hands in the milky way cookie jar, The borglike reapers versus the resident evil-esqe Necromorphs.

I was wondering why all these necromorphs were attacking me when they should be heading for the marker. Just like how every church service has ushers to help people know where to sit and pass the plate, some necromorphs were they to direct other necromorphs to the marker, hand out programs, pass the collection plate, and kill any annoying engineers who decided to attend.

From what I can see, the only way to stop the Necromorphs is with an equally evil force that far outnumbers the Necromorphs [[spoiler: and the Brethen Moons]]. If the marker can mess with organic minds, then the only solution is to pray for a crossover, set aside our differences with the Reapers and wait until they inevitably defeat the Necromorphs with their vast supply of indoctrinated troops. If you pit an army of giant space squid against them how can they win? Then, with luck, the Reapers will take pity on the decimated population and forget about the harvest. Honestly I don't think we stand a chance unless the Reapers show up and deem the Necromorphs more threatening than other organic life.

*** not exactly true. Hive minds are just very, very large Necromorphs made of several thousand bodies. In ''3'', you can see its close relatives (called Nexuses), which only count as a boss fight. The reality is much, much worse: Convergence makes a Necromorph '''the size of a goddamn moon''', with ''billions'' of bodies consumed, and the only known example was interrupted before it could finish.

** He still is the main character, but he did heroically sacrifice himself (oh, and Carver did too) to kill a post-convergence Necromorph. [[TheStinger Maybe...]]

From what I can see, the only way to stop the Necromorphs is with an equally evil force that far outnumbers the Necromorphs and the Brethen Moons. If the marker can mess with organic minds, then the only solution is to pray for a crossover, set aside our differences with the Reapers and wait until they inevitably defeat the Necromorphs with their vast supply of indoctrinated troops. If you pit an army of giant space squid against them how can they win? Then, with luck, the Reapers will take pity on the decimated population and forget about the harvest. Honestly I don't think we stand a chance unless the Reapers show up and deem the Necromorphs more threatening than other organic life.