Let's put it this way: Brain Uploading is a far stretch from the kind of research that has been going in UAC. Chances are, he might be instead reanimated with Lazarus waves. Besides making him appear like a Science Hero triumphant over death itself rather than a Humanoid Abomination and providing the standard combat perks of Powered Armor, his shell could be somehow isolating him from the Mastermind's influence... unless he's only thinking he is acting on his own terms and against the greater evil, similarly to The Illusive Man. Note that Revenants are explicitly mentioned to be skeletal-thin and very tall, which explains the need for the suit's gigantic proportions. And, of course, a climactic reveal will happen when the doctor transitions into a genuine villain, to cement the point he has been deceptive in more ways than one.
- There are parts of Hayden's frame that are a lot thinner than even a Revenant. If you put the two next to each other, it's pretty clear that a Revenant wouldn't fit inside Hayden's body. Also, the UAC is a really big company that's into a lot of different types of mad science, we just see mostly the demon-related stuff because we're traveling through the specific laboratory where all the demon-related stuff was being done.
- Revenants are mostly bone with some mechanical servos, decaying organs, and gore. It's not a far stretch that Samuel could have removed the vast majority of his bone body, and if you ever crack open his head you might find a Revenant skull in there. Additionally, the MLRBs would have had to be removed to implant his brain into the robotic body, as they are said to directly interface with the brain via a chip.
- He lacks the Multi-launch Rocket Batteries. But he does get an argent accumulator so he's got power to spare. On an unrelated note, anyone else think his fingers look funny?
- Tyler-4406
on DeviantArt had a similiar theory and made fanart. - Almost certainly jossed; Eternal seems to hint that he's actually a pseudo-Makyr, possibly even an incarnation of the Seraphim.
- Jossed as of the Ancient Gods DLC, which confirms that Hayden and the Seraphim, Samur Maykr, are one and the same.
Ok, roll with me on this: Doom 3/Resurrection of Evil is our "prime" timeline, or the one where everything started from our perspective. The UAC was tampering with dimensional travel, and Betruger finding Hell was their first contact with a "realspace" dimension. But the protagonist from Doom 3 (hereafter referred to as "the Marine") and the one from Resurrection of Evil (hereafter referred to as "Baldy") both halted the demonic invasions. BUT here's the kicker: How do we KNOW that the Doom 3 universe is the only one? What if the Classic Doom and Doom 2016 universes also exist in alternate dimensions, and in both of them, the UAC was also fucking around with Hell in some way? Maybe Ol' Scratch just got his ass kicked by the Marine and Baldy, but then another UAC from another universe made its way to hell and he decided "well, the last invasion didn't work, but I'm nothing if not persistent" and so the demons make a play for another universe.
Now, the Marine was rescued from Mars and taken back to earth, so unless something happened we don't know about, he can't be Doomguy in 2016, BUT, both Baldy and the player from Classic Doom (hereafter referred to as "Fly Taggart" after the hero of the books) are in positions to hop dimensions after their respective games: Fly ends Doom 2 in hell, with an explicit long road home, it's conceivable that he was captured and sealed away by the demons, when UAC 2016 found him and brought him to their dimension. And Baldy, well, we don't know what the hell happened to him except for a bright light, so its possible there's some higher power that pulled him from his dimension and recruited him to be a dimension hopping badass who puts down demon invasions wherever they spring up.
Because it makes ZERO sense for Doom 2016 to be a direct follow up to any of the previous games. The UAC seem perplexed by Doomguy's armor, despite that fact that it looks like pretty standard infantry armor (well, standard for DOOM, anyway). If Doomguy existed in this timeline previously, there would have to be some record: enlistment records, medical files, hell, they should at least be able to identify the armor, but they can't even OPEN it, let alone reverse engineer it. My explanation: because the armor's not from THEIR dimension: Doomguy is either Fly or Baldy pulled from his own universe into the 2016 universe.
I'll go one further: We know from the journal entries in 2016 that Doomguy is from another world called Argent D'nur that fell to the demons. Suppose that's Fly's universe, and while he was down in hell giving the Icon of Sin a headache, the rest of his universe was destroyed. Then he got recruited by the Night Sentinels. With a little tweaking, this theory could work for Baldy as well. Either one of those universes could be Argent D'nur.
TL;DR: Either Fly or Baldy is an interdimensional "in case of demons, break glass".
- Classic Doomguy was a descendant of William B.J Blazkowics and Billy "Commander Keen" Blaze, whom, during the events of Doom 2, saved his ancestor's souls in the secret levels that resembled Wolfenstein 3D, no doubt a special portion of Hell set aside to torture his ancestors. He was also likely involved in the Plutonia and D64 campaigns, the last of which left him on guard in Hell to ensure no more demons invaded his world. If Classic Doomguy is indeed the protagonist of D2016, he was likely trapped some time after the final battle of D64 and sealed away until Hayden and Pierce unearthed him. If the events of Quake 3 factor into his story, he may have had his armor upgraded by the "traitor of Hell" during the events of Q3 Arena. Eternal specifically confirms this, the Doom Slayer is truly the original Classic Doomguy.
- Another possibility is that the Doom Slayer ended up in the Classic Universe for a period after Argent D'nur fell, and was adopted by the Blazkowics family for a brief period before he joined the Marines and the incident that sealed his transfer to Mars in the first game.
- The Marine and the Bravo Marine(the protagonists of D3 and Lost Mission) were sent back to their own universe after their quests by the Soul Cube, so it could not have been them who were trapped unless there was a further incursion after the Engineer (the protagonist of Resurrection of Evil) killed the demonized Betruger with the Hell Artifact. The Engineer may have perished after his final attack there.
- If the Engineer is related to the Doom Slayer, it was that particular Artifact of Hell that the Betrayer used to make the Praetor Suit, as it ran off Soul and Argent Power to grant abilities similar to the Haste, Berserk, and Invincible 'lesser' artifacts.
- Fly and his co-op partner Arlene were 'split' at the end of their novels, one copy went home after five hundred years while the other copy of them remained in 'Hell' to continue hunting demons to prevent the invasion. If Fly is indeed the protagonist Marine of D2016, it implies that Arlene is dead.
- Reaper, the film's protagonist, never went into Hell to stop the invasion, so unless he participated in a sequel-event after the film's events and got trapped, he probably isn't the protagonist of D2016.
- Doomguy from 1-64 is The Doomslayer, after 64 he rampaged through hell, ending up in several hell connected alternate dimensions along the way (Q3). The box he was sealed in is perhaps the Tomb from Doom 3 as well, Implying he was sealed before the events of Doo M 3, which take place in an alternate universe from 1-64. The reason the UAC from 2016 has no recollection of the events of 1 or 3's universes is because it is yet another hell connected universe.
- Semi-confirmed? Maybe? Eternal confirms that the Doomguy across 1, 2, (maybe) 3, and 64 are all the Doom Slayer - but cut dialogue implies that he's been transferred from the OG dimension to the reboot games' dimension. The rest regarding the movies, 3's expansions and novels remains unmentioned, but "the Slayer being an interdimensional demon repellent" is solidly confirmed.
The last couple of levels involve journeying through the corpse of a giant monster that you killed in the backstory, one that ruined Hell for miles around as it died. What gargantuan monster did you kill at the end of Doom 2 that did the exactly the same thing? Not to mention you can find the Icon of Sin's boss wall while journeying through the Titan's corpse, complete with hole in the head...
- Jossed as of Eternal. The Titan you slayed is a separate member of the species than the Icon of Sin. You even retrieve your Crucible Blade from the corpse of the Titan in order to have a weapon to kill the Icon with.
I am assuming that this Doomguy is not actually the same one from the previous games, and that the story in Doom (2016) is a Broad Strokes treatment of the original games. Can't really speak about this WMG without massive spoilers, so here we go.
The new backstory of the game, as told by Codex entries and the Slayer's Testament, has the Doomguy being a member of a knights order called the Night Sentinels, Protectors of Argent D'nur. They bitterly resisted all of Hell's attempts to invade until a traitor within the Night Sentinels allowed a Hell priest to corrupt the Wraith energy that helped to protect it in exchange for the return of his son, who had fallen in battle. The man's son was returned to him...in a corrupted form that is, and Hell's army exterminated the Night Sentinels and absorbed the entire realm. Being the Sole Survivor, Doomguy went on a rampage across Hell as retribution for the fall of Argent D'nur.
But its never specified just who this man who betrayed the Night Sentinels was, or what happened to him after the events in question, but the first part of the Slayer's Testament provides a important clue:
- "In the first age, in the first battle, when the shadows first lengthened, one stood. Burned by the embers of Armageddon, his soul blistered by the fires of Hell and tainted beyond ascension, he chose the path of perpetual torment. In his ravenous hatred he found no peace; and with boiling blood he scoured the Umbral Plains seeking vengeance against the dark lords who had wronged him. He wore the crown of the Night Sentinels, and those that tasted the bite of his sword named himâĤ the Doom Slayer."
Why would the Doomguy be 'blistered by the fires of Hell and tainted beyond ascension'? Because he was the one who betrayed the Night Sentinels and allowed the destruction of Argent D'nur to occur. Unable to join his comrades in the afterlife and losing whatever family and friends he had at the hands of the demons, he chose to channel his regret and grief into unending fury, dedicating his remaining existence to the complete destruction of Hell and all within it. This also justifies his violent reaction to the UAC's attempts to use Hell's energies and resources without being the same Doomguy from the first game: He knows first-hand that any dealings with demons will never end well.
- It seems unlikely that the Doom Slayer is the betrayer of Argent D'nur for the following reasons, especially when one looks at the Slayer's Testaments and the Wraith entries in the Codex as a whole.
Consider not just the fear, but also the great respect with which the Testaments and the Codex translations about the Wraiths refer to the Doom Slayer. Contrast this with the contempt with which those same documents refer to either the "wretched betrayer" of Argent D'nur and "the wretch who shall not be named" who created/modified the Doom Slayer's armor. The demons appear to have no problem inciting betrayal in others, but they seem to view the act of betrayal itself as contemptible weakness and deserving only of punishment ("...for the wages of treachery are suffering", The Wraiths III).
If the demons had managed to corrupt the feared Doom Slayer who had repeatedly frustrated their attempts to conquer Argent D'nur for so long, why wouldn't they would be gloating like crazy about it and celebrating that fact for all eternity? "He dared to stand in our way, but we finally tricked and corrupted him. So there!"
One might argue that the Doom Slayer didn't know he was bargaining with Hell, but if the price of the bargain was to lead the Hell priest Deag Grav to the Elemental Wraiths (the very thing the Night Sentinels were sworn to protect at all costs), surely some so experienced with fighting the incursions of hell would be able to figure out just who he was dealing with. Promises to return a dead loved one has to be one of the oldest pages in the "deal with the devil" playbook, along with offers of unlimited money, power, and/or sex partners of your choice. It just doesn't seem likely that the Doom Slayer would be gullible enough to believe such an offer, especially if it required him to betray the very thing he was sworn to defend for so long.
Instead, the demons themselves describe the Doom Slayer as "Unbreakable, incorruptible, unyielding...." (Slayer's Testament III). Think about it — the Doom Slayer's very worst enemies call him "incorruptible". That makes it very hard to believe that the demons would use an accolade like that to describe the "wretched betrayer" of Argent D'nur, no matter how far in the past that betrayal occurred. They might absolutely loathe and fear the Doom Slayer, but whatever they may think about him, weakness of character or vulnerability to their machinations certainly doesn't seem to be one of them.
As for the Doom Slayer's unyielding rage, that can easily be explained by being forced to watch the fall of Argent D'nur which he worked so hard to protect. And if one goes with the theory that the Doom Slayer is the original Doomguy from Doom 1, 2, and 64, the Doom Slayer has seen this scenario several times before — someone gets the bright idea of messing around (or making a deal) with hell, which inevitably leads to corruption, madness, demonic invasions, and horrific carnage. Of course he would be infuriated to see it happening all over again.
Regarding Slayer's Testament I and its statement that he was 'blistered by the fires of Hell and tainted beyond ascension...', that phrase doesn't necessarily refer to the consequences for some act of betrayal. When viewed in combination with the other Slayer's Testaments, it seems more likely that those lines in Slayer's Testament I simply refer to the cost of going to and willingly staying in hell for the sake of vengeance. The rest of the Slayer's Testaments make it clear that the Doom Slayer is willing to do whatever is necessary to carry out that quest for vengeance, even if that meant using demon-crafted armor or drawing "strength from his fallen foes" (Slayer's Testament IV). The unrelenting violence of his actions and his willingness to take demonic energy into himself (and therefore in some ways become a demon himself) to defeat the legions of Hell, even if done with "good" motivations, would understandably make him "tainted beyond ascension" (i.e., unfit for ascending to Heaven or some other blessed afterlife). But it is a price that the Doom Slayer is clearly willing to pay.
As for the wrong(s) he is seeking vengeance for, surely the loss of Argent D'nur and/or the corruption of the Wraiths would be enough to justify such a Roaring Rampageof Revenge. And if you believe that the Doom Slayer is in fact the original Doomguy of the previous games (because of dimension-hopping and multiple timelines), there's even more wrongs Hell is responsible for, such as the multiple invasions of Phobos, Deimos, Earth itself, and maybe even the death of his pet bunny. - Not to also mention that after defeating the Hell Guards the ghosts of the Night Sentinels appear and salute him. Seems rather unlikely of a thing for them to do to their betrayer, unless it's meant to indicate that after all he has done since they are finally beginning to forgive him.
- As for the part about the Slayer being incorruptible, the demons could mean that he's learned his bitter lessons and won't be open to any more deals with them in the future.
- Jossed as of Doom Eternal. The Betrayer is shown to be a different individual altogether, and is still alive and well in his own makeshift hideout when the Slayer visits him.
- Pretty unlikely, given that there's no hint whatsoever that the Doom Slayer died even once prior to the fall of Argent D'nur.
- Or at least the Praetor Suit and Doomguy himself are BOTH of hell, so not only does the mechanic of the chainsaw and glory kills dropping health, armor and items make sense for gameplay, but it's literally feeding off demonic energy of the victims.
- Jossed as of Doom Eternal. It's explicitly stated that the Icon of Sin is what Betrayer's son has become, and the Betrayer himself even explicitly requests Doom Slayer to put his son to rest.
the Wraith energy that Empowered the Lost world of Argent D'nur- or at least the Night Sentinels, and NOT innately corrupting of itself, cleansed of the Influence of hell
- So like holy water where they boiled the hell out of it?
- Eternal established Argent Energy to be an unholy mixture of damned souls and Wraith energy, and it's unknown whether Hayden was able to separate the two.
Namely, the fall of Argent D'nur, Doom Slayer's alliance with a demon who created his armor, his fight with the Titan and other examples of formerly Offscreen Moment of Awesome over millennia punctuated by numerous time skips, and his imprisonment in Kadingir which, while a defeat, could be a climactic Taking You with Me situation. In short, what Wolfenstein: The Old Blood was for Wolfenstein: The New Order.
- Given the near full-game price of the season pass, this could happen.
- Jossed for this game, but still possible for Eternal.
- While not all the details are given, the Slayer's backstory is indeed expanded on in Eternal. He's the original Doomguy who was recovered by the Night Sentinels, back when Argent D'Nur worked with the Maykrs. When the Maykrs betrayed them and chiefed a demonic invasion, the Slayer acquires his superhuman powers through the Seraphim - Samuel Hayden - and then went to work. Beyond that, there's also his original purpose shown in The Ancient Gods: he was created by Davoth the Dark Lord as an instrument in his long plan to destroy Urdak, and manipulated his war on Hell to expand his ire toward the Maykrs.
Itâs canon that hell takes over numerous alternate dimensions. Itâs reasonable to assume that the multiverse is infinite. So, after the end of Doom 64, humanity loses. He ends up in a new universe, welcomed as an already unstoppable badass who can help their fight. He finds himself with a new home world, and a new people to fight for. And then theyâre also exterminated by Hell and taken over. Doom Slayer has now lost two entire home worlds to them, the original and his new adopted one, and heâs not having that shit. His blessing from heaven is the power of respawning. Up to the fall of his second universe, he was a badass normal. After that, he spent ages waging war against Hell, refusing to try to find a new home since he lost two. Then he was captured. Now, people ask why they didnât just kill him. Well, we see what happens the first time they tried in the game. Perhaps they got him out of the armor before and did try to kill him. He escaped, but couldnât locate his armor. In desperation, he hops in a portal to get to the latest world theyâre at war with. He ends up in Doom 3 and joins up planning for when their UAC unleashes Hell on their Mars. After the end of Doom 3, they finally recapture him again. Not risking another escape, they lock him up, seal the place and just leave him alone out of fear.
- Eternal mostly confirms this; the Doom Slayer is the same person as classic Doomguy, and he joined Night Sentinels in the timespan between 64 and 2016. That said, he's not actually the last living Night Sentinel, just the only one still keeping up the fight against Hell.
- The journal entries written by the demons that you find in hell refer to the Marine as a "he" so the marine does seem to have a canonical gender. That being said journal entries are the only place he is given a gender so it's reasonably easy to ignore that and just play the marine as a woman if that's what you want. If you want a WMG to justify that: demons don't have genders and as such don't have gendered pronouns in their own language, the fact that the doom marine is referred to as a "he" in the journal entries is due to them being mistranslated from a gender-neutral language to one with genders.
- Jossed by Eternal: Various codex entries explicitly state that he is biologically male.
- At least partly jossed: Prowlers are a common enemy in Eternal's campaign.
- Alternatively the ancient Doom Slayer, from that other dimension that hell absorbed where the elemental wraiths are from, who betrayed his home in a moment of weakness wanting to revive his son tried to pull a Body Snatcher move on the Doom Marine when he first arrived in hell in the very first game. He was planning to take his already immensely powerful body, tools, and armor for himself to keep up the endless crusade against hell. But they both completely agreed on everything they wanted to do to the point where neither one really needs to be completely in charge and they aren't sure exactly who's doing what anymore.
- He does possess a Revenant in Eternal, but otherwise, it's been confirmed that he's the same person as original Doomguy. Also, he's not the Betrayer.
[[WMG: The Doom Slayer has Determination.When he's so (relatively) squishy, how did he manage to become such a figure of legend in Hell that the demons had to seal him away rather than kill him? He has the power of Determination. Whenever he dies, he just reloads. Thus he can keep hurling himself at the demon hordes, and from their perspective they only see him as an invincible demigod, no matter how many times they actually killed him. This is also why he has such an irreverent attitude, even managing to make jokes like the Terminator 2 reference as he dies. This sucks, but he knows he'll be back.
- The Berserk Artifact amplifies his LV high enough that his bare hands are sufficient to rip demons apart, while the Quad Damage feeds off his Determination to feed the power of his LV into his ammunition.
- Alternatively the Doom Slayer is squishy for gameplay reasons. The lore mentions that the Praetor suits is impenetrable, though this could just be talking it up. It's possible the suit feeds off their demonic energy to replenish health and ammo.
The man's a living nightmare for an entire species he hates, capable of insane stunts, likely insane...and yet he still shows a great deal of compassion to creatures that warrant it, and what truly sets him off is idiots who think they can control an entire universe made of evil. What happened to his home likely worsened the Great Curse to perpetual Limit Break with the sheer horror, which is why he's so viciously tempered, but all of it's focused on those deserving of his anger. Given how Exalted is hinted at being a previous universe, and the Doomguy is explicitly that old, it's likely the Praetor Suit allowed him to survive Creation's recycling by the Wyld.
Doom 2:
- Pain Elemental
- Arachnotron, either as minibosses or Baron Of Hell level enemies
- Arch-Vile as the beefed version of the Summoner
Doom 3:
- Trite
- Cherub
- Fat Possessed
- Pinkies, variation of the Pinkies in the previous game and called Maggots
- Bruiser
- Wraith, upgraded Imp
- Vulgar, upgraded Imp but having the same physical look as Maggots
Doom RPG:
- Hellhound
Doom 64:
- Nightmare Imp, basically Spectre version of them
Brutal Doom:
- Cyber Baron
- Flesh Wizard
Doom 2016:
- Prowler, whom finally appears outside of multiplayer
Bosses:
- Vagary (Doom 3)
- Saboath (Doom 3)
- Kronos (Doom RPG)
- Mother Demon (Doom 64)
- Maledict (Doom 3)
-
Semi-confirmed: the Pain Elemental, Arachnotron, Archvile, and Prowler all return, but Eternal's other new demons are all new to the franchise.
Depending on when Olivia Pierce first became corrupted by the denizens of Hell, the UAC's experiments with demons (the Possessed, the Revenants, and the Cyber-Mancubuses) were not a result of For Science!, but as part of Olivia's deal with the Legions of Hell by providing them with upgrades (Cyber-Mancubuses, the Cyberdemon) and outright new soldiers (the Revenants). She was already turning the upper management of the facility into a Cult under Samuel Hayden's robotic nose before everything went to straight to hell, so why wouldn't she provide tangible benefits for her new masters to prove her worth that they could keep, even if she failed to provide on her big promises?
- Seemingly confirmed by Eternal, which establishes that the Hell Priests were already actively involved in UAC affairs even before the events of 2016.
- With his baritone, youâre basically describing a fleshy, evil Optimus Prime. Amazing.
- Eternal comes close. It's the Icon of Sin, with a full body encased in Powered Armor.
Hayden is trying to keep the Argent Reactors up and is furious when the Doom Marine destroys them because this will cause a massive energy crisis, but what if by "Energy Crisis" Hayden means "Humanity will go to war for whatever power sources there are left"? Resources are already dwindling and humanity used up all the natural resources that could grow back in a year by August in 2016 and with rising population and energy demands, plus coal, gas and oil being ever dwindled, how far would you think countries will go to control precious fuels?
Humanity, as a species, suffered horrifically at the hands of nations warring over what precious resources are left to the point where they near-completely damaged the world's ecosystem with pollution and nuclear fallout, also causing a sharp decline in population. The situation is so bad that nuclear power, ocean waves, solar energy and wind farms are out of the question. After the war, half of all species on Earth are extinct, the human population is only 0.1%, there appears to be no better way to fix everything than just allow humanity to go extinct...
Then, all of a sudden, Dr. Samuel Hayden discovers Ardent Energy and successfully uses it to fix most of these problems.
It's a miracle, but at a steep cost - it's literally the power of Hell itself which, if it goes out of control, could easily wipe out humanity and Hayden is fully aware of this fact... but it's the only thing that's preventing his home from becoming a barren wasteland. He does whatever is necessary to get Argent Energy but not too dangerously - he has all manner of safeguards in place which, had Olivia not screwed everything up, would have been feasible in helping protect mankind.
Related to the above WMG, it's probably true that right now, Argent Energy is vital for keeping human society up and running. However, just because we're depending on Argent Energy now doesn't mean we need to keep it. Much like gas and coal, we could invest this (relatively) cheap energy source to look for more sustainable, less cursed energy sources. It's true that with the probable state of Earth this would be an enormous undertaking, possibly involving deep-space mining and the like, but with an initial investment of Argent Energy it might be done, and might even be done quickly enough to avoid a Hell invasion.
There are problems, of course. The first is human nature- would humans really settle for a safer, sustainable power source if it means surrendering the immediate comforts of Argent Energy? And would the UAC be willing to surrender their monopoly on energy to benefit the rest of mankind? Probably not. And the Doom Slayer ( who we all know is very concerned about the environment ) realizes this and acts accordingly, out of grief and rage.
During several decades since the Mars incident, Samuel Hayden used the power of the Crucible to finally successfully tame and exploit Hell itself, as well as create and lead a new world order - a prosperous but authoritarian state where utopia is built on the backs of enslaved demons. Occult science is widely practiced, undesirables are routinely sacrificed to provide fuel for the rituals, and uncommon but deadly incidents involving demon breakouts are covered up by ruthless state propaganda. This inherently unstable state is finally broken when noble but horribly misguided rebels decide to free the demons from oppression.
- Misguided, perhaps. But these demons could also befriend and support these rebels like The Wretch who made Doomguy's armour. Tensions might arise if Doomguy himself shows up at a rebel camp and scare some demons shitless, leading to some teeth-clenched teamwork between them.
- The title part is confirmed, but everything else is jossed; Eternal does begin sometime after the events of 2016, but the Hell invasion of Earth is stated to have started very quickly after the Mars invasion is stopped, and doesn't involve well-intentioned rebels fighting against the world government. In fact, said government only forms after the demons have already invaded, and it's focused fully on protecting what's left of humanity from hell. UAC cultists do experiment on demons, but it's done with the explicit blessing of Hell's rulers, and Hayden himself is leading the resistance and wants nothing to do with the demons.
- Well, that makes two logical possibilities, both having precedent for spawning demons: Lilith or the Whore of Babylon.
The Doom Slayer is repeatedly state to have used a sword in the hidden lore of the game. At the end of the game Samuel takes the Crucible from the Doom Slayer and transforms it into a sword. This is assuming that "sword" isn't being used in a figurative sense.
- Confirmed in Eternal, though the Doom Slayer's own Crucible is a seperate sword from the 2016 one.
You can find the skeleton of someone wearing a Skyrim-styled iron helmet in the Kandingir Sanctum. That alone can imply that Hell is actually a plane of Oblivion, and the demons are Daedra. There are also four Daedric Princes that one can imagine would be behind all this mayhem: Mehrunes Dagon, Peryite, Boethiah, and Molag Bal. All four are known for being outright malevolent, three of them have ruled realms that fit the criteria of the trope Fire and Brimstone Hell, and the fourth (Molag Bal) has been known for pulling fragments of other worlds into his own, similar to what's happened to the Doom Slayer's world, and to parts of Mars.
The lore found in Hell says that the Doom Slayer moves through time and space. Taking this into account, it could be argued that the Doom Slayer and Doomguy are the same person, in the same time, during the same event, but at different points in their lives. First, Doom 3 happens, and after those events on Mars, the UAC gets more Marines in case the same event happens again. Then Doom 1 happens, and Doomguy kicks all kinds of ass on Mars' Moons, while Mars itself is also under attack but is never witnessed by him. Doomguy goes on to do his thing, goes through Doom 2, defeats the Icon of Sin, but most of humanity is destroyed with the last having evacuated Earth. Then goes through Doom 64 and at the end of that, decides to stay in Hell for eternity doing what he does best: Killing Demons.
Doomguy then meets up with the Night Sentinels of Argent D'nur, and over the course of eons becomes their leader. He gets his power up from the Seraphim around this time, and his armor reforged in the flames of Hell, becoming the Praetor armor and starts getting called the Doom Slayer. Argent D'nur falls at some point, and maybe even what's left of Humanity has died out in his own dimension. He keeps killing demons, until they eventually collapse a freakin' building on his head just to slow him down for a while. He then gets found by Samuel, brought back to Mars, but in a past version of Earth that happened after Doom 3, but before Doom 1. Maybe it's one of his new powers, maybe time just runs odd in Hell, or maybe a bit of both. Depending on how long before the Hell invasion happened, he may have stayed asleep for decades(Sammy is over 100, after all).
While he's asleep, the UAC study his Praetor armor, and start equipping their marines with a armor based on it, which an unnamed Marine(Doomguy of the past) stationed on Phobos gets. the event that makes Doomguy, Doomguy, happens, and while he's clearing off Mars' moons, the Doom Slayer is woken up and takes care of Mars. Whenever the Doom Slayer goes to Hell, it's from where he left off and not the past hell that Doomguy goes to, where he hasn't become known as the Doom Slayer yet. Afterwards, the Doom Slayer is sealed away again by Samuel until he's needed again. While he's in stasis, Doomguy of the past goes on to do the things that make him known as the Doom Slayer in Hell, and he too will one day awaken back in the past to clear off Mars, while a past version of him is on the moons.
- Jossed by Eternal; the Doom Slayer is the one who has to clear the demons off of Earth (and Phobos) as well (as Hayden didn't actually seal him away at the end of 2016).
And he wants retribution in blood for being cast out.
"So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and my we never need you again.
-Corrax Entry 7:17"
Although this is the only tidbit we ever see from the mysterious Corrax in the game we can tell they are obviously not on Hell's side. They want the Doomslayer to slaughter the demons and gave him the means to do it with greater efficiency by crafting the armor or the blessing. The quote even sounds like a dark blessing they might have said upon gifting it to the Doomslayer.
- Jossed in Eternal; the Seraphim is a "Samur Makyr", while the Corrax entries are revealed to be Argenta texts.
◊ and his sarcophagus
◊.At the beginning of this game, when we awaken, we are in a sarcophagus. Then in Samuel Hayden's office, we come across a drawing that is officially described as depicting the Doom Slayer, and is very similar to the tablet found in Doom 3. Ergo, the Doom Slayer is the Martian hero who defeated the demons millions of years ago (the First Age) and was resurrected by UAC during a Lazarus event, to help them defeat the demons again.
- Another clue to this game being a sequel to Doom 3 is that the Soul Cube exists in Doom 2016, in the Lazarus Labs level.
Think about it. Hayden himself, much more the entire world, are completely dependent on Argent energy to survive. This is no mere coincidence as the world has limited itself to a single energy source and expanded to a point where losing it would cause devastating ripples upon human society. This is exactly what the demons wanted. It is shown with Argent D'Nur that if Hell cannot annex a realm by sheer force then it does so by deception and subterfuge. It forced the Captain of the Night Sentinels' hand by taking advantage of his weakness and making him betray the Wraiths. Samuel Hayden is almost godlike in this realm and is effectively holding the world at gunpoint by being the monopolizer of the energy sector, without which millions would potentially die. Who better a target to corrupt in order to force the human realm to obey? It is likely that the demons could have even offered the energy to Hayden in order to save mankind from itself in exchange for a terrible price that even he, one of the most intelligent men in the world, didn't fully understand the magnitude of or, perhaps, was too desperate to care. The Demons could shut off the flow of Argent Energy when they invaded Earth and the colonies and basically FORCE mankind to capitulate. Hayden believes that owning the Argent Energy makes him the one in control but really he only handed Hell the gun at the head of the world.
- Eternal reveals that Hayden has actually been trying to invent a Hell-free method of creating Argent Energy, and Argent-powered technology is used to fight against the demonic invaders. That said, he definitely played into Hell's hand in 2016, and all of Earth's technology turns out to be nowhere near enough to fight off Hell.
- It is possible the UAC is evolved from "Vault 666" the first Vault in Mars, in which the experiment involving gate to hell. It Gone Horribly Right and the superiors and overseer notices the energy potential from hell.
- Imagine a "Garden of Eden Creation Kit" being powered by the energy of Hell. Ironic and strangely poetic.
- If so, it would have to be in the far future of the franchise, since Earth is shown as having been fully developed pre-invasion in Eternal.
- Decades of Nazi rule would explain how Earth gets a space empire in a century and change yet also is just so incredibly stupid that it chooses robbing Hell over solar.
- Olivia winning is the simplest outcome, they successfully take over Mars. This gets them another world to conquer and a launching point to attack Earth.
- Hayden winning is more complicated. Olivia fails, Mars is not conquered, and the Doom Slayer successfully shuts the portal down. This looks like a failure for Hell, but the demons know one key thing: Hayden's entire legacy is built on Argent Energy and he will not let the Doom Slayer stop him. They know Hayden will find some way to get rid of him again, and they also know they have Hayden by the throat when he does it. By getting him to steal the Crucible and betray the Doom Slayer they've managed to corrupt him without his even realizing it.
- The Doom Slayer winning is also a blessing in disguise. If the Doom Slayer kills all the demons, closes the portal, then kills both Pierce and Hayden this leaves him stuck on Mars by himself without a way to get back to Hell, which means they can carry on without worrying about him as long as they never go near that region of space again. He's effectively re-contained himself in such a way that they know none of their future victims will ever find him.
- In Eternal, it does turn out that Doom Slayer finding his way back to the Solar System is the one thing that completely derails Hell's invasion.
- Jossed in Eternal; the Betrayer is a different Night Sentinel who lives in self-imposed exile in Hell.
- Confirmed by the lore book that came with the Collector's Edition of Eternal; the Mastermind is an ancient demon that's implied to require some sort of sacrifice whenever she wants to incarnate in a physical body. Indeed, it's quite possible that every Spider Mastermind you face is the same one, just with a new body.
Bright, a white lightIf there'd beAny glory in warLet it restOn men like him
Dead men will never come back
Crosses grow on AnzioWhere no soldiers sleepAnd where hell is six feet deepThat death does waitThere's no debateSo charge and attackGoing to Hell and back
A man of the 15thA man of Can DoFriends fall around himAnd yet he came throughLet them fall face downIf they must dieMaking it easierTo say goodbye
Bright, a white lightIf there'd beAny glory in warLet it restOn men like him
Who went to hell and came back
Crosses grow on AnzioWhere no soldiers sleepAnd where hell is six feet deepThat death does waitThere's no debateSo charge and attackGoing to hell and back
Oh gather 'round meAnd listen while I speakOf a war where hell is six feet deepAnd all along the shoreWhere cannons still roarThey're haunting my dreamsThey're still there when I sleep
He saw crosses grow on AnzioWhere no soldiers sleepAnd where hell is six feet deepThat death does waitThere's no debateHe charged and attackHe went to hell and back
Others have simply evolved biologically between the two games, notable ones being Cacodemons and Imps. With the twist of Eternal's demons being human husks, their demons are likely nu-demons that arose after the 'classic' breeds of the olden games went extinct.
