Bungieverse: My Theory.
In a nutshell, I've always felt that Bungie has had a fairly
consistent story throughout Pathways Into Darkness, Halo, Marathon and now
Destiny. Myth could have happened sometime during the past in the timeline I
propose. Likewise, Oni could have happened shortly before the Traveller
arrived.
The primary theme I've seen in all of Bungie's games is an
ambivalent evil, client races working for said evil and a lone hero that will
stand up and protect us all. Which is nothing that you couldn't apply to many
works of fiction, but I feel that Bungie's stories are more interconnected than
they will admit. The time periods for each game do allow for them to take place
in the same timeline.
For an initial disclaimer, Bungie has stated that Halo does not
take place in the same setting as PID or Marathon, but I'm overlooking that and
will attempt to create an overarching narrative that bludgeons all the
timelines together in one big semi-plausible mess. I am also disregarding
anything from 343i's timeline, as it is not part of the Bungie canon.
It is a little awkward trying to convince myself that with FTL
travel and hundreds of colonized worlds, that the UESC/UNSC would even bother
with a giant sub-light colony ship like the Marathon. I will propose that the
smaller FTL ships were not getting people off-world fast enough and there was a
call for giant ships, forged from asteroids and moons (bas d on the old CRIST
ships), that would take tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of
people at a time to faraway colonies.
One of my prevailing theories is that the protagonist of each
game series is somehow related or reincarnated from the previous. Bungie hasn't
helped discount that theory by having little hints in their games. Marathon 2
mentions the Marathon Security Officer being good at surviving falls, such as
Sgt. Eddings was in PID. The Marathon Security Officer was likely a Mjolnir
Mark IV cyborg and John 117's armor is the Mjolnir Mark IV Powered Assault
Armor. As Guardians, we are raised from long dead humans who have an uncanny
knack for combat and wielding light as a weapon. The Bungieverse also has time
travel and multiple dimensions to play with, so who can really know.
I also believe that the ambivalent evil in all the games is
related. The Jjaro appear in both PID and Marathon. Yrro and Pthia are proposed
to be Jjaro, who helped uplift the S'pht and imprisoned the W'rkncacnter in the
Lh'owon star. It was said that the Jjaro could not kill the ancient god in PID,
but trapped it for an indefinite period. The legends of the W'rkncacnter have
persisted for 60 million years, so I can say with a decent amount of faith,
that the W'rkncacnter are both the beings trapped in Lh'owons star, the ancient
god buried in the Earth and the Darkness in Destiny. I would also say it's safe
to say that the Jjaro are probably the Forerunners (or created them) and that
the Covenant, P'fhor and The Fallen are all races that have encountered Jjaro
tech.
I don't think the Traveller is a Jjaro (vessel), but it may be
some kind of Jjaro sentinel that was built to keep a particular W'rkncacnter at
bay and has been running around the galaxy uplifting races in an attempt to
stop it's pursuer.
Lastly, light was being studied during the golden age and was
stated on a grimoire card to be something quantifiable. So we know the
Traveller and it's 'space magic' aren't really magic, but advanced technology.
Hence a possible connection to the Jjaro/Forerunners.
Bungieverse - The Story So Far
~???? BYA A cataclysmic
battle between immortal alien races creates the Magellanic Clouds.
~64 MYA An alien
object impacts the Earth in the Yucatan Penninsula, containing a near dead
remnant of that ancient alien race. The comatose alien's dreams create
catacombs and nightmarish creatures beneath the Earth.
???? The Jjaro dissapear from the Milky Way Galaxy. Leaving behind colonies and technology. It would later be known that the Jjaro elevated the S'pht to sentience with cybernetic implants. Their technology was also discovered by the P'fhor and deemed unsafe after disastrous experiments.
???? The
P'fhor rise to power.
3189 BCE The Nakh
revolt against the P'fhor.
490 BCE The Greeks
defeat the Persians at the Battle Of Marathon.
811 CE S'pht civil war. S'pht'Kr leave for K'lia.
???? The
Traveller visits the Eliksni's (The Fallen) home system and ushers them into a
golden age. The Eliksni are attacked by the Darkness and the Traveller flees
their system.
1811 P'fhor
attack Lh'owon system (S'pht home) and enslave the ten remaining clans. A rogue
star begins to pass through the Milky Way Galaxy.
~1930 Rumors of
strange creatures and a pyramid in the Yucatan jungles circulate amongst the
archaeological community.
1938 German
soldiers explore the pyramid (none return).
~1978 Spanish
speaking treasure hunters investigate the pyramid.
1994 Jjaro
diplomat Ryu'Toth holographically projects into the Pentagon, briefing
President Clinton and his staff that they have 8 days to save the world from
the dreaming god. A special forces team is sent to detonate a low yield nuclear
weapon at the base of the Pyramid. Sgt. Eddings completes the mission and is
the only survivor.
1996 The Jjaro arrive at Earth to further incapacitate the dreaming god.
~2014 The
Traveller arrives on Mars, the public is made aware of extra-terrestrial life.
Science advances at an unprecedented rate, leading us to develop AI, FTL
travel, artificial life and more over the coming centuries. Humans turned on
themselves in grabs for power again and again and we became intertwined in a
war that spanned the Orion Arm of the galaxy.
???? AI is discovered and Exos (also known as Battleroids for combat applications) are created. Humanity colonizes the Solar System.
~2070 AI
Rampancy damages the Earth computer network.
~2160 Global
civil wars are fought in the wake of the Traveller's arrival.
2170 A unified earth government is established.
2194 A war
breaks out between two independent powers in the Asteroid Belt. Dead soldiers
are integrated with Exo/Battleroid technology, the experiments go wrong and the
cyborgs kill almost everyone on both asteroids. Exo development is halted
indefinitely.
2206 The AI
Traxus IV goes rampant on Mars and causes the shutdown of the Martian computer
network.
2208 The
damage caused by Traxus' rampancy is repaired.
2214 United
Interplanetary League sets rules for the use and storage of Exo/Battleroids.
2291 The
Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine allows spacecraft to travel through the
'slipstream' as a method of FTL travel.
2310 Large commercial cargo vessels known as CRISTs are decommissioned. The first wave of FTL colony ships are launched.
2319 Short
range teleportation is developed.
2320 James B. Miller publishes his work 'Life And Death Of Intelligence.'
2390 Colonization
of the 'Inner Colonies' is fully underway, with 210 human occupied worlds in
various stated of terraforming. Overpopulation problems temporarily stabilize
on Earth.
2395 UESG
purchases Mars' moon Deimos.
2405-2408 Construction
begins on the Marathon project. The current FTL colony ships are unable to move
enough people off-world at a time, so the massive sub-light colony ship concept
is introduced.
2442 UEG/UNSC
troops fire on starving Martian protesters at a food distribution center. 500
civilians are killed at what becomes known as the Misriah Massacre. This
ignites the 3rd Martian war (ending in 2245).
2465 Munitions (including Mjolnir cyborgs) are smuggled onboard the Marathon.
2468 The
outer colony of Harvest is established.
2472 The
Marathon is completed after 64 years of construction and launched.
2490 Over 800 planets are now colonized by humans throughout the Orion Arm of the galaxy.
2491 The
ORION Project is initiated by the Office of Naval Intelligence.
2492 Nuclear
weapons are used to quell a rebellion on the colony of Far Isle.
2494-2496 Eridanus
insurrection.
2502 Project
ORION's Corporal Johnson assassinates secessionist leader Jerald Mulket Ander,
on the colony of Harvest.
2517 Project
SPARTAN II begins on Reach with 75 conscripts.
2525 SPARTANs
undergo a radical series of biological augmentations. 30 die, 12 are disabled
and 33 successfully adapt. The colony of Harvest is found destroyed and a
message from the Covenant is received. Project Mjolnir is initated.
2530 Eridanus II is destroyed by Covenant forces.
2535 Jericho
VII falls to the Covenant, SPARTAN John 117 witnesses the destruction.
2536 The
Covenant push into the Inner Colonies and continue to win decisive victories.
2547 ONI publicly announces the existence of the SPARTAN program to boost morale throughout the UNSC.
2552 John 117
is given upgraded armor with a neural interface and Covenant shield technology.
The Pillar Of Autumn arrives at Halo (events of Halo: CE).
2553 After the destruction of Halo, John 117 returns to Earth amidst the Covenant Invasion. The Flood reach earth. John 117 travels to the Ark in hopes of stopping the Halos from firing and saving the Earth. The Ark is destroyed and the Flood threat is neutralized.
~2553 The end
of the Human-Covenant War, human colonies lie in ruin across the Orion Arm.
Contact with the Traveller is re-established and a new Golden Age begins.
2772 Bernhard
Strauss (Marathon's Science Director) awakens from 300 years in stasis.
2773 The UESC
Marathon arrives at Tau Ceti.
2787 Tau Ceti
colony is established.
2791 The Nar
attempt to retake Epsilon Eurobea from the P'fhor.
2794 The
Marathon is attacked by the P'fhor and the colony on Tau Ceti is destroyed.
Nine of the colony's Mjolnir Mark IV Cyborgs are destroyed on the surface
defending the colony, one remains unaccounted for. The anonymous Marathon
Security Officer, aided by the ship's AIs, manages to deter the P'fhor from
capturing all of the humans still onboard the Marathon and ultimately repel
their attack.
~2797 The P'fhor return to the S'pht home world of Lh'owon.
2811 Durandal
(one of Marathon's AIs) arrives at Lh'owon in a captured P'fhor ship. The
marathon security officer is awoken from stasis, apparently kidnapped by
Durandal after the attack on the Marathon at Tau Ceti.
~2811 Durandal and the rebellious S'pht, defend Lh'owon with the help of the lost S'pht'Kr clan. The P'fhor, who are losing the fight at this point, use a catacysmic weapon known as the Trih Xeem to destroy Lh'owon's star. When the star explodes, the W'rkncacnter are released from the stellar prison.
2881 The S'pht'Kr assist a fleet sent from Earth to sack the P'fhor home world.
2886 The
radio warning transmitted by Marathon's AI Leela, warning of the P'fhor,
reaches Earth.
???? The
Marathon returns to Mars orbit.
~3021-3309 The Golden
Age climaxes on Earth (dates from the Clovis Brae Exoscience Lab). Exos were
back in common usage, however the use of cyborgs appears to have ceased. Vex
ruins were being studied on Venus.
???? The Darkness reaches the Solar System. The Darkness consumes the outer defenses and colonies. Rasputin shuts down to protect itself, realizing that there is currently no way to fight the Darkness. The Traveller uses almost all of it's power to halt the Darkness' advance at the Reef. Most of the human race is wiped out.
???? The
Fallen, Cabal and Hive arrive in our Solar System. The Vex may have always been
here.
???? The Dark Age. The remainder of humanity gathered into feudal societies around the world. At some point, Guardians were activated by the Traveller's Ghosts and led the remaining humans to The Last City.
???? The City
Age. Various factions vied for control until the Guardians united and ended the
Faction Wars. The Guardians defended the city against multiple attacks by the
Fallen and led a failed offensive to purge the Moon of the Hive. Kabr led his
unsuccessful mission into the Vault of Glass.
???? Our
Guardian is resurrected in Old Russia.
???? Durandal
and the marathon security officer fight through various timelines to prevent
the escape of the W'rkncacner.
12811 Durandal
returns to Earth in a Jjaro dreadnought, just to let them know 'he's' still
around.
~1.52E10 Durandal
attempts to escape the heath-death of the universe.
