/-/S'pht-Translator-Active/-/

	Infinity Speaker Identities
	Posted By: SiliconDream =PN=	Date: 1/2/02 12:26 p.m.
	Thoughts on the authors and nature of a couple of the more mysterious Infinity terminal messages. I make no claim that these identifications have not been argued or refuted by ten thousand people before me. :-) Shakespeare Term on Poor Yorick: Well, it's got the Pfhor text color and graphics, so I think it's a pretty good bet that this is Tycho, talking to Durandal. In Confound Delivery, Tycho will tell you that he sent Durandal a message "only the three of us would understand." We know that, in the M2 timeline at least, this message was "left in one of the Garrison's tertiary computers, encoded in a manner that only one of the Marathon's original three AIs could decode." Since Poor Yorick takes place in Garrison-occupied territory, this oughta be that message. Of course, there's the question of why you can read it if it's encoded, but one could argue that a) in this timeline it's not encrypted, b) it is encrypted but you can read it thanks to the translation software suite you've received from Tycho and Durandal, or c) the "encoding" is simply that it's a literary reference no alien (and few 28th-century humans) would understand. As for what the message is actually supposed to mean...well, no need to get into that now, but I'm sure the "dark lady" angle jumped out at most of you. ;-) Incidentally, I dunno how many people would agree with me on this, but I like to think of Poor Yorick as a "decision level" from which multiple timelines branch. If you take the usual way out to Confound Delivery, you go on to activate Thoth, who immediately hails the S'pht'Kr and ushers in the failed future of Aie Mak Sicur. But (as I see it) if you read Tycho's message to Durandal, the latter notices you and whisks you off to Two For The Price Of One, where you get to read Durandal's ironic and equally erudite reply. (Though whether Durandal's referring to himself or to you in that reply, I couldn't say.) By the time Tycho gets you back, it's time to send you up to finish off Durandal (which is Durandal's wish as well, explaining why he'd arm you and why he seems to expect your defection in Foe Hammer), and you don't have time to activate Thoth. Now of course you aren't actually supposed to get to Two For The Price Of One in the solo game, but the fact that it's "almost possible" suggests that Electric Sheep One could be needed to jump to the timeline where it was possible, if you follow me. :-) Poetic terms on the Jjaro station (Carroll Street Station and Aye Mak Sicur): I believe that both of these messages were written by S'bhuth. The Carroll Street Station argument is clear enough--the speaker is clearly S'pht or S'pht-related, and he refers to himself in the singular as S'bhuth does. He laments the destruction of K'lia, his having "lost home anew" (Lh'owon, of course, slain by nova and chaos just as the S'pht'kr return), and the death of his "wriggling children's children." All point toward his being the Older of the S'pht'kr. It may be more surprising that I identify the Aye Mak Sicur message's author as S'bhuth, but I think it holds together. Recall from the Final Screen that S'bhuth "saved his entire race, but in the end, frozen by despair, he joined the chaos he sought to evade." Now I'd bet that most people take that as happening during the death of the universe. But what if it happened much earlier? During Aye Mak Sicur, in fact? We saw S'bhuth save his race simply by returning with the S'pht'kr and warning you about the W'rkncacnter, so the first part of the final screen quote is confirmed. Perhaps S'bhuth believed that the W'rkncacnter was sure to escape despite your best efforts; certainly he knew that even if you succeeded, his beloved home system was doomed to an icy grave. Unwilling to outlive it, "frozen by despair," he destroyed himself or approached the W'rkncacnter and allowed it to destroy him. If the Aye Mak Sicur term is thus describing S'bhuth's last moments, then it's simply an alternate-universe version of the Carroll Street Station term. This would explain their parallel construction--in each case, there's a recollection of the W'rkncacnter's legendary appearance, followed by a stream-of-consciousness description of current events, and finally the author's last thought before oblivion. Of course, the tone is different; the CSS S'bhuth is defiant, clinging to coherent thought until the last, while the AMS S'bhuth slips away from concrete imagery into inchoate emotion. Perhaps S'bhuth's greatest weapon against despair was his sense of responsibility toward his people...when the appearance of Durandal/Thoth and the Marine partially relieved him of that responsibility, it was easier to give in to his grief. Some might think it strange that S'bhuth would refer to "my old Pthia," but remember that he is a failed Jjaro and thereby has some relationship to Pthia, whatever she/they were. (Given S'bhuth's longevity, he may even have encountered Pthia directly, although we know he didn't encounter the W'rkncacnter.) Also, the accompanying image (a still from the battle going on at that moment) argues against the AMS message actually having been written in the distant past. Fun stuff comes next: the dream level terms. But that'll be wayyyy longer... --SiliconDream

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Replies:

	Infinity Speaker Identities	SiliconDream =PN=	1/2/02 12:26 p.m.
	Re: Infinity Speaker Identities	Hamish Sinclair	1/2/02 10:36 p.m.
	Re: Infinity Speaker Identities	SiliconDream =PN=	1/3/02 9:59 a.m.
	Re: Infinity Speaker Identities	Hamish Sinclair	1/3/02 10:45 a.m.
	KISS Principle? *NM*	REB	1/3/02 2:15 p.m.
	Keep It Simple, Stupid! *NM*	Steve Levinson	1/3/02 4:56 p.m.
	YOUR MOM! *NM*	REB	1/3/02 8:15 p.m.
	Re: Infinity Speaker Identities	SiliconDream =PN=	1/4/02 12:52 a.m.
	Re: Infinity Speaker Identities	Hamish Sinclair	1/4/02 3:55 a.m.
	Re: Infinity Speaker Identities	Rincewind MoG	1/4/02 4:19 p.m.

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