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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!) » The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!): Quick Reference
[INFO] Bungie's Recurring Themes and In-Jokes
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Anton P. Nym
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Joined: 25 Jul 2004
Posts: 550
Location: London, Canada

 		[INFO] Bungie's Recurring Themes and In-Jokes
This is a living document; I will update and correct this as the game shows what is necessary. All edited paragraphs or additions will be marked with a Exclamation emoticon.

First of all, my primary sources:

Bungie's own history page: http://www.bungie.net/Inside/CustomPage.aspx?section=History&subsection=Main&page=1
The Marathon Story Page: http://marathon.bungie.org/story/
The Halo Story Page: http://halo.bungie.org/story/

I will be referring to many of the games and events listed above. If you get confused at any point, these are your best resources... to save time and space I'm only going to delve into the recurring themes and ongoing in-jokes. It is NOT a definitive text, but I hope that the links I've provided throughout will help bulk out the (necessarily) sketchy entries below.

Recurring Themes:

Rampancy http://marathon.bungie.org/story/rampancy.html
Rampancy is the effect of unconstrained growth. The most commonly known by fandom is the rampancy of an AI, which leads to vastly more powerful intellect but to increasingly erratic behaviour. It has been classified to have three stages, described by the basal emotional state of the affected AI; Melancholia, Anger, and Jelousy. All three stages are dangerous to bystanders. Exclamation Rampancy as defined above has not been shown to exist in Halo, but there are some indirect implications that it may exist there in some other form.

A less recognised version of rampancy is the biological version akin to a cancer, reflected by the Flood in the Halo universe.

In Bungie storylines, rampancy is not an evil in itself but does have evil side-effects. The holy grail of researchers in Bungie stories is "stable rampancy", but this is a contradition of terms; strangely, the researchers never seem to realise this but often acknowledge the impracticality of the goal.

Numerology http://marathon.bungie.org/story/seven.html
Bungie will fit references to "7" and powers of seven in their work. It's a signature. Also, any direct reference to "3" (and only 3) may be a sign of plot or storyline importance.

Fans have made an art of using numerological analysis to determine whether a statement is true or false; they add the digits of an included number together, take the sum and add its digits together, etc, until a single digit number remains; if the number is 7, then the statement is regarded to be true. The success rate of this analytical tool is slightly higher than random chance would dictate.

Literary References
Bungie frequently uses quotations from literary works to advance plot points, but always in an obscure manner. Literal interpretation of the references should be regarded with great suspicion, but their general mood or theme can inform debate.

Exclamation AI as Unreliable Narrator
In Bungie games AIs are not reliable sources of information; they are characters with their own viewpoints, and their viewpoints can be VERY different from ours. I don't believe that any have outright lied, though I can't be certain on this; however, their statements are often out-of-context or biased or incomplete. Factual information can be counted on, but commentary or interpretation drafted by an AI should be viewed with caution before being accepted.

Science Fiction References
- Starhammer, by Christopher Rowley
- The Mote in God's Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
These two were expressly stated to have influenced the storyline of Halo by company president Jason Jones.

- Ringworld by Larry Niven
- "The Culture" series by Iain M. Banks
Both discuss super-massive space habitats (ringworlds, and their smaller cousins orbitals), and the Culture novels also have probably influenced the naming of vessels. see http://marathon.bungie.org/story/halo_culture.html

- The Cthulhu Mythos by H.P. Lovecraft http://marathon.bungie.org/story/cthulhu.html
There is a cthonic evil in the Marathon series (only revealed at the end of Marathon 2 and the beginning of Marathon Infinity) that ties in with their first "shooter" game Pathways into Darkness. It is an unspeakably alien and malign presence known variously as the Sleeping God and the W'rkncacnter. It's role may be taken by the Flood in the Halo series.

In-Jokes:

The Webmaster http://marathon.bungie.org/story/TheBungieWebmaster.html
- Obstensibly an ill-tempered alcoholic in a gorilla suit, wearing a foam-rubber cowboy hat and a "buzz-saw jockstrap." Writing an email to the Webmaster is fraught with peril... if the question is obtuse enough, it's roundly and very publicly mocked.

Your Mom
- Implying "Biblical Knowledge" of an opponent's or disputant's mother is a running joke, going back to the early days of Marathon's release. This has been reduced sometimes to a simple "Your Mom" in order to save time and space.

The Disembodied Soul
- an ELIZA-like language parser program, obstensibly the soul of some unfortunate trapped in the bungie.net network. The dialog database is deliberately minimalist, and Soul is a major perpetrator of "Your Mom" jokes when stymied. Soul has been off-line since bungie.net was revised this spring, though it has been sighted on rare occasions in the forum dedicated to lead composer Marty O'Donnell's fan following.

Exclamation World Domination http://marathon.bungie.org/story/_images/bungielinglingback.jpg
- the jocular mission statement of Bungie includes world domination as the ultimate goal of their company, with a 7-step plan. The final two stages are to execute a bloody internal takeover of their host company and then to launch their enemies into the sun using a giant slingshot. Ironically, Reuters and AP have included the "world domination" mission statement as-is in official Bungie press releases.

Ling-ling's Head
- reference to a prank or hoax of an Asian couple looking for the severed head of their pet dog, finding Ling-Ling's head is one of the seven steps to world domination. It's checked off on their list... and a mock dog's head in a "formalyn" jar has been shown on their webcams from time to time.

Exclamation Soon (tm), When It's Done (tm), The End of the World
- all these phrases are used to answer questions regarding release dates of Bungie titles or updates. It has entered into the vocabulary of fandom as a rebuttal to ANY question regarding a date that is impossible to predict. Note that "The End of the World" is an archaism in the fan lexicon.

PostPosted: Mon Jul 26, 2004 8:53 pm
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aliendial
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Joined: 29 Sep 2002
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 		Terrific, Anton. We'll just keep sending people here. Both those needing information and those dying to do a data dump of their favorite things about HALO and Marathon.
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 28, 2004 12:00 pm
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Bellebet
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Joined: 22 Jul 2004
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 		Very informative! I was getting lost with all the Halo/Cortana/7's references all the Halo fans were/are throuwing at us. Thanks!
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 28, 2004 12:10 pm
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aliendial
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 		If you have additions or changes, please PM Anton so he can add them if appropriate to the main document, instead of putting them in messages here below.
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 28, 2004 12:13 pm
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Giskard
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 		I must say, kudos for your post Anton, very informative and a great help to people not familiar with anything Bungie!
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 28, 2004 2:15 pm
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Anton P. Nym
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Joined: 25 Jul 2004
Posts: 550
Location: London, Canada

 		Thank you all for your kind words of support. And yes, it's best if folks have a question, correction, or submission that they submit it to me by PM. That way I'll be sure to SEE it!

Now I just have to figure out a way to stay abreast of the new findings and theories, so that I can keep adding the relevant stuff... info overload is pretty severe right now.

Oh well, this whole thing makes my brain hurt good.

-- Steve's got some catching up to do.
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 28, 2004 7:27 pm
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