Eternal X
Prōlogus: Omnia aut nihil, vel: Fātum
(Prologue: All or Nothing, or: Destiny)
To my disappointment, destiny was our only original chapter title that didn’t have an exact cognate in Latin with an identical meaning. Destiny is actually the noun form of the verb destine, meaning the state of being destined or the act of destining; destine in turn is derived from the Latin verb dēstinō. It displaced the Old English word wyrd, which was in turn an ancestor of (and was pronounced identically to) Modern English weird. Dēstinō is also etymologically related to dēstinātiō, whence destination.
Unfortunately, no suitable noun form of dēstinō means destiny, so I instead used fātum – which has its own interesting etymology, but that’s another story.
I mentioned “original chapter title” since Pfhorrest came up with alternate chapter titles for the prologue and epilogue during 1.3’s development: all or nothing for the prologue, dialectical synthesis for the epilogue. As seen above, Latin has two different words that can translate as or, but like the two Greek words for ignorance, they’re not precisely synonyms. Saying that aut is either/or and vel is and/or might be glib, but it’s also basically correct.
Lātus procul nūllius locī
Title
My non-literal Latin translation of “The Far Side of Nowhere”. It literally means “The Far Side of No Place”, but in Latin phrases like this, it’s best to use the genitive case, which nusquam (nowhere), being an adverb, does not have. “Lātus procul dē nusquam” would be a literal (and more awkward) translation.
Caput ūnum: Memoria
(Chapter I: Memory)
Deja Vu All Over Again
Map Writing
Erāmus omnēs hūc ante.
(RIP DC, MCMXLI–MMXXIII)
Translates as “We have all been here before,” a line from Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young’s “Déjà vu” (Déjà vu, 1970-03-11). (Young did not perform on it.) “DC” is, of course, David Crosby, who lived from 1941 to 2023.
Σηπτοκοκκική Φφορυγγίτιδα
(Septococcal Pfhoryngitis)
Title
The map name is a pun on the phrase streptococcal pharyngitis, or strep throat. Streptococcal is derived from στρεπτός (streptós, or twisted), and κόκκος (kókkos, or seed). Pharyngitis is derived from φάρυγξ (phárynx, or throat) and -ῖτις (-îtis), which denoted a connection to a place in ancient Greek, but has become -ίτιδα (-ítida) in modern Greek, denoting inflammations. There’s an additional pun here on σηπτικός (sēptikós, whence septic), meaning characterized by putridity.
Map Writing
Σηπτοκοκκική Φφορυγγίτιδα
Ἐκτισμένη ύπο
Δόν-Μάρτιν Αντέλλ
Ἀαρών Φρίντ
A crude transliteration of the map title into Greek, whence the entire title is directly derived (see directly above). An exact Romanization would be:
Septokokkiké Phforyngítida
Ektisménē hýpo
Dón-Mártin Antéll
Aarṓn Frínt
Originally, I erroneously used Κτιζομένη (Ktizoménē), the passive present participle of κτίζω (ktízō, to build). I also took a minor artistic license in using Φφ as a rough equivalent of pfh – Bungie occasionally misspelled it Phfor anyway (in fact, this appears to have been the original spelling), so I don’t mind. (The Romans would’ve insisted on romanizing it Phph, which is only slightly worse than φθ→phth, e.g., diphthong, Nephthys, ophthalmology.)
Δυσμεντρία
(Dysmentria)
Title
“Dysmentria” is a pun on two Ancient Greek words:
- Δυσμετρία (dysmetría): dysmetria, meaning an inability to control or limit muscular movements;
- Μένος (ménos): mind, desire, anger, violence, etc.
Thus, it might be interpreted as meaning an inability to limit or control one’s mind, desire, anger, or violence.
An acutal ancient Greek word related to this concept is ἀκράτεια (romanized akráteia) or ἀκρασίᾱ (romanized akrasíā), which exists in modern English under the spellings akrasia and acrasia, meaning a lack of physical or (especially) mental strength, poor willpower, and a tendency to act against one’s better judgement.
Map Writing
Δυσμεντρία
Ἐκτισμένη ύπο
Γιόρεν Σβένσσον
Ἀαρών Φρίντ
Again, crude Hellenizations of the map title (which is a Greek pun), “Designed by”, and our names. Romanized:
Dysmentría
Ektisménē hýpo
Gióren Sbénsson
Aarṓn Frínt
Sakhmet Rising
Title
A reference to Egyptian mythology. Sakhmet (also seen spelled as Sekhmet, Sachmis, Scheme, and others) is an aspect of Hathor (or, in some traditions, Bast) that emerges when she is sufficiently angered. Much later (in “Bug-Eyed in Space” and “Once More Unto the Breach”), Leela explains:
Sakhmet served as protector of the pharaohs and led them in warfare, was called upon to ward off disease, subdued Ra’s enemies as the Eye of Ra, and was known as “One Before Whom Evil Trembles”. But she also had many much darker aspects, as suggested by her other titles, “Mistress of Dread”, “Lady of Slaughter”, and “She Who Mauls”.
The gods once unleased Sakhmet to punish humanity, but quickly regretted it, as her rampage far exceeded their intentions; her bloodthirst (which is not a metaphor) grew with each person she slaughtered, until she threatened to wipe out humanity entirely. Her rampage was only placated when Ra filled a lake with beer he’d dyed red to resemble blood. She drank all of it, which got her so drunk she gave up the slaughter and returned peacefully to being Hathor.
Players are invited to draw their own conclusions.
Map Writing
“Nōnne potes mē pulsantēm audīre?”
In memoriam C. Watts (MCMXLI–MMXXI)
A tribute to Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, who passed away in 2021; I was working on this map when I found out and just wrote a tribute. The first line literally means “Are you not able to hear my knocking?”, a reference to “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking?”, a Sticky Fingers (1971-04-23) track with a stunning spontaneous jam that, according to legend, erupted after guitarist Mick Taylor simply kept playing after the song ended. Watts, bassist Bill Wyman, and conga player Rocky Dijon lay down an absolute monster of a groove throughout the entire track, which is easily my favorite Stones song.
(I do feel at least Taylor should be credited as a cowriter along Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Cases could also be made for everyone who contributed to the jam: Watts, Wyman, Dijon, saxophonist Bobby Keys, organist Billy Preston, and percussionist/producer Jimmy Miller.)
Remedial Chaos Theory
Title
Named for a classic Community episode (S3E4, 2011-10-13). Although Community mostly plays this for laughs, its take on multiverse theory is very similar to Eternal’s: even slight differences in outcome create new timelines. This episode felt like a perfect reference for one of the levels following Eternal’s first timeline branch.
Map Writing
Nōn obligās habilitāre lūcem rubeam.
Literally something like “You’re not obligated to enable the red light”. Figuratively, “You don’t have to put on the red light.” In the Community episode “Remedial Chaos Theory” (S3E4, 2011-10-13), the Police’s “Roxanne” (single, 1978-04-07; Outlandos d’Amour, 1978-11-17) plays about seven times, usually roughly until this line.
Roots and Radicals
Title
A radical is the symbol used to represent a mathematical root: √4, for instance, refers to the square root of 4, while ³√8 refers to the cubic root of 8. (These both have the same answer, namely 2.)
Ūniversum tangēns
(The Tangent Universe)
Title
As with all of the Inti Station levels, this one derives its title from Donnie Darko (2001-01-19, dir. Richard Kelly) or supplemental material thereof, namely The Philosophy of Time Travel, a metafictional work connected to the film. In-universe, Roberta Ann Sparrow wrote it in October 1944. The relevant text is:
The Primary Universe is fraught with great peril. War, plague, famine and natural disaster are common.
Death comes to us all. The Fourth Dimension of Time is a stable construct, though it is not impenetrable.
Incidents when the fabric of the fourth dimension becomes corrupted are incredibly rare.
If a Tangent Universe occurs, it will be highly unstable, sustaining itself for no longer than several weeks.
Eventually it will collapse upon itself, forming a black hole within the Primary Universe capable of destroying all existence.
Map Writing
Incipimur id dēnuō.
Cūr nōn possumus incipere id dēnuō?
Modo sine nōs incipere id dēnuō,
Et erimus bonī.
Hoc tempus faciēmus id rēctē.
Est opportūnitās ultima nostra ignōscere nōs ipsōs.–MB, MMIX
This translates roughly as:
Let’s start it over again.
Why can’t we start it over again?
Just let us start it over again,
And we’ll be good.
This time we’ll get it right.
It’s our last chance to forgive ourselves.–Matthew Bellamy, 2009
Which is a quote from Muse’s “Exogenesis: Symphony Part III (Redemption)” (The Resistance, 2009-09-11). This felt especially appropriate for the conclusion of the first “failure branch”, after which the player is given another chance to get it right. “MB” is, of course, songwriter/vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Matthew Bellamy.
Core Done Blew
Title
A pun on cordon bleu, French for blue ribbon. In English, this phrase most commonly refers to:
- a skilful chef
- an award given to such chefs
- a form of cooking in which thin slices of various kinds of meat are breaded and sautéed
This style of cooking isn’t popular everywhere, so some players may not get the pun.
Heart of Fusion
Map Writing
Dear Tycho,
Please Accept this 5-D LAVA MOAT.
YOU WILL BE AVENGED
♥
RAVEN
A rare case of a long map message that’s not mine. ravenshining was one of 1.2.x’s lead developers. (I’ve left her capitalization intact.) The ♥ is made of two isolated polygons which contain an uplink chip.
Dormīre, fortuītō somniāre
(To Sleep, Perchance to Dream)
Title
The level title, of course, comes from Hamlet’s famous soliloquy in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (c. 1600), which is only the greatest literary work in English history. You may recognize the sources of several other titles within this soliloquy (including a level title from Marathon 2).
To be, or not to be, that is the Question:
Whether ’tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand Natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? ’Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to Dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffl’d off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there’s the respect
That makes Calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time,
Th’oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s Contumely,
The pangs of dispriz’d Love, the Law’s delay,
The insolence of Office, and the Spurns
That patient merit of th’unworthy takes,
When he himself might his Quietus make
With a bare Bodkin? Who would Fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d Country, from whose Bourn
No Traveller returns, Puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus Conscience does make Cowards of us all,
And thus the Native hue of Resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of Thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their Currents turn awry,
And lose the name of Action.—Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy Orisons
Be all my sins remember’d.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991-12-06), the British dream pop band This Mortal Coil, the Richard Matheson novel What Dreams May Come (1978-09), and Arcturus’ song “The Bodkin & the Quietus (…To Reach the Stars)” (Aspera hiems symfonia, 1996-06-03) are all titled, at least in part, after phrases from this soliloquy.
Caput duo: Inimīcus
(Chapter II: Enemy)
Ἐναντιοδρομία
(Enantiodromia)
Title
A Greek word for running in opposite ways evidently coined by the Macedonian anthologist Johannes Stobaeus (Ἰωάννης ὁ Στοβαῖος, Iōánnēs ho Stobaîos, John the Stobian; Stobi may have been the city he was born or lived in, but we know nothing about him, not even when he lived). It merges ἐναντίος (enantíos, opposite) and δρόμος (drómos, racetrack) to describe an observation from the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus (Ἡράκλειτος, Hērákleitos) that many phenomena in nature turn into their opposites, especially in the absence of balance: as Heraclitus wrote, “Cold things warm, warm things cool, wet things dry, and parched things get wet.”
More recently, Friedrich Nietzsche and Carl Jung re-popularized the concept. Jung’s concept of the shadow is an influence on our characterization of Hathor: the shadow isn’t evil, precisely, but it isn’t always pleasant. The shadow is also an influence on “Hi Ren”, the song quoted in the map writing.
This is also the title of the first song on The Long Defeat (2022-03-23), the French avant-garde black metal band Deathspell Omega’s eighth album. I ⟨aaronfreed.
Other cultures, whether or not they have words for enantiodromia, are certainly familiar with the concept. For example, the fourteenth-century Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義), traditionally attributed to Luo Guanzhong (羅貫中), opens:「話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分。」(Whether or not Guanzhong wrote Romance, he certainly didn’t write that line, which was added centuries later.)
This line is impossible to translate precisely, but one of the most popular translations is Moss Roberts’ “Here begins our tale. The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been.” Which is concise, but takes a few artistic liberties and fails to convey the whole meaning.
“It is said to be the fate of all things under the heavens: what is long divided shall unite, what is long united shall divide” is vastly more complete and closer to literally accurate, but fails to express the original’s poetry. (“All things under the heavens” is also both a wordy and imperfect rendering of「天下大勢」, which Roberts translates as empire, and which, within the context of the novel alone, can be interpreted to mean not just the Han empire but also families, friendships, romantic relationships, political alliances, and even mental health. Outside the novel’s context, it can be interpreted even more broadly.)
No translation can possibly convey all of an original text’s intended meanings to another language, and it’s often necessary to invent new ones that may not even have been intended by the original author. (To be fair, this sort of thing inevitably happens even in the original language, as usage invariably changes over time.) But even by Classical Chinese standards, this is a particularly vexing passage to translate.
The important point here, though, is that it is a clear example of enantiodromia, and a particularly famous one, not even just within China but worldwide.
Map Writing
«Ὅτε εγώ ἦ ἑπτακαίδεκα ἔτη γηραιός, ἔκρᾱζον ἐς κενόν χῶρον καί κενόν λίνον, ‹Νῑκήσω τᾱ̀ς δυνάμεις κακίᾱς›, καί ἐπί ἑπόμενα δέκα ἔτη βίου μου, ἔπασχον τὰ ἀποβαίνοντα: ἀυτοανόσον, νόσον, καί ψῡχωνόσον.
Ἐν γεγήρᾱκα, μεμάθηκα ἦσαν οὐδέν αὐθεντικοί ἀριστῆς καί οὐδέν αὐθεντικοί ἡττηθέντες ἐν ψῡχολογικοῦ πολέμου, καίτοι ἦσαν θῡ́ματα, καί ἦσαν μαθηταί. Οὐ ἦν Δαυῑ́δ κατά τῷ Γολιάθ; ἦν εκκρεμής αἰωνίως παλλόμενος ἀπό τοῦ ἐρέβους εἰς τὸ φῶς, καί λαμπρότερα τὸ φῶς ἔλαμπε, σκοτεινότερα τὴν σκιάν ἔφυε.»
–ΡΓ, MMXXII
Romanized:
«Hóte egṓ ê heptakaídeka étē gēraiós, ékrāzon es kenón khôron kaí kenón gínon, ‹Nīkḗsō tā̀s dynámeis kakíās›, kaí epí enómena déka étē bíou mou, épaskhon tà apobaínonta: autoanóson, nóson, kaí psȳkhōnóson.
En gegḗrāka, memáthēka êsan oudén authentikoi aristês kaí oudén authentikoí hēttēthéntes en psȳkhōlogikoû polémou, kaítoi êsan thȳmata, kaí êsan mathentaí. Ou ên Davī́d katá toî Goliáth; ên ekkremḗs aiōníōs pallómenos apó toû epébous eis tò phôs, kaí lamprótera tò phôs elampe, skoteinótera tḕn skián éphue.»
–RG, MMXXII
Translated:
“When I was seventeen years old, I shouted out into an empty room and to a blank canvas that I would defeat the forces of evil, and for the next ten years of my life, I suffered the consequences, with autoimmunity, illness, and psychosis.
As I got older, I realised there were no real winners and no real losers in psychological warfare, but there were victims and there were students. It wasn’t David versus Goliath; it was a pendulum eternally swaying from the dark to the light, and the more intensely that the light shone, the darker a shadow it cast.”
–Ren Gill, 2022
This song sums up Eternal’s themes so accurately that if I didn’t know better, I’d almost swear Ren had played it. I’ll comment a lot more about this song in the entry for “The Near Side of Everywhere”, but Ren is specifically describing enantiodromia in his second paragraph. In particular, “the more intensely that the light shone, the darker a shadow it cast” paraphrases an example of enantiodromia Carl Jung gave in his writings.
“Hi Ren” can be read as addressing the relationship between the conscious self (represented in Eternal by Marcus) and the Jungian shadow (represented in Eternal by Hathor; for those only familiar with Freudian psychology, the Jungian shadow is more like the Freudian unconscious than the Freudian shadow). Trying to fight the shadow is futile; it only makes the conscious self resemble the shadow more. Only assimilating the shadow at the end of the song allows Ren to actually achieve any degree of peace.
(Note that the overtly satanic voice in the middle of the song is not the shadow; it’s the collective shadow, which is much less benevolent. The shadow in “Hi Ren” may be full of self-defeating negativity and cynicism, but it does have defensible motives: it’s ultimately trying to protect Ren from disappointment. The same cannot be said of the collective shadow.)
I won’t spoil how any of this parallels Eternal yet, in case you’re looking at this while playing this level, but suffice to say, there are similarities. I’ll discuss a few more in the text for “The Near Side of Everywhere”.
Map credits:
Ἐναντιοδρομία
Ἐκτισμένη ύπο
Γιόρεν Σβένσσον
Φόρρεστ Καμερανέση
Ἀαρών Φρίντ
Λία Γέρτη
Translations:
- Enantiodromia
- “Designed by”
- and crude Hellenizations of our names.
Romanized:
Enantíodromía
Ektisménē hýpo
Gióren Sbénsson
Forrest Kameranési
Aarṓn Phrínt
Lía Gértē
A Friend in Need
Title
…is a friend indeed.
Unlucky Pfhor Some
Title
A reference to superstitions surrounding the level number (thirteen).
Unity of Opposites
Title
A concept in the writings of the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus (see “” above for more). Enantiodromia itself is the successive form form of the unity of opposites; he expressed its compresent form in the aphorism, “The road up and the road down are the same thing.” More broadly, he observed that we usually define opposites in relation to each other: that is, we cannot understand pleasure without pain, heat without cold, wet without dry, and so on.
Killing the Giants as They Sleep
Title
Named for a song on Panopticon’s Kentucky (2012-06-04), whose anarchist and anticapitalist themes are very much in keeping with Eternal’s own.
Pissing on the Corporation
Title
Quod erat demonstrandum, at least regarding the anticapitalist themes.
Receptor vīvēns
(The Living Receiver)
Title
Like every other level whose number ends in seven, this one’s title refers to the film Donnie Darko (2001-01-19, dir. Richard Kelly), in which an individual called the Living Receiver is chosen to guide an artifact to the Primary universe. According to the supplemental work The Philosophy of Time Travel:
“The Living Receiver is chosen to guide the Artifact into position for its journey back to the Primary Universe.
No one knows how or why a Receiver will be chosen.
The Living Receiver is often blessed with Fourth Dimensional Powers.
These include increased strength, telekinesis, mind control, and the ability to conjure fire and water.
The Living Receiver is often tormented by terrifying dreams, visions and auditory hallucinations during his time within the Tangent Universe.
These surrounding the Living Receiver, known as the Manipulated, will fear him and try to destroy him.”
Map Writing
Castra panopliae māiestātisque
Quis est libertās optiōnis?
Ubi stō in spectāculō?
Culī est vōx mea?
Nōn sentītur tam pessimum nunc
Cōgitō terminum est initium
Incipiō sentīre laestissimus nunc
Omnia sunt pars
Omnia sunt seorsa
Omnia sunt pars–PH, MCMLXXI
Which means:
Camps of panoply and majesty
What is freedom of choice?
Where do I stand in the pageantry?
Whose is my voice?
It doesn’t feel so very bad now
I think the end is the start
Begin to feel very glad now
All things are a part
All things are apart
All things are a part–Peter Hammill, 1971
The source is Van der Graaf Generator’s “A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers” (Pawn Hearts, 1971-11-12), whose protagonist powerlessly observes two ships crash into each other, then slowly goes insane. The above verses are the final words of the song (which is twenty-three minutes long, by the way), and their meaning continues to be hotly debated. I won’t take a stance on one interpretation or another.
My Kingdom Pfhor a Horse
Title
Quote from the titular character of William Shakespeare’s Richard III after his horse perishes in battle in Act V, Scene IV. Given how remote this level’s start point is, some players might have similar thoughts.
Burning Down the Corporation
Title
Alternate-timeline variant of “Pissing on the Corporation”, so it naturally has a similar title to match. (Note that the two levels have very nearly identical geometry: only a few polygons have different heights between them.)
Terra est inānis et vacua
(The World Is Hollow)
Title
Taken from Hathor’s message to the player from “Waiting for Black Metal Records to Come in the Mail”.
The Latin version is a slightly redundant translation, but that’s because it’s a slight paraphrase of the line “Terra autem erat inanis et vacuus, et tenebrae erant super faciem abyssi” from the Vulgate of Genesis 1:2, which the King James Version translates as “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” (My fellow Risk of Rain fans may notice a familiar song title in that translation.)
I did this less to express any religious beliefs (I have none to speak of) and more as a reference to Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Slow Riot for New Zerø Kanada, whose album cover is literally just the Hebrew phrase «תֹ֨ה֯וּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ» (romanized: ṯōhū wā-ḇōhū), which appears in both Genesis 1:2 and Jeremiah 4:23. The inside gatefold actually includes Jeremiah 4:23-27 in both Hebrew and English (apparently the Jewish Publication Society version), but “I beheld the earth, and lo, it was waste and void” would’ve been harder to distill.
Caput trēs: Prophētīa
(Chapter III: Prophecy)
This S’pht Again‽
Title
Reference to the level being a remake of “Eat It, Vid Boi!” and “The Hard Stuff Rules…” from Marathon 2.
This level’s previous name, “S’pht’ia”, was a pun on Pfhorrest’s old startup Sphidia. None of us ever really cared for it much, so we renamed it. We briefly considered reusing “S’pht Happens”, the former name of “The Abyss Gazes Also”, until it occurred to me that this would probably confuse players.
Let Sleeping Gods Die
Title
Pun on the familiar proverb “Let sleeping dogs lie,” taken from “Where giants have fallen you can conquer” on Hamish Sinclair’s indispensable Marathon’s Story page.
Map Writing
Equitābimus spīram ad finem
Eāmus etiam ubī nēmō īvit
Torquē forīs
Continuā īens–MJK, MMI
Translation:
We’ll ride the spiral ’til the end
We may just go where no one’s been
Spiral out
Keep going–Maynard James Keenan, 2001
Which, of course, is from Tool’s “Lateralus” (Lateralus, 2001-05-15), quoted in reference to the spiral staircase the player ascends at the end of the level.
She Is the Dark One
Title
Taken from the “Kill Your Televison” terminal that inspired this entire scenario. In my Latin translation of that entire terminal’s text, I translated this level’s title as “Ea est Ūna Tenebrōsa”.
Map Writing
“Raven’s Geothermal Venture” refers to one of Lia’s local landmarks. (I’m omitting context for local on purpose.)
“Aaron was here and Bob’s 2,000 years late” refers to the Easter egg from “Bob’s Big Date”, which would occur 2,000 years after this level. (Should that really mean we’re 2,000 years too early for Bob? Whatever.) I specifically was responsible for the Easter egg because I noticed that the Citadel of Antiquity, included in the level prior to version 1.2, shouldn’t be visible from this level, since the player had walked there after ascending a staircase from the location of “Six Thousand Feet Under” that couldn’t possibly be long enough to reach the surface. It could be long enough to reach the location of “Bob’s Big Date”, hence the Easter egg.
The Abyss Gazes Also
Title
“He who fights with monsters must take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”–Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (1886; tr. Helen Zimmern, 1907), Chapter IV: Apophthegms and Interludes, §146
A classic example of enantiodromia. The original German is:
„Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.“
–Friedrich Nietzsche, Jenseits von Gut und Böse: Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft (1886), Viertes Hauptstück: Sprüche und Zwischenspiele, §146
Apophthegm is another of those lovely spellings we got from the Romans romanizing φθ as phth. (In this case, ἀπόφθεγμα, apóphthegma.) I’m also going to be pretentious and insist that the proper plural should be apophthegmata. I don’t likewise insist the plural of idiom should be idiomata (even though technically, it should), but idiom is an everyday word. If you’re going to use a ten-dollar word like apophthegm, go all in. (Also, saying it out loud in any voice other than Daffy Duck’s is a wasted opportunity.)
Map Writing
Quid si omnia circum tē
nē essent plēne tam vidēbantur?
Quid si omnis mundis ut cogitābaris ut sciēbāris
esset somnium ēlābōratum?
Et si vidēris reflexiōnem tuam,
essetne omnia dēsīderāris ea esse?
Quid se possēs vidēre rēctā per rīmās?
Invenīrēsnē tutumet metuentem vidēre?
–TR, MMV
Translation:
What if everything around you
[Weren’t] quite as it seems?
What if all the world you [thought you knew]
[Were] an elaborate dream?
And if you look at your reflection,
Is that all you want it to be?
What if you could look right through the cracks?
Would you find yourself…afraid to see?–Trent Reznor, 2005-05-03
Taken from Nine Inch Nails’ “Right Where It Belongs” (With Teeth, 2005), with a few minor tweaks to make the translation to Latin fit better. In context of Trent’s life, the song is an examination of the philosophical problem of solipsism (that is, how we know that others exist). In context of the game, Leela is dealing with exactly that problem at the time of this level.
…how deep the rabbit hole goes
Title
Reference to The Matrix (dir. Lana & Lilly Wachowski, 1999-03-24), in which Morpheus tells Neo:
“You are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage. Born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.
This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
Its use here is partly as a reference to the player’s descent of a waterfall from the area that was known as “Eat S’pht and Die” prior to 1.3 to “My Own Private Thermopylae” (or “Flight of Icarus”, as its remake was called in 1.2, and “Flames of Icarus” before that). The seeming descent is actually a trick: the two areas aren’t (and can’t be) connected, but a Lua script yeets the player from one area to the other above or below a certain threshold.
Map Writing
Vellem volāre, sed ālae meae sic negātae erant.
–JC, MCMXCII
Translation:
I’d like to fly, but my wings have been so denied.–Jerry Cantrell, 1992
Taken, of course, from Alice in Chains’ “Down in a Hole” (Dirt, 1992-09-29). This can be perhaps related to the previous title of part of the level, “Flight of Icarus”, which, in addition to being a reference to the myth of Icarus itself, was named for an Iron Maiden song (Piece of Mind, 1983-05-16).
An additional Latin grammar note is that both vellem and volāre are forms of verbs whose first-person present indicative forms are volō. (They are, however, different verbs with different meanings and different conjugations.)
Note that this is the only level with credits not written in Latin besides the levels with Greek titles (whose credits are, naturally, in Greek). They’re instead in Spanish due to Richard Dierkes’ many Spanish-language annotations.
These didn’t appear in “Eat S’pht and Die”; they’re taken from “Eve of Orbit”, a later version of the same level from the Apotheosis beta. The reason it appeared in both was because Eternal had stalled, and it appeared that it would never be released, so Richard resubmitted a later version of it to Apotheosis. Then, of course, Eternal came out later with an earlier version of the same level.
“Eve of Orbit” was one of the Apotheosis beta’s few levels whose design wasn’t used as the basis for a remake in Apotheosis X; “Ghost Hardware”, its replacement, bears no resemblance to its layout. This is because it made little sense for different iterations of the same level to appear in two well-known Marathon scenarios.
A few of the annotations are new. The one I’m proudest of is “¡Hola, Cleveland!”, which ties together references to This Is Spın̈al Tap (1984, dir. Rob Reiner), baseball, and the level’s soundtrack. This is the only level that uses “Guardians” as its music, and Cleveland’s baseball team is the Cleveland Guardians.
Second to Last of the Mohicans
Title
Reference to James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Last of the Mohicans (1826-02-04).
Map Writing
Eam pluviam nōminas, sed nomen humanum
Nōn merdam arborī significat.
–JA, MCMLXIX
Translation:
You call it rain, but the human name
Doesn’t mean shit to a tree.–Jefferson Airplane, 1969
Which comes from the song “Eskimo Blue Day” (Volunteers, 1969-11).
Mortuī tortī
(The Manipulated Dead)
Title
The Philosophy of Time Travel again:
The Manipulated Dead are more powerful than the Living Receiver. If a person dies within the Tangent Dimension, they are able to contact the Living Receiver through the Fourth Dimensional Construct.
The Fourth Dimensional Construct is made of Water.
The Manipulated Dead will manipulate the Living Receiver using the Fourth Dimensional Construct (see Appendix A and B).
The Manipulated Dead will often set an Ensurance Trap for the Living Receiver to ensure that the Artifact is returned safely to the Primary Universe.
If the Ensurance Trap is successful, the Living Receiver is left with no choice but to use his Fourth Dimensional Power to send the Artifact back in time into the Primary Universe before the Black hole collapses upon itself.
Map Writing
Ubi mundus est īnfirmī, potestne nēmō sānus esse?
Sed somniābam essēmus omnēs pulchrī potentēsque
–SMZ, MMV
Translation:
When the world is sick, can no one be well?
But I dreamt we were all beautiful and strong–Silver Mt. Zion, 2005
Slightly modified quote from “God Bless Our Dead Marines” (Horses in the Sky, 2005-03-07). Another act with anarchist sentiments very much in line with Eternal’s own.
Medietās alicuius locī
(The Midpoint of Somewhere)
Title
In addition to being the obvious middle ground between “The Far Side of Nowhere” and “The Near Side of Everywhere”, this is also just after the midpoint of the game itself (the exact midpoint is “The Abyss Gazes Also” if you’re doing only the success levels, or “Second to Last of the Mohicans” if you’re doing all of them).
I made this level for 1.3, partly based on Don-Martin Antell’s architecture for the aforementioned two levels (with 819 polygons of architecture that didn’t appear in said levels – hats off to Eight Nineteen), after players complained (with some validity) that too much of chapter three was simply retreading Marathon 2. This removes one such retread from the success branch without removing any non-Marathon 2 content from either branch, thus resulting in a lower percentage of Chapter Three retreading Marathon 2 no matter how you look at it.
Waiting for Black Metal Records to Come in the Mail
Title
An experience I am intimately familiar with, given my huge black metal vinyl collection.
Also an absolute banger by post-punk/shoegaze band Have a Nice Life (Deathconsciousness, 2008-01-24). Its lyrics (which are broadly anticapitalist and environmentalist) have literally nothing to do with the title, but neither does the level, so that fits.
This was formerly known as “Third Rock from Lh’owon”, as a play on the sitcom Third Rock from the Sun, but as it was no longer set on K’lia, I asked its primary creator, $lave, what he’d like to use as a replacement title. I made a few suggestions, knowing that this was by far the best of the bunch, and I wasn’t remotely surprised that he immediately chose it. It’s just an objectively perfect level title. And, like I said, a banger of a song.
(To be clear, I didn’t think my other suggestions were bad by any means. But I also don’t remember what any of them were, which kind of speaks for itself. Part of me actually regrets basically giving this one away rather than using it for my own level, but the more sensible part of me replies that I’d never have actually finished any level I gave this title, and even if I had, it would’ve had almost no chance of ever:
- being anywhere near as good as this level, or
- being played by anywhere near as many people as have already played this level,
so it’s for the best that it wound up here.)
Terra in firmāmentō
(The Land in the Sky)
Title
Again, taken from Hathor’s message to the player from “Waiting for Black Metal Records to Come in the Mail”.
Caput quattuor: Lēgātum
(Chapter IV: Legacy)
Pfhor får lamm
Title
Play on a Swedish tongue-twister:
Sonson: Farfar, får får får?
Farfar: Nej, får får inte får. Får får lamm.
Which translates as:
Grandson: Grandpa, do sheep beget sheep?
Grandpa: No, sheep do not beget sheep. Sheep beget lambs.
“Får” is pronounced the same way as “Pfhor”. (This level’s primary designer, Don-Martin Antell, is Swedish.)
The Incredible Hulk
Title
Derived from the Marvel Comics franchise. One of those completely obvious but completely inevitable titles. (In this timeline, I guess the Hulk is inevitable instead of Thanos. Iron Man still quotes Black Sabbath in response to him, though. Some things never change.)
Babylon X
Title
Play on the science-fiction TV show Babylon V, with the V replaced by the X from Eternal X. I’ll be honest: I’m not sure whether the X in this title is meant to be pronounced ten or as ex, but in this level’s earliest iterations in the Mark IV and V releases of Eternal, it was called “Babylon VII”, so I’ve taken to saying ten more often than not. But I still think it’s up to interpretation.
The VII in the earlier title came from Bungie’s love of the number seven. Probably obvious, but still.
Eādem, sed aliter
(Likewise, but Otherwise)
Title
Quote from Arthur Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Representation:
The motto of history in general should run: Eādem, sed aliter.
Eādem, sed aliter is Latin for likewise, but otherwise or the same, but different. Schopenhauer is referring here to what Friedrich Nietzsche called “eternal recurrence” („ewige Wiederkunft“): that is, history’s tendency to repeat itself. Or at least, as the apocryphal Mark Twain quote puts it, to rhyme.
The similarity of the two timelines here stands out in particular, and this chapter’s failure branch winds up having quite significant ramifications on its other timelines…
Like “”, “Eadem, sed aliter” is also a song on Deathspell Omega’s The Long Defeat (2022-03-23). Again, the level title mostly refers to Schopenhauer, but the song can be considered a secondary reference.
Bug-Eyed in Space
Map Writing
Egēbat horam
Fortasse diem
Sed simulac vērō auscultābam
Clangor modo ēvānēscēbat
–LP, MCMXCIII
The underline is per the map itself, as a pun on “Hathor”.
Translation:
It took an hour
Maybe a day
But once I really listened
The noise just fell away–Liz Phair, 1993
It’s from “Stratford-on-Guy”, the penultimate track on her début album Exile in Guyville, which rock legend holds to be a song-by-song response to the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. I’m not sure how much I buy into that, but either way, they’re both fantastic albums, and whether every song on Phair’s album truly is part of the concept or not, it’s fun to program them so that each of Phair’s songs plays after the corresponding Stones song (though this does mess up a couple of song transitions on the Stones record).
In any case, “Stratford-on-Guy” is about a moment of clarity Phair experiences on an airplane flight, and this level, which revears a large amount of Hathor’s backstory, felt like an appropriate place to quote it. (But wait, “A Moment of Clarity” is by Death! …Never mind.)
Run, Coward!
Map Writing
Sum modo laeta ubī pluit
Scis amō id ubī ācta sunt mala
Et cūr id sentītur tam bona sentīre tam maesta
Sum modo laeta ubī pluit
–SM et aliī, MCMXCV
Translation:
I’m only happy when it rains
You know I love it when the news is bad
And why it feels so good to feel so sad
I’m only happy when it rains–Shirley Manson and others, 1995
Which, of course, is from Garbage’s monster hit “Only Happy When It Rains” (Garbage, 1995-08-15). As tongue-in-cheek as it was meant to be, it also accurately sums up Sakhmet’s state of mind at this point of the game.
Dēcipula praesidī
(The Ensurance Trap)
Title
Yet again, a Donnie Darko (2001-01-19, dir. Richard Kelly) reference. The Philosophy of Time Travel again:
“The Manipulated Dead will set an Ensurance Trap.
The Living Receiver must ensure the fate of all mankind.”
Seems about right for the level.
The Latin title, “Dēcipula praesidī” (lit. “The Trap of Protection”), deliberately uses an archaic genitive of praesidium (defense, protection, guardianship, help, aid, assistance) that was only used in the Augustan Age, just as ensurance is an archaic spelling of insurance. I was ecstatic to be able to work such a parallel into the translation. A less archaic genitive form would be praesidiī (though let’s be honest: it’s Latin. It’s all archaic).
A case could be made for “Dēcipula indemnitātis” (lit. “The Trap of Indemnity”) as a more accurate translation. Unfortunately, indemnitās doesn’t appear until Late Latin, which is the opposite of archaic Latin.
Map Writing
Dīc mī omnēs tuās cōgitātiōnēs dē Deō
Propter dīligerem scīre Eam
Quaerereque Eam cūr sumus quī sumus
Dīc mī omnēs tuās cōgitātiōnēs dē Deō
Propter sum iēns vīsitāre Eam
Sic dīc mī, sumne remotissimus?
–JRR, MCMXCV
Translation:
Tell me all your thoughts on God
’Cause I’d really like to meet Her
And ask Her why we’re who we are
Tell me all your thoughts on God
’Cause I’m on my way to see Her
So tell me, am I very far?
–J. R. Richards, 1995
From Dishwalla’s massive hit “Counting Blue Cars” (Pet Your Friends, 1995-08-22). Apparently, J. R. Richards got death threats for using feminine pronouns for God in the song. I always liked it, myself.
In the context of the story, this quote is meant as an ironic commentary on how Sakhmet has gained effectively godlike powers as of this level. I almost put it on “The Philosophy of Time Travel” as a wry nod to the Ascended Jjaro instead, but then I heard Ashenspire’s Hostile Architecture, and from that point forward, there was no appropriate quote for that level except “Cable Street Again”.
Once More Unto the Breach…
Title
Quote from the eponymous character in William Shakespeare’s Henry V, Act V, Scene III. It opens very likely the play’s most famous speech:
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more
Or close up the wall with our English dead.
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O’erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call’d fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’”
Map Writing
-
Iam mūtātiō obruit corpus suum
Ea nē mē videt iam–JP, MCMLXXVI
Translation:
Now change has come over her body
She doesn’t see me anymore–Judas Priest, 1976
It’s from “Victim of Changes” (Sad Wings of Destiny, 1976-03-26), a song about a woman’s insecurity about aging turning her into an alcoholic. In-game, the change is quite different: Hathor
/ Sakhmet’s problem, in fact, is that she doesn’t have a body. -
Obsidēs omnēs; sub coercitiōne sclopētī
Rotāvērunt rotam et sperunt
quī quod tenuērunt vēndibilis esse;
labor unius vēndibilis dēbet.
Violentia it profundior, violentia indēlēbilis…Creāta labōre tuō, aedificātum ossibus tuīs.
SUNT NULLĪ MAGNĪ HOMINĒS – SOLO MAGNĪ MULTĪ!–AD, MMXXII
Translation:
Hostages all, at gunpoint
They spun the wheel and hoped
That what thehy had would be sellable
One’s labor must be sellable
The violence goes deeper, violence indelible…Fuelled with your labour, built with your bones.
THERE ARE NO GREAT MEN – ONLY THE GREAT MANY!–Alisdair Dunn, 2022
A quote from Ashenspire’s “Tragic Heroin” (Hostile Architecture, 2022-05-22). My favorite album of the 2020s to date, and it’s really not even a close contest. No other artist has so perfectly and eloquently captured modern society’s many ills. And Dunn delivers the lyrics as if the Twelfth Doctor had gotten mad about 21st-century politics, which makes it even better. (I wrote a lengthy exegesis of the album that the band liked enough to link on their social media profiles.)
Genie in a Bottle
Map Writing
Distrahe hanc māchinātionem
Reprogramma hōs ocoulōs
Abrōga hunc cōnsilium
–
Cōnfringe hanc mendācem māchinam
–TH, MMXVI
Which means:
Disassemble this machinery
Reprogram these eyes
Undo this design
–
Break this deceitful machine–Tomas Haake, 2016
Quoted from Meshuggah’s “Clockworks”, the absolutely blistering opening track of The Violent Sleep of Reason (2016-10-07). I’ve enjoyed everything Meshuggah has put out to some degree, but Violent Sleep was easily my favorite release of theirs since Catch Thirtythree (2005-05-16).
Really, though, this quote is partly just a tribute to Haake’s unfathomably good drumming. Now that Neil Peart is no longer with us (RIP), Haake surely must be the best living drummer-lyricst in the world. Or maybe he shares the role with Alasdair Dunn, with Haake being a somewhat more proficient drummer and Dunn a somewhat more proficient lyricist. I haven’t decided.
Volitāns in lacūnā
(Floating in the Void)
Title
Once again from Hathor’s message to the player from “Waiting for Black Metal Records to Come in the Mail”.
Caput quīnque: Antīquitās
(Chapter V: Antiquity)
Echūs dē Eden
(Echoes of Eden)
Mortuī vivunt in catacumbis
(The Dead Live in the Catacombs)
Map Writing
The writing on this one is short and rather subtle.
“…nōn viantēs sunt, et hic nōn plēne in capite meō erat
The map writing actually helpfully translates this:
“…ain’t touring, and this wasn’t all in my head”
Which is a quote from Tool’s “Rosetta Stoned” (10,000 Days, 2006-04-28). The lyrics’ previous words before the ellipses are “the Dead”, meaning the Grateful Dead. (Earlier on, the song refers to “the Deadhead chemistry”, a nod to the Grateful Dead fanbase’s longstanding affinity for psychedelics. The song’s narrator may have been abducted by aliens or may have had simply a bad DMT trip. It’s never clarified; in fact, the narrator never receives any form of closure whatsoever.)
What may actually take listeners a while to get is why this particular set of lyrics was included on the map. So let’s format the level title another way:
The Dead – Live in the Catacombs
See now? One of the best-known Grateful Dead live albums is Live/Dead (1969-11-10). (Not to be confused with Miles Davis’ Live-Evil [1971-11-17]. I was going to joke that this is a common mistake, but I doubt anyone has ever done it except through lapsis linguae.) This is playing on that in a manner that Lionel Hutz might’ve appreciated. (RIP Phil Hartman.)
Haec caverna nōn fōrmātiō nātūrālis
(This Cave Is Not a Natural Formation)
Title
An immortal line from Cortana in Halo: Combat Evolved (2001-11-15) (though admittedly, it wasn’t as self-evident when it was originally recorded). The irony of translating such an infamously stupid statement to a language people use to sound smart felt hilarious to me at the time.
Observant readers may have noticed that est (is) does not appear in my Latin translation. This is because Latin is a zero-copula language, so forms of esse (to be) can be omitted if they’re as self-evident as Cortana’s entire statement. They’d be less likely to be omitted if they were in, say, the perfect tense and/or the subjunctive mood, and the surrounding context gave no indication that they should be interpreted as such. But the present indicative and present infinitive get omitted all the time.
Map Writing
The level name is subtitled in both Latin:
Haec caverna nōn fōrmātiō nātūrālis:
Sal sapientiaque collēcta Cortanae
Prōmptus hic autumnus ē Simone Schustereque
and English:
This Cave Is Not a Natural Formation:
The Collected Wit & Wisdom of Cortana
Available this fall from Simon & Schuster
To point out the obvious for the humor-impaired, this is not a real book, nor will it be. I’m just clowning on the tendency of major publishers (hardly limited to Simon & Schuster, who just happened to have some of the most egregious examples and also stood out for having an alliterative name) to publish books that look like they’re headed for the remainder bin the day they’re published. (I swear some of them must be tax writeoffs.)
As an aside, I’m quite pleased that I maintained similar alliteration in the second line in both Latin and English.
Obscūra crypta Lēthēs
(Dark Grotto of the Lethe)
Title
Reference to Greek mythology, in which those who bathed in the river Lethe (from λήθη, lē̄thē, lit. forgetfulness or oblivion) would forget all their memories in preparation for being reincarnated. Changed from the older, more generic title “Deep into the Grotto” for several reasons.
-
A sort of Easter-egg reference to a common misinterpretation of “She Is the Dark One”: the n in one is garbled to an uppercase L, and the following word is “the”, leading to the reading “she is the dark, O Lethe”.
This is, to be clear, debunked by the official text (from none other than Jason Jones himself), wherein the sentence in question reads, “she is the dark one; the enemy and lover without whom my very existence would be pathetic and vulgar.” (Capitalization and punctuation as per original.)
Misreading or not, we still thought it was cool to add a reference to it.
- The Lethe River’s link to amnesia makes it a perfect reference for the title of The Level Where We Erase (Most of) Hathor’s Memory. (I can’t emphasize enough that this is what TV Tropes would refer to as a moral event horizon on our part, by the way. But then, other things we do and have done in this and the previous level are also certainly moral event horizons. No links; I already linked to TV Tropes once as it is, and TV Tropes will ruin your life. [citation not needed])
- The branch levels for chapters two through four are all titled in reference to philosophy. The branch levels for chapters one and five are titled in reference to mythology. This creates a pleasing form of symmetry.
Map Writing
-
Ita, sunt duae semitāe potes viāre, sed tandem,
Adhuc est tempus permūtare iter es in.–LZ, MCMLXXI
Meaning:
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run,
There’s still time to change the road you’re on.–Led Zeppelin, 1971
From “Scālae caelum”… sorry, “Stairway to Heaven” (Untitled, 1971-11-08) (but you didn’t need me to tell you that). I could’ve used this on any of the branch levels, but it felt most appropriate on the last one.
-
Quaesō impetrā novum computātrum.
Means “Please get a new computer.” Reference to an old community in-joke resulting from a particular user continually demanding that Aleph One’s developers spend a lot of extra time maintaining the software for the classic MacOS (as in, System 7–9). The community’s inevitable response to such demands was, without fail, “Please get a new computer.” Used on this level because, again, we are in the process of destroying Hathor’s memory banks.
Rāna explōde corpus spīrāmentī
(Frog Blast the Vent Core)
Title
A very loose Latin translation of Doug Zartman’s nonsense Assimilated Bob phrase (not that any other kind of translation of said phrase is possible). Google Translate returns “A frog explodes the body of the vent”, which is actually closer to the original than I expected it to get.
Map Writing
Scapula plōrat plūs, ergō nē possum plōrēre
Egō̆, scortum prō mundō frīgidō, nē possum dēcēdere
–TH, MMVII
Literally meaning:
The shoulder cries more, so I cannot cry
I, a whore for the cold world, cannot die
Which is a slight paraphrase of:
I cannot cry ’cause the shoulder cries more
I cannot die, I, a whore for the cold world–Tuomas Holopainen, 2007
Taken from Nightwish’s “The Poet and the Pendulum” (Dark Passion Play, 2007-09-26). Tuomas may or may not be difficult to work with, but he is certainly a brilliant composer. Overall, the situation of having too many obligations to others to wallow in one’s own misery feels relevant to this point of the story.
I rearranged the word order for two reasons:
- Latin verbs, more often than not, appear at the ends of sentences.
- The rearranged version rhymed.
Teneō affectum malum dē hōc
(I’ve Got a Bad Feeling About This)
Title
Latin translation of a recurring phrase from the Star Wars series. It amuses me to think of it as being something like a university motto alongside the likes of:
- Ars longa, vita brevis (“Art [is] long, life [is] short”)
- Ex scientia vera (“Truth from knowledge”)
- Gratiae veritas naturae (“Truth through mercy and nature”)
- Libertas perfundet omnia luce (“Freedom will flood all things with light“)
- Pax optima rerum (“Peace [is] the greatest good”)
- Per aspera ad astra (“Through asperity to the stars”)
- Rerum cognoscere causas (“To learn the causes of things”)
Map Writing
-
Nē reminīscor
Ne meminī
Nē teneō memoriam cuiusquam omnīnō–PG, MCMLXXX
Translation:
I don’t remember
I don’t recall
I’ve got no memory of anything at all–Peter Gabriel, 1980
Taken from “I Don’t Remember” (Peter Gabriel [“Melt”], 1980-05-30). A succinct description of Hathor’s exact problem at this point of the game.
- “Mostly harmless” and “insignificant little blue-green planet” describe Earth in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy series. You may draw your own conclusions about how they apply to this level.
Philosophia itineris temporis
(The Philosophy of Time Travel)
Title
Once again, from a metafictional work in the film Donnie Darko (2001-01-19, dir. Richard Kelly). The first terminal the player encounters is actually a Latin translation of this work’s twelfth chapter on dreams (apart from its final sentence, which is deliberately left in English with a garbled final word).
Map Writing
-
Odiōsus est creātūra quae dissipāret potentiam
levāre oculum ad caelum, cōnsciēns temporis fugācis hīc.–MJK, MMVI
Translation:
Repugnant is the creature who would squander the ability
To lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here.–Maynard James Keenan, 2006
Taken from Tool’s “Right in Two” (10,000 Days, 2006-04-28).
-
Violentia est hīc, camisiae nigrae modernae in viīs
Quī ūtilitās est cīvīlitās in faciē crepīdinis plēnus dē dentibus?
Nē est systēma frāctum, sed prōductum eius.
Nē potes reficere id quod operātur ut intentum.
Frendēns-dentatum prelum typographicum, vīrulentum, causticum.
Ligāvērunt fascēs per ipsōs. Acuērunt asciam.
Scī hoc: Nē requiēscunt, nec legunt rēgulās.
Sunt dēspērātī prō bellō, salīvantēs prō eō!
Si Via Saphōn dēnuō ēveniet, nē spatium prō disputātiōnī est.
Nē potes ratiōcinārī malitiā. Fasces cōnfringendī sunt!Si hic contra frūmentum est, tunc ūrēdō vere rādīcābat.
Sulcāns superciliōrum, suppūrātiō cēnsūrae, dēfōrmis flexusque.
Nē est futuentem angulī taberna quae auget pēnsiōnem tuam.
Saliērunt humum. Dēfossus tenus tuā cervīce in dēbitīs statiōnis tuae.
Sed hic est ubī id terminat. Nē est media via.
Et tī digō: Dēscende ab saepe ante fīlum hāmātum it sūrsum!–AD, MMXXII
Translation:
The violence is here, modern Blackshirts in the streets.
What good is civility in the face of a kerb full of teeth?
’Tis no broken system, but the product of it.
You cannot fix that which is working as intended.
Gnashing-toothed printing press, virulent, caustic.
They bound the fasces themselves. Sharpened the axe.
Know this: They aren’t resting, nor reading the rules.
They’re desperate for war, gagging for it!
If it’s to be Cable Street again, we won’t win through debate.
You can’t reason with malice. The fasces must break!If this is against the grain, then the blight really has set in.
The furrowing of brows and the festering of blame, misshapen and bent.
It’s not the fucking corner shop that drives up your rent.
They salted the soil! Buried up to your neck in the debts of your station.
But this is where it ends. There’s no middle road.
And I tell you: Get down off the fence before the barbed wire goes up!–Alasdair Dunn, 2022
From Ashenspire’s “Cable Street Again” (Hostile Architecture, 2022-05-22). TV Tropes’ page on Gratuitous Latin in the Marathon Expanded Universe features the following elaborations (which I have lightly edited, mostly for the sake of presentation.). Note that it contains spoilers for the last few levels of the game.
A few notes:
- “The fasces must break” does not actually convey the full intensity of “Fasces cōnfringendī sunt.” This uses the gerundive, so a literal translation would be closer to “The fasces are to be broken”; however, "There is no choice but to break the fasces" is far closer to its rhetorical intensity.
- “Futuentem” is a hyper-literal translation of “fucking”, which wouldn’t have been used that way in Latin; it may have been translated that way to introduce a bit of levity into an otherwise extremely grim passage. (Latin would’ve used different obscenities to convey contempt where we’d use fucking to do so, but the translator may have reasoned that the passage means to convey contempt not for the the corner shop itself, but for the idea that the corner shop drives up the listener’s rent.)
- Pēnsiō, confusingly, could mean payment, instalment, recompense, or (obviously) pension; in this context, though, it means rent payment.
The relevance of this passage to Eternal’s story – and to this level in particular – may not become fully apparent until a few levels later, but effectively, in this level, Leela demonstrates to the player the Ascended Jjaro’s rigid opposition to any changes to what they consider the proper course of history. Unfortunately, what they consider the proper course of history results in the complete destruction of the entire galaxy starting when Admiral Ksandr launches the novam mātūtīnam in “This Message Will Self-Destruct”, the first level of this chapter’s “success” branch. The Ascended Jjaro believe themselves to be fighting the W’rkncacnter that is trying to destroy the entire galaxy, whom Hathor nicknames “Apep” after the Egyptian deity, but as Durandal points out on the final level, by insisting on a timeline in which the galaxy is destroyed, they are in practice giving Apep exactly what it wants and thus serving as its greatest allies. Yet, for the Ascended Jjaro, this is “working as intended”. Thus, we can’t afford the luxury of neutrality: we must get off the fence and oppose them. Working out the Reality Subtext here will be left as an exercise for the reader.
I actually have nothing to add to this.
Hic nūntius sēsē ipsum dēlēbit
(This Message Will Self-Destruct)
Map Writing
Laxā propulsiōnem tulliī
Ballāns ergā futurum nōstrum
Futurum nihilī
Futurum ergā nihilum
VALĒ AD OMNIA
–BtBaM, MMXII
Translation:
Jet propulsion, disengage
Dancing towards our future
A future of nothing
A future towards nothing
GOODBYE TO EVERYTHING-Between the Buried and Me, 2012
From “Silent Flight Parliament” (The Parallax II: Future Sequence, 2012-10-09). The context is quite similar in that both describe doomed timelines, but Future Sequence: Live at the Fidelatorium (2014-09-30) suggests its own existence serves as a warning that may avert the very events it describes: “If this transmission is received, there is hope. Mold that hope toward change.” Likewise, the player, Durandal, and Pompeia-Hathor’s foreknowledge of this timeline’s events could very easily suffice to avert their recurrence in the next.
Coībāmus ōlim in hortō
(We Met Once in the Garden)
Title
Again taken from the secret “Kill Your Television” terminal that inspired this scenario’s entire story.
Coeō, the verb used as the Latin equivalent of meet, can also mean come up against or have sex. Both of these added meanings feel appropriate, given the terminal’s overall connotations.
Along similar lines: her quotation of Martial’s Epigrams 11:20, “aut futue, aut pugnēmus.” I’ve called it “really quite a nasty piece of propaganda”, which I stand by, but it’s quite indicative of Hathor’s overall mood. (The indicative mood? No, it uses the imperative and subjunctive. …Sorry.) It means “Either fuck me, or let’s fight.”
To answer the inevitable question of how Hathor is able to dredge up a Latin quote that fits her exact mood after having had most of her memory erased: the (human) Jjaro’s classics library. Their language is literally New Latin, so a large portion of their library would be in Latin, and they’d presumably have preserved all the surviving classics, even across millions of years, even if they literally weren’t sure where Earth was by that point.
Map Writing
Temperā odium meum cum pāce
–LP, MCMXCIII
Translation:
Temper my hatred with peace.–Liz Phair, 1993
A quote from “Help Me Mary” (Exile in Guyville, 1999-03-24).
I’ll translate the map stage directions eventually.
Ubīnam gigantēs cecidērunt
(Where Giants Have Fallen)
Title
Another reference to “Where giants have fallen you can conquer” on Hamish Sinclair’s Marathon’s Story page.
Ubī can mean both when and where, though ubīnam is simply a more emphatic version of where. The Latin suffix -nam, more broadly, is an emphatic ending that can mean something to the extent of where indeed or where in the world/
Map writing
-
Deinde, in clīvō distāns,
Vidēbat ūnum sine spē
Fugere retro sūrsum lātum montis.
Cōgitābat recognōscēbat eum per incessum suum,
Et per modum qui cadēbat,
Et per modum qui surgābat
et vānēscēbat in āerem.–TB, MCMLXXVI
Translation:
Then, on a distant slope,
He observed one without hope
Flee back up the mountainside.
He thought he recognized him by his walk,
And by the way he fell,
And by the way he stood up
and vanished into air.–Tony Banks, 1976
From Genesis’ “One for the Vine”, possibly my favorite song by one of my three favorite bands in history. (To answer the inevitable follow-up: Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Deathspell Omega).
An utterly brilliant story whose protagonist, fleeing a war, climbs a mountain. He trips, stands up, vanishes, and appears in front of a tribe. They react with religious awe and ultimately persuade him to start a war. Then he observes a distant figure flee up a mountain, trip, stand up and vanish…
The above stanza is the song’s very last, in which the protagonist has the epiphany that he’s become (perhaps literally) the very thing he fled. That’s not true so much of the player, but something quite similar is certainly true of the ascended Jjaro. Besides that, though, it also matches this level’s events almost exactly: the player ascends a mountain, falls, and vanishes into… well, outer space, actually; there’s no air there. But “vanish into air” is an idiom, and sometimes people even say “into thin air”, which is almost space…
People who deny the time-travel elements in this song are objectively wrong, by the way, and I’ll prove it.
- “I am he, the chosen one” in the first verse parallels “This is he, God’s chosen one” in the second chorus.
- “He never voiced [the former claim] loud.” Why not? Could it be because the latter claim’s believers had to talk him into making it in the first place?
- “Then one whose faith had died / Fled back up the mountainside” in the first chorus parallels “Then, on a distant slope / He observed one without hope / Flee back up the mountainside” in the final chorus.
- Why does the song say he “fled back up the mountainside” in the first chorus with no prior mention of him having done so? Could someone who had already fled up that exact mountainside perhaps now be suffering a shattering epiphany watching him? When a ten-minute song has a mere 316 words, it’s reasonable to assume none are there by accident.
- He “vanished into air” in the final chorus, and the tribespeople “saw him appear” in the third verse (or second, in sources that count the first two verses as one). This requires some form of supernatural explanation, and given all the other clues in the song, time travel is by far the most parsimonious.
- If he were looking at anyone other than his past self, the fact that “He thought he recognized him by … the way he fell / And by the way he stood up and vanished into air” wouldn’t merit being treated as a dramatic revelation, and yet the music immediately afterward treats it as exactly that.
- The song hits even harder if his epiphany at the end is that the entire reason he was displaced from everything he ever knew was because he was fleeing himself.
- Tony Banks is a known Doctor Who fan.
If only #1–#7 were true, I could almost get the debate, but adding #8 should be dispositive.
-
Mulier in nigritiā fugiēbat sūrsum montem,
et funditor sclopētōrum sequebātur.–SK (paene), MCMXXXII-MMIV
Translation:
The woman in black flew up the mountain,
and the gunslinger followed.–Stephen King (almost), 1982-2004
A slight paraphrase of the opening and closing lines of The Dark Tower series, “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” The series ends in a surprisingly similar way in that its protagonist is sent back to the past with an item he didn’t possess in his previous time through the loop. In the case of Eternal, that item is simply knowledge. But that may be enough.
-
Eho, vir vetus, quōmodo potes perpetī cōgitāns quō modō?
Cōgitābatisne vērō dē eō ante creāverātis rēgulās?–BH, MCMLXXXVI
Translation:
Hey, old man, how can you stand to think that way?
Did you really think about it before you made the rules?–Bruce Hornsby, 1986
From “The Way It Is” (The Way It Is, 1986-04-24), a protest song against maintaining the status quo purely because it’s the status quo. It specifically protests racial and economic injustices, but it can be applied more broadly to any form of injustice perpetuated merely in the name of tradition, so it felt particularly pertinent given the ascended Jjaro’s insistence on maintaining the status quo purely because it’s the status quo.
-
Poo-tee-weet?
–KV, MCMLXIX
Kurt Vonnegut’s onomatopoeia of birdsong in Slaughterhouse-Five (1969-03-31). Vonnegut addressed his publisher in its metafictional opening chapter, explaining:
Sam, here’s the book.
It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds.
And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like “Poo-tee-weet?”
I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee.
I have also told them not to work for companies which make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that.
“Poo-tee-weet?” is also the final line of the book.
People often accuse Kurt Vonnegut of fatalism. If these people read Slaughterhouse-Five, they read it literally, but they didn’t read it carefully. His words to his children aren’t the words of a fatalist. Nor are:
My father died many years ago now—of natural causes. So it goes. He was a sweet man. He was a gun nut, too. He left me his guns. They rust.
Billy Pilgrim is a fatalist, but Billy Pilgrim is not Kurt Vonnegut, as the book’s fifth chapter explicitly clarifies: after Pilgrim encounters an American suffering an unspeakable stomach ailment, Vonnegut writes, “That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book.”
Besides the first chapter and part of the last, nearly everything in the book is what Pilgrim says happened to him, but Pilgrim is also an unreliable narrator. He has untreated (and quite possibly undiagnosed) posttraumatic stress disorder (hence all the flashbacks) and has developed some form of hallucination as a coping mechanism. None of this makes him a bad person, to be clear; it simply means he needs help.
If Vonnegut meant us to sympathize with the perspective of this novel’s Tralfamadorians, why does he have them blow up the universe in an accident and shrug it off along the lines of, “Oh well, that was always meant to happen?” Which is quite similar to the stance of our ascended Jjaro, I might note, and beyond its antiwar themes, Vonnegut’s antiauthoritarian, anticapitalist stance is quite similar to ours.
All these similarities are mostly coincidence, since Pfhorrest hadn’t read it while writing most of Eternal’s plot, but I’ve played up some similarities up in recent revisions. The entire reason this stage plays the loon sound effect, in fact, is so that, after the enemies are dead, the only sounds besides the wind crashing against the rocks and the rushing of water will be birdsong.
It may also be relevant to note that five brief levels in Marathon Chronicles, my unfinished scenario that is partly a sequel to Eternal, are named “Slaughterhouse-One” through “Slaughterhouse-Five”.
All that said, I believe that to read Slaughterhouse-Five as science-fiction is to fundamentally misread it. It is a metafictional novel that contains some science-fiction elements, almost all of which appear as part of a tragic story about a man trying (and mostly failing) to cope with combat trauma. Like most Vonnegut books, it also contains actual science-fiction by his alter-ego Kilgore Trout. (His piscine surname was inspired by Vonnegut’s friend Theodore Sturgeon. If I ever develop an alter-ego, he’ll probably be named Mike Bream, for baseball players Sid Bream and Mike Trout, thus continuing a tradition of ichthyic alter-egos. I also like to believe that Kilgore was Mike’s great-uncle.)
Epilogus: Synthesis dialectica, vel: Aeternitās
Epilogue: Dialectical Synthesis, or: Eternity
Lātus propinquum omnium locōrum
(The Near Side of Everywhere)
Title
As you likely guessed, the Latin title actually translates as “The Near Side of All Places”, again because the adverb ubīque (everywhere) is indeclinable.
Ubīque, by the way, is the root of the English word ubiquitous.
Map Writing
-
Sīcut tempus ubī fūgī
Et gȳrāvī
Et tū stābās prope mē–JA, MCMLXXVII
Translation:
Like the time [when] I ran away
[And] turned around
And you were standing close to me–Jon Anderson, 1977
The final words of Yes’ “Awaken” (Going for the One, 1977-07-12), with the bracketed words being additions to make the meaning clearer in Latin. This is a stealth pun, because the song title, in a single word, describes exactly what the player is about to do after this level ends.
-
Quia fīnis numquam dictus,
ērogāmus aureīs fābulātōrem
in spēbus qui revertētur,
sed nē potest ēmī seu vēndī–RH, MCMLXXVII
Translation:
Since the end is never told,
We pay the teller off in gold
in hopes [that] he will come back,
but he cannot be bought or sold.–Robert Hunter, 1977
From Grateful Dead’ “Terrapin Part 1” (Terrapin Station, 1977-07-27); bracketed words are again addenda to clarify the meaning in Latin. This is specifically the last stanza of the first movement, “Lady with a Fan”.
-
Possumus ambulāre viam nostram idipsum
si ambitiōnēs nostrae sunt omnēs eādem.
Possumus currere sōlī līberīque
si persequimur propositum differentem.
Illūminētur amōris vēritātem.
Lūceat clāram vēritātis amōrem.
Sēnsibilitās, armāta cum sēnsū lībertāteque,
cum corde menteque ūnītā in ūnā sphaerā perfectā.
–NP, MCMLXXVII
Translation:
We can walk a road together
if our goals are all the same.
We can run alone and free
if we pursue a different aim.
Let the truth of love be lighter.
Let the love of truth shine clear.
Sensibility, armed with sense and liberty,
with the heart and mind united in a single perfect sphere.
–Neil Peart, 1977
From Rush’s “Cygnus X-1, Book II: Hemispheres” (Hemispheres, 1978-10-24), the sort of song title that could only belong to a side-length progressive rock epic. This song represents the start of Peart’s decisive break with Ayn Rand, one of his foundational philosophical influences on earlier albums.
Its core argument is that both reason and love are needed for a balanced worldview. Apollo gives the people the gift of technology that protects them from the elements, but without emotional attachments, their lives are empty and unfulfilling. Dionysus gives them the gift of love, but they’re unable to fend for themselves in the winter. Followers of the two end up fighting for an unspecified amount of time before the protagonist, who’d flown into the eponymous black hole at the end of Book I, screams in despair at seeing the fighting. Dionysus and Apollo reconsider their stance, name the explorer Cygnus, and dub him the god of balance.
Rand, who wrote essays with titles like The Virtue of Selfishness, would have probably regarded this with the same disparaging attitude in which I hold her works. Peart would break from her even more decisively on future albums, e.g. Grace Under Pressure, which battles it out with Hemispheres and Moving Pictures for the honor of my favorite Rush album.
Balance is also the central theme of Eternal, although it is more focused on the balance between order and chaos. In “We Met Once in the Garden”, Hathor writes:
Ancient Egyptian religion was concerned less with good and evil than with order and chaos. It also had a concept (and goddess) called ma’at, a synthesis of order, balance, and justice. (In some myths, Ra and my namesake were the goddess Ma’at’s parents.) The ascended Jjaro sought to embody order, and the W’rkncacnter chaos. But in their futile quest to impose order on an entropic universe, the abyss has gazed into the ascended Jjaro, who have by now become enantiodromic mirrors of their foes. Their conflict has caused the impending explosion of the galaxy – thereby handing victory to the very W’rkncacnter they claim to oppose. They have forgotten ma’at.
Ma’at comes from living in harmony with nature and with each other, from being benevolent and kind, from being honourable and truthful, from alleviating the suffering of those less fortunate than us rather than exploiting their misfortune. Order cannot exist without balance or justice, and trying too hard to impose it results in chaos, just as trying too hard to fit a square peg into a round hole breaks the peg.
[…]
The closest thing Ma’at had to an opposite was the deity Apep. Where ma’at was a force of creation, Apep was one of destruction. Apep was the only deity the Egyptians prayed against; an incomprehensible being of pure chaos that resented reality and sought to unmake it. Apep couldn’t be permanently defeated by any known means, and it sought to unmake the sun, which set because Ra had to fight Apep every night.
Now, that all sounds a bit familiar, no? Being of chaos, resents our reality’s existence, seeks only to destroy? Sounds a bit like the W’rkncacnter, whom I shall now call Apep for simplicity’s sake. Telling Apep that destroying our galaxy won’t bring its reality back would be as futile as telling Sakhmet that her quest for revenge was futile would’ve been. A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.
More interesting to me is how Apep and the ascended Jjaro came to mirror each other. To the latter, the W’rkncacnter are disrupting what they’ve come to regard as the natural order, while Apep sees them – and our entire species – as usurping it. Protest as they might, their clash is not a fundamental philosophical disagreement, but a mere fight to emerge atop a hierarchy. Both take as granted that in-groups will be protected but not bound by the law, and that out-groups will be bound but not protected by it. They are merely fighting to be the in-group. They may see each other as opposites, but they are merely two shades of tyranny.
The logical counterproposal, of course, is that the law must equally both protect and bind everyone, including leaders. No leader can truly embody the balance or justice of ma’at unless bound by the law.
I wrote Hathor’s “We Met Once in the Garden” terminal, and it’s probably little shock that she speaks for me in the vast majority of it, or that Pfhorrest also largely agrees. My first book, On Moonlight: a film analysis, autobiography, and holistic social critique, contains sections on ⟨aaronfreed.
github. and . ⟨aaronfreed.io/ moonlight.html# dikaiosynekaiisotes⟩ github. io/ moonlight.html# pantestyrannoi⟩ The bit about out-groups and in-groups paraphrases a comment by composer Frank Wilhoit to the website Crooked Timber, which I ⟨aaronfreed.
github. in On Moonlight. I don’t agree with every word he writes, but I don’t need to; his main point, “The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone, and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone,” has been a cornerstone of my political philosophy for decades.io/ moonlight.html# wilhoit⟩ I consider the ascended Jjaro to represent not order, but another form of chaos that habitually masquerades as order (chaos isn’t a viable electoral strategy). “Order” without justice or balance is intrinsically unstable, and instability isn’t order. It’s chaos dressing up as order for Halloween. Thus, the ascended Jjaro’s conflict with Apep isn’t order versus chaos: it’s chaos versus chaos. Order is found in the middle, when we purge tyrants of all sorts and replace them with panarchy, or rule by all.
(One of the best studies I’ve found of how tyranny is chaos is The Furnaces of Palingenesia (2019-05-24), Deathspell Omega’s seventh album, presented as a manifesto by a nameless leader for a political faction known only by the ironic name of the Order, which wipes out all traces of life by the end of the album. See the section on the title of “” for more about Deathspell Omega.)
This is all a very long aside to say I included the Rush quote because it beautifully reflects Eternal’s central theme. The balance between order and chaos, in a sense, can be considered true order, which lies between a form of chaos found in both Eternal’s Apep and its namesake (chaotic evil, in Dungeons & Dragons terms, which never pretends to be anything but chaos) and the ascended Jjaro and the Order’s chaos (lawful evil, which pretends to be order, but is just another form of chaos). Ma’at and true order are neutral good.
-
Numquam verō erat proelium prō mē vincere. Erat saltātiō aeterna. Ac sicuti aliqua saltãtiō, rigidior fīēbam, difficilior saltãtiō fīēbat. Magis exsecrābar vestīgia inconcinna mea, magis lūctābar. Igitur adolēscēbam, ac discēbam mollīre, ac illa saltātiō fīēbat facilior.
Est haec saltātiō aeterna quae dīvidit hominēs ab angelīs, ab daemonibus, ab dīs. Ac debeō nē oblīvīscī, dēbēmus nē oblīvīscī, ut sumus hominēs.
–RG, MMXXII
Last words of “Hi Ren” (this monologue’s first half is written on “”).
One thing many reviewers missed about this song is that Ren does not defeat his shadow. He assimilates it. Throughout the song, whenever the shadow speaks, the lights flicker. When his conscious self speaks by itself, they don’t. But, in the final moments of the song before the monologue, the lights are still flickering. Ren has integrated his shadow.
We spend most of Eternal chasing Hathor, believing she is the root of our problems. As the game progresses, we learn that they run much deeper, and that she’s actually being manipulated to more sinister ends by other factions that do have malevolent motives. At the end of the game, she expresses sincere remorse and leaves the door open to reconciliation.
If you interpret Rubicon as being in the same universe, she may be feeding Tycho information. She has certainly fed us information in secret terminals (in “Dysmentria” and “The Midpoint of Somewhere”) in a way that suggests that she sincerely wishes to assist us however she can.
I don’t believe Hathor originally was intentionally written as a Jungian archetype. But there are certainly similarities, and I’ve played them up somewhat in recent plot revisions. A necessary step to inner peace is learning to treat our shadows with a level head rather than fight, try to suppress, or simply yield to them.
In “We Met Once in the Garden”, the appropriate response to Hathor’s attacks isn’t to fight back – that just prolongs the fight. Nor is it to yield. It’s to wield one of the Jjaro weapons and simply stand tall. After a time, she tires of attacking, flies off, and sends a message expressing sincere remorse for her actions throughout the game. Why bring this fight up now, while discussing the Jungian shadow, instead of in the section for “We Met Once in the Garden”? You may interpret that as you will. That approach feels appropriately Jungian.
In any case, “Hi Ren” perfectly encapsulates many of Eternal’s themes, and it’s the profoundest statement on mental health I’ve seen this entire century, so I’ll give Ren the last words (credit and navigation bar aside):
It was never really a battle for me to win. It was an eternal dance. And like any dance, the more rigid I became, the harder it got. The more I cursed my clumsy footsteps, the more I struggled. So I got older, and I learned to soften, and that dance got easier.
It is this eternal dance that separates human beings from angels, from demons, from gods. And I must not forget, we must not forget, that we are human beings.
–Ren Gill, 2022