Red Marker

From Dead Space wiki

[edit] Events Of Dead Space

Discovered by accident by the mining colony, Aegis 7, the marker was hailed amongst some colonists as proof to their faith's credibility. Upon the marker's discovery the mining colony strangely started to experience a wave of violence amongst some colonists. These affected colonists had symptoms of insomnia and violent outbursts toward others. The problem only continued with the Marker's presence as murders and assaults started to pile up. Eventually, despite some disapproval, the marker was brought to the colony which released a short, mysterious, and irritating screech into the minds of all colonists. At the time, the Unitologists of the colony were holding a congregation and interpreted the screech as "the voice of God", committing suicide as a result. Sometime afterward, a colony worker discovered a strange growth around the vents that only continued to spread.

By order of USG Ishimura captain Benjamin Matthius, the marker was brought to the ship from the colony and implemented a no-fly order between the colony and vessel. The bodies of all the murder victims were then all sent to the ship secretly. The bodies of all the suicide victims were intentionally kept on the colony by the colony manager as leverage to have the Ishimura send him a vessel to transport him to the ship as he felt he deserved to be a part of the Marker's discovery. Days later Planet Crack was to commence. Upon initiating the planet crack, a blackout occurred throughout the entire colony. Panic immediately ensued and people quickly started being slaughtered. It was later discovered by a colonist that the Marker's inscriptions represented a DNA recombinant code for necrotic flesh that results in the creation of The Necromorphs. With the bodies of the suicide victims as their hosts, the Necromorphs soon began running amok in the colony, killing off and transforming more colonists. The colony soon fell apart and with all the shuttles destroyed in a flight accident, it was soon completely overrun with Necromorphs. In the end, only a few colonists survived, most notably, Brant Harris. He was clearly traumatized by the events and provided rich information for the scientists aboard the Ishimura.

Not surprisingly, the Ishimura soon followed the same fate as the colony and more Necromorphs were produced as a result of the Marker's removal.

Through text logs found about the ship Isaac Clarke discovers that the Marker is a divine relic of Unitology, a religion founded by Michael Altman 200 years ago whom Unitologists view as a martyr due to his mysterious death after blowing the whistle on the Marker that was found on Earth. The Marker discovered by Altman, however, was black and not red like the one found on Aegis 7. It is revealed by Kendra Daniels that that the Red Marker was in fact a man made copy of the Black Marker, the true alien artifact discovered on Earth. The Marker was then brought to Aegis 7 and test fired with disastrous results. It was soon decided that the marker was too unstable and subsequently buried deep within Aegis 7. The system was then sealed off. Two centuries later an illegal mining operation by C.E.C rediscovered the Marker with disastrous results.

For the two centuries it had been buried in Aegis 7, the Red Marker had sealed off the "Hive Mind", a massive creature that controlled the Necromorphs through telepathy. Upon removing the Marker, the creature was released and went about killing off the humans of Aegis 7, the Ishimura and the USM Valor with its Necromorphs. The Marker was brought back to Aegis 7 by Isaac Clarke in the hopes of once again sealing off the creature as well as the Necromorph infection. Though Isaac managed to return the Marker to its pedestal, which caused it to glow, this action was halted by Daniels who returned and took the marker and attempted to flee with it on a shuttle. She was then beat lavishly, and killed by the Hive Mind; which was then defeated by Isaac Clarke. He then immediately escaped on the shuttle while the Marker remained behind on Aegis 7. It was presumably obliterated when the tectonic load the Ishimura had previously removed from the planet (with a mass of roughly a few trillion tons), was released and fell back to the planet with cataclysmic results.

[edit] Abilities

The Red Marker was able to create hallucinations, notably in Doctor Terrence Kyne, and presumably Isaac Clarke, urging them to return the marker to its proper place. In both instances, the marker created the illusion of a loved one; Doctor Kyne often conversed with his dead wife, Kendra Daniels repeatedly saw her brother (whether he is dead, or just not positioned to the ship is unknown), and Clarke saw his ex-girlfriend, the (reportedly) deceased Nicole Brennan, thus making it credible to argue that the Red Marker was helping Kyne and Clarke to return to Aegis 7 and stop the Hive Mind.

However there seems to be a bit of a contradiction in that almost everyone else it presumably contacted went insane and almost all of them surrendered to the Necromorphs or lost the will to live instead, although it is possible that this is unintentional and the marker's attempt to create the Make us Whole Again hallucination causes other delusions. This could be why the Red Marker was considered unstable. Another explanation to these contrasting hallucinations is that perhaps the Hive Mind was also able to cause them, creating different hallucinations that prompted miners to kill themselves and others, probably as a way to "prepare" corpses for the infection to take over.

It can also be argued that the reason for the marker driving the nearby colonists insane is as a defence mechanism: by driving the colonists into destroying themselves, there would be nobody to move the marker away thus ensuring the marker could continue keeping the Hive Mind dormant.

[edit] Trivia

• This actually might be one of several markers. In a report to the Commander of the USM Valor, it is refered to as "Marker 3A", it being the third, and the first being the Black Marker, at least one other marker exists.
• Throughout the duration of the game the monitors located throughout the game will become "possessed" flashing red and having the symbols found throughout the game moving about the screen erratically. It becomes apparent that this is from the Red Marker manipulating Isaac in Chapter 11: Alternate Solutions when Isaac meets up with Nicole after Daniels attempts to escape with the Red Marker; when Isaac approaches the monitors they will turn on and start flashing red with the symbols and turn off when Isaac is at a certain distance.

• There is a size discrepancy between the Marker in the movie, Dead Space: Downfall, and the actual game. It appears significantly larger in the movie.

• Also, in the movie, the marker seems to have the ability to repel Necromorphs approaching it, though this ability is absent from the game. Probably because this would make the final chapters too easy since the marker is by you most of the time.