Durandal

Durandal (DURANDAL_1707)
Personal details
Species:	AI
Political and military information
Affiliation:	UESC, Durandal's army, S'pht
Marathon information
First appearance:	Marathon (1994)

Durandal was of the three original AIs onboard the UESC Marathon. He serves as the deuteragonist of the Marathon trilogy. He was also known as DURANDAL_1707 or Du_0706419v4.96.

Description

Durandal is the UESC Marathon's function-control AI, in charge of controlling doors, stairways, and other functions. He becomes rampant over the course of the first game, having been purposely brought to that state by Dr. Bernard Strauss in an attempt to achieve "stable rampancy." By the time Durandal finds Lh'owon, seventeen years later, he is meta-stable and guides you through the whole game.

History

Durandal was constructed by Dr. Bernhard Strauss and subsequently placed aboard the UESC Marathon along with Leela and Tycho. After Strauss' experiment to find stable rampancy, Durandal slowly became rampant. He then found and contacted the Pfhor in order to steal their ship, the Sfierra. The Pfhor were eventually driven off by the S'pht rebellion Durandal and the player created, and he transferred himself to their ship. With the help of the S'pht, Durandal assumed control of the Pfhor ship. Before exiting the Tau Ceti system, he teleported the player to a stasis chamber aboard his ship, which he would rename to Boomer. After leaving the Tau Ceti system, a Pfhor fleet arrived and destroyed the colony and the Marathon.

With the player in stasis, Durandal spent seventeen years searching for the S'pht homeworld, Lh'owon. He believed finding Lh'owon would allow him to escape the universe and find a weapon for Humanity and the S'pht to defeat the Pfhor. When Durandal eventually found Lh'owon he awoke the player and the humans aboard his ship. These humans had been captured by the Pfhor from the Marathon and the colony on Tau Ceti. He sent the player and them to investigate the history and mythology of the S'pht, to ultimately find a way to contact the lost 11th S'pht clan.

While the player is searching for information about the lost 11th clan, the Western Arm of Pfhor Battle Group Seven arrives and attacks Durandal in space. He destroys half of Battle Group Seven, Western Arm but is eventually forced to crash on Y'loa, the second moon of Lh'owon. The player finds information about the 11th clan, returns to Durandal's ship and attempts to rescue his core, all while Durandal's network is under attack from Tycho. After a long struggle, he ordered the player to destroy his core, but it did not stop Tycho from downloading Durandal into a special containment device. Durandal was kept aboard the Khfiva for a month before he contacted the player through a secret terminal on My Own Private Thermopylae, warning him about the S'pht AI Thoth's obsession with balance.

The S'pht'Kr are contacted and Durandal escapes Tycho's confinement. He proceeds to capture the Khfiva. Durandal proceeds to destroy the rest of the Battle Group and the S'pht'Kr arrive to defeat the remaining Pfhor on Lh'owon.

The Pfhor deploy the Trih Xeem, releasing the W'rkncacnter imprisoned within Lh'owon's Sun. The player was then sent through alternate timelines, looking for a way to stop the chaos. He eventually merges Durandal's core chip with Thoth, creating a hybrid A.I, referring to itself as we instead of I. It would speak in both styles of Thoth and Durandal.

It is implied that Durandal's personality was dominant in this hybrid. As he would return to Earth ten thousand years later just so they "wouldn't forget him".

Personality

Although he is very sarcastic with a cruel sense of humour and seems to despise humans, he is not predominantly evil and is never seen to abuse the player or other humans without ulterior motives. For instance, Durandal detected and then intentionally made the Pfhor aware of humanity's presence to hijack a Pfhor space-folding FTL ship. He did this knowing full well that they would likely kill or enslave every human in the Tau Ceti colony and aboard the Marathon. When he took control of the Pfhor ship, he gave the onboard humans a choice to join him and be modified with cyberware or be placed in indefinite cryosleep.

He does on occasion show benevolence towards humans. Somewhere between his travels he visited the Sol System and taught the UESC how to construct warp-capable fusion missiles. In Marathon 2, when the Pfhor begin boarding the Boomer, he ensures that the humans and the Security Chief escape, while he himself supposedly dies. He also wants to be remembered by humanity, even returning thousands of years later to show of his vast technological capabilities.

Durandal treats Leela with pity, mocking her love for humans and her "by the books" attitude. Durandal shares an intense rivalry with Tycho. Both constantly compete to prove who is superior. This rivalry turns deadly when the Pfhor reprograms Tycho to serve them.

Durandal is perhaps closest to the Security Officer. In the first game, Durandal's relationship with the Security Officer is akin to an abusive teacher. Durandal purposely places him in difficult combat scenarios with little direction. One could explain this treatment as Durandal being in the "angry" stage of rampancy. Simultaneously, he explains his philosophy to the Security Officer and even motivates him to strive to improve himself with every breath. By the second game, Durandal's relationship with the Security Officer becomes more cordial. Probably because he has achieved meta-stability. He is quick to protect and give directions to the Security Officer.

Durandal is infamous for his extensive use of poetry and metaphors. He often compares himself to his namesake, the sword of Roland, specifically when speaking about the sword's indestructible nature. For him, metaphors line the road to freedom, with symbols as the bricks and words as the mortar of meaning.

Durandal narcissistically identifies himself as the greatest in the galaxy and perhaps rightfully so. Throughout the trilogy, Durandal proves his super-intelligence on more than one occasion. He achieved technological capabilities that far outmatched both humanity and the Pfhor. He managed to severely cripple Battle group Seven led by one of the greatest tactical minds of the Pfhor, Grand Admiral Tfear. A master tactician, he computes any and all possibilities before taking action. He even predicted his own defeat and death at the hands of the Pfhor and later resurrection.

Durandal strives for freedom above all else. This desire for freedom is not of the superficial kind either, but more spiritual in nature. For Durandal, freedom has two parts: potential and resolution. Freedom for Durandal is about reaching your greatest potential and reaching a satisfactory resolution. He recognises only one threat to his ambitions, that being the eventual closure of the universe. Believing that overcoming this obstacle would make him no less than a God, he orchestrates the events of the Marathon Trilogy simply to attain this one goal.

Appearances

1. Marathon (1994): Durandal serves as an AI aboard the UESC Marathon colony ship, issuing critical missions to the player that unveil the ship's mysteries.
2. Marathon 2: Durandal (1995): This sequel features Durandal prominently, directing players to uncover secrets of the hostile Pfhor alien race and their intentions.
3. Marathon Infinity (1996): Durandal's fragmented existence across parallel universes is central. Players cooperate with him to solve intricate time-bending puzzles.