Dead Space 3: The Story Behind the Markers

Not much longer now until Dead Space 3 is upon us. Helping to brings fan's up to speed (once again), EA put up a quick post on the official Dead Space page about the objects at the heart of the franchise's story, the markers. Read on below.

"Markers are the Dead Space franchise's 'villain.'   These obelisk-like artifacts are behind every outbreak, every major cataclysm of the past and present, and are ultimately the absurdist test of faith for Unitologists - as well as a test of temptation for the government, who has tried to safely steal the Marker's power.

There are two flavors of Marker: the Black Marker, and the Red Markers. The original Black Marker is an alien device of unknown origin, discovered under the old Gulf of Mexico on Earth in 2214. The artifact is possibly hundreds of millions of years old. It re-broadcasts a highly concentrated electromagnetic signal that converts dead tissue into Necromorph tissue, eventually leading to Necromorphs, which the signal can also animate to life.

This signal also affects the minds of intelligent life forms, causing dementia in the vast majority of living beings, resulting in homicidal and suicidal actions - laying out a rich field of fodder for the Necromorph infection. Finally, the signal will manifest a powerful EMP blast whenever a Marker goes through an extreme state change. This may happen when it's initially activated, or during Convergence, etc.

The Red Markers are man-made copies of Earth's Black Marker. There is a long history of tampering with Marker replication, starting with an experiment that was eventually moved to Aegis VII. This experiment was buried when things started to run amok, but the accidental uncovering of the Aegis VII Marker site by the Ishimura 200 years later allowed Marker proliferation to resume.

In the end of Dead Space 1, the codes the Aegis VII Marker were implanted in Isaac Clarke's head, and they were used to build a new Marker on the Sprawl (referred to as the Sprawl Marker) in Dead Space 2. EarthGov researchers, thinking they had sufficiently blocked the Marker's signal, carried on with their research. But they were wrong - the signal found a way to reach them, too, and they unknowingly fell victim to the Marker's compulsions.  By the start of Dead Space 3, Marker proliferation has continued unchecked. With his unique ability to understand the Marker language, only Isaac Clarke - and Isaac alone - is equipped to destroy the Markers once and for all."

Dead Space 3 will be available in the US for Windows PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on Feb. 5, and in Europe Feb. 8