Dead Space’s Markers are pretty terrifying, on par with the Necromorphs themselves. They’re also one of the most creative elements to crop up in any horror game to date. But just what are the Markers and where did they come from in the Dead Space remake?
The Marker in the Dead Space Remake Is Man-Made, but There Are Other Markers Out There
A Marker, which includes the Red Marker featured in the Dead Space remake, is a spiral-shaped obelisk that has a profound effect upon those who come into contact with it. Entirely under its own power, it broadcasts a signal that warps dead flesh into Necromorphs. Those the Necromorphs kill are, in turn, warped into new Necromorphs.
But it gets so much worse, because a Marker is much more than just a big-old zombie-raising rock. It’s heavily implied that there’s some sort of intelligence within each Marker, and that intelligence warps people’s minds to serve its own purpose.
Some people who are exposed to a Marker experience hallucination and insomnia, while others gain new knowledge and undertake an agenda that’s not entirely their own. Markers also influence people to make new Markers, out of whatever material is available, sometimes by reverse-engineering the original.
The Dead Space remake’s Red Marker is man-made and was put on Aegis VII as part of an experiment. Its creation was, in turn, down to the influence of a Black Marker that was found on Earth. But it gets even weirder.
With enough Necromorph flesh, a Marker can initiate convergence, which merges the biomass together into one massive Lovecraftian entity, a Brethren Moon. Dead Space’s Church of Unitology, while they may not be in possession of all the facts, believes that “becoming whole” is something to aspire to.
Red Markers require the presence of the person chiefly responsible for making the Red Marker, but the end is still the same. So if the Red Marker is man-made, where do the regular Markers, the Black Markers, come from?
They’re alien in origin, and provided any future remakes follow the original games’ storyline, are created by Brethren Moons, then launched into space. The Markers, in turn, warp civilizations into triggering convergence and making a new Brethren Moon.
Yes, the events of the Dead Space remake are all part of some nightmarish species’s life cycle, and the Markers are the seeds that propagate that species. And while we’re not going to spoil the future games any further, let’s just say that things are likely to get even worse for Isaac Clarke and anyone he associates with.
