With the Dead Space Remake nearing release, now would be a good time to refresh our minds on what happened that started this survival horror franchise. After all, it has been 10 years after the last Dead Space entry (being Dead Space 3). Now, today we will be talking about the lore of Dead Space, more specifically, how did the Necromorph infection start? How did these gory monsters come to be in the franchise? Well, read on and we will tell you the origins of the Necromorph infection.
How Did the Necromorph Infection Start? – DEAD SPACE LORE
It All Started on Aegis VII
There are a lot of Necromorph infections in the universe of Dead Space, some even going back to years before Isaac Clarke was even born. But for the sake of the readers, we will be talking about the Necromorph infection that occurred in the first game, as well as all other media that took place in the time of the first game, which started on Aegis VII.
Aegis VII going to be the prime candidate for planet cracking, allowing the CEC (Concordance Extraction Corporation) to mine whatever minerals and resources the planet has to offer. Which is why the CEC stationed a colony there that will allow people to live on the colony and mine whatever is on the planet.
However, they did not realize that they would find a religious artifact on the planet: the Red Marker. Unitologists, a group of religious people, believe that the Marker is what their spiritual texts were talking about. They would proven to be right, but at a very bloody cost, because anyone within the range of the Marker would soon develop insomnia, uneasiness, and eventually hallucinations.
However, it did not stop there, as prolonged exposure to the Marker, even when they are not near it, will cause dementia, hyper aggression, and other psychological disturbances. This led to a high suicide and murder rate within the colony. Eventually, they had to find a way to get the Marker away from the colony.
When word came to that a Red Marker was found on Aegis VII, Captain Benjamin Matthius, the captain of the USG Ishimura, ordered to have it taken to the aboard the Ishimura. After its removal, the colony went dark a week later. The Ishimura tried contacting them and seeing what happened, but no response came.
Unknown to the crew of the Ishimura, a mass panic has occurred as a Necromorph outbreak finally occurred. Due to the loss of the Marker, the colonists that were affected by it began mutating until they became the highly grotesque monsters that we know as Necromorphs. Many died, and many committed suicide to get out of the nightmarish situation.
However, survivors from the Aegis VII still pushed to get out of the situation by trying to get into shuttles and flee to the Ishimura. Some survived and were kept safe in the Ishimura, but little did the crew know was that many of them were already infected, slowly becoming Necromorphs until eventually, the Ishimura was overrun and soon lost contact.
Soon after the Ishimura lost contact, the CEC sends a team to investigate. Among the team is Isaac Clarke, the main protagonist of the series. He goes in hopes to find his wife, Nicole Brennan, who he has not seen in a long time. Little did he know, he would be fighting for his life within the walls of the Ishimura, as he discovers the crew has been long dead before their arrival.
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