Lore Guide
Hell
Hell is a dimension that exists outside the known universe, home to countless demons. Hell is comprised of numerous worlds that they have conquered across the known universe, and dragged back into their dimension as a trophy.
Not only that, but the beings of these conquered worlds are captured and tortured in Nekravol, the City of the Damned. Once their spirit has been completely broken, their soul can be extracted and processed into Hell energy, known as ‘Essence’. Once the soul has been extracted, the remains of the being will eventually transform into a demon over time.
The Argenta
The Argenta are a humanoid race who lived inside the known universe on a world named Argent D’Nur. Over 60million years ago, a ‘cosmic shard’ smashed into Argent D’nur and out from its core came the Elemental Wraiths. Essentially, their ‘wraith call’ created The Ancestrals, towering feral creatures that waged war on each other for years. At some point as a result of another wraith call, came the Argenta people. Eventually as their civilisation developed, they were able to fight off the Ancestrals and claim dominion over Argent D’Nur.
The Argentan people (or at least, their Sentinel Order), eventually learned how to harness the ‘wraith energy’ that the wraiths emitted, empowering their weapons & combat ability.
The Maykr
The Maykr are an ancient race(seemingly the oldest race – and one potentially pre-dating the universe) who live on Urdak, a world that lives outside the bounds of the known universe. As this race is the oldest, presumably the most powerful and intelligent – this led other races to revere them.
Every 10,000 years the collective consciousness of the Maykr known as the singularity births a Khan Maykr – a supreme being destiny-bound to lead all of Urdak until the next Khan is born.
In Maykr history, there are references to ‘The Father’ – an entity above the Maykr, which blessed them with their vast amount of knowledge and technological ability, and potentially even was their creator.
The Maykr live an exceptionally long time but eventually they biologically/mentally degrade, at which point they will go through a process they fear, known as the ‘transfiguration’. This includes a voluntary death followed by a resurrection – which relies on the ‘Essence of The Father’ in order to happen.
However, this essence was stolen at one point in time – preventing the Maykr’s from being able to resurrect one another. At a similar time, the Khan had turned to Argent energy, allowing the Maykr to skip this process entirely and effectively live forever.
The Doom Slayer
The above title is the primary name given to our protagonist in this rebooted franchise of Doom. ‘Doomguy’ was the popular(informal) name that rose to the top by the fans of the original Doom games. The games themselves referred to him simply as a ‘marine’ or ‘space marine’.
“Are Doomguy/Doom Slayer the same character?” = the short answer is: Yes, but not in a ‘continued storyline/proof of anything’ sort of way.
The Lore – Part 1 [In the beginning]
Shortly after the Argenta claimed dominion over Argent D’Nur, they formed the ‘Order of the Deag’ – priests who would pay tribute to the Elemental Wraiths that the Argenta revered, in order to sate their ‘tempestuous hunger’. In the earlier days of their civilisation, there was a civil-war between the Argenta, at which point the ‘Order of the Night Sentinels’ were formed and ‘beat back the barbarian hordes’. The Night Sentinels(presumably the Order of the Deag also) were empowered with the energy that the Wraiths generated.
Later down the track when Argent D’Nur had become a reasonably technologically advanced race, the Maykr came to the Argentans. In a manner of speaking, the Argenta saw the Maykr as celestial beings – and as such adopted their ‘holy beliefs, wisdom and all-knowing power’ which in turn would earn the people of Argenta the chance to ‘eternally rest in Urdak’. With the support of the Maykr, the Argenta traversed the universe – essentially to spread the Maykr religion and freeing opressed races if need be.
The ‘Fortress of Doom’ as we know it – was essentially a spaceship created by the Argenta as well as some Maykr enhancements, which the Night Sentinels used to get around.
After a period of time and relative prosperity, the Khan Maykr approached the then-Sentinel King Roan, revealing that she had foreseen that one day one of their order would bring about Maykr destruction. This foresight came from Maykr technology known as ‘The Divinity Machine’. This creation could see every potential future/timeline, of which each Maykr was aware. The god-mind would survey infinite amount of changing timelines. Among the endless possibilities of this flowing data of endless variability there was one constant = the prophesised destroyer that would bring about the destruction of the Maykr.
The Khan required a holy rite(trial-by-combat) to be performed by the Sentinel warriors, and only those that proved worthy would be tested for impurity. However over time, this prophecy was all but forgotten but by the Maykr.
Later on in the time of King Novik, an Outlander(The Doom Slayer) appeared on Argentan land. Battered and bloody, the Sentinels had found him speaking of the dark realm, that he needed to kill them all and of course ‘Rip n Tear’. To the surprise of the Argenta, he survived his time in the Arena all the while mumbling about demons. This caught the Khan Maykrs interest, who sought to learn more of this dimensions and its beings – previously unknown to her.
Further down the track, demon-kind appeared through dimensional rifts and attacked Argent D’Nur. The Sentinels were able to hold the demons at bay, but the problem lay in the demons numbers appearing to be limitless. Countless lives were lost on both sides and the Unholy Wars began.
Although the Sentinels/Maykr were perplexed by the demons, they gradually observed that their power came ‘from the very essence of their being’. After capturing several demons, the Order of the Deag were able to identify that their Essence originated from the ‘Dark Dimension’. From this they learned that they could power their own weapons with this Hell energy, effectively turning the tide in the war against evil. They also learned that they could end life, enhance it, heal and even become immortal.
The Khan Maykr realised that this energy could be used to prevent the Maykr ‘transfiguration’ process(that the Maykr raced feared), meaning they could effectively live forever. And as the codices state, the absence of The Father meant that the Khan succession would no longer come to pass – effectively allowing the current Khan Maykr to reign supreme for all time. It was at this point, where the Order of the Deag essentially started serving the Khan Maykr more than the Argentan race.
Now empowered with Hell energy as well as wraith, the Sentinels took the fight to the Demons, at which point they noticed that the Outlander had prior experience fighting them. Not only that, but it was his fervor for war was observed by high-ranking Sentinels. It was soon decided that he be lifted up from the common soldier and trained in the ways of the Night Sentinel, eventually becoming one. Throughout this war at the Khan Maykr’s direction, Hell energy was used more and more, which was leaving a noticeable mark(corruption) on Argentan culture. Some Sentinels noticed this and tried to say something but were quickly quietened – however this was the beginning of the end for them.
Later on(still in the time of King Novik), the ‘capital city’ of Argent D’Nur – Taras Nabad, was hit by a massive surprise attack by Demons, which included a Titan. This was unlike any other invasion attempt previously, and the Sentinels could not work out how this happened without any warning (although they suspected foul play). The demons swept over the city, and the surviving inhabitants fled north where the Sentinels and the Outlander rallied.
Come the morning when the battle was all but over, and the Maykr Seraphim ‘Samur’ who had been observing the Outlander for a time, whisked him away in absolute secrecy and submitted him to the Divinity Machine; where he was then blessed with celestial speed and power. Samur disappeared there after, no one knowing where he went.
The Unholy Wars raged on, and with the Outlanders new-found power the Sentinels were able to push deeper and deeper into Hell. Without the knowledge of the Argentans, the Khan Maykr & her now-loyal priests made a deal with the Dark Lord(current fourth-age ruler) of Hell. As Samuel Hayden told the Doom Slayer in D.Eternal regarding to the soul-extraction factory in the Hell city Nekravol – “This machine was not made without Hell’s knowledge. A deal was struck with the Dark Lord, in return for access to more worlds for Hell to devour, the Maykrs siphoned energy from the damned.”
So the Dark Lord kept demons out of this region while the Khan Maykr enlisted the help of loyal Sentinels(as opposed to the ones who had begun questioning her rule), to build the factory to process souls. Because as Samuel said later on “Built by Sentinel slaves, for a Maykr can never set foot in Hell, nor demon in Urdak” – at least until the events of Doom Eternal.
Years later, a company of Sentinels came across the City of Nekravol and were horrified. Horrified that it was the Argentan people that build this under the Khan’s instruction, horrified that it meant their fellow Sentinels would eventually rise up and become the demons they fought. These Sentinels spread the word and tried to expose the Khan Maykr along with the unholy union she had formed. This caused a clear divide between the people of Argenta. Those who feared the Khan’s wrath and slowly became corrupted by the Essence, and those who refused to be a part of it and reverted back to using Wraith-energy alone.
For years this civil war continued among the Sentinel factions – and those who died loyal to the Khan Maykr, were resurrected via the Divinity Machine and transformed by Hells Essence – creating the Marauders we know and love in game.
At one point (with the assistance of the seemingly loyal priests), plans were drawn to destroy the Nekravol factory, cutting of Urdak’s supply of energy and freeing the Argent people. The free Sentinels along with the Doom Slayer went through a portal to Hell, and were immediately set upon by hordes of Demons. Not only that, but the priests closed the portal behind them – a plan long in the mayking by the Khan Maykr, the Priests and the Dark Lord of Hell. With the exception of the Doom Slayer, all Sentinels that went through that portal fought, and died.
The Lore – Part 2 [In the beginning]
At the same time elsewhere on a battlefield, the son of the Sentinel we know as ‘The Betrayer’ died. In his grief, he made a deal with Deag Grav, showing him where the Wraiths slept(as they were kept under lock and key) if they would bring his son back to life. The Order of the Deag brought his son back, but specifically as the Icon of Sin and was used to destroy pretty much all life on Argent D’Nur.
And so the cycle continued over the course of history, where the Khan Maykr’s would offer up worlds for Hell to devour, and Urdak would in turn siphon the power generated from the tortured souls.
Still being stuck in Hell (or were the Demons stuck in Hell with him? 😉 ), out of pure and unrelenting rage, he slew all the demons he could find one by one – and he quickly became known by the demons as The Doom Slayer.
Further rampaging through Hell and across dimensions led him to ‘The Titan’ (a.k.a ‘The Great One’) who rose up from the depths of what is now known as the ‘Titan’s Realm’. This being was one of “immeasurable power and ferocity” – but still he fell to the Doom Slayer.
His rampage continued unabaited, and he eventually came across a being the demons refer to as a ‘wretch’. “The Wretch adorned the Doom Slayer in a mighty armor, wrought in the forges of Hell, impenetrable and unyielding”.
Blinded his unsatiable thirst for vengeance on all of demon-kind, he was lured into the “tombs of the Blood Keep” by Demon Priests of the Blood Temples. Here, they “brought down the temple upon the Doom Slayer, and in his defeat entombed him in the cursed sarcophagus”.
“The mark of the Doom Slayer was burned upon his crypt, a warning to all of Hell that the terror within must never be freed.” The Priests covered the tomb with “protective runes and imprisonment incantations”, as well having demons protect it in an absolute effort for him never to be freed.
And there he lay for approximately 1000 years.
The Lore – Part 3 [Doom 2016]
In the mid-2100’s, man-kind made their expedition to Mars and discovered Argent Energy leaking through a fracture between Hell’s dimension and ‘ours’. The discovery of Argent Energy led Samuel Hayden and the UAC to both ‘harvest’ Argent Energy and also pry into Hell’s dimension.
Eventually, expeditions into Hell happened and artifacts, scriptures and the like were brought back.
Seemingly, the Dark Lord became aware of our dimension after our repeated ‘invasions’ into theirs. It was at this point that he found someone to corrupt and manipulate into opening a portal for Hell’s legions to pour through and conquer (Olivia Pierce).
All the while, Samuel Hayden discovered information about the Doom Slayer in a well-guarded section of Hell – and led an expedition into the Kadingir Sanctum to investigate. There they were met by demons who defended the tomb with “an instinctual ferocity previously unobserved”. They managed to tether the Doom Slayers tomb and transport(beam) him back to The UAC.
After repeated manipulations and promises from the Fourth Age demonic leader, Olivia created a portal to Hell – which emitted a Lazarus Wave, demonizing all UAC employee’s, and unintentionally awakening the Doom Slayer.
Through the game you learn of Olivia and need to stop her before she makes the same mistake that the Argenta made milenia ago. You also meet Samuel who is siphoning Argent Energy just like the Maykr are doing. Knowing how this plays out, the Doom Slayer goes out of his way to destroy the production of Argent Energy within the UAC, much to Samuel’s irritation.
Later in the game, the Slayer makes contact with the Helix Stone which shows him what you must do – which is to get the Crucible from The Necropolis. Defeating the Hell Guards protecting the Crucible, he then takes it back to the fallen world, Argent D’Nur. He uses the Crucible to free the enslaved Wraiths after all this time, their energy being used to power ‘The Well’ which in turn is powering the portal between Hell & The UAC on Mars.
The Slayer finally catches up to Olivia, who is transformed into the ‘Aranea Imperatrix'(As she was promised to become by the Dark Lord). After defeating her, Samuel pulls the Slayer back to Mars.
The day is saved, and now Hell currently has no access to ‘our’ Earth’s dimension – although Samuel’s plans to use Argent Energy were sabotaged in the process.. Speaking of, he forcibly takes back the Crucible, telling the Slayer that he can’t kill him, but he’s not going to give up on Argent Energy, or let the Slayer stand in his way. As such, he tethers the Slayer away to an unknown location so that he can ‘continue his work’ in peace.
The Lore – Part 4 [Doom Eternal]
In ~2150 after the destruction of the Argent production facilities on Mars(which powered Earths systems), Samuel Hayden appeared back on Earth to try and mitigate the damage caused. Within the year though, the demons invaded Earth. Whether or not this was due to Samuel’s continued work with the Crucible, or if the Khan Maykr opened up another gateway for the demons is unknown.
The ‘Armored Response Coalition'(ARC) was formed to combat the demon invasion, and Samuel fully cooperated, providing all the weapons/technology at his disposal to combat the threat. However due to the sheer weight & number of Hell’s forces, they gradually tore away at the human population. Almost 10 years later, The Doom Slayer sets foot on Earth, with the Fortress of Doom (formerly a Sentinel war ship) hovering in close orbit, with none other than VEGA at the helm. To help speed up the consumption of Earth, the three Deag Priests(Nilox, Ranak and Grav) are spread out across the globe assisting the Demons with the invasion.
The Slayer quickly catches up with Deag Nilox (one of the original three Argentan Priests), and kills him with the help of a holy medallion. He finds Deag Ranak & Grav shortly after, who escape before the Slayer can kill them. The Khan Maykr appears to casually tell the Doom Slayer that his attempts to prevent the apocalypse are futile.
The Slayer heads back to his Fortress and, being unable to locate the remaining two priests by traditional means, is informed by VEGA that a Celestial Locator is necessary. The Slayer heads to the ruined Sentinel city ‘Exultia’, where he is greeted by former Sentinel King Novik. As the Slayer retrieves the casing for the Celestial Locator, Novik warns that despite the betrayal of the priests, the Slayer is prohibited by Argentan law to kill them, and that if he continues the Maykr’s will no doubt respond in kind.
The Slayer heads through a trans-dimensional portal to retrieve the Celestial Locator, which is in the posession of the Betrayer. Although the Betrayer indicates that the Khan Maykr cannot be stopped, he gives the Slayer the Celestial Locator, along with a unique blade(one somehow relevant to the deal the Betrayer made with Grav), knowing that if anyone is capable of freeing his son from eternal torment and slavery, it is the Slayer.
With the Celestial Locator installed in his Fortress, the Slayer tracks Deag Ranak down to the Cultist Base in the Arctic, on Earth. He battles his way past hordes of demons, including Ranak’s personal bodyguard, the ‘Doom Hunter’. However it isn’t enough, and after destroying the Doom Hunter, he beheads Deag Ranak.
With the death of two Hell priests, the consumption of Earth has heavily slowed down. The Khan appears once more in the Slayer’s Fortress, once more saying that despite his interference, Earth is going to be consumed, and that she will personally remove the remaining priest(Grav) away to a more discrete location to complete the work. Further attempting to ensure its consumption, not only does she sabotage the Celestial Locator from functioning, she accelerates the demon invasion via the ‘Super Gore Nest’, for which hordes more demons pour through. Putting a pause on his priest hunt, the Slayer jumps through a portal in order to destroy the Super Gore Nest.
Coming back to his Fortress once more, VEGA states that while he still can’t locate Deag Grav, Samuel Hayden will be able to assist – and calibrates a new portal to the ARC command station where Samuel is. The Slayer makes his way into the complex, first coming across the Crucible that Samuel had taken from him. Walking into the next room, he finds a cut-in-half Samuel Hayden seemingly on some type of ‘life support’. The Doom Slayer unsympathetically yanks Samuel out of the supporting machine, when a Marauder comes through a Hell portal and confronts the Slayer. VEGA opens up a portal back to the Fortress for the Slayer, who throws Samuel through – and kills the Marauder before making his exit as well.
Back in the Fortress, the Slayer connects Samuel up – and divulges that Deag Grav is hiding out in Sentinel Prime (an Argenta Coliseum, once sed as a place for prisoners to fight for the chance to fight with Sentinel warriors on the front lines). Samuel states that the only way to ‘easily’ access Sentinel Prime, is via a ‘slip gate’ found in the Lost city of Hebeth – located in the very core of Mars. Neither Samuel or VEGA have a solid idea as to how they can get there in a timely manner, when the Slayer “suggests” that he is going to use the BFG-10000 weapon on the Mars moon ‘Phobos’, to blast a hole into the surface of Mars.
The Slayer does just that, and makes his way through the City of Hebeth to the portal that then takes him to Sentinel Prime. There, he is acknowledged by fellow Sentinel warriors and a Maykr angel as he makes his way into the Coliseum. Throughout the hunt, the Khan appears multiple times, first trying to reason with him (now that he’s repeatedly thwarted her plans), and then later reinforcing that he will not stop the coming apocalypse.
He catches up with Deag Grav in the center of the arena, who reminds him that should he spill his Sentinel blood on these holy grounds, the Slayer will essentially – no longer be welcome and be treated as the enemy. Grav vanishes, but not before summoning ‘The Gladiator’ – a demonic being used as an executioner at the Deag’s discrection. You destroy the Gladiator, and as Deag Grav reappears, you kill him also. Having gone against Argentan law and spilling Sentinel blood on ‘holy soil’, Sentinel warriors appear ready to attack, so you back out through a portal, having no quarrel with them.
The Slayer arrives back at his Fortress, finding all systems shut down – the Khan Maykr having overloaded the system. She’s reasonably angered by the third and final priests’ death, promises to resurrect the Icon of Sin in order to complete the consumption and leave Earth in ruins. The Khan leaves, and the Slayer inserts the Crucible he recently re-acquired into the Fortress to power it.
With the threat of the Icon looming, Samuel reveals that the only thing that can stop the Icon is the Slayer’s own ‘Crucible blade’, which the Slayer left on Taras Nabad(embedded in the chest of another Titan), essentially the capital city of Argent D’Nur. Taras Nabad was hit by a large-scale surprise demonic attack ~60million years ago, which the Slayer helped thwart before the Seraphim whisked him away to empower.
Battling through yet another horder of demons, the Slayer retrieves his sword an returns to his Fortress – where the goal now is to prevent the Khan from resurrecting the Icon, which she is making preparations to do in Urdak. However Urdak is not an accessible place via standard means. Samuel discloses that the only known access point into Urdak is through the Hell city of ‘Nekravol’ which to recap, is the ‘factory’ where Hell’s victims are tortured for soul-extraction, which is processed into Argent energy that Urdak siphons off directly.
Arriving on Urdak, the Slayer quickly makes his way to the chamber where the Khan, a few Maykr Angels & accolytes are making the preparations beneath the dormant Icon. In the center of this ring is the still-beating heart of the Betrayers son. The Khan is seemingly at ease with the Slayers presence, until he lunges at the heart and stabs it with the blade the Betrayer provided. With the ritual disrupted, the Icon of Sin awakens, free from Khan control. This act broke the ‘Holy Seal’ which prevented any demon from ever entering Urdak. The Icon walks through a portal to begin his destruction of Earth, while you and the Khan are separated.
The Lore – Part 5 [Doom Eternal]
At Samuel’s direction, the Slayer makes his way to the towers in order to calibrate a dimensional gateway back to Earth. He fights his way through demons that have started arriving on Urdak, and eventually configure the gateway with VEGA’s assistance – who when connected up to the Maykr system questions “Am I.. The Father.. Dr. Hayden?”.
The Slayer makes his way to the portal, before being confronted by the Khan Maykr herself, who cannot allow him to get through. Defeating the Icon will prevent the consumption of Earth, which in turn prevents Argent energy generation that the Maykr now solely rely on to survive. After a destructive fight, the Slayer defeats the Khan Maykr, who states that he has just jeopardised all of creation – now that Hell can enter Urdak, no world/dimension is beyond their grasp.
As the Khan Maykr dies, a mysterious voice in the sky echoes “Nooooooooooo!”. You quickly leave to hunt down the Icon on Earth. After an epic fight, the Slayer leaps at the towering Icon and embeds his sword into the Icon’s exposed brain. Snapping the blade off at the hilt, preventing any sort of rise from this creature again.
The Slayer walks away, and the story concludes… for now.
Interesting Facts
If you’re not one to trawl through the codex entries and listen to the various character conversations in game, below are some interesting facts I thought you might like.
The Doom Slayer
Aside from being gaining celestial strength/speed from the Seraphim, and enhanced(impenetrable) armour from an unknown ‘wretch’, the Doom Slayer actually becomes increasingly powerful the more demons he kills. This was very evident in various Doom 2016 codex entries, e.g.:
- DoomSlayer Character Entry:
“…small receptors on the gloves and chest plate that attracted Argent plasma and dissipated it through capillary tubes in the substructure….” - Slayers Testament IV Entry:
“…For he alone could draw strength from his fallen foes, and ever his power grew, swift and unrelenting….” - Argent Energy Database Entry:
“…if the surface tension of the plasma sphere is broken the energy cache contained within will quickly discharge, energizing anything it comes into contact with….” - Argent D’Nur Environment Entry:
“…as the spread of Hell’s dominion accelerated upon absorption of the region….”
So essentially, after the Demons conquered Argent D’Nur, they themselves became empowered by Argent Energy. The DoomSlayers suit essentially sucks in Argent Energy (which is extracted upon a Demon kill), hence how he becomes stronger after every single Demon kill.
Hell & Urdak
Up until the ending of Doom Eternal, it was not possible for a demon to cross the void into Urdak, just as the Maykr could not enter the Hell dimension. As Samuel Hayden stated during the Nekravol mission, “…a Maykr can never set foot in Hell, nor demon in Urdak.”
However, as the Icon of Sin was awakened inside Urdak, this ‘broke the Holy Seal’ = meaning Demons can now enter. However, this does not necessarily mean that the Maykr could enter Hell.
Argent Energy
Argent energy is not a pure form of energy. After the Order of the Dead/Maykr discovered the energy that powered Hell (Essence), they observed that the Demons only utilised a portion of its true potential. They were able to take the ‘wraith energy’ from the Elemental Wraiths that the Argenta worshipped, and use it to refine Hell’s essence, creating a much more potent energy which they named Argent.
The Unholy Union
Nekravol, the ‘City of the Damned’ is the location in Hell where the beings of conquered worlds are tortured, their souls extracted and converted into Argent energy. When Hell made itself known and the ‘Essence’ energy it generated 60million years ago, the Khan Maykr made a deal with the Dark Lord of Hell. If the Dark Lord allowed the Khan to build a factory(Nekravol) to harvest Argent energy, she in turn would give Hell access to other worlds to consume. This was built by Sentinel slaves loyal to the Khan, as her kind could not set foot in Hell.
Icon of Sin
The Icon of Sin being was created as a result of the deal Sentinel Commander Valen(The Betrayer) made with the Deag priest ‘Grav’. The great Titan was created(potentially from the remains of an existing Titan), and through some kind of magic – Grav entombed the son’s soul inside his heart which was then used as a way of controlling the Icon. He was used to destroy the Argent D’Nur, and then as they had control – were able to inanimate him afterwards. It’s why we see the Icon of Sin lying dormant in The Necropolis in Doom 2016. In Doom Eternal due to the Slayer’s intervention, he was reanimated without the son’s heart, which meant the Khan Maykr had no control over the Icon, not where he goes, what he is to destroy, and to inanimate him whenever she liked.
Order of the Deag/Hell Priests
In Doom Eternal our starting purpose is eliminate the Hell Priests to prevent the consumption of Earth. But what exactly did they do to assist the demons in this endeavour? In the first mission we see massive demonic Titan’s carrying a structure on top. These are called ‘Hell Barges’, where the Hell Priests resided so that they could be on the front-lines with the demons – from a safe position. From here, they would emanate a powerful psionic signal, which allowed them a level of control over the demons – improving their coordination, battle effectiveness and generally just reducing the randomised chaos.
The Marauders
Plural. The Marauders we fight in-game were once Night Sentinels. During the Sentinel expansion across the universe, there was a civil war. There were the Sentinels who sided with the Maykr’s and their lust for the corruptive Argent energy, and then there were the Sentinels who saw how Argent energy was farmed, and saw how the corruption spread across its people.
The Sentinels ‘loyal’ to the Maykr’s who fell in battle, were resurrected through the Divinity Machine as well as Argent energy. They were given a single directive which was to hunt and kill the Doom Slayer – who was building a legendary reputation at this time.
The Doom Hunter
~60million years ago the Order of the Deag discovered earth, and found it to be populated with primeval beasts which they named the ‘Agaddon’. Later on during the Argenta Civil War (a.k.a the Unholy Crusades), the Deag Order were seemingly able to capture these Agaddon, breed more and genetically modified them to function as ‘Doom Hunters’ – used to fight the Doom Slayer and the ‘pure’ Sentinels during the war. Deag Ranak made some additional modifications to the Doom Hunters’ combat prowess in the events of Doom Eternal.
Points of Speculation
While there are parts of the game we could safely make assumptions about – until something is explicitly stated by a character or codex entry, we have to treat it as speculation.
But hey – that’s part of the fun!
Identity of ‘The Seraphim’
In Doom 2016 we learn of a mysterious character named ‘The Seraphim’ who blessed The Doom Slayer with celestial power & speed. Through a a few different codices in Eternal, we learn that this being was the Maykr being ‘Samur’ – who was chancellor(second in charge) to the Khan Maykr.
At a similar time as the Slayer’s blessing, we learn that it was Samur who stole the ‘Essence of The Father’ from Urdak. But why? and where is he now? We can only speculate.. but here’s my theory.
Samuel Hayden is somehow Samur reincarnated, and here are some basic points as to why:
- The UAC scientist in Eternal referred to Samuel’s main cortex as ‘Alien’.
VEGA noted that Samuel’s robotic architecture was similar to the Fortress of Doom (made by Sentinel/Maykrs. - When speaking to the Slayer, Samuel consistently refers to Earth as ‘his’ world, not ‘our’.
- For places such as Urdak where none other than Maykr have set foot, he has an unnatural amount of knowledge of the places. “Magnificent, isn’t it?” he says – spoken as one who has seen Urdak before.
- Stating that once the Slayer gets to Urdak he won’t be able to leave on his own – but that VEGA will be able to create an exit portal for him, if he takes VEGA with him.
- In Eternal, Samur says to the Slayer “I offer you a gift Take it, it will give you strength, help you on your journey”. In DOOM 2016 Mission 2, Samuel gifts the Slayer argent and says It’s a gift, take it, it will give you strength, help you on your journey.”.
And multiple other quotes by Samuel in Eternal that indicate his ‘past life’. But WHY did he steal the Essence of the Father? One more quote: “Your people are made to suffer – processed souls for the Khan Maykr’s world. I assure you, this could have been avoided with.. different leadership”.
Historically, those second-in-charge are typically the ones that seek the throne. Perhaps Samur/Samuel disagreed with the Khan’s exploitation of Argent energy, throwing every other living world to the jaws of Hell for the sake of Maykr continuity. Perhaps Samur identified the Slayer as the prophesised Unholy One, and being unable to overthrow the Khan, blessed the Slayer to bring about the eventual end of the Maykr.
What happened to ‘The Father’
With the assumption that Samuel is the Seraphim once known as ‘Samur’, then it is likely that ‘The Father’ is now VEGA. On Urdak when we input VEGA into the Maykr system, he says “I can.. see now.. am I The Father, Dr. Hayden?”. It sounds almost as if VEGA gained a level of clarity, being re-integrated with his ‘original system’ and potentially remembering his origin. As the codices indicate that the singular being, ‘The Father’ may have split himself to form the Maykr race.
The ‘VEGA Central Processing’ facility in Doom 2016 was pretty vast, and two quotes from a codex entry “The structure was built away from the Argent facility to ensure VEGA’s secrets remained safe from prying eyes” and “VEGA’s design is so complex…”.
Identity of ‘the wretch’
We do not yet know the identity of this character. In a Doom 2016 codex we learn that ‘the wretch who shall not be named'(not an identifying title like ‘The Seraphim’) “adorned the Doom Slayer in a mighty armor, wrought in the fires of Hell… and in his heresy was loyal to his evil cause…”.
As this occurred in Hell, this rules out a Maykr being. A Sentinel? The only other one alive of note is The Betrayer, but I feel like his story has come full circle and he was happily named previously. This quote was spoken by the current Dark Lord of Hell, and saying the fact that he labelled it as ‘heresy’ and the destruction of Hell as an ‘evil cause’ – indicates that this particular wretch was a being of Hell. In Doom 2016 and Eternal there are references to various high level beings such as ‘ArchDemons’, ‘Elder Hell Gods’ and ‘Demon Priests'(These priests are not the Sentinel/Hell Priests that we know).
Origin of the ‘Doom Slayer’
Around ~60million years prior to the events of Doom Eternal, The Doom Slayer (then known as ‘The Outlander’) shows up on Argentan land, found by Sentinel scouts. The Slayer:
- was wearing his original ‘Doom Guy’ attire.
- was human, as was the case in the original Doom games.
FACT ^ However, this is not any sort of proof that all the games in the Doom franchise are linked, and that their timelines can be neatly connected. Doom 2016/Eternal are reboots of the franchise, and essentially – read my ‘Please Note’ in this guides opening introduction.
The Mysterious Voice
Unsure about this one but I will keep digging. The Khan Maykr was essentially one of the most powerful/significant beings in existence, and surely there would be only a handful of others that could speak from the skies in that manner. Was it..
- The Father? – The codices speculate that he could have ‘split’ his singular form in order to birth the Maykr race. Perhaps this was his voice in response to his ‘partial death’?
- The Dark Lord – We’re two games in and yet to meet this arch-villain. Perhaps it was him, knowing that the Khan Maykr’s death meant the death of their treaty in which she would offer Hell up unlimited worlds to devour. Although that depends on whether or not Hell are able to make use of Maykr technology to locate their own worlds, now that they can enter Urdak. I imagine they probably can’t.
Or was it someone else entirely? Those are my guesses.
