This page details CyberAcme's stance on the issue of canon in the Marathon franchise.
What is canon?[edit]
Canon is defined as characters, locations, and details that are considered to be genuine (or "official"), and those events, characters, settings, etc. that are considered to have inarguable existence within Marathon's world. Canon can only be defined and created by Bungie.
CyberAcme seeks to operate strictly as a collection of Marathon canon information. The rule of its canon policy is fairly simple, that "the content should be considered canonical unless contradicted by more authoritative sources". For weighing each source's authority, there is the hierarchy of canon covered below. But it is only one tool in discerning the canon from the non-canon, and oftentimes the relationships of authority may overlap or not be clear. In vague cases like those, determining which contradicting fact should be posted on CyberAcme may come down to the editors' interpretation. For this, one must know how to interpret that canon.
How do we interpret the canon?[edit]
There are various ways of interpreting canon but in most cases, they will typically refer to two modes of interpretation: Watsonian and Doylist. The most common approach in most fanbase would be from a Watsonian perspective, that is to interpret the information from the standpoint of the text. This is sometimes called an in-universe perspective.
A Watsonian perspective seeks to amend canonical inconsistencies by presenting an in-universe explanation. A Watsonian perspective is very helpful to solve inconsistencies, but can risk veering into fanfiction, and without an official source behind it cannot be considered to be on the same authority as canon.
But a Doylist perspective handles canonical inconsistencies by an explanation of what the creators were likely thinking. They will examine from an authorial point-of-view, read up on behind-the-scenes information, seek for story meaning, try to put themselves into the minds of the authors, and keep in mind that human creators are often fallible. Doylist perspectives ground the work in the real world and let us see what the authors may have been thinking, but it too can often involve just as much guesswork as Watsonian theories and sometimes is misused as a platform for complaining about the story direction.
As such, editors can use these perspectives to determine which elements remain part of the canon framework and which elements could be discarded to accommodate it. But the path to the outcome is rarely simple, and there is no guarantee that the inconsistency will be amended by the creators at a later date. Only with the community's participation can each theory be weighed, so as to ensure CyberAcme continues displaying the most accurate and consistent of Marathon information.
Hierarchy of canon[edit]
In simple terms, CyberAcme follows our own stance on canon, similar to that of Halopedia, is that all published material covering the Marathon sereis is equally canon unless expressly stated to be otherwise by the developers. This means that all games are all regarded as being on an even footing when it comes to their canon status.
We strive to interpret canon in a way that makes the most sense in the context and causes the least problems. Oftentimes, one source of canon may say something different than other sources. There are many reasons why this may be so; ranging from a typo or a line taken out of context to simple human error on the author's or editor's part.
What are sources of canon?[edit]
As the Marathon series expands, it will become more difficult to list all sources of canon, so a general rule is as follows; All Bungie content related to the Marathon series from 1994 to the present will be considered as sources of canon.
The following is a simple list of sources that are sources of Marathon canon, and thus any material from these sources is content that can and should be added to CyberAcme. Do note that this list does not present the entirety of sources of canon, but simply a general overview of sources of canon.
What is non-canon[edit]
During Marathon's lifespan, and with the 30 year gap between installments, there has sometimes been released media that has elements from the Marathon series, In this regard, CyberAcme allows the term "Lost in Time" as a heading on existing pages where this information can be placed, without interfering with the trilogy or reboot.