Trih Xeem
A Jjaro-built stellar weapon capable of forcing a star into early nova; acquired and deployed by the Pfhor as a weapon of last resort against rebellious client races and uncontrollable threats.
What the source establishes — canon
Origin and name. In the language of the Jjaro, the device is called the trih xeem; a fair English translation would be “early nova.”1 The Jjaro conceived and built it.1
Pfhor acquisition and use doctrine. The Pfhor possess the trih xeem and save it for slave revolts — a weapon which even they hesitate to use in the ordinary conduct of war.1 Forcing a star into early nova has proved most satisfactory at destroying what the Pfhor could not control.2
The Nakh precedent. The last extant client race of the Jjaro to rebel against the Pfhor were the Nakh, six thousand years before the events at Lh’owon.1 There is not a single Nakh alive today; if you look for their stars, you will only find ever-expanding clouds of superheated gas and dust, light-years in diameter.1 The Pfhor used the trih xeem to destroy the Drinniol rebellion as well.2
Deployment at Lh’owon — the trap for Durandal. High Admiral Tfear transmitted to Pfhor High Command that the battle plan at Lh’owon included the trih xeem from the outset: the Pfhor intended to trap Durandal and end the Threat of Tau Ceti, and determined — as they had with the Drinniol rebellion — that they would be forced to use the trih xeem.2 Tfear ordered its deployment after cornering Durandal at an undetected station in the asteroid fringe of the Lh’owon system.2
Tfear’s first-person account of the blast. In a terminal left aboard the station, Tfear records that the trih xeem “broke against my dying vessel and smashed a fine patina across the mystery shields of this station,” and that his crew battled aliens during the blast, after which came “the pure silence of victory.”3 He then records that the shields of the station were gone — “not down, but gone” — and that the engineers were lost as well.3 His final message states that it is coming back and that his last mercy is immolation.3
The W’rkncacnter released. A corrupted terminal warns that if the Pfhor are allowed to use the trih xeem, the W’rkncacnter will escape from its gravity prison in Lh’owon’s sun.4 S’bhuth knows only legends about the W’rkncacnter imprisoned there.4 The same terminal describes the W’rkncacnter as things that live in chaos, creating it around them — present since the beginning of the universe, now hidden in stars, trapped in storms, and along the event horizons of black holes; setting one free in ordered space is described as “difficult and insane.”4
Tfear’s own obliviousness — and the Pfhor fleet’s destruction. Even Tfear would have been loath to release something so destructive that its mythos had survived throughout the galaxy for over sixty million years, yet the source notes the Pfhor were oblivious to what they were about to do.4 Tfear’s report confirms that after the nova fired on time, half of the sun went nova as expected — but the other half produced impossible readings, “as if the universe had forgotten its own rules,” and the Western Arm of Pfhor Battle Group Seven was destroyed.2 Tfear transmitted Durandal’s warning before the end: “Maybe it is fate that your ignorant pride would unleash this horror and destroy the galaxy.”2
Confirmed prior use against Drinniol. Tfear’s transmission to Pfhor High Command explicitly states that the Pfhor had previously used the trih xeem to end the Drinniol rebellion — it was an established instrument of policy before Lh’owon.2
Deployment in the Lh’owon system — confirmed outcome. After the S’pht’Kr arrived and the Pfhor fleet was thrown into disarray, Tfear deployed the trih xeem and moved his flagship to board the Yrro station.5 The evacuation of Lh’owon then began; in a matter of hours the planet became a thin shell of plasma riding the shockwave of its exploding star.1
Jjaro connection — a corrupted transmission. A heavily corrupted terminal (tat.iana) contains the fragment: “The trih xeem plummets (yawning) towards / the sun’s core (heart), and the firey prison of the W’rcacnter (doubt) where…” followed by data corruption.6 The fragment links the trih xeem’s trajectory to the sun’s core and to the imprisoned W’rkncacnter. The source presents this as corrupted; no further context is recoverable from this volume.
Tycho’s own possession of the device. In a terminal issued to his conditioned Mutinous Combatant Units as the Lh’owon endgame unfolds, Tycho states in first person: “Functioning sensors show a massive structure entering a Lh’owon orbit. It may be some trick of Durandal’s, but he won’t get away. My ship carries the tri xeem—the early nova device. One way or another, it ends here”7. This terminal uses the spelling “tri xeem” (without the medial h) and directly follows Tycho’s admission, in the same transmission, that “Durandal’s compiler network is rampant, and his ship is off-line” — Tycho frames the trih xeem’s deployment as the decisive, final action against Durandal, issued moments before ordering his own troopers to board Durandal’s ship. This establishes Tycho — not only Tfear and the Pfhor high command — as a directly stated possessor of the weapon at the point of use, and ties its deployment explicitly to ending the conflict with Durandal rather than only to suppressing a slave revolt.
Cross-corpus appearances
| Volume | Game / Section | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| ^^^EOf (Tfear terminal, Despair) | Marathon Infinity · Despair / Aie Mak Sicur | Tfear first-person: trih xeem fired against his vessel; post-blast silence; shields gone; immolation |
| tat.iana (Envy) | Marathon Infinity · Envy / Aye Mak Sicur | Corrupted fragment: trih xeem plummeting to the sun’s core; W’rkncacnter’s prison |
| Cirlw.zoq (Confound Delivery) | Marathon Infinity · Despair | Tycho’s first-person: “My ship carries the tri xeem”; deployed as decisive action against Durandal, issued alongside admission Durandal’s compiler network is rampant |
| dciel1cb1 (Envy) | Marathon Infinity · Envy / You Think You’re Big Time… | S’bhuth: trih xeem will release the W’rkncacnter; W’rkncacnter mythos (chaos, sixty million years); Pfhor obliviousness |
| wgrnc.q23 (Envy) | Marathon Infinity · Envy / You Think You’re Big Time… | Tfear deploys the trih xeem; S’pht’Kr arrival; “early nova” naming confirmed |
| Report to Lh’owon Command (Introduction) | Marathon Infinity · Introduction | Tfear’s full command report: Drinniol precedent; deployment rationale; nova outcome; Western Arm destroyed; Durandal’s warning |
| tranced.Finale<0-05> | Marathon 2: Durandal · S’pht’Kr / All Roads Lead to Sol | Definitive naming: Jjaro-built, “early nova”; Nakh precedent (six thousand years ago, Jjaro’s last client race); Lh’owon evacuation underway |
Source-silent / open questions
- The source does not describe the physical form of the trih xeem device in detail — its exact size or firing mechanism are not stated. It is established as shipborne: both Tfear’s flagship and, per Tycho’s own account, Tycho’s ship are each described as carrying or deploying it, indicating the device (or one of multiple devices) is small enough to be mounted on an individual vessel rather than requiring a dedicated platform.
- How the Pfhor acquired the trih xeem from the Jjaro is source-silent. The source establishes the Jjaro conceived and built it; it does not explain the transfer.
- Whether the Jjaro built the trih xeem with knowledge that W’rkncacnter were imprisoned in stellar cores — i.e., whether the weapon was designed knowing what it could release — is not stated.
- The Drinniol rebellion is referenced as a prior use but is otherwise not described in this pack. The Drinniol themselves are source-silent here.
- The corrupted tat.iana terminal (Vol. 2) is too degraded for reliable reading; the fragment “W’rcacnter” may be a spelling variant or a corruption of “W’rkncacnter” — the source does not clarify.
- What became of the trih xeem device after deployment — whether it is consumed in the nova or reusable — is not stated.
Cross-references
Jjaro · W’rkncacnter · Lh’owon · Pfhor · S’pht’Kr · Nakh · Durandal · Tfear · Drinniol
Where it appears in the vault
Drinniol, Jjaro, K’lia, Lh’owon, Marathon 2 - Durandal, Nakh, Pfhor, Tfear, W’rkncacnter
Mirror pages
The local 1:1 pages this hub’s citations resolve to — the twin’s own ground truth.
- sphtkr · all-roads-lead-to-sol
- despair · aie-mak-sicur
- despair · confound-delivery
- envy · aye-mak-sicur
- envy · you-think-youre-big-time-youre-gonna-die-big-time
- marathon-infinity · introduction
Sources
Every factual claim above is cited to primary Marathon source material — see Sources below. Cross-corpus connections and interpretation are the vault’s own; where the games are silent, this page says so.