The Mural in Prometheus

I think the exact polar opposite of this.

@IndyFront

Then you'd be wrong lol This isn't a speculation but fact.

@ IndyFront & Lawrence of Arabia

...WELL FROM MY PERSPECTIVE THE JEDI ARE EVIL!

@VivisectedEngineer

Only a Sith deals in absolutes. >:-)

In Foster's novel, we learn that David didn't create the xenomorph (he tries to recreate it). The engineers had thousands/millions of years to create the perfect being (David had 10).

I also think that the classic Xenomorph existed much longer than the protomorph in AC. The Deacon might be a creation of the engineers based on the DNA from the Xenos that they refined and store as the black goo.

However, it could be also true that the Deacon is the first form of the whole Xenomorph family and the classic Xeno the enginered variant.

In my imagination, the mural on LV-223 depicts the perfect being (in the meaning of destruction). In the facilities on LV-223 (how many?) they experimented with biological weapons in order to wipe out civilisations. The mutagen/pathogen became the perfect weapon but wiped out the engineers on LV-223 as well.

But, did this creature exist somewhere - the perfect killing organism that we see in the mural or did it only depict what would happen when their chemical experimentation and their mutagen/pathogen came in contact with sacrificial engineers or humans?

Thank friggin lord someone finally posted this!!!! I have been saying it for a while now! Haha I suppose I could have just posted it to try and satisfy myself, but yeah... I mentioned it in a few threads here and there when it came up. Rock on, Lawrence of Arabia!

cuponator3000

Thanks for the props man :) Those who watched "The Furious Gods: The Making of Prometheus" should know this! I've already laid out where people can see what I'm talking about, the mural is of The Deacon which is what the Engineers have made. Yes, they've had a way longer time than David in creating these death bringers but David is a perfect being while the Engineers are not (they are just as fallible/mortal as man). The Xenomorphs are his perfect creation which were reverse engineered from The Deacon. 

I still say that there be the spine tingling scream of a deacon in the hologram/engineer chase scene in prometheus, an engineer is looking back over his shoulder and the deacons scream is clearly audible, david say's "they were about to leave before things went to pot", so something major involving their ungodly experiments happened, which i believe involves a deacon and some black goo(the infected engineer).

This is beauty with Prometheus it is so ambiguous that any theory can apply, as the Mural to my knowledge has never been 100% Explained by RS etc.

I think Lindeloff covered it the most... will have to dig up what he said again, but even this was ambiguous only that it was a Deacon.

This does not have to mean it was THE DEACON as in the one at the END and so i dont think it was a Prophecy kind of Mural

But even this could be used as a Theory... its pretty open to debate.

My Interpretation in a Nutshell?

The LV-223 Engineers are a rebellious Faction and their purpose was either

*Created Clones for a Specific Purpose (Engineered Humanoids/Super Specimens) Who could not Procreate

*They are remains of a older Engineer Race who had lost the Ability to Procreate (or lost/had Females Taken from them) hence the Sacrificial Purpose.

They then either came across a Parasitic Organism, or they had came into contact with it via some kind of Punishment.

The result was that these Engineers saw one or a few of their kind Gestate to and Give Birth to a Organism related to the Xenomorph-strain.  They saw this as some kind of Miraculous way they could Give Birth to Life (which they had not seen for Thousands of years, or if at all If they was Designed Clones).

So they perverted the way of being Genetic Gardeners by Experimenting on this Parasite in a number of ways until they had either.

*Create the Deacon in the Mural, saw it as Perfect and Sacrificed it to create the Mutagen in the Urns.

*This was what they  was trying to create, using the Mutagen in the Urns that they likely obtained by Sacrificing a previous Creation.. that had came about from a Original Parasitic Organism.

Adding on to what Big Dave said, the Deacon we see at the end was the result of a somewhat convoluted and incoherent process begun by David-8 experimenting with what he found on Dr. Holloway and Shaw. The Engineers (besides the Xenovirus they had) played virtually no role in the organism we see at the end of the film. The mural also seems to imply a Xenomorphic being distilled into the pathogenic substance (As it is implied to be 'melting' or 'dissolving'.

Indeed i think we need to consider a few things...

The Deacon that resulted from Dr Shaw may have been a one off event that was related to the Mural due to using DNA Pathogenic substance obtained from a Original Deacon (however this was created).

But the Fifield and Hammerpedes also contained that Deacon DNA but did not look similar... (The original Fifield had way more Xeno-DNA).  They had done many concepts for various forms of Fifield too.

But the Actual Deacon could kind of be Re-created, which i think David had done with Dr Shaw.  If we assume the Deacon required a Female Host either for her EGGs or just her Womb....

Then in the past the Engineers could have created a Deacon by similar Method if they had visited Earth and other Worlds and Collected/Abducted Humans....   We even see in AC those Engineer beings had Females.

If David had instead made a good impression on the Engineers instead of bombing them, or he came across Survivors and Spiked a Males Drink... who had sex with a Female Engineer, then its Logical to Assume a kind of Trilobite would be created, that would lead to a kind of Deacon.

We cant be 100% that the Male (Holloway) just transmitted the Pathogen well part of it to Shaw like a Sexually Transmitted Disease... If this is the case then there is no Need for a Male as a Female only needs some of the Black Stuff from the Glass Vials exposed/introduced into her reproductive Organs (Ovaries) and the Result would be a Trilobite.

The Source i had who apparently had information on Prometheus to as far as Work Up to November 2014.. had claimed that David Re-Creates Its (Deacon or Xenomorph?) and all you need to Re-create it, was Knowledge and Tools and David has both... they also hinted that David Re-Creates One Monster related to the Xenomorph... but we see another that David does not directly play his hands in....  Oh and Dr Shaw would play a Small but important Role in this and Technically would not be Dead.

It surely would be interesting if Paglen/Greens Drafts ever come to light.

@IndyFront: Has the pathogen perhaps been derived from a xenogod they sacrificed, and this is what the mural is depicting - akin to Tiamat or Kingu who were killed by the Elder Gods and their remains used to create subsequent races from?

I'm not saying that The Deacon at the end was THE DEACON or that the mural prophesized it but that the process was one that was already discovered by the Engineers. This is how they wiped the slate clean, with an Engineer sacrificing himself to a Trilobite (possibly made through intercourse as with Holloway and Shaw) and give birth to a Deacon which would eliminate all non-botanical life. The Engineers made the Trilobite and made the Deacons. David simply reverse engineered their process and perfected it with the traditional facehugger and Xenomorph. Guys, watch "The Furious Gods: Making of Prometheus" chapter 6 "Demons in the Dark" and click on the Enhancement video when they start talking the Deacon. I'm not speculating.

Certainly looks to me like they obtained it from Sacrificing a Organism Related to the Xenomorph.... The Mural is maybe one of the Experiments that had created by this..

The other Temples could contain slightly different versions of the Pathogen...  so the other Temples could have a Mural with something a bit different.  I think regardless there had to be a Origin to the lot of them.

Which is why i found the Frescos interesting... and what relation it had.. I always interpreted it as the Prometheus Punishment.

@Lawrence of Arabia

Indeed i understood where you are coming from, i was not implying the Mural was a Prophecy as far as thinking this was what you was saying.  I was just pointing out that the Mural is so ambiguous that this is one theory but one i dont buy.

I think they had already encountered or created a Deacon before, but its quite open as far as how/when this happened.

Thats the beauty of the Ambiguity, some see the Deacon as a GOD a Race above the Engineers, i dont buy this though.  Some see it as a Destroyer Created for that purpose.. i think it could in part play this role... but i think the Engineers had came to see the Xeno-origins as something to Worship and they had experimented on it to create the Mural Deacon which they then planned to Seed its DNA on Earth

Thus destroying Life on Earth and starting a event that would lead to Evolution again but would contain Xeno-DNA as opposed to Engineers.

I think many people have different theories, and thats the great thing with Prometheus, i am not sure that creating Deacons to then drop onto Worlds is the best way to eradicate life.

I think the Black Goo or even Urns full of Sacrificial Goo could do that all by itself. In fact come to think about it if the Engineers Seed Worlds to eventually create Humanoids.. but these proved to be troublesome and there was no real ideal way to get rid of the Humanoids and it was better to Wipe the Whole Slate Clean.

While Humanoid Life was their Goal, we can assume.. and they had achieved this... then i think it would have made more sense to Drop down either Engineer DNA containing Urns or even Urns containing the Sacrificial Goo as the result would just break down all Life on Earth and then allow it to be Restarted with the same DNA Building Blocks.

Dropping a Xeno-strain would ultimately lead to Xeno-DNA Organisms Evolving... i think the LV-223 Engineers had grown to Worship and Hold the Xeno-Strain DNA as more Perfect than their own DNA and this is what they wanted to do.. Evolve Life to have this DNA.

I see the Neomorphs, Protomorphs, and others as all different species of Xenomorph. The Deacon, however, had more human DNA than the others and was perhaps the first instance of a Xenomorph taking DNA from its host. That is what I believe David-8 was experimenting to do. Perhaps, the original Xenomorphs (Eldermorphs, if you will) were simply non-DNA-reflex parasitic organisms and David was attempting to upgrade the Xenomorphs to take DNA from their hosts (resulting in the Dragon from Alien 3, for example).

The Deacon, otherwise known as the Ultramorph, is the first in a line of descendants that result in the Xenomorph being the most recent. Ridley says so himself in the commentary for Prometheus and in "The Furious Gods" as well this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq2Caq2O6DI&t=123s

The Deacon isn't just a result of human DNA (remember human DNA and Engineer DNA are the same as proven by Shaw). I believe the Deacon could have been an ancient species if not an Engineer creation.

BigDave
I don't believe The Deacons, Neomorphs, and Proto/Xenomorphs yet have the ability to reproduce which what I think David will perfect in Awakening with an Alien Queen.