“Memento mori. Unus Annus,” these are the words that kicked off the well-known channel Unus Annus, a collaboration between well-known YouTuber Markiplier, better known as Mark, and CrankGameplays, better known as Ethan. The channel, created on Nov. 13, 2019, was supposed to represent the idea that one day everything disappears. ‘Unus Annus’ is a Latin phrase, meaning ‘one year.’

As one can probably guess by the name, the channel was to be deleted after one year of its existence. Up until then, Ethan and Mark were going to upload a video every single day. They also took up the personas as Unus and Annus, respectively. These personas appeared in the final week of Unus Annus, letting Mark and Ethan know that their time was up ominously in their video “The Truth of Unus Annus.” It was deleted on Nov. 13, 2020. What’s funny about this date is the fact that it is on a Friday; therefore, the channel was deleted on Friday the 13th, a day that’s known for bad luck. Both Mark and Ethan planned for this to be the case.

The channel started as nothing more than an idea they had while on a walk. After more deliberation and months of planning, however, this idea came to life. On the day the channel really came to be, both Mark and Ethan replaced their social accounts’ profile pictures and banners with solid white and solid black images, respectively.

The following day, they each posted a video titled “This Will End in One Year,” introducing and explaining to their respective audiences what Unus Annus was.

“It was so weird at first, no one really knew what was happening.” sophomore Rose Bilicki said.

Something everyone also noticed about the videos was the timer ticking at the beginning and end of each video, as well as the chanting of “Unus Annus” that accompanied it. The timer, naturally, was counting down to the last second of Unus Annus. It was a constant reminder of the time that was running out little by little.

“At first, I didn’t really care about the timer, but when it started getting closer to the end, I began to really notice it.” sophomore Iqra Rafi said.

During the “Accepting the Truth” Livestream, viewers were able to see the timer tick out the final seconds of Unus Annus before the stream was ended and the channel deleted once and for all. “It was so nerve-racking, watching it count down to zero.” sophomore Leen Hashlamoun said.

Unus Annus was a big part of the youtube community for the year it was in effect. Many millions of viewers watched the videos daily, and most enjoyed them. “Their videos were very interesting, and I really liked them,” Bilicki said. Many people are sad over the deletion of this channel but have learned to accept it because, as Robert Frost once said, “Nothing gold can stay.”