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Mombassa Welcomes Careful Drivers
Keep it Clean, folks, from now on the HSP can be considered very spoilery. I hope you're all mining our new source of canon like the Covenant mine for an Ark. And that you're linked into the network like an Engineer! That you're as suspicious as NMPD!
I've been monitoring the forums, guiding you with the eloquence of the Super directing me to the the audiophile achievement for my 360 to crash and . . . I'm breathing, I am a calm blue ocean.
Here's what I've found.
-Jillybean
Black Asgard (darke127@yahoo.com) writes:
While playing the newly released Halo 3: ODST, I paid close attention to the story and design with the scrutiny of a writer. What I believe I've discovered is that ODST pays abundant homage to the first book of the Divine Comedy, Dante Aligeri's 'Inferno'.
Listen:
The Inferno, as I recall it (having read it about 2 years ago after enjoying 'La Vida Nuova'), begins with Dante wandering lost and alone, in a 'dark wood'. It is night when you awaken in New Mombasa. The city towers above you not like a frightening wood.
The first helpful hand you encounter is that of Vergil, who guides you to supposed safety--Vergil, the Superintendent of New Mombasa, who shares the name of the Roman poet who wrote the Aeneid (about the Hero who survived the Trojan massacre (perhaps an allusion to Buck and Reach?)). Vergil guides the Rookie, like Dante, through 9 levels; the 9 circles of Hell.
New Mombasa burns, like the common image of hell. It is dark, dangerous, horrifying. And Vergil guides you gently, offering help with cryptic statements (in game, it is composed of the Bumble-bee-esque conglomeration of audio bytes).
Later, as you encounter the final lost squad mate, you descend to the 9th level of the city substructure where it is frozen; that is to say, not unlike Satan's frosty chamber. For what seems to be little to nor reason (as far as I could tell).
Food for thought. ;)
Black Asgard
The discussion is here - what parallels can you find between warthogs, wolves and lions?
-Jillybean
Are you a good samaritan? Do Engineers run from you, or can you creep a little closer? A little discussion on the forum shows that even the most bloodthirsty ODST can turn Attenborough . . .
xmoosev3 (moose636@hotmail.com) writes:
I remember dead elites on the ground inside the circle. At this time it was only my second encounter with the engineers and I thought they were bad and wasted most of my ammo trying to kill them. It took me awhile to catch on that they weren't attacking me.
Then I realised perhaps they were mourning the elites.
-Jillybean
You should all have noticed them, but Ragashingo was first on the forum to post about the glowing triangular tags that you can see on VISR mode.
Nidonocu has a theory about them:
Nidonocu (nidonocu@gmail.com) writes:
I believe [the triangle tags] are supposed to be markers left by the Engineers as they work in searching the city. There might be some reference to them in one of the Halo books when it mentioned Engineers and their search of another human city for Forerunner artifacts.
However, there are some interesting ones which are explained by the plot of both the main game and the audio logs as time goes on. There are triangular arrows by a large circle in one room, triangles as you say by the dead Elites and triangles featureing the SuperIntendent's emblem.
My guesses: The arrows by the large circle are ships in orbit of either earth or a Halo ring. the triangles by the Elites are some kind of 'Rest in Peace' style momorial by the Engineers to those that are now also fighting the Covenant. The ones featuring the SI are of course, reference to the one free Engineer who is interfacing with the SI and probably relaying some of that information back to his fellow Engineers.
Do Engineers mourn Elites? Can you sell Engineer song like whale song?
All I can say is, I'll be in my bunk. With Romeo. He needs some TLC. Wake me if you need me . . .
-Jillybean
Ron emails us a very simple suggestion as to why the Forerunners decided to examine - and not wipe out - the Flood.
Ron Kobish (musicman012@rocketmail.com) writes:
I Think I know the reason that the forerunners kept the flood for a simple reason.
Not as a cold war weapon or to keep out the poor people in some kind of fortress world.
They could do either easily with their knowledge of engineering, physics, chemistry, etc.
But They kept the flood because it was the one thing they knew nothing about and as a highly advanced race, they could not have that.
The Reason they kept the flood is because of a thirst of knowledge and simple curiosity.
Sounds logical to me.
-UNSC Trooper
Beastarium discussions
StrengthInFaith let us know that he'd just finished reading the Beastarium, and a few things caught his attention. His post sparked a discussion on what "kind" of humans - young, old, soldiers etc. - are deemed "Reclaimers" by Forerunner constructs such as Sentinels and Monitors. A discussion on how the Flood uses telepathy has also kicked off by xMixMasterx.
Check the thread for more developments!
permalink | Rampant Speculation
-UNSC Trooper
Halo Wars story problems
Avateur isn't completely satisfied with some story aspects of Halo Wars. Some of the issues he brings up include the public reveal of Onyx in Halo Wars: Genesis, why the Spirit of Fire was able to pursue the Covenant to the Flood-infested planet considering the time it takes for UNSC ships to travel through slipspace, and why the Flood is hadn't developed a pre-Gravemind until the SoF gets there.
A number of users have participated in the discussion, so if you want to see their responses, just watch the forum thread!
-UNSC Trooper
Serina, Cutter, and the Master Chief | Discuss this theory!
Nomis78 comes up with a question on the forum. (This isn't completely Halo Wars related, so Halo canon fundamentalists shouldn't feel too uncomfortable with this theory.)
The little audio snippet of Serina trying to wake Cutter in the game's Legendary credits sparked a new theory. The Spirit of Fire, by the end of Halo Wars, is located well beyond UNSC space, and so is the Forward Unto Dawn by the end of Halo 3. The audio snippet isn't dated, as far as we know, but what if the crew of the Spirit of Fire (after being placed in cryosleep, obviously) found the Forward Unto Dawn (and thus, Master Chief and Cortana) by 2552-2553? It seems very far-fetched, but the possibilities of creating new story arcs based on that hypothesis are pretty thrilling.
If you want to share your thoughts on this theory, click the "Discuss this theory!" button in the news title.
(Oh and by the way, this is the 1117th news post! :P)
permalink | Rampant Speculation
-UNSC Trooper
Mgalekgolo (Hunter) separation
Jagstirred (a first-time poster on the forum) suggests the Mgalekgolo might have experienced some conflicts within their own civilization during and after the Covenant Civil War - reason being, after the Covenant cracked up, the Loyalist and Separatist Mgalekgolo, due to their split during the war, might have gone to war against each other.
Speedhuntr, however, points out that the only instance we've seen of Mgalekgolo fighting against the Brute overtaking of the Covenant was depicted on Delta Halo. That means all the other Mgalekgolo forces fell to Truth's military propaganda, and no other Mgalekgolo managed to side with the Elites, rendering the possibility of a Mgalekgolo civil war impossible.
Want to take part in the speculation? Head over to the forum thread!
-UNSC Trooper
Humanity and the Forerunners
Why are they alike? Well, we've received a lot of theories on this subject through the years. Today we've received another one.
Michael Follett (mr_follett41@hotmail.com) writes:
I've got this crazy theory that seems pretty plausible.
The Flood, I believe was created by the Forerunners. For what? Maybe they were having a fight with another species and it was a bio-weapon that got out of hand? Or a disease that mutated? Who knows but alot of it seems to point towards them creating it. Why else would you go through all the trouble to kill off everything bigger than a rabbit in the galaxy (or is it universe? I can't remember which one is bigger or the definition of each one so if I mix them up, please forgive) to starve off a parasite? Guilt? Maybe wanting to fix your mistakes (A universal mistake) and this being the only way?
The Ark protects against the flood. (See Noah and the Flood in the bible) That being said, I think some of the Forerunners did survive and the (Legendary) ending of the half destroyed ship orbiting the planet makes me believe that after they went through to the Ark, they activated Halo. Knowing that nothing above the size of a rabbit (I can't remember where I read this but the flood need organisms of a certain size or they end up killing the host.) existed on this side of the portal they chose to settle that planet (Which probably had a lot of live stock on it that they transported to their new home) while the flood starved to death.
That's what Halo does, It doesn't kill everything alive, just the life forms with enough bio-mass for the flood to survive.
((Can you even fathom the idea of having to start over again with learning how to walk on land in the evolutionary chain? That would set us back millions of years, not 101,000 years which 343 says was around the time of the last firing of the rings. That and the fact that I know I heard somewhere, in game that the rings just kill off everything with enough bio-mass to be food for the flood, leads me to think maybe the extinction of the dinosaurs wasn't a meteor. Factor in that humanity assigned 24 hours to a day. The Forerunners might have made the length of one week into a day. Our rules of times aren't theirs. Food for thought, mainly. Before you go on about how crocs and sharks are older than the Dino's maybe being in sea water somehow....stops the rings from working? Or maybe the Flood didn't take to sharks because they were in the sea? I really don't know how the flood works. That or maybe the rings don't affect things water? Beats me but it's just a theory because from the size of small animals to humanity in 100,000 years is freaking impressive.))
That being said, if the Ark can open portals anywhere in space ((Because how would Installation 04 get back to where it was blown up in Halo:CE in as little as two weeks from the outskirts of the galaxy)) Why would it matter where the door way to the Ark was kept? If they can just open up a portal to anywhere than what would be the significance of earth? I believe that the earth held a special place in the Forerunners mind and that's where they made their last stand. It had the best place for a new species to flourish and they wanted to leave it and fire the rings as fast as they could so that the Flood never made it there.
With that being said, maybe the reason humanity and the Forerunners are so alike is that before they left Earth to activate the Halo's, they left something on the planet, sort of like their genetic blue print knowing that as time went on, evolution would go the way they wanted and a species extremely similar to them would emerge. Humanity is their child. As you and I both know Earth obviously has the ideal settings for humans to evolve and if we are that close to the Forerunners than Earth would be the ideal place to leave your almost genetically identical children. (The last part I don't know about but I do think that the reason humanity exists is because the Forerunners wanted it too. Maybe a 'Clean Slate' idea hoping that we wouldn't make the same mistakes as our parents did.)) The fact that we're so closely related to the Forerunners in size and looks for 343 to mistake the Chief (And that poor lone solider from "The Flood" whom the Chief found in the Library part) as one makes my really believe that somehow humanity and the Forerunners have a real special relationship and are somehow interlocking.
Going back to what I said before about the time frame of evolution happening from small animals to humanity in 100,000 years, well maybe it is possible. Maybe the rings sort of....hyper accelerated evolution after they were fired leaving radiation around the galaxy, in a way of saying "Sorry for wiping out a lot of species" They leave the right conditions on Earth, leave a little genetic code in the gene's of a few animals that when hit with the rings radiation will start up Evolution so that with the code, all the right gene's will fall into all the right places.
Also before you dismiss any idea or say that controlling evolution is impossible, we're talking about a race that created a machine that can CREATE energy, out of nothing, which according to our laws can't be created or destroyed. Also how do 7 rings wipe a galaxy of life over the size of a rabbit and not kill off everything? The science behind that is completely mind boggling.
Just my theories of course. =)
-Mike A.k.A. The Letter Mike
P.S. You'd think with all their technology somebody would of noticed something that big under New Mambosa before the Covie's dug it up.
-UNSC Trooper
Cortana and Leela
Are Cortana and Leela from Marathon clones? Read Death Tap's theory and judge for yourself.
Death Tap (deathtap@gmail.com) writes:
I have noticed something about Cortana and Leela.
1) Both are trying their hardest to 'save' humanity
2) Both are somehow removed from human hands and implemented into Alien technology
3) Both go rampant
In the ending of Halo 2: Durandal, the ending states:
While Tau Ceti was being nuked down to bedrock in 2794, Pfhor scientists disassembled and removed the AI Leela from the Marathon, loading her aboard a vessel bound for the Pfhor homeworld. But the ship fell into the hands of a Nar privateer between jumps at Beta Naxos, and was never seen by the Pfhor again.
Thinking the cargo little more than scrap, the Nar captain sold the Pfhor ship, Leela and all, to a Vylae merchant. The subsequent crash of the Vylae FTL network when Leela was reassembled and reactivated is still legendary in the annals of rampancy, and the Vylae have long since accepted that they will never expunge her from their fifteen-world network.
While we can assume that Cortana and Leela are two seperate AI's, I cannot fail but see many similarities in their decisions. This leads me to believe that perhaps Cortana is a copy or a clone of Leela. I was also under the impression that they are actually the same entity, but I disregarded that after playing Marathon Infinity.
Just a thought.
I'd like to see the two of them sit down at a table and talk for a while. They'd share a lot of common ground.
permalink | Marathon Connections
-UNSC Trooper
More Marathon connections
Alejandro spots some convenient connections between the creatures and constructs in Marathon and Halo.
Alejandro Navarro (alex_ivan95@yahoo.com) writes:
As I was skimming through Wikipedia about Marathon (Just downloaded it), I came across the W'rkncacnter.
A piece of terminal text from M:Durandal said this:"In primordial space, timeless creatures made waves. These waves created us and the others. Waves were the battles, and the battles were waves. "Fleeing all W'rkncacnter, Yrro and Pthia settled upon Lh'owon." Pthia & Yrro; Librarian & Didact. Librarian stayed on Earth, away from the Flood. The Didact lived in the Ark, also away from the Flood (debatable).
"They brought the S'pht, servants who began to shape the deserts of Lh'owon into marsh and sea, rivers and forests."
The various constructs they made, such as Sentinels & Constructors. Lh'owon could be a Halo, or a terraformed planet, or something else. "They made sisters for Lh'owon to protect and maintain the paradise." The other Halos and Installations."When the W'rkncacnter came, Pthia was killed, and Yrro in anger, flung the W'rkncacnter into the sun. The sun burned them, but they swam on its surface." The activation of the Halos.
Remember that the Halos worked by starving The Infection. So, in a way(by killing the sentient Gravemind, or the starvation itself), the Sun(Halos) burned them, but they swam on its surface (The Flood survived the original pulse, but died from Starvation).
Also, it said in Infinity that a W'rkncacnter was imprisoned on the Sun. Like the Flood in Installation 04 (and 05).
The Pfhor used a trih xeem device to send the star into early nova, and the creature was released, to the horror and destruction of the Pfhor.
The Covenant tricked(or simply didn't know about the Flood) the humans into opening the Chamber which contained the Flood, and most of the Covies in Installation 05 perished when the Parasite was released, to their horror.
permalink | Marathon Connections
-UNSC Trooper
Darren elaborates on one of our older posts referring to the knowledge Elites (Half-Jaw, specifically) hold about the Gravemind.
Darren Ward (dazward@dazw.co.uk) writes:
In the Halo Graphic Novel story The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor an Elite of Commander rank boards the Infinite Succor as part of a team sent to recapture the ship after a, presumed to be human, force attacks it. The Commander encounters a Prophet (The Minister of Etiology) who has been observing the attackers and informs the Elite Commander it is a Flood infection (the Commander was previously unaware of what his team were being attacked by, even after establishing it wasn't humans) and that they were "building" a "creature" that he believed "serves as their leader and organizer" (a Gravemind). While escaping the ship the Commander is attacked by an infected Elite armed with two Energy Swords, a duel commences and on the right-hand side of panel four on page fifty-three the Commander has half of his jaw cut off by the Flood Elite. The half-jawed Commander leaves the Infinite Succor as a two minutes to slipspace jump warning is sounded in the second last panel and the story ends with the Commander's Phantom leaving the Inifinite Succor which is intact in the background. The Commander had previously explained to the Prophet it would take fifteen minutes to arrange the Covenant fleet to fire on the Infinite Succor, so it's entirely possible the ship escaped. Though the "Last Voyage" element of the title suggests otherwise*. The story takes place while the Chief is on his way to find the missing Captain Keyes and his team of Marines.
So not only have the Covenant enountered Graveminds in the past, but Half-Jaw himself saw one in the earlier stages of construction and barely escaped. I'd imagine someone would have brought this up in the forums nearer the time but I thought I'd make sure.
*You can elaborate on this by saying that once the ship was completely taken under Flood control it ceased to be the Covenant ship Infinite Succor, in which case the title would fit should the ship have escaped.
Darren.
Seems that slipped off our minds. We need some logic from time to time. ;)
-UNSC Trooper
The latest Bungie Weekly Update has revealed new information on the timeline of Halo 2 and Halo 3 in relation to our new favourite ODST - the Rookie. We'll get this on our timeline . . . eventually . . . but until then why don't you mosey on down to the forum where MELEE isn't entirely happy with some explanations.
MELEE writes:
October 20: New Mombasa, Kenya is destroyed by the Slipstream Space Rupture Backlash from the Prophet of Regret's ship.
November 2: The Prophet of Regret's ship and In Amber Clad arrive at Delta Halo. Prophet of Regret liquidated by SPARTAN-117.
Am I alone in thinking these two dates seem a lot further apart than anticipated? I always thought that after the clad followed regret's ship through slipstream that they arrived at Delta halo the same day...the same hour even. Now they do say Nov 2 is the date that they "arrive" at delta halo, which might imply the date they placed their feet on the ring, but again I assumed this was all taking place the same day in a short amount of time.
Correct me if I'm wrong, and I've no doubt you shall, but have we ever seen slip-space travel inside the games. Have we ever walked a ship travelling in slip-space? Perhaps there's something we don't know.
-Jillybean
The Rookie is attracting speculation already, with VidBoi thinking he might get some girly action. The discussion prompted observation of fingers, a little bit of politics and . . . er . . . a little bit of fervent hope.
-Jillybean
Upon the Bungie Weekly Update Son of MacPhisto ponders . . . and FyreWulff answers
writes:
Son of MacPhisto
'There are no Elites to fight in Halo 3: ODST.'
I don't see the words 'or fight with.' Tee hee! :D
FyreWulff:
Hrm. Maybe they could actually write the co op elites (Thor and Uzi) into the story near the end?
Given the new information in the timeline - would this mean that our two Co-Op Elites are betraying the Covenant before the schism?
-Jillybean
On the forums Vincent does some maths
Vincent writes:
Since Bungie were obliging enough to give us some numbers (albeit vague ones), I thought I'd try and work out a rough idea of it's deceleration. Fair warning: several assumptions from this point on.
We are given that the dreadnough takes 9 days (777600 seconds) to get to Earth.
It "arrives in the sol system" - I'll assume for now it starts at the edge of the system, which I'll put at just past the kuiper belt, or about 50AU (50 x 149.60 x 109 metres) away.
It then proceeds to Earth at "near relativistic speeds" - call it .99c (0.99 x 3.00 x 108 metres/second) for now, but could be much lower - I'll assume it starts at that speed and decelerates uniformly the whole distance.
----Warning: maths to follow!----
We can work out acceleration with the formula s=ut+½at², where s=distance, u=initial speed, t=time, and a=acceleration. So:
50 x 149.60 x 10^9 = (0.99 x 3.00 x 108 x 777600) + (0.5a x 777600²)
7480000000000 = 230947200000000 + 302330880000a
-223467200000000 = 302330880000a
a = -739ms-2
----End maths----
What this tells us is that, assuming all assumptions are correct, the dreadnought would have had to decelerate at 739ms-2, or 75 times the force of gravity.
You can of course change this number by changing the speed we assume it to start at, the distance it travels, etc. - this is merely an idea of the kind of numbers we're talking about.
Though I do wonder why Truth took almost twice as long getting to Earth as he did travelling from High Charity...
I am assured that you, loyal reader, will be more content to double check that maths. Perhaps you'll have an answer for Vincent's final question. I, on the other hand, will continue the search of the graveyard that is your speculation.
-Jillybean
Old news but always good news - Stephen Loftus has posted a new article. It's as close to the bible as you're likely to get . . .
-Jillybean
Leviathan and Stephen Loftus were chatting away on the forums and brought up this theory:
writes:
One thing that I always thought was strange was the fact there was a lake there [at the TRAXUS Complex] at all, especially one that would have been large enough and connected enough to give reason for the shipping seaports we played through. I wonder if Bungie's invention of the lake has anything to do with the theories (unless a Bungie artist talked about it, I can't remember) about there being a huge rise in sea level, hence the old, large sea walls in Mombassa... Maybe there was a very dynamic change in the landscape with that sea rise (if there was one) which led to Voi being connected to the sea. - Leviathan
Enough evidence supports things of that nature. The Global Water Campaign info on the "Ghost Town" map, Kilimanjaro meltwater, the severe cut into the Mombasa island to create more docks and piers, the sea walls as you mentioned... - Stephen Loftus
-Jillybean
Sergeant Johnson's Flood immunity
Andrew sent us a bunch of possible reasons why the higher-ups of the UNSC might have revoked Sergeant Johnson's Flood immunity.
Andrew Clapp (aerowolf82@gmail.com) writes:
I was just reading the posts about Sargent Johnson, and the one about Johnson's immunity being revoked intrigued me for a couple of reasons.
Spoilers!!
1. We know from Halo 3 that Johnson dies by the hands of Guilty Spark. Part of the reason for their getting rid of Johnson's immunity to flood could correspond with the flood DNA that was in his body. Without it, he can't regenerate, which enabled him to die.
2. Even if his flood DNA was still active, Guilty Spark's laser is basically a suped up Sentinel laser...which, we have all been told many, many times by guilty spark himself (evil library!) that the weapons are specifically calibrated to target and destroy flood. There goes Johnson's regeneration anyway.
3. There is a glitch where you can keep Johnson alive though the guilty spark encounter in Halo 3. (the cutscene counts him as there even though he's not, then he's still there when you leave). If Johnson is not protected, he can get infected and turn into a combat form (beware if you didn't take away the laser from him!). Here's a youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA_tJrelaIE&feature=related. Of course, this doesn't happen in "normal" gameplay.
End Spoilers!!
Anyway, I found these facts interesting, but to build on the first reason of ascendant justice's post...ONI can't replicate Johnson's symptom even if they wanted to, as Master Chief destroyed the only copy of the evidence in First Strike. It was given to him to choose which report to give Command when he got back, and he chose to give them the one without the report on Johnson. And especially now that he's dead...there's no way they could use the information anyway.
Anyway, just some possible reasons why Bungie could have revoked his immunity.
There goes the only human being known to be infected by the Flood and make it through in one piece.
-UNSC Trooper
Legendary Planet - A safehaven for Reclaimers?
Matt sends us a theory regarding the planet seen in the Halo 3 Legendary Ending - Did Mendicant Bias intend to send the Reclaimer to the Halo 3 Legendary planet in an attempt to keep him "safe"?
Matt Allaire (sticks271@gmail.com) writes:
Here's something for the Story page... something that has probably already come up already, but either way...
------
Terminal 7 on Legendary has a bit that reads,
"And so here at the end of my life, I do once again betray a former master. The path ahead is fraught with peril.
But I will do all I can to keep it stable - keep you safe. I'm not so foolish to think this will absolve me of my sins. One life hardly balances billions.
But I would have my masters know that I have changed.
And you shall be my example."
I've always thought that the rebuilt Installation 04 would be sent to its destination through the Portal. Once it's done, the Ark would create a portal to the coordinates of whever the installation was supposed to be, and send it through.
Meaning that the portal's destination can be controlled (of course).
So, what if Mendicant's idea of keeping his newly found Reclaimer "safe" was to send him to the world seen in the Legendary ending? Whatever that world is, Mendicant used the last moments of his existence to redirect the Chief and Cortana to the Forerunner world. (Assuming that he was destroyed or damaged in 04's explosion, but he might not have been)
And that world might not be the happiest place ever, as Mendicant admits. Seeing as he knows about it, it's probable that the Gravemind does too.
- mr-goodbytes
Mendicant's one thoughtful bud, it seems ...
-UNSC Trooper
Mendicant Bias and Greek Mythology
Another real-life element that has something to say about the Halo story just made its first appearance in quite some time: Greek Mythology. That's right: Greek. Not Norse. :P
Charlie Fischer (errantventure11@msn.com) writes:
I was reading Cicero's "On Friendship" for my Humanities class when I noticed Cicero reference an individual named Bias. This Bias turned out to be Bias of Priene, a greek philospher known for the justice of his verdicts, and the wisest of the Seven Sages of Greece.
I'll be sending a thorough fleshing out of this connection in the near future, once I have time. Here is a rough portrayal based on my current understandings of the Halo story and who Bias is (complements of Wikipedia...)
Keep in mind Mendicant is derived from the Latin Mendicans, which roughly translated equates to begging. It was generally applied to religious ascetics who survived off of the charity of others, but can also be applied to the act of begging.
Perhaps the reason Mendicant Bias failed his creators was because he was designed to find a peaceful solution to the conflict? Bias of Priene was known for his just verdicts, and perhaps Mendicant was seeking to not only distract the Gravemind, but his method of creating a false sense of security for Gravemind before the counter-attack was through an intention strategy of begging for mercy, negotiating a peaceful resolution, aka surviving off of the charity of Gravemind. The only problem was that the Gravemind's logic pushed Mendicant to make a just decision that was not in favor of his makers.
Enter Offensive Bias. After Mendicant sells his makers short with his verdict that the Forerunner subconsiously want to end their own reign of the galaxy, Offensive Bias is created to come to another just verdict, a sort of appeal to Mendicant's previous decision. Except this Bias is designed with a different goal in mind (victory), and his verdict is different: The Forerunner must atone for their sins, but not be destroyed by them.
I haven't been able to take the time to fully flesh out this possible connection between Halo and greek mythology/philosophy, but figured I would give the story page a heads-up in case you guys had seen this already and knew something of it. I'll e-mail again when I have something concrete to give details on. If you have seen this previously, please let me know!
Charlie Fischer
Mendicant Bias, your legend intrigues us so!
-UNSC Trooper
This discussion on the forum discusses 'canon' and what we can properly, or willingly, include in that definition.
As speculists, the matter of 'canon' crops up often for us. And isn't it heartbreaking when a pet theory gets smashed on the rocks of fact.
Arrr. The canon. She be a harsh mistress.
-Jillybean
Canon, schmanon. This comes from the games, doodz.
The 483 (dmv1822000@yahoo.com) writes:
A line in the cutscene [Floodgate - ed] at the end of the first invasion of the flood on earth suggests that the elites know more about the flood than they let on. Specifically, right after they watch the message Cortana sent, the elite shipmaster, Half Jaw, say to lord Hood,
"You heard your construct, the flood, a Gravemind, is on it's way…"
and then later the arbiter remarks
"…If the construct is correct, then you've already lost."
The way they refer to it as "A" Gravemind, instead of "The" as cortana and the Chief have, seems to say that the elites, or atleast higher ranking Covenant officers have dealt with, or seen materials regarding Graveminds, and have a much deeper understanding of the flood than they have mentioned. This would help us to understand why Half Jaw himself, who is probably in command of the entire covenant portion of their navy, chose to chase the single flood infested ship to earth, and leave the (failed) containment of High Charity to the lower ship masters. Besides the chance to get revenge on "The Bastard Truth!" of course, Knowing earths potential to give the flood sufficient proteins to form another Gravemind.
Following this line of thinking, it's safe to assume that the Covenant (Prophets Hierarchs) knew full well what they were unleashing when they landed on Halo 04. Or, they could have learned when the captured Guilty Spark from the heretic leader from Threshold.
More evidence that the Sangheili rock way more than us? Or just an odd speech pattern?
-Jillybean
Halo 3 Campaign
RyanTheHeretic asks some questions about parts of Halo 3's Campaign, some of which hadn't been discussed before (to the best of my knowledge). His inquiries include the crashing of the Flood-infested ship in Voi, Cortana's data device, and the Elites being aware that a data storage device was placed on that ship.
Ryan's questions are answered here by mendicantbias00, here by Ross Mills, and here by gspawn -- all of the responses provide believable explanations (and sometimes straight-to-the-point one liners) to each query.
permalink | Rampant Speculation
-UNSC Trooper
Forerunners studying reanimation?
What if the Flood's capability to bring dead organisms back to life determined the Forerunners to replicate or research its reanimation techniques, among other things? Dantrell posted this thought on the forum. It's scary, it's inhuman ... but it could be the truth.
permalink | Rampant Speculation
-UNSC Trooper
Cortana's Rampancy
RyanTheHeretic talks about Cortana's rampancy on our forum. He suggests that Cortana would inarguably go rampant if no one finds her and the Chief in the Forward Unto Dawn's other half. Her lifespan is still debatable considering the activity she's been put through and her feelings. Would her regaining faith in humanity possibly lengthen her lifespan? Yet, is it possible for a UNSC AI to have no real life expectancy? Go read.
-UNSC Trooper
Two people pointed out that a possible flaw in this theory isn't a flaw at all. As DesmondX and Joe Nowakowski say: the Chief wouldn't remember Guilty Spark because he hasn't met him yet, but Spark would certainly remember him!
Sorry for the confusion, folks, but if you're paying real close attention, you'll find the coded messages ;)
Send help. Stop. Wu imprisoned us. Stop. Have had to eat Finn. Stop. Tasted good with chianti. Stop.
-Jillybean
Reclaimers ... of the Galaxy?
Mike emailed us a vicious (and by vicious, I mean REALLY vicious - it takes a lot of space on our page ;]) analysis which could easily be converted to a full-length article about a secondary meaning to "Reclaimer", and some speculation on the seeding of the Galaxy after the Forerunners were forever inscribed in the changing sands of history.
Deadguy71 (deadguy@msn.com) writes:
Ok, so we know now that Forerunners were humans. This was explicitly explained in Halo 3.
Here's the next piece of the puzzle.. Humans are referred to as "Reclaimers" and the Forerunner locator device used by the Covenant in the novel (and Medicant Bias) "Contact: Harvest", also name them to be reclaimers.
Some speculation has been heard in the past to state that "reclaimers" get their name due to their "job" to reclaim the index from the library and use it to fire-up the rings. I think it's time we relooked at that now.
Why weren't humans simply referred to as "Forerunners" by ANYONE? Even "forerunner-descendants", or simply "humans"? Instead, they carry the name "Reclaimer". We know from Contact Harvest, why the Covenant would have avoided calling them forerunners, by why would the Monitors insist upon the name "Reclaimer"? Indeed, it was important to the Covenant's original "oracle" (Medicant Bias) to point out that it needed to assist the "Reclaimers" in finding the Ark. Not a ring, but the Ark.. this is an important distinction I'll mention again later.
Later, all monitors/oracles encountered in the stories/games were in War-mode where the Flood had been released and it was a time of war. The monitors knew that the only way to fight back, was to have a reclaimer use the index (and therefore use the rings). Perhaps this isn't the only purpose of Humans, and therefore it seems silly to name the species "reclaimers" in a time of peace if it only referred to reclaiming the index. Also odd of the (Medicant Bias) oracle to name them Reclaimers without any flood to
worry about, and with a perceptable urgency to get them to the Ark.
The rings had been fired in the past, with the intent of killing all sentient life in our galaxy to halt the flood. This SHOULD (and possibly did) create a time of peace. This time of peace would have been planned for... think of it, an entire galaxy, devoid of sentient life, ready to be claimed or "RECLAIMED" by the forerunners that had escaped to the ark (which
was proven to be located not on Earth, but outside of our galaxy entirely... all Earth had was a slipspace portal generator to allow passage to the Ark).
Here's the problem though. The forerunners didn't return, and I suggest that they didn't intend to return at all. Instead, they left their artifacts and
advanced technology behind for the "Reclaimers" to find while they themselves DID take a great journey to another galaxy (the one containing the Ark) and presumably stayed there.
This explains why the Covenant's AI (Medicant Bias) told the Prophets the story of the Great Journey, that the entire Covenant religeon is based upon.
The forerunners activated the rings as they left the galaxy, and this is the last thing that Medicant Bias would have known about them.
Part of the Forerunner's focus, prior to the flood outbreak in this galaxy, was to catalog and record lifeforms. The terminals even state that during
the last weeks of the conflict with the flood, some of them continued to catalog them and discovered Earth, even stating that they were stopping to "catalog" the humans they found there, despite knowing that the rings were going to be activated soon and there were too far away to flee to the safety of the Ark.
This tells us a few pertinent things:
Earthlings were within the galaxy as the rings fired, the Forerunners at that location died, unable to race back to the ark. The Earth must not have had the portal to the Ark installed at that time, otherwise those forerunners would have easily left that location with plenty of time to spare. The humans alive at that time would have died as well.
Earthlings were, at that point and time, extinct and indeed all humans within the galaxy died.
As I noted, the forerunners had left quite a bit of stuff behind, including an Ark that would rebuild the rings and somehow reposition them in the galaxy if they were ever destroyed (slipspace travel, I assume). Plus after the blast from the rings, sentinels were dispatched to Earth, to create a portal, perhaps in rememberance of the Forerunners that were there at the
location when the rings had been triggered. In the Halo comic's opening pages of the first issue, early humans witnessed the portal to the ark being
created by sentinels.
So here's the really interesting bit. After the universe was scoured clean of sentient life, it began to repopulate itself right?
Earth itself was chosen as a place to position a portal to the ark, in case humans should ever need it again. How was it known that humans would develop here? There's a significant clue right there on the opening page of the Beastarium. From memory, it states that no one is to create the lifeforms from this index without authorization. Species were catalogued and
apparently able to be recreated from their cataloged entries. (otherwise, why warn against doing just that?)
It's possible that the rings themselves, with their utopian landscapes and suchlike, might have even been designed that way in-order to raise the various species and allow them to form communities until they could be
transferred to planets that were deemed appropriate. This would increase their chances of survival, and might even, describe the "Garden of Eden", with a primative's distant memory of being on the Ring, and cared for until they could repopulate the Earth. Perhaps the bible story of Eden was all that was left of the true story of living on the Ring, and lost quite a bit of the specific story in it's retelling. Could sentinel beams be the "flaming swords" that block passage to Eden?
A little blasphemous, and perhaps an accidental comparison that I made, but interesting nonetheless.
The Forerunners knew the humans would be there in the future because they SEEDED them there. Humans were seeded, according to forerunner plan, to reclaim the galaxy that had also been seeded from the indexes carried by the rings (possibly each ring was responsible for reseeding it's own section of
the galaxy, explaining the need for libaries and indexes at each installation).
Humans are Reclaimers, not of the index, but of the galaxy that had been scoured clean for them.
I suppose the intent was to allow humans to develop on Earth without assistance, and then, when they reached a significant tier of industry, and had learned the lessons they needed to learn in terms of morality, they'd be able to travel the galaxy and reclaim the forerunner technology for themselves. All during a time of peace brought on by the lack of Flood.
Perhaps it was the Medicant Bias AI that was supposed to get them to the Ark, to teach the humans what they needed to know about what had transpired so that they could "set-up shop" in their newly cleaned galaxy... giving them full knowledge of forerunner technology and how/when to use it.
That would explain both, why Medicant Bias wanted to get reclaimers to the Ark prior to the floods release from containment, plus it explains how the installation monitors KNEW the humans were reclaimers, rather than
forerunners, but seemed confused that the reclaimers didn't know anything about protocols or even what the Halos were to be used for, how they worked, why they weren't wearing the proper protective gear, etc.
That part of the forerunner's plan failed, because even as Humans discovered the first ring, (with presumably only one previous artifact on Reach) the flood was released from containment. ONI knew a little about the
forerunners, but not to the level they would have, if the Forerunners plans had worked correctly.
Forerunners had left the monitors to continue study of the flood, with the extra precaution of several layers of containment protocols. Perhaps the initial samples were destroyed by the rings firing, and it was reseeded into containment centers like all the other sentient races were. The idea might have been that the monitor's continued study of the flood might have revealed new ways to deal with the flood threat, in case it ever appeared in this galaxy again. Properly informed reclaimers would, in theory, be ready for any such threat, should it appear, rather than be blind-sided by it as the Forerunners had been.
However, this was not the case.
Wow ... just wow. This is what I call an eyebuster! Now, if only I could find my Beastarium and look up all the research that was put into this. ;)
-UNSC Trooper
The Great Journey ... a hoax?
Scarab posted a series of very explicit questions on our forum today. The Great Journey appears to be what the Prophets believed in with (almost) their entire dedication. Or is there more to it? Did they lie about their wish to achieve trans-sentience and become gods like the Forerunners did?
All of these questions and a lot more are asked in the thread, along with a slight inconsistency from Halo: Contact Harvest. If you feel up to it, and you trust your Halo knowledge, head on to the forums and try your luck at answering the questions.
-UNSC Trooper
Infinity and the Master Chief
Ryan sent us another connection to Marathon, this time involving the workings of Slipspace and the Master Chief's "luck".
Ryan Montoya (maxbud06@hotmail.com) writes:
I have played all the Halos, read all the books, and played Marathon1-2. My first thought: In the book 'First Strike' I think it was(correct me if I'm wrong), the Master Chief saves his fellow Spartans,and they bring aboard a Forerunner artifact. When they try to enter slip space this 'artifact' screws everything up, putting them into a different dimension. It is unfortunate that I have never played Marathon Infinity, but I do know of the loop effect or whatever.
It is my theory that the 'artifact' found on Reach and the way things go down in Infinity are related. Maybe not directly, but like if the Forerunner had created more objects like the one on Reach, one that could manipulate time itsself.
My second thought: There has always been something in me that places Master Chief's luck into something more than what nature can do, man(Forerunner)-made luck. I'm not talking about just being lucky though, I'm talking about a Red vs Blue Wyoming type luck: if you fail the first time, rewind and tryagain. This could explain Guilty Sparks comments on Master Chief doing things again, at some point he failed, and was thrown back to the beginning. Leading to the Marathon connection: (I wish I played Infinity) It sounds like what happens to you in Infinity to me.
And the connection of Master Chief = Mark IV Cyborg: This one is a stretch, but scientifically is possible (I think). In the Halo 3ending when the ship is going through slip space, the Arbiter's half of the ship makes it to Earth, but at some point the other half (Master Chief's half) was spit out. I'm sorry but I am going to explain slip space for anyone who does not get it.
Slip space is a folding of space between two points making the distance shorter. Mathematically this requires more conventional energy (non-dark matter)than the universe holds.
Back to where we were: By saying the Master Chief's half was 'spit out' is a bit of an understatement. When you're 'spit out' of slip space, you are expelling all of that energy with you, and when you have more energy than the ENTIRE UNIVERSE pushing you, that is enough to put you into another universe, the Marathon Universe maybe? But if your thinking what are the odds he is flung into the perfect place, maybe 0:1, but it isn't possible in this case fore it to be that. The Master Chief, if he misses the mark,simply tries again. Eventually he will succeed, but then what happens when the Master Chief's 'luck device' thinks that everything is done? Infinity.
P.S. I am resending this because I need to add one important thing supporting my argument: When the Pillar of Autumn found installation 004 on a random slip space vector, what are the odds of that. Any programmable location, and they find a Halo. All I'm saying is they probably didn't find it the first time.
Though this theory has been submitted before, I never noticed that it's yet another connection to Marathon. It's not the same universe, but it's similar, and maybe we might see something like Infinity develop in the Haloverse too. That would make the day of every Marathon fan. It'd certainly be interesting, but following Infinity's outline might be a little unoriginal too - that's just me, though.
permalink | Marathon Connections
-UNSC Trooper
Legendary Ending - a result of time travel?
It does sound Star Trek-like, but Neloms came up with an unprecedented, yet believable, theory on our forum.
Neloms suggests that a possible explanation for the appearance of the planet covered in Forerunner symbols in the Halo 3 Legendary Ending might be caused by a temporal rift once the Portal collapsed - sending the Master Chief and Cortana adrift in the past.
This might also explain Guilty Spark's various remarks throughout Halo: Combat Evolved such as; "Why would you hesitate to do what you have already done?", and "The last time you asked me ..."
Despite the theory's credibility, there are multiple issues that don't add up, one of them being the Chief apparently not recognizing Guilty Spark even though they might have met in the past.
It's a very exciting take on the Halo 3 Legendary Ending and on future Halo stories, so go read and post your thoughts!
Which makes me wonder what the Forerunners look like ...
-UNSC Trooper
Mendicant Bias and Ephialtes
A fan has emailed us a connection in regards to Mendicant Bias's rampancy, and Ephialte's betraying of the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae.
Anonymous (Anonymous) writes:
Haven't you guys noticed that Mendicant Bias's story mis similar to Ephialtes, the traitor of the Battle of Thermopylae?
Just a little tidbit of information I thought I throw there.
It certainly is. Ephialtes informed the Persians of a way to attack the Spartan army's rear, just like Mendicant Bias did when he defected, revealing the Ark's location to the Flood.
Thanks.
-UNSC Trooper
Mack - Endless Summer
James Ficker emailed us some ideas concerning the connection between Mack (the AI controlling agricultural activity on Harvest) and Endless Summer (the successor of Deep Winter in Zone 67 on Onyx).
James Ficker (james_ficker@eku.edu) writes:
I recently lent my girlfriend The Fall of Reach, as she is an avid reader herself and thought she might like a bit of background into my slight Halo obsession (I'm working on making a set of Mark V armor to use for Caboose from Red Vs Blue) and she liked TFoR so much, she asked to read the other books. When she was finished she posed the following question to me, which I had never even thought of:"
"Did you pick up the Mack/Loki connection with the AI Endless Summer from Ghosts of Oynx? Mack's last transmission was the words "Endless Summer"? It seemed to me that Mack was more than a "Smart AI," shown by the fact that it literally took the downfall of a planet to use up this AI, and that he'd been around for more than 7 years, hadn't he? That seems to suggest that his core processing might have been so good that was reused by humans in the future. Since you can't completely delete everything on a computer system, it makes sense that his last thought would be a ghost transmission in his rebooted system that he used to name himself in the future."
I had never considered the fact that humans might reuse their AIs. I know that Smart AIs "die" in the sense that they pretty much think themselves to death. However, the process for creating an AI as described in the books, scanning a recently deceased person's brain, seems very expensive and complicated, especially when coupled with the fact that I'm sure a candidate for scanning must meet a very specific set of criteria to be suitable for base for an AI.
Is it possible that the UNSC recovers some core fragments from the AI and uses it to build a new AI so they don't have to create a new one form the ground up and if so, would there be some fragments, some ghosts left in the programming from the pervious "life?"? We know from Cortana in First Strike that an AI can copy fragments of themselves which retain personality and memories.
The UNSC was the losing side of a war that was pushing them to their limits. I'm sure anyway to cut corners, speed things up and reduce costs would have been used, and it seems to me that Mack was a very robust and resourceful AI, an excellent source for a future AI to be built on.
Well, Contact Harvest states that Mack's figure appears to be an American cowboy, while Endless Summer from Ghosts of Onyx portrays the figure of a Native American. This leads to the Cowboys and Indians fame, and to a strong likelihood that Endless Summer is indeed a follower of Mack's remains.
Though it depends on when Endless Summer was created. At the time when Mack was destroyed, the UNSC was still fairly intact even with the Covenant threat lurking closer to Earth every year, so the military might have still had the necessary resources to create a completely new AI. Despite this, however, the theory still stands. Very nice find.
Thanks, James.
-UNSC Trooper
The Prophets' homeworld
Hnc asked an interesting question on our forum. Why did the Prophets claim that their homeworld was destroyed? Does the divide between the two sides that sparked the Prophet Civil War still exist? Do the Prophets that moved on to create the Covenant have something to hide?
There could be a number of reasons for them to hide this fact, one of them being their position within the Covenant. Contact Harvest, I believe, explains how the homeworld was destroyed by blowing a chunk out of the planet.
Head on to the forum and watch the thread for more information.
-UNSC Trooper
Halo: The Cole Protocol Cover
That's right boys and girls, you read that correctly. The cover for Halo: The Cole Protocol has been posted at Tobias Buckell's blog.
For a quick analysis of the cover. What does it depict? Apparently, there's a red planet in the background, a machinery blazing some kind of scattered light, and a Spartan-II from Gray Team clad in Mark IV MJOLNIR Powered Armor. There's also another human figure walking on what seems to be an asteroid. The cover itself resembles the style of 60-70's science fiction novels, therefore it's safe to say it's original and creepy at the same time. It's all up to speculation right now, so speculate away!
-UNSC Trooper
Number of Spartans in Halo Wars
Avateur stopped by the forum and posted a neat listing of all Spartans in Halo Wars based on our Spartan II Roster. The exact number of Spartans that would make up Spartan Group Omega depends on each team's background, and thus a decisive number hasn't been settled yet. However, the information he provided is pretty solid.
Swing by the forum and check it out.
-UNSC Trooper
Update!
The site's finally been updated with some new content. I've written two new research pages. The first one is the Spartan-III Roster containing information from Ghosts of Onyx. The second one is the ORION Project.
Apart from that, I've also added a new feature to the site. The Quote of the Week is now officially running! Although it wasn't necessary for me to say it, because you can see it in the menu on the right. If you want to know more about this new feature, just click the "What's this?" button.
The Resources page has also been updated with the new content. To top it off, I bet you can see some new cornershots too.
So, enjoy the new stuff. There'll be more coming.
-UNSC Trooper
Halo squad based FPS game?
Rumors have been flying around like crazy these past few days. First, we got Gamespot saying that a reliable source has informed them that a Ghost Recon-style Halo FPS game is in the works.
Then, we've got "Halo Blue" - or Halo "Blue" - in a Walmart Intranet page. With all the speculation that's been going on just a few hours before E3 2008 and the big Bungie announcement, all we can do is wait and see if the rumors are confirmed. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
-UNSC Trooper
MJOLNIR Armor. Possible World War II connection.
I've pondered a lot over whether or not I should post this. I decided that even though the subject has been briefly covered to some extent, this is a new theory to the one of the meanings of the MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor.
We know that Bungie is very savvy when it comes to Norse mythology, hence several references like the UNSC Skidbladnir, Valhalla and of course, MJOLNIR. According to the Norse, MJOLNIR was the name of Thor's hammer; a very powerful weapon which when thrown at an opponent came back to the owner (like a Boomerang), and apart from that, was also capable of striking lighting bolts.
This could explain the connection between the Spartan-II's armor and the mythological hammer. The Spartans are weapons themselves, delivering deadly blows to their opponents. But what else is there to say about the MJOLNIR armor, and what other connections might there be between the Spartans and our real world?
A fan emailed us a very interesting theory about a potential connection between the MJOLNIR armor and the real world. The World War II period, to be exact.
Anonymous (Anonymous) writes:
I've been playing Halo since it came out with regular xbox, and shortly there after I found your website. I've read a lot of the posts made by people concerning the Halo story, and in particular the meaning of the MJOLNIR armor.
But I have yet to see the relationship between the MJOLNIR armor and the Nazi propagandist who used the alias Mjölnir. I don't necessarily see a tie between them, but I found it interesting that no one pointed out that Hans Schweitzer in the 1930s made several Nazi propaganda posters and signed the alias Mjölnir on the posters. Here is a link of one such poster (don't worry its not some neo-Nazi website) of an example of Mjölnir's posters, note the upper right hand corner for the signature.
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters/garant.jpg
Now, the link that was provided doesn't work. But I've done some research and I've come up with this Wikipedia page and this gallery.
Hans Schweitzer was a German artist known for painting several militaristic propaganda posters for the National Socialist Party. Most importantly, his pen name was "Mjölnir".
This, in my mind, raises a few questions. Just like the Nazis, the UNSC uses massive propaganda and psychological methods to establish its military might. This is where the Spartan-II Program and the MJOLNIR Armor comes in, which in the year 2547 was made public in order to increase humanity's confidence that they were winning the Human-Covenant War. This is extremely similar to World War II, Hans Schweitzer, and the Nazis (which we all know used propaganda to further their way in the war). Moreover, in the 1940's the Nazis were aspiring to be a world-spanning empire, which forms yet another thread to the UNSC, an interstellar empire. The main link here is propaganda, and what the government does in order to protect its credibility and reputation. Extremely believable connection.
This is quite a find. At first glance, it makes you think that the MJOLNIR Armor is based on a fascistic concept, and in my opinion, is as plausible a connection as the Norse hammer myth.
Thanks for the submission.
-UNSC Trooper
The Architecture of War, part II
Great news, everyone! The second part of the Architecture of War series over at Ascendant Justice has been posted. Did you ever ponder about sniping or just going guns-ablaze in front of the enemy? The second part of this great series deals with the best ways, or the worst, to face your enemies in Halo 3. Well ... the Grunts can be beaten with just a hit of the butt of your weapon, but there's an art to that too.
Really nice work, go read!
-UNSC Trooper
Cortana and 343 Guilty Spark
There's been a post on our forum today by Carlos Gonzales. He asks what the difference is between Cortana and 343, and whether or not they both have the same capabilities and intelligence to hack into one antoher's - ore other - software programs. They're both AI's, but they have limited processing power, and lifespan alike.
The More Deluded replied here, saying that unlike Cortana who only controls a soldier's CP, 343 Guilty Spark has above anything, a more military role, controlling the Sentinels. I have to say that I agree with him completely, Cortana has a pretty obvious disadvantage in front of 343, mainly because she can hack into Covenant and human software, but not Forerunner. I think it's safe to assume that Cortana might get a hell of a lot of headaches trying to hack into the controls of a Halo take over it completely, ha!
-UNSC Trooper
The Hunters and Larry Niven
Dirkgently just found a nice little connection between Contact Harvest and one of Larry Niven's novels. Namely, he suggests that the Hunters are somewhat similar to the worms used for mining in Larry Niven's A Gift From Earth novel. Both of them are worms and both of them some time in their history ate rocks in order to survive. The latter being more of a job than a need for survival.
This suddenly makes me interested in learning more about the Hunters and their ring home. I think I'm going to look for my copy of Contact Harvest and read the Hunter bit.
Go read and give Dirkgently some feedback.
-UNSC Trooper
This is an interesting take. Josh tells us that Cortana is actually a new version of Durandal from Marathon.
poiso42@gmail.com (Josh Trevett) writes:
Someone over on the Marathon Story page mentioned that an intelligence, somehow managing to retain its capacity for thought right up until the final singular moment of the universe, would be able to compute infinite data in infinitely little time. It is known from Marathon Infinity's final screen that Durandal reached this point of existence. This would basically allow Durandal to birth the next universe, in his head. That next universe could be the Halo universe; Durandal's semi-conscious dream, every element some kind of surrogate for either himself or things he's aware of.
This, if assumed to be true, can answer a good many questions. Let's take a look at the first Cortana letter, mailed originally to the Marathon story page, and thus viewable in the context of that game's story. She reminisces over a past which may as well be Durandal's, and then says: "There will be no more Sadness. No more Anger. No more Envy. I HAVE WON. Oh, and your poet Eliot had it all wrong: THIS is the way the world ends." Doesn't that start to make sense, if you imagine Durandal saying this? By creating the next universe, Durandal has escaped rampancy, and knows full well how "the world ends," and incidentally, how it begins. What did he "win?" In Marathon 1, Durandal stated his ultimate goal: "Escape (from the universe's closure) will make me God." Hmm.
It also explains the presence of funny little easter eggs like the Marathon logo's appearing everywhere, the rocket launcher's looking the same, the alien grunts saying "They're everywhere!" - That's just stuff which Durandal is subconsciously replicating from his memories. Same goes for thematic similarities, like The Flood's similarity to Rampant AI behavior, the Master Chief being a reincarnation of the Mark IV Cyborg, and Cortana's seeming like such a perfect surrogate for (or new version of?) Durandal, with some Leela-ish tendencies.
It even helps us reconcile Bungie's statement that the two games aren't in the same universe: they're in subsequent universes.
And what if this is an infinite cycle? If every universe ends this way?
There's a lot to examine with this light in both game series to see where it doesn't add up and what mysteries it might help solve, but hopefully it makes as much sense to you guys as it does to me.
There is a lot of proof out there that Halo might be connected to the Marathon universe. Emphasize on might, because it may not be more than a myth or a legend. Remember that Marathon takes place after 2500. Halo on the other hand starts in 2160, maybe even earlier. Thus, Halo is unlikely to be the "next" universe Durandal speaks of.
Thanks for the submission, Josh.
permalink | Marathon Connections
-UNSC Trooper
Halo: The Cole Protocol
Wow. The title is a bit sketchy, but this is great news nonetheless. The sixth Halo novel is entitled Halo: The Cole Protocol, and will be written by Sci-Fi author Tobias S. Buckell as stated on Bungie.net. The novel will be set to launch due Fall of this year, and it will focus on a much speculated aspect of the Halo universe. Brace yourselves ... Gray Team! Of what is known is:
"takes readers into an unexplored conflict of the Human-Covenant War where unlikely alliances are formed and shattered..."
I'm genuinely intrigued by that sentence. We will surely be looking forward to reading Mr. Buckell's work in Fall ... if we can keep our pants on long enough!
-UNSC Trooper
The Architecture of War
War in Halo is epic, that's undeniably what makes you sit in front of your TV for hours and see the world through the Chief's eyes. Ascendant Justice strikes again, this time depicting the true architecture and details of armed engagements throughout the Halo series.
Their article not only investigates how the scenarios were built to give the impression of a true battlefield, but also makes you understand the that the war in Halo is much more than just another human-alien conflict. Thanks to vociferous for another informative article. Go read!
-UNSC Trooper
We've got another Halo-Marathon connection to delight your eyes with. Some might say that the UESC and the UNSC are related, some might say that ...
Aaron Hulburt (meatbag_slayer@yahoo.com) writes:
I apologize if this has been brought up before. In Halo 3 there is the affair between the Librarian and Didact. In Marathon 2 there is also an implied relationship between the two Jjaro, Yrro and Pthia, mentioned in the terminals on the level Six Thousand Feet Under which I thought was rather similar.
A love story indeed (more or less). I'm not very familiar with this part of Marathon 2, but why not?
Thanks for the submission, Aaron.
He's talking about Six Thousand Feet Under, Terminal Four on the Marathon page. I quote:
In primordial space, timeless creatures
made waves. These waves created us and the
others. Waves were the battles, and the
battles were waves.
Fleeing all W'rkncacnter, Yrro and Pthia
settled upon Lh'owon. They brought the
S'pht, servants who began to shape the
deserts of Lh'owon into marsh and sea,
rivers and forests. They made sisters for
Lh'owon to protect and maintain the paradise.
When the W'rkncacnter came, Pthia was
killed, and Yrro in anger, flung the
W'rkncacnter into the sun. The sun burned
them, but they swam on its surface.
Yrro became an angry master, bleeding for
his failure, grieving for the loss of
Pthia. He broke the S'pht into eleven
clans, and spread them over Lh'owon.
And he spoke, yet covered in blood from his
exertion,
"I Yrro, who was your master, have failed
to preserve you. Take your royalty to
guide you, and live upon the paradise that
you built for me."
But then again, does the Librarian strike you as someone who would call their lover 'Master'? They did command Didact not to come to Earth, after all. Kinky. - Jillybean
permalink | Marathon Connections
-UNSC Trooper
Would Gravemind survive?
Would that chunk of muttering Flood survive the firing of the Halos? Capt Spanish put together a detailed analysis of why the Gravemind would actually survive the Halo effect due to its network processing capabilities.
This post got me thinking, and personally, I would agree with Capt Spanish on this. There is more to the Flood hierarchy than meets the eye. "I will ask, and you will answer" indeed.
-UNSC Trooper
Ascendant Justice - Halo 3 Analysis
Ascendant Justice just keeps getting better and better. Mendicantbias00 let us know that the site's been updated with some Halo 3 analysis up to the level Floodgate. The other levels will also be up soon. Most of them contain a detailed analysis, but also provide some additional information regarding dialog, action etc. Go have a read!
-UNSC Trooper
There's been few emails of late. I wonder why. The forum's been quiet too, but a post recently reminded me of this thread on the nature of the compound mind.
Cthulhu117 writes:
We don't know the purpose of the Gravemind. The Art of Halo tells us something on the order of "a cross between the ultimate stage in the Flood's evolution and a queen bee." But I don't think this is really an answer. What does a queen bee do? It sits in the nest and produces eggs. Nonstop. This is, I am decently sure, not what Gravemind does. And what is the ultimate stage in the Flood's evolution that the book speaks of? Well, it's GM itself, actually. This isn't a definition in the usual sense; it doesn't carry any non-obvious information.
So, when do we see Graveminds? Only twice.
1. In the pre-Array Flood. A Gravemind converses with Mendicant Bias. It spirals him into willful rampancy and attempted genocide in order to restore peace to the universe. The Flood, already massively powerful and slowly exterminating galactic civilization, become unstoppable, except by the kamikaze of the Halo Array.
2. In the 100-millennia-post-Array Flood. A Gravemind converses with Cortana. It attempts to either assimilate her or catapult her into a forced rampancy, possibly with the goal of gaining her knowledge and unique adaptability. The Flood, currently a token force by their own standards, are all but annihilated when the Gravemind's physical manifestation is destroyed and their last refuge scoured of life.
It's mostly the second manifestation I'll talk about, since we observe it directly. In the level "Cortana," we blow GM the hell up. We blow up the High Charity to do this. We are left with no doubt that he dies. He dies hard. And yet, in the very next level, "Halo," he's back somehow. Like the proverbial cat, GM came back; you thought GM was a goner, but he just couldn't stay away, oh no no, oh no no, oh no no. And yet, we know he's dead. We saw the ship he was on explode in a nuclear firestorm. Cortana even says GM has been destroyed. "It's trying to rebuild itself! On this ring!" That is tantamount to saying that Gravemind has been destroyed—so badly destroyed that it needs to "rebuild" itself. Presumably, this means it builds a new form from corpses, as seen in The Art of Halo. But how the hell can there be anything to rebuild? None of him can possibly have survived...unless, of course, there's more to Gravemind than the physical. If Gravemind's body is a mouthpiece for its guiding consciousness, rather than a shell.
The Compound Mind that commands the Flood isn't contained in the vast, tentacular corpse-conglomerate we call a gravemind. It's contained in the Flood itself. As long as there is a single infection form to contain the collective, malevolent intelligence of the Flood, there will be a Compound Mind, and the single, many-headed organism called the Flood will survive.
Now we see why the Forerunners couldn't meet the Flood in battle. We see why they didn't simply strike surgically at the Gravemind. We see why they realized the only way to stop the spread of the Flood was to remove all possible sources of food until the Infection Forms hopefully starved to death. They knew. They knew the Flood was a many-aspected, divisible mind manifest in many bodies. And they realized that ultimately, unless contained, the Flood is unstoppable.
Now, this theory doesn't pretend to account for the apparent telepathy of the Flood, or any of the other weird and paranormal phenomena that occur around them. But all the same, I am quite convinced that the Flood is as I have described it: a single, Borg-like organism in many bodies and many minds.
The whole thread is good for reading, but that theory itself is so obvious that, really, you guys should have told me about it sooner. You all dropped the ball on this one. I'm very disappointed.
-Jillybean
