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Terminus Prill (terminus.prill@gmail.com) writes:
I've been going over what I know about the Flood, and the recomended reading list, and I've come to a few new conclusions about our virulent friend.
To compare it to Orson Scott Card's Descolada virus[1], which also re-writes it's victims DNA, the theory that it evolved naturally as some primitive form of life cannot be true, as something so virulent would run it's course, infecting everything around it, run out of food, and die out. Therefore, it must be man(I use the term loosely) -made. As to who made it, I can only speculate, though I think it is safe to say either the Forerunner, or their enemies[2], created it. From that, we can also assume that since the Flood feed on calcium stores, that the beings who created it were fairly similar to us, especailly since the virus was seemingly familiar with Humanoid genetic particles, having been able to readily infect both Humans and the Elites[3].
A second though I had relates to a quote of our favorite Floating Christmas Light, 343 Guilty Spark, on the level 'The Library..
"You can see how the body's been transformed by the genetic restructuring of the Flood infection. The small creatures carry spores that cause a host to mutate. The mutated host then produces spores that can pass the Flood to others. It is insidious and elegant. As long as any hosts remain, the Flood is virulent."
As long as any host remains, the flood is virulent. Hm. What happens then? Before the release of Halo 2, I always wondered if there was a planet out there with a form of the Flood that had, in the absence of hosts, developed a society as a sentient species. And they are obviously somewhat sentient
"' The Flood are already hard at work repairing your vessel. Its parasitic nature belies the Flood's intelligence.' -343 Guilty Spark"
Then Halo 2 came along, and, more importantly, Gravemind. He is quite obviously ancient, because he is not only no longer virulent, I assume, becaue he isn't mindlessly killing and reproducing. He is obviously reverting somewhat, because he seemed to have no qualms absorbing His Most Annoyingess, Regret. But he is intelligent, and to a point, brilliant.
A third thing, I'd like to put forth my own rampant speculations on a few things.
Brain Forms. They are not intelligent, nor brains. I think of them more like a keyboard, made in english, to write in chinese. A translator bewteen the flood and machinery, or dedicated wetware, if you will. All they need is a bioform that had the knowlegde to pilot/control the machine, and a little time to develop the approriate apendeges. Gravemind is not, and I stress the word 'not', a product of a brain form, for the reasons above. He is the product of an enviroment that has lacked hosts, I assume, for eons.
[1] From Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind
[2] I would assume they would have enemies, or they wouldn't have created a weapon such as the Flood, unless the virus was an experiment gone wrong. Or, like the Descolda, a virus sent across the [galactic] void to prepare our galaxy for habitablility.
[3] I make no mention of the other species because, as yet, I have seen no Grunt or Jakal combat forms. Regret has also been shown assimilated. Perhaps there is a common ancestor between Elites, Humans, and Prophets?
Extra brownie points for the use of Harvard Style annotations.
-Jillybean
