• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Halo Lore Thread

C

Christof

Neo Member
I need to replay Halo and play Spartan Ops. I hope it will give me some better context for what 343 was going for.

I also found it curious that Mortal Dictate is such an inconsequential story in the larger Halo universe. Its such a scale down compared to the previous Kilo-Five books. Is there some known reason why this last book seems to deal only with the Kilo-Five original characters? Is it because it released after Halo 4?
 
R

raindoc

Member
SpokkX said:
So... About that Didact guy

Are we 100% rid of him for Halo 5?

Hated that character, seemed really out of place
Click to expand...

It's complicated.

For one (Greg Bear books spoilers)
there's two. Ur-Didact (from H4) and Iso-Didact. The latter should be more friendly towards humanity, but even the Ur-Didact's genocidal tendencies towards humanity came as surprise. IMO. So who knows...

Secondly (Escalation comics spoilers)
The Ur-Didact survived H4, but MC blew him up using a Halo. Or at least the fragment of a Halo. So, once again, who knows.
 
T

Toa TAK

Banned
Plus, the Didact has been in the series lore since Halo 3 at least. I think if anything, the Ur-Didact in Halo 4 just had a poor introduction into the mainline game series. Not counting the terminals.
 
T

Tyrus

Banned
Got six new Halo books delivered in the mail the day after I finished re-reading Fall of Reach after a decade. Started with Halo Evolutions and finished the first three chapters.

Wow, Soren-066's journey in Pariah was just saddening. Interesting to see that other side of Dr. Halsey and CPO Mendez as well. Wonder why they chose Randall of all the Spartans to be involved in his story.

The end to Stomping on the Heels of a Fuss was just a mind fuck.

I read and finished Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian exactly at midnight and was just lost in that vacuum along with the fate of The Heart of Midlothian. An incredible read and my favourite short story so far, great job Frankie. Connor Brien is an unsung hero.
 
L

lighthouse777

Member
http://metro.co.uk/2015/08/05/halo-...ce-is-biggest-object-in-the-universe-5328360/

wanted to share this with halo fans, thought this might be a good place got it from frankies twitter account
Halo Ring is Real
ring.jpg


Scientists have just found the biggest thing in the universe – a vast, mysterious ‘ring’ five billion light years across.

It’s so big that the researchers have no idea why it exists – and it contradicts all current models of the universe.

The vast, mysterious object is reminiscent of the Halo rings in the hit science fiction game series.

The ring of nine vast, cataclysmic explosions is about seven billion light years from Earth and covers an area of sky more than 70 times the diameter of the full moon.


Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2015/08/05/halo-...object-in-the-universe-5328360/#ixzz3jGiczz61
 
Captain Zyrain

Captain Zyrain

Member
raindoc said:
Secondly (Escalation comics spoilers)
The Ur-Didact survived H4, but MC blew him up using a Halo. Or at least the fragment of a Halo. So, once again, who knows.
Click to expand...

The Ur-Didact was composed at the end of that comic arc. The Master Chief said he was "contained" but that is all we know. He's not dead. I expect him to make some sort of appearance again. Perhaps in Terminal form?
 
R

raindoc

Member
Captain Zyrain said:
The Ur-Didact was composed at the end of that comic arc. The Master Chief said he was "contained" but that is all we know. He's not dead. I expect him to make some sort of appearance again. Perhaps in Terminal form?
Click to expand...

Shit, you're right! Had to take another look, but
how is that possible? IIRC H4 correctly, it's stated that he cannot be composed? And why did MC activate the ring with the Index?
 
S

shiba5

Member
raindoc said:
Shit, you're right! Had to take another look, but
how is that possible? IIRC H4 correctly, it's stated that he cannot be composed? And why did MC activate the ring with the Index?
Click to expand...

It's weird because he's already been composed. That's why he looks the way he does. He tried to digitize himself and it failed. So I'm not sure why it works on him in the comic.
 
S

shiba5

Member
raindoc said:
Really? Where's that from?



Looking forward to that. Recently watched the SDCC panel and they said
they'll show a new side of ONI? [sic!]
Click to expand...

Halo 4 Terminals, but now I'm not sure about him being composed - but he does change appearance. I'm watching them again.
 
W

WhiteRabbitEXE

Member
shiba5 said:
Halo 4 Terminals, but now I'm not sure about him being composed - but he does change appearance. I'm watching them again.
Click to expand...

I believe his new form was due to a brevet mutation. He was attempting to genetically alter himself to develop a Flood immunity as humanity supposedly had.
 
LordOfChaos

LordOfChaos

Member
lighthouse777 said:
http://metro.co.uk/2015/08/05/halo-...ce-is-biggest-object-in-the-universe-5328360/

wanted to share this with halo fans, thought this might be a good place got it from frankies twitter account
Halo Ring is Real
ring.jpg


Scientists have just found the biggest thing in the universe – a vast, mysterious ‘ring’ five billion light years across.

It’s so big that the researchers have no idea why it exists – and it contradicts all current models of the universe.

The vast, mysterious object is reminiscent of the Halo rings in the hit science fiction game series.

The ring of nine vast, cataclysmic explosions is about seven billion light years from Earth and covers an area of sky more than 70 times the diameter of the full moon.


Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2015/08/05/halo-...object-in-the-universe-5328360/#ixzz3jGiczz61
Click to expand...


That would be cool, but it's an overlapping of gamma ray bursts, not a physical object :p

If it was an object I'd shit my pants.
 
C

Christof

Neo Member
Christof said:
I need to replay Halo and play Spartan Ops. I hope it will give me some better context for what 343 was going for.

I also found it curious that Mortal Dictate is such an inconsequential story in the larger Halo universe. Its such a scale down compared to the previous Kilo-Five books. Is there some known reason why this last book seems to deal only with the Kilo-Five original characters? Is it because it released after Halo 4?
Click to expand...

Ok finished the book. What a chore.

My honest recommendation is if you only moderately liked the previous two kilo-five books, you could skip this one and read the synopsis on a wiki page instead.

Am I the only one who had my suspension of disbelief ruined each time there was an angry reference to religion and God? Seemed like every character thought the same exact way on the subject, which made its frequent occurrence seem really unnecessary. Very similar to how all the characters view Halsey.

Hope I'm not bringing too much negativity into the thread (although would it be a fan thread without it?) but I needed to get that off my chest.
 
W

WhiteRabbitEXE

Member
Christof said:
Ok finished the book. What a chore.

My honest recommendation is if you only moderately liked the previous two kilo-five books, you could skip this one and read the synopsis on a wiki page instead.

Am I the only one who had my suspension of disbelief ruined each time there was an angry reference to religion and God? Seemed like every character thought the same exact way on the subject, which made its frequent occurrence seem really unnecessary. Very similar to how all the characters view Halsey.

Hope I'm not bringing too much negativity into the thread (although would it be a fan thread without it?) but I needed to get that off my chest.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Kilo 5's characters in general seem to be oddly homogeneous in their opinions, only varying in the specificities of how exactly they express those opinions. Apparently this is endemic of Karen Traviss's works. She tends to slap her viewpoints (both of real-world and in-fiction topics) onto every protagonist in basically everything she writes.
 
Captain Zyrain

Captain Zyrain

Member
raindoc said:
Shit, you're right! Had to take another look, but
how is that possible? IIRC H4 correctly, it's stated that he cannot be composed? And why did MC activate the ring with the Index?
Click to expand...

He didn't activate it I don't think, he just used it to give the Monitor the ability to jettison a portion of the ring I believe.

And my thinking is that when he was composed there were like 5 or 6 composers in the area, so maybe the combined power was enough to overcome whatever tolerance he'd built up? Not sure. We haven't got a clear explanation but it seems.. possible I guess.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Captain Zyrain said:
He didn't activate it I don't think, he just used it to give the Monitor the ability to jettison a portion of the ring I believe.

And my thinking is that when he was composed there were like 5 or 6 composers in the area, so maybe the combined power was enough to overcome whatever tolerance he'd built up? Not sure. We haven't got a clear explanation but it seems.. possible I guess.
Click to expand...

Well, we have no idea exactly how the Composer works, or how immunity is conveyed. Presumably there's some genetic component, but it's not specified.

From a pure off-the-cuff reasoning, if the Composers could function similar to the Halos there might be a simple matter of power/signal amplification at work.
 
LordOfChaos

LordOfChaos

Member
You know what I found some shockingly good sci fi in, the Horus Heresy 40K books. I was expecting, I dunno, "FOR THE EMPARAH" and stuff, but damn, these are pretty sophisticated.

Halo stuff by some of the authors in the first five books (if not others - not that far yet) would definitely be something.

-useless idle musings
 
J

JTripper

Member
Listened to all of Hunt the Truth a while back but I kind of forgot the details of what happened in the second half of the season. The last thing I remember is Ben discovering that the video with MC shooting up the embassy was actually him killing terrorists and not innocents.

Can anyone quickly summarize what happened between the part I mentioned and the ending?
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
JTripper said:
Listened to all of Hunt the Truth a while back but I kind of forgot the details of what happened in the second half of the season. The last thing I remember is Ben discovering that the video with MC shooting up the embassy was actually him killing terrorists and not innocents.

Can anyone quickly summarize what happened between the part I mentioned and the ending?
Click to expand...

Ben finds what seems to be an abandoned ONI relay station on a glassed planet, and basically uncovers the truth about the SPARTAN-II Program. He goes on the air to present it, only to find out it was a ploy by ONI to quash and discredit the rumors about the Spartans—he's discredited and his fate is left unknown.
 
Monocle

Monocle

Member
SpokkX said:
So... About that Didact guy

Are we 100% rid of him for Halo 5?

Hated that character, seemed really out of place
Click to expand...
I don't mind him. He's a good character in Greg Bears books. But I truly despise the face design 343 went with in Halo 4. He looks like a generic orc with birth defects. Those stupid teeth... Terrible.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Monocle said:
I don't mind him. He's a good character in Greg Bears books. But I truly despise the face design 343 went with in Halo 4. He looks like a generic orc with birth defects. Those stupid teeth... Terrible.
Click to expand...

Yeah the teeth look like stick-on vampire teeth kids get, rather than an actual part of his face to me.

I think the other changes they made to his "altered" form were enough.
 
R

Rtas

Member
Captain Zyrain said:
The Ur-Didact was composed at the end of that comic arc. The Master Chief said he was "contained" but that is all we know. He's not dead. I expect him to make some sort of appearance again. Perhaps in Terminal form?
Click to expand...

See thats what I don't get though, wasn't one of the reasons he didn't go all
promethean knight on himself was because he couldn't be composed, and was immune to its effect due to a brevet mutation?
 
W

wesleyshark

Banned
Fuchsdh said:
I think Palmer just doesn't get enough character development in Sparta Ops. Escalation makes it clear she doesn't like Hasley and sees her failure to take her out the first time as a serious error she is trying to (over)correct for, but it seems like she also sees herself as Laskey's counterpart--someone who does what needs to be done, keeping other hands clean. They're also both aware of how much disobeying ONI could come back to haunt them--so despite her disagreement with Laskey about killing Halsey she still sticks her neck out and covers for him afterwards.

I really like Palmer on balance, I just wish 343 hadn't been so seemingly transparent in pushing her as a main character.
Click to expand...

I think Escalation has done wonders for her character in a lot of ways. I'm curious to see how much screen time she has in the campaign of h5- obviously she'll be doing the Warzone stuff which is cool.
 
C

Christof

Neo Member
I'm reading the Forerunner trilogy now. First book was great, very enjoyable. Liked how it was a fresh part of the fiction and was able to have a different feel from the future-military style of the rest of Halo.

I was put off originally but how short the forerunner trilogy audio books were (half the length of kilo 5) which is why i went K5 first but I find myself having a new found appreciation for brevity and focus.
 
W

wesleyshark

Banned
Christof said:
I'm reading the Forerunner trilogy now. First book was great, very enjoyable. Liked how it was a fresh part of the fiction and was able to have a different feel from the future-military style of the rest of Halo.

I was put off originally but how short the forerunner trilogy audio books were (half the length of kilo 5) which is why i went K5 first but I find myself having a new found appreciation for brevity and focus.
Click to expand...

Their style and content felt so fresh from all of the military sci-fi. Not that military sci-fi is bad! It's great! But it was cool to have something new and unexpected.
 
Captain Zyrain

Captain Zyrain

Member
Rtas said:
See thats what I don't get though, wasn't one of the reasons he didn't go all
promethean knight on himself was because he couldn't be composed, and was immune to its effect due to a brevet mutation?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I assume it just had something to do with all the composers firing at once maybe? Not sure, and it hasn't been explained, other than he wasn't exploded.

New Escalation comic was good.. though I felt like nothing much happened. Pretty sure that's Offensive Bias now.
 
C

Christof

Neo Member
What's the best way to get into Halo Escalation at this point?

Seems like the cheapest way is to get the Amazon Kindle version of the volumes. Can you read comic books well on the kindle PC applications?

Second cheapest appears to be the print versions of the volumes. These days I usually prefer digital copies (to save space around the house).
 
K

Kalentan

Member
Christof said:
What's the best way to get into Halo Escalation at this point?

Seems like the cheapest way is to get the Amazon Kindle version of the volumes. Can you read comic books well on the kindle PC applications?

Second cheapest appears to be the print versions of the volumes. These days I usually prefer digital copies (to save space around the house).
Click to expand...

Check out Halo Canon's Youtube channel. He has reviews of each Issue of Escalation and he goes over the story details and relations to other events and such. Really informative.
 
C

Christof

Neo Member
MaxRealflugel said:
Actually, the cheapest way is to read the full plot synopsis for the released issues on halopedia [et al].
Click to expand...

Hah good point

Kalentan said:
Check out Halo Canon's Youtube channel. He has reviews of each Issue of Escalation and he goes over the story details and relations to other events and such. Really informative.
Click to expand...

Thanks for advice

In your opinions, is the artwork/writing worth the price of admission to get the comic.
 
O

Ocho

Member
Hey guys. So basically any lore after Halo 4 equal Spartan Ops followed by the Escalation comics?

Where does Nightfall stand? Hunt the truth?
 
Captain Zyrain

Captain Zyrain

Member
Christof said:
In your opinions, is the artwork/writing worth the price of admission to get the comic.
Click to expand...

Uhhh... no.

Not really.

Some issues are better than others, but nothing is really outstanding. The covers are usually nicely down however. The artwork inside gets you from A->B but that's about it.

Like others have said, probably reading synopsis is the cheapest way. Dark Horse usually has some sales where you can get the older issues for a buck or two as well digitally.

Ocho said:
Hey guys. So basically any lore after Halo 4 equal Spartan Ops followed by the Escalation comics?

Where does Nightfall stand? Hunt the truth?
Click to expand...

Basically it goes Halo 4 -> Spartan Ops -> Escalation. There are some arcs of Escalation that take place BEFORE Spartan Ops.. i.e. "The Next 72 Hours", but generally it all flows together pretty well. The issues usually include the date at the beginning of the issue as well.

We don't know exactly when #HUNTtheTRUTH takes place I don't think, as we didn't get a confirmed date, but it's likely 2558, or shortly before the events of Halo 5 (Whatever date that may be).
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
AP90 said:
Thats pretty awesome that humanity had figured that out before the forerunners.
Click to expand...

The idea according to the Primordial (who I think has to be taken with a grain of salt) is that the Flood deliberately withdrew—the humans didn't actually discover a cure, the Flood just decided to spare them at that point.
 
Captain Zyrain

Captain Zyrain

Member
Fuchsdh said:
The idea according to the Primordial (who I think has to be taken with a grain of salt) is that the Flood deliberately withdrew—the humans didn't actually discover a cure, the Flood just decided to spare them at that point.
Click to expand...

Deliciously evil.

Can't wait for that deep seed to sprout.
 
W

wesleyshark

Banned
And behold the cover art and synopsis of Joseph Staten's upcoming Shadow of Intent

shadowofintentcvrm-b0e2e04ec97f42ceaf13b11e97cfe63f.jpg


After decades of grim combat against the humans and then the traitorous Covenant Prophets, the Sangheili warrior Rtas ‘Vadum—the Half-Jaw—has earned a long rest. But not all of the Prophets perished in their holy city, High Charity, and now one of their fearsome Prelates has sworn his vengeance. This powerful threat has set a cataclysmic plan in motion—a plan to lure the Half-Jaw into a trap that will herald the utter destruction of the entire Sangheili race…

Kinda hope this gets a physical release like New Blood is getting because I'd love to have this cover art on my Halo shrine... I mean, shelf.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

HALO Trailer 2022: TV Series Episodes Breakdown and Easter Eggs
7
1K
Sosokrates replied
Halo Infinite Firefight Announced - December 5th
News 2
98
7K
twilo99 replied
Some thoughts on Halo Infinite from the perspective of someone in it for the lore. Unmarked spoilers inside.
46
4K
LordOfChaos replied
Halo TV Series | Discussion
|OT| 7 8 9 10 11
544
34K
Ozzy Onya A2Z replied
Is there a more f'd up disconnect between games and lore than Halo?
14
2K
TheMay30thMan replied
Top Bottom