Hmm, I think you guys finally convinced me to start reading the Halo novels. From this point I've been basically subsisting off of Halopedia, but your explanations definitely show that there's a far more intricacy in the books, and that's definitely something I'm interested in now.
That is fantastic. If anything, I just want others to give the books a chance. Sometimes, you'll run into things being done for franchises that are simply just to make money and have little or no substance whatsoever. And yes, Microsoft and 343 obviously want to make money (what business doesn't?) off the books, and other Halo merch, but there's a ton of careful tending and intricate detail poured into them. Honestly, I'd argue that the actual backbone for the games themselves is found in the books. If you simply only play the games, you'll only see a glimpse at what's beyond the central conflict, with only a base level of context. Halo 4 did a much better job at attempting to draw in some of the extracurricular stuff into the game, but I think we'll see this handled a little more smoothly in Halo 5. Halo 4 was in many ways a transitional title. Halo 5 will be 343 with the gloves off, so we'll have a really good idea at just how definitive their vision is. But, if the books are anything to go by, especially the Forerunner trilogy and the Kilo-Five trilogy, they know what they are doing.
It would certainly be interesting to see some sort of alliance with or atonement from the San'Shyuum in some way, although I have my doubts something like that would occur.
For one thing, while the High Prophets seemed to be okay with the idea of their entire belief system obliterated by one mistranslation, I'm unsure that the remainder of the San'Shyuum would be as willing to give up their ancient ways of worship so easily.
Entirely possible. But as we find out in
Broken Circle there are two camps within the SanShyuum: Reformists and Stoics. While one camp may be harder to convince, the other may not be as thus. I'm fairly convicned that we'll see them again, and that they still have a key role to play, as their planet harbors many secrets.
In Halo, there are no coincidences, and there are a plethora of reasons as to why both Humanity and the SanShyuum were given concurrent pieces of the puzzle. While both races are nowhere near where they need to be to see what the puzzle is lays before them, the pieces, and their meaning, are just waiting to be found.
Not to mention the UNSC likely not having any desire to work with the same species that tried to exterminate the human race.
Humanity and the Sanghelli sure are trying, so I wouldn't rule that out.
Still, their return would be enjoyable to see. It'd be a shame to see them disappear into the shadows after the end of Halo 3, especially seeing as how they were so key in the events of the galaxy post-Halo firing.
They won't. I'm sure of it.
If we are to go broad with our theories, I suppose I can throw out another one.
Perhaps it's possible that there was at least one species that was able to survive the Halo Array? I mean, the galaxy is a pretty big place, and maybe an outlier planet in one of the arms was just beyond the radius of the Halos was able to luck out and not get hit.
Entirely possible, but it certainly would had to have been beyond the galaxy itself. The Forerunners were adept at math and science and attention to detail, almost meticulously, so I don't think any square inch of the galaxy would have been spared from the Halo blast, save for shield worlds and the Lesser Ark itself, which was placed beyond the galaxy at a considerable distance.
If one were to survive the Halo array, they would had to have gone extra-galactic, stowed away on the Ark without being noticed, or found a way
to gain access into a shield world.
However...
From
Silentium, pg312:
The newer Halos have been designed to fire simultaneously and in every direction; they are much more powerful than older Halos. Once distributed, their energies will cover the entire galaxy, overlapping and triggering each other until there is no space that has not been cleaned of the Flood.
There is uncertainty, whether star roads in transit through slipspace we be eliminated as. Some say they will, others, not. And so, we are attempting to Guage, through very suspect data, when the maximum number of star roads and other Precursor constructs will emerge and occupy status space.
Alternatively, it could also be an extragalactic species that managed to make it to the Milky Way, possibly even fleeing from a spreading Flood if AYF 001's comments that the Flood left the galaxy are accurate.
Whatever that species is, it's hard to say how they got there. I'm honestly less interested in the idea of another intelligent species in the Halo universe (although I'd be happy to see more!) than I am in how that species was spacefaring so shortly after the Halo firing. Either they were able to advance extraordinarily rapidly compared to the other species in the galaxy, in which case their current tech level now would be substantial to say the least, or the Halo Array didn't manage to effect them as severely as the other species, if it affected them at all. Either way, I'm curious as to how that happened.
Well mused! I've been mulling this is as well for a long time, and I'm also more interested in how the came to crash there, in what appears to be a highly advanced vessel, and why they didn't emerge, despite 343GS' detection of life forms. It wouldn't have been an infected vessel- if it were the Flood, spores and forms would have emerged immediately to search for futher assimilation, so we can rule that out. It also doesn't resemble any Covenant-race design language or structure, plus their races wouldn't have been so far advanced at that point, given that the entire galaxy was repopulate from scratch after the Halos fired.
So that leaves me to speculate that it's either a new race from beyond our galaxy, or a returning race, that took refuge beyond our galaxy.
Or...
From
Broken Circle, pg30:
Many cycles ago, I was the last survivor of a vessel brought down by hostileswe never knew what race it was. They did not speak a civilized tongue. All this was on the far side of the galaxy from here, in the System of Miasmic Giants."
There's also this, from
Silentium, pg329-330:
There is one last patch of communication, somewhere below, within a great dense of cloud- perhaps a star nursery. A new and precocious civilization acquiring its voice only now, having eluded both the Forerunners and the Flood... Sending its first plaintive, hopeful signals.
Crying out for attention. Heed us!
I do not understand what they are trying to say. Do not know what they might have looked like, cannot imagine what they might have done, had they been born in more fortuitous times.
Are these all connected in some way?
May I humbly argue- yes.
