• 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

Canon!

edit: probably one of the deeper layers of the Halo story onion though :p

I can't acknowledged that aspect of canon. It's just way too out there. :p Plus, it's never been referenced again.

Yes, my mistake, I originally said that the SIIIs were conscripted like the IIs, though if you're a child, a war-orphan like you say, it would be difficult to say no to ONI haha

It was more of a "Do you want to kill the Covenant?" question than anything. All the children approached were war orphans. Who would say no to revenge?
 

Korten

Banned
Oh yeah, in the next issue of Escalation in July, we get to see Master Chief return. Anyone else excited for that? :D
 
Eh... kind of a waste of an issue I think... but at least we know that people moved back in to New Phoenix, much better circumstance than if the Covenant came in to glass the place!

Edit: I should say, the story was done well, and I like Thorne's character. I was just under the impression we were going to get to see Chief, but maybe that is next issue?
I liked the little tidbits of info about Earth and Chief having an action figure. Section 2 bein sneaky? Still felt like filler though :/

And oops about the double post!
 
Nothing really new, but I wanted to put it together anyway because I found it fun and interesting :)

There are some spoilers in the post, so beware!

This one is a little image and excerpt heavy, more than usual anyway. Enjoy :)

--

If you've played on Monolith, you've probably seen this thinger, some sort of Forerunner artifact located in the top-center of the map:

CQBVhjk.jpg

At about 20 or 30 seconds into a match, the artifact bursts open:


If we go around to the planet-side of the map, we can see that the Forerunner site is constructed on one of the asteroids within a small asteroid field. Take note of the star in the top left, but also take a look at the planet in the background:


This is Sothra Hakkor, one of 15 planets within the core system of ancient human space-faring society. It's an interesting system, once containing 3 of the ancient human-inhabited worlds.

And some information on the system from Cryptum:

"This system has fifteen worlds. Precursor ruins are found only on Charum Hakkor. Humans settled two more: Faun Hakkor and Ben Nauk. The other planets were mined for ore and volatiles."

Note: It was believed that all Precursor technology was destroyed when the Halo Array was activated, this excerpt was from the years leading up to that that when Didact was investigating the system, and around 9000 years after the Human-Forerunner war.

From the map description:

"For over fifty years, the war between the Forerunners and ancient humans claimed uncountable lives. After the final victory, it is believed that the Didact personally ordered the construction of a number of monuments throughout the last bastion of human resistance, including the asteroid belt near the core world of Sothra Hakkor. These structures would serve as a reminder of the heavy cost of war and, unmistakably, the threat humankind could pose."

Back to the Artifact, when looked at from below, we can see that it seems to be some sort of map of the system. When playing, you can see the inner planets revolve around the star faster, and you can see some of the satellites orbiting the planets:


Notice the nebula "behind" the star:


If we travel to "the other side" of the system, we're now on the Forge map Impact, check out the closer view of what I'll call the "Hakkor" ("if without neglect" in Hungarian...?) star system:


We can see a ring of asteroids surrounding a much larger one, and on it, an ONI deep-space research facility. If we look behind, we can see the nebula that was behind the star when viewed from the map Monolith, (which was pictured a few above):


And just to the right, a large planetoid that seems to have been struck and shattered in sort of event, notice the drill-like path through the planetoid:


Travelling back to the large asteroid's research facility, looking at the station from above, we can see an impact site:


Notice the "spyglass" shape of the facility. Looking directly above, we can see a much better view of the Hakkor star. Maybe the combined mass of whatever is on this asteroid with that research station is greater than that of the planetoid (which is massive enough to have a small atmosphere) hence the encircling asteroid belt:


Upon venturing inside the facility, we discover a massive monolith of an artifact:


The impact site:


And a close-up of the artifact:


So what is it? Here's something from the map description:

In 2547, an ONI patrol drone recorded a violent meteor collision with an unmarked, unidentified object presumably originating from outside of the galaxy. This event generated enough curiosity among top researchers for ONI to warrant dispatching a handful of EVA-ready remote contact teams. When the teams arrived, they located a large, non-native fragment of an impacting agent of unknown origin. Not only was this fragment highly resilient, but its material composition was was irregular, unlike anything ONI had ever encountered before. Even more intriguing, the object's age appears to indicate that it originates well prior to that of the earliest of known Forerunner artifacts.

This artifact seems to be Precursor in origin, implying that the Halos didn't destroy everything Precursor? Remember, Precursor architecture was unbending, indestructible except for one weakness: the Halo pulse, as the great Star Roads and other systems were composed from neural physics, and Halo targets neural patterns.

So the year was 2547, around 5 years before the Halo event shown in Halo CE. What other stuff was going on around that time in-universe? Only juicy bit I could find is a mysterious entry in Halsey's Journal on Sept 4, 2547. She was trying to circumvent AI rampancy (invoked by the AI running out of space within the housing crystal with which to create new "neural" connections) by attempting to build a complex high-dimensional fractal inside of slipspace. She talks about the idea in an entry 13 years prior.

Here is the entry from 2547, same year as the artifact collision on Impact:

"Over the years an idea has percolated in my subconscious.
I suppose it's an intriguing possibility that I've contemplated, in one form or another, all my life - even as an impressionable young child when my father recited every adventurous tale of L. Frank Baum's Oz.
But now I've assembled and secreted all the disparate components - the last by mere happenstance.
Do I possess the mettle to do this?
Not that I would even entertain some puerile belief in fate or luck, or anything from among the host of superstitions many cling to. Still, there is something...
The battle-worn frigate Tripping Light has arrived in Dry Dock. Her FTL drive is slated for final spin-down, removal and disposal at 1615 today.
Enough musing and procrastination. I must act quickly."

The next four pages of information are torn out. Of Halsey's doing? Or someone reading it after? We aren't sure what exactly happened here, and she mentions in an entry the day after that all her friends from her youth are now dead, but then doesn't have any entries for 2 years. The day before the event, on September 3, there is an entry describing how she was asked for help by another research colleague, a Dr. Canterfield, about him asking for her help with something. She doesn't really detail exactly what, though she does mention it has to do with research concerning Slipspace anomalies. She ruminates over the idea of "ditching" her work with Spartans to help Dr. Canterfield, as the complex mathematics are incredibly enticing to her. The following page, just before the above entry, there is a full page of complex mathematics... It is still hard to get a full picture of the event, but we have another perspective of this event, by the "Assembly of Minds", in Reach data pad 17, 2547:

"Incredible. [10141-026-SRB4695], with minimal influence from this Assembly, has attempted to build an abstract fractal structure within Shaw-Fujikawa Space. Although her first attempt was a failure, success could finally remove our dependence on biological systems altogether! If our Minds could somehow achieve freedom of expansion within eleven-dimensional space, immortality might be within reach"

So according to this compound AI observing the events discussed in the journal, we understand that Halsey was apparently unsuccessful in her endeavour. But was she? I know it's a stretch, but what if there is a connection to this remote station, perhaps the "last by mere happenstance" is referring to this artifact in the research station on Impact?

--

I dunno... but while I'm making wild theories let's go back to the Hakkor system, and learn a bit about another one of the planets, Faun Hakkor.

An excerpt from Cryptum, SPOILERS!

“Faun Hakkor was the origin of the Pheru which humans so deeply valued as pets and companions,” the Didact said. “The reserve forces defended it fiercely but their numbers and installations were minimal, so the planet kept most of its original flora and fauna…” [from the last time he was there, 9000 years earlier]
...
The Didact requested scans of the planet’s present biota along with lists of the flora and fauna that had survived the battles nine thousand years before. In the records of the survey conducted by the Lifeworkers, likely after the end of hostilities, I saw hundreds of species of larger animals ranging in size from a meter to a hundred meters—some clearly aquatic, others huge land carnivores or sedate prairie-grazers. This list was compared with what the sensors could now locate.
[many of the animals and plants fall of the scanner's list]
...
Next came flora, including dense arboreal forests. Many of the original trees had acquired a kind of long-term intelligence, communicating with each other over centuries using insects, viruses, bacteria, and fungi as carriers of genetic and hormonal signals, analogous to neurons... That list also quickly emptied. There were remnants - dead forests and jungles covered with a false green carpet of primitive plants and symbiotic species. All that remained, apparently, were mosses, fungi, algae, and their combined forms.

I'm gonna guess that the multiplayer map Abandon is on Faun Hakkor, in the same system as Monolith and Impact. First we'll start with two descriptions of the map:

On the remote world of Erebus VII, at the very edge of human-occupied space, an ONI research facility which was once teaming with researchers now lies eerily vacant. Although the hostility of this world had been initially considered by its team leaders, it is tragically clear that a great many ‘things’ had simply not been taken into account.
...
Abandon is a mysteriously abandoned ONI research station on a hostile alien planet. Initial surveys of this area were bold and promising, but it quickly became clear that these reports were far more hubris than logic.

And another excerpt from the Halo Waypoint bulletin that talked a bit about the map:

"From the start, the theme for this map was constructed around the story of an ONI research team that mysteriously disappeared. We wanted to leave some story breadcrumbs that helped to imply that something dramatic occurred in this location. We wanted the map to make the player wonder, “What the hell happened here?” Unlike most Halo maps, there is a lot of overtly alien strangeness right in the player’s face. The creepiness and storytelling are simple and clear but doesn’t conflict with the game play.

Early on in the development cycle for this map, there was a diverse array of visual ideas and ways to tell the story of this ominous place. Along the way, we had to consolidate this collection into a more concise statement that not only supported the theme but also felt appropriate to the Halo franchise. There was a lot of discussion about how we wanted the environment to feel menacing and forbidding. At one point, the map was a disparate arrangement of flora and fauna and we had to ask the questions, “Does all of this work together?” and “Does all of this support Halo Multiplayer?” When the answers were no, we made the hard call to change direction. Some of our favorite organisms that didn’t make the cut were lovingly known as meat loops, muscle humps, gas sacks, smokers, and momma trees. (Don’t ask)."

Compelling!

Here is a picture of the main Research Facility, note the spyglass shape, similar to the one on Impact:


Inside the facility, we see some strange beasts in some sort of stasis tanks:


What are these things? Maybe they are descendants of the Pheru? Check out some other shots of the map, just look at the gargantuan size of the trees, note how you cannot see the sky due to the fog and dense brush, and note the scaly texture on the trees themselves, as well as the "spikes" in their trunks:


Looking off the cliff-edge toward the hidden sun:


And off the cliff into the scarred, earthy chasm below:

And I'm sure everyone is familiar with the purple tree cave...


Some more spoilery info about Faun Hakkor, from Silentium:

The Pheru came from Faun Hakkor, in the same system as Charum Hakkor, one of the key centers of human culture, as well as an amazing collection of massive Precursor artifacts.
Centuries before the beginning of our war, the mutated Pheru entered a new phase and produced spores that infected their masters with the first stage of the Flood. The infection spread rapidly, evolving quickly in its new hosts and weakening humans so severely that early Forerunner victories came with surprising ease.
Humans were, in effect, fighting on two fronts.
But within decades, that situation changed. Humans surged back. Their strength redoubled. Our fleets came upon strong, healthy human populations residing in Flood-infested sectors of the galaxy, apparently unmolested. Humans had obviously found a way to immunize against the Flood, or had developed a natural resistance-or possibly even found a cure.

Some more info on the Pheru pets and how they relate to the origins of the Flood (as we know it now) Spoilers!!! from Cryptum:

The Flood first arrived from one of the Magellanic clouds of stars that drift just outside the reaches of our galaxy. Its precise origin was unknown. Its first effects upon human systems in the far reaches of our arm of the galaxy were subtle, even benign - so it seemed.
Humans suspected it was conveyed on ancient starships, clumsy in design but completely automated. The ships had neither passengers nor crew, and carried little of interest but uniform kind of cargo - millions of glassy cylinders containing a fine, desiccated powder.
Humans found wreckage of the ships on uninhabited and inhabited worlds alike. The cylinders were carefully examined, using the most stringent cautions, and their powdery contents were analyzed and found to be short-chain molecules, relatively simple and apparently inert - organic, yet neither alive nor capable of life.
Early experiments demonstrated the potential for psychotropic effects in some lower animals, but not in humans or San’Shyuum. The primary animals affected by the powder were, as it turned out, popular pets in human societies: the Pheru, lively and gentle creatures first found on Faun Hakkor. Very small quantities of the powder induced changes in the Pheru that improved their domestic behavior, made them more affectionate, not so much docile as cleverly charismatic. Soon enough, on an emerging black market, outside the control of human governments, Pheru treated with these rare powders commanded a very high price. San’Shyuum at this point also adopted Pheru as pets.
For centuries, dozens of human and San’Shyuum worlds bred and powdered these animals—without ill consequences. No researcher suspected the long-term effects of the powder, which attached itself to key points in the genes of Pheru and began to change them … while at the same time improving their behaviors.
What would soon become the Flood first manifested itself as a peculiar growth found on roughly a third of all Pheru treated with the powder. A kind of loose, soft fur grew between the shoulders of the pets. It was regarded by breeders as a natural mutation, even a pleasant variation.
The sensuous quality of the fur particularly impressed the San’Shyuum, who crossbred these specimens.
Other Pheru were soon found grazing on these companions, consuming their fur—and on occasion even consuming the animals themselves. Pheru were naturally herbivores.
This seemed to activate some sort of biological timer, a signal for expansion. Within a very short time, the Pheru were producing far less attractive growths. Flexible striped rods sprouted from their heads, which in turn were also consumed by fellow Pheru—causing abortions and unnatural births.
There was no cure. But this was only the surface of the growing infestation.
The Pheru were soon past recovery. Humans and San’Shyuum dispatched their pets with regret—and puzzlement, for these first stages were beyond their biological understanding. Most researchers believed the Pheru had simply become overbred, overspecialized. A few were even returned to their native habitat on Faun Hakkor.
Then—humans began to manifest the growths. Some humans, it seemed, fancied Pheru as food. These humans became vectors. Whatever they touched was also infected, and in time, what they discarded—limbs, tissue—could also spread infection.
Thus began the Flood.

Maybe ONI sent out research stations to other planets in the Hakkor system, like on Impact. Maybe they discovered, in their research, trees that could communicate over centuries, studied descendants of the Pheru in capsules, and realized they were all related to an early, more primitive form of the Flood, and promptly got the hell out of there? Maybe the UNSC labelled the system Erebus, so as to never go there again?
 

Caayn

Member
-- Where are you getting the infertile part. Maria-062 explicitly wanted to start a family, so presumably it was possible to treat the sex drive issue.
"I do. Because the augmentation they performed on us had side effects." She hesitated. BB guessed that even a middle-aged woman like Naomi would find it hard to mention sex to her dad. "It reduces your drive to reproduce."
The formal language didn't take the sting out of it.....
....
"They take my child." Stafffan said, his voice shaking. "They take you, and they turn you into their machine, and they neuter you like some farm animal, and they expect me to cooperate with them?"
Although reading it back, I see that you can read this both ways.
 
After reading about Mendicant Bias, I've read there are some theories that Cortana may have overcome rampancy and reached the same "metastable" state as Mendicant. Any thoughts about her status in Halo 5 and beyond?
 

Fuchsdh

Member
After reading about Mendicant Bias, I've read there are some theories that Cortana may have overcome rampancy and reached the same "metastable" state as Mendicant. Any thoughts about her status in Halo 5 and beyond?

I'd love an explanation for the whole "world of glass let me poke the Chief" moment at the end of the game.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Me, too.

That felt like it was stretching it, even for Halo.

I don't think the ultimate issue I had was what went down, it was how they were explained/not explained or glossed over.

Personally based on the leaked cutscene transcripts people found in the game, I'd say "Reclaimer" would have been far less confusing had they gone with their earlier drafts.

And for the endgame of "Midnight"? I was following Cortana going into the system and her using the Didact's ship against him… but it's presented with this bizarre "Cortanas do Peter Pan attack! It's super effective!" which obfuscated what was going on. And then we are left with no real answer how Chief survives a nuke to the face, and left to try and figure it out, and no explanation for why Cortana can touch him (unless it's related to manipulation of the hard light from previously and still doesn't explain how she can "feel" that touch.) Then their dialogue tips the line to slightly creepy when I don't think that was the intention either.

I think a ton of people would have had far different reactions to Halo 4's campaign had they redone the last act, because it sort of shambles to the finish line after starting out so strongly.

Bungie, in its storytelling, could be frustrating in not telling you things you wanted to know and forcing your to figure it out. 343 didn't tell us things we needed to know that were core to understanding and enjoying the plot, and that's an issue.

Cutting and adding maybe ten lines of dialogue would have been able to solve so many issues with the plot (especially regarding the Didact's motivations), even if you only touched the "Reclaimer" and "Midnight" levels.
 
Eh... kind of a waste of an issue I think... but at least we know that people moved back in to New Phoenix, much better circumstance than if the Covenant came in to glass the place!

Edit: I should say, the story was done well, and I like Thorne's character. I was just under the impression we were going to get to see Chief, but maybe that is next issue?
I liked the little tidbits of info about Earth and Chief having an action figure. Section 2 bein sneaky? Still felt like filler though :/

And oops about the double post!

Issues #8-10 will deal with our old friend
and perhaps the return of Blue Team!
.
 
xpost from the HaloGAF OT:

Incoming GIFS / Spoilers ahead!

So, in the Halo Universe, there are 3 human societies that appear in various places at some point in the chronology:

Space-faring ancient humans:

Their ships:
BetterVictoriousBasil.gif


Long before the activation of the Halo Array, there existed these ancient humans, with a powerful and widely colonized interplanetary society. They were the first to encounter the Flood, birthed from "initially-beneficial-but-eventually-quite-terrible" powder that spread throughout the human-san'shyuum(Prophet race) black-market. Humanity then began a desperate attempt to wipe away every planet that showed even minor signs of Flood infection (of course we know why...).

The Human-Forerunner War:
TerribleJaggedBichonfrise.gif


These guys were defeated by the UrDidact (dude from Halo 4) in the Human-Forerunner war around 9000 years before the Halo Array was fired. Since they were the first to encounter the Flood, even before the Forerunners did, they would go around planet-to-planet, "cleansing" the infection basically the same way the Covenant glassed modern human planets in the Human-Covenant war. The Forerunner did not know much about the Flood at this time, assuming it was a minor infection contained on a few planets, and their limited non-violent interaction with humanity caused them to respond in all out war against them as retaliation for the destruction of their homes.


Forthencho, Lord of Admirals, military leader of the Ancient Humans, and rival to the UrDidact defended until a 50-year-long battle around the core-world of ancient humanity, Charum Hakkor, where he submitted and surrendered to the UrDidact's forces. Forerunners decided that the only reasonable response for their sleight against their people was to de-evolve their genetics to a point where they were more able to be controlled/monitored - no cause of threat to Forerunner dominance.

The final battle around Charum Hakkor, the last stand of humanity against the Forerunners, and their defeat:
WindyRaggedAlbatross.gif


Since these humans were able to drive the Flood from the galaxy at some point during the war, the Forerunners believed they had somehow found a cure for the infection, and before de-evolving them, they composed their memories and experiences to be implanted back into the reduced human culture's minds - to hopefully find that cure. Sort of like...1000+ year long interrogations through memory hacking, since the humans would not reveal anything of their experience with the Flood - like torture.

The halls of the Composer, where the initial composing and de-evolution of ancient humanity at the behest of the Builders and the hands Lifeworkers took place:

MatureAmpleGnu.gif


De-evolved ancient humans:

MenacingFrequentBufeo.gif


These guys turn up in a few places in the fiction. They are mostly the work of the Lifeworkers, the geneticists of Forerunner society more or less. Some were kept on the preservation reserves of the Halo Array and the Ark, some were kept on Earth (then called Erde-Tyrene). UrDidact Composed those that were on Installation 03, which is what lead to his "imprisonment" in the Cryptum in Requiem by his wife Librarian.

A duo of Earth-based humans (Chakas, Riser) accompanied a young Forerunner named Bornstellar, who - via a complex "personality/memory copy process" - eventually became the Didact's "replacement" - the IsoDidact, the "good" version more or less.

Modern humans:
Everyone pretty much knows about these guys, as they're the focus of the games mostly.

What does this have to do with 343 Guilty Spark?

Well in Primordium, it is revealed that Chakas, one of the de-evolved humans, and the one who contains the imprint of Lord of Admirals, was converted into a Monitor to serve Installation 04, Alpha Halo - the first to be activated in the original firing of the Array. The IsoDidact ("goodguy") called him 343 Guilty Spark.

After the events of Halo 3, ONI researchers found a "shell" of a construct within the debris field near the Ark, caused by the preliminary firing of Installation 04B. The construct told the ONI researchers a story (basically the book Primordium is that story), but then proceeded to install himself into the ONI ship's systems, and adjust lifesupport to cause them all to get knocked out. Just before, he reveals himself as Chakas - 343 Guilty Spark. He says he's studied and pondered the Lifeshaper for 100 000 years (Master Lifeworker, at one point this was Librarian, but she gave the title to another of her Forerunner Lifeworkers: Chant-to-Green just before the Halos were fired). He claims she is still "demonstrably" alive, and that he knows where to find her, then takes control of the ONI ship, and takes off... It is unclear just "which" Lifeshaper he is referring to though. That is the last we ever hear of it, so a bit of a fiction cliff-hanger I would say! I don't think it's the last we've heard of that guy.

I do like the idea of having him as your "Cortana" though, that was the only enjoyable part of The Library.
 

Korten

Banned
I have to agree with some of the Gaffers in the HaloGAF OT. Playable terminals would be awesome, plus it
would allow for a lot more lore. More so since we could see the events in 3D rather than just the 2D animation (to be fair, the animation is amazing. :D.)
 
I have to agree with some of the Gaffers in the HaloGAF OT. Playable terminals would be awesome, plus it
would allow for a lot more lore. More so since we could see the events in 3D rather than just the 2D animation (to be fair, the animation is amazing. :D.)

Even gameplay in that motion-comic artstyle would be cool to see. Works well for Halo especially the more strange stuff from the past.

--

So the Janus Key...

Two parts, red and blue, each required so that when combined they reveal the active location of all Forerunner technology. Librarian gives the key to Dr. Halsey, telling her to bring it to the Absolute Record, where she should use what she finds to propel humankind.

Now I'm no Roman scholar by any stretch of the imagination, but I looked into it (albeit on wiki), as I know many have done:

The god Janus:

God of Change, Transitions, Beginnings, etc. "He represented the middle ground between barbarism and civilization, rural and urban space, youth and adulthood."
God of the passage of Time, Doors, Passages, Journeys, etc.
Depicted as having two faces: one to gaze upon the past, the other to gaze upon the future.
"In general, Janus is at the origin of time as the guardian of the gates of Heaven: Jupiter himself can move forth and back because of Janus's working"

"While the fundamental nature of Janus is debated, in most modern scholars' view the god's functions may be seen as being organized around a single principle: presiding over all beginnings and transitions, whether abstract or concrete, sacred or profane."

The Temple of Janus: Built in the Roman Forum, the temple itself was a passageway with multiple double-doors, these were called:

The Gates of Janus: Also called the Gates of War, as the gates' were ritualistically opened or closed in times of war and relative peace.

Gates are closed: Peace
Gates are open: War

And a Janus "key" that is required to open or "access" the Absolute Record - perhaps indicating the end of peace, and beginning of war?

Are we on the brink of another all-out galactic war? Is Librarian manipulating Halsey? Is that essence even Librarian at all? Or is it all "part of the plan"?

Something to think about...

--

Other stuff that kind of falls in line with the idea that Master Chief is the "reverse-engineered" missing link between Forerunner and Humans, from a passage in Primordium (the in-universe account and memories of 343 Guilty Spark and his imprints). This was from a time when Mendicant Bias and the Primordial/Gravemind were working together to extract information from Forerunner and Human imprints alike. They were also running a complex series of experiments on humans to figure out why these particular ones on Installation 07 were not susceptible to Flood infection. Part of these experiments included using Composers to attempt to combine Humans and Flood-infected Forerunners (perhaps as an attempt to incur infection in the humans?). It is told from the ancient human Chakas' perspective (343 GS):

Superior, intensely pure curiosity - far colder and more precise and disciplined than anything I had ever known. These entities were expressing an almost cruelly isolated and lofty interest in the stages of an ongoing experiment.
Was there some sense of satisfaction at this melding of so many Forerunners and humans? Some triumphal revisiting of an ancient plan, long ago frustrated, then abandoned, but now possible once more?
Could Forerunners and humans be recombined and reverse their shivering asunder so many millions of years before... when the Primordial and the last of its kind decided on a larger, wider strategy, a greater plan that would no doubt bring about immense pain, but also a greater unity of all things...
Through the Flood, the Shaping Sickness. The greatest challenge and contest of all.
From that challenge, humans had for a moment only emerged victorious, only to be decimated by the Forerunners - a second crushing defeat for the Primordial’s plans [Refering to the Human-Forerunner War, where just before Humanity had had some semblance of success against the Flood...] All of this had been laid out in detail to the coldly logical mentality that was the Halo’s master. [Mendicant Bias? or perhaps Master Builder... I'm going with MB, though - er... Mendicant Bias ;)]
Even enhanced and combined, I - we - could only appreciate a small portion of the depth and power of this plan, this argument, unveiled to us as if we were children peering through curtains at the copulation of our parents...

This seems to imply that there was some lost knowledge of the origins of Humanity and Forerunner alike - that at some point they were indeed the same race, and that eons ago there had been a split - and that perhaps the Flood was created as a means to an end - to re-unify the races of the galaxy. But we don't have many perspectives of this to go on. Can Gravemind - a compound intellect spanning eons - be susceptible to emotional compromise? Is that the difference between it and the Precursors? We're still being toyed with... And that is kinda exciting.
 
Double post cross post:

Just a heads up for those interested in Halo lore / ARG-type stuff, a new entity has appeared on Waypoint forums, denoted: Catalog

It has begun answering some questions around the forums. It is an Admin. It has a Halo 5 avatar.

https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_profile601146.aspx

What is Catalog?

Catalog is a collective Forerunner entity composed of Juridicals, the "investigators" of Forerunner society. Although there are many entities that compose Catalog, the entity prefers to refer to itself as a collective - more specifically a singular unit. Book 3 of the Forerunner Trilogy, Silentium, is framed as a series of "info bursts" from Catalog.
 
Double post cross post:

Just a heads up for those interested in Halo lore / ARG-type stuff, a new entity has appeared on Waypoint forums, denoted: Catalog

It has begun answering some questions around the forums. It is an Admin. It has a Halo 5 avatar.

https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_profile601146.aspx

What is Catalog?

Catalog is a collective Forerunner entity composed of Juridicals, the "investigators" of Forerunner society. Although there are many entities that compose Catalog, the entity prefers to refer to itself as a collective - more specifically a singular unit. Book 3 of the Forerunner Trilogy, Silentium, is framed as a series of "info bursts" from Catalog.


So the Hype Train/ARG begins!
 
Double post cross post:

Just a heads up for those interested in Halo lore / ARG-type stuff, a new entity has appeared on Waypoint forums, denoted: Catalog

It has begun answering some questions around the forums. It is an Admin. It has a Halo 5 avatar.

https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_profile601146.aspx

What is Catalog?

Catalog is a collective Forerunner entity composed of Juridicals, the "investigators" of Forerunner society. Although there are many entities that compose Catalog, the entity prefers to refer to itself as a collective - more specifically a singular unit. Book 3 of the Forerunner Trilogy, Silentium, is framed as a series of "info bursts" from Catalog.

I just love it when they do this sort of stuff, gets the community pumped
 
Everyone else may hate the fact that the Forerunner's "mystery" was absolved, but once everything comes together and you truly understand it all.

Fuck yeah.

Hyped!
 
Link

Contacting Domain . . . . . . . .
Failure.
ERR,REGRESS.
Alert! Critical Reconciliation Error.
Contacting Domain . . . . . . . .
Failure.
ERR,REGRESS.
Alert! Critical Reconciliation Error.
Contacting Edom Terminal\Juridical . . . Edom = Mars
Connected. [Rm9yIGV2ZXJ5IGpveSB0aGVyZSBpcyBhIHByaWNl] String converts to: For every joy there is a price.
[WARNING] \sysdiag\security
Intrusion detected in site [fractal]! Builder Security alerted. Fractal generally refers to AI housing crystals... still unsure what the intruder is, or why there are Builders on Mars right now

Requests filtered and prioritized.
Quote:
Query Question: Is there anything of importance we must know. If so what is that information? If you cant give us this information, any idea how we can find out this information?

\sys\log\commit
Error parsing question.
Quote:
Second Query Question: Is there need of a testimonial or are you just observing? I am sure the community here would gladly answer any questions you need answered if required.

Error parsing question. Consult [Portal] Library link. Suggesting a Library data link at Portal at Voi?
Alert! Remote command protocol update denied [abusus non tollit usum] Latin for (roughly): abuse does not exclude use ---- from some light research: "Just because something is misused doesn't mean it can't be used." - This is a legal expression which means that abusing a law does not imply necessarily the ban or cut or removal of that law, but it says that that very law must be respected to certain limits.
Quote:
Linking Query: Are you in the hands of the UNSC or ONI. Or are you separate from them?

No applicable authority.
Quote:
Query: How did High Charity make it to the Lesser Ark in 2552?

Anomalous slipspace intrusion within expected displacement envelope was detected in Edom [airspace] at [2552:1218154551-1218154821]. [Manifold] profile not in local [cache], forwarding to [sector command] for analysis. Alert! [Waypoint] information restricted on authority of [Librarian]. Datestamp confirms entity is of "present-day" in-universe. Refering to Edom (Mars) airspace however, not Erde-Tyrene, which is Earth.

Unix time conversion of string after 2552 timestamp: 1218154551 = GMT: Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:15:51 (12:15:51am) Second timestamp string: GMT: Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:20:21 (12:20:21am)
Alternatively in MM:DD::HH:MM:SS format: Dec 18, 3:45:51pm - Dec 18, 3:48:21pm (battle of Installation 00 began Dec 11, 2552) unsure which is relevant

Quote:
Query: What is the average lifespan of an average Macto Cognatus?
Macto Cognatus is the Latin name for the Elite species - Sangheili

Life expectancy from [hatching] recorded as 27 [years] at time of index. Requesting [index technician] review.
Quote:
Query: What is your current status?

Active. Pending [magnus custos] review. Latin for (roughly): Great Guardian/Sentinel/Keeper
Quote:
Query: What is your task?

Query requires elevated command authority.
Quote:
Query: What is the status of Installation 07? Have the Flood been contained there? What of Monitor 117649?

\\sys\analysis\error
Multiple priority queries detected in string.
Quote:
Query: With New Phoenix being reinhabited in Escalation, what's the status of Ivanoff Station?

Human [eyes] at [gamma site] is currently active. Edom [control] unable to contact installation monitor for [ERR,REGRES] cycles. Requesting [site] status from ecumene [control]. Gamma Site = Installation 03 (ring/station from Halo 4), suggests monitor is no longer active, Ecumene control could be referring to the Ark, unknown, Edom (mars) control again... unknown why this keeps getting brought up - Mars was a somewhat active centre in Forerunner times, but as far as the lore suggests so far, there weren't any known Installations there. However, the first photograph of what we believe was High Charity was taken from a human facility on Mars a year before first-contact in 2525.
Quote:
Query: Is there a countermeasure or "cure" to the Flood that does not involve the firing of the Halo Array?

No countermeasures recorded in local [cache]. Initiate priority containment protocols in event of parasite outbreak.
Quote:
Query: Are humans worthy of the Mantle or must they first show their capabilities through a "test" of sorts?

\\sys\analysis\error
Alarm! [flamma fumo est proxima] Query contains logic plague markers. Latin for (roughly): Where there's smoke, there's fire. Logic plague refers to Flood ability to influence/"infect" AI constructs, despite their in-organic nature. Mendicant Bias was the first recorded AI to be turned via logic plague (I believe)
Process quarantine.
[Reboot]


--

Analysis incoming... Will add in BOLD
 
The Latin parts are interesting. Especially the last one. flamma fumo est proxima is roughly translated to "Where there's smoke, there's fire".
 
Note: Lot's of "8" references being thrown around. I suspect something will be happening on August 08. Not sure yet.

well I know 7/7 is Bungie Day. Has 343 made it just Halo Day at this point?

I was thinking 8/8 is Gamescon, where we could expect more info, but that's later (Aug 13-17)
 

Korten

Banned
Love this thread. I look forward to MrGreenCastle posts.

Yeah, everyone give a lot of props to MrGreenCastle.

I love Halo a shit ton, breath it every day... But unlike MrGreenCastle, I'm fucking terrible at
analysis. So reading his posts is really awesome. :D
 
Love this thread. I look forward to MrGreenCastle posts.

Yeah, everyone give a lot of props to MrGreenCastle.

I love Halo a shit ton, breath it every day... But unlike MrGreenCastle, I'm fucking terrible at
analysis. So reading his posts is really awesome. :D

Thanks :)

And thanks for considering my posts analysis! Haha, it's more like pooping thoughts and summaries onto a page to me, but I try to make it presentable :p

This Catalog stuff came at the wrong
right?
time, right smack in the middle of my new-found "obsession". edit: also, I should say a lot of my posts are just personal conjecture (and not always original, usually inspired), so don't take it as the word or anything like that, I could prove to be horribly, horribly wrong at any time in the near future.
 
Thanks :)

And thanks for considering my posts analysis! Haha, it's more like pooping thoughts and summaries onto a page to me, but I try to make it presentable :p

This Catalog stuff came at the wrong
right?
time, right smack in the middle of my new-found "obsession". edit: also, I should say a lot of my posts are just personal conjecture (and not always original, usually inspired), so don't take it as the word or anything like that, I could prove to be horribly, horribly wrong at any time in the near future.

No MrGreenCastle thank you for these wonderful posts

giphy.gif
 

rokkerkory

Member
Been trying to research this but no concrete answers...

how in the universe can only 7 halos actually destroy the galaxy of all life forms? too much space and solar systems and planets for just 7 halos to destroy?
 
Been trying to research this but no concrete answers...

how in the universe can only 7 halos actually destroy the galaxy of all life forms? too much space and solar systems and planets for just 7 halos to destroy?

Well the Halos most likely have some diameter of effect that 7 rings placed in strategic positions are plenty for eradicating all life in the Milky Way. So far we only know of two locations (and the Arc), so who knows how far off the others are.

Wait? What? Forerunners had a presence on Mars during the Ancient times?

Yup. It's featured in the Forerunner Trilogy of books, but they called Mars by the name Edom.

http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Mars
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Been trying to research this but no concrete answers...

how in the universe can only 7 halos actually destroy the galaxy of all life forms? too much space and solar systems and planets for just 7 halos to destroy?

The idea is that the overlapping of the Halo's pulses amplifies the signal greater than the range of the seven rings in isolation, hence how the entire galaxy gets nuked.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
When I realized the link, I went right to Halopedia instead. lol. My understanding is they're a lot better when it comes to accurate info.

They sort of jumped ship and split off when Wikia started muscling in and becoming more obtrusive. They are more likely to be updated more frequently, but some people who work on Halopedia take it a bit personally if you link to Wikia as well :p
 

Pikawil

Unconfirmed Member
They sort of jumped ship and split off when Wikia started muscling in and becoming more obtrusive. They are more likely to be updated more frequently, but some people who work on Halopedia take it a bit personally if you link to Wikia as well :p
Jumping ship and splitting off when Wikia started muscling in and becoming more obtrusive happened to a bunch of others wikis as well, such as the Transformers Wiki, SmashWiki, the Kingdom Hearts Wiki, the Touhou Wiki, WikiSimpsons... Safe to say there's a shared sentiment of dislike towards Wikia's politics.

I also take it a bit personally when I see people on the Smash 4 topics link to Smashpedia instead of SmashWiki. :p
 
They sort of jumped ship and split off when Wikia started muscling in and becoming more obtrusive. They are more likely to be updated more frequently, but some people who work on Halopedia take it a bit personally if you link to Wikia as well :p

I like the design of the Wikia page, but some bits of information is just incomplete or completely wrong. I prefer Halopedia, but this was clearly a case of using Bing and not looking at the url as I copy/paste.
 

Korten

Banned
They sort of jumped ship and split off when Wikia started muscling in and becoming more obtrusive. They are more likely to be updated more frequently, but some people who work on Halopedia take it a bit personally if you link to Wikia as well :p

Personally, just from a visual standpoint, Halopedia is a lot more visually pleasing, it's simple and easier to follow along. Plus they're typically more
detailed and updated faster. Hence why I will also be using Destinypedia and not Destiny.wiki. XD

Like look at these two pages:

http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Human

http://www.halopedia.org/Human

Halopedia in the top section provides a more detailed (albeit longer than wikia's) summary of Humanity, however even when you scroll down you get more sections, and more detail.
Hell, the wikia doesn't even include post-war information. :/
 
Wait? What? Forerunners had a presence on Mars during the Ancient times?
Real question is why wouldn't they investigate other planets, solar systems, galaxies for potential studies and use? If the forerunners left the Ark portal along with populating humans purposely on earth in the original trilogy its safe to assume they've been involved on other worlds.
 
Holy shit at Greencastle's infobombs

The stuff with the H4 maps was incredible

Thanks! :)

I've got quite a few more half-done posts that I'm working on. It's difficult to talk about the more abstract stuff while also providing visuals (which I think is absolutely necessary in a megapost, because otherwise I don't read them). For now I've got a few things to add to that list with the whole Catalog bit that seems to be a trend that will continue on Fridays and Saturdays on Waypoint (maybe I should start posting there to see if I can get some of my crazy questions answered...)

The multiplayer maps are certainly interesting and fun to go back viewing them from a more lore-oriented perspective, despite my distaste for the multiplayer and many of the maps' gameplay themselves. I feel 343 spent a lot of time getting them to a point where they are connected and justified. When working on the Hakkor-MP map post above, I wondered if the "broken" planet near Installation 03 was related in some sense. That's a planet that really interests me. (note: barely anything is shown in the cutscenes here aside from slight glimpses as there was a lot else going on in Chief's world at the time, and the skybox as viewable from Ivanoff Station curiously hides much in the way of gleaning info... I think it's not the last we've seen of Installation 03).

Some other interesting maps that I'm looking at: Longbow (the "longbow device" itself, and the planetoid in the skybox), Wreckage (this map is a Line Installation, lot's of interesting connections and visuals), Solace (What star could this be? Why suspend its death with the machine?), Shatter (mostly for the crystals...a recurring fictional element that interests me greatly). Well... really I want to get to all of them at some point, including those from CEA for Reach.

Working on a "catchup" post for this past weekend's Catalog activities. Lot's of interesting new info tidbits added to the universe.

--

Here's a really cool "scale chart" compiled by a user (Stephen Loftus) over at HBO:

http://halo.bungie.org/misc/sloftus_scalecomparison/1280h.html

It should be up to date as of June 2014.

--

Happy Canada Day HaloLoreGAF! Canada would be 147 years old :p

Incoming megapost... Sorry about the DoublepostTriplepost, it was a bit too long to fit in one...

An intro:

So this past weekend, there was a new presence on the Waypoint Forums called Catalog. As some of you know, Catalog is an entity responsible for the collection and investigation of information pertaining to Forerunner Society, but more specifically as it relates to the Mantle. In the fiction, we are familiar with Catalog as the entity responsible for collecting the stories ("strings") in the third Forerunner novel, Silentium. 343i doesn't seem to like the idea of having any piece of fiction not being grounded in the universe in some way, so it's fun to see how they frame the new pieces that didn't take place in the current "in-universe-time". You'll likely see this to an astounding effect with the Master Chief Collection, actually.

It is curious that this entity has decided to show up now of all times, but near the end of its activities on Saturday evening, it told us that it would return on Fridays and Saturdays for the foreseeable future. I believe this is a means by which 343i can "clean up" some of the more obscure or disjointed lore going forward without directly having to address it in new fiction (not that they couldn't), and I think it's a great idea. They can also use Catalog to start laying seeds for the future of the Halo fiction going forward, as a bit of a tease to the more informed Halo fans.

Note: I don't speak Latin, and I haven't studied it at all in my life, and since Catalog is composed from Juridicals (read: lawyer-speak) I may be more than a little bit off with some of this, so bear with me on this! So expect some disjointedness, of course!

There will be spoilers for pretty much any piece of fiction up to this point (including comics) so beware!
 
Temporary link established.
Temporal frame of reference update requested.
Error confirmed [coram vobis] [
wiki: Coram Vobis/Nobis is a legal writ issued by a court to correct a previous error "of the most fundamental character" to "achieve justice" where "no other remedy" is available.
]. Amend reference to slipspace event to [2552:1118154551-1118154821].

Initial message corrected.

This response was in reference to a previous date stamp given for when High Charity had used a Portal to arrive at the lesser Ark during the events of Halo 3. The previous datestamp given was: 2552:1218154551-1218154821 which was then amended to the above. Makes sense as the fiction has established that the battle of the Lesser Ark/Installation 00 (shown in Halo 3) began Dec 11, 2552, and only lasted a day or so at most leading to the activation of Halo 04B and the split of the Forward Unto Dawn through the return Portal.

So we now can confirm a couple things based on these posts:

-The battle of the Ark took place almost a month after the initial slipspace jump from the Portal at Voi (despite it seeming almost instant from the game's cutscenes). So the travel to the extra-galactic location of the Ark took almost a month - pretty crazy! (should be about Nov17-Dec18, 2552)
-High Charity (under the control of the Gravemind at this point, with Cortana on-board) did not seem to use the same Portal at Voi, rather used one on Nov 18 near/on Mars
-There are active Forerunner constructs/facilities (at the very least Catalog) on Mars, which in Forerunner's time was called Edom

Here's a clip of the Slipspace jump of the Gravemind-controlled High Charity during a cutscene during The Covenant:

And we can see that it crashed very near the foundary at the centre of the Ark, also where Installation 04B was being constructed:

Here is the crash site shown in the opening to the level Cortana (some nice animated concept art for these locations in-game...):

--

Process tree cleared.
Contacting Edom Terminal\Juridical . . .
Note: Edom is Mars
Connected. [Rm9jdXMuIFByb3RlY3QuIFByZXNlcnZlLg==] [
String converts to: Focus. Protect. Serve.
]
[WARNING] \sysdiag\security
Builder Security not responding. Facility [AI] reporting acceptable conditions. Queuing request for low intensity military exploratory detachment to [audit].

The opening connection is important in my opinion. So a Juridical composing Catalog seems to be accessed via a Juridical Network Terminal on Mars (or via Mars). The Juridical Network is what interconnected many Juridicals to form the entity Catalog as well as a store of much of the Juridical information.

The last Terminal access, from the post above, we see Catalog attempting to contact Builder Security (
Builders were the rate of Forerunner responsible for creation of many of the Installations we see in the fiction, led by Master Builder: Faber. They are the "highest" rate in the caste system. Security were responsible for combat and security duties within the rate and used massive combat skin/machine suits called Seekers. Bornstellar, who before becoming the IsoDidact, a Warrior-Servant rate, was a young Builder - a Manipular
).

So the "story" so far from the Catalog Terminal after the warning during the \sysdiag\security scan:
-Intrusion detected in site [fractal]! Builder Security alerted. [
Some sort of intrusion is detected in [fractal] - usually refers to AI-housing crystals. Perhaps an intrusion within the AI construct in charge of the facility
]
-Builder Security not responding. Facility [AI] reporting acceptable conditions. Queuing request for low intensity military exploratory detachment to [audit]. [
We see that Builder Security is not responding (probably because they are either long dead from Halo or devices are malfunctioning). The facility's AI says things are all good - is this a purely digital construct? A monitor? Either way, it is going to request a military audit of the installation... perhaps via Sentinels.
]

Quote:
Query: after leaving the Lesser Ark, where did the IsoDidact and the remiainng Forrunners go? Do their descendants exist in another galaxy or even this one?

Master Juridical [certiorari] forwarded to [locus poenitentiae?]. Further records sealed pending Juridical review of New Council activities.

Certiorari = Records of a jury
Locus Poenitentiae = Place of Repentance/Penance | legalese: it is the opportunity of withdrawing from a projected contract, before the parties are finally bound; or of abandoning the intention of committing a crime, before it has been completed

So the records (the Silentium strings related to IsoDidact) have been sent to this place of repentance. We know that the IsoDidact, after activating the Halo Array, took the remaining Forerunners on their own Great Journey, promising to never meddle in the affairs of the beings in the galaxy again. There's really a lot to go into here, but suffice to say here's the fast version: the New Council was established around a decade or so before the end of the Forerunner-Flood war. Master Builder had manipulated his way into complete control of the Old Council for hundreds of years, which lead to the exile of UrDidact and his Prometheans, and the creation of the Halo Array. Master Builder instructed Mendicant Bias (most powerful forerunner AI created by him and Didact to locate and destroy the Gravemind, but now rampant) to use Installation 07 to test on the San 'Shyuum (Prophet race) homeworld - killing almost all of them, which lead to the extradition of the Master Builder from the council - and the whole catalyst for the Catalog investigation told in Silentium. During Master Builder's trial, Mendicant Bias appeared with the missing Installation 07 and executed most of the Old Council by firing the rings right in the Capital. Thus the New Council was established.

Here's an excerpt from Silentium discussing Catalogs records of the events that followed concerning the Master Juridical:

THE MASTER JURIDICAL arrived at the greater Ark shortly after the fall of the Capital system, in company with the last surviving members of the New Council.
All Juridicals now gather in his august presence. The Master Juridical first expresses concern about a continuing blackout of the Domain. "No agent or ancilla, of any scale, has been able to connect with the Domain for over a year. Our deepest and most sacred records are no longer available."
Juridical proceedings are at a standstill, and not just because of that interruption.
"Haruspis is no longer in the network, even when it is open-and may be dead," he says. "There are no other Haruspices to watch over the Domain. The number of our agents still reporting has been greatly reduced. Those assembled here may be the last. But our work must proceed, in the hope that circumstances will improve.
"Catalog has been instructed by the Master Juridical to attend the meeting of the new commanders. The last survivors of the New Council have given all power over to the Master Builder.
"Henceforth, all Forerunner command conferences are to be attended by Catalog," the Master Juridical says. I wonder if there are enough of us! "No exceptions."

There's so much more, I feel like this is getting besides the point, lol. Basically, the idea here is the New Council could still exist, albeit somewhere at this Place of Repentance, a locus poenitentiae. Perhaps this is a Shield World, like Requiem. Perhaps it is extragalactic. Who knows at this point?

There's more hints on just what happened to the rest of the Forerunners post-activation in Silentium Rebirth: http://www.halopedia.org/Halo:_Rebirth

Quote:
Query: Does the year 2324 hold significance to you?

Searching . . .
No cases scheduled for [2324]. 16777216 cases remain unscheduled in local [cache].
Warning! Time since last successful synchronization: 876621261±512 [hours] (
= 100004.561268 years ± 21.33 days. Likely the Juridical last synced with the rest of its network before the Halo Array fired, it seems to have still observed and made cases since then, though, hence the extraordinary amount of unscheduled in its local "cache"
)

2324 is a year referenced in the latest step of the Section 3 ARG (specifically the treasure-room and passthrough). Personally, I believe much of the latest bits from the Section 3 ARG is non-canon, or at least, highly highly metaphorical to how events or stories are referred to in-universe, so I will say that currently, there isn't much of a connection between Catalog on Waypoint, and the Section 3 ARG - yet...

Quote:
Query: What is the significance of the UEG Colony Coral?

Searching . . .
Updating coordinates from Edom [control]. [
Mars control facility referenced again, and the coordinates needed to be updated likely due to natural star/planet-shift over the course of 100 000 years
]
Searching . . .
Location coincident with [CE-2-1239 e].
Multiple [cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelom] violations inferred. [
Latin for: whoever owns [the] soil, [it] is theirs all the way [up] to Heaven (though the full expression would include "et ad inferos" - and to Hell) - legal terms: a principle of property law, stating that property holders have rights not only to the plot of land itself, but also to the air above and (in the broader formulation) the ground below.
]
Filing cases. Request Juridical [advocates] [ad litem] for summary judgement. [
latin legal expression for: "the appointment by a court of one party to act in a lawsuit on behalf of another party—for instance, a child or an incapacitated adult—who is deemed incapable of representing him or herself."
]

Coral is a UEG (United Earth Government) colony refered to in the "i love bees" ARG from pre-Halo 2. I will note: i love bees is CANON in my opinion. It is strange as all things cryptic, but it does have relevance now in universe, and likely much more in the future, as well. Of this I am convinced! I will not dismiss it until I'm told directly by Frank O'Connor to dismiss it :p

This Coral reference is super duper exciting to me as it relates to another post I have been slaving over for a few weeks (and I'm not even sure is going to see the light of day at this point...) Time to adjust!

For now, here is an excerpt from Conversations from the Universe (pieces included in the Halo 2 limited edition, and as far as I know written entirely by Mr. Stinkles himself!)

Letter From Coral:
>>> CENSORED FOR: "ARTIFACT ON CORAL." - ESKO KORPIJAAKKO (UNSC ADJUNCT ORION ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION) >>>

My Dearest Carrie, I know things are tense at home, so I hope this letter finds you and Oscar well, or at least bearing up. Our work continues apace, and while we are alone out here, at least we're busy, and this system remains unmolested by Covenant.

We've been joined by a UNSC science team, and what I believe are ONI agents. They're actually quite helpful, if secretive, and have supplied us with excellent tech. However, they're most definitely NOT archaeologists and have very different ideas of how long a dig should take.

There are things they don't wish us to discuss on open channels, and I'll respect that, but this artifact is truly remarkable.

The object on Coral was discovered during routine quarrying. Explosives revealed the top of the object, blasting out a depth of around 30 meters. Surrounding rock and dirt were evaporated- but this object wasn't even scorched.

It's undeniably alien. For one thing, it is made of a material we can't identify. It's a metallic crystal, although its mode of manufacture is unexplained. It's architecturally perfect. Walls are identical in height to a near-atomic scale. Symmetry is impossibly accurate. Yet it's rich in detail, and adorned with what appear to be purely decorative, artistic motifs.

We know that the eighty or so meters we've uncovered so far are likely the tip of the iceberg. There seems to be a complex of galleries and vaults beneath, but so far, its secrets remain sealed like a tomb.

Incredibly, it may not be Covenant origin. I fear however, that its age may mean its mystery is lost to time. I just pray that we find some clue, some data that can help in the war.

I love you and I miss you. Kiss Oscar for me.

Ever yours, Esko

According to Catalog, Coral is a location coincident with something it refers to as [CE-2-1239 e], what this means is anybody's guess, still... unknown. Perhaps it is a datestamp for CE (common era)...something... I dunno... (Caenorhabditis Elegans? very big stretch...)

So we know that ONI found an Artifact of some kind here, possibly Forerunner, as it is referring to perfect fractal geometry, possibly hardlight I'm not too sure. We do not know when, though we can assume it was before 2552. We know that Coral is about 42 light-years from Earth, based on this excerpt from i love bees (mirror). And that it was likely hit by Covenant, as per this excerpt from the i love bees saga.

We also know that another character from the Halo Universe from Halo 3: ODST, Dutch, served in the Coral system at one point - he refers to the asteroid belt, so it seems Coral has a ring system? In this interview of Dutch (Taylor Miles) as part of an ARG campaign for ODST, you'll have to download and install silverlight and find the interview: http://cdn.haloodst.xbox.com/odst/index.html but I'll pull an excerpt from it here, the {} denote images on-screen during the interview:
Buck: What experience do you have with close-quarters combat?
{Dutch's thoughts: Engaging a Brute in close-quarters combat}
Dutch: Experience with close-quarters combat is extensive. You've got detailed accounts on engagements for Ariel, Jericho Space Elevator, and Coral asteroid belt in my file.
{Dutch's thoughts: Fighting in various battlefields with other ODSTs}

This specific dude and his squad have seen a lot of behind the scenes stuff, especially if you've read the Halo: Helljumper comic series, I'd recommend it ;)

The violations referred to here are likely in reference to human occupancy, and the Covenant's subsequent assumed "glassing" of the planet itself.

Quote:
Query: What is the significance of the Boomerang Nebula

Searching . . .
Updating coordinates from Edom [control].
Searching . . .
Location coincident with multiple [star road] loci.
Location coincident with multiple [classis malum].
Warning! Fleet command [sector] designation: Burn. No transit permitted.

Not a whole lot of info here, though we do get an idea of the significance of the Boomerang Nebula, a location discussed in one of the parts to IRIS - Among Server 04's "rewards" contained an unknown.jpg of the Nebula. IRIS is very, very strange. I consider it highly canon, though, like most of the more cryptic fiction I feel it is part of the foundation for the future of Halo, so naturally I have a megapost on it...

Some info on the Boomerang Nebula:

Coldest place "in the known Universe", observed at 1K via Hubble, it is around 5000 light years from Earth. It is formed from a long exploded star, which is now a white dwarf, its gases forming a boomerang-like shape around its gravity well.

Star Roads were interstellar Precursor constructs composed of neural physics, and so mostly believed to be destroyed by the Halo activation. Apparently there are/were star roads in said nebula. Classis Malum I'm not too sure about since I don't speak Latin. Classis could be: Class/Fleet/Ships/Navy/Forces, and Malum could be: Evil/Mischief/Disaster/Calamity... If I were to piece together a theory from this I'd be crazy: I believe this location had life, and that something bad happened there. ;)

The sector is designated a Burn. Burns were totally Flood infested systems, so perhaps Boomerang was established Forerunner space at one point?

Quote:
Query: What is the status of Installation 07?

Searching . . .
Result: 1 case pending against Monitor 117649.
Summary: Multiple [libellus conventionis] filed by [alpha site] [
Installation 04 - Alpha Halo
] Monitor 343. Consolidated. Awaiting update from Juridical [control].
Warning! [site] status request requires elevated command authority.

Installation 07 is a very important ring, one that we have yet to visit in-game, but have heard a little bit about in the Forerunner Trilogy. It is the place where many humans and Forerunners were experimented upon by Mendicant Bias and Primordial/Gravemind.

It seems 343 GS filed some sort of case against him, perhaps because he was unable to contact him after a certain point in time as discussed in the Halo CE Anniversary Terminals. But maybe for some other more ominous reason?

Interestingly, Catalog seems to be unable to get a status update on Installation 07 itself, requiring higher command authority. That is curious.

Quote:
Query: What is the status 049 Abject Testament?

Searching . . .
No case pending against Monitor 049.

Only time we see this guy is in the Terminals for Halo CE Anniversary, only thing he said to 343 GS was: "We deserve to be forgotten."

Interesting that no case is pending though in contrast to at least 2 other Installation monitors...

Quote:
Query: What is the status of 2401 Penitent Tangent?

Searching . . .
Result: 2 cases pending against Monitor 2401.
Summary: Multiple [libellus conventionis] filed by [alpha site] Monitor 343. Consolidated. Awaiting update from Juridical [control]. Incomplete filing of [animus nocendi] [
Latin: Mind Harm, legalese: Animus nocendi is an essential element for establishing a crime. Animus nocendi refers to the state of mind of an accused person with reference to the knowledge of the illegality of the person’s behavior, and its possible consequences Animus Nocendi is required as an essential condition to give a penal condemnation
.] against Monitor 2401 from [delta site] [burgarii] [
Latin: defenders of borders/marches or inhabitant of a castle/fort, I'm going to guess this relates to the Flood Containment wall seen in Halo 2, perhaps the Sentinel Enforcers
] received 22959960±8 [hours] [
2619.262 years ± 8 hours
] ago by Edom [control]. [legal form letter] sent by Edom [control] requesting reply from [delta site] [
Delta Halo - Installation 05
] [burgarii] through approved channels.

So I believe the Sentinels or other defense constructs filed animus nocendi (a proof of state of mal-intent?) against 2401 Penitent Tangent to Edom/Mars control (seems to be a Juridical centre or court of some kind after all these posts?...) around 2600 years prior to the events in the games. So we can perhaps establish a bit of a timeline here with regards to Installation 05 - Delta Halo's "downfall".

Alternatively, bugarii (though it is plural) could be referring to the ancilla in charge of the Flood Containment Facility, an "aperture/lens" of which can possibly seen in the Halo 3 map Cold Storage:

So using some info we have on Delta Halo - 05, from some weekly updates:
"The Smuggler (working title for Cold Storage map)" Part 1
"The Smuggler" Part 2

Reports:
~Year 97 448 BCE: Halo is activated (according to 343GS... 97448 BCE + 2552 CE = 100 000)
~Some years after Halo activation... First report sent to 2401 concerning first containment failure 8 minutes after failure itself, requests security and maintenance detail
~32 minutes, 9 seconds from first request, second report is made to 2401 - still waiting
~24 hours from first request, third report is made to 2401 - still waiting
~290 years from first request, fourth report is made to 2401 - Flood research/containment facility (Cold Storage map) experiences a security breach from the teleporters, teleporters are switched to recursive mode (to how they work in multiplayer) to further contain breaches. Request is made to 2401 for an emergency security detail. Still waiting initial security detail.
~Fifth report is made - DERELICTION OF DUTY, noting 2401 PT has been lax in maintenance and security.

Logs:
~First Log Query is made to other Halo installations concerning their containment status - no problems reported. Suggests containment failure was a mechanical/manufacturing flaw. Notes that nothing has accessed Delta Halo for ~99 713 years, apparently only leaving a ~7 year margin of error (likely the date of this report from Halo activation). Suggests sabotage was unlikely.
~Second Log is made: request unanswered by 2401, containment facility cooled to 184K via a pressure reduction to 0.1 atm
~Third Log is made: request unanswered by 2401, containment facility back up to 278K due to stress, so 1 atm
~Fourth Log is made: transportation conduits (teleporters?) have been accessed by unauthorized parties.
~Fifth and final log is made: Complaint filed to Installation 00 - 2401 accused of being lax in areas of maintenance and security, etc.

~Year 60 BCE: Sentinels/Ancilla file incomplete animus nocendi against Monitor 2401, likely related to the above?

Quote:
Query: What is the extent of the Forerunner presence on Edom?

Searching . . .
Connection lost.
Contacting Edom Terminal\Juridical . . .
Connection refused.
Contacting Edom Terminal\Juridical . . .
Connection refused.
\\sysdiag\security\[apparitor] [
latin: an official formerly sent to carry out the orders of a magistrate, judge, or court
]
Contacting Edom Terminal\Juridical . . .
Connection locked.
Initiating [quaere].

So either this question locked the Juridical network (until next Friday/Saturday), or it just auto-timed out... Interesting nonetheless...

--


Apologies for this double-quote nonsense, had a hard time trying to figure a better way to lay it out...

Anyway...

TL;DR:
For people who don't like to read and prefer a video (I would make videos, but I don't really know how, and I prefer writing things as I think of them, maybe some day). A YouTube user, Halo Canon, has posted 2 so far concerning this new stuff, too. I like his style - he even does some voice-acting (SUPERPROPS!): Part One and Part Two
 

aj1467

Member
Just wanted to say that I love your mega posts MrGreencastle

I could read this kinda stuff all day!

I'm excited about what info Catalog drops us this week. Seems to have been so much good stuff so far, like the Forerunner Mars stuff, blue team not being under the command of the Spartan branch, and Black team being alive and on/near installation 03.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
One thing, Green, can you post the link to the original forum posts when you quote them over here, just so it's easier to go back and look at the original context?

It is interesting they're putting so much into Edom--wonder why we haven't found any Forerunner ruins on it thus far that we know of, given it's been colonized for years, hasn't it?
 

aj1467

Member
It is interesting they're putting so much into Edom--wonder why we haven't found any Forerunner ruins on it thus far that we know of, given it's been colonized for years, hasn't it?

Well I suppose we don't know exactly how much of the planet has been colonised? Or if the ruins are deep underground. Also if they are underground then maybe the forerunners hid the entrance using a dazzler.

Considering no one managed to find the portal at voi until the covenant came and dug it up, I wouldn't be all that surprised if the humans built on top/around of them.
 
Just wanted to say that I love your mega posts MrGreencastle

I could read this kinda stuff all day!

I'm excited about what info Catalog drops us this week. Seems to have been so much good stuff so far, like the Forerunner Mars stuff, blue team not being under the command of the Spartan branch, and Black team being alive and on/near installation 03.

Thanks :)

Catalog is a great idea from 343i.

One thing, Green, can you post the link to the original forum posts when you quote them over here, just so it's easier to go back and look at the original context?

It is interesting they're putting so much into Edom--wonder why we haven't found any Forerunner ruins on it thus far that we know of, given it's been colonized for years, hasn't it?

Apologies, will do. That makes sense. Sadly I ran out of space for the last post I had to start deleting some of the more superfluous rambling.

So I'll make sure I do that if I do more of those kinds of posts in the future.
 
Top Bottom