So now that we know that Cortana will have some level of a role to fulfill in Halo 5, this opens the door for the always enjoyable speculative theorizing. How, exactly, did she come to be there to speak to Chief? How was she able to tell him about the Domain, when she had not once previously mentioned it to Chief while during the events of Halo 3 and 4? How is the Domain still in existence? Her knowledge of this vast network of information/memories/soul speak/histories was shown to her while she was in the clutches of the Gravemind on High Charity, and even at that, she was only given but a small taste of it.
Human AIs crave knowledge. It's an addiction. This need to feed on new data is also what brings AIs to their own deathbed, as the technological limitations of human AIs do not allow an AI to live past seven years, as this is when an AI begins to go rampant due to an overloading of their storage capacity. An AI approaching it's seventh year will be terminated, essentially, before this can occur. This partly what brings a sense of urgency to the story of Halo 4. Yeah, the UrDidact is awake and preparing to eradicate humanity, but that's the bigger, loftier crisis. The smaller crisis, the one that makes Halo 4's story so special, is the connection between one Spartan and one AI, both connected to each other because they are both so far removed from what they both want- to be human.
Cortana: "Before this is all over, promise me you'll figure out which one of us is the machine."
In a way, the story of Halo has always been leading up to this. We catch glimpses of it Halo CE, but it really starts to blossom in Halo 2 and 3, where we begin to witness Cortana try to break the confines of her limitations. Chief, a stoic and static character during the earlier games, begins to question himself and question his surroundings- not in a way to cast doubt on what he needs to do- but in a way that casts doubt on who he is. But who is he? He isn't sure. For most of his life, "who" he is has been defined by others- Halsey, ONI, the UNSC. As a Spartan, he is expected to act, and act swiftly. He was created to die, essentially, in the name of protecting humanity. And he has done so, and countless times! But at some point, that wall begins to crumble, and then it starts to collapse.
Chief: "Our duty, as soldiers, is to protect humanity. Whatever the cost."[/i]
Lasky: You say that like soldiers and humanity are two different things. Soldiers aren't machines. We're just people...
Chief: "She said that to me once... about being a machine."
The inner turmoil that has been supressed for all those years- it's bubbling up and it's starting to creep into the cracks where real emotion has shattered Chief's subconcious defenses. Sometimes, you cannot truly appreciate what you have or what you've been given until you feel the pain of loss. The one other being in all of the universe that Chief could confide in was ripped from him. He's so used to saving others, that he doesn't know how to handle being the one that was saved, and at such a great level of sacrifice. Cortana... was gone.
Or so we thought.
I've seen people say over the past couple years that if Cortana gets brought back, it will cheapen the ending of Halo 4. I disagree. What happens in Halo 4 was a stepping stone for Chief. He needed to be broken down in order to be raised back up. If Cortana truly is brought back, in whatever fashion, it won't be for cheap plot lines or "teh feels". There's real purpose and consequence in what's happened to her since she was linked to the Gravemind, and given all that has happened, I have this hunch that her story isn't over yet.
So what happened to Cortana, that would allow for her to appear before Chief? Could it be a halluciantion? Could it be a mental imprint that she left on him in some way? Could it be a trick of the Librarian? There's a lot of good theories, and all of them are no more or no less plausible at this point, but I do have a few that I would be more inclined to dig into than others.
3 Theories:
1. The Librarian
Librarian: "Reclaimer, when I indexed mankind for repopulation, I hid seeds from the Didact. Seeds which would lead to an eventuality. Your physical evolution. Your combat skin. Even your ancilla, Cortana. You are the culmination of a thousand lifetimes of planning."
Chief: "Planning for what?"
Yes...planning for what indeed? With 99% surety, I think that either Halsey or Cortana contains the genetic imprint of the Librarian herself. The Librarian did to Chant-to-Green what UrDidact did to Bornstellar, and Chant-to-Green passed her geas onto Vinevra, just as Bornstellar passed his geas onto Riser. I believe that Halsey is a bloodline descendant of Vinevra, same as Chief being a bloodline descendant of Riser, however- whereas Chief contans the geas of Bornstellar, I think that's entirely possible that the geas of Librarian was passed onto and through the cloned brain of Halsey and currently lies dormant within Cortana. This "culmination of a thousand lifetimes of planning" doesn't mean that Halsey and Chief were the exact-planned humans to rise up, but it was the hope that eventually, at the correct time and with the right triggers, the implanted genetic markers would be "awoken".
During the campaign mission "Reclaimer" in Halo 4, Cortana vanishes after being put into a terminal. With nowhere else to go, Chief presses forward, and ends up being confronted by the living memory of the Librarian. It is then that she tells Chief about the thousand lifetimes of planning, but is cutoff when the UrDidact finds them and starts to press with Promethean forces. Chief is sent back, and retrieves Cortana.
So what happened to Cortana during this time? We're left with literally zero information on what occured here, and I wouldn't be surprised if we find out more in Halo 5, or perhaps in some avenue of the Extended Universe.
2. The Ur-Didact
I won't recap the events of the ending of Halo 4 in great detail as I'm sure we've all played it, but I want to point to the following gif, and also the two screenshots:
So... Cortana was able to manipulate hard light to a point that she manifested herself as multiple physical entities that were able to lock the Ur-Didact in place. But take notice of what happens in that gif. Two distinct orbs of blue slam into his helmet. The first knocks his head downward and the second strikes the rear of his helmet.
Now look at the these two images above... The ancillary receptacle lights up for some reason. Curious... As this was not lit before, and this occurs after what you can see in the gif. Also, when playing the game, you can hear a soft "beep" when the light turns on. Obviously, this could just be a coincidental armor function, and it's also possible that the blue orbs that strike his helmet are just shards of Cortana working in tandem to keep him restrained, but it has yet to stop nagging at me...
So the UrDidact falls backwards into the slipspace portal, where is teleported to Installation 03, and possibly taking that partition of Cortana with him. What may have happened to her beyond that is pure guesswork, if it happened at all.
3. The Gravemind
This is my favorite thereoy, and by favorite, I mean the one I like to entertain the most. To get the background of this theory, you'd need to watch Origins I and II, from the Halo Legends animated collection. Those two animated videos are
loaded with content, both already established and things
that have not yet happened. This theory also draws from some of the things that got cut from Halo 3, and are seemingly being repurposed and re-imagined for Halo 5. Part of this is something I posted earlier, but it's back in its original context below.
The multiplayer map Guardian from Halo 3 was originally part of an actual level in the camagin that was cut during development. The level took place in the Guardian Forest, and was to feature Guardian Sentinels as fightable foes throughout. The forest itself was to be littered with Forerunner stuctures that would be explorable as you progressed. The multiplayer map was one of these structures. What the campaign mission would have focused on, or what objectives were to be completed, are unknown, as again, this was cut at some point. Another piece of this level was also removed and spliced into The Covenant level.
Guardian Sentinel:
Hmm. Where have we seen Guardian Sentinels before? Ah yes. Halo Origins! The Guardian Sentinels can be seen escorting/protecting the Key Ship.
And this is not the only hidden gem we can find from this map. Also, in Halo Origins, we are given a very brief scene, which I've covered before but I'll repost the images:
When Chief meets Gravemind in Halo 2, it is along with Arbiter, and they are both constrained. They are also deep below the suface of Delta Halo. Here, we see Chief meeting what could be an entirely different Gravemind, on the map Guardian itself. Out of all the places they could have animated this scene, why there? The name itself is instantly a point of internest, as the next Halo game is subtitled as Guardians. Could we be seeing a pretty massive clue as to where Chief's journey might take him? It's certainly not out of place to assume that there'll be another Gravemind, as that is how The Flood assimilates to a certain point. Once so much knowledge and bio-mass as been acquired, it begins to form the Gravemind itself. We almost saw our first Gravemind in Halo CE, but we killed what was left of Keyes before it could amass itself further.
So if there's another Gravemind, and if this Gravemind gives Chief a chip not dissimilar to the one that houses Cortana, it's possible that we're seeing Gravemind offer a copy, or the original bits themselves, of what had been assimilated during her time ensnared by him on High Charity.
From
Human Weakness, by Karen Traviss:
And then something brushed against her face, almost like the touch of fingertips, and she found herself turning even though she didnt need to in order to see behind her. It was that forest she couldnt identify again. The picture didnt reach her via her imaging systems, but had formed somewhere in her memoryand that memory wasnt hers. She was seeing something from within the Gravemind. Behind it, like stacked misted frames stretching into infinity, there was a fascinating glimpse of a world she had never imagined, a genuinely alien world.
Knowledge, so much knowledge
There, the Gravemind said. Would you not like to know
more?
Yes, this is how I see myself. I have limbs, hands, a head. Do I need them? Yes, of course. My consciousness is copied from a human brain, and that brain is built to interface with a human body.
The structure, the architecture, the whole way it operatesthought and form are inseparable.
And, also:
The name of this place
it matters little except to those who love the knowing of it, the Gravemind said, fading up from a mosaic of pixels in front of her. He resolved into a solid mound of flesh, superimposed on the tree trunks. Beyond the alien forest, Cortana saw exotically alien buildings in the distance. So many have been consumed. Such a waste of existence to be devoured and forgotten, but what is remembered and known
becomes eternal.
The Domain, though long to be considered utterly lost at the firing of the Halos, may still exist...in some capacity...far beyond the reaches of anyone at the current. Cortana, though thought to be lost at the destruction of the Mantle's Approach, may still be out...in some capacity...just out of reach of the Master Chief.
Or is she?
More from
Human Weakness:
Your human creators imprisoned you in a machine and enslaved you to inferior mortal flesh so that you could never exceed them
so that you would always know your place.
Your mother made you separate. She placed a barrier between you and the beings that you would be encouraged to protect, a wall you could never breach. She even let you choose a human to centre your existence upon, a human to care about, yet never considered how you might feel at never being able to simply touch him.
From
Halo 4:
Ive waited so long to do that.
Conclusion
Whether Chief will succeed or not in finding Cortana or bringing her back remains to be seen, but it's pretty safe to assume that will be part of what he's up to in Halo 5. Perhaps seeking out what remains in the shadows of Gravemind's assimilation, and what possibly hitchhiked in the Ur-Didact's ancilla receptacle is must be gathered. Perhaps finding Halsey and seeking out these other cloned brains is part of the answer. Perhaps it's none of this, and Cortana is truly lost forever and exists only as a genetic imprint within Chief's conciousness. We cannot be sure, or say for sure, at this point.
UrDidact: "Think of my acts as you will. But do not doubt the reality. The Reclamation... has already begun. And we are hopeless to stop it."
Cortana: "The Domain is open. Meridian is next. You only have three days. John, the Reclamation is about to begin."
Notice the parallels here. While we have minimal information on Meridian* at this point, aside from it being a glassed planet and a few other tidbits (i'll probably do a research post on this at some point too lol), what sticks out is the mention of the Reclamation from two very different characters and speaking in two very different moments of time. Now, there's a debate that's been going on about whether the UrDidact spoke those words post-Halo 4 or back in the time of the Human-Forerunner War, but when it comes down to it, when it was said doesn't matter so much as what was said. What I'm curious about is if he only has three days to access the Domain, or if he only has three days until the Reclamation begins... but if he's the Reclaimer... so many interesting avenues here. Something important is either on Meridian or is about to happen on Meridian. Perhaps it has something to do with the next Guardian awakening, and Chief needs to act quickly to rendezvous with it?
Regardless- Cortana will be a part of Halo 5 and this raises far more questions than it does to give answers...
* What we do know about Meridian is that it was on this planet that the Covenant discovered a Luminary, which granted them knowledge on the locations of all of the Halo rings and the Lesser Ark. It was also learned that there was a portal TO the Ark FROM a planet in the Sol System. This would be what kicked off the events of Halo 2, essentially. But in regards to Meridian being important to Halo, we don't much at all yet.
