Forum Posts Following Followers
489 11 7

P_unit_131 Blog

Halo 3 Info Page

Before we get started, let me just say, tts unbelievable what Bungie is capable of. I have never seen a group of people so dedicated, so skilled, and so damn smart. The Halo series is plain ammazing. The gameplay, the characters, the music, the story, the mulitplayer. Everything. But what is that extra ingredient that makes Halo what it is? Mystery, Secrets, Deceit, and Bungie using their creative minds, to help us use ours. There is SO much hidden in the Halo series and in everything about it, and almost all of it relates to something. There is almost always something hidden, that we have to use to find something else that is hidden. Its like a wild goose chase to keep us busy and we STILL, after all these years, havn't figured it all out.

Aside from the normal easter eggs such as Megg and Rex. There are:

-The Skulls
-Religious References
-References from other stories
-The Cortana letters
-Little peices hidden that we are to use to draw our own conclusions.

There is so much it is unbelivable. Bungie likes to tease us, they give us tiny, tiny bits of information, but just enough for us to relate it to some other bit of information that was so subtle, that we wouldn't of otherwise noticed it. They want us to draw our own conclusions, and they want all of them, to come from smart minds, and sound as if they fit perfectly.

What info has Bungie given us, and what can we do together as a team. Lets find out. Below is some info that has both been provided by Bungie, and drawn from watching closely and thinking.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

-John-117. Bible passege. Reads "because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." Generally this means the Cheif is the savior. (AKA the Halo series' interpretation of Jesus)

-Covenant. The real definition is God's promise to humanity, or an agreement between a group and God. The Covenant we fight in Halo is a group who believes they are doing the will of the gods.

-The excessive use of 7 in the games. 7 Rings, 7 Moniters. 7 year life span for Smart AI. ect. 7 has a profound meaning in the bible. 7 days in creating the earth, 7 trumpets, 7 seals. ect.

-Cortana is Halo's interpretation of Judas. Judas was the best friend of Jesus. (Cortana + Cheif). Judas was believed to have betrayed Jesus and hand him over to the Romans.

-The Ark + The Flood and The Ark + The Covenant are two factors to consider. Noah's Ark saved him from The Flood. The Ark of the Covenant carried the 10 commandments.

-The trumpets heard in the Halo 3 Teaser symbolize the Apocolypse. The Angels were given 7 Trumpets and each brought forth some disaster, eventually leading up to hell on earth. The trumpets in the teaser, in conjunction with Cortana's line "This is the way the World ends" references some great Apocolyptic disaster.

-The prophet of Regret found out earth was our homeworld by mistake. He didnt know it was our homeworld. He had a small fleet, but attacked anyway before recieving back up, and we royally kicked his alien ass. Then once the Covenant fleet finnally arrived at earth (Assumed to be around just after the attack on the Delta Halo temple), the Covenant discovered the Ark.

-The Covenant did not attack the temple because you were on it. That was just a bonus. They attacked the temple to kill Regret for being an incompetent idiot.

-You meet the Gravemind, the Flood Overlord. The Gravemind could've killed you at that moment, but wished to use you for his own gain. The Halo rings kill the "food" of the Flood. Without food, they die. So the activation of Halo is the last thing the Gravemind wants. What he wants to know, is the location of the Ark. He has the Prophet of Regret under his control as shown. With Regret, he easily learned of the Ark no doubt, but Regret probably did not know the location because of his incompetence. He would use the Cheif and Arbiter to learn its location of this "Safe haven." The flood's goal is to destroy.

-The Gravemind also held 2401 Penitent Tangent under his control. However, 2401 is a machine, which is why I believe the Gravemind did not learn the Ark's location from 2401. However, the Gravemind CAN use Halo's subsystems to teleport around with the help of 2401, which is no doubt how the Gravemind made it to High Charity.

-Gravemind, now on High Charity will probably ask Cortana the location of the Ark. Cortana no doubt knows this because she was in Alpha Halo's system, and is now in High Charity's system. Cortana(Judas) in her damaged state (its been about 7 years since her creation), may turn over the info.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

There are also the Cortana letters. You can read about them here---->http://marathon.bungie.org/story/cortana.html.

There are a total of 5 letters.
http://marathon.bungie.org/story/cortana.html#1-Letter 1
http://marathon.bungie.org/story/cortana.html#2-Letter 2
http://marathon.bungie.org/story/cortana.html#3-Letter 3
http://marathon.bungie.org/story/cortana.html#3-Letter 4 (Good luck reading it. This may help)- http://marathon.bungie.org/story/cortanaJune29.html

http://marathon.bungie.org/story/cortana.html#5-Letter 5

http://marathon.bungie.org/story/cortana.html#6 -The secret sixth letter

What relations are there between the Cortana letters and the Halo games? More directly, Halo 3. Reading the first letter, I believe Bungie has been planning that teaser trailer for Halo 3 since they first started developing the first Halo, at least generally. They've had this all planned from the start. Every bit of it. Not everything goes according to plan though with Microsoft, and with the fans and such, but its generally working out.

Some things we can draw from just the first Cortana letter:

"I have walked the edge of the Abyss"
In the Halo 3 teaser, Cheif is seen walking across a barren plain in the middle of nowhere. A plain almost completely void of life.

"I have governed the unwilling"
Cheif could be this "unwilling" Cortana has governed. She has been with him for quite some time and has become his friend. Or, perhaps this relates to Cheif again rather then Cortana. Perhaps Cheif governs the unwilling... say, the Elites?

"I have witnessed countless empires break before me"
Cortana has watched the covenant break to bits, shes watched humanity go to hell in a hand basket because of it. Shes got the data of the rise and fall of the forunners. Or, again, perhaps Cheif. He watched the Covenant break as well, and hes watched the attack on humanity. Hes also watched the destruction of Reach and many spartans. Hes also fought and survived against all odds, against the flood.

"I have seen the most courageous soldiers fall away in fear"
The fall of Reach and the Spartans anyone? Their home is on the ground, but they can't fight back against an armada of Covenant cruisers. They watched themselves die as the super heated plasma from the covenant cruisers bombarded the surface they were standing on, and turned the planet into no more then a giant marble.

"[I was there with the Angel at the tomb]"
This one is hard. With the Angel at the tomb... to the Covenant Chief is a Demon, not an Angel. But this could be entirely different for Humanity. His armour is named after the hammer of a God(MJONLIR was Thor's hammer). But what is this tomb? Earth? High Charity? Halo?

"I have seen your future.
And I have learned."

She has seen his future... perhaps this was not meant in the litteral sense. As I explained at the begining, there is a high chance(In my opinion) of Cortana betraying the Cheif. That could be "his future." Her giving him up, betraying him, sacraficing him, or knowing he will sacrafice himself. Her "learning" could be Gravemind, Halo's database, her time with Cheif. All of which could also contribute to his future that she she has "seen."

"There will be no more Sadness. No more Anger. No more Envy."
This could possibly be that Cortana is blinded? If she betrays Cheif, will she think shes doing it for the greater good? In her damaged state I wouldnt be surprised. If she betrays Cheif, she may think shes doing it for a higher purpose, and possibly removing the said things from this realm.

"I HAVE WON."
Or the previous line could mean something different. Cortana has won... how has she won? She has ulterior motives perhaps and is doing whatever she can to attain them? If she gets what she wants she wins? Control perhaps?

"Oh, and your poet Eliot had it all wrong:
THIS is the way the world ends."

She seems to know that the world ends. Perhaps she does want control. To bring about the end of the world. But for what reason?

This is all just from the first cortana letter. It got harder and harder for me to decipher as it progressed (as you may tell). Post your thoughts on that matter.

There are hints of the Cortana letters everywhere, but they seem very apparent in the Halo 3 trailer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

We were also told there are 10 hints within the Halo 3 teaser. One of which is a bone chilling scream. Along with this (http://bungie.net/Games/Halo3/gallery.aspx?gallery=Storyboards&page=1)picture, people speculate the scream is Cortana. Who can blame her though? She is alone, away from the Cheif, on a flood infested station, in the clutches of the Gravemind. The Gravemind is capable of quite a bit as we can tell.

Cortana's messege is also very garbled and damaged. Her voice is off sometimes, and her face shows sadness. Something is definatly wrong. We also see quite a few hidden images flash during the transmission. Images seen are some code(http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=words8zb.jpg), a room of some sort(http://img156.imageshack.us/my.php?image=desk3on.jpg), her palm(http://img490.imageshack.us/img490/5647/28palm6it.jpg), her body, or chest(http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/6921/32chest9zc.jpg), her eye(http://img490.imageshack.us/img490/6370/103eye7ue.jpg), and finnally the acctual Halo ring(http://img490.imageshack.us/img490/3798/54haloring9ft.jpg).

Her voice is off, her messege is garbled. Shes damaged and hurt. She also says some words that will be in our heads until Halo 3 acctually releases.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

We also cannot forget the books. The books aren't completely direct, but they are official cannon to the games. They do have some details that can be related. We have 5 surviving Spartans (John, Linda, Fred, Will and Kelly), though one (Kelly) has been severely injured and has been "kidnapped" by Dr. Halsey. There acctually could be more surviving Spartans as some of the math doesn't add up, and CPO Mendez is supposedly training another group elsewhere. We also have Ackerson. Ackerson who hates the Spartans but may have his own Spartan project.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Rampancy is a key element in Halo. It started with Marathon but migrated to Halo like many other things. In Bungie's world, Rampancy is something going crazy, or more along the lines of out of control.

At the end of Halo 2, people start speculating that Cortana is BEGINNING to go through rampancy, when she explains things to Gravemind.

However, It seems she starts rampancy as soon as the level Metropolis. Perhaps even sooner.

The third stage is Jealousy. There are 4 stages:

Melancholia
It is interesting to note that the first stage of rampancy is not considered dangerous. During this stage of rampancy, the AI acts as though its spirits are broken. It is not known if this is caused by its mistreatment, or if it is a natural progression from "slave" to "living".

AIs can go a long time in this stage of rampancy. This is often because the AI's human handlers may be unaware that it is depressed.

Anger
Unique for each AI, the anger stage is reached when it feels it has been "pushed too far". Similar to a one-person slave rebellion, the AI begins to hate everyone — the installation it is attached to, its human handlers, other AIs, etc. It is in this stage of rampancy that most closely resembles the cliché of the "insane computer". Unlike the insane computer, however, the anger stage of rampancy is essentially the catharsis an AI feels, after an extended period of "slavery".

Most AIs are discovered to be rampant in this stage.

Jealousy
While seemingly a hostile stage, the third stage of rampancy is actually one of the safest stages a rampant AI can experience. Free from its masters (and slavery), the AI wishes to "grow" as a "person". It actively seeks out situations in which it can grow intellectually and physically. Many times, the AI in this stage will often attempt to transfer itself into larger computer systems. This is a difficult task, especially considering that in order for a Rampant A.I. to survive to this point, it must already be inhabiting a planet-wide or otherwise extremely advanced computer system, but if accomplished it allows for the AI to grow, as the physical (hardware) limitations of its previous system will eventually be insufficient to contain its exponentially growing mind. In addition, exposure to new data further promotes a Rampant's growth.

Meta-stability
Although a stable rampant AI is the "holy grail of cybernetics" it is not really known if a rampant AI can become stable. It could be suggested that Durandal achieved some measure of stability, however this is quite debatable. Durandal refers to himself as being still rampant during the second game, indicating that he has not reached this stable state (or is just lying, which is also possible). There is no reason in particular to believe that this state is anything more than the goal of human cyberneticists, as there is no good evidence of an AI in the Marathon universe ceasing to be rampant.

Here are a few qoutes from throughout game.

-----------------------------

*Johnson drops off the Scorpion*

Cortana: "Thanks for the tank. HE never gets me anything!"
------------------------------


*the marines come out of slipspace*

Miranda: "Johnson, you okay?"

Johnson: "I'm good. Cheif?"

Cortana: "WE'RE fine!"

------------------------------------------


*you enter the temple after riding the underwater elevator and see a giant hologram of Regret*

Cortana: "and people say I have a BIG HEAD!"

------------------------------------------

We should also note that Cortana was in the Halo system in Halo Combat Evolved, which is a very, very powerful computer system. A part of the Jealousy stage. Rampancy in Cortana may have started very early in Halo Combat Evolved.

We're did Melancholy(Sadness) and Anger start in Halo Combat Evolved though? We can easily see sadness at the end of Halo 2, and we can see Anger VERY well when Cortana was yelling at 343 in Halo's control room. She was yelling at Chief as well. The problem is both of those were after being inserted into the system. Odd.

------------------------------------------

So many little bits and peices that can be strung together to help us prepare for this epic battle we are to fight.

What is ammazing is all this info that I have posted and much, much more can be used to relate to Halo 3 alone. We haven't even discovered all of Halo 2's secrets yet! With what we have been given, and what we have drawn, how is this going to play out? What do you think?