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  • Subject: Halo Book Break Down
Subject: Halo Book Break Down
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Ok... I've decided to make a topic (like this lol) where can or post or read annalizations of the halo books
The first book is ironically the last book in the series (to date anyway) ok this is a long one and all I ask is keep an open mind
*May contain SPOILERS*
Ok let’s start this with the epilogue of Halo: FS...
First off is the title... It starts off as follows.. 'The Ninth age of Reclamation' Ok... "The Ninth Age" now lets take Age as meaning about 100,000 years on the Covenant world. If you recall a certain Bungie employee on the Halo 2 Documentary has talked about making a battle ground that took place 900,000 years ago or in this case nine ages ago... maybe there was a battle between the Forerunner and an ancient enemy and this place is what everything is leading up to.
Now the word “Reclamation” comes from the word Reclaim. My first theory on this was how the Covenant are trying to collect or “Reclaim” the artifacts that the “Great Ones” had scatter across the galaxy to maybe Reclaim their status among the Forerunner. There is another possibility however if you remember good ole 343 Guilty Spark called out human hero John "The Reclaimer". This could mean that Guilty Spark thought that the Master Chief had came to reclaim the power of the ring (sounded too LotR lol) ever since the Forerunner had left. Maybe the MC was meant to find these crystals or artifacts that were strewn across the galaxy by these “Great Ones”. Maybe he was meant to bring back the Forerunner himself on that 900,000 year old battle ground using those crystals that he must “Reclaim”, again the word Reclaim comes into play on both all of those theories but who knows...
Ok moving along. It talks about how the setting of the epilogue is in a Covenant Holy City called "High Charity" and how it is a Sanctum of Hierarchs. Ok first things first Covenant Holy City well that pretty self explanatory really... we know its a City that is probably deep into the Covenant homeworld and, well, is a city of religion.
"High Charity" Tells me it is a place to make charity or give gifts to their what might be their Gods or maybe even the ancient Forerunners. Since it tells us of how the Brute Tatarus brought the shard of artifact to that Prophet "The Prophet of Truth" I'm thinking the gifts of charity are the artifacts them selves. "It may yet be enough for our purposes... and one more relic from the Great Ones, as precious as they are, will soon make no difference to us." -p. 340.
Now these “Great Ones” IMO are the Forerunners themselves. In Halo: TFoR Dr. Hasley sated that the artifacts were found in craters from suspected meteorites, and were 60,000 years old, but then Cortana says that the calculations could be off because they were in fact, human. Maybe the artifacts took 60,000 years to reach Sigma Octanuns 4 and Reach, relying on the fact that that’s when the Forerunner had died out 900,000 years ago and the Covenant are still trying to “Reclaim” (there it is again) all the artifacts left by the Forerunners.
Now for "The Sanctum of the Hierarchs" Now “Sanctum” means a persons private room or a holy place now I’m thinking It’s the latter so keeping that in mind. Hieracrchs comes from Hierarchy, which means a system with grades of status or authority ranking one above another in a series. So this means that it probably home to very, very high ranked Covenant Prophets an Elites who are very, very religious.
I know that was a lot I do have another one and will continue to do them (this was made over the period of about a week by the way)… Well tell me what ya guys think and if any parts are confusing (which I'm sure there are many) please tell and I'll try to clarify… well I'm out peace


[Edited on 4/16/2004 11:14:58 AM]

  • 04.15.2004 4:03 PM PDT
Subject: Halo Book Break Down
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Wow, u know this post is on page 7 in 5 min., post again when things settle down.
nice work though.

  • 04.15.2004 4:05 PM PDT
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Hmm... there seems to be a lot of book questions poppin up... but things sure do move on these forums well I've got another one ready n waiting but I'll wait n not waste time by posting something that might now be worth posting.... ah well I'm welcome to hear any of you guys post ideas :)... well cyall later

  • 04.15.2004 5:06 PM PDT
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Shifty, I have to say that your speculations about FS seem right on the money to me. However, I have a different question about FS. Who, or what, is the Guardian of the Luminous Key? I have a couple ideas about who it might be, but i'd like to see what you think it is.

  • 04.15.2004 6:29 PM PDT
Subject: Halo Book Break Down
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Shifty, I have only seen two posts of yours, and both are very well written. I have to say, you do impress me.

  • 04.15.2004 6:30 PM PDT
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what is wowsers idea's?

  • 04.15.2004 6:33 PM PDT
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i really need to read this book because it seems that there is a lot of pertonant informantion that i need to know.

  • 04.15.2004 6:43 PM PDT
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You guys should go to the story page at HBO(halo.bungie.org). There's alot of cool speculation that goes around in there almost on a weekly basis.

  • 04.15.2004 6:46 PM PDT
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Maybe its been 9 ages since the flood had been trapped/defeated....and over time the significance of the time frame diminished and the Covenant just viewed it as a number, or a set date.

  • 04.15.2004 6:53 PM PDT
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Well Killa, my opinion on "The Gaurdian of the Luminous Key" is most likely a lower ranking Prophet (seeing as there are such things as "High Prophet") that was in command of the Accending Justice. The ship itslef apeared near Threshold, the planet near Halo itself, after Halo had been destroyed. Now I don't think the Covenant would of known that Halo would of been destroyed seeing as Accending Justice apeared almost directly after Halo's destruction. One possibilty was that it had been sent there to protect Halo 04 being the "Luminous Key". Either "the Key" meaning that it triggers the other Halos and whipes out every living organism, which is doubtful considering the Covenat would be wiped out as well. Another posibility is that Halo an artifact on it and that Prophet who commanded the Accening Justice was sent to retrieve and protect it. Yet another possibility is that triggering Halo is the key to bring back the Forerunners or something yet to come... the possiibilties i think are endless. Well I'll be back tomorrow and hopefully the topic is still alive to add another long one (lol cant resist) :) Well I'll see you all later.

  • 04.15.2004 7:15 PM PDT
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I was wondering if your name "Shifty," stands for Shifty from Band of Brothers.

  • 04.15.2004 7:22 PM PDT
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Pretty good read, wow

I think we are shaping the game ....in many little step

  • 04.15.2004 7:41 PM PDT
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ive been thinking about reading the books.. what is the order(chronological, not the order that they came out in) is it fall of reach, flood, first strike?

  • 04.15.2004 7:50 PM PDT
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Posted by: Shifty
Well Killa, my opinion on "The Gaurdian of the Luminous Key" is most likely a lower ranking Prophet (seeing as there are such things as "High Prophet") that was in command of the Accending Justice. The ship itslef apeared near Threshold, the planet near Halo itself, after Halo had been destroyed. Now I don't think the Covenant would of known that Halo would of been destroyed seeing as Accending Justice apeared almost directly after Halo's destruction. One possibilty was that it had been sent there to protect Halo 04 being the "Luminous Key". Either "the Key" meaning that it triggers the other Halos and whipes out every living organism, which is doubtful considering the Covenat would be wiped out as well. Another posibility is that Halo an artifact on it and that Prophet who commanded the Accening Justice was sent to retrieve and protect it. Yet another possibility is that triggering Halo is the key to bring back the Forerunners or something yet to come... the possiibilties i think are endless. Well I'll be back tomorrow and hopefully the topic is still alive to add another long one (lol cant resist) :) Well I'll see you all later.


That would have been the opportune moment the Master Chief would have had to capture a Covenant prophet. I remember reading in First Strike about how there was a "holy one" in the Ascending Justice. If there was one in the ship then he is probably dead now because of Admiral Danforth and Liuetenant Haverson. They crashed that mother into the Unyielding Heirophant and then blew away every ship that was in the blast radius of the nuke. Too bad, maybe with the capture of the Prophet, the war would have been over sooner.

  • 04.15.2004 7:56 PM PDT
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Posted by: RotateMan
ive been thinking about reading the books.. what is the order(chronological, not the order that they came out in) is it fall of reach, flood, first strike?

It's in the order that they came out. The Fall of Reach is the prequel, The Flood takes place during the game, and First Strike takes place after the game, and before Halo 2.

  • 04.15.2004 8:02 PM PDT
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this really gets me thinking (doesnt happen alot mostly braindead) but
what if the flood are the ones that killed the forerunners but thenhow were
they contained if the forruners were dead hmm, maybe *falls over after
trying to think anymore*

  • 04.15.2004 8:24 PM PDT
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Thats a pretty good guess at who the guardian of the Luminous key is, Shifty. Makes sense, but i thought it was someone else. When i first heard the name "Guardian of the Luminous key", 343 guilty spark immediately poped into my head. He is the monitor of the index after all, which is a key in a way, and the two names sound strangely familiar, to me anyway. I think that the Covenant captured him when they were searching through Halo's debris. That could also explain how the Covenant found Earth, because 343 Guilty Spark did download the PoAs computer databases. I could be, and probably am, wrong, but that's just my 2 cents.

  • 04.15.2004 8:26 PM PDT
Subject: Halo Book Break Down
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Wow... that thought had never crossed my mind. Now I think about it, that could very well be the case. Maybe the Accending Justice was mean to protect 343 Guilty Spark as he is the keeper of Halo and is infact needed to trigger Halo itself... maybe i took this wrong but if it is as I said, I believe it is very probable. Very good thinking.
Anyway I'm back it so is my latest post of theories on Halo: First Strike. This one is a little more far fetched than the previous one that only really involved the connections between meanings of words. It's really based on lot of guessing (educated guessing), connections and other obervations.
Keep in mind this is earlier on in the book since i decided to start from the reletive beginning rather than the absolute end.
*Spoiler WARNING*
p.193- This quote is when Cortana had been accessing the "Accendent Justice" communications that were coming from a Reach's orbit and were aprox. 8 hours old. She did this while she waited at the edge of the system to pick up the MC from Reach. so here it is... "uncovering the fragment of divinity" and "illuminating the shard of the gods to exist the perfect moment that vanishes in a blink of an eye but lasts forever" (the ands are to split up subjects). so we know that the Covenant were digging into a certain part of Reach do find the crystal that the Spartans are reunited by. So I assume they are talking about digging up the artifact on Reach that is “Divine” which is either translates to “the fragment of beauty” or a “fragment from god”... in this situation it can go either way but I'm leaning towards divinity meaning god because the Covenant are so religion based. Which can also mean the fragment is from a god or for a god (High Charity perhaps, see first post).
Ok moving along "Illuminating the shards of the gods..." that further explains the "Fragment of Divinity" meaning the Fragment of the The Gods. Now a few paragraphs later they refer to "the Holy Light" which may very well be the "now-illuminated shard of the gods", since when the crystal was activated by Dr. Halsley on Reach before John had reached her, it becomes very bright (8 hour delay on com link remember).
Now as for "...to exist the perfect moment that vanishes in a blink of an eye but lasts forever" It made me think of how when the Spartans eventually all met up in the big underground temple beside the artifact how moments later how thousands of Covenant soldiers 'appeared' in the gigantic room. Now maybe the whoever holds the artifact can manipulate time itself, in this case the Covenant have control of it. Keeping in mind this is before the Spartans walk upon it. For instance "the perfect moment" would be the thousands of Covenant troops waiting for the Spartans to walk in on them and the crystal… so based on this theory when the crystal is triggered it manipulates time (slows down, rewinds, freezes, fast forwards) in this case freezing everything around it in place, for the Covenant the “perfect moment” would be them in wait on the balconies in the giant room.
"... Vanishes in a blink of an eye but lasts forever" when the crystal is triggered it lasts only for a second but manipulates time (freezing) everything around it and holds that place in time forever. Now just as it froze time so quickly it can trigger time in back in motion just as fast. Explaining the sudden appearance of the thousands of troops that the MC had failed to notice because they were so 'still' but really the crystal itself had frozen them. It would also explain the sudden 'flicker' in his motion sensor (interference from the trigger maybe). This would explain the time displacement when Dr. Hasley was in the bombed out cave. When she was in control of the artifact, her perfect moment was being rescued by John so she had manipulate time to the Spartans advantage by buying them enough time for the MC to reach them.
Maybe the different artifacts have different purposes... who knows. Remember these are theories, so they very well may be wrong. That's why i made this topic so you guys n gals could read my observation, as well as others, and comment on them however you wish. happy huntin see ya all later



  • 04.16.2004 11:31 AM PDT
Subject: Halo Book Break Down
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To the guy who said the flood killed the forerunner . I doubt that the flood killed the forerunner directly, but indirectly they killed every living organism in a very large radius. This is because the forerunner used halo to starve the flood. But what i dont understand is when the master chief and the covenant get to halo, the only flood they find are trapped inside a laboratory. But if the flood are trapped, then why use halo?
Maybe some flood escaped, but the forerunner managed to capture some of them (The ones that you see in the laboratry on 343 Guilty Spark) so halo was used and the escaped flood starved to death and decomposed leaving no traces of a flood escape.
Another thing to think about, is that the flood dont really kill anything, they take control of creatures body. The only reason that the flood in halo kill, is because the bodies they aquire from the covenant and humans are suited for fighting. Because of these new races to halo (The covenant and the humans) The flood have to adapt, as the humans and covenant have the means to kill them, they must adapt to protect themselves, which is what they do, as you will find if you play halo.

  • 04.16.2004 11:54 AM PDT