Bungie Universe
This topic has moved here: Subject: Enkidu - Cortana Letters Revisted?
  • Subject: Enkidu - Cortana Letters Revisted?
Subject: Enkidu - Cortana Letters Revisted?
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

if there was flood on Frigid - their presence hasn't been confirmed yet - they could have come with the forerunners. The forerunners had to be there to build/inhabit the building so there's no reason why the Flood couldn't have infected them there....

  • 05.02.2004 7:05 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

i didn't look through all of the things people said but did anyone say anything about the name "foehammer" translating into the name of Gandalfs sword? i'm not sure what language it is though. and the flood could have infected the forerunners because we weren't on every little bit on halo, we were only in a certain area. The forerunners could have been infected on the other side of it.

  • 05.02.2004 7:14 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Hold on a sec. Something just hit me.
There's supposed to be a 3rd Faction in Halo2 to keep up a 3 way free-for-all like the flood did in Halo1. Now, No wonder you keep making such interesting friends. Perhaps I should arrange another play-date with them? leads me to believe that JohnDoe has encountered something different on Frigid (although it could just be Covenant, I've got a feeling it isn't). Couldn't these 'friends' be the third faction that arises in Halo2? The sarcastic play-date talk makes them sound hostile, which is essential for a third party aggressor. Plus, John Doe encountering them for the first time and possibly waking them or rubbing them the wrong way (or even providing the UNSC Lebannon for them to repair and leave the planet) could be the spark that brings them into the Human-Covenant conflagration. Now, why would bungie taunt us with these CortanaLetters version 2.0 unless they were revealing a plot element in Halo2.

Seems possible, and we know the third party is coming.

Now we have to wait and see what the Enkidu letters say.

  • 05.02.2004 7:18 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

wouldn't it kick ass to be a spartan?

  • 05.02.2004 7:23 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

remember that at this point in time Humans haven't discovered the Flood... so we should hear lots of WTF's if they do find them...

EDIT: my site containing a summery of events and other Enkidu related stuff is coming along nicely... will keep you posted.

[Edited on 5/2/2004 7:59:40 AM]

  • 05.02.2004 7:56 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I don't smell flood. . . JD would be good as dead as well as everything else.

  • 05.02.2004 7:58 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Posted by: Bring the Noise
Maybe the Forerunners are at Frigid and
that's why the covenent decided we should
die. We were getting too close, and they
don't want us to wake up the forerunners.
I dunno LoL just blabbing.


Interesting idea. Frankie did say that the bungie
guys were working on a top-secret character.

I hate to force my theories on you, but I had
an idea that there could be two kinds of Forerunner.
The first kind are the "good" Forerunner that
wish humans the best in civilization and technology.
The second are "bad" Forerunner that want the
destruction or limitation of humans. The covies
would worship or follow the doctrine of the "bad"
Forerunner, therefore they don't think too highly
of us. Maybe the "good" Forerunner are on Frigid,
or just evidence of the good Forerunner, and the third
party that Scipio mentioned is introduced with a twist.
They're on OUR side!

I could talk about where this came from
for days, but if you're interested, read my earlier
posts about Greek mythology and Tartarus' post
about the Sumerian version of them. You may find
them enlightening.

  • 05.02.2004 8:05 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Actually, why I don't go into my theories deals with time and sanity. Work is trying to kill me, methinks. Anyway, I do have enough time before I go in again to give a short synopsis.

Sumaria was either the first culture or close to it, and it sprung up out of nowhere. One day it wasn't, the next... "Hi! We're the Sumarians. Care to learn how to make bread?" I'm exaggerating, of course, but it gives an idea. Anyway, society was held together by the priests. You consulted them before doing anything. These priests had the ability to teach through song, but according to Snow Crash, it was much more than teaching. All humans have pretty much the same basic communication centers of the brain. What these priests did was access that directly through these songs, and download knowledge into the brain through that area of the brain. Sort of like a modem. So, in essence, people made bread because they were programmed to make it. (By the way, unless I say otherwise, this is all from Snow Crash.)

But wait, here comes the Tower of Babel. The priests were building a tower not to reach heaven, but were building, basicly, observatories. One inventive priest, or brain hacker if you will, got sick and tired of just saying the same songs. Nobody knew where the songs came from, other than "the gods." He got sick of the masses being mindless cattle, so he created a new nam-shub. Quite a feat, really. What this nam-shub did was scramble the language cortex a bit, so that nothing from the old songs would work, and so that the old songs could be used again. This had little side effects as well, but you can probably already guess those. Anyway, suddenly people had to THINK. "Er... Anybody know how to bake bread?" This had a devistating effect on Sumarian culture, but was good for history, because it gave rise to other empires.

There's a lot more stuff about Sumaria in there, but I have neither the time or the patience to hunt down my copy and explain it all. Go read the book, it's worth it if only for the reason that he hero is named Hiro Protagonist. Oh, and everybody listens to Reason.

Anyway, back to Halo. The Forerunners could have programmed the humans, and when they went "poof," the humans were left on their own. The most inventive of them collected to form Sumaria, if you want to take the Snow Crash route. Even if you don't, the basic programming remains there, just unable to be accessed directly. If you encounter a bit of Forerunner tech, you could know instinctively to "press this button to activate the device" or "this signal means something." Now, remember that an AI is based off of a human brain. ("Mmmm... Brains...")

Now, onto some other stuff. Remember in the game, GS says to MC "I'm glad to see that some of them survived to reproduce." He sounds like he's speaking about either the Forerunners or reclaimers. Either way, it looks like the forerunners were wiped out by the flood. (How, if the MC only has a suit rainking of 2 and he should have at least a twelve, is beyond me, because they should just plow through the Flood but we won't go there right now.) Of course, if it is a Forerunner on that happy-go-lucky iceball planet, hooo-boy. There goes our chances for a Halo 3. Unless, of course, we humans REALLY pissed it off.

As a side note, I wonder what a Hunter Flood would look like. We've seen human and elite, but notice how we see no grunt flood or any other kind?

Anyway, that's enough of my rambling. Time to go back to sculpting my mashed potatos and muttering "this means something" before going into work.

  • 05.02.2004 8:20 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Thanks for your time Dagoonite.

Your comment about A.I. being based on human
brains really struck me. In context with the human
brain being programmed by the "gods," (presumably
Forerunner) an A.I. might have a similar reation
to his programming being "abandoned." Could
this have something to do with our "friend" Enkidu?
I should have really examined this more carefully
before posting, but I'm short on time right now. I'm
definitely reading this book now.

The rest of you guys on this thread should tear this
info to pieces. Thanks again Dagoonite.

  • 05.02.2004 8:30 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

JD isn't on Frigid - JD is still on the UNSC Lebanon... but I agree with you... I haven't got the feeling that the Flood are involved yet

[Edited on 5/2/2004 8:36:51 AM]

  • 05.02.2004 8:35 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Hey Dagoonite! I can explain why your suite only registers as a class two instead of twelve. Well, your shielding technology is stolen from the Covenant. And the Covenant technology is nothing but stole forerunner technology. So I'd wager that 343 (forerunner construct) is able to anylize the specs of your shield (Essentially being forerunner technology) and register that it's power is only that of level two.

As for the other part, this is what I think:

I am greatful to see some of them survived.
Their survival as a race depended on it.

The first line is a reference to the flood. And the second is to that of the forerunner. I'm fairly certain he doesn't know the forerunners are gone, just like the Infinite Empire from Knighs of the Old Republic (Sorry, random reference) Of course, if my theory is correct, that supports my (other) theory that the flood were a biological weapon, exactly like nukes were in the cold war. It was a standoff between the forerunners and another race. It probably ended badly, maybe with the release of flood...

  • 05.02.2004 8:48 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Dagoonite, you said in your last post:

As a side note, I wonder what a Hunter Flood would look like. We've seen human and elite, but notice how we see no grunt flood or any other kind?

This got me thinking. We all remember the large flood "control" form that was on the bridge of the Truth and Reconciliation right? It was the form that Captain Keyes was attached to. what if that large form was made from the body of a hunter? It had legs that it stood on which looked like a hunter's legs and then it had all those long extensions coming out of it like on the hunters have on their backs. Is it possible?

Perhaps the flood used tohe large body of the hunter to attach more intelligent things to it, so as to have one large central "brain" for flood activity.

  • 05.02.2004 9:27 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

"I was fabled before rings were" - Halo Combat Evolved

"I was legend before Leonidas was born" - Marathon series

"I was epic before demons rode in the dawn sky" - ONI (Japanese demon)

"I was myth before a sword awoke from a stolen rocky womb" - Myth games before Halo

"I was sentenced into darkness before Theseus found his foe" - Minotaur

"I was killed before my home was scourged by western winds of war" - Op. Desert Storm?

"I was driven raving mad before dear Dot bounced off cushioned walls" - Gnop! (kinda obvious)

Anyway thats pretty much it. There is only one thing that I find puzzling - Correct me if im wrong but I think Op. Desert Storm happens in the east. Heck what do I know.

Oh I just found soemthing out - Maybe they mean the U.S. were the winds of war that came from the west.

Yes I see it now. Enkidu's home was the middle east (Sumeria) that was scourged by western winds of war (U.S.).

[Edited on 5/2/2004 10:24:11 AM]

  • 05.02.2004 10:17 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

As of 11 am pacific time, there are no Enkidu terminal post for Sunday? I guess Enkidu doesn't work Sundays. Oh well, we got 3 post yesterday. 3 very good ones I might add. : ) anyways have a good day off Enkidu! (who ever you are)

  • 05.02.2004 11:08 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

That suggests that it may indeed be from Bungie. I mean, never have I ever seen an web content on B.net updated on a weekend. If it were a fanfic author, my guess is that he would be updating religiously everyday. Just speculation...

  • 05.02.2004 11:25 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Its all supposed to be from the covenent AI, the one similar to cortana. dont ask how i know, but i do. I will probly get kicked from the forum for telling you people, but its worth it.

  • 05.02.2004 11:43 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

In comment to an old post:
The Forunner technology was so advanced, a chunk of another Ring Fortress might have survived re-entry, I mean 343 GS classifies your armor as lvl 2 battle armor, and says you should have brought AT LEAST lvl 12, which leads me to believe there might be higher levels. And a race that would place Spartan armor that low on the scale probably makes fortresses with unemaginable stregnth, right? Also, that would explain the lines about a vermin problem, so it fits.

  • 05.02.2004 11:48 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Okay, I've thought about this a little, and as for what is actually happening (I'm not touching the myth side of this, I don't know enough about it), I think we're all trying to make a little too much of it.

Sure, it is most likely a ForeRunner building, housing ForeRunner tech. Why else would the Covenant be there? But, seeing as it -most likely- isn't a Halo (though I'm not ruling it out entirely), it most likely doesn't have the Flood there. Whoever said it before, I forget who, I agree with you; if there were Flood or ForeRunner or some type of new alien race that humans haven't seen before, Enkidu would most likely refer to them as being more then a little 'vermin problem.' The fact that there were Covenant digging up part of Frigid leads me to believe that what he's referring to are mainly non-combatant diggers, ie Engineers and Grunts, because they probably weren't expecting much of a fight for a giant ice-ball.

(( First Strike Spoilers ))

And CuriousJoe, I've been thinking about that for a while, and I think this could merely the tale of how the Covenant found absorbed the human's knowledge of AI and, subsequently, the location of Earth. Until First Strike, no Covenant AIs have ever been seen, heard of, and there is no evidence that points to them using any AIs at all. This is how I think they'll get them: Enkidu is obviously put into some kind of ForeRunner computer terminal/interface, what have you. Most likely, the Covenant have also been delving about in the ForeRunner terminals. And, as we know from reading First Strike, the Covenant have data-duplicating software. I would think they would be attempting to copy as much data out of the ForeRunner terminals as humanly (well... inhumanly) possible. Factor in the fact that Enkidu have most likely gone rampant from the amount of knowledge he gained, and I think Enkidu would be more then willing to start spinning off copies of himself. I don't know how to explain it exactly, but it makes sense to me that a rampant AI would want as much of him around as possible.

And seeing as this is a ForeRunner facility, and the only frigate guarding it has been destroyed, I think this will piss off the Covenant ever so slightly. Send a force large enough to cleanse the place of Infidels, and they can go back to their scouring of artifacts. Only, now there would be all of these human AIs inside the ForeRunner systems. And what do the Covenant do with technology? Absorb it to their own uses. Take a few copies of Enkidu out, and modify some of the code, and there you have the very first Covenant AI. Of course, filled with errors because of the copying, as Cortana sees inside the Ascendant Justice.

Now the Covenant know where all human-held worlds are located, not to mention intelligence on the strength of each human held world.

... Looks like we're screwed, guys.

  • 05.02.2004 12:36 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT


... Looks like we're screwed, guys.

Oh, don't worry about it. We were already screwed.

  • 05.02.2004 12:51 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Touché. ((More First Strike Spoilers!))

But if you remember what happened to Cortana in the Unyielding Heirophant after being copied so many times, then it might not be that good of a thing for the Covenant. They'd want to keep copying the AIs (as they're made off of a human mind, and in that way would be impossible for them to recreate a new one) and eventually, they'd lose their effectiveness entirely. And if the same thing that happened to Cortana happens to them, it could seriously screw up, say, a space assault, with the AIs trying to do too much.

Foreshadowing perhaps?

[Edited on 5/2/2004 12:59:19 PM]

  • 05.02.2004 12:57 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I think that we are just going to have to wait in order to fully understand what bungie is trying to tell us. I think they will be posting more terminals next week. Those will give us some more insight to what is going on.

  • 05.02.2004 12:58 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Oh and i have a real problem with the covies using copys of Human A.I.. If you remember the grunts (lowest of the covie army) would rather die than pick up a human weapon let alone a freakin AI. Their is no way that the covies would use the human technology.

  • 05.02.2004 1:01 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Their could possibly another crystal that alters space and time on this planet, same as on Reach and dear I say...EARTH!

  • 05.02.2004 1:08 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Ok there has been some stuff updated now there is two names from sumarian text and the bible Igigi, or Anunnaki

ANUNNAKI
Grouping of Gods of the Aerth/Underworld; The Children of
Anu and Antu; Generally considered to hold dominion to over
the IGIGI

Enkidu
Potency; Wild-man of the Forest; Created by Belet Ili at
Anu's Command to serve as rival to Gilgamesh; Seduced by a
servant of Ishtar; Befriends Gilgamesh after a wrestling
match; Together they slew the Humbaba and the Bull of
Heaven; Blinded by the spittle of the Bull of Heaven; The
Gods punish him with death for his part in killing Humbaba
and the Bull of Heaven

IGIGI
Grouping of Gods of the Sky/Heaven; Subservient to the
ANUNNAKI; Man was created to alleviate the burdens placed
upon these gods by the ANUNNAKI

any other names that you can find that I may be of some help?


[Edited on 5/2/2004 1:14:24 PM]

  • 05.02.2004 1:09 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Posted by: cjassassin
Ok there has been some stuff updated now there is two names from sumarian text and the bible Igigi, or Anunnaki

ANUNNAKI
Grouping of Gods of the Earth/Underworld; The Children of
Anu and Antu; Generally considered to hold dominion to over
the IGIGI

Enkidu
Potency; Wild-man of the Forest; Created by Belet Ili at
Anu's Command to serve as rival to Gilgamesh; Seduced by a
servant of Ishtar; Befriends Gilgamesh after a wrestling
match; Together they slew the Humbaba and the Bull of
Heaven; Blinded by the spittle of the Bull of Heaven; The
Gods punish him with death for his part in killing Humbaba
and the Bull of Heaven

IGIGI
Grouping of Gods of the Sky/Heaven; Subservient to the
ANUNNAKI; Man was created to alleviate the burdens placed
upon these gods by the ANUNNAKI

any other names that you can find that I may be of some help?



Sounds backwards to everything so far.

  • 05.02.2004 1:14 PM PDT