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

Tartarus - I wanted to re-exaimine the evidence regarding the Enkidu/Cortana theory. I'm not doing this to change your mind, you have a right to your opinion. I wanted to explain why my opinion that Enkidu is not Cortana could still be valid.

firstly there seem to be six possible connections between Enkidu and Cortana.
1) the third Cortana letter mentions "a sun - black, but shining", Enkidu also mentions the sun
2) "Eternity" -the fourth Cortana letter mentions eternity, as does Enkidu
3) "Friend of yours" Cortana/Enkidu refering to the Covenant
4) Cortana being "Everywhere"
5) "primary sun" and "Suns shining"
6) the time of the Cortana letters

1)
Cortana's Third Letter contains this paragraph
I have begun to sense rumblings of a worse fate yet to come. I can recall
a sun - black, but shining - and the creatures that inched along its fiery
tracks.


Enkidu mentions that the UNSC Lebanon is going to do a slingshot around the primary sun. He mentions a sun shining, and an M Star.

- I don't see a real connection here. During space travel the topic of suns is likely to come up pretty often.
-"a fate yet worse to come" could be anything in the Halo universe, The Flood, The Covenant, The Attack on Reach, The Attack on Earth, The Halo Rings, the list goes on...
-There was also quite a good connection between the quote and the Marathon series.

2)
"Eternity"
quote from the fourth Cortana letter:
In the end, they will all be little more than nuisances. I am so close – you cannot imagine what it is truly like to hold eternity in your grasp!

quote from Enkidu:
It makes me believe in eternity.

- Again I can't see the connection, there is only one common word "Eternity".
-Also Cortana can't hold Eternity in her grasp... "smart" AI's have a unextendable 7 year lifespan (I forgot who posted this... sorry).

3)
"Friend of yours?"
Apparently Cortana says this during the Halo game. Enkidu also talks of the Covenant as Friends.

- MacConquer posted that it was actually the Marine who said this..
- It was also posted that this is quite a common sarcastic remark... I've seen many times...

4)
Cortana "Everywhere"

Tartarus you posted saying that Cortana is everywhere - I wasn't sure if this was a reference to part 1 of the third Cortana letter. But I'll analyze it anyway...

- Cortana does say she is everywhere... But this is in response to a mistake by Bungie in their release of information... Bungie acciddently revealed the source of the info and the next few emails came from servers outside of Bungie (relayed) - Cortana said "I'm everywhere" to give the impression she could control any part of the internet

5)
more than one sun.

Cortana mentions "Suns shining" - apparently Halo only has one sun.
Enkidu says that the UNSC Lebanon is going to slingshot around the "Primary Sun". suggesting that Frigid has more than one sun.

- first off we don't know where in the Halo universe Cortana is during the letters and there are many systems with more than one sun.
- "Primary Sun" does make it sound like there may me two or more suns, but even our own system has a primary sun... and we don't have two.
- Enkidu could just be being very AI-like and just stating specifics...

6)
- Now we don't know when in the Halo universe the Cortana letters were written. In this Universe they started about Feb 1999 (pre Xbox - Halo hadn't even been announced). The letters were very much in this universe, talking about the Halo universe...
- the only real clue we have to when (in the Halo universe) they were written, is the fact that Cortana had been put into the MC's armour...

I hope all that explains why I don't think Cortana is Enkidu, If you don't agree with me - you don't have to. If I've made a mistake... feel free to point it out.

EDIT: this took a while to write... there have been about ten posts that I have to examine, sorry if something in here doesn't match up with what's been said

link to Cortana letters http://marathon.bungie.org/story/cortana.html

[Edited on 5/3/2004 10:07:15 PM]

  • 05.03.2004 9:46 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

You're right Jackass it is confusing. I don't necessarily think that the Cortana Letters and
Enkidu transmissions are connected directly, just in spirit. I think a lot of the problems with the timeline in the Cortana letters is probably due to the fact that after Bungie sent them, they were bought by Microsoft and had to start designing the game for the XBox instead of Mac and PC. This probably changed a few game elements along the way. That being said the Cortana letters should not be viewed as official Halo backstory, maybe just as insight on how Cortana really thinks about things.

  • 05.03.2004 9:47 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I agree GOD Halo Fan, I don't believe that Cortana or 343GS have any "real" connection to
Enkidu at this point. Along with your reasoning why Enkidu is not connected with Cortana is from the Marathon story. When Durandal and Tycho merged, this super-A.I. never again
referred to itself as Durandal or Tycho. Enkidu still calls himself Enkidu.

  • 05.03.2004 9:54 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I missed the third voice in the cortana letter - my bad.

The Cortana letters are viewed as Official Backstory as they were created by Bungie... but they are hard to interpret. I belive the Enkidu Terminals will also be Backstory if the turn out to be from Bungie...

EDIT: that's a pretty good point buck... I can't remember anyone mentioning that

[Edited on 5/3/2004 10:01:07 PM]

  • 05.03.2004 9:58 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I just think the Cortana letters seem a little shady, I mean it does appear that Tartarus is correct and that the fourth letter is occuring at the time of the "Maw" but there is no sign of Cortana jumping back through time to send some letters to us at that time. Well, I guess if you could jump back through time you might be able to change the outcome of a few things wouldn't ya.

  • 05.03.2004 10:04 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

This is the last log entry of a certain AI named Enkidu, who took the name from the babylonian epic 'Giglamesh'. Apparently following Cole Protocol, Ekidu was taken off of the UNSC starship Lebanon to the surface of a planet where the Covanant were excavating a forerunner ruin. The Lebanon was most likely destroyed and the few survivors were later hunted down and slain while taking shelter in the ruin. Enkidu was last to go, the final passage appears to be that of a Covanant AI proclaiming that our presense here is an affront to thier gods [forerunner]. The quotes, the poetry, are all taken from 'Giglamesh'. At least that is as much as I can make out.

  • 05.03.2004 10:13 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Posted by: buck3803
I just think the Cortana letters seem a little shady, I mean it does appear that Tartarus is correct and that the fourth letter is occuring at the time of the "Maw" but there is no sign of Cortana jumping back through time to send some letters to us at that time. Well, I guess if you could jump back through time you might be able to change the outcome of a few things wouldn't ya.


It's possible that the Cortana letters were written not by the Cortana(shock horror) we know, but the "Cortana" in the minds of the Bungie developers. Cortana does talk about being in Bungie's system (something not possible for the real Cortana), so maybe the the letter are from a character the the developers have created who resides within the Bungie network (logicaly where the developers would put a charcter they were working on).

I seriously doubt that at some point in the Halo story we will see Cortana say "Hang on a sec, I've got to go back in time 500 years and send a few emails to Hamish from the Marathon Story page".

sorry this wasn't on topic... I'll try harder next time ;-)

EDIT: I am still working on my website to summerize these events, but everytime I log on there is another hundred posts worth of info, and more terminals...

[Edited on 5/3/2004 10:21:40 PM]

  • 05.03.2004 10:16 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

LOL. We're on the same page GOD.

  • 05.03.2004 10:21 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Ok i have a question. Please dont get upset and tell me to go read every post again. (i dont think i could make it through them all).(yes i have read everything.)

Ok so here is my question.

In the first poem we got. Why is eveyone saying that this is referancing all of the differant bungie games? I thought that this whole thing is just about halo.

If you dont understand my question tell me and i will try to reword it.

  • 05.03.2004 10:30 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

OK, I'm tired of talking about Cortana Letters, it's about time I talk about the Enkidu transmissions. I think we're only gonna get one more, and it will probably disappoint. Under the heading prologue we have entry ii. and entry iii., so where's i. So we'll get prologue entry i. and we already have "7" under the waking up is hard to do header, so we probably won't get much more to go on but we'll have to make do with what we got.

SENTRYWALK - sounds pretty basic so it's probably not, the rear admiral sending the message to Capt. Mathers says that there is a rush on the op, that there is more to it than the "usual Intelligence spookage crap" and nervous looks around the water cooler. Does this sound like simple patrol duty to you? I certainly don't think so. ONI either knew that there is some kind of structure on Frigid or that the Covenant have found something there, either way they're in a hurry to get the Lebanon out there.

Who is JD? - Halo backstory allows for the possibility that this is a Spartan II, due to the three unaccounted for Spartans at TFoR. I know someone debunked this theory by saying that the reason they are unaccounted for is because they were too far away from Reach to be recalled and Frigid is close to Reach. However, if they are on some special ONI mission
that could be a cover story, so it's still a possibility but a little thin. There is very little to no foundation that JD is a Spartan III(or that Spartan III's even exist for that matter) or an ODST Helljumper. It is more likely that JD is an ONI officer, JD tries to read Capt. Mathers mail which is a very ONI like thing to do. Also supporting the JD as an ONI officer is the off handed comment Enkidu makes about JD having "decoder rings", which could be some sarcasm about JD being a member of ONI. It's even a possibility that JD is simply an engineer on the Lebanon. Enkidu says that they will need "skilled hands in the days to come", that doesn't necesarily mean combat oriented skills. Also, Enkidu refers to JD as an old friend, an engineer or scientist might befriend a shipboard A.I. Who knows?

The Flood - vermin problem referred to in It's a cold day here in hell could be referring to the Flood. Probably not, but if it's Flood then JD is truly screwed.

Enkidu Who? - He has obviously gone rampant but there is little possibility that another A.I. has merged with or taken over Enkidu. Odds are with good ole fashioned crazy A.I. who thinks that he is the historical character that he shares a name with. Keep it simple.

Are we having fun yet?

  • 05.03.2004 11:00 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Posted by: Kane Dawnseer
Ok, here you go...

I was fabled before rings were. - Before Halo

I was legend before Leonidas was born. - Before Master Chief was created

I was epic before demons rode in the dawn sky. - Oni, Oni is the Japanese word for Demon or Ghost

I was myth before a sword awoke from a stolen rocky womb. - Myth... almost to obvious though

I was sentenced into darkness before Theseus found his foe. - The Minataur series

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

I was driven raving mad before dear Dot bounced off the cushioned walls. - Gnop, the pong clone Bungie made, their very first game

All this would suggest that, whoever this is, they were around from the very beginning.


this is how the poem could be about the games... it's not the only interpretaion though.
hope that help Jackass

  • 05.03.2004 11:08 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Posted by: J_A_C_K_A_S_S
Ok i have a question. Please dont get upset and tell me to go read every post again. (i dont think i could make it through them all).(yes i have read everything.)

Ok so here is my question.

In the first poem we got. Why is eveyone saying that this is referancing all of the differant bungie games? I thought that this whole thing is just about halo.

If you dont understand my question tell me and i will try to reword it.


Alright Jackass here it is

I was fabled before rings were. - Halo reference
I was legend before Leonidas was born. - Myth reference
I was epic before demons rode in the dawn sky. - Oni reference
I was myth before a sword awoke from a rocky tomb. - Marathon reference
I was sentenced into darkness before Theseus found his foe.- Minotaur reference
I was killed before my home was scourged by the western winds of war - Desert Storm ref.
I was driven raving mad before dear Dot bounced off the cushioned walls- Gnop reference

These are the games that Bungie have made. The common thinking is that whoever is writing these Enkidu transmissions has been around since Bungie's beginning.

  • 05.03.2004 11:10 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

i know about that idea but i dont think pong and the gulf war and the games have anything to do with the story. What i am trying to say is what the blam does the gulf war have to do with halo or enkidu. You see i think that this poem is all about halo. I mean Enkidu is saying this is a riddle of who i am. So guess who i am. I think that this is the poem we should be workin on. I think the other terminals that will come in the future will help us break the code(the poem).

  • 05.03.2004 11:16 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I wanted to point something out...

UT 07:23:03 09.07.2552
This is the current date on the main terminal screen - it changed with the arrival of "How I Spent Your Summer Vacation".

UT 17:38:46 09.07.2552
the date of "How I Spent Your Summer Vacation" Interestingly, this date is set 10 hours and 15 minutes after the main terminal - a mistake by the creator?

two conclusions

1) one of the dates is wrong or the creator got them mixed up.

or

2) the Lifeboat Bay C Terminal Access is meant to be Lifeboat C Terminal Access. Which would explain why the main ship terminals' time isn't up to date...

Personally I lean towards the first conclusion... what do you think?

  • 05.03.2004 11:26 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Posted by: J_A_C_K_A_S_S
i know about that idea but i dont think pong and the gulf war and the games have anything to do with the story. What i am trying to say is what the blam does the gulf war have to do with halo or enkidu. You see i think that this poem is all about halo. I mean Enkidu is saying this is a riddle of who i am. So guess who i am. I think that this is the poem we should be workin on. I think the other terminals that will come in the future will help us break the code(the poem).

Gnop is a game that Bungie made, the first game in fact. A knockoff of Pong.
Operation Desert Storm was Bungie's second game, based on you guessed it The Gulf War.
I do not feel that the poem is anything special, it's like flavor text showing that Enkidu is going rampant. But I haven't taken a really close look yet because I quickly drew that conclusion upon seeing it, so I guess it's time to backtrack a little in case you're right.

  • 05.03.2004 11:29 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

hey halo fan i was thinking about that

i was wondering if it could be that the terminal is showing what terminals are active and the the life boat one had just been open that long. Could that be the case.

  • 05.03.2004 11:38 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Posted by: GOD Halo Fan
I wanted to point something out...

UT 07:23:03 09.07.2552
This is the current date on the main terminal screen - it changed with the arrival of "How I Spent Your Summer Vacation".

UT 17:38:46 09.07.2552
the date of "How I Spent Your Summer Vacation" Interestingly, this date is set 10 hours and 15 minutes after the main terminal - a mistake by the creator?

two conclusions

1) one of the dates is wrong or the creator got them mixed up.

or

2) the Lifeboat Bay C Terminal Access is meant to be Lifeboat C Terminal Access. Which would explain why the main ship terminals' time isn't up to date...

Personally I lean towards the first conclusion... what do you think?

Look at the main screen again GOD, it's a different terminal. The main screen says Network Core A Terminal Access, so that could just be what time it was when that terminal was last accessed. But JD is at the Lifeboat Bay C Terminal 10 hours later. This leads me to believe one of two things. Either JD has already left the Lebanon, the main screen shows nothing about being on auxilliary battery power let alone a low battery, and is on Frigid. So the Network Core A Terminal Acess is just a screen that's up on a computer on the Lebanon. My second possibility is that someone else is alive on the Lebanon, and Bungie's sneaky way of showing it is that 10 hours before someone accessed a Terminal that JD would have had no reason to fiddle with.
Just because JD has "no friends" on Frigid doesn't mean someone isn't alive on the Lebanon. I don't think any mistake has been made though, those folks at Bungie are too good to mess up something like this. This took serious planning, so I think we're supposed to believe that JD is on Frigid, there probably aren't any others on Lebanon. Sp, I think it's your 2nd conclusion.



[Edited on 5/3/2004 11:54:49 PM]

  • 05.03.2004 11:44 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

ok your post changed how I view the terminals a little - but I still have a problem. even if the Main terminal is a different one... it currently has a link to something that happens in the future.

Bungie made a mistake in the Cortana letters... but it could be that this is fanfic... maybe it's created by Bungie.org... not Bungie. maybe they're in fact building us up for a Halo PC mod release or something

[Edited on 5/3/2004 11:57:19 PM]

  • 05.03.2004 11:54 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

GOD, this is the biggest freakin Forum Thread goin, or its really close to being. I don't think they would let this go on without doing something about it if it was fanfic. To be honest, they made a few mistakes when they sent the Cortana letters but at this point I think they would have denied any involvement if it wasn't from them. It's been a week since this thing started, they know good and well that a lot of people are puttin in their 2 cents. It would really piss me off if this was fanfic and they didn't deny involvement right away.

Edit - the mod would be cool

[Edited on 5/4/2004 12:04:37 AM]

  • 05.04.2004 12:01 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Oh, personally I believe it to be Genuine.

Unless they know who's creating it - and have been asked to keep quiet - they probably would have denied responsibility.

It would also piss me off if it was fanfic... unless there was a mod to keep me happy.

  • 05.04.2004 12:09 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

yeah i am pretty sure it is bungie doing this. It has to be. Franky did say some stuff about secrets. I think this is leading to something at E3 or something in halo 2.


P.S. You know the guys at bungie are sitting back and laughing their blams off right now. As we keep running around blind folded and hooked line and sinker.

  • 05.04.2004 12:10 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Good ole' bungie, making me try to figure out what the hell all that really means ;).

  • 05.04.2004 12:11 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Hey GOD, before they changed the mainscreen was the time datestamped in the upperright corner always later than or equal to the latest time datestamped on the transmissions. I can't remember really looking at that personally.

  • 05.04.2004 12:13 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Posted by: J_A_C_K_A_S_S
yeah i am pretty sure it is bungie doing this. It has to be. Franky did say some stuff about secrets. I think this is leading to something at E3 or something in halo 2.


P.S. You know the guys at bungie are sitting back and laughing their blams off right now. As we keep running around blind folded and hooked line and sinker.

I'm beginning to think that this is how Bungie writes their stories, come up with some off the wall stuff like Cortana Letters and Enkidu Transmissions and see what the hell we all come up with. We give em free ideas everyday. Bungie is everywhere!

  • 05.04.2004 12:18 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

One thing I think is certain, from what we know of what the Halo 2 storyline already, is the fact that whatever significance these letters have, Frigid is going to be a place that the MC and perhaps Cortana as well visit in the second game.

Of course, I could also be just smoking crack.

I'm hypothesizing this because of the fact that we know, for sure, that in the second game, while the Covenant are attacking Earth, the MC takes the fight to the Covenant and, more importantly, there is another Halo ring involved. While I don't think that 343 GS has anything to do with these letters, the fact that it was the monitor of installation 04 means that there are, at minimum, another 3 Halo rings somewhere in the galaxy, as well as other Monitors.

We know that Cortana also has all the information from the Index as well, a fact that I don't know if it's been overlooked in these discussions - there is a point in "First Strike" where the MC notes that ever since she "absorbed" the Index, she'd been more "twitchy" than before. Could this be a sign of some sort of impending change in her character?

The Index, while I don't know exactly what function it served on Halo, among other things, it was like a key to activate Halo's "defenses". It also must have had, I would imagine (since 343 GS mentions how the other installations would follow suit once Installation 04's pulse is activated) information on the location of the other Halo rings. More importantly, in the book "First Strike", it's said somewhere that while Cortana has all that information from the index, she feared that some of it was corrupted because she had to compress it to make room for other things.

I feel that Enkidu is an AI that may or may not have some part in the Halo 2 storyline. More importantly, though, I think that the location of the transmissions (i.e. Frigid) is something of importance for the next game. Maybe Frigid is a world close to another Halo ring, or has information or artifacts that relate to another Halo ring. Let's not forget that installation 04 was in orbit around a gas giant called Threshold. Who is to say that another installation might not be close to Frigid?

There is definitely more than one voice in the Enkidu letters, though, that much is for certain. There is the voice of Enkidu itself, another Covenant AI (present at the end of the 7th terminal), and another AI that chastises Enkidu (?) for reading other people's mail.

I think what we need to do, as a group, is to perhaps not focus so much on what is said in the letters, and more on why, out of all the literary allusions that whoever wrote this could have chosen, did they pick Enkidu? They could have chosen King Arthur, Baba Yaga, Little Red Riding Hood, Aboriginal Dreaming characters, Tom and Jerry, Daffy Duck, but instead they chose this one. Why? It's from the Epic of Gilgamesh, and while there is a chunk of that story related in one of the terminals, I think more analysis between the Epic itself and these letters might turn up some more interesting and illuminating ideas and clues.

Here's a link to one version of the text - The Epic of Gilgamesh

Last, but not least, if Enkidu is an AI, then who is the counterpart "friend" or AI that would be it's "Gilgamesh"? Is it another Spartan? As I said above, there are a host of other characters from the Epic of Gilgamesh that have been mentioned in the terminals, and whether or not the AI Enkidu is referring to them as their literal names or just "codenames" or whatever, it might be something to check out.

  • 05.04.2004 12:35 AM PDT