- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Posted by: Tammo1
Shouldn't we be focusing on the receiver of these letters? There have been several references to the receiver’s usefulness as a combatant, which leads us to think the obvious. That he's a Spartan. But, the problem here is that we do have a date on this. The passengers of the human ship were stranded before reach was destroyed. This doesn't rule out the Spartans, because I vaguely remember that all the Spartans that weren’t out on missions were recalled to hold Reach, so this could be one of those Spartans. If we can figure that out, maybe we can put it in some context.
This is all well and good; however, the bigger question is why are we being sent this? I never read anything that led me to believe that the Cortana letters had been fully deciphered, so we're still working from scratch. But we do know one thing: Someone from Bungie made this.
Now that we know this we can figure out all kinds of important stuff. It also opens up more questions. But, first things first, what can we figure out from this one fact?
1. These mock messages have a purpose or, they have some information in them.
2. The folks at Bungie are smart, so this information is more likely hidden very carefully.
3. Because of it’s hidden nature, this message is in the form of a puzzle. For every puzzle there’s a corresponding solution, and hopefully some rewarding fact comes with this solution.
Alright, we know that we have a solvable puzzle in front of us with a pot o' gold at the other end. The problem, however, with this puzzle is the fact that we don't know what form our answer is going to come in. What I've read has led me to believe that this author we're dealing with has a fairly decent understanding of different religious stories and mythologies of many different cultures and their significance to each other. And by drawing and revealing these parallels we can see a little bit into the past of the halo universe, which very well may be our pot of gold. Those of you who are light-hearted, turn back. Okay, here's what I've seen.
This Enkidu construct character throws around a lot of different names that I had to look up, most of which were references to the story of Enkidu and Gilgamesh. Enkidu is a man made out of clay by a goddess who was wild and lived with animals. Gilgamesh was the bold god-like warrior king of a human city who knew no equal in battle. They eventually meet and become good friends. How can we tie this to the new things we've read? I’m not sure yet. But while doing this research, I found a few other things out which led to some conclusions. Gilgamesh, after Enkidu died, goes on a search for a mortal dude who attained immortality by worshipping and listening to the gods and following their instructions. In fact, one of said gods (who are equally if not more complex than the Greek/roman gods in their relationships with one another) helped this now immortal dude survive a flood. THE flood in fact. The very same flood that lasted for 30 days and 30 nights and cleansed the Earth of all sinners, or, of all sentient life. Identical to the story of Noah, right on down to the animals marching two by two onto the boat.
Is it just me, or is "The Flood" a strange name for a parasitic zombie-like life form? Poetic flair? Maybe, but we can't ignore this connection. Here's what I’ve puzzled out.
The Forerunners' story is the same of that of the people who this Noah type guy lived with. They however weren't killed by rising water levels, but, ultimately, by themselves. As we know from Halo, the Forerunners had captured the flood and isolated it. But they were also wise enough to know that it might escape and they might have to fight the flood. What we don’t know is why the Forerunners could possibly want to keep something around that might destroy them. They also knew that the only effective way to kill the flood was to destroy what they ate, which is anything that is aware of its own existence. Humans, Covenant, Wookies, whatever, Halo can kill them all. Continuing, the flood escapes and the forerunners find themselves battling for their existence and for the future of the universe, so they push the big red button and format the hard drive of the universe, killing everyone. Let's assume the forerunners are as smart as we thing they are and they know that, one day, they may need to pull the trigger. Wouldn't they want a fail safe? Wouldn’t they want a Noah who is isolated with all the animals and who braves the weather for 30 days and 30 nights in order to assure the continuance of life in the universe? I answer that question with a yes.
So, the Forerunner's Noah (who might be immortal?) touches down after the flood had starved to death (or dried up) and now what? What happened to him/her/it? Here are a few ideas.
1. The Forerunners are the humans except they were “reborn” in a sense with a fresh environment and a blank memory, tabula rasa style.
2. The Forerunners were actually many different species and when they needed to pull the trigger of the "gun aimed at the head of the universe" they had their bomb shelters ready and marched on two by two or, three by 3, etc, depending upon the species, and were awakened after it was all over without the memories and technology, like #1.
3. There were no survivors and no Noah and any sentient life in existence has evolved since the Forerunners activated Halo.
3v2.0. Noah exists in the form of a Forerunner artifact that may contain any number of things, from a crazy Forerunner memory box to a tuna salad sandwich that grants immortality, and it is waiting to be awakened and/or eaten by the next tenants of the universe.
Okay, so I'm fairly sure that solution #1 is popular right now, but let’s think about it. Why would the Forerunners wipe their own memories and deny themselves of their own past culture? What does that accomplish? If I'm missing something, let me know. Solution #2 fails under similar scrutiny. The Forerunners screwed up somewhere, just how bad and whether or not they covered for it is what we need to decipher.
Solution #3 and 4 now seems to be the most plausible but we'll get back to that later.
Now that we've got the beginning under out belt, let's see if we can't connect a few more dots. From reading the halo series of books, we know that the Covenant destroy every planted inhabited by humans that they come across by firing a full barrage of plasma artillery at it until it is ruined. This is also known as "glassing". The only exception to this rule is those lucky planets with Forerunner artifacts and ruins in them. We saw this with the planet Reach. So, why is there a Halo 2? Why didn't the Covenant just glass the planet Earth and be done with it? We have to assume that there are Forerunner ruins on Earth and either nobody knows, or nobody told us, with the second being the more likely. Insert your favorite Earth government conspiracy theory here.
From that last paragraph, we’ve concluded that some major cache of forerunner tech is on Earth. Wait, you're telling me that tons of forerunner artifacts and ruins were on the very planet that the human race originated from? Is this a coincidence? Who knows? Well, for one, Joseph Staten, but he's not telling.
So, maybe there is link in between the humans and the Forerunners. So assuming that there is, the mythological name of this link would be Noah, or the same guy that Gilgamesh was looking for, the one mortal and now immortal dude. Gilgamesh was friends with Enkidu, so maybe this is what Master Chief’s purpose is, to find the immortal Noah dude (who’s real name is Utanapishtim) and find out what it has to say. The immortal dude could be represented by any number of things and that choice is up to the creative minds at Bungie. So, odds are, it’s going to be pretty cool.
In conclusion, I’d like whoever has had the patience to read this to go ahead and let me know what you think by posting here or emailing me at Tammo1@aol.com.
Phew, that was longer that I expected it to be.
Good thinking Tammo1. I am still trying to go over all of that. It sounds very believiable. Bungie has some crazy, dedicated, smart people. All this Halo story is making me go crazy. I do not know what to think. Bungie has turned me into a computer nerd trying to figure stuff out. There is so much to know and not enough information given. Bungie needs to quit messing with my head. I want to know the tru7h. I just hope that someday I will. If not, man, I don't know.
Nice analysis thought, I just wish I was that smart.
Hats of to you, Tammo.