- ESSENCES of DOOM
- |
- Exalted Legendary Member
Why are you afraid?
You will die for it is your destiny!
gamertag=WHIzzer331
______________(__||____||__)___
|-------------___-.~,~~:_____:______|================[_]=(
|_______/ /_/```-------|___|
Posted by: lex255
Posted by: Danves
First off, I'd like to say thank you to Bungie for making an incredible game yet again! And I'd also like to say that Dante's Divine Comedy is one of my favorite pieces of classic literature. More of this in time.
As a note, I am neither for or against any religion mentioned in this post, it is purely from the standpoint of literature. I am discussing a novel, not religion.
----SPOILER WARNING-----
If you haven't beaten the game yet, what are you doing cruising the forums? Go play!
So there was this little novel written a while ago, by this one guy named Dante. It was a political satire, meant to make examples of current members of society and the Church at the time, but it's main influence is that of the views of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. And what does all this have to do with ODST, I can hear you all asking. Well, more than you think.
I haven't analyzed the entire game for references, this is mostly just dealing with the Rookie's story.
----
The Rookie has crash landed into a building, has been knocked unconscious, and has awoken later to find himself alone in the city. The city is now quite literally Hell on Earth. But the Rookie is not truly alone. He has a guide through this hell, the SuperIntendent.
Through the audio logs in the campaign, we come to find that the name of the SI is actually VERGIL. And you may have noticed that audio logs are all labeled "# Circle," all the way up to 9. Interesting.
In the Divine Comedy, specifically the Inferno, Dante is guided through Hell by the Roman poet, Virgil. Hell consists of nine circles, each more horrible and punishing than the last. The circles of Hell spiral down into the Earth, to it's very core.
After you find out the fate of your squad, the Rookie heads underground to locate DARE. You find yourself on the 8th level of VERGIL's data center. You need to locate Dare, who is on the 9th level. Fancy that. After much fighting, you find yourself on the 9th level, which happens to be almost completely frozen...
The 9th circle of Hell, in the Inferno, is actually cold. Ice cold. The punishment here is for that of Treason. The higher the crime, the more encased in ice you shall be. The very center of the 9th circle is where Satan himself resides, encased in ice up to his waist, beating his wings, whose gusts of air cause the 9th circle to be encased in ice. Satan himself has three faces, and each is chewing on the three (at the time) greatest betrayers. Their punishment for betraying their lords and benefactors is to be eternally gnawed on by Satan himself.
The Rookie and DARE finally reach VERGIL's core, and there they find the source of this whole fiasco. The rogue Engineer. He has chosen to betray his benefactors, his lords, the entire whole of the Covenant itself. And they are literally coming to chew him to pieces.
----
There you have it folks. My analysis, and hypothesis, and all other sorts of -sis. I've only played through campaign once, but there may be even further references to the Divine Comedy. There are 9 levels of purgatory before one reaches Paradise(Heaven). If someone could confirm how many sections of freeway there are in the final level, we may have our answer. The escape at the end of the game could very well be the escape from Purgatory.
If anyone else has more references to levels of Hell, or to any of the other campaign character's stories, please let me know, I'd be interested to see how far they have taken this. For further reference, hit up Wikipedia, it's pretty extensive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_comedy
Thanks so much to whoever stuck around and dealt with my massive post. Happy Haloing to you all.
tl;dr: Go read a book =P
-----ADDITIONAL FINDINGS-----
Posted by: Overlord Jebus
Maybe each of the 9 circles of audio logs each represent their circle?
I can already think of gluttony and lust off the top of my head.
Thanks for bringing this up, we need to just double check to make sure that each "Circle" of audio logs corresponds to the sin of that particular circle of Hell, which I already know it does.
---
Posted by: Brent G
Posted by: Danves
Posted by: Brent G
OP, you mentioned that Satan has 3 heads that chew on the 3 greatest betrayers? And that the brutes were coming to "chew" on Vergil?
How appropriate that there were 3 of them knocking on his door.
Kickass! How sure are you? I've only played the campaign through once.
I'm pretty much 100% sure. There's two at the doorway trying taunting Vergil, and a Chieftain behind them.
Yet another connection, possibly. If anyone can confirm this for sure, that would be amazing. The pieces seem to be falling into place =)
GREAT FIND MEN!!!
First off let me confirm it. there are two regular brutes and one chieftain.
also the 29th audio tape is sadie is on the train and kinsler explains how his men activated the emergency fire response in the data hive (the argon released froze Sadie's dad) and how he cant leave yet because he has been hunting the engineer to give over to the UNSC because of the fact the engineer now has the SI in it and this engineer has alot of covenant intel. As Sadie calls him a 'monster' he replies "...that doesn't mean i'm not a compatriot" and calling himself a hero as the intel the engineer has could win the war. Sadie still calls him a monster since kinsler has done so many horrible things and now he will be viewed as a virtuous hero if he captures Vergil(way to be thinking about the overall good even if you do kill alot of ppl). *back on the train* kinsler is now telling Sadie whatever the SI tries to do to kinsler now will also harm sadie.(FYI kinsler has 2 or 3 armed guards outside his train and one at the control seat) Sadie stops crying over the fact her dad is now dead and tells kinsler there is one thing vergil can still do to hurt kinsler and not sadie. *outside the train* Jim has been bringing everyone together and the crowd has stormed the armed guards and are trying to get in the train. *back inside the train* Sadie tells vergil to open the doors and the crowd rushes in and (quite literally) tear kinsler to shreds and gain control of the train.
30th audio log
after acquiring the train there is now some calm and peace and less maddness over everyone as they board the train. Jim tells Sadie she has to come now and leave the city behind. Sadie is in tears as she tells how the SI is the only thing she has left of her dad and how she must go back. Vergil comes on the loud-speaker and gives MANY quotes from many of the characters previously stated as Sadie comes to her nerves and realizes her dad is very proud of her and has tried very hard to protect her and if she would remain behind then all would have been lost. Sadie says "ok I'm ready", boards the train, end audio log.
Let's be honest, this isn't EXACTLY how it happened chronologically, but if you are trying to get out any more references to the ninth circle this will defiantly help. The only part i can remember which may be alil messed up is when the crowd storms the armed guards. when kinsler and sadie are talking, that is one continuous dialogue. When jim is rioting up the crowd, that happens before kinsler and Sadie's conversation.