Seems good ol' Mr Hamish Sinclair has been onto this for a while:
Just reading the responses to the Cortana message and I was struck by something. Both the inscription on the sword and the story of who created it say that it was one of a set of three--either with Joyeuse and Durindana or Durandal and Sauvagine...
Tycho and Leela?
Or perhaps two new AIs?
Something else interesting I found on the same page, as usual, I'll bold/underline important bits:
Matt Soell (Director of Customer Support at Bungie) made a fleeting appearance on IRC yesterday. Ever the evasive one, when confronted with demands for the long promised Marathon 2 updater he quickly changed the subject to Bungie's new games in development. But we were having none of it and continued to chant in mantra fashion the list of bugs in Marathon 2. However Matt persisted through the din and said:
You guys have an extra surprise coming down the road.[/quote]
As the room fell silent Matt went on to described how Bungie were working on three new games. No... Oni wasn't one of these... these are home grown Bungie Chicago games... full of Eastern promise. Three new games from three development teams. Matt went on to say:
The second will probably cause great joy among some segments of the populace.
Mythers? Matt replied:
No, not Mythers.
In true Cortana fashion... Matt left us with this little riddle.
#1 is memories, #2 is wishes, #3 is dreams.
Make of this what you will. And no this is not a joke.
Apr 18, 1999
Many thanks to all the people who have written concerning Matt Soell's comments regarding Bungie East's three games in development. Matt left us with the following riddle:
#1 is memories, #2 is wishes, #3 is dreams.
Lots of speculation about what these could be. While I won't list them all here Mike Miazgowicz <VacThok@aol.com> did provide three interesting possibilities:
Memories: Pathways into Darkness or Minotaur? These games are certainly old enough to bring back some good old memories....
Wishes: Marathon 4? You could count me as part of one of those "segments."
Dreams: Didn't Cortana talk about "having the strangest dreams lately?"
Yes. Cortana's 2nd message said:
I've had the strangest dreams lately - raging seas, howling beasts, a Demon folded in black clouds. I believe I know what it guards, and I will have it, to the chagrin of the faith-blinded zealots that challenge me. Don't waste your pity on them; I don't think they would like you much anyway.
I personally felt that they had it all wrong, mostly to do with a lack of resources to base assumptions on. But I can go to my own conclusion about this.
Since this is all related to content that comes after Marathon 2, I think it's safe to say that they had definitely planned 3 games at this point:
1. Memories
2. Wishes
3. Dreams
1. Durandal
2. Joyeuse
3. Cortana
1. Marathon: Infinity
2. New IP
3. Halo
^That's my thoughts on the matter. I don't particularly think that the ordering matters simply because it probably wasn't entirely known which game would incorporate which AI.
I'll show you my reasoning for this thought process, by the by:
1. Durandal
- "Memories" meaning "You get to play more Marathon, something familiar to the memory"
- Durandal has a lot of anecdotes that he likes to share, mostly related to the legends of Roland and Chalemagne.
-"Oddly this is familiar to you, as if it was from an old dream, but you can't exactly remember..."
3. Cortana (yes, I missed 2...hold)
-"Dreams" most likely referring to the dream she has in the Cortana Letters, mentioning "The Demon, "faith-blinded zealots".
-Does Cortana ever mention dreaming or having visions as an AI (either in the games or the novels)?
-"Dreams" may be related to Cortana having knowledge of the Forerunner past; of which it can be argued that this differs from memories because Cortana didn't actually personally experience this history.
-"Wake me, when you need me". Maybe the reference is more to do with Cortana enduring the Chief's cryo-sleep. (sidenote: geez, how lonely would that be?)
2. Joyeuse - New IP
"Wishes"
Truthfully I have absolutely no reason to believe that Joyeuse suits the wishes category other than my own personal elimination of choices. Seems like it *could* fit anyway. Especially for an AI. It's something we haven't seen yet in an AI *properly* being the cause of rampancy, but perhaps Joyeuse will wish to become human and resents the fact she* cannot. Would be an interesting contrast to the name as well considering the AI would become a depressed "Joyful" AI.
*she - I've been referring to Joyeuse as a female because of Charlemagne's mindset that "All the many implements of war to him were [female] in some way"
Interesting development? I thinks so.
P.S. Some really weird formatting went on there, but it's about 2:30 am, so forgive me :)
[Edited on 02.03.2010 6:29 PM PST]