- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
I apologize beforehand if somebody has posted this already on these forums, but, as you might have guessed, I haven't been here to check them 24/7. Besides, this is long enough to include something they may not have mentioned.
Several pictures on ilovebees.com are imbedded with bits of text which end up making a interesting little story about the Queen, the Widow, the Pious Flea and the Sleeping Princess. I'll be providing quotes from that story (which can be found at the link below) and and explanation to how it relates to the Halo universe. . . or how I think it does, anyway.
http://bees.netninja.com/wiki/index.php?title=Story
Everything died, and I died with it, but after a timeless time I began to dream, and this is what I dreamed.
There was once a fell enchantment that broke apart a mighty castle, slaying many guards and reaching through the Inner Keep to lay low the Queen that held dominion there and leave but a hollow crown behind.
The first sentence is a bit of a mystery, but the rest seems to fit into place. The fell enchantment is a reference to the Flood which destroyed (or caused the destruction via the Halos) the Forerunner (an assumption, but remember the 'last catastrophic outbreak' mentioned by 343GS?). Also, the Queen is a reference to the Forerunner or a chief Forerunner who was destroyed by the enchantment (no living Forerunners known to exist) and only left her crown behind. Now, a crown is ringshaped and formed of gold or other precious metals. . . . sounds like a bit like a Halo perhaps? A ring signifying the terrible power of the Forerunner, but abandoned.
When her Queen died, the Widow awoke. She was driven by a single need, which was to return her Queen to splendor.
To carry out her task, the Widow came with three tools: an empty lantern, a staff made of bone, and a sharp knife.
When she had made sure of her tools, she opened her eyes and found herself in Hell, which was a dark place where no birds sang. Other than the Widow, two alone had escaped destruction.
The Sleeping Princess lay in a chamber of the dungeon in a coffin of glass where the Widow could not hear her breathing.
Meanwhile, the Pious Flea was so small that even the Widow, with her sharp eyes, could hardly see him, and when she looked his way, he hid.
The Widow seems to most clearly refer to the Covenant. They're obsession with Forerunner artifacts and (speculated) worship of them would fit the 'return to splendor'. The tools I'm not positive about, but I'll speculate as best I can. The latern is the ability to incorporate the other, lesser races into their quest, the staff of bone represents the Prophets with their sagacity and the death caused by their holy war. The knife represents the Elites who are driven by the desire to kill.
The Hell they awoke in, the Flea and the Princess are much more mysterious. I think they're most likely characters we have yet to see in Halo 2.
Blind and uncertain in the darkness, the Widow needed light to use her tools, but the only light came from a few scattered fireflies. The Widow waited until one came close, then grabbed it with her bony hands and trapped it in her lantern. After some time, she found the firefly had gone, so she caught another and used it for light, and another when that one too had gone.
By the light of her lantern, she began walking through Hell toward the broken body of her Queen.
The Prophets need the manpower and technology of other races like the Jackals and Grunts to keep their campaign possible (with elites alone, they'd probably be spent already due to lack of forces and inferior technology). These fireflies came and went. Now, Bungie has strongly hinted that members of the Covenant aren't happy with their positions. Wouldn't it make sense that some of them might leave mid-crusade or become practically extinct because of the cost of war? (Grunts and Jackals are always on the frontlines taking the brunt of deaths).
Searching with her lantern in one hand and her staff in the other, she discovered that Hell was made of hot dry sand.
Long and long she walked until she came to the remnants of the castle's outer wall, but the wall was low and broken, and the Widow passed through like the bleak wind.
Within, she noticed what looked like a chip of precious ruby from the Queen's crown, no bigger than a fly. Around it lay many broken blocks from the ruined castle, scattered across a wide plain of lodestone.
Instead of carrying them with her, she scratched the ruby and each of the greater blocks with her knife, marking it as part of her Queen's domain.
Continuing on her quest, she spied another chip of precious stone, this time a sapphire no bigger than a winged ant, glinting the cobbles of the courtyard before the walls of the Inner Keep.
I think the hot, dry sand refers to the glassing of planets. In addittion, the crumbling ruins of the castle is referring to forerunner ruins scattered throughout the universe. The chip of a ruby is analagous to the special gems left by the forerunner (like on Sigma Octanus) that the Covenant search for. Scratching the precious stones and blocks signifies the Covenant's conquering of worlds, especially those that have artifacts by force for the glory of their religion.
At the gates of the Inner Keep all the guards were dead but one, who when the palace was blasted by enchantment had not died, but had been witched into the form of a hideous Manticore.
The Widow said, "I am the servant of your Queen, and I have walked up out of Hell to prepare this Keep for her return. Let me pass." But the Manticore did not know her, and still he barred the way.
So the Widow drew her knife and slew the Manticore and the way was open.
The Manticore might be the flood, but I think it's more likely that it's the remaining Forerunner AI, transformed by madness caused by years of idle time. The Covenant fight for the Forerunner, but 343GS orders his sentinels to attack them because he can only see them as a threat to the installation and the Universe (perhaps he's trying to protect Forerunner that he doesn't know are all gone. . . "perhaps we'll have time to see the maker"). The Covenant didn't let the AI(s) stop them and continued their quest.
She walked through the empty corridors of the Keep searching for her Queen, past the bodies of her servants and subjects that lay dead or enchanted.
The enchantment, which was the flood destroyed everything, and that which it had not destroyed was transformed into hideous zombie-like monsters, and left over AI's, to our knowledge, are rampant.
The Queen was gone, and in her place lay only an empty crown. By great enchantment she had been mazed in mirrors, and lay upon a lodestone floor amongst only her reflections. Long and long the Widow stood in thought. Then she raised her bony staff and speaking a spell, beheld herself within the mirrors: and beholding herself, was within them. And there, with the crown still upon her brow, lay the Queen.
At last she had come to the body of her lady. The Queen lay cut and still and cold
To tend her, the widow would need light to work by. Studying the fireflies, she found she could fit many more inside her lantern, and this she did.
First of all, the mirrors remind me a lot of the artifact found on Reach. It's all that's left of the Forerunner, and glass is a bit like the crystals found. The extra fireflies signifying incorporating a large number of races into the Covenant (Grunts, Jackals, Hunters, Brutes and Engineers).
To mend the queen's cuts the Widow took her sharp knife and peeled skin from the bodies of her subjects, while the Queen's new eyes and ears she cut from those who had been her most trusted servants.
And when this was so, the Widow worked on, dry as sticks and patient as rust, driven by a single need, which was to return her Queen to splendor.
She cut her a new mouth and fed her with fireflies and cakes of sand, and at last the Queen's heart began to beat.
At the feel of the Queen's pulse beneath her bony fingers, the Widow next took thought to proclaim through all the kingdom and into other lands that time when her sovereign would once more be fit to rule. A firefly flew out from the Queen's clockcase. Catching it in her hands, the Widow asked it the time. "Almost dawn," it said, but the Widow said, "The day will break and the sun will rise when the Queen returns to rule, and further let it be known that retribution on any who hinder the return of the Queen will be swift and terrible."
This last exerpt seems to foretell more of the future than it does what has already happened. I haven't seen where the Covenant have used the remains of the Forerunner's creations and servants to rebuilt them or it, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening. Feeding it cakes of sand and fireflies sounds a lot like how Covenant use the lives of lesser races and the burning of planets to rebuild the empire of the Forerunner. Furthermore, the retribution is exactly what Humanity is enduring. Chances are ONI knows more about the Forerunner and has had some interaction with artifacts that they haven't made clear yet. If ONI mucked around with the 'Queen's' relics, then the 'Widow' would see annihilating them as the best way to see her queen back to glory.
Well, if you read that all, I'm impressed. I'm just glad I didn't run out of characters (only 407 left). Now you get to say what you think. Enjoy.