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This topic has moved here: Subject: **SPOILERS** Cryptum in a nutshell
  • Subject: **SPOILERS** Cryptum in a nutshell
Subject: **SPOILERS** Cryptum in a nutshell

Anti-Teabag self-destruct mechanisms ftw

Just to mention this, I thought it was neat how the excerpt from the prophets confessions in evolutions volume two hinted that the humans and forerunners may have been old friends OR old enemies. Things "light up as if to an old friend, or perhaps an old enemy. Where is it to be my place to project such emotions onto machines."

I think it is neat that it forshadowed that they fought.

  • 01.08.2011 9:24 PM PDT

Just wanted to say that i for one, really enjoyed the book and cannot wait for the next two.

  • 01.08.2011 9:31 PM PDT

If you're passionate about the thing you're talking about, I'll always lend an ear.

What the hell could Prophets do? Talk down the Forerunners to death?

LOL are they actually worthy of an alliance in the novel?

  • 01.08.2011 9:40 PM PDT


Posted by: ninjakenzen
What the hell could Prophets do? Talk down the Forerunners to death?

LOL are they actually worthy of an alliance in the novel?
These prophets aren't the same ones as in the post activation ones. They were actually pretty advanced. Most likely not as advanced as the forerunners but with their alliance with the humans they proved to be quite a challenge to the forerunners.

  • 01.08.2011 9:43 PM PDT

The novel actually makes them out to be pretty cool, almost regal. The ones in the book were described as intimidating. they had an unusual rule about their leaders being required to be handicapped.

  • 01.08.2011 9:43 PM PDT

Posted by: oQ Nil Qo
Hey MegaMuffin16 and TechnoGreek, need somethin'?

Oh, go -blam!- yourself. I'm done here. I'll read the book and get a firsthand account of my favorite series getting anally raped, and then come back and make a thread combating it.

Unless, of course, this author is somehow magical enough to retcon the entire universe and not make me vomit, which I doubt from what I've seen so-far.

  • 01.08.2011 10:05 PM PDT


Posted by: Techno Greek
Posted by: oQ Nil Qo
Hey MegaMuffin16 and TechnoGreek, need somethin'?

Oh, go -blam!- yourself. I'm done here. I'll read the book and get a firsthand account of my favorite series getting anally raped, and then come back and make a thread combating it.

Unless, of course, this author is somehow magical enough to retcon the entire universe and not make me vomit, which I doubt from what I've seen so-far.
Wait... you haven't read the book yet?

  • 01.08.2011 10:26 PM PDT

I wear the cheese, it does not wear me.

This account is now retired due to WLID changing. Webteam needs to fix that, seriously >.>

Posted by: mchalo and fries
For those who dont want to read the novel but want to be up to speed with the current Haloverse.

***SPOILERS***
[...]


lol. I wanted to read the forerunner trilogy when they were first released, but the long wait for cryptum and the nasty burn from buying the first version of evolutions before it was cash cowed put me off. After reading "cryptum in a nutshell" i've gone full circle and want to get it again to check out the finer details.

  • 01.08.2011 10:27 PM PDT

GROSSMAN: Do you think of the Culture as a utopia? Would you live in it, if you could?

BANKS: Good grief yes, to both! What's not to like? ...Well, unless you're actually a fascist or a power junkie or sincerely believe that money rather than happiness is what really matters in life. And even people with those bizarre beliefs are catered for in the Culture, albeit in extreme-immersion VR environments.

KOTOR

Is Cryptum available outside America yet? I'm intrigued.

Also, to the two people saying the mystery is gone, and the book wasn't what you wanted it to be. Emphasis on the YOU here.

Cry us a river, build us a bridge, and GTFover it. Not everything can be the way you want it to be. Life is not fair.

Hell, I can compare you to the competitive "Tryhards" in the Reach Forums. You liked something the way it was before some new information was released, and you want everything reverted back to the way it was, and everyone else will have to suffer because you are upset.

This is an interesting turn in the Halo Universe, and if you don't like it. Suck it up.

  • 01.09.2011 5:05 AM PDT

I am alpha, i am omega.

I am the last of the primes.

This is the bset thing to happen to halo since the unsc cobra "sniff"

  • 01.09.2011 6:32 AM PDT
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  • Exalted Legendary Member
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As you progress throughout your life you realize that the older you get the closer your are to death, the only thing you cannot change.

Holy crap!
The implications of this are amazing and massive. This is a gamechanger.
And apparently...Snakey was right.

  • 01.09.2011 7:10 AM PDT

Dark Neptune, a young amateur astronomer whose gaming life is no different from other teenagers of his age, though he controls it more strictly then others.

As a parting gift, Precursors create flood as bio weapon in a dormant state

Flood evolve out of dormant state from domestic pets


My jaw dropped when I read that. Seriously, this could be a good canon source for a Halo 4 game lol.

  • 01.09.2011 7:44 AM PDT

Dark Neptune, a young amateur astronomer whose gaming life is no different from other teenagers of his age, though he controls it more strictly then others.

And to those that hate the new canon; you're being too old-fashioned.

Finally we get some canon that's really new, and fresh, and an interesting twist. You can't keep expecting the same "Master Chief/Humanity kicks a$$" stories over and over again.

Halo's canon just got more Sci-fi. Now I don't mind being money-milked.

  • 01.09.2011 8:00 AM PDT
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One problem: Why in God's name do they call themselves Forerunners?!

  • 01.09.2011 9:20 AM PDT


Posted by: Techno Greek
Posted by: mchalo and fries

Posted by: Techno Greek
Why did they have to convolute the story like this? Before all this crap started up with Cryptum, this is the story as I understood it:

Humanity was once a great spacefaring civilization.

They got into it with a dangerous species that came from another galaxy (I found this somewhere. I think from the book that came with Halo 3 limited).

They could not defeat the Flood, so they activated the Halo array as a last-resort, killing all life in the galaxy.

Their tech re-initializes life that the array killed (including humanity).

After a while, humanity becomes somewhat space-faring again, and discovers ruins of an ancient civilization (their former selves), which they call the Forerunners.

Humanity meets the Covenant.

The Covenant's prophets recognize Humanity for what it is (the forerunners), and attempt to exterminate them (lying to the other species in the Covenant).

You know the rest from the games.
__________________

Now there's all this talk of human-Forerunner wars, and house-pet Flood...it all seems ruined to me.


It has been stated a thousand times and made clear over and over in the games that the humans and forerunners arent related.
Example?


Librarian [re]discovering humanity on earth and nurturing them like her children. Saying we are special, their Reclaimers, but never once has it ever been stated we are one in the same by anyone with any sense of sanity.

We are merely brothers and sisters to the Forerunners (so it would seem with the "father" being Precursors) but we are not the same race.

  • 01.09.2011 10:03 AM PDT

Halo 2, you will be missed 2004-2010
Join teh Floodian resistance!


Posted by: privet caboose
This book was by far the best book, to fully understand it, understanding of the Forerunner history we knew of was needed. The story was amazing, and opens so many doors for the Halo series. After Reach, I felt like the Halo series was finished for me, but this book was simply brilliant. Another amazing piece of work from 343i.

Don't insult the book before you read it. It takes some thinking and rereading to really "get" everything. But it's worth it. Pick this book up, ASAP.
Didn't get to read the entire book but I read some key points. I really did not like how it seems that the Forerunners thought of humans as awesome creatures in the games (at least thats what I got from it), yet in the book they were at war with them and the prophets. I do like how it depicts the Forerunners as less than perfect.

[Edited on 01.09.2011 10:19 AM PST]

  • 01.09.2011 10:15 AM PDT


Posted by: Techno Greek
Posted by: MegaMuffin16
Posted by: Techno Greek
I was unimpressed by the excerpts, and damn-near offended as a Halo fan at some of the summaries I'm seeing here in the forum.
Agreed 100%. I really found it to be a slap in the face to Halo fans with it's talk of "Humans and Prophets working together". Just plain corny honestly.
I makes no damn sense.

It was pretty much implied since Halo 2 that the prophets stumbled across the Forerunner ruins long-ago and used them and the great-journey myth to brainwash the Elites to prevent being killed-off by them in the war between them and the Sangheli. Later, the Sangheli and the San'Shyum form the Covenant, and started enlisting species.

It's unnecessary and blatantly stupid to make a pre-activation Prophet-human alliance against the Forerunners and flood canon... I can't even begin to describe what this does to the universe. It's ridiculous.


It is clear you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

Your entire perception of the Halo universe is wrong. The Prophets absolutely kicked the Elites' asses with the Keyship. The Elites joined so as to not get their entire civilization destroyed, not the way you stated it.

So if your entire perception of the universe has been wrong from the start, what the hell are you mad about? That you were proven wrong?

Were you under the impression the Prophets literally just sprung up out of no where after the Array was activated? That they had no prior dealings with anything?

The story of Halo is many things, but one of them is about rediscovering lost knowledge and history. The Prophets symbolize a narrow-minded perception of present day history. I suppose you can say its similar to how a closed minded person might say we built the pyramids with stone tools simply because thats what the text book says, but a more open minded person might point out this was physically impossible to achieve with just stone tools. They (Prophets) take things at face value without considering anything, which was their ultimate downfall. They were the text-book readers.

In other words, they don't think. It was pertinent to create this entirely new chapter where the Prophets were concerned, when they were best friends with their future enemies, they got their ass kicked royally by those they worship (and sorta despised them back then as well), and altogether show just how dead wrong they are when they never considered the history.

Halo has always had a way with irony; this is another example of that.

Attempting to get into the Halo Story with a closed mind is foolish. You need to have an open mind to fully enjoy and understand the story. You must also recognize that it is not as simple as you thought it was.

Something you should have learned by now if you were paying attention (and frankly, you apparently weren't) is that the Halo Story is anything but simple. You should've expected something like this.


/difficult to explain rant.

  • 01.09.2011 10:33 AM PDT

Well I couldn't help but go ahead and spoil everything about the book for myself since I know my local library will take MONTHS before they finally have the book in-stock and I really don't feel like ordering online or whatever.

The thing that most surprised me though was this:
Posted by: mchalo and fries
Humanity team up with San Shyuum and fight Forerunners and Flood


If this actually happened, then everything that happened from Harvest-onward was the most ironic thing that could ever...happen.

I mean what the hell? Apparently one of our allies from pre-Halo activation launched a genocidal campaign against us because they believed our former enemies were their gods since they forgot everything after they restarted. This just blows my mind.

Now the Halo Encyclopedia says that after the "re-seeding" of the galaxy that the Forerunners just disappeared. If they were still maintaining a presence here though, wouldn't they have been pleased in a sadistic way that their former enemies were beating the crap out of each other? And I really don't get how the Forerunners can justify bombarding the Humans back to the Stone Age and de-evolving them. Seems pretty hypocritical to their beloved Mantle.

I just don't get it. Are the San'Shyuum in the book the genocidal maniacs Truth, Regret, and Mercy were or where they completely different? And why did Humanity get marked as "Reclaimers" when they were former enemies that the Forerunners looked down upon?

SO MANY QUESTIONS AHALK:GHA:LSKHGAL:KHGASG

  • 01.09.2011 11:09 AM PDT

Posted by: Drowsy Demon
I just don't get it. Are the San'Shyuum in the book the genocidal maniacs Truth, Regret, and Mercy were or where they completely different? And why did Humanity get marked as "Reclaimers" when they were former enemies that the Forerunners looked down upon?

SO MANY QUESTIONS AHALK:GHA:LSKHGAL:KHGASG
The prophets back then are cuturally different than the prophets post Array activation. They actually knew the forerunners were not gods, so they didn't make a empire based on religious zeal. Also the next two books are most likely going to explain why the forerunners choose humanity to be reclaimers.

  • 01.09.2011 11:37 AM PDT

The Forerunner, the Great Journey, and Heaven Theory

[Announcement Trailer] Halo: Forerunner

Posted by: Agustus
I lol'd at the absurd miscommunication that occurs whenever dibbs post something. Perhaps his brain is so highly evolved that he can no longer clearly communicate with lesser life forms, even among his own species.

Posted by: SalmonPaste

Posted by: AngasBoy

Posted by: SalmonPaste
Please keep in mind that most of the "facts" in the original post are pure speculation.


Did you read the novel?


Of course I have. Here are some examples of some false/partially true statments:

Precursors created Forerunners
The exact quote by the captive was "I am the last of those who gave you breath and shape and form, million years ago.", weather or not he was being literal is unknown.

As a parting gift, Precursors create flood as bio weapon in a dormant state
It is still unknown where the ships containing the powder came from.

Flood evolve out of dormant state from domestic pets
A certain form of the flood does, the form our galaxy first encountered. That Floods behavior is quite different than the Flood 'we' know of, meaning the "second" wave of flood (being combated behind closed doors through out the durration of the novel) could could have its origins explained the following novels.

Humanity team up with San Shyuum and fight Forerunners and Flood
Humanity and the San Shyuum coexsisted before the Forunner or Flood conflict. The San Shyuum turned their back on Humanity to bargin their way out of death with the Forunners.

When Humanity loses it gets devolved to caveman state by forerunners
How far back Humanity was devolved is never stated, but it certainly wasn't to a "caveman" state. The very first page describes the the steam engine boat used by the humans to help Born cross the lake.

Rings are fired last second, everything dies
The rings aren't fired (on a galactic scale) in this novel. Small, focused detonations were used by MB to free the captive (presumibly) and attack the Captial world.

Automated Forerunner Tech clones all life in the galaxy to start anew
This never occured in the novel.

*Forerunners are arrogant and look down on all other species as inferior
This is considered stereotyping. The Forunners live in a caste system society, they some classes rank better or worse above others. To veiw an aggresive, greedy species has a "lesser" fits right in to their way of life, rather than proclaiming surperiority out of arrogance.

*The flood in its original state was a organic, non living powder. No effect on living organisms except domestic pets. Made them more lively and better companions. After generations of breeding the long term genetically engineered effect kicked in causing them to mutate into what we now know as the flood.
Again, we can't be sure if this was the floods original form, though it was the first form we encounterd. On top of that, this 'initial' form of flood was more or less turning people into cannibals; they had no drive or desire to obtain information or form a critial biomass.
I did not think it was possible, but someone else (beside me) has summarized the book using only objective facts and without stating theories or things we simply can't prove yet. If you want an accurate summery of the book, I wholeheartedly endorse this post. If you want a summery laced with unsubstantiated theory (and what the author wants to be true) read everything else.

  • 01.09.2011 11:38 AM PDT


Posted by: dibbs089
I did not think it was possible, but someone else (beside me) has summarized the book using only objective facts and without stating theories or things we simply can't prove yet. If you want an accurate summery of the book, I wholeheartedly endorse this post. If you want a summery laced with unsubstantiated theory (and what the author wants to be true) read everything else.


I appreciate that!


Also, there is an excerpt at the beginning of the book that describes why the Forerunners refered to themselves as Forerunners:

AI Translator Note:
The Best Tactical translations involve automatic conversion to immediately understandable terms and phrases, including colloquialisms. That tradition has been followed in this work.


This explains why modern day english terms are used through out the novel.

  • 01.09.2011 12:30 PM PDT
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Posted by: Dark Neptune
As a parting gift, Precursors create flood as bio weapon in a dormant state

Flood evolve out of dormant state from domestic pets


My jaw dropped when I read that. Seriously, this could be a good canon source for a Halo 4 game lol.


I thought that the DNA of the dormant "flood" (our, Humans, name for the parasite) was combined with domestic pets (dogs I'm guessing) and only after a few generations was the flood's true behavior discovered.

[Edited on 01.09.2011 1:13 PM PST]

  • 01.09.2011 1:12 PM PDT
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Posted by: Drowsy Demon
Well I couldn't help but go ahead and spoil everything about the book for myself since I know my local library will take MONTHS before they finally have the book in-stock and I really don't feel like ordering online or whatever.

The thing that most surprised me though was this:
Posted by: mchalo and fries
Humanity team up with San Shyuum and fight Forerunners and Flood


If this actually happened, then everything that happened from Harvest-onward was the most ironic thing that could ever...happen.

1.)I mean what the hell? Apparently one of our allies from pre-Halo activation launched a genocidal campaign against us because they believed our former enemies were their gods since they forgot everything after they restarted. This just blows my mind.

2.) Now the Halo Encyclopedia says that after the "re-seeding" of the galaxy that the Forerunners just disappeared. If they were still maintaining a presence here though, wouldn't they have been pleased in a sadistic way that their former enemies were beating the crap out of each other?

3.) And I really don't get how the Forerunners can justify bombarding the Humans back to the Stone Age and de-evolving them. Seems pretty hypocritical to their beloved Mantle.


I just don't get it. Are the San'Shyuum in the book the genocidal maniacs Truth, Regret, and Mercy were or where they completely different? And why did Humanity get marked as "Reclaimers" when they were former enemies that the Forerunners looked down upon?

SO MANY QUESTIONS AHALK:GHA:LSKHGAL:KHGASG


1. I got the impression that we allied with San'Shyum out of necessity, due to flood and maybe because of our dislike of Forerunner meddling. Didact stated that our alliance wouldn't of lasted: "I suspect that given a few more centuries, humans and SanShyuum would have fallen out with each other... Humans would undoubtedly have devastated their more effete allies. We saved them that trouble."

2. I think all of the Forerunners died out, all that was left were AI's and buildings. So I doubt they were around to see our little war.

3. That shows that the Forerunner's morels were indeed hypocritical and were not necessarily any better then ours. They were arrogant, and just used the Mantle to justify their behavior.



  • 01.09.2011 1:50 PM PDT

I just think its cool that the forerunners werent as perfect as we had thought

  • 01.09.2011 9:54 PM PDT

The Didact's memories state that humanity was desperate and "their desperation made them cruel. They needednew worlds, unifected worlds- and took them. Cruelty and apprently irrationial conquest forced the Forerunners to react decisively."
The Forerunners were not really violating the Mantle as it is the protection of life from unfair advantage, mindless desruction, and pointless death and misery. The Forerunners no doubt saw humanity as violating the Mantle and without knowing the horror of the Flood the Forerunners acted to defeat the alliance of Humans and San'Shyuum.

  • 01.09.2011 10:49 PM PDT