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This topic has moved here: Subject: Cryptums capable of shielding occupant from Halos?
  • Subject: Cryptums capable of shielding occupant from Halos?
Subject: Cryptums capable of shielding occupant from Halos?

By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.

I was rereading Cryptum and just got to the part where the Didact is brought out of his Cryptum by Bornstellar. There is a particular line of dialogue that the Didact says which made a question click in my mind - could it be possible that a Cryptum is capable of protecting one from the firing of the Halos?

Halo: Cryptum, page 73
He managed one more utterance -- a question. "Has the damned thing been fired yet?"

Now this is pretty shallow evidence for such a large question, one must take into account that the Didact was just revived and may not have been thinking rationally. However, it's evident his memory and hatred of the Halo Rings was still prominent enough for him to ask that question.

In a Cryptum, the occupant would become unaware of the physical world around him, and could remain in a state of suspended animation for thousands of years. Cryptums required an extraordinary amount of force to be breached once sealed. To me, this sounds very similar to the Slipspace Pods from Ghosts of Onyx which were capable of remaining intact if a nuke was to be detonated on it and shielded the occupant from a Halo firing because they were not truly present.

Could it be possible that the idea for Slipspace Pods came from the Cryptums? If so, it seems highly possible that these Warrior Keeps were capable of protecting one against the weapons the Warrior-Servants hated most.

  • 08.26.2011 9:47 AM PDT

One Love,
One Tru7h,
One Destiny.


Writer for TheGameFanatics.com

I'm actually coming up towards the end of the book now. I didn't notice this either until I just went back and re-read the part. (I have my book with my most of the time when I'm working)

Nice find, OP.

Plausible theory!

  • 08.26.2011 10:48 AM PDT

I am Field Master Avu Med 'Telcam, Servant of the Abiding Truth, and I have many brothers.

A god who creates tools is still a god. It is not for us to impose qualifications upon the divine or presume to guess its intentions.

I thought people would have considered this common knowledge...

  • 08.26.2011 10:51 AM PDT

I wake up to find myself
After all these years
And where all the time has gone
Still seems so unclear

The only problem with this theory is that the technology for a Cryptum seems to be really old. Older than the technology for the Halos, which was relatively new.

I could be wrong, but unless the Didact specifically mentions that's part of a Cryptum's technological abilities, it seems rather unlikely.

  • 08.26.2011 10:54 AM PDT

I am Field Master Avu Med 'Telcam, Servant of the Abiding Truth, and I have many brothers.

A god who creates tools is still a god. It is not for us to impose qualifications upon the divine or presume to guess its intentions.


Posted by: Ageless Durandal
The only problem with this theory is that the technology for a Cryptum seems to be really old. Older than the technology for the Halos, which was relatively new.

I could be wrong, but unless the Didact specifically mentions that's part of a Cryptum's technological abilities, it seems rather unlikely.
I disagree. A race as intelligent as the Forerunners would have built the Shield Worlds, which I assume use the same type of technology as the Crytum would to defend from a Halo activation, before the Halos themselves were built.

  • 08.26.2011 10:59 AM PDT

By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.

Posted by: Ageless Durandal
The only problem with this theory is that the technology for a Cryptum seems to be really old. Older than the technology for the Halos, which was relatively new.

I could be wrong, but unless the Didact specifically mentions that's part of a Cryptum's technological abilities, it seems rather unlikely.


If some form of slipspace suspension is utilised by a Cryptum then the age of the technology is irrelevant. Also, the Halos were constructed 10,000 years before the Forerunner-Flood war so they're pretty old too.


Posted by: matman25402
I thought people would have considered this common knowledge...


As far as I am aware, nobody has pointed this out before...

[Edited on 08.26.2011 11:03 AM PDT]

  • 08.26.2011 11:02 AM PDT

I wake up to find myself
After all these years
And where all the time has gone
Still seems so unclear

The way I read it, the Cryptum seemed less of a technological exile and more of a biological one. (Knowing the Forerunners and their technology, it's both.) But to me, it wouldn't make any sense why they'd need to implement Slipspace shielding on a self-exiled Forerunner.

But you're right, the Didact definitely implied he would survive of Array's firing in the Cryptum. Wouldn't it be interesting if that's why Chakas seems like he's talking to "us" on the back of Primordium? Perhaps the Didact put him into a Cryptum so he'd survive the Halo's firing.

  • 08.26.2011 11:16 AM PDT