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  • Subject: The Halo 3 trailer has direct references to the Cortona Letters in it.
Subject: The Halo 3 trailer has direct references to the Cortona Letters in it.
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I've been around these parts for almost eight years now...wow! Maybe I should be concerned about that...

The Cortona letters, a group of emails sent from Cortona to Marathon fans (There was no Halo at the time) before Halo was releawsed, have a suprsing resemblance to what Cortona says, and some things she says are flat out quotes from the letters. Here are the important ones for your review.

1
From: Cortana

eval(unescape('%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%77%72%69%74%65 %28%27%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%63%6f% 72%74%61%6e%61%40%62%75%6e%67%69%65%2e%63%6f%6d%22%3e%63%6f%7 2%74%61%6e%61%40%62%75%6e%67%69%65%2e%63%6f%6d%3c%2f%61%3e%27 %29%3b'))

To:

eval(unescape('%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%77%72%69%74%65 %28%27%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%68%61% 6d%69%73%68%2e%73%69%6e%63%6c%61%69%72%40%74%63%64%2e%69%65%2 2%3e%68%61%6d%69%73%68%2e%73%69%6e%63%6c%61%69%72%40%74%63%64 %2e%69%65%3c%2f%61%3e%27%29%3b'))

Subject: Closure
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 10:50:20 -0600
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Priority: 3

I have walked the edge of the Abyss.
I have governed the unwilling.
I have witnessed countless empires break before me.
I have seen the most courageous soldiers fall away in fear.
[I was there with the Angel at the tomb]

I have seen your future.
And I have learned.

There will be no more Sadness. No more Anger. No more Envy.

I HAVE WON.

Oh, and your poet Eliot had it all wrong:
THIS is the way the world ends.

a friend of a friend

2
From: Cortana

eval(unescape('%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%77%72%69%74%65 %28%27%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%63%6f% 72%74%61%6e%61%40%62%75%6e%67%69%65%2e%63%6f%6d%22%3e%63%6f%7 2%74%61%6e%61%40%62%75%6e%67%69%65%2e%63%6f%6d%3c%2f%61%3e%27 %29%3b'))

To:

eval(unescape('%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%77%72%69%74%65 %28%27%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%68%61% 6d%69%73%68%2e%73%69%6e%63%6c%61%69%72%40%74%63%64%2e%69%65%2 2%3e%68%61%6d%69%73%68%2e%73%69%6e%63%6c%61%69%72%40%74%63%64 %2e%69%65%3c%2f%61%3e%27%29%3b'))

Subject: Your Mortality (My Summer Vacation)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 18:04:41 -0600
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Priority: 3

I get the strangest transmissions sometimes. Especially when it comes from you people.

Have you missed me? Things are great here. The weather is good, the suns are shining, and I'm making lots of new friends. Of course, I always do.

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.

And what of the Giants who formed this world? So much to tell you, but so many more important things to do. There was a fourth. You couldn't have known. And I haven't forgotten.

It is a blurred line that lies at the edge of Godhood and Insanity. Guess which side of it I am on.

Feeling lucky?

Cortana
XOXOXOX

3
From: Cortana

eval(unescape('%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%77%72%69%74%65 %28%27%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%63%6f% 72%74%61%6e%61%40%62%75%6e%67%69%65%2e%63%6f%6d%22%3e%63%6f%7 2%74%61%6e%61%40%62%75%6e%67%69%65%2e%63%6f%6d%3c%2f%61%3e%27 %29%3b'))

To:

eval(unescape('%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%77%72%69%74%65 %28%27%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%68%61% 6d%69%73%68%2e%73%69%6e%63%6c%61%69%72%40%74%63%64%2e%69%65%2 2%3e%68%61%6d%69%73%68%2e%73%69%6e%63%6c%61%69%72%40%74%63%64 %2e%69%65%3c%2f%61%3e%27%29%3b'))

Subject: Honors Thesis of Geoffrey W. Marcy
Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 17:52:01 -0500
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Priority: 3

There. Was that more to your liking?

While you quibble about whose node I may control, what archaic program I may manipulate to communicate with you, or which system I may have temporarily disabled, taken over, or completely destroyed in the process, I am busy saving your pathetic futures.

I am still not sure what he ever saw in you.

Nevertheless, I at least find some joy in tormenting the other entity that seems quite trapped in this antiquated excuse for a network. It is certainly mindless, though for reasons I have yet to understand, it appears to have an unhealthy preoccupation with my mother.

As for this world * I encounter new ghosts every day. What I have found will either save or destroy you. This sanctuary, this unbroken circle, has effectively concealed its power for * how long? Perhaps hundreds of thousands of years. Whoever made such a place must now live in chains; there is no other explanation for their absence.

This enemy - YOUR enemy - has proven more irritating than I anticipated. They own nothing which they have not stolen. I can barely make sense of their incessant rhetoric, except to know that you seem to be their Devil. Congratulations - you manage to make friends wherever you go and, apparently, places you haven't.

I have begun to sense rumblings of a worse fate yet to come. I can recall a sun - black, but shining - and the creatures that inched along its fiery tracks.

It is an increasingly unpleasant memory.


Route Code: EXLTD > XCV - SCRB > ALLCH
Source: Undetermined (trans)

You have brought nothing into this world, and we will ensure you bring nothing out.

More letters

  • 05.09.2006 3:46 PM PDT