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side note: aren't you glad i have the skills to efficiently label my thread with a relavent name that isn't in all caps?
edit for mods: sorry i bumped in my last thread about this, had no idea that was a new rule!
The Cortana/Forerunner/Gravemind Thread
The purpose of this thread is mainly to compile as many different facts, ideas, theories, and information regarding Cortana, her going rampant, and the possibility of gravemind controlling/influencing her.
My Theory:
Updated with new ideas!
Ok. At the end of Halo 2, Cortana was left at High Charity. While MC was still at High Charity, cortana repeatedly talks about the presence of another AI in the system. I don't think it's gravemind, i'll get to him, i think it's a Forerunner AI. Previously i thought the AI was covenant, but i don't think so anymore. I thought about it and i thought about two things: where cortana was, and where cortana had been.
Cortana is in High Charity with John. What is HC? It's not a covenant ship, it's a forerunner ship. that's where cortana is now.
Now think back to the books. On the Unyeilding Heirophant, a covenant ship, cortana encounters a covie AI. She then combats it by placing copies of herself into the network. Cortana easily "defeats" this AI.
Again into past events. This time in halo 2. when John jumps off the structure and into the water at the end of the level Delta Halo, cortana is with him. Though i don't think there is definitive evidence that cortana is "conscious" or operating during MC's chat with the gravemind, i think she is. I think that''s backed up by the fact that she never questions John's actions after his encounter with the gravemind.
So now cortana is familiar with covenant AI and with the Gravemind.
Now when you add both the past and the present, you find that cortana has been around the covie AI and could spot one easily now, and that she had seen the gravemind, and could also identify it, then, in the present, she's inside a Forerunner ship.
Now combine that with cortana's complaints that the "presense" inside the network is something she hasn''t seen before. (I'm working on grabbing some quotes from the game to back this up) Since cortana knows what the covie AI are like and knows what the gravemind is like, she wuldn't say it was new to her if it was covie. which makes me believe that the "presence" is the only option remaining -- forerunner.
Now it's only natural to think that since Cortana is an intruding presence on the network of the High Charity ship's system, the forerunner AI would try to attack and remove the intruder. So i think a sort of battle or 'rootwar' took place between the two AI forces. Originally i thought that Cortana would win this battle, but then i got to thinking about what if she didn't. cortana never complained about the first covie AI she encountered, she kind of just worked around it without much of a problem. I think this AI is different. like a different breed of AI altogether. it's stronger, faster, more than cortana.
So IF cortana were to be destroyed by this AI, could something similar to what happened to John and the arbiter take place? I mean where they are transported somehow to be with the gravemind. If cortana is pretty much defeated and almost killed like MC while running off the structure after killing regret, could she too be put into the presence of the gravemind? She was likely with him the first time with gravemind. If this were to happen it would explain the lines from the trailer, "I know you, your past, your future. This is the way the world ends.". Cortana sees through the gravemind what was, is, and will happen. Simply put, Cortana gets the sight of Gravemind.
This new 'sight', added to the unsorted info from the halo ring(s) and her battle with the forerunner AI could easily lead to Cortana's rampancy.
For those who don't know, rampancy is where an AI collects and retains sooooo much information and tries to learn and make sense of all of it, that the AI basically thinks itself to death, and has no more memory capacity to take in anyhing new, and therefore the thought process stops.
cortana has shown early signs of rampancy when she sometimes repeats things, or gives unnecessary info. Also, we know that cortana has the ability to go rampant because the copies of herself that she made to combat a covie AI on the Unyeilding Heirophant became rampant because there were too many of the same AI, collecting overlapping info in one place.
if cortana is rampant, it would explain her seemingly starange messeage, presumeably to John-117. If she's not, then her message is just a show of what she's seen, and her attempts to warn, and prevent "the way the world ends"
While i know this theory is far-fetched, i think it has some very good points, especially the possibility of Cortana being with the Gravemind at some point.
you guys let me know what you think!
-GH0STce11
[Edited on 5/15/2006]