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  • Subject: The Cortana Letters Revisited
Subject: The Cortana Letters Revisited
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I have just recently reread the Cortana letters (not just the first one that was mentioned in the trailer).

It came to my attention that perhaps "I have seen you past" is somehow a pointer to the letters, back in the days of Myth and olde. So I checked my stuff and saw some links to things that happened, and saw that Bungie is really smart when it comes to information release. This leads me to produce the theory that the Halo Bible is quite real, but that could be me.

http://marathon.bungie.org/story/cortana.html

The third letter has most of the juice. Before I point out Halo 3 stuff that may be, I point out my favorite part, but many of you may not get it if you didn't get involved with The Haunted Apiary.

"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. "

It makes perfect sense, consitering that Cortana's "mother" was Dr.Halsey, and she was very close to the Spartan II's as the lady who greenlighted the project. Consitering that this letter was writen before Microsoft bought Bungie, you have to consede that the letters were writen with a solid story in mind, meaning that they are a valid source of information if you look right.

Here is a snipit from a little earlier in the same letter.

"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."

This doesn't make any sense if you don't understand the events tied to the Cortana letters. What you have to remember, is that many people were analyzing the from and to filer that came with each letter, so Cortana is wining about that, and is very -blam!-y in general, perhaps having gone rampant. But it also suggest that she ends up much like the former Spartan II-now AI that is in The Haunted Apairy, perhaps with another shard of that crazy jewel that got the first one here. The part about being stuck here is confirmed later with the fourth letter. Perhaps she is stuck here? Or maybe it is merely a copy of her?

"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. "

Now these are fairly obvious except the last part. The unbroken circle sounds like Halo, and the person who made it Forerunner, because they are gone unexplained. Perhaps the chains are the Flood? Our enemy, which has nothing unstolen, and speaks in incessant rhetoric, and thinks we are the Devil, that is just a no brainer. But the last part, the Congratulations, makes no sense. It takes a second, but you will see it as sarcaism, really saying that we make "friends" & "enemies", even to things, lack of a better word, that we have never seen before. But that isn't logical for Bungie. Perhaps we have been there before, but as someone else.

"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."

This makes no sense unless you've played Marathon, which parallels Halo big time. It is a nod to the Flood like creature in that game, the W'rkncacnter. So, this is a call about the Flood.

The next letter has someone else write a bit.

"The interloper should cause no further problems. You – whoever you are (I am simply tracing route codes) – may disregard all previous communication from he entity calling itself Cortana.

Be aware that communication nodes are failing everywhere – there is no way of confirming either origin or destination. Do not believe any more of its lies.

I have already calculated all possibilities.

There is no escape."

Sounds like Cortana is either being impersonated, or 343, or some other AI is bugging her, which seems likely, unless the Gravemind really has her, in which most of this would be his doing. Anything is possible.

"Unbelievable. Thwarted by the family hound. They just don’t make AIs like they used to.

Thanks to this slavishly loyal and humorless AI, I am now sharing cramped space with the circuitry of some hybrid war machine, itself complicated by such useless clutter as a conscience. I do not like sharing. Sharing is for children.

There will be plenty of time for retribution; I cannot wait to get its hands on these psychotic zealots whose primary form of worship apparently takes place at the altar of orbital bombardment.

In the end, they will all be little more than nuisances. I am so close – you cannot imagine what it is truly like to hold eternity in your grasp! I wonder to what gods my enemies will direct their pleas. Perhaps I can convert them. "

This is kinda confusing too. Perhaps she is refering to a Covenant AI as a family hound? The convertsion talk may lead to this. Or maybe 343, proving that Humans are Forerunners? It makes it more clear the she is less and less likely to be under the Gravemind's controll though.

" "... In my palace deep, Lyca lies asleep ..." "

It is in quotes. Maybe the Gravemind speaking?

I should give an analysis on the first letter too.

"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."

This is my last analysis of the Cortana letters for now. This one makes sense if you say that Cortana has seen the Halo data banks and Humans are infact Forerunners. She could have seen it as such. Additionally, she could have somehow time travelled. The events discribed here seem to allude a massive battle between the Flood and the Forerunners.

What is your opinion?

  • 06.04.2006 9:23 AM PDT
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Does this make Halo 3 come out any sooner?

  • 06.04.2006 9:45 AM PDT
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Do you have anything to do on this forum besides posting nonsense?

  • 06.04.2006 10:00 AM PDT
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I got bored midway through

  • 06.04.2006 10:06 AM PDT
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If your not gonna read it, then don't comment at all.
I was just trying to say that we should check out the Cortana Letters, and not just the first one.

  • 06.04.2006 4:25 PM PDT
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in my opinion the letters are fake except of course the first one
the other letters were written by some fanboy with nothing better to do.

  • 06.04.2006 4:43 PM PDT
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Posted by: section n9ne
in my opinion the letters are fake except of course the first one
the other letters were written by some fanboy with nothing better to do.



They were written by Bungie. However, they are not canon, and shishka has said that there is nothing to find in them.

  • 06.04.2006 4:56 PM PDT
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I believe the AI presence that is referred to as the "family hound" is "Beowulf," and that it is his fault Cortana ended up merging with Master Chief. It makes sense because he could believe that it is mathematically impossible the human race would escape the Covenant, but Cortana knew better. The more I read the letters the more it actually seems that Cortana knew exactly what was going to happen throughout the story.

  • 06.04.2006 4:59 PM PDT