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  • Subject: ----PLOT IDEAS ---- WARNING: Possible spoliers inside
Subject: ----PLOT IDEAS ---- WARNING: Possible spoliers inside
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The Cortana letters realesed in 1999 reveal some potentially odd halo tid bits, some of which offer some chances for biblical references.

Example: 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.

For example, in the book of Revelation in the Bible there are many references to Evil Dragons... in my opinion this evil dragon is in fact Gravemind. Again in the 2nd letter there is this reference: "

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. "

another reference to "new friends" the old friends and enemies and such of cortana would not be new friends... once again this alludes to the infamous gravemind. Also in the Bungie office they referred to a project as BLAM... AKA HALO... Blam... big explosion.. possible clueing into the ending of Halo 3? Also The quote "This is how the world ends..." appears in both the trailer and the Cortana Letters. In my opinion this is not mere coincidence. Whoever was involved with the letters has some very indepth and definitive push in the bungie offices as to what makes the trailer. This was included for a reason! It is used in the first cortana letter but she states that Eliot had it wrong. Eliot stated that the world will not go out with a bang (blam) but with a whisper. Once again Cortana Eludes to the end of the world with a bang!

In addition Matt Souell (sp?) a bungie worker referred to 3 new "events" / in my opinion games. The 1st woule bring memories (HALO 1) , the second wishes (Halo 2) after all it did end slightly abruptly and leave you wishing for more. The third dreams... HALO 3 anyone???
Matt himself states the following:

Apr 17, 1999
Matt Soell (Director of Customer Support at Bungie) made a fleeting appearance on IRC yesterday. Ever the evasive one, when confronted with demands for the long promised Marathon 2 updater he quickly changed the subject to Bungie's new games in development. But we were having none of it and continued to chant in mantra fashion the list of bugs in Marathon 2. However Matt persisted through the din and said:


You guys have an extra surprise coming down the road.
As the room fell silent Matt went on to described how Bungie were working on three new games. No... Oni wasn't one of these... these are home grown Bungie Chicago games... full of Eastern promise. Three new games from three development teams. Matt went on to say:
The second will probably cause great joy among some segments of the populace.
Mythers? Matt replied: No, not Mythers.

In true Cortana fashion... Matt left us with this little riddle.
#1 is memories, #2 is wishes, #3 is dreams.

Now we now know down the line that in 1999 they were working on Halo solely.... or were they, Bungie didnt produce any more games since Halo came out. Halo, and Halo 2 then wopuld presumably, and logically, be the two games that Matt was referring to........ but what was the third. It has to be Halo 3... There is no other logical choice. Now if they knew they were going to produce 3 Halo games, the first thing that would most likely be made would be a story line. If you know your going to have three games, you have to know how they interconnect. I have a VERY VERY string feeling to Cortana letters are a direct indication that Bungie has planned this series for at least 7 years... perhaps a decade or more.

AND YES THERE IS MORE!!!

The following is a direct quote from the Cortana Letter website.... "Paul goes on to point out that the Story page received a Cortana mail from a Bungie employee by the name of David Bowman:

As you know, David Bowman was the name of the character in 2001: A Space Odyssey who was transformed at the end of the story into... something else. Later books in the series suggest Bowman and the ships computer HAL9000 were actually merged into a single entity. We all remember HAL - an AI unit that went a little off the rails - sound familiar? "

Notice the HAL9000.... Thats very close to Halo... with 3 0's... Halo 3... and yes it eludes to an AI unit that went off the rails... once again a possible Cortana reference. Or is it a possiblilty that gravemind and Cortana could fuse into one entity, one of superior knowledge, strength, and immensity.... can you say FINAL BATTLE? In addition while Cortana says I am your shield, I am your sword, Gravemind can be heard in the background saying source. Once again a possible ellusion to Cortana being controlled by gravemind. (Gravemind's the source of Cortana's words and actions!


Then you have the standard numerical tableing...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A B C D E F G H I
J K L M N O P Q R
S T U V W X Y Z

M A T T S O E L L
4 1 2 2 1 6 5 3 3 = 27, 2 + 7 = 9

C O R T A N A
3 6 9 2 1 5 1 = 27, 2 + 7 = 9

N A T H A N B I T N E R
5 1 2 8 1 5 2 9 2 5 5 9 = 54, 5 + 4 = 9
So Matt Soell and Cortana match up exactly and Matt, Cortana, and Nathan all reduce to the same number. Even more evil: Combine the three, 999, and invert, 666

666.... could this be 6/6/06... IE the date of the making of video...interesting eh?

As to the previous biblical references the number 7 is common in the bible... I'll indicate a few ways, not sure if they will rally be used, but ya never know!

The last and final of the 7 visions in Revelation is this

7- Vision of the New Jerusalem, a new heaven and a new earth (chapters 20-22):
- The Millenium and the Great White Throne of Judgment (20).
- Revelation ends with the "Maranatha": "Come, Lord Jesus"... "Yes, I am coming soon"... the day of our death!.

New Jerusalem... New Mombossa... possibly... Also Maranatha, and Marathon are very very similar, could be a connection there as well. Especially with the Cortana involvement.

In the fourth Cortana letter this is said...

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 (sarcasm???) wherever you go and,
apparently, places you haven't.

Could this be a reference to Master Chief's enemies in the flood and the Covenant. Could Cortana be set on destroying all living life... Idk... but it is a possibility. Also isnt master chief referred to as a Demon by the covenant. From above excerpt... "you seem to be their Devil."

On side note... the year 2006... is dun dun dun... 7 YEARS from the Cortana Letters.


In addition... black sun... this could be the large spiraling mass that we see in the sky in the trailer. In addition where it says you seem to be their devil... Cortana says again and again... " I have defied gods, DEMONS"" Could Demons and devil be interchangeable... more possible revelations to a Cortana betrayal.

Also there is part of letter number 3 or 4 where it states "

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."

Cortana's mother would have been Dr. Catherine Halsey, leader of the Spartan program who, according to Halo Library is currently listed as MIA.... maybe gravemind isnt controlling cortana, but just using her as a means to attempt to find Dr. Halsey, and potentially, the rest of the Spartans.

In addition the first Cortana Letter was signed, a friend of a friend... take what you may out of it but if I remember correctly, the phrase are you a friend of a friend was used by slaves in the USA while trying to find safe houses when they were running on the underground railroad. Perhaps (as I take my theory in another direction) Cortana is really reaching out ofr help here in this signature, maybe she is trying to get help from the MC to free her from the gravemind, it's a possibility, or perhaps she has found her safehouse, in the den and grasp of gravemind.

I know a lot of this is stuff that seems obvious, but there has to be true concrete reasons, the more logical theories out there the better!




In my opinion Bungie has had this planned out for a very long time... and rightfully so. This game is going to be a true masterpiece.

I will continue to tag along posts at the end as time progresses and I think over the infamous Cortana lettters more and more!

Any feedback, positive , or negative is greatly appreciated. Feel free to throw in your two cents worth.

Updated June 8th 2006!




[Edited on 6/9/2006]

  • 06.08.2006 1:33 PM PDT
Subject: Halo 3 Theory -> Great possibilities in this one... I began it b...
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I already know this all.

  • 06.08.2006 1:41 PM PDT
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Very interesting!

  • 06.08.2006 1:44 PM PDT
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Very possible as well!

  • 06.08.2006 2:13 PM PDT
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This is getting interesting. After more laboring over the letters Ive found a few more small tid bits.

[Edited on 6/9/2006]

  • 06.08.2006 8:14 PM PDT
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Newly edited!

[Edited on 6/9/2006]

  • 06.09.2006 12:04 AM PDT
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So m any really good theories out there.

[Edited on 6/9/2006]

  • 06.09.2006 12:46 AM PDT

You're kind of going all over the place with this conjecture, but I can see that a lot more though was put into it then most of the rubbish you'd find on these boards.

  • 06.09.2006 1:52 AM PDT
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Yeah I am coming out with edit after edit after edit to make it more eh, reader friendly. Hard considering the Cortana Letters seem to go everywhere.

  • 06.09.2006 12:05 PM PDT
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IN addition with my recent viewing of the Juggernaught video that somoene posted, this could easily be the reincorporation of Captain Keyes. The creature that he turned into seems to look similar to the flood Juggernaught / Gravemind.

  • 06.11.2006 1:51 AM PDT
Subject: ----PLOT IDEAS ---- WARNING: Possible spoliers inside
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im betting that theory would be very good if i didnt fall to sleep at the first paragraph, can't you change it around a bit so i dont die of bordem?

  • 06.11.2006 2:07 AM PDT
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Posted by: alexander2006
im betting that theory would be very good if i didnt fall to sleep at the first paragraph, can't you change it around a bit so i dont die of bordem?


Working on it as we speak.

  • 06.11.2006 8:57 AM PDT
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really good theory, i do think bungie had the halo series in the making for awhile, they have a halo bible with the all the information from the halo universe in it, plus i dont think it could just be a coinsidence that all theses numbers seem to add up, "7 years" from cortana letters and we get a reference to them in the trailer....

really good...

totally better than alot of the trash on the forum...

sigh...

  • 06.11.2006 9:18 AM PDT
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Posted by: HerbyOwns You
In addition... black sun... this could be the large spiraling mass that we see in the sky in the trailer. In addition where it says you seem to be their devil... Cortana says again and again... " I have defied gods, DEMONS"" Could Demons and devil be interchangeable... more possible revelations to a Cortana betrayal.


i have my own theory about that spiraling mass. Since it apperas to not interact with anything in the envi, I believe it to be a massive slip space wormhole created by the relic in the traile. I believe the relic to be the ARK.... the vessel of the great journey. Perhaps the forerunners created it as a way to escape this region of space before the HALOs activated. once all the forerunnres had passed through, the slipspace closes and the HALOs activate.

I also belive the HAlOS only destroy life. In that way, it would explain why so much forerunner tech was left as well as planets, suns, etc. and why flood only remained on the HALOS.

  • 06.11.2006 9:46 AM PDT
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I would like to say first of that I do encourage all this rumouring and theory stuff that is going on all over this place... But i strongly suggest you guys start thinking realisticly... Did it ever accure(sp?) to you that maybe they made a kickass announcement trailer to create a bit of a hype so as to promote their product? The things you see in this trailer would, if you never knew anything about halo, give you the impression of an immensely cool story, game and experience alltogether... the announcement trailer for H2 showed a very cool glimpse of how the game could be and created a lot of hype, thus selling more games. However the actual scene in the game turned out very diffenrently... so will this most possibly... I think it is foolish to think you are able to get any real info about storyline and etc. out of a movie that is basicly made only to promote the game and get the market interested. By all means, the theories are great and all, but please stop building them up around the "story" in the announcement trailer... It is in the game yes, but it is made solely for promotion...

  • 06.11.2006 9:59 AM PDT
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holy hell dude , look nice work but , remember halo is just a game and soon a film , but its a bit obsessive. just wate for the game to come out and play it , but still u did a good job of thinkin all this up , i havnt seen or read any of cortanas letters , i proberly have i just cant remember but look , nice work. and like every one else says gd theorys because alot of stuff on the post are a load of bull but this is prity dam gd, loads of gd details

[Edited on 6/11/2006]

  • 06.11.2006 10:00 AM PDT
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Posted by: Shishka
Everything will be gone long before me. When the first living thing was born, I was here, waiting. When the last living thing dies, my job is finished. I'll put the chairs on the tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I leave.

Nice job, best theory I've heard for a while. I wouldn't be suprised if Bungie's been planning this out for almost a decade. Bungie is really devoted on making a good story.

  • 06.11.2006 10:14 AM PDT