- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
This may be long ... so here... you go... ( copy and paste is really fun) :D
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Theory 1 :
During the Gravemind level I wondered if Gravemind had an obvious control of Halo's teleportation system why then did he need to send the Master Chief and the Arbiter to stop the covenant from activating Halo? Why couldn't he simply teleport Flood forms right ontop of High Charity? I realised that it must have something to do with the teleportation system. During the construction of the seven Halo rings the Forerunners must have been aware of the Flood's ability to use weapons and machinery. When the Forerunners built the Halo rings and their teleportation system the Forerunners must have installed a security protocal that prevents anyone containing Flood DNA from using the teleportation grid. This explains why the Flood needed the In Amber CLad and pelicans to invade High Charity and couldn't simply teleport over.
Theory 2 :
The Flood are actually a parasite based around a central intelligence. On Halo 04, the Covenant had just released the Flood, and it had no time to gather sufficient biomass to form the command, or "Gravemind" stage. I believe that the Keyes Blob would have eventually gathered enough bodies and knowledge into it and mutate into a Gravemind, the controlling intelligence behind the Flood in an area of unknown size.
On Halo 05, the Flood had been released uncountable eons before and had had time to ravage the Halo, enought time at least to form a Gravemind. If you think about it, the first stage is the "Ranger" stage, which are defenseless parasites that form the other stages. Then there are the Combat and Incubator stages, the logical step would be for these stages forming together into a Command intelligence, that would eventually achieve sentience, as evidenced by the Gravemind.
If continued to its logical extreme, multiple Command intelligences would form together to create an even greater form, a "God" form.
Theory 3:
In the opening cinematic "The Gravemind" , the beginning dialogue:
CORTANA: What... is that?
GRAVEMIND: I? I am a monument to all your sins.
I think that the line "I am a monument to all your sins" means that he is saying he is here because of Cortana (or the Master Chief, after all it was coming out of his body) created the flood. But that can not be. But that could give further proof to the "humans being modern Forerunners" speculation. And because Cortana was in Master Chief when, or because she was created by humans, she could be assumed to be human.
Theory 4:
I've been going over what I know about the Flood, and the recomended reading list, and I've come to a few new conclusions about our virulent friend.
To compare it to Orson Scott Card's Descolada virus[1], which also re-writes it's victims DNA, the theory that it evolved naturally as some primitive form of life cannot be true, as something so virulent would run it's course, infecting everything around it, run out of food, and die out. Therefore, it must be man(I use the term loosely) -made. As to who made it, I can only speculate, though I think it is safe to say either the Forerunner, or their enemies[2], created it. From that, we can also assume that since the Flood feed on calcium stores, that the beings who created it were fairly similar to us, especailly since the virus was seemingly familiar with Humanoid genetic particles, having been able to readily infect both Humans and the Elites[3].
A second though I had relates to a quote of our favorite Floating Christmas Light, 343 Guilty Spark, on the level 'The Library..
"You can see how the body's been transformed by the genetic restructuring of the Flood infection. The small creatures carry spores that cause a host to mutate. The mutated host then produces spores that can pass the Flood to others. It is insidious and elegant. As long as any hosts remain, the Flood is virulent."
As long as any host remains, the flood is virulent. Hm. What happens then? Before the release of Halo 2, I always wondered if there was a planet out there with a form of the Flood that had, in the absence of hosts, developed a society as a sentient species. And they are obviously somewhat sentient
"' The Flood are already hard at work repairing your vessel. Its parasitic nature belies the Flood's intelligence.' -343 Guilty Spark"
Then Halo 2 came along, and, more importantly, Gravemind. He is quite obviously ancient, because he is not only no longer virulent, I assume, becaue he isn't mindlessly killing and reproducing. He is obviously reverting somewhat, because he seemed to have no qualms absorbing His Most Annoyingess, Regret. But he is intelligent, and to a point, brilliant.
A third thing, I'd like to put forth my own rampant speculations on a few things.
Brain Forms. They are not intelligent, nor brains. I think of them more like a keyboard, made in english, to write in chinese. A translator bewteen the flood and machinery, or dedicated wetware, if you will. All they need is a bioform that had the knowlegde to pilot/control the machine, and a little time to develop the approriate apendeges. Gravemind is not, and I stress the word 'not', a product of a brain form, for the reasons above. He is the product of an enviroment that has lacked hosts, I assume, for eons.
[1] From Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind
[2] I would assume they would have enemies, or they wouldn't have created a weapon such as the Flood, unless the virus was an experiment gone wrong. Or, like the Descolda, a virus sent across the [galactic] void to prepare our galaxy for habitablility.
[3] I make no mention of the other species because, as yet, I have seen no Grunt or Jakal combat forms. Regret has also been shown assimilated. Perhaps there is a common ancestor between Elites, Humans, and Prophets?
That is all.