- Wolverfrog
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- Fabled Legendary Member
This one's easy enough. People don't turn to the Halo 3 terminals enough; they're a treasure trove of hints and clues that are being clarified through 343i's new canon.
Here's a message from the man who fired the rings:
[Father], I hope this message finds you well and helps you understand my decision. Today I leave the only world I have ever called home, not for glory or the anomalous desire to end another's life as you have [indicted] but to travel the path of demons to spare the hands of another Father's son. "Had we acted sooner; had we acted more decisively..." Living in the past is a luxury none of us can afford. We must learn from it, but we cannot live there. It is impossible to plan for the [now] - the present is ever fleeting. [The future] is where we must live - [the future] is what we must plan for. I do not look to trade my life in order to preserve our past, but to secure the futureand if not ours, then the future of some [culture] yet to come. Isn't sacrifice in the interest of others what you spoke of as being so noble? Should I have allowed another to bloody his hands while I remained safe behind a [shield of privilege]? You raised me better than that. [Filial Devotion]
At one point in Cryptum, Bornstellar says to the Didact: "I'm willing to sacrifice my life to save my people! Is that not selfless and noble?"
This is reflected in the terminals; 'Isn't sacrifice in the interest of others what you spoke of as being so noble?'
It's far too much of a coincidence that Greg Bear wrote in a line that is nigh-identical to how it's written in the terminals. Now, we're pretty sure Bornstellar doesn't have children; none who would refer to him as 'father,' unless that should change in the third Forerunner novel. Right now, it's a safe assumption that Bornstellar's father was the one who originally told him sacrifice for others is a noble thing, and in Cryptum he's repeating that.
Then in the terminals, Bornstellar has left a shield world (or maybe just a privilege afforded to him) and has gone to fire the rings so he can avoid bloodying the hands of another. Then he sends a letter to his father, one of filial devotion. After that he fires the rings, and dies. The Didact we'll see in Halo 4 is likely the original Didact, who was probably in Requiem at the time of Bornstellar's firing.
[Edited on 06.30.2012 12:18 AM PDT]