- Jordan117
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- Exalted Legendary Member
On July 31, 2001, Joseph Staten, the Halo backstory overlord, posted this message on the Rampancy.net forum:
Re: Autumn
Posted By: Joseph
Date: 7/20/01 10:57 p.m.
(because poetry is a great break from crunch)
Joseph
Posted On: Tuesday, July 31 2001, 1:43am
Poster IP: 131.107.3.91
deep in the heart of autumn
were silent spaces for fifty
of the ones that need no name
from this celestial bough
all but one did fall into
the pitiless fires of reach
a soldier's ignominy
to have dreamt while brothers bled
but oh, for the rest of us
his shame was our salvation
- unknown author, late 26th century
(Source is here -- scroll about halfway down to find it. The original post is long gone.)
If you're familiar at all with the Halo backstory, then you should know that this poem is clearly describing how the Master Chief was the only Spartan to survive the fall of Reach, and that he went on to save humanity.
The key is that this poem was supposedly written in the late 26th century, or the late 2500s. Since 2552 is more mid-century, Staten is implying that humanity survived, to the point where some anonymous poet could craft lyrics describing the Chief's exploits a decade or so after the fact.
Sure, this might not be canon, but it's a clue, nonetheless.