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Subject: "The Cortana Letters"
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Hey I was wondering if anyone had herd of "The Cortana Letters", Im sure that "The Cortana Letters" are old news but I was wondering if anyone had seen the Halo 3 beyond the trailer video from IGN where they talk about "The Cortana Letters." I think theres alot to discuss on that particular subject! Because there is a lot of mystery in "The Cortana Letters." Ya know

Feb. 16, 1999

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.
[I was there with the Angel at the tomb]

I have seen your future.
And I have learned.

There will be no more Sadness. No more Anger. No more Envy.

I HAVE WON.

Oh, and your poet Eliot had it all wrong:
THIS is the way the world ends.

End of submission!

  • 06.19.2006 10:15 AM PDT

Halo's a hell of a drug.

I think you have stumbled upon something new. Good work man. Everyone look what 13classy found! Hip hip hooray!

  • 06.19.2006 10:16 AM PDT
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this is an old topic that has been beaten to death over and over and over.....

  • 06.19.2006 10:17 AM PDT
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Yes they have. Now run, I will hold off the flamers as long as I can! *dies*

  • 06.19.2006 10:17 AM PDT
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Yes this is old, and than again its new, nobody talks about this man......well have you seen the Halo 3 beyond the trailer video from IGN, thats what got me working on it!

  • 06.19.2006 10:18 AM PDT
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Ha, well if thats how u feel, lets beat it even more! thats all I have to say to u.

  • 06.19.2006 10:22 AM PDT
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Well anyway heres another transmission I found from "The Cortana Letters"

date March 18, 1999


I get the strangest transmissions sometimes. Especially when it comes from you people.

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.

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.

And what of the Giants who formed this world? So much to tell you, but so many more important things to do. There was a fourth. You couldn't have known. And I haven't forgotten.

It is a blurred line that lies at the edge of Godhood and Insanity. Guess which side of it I am on.

Feeling lucky?

Cortana
XOXOXOX

  • 06.19.2006 10:26 AM PDT

Facts are the enemy of tru7h....

The cortana letters are from a time when halo was still an RTS... the plot probably has changed a lot since then... i wouldn't read too much into them..

-Stu

  • 06.19.2006 10:26 AM PDT
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oh the triple post move huh? Stop it, it's a dead horse, the only thing worse than beating a dead horse is being one.

  • 06.19.2006 10:27 AM PDT
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reckon the fourth is another chief prophet?

  • 06.19.2006 10:28 AM PDT
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Posted by: aplusjimages
I think you have stumbled upon something new. Good work man. Everyone look what 13classy found! Hip hip hooray!


I seriously hope that's sarcasm.

Anyways, dude. Seriously. Not only has this topic been hashed out, but the cortana letters predate Halo, as in they were around before Halo 1 came out. They don't apply to H3. At all.

[Edited on 6/19/2006]

  • 06.19.2006 10:29 AM PDT
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Honestly I dont believe they are, the plot may have changed a little but why would it be in the Halo 3 beyond the trailer video, if the plot has so called changed, think about it...............................................The Trailer takes place in Africa right, well Africa in the trailer isnt to far from Mount. Kilimanjaro! well In the Halo 2 vol. 2 soundtrack theres a song titled The road to Voi, well the mountain that was confirmed as mount. Kilimanjaro and Voi (Which are in Africa) ARE NOT TO FAR FROM THE EQUATOR, and when you think of the Equator you think of Rings, so what is it buried beneath the Earth, I dont kno, maybe its a Halo folled by the Equator!

  • 06.19.2006 10:33 AM PDT
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This is old. Not that you don't already know. Old as in 1998.
This topic has been extensivly discussed before. Along with other interesting finds.
I think that thread had died, but it's somewhere deep in the abyss of the Halo 3 Froum pages, or it's somewhere lost in the Flood. I'll see if I can pull it up.

  • 06.19.2006 10:37 AM PDT
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Posted by: X13Classified31X
Honestly I dont believe they are, the plot may have changed a little but why would it be in the Halo 3 beyond the trailer video, if the plot has so called changed, think about it...............................................The Trailer takes place in Africa right, well Africa in the trailer isnt to far from Mount. Kilimanjaro! well In the Halo 2 vol. 2 soundtrack theres a song titled The road to Voi, well the mountain that was confirmed as mount. Kilimanjaro and Voi (Which are in Africa) ARE NOT TO FAR FROM THE EQUATOR, and when you think of the Equator you think of Rings, so what is it buried beneath the Earth, I dont kno, maybe its a Halo folled by the Equator!


You are trying really really hard to make this theory fit. Please stop. Anyone can make their theory fit in somehow. For instance:
The chief eats food. Banannas are food(I love banannas). Banannas grow in tropical climates, such as places near the equator. As we can see from the trailer, there is very little vegetation, and definitely NO bananna trees. This must make the Chief mad, because he likes banannas. He's so mad that he's gonna kill every single goddamned Covenant who he blames for wiping out New Mombasssa, and all of it's grocery stores full of banannas. This is further shown by the fact that Cortana says "This is the way the wold ends". Well that's true. Without banannas, how could we live? We're not the only ones to eat banannas. Maybe whole ecosystems are dying...And maybe the world ends because the Chief is soooo pissed at the Covenant that he sets of 200 H-bombs, or even sets off the Halos just to kill the Covies.

Yeah. See? Just stop.

  • 06.19.2006 10:40 AM PDT
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Well I could have that Equator theory Quoted by A woman named Hathleen Sanders, which is the News Editor from IGN. Im not saying I could physicaly Have her come and post a bulletin saying it, all that Im saying is if you watched the video, you would understand what im saying here!

  • 06.19.2006 10:48 AM PDT
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Posted by: Rakdos
Posted by: X13Classified31X
Honestly I dont believe they are, the plot may have changed a little but why would it be in the Halo 3 beyond the trailer video, if the plot has so called changed, think about it...............................................The Trailer takes place in Africa right, well Africa in the trailer isnt to far from Mount. Kilimanjaro! well In the Halo 2 vol. 2 soundtrack theres a song titled The road to Voi, well the mountain that was confirmed as mount. Kilimanjaro and Voi (Which are in Africa) ARE NOT TO FAR FROM THE EQUATOR, and when you think of the Equator you think of Rings, so what is it buried beneath the Earth, I dont kno, maybe its a Halo folled by the Equator!


You are trying really really hard to make this theory fit. Please stop. Anyone can make their theory fit in somehow. For instance:
The chief eats food. Banannas are food(I love banannas). Banannas grow in tropical climates, such as places near the equator. As we can see from the trailer, there is very little vegetation, and definitely NO bananna trees. This must make the Chief mad, because he likes banannas. He's so mad that he's gonna kill every single goddamned Covenant who he blames for wiping out New Mombasssa, and all of it's grocery stores full of banannas. This is further shown by the fact that Cortana says "This is the way the wold ends". Well that's true. Without banannas, how could we live? We're not the only ones to eat banannas. Maybe whole ecosystems are dying...And maybe the world ends because the Chief is soooo pissed at the Covenant that he sets of 200 H-bombs, or even sets off the Halos just to kill the Covies.

Yeah. See? Just stop.


rofl

  • 06.19.2006 10:48 AM PDT
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Well, If you want me to stop than I will, but not because of you, but the only people that get mad are the people that dont fully understand it, they get confused and irritated, so I just dont see why they dont just stay out of the topic!

  • 06.19.2006 11:53 AM PDT
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I support 13Classified idea. Clearly, Bungie has held onto the idea of the Cortana Letters if she's saying them in Halo 3 Trailer. And stop trying to silence this guy, he has a theory, he's speaking his mind, relax and leave him be.

Also, it isn't odl news to everyone. I just read the Cortana Letters a few weeks ago, I didn't even know they existed! So its not old for everyone.

  • 06.19.2006 12:01 PM PDT
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While I think their awesome don't consider them "new" they were released in May of 1999 slightly before the E3 showing of Halo 1. They are real letters sent from Bungie. While i never found out who sent the letters someone from bungie "forgot name" said that people could ecpect more letters. While they are cool I doubt bungie planned this far ahead to put some of the phrases in halo 3. And in the first letter it says "your poet eliot had it all wrong. Eliot was a poet who wrote This is the way the world ends. Not with a bamg but with a whimper. When Cortana says he had it wrong it means the world will end in one huge climatic ending.

  • 06.19.2006 12:05 PM PDT
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Posted by: Rakdos
Posted by: aplusjimages
I think you have stumbled upon something new. Good work man. Everyone look what 13classy found! Hip hip hooray!


I seriously hope that's sarcasm.

Anyways, dude. Seriously. Not only has this topic been hashed out, but the cortana letters predate Halo, as in they were around before Halo 1 came out. They don't apply to H3. At all.



Yes they predate halo 1's release but the halo project was already being worked on. and while halo 3 wasn't specifically written off the Cortana letters. they are like past reference notes. Bungie was smart to use a line or two off them because people like us are wondering if something else could be hidden in the letters.

  • 06.19.2006 12:11 PM PDT
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Thank you guys, im glad somebody knows what im talking about, they might be old, but in a way there new, and people still talk about them, I just found out about a week ago, so they are kinda new, but they do date back to 1999 but on the trailer they still talked about it, u can find it at IGN!

  • 06.19.2006 12:19 PM PDT
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Posted by: Wild Bill
Posted by: Rakdos
Posted by: aplusjimages
I think you have stumbled upon something new. Good work man. Everyone look what 13classy found! Hip hip hooray!


I seriously hope that's sarcasm.

Anyways, dude. Seriously. Not only has this topic been hashed out, but the cortana letters predate Halo, as in they were around before Halo 1 came out. They don't apply to H3. At all.



Yes they predate halo 1's release but the halo project was already being worked on. and while halo 3 wasn't specifically written off the Cortana letters. they are like past reference notes. Bungie was smart to use a line or two off them because people like us are wondering if something else could be hidden in the letters.


I'll admit you could be right. But I still just have a really hard time believing that the Cortana Letters are going to be tied to anything in H3 besides the trailer.
Look, they (Bungie) could have just used similar lines in the trailer because they wanted to bring the story full circly, to tie H3 in with the VERY beginning of the Halo story. Just to add that much more weight to the trailer. A very good PR tactic, evidenced by the existence of this thread. But the actual game being affected by the Cortana Letters, would just bring in too many gaps and unanswered questions. Sorry, I don't buy it.

  • 06.19.2006 12:20 PM PDT
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*puts eggs on screen and scrambles them with the heat from all the flamez*


If I offended in any way, I sorry. *shares eggs*

  • 06.19.2006 12:25 PM PDT
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NON TAKEN!!!!!!

  • 06.19.2006 1:20 PM PDT
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  • Exalted Mythic Member

DMUKYA
Proud member of Eagle 117's theory group, The Watchers
Another great theorist group is Avignon
Interested in the mysteries within all of Bungie's games? Check out Theory of Unification
For the Biblical allegorist in you, there's מִכְמַן
Enjoy reading or writing sci-fi or fantasy? Come to New Horizons

I've heard of the Cortana Letters. There are in fact six of them. Five were sent to Hamish Sinclair of the Marathon Story Page and the last was found hidden on a Myth: TFL disk. Yes, Shishka claims they are but relics of a time long passed and that they are not canon. On the other hand, Eric Trautmann told me they were canon during the writing of the Fall of Reach:

At the time the first novel was written we (Eric and I) were instructed
to treat them as if they're canon. To that end, we didn't go out of our
way to contradict them (though I expect we probably did, given their
rather...cryptic nature).

  • 06.19.2006 1:48 PM PDT

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