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This topic has moved here: Subject: Durandal is Satan! (Or a really big serpent)
  • Subject: Durandal is Satan! (Or a really big serpent)
Subject: Durandal is Satan! (Or a really big serpent)
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I was reading the Marathon Story page for the 15.193792102158E+9th
time, and came across a post by Greg Downing.

Greg found some stuff from Revelations that has a lot to do with the
Halo story. (Please read the Cortana letters before reading this, as
you will be lost without that knowledge)

#1) And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the
key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain.
#2) He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or
Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
#3) He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him,
to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand
years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.

It's hard to know where to start, but I think I'll try with the second and
third quotes.

What we know by the second quote is an Angel bound Satan for
a thousand years, but the third tells us that Satan is set loose
every thousand years. If you look at the Marathon timeline, you'll
notice that a few big events come in thousand year intervals,
beginning with the enslavement of the S'pht, followed by
Durandal's arrival at Lh'owon, then ten thousand years later,
Durandal returns to Earth. The thousand year intervals aren't
because of Durandal however, they are from a comet that passes
through the Milky Way every thousand years. At the end of M2,
Durandal gets this comet, so his exploits are marked by these
thousand year intervals. The same(probably) comet exists in
the Myth story.

Now I'm sure most everybody knows the quote "My name is
Cortana, of the same steel and temper as Durandal," but if
you take that literally, Cortana could be an offshoot of
Durandal's thousand year hijinks.

Now back to the first quote. In some biblical texts, Michael is
the Angel that chains the serpent. (the devil, Satan, Lucifer. . .
Durandal) It's interesting that Satan is referred to primarily
as "serpent," as that opens up the door for rampant speculation
even farther. (it's a very big door)

The "devil" in Norse Myth is Jorumngand, which is essentially
a giant serpent, which is to be destroyed by Thor at Ragnarok.
(The End of the World) What was the name for Thor's hammer
again? =)

Okay, so let's summarize:
Durandal parallels Satan, or the Serpent if you prefer, and is
locked up only to be released every thousand years. Cortana
is of the same steel and temper, so we might be able to
assume that Cortana follows this milennial pattern as well.
(although we all know what assuming does) Anyway, in Halo,
Captain Keyes is a possible symbol for the keys that release
Satan/Durandal/Cortana, and 117 is the one who destroys
Satan/Durandal/Cortana, only to destroy the universe as well.

Bummer.


EDIT: Oops! I forgot one of my favorite ideas. The quotes
from Greg talk about how the Serpent is bound by chains.
In the Cortana Letters, Cortana says "Whoever built this
place must be in chains". . . think about that one.

[Edited on 10/7/2004 1:52:46 PM]

  • 10.07.2004 1:50 PM PDT
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One flaw. The devil isn't released every thousand years. He is bound after the return of Christ, Christ reigns on earth for a thousand years, and then Satan is allowed to decieve the earth again for a short time until God throws him into the lake of fire forever.

[Edited on 10/7/2004 2:51:20 PM]

  • 10.07.2004 2:50 PM PDT
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Your haed must be twice the size of your body my friend... you know far too much!

#3) He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him,
Who are we saying the Angel is? Because the casting, binding, locking and sealing... makes it sound kinda like Bernhard doesn't it? The only flaw in that would be that he didn't "Come down out of heaven" and is quite far from ever reaching heaven. (given the extent to which Tycho and Durandal bad mouth him although never truly explaining what he made Durandal do...)

But I don't like to call him Satan... he's just so cool and adorable! And given that he saves the human and s'pht races from destruction (even if it was furthering his personal gain) he's too much of a champ to be Satan, sure theres some similarities (ie fight for me or sit forever inside a Phfor stasis pod) but Durandal is too cool.

Somehow I feel vaguely ready to make a "Who would win: Satan or Durandal" thread.... Look what illness and eMCee's threads do to you! :P

Tristan ;-)

  • 10.07.2004 2:51 PM PDT

Ach! Was ist los?

I'm going to side with Tristan on this: Durandal is cool. Interesting idea, though.

--Sgt. Smith has gone off a-thinking again...

  • 10.07.2004 2:59 PM PDT
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Thanks for the input guys. Shadowbane: I didn't know that, and it
throws a big wrench into the idea, but a few of the parallels still stand.
While Bungie did take influence from the Bible, they probably changed
a few of the stories to their liking. Of course, who am I to know what
the folks of Bungie do?

Yeah, Durandal is cool, and I did go a little far to call him Lucifer.
I still think he parallels the big red meanie in his goals however.
Check this out:
Incoming message from Durandal
Does the distance one travels from center make one more free
to move?

No. Freedom has two parts: potential and resolution; as
metaphor has two parts: form and interpretation. Of course,
the two are intertwined. Metaphor lines the road to freedom,
as symbols and words are the bricks and mortar of meaning.
Freedom is being the bricoleur, the mason.


To me, Durandal is revealing a large part of his true desires
here. The last line shows that he sees Freedom as the ability
to create, To be the mason. Durandal's vision of immortality
along with his desire to be free, which is to ultimately create
as the terminal reveals, is all too Godlike. Lucifer also wanted
to be in God's position.

I just don't see Durandal as the nice super computer he appears
to be.
Opposition is true friendship.
In Durandal's case, that may be all too true.

Of course, metaphor has two parts: form and interpretation.
So it's all a matter of how you see it, which is also why Bungie is
the coolest.

Posted by: Gaara of Sand
Who are we saying the Angel is? Because the casting, binding, locking and sealing... makes it sound kinda like Bernhard doesn't it? The only flaw in that would be that he didn't "Come down out of heaven" and is quite far from ever reaching heaven. (given the extent to which Tycho and Durandal bad mouth him although never truly explaining what he made Durandal do...)

Yeah, the Angel is hard to pin down. The authors of the books have
a lot of people (myself included) tearing their hair out to figure out
"who or what would wear a Halo." Such a general question is
impossible to answer because there are so many answers, and
the tru7h may lie in various places. (hmm, the tru7h may lie. . .
deliciously ironic)

  • 10.07.2004 6:04 PM PDT
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The United States of America-- STILL more rights than North Korea!
--New official U.S. motto.

Cronin's Law----The New Flood Drinking Game

though you may make the equation that tycho=satan... just because... um... ehhh... I really really hate that guy?

  • 10.07.2004 6:44 PM PDT
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Although, even with what I said, you make some very valid points. If you think about it, would Satan want you to know he was the devil? Or would he try to trick you into thinking he's cool? Hmmm..... Something to ponder about, no doubt.

  • 10.07.2004 8:06 PM PDT

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I'm not a biblical scholar, so I can't help much with the Durandal/Lucifer tie-in, but I lucked out a while ago on this one:

Posted by: eMCee
Yeah, the Angel is hard to pin down. The authors of the books have
a lot of people (myself included) tearing their hair out to figure out
"who or what would wear a Halo."

Last spring I took a shot in the dark here after Exogenesis got another hint from Eric Trautmann. Here's the result. Maybe you guys can build further on it... you've got more background there than I do.

-- Steve's perfectly willing to acknowledge when he's out of his depth, when he recognises it.

  • 10.08.2004 5:55 AM PDT
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Now that I sit back and think about it, what got the devil expelled from heaven was his wanting to take the glory, and all the control for himself...

  • 10.08.2004 7:32 AM PDT

Posted by: Anton P Nym
I'm not a biblical scholar, so I can't help much with the Durandal/Lucifer tie-in, but I lucked out a while ago on this one:

Posted by: eMCee
Yeah, the Angel is hard to pin down. The authors of the books have
a lot of people (myself included) tearing their hair out to figure out
"who or what would wear a Halo."

Last spring I took a shot in the dark here after Exogenesis got another hint from Eric Trautmann. Here's the result. Maybe you guys can build further on it... you've got more background there than I do.

-- Steve's perfectly willing to acknowledge when he's out of his depth, when he recognises it.


Since you guys are on the subject, I thought I'd drop a line about my last thread on Halo 2, which I haven't "released" as of writting this. If you're interested in the subject of Biblical events and the Dictionary of Angels/Fallen Angles, in particular, of which I've own, then you'll enjoy it.

Getting back to the hint posed by Trautmann, though, in section A of The Dictionary of Angels/Fallen Angels there is, of course, a list of interesting angels. While the Dictionary of Angels contains thousand of Angels, which are all accompanied by their individual descriptions, this initial section (350 - 400 angels) list and categorizes angels of extreme importance to the spiritual and physical worlds. The Angel of Death would be a good example of an angel listed in this section that many of you may be familiar with. One of the interesting things found in this list of “important” angels is that there’s only one angel, which I've ever noticed, who is described as wearing a Halo... The Angel of Time.

[color=white]The Angel of Time - "The angel of time stands between earth and heaven, clothed in a white robe, with wings of flame and a golden halo around his head... one foot on land, the other on the sea, behind him the sun rising... on his brow the sign of eternity and life: the circle."[/color]

Take from that what you wish. This angle may be related to THIS IDEA I had a few months ago. I don't intend to give a full interpretation on the possible influences of The Dictionary of Angels/Fallen Angels on the Halo universe until I put that last thread out, which will be very soon;-)

- Eagle 117 (Metatron)


[Edited on 10/8/2004 8:30:04 AM]

  • 10.08.2004 8:24 AM PDT
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Posted by: Eagle 117
Getting back to the hint posed by Trautmann, though, in section A of The Dictionary of Angels/Fallen Angels there is, of course, a list of interesting angels. While the Dictionary of Angels contains thousand of Angels, which are all accompanied by their individual descriptions, this initial section (350 - 400 angels) list and categorizes angels of extreme importance to the spiritual and physical worlds. The Angel of Death would be a good example of an angel listed in this section that many of you may be familiar with. One of the interesting things found in this list of “important” angels is that there’s only one angel, which I've ever noticed, who is described as wearing a Halo... The Angel of Time.

The Angel of Time - "The angel of time stands between earth and heaven, clothed in a white robe, with wings of flame and a golden halo around his head... one foot on land, the other on the sea, behind him the sun rising... on his brow the sign of eternity and life: the circle."

That's a great idea, and I think you're probably right. I would like to
extend your idea however. In the Cortana Letters, Cortana says
that she was there with the Angel at the tomb. This references both
Revelations and Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell."
The connection to Revelations is quoted in my first post, but
the reference to Blake is different. Blake says:
And lo! Swedenborg is the Angel sitting at the tomb!
Swedenborg was a philospher who pondered over infinity, and
the reference to Swedenborg as an Angel would make him a
kind of Angel of Time.

This may also solve the problem mentioned by Shadowbane.
In the real book of Revelations, Lucifer was only to be set free
once, but in the Bungieverse, if Satan(Durandal/Cortana/Whatver)
were to be imprisoned by the Angel of Time, which could imply
Swedenborg, which in turn implies infinity, then perhaps this
explains the thousand year cylces in a more metaphorical
manner. It's quite a stretch though.

  • 10.08.2004 12:06 PM PDT