UrsusArctos's blog

A little speculation on the controller layout for playing Halo 3. I've got a hunch that the 'special function' reserved for the X-button is to act like a 'shift' key of sorts, to be used for less common functions like Sprinting and Swapping weapons with marines.

My idea of a Halo 3 control layout would be-

Left click=crouch
Right click=either zoom or jump. I'm guessing the latter.
Left bumper=Grenade switch, reload
Right bumper=Reload
A=Action. Could also be jump like it originally was. Zoom/ change in Rate of Fire is also possible.
B=Melee(Bash)
Y=Swap
X=Alternative function(It used to be 'action when prompted' earlier but Bungie clearly implies this isn't the case.)

Press X to toggle shift, press X again to untoggle it.
Shift- A=Zoom when there's an action prompt.
Shift-Right stick= zoom/change ROF when there's an action prompt(Depends on what's being used to zoom/ROF). Could also be for peeking around corners, I guess.
Shift-Left stick=Sprint.
Shift-B, Shift-Y, Shift-bumpers= I'm guessing that shift-bumpers won't change the usual reloading and grenade swapping, but there might be something for shift-B and shift- Y. Communication with NPCs in single player, like giving some sort of command to marines? Weapons swapping? Ammo swapping? Some unlockable weapons functions?

Since the control layout has to be k.i.s.s. or Keep It Simple Stupid, I suppose the shift-B and shift-Y are going to be for rarer functions like swapping weapons with NPCs and some sort of communication with them, or calling in an airstrike like in the E3 2003 Halo 2 demo. Additional weapons functions are seriously unlikely because a highly complex weapons layout would ruin the game.

After reading through a whole lot of posts on the HBO forum thread that talked about boss battles, I noticed one important observation by Narcogen: The Arbiter stops Delta Halo from being activated partly due to Gravemind's own request. That set me thinking on the lines of "Who's really going to lose from a Halo activation?".

Gravemind, being one of the flood and therefore one of the very creatures that the Halos were intended to exterminate, would certainly not want the Halos to be activated, because that would be the doom of the flood (Thanks to the loss of their food). And the Humans and Covenant(Maybe not Truth...I'll come to him later) don't want be wiped out in one go, so they don't want the Halos activated. The monitors on both Alpha and Delta want activation.

The most obvious problem is: If Halo kills flood food and gets rid of the flood that way...what's the point? Even if the flood went on a galactic rampage and consumed all the sentient life in the galaxy, they'd have nothing more left to consume after a point, and they'd starve to death. If the Halos fired, they'd kill the very same lifeforms that the flood would kill anyway, and the flood would still starve to death. The only difference would be the method of killing the two lifeforms: by flood or by Halo. Unless the Forerunner killed everything as some sort of act of mercy, there's hardly any difference either way, is there? Forget the "why not kill the flood" part of it...what's the difference in death by Halo and death by flood?

Here is a quote from an October 2004 Joe Staten interview on the Halo Story Page.

HSP: The Flood are more than just a biological curiosity to the Forerunner.

JS: Curiosity? No. The Flood was the Forerunner's undoing - an overwhelming antagonist they could not defeat without putting a gun between their collective teeth, and pulling the trigger.

"Putting a gun between their collective teeth" more or less implies suicide, and strengthens Guilty Spark's statement at the end of the Great Journey, "The forerunner died...as planned."

But the same idea is countered by last month's HSP interview with Joe.

HSP: When did the Forerunner die off - in human years?

JS: Inscrutable alien beings with problematic ethics never die... they just fade away. But if what you're asking is: when did the Forerunner take their "Great Journey," that would be about 100,000 years ago - around the time our Homo Sapien ancestors decided to migrate out of Africa. Mind you, that's a hotly debated paleontological theory.

Bam. Joe gives a direct connection between the Ark, humans, and the last firing of the Halos. And he adds that the Forerunner did NOT die. They went on their "Great Journey" a hundred thousand years ago, and they've faded away since then. But, if they haven't died, where in the galaxy could they be?

HSP: The Forerunner inhabit another galaxy.

JS: Well they don't inhabit ours - which is to say something with the power and reach of the Covenant would certainly have found them by now if they did.

We can totally cross out the idea of the forerunners inhabiting another galaxy...that'd screw up a whole lot of things in the story. But the fact is that they don't inhabit our galaxy. Where did these enigmatic aliens fade away to?

Again, last month's update.

HSP: First off, I'd like to know if there are any elements of the story that haven't been touched on, or maybe touched on obliquely, that you'd like to see get some added attention? Any little back-story tidbit that might not make it to a book, film, or game, but could stand alone as a (short) short story, in the same vein as the Conversations booklet perhaps?

JS: I'd love to see the conversation between Shaw and Fujikawa about how - exactly - a Slipspace drive works. Frankie imagines it would happen at poolside with Tom Baker and George Takei playing the lead roles. McLees tends to think the conversation would have to happen in some place as absurd as Slipspace itself. Like the place where Spartans go when they "never die."

How very interesting. Slipspace itself is referred to as a 'place'. The 'place' Spartans go to when they "never die"? They DO die, and the "Spartans never die" gig is an ONI fabrication to raise morale... or is it??? John was born in Elysium city(Elysium being the Greek equivalent of heaven), so the Spartans would likely go to Elysium after they died...right? In the midst of all this silliness, Staten seems to be pointing out a metaphysical angle to death in the Haloverse, one that could have wide-reaching implications.

If the Forerunners met the same fate as the never-dying Spartans, fading out of this galaxy to some space in slipspace, could that be truly interpreted as death? Most importantly, would an AI interpret their fate as death? Remember that we still don't know what the Halos really do to sentient life. The only way we know they kill is the statements of two AIs, two beings that have no true concept of death.

Cortana, we know, faces a sort of 'death', or a point at which she is destroyed by her own uncontrolled growth in power and knowledge, but that isn't really analogous to the death of living being. Spark's stayed through a 100,000 years (Although he seems to show borderline insanity in the first game). Both can go deep, deep into the complexities of the working of the Halo superweapon and its effects on sentient life, on a level beyond that Master Chief or anyone else can comprehend. Whatever Halo does-blowing up brain cells, carbonizing bodies, or something far more subtle, they interpret those effects as causing death to all the sentient life targeted, including the forerunners. They might not comprehend a metaphysical aspect of life...or discard the 'spirit' angle as being entirely irrelevant because they suffer a physical death.

Infection by flood might cause the living beings in question to be cut off from this metaphysical aspect, perhaps binding them to great suffering over an extended period of time. That would be worth sacrificing physical form for-so that you wouldn't have to suffer under the flood. I know that this is all getting to be a real big stretch, but Halo does have some sprituality in it, and given the number of bibilical references in the game, a spiritual angle to the outcome is pretty damn likely.

There's a brand new(as of typing this) interview with Joe Staten on the Halo Story Page. Not only does it answer a few questions, it tosses out a lot more in typical Bungie fashion, and is quite revealing about the covenant- Jackals in particular.

http://halosm.bungie.org/story/staten083106.html

First, concerning Jackals. This is pretty damn interesting.

(((((((
HSP: One of the HBO forumgoers noted an interesting description of the Jackals on the Joyride site:

"The Jackals are unique among Covenant species. Rather than faithful followers of the Prophets' religion, they are mercenaries working for the Covenant and pay only the barest lip service to 'the cause.' Human encounters with Jackals have been brief and poorly documented. Rumors and fragmentary evidence point to incidents of Jackal piracy against civilian human vessels. It is assumed Jackals' Covenant masters tolerate or condone this privateering."

But for one Prophet of Regret sound clip in Halo 2, there has previously been no mention of any financial incentive for a race to ally themselves with the Covenant, or even that any race had the choice. Could you comment further on this?

JS: Unlike races such as the Unggoy, the Kig-Yar were space-faring long before joining the Covenant. While it would be more accurate to call Covenant Kig-Yar ship captains "privateers" (with commissions granted by the Ministry of Tranquility), yes: they have been know to engage in acts of piracy on human ships. But these events haven't always helped the Covenant cause...
))))))

Joe hasn't really mentioned if Jackals are truly unfaithful or a bunch of mercenaries. But the very fact that the Covenant Ministry of Tranquility grants them commissions for piracy implies a more mercenary nature to the Jackals, as does the fact that the things they do don't always help the 'cause'. The specific mention that the Unggoy were not space-faring seems to explain the relationship between the Grunts and the Jackals closer. Both are of equal ranking in the Covenant military, but Jackals are semi-independent, while Grunts are essentially slaves.

Further, their piracy does not always help the covenant cause. Perhaps the Kig-Yar had something to do with the whole human-covenant mess up? Of note is the fact that, in Fall of Reach, the covenant corvette that the Commonwealth fights is crewed by Jackals(Spartans go into the covenant ship and nuke it from inside); there are no elites on board, and none of the Elites are seen until Reach. If they were in the pay of the Ministry of Tranquility, perhaps Truth or another sneaky Prophet paid them to bait the UNSC into starting the UNSC-Covenant war? It would be a real twist if the war was actually initiated by humanity, sick of Jackal piracy.

This casts new light on the Covenant as a whole. Frankie said that Hunter society was actually highly complex and that we have seen only the combat form; now Joe Staten himself makes it clear that the Jackals are pirates. The Covenant isn't entirely the military monstrosity or religious heirarchy that it's always been made out to be, it's a conglomerate of races held together by various incentives, including financial. The financial control of the Covenant would be in the hands of the Prophets, the Ministry of Tranquility is headed by Prophets(Look below), why shouldn't the Jackals have joined the Civil War on the side that had always financed them?

More on the Cortana letters. Narcogen stands vindicated!
[[[[[[[
HSP: The dialogue from the Halo 3 trailer bears obvious similarity to the Cortana Letters from the early Halo days. Given that they have been discouraged as canon over the years, are they now to be afforded greater consideration? Additionally, the Letters themselves were strongly reminiscent of the messages from Durandal, the rampant AI from Marathon. What are your thoughts on "rampancy," AIs in the Halo universe, and Cortana specifically?

JS: Canon is tricky (see my controversial statement about "I Love Bees" - believe it or not, we're actually working to answer the "is it, or isn't it?" question right now!). The Halo story has as many loose threads as influences. And we do our best to sew the former into canon as we find them - are reminded of their potential. The Cortana Letters are an excellent example of this phenomenon. For all sorts of reasons, they lingered in canonical purgatory for years. But when we needed some compelling dialog to remind folks what's at stake in Halo3: Bam! Newfound utility! Alas, I'd have to say that, as of now, the only canonized parts of the letters are the fragments we pulled for use in the announcement trailer.
]]]]]]]

There. That's settled. Now to something that's caused plenty of head scratching. Are we any closer to the next?

[[[[[[[
HSP: Humans (SPARTANS, specifically) have been shown in both the games and the novels to have an innate understanding of Forerunner glyphs, symbols, and controls. Is this something that will be elaborated on in Halo 3? Is there a Forerunner alphabet or language that can be at least partially deciphered from currently available sources? What would those sources be, specifically?

JS: I mentioned the Ministry of Tranquility earlier, and it just so happens to have an extensive library of Forerunner glyphs - though Ministry Prophets (even with the help of their Huragok librarians) have nothing approaching a full understanding of the Forerunner language. At least, they've never told anyone if they do...

Yes, some humans (Doctor Halsey, for one) have an almost preternatural ability to discern the glyphs' meanings. Given what we've revealed so far about Halo3 - that there's a very large object buried in the Kenyan savannah with distinctly Forerunner architecture - it's safe to say we'll elaborate on all things Forerunner in Halo3. Although some would say we've already made things perfectly clear.
]]]]]]

The stuff about the Spartans having an innate understanding of Forerunner glyphs is anything but new. Halsey was able to understand something in First Strike. Given that Halsey did her second doctoral thesis at 15(As revealed in First Strike), and types in several line commands she had learnt back then without even looking at the keyboard, we now know that she's a special person. How many others come in her category? Reclaimers? The mystery deepens.

Note this intriguing statement about the Ministry of Tranquility and its understanding of forerunner glyphs. "They have nothing approaching a full knowledge of the Forerunner language. At least, they've never told anyone if they do..."

At first, Joe is very firm that the Prophets and Engineers together know very little about the forerunner language. And then he makes it appear as if they do but are keeping the lid on it. After that, he mentions humans, Dr. Halsey in particular. We've previously speculated about James Ackerson, Dr. Halsey's utterly vile rival. Does he come under the same category of humans? If so, what did he do with the forerunner facility under Menachite mountain, a secret he had been sitting on for a while? Does he have any ties with the Ministry of Tranquility, and if so, did he decipher the Forerunner glyphs for them? I'm pretty sure he's helped someone out there.

Finally, the case of the Great Journey itself.

[[[[[[[
HSP: When did the Forerunner die off - in human years?

JS: Inscrutable alien beings with problematic ethics never die... they just fade away. But if what you're asking is: when did the Forerunner take their "Great Journey," that would be about 100,000 years ago - around the time our Homo Sapien ancestors decided to migrate out of Africa. Mind you, that's a hotly debated paleontological theory.
]]]]]]]

Whenever humans left Africa in real life, there's no doubt about the correlation of events in the Haloverse. Questionable ethics or not, the fact that the forerunner don't die but fade away brings to mind Tolkien's elves, and the Great Journey of the Elves across the sea during the coming of the age of Men correlates with that of the Forerunner Great Journey all too closely. But if the Forerunner don't truly die... a freaky whispering voice in a cavernous space station should bring a few more shivers down the spine.

Well, I'm moving this week. A whole lot of things remain...uh...unresolved. I'll likley be away from this place for a couple of weeks I guess. My last blog post before leaving.
It is another speculative post, and I hope Narcogen refrains from thoroughly bashing each and every aspect over and over again before I return to reply.

I'm looking at 343 Guilty Spark's log book, from Conversations From The Universe. There are big fat spoilers here, if you don't want to be spoiled, read no further.

**************************************************************************

It has been extracted/transmitted/volunteered from Spark, which means that he probably handed it over to ONI or to the Prophets interrogating him. If it were handed over to meddlers like the Prophets, would he tell them everything?

Ho hum. Eons of inactivity and perfect stability. Then everything happens all at once.

A primitive, hegemonizing swarm calling itself The Covenant has landed on installation 4. Apparently seeking something specific. Exploring! Meddling! I've seen it all before. They'll record what they see and they'll leave.

Of course, this must be Spark referring to ONI agents coming over to Halo 04 before the covenant did. Why else would all that meddling seem familiar?

In any case, if it were the Covenant Prophets interrogating him like they do at the start of Sacred Icon, he wouldn't bother to reveal everything he knew about their race, because it would essentially be valueless.

Detail species NA Covenant/collective religious sect/tech level 4 spacefaring/tech familiar

I don't understand if he's merely making notes or detailing each aspect of the covenant. It seems more like the latter, though. And if it were meant for the covenant, he'd have no problem in volunteering all this data.

Oh dear. Containment protocols appear to have been violated.

The interlopers appear to have accidentally released the Flood infection forms. This situation is rapidly deteriorating. Most of these interlopers appear to contain ample calcium stores. And they've brought plentiful means for the Flood to escape containment and spread. How impossibly thoughtless. I suppose I'll have to activate the facility.

"How impossibly thoughtless?" Does he expect the Covenant meddlers to know about the Flood? How could they possibly know about the flood, unless he told them? It's clear now that the covenant knew nothing about the flood until they blundered upon them.

But, if he were being interrogated by Truth and Mercy, who almost certainly knew more than what they let on, is he subtly poking at them for their stupidity in not letting anyone know about the flood?

Thank goodness. A Reclaimer is here. And what perfect timing. I am sure he will assist me cleaning up this irritating mess.

There was more than one reclaimer according to Halo: The Flood, and Judging from what we've seen in Halo 2, not all humans are reclaimers...or are they? In any case, the reclaimer in question is most probably the Chief, none other.

The Reclaimer has proven to be less than helpful. Obstinate, in fact. And of course, there is no precedent for this situation. Ho-hum. As usual I shall have to rely on my own better judgement. Perhaps the Reclaimer simply requires persuasion.

Detail visitor Reclaimer/AI companion/Obtuse purpose/mission

Here is where it gets interesting. "Less than helpful", "Obstinate". "Perhaps he simply requires persuasion". And he's detailed the Reclaimer(MC) and the Reclaimer's AI companion, and mentions an Obtuse purpose or mission. Even though he is noting his events briefly, he doesn't seem to be making mention of the worst part of it all-that there was a construct in the Core, the construct stole the Index, the Reclaimer practically rebelling in Spark's face, having to fight him with sentinels, conking out the pulse generators...yadda yadda yadda! To say, "there is no precedent for this situation" is simply an understatement- there was never a reclaimer who didn't understand the purpose of activation and refused to do so, and it would be interpreted as such.

He's entered something in detail, but given that whatever he has written in short gives the impression that the reclaimer was simply obstinate, and refused to help Guilty Spark in the middle of that outbreak. Would whatever he entered in detail match the log entry-in depicting that the reclaimer was simply obstinate, and with some obscure purpose that could not be understood? Or would it reveal what the reclaimer and his AI really did-steal the index and damage the pulse generators, and that Spark tried to stop him with his Sentinels? I lean towards the former.

Compare it with his detail entry on the Covenant. He details a lot more on the covenant than he does about the reclaimers, or what he really did on Halo 04. It seems more and more like he didn't want whoever was reading the log to know about what really happened, because he would give on too much.

Well, my judgement seems to have failed me for once. The Reclaimer has initiated a reaction in the engine system of a very dirty spacecraft. Data suggests it will destroy installation 4 utterly. I believe discretion might be the better part of valor. I have attempted to fulfill my responsibilities to the best of my ability.

Well, Guily Spark has undoubtedly spoken short this time. He stopped the countdown, disabled command access, rummanged through Cortana's data arrays, and had his sentinels fight the flood as well as the rogue Reclaimer in the Autumn's Engine Room, and he and his sentinels did have an opportunity to stop the Chief from blowing off each of the Autumn's reactors manually. None of that is mentioned.

The Autumn is referred to as a "Very Dirty Spacecraft" instead of being correctly identified as a Warship(He called Cortana a Warship's AI in the Maw, he knows what the Autumn is). And what about the stuff he discovered inside those data arrays? He seriously is giving misleading or incomplete data in that log.

Well, everything is in a terrible state. The installation is ruined. I am stuck here in the middle of nowhere with only impulse propulsion, and the only good news is that the Flood breach has been halted, albeit inelegantly.

Detail Installation 4 destroyed/nuclear reaction/Flood containment achieved by Reclaimer

This time, what he says is relevant, and there is nothing lacking between the details and the text. He has nothing to hide here- except that he had that Gas Giant Facility of his nearby.

Excellent! I believe I see assistance approaching...

This last line makes you wonder. The assistance approaching was probably the Heretics, and he must have hitched a ride with them. "Hitchhikers may be escaping convicts"-anyone remember? This hitchhiker couldn't have so convieniently hitched a ride with the meddling covenant morons (In any case, sentinels on both halos are hostile to the covenant), he probably did send his sentinels against them whenever they threatened to worsen the crisis on the ring. Either there was an ONI prowler in the Halo 04 system-and Spark would have seen ONI at work on the ring- or it was a heretic transport he called from the Gas Giant facility, the Heretics already being established there at that time. It's hard to say.

Narc is bound to blast the idea that the Heretics were formed from forces on Alpha Halo-although it is perfectly possible. In any case, I don't have time to explain. Auf Wiedersehen, Rampancy!

Like everyone before me has asked-who's that?

And even more so...do I see a face? Assuming that Cortana's mouth and the other black spot are eyes of the other face...is there a second face in this image?

I could assume that Cortana is indeed merging with some other entity. If that face is meant to represent Gravemind, is it because he is a human at the core? Is it that the "monument to all sins" was originally a human being who was consumed by the flood?

Notice that in Halo 2, Gravemind refers to himself as "I". Is it because this one human has the dominant sentience over all the various beings Gravemind has consumed? (That includes Sangheili/Elites. Gravemind's incisors were supposed to be elite skulls, but that was cut out). Further, who is this human/AI/being? Was he a criminal?

What does he represent? Cain, the first murderer? Or is he Satan, a fallen Angel? Is he the voice in whisper in the storm?

We just have to wait for answers. Sigh.

This one is going to be a doozy. I'm analyzing the covenant political situation-it is deep and complex, and has much to do with their history. I'm also thinking about the Covenant forces we might meet on Earth, the Creation of the Arbiter, and the reason for the Brute-Elite civil war.

First off, the Halo 3 trailer. The banshees have no pilots visible. This might be because putting in the pilots would be either unnecessary or very revealing. What if the banshees are piloted by Elites as they typically are? We might be fighting Grunts, Elites and Hunters on Earth, and that plot revelation would be good enough to keep the Banshee pilots' identities a secret.

Look at Truth's escape from High Charity, his jump into slipspace. Elite and Brute vessels are still blowing up each other with aplomb. When we next see Truth's vessel, it is at Earth, where human and covenant vessels are already fighting. The bridge of the Cairo is a mess, which means that boarders must have come in and been beaten back.(A starship weapon would have destroyed the bridge or at least left it uninhabitable)That battle has been going on for some time now.

Either the Forerunner vessel was much slower than the other covenant vessels (Unlikely) or the covenant vessels at Earth came from elsewhere. Think about it. The fleet at High Charity may have been the largest covenant fleet ever seen, but it would have been wrecked by terrible infighting. The command officers and almost all the crew would be dead at the end of the fighting, given that Elites, Grunts and Hunters put together would be about equal to Brutes, Jackals and Drones. Those ships dominated by Brutes or Elites are shooting each other, blowing each other up, and the blasting has been going on since the beginning of the level "Gravemind". Even if the remainder of the fleet chose to follow Truth to Earth, they would be in no condition to engage the MACs and the remaining human vessels, those that weren't destroyed by Regret's armada or had left for Delta Halo.

What do we know of the covenant empire? Earth had over 800 colony worlds before the covenant turned up and started glassing them, and Earth's colonial empire is described as "fledgeling". Joe Staten, in an interview with the HSP, stressed the size and power of the covenant empire yet again. The covenant must have thousands of worlds to draw resources and troops from. There must be substantial fleets still left. Even if there were five thousand vessels at High Charity, the sheer size and power of the covenant empire means that there must be just as many starships elsewhere. In the novel First Strike, Truth dismisses the loss of five hundred vessels as "Insignificant". There are a lot of warships still left, more than enough to overwhelm the MAC shield and invade earth.

The Conversations booklet shows that Truth was fostering hatred amongst both races even before Reach fell. Why? Simple. The Brutes were a part of the Covenant, as the Murals show, but they were a lower race, nowhere comparable to the elites. The elites, on the other hand, had been sitting high and mighty since before the covenant was formed, and, Arbiters and Rebellions aside, what did they have to do? Nothing. Their position in the Covenant system was taken for granted. They went about in their Prophet-praising zealotry, and looked down upon everyone else.

Then came the Covenant-Human war. A lot of elites don't understand the cause of the war(They probably weren't told anything more than routine generalizations-defiling sacred sites, stealing relics, so on). The once-proud race was shocked at how humans had mastered the Art of War, and how they were using superior tactics to defeat them despite the equipment disparity. Human ground forces fought bravely and brilliantly, holding their own against the covenant forces, and fighting in space against impossible odds. Elites are a warrior race; they go by honor and combat skill, both of which humans had in plenty. Those elite commanders who knew humans well enough began to wonder why they weren't given the chance to join the covenant; why they had to be slaughtered like this.

Truth knew the elite mentality all too well. The Hall of Murals seems to indicate that the majority of Elite-led combat took place early in the Covenant's history, and that the Elites didn't have much to do until humans came along. The Elites revere their Arbiters as demigods instead of studying their strategies and methods. A zealous and skilled warrior can't have tamed the Hunters or put down the Grunt Rebellion on his own, he must have been a master of strategy to do so. To worship Masters of Strategy instead of their methods means a fall of the Elite miliary culture, and that is why they are so impressed by the humans and their tactical expertise, having forgotten their own after being handed their position on a platter for so long.

To stem the decay of Elite culture, Truth played the Brutes against them. Having the Brutes favored over the Elites meant that their centuries-long standing in the Covenant Caste system was being threatened for the first time, and the only way to deal with the threat would be to indulge in even greater zealotry, curb any Heretical ideas about respect for the human vermin, and go on glassing planets and blasting starships.

However, the change in Elite mentality happens at the very heart of the Covenant, and the Arbiter and his companions do listen to reason and go against the Great Journey in the belief that the Prophets don't know everything. Tartarus and the Brutes refuse to listen to reason because they've been led to beleive that the Elites question the Prophets, that they're disloyal. Consider the Brutes' unprecedented rise in power. In return for this rise in power, something they hadn't even dreamt of, they would be unquestionably loyal. Their gratitude to the Prophets far outweighs any reasoning by an Elite.

The Creation of the Arbiter is yet another one of Truth's political gimmicks. Truth is the master of Balance of Power (BoP) He's set up the Elites and Brutes against each other close to the point where civil war can break out, but not far above the point that they can be reconciled and kept together peacefully.

If the Gold Elite had been tortured and killed by the Brutes and dragged around by his entrails like the Prophets suggested, it would be the nadir of the Elites' reputation. Knowing the flaring tensions between Brutes and Elites, a jeering Brute could taunt an ashamed Elite into losing all self-control and striking him. Such an incident could become the flashpoint of an all-out, uncontrollable civil war that would do no good to the Prophets. Truth knows the time isn't up for insurrection, so he lets the Elites salvage their pride by creating the Arbiter. Tartarus and his Brutes are very surprised by the decision, but they won't ever question the Prophets the way the Elites now do.

When news spread that the Arbiter had failed in his mission to recover the Sacred Icon on Delta Halo, and Tartarus had succeeded instead, the increased tensions led to civil war in and around High Charity. The Elite Council was murdered. Elite and Brute controlled vessels started blasting each other, as seen at the beginning of Gravemind. Grunts and Jackals rioted outside the Prophets' chambers. All the madness and violence was steadily increasing, and Master Chief's surprise arrival would have hardly changed a thing. All the chaos would only help Truth, Mercy and Tartarus leave, along with the remaining members of the Council. Truth rushed off to Earth in the Forerunner vessel, Tartarus to activate Delta Halo. The other starships were too busy blasting each other to take notice of the escaping Prophet. All very good for Truth.

The fleets at Earth must have been in Slipspace or in battle during the time the insurrection at High Charity broke out. As a result, they wouldn't have known about what happened, and would concentrate on destroying Earth's defenses and occupying the planet.

My second blog post here- it just might be a second consecutive blog post if I don't take an hour typing it in its entirety. I have time to kill for the next few weeks before college, and one of my favorite pasttimes happens to be...well, rampant speculation.

This time I'm writing about the Marathon logo in Halo and the whole ark concept, why I think there are two of those things in the game.

First, the Marathon logo. It occupies a central position in the Halo logo, as we all know, right between the A and the L.

Now, here's a famous excerpt that came from a December 1999 IMG interview with Jason Jones.

IMG: Any particular reason for the Marathon logo, or is it just for kicks? Is Halo somehow tied to and/or an extension of the Marathon series?

JJ: I'll say this: Observant fans of our games will note that certain themes tend to run through our games. For example, the sword Durandal (from the Song of Roland ) first appears in Minotaur as a magic sword and goes on to become a central character in Marathon. There are many other examples of common themes running through our games.

Okay, so the Marathon logo is a recurring theme in the Halo series? And what does the Marathon logo mean? Supposedly, it stands for "A world within a world", the Marathon being a habitable world inside the hollowed-out Martian moon Deimos. What would a "World within a world" be in the Haloverse?

An Ark.

Why not? The Marathon kept its crew safe from the myriad hazards of space on the long, long voyage to settle on Tau Ceti. The Ark kept its inhabitants safe from the Flood and the activation of the Halos, until they could come out and life could propagate again. Stephen Loftus, on the Halo Bungie Org forums, thinks there might be a Halo-like structure inside the Earth. A Halo-like structure, or a hollow shell inside the Earth, would likely be in a very Marathon-logo like arrangement. Therefore, the Marathon logo would be symbolic of an/the Ark, the central mystery of Halo, the reason why the player is still alive to complete what began a hundred thousand years ago.

And why do I keep saying 'an' Ark? I think there might be two Arks, as in the Bible. The two arks in the Bible are Noah's Ark, which saved life from the Great Flood, and the Ark of the Covenant, which, among other purposes, was God's throne on Earth, and which made the Israelites invincible against their enemies. While Earth, with its vast population and biodiversity, likely has Noah's ark on it, what of the other Ark, the Ark of the Covenant? Does a second Ark exist in Halo?

Two pieces of evidence-
1. A seemingly insignificant entry in Bungie's Guide to Sci-Fi where new guy Isaac Hannaford mentions Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. In the Foundation series, a scientist attempts to save The Galactic Empire by establishing two sanctuaries for scientific knowledge, one of which must have its existence kept secret at all costs. I doubt it's coincidental that the multiplayer map Foundation is set in a Chicago robot factory- Isaac Asimov was legendary for his robot novels and his three laws of robotics.

2. This HSP post mentions Jeremiah 3:16, in which God says that the Ark of the Covenant shall fade from the mind, be neither visited nor remembered once the Covenant formed by God with the Israelites is spread far and wide. The Covenant we know of are spread far and wide, and they won't know a thing about the Ark of the Covenant.

In Conversations From The Universe, the limited edition booklet, an archaeologist on the planet Coral (ILB and Ghosts of Coral; Coral was used by Romans to ward away spirits) finds a Forerunner artifact of some sort. The artifact is indeterminably large, nearly indestructible, and seems to be comprised of a series of galleries and labyrinths. The archaeologist is visited by ONI agents intent on hushing up the discovery. I agree that Forerunner artifacts are a matter of top secrecy, but given that they are quite a few of them, why is this particular one so important as to appear in the second conversation? Of further note, the Covenant are mentioned as staying away from this particular system. Forget it's non-canonical glassing in ILB, does Jeremiah 3:16 seem more relevant now?

So? Two Arks? One story arc (or ark? ) is going to be finished at the end of Halo 3. That is confirmed. Other story arcs involving maybe this second ark and whatever else is left will likely end in the novels. At least, that's what I guess.

My first blog post on Rampancy. I haven't been to this site very often (I'm mostly on HBO), but this is a nice place all right.

I've seen the Halo 3 trailer, like most, if not all, Halo fans. That trailer is considerably different from the two Halo 2 trailers we've seen so far, and it might just reveal the player's role in Halo 3 as being more interactive and deeply connected with the game than the other Halo games.

First, and most important, the events in the trailer don't pass off as happening entirely in the Halo universe. We have had the Cortana letters, in which Cortana emails the MBO fans directly; the Cortana letters aren't canon, Bungie was explicit about that. In the Halo 3 trailer, Cortana appears directly to us, and not to the Master Chief. Agreed, the Halo 2 announcement trailer: burning Earth, terrified battlechatter, "God-damn apocalypse", the Master Chief jumping off the space station) had several instances in which text would appear on screen, detailing the events of the past game, like, "OUTWIT ANCIENT AI CONSTRUCT.....COMPLETED", but these were clearly outside the game universe. The game environment and player environment were separate.

Now, for the first time, Cortana appears directly to her fans, in a manner not seen in any cutscene or cinematic. Master Chief walks out of the wilderness. What's he doing all alone? Shimmering heatwaves. Swirling dust. 'Grunt crossing' sign creaking in the wind. Broken, burnt structures all around. It all seems very strange, close to being dreamlike. In addition to Cortana's garbled, distorted voice and images, the Master Chief appears to move forward VERY quickly during the transmissions.

And then, the Covenant forces appear suddenly. You'd expect to see those big starships up in the distance or something. But then, the clouds and all the dust might have hidden the covenant from view. The Ark opens. Lighting, storm clouds, a super-powerful purple beam. The apocalyptic final words, "This is the way the world ends."

All this is weird. We've seen the trailer with Earth being consumed by plasma and nuclear explosions, terrified chatter among UNSC forces, all very realistic. But why is this so dreamlike in comparison? The object seen in the trailer is three miles across, but, judging from the size of the assault carrier, which itself is three miles across, it should be at least thirty miles(The Assault Carrier and Artifact size have been calculated by Stephen Loftus at HBO). Why should the scale be that off? Add the dreamlike imagery and you get a possible explanation: it's a dream. Gamespot's interview with Bungie revealed that the scene was taken from a point about a third of the way through the actual game, so that isn't the end of the game.

My conclusion? The whole trailer is meant to show Cortana's, or Master Chief's dream. I'm guessing that it's the former. Bungie/Cortana herself might want to reveal Cortana's state to the player, as well as what Cortana knows will happen, eventually. Note the Gravemind like-tones Cortana uses to describe her newfound power. The line, "I am your shield, I am your sword" comes from the Bible, and the one speaking it is God himself; and the almost motherly concern and care when she says, "I know you, your past, your future" or, "this is the way the world ends." This is for the player to know his character's(MC's) fate and the task that will have to be undertaken in Halo 3. The broken 'O' that forms the Halo logo and the faces of the Monitors show that the player has to finish the circle, to begin doing what was begun by the first firing of the ring.

Bungie has traditionally made deep, involved and immersive stories, and this time, they might leave the ending to the player's interpretation of the story and its characters, in the sense of knowing what kind of fate they deserve. That particular story arc will end, the player decides his fate, but no matter whether or not he gets to decide the fate of every other player at the moment, the fate of everyone else will eventually be the same. After all, Master Chief is an incarnation of Joseph Cambell's "Hero with a thousand faces", and whatever the hero does, destiny remains unchanged.