SilverArrow20XX
Walks in the Light of the Crystal
Just got my copies of Fractures and Mythos. Mythos has a ton of stuff in it. Gonna take a while to read through. Wish the Fractures audiobook wasn't so expensive.
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Halo Lore Thread
- Thread starter Korten
- Start date
To fight a coalition of AIs with superweapons, you'll probably need some kind of AI and superweapon of your own. Don't see Master Chief rescuing too many civvies when he has to figure out how to presumably get the (Fractures spoiler)on his side.precursor AI and their tech
Instead I'm hoping to see an online component like Destiny where you can create your own Spartan IV and go on missions from the Infinity on strikes/raids (pls 343). Or I could see them just wrapping it all up in the comics and dropping the whole plot unceremoniously for the next epic omg idea
Well, that's just it. AI's are pure thought, they don't have any latent powers except for whatever they control.
I am curious how the Precursors will pan out. Obvious the Flood are going to return at some point on an infinite timescale, but I'm starting to wonder whether they actually will play a role in this story arc. Some people were bitching they they "threw it out the window" for the Created to take the stage, but they could work together; on the other hand it might be too much going on and give short shrift to either element.
Haven't finished Fractures, but so far...
Lessons Learned - Onyx is intriguing, but I wonder if it's too big of a locale for a future story involving Mendez and friends. It's almost too much space to explore on land - maybe it'd be fitting for an RTS game.
What Remains - Well ok then. *shrug*
Breaking Strain - Figured it'd be one of those "everyone panics irrationally, then the threat wasn't real" sort of situations. Was hoping that there'd be more about A282.
Promises to Keep - More Bornstellar is good. Wonder where they all go. I suppose Path Kethona should still have derelict ships floating about too.
Shadow of Intent was great. I also liked how the effects of the mini-Halo were consistent with how Halo is later described to disrupt neural physics, disorienting the folks aboard the phantoms. Nice to see the blademaster come around to the idea of change wrt female inclusion there.
Defender of the Storm - For a moment, I thought the guy was going delusional once things started happening. The avians reminded me of those wake angels from Titan A.E., not that they're similar beyond being space creatures.
A Necessary Truth - Would be kinda cool to get an adventure/mystery game for Veta and friends or something like the recent Shadowrun games.
Will have to finish the rest this weekend.
Lessons Learned - Onyx is intriguing, but I wonder if it's too big of a locale for a future story involving Mendez and friends. It's almost too much space to explore on land - maybe it'd be fitting for an RTS game.
What Remains - Well ok then. *shrug*
Breaking Strain - Figured it'd be one of those "everyone panics irrationally, then the threat wasn't real" sort of situations. Was hoping that there'd be more about A282.
Promises to Keep - More Bornstellar is good. Wonder where they all go. I suppose Path Kethona should still have derelict ships floating about too.
Shadow of Intent was great. I also liked how the effects of the mini-Halo were consistent with how Halo is later described to disrupt neural physics, disorienting the folks aboard the phantoms. Nice to see the blademaster come around to the idea of change wrt female inclusion there.
Defender of the Storm - For a moment, I thought the guy was going delusional once things started happening. The avians reminded me of those wake angels from Titan A.E., not that they're similar beyond being space creatures.
A Necessary Truth - Would be kinda cool to get an adventure/mystery game for Veta and friends or something like the recent Shadowrun games.
Will have to finish the rest this weekend.
Captain Zyrain
Member
Holy crap.
Fractures is amazing. I don't think I disliked a single story. I didn't want it to end!
Rossbach's World was so good! Is this the same Brian Reed that did Halo 5's story? Surely something must have been left on the cutting room floor.
I especially loved how the stories tied into past or upcoming fiction. Because of this, I retroactively have more faith for the longevity of stories like Broken Circle and Hunters in the Dark. Like someone had previously mentioned, I was excited we got so many Halo books/comics/etc last year, but then really disappointed when basically nothing tied in directly to Halo 5: Guardians. I am starting to think they were playing the long game, and these will be directly referenced in Halo 6 and Halo Wars 2.
I can't wait to see how Hunters in the Dark,
and
impact Halo Wars 2.
So much goodness. I think I need to read through it again. They need to do something like this on a yearly basis.
Sort of O
T but the Halo 5 soundtrack is just amazing. I was listening to it again while I read (old habit), and again while stuck in traffic this morning.. and it's.. just amazing. So good. I can't wait to see what he does for Halo 6. Who is doing the Halo Wars 2 OST?
Fractures is amazing. I don't think I disliked a single story. I didn't want it to end!
Rossbach's World was so good! Is this the same Brian Reed that did Halo 5's story? Surely something must have been left on the cutting room floor.
Was one of the AI BB recovered FERO?
I can't wait to see how Hunters in the Dark,
Into the Fire
Anarosa
So much goodness. I think I need to read through it again. They need to do something like this on a yearly basis.
Sort of O
S
Yeah, one of the AI's they mention is
FERO
I think Brian Reed has taken way more shit over the games then he deserves. I think a lot of it is still the continuation of the Traviss "It's all Halsey bashing!" fans, now dashed with "Why would they turn Cortana evil!" crowd. Basically, a lot of people without subtle critical reading skills.
I don't think we've gotten confirmation of Halo Wars 2's composer, but I'm betting on Tom Salta (since he's been composing the music for all of Halo's second-string materials recently, although calling them "second string" sounds a bit insulting to his talents and efforts.)
Captain Zyrain
Member
Thanks, I left the book at home and meant to look at it again.
I figured as much, so that's a nice thread of HTT S02 meaning "something" in the grand scheme of things.
I'd be curious what exactly he did, as there have been a bunch of writers for the games I believe, or at least they contributed. Though he did do the "Next 72 hours" arc of Escalation aka let's re-kill the Didact, which I thought was OK, but not great (RIP Black Team). To be fair, I did like issue 7 (the New Pheonix one). Wiki tells me he wrote Spartan Ops too.
I still just feel like the Halo 5 story was rushed or something. They jumped around so much without giving anything the depth I personally felt it deserved. I liked the plot points for the most part, it just didn't feel weighty enough. I don't think the "T" rating would impact that.. but who knows.
Fractures got me excited about Halo Lore again. I enjoyed Mythos but I loved this.
Halo 5 definitely got some drastic cuts in scope and mission design, and likely some other story changes further down the pipe.
Escalation, poor art aside, mostly suffered from the thing you mentioned, with EU materials not really connecting well with other elements of the mythos. "The Next 72 Hours" didn't really change much (if you only played the games, you wouldn't miss anything) and so it does feel like a waste sometimes.
I think overall though the balance of standalone stories versus ones with longer-term impact is quite good. If anything, I thought the lead-in stories for Fractures would have been better spent on adding length to the standalone stories, which sometimes felt like they were missing a few pages to flow more organically.
Captain Zyrain
Member
I did always think it was interesting how they re-killed the Didact, but in a way that whatever they do with him in the future.. it could be explained away by what happened in Halo 4. People assumed maybe he got composed by falling into the portal, but that didn't happen, but it did happen a short time later because reasons. At least we end at the same place.
How or what they do with the missing Halo.. I'm not sure. I guess it could be the one at the end of Halo 5, or we may just never hear from it again. Black team dying like that was a waste though. It could have been any no-name Spartan IV team and it would have played the same. Maybe they just wanted to tie up loose ends?
The Janus Key/Absolute Record arc though.. that seriously pissed me off. I didn't mind the artwork or the writing, I actually enjoyed both. It finally felt like they were giving us the proper Spartan Ops season two. ... and then nothing happened. How they managed to pull that off is kind of amazing. So much setup for... Absolute Nothing. All the characters and moving pieces and tie-in's they used.. and nada. Zilch. "Oops". Ugh. To top it all off.. it had zero significance with Halo 5.. despite finishing right during launch week. It was the perfect opportunity to give Escalation some meaty goodness and prove when it should exist in the first place.. but nope.com. Halsey still ends up with Jul, which is how Spartan Ops left it.. and there is zero indication how or why Halsey is looking for Cortana. It ends up making Halo 5's start confusing, why also making the comic pointless. After investing so much time and $$$ into Escalation, I just felt like it was a huge missed opportunity. Bah.
I do agree that stand alone, "world building" stories are good, and not everything needs be tied in to the overarching 'grand scheme of things' (or star Master Chief!). It is nice when there are connecting threads though.
The big caveat is that we don't know what's coming in the future, maybe the Absolute Record will play a big part in Halo 6? Help the ragtag group of survivors fight off Cortana with Forerunner goodies? As I mentioned before, I am starting to wonder if the 2015 Halo fiction was designed to not tie in with Halo 5, but stuff afterwards. (Or if they can deftly make it seem like that). Seeing how some of the EU ties into Halo Wars 2 will be a big test. It's on the freaking Ark, we just had a book on the Ark, with animals!. We've
likely just discussed the brain of the UNSC AI we see in the trailers
Forge's daughter is out to find the Spirit of Fire!
I think the problem with the Absolute Record is it seems like an issue of power creep that would be incredibly difficult to accept. If we suddenly know where all the Forerunner installations are... where's the mystery of running across one? Where's the surprise at what weird relics they've left behind? It's sort of the problem of Trevelyan, magnified (because Trevelyan's so massive, I'm still waiting for the shoe to drop on it, but its size at least acts as an obstacle to fully understanding it. I'd have to re-read Ghosts of Onyx and see whether its size was originally established there, but having a 1AU-sized Forerunner installation still seems like a phenomenally bad idea if they weren't stuck with it.)
Captain Zyrain
Member
Yeah, I agree with that. They built it up as the end-all-be-all of Forerunner everything. They've already "humanized" the Forerunner a ton, which I feel is good and bad, but giving up all their tech too would be quite a jump.
___however___
With Cortana being in the Domain or with the Domain or whatever, and being able to remotely activate Forerunner Guardians.. isn't this point moot? Theoretically she could activate everything linked in the Absolute Record at this point anyway, right? If our intrepid heroes getting there first lets them lock her out or something, maybe that could, at the very least, limit her reach & power (until Halo..). If they let our team take control of SOME of the Forerunner goodies from the AR, then that would give them somewhat equal footing with Cortana & the AI's.
I feel like the sea change may have already happened, and the non-AI's of the world are going to be scrambling to come up with effective combat tactics. We saw in the Fractures story that
Earth couldn't even defeat 1 Guardian
As far as Onyx/Trevelyan goes.. yeah, they sure describe it as HUUUGGGEEEE. Maybe it'll turn into a Death Star or something
I don't know if I want 4-5 more stories about exploring it though. Maybe one explaining why none of the Forerunner decided to hide there though. Maybe there is a big bad hiding in the depths or something and killed the Forerunner who tried to take shelter or something. I dunno.Does anyone think that John is due for an armour upgrade? At this point, it seems that his existing kit is not commensurate to his physical abilities.
Also, I think that he needs a Forerunner or precursor ancilla, if anything but to make Cortana jealous....
Yeah, I mean something would be nice, but they can't really move on from the Green Suit, since that is effectively "Master Chief". If they put him in a Forerunner armor or something it would just be.. weird.
Still holding out hope that Mendicant Bias ends up helping humanity against the Created.
I dunno. We don't really know what the Domain entails insofar as what information remained or was lost. The implication is Cortana might have been able to use it to find the Halo at the end, but we dunno if that's one the UNSC already knew about. Likewise we still don't know how control of the Prometheans is established and whether Cortana only has access to Warrior-Servant tech (the few lines about Exuberant being a Builder suggest that there might be something to the caste divisions deciding what Cortana has access to.)
So far I get the impression they're just going to go with the surviving Forerunner just wanting to bail out of the galaxy. Or maybe they just forgot about their existence.
Sounds boring, yes.
Also, I think that he needs a Forerunner or precursor ancilla, if anything but to make Cortana jealous....
Exuberant Witness is the new hotness.
Captain Zyrain
Member
The Fragment that took over the Prowler? No, I don't think so. There have been a couple mentions of the incident in Hunters in the Dark I believe, but Tragic Solitude didn't know where it went either I don't think.
Fractures spoiler:
I thought 343 said he found her! And was going to find her or something, meaning the Librarian? Since Fractures shows us the Forerunner are going to live out their remaining days as farmers far away from us.. what could he be meaning? Another Librarian imprint or something? Could the "her" have meant Cortana? I dunno.
I'd love to find out of the Forerunner Warden and the Warden Eternal are at all related, but so far bupkiss.
Rereading the end of Primordium, 343GS says "people think she died on Earth", which would imply the Librarian, but he specifically uses "Lifeshaper", which ostensibly could mean Chant-to-Green instead.
But who knows what his plan is, or what he thinks he knows. He's the emergent human personality of a badly damaged, rampant AI. I think calling him Chakas instead of 343GS is a more apt descriptor, as his stated goal is basically to get the ghosts of his old friends back.
But who knows what his plan is, or what he thinks he knows. He's the emergent human personality of a badly damaged, rampant AI. I think calling him Chakas instead of 343GS is a more apt descriptor, as his stated goal is basically to get the ghosts of his old friends back.
Outrun
Member
I am thinking of the retention of the same look roughly but with Forerunner tech innards, or something like that
The Librarian has given him the genetic upgrade, it is time for Chief to go Super Sayan tech-wise.
Considering Cortana seemingly broadcast her message of "peace" everywhere, it'd be nice to see all sorts of people turn up now. The shanshayum who fled, mendicant bias, the other monitors etc.
Surely everyone heard the reclamation beginning so has some desire to do something about it.
Obviously Fractures shower us the forerunners all buggered off but Abbadon is out there, as seemingly are Bornstellars descendants complete with his ship etc..
I almost picture some early B5 season 4 style plot of "let's go round up the remaining people" in order to end this.
Alternatively can we have a survival game where we play as a drunk Hood?
Surely everyone heard the reclamation beginning so has some desire to do something about it.
Obviously Fractures shower us the forerunners all buggered off but Abbadon is out there, as seemingly are Bornstellars descendants complete with his ship etc..
I almost picture some early B5 season 4 style plot of "let's go round up the remaining people" in order to end this.
Alternatively can we have a survival game where we play as a drunk Hood?
Kaji AF16
Member
A few years ago, during a PhD seminar, our professor introduced some methods for moral values / meta-ethics research. In short, social sciences techniques to know more about the relation between moral judgments, opinions, personality, culture and rationality.
We were asked to imagine a story, and to choose another one from popular culture, to exemplify this. I went with Halsey´s creation of the Spartans (kidnapped children, originally meant to subdue the colonies, ultimately saved humanity). It generated a lot of interest among my classmates and the teacher.
We were asked to imagine a story, and to choose another one from popular culture, to exemplify this. I went with Halsey´s creation of the Spartans (kidnapped children, originally meant to subdue the colonies, ultimately saved humanity). It generated a lot of interest among my classmates and the teacher.
The whole problem with talking about Halsey and why I think so many people see criticism of her as "bashing" is that as players, we're largely omniscient. In the novels we know what people are thinking, we are playing events that occur decades after other events depicted. We know that Halsey's actions ended up single-handedly saving humanity, but that was a completely fluke and no one knew it at that time. You can't use that as a post-hoc justification for being a shitty human being, but it feels like some people don't get this. Or, with fictional characters and the lives of billions of humans that you don't actually see, it's easy to be cavalier with "the ends justify the means" argument.
Halsey herself bought into that, with the obvious error in her thinking that "humanity will descend into chaos" is that the reason it will is because the UEG wants to be an authoritarian state over every far-flung colony. Colonial autonomy was never on the table and thus war was inevitable, not "war was inevitable" with no causal factors.
Halsey herself bought into that, with the obvious error in her thinking that "humanity will descend into chaos" is that the reason it will is because the UEG wants to be an authoritarian state over every far-flung colony. Colonial autonomy was never on the table and thus war was inevitable, not "war was inevitable" with no causal factors.
Captain Zyrain
Member
Not really lore.. but whatever, there are a few lore tidbits in the article
Some new Halo Wars 2 music on Nerdist:
http://nerdist.com/witness-the-sound-of-halo-wars-2-with-two-original-songs-exclusive/
I guess Gordy Haab is the composer this time around? Sounds interesting. Will need to let it digest a little more before I commit to a feeling one way or another.
Some new Halo Wars 2 music on Nerdist:
http://nerdist.com/witness-the-sound-of-halo-wars-2-with-two-original-songs-exclusive/
I guess Gordy Haab is the composer this time around? Sounds interesting. Will need to let it digest a little more before I commit to a feeling one way or another.
Could you explain this to a no-halo-book-reader? Do the recent books hint at a plot line diverging from H5, or is it general skepticism due to H5's storyline not really being a continuation of H4's?
Poodlestrike
Banned
Basically the latter. H4 does lead into H5, due to the Cortana thing, but other stuff like the Didact and the Janus Key got wrapped in EU material. We'll see how it goes. I think they'll continue where H5 left off, personally, it seems like a really strong launchpad for a new status quo, but the campaign wasn't that well received. Idk.
Captain Zyrain
Member
Wondering if there will be some sort of reveal in Halo Wars 2 that will help inform the story of Halo 6. Since they're going to be taking place around the same time frame.. right? (Double checked, yes, approximately 2559, year after Halo 5)
Would be cool with more freedom to take on missions and such instead of being a straight forward thing.. but would that be.. Halo? Seems like it'd be ripe for another spin off game.
Would be cool with more freedom to take on missions and such instead of being a straight forward thing.. but would that be.. Halo? Seems like it'd be ripe for another spin off game.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Could be, could be. If nothing else, introducing the Banished as an enemy faction makes a lot of sense.
I was referring more to the fact that it's clear Halo's mission structure got drastically changed during development, and it's likely that the story changed in the process (the ODST-style hub with the Infinity being the setting, and Blue Team's actions played in "flashback" style.) I think that sort of setup still has great potential for a Halo campaign, but I don't know if Halo 6's plot will be as conducive to that setup.
Unlike a lot of Halo lore fans (apparently) I'm not really annoyed that they pushed in a different direction from where people thought they were going in Halo 4. 4's story always felt remarkably self-contained to me (essentially another Combat Evolved in so far as establishing future hooks), so I'm not really surprised.
wesleyshark
Banned
Just got my copy of Halo: Fractures. Stoked to jump into this as soon as I have some time to dedicate to it.
Captain Zyrain
Member
Tales? Yeah end of the month iirc
Mythos hit the UK today, got my copy, fantastic book, visually stunning.
wesleyshark
Banned
Graphic novel is news to me. This is new stuff, not a collection of previous stuff?
Correct, its an illustrated anthology. One of the stories deals with that infection form on the Spirit of Fire.
wesleyshark
Banned
LordOfChaos
Member
My hopeful thought would be the AI rebellion actually gets everyone ready for the second judgement of the Precursors. Thinking of it this way, Space Cortana gives everyone a unified enemy to rally against,and none can do it on their own.
What was the final judgement of the Precursors going to be? Either humanity has taken up the mantle and unified the galaxy, or they havn't and failed.
So if they manage to cultivate a unified front, they're in better shape against the Precursors second judgement. If not, the galaxy gets wiped.
It could be a lot like the Mass Effect galactic readiness thing.
After reading Evolutions (The curious life of Cole...) and the Library Edition of Initiations commentary, I'm wondering if Cole isn't the mystery figure behind the NCA...
Whoever it is, its clearly a big enough figure that Isla Zane was shocked to see them, and whoever it was put her in command of a large New Colonial Alliance force in time for Hunt The Truth.
The commentary for Initiation alludes to the identity of the shadowy figure as a big deal...
Seems plausible.
Whoever it is, its clearly a big enough figure that Isla Zane was shocked to see them, and whoever it was put her in command of a large New Colonial Alliance force in time for Hunt The Truth.
The commentary for Initiation alludes to the identity of the shadowy figure as a big deal...
Seems plausible.
I've been waiting for this for a long time. Ordered from amazon.
Mythos has been a long time coming. Anxious for that.
I'm a bit torn on this. On one hand there's some potential for there to be something great, but on the other I'm not that big of a fan with the general direction they've gone with some of the legacy (?) characters from Bungie's story (Halsey, Mendez, Gulity Spark etc).
To me I'm not sure what bringing Cole back really adds. The insurrectionists can be led by whoever at this point, it doesn't make much difference. In the grand scheme of things Cole is a pretty minor player, especially as he's entirely an EU character (it occurs to me, he's never actually mentioned at all in the games, correct? You just got the backstory in the Halo CE manual as far as I can remember.) I sort of like the open-ended nature of "The Impossible Life..." in that you could imagine him finding a sort of peace away from all the fighting, and bringing him back would by necessity make that a false ending.
Yeah that's another big one. Impossible Life was fantastic and I don't think I would want to go beyond it.
Keyes mentions the protocol before abandoning the Autumn, but as a person I don't think it's brought up.
Nice sense of finality for sure. Hopefully they keep it that way.
Side-note - Wonder if Cutter's family is going to stay in the EU media or if that'll be touched upon in HW2. Just seems a weird thing to expand upon in the first place.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Cole I think would actually work pretty well in the theoretical framework of a "gather the resistance" H6. They'd need to do a good job of establishing his character in-game, though, which I gotta admit I think 343 struggles with.
Not the only HW cast member with EU family now either...
As for my cole theory, if it's not him they're alluding too... Who do you think it might be? Clearly its someone big.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Tbh, if we're limiting it to "characters who would be a big deal to both readers and characters," there's not a lot of options. Cole makes the most sense, barring a Sudden Swerve and having... idk, Paragonsky or somebody running the FCA.
(Or is she dead, it's been a bit).
(Or is she dead, it's been a bit).