Halo Lore Thread

112 pages into Hunters in the Dark. Decently entertaining so far, though the writing often stumbles. "Monthly cycles" - if they said lunar cycles, the second word would be justified, but month is already an artificial construct to describe the cycle of something else, "Monthly cycles" makes no sense. Twenty units above freezing sounds awfully like their units line up with Celsius (The Ones That Make Sense™). Minor things like that take you a bit out of it, and the tonality of the Sangheili being too-human is a bigger one.

Anywho, not to say I'm not liking it, just finding things to pick on.
 
Halo Canons review of Hunters in the Dark is up... although I'm not sure why his definition of a review is to read out everything that happens in the book.
 
Glass said:
Halo Canons review of Hunters in the Dark is up... although I'm not sure why his definition of a review is to read out everything that happens in the book.
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That seems to be a thing with a lot of book and movie reviews. I don't really get it. It's a review, not a book report.

Edit: My sister just told me that in her literary class they actually taught that book reviews should basically be glorified book reports. WAI
 
Glass said:
Halo Canons review of Hunters in the Dark is up... although I'm not sure why his definition of a review is to read out everything that happens in the book.
Click to expand...

Considering his comic reviews, I'm 99% sure they're supposed to be for 2 people.

1. People who already read the book.
2. Don't want to read it, but want to hear what happens.
 
Glass said:
Halo Canons review of Hunters in the Dark is up... although I'm not sure why his definition of a review is to read out everything that happens in the book.
Click to expand...
He's more or less filling the viewers in on what happens whilst offering his point of view throughout, not really a straight up recount.
 
Slightly Live said:
There better ways to do that. Like reading wiki summaries.
Click to expand...

Maybe so, but people can leave this going while playing a game or doing the dishes or some other thing, where Wiki summaries require your full attention and sometimes miss out the smaller details and concentrate on the bigger things.
 
LordOfChaos said:
112 pages into Hunters in the Dark. Decently entertaining so far, though the writing often stumbles. "Monthly cycles" - if they said lunar cycles, the second word would be justified, but month is already an artificial construct to describe the cycle of something else, "Monthly cycles" makes no sense. Twenty units above freezing sounds awfully like their units line up with Celsius (The Ones That Make Sense™). Minor things like that take you a bit out of it, and the tonality of the Sangheili being too-human is a bigger one.

Anywho, not to say I'm not liking it, just finding things to pick on.
Click to expand...

All in all it wasn't great and it wasn't horrible. There were parts I enjoyed, and a couple characters that I found interesting, but all the filler periods of walking through The Forerunner National Zoo and then that ending though...
Meatborg Coincidence Brother and no sign of 343GS or Mendicant Bias? So disappoint! Though Drifts does mention a couple times that there's another presence on the Ark...
 
daedalius said:
Few too many shootbang sequences in HitD, but other than that it seemed interesting.

Looking forward to the new books.
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Really looking forward to Last Light, and Saint's Testimony especially. Anything to do with learning more about AIs an their life cycles is what I'm most interested in.
 
Mindwipe said:
Comixology have the Halo: Escalation trades available for half price this week.
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Cheers!
Though I prefer my trades in physical form. :p

SOON:

300px-Halo_Saint's_Testimony_cover.jpg
 
wesleyshark said:
All in all it wasn't great and it wasn't horrible. There were parts I enjoyed, and a couple characters that I found interesting, but all the filler periods of walking through The Forerunner National Zoo and then that ending though...
Meatborg Coincidence Brother and no sign of 343GS or Mendicant Bias? So disappoint! Though Drifts does mention a couple times that there's another presence on the Ark...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I guess I feel the same way. I wonder if, because of all the backlash they got after the Forerunner/K5 trilogies, that they're not going to put beefy IMPORTANT lore material in the books anymore?

I'm torn. As I don't like waiting 4-5 years for a new game to drop to get some significant new information moving the overall story forward, but at the same time it is an issue if you're now requiring people to read other material to understand the games.

Give me the damn
Mendicant Bias
story arc already!
 
Captain Zyrain said:
Yeah, I guess I feel the same way. I wonder if, because of all the backlash they got after the Forerunner/K5 trilogies, that they're not going to put beefy IMPORTANT lore material in the books anymore?

I'm torn. As I don't like waiting 4-5 years for a new game to drop to get some significant new information moving the overall story forward, but at the same time it is an issue if you're now requiring people to read other material to understand the games.

Give me the damn
Mendicant Bias
story arc already!
Click to expand...

I doubt it. The issue they had was with release schedules and better writing in the games, not that the books had too much juicy stuff in them.

It seems like 343 is pushing more EU stuff with the short stories and novellas alongside the standard novels, so I think lore fans are going to be more sated now than ever before. On the flipside, yeah, not everything can be crazy new developments or Earth in Peril! stories, otherwise it gets old (really enjoyed the issue that dealt with Thorne returning to New Phoenix for that reason… aside from a scene in Contact Harvest it was one of the most unique stories we’d seen in Halo.)'

As for Mendicant Bias, I think people are hyping themselves into a frenzy unnecessarily. It’s entirely possible his story is done.
 
Captain Zyrain said:
Yeah, I guess I feel the same way. I wonder if, because of all the backlash they got after the Forerunner/K5 trilogies, that they're not going to put beefy IMPORTANT lore material in the books anymore?
Click to expand...

I hope not because those are so damn good. I love my novels loaded with beef.

Captain Zyrain said:
I'm torn. As I don't like waiting 4-5 years for a new game to drop to get some significant new information moving the overall story forward, but at the same time it is an issue if you're now requiring people to read other material to understand the games.

Give me the damn
Mendicant Bias
story arc already!
Click to expand...

I can understand the angle of those who don't read the EU stuff not knowing what was going on in Halo 4 and I can't blame their confusion or annoyance there. There needs to be a fine line between both mediums and hopefully Halo 5 will be beefy enough for the folks who only play the games!

I just hope that the next novel and two novellas have a bit more to chew on. While Hunters in the Dark was a light read, it was a tad too light... And uh... Meatborg Brother Plot.

Fuchsdh said:
I doubt it. The issue they had was with release schedules and better writing in the games, not that the books had too much juicy stuff in them.

It seems like 343 is pushing more EU stuff with the short stories and novellas alongside the standard novels, so I think lore fans are going to be more sated now than ever before. On the flipside, yeah, not everything can be crazy new developments or Earth in Peril! stories, otherwise it gets old (really enjoyed the issue that dealt with Thorne returning to New Phoenix for that reason… aside from a scene in Contact Harvest it was one of the most unique stories we’d seen in Halo.)'

As for Mendicant Bias, I think people are hyping themselves into a frenzy unnecessarily. It’s entirely possible his story is done.
Click to expand...

That's my biggest worry... That all of the crazy theories and connections we've discovered will fizzle out and Mendicant Bias won't ever show up again. It just.. Makes so much sense for him to have a big reveal at some point.

Questionable artwork at times aside... Escalation is actually really solid stuff as far as narrative and world building are concerned. I'm glad that it exists and I hope there'll be a new comic arc post-Halo 5.
 
Fuchsdh said:
I doubt it. The issue they had was with release schedules and better writing in the games, not that the books had too much juicy stuff in them.

It seems like 343 is pushing more EU stuff with the short stories and novellas alongside the standard novels, so I think lore fans are going to be more sated now than ever before. On the flipside, yeah, not everything can be crazy new developments or Earth in Peril! stories, otherwise it gets old (really enjoyed the issue that dealt with Thorne returning to New Phoenix for that reason… aside from a scene in Contact Harvest it was one of the most unique stories we’d seen in Halo.)'
Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree. I am enjoying the AMOUNT of content we're getting now, in all the different mediums, it just seems like they're toning down the overall universe significance of it all, likely so if you miss a comic series, or a podcast or whatever you're not totally in the dark. It's 100% reasonable to expect your fans not to consume _EVERY_ piece of media you produce (even though most of us here do..).

I think #HUNTtheTRUTH was an amazingly awesome different take on people in the Halo universe, and I do hope they continue to attack it like that. It just would suck to know in advance that "nothing that happens really matters" essentially. HTT was awesome, but it ended with the universe pretty much exactly where it was before it started (pending Season 2).

Fuchsdh said:
As for Mendicant Bias, I think people are hyping themselves into a frenzy unnecessarily. It’s entirely possible his story is done.
Click to expand...

°_°

wesleyshark said:
I can understand the angle of those who don't read the EU stuff not knowing what was going on in Halo 4 and I can't blame their confusion or annoyance there. There needs to be a fine line between both mediums and hopefully Halo 5 will be beefy enough for the folks who only play the games!

I just hope that the next novel and two novellas have a bit more to chew on. While Hunters in the Dark was a light read, it was a tad too light... And uh... Meatborg Brother Plot.

That's my biggest worry... That all of the crazy theories and connections we've discovered will fizzle out and Mendicant Bias won't ever show up again. It just.. Makes so much sense for him to have a big reveal at some point.

Questionable artwork at times aside... Escalation is actually really solid stuff as far as narrative and world building are concerned. I'm glad that it exists and I hope there'll be a new comic arc post-Halo 5.
Click to expand...

I have to imagine with that special audio epilogue thing they released for the Forerunner Silentium it has to MEAN SOMETHING! I could see the events in Halo 5 leading Chief to seek MB somewhere at the end perhaps. Maybe he learns about MB in a Guardian or.. Domain.. or.. something. Maybe Mendicant Bias is the only one with the knowledge to save the universe from
______
.

I dunno. As I said before I just want to make sure the media we get has some sort of impact or permanence, otherwise it's just fluff.
 
Slightly Live said:
Yeah cause the latest book didn't threaten the Earth and the whole galaxy.

Oh wait. Galactic threats of the week must stop. Save that shit for the games.
Click to expand...

Exactly.
Earth was attacked BY FORERUNNER MACHINES (!!!), Armigers were encountered, the Ark was colonized and the Halo's were ready to kill everyone.. in 2555!
And yet none of that was mentioned or brought up in Halo 4?

BIG things happened, but they didn't seem to have any lasting impact, which really cheapens it all to me. I do think it's probably early to judge Hunters in the Dark since the content is likely tied to Halo 5. I just want the extra content to matter I guess.
 
Captain Zyrain said:
I have to imagine with that special audio epilogue thing they released for the Forerunner Silentium it has to MEAN SOMETHING! I could see the events in Halo 5 leading Chief to seek MB somewhere at the end perhaps. Maybe he learns about MB in a Guardian or.. Domain.. or.. something. Maybe Mendicant Bias is the only one with the knowledge to save the universe from
______
.
Click to expand...

Mendicant's final word was: "Atonement."

There's no way that the epilogue was released for naught. It wasn't filler. It was meaty as heck. Even the back and forth between Bornstellar and Riser was intentionally important. The epilogue left us with three important threads:

- A contingent of Forerunners left the Galaxy with the IsoDidact before the Halos were completely fired.
- A very active shard of Mendicant Bias was buried on the Ark.
- Riser was given a final send-off, as it is heavily theorized that Master Chief is a descendent of him, thus containing the geas of the Didact.

Captain Zyrain said:
Exactly.
Earth was attacked BY FORERUNNER MACHINES (!!!), Armigers were encountered, the Ark was colonized and the Halo's were ready to kill everyone.. in 2555!
And yet none of that was mentioned or brought up in Halo 4?

BIG things happened, but they didn't seem to have any lasting impact, which really cheapens it all to me. I do think it's probably early to judge Hunters in the Dark since the content is likely tied to Halo 5. I just want the extra content to matter I guess.
Click to expand...

Yeah... The timing of that was strange. The armigers weren't on the Ark before (possibly created later?), and 000 Tragic Solitude was interestingly absent for the events of Halo 3- I can't remember if this was explained or not in the novel though.

Yeah I'm holding off total judgment until we see what's up in Halo 5, but the more I dig into the novel, the more I'm left scratching my head over certain sections. Could be just a lack of context.
 
daedalius said:
Was hunters in the dark really set before halo 4 according to the current timeline?

Weird
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Yep. Halo 4 took place in 2557 and HitD took place in 2555.

It's fine up until the parts involving the armigers. There were a number of folks who came into contact with them and fought them, so ONI was already aware of some sort of AI-driven armed force, but the UNSC folks that were sent to Requiem weren't seemingly privy to any of that. ONI keeps things segmented from everyone so that's no surprise, given the rift between them and the UNSC, but 2yrs is a long time to keep all of that information hostage. I guess since Vale would later become a Spartan, and the only other witnesses were either Spartans, ONI scientists, or the two Elites, information wouldn't be hard to lock down.

I guess in Halo 5, for Locke's team, when armigers show up, we're going to get some lines and exposition from Vale, as she will know exactly what they are. I'd imagine that'll be one of the tie-ins.
 
wesleyshark said:
Yep. Halo 4 took place in 2557 and HitD took place in 2555.

It's fine up until the parts involving the armigers. There were a number of folks who came into contact with them and fought them, so ONI was already aware of some sort of AI-driven armed force, but the UNSC folks that were sent to Requiem weren't seemingly privy to any of that. ONI keeps things segmented from everyone so that's no surprise, given the rift between them and the UNSC, but 2yrs is a long time to keep all of that information hostage. I guess since Vale would later become a Spartan, and the only other witnesses were either Spartans, ONI scientists, or the two Elites, information wouldn't be hard to lock down.
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Was it ever explained why they weren't seen in Halo 3 or why they were on the Ark? Aren't they promethean?

I don't have the book yet unfortunately.
 
Captain Friendo said:
Was it ever explained why they weren't seen in Halo 3 or why they were on the Ark? Aren't they promethean?

I don't have the book yet unfortunately.
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Well, best I can put together so far is that the armigers aren't composed humans, but literal Forerunner AI constructs of some sort. The Prometheans are made up of composed lifeforms.

The book didn't go too deeply into where the armigers came from, or why they weren't present 2yrs prior when Mc and Co were on the Ark. It also doesn't explain where 000 Tragic Solitude was either... But maybe I missed those details. I'll have to revisit certain sections to see if I missed stuff, which is possible haha.

Could be information that they are saving for Halo 5, too.

---

Edit: looked a bit deeper and I think a lot of it had to do with the destruction of the replacement Halo that heavily damaged the Ark itself. It's possible that 000TS wasn't as concerned as deeply as he should have been with the arrival of humans and Covenant on the Ark, until it was too late, and the destruction of it all caused him to enter a kind of delusional state. He takes control of the armiger forces, which were previously dormant, and uses them to defend the Ark in 2555.

The armigers are a new addition to the lore, so obviously they have to be shoehorned in to some degree. They have been around for a long time, and were used by the Forerunners during their war with the Flood. They are indeed completely robotic, but their creation process is a mystery, save for whatever secrets Jul M'Dama has discovered, as he seems to have gained the ability to manipulate/use them*?

*a bit murky on this part.
 
wesleyshark said:
Edit: looked a bit deeper and I think a lot of it had to do with the destruction of the replacement Halo that heavily damaged the Ark itself. It's possible that 000TS wasn't as concerned as deeply as he should have been with the arrival of humans and Covenant on the Ark, until it was too late, and the destruction of it all caused him to enter a kind of delusional state. He takes control of the armiger forces, which were previously dormant, and uses them to defend the Ark in 2555.

The armigers are a new addition to the lore, so obviously they have to be shoehorned in to some degree. They have been around for a long time, and were used by the Forerunners during their war with the Flood. They are indeed completely robotic, but their creation process is a mystery, save for whatever secrets Jul M'Dama has discovered, as he seems to have gained the ability to manipulate/use them*?

*a bit murky on this part.
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Yeah from what I remember reading on Waypoint (I think), the Armigers were created by the Forerunner to navigate in ancient HUMAN ships during the Human/Forerunner wars, as they were smaller and more easily navigated the smaller human ships.

Here is the quote:

While most were originally expended in the fruitless war against the Flood or compromised by the logic plague, some were secretly left to guard key Forerunner sites in the ages following the firing of the Array. Their reappearance with the Guardians indicates the secret of their manufacture has once again been uncovered, and as humanity continues to try and reclaim the vestiges of the Forerunners’ dominance, the reawakening of these constructs and others like them cannot be taken lightly by the UNSC.
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So they're NEW constructs we see in Halo 5 (and maybe HitD). Not sure if Tragic Solitude was making them or just re-purposing them.

They also mentioned that the Armigers were literally "A bearer of armor for a knight". So I took that to mean they assisted the Promethean Knights in combat as well. There were no Knights stationed at the Ark that I know of.
 
Captain Zyrain said:
Yeah from what I remember reading on Waypoint (I think), the Armigers were created by the Forerunner to navigate in ancient HUMAN ships during the Human/Forerunner wars, as they were smaller and more easily navigated the smaller human ships.

Here is the quote:



So they're NEW constructs we see in Halo 5 (and maybe HitD). Not sure if Tragic Solitude was making them or just re-purposing them.

They also mentioned that the Armigers were literally "A bearer of armor for a knight". So I took that to mean they assisted the Promethean Knights in combat as well. There were no Knights stationed at the Ark that I know of.
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Yeah no Knights on the Ark I'm pretty sure. The armigers are like sentries basically.

I'm hoping this means that Knights will actually be formidable foes, and we'll run into them less often. Make them mini meta bosses of sorts.
 
wesleyshark said:
Yeah no Knights on the Ark I'm pretty sure. The armigers are like sentries basically.

I'm hoping this means that Knights will actually be formidable foes, and we'll run into them less often. Make them mini meta bosses of sorts.
Click to expand...

They might just move up into Battlewagon territory, while Armigers fill the role of the weaker and more common Elites.
 
Fuchsdh said:
Over/under on lore stuff? I feel like we've gotten all we're going to until closer to release at this point. But I could be surprised (12 minutes...)
Click to expand...

Probably under more than over... But just in case wanted to post the update here haha. I'll definitely be picking it apart as I do with all of their ViDocs. I'm hoping for teasers for the lore, but I'm expecting more of behind the scenes stuff looking at production and actors, etc...
 
They spoilt the ending for Halo 4 in one of the H4 vidocs, so nothing can surprise me anymore.

"In that case, you won't mind..." Cortana appears behind the Didact.
at all of the Cortanas emerging from the Bridge
"Compassion for mankind is misplaced." - Didact
"I'm not doing this for mankind." Chief then charges thet Didact.

rushes towards Didact and jumps all over him (legs, arms, chest, back)
Several takes of "Cortana" tackling and climbing on random objects at full speed.
Didact is attacked by Cortana. He attempts to swat at Cortana as a means of self defence.
Didact unclenches his fist and drops Chief.

Cortana begins restraining Didact by constraining his limbs to the Bridge.
-Several takes of "Cortana" climbing on "Didact" actor and then...
a specific body part (head, back, waist, knees, ebows, shoulders)
-Didact struggle idle.

Chief is released
-Chief immobilised pose
-Chief falls, lands on edge
-Chief hanging idle
Click to expand...

All that from a mo-cap script.
 
Fuchsdh said:
Or Halsey finally gets that NuArm™ 4000 XE she's been waiting to get back in stock on Space Amazon halfway through the events of the game.
Click to expand...

And it's a plot to lure Chief to his death with her Cortana vocal impersonation and novelty glow in the dark body paint.

Halsey is so gosh darn evil.
 
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