lore-and-universe

[obsidian thistle]

He just has his ABCs tattood on his face

For those curious! 😛

[thorn spindle]

hes a kindergarten teacher

[obsidian thistle]

(Irl its probably the boring, they used the first symbols in the set. But we all know thats the TOTALLY boring route and should be kept as the ABCs)

[sonic lagoon]

Anybody know of any mutinies in Halo lore?

[alpine temple]

@obsidian thistle there’s san’shyuum at midnight facility?

[worthy bronze]

What is that from?

[carmine sleet]

You asked a very similar question two months ago

[empty bloom]

Classic Jelly Ranger

[carmine sleet]

Indeed

I wonder if I'll have to explain about Chief not intending to kill ODSTs in an organised fight again?

[obsidian thistle]

Yup!

[obsidian thistle]

It was the old Halo Legendary Crate Data Drops.

You can read em all here. Though I'm linking a focus on Series 2 that focuses on the Created investigation that Apollo did.

https://www.halopedia.org/Halo_Legendary_Crate/Data_Drops#Series_2_2

[bronze prawn]

How common is terraforming technology in the halo galaxy ?

The UNSC has it, the forerruner and ancient humans probably also had it, what about the covenant or the banished ?

[empty bloom]

Very rare. UNSC seems to slowboat it, Covenant can but the specifics are not really known, and with the fall of their empire their tech is likely extinct.

Banished you can assume a hard no; Brutes never had terraforming tech in the first place and the Banished's best home-grown tech is electrolasers (Shock Rifle).

[bronze prawn]

what about the created

they "inheritage" forerruner tech

[empty bloom]

Well, same as the UNSC really, after they lost their inheritence after Cortana died. They did terraform ocean worlds into deserts and vice-versa in the short time they had full access to forerunner tech though.

It can be assumed that their tech is better due to less oversight, considering they still own earth. But actual capability is tenuous. Does that make sense?

[glass walrus]

But when the war finished, did the unsc and Covenant remnants trade tecnology, food, other things?

[empty bloom]

To an unelaborated degree, yes.

[bronze prawn]

Also, there is apparently techonlogy, to make a species dumb ?

You know, the ancient humans an the end of the war

[glass walrus]

They got de-evolved, returning to older species, like Homo Florian, Homo Habilis, Homo Sapiens

The Forerunner had this ability to evolve and de-evolve

[carmine sleet]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the map Oasis from Infinite is showing us a Forerunner Terraforming vessel being used by the Created, right?

[empty bloom]

Kinda.

[wispy pewter]

very common after the covenant war I suppose

so much glass to un-glass

[empty bloom]

Jean is wrong, moving on.

[wispy pewter]

tell me how are they gonna make Reach livable by the 2580s

[empty bloom]

I feel like it's a mistake to still assume Reach's end cutscene is canon.

Even 20 years after Halo Infinite's end.

[wispy pewter]

they are already deglassing Reach the next step is terraforming I guess.

[carmine sleet]

Honestly wish they'd have removed the date from that final cutscene

[obsidian thistle]

Erm...

Well Bungie kinda locked em in.

With New Alexandria existing again in some form circa 2610.

Plus the planet is technically still livable just difficult. Moa weirdly still live there

Though their native numbers were certainly decimated to near-extinction levels by the catastrophic environmental effects of the Covenant’s assault on their natural habitat, it is held that there are still moa populations thriving in remote sectors on the post-glassed Reach.

Source: https://archives.halopedia.org/waypoint/www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/canon-fodder-have-s-moa.html

Cannae wipe out those things. Pigeons of the galaxy they are

So yes I believe 343i/HS are slowly rectifying the weirdness of Reachs quick revival

1. Reach wasnt as badly glassed as fans thought.
2. Efforts were made to show the UEG/UNSC do stuff with Reach as far back as 2553 onwards. Pioneer groups and terraforming companies so on
3. Efforts were shown that life and people still lived on Reach. With... 121,000-ish people living on it circa 2558

[wispy pewter]

Now the question is how big is the UNSC fleet post created conflict

[obsidian thistle]

We dont know

[wispy pewter]

I like how 343 answered with "classified"

🤪

[obsidian thistle]

Might be a offhand mention in the Encyclopedia

[wispy pewter]

I am gonna assume after the disaster at Ring 07 99% of all their ships are either lost or destroyed

[obsidian thistle]

I'd not say that

[carmine sleet]

The whole UNSC fleet wasn't at Zeta Halo

[wispy pewter]

Im sure they sent their best, whatever was left of it after Cortana blew up everything else. But I guess we wouldn't know

well we know there is one frigate left in Infinite

[carmine sleet]

We know that the UNSC Infinity and Mortal Reverie were there, given Infinity's nature as a carrier, it's likely there was some more UNSC ships too but they're either elsewhere on Zeta or floating around the ring, crippled or destroyed

[wispy pewter]

Man empty throne cannot come any sooner

[carmine sleet]

Regardless, there is zero reason to believe the whole UNSC fleet was at Zeta like you claimed

[worthy bronze]

Why thank you

[obsidian thistle]

Yer welcome! 😄

[stoic hamlet]

If we really want to count hard numbers, from both Infinite and Rubicon Protocol, there were about 16 UNSC ships at Zeta Halo during the banished ambush.

Infinity + 10 Anlace and strident frigates (from Shadows of Reach) + 6 Mulsanne frigates (mentioned in the audio logs) as an advance force.

But there were definitely more UNSC ships not at Zeta. Space is big and a key thing mentioned about the Created is they couldn’t be everywhere at once, so their initial strikes only hit major areas, but we know UNSC forces are kind of everywhere.

[carmine sleet]

Aye

Like, keeping ships for defence of various planets, outposts and sites of interest

Or being used for operations

[sonic lagoon]

Oh I forgot. I thought that was a year ago?

Also fragging, when infantry assassin ate their superiors, what examples exist of this?

[carmine sleet]

It was two months ago

And for your second question, there was the one time an Elite killed his superior because he was trying to infect the ship's crew with the Flood but they didn't use grenades to do that like what fragging specifically refers to

[sonic lagoon]

Yes indeed, time flies by fast don’t it?

[wintry grove]

I’m hallucinating evil squidward in breaking glad

[mossy zealot]

Good day,
I am new here and I am looking for some help/advice.
In March I will play a concert with my band which includes a Halo soundtrack.
For that I will prepare some introductory words, but since I am new to Halo I could use some help.
Would anyone here be so kind to give me some pointers? Someone who knows enough about Halo and especially its music.
Drop me a dm and maybe we can work something out. Thanks!

[last anchor]

Start it off with Vice Admiral Stanforths explanation of the Nova Bomb

Or Coles final insult to the Cove at Psi Serpentus

[worthy bronze]

Is it a spider?

[versed helm]

Just did some reading in the Halo Encyclopedia, turns out Jega Rdomnai’s custom blade had a name: Ghostpierce. According to the book, only the greatest of Sanghelli sword masters alter their blade to match their combat style, and Ghostpierce was no different. Ghostpierce began as an untested bloodblade and was his weapon when he fell victim to a deadly explosion… he made sure it underwent the same, twisted transformation as he did.

[versed helm]

Oh, and a question for more educated on the lore: besides Jega Rdomnai, have any other Elite’s successfully killed a Spartan in CQC combat?

[dusk jetty]

The field marshal that killed Emile

[versed helm]

Oh yea. Even after getting impaled through the chest, Emlie kept on fighting. Do you think if the Field Marshal had faced Emile head on rather than sneaking him from the back he’d still have won?

[worthy bronze]

Didn't Emile still have his shotgun so I think Emile wouldve one that

[versed helm]

He probably did. Shame he went out like that, surprised from the back.

[worthy bronze]

Uh also noble 6 died in cqc(close quarter combat?)

[worthy bronze]

At least could've happened I think

[empty bloom]

He did die to that.

[worthy bronze]

I haven't played reach in a while

[empty bloom]

Stabbed to death by a FM while in a failed rout.

[worthy bronze]

Alright cool

[versed helm]

He did. However, he got ganged up on by a gaggle of powerful Elite’s. I’m wondering if there are any others who’ve successfully killed a Spartan alone (and not in a surprised scenario for funsizes).

[worthy bronze]

I think Xytan prly has

[versed helm]

Noble 6 is hiding in a cave below the map… he must be… he has the powa of John Halo he MUSNT DIE

[empty bloom]

That's stupid.

Anyways.

[empty bloom]

I doubt it. He was deployed to the fringe, so he never faced that much in terms of UNSC forces. Then again, Covenant ranking structure is ludicrous.

[versed helm]

Maybe. He was one of, if not the best, Elite tactician in the Covenant. Other than that, we don’t know what he did on the field with a sword.

[versed helm]

[worthy bronze]

Ok

[empty bloom]

Honestly, even Jega never succeeded. I think the closest would be Gek, funny enough, but even then, Gek was fighting a wounded Spartan with no helmet.

[worthy bronze]

I can't send pics...

[empty bloom]

Gek is the half-blind Elite from Spartan Ops' cutscenes that never wore a helmet.

[worthy bronze]

Yea he did

When you get armor core in infinite

He killed what's her name

[empty bloom]

Makovich was ambushed and was wearing armor that was practically falling apart around her.

Hardly a fair fight.

[worthy bronze]

And she was dead for a month

Still killed her

[empty bloom]

Stone died to an ambush from behind after killing several dozen Banished.

[versed helm]

Jega ambushed a group of 2 Spartan IVs if I recall, injuring one of them not enough so he was unable to fight. While the injured one was asked to retreat, the Spartan IV who suggested it faced Jega and died… I don’t know the resilience her armor was at during this period, maybe it was barely hanging on…

Funnily enough, Thel might have had a chance. He was “equally” matched with that young Spartan, I do believe

[empty bloom]

So? Just asking if a Spartan got killed by an elite wasn't the question.

[worthy bronze]

How did sniper girl from halo 5 ok blue team die again? I forgot

[versed helm]

True

[empty bloom]

She didn't.

[worthy bronze]

Yea she did

But she got resurrected

[empty bloom]

Linda was '''killed''' but lived in Fall of Reach, so I don't really count it.

[worthy bronze]

Ok

Bro I'm like a rookie of halo knowledge compared to yall

[versed helm]

What do you think about Fal Chavamee’s performance against the company of Covenant soldiers shown in Halo Legends, was it exaggerated for animation effect or… he did throw a wraith into a several story tall hunter

[empty bloom]

Basically, of the Spartans Jega is confirmed to have killed, Makovich and Stone, both were in incredibly damaged armor that was damaged to near-nonfunctionality. In fact, Stone had completely exhausted all of her suit's medical supplies and had no functioning sensors by the time she was stabbed in the back.

[empty bloom]

Exaggerated.

[versed helm]

Ooof

I always loved that episode

[empty bloom]

Elites aren't actually really all that strong. Like, they're strong, but there's a reason Spartans mulch them more often than not.

[worthy bronze]

They move too much

[empty bloom]

Getting into a fistfight with any Spartan is usually like sticking your hand in a running blender.

[worthy bronze]

Accurate

[versed helm]

Physically they are getting their skulls crushed most of the time. Thel Vadam did have a good preform nice against Jai (at a young age)

[empty bloom]

I always took it as two factors.

Arbiter was wearing higher end armor which usually lasts longer against MJOLNIR, and that was relatively early in MJOLNIR's development IIRC.

Mark IV, so yeah, not that good.

[versed helm]

Dang, we need an Elite to step up.

[empty bloom]

I mean, Spartans are straight up OP.

[versed helm]

Wait, what about Half-Jaw? He managed a due against a Prelate. I believe a Prelate once took on 2 Spartan’s at once

[empty bloom]

A IV, after four months of continuous fighting and in a sorry enough state that her armor was 'healing' into her skin due to damage, managed to tank getting rammed into a wall by a ghost and still having the fortitude to disembowel a brute with her own bare hands.

Like, Spartans are just flat out built different.

[versed helm]

They are strong as heck

I believe a few individuals lay claim to being able to beat a Spartan: Myriad, The Brute Spartan Killer Brothers, and Atriox

[empty bloom]

Myriad wiped, allegedly, two entire fireteams. Hyperius and Tovarus allegedly have a similar body count. Atriox has never actually killed a Spartan, that we know of.

Personally, I find it annoying that Hyperius, allegedly, killed that many Spartans. It seems unrealistic considering how Spartans are characterized.

[versed helm]

Atriox never killed a Spartan, that is true, but how he preformed against Red Team and Master Chief… even Chief admitted defeat.

[empty bloom]

Well, he also blindsided Chief and dented the poor sap's skull with a gravity mace.

Amusing casting gag

Locke's VA voiced Atriox in Infinite

Guess Locke won round 2.

[versed helm]

LMAO I honestly liked Halo Wars voice better

[empty bloom]

If you can't get the guy, you can't get the guy.

[versed helm]

True, true. Such a good voice regardless.

[empty bloom]

I can buy Myriad's body count, mostly because Hunters have a well-established track record of being perfectly capable of icing Spartans.

Hyperius' I don't believe, unless he like, shot down a Pelican or something.

[versed helm]

Hyperius is essentially wearing his evidence (including Locke). The AI/Forerunner seems to believe it, but regardless he’s done some considerable damage to multiple Spartans

[empty bloom]

And Tovarus' body count isn't explicitly stated, last I checked-but he does explicitly call Hyperius a coward and braggard.

Locke's not dead, just defeated. Allegedly in cut storylines Hyperius' design was actually meant to be a boss you killed while fighting alongside Locke in a sort of 'gladiator' tournament. Allegedly.

[versed helm]

I actually got the deluxe edition in the mail today, read it over and yea, no body count is mentioned.

[empty bloom]

Which, I'm annoyed that Locke didn't get to kill Hyperius.

[versed helm]

That would have been intresting

[versed helm]

Well before I sign off to go play some Halo. I got one more question for ya, Trenchbird: who would you choose as the “best” Elite for the title of most skilled warrior?

[empty bloom]

In terms of skilled solo combatant? I'd honestly give it to Jega or Thel, mostly by known lethality.

Xytan's an unknown, Gek loved using underhanded tactics, Jul actually sucked at fighting by what we know of him, etc etc

Rtas is third place, most likely.

[versed helm]

Out of the two, Jega and Thel, I’d probably choose Thel via official art depicting him and Tartarus in close CQC (Tartarus was a broken brute with that hammer and shield). Maybe Jega? I don’t know, I’m torn tbh…

Anyway, thanks! Signing off for now

[last anchor]

It's almost like they're walking tanks encased in battleship rated armor plate and made out of worms that work as ablative armor, yeah?

[last anchor]

Rtas is a capable ground fighter, but as we saw over the Ark, his true field is the void

3 to one odds, with damaged half crewed ships and a single UNSC frigate?
Dude still took the Brutes apart wholesale

[empty bloom]

I imagine the brutes were more confused than anything about the Frigate, lmao

Oh wait there was that one elite who was a bounty hunter, in Outcasts. He's problably pretty high on that list too, as is that unarmored swordsman.

[last anchor]

"What? What's that doing there? Is that a sensor blip?"
"Who cares, kill the Half-Jaw"

(Rtas moonwalks Shadow of Intent between to enemy vessels while Sangheili "Smooth Criminal" plays)

[last anchor]

The Batman Elite

(Also don't forget how Jega lost his limbs: dude got blown up by a Headhunter and only survived cause he was just outside the blast"

(Fair trade indeed Roland)

[desert nimbus]

A game where we play as xytan would be cool tbh

[desert nimbus]

Hey roland took out like 30 silent shadow members. Probably not that many, but still

[worthy bronze]

I would def play that

But we already know our death

[stoic hamlet]

Also, we don’t technically know what constitutes “Myriad”.

Like, one of the Spartan teams could have killed one of the bond brothers… but they just… you know, made another.

Though, in truth, I struggle to see how Hunters are as dangerous as they are with all their weakpoints unless those worms are dirable

[last anchor]

Hence the ablative armor idea
They can loose a lot of worms before the gesalt begins to collapse

And each worm can presumably reproduce so

I wonder how many Hunters we "kill" in game only for the colony to simply leave the armor and continue normally

[stoic hamlet]

Yeah, that’s what I wonder as well.

What’s the “proper” limit.

[stuck hearth]

I'm wondering about that too. When you "kill" a hunter, not all of the worms died. Do they just leave the armor?

Or sit there for eternity?

[last anchor]

We dont know.
Some gesalt forms seem "stuck" in what they are (based on the various forms we see under Colony's command in HW2 for example) so perhaps Mgalekgolo are actively trapped in their armor because they're too focused on operating it?

But then we see the Thanolekgolo on Alpha Shard operating just fine as a huge multi-formatted swarm.

Personally, I think killing enough worms to kill the Hunter results in the surviving worms going into a bit of a succession crisis or anti-predation mode, where, like certain snakes or possoums, they play dead until they're sure they're safe.
So while Chief's walking off leaving one of them behind, an hour or so later all the surviving worms come wiggling out to begin scavanging food off the battlefield.

Or if its a Covenant victory its likely cleaner teams come around to get the survivors out and they're returned to the ships or High Charity to recouperate and regrow.

An entirely related idea I had ages ago was the possiblity of one colony becoming too weak to survive on its own but the other being strong enough, resulting in the weakened Hunter fusing with the stronger one to produce one single four-armed four-leged armoed monstrosity with two shields, two assault cannons and way more spikes than is entirely neccecary.

Like a giant xeno two headed turtle

[glass walrus]

So let me understand something, how was Sarcophagus, the shield world, hidden inside of onyx, when its bigger

Way bigger than onyx

[empty bloom]

Slipspace bubbles.

[carmine sleet]

Have you never seen something bigger on the inside before?

That's like, every police box in the UK these days

[versed helm]

My interested was peaked with the hypothetical “Jega Rdomnai vs Thel Vadam” scenario. Here’s what I’ve found so far:

Tel ‘Szatulai, the First Blade of the Silent Shadow, was heavily wounded (and proved considerably inferior) in a melee fight against a 15 year old John-117 (Year 2526) in Mark IV. Thel Vadam, unarmed and taken by a surprise attack that cost him a broken rib and temporary blurred vision, was still evenly matched, and would have tied against a 24 year old Jai-006 (Year 2535) also in Mark IV. This difference in combat ability against Spartans is immense. Jega Rdomnai, as a previously ordinary silent shadow member, should fall around the level of Tel, someone who ranks higher in the Silent Shadow, at least prior to the explosion.

They’ve both had immense time to grow their skill. Thel, at one point being perhaps the most wanted Elite, may have had even more time to grow. Regardless, Thel seems to be on top in CQC skill. It is worth mentioning the Spartans Jega killed were already injured, tired, and their armor was falling apart, no where near a “fresh” Spartan.

[wispy pewter]

Yeah got his butt beaten by a Spartan in Mark IV Mew mew. Imagine facing Gen 3

[glass walrus]

How did the mark I look like? What was his original design and objective?

[wispy pewter]

I am 100% sure even Vale in her red armor could defeat Thel. I mean she did defeat the ones in Netherop

[wispy pewter]

I am prtty sure the Mk IV is the first variant of the Mjolnir armor system

the first 3 were prototypes

[glass walrus]

Like Star Wars, starting with the fourth, 😂

[carmine sleet]

The elites on Netherop Vale faced were not in their prime whatsoever. If you want to use Vale fighting an Elite as an example, Halo 5 shows her doing things like taking out a Phantom's crew, including an Elite with an energy sword, and later in the same level, we see her taking on multiple Zealots

[versed helm]

Spartan’s are just OP. The fact Thel managed to hold his own in said fist fight, relatively early in his career, is still quite impressive among other notable Elites

[versed helm]

I mean, Thel was evenly matched. The so called the leader of the so called “sword of the covenant” (Silent Shadow) was the one who got clapped, and by a 16 year old Master Chief, in CQC…

[bronze prawn]

the one from halo legends ?

[versed helm]

Tel is from the books. The one your thinking of is Thel Lovadamee

He did really good and disarmed MC in a sword fight.

[versed helm]

You’d be surprised. Gek Lhar had the upper hand against an unhelmeted Spartan IV in a fist fight during the events of Halo 4 or 5 (can’t quite remember).

[carmine sleet]

Halo 4 and Thorne had been injured beforehand, plus his Mjolnir was damaged

[versed helm]

I’d still call it an achievement, Spartan’s are some of the toughest individuals out there. Even an injured one proves very deadly.

[empty bloom]

Fights like that don't really end in a 'tie'. Thel's kind of being hubristic about his chances there.

It's a clumsy way of saying it'd be a tossup.

[empty bloom]

Depends on the writer-Author fiat, to me, says she'd likely lose despite what I'm about to say because, well, fans like Thel more, gotta please fans. Womp womp.

On paper, logically speaking, she'd absolutely demolish him-GEN2 alone makes her far, far stronger and faster than John or Jai was in 2526 or 2535, to a known degree. Mark IV was significantly weaker in terms of imparting force than GEN2, which matched GEN1 Mark VI. She also is one of the very few humans actually versed in Sangheili martial arts and culture, and could exploit weak spots better due to it.

[versed helm]

Your right. By “tie” I just meant they’d fight until one of them dropped, and then the other would be so wounded they die as well. Sort of like a Fal .vs Haka ending over a prolonged battle.

[versed helm]

How do you guys feel about Imperial Admiral Xytan Jar Wattinree’s height to weight discrepancy? Even the 2022 encyclopedia states a height of over 11 feet and a weight of 300 pounds like it’s normal for an Elite. Nuyland did seem to suggest, in an email, that Xytan might be messing with his height. Which is very plausible…

[fast heron]

If an elite is an arbiter, are they able to earn their high rank back? Or are they able to keep fighting for an honorable death?

Like ripa moramee, if he succeeded, would he have earned his rank back?

[unique rune]

They likely would've been sent on missions until they die. The whole point of the title of Arbiter under the Covenant was that it was that there is no redemption except for death.

[empty bloom]

I think it's goofy as hell, really not a fan of it.

Halo may not have the best writing, but I was always glad it tended to avoid the same height nonsense-until they solidified Xytan being so damn tall.

[versed helm]

With a weight of 300 pounds, he’s the Robert Bobroczkyi of Sanghelli. Other than his outlandish height, I like his character. He is the only individual to have achieved imperial admiral, and even the Prophets feared his power.

[fast heron]

In my option, my all time fav halo character, he’s what got me into halo

And I love sangheili lol

[versed helm]

Really?? Well, I can’t blame you, he is quite the Sanghelli. Considering he is the only known Imperial Admiral of the Covenant, who had one of the largest militaries in history, he’d certainly be the most powerful Elite of them all. I’d bet he’s an incredible warrior as well, for a high ranking Elite is both a tactician and a warrior.

[fast heron]

Yeah, even the prophets were scared of him for how easily he got other species on his side lol

[versed helm]

If the NOVA bomb hadn’t detonated that day, I’m sure he could have taken down the Covenant.

[versed helm]

It’s awe inspiring to think an Elite managed to do that while being loyal to the Great Journey

[fast heron]

In my biased head, I like to imagine he’s still alive lol

[fast heron]

A lot of species in the covenant did a lot of things out of loyalty, like the arbiters/elites fighting for their death instead of life

[versed helm]

Nuyland (the writer of the book he featured in) stated something along the lines of “we don’t know what made him so big, he managed his image very well. Who knows, we’ll have to wait to find out”. Their are minor implications. If HALO studios wanted, they could find some outlandish way to bring him back.

[fast heron]

Maybe a backstory mission or right before his death (I’m praying)

[versed helm]

A backstory MOST DEFINITELY. You’re not going to leave the only Imperial Admiral of the Covenant without a detailed history.

[fast heron]

I think his lore is out there on YouTube and such

[obsidian thistle]

(Happy new year from your friends at Halopedia. Thank you all for being a great community to curate a wiki for! 🙂)

[fast heron]

Happy new year!!!

[versed helm]

Indeed. Happy new year all!!

[desert nimbus]

Eh we played reach after the opening cutscene

[fast heron]

Do you think the banished would have arbiters to poke fun at them or something like that?

Like if the warlord or above failed too many times

Or something different

[versed helm]

Probably not. It seems Jega Rdomnai, as Escharum’s personal assassin, could deal with rebellions alongside the Brute Brothers

[versed helm]

The Banished are very different from the Covenant, Atriox made sure of that. If a Warlord failed too many times, another one would step up in his place. Atriox, unlike the Prophets, actually cares about the individuals he leads to a point.

[fast heron]

I feel like the other brutes wouldn’t care about the other species kind of.

[versed helm]

Brutes… yea, Atriox would let them sort their own problems. When a Chieftain isn’t fit to be a Chieftain, yet still is: Brutes from lower ranks will gun for his spot via death match.

[empty bloom]

The position of Arbiter was a penitent one under the Covenant, who the Banished hated.

And the position of Arbiter is also a Sangheili cultural role, which is not Banished culture. So it doesn't work like that either.

The elites serving under the Banished are disgraced among their kind for being warriors-for-hire.

[fast heron]

2 questions before I go, do elites still have honor in the banished (or at least some of them) and if many more humans/spartans joined the banished and helped fighting, do you think the brutes would treat them differently? Sorry for the questions

[versed helm]

Sanghelli most definitely have respect among the Banished. Pavium, a notable Brute figure from the Banished, had fear mentioning Inslaan (a Sanghelli) through name.

[versed helm]

I’m pretty sure a female Spartan joined the Banished and cracked open a Brute Chieftein’s head like a cold one on a hot summer afternoon, which instantly solidified her presence through strength. Brute’s ONLY have respect for the strong, and they have to prove they’re strong…

[wintry grove]

Who's mendicate

[carmine sleet]

You mean Mendicant Bias?

[fast heron]

I wonder if more humans joined the banished, then all the species would accept them and treat them normally instead of trash lol

[versed helm]

Bias to humans may very well never be able to be overcome entirely by Banished species. They just hate humans, we’ve taken millions of their species as they have done to us as well.

[fast heron]

Do you think some would respect the humans at least for that?

We’ve shown that we killed millions of them and can take on many enemy forces

[versed helm]

Probably not? Maybe if they prove themselves in battle they’d get the favor of Sanghelli. Kig Jar don’t care. Grunts are…

Wishwashy

[fast heron]

Grunts are scared of their own teammates lol, maybe they will respect them if the humans don’t treat them like trash?

[versed helm]

Grunts are easy to win over, I believe

[fast heron]

And I think the hunters wouldn’t mind the humans, as long as the humans are loyal to the banished they won’t care

[fast heron]

Yeah lol

So they only banished forces that would despise the humans is the brutes, which makes since

And the jackals don’t care because i believe they don’t believe in atriox’s objective lol

[versed helm]

They are in it for the moola

[fast heron]

Exactly lo, even in the covenant they only did it to pirate things lol

[versed helm]

@obsidian thistle If I may ask a question, when it comes to the Primordial and the Gravemind, who is the greater intelligence? It is said in the Encyclopedia that the Gravemind lacks the same authority over neural physical branes as the Primordial, but has a greater store of knowledge and wisdom due to the time that’s past. I do understand that the Primordial merged with the Gravemind, but it is still its own “thing”

[obsidian thistle]

Imagine it more like an echo

You shout into a cave and eventually it will get weaker the further it gets.

While yes the Gravemind is essentially the Primordial... it was a sacrifice in a sense...

Its no longer the same being it was prior to fully joining the Flood

So if I am reading this right...

A single Gravemind (or one not grown big enough in the galaxy) cant do the same thing.

But numerous or one grown big enough can replicate or do the stuff it could prior

[empty bloom]

I imagine if you took a gravemind, gave it a biomass drip, and locked it away for a few eons it'd effectively be Primordial 2.

Then again, I'm also convinced that the flood is actually the basis form of the Precursors, and them turning into the flood was more returning to form.

[obsidian thistle]

I believe its not just tied to biomass

[empty bloom]

Oh, yeah, I meant time as well.

[obsidian thistle]

Scale

The scale of the Graveminds reach

The Encyclopedia did resolve the issue of the Alpha Halo, and Shield world locations building Graveminds. When one already existed

They essentially echo what already existed via Flood infection

And create a Gravemind based around that

If another existed elsewhere

Well it would essentially be two hiveminds till they link up

The only question that remains is if knowledge is shared at a core level between the two Graveminds or if they are truely seperate entities

[versed helm]

Thanks for the answer!

[obsidian thistle]

Yea there is a lotta questions we dont know. XD And I done my part to investigate that further behind the scenes

But I doubt we'll get an answer beyond what the Encyclopedia says till it becomes relevant

[versed helm]

Aren’t the Gravemind’s all nodes of a single intelligence? While their size certainly inhibits to what extent the hivemind can use its abilities, say that the Gravemind no longer has that constraint. Is its full potential capable of exceeding a Precursor’s? I’d think so

[obsidian thistle]

You see

[versed helm]

Yea XD

[obsidian thistle]

This is where that comes into play

We legitimately don't know just how good the "echos" are

[versed helm]

Echos will be echos… I guess interpretation comes into play

[obsidian thistle]

Are they stored via what the localised infection/specimens last had? Meaning if the Trove Gravemind formed it would be a separate entity from the Delta Halo Gravemind.

Or are they pulled from something more obtuse

Meaning all are the same but cant do much with that knowledge bar build knowledge

Its certainly a question

[versed helm]

One way or another, they are all connected now. From the fragments of the Primordial to the simplest of infection forms. Guess we need to wait for more LORE on these enigmatic entities

[obsidian thistle]

Well at the core level. Outside maybe some minor victories the Forerunners and isolated Species may have had. All Flood in our modern galaxy have ties to the Flood that survived the Halo Array in various ways

[versed helm]

One interesting theory is that the Primordial gave the Gravemind personality. One way or another, the books state he assumed control over the Flood, and I’m quite sure he used the Gravemind in ways that hurt the Flood as well as the Forerunners

[obsidian thistle]

So the question becomes more if a new Gravemind formed independently from the Delta Halo to High Charity (Ark)... would it have the same memories/information

[versed helm]

I’d believe (or hope) so

[obsidian thistle]

I believe a diagram would do this discussion more justice lol

Excuse my drawings I dont have a good PC on me to do this fast lol.

So if its based on "Flood" memory. All Flood would share Gravemind memories up to the Halo Array.

Then when a new Gravemind is formed it would be based on the local Flood infection with any new information being exclusive to that Infection.

But if its more obtuse and the Gravemind memories are not locally stored by the Flood. Then every Gravemind is potentially the same memories and information and all.

They just cant do much with it till they get bigger in scale or link up with other Graveminds

[versed helm]

I think it’s really neat

[obsidian thistle]

I like to keep a notepad on me for stuff like this. XD You lot saw a rare sight into the mind of a Halopedian aha

[versed helm]

Quick sketches of concepts of cosmic horror no mere mortal should mess with… I like it XD

[obsidian thistle]

This particular line of thought however holds no real importance till Halo Studios decides a new Flood Infection happens that spawns not from Delta Halo.

If its from Delta Halo strain. Its the same Gravemind regardless

No questions asked

[versed helm]

There was a small Flood breach in a short story, if I recall.

The one which the Spartan Fireteam is infected

[obsidian thistle]

Yup. But no Gravemind yet

[versed helm]

So that’s interesting. Are they just mindless with no objective other than devour? Would a Gravemind change that, I wonder. Probably, the Flood would become far more coordinated

[obsidian thistle]

A Gravemind would find a use for it

On its own its all about growing enough intelligence to build a Proto then full on Gravemind.

[versed helm]

I wonder if Flood can make choices on which type of Keyminds to build. Maybe, there isn’t enough biomass for a Gravemind, but maybe a Juggernaut…

[obsidian thistle]

Pretty much what we saw in Halo: The Flood

[versed helm]

Top 2 best ways to deal with Flood (in order):

1. Chair wielded by Spartan
   2 Halo Ring

[obsidian thistle]

3. Wiping out the Flood completely is another route. But thats VERY time intensive

And requires that some didn't survive your purge

[versed helm]

I was re-reading the Halo Encyclopedia in hopes of finding something on the relationship between the Primordial and the Gravemind, and I found something interesting.

“The Primordial had already resurrected itself as the Gravemind, a powerful compound intelligence that could lead the Flood in its merciless spread”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s like it’s describing a “new” entity even though previous Gravemind’s have existed. My theory is the Flood were semi connected prior, they all shared the same goal, but Gravemind’s didn’t stem from a single consciousness. I believe that the Primordial assumed control of this position and now directs the entirety of the Flood as the Gravemind.

Edit: after reviewing Silentium and Halo: Mythos

The Primordial took over the Gravemind, merging with it to become the Gravemind on the outside, but still the Primordial. It then used it as an instrument of destruction, specifically targeting Forerunner’s. Since the Primordial was capable of assuming control over the Gravemind and the Flood, I believe the Primordial is the greater intelligence.

[versed helm]

Have the Endless spam the Halo Rings, why not. It’s still funny how they are seemingly a greater great then the Flood to others even when all they did is just make the Forerunner’s feel powerless (their big, bad weapon is useless against them).

[obsidian thistle]

In a weird note I discovered Jiralhanae use Latin in Halo Infinite for their numbers. And its not Escharum doing a 1 off for his stuff.

Site Novem is essentially Site 9

[high elbow]

I wonder if Latin just happens to be easy for Jiralhanae to learn. Or maybe brutes on that ring just like Latin

[obsidian thistle]

No idea

A part of me doubts that HS will keep it

[wispy pewter]

Brutes were Romans confirmed

[sturdy chasm]

The wild part about them being immune to the rings is that they're not immune to a charged Boltshot to the face. It's more of a curiosity and not an actual threat to the Forerunners or any civilization really if their time power aren't something they have naturally. That being said, them being a larger threat then the Flood is extremely stupid for 343i to try to push that. The entire point of the Flood is being a nigh unstoppable force with the literal name of the franchise being the only semi good option that can halt them. Having something that exists as a middle finger to the Halo Rings is like having a faction in Warhammer whose all about peace, non aggression and passively building an empire through shared community and collectively shared values.

[unique rune]

I feel like interpreting the Endless as “worse than the Flood” from a pure literal threat perspective is really the wrong way to go about it

[thorn spindle]

yea i dont really know what makes endless a greater threat.

maybe some forerunners were worried that, after firing the rings vs the flood, that the endless would be around to "take the mantle" or something, or just grab power out of revenge while the forerunners were extinct. but forerunners are gone anyway lol so idk no one to really take revenge on

idk what the endless want to do anyways. do they want an empire? are they the baddies? do they like the Flood or the Precursors?

[wispy pewter]

Is there an explanation to why the endless lady in infinite could float

[unique rune]

something about gravity manipulation like basically everything in Halo that floats probably

[wispy pewter]

They must not be as advanced as the forerunners if they were defeated by them and Master Chief

[carmine sleet]

I was gonna try explaining this to you but then I remembered you're the guy who claimed the Elites rioted and started the Great Schism. Something tells me you won't listen when I try to explain that the Forerunners were often biased towards themselves and were painting the Endless in the worst light possible after they discovered that they had survived Halo's firing. Regardless of if the Endless themselves are a bigger threat than the Flood or not, the fact they survived Halo's fire is a valid reason to be concerned and at the least, investigate how. Nothing about the Endless indicates they're dangerous in the same way that the Flood are. They're a new kind of threat that the modern galaxy hasn't faced yet

[carmine sleet]

Having advanced technology is no guarantee of success, the Didact was millennia ahead of Chief in terms of technology and was bested by him

[thorn spindle]

what is the goal of the endless

[stoic hamlet]

That’s basically exactly it.

We see this basically said/heavily implied, and then it’s further stated (though admittedly with a bias) in Outcasts, that Forerunner doctrine/SOP was to basically exterminate or otherwise contain anything that was a threat to their empire and plans.

The Endless survived the ring firing (somehow), even if they were contained to their single, solitary planet, that still gives them a monumental head start over every other race, especially humanity.

It’s like if… idk, fudging the analogy here because it’s not accurate but: After Rome beats Carthage, and occupies its territory, the Roman Legions burn away all evidence of Carthage from the history books… but they miss a small, basically isolated tribe that might not have been even related to Carthage itself, but knows what the Romans did. They can prove the roman’s stated history is wrong and ruin potentially centuries of Roman planning. If Rome presents itself as this benevolent empire, and etc, and that’s how they see themselves, how their emperors and the like claim to rule (by keeping the peace…)

It doesn’t really matter if a Roman Legion could go and smash this tribe again, their very existence, the potential for that Roman atrocity to get out… it could topple the empire.

that’s the danger of the Endless.

They’re not worse militarily than the flood. They likely can’t wage a conventional war and win.

But their knowledge would upend the Forerunner’s entire plan by simply existing.

It would shatter the commonly believed history.

[carmine sleet]

I imagine their goal would be to get revenge for what the Forerunners did to them

Though I am basing that on the one Endless we have seen

[thorn spindle]

hmm ok the endless can show that the Forerunners or their Mantle were bad or wrong about stuff

[carmine sleet]

For all we know, Harbinger could've been an outlier and the rest of the Endless could just want to vibe

[wispy pewter]

I mean if their goal is revenge that doesn't mean they need to kill humans right

[carmine sleet]

Like, I doubt she is an outlier, because we need more enemies to fight but still

[thorn spindle]

yeah idk what the endless want to do. i think any surviving species wouldnt mind finding out the forerunners werent that good of a people, besides the old prophets of the covenant or something

[wispy pewter]

Become best buddies

[stoic hamlet]

Remember, as far as everyone knows, the forerunners were benevolent gods, basically. The Covenant’e entire religion was based on the idea of joining the Forerunners’ in heaven, and they saw humanity as essentially “Gods left behind”.

The Endless throw that entire narrative on its head. The same for humanity reclaiming the mantle. Humanity has no ordained birthright, the Librarian was just a manipulative geneticist, no better than any other, with no real true sense of altruism, etc.

[carmine sleet]

Aye

[thorn spindle]

i feel like the humans, banished, and arby would be fine with that, that sort of idea has been killed and mocked bc of the covenant and their actions

[carmine sleet]

No matter what set dressing the Librarian uses to make her plans sound like the most noble thing, she's still manipulating things to be in humanity's favour for a flawed concept her people believed in

[stoic hamlet]

If everyone believes that 2+2=4 because (essentially) god says so, the endless can prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that 2+2=6, and “god” only chose 4 as the answer because it worked for their plans.

That would upend like, the foundations of a ton of stuff.

[unique rune]

I also think the point isn’t really that most contemporary factions would care, but like, everything describing them as “worse than the Flood” is derived from Forerunner records

[wispy pewter]

Is there a reason the Librarian simps for humanity that much

[unique rune]

The Forerunners would consider them a huge risk to their legacy even if modern humans or Sangeheili or whoever wouldn’t care much

[carmine sleet]

Indeed, the Forerunners have always been biased towards themselves

[thorn spindle]

like if the endless were saying listen the forerunner were wrong and pretty bad. humans would be like ok that makes sense, now lets do our thing as we do

[stoic hamlet]

Yup. It’s extreme paranoia and supremacy.

[stoic hamlet]

Yeah I doubt they’d care. I mean, we have evidence to believe they knew that already, even way back during Ghosts of Onyx, but the forerunners themselves would want to ”their horse” to win without any obstacles.

[thorn spindle]

yeah i guess only Cortana and her AI fell into that vibe of "we are what the Forerunners intended" and the rest of the species were like nah relax buddy geez, forerunners arent the end all be all

anyone who thinks like that, cortana, covenant, is generally viewed with derision lol

perhaps if the endless had some more insights about the precursors it can be interesting

but idk so far it seems like they dont, besides maybe knowing the Forerunners hunted their creators down. but i dont think most species would care about that much either its not like anyone is loyal to the Precursors

it would just be a hmm ok thats interesting moment, just learning some more about the universal origins or something

[wispy pewter]

You know what would be nice? The new book to come out earlier

[empty bloom]

Just adding this for posterity, my response to that is still unanswered and it mildly annoys me.

I got dogpiled, but didn't get a response.

"Well, whenever you're done with that, here's what I got from what you started this with.

• Jul's faction is unrealistic because it is a splinter faction that is still loyal to the Covenant religion (Sentence one)
• The point of the Schism was that Truth was assuming the elites were not as loyal as he thought.

The existence of A does not invalidate B or vice-versa; What Truth would be worried about would be the Sangheili leadership, not the entire species' faith, as he would have no objective measure of that. He wanted servants, not marginal equals, and that's what the Sangheili species was. He wasn't necessarily questioning their faith (Though that is a powerful tool in a religious empire), he was countering their power by questioning their faith and lying."

[sturdy chasm]

You'd be incorrect by your assesement because I agree with this statement. Just as a heads up, it's best not to assume what people you don't know will think.

[thorn spindle]

I think the only revelation that would be a threat in itself would be what the Precursors or Flood share or believe about the universe. Being a cycle of food grown in a garden for enjoyment of other more powerful beings, or something. Idk if the Endless know that tho, I guess they could but eh

[main summit]

Are the halo movies canon to the show or the games?

[carmine sleet]

FUD and Nightfall are canon to the games

[tardy olive]

guys i have a question

i dont know if i should buy the fall of reach or the flood

it will be my first halo book btw

[carmine sleet]

Fall of Reach

[tardy olive]

ok, thak you!

[carmine sleet]

You're welcome

It's the very first Halo novel and a great place to start if you're trying to get into the books

[stoic hamlet]

^^^^

I really would recommend release order.

Aside from the forerunner saga, all the books are meant to really be read in sequence.

[orchid kettle]

I feel like you can start reading out of order when you get to the part of the franchise where everything was being released as trilogies

Except Denning has the Master Chief and Lopis trilogies kinda mingle towards the end so I guess not even then

[bronze prawn]

did the unggoy and kig yar had to learn sangueeli or the elites had to learn unggoy/ kig yar ?

you know, for battle and bully purposes

[orchid kettle]

Sangheili is apparently the common tongue of the Covenant

so everybody else has to learn that

[patent patio]

I mean they were one of the earliest species to join right?

Mabye the San Shy just learned it and it became the norm

[carmine sleet]

Most likely

I imagine that the San'Shayuum language still exists, but only really learnt by the most noble of their kind or those still on their home world (If it does still exist)

But maybe as a gesture of goodwill towards the Sangheili in the early days of the Covenant, they decided to adopt the Sangheili language

[thorn spindle]

Will we meet the chill San shayuums soon

[carmine sleet]

There's one in Broken Circle

He fled with Elites during the Great Schism

[obsidian thistle]

That or pick a series. While yes there is a suggested order.

The Original Series, Kilo-Five Trilogy, The Forerunner Saga.

And those three will give you the very foundation of all three eras of Halo that Halo covers.

Picking a series and following it wont hurt to bad once yer invested! 🙂 All you'll truly miss is some deeper connections between the novel series

I admit I aint a fan of saying "so read ALL the books in release order." In my experience that just pushes folks away. 😦

[stoic hamlet]

Very true, but I’d argue series like Last Light need to have Glasslands read to understand why Blue Team is the way it is, which requires one to have read ghosts of onyx, etc.

If the series were properly isolated (akin to a lot of 40K series,) then I’d agree. But quite a few books lead into others.

[orchid kettle]

Id personally tell people to skip over The Flood unless they're already hooked on the franchise

I feel like if you were just starting out it would kinda kill your momentum

[empty bloom]

I'd agree with that. It's a fun retroactive but it's also... Weird.

[thorn spindle]

i get that i remember it being like a nice addon to the game so i was reading it and being like yeah that part! nice

that was me!

[obsidian thistle]

Some folks really vibe with it

Would be wrong to say otherwise

[empty bloom]

Oh, yeah, it's not bad, it's just weird.

[obsidian thistle]

My favorite moments are when Characters hold onto stuff they clearly dont need to or get stuff off-page lol.

Clearly a lotta the book is best viewed as a companion piece to the game with that in mind.

[plain yew]

~

[thorn spindle]

that one picture

[craggy oxide]

gravemind was on delta halo and then moved onto high charity right???

[glass walrus]

Yes, by using the In Amber Clad, then Delta Halo was glassed and his part on the ring was probably destroyed. His part on high charity reached the ark, but there was killed by the installation 08 firing

Only a few Little forms of the flood are left in the galaxy

On the halo array, and other forerunner facility

[obsidian thistle]

There is Flood remnants at Alpha Halo

And presumably other installations

But as far as we are aware

There is no active Gravemind

[glass walrus]

There still path kethona

What happened to Path kethona After the great purification?

[craggy oxide]

holy big word

[glass walrus]

Maybe it become a burn, as we know about the halo array, Path kethona is outside the power radius of the halo array

[craggy oxide]

oh yeah thx for the answer

i’ve always wondered even though it was a pretty straight forward answer

[carmine sleet]

Faber used Omega Halo on Path Kethona during the Battle of the Greater Ark

[glass walrus]

No problem

[glass walrus]

Didnt omega halo get destroyed during the battle of the greater ark?

[carmine sleet]

Yes, that doesn't prevent it from being used on Path Kethona

[fast heron]

3 quick questions since I’ve heard many people say different answers, how long was the human-covenant war, how many humans died in it, and how many planets were glassed/destroyed in the human-covenant war?

[wispy pewter]

it lasted about 27 years

[empty bloom]

https://www.halopedia.org/Human-Covenant_War

I recommend learning the skills to find easily accessible datasheets on your own initiative.

Not to be rude. I've just been seeing a lot of people ask very basic questions like this lately.

[wispy pewter]

erm guys what color is master chief's armor?

[orchid kettle]

I think the figure of 26 billion got tossed around in Halsey's journal

as for how many planets, 343/HS is is pretty tight lipped when it comes to fully listing the scope of the universe, especially when it comes to like, how many UNSC worlds there are, so I'd doubt we'd ever get a solid figure on how many worlds were glassed.

[light viper]

Bro, you have eyes

[wispy pewter]

hear me out: A nuke strapped to a MAC round

[light viper]

Huh?

[carmine sleet]

Just ignore them, they ask stuff like this all the time

[empty bloom]

It's already a projectile traveling at relativistic velocities. A nuke might not actually survive that acceleration intact enough to factor as anything more than an accuracy-hurting defect.

[fast heron]

I have been, it’s just I’ve seen so many people say different answers, and I was just getting confused

Now I know 2 answers, 23 billion human lives lost, and the war lasted 27 years

[glass walrus]

I read that the lesser had a monitor, 000 tragic solitude, but during halo 3 where he was?

[carmine sleet]

Tragic was there but didn't want to get properly involved in the conflict given what happened to Installation 04

They did lock Spark out of the Librarian's records stored on the Ark

[marble lion]

Tragic was on the Ark at the time during Halo 3. He didn't want to get involved with the battle going on. But the battle has taken its toll on him. After watching in horror seeing the Ark damage from the battle between UNSC and Covenant and heavy damage on the Ark after the replacement Alpha Halo's firing explosion, he planned for revenge against humanity as a result. Two years later on August 10th, 2554, UNSC ship Rubicon arrived at the Ark for research and survey purposes was attacked by Tragic and constructs all teams were wiped out save for one human Bobby Kodiak. Tragic needed a human to activate all Halos for firing. On March 8th, 2555, the countdown sequence was discovered on Installation 07 aka Zeta Halo. In response from this the UNSC and SoS formed a joint team tasked to traveling to the Ark by the slipstream portal on Earth to stop the countdown, resulting Operation: Far Storm to commence. The operation lasted for three days. Tragic met his end when he was killed during fight with Olympia Vale and a cyborg Booby Kodiak, who Tragic turned him into between the seven months before the joint operation. Tragic met his death at the hands of Booby Kodiak who also died in the process. The UNSC and SoS managed to stop the countdown sequence and deactivated all Halos from firing and saving the galaxy.

[thorn spindle]

heehee 🤭

[versed helm]

Periwinkle

[fair hazel]

In the terminal with his small apperance

[glass walrus]

What is the structure that philips used to teleport from ontom to the unggoy farm?

[spark pivot]

My guy, go read the halo encyclopedia

It lists (to my knowledge) all unsc worlds, and their status (glassed, attacked, ect.)

[orchid kettle]

It doesn't.

[spark pivot]

Elaborate, bc I know I didn't misread those pages

[orchid kettle]

It just says "The following list includes most notable colonies"

Which gives them room to introduce new colonies in the future if they so choose.

[spark pivot]

Which would realisticaly include most UNSC worlds, and a few notable insurrectionst worlds

[orchid kettle]

The issue is "most" being in relation to "notable", and the vagueness of what "most" even entails. It could be 51% of "notable colonies", it could be 99%. We just don't know.

Point is, the list is by no means exhaustive, and there's always room for more colonies to appear in future stories.

[stoic hamlet]

It also has a few weird listings.

It lists Netherop and Onyx… but neither of these were technically colonies in any official capacity.

[orchid kettle]

If its a rock in space then it is humanity's dominion

🫡

[stoic hamlet]

🫡

[spark pivot]

Onyx was a colony, but after forerunner artifacts were discovered on it it was removed from star charts or something

[stoic hamlet]

No, it was found and surveyed, but had never been greenlit for colonization (due to the ruins).

So including it on the list isn’t really correct.

[orchid kettle]

I do kinda assume the UEG claims ownership of basically every celestial body it can see even if they don't settle most of them or anything.

[stoic hamlet]

It wouldn’t surprise me, but including it and Netherop on the list right next to colonies like Mamore, Circumstance, Biko, and etc seems misleading.

[obsidian thistle]

There is also a handful missing. Mostly from obtuse sources

[steady moat]

hey
so im building some ships in a game called Space Engineers
im making 1:1 scale ships and each ship shows archer missile pods like the picture https://halo.wiki.gallery/images/thumb/b/b0/HINF_Mulsanne_M58Archer.png/1600px-HINF_Mulsanne_M58Archer.png
but the wiki says each pod will fire 24 missiles
how does that make sense
each pod contains 5 missile launch tubes
so it couldnt fire 24

[unique rune]

Each of those bays is considered a pod and they're clustered in groups of five
And each pod is loaded with 24 missiles

At least that's how I'd interpret it. The Charon-class muddles that interpretation because it's got ten total of those clusters visible on the model but the Mulsanne only seems to have four.

[steady moat]

thats where im confused
the actual pod only has one visible missile
is it like an auto loader for each missile
also for larger ships
say the Valiant Class
it has 50 archer missile pods
but if you count them it has a lot more than 50

[unique rune]

Honestly I think to a point there's not really going to be a good way to harmonize the written specs and the actual ship designs and you'd just have to pick one or the other, either by adding more pods and bays to match the numbers or just ignoring the numbers altogether and going by the visualized designs. The 24 missiles per pod is also just a strange stat to begin with since it doesn't really fit cleanly with there being 5 bays per pod

[steady moat]

so i think we have it wrong
its 5 pods per bay
each pod fires 24 missiles

[steady moat]

anyone know the dimensions of the 50GE1A mac cannon found on the Valiant class

[wispy pewter]

Maybe they built a ship on the cannon

[spark pivot]

Space A-10 Warthog

[fast heron]

So in halo wars 2, the arbiters ultimate shows him turning his energy swords from blue to red, is that a lore thing or just a game thing?

[thorn spindle]

red mode

[fast heron]

No, the arbiter model in halo wars 2 is usually yellow I think

[thorn spindle]

red means scary

[coarse fern]

So what exactly is "The Endless"?

[carmine sleet]

Xalanyn, the same species as Harbinger. We don't know much else about them right now

[carmine sleet]

The Inciter helmet from this new update talks about an "industrial-scale theft of Mjolnir technology". I guess that's why we've seen so many Banished armour pieces made for Mark VII within the lore

[high elbow]

That makes sense. Do we know if the Banished or Venezians have any fully functioning suits of power armor?

Considering ol’ Mickey went rouge I wouldn’t be surprised if some “MIA” S-IVs also happened to be turncoats

[carmine sleet]

Mickey already wore a shade of red

And rogue Spartan IVs isn't a common thing

Like, we've had three go rogue, Ilsa, Mickey and Scruggs

Though with Mickey, he is working with the UNSC against the Created

But I imagine he's never touching Mjolnir ever again

[high elbow]

That’s fair. So if they have power armor, it’s probably something brand new and dubious al la Boggart or something slapped together.

[ionic tiger]

Also worth mentioning the Chieftain Castor had access to MJOLNIR schematics gifted by rebels who, naively, thought they could work with the Covenant against the UNSC. I'm sure that could be tossed into the picture as a means to facilitate MJOLNIR or near-MJOLNIR armor development outside the UNSC.

[spark pivot]

There are also some sangheili with access to it, bc of the Gen 3 anubis helmet origins

[carmine sleet]

Those are likely ones aligned with the Swords of Sanghelios, same with Helioskrill

[ionic tiger]

Throw in the corporate partners working with the UNSC on GEN2 and it's honestly not surprising things eventually leaked out.

[empty bloom]

That's the vibe I get. UNSC's personnel were like a damn seive due to the HCW and nobody could do anything about that.

[fast heron]

The thing in halo infinite?

It’s a species that is immune to the halos

That’s why the forrunners were so so scared of the flood infecting one of the species

Because if they did, then it would be the end of all of the universe

And more

[desert nimbus]

Yay

[empty bloom]

That's more an assumption than the known reality.

I'd argue they're likely heavily involved somehow with ancient Precursor stuff, which would be a cultural "Oh crap" moment for the Forerunners.

[patent patio]

The new big bad that somehow is worse than the Flood

[fast heron]

They didn’t say that

Lol

[patent patio]

No I'm pretty sure Cortana said something along the lines

[empty bloom]

Cortana said that.

[fast heron]

I think she might’ve meant because their immune to the halo arrays

[patent patio]

If I'm wrong, cool, I need to know anyway

[patent patio]

Wait so like does the all Endless/Xalayan have the ability to teleport like the Harbinger or Is that just technology

[empty bloom]

The exact wording of Cortana's statement is "Containment? The Flood? Why would I... you and I both know that there are worse things than the Flood within this Ring."

Which can mean a lot of things.

People blithely take it as the Endless being stronger but that's not the same thing as worse in the context of the game, and it never actually gets elaborated on.

It could be the Endless, or it could be something else, some secret, or technology, or something else.

[patent patio]

For plot reasons it would make sense to include a stronger enemy ngl

[empty bloom]

The 'worse' could be a lot. The Endless wasn't released until well after ringfall.

[fast heron]

I don’t really know, I’m not a lore expert, but since they are immune to the halos then I may say they have powers without armor, but don’t quote me

[patent patio]

I'm just going off the usual trope most franchises go with. Make a big bad and then make a bigger bad a couple years later

[empty bloom]

People assume it's the endless because most gamers are not very well versed in, y'know. English. And story reasoning.

But it could just as easily be that Cortana meant whatever technology locked all the Endless away, at once, into cylixes.

Which would make sense because she was in control freak mode.

[patent patio]

Well if it's not elaborated on enough, I still could be right

[fast heron]

The only way she is more powerful then the flood is her immunity, that’s why they were so scared of the flood infecting one of their species

[empty bloom]

Again, y'all are just assuming it's the Endless.

It's never actually stated in the game it was the Endless that she was referring to.

[patent patio]

I mean what else is there to assume. There wasn't even enough information and I'm just guessing like most people

[empty bloom]

Well, the Forerunners did something to the Endless, as powerful as they were.

I'd wager that is the worse than the flood.

The Endless are presumably, in some way, bad, but that still doesn't necessarily mean bad in the same way as the flood are bad.

[thorn spindle]

they were transformed into pokemon cards that's a pretty good power

[empty bloom]

It could even be historically worse, such as them being related to the precursors more tightly than the flood ever were.

[patent patio]

Well either way it doesn't really matter. This is subjective for now I guess

Until 343/Halo decides to release some revealing lore or something

[empty bloom]

Which is more horrifying to the Forerunners, IMO, because even if they aren't martially stronger than the flood, their creators coming back in any form that even slightly remembers them is worse than the flood for the Forerunners.

[strange pumice]

Can Endless be actually being precursors?

[empty bloom]

My theory is that they're based on Precursor nanotechnology, the same that made the gun in Outcasts.

As they exhibit similar characteristics if Harbinger's the same as the rest of her species.

[thorn spindle]

yea i had idea they were just a precursor tool species

i dont read a lot though

[empty bloom]

So... Kinda? Precursor stuff is kinda the only stuff we know of that clings to thinking life after a Halo ring's activation.

The Flood, the Domain, etc etc.

If a species was made with, or was infected by, Precursor 'nanites', you'd have a species that both A) Is intimately familiar with Precursor tech and B) Can survive a Halo ring going off (Nontransferrable; The flood mostly lose after Halo rings because they get scrambled for long enough to be taken care of, and thus dwindle)

[fast heron]

Do you think the elites in the banished isn’t honorable anymore? Or do you think that they are? Or at least a small percent of them

[empty bloom]

In Outcasts, a human is similarly 'infected' by Precursor nanites; It's how her brain is healed, and she retains some of the positive impact of the 'infection'.

Otherwise it's unclear what the long-term ramifications are of that.

[empty bloom]

Mercenaries are not considered distinctly honorable in Sangheili society. Assassins are fine, but disliked because, well, nobody likes assassins.

[thorn spindle]

theres good fluud and bad fluud

[patent patio]

I mean they're essentially pirates so no. There's also mercenaries

[empty bloom]

The ones in the Banished are considered dishonorable by their species' custom, but don't really concern themselves with normal Sangheili society.

[thorn spindle]

whats good flood nanites called?

bad is flood so

[patent patio]

Also what is honorable about fighting your enemy with active camo lol

[empty bloom]

... Precursors, really.

[empty bloom]

NGL, always find it funny that I've never heard of someone calling an elite out for it.

Then again

Nothing is more honorable than victory

[patent patio]

Well I've been for a long time.

[empty bloom]

So goes the Klingon phrase

[thorn spindle]

elites r cheating they also have better armor than marines

[steel aurora]

we have spartans

[patent patio]

They also glass their enemies high above orbit lol

[fast heron]

So you don’t believe that they don’t have honor?

[thorn spindle]

they should wear leather to be honorable

bear fur

[empty bloom]

They follow their own code of ethics. What's dishonorable to one is a breach of honor for the other.

[fast heron]

Ohhh

[empty bloom]

You see it in real societies all the time. What's a family-destroying issue in a highly superstitious culture can be completely fine in another.

[patent patio]

Well I guess the Sangheili are aliens. Maybe honor means something different to them lol or whoever made this lore was stoopid

[thorn spindle]

its like not using ur night vision unless enemy also has it

[empty bloom]

No, they just have a different metric for valuing worth. Honor systems in general are a way of measuring social trust and reflect a society's values.

[patent patio]

Aight

[thorn spindle]

they just get bored of bashing noobs most of the time

[fast heron]

I still feel like a small percentage believes in honor, I there is a voice line that says “may there be honor in one heart and glory in another” or something like that

[empty bloom]

The US Military views honorable conduct as winning cleanly, destroying the enemy systematically, but having room for not mindlessly slaughtering civilians or torturing injured combatants (on paper)

The Russian military views honorable conduct as winning by any means necessary, and many unnecessarily, including slaughtering civilian populations. This is considered honorable.

[steel aurora]

For sure. Anyone can feel honorable if they believe in what they are doing

[empty bloom]

Basically the above.

[stoic hamlet]

Jonah does, in Headhunters.

[empty bloom]

Honor is in the eye of the culture and in the eye of the beholder.

[empty bloom]

Ah, it's Spartan III lore, no wonder I don't remember it.

[steel aurora]

Im sure Banished elites feel honorable for the Banished

[empty bloom]

It's likely up to the individual rather than the collective joiners. Some likely don't even see it as a matter of honor, because honor doesn't put food on the table.

Others likely don't see it as a matter of honor because they just really love killing, who cares about honor.

Still others just want someone to bankroll their crusades.

[stoic hamlet]

Elite: “You lack honour, skulking in the shadows.”

Jonah: “Says the [Word redacted because of the rules ugh] who invented active camouflage.”

[empty bloom]

Aye.

I could see many ways for elites to justify their ways of fighting with camo to be honorable.

But bottom line is, as I said, honor is a measure of judging societal trust in your ways.

It's why being 'dishonorable' generally means you achieved something via purely underhanded tactics that pervade and spoil your victory, selfishly.

Honorable behavior is generally culturally considered 'good' behavior. Upstanding your social values, providing for your culture or serving it in some way.

[empty bloom]

Actually, Eternal, this reminds me. I think I figured out why the whole elite blood thing is a thing.

Sangheili society would inherently devalue getting wounded due to its nature of having a more 'efficient' and victory-driven structure of honor than most.

So if you got, say, wounded in a battle, but you won, you helped your culture win (good) but you were a drag on resources after due to your wound (bad). This societal stigma would likely achieve longevity in a more war-happy culture like elites, who would value your expenditure as resources over your cost. A warrior who kills 10 men and is killed outright is inherently going to be less expensive to the culture than the warrior who kills 10 men but is too wounded to fight on again.

Over time this attitude would either ebb or exaggerate.

This would also explain why they don't inherently value enemy war material normally; You'd generate less 'waste' by utilizing your own weapons, rather than the clunky, cumbersome weapons that you cannot source reloads for.

... I'm starting to think my anthropology classes paid off, lmao

[thorn spindle]

do the Elites have a VA?

[empty bloom]

An energy sword to the neck and an airlock.

[thorn spindle]

hehehehe

[stoic hamlet]

So, when do we think we’ll see the first preview for Empty Throne? We’re getting close to its release.

[carmine sleet]

Maybe a week or so before?

[stoic hamlet]

Usually they post a few chapters in the lead up. I wonder if we’ll see that again this time.

[sturdy arch]

I made a demo program simulation of the SpartanII augmentations and washouts:
https://youtu.be/Supua6AIP5c?si=VIn8QrZn5RyM2W7X

please point out if you see any egrigous lore errors 😆

[empty bloom]

I am cautiously optimistic about its contents.

[glass walrus]

Me too

[glass walrus]

The digital books shadow of intent and saints testimony are included printed in the fractures compilation?

[obsidian thistle]

Yes

(Kinda surprised that isnt noted on the Waypoint book list.)

But yea you get SoI and ST in Halo Fractures!

[glass walrus]

But if halsey didnt know about spartan 3 program, how in halo reach she knew about noble team, full of spartan 3 except jorge, who is a spartan 2?

[wispy pewter]

she didn't know that she didn't know yet

[carmine sleet]

She wasn't aware they were IIIs, at most she would've assumed they were someone else's Spartan IIs made using her research

(But yeah, Reach is messy like that)

[glass walrus]

I've found a way to make halo reach and the fall of reach book combine together: like what they did to meridian in battle born book, to most of the planet reach wasnt told about the covenant invasion, even master chief didnt know yet

[carmine sleet]

Emphasis on the messy part regarding Halo Reach

[glass walrus]

The ending is the most messy

[carmine sleet]

M E S S Y

Honestly, if it was up to me, I'd have retconned some dates and either dragged out the Fall of Reach as seen in Fall of Reach, or condenced the events of the game to happen within the time frame of the novel's depiction

That or I'd have made the game set mostly on the burning planet

[glass walrus]

Lone wolf and first strike book style

[carmine sleet]

So less seeing civilians in cities and more seeing survivors hiding amongst the charred remains of their homes

[fast heron]

How come in some pictures, sangheili have really long legs, and in others, they have short legs/feet?

[carmine sleet]

Different depictions/different models

[fast heron]

Fair enough

[dusk jetty]

Lore wise, different subspecies

[fast heron]

I kinda feel like that isn’t canon

[patent patio]

Well it is lol

[carmine sleet]

Can confirm the subspecies thing is canon

[fast heron]

@dusk jetty @patent patio @carmine sleet Ok yeah I was wrong, my apologies

[obsidian thistle]

Phenotypes

Not subspecies

While clearly not 1 to 1 to Sangheili... here is how it works in a bug.

[carmine sleet]

Remind me to brush up on my secondary school science at some point

[obsidian thistle]

Its more physical characteristics of someone.

At a VERY basic level

I have blue eyes. My friend has brown eyes.

We are both human.

[carmine sleet]

Roger that

And that also includes things like hair colour, skin colour, right?

[obsidian thistle]

Yup. But again this is at a VERY basic level

Just to explain it

[carmine sleet]

Aye. I'll make a note to do some more in depth reading

[obsidian thistle]

All I'll say is be careful discussing this. 🙂

And all will be golden

[gusty star]

Sangheili Phenotypes tend to have more morphological differences than just color, of course as well

https://youtu.be/OH4rQM6zlIo?si=kuPQ7Z4t8PFNAq8e

Well explained in this video

[obsidian thistle]

I just used it as a VERY basic level to get the idea across

[glass walrus]

I just finished reading the Thursday war and glasslands, and im thinking, how does sangheili houses, cities, clothing and vehicles look like?

And another thing: sangheili kids dont know who their father is, but they know their mother and their mother's husband, so they would know who their father is

How does the sangheili family works?

[wispy pewter]

definitely not like humans

[empty bloom]

They are collectively community raised.

[empty bloom]

And elite clothing seems to be light and flowing, material wise, which makes sense; They live on a world with a lot of deserts and a high ambient heat.

Because most species in Halo follow the same basic body plan (two arms, two legs) give or take a digitigrade or plantigrade foot structure, they would have a lot of basic similarities clothing wise; Such as prophets obviously wearing what a human recognizes as a robe.

And due to how heat, physics, etc work on every world is going to be effectively the same regardless of trappings, you'd see a lot of convergent evolution in clothing design; You might see more warmth retention being gathered around the limbs, or the materials would be different based on local flora and fauna. No grass, reed, fern, cotton or hemp equivalent? Guess you better use leather, or shed hair, feathers and fur.

Brutes seem to favor leather and metal for clothing if they wear anything at all, which checks out considering their world's climate is mostly sandblasted hellscape after they nuked themselves to near extinction; Any spare material is going to be a luxury on their world, so the immediate caloric gains of skin or the immediate usage of scrap metal for material usage would be more important than clothing.

Additionally, their shaving likely came about as a situation to cope with the environment of Doisac changing after said nuclear near-annihilation.

Grunts would likely favor woven garments, thick and bundled tight. We don't really know what they actually eat aside from arthropods and some sort of cheese-like substance, so you can't really glean much else.

Balaho sounds exceptionally inhospitable and cold even to the grunts, so it also sounds like knit or woven clothes are a rarity despite being an effective way to maintain body heat.

As methane is maintained as a gas at colder states than air, I would also wager that the reason most grunts are in the buff is because normal temperatures would be frustratingly warm to them.

[fast heron]

What’s your guys’ favorite part of the lore?

Any lore in halo

[glass walrus]

Battle of Installation 00, 11 December 2552

My second favorite part of the lore is the Battle of Installation 04 19/22 September 2552

[carmine sleet]

Unggoy Farmer is a game that exists in universe

[fast heron]

They need to make it real lol

[last anchor]

Also they have a hard exoskeleton which likely doesn't help shed heat too well

[hardy swan]

An Elite wrote a love poem to Sarah Palmer

[fast heron]

Omg I forgot about that, that’s so adorable lol

[fast heron]

In halo wars 2, the arbiter special unit can turn his energy blades from blue to red, is there anything lore wise for that or is that just a game mechanic?

[empty bloom]

The latter.

[fast heron]

Dang

[carmine sleet]

https://tenor.com/view/déjàvu-gif-13324239

[obsidian thistle]

Unless said otherwise. Gameplay =/= Canon.

A case of otherwise is the controversial Halo Wars 1 Mark IV shields which are canon.

A case of gameplay =/= canon is the Halo Wars 2 Bloodfuel/siphon weapons not taking health from units... but the weapons themselves exist.

[ionic tiger]

I feel like you could rationalize energy sword color by making its heat adjustable with blue being its base state and red a more intense state. Could even say the Silent Shadow’s suits are specially modified to handle the heat.

Otherwise, it is what it is.

[spark pivot]

Random note: technically that should be the other way around since red plasma is colder than blue plasma, I just go with the headcannon that they added infusion matter (whatever that stuff is) to the plasma weapons and it turned the plasma red

[carmine sleet]

Well we know that the Lance of Suban energy swords gain their pink colouration from being infused with Blamite so it's not impossible that is how it works

[spark pivot]

ngl I completely forgot about that

and that has also now reminded me of painglass sabers (I think that's what they're called)

[carmine sleet]

Thankfully I remember

And like, I think the best way of looking at it is how Star Wars handles Lightsabers. Yes there's multiple colours, but that's not an indication of how deadly they are. If you get stabbed by one that's the standard light blue, it's gonna hurt just as bad as one that's pink or yellow

[spark pivot]

https://www.halopedia.org/Energy_cutlass this utter war crime of a weapon

[carmine sleet]

Sometimes you really gotta make sure they're dead after you stabbed them

[empty bloom]

Plasma's colors aren't really based on heat anyways, but a red sword would be burning cooler than a blue one if we go off how real plasma worked.

That said, Jul's forces were purposely lowering the heat of their swords to non-cauterizing levels somehow.

[obsidian thistle]

I love the pink swords being tied to Suban Sangheili

[empty bloom]

Lowkey, I always kinda wanted to do an in-universe 'livery' guide. Something that denotes different Sangheili Clans, war honors, et cetera.

Like "The Gullam keep prefers a half-and-half green and tan livery, but the left arm is always painted black" type of deal.

IDK, I'm kind of a pedant when it comes to livery options in franchises. I like it when different factions and subfactions have their own little color coding.

[carmine sleet]

Would that idea also extend to the Plasma Rifle considering the skin from MCC that's associated with the Keepers of the One Freedom?

[empty bloom]

Yeh

[carmine sleet]

Neat

Side note, I forgot about the Carbine skins for Halo 3. Glad they did something a little more interesting for Splendor and Zealot's design

[thorn spindle]

i like the gold needlers i remember the ce one having it

[bronze prawn]

How religious the covenant actually was

the San shuym, elites and brutes seem to really understand and follow the path to the great journey in their own ways

what about the drones, grunts, jackals or hunters ?

[empty bloom]

Grunts had their own ministry roles and Hunters varied heavily. Jackals were in whoever paid them more geks for the most part. Drones had their own logic.

[obsidian thistle]

It also depends on the individual

Some Jackals may have been VERY religious

In contrary to what lore says

[tribal trench]

examples?

[empty bloom]

Of course, the stereotype's the stereotype.

[obsidian thistle]

Well we seen "good" San'Shyuum (Prophets), "good" Jiralhanae (Brutes), Unggoy believe in their own version of stuff, so on.

[tribal trench]

i meant of religious jackals

[obsidian thistle]

I only used Jackals as its something that must exist even if unseen as much.

Cant just have the Covenant arrive to them in 1342 and not have any believe a thousand years later

Reasonably some would believe

[wispy pewter]

I heard that the unggoy have their own fleet now

[glass walrus]

In broken circle we saw a prophet that wanted to let the humans join

Instead of brutally killing them

[glass walrus]

But the prophet of truth was like "nah, bro, humans are ugly"

[orchid kettle]

As far as I recall, the only real instance of extreme piety on the part of any Jackal was that part in TFOR or First Strike where Chief mentions he once saw a Jackal fight bare handed instead of using a human firearm laying directly at it's feet

but that always felt like the result of TFOR originally being written with the idea that Elites hadn't been encountered until the Fall of Reach itself, which means Chief doesn't have the opportunity to have an anecdote like that about Sangheili

and in the media that has followed, that kind of extreme devotion has always felt more in line with the Sangheili than your average Kig-Yar

[spark pivot]

Ngl that just feels more like pride than anything else

[orchid kettle]

Well it was said as part of the chapter where Chief is confused as to why the Covenant would be rummaging around in some old museum on Sigma Octanus

since they've apparently never shown an interest in anything human-made before

Of course that idea's pretty outdated when you consider how many times the Covenant have attempted to get their hands on human nav data in order to find Earth and other colonies, along with them wanting to study the Spartans in Silent Storm

[spark pivot]

to be fair, at first they didn't need to study them, then they started getting their butts handed to them in droves by spartans

it kinda became necessary

[empty bloom]

(Narrator: This did not happen often enough to change their mind, most likely)

Like logistically, Spartans can only be in one place at a time.

[carmine sleet]

Careful Trench, someone will make their OC capable of making shadow clones

[empty bloom]

Eh. I've already read the OC of the guy whose gun is powered by blood plasma. Anything is expected.

[carmine sleet]

I think I just bled out from reading that with how edgy it was

[unique rune]

You need to keep your blood inside you, or else that OC is gonna use it as ammunition

[spark pivot]

there were enough spartan teams to be on enough fronts to make the covenant question it, also look at the damage blue team did on their own at times

[woeful vortex]

hey if i want to get into halo lore, which books should i buy first? i saw that there are tons

if books are the best choice even.

[carmine sleet]

The Fall of Reach is the best starting point

Then First Strike, then Ghosts of Onyx

[glass walrus]

I suggest you this order:
-halo fall of reach
-halo the flood (halo ce book)
-halo first strike
-halo ghosts of onyx
-halo the kilo five trilogy
-halo the Forerunner saga
Then by this point you can read the other books and books trilogy in the order you want

Remember to get halo evolutions and halo fractures too, two compilations of short stories essential to know more about the halo canon

[woeful vortex]

kk thanks

[empty bloom]

If you want a super broad look at the canon, the encylopedia is also not a bad choice-it's just going to lack the granularity of the books.

[orchid kettle]

Id recommend Contact Harvest and Cole Protocol after GoO and before K5 if only because the 343 era novels start building towards a larger franchise-spanning narrative, while those two books are just kinda expansions of characters found in the original trilogy

oh and Evolutions, which is just an anthology of short stories.

[obsidian thistle]

I actually recommend Halo Mythos

The Encyclopedia is... well... massive

The hard part is getting Mythos

[empty bloom]

... Maybe I'm just used to reading massive tomes, lmao

[bronze prawn]

Could the Flood infect the Synthetic from Alien

[hardy swan]

Could the flood infect Data from Star Trek

[bronze prawn]

they seem to have some sort of inmunity to the xenomorphos

[dusk jetty]

Because the facehuggers need something alive to implant in and a synth is not alive, thus the flood would not affect it either

[empty bloom]

Didn't a facehugger successfully infect a synth in one of the movies to term?

Oh, wait, no, I'm forgetting.

[ionic tiger]

If they can’t biologically infect him in suppose they could subvert Data through the logic plague.

[dusk jetty]

In a novel, one did try to implant in a synthetic, but realised its mistake pretty quickly. Synths and Xenomorphs will usually ignore each other if they’re in the same room, like in isolation, but if the synth is aggressive a xenomorph will absolutely shred it

[high elbow]

Now the real question is could the flood infect Androids from Nier Automata?

(Yes. Yes they could rather easily I would think)

[dusk jetty]

I think the flood will operate in the same way, maybe it will take some of the more biological components out and use them for mass, but I don’t see them actually fully converting one

[carmine sleet]

Don't they also ignore synthetics in Alien Isolation?

[dusk jetty]

They do, unless the synth somehow hits it. Happened several times on my playthroughs

Funny how the alien, which is the one part of the game you can’t really beat, actually can help clear a room if you play it right

[sonic lagoon]

Would flood infection forms surging the acidic blood of a Xenomorphs?

[sonic lagoon]

Like the ones from Fallout 4?

[dusk jetty]

No, Alien franchise synths

The two are different

Synths in fallout at their core are mechanical, go down far enough and you’ll find wires and a frame, the synths in Alien are made synthetically, and are far more resilient as a result. Think the difference between a Spartan and the strongest ODST

[stoic hamlet]

They prefer the term artificial person, actually. 😛

[dusk jetty]

Well Andy is nice when he’s not being mean so I’ll oblige

[carmine sleet]

I hope Andy makes it

[empty bloom]

Depends on the Synth. The early 1's and 2's, are both mechanical for the most part, but the 3's are all organic minus plastic additions, grown in a lab via synthetic organic components.

You can watch them get built in the institute after all.

[dusk jetty]

I forget gen 3’s are actual synthetics rather than glorified robots

[steel aurora]

Half the budget for fo4 went into those animations

[carmine sleet]

Here's a thought, there's a possibility we'll learn what happened to the Sankar AI in Empty Throne

[sonic lagoon]

What exactly was the Skiff that Alo Sebukah rode on to escape High Charity? Was it the same type of vehicle used by the Banished or was it a completely different vehicle?

[last anchor]

New vehicle with a similar name most likely

[unique rune]

Considering that using something like the Banished war-skiff to escape High Charity would’ve left him dead after exposure to the vacuum of space…

[glass walrus]

So is the fan made book Halo Array actually canon?

i mean, its literally halo 2 and halo 3 novelization

[carmine sleet]

First I've heard of that fan book

[ionic tiger]

It's not canon.

[high elbow]

Outside a handful of franchises, I don’t think fan made stuff is ever canon

[obsidian thistle]

Yea the book isnt canon. In Halo fan stuff rarely makes it to be canon.

There is cases where 343i have worked with fans. (And a handful of OLD cases such as the 09 Encyclopedia copying off a very young Halopedia)

But outside that, fan projects outright rarely become canon.

[stoic hamlet]

The closest you see (be it halo or otherwise) are hints and references, but never anything concrete..

[dusk jetty]

In MMOs like EVE online sometimes events done by players can make it into the lore of the story

But those are usually very large and involve lots and lots of people

[carmine sleet]

Aye, but that's due to how that game presents its world and characters

I know similar happened in Destiny where it became canon that Guardians stand on Cayde's map in the Tower

All because players kept jumping onto the table where he stood, and his map happened to be there

[dusk jetty]

That was my main example

I think something akin to the storyteller was given a mention in Fallout 76 somewhere as a bit of a thanks after the VA passed away

[carmine sleet]

There's also one with Destiny I think people often forget because it's so ingrained into the franchise's DNA and that's Guardians are canonically doing stuff specifically for loot

Like, the original D1 didn't really frame them that way

[sonic lagoon]

Is it an aircraft, spacecraft, or just a vehicle? He landed on the planet with it.

[dense falcon]

If @obsidian thistle doesn't know, then only Halo Studios knows.

[unique rune]

I mean, they found him in an orbital debris cluster lmao

Anything short of space-capable would’ve left him a corpse.

[obsidian thistle]

The source is unclear so yea, we dont know

[sonic lagoon]

Imagine what it must have smelled like when they found him.

[fast heron]

How many planets were destroyed by the covenant?

[carmine sleet]

The number of planets destroyed by the Covenant is...

https://tenor.com/view/rogue-one-high-gif-22113252

[latent junco]

It's at least 3

[dusk jetty]

I would pull out the holy encyclopedia because it actually has a list but my dog is right on my lap and I’m too lazy to move right now

[sonic lagoon]

What cults existed in Halo?

[unique rune]

the Covenant

[dusk jetty]

Blooding years Sangheili factions

Most post war covenant factions minus the banished

[stoic hamlet]

I’d say even the Banished have some cult like attributes towards Atriox.

[carmine sleet]

Gotta love how Escharum radicalised the Banished on Zeta in a way that Atriox would no doubt be unhappy with

[fast heron]

Didn’t someone say like 800 planets got glassed?

[stoic hamlet]

Humanity had 800 colonies before the war’s start, but that included moons, orbital outposts, and etc.

[fast heron]

Ohh, makes since

And can’t find how many planets were destroyed though…

[carmine sleet]

We'll likely never get that list, better to keep the exact number vague for future storytelling

[stoic hamlet]

^^^

[fast heron]

Ahh, true

[sacred rain]

@hot ravine congrats on the promotion now fix the fact Holland is apparently omitted from the Encyclopedia entirely and we have no explicitly stated info as to his whereabouts since the mission The Package

I am losing my mind with a few lads over this rn

[stoic hamlet]

Also Ackerson, for some reason.

I’d argue he has more of a stake in there than Holland does.

[covert tide]

Very Scary Thought:
So you know how Spartans can lift up entire mountains and how the chief lifted up a crumbling section of the infinity when the banished attacked.
well Steve From Minecraft is so Strong he makes these feats together look like they're lifting only a feather

[covert tide]

well thanks to a minecraft youtuber Named: Camman18 it was calculated that with an inventory full of shulker boxes filled with blue ice that Steve can CARRY a SHOCKING 20 QUINTILIAN POUNDS!
OR 10 QUADRILLION TONS
Just for reference one teaspoon of a neutron stars mass weighs 10 million tons
which means Steve could carry 1 BILLION TEASPOON of a NEUTRON stars mass
And still freely run and jump around like he's not carrying anything
I'm Pretty sure DR. Halsey's jaw would drop faster than the speed of slipspace, if she found this all out
And i'm pretty sure the spartan 2's would get very jealous, very fast
Here's the link to the video if you need proof:
https://youtu.be/JvEIpvPArAY

[carmine sleet]

Pretty sure the mountain feat is an overexagerated passage from a novel

And uh, pretty sure swearing is against the rules here

[covert tide]

oh in that case i'll remove all profanities

[covert tide]

ok done

[tropic forge]

I'll have you know that 12 armoured Brutes can almost break through mountains.

and Chief has killed way more than 12 Brutes, so Chief can clearly also almost break through mountains.

[carmine sleet]

https://tenor.com/view/galactic-republic-luke-skywalker-gif-21847985

[tropic forge]

Hey, that twelve armoured Brutes thing is 100% canon now that Grim's twitter is gone.

Thanks, 2011 Encyclopedia!

[obsidian thistle]

Pffft you make it sound like that isnt something us on the Pedia havent pondered over the last 14 years lol

[sacred rain]

We are going after him for this

[obsidian thistle]

I think there is far more interesting mysteries in Halo. 🙂 Like how did Chips and co get off Alpha Halo.

We know there was a second survivor group

We just dont know how they got home

[stoic hamlet]

“Sorry Guns. Classified.”

[carmine sleet]

They mailed themselves back to Earth

[wispy pewter]

Steve casually holding 64 blocks of iron in his invisible backpack

Mind you one block is one cubic meter

[high elbow]

Did they use stamps or a shipping label?

[sonic lagoon]

So what units are immune to radiation, chemical weapons, and biological weapons? Which are least immune? ☢️☣️

[carmine sleet]

Nothing is immune to radiation in Halo. Same with chemical and biological weapons

[sonic lagoon]

Do any armors or shields decrease the effect?

[bronze prawn]

maybe the forerunner armor which has insane properties

[hardy swan]

I like how the UNSC has a whole reverse engineered Forerunner Mjolnir armor but it's forgotten about

[last anchor]

It wasn't efficient, was too expensive, and likely the sight that it was being worked on got Guardianed

[glass walrus]

I know that there was a miniature installation test, but it has been lost. What happened to it?

[sonic lagoon]

how resistant is mjolnir in halo to damage? Lore wise and such.

[wispy pewter]

one plasma round is all it takes

[sonic lagoon]

How many bullets?

[wispy pewter]

imnot sure what anti material guns would do, but pretty sure it's mentioned somewhere

[strange pumice]

If Scorpion tank shells are made of tungsten, so maybe rounds for usual ammo are also made off from tungsten?

[unique rune]

as resistant as it needs to be for the plot usually

you keep asking questions that don't really have concrete answers because there's nothing that can really quantify any of it

most small arms fire won't do much
AP ammo will hurt more but can still just deflect off depending on angle
DEWs can leave a hole but the armor also has a coating that can disperse the energy somewhat

[orchid kettle]

Kat really is the thing that throws off all durability scaling for MJOLNIR

apparently even in kilo-5, an ODST's helmet protects them from a needle round

at least with Daisy you could just write it off as Halo Legends' visuals being super loose approximations of canon events more than anything

[obsidian thistle]

I am glad I disproved it being set on Harvest due to moons

[wispy pewter]

I don't remember what hammer but someone in Rubicon Protocol ate one to the head

by a Brute

[carmine sleet]

Did we learn the name of the planet Daisy died on?

[obsidian thistle]

No. But its not Harvest

[carmine sleet]

Fair

[obsidian thistle]

(Harvest comes from old Marketing for Halo Legends)

[high elbow]

Isn’t ODST gear also resistant to civilian grade weapons? I remember reading that somewhere early on in Contact Harvest

[orchid kettle]

In Contact Harvest they're not necessarily wearing ODST gear, it's just "heavy impact plating"

though it's black and sure sounds like H3 odst armor

In Silent Storm, Johnson is wearing specifically ODST Space Assault armor favored by the Black Daggers, and gets shot multiple times by rebels using SMGs. He winces, gets knocked on his butt, but he survives and I don't believe the suit is ever actually penetrated.

A marine in Mona Lisa is shot a few times by an MA5, and apparently the breastplate is good enough to protect against the first two rounds until the third caught her in the shoulder

Way it's written it's unclear if the third round penetrated the breastplate or if it just found a spot that wasn't covered

[high elbow]

Ohhhhh, thank you!!! I appreciate the clarification

[orchid kettle]

for what its worth, if we ever got a visual adaptation for CH, I feel like they would just put the marines in ODST armor

[empty bloom]

I assume it was the latter. Armor's silly like that.

[last anchor]

Presumably it found the spot between the breastplate and the shoulder pad, the little soft area in between your ribs and your shoulder

Just above and to the left or right of your collar bone

That area usually doesnt have armor cause its a movement point.

[dusk jetty]

When I read that line I assumed the same, the three bullets made a sort of arc with the last hitting her where the gap in the pauldron and breastplate is

[ionic abyss]

how does armour colour work?

is it all based off of an individuals preference or do some armour variants just come in specific colours, ie mkv green, commando blue, mkvb black etc

like i assume coatings with various material finishes (that arent just camo paint) are simply not canon but still

[dusk jetty]

I assume it’s completely up to the individual but nothing overly flashy or unusual

Like infinite Spartan coatings

All essentially a variant of camo, or based around one color palette

A bright pink Spartan would not be serving frontline or combat roles

Whereas a darker forest camo would not be serving on a glassed planet

It’s probably changed according to the mission, and sometimes armor does come in different colors (chiefs Mark V is noted to be green as opposed to his Mark IV’s faded brown)

[ionic abyss]

that makes sense yeah

i appreciate your thoughts!

also what about vale? shes not pink but shes a pretty vibrant red 😵‍💫

imagine trying to sneak in that lol

[stoic hamlet]

Notably, what we see visually isn’t entirely accurate to what’s canon.

For example both the covers of Ghosts of Onyx and Silent Storm depict Spartans in armour colours that aren’t correct to the books statements.

Ghosts of onyx depicts Kurt in green SPI armour… but in the book it’s noted to be grey (and, notably, SPI is never given a canon colour without its panels activated in the book itself aside from Grey)

On the cover of Silent Storm, John’s armour is his usual green with gold visor, but the book makes a multitude of mentions that the Spartans’ armour is actually charcoal black, like an ODST’s (it directly compares them to ODST’s, in fact) and John himself notes that “no Spartan would ever make such a mistake as to make themselves visible to enemy sharpshooters.”

[high elbow]

I’ve always wondered the same when it comes to coatings. I always figured it was user preference unless missions need specific colors.

[stoic hamlet]

It would probably be user preference unless specific coatings/camo schemes are needed, and even then you might see variation on a theme.

A good example of this is that Infinite has three or four coatings that are all the same rough colour P/shade of green with a few different accents. That’s probably what you’d see, for example. Rather than say, one Spartan in red, one in black, one in green, etc.

So it would likely be “personal preference to a point”.

Another great example on the “visual armour colour =/= canon” thing is Thom-A293 in Winter Contention.

Thom calls out the Covenant for forgoing any sort of camouflage schemes and for parading around in bright colours on a snowy tundra… but if we take his “canon” armour coating as what he’s wearing in the moment, then he looks like this:

https://www.halopedia.org/Thom-A293#/media/File:HINF_Thom-A293_Armor_Kit_Icon.png

and that entire internal thought falls apart, because that’s even worse than just a single basic colour. It’s not even snow/tundra coloured.

[dusk jetty]

I wear the ODST coating because it makes the most sense for an armored super soldier

It’s visibly not very stand out, and since your probably not walking around during your mission in broad daylight

Darker colors would work much better, especially if they don’t reflect much light

It also doesn’t make any glare so some poor marine behind one isn’t blinded

That sheen on a lot of coatings just doesn’t seem practical or useful in the field

If your walking around metal hallways I guess it’s fine

[high elbow]

I’m willing to bet a lot of coatings we see (that are mega impractical) are War-games simulation only. Like the peppermint laughter coating or the Gold/Neon green coating

[sonic lagoon]

Is grunt armor immune to bullets?

[high elbow]

No? They’re cannon fodder. They probably just wear some sort of light combat armor

[wispy pewter]

I don't think so

[sonic lagoon]

Does it decrease damage compared to if the didn’t wear it?

[wispy pewter]

Think of it like the modern day plate armor. If any bullet go trough, no matter how weak it's still going to hurt and you will probably die

[unique rune]

I mean. Yeah. Pretty much any armor is better than no armor.

If it didn't do anything to protect the wearer then they wouldn't be wearing it lmao

[empty bloom]

Reminder that bright pink has actually historically been used in desert warfare.

[empty bloom]

I'd argue Vale's livery actually makes sense in the Sanghelios levels.

[dusk jetty]

By the SAS yes

And given the situation I think it worked

I meant like, Barbie pink

This is like sunset pink

[junior rivet]

Is the outro for Halo: The Fall of Reach meant to take place right before the events of halo 5?

[carmine sleet]

For the animated series, yes

[elder sentinel]

Hi guys, what do you think of a halo game that would have the plot of the first stike operation (just after the events of halo 1) the game could start with the destruction of halo and tell us what happened between halo 1 and 2.
Just to give inspiration for the new halo studio 😉

[carmine sleet]

I don't see any point in retelling that story. The novel tells it just fine. Plus how events play out in novels doesn't necessarily translate into how they do in a game. Like, plenty of First Strike is characters talking

[orchid kettle]

I think it would be kinda neat if we had a side mode where we did lil one-off missions inspired by big prominent battles from Halo's extended universe

Like how the whole premise of Spartan Assault and how you were a dude reliving some event from Palmer's past

only ideally not like, the same event for ten hours straight.

[obsidian thistle]

You mean like 007: Legends?

The James bond game that took key moments from other movies but Daniel Craiged them up to fit them into his universe

[orchid kettle]

Yeah, sure

Only issue I'd guess is that then you'd have the lore nerds (Us) questioning if the modern renditions are overriding the books

[obsidian thistle]

And its not easy to do that sorta thing... right

The example I gave is one of the only examples in gaming that does anything remotely close... does it... erm... whats the right word... bad.

Its not a good game is what I'm saying

Ace concept

But in execution its got a lot going against it

[orchid kettle]

I just always felt like Spartan Ops would have been better off if it was more like CoD's Spec Ops mode, where you were just given a bunch of unrelated scenarios where I assume you're a different character every time

rather than trying to string a cohesive narrative out of 50 missions

[carmine sleet]

Someone else knows of that game?

[obsidian thistle]

I am Scottish

[carmine sleet]

Fair point

[obsidian thistle]

One of the main countries Bond is marketed to xD

[carmine sleet]

Aye. I guess I just assumed most people forgot it existed since it was over 10 years ago when they made it

[obsidian thistle]

But yea. Its like one of the "only" examples I know of directly pulling stuff from numerous sources (other movies) for a sorta anthology game.

[steel aurora]

I feel like the foundation is there, in terms of war games simulations.

[obsidian thistle]

An issue I guess is doing the source material right.

I doubt 343i (at the time) didn't notice the critical feedback the TFoR Animation got when it changed stuff + not covering the books namesake.

And it could get expensive to have a lotta unique assets for numerous of those "experiences".

[carmine sleet]

Changes due to the different medium/save time on production (Like how we see them using M7s when going after Watts) I can forgive, but I definitely was disappointed it didn't cover the actual Fall of Reach

[obsidian thistle]

Pretty much I'd reckon the game would need to either go all in on the idea. Or it would have to be paid DLC... (and I wont lie... unless it was marketed extremely well... I honestly dont know how many people would want to buy experiences from the books that dont matter to anyone outside fans of said books.)

A thing Bungie probably realised when they were making Halo: Reach

[hardy swan]

I think I just want more stories post 2560

[obsidian thistle]

I am still waiting for Halo post-2610

[junior rivet]

The chief would've been dead by that time right?

unless he's in cryo sleep

[carmine sleet]

We don't know

[elder sentinel]

A little lore question ; in halo 4 what was doing the infinity close to méridian ?

[carmine sleet]

Meridian doesn't appear in Halo 4

[elder sentinel]

Sorry requiem

[carmine sleet]

Infinity found coordinates for Requiem when it excavated the Composer from Installation 03. This is explained in game

[elder sentinel]

Big coincidence that infinity arrived at the same time as the chief

[high elbow]

Plot points be like that sometimes.

[carmine sleet]

Indeed

[carmine sleet]

Story gotta happen somehow. Like how the Spirit of Fire managed to reach the Ark for Halo Wars 2

[high elbow]

Yeah that one was weird but I just accepted it. I’m never gonna complain about mysteriously younger looking Cutter and science lady Anders

[carmine sleet]

I do hope we learn how the Spirit of Fire got there though, because they do talk about arriving via slipspace, but they couldn't have initiated the jump due to lacking the slipspace drive thanks to the events of HW1

[strange pumice]

HW2 events explaining how Atriox reached Milky Way or it explaining somewhere in books?

[dusk jetty]

Shadows of reach explains it

[carmine sleet]

Aye, Atriox's return to the Milky Way is there

And we know how he got to the Ark too, he took the long way

[stoic hamlet]

Like how the Spirit of Fire is still alive after fighting that destroyer in HW1, lol

[carmine sleet]

See, that's because the name of the ship is actually referring specifically to how a literal Spirit of Fire exists within the ship, preventing it from being destroyed. It's why the ship was completely repaired outside of the slipspace drive for HW2 /s

[high elbow]

Does that mean the crew set a set a fire in the heart of the ship?

[hardy swan]

He would be almost a 100

[prime rune]

I find it hard to believe that the precursors were corrupted

Into becoming the flood

[unique rune]

they should've had a Snickers

[ionic tiger]

Almost as big a coincidence as the Pillar of Autumn randomly finding Alpha Halo.

[hot zodiac]

Considering that wasn't a coincidence, not at all

[stoic hamlet]

^^^^

[sonic lagoon]

How large are the MAKO drones?

[obsidian thistle]

Big enough to carry large missiles. But I'll do a citation and update to that Halopedia page now-ish

If I see anything I'll toss it here.

(No promises I'll find anything useful however)

[obsidian thistle]

I squeezed as much as I could outta Ghosts of Onyx...

https://www.halopedia.org/MAKO_drone

No size unfortunately

Was fun to find that the MAKO drones were known to still be used by October 2552.

[strange pumice]

I wonder, can actually Spartan 4(not including fireteam Osiris) have their own smart AI, like Cortana?
Or is it only for UNSC ships or something like that?

[unique rune]

Outside of special cases, partnering smart AI with individual Spartans probably isn't a very efficient use of their capabilities. It wouldn't be impossible for a smart AI to be assigned to a Spartan-IV but their abilities would be better used for larger-scale operations.

[orchid kettle]

I've always felt like it was weird how Spartans being able to carry AI's became the defining feature of Mark V, aside from the shields, but then it never really happened outside of very particular circumstances.

I guess because you wanna keep the Chief-Cortana relationship special so even when it does happen in other stories to other characters, they don't really develop that same bond

[stoic hamlet]

You’d probably see only team leaders with AI, or they’d just have satellites with battle management AI running things, like with Spartan III’s.

smart AI are absurdly rare, and it’s just not really efficient to send them with Spartans.

[carmine sleet]

It's why we see the Dumb AI in Infinite. Better to use Dumb AI for a Spartan to have riding in their head as they're not as valuable as a Smart AI. Sure there are benefits to Smart over Dumb, like how Cortana and Weapon are capable of improvising and were designed for infiltration but still

[strange pumice]

I'm hoping in future UNSC will not use Spartans 4 as cannon fodder as they used Spartans 3 on past
But I know, Spartans 3 are orphan kids, that losing their home worlds and parents due to endless covenant raids over UNSC colonies and they will do everything to have revenge, but still they all are humans

[high elbow]

4s are still incredibly expensive and specialized units. They definitely wouldn’t be cannon fodder. We just happen to see a lot of them since recent Halo books and games have a heavy Spartan Focus to them

[orchid kettle]

well also because Smart AIs suddenly became a pretty substantial security risk

[carmine sleet]

That too

[carmine sleet]

I wouldn't exactly describe the work the IIIs did as cannon fodder, considering that it was often deep behind enemy lines (Whether that be as Headhunters or during the larger ops the companies did) or as is the case late in the war, as special forces teams like Noble were

[orchid kettle]

While there's probably differences in-universe, it does feel like the suit AIs of Infinite were born out of a desire to essentially take the internal MJOLNIR computer from Denning's books and give it an actual name and personality

or maybe that's just how it felt reading Shadows of Reach and Rubicon Protocol back to back, where both are giving status updates about suit integrity and all that

[strange pumice]

Ain't other Spartans 3 are been deployed to almost suicidal missions?

[unique rune]

I mean, yes, but that's only like. Half of the truth.

[carmine sleet]

Suicidal doesn't mean cannon fodder

[unique rune]

The operations they carried out were deemed high risk and essentially impossible for anyone else

They were generally still expected to make it back alive, but things went horribly wrong with Prometheus and Torpedo in unanticipated ways

They were meant to be "expendable" but that's mostly just relative to how nightmarishly expensive the Spartan-IIs were

[carmine sleet]

Aye. Meanwhile, the main "cannon fodder" we see is the Grunts. Who by most Covenant leaders were seen as completely expendable, often being used for the specific purpose of being bodies to throw against enemies

(To be clear, I don't mean that all Covenant generals were literally throwing Grunts at humanity, as funny as that would be)

[orchid kettle]

Its worth mentioning that there's a thing written by Kurt where he calls those missions "meatgrinders", and laments that Ackerson would probably send his own family on suicide missions if he deemed the cost worth it.