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Halo Lore Thread
- Thread starter Korten
- Start date
GringoSuave89
Banned
a few things, but nothing required. all depends on what aspects of the lore you're into.
There was the Forerunner Trilogy, which is self explanatory. Goes into more detail about the Forerunner's war with the Flood and whatnot. The Kilo Five Trilogy takes place before Halo 4, and is about an ONI team and their missions. First book also kind of wraps up the end of Ghosts of Onyx. Broken Circle goes into the Elite's joining the Covenant, and a bit of the Great Schism in the back half. New Blood is a digital-first novel (that may or may not get a physical release) that talks about what Buck has been up to after ODST, and how he became a Spartan. It's a novella so it's much shorter than a typical novel.
Then this Tuesday, Hunters in the Dark comes out, which is about a joint operation between the UNSC and the Elites going to the Arc to find a Forerunner artifact. It'll also introduce the new character Olympia Vale, who is the red Spartan on Locke's team in Halo 5.
That's about it for the novels. The comic book series Escalation is largely skippable, unless you care about the characters from Spartan Ops. Tanaka (another member of Locke's team) has a two issue backstory arc recently, if you really care.
Monocle
Member
The Forerunner Trilogy is worth your time. Uneven in places, with some pacing issues in the later books, but very good overall.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Forerunner Trilogy fo sho. Gets a little... slow in places, but still definitely worth reading. New Blood is good as well. Broken Circle is similarly worth reading.
I cannot, in good conscience, recommend Kilo Five.
Vire
Member
Alright, I might start the Forerunner stuff this weekend. Thanks Ya'll.
And don't worry, I don't plan on ever reading anything from Karen Traviss again.
0ptimusPayne
Member
Just bought New blood for $5 off my iPad. After playing ODST again on the X1, and reading a few chapters Buck is really growing on me!
GringoSuave89
Banned
Buck is bae
Captain Friendo
Neo Member
Just from looking at the undersuits I can see there may have been a big leap in Gen 2 MJOLNIR tech.
In present day canon as seen in escalation Palmer and fireteams such as Majestic still all have the bubbly skintight undersuit, but in Halo 5 at least, Blue Team and all Multiplayer Spartans have a more traditional, less skintight and less bubbly black undersuit. Everyone in Locke's fireteam however has brand new armor with entirely new and unique undersuits between them. The gear around Locke and Buck's necks in themselves make the whole suits look a lot more serious - I wonder if that's a sign of where Gen 2 is going, or maybe Spartan IVs don't get an (entirely) equal share of resources after all, especially with there being three different variants of ODST (nightfall, helljumper) armour on the Gen 2 platform but Buck having one of the few most advanced prototypes.
In present day canon as seen in escalation Palmer and fireteams such as Majestic still all have the bubbly skintight undersuit, but in Halo 5 at least, Blue Team and all Multiplayer Spartans have a more traditional, less skintight and less bubbly black undersuit. Everyone in Locke's fireteam however has brand new armor with entirely new and unique undersuits between them. The gear around Locke and Buck's necks in themselves make the whole suits look a lot more serious - I wonder if that's a sign of where Gen 2 is going, or maybe Spartan IVs don't get an (entirely) equal share of resources after all, especially with there being three different variants of ODST (nightfall, helljumper) armour on the Gen 2 platform but Buck having one of the few most advanced prototypes.
Kawaii-desu-ne-Sama
GringoSuave89
Banned
orichalcos
Member
GringoSuave89
Banned
I literally downloaded a kawaii app from japan, tried to find the right filters and stickers, and straight up tarnish the tattered remains of my soul.
Captain Friendo
Neo Member
While I was quite impressed with the campaign demo and its great seeing Sanghelios for the first time, i'm a bit upset from a consistency perspective that the Arbiter and his allies were depicted as the elite sub-species in-game, particularly when he himself canonically isn't.
WhiteRabbitEXE
Member
The Elites from Halo 4 (Jul 'Mdama's Storm Covenant) are not a separate sub-species. They differ only in terms of politics and equipment. Beyond that any differences in depiction can be attributed to a shift in art direction and added graphical fidelity yielding more detail.
The Jackals and possibly Grunts in H4 however are implied to be different sub-species (particularly with Escalation depicting both classic and H4 Jackals), but I don't think that was ever explicitly stated in-fiction. I think 343i likened them more to races before though. At the very least I know Frankie compared the differences to the wide amount of phenotypic diversity in domestic dogs once.
Captain Friendo
Neo Member
Why bother making explanations for the grunt and jackal phenotypes, specifically state that Jul's covenant had armor that was Hesduros inspired and then give the elites the classic look in H2A only to turn around and make the Arbiter look like Jul again? I'm not disagreeing with you in that 343 has never explicitly stated there's two different phenotypes but it feels so heavily implied.
WhiteRabbitEXE
Member
Halo 2 Anniversary is intended to be more of a high fidelity modernization of the H2 aesthetic, so it retains it's own unique visual signatures rather than just being a conversion to 343i's H4/H5 art direction. Canonically both groups of Elites are still the same from a general phenotypic standpoint.
As for the armor, from what I can tell in H5 the Arbiter's Elites and Jul's Elites have different armor designs in-game. Arbiter's gang has full body armor, while the Covenant remnant have Halo 4's stripped-down gear.
Captain Friendo
Neo Member
Fair enough I suppose, but it's hard for me to make peace with the fact that there's visual differences. Even when there's very loose in-universe explanations i'll accept it, because at least then there's a reason.
WhiteRabbitEXE
Member
I definitely get that and I know a lot of people feel that way, but for me I think sometimes it's enough just to say art changes and graphics get better. I think it's fun when little things are given canonical explanations, but I think sometimes it can go a little overboard and pass into unnecessary. It's definitely a preference thing.
Monocle
Member
Good call.
Captain Friendo
Neo Member
Very much
to see some more details on the Fall of Reach animated series.
hyped
The issues of the comic that are worth reading are 8-10 since they are about Blue Team and the Didact - who may or may not show up again.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Wait whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?
DATABASE DATABASE
Member
Poodlestrike
Banned
OHmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod.
spootime
Member
thirding this
GringoSuave89
Banned
Right? Pretty jazzed about this.
Poodlestrike
Banned
wesleyshark
Banned
soulassssns
Banned
Anybody finish reading Hunters in the Dark yet?
Also, any ideas who the boss like character was in that campaign gameplay we all saw?
Off topic, I'm really struggling with the idea of getting the limited collectors edition.
Also, any ideas who the boss like character was in that campaign gameplay we all saw?
Off topic, I'm really struggling with the idea of getting the limited collectors edition.
I just hope its as mature as the book was and they don'r try to PG age rate it down.
Calm Killer
In all media, only true fans who consume every book, film, game, or pog collection deserve to know what's going on.
He said he was the warden.
Of the Domain, right? I think that's what he said.
Working through it now. Completely forgot it had gone on sale.
GringoSuave89
Banned
I'm reading through it now. Pretty good stuff.
The Warden Eternal, who guards The Domain. Don't ask me what any of that means.
I can't justify that price for no disc. I'm content with the $100 one.
Finished up Hunters in the Dark.
Posted my overall thoughts on the FUD forums, but interested in other takes.
Overall I thought it was decent, but I think Traviss did a much better job developing the Elites in her books, and like her last one it felt like the story just up and ended instead of having a real build and fall.
Posted my overall thoughts on the FUD forums, but interested in other takes.
Overall I thought it was decent, but I think Traviss did a much better job developing the Elites in her books, and like her last one it felt like the story just up and ended instead of having a real build and fall.
soulassssns
Banned
orichalcos
Member
I am thinking, and i have an old question.
After Bungie, which is canon? Halo Reach game, or Halo: The Fall of Reach book?
Because if my memory is good, Reach game is different than book. And now i see this Fall of Reach Animated Series and i dont know what is the situation.
Frankie? Josh? Somebody?
Thx for answer.
After Bungie, which is canon? Halo Reach game, or Halo: The Fall of Reach book?
Because if my memory is good, Reach game is different than book. And now i see this Fall of Reach Animated Series and i dont know what is the situation.
Frankie? Josh? Somebody?
Thx for answer.
GringoSuave89
Banned
I am thinking, and i have an old question.
After Bungie, which is canon? Halo Reach game, or Halo: The Fall of Reach book?
Because if my memory is good, Reach game is different than book. And now i see this Fall of Reach Animated Series and i dont know what is the situation.
Frankie? Josh? Somebody?
Thx for answer.
Bungie Era, both were canon, and Halsey's journal helped fill in the details that caused canon problems. But with this new animated series, who knows.
Zvonimir Boban
Banned
So I finished reading the Forerunner trilogy this morning, moving on to Glasslands now but I kinda want more Forerunner stuff. We all know Blue Team is the bestest but the last bits of Primordium and basically all of Silentium were pretty fucking awesome.
It was actually 343 who got Nylund to do the diary so my guess is that they want to keep everything canon. I doubt the animated series will change anything.
With the Reach retcons the only thing you could do was "everyone ignored the invasion of the planet until the 30th", which is incredibly lame and stupid but there's no way around Reach's timestamps. If I were 343 I would have just said the timestamps were wrong and that way the only weird thing you have to rectify is the Pillar of Autumn on the ground, but *shrug* is what it is.
I tried posting this is the Halo OT, but it got ignored, hopefully it sparks a discussion here.
In the second episode of The Sprint: The Road to E3, Halsey says "John isn't equipped emotionally to deal with her as a threat".
Now her could mean anyone, but the "equipped emotionally" part leads one to think that Chief has a personal connection with "her". There aren't many female characters that fill this role, arguably its only two; Halsey and Cortana; and since Halsey is the one saying it that leaves Cortana.
We already know Cortana will make an appearance in Halo 5 (from the Game Informer article) and earlier on in the same scene above Lasky says that Chief has gone off in search of "her".
This also supports a theory I've had since the end of Halo 4, that Cortana is stuck in The Domain. We know that the Domain is accessible from anywhere as long as it makes itself so, so its possible The Domain could of opened itself to Cortana. This also explains how she appears in the cutscene from Blue Team in Halo 5 and has prior knowledge of The Domain opening, Meridian being next and the Reclamation starting.
So could Cortana really be a threat?
In the second episode of The Sprint: The Road to E3, Halsey says "John isn't equipped emotionally to deal with her as a threat".
Now her could mean anyone, but the "equipped emotionally" part leads one to think that Chief has a personal connection with "her". There aren't many female characters that fill this role, arguably its only two; Halsey and Cortana; and since Halsey is the one saying it that leaves Cortana.
We already know Cortana will make an appearance in Halo 5 (from the Game Informer article) and earlier on in the same scene above Lasky says that Chief has gone off in search of "her".
This also supports a theory I've had since the end of Halo 4, that Cortana is stuck in The Domain. We know that the Domain is accessible from anywhere as long as it makes itself so, so its possible The Domain could of opened itself to Cortana. This also explains how she appears in the cutscene from Blue Team in Halo 5 and has prior knowledge of The Domain opening, Meridian being next and the Reclamation starting.
So could Cortana really be a threat?
Captain Zyrain
Member
I noticed this as well! I played back that part a number of times to make sure I was hearing everything correctly.
First:
Halsey is in a room with Laskey & Palmer [and Roland]! So clearly whatever happens at the Absolute Record proves Halsey is a 'good' guy again. She wasn't appearing overly restrained or anything either.
Second:
With the campaign mission we saw, The Arbiter was finally finishing off the Covenant, so I am guessing Jul's fate is sealed by whatever happens in the Absolute Record. We do see Locke fighting him in the teasers.. with Halsey curious how that'll play out.
Third: I like your ideas, sounds plausible. The only other 'hers' would be Linda or Kelly.. if maybe one of them got brainwashed or something? That would fit into the mold of Chief not being able to deal with them as a threat. The other Spartan-II's are essentially family. Have we ever seen SII on SII violence?
I thought of those two bit Lasky says he has gone off in search of her, since they are always with Chief it wouldn't be much of a search.
LordOfChaos
Member
So with the Halo 5 deets, what do we think is going on with the Domain?
In the Forerunner trilogy of books, the Forerunners destroying their own precious Domain (which was actually the Precursors Organon) was the ultimate FU the Floodcursors gave the Forerunners, as they did it with the Forerunners own Halo array. It was a big plot point.
Now in the Halo 5 footage from E3, we know the Domain has been opened, and not only that but Forerunner, not Precursor, structures are guarding it.
What could be going on? My first thought was that the Domain tricked the Forerunners into thinking it was dead to screw with them, or blocked them out after they made the biggest blow to the Mantle in the Halo arrays. But then, how are Forerunner structures in the Guardians guarding the Domain? What could be going on?
In the Forerunner trilogy of books, the Forerunners destroying their own precious Domain (which was actually the Precursors Organon) was the ultimate FU the Floodcursors gave the Forerunners, as they did it with the Forerunners own Halo array. It was a big plot point.
Now in the Halo 5 footage from E3, we know the Domain has been opened, and not only that but Forerunner, not Precursor, structures are guarding it.
What could be going on? My first thought was that the Domain tricked the Forerunners into thinking it was dead to screw with them, or blocked them out after they made the biggest blow to the Mantle in the Halo arrays. But then, how are Forerunner structures in the Guardians guarding the Domain? What could be going on?
LordOfChaos
Member
Hmm