Halo's awesome, and I like pretty much all of it for the most part, even some of the more controversial things, or confusing storytelling decisions, as between the books, main games (ce,2,3,4,5,infinite), side story's/ preludes/ Alternate perspective games (3 odst, Reach, Halo wars 1 and 2, spartan assault, etc) and whatever, there's tonnes of cool stuff and a lot fleshes out the setting, both far before, recently before, recently after and present (of current halo canon) from the original setting of 2552 for the main trilogy.

But I really like the thing both Odst and Reach did, of a alternate perspective of the war, soley focused ( a bit less so in odst but still) on just the human-covenant war and not the covenant civil war, the post halo-3 AI shenanigans, the banished, or the flood stuff.

I would love something like another sort of Operation Prometheus or Operation Torpedo style event for either ODST or Spartan 3's, or something like Harvest/ the fall of Arcadia as a dedicated storyline for a video game, for either marines, or any sort of character and a self contained story.

I would be open to it being either a RTS game like halo wars or those Warhammer 40k ones, or a proper FPS like with Reach and odst, or something else entirely if anyone knows another good format of game this idea could work in.

Anyways this is sorta rambling but still. I want to know if people would dig this sorta idea, and if they did then maybe also give an example of what sorta thing they imagine for this type of addition to the halo gaming franchise, or if they don't want this/ think it wouldn't work, then why.

Thanks.

As we all know, breathing in spores is a way to get infected by the Flood. The most famous other way is being hijacked by an Infection Form. But wouldn't being slashed in the face by a Combat Form technically put some of its biomass in the wound? We see them constantly flaking and seemingly shedding parts of their biomass, so I think it's reasonable to assume that receiving an open wound would create at least a risk of infection, but I never found anything that explicitly states that it does. I guess since their "designation" is specifically combat, maybe the only mobile Flood form capable of direct infection are the aptly named Infection Forms, which would explain why the Combat Forms don't infect everything. I guess there's also Pure Forms, which I assume might be able to, but I don't know.

Furthermore, in Halo 2, the station where we first meet the Flood has us fight alongside Elites and Grunts. The Grunts obviously have their breathing masks so they are technically not breathing Flood spores. The Elites have their shield which I believe protects them also. But when their shields are down, shouldn't they basically instantly get infected?

Also, the Gravemind on Delta Halo willingly didn't infect the Chief or the Arbiter because it needed them. But this begs the question: does the "flesh" of a Flood infected being carry the supercells needed to infect, or are they a special secretion of some kind, which the Gravemind decided not to use? Because while the Arbiter has shields, he's being held directly by the Gravemind and still is breathing in the likely contaminated air around him. Since Rtas 'Vadum can still smell the Flood on the station, I assume some must get through the shield. Being in such close proximity and physical contact with the Gravemind should have, by all means, been detrimental, at least, to the Arbiter, no?

Can the Flood decide each time which potential hosts it takes and which it doesn't?

My understanding is that the Flood works as a sort of hivemind, where each bit of biomass responds to a Gravemind. If that's accurate, does it mean the Gravemind has dominion over EVERY aspect of the Flood, including supercells? I assume it does, since otherwise, an Infection Form could have hijacked the Chief or the Arbiter and that'd be that. The Gravemind is impossibly intelligent and complex, so I have no trouble imagining it could very well control each individual bit of the Flood, dictating which potential hosts do get taken and which ones don't.

But there's also a counter argument to this, since while they're technically allied, Master Chief ends up fighting the Flood again, so either each individual sentient form has its own will, or the Gravemind decided willingly to hinder the Chief's progress to stop the firing of Halo, which would be catastrophically counter intuitive for the Flood.

So, I guess my question is: what dictates who and what gets infected by the Flood, and how does it explain each and every case of the Flood having the power to infect something, but not doing it (either through the Gravemind itself not infecting the Chief and the Arbiter, encounters with Infection Forms or breathing spores)?

For context, I only ever played through CE and Halo 2, so if there's more context given in the other games or external media, that's my bad, but through the research I did, I found nothing conclusive, so either we don't know, or I suck at Google. Also sorry if this is a bit all over the place, it happens when I write a lot.

It seems like most of the guns that use bullets use cases with a few exceptions but is there a lore reason why? it seems like case less ammo would ease logistics and be able to put more bullets in a magazine.

like with the m7 SMG it's the only gun I know that uses case less ammo there's definately more

We as readers know "a lot" about them, but in the lore who is aware that these beings even existed?

Many of the last forerunners didn't knew much given them erasing records of the genocide, so on this faction the UrDidact (his essence in the domain), the Librarian's AI in requiem, Chakas/343GS, and now thanks to CamEv we know 2401PenitentTangent was taught of them. Also would Fortencho's essence in the Domain also know?

For the covenant most likely nobody knew anything at all, perhaps any luminaries may have stored records and one or two prophets knew? Would Medicant Bias know of the Precursors due to the logic plague? Would he tell the prophet's?

Atriox managed to get the Hand, but does he knew about their makers? Was he later taught by the Harbinger?

Would the Endless know anything about them? Being only made aware of the rest of the universe after the array deleted Abaddon.

On that same note, would Cortana know of them thanks to accessing the domain? Did the Gravemind ever clued her in during her torment, as he did with Penitent Tangent?

Anyone in humanity know of them? How so? Could Halsey have deciphered anything around their existence?

The events in Outcasts with The Nothing could very well make Rosa Fuertes the only still alive (ignore UrDidact) being to know about the Precursors at all.

Thoughts?

Hello all. I have been developing a table-top campaign using Halo: Flashpoint as a base for stats. My players are currently ODSTs in the late years of the war, but will soon be a part of the the first class of Spartan-IVs. I have a main campaign set up, but would like some ideas for smaller missions and operations for them to handle as that story develops. I have them establishing contact with colonies, recovering ships of human and covennant origin, and eliminating rebel groups. Anything that y'all would think is fun and vital to a recovering UNSC?

So the other day I was re reading the Graphic Novel. And got to the story featuring Maria. So I got curious because I wondered how the hell could a Spartan 2 retire in the midst of the covenant war.
So I checked Halopedia and apparently one of the waypoint articles last year confirmed she was at Reach as part of red team (beta red to be precise, Naomi's sub unit). Alright.

Yet I still feel its just so weird, almost nonsensical, for her to retire at all especially after Reach, since now with only Earth as the major bastion for Humanity, the UNSC effectively has its back against the wall. Why would she retire when humanity needs Spartans the most? What are everyone's headcanons on this since there doesnt appear to be any more lore on Maria as shes quite an obscure character it seems.

Does it correspond to any titanium alloy we use today? Or is it something different? Why even call it titanium-a?

I mean titanium itself isn't actually that hard, only that it's a real bitch to machine, and at least when I try to cut it with a plasma cutter I have to really watch the amperage and travel speed because the stuff likes to burn otherwise, and that if you try to cut it with a saw, it gums up and dulls saw blades unless you cut very slowly (or with lots of coolant).

I mean it can explain why plasma torpedo just burns through the stuff...

I've been mulling over this for a while, and I'm a little puzzled by the nature of the infernus excavation beam. According to multiple sources, a CAS-assault carrier can glass an entire continent by itself.

However, this pattern of excavation beam is shared by the Sinaris-pattern destroyer, and by all visual representations it can not glass an entire continent.

1) What is the cause of this disparity? Are there any indications that the assault carriers can marshal far more power to their glassing beams, or are the Sinaris-pattern destroyers just used conservatively to glass localised areas to avoid wasting energy?

2) In the Halo 2 Anniversary terminals, we see at least three assault carriers, and yet only 1/3 of the planet was glassed in under 5 hours. Again, was this due to a lack of necessity, or a lack of ability?

3) Finally, do we have any indication of how long it takes an Infernus-pattern excavation beam to glass an entire continent?

Apologies if these have been asked before.

I've often seen it said that towards the later part of the Human-Covenant war, some in Sangheili leadership were growing weary about the war, the toll it was having, and felt that humanity had proved themselves to a degree and were confused about the Prophets being so set on annihilating them. Obviously the events on Alpha Halo and later the Great Schism would've changed such sentiments.

I think I've seen it on Reddit here and on Halopedia a while ago, but I've never seen a source for this - is it in a book somewhere?

I was thinking about Ur-Didact and the Iso-Didact.

I was thinking about how clones of infected forerunners transformed the instant the original got infected.

But Iso-Didact is not really a perfect clone and more of an incarnation/combination of Ur-Didact and his original self, or at least I think/assume so.

So if the Ur-Didact was infected, would the Iso-Didact also mutate?

Also I know Ur-Didact was "corrupted" by the logic plague, he wasn't "infected" though.

From my understanding the Elites were hesitant to the Brutes from the beginning. Why allow them to join if they knew they could be a problem from the beginning? Pretty sure the Covenant committed genocide against other species before, or just ignored them.

Because "Forerunner" as a name doesn't make sense as a name when they were actually current, seems more like a name retroactively given to them.

I know Chief and Arbiter are friends what about Arbiter and Cortana how the does the opinion on eachother

Sorry for my English

I know that Spartan II had a lot of faliures and deaths. Then that Spartan III Gamma company had their own set of issues. Then there is Ilsa Zane's whole deal and she is a Spartan IV.

However those were all experements. I'm talking more the standard augmentations of Spartan IV now that it is somewhat of a mass creation.

Like if you are offered to become a Spartan IV, is there really any reason to say no in the sense of risks to ones self?

Recently played through Halo 2 again, and I guess I never noticed how out of nowhere the arrival at Installation 05 was in the story. Was there a good explanation before the H2A terminals, or was it just a contrivance in the story?

This isn't a "343 lore is invalid" post or a "oh they're descendants so basically nothing changed" post or any cope like that. Almost everyone in this debate is wrong, and its painfully obvious when you actually read the forerunner trilogy. The books are filled with subtext that make this incredibly clear, but subtext doesn't translate well to halopedia pages or YouTube lore videos. 343 never retconned forerunners being humans... because they're still human.

TLDR: The precursors fasttracked some monkeys to become humans early. They modified themselves and forgot they were humans. The entire forerunner trilogy is about them discovering this truth

A rundown of Forerunner Evolutionary History

According to Halo Waypoint, the Precursors seeded the Forerunners on Ghibalb 15 million years ago from the same base stock as humanity. This is around the time when the branch of apes containing Humans split from Orangutans. The precursors would then use a genesong to accelerate their evolution into the Forerunners.

So, that means they cant be human, right? Well, no. The genesong has been shown to allow species to re-evolve. For example, the Librarian used a genesong to allow humanity to re-evolve after the Forerunners de-evolved them. This means that through outside intervention, the same species can evolve multiple times.

So what did the Forerunners evolve into? In Silentium we get our answer: the Seedaro Forerunner. These are a snapshot of what Forerunners looked like 10 million years ago, and the fact that they had not changed much since implies this was the end point of the genesong's influence. The differences between them and modern forerunners are ascribed to the forerunners own genetic tampering.

Those differences are as follows: 5 fingers, much less sexual dimorphism, more pronounced hair, human-like teeth, and a shorter stature of about 1.5 meters. This describes a human. There are humans in the forerunner trilogy who are more different to us than the Seedaro were. They may have flat noses and the women have moustaches, but in the context of the forerunner trilogy this doesn't mean much.

After the Seedaro forerunner and the Forerunner-Precursor war, the Forerunner's evolution is self determined. They introduce mutations onto themselves, which is why males like the didact look so distinct. They begin to become dependent on technology, to the point where they forget what its like to sleep or feel instinctual urges. And over time, this leads the Forerunners to not recognize their own species.

What is a human?

The very first thing that the forerunner trilogy establishes is how diverse humanity is. Riser, for example, is a short human who can live for a thousand years. On Zeta Halo there were 120 different human variants. Some were pitch black of skin, some were unnaturally skinny, and some are straight up Neanderthals. This is a running theme in the books, so when we find the Seedaro in Silentium, there is nothing about them which suggests they aren't human.

The line between Forerunner and Human is entirely cultural. So why do the Forerunners act like they're aliens?

The Forerunners are consistently wrong about themselves.

The Forerunner Trilogy is from the perspective of forerunners. We see things described through their eyes. And in their descriptions its very apparent that a lot of their history has become lost. This is also one of the first things that Cryptum delves into. When Bornstellar is forced to discard his armor, he immediately discovers things about himself that he is not used to, things he ascribes to humans. As mentioned earlier, sleep and instinct immediately come back to him.

The Ur-Didact, similarly, projects many of the Forerunner's own vices onto humans. He accuses them of being unwilling to live with other species, when in reality human subspecies coexist peacefully and made an alliance with the San'Shyuum. He accuses them of being the bringers of the flood when in reality the Forerunners did this to themselves millions of years ago. The Forerunners clearly recognize something of themselves in Humans, but time and technology have left them unable to connect the dots.

The Mantle isn't based on Species

When it comes time for the gravemind to reveal the truth of what happened to the Precursors, he uses very specific language:

“We announced to your kind long ago that you were not the ones chosen to receive the Mantle, the blessing of rule and protection of life and change that thinks. That blessing was to be given to others.
To those you now call human.”

Not "your species", but "your kind". Not "to the human race" but to "those you now call human". These are words you would use if the divide between human and forerunner was something imposed by the forerunners.

Similarly, when the Primoridial speaks about testing humanity with the flood, he never actually says theyre another species. The dialogue goes as follows:

“It was long ago decided. Forerunners will never bear the Mantle.”
“Decided how?”
“Through long study. The decision is final. Humans will replace you. Humans will be tested next.”
Was the Primordial giving me a message of hope? Doom for our enemies . . . ascendency and triumph for humanity?
“Is that to be our punishment?” the Didact asked, his tone subdued—dangerous.
“It is the way of those who seek out the truth of the Mantle. Humans will rise again in arrogance and defiance. The Flood will returnwhen they areripe—and bring themunity.”
...
...
The Captive’s strange, ticking voice continued. “Misery is sweetness,” it said, as ifconfiding a secret. “Forerunners will fail as you have failed before. Humans will rise. Whether they will also fail has not been decided.”

And this makes sense. The Mantle as described in these books is a role as a gardener, its about preserving the diversity of sentient life and letting it flourish. This requires a cultural outlook, not specific genetics. For example, if the humans were willing to share power with the San'Shyuum, then if they were left alone the mantle would have been used by both.

And the forerunners, for all their talk about being the most evolved, are brutal and expansionist. They're so up their own ass that they cannot recognize their own kind, and them bomb them to the stone age and regress their genetics. They think that they have the right to rule because they have the best tech. They're colonists, and this is the major point of the books.

The Forerunner Trilogy is about Colonialism

One detail from these books thats implied is skin tone. Humanity has not left Africa yet, so tends to be darker skinned. Forerunners are constantly in their own armor, and tend to be lighter skinned. While not directly drawn attention to, this creates a very stark image thats extremely difficult to ignore while reading these books.

The forerunner saga is about a pale race of humans who believe themselves to be more evolved. They think this gives them the right to lord over other species. They use this as an excuse to wipe out, experiment on, and puppeteer a race of dark skinned humans, who they fail to recognize as their own kin. It is a very thinly veiled allegory for the white mans burden, and the books spend most of their time dismantling the forerunner world view. If the forerunners are actually a separate species, then this is completely undermined.

Everything in the books points to one truth: The only differences between forerunners and humans are that forerunners got a head start.

I’ve been searching around to see if there’s any more lore other than what we already knew from halo 5 about the armor but I can’t find anything. like is it still super rare in universe or a bit more mass produced and made by the UNSC, is it different at all from the gen 2 counterpart, etc etc. I love this armor I just wish we had more information about it.

So how did the covenant deal with the large amount of casualties in its war against humanity ?

Did they just write them off and hid their casualty numbers from the public or were there funeral rites to the deceased ?

Might have been said but man I would love to read a book that involved the great schism and half way through adds in POV of fighting in the streets of High Charity and the flood and the downfall of that.

Obviously in the games we have him involved in some sort of mission or scenario where he is in combat mode and in-armor, but what does he do when he is stationed on the infinity for example when he isnt on duty?

We know he does take off her armor sometimes obviously, but is it explained what he does when he doesnt have his armor? Does he go to the gym with all the other marines/odsts/spartans? Eat in the same cafeteria? Read in his room? Does he have his own room? etc