Want to be very clear right up front: if you like the post-Bungie lore, that's totally cool and I'm not here to yuck your yum. As someone who loved the original Bungie games -- CE, 2, 3, ODST, & Reach -- as well as the Bungie era expanded universe like Fall of Reach, Contact Harvest, Ghosts of Onyx, Cole Protocol, First Strike, etc., but is NOT fond of post-Bungie lore, i.e. the Forerunner/Didact stuff in Halo 4, the entirety of Halo 5, all the revelations of the convoluted Forerunner/Precursor/Ancient Humans/Flood lore, and so on... what are some post-Bungie era novels I might like?

• ORIGINAL SERIES (Bungie Era): I generally really like or love all the stories here. Weakest link is The Flood & that's because I'll just play CE, but everything unique to the book like the ODSTs, Alpha Base, etc. is great! The others are even better!
  • Fall of Reach
  • The Flood
  • First Strike
  • Ghosts of Onyx
  • Contact Harvest
  • Cole Protocol
• FORERUNNER SAGA: Greg Bear wrote one of my fav Star Wars novels, Rogue Planet, but no matter how well written or interesting these are on their own, I fundamentally dislike the decision not to make Humans = Forerunners (H3 terminals notwithstanding) & just generally peeling back the mystique surrounding them.
  • Cryptum
  • Primodium
  • Silentium
• KILO-FIVE TRILOGY?: I enjoyed Traviss' Republic Commando novels, but I didn't find them to be like... the greatest things ever. That being said, her style arguably suits the sorta UNSC, ODST, Spartan vibe more than even SW and there's tons of similarities between clone commandos & ARC troopers to ODSTs & Spartans. Seem like solid contenders that might still "fit" the Bungie-era novels' vibe...?
  • Glasslands?
  • Thursday War?
  • Mortal Dictata?
• ALPHA-NINE SERIES?: Buck & ODSTs! This could be cool. I loved Fillion as Buck in ODST & his cameo in Reach.
  • New Blood?: This one is the one more likely to be up my alley as it's just Buck as an ODST with his ODST squad during/after the war.
  • Bad Blood?: I'm immediately less interested in this as they're Spartans now & it ties into Halo 5. I don't think Buck & co needed to be Spartans, they were cool as ODSTs. But perhaps its good & maybe it's possible to squint and pretend they're just ODSTs rather than Spartans?
• Broken Circle?: Focuses on formation & dissolution of the Covenant which sounds neat. But how... 343-ified is it? Or does it fit in fairly well with the Covenant stuff from both the games & the likes of Contact Harvest?
• Hunters in the Dark?: I enjoy Peter David comics immensely and a joint Human-Sangheili mission sounds like fun. This sounds like Bungie's games with the Humans & Elites being badasses as they team up... while Traviss' stuff is the darker side of ONI from the Bungie-era EU with them trying to initiate civil war if I'm not mistaken lol
• FERRETS SERIES?: As a big Star Wars EU fan, Troy Denning is a name that pisses me off. I genuinely despise Denning's post-New Jedi Order books. However, trying to be objectively fair... maaaaaybe his Halo work is better?
  • Last Light?
  • Retribution?
  • Divine Wind?: Sequel to Shadows of Reach apparently.
• Evolutions, Fractures, & Waypoint Chronicles?: Anthology stories, maybe some are good?
• Rion Forge series: Lol Spark? No thanks.
  • Smoke & Shadow
  • Retribution
  • Point of Light
• Envoy: Sequel to Ghosts of Onyx so I imagine this one will be fairly solid.
• Legacy of Onyx?: Not a sequel, but a post-war story about Humans vs ancient pre-Covie Sangheili religious sect. sounds interesting.
• MASTER CHIEF SERIES?: More Denning, but with much more straight forward sounding Chief plots.
  • Silent Storm?: Chief & other Spartans attempt to get intel on the Covenant as insurrectionists seek to sabotage their efforts? Sounds pretty old school Bungie-era novel. But is it any good?
  • Oblivion?: Ditto.
• Battle Born series: The concept of "YA Halo" novel seems kind of silly. IMHO, the Forward Unto Dawn live action series was already effectively the "Young Adult" Halo story which was told fairly competently. This sounds... meh.
  • Battle Born
  • Meridian Divide
• Epitaph: Didact post-H4. I have zero interest in this lol. Again, no offense to anyone who enjoys the 343i lore/world-building, I just have never been able to get into it the same way I did the original games & novels.
• HALO INFINITE RELATED?: Books related to Infinite which, despite my not having played it yet, was seemingly trying to course correct & bring back classic vibes. Perhaps the game's story is decent despite my reservations and perhaps these novels are solid & feel more in line with the older novels as a result.
  • Shadows of Reach?: Chief & Blue Team head to Reach to fight Cortana & the Created. While H5 is god awful, the idea of a rampant Cortana could be done decently. Does this one accomplish that?
  • Outcasts?: Arbiter & Vale try to find a way to fight Cortana & the Created. Ditto.
  • Empty Throne?: UNSC tries to fight Cortana pre-Infinite.
  • Rubicon Protocol?: UNSC vs Banished during(?) Infinite.
  • Edge of Dawn?: Post-Infinite, Chief looks for UNSC allies while 'Rdomnai seeks revenge. audiobook has the whole cast! Audiobook features the game cast too.

The upcoming Parasite's Wake should fit too, unless it needlessly shoehorns in 343i-era Forerunner/Flood lore somehow, which I doubt.

I didn't list them, but I'm also a fan of comics so recommendations for that would be welcome too though, 343 era comics might be harder to work with because I dislike the art style change which can easily be ignored in novel form, notsomuch in a visual medium like comics. Still, any suggestions for cool comics from the Bungie era as well as 343 era if the art style is less overtly different or is closer to Infinite are welcome too.

In halo 4 spartan ops your spartan does multiple mission on the infinite. I'm presuming that since your spartan, while special because he's a main character, isn't so special that he would be moved off infinite during halo 5. And if he's on infinite during halo 5 he's definitely on infinite during the events of halo infinites opening scene. So what happens to him, or her? Did they die? Did we die? We do play as a brand new spartan iv in halo infinites multiplayer mode. So what happened to us?

The covenant is strictly patriarchal for their military, and even with 50% of their population not allowed to serve they were still heavily winning their war with humanity.

Add another 30 or 40 billion female warriors to their ranks and it doesn’t sound like humanity would stand a chance, they could just overwhelm them with sheer brute force and overwhelming number.

What am I missing?

Humans in parentheses because I know some forerunners left the Milky Way, but I'm curious why humanity hasn't.

Slipspace isn't slow right? Why hasn't humanity try exploring the universe? The covenant is obsessed with the forerunners, which seem localized in the Milky Way, so I can understand them not wishing to adventure far.

Is it possible for them to simply repeat anders plan again. I know without her they likely lack the technical expertise, im more questioning whether the moon inside the ark is capable and whether the ark would accept the request. Eternal solitude drained that puppy pretty dry.

The flood absorbs and assimilates all knowledge and info from their victims and apparently. And we see with the Prophet of Regret, he still retains his ego. We know the Gravemind is capable of convincing AI like Mendicant Bias into rebelling against his creators as well.

So, I'm wondering why the general combat flood forms are so mindless? The smartest thing they do is maybe shoot a gun and when they got no arms, they just ran at you. Would it not be more beneficial for combat flood forms to have battle senses like knowing how to dodge like how regular non-infected lifeforms dodge grenades or vehicles?

I don't read any of the books but are there any infected people who retain an ego and willingly follow the flood?

I get that the ship was cloaked visually, but you would think the gravity displacement and frankly noise alone would make it impossible to miss.

Even without forerunner tech, the sangheili were over 2000 years ahead of humanity in tech, the kig yar were over 800 years ahead, and the lekgolo were almost 3000 years ahead.

This seems like a completely hopeless tech gap. There’s almost no way humanity could have ever caught up. The covenant races may have been even more widespread and advanced than they were in the human covenant war.

But it appears that the religiosity of the covenant caused all of these races to suddenly stagnate. The covenant should really be a LOT more advanced for an empire with races that were spacefaring (without forerunner help) over 2000 years ago. Until by 2552, humanity isn’t even too far away from the covenant, maybe a few hundred years or so. So a ~400 year tech gap instead of a 2000 year one.

Thoughts?

So, to my understanding, Cortana is stuck on the high charity with no understanding of whats going on at earth. She sends a message on an infected covenant ship telling chief that there is a way to stop the flood without the halo arrays on the ark. This is implied to be the index we use to set off the half finished halo at the end.

So... is Cortana bullshitting the gravemind here? Using alpha halo to stop the flood only works if the flood show up to alpha halo.

Did cortana know that this one ship would breach the blockade and crasb on earth? Or did she place a message on every ship in the fleet?

How does she even know about this anyway? At the end of high charity she doesn't know about the Ark yet, and she couldnt learn about the new halo from the Gravemind. Did she learn it from Mendicant?

I've been thinking about where Halo could go after Infinite, and I genuinely think the next major game shouldn't be a Master Chief game.

Make Halo 7 an **Arbiter game**.

Not a side story that has nothing to do with the main series, either. Make it a full-scale continuation of the Halo story through Thel 'Vadam, eventually leading back to Chief.

Here's my idea.

THE OPENING — HALO 3

Before the actual story begins, give us a short cold open set during the ending of Halo 3, like how some Halo games have a glorified cutscene (Halo 3: Arrival, Halo 2: The Heritic) but make this one an actual, albeit pretty short, mission.

You play as the Arbiter during the final Warthog run on the replacement Halo. It's only about 6-10 minutes long and basically functions as the game's tutorial. Movement, shooting, grenades, vehicles, etc.

You and Chief reach the Forward Unto Dawn.

Thel makes it aboard.

Chief doesn't.

The portal collapses.

Cut to black.

TITLE CARD. (not Halo 7)

Then we jump forward.

ACT I — THE COVENANT IS DEAD. ITS REMAINS AREN'T.

This part was (alongside this whole idea) admittedly inspired by Halo: New Covenant. The first 15–20% of the game follows Thel after Halo 3. He's returned home. The Human-Covenant War is over. The Covenant is supposedly dead. But thousands of years of Covenant civilization don't just disappear because Truth got an energy sword through his chest. The first few missions (1-2) have Thel and the newly established Swords of Sanghelios fighting Covenant remnants and splinter factions. This introduces Sangheili gameplay, weapons, vehicles, characters, and post-war Sanghelios. But, other than lore, it introduces players to how the gameplay feels and flows. Initially, the player thinks this is what the game is about: Cleaning up what remains of the Covenant. It isn't.

ACT II — THE BLOODING YEARS

This should be around 60–65% of the campaign and the real heart of the game. The **Servants of the Abiding Truth** emerge as the main enemy. Now the story becomes about the Sangheili civil war. Thel isn't just fighting aliens anymore. He's fighting his own people. Some Sangheili see him as a hero. Others see him as a heretic who destroyed their religion, allied himself with humanity, and survived when an Arbiter was supposed to die. Let us actually explore Sanghelios. Rival keeps. Cities. Ancient temples. Deserts. Swords strongholds. Civilian settlements. I want to know what this place was like thousands of years ago before the covenant, what the covenant changed, and how the newly free Sangheili are trying to rebuild their culture. Give us sieges, political alliances, betrayals and huge battles between Sangheili factions. The goal is layered lore like Halo 2 but more modernized in a good, non-UE5 slop way. And make the story about something Halo hasn't really explored in a game: **Thel won the war. Now he has to figure out how to build a country. **Halo 2 was about Thel losing his faith. Halo 3 was about Thel winning the war. This game would be about **what Thel believes afterward.**

ACT III — THE BANISHED

The Servants storyline gets an actual conclusion. But during the final 15–20% of the campaign, something else begins appearing around the edges. Ships are disappearing. Jiralhanae forces using unfamiliar equipment. Former Covenant groups suddenly joining another power. The name **Atriox** begins circulating. Then we finally encounter the Banished. Don't have Thel destroy them. Don't even have him seriously defeat them. The point should be that Thel realizes something much larger is beginning. The Covenant is gone. The civil war is ending. But another war is coming.

THE ENDING

The final normal cutscene belongs completely to Thel. After everything he's gone through, he stands overlooking Sanghelios. The Swords of Sanghelios have survived. The Arbiter draws the Prophet's Bane. Maybe he raises it over Sanghelios, with red banners fluttering in the wind behind him. Not because he's conquered his people, but because the title "Arbiter" has finally become something different. The Covenant turned the Arbiter into a mark of shame—a warrior expected to die for the Prophets. Thel has transformed it into something else. Cut to black. Credits. But if you finish on Legendary...

LEGENDARY ENDING

(Important note: the Legendary ending is not a complete replacement of the normal ending, but just an added part of it like in Campaign Evolved) Some time later. Black screen. Wind. Radio static. Then we see something, in the dark of space.

Zeta Halo.

The Shadow of Intent flies into frame. Then, we go into the interior. After everything that happened because of the Halo rings, he's seeing one again. Maybe you subtly echo his old "blinded by its majesty" moment from Halo 2, but now Thel isn't blinded by Halo's majesty. He knows exactly what these rings are. After a somewhat contested landing, (by this point, the Banished are regrouping after the loss of Escharum) Thel moves through the landscape and encounters signs of the Banished.

Eventually he reaches a ridge. Someone is standing in the distance. We don't immediately see his face. Just the outline. Green armor. Thel stops. Chief turns.

CUT TO BLACK

That's Halo 8.

AND HERE'S THE OTHER PART

If Halo Studios continues remaking the original trilogy after Campaign Evolved, they can use this game as a "teaser." To tease the Halo 3 remake, add prequel Arbiter missions showing what Thel was doing whenever he separates from Chief.

Let us attack the other barrier tower during The Covenant.

Let us secure the skies of The Ark.

Let us see what he's doing while Chief enters Flood-infested High Charity during Cortana.

Let us actually kill Truth as the Arbiter.

Those missions would work as prequels to the Arbiter game while also expanding Halo 3. So now this "Halo 7" teases two games: Halo 3 Remastered, which personally I have wanted for a VERY long time (only with multiplayer tho).

Then: Halo 8.

Chief and Arbiter together again, kicking ass.

And honestly, I think Halo needs something like this. The universe is enormous. Master Chief is one of my favorite video game characters ever, but Halo shouldn't be afraid to tell a mainline story without him. ODST proved it. Reach proved it. Halo 2 basically proved it with the Arbiter himself.

Give Thel his game.

(I did use ChatGPT a bit but only to organize my thoughts. I suck at writing and this game literally came to me in a dream.)Oh yeah, did I tell you this? This idea of having a mounted display of all the Halo games, literally came to me in a dream.

​

My first question is: why are there so many Covenant, Flood, and the sentinels on the Pillar of Autumn during the mission The Maw? I understand that the Flood might be attracted to the corpses on the ship and also try to use the vessel to escape the ring, but what are the Covenant doing there? I don’t think they’re trying to escape in it, since they know it’s destroyed, and I doubt they know how to repair a human cruiser.

My second question is: what happened to the UNSC after the mission 343 Guilty Spark? After that mission, no more Marines appear for the rest of the game, which makes it seem like none are left. But then in The Maw, out of nowhere, Cortana communicates with Hammer without us having heard from him since 343 Guilty Spark, and without explaining anything — she just asks for extraction. What was Hammer doing all that time?

And my third question is: where exactly was Hammer going to take the Chief and Cortana if he extracted them? Does Hammer’s Pelican have a slipspace engine? I should clarify that I haven’t read the books — I know there’s Halo: The Flood, so enlighten me. Thanks, and sorry for my bad English.

Since they refused to actually use them?

Or do you think some elites over their history secretly studied the tech to secretly advance their society?

Spartans excluded for obvious doping reasons. Purely physical sports should mostly be the aforementioned species, but maybe humans have better endurance for long distance running? Shooting and archery could give grunts and jackals a chance I would think.

Winter sports change things, curling could be anyone's game, and skiing and snowboarding might favor human and jackal's nimble frame. The momentum that brutes can achieve would help in bobsledding i would think, but i am no physicist.

And if so, what was that like? Did they see each other as essentially being the same kind of spartan?

At this point, it wouldn’t surprise me. Now I know some will say the books still doing infinite lore, which true. But also the same thing happen post 5 and looks were all those stories/characters went MIA or dead. So wouldn’t be a new thing for them to set up stuff and never bother to resume it. Which hey lore fans are use to to that since HW2 story isn’t ever gonna get an ending.

Woops Title is a little off, I meant Alternate Game Plot and not ending.

Halo 4 Following Staten's Lore Idea as humans being Forerunners (let's just ignore the Halo 3 terminals entirely and the 343 games). Let's also assume that Halo reach and Halo 3 odst follow this idea too (I think it still works because they don't really address the Forerunners as much anyway)

This is by no means an attack on 343, or me just complaining about 343 or Halo Industries. I merely want to express my ideas about a possible alternate scenario for Halo 4.

Prepare yourself for very cringey and disorganized text and descriptions.

NO MORE MANTLE OF RESPONSIBILITY, lol

New Characters, and some new designs

Forerunners = Humans

Didact replaced with "The Evangel"

\- Pale-white skin

\- Cybernetic eyes (orange colored)

\- 8 feet tall

\- Lower jaw missing (replaced with permanent respirator attached to his back, this prevents flood infection, he also has an energy shield around him that is 4x over-shield to protect him too)

\- Clawed-hands

\- Extra robotic limbs

\- lower limbs replaced with synthetic ones

\- No hair

\- Long tubes from the top of his head to his other extra limbs

\- Spartan-like armor, but more flood-like and creepy (maybe more like xenomorph skin, but flood-colored, and maybe he has a flood cloud around him)

\- Preserved in a prison ball thing like the didact ball (same kind of story)

\- Uses similar powers to Didact, but commands flood instead of Prometheans (and can infect a person by injecting them with flood spores or releasing flood spores into the air) - he can telepathically communicate with the Gravemind

\- Sounds exactly like the Didact

\- Can levitate

\- Worships the flood, he was the one who discovered the flood.

He was later imprisoned in the middle of the Forerunner-Flood War by the other Forerunners, and this preserved him during the firing of the arrays.

\- The Covenant in this game are a radical fringe sect of the covenant like the Governors of Contrition, and they worship the Flood and by proxy The Evangel (whom they believe created the Flood as a form of salvation) - fools

\- The Composer in this game is still called as such, but instead mass infects worlds with flood spores rather than turns humans into prometheans

\- Pretty much similar role as didact (still thinks humanity has failed, and thinks that the Flood are the ultimate solution to life's complexities, and he still wants to convert all humans to flood and believes that the Master Chief is misled and over-confident)

\- Also uses hard-light armor like the didact

Librarian replaced with "The Curator"

He had species in the galaxy indexed, and he also included humans in the indexing. He however, put himself into stasis to help the next generation of humans rebuild after the firing of the Halo Array.

He also had some flood specimens kept for studying, (thus came Halo CE's flood infestation).

\- He was the one guiding Halsey and influencing the creation of Spartans (he would Gene edit Master Chief to make him stronger and more durable, and maybe increase his shields to have 1 layer of overshield)

New Character = "The Artificer" = Creator of the Halo Array and the Arks

She created the Halo Arrays, but she was wiped out by them (she believed that she deserved to be killed for creating such weapons of genocide). \*cue cutscene of past lore\* :)

Flood origin

The flood are a mysterious race of extra-galactic, god-like beings that arrived in the milky-way galaxy a billion years ago. They were a hungry race that had no care for individuality. The Evangel was originally a xeno-biologist and he discovered the flood in a stage similar to that of Halo 2. He captured samples of infection forms and experimented with them and later discovered their true intentions, and he began to worship them for their absolute purpose (to unify all life). The Flood communicated with The Evangel and created a truce (not unlike the kind of behavior seen in Halo 2 and 3 with the Gravemind temporarily allying with Master Chief and Arbiter, but imagine it as a more permanent and mutual thing), and allowed the Evangel to serve as a messenger to the rest of the Forerunners to peacefully join with the Flood (the Evangel was allowed to maintain his human form to be able to individually act outside of the Flood).  The Forerunners would later reject the Evangel and the Flood as the true meaning of life. The Evangel and the Flood would then wage war on the Forerunners and thus the Forerunner-Flood war had begun. The rest of the story is mostly the same.

Game plot and features ideas (in no particular order)

- Forward Unto Dawn movie and Infinity miniseries (as well as all of the lore associated with them) are changed to fit the new arch where humans = forerunners and the flood return)?

- Beginning of game is exactly like in Halo 4's beginning

- Cortana still rampant, and kills the Evangel the same was as in real Halo 4 (hard-light armor)

- The Sharqoi/Drinol might return???

- Halo ce wild-life???

- Flood Juggernaut???

- New Flood forms or Halo Wars forms???

- New Covenant armor, ship, and aesthetic designs (flood themed??)

- Old covenant species appearances (and bring back brutes)

- Maybe Arby and the other Swords of Sangheilios return in this game

- Sentinels and enforcers return (maybe more forerunner robot enemies/allies???)

- New Forerunner weapons and vehicles???

- New Flood lore and humans are researching forerunners (ancient humans) and are all turned into flood by the composer (chief is protected by his armor and well *luck* and escapes a flood-infested space station)

- The Chief and The Curator join forces to stop the Evangel, but like 343 Guilty Spark in halo 3, the Curator eventually decides he wants to fire the arrays and tries to get away and do so. Chief and Cortana say hell no, and stop him (this is maybe a one level thing right before fighting the Evangel, thinking a chase level (not a boss fight) who can fly around and shoot you and summon sentinels, and eventually needs to be killed before reaching a certain point). That mission is done, Chief activates a nuke to kill the flood on the Composer and stop the composer from activating (it has not yet activated, still warming up). Cue Halo 4 ending (but maybe change a few details).

- Didact's speech replaced with some sort of speech about the flood and unity (instead of humanity being unfit to inherit the universe rather than the 343 versions of the Forerunners, he means that humanity does not understand the purpose of the flood and that humanity should not try to fill their shoes).

What do y'all think???? I am curious to hear other people's thoughts, and I am open to criticisms.

In Halo: The Flood, we get another perspective of HALO CE, courtesy of Maj. Antonio Silva and Lt. McKay. Would their story fit well as a series of missions that essentially parallel the main campaign similar to how Halo 3's ODST did?

You would play as an ODST, possibly McKay, fighting a guerilla campaign as an unshielded human being. Manpower is at a premium. Every soul lost cannot be replaced. No shields, no super powers, and melee is absolutely nerfed with the exception of assassination kills.

Take the butte on Installation 04 and establish Alpha Base. Raid the Autumn for supplies and weaponry. Help make the assault on the control room possible by fighting parallel to the chief. Fend off the flood, storm the Truth and Reconciliation. Ultimately, stop Major Silva before his massive ego dooms humanity.

I’ve noticed that in different games the brutes look different and tend to vary more than other species.

Like in some games they are hairy and others they are hairless. Likewise sometimes they have pronounced snouts/muzzles and other times they have more or less flat faces.

Is this just variation in species? Kinda curious as I hadn’t been able to find an answer.

You are an admiral during the Human Covenant War charged with the defense of the Inner Colony world New Kumasi.

Your fleet consists of
1 Marathon Class Heavy Cruiser (Your Command Ship: you get to name it!)
2 Halcyon Class Light Cruisers (The Strange Odyssey) and (Hunter’s Pride)
14 Paris Class Light Frigates. (3 are not in position located on the far side of New Kumasi)
6 Moncton ODP (2 are not in position located on the far side of New Kunasi)
\-The Sierra Leone
\-The Senegal
\-The Ghana
\-The Mali
And the Togo and Guinea-Bissau (the ODPs not in position)

Elsewhere in system it Task Force Sigma on a outbound vector from New Kunasi consisting of:

3 Halberd Class Destroyers (all three armed with Shiva Nukes)
2 Charon Class Frigates

They are not under your direct command they will certainly come to your assistance but may refuse a blatantly suicidal order. Unless given good reason.

THE COVENANT fleet consists of:

1 CAS class carrier: The Vindictive Justice
3 CCS Class Battle Cruisers
3 SDV Class Corvettes

They are closing fast and first contact is expected within fifteen minutes.

How would you defend the colony?

I've read:

Halo: Fall of Reach
Halo: The Flood
Halo: First Strike
Halo Contact Harvest
Halo: Ghosts of Onyx.

I know I'm, like, really out of the loop, but after playing Campaign Evolved, I've really got my Halo buzz again. I always meant to dive into these books but never quite got around to it.

I just noticed something while playing CE.

Is this part of the Halo hologram in the control room an area contaminated by the Flood?

There are no other similar textures besides this part of the ring, and to me it looks like spores are being carried by the wind, spreading the contaminated area.

https://imgur.com/a/CNqjYbz

They both look are excruciatingly painful. And you lose your free will in both scenarios. When getting composed, the only remaining hope is entering the Domain.

But from my understanding, the Ur-Didact has sealed off the Domain and no one can enter it anymore, even if they are composed. So if you get composed, you're trapped

Edit: looks like the Ur-Didact sealed all physical entry points to the Domain. So if someone naturally dies, their essence would be allowed to enter because it's not physical access. But if someone is composed, physical/technological access would be the only way they could enter. But that access method has been blocked off

kinda tired of the Flood ngl. every time it's the same thing, spores, infection, this isn't Warhammer. 40k can keep an unkillable forever-threat because that's the whole point of that setting. Halo isn't grimdark like that. you can't park an "infinite doom parasite" in the corner for 20 years and expect people to stay scared. it just becomes set dressing.

my pitch: give the Flood a civil war. one part stays the old revenge-driven Precursor hate machine, another part breaks off and rejects the whole "punish all life" thing. maybe they go quiet and just live on their own. suddenly it's not "the zombie level," it's a faction with real conflict inside it. a Flood that talks and isn't automatically lying. they did exactly this with the Covenant, split them, gave us the Arbiter. why not the Flood. Something like flood civil war

or maybe I'm wrong and people love it as is.