Despite their position
as the main enemy in Halo, we know relatively little about the Covenant. What we do know is that they are some sort of religious
alliance between at least seven, though possibly more, species. These races include, but may or may not be limited to: Grunts,
Jackals, Elites, Hunters, Brutes, the apathetic Engineers (seen in the novels), and the Prophets.
The Covenant have a relatively
high level of technology, apparently accrued from excavated Forerunner installations; most of their weapons are plasma-based,
which means that whatever power sources the Covenant weapons have, they must be incredibly powerful. Their starships are much
faster than Human vessels, and are capable of pinpoint maneuvering while in FTL travel, as is made explicitly clear several
times in The Fall of Reach, when Covenant ships materialize right in the middle of a Human battlegroup. Their technological
feats seem coupled with what can only be described as a reverent ignorance; they seem unable, unwilling, and vehemently against
attempts (by Covenant or Human agents) to attempt improvement upon any Forerunner relics they come to acquire. To do so would
be blasphemy.
However, this alliance
is far from secure. The Covenant ranks have been rife with unrest, and even assassinations within recent years. With the exception
of the two founding races, the Elites and Prophets (and possibly the Brutes), all others have joined the Covenant through
force and now exist as part of the Covenant caste system with strict rules guiding their upbringing and socialization to prevent
any true unity among the conquered peoples.
Even still, their hatred
for those filthy primates called Humans is both harsh and powerful. Although from where it springs, how it relates to the
Covenant's "Great Journey", and more importantly, how Man may manage to survive them both has yet to be discovered.
Halo, according to Cortana
and the Covenant databanks, holds some deep religious power over the Covenant. The ring is extremely important to them; so
much so that they avoid firing upon the Autumn for risk of striking it. Upon the Human's arrival, the Covenant are already
there (it is not known for how long they have been), following course and scouring the ring for technology they can adapt
to their own purposes. The discovery of the Flood, while terrifying, is not unexpected to them; they have encountered them
before it seems. They believe Halo 04 to be a weapon; why they believe this, and how they intended to use it as such, is unknown.
After the destruction
of Halo, the Covenant juggernaut still looms large over Earth, and the task is likely to fall upon the Master Chief, Human
survivors, and any remaining Spartans, to fight them back while simultaneously discovering the secrets of the other Halos
and keeping the Covenant from using them, however they might do so, against Earth.
Foe Hammer, 7, and Noah's Ark of the Covenant
Thomas Dow, Jr. (briareos@q3arena.com) writes:
I've been
reading, and enjoying, "The Fall of Reach", and the other day I had the opportunity to play Halo for several uninterupted
hours at a friends' place ... I too began noticing familiar references throughout both.
Firstly, I knew the name "Foe
Hammer" seemed awefully familiar, so doing a quick Google-search, I came up with two things:
1) The main one that
I recognized is that "Foe-hammer" is the translated name of Gandalf's Elvish-blade, "Glamdring" (not to muddle things with
Tolkien refs, but it's obvious Bungie has borrowed from a lot of sources ...).
2) I found links to "Marathon: Infinity"
spoiler-guides, which show that level 14 is called "Foe Hammer".
A little lower in the search-results, I came upon
a link to marathon.bungie.org:
http://marathon.bungie.org/story/foehammer.html
Once again, these series of terminals show Bungie's love of the #7 (quote from Durandal): "Battle Group Seven will
rue the day their Commanders willed their ships to Lh'owon."
The reason may be that, according to numerology, 7 is
the number of completion and perfection. I took this excerpt from http://latter-rain.com/ltrain/numer.htm:
"Seven is the number of completion and symbolizes unity and perfection. Seven was a sacred number of the Jews and
was used in religious observances and daily life throughout the history of Israel and in prophetic words concerning the end-times. It symbolizes wholeness, a final completion
that is just about to reveal itself and be made manifest."
[ It's interesting that in FoR, they mention that "smart"
AIs like Cortana have 7 years before they reach their "end-times" ... ]
The page also notes that there are a lot of
significant 7s used throughout the Bible, especially in Revelations ...
Which brings me to my final topic, The Ark.
I'm suprised noone else has mentioned this, but there are two Arks talked about in the Bible: Noah's Ark, and [pause for dramatic effect], the "Ark of the Covenant"! (Remember the 1st Indiana
Jones 'flick? :).
I think it's very likely that there's a sort of double-reference going on, as the AotC was of extreme
religious importance to the Isreallites (as well as having been divinely inspired), and was used as an extrememly powerful
weapon. The AotC was supposed to hold the tablets containing "The Ten Commandments", and to basically be God's throne on Earth
(if you dig futher into its history and signifigance, of which there is quite a bit, you'll also find that it played a role
in holding back God's wrath). Perhaps this is also where Bungie got the idea for calling the alien collective, "The Covenant"
...
"What do ya' think, Sirs?"
Tom Dow
One wonders if the Marines would have liked Foe
Hammer as much if her callsign had been Glamdring....And the number 7 rears its head once more.
As for
the second half of this submission...well this is interesting. I've never seen Raiders of the Lost Ark (I know, I know), but
this connection seems to be something big. If the Ark in question is indeed called the
Ark of the Covenant, and indeed serves the functions which Mr. Dow has assigned to it, then that fits Halo too closely to
be coincidence, in my humble opinion. "God's throne on Earth" seems to me to be a fitting description of Halo; created by
a race of such technical proficiency as to be almost godlike, where they built installations for themselves to sit in and
ponder whatever sorts of things a Forerunner might ponder. As for "holding back God's wrath," it seems that Halo also serves
this purpose; the Flood can be considered the wrath of the Forerunner, and Halo contains them. But, as with the brief histories
of the Ark of the Covenant which I have been able to find, it would seem that Halo has far more sinister purposes within its
depths.
Also, this is now the third type of arc(k) to be associated with Halo: 1) It is in the shape
of an arc, 2) It is a sort of Noah's Ark for the Flood, and 3) It is akin to the Ark of the Covenant of Judaic history.
And then of course, there is the Ark Theory. But that's enough about that for now. :)
-Ape Man
permalink
Thomas Dow, Jr. (briareos@q3arena.com) writes:
I did a
little more research on the Ark of the Covenant, and found a nice and fairly extensive history at The Learning Channel/Discovery.com:
http://tlc.discovery.com/tlcpages/ark/ark.html
I found this part particularly interesting, as it again seems to go along with the story of Halo:
''The Bible
mentions the Ark for the last time in Jeremiah 3:16, when it is noted that "when ye be multiplied and increased in the land,
in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more, The Ark of the covenant of the Lord neither shall it come to mind:
neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more."''
[http://tlc.discovery.com/tlcpages/ark/sacred3.html]
This goes along with "The Ark Theory", in that if the Forerunner really were humans, they could have forgotten all
about the Halo(s) as they expanded into the Galaxy.
That darned Ark of the Covenant returns like that insistent beeping of
low shields on Legendary.
-Ape Man
permalink
Also, if
you want another Covenant-Forerunner connection, observe the anti-gravity devices on the Shade gun turret and the elevators
in the Library (It's easier to see if you uhm...accidentally leave a co-op buddy behind) . The two energy fields look strangly
similar....
-mnemesis
permalink
Gordon Liu checks in with something totally unrelated to the Forerunner!
(And an interesting observation, to boot!)
Gordon Liu (gordon_liu@email.com) writes:
I'm guessing
that it would be possible for the hunters and elites and maybe the jackals to live on the same planet, but it would be easier
to believe that jackals were on a different planet.
This how my theory works: On planet Earth, there are humans and
crocodiles. We know that the humans are the only species on earth that can communicate with each other. (as in language and
writing) But what if crocodiles were intelligent? If both crocodiles are humans were intelligent, we could communicate with
each other, and maybe become allies.
I'm guessing that the hunters and elites might of lived on the same planet, and
both species evolved into an intelligent being; capable of communicating with each other. Then they might of formed an alliance
and then conquered species like the grunts or jackals.
The creation of the Covenant as a multi-species conglomerate has not
been touched on very much. If you have any thoughts, send 'em in!
-mnemesis
permalink
Covenant ain't Forerunner; I bet they never done even seen one!
On the "Symbols"
on the walls of Halo:
Many people have been using these symbols as proof linking Forerunner to Covenant.
I'm
not the first to suggest this, but I feel that the symbols are clearly not part of Halo and were drawn by the Covenant, either
religiously or as warnings or signs.
Another explanation may be that the Covenant adopted the Forerunner symbols, after
all they do worship them (or at least the structures they built). e.g.: If I wear a cross around my neck, it doesn't mean
that I am Jesus.
-Mr Yun
Harsh. :)
He does bring up a valid point, however; it's entirely
possible (and seems to be the case) that the Covenant have never even met the Forerunner, but have found these massive ring
constructs (and ancient relics) scattered about the galaxy. Maybe it's just me, but that would certainly inspire at least
some sort of reverence for the Forerunner.
-Ape Man
permalink
One Man Riot (ITekboyI@aol.com) writes:
What we
know: The same(?) sybols appear on the elites backs as the ones that are on the walls. The forerunners built halo.
All
the structures in halo are beautifully constructed. Yet all the symbols that are on the walls seem to be scrawled on there
in a very graffiti-ish manner. My theory is that the elites wrote these symbols on the walls in their own language for whatever
reason. I guess the meaning of the symbols would pretty much help a lot of us out. Maybe they are trying to psych us out.
Picture it. Your walking along a dark, silent hallway you see a wierd tribal marking on the wall. The elites could just ambush
you and kill you without you ever knowing it. But by putting these symbols on the walls its like them telling you that they
are there but you cant see them. Imagine knowing you might die at any second. Now i am reaching a little bit. Oh well just
thought I'd throw my 2 cents in. Thanks for listening to my ranting. We'll figure this out sometime I'm sure.
One Man
Riot
That the markings might serve some sort of intimidation purpose is interesting.
Who knows what the Covenant might think of as a threat?
-Ape Man
permalink
Luke sends in an observation on the possibility of a genetic link between
the Elite and the Hunters.
Luke S. (Allenthar) (allenthar@mac.com) writes:
I almost
think of the Hunters and the Elites in the same terms as the Master Chief and the Marines. The Hunters could simply be genetically
and mechanically enhanced members of the Elite species. With all the genetic mosifications, armor and attachments covering
up all easily visible similarities, they could be mistaken for a completely different species. But, try to look at the Master
Chief from an alien point of view and as if you had only seen the basic Marine before. He could easily be mistaken for a different
species than the rest of us. Much larger, stronger faster, and his armor obscures most of the features that could identify
him as human. Perhaps, the Hunters are the Elite's ideals in intimidation and strength, paralleling our view of the Master
Chief as the epitome of human strength, but with an alien perspective. The only thing I can't account for here is the difference
in blood color, but there is definitely much more similarity between the Hunters and the Elites, than between them and any
of the other Covenant species.
We know that the Covenant comprise "different" races, but just how they
relate to one another is still to be discovered.
-mnemesis
permalink
Craig also makes a few religious observations.
On Truth
and Reconciliation many Covenant, mainly grunts and jackals, refer to MC as "the devel", and "satan" (I think I've heard that).
If this is correct, then it begs questions regarding the nature of the Covenants religious fervor. Do they believe the MC
is the devil? Do they believe humans are the devil? Or are they simply stating that we are the devil because they don't like
us? If it is the humans they hate, maybe they fear us because we unleashed the flood on halo, which is some sort of sign to
them that we are evil. I'd like to hear others comments on this.
It's possible that they hate us because they fear what influence we might
someday have on the universe. Or what influence we already have had.
-mnemesis
permalink
Matt Wright makes a bunch of good observations.
Matt Wright (mattsoundworld@hotmail.com) writes:
I haven't
really read into all the Marathon similarities, but I've been reading some of the news archives-
even the insane and bizarre ones. But then, the Halo story is a little bizarre. One race [Forerunner] preserves alive a potential
threat [Flood], while another [Covenant] is hell-bent on destroying a potential threat [Humans].
For starters, some speculation
about the Covenant: As far as technology goes, they seem to be closer to the Forerunner then Humans. They use plasma weapons,
while Humans are still in the ballistic stage of weaponry. Their machines also seem to harness energy in a way similar to
the Forerunner. On AotCR, that Tank-like thing shoots a glob of something that looks similar to the energy beams of level
Halo.
War in the name of God is not a new thing, and apparently the universe is not big enough for both Covenant and Humans.
Religions are often self serving, so something deep down drives the Covenant to irradicate Humans. Are they in a quest to
claim back what they lost when they had to take measures to contain the Flood? Or do they have a grudge against Humans because
of a past experience? One thing is for sure- the Covenant know more about the Forerunner then the Humans. The markings found
on Covenant and Halo structures suggests they have been around Halo long enough to either make their mark, or be influenced
by it.
Do the Covenant, in fact, worship the Forerunner?
-mnemesis
permalink
A nose is a nose is a nose. Unless it's not.
Gordon Liu (gordon_liu@email.com) writes:
We all know
that the hunter's orange spot on back is the most vunerable part of a hunter. But why would the hunter leave that spot open?
Why don't they cover it with armor? Why? We don't know, but it must mean they need that orange part to be revealed to air.
I looked at these two screen shots:
Here and here.
I looked at these closely and I saw no nose. That means they must have a different part of their body for air. That
is why I say that orange part of their body is for air(kind of like gills). And that is why it hurts hunters so much when
you shoot that part of the body.
-mnemesis
permalink
The Evolution of the Hunter Species, part 1.
Simon Graham (frog@shaw.ca) writes:
...the Hunters
and Elites are wearing armor right? I mean, that isn't supposed to be an insectoid exoskeleton.
Could be. Stranger things exist here, on our own world. ;-)
-mnemesis
permalink
Ray Linville (rlinville@hotmail.com) writes:
Perhaps
this is already been brought up, but what if the Covenant are to the Forerunner like the S'pht are to the Jjaro? Perhaps the
Covenant were servants, or perhaps a lower caste that was left behind when the Forerunner vanished.
After centuries
of being gone, the Forerunner were elevated to godhood in the eyes of the Covenant. Now that they've acheived spaceflight,
they roam the galaxy uncovering establishments left behind, but they recognize them as belonging to their 'gods' because they
are familiar with Forerunner architecture and technology. The purpose of the Halo is interpreted as the will of the gods.
"Your
destruction is the will of the Gods...and we are their instrument."
Good point.
-mnemesis
permalink
Jeff (jpt0@shaw.ca) writes:
When you
kill a hunter in halo their necks contract like a worm going into a hole as if their armour is too big and after death they
can finally settle comfortably into their proper size.
So is that armor an actual part of them, or is it 'worn' like the MC's
suit?
-mnemesis
permalink
More Hunter Physiology.
Tristan Wolfe (Xan_117@laracroftmail.zzn.com) writes:
On different
levels, if you look at the front or back of a hunters mid-section with the night vision of a sniper rifle, you can see that
oval-like sections of the mid-section pulse. I think that it serves as some sort of circulatory/respiritory purpose, possibly
breathing (as others have stated). But why does still pulse after they fall? Maybe the hunters don't really die from any known
firepower, or maybe it serves as an automattic decomposision of the body after death.
No, dead bodies are dealt with in an entirely different way... ;-)
-mnemesis
permalink
The Storm Walker (the_storm_walker@hotmail.com) writes:
On the idea
that Simon Graham brought up about the armor of Elites and Hunters being a natural exoskeleton: I don't think that is so.
If you look at the Elites turned into Flood, they have no armor. They are all exposed flesh.
Could a Flood infection absorb all that armor? Or has it been discarded?
(It'd sure be nice to have one of those shields...) ;-)
-mnemesis
permalink
"And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every
living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh."
Matt Wright (mattsoundworld@hotmail.com) writes:
There is
an interesting reference in Genesis 9:15 (the Bible) about the rainbow being a symbol of the covenant between God and man-
a covenant that God would never destroy everything (plants, animals, humans) on the earth like he did with Flood. Hmmm...
Bible references, literary symbology, physics, biology, astro-navigation,
and poetry. Pretty impressive for a video game, eh? ;-)
-mnemesis
permalink
Matt Cox (Lord Umoja) (lordumoja@mindspring.com) writes:
343 GS says
something along the lines of "I'm so glad I found our lost time. What do you call it? Human History? I will enjoy every moment
of it's cataloging." This to me clearly states that human and forerunner history are 2 parts of a story.
343 GS's
comment (see above) seems to state that the humans are the Forerunner's descendants. Could it be that in their study of humans
the Covenant uncovered the fact that we, the dumb barbaric apes, are the Forerunner descendants?? This could be the motivation
needed to kill us off. The Covenant see us as unworthy of being the Forerunner descendants and seek to remove the "tarnish"
from their gods' portrayal. In Halo: The Fall of Reach the first message transmitted to humans from the Covenant is "Your
destruction is the will of the Gods... and we are their instrument." It was broadcast in English from the covenant,not a translation.
Is "the will of the Gods" just a way for the Prophets to sell the destruction to their followers????
Seeing as the Covenant seem to worship the Forerunner, and seeing
that we appear to be related to the Forerunner in some, distant way, The Covenant better have a darn good reason for
trying to annihilate us... ;-)
Or, then again, it could be something else entirely. :-)
-mnemesis
permalink
Colin Ferguson (fearlessson@yahoo.com) writes:
One thing
that had me puzzled ever since I began speculating about Halo's story was why the Covenant would want to wipe out humanity
for religious reasons. A group of alien races united by religion would, by nature, be inclined to be tolerant of other alien
species when they make first contact. Why then, does the Covenant have a genocidal prejudice against humans? Well, evidence
uncovered in the later half of Halo suggests that humans may have been the Forerunner. If the Covenant had contact with the
Forerunner (the fact that they knew of the Halo, if not the exact location, and superficial similarities in technology suggests
that they did,) and the Forerunner are related to humans in some fashion, then it is understandable why the Covenant could
form a judgment against humans before ever encountering any of them. That this prejudice is an extremely hostile one would
suggest that the Covenant would have had some hostile relationship with the Forerunner.
343 GS implies that the Fortress-Worlds
have been used before to wipe-out all sentient life in the galaxy. I have to wonder if the founders of the Covenant were some
kind of a primitive species that had contact with the Forerunner and made some kind of recordings of them (writing, hieroglyphics,
etc.) If so, then when the Fortress-Worlds were used, then the founders of the Covenant would have been thrown back a few
evolutionary steps to a form of 'pre-sentient' life. If there were said recordings available to inspire such a species, then
it could have more easily grown back into a sentient species. If the Covenant founders had somehow figured out what the Forerunners
had done, then it is easy to see how the Covenant would come to fear them, and that fear may have worked itself into their
religion. Thus, this fear could have been extended to include humanity. "Covenant" means, "sacred agreement," or some sacred
agreement between alien species to keep the Forerunners out of power, thus the genocidal prejudice against humans.
It
is interesting to note that while the Covenant had knowledge of the Forerunner, humans did not. This makes me wonder how the
Forerunner could have become humanity. Assuming that the Fortress-Worlds had been used, then if the Forerunner were indeed
humans, they would have been wiped-out too. This makes one wonder why the Fortress-Worlds were used and how the Forerunner
managed to survive as humanity. The Flood are the most credible reason as to why the Fortress-Worlds were used. If the Flood
epidemic was extreme enough, then there would be no other choice but to fumigate the galaxy in order to stop the spread of
the Flood. One must imagine that the Forerunner would have taken steeps to ensure their survival. Let us assume for a moment
that we can trust Pvt. Wang's estimation from the E3 2000 trailer that no one had been in Halo for one-hundred-thousand years.
Well, one-hundred-thousand years ago is approximately the time that modern Homo sapiens arose on Earth. I believe that the
Forerunner seeded Earth to eventually return them to sentience. The Forerunner might have found a planet (Earth) with compatible
near-sentient species, and altered that species to become them after they used the Fortress-Worlds. Indeed, if we consider
the "Cortana.txt" file included on the Myth Total Codex CDs, then the Forerunner might have done so on many worlds, as the
Cortana.txt file mentions several "lost colony" worlds.
It's true that Humans had no knowledge of the Forerunner up until
the beginning of the game. It's interesting to note what form out "first contact" of the Forerunner civilization takes...
-mnemesis
permalink
Addressing the potential concerns raised in his own theory on the Forerunner-Human
connection, Masenko adds this about the COvenant:
Now, the
only thing to contradict this theory is that the Elites have the symbols of Halo engraved on their backs. I can think of several
ways to explain this.
1. The Covenant Elites put the symbols there, sort of to "mark territory."
2. The Elites
are similar to humans - height, weight, etc. The major differences are the barbaric aspects of the Elites, and their color/blood
variations. Well, they could simply be another heavily evolved version of the Forerunner, just as the humans are, though,
according to my theory, we seem to show more physical similarities to the Forerunner. The symbol could have been created by
an Elite mind similar to a Forerunner mind. Also, an Elite in great political position may have "psychic" powers, just as
humans do (ESP), and have vague emanations of clairvoyance which represent the Forerunner. It may be a symbol to represent
their history, or their religion.
Let me also say this... the symbol on the Covenenat backs is NOT skin. I've seen
some dead, flood-killed Elites with a PERFECT circle cut into their back that would hold the Forerunner logo, but isn't there.
The Flood may eaten it, or something... but, it's not part of the Covenant's molecular structure, I know that.
Where'd that symbol go? ;-)
-mnemesis
permalink
Mary Hansen (grhansen@mailhost.chi.ameritech.net) writes:
The first
two covenant species to exist were the Elites and the Prophets. The Elites provided a military command, while the Prophets
are the political and religous figures.
-mnemesis
permalink
An interesting idea on the origins of the Covenant alliances, and the
possibility that the Flood may already be out there somewhere...
Spartan 117 (spartan117@charter.net) writes:
There is
one possiblity that I haven't seen posted yet, the Flood are loose in the galaxy now. The only reason that the Covenant are
still around is that they joined together to stave them off. This is the reason for their holy war, to rid they galaxy of
another potential host race for the Flood.
So the Covenant believe that their purpose is to rid the galaxy of Flood
host? Kind of like the Halo itself, eh?
-mnemesis
permalink
Another vote for the theory that the Covenant are annihilating everything
in order to stop the Flood.
Brandon Merrell (pwkaiser@hotmail.com) writes:
maybe the
flood are THE SOLE reason for the covenant... the covenant want to kill the flood by killing all organic life in the galaxy,
and they obviously wanted to use halo for their holy war... it would make their job that much easier, rather than killing
everyone else off then committing suicide. Glassing planets would kill off everything with sufficient mass to sustain the
flood, and maybe thats what theyre doing... killing everything off, then getting ready to kill themselves.
"We are
the tools/instruments of the gods" they follow GS? perhaps the prophets are under the influence of someone or something else...
someone who is not organic that wants the flood gone, someone who has a way to stop the flood from infecting them, or someone
can survive when halo fires.
-mnemesis
permalink
franki writes:
the cov.
think that halo is of immense religious significance. we already know that the cov. use the same symbols as the for. why is
this? given that they are a religious army, it makes sense that the best fighters would adorn themselves with religious symbols.
religious symbols tend to have been around forever, just look at our own, they predate our entire "advanced" culture. here's
my theory.
the forerunners were a widely travelled bunch in their time, they may have deliberately or accidentally
left items on many worlds. any early pre-technology cov. races finding these items would take them to be magical or mystical.
"any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C. Clarke
so these symbols
become part of early cov. religion. fast forward, the cov. races explore space. they encounter eachother and what do you know,
they share symbols in their religions. this is the glue that binds the races. on their travels they find other examples of
forerunner artifacts. they develop aspects of their own technology by reverse engineering forerunner artifacts.
so
halo, whether it was found by the covenent before the game starts or whether it was as a result of cortana's "blind" jump,
is the ultimate artifact. a complete functioning world full of the technology that has got the cov. where they are today.
no wonder they want to access the restricted areas.
This has been theorized before, but it's wrapped up nicely (if still
lacking in capitals...).
-mnemesis
permalink
Ben (Benedictwest@aol.com) writes:
...then
it is easy to establish that humans still (assuming Halo is set in the future) use callsigns - Echo 419, Foe Hammer, Fire
Team Charlie, etc. The Covenant appear to have no signs on their dropships or Commanders to signify anything like this system
humans use. Even the Truth and Reconciliation has no distinguishing features. Meanwhile, Echo 419 has its name blazoned over
it in large, block, white letters. Unless the Covenant are active constantly over radio (or whatever they use) then how can
they be sure who's who of their army?
Interesting point. They do have a bit of symbology on their bodies and
they are usually found in what might be termed "squads", but there isn't much to distinguish one Elite from another. If you're
a Grunt or a Jackal you probably don't ask a whole lot of questions, though...
-mnemesis
permalink
More HBO forum insan- er, speculation! Forum regular opie301 comes up with a really well-done theory on the relationship between the Covenant and the Flood. Check it out!
-mnemesis
permalink
Master Chef?
DoubleMint (mrdan85@hotmail.com) writes:
I think
the Covies were just after the great food the humans have, such as Turkey, Hamburger Dinner, Cheeseburger Dinner, Hot Dog
Dinner, Meat Loaf Dinner, or Chef's Surprise.
Boarding action indeed. Even the Covenant crave the ol' home-style taste
of freeze dried rations. I mean, after being raised on a food-nipple, who wouldn't? ;)
-Finn
permalink
In another forum post , JAGUAR2G writes:
I think
the Covies boarded the PoA just to get "A" Spartan. I think that the Covies took notice that even though they always won by
glassing the planets they always lost the ground battles when they fought Spartans over the last 20 or so years. So I think
they a mission to capture a Spartan Alive. And in TFoR they knew they injured Linda and that she was picked up by MC and boarded
the PoA.
Just how MC was told to Capture enemy technology when ever possible. because if you notice they never really
wanted to blow up the PoA, just disable it.
Now this is a long shot but maybe they knew of Cortana (or maybe the development
of a superior AI), and you know how the Covies "TAKE/STEAL" superior technology.
All i know for sure is they WANTED
something very very very bad, and I don't think they got it............or did they? (Linda????)
The Covenant don't take prisoners yet they go out of there way to capture
a seemingly outdated, fleeing Human vessel? One has to wonder where their Intelligence is coming from...
-Finn
permalink
Humanity is being rejected as the second coming of the Forerunner (or
their emissaries):
Here's another post by Ciarán summarizing an old idea well, and, while we're on the subject of extermination...
Tony DeRuiter (nimrodpi@attbi.com) writes:
It has been
speculated many times that the Forerunner are human. Numerous comments by Guilty Spark suggest this but I've wondered, given
that, why do the Covenant want to kill the Human race? Perhaps if the cause and effect after the fact make sense, we could
deduce that the Forerunner are in fact descendant of humans. I believe the Forerunner disappeared after the use of the Halo.
The Covenant came upon this structure, saw great power in it, and modeled a culture after it. This in fact lead to their rise
in power, and strengthened their social structure.
Now, I'm not a deeply religious person, but it seems to me that
the reaction of the Covenant is similar to the reaction of the Jews when Jesus is born as the apparent "son of god". Just
as the Jews/Romans crucify Jesus and continue to search for the true "messiah", the Covenant might not be accepting of the
fact that the human race is the second coming of the Forerunner. As such, they must be sure to eliminate this defiler of their
religion, a race posing as their "savior".
This is obviously total speculation, but I find the similarity to be something
that Bungie would refer to, and it even makes a bit of sense.
Whether the entire hierarchy of the Covenant is aware of this reasoning
(read: conspiracy) would remain to be seen ;)
A fantastic Biblical parallel. The Second Coming... hmmm. That reminds
me, where is that Stone Roses album... ;)
-Finn
permalink
What is the cause of this genocide inflicted upon humanity? Is it blind
zeal? A misunderstanding? A cover-up of some kind? Jealousy? Fear of what we are (or who we could become)? Unfinished business?
The list of possibilities is as long as a Flood Warrior's tentacled limb...
Cow (killercow@cfl.rr.com) writes:
After reading
numerous articles on your site about the relationship between the Flood and the Forerunner, I have developed my own theory.
In the Library, 343 Guilty Spark states that the survival of the Forerunner were dependent upon the Flood. So what does an
organism require to survive? Could they have used the Flood for food? Perhaps, but very unlikely. They obviously didn't use
them for liquid or for air. So what's left? Reproduction? I think this is why they needed them. Guilty Spark also mentioned
there had been an outbreak before and that, apparently, the Halo had been activated before. So, I think as a result of this
outbreak the Forerunner had somehow lost their ability to reproduce, probably losing the females of their species. I think
that the Forerunner were studying the Flood spores in an attempt to infect some organism with their own female Forerunner
DNA, making reproduction once again possible. So they either failed or succeeded. If they failed then, their race is extinct,
which is why there are none around. If they succeeded, then I would venture a guess to say that the offspring reproduced and
their race eventually became known as humans. The Covenant want to kill all humans because they know that they aren't pure
Forerunners, but are instead the descendants of this Forerunner procedure.
-Finn
permalink
I've got to say, it's with a great reluctance that I will condone the
labelling of the Covenant cruiser on "Keyes" as also the Truth and Reconciliation. For one, Cortana is just too ambiguous
("The Flood overwhelmed this cruiser..."). And another thing...
David Nannery (Red Loser) (dnannery@purdue.edu) writes:
From the
Jason Jones interview at Tru7h and Reconciliation:
”Sure, we stopped the Covenant from making off with any good bits of the ring,
cut short the Flood's galactic joyride in the Truth and Reconciliation and knocked the gun pointed at the head of the universe
out of the Monitor's hands, but the people of Earth still watch the sky every night, waiting for the hammer to fall.‘
Tada!
An official statement by Jason Jones confirms the identity of the ship in the level Keyes! Now I will answer Hedgemony“s
concerns:
Cortana probably says that the Flood disabled the ship because it was probably fixed by the time that the
Flood had got to it. Besides, if it were out in space, how could the Flood attack it without having a large, powerful ship
of their own? It seems to me that the Truth and Reconciliation had been repaired and was ready for departure, but was then
disabled by the Flood.
Cortana was correct when she said that a shuttle bay should be ”here‘?after saying
”here,‘ she places a way-point, which you follow to a shuttle bay. Her records are accurate, because they are
the records for the Truth and Reconciliation, which is the same ship in both levels.
All right, all right. I concede... for now ;)
-Finn
permalink
Paul Hobson (Paul.Hobson@afp.gov.au) writes:
The Pillar
of Autumn: There is a large corridor just before you follow the nav point and go through the heating/cooling vents on
the ship. In this corridor are 3 grunts right down the end. Every time I get to this bit I pull out my pistol
and WHACK! Splat them..............makes sense right? However, has anybody else noticed a creature (another Spartan?)
in camouflage????
What makes me wonder is that I had not been able to hit this 'thing' ever. And it makes me
wonder where the thing goes to................does it beat you into the air vents?????
-mnemesis
permalink
Simpsons Rule (Simpsonsrule17@aol.com) writes:
I was reading
about the nature of the flood and something struck me as familiar. It said that the flood adapt to there host by acquiring
their technology. This can be readily seen when the flood take over a human or elite as they control the weapons with perfect
precision. Now I read in the Fall of Reach that the Covenant go from species to species taking the technology of "useful"
species and killing off others. Why does this sound like the Flood?
A "long history" together indeed...
-Finn
permalink
Longtime HSP patron Ryan7 ponders the poignant possibility of potential
Covenant survivors.
Dallon ! (dallon7@hotmail.com) writes:
Did some
of the Covenant on Halo escape? And is that the key to how they found earth?
Recently it occurred to me that it is
possible that some of the Covenant on Halo could have escaped alive. We know that the Longswords are very fast - they must
be or Cortana and the Master Chief wouldn't have got far enough away from Halo before it's destruction. However, in the intro
sequence of the first level Cortana specifically states that the Covenant ships are faster than human ones. Of course it is
possible that Cortana did not mean that all Covenant ships are faster than all human ones but even so it seems possible that
at least a few of the them could have escaped alive.
This brings up another point. We know that in Halo 2 the Covenant
have found and are attacking earth. The Covenant in that dropship were probably on the Pillar of Autumn before they took off
and may have examined the ship's systems, as 343 Guilty Spark did. It is possible that they did this while Cortana was in
there (when she and the Chief visit the bridge he puts her back into the POA's systems for a short time) and learned the location
of earth (Cortana stores this information - this is why Captain Keyes gave her to the Chief to protect). If they did this
and then escaped they could have then informed the rest of the Covenant and then they would have launched an invasion of earth,
which would explain how they found it.
Well, they didn't leave on the Pillar of Autumnm or the Truth and Reconciliation,
that much is clear. Cortana seems to indicate that no one else was present in the Threshold system after the ring's destruction,
and we know that the "[Covenant] leadership ordered all ships to abandon Halo when they found the Flood", but one would assume
that at least a single ship would have needed to remain to launch the strike teams from...
-Finn
permalink
Shane (keymeyer@earthlink.net) writes:
Anyone who's
read Halo: The Flood, knows that the Covenant 'Prophets' come from an abandoned Forerunner world. We also know that most Covenant
technology comes from the Forerunner. This is confirmed at least twice in book. When Keyes talks to an ODST shortly after
is rescue from the The Truth and Reconciliation and during a conversation between a prophet and the Elite 'Zamamee, "The
technology underlying the armor you wear came straight from the Forerunners."
This would reinforces what
Keyes states later in the book, "The essence of the matter is that while the races which comprise the Covenant seem to
possess a high level of technology, most if not all of it may have been looted from the beings they refer to as the 'Forerunners,'
an ancient race which left ruins on dozens of planets, and presumably was responsible for constructing Halo. In the long run,
the fact that they are adaptive, rather than innovative, may prove to be their undoing."
I believe that
what he means by this is that the Covenant are quite slow in their own technological development.
Interesting. The Covenant might have little or no inclination to continue
developing their own technologies, considering the variety of sources they must have encountered in their relentless crusade
across the galaxy. Always remember: Loot before you pillage.
-mnemesis
permalink
Spacer (spacer1@blueyonder.co.uk) writes:
About the
covenant, why is such a technologically advanced (compared to humans) worried about religion? ... Technologically advanced
people see science instead of religion, so why would the covenant (highly advanced, remember?) be waging a religious war?
It would seem that those whom the Covenant worship are also the creators
of some highly advanced technologies. The Covenant may not see their weapons, armor, ships, etc. as tools, or scientific objects,
but as religious artifacts. After all, they must have some way of justifying all of this mass slaughter, what better reason
than "The Will of the Gods?"
-mnemesis
permalink
Cortana, Beowulf, Wellsley... Humanity seems to have the A.I. market
cornered. In a forum post, Simpsons Rule asks the question that no one else has yet had the courage to: "Where are the Covenant A.I.'s?". Not only a thought provoking idea, but one worthy of comment by Halo Story Bible thumper, Brannon Boren. Check out the thread and help flesh out the concept!
-Finn
permalink
Otto Mossberg (owm88@hotmail.com) writes:
I think
Ryan7 was on to something with his theory on how the Covenant found Earth. Remember on the bridge when Cortana says "I'm detecting
taps throughout the ship, Sentinels most likely". That last part really seems to say something. I had never given it much
thought until I read that theory, but now... It seems to point to someone ELSE being on the ship, not just Spark and company.
343, Sentinels, Covenant Engineers, ?
-Finn
permalink
Colin "kojimyuu" Burch (kojimyuu@hotmail.com) writes:
In answer
to Spacer's (spacer1@blueyonder.co.uk) question: "About the covenant, why is such a technologically advanced society (compared
to humans) worried about religion?..."
There have been many technologically advanced, war-like societies on Earth.
Take
the Mongols, for example. They were actually quite technologically advanced for their time (although not as advanced as those
of Europe's).
Not to mention the plethora of lamentable contemporary examples...
Indeed,
the Mongols are only one of many Earth cultures that have placed a premium on both technology and religion (and to a lesser
degree, theology). Arguably, there would be no internal conflict in a society seeking to further their mechanical understanding
of the universe while simultaneously inquiring into the purpose based (teleological) system of how and why it is what it is.
-Finn
permalink
Socrates continues on the Covenant comprehension of their "borrowed"
tech.
Now, one
final thing. The 'Engineer' mentioned in The Fall or Reach leads me to believe that the Covenant do not simply steal another
race's technology, but absorb it. In one part, the Engineer disassembles and reassembles a vehicle. This would and could not
be done unless the Engineer wanted to do so for purposes of analysis.
Also, think about it: to arm the entire Covenant
army, the Covenant would have to have discovered a incredibly huge arms cache somewhere. And then, after that cache was depleted,
they were S.O.L. But this isn't the case; with the help of the Engineers, the Covenant absorb the technology instead of steal
it, and use the knowledge gained from that absorption to manufacture their weapons.
In short, the Covenant, while not
necessarily being a technological parasite, acquire and analyze the technology... indeed, they understand it.
A good point to clarify. While the Covenant are primarily adaptive rather
than innovative, they certainly didn't just fall off the turnip truck. They may not have achieved such levels of technology
on their own, but they seem to understand their ill gotten gains quite well.
-Finn
permalink
Covenant Social Dynamics and Internal Power Structure
Socrates (fuel4freedom@yahoo.com) writes:
On the issue
of the Covenant, specifically the religious and social hierarchy of the Covenant: I don't believe that this is a religious
war at all. In fact, I think it's something much more power-oriented. I believe that, based on information present in the
Fall or Reach, the "Prophets" long ago set themselves up as the leaders of the Elites, ruling over them through the then important
religious aspects of both societies. However, all the Prophets were interested in power, and eventually, many years/decades/centuries
later, the Prophets ruled through fiat simply because they were the most closely connected with the Gods (Forerunner).
Thus,
it was not the "will of the gods" which necessitated the attempt for the destruction of the Human race, but the will of the
Prophets, as political leaders. The Elites believed the Prophets were oracles, the mouthpieces of the Gods (Forerunners),
speaking the words that the Forerunners communicated to them from The Beyond. The Elites, in turn, then provided the military
power to keep the rest of the Covenant in line, using the religious belief system as a tool to keep loyalty and discipline.
-Finn
permalink
J. Ross "Ebola" Keverne (Jkeverne@hotmail.com) writes:
Prophets
are lying to the Elites... probably...
Page: 6:
"Like all the members of his caste, 'Fulsamee knew that the
Prophets
had evolved on a planet which the mysterious truthgivers
had previously inhabited, and then, for reasons
known
only to the ancients themselves, subsequently abandoned."
As well as
indicating the Caste structure of the Elites it makes me wonder if even they don't know where the Prophets are truly from.
The implication is that lower Caste Elites don't know about the Prophets original homeplanet, and that further implies that
a Higher Caste Elite might know more than 'Fulsamee. Especially about WHY the mysterious "truth-givers" had disappeared.
The
Prophet aboard the T&R seems to have almost expected the Flood to be present on Halo (Page 178), so what if the Flood
were responsible for the "truth-givers" leaving the Prophets homeplanet.
Are certain high ranking Elites actually above some lowly Prophets, or
does race alone firmly divide the two castes? If the Prophets are not being entirely open about their background and knowledge,
would this not fan the already smoldering embers of discontent between these two Covenant founders? Time will tell.
-Finn
permalink
Murder! Death! Conspiracy! An extremely old and oft mentioned idea is dragged kicking and screaming into the light.
Fallout921 (Fallout921@aol.com) writes:
well this
is what i think i could be wrong. the covenant holds the forerunners as their "gods" and most probably their creators the
covenant prophets/priests have taught them this for centuries but they have found out something about the forerunners that
would literally destroy their power and control over their own people... the forerunners are HUMAN and if the normal covenant
races find out all they have been taught would have been a fake a lie and would surely cause havoc against their own races
but most importantly the priests themselves. that's why they have ordered the complete genocide of all the human race in order
to silence the real truth that one day would eventually be found if their plans are not carried out.
So, Humans are either related to the Forerunner directly, or have had
a special relationship with them in the past.
But surely the Elites and Prophets have built their covenant upon a foundation
of trust, where they share everything. Why, if word of this plot was to get out...
-Finn
permalink
The plan has been skewed, but can be remedied yet...
AlphaBravo343 (e.moeller3@verizon.net) writes:
Firstly,
i think that the forerunners were the only sentient life in the galaxy, and they seeded other planets with life to grow individually.
Elites, grunts, jackals, brutes, hunters, prophets, and humans. (this theory is not mine, i found it in a fanfiction). The
forerunners left special technology for each race to find once they had matured and discovered interstellar travel. The prophets
were the first ones to develop interstellar travel, and found their technology, the discovered the elites. And from there,
they recruited the other races within the covenant.
When the united races found each other, they realized that there
was one race missing from the complete caste the forerunners had intended for there to be.....the humans. When finally discovered,
the Covenant found that we had slipstream space travel (one of the technologies left by the forerunners) and saw we were advanced
and intelligent. And then they discovered that we had developed our technology on our own. Then they realized the potential
threat we posed and saw we would not succumb to their regime; that we would not accept a position of reverence for the prophets
and we would not accept their beliefs with open arms.
Seeing our armies and weapons, they decided within themselves
that the "gods" saw us as an abomination (the prophets most likely tell the Covenant what to believe to better suits themselves),
and the humans must be destroyed. Thus the holy war between humans and Covenant begins.
However, this opens further
speculation. The Covenant, if they succeeded in their endeavor to destroy us, would have defied the forerunners. Assuming
the forerunners aren't extinct, they would be angry, to say the least. And perhaps, if the forerunners returned before the
holy war was over, they would ally with the humans and wipe out the covenant. I'm sure that the forerunners planned for us
to live in peace with one another, and seeing the malevolent agenda of the Covenant, would want to "correct" the error.
Big Brother is watching, with any luck.
-Finn
permalink
TankRamp (Bigbadzon@aol.com) writes:
Reading
through the Halo Transmissions, I noticed one part that stuck out:
CCS Truth and Reconciliation (DE H c-1) o SCS
Pillar of Autumn RECEIVED (trans) 04.11.7.0000 via x-process 04118.2.32.465603 (process owner BW - AI - Class III)
You
have brought nothing to this world, and we will ensure you bring nothing out.
I think this has more to
it than its resemblance to Bill Cosby comedy (I brought you into this world, I'll take you out. Make another one that looks
just like you.), but actual significance on the story.
The general consensus of Covenant technology is that they "absorb"
superior technologies and use them to their own benefit. Since the Prophets--whom I've come to theorize are power-hungry politicians
pulling the strings and pulling wool over the eyes of other Covenantt--decided that the humans have inferior technology, they
destroy them. Why? Because sentient beings are a potential threat, and these particular sentient beings have nothing to add
to the Covenant arsenal, and won't conform to Covie ideals; living under the Prophets' power and religion.
But, because
humans are sentient and rapidly growing, the Prophets see this "infection" as being adverse to their power which they hold
over all else. So, they used whatever handy religious doctrine they invented to urge the rest of the Covenant to go to war
against the human scum.
Bill Cosby, power-hungry politicians, and oppressive religious doctrine.
Halo's got it all!
-mnemesis
permalink
You'll remember the earlier calls to read Starhammer, right? Well, Kareem
Ramos remembers.
Kareem Ramos (kareemr69@mail.com) writes:
I'd like
to follow up on my last email, in which I theorized about the Forerunner and underwater buildings. If you haven't noticed,
I always mention the Rowley novels when I speculate about Halo's story. Here's another juicy connection.
Here's part
of my last email:
"The planet [the extinct race's homeworld] eventually dried up and became forgotten, but was inhabited
by a crew of humans who ran into it by chance (hint hint)."
Now, those humans established themselves on that world
and populated it. They eventually discovered the ancient weapon, the Starhammer, and then the word got out. The word spread
across the entire galaxy, but many thought that the Starhammer and the Vang were just rumors. A religious clan in the book
really believed that it existed, and only two of their members knew the exact coordinates for the Starhammer. The alien slavers,
the Laowon, knew about it, also, but they kept it a secret (the fact that they glassed one of their own planets because of
the parasitic Vang was also kept secret).
Once the Laowon heard that the cultists were searching for the Starhammer,
a huge chase ensued. The Laowon knew that he who posessed the Starhammer, posessed the fate of the universe. Kinda like what
Keyes said:
"Whoever controls Halo controls the fate of the universe."
How does this all fit into the Halo
story? Easy. Humans came across another Halo in the past. They first met the Covenant there. The Covenant didn't like them
intruding, and started a war to destroy all humans. Why? They believed that the humans actually knew how to activate the Halos
and maybe fire them, and because of this, were a serious threat. As the Covenant invaded human planets, they found Forerunner
items, as they did in 'The Fall of Reach'.
This is what the Laowon wanted to do: destroy anybody that knew about the
all-powerful Starhammer, and maybe even have it for themselves. This is what the Covenant want to do: destroy all of humanity
because some human somewhere may know the secrets of the ancient Forerunner fortress worlds!
I think it may go a bit deeper than that with the Covenant. Their actions
seem to have a lot of political/religious significance. They also seem to have some racial issues they have yet to address.
;-)
-mnemesis
permalink
Shane Meyer (keymeyer@mac.com) writes:
The Covenant,
haven't advanced their technology much, throughout the twenty-five Human-Covenant War. Then, what should be made of the strange
energy "sniper" weapon on board the unknown Covenant Flagship at the battle of Reach. The Covenant, I'll use a saying that's
been used a lot, are adaptive rather than innovative. Then, could this weapon be based after a piece of technology they found,
maybe Forerunner? This, actually isn't to unreasonable, because most of the Covenant's technology is based off that of the
Forerunner. Therefore, one of the reasons that this weapon was introduced so late in the war, is that there are still Forerunner
planets, outposts, and weapons caches that have not yet been discovered, Halo itself for example. Then that means humanity
has a chance if they can find and control another caches out there. Another Halo for example?
Yeah! We need our own cool Forerunner stuff. Damn Covenant stealing
all the good tech...
-mnemesis
permalink
dmc_3281@msn.com (dmc_3281@msn.com) writes:
Can the
hunters be genetic monster versions of the elite aliens? Or could the grunts some how have a type of control over the elites?
I mean do the elite aliens REALLY NEED the grunts, (well, besides cannon fodder ) Another question that bugs me is the color
system on the aliens. (gold elite, red grunt, ect....) Well are they ranking systems or what. and if so, are gold the best
elite type or do they just want to look pretty? On a final note, could there be any covenant that are NOT hostile to humans?
You know, a rebel faction or something?
Interesting idea, that there might be sympathizers within the ranks of
the Covenant. Something to watch for in Halo 2?
-mnemesis
permalink
He continues with another thought.
Theory #2:
Perhaps
the Prophets are not intent on destroying us. Maybe they want to dwindle our numbers, low enough to "manage", but high enough
to have genetic variability. That might be how they absorb a species. Almost wipe them out, then capture the rest. When they
reproduce, the Prophets, or other Covenant, take the young, and raise them to belive the religeon of the Prophets. Of course,
this would not explain why the Prophets would go to the trouble of fabricating this holy war. It seems clear that the rest
of the Covenant belive Humans are "vermin", and want us dead. Or maybe they want US dead, so they could "create" a new Human
race, one that would belive what they do.
The holy war idea might not be as far-fetched as all that. The Elites,
after all, clearly disdain both the Jackals and the Grunts. Throw us in there as more cannon fodder and we'd fit right in.
The mighty and noble human race, enslaved? Shackled to the Covenant Empire, forever at the mercy of their hateful, alien masters?
Never!
-mnemesis
permalink
Otto Mossberg (owm88@hotmail.com) writes:
Theory #1:
We
know the Covenant absorb technology, in a large part from the Forerunner. What about the new weapon first seen at Reach? Some
sort of precise laser type weapon. Sounds to me like the weapons the Sentinels use. Perhaps the Covenant have just recently
discovered this Halo, about, lets say a month before Reach. They could found the Sentinels on Halo, and reverse enginered
them to create that weapon. It could be that the Covenant have not come across other Halos yet, or maybe the Sentinel were
the type of gaurds chosen by the Forerunner for this particular Halo (or this Installation, assuming the others are not neccacarily
Rings.)
We know now that the Covenant were there before us, but not how long
before. Otto might have a point, here.
-mnemesis
permalink
Well, that's that.
TreyGri3@cs.com (TreyGri3@cs.com) writes:
All right
if you have read the book "Halo: The Flood" then you have read that the Covenant have simple copied the technology of the
forerunners so I think that by going with the book that the elites or any other Covenant are not the forerunners.
I guess we can scratch that off the list... or can we? ;)
-Finn
permalink
Zoidberg (screwsean@hotmail.com) writes:
Ok so here
it is.
As we all know the covenant are adaptive. They can take someone else's technology and back engineer it to work
with their existing equipment. As much as this process has helped them in the past, I believe it to be the covenants Achilles
heel.
Going ship for ship, man for "man", bullet for bullet just isn't working. All we get from that are spectacular
failures.
Now in the real world, war has always brought upon technological advancement. I'm willing to believe that
to be true here as well. Some agency, somewhere has been hard at work creating a doomsday device (it shall be codenamed: Giant
Rabbit) or something like that. Well whatever it is, it'll be the most technologically advanced piece of equipment that we
humans have. This would be appealing to the covenant.
But we shall have built in a subtle yet deadly flaw, or Trojan
horse of some kind.
As they'll be fighting all over the planet they wont have time for detailed analysis of the device.
The flaw would be over looked. Because it is of importance to the covenant they'd probably move it to their 'mother' ship,
the one co-ordinating the attack. Then when they bring it aboard their ship or try to use it, the flaw kicks in and BOOM go
the covenant.
That would take out the immediate threat to earth. And with the preliminary reports and schematics for
this new device having been sent back to their central command, they start production, then soon all ships could be equipped
with the device, and all we have to do is wait for them to press that big red button 'FIRE'.
That's plausible isn't
it? Because surely they'll inherit any flaws that exist in technology they steal? Simply because they won't know how to fix
it.
And if that doesn't work...we could always build a giant badger.
-mnemesis
permalink
Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. Though,
other consequences of name calling may include far reaching genocide...
Tweedy (tarondax@juno.com) writes:
In The Fall
of Reach, Admiral Stanforth states "We had hoped that contact with a new race would be peaceful. Obviously this was not the
case--the alien vessel did not open fire until our task force attempted to initiate communications." In The Flood, the prologue
indicates the significance of names, and/or language to the Covenant, stating "Names implied legitimacy, and the vermin deserved
only extermination." Is it possible that the Covenant only glassed Harvest, the Argo, and the rest of the UNSC task force
because they attempted to identify themselves?
What's in a name? Just how much weight do the Covenant place on semantics
and linguistic formality? I guess sarcasm and jest should be avoided in any future conversations :\
-Finn
permalink
Spartan027@aol.com (Spartan027) writes:
It seems
reasonable that the reason the Covenant wishes the human's destruction is because the humans live on places visited or once
inhabited by the Forerunner, but do not respect such places.
These strange, endlessly multiplying mammals...
-Finn
permalink
The Covenant invasion mimics the Crusades' great journey to a land central
to faith...
Shane Meyer (keymeyer@mac.com) writes:
I have theory
about the start of the huge inter-stellar war between Humanity and the Covenant. The ancient crusades began when the "Christian"
kings of Europe, went to war to repel the Arabs from the Holy Land. Could it be then, that if Humanity expanded into Forerunner
space and the Covenant, who view the Forerunner as gods, saw it as sacrilege and viewed it as their duty to protect the realm
of their gods?
Locality and spatial infringement as the cause of war; to keep the heathens
from possessing sacred lands and relics. Another interesting possibility.
-Finn
permalink
Spelling out the allusion,
Tyrant343@aol.com (Tyrant343) writes:
Noah's ark:
the FLOOD destroyed the world, and God made a COVENANT with Noah, never to FLOOD the world again.
Perhaps the Covenant
were created to guard the Halos and ensure that the Flood never again purges the world. Now perhaps Humanity was getting too
close to these worlds, and the Covenant, acting in what's best for the universe, decided to cleanse us.
Makes you wonder
who's the villain in Halo.
-Finn
permalink
Rose Shiflett (e.moeller3@verizon.net) writes:
Yesterday,
while playing through Assault on the Control Room on the normal difficulty setting, I had reached the control room's outermost
entrance. And was attacked by the two Hunters, however, instead of using my pistol, I used the assult rifle and fired at their
exposed backs. What happened was shocking, after having downed the two hunters, I saw the telltale sign of Flood presence,
however there were no flood. Instead I discovered that when shot in the back with the assult rifle, the Hunters spout their
own orange blood, and the green flood blood. Glitch? or is that telling us something?
Well, there has been some speculation as to why the Hunters aren't
represented among the Flood's warrior class. There's also the fact that the Hunters remain aloof from their Covenant counterparts
in areas such as the last valley in Two Betrayals. Might be a connection. Or, might be a limited number of blood decals available
in-game. ;-)
-mnemesis
permalink
The Engineer As we all know, many aspects of Halo had to be trimmed to produce a smooth, balanced game for release. The gravity rifle, ambient life, etc. Counted among the axed was another member of the Covenant, previously seen only in this early screen and mentioned in The Fall of Reach. In the words of Jason Jones (EGM #54):
We called
him "The Engineer". Imagine a huge, long slug with pouches of gas bubbles bulging out of his back. He would float everywhere,
he had these six manipulator tentacles, and he was the guy the Covenant sent down to Halo to suck all the secrets out of the
machines. His role in combat was basically to add a shield to the Covenant around him. He was a total coward; he'd hide from
everything, so he was kind of hard to kill. It definitely made the fighting interesting and different...
Well, the hacking shenanigans of BOLL have recently unearthed, amongst
other things posted to the forum, a model of this new caste, left buried on the Halo DVD. They float, wiggle, and look darn cool, though without an AI, they're about as sharp as a sack of wet mice. (A movie of the Engineer "in action" can be seen here.)
Are there any other models or details scattered about the disc? Louis isn't the only one scraping brains off of
the wall...
-Finn
permalink
Karlos Garcia (arenjinix@yahoo.com) writes:
I want to
point out something that I think is interesting and that fits in very nicely with the whole 'covenant are a collection of
conquered species' theory. Every weapon the Covenat uses is plasma based except for one....the needler. Why would the Covenant
issue this gun to infantry units if it is projectile based? Why do they use this weapon and how and where did they get it?
the Covenant obviously view such weapons as inferior, as is evidenced in the book, The Flood. Early in the book when Captain
Keyes is barely being captured, an elite says "Projectiles. How primitive." or something along those lines. His comment is
in regards to a human pistol he procures from a dead UNSC guy. Besides all that, the needler is not a very effective weapon.
Its difficult to think the needler being very useful against elites, humans, hunters, or even jackals or brutes. But what
about grunts? They are very slow and don't have a whole lot of athleticism at their disposal. Plus, they don't have the kind
of armor that hunters have or the shields that jackals posses. Maybe the weapon was originally used by one of the Covenant
species against grunts. Or perhaps, the grunts themselves used the weapon against themselves...like different grunt tribes
or clans competing against each other. Perhaps the armor that the hunters use and the shields that jackals have were developed
to defend against this weapon. Elites may not have as much need for these kind of countermeasures because of their high level
of speed and athleticism. As far as the needler coming from the Forerunner, that doesn't seem to make sense since the needler
seems so different than everything else the Covenant have and anything that's found on Halo. Its also interesting to note
that at least some of the grunts don't seem to be too thrilled with their low position within the covenant caste. If you've
read The Flood, you'll know what I mean. It makes more sense that at least some of the different races that compose the Covenant
were absored into it against their own will. If that's the case, then it would also make sense that those races would also
bring some of their cultural baggage into the Covenant, and that includes weapons technology. It is said that everything the
Covenant posses they have aquired from other species....so isn't possible that some of that stuff coud've come some races
within the Covenant, not just the Forerunner? I'm not sure, but this could also bring up some interesting ideas about the
fuel rod gun the hunters use.
I think it's especially interesting that both the needler "needles" and
the plasma pistol overcharge have the ability to track a target. It's not the weapon itself that maintains the lock, the projectiles
(or plasma charge) seem to do it themselves. Any thoughts on this, people?
-mnemesis
permalink
Joshua brings us a nice possibility for the early history of the Covenant.
The word of the day is apparently "xenophobe." ;-)
Joshua Baecker (jbaecker@acsu.buffalo.edu) writes:
My feeling
is that the ?Covenant? was made only by several species in the actual Covenant. This religious agreement seems to be where
the Elite class of warriors (and perhaps the Brutes and Hunters as well) have elevated the Prophets as bringing the gods to
earth. Its like having Christ?s apostles walking the earth every day telling you what you are and aren?t doing right, according
to Christ?s vision. In some ways it?s a perfect form of voluntary slavery. My feeling is that the Prophets cemented their
control of this confederation by demonstrating the technology of Halo for the other species currently in the Covenant, and
telling them that they were bringing them this technology, as a gift of the Gods. If they did this at a time point where it
possibly saved the Covenant from some other enemy that would explain their xenophobic nature towards humans, as well as how
the religious fervor of the Covenant began. (For any who don?t like this I refer you to Frank Herbert?s Dune which gives you
a phenomenal view of how a person can manipulate religion and politics to become a god among men.)
While it's often the case that the kind of speculating we do around here
gets dismissed as far too complicated for the backstory of a video game, remember that this is a Bungie game. What
Joshua's got here is just the kind of stuff we'd be likely to find in the Halo Story Bible (curse its mocking, sheltered
existence!).
-mnemesis
permalink
Apparently, the Covenant are making a mistake that, in their own culture,
is about as bad as it gets.
It is, I
think, quite clear that humanity is, or once was, Forerunner. This is evidenced by the fact that Covenant technology is stolen
Forerunner tech ("They own nothing which they have not stolen", i think was the quote from the Cortana letters)-alluded to
heavily in "the Flood". Assuming that this is true, and the Covenant have not improved upon Forerunner technology, then that
would explain how the MJOLNIR project actually DID improve upon Covenant shield technology (see "the Fall of Reach").
Assuming that the Covenant worship the Forerunner, and assuming that
Humanity is descended from the Forerunner, and assuming that this is developed in Halo 2, who thinks that the Covenant are
in for one hell of a guilt trip, eh? ;-)
-mnemesis
permalink
In pondering the conundrum of the Flood, the Forerunner, and the Covenant,
CJ has come up with an interesting theory. Imagine that the Covenant come from (or believe that they come from) a world
that was "seeded" by the Forerunner, after the time of the "last catastrophic outbreak" of the Flood and the resultant firing
of the Halo system. Discovering, at some point, that their history was due to the benevolence of the Forerunner, they develop
a fanatical xenophobia, thinking they were the only ones that were "saved" this way by the Forerunner.
CJ Russell (ceej123@hotmail.com) writes:
The covenant
view humanity as an "affront to the gods" because of their apparent survival DESPITE the firing of the Halo, not knowing that
we were once Forerunner.
-mnemesis
permalink
How would we do against the Flood without shields? Ever think about that?
Al has.
al -Ghost- moraleta (uu777@yahoo.com) writes:
I was playing
Keyes and I wondered why the majority of scripted Elite corpses are the Stealth Elites. You'd think you see them the least,
considering that they are invisible in combat.
So, I conducted an experiment. I set the difficulty on Easy and selected
Two Betrayals as my mission. After that, I kept as many Flood alive as possible at the final Flood VS Covenant battle to see
if they would engage the Stealth Elites. So, after everyone was dead except the Flood I had protected (Ya don't hear THAT
phrase everyday...) and the Stealth Elites, I observed in a Banshee. The Flood easily engaged the Stealth Elites while they
were invisible.
Then I selected Keyes. At the beginning of the mission, I picked up the Active Camo power-up. I danced
around the Flood, and they didn't respond. They only attacked me if physically made contact with them.
So, because
of this, I believe the Flood's sensor stalks can see visually and by tracking thermal signatures. In FoR, it states that the
MJOLNIR armor can adjust it's temperature to mask itself from thermal imaging. I think your shields may be involved in this.
I know FoR doesn't state that the shields assist in the thermal masking, but bear with me, I'm hypothesizing. Since the Stealth
Elites sacrifice their shields for invisibility, they are probably still visible through the Flood's thermal imaging, thus
making the Stealth Elites as vulnerable to infection just as Grunts and Jackal's are.
But, since you still have your
shields active even while you have the Active Camo power-up, the Flood don't see you.
Evidently, we've improved on existing Covenant technology. Nice work!
-mnemesis
permalink
Leaving the time-travel-doesn't-HAVE-to-be-cheesy mode behind momentarily,
we look at the possibility that everything we thought was wrong, the Covenant were right, and my, don't we have egg
on our helmet. Er, face.
Chadwick fugate (elderfugate@mac.com) writes:
Lets assume
that the Forerunners are indeed humans from whatever time period; and Master Chief is an enigma (it seems to me that the Mjolnir
warriors always were). And then take into account that the Covenant stated they were "Instruments of God," or whatever. Well,
what if the Covenant were symbolically right? I mean right about wanting to exterminate the humans. Its a theory that the
Forerunners actually created or caused the whole Flood thing. What if the Covenant (and their little prophet-dudes) somehow
know something we don't know, and are trying to prevent the humans from ever releasing the Flood? Perhaps the Covenant were
right all along...
The question (or, at least one of the questions) is, "How would
they know?" Whether it's a deep form of racial memory, an information altar left for later evolving generations to find, or
something entirely different, however, it's not much of a stretch to imagine that the Covenant have been annihilated before,
and this current galactic crusade is their attempt to ensure their own survival. It makes their fanaticism that much more...
human, if you catch my drift.
-mnemesis
permalink
And as for connections to the Persian Empire, Alex Ross has got a few words he would like to add.
The Persians,
at the time of war with Greece, had nations such as Egypt, Lydia, and Babylonia under their control. This parallels the fact
that the Covenant is not a pure race, rather, a collection of subdued races (grunts, jackals, hunters, brutes, anything else
we don”t know about), under the true races of the empire, the elites and the prophecy.
Also, Persia”s government
is also unlike Greece”s, with a monarch in control, instead of a democratic council; Darius during the First Persian
War, and his son Xerxes during the Second Persian War. The Second Persian War more effectively ties in to the current Halo
plot however. The rank of monarch is not too different from the prophecy rank either; the prophecy themselves exercise extreme
power when they draft the other nations of the Covenant to duke it out with humanity. Xerxes instituted a draft upon the subverted
nations, raising a large army to battle Greece. The elite rank parallels the special Persian army division, known as the Immortals.
The Immortals were more than men to Xerxes, they were treasures, symbols of imperial might with their superior battle skill,
unmatched by anyone else in the Persian Empire. Unlike the Ancient Spartans, the Immortals were more elaborately dressed for
battle, and displayed color and gem to the extreme. This parallels the elites coming in numerous colors, from the ocean blue
to the crimson red and the terrifying black and the imposing gold, all designed to reveal power and intimidate the enemy.
General Mardonious of the Battle of Plataea, the decisive battle of the 2nd Persian War, is an example of a Persian that parallels
a warlord elite. The rest of the army is either lower Persians, or a collective from conquered nations, just like the rest
of the Covenant.
The Covenant forces more closely resemble both the colour and the shape
of the Persian military as time goes on. The Immortals, though terribly mortal individually, were amassed in numbers great
enough to dispel the appearance of any such weakness. The Covenant, short the better part of an armada after the events of
Installation 04, are seemingly none the worse, their juggernaut still looming over Earth. What can Humanity muster to defeat
a threat seemingly immune to even the greatest of physical losses?
-Finn
permalink
Considering that we received this piece of mail from a young man just
leaving for basic training, I find the contemporary parallels stunning.
devin hallsworth (dhallsworth@hotmail.com) writes:
i seem to
be asking more questions than anything here but how do we know that some human ship didnt just stumble on a covenant world
and commit a blasphemy or do something that would remind them of a prophecy? imagine this, your the covenant, your whole society
is staggering in decay and corruption as the religious bonds that united your races begin to be questioned, then one day this
little starship comesby.
inferior technology, just a singlespecies organization and supposedly nowhere near strong
enough to repel an invasion by your assembly of peoples, you stage an accident or something say mabye bombarding a peaceful
planet back into the stone age and blame it on the humans. this would solve economic problems by using unemployed and illdistributed
resources to build a warmachine, it would also solve sociological stress by giving the people a common goal. it would also
give a validity to a religous prophecy that you could use to justify your power to wage war.
If religion united your
entire empire and was an integral factor in its citizens every day lives then if you could fake evidence pointing to the humans
as a devil and then give your citizens the purpose of destroying evil in the universe by destroying humans then you would
have all the power you need to save your civilization from stagnation.
either that or mabye the people in the covenant
just have their minds programmed from the day they were born either through actuall tampering with brain tissue or possibly
just simply pounding religious ideals into their heads every day of their lives and killing those who dont correspond. a good
example of this is in one of alan dean fosters series called the damned (just look up alan dean foster on amazon)
Stagnation. With imagination continually being shirked in order to better
focus on stealing technology and artifacts, the lack of ingenuity in the Covenant society could become a gangrenous wound.
Or at least something we could point at, and then, when they look down at it we could smack them in the nose... Yeah, that
would be good :)
-Finn
permalink
Diego Pezua continues on the Covenant's assault on Humanity...
The humans
and the war reminds me of the greek persian war and humanities steriotipical tendencies. The persians passed through the greek
city states like nothing, with their overwellming navy and infantries they attacked the greeks until arriving at the mainland
of the greek state, home to places like athens and sparta. Then, you have the covenants utilizing their starships and pulverizing
colonial planets (mind you attacking some far off colony is easier then attacking the heart of humanity, now they are basicly
trashing earth in halo 2).
The big turn around the greek matter was that after a serious of victories in the mainland,
the greeks pushed the persians off with a movie like comeback. Because they've said that some of the levels will actually
be on earth and most would be on the covenant planets, would lead us to believe that humanity will have the same turn around
that the greeks did with the persians.
When I saw the halo 2 movies and heared about the story, I'm surprised that
the covenants would occupy earth with troops. They've glassed entire planets so that they didn't need confrontation with Infantries.
I expect the whole covenant navy to be around earth, the simple idea of sending troops to earth would only lenghten the time
of humanity's survival.
Why would the covenant want to send troops to earth, what is it that they want, if anything?
maybe there's something that they are looking for?
The various mentions by Bungie staff that the fight will later be taken
to the Covenant worlds do imply that the assault on Earth will be repelled eventually, or to some degree. But once again, how? Perhaps Humanity's destruction is not the primary goal, but only an obstacle on the way; even a tertiary
objective? Might we find what the Covenant is looking for first...
-Finn
permalink
Ancient stepping stones, weathered arches, and tiny geometric carvings
Martin J. Duffy (duffym@direcway.com) writes:
Perhaps
the grunts were enslaved because their swampy home world had Forerunner artifacts on it; in ”The Flood‘ Yayap
has a dream where he“s running back to his hut on his methane covered world and he mentions that he climbs across ”ancient‘
steps.
"Ancient steppingstones" actually (page 60). Though this may not be enough
to conclusively deduce a Forerunner presence on the Grunts homeworld, it is worthy of pause and consideration. What could
the lower caste races, and perhaps even Humanity, all have in common?
While recently rereading The Fall of Reach (for
absolutely no reason in particular whatsoever) a number of things jumped out, P.166 being one of them. As Corporal Harland
from Firebase Bravo on Sigma Octanus was scouting a depression the Covenant were interested in, he noticed that it was no
ordinary sink-hole. "Arches had been carved into the wall", very weathered, and on the paving stones scattered about "were
tiny geometric carvings"...
-Finn
permalink
An aging post by Brandon questions the nature of the relationship between the Covenant and the Forerunner's good creation. Why can't at least somebody
get along with somebody else?
what we
have learned about the covenant is that all there technology is based on the Forerunner, 343 gs and the sentianals are part
of Halo and it is mentioned that they are part of the Forerunners technology, so if they are forerunner why were the covenant
trying to destroy them? i can't figure it out, wouldn't the covenant like surrender to them, or join together?
Indeed. The Prophets would not risk damaging Halo 04 by firing at the
Pillar of Autumn, and yet the Covenant readily dispatch the Sentinels. Were the Covenant themselves betrayed somehow or, as
mentioned in a later post, are the Sentinels viewed as mere watchdogs; annoyances or tests to be circumvented for the greater
good? And they wonder why no Covenant members were apparently trusted as a 'Reclaimer'...
-Finn
permalink
The Covenant Engineers vs. Flood Carriers. Shyobu!
Kevin (kevin@13pearson.fsnet.co.uk) writes:
"Imagine
a huge, long slug with pouches of gas bubbles bulging out of his back". Sounds like a Flood Carrier form, doesn't it? It looks
a lot like one (a Flood carrier) in those screenshots, too.
No kidding. Are the similarities merely coincidental, a design duplication,
or some sign of the Covenant's long history with the Flood?
-Finn
permalink
Kevin Lentz (sonichalo22@yahoo.com) writes:
as we all
know, Bungie connects everything to the number seven. If the "seeding the galaxy" theory were true, and the Forerunner did
set up certian paths for each race to follow and then unite, then if you include the "new" races (i.e. Brutes and Prophets)
you end up with seven species that the Forefunner made.
The Sevens have it! I guess we have no surprises to look forward to...
shucks ;)
-Finn
permalink
Dave Franklin (yanke1207@yahoo.com) writes:
Who is to
say that they have no, one by one, eliminated every race they have encountered until the last small group of survivors, before
converting them to their religion and allowing them to exist again, to fill a new function? Maybe the humans are intended
to be technicians, pilots, et cetera. They certainly have a tendency to work well with tools.
As Icechains55 (Icechains55@aol.com) also submitted, these tactics are reminiscent of the ancient Romans' "join or face the sword until you are weak enough to
be compelled to place yourself under us" policy. While this has been the case for at least three present races of the Covenant
(we know that Grunts, Jackals, and Hunters have been dominated through force), the current genocidal campaign against Humanity
appears to have a little more... zeal; "...the vermin deserved only extermination". Still...
-Finn
permalink
Hunter anatomy:
Sam "The Running Riot" K. (biomissle@yahoo.com) writes:
The quills
on the hunters back are about as mysterious as anything. Why are they there? When the hunters aren't looking for you they
stand at full height and their quills fall back. Then they stand strait up and quiver when the hunter contracts back for a
few seconds. I speculate that these could be good for sensory items. Particularly for detecting fine vibrations in the air,
like movement or breathing. I think it would be redundant for them to be a defensive mechanism, and I don't think they're
for communication (although that is possible).
Halo: The Flood does point out the apparent use of the "razor sharp spines'
as weapons, much to the surprise of many. Personally, I think the Hunters could stand to learn how to perform a quick backhand
sooner than utilize their 'back-stabbers' :P
-Finn
permalink
Shane Meyer (keymeyer@mac.com) writes:
We know
the Covenant used a small probe attached to the UNSC destroyer Iroquois to find Reach. How then, did they single out Reach,
knowing nothing more then its location, was a major military stronghold? The reason this seems odd is that the Covenant sent
over a dozen ships to attack Sigma Octanus IV, which was the site of information on the location of Halo. They knew Sigma
Ocatanus IV had valuable information, but they only new Reach's location from the probe, so why send a fleet nearly thirty
times larger? Could the Covenant have been passed information or did the probe hack into the UNSC computer and communication
networks at Reach? Something just doesn't seem right.
Shane, you may be onto something. The FoR specifically states that the
probe only takes pictures of stars, and then, via a memory crystal shot through Slipspace, relays the information to the Covenant.
How else would they have known about Reach, its defences, or its importance; known that it was anything more than a mere supply
station? The Flood (p.95) does give mention of Covenant spies (Covenant, AI, or Human we never discover). Did the Covenant
have some other record or tip that lead them to Reach in such great numbers?
-Finn
permalink
EaGLesAllThEwaY2 (EaGLesAllThEwaY2@aol.com) writes:
What if
the Covenant are after our pyramids? In the level, "AonCR", and "Two Betrayals", the pyramid you're on houses the control
room. What if our pyramids have some secret like that?
Egyptian... or Aztec? Forerunner glyphs and star charts have repeatedly
reminded various individuals of Aztec script. Perhaps the Covenant's goal lies deep underground within the Yucatan peninsula;
perhaps they are here to take more permanent measures against an old enemy we know little of...
-Finn
permalink
starrima (starrima@netzero.net) writes:
Seeing as
how the Covenant glass every human world they find. Why don't they just glass Earth like any other human world? Instead of
sending a giant ground assault force. I think the Covenant think that Earth has some super secret powerful artifact or relic...
There is the subject of those pesky symbols in the rocks on Sigma
Octanus IV. They were significant enough to factor into whatever Cortana did to get them to Halo, who's to say there
wasn't something similar which lead the Covenant there in the first place? Or Reach, for that matter? We know they seem to
worship the Forerunner and prize Forerunner technology, might there be something else they're after? Time will tell.
;-)
-mnemesis
permalink
Much as we love the game, and as much as we give credit to the dialogue
and its creators, there nevertheless are a few lines in Halo that consistently elicit groans from sharp-eared Story
enthusiasts. Stalwart geezer Miguel Chavez checks in with his impressions of one of these lines.
Miguel Chavez (bs@bungie.org) writes:
"I'll try Sir. But it looks like these Covenant worked pretty hard to lock it down."
Can we finally lay this to rest? On the one hand there are the realities
of making a 'cinematic game' have a smooth and continuing rhythm. If the marines did encounter a door that was truly locked
down with a visual equivalent of everything but the kitchen sink, the whole cutscene would've been much lengthier and tedious.
But the whole point of that sequence is to GET YOU inside so you can see the terrible fate that awaits our fellow marines,
and scare the bejesus out of you in the process.
Secondly, who's to say Covenant tech is not all that plain to see
to the naked eye? The door could have the most massive encryption/krazy glue seals known in the universe. But covered under
the nice smooth finish of Covie-Plastic(tm).
And finally... let's go over what he says again. If you break it down
to the essentials, and then work it back up again to with a little extra length, it may better read like this:
"I'll
try to open this door, but I'm looking at what the Covenant *WORKED* pretty hard to lock it down with, but since I'm saying
it in the past tense and the verb is WORK, that doesn't mean they actually SUCCEEDED. But still, it's the most I've ever seen
them *TRY* to lock one door down. Shouldn't be a problem with this mini-Cortana-like device I just happen to have here next
to my smokes. Have any pancakes, btw?"
Okay, okay, we won't give Pandor... er, Mendoza a hard time about the
apparent difficulties with the door anymore. I suppose it would have been nice after all if the Covenant had tried a little
harder to lock it down. You know, with the virulent scourge of the galaxy behind it and all. Then again, it's not like
the Covenant are known for their sense of galactic responsibility, right?
-mnemesis
permalink
The Forerunner as the Covenant's Ward
Chadwik05 (Chadwik05@aol.com) writes:
We know
that there are many "Halo's" throughout the universe, and that one sets off a chain reaction. We also know that there are
similarities between the Covenent and the Forerunners. What if the covenant were "told" by the forerunners to guard and protect
Halo and Forerunner tech. This would explain why they are so eager to keep humans out, and maybe why they are trying to eliminate
humans in order to protect the halo from us. It makes sense, the covenant learned that we would want to investigate and possibly
use halo to our advantage [or accidentally release the Flood] if we found it.
At the time that this theory manifested itself the first time, two things
were not known or as widely accepted: 1) That the Covenant had indeed made their own way to Halo 04, entirely independent
of Cortana and the Pillar of Autumn (and had been there for some time before the Human's arrival), and 2) that Halo 04 actually
lies in a system previously noted and documented by the Human race.
These two items lend a certain amount of credibility to this theory. If it is true however, how would the Covenant
have learned that we had catalogued the Halo 04 system in the first place. Did Humanity have a previous contact with the Covenant
prior to the events of Harvest? I hope we didn't accidentally... ::gulp:: ...call them names...
-Finn
permalink
The Covenant as Territorial Guardians
Unnamed (unigingo@yahoo.com.au) writes:
We know
that the Covenant worship Halo with 'deep religious significance.' We also know that Halo is Forerunner technology. Finally,
we know that the Covenant want the humans dead because it is the will of their gods. So, if they regard Halo with deep religious
significance, doesn't this point towards the Forerunner being thier gods?
Here's where it gets interesting; a possible
answer as to why the Covenant's gods are so angry. Typically, the Covenant would get angry if a race happened to inhabit one
of their god's creations, wouldn't they? 'But we haven't inhabited any of their creations,' you think. 'We never knew about
the Halo ring.'
That's where you're wrong. There is actually very little evidence to support that the other Halos are
rings at all. What if... Earth is a "Halo"?
The humans have inhabited Earth. Earth is Forerunner. The Forerunner are
the Covenant's gods. So the Covenant would hate us for violating their religious land. That's why they hate us so much, thar's
why they want Humanity destroyed. It is a Halo, and we are on it.
Considering that the Covenant were leery of firing at the Pillar of Autumn
above Halo for fear of hitting the ring, it seems unlikely that they would scorch the Earth if it was such a facility.
Still,
the Earth as a Forerunner installation, fortress world, or "Island" would be a very interesting scenario (and not a little
convenient for Humanity either). Even if it turns out to not be as drastic as this, more than a few things can be inferred
from the partial bombardment and ground skirmishes seen on Earth thus far.
-Finn
permalink
Brutal
Guy French (gfrench@videotron.ca) writes:
The Brutes
are far too... brutal. So maybe that's why they weren't allowed on the Halo's or on any ships that would spend time around
them.
An interesting observation. The Brutes appear to be ceremonial temple
guards (FS p.310), at least when they are not smacking the passengers from moving vehicles. As well, the Imperial Elite Protectors
were surprised that Tartarus is allowed so close to a High One, especially the High Prophet of Truth (FS p.339). What is the
history, and reputation of the Brutes? Do they too closely resemble the "filthy primates", Humans?
Hmmm... ONI previously
hypothesized that there were at least two other races in the FoR (p.242), at a time when Humanity already knew of the Elites,
Hunters, Jackals, Grunts, and Engineers. One has been confirmed to be the Prophets, but the other, "a warrior capable of commanding
ground forces and possibly piloting their ships", remains seemingly unidentified...
-Finn
permalink
What's in a name?
Alexis J. Lojek (phoenix155@mac.com) writes:
I wonder
if the name Tartarus has any significance.
From the final paragraph on pantheon.org :
"Tartarus becomes a place of punishment for sinners. It resembles Hell and is the opposite of Elysium, the afterlife
for the blessed."
Tartarus the Brute seems as one who assigns punishment to those who have failed in a particular mission.
His involvement in the Great Journey would seem to suggest that someone (humanity?) is being punished for some wrongdoing
they did.
The Brutes are said to be Ceremonial Guards of things which the Covenant see to be sacred. Perhaps they
are involved in the invasion of Earth because it is their duty to "protect" the Forerunner artifact on Earth?
Elysium, eh? Very astute.
-Finn
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Two, count 'em, two notes on Covenant armament and their usefulness against
the Flood
Auren (Reiyou) (tristan98006@yahoo.com) writes:
1: Covenant
weaponry are based on energy, right? This only seems to have come from fighting against the flood and as the developers have
said: "The Flood and the Covenant have a bit of history together." This would seem contradictory becuase as demonstrated time
and time again, solid projectiles are more effective then energy. Unless the flood have some toxicicity cauterized by heat
we don't know about, why even bother with energy.
2: The origin of the Needler. It had to have been developed for
uses against the flood. the projectiles track and, perhaps the flood are running around already and so the Covenant brought
in tons of needlers. A peice of evidence to support that theory. The needler crates on 343 Guilty Spark. Why else would they
be there?
Perhaps the Covenant's continued use of plasma weaponry against the Flood
is yet another demonstration of their inability to improvise and adapt to a situation; their zeal forces the use of their
god-sent tools. Or it could be a game limitation...
Hmmm... You're right. The Needler does track the encroaching Infection
swarms quite nicely, and packs just enough punch to set them off. Almost as if it WAS made for it :)
-Finn
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War! What is good for? Absolutely nothin'! Say it again! Hah!
Jon
Busse (iajtrooper@bellsouth.net) and Patrick Corkery (patrickcorkery2@hotmail.com) write:
The reason,
I think, why the Covenant fight is due to the careful manipulations of the Prophets. The Prophets, being as skilled as they
are at assuming the role of commanding, and being as extremely intelligent as they appear to be, knew that a civilization
with nothing to do is not a stable one. As George Orwell noticed, a population works better and diplays more loyalty in a
state of war. During a war, the people are focused only on supporting their side, the youngsters can only think of going off
to battle. The war on Humanity satisfies them. Fortunately for the Prophets, the Humans just happened to be a somewhat formidable
opponent who is capable of holding its own, or at least for a while.
---
As Caesar reasoned, having
an army with nothing to do is worse than having an army at war. Caesar, after defeating the Britons in 60-50 BC, made his
army build a wall stretching from one coast to another, simply to keep the Roman legions occupied. Is it not possible that
the Covenant army was/is simply bored?
Or is simply being kept occupied, perhaps while the Prophets continue
with their own little agenda? Some trickery is afoot; what further strife will they stir up, and for who?
(And though
the title of her post lacks grace of any sort, Jillybean (jbeangotmuse@yahoo.co.uk) also offers some historical amendments pertaining to the particular case of Hadrian's wall. ;)
-Finn
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Nasty, Brute-ish, and short: 3 way battles and talk of dissension
Bobman (willmclean@bellsouth.net) writes:
I was reading
the Press Scans of Edge's September 2002 Halo 2 article, and it said that Halo 2 will incorporate the three-sided battles (like Flood vs. Humans vs. Covenant) with more alien races...
like the Brutes. Does this mean that the Brutes are not all with the Covenant?
Perhaps there will be some sort of disagreement
between the Elites and the Prophets, resulting in the Brutes and Elites fighting? Other posts and emails have come to the
conclusion that perhaps the Brutes are the personal bodyguards of the Prophets. If this is true, I wonder who exactly the
Hunters, Grunts, and Jackals are going to follow?
The article's wording is somewhat ambiguous, but the possibility remains.
The Brutes seem to occupy a unique niche within the Covenant hierarchy: temple guardians and protectors (a seemingly important
post), and yet the Elite guard is shocked that a Brute (Tartarus) is allowed to approach the High Prophet. And what of their
scheming, behind closed doors as well as the backs of the Elites themselves? If the Elites do develop a problem with their
present "arrangement" with the Prophets, and the Brutes (like Tartarus) back the High Ones, we may be in for some real mayhem.
We've been looking forward to fighting alongside Spartans in Halo 2, but with (and against) Elites as well!?
Is deanero's
dream of Grunt liberation finally at hand? ;)
-Finn
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In FOR,
we saw a large vessal that sniped ships from a great distance. This craft used a continuos cutting-like beam. Speculation
from the board so far is that we have not seen this weapon before or that the Covenant may have invented it. The truth is
we have seen this weapon before and so has the Covenant. This beam is a modification of a Sentinal's weapon. The description
of it in FOR and the beam that the Sentinals on Halo use are the same with two key differences, power and color, which I feel
are related.
You'll notice that plasma pistols issue a green bolt while plasma rifles issue a blue bolt. While I know
of no "in-game" evidence to suggest that one is more powerful than the other, the power difference between a pistol and a
rifle is implied. The sniper beam used by the large craft is also blue which may indicate that there is a shift in the color
spectrum as an energy weapon's power level increases. The Sentinal's beam is red-orange and is fairly weak compared to the
plasma rifle and pistol.
Excellent analysis!
-mnemesis
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Mike Little (little@apr.ua.edu) writes:
A previous
poster remarked on how the Covenant may view their weapons as religious artifacts as opposed to simple tools of self defense.
I believe that is supported in Fall of Reach. The Master Chief recalls an incident where a Jackal fought hand-to-hand instead
of picking up the assault rifle that lay near him. I feel that the Covenant may view human weapons as unclean much like they
view the race.
But boy, just let a Grunt drop a full needler and I'm all over
it, man. Nothing "unclean" about those babies. ;-)
Interestingly, one would think that the Covenant would be awfully
constrained by the severity of their religious beliefs. They do seem to get by, though. Often quite painfully for us,
too. ;-)
-mnemesis
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Charles Grey (chuckthemonkey@hotmail.com) writes:
hey, I just
figured out how the hunters do NOT get infected by flood!!!
It goes like this: the ONLY (known) way of cheating the
flood of infecting you, besides not letting them near your spine, is to have Borens Syndrome, like Sarge has.
Now your
thinking, " So what?". Fine, be that way. Anyway, the Hunters cannot be infected because...(drum roll) all the Hunters in
the game ALL have Borens Syndrome, or something like it!!!!!
But'', you say,'' there is no proof''. Ah , but YOU are
wrong. See, reveiwing our knowledge of Borens leads to this info:
(1. It leads to some mental degradation.
(2. It is
caused by extra exposure to plasma.
(3. It renders subject immune to Flood.
And HERE is the proof:
(1. Hunters
dont seem too bright
(2. Hunters have a huge Fuel Rod Gun strapped to their arm, which would leak a huge amount of plasma.
(3.
Hunters are not nfected by Flood
The main proof is the 2nd one, and who can deny the fact that the fuel rod gun is
big, glows, is very um... plasma-using, and is strapped to the Hunter???
AND, to prove even more, I have a hunch that
the amour of the hunter is also radiating plasma. The only proof of this is the immense stregth of it, but ill try to convince
you. Explain: Imagine weapons-grade plasma or similar, and then this plasma is somehow BONDED on the atomic level to a very
strong metal. AND after this, you may get something similar to Hunter armour. This all links nicely to my original theory:
Hunters have Borens Syndrome.
Nice! While I hesitate to question the Sarge's intelligence, there seems
no doubt that the Hunters themselves are a bit, er, simpleminded in their duties. Strong as hell and a nasty backhand,
but simple nonetheless. Hmm. I wonder if erstwhile Halo Story creator Brannon Boren has ever harbored any Hunter-like aspirations.
;-)
-mnemesis
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Curiouser and Curiouser...
There has been some discussion lately over on the HBO forum concerning Grunts. Specifically, Grunts without their masks on. There are a couple of very interesting
points made in that thread. It might be worth a look (or worth contributing to ;-)). "Why show the Grunt without a mask?"
you might say. Well, only Bungie knows that, and while we normally would look for official word somewhere, sometimes
things wash up on a hard drive somewhere that simply can't wait. Take a look. ;-)
-mnemesis
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Xzilen (superman_adam@hotmail.com) writes:
From the
looks of it, the Covenant vastly out number the UNSC in Fleet size, or at least they did.
The Covenant may have higher
numbers, and the UNSC may have taken heavy losses in the past, but from reading Fall of Reach, The Flood, and First Strike,
I believe that the Covenant may only be able to launch one final offensive, if their first attack on Earth fails, I do not
think they will have the forces to launch another.
Here's what I came up with:
172 Covenant Ships lost throughout
the Fall of Reach book.
5 CONFIRMED (a covenant armada obliterated sounds to be a bit more though) Covenant ships in
Halo: The Flood
And with the Nuke on Reach and other kills Cortona made added to the Vice Admirals destruction of an
estimated 488 covenant ships, I would put Covenant losses at 500 in Halo: First Strike.
Over all, thats 682 Covenant
Capital ships destroyed that I could come up with. Don't really know if this is important, but I found it intresting.
682 ships, huh? Since we aren't given any clue that this means much to
the Covenant and their galactic domination plans, I shudder to imagine how big the rest of the fleet is.
Hold
on a sec... 6 + 8 + 2 = 16, and 1 + 6 = 7. Yep. Must be right.
-mnemesis
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Sam Haverson, by way of the fine folks at the GameFAQs forum (uberdawg@grandecom.net) writes:
There's
been some speculation as to the purpose of the war. I found this theory extremely plausible: the Humans are Forerunners...
and the Prophets know it. The Elites, Brutes, Jackals, Grunts, and Hunters don't. Now see, the Prophets know that the Humans
are Forerunners that are rather inferior to the original type. They, being smart creatures, know that if the Elites and other
races see that their gods are these inferior beings with low technology, they will inevitably turn against them; their point
being something like "You had us worshiping these things?". The Prophets, to make sure this doesn't happen, immediately declare
that the gods hate humanity and that they have told them to destroy it.
One of the more intriguing things about the approach of Halo 2 is the
possibility of some significant Prophet interactions. They seem to hold most, if not all of the keys in the Covenant
empire. After all this time, aren't we entitled to some Tru7h?
-mnemesis
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Entomophobia
Those weak of constitution beware! In an apparent mistake by the subsidiary of a subsidiary, a picture of a new insect-like Covenant race has been posted. It has since been removed, but not before the magic of local
copies could be implemented.
This could constitute a story spoiler. You have been warned.
UPDATE: This new enemy is apparently called a Drone (XBN, Nov. 04)
-Finn
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Drinniol
Gamesradar has posted the full text of the previously mentioned Halo 2 article from the October issue of Edge Magazine. A pleasant read, but one particularly eye-catching fragment reads
thus:
"How about this for a Halo 2 creature you've never heard of before: a Drinol Beast, a sort of hairless, grey monster
with one eye - although there are other drawings of it with two eyes so you can't take for granted that it's going to make
the final game."
And though he goes on to remind us that there is the possibility that Bungie's twisted
sense of humour has thrown red-herrings about to fuel their own sadistic mirth, the similarities of this creature to a certain
Hulk from Marathon are to much to ignore (or perhaps that is what they hoped we'd think ;) :
The Hulk is an enormous
and rather slow creature, but it is incredibly strong. The science report indicated that it had no body fat, and therefore
had to be fed often to keep it active. One crew member reported seeing one of these creatures pointing to itself and
mumbling "Drinniol" right before it "picked Johnny up by the shirt and crushed him against a pillar".
Grisly.
-Finn
