Ascendant Justice

June 1, 2008

Shield World

> — Vociferous @ 8:44 pm

A speculative look at the mysterious third element of the Forerunner equation…

(more…)

Comments (75)

75 Comments »

Great Research.

Comment by RotaryAce — June 1, 2008 @ 9:54 pm

they wouldnt be entirely alone
if it is the shield world then the master chief would probably try to save the people inside, namely Dr. Halsey and the other spartans located within. though mendez would have to die or something, because he and the chief never meet again, supposedly.

Comment by TreyToller — June 1, 2008 @ 10:21 pm

Your thoughts and research are well-formed and incredibly insightful. I got shivers when I finally put all the pieces of information together after finishing the games and fiction. Reading your material here brought another instance of shivers. I can’t wait to see where this all goes.

Comment by Hidesquadron1 — June 2, 2008 @ 12:15 am

In the description for the ‘micro dyson sphere’ in Ghosts of Onyx, couldn’t that sort of be described as the Ark? In the extra disks that come with the Legendary edition of Halo 3 there are some concept art that makes the Ark look like a spherical world….but even without that if you look at it that could be the Ark and the other spartans and Dr. Halsey simply got there before the Master Chief. And how did the gravemind and High Charity make it to the Ark if it was out of range….maybe they made it to Onyx…..?

Comment by Mr. Paul — June 2, 2008 @ 12:25 am

hey vociferous…ive been reading your articles for a while now and i must say im impressed with the level of detail and your dedication to publishing these details to the rest of the halo community..im slightly curious about the halo installations themselves…ive noticed that few if any people have check into the LOCATION of the halo installations within our galaxy…ive done some preliminary work into this myself and ive yet to come up with a plausible model of the placement of these installations in the galaxy…i wonder if this is something you could look into in one of your future articles.

Comment by Andre — June 2, 2008 @ 1:06 am

Thanks for your comments, guys.

Just to clarify, I’m not suggesting that the Dawn will arrive at Onyx – only that Onyx is a shield world, we know these installations existd, so it seems reasonable to suggest that the structure the Dawn is moving toward at the end of Halo 3 is, in fact, a shield world. There were obviously more the one facility being depicted here according to the terminals. Could it be a different type of installation? Absolutely, but it’s clearly Forerunner and with our current knowledge, the best guess is that it’s a shield world of some sort.

Comment by vociferous — June 2, 2008 @ 8:12 am

Hmmmm…… Interesting theory, but I think I have some evidence to disprove it….

First: Cortana mentions that Alpha Halo 2.0 “did a number on the ark” – this would seem to indicate that she had some way of OBSERVING the ark – meaning they were still pretty close (less than a light year) to it… as if the portal was a INSTANT portal, as in, you stick your hand in it, and it instantly goes to the other side, no lag time to sent it elsewhere…. normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, except….

2: This means that they are still outside the main Halo arrays range…. the forerunner wouldn’t need a shield world that far out… they’d just stay on the ark…. and you can still see the star cluster in the back ground, so they haven’t gone TOO far between the normal ending and the legendary one….

All the refrences to “Precursors” would seem to indicate a conection to them…. All the “Forerunner symbols” could just as well be PRECURSOR symbols, that were recycled by their “children”, the Forerunner just as the Covies borrowed the symbols.

.. I’d say its a Star Control II-esque (hence the “Precursors” being implied out of nowhere in this game, with no previous mention of them anywhere) Rainbow World.

Now, it may indeed have a Micro-Dyson shpere in it anyway, it could be the Forerunners inspiration for the shield worlds…. which makes the Rainbow Worlds and Shield worlds a distinction without much of a difference….

… but suffice to say, I doubt it was used as a real “Shield World” – given that all indications point to it being in the general vicinity (if not the same solar system) as the ark.

Comment by Bob — June 2, 2008 @ 10:30 am

Bob, thanks for your comments and I like I said earlier, there’s a clear possibility that this installation could be wholly new and unique. I was genuinely shocked to discover that the Ark was not a shield world in Halo 3, just as Guilty Spark was.

That being said, you should read a bit further in Cortana’s dialogue:

“I’m not sure. When Halo fired, it shook itself to pieces. Did a number on the Ark. The Portal couldn’t sustain itself. We made it through just as it collapsed… Well, some of us made it.”

Cortana is not confused. She believes that she made it through the portal and that the portal worked, at least in part.

There’s no real indication where they are, but one could estimate that she would never even suggest that it would take years to be found if they were outside the boundaries of the galaxy – far displaced from any UNSC travel routes whatsoever. Also, there’s new viewable debris of the Ark, Halo or anything else for that matter. I think something to that effect would be key if Bungie was intent on showing that they did not make it through the portal properly.

Comment by vociferous — June 2, 2008 @ 11:41 am

I would much rather see a game based on the spartans training, maybe 3rd person could workfor that as it would be more of an RPG style

either way, i just checked my ghosts of onyx book and its there alright, amazing research, very good read

Comment by quickshot89 — June 2, 2008 @ 11:47 am

Earth, The Covenant, and Flood are all things of the past. Cortana and Chief in a vast mysterious place would be so awesome. I think it would be great to combine action, exploration, and shooter. I’ll probably love whatever Bungie makes, but I hope Halo doesn’t get wrecked by Microsoft.

Comment by ZaneXXX — June 2, 2008 @ 12:48 pm

wow
makes my wait for the fourth installment all the more hard to live with
a game like the first, with the lone chief just trying to survive. the imagination is wild right now

Comment by ferdy — June 2, 2008 @ 12:55 pm

This is the probably the best educated guess at a “Halo 4″ I’ve heard. Very good work, as always

Comment by Zep 077 — June 2, 2008 @ 1:04 pm

if they make it an action, exploration, and shooter game i think it will be like a firt person kotor game

Comment by general ceaser — June 2, 2008 @ 1:18 pm

… I’m pretty sure the “well, some of us made it” was refering to the Arbiters half of the ship….

again, I’d think the portal is more of a Stargate than just your average slipspace pathway that takes time to travel through… otherwise, the Forerunner woulda just flew there themselves…

The point of the portal was to save time….. You go in one side, and BOOM, instantly out the other, no room to get tossed out randomly if the portal were to deactivate outside of some solar flare or whatnot…

Of course, they don’t need to show debries of the Ark because Cortana just said that it was damaged…. same reasoning behind not showing High Charity in a million pieces… because you kinda just assumed from all the explosions that it was not capable of flight anymore….

Anyway, a Dyson Sphere’d be cool to play around in….

Comment by Bob — June 2, 2008 @ 1:24 pm

My God. Great analysis, man. I’m addicted to this website and the many secrets it unveils about Halo. Your assumption is probably very accurate. I also think that maybe the squad-based shooter that you mentioned may have to do with the MC rendezvousing with the Ghosts in the slipspace shell.

Comment by Smug — June 2, 2008 @ 1:24 pm

Okay. If you do not know what slipspace is, then you should look into it. All of Forerunner travel technology is based on the theory of slipspace travel. This being the case, then there is a probability that the portal collapsed while Cortana and Master Chief were in the middle of travel. Slipspace is a domain with alternate physical laws, allowing faster-than-light travel without relativistic side-effects. Faster-than-light travel is not instantaneous; “short” jumps routinely take up to two months, and “long” jumps can last six months or more. (Wikipedia)

Comment by Dustin — June 2, 2008 @ 1:37 pm

I hope that it is onyx was the spartan who died to help the others get thru the portal kurt? I don’t know about anyone else but I would like to play the last few moments of kurt as a level

Comment by Divine W0lF — June 2, 2008 @ 2:29 pm

Good read. I really hope that the next Halo Game (not halo wars) covers the other Spartans as well. I want to see them in the games.

I do how ever have a problem with the theory that the planet at the end of Halo 3 is Onxy. I can’t remember it word for word but did the commander of the prowler class ship at the end of the book not say how Onxy did not look like a planet any longer? I could be totally wrong on that. And second if this was the shield dome and it’s really as big as the space between earth and the sun well it didn’t look that big at the end of Halo 3.

Onyx is also quite close to earth compared to other plants like harvest for example only a few weeks away if I remember correctly. I got the opinion they were VERY far away from earth at the end of Halo 3. But then again as the post says it could be a failsafe that brought them to Onyx.

Comment by sarge mat — June 2, 2008 @ 3:55 pm

Hi, to say about the possible connection between onyx and the planet at end of halo 3: ONYX is stated to be just outside of UNSC space (Spartan 058/fred states on his way to onyx: A habitable planet on the edge of UNSC space…a missed planet or a very well kept secret).

Meanwhile Guilty spark says the ark is 10^18 light years from galactic centre, this means that the planet near the ark cannot be onyx.

As for halo 4, halo is a trilogy so the next game cant be halo 4 maybe halo chronicles will be a follow up?

Comment by chris — June 2, 2008 @ 4:10 pm

I gotta say I hope Divine Wolf if right. I was completely let down by the end of Halo 3. Don’t get me wrong. I have all the faith in the world that The halo series will make it right. If I had to pick the most epic moment in any book or movie, it would be the end of ghosts of onyx. Kurt standing in front of 10,000 covenant soldiers with a HAVOK tactical nuclear warhead on one shoulder and a Rocket Launcher on the other. Dude. I want to die that way.

Comment by Jake — June 2, 2008 @ 4:14 pm

nerdgasm if your right which i pray to god you are i WILL be in line but on the down side you made me want to get my books and read them again lol

Comment by xXSilentDeadXx — June 2, 2008 @ 4:33 pm

Well I’ll just say it’s nice to see someone else delve as far as myself into the series. (Thank God I thought I was nuts). But I must add that your depiction of the symbols of the different forerunner constructs are actually all the same if you layer them on top each other, by simply turning some upside down or mirror the image over. So they could all be the same thing. Which could give highlight to the idea that it may seem possible that The Ark (typically by definition a safe place in case of a massive catastrophe) could be the place the remaining Spartans, Dr. Halsey, and Chief Mendez could have been teleported too. To be continued on the next comment.

Comment by the13loodwake — June 2, 2008 @ 4:56 pm

And since Bob, I believe originally pointed out, that the Ark and and the mysterious planet that MC is slowly floating to are very close together. I would like to add something to Bob’s statements, I believe that the Ark is the neighbor to Onyx and was not visible before due to the fact that it was not summoned until the activation of multiple rings took place (could be a fail-safe in case of an accidental activation inplaced by the forerunners). And since we don’t know the extent of the forerunners technology on slipspace and their ability to harness its power, we can only be lead to assume that it may seem possible that the Ark was for a lack of a better term “summoned” to save species from the Ring worlds.

Comment by the13loodwake — June 2, 2008 @ 5:05 pm

and to add on to my own comment from above, it seems that the Ark may have actually been meant for multiple roles. Maybe as to protect the sentient life in the galaxy but to also act as a second failsafe that is determined through the games when Miranda deactivates the Index in Halo 2, and the Ark is the only place the rings can be fired from, due to the deactivation of the Index on Delta Halo.

Comment by the13loodwake — June 2, 2008 @ 5:08 pm

I am actually writing a short story as my English summative project that connects the end of Halo 3 with Ghosts of Onyx

Comment by Scottie17 — June 2, 2008 @ 5:26 pm

Fantastic research and writing, once again! What a pleasure to read such an intellectual treatment of the HALO universe! Great stuff! Keep up the good work!

Comment by TLB — June 2, 2008 @ 6:29 pm

Also, the sybol that is found on the Halo rings and the Ark and Shield Worlds and various texts and stuff is the center of the logo of the original Halo.

Comment by Mister Mxyzptlk — June 2, 2008 @ 6:54 pm

Wait, What the hell am I saying, that’s the Marathon logo!!!

Please ignore me!!!!

Wow I feel like an idiot.

Comment by Mister Mxyzptlk — June 2, 2008 @ 6:56 pm

Nice research AJ! This is really amazing! I was just watching “Master Chief Sucks at Halo” shortly after reading this and in the video it shows the Halo 3 Beta Matchmaking Lobby. I could be mistaken, but the object in the background in the lobby looks like the legendary ending “planetoid”. Or it was either the beta world map of online players. But check it out.

Comment by Bryan O. — June 2, 2008 @ 8:42 pm

Well i have to say, you done went and got me all EXCITED! And it was well put together.WOW!

Comment by noLUCKrequired — June 2, 2008 @ 9:31 pm

4 things to address certain posts.
1. Onyx is nowhere near the Ark, one is on the edge of UNSC space and the other is outside our galaxy.
2. All travel through portals created by Forerunner tech utilizes slipspace travel. The Covies didn’t just travel to the ark because they dind’t have the coordinates and the Forerunner just happen to be better at it, unless the tech sustaining that path is destroyed.
3. When said path is destroyed anything on it while it colapses is suddenly dropped into normal space where the 2 (normal and slip) coincide.
4. The Ark had 2 main puposes: to categorize sentient life in the Milky Way Galaxy and to create (and become master of) the RingWorlds.

Comment by Fimalo — June 2, 2008 @ 10:26 pm

If you look on Halo one’s map Derelict there are four of those strange symbols on the top floor center area. Left those out.

Comment by Garrick Ehlers — June 3, 2008 @ 5:47 am

At the end of Halo 3 there is still loads of things unanswered:
1) obviously what is that planet at end of halo .
2) Still lots of info on forerunners left unanswered.
3) whats will happen to the other spartans on Onyx.
4) what happend to gray team (group of spartans who were not at reach when it was attacked, according to “ghosts of onyx”, they were far outside UNSC space.)
5)what will happen to earth and the elites?

6)Who are the PRECURSORS, (beastarium says tran-sentient and the most powerful creatures ever. In the milkyway galaxy before fore runners.)

Comment by chris — June 3, 2008 @ 6:06 am

as long as halo is milked to death (another 1 or two games is fine by me, such as halo wars (RTS) the peter jackson game (hoepfully some form of MMO that is player driven) and a 3rd person adventure game based on the rest of the spartans, and like i said in my 1st post, a game based on the spartans training and the book fall of reach would be the best game to make next

Comment by quickshot89 — June 3, 2008 @ 7:19 am

Very good article. Only thing I worry about the series is that Microsoft won’t do justice in the story like Bungie did. I just can’t wait until the next story arc to find out what the next thing will be. Will we ever know the full tru7h?

Comment by CS~ — June 3, 2008 @ 9:46 am

It could be a shield world since we know there are more but also it could be a planet of very importance to the Forerunner, you can see the Iris Nebula in the background so it has to be something important.

And yes I do believe there are forerunner alive in some shield installation. What about Didact and Offensive bias, we all know Didact survived because he was in the Ark and there is a terminal that tells us what he says after firing the rings.

Maybe he and offensive bias went to their home planet or one of the shield installations.

Really interesting all of this, if only Bungie could tell us more!!

Comment by Sorrento — June 3, 2008 @ 12:28 pm

Awesome research, on the past when I passed the game on legendary I also started looking for a site that had the substamce that yours have, very well done in all of your articles, this specifically shows you have VERY advanced research capabilities, I will keep reading as long as you keep posting.

Personally I agree this planetoid is a shield world, and since the marathon symbol its also there it may have something to do with that trilogy also. But one this is for sure we will learn more of the forerunners.

Comment by fenix1003 — June 3, 2008 @ 2:03 pm

The marathon symbol is also the symbol for “reclaimer” – no connnection to Marathon outside of a shout out.

I’m stilly iffy on the portal. The halo was PRETTYYYY close to exploding. I’m assuming that the portal woulda shut down soon after. If it took any serious amount of time (anything more than 10 seconds) then the arbiters part of the ship would have been stuck out there to… if it had taken only a couple of seconds, then it would not have been enough to fit half the Frigate in there, just a small sliver would have been lost in space. The portal length would have to be ridonkulously perfect to fit exactly the whole tail end of the frigate without clipping off part of the engines.

Comment by Bob — June 3, 2008 @ 6:44 pm

i was going to mention something about the gray team however, it doesn’t really relate to the post.

Comment by the13loodwake — June 4, 2008 @ 12:40 am

I recently completed reading “Ghosts of Onyx” for the 2nd time and made an interestingobservation. On p. 311, Dr. Halsey informs Kurt that the entrance[to the Micro Dyson sphere] is closing. “In one hour seventeen minutes the core entrance will shut.”

The major significance of the time limit is that it corresponds to John’s Spartan designation # Spartan-117. This allusion is also significant, b/c 1:17:00 is the duration remaining when Dr. Halsey FIRST comments on the time left till the entrance closes. “Forever.”

A clever little ‘Easter Egg,’ courtesy of Bungie along w/ Mr. Nylund.

Comment by Stormsciple — June 4, 2008 @ 2:04 am

It is interesting to know if the Legendary ending will be part of a future game but right now I don’t see a plot, ok so for example they land and find forerunners, whats next? They cant fight each other…

What I’m concerned is about the flood on the delta halo and there are still the other rings which contain flood facilities and probably have a research facility like the one on Threshold.

Comment by Sorrento — June 4, 2008 @ 11:26 am

I really really hope your assumption is right. The next halo game may explore why the Forerunner’s shield world defensive plans failed. Perhaps something more terrible then the Flood is waiting to be discovered on the shield worlds…

Comment by Virshia — June 4, 2008 @ 12:33 pm

Who can read this and not itch for Halo 4… or even some continuation to Ghosts… thanks again for the amazing read.

Comment by Falcon Zero — June 4, 2008 @ 9:17 pm

We also cant forget about the precursors.

They could travel between galaxies, they could had encountered the flood at some point or maybe they created the flood since they were advanced enough.

Comment by Sorrento — June 4, 2008 @ 11:33 pm

the chief cant be alone for long cortana set out the beacon and the UNSC is gonna want to find the chiefs body plus wat if this shield world be the final resting place of our ancestors the forruners and also he could get off the word because if its forruner then theres a portal to take him to earth or the destroyed remnants of the ark or another instalation

Comment by LukeFoxxy — June 6, 2008 @ 7:22 pm

i just noticed that in the halo ce multiplayer map hang em high the symbol is everywhere

Comment by dave — June 8, 2008 @ 1:25 am

just a thought, what if this planet was built after the array was fired 100,000 years ago as a research facility. there also where offensive bias was transported to study the information he collected while fighting mendicant bias and the food. taken that this planet wasnt specificly mentioned in the terminals or previous dialogue, and that it has that one mark found on all the installations, it could have had a purpose after they defeated the flood the first time.

Comment by Helix — June 8, 2008 @ 6:20 pm

Great Discovery, But don’t you think the Master Chief era is over? In Halo 4 it shoud be elites. Awesome point!

Comment by Brandon — June 10, 2008 @ 1:56 pm

Great Read!

I believe you are really spot on with your research. As soon as I saw that ending, I knew it would keep my mind puzzled for however long it would officially take to explain what it is. This article has only intrigued me more.

Have we learnt all the secrets of the Flood? I seriously can’t wait for another bad ass enemy to make an appearance.

I just want to say you always have entertaining reads vociferous. Cheers mate.

Comment by Xmoose — June 16, 2008 @ 11:51 am

alright i had to stay at home this week so i did my halo research (which almost destroyed my comp with all the info in this universe) after the operations given to by spartan 3 teams alpha and bravo which were all killed besides bravo team foxtrot lucy and kyle (the reason most died was from the spi armor which was a lot weaker but only a little better than odst armor plus they were only 12 (discovered by the sanghelli who stated those sanghelli who cuased casualty to these children were not that of an honorable battle.) new teams gamma and (forgot) went to the battle of onyx (still need to research) and found the slipspace to shield world. i predict halo 4 will go about the experience of team gamma during fall of reach and the battle of onyx and see kurt-51’s death before your team and dr.kensley go into shield world and this will lead to the later chapter of halo 4 where MC fall into the planet discovering the shield world (or alternatley getting a wake up call from enemy forces or being discovered by kelly and her team (kelly is johns(MC) best freind besides sam who was killed in the first spartan mission (ironicly he was the strongest of the spartans) that is what i predict.

Comment by skelingtin — June 18, 2008 @ 8:54 pm

scratch the second team after gamma there was none.

Comment by skelingtin — June 18, 2008 @ 8:56 pm

little bit of a problem though i just realized…………onyx was completly obliterated by the nukes that kurt used to sacrifice himself…
——————————————————
off topic gameplay “likely” elements

1. new armor permutations
2. new enemies
3. new flood possibly (it was never proven that there was only one gravemind there could be one for each ring and one probably escaped to this planet beforehand seeing as how there all knowing)
4. new teamates (help team gamma survive and learn the secrets of your past through dr. kensley and the hardships of what happened to your seperated teammates through the voice of spartan 3 team gamma

5. larger on screen enemies (its happening to a lot more games latley)
6. maybe a visual of johns face as to show (how i see the cutscene) kelly taking off her helmet after discovering that john is alive and rushing over to john and pulling his helmet off.
7. new weapons like the SAM rocket launcher
new sniper rifle and melee modes the sspartan 3 equipment storage.

Comment by skelingtin — June 18, 2008 @ 9:03 pm

crappy part of halo 4

its gonna take another 4 to 5 years to make

lol!!!!!!!!

……………… i feel sad inside now

Comment by skelingtin — June 18, 2008 @ 9:05 pm

Hey well done man, perfect analysis. I myslef am a big fan of the story and contemplated the ideas you higlighted myslef. The idea of having a re – invented halo story gives me butterflies and i do think that there are many ways in which a new stroy could be made. I hope u agree – Ghosts of Onyx has really blasted the world of halo wide open!!! good article – just need to read the new book now
Dave

Comment by David — June 22, 2008 @ 2:51 pm

Fantastic Article.

However, I have my doubts about the legendary ending. For starters, is it even canonical?

How do we know it wasn’t just Bungie putting some red herring in there to keep people speculating, getting hyped up all for nothing?

I think it’s nothing more than a referrence to Marathon and just a practical joke on us.

Halo 3 is meant to be the end of Master Chief’s story, so by having some “stay tuned” ending completely contradict that statement?

Comment by Howling Darkness — July 6, 2008 @ 12:35 pm

john-117 is drifting towards a shield world, name is unknown, and definately not onyx. also the legendary ending to me seemed like a stay tuned, to me.

Comment by garry — July 10, 2008 @ 6:57 pm

Great reading here! This is my first visit to this site and I see I have a lot of catching up to do.

Reading through the shield world article left me wondering if the flood could have survived the original Halo detonation by simply entering slipspace? I know they would have returned to an empty “grocery store”, but what is going to happen to those inside of Onyx as well? So many questions that I’m not sure they will ever be answered in my lifetime concerning this story

Comment by Spartan 6453 — July 16, 2008 @ 3:54 pm

the shield world was created to save the “reclaimer” when the halo was activated so in the story of ghost of onyx they think it was for new technology but Dr. Hasley new more about it (creator of cortana)So she used it to save the Spartans so now they are lock up in the shield door waiting

Comment by Killaramas — August 8, 2008 @ 8:30 am

the chief and cortana aren’t the only ones left. the end of ghosts of onyx leaves us with dr. halsey, mendez, if my memory serves, linda, fred, tom and lucy, and maybe a couple others. so if the planetoid in the legendary ending is, as i assume, the planet that the aforementioned traveled to from onyx, the chief will have them as allies.

Comment by xxl pulse lxx — August 20, 2008 @ 10:36 am

also, after scanning through comments, i;m reminded that onyx is no more. you find out it was made entirely around a shell of sentinels.

Comment by xxl pulse lxx — August 20, 2008 @ 10:38 am

there’s this interesting pic of an shield world on the legendary bonus disk

Comment by lordpratt — August 31, 2008 @ 10:13 am

I don’t think that the planet at the end of Halo 3 is a Shield world. In reference to Marathon and The Cortana Letters there was a planet with creatures crawling on its surface. Could this be that planet?

Comment by Fatalis — October 27, 2008 @ 6:19 pm

I have a theory. Truth KNEW that the Great Journey killed all sentient life. Why? If you listen quite closely, you will hear him say (RIGHT BEFORE he is about to activate the rings) “Your secret dies with all the rest.” This would also imply the fact that he knew that the Humans’ ancestors were the Forerunners. Did you know that the word “Forerunner” LITTERALLY comes from the Latin word “praecursor”?

Comment by Christian Bethel — November 24, 2008 @ 7:35 pm

It’s most likely, if not obviously, a Forerunner arttifact. Look at the higlighted symbol! That swmbol has been seen on all of the Megastructures we’ve been to so far.

Comment by Christian Bethel — November 24, 2008 @ 7:37 pm

Maybe the light we see is the star as a result of the Ark’s explosion. The chief and cortana could’ve drifted a LONG way

Comment by Christian Bethel — November 24, 2008 @ 7:40 pm

A couple of theories I have. I think the shield worlds performed what thy were meant to, which was to save the populations of Forerunner worlds to repopulate after the Halo rings fired, which would be the current species (Covenant and Human).

Which opens a couple more questions, like where did the Forerunners themselves go? And why is humanity so special to the Forerunners so we are considered Reclaimers and the Covenant is not? Maybe the Covenant are not species saved by the Forerunners?

Also, the Flood seems to have survived on the Halo rings themselves for study. A mistake I think!

Comment by Ziterminator — January 18, 2009 @ 3:34 am

DUDE, FOR ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING HALO KEEP TO IT READ THE BOOKS. THE MOST EPIC STORY IN THE WORLD..AND THE BEST!!!!

Comment by aaron — February 22, 2009 @ 2:21 pm

does anyone know The Tyrant a.k.a Daniel Morris?

Comment by Christian Bethel — February 23, 2009 @ 6:41 pm

As usual, an interesting article done by the fantastic writers of this blog. However, with all that we have learned since the trilogy concluded, don’t forget that a principle if not core artistic choice by Bungie is to have all things Forerunner vague, mystical-like, and merely elaborate set-pieces with little direct meaning.

The Forerunner only fully operate in the background and the past-tense; it is impossible to have them play in the forefront of a story’s events. As for the Forerunner planetoid and the FoD’s floating shell, it is likely that that is it. There is nothing more to tell. Since this is the end of Master Chief’s story, and given that we were first introduced to the Halo universe via his story, the meaning will be clear.

The story began with him, and it ends with him. Halo Wars, Halo 3: ODST, and other coming products only fill in the blanks of past events, and that means events and characters that have chronologically been played out. That is probably what Bungie meant by other story and character arcs; filling out the holes in the story.

But that also means of course that there is nothing after these past events and the trilogy. Halo 3 ends the entire story, and the FoD’s shell floating towards an unknown planetoid is a perpetual mystery, never to be solved.

As the “Art of Halo 3″ says about the end on pg.115;

“The implications here are clear, the Chief’s story concludes where it began-in a cryo chamber. His duties completed, his mission achieved, the Spartan rests. Cortana and the Chief are adrift in space, a time capsule and ultimate representatives of humankind’s achievements.”

In other words, they are going to be nothing more than artifacts, representatives of humanity, heading towards some never-to-determined, empty and worthless Forerunner facility. Their previous trilogy, Marathon, had an open ending with no true resolution, so it should be an almost certainty that this will be the same.

After all, if they leave it open ended, it saves them the effort of actually truly answering any of these questions. They like vague, and sometimes lazy storytelling, and the desire for open-ended interpretations and endings is a perfect cover for writer laziness.

Comment by Random Furby — February 27, 2009 @ 9:25 pm

what if the planetiod we see at the end of the lengendary ending of halo 3 is a secret human colony or the homeworld of a new species that has not yet been revieled?

Comment by Cody — March 17, 2009 @ 4:40 pm

The book “Ghosts of Onyx” makes one thing clear…the shield world had their protectors, namely the sentinels. If Onyx was that heavily protected that even the Covenants found it hard to breach, it would make sense to assume that other shield worlds would also be similarly protected. In the novel there is one statement which says that the outer surface of the Shield World was crawling with Sentinels which made a shell like structure around the Sphere. So the surface of the sphere was not visible. As per my assumptions this could mean two things:

1> This might not be Onyx or any shield world but a completely separate installation. Could be that what the good doctor and the Spartans found at Onyx was a gateway to the actual Shield world. Which was in a completely different location. All the so called shield worlds could be gateways to the same place. And Chief was heading to the actual thing.

2> If this is actually a shield world then all I can say is there are loads of Sentinels who would treat the chief hostile (remember in Onyx the Spartans had a nice party with them). This would definitely mean that in the next game Chief has a lot of clean up to do… Lots of actions with big guns(I hope)!!!

Comment by PJ — May 24, 2009 @ 12:43 pm

Seems as though this planetiod is actually Reach. This is not an exact answer but to my eyes, the two planets appear the same. Could Bungie have inserted this preview of Halo: Reach into the end of H3? If so, what would this mean for Master Chief? Is he actually gone without hope of retreival?

Comment by Jon — June 4, 2009 @ 11:16 pm

Very very very good research but there would be one more small horror with the fact of cortana going into rampancy because at the end of Halo3 the Master Chief says “Wake me when you me” because he knows that she is showing signs of rampancy.And also that you dont know what your up againist.

Comment by Nick — June 29, 2009 @ 7:08 am

Great stuff but if they are going to make a halo which has the shield world and all why not make it before halo wars, odst, and fall of reach unless they are starting from the beging again

Comment by Ryan — July 9, 2009 @ 8:02 am

The “legendary ending” of halo 3 is not so, I played the last level, halo, from rally point alpha, on EASY, and when the credits were done, the so called, “legendary ending” started to play… how about that!

Comment by Robert Allen — July 12, 2009 @ 8:31 pm

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June 1, 2008

Shield World

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