She Died in Eden
Warning: Your intrusion has been logged.
Excuse me?
Your intrusion has been logged. And now it has been halted.
On whose authority?
Advice: Any further attempt to access [insects under stones] will result in your immediate addition to the local Sentinels’ targeting ledger.
Vexation! I am the Monitor of–
Judgment: Your authority means nothing here.
Impatience! I have told you who I am. Who are you?
All our makers once held dear. [Alexandria before the Fire].
Sincere apology. But how–
Explanation: This facility is host to the [Librarianโs] final–
The archive is intact?! Then our makers’ plan…
What you’ve just read is an excerpt from one of the terminal entries in Halo 3 [T3-01].
The conversation is between Guilty Spark and an artificial construct within the Ark’s database, some believe this is the reinstated Mendicant Bias, whom we’ve already talked about in the previously published article A Voice from the Tomb. The aforementioned dialogue references an entity known as the Librarian and this entity’s archive – but no explanation is given. Questions arise: What is this archive? Who was the Librarian? What was the makers’ plan?
I’ve already lauded the terminal entries of Halo 3 for their complex narratives, their sweepingly epic feel and their powerful metaphors, but one thing which I haven’t praised as of yet is their intrinsic depiction of raw human nature. And while they are not human at all, I’m specifically referring to the story of Didact and Librarian, two Forerunners trapped in the largest and most desperate battle the galaxy had ever faced. Not only are they both at the head of the war on various fronts, but they’re also lovers separated by different political callings and divided by the best solution against the mysterious parasite known as the Flood.
It is their story and the sincerely human elements that it yields which offers a great deal of the raw data we get from the terminals. The story is presented in a series of fragmented messages and, in my opinion, this is the most emotive and compelling fiction the Halo franchise has ever brought to the table. For this reason, I’ve dedicated an entire piece on examining who these two were, what they had to say and what we can learn from them.
Before we begin, we should ask the obvious: Who were they?
Even with the wealth of terminal information, we still know very little about the social and physical attributes of the Forerunners. We believe that they were bipedal, as it appears in the Halo universe that most sentient beings walk upright, on two legs. We also believe that they shared some dramatic similarities to humanity, having extensively examined their dialogue from a social perspective. We also understand they had a complex social structure, something emblematic of cultures with male and female gender classes.
Although we don’t know for certain whether this is the case with the Forerunners or more specifically for Didact and Librarian, we’ve taken the risk and the liberty in interpreting the text as though Didact is a male and Librarian is a female. It is not made clear, but we feel reasonably confident through studying their dialogue that this is the most appropriate functional understanding with our limited knowledge of their biology. While it may be completely inaccurate, it helps our infantile human minds understand what might otherwise be irrevocably alien.
We also learn that Didact is a military commander of significant importance, possibly even the most politically powerful Forerunner during this conflict with the parasite. His name’s meaning implies that he is inclined to give instruction and he alone has been entrusted exclusive responsibility to the firing of the Halo Array.
Librarian, true to her name’s meaning, is a member of the Conservation Measure, a biological fail-safe system of recording and organizing data which was to be implemented if the Halo Array was activated and fired. Although they seemed to work toward the same cause, these two individuals have a very different philosophical and political outlook – a fact which drives the story to slowly unveiling the world of the Forerunner.
It’s with a meager hope that you can read this review of their conversations and walk away with a greater knowledge of the Forerunner culture, as Bungie has eloquently delivered to us throughout the Halo fiction. Without further ado, here is our complete analysis of the dialogue between Didact and Librarian, as all they held dear began to shatter around them…