Halo: Getting into the Story

[Paco]

Those games had a story? Maybe I should have read the instruction manuals?

This much is from the games:

What we know thus far...the Forerunners were a race that existed hundreds of thousands of years ago, and at some point came in to contact or perhaps even created the Flood. They built the Halos to study, contain, and, if need be, destroy the Flood if it were to breach containment. Evidence of their laboratories are in Halo 2 in the level Threshold. As mentioned, The Halos were also a weapon to destroy all sentient life enough to sustain the Flood across approxiamately 25,000 light years. This was all explained by Guilty Spark 343, a monitor assigned to a Halo by the Forerunners (there's one on each Halo; they control the sentinels, but can't activate the Halos).

Guilty Spark 343 further explains in the second game that after some sort of breach, the Forerunners had no option left but to activate the Halos, killing all Flood and themselves.

Listening to Guilty Spark 343, it actually drops quite a bit of information to speculate upon. He mentions things while in MC's presence such as "Human history! How exciting to catch up on all our lost time." Suggesting that humans may actually have been the forerunners. That's just speculation at this point though.

The Covenant is comprised of two races, the Prophets and the Elites, who were enemies at one time but formed a covenant in search of the truth behind the forerunners, whom they believed left this universe (the Great Journey) by use of the Halos. That is why they are so inclined to activate them, to deliver the worthy to the next destination (whatever it may be). I'm not entirely sure, but I believe by the first Halo game, five of them had been activated leaving two left to activate. As you know from the first game, Alpha Halo was destroyed. In Halo 2, you visited another Halo Ring, Delta Halo. That one was activated by Tartulus (the Brute), but shut down by Miranda Keyes, who then put the other 5 Halos on standby mode. Now the Halos could only be activated from...

The Ark. A remote destination that we now believe to be on Earth, and could activate all the Halos. It is also beleived that it would act as protection of life on it from the Halos' blast, or as a vessel to another universe (where it is speculated the Forerunners might still be alive).

The Brutes were contracted by the Prophets to protect them after they decided the Elites were no longer sufficient. In Halo 2, you see the Elites begin to fight each other as they doubt the prophets. There are still far more Elites who are sided with the Prophets.

Gravemind, the little shop of horrors looking plant in Halo 2, is a Flood that is created after it has reached a certain critical mass. It is a centralized intelligence that refers to itself as Gravemind. At the end of Halo 2, it is questioning Cortana...

Cortana was the artificial intelligence in the Pillar of Autumn (the ship-cruiser from Halo 1, the first level). She was designed to infilitrate computer systems, and you see her break in to a number of them in both Halo games. Being that she is Smart A.I., she is capable of learning and expanding, which means she is capable of going rampant. There's plenty of evidence of her going rampant as she spends a considerable amount of time in Alpha Halo's system, then again in High Charity in Halo 2. In the Halo 3 trailer she says "THIS is the way the world ends." There's much speculation as to whether she will be bad or good.


There's so much more. Everything that happened in every level is carried by the story, it's just you have to pay attention. If you care to, remember what I wrote here and go play the game again. You'll pick up on all of it and much, much more. Of course, if you only have questions I'll try to answer them.

EDIT: DJ more or less summed it up. :)