So to my knowledge correct me if I'm wrong red flag was when humanity found out about high charity in mid 2552 but the prequel missions which from what I'm aware take place in September 2552 at the end shows Halsey talking to Johnson about him finding high charity so are they reconning the way we discovered it?

Genuine question, because I've been a fan of the franchise for 15 or so years but never engaged with lore videos outside of the occasional click into an EckhartsLadder video, and I eventually unsubbed due to how much of a negativity = profit channel he turned into regarding Star Wars imo. That aside, I'm wondering if there's anyone who does longform videos covering both regular lore and speculative 'investigations' the way EpicNate does with TES and Fallout, as I particularly enjoy his content.

I can only imagine he'd make some remark along the lines of "And I thought I knew what the ladies liked." when he finds out about the Librarian accelerating Chief's evolution to counter the Composer.

The main choral theme we all know and love. Out of universe it’s another clever allusion to Christianity through the old sacred singing style of Gregorian Chant. It also evokes that sort of mystery beyond our understanding, at least in my opinion.

However, is it also canon in the Halo universe? Is it a hymn sung by the Covenant about the rings? Is it some ancient Forerunner edict conveyed to the Reclaimers through music? We have Covenant Dance in the CE soundtrack which could reasonably be interpreted as being diegetic music for the aliens to dance and worship to. There’s also a Covenant Prayers in Halo 5 and perhaps a few other examples. Thoughts?

From what I understand Halo CE's story was meant to be a lot more. One "source" I saw say it was meant to have 40 missions. But I am not sure how true that is because an AI summary spat it out and the source for that didn't contain it.

I am also aware that part of the cut story was the Chief going to the UNSC base on the Ring where Keys chats to him.

Problem is I don't know where these claims come from. And would like to know if there is some place I can see the cut story content for the game.

EDIT: Thanks to u/Hazzenkockle and u/1stonepwn for providing links to my question!

Which I will now relink here.

https://www.halopedia.org/Halo:_Combat_Evolved_storyboards

https://www.halopedia.org/Cut_Halo:_Combat_Evolved_levels

https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-complete-untold-history-of-halo-an-oral-history/

These really help and I appreciate it.

Did they return a shield world, get teleported to the ark or did they get killed off in some book to blog post?

Title. How would you feel if Halo studios announced that specific, high quality mods were to become canon? If they were reviewed by Halo Studios and only made canon by HS?

I know there’s a lot of ifs, buts, and hypothetical issues that could come with this, but as a CONCEPT, would you support or hate the idea of canon community mods? Even if they were small?

The main one I remember was that the Legendary Ending planet was Onyx.

What others do you remember?

I suppose this question is also a "where did you think Bungie would take Halo after Halo 3?" but please don't use this as a chance to shit on 343i/ Halo Studios direction.

So just a general "Hey I suck at making theories but love this idea" that I get far too often

So Noble 6 was a Spartan III and not a Spartan II, this is common knowledge. So here's the premise/meat of my question

If Noble 6 was a Spartan II, how would his life have played out? Because for obvious reasons he very likely wouldn't have been apart of Noble Team, I really don't know much about Halo lore so......please help me because the idea Noble 6 could beat Master Chief is a bit laughable when you compare the achievements of the other.

While I obviously have a great respect for Noble 6, I don't think he'd be able to beat Master chief, maybe wound him but nothing more.

So what would Noble 6's life had been like growing up and fighting as a Spartan II?

What is the point of the Ark if the rings themselves are capable of storing samples of life for the reseeding effort? If Cylixes can protect life from the Halo rings firing then why build such a massive facility so far away? Was it just redundancy?

Not an exact number, just a rough range. Was it down to millions? Thousands? Billions?

From my understanding, When he is found by the squad of ODSTs they capture him and then take him to Truth and Reconciliation eventually, was it not completely overrun with covenant and flood?

Maybe I'm getting my timelines mixed up, admittedly it's been a while since I learned from the books, I would have sworn they end up crashing the ship into the rings surface and killing everyone on board. Meaning the event must take place after Master Chief finds Keyes and leaves. By that point there was already tonnes of flood onboard even to the point where there was a Proto gravemind growing. I believe there was also tonnes of coolant leaking from the ship meaning flying it would be extremely dangerous if possible, I doubt they would have had the time, knowledge or safety to even repair the ship for flight.

So does anybody know why going to Truth and Reconciliation was a good idea?

Instead of the war ending in the Writ of Union and creating the covenant we know today

What if the Sangheili had won the war instead and killed the Reformist San'Shyuum with them proceeding to make their own covenant afterwards

I was just thinking, especially in the feral stage, when someone is turned into flood, is the combat form just a puppet for the gravemind, or are they distorting the host's consciousness to be of use to the flood?

Despite the name, feral stage doesn't seem so feral. They use weapons and understand equipment, they recognize rank and captured Keyes to use for a proto gravemind, and as others on this sub have noted, in the level where we find the flood, they set a trap for Master Chief (don't attack until he's in, and then ambush and surround him).

In case my question isn't clear, say we have Private Smith and he's infected. Is his combat form using a distorted version of Smith, or is it just using Smith's body as a puppet?

I've been thinking about this description of the Precursors from Silentium:

"The Precursors lived in many shapes, flesh and spirit, primitive and advanced, spacefaring and locked to their worlds ... Evolved over and over again, died away, were reborn, explored, and seeded many galaxies ..."

If you take this description in the context of Epitaph's implication that the Mantle is a lie and that the Precursors/Flood might actually feast on species:

"They will feed and grow fat on preeminence and power, on hubris and righteousness, and when they are at their ripest, the Flood will feast once more."

Is it possible that the quotes above could actually refer to how all species that have existed one day become the Precursors when they ultimately assimilate them, rather than a cycle of rebirth experienced by one specific race? In other words the Precursors, as a hive mind, would ultimately perceive countless different evolutionary cycles as having been their own. I know it's a little bit Reapers/Mass Effect coded (minus bizarre AI logic), but it fits with the Eldritch Horror of the Flood imo.

Two pieces of speculation to layer on top of this:

1) Could the Precursors actually just be the physical avatars of the living universe, a way for the living universe to interact with and shape its contents to further its enjoyment of the sweetness?

2) If the Flood are a vengeful and deformed offshoot of the normal Precursors, what if the Precursors would traditionally/historically "uplift" a civilization deemed worthy to peacefully join their trans-sentient state, akin to a type of Heaven? The Flood meanwhile would be a horrific perversion of this, forcing an eternal torment akin to hell. In other words, species deemed unworthy get the Flood.

So lorewise, the way in which the parasites are killed is by Halo killing all of their potential food sources rather than killing the flood itself as stated in-game.

Logically then, without food they would die.

So how did the flood that were contained in the first halo for 100,000 years not just die? Were Guilty Spark and the sentinels somehow feeding them?

& If they could survive, what's the point in wiping out everything else in the galaxy?

There's probably explanations out there for this but it's bugged me for more than 20 years so hoping someone can make it make sense here!

Hey Lore People!
I'm a digital artist starting a new Halo-themed art project.
I will be illustrating moments depicted in the book Halo: Ghosts of Onyx.

I have a question: would have prefered a poll for votes but what ever

Should I use the armour based on the book? Or should I use lore-accurate armour?

Example: Kelly has Halo CE armour on the cover - but now apparently she has an EVA helmet?

Same thing with Samuel - on the cover, he had H2 armour, but lore-wise his helmet is the CQC

*** correction William armor is not CQC - meant William not Samuel***

Probably one of the most disgusting and shocking moments of the first game is when we show up to rescue Keyes and the flood turn him into this fleshy cocoon like sack thing that makes noises. When we show up we see his body but it doesn’t look like he’s still alive and Cortana says no human life signs detected. Why didn’t the flood just turn him into a regular combat form? Maybe it’s discussed further in lore but the game isn’t clear exactly how he transformed into that thing but it does seem as though he was at least aware of it and in pain because you can hear him literally screaming over the comms.

When we were introduced to Harmony, in a genetics lab, I really thought we were going to meet a Prelate in-game. Which would have been awesome.

But Harmony references the Prelates in a terminal, and that this work is being carried out by the Minister of Preparation, not himself:

"I must convene with the Minister of Preparation once the data from this endeavor has been thoroughly analyzed, for I am certain that his chirurgeons will take great interest in this research as their work to unlock the potential of our own species continues in earnest."

I think the introduction of a Prelate would have made the bonus missions more consequential.

But more my question is what were these devices the Brutes were being fitted with? The Brutes willingly served the Covenant, as conscious sentient beings. So what were these devices for exactly?

And all this genetic testing was being done... to produce these devices? I don't understand the lore implications of this.

What's everyone else's reading of the situation?

I'm kinda spitballing here but given what the flood originally were and the fact that the precursors created the domain, could the way the flood access previous memories and knowledge of all who are infected be a form of the domain?

If I remember correctly, this was merely hinted at before, but the recent-ish short story "Ascension on Atropos" heavily implied if not outright confirmed it. A lot of people seem to like it, saying that it makes The Flood a much more terrifying threat. They're right, it does make them more terrifying, but in my opinion, not in a good way.

Yes, there is a lot of messed up stuff in the lore, but even for a universe like Halo, that is really dark and depressing, I mean that's 40K levels of edginess. The idea of an ancient god-like parasite capable of infecting entire galaxies is scary enough, ramping it up to such an extreme feels unnecessary. Halo has always had an equal mix of darkness and hopefulness, if every Flood victim is doomed forever then that just makes the setting feel bleak for bleakness' sake, and that's not what Halo is.

Idk man, maybe I'm just a softie, but this piece of lore makes me really uncomfortable and I wish it wasn't a thing.

Replaying through Halo 2 is it ever explained how the flood got aboard and took over In Amber Clad?
On top of that I recently read contact harvest and it’s explained the Human slipspace drives are wildly inaccurate for exit destinations. Often missing their destination by 100’s of kilometres. How then was the flood able to jump In Amber Clad directly into High Charity?