Halo 4 - Reclamation: A Comprehensive Theory (WARNING: WALL OF TEXT]

Games Other Halo
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Halo 4, the first game in a new trilogy, the Reclaimer Trilogy, brings us back to the Master Chief, continuing his story as he saves the universe from an “ancient evil” and faces his destiny. In the few short months since its announcement, Halo 4 has given rise to many questions regarding many facets of the Halo universe. When is this game set? What has happened since the end of Halo 3? Who is this “ancient enemy?” Where is Master Chief? Questions, I believe, we already have answers to.

Welcome to the Reclamation Theory.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I The Post-War Era
II The Legendary Planet
III The Ancient Enemy
IV The Conclusion

PART I: The Post War Era: Were It So Easy

The end of Halo 3 brings about the end the Human-Covenant War, the end of the Covenant itself, and the end of the Flood Threat (for now, but we’ll get to that later; see Part II). While it hails the end of many foes and wars, it also marks the beginning of multiple events as well. The Humans, having been united under the will to survive, have begun to rebuild their society in a Post-War world. The Elites have begun to make amends to the Humans for their genocidal campaign. Peace seems to have finally been attained from the violence that marked the galaxy since 2525. But not all is calm on the western front. The known galaxy has been thrust into chaos following the end of the H-C War. Deep in the dark shadows of the galaxy, turmoil may resume.

The Office of Naval Intelligence, ONI, is not slowing down their movement among the roots of the UNSC. If anything, they have sped up. In an unstable state, the galaxy is up for grabs. In order to force their way to the top, almost immediately, ONI sends a diplomatic mission to Sangheilios. Their diplomacy, however, is not to the Separatist leader Thel Vadum; commonly know as the Arbiter; but to Avu Med 'Telcam, a fundamentalist among the Elites and a political enemy to the Arbiter, angry at the rebuttal of the idea that forerunners were “gods” after the H-C War ended. 'Telcam wants to cause insurrection amongst the Elites because of this religious zeal; to deny the Arbiter and his followers and claw his way to the top of Sangheili.

Why would ONI allow this to happen? Some would say that they just want to control the ebb and flow of the Post War Age and that is their primary objective. While this is an overarching objective on ONI, I disagree that it is their primary focus. Then what would it be? What is the answer to this question?

They want forerunner tech. And they don’t want to share.

Inciting the Fundamentalists to rebel would throw an already chaotic Sangheili society into further chaos. A chaos that would occupy the Elites to no end; still at war with the remnants of the Covenant Loyalists in 2559, another conflict would spiral them into a state where nothing could be achieved. Leaving forerunner artifacts all up for Humanity to grab; so simple, yet so diabolical. Reaping the benefits of war with no one to stop them (or so it seems - Part III). This concept will end up being explored in the Post-War novels, but still has resonant connections to Halo 4.
With the enemy of old out of the way, the UNSC could reign supreme in the area of reclaiming forerunner technologies they discovered during the waning years of the H-C War. Repurposing technology is not a new concept to the UNSC; the Mjolnir Mark V-VI Amor Systems’ energy shielding was reverse engineered from jackal shields; Spartan II and III made use of sentinel weaponry with relative ease. Various forerunner technologies could be incorporated into the UNSC navy within a matter of years after discovery and investigation. An element of the UNSC I believe will be central to the Reclaimer Trilogy.

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PART II: The Legendary Planet: Reject My Bias and Make Amends

Now lets return to the Chief. The year is 2553 in the wake of the aftermath of the events at the Ark. The Forward Unto Dawn’s aft section floats through unknown space millions upon millions of miles away from any human presence. Aboard it, in cryogenic stasis, lies Master Chief Petty Officer of the UNSC Navy, John 117.

Master Chief has finished the fight. Truth, the Covenant, the Flood… it’s finished. His fight is done. His final wish as he begins to become dormant, “Wake me when you need me.” He goes into stasis, to the year 2556 and beyond. Which leads to the big question: if his fight is finished, why would he be woken up?

After an unknown period of time, the Forward Unto Dawn is seen approaching a planet of unknown origin. As the Dawn drifts closer, the planet comes into better view: it definitely has had the presence of some space-dwelling power before. How can I infer this? There are forerunner glyphs present upon the planet. Clearly this planet, at some point, had some significance to the forerunners. But what is it? Why mention glyphs here? Before I answer this question, there’s one major facet of Halo-lore that needs to be explored.

Shield Worlds. Simply put, "A shield world is a Forerunner installation designed as a military outpost to monitor and counter potential Flood outbreaks, as well as to serve as a shelter from the activation of the Halo Array. Scattered across the Forerunner ecumene, the shield worlds outnumber the Halos by a large margin. The shield worlds were collectively known as ‘the Shield’, while the Halos were collectively known as ‘the Sword’.

Over one thousand years prior to the second coming of the Flood, the shield worlds were proposed by the Didact as facilities from which to fight and research the Flood, an alternate solution to Master Builder Faber’s plan to construct the Halos. However, the betrayal by the Forerunner Contender-class artificial intelligence 05-032 Mendicant Bias and its defection to the Flood forced the Forerunners to abandon their plans to evacuate into the shield installations, as Mendicant Bias revealed the locations of the shield worlds to the Flood."
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Two varieties of Shield Worlds are known. There is the Conventional Sphere: a hollow sphere with the shield world located on the inside of the planet’s crust similar to the Halo Installations. The second variation is the Micro-Dyson Sphere: a Dyson Sphere located inside of a tiny bubble of compressed slipspace.

Now back to the questions: What is it? Why mention glyphs here? Well, if we take a look at this glyph, things become clearer. Not too clear? Lets look at this image of the glyph. Still not clicking? Ghosts of Onyx involves the discovery of the second variation of shield worlds deep within the planet Onyx. Now making a little more sense? The glyph is involved with shield worlds. Where am I going with this? Why ask so many questions?

Because the presence of this symbol on the Legendary Planet’s surface means that the planet is either involved with or is a shield world.

…And because I like to hear myself speak.

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PART III: The Ancient Enemy: This Is "Reclaimer"

Master Chief is heading to a shield world. Humanity is searching for forerunner artifacts with no regulation. The stage is set. The pieces are coming together. But all this leaves is the conflict. All stories need a good villain. The Covenant Loyalists and Elites are busy with their own problems. So who could it be? This is where things get juicy.

Mendicant Bias, a once hostile AI, made his debut in Halo 3. He almost single handedly caused the end of life in the galaxy as we know it. But, 100,000 years later upon the discovery of Harvest and the humans living there, rejects his past ways to “make amends.” But how could he do this? He literally did NOTHING to help the Chief in Halo 3. Chief had to deal with the Flood threat by his lonesome with not forerunner AI there to be his training wheels. So what exactly does Mendicant Bias do to help the Chief?

We are to believe that the portal collapsed; the Arbiter made it through while the Chief and Cortana were stranded in space. If this were to be true, then there would be nothing Mendicant could do to help the Chief. So let’s reject this bias and make amends - to our thoughts that is. If Mendicant had a part in the story, there is only one place it could be. The Portal.

Mendicant Bias keeps the Portal open just long enough for the Chief and Cortana to make their way through - just not Earth. He purposefully let it collapse the moment they entered it. Why?

“And so here at the end of my life, I do once again betray a former master. The path ahead is fraught with peril. But I will do all I can to keep it stable - keep you safe. I’m not so foolish to think this will absolve me of my sins. One life hardly balances billions. But I would have my masters know that I have changed. And you shall be my example.”
-Mendicant Bias, Terminal 7.

Mendicant Bias wants to show his former masters that he has “changed” by making the Chief “[his] example.” Just what does that mean? Just as a warning: this is the point at which things begin to drift deep into the realm of conjecture and further away from stated canon.

It means that he wants to use Chief, the “savior” of the galaxy, as a catalyst to show that he is remorseful for his actions one hundred millenia ago. Mendicant wants to his makers to know what he has done. Know. How can his makers know if they are all dead or have left the galaxy? This could lead to two basic ideas of what his statement means: Either Mendicant “would have his masters know” of his absolution if they were still alive, or Mendicant would have his masters know by showing them what he has done. Show. Physically. Bound by space and time.

Some will have guessed where I’m going with this. Here’s the punchline:

The Shield World that Mendicant sent the Chief to is one of (if not the only) place left in the galaxy where the Forerunners are left alive.

This is a big assumption: I will not deny that. Forerunners: alive? No way. That’d be too cliche or cheesy. Oh wait. There’s even more to this. I’m not going to state the final condensed theory until the very end of the passage, so before the final theory, I will explain myself. From both a gameplay standpoint and a storytelling standpoint, I disagree that it would be cliche or cheesy. Let’s start with storytelling.

do not have a natural discretion towards humans. If anything, it is quite the opposite. Bornstellar describes his encounter with humans with disdain and feels superior towards them. The language used in discussion of humans is dirty and dark; a feeling of loathing is evident in the tone. Only by the near-end of the book, as Bornstellar, imbued with partial aspects of the Didact’s memories and consciousness, does he have any positive emotions towards them. Faber, the Master Builder, does not share these feelings with Bornstellar, becoming angry when he finds out that the Didact gave Riser and Chakas forerunner armor. This is ignoring the experiments done on humans on Mendicant Bias’ Halo discussed in Halo: Primordium under Faber’s watch. It is clear, after the original Human-Forerunner War, that Humans are not liked very well by most of Forerunner society.

Yet why is it that they are “reclaimers” of Forerunner tech? The answer lies within the Librarian, Lifeworker for the Ecumene. She finds the human race intriguing with potential to do great things: evident in the work of Chakas and Riser in finding the Cryptum. Her work with the humans is the only reason they survived past the firing of the Halo Array. It can be inferred that through her work, as well as Bornstellar/Didact, humans were granted the authority to use Forerunner technology after the firing of the Array. Whether this ability is through the Geas implanted within some of the humans the Librarian encountered or otherwise is never stated: regardless, it is most likely through her that the humans become Reclaimers.

Fast forward to after the firing of the Halo Array: the galaxy if lifeless and is now being repopulated. The few surviving Forerunners, the Didact included, have a choice: either repopulate the galaxy and bring their empire back to full strength, or let it begin without them. It is never stated what choice they make: the Covenant interpret their absence as the result of a “Great Journey,” but never is that clarified as their death or as their removal of themselves. I believe that they remained in the galaxy under one stipulation: they laid dormant for the reclaimers to rebuild with them. Where do they lay dormant? THE LEGENDARY SHIELD WORLD.

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Fast forward 100,000 years: we’re back to Chief an the Shield World. Mendicant sent him there to show that Mendicant has “rejected his bias and [made] amends.” He has sent Chief to the Forerunners to show that he has helped their reclaimers and is once again fighting for the good guys. The Human race is ravaging the galaxy without regulation for Forerunner technology. The “Covenant” is too busy with itself to be involved with any human affairs. It has been some time since the end of Halo 3. The events of the Halo 4 begin to unfold. Let’s now talk gameplay.

Chief and Cortana are sucked into the Shield World. The inside of the shield world is similar to the environments found in the Halo Wars shield world. The grandeur of Halo CE is rivaled. The only thing left is the enemy.

Who is the antagonist? The Flood? Their involvement is a definite possibility, but as the only enemy in the series? Not likely. The Covenant? With an Elite civil war and the jumbled Covenant loyalists: Yeah right. A completely new enemy altogether? Maybe, but throwing a fastball like that straight at Halo fans would be almost too much to handle. While the new trilogy is meant to be understandable and standalone to the last, throwing away all old elements and thrusting a completely new enemy into the fray doesn’t seem like something 343i would logically do. So who’s left?

Human vs. Human? Possible. After all, the H-C War was what united humanity together. Now that it is over insurrection could begin again. But human vs. human conflicts have never been explored to a great degree in games (only a mention in Halo: Reach and one lone Police Officer in Halo 3:ODST). Anyways, humans are reaping the benefits of Forerunner technology.

This leaves one real option. It is a bit far fetched, so before I present my final thesis, one last point.

Compare these three images. Even though one is a concept pulled from the description in Halo: Cryptum, notice the consistency with 343i concepts. You now must have guessed my final thesis, so without further adieu:

PART IV: The Conclusion: Reclamation

The Forerunners that have lied dormant for thousands of years are awoken. The hostility between humans and forerunners has stood the test of time. In the time of chaos becoming stability among humans, they must fight for survival against a long lost enemy as well as combat the Flood. This fight will last through the entire trilogy and recreate the standards that allowed humanity to originally find a cure to the Flood, with this as a central theme: reclaiming what was once theirs. But no one faction is the titicular “reclaimer”.
The Didact isn’t happy with human interference and is going to do what he does best: fight for his people. He has seen what they have done, and will act accordingly.
The Forerunners, the Humans, and the Flood are trying to reclaim what was once theirs. And they each adamantly believe that only they themselves are correct.

Thank you for reading this far. I appreciate any comments or ideas. :smiley:

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Question, what happened after Bias revealed the location of the Shield worlds to the flood? Is that why some think the shield world chief is floating to has flood in it?

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Very good read so far. And so far very much along my line of thought. Enjoying this.

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> sIttIng mambaa

It was revealed in Halo: Cryptum that Mendicant Bias revealed the location of the Shield Worlds to the Timeless One and, by extension, the Flood as a whole. Therefore, when paired with the knowledge that Shield 0469 (The Halo Wars Shield World) has Flood on its exterior, it can be gathered that the Flood could be present on other Shield Worlds.

I doubt they are on the Legendary Shield World: at least not in the same manner as the Halo Wars Shield World.

> comik300

Thanks, I appreciate the constructive criticism!

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One question. GS343 said that Chief (or humanity) is Inheritor to what the Forerunner left behind, so why would we inherit something if the Forerunner are indeed not dead?

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> One question. GS343 said that Chief (or humanity) is Inheritor to what the Forerunner left behind, so why would we inherit something if the Forerunner are indeed not dead?

I have three explanations.

  1. 343 Guilty Spark is, as he said himself in Halo 3 and the Anniversary Terminals, that he is limited to the knowledge available on his Installation (He did not know the layout of Installation 00 when asked about his lack of knowledge on the subject; he is unable to communicate with the domain and, as such, unable to look up any infomation not available on Installation 04.)

  2. 343 was experiencing signs of rampancy at the moment he said this. His words at this time may be taken with that of a grain of salt. (He said “You are Forerunner!” It is slightly obvious that humans are not forerunners. He could have been incoherently babbling.)

  3. This was said in Halo 3; before Halo 4’s plot was conceived (to my knowledge). The idea of Forerunners as enemies - let alone alive - probably was not what Bungie had in mind when writing Halo 3.

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> > One question. GS343 said that Chief (or humanity) is Inheritor to what the Forerunner left behind, so why would we inherit something if the Forerunner are indeed not dead?
>
> I have three explanations.
>
> 1) 343 Guilty Spark is, as he said himself in Halo 3 and the Anniversary Terminals, that he is limited to the knowledge available on his Installation (He did not know the layout of Installation 00 when asked about his lack of knowledge on the subject; he is unable to communicate with the domain and, as such, unable to look up any infomation not available on Installation 04.)
>
> 2) 343 was experiencing signs of rampancy at the moment he said this. His words at this time may be taken with that of a grain of salt. (He said “You are Forerunner!” It is slightly obvious that humans are not forerunners. He could have been incoherently babbling.)
>
> 3) This was said in Halo 3; before Halo 4’s plot was conceived (to my knowledge). The idea of Forerunners as enemies - let alone alive - probably was not what Bungie had in mind when writing Halo 3.

Point taken.

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An interesting read, and one that is a little more logical than most of the other theories I’ve encountered thus far. However, I still have problems with it.

> This is a big assumption: I will not deny that. Forerunners: alive? No way. That’d be too cliche or cheesy. Oh wait. There’s even more to this. I’m not going to state the final condensed theory until the very end of the passage, so before the final theory, I will explain myself. From both a gameplay standpoint and a storytelling standpoint, I disagree that it would be cliche or cheesy.

My acceptance of this idea is contingent upon the way in which it is implemented. I have no problem accepting that the Forerunner are still extant, provided that they are not the same Forerunners who lived through the activation of the Halo array. The Didact and his fellows should have died, with the current crop of Forerunners being many generations removed from their forefathers. 343 Industries is, at present, too attached to their characters to acknowledge their mortality, but it would cast an element of farce upon the Didact’s character to have him survive one hundred thousand millennia. His part in the conflict is a significant one, but it is also one that has passed.

The other problem that I have with your theory is that, if the Forerunner have indeed survived to the current, in-universe date, it is highly unlikely that they have done so in numbers sufficient to form an army and challenge humanity or any other species in the galaxy.

The remainder of my issues stem from my utter dislike of the books, and in particular the Forerunner Saga. I would very much prefer it if no mention is ever made, in the games, of a prehistoric human empire. This was the most ridiculous addition to the Halo fiction, and I am praying that 343 Industries will eventually proclaim it non-canonical.

The presence of Mendicant Bias in Halo 4 is, as far as I’m concerned, not disruptive of any pre-established canon, and it may even work well in the new trilogy.

Once again, an interesting read.

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> An interesting read, and one that is a little more logical than most of the other theories I’ve encountered thus far. However, I still have problems with it.
>
>
>
> > This is a big assumption: I will not deny that. Forerunners: alive? No way. That’d be too cliche or cheesy. Oh wait. There’s even more to this. I’m not going to state the final condensed theory until the very end of the passage, so before the final theory, I will explain myself. From both a gameplay standpoint and a storytelling standpoint, I disagree that it would be cliche or cheesy.
>
> My acceptance of this idea is contingent upon the way in which it is implemented. I have no problem accepting that the Forerunner are still extant, provided that they are not the same Forerunners who lived through the activation of the Halo array. The Didact and his fellows should have died, with the current crop of Forerunners being many generations removed from their forefathers. 343 Industries is, at present, too attached to their characters to acknowledge their mortality, but it would cast an element of farce upon the Didact’s character to have him survive one hundred thousand millennia. His part in the conflict is a significant one, but it is also one that has passed.
>
> The other problem that I have with your theory is that, if the Forerunner have indeed survived to the current, in-universe date, it is highly unlikely that they have done so in numbers sufficient to form an army and challenge humanity or any other species in the galaxy.
>
> The remainder of my issues stem from my utter dislike of the books, and in particular the Forerunner Saga. I would very much prefer it if no mention is ever made, in the games, of a prehistoric human empire. This was the most ridiculous addition to the Halo fiction, and I am praying that 343 Industries will eventually proclaim it non-canonical.
>
> The presence of Mendicant Bias in Halo 4 is, as far as I’m concerned, not disruptive of any pre-established canon, and it may even work well in the new trilogy.
>
> Once again, an interesting read.

I agree that, if this theory is true, forerunners will NOT be present en masse. My interpretation of having them appear within the campaign is similar to that of how Chakas and Riser find the Didact in Halo: Cryptum (The forerunners are in their version of cryo-sleep/exile and are woken up by the Chief/humans at some point in the campaign.

The amount of forerunners in Halo 4 would pale in comparison to that of their ancient empire. This would give a reasonable enemy as well. It would be pretty obvious that, if billions of forerunners were fighting against a technologically inferior species like humanity, humanity would outright lose. But, if numbers were on their side, humans MIGHT have a chance similar to that of the Human-Covenant War.

The presence of Mendicant Bias does not bother me either. If he shows up (I’m sure he will at some point, whether it be in terminals or in dialogue and story) I would hope that his intervention would add to the story rather than subtract from it.

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it bugs me that the precursors were beaten by forerunners, except of they purposely lost, but you would think that they would still destroy them if they really wanted too. and what if the timeless one has gotten his soul into another gravemind and loses control and has the flood turn against everything, and the precursors figure they have to help bc they still hold the mantle, not the forerunners, and all together the precursors, humanity, elites, and forerunners pair up as the most powerful empire at the time through out the first two games they battle the flood and another kind of enemy rogue foreunners possibly, and at the end of the 2nd we kill the timeless one, and the flood is under the control of the precursors again, and a new gravemind helps mange them, and thats where the real test begins. * insert epic music here*. im happy with the story as long as there is forerunners and precursors are in it, whether enemy or ally, i just want to see their ships, tech,weapons, and vehicles. XD

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I do hope, however, that Mendicant Bias is never shown in his physical form, and that he is never given a literal voice; he is far too interesting a character to be grounded in reality. If Bungie had originally introduced him in that way, I could accept that, but I’d prefer it if he remains a feature of the terminals at this point.

Detesting the Forerunner Saga as I do, and preferring to conceive of the Forerunners in the way that Bungie originally presented them, I find it highly unlikely that the Didact, as a philosophically-minded individual (at least in his Halo 3 terminal incarnation), would choose prolonged hibernation over the natural fate of death. To me, the promise of a reunion with the Librarian in the afterlife would have, if anything, intensified his desire to depart the realm of the living and join his fellow Forerunners in death. It just doesn’t seem in keeping with his character (and again, I’ve ignored the books) to lie idle in a cryochamber for hundreds of millennia.