So if you read Halo: Escalation…
…then you know that Sali Nyon was able to successfully rebel against Jul 'Mdama and and make off with the Breath of Annihilation and its haul of forerunner goodies from Requiem. We know also that in Escalation that the Ur-Didact arrived at the Composer’s Forge and made more promethean knights from the New Phoenix citizens (Halo 4 ending) and was then digitized by several composers at the Composer’s Forge. Before being “contained” however he told the 859 Static Carillion that the new prometheans were being transferred to Reqiuem. We later fight these same prometheans during SpOps, and during the last episode the Ur-Didact’s symbol is seen when Jul ‘Mdama sets Reqiuem to crash into the nearby star. What if the composed Didact also made it to Requiem with his prometheans and was then “stored” in the artifacts recovered from Reqiuem when Jul escaped at the end of SpOps. That would mean that Sali is now in possession of the digital Didact and could very well be the new “Didact’s Hand”. Just imagine the looks on the UNSCs’ collective faces when news comes in about the Didact’s Hand having resurfaced and attacking colonies with forerunner technology (with the help of the Didact) mere months after they had killed Jul 'Mdama (the “old” Didact’s Hand). It could at first seem like the ghost of 'Mdama…spooky.
The fact that your plot idea for H6 features several characters who I have no idea who they are(and I have played the previous 5 games) shows that 343 is seriously misguided in their attempts to build the Halo brand.
I agree. Even though I like to read the books and comics I do not think that they should affect the games’ stories so much (cough, cough, didact, cough, Halo 4, cough). I liked it better when they merely enhanced the story and characters, not told half of the plot for the games themselves.
Since the vast majority of players believe that the Ur-Didact died at the end of Halo 4, I don’t think they would bring him back as a main plot point due to the immense confusion it would cause. However, the Ur-Didact might make for some good text intel in the next game. As a slightly more manageable plot development, I’m hoping that we might see the IsoDidact (never confirmed dead) or some other human friendly forerunners depending on how the ‘343 Guilty Spark fragment’ plot is developed. (For those unaware, 343 barely survived the events of Halo 3, recalled ancient memories due to the damage undoing data compartmentalization protocol, hijacked a human research vessel, and set a course to supposedly find the Librarian or whoever might hold that title now… At least I think that’s what’s going on.) Either way, FPS storytelling has its limits and it doesn’t become any easier with so much lore baggage (even though I love it.)
After reading Hunters in the Dark and hearing mention of the Rubicon, I was hoping that 343’s namesake would make a re-appearance.
After what they did with Jul Mdama I bet in the very first mission Cortana lights the Halo Array, and the next 14 “missions” are Osiris wandering around in the Domain as the afterlife.
I’ll be so disappointed in 343 is they make Sali 'Nyon the “leader” of the Covenant. He is just such an uninspired bad guy, another religious nutter looking for the Great Journey. Dropping Jul, a deceptive, manipulative and intelligent, antagonist for Nyon just shows how scared 343 is to shake up the status quo too much.
Since we have to have a Covenant type faction, isn’t it possible that they won’t be led by an alien at all? Cortana could easily suffice as a new god for them to follow and fight for.