Hey all. So… I have a theory as to what we could expect to some degree in Halo Infinite’s second part that will be released within the next couple years.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR HALO INFINITE PART ONE’s ENDING !!!
IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU KNOW THAT DETAIL
Okay, with the spoilers warning out of the way. Some of you may notice the fact that the tags I included in my post include the tag “Halo-3”.
Those of you who have played Halo 3 (which should be each and every one of us), should think back to that one fun visual detail that had EVERYONE in the multiplayer that was a lore junkie like myself scrambling to solve The Sand Trap Cipher.
To recap, some multiplayer maps possessed a strange digital script that was clearly a cipher for a hidden message. This text can be found on Sand Trap and Sandbox as etchings in the bronze portions of the structure, while on Epitaph the script is in a digital holographic form.
This text, combined with the details of the three maps, reveal something strange. Given that in Sand Box, there are towers that blast hard-light beams at players that exit the safe-zone, it appears that whatever is contained in Sand Box and Sand Trap is meant to be permanently contained… imprisoned.
We have not seen this script cipher before or since in the other Halo games. It was a hidden detail that was meant to provide a secret and even more lore to the three maps that possessed it, given their map descriptions and location details
Sand Trap
- Possesses a temple of sorts with a crypt.
- The crypt has a pillar at the front entrance, with the cipher script repeating.
- The name “Sand Trap” could allude to the Guardian Towers being devices that keep whatever is within this crypt contained… towers that now no longer work due to Brute occupiers.
Sand Box
- Again, another structure buried in sands with a massive crypt… only now we can explore it.
- The Guardian Towers of this crypt are fully functional… and only attack things that attempt to leave the crypt’s entrance and attempt to venture beyond the ring.
- Map description of “This endless wasteland still holds many secrets. Some of them are held more deeply than others.”
Epitaph
- An “epitaph” is what you mark a tombstone or a crypt with. Details of the individual buried within and underneath, sometimes good words and praise… … … other times a warning.
- It is an immense tower in the center of a wasteland, and like Sand Trap and Sand Box, the map is one of the only few which are located in a desert.
I would like to point out that these three maps are featured in a desert. Most theorize that the desert in question is the massive one sprawling on The Ark… but perhaps that has been recontextualized in Halo Infinite.
Here is where the spoilers begin.
AGAIN, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
In Halo Infinite’s late game, you make your way to the Silent Auditorium. " It’s a courtroom. A prison. A place of execution. All these things. Together. Why? " is what The Weapon ponders.
And in this location… we see for the first time since Halo 3… that same codex script that we can see in Halo 3’s select multiplayer maps.
This script that houses a secret, script that could only be found on three maps in Halo 3, two of which being tombs and crypts with defenses to keep whatever was inside buried away. And the third of which, being a tower cathedral of more maintained and recent architecture… an Epitaph to warn others of what lies buried deep in the sands.
Though I believe these three maps do not take place on The Ark anymore.
They take place on Installation 07 - Zeta Halo.
My reasoning?
The Harbinger wishes to release the Xalanyn, which is very likely to be her race.
" Hear this, Forerunners! Your Auditorium has fallen. The Endless found. Your sins undone. Today WE return! "
The Silent Auditorium is the only other location where this cipher text is located outside of Halo 3 and the rest of the Halo Infinite campaign… coincidentally a place that serves as a courtroom, a prison, and a place of execution.
A place where the Forerunners detained The Endless in their Cylix prisons, judged them, and sealed them away.
After defeating The Harbinger and teleporting out of The Silent Auditorium, players find themselves in none other than… a sandy desert!
I believe that the writers are setting up The Endless to be what was sealed away in those two maps of Halo 3’s multiplayer and warned of in Epitaph.
They are taking what used to be an easter egg that was originally just background lore and turning it into the main canon.
If we do manage to decipher this codex, I believe it will be a warning along the lines of “Beware the Xalanyn, ancient enemies to the galaxy. Rivals to the Forerunners.”. This codex an epitaph that warns those who find these locations to stay far away and to not dare to enter or attempt to release that which lies contained within.
My prediction is that now Master Chief has been teleported to a desert region of Zeta Halo, and that is where the next portion of the game will take place, as we do our best to thwart Atriox’s plan to release The Endless from their Cylix prisons.
As a result, we may see Sand Trap, Sand Box, and Epitaph return to the multiplayer by the time of the second story expansion. We may even see these maps in the campaign as either locations to stumble upon, background vista details, or perhaps even as major plot-point structures.
After all, the map description for Sand Trap is "Although the Brute occupiers have been driven from this ancient structure, they left plenty to remember them by. ". And Zeta Halo is currently heavily occupied by The Banished, led by Jiralhanae brutes.
Thoughts anyone?