To preface, this post began on the Bungie forums and trended from a temporary spike in popularity, but then died down. As a result, I decided to bring it back on the new Halo forums. Also, I am by no means a complete Halo expert, but I know quite a bit and feel confident in asking trivia questions.
I just found out that I’m limited to five forum posts a day. However, I can potentially pm those who asked for questions, but to keep everything organized for me, please edit your original comment and say that the question has been provided (I might ask you multiple times if you don’t put it on the comment).
Types of questions you can ask for:
Easy: If you’ve played halo at all, you can probably answer these, but make sure to specify which game(s) you’ve played. If you’re a Halo noob, this is perfect for you.
Example- What race is the Arbiter a part of?
Normal: These are mainly simple facts and general concepts in relation to the campaigns.
Example- Which member of NOBLE team escaped Reach and helped recruit Spartan-IVs?
Heroic: This difficulty consists of some tougher campaign questions that may require outside knowledge. Lore from the books is introduced here.
Disclaimer: Most of the questions from here on out are about the forerunners or flood because they’re more difficult topics. You’ve been warned, so I don’t want any more whining about those kinds of questions.
Example- How long do AIs typically last before rampancy, and how long had Cortana been in service when she mentioned hers?
Legendary: A multi-sentence explanation of lore outside the games is necessary to answer these.
Example- Why was the Librarian upset about the Iso-Didact’s decision to activate the rings?
LASO: These are obviously the toughest questions I can provide, so they’ll require a lot of typing. Every LASO will be argumentative in order to make it more challenging (supporting an opinion with facts requires in depth knowledge), so there is no single correct answer. If you don’t want to write, choose a legendary, which will still provide a challenge.
Sample question and answer:
Were the forerunners justified in activating the Halo rings? Support your opinion with facts from the books.
My response :
I think that the forerunners had sufficient justification because, in my mind, it boils down to one question: Did the Flood intent to envelop all life in the galaxy?
Based on the Timeless One’s conversation with the iso-didact, I’d say yes. The Timeless One said that humans would have a chance to uphold the Mantle, but there would be unity in 100,000 years. “Unity” for the Flood, as deduced by the conversation, is infecting a species and taking over its nervous system and, as a result, its free will. Even though humanity was chosen to inherit the Mantle, the Flood still intended to infect them. If humanity was to be infected, then the Flood would probably have pursued the entire galaxy, which supports the forerunners’ decision.
You may wonder why the Flood would attack humans. You could argue that the idea of unity is misconstrued and that it didn’t mean infecting humans, but there is an explanation for the Flood’s actions. Recall that the Flood were generated from organic dust millions of years old. The Precursors intended to regenerate into their normal forms when they turned themselves into simple organic compounds, but a mutation caused them to turn into the parasite we know and hate today. It is reasonable to assume that the mutation was mental in addition to physical- the Flood were literally dust in boxes before they began to invade the galaxy. They probably had no original intention of killing all life in the galaxy, but their mutation could have easily changed that.
Clearly, the Flood did not only want to kill the forerunners- they were after the entire galaxy, due to their unnatural regeneration from dust. In the books, they seized entire solar systems! Those actions aren’t the kind you would see from parasites that only had vengeance against a single species. I think it is reasonable to say that the forerunners really had no choice when they activated the Array, as the Flood would definitely have taken over the rest of the galaxy.
Note that these kind of questions are only within the LASO category. All other categories will ask strictly fact based questions. If you want one based on pure facts, go for a legendary.
Here’s some epic halo music to help you think: Halo 4 OST - Arrival - YouTube
