Lingering plot confusions

Games Other Halo
1

Hello,

There are some details about the plot of Halo 4 that I still do not understand. I have tried re-watching cutscenes and reading up wikis, but they have not cleared things up.
In the cutscene where the Librarian takes John away and explains the history of the Composer and all that, she mentions how she put a genesong in John. I read up on genesongs and, from what I understand, they are inserted by someone like the Librarian into people of their choosing, but they have no effect until activated. Does that mean John was chosen from birth to have the genesong in him and the Librarian is choosing that moment to activate it to keep him safe from the Composer? Am I even understanding the genesong portion of this correctly?

The second point is regarding the Prometheans. John realizes they are human. But, the Didact had an army of Prometheans fighting for him against the humans all those millennia ago. Am I correct in saying those were Forerunners of a lower class than the Didact? So then, once the Flood was released, the Didact decided to use the Composer on his Forerunner Prometheans. This did not work and he decided to use it on a bunch of humans. The humans turned into “abominations”, but did the Forerunner Prometheans turn into abominations as well? And so, are the Prometheans in Halo 4 a mix of Forerunners and humans with the same appearance? And how many humans did the Didact manage to use the Composer on before he was exiled?

Please correct any incorrect terminology I use. I am quite unclear on this portion of Halo canon.

2

You’re actually spot on with both of those points.

If if you read the books you’ll learn that the librarian often imprints a Genesong or Gaes as its sometimes referred to. She visits them at birth (there’s no evidence explaining that she actually physically visits them or is somehow with them in mind/spirit) She does this to countless people, and imprints them with the Gaes to help guide that person in a way that will benefit her at a later time. Some could even say this may be a factor in why Chief is so successful. Maybe the subconscious guidance of this Gaes (and it’s not always subconscious, it seem so very with person imprinted) is what Halsey describes as Chiefs “luck”.

Next is the Prometheans. What lore describes them as and what the game shows them as is a little different. Long ago, when the Didact had Prometheans fighting for him they weren’t what we see today. In that age Prometheans were described as the most Elite Class of Warrior Servant. The Prometheans were forerunners just like the Didact, and appeared nothing like what we see today. After the Forerunner war was lost the humans were devolved into multiple primitive beings and species (some maintained a higher level of evolution, which is why we see the humans in the game as they are and not ape people) and many implemented with Gaes as we discussed earlier. The Forerunners are a peaceful people and do not believe war to be moral, so with the end of the war so too comes the end of the warrior servant class. The class was no longer deemed honorable and they went from being the most honored, to disgraced. Eventually the Didacts number were reduced to basically nothing, and when things started to take a turn for what he considered the worst he began to compose humans into the abominations we see in H4 and H5. The composer was previously used on Forerunners but it didn’t work for them either, and so they stopped using it on themselves. Also, I should point out that the Iso Didact (there are two Didacts, one is a copy of the other, the one in Halo 4 is the Ur Didact, the original) became close with a human named Chakas. The two of them encountered the Gravemind way before the events of Halo and Chakas was mortally wounded. In order to save his life the Didact composed him, and placed his digitized soul into a monitor. (I guess the composer works sometimes?) and over the course of 100000 years that monitor became what we know as 343 Guilty Spark.

3

Okay, cool. I think I understand more about the Gaes. What exactly is the Gaes? If it gives Chief some extra abilities like his luck, then is there another level to it that remains dormant until activated by the Librarian?
Also, do all the Spartans carry this and are who else in the universe is known to have a Gaes?

Regarding the Prometheans, what happened to the Forerunners the Didact used the Composer on? Did they experience the same fate as the humans or were they returned to normal after the failed attempt of composing them?

You brought up another topic for a topic that has confused me as well. Was the Ur Didact killed in Halo 4 or was he simply transported to a different place? I ask because I read somewhere that before the events of Halo 5, Blue Team went after the Didact again and killed him for good during that mission. I got a little confused by that because I thought the Didact was killed in Halo 4. Which Didact was the one Blue Team killed?

4

super interesting topic. Can’t wait to read more from this era of halo. I was also confused if master chief really killed the didact in the end of halo 4

5

> 2533274824050480;3:
> Okay, cool. I think I understand more about the Gaes. What exactly is the Gaes? If it gives Chief some extra abilities like his luck, then is there another level to it that remains dormant until activated by the Librarian?
> Also, do all the Spartans carry this and are who else in the universe is known to have a Gaes?
>
> Regarding the Prometheans, what happened to the Forerunners the Didact used the Composer on? Did they experience the same fate as the humans or were they returned to normal after the failed attempt of composing them?
>
> You brought up another topic for a topic that has confused me as well. Was the Ur Didact killed in Halo 4 or was he simply transported to a different place? I ask because I read somewhere that before the events of Halo 5, Blue Team went after the Didact again and killed him for good during that mission. I got a little confused by that because I thought the Didact was killed in Halo 4. Which Didact was the one Blue Team killed?

The Gaes (pronounced Gay-esh) is hard to explain. It’s sort of like a subconsciousness that makes the person feel like they need to do particular things, that in turn benefit the Librarian. It’s not against their will, and from what I infer the person completely feels as if it’s natural. In Halo 4 we see that there IS in fact a part that can remain dormant until activated by circumstance, or the Librarian herself.

Also, to my knowledge, no other Spartan carries a Gaes, however 343 Guilty Spark (previously the human Chakas) contained a Gaes before being composed, as well as his close companion the Humanune (a more primitive, smaller human.) Riser. Also, the Iso Didact (when he was Bornsteller, a young promethean who had only ever heard stories of the Ur Didact) had a Gaes, and said Gaes is what ultimately led him to the Ur Didact.

As far as I know, there is not distinguishable traits between composed forerunner, and composed humans. I believe they all suffered the same fate, but after being composed there is no way to reverse it. Their “souls” were digitized, then corrupted in the process.

The Ur Didact was not killed in H4. It seems like he obviously would have died, but he is a fighter. Right after planting the grenade in his chest Cortana protects you, then her, the Didact, and the Didacts ship enter slipspace and are teleported to an unknown location in the galaxy. I believe 343 intended he die after Halo 4, but weren’t sure what direction they for sure wanted to take, so ended the campaign in a manner that didn’t have definitive “Yes, he died, or No, he didn’t”

6

> 2533274838457550;4:
> super interesting topic. Can’t wait to read more from this era of halo. I was also confused if master chief really killed the didact in the end of halo 4

If you enjoy this topic, and period of the Halo timeline I highly suggest the Forerunner Saga. At the very least read the first book. It explains everything I discuss, and its a great read.

7

> 2533274958766554;6:
> > 2533274838457550;4:
> > super interesting topic. Can’t wait to read more from this era of halo. I was also confused if master chief really killed the didact in the end of halo 4
>
>
> If you enjoy this topic, and period of the Halo timeline I highly suggest the Forerunner Saga. At the very least read the first book. It explains everything I discuss, and its a great read.

I got to this party to late. +1 for the explanation
+1 for taking the time to do it.

8

Also, I should point out in one post I said the Librarian has put a Gaes in “countless people” but then I later only listed three people with it.
In the books there are a few other smaller characters with them (I can’t remember their names) and it’s also mentioned that a significant portion of the population of Erde Tyrene (Earth 100,000 years down the road) has a Gaes as well.

9

> 2533274965931861;7:
> > 2533274958766554;6:
> > > 2533274838457550;4:
> > > super interesting topic. Can’t wait to read more from this era of halo. I was also confused if master chief really killed the didact in the end of halo 4
> >
> >
> > If you enjoy this topic, and period of the Halo timeline I highly suggest the Forerunner Saga. At the very least read the first book. It explains everything I discuss, and its a great read.
>
>
> I got to this party to late. +1 for the explanation
> +1 for taking the time to do it.

Eh, I got here late too. 3 days after the OP. lol.

10

> 2533274958766554;6:
> > 2533274838457550;4:
> > super interesting topic. Can’t wait to read more from this era of halo. I was also confused if master chief really killed the didact in the end of halo 4
>
>
> If you enjoy this topic, and period of the Halo timeline I highly suggest the Forerunner Saga. At the very least read the first book. It explains everything I discuss, and its a great read.

I’m still reading the Invasion but I will get some newer stuff soon, but thanks a lot sir