“The Harbinger and the Banished share the same goal”- War Chief Escharum
In the gameplay reveal, Escharum speaks of an Ally, The harbinger. Who are they. Firstly, the word harbinger has 2 definitions, “a person or thing that announces or signals the approach of another” and “a forerunner of something”
I have multiple theories as to who they are.
Firstly, they are the didact. A simple and obvious theory. He hates humanity and would ally himself with the banished if he could destroy humanity. But I only lean to it. The word used is specifically Harbinger. In many other instances a harbinger serves someone, the Didact doesn’t seem to serve anyone post forerunner era. And doubtful he wouldn’t serve anyone.
Secondly, Warden Eternal. He clearly has some distaste for humanity and specifically the Chief. Cortana could’ve recessed into a deppresion like state after losing chief in 5. Allowing the warden to perhaps gain more clntrol over their forces and war with humanity. Plus he is almost like a harbinger to cortana.
Finally, a contender class AI. HiddenXperia and others have pointed out the 3 red dots, in a triangle, in the gameplay. Stating it could be mendicant, whilst its possible, I doubt he’d be here. Last we heard, hes buried on the ark. But it got me thinking. The custodian in escalation had a shell similar to the one we see of mendicant. It is thus likely that all contenders have the same shell. So my theory goes as follows: The didact survived composition but was unable to lead troops or wage war. So he built someone to do it, like how he built Mendicant, a contender class AI. Who has the same hatred of humanity. Since cortana took control of the prometheans, it had to enlist help elsewhere and found remnant covenant factions the most useful. And allying with the banished in order to bulster its force. This would explain the difference in armor and non-banished colours seen in the gameplay and the lack of promeatheans if it were cortana and the warden. Plus it would make sense as a harbinger, its the harbinger of the didact.
Any others? Thoughts?
Harbinger means “Forerunner of something” so that gives us a clue to the origin of this guy. Apparently he also isn’t a ‘he’ per se according to some interviews. Which to me signals Harbinger is an AI.
Now I’ve said this before in different threads but I feel like Infinite will be a story of Cortana’s redemption. Of this Harbinger being an opponent to her. And my bet is she needs Chief on her side to deal with it. So far everything we’ve seen or heard of her in regards to Infinite has been suspiciously kind to Chief. Think about that. She keeps praising him and talking about how they were a perfect team. And then we also saw Chief walking up to her (I presume) at the end of the 2019 trailer.
My bet is this Harbinger is an AI like Mendicant Bias (but not him). It can’t be Cortana because the Banished won’t side with a force that oppresses them like the Covenant did. This could also close the H4/5 story in Infinite while setting up the next chapter of the story.
If its some sort of A. I…Offensive Bias which took out Mendicant Bias, maybe. But didnt he get destroyed, put on hold long time ago?
I was thinking it’s the remainders of the covenant