The Domain is, as we know, a huge aspect of Halo’s lore and central to the Forerunner Saga’s story. However, upon rereading Human Weakness, it seems that it has been under our noses several years before Cryptum even came out - and Cortana’s experiences with the Gravemind could have given her a glimpse at what remains of it following the firing of the Halos.
A great analysis. When I first read Cryptum the domain immediately reminded me of Human Weakness.
Love your articles, as always! When I read Human Weakness, I only every though that what Cortana was seeing was the knowledge of the Gravemind, the culmination of every mind it had absorbed. Even after the Forerunner Saga and Halo 4, I never considered that she might be glimpsing the Domain. It would be interesting of the Domain were still out there, somewhere. And the idea of Humanity accessing it…just…damn! To see what 100 billion years of knowledge might contain!
And I certainly love to think that Human Weakness gave us some insight into exactly how the logic plague started those 100,000+ years ago: with temptation.
> Love your articles, as always! When I read Human Weakness, I only every though that what Cortana was seeing was the knowledge of the Gravemind, the culmination of every mind it had absorbed. Even after the Forerunner Saga and Halo 4, I never considered that she might be glimpsing the Domain. It would be interesting of the Domain were still out there, somewhere. And the idea of Humanity accessing it…just…damn! To see what 100 billion years of knowledge might contain!
>
> And I certainly love to think that Human Weakness gave us some insight into exactly how the logic plague started those 100,000+ years ago: with temptation.
Thanks very much! Likewise, I can’t get enough of your Halo Canon channe. 
I thought the same thing whenever I read Human Weakness, and even after Halo 4 I can’t say I ever looked back at some of the earlier pieces of media that 343 released with any intention of digging into the potential foreshadowing elements. It was only when I wrote up the Ark Theory last year that I started to think there might be more to 343’s earlier fiction, and my suspicions were confirmed when I watched the developer commentary for Halo Legends - all of Origins is basically Frankie saying that pretty much everything we see is more than it appears.
I’d been wanting to reread Human Weakness for a while because I honestly think it’s Karen’s best work for Halo. I don’t understand how she managed to really get characters as complex as Cortana and the Gravemind, but fall short with some of the things we’ve all been talking about regarding Kilo-5… Makes me think that 343 kept a really tight leash on the writers for Evolutions, because (IIRC) Karen said in an interview some years back that she was pretty much given free reign over Kilo-5. The contrast between them really shows.
Regarding the Logic Plague, I really found myself feeling for Mendicant Bias. As if what Cortana goes through in a matter of weeks was horrifying enough, Mendy was with Gravy for forty three years…
Great article, I really enjoy reading your lore-related posts.
“Hello this is Domain Tech Support, how may I help you?”
After the firing of the Halos and the death of the Domain as the Forerunners knew it, the Domain was transformed. It’s goals, form, and purpose changed much like the Precursors did. It became a tool for the future. A way for the future advance of the Flood to improve it’s chance of achieving its goal of unity. Instead of being a gift that brought knowledge and helped create it is now a curse and a way to bring pain, suffering, and forced unity.
These are just my views on the matter and hold no weight whatsoever.
Very good read I’ll have to start keeping up with your writings. I personally think the destruction of the domain as the forerunners know it isn’t the be all end all for the domain. With the precursors being able to expand over multiple galaxies and universe’s, with such a deep past, I believe they hold they key to a knowledge much larger than that of the one the forunners had, as shown by the graveminds knowledge, whether that is a totally new domain or an alerted version is yet to be seen. I believe I read somewhere that even the domain known to the forerunners was so vast that even they could not access or understand it’s full depth and history, I may be wrong on that though.
Well i guess you and Halsey are going 1-1 in theories now…
> 2533274925892496;10:
> Well i guess you and Halsey are going 1-1 in theories now…
You wait, I’ll one-up her soon!
> 2533274811368357;11:
> > 2533274925892496;10:
> > Well i guess you and Halsey are going 1-1 in theories now…
>
>
> You wait, I’ll one-up her soon!
Time is the great decider.
Good job on the theory.
I personally believe that the Domain could actually be projected by all the life-forms in the Galaxy. We do know that the Domain was hosted in and projected by Precursor architecture/constructs, but what if it’s more than just the buildings? We do know that humanity, as well as other life-forms in the Galaxy, are in fact Precursor creations. So like the buildings, which themselves were sort of alive through their neural-physical construction, we could end up being what makes up the Domain. So the Domain being destroyed by the Halos wasn’t just because they destroyed Precursor structures in the Galaxy, but because they cleansed all life.
Another clue to this theory is found in one of Catalog’s lines in Silentium after he connects to the Gravemind.
Halo Silentium
String 24, Page 209
“The High Juridical was correct! Those who created us, who formulated the very concept of the Mantle, were themselves rich with distilled precedent. I can see their rules written in our genetic codes! We are creatures of Precursor law down to the very chains of molecules within us.”
We are Precursor constructs and like the other Precursor constructs from before Activation, we may be able to create or broadcast the Domain. It just took 100,000 years of breeding to get the Galaxy’s population back up to acceptable levels.
> 2533274793749599;13:
> I personally believe that the Domain could actually be projected by all the life-forms in the Galaxy. We do know that the Domain was hosted in and projected by Precursor architecture/constructs, but what if it’s more than just the buildings? We do know that humanity, as well as other life-forms in the Galaxy, are in fact Precursor creations. So like the buildings, which themselves were sort of alive through their neural-physical construction, we could end up being what makes up the Domain. So the Domain being destroyed by the Halos wasn’t just because they destroyed Precursor structures in the Galaxy, but because they cleansed all life.
> Another clue to this theory is found in one of Catalog’s lines in Silentium after he connects to the Gravemind.
> Halo Silentium
> String 24, Page 209
> “The High Juridical was correct! Those who created us, who formulated the very concept of the Mantle, were themselves rich with distilled precedent. I can see their rules written in our genetic codes! We are creatures of Precursor law down to the very chains of molecules within us.”
> We are Precursor constructs and like the other Precursor constructs from before Activation, we may be able to create or broadcast the Domain. It just took 100,000 years of breeding to get the Galaxy’s population back up to acceptable levels.
Greg has said on multiple occasions that the Forerunner Saga is absolutely filled with seeds for 343 to potentially pick up on in the future. I’d be very interested to see what kind of direction your proposition would take the narrative, it’d be beautifully fitting on a thematic level with that bit in CEA’s Terminals where Spark laments the loss of all things Forerunner following the Domain being closed off to them - that the Forerunners may well be remembered only for their weapons.
> 2533274811368357;14:
> Greg has said on multiple occasions that the Forerunner Saga is absolutely filled with seeds for 343 to potentially pick up on in the future. I’d be very interested to see what kind of direction your proposition would take the narrative, it’d be beautifully fitting on a thematic level with that bit in CEA’s Terminals where Spark laments the loss of all things Forerunner following the Domain being closed off to them - that the Forerunners may well be remembered only for their weapons.
We know there were no humans in the Domain when the Forerunner ruled the Galaxy. When Bornstellar access the Ur-Didact’s memories, there was a bit of knowledge that I found interesting.
Halo Cryptum
Chapter 18 , Page 164"No human threads in the Domain - no way of knowing their reactions - the Domain is not complete-"
It’s interesting to think about how the Domain might be different if it contained more than just one single species’ memories. If we all managed to connect to the Domain, human, Sangheili, San 'Shyuum, Foreunner, etc, then how different would it be then? What would the Domain be like when it is actually complete?
> 2533274793749599;15:
> > 2533274811368357;14:
> > Greg has said on multiple occasions that the Forerunner Saga is absolutely filled with seeds for 343 to potentially pick up on in the future. I’d be very interested to see what kind of direction your proposition would take the narrative, it’d be beautifully fitting on a thematic level with that bit in CEA’s Terminals where Spark laments the loss of all things Forerunner following the Domain being closed off to them - that the Forerunners may well be remembered only for their weapons.
>
>
> We know there were no humans in the Domain when the Forerunner ruled the Galaxy. When Bornstellar access the Ur-Didact’s memories, there was a bit of knowledge that I found interesting.
>
> Halo Cryptum
> Chapter 18 , Page 164"No human threads in the Domain - no way of knowing their reactions - the Domain is not complete-"
>
> It’s interesting to think about how the Domain might be different if it contained more than just one single species’ memories. If we all managed to connect to the Domain, human, Sangheili, San 'Shyuum, Foreunner, etc, then how different would it be then? What would the Domain be like when it is actually complete?
I rather think that had more to do with the Domain blocking access to the Forerunners about human origins, given the connection between the two races. Imagine if the Forerunners discovered that humanity’s beliefs were right, that they were the true inheritors of the Mantle as decreed by the Precursors over 10 million years ago. This caused the Forerunners to rise up against their own gods, the Domain keeping that information from them would ensure that they didn’t do the same to humanity.
What exactly is the Domain? I have heard of it, but I am lost (I will be reading Silentenium very soon).
This is exactly why I LOVE…ABSOLUTELY LOVE…Halos lore. Its soo deep, fascinating science fiction that also has real life implications.
> 2533274805386380;17:
> What exactly is the Domain? I have heard of it, but I am lost (I will be reading Silentenium very soon).
You can read about the Domain here, but it’s basically a place where Forerunner store their vast amount of collective information and ancestral records.
Hmmmmm, Azure is the primitive version of the domain today! Future games will use the domain to make games look better than CGI! Hhahah anyways im kidding.
Was not the domain destroyed by the Halo rings?.. If it is back that means the precursors/flood/a key mind has rebuilt it since it is a precursor technology used by the forerunners. Maybe the extragalactic activity are star roads coming towards the milky way. I also got a hint it would be returning once the didact began communicating with chief but cortana could not hear him. Cant wait till the reclaimation.
PS I am starting to begin Dr. Halsey/Decepticon was correct in their theory. Many of us speculated that cortana may return as memories. But Are they memories? Or is the flood/keymind using the “domain” to manipulate chief’s mind? I am also hoping the librarians super evolution manifests in chief in the game and we see his interaction with the enemy in a different way (give him access to the domain).