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SGP Task Force: The Librarians / Halo 3: ODST & Dante's Inferno - New Connections.

« on: August 27, 2020, 23:27:33 »

>:INTRODUCTION:<

Here's the information that we had going in to this regarding Dante's Inferno: ODST's level "Data Hive" was a very clear homage to Dante's 9 Circles of Hell, as well as the Superintendent subroutine "Vergil" being named after the character from Inferno. We also knew that Sadie's story, as well as the formatting for it, took huge inspiration from Inferno, with the audio logs even being layered in 9 Circles, each consisting of Arcs.

Now, before we begin, I want to clear up some usage of the names Superintendent, Vergil, and Quick To Adjust. This is more common knowledge, but again, not everyone knows.

Superintendent - The Citywide AI of New Mombasa
Vergil - The Superintendent Subroutine written by Dr. Daniel Endesha to help his daughter Sadie while on the streets of New Mombasa.
Quick To Adjust - The Engineer (Huragok) that ends up merging with Vergil at the time of "Data Hive".

>:THE THEORY:<

So, this theory deduces that each mission of Halo 3: ODST actually each represent a Circle of Hell, bar the introduction, which shockingly represents the introduction to Inferno. To get to this conclusion, we removed the first level of the game, "Prepare To Drop," as it wasn't technically fully playable. This left us with nine playable missions starting with Mombasa Streets. Prepare to Drop actually ties to the introduction to Inferno, with the final line before the first canto being "Let us descend now into the blind world."

>:MISSION 1: MOMBASA STREETS<:

While the actual city represents Hell itself, the mission represents Limbo, the very first Circle of Hell. Yeah, now that it's been said out loud it's kind of obvious. To think it stared us all in the face for so long. Anyway, Mombasa Streets is the hub mission of the game, a place in which you return to after a majority of the missions. In Dante's Inferno, Limbo is a land "Struck with grief from a lack of God's presence." This describes the city to a tee. A once bustling metropolis rich with life now void of their original inhabitants - a seemingly barren and hellish concrete jungle.

This is also the first level in which you meet Vergil, mirroring Inferno, where Dante meets Vergil who resides in Limbo. I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that we believe that "Dante" in ODST's story is the player, as opposed to a single character. You'll see why in the next mission detail.

>:MISSION 2: TAYARI PLAZA:<

Tayari Plaza is set immediately after your squad drops into Hell (New Mombasa). After the slipspace event in the city, the air is rife with gusty winds and various bits of small debris. Oddly enough, this level represents the second Circle of Hell: Lust, a land which is described as "contorted and blown about by violent and endless wind, where soul strikes underworld rock."

In this mission's first cutscene, we learn of Gunnery Sergeant Buck's relationship with ONI Agent Dare. This, paired with the wind, makes two ties to the second Circle. After a brief couple of firefights, as you enter into Tayari Plaza itself, Vergil actually says "Attention, lost items can be claimed on Lower Level." While at first glance this is just the game adding ambient city sounds, it is once again Vergil helping the player (Dante) to leave this Circle of Hell. It's also worth noting that Dare's crash site is below street level, referencing "Soul strikes underworld rock."

Finally, you open Dare's pod to find that she isn't there. This is the fourth and final tie to seal the deal, as in the Circle of Lust, the souls cannot gaze on the body of others, just as Buck can't see Dare. Back to Limbo with you!

>:MISSION 3: UPLIFT RESERVE:<

This mission is a bit stuck for ties currently, we have a couple done, but if you think you have something to add, please reply to this post!

Now, the third Circle of Hell is Gluttony, shockingly enough, home to the gluttonous. It is described to be "bombarded with rain, hail and black snow, forming a thick icy sludge". Now, we've struggled a while with this and managed to get next to nothing. Funnily enough, what we got actually comes from that Crazy Marine towards the end of the level, as well as the three dead zebras in the sector before 2nd Platoon's location.

So, let's start with the zebras. There's three of em, and they're all dead. They're also noticeably lacking eye textures. This is likely just an oversight, though. At first they seem to just be set dressing, but that's not the case.

With this in mind, let's talk about the Crazy Marine. He speaks almost entirely in metaphors, as noted by the medic towards the end of his dialogue. In his mad ramble, he refers to the humans being the zebras in this situation, where the Covenant are the lions. This quite clearly shows gluttony with the Covenant being the sinners of this situation.

That's sadly all we have so far for that level, save for there being 3 zebras, a giant number 3 on the wall in sector two of the level, which could be nods to this being the third Circle, or even at a stretch, Cerberus, the 3 headed dog.

>:MISSION 4: KIZINGO BOULEVARD:<

This mission draws parallels to the fourth Circle of Hell: Greed. In this circle, "souls are forced to push large boulders, facing one another and engaging in battle."

Now, you could equate the boulders to being tanks of the Human and Covenant war machine. That's what I did, as it would appear that the links between these Circles and the missions of ODST are about the locale, action and setting, as opposed to the overarching message from Inferno. That role seems to be assigned to Sadie's Story.

Again, rather unfortunately, this where the ties end for this mission. There must be more that we haven't found, so please leave a reply if you have anything!

>:MISSION 5: ONI ALPHA SITE:<

This one is as in your face as you could possibly get, and is very straight forward. This mission is in link with the fourth Circle of Hell: Anger.

In this Circle, the "wrathful and sullen are engaged in combat with each other on the surface of the river Styx, where the bodies of sullen are at the bottom." Most of you will have noticed before I finished that sentence that you are literally fighting above a river. Once the bridge detonates, the wrathful and sullen (Covenant) bodies litter the bottom of the river.

The rest of the mission bares no resemblance from what I can tell, but I have yet to replay this mission properly. I'll update this section in the replies once I have done so.

>:MISSION 6: NEW MOMBASA POLICE DEPARTMENT HQ (NMPD HQ):<

This mission relates you and your team to "heretics and false teachers." You guessed it. This Circle is Heresy. Why are you heretics? Because you, my good sir, don't believe in the Covenant's holy teachings. In fact, you actively fight against it, and teach yourself that they are wrong. You're a false teacher too, and the dead bodies of the police officers remain inside of burning buildings - quite literally "burning stone coffins", as described in Inferno.

You finish the mission, and return to your schedule of Covenant and Limbo, before heading to the next mission down in Circle 7.

>:MISSION 7: KIKOWANI STATION:<

Kikowani Station, or Circle 7, represents Violence. This one is my favorite reference of the lot, just because of how well thought out it is.

In this Circle of hell, any who have attempted or committed suicide are reborn as trees that are under constant attack from harpies with the faces of women, given permission to speak only when they bleed. If you've been following the audio logs, you'd know that a group of six Engineers give their life so that Quick To Adjust could be free. That's why they're the ones who committed suicide in this scenario. You? You're the harpy, flying around in your banshee, killing all of the Engineers atop their trees (Buildings). Shockingly enough, a banshee is typically a female spirit, so that's where the female face comes into it.

While writing this, I also believe that because they're only allowed to speak when they bleed, that's why you can find Engineers Glyphs in the final tunnel. Probably a long shot, but worth noting.

>:MISSION 8: DATA HIVE:<

Data Hive in itself is actually a metaphor for Dante's Inferno, but in this theory, it represents Circle 8: Fraud.

This is single-handedly represented by the NMPD Officer who, assuming you have all 29 audio logs up to this point, is a treacherous POS when you enter the room with Dr. Daniel Endesha's body. That's about it for this level, though if you want to find out more about how this level represents all of Inferno, do some Googlin'. It's a good read! If you have more you'd like to add, just reply to this post!

>:MISSION 9: COASTAL HIGHWAY:<

Okay, this one is another short one, but still super valid and interesting. The final Circle of Hell: Treachery.

This Circle is comprised of four types of people. The first is the Betrayers of Kin. As Inferno obviously has religious connotations, we can use that here. Quick to Adjust is a betrayer of the Covenant Faith. While it is questionable as to whether Quick to Adjust ever believed in the first place, it is undisputed that he represents a betrayer of kin here.

Next is the Betrayers of Benefactors. This represents the Covenant's mistreating of the Engineers, a race enslaved when they would willingly have helped the Covenant, what, with being a gullible species after all. The Engineers only wanted to help, damn it!

The last two, I admit I have nothing for. These are "Betrayers of Country" and "Betrayers of Guests".

>:CONCLUSION:<

Thank you for taking the time to read this. As always, this is nothing but a theory, and a developing one at that. PLEASE, I know I've said it a lot, but if you have any more comments or things you'd like to add, then reply to this topic with it! Any and all contributions are welcome! I personally will be adding more to this thread as time passes and I find more out.

Huge thank you to Dinosaurtnt333, Scatcycle, WS Bob Ross and MLG Noises, as well as the Rocket Sloth Discord for your various inputs into this topic. It's super interesting, and this is just the surface.

Keep It Clean.