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Theorizers / QTA XII VI, Dante's Inferno, and Hollow Men - The Ultimate Theory

« on: August 24, 2020, 01:24:54 »

Before I begin, yes I am crazy. But bear with me, and maybe, just maybe, I'm on to something.

I. Introduction

A. QTA XII VI
The ancient engima. The puzzle that was thought to be solved, but only came back again, staring us in the face, as if goading us. Originally thought to have concluded as a QuickTime Application trailer for Halo: Reach that released on December 6th, it actually was present as a string of text on armor in Reach, which led us to believe that we were not fully done with this badge yet. CIA has recently noted that Vergil the engineer was originally named "Quick To Adjust", which is also a valid candidate for the text. Moving past the text for now, SGP OG Tepec mentioned to me that one of his friends at Termacious Trickocity theorized about the XII VI meaning Canto XII Verse 6 of Dante's Inferno. Now, why Dante's Inferno? We are already well aware of the parallels and allegory between ODST and Dante's Inferno; if the hell of Mombasa Streets isn't symbolic enough, Data Hive's descent of the 9 levels seals the deal.

Canto XII is the beginning of Circle 7. Now, before we go any further, I want to make clear that the integrity of this theory is not hinged on this interpretation of QTA XII VI. I had actually already come to Circle 7 through my own conclusions after reading The Hollow Men, which will be explored later. This means that there are two potential pointers toward Circle 7 (Ring 1 and 3, the beginning and end), which makes this whole thing a little bit less of a stretch. Looking at the 6th verse of the Canto, we find this text:

My Sage towards him shouted: "Peradventure
Thou think'st that here may be the Duke of Athens,
Who in the world above brought death to thee?

To me, "Who in the world above brought death to thee?" sounds like something the many of us would ask about the dead Elites of New Mombasa. While I don't think QTA is particularly important to this easter egg, especially given how we've already identified more than one valid option, I personally imagine it to be "Question to Ask" or "Question to Answer". The question is of course is who brought death to the elites - the conclusion to the verse referred to by XII VI.

B. The Hollow Men
We are also well aware of the parallels between TS Eliot's The Hollow Men and ODST. To further emphasize this, Marty O'Donnell just posted the following on his twitter in response to RocketSloth and Tepec's revitalization of ODST's mystery:

Is it time to unravel the mystery from the land of cactus?

It is clear from this that our previous work on the relationship between ODST and Hollow Men was significant. Now, however, we have something to focus on: Cactus Land. Here's the first segment of Hollow Men's 3rd movement which references the Cactus Land:

This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

It's been compared to the Squidhenge before, and I'm pretty confident in saying Joseph Staten is well aware of the connection here. I mean, Stone images raised, dead man's hand, and twinkling of fading star...



But we started our journey in Dante's World, did we not? Under what circumstances could this entirely different poem be related? Well, let's work backwards.

C. Circle 7 Ring 3
There is a place in Dante's Inferno that heavily resembles a "cactus land", being described as:

A great Plain of Burning Sand scorched by great flakes of flame falling slowly down from the sky... The Blasphemers (the Violent against God) are stretched supine upon the burning sand... the Sodomites (the Violent against Nature) run in circles... the Usurers (the Violent against Art, which is the Grandchild of God, as explained in Canto XI) crouch huddled and weeping

---------------------------------------

Blasphemers = Elites
Sodomites = Covenant Camps
Usurers = Engineers

The blasphemers are self explanatory: elites that failed in achieving the great journey; a halo was destroyed. They become officially blasphemous later when the great schism occurs, but a San'Shyuum even decrees Thel Vadamm's failure as "Heresy" - the shoe fits. They now lay dead upon the ground.

The sodomites are also pretty self explanatory. The covenant wreaks havoc upon the city, glassing the planet (nature). They are quite unruly, bringing much damage to the world. The covenant packs of New Mombasa roam the streets in circles, looking for prey.

The Usurers are the Engineers, weeping over their slain brethren. Dante notes that "he does not recognize them, but each has a heraldic device emblazoned on a leather purse around his neck". Wikipedia says this about heraldic devices: A heraldic badge, emblem, impresa, device, or personal device worn as a badge indicates allegiance to, or the property of, an individual or family. Now here's the kicker: The Huragok were created by Forerunners, who were created by the Precursors. This makes the Huragok grandchildren of the precursors. And who are the precursors? They're the ultimate god figure in the Halo Universe, as far as I'm aware.

---------------------------------------

I have no doubt that the Cactus Land refers to the Squidhenge. Working backward, we can say that Mombasa Streets (Ring 3) is the end destination of the journey that QTA XII VI begins. We began by asking the question "Who in the world above brought death to thee?" and we concluded by visiting the Squidhenge and learning that the Elites were killed by the covenant because they were blasphemers. The Sad Mono Glyph mourns their fate.

II. Development

A. How does it all come together?
I have just presented a wealth of information and relationships with a fair bit of cross-linkage, but now it's time to really iron out a map. The most obvious thing we can say about Hollow Men III and Circle 7 Ring 3 is that Hollow Men specifically relates to the Squidhenge whereas Circle 7 Ring 3 is more of a bigger picture of Mombasa Streets. This is why I propose the relationship of:

Dante's Inferno -> Level
The Hollow Men -> Locale

The third ring's description lets us know that we need to be in Mombasa Streets, and the third movement of The Hollow Men lets us know that we need to be in the Squidhenge. This is one possible relationship, but of course it is fallible if Ring 1 and Movement 1 don't line up in any realistic way, for example. This is where the leg-work comes in. Through scrutinization of the passages in these two works, we can develop a road map that should take us throughout Halo 3: ODST.

B. Action Plan
How do we activate the easter egg, you might ask. After I mentioned that parts of the structure of Sadie's Story reflects the structure of Dante's Inferno (Audiologs 19-21 are labelled as Circle 7 Arc 1, Circle 7 Arc 2, and Circle 7 Arc 3), CIA suggested the playing of audiologs as a mechanism for the game to recognize. To bring this whole thing together, we need to identify the 3 relevant locations that reflect Dante's 7th circle and Hollow Men's 3 movements, playing audiologs 19-21 at each one respectively. Ignoring the details of Hollow Men and Rings 1/2, one probably imagines the 3 unique places of Mombasa Streets: Circular Glyph, Tri Glyph, and Mono Sad Glyph. Do these correlate with the structures governed by Hollow Men and the Rings, I don't know, does it matter, I don't know. But I've developed a framework that allows us to pursue this easter egg through an avenue that brings together all our past investigations into one esemplastic mass.

III. In Closing

Those of you who know me understand that I'm a sucker for insane theories that are more often than not just fantasies. The good news is that when an easter egg remains unsolved for 11 years, those crazy theories might just be the ones shaking things into place! While the exact technical details of this easter egg may not line up with the technical approach used in this theory, I believe that the relationships investigated here are still significant and will be helpful in the ultimate solution to this easter egg. I encourage everyone to explore the two works The Hollow Men and Dante's Inferno to develop your own theories. The more crazy stuff we try, the more likely we are to solve this thing! No stone unturned.

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Theorizers / It's a game. And I know exactly how to play it.

« on: November 19, 2011, 17:38:11 »

A while ago, in a thread about the squidhenge, I talked about how Engineers would pace back and forth in a set path if you stand on the highest stone in the squidhenge. I didn't think much of it.

Now I realize, it's a game. It's this. Now I know that image may look a bit complicated. Once you get to know it, it's not. Every stone faces one wall. If you stand on a stone, the Engineers will travel on the path that it's facing. Along the wall you're looking at. The smallest stone, the one you grenade jump onto, is facing a corner. This is also a corner where Engineers can switch walls. If you stand on this stone, the engineers will go and sit into the corner behind the Mono Sad stone, and then stay in that general area.

Using quick jumping, you can make the Engineers go in a triangle. I repeated this at least 4 times, and even made travel the opposite way.
So basically, jump on a stone, and whatever wall it's facing, the engineers will travel along it.

We know  how to play this game, but how do we win it?

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Report In! / Brute AI goes Neutral (Near Plinth?)

« on: November 18, 2011, 18:27:32 »

On the level Mombasa Streets, I was trying to get a Brute to come face to face with the Super Glyph in the first weapons cache. The one with two mongooses. In the next district there is an open area, where a Phantom comes in to land. It drops off several Brutes and some Jackals you have to fight. I kept the door connecting the weapons cache district and this district open by putting a mongoose in the way of it. After many attempts, I finally got a Brute to berserk. I killed the other Brutes and guided the berserker to the weapons cache. Unfortunately, nothing happened.

I then guided it towards the door you can open to get near Dare's Recon Helmet. Inside that room is Plinth Delta. Once inside, right next to the plinth, the Brute stopped attacking me. It could look around and make noises, but It would just stand there, without a weapon. He was still in berserker mode, just not moving. Or attacking. I could push him, he just wouldn't attack.

After a while, I pushed him to the other side of the hallway, where there's another door leading to the outside world of New Mombasa. I pushed him right up to the door, and opened it. He immediately ran outside, with his back turned to me. He seemed to be unaware of me, and just wanted to run away. I shot him in the leg to get his attention, and he came back and started to attack me. I brought him inside, and even with the door shut, he was still attacking me. I brought over to the general area of the Plinth and he stopped attacking me. Back to his neutral state.

I think I tested it twice, and with the Plinth in its original spot, the Brute would always attack me at the other door. I brought the plinth over to that door, and tested it a couple times. He would not attack me at that door when I had the plinth next to it.

He remained an Enemy throughout the whole thing. Whenever I placed the Reticle on him, it was red.

The video is here, and it happens 10 minutes in so I strongly suggest you guys check it out.

4

Intel / Waypoint's Custom Challenge Creator

« on: November 17, 2011, 16:06:24 »

You can create your own challenges. You must be signed into your Live account.

At first I was very happy because I figured BOB would be in the enemy list, so we could test BOBs whenever we wanted to.
They aren't in the list. I think. If you can find it under some other weird name, it would be amazing.

They do have Covenant Pilot though. This could be somewhat useful.

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Intel / MOVED: New GRD Helmet Easter Eggs!

« on: November 13, 2011, 15:57:33 »

This topic has been moved to Multiplayer Maps.

http://www.gruntspajamas.com/forum/index.php?topic=1733.0

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Achievements / Speed Reader (10 Points)

« on: October 15, 2011, 09:34:49 »

Description:

Complete the level “The Library” on Legendary difficulty in 30 minutes or less

How on earth...

7

Work-In-Progress (Halo: Reach) / Barcode Database

« on: October 03, 2011, 20:34:19 »

It can be done. And I can do it.

The first thing I will be decoding is the barcode on the Halo Reach controller. I can attempt it with the images already on the web, but it most likely won't turn out well. Here's the first request: Could someone get an extremely high resolution of the barcode on the Halo Reach Controller up close? The picture should contain just the barcode, and a resolution around 4000x4000 is preferred for deciphering it. If anyone has got a camera that can get a high resolution, I will be extremely grateful if you can get the picture.

Halo Reach Controller Barcode:
Status = Need Picture
Code = ?

Halsey's Identification Card:
Status = Complete
Code = HALSEY

Barcode on Packaging of Journal
Status = Complete
Code = X16-69868-01

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SGP Task Force: Marty / "No Monks" Contradiction

« on: September 26, 2011, 15:58:08 »

The first thing Marty said when he was starting the ODST OST was "No Monks". You can see this in the vidoc, Dramatis Personae.

But in Light at the End, you can hear Monks. It's not even a remastered track. Do you think he just gave up on the No Monks comment, or do you think it could possibly be referencing something?

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Intel / References to us and finishing the guides

« on: September 22, 2011, 14:19:19 »

I found this quote on the BOB thread. The link is the interesting part.

Posted by: Darth Violus
so back to these bobs...

there are 7 known gold ranger bobs(with many spawns on each map)
-Winter Contingency(7 known spawn locations on this map!!)
-nightfall
-Tip of the spear
-long night of solace
-the package
-pillar of autumn
-lone wolf

there is one one white(or silver) bob and he spawns with any elite armour config and dualy plasma rifles on ONi: sword base. i would like to start a search for more of these on other levels since inside sword base i had a run in with a ultra class dual weilding plasma rifles and he was not bob(i checked bungie.net after). in fact he was just a plain ol' ultra. it seems they are identical to the ultra bob found on this map in the bob spawns. except these white bobs still behave the same tho they do not vanish,i suspect that there are more bobs hiding in white armor possibly ultra class, that have been overlooked while wiping out rooms of covies and not confirming the bob kill because you did not see a normal bob.

there are 3 confirmed banshee bobs(each also with not just a single spawn point)
- exodus
- new alexandria
- the package(rally point bravo)

that makes for 7 gold bobs out of 10 maps and 4 non gold bobs(one being white and three banshees) the third banshee i must also note spawns as well as the gold ranger at rally bravo.(if someone can confirm i havent tryed that out yet).

seems sorta close to the 9 gold skull count and 4 non gold skull count from halo 3. if only we could locate a gold bob on exodus an na.  or maybe one more banshee and one more white or gold bob then wed have a perfect match 9 and 4 wouldnt we? even if the one bob is white you still get a medal for killing a gold elite ranger bob. think about it...

I looked at his post and though: Wow, someone else actually figured out all the 7 spawns just like we did! Then I clicked the link. It was Gruntspajamas. I just thought it was interesting that this was noted by the Reach community.

Since people seem to viewing this site, we need to get our HTML guides done. A lot of our info is hidden, let's bring it out.

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Intel / ODST Plinths spotted in Halo Legends "Origins"

« on: July 07, 2011, 03:58:44 »

My friend has netflix set up at his house, so we we just randomly searched and saw Halo Legends, so we decided to watch it.
This was late at night, and so the following might have just been my level of hyper, but I saw plinths. They look almost exactly like the Plinths we found in ODST.

This youtube video and the segment I've linked to shows the plinths. It is much easier to see on the actual episode. If you have the disc or have netflix, watch it.

You can see the plinths slightly to the sides.

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Halo Reach General Discussion / Time is running out.

« on: June 21, 2011, 14:39:51 »

We've seen how Bungie has given away key Halo artifacts such as the Star and Bungie nameplates. Blue flames too.
They are leaving Halo, they're giving it away. But not to 343, they are giving it to the fans.

From the recent behaviour Bungie has had about nameplates and such, I have no doubt that they will explain all the mysteries we could never solve. It looks like they don't care about 343, they're not going to leave them anything.

They're probably going to explain everything on Bungie day, or a bit before it. We have to solve things now. Time is running out.

Realize that the Bungie/343 departure as I've talked about in this post is speculation. It could not be true, but it's what I believe, and it makes sense.

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Halo Reach General Discussion / Some interesting things about Anonymous Banshee Pilots

« on: June 18, 2011, 03:29:54 »

So I was at my friends house today. We decided to play some Halo Reach, and get the Pelican and Phantom. We start up New Alexandria.
We go up on the roof of a building. My friend jetpacks up above the building, then jacks a banshee.

A very long time later, in the same game, we come back. I'm in my falcon. My gunner starts shooting a single spot on the top of the roof. I check if there are any banshees that would be in the line of fire if it were not for the roof; there were no banshees. We don't know what he is shooting at. I get out and stand in the line of fire. He stops shooting. I move out of the way, and look at what he is shooting. He's just shooting the roof. Then I see a spurt of red blood that quickly disappears. The same blood that comes out when you shoot a marine. Every couple seconds a burst of blood would come out. I go over to where the blood comes out, and Melee. I lunge towards the floor. I melee again. I lunge toward the floor and earn a "Pummeled" medal.

From this, I gather that there are enemies in the Banshees. They are just invisible. Really invisible. So nothing has to be rendered. Isn't this interesting?

Oh yeah, sometimes if you damage a banshee before you jack it, you get a Pummeled medal.

13

BOBs / Bobshee spotted on Package

« on: June 06, 2011, 06:15:27 »

Get your eyes in the sky, I'm assuming there is one on every level.

14

BOBs / Interesting Things about BOBs and Marines

« on: May 31, 2011, 04:37:37 »

So we all know about the bob on LNoS that comes down in the drop pod. Me and Monx found out some odd things about that bob.

For one, marines would not attack the bob. The BOB was shooting at them and kicking them, and the marines did not even notice. They're getting tougher these days...

These marines do not notice the hostile bob.

Oh don't mind me.

If you stand under the pod landing zone and activate armor lock, when it hits you, you will be granted with a rejection medal. You can see this here.

Activating Armor Lock under the pod doesn't do much. It merely gives you a rejection medal and slides you out of the pod.

One time the BOB disappeared. It was very fast, it wasn't the retreat method that usually happens. It may be along the lines of whay happened to Pulse. Here's what happened:
Before, and, After.

Poof. Instead of popping up out of the ground, he just disappeared.

Check my recent screenshots for more. There are three videos of all this in my fileshare.

15

Report In! / Two Phantoms Destroyed Above Squidhenge

« on: May 26, 2011, 23:43:20 »

Insane Monx and I destroyed two phantoms over the squidhenge. We got several Audiologs, got the rocket launchers from the Cache, and set up in the squidhenge. The first phantom came right above. It had its engineers entrails out. Monx was AFK, so I shot it with two shots, and it exploded. Debris spilled everywhere outside the squidhenge, in the middle of the street. A Heavy Grunt with a plasma pistol was found dead on the ground. No, his gun was not a Scarab Gun.

We then shot down another, and found the Pilots Plasma Pistol, but his body was nowhere to be found. There seems to be intriguing textures on the wreckage. They somewhat resembled glyphs. We found it odd how Bungie made such high quality texture on a brush rarely seen.

You can view the film here. We did some other cool stuff. But the film is 2 hours long. Sorry.

By the way, in the video you'll see how eager I was to find what's behind the Tri-Glyph. We have deduced that there is nothing behind it, you'll see the huge proof in the video.