Yeah, you can join, minky. I second Doctor's question though. What about the new Halo? I didn't know it was out yet.

_________________

Thats the thing, it's not (at least, Bungie didn't put it on their site, and since they are the developers, I'll take their word for it that it isn't out yet)

I think that it comes out in the summer/fall sometime.

_________________
Four Gods wait on the windowsill,
Where once eight Gods did war and will,
And if the Gods themselves may die,
What does that say for you and I?

Now, three Gods wait on the windowsill
Where one God's blood was lately spilled
While black tongues lap at the spreading pool
And build the strength they need to rule.

That's what I thought, too. I'm really looking forward to it. What do you think was up with Cortana's poetic statement in the teaser trailer?

_________________

I have a few ideas, but if you read the fourth book, Ghosts of Onyx, it gives some idea of what the shield and sword are. If you don't mind spoilers from the book, I'll tell you what I think that it means.

_________________
Four Gods wait on the windowsill,
Where once eight Gods did war and will,
And if the Gods themselves may die,
What does that say for you and I?

Now, three Gods wait on the windowsill
Where one God's blood was lately spilled
While black tongues lap at the spreading pool
And build the strength they need to rule.

Okay, for a refresher, here is the saying that Cortana gave:

***

I have defied Gods and Demons.
I am your Shield, I am your Sword.
I know you, your pasy, your future.
This is the way the world ends.

***

That is what they put into the Halo 3 trailer. Now here is the whole thing, which I got from a special edition of the X-Box 360 World mag.

***

I have walked among Men and Angles for three thousand years. Time has no end...no beginning...no purpose.

I wander the earth, seeking forgiveness for my horrible crimes against God and Man.

I live to see death, destruction, over the light, but the light cannot be extinguished.

I live in a prison of my own demise.

I am lost in time...

I have defied Gods and Demons.
I am am your Shield, I am your Sword.
I know you, your pasy, your future.
This is the way the world ends.

I live in a prison of my own demise.

I am lost in time...

***

Nice, don't you think?

_________________
Four Gods wait on the windowsill,
Where once eight Gods did war and will,
And if the Gods themselves may die,
What does that say for you and I?

Now, three Gods wait on the windowsill
Where one God's blood was lately spilled
While black tongues lap at the spreading pool
And build the strength they need to rule.

Yeah, that's pretty cool. And I don't mind spoilers. What do you think the shield and sword bit means?

_________________

Okay, this is part of the ending of the Ghost of Onyx book, so anyone who doesn't want spoilers, go past this part.

***

Okay, the Halo's are basically galatic-scale Forerunner swords, and Onyx, the place where all of the Spartan III's are trained is reffered to by a Forerunner database in the planet as a "shield world". Really, Onyx is like Halo in the fact that it is a Forerunner construct. It is really a sphere a few meters across surrounded by thousands of drones.

The sphere is a Dyson's Sphere, as it is built around a sun. However, the Forerunner's made this star and the inside of the sphere in its own pocket of space time, so it won't get affected by the Halo activations. The circumfrence of the inside of the sphere is greater that than the circumfrence of the Earth.

The Forerunner's were going to retreat inside of Onyx and other similar worlds and have one person activate one of the Halos and die.

So Halo is the Sword and Onyx and worlds like it are the Shield. How Cortana got this info, I assume that Gravemind got the info from the Forerunner databases on Delta Halo and allowed Cortana acess to it (or as some people speculate, Cortana and Gravemind melded and she would know it that way)

***

That is what I think "I am your Shield, I am your Sword" means, but who really knows?

_________________
Four Gods wait on the windowsill,
Where once eight Gods did war and will,
And if the Gods themselves may die,
What does that say for you and I?

Now, three Gods wait on the windowsill
Where one God's blood was lately spilled
While black tongues lap at the spreading pool
And build the strength they need to rule.

Thanks. That's really interesting--and it makes sense, too. I never really thought of the Halo rings being the Forerunner's sword, but it makes sense. And while I did know what Onyx was, I never put two and two together and called it a shield. Lol...thanks, Doctor.

_________________

No problem. What do you think that "I live in a prison of my own demise. I am lost in time..." means?

_________________
Four Gods wait on the windowsill,
Where once eight Gods did war and will,
And if the Gods themselves may die,
What does that say for you and I?

Now, three Gods wait on the windowsill
Where one God's blood was lately spilled
While black tongues lap at the spreading pool
And build the strength they need to rule.

It might be implying that Master Chief is basically doomed to die fighting, or something similar. Or maybe not. I don't have much brain activity right now, from doing all of my homework a little bit ago.

_________________

That could be, but it also gave me another idea.

Okay, this might seem like rambeling, but it has a point.

What if humans are the Forerunners, or at least a caste of them, because humas are the only one who can activate the halos. Therefore, if we are the Forerunners, they must have regressed tech wise when the halo was activated instead of dying. Maybe this has happened before, like a cycle, but the Forerunners have always been more advanced when they found the Halos, but this time the Covenant screw the cycle up, making MC find the first Halo early and having the human race exposed to the flood early too. So maybe, there was a cycle of Forerunners getting tech advanced and then finding the flood, activating the halos, and starting over, which could explain the lost in time part. And the 'I live in a prison of my own demise" could be that they are destined to find the Flood and then die.

Wow, that made a lot more sense in my head, but whatever, its an idea for the meaning.

_________________
Four Gods wait on the windowsill,
Where once eight Gods did war and will,
And if the Gods themselves may die,
What does that say for you and I?

Now, three Gods wait on the windowsill
Where one God's blood was lately spilled
While black tongues lap at the spreading pool
And build the strength they need to rule.

Lol, Elegost. You definitely do need to get Halo 2. I played it last week and the week before at my friends house (for two days each time) on Xbox Live.

That actually did make a lot of sense to me, Doctor (lol, when I say that I feel like I'm talking to a Psychiatrist). I managed to convince myself quite some time ago that the humans are the Forerunners, or at least related. I hadn't thought of the continuous cycle, though.

I think it was in Halo: The Flood when MC first meets 343 Guilty Spark, that 343 says something about Master Chief's armor being like 'only level 2' or something, out of I-forget-how-many levels. I think it was around ten.

So that gives credit to your idea, too, that humans are at least re-reaching the technological level they had before they activated the Halos. And it cements, in my mind, the fact that the Forerunners are the humans.

_________________

I didn't think of it as a continous cycle until you said about MC destined to die in battle. And Elegost, you absolutly have to get Halo 2.

Aerandir, you are lucky to have XBox Live, we don't have a good enough internet connection to do that. And please don't lob me in with psychiatrists, I don't want to be insane!...Oh, wait. I already am!

_________________
Four Gods wait on the windowsill,
Where once eight Gods did war and will,
And if the Gods themselves may die,
What does that say for you and I?

Now, three Gods wait on the windowsill
Where one God's blood was lately spilled
While black tongues lap at the spreading pool
And build the strength they need to rule.

I don't actually have Xbox Live, I play it at my friend's house, since he has it.

I think a lot of fans would be really upset if the Halos were activated and sentient life was killed off--I think a lot of fans would be upset. I could handle it, but it would still annoy me--I want to see humanity survive, along with the Elites. The Arbiter is awesome.

_________________

Ah, but the Covenant interfered with the 'cycle', so now things could change. So maybe, humanity could survive and then humanity helps the Elites defeat the rest of the Covenant, and everyone lives happly ever after, at least until Halo Wars comes out next year.

And I, personally, hate the Arbiter. Though I won't deny that he is crucial to the story and it is intresting to play as an Elite, espically in multiplayer.

_________________
Four Gods wait on the windowsill,
Where once eight Gods did war and will,
And if the Gods themselves may die,
What does that say for you and I?

Now, three Gods wait on the windowsill
Where one God's blood was lately spilled
While black tongues lap at the spreading pool
And build the strength they need to rule.

Sorry for the double post, but I have a question.

What is your GamerTag for Halo? (or your name for Halo if you don't know what a GamerTag is)

_________________
Four Gods wait on the windowsill,
Where once eight Gods did war and will,
And if the Gods themselves may die,
What does that say for you and I?

Now, three Gods wait on the windowsill
Where one God's blood was lately spilled
While black tongues lap at the spreading pool
And build the strength they need to rule.