Ok, so i am reading Dante's Inferno just for the hell of it and only 70 pages in, and I am noticing some very similar things to Halo 3 ODST. First off, The beginning of Dante's Inferno starts like this. [i]"Midway along the journey of our life I woke to find myself in a dark wood, for I had wandered off from the straight path."[/i] With only the first 3 lines of the poem, we can already see the relation to Halo 3 ODST. The Rookie, after being knocked off of his intended course by the slipspace rupture (Wandered off from the straight path) awakes to find himself in a dark city. (Find myself in a dark wood.) Soon after trying to leave the dark wood, Dante the Pilgrim finds a ghost named Virgil (the ancient Poet) Who agrees to lead Dante through Hell and out into purgatory, and finally to Paridiso (heaven). This directly relates to Halo 3 ODST's Superintendent Vergil. Virgil guides the Rookie through the city and down to where Dare is on level 9. In Dante's Inferno, Hell consists of 9 levels, each for a different sin with different punishments. Dante makes his way down through the 9 levels just as the Rookie finds his way through the 9 levels of the Data Hive. Dante finds the 9th level of Hell frozen solid, with Lucifer himself frozen up to his waist in ice, from where god had thrown him down from heaven. Each of Lucifer's three heads is chewing on the three greatest sinners. Judas, Cassius and Brutus. In the 9th level of the Data Hive, it too is frozen solid, only with Dare the one stuck in it. I also noticed that there are 3 brutes trying to break down the door to level 9 of the data hive where the Engineer hides. These 3 brutes may represent the evil of Lucifers 3 heads. Do you think Bungie had any kind of hidden meaning with the relation to Dante's Inferno? Discussion and thoughts are welcome. Edit - Just realized that there is already a thread about this further down, but i would still appreciate any thoughts on this. [Edited on 04.06.2010 3:19 PM PDT]