First off, I'd like to say thank you to Bungie for making an incredible game yet again! And I'd also like to say that Dante's Divine Comedy is one of my favorite pieces of classic literature. More of this in time. [b]As a note, I am neither for or against any religion mentioned in this post, it is purely from the standpoint of literature. I am discussing a novel, not religion.[/b] ----SPOILER WARNING----- If you haven't beaten the game yet, what are you doing cruising the forums? Go play! So there was this little novel written a while ago, by this one guy named Dante. It was a political satire, meant to make examples of current members of society and the Church at the time, but it's main influence is that of the views of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. And what does all this have to do with ODST, I can hear you all asking. Well, more than you think. I haven't analyzed the entire game for references, this is mostly just dealing with the Rookie's story. ---- The Rookie has crash landed into a building, has been knocked unconscious, and has awoken later to find himself alone in the city. The city is now quite literally Hell on Earth. But the Rookie is not truly alone. He has a guide through this hell, the SuperIntendent. Through the audio logs in the campaign, we come to find that the name of the SI is actually VERGIL. And you may have noticed that audio logs are all labeled "# Circle," all the way up to 9. Interesting. [quote]In the Divine Comedy, specifically the Inferno, Dante is guided through Hell by the Roman poet, Virgil. Hell consists of nine circles, each more horrible and punishing than the last. The circles of Hell spiral down into the Earth, to it's very core.[/quote] After you find out the fate of your squad, the Rookie heads underground to locate DARE. You find yourself on the 8th level of VERGIL's data center. You need to locate Dare, who is on the 9th level. Fancy that. After much fighting, you find yourself on the 9th level, which happens to be almost completely frozen... [quote]The 9th circle of Hell, in the Inferno, is actually cold. Ice cold. The punishment here is for that of Treason. The higher the crime, the more encased in ice you shall be. The very center of the 9th circle is where Satan himself resides, encased in ice up to his waist, beating his wings, whose gusts of air cause the 9th circle to be encased in ice. Satan himself has three faces, and each is chewing on the three (at the time) greatest betrayers. Their punishment for betraying their lords and benefactors is to be eternally gnawed on by Satan himself.[/quote] The Rookie and DARE finally reach VERGIL's core, and there they find the source of this whole fiasco. The rogue Engineer. He has chosen to betray his benefactors, his lords, the entire whole of the Covenant itself. And they are literally coming to chew him to pieces. ---- There you have it folks. My analysis, and hypothesis, and all other sorts of -sis. I've only played through campaign once, but there may be even further references to the Divine Comedy. There are 9 levels of purgatory before one reaches Paradise(Heaven). If someone could confirm how many sections of freeway there are in the final level, we may have our answer. The escape at the end of the game could very well be the escape from Purgatory. If anyone else has more references to levels of Hell, or to any of the other campaign character's stories, please let me know, I'd be interested to see how far they have taken this. For further reference, hit up Wikipedia, it's pretty extensive. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_comedy[/url] Thanks so much to whoever stuck around and dealt with my massive post. Happy Haloing to you all. tl;dr: Go read a book =P -----ADDITIONAL FINDINGS----- [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Overlord Jebus Maybe each of the 9 circles of audio logs each represent their circle? I can already think of gluttony and lust off the top of my head.[/quote] Thanks for bringing this up, we need to just double check to make sure that each "Circle" of audio logs corresponds to the sin of that particular circle of Hell, which I already know it does. --- [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Brent G [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Danves [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Brent G OP, you mentioned that Satan has 3 heads that chew on the 3 greatest betrayers? And that the brutes were coming to "chew" on Vergil? How appropriate that there were 3 of them knocking on his door.[/quote] Kickass! How sure are you? I've only played the campaign through once.[/quote] I'm pretty much 100% sure. There's two at the doorway trying taunting Vergil, and a Chieftain behind them.[/quote] Yet another connection, possibly. If anyone can confirm this for sure, that would be amazing. The pieces seem to be falling into place =) [Edited on 09.29.2009 1:26 AM PDT]