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Edited by Dr. Halsey's Left Arm:
5/25/2013 9:20:11 PM
38
The Fallen and Hinduism
In my freshmen year of college, I took an Ancient Civilizations class. During this course I leaned about ancient Hindu culture ranging from their gods, their stories and the significance of the symbols commonly associated with both. Now it is no secret that Bungie constantly references religions in their games, be it the Flood in Halo serving as an allegory to the Great Flood, MJOLNIR powered assault armor named after Thor's hammer and so on. This time around, I feel that Bungie may have used these in the creation of at least one of their entries: the Fallen.
The concept of the Fallen sound very much like the demonic Asuras found in Hinduism. The Fallen are described as belonging to, "once noble houses now scattered to the wind". That shows that they were a great people at one point, but now they are savage, violent nomads seeking to conquer. They also have four arms in which to do even more damage against their adversaries.
Interestingly, many deities in Hinduism have multiple arms. This symbolizes the immense power of these deities. Asuras also characterize this trait, but unlike the main Hindus deities, they tend to only have around four to six arms. Besides having a similar number of arms, the concept of reincarnation and rebirth that plays in Hinduism also links the Asuras and the Fallen. A rebirth as an Asura is considered one of many unhappy births in Hinduism, right behind coming back as an animal and so on.
So we have four-armed marauders who have fallen from grace and seek to conquer and destroy. I see a connection there, I wonder if more of Destiny will have connections to Hinduism, provided I'm right of course.
What do you think?
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1 ReplyEdited by Apotheox: 5/25/2013 11:21:30 PMAs soon as I saw the title of your thread I knew exactly what direction it was heading. Similar to what you said, the quantity of arms a being possess is somewhat proportional to the being's power in Hindu mythology. The Fallen dregs have two arms, instead of four, to symbolize their lesser power and status compared to the vandals and captains. If one looks at a dreg carefully, one can notice "stubs" where the other two arms should be. Thus, one can reason that the the lower two arms have been amputated. I speculate that the dregs are warriors that, due to an act of dishonor, were stripped of their rank and their arms. They could also be the victims of some sort of caste system, which is in line with the whole Hindu thing. One of the Fallen houses is named the House of Devils, thus extending the demonic allusion to the Abrahamic religions. Also consider their name "the Fallen" in an Abrahamic context. So far, the Fallen are the most fascinating of the alien races.
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[i]Good Observation. Now for the Buddhists...[/i]
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I learned about Hindu mythology in college. It's insanely interesting. Nice find!
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An internet to you, sir!
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Well done sir! The Asuras reference can also be linked with a piece of concept art done by a Bungie artist. It all makes sense now. Thanks!
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2 RepliesA very interesting theory, Cobra. Now I'm wondering what reference the Cabal are. I'm going to check that out.
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That's actually a rather interesting perspective, because of the point that bungie brings up about the perspective of when the fallen die you can see their Soul escaping their body, as a white light.. Interesting.
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Hello old friend, I see you still like figuring out the meaning of thing's. Good, we need more people like you with open minds. I used to enjoy your theories on the halo universe and I am looking forward to more of the same.
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Great theory, I'd agree. I haven't studied much as far as theology goes, only a World Religions class. The Hindus are interesting, with their 330 million gods.
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U sure u don't work for bungie. Because that sounds amazing
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My mind just exploded awesome theory.
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Necrobumped
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2 RepliesHey come check out our pre-destiny clan!! Here's the link: http://vanguardians.enjin.com/home We welcome you with open arms! Please make sure to give a shout out to Corrosive Honor for getting you there! Chancellors names appear in red on the site so feel free to ask them any questions you may have!
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Edited by StarcideTV: 5/26/2013 8:39:22 PMI hate to get all "Ancient Aliens" with The Fallen definitely seems to have something to common with this idea. Could the humans and Fallen have gotten along at some point? Could they have played a part in humanity's past? What went wrong along the way? So many questions and nothing better to do but speculate at this point.
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i think you make a very valid point
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2 RepliesNice connections. How was the class?
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That is a very intelligent theory. Nice job man!
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Dude have u ever heard of transformers: revenge of the fallen?
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Assuming what you said is correct (it's the internet, best not to trust everything you read) Then all I can say is that you really might be onto something, I'm afraid I don't have much else to offer to the discussion except a simple thanks for sharing this with us. When the game comes out, I'll be sure to keep an eye out for any tidbits of info on the Fallen that could coincide with Hinduism.
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3 RepliesTo be honest, I don't see a videogame trying to cause problems with religious communities. Bungie probably did this on accident. There are games people won't even play because they're controversial, so it's not a good idea to even link to a religion. One game that did this was Bioshock Infinite, but luckily for them the game was so good nobody cared.
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This is indeed possible.
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1 ReplyGood view point,it would be a welcomed story considering the use of the other religious ideals in halo,I can also see them using reincarnation with the alleged glimmer race or hive.
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3 RepliesWhat I find most interesting about the Fallen is the apparent connection to humanity Bungie has alluded to. A couple of theories I'm tossing around in my head right now is that the Fallen were once humans belonging to the noble houses, who were turned into abominations, either by their own actions, or by the actions of another race (Cabal?) or power. The Fallen then either unleashed or were released on the rest of the human race, pushing them back until the Traveler, for whatever reason, intervened. There certainly could be a connection there. We'll just have to wait until Bungie releases more information. On that note, why isn't there a Universe forum here anymore?
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Awesome dude! Thanks!
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Nice job making those connections. It's definitely possible, due to Bungie past use of religious references. I personally would love to see this idea end up being true.
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Great post, I think you might be on to something here.
