[quote][i][b]Moderator's Notice:[/b] Preface: though I'm a moderator, I have no special sources or prior information on the Halo 3 storyline. What I post here is my speculation and analysis as a fan, and should not be considered canonical until verified by either a Bungie employee or by further analysis of the games. (Whew, sometimes this mod gig is a pain.) -- Steve[/i][/quote] Going over the Legendary terminals in Halo 3 (and discussing them with folks who've read more of them than I have) I was struck by an interesting thought. Was Mendicant Bias, the authour of some of those terminal logs, someone we've already heard from? Here's my reasoning; - Mendicant Bias was an AI created by the Forerunner to attack Gravemind in their war against the Flood 100,000 years ago... but (according to the later terminals on Legendary difficulty) was seduced by Gravemind into betraying the Forerunners and allying himself with the Flood. - In the last terminal, Mendicant Bias is defeated by another AI (Offensive Bias) and dissected for analysis by the Forerunner. Afterwards, his remnants seem to persist and he seeks absolution from the Reclaimer: [quote]And so here at the end of my life, I do once again betray a former master. The path ahead is fraught with peril. But I will do all I can to keep it stable - keep you safe. I'm not so foolish to think this will absolve me of my sins. One life hardly balances billions. But I would have my masters know that I have changed.[/quote] A forum-goer on HBO (Jillybean) pointed out that it could be likely that the dissected components could have been retasked to become the Monitors of the various Installations... explaining the "Guilty" and "Penitent" parts of the Monitor names. I think she's on to something. But there's another aspect to consider: - The Terminals have backwards-masked dialog in their sound effects - Marty O'Donnell, sound god, practically did handsprings in the 9/20 podcast to cue us into listening for "more" backwards dialog in the game. - The backwards dialog in the terminals, at least as decyphered last night, were pretty mundane stuff. But Marty wouldn't draw attention to it if it weren't important. - The only backwards dialog in Halo 2 was that cryptic poem in the level, "Whisper in the Storm". (The best transcription of the poem that I know of is [url=http://halosm.bungie.org/story/]on HBO's story page[/url]... you can hear it in the song "Destroyer's Invocation" on the Halo 2 volume 2 soundtrack album.) Note that he is "seeking forgiveness for my horrible crimes against God and man". - The poem is only heard twice in the game, in the cell blocks of High Charity; first, when the soon-to-be-Arbiter is dragged out by Tartarus and his Brutes, and second when the Master Chief breaks in to free the captured Marines. - Cortana detected the presence of a very sophisticated AI in the High Charity's network when we were chasing Truth through the "High Charity" level of Halo 2. I think that the Destroyer, the one uttering the poem in Halo 2, is another shard of Mendicant Bias's personality. -- Steve'll turn it over to the forum for further analysis... let's see if it holds together, or gets punched full of holes.