Composer
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
| Composer | |
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38.6 meters (126.7 ft)[1] |
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207.6 meters (681 ft)[1] |
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28.7 meters (94.2 ft)[1] |
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- "The Composer! So many possibilities and capabilities tied up in that strange name... A Composer of minds and souls!"
- — Forthencho, Lord of Admirals[3]
The Composer[Note 1][1] is a machine created by the Forerunners to translate an organic being's mental content into machine data in a process called "sublimation".[4] Categorized as a sublimation device,[1] the Composer was meant to provide seamless transitions between biological and digital states. The machine was later appropriated to counteract the Flood,[5] although it failed to save the parasite's victims and was quickly abandoned in this capacity. Despite this, the Composer was later used for a number of purposes beyond its original function.[6]
Function[edit]
Overview[edit]
The Composers were originally designed as a means by which to extract the mental pattern (commonly known as an essence) of a biological being of sufficient neural complexity and converting it into data by broadcasting high-energy fields of entangled sympathies. The process, which was not fully understood by even its Forerunner creators, utilized neural physics, a science mastered by the Precursors — one of select few Forerunner technologies to do so. According to the original design, the Composer would allow old Forerunners to transfer their essences into younger bodies or directly into the Domain's vast realms of information.[5][Note 2] The technology was worked on in obscurity for centuries. Other uses of the technology included storing personalities for safekeeping and analysis or more "visceral" applications.[4]
In the latter days of the human-Forerunner wars, after the Forerunners' first contacts with the Flood, Master Builder Faber took note of the Composers and planned to use the devices to cure the parasite's victims.[5] This was but one of many plans attempted by the Forerunners to find a counter to the Flood (others including the Thanolekgolo and the Sharquoi). The plan was to save those afflicted by the Flood by scanning their patterns and removing any traces of the Flood from the digital essence, which would then be imprinted on a new, artificially constructed biological body devoid of Flood infection. However, the process was highly flawed. In addition to being extremely painful to the individuals undergoing the process, all attempts to restore the essences to biological form failed as the artificial bodies would quickly decay and inevitably die.[6] For this reason the Forerunners quickly abandoned the Composers after the first experiments.[7][Note 3]
The physical effects of the Composer on its targets are also violent: the device projects a beam of orange light which completely reduces the targeted individuals to ash in a rather gruesome manner, flaying their skin, muscle, and bones in an agonizing sequence. This is seemingly a byproduct of the machine's original design as a means to combat the Flood, allowing the complete destruction of infected biomass in a manner similar to certain Forerunner weapons designed to completely atomize their targets. The beam possesses the capability to process hundreds of thousands of targets in mere moments across enormous distances,[8] such as composing targets on a planet's surface from an orbiting ship,[9] or those on the surface of an entire Halo installation in an instant.[8] Forthencho, Lord of Admirals, the supreme commander of all human forces and one of the humans to have their minds harvested, described the effects of the Composer as "strange, ever-changing" and "multiformed", as it was operated in that instance via intermediary Lifeworker machinery.[3]
As witnessed on Installation 07, Flood victims subjected to Composer processing were able to retain their individuality, but the Flood would continue to rot and deform their physical bodies, the infection having survived the destruction of the original biological body and then resumed in the new one. The Forerunners attempted to slow down this process by wrapping the afflicted individuals' bodies in a form of supportive harness flowing with energy,[10] but the victims would still continue to deform beyond recognition and eventually expire or succumb to the Flood. Similarly, when the Gravemind used corrupted, Composer-processed essences imprinted on living human bodies as messengers to the Librarian in her final moments on Earth, the humans' bodies would rapidly decay and soon die.[11] As revealed by the Haruspis, the Composer's power burned away the effects of the logic plague in anyone that it was used upon, freeing them of the Gravemind's corruption.[12]
The Composer's mooring chamber is fitted with a translocation lock and reality anchor that impedes any unauthorized transportation of the device. An activation channel is fitted to all Composers for its versatile firing systems which direct the Composer's energies along the lateral channel or in a uniform concentric pattern. The targeting mechanism of the Composer is designed to only target thinking life with sufficient neurological activity.[13]
Essence preservation[edit]
Minds scanned by the Composer could be processed in a variety of ways. The ancient human personalities extracted and stored by the Librarian at Charum Hakkor retained their essences in virtually unchanged form, preserving the victims' identities and even the records of their physical bodies, although the latter could not be reconstituted to biological form.[11] These stored personalities could also be implanted into the genetic code of living beings, with said personalities achieving self-awareness and retaining their original identity within their new hosts; examples of this are the ancestral memory imprints of Chakas and Riser. The Composer could also be used to remove these imprinted personalities, although this did grave physical and mental damage to the individual carrying the imprint.[14] Minds forcibly assimilated by the Composer are able to "resist" its effects to some extent, resulting in conflicts between the original personality and their new programming. This manifests in the form of hallucinatory glitches for Promethean Knights forcibly composed from unwilling subjects, whereas those formed from willing subjects (such as the Forerunner Warrior-Servants who gave themselves to the Composer) are better-able to integrate and can be used as more intelligent commanders.[15]
In the case of the Ur-Didact's Promethean Knights, the extracted neural map was used as the basis for artificial intelligence constructs in a manner similar to the creation of human smart AIs. These intelligences contain many of their original memories and sometimes even portions of their personality, but otherwise behave within the limits of the duties assigned to them.[16] These essences were stored in imprint matrices known as Durances, similar to the devices traditionally used to contain the last mental impressions of a deceased Forerunner.