User:BaconShelf/Endless

An analysis of Harbinger's Lament. The poem is written by the Harbinger, and appears to describe the history of the Xalanyn - or "Endless".

Spoilers, obviously, for Halo: Edge of Dawn.

Line-by-line analysis

He hovered over the waters

A wisp of the lords of old

The bright horizon trembled in wait

Right from the start, the poem establishes a consistent form of terminology that will be used furthermore throughout; the use of water, rivers, and streams, as terms to describe the domain. It's also interesting to parallel with this the Gravemind's quote in Halo 3; "like water I ebb and flow". There'll be lots more Flood parallels to dig into later, so keep this in mind. As revealed later in the poem, the "He" mentioned at the start here is the Endless' creator, Abaddon; an AI ("a wisp") created by the Precursors ("the lords of old").

Great wings and flowing tail

Pure life bound in celestial circulation

Verdant gaze, prelude to breath

The first sentence here obviously describes Abaddon's physical form (as depicted in the '22 Encyclopedia). The phrasing of "pure life [in] celestial circulation" implies the Endless to be akin to disembodied essences; effectively a soul inhabiting the domain.

He was, we are, He became

A radiant shower

Spores become shores—we sprang forth!

This paragraph appears to describe the Endless' creation by Abaddon. The curious parallel here of course is the term "spores", evoking multiple things, most obvious of which being Flood spores. Hold onto that thought, as it'll be relevant later. On the topic of the Flood though, it also brings into mind some of the other known dust/nanotechnology implements of the Precursors, including the dust discovered by ancient humanity that eventually became the Flood, alongside the dust found inside the Sanctum on Netherop in Halo: Outcasts, which formed the defenders' special armour and the Divine Hand superweapon.

Essentially, the true form of the Endless are as disembodied souls inhabiting the domain, given physical form by Abaddon, the specifics of which described below.

Vessels of eternal light

Computation circulation

Quantum blood and neural bone within a skin aglow of home

The immediate takeaway here is that there's lots of computer-ish terminology here, and one read is that you could essentially describe the Endless' physical forms as "meat robots", or perhaps somewhat analagous to the Huragok we're more familiar with. Dig a little deeper though and there's some interesting choices here, chiefly neural bone; perhaps implying a connection to the Precursors' neural physics?

The next paragraphs seem to mostly repeat some of the prior information, so I'll post them in full.

Our world was life beyond the before

From His light we were made

Among all kinds we rose

Over the flow of the twining streams

As that which passed became was from is

We sought lasting—we sought unity

We grew from dust

We grew as His; were beloved as His!

We grew anew—the children of Abaddon

The first line of the above quote of course references the domain as their world, and references the domain's impossibly old status predating even the universe itself. The Endless were created by Abaddon and grew up surrounded by other forms of life. There's another mention of the domain with the reference to "twining streams", and that the Endless sought unity.

Seeking to last everlasting

To swim in the twining streams

To be at one with the current

What was

What is

What will be

These paragraphs seem to mostly emphasise the long lives of the Endless (hence the name); their wish (or ability?) to live forever, and their want to be one with the domain. The phrase "be at one with the current" evokes some of the Forerunner/Ancient Human philosophy of daowa-maad, that the universe (or Living Time) does what it will, and that the Endless wish to roll with it, so to speak.

The next paragraphs seem to describe the creation of the Skimmers.

Each of us grew anew

We begat what became us

Familiars. Propagation. Echoes.

Each a kind of our own

To preserve, to cultivate, to build

We were as He is to us

Some we kept close

Some we sent out

Some remain among you

These sections mostly recall back to Chapter 33 of Edge of Dawn. In that chapter, the Forerunner known as the Grand Edict describes the Endless through his eyes, with a choice quote:

"The Grand Edict had seen many varied species in his long life, but these beings were quite unique. While all possessed mollusk or cephalopod-like characteristics, no two looked exactly alike."

In that same chapter, the Skimmers are also mentioned multiple times as the Endless' "familiars", adding:

"lso peculiar was the presence and nature of their respective familiars—thralls that were seemingly extensions of their Xalanyn progenitors. Were they created or bred?"

Altogether, we can begin to put together a picture. The Endless' original form was that of disembodied souls inhabiting the domain and given physical form by Abaddon; these physical forms vary from individual to individual (or, "each a kind of our own", and over time the Endless began to reproduce and eventually create "life" in their image. They compare their status as the creators of life to Abaddon, who created them: a very similar theme to that explored in Prometheus, which compared a similar cycle of creation between the Engineers, Humanity, and Synthetic beings like David.

The last section seems to indicate that the Skimmers were used by the Endless as their tools to explore and interact with the galaxy, and that some still exist today.

We stood by, but not by

Tides rose and the streams flowed, and the stars winked in and out

Life bloomed and its petals fell—defeat on repeat

Until one day, the children of death were set upon the cosmos

Hubris and creation and gnashing of teeth!

A cradled kind torn asunder and set loose upon those beside and those before

These paragraphs seem to discuss the Endless continuing to live their lives in relative peace, observing the rise and fall of life in the galaxy, and the continuance of the domain. That is, until the Forerunners arrived. My initial thought was that these "children of death" were the Flood, due to the references to "teeth" and the name potentially alluding to the Flood having been created from the death of the Precursors. However, I think that the Flood arrive in the subsequent chapters, and this section instead describes how the Forerunners, with their "hubris and creation", tore asunder ancient humanity's (the "cradled kind") predestined place as the inheritors of the Mantle, and were set loose upon the Precursors - "those before".

The following paragraph further supports the idea that this is referencing the Forerunners:

Hunters of His kin

Crafters of His yoke

Blind to us, but bound to us

Hunting [Abaddon]'s kin (the Precursors) and creating Abaddon's yoke fairly succintly sums the Forerunners' genocide of the Precursors, and the way they entrapped Abaddon (or, the Organon) on their capital-world Maethrillian. The final line is intriguing, noting that the Forerunners were unaware of the Endless' existence, but remain "bound" to them.

A new wave had crashed upon this galaxy’s shores

A twisted deluge once more seeking unity

But not like before—and not as we sought

Not to commune—but to command!

It was like our lord—It is not our lord

But It seeks to be yours

Now, we get to the Flood - the "new wave" which arrived in the galaxy, and a "twisted deluge" (or "flood"). This exact terminology was previously used by the Flood in Saturn Devouring His Son, with the Flood desiring to spread "unity" to its victims.

The Harbinger notes the Flood's status as a corrupted form of Precursor ("like", but "not our" lord), coming back "not as before", and not in the manner the Endless would want. It appears that the Endless want "unity", but not in the way the Flood wants it. Where the Flood wants to absorb all life in the galaxy into their twisted vision of eternal pain and suffering, the Endless seem to be opposed to this concept. Similarly, they oppose the Flood's want to dominate life in the galaxy rather than coexist with it.

Countless synchrons aligned like stars

A consolation constellation

Brought a broken freedom in the shape of a ring

Its pervasive pulse cleaving in the wake of cleansing

Rattled and ruptured our timeless tethers

Our entangled essences dammed off from the Eternal Fount

A twisted tributary

Both misery and sweetness

To our everlasting weeping and wails!

These paragraphs describe the Forerunner-Flood war, and the firing of the Halo Array. Of note, a synchron is a Forerunner concept defining a moment in time which connects great forces and personalities: "countless synchrons aligning like stars" would certainly be an apt descriptor for the war. The most interesting thing to note though is how the Endless describe the way they experienced the Halos' pulse, disconnecting their disembodied essences from the domain much to their dismay.

We cast our plight upon the hunters

We weave our fate to those that follow

Though we had come before

I'm less sure of how to interpret this section. It may be that the Endless "cast their plight" upon the Forerunners who survived the Flood war, and discovered them on their homeworld? They put their fate in the hands of those "who follow", possibly meaning the next people to find them interned on Zeta Halo?

The first freed by the displaced

I search and cannot know like I should know

Cannot find my kind—my mind

This time-skips to the modern day, with "the displaced" obviously referring to the Banished - displaced from the destruction of their homeworld. The biggest takeaway for me is the final sentences, in which the Harbinger seems to connect her fellow Endless with her mind. For me, these seem to indicate towards some level of shared consciousness/hivemindedness, at least when they were still connected to the domain. If so, the Harbinger is lamenting that she is no longer connected to them?

Once I wielded the kinetic light of an aborted age!

But now I can but scrape power off a scant surface

Like wiping the dew from a vessel, full but closed

I don't think there's too much to say here, the Harbinger laments that she has access to only a fraction of the power she used to without her ability to access the domain.

For once, I feel the ticking clock

Reclamation provocation—they do not understand

But they must provide an end all the same

This gets a bit more interesting; the Harbinger notes that the Endless are not-so anymore, and she feels the passage of time much more acutely now.

He like machine and her like mind

Photon neurons

Alloy flesh to bind

If I could but show them the truth

What kings their kind were built to be

More than false echoes of a sundered scar

The "he" and "her" here seem to refer to John-117 and Cortana/Joyeuese, respectively. The comparison of "he" to machines of course alludes to Halo 4's heavy emphasis on the comparison of the Master chief to a machine. The second paragraph is a bit more interesting, with the Harbinger seeming to indicate she wishes to show humanity what "kings" they could be, and that on their current course right now they're simply living in the shadows of the Forerunners. The term "sundered scar" is interesting as, of course, a nod to the Ur-Didact, whose real name was Shadow-of-Sundered-Star.

Cut off from the glow

I’ve lost my light

Eternal whole now finished fight

My last drops

An entangled plea

To return the why of me to we

Again, the Harbinger starts off by once again lamenting that cut off from the Domain, she has lost her powers and seeming immortality. The last section is more interesting, "return the why of me to we" seeming to once again possibly indicate a want for the Endless to link back up with some sort of hivemind?

But to no surprise, this is no surprise

We live all of it at once

To remember, to be, to become

Again, I'm not quite sure what to make of these sentences here but I do want to once again note some language shared with the Flood here. The emphasise on "become" is used by the Flood in both Saturn Devouring His Son and in Ascension on Atropos.

I knew I was to die

But could not have lived differently

Would not!

The Harbinger here reaffirms one of the major recurring themes of Halo Infinite, and that like Atriox, she would not choose to live her life differently knowing how it would end.

The flow we map within the glow

Is not an immutable current

But the overlap of cause and consequence

The universe is a box

We know its edges

We fill its space

Mine to be a story told

A herald of new and now and old

Last drops of light to sing their song

Tell them I am sorry it took so long.

Broader analysis

With the detailed stuff out of the way, I think it's a good time to start looking at what we know from here, and contrast it with some of the information we've had provided in some of the recent book releases; primarily KElly Gay's own Rion Forge trilogy, Halo: Outcasts, and Halo: Epitaph, plus a couple of the recent Waypoint Chronicle stories.

The Endless, Abaddon, and the Guardians

The most obvious revelations included in Harbinger's Lament are that it describes the history of the Endless, and half-answers some questions we've had for a long time about what the heck they even are. To sum up what was discussed above, the Endless appear to be ephemeral beings, "disembodied souls", which historically resided in the domain and were given physical form by Abaddon. Abaddon was an AI created by the Precursors to watch over the domain, and was itself a being of incredible power. After the Forerunners rose up in hubris and wiped out the Precursors, Abaddon (known to the Forerunners as the Organon) was interred at the heart of their capital Maethrillian, eventually becoming forgotten by society save for a select few at the top of the Forerunner empire.

Indeed, with this in mind, it is interesting to examine the physical design of Abaddon and the one Endless we've met so far, the Harbinger. Looking at them both, we can see how the Harbinger shares much of Abaddon's physical traits, but there's also another connection worth exploring - that of the Guardian Custodes from Halo 5: Guardians. This resemblance is not coincidental, and was first hinted at back in 2017's Warfleet book:

"The Custode's appearance unnerved most Forerunners, though all attempts to change their visage were unsuccessful. The ancilla who inhabited Guardians also grew strange and cold, with limted personality and empathy. Service as a Guardian and deep sycnrhonization with the Domain reshaped their artificial minds into a form best suited to serve the Mantle of Responsibility and enforce prime directives laid down when the Forerunners were still young."

"While the Ecumene Council wielded them as instruments of control, their distant ancestors created the Custodes as tenders and recorders of the Precursor's legacy, though this long ago passed out of living memory. As well as being efficient protectors and enforcers, the Custodes were also immaculate record keepers, adding the struggles and triumphs of those under their protection to the Domain's depthless archives. Sometimes, they would also take independent action to serve a greater purpose when the Domain resonated with these events."

• 

  A Guardian.

• 

  Abaddon, as illustrated in the 2022 Halo Encyclopedia.

• 

  The Harbinger.

I think it's mighty interesting that the Guardians, those charged with recording the Precursor legacy and acting as the Domain's record-keepers, seemed to continuously revert their forms back into something resembling Abaddon - and now we have the Endless, who are at least somewhat similar.

Experiments in slipspace

One last note worth discussing is one I struggled to include elsewhere, but I think is very relevant. Included in Halo: Reach and Halsey's journal are some very interesting and very deep-cut infodrops about some cutting-edge experimentation that Doctor Halsey was doing in the mid-2540s. In an effort to "cure" rampancy, Halsey theorised that it may be possible to house an artificial intelligence within slipspace itself, and in 2547 was able to test this using the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine from a decommissioned frigate. The details of this experiment are laid out in several pages of Halsey's journal that were not included in the vast majority of physical prints of the book: only 5 copies of the book had them included at all, and in 2016 they were released online as a PDF to download as no one had yet seemed to even know of their existence.

After launching the AI into slipspace housed in a slipstream probe, Halsey recorded her observations in the aforementioned pages, noting first a temporal disruption seemingly associated with the slipspace entry. I'll circle back to this later. For now I want to focus on the primary outcomes of the experiment. It's broadly a success, and Halsey is able to confirm that the AI grows beyond exponentially, but when trying to communicate with it she gets some garbled responses that confuse her. Some comments on humanity and the Covenant that she cannot understand, and a mention of "other intellects" in the "mist". Halsey isn't quite able to parse what this means, but given what we know now, it could well be possible that these "mist" intellects were somehow connected to the essences within the Domain (Endless or otherwise). Halsey then shuts the experiment down, rips the pages out of her journal, and makes sure to delete all evidence of it save for that stored on her own systems.

This is not the last we hear of this, however. In Data Pad #17, we learn that the Assembly know of the experiment and are elated at its outcome, despite its failure, as it brings into mind the possibility of immortality for AIs in the future. The Assembly compare this experimentation to the process of extrasolar colonisation for humanity, and resolve to actively encourage its progression in the future.

-Halo 5 Created-

Temporal disruptions

Halsey notes that she experiences a "hiccup" in her awareness, but then seems to completely forget that it ever happened, and later writes that according to her chronometers time had mysteriously elapsed though she had no memories of it - before realising she had already written about it prior. This hiccup and strange effects on time remind me of two things:

• First Strike
• End of Infinite