Monitor

The Monitors are highly advanced Artificial Intelligence constructs created by the Forerunners 100,000 years ago to service and maintain the Halo installations, and to make sure that The Flood stayed imprisoned.

The body of a Monitor consists of a roughly spherical shape with an illuminated photoreceptor/eye located upon the front end of the orb. In case of a catastrophic outbreak, the Monitor would seek out a "Reclaimer" to activate the installations and stop the spread of the Flood by eliminating all sentient life in the galaxy. They are extremely intelligent yet completely devoted to their original purpose. The Covenant refer to the Monitors as Oracles.

It seems that there is exactly one monitor per Halo Installation, making seven total. However it may be possible that there may be a monitor/A.I in The Ark as well.

Appearance
The Monitors encountered throughout the Halo franchise so-far appear to be roughly spherical in appearance of overall shape. Their physical avatar consists of a silvery yet metallic structure of metal similar to the characteristics of certain forerunner structures throughout the Halo installations and possibly certain locations of planets that the Forerunner had once inhabited. The monitors that have been encountered so far throughout the franchise all have an illuminated photoreceptor/eye along with a quirky yet cheerful business tone. The Monitors are also self-repairing.

Halo's Monitors seem to have a defensive resistance to small arms fire. In Halo: The Flood, John-117 fired half a magazine from an MA5B assault rifle at 343 Guilty Spark with no apparent effect. They have no offensive capability whatsoever, however, the Sentinel and Enforcer constructs are programmed to help the Monitors and provide the offensive force when needed.

They have the ability to teleport themselves and others around the Halo that have been been designated to. It is unclear how this grid works, but it seems that a Monitor on an Installation other than its own has no access to its transportation grid.

In the book, Ghosts of Onyx, the Spartans use the planet's teleportation matrix to jump between/around the planets surface. Also, Dr. Halsey makes note that the teleportation matrix is powered by a Slipspace generator of some sort. We can therefore speculate the Monitors have a similar device for transportation.

They also have the ability to store the Index in a Library so that the Flood could not access it.

Monitors also have cognitive capability, and can at least speak English. They keep daily logs of all things that occur on their Installation. As with UNSC AIs, the Monitors have been speculated to be in stages of Rampancy due to their isolation for literally hundreds of thousands of years.

Known Monitors

 * 343 Guilty Spark (Installation 04)
 * 2401 Penitent Tangent (Installation 05)

There appears to be little differentiation between monitors in the way of programming, but they do have slight differences. Each monitor appears to glow a different color; 343 Guilty Spark is blue, and 2401 Penitent Tangent is red.

Trivia



 * The number 343 is seven to the third power, seven being a number seen frequently in Bungie games and mythology. The number "2401" is seven to the fourth power.


 * When the numbers of each Monitor are examined, a pattern emerges: each seems to be seven raised to the power of the installation number minus one; therefore this grid can be established.

'':Note that the first three digits of the monitor of Installation 07 are 117, Master Chief's service number. ''


 * The word Guilty suggests that perhaps 343 Guilty Spark was in some way responsible for an action - most likely the firing of the Halos - and therefore has the 'guilt' of causing potentially trillions of deaths. Likewise, Penitent (meaning feeling or expressing sorrow, regret or remorse for committing a sin) suggests that 2401 Penitent Tangent was unconnected with the decision to fire the Halo Installations. (Tangent also meaning unconnected; a tangent in a circle diverges from the shape).


 * This naming convention, if continued in Halo 3, may provide more background information relating to the Halos activation.


 * The 'eye' of the monitor is actually the Marathon symbol - only one of many references to this series that Bungie have sneaked into the Halo series.


 * It is speculated that a mysterious poster on the Bungie.net forums, AdjutantReflex, is a monitor, but its identity has not been confirmed yet.