Terminal (Halo 4)



The terminals in Halo 4 are Forerunner terminals accessible to the player over the course of the game's campaign. Like the terminals in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, the Halo 4 terminals feature animated and voiced cinematics similar to motion comics. Fictionally, the terminals are presented as visits to the mysterious store of information known as the Domain, once used by the Forerunners.

Finding a terminal awards the player the Contact the Domain achievement, while finding all the terminals in the campaign unlocks the the Terminus achievement.

The terminals
Prologue

Terminal One

Terminal Two

Terminal Three

Terminal Four

Terminal Five

Terminal Six

Terminal Seven

Behind the scenes

 * The Didact's monologue in Terminal 4 is taken nearly verbatim from Halo: Primordium.

Adaptation in Halo: Silentium

 * Terminals 5, 6, and 7 are adapted as part of the climax of Halo: Silentium. Some plot elements are changed slightly, while others are altered quite drastically; the dialog varies completely in each case. It should be noted that the terminals are hosted by the Domain, (which is known to alter data without explanation), which could explain any perceived incongruities. As the narrative of Silentium is collated from the memory stores of the carapace of a Catalog and a monitor as opposed to the more unreliable Domain, the novel can be considered a more accurate recounting of the events, whereas the terminals could be understood as a greatly simplified and abstracted version stripped of the nuance and background presented in the novel, for the sake of conveying the basics of the story to a wider audience within the confines of the limited length of the terminal videos.


 * A number of major story elements from Silentium and the Forerunner Saga as a whole are absent in the terminals; the most significant ones being the Ur-Didact's thousand-year exile in a Cryptum preceding the final years of the Flood war, the existence of the IsoDidact and the conflict between him and the Ur-Didact, or the Ur-Didact's traumatizing encounter with the Gravemind which acts as the catalyst for his transformation as a character. Likewise, the Master Builder and his strife with the Didact - a major part of the novels - is only briefly touched on in the terminals, which focus on the growing drift between the Didact and the Librarian.


 * The events of Terminal 5 are not depicted directly, though they are implied to have occurred between the Didact's recovery near Uthera Midgeerrd and his return to Nomdagro (a year-long span). The conversion of the organic Prometheans into mechanical Knights is not addressed until much later. The Didact's physiological changes wrought by his self-experimentation are never mentioned; rather, it is implied that his face has become haggard due to the psychological stress he endured during his interrogation by the Gravemind.


 * The Didact's attack on Omega Halo from Terminal 6 is adjusted to take place during the siege of the greater Ark, rather than what appears to a lull in the war after the Halo has been deployed. In the book the Librarian witnesses the humans' composition firsthand rather than arriving after the incident. Likewise, in the novel, the Librarian only learns of the Didact's plans with the Promethean Knights once she makes her way to Requiem in pursuit of the Didact, whereas in the terminal, the Didact communicates his scheme to her in a holographic exchange before she leaves to confront her husband. The pair also do not confront one another until much later, as both are attempting to flee the Ark before its destruction, the latter with some of the last known survivors of humanity.


 * The events of Terminal 7 are not heavily changed, though they are greatly expanded. The most notable difference is the involvement of Endurance-of-Will, the Didact's lover before his marriage to the Librarian. The Librarian and the Didact briefly converse on the bridge of Mantle's Approach before the former shoots the latter. Though the Librarian touches a Promethean Knight as she leaves the Cryptum chamber, there is no indication that this overrides the Promethean constructs' loyalty to the Didact; instead, this is implied to occur when she leaves her memory imprint with Endurance.