Terminal (Halo 3)

This article is about the Terminals in Halo 3. For other uses of "Terminal", see Terminal (disambiguation)

The terminals in Halo 3 are Forerunner terminals that provide insight into the history of the Forerunners, primarily the Forerunner-Flood war. The terminals are a continuation of the Iris alternate reality game used as viral marketing for Halo 3. They clarify a great deal of the Iris story line by naming the authors of different messages and by explaining the circumstances of the original firing of the Halo Array. The terminals follow the stories of the Librarian and the Didact, Forerunner logs of Flood attacks, and Mendicant Bias' progression into rampancy.

Overview
The terminals can be accessed on any difficulty. Finding and accessing all seven of the terminals in Halo 3 unlocks the Marathon Man achievement; this can be done over the course of several sessions, out of order, and on various difficulties. The player does not need to finish any of the missions in question in order to unlock the achievement.

The terminals
The terminals are located on three levels: The Ark, The Covenant, and Halo. There is also a hidden terminal on Cortana, but that one does not need to be found in order to get the achievement.

Upon initial access on all difficulty levels, the seven terminals give background details regarding the story of the 300-year-long Forerunner-Flood conflict, including strategies, encounters, enemy and friendly losses, and procedures leading up to the activation of the Halo Array. After a short time, this text is overwritten and a new message is displayed on the screen.

On Easy, Normal, and Heroic difficulty levels, this second screen of text details a correspondence between two Forerunner lovers called the "Librarian" and "Didact". In this transcript, as in the Terminals, "L" stands for Librarian and "D" stand for Didact.

An unknown entity sends brief messages onscreen upon shutdown. The final terminal reveals that this entity is the rampant Forerunner AI Mendicant Bias, who had previously assisted in the Flood's attempt to destroy the Forerunners.

On the Legendary difficulty level, the second screen of text tells the story of Mendicant Bias. It is revealed that Mendicant Bias was the AI who took control of AdjutantReflex during the "Iris" campaign. Messages detailing Mendicant's eventual defection to the Gravemind are displayed by Terminals 1 through 4, with the AI having an ongoing conversation with the Flood (tagged LF.Xx.3273). These messages are incomplete and partially disrupted, with {~} symbolizing the disruptions. A noticeable pattern in the messages suggests that many of the disruptions occur at the use of pronouns, such as "I, we, me, they, it", though this pattern is not entirely consistent.

Terminal 5 displays several hostile messages sent from Mendicant Bias to its makers, confirming its rampancy. These messages are different on each difficulty level.

Terminal 6 details the defeat of Mendicant Bias by Offensive Bias, as perceived by Offensive itself.

The final message hidden in Terminal 7 is an apology made by Mendicant directly to John-117 for the former's betrayal, atoning by saying it will help the Reclaimer leave the Ark safely.

Cortana terminal
"It was the coin's fault! I wanted to make you strong, keep you safe... I'm sorry, I can't..."

- Cortana terminal

The Cortana terminal is an Easter egg located in the basement room of the Tilt Skull's location, where the gravity hammer is found. This Terminal does not count towards the Marathon Man achievement but instead plays a secret Cortana moment. This terminal references a scene in Halo: The Fall of Reach where John-117 unwittingly ensures his conscription into the SPARTAN-II program by correctly guessing several coin tosses in a row. Audio of Dr. Halsey enticing him to play Heads or Tails with her can be heard as the player approaches the terminal's location.

Translation and naming
It is important to note that phrases such as "Maginot Line", "Eden", and "fairy tale" would not have existed in the Forerunner language(s). Forerunner technology (including terminals) utilizes extremely advanced translation software. This software is capable of incorporating idioms from a reader's own experience, such that a human viewing the terminals will see human idiomatic expressions and human names in relevant contexts.

Several pieces of text are bracketed and shown in a darker font color; this is likely done to indicate that the phrases in question have no exact equivalent in the reader's language, and that an approximation has been used. Furthermore, some bracketed phrases also contain sub-bracketed question marks (such as the phrase "[travel the path of demons[?]]"), implying that the terminals' software is unsure of the proper translation for the given dialog.

Interestingly, the word "Ark" does not appear in brackets, meaning that it is a direct translation, rather than a human idiom.

Reversed messages
In certain parts, backwards speech can be heard. Common phrases include "Archive Access", "Interruption", "Lineage Confirmed", "Data Corruption", and "Welcome Child".

Additional information
For a moment after a page is initially accessed the text is shown in its original state in Forerunner script. The symbols stand in only for letters, not for numbers or punctuation, and share the same colors (i.e. gold and orange) as the letters possess when 'translated'. They stand in only for the letters in the main sections, not in the text that comes up immediately before the display is redirected.

The symbols bear no resemblance to the other, more well known Forerunner symbols and possess no observable meaning, as they replace the English characters at random (this can be seen by flipping quickly between two pages and concentrating on any one particular symbol, observing how the stand-in changes).

When certain terminals are redirecting the player after they have logged in, as the screen turns red on the left side are symbols and the words "I AM MENDICANT BIAS."

Production notes
According to Paul Russel, several Bungie employees were involved with the writing of Halo 3's terminals. Frank O'Connor, Damian Isla, Robert McLees, Rob Stokes, Paul Bertone, Jaime Griesemer, Jason Jones, and possibly also Lorraine McLees had a hand in producing the narrative of the terminals. However, this list may be somewhat exaggerated in terms of full involvement, as Jaime Griesemer would later go on clarify his distance to the terminals. According to Paul Russel, the continuity of the narrative wasn't as thoroughly vetted by management, but it was nonetheless fully approved to include in Halo 3. Damian Isla also worked on the terminal's in-game implementation from a coding perspective while Paul Russel worked on the art.

At one point, the terminals were at risk of being cut from the final game because Bungie feared they would not be ready at launch. However, Paul Russel and Damian Isla worked extra hours to get the animations, font, and code all correct and working.

Relationship with subsequent canon
"The terminal dialogs may themselves be questionable, in light of this new testimony."

- A science team leader, regarding the terminals and the contradicting discoveries.

Parts of the terminals are contradicted by newer information from The Forerunner Saga and other subsequent media. These novels are first-hand accounts of the timeframe covered by the terminals and though they are presented as testimonies by in-universe characters, they hold higher canon priority than the terminals. This has been explained by the terminals being partially unreliable in-universe documents; 343 Industries has stated that the unstable Mendicant Bias manipulated the transmissions to some extent when presenting them to John-117, filtering and editing the information in a way which best suited its own purposes. Thus, the inconsistencies between the sources are attributed to unreliable presentation, not because the terminals' content has been retconned outright. It was also suggested that Mendicant's communication with John-117, and its reasons behind tampering with the terminals in the specific way it did, may yet play a part in future fiction.

Regardless, the Forerunner Saga novels feature most of the central events and characters from the terminals, though their timing and many other specifics are changed. The terminals have also been referenced in various pieces of subsequent fiction. In Halo Mythos, it is stated that when the front half of the arrived at Earth on December 23, 2552, the Office of Naval Intelligence acquired records of John-117's interactions with the terminals. During ONI's interrogation of 343 Guilty Spark (which forms the meta-plot of Halo: Primordium) the 's science team references the terminals as a source for their prior information on the Forerunners; they note that the terminals' records are (on some points) incompatible with Guilty Spark's account.

Some elements of the terminals were later adapted in Halo: Silentium; the in-universe conceit for the latter novel's story is the analysis of Juridical logs found on Trevelyan. Most notably, the Librarian's self-imposed exile on Erde-Tyrene and her refusal to leave as the Flood approach are carried over rather closely. As in the terminals, she sends the Didact a contemplative message in her final hours while she watches the construction of the portal structure in eastern Africa. Near the end of the novel, Offensive Bias is mentioned as heading off Mendicant Bias' fleet while the Didact prepares the Halos to fire; this foreshadows the Battle of the Maginot Sphere, which was introduced in the terminals.

Human-Forerunner connection
The terminals, along with the Iris marketing campaign, were among the first official sources depicting the history of the Forerunners themselves, through various documents recorded from before the firing of the array. These sources follow a narrative in which the Forerunners (specifically the Librarian) discover Earth during the Forerunner-Flood war; the Librarian shows intense fascination at the planet's biota, calling it an "anomalous world" that may provide answers to the Forerunners' "own mysteries". More specifically, she is fixated on Earth's population of humans, who are shown as living in a paleolithic state. This version is also followed in the log by the Librarian featured in the 2010 reissue of Halo: The Flood, in which she documents her ongoing indexing of Earth's biota, including the various species of human.

Bungie was internally split into at least two teams on the relationship of humans and Forerunners during the development of Halo 3. According to statements from David Candland, Paul Russel, and Jaime Griesemer: The "Game" team had continued the original idea that Forerunners were ancient humans, following this intention through from being conceptualized during pre-production of Halo: Combat Evolved. shown in the original tabled ending for Halo 2 (described here) and echoed in Mendicant Bias's statements regarding humanity in Halo: Contact Harvest. Additionally, In the last level of Halo 3 the final line of cinematic dialogue from 343 Guilty Spark: "You are Forerunner!" was intended to reveal this information, supposing to wrap up the mystery of the Forerunners identity. This version appears to have suggested that the Forerunners regressed themselves technologically after the firing of the Halos, and in effect became humanity as we know it, with modern humanity being described as "children" of the Forerunners.

The "Terminals" team had changed this to be somewhat different, reworking the idea to where the Forerunners were a subset of early sapiens uplifted by the Precursors to a higher technological level, notably still the same species. This idea is also plainly seen in Iris, with it as well having the Librarian discovering Earth and indexing the humans she finds, noting her personal allurement to both. However, while Iris specifically depicts this planet as Earth, neither the terminals or Iris explicitly comment on the biological connection between Forerunners and humanity. Paul Russel has explained: "The game and terminal writers were separate teams with overlap; they didn’t think the discrepancy would matter; management vetting never read or cared about continuity; morning bagels were more important than canon." and Halo 3 was approved to ship with both versions.

In Halo: Contact Harvest, a Forerunner Luminary designates the humans on Harvest with the symbol meaning "Reclaimer", and Mendicant Bias explicitly states that "those it represents are my makers", an evidently unambiguous statement indicating that humans and Forerunners are synonymous. Joseph Staten began writing Halo: Contact Harvest while he was placed on temporary administrative leave to resolve differences between him and Marcus Lehto. According to Paul Russel, the decisions for the terminals were made around this time. As Joseph was working on the novel, ideation and drafts were being vetted by terminal writers Frank O'Connor and Robert McLees, as they were the keepers of the Halo Story Bible. Joseph later returned to the studio sometime between May-July 2007 and worked on Halo 3's story team until the end of development. According to Joseph, after Halo 3 had gone gold, he then was able to work on the novel for another month. During that time, he had made "a number of really critical tweaks" and produced a more polished final draft. He had also said "folks who spend the time to find and read the Halo 3 terminals will definitely have more insight into one of the major, climactic scenes in the book". He would again thank Frank O'Connor and Robert McLees for their work as writing editors throughout the process in the final release of Contact Harvest.

With this, Staten is known be involved with both Halo 3's "game" story and Contact Harvest, where the original Forerunner intention is presented in explicit statements in both respective media. It is not specifically confirmed, but made certainly clear that Joseph Staten was writing on these materials with the original intention. With Robert and Frank being both writers on the Halo 3 terminals and editors for the novel, and Joseph having knowledge of the terminals, it is unknown why the contradiction took place. The potential insight from the terminals that Staten had mentioned is likely meant to refer to the backstory of Mendicant Bias. His behavior and statements in Contact Harvest match to how he is in the final terminal, and his appearance is in the major reveal scene of the book.

Notably, concept art for the cancelled Halo MMO Titan, developed by Ensemble Studios, depicted the Forerunners as ostensibly human, supposedly reflecting the creators' intent at the time of the game's development. The Origins short in Halo Legends, released in 2009 by 343 Industries, depicts the Forerunners as armored humanoids with a human-like build, including five-fingered hands; later media would establish them as having six fingers by default. However, the canonicity of Origins was presented as nebulous even at the time of the short's release, with the noted caveat that the visuals and events shown are Cortana's interpretations rather than being necessarily reflective of in-universe reality.

When 343 Industries was developing The Forerunner Saga, the modern concepts for the human-Forerunner relationship were established, with there being considerable changes from the previous intentions. They are presented as being clearly distinct species in both the novels and subsequent visual media, which depict the Forerunners as humanoid but decidedly alien, contrasted with the explicitly human Ancestors. The novels greatly extended the timeline of Forerunner involvement with humanity. Rather than being a discovered during the Conservation Measure, Earth has been known to the Forerunners since ancient times by the time the novels are set, and has been used as an outpost by the Librarian for nine millennia prior to the firing of the Halos. Although the humans have been devolved to a primitive state by the Forerunners, they are depicted as a civilization with a long history of contact, rivalry, and war with the Forerunners. Despite these distinctions, the novels' point-of-view characters frequently note various similarities between them, and there are several instances in which in the early history of both is noted as being shrouded in mystery. Through sources like Halo: Point of Light and the 2022 Halo Encyclopedia, Forerunners and humans have been revealed to have been split off from a species created from a base stock by the Precursors fifteen million years ago. While the origin or nature of the "base stock" is not elaborated on, this explanation is somewhat conceptually similar to the terminal writers' intent of the Forerunners being an offshoot of early terrestrial humans.

The Didact's involvement
One of the most notable incongruities occurs in Terminal 3, in which the Librarian asks the Didact if he has learned nothing from 300 years of warfare against with the Flood. According to Halo: Cryptum, the Didact went into exile around 98,445 BCE and was not recovered until roughly a decade before the end of the war in 97,445 BCE. Barring a retcon, the simplest explanation is that the Librarian was referring to the Warrior-Servants' ability to share sensory information, or that he could have researched the preceding centuries of war via the Domain.

In Soma the Painter, which acts as a form of primer for The Forerunner Saga (having been released less than two months before Halo: Cryptum in Halo: Evolutions Volume II), the Didact is referenced by the Auditor as if he were available and supposedly in command of Forerunner defense during the Forerunners' contact with the Flood around 97,745 BCE.

The Didact and the Halos
The transmissions exchanged by the Didact (the IsoDidact in the context of The Forerunner Saga) and the Librarian preceding the Halos' firing also present a number of discrepancies with Halo: Silentium. In the terminals, the status quo of the Didact leading Forerunner defense from Installation 00 while the Librarian catalogs the galaxy's lifeforms is implied to have continued for the duration of the war. The Didact is adamant until the end in his refusal to use the Halos, before the Librarian strands herself on Earth. Even at this point the Didact attempts to send a rescue party to retrieve his wife, but the rescue party is destroyed by Mendicant Bias as it attacks the Maginot Sphere. This finally deprives the Didact of options but the activation of the Array.

In Halo: Silentium, the IsoDidact's acceptance of the Halo Array develops over a longer period of time; by the time he makes it to Installation 00 in the final hours of the war, he is fully convinced of the Array's necessity and shows much less hesitation to sacrifice the Librarian's life. While the Librarian travels to Earth to draw off the Flood, no rescue party is mentioned; however, at the Librarian's request, the IsoDidact sends a vessel which will be converted into materials to construct the portal to the Ark. Much of the Didact's stubborn opposition to the Halos depicted in the terminals is relegated to the Ur-Didact and acts as a motivator for many of his actions.

Mendicant Bias' betrayal
Another inconsistency involves the timeframe of Mendicant Bias' betrayal. In Terminal 3, the Didact refers to Mendicant Bias as an ally; the context of the message implies that the AI was created during the Forerunner-Flood war. However, Halo: Cryptum shows that Mendicant Bias had been created prior to the Didact's exile and had already gone rogue 43 years before the latter's revival. The novel depicts Mendicant Bias' assault on the Capital, which occurred only weeks after the Didact's resuscitation and before he regained command of the Forerunner military. Halo: Primordium shows that the "Mendicant Bias" that attacked the capital was only a fragment of the AI's personality construct array and that the Forerunners attempted to alleviate the shard's rampancy. Halo: Silentium states that the procedure was successful and the metarch's components were spread across the galaxy for the sake of compartmentalization. However, as the Flood overran most of the ecumene, Mendicant Bias' disparate parts were found and, within several years, the AI was reconstituted.

In the terminals, Mendicant's defection immediately precedes the Flood's gathering into one massive force and subsequent attack on the Maginot Sphere; it is implied that the AI had not directly engaged Forerunners before the final battle against Offensive Bias. The novels describe Mendicant Bias as fighting on the Flood's side for several years, beginning with its attack on the Capital.

The Precursors and the Mantle
The prominent exploration of the Precursors in The Forerunner Saga (including the Flood's use of their artifacts as weapons or the Precursors' relationship with the Flood) is not discussed in the terminals, as the details about the Precursors were not conceived until the writing of the novels. The Precursors are mentioned only in passing, as the mythical beings the Forerunners believed them to be; even in the endgame of the war, the Didact insists that the Forerunners, once they succeed, can "follow in their footsteps". In The Forerunner Saga, the Didact already knew the truth about the Precursors and their transmutation into the Flood at this point and certainly would not have regarded them with such a reverential tone.

The terminals present the Forerunners' stagnation and their refusal to accept the Flood as the next step and salvation of galactic life as being Mendicant Bias' primary motive for defecting. In Halo: Primordium, Mendicant Bias states that it "fulfills the wishes of those who created us all", implying that the Primordial's Precursor-derived authority and the Domain's revelation of the truth about the Forerunner-Precursor relationship were a major contributor to the AI's turning against its creators. The terminals describe the Forerunners as making their first contact with the Flood on G 617 g in the beginning of the three-century-long Forerunner-Flood war; the novels establish that the Forerunners were aware of the Flood ten thousand years in advance, having taken part in its sterilization in the later half of the human-Forerunner wars.

In the terminals, the Mantle is depicted as little more than a Forerunner belief system which the Librarian outright shuns as superstition and the cause of the Forerunners' weakness at the face of the Flood onslaught. In The Forerunner Saga, the Mantle is established to be something more multifaceted and universal, with different characters having varying views as to its nature and interpretation. The Librarian is portrayed as being against the stagnation and decadence of Forerunner society and the oppression they committed in the name of the Mantle, but maintains her belief in the ideal of the Mantle itself, even grooming humanity to reclaim it.

Trivia
In Terminal 4, the Librarian states that she can see the Flood's ships blotting out the stars at night as they gather from across the galaxy and converge on the Line. This should be impossible, as the light from different stars in the galaxy would take any number of centuries or millennia to reach Earth to be seen with the naked eye. Given that the terminals utilize imperfect translations, one may infer she is speaking metaphorically or using an exotic form of sensor equipment allowing her to observe the starfield in real-time.