Exactly, the original Halos always had the sense that beneath the main plot, there were thousands of years of ancient secrets and mysteries, old Bungie was master class at world building
@@xBINARYGODx you fully hear this track in gameplay and even when reversed it still gives that ominous, creepy, ancient vibe that Jarik is mentioning. I agree that 343 has done some good stuff and I'm optimistic for Infinite, but nothing they have done is immersive world-building like in H2 especially (The Arbiter, Delta Halo, Uprising are prime examples)
Bias has always scared me more than the flood. An all powerful AI designed to combat the flood that was so easily turned. Clues of his existence is there, but we've never seen him. The Flood is terrifying, but Bias is always watching. Always listening. And after thousands of years we still don't know which side he's on yet.
Yeah he did help you escape the newly made halo ring on halo 3 because he just wanted redemption by helping his creators plan but still begs the question who side is he on... we may never get to see him due to him being reduce to non existential but he is always watching...
@@javie4054 when the ship get split in two, this is not because part of it was in the jump hole and the rest not - Bias forces the second half of the ship with MC in it to head towards where he ends up for Halo 4. (so jumped close enough and left floating in the propure direction to get there in a few yeras (best he could do).
I love how Halo sort of had this lovecraftian way of presenting all of the unseen forces of the world. I remember genuinely just feeling so creeped out but the flood and the forerunner architecture. The constant questions in my head were always "who made these massive structures and halos, and HOW were they made, and WHY are they gone? Why does everything still function (doors, maps, systems, etc) despite being dormant for thousands if not millions of years?"
@Andy DuFresne from Shawshank !!! apparently Joseph Staten changed his mind regarding the worldbuilding either during Halo 2 or shortly after and decided to make Forerunners a separate species from humanity to add for more complexity/depth to the lore. I also really dug the “humans are forerunners” thing myself but I realize why the change was ultimately made. Keeping it as humans runs into a similar problem mass effect has where they really can’t go anywhere else story wise because the Reapers were the penultimate threat to the galaxy and kept wiping the slate clean every 40K years or so. Which means there’s no significant remnants of past civilizations around besides the protheans to speak of. If humanity is the forerunners, there’s ultimately no more greaters threats in the galaxy. The monitors of the installations will eventually all pick up on this and welcome humanity back and therefore conclude the story. But if there are forerunners who are still kicking that are at odds with this, then the adventure continues. Honestly given all the leadup Halo 5 had marketing wise I was hyped af for some sort of Forerunner civil war (Didact vs Librarian loyalists) with Human space being the battlefield. The potential was and is still enormous but ultimately squandered
@@Sellipsis It wasn't Staten that changed his mind. Even in Contact Harvest, humans were forerunners. Frank O' Conner (the one in charge of the weird Africa comic and terminals for Halo 3) was one of the big people who had humans separate. It just so happened that O' Conner stayed on and got put in a higher position to control the lore so the change was made. Guess the trouble was that Bungie left it always fairly vague with a few hints so 343i switched it around and got things super convoluted.
@@ZSTE I honestly think the forerunners should have remained a morally vague race of beings (ofc theyre humans too) even in their reintroduction in Halo 4. Like even though they were right there in front of us, I think it would have been better for them to be rarer enemies as well as just paranormal to an extent, where their agenda just doesnt really seem to make sense to us humans
@@CoyoteRecon probably because Infinite's story will get content added to it over time. And DLC for games that are "online" can technically fall into an ESRB loophole where "online game interactions are not rated". So, in theory just for the sake of it, technically speaking 343 cpuld add a story expansion on and it can be rated M or worse but the vase fame could still technically be rated T as the extended content is not technically part of the base game package. Also, they are probably trying to stay tight lipped on aditional spoilers and they know the hype and history of Zeta Halo, so it could be temporary.
The way 343 likes to do that kind of stuff is with cheap little cutscenes you find in some weird ass place on the map. Just like the terminals. Just throw me the fucking story stuff, this isn't doom, I don't want to have to look for this story you're supposed to be telling me. I have little to no hope for infinite, as halo 4 and 5 were pretty shit.
Halo 2 stands head and shoulders above the other games in terms of writing. The plot of Halo 2 was so rich and deep and mysterious. Halo CE and 3 were good games with solid plots, don’t get me wrong. But Halo 2 is many levels above everything else. I don’t know if we will ever see another Halo game with writing like that again.
You can't capture lightning in a jar twice. Even though part of me longs to see an extension of the beautiful story line this game presented. Such strong spirit. Everything feels involved and meant to be
@@AbdulBido yeah blur remastered but now infinite's in-engines cutscenes look better than BLur's H2A cutscenes but yeah blur is already commisioned for other projects I think.
Zeta Halo, the place we are visiting in Infinite, is basically his ring (like how Guilty Spark watched over 04). Mendicant stood alongside the Primordial, the original gravemind, and used the ring as a gigantic torture room for humans- under the façade of finding a cure for the flood. Imagine if he helps you fight Cortana, who is also probably the second victim to the logic plague. Or the new Cortana model is “Offensive Bias” and 5’s Cortana is “Mendicant 2.0”. Edit: Zeta Halo is also a part of the first array, meaning this will be the oldest halo ring we have ever visited.
@@qanon7958 I really hope that the flood has alot to do with this, they would fit so SO well into the story and could actually make the story amazing again. I just hope 343 doesn't mess it up
I have walked among men and angels for 3000 years time has no end no beginning no purpose I wander the Earth seeking forgiveness for my horrible crimes against God and men I live to see death destruction evil over the light but the light cannot be exinguished I live in prison for my own denies I'm lost in time
What I loved about the OG halo lore is that if we were to venture far into space we'd find the remnants of ancient civilisations with cosmic horror of not know what happened to them
I don't think so, it plays during the Cutecene when Del Vadam is taken to the Mausoleum to become the Arbiter, this message is clearly about penance, and the lyrics seem more of a reference to the bible story of Cain and Abel, he mentions his crimes againts Men and God (Cain killing Abel) and Walking the earth for a long time, just like Cain, If Humans are actually forreruners, or their rightfull inheritors like originally Bungie planed them to be then this theme is such a good tematic bridge between Cain and The Elites and the Arbiter who have been slaughtering Humans, their gods, under a false belief.
@@Albino_Basilisk I don't know, installation 00's theory on them is pretty heckin cool. Besides, the forerunners have lost their early "punch", this revitalizes that
@@annal3870 well it could, it’s just the true meaning. It could have something to do with mendicant bias, but the meaning of what he says could be wrong. Idk
@@foreverdm7000 OP was talking about the time we all thought Mendicant was going to be in the new Halo game. The last time that happened was the Halo 5 trailer, with Chief in the desert. We thought the Guardian rising out of the sand was Chief releasing a redeemed Mendicant from his prison on the ark to help rescue Cortana.
This has just everything! poetic, it's creepy af, cool tone and great delivery in every single line! Why we didn't get any follow up to this after halo 2!? :'(
I’m hopeful, especially after reading one of books, but I forgot the title something in the Darkness or whatever. Anyway, the Ark’s caretaker 000 Tragic Solitude told one of the humans that a very powerful construct escaped from his prison and highjacked an ONI ship. And at the end of the Forerunner series Silentium, Mendicant Bias was sealed in a desert prison on the Ark to meditate on the word ATONEMENT, for 100,000 years
What Bias says about time having no beginning, no ending, and no purpose, just matches so perfectly with the theory of Flood, Precursors, and even the "Living time/universe" being all exactly the same thing, making Halo universe a cycle of cration and destruction...
I wish there was more speculation videos on Mendicant for Infinite. That single shot in the trailer with the three orange glowing dots in chiefs visor was interesting and mysterioues and I thought more people would wanna talk about.
Bruh this is supposed to be an aspect of Shiva. I have chills right now. One aspect is known as the supreme mendicant and Hindu gods were known as having modes (see: bias)
In a way... They are. With Cortana and "the Weapon". The current story's turning out alot like the story of Mendicant Bias and Offensive Bias with Cortana as Mendicant and "the Weapon" as Offensive. Think about it, one was given with the Logic Plague that eventually made them rampant and turn on their creators, the ones they fought for, and in doing so pushed them into a corner only to lose to an AI made to counter them, a weapon in a sense. The difference is that Cortana seems to be slated for destruction while Mendicant survives. I do wonder... If the Banished are in Infinite, could they have brought things with them from the Ark? If so, Mendicant could appear.
@@Kamui_Azur also consider that the game is set on installation 07, right? I’m no lore expert don’t get me wrong, but if what I think I know is correct, both Mendicant Bias and the Primordial have deep and disturbing ties to the place.
I love how everyone is saying bias was easily turned like they didnt infect him with the logic plague after 43+ years of constant convincing with Cortana getting it after a few years of just being alive
Mendacint bias is the very reason why chief escaped in halo 3 in one piece, he is the very reason why master chief arrived on requiem, because he wanted to prove his creators that he has changed, and master chief was his example.
Damn I got goosebumps. Never even realized actual words were being said during this part & it’s just way more terrifying realizing these were mendicant bias’ words all these years.
The older halo games had such an ominous/mysterious edge to them, i loved it! It's honestly one of my biggest gripes with 343s take on the franchise, with all of the excessive lore dumping and what not. Not everything in these games needs explaining, we dont need to be spoon fed literally *everything* , it kills the mystique. Let us speculate and wonder!
2 years ago? Whatever here's a wall of text with shit you probably know already. And also to my knowledge the quote was not changed in anyway even 10 years after. The quote in question plays within gravemind and a few cutscenes (Interesting that the hierarachs are in half these missions as well) the words are vague, and can be interpreted as someone praying upon the fact life exists after the array was fired. This track plays predominantly in Arbiter levels. Lead writer Joseph Staten's novel "contact harvest" reveals mendicant bias is on the keyship powering high charity, it also tells us, and the high consul, what reclamation means to the oracle. This gives retroactive credit to quote being the AI's words, outside of this book printed a month after halo 3, fans in 2004 could've believed this whisper meant anything really.
Well I don’t think the halo 2 and 3 grave mind would apologize and feel guilty of his sins. Bias was created by the ancient humans who were actually the forerunners. In a deleted scene a capsule opens up revealing the skeleton of a forerunner and it was human. So Bias felt guilty about killing them all and probably wondered the empty earth for hundreds of thousands of years up until the galaxy was repopulated!
I do believe we will be seeing Bias in Infinite as Zeta Halo is the ring that takes place in the story and Bias is located on that Ring as far as we know
We did but we also didn't, we see his little lights at the very ending of the campaign so that means if there's ever a new dlc or halo game there's a good chance he'll come back unless the community forces them to scrap the plot again which I doubt.
Alright, so this just popped in the recommended Are we sure this is Mendicant Bias and not the Gravemind? Always thought it was the latter, what's the source on it being Mendicant
Neither of them should know what Earth is though should they? I'd say it might have to be some human character to fit the criteria. Perhaps Halsey? Chief? I dunno.
@@Doodlebobo7289 mendicant bias is very intelligent ai. So it's not that far off that me might of found out about earth later on. Especially since he was appearantly the one who helped chief and arby off the ring in halo 3.
@@OverlordAlastor Yeah, but how do we know that THIS, this video here, is Mendicant Bias. Like, a lot of this wording can fit what we know about ole Mendi, but there is not much that is all that conclusive. Like where does this sound clip play? Why does it play at that point? How can we connect it to Mendi and so on. There is also the factor of weather or not Mendicant was even a concrete concept at the point of Halo 2, or if it was just something they made up for Halo 3.
@@Sone01TheFirst I think this is the Tartarus theme played backwards. Don't know about the rest because Halo story and original creation was sort of long and confusing it also now controlled by the new people and not the original. I think during Halo 2 the original people making Halo did plan a lot so they probably designed the idea of Mendicant Bias but might not of finalised it as they made a lot of idea which were not added in the game. It is true this clip could be anyone from the Halo universe but it is probably something to do with forerunners as it mentions 3000 years and the flood don't seem to feel any regret.
@@Sone01TheFirst the sound clip plays when tartarous and some brutes carry the arbiter to the prophets its a cutscene if you didint know and it takes place in High Charity and its core is where mendicant is
okay so the first scene this song plays in is the scene where the arbiter is being taken to the prophets, and, at this point, mendicant bias is within the covenants grasp. the name of this song being "tartarus theme" also hints into this because why would something not owned by the covenant be playing for a theme in a covenant commander. the wording of some of what it is saying, such as it betraying God's and wanting forgiveness, ties into directly what mendicant bias did and is trying to do. mendicant bias was an AI made by the forerunners to combat the flood which was turned by the gravemind to assist the flood, which could explain it saying that it wants death and destruction still, with it still being under some flood influence.
I always thought this was either the gravemind, or someone from the Covenant (because you hear this when you're on high charity). It would be really cool if this was Mendicant, but unless there's more proof given, I think we can only assume the best.
I love that this game was part of my childhood but sometimes I wish I was older to pick up on more parts of the game. Like the fact the forerunner structures are just here and still work was never something I thought twice about as a kid
@Phillip hanna i have walked among men and angles for 3000 years (non living entity could live up to 3000 years) and "for my horrible crimes (betraying the forerunners and joining the primordial/flood) against man and gods (forerunners) kinda confirm hes mendicant bias
Well… this will be a nice reminder to not let RU-vid auto play on my tv anymore. I woke up to this and didn’t know what was happening. It’s 4 in the morning right now. This was worse than my sleep paralysis episode.
Remember that time in 2 high charity mission where Cortana mentioned something was interfering with her and the keyship? That was him, he was also the AI that talk to Chief in 3 terminals and sent him to requiem
@Just Happy • 100 years ago I still like to believe it's gravemind becuse an AI is not as scary as a mutated putrid alien that has an unquenchable thirst for death.
@@alexsummers9140 that I have not heard of but, I appreciate it nonetheless because I do respect the halo lore and I much prefer the simplicity of the basic halo story's from back in the day.
Didn't Cortana say something similar to that first line in Halo 3. Also who is this guy again it's been awhile since I've brushed up on my halo lore so I don't remember much about this creepy fella.
Mendicant Bias is the ancient Forerunner A.I. who betrayed his makers and sided with the Flood. This betrayal allowed the parasite to outwit the Forerunners and drive them to the brink of extinction. It was partially because of Mendicant Bias that the Halo rings were fired in the first place, wiping all sentient life from the universe. Mendicant's A.I. construct was deconstructed and stored in different areas of the universe, where he spent every second afterwards in solitude as punishment for his sins. A shard of Mendicant Bias is one of the main holy icons of the covenant, found on a secret Forerunner Keyship and hidden away on the great city of High Charity. Another shard of Mendicant Bias was hidden away on The Ark. Inside hidden terminals throughout Halo 3's campaign on The Ark, we're given cryptic messages in regards to The Forerunners' demise and how the rogue A.I. played into the fate of the universe. If you play the final level of Halo 3 on legendary, you are given a special terminal script which tells that Mendicant Bias regrets his actions and wishes to help secure the current (year 2552) human dynasty. The Forerunner A.I. helps Master Chief on the final warthog run by keeping the floor panels functioning long enough for the warthog to cross before they collapse and fall into the pit. It is theorized that Mendicant Bias is also responsible for teleporting Master Chief's half of the Forward Unto Dawn unto the shield planet Requiem in Halo 4. (Fun fact. In the early Bungie Halo days, the Forerunners were supposed to be ancient humans. It explains certain plot consistencies, such as the modern day humans being called "Reclaimers" [They're reclaiming their lost technology] as well as the fact that humans are the only ones who could activate said technology. In this secret message, when Mendicant says he is seeking forgiveness for his horrible crimes against "man" he is really referring to the ancient Forerunners.)
@@kylekingsland5564 wow... Thank you so much for this. Edit: not gonna lie legit thought the floor not breaking underneath master chief and the arbiter during the warthog run was because chief, as Cortana put it, had "luck"
@@kylekingsland5564 But what exactly caused Mendicant to turn on the forerunners? Wasn’t it because he was infected by the logic plague or something? I think that’s what the Didact was suffering from as well. (Sorry if I dumb, I’m new to halo lore but it’s soo interesting)
We must spread this video more...i actually had no idea that was him until after i watched all of Hiddenexperia's videos and then watched this video again holy crap my mind is blown lol
This random recommendation sent me down a rabbit hole of very deep halo lore... I miss the old days where I knew about halo was “haha Warthog turret go: Brrrrrrrrrb!”
Halo has always had a vaguely biblical inspiration to it with the flood and the ark, the forunners like angels rebelling against the gods (precursors) and the like It took me until now to realise mendicant bias is essentially Caine, the first murderer cursed to forever walk the earth for his sins
Precursors don’t exist, they were made up by 343 and Frank O’Connor and like the retcon Vampire Fish Forerunners in those cringe novels and games will never be Halo, Humans are Forerunner it was unambiguously laid out numerous times in the games and books with Joseph Staten spelling it out in Contact Harvest
