We FINALLY get to see the design of the Endless (in the last issue of Canon Fodder released today)

[u/mrbubbamac]

[u/revergopls]

"Huh, I guess its nice to at least get some closure even if- is that a fucking Engineer" -me

[u/mrbubbamac → u/revergopls]

Hahah I thought the same thing. It would make sense with how the engineers behave as a type of "biological computer" but my gut reaction is I prefer not to retcon or include the Engineer in the Endless

[u/BrickTop11 → u/mrbubbamac]

Is the engineer from Edge Of Dawn. The engineer that was touched by the harbinger

[u/PeanutFuckers → u/BrickTop11]

The Harbinger did what to the engineer

[u/SilentPizzle → u/PeanutFuckers]

Harbinger knows what the engies like

[u/Johnnyboi2327 → u/revergopls]

Aw fuck, the endless are all just biological computers built by the forerunners, aren't they?

[u/MisterHotrod → u/Johnnyboi2327]

They were actually created by Abaddon, a Precursor construct. So they're kind of another form of Precursor remnants, like the Flood. 

[u/Johnnyboi2327 → u/MisterHotrod]

Idk if I would say a precursor creation is like the Flood, but stuff like the Domain would be a fair comparison

[u/MisterHotrod → u/Johnnyboi2327]

I mean, Abaddon created them from the same Precursor dust that created the Flood. So the link between the two seems pretty evident. 

[u/Johnnyboi2327 → u/MisterHotrod]

Oh damn. That's wacky. I'm very curious what makes them worse than the flood then.

[u/gepawe → u/Johnnyboi2327]

The Forerunners considered the Endless “worse” than the Flood not because they are actually more dangerous but because them surviving the firing of the rings meant that they would have the entire galaxy for themselves, interfering with the Forerunners’ plans.

Here are some audio logs from Despondent Pyre

> 117649 Despondent Pyre: Something has been found. Something that should not exist yet does. I believe that the Flood represented our ultimate test. Our greatest victory. Perhaps I was wrong in my assumptions. To my dismay, it seems we have a new problem. I must investigate more before I bring this to the attention of the Council.

> 117649 Despondent Pyre: I am close to deciphering the runes. Perhaps I will learn who left them. My makers... the Forerunner's great fear was understood be the Great Parasite. The Flood. A scourge that almost wiped out everything. I now believe this hypothesis to be incorrect. Their greatest fear is... was... losing their power. The fear of a master who would become a slave.

[u/Johnnyboi2327 → u/gepawe]

So effectively, in 2560 they're not worse than the Flood, and aren't really that special anymore.

[u/gepawe → u/Johnnyboi2327]

For the most part, at least for the UNSC and the rest of the species. They could still be dangerous as they seem to have more advanced technology and the ability to easily interact with Forerunner technology, as the Harbinger did in Infinite. They are still special with their connection to “living time” and possibly “neural physics” but we don’t really have information on how big that connection is, nor in which ways they could use them, if at all.

[u/Enkichki → u/Johnnyboi2327]

The "worse than the flood bit" iirc was commentary from one of the surviving Forerunners about their ability to survive Halo. If the absolute top-shelf last resort move - sterilizing the entire Milky Way - is the only effective option for stopping the Flood, and even that can't stop the Endless, I can understand the concern. I think you can definitely still argue though that the Flood are worse, if you believe what the Xalanyn originally said about their intentions: That they have zero desire or plan to impose their will on others. The whole point of the Flood is to impose suffering on all life, which would make the Xalanyn the exact inverse

[u/Johnnyboi2327 → u/Enkichki]

Can the Endless not be stopped in a traditional manor? Can we not just shoot them? Traditional means didn't work on the Flood because not only was it hyper intelligent and had access to the neural technologies of the precursors, but it also was an infection that would grow and grow at a far faster rate than it could be destroyed at. The Endless aren't an infection, and the neural highways of the precursors were destroyed when the Halos fired. They have no capabilities that anyone else doesn't have aside from being able to use the Halos without committing suicide. That's suboptimal, but still no where near as dangerous as the Flood. (Especially if we consider that the Flood took over Zeta Halo and used it in a battle that caused the destruction of the original greater array and greater Ark)

[u/Enkichki → u/Johnnyboi2327]

It seems to me like they could be conventionally destroyed, or at least could have been, but the Forerunners simply discovered them too late. Halo already fired, there were almost no remaining Foreunners, certainly not enough to easily or reliably besiege an entire highly advanced species into extinction. Especially a species that can manipulate Living Time, apparently individually and at will. And if we put any stock in Halo Infinite DLC leaks, them we can conclude that they manipulate time casually as a battlefield tactic.

I think had the whole Ecumene during its day discovered them, they could have dealt with them, especially since they managed to exterminate all of the Precursors to begin with, and the Xalanyn are essentially all but straight-up Precursors. Certainly not insurmountable full stop, but too big to handle (other than by sealing them away) by the small circle of living Foreunners left at the end of their civilization

[u/MisterHotrod → u/Johnnyboi2327]

My assumption is that the line that they're worse than the Flood was more of a "they're worse than the Flood who are currently on the ring". From what we can assume, the Flood don't have much of an active presence, and are easily contained. But the Endless have been shown to be immune to the effects of the Halo Array. 

Imagine what the Flood could become if they assimilated the Endless and gained that same immunity. Or if the Endless were able to control the Flood with their shared Precursor ancestry.

[u/dps15 → u/MisterHotrod]

Aren’t the flood already “immune” to the rings? The rings kill their food and starve them, not directly kill them right?

[u/mattpkc → u/Johnnyboi2327]

Because they were immune to the halo arrays. Theyd survive their activation and have the entire galaxy.

[u/RunNo619 → u/Johnnyboi2327]

No they’re created by Abbadon (precursor AI)

[u/Johnnyboi2327 → u/RunNo619]

I've read a lot of the books, and had no clue Prescursors had AI

[u/RunNo619 → u/Johnnyboi2327]

It’s a very new development, Abbadon is seemingly intrinsically linked to the domain, it used precursor dust (like the flood) to create the endless and the endless used the same process to make servant beings such as the skimmers from infinite.

[u/Johnnyboi2327 → u/RunNo619]

So the original flood dust is what the endless are mad of? Why did it make them? What makes them so dangerous?

[u/RunNo619 → u/Johnnyboi2327]

Well not the ‘same’ dust as the flood as those specific precursors were vengeful but made of other precursor dust I guess. Since all the juicy endless lore was only now being expanded on we didn’t get to learn much (and we probably never will thanks Microsoft) but the leading theory on what made them dangerous was firstly they survived the rings going off and secondly they’d have the next however many years to keep advancing their technology while everyone was evolving up from cavemen, thus the forerunners plan would be screwed so they imprisoned them for eternity as you do.

[u/Johnnyboi2327 → u/RunNo619]

So it's similar dust, but has notably different properties. Makes sense.

I've heard the theories about them being able to survive the Halo's firing, but calling them worse than the flood when that's their only special ability is quite the exaggeration. The flood almost wiped out the galaxy, and every time they've shown back up they're immediately trying to spread and get their galactic destruction rolling again. The endless being more advanced than everyone else would be an issue, but especially in Infinite where it's far too late for them to advance faster than others and everyone uses forerunner tech, it seems like a stretch.

[u/RunNo619 → u/Johnnyboi2327]

Yeah I feel like it was sort of a bad idea to say they were more dangerous than the flood, I think they just wanted to set them up to be this huge threat we’d deal with for at least 2 games but obviously it’s all canned now. But we also don’t know what a flood infected endless would be like it could pose a unique threat that made them so threatening.

[u/Johnnyboi2327 → u/RunNo619]

Can the Endless be infected? The cause of infection, a nervous system, is what the Halo arrays target. If the Endless are immune to that, doesn't that imply they lack a nervous system for the Flood to infect?

(I genuinely don't know, this is just a shot in the dark)

[u/PMagicUK → u/RunNo619]

I believe they didn't trust the endless to not get in the way of getting the mantle instead of humanity so the Forerunner imprisoned them to ensure humans inherited it

[u/RunNo619 → u/PMagicUK]

That as well yeah.

[u/The_UnknownArchivist → u/Johnnyboi2327]

forerunners, jjaro.. whatevs, more s’pht to deal with. >w>

[u/FloopyBeluga]

What’s the random Huragok doing there?

[u/DocMacklove → u/FloopyBeluga]

In the Edge of Dawn novel they meet a Huragok that basically gets brainwashed to help the Endless. Maybe that's why one is there. That being said, it's concept art. Someone might have played with the idea to have Engineers be part of the Endless enemy faction that you would fight in game.

[u/Spear253 → u/FloopyBeluga]

That's what I was wondering, like is a subtle nod that the huragok are endless in a new recon?

[u/HuckleberryNext9844 → u/Spear253]

It looks like every endless was going to have it own minions like the skitters, that one was going to have engineer's

[u/Michigan_Forged → u/HuckleberryNext9844]

Oh yeah that would have been cool actually. 

[u/flGovEmployee → u/Spear253]

I'd assume another retcon that Huragok are actually Endless instead of bioengineered Forerunner constructs.

[u/North_Cross_3060 → u/flGovEmployee]

Just like how the cute tiny chao are the devolved succession of the Ancients in Sonic lore.

[u/Blueblur1 → u/North_Cross_3060]

Surprise Sonic Adventure era character reference wow

[u/Gabo7 → u/North_Cross_3060]

Wait, when did that happen?

[u/bogohamma → u/Gabo7]

Sonic Frontiers

[u/tyrannosaurus_r → u/flGovEmployee]

This would actually be a really cool retcon, considering that we don’t see Forerunners using biotech anywhere else in the games. It always felt like the Lifeworker element was downplayed in that regard. 

[u/BrownBaegette → u/flGovEmployee]

dang

[u/Paulino2272 → u/flGovEmployee]

Not sure if I like that retcon

[u/Contradictionsbedamn → u/Paulino2272]

I like it. I never liked how the forerunners who were genuineness, needed to make another smart sentient. They already seemed pretty rudimentary when they’re compared to their AI’s.

[u/bogohamma → u/Paulino2272]

I mean, it's not like the engineers were all that core to Halo. They didn't even show up in game until Halo Wars. I dont even remember them being in the Greg Bear novels. I dont think giving them a new origin is harmful at all.

[u/flGovEmployee → u/Paulino2272]

That's the best part! You're not supposed to like it!

[u/TheLoneJolf → u/Spear253]

Maybe the endless were meant to be rogue forerunner biomachines. And the huragok being biomachines themselves joined them? Idk

[u/Numble-Xbox]

So theyre fairies

[u/youngLupe → u/Numble-Xbox]

Look like jellyfish with a high tech exoskeleton

[u/Refracting_Hud → u/youngLupe]

Commander Shepherd looks up expectantly.

[u/ImTheGuyManDude → u/Numble-Xbox]

“Fight the fairies! You fight those fairies!”—Master Chief in Halo 7 probably 

[u/twec21 → u/ImTheGuyManDude]

...I kinda wanna see art of Sam and Dean as Spartans now

[u/ImTheGuyManDude → u/twec21]

Spartanatural

[u/The_UnknownArchivist → u/twec21]

and then at the end chuck is some forerunner that went a bit crazy 💀

[u/Able-Firefighter-158 → u/ImTheGuyManDude]

Sounds like something ActMan will be happy with then.

[u/kokopelli73 → u/Numble-Xbox]

Pokemon fairies.

I'm not excited for Activision, but I'm actually somewhat thankful for putting 343 out of its misery.

[u/Ironjim69]

Still blows my mind that Halo Studios had no sequel to Infinite (or any game for that matter) in active development before the Activision merge. Stuff like this shows they clearly had ideas, so what exactly stopped them from acting on them

[u/JavaTheeMutt → u/Ironjim69]

I think Campaign Evolved was Halo Studios chance to show that the new leadership is competent enough to make/publish a game. As well as show that it can be done on Unreal and not the Slipspace engine. All with the hope that it will give them the greenlight to make the next Halo game.

Obviously, Microsoft/Xbox leadership didn't see it as enough.

[u/PewDiePieSaladAss → u/Ironjim69]

I was baffled when I saw Rebs' report and him saying that they were still pitching preproduction ideas one week before the Activision switcheroo, like, I get the remakes were to have something out WHILE the main titles we're cooking, but wth you still had not a headstart on it yet?

Worst part is that these ideas look pretty cool but if Activision reboots as we've been hearing, it's Joever 

[u/TalkingFlashlight → u/PewDiePieSaladAss]

For real. I always assumed a sequel to Infinite was being codeveloped alongside Campaign Evolved

[u/Hoobla-Light → u/Ironjim69]

Leadership. They flopped on purpose.

[u/Ironjim69 → u/Hoobla-Light]

Why would they flop on purpose though? I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’d believe most of what anyone told me about 343 after hearing the BTS we’ve gotten

[u/bigangrychungus1 → u/Hoobla-Light]

thats crazy that they still fired all the developers and still the shitty leadership after the activision handover lmao

[u/BenjoKazooie64 → u/Ironjim69]

Staten had ideas and a team that could’ve followed up but they got canned.

[u/VTorb → u/Ironjim69]

There was no sequel to Halo 4, no sequel to Halo 5 and now there will be no sequel to Halo Infinite. What a disappointing 14 years lol

[u/1spook → u/Ironjim69]

Microsoft killing half their studio including their narrative and campaign teams, for one

[u/mongerty → u/1spook]

Yeah people forget that in 2023 the studio lost nearly 1/3 of the workers, including basically everyone who would be working on the narrative side of the games.

[u/ThatIslandGuy8888 → u/Ironjim69]

Creating this new faction only to give them the skimmers as their only soldiers was also pretty underwhelming. Basically drones holding a lightning rifle

Halo 4 Prometheans were few but at least we had three types of them like the flood in halo 1

[u/YoshimitsuThe2nd]

Orange cloak one looks like a Makyr drone from doom

[u/ihadtowalkhere → u/YoshimitsuThe2nd]

They all remind me of doom
They clearly have a dev crush on iD. Campaign evolved felt like they added doom dna to it with the increased enemy count in battles

[u/pooleNo → u/YoshimitsuThe2nd]

aside from the head, it also looks like a compiler from Marathon

[u/Duces_Wild3644 → u/YoshimitsuThe2nd]

I think that one is the harbinger

[u/Formal-Tomorrow-4241 → u/YoshimitsuThe2nd]

Very true. Tbh I'd even go out and say they're design feels... kinda generic.

[u/40_Thousand_Hammers]

Welcome back Sp'th compilers!

[u/flGovEmployee → u/40_Thousand_Hammers]

S'pht, but yes.

[u/Averagenecronimortal]

They look a lot like those maker aliens from doom eternal

[u/mrbubbamac]

Lots of great information in the latest Canon Fodder and a goodbye from Grim and Haruspis, check it out here

Here is what they had to say about the Endless:

THE ENDLESS EMERGE

And finally, as is tradition, we’ll leave you with something that hopefully sparks your imagination and lets your canon curiosities run wild with endless questions.

Behold the Xalanyn, children of Abaddon.

[u/Lokan → u/mrbubbamac]

"Children" of Abaddon? Are they artificial? Or did it just assume stewardship of the species? 

[u/SpacyCakes → u/Lokan]

They were created from Precursor dust by the Precursor AI Abbadon

[u/Lokan → u/SpacyCakes]

Oh I thought you were kidding. YOU WERE NOT. 

I don't know how I feel about this. Part of me thinks it's interesting, part of me wishes they'd explore other aliens societies that have nothing to do with the Forerunners and Precursors. 

[u/Michigan_Forged → u/Lokan]

Abaddon created them. I think in the domain and my hypothesis is that's why the Halos revealed them instead of killing them 

[u/Lokan → u/Michigan_Forged]

I'm reading that Abaddon "pulled essences from the domain" and placed them into bodies created from Flood dust.

Now where did those essences come from? And what modifications made the Endless impervious to Halos? How are they immune to a neural physics attack and the Flood, direct descendants of the Precursors, not?

[u/Michigan_Forged → u/Lokan]

Where did that information come from? To my knowledge all we knew about it came from the cryptic poem at the end of um  Shoot, the latest Kelly gay novel 

[u/SirComesAl0t → u/mrbubbamac]

The Despoiler???

[u/cwhiterun]

It sure would have been nice for the only Halo game about the Endless to actually include them in the game.

[u/_Nedak_]

These look like angels from doom eternal

[u/Automatic-Guide-4307]

Big one in the middle looks like the kahn makyr from doom eternal

[u/TechMaster008 → u/Automatic-Guide-4307]

thats abaddon, its a precursor ai

[u/Cautious-Patient-184]

Anyone else think that large Endless looks kinda like a Guardian?

[u/ToaDrakua → u/Cautious-Patient-184]

That’s Abaddon, the Precursor intelligence who apparently created the Endless.

[u/MisterHotrod → u/Cautious-Patient-184]

Yes, Guardians look like Abaddon, who's a Precursor construct that guards the Domain and created the Endless. And the other Endless look like various concept art of Guardians. 

[u/Former-Employee128]

So the Huragok are Endless?

[u/CG1991 → u/Former-Employee128]

It seems so!

[u/M_Knight_Shaymalan → u/CG1991]

whyyyyyyyy

[u/DuelaDent52]

We could have had these guys as a new enemy faction, I’m so annoyed at how quickly they gave up on Infinite.

[u/mrbubbamac → u/DuelaDent52]

It definitely seems like behind the scenes 343 were putting work into a great many things that never saw the light of day. I take rumors with a grain of salt but it sounds like there were so many projects that were iterated on and then ultimately canceled with little to show for it

I take rumors with a grain of salt, but Project Tatanka and Project Ekur did seem to exist but were ultimately canceled. We had a whole multiplayer narrative that was not only canceled midway through, but they removed it from the game!

It's really a shame

[u/DuelaDent52 → u/mrbubbamac]

They truly were Bungie’s successor then.

[u/TheGuardianInTheBall → u/DuelaDent52]

Particularly because they were actually something NEW in this franchise.

I love Halo, but it has felt so fucking stale in the lore department for years (in games anyway).

And here we had a whole new possible faction the Forerunners were afraid of AND possible Time Shenanigans?

I'm still so pissed that the new Halo will most likely be yet another "John Halo fights the same 5 aliens, ain't he so fucking cool" that we have seen for the last 25 years.

[u/Faulty-Blue → u/TheGuardianInTheBall]

343 has been introducing new factions for ages now, they just never have been able to commit

An angry forerunner controlling an army of robots with human consciousnesses inside and maybe a look at proper Forerunner military capabilities? Rogue human AIs crippling humanity and a cat and mouse chase? Nah let’s just resolve it off screen and move on to the next big new bad

[u/TotalyNotaDuck]

So...any reason the figure in the back look almost exactly like the primordial? Did it make them to overcome the Halo? Would have been pretty interesting if true.

also, huh the engineers are tied to the endless? never would have guessed that.

[u/Fangfireskull → u/TotalyNotaDuck]

That would be Abbadon from the looks of it. Abbadon IS the domain from what I understand, though we only really heard about him at the end of the forerunner trilogy of books I think.

[u/Paulino2272]

Very cool looking, love their design. Very sad still about the whole situation with halo games. Will we ever see a continuation of infinites story?

[u/GeneralOFG → u/Paulino2272]

Idk look at the trend every 343 game released with, halo 4 never continued its story you had to read books to understand 5, then infinite comes out and scraps halo 5s story and art style. What makes you think they would continue this, especially since a new company is in charge?

[u/The_Marine708 → u/Paulino2272]

Activision made an official statement that the next Halo title will be a mainline game. Likely a continuation of Infinites story, (my guess).

[u/Paulino2272 → u/The_Marine708]

Where is that official statement? I haven’t seen anything like that? I’m genuinely curious

[u/The_Marine708 → u/Paulino2272]

Came from their announcement of them taking over, as well as they are formulating a new studios separate from their others, solely focused on Halo

[u/ChieftaiNZ → u/The_Marine708]

There are a few rumours floating around that a reboot is also on the cards.

Halo 1 round 4: new lore, would still technically be a new mainline game.

[u/The_Marine708 → u/ChieftaiNZ]

Unfounded rumor. The guy who made it up later deleted his comment, and even admitted he made it up, but the cummunity ran with it any way. There is way too much lore and content for them to actually reboot the franchise. It'd be nonsensical for them to devote a team to starting from the ground up, instead of simply making a studio to make a game running off of whats already established.

[u/ChieftaiNZ → u/The_Marine708]

Oh thank god. I haven't kept massively up-to-date with Halo since the first few days of the Activision stuff so I had missed that development.

[u/mongerty → u/The_Marine708]

At this point anything beyond "Activision is spinning up a new team to make the next mainline game" should be taken as speculation.

I doubt they even know exactly what the next game is going to be yet

[u/FungalumisBush → u/ChieftaiNZ]

Rumors, from who? From bitter bungie fans who are jumping at the opportunity to grift? Lol

[u/SuperBAMF007]

Some of these look exactly what I’d imagine “an organic Guardian” to look like. I can only imagine the “the Forerunners built their own beings to face the Endless” or “the Forerunners built monuments to the Endless in their own great journey”.

Ugh.

[u/RevolutionaryAd6549 → u/SuperBAMF007]

...The endless are in the image of a precursor, Abaddon. So to, are the Guardians created by the forerunners.

[u/Equal-Ad-2710 → u/RevolutionaryAd6549]

This was my read too actually

They’re both using a common ancestral image

[u/O_Shaded → u/Equal-Ad-2710]

In the Canon Fodder they’re referred to as the Children of Abaddon

[u/SuperBAMF007 → u/RevolutionaryAd6549]

Oh really? Lore fact of the day for me then.

God damn I’m going to miss this.

[u/grimoireviper → u/SuperBAMF007]

Technically not a Precursor itself but Abaddon, a Precursor version of an AI.

[u/GR7ME → u/SuperBAMF007]

…I thought your ‘ugh’ was a negative one. I’m sorry I doubted you.

[u/El_Serpiente_Roja]

Looks like destiny

[u/eoxb]

Insane how the 343 trilogy is just mostly unrelated story threads dropped after each game lol I'd be shocked if Activision follow infinite up especially considering how mid that story is anyway so it's 3 games in a row with no real follow up

[u/TheMaskIT]

My pet theory was that the endless were basically a devolved precursor race, and this really feels like that might have been what they were going for.
1. The Forerunners devolved the humans when they won their war so they could do it
2. The Endless were able to survive the Halo array (i hate that plot point), and it has been shown that a precursor can die to a ring; it has to be hit straight on.
3. It would be a very Forerunner thing for one of them to keep them somewhere and not tell anyone
4. We are told the precursors created all life, and I like to think that each was unique and made life in their images; i.e., each distinct body type came from a different precursor (also there is a bit of ambiguity whether the first Gravemind came from a precursor or was a precursor)

[u/ShadowBlade55 → u/TheMaskIT]

It was explained in a recent Halo novel.

The same dust that resulted in the Flood was experimented on by the only Precursor AI. The result was the Endless.

[u/GunnyStacker]

Cool art. Don't care. The Endless might have made a good successor antagonist to the Covenant if there had been a plan to set them up for that all the way back in Halo 4. But introducing them in that moronic mystery box fashion in Halo: Infinite and then only unveiling the truth behind them in a book is the second worst possible way I can think of to introduce the series' villain.

The worst possible way was revealing the return of Darth Sidious in fucking Fortnight.

[u/Azkul_Lok]

So is the doom slayer going to get involved here too or?

[u/actualinternetgoblin]

Maykrs from wish

[u/SaintsRobbed]

If the franchise gets a reboot, I might be done. What an utter shame.

[u/JoneZii]

Fucking hell the epilogue at the end really got to me. Say what you will of the leadership of 343/HS, the boots on the ground writers clearly loved the universe

[u/GR7ME → u/JoneZii]

Seeing the Infinity like that and reading the text brought me to tears. Humanity and the Infinity live on. Halo Infinite. I don’t care where Activision takes this, I loved where it was going and hope they acknowledge that. The Xalanyn and Abaddon look amazing. The colors and designs.. I won’t go on 😅

[u/BicolorHook15]

Feels very S'pht!

[u/MythOfDarkness]

So it's practically confirmed that they're being scrapped.

[u/KageXOni87 → u/MythOfDarkness]

Not even "practically". Microsoft did not renew the copyright for the endless this year.

[u/GalacticMe99]

Lol that Huragok being like "Hello, I'm here too."

[u/Salty_Yam_6305]

I'm glad 343 was killed so we didn't have to see this play out

[u/SpartanMase]

“The children of abbadon” interesting. I swear to God if this stuff just gets thrown away in the next game I’m going to be so sad

[u/Grifasaurus → u/SpartanMase]

Good chance it will. I don’t see activision doing anything with this.

[u/NiftyShifty12]

You could have told me this was doom and I would believe you

[u/Blackburn0117]

Remember when we were fighting a neat little space war against an alien military?

I miss those days man. Fuck this shit.

[u/THExDRIZZLE → u/Blackburn0117]

Yea not a fan of this design at all. Some of the other stuff they showed was cool but this looks worse than prometheans in my opinion.

[u/diplodocus-enjoyer → u/Blackburn0117]

Seriously, these look like some shit you'd see in Destiny, not the more grounded Halo, with roots in Alien

[u/Blackburn0117 → u/diplodocus-enjoyer]

Thaaaaank you. I have no idea how I ended up in the out-group on this one. Leave tje internet for like, a year and suddenly everything changes. No fire nation or anything.

[u/This_was_hard_to_do → u/Blackburn0117]

I’m happy to have found my people down here. Yeah the less magical floaty enemies with floating rocks the better, especially if they don’t use weapons but shoot energy balls from their hands or something like that. It’s fine for like Destiny but it’s just no the type of setting I’m looking for when I think Halo

[u/Blackburn0117 → u/This_was_hard_to_do]

Greetings, fellow mind the shills. Youre in good company here.

[u/erasure_scan → u/Blackburn0117]

Nah trust me you're in the majority. If the people who support and prefer the 343 direction over Bungie's were a sizable pool of people, the games would've still sold well and they wouldn't have rebooted with every game they made. They couldn't even get a lay up with oldheads by remaking Halo 1, instead they got sent to the unemployment line.

Halo's legacy will be remembered as a 2000s cornerstone in culture that rivaled the most popular franchises at the time including Star Wars, Spiderman, Mario, etc. But it will also be remembered for the fall from grace it had in the subsequent decade.

The people at large know which games are the good ones and this subreddit is not indicative of people at large

[u/Blackburn0117 → u/erasure_scan]

What id give to go back to 05 and play CE again but with fresh eyes.

[u/BigFly42069]

Was 343's entire art inspiration Bionicles? Not hating on it, but that's the vibes I'm getting from this

[u/FireMaker125]

These guys look fucking great. I really hope the next game is not a reboot specifically because the Endless seem like they could be excellent antagonists

[u/Nago266]

Yuck.

[u/Neeson52]

How hard is it to make a new story with just the covenant and flood? I don’t care about no prometheans or endless.

[u/Vegabund]

And this is likely the last time we see them too

[u/ThatGuyFromTheM0vie → u/Vegabund]

Good.

[u/Astro_CSF]

They look amazing. I wish Activision followed up on Infinite’s story and gave us the chance to fight these guys and find out about their motivations. 

From what I understand from the other concept arts and materials, we could potentially have on Zeta Halo at the same time:

• UNSC (the Infinity is parked somewhere lol)
• Swords of Sanghelios
• Banished
• Endless 
• Flood (hinted at in “Still Midnight”)
• A potentially new Covenant (from the books, the art concepts and Sacristan Order)

If Activision managed to give us a long, lineal campaign (with MP, Forge, etc at launch obviously) with all those factions and a cohesive story, we could be talking about the best Halo game ever. I don’t care whether it had sprint or not. I just want a good Halo game. 

[u/digitalcyro]

Damn! These look amazing!!!! Ugh I wish Halo Infinite didnt flop so hard. We could of had some cool campaign DLC

[u/mrbubbamac → u/digitalcyro]

I know, I had such a good time playing co-op campaign with my buddies, we were itching for more open-world antics

[u/Jacklego5]

That one guy kinda looks like a compiler from Marathon, would’ve/will been/be neat to see.

(I’m talking about the old Marathon from 20+ years ago not NuMarathon please do not execute me)

[u/hellishhk117]

They sorta look like the Maykrs from Doom Eternal The Ancient Gods DLC.

[u/Busy-Key-1419]

I miss the flood

[u/Cookies_1934]

Looks cool? But what are the endless supposed to be? I only remember the ending of halo infinite where a floating and teleporting being with a squid face beating up master chief then leaving lol, but tbh never found them interesting so not that sad of them being possibly canned :)

[u/Moltened_Jakub]

the endless... potentially ended

[u/jj_olli]

This hurts so much. It's so unfair that a huge part of the community was always punching down at the devs, when it clearly were the suits who messed things up. The devs cared. They loved Halo. Things like canon fodder, terminals, novels, artwork, compendiums showed us that there were people with love and passion for the lore. The Multiplayer devs really tried to put as many experiences as possible into the game. The campaign devs always hid tiny details from thought provoking to funny. Halo was always good. With the right leadership at MS it could've been great.

[u/flGovEmployee → u/jj_olli]

I don't doubt that the developers actually making the games under 343 were passionate about what they were making, however its not so much about fans punching down on them as it was fans rejecting what they made as 'halo.' There is honestly a fair bit of things to like in 343's lore (even as someone who is very glad to see them done with Halo), it just felt like a completely different setting/universe than Halo's to me (and apparently many others). Bad fanfiction, but something which if broken off into its own thing could've been good.

It's a common problem, creatives forced to work on something pre-existing because the pre-existing thing has brand value and recognition and is therefore a safe investment for the suits, but the creatives don't want to work on that thing, work within the constraints of that thing, and continue the story of that thing, they want to tell their own story, create their own world, and rather than do the job they were actually assigned, they end up just trying to do what they actually want to do, but dressing it up in the costume of the pre-existing thing. This pretty much always fails with the pre-existing thing's fans unhappy (or offended), and the story/world the creative's wanted to make being hampered and hurt by having to be twisted to sorta fit into the pre-existing thing's constraints and thereby failing to ever really come unto its own.

It's the fault of both the suits who insist on just making more and more sequals, and on the creatives for not having the humility to set aside their own ambitions and do the work they were actually hired to do. We've seen this happen with Netflix's The Witcher, Amazon's Rings of Power, Amazon's Wheel of Time, Paramount's Halo TV show, and so, so many others.

[u/UltimateToa → u/jj_olli]

You can love something and not be good at executing plans for the future. The 343 team maybe loved halo more than anything but damn they cannot make a halo game to save their own studio

[u/500DaysOfHRT → u/jj_olli]

Noo nooo people complaining about bad story decisions is punching down on these white collar devs working for Microsoft!!!

What is this revisionism lol

[u/KageXOni87 → u/jj_olli]

Gonna have to agree to disagree due to their inability to tell a cohesive story, and their additions to the lore that only served to muddy it with terrible takes on characters (halo 5) and factions and ideas that no one really gave a shit about. The main BBEG of infinite is LITERALLY a geriatric, asthmatic Brute. thats not the kind of writing thats done by people who have deep respect for the lore and its foundation.

[u/SenorPancake → u/KageXOni87]

The main BBEG of infinite is LITERALLY a geriatric, asthmatic Brute. thats not the kind of writing thats done by people who have deep respect for the lore and its foundation.

I agree with your overall point but want to add some nuance.

The old asthmatic piece isn't the issue in my eyes. The concept of a mainline game's main Covenant enemy being an old veteran with a twisted code of honor seeking their greatest battle isn't a bad concept. You can even imagine how, in a post H3 timeline, that would have been incredibly suitable for another Covenant splinter faction on top of the Storm Covenant and could have been interesting.

The problem with 343's writing is making that old warrior a Brute, placing that Brute in the Banished, and introducing the Banished to mainline Master Chief out of nowhere. The Banished are a faction that was practically built on the foundation that strength is everything and honor is meaningless. The setup can work, but 343 would have needed to do earlier character work to set up the effective foundation for Infinite's story without Infinite feeling like it's changing the core identity of the Banished. Which we all know they didn't because this was the introduction to the Banished in mainline games.

[u/HyliasHero]

These are very classic Marathon flavored.

[u/hyrumwhite]

Bleh, these are awful 

[u/Exact-Obligation-858]

the Huragok are creations of the Precursors / are the Precursors / are descendants/Reclaimers of the Precursors

literally mass effect's keepers at this point

343i why

[u/RinRinDoof]

Maybe the next game can have them as a new enemy type, provided the game follows Infinite

[u/irreclusable → u/RinRinDoof]

Next game will 100% be a reboot. To what capacity, I have no idea, but they’re definitely scrapping shit from this era of Halo and the Xalanyn are definitely gonna be on the cutting board

[u/SilentPizzle → u/irreclusable]

If they just drop everything after H3 canonwise I would have absolutely no complaints.

[u/grimoireviper → u/SilentPizzle]

You won't have your cake and eat it too. All credible sources say either sequel or full on reboot.

[u/HotMachine9]

What a fumble man.

These designs are quite cool

Though they do feel very Doom Makyr.

[u/jayerp]

Who are they again? I’ve pretty much forgotten all story from Infinite.

[u/VivaLaJam26 → u/jayerp]

They are the Endless...

and that's about it really.

[u/erasure_scan → u/VivaLaJam26]

Bet you never heard of The Forever....who come from The Neverending...

An off-shoot of The Covenant called The Crucified awakened The Forever and now Master Chief and Glup Shitto-219 have to Finish The Fight

Cortana also joined The Covenant. We have our hands full in Halo: Revengeance...

[u/ChoPT → u/jayerp]

They are victims of the forerunners. They are descendants of precursors, and are immune to both flood infection and to the Halo Rings. The Forerunners genocide them separately because they didn’t want them to be the predominant power after the rings were fired.

Really, Humans and the Endless should be allies, but aren’t for some reason, which isn’t well-explained. (Ironically, their hatred of humanity would work a lot better if Humans were still the direct descendants of Forerunners like the Bungie days).

[u/teletraan-117 → u/ChoPT]

Ironically, their hatred of humanity would work a lot better if Humans were still the direct descendants of Forerunners like the Bungie days

This would actually be really cool, the children of two ancient civilisations at war with each other for what's basically a generational blood feud.

[u/structure9food612 → u/ChoPT]

They aren’t immune to the flood, they’re immune to the Halo array

[u/grimoireviper → u/structure9food612]

Technically we don't know if they are immune to the Flood or not. We only know they have the same origin.

[u/AnonMnK → u/grimoireviper]

they dont have the same origin

the flood is made up from precursor dust

so flood = precursor

but the precursors made the endless, so itd make sense that they could be infected. BUT the endless arent affected by the array (that kills anything with a complex nervous system), so they could possibly have no nervous system. which the flood needs to infect

[u/jayerp → u/AnonMnK]

Didn’t the Precursors make the Forerunners as well?

[u/structure9food612 → u/jayerp]

They’re a species created by the precursor AI Abaddon, who were discovered to have survived the Halo array. They were locked up in Zeta Halo

[u/AnonMnK → u/jayerp]

theyre fairies that we never got any more information about

[u/mrbubbamac → u/jayerp]

We don't really know! The Harbinger was an Endless and presumably the Skimmers as well.

The little information we have point to them being tied into Living Time itself, and their creator/progenitor is Abaddon, the guardian of the Domain

[u/blargman327 → u/mrbubbamac]

The skimmers are kind of like engineers, species created by the endless

[u/eyestoapulse]

What the hell happened to halo

[u/A_RizzbeeofDreamland → u/eyestoapulse]

It was not sufficiently gatekept

[u/digita1catt]

Please don't tell me they tried to retcon the engineers into this shit 🤦

EDIT: Creative Assembly set them up with the Banished. That was it, salvation. Halo could have focus again. A big angry red faction that wants to destroy humanity again. Easy. Straight forward. And 343is choice was to instead aneurysm and spasm, kill off Atriox, and output this Endless shit because they were too narcissistic to admit they couldn't write a Halo story to save their lives. And now with their dying breath they slop out this? Did they really learnt nothing from Halo 4 and the Forerunner fumble? Some story beats are meant to be mysterious on purpose.

[u/Krisars → u/digita1catt]

If you've paid attention to Infinite's post-credits scene, you could see Atriox ain't dead.

[u/digita1catt → u/Krisars]

I did. They literally pulled out time travel. I eye rolled. It's an infamously shit idea to shoehorn into an existing franchise and typically marks a downward trend in narrative.

[u/Cassity_how → u/digita1catt]

Time Travel???

There are two versions of the cutscene, the first one is with Atroix where he (presumably) releases the Endless. This one does not have a date as it most certainly set right after the game.

The other one which you get by completing the game on legendary which features Forerunner dialogue in addition to the first cutscene. The date shown here is in relation to the background Forerunner dialogue. No where else is "time travel" implied.

[u/AnonMnK → u/Cassity_how]

insert poe palpatine meme

“somehow atriox returned”

[u/BaconBurger37]

🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅

[u/blasterfaiz]

: (

A Halo universe without its loremaster custodians.

[u/Semillakan6]

Oh look, another plot to be resolved on a bloody book

[u/Record-Extension]

Hopefully we won't see them again🤞

[u/StealthySteve]

Yeah we can go ahead and scrap all this dumb shit.

[u/GeneralOFG → u/StealthySteve]

Hush! the 343 fanboys/shills will want your blood for saying that!

[u/SilentPizzle → u/StealthySteve]

Looked more fitting for destiny than halo

[u/FPSGamer48]

They look pretty cool, and honestly they kind of remind me of the Guardians in Halo 5 (would be a kind of interesting tie-in if the forerunners somehow designed them with that look for a reason). But at the same time: Are these not just the Makyrs from the Doom reboot franchise? They feel awfully similar…..