Just to throw something completely different out there....... here is something i just thought of.

This is building on the theory about the covenant following the clues or "artifacts" to earth....... but here's my theory (or two)

THEORY 1: 

What if the covenant actually do know the purpose of the halos are, and the "great journey" is  actually the journey to find the ark (which is on earth)    What if there is already an outbreak of flood, on other instalations not known to humans, and the covenant recognize the flood as a threat.    The great journey could be actually be their attempt to destroy the flood, rather than some crazy religious prophesy as we are led to believe.   The prophets, being from the forruner homeworld (or so i believe) would more than likely know a bit more about the halos than a crazy prophecy.    SInce the covenant is basicly many races under the controll of the prophets,    the prophets would be gathering as many soldiers as possible to destroy the flood.  The great journey could just be a story, just made up as a  way to have them follow them, and made them believe all their missions concerning the halos, or the artifacts, were in fact part of some religious prophecy.          

The humans believe that the covenants purpose is one of religion,  and believe the covenant are making a big mistake........ but what if the covenant know exactly what they are doing......          

 

it makes perfect sense now that I think about it........... everything fits in...... including the ark,      it fits with the "religius" covenant story, and with the prophets intentions to destroy the flood without destroying themselves.      think about it,   a covenant, biblically, is a promise kept by god, like in the story of noah's ark, god promised never to flood the earth again.     The flood, the ark, the covenant.... it all fits.    

 

And the humans, of course might be decendants of forrunners chosen to be the "reclaimers" on the ark world who would survive in the event of the halos firing to continue the forrunner race.     Or they could be a tottaly different race, but still chosen to be the reclaimers so life would still exist, and to set off the halos again, in the case of another outbreak.

This theory would explain everything, the purpose of the great journey, the biblical names for all forunner related places/items, the prophets ruling over the other races........

 and another theory about the hostility between humans and covenant

At first, they might have been hostile just because we were in their way, then actually trying to stop them from firing the halos. Then they learned the humans were the inhabitants of the ark,   and the prophets want to take their place, so the covenant are lead to believe the humans are their enemy in this "holy war"  

  

THEORY 2:       the prophets actually beleive the flood is a second coming of "the flood" (biblical) which god promised never to happen again, which the prophets, seing this second coming, decide to take god's work into their own hands.......... 

I like the first theory better (because you support it much better). The religious allusions in Halo can sometimes be overlooked, though most make the connection of the Ark with Noah's Ark.

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I like pi.

1.) Obviously, no information is given, at least during Halo 2, regarding the activities of the other surviving Spartans upon their arrival at Earth with the Master Chief. Personally, I would assume that they, too, were involved in the attempt to throw back the Covenant invasion of Earth, though obviously at a different location than the Master Chief. I imagine we'll get more information about them with the release of the next Halo novel at the end of this month.

2.) I believe, along with many others, that Dr.Halsey took Kelly with her to the location of Mendez and the next group of Spartans, the Spartan III's. What her intent would be upon arrival, I'm not sure of, but it would seem likely that she would be bringing them to Earth to help in the fight against the Covenant.

3.) Again, I believe, along with many others, that Earth is the location of The Ark that 343 Guilty Spark mentioned at the end of the Halo 2 campaign. The Covenant are seeking the location of this Ark in order to activate the Halo installations and begin their "Great Journey." It would appear that the other planets that the Covenant took interest in, such as Reach and Sigma Octanus IV, were simply stepping stones, a trail of breadcrumbs or clues left behind by the Forerunners that would lead them to the Halo installations and the Ark.

 Obviously my thoughts are purely speculation, as there is very little solid information on these topics at the moment, but I think that with the release of the next Halo novel at the end of the month, we will see at least some of these questions answered, and I'm sure Halo 3 will tie everything together for us.

heres something else, 343 guilty spark said in the maw "to have a record of all our lost time". He also said (i think) that he was built by the forerunners. so ya.

Yeah it's already known that Halo and Guilty Spark were built by the forerunners.

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of course they are bult by the forerunners how stupid can u be

pretty darned stupid sometimes, but we'll move on. spartan sniper, had you read any post other than the last one, you would see someone had said "and I think it mentions that he was built be the forerunner", and shisno was merely replying

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I like pi.

I've been playing with the idea of getting into the novelization of the Halo Universe, so I'd like to know objectively are the books well written. Now I'm not talking in ways of story just, but of dialogue, mood, and situational setups.

And also are the adult targetted? Are they violent? Do they deal with mature themes?

Thanks.
 

hell yeah the books are awesome cause you learn stuff you never knew before about halo. they go into the details of other important characters including covenant. as for what age they are targetted for i dont really know but im 13 yrs old n i like them

no of course they're not violent, they just have  guns, killing, death and blood. Not violence whatsoever

I know the books are very well written, and i highly suggest you read them if you are an avid halo fan. So many different questions are answered, and you learn like the history of the halo universe. Prior to reading, i had no idea that Harvest was the first planet that encountered the Covenant. In fact, i had a very naive look at the game before i read it. And as for violence, well its there, but its a book, its not THAT violent. but just good enough to let you understand the exact kill move that a spartan performed on an elite... :D

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Yes...the books at well written and are fasinating to many of us...i've seen little kids about the age of 11 read the 3 halo books...they think its awesome...there are no sexual themes...except for the first book, but its just nude....wuts wrong with that....no big detail...so no mature themes but violence and fighting..

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The books are great.  The writing and mood is actually really good in my opinion.  Although I think The Flood, the only novel not written my Eric Nylund, is not as good.  It seems to me as if the author William C. Dietz never really played the game but just watched someone play through it or heard about it second-hand.  It also has a wierd Soap Opera writting feel about it that jumps from character to character about every 3-5 pages, that I didn't enjoy.  Did anyone else feel this way about The Flood?  The book does present some good plot points that you never see in the game however.  Overall the books are all good.  Especially The Fall of Reach and First Strike.  In regards to who they're targeted to, I am 19 and love them.  They're definately not just written for 12 year old boys.

Objectively looking at the novels, I believe those written by Nylund are better set up than the one written by Dietz. Nylund is a very good author who knows his way around science, and as such does not BS about futuristic weapons as much as some. The books stick very closely with story given in the game. There are, of course, some minor mistakes, such as: mainly descrepencies between the Halo manual and the books, though a few in the books (http://halosm.bungie.org/story/doublethink.html).

Eric Nylund is the author of many novels, including A Signal Shattered, Signal to Noise, Pawn's Dream, Dry Water (a World Fantasy Award nominee), A Game of Universe, Crimson Skies, and Halo: Fall of Reach, the official prequel of the Xbox game. He has a bachelor's degree n chemistry and a master's degree in chemical physics.A graduate of the Clariton's West Writer's Worshop, he lives near Seattle with his wife, Syne Mitchell

First Strike, Nylund, inside back cover

For the mature content: It touches on violence often, as is generally the case with war, and there is some foul language (if I remember correctly, it has been a while) but nothing major. As for "adult themes": it generally stays away from that, as is generally the case with war

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Yep, as stated. The Nylund books are damn awesome. The Flood wasn't really that good, felt alot like bad fanfiction but it had some interesting filler.