Talk:Mendicant Bias

Cortana Moments

It is very much possible that some of the Cortana Moments may have been by Mendicant himself. Since Mendicant was on the Dreadnought, it is likely he may have said things like: I Have defied Gods and Demons. or I am your shield I am your swords. Suggesting that he will help the Chief achieve his goal. Furthermore, the closing cutscene of the level "The Covenant" where a hologram of Cortana is seen walking. This may very well be Mendicant Bias himself. Directing the Chief, since Cortana has no control over The Ark's hologram systems nor could she have known what specific button that can be pressed to see the newly constructed Halo.

Image

That's not Mendicant Bias; that's 343 Guilty Spark and a terminal. Might be a little misleading, seeing as there is no caption to explain. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 17:21, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

I agree. Change/remove the image? -TheLostJedi 02:30, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Mendicant Bias in person?

do you think you were suppose to meet Mendicant Bias in the campaign? perhaps Bungie couldn't put him in due to time restraints, and instead left the terminal messages.

No, I think it was a deliberate tribute to their Marathon games. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 00:28, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

The Portal Collapse

Could Mendicant Bias have had a hand in the collapse of the Slipspace portal at the end of Halo 3? Is it possible that he had a change of heart and tried to make the Master Chief stay behind for some reason?

I think the fact that MC just blew up the Ark had more to do with it. Who knows what he was up to, though. --Dragonclaws^(talk)

00:28, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Who knows he was even in on the plan?Bllasae 05:57, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Many people believe that the world seen at the end of Halo 3's legendary ending is Onyx, maybe Mendicant Bias collapsed the portal so that Master Chief would end up their and save the Spartans trapped inside, thus repenting.

I was just about to say that!!!98.196.212.50 06:28, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

I suspect...

Mendicant Bias will have a hand in Halo 4 (don't deny there won't be a one, CLIFFHANGER ENDING!). His story in the terminals reflects that of Durundal so i think his position may unfold later. This most likely isn't the last we've heard of him. --Ajax 013 00:54, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't think there will be a straight "Halo 4", but there certainly will be more Halo games. It makes sense that this mysterious character would be explored. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 01:07, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, bungie said Halo 3 was the end of the trilogy, not the last continuing (not prelude) game, so I think they are trying to trick us with small technicality like that.98.196.212.50 06:30, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

Yes, let us not forget they denied making halo 2.82.45.116.95 16:35, May 2, 2010 (UTC)

AI in forerunner ship

Cortana says she fought an AI within the forerunner dreadnaught. If you read the terminals Offensive Bias and Mendicant Bias had a ship battle and in the end only one vessel was left. Anyone else think it might have been one of the two that Cortana found? I was leaning toward Mendicant because he says that he had to go through a lot to get to the Ark. ProphetofTruth 00:44, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Cortana found two? What now?

In any case, I find it very interesting that MB is the AI in the Forerunner ship, because if you've read CH, you'll find a passage where the "oracle" of the dreadnought is revered, and finally speaks when it learns of Harvest. Is it safe to assume this is MB? If so, I'm going to add it to the article.InnerRayg 18:51, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

I need to stop posting at night. By one of the two I meant either MB or OB and it is most definatly MB that Cortana had a struggle with. "I will reject my bias". Interestingly enough CH also implies that forerunners are humans ProphetofTruth 20:32, 5 November 2007 (UTC) No, it implied they are the inheritors of the Forerunner. The story is basically that the Forerunner vested all their hopes for the future in Earth, a planet too far from the ring's activation to be affected and a safe place to house the Ark. They programmed all their sniz to respond to humans, and apparantly influenced humanity itself as we have innate knowledge of forerunner tech. Backed up by Terminals (discussion of librarian) and the comic released showing Forerunner machines working with ancient humans in Africa looking on in wonder.InnerRayg 01:15, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

I don't think that there's direct evidence that the Oracle on High Charity's Dreadnaught is Mendicant Bias, and therefore, that sentence in the article stating that plainly is misleading.

Terminal transcripts

Is there a reason why there are complete terminal transcripts (at least, the parts involving Mendicant Bias) in this article? I'd remove them and just put a see also link to Terminals, but I'm not exactly sure what to remove. --Coredesat 01:10, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Iris

Just a thought, but the description of Mendicant Bias' form in the Drednought seems to be quite similar to the object in the Servers of the iris campaign. Just wondered if anyone thought likewise? A Monument to All Your Sins 20:04, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Just a Thought

I was playing earlier, and at the conclusion of the Ark, I had a thought. What if what Mendicant does to help is remake Installation 04? I was wondering why the Halo is deployed right when the Cheif is on the Ark. If it wasn't finished, why deploy it? Maybe it wasn't "scheduled" to be released yet, and MB forced the Sentinels (the large group at the end of The Ark) to free it ahead of schedule, knowing that MC would need it.

It seems weird that he would know exactly what the Cheif would need, but remember, he did supposedly fight Cortana at the end of Halo 2, so maybe he knew she still had the Index.

It's probably not true, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Cosmis 06:19, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

I think its an interesting point, but I do believe the sentinels were sent to be stationed on the new ring. I have an odd feeling that was Mendicant did has something to do with the portal and the planet seen at the end. 207.255.182.198 05:58, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Someone

Someone needs to make the article cleaner and categorized...

Looks messy to other users including me....

~~Someone you like to know but you don't know whether you like him/her~~

Was it really?

Was the "Oracle" that the Prophet of Truth really Mendicant Bias? I think it could be 343GS, because there's no proof either.

How could it be Spark if he was on 04 till its destruction... he even notes the 100,000 years he's chilled and slowly gone insane. It has to be Bias because he says "I reject my bias and will make amends." How many known AI's have betrayed the forerunners and commanded there ships? I'd say one. ProphetofTruth 03:04, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

MB's Number

What does the 05 part signify?

Maybe Mendicant was the monitor of instalation 05, and Penitent Tangent is just a replacement since Mendicant went evil.

If that's true, delta halo has lost both of its monitors, one converted and one captured. interesting when you consider that the opposite happens on 04, which is blown up, replaced, then blown up again.

Remember that there were originally 13 installations. were they in the same order as they are now? also, u forgot to sign off. 68.11.57.193 20:37, 18 June 2011 (EDT)

There were twelve originally. Mendicant's purpose wasn't to monitor a ring but to research on the Flood. He stole amother monitor's ringworld.-- Forerunner 20:46, 18 June 2011 (EDT)

I don't know how to edit. because i dont do it often. so anything i type gets fixed. thank you for dealing with it. sorry i did my subtraction wrong. my heads not working well today. like, really not well. at all. on the page it states he was given control of a ring. where are u getting your information from? and wasn't mendicant the first monitor of a ring? 68.11.57.193 21:01, 18 June 2011 (EDT)

I don't remember that in Cryptum. We know he was designed to study the flood and that, under the Master Builder's orders, stole the ring and took it around the galaxy. 43 years later he takes it it to the Capital, and influences the actions of their respective monitors in order to trigger an activation and destroy the Forerunner government in order to allow the Flood to spread unopposed. I read no confirmation that Mendicant Bias was a monitor and the ring was his, just that he agreed to brake the law and then stole the ring after performing the test.-- Forerunner 21:36, 18 June 2011 (EDT)

That explains my confusion. I didn't finish reading Cryptum. Stupid library fees. I sent an email to the bungie.net webmaster. i don't know who else to send it to cus im stupid. haha 68.11.57.193 21:42, 18 June 2011 (EDT)

The unknown planet

I think that mendicant wanted to lead the master chief to that mysterious planet,he said on the terminal that he was going to show the forunners the master chief,so i think that he leads the master chief to that planet bacause there are forunners on that planet,so they can see that mendicant isn't a betrayer anymore i hope that there will be a halo 4,what will happen to the master chief?

Bungie

How can you contact Bungie and convince them to make a Halo 4, just to uncover all the mysteries and unkown things of the Forerunners.76.233.85.0 17:50, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

The Terminal Icons

In the Terminals, Mendicant Bias has three different icons. Now, it was his quote, "My mouth is speaking at another's behest", that inspired me to examine why; I thought that one icon may denote his normal state, one his rampancy, and possibly one for his post-rampant state. That wasn't what I found, however.

Communications marked with the first icon are calm, collected, and strictly professional. There is little hint of emotion. Facts are stated plainly and without embellishment, and many such communications appear to be military situation reports or other logs. No pronouns are ever used, and the author never refers to itself. I suspect that this icon does not identify the author but instead the purpose or location: it denotes combat logs and military intel. Interestingly, it was also used to mark a log file (Terminal 3, Legendary) that may have described Mendicant Bias's escape from Offensive Bias's captivity; it can also be seen on the fleet-wide memo in Terminal 4.

Communications marked with a blue version of the second icon are clearly from Mendicant Bias himself. Such communications are personal accounts and logs of his discussions. His journal entry (Terminal 1, Legendary) is marked with this icon, as are his conversations with the Gravemind.

Communications marked with both the first icon and a red version of the second icon are clearly from Mendicant Bias, and possess the same writing style as the blue-icon communications. These communications, however, concern military strategy and tactics. This icon was not used on Mendicant Bias's threat letter to the Forerunners -- no icon was used for those -- so it does not denote rampancy, as the filename so boldly assumes.

---

I think, then, that some changes should be made based on these meanings of the icons (Not Bias, Bias, and Not Rampant, respectively), but I'm not sure what those changes are. I guess a good starting point would be to rename File:Mendicant Bias.svg; we need not rename File:MendicantBias (Rampant).png, as it will (hopefully) be replaced with a suitable vectorized replacement, which can be named appropriately. File:DavidJCobb_Emblem.svg|16px]] DavidJCobb  20:33, September 1, 2009 (UTC)

I must amend my comment. I think that the first icon represents the Forerunners' central government, or some other official military organization. If that is the case, then it fits with the pattern -- the government may well be considered an "author". File:DavidJCobb_Emblem.svg|16px]] DavidJCobb  00:20, September 3, 2009 (UTC)

I don't think that is the meaning of these icons. The first stands for Mendicant and Mendicant only, it is his original icon. The second one stands for Rampant Mendicant and Rampant Mendicant only, it s his icon for when he became rampant. These two icons are used to stand for Mendicant's Redeming (as seen on the Article page).-annonomus September 14, 2009

A blue version of the second icon marked communications in which he clearly wasn't rampant (such as a journal entry in which he was proud of the Forerunners that were on his ships¹), and the red version of the second icon was only used in combination with the first icon. If the second icon denoted rampancy, then why would it be used with the first icon, which according to you does not denote rampancy? And why would such a pairing only be present on communications where Mendicant Bias was clearly not rampant?

I must also point out that Mendicant Bias was not rampant during his communications with the Gravemind (where a blue version of Icon 2 was used). He had no delusions of god-like power and had no animosity toward the Forerunners. He was simply curious about what Gravy had to say. Only at the very end³ of his talks with Gravy did Mendicant Bias become rampant; this is why his icon does not change in the Gravy conversations. And in Mendicant's final communication with the Forerunners, in which he reveals his rampancy, no icon is used at all.

Also, the article does not make any statements regarding the meanings of the icons; it only points out a similarity between one of Mendicant Bias's icons and the icon used by Offensive Bias. And if you think I'm wrong, check the Terminals yourself -- or save some time and check the Interactive Terminal Archive on HBO.

Oh, and you can leave a signature by typing ~~~~. If you do that, it leaves your IP address, a date, and a time. File:DavidJCobb_Emblem.svg|16px]] DavidJCobb  22:01, September 14, 2009 (UTC)

¹ Terminal 1, Legendary: "The sacrifices they have chosen to make on behalf of their [brethren] fills me with pride."

² Terminal 4: "//FLEET-WIDE MEMORANDUM 2/5"

³ Terminal 4, Legendary: "All that I have is now yours to do with as you see fit."

I have already looked at the terminals many times and all I'm saying is that I am just telling you the theory that I am sticking to.There is no reason to get upset. But I did say the third one, being Mendicant's Redeming icon. And I never said your theory was bad. Your theory is all right, but I am sticking to the other theory, AND I never said you wrong, you could have said this in a nice way. - annonomus 8:12 September 14, 2009 (UTC)

Actually, I wasn't really upset. It's just that almost every time that I criticize a theory or edit on a wiki, I end up using at least a semi-hostile tone. I have no idea why, and I often never notice it until I've already posted the comment. 0_o File:DavidJCobb_Emblem.svg|16px]] DavidJCobb  21:46, September 15, 2009 (UTC)

Mendicant Bias' Name

"Mendicant," in a round about way means "of the life of a beggar." "Bias" is a preference. So, "Mendicant Bias" is a begging preference. It's a wonderful little oxymoron. I believe this is intentional. His own name may be a foreshadowing of his eventual betrayal.

If anyone else can elaborate on this and add to my ideas, maybe we can come up with something that is not just speculation to include in the trivia section. Spartan999 22:12, September 17, 2009 (UTC)

Picture

Hey, i just saw the picture for Medicant Bias. Thats pretty cool. Where is that from? The Halo Encyclopedia?Jredbaron96 03:53, February 21, 2010 (UTC)

Halo Legends外国人^(7alk) 04:23, February 21, 2010 (UTC)

Hmm, can you prove that this is Medicant Bias on this picture? (unregistered)

Trivia section confusion!

Under the trivia section, one line reads "You can read the shard of Mendicant Bias' personality that made it to the Ark by accessing all the terminals and getting the Marathon Man achievement." Where can you read the shard of his personality after you have accessed all the terminals? —This unsigned comment was made by 72.201.27.61 (talk • contribs). Please sign your posts with ~~~~

It's not something that comes after reading the terminals. It's the action of reading the terminals. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 10:03, May 26, 2010 (UTC)

I think it was mendicant bias who lead the humans to the first halo because it was to cowincidental that the happened to come across a halo ring in halo CE so mendicant must have taped in to the slipspace technolligy and led them to alpha halo when the humans entered random coordinates

actually cortana entered the data from the sigma octanus artifact from the fall of reach and thats what sent them to halo.The cheif 01:22, August 14, 2010 (UTC)

Apperances

Mendicant was mentioned indirectly in Halo 2. In the level High Charity, Cortana says, "I'll do what I can to slow the launch sequence, but there's something inside the ship...a presence that's fighting back. For a Covenant construct, it's unusually formidable."

The presence, as we all know, was Mendicant Bias. It should be listed in the "Appearances" section of the article. Ιι Ηη Ππ 19:08, 10 April 2012 (EDT)

Image

The Waypoint article on Bias and his cameo in the H2 Anniversary Terminals appear to have canonized the three-eyed design first seen in Origins. Is it worth it, then, to make that be the page image for this article? For better or worse, it perhaps retcons the original one eyed description from Contact Harvest, and the one-eyed look from Primordium could perhaps be explained as an old shell that was discarded for the three-eyed one after his exile on the Ark.

I'm also curious about whether we should keep the "05-032" in the title of this article. In the fiction and in this wiki, he's rarely referred to by his full designation, as opposed to, say, 343 Guilty Spark. Tuckerscreator^(stalk) 04:14, 27 March 2015 (EDT)

While I personally prefer the abstract symbol as Bias' most representative image since a small metal bucket doesn't really do justice to a mind of the extent and complexity of a Contender ancilla, I can't deny that the three-eyed design has apparently become Mendicant's default or most recognizable "avatar". However, I generally hold that a mild contradiction (such as MB's teardrop casing) is not a retcon unless specifically stated to be one or unless the two versions cannot be reconciled in any way. In this case, the use of the three-eyed design in the H2A terminals may be a retcon, oversight or a conscious decision to use imagery familiar from Origins as a conceit of the visual medium, but it is not completely impossible to reconcile it with Contact Harvest. Maybe the Covenant excavated the teardrop casing from that sarcophagus at some point between the taming of the Lekgolo and the dawn of the 9th Age of Reclamation?

As for getting rid of the "05-032", I'd be perfectly fine with that for the reasons presented (as well as consistency with the titling of Offensive Bias), though it should be noted that it's not forbidden nor in any way harmful to simply link the redirect Mendicant Bias wherever it's unnecessary to use the full designation (which is, admittedly, most of the time). --Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 07:27, 27 March 2015 (EDT)