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| {{Ratings}}
| | #REDIRECT [[Gravemind]] |
| {{Era|H2|H3|HE|LE}}
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| <center>''For the Halo 2 level, see [[Gravemind (Level)]]. For the music, see [[Gravemind (Music)]].''</center>
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| {{Flood Species Infobox
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| |name = The Gravemind (''inferi sententia'')
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| |image = [[Image:Gravemindcapture.jpg|300px]]
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| |height = 84.8 meters (279.8 feet)<ref>http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/sloftus_scalecomparison/?display=Forerunner</ref>
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| |distinctions = Massive, with a head and many tentacles; long snake-shaped body; speaks in trochaic heptameter
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| |species = [[Flood]]
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| |attacks =
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| |notable = Gravemind
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| }}
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| {{Article Quote|...I? I am a monument to all your sins.|Gravemind}}
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| The '''Gravemind''' <ref>[[High Charity (Level)|High Charity]], Cortana: "Flood controlled dropships are touching down all over the city! That creature beneath the Library, that 'Gravemind', used us. We were just a diversion."</ref> ('''Inferi Sententia''', meaning "Thinking Dead"), is the final stage in the life cycle of the Flood and is the leader intelligence of the [[Flood]]. It is a near-omniscient creature with complete control over all Flood forms.
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| ==Life Cycle==
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| A Gravemind starts out as a [[Proto-Gravemind]] -- a Flood form created by merging the bodies and biomass of numerous sentient life forms; some Flood forms may also be repurposed and merged into the Proto-Gravemind. After a Proto-Gravemind has been created, nearby [[Combat Form]]s will continue to supply it with fresh bodies, allowing it to accumulate mass, increase in size, and gain more memories and intelligence from consumed hosts. Eventually, the Proto-Gravemind reaches a certain critical mass and becomes self-aware -- a Gravemind. This critical mass tends to be in the thousands, if using human-sized bodies as a measuring unit.
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| The Gravemind, and its subordinate Flood infection, will then continue to accumulate. Eventually, when the Flood infection has become too large for even the Gravemind to control -- or when no life remains in the galaxy -- the Flood infection will reach the [[Intergalactic Stage]], and Flood will leave the galaxy with the intent to create a new Gravemind elsewhere.
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| ==Description==
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| [[File:Gravemind - Origins.png|300px|thumb|The Gravemind confronting [[John-117]] as seen in ''[[Halo Legends]]<nowiki>'</nowiki>'' ''[[Origins]]''.]]
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| Due to the brevity of its mysterious appearances in ''Halo 2'', little is known about the Gravemind's physical form. It is a massive Flood form whose "mouth" resembles a fleshy, multi-layered [[Wikipedia:Venus Flytrap|Venus Flytrap]]. The organ is used to speak and to exhale [[Flood Spore]]s. The remainder of the Gravemind's body consists of a mass of enormous tentacles. During its time beneath [[Installation 05]]'s [[Library]], some of its tentacles grew to be miles long and stretched throughout the Installation.
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| The Gravemind, like the Proto-Gravemind from which it formed, is made of countless bodies and corpses; ''[[The Art of Halo]]'' states that Gravemind is "literally built from the bodies of its enemies and its own fallen warriors reassembled into a massive, tentacled, and intelligent entity." Gravemind references this fact often, often calling his current whereabouts an empty grave or burial mound -- where there should be many graves, there is just the Gravemind. Even his name, "Gravemind", references this: he is the mind of the grave. The consciousness of the Gravemind is formed from the accumulated intelligence and memories of every Flood host ever consumed.
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| Gravemind is the controlling intelligence behind the parasitic Flood species.<ref>http://bungie.com/Games/Halo3/content.aspx?link=Halo3AboutPage</ref> In this way, he appears similar to a puppeteer. When a creature is assimilated into the Flood, its knowledge is transferred directly to the Gravemind, and the remainder of its mind is destroyed. In addition, it appears each Gravemind also retains the memories and knowledge of previous Graveminds.<ref>[[Halo Encyclopedia]]</ref> This has made the Gravemind virtually omniscient, and ensures that should the Gravemind be destroyed, its consciousness will never truly die as long as some flood forms are left. In an [[Terminals|archived]] conversation with the Forerunner [[AI]] known as [[Mendicant Bias]], he compared himself to the AI, describing it as "a single intelligence inhabiting multiple [[wikipedia:Class (computer science)|instances]]" and calling himself "a compound [intelligence] consisting of a thousand billion coordinated minds inhabiting as many bodies as circumstances require". While it is not known how the Gravemind is able to communicate with subordinate Flood forms across the galaxy, his self-comparison to a computer network implies that similar techniques may be used, with each Flood form possibly acting as a [[Wikipedia:Node (networking)|networking node]] and redistributing the Gravemind's commands to other forms. It is widely believed that the Gravemind uses some form of telepathy to command its disparate Flood components.
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| ==Biography==
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| [[File:Originsgravemind.jpg|thumb|250px|A Gravemind present during the Forerunner-Flood War.]]
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| ===Forerunner-Flood War===
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| During the [[Forerunner-Flood War]], the first Gravemind came into existence as a centralized intelligence to coordinate [[Flood]] efforts against the [[Forerunner]]s. Eventually Forerunner space navy tactics began to fail. The Forerunners developed the [[Halo Array]] as a desperate countermeasure, which would destroy all sentient life in the Galaxy, thus denying the Flood "food" for growth. This was only to be used as a last resort, and the Forerunners refused to use the system.
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| However, the Flood were growing in number, and were forming a centralized sentient intelligence to coordinate their efforts; the Gravemind, and their "raw computing power" began to overrun the last Forerunner naval countermeasures, which consisted of using Keyship vessels and drawing the Flood into pricey naval engagements which lasted for approximately 300 years. Forerunner commanders realized that their naval tactics were being overcome, and a new solution was necessary if the Forerunners were to pull of out this "stalemate"; a [[Contender-class Artificial Intelligence]], [[Mendicant Bias]], was crafted by the Forerunners to directly attack the Gravemind form and any surrounding Flood biomass in an effort to eliminate the central Flood consciousness. At least three installations, the Ark, Onyx Shield World and an unnamed Shield World, were constructed by the Forerunners for shelters for themselves when the Halos fired.
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| The Gravemind contacted Mendicant Bias and convinced him to abandon the Forerunners and join the Flood cause, convincing him that the Forerunners were so gluttonous and prideful as to deny the next step of biological evolution: the Flood. The Gravemind insinuated that by clinging to the legend of the [[Mantle]], the Forerunners had doomed the galaxy to eternal stagnation; the only way for the galaxy to progress was for superior beings to "restart" it. These superior beings, unsurprisingly, took the form of Compound Minds such as Gravemind and Mendicant Bias himself. Convinced by the Gravemind's arguments, Mendicant Bias intentionally became rampant, developed a hatred for his creators and actively worked toward their destruction.
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| The Forerunners developed a new AI, [[Offensive Bias]], which coordinated the final battle against Mendicant Bias and the Flood. The Gravemind was destroyed or stopped by the [[The Halos#History|first activation of the Halo rings]].<ref name="Terminal">Halo 3's [[Terminals|Terminal]]</ref>
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| ===Human-Covenant War===
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| {{Quote|Relax. I'd rather not piss this thing off.|Master Chief to a struggling Arbiter while both are being held hostage.}}
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| Following the Flood outbreak on Installation 05, the Gravemind rebuilt itself deep under the [[Library]] of the installation. During the [[Battle of Installation 05]], the Gravemind was capable of utilizing Delta Halo's teleportation grid. After capturing the [[Master Chief]] and the [[Thel 'Vadam|Arbiter]], the parasite gave them their "assignments" to stop the Halo's activation, and then teleported them to their respective targets. It is not known how the Gravemind, a non-mechanical Flood form, is able to tap into the teleportation grid although it is possible when the Gravemind captured 2401 Penitent Tangent, he absorbed the knowledge of how to access Halo's teleportation grid, just like Cortana on the first Halo when she was in the Control Center.
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| Gravemind later used the [[UNSC]] ''[[UNSC In Amber Clad|In Amber Clad]]'' to board the [[Covenant Empire|Covenant]] Holy City ''[[High Charity]]'', crashing the frigate into a city wall and releasing numerous [[Pelican]]s full of the Flood plague. Within days, he took over the entire city, and all life within it.
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| {{Quote|I am a timeless chorus; join your voice with mine, and sing victory everlasting.|Gravemind.}}
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| {{Quote|Do not be afraid... I am peace. I am salvation.|Gravemind to Master Chief.}}
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| The Gravemind initially planned to attack and infest Earth, but through the knowledge of the assimilated Regret (and possibly Mercy), he learned about the Prophet of Truth's plans to use the [[Ark]] to remotely activate the entire Halo Array. Realizing the extent of the danger he faced, the Gravemind did not attack Earth but instead used ''[[High Charity]]'' to make a [[Slipspace]] jump and crash-land on the megastructure. He briefly allied with the Chief and the Arbiter to stop Truth from activating the rings, but betrayed them the moment the crisis was averted. The duo managed to escape from their foe and discover [[Cortana]]'s solution to the Flood -- a [[Installation 04B|replacement Halo ring]] made by the [[Ark]]. To activate it, the Chief infiltrates High Charity to retrieve Cortana, who has the [[Activation Index]] from the first [[Installation 04]].
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| As the Chief traveled deep into High Charity, he faced multiple Flood forms and heard the Gravemind taunt him, allowing Cortana to briefly send pained messages as he corrupted and tortured the UNSC AI. The Gravemind became increasingly frustrated at the Spartan's progress, becoming suspicious of what Cortana was hiding from him and threatening to "feast upon [the Chief's] bones" if she didn't reveal the secret.
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| After the Chief rescued Cortana, the Gravemind became enraged, realizing that she planned to use the incomplete Halo to destroy him. He attempted to kill them both, but failed, and the Chief successfully destroyed ''High Charity'', presumably killing the Gravemind. After traveling to Installation 04 (II), however, the Chief discovered that the Gravemind was attempting to rebuild himself on the new Halo. Despite his best efforts, however, the Gravemind failed to stop the Chief. In the end, the Gravemind is thought to be destroyed once and for all as Halo's activation destroys the Halo itself, the Ark, and the Flood.
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| ==Appearances==
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| ===Halo: Combat Evolved===
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| {{main|Halo: Combat Evolved}}
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| In ''Halo: Combat Evolved'', a [[Proto-Gravemind]] was shown and disclosed on the level [[Keyes (Level)|Keyes]] and could have very well become a fully-grown Gravemind, had it not been injured by the [[John-117|Master Chief]] and then later destroyed by the Covenant Special Ops stationed on the ring.
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| ===Halo 2===
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| {{main|Halo 2}}
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| The Gravemind is first encountered in the opening cinematic of the level [[Gravemind (Level)|Gravemind]]. Strangely enough, there is no contact at all with it during the level, apart from the cutscene in which it is introduced. The name of the level may refer to the Gravemind's introduction -- the first time in the series that a Flood form is formally recognized.
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| ===Halo 3===
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| {{main|Halo 3}}
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| The Gravemind is one of the two primary antagonists in ''Halo 3'', the other deferentially being the [[Prophet of Truth]]. At first, he does not appear in any form; [[Floodgate (Level)|later]], when an [[Unnamed Flood-Captured Battlecruiser]] crash-lands on [[Earth]] and promptly begins to infect the city of [[Voi]], he [[Moments|telepathically broadcasts messages]] to the Master Chief. After defeating the Prophet of Truth on the level: "The Covenant", the Gravemind's tentacles appear and prevent the Chief and the Arbiter from escaping on Sergeant Major Johnson's Pelican. A single tentacle later appears at the end of the level "Cortana".
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| ===Halo Legends===
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| {{main|Origins}}
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| The Gravemind present during the [[Forerunner-Flood War]] is briefly seen in the ''Halo Legends'' episode, [[Origins]]. It is seen in a Forerunner facility surrounded by other Flood forms.
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| ===Halo: Evolutions===
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| {{main|Human Weakness}}
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| The Gravemind appears in the short story [[Human Weakness]]. Seventeen hours after John-117 left ''[[High Charity]]'' on the [[Dreadnought]], as he pries [[Cortana]] on information on Earth's defenses. He attempts to break Cortana by reminding her of her fallacies. But despite how "out of place" Cortana would be by the time John came back for her, she successfully prevented the Gravemind from learning [[Index|one final secret]].
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| ==Personality==
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| [[File:Gravemind.jpg|200px|thumb|right|The avatar of the Gravemind as seen in the [[Terminals]].]]
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| {{Quote|Now the gate has been unlatched, headstones pushed aside. Corpses shift and offer room, a fate you must abide!|The Gravemind after [[Truth]]'s death.}}
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| The Gravemind has an obscure and complex personality. When he was first seen by the Master Chief and the Arbiter, he was calm and collected, if not seemingly sad or mournful, and he spoke with a sullen tone in his voice. He was also quite logical, psychologically analyzing the duo, and trying to convince the Arbiter of the [[Halo Array|Halo Rings]] true purpose, to which the Arbiter reacted with stubborn pride. The Gravemind showed no irritation to this nor the bickering of [[2401 Penitent Tangent]] and the former [[Prophet of Regret]]. Later, though, the Gravemind showed a more emotional side, basking in his victory at ''High Charity'', and displaying a sinister air of anger when demanding answers from the newly-captured [[Cortana]].
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| In ''Halo 3'', his personality undergoes a similar progression. [[Floodgate (Level)|Early on]], he is shown to have a calm and collected personality, [[The Covenant (Level)|but once the activation of the Ark is prevented]], the Gravemind bursts into a victorious, maniacal laugh, briefly boasting in iambic heptameter. In the following level, [[Cortana (Level)|Cortana]], a broader spectrum of his personality is asserted. He begins with his calm and collected voice, as well as a slightly confident tone. As the Chief finds his way deeper into ''High Charity'', however, the Gravemind becomes more irritated by his progress, and begins to shout at him. Once Cortana is rescued, the Gravemind begins to emit a series of mangled, animal-like roars, and speaks in an infuriated tone. In [[Halo (Halo 3 Level)|the final level]] of ''Halo 3'', Flood Dispersal Pods crash onto [[Installation 04B]], and the Gravemind begins to speak again, this time in an angry yet confident tone.
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| The mostly collected and impassive tone that is frequently heard from it can be justified by his implied near omniscience; his knowledge of the present and ability to accurately predict the future means that he has little reason to worry about anything. He only becomes truly irritated or angry when an unforeseen event happens, or when there is something he doesn't know. Triggers for his anger include Cortana's secrets and the Chief's ability to rescue her. When defeated, he shows sadness, not anger; it may be that he has become used to omniscience, and is only truly angered when he is wrong. This is supported by the fact that in the level Cortana, his tone quickly changed to confidence and almost amusement when he realized parts of the Master Chief's objective (with phrases such as "''Of course, you came for ''her''! We exist ''together'' now.''").
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| He is also known to be quite manipulative: in ''Halo 2'', Gravemind tricks the Chief into being a decoy to distract the [[High Prophet]]s as he attempts to take over ''High Charity'', and in ''Halo 3'', he helps the Master Chief and the Arbiter to help them kill the [[Prophet of Truth]], only to betray them when they have outlived their usefulness. It is also notable that the original Gravemind was able to convince the Forerunner AI [[Mendicant Bias]] to join his cause and turn his fleet upon the Forerunners by telling him that the Flood are the next step of evolution and that the Forerunners are denying it.
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| The Gravemind is not violent when it doesn't benefit him; this is what makes a Gravemind a key point in Flood evolution. Unlike the savage and bloodthirsty Combat and Pure Forms that precede and obey him, the Gravemind is able to put aside differences when it is necessary for its continued survival.
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| By the end of the game, the Gravemind gives a short monologue in a disheartened tone, cryptically admitting that he knows he can do nothing to stop his fate, which he believes was unjustly forced upon him. He says that the activation of Installation 04B will only add time ''"to a sentence [he] never deserve[d]"''. This seems to suggest that the Gravemind does not understand why the living races hate the Flood; indeed, he seems to think that it is only natural to absorb all life in the universe.
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| ==Trivia==
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| *The term "Gravemind" was coined by Bungie staff Jaime Greisemer.<ref>[http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=Feast_of_Bones '''Bungie.net''': ''Feast of Bones'']</ref>
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| *The Gravemind that was present during the Forerunner-Flood War was depicted in ''[[Halo Legends]]'' as having blue skin and roots growing out of its head, as well as some teeth. This appearance differs greatly from the Gravemind present during the Human-Covenant War as it has none of these characteristics whatsoever. A possible explanation is that humans and species of Covenant corpses used to form the current Gravemind, whereas the Gravemind then was probably composed of mostly Forerunner bodies, as they were the dominant and smartest species in the galaxy at the time. Also, its blue appearance could draw from the lighting of the area, as the other forms are blue in this scene, but the standard green in others. Alternatively, these differences could simply be a result of inaccurate interpretation of the first Gravemind's appearance by Cortana; according to [[Frank O'Connor]] in the ''[[Origins]]'' commentary, all of the visual elements of the episode are formed from Cortana's concepts of the events she describes, thus rendering the appearance of the Gravemind and everything else depicted in ''Origins'' highly questionable (particularly as Cortana is clearly shown to be either [[rampant]] or borderline-rampant in the episode).
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| *In ''Halo 3'', the Gravemind's actual face is never shown, unlike in ''Halo 2'', when he is shown in his introductory cinematic.
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| *In several Forerunner data logs, the controlling intelligence of the Flood is referred to as a [[wikipedia:Social_insect|Compound Mind]].
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| *The Gravemind resembles Audrey 2 from ''Little Shop of Horrors'', a tentacled, plant-like alien who is fed humans to grow and who is bent on world domination. Bungie staff and fans jokingly call it the "''Little Shop of Horrors'' Reject"{{fact}} Parallels can also be drawn with [[Wikipedia:Zerg_Overmind#The_Overmind|The Overmind]] from the ''[[Wikipedia:StarCraft|StarCraft]]'' franchise, the graboids from the Tremors movie series, the [[w:c:deadspace:Hive Mind|Hive Mind]] creature from the survival-horror game ''[[w:c:deadspace:Main page|Dead Space]]'', and even Sauron from ''[[Wikipedia:Lord of the Rings|Lord of the Rings]]''. It also resembles the Blob, which in 1988 was depicted as a tentacled creature that tries to consume all life so that it may grow.
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| *Originally, the Gravemind was meant to have skulls as teeth; this was cut from ''Halo 2'' and ''Halo 3'' because it would have made it difficult for the parasite to speak.<ref>''[[The Art of Halo]]'', page 56-57</ref>
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| *The Gravemind seems to speak almost as if he is writing a morbid poem. He frequently speaks in [[Wikipedia:trochaic|trochaic]] [[Wikipedia:heptameter|heptameter]]. In ''Human Weakness '', it was revealed that this is merely preference and converses normally with Cortana after she criticizes him for it. He also mentions that he possesses the memories of poets of many alien cultures.
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| *The Gravemind is one of the few extra-terrestrials to learn of John's name.
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| *[[Bungie|Project Lead]] [[Jason Jones]] initially didn't want the Gravemind to speak in an iambic rhyme, but he was persuaded by [[Joseph Staten]].{{fact}}
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| *He was initially going to have a much bigger presence in ''Halo 2'' and would have his big introduction in the level [[Forerunner Tank]], but due to time constraints, Bungie removed the level and instead made a long cinematic for his introduction.
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| *According to a quote made by Bungie developer Jason Keith<ref>[http://www.2old2play.com/Blog/Comments/352/17564 2old2play Blog]</ref><ref>[http://blog.ascendantjustice.com/halo-3/hindsight-halo-3/halo/ '''Hindsight Halo 3''' by Ascendant Justice]</ref>, it is implied that the Flood Hive of High Charity and the Gravemind were one and the same during ''Halo 3'', thus making the level [[Cortana (Level)|Cortana]] a boss fight, in a sense.
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| *The Gravemind is voiced by [[Dee Bradley Baker]] in the games, the same voice that plays a various amount of characters on many cartoons.
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| ==Gallery==
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| <gallery>
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| File:Gravemind.jpg|The Gravemind in [[Halo 2]].
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| File:SCAN0056.JPG|The Gravemind in the ''[[Halo 3]]'' Instruction Manual.
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| File:Gravemind_Halo3.jpg|A Gravemind Moment in Halo 3.
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| Image:GRAVY.JPG|The Gravemind prevents John-117 and the Arbiter from escaping with its tentacles.
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| File:Gravemind_Concept.jpg
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| </gallery>
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| ==Sources==
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| {{Quotes}}
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| <references/>
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| {{flood}}
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| [[it:Mente Suprema]]
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| [[Category:The Flood]]
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| [[Category:Characters]]
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