Talk:Cortana Letters

Aren't we to assume that this is Cortana (A.I.) can't we put some of her images here?-- Yamanba 00:27, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

I suppose that would make sense. --Dragonclaws 00:32, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Investigative Reporting

Main article: http://marathon.bungie.org/story/cortana.html

Take a look at the reaction when the email first was sent out:

..."is this some cruel hoax perpetrated by some heinous fiend? We all remember the fake Bungie email that lead to the Marathon Gold hoax right? A detailed look at the Cortana email headers reveals the following.

    Received: from dux1.tcd.ie (dux1.tcd.ie [134.226.1.11])
    	by dux4.tcd.ie (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id QAA15384
    	for <hsinclir@dux4.tcd.ie>; Mon, 15 Feb 1999 16:51:57 GMT
    Received: from mail.bungie.com (root@[209.125.9.11])
    	by dux1.tcd.ie (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id QAA21325
    	for <hamish.sinclair@tcd.ie>; Mon, 15 Feb 1999 16:51:55 GMT
    Received: from Cortana ([209.125.9.49])
              by mail.bungie.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) with SMTP
    	  id LAA02086 for <hamish.sinclair@tcd.ie>; Mon, 15 Feb 1999 11:49:43 -0600
    Message-ID: <001301be5903$4685cb60$31097dd1@Cortana.bungie.com>
    From: "Cortana" <cortana@bungie.com>
    To: <hamish.sinclair@tcd.ie>
    Subject: Closure
    Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 10:50:20 -0600
    MIME-Version: 1.0
    Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
    	boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0010_01BE58D0.FB651460"
    X-Priority: 3
    X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
    X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.1
    X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3
    X-UIDL: e36fab4ede04e7c19a0a09e3d2f7cc91

The email was sent from a machine with the IP address of 209.125.9.49. The full email can be seen here.

By sheer coincidence (no such thing right?) I had asked Matt Soell of Bungie Software to send me proof of something I can't reveal here. His email header is as follows.

    Received: from dux1.tcd.ie (dux1.tcd.ie [134.226.1.11])
    	by dux4.tcd.ie (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id QAA02387
    	for <hsinclir@dux4.tcd.ie>; Mon, 15 Feb 1999 16:52:26 GMT
    Received: from mail.bungie.com (root@[209.125.9.11])
    	by dux1.tcd.ie (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id QAA17712
    	for <Hamish.Sinclair@tcd.ie>; Mon, 15 Feb 1999 16:51:04 GMT
    Received: from [209.125.9.13] ([209.125.9.13])
              by mail.bungie.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) with SMTP
    	  id LAA02056 for <Hamish.Sinclair@tcd.ie>; Mon, 15 Feb 1999 11:48:48 -0600
    Message-Id: <199902151748.LAA02056@mail.bungie.com>
    Subject: Proof.
    Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 10:50:39 -0600
    x-sender: matt@mail.bungie.com
    x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, January 22, 1998
    From: Matt Soell <matt@bungie.com>
    To: "Hamish Sinclair" <Hamish.Sinclair@tcd.ie>
    Mime-Version: 1.0
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
    X-UIDL: e7629e421652984e6fd6b1ea4d63065c

You'll note that Matt's machine has the IP address 209.125.9.13. So the domains (209.125.9) match. Matt's mail was sent from machine 13 and our mysterious Cortana's from machine 49 (hmmm... 7 x 7 = 49... but I digress).

So the Cortana email does originate from a Bungie computer. But who is Cortana and why did he/she send the Story page a Durandal like message? A cruel joke or something more?

Bungie employees are well aware of the severe penalty for divulging sensitive information to the Story page. Yes folks... dismemberment. So either Cortana's corpse is now floating limbless inside of hangar ninety six or else the message was sanctioned by the powers that be.

I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Ummm

Sorry but what are these. Is some person pretending to be cortana or something. I ahve abselutly no clue what this is can some one please explain im curious.

Thxs

This was a Bungie employee emailing a fansite while pretending to be Cortana to promote Halo 1 before it was released. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 06:25, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Master Chief

Although i think that it has something to do with Gravemind (the Hybrid War-Machine bit) and I have heard that it does, this could also apply to the Chief. He can be a bit mindless sometimes (it mentions that the thing is mindless) and also she was in a 'system' (the MJOLNIR Armour) with him. It also says "it appears to have an unhealthy preoccupation with my mother." The spartans view Dr Halsey as a Mother figure, and have a slight preoccupation (in a way) with her, but effectively, Dr Halsey is Cortana's mother, as it was her brain that was used. I;m not getting at annything much, just pointing this out. --Keyes 06:20, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Yeah. It has also been suggested that she was in the Bungie system and refering to the Disembodied Soul. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 06:28, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Eigth letter speculation

In the final letter cortona mentions two things that stick out to me. the first is: "Eight human worlds" which may refer to earth and the seven Halo's. The other is the "four 'lost colony' worlds" that would include Onyx, Reach, and two other planets that were colinated by the forerunners. Its best to keep in mind that there are 26 other known planets in the halo universe, not including the ones we know in the real world (jupiter, mars, venus, etc.) Still, its a possibilty. 69.227.215.117 23:24, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

(something is mesing with my broswer and I can not remain logged in if I go to a new page.--Spartan 107.)

Keep in mind that the Cortana Letters are not strict canon, and the info could have changed. Certainly, there has been no widespread knowledge of Forerunners. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 03:45, 20 May 2007 (UTC)