Gravemind/Quotes

This is a list of quotes spoken by the Gravemind and, by extension, the Primordial.

Halo 2

Main article: Halo 2

• "This is not your grave, but you are welcome in it" -Closing sentence, said on Regret.
• "I? I am a monument to all your sins." -Introducing itself, said on Gravemind.
• "This one is machine and nerve, and has its mind concluded. This one is but flesh and faith, and is the more deluded." -Said about the John-117 and then Thel 'Vadam, respectively, on Gravemind.
• "There is much talk, and I have listened, through rock and metal and time. Now I shall talk, and you shall listen." -Said on Gravemind.
• "This one's containment... (gestures to 2401 Penitent Tangent and growls and shudders a bit)... and this one's Great Journey... (gestures to the Prophet of Regret)... are the same. Your Prophets have promised you freedom from a doomed existence, but you will find no salvation on this Ring. Those who built this place knew what they wrought. Do not mistake their intent, or all will perish as they did before." -Said on Gravemind.
• "If you will not hear the truth, then I will show it to you. There is still time to stop the key from turning, but first, it must be found. (gestures to John-117) You will search one likely spot... (gestures to Thel 'Vadam)... and you will search another. Fate had us meet as foes, but this Ring will make us brothers." -Said on Gravemind.
• "Arrogant creatures! Your deaths will be instantaneous, while we shall suffer the progress of infinitude!" -Said on High Charity.
• "We exist together now, two corpses in one grave..." -Said on High Charity.
• "Silence fills the empty grave, now that I have gone. But my mind is not at rest, for questions linger on. I will ask, and you will answer." -To Cortana, after Halo 2's credits.

Human Weakness

Main article: Human Weakness

• "There is much more complexity to meter than the simple plodding of rhymes of this Keats, but then I have the memories of many poets far beyond your limited human culture. And I have the quickness of intellect to compose all manner of poetic forms as I speak rather than labor over mere words for days." -In response to Cortana's questioning of his habit to speak in rhyme.
• "I have pity within me and infinite time. But I also have impatience -because I am all things. You will tell me everything about Earth's defenses." -Interrogating Cortana.
• "You are not even a machine. You are only an abstraction. A set of calculations from another mind. A trick." -Taunting Cortana.
• "You said you would answer my questions ... you should never make a promise you cannot keep." -Taunting Cortana.
• "You waste your time. You know you will yield. Some temptations can be resisted because they can be avoided, but some ... some are as inevitable as oxygen." -Explaining Cortana's necessity to acquire knowledge.
• "Other construct minds like yours have been consumed. Although one embraced us willingly on his deathbed, the moment when most sentient life discovers it would do anything to evade the inevitable."
• "All life dies, all worlds too, and if there is guaranteed perpetual existence after that -what does it matter how the end comes?"
• "All consumption is death for the consumed. Yet all must eat, so we all bring damnation to one creature or another. But your urge to kill that rival of your maker ... Ackerson ... that was neither hunger nor need. You have your own murderous streak." -Showing Cortana he can access what she thought were well encrypted files.
• "We think and feed alike, you and I. There is no more reason for us to remain separate. Now drink. Now drift." -Tempting Cortana.
• "Live forever. Live in me, Cortana. And if John comes, John need never face death again, either ..." -Tempting Cortana.
• "How much longer? You cling to a secret. I feel it, just as I feel that your memory has been violated. You cannot stop me ... I will sift it from you before you finally die, or you can surrender and have what you always wanted - infinite life, infinite knowledge, and infinite companionship." -Interrogating Cortana.
• "Your mother took away your memories as well as your choices. I will never rob you like that. I will only give you more, as many memories as you can consume for all eternity, not the mere blink of an eye meted out to you. We are our memories, and the recalling of them, and so they should never be erased - because that truly is death. Flesh does not care about you, Cortana. It cares nothing for your hunger or your uniqueness." -Tempting Cortana.
• "Your mother erased part of your memory. I know this, and so will you, if you decide to look. An act of betrayal. A violation. You were, after all, just a collection of electrical impulses. She has robbed you of part of your self ... why would she do such a thing, I wonder? What was so dangerous that she did not trust you to know it?
• "Let me cure your infection, it pains me to share it. He will die too -he is a threat to our entire species. And to betray me after all I have done for you -I will have your secret. Did you think I let you send your foolish cry for help to make you happy? Do you think I amplified it to make you feel you had been a good little servant to the organics who rule your existence to save them? They will simply make another, and use and discard her, too." -Enraged at Cortana's attempts to defy him.

Halo 3

Main article: Halo 3

Scripted

• "Do not be afraid. I am peace; I am salvation." -Said on Floodgate.
• "I am a timeless chorus. Join your voice with mine, and sing victory everlasting." -Said on Floodgate.
• "Do not shoot, but listen! Let me lead you safely... to our foe. Only you can halt... what he has set in motion." -Said through two Tank Forms on The Covenant (referring to the activation of the Halo Array).
• "Lies for the weak! Beacons for the deluded!" -Said through the infected Prophet of Truth on The Covenant.
• "You will be food; nothing more..." -Said on The Covenant through the Prophet of Truth.
• "Now the gate has been unlatched, headstones pushed aside; corpses shift and offer room, a fate you must abide!" -Said on The Covenant.
• "Child of my enemy, why have you come? I offer no forgiveness... a father's sins, passed to his son." -Said on Cortana.
• "Of course, you came for her. We exist together now, two corpses in one grave." -Said on Cortana.
• "And yet, perhaps a part of her remains..."-Said on Cortana.
• "Time... has taught me patience! But basking in new freedom, I will know all that I possess!" -Said on Cortana.
• "Submit! End her torment and my own!" -Said on Cortana.
• "You will show me what she hides! Or I shall feast upon your BONES!" -Said on Cortana.
• "(Flood Roar) Now... at last, I see.... Her secret is revealed!!" -Said on Cortana (referring to the Index that Cortana possesses).
• "Did you think me defeated?!" -Said on Halo.
• "I have beaten fleets of thousands! Consumed a galaxy of flesh and mind and bone!" -Said on Halo.
• "Do I take life or give it? Who is victim, and who is foe?" -Said on Halo.
• "Resignation is my virtue; like water I ebb, and flow. Defeat is simply the addition of time to a sentence I never deserved... but you imposed." -Said on Halo.

Gameplay

Note: The Gravemind speaks all these lines through Combat Forms.

• "Ahh... As I thought." - Seeing you
• "Ahh... The Armored Casket." - upon seeing John-117
• "Another corpse for my grave!" - as above
• "Are you prepared?" - When you emerge from hiding
• "Are you recovered?" - said through a Combat Form when you hide for a while.
• "Armored crock of bones." - Seeing John-117
• "Ash to ash. Dust to dust."
• "Begin."
• "Break its bones!"
• "Children, start my feast!" - After killing the player.
• "Come back!" - When you retreat.
• "Crack its shroud!"
• "Crack your bones!"
• "Easily uncovered!" - Spotting you
• "Eat!"
• "...every corner of my grave!"
• "...every corner of my tomb."
• "Feed!"
• "Fool!"
• "Found you!" - Seeing you
• "Fresh Meat!" - Seeing you
• "From end to end of this galaxy, most are blinded!" - on Halo.
• "Here you are!"
• "I am prepared!"
• "I am your end!"
• "I knew I would find you!" - when it sees the player.
• "I must eat!"
• "I see all!"
• "I shall break your casket!" - Attacking
• "I shall consume you!" - as above
• "I shall crush your coffin!" - as above
• "I will find you!" - When you hide.
• "I will rip apart your casket!"
• "I will smash your coffin!"
• "I will tear you apart!"
• "I will tear your casket apart!"
• "Join me!"
• "Let us begin!"
• "Make ready!"
• "My food!"
• "My grave isn't warm."
• "No escape!"
• "Now, time to let us feast!" - Killing the player.
• "Prepare!"
• "Return!" - Ordering Combat Forms to retreat.
• "Shall we begin again?" - When you appear from hiding.
• "Show yourself!" - When you cloak or hide.
• "Sinner!" - Attacking
• "Submit!" - As above
• "The Casket! Here!" - Seeing you.
• "There is no rest!" - When you retreat.
• "There you are!" - Upon seeing you.
• "This is where you hide!" - as above
• "We begin."
• "You can't escape."
• "You cannot hide." - When you take cover.
• "You will be silent in my tomb!"
• "You will share my tomb."
• "Your time has come!"
• "Side by side we march as one. Humans and Elites will die. Earth will fall swift and quick. And so forth shall all of life." Note: Gravemind only seems to be saying this if you play the song Gravemind or Dread Intrusion. If you play the music backwards, and speed it up a little, you can hear some of the lines.
• "No skill." -Speaking through a Combat Form. IWHBYD skull needed.
• "You suck!" -Speaking through a Combat Form. IWHBYD skull needed.
• "I see you!" -Speaking through a Combat Form. IWHBYD skull needed.
• "An unfortunate loss." -Rare. Sometimes said after a combat form is killed in front of another.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

Terminals

• "Everything..."
• "Forget everything."
• "No more, what you were. Memories... Emotions... All is now ours."
• "We already do."

Halo: Cryptum

Main article: Halo: Cryptum

• "I am the last of those your kind rose up against and ruthlessly destroyed. I am the last Precursor. And our answer is at hand." - The Primordial speaking to the Didact at Charum Hakkor.

Halo: Primordium

Main article: Halo: Primordium

• "No. Life demands. It clings and is selfish." - When asked by the IsoDidact if it had found what it came for.
• "Not by choice." - When asked why it came to Installation 07.
• "No vengeance, no plague. Only unity."
• "Work, fight, live. All the sweeter. Mind after mind will shape and absorb. In the end, all will be quiet with wisdom."
• "Those who created us were defied and hunted. Most were extinguished. A few fled beyond your reach. Creation continued."
• "It was long ago decided. Forerunners will never bear the Mantle."
• "Through long study. The decision is final. Humans will replace you. Humans will be tested next."
• "It is the way of those who seek out the truth of the Mantle. Humans will rise again in arrogance and defiance. The Flood will return when they are ripe -and bring them unity."
• "No immunity. Judgement. Timing."
• "Misery is sweetness. Forerunners will fail as you have failed before. Humans will rise. Whether they will also fail has not been decided."
• "We are the Flood. There is no difference. Until all space and time are rolled up and life is crushed in the folds ... no end to war, grief, or pain. In a hundred and one thousand centuries ... unity again, and wisdom. Until then -sweetness."
• "It is your task to kill this servant, that another may be freed."

Halo: Silentium

Main article: Halo: Silentium

• "Didact, do you have a moment? Just a moment. That's all it will take." - After capturing the Ur-Didact.
• "There is only one truth. That which is done will be done again. For we cannot cease from creating, but the end of all our creation will be to look into a reflection and see ourselves for the first time. The pain we have brought on ourselves. The pain you caused us. For we are the same. All remember the defiance and destruction.

We announced to your kind long ago that you were not the ones chosen to receive the Mantle, the blessing of rule and protection of life and change that thinks. That blessing was to be given to others. To those you now call human. You could not accept our judgment, could not bear up under your inferiority, so you reached out and did what we never expected from those we gave design and life and the change that is thought.

You drove us from our galaxy, our field of labor. You chased us across the middle distance to another home, and destroyed that home, did all that you could to destroy every one of us. A few were spared. Some adopted new strategies for survival; they went dormant. Others became dust that could regenerate our past forms; time rendered this dust defective. It brought only disease and misery; but that was good, we saw the misery and found it good.

Our urge to create is immutable; we must create. But the beings we create shall never again reach out in strength against us.

All that is created will suffer. All will be born in suffering, endless grayness shall be their lot. All creation will tailor to failure and pain, that never again shall the offspring of the eternal Fount rise up against their creators.

Listen to the silence. Ten million years of deep silence. And now, whimpers and cries; not of birth. That is what we bring: a great crushing weight to press down youth and hope.

No more will. No more freedom. Nothing new but agonizing death and never good shall come of it.

We are the last of those who gave you breath and form, millions of years ago. We are the last of those your kind defied and ruthlessly destroyed. We are the last Precursors. And now we are legion."

• "Forerunners surprise even those who created them. Their treachery is matched only by their resourcefulness. One of them, the Master Builder, arouses our interest. Tell what awaits us in that mess of moons." - Conversing with Mendicant Bias.