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488 pages[5] |
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978-1-50672-844-5[5] |
The Halo Encyclopedia is a reference book originally set to be published on March 29, 2022 by Dark Horse in conjunction with 343 Industries, but later delayed to April 12, 2022. The book is a successor to the previous Halo Encyclopedia released in 2009, and features numerous custom-made pieces of artwork by both 343 in-house artists and several images and designs created by the fan mod Sins of the Prophets[1] and Halo: A Fistful of Arrows creator Levi Hoffmeier.[3]
The book includes elements from across two decades of Halo history, including content from Halo Infinite.[1]
A deluxe edition variant was additionally released, containing an exclusive lithograph, a unique cover and slipcase inspired by the Forerunner Cylix.[6]
Official summary
| “ | In the 26th century, humanity relentlessly continues their fight for survival, an enduring conflict set against the backdrop of the enigmatic and ancient ringworld known as Halo.
The universe of Halo is remarkably vast in scale and astonishingly elaborate in detail, telling rich stories filled with bold characters, breathtaking worlds, and thrilling conflicts. In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Halo, Dark Horse and 343 Industries have teamed up to deliver the most definitive guide to the universe thus far. Spanning over a hundred millennia and encompassing over a hundred thousand light years, the Halo Encyclopedia captures two decades of storytelling with stunning, never-before-seen art and the most detailed exploration of the universe’s many characters, worlds, and technologies to have ever been created.[7] |
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Content
The Halo Encyclopedia begins with a chronology of the events in the Halo universe. The book is divided into five sections: Humanity, Covenant, Forerunners, Flood, and Banished.
The book's meta-narrative is framed as an communications log between Adjutant Revendicate - the sub-monitor of Installation 07 created from the mind of the Auditor - and Invariant Bias, Monitor of the Absolute Record. The brief exchange is present in the books opening and closing pages, and details Revendicate's wishes to enter information into the Absolute Record in the wake of The Harbinger's defeat as depicted in Halo Infinite. The Halo Encyclopedia's text is framed as the repository of information gathered by Revendicate, giving the book an in-universe grounding in a similar manner to the Curator meta-narrative framing 2016's Halo Mythos: A Guide to the Story of Halo.
Binary code exists attached to images of each chapter of the book along with the "The Absolute Record" prologue and "Audit Complete" epilogue. Although they are duplicated within their chapters, every chapter's binary code is distinct from one another. Joining them together in release order forms a code translating to "revenge."
Trivia
- The Lancer-class fast-attack corvette and the Scholte-class missile corvette were due to be featured in the Halo Encyclopedia but were cut due to space constraints.[8]
Mistakes
- The CQS48 Bulldog is stated as having an 8-round magazine. The correct number of rounds should be 7.
- The image captions for the Sangheili Honor Guardsman and the Sangheili Councilor are swapped.
- The M247H machine gun is given two conflicting infoboxes on pages 174-175, with the conflicting designations M247 heavy machine gun and M247H heavy machine gun. The two images seem to use the Halo Infinite model and the Halo: Reach model respectively, and provide conflicting length measurements of 64.6 inches (164 cm) and 64.5 inches (164 cm), respectively. It is unclear whether this is intended to explicitly separate the two models into similar, albeit different weapons, or a mistake on the part of the authors.
- On pages 136 and 180, the Halo 5: Guardians chaingun is referred to as the M49 Vulcan, while on page 170 it is named as the M250 heavy machine gun.
- On page 136, the Halo 5: Guardians gauss cannon is erroneously referred to as the M69, while its dedicated infobox on page 181 refers to it as the M70 Gauss cannon.
- On page 153, the image captions for the Series 8 jetpack and the Series 12 jetpack are swapped.
- The designation provided for the Stalwart-class light frigate's Magnetic Accelerator Cannon is given as the 21X5V9 MAC, contradicting the 56A2D4 established in Halo: Warfleet.
- The weapons loadout listed for the Charon-class light frigate is retained as that established for UNSC Forward Unto Dawn in Halo 4; in Halo 4, the ship was incorrectly depicted as much bigger than any UNSC frigate or cruiser, and had a massive armaments complement to match. As such, the armaments loadout provided (particularly the three Hyperion missiles) would not be able to fit inside the canon Charon.
- The Halo 4-given armaments for the Charon include 3 Hyperion missiles, and 50 Archer missile pods; the canon model (as depicted in Halo 3 wouldn't be able to fit any Hyperions inside, and only has 5 Archer pods. The number of Magnetic Accelerator Cannons and Rampart point-defence turrets remains accurate to the canon model.
- The size statistics for the Klavrig Workshop Skitterer, as listed on page 457, are enormous and much bigger than the Skitterer's in-game model or the concept art scale reference, and even bigger than other vehicles in Halo Wars 2 such as the Locust. It is unclear whether this is an intentional upscaling, or an error in numbers.
- On page 458, Okro 'Vagaduun's birth world is listed as Feldokra while Halo Infinite instead establishes that he was born on Sanghelios' blood-moon, Suban.
- On page 479, the Posu'gelka-pattern needler is stated to be manufactured by Lodham Armory. Given Lodam Armory is a known manufacturer of the Needler, and this is the first time a “Lodham Armory” is mentioned in the series, it is most likely a typo.
Gallery
Promotional images
The cover for the deluxe edition of Halo Encyclopedia.
The deluxe edition of Halo Encyclopedia.
A preview of the table of contents from the Halo Encyclopedia.
A preview of pages 8 and 9 featuring a chronology of the ancient past.
A preview of pages 10 and 11 featuring a chronology of the Human-Covenant Conflict.
A preview of page 14 introducing humanity.
A preview of page 84 featuring GEN3 MJOLNIR.
A preview of page 85 featuring the Grappleshot.
A preview of page 96 featuring Edward Buck, Michael Crespo, and Kojo Agu.
A preview of page 97 featuring Taylor Miles, Gretchen Ketola, Jonathan Doherty, and Veronica Dare.
_Deluxe_Edition.jpg)
Illustrations
The encyclopedia's cover art without logos.
Artwork used to introduce the Covenant chapter of the encyclopedia.
Artwork used to introduce the Forerunner chapter of the encyclopedia.
Artwork used to introduce the Flood chapter of the encyclopedia.
Artwork used to introduce the Banished chapter of the encyclopedia.
Art of Marines relaxing at a camp on Installation 07.
Art of SPARTAN-III Lucy-B091.
Art of a Silent Shadow Sangheili.
Art of Ussa 'Xellus.
Render of an Varric-pattern heavy cruiser.
Art of a C718 Longsword.
Render of a Needler.
Artwork representing the Spartan-IIs.
Development images
Sketches of Chakas, Mendicant Bias, and Offensive Bias.
An early sketch of the Marine camp illustration.
Another early sketch with reference images.
A color sketch of the Marine camp illustration.
Another color sketch of the illustration.
Concept Blender sculpts used by Isaac Hannaford to visualize his art of the Prophets of Regret, Truth, and Mercy.
Sketches of the Prophets.
Early sketch of the Spartan-II artwork.
Colored sketch of the artwork.
A near-finalized colored sketch of the artwork.
An exploratory painting of Offensive Bias, investigating the idea of having a Contender-class AI shell modularly placed inside a larger Guardian Sentinel.
An exploratory painting for the scale of Offensive Bias, when compared to Master Chief.
Cut content
Lancer-class fast-attack corvette.
Scholte-class missile corvette.
Art of Krelis.
Sources
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Halo Waypoint, Canon Fodder - Master Class (Retrieved on Jul 12, 2021) [archive]
- ^ Twitter, Isaac Hannaford (@Isaac_Hannaford): "That would be me :)" (Retrieved on Feb 23, 2022) [archive]
- ^ a b Twitter, Levi Hoffmeier (@LeviWasTaken): "Excited to say I've crafted some art for the #Halo Encyclopedia from @DarkHorseComics & @Halo out next year! Sketching Master Chief in my high school notes to teaching myself digital art with A Fistful of Arrows to painting [REDACTED] professionally feels...full-circle.😉" (Retrieved on Oct 29, 2021) [archive]
- ^ Halo Waypoint, Canon Fodder - Zeta Testing (Retrieved on Oct 26, 2021) [archive]
- ^ a b c Dark Horse, Halo: Encyclopedia HC (Retrieved on Feb 11, 2022) [archive]
- ^ Dark Horse, Halo Encyclopedia HC (Deluxe Edition) (Retrieved on Dec 14, 2021) [archive]
- ^ Amazon, Halo Encyclopedia (Retrieved on Jul 20, 2021) [archive]
- ^ Halo Waypoint, Canon Fodder - Foundations (Retrieved on Jan 12, 2022) [archive]
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