"The Unknown Helper" is the first episode of the Halo 3 Alternate reality game Iris. It started on June 11, 2007 throughout several forms of media, ending on June 29, 2007. It was followed by the following episode "Flood Control".
Overview
On March 26, 2007 a prelude in the form of a short piece of text hinted at events to come. Formally beginning on June 11, 2007 the first episode began with the mystery of Adjutant Reflex and several mystery events on Earth, with Adjutant warning something was coming and that it could not stop it. Members of Society of the Ancients (SOTA) a conspiracy group dedicated to recording information on the "ancients" rallied across the globe and found a painted Forerunner symbol in Tanzania. There was also the discovery of the Halo 3: Cradle of Life comic, a parallel path to the SOTA one that lead people to the first server. During those events Adjutant Reflex was then taken over by the entity it warned the community about, leading to a mystery of what that entity wants to tell us. Before the first server was unlocked the mysterious entity spoke giving people "keys" to unlock the server. The first server detailed the firing of Halo array, and a log that gave the hope that someone would hear the warning.
Summary
Prelude
On March 26, 2007, months before the ARG formally began, a news post on Bungie.net called "The Warthog" was posted that went over the Warthog as it was in Halo 3. Included in the post was a video called "wart3.mov" that included a low poly rotation look at the Warthog. Hidden in various frames of the video was several bits of text that when put together made the following "X.XX.713 > ghost.713/non-auth/activity ongoing".[1] This then unassuming text and variants of it would become re-occurring throughout Iris and the Terminal narrative.
This will be a good place to begin.
- Main article: Adjutant Reflex posts
On June 11, 2007 at 10:26 AM PST, a thread appeared in the Halo 3 forum on Bungie.net titled "System Integrity Confirmed" (See all Adjutant Reflex posts from the thread here) with the text "This will be a good place to begin."[2] The thread was created by a user named "AdjutantReflex" whose system security role was "CompoundIntelligence", with the Forum Signature of "Array integrity questionable.".[3] Throughout the following two hours Adjutant Reflex posted; answering questions and queries such as saying it took by "force" access to the forum when queried on how the account could do things like have yellow text; mentioning how there was no hostile intent; its status as a facilitator of Halo Array requirements;[2] before ending the thread on when the Halo array last fired going back from 2007.[4]
Adjutant Reflex then moved to HBO, posting a similar series of mysterious writings in the halo.bungie.org (HBO) forum.(See all Adjutant Reflex posts from the thread here)[5] Though according to Adjutant later "Bandwidth restraints prevented its use."[6]
Forerunner Email
- Main article: Forerunner Email
On June 12, at exactly 11:00 AM PST, Adjutant Reflex created another thread, titled "Archive/Resource Estimate," (See all Adjutant Reflex posts from the thread here) with his first post stating that "Archives/Resources will be compiled in approximately 38 hours [1:00 AM PST on Thursday, June 14]."[6] Another several posts followed, but no further substantive information was gleaned.[7] The next day, at 3:43 PST, Adjutant Reflex posted an addendum to "Archive/Resource Estimate", with the text "Tick Tock.", later mentioning that "When the tipping point occurs, I will do my best to facilitate. Tick tock.",[7] and when someone said they would be ready, Adjutant said the ominous statement "You're wrong. This time, no one will be ready."[8]
When June 14 came, Adjutant Reflex posted again saying "It has begun. The first seeds are scattered."[9] This coincided with the release of the Forerunner Email, that featured a Forerunner symbol and the key phrase "Look for the signs".[10] Following the command "Look for the signs" lead to people finding the symbol in the email in numerous places such as recently added to Halo3.com,[11] and eventually was quickly made the avatar of the Adjutant Reflex account on Bungie.net,[12] and subsequently used throughout the rest of the alternate reality game as a re-occurring symbol. Adjutant Reflex then posted a new thread on the Bungie.net forums titled "Who?"(See all Adjutant Reflex posts from the thread here) with the text "Who is the path of light from blackest Earth to brilliant heaven? On whose golden wings will we fly from here to there?", fans who noticed that their avatar was changed and had the file name "Chrysopteron.gif" put the two together and gave the answer "Iris". This prompted Adjutant Reflex to respond that it was "Time to sleep" as "Something that once was malevolent is stirring."[13] This posting corresponded to a change at Halo3.com, where the main page had been replaced by five darkened images, labeled "Servers #1-5".
Cradle of Life
- Main article: Halo 3: The Cradle of Life
Late June 14, a Bungie.net forum user who delivered papers noticed an Ad in the Circuit City circular that had the forerunner symbol as seen on Adjutant Reflex's avatar and the Forerunner Email keeping to the "Look for the signs" the email asked people to do. This circular alongside a similar one tied to Best Buy was meant to release on June 17.[14] The ad directed people to "www.halo3.com/comic" which was a webcomic called Halo 3: The Cradle of Life.[15]
The webcomic was a story set 100,000 years ago prior to the firing of the Halo Array, based around a elder of a tribe called N'chala as he watched over the "gods" that were building what appears to be the portal to the Ark. N'chala doesn't understand these "gods" but he is said to paint for months to tell their story, pondering if the "gods" will ever reveal themselves to him. Until then he will watch and wait.[15]
Similar to "The Warthog" post, there was a secret message in this webcomic where on the last page, to tie into N'chala telling their story, there are three panels with various painted walls, each able to be moved or clicked with the mouse to reveal certain numbers. When the numbers were arranged in order, they became an IP address, "206.16.223.65",[15] which initially led to nothing due to the early release of the website, but was updated to a site called the Transmission Log.[16]
Society of the Ancients
- Main articles: Society of the Ancients, Society of the Ancients (website)
Due to some users experimenting with the IP address "206.16.223.65", it was found that "206.16.223.63" directed people to the Society of the Ancients website.[17][18] On June 15, it was reported that the Society was doing a rally in Times Square giving out leaflets directing people to their website.[19] Throughout the following days similar rallies across the globe happened.[20] This is presumed to be the actual method people were intended to find the Society of the Ancients website instead of brute forcing it.
While searching on the website on the "Evidence" page contained an update tied to a symbol painted in Tanzania. Below this update contained the same link "206.16.223.65" people found on in the Halo 3: The Cradle of Life webcomic, saying the website contained the symbol. (The symbol didn't make an appearance until the first server was unlocked.)[21] This link could be seen as an alternate route to get people into the Transmission Log, Bounce Path Control, and the first Server.[16]
Following this, Society of the Ancients got mentioned a handful of times in the fourth episode of Iris "The Great Connection".
Something stirring
- Main article: Transmission Log
When the Transmission Log was first discovered Talk about the Transmission Log properly and the Adjutant Reflex posts around it. Leading to the death of Adjutant Reflex and Mendicant Bias taking over.
Bounce Path Control and Server 1
- Main articles: Bounce Path Control, Server
Talk about the first Bounce Path Control and Server 1. May edit these pages to account for this better.
Sources
- ^ Bungie.net, M12 Warthog (Retrieved on Apr 16, 2020) [local archive] [external archive]
- ^ a b Bungie.net, System Integrity Confirmed (Retrieved on Dec 12, 2007) [local archive] [external archive]
- ^ Bungie.net, System Integrity Confirmed (Retrieved on Jun 13, 2007) [local archive] [external archive]
- ^ Bungie.net, System Integrity Confirmed - Page 5 (Retrieved on Feb 15, 2008) [local archive] [external archive]
- ^ Halo.Bungie.Org Forum, System Integrity Confirmed (Retrieved on Jun 14, 2007) [local archive] [external archive]
- ^ a b Bungie.net, System Integrity ConfirmedArchive/Resource Estimate (Retrieved on Jun 15, 2007) [local archive] [external archive]
- ^ a b Bungie.net, Archive/Resource Estimate - Page 17 (Retrieved on Jun 15, 2007) [local archive] [external archive]
- ^ Bungie.net, Archive/Resource Estimate - Page 20 (Retrieved on Jun 15, 2007) [local archive] [external archive]
- ^ Bungie.net, Archive/Resource Estimate - Page 21 (Retrieved on Jun 15, 2007) [local archive] [external archive]
- ^ ebm.email.xbox.com, Forerunner Email (Retrieved on Jun 27, 2007) [archive]
- ^ args.bungie.org, Look for the signs? (Retrieved on Jul 28, 2024) [archive]
- ^ Bungie.net, Profile: AdjutantReflex (Retrieved on Jun 15, 2007) [local archive] [external archive]
- ^ Bungie.net, Who? (Retrieved on Jun 17, 2007) [local archive] [external archive]
- ^ Bungie.net, I found the next clue!! (Retrieved on Oct 6, 2007) [archive]
- ^ a b c Halo 3, The Cradle of Life (Retrieved on Apr 20, 2009) [local archive] [external archive]
- ^ a b Transmission Log: June 15 (Retrieved on Jun 16, 2007) [local archive] [external archive]
- ^ args.bungie.org, Cradle of Life - Page 4 (Retrieved on Jul 28, 2024) [archive]
- ^ Society of the Ancient: Home (Retrieved on Jun 16, 2007) [local archive] [external archive]
- ^ NeoGaf, Who is AdjutantReflex - Page 12 (Retrieved on Oct 12, 2014) [archive]
- ^ flickr: Keeper_of_flame (Retrieved on Oct 12, 2014) [archive]
- ^ Society of the Ancient: Evidence (Retrieved on Jun 16, 2007) [local archive] [external archive]
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