Confirmer
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The Confirmer was a Forerunner Promethean who commanded the Fortress-class vessel Deep Reverence.[1] He was an old friend and mentor of the Didact.
Biography[edit]
Early career[edit]
He was the commander of the warship Deep Reverence, and led legions of soldiers into battle. The Confirmer provided the Didact's brevet mutation to his second-form. This occurred on the Deep Reverence in the chaos of battle. Without that quick and immensely painful mutation, the young cadet might not have survived.[2][3] The Didact later served alongside him during the human-Forerunner wars.[2]
Guarding the San'Shyuum[edit]
Following the removal of the Prometheans from the Ecumene Council around 98,445 BCE, he was placed in charge of maintaining the quarantine around the San'Shyuum homeworld Janjur Qom.[4] He spent the next 1,200 years serving aboard the Deep Reverence as it watched over the planet.[5] As time went on, his ship became regarded as a memorial, and as his colleagues died over the centuries their Durances were shipped to the Reverence.[6]
Over the centuries that followed, San'Shyuum delegates from Janjur Qom would regularly visit the Confirmer and his ship, offering gifts of fine artwork and tending the Durances in their displays. The Confirmer enjoyed their gifts and grew to think favorably of the San'Shyuum, in the process becoming inattentive and allowing the San'Shyuum to build up a cache of weaponry and ships in secret.[7] He even came as far as to allow them to come aboard the ship to repair it and travel between their two worlds.[6]
In the final years of the Forerunner-Flood war, the Didact returned to Janjur Qom following the clues left by his wife, the Librarian. He met with the Confirmer aboard the Reverence, who confirmed his wife had just been at the planet, collecting specimens to take to the Ark. Telling him about the massacres by a Halo at Charum and Faun Hakkor, the Didact requested to head to Janjur Qom's surface, which the Confirmer allowed provided he turn over his ship's weapons.[8] However, he secretly alerted Builder Security as the Didact and his crew left, allowing them to be captured by the Master Builder Faber.[9] According to the Confirmer, he was promised that the Didact would be brought before the Ecumene Council to await fair judgment.[3]
Death[edit]
The Confirmer later perished, presumably in the firing of the Halo Array as he was both aware of the event and the Librarian's Conservation Measure, but not of the outcome.[3]
The Domain[edit]
Following his death, the Confirmer was uploaded to the outer boundaries of the Domain and, along with the rest of the Forerunners who had perished in the firing of the Halo Array, was trapped, unable to enter the ancient repository. Unlike many of the other Forerunners, the Confirmer was able to pull himself together enough to be coherent with the Confirmer's madness possibly helping to keep him more grounded.[3]
100,000 years later, following his own death, the Didact encountered the Confirmer in the outer boundary of the Domain where the ancient Promethean was throwing rocks at and cursing out the other Forerunners in the valley.[10] Having not seen his old mentor since the Confirmer's betrayal, the Didact furiously confronted him and the Confirmer expressed remorse, admitting to the betrayal, but having had no idea that the Didact would be sent into a Burn rather than to the Ecumene Council to await fair judgment as Faber had promised him. The Didact called it as a stain on his existence to carry the Confirmer's imprint, but the Confirmer reminded him that he would not be the Didact without his imprint. After the Confirmer asked what had happened to him, the Didact's anger was blunted enough so that he could see more clearly the circumstances leading to the Confirmer's betrayal. The ancient Forerunner's age and isolation at the time that the Didact and his companions had encountered him above Janjur Qom had lent to his mental instability with the Confirmer's derelict ship being even more unstable, making him an easy mark for the Master Builder's machinations and honeyed promises. Although unable to forgive his old friend, the Didact was relieved to find another coherent Forerunner to talk to.[3]
The Confirmer explained that they were all dead and stuck here, sealed off from the Domain which had closed itself up when the rings fired, although the Confirmer optimistically thought that the Domain would sort itself out soon. The Confirmer admitted that he was maddened with envy at the thought of their ancestors inside, roaming the halls, learning and communing with those who came before while the Confirmer and the others were trapped outside. The conversation drew the interest of a number of other Forerunners, including the Grammarian, who wished to know the state of the galaxy, although these were more ghostly and less grounded than the Confirmer. The Didact informed the gathered Forerunners of what he had learned from the Bornstellar Relation, but deflected questions about his own demise and asked for information on the Warden Eternal. The Confirmer informed the Didact about the seemingly-unstoppable threat that the construct posed and about a rift nearby that was occupied by humans. The Confirmer admitted that he hadn't seen the Librarian, but that she might be present as well.[3]
The Confirmer later joined the Forerunner and human forces that gathered to help the Didact fight the Warden Eternal. The Didact noted that the jovial old Forerunner that he knew so well was gone, replaced by a savage figure with a fevered light shining in his mad eyes. After 100,000 years without the Domain, the Confirmer wanted in now that the time had come, no matter the cost. Together, the gathered essences attacked the Warden, providing the Didact with a distraction at a pivotal moment, allowing him to destroy the Warden Eternal.[11]
Subsquently, all of the Forerunners and humans were welcomed into the Domain.[12] After the Didact returned from speaking to Cortana, the Confirmer and Forthencho joined him and the Haruspis. The Confirmer surveyed the Domain with delight, actually smiling which the Didact hadn't thought possible within the Confirmer's stiff, rickety face. After Haruspis reported that there were still a few rogue Created AIs and splinters hiding in the interior of the Domain, the Confirmer took his leave, stating that he had better things to do and ancestors to see. As he walked away, the Confirmer muttered something about remembering where he left off the last time that he was in the Domain.[13]
Description and personality[edit]
- "Long duty has not been good to the Confirmer. No warrior should allow his weapons to rust."
- — The Didact, upon visiting the Deep Reverence.[14]
The Confirmer, like all Prometheans, was once a great and respected warrior. However, after 1,200 years of solitary guard duty, his mental and physical abilities had deteriorated considerably. He was quite out-of-shape, and wore armor that appeared to have been compiled from several different sets. His figure was large and lumpish with mottled gray skin, spotted with unhealthy veins of paleness tinged with pink. He no longer had the patches of bluish-white bristling fuzz on the crown and shoulders that marked many of the Warrior-Servants and his stone-black teeth were fused together with growth.[15] Upon witnessing the Confirmer smiling, the Didact was surprised as he hadn't thought it to be possible with the Confirmer's stiff and rickety face.[13] In the Domain, the Confirmer took on the form of a grayed-out version of what the Didact had witnessed during their last meeting.[10]
The Confirmer was energetic in personality, though that appeared to be thanks to being alone from over a millennium until the Didact returned. He had grown very careless in his old age, allowing his weapons and ship to fall into disrepair, and did not even check if the Didact still held his rank after his exile.[16] Bornstellar suspected he had spent his time building useless trinkets within the ship, diminishing its resources and design.[17]
The Confirmer was fond of San'Shyuum art, and he valued it especially because it was worthless to Forerunners.[18] He kept himself away from the business of Lifeworkers and Builders, since they were a higher rate than Prometheans.[2]
While he betrayed the Didact and his companions to the Master Builder,[9] the Confirmer had been promised that the Didact would be taken before the Ecumene Council to await fair judgment and the Confirmer later expressed remorse for his betrayal. After the Didact's anger was blunted enough so that he could see more clearly the circumstances leading to the Confirmer's betrayal, he came to the conclusion that the ancient Forerunner's age and isolation at the time that the Didact and his companions had encountered him above Janjur Qom had lent to his mental instability with the Confirmer's derelict ship being even more unstable, making him an easy mark for the Master Builder's machinations and honeyed promises.[3]
Although the Didact cursed bearing the Confirmer's imprint after his betrayal, the Confirmer stated that the Didact wouldn't be the Didact without his imprint.[3]
In the Domain, he threw rocks at the other Forerunner essences and cursed them out to pass the time.[10] The Didact thought that the Confirmer's madness may have actually helped to keep him grounded and coherent, unlike many of the other Forerunners who were mainly ghostly shades.[3]
When it was time to fight the Warden Eternal, the Didact noted that the jovial old Forerunner that he knew so well was gone, replaced by a savage figure with a fevered light shining in his mad eyes. After 100,000 years without the Domain, the Confirmer wanted in now that the time had come, no matter the cost.[11] After gaining entry into the Domain, the Confirmer appeared to be content with a more peaceful life, stating that he had better things to do than dealing with the remaining Created AIs and ancestors to see, muttering as he left about remembering where he left off the last time that the Confirmer was in the Domain.[13]
Trivia[edit]
His translated title may have been derived from his notable act of providing the Didact's brevet mutation, a process which has a social function comparable to confirmation, a rite of initiation in several branches of Christianity.
List of appearances[edit]
- Halo: Cryptum (First appearance)
- Halo: Epitaph
Sources[edit]
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 169
- ^ a b c Halo: Cryptum, page 178
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Halo: Epitaph, chapter 9
- ^ Halo Waypoint, Cryptum Glossary (Retrieved on Mar 14, 2014) [local archive] [external archive]
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 170
- ^ a b Halo: Cryptum, page 182
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 198
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 170-185
- ^ a b Halo: Cryptum, page 192
- ^ a b c Halo: Epitaph, chapter 8
- ^ a b Halo: Epitaph, chapter 25
- ^ Halo: Epitaph, chapter 26
- ^ a b c Halo: Epitaph, chapter 27
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 176
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 179
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 187
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 180
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 171
