Halo 3: ODST & Dante's Inferno - New Connections.

[Dashie Jinxx]

>:INTRODUCTION:<

Here's the information that we had going in to this regarding Dante's Inferno: ODST's level "Data Hive" was a very clear homage to Dante's 9 Circles of Hell, as well as the Superintendent subroutine "Vergil" being named after the character from Inferno. We also knew that Sadie's story, as well as the formatting for it, took huge inspiration from Inferno, with the audio logs even being layered in 9 Circles, each consisting of Arcs.

Now, before we begin, I want to clear up some usage of the names Superintendent, Vergil, and Quick To Adjust. This is more common knowledge, but again, not everyone knows.

Superintendent - The Citywide AI of New Mombasa
Vergil - The Superintendent Subroutine written by Dr. Daniel Endesha to help his daughter Sadie while on the streets of New Mombasa.
Quick To Adjust - The Engineer (Huragok) that ends up merging with Vergil at the time of "Data Hive".

>:THE THEORY:<

So, this theory deduces that each mission of Halo 3: ODST actually each represent a Circle of Hell, bar the introduction, which shockingly represents the introduction to Inferno. To get to this conclusion, we removed the first level of the game, "Prepare To Drop," as it wasn't technically fully playable. This left us with nine playable missions starting with Mombasa Streets. Prepare to Drop actually ties to the introduction to Inferno, with the final line before the first canto being "Let us descend now into the blind world."

>:MISSION 1: MOMBASA STREETS<:

While the actual city represents Hell itself, the mission represents Limbo, the very first Circle of Hell. Yeah, now that it's been said out loud it's kind of obvious. To think it stared us all in the face for so long. Anyway, Mombasa Streets is the hub mission of the game, a place in which you return to after a majority of the missions. In Dante's Inferno, Limbo is a land "Struck with grief from a lack of God's presence." This describes the city to a tee. A once bustling metropolis rich with life now void of their original inhabitants - a seemingly barren and hellish concrete jungle.

This is also the first level in which you meet Vergil, mirroring Inferno, where Dante meets Vergil who resides in Limbo. I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that we believe that "Dante" in ODST's story is the player, as opposed to a single character. You'll see why in the next mission detail.

>:MISSION 2: TAYARI PLAZA:<

Tayari Plaza is set immediately after your squad drops into Hell (New Mombasa). After the slipspace event in the city, the air is rife with gusty winds and various bits of small debris. Oddly enough, this level represents the second Circle of Hell: Lust, a land which is described as "contorted and blown about by violent and endless wind, where soul strikes underworld rock."

In this mission's first cutscene, we learn of Gunnery Sergeant Buck's relationship with ONI Agent Dare. This, paired with the wind, makes two ties to the second Circle. After a brief couple of firefights, as you enter into Tayari Plaza itself, Vergil actually says "Attention, lost items can be claimed on Lower Level." While at first glance this is just the game adding ambient city sounds, it is once again Vergil helping the player (Dante) to leave this Circle of Hell. It's also worth noting that Dare's crash site is below street level, referencing "Soul strikes underworld rock."

Finally, you open Dare's pod to find that she isn't there. This is the fourth and final tie to seal the deal, as in the Circle of Lust, the souls cannot gaze on the body of others, just as Buck can't see Dare. Back to Limbo with you!

>:MISSION 3: UPLIFT RESERVE:<

This mission is a bit stuck for ties currently, we have a couple done, but if you think you have something to add, please reply to this post!

Now, the third Circle of Hell is Gluttony, shockingly enough, home to the gluttonous. It is described to be "bombarded with rain, hail and black snow, forming a thick icy sludge". Now, we've struggled a while with this and managed to get next to nothing. Funnily enough, what we got actually comes from that Crazy Marine towards the end of the level, as well as the three dead zebras in the sector before 2nd Platoon's location.

So, let's start with the zebras. There's three of em, and they're all dead. They're also noticeably lacking eye textures. This is likely just an oversight, though. At first they seem to just be set dressing, but that's not the case.

With this in mind, let's talk about the Crazy Marine. He speaks almost entirely in metaphors, as noted by the medic towards the end of his dialogue. In his mad ramble, he refers to the humans being the zebras in this situation, where the Covenant are the lions. This quite clearly shows gluttony with the Covenant being the sinners of this situation.

That's sadly all we have so far for that level, save for there being 3 zebras, a giant number 3 on the wall in sector two of the level, which could be nods to this being the third Circle, or even at a stretch, Cerberus, the 3 headed dog.

>:MISSION 4: KIZINGO BOULEVARD:<

This mission draws parallels to the fourth Circle of Hell: Greed. In this circle, "souls are forced to push large boulders, facing one another and engaging in battle."

Now, you could equate the boulders to being tanks of the Human and Covenant war machine. That's what I did, as it would appear that the links between these Circles and the missions of ODST are about the locale, action and setting, as opposed to the overarching message from Inferno. That role seems to be assigned to Sadie's Story.

Again, rather unfortunately, this where the ties end for this mission. There must be more that we haven't found, so please leave a reply if you have anything!

>:MISSION 5: ONI ALPHA SITE:<

This one is as in your face as you could possibly get, and is very straight forward. This mission is in link with the fourth Circle of Hell: Anger.

In this Circle, the "wrathful and sullen are engaged in combat with each other on the surface of the river Styx, where the bodies of sullen are at the bottom." Most of you will have noticed before I finished that sentence that you are literally fighting above a river. Once the bridge detonates, the wrathful and sullen (Covenant) bodies litter the bottom of the river.

The rest of the mission bares no resemblance from what I can tell, but I have yet to replay this mission properly. I'll update this section in the replies once I have done so.

>:MISSION 6: NEW MOMBASA POLICE DEPARTMENT HQ (NMPD HQ):<

This mission relates you and your team to "heretics and false teachers." You guessed it. This Circle is Heresy. Why are you heretics? Because you, my good sir, don't believe in the Covenant's holy teachings. In fact, you actively fight against it, and teach yourself that they are wrong. You're a false teacher too, and the dead bodies of the police officers remain inside of burning buildings - quite literally "burning stone coffins", as described in Inferno.

You finish the mission, and return to your schedule of Covenant and Limbo, before heading to the next mission down in Circle 7.

>:MISSION 7: KIKOWANI STATION:<

Kikowani Station, or Circle 7, represents Violence. This one is my favorite reference of the lot, just because of how well thought out it is.

In this Circle of hell, any who have attempted or committed suicide are reborn as trees that are under constant attack from harpies with the faces of women, given permission to speak only when they bleed. If you've been following the audio logs, you'd know that a group of six Engineers give their life so that Quick To Adjust could be free. That's why they're the ones who committed suicide in this scenario. You? You're the harpy, flying around in your banshee, killing all of the Engineers atop their trees (Buildings). Shockingly enough, a banshee is typically a female spirit, so that's where the female face comes into it.

While writing this, I also believe that because they're only allowed to speak when they bleed, that's why you can find Engineers Glyphs in the final tunnel. Probably a long shot, but worth noting.

>:MISSION 8: DATA HIVE:<

Data Hive in itself is actually a metaphor for Dante's Inferno, but in this theory, it represents Circle 8: Fraud.

This is single-handedly represented by the NMPD Officer who, assuming you have all 29 audio logs up to this point, is a treacherous POS when you enter the room with Dr. Daniel Endesha's body. That's about it for this level, though if you want to find out more about how this level represents all of Inferno, do some Googlin'. It's a good read! If you have more you'd like to add, just reply to this post!

>:MISSION 9: COASTAL HIGHWAY:<

Okay, this one is another short one, but still super valid and interesting. The final Circle of Hell: Treachery.

This Circle is comprised of four types of people. The first is the Betrayers of Kin. As Inferno obviously has religious connotations, we can use that here. Quick to Adjust is a betrayer of the Covenant Faith. While it is questionable as to whether Quick to Adjust ever believed in the first place, it is undisputed that he represents a betrayer of kin here.

Next is the Betrayers of Benefactors. This represents the Covenant's mistreating of the Engineers, a race enslaved when they would willingly have helped the Covenant, what, with being a gullible species after all. The Engineers only wanted to help, damn it!

The last two, I admit I have nothing for. These are "Betrayers of Country" and "Betrayers of Guests".

>:CONCLUSION:<

Thank you for taking the time to read this. As always, this is nothing but a theory, and a developing one at that. PLEASE, I know I've said it a lot, but if you have any more comments or things you'd like to add, then reply to this topic with it! Any and all contributions are welcome! I personally will be adding more to this thread as time passes and I find more out.

Huge thank you to Dinosaurtnt333, Scatcycle, WS Bob Ross and MLG Noises, as well as the Rocket Sloth Discord for your various inputs into this topic. It's super interesting, and this is just the surface.

Keep It Clean.

[Scatcycle]

Great work Dashie Jinx, and an admirable first post! In some cases, the connections made in this theory are palpable; in others, my jaded 11 year strong egg-hunting self grows skeptic. Here's my view on each of the Circle/Level relationships.

Mombasa Streets / Circle 1: Limbo
A perfect fit. There's not much to say that isn't obvious here, but I will leave you with the first lines of the Canto that introduces Circle 1:

Broke the deep lethargy within my head
  A heavy thunder, so that I upstarted,
  Like to a person who by force is wakened;

And round about I moved my rested eyes,
  Uprisen erect, and steadfastly I gazed,
  To recognise the place wherein I was.

True is it, that upon the verge I found me
  Of the abysmal valley dolorous,
  That gathers thunder of infinite ululations.

Obscure, profound it was, and nebulous,
  So that by fixing on its depths my sight
  Nothing whatever I discerned therein.

"Let us descend now into the blind world"

If that ain't a word for word description of what happens to Rookie when he wakes up, I don't know what is.

Tayari Plaza / Circle 2: Lust
This one seems decently cogent, with the mission further developing the relationship between Buck and Dare:

Romeo: "She ever tell you what she wanted?"
Buck: "No.... never."

I do especially like the connection you made there with the victims of this circle not being able to see their lovers.

Uplift Reserve / Circle 3: Gluttony
It is here where I grow weary, thinking that maybe it is simply a strike of coincidence that things fell into place for the first two levels. I haven't played this level in years, but I can't think of anything very relevant off the top of my head. Yeah, there's dead zebras, but they haven't stuffed themselves to death, they were just killed by the covenant. The giant 3 is definitely something I'd be willing to accept as reference if the 8 other levels fell into place, but alone it could be anything. Hopefully more investigation reveals something about this level. I'd be interested in viewing the maps of Uplift Reserve.


Kizingo Blvd / Circle 4: Greed
Pretty neutral on this one. Yeah, Mickey blowing his way through the covenant defenses is kinda like

Here saw I people, more than elsewhere, many,
  On one side and the other, with great howls,
  Rolling weights forward by main force of chest.

They clashed together, and then at that point
  Each one turned backward, rolling retrograde,
  Crying, "Why keepest?" and, "Why squanderest thou?"

if you consider the scorpion vs wraith events to be the clashing. As for overall connotations of greed, however, I don't remember anything off the top of my head. Questionable.


Oni Alpha Site / Circle 5: Wrath
The river cross-relation is pretty compelling. Straight out the bag there's an identifying relationship. Everything else, well, not super relatable.

NMPD / Circle 6: Heresy
I got nothing. Really.

Kikowani Station / Circle 7: Violence
Fits decently. First ring is a river, second ring is the suicides who relate to engineer and their (unwilling) suicide. You are indeed the harpy that cuts at them.

Data Hive / Circle 8: Fraud
Shockingly accurate. Circle 8 is divided into 10 ditches, whereas in Data Hive you descend 10 levels. Fraud is clearly a theme in this ODST level, as Vergil notes when you meet the cop - "Hitchhikers may be escaped convicts".

Coastal Highway / Circle 9: Treachery
Don't really see it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There's a lot of stuff that adds up, but there's also a lot that doesn't follow. At points the relationships become exciting, at others they beg too many questions. Now, I do say this as someone who has only done a cursory lookthrough of Dante's Inferno; I lack the depth of knowledge that the composer Joseph Staten would have. It is very well possible that simple allegories exist and we are missing them, and I hope that's true, given how some of these seem to work so well. Parts of this feel great, but we must remain cautious, and ensure we don't find things where they aren't.

Additionally, I would like to posit a co-opting theory: That the internal levels of mombasa streets must be played in a specific order that does relate aptly to the circles. For example, Starting from Mombasa Streets, you may choose to play NMPD first. There's a wealth of different orders you can run the game in. This means we would have to figure out which circle most cogently fits with which circle in a nonlinear fashion.

[Imppa]

Truly a great find! ODST is such an intertextual masterpiece - while the Nine Circles were known to be part of the aesthetic of the game, like for the Sadie's Story and it's ups and downs, to think that there would be connections this clear on top of that!

Though a few levels are more barren with connections, this is more than enough to make the connection clear. And like Scat said, maybe a different order could give a new perspective? Of course, it would make it seem less "perfect" than having the mission order timeline represent also the order of the rings. In a way, the roaming at Mombasa Streets is more clever menu-avoiding gameplay than proper storytelling, and might not have been planned in conjunction with the story and it's intertextual quirks.

[Dashie Jinxx]

Truly a great find! ODST is such an intertextual masterpiece - while the Nine Circles were known to be part of the aesthetic of the game, like for the Sadie's Story and it's ups and downs, to think that there would be connections this clear on top of that!

Though a few levels are more barren with connections, this is more than enough to make the connection clear. And like Scat said, maybe a different order could give a new perspective? Of course, it would make it seem less "perfect" than having the mission order timeline represent also the order of the rings. In a way, the roaming at Mombasa Streets is more clever menu-avoiding gameplay than proper storytelling, and might not have been planned in conjunction with the story and it's intertextual quirks.

Hey man, thanks for replying to my caffeine fueled Halo rant! As it stands currently, I'm revising my method in which I approach this, though as it stands it is quite unclear as to how I should do this. Given a few more weeks, I should have the grounds for a much better working connection - hell, hopefully even finish it. This game is beyond unreal with its story!

[ColdGlider]

Am I reading this thread correctly, or am I hallucinating?   Is there actually a NEW ongoing thread here from THIS MONTH!?

If this is actually happening now, and I am not in some Vex alternate reality- hello again Scatcycle and Imppa!   And welcome Dashie!