Canon Fodder: Dawn of Lore – Halo Waypoint
Welcome back to Canon Fodder!The year is 2025. Halo: Empty Throne is just weeks away, Waypoint Chronicles will be dropping out of slipspace alongside upcoming Halo Infinite Operations, and there’s another book by Kelly Gay on the horizon that we teased during last year’s Halo World Championship…Let’s start there.Now in this hour of waking, ahead of the release of Empty Throne, a new Halo book is baking and waiting to be shown.It is with great excitement that we can formally announce acclaimed author Kelly Gay’s next novel, Halo: Edge of Dawn.We’re not sharing any specific story information just yet, but we can indeed confirm at this time that this is ‘A Master Chief Story’—so that just might clue you into at least one character who will prominently appear in the book!After her incredible tales with titanic characters like 343 Guilty Spark, the Didact, the Librarian, and Cortana, we couldn’t be more excited to have Kelly put her pen to John-117.Edge of Dawn is due to release towards the very end of this year, so stay tuned for further details. The official description, cover art, chapter previews, and so on are all still to come.Let the speculation begin!Last month, we released our final Waypoint Chronicle of 2024, Halo: Whispers from the Pyre. In case you missed it, you can read it here on Halo Waypoint, grab a free PDF version, or listen to the audiobook version on YouTube (featuring the voice of Sarah Elmaleh herself as Zeta Halo’s monitor, Despondent Pyre).Now that you’ve all had a chance to digest the story, we wanted to dive a little deeper into its events and reveals.PARTICULAR PARALLELSWhile Waypoint Chronicles are generally standalone short stories set across a variety of different locations in different times and with different characters, there are ways that some of them connect.Back in November, we released Age of Retribution, which took place during the events of Halo 2 and showed a Covenant Sangheili perspective on the death of the Prophet of Regret and the subsequent onset of the Great Schism as Jiralhanae forces arrive, eager for blood.With Whispers from the Pyre, we were keen to draw some direct parallels with that story, but from a Banished perspective. When Studymaster ‘Yaham encounters a pack of Jiralhanae, his reaction is not of fearful anticipation of violence, but relief. News of the passing of Escharum is met with sadness by this Sangheili, who proclaims that the war chief was daskalo to all, just as the Prophet of Regret was known for his martial inclination and favor towards the Sangheili.Through these parallels, keen-eyed readers might notice some of the similarities and differences between the Covenant and the Banished. While species-based rivalries definitely still exist in the ranks of the Banished, its open opportunities for glory—something ‘Yaham and Dahk’rah seek through attaining useful knowledge—allows us to see different dynamics play out between those who once were foes.TUDEJSA TOTEMSPerhaps the most notable detail in this story concerns the construction of the ring totem artifacts encountered in Halo Infinite. As Despondent Pyre reveals, these were built by the Tudejsa.“Tudejsa” is a word that translates to “the People” or “the People from Here,” specifically referring to the humans who were brought to Zeta Halo one hundred thousand years ago.“The Librarian has always favored humans, much to the dismay of the Didact. As part of the Council’s agreement, the Librarian was given space on several of the Master Builder’s installations. Humans were brought to this one—over one hundred and twenty varieties, many hundreds of thousands of individuals. Others were placed on the great Arks where Halos are built and restored. All were designated as reserve populations, not to be tampered with.”Halo: Primordium, Chapter 19 (Naturally, the Forerunners tampered with them!)Among the Tudejsa were Vinnevra and her grandfather Gameplar, both of whom accompanied Chakas on his journey across Zeta Halo (then known as Gyre 11) throughout Halo: Primordium—the second book of Greg Bear’s Forerunner Saga—as they encountered the numerous horrors that had taken shape on the ring.For Halloween last year, we rereleased the incredible motion comic Halo: The Mona Lisa which was animated by Juan “ONE” Feliz. In case you missed it, or if you were looking for a sign to go and rewatch this fantastic adaptation of the Halo: Evolutions story by Tessa Kum and Jeff VanderMeer, this is it!If you enjoyed that, we have another Halo: Evolutions motion comic rerelease coming next week—Halo: Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian.This fantastic short story by Frank O’Connor follows Sergeant Michael Baird, Scottish ODST beefcake, who is aboard the UNSC destroyer The Heart of Midlothian receiving treatment for cancer—something that is relatively trivial to treat in the twenty-sixth century with the advanced technology many human colonies possess (well, Inner Colonies, at least).While he is unconscious after his treatment, Baird awakens to discover that he is the sole survivor aboard the ship. A Covenant special operations boarding force has killed the entire crew, and the AI Mo Ye recruits Baird to fulfil his duty: enact the Cole Protocol.Protect humanity. Whatever the cost.We’ll dig deeper into this story in our next issue. In the meantime, stay tuned for its rerelease next week!The disruptor was a new weapon introduced in Halo Infinite. This shock-based pistol of Jiralhanae design was built by the Sicatt Workshop to incapacitate and immobilize targets—from armored infantry to vehicles and equipment, provided enough of its small active-dynamo munitions hit their mark to detonate.Its special weapon variant in Halo Infinite’s campaign is the Calcine Disruptor, wielded by Bipbap the Vanquisher—a fearsome Unggoy who notably once served Chieftain Tartarus as a bodyguard, fueling his ruthlessness even against his own kind.[RECORDED EXCERPT OF BLOODSTAR BIPBAP IN CONVERSATION WITH WARLORD CHAK ‘LOK]You see, the great thing about Unggoy is that we add biiiig numbers to an army! Unggoy grow quick, live fast, and… well, die lots. No problem, just wait a little bit and BAM! You replaced everybody who died already.But the trouble with Unggoy is when they gets ideas, start thinkin’ that they can band together and take over the army all by themselves. Because they’re right! By sheer statistiticks, Unggoy would easily rule all if we wanted. Prophets never got more scareds than when Unggoy were being disobedient—and we did that like, what, ninety-seven times? Sixty thousand? I forget. It was a lot.Banished knows how to keep orders though. The commanders know I like keepin’ orders, so they gave me this neat gun to help! Alchemy Corps Brute hands it over and I immediately start blastin’ this one guy, tried to steal my stuff—STAY AWAY FROM MY ROCKS!—and suddenly the zappy thing starts hittin’ a bunch of other guys without me even needing to shoot ‘em. So next time the Unggoy do a disobedience, I gotta use this zappy gun to keep ‘em in line!Kicking us off is Kammyshep who has assembled a two-and-a-half-hour video on Halo’s entire timeline covering just about every piece of media hitherto released—games, books, comics, graphic novels, anthologies, Waypoint Chronicles, and more. Kudos to you, Kammy, for this heroic (nay, legendary!) undertaking!JumperScape have put together another fantastic adaptation of our Waypoint Chronicles, this time bringing to life Saturn Devouring His Son.Phoenix Nat has begun a first-time playthrough of the Halo games from the beginning. Nat notably relates an unexpected connection she has with Halo—while working in the fitness industry, the cast of the eponymous television series used her gym!MegMage’s great journey has come to an end, wrapping up the Halo Infinite campaign. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching every step of Meg’s odyssey through the games and their additional lore elements, so if you haven’t tuned in yet now is the perfect time to watch the whole thing through.Lucyjrobin has begun watching Halo Legends, starting with ‘Origins I’ where Cortana narrates her understanding of the dire events that formed the foundation of the universe: the Forerunner-Flood war, the activation of the Halo Array, and the reintroduction of life to the galaxy.Eldeeable Gaming is on her way to finish the fight in Halo 3, taking on a Scarab as the Covenant unearth a mysterious artifact. It’s always great seeing classic moments and missions experienced for the first time!A species shrouded in a great deal of mystery owing to their profoundly alien nature, LoreWithWes has sought to compile all known information about the Lekgolo.Morality is always an interesting philosophical topic to engage with when it comes to fictional characters placed in larger-than-life situations. Halo has no end of characters who have done terrible things in the name of survival and the greater good, which makes for some interesting character study opportunities. Absolutely check out Woody’s latest video which morally dissects the Master Chief, Arbiter Thel ‘Vadam, Dr. Halsey, Atriox, and many more!If you can believe it, there has consistently been a Canon Fodder issue on a monthly basis since May 2021. That’s a rather incredible milestone—nearly four full years of monthly Canon Fodders!Currently, we’re heads down working on the future of Halo—from continued support for Halo Infinite (and the Waypoint Chronicles connected to some of those updates) to upcoming books, and of course future game projects. As a result, the cadence of Canon Fodder will be changing to release every other month.But worry not, as you will have plenty of awesome story and lore material to keep you occupied in February. Halo: Empty Throne releases on February 18, and in the weeks leading up to its arrival we have two chapter previews on the way that you will definitely want to check out.We’ll be back before you know it!
Source: https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/canon-fodder-dawn-of-lore
