Halo.Bungie.Org Forum

Re: Second spawn-launched Wraith VID

Rockslider — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 21:14:23 GMT

By: Rockslider
Date: 1/11/26 4:14 pm
: Good shooting on the Elite that was boarding the Wraith tank.

Thanks. Good fun that was.

Re: Second spawn-launched Wraith VID

Captain Spark — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 17:45:35 GMT

By: Captain Spark
Date: 1/11/26 12:45 pm
: More spawn-launching but with another Wraith, and this time things are even
: better! Especially in terms of how well you can see things. Lots of fun
: here, so don't miss BCM622 . See also my article on the topic (there's
: one on the earlier situation too, which I forgot to plug).

Good shooting on the Elite that was boarding the Wraith tank.
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Second spawn-launched Wraith VID

Rockslider — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:10:46 GMT

By: Rockslider
Date: 1/11/26 9:10 am
More spawn-launching but with another Wraith, and this time things are even better! Especially in terms of how well you can see things. Lots of fun here, so don't miss BCM622. See also my article on the topic (there's one on the earlier situation too, which I forgot to plug).

Bad Cyborg

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Re: Spawn-launched Wraith VID

Rockslider — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 17:36:40 GMT

By: Rockslider
Date: 1/6/26 12:36 pm
: It's still entertaining to see how high the Wraith tank gets launched. Good
: work on this wacky encounter.

Thanks. Sequel coming up!

Bad Cyborg

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Re: Spawn-launched Wraith VID

Captain Spark — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 02:16:30 GMT

By: Captain Spark
Date: 1/5/26 9:16 pm
: Yes. I assume it's because of how vehicles repel or bounce off each other.

It's still entertaining to see how high the Wraith tank gets launched. Good work on this wacky encounter.
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Re: Spawn-launched Wraith VID

Rockslider — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 22:26:04 GMT

By: Rockslider
Date: 1/5/26 5:26 pm
: It's weird how the Wraith tank get launched! Is it doing that when it spawns?

Yes. I assume it's because of how vehicles repel or bounce off each other.

Bad Cyborg

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Re: Spawn-launched Wraith VID

Captain Spark — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 22:06:38 GMT

By: Captain Spark
Date: 1/5/26 5:06 pm
: An amusing dynamic here, which I had the idea for sometime last year. Check
: out my tutorial BCM621 .

It's weird how the Wraith tank get launched! Is it doing that when it spawns?
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Re: Halo Fest 2026

davidfuchs — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 20:05:37 GMT

By: davidfuchs <davelikesdinos@gmail.com>
Date: 1/5/26 3:05 pm
: Anybody going?

: I bought a ticket for the convention and concert just in case but I'm not
: sure if I will be able to go. I got 3 kids now lol

: If enough HBOers go I will do my damndest to make it happen.

: I'll go if Schooly and Tex go

Got my ticket. The concert sounded amazing but too rich for my blood when I've got to travel in.
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Re: Halsey's Journal Sanskrit Text - Rgveda 7.1.1

Postmortem — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 17:56:31 GMT

By: Postmortem <isaac.frankel@gmail.com>
Date: 1/5/26 12:56 pm
: Here I am beginning 2026 by replying to a 16-year old conversation that's now
: archived (so I can't reply to it directly). I discovered Halsey's Journal
: on a recent return to Halo and saw the Sanskrit text on Page 77 (lol)
: and took the trouble to translate it and find the reference, only to
: discover that the great Stephen Loftus himself had found the text and
: translated it with the help of an Indian friend named Seeraj .

: No idea if he ever visits this forum these days, but I do have some context
: about that passage that Seeraj doesn't. First, that's the first verse of
: the first sukta(hymn) of the seventh mandala(book or volume) of the
: currrent surviving recension of the Rigveda, which you could refer to as
: Rigveda 7.1.1 . More sevens, and a reverse 117 reference! Well-chosen
: indeed!

: Seeraj's own translation isn't quite literal. Here's the verse below, I'm
: transliterating it a little differently -

: "Agnim naro didhitibhir aranyor
: hastacyuthi janayantha prashastam I
: duredrusham gruhapathim atharyum II"

: Agnim - fire/the god of fire;
: naro - men (plural);
: didhitibhir - (through the) brightness, splendor;
: aranyor (in using) two fire sticks;
: hastacyuthi - by the hands;
: janayantha - to generate, produce forth;
: prashastham - consecrated, auspicious, excellent; duredrusham - far-seen;
: gruhapatim - lord of the household; atharyum - fire, flame"

: "(A/the) Men use two fire sticks in their hands to bring forth excellent
: Agni, god of fire, the far-seen lord of the household, the flame." is
: the literal translation of this, and the full set of verses continues to
: lavish praise on Agni, calling him the most youthful of gods among other
: epithets.

: The version Seeraj has used is from a later interpretation and interpolates
: the stuff about "wise men manifesting the glory of the effulgent
: lord" that isn't in a straightforward literal reading of the original
: text, although trying to get a totally straight interpretation of a text
: in a language that's not been in common use for over 3,000 years isn't
: easy.

: "Duredrusham gruhapatim atharyum" - "Far-seen lord of the
: household, the flame" is the part in Halsey's Journal.

: So, why does this matter here? First, Agni as the fire god is a god to whom
: sacrifices are made, as well as the god who carries sacrifices to the
: other gods. This makes him the messenger to the gods and he is also called
: the "youngest of gods" two verses down, aspects that he shares
: with the Greek god Hermes.

: Incidentally, remember the ancient Iris alternate reality game? Iris was a
: messenger deity herself, and Agni holds Iris's portfolio, so as to speak,
: within Ancient Hinduism.

: There's also the significance of invoking Agni by rubbing together the two
: Arani, or fire sticks. The Arani are also called the
: "Pramantha", or "forethought" - this is a direct
: cognate of the Greek Prometheus who, after all, was the titan who stole
: fire from the gods and brought it to man. The Greeks never seem to have
: worshipped fire as a deity in its own right as much as the Rigvedic Hindus
: but they used fire to make sacrifices to both the celestial and chthonic
: gods.

: I'd say that in invoking this Rigvedic verse, Halsey positions Cortana as
: this divine being that she's invoked, a messenger of sorts to another
: world, and also an instrument of sacrifice. She has also performed a
: Promethean act, bringing this artificial mind based on her own brain into
: existence, one that has taken an appearance similar to both Miranda and
: her own younger self (Mary Shelley called Dr. Frankenstein "The
: modern Prometheus" for creating artificial life in the form of his
: monster). Halsey seems to want to distance herself from Frankenstein by
: invoking the god of fire in the Hindu manner instead of stealing fire the
: Promethean way.

: Well...eh...that's my best take on what I can read into the verse and I have
: no idea if this is accurate to what Eric Nylund and co. meant by its
: inclusion. I wanted to get this out here. This is now a conversation with
: ghosts, and as much as I'd like what Loftus and I found to be part of a
: conversation about Bungie-era Halo lore, I don't know what will happen to
: it.

These are the sort of intellectual discussions/speculation that used to have me checking these forums daily. Glad I popped back in for this one. Halo's mythology still has so much depth!

Off Screen

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Spawn-launched Wraith VID

Rockslider — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 12:17:29 GMT

By: Rockslider
Date: 1/5/26 7:17 am
An amusing dynamic here, which I had the idea for sometime last year. Check out my tutorial BCM621.

Bad Cyborg

Reply to this post

Re: Halsey's Journal Sanskrit Text - Rgveda 7.1.1

Joe Duplessie (SNIPE 316) — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 04:04:11 GMT

By: Joe Duplessie (SNIPE 316) <sicksnipe316@yahoo.com>
Date: 1/3/26 11:04 pm
: P.S. Happy New Year to Snipe and thanks for the heads-up!

HNY :)
Reply to this post

Re: A last dose of other uses VID

Rockslider — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 19:54:52 GMT

By: Rockslider
Date: 1/3/26 2:54 pm
: That's unfortunate, but perhaps there might be a bump in folks looking to
: have fun in vintage Halo: CE with the release of Campaign Evolved.

Well, my movies are only 480p, and on YouTube they're also badly blurred by the terrible processing, so I think that amounts to quite a barrier to modern gamers used to 4K or whatever, even if the actual content is relevant to the various newer versions of the game.

: And I'm now curious to see what's been waiting for ages!

Just loads of assorted things and ideas, many of which I've not fully explored. I don't say I'll be introducing any new megabattles, but certainly there are developments to be made on the megabattle front. Should be doing a set-up tutorial for solo twin bridges megabattling shortly, to follow up on my recent activity. That's something which has been waiting almost two decades!

Bad Cyborg

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Re: A last dose of other uses VID

UrsusArctos — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 19:07:14 GMT

By: UrsusArctos <ursusarctosl71@gmail.com>
Date: 1/3/26 2:07 pm
: YouTube's rather quiet too, especially for comments. But thanks, I hope I can
: get a good number of movies out again, and cover some things which have
: been waiting for ages.

That's unfortunate, but perhaps there might be a bump in folks looking to have fun in vintage Halo: CE with the release of Campaign Evolved. There seems to be rising interest in video games of the 2000-2010 era, especially since so many new releases are buggy, boring, microtransaction-loaded messes.

And I'm now curious to see what's been waiting for ages! Spots we didn't realize we could get to before? New megabattles? Setting up record-breaking grenade chain reactions?

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Re: Halsey's Journal Sanskrit Text - Rgveda 7.1.1

UrsusArctos — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 18:59:30 GMT

By: UrsusArctos <ursusarctosl71@gmail.com>
Date: 1/3/26 1:59 pm
: I lurk from time to time...this post was brought to my attention (Snipe!) so
: here I am. I had originally only asked Seeraj to translate the text but
: didn't ask about interpretation or meaning, so she did as asked. :)

: It's great that you found some more meaning behind its inclusion in the
: journal! :)

Happy New Year, Stephen! Glad to hear from you again :) I have no idea if you'll return to one of your grand Halo projects, but if you do, I'd be glad to be enlightened again.

To be clear, I can't fault Seeraj for not picking up the additional bits of interpretation or the reverse 117 reference. She couldn't have translated it herself since she used a pre-existing translation, and that's necessary since the Sanskrit of the Rigveda ceased to be common speech over 3,000 years ago and uses words not found in present-day Sanskrit. For example, the word "Atharyum" for "fire" or "flame" in that particular verse appears to be a hapax legomenon since it's a word for fire found in the related Avestan language, but not Sanskrit.

Long story short, it took me multiple searches on internet Sanskrit dictionaries to come up with a straightforward literal translation that sounded meaningful. Sanskrit is a highly inflected language to the point that word order can be essentially randomized, so rendering ancient poetic Sanskrit in a sensible form in English is not easy! It really makes me wonder how much research went into the inclusion of this brief half-verse.

I'm happy that this was a constructive addition, especially since ancient languages are one of my areas of interest. I think this more meaningful than the wild speculation I took part in half a lifetime ago. :)

P.S. Happy New Year to Snipe and thanks for the heads-up!
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Re: Halsey's Journal Sanskrit Text - Rgveda 7.1.1

Stephen L. (SoundEffect) — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 18:05:55 GMT

By: Stephen L. (SoundEffect) <soundeffect@hotmail.com>
Date: 1/2/26 1:05 pm
: Here I am beginning 2026 by replying to a 16-year old conversation that's now
: archived (so I can't reply to it directly). I discovered Halsey's Journal
: on a recent return to Halo and saw the Sanskrit text on Page 77 (lol)
: and took the trouble to translate it and find the reference, only to
: discover that the great Stephen Loftus himself had found the text and
: translated it with the help of an Indian friend named Seeraj .

: Seeraj's own translation isn't quite literal. Here's the verse below, I'm
: transliterating it a little differently -

: "Agnim naro didhitibhir aranyor
: hastacyuthi janayantha prashastam I
: duredrusham gruhapathim atharyum II"

: "Duredrusham gruhapatim atharyum" - "Far-seen lord of the
: household, the flame" is the part in Halsey's Journal.

: Incidentally, remember the ancient Iris alternate reality game? Iris was a
: messenger deity herself, and Agni holds Iris's portfolio, so as to speak,
: within Ancient Hinduism.

I lurk from time to time...this post was brought to my attention (Snipe!) so here I am. I had originally only asked Seeraj to translate the text but didn't ask about interpretation or meaning, so she did as asked. :)

It's great that you found some more meaning behind its inclusion in the journal! :)

My HBO articles!

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Re: A last dose of other uses VID

Rockslider — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 17:26:57 GMT

By: Rockslider
Date: 1/2/26 12:26 pm
: That makes for a heck of a fight even on Normal!

When those red Elites get their plasma rifles going, it feels like being attacked on Legendary!

: Quite impressive that you
: survived the last two rounds with that mob - particularly the drop-in!

Both of those battle plans had low odds of survival, as you can probably tell.

: Congratulations on the record high, and I hope that 2026 is as good a year as
: 2025 for moviemaking. Were it so easy to find an audience on HBO to see it
: these days!

YouTube's rather quiet too, especially for comments. But thanks, I hope I can get a good number of movies out again, and cover some things which have been waiting for ages.

Bad Cyborg

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ravien — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 11:26:41 GMT

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Date: 1/2/26 6:26 am
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Halsey's Journal Sanskrit Text - Rgveda 7.1.1

UrsusArctos — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 03:33:23 GMT

By: UrsusArctos <ursusarctosl71@gmail.com>
Date: 1/1/26 10:33 pm
Here I am beginning 2026 by replying to a 16-year old conversation that's now archived (so I can't reply to it directly). I discovered Halsey's Journal on a recent return to Halo and saw the Sanskrit text on Page 77 (lol) and took the trouble to translate it and find the reference, only to discover that the great Stephen Loftus himself had found the text and translated it with the help of an Indian friend named Seeraj.

No idea if he ever visits this forum these days, but I do have some context about that passage that Seeraj doesn't. First, that's the first verse of the first sukta(hymn) of the seventh mandala(book or volume) of the currrent surviving recension of the Rigveda, which you could refer to as Rigveda 7.1.1. More sevens, and a reverse 117 reference! Well-chosen indeed!

Seeraj's own translation isn't quite literal. Here's the verse below, I'm transliterating it a little differently -

"Agnim naro didhitibhir aranyor
hastacyuthi janayantha prashastam I
duredrusham gruhapathim atharyum II"

Agnim - fire/the god of fire;
naro - men (plural);
didhitibhir - (through the) brightness, splendor;
aranyor (in using) two fire sticks;
hastacyuthi - by the hands;
janayantha - to generate, produce forth;
prashastham - consecrated, auspicious, excellent; duredrusham - far-seen; gruhapatim - lord of the household; atharyum - fire, flame"

"(A/the) Men use two fire sticks in their hands to bring forth excellent Agni, god of fire, the far-seen lord of the household, the flame." is the literal translation of this, and the full set of verses continues to lavish praise on Agni, calling him the most youthful of gods among other epithets.

The version Seeraj has used is from a later interpretation and interpolates the stuff about "wise men manifesting the glory of the effulgent lord" that isn't in a straightforward literal reading of the original text, although trying to get a totally straight interpretation of a text in a language that's not been in common use for over 3,000 years isn't easy.

"Duredrusham gruhapatim atharyum" - "Far-seen lord of the household, the flame" is the part in Halsey's Journal.

So, why does this matter here? First, Agni as the fire god is a god to whom sacrifices are made, as well as the god who carries sacrifices to the other gods. This makes him the messenger to the gods and he is also called the "youngest of gods" two verses down, aspects that he shares with the Greek god Hermes.

Incidentally, remember the ancient Iris alternate reality game? Iris was a messenger deity herself, and Agni holds Iris's portfolio, so as to speak, within Ancient Hinduism.

There's also the significance of invoking Agni by rubbing together the two Arani, or fire sticks. The Arani are also called the "Pramantha", or "forethought" - this is a direct cognate of the Greek Prometheus who, after all, was the titan who stole fire from the gods and brought it to man. The Greeks never seem to have worshipped fire as a deity in its own right as much as the Rigvedic Hindus but they used fire to make sacrifices to both the celestial and chthonic gods.

I'd say that in invoking this Rigvedic verse, Halsey positions Cortana as this divine being that she's invoked, a messenger of sorts to another world, and also an instrument of sacrifice. She has also performed a Promethean act, bringing this artificial mind based on her own brain into existence, one that has taken an appearance similar to both Miranda and her own younger self (Mary Shelley called Dr. Frankenstein "The modern Prometheus" for creating artificial life in the form of his monster). Halsey seems to want to distance herself from Frankenstein by invoking the god of fire in the Hindu manner instead of stealing fire the Promethean way.

Well...eh...that's my best take on what I can read into the verse and I have no idea if this is accurate to what Eric Nylund and co. meant by its inclusion. I wanted to get this out here. This is now a conversation with ghosts, and as much as I'd like what Loftus and I found to be part of a conversation about Bungie-era Halo lore, I don't know what will happen to it.

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Re: A last dose of other uses VID

UrsusArctos — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 02:34:24 GMT

By: UrsusArctos <ursusarctosl71@gmail.com>
Date: 1/1/26 9:34 pm
: Four more battles in BCM620 , including a fairly spectacular final round.
: And by the way, that makes 82 movies released in 2025. A record high!

That makes for a heck of a fight even on Normal! Quite impressive that you survived the last two rounds with that mob - particularly the drop-in! And I'd also forgotten how panicking grunts can be sneakier than sober grunts, given their tendency to run past you and get into unexpected places while you're occupied.

Congratulations on the record high, and I hope that 2026 is as good a year as 2025 for moviemaking. Were it so easy to find an audience on HBO to see it these days!
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Re: More other uses VID

Rockslider — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 11:58:20 GMT

By: Rockslider
Date: 12/31/25 6:58 am
: Kicking some serious Covenant butt.

Hope you enjoy the final batch, out today.

: I spent most of the day today doing the
: same thing in the same map.

Time well spent!

Bad Cyborg

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Re: Second spawn-launched Wraith *VID*

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Second spawn-launched Wraith *VID*

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Re: Halo Fest 2026

Re: Halsey's Journal Sanskrit Text - Rgveda 7.1.1

Spawn-launched Wraith *VID*

Re: Halsey's Journal Sanskrit Text - Rgveda 7.1.1

Re: A last dose of other uses *VID*

Re: A last dose of other uses *VID*

Re: Halsey's Journal Sanskrit Text - Rgveda 7.1.1

Re: Halsey's Journal Sanskrit Text - Rgveda 7.1.1

Re: A last dose of other uses *VID*

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Halsey's Journal Sanskrit Text - Rgveda 7.1.1

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Second spawn-launched Wraith VID

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Spawn-launched Wraith VID

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