The Search for the 'Megg'

Hey, what's this MEGG everyone's talking about?
Okay, to understand the answer to this, you need to know a little about some Bungie community background. Pallor has been a prominent member of the Bungie community since the late 90's, when she acted as a Bungie.net admin, making sure that the Myth metaservers ran with at least a minimum of decorum. Jaime Griesemer, aka Case, aka Flawless Cowboy, was around even longer; he was a Marathon fan who eventually became a Myth fan, created some maps for the fan community, and ran a popular fan website, the Myth Codex. He interned for Bungie, and was eventually hired by them as a level designer. When the team for Halo 2 was put together, Jaime was made Lead Designer. Jaime and Pallor have been romantically involved for several years now.

During his stint as a level designer for Halo, Jaime built a complicated easter egg into Halo, devoted purely to Pallor. He didn't care if nobody ever found it - because it was a private gift for Pallor, a little token of his affection built into a game that millions would play. (Conversely, he's not trying to keep people from finding it; it's there, for whoever stumbles on it, but he's not going to help you. Neither is she, beyond the cryptic clues she tosses out periodically.)

Pallor is also a high-ranking member of Subnova, a Bungie-oriented mini-community that came together because of mutual admiration for Bungie games, but stays together due to interest in wide-ranging topics. (Unlike HBO, where off-topic posts are tolerated but not encouraged, Subnova is small enough for off-topic posts to be the norm. The main criterion for posting acceptance is how interesting something is - not whether it relates to a Bungie game or not.) When word of Pallor's private egg surfaced, another Subnovan, Sep7imus, proposed that it be named 'the Megg' - for 'Meg's Egg'. (Meg is Pallor's real name.) A fine suggestion - and the name stuck.

So is Pallor associated with Bungie, or not?
No. She was a volunteer admin for a service that Bungie no longer offers; that's the extent of her professional involvement with them. She's dating the lead designer of their hottest property right now... but that's not a professional involvement either. Pallor works as a probations and parole officer for the state of Tennessee.

Okay, so what else might Bungie have put into Halo about this egg?
Let's get something very, very clear. Bungie - as an entity - had nothing at all to do with this egg. Jaime put it into the game. A couple of other Bungie employees know about it - Ferrex does, because he was told. Mat Noguchi does, because he's a sneaky bastard and cheated. Some Subnovans know about it, because Pallor told them. That's it. This is not a Bungie conspiracy - because most of Bungie doesn't even know it exists. Keep your speculation bounded by reality.

Man, you're killing my buzz. So Bungie didn't make this complicated egg, and Pallor doesn't even work for them... what DO we know about this egg?
Not a hell of a lot. We know the basic information laid out in this post, and the (extremely cryptic) clues given by Pallor in this post... past that, we don't know much. We don't know:

The level this egg appears on

the sequence of events needed to trigger this egg

the form the egg takes (action, image, even sound)

Warning: anyone posting a message on the HBO forum after the timestamp listed at the top of this page who assumes that any of these facts are known will receive a virtual wedgie from Bob the dinosaur. (Yes, we have him on retainer.)

It involves dying, specifically, it involves you dying in a particular way/place. That's it. I don't know what happens when you do die in that place/manner, and I don't know where/what that place/manner is.

(This information, presumably, came directly from Pallor.) Likewise, on March 30, Gawyn added this info (with some help from this post):

It's a certain level. And it's not ordinary because you die when you see it, and because it's devoted to her. Just because I said "you die when you see it" doesn't mean that you have to be dead to see it. The two are entirely different.

This, too, came from direct knowledge of the Megg. Thanks to Red Loser for pointing out that these should be added.

The Search for the 'Megg' - a mini-FAQ

The Megg Has Been Found