: After taking an extended break from pondering Halo/Bungie mysteries in the
: mildly disappointing wake of Halo 4, I've only just now started paying
: closer attention to the new material coming out of Destiny. But I think
: I've pieced together something pretty cool, that I haven't seen discussed
: anywhere else.

: It started while browsing the destination imagery from the new Destiny site.

:
: (click to expand)

: Looking at this wide shot of The City, I happened to spot a familiar
: three-peaked mountain:

: The presence of Kilimanjaro not only provides a thematic link to Halo 3's
: East Africa , but also serves as a geographic anchor point that can
: contextualize several other areas of the game.

: For one thing, the distant core of The City is almost certainly Nairobi ,
: the capital of Kenya, which lies north of the mountain (we see its
: southern face). This is further backed up by a poster in Halo 3: ODST --
: not the infamous "Destiny Awaits," but a list of corporate
: offices -- that includes Nairobi:

: Note the presence of several other locales confirmed to be in Destiny, such
: as Chicago , Crisium (a plain on the near side of the Moon), Seven Hills
: (a region of Mars in Halo lore), and Dusar (a Martian kingdom in the
: Barsoom series, possibly related to the Dust Palace ?). Other potential
: locations this would hint at -- perhaps in future expansions? -- are Chiba
: (Tokyo), Pelion (a Greek peninsula), Essex Junction (a small town in
: Vermont), and Sydney.

: Identifying the City region as East Africa also sheds light on the mysterious
: Twilight Gap, described in Destinypedia like so : Little more is known
: about the nature or characteristics of the Twilight Gap at this time,
: except that it contains "war-torn fortresses." In news coverage
: of the Reveal Press Conference, multiple sources stated that it was
: described as something visible from the Overwatch District [of The City].
: The Twilight Gap was also described as "apparently [representing] a
: big chunk of mankind’s history in the game."

: Within East Africa, the most likely candidate is Olduvai Gorge at the
: southern edge of the Great Rift Valley. Not only is the Gorge a plausible
: ancestral namesake for the Gap, but at a distance of 150 miles it would be
: just visible on the horizon from a Nairobi skyscraper. "War-torn
: fortresses" recalls the crumbling East African UNSC bases seen in
: Crow's Nest and Rat's Nest , "built for some 20th century
: war." And Olduvai definitely fits the description of a historical
: treasure : Olduvai Gorge is one of the most important
: paleoanthropological sites in the world and has been instrumental in
: furthering the understanding of early human evolution. [...] This site is
: significant in showing increased developmental and social complexities in
: hominins. Evidence of this is shown in the production and use of stone
: tools, which indicates the increase in cognitive capacities. Evidence also
: indicates the practices of both scavenging and hunting [...] Furthermore,
: the collection of tools and animal remains in a central area is evidence
: of increases in social interaction and communal activity.

: What better place to anchor your ambitious social FPS than in the cradle of
: human evolution?

: Not to mention there is a sociological theory -- Olduvai Theory -- which
: deals with the inevitability of societal collapse. As the essay The
: Twilight of the Modern World puts it: Sooner or later, all the
: remains of our existing society will have gone, to become weed-clad ruins
: to rival those of the Aztecs and Mayans. [...] The world population may
: have fallen to as few as a thousand million, scattered in oases of
: agricultural land amongst deserts of buildings, rusting vehicles and
: forests.

: Sound familiar?

: (Bonus food-for-thought: The Citadel on Venus both sounds like the Castra
: (Latin for "military encampment") Arcology and looks a lot like
: the early vision of a storm-shrouded "Earth City" arcology in
: New Mombasa.)

That's some really great research work! I really enjoy things like this, and while I'm still not that excited about Destiny, it's cool to see the possibility of links (whether hinted at in-game or just from Bungie's involvement) in the game universe!

- MacGyver10