Gravemind

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Gravemind
Game series	Halo series
First game	Halo 2
Voice actor(s)	Dee Bradley Baker

Gravemind is a fictional character featured in the video game Halo 2. Gravemind is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.

[edit] Background and Role

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Gravemind is a highly intelligent and extremely aware form of the Flood, and is also the collective intelligence of the Flood. (It was confirmed on the Bungie website that he is in fact a leader intelligence of the Flood.) He resembles a large venus flytrap with many tentacles, but it has the capabilities of movement and linguistic communication. The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World states that Gravemind is "built from the bodies of its enemies and its own fallen warriors reassembled into a massive, tentacled, and intelligent entity." He also apparently has the ability to access Delta Halo's systems, taking advantage of the teleportation grid, though apparently is unable to teleport his own Flood minions or control the Sentinels. He speaks in rhyming verse and seems to be aware of what is happening throughout the Halo. Describing Master Chief and the Arbiter, respectively, he says:

"This one is machine and nerve, and has its mind concluded.

This one is but flesh and faith, and is the more deluded."

He speaks mostly in trochaic heptameter, which is an example of the frequent use of the number seven in Bungie games.

Gravemind revealed to the Arbiter that the Forerunners died when the Halo fired once before. But since the Arbiter does not accept the truth, Gravemind sends the Master Chief to High Charity and the Arbiter to the Control Room of Halo Installation 05, Saying;

"You will search one likely spot

and you will search another

Fate had us meet as foes but

this ring will make us brothers"

Gravemind uses this to his advantage; in the confusion of the Covenant civil war, he commandeers In Amber Clad, makes a jump into High Charity itself, and spreads the Flood so that he will have the opportunity to escape from the installation.

At the end of the game, after all the credits have rolled, it is shown that Gravemind is occupying High Charity. He says to Cortana who has been separated from Master Chief and stayed behind:

"Silence fills the empty grave now that I have gone,

But my mind is not at rest, for questions linger on.

Now I will ask and you will answer."

To which she answers "All right… shoot." This statement might mean that Cortana has fallen under its influence, or that she is using/learning from it, leaving the gamer not just with a cliffhanger but also with the sense that Gravemind may play a prominent role in Halo 3. When Microsoft showed the trailer for Halo 3 at E3 2006, many people claimed that Gravemind could be heard speaking with Cortana. "I have defied gods, and demons. I am your shield, I am your sword. I know you, your past, your future. This is the way the world ends." Gravemind is one of the five known Flood variants in the Halo universe.

Also, Gravemind is the name of one of the levels in Halo 2. The level is named after the same Gravemind that is mentioned above, as he is brought into the story at this time. This level starts with the Master Chief in the Covenant city of High Charity, placed there by the Gravemind's ability to control the teleportation grid prevalent throughout Installation 05. Although it appears (from the dialogue mentioned above) that Spartan-117's objective is to search for the Index; Gravemind uses the sudden appearance of the Demon on High Charity as an opportunity to invade. Although no flood are present in this level, Infestation Forms are responsible for the death of the Prophet of Mercy, which is detailed in a cutscene at the end of the level. Upon returning to the Master Chief (the player spends some time as the Arbiter after witnessing the Prophet of Mercy's death), the player finds the once immaculate High Charity infested by the Parasite.