1am

[theteal1]

.
That one's a janitor. I saw him sweeping.

Does the poor janitor have any idea that he is sweeping mere meters away from an invasive alien AI?

Of course he does. The janitors are all knowing, man.

[Oozer3993]

I got in for the beta through phase one. The same email address I used for that receives MS marketing emails. I never asked AR a question on Bnet or AIM and I have not received that email. I feel sad.

[Hypersoldier]

Yeah, on the janitor, ever read 'Thief of Time'?

Question's probably not so much 'is it *fake*' as it's definitely coming from MS so much as 'is it *relevant to AR* rather than just being a nice promotional piece'. Doesn't sound like AR speaking, although 'history circling back upon us/history winding back on itself' is a hmm-er in this context. The 'known this darkness... once before' sounds like a reference to Halo activation.

[M4730]

oi, its late. ill be packin it in for tonight guys. see you tomorrow. keep me posted!

[theteal1]

AdjutantReflex has signed off.

[Darkendes]

Question's probably not so much 'is it *fake*' as it's definitely coming from MS so much as 'is it *relevant to AR* rather than just being a nice promotional piece'. Doesn't sound like AR speaking, although 'history circling back upon us/history winding back on itself' is a hmm-er in this context. The 'known this darkness... once before' sounds like a reference to Halo activation.

I doubt the whole "keep looking for the signs" bit at the bottom would be included in a normal promotional piece. And the timing was too perfect. I'm convinced it's part of the game.

Now, to find whatever clues might be in the email...

It was mentioned over at Unfiction that a couple words had out of place capitalization. Universe, Journey and Sorrow. There may be something to that.

Also, the link leads to Halo3.com. Is there anything out of place or different there? How about the picture included with the email? In the past, text was encrypted inside of picture files, HTML code had been altered to have hidden things placed in there without affected the website itself. ARGs are notorious for doing things like this, so we might have to test every idea that comes up before we can debunk it.

Even things as obvious as "keepers of the flame". It could be talking about an object instead of a person/being. We could be looking for anything that might "keep a flame".

Of course, it could still be way too early in the game for these kind of puzzles, but you never know.

[Naburu]

I am currently combing through the image in notepad and a Hex editor

[RVideo]

I just did a quick comparison between the Forerunner symbol in the email background, against the known symbols.
This symbol appears to be a new one.
For quick reference

http://halosm.bungie.org/story/forerunner/jsymbols.html

[Hypersoldier]

[...Also, the link leads to Halo3.com. Is there anything out of place or different there? How about the picture included with the email? In the past, text was encrypted inside of picture files, HTML code had been altered to have hidden things placed in there without affected the website itself. ARGs are notorious for doing things like this, so we might have to test every idea that comes up before we can debunk it....
Of course, it could still be way too early in the game for these kind of puzzles, but you never know.

Code on the Forerunner Email page is legit from what I could tell, checked it straight away. Didn't notice any links or clues. Halo3.com is all clean, too, just made sure.

Never too early to check for puzzles.

[DHalo]

I signed up for the Halo3.com newsletter, which usually gets me those Xbox Flash emails, however I have not gotten this email.

How wide were the spans where people received them?