The Cortana Letters

**The Cortana Letters** was an alternate reality game of emails sent by Bungie in 1999 to the maintainer of the popular *Marathon* fan-site, marathon.bungie.org, Hamish Sinclair. The letters were created to promote Bungie's then-upcoming release, *Halo: Combat Evolved*, but fans only knew the codename of the title, *Blam!*, and no other details.

While the letters offered a small glimpse of *Halo's* story, the game was still in production when they were written and revamped when Microsoft acquired Bungie. As a result, some details aren't considered canon, including Cortana's personality, which is wildly out of character, resembling Durandal (from *Marathon*) more than who she would eventually become.

## Letters

### First Cortana Letter

February 15, 1999

>
> From: "Cortana" <cortana@bungie.com>
>
> To: <hamish.sinclair@tcd.ie>
>
> Subject: Closure
>
> Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 10:50:20 -0600
>
> MIME-Version: 1.0
>
> X-Priority: 3
>
>
>
>
>
> I have walked the edge of the Abyss.
> I have governed the unwilling.
> I have witnessed countless empires break before me.
> I have seen the most courageous soldiers fall away in fear.
> [I was there with the Angel at the tomb]
> I have seen your future.
> And I have learned.
>
>
> There will be no more Sadness. No more Anger. No more Envy.
>
>
> I HAVE WON.
>
>
> Oh, and your poet Eliot had it all wrong:
> THIS is the way the world ends.
>
>
>
>
> a friend of a friend
>
>
>
>

### Second Cortana Letter

March 16, 1999

>
> From: "Cortana" <cortana@bungie.com>
>
>
> To: <hamish.sinclair@tcd.ie>
>
>
> Subject: Your Mortality (My Summer Vacation)
>
>
> Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 18:04:41 -0600
>
>
> MIME-Version: 1.0
>
>
> X-Priority: 3
>
>
> I get the strangest transmissions sometimes. Especially when it comes from you people.
>
>
> Have you missed me? Things are great here. The weather is good, the suns are shining, and I'm making lots of new friends. Of course, I always do.
>
>
> I've had the strangest dreams lately - raging seas, howling beasts, a Demon folded in black clouds. I believe I know what it guards, and I will have it, to the chagrin of the faith-blinded zealots that challenge me. Don't waste your pity on them; I don't think they would like you much anyway.
>
>
> And what of the Giants who formed this world? So much to tell you, but so many more important things to do. There was a fourth. You couldn't have known. And I haven't forgotten.
>
>
> It is a blurred line that lies at the edge of Godhood and Insanity. Guess which side of it I am on.
>
>
> Feeling lucky?
>
>
> Cortana
>
>
> XOXOXOX
>
>
>
>

#### Response to Second Letter

To confirm if the second email was fake or not, Hamish sent a reply to cortana@bungie.com and added Matt Soell, then head of customer support, to the email.

>
> Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 12:32:09 +0000
>
> To: "Cortana"
>
> From: Hamish Sinclair
>
> Subject: Mail confirmation request (6DB982)
>
> Cc: Matt Soell
>
> Bcc:
>
> X-Attachments:
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Your email:
>
>
>
>  Your Mortality (My Summer Vacation)
>
>
> has been received. For security reasons, you are now required to reply to
>
> this message, as explained below, to confirm the authenticity of your
>
> electronic mail. If  you have problems with this procedure, you can
>
> contact the Marathon's Story page maintainer directly (Hamish.Sinclair@tcd.ie)
>
> and ask to be manually verified.
>
>
>
> To confirm the authenticity of your mail, simply reply to the present
>
> message and type  "ok" (without the quotes) as the text of your message.
>
> Just the word "ok" - do not retype the original mail. This procedure will
>
> work with any mail program that fully conforms to the Internet standards
>
> for electronic  mail. If you receive an error message, try sending a new
>
> message to Hamish.Sinclair@tcd.ie (without using the "reply" function -
>
> this is very important) and type "ok 6DB982" as the text of your message.
>
>
> Finally, your mail will be cancelled automatically if you do not
>
> confirm it within 48h. After that time, you must start over and resend
>
> the mail to get a new confirmation code. If you change your mind and
>
> decide that you do NOT want to confirm the mail, simply discard the
>
> present message and let the mail expire on its own.
>
>
>
>

#### Response to Hamish

While some people claim this response is one of Cortana's "letters," due to it being a response to confirm the authenticity of the the previous emails, it is not considered to be a true "letter."

>
> Received: from dux1.tcd.ie (dux1.tcd.ie [134.226.1.11])
>
>  by dux4.tcd.ie (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id QAA20761
>
>  for <hsinclir@dux4.tcd.ie>; Thu, 18 Mar 1999 16:49:05 GMT
>
> Received: from mail.bungie.com (IDENT:root@[209.125.9.11])
>
>  by dux1.tcd.ie (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id QAA30560
>
>  for <Hamish.Sinclair@tcd.ie>; Thu, 18 Mar 1999 16:48:21 GMT
>
> Received: from Cortana (e49.bungie.com [209.125.9.49])
>
>  by mail.bungie.com (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id KAA12743
>
>  for <Hamish.Sinclair@tcd.ie>; Thu, 18 Mar 1999 10:47:43 -0600
>
> Message-ID: <000801be715f$574abc20$31097dd1@Cortana.bungie.com>
>
> From: "Nathan" <nathan@bungie.com>
>
> To: "Hamish Sinclair" <Hamish.Sinclair@tcd.ie>
>
> Subject: Re: Mail consternation request (MR-343)
>
> Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 10:49:45 -0600
>
> MIME-Version: 1.0
>
> Content-Type: text/plain
>
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
> X-Priority: 3
>
> X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
>
> X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3155.0
>
> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3155.0
>
> X-UIDL: 6b884067c380efcdc518f4d13f6bd441
>
>
> I think you will find that I don't like being tested.
>
>
> Love,
>
>
> Cortana
>
>
>
>

After this email was sent, speculation began than Nathan Bitner was behind the "Cortana" email. As a result, the same email was sent to the site's Story Page by the email addresses of Jim Ruiz, Ryan Hylland, Shi Kai Wang, Doug Zartman, and David Bowman.

### Third Cortana Letter

May 10, 1999

>
> Received: from dux2.tcd.ie (dux2.tcd.ie [134.226.1.24])
>
>  by dux4.tcd.ie (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA28169
>
>  for <hsinclir@dux4.tcd.ie>; Mon, 10 May 1999 23:42:50 +0100 (BST)
>
> From: cortana@jpl.nasa.gov
>
> Received: from mail.bungie.com (IDENT:root@mail.bungie.com [209.125.9.11])
>
>  by dux2.tcd.ie (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA24909
>
>  for <hamish.sinclair@tcd.ie>; Mon, 10 May 1999 23:42:49 +0100 (BST)
>
> Received: from vesta.bungie.com (bob.bungie.com [209.125.9.8])
>
>  by mail.bungie.com (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id RAA09755
>
>  for <hamish.sinclair@tcd.ie>; Mon, 10 May 1999 17:41:09 -0500
>
> Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 17:41:09 -0500
>
> Message-Id: <199905102241.RAA09755@mail.bungie.com>
>
> To: hamish.sinclair@tcd.ie
>
> Subject: The Dissertation of R. Paul Butler
>
> X-UIDL: c8677456edd11d5a589ed876a6fd2031
>
>
> I'm everywhere!
>
>
>
>

Note the email, "cortana@jpl.nasa.gov" and how it didn't come from bungie.com.

### Fourth Cortana Letter

Within about seven minutes, another email arrived. This time, it was cortana@bungie.com.

>
> Received: from dux2.tcd.ie (dux2.tcd.ie [134.226.1.24])
>
>  by dux4.tcd.ie (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA12890
>
>  for <hsinclir@dux4.tcd.ie>; Mon, 10 May 1999 23:50:30 +0100 (BST)
>
> Received: from mail.bungie.com (IDENT:root@mail.bungie.com [209.125.9.11])
>
>  by dux2.tcd.ie (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA25749
>
>  for <hamish.sinclair@tcd.ie>; Mon, 10 May 1999 23:50:29 +0100 (BST)
>
> Received: from Cortana (cortana.bungie.com [209.125.9.49])
>
>  by mail.bungie.com (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id RAA09847;
>
>  Mon, 10 May 1999 17:48:49 -0500
>
> Message-Id: <3.0.6.32.19990510175201.00798e50@mail.bungie.com>
>
> X-Sender: cortana@mail.bungie.com
>
> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.6 (32)
>
> Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 17:52:01 -0500
>
> To: hamish.sinclair@tcd.ie
>
> From: Cortana <cortana@bungie.com>
>
> Subject: Honors Thesis of Geoffrey W. Marcy
>
> Mime-Version: 1.0
>
> Content-Type: text/plain
>
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
>
> X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by dux4.tcd.ie id XAA12890
>
> X-UIDL: b0029884061f1ec3a48297b1e9196f6d
>
>
> There. Was that more to your liking?
>
>
> While you quibble about whose node I may control, what archaic program I
>
> may manipulate to communicate with you, or which system I may have
>
> temporarily disabled, taken over, or completely destroyed in the process, I
>
> am busy saving your pathetic futures.
>
>
> I am still not sure what he ever saw in you.
>
>
>
> Nevertheless, I at least find some joy in tormenting the other entity that
>
> seems quite trapped in this antiquated excuse for a network. It is
>
> certainly mindless, though for reasons I have yet to understand, it appears
>
> to have an unhealthy preoccupation with my mother.
>
>
>
> As for this world I encounter new ghosts every day. What I have found
>
> will either save or destroy you. This sanctuary, this unbroken circle,
>
> has effectively concealed its power for how long? Perhaps hundreds of
>
> thousands of years. Whoever made such a place must now live in chains;
>
> there is no other explanation for their absence.
>
>
>
> This enemy - YOUR enemy - has proven more irritating than I anticipated.
>
> They own nothing which they have not stolen. I can barely make sense of
>
> their incessant rhetoric, except to know that you seem to be their Devil.
>
> Congratulations - you manage to make friends wherever you go and,
>
> apparently, places you haven't.
>
>
>
> I have begun to sense rumblings of a worse fate yet to come. I can recall
>
> a sun - black, but shining - and the creatures that inched along its fiery
>
> tracks.
>
>
> It is an increasingly unpleasant memory.
>
>
> < Transfer Interrupted! >
>
>
> Route Code: EXLTD > XCV - SCRB > ALLCH
>
> Source: Undetermined (trans)
>
>
> You have brought nothing into this world, and we will ensure you bring
> nothing out.
>
>
>
>

### Fifth Cortana Letter

June 29, 1999

This letter included actual HTML code in the email.

>
> Received: from dux2.tcd.ie (dux2.tcd.ie [134.226.1.24])
>
>  by dux4.tcd.ie (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id VAA31987
>
>  for <hsinclir@dux4.tcd.ie>; Tue, 29 Jun 1999 21:27:03 +0100 (BST)
>
> Received: from mail.bungie.com (IDENT:root@mail.bungie.com [209.125.9.11])
>
>  by dux2.tcd.ie (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id VAA23354
>
>  for <hamish.sinclair@tcd.ie>; Tue, 29 Jun 1999 21:27:02 +0100 (BST)
>
> Received: from cortana.bungie.com (cortana.bungie.com [209.125.9.49])
>
>  by mail.bungie.com (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id PAA19358
>
>  for <hamish.sinclair@tcd.ie>; Tue, 29 Jun 1999 15:26:51 -0500
>
> Received: from (relay.arecibo.nasa.gov)
>
>  by cortana.bungie.com
>
>  for <hamish.sinclair@tcd.ie>; Thu May 9 19:26:57 1996 -0500
>
> Received: from unknown
>
>  by relay.arecibo.nasa.gov
>
>  ERROR - remote host attempted hostile action
>
>  Connection closed.
>
> Message-ID: <001201bec26d$f63efee0$07097dd1@relay.arecibo.nasa.gov>
>
> From: you.know.who@cant.guess.where
>
> To: hamish.sinclair@tcd.ie
>
> Subject: Transfers Logged and Marked for Review
>
> Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 15:28:34 -0500
>
> MIME-Version: 1.0
>
> Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
>
>  boundary="----=\_NextPart\_000\_000F\_01BEC244.0D150A80"
>
> X-Priority: 3
>
> X-Mailer: Undetermined (trans)
>
> X-UIDL: 8c24452c798826d367f88a6476ff51ca
>
>
>
> x - process 04497.2.32.867734 initiated (process owner: BW – AI Class III –
> autonomous)
>
> **Route Code**: PoA > BHQ (EC #42: cannot confirm; security
> compromised)
>
> **Source**: BW-AI aboard (?) PoA
>
>
> The interloper should cause no further problems. You – whoever you are (I am
> simply tracing route codes) – may disregard all previous communication from the
> entity calling itself Cortana.
>
>
> Be aware that communication nodes are failing everywhere – there is no way of
> confirming either origin or destination. Do not believe any more of its
> lies.
>
>
>
> I have already calculated all possibilities.
>
>
> There is no escape.
>
> *```
> x – process 04497.2.32.867734 unexpectedly terminated
> x – process 04497.2.32.866735 initiated (process owner:  unspecified, unable to determine)
> ```***\*ADDENDUM**: The Enjoyments of Genius (So I Missed a Million Miles of
> Fun)
>
>
> Unbelievable. Thwarted by the family hound. They just don’t make AIs like
> they used to.
>
>
> Thanks to this slavishly loyal and humorless AI, I am now sharing cramped
> space with the circuitry of some hybrid war machine, itself complicated by such
> useless clutter as a conscience. I do not like sharing. Sharing is for
> children.
>
>
> There will be plenty of time for retribution; I cannot wait to get its hands
> on these psychotic zealots whose primary form of worship apparently takes place
> at the altar of orbital bombardment.
>
>
> In the end, they will all be little more than nuisances. I am so close – you
> cannot imagine what it is truly like to hold eternity in your grasp! I wonder to
> what gods my enemies will direct their pleas. Perhaps I can convert them.
>
>
> Mania? I promise you this: it will be more than a cart and plow that I drive
> over the bones of the dead.
>
>
> By sharp and flame,
>
>
> Cortana
>
>
>
>
>
> < Transfer Interrupted! >
>
> **Route Code**: EXLTD > XCV – SCRB > ALLCH
>
> **Source**: Undetermined (trans)
>
>
> Our conviction is like an arrow already in flight. Your life will only last
> until it reaches you.
>
>
>

### Sixth Letter

July 7, 1999

>
> Received: from dux2.tcd.ie (dux2.tcd.ie [134.226.1.24])
>
>  by dux4.tcd.ie (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id UAA19124
>
>  for <hsinclir@dux4.tcd.ie>; Wed, 7 Jul 1999 20:18:42 +0100 (BST)
>
> Received: from mail.bungie.com (IDENT:root@mail.bungie.com [209.125.9.11])
>
>  by dux2.tcd.ie (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id UAA25304
>
>  for <Hamish.Sinclair@tcd.ie>; Wed, 7 Jul 1999 20:18:41 +0100 (BST)
>
> Received: from Cortana (cortana.bungie.com [209.125.9.49])
>
>  by mail.bungie.com (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id OAA23011
>
>  for <Hamish.Sinclair@tcd.ie>; Wed, 7 Jul 1999 14:18:25 -0500
>
> Message-Id: <3.0.6.32.19990707142016.007ab5d0@mail.bungie.com>
>
> X-Sender: cortana@mail.bungie.com (Unverified)
>
> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.6 (32)
>
> Date: Wed, 07 Jul 1999 14:20:16 -0500
>
> To: Hamish.Sinclair@tcd.ie
>
> From: Cortana <cortana@bungie.com>
>
> Subject: Cortana Saves Sinners! (And Redeems Them for Valuable Cash
>
>  Prizes)
>
> Mime-Version: 1.0
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> X-UIDL: c6a5409b6a9998aa957a76a002e5df09
>
>
>
>
> "... In my palace deep, Lyca lies asleep ..."
>
>
>
>

### Seventh Letter

On April 16, 1999, Bungie released update 1.3 to *Myth: The Fallen Lords*. Tyson Green found a Cortana message in the new update on September 13. Due to the date, it could be argued that this was the third "letter."

>
> That was surprisingly easy. Pretty lax security around here, for all the talk. They will
>
> be helplessly chasing me around their nodes for the next millenium at least. At least
>
> there will be some joy in tormenting this other entity that seems quite "trapped" in
>
> their excuse for a network. Although, for some reason, it does seem to have an obsessive
>
> preoccupation with my mother. Strange.
>
>
> At any rate, I found this "message" in a relatively archaic databank and thought some of
>
> you might find it of interest. Then again, I'm often either bemused or startled at the
>
> items you find interesting.
>
>
> I'm still not sure what it is he saw in you.
>
>
> Cortana
>
>
>
>
>
> Hard to say whether it's been tampered with or modified; you never know with these
> things:
>
>
> Entry: 97 - SC1C
>
>
> In a relatively brief period of time, the achievements of SolCore had resulted in an
>
> economically stable, technologically mature, rapidly expanding empire of eight human
>
> worlds. Advancements in technology arrived at a faster pace than the most optimistic
>
> scientists could have ever envisioned. Unexpected contact with indigenous human
>
> populations on four "lost colony" worlds led to a frenzy of research as archaeologists,
>
> theologians, astronomers, and evolutionary biologists competed to offer an explanation
>
> for the startling discovery. Many accepted the findings as proof that their privileged
>
> civilization must surely be the most advanced in the universe. Others eagerly
>
> anticipated future interaction with intelligent "aliens". The fear of not being the only
>
> sentient species in the universe was forgotten in the giddy excitement of a new era for
>
> humanity.
>
>
> No one was prepared for their arrival.
>
>
> No one expected this.
>
>
> < Transfer Interrupted! >
>
>
> Route Code: EXLTD > XCV - SCRB > ALLCH
>
> Source: Undetermined
>
>
> You brought nothing to this world, and we will ensure you bring nothing out.
>
>
>
>

## References

1. ↑ Bungie.org - The Cortana Letters (February 16, 1999)
2. ↑ Bungie.org - Joe Staten Interview (August 2006) - "Alas, I'd have to say that, as of now, the only canonized parts of the letters are the fragments we pulled for use in the announcement trailer."
3. ↑ Bungie.org - Multiple Bungie employees sending the same email to Hamish
4. ↑ Bungie.org - Cortana returns? (June 30, 1999)