Daybreak Reference Manual

Project Daybreak may come across as frighteningly complex and inaccessible to someone coming from the outside. This page serves as a basic introduction to its divergences from 343i canon, as well as serving as a guide for those potentially interested in contributing to the setting.

Introduction
For all intents and purposes, Project Daybreak's timeline diverges from 343i's canon after Halo Wars. Everything after that game is, to borrow a Star Wars term, "Legends"; some of it will make it in, sometimes unchanged, but by default don't assume anything to be there. This applies equally to post-war, war-era and background lore content. We ask you to transport yourself to a 2009-era headspace, when all the possibilities for the post-war era were still totally open, and when much of Halo's setting itself hadn't yet been defined. In a way, we're taking on the role of 343i as they set out to expand Halo's universe beyond the Covenant War, just with some different goals and with the hindsight of the last 10+ years of Halo canon to look back on to see what works and what doesn't. This clean-slate approach helps us separate the chaff from the wheat and clean up a lot of the dead weight the universe has collected over the years, but also re-establish or further define constraints and rules which had been effectively erased in the offical universe. By going back to the basics, we aim to see what really matters and then build on top of that as a foundation.

Project Daybreak retools Halo's post-Covenant War era, with a thematic focus on the political and social reprecussions of the war on both humanity and the ex-Covenant cultures, rather than the Forerunners or the Reclamation. We've also extended the timeline of the post-war reconstruction period from about five years to three decades before the next tentpole event. This also means that the UNSC's recovery, and the Covenant's splintering, happen at a more gradual pace. The UNSC thus remains the setting's underdogs for the time being, even as some technological advances in the post-war decades begin to bring them closer to the level of post-Covenant polities; eventually, they'll become a small but formidable polity on the local level. There is more weight put to the consequences of the war, and the transition from the end of the war to the post-war era is less stark; for example, there is no Infinity or Spartan-IVs, though some newer ship classes are introduced years later. This means the UNSC will have to do more with less, and politicking with the ex-Covenant in particular will have to assume a larger role. On the Covenant side, our goal is to increase the post-Covenant factions' narrative presence and agency in a way that befits their empire's implied size, as well as give them agency equal to that of the UNSC. The Covenant empire has also been populated with more detail and definition, and their scale has been expanded from the handful of worlds seen in canon to something more befitting their multi-millennia-long existence and expansion.

We also try to focus on aspects of the worldbuilding often neglected in the fanon, including society and culture, religion, and astrography, to create the impression of a lived-in galaxy. Effort is put into making distances, travel times, interstellar communications and logistics much bigger of a deal, as well as fleshing out the foundations of both the Covenant and the UNSC. Currently, the main focus of Daybreak is on the reconstruction period from 2552 to 2580. Material further along the timeline is planned, but not yet fully defined. The project is also not exclusively about the post-war era, and considerable attention has been given to the universe's backstory on both the human and Covenant sides.

The following list aims to detail the most notable deviations from the official canon (along with explanations as to why) while also making some notes about in-setting trends or themes that may be of interest. And, of course, it assumes you have a more than basic familiarity with Halo fiction up to the present day. (If you stopped consuming Halo fiction after 2009, Daybreak may actually be less confusing to you.)

Themes and presentation
These are general notes that might help conceptualize Project Daybreak's version of the Halo setting in one's head, especially for those considering contributing. Many of the things said here may be obvious depending on where you're coming from, but we saw fit to describe them anyway for the sake of having some semblance of a unified vision.

Creatively, Project Daybreak's goal is to be faithful to the spirit of the Halo but also be bold and innovative in expanding the universe. We're well aware of the traps fan projects may often fall into; being married to the status quo or lacking overarching vision being among them. It is not necessarily accurate to say we are trying to emulate Bungie's Halo; after all, Bungie sought to make games first and foremost, while for us, the universe-building and the story come first. While we're in a way stepping into their shoes, our approach also differs from that of 343 Industries, in that we don't have to consider our writing from a franchise-building perspective, or to tailor our ideas to satisfy corporate executives or focus groups.

However it may seem on the surface, Daybreak is not a "Bungie good, 343i bad" spite project, just a different take on the setting by some passionate fans who have maybe in many ways outgrown what the canon universe has become. Even Bungie is getting their share of the Legends treatment in some cases, though their game series overall serves as the spine around which Daybreak's extended canon is built. This means that we try to avoid referencing some of 343i's ideas only to point out the flaws in them. Deconstruction can only get you so far, because it's still fundamentally bound to the work being deconstructed. Rather, think of Daybreak as a reconstruction.

For inspitation, we lean quite a bit on Halo's origins and even pre-Halo Bungie mythos; that, and the sci-fi literature and films that served as their inspiration in turn. We want to bring back into the fabric of the setting the sci-fi sense of wonder and scale that was there in Halo CE, as well as the idea that there's always something more going on beyond the relatively narrow snapshot we see.

In terms of style and tone, Daybreak's universe-building leans largely on the classic Halo games and novels. While the setting is morally gray and fairly grim at times, the protagonists' actions can have positive effects on it as a whole, though their victories are often hard-won with sacrifices. Though the protagonists are often as flawed as the world they inhabit, their actions tend to be more net beneficial than not. And however grim things get, there is yet hope that the actions of such flawed but ultimately well-meaning individuals can turn the course of history for the better. Moreover, there is the notion that actions and events in general have consequences, for better or for worse. Though conflict itself persists as a constant, the narrative moves on and the sources of conflict change. As such, the post-war era generally assumes a more hopeful tone than not, with the intent of genuinely taking the universe forward while still maintaining a believable level of tension and conflict in a way that arises naturally from the history of the setting so far. We are trying to consciously avoid escalating the stakes for the sake of escalation, or introducing threats just because the protagonists need something to shoot at. Factions are not merely built to be viewed through the crosshairs of the main characters, but are allowed to have a fully-realized independent existence.

We try to construct a dynamic setting that is always in flux, with events that have consequences. A lot of fictional societies tend to be pretty stagnant and static, and Halo also suffers from this. Especially when it comes to the Covenant's 3400-year history, we've tried to bring more variety and development in culture, society and technology; this inevitability of change also applies when it comes to the collision of the human and Covenant societies after the war. There is also an emphasis on how technologies affect society and governance, rather than the two existing in isolation. For example, FTL communicators and faster slipspace drives enable smoother contact with faraway worlds, which - in different eras - ushers in changes in both the UEG's and Covenant's power structures.

On that note, we've tried to bring out nuances and variety within otherwise monolithic-seeming institutions and cultures, particularly within the Covenant but also humanity, especially in regards to colonial polities. The depiction of civilizations is meant to be balanced, portraying each culture as more than just simplistic generalizations, but rather well-rounded societies with their pros and cons. This means consciously avoiding pigeonholding cultures into narrow archetypes, such as the Sangheili only being honorable warriors, or all Kig-Yar being pirates, all San'Shyuum being scheming manipulators, and so on. There are definitely cultural and societal trends, and then there's just repeating the same character over and over again. Species are also not political units, least of all closed or homogeneous ones, and one should think more in terms of populations and interconnected groups thereof than simply entire species when it comes to, for example, the political factions that emerge in the post-war era. How do the histories of different regions or populations affect their views now? Think of the population migrations, schisms, wars and alliances that shaped that particular region or world's culture over the Covenant's long history, and how that history is reflected in the here and now. Another goal is political nuance. Factions and affiliations, especially lesser ones, don't always slot into clear-cut categories, and may even be mutually conflicting at times.

It should also be noted that Daybreak's tone is quite anti-HFY. HFY, or "Humanity, Fuck Yeah", is a concept often found in popular sci-fi and fantasy, particularly in fandom circles, and Halo is no exception. In essence, HFY is about about ascribing undue importance to ourselves and our accomplishments, and treating all other sapient species as pathetically inferior, only good for being stomped under a human bootheel for all eternity. At best, other species only exist to support humanity. The typical HFY wish-fulfillment fantasy might see humanity enslaving and/or genociding alien races and then patting each other in the back; given Halo's premise, it's not surprising that it has a dedicated HFY-oriented following. While some people might need such navel-gazing for an extra dose of self-confidence, we feel it's extremely juvenile and uninteresting; science fiction is at its best when it makes us ask questions about ourselves and the universe, not when it's used as trappings for cheap self-validation. Note that this does not mean we cannot celebrate human achievement or have humans pull off extraordinary feats in the face of equally extraordinary threats; much of Halo's most memorable narrative moments take the form of the latter. It's just about going overboard with self-glorification.

With all that being said, there is room for tonal and thematic variety in individual stories. This is just to provide a general idea of universe-level themes for the sake of a unified vision.

Aesthetics and design
Daybreak's aesthetic style takes after the project's overall theme of going back to the basics and then building on top of them. This means our visual style should be seen as a clear continuity from the original game trilogy's design direction. It should be emphasized that there is no stark transition from "war era" to "post-war era" in aesthetics and technology like in 343i's canon; designs from Halos CE-3 remain in use for years, even decades onward, only to be gradually added on and supplanted. This means that many designs introduced in the 343i era are regarded as non-canon. However, some of the in-universe items those designs represent may still exist in Daybreak's version, albeit with a visual overhaul.

The aesthetics of the major polities will develop, but only over time and to correspond with technological development - e.g. the post-war decades will be marked by mongrel human/Covenant technologies particularly in some sections of the surviving Outer Colonies.

Human (especially UNSC) designs are utilitarian, boxy, and rugged, designed to give the appearance of functionality. They lean heavily on retro science-fiction inspirations (especially the Alien franchise). Right angles dominate the aesthetic of human tech and architecture, and forms are crude and unrefined on purpose; e.g. not every design-defining form interlocks together perfectly. Bevels and fillets should be used sparingly, especially in contrast to modern science-fiction design sensibilities. Smooth, slick, organic shapes are exceedingly rare and confined to specific pieces of exotic technology, such as the SPI armor family. Overall, most human designs (barring some exotic technologies) should look like they could be produced today with the materials available to us through relatively conventional manufacturing methods. For example, the look of UNSC starships is dictated by blocky segments and function-based modules, as opposed to hulls predominated by a single unified form. Tactile interfaces dominate, with touchscreens existing alongside mechanical buttons and levers; holography exists solely for display purposes and cannot be used in interfaces due to technological limitations. This semi-retro theme also governs the design of military gear, weapons and vehicles more than hyper-modern or "tacticool" aesthetics; it's still futuristic, but through a lens of 80's-90's science fiction and design sensibilities.
 * Human

The Covenant visual style is dominated by organic curves and shiny, iridescent surfaces contrasted with a more overtly technological core structure. Otherworldly textures and organic surfaces suggest alien manufacturing methods we can only guess at. Forms are organic-based, but also elegant and visually cohesive; care should be taken so as to not overdo the organic parallels by populating otherwise featureless surfaces with excessive organic "growths" and other visual clutter. The sheer scale of the Covenant also allows for internal variety, both within and without the Covenant hierarchy itself. While their all-encompassing religiousity permeates Covenant design, most of the internal spaces on Covenant ships are predominantly functional, civilian locations such as High Charity's tower districts show more elegant design sensibilities with ornamentation and the incorporation of natural elements. The post-war era also sees a diversification in how technologies are designed and applied among the ex-Covenant.
 * Covenant

The designs of the Covenant species and their armor largely take after the classic games, particularly Halos CE-2, with various design cues picked up from the later games.

The Forerunner aesthetic favors simple, monumental forms and interlocking geometric shapes. Their creations are not only futuristic and advanced, but should also exude a sense of deep time, with various subtle hints at their extreme age. There is a serene, almost zen quality to Forerunner spaces; they do not exist to dazzle you with technological prowess but create a subtle, mysterious, at times nearly religious feel. Even at their most technical, Forerunner spaces tend to have a dignified, elegant quality.
 * Forerunner

Forerunner architecture also leans heavily on early to mid-20th-century architectural inspirations, such as Futurism, Brutalism and Art Deco. The use of architectonic elements such as abstract murals, stained glass windows, beamwork and cantilevers gives Forerunner structures a grounded sense of reality, rather than being entirely otherworldly and fantastical. Another key inspiration is architect Frank Lloyd Wright's organic architecture; Forerunner relics are designed to exist in harmony with the surrounding nature and terrain, hinting at the underlying philosophies that gave form to them. This also grounds the structures in their environment and enhances the sense of place.

Forerunner artifacts should have a sense of tactile materiality, showing variety in the materials and textures used as well as signs of their age; dirt, incrustation, etc. While the degree of wear and tear depends on the state of the installation in question (on some, it can be very subtle), no structure should appear fully pristine. Surface textures should also exhibit a range of colors from cold metallic grays to warm bronze and golden hues. Stonework is also used in some structures and relics, especially older ones.

Most of the advanced technology behind the structures isn't apparent on the surface, and sparingly-used technologies such as holograms and interfaces form a meaningful contrast to otherwise tactile architecture. "Tron Lines" should be used sparingly, and to indicate specific points of interest rather than being applied ubiquitously; for lighting, favor discrete, often ornament-like light fixtures. White, blue-white, or yellow-tinted lighting are more common than primary colors such as blue or orange, for example. Likewise, floating elements should be used extremely sparingly. Floating components are often functional (e.g. anti-gravity platforms or gondolas) or signify something very important, such as the control platform in the Ark's Citadel. Hard light is only used in specific applications, such as light bridges, some interfaces, and decor in select locations.

Forerunner robots -- Sentinels, Enforces, etc. -- largely take after their Bungie-era counterparts. The Prometheans do not exist, at least not as such.

Astronomy and locations
Astrography and locality play a large role in Daybreak in order to create a sense of scale as well as a compelling overarching structure upon which to superimpose stories. Factions and events don't merely exist somewhere out in space, they're tied to a location, and that locality influences how they interact with other factions and events due to the limitations on slipspace travel and communication speeds, as well as the availability of travel and communications.


 * The Halos' locations in the galaxy are reshuffled from the map in Halo: Warfleet; Installation 04 is located some tens of light-years antispinward from Sol, while Installation 05 is located deeper spinward around where the Orion Spur branches off from the Sagittarius Arm. This is to make slipspace travel times seen in the story work better with the setting. On the same note, installations other than 04 and 05 will not be found for a while.


 * The Bestiarum's claim that the Kig-Yar home system, Y'Deio, is the real-life star HD69830 is ignored, and Y'Deio is relocated further antispinward along the Orion Arm (see this map). This is because it would be unthinkable for a species homeworld the Covenant have been in contact with for over a millennium to be located only 41 light-years from Earth, a distance similar to many of humanity's own colonies.


 * Harvest and Arcadia are relocated to different star systems; BS Indi and HD 219077 ("Peloponnesus"), respectively. This is to make the cartography of the human sphere more cohesive, as both Epsilon Indi and Procyon are so close to Earth they should be classified as Inner Colonies. Epsilon Indi and Procyon are also inhabited in this version, but home to different colonies.

Forerunner backstory


The Forerunners are much less in the spotlight in Daybreak than in 343i's canon. While Forerunner artifacts and megastructures play a role, they are more of a way of setting the stage than active players in the narrative. Instead, one could say that the Covenant are to Daybreak's post-war universe what the Forerunners were to the 343i counterpart. Most notably, the Mantle (or its Reclamation) is treated more like a historical curiosity than a relevant carrying theme of the post-war era. This partly ties to the emphasis on consequences, in this case the consequences of the Forerunners' downfall. As the Halo 3 terminals tell us, the Librarian saw the folly of the Mantle in the Forerunners' final days, and ensured that as life reseeded and recovered, it would arise and flourish free of that past baggage -- and perhaps, for the first time in eons, make its own way in the cosmos.

Narratively speaking, firsthand knowledge on the Forerunners is to be avoided, and information on them always comes at a remove of a hundred millennia and usually through a subjective lens. Much about them is implied, not explicitly stated. This, coupled with the weathered and largely inert Forerunner ruins we see, is meant to enhance the world's texture and sense of history. As well, game-changing relics should actually matter when they're introduced; I think we're all too familiar with the "Forerunner MacGuffin gets destroyed to maintain the status quo" formula. The UNSC is also much less aware of the Forerunner' history as of the decades following the war. Some inferences can be drawn from translations of Covenant scripture, which serves as scholars' main source on the subject, but as second-, third-, or nth-hand sources with religious trappings, those are highly suspect.

The history of the Forerunners themselves, while left vague for the time being, can be assumed to follow the version shown in the and the, complete with the discovery of Earth and humanity only in the last days of the Flood war. While Greg Bear's work with the Forerunner Saga is to be commended, the series is also baggaged by having to serve as the backstory to a version of the setting different from our own, and so themes and plot lines crop up that have little to no relevance to Daybreak's universe or story. Still, much of the Forerunner era is left up to interpretation on purpose via e.g. unreliable narrators, leaving it up to readers to speculate how much of those events happened. Generally, a lot of the worldbuilding on the Forerunners' culture, society and technology from the Forerunner Saga can be assumed to apply in Daybreak as well, but much of their history does differ.

The ancient human spacefaring civilization portrayed in 343i's fiction was never a thing, not as such. The evolution of life on Earth, and the rise of humankind, can be assumed to have occurred more or less according to modern-day scientific knowledge, with the obvious addition of the Halo event and the reseeding of life as well as potential meddling even earlier on.

The Flood's origins are also left vague in Daybreak's version, at least for the time being. Forerunner records seem to indicate them to have been seemingly extragalactic in nature, but little else is known conclusively. The Precursors are likewise a mystery; according to what can be gleaned of Forerunner myths of their own origins, their species was tutored in their infancy by a greater civilization, and several discrepancies on their homeworld implied they did not originally evolve there. This uncertainty over their own origins, as well as the myth of prehistoric displacement, potential evolutionary meddling, and tutelage by an ancient civilization now long gone -- whether that civilization were the fabled Precursors of Forerunner myth or not -- shaped much of Forerunner history and the way they viewed their place in the cosmos.

There has also been some re-examination and redefinition done on the concept of Reclaimers, based on the original trilogy and particularly the Halo 3 terminals. 343i's post-war narrative, particularly in its early days, leaned heavily on the notion of humans being the rightful inheritors of the Mantle, and the Forerunner Saga's backstory was written to support this, going so far as to have the closest thing the setting has to gods spell it out directly. This notion is very intrinsic to 343i's post-war narrative and worldbuilding, and likely informed many of their decisions on where to take the story. But we've gone in a very different direction with Daybreak. For one, in our concept, Reclaimers don't really have anything to do with the Mantle, and neither did the Forerunners want to bestow the Mantle on us. The Librarian implies as much in the Halo 3 terminals by denouncing the Mantle entirely as a failed philosophy that partly caused the Forerunners' downfall.

In Daybreak, as far as anyone can tell, Reclaimers are the inheritors of the Forerunners' legacy, those who can resume control of their technology. But there is also more to the story we don't know of, and the metaphorical handover of the keys was left incomplete; for one, Reclaimers are supposed to be familiar with the protocols of Forerunner installations, which begets the question of just how much of humanity's Reclaimer status was planned, or if we are simply close enough to qualify as Forerunner in the eyes of some of their constructs by some quirk of fate -- or moreover, ancestral meddling even older than the Forerunners' recorded history. As she and her team discovered Earth in the final days of the Flood war, the Librarian wrote that the planet's inhabitants may've one day yielded answers to the Forerunners' own mysteries, had there been time. Perhaps that mystery was that of their own origins, and they had by a masterstroke of cosmic irony, in the twilight of their civilization, found their own lost Eden.

This also means most Forerunner constructs don't really have a clear idea of whether they should consider humans Reclaimers or not, and must do so on the basis of their own discretion. There were plans for the Forerunners themselves to return one day, but those ultimately went sideways, and with the chaos and desperation of the war, as well as Forerunner factionalism and data compartmentalization, not all constructs would have been informed. And while we may biologically qualify as Reclaimers, some Forerunner constructs aren't convinced on the basis of our behavior or other factors.

As already implied, Daybreak's assumption is that as a general rule, all humans fulfill the biological requirements for being a Reclaimer. 343 Industries' fiction (e.g. Spartan Ops) has at times claimed otherwise, which has spawned the rather popular fan assumption that Reclaimers are some specific variant of human (usually manifested in main characters by some curious coincidence) but we operate on the premise that biologically, any human qualifies, though at times Forerunner constructs may ignore this at their own discretion (e.g. the Onyx Sentinels considering us an "aboriginal subspecies", which may not be too far from the truth).

As for the Covenant's knowledge on humanity's Reclaimer status, the masses aren't aware of it. It was kept secret specifically because of its damaging implications, and only the Prophets and those who worked with them at times knew. Since the war, however, rumors and speculation abound on the matter, though many ex-Covenant also dismiss these as unreliable. (Still, it will continue to play a role.)

Covenant backstory
In general, the Covenant backstory follows the outline of that in the Halo canon, though it has received considerable expansion, and some changes have been made particularly to post-2009 lore.


 * Several dates from the pre-Covenant era are changed from the Halo Encyclopedia's timeline, such as the length of the Reformists' flight on the Keyship and the length of the War of Beginnings. These are simply to shorten extended spans of time with essentially nothing happening.


 * The Unggoy are discovered considerably earlier than established by the Halo Encyclopedia's timeline. It never seemed right that they'd been part of the Covenant for just 400 years given how integrated they are, and even the Bestiarum's entry for the Kig-Yar implied the Unggoy were already around by the time the Kig-Yar were assimilated.


 * Like in canon, the Arbiter's role experiences a decline during the Covenant, but the institution's downfall is the sum of many historical and societal factors rather than the result of one individual's failure (see this post for elaboration). This is to make the setting more dynamic, the debasement of the title more believable, and the Prophet-Elite juxtaposition less of a binary good-and-evil conflict.


 * The Jiralhanae have been involved with the Covenant for over a millennium in a fringe capacity and were spread to many more worlds than Doisac, though their date of formal incorporation to the hegemony remains the same. This change was made to explain how the Jiralhanae could ever be considered a viable replacement for the Sangheili within decades of their assimilation, when the Sangheili would realistically outnumber them to hilarious extents, as well as the characterization of the Sangheili-Jiralhanae rivalry as "ancient" in Ghosts of Onyx. (see this post for more)


 * The Yanme'e homeworld Palamok has a low, rather than high, gravity. It doesn't seem logical that a 2G environment would give rise to giant flying insectoids, especially when the Yanme'e apparently need gravitic aids to fly in a normal gravity.

Humanity and the UNSC
Humanity's backstory follows official canon even more closely than the Covenant one, but there are various areas in which it has been expanded upon or reinterpreted. But the closer you get to the 26th century, the less deviation there is.


 * The dates for the settlement of the Inner Colonies are reframed as two major waves to explain a seeming discrepancy in the original Halo timeline. (see this post)


 * As part of the general definition of the scale and astrography of the setting, human colony numbers receive some clarification. As a general rule, the key Inner Colonies (ones with populations approaching or surpassing a billion) are in the low dozens, while the Outer Colonies that are in some way notable number in close to a hundred. ("Some way notable" implies meaningful exports to, and some degree of contact with, the greater human sphere; minor settlements with neither are not included, and many did not even go recorded by the UEG.) This is to highlight humanity's fairly short starfaring history at this point in the timeline, as well as to build up on a more focused set of worlds with unique characteristics as opposed to always creating new ones.


 * While the exact human population numbers can be kept vague, notable colonies can also safely be more populous than depicted in canon. Reach is not humanity's most populous colony, with its population of 710 million, and there are a handful of colonies with populations in the billions.


 * We have the goal of fleshing out the entire span of human history from the late 21st century onwards to the 26th century. Some of the information from the Halo Encyclopedia and other 343-era media still applies, but we'll also mercilessly modify things as we see fit in regards to technological, geopolitical and societal worldbuilding. For example, the Interplanetary War and the UNSC's formation (along with the geopolitics of the era) have received some additional attention to flesh them out.


 * We aim to explore the effects of humanity's history of space habitation on their societies. Significant systems (such as Epsilon Eridani and Sol) are pronouncedly populated both on a planetary level and in space. Sol, for example, has significant habitat conurbations and infrastructure over Earth, Mars and Jupiter and activity all over the place, including "indigenous" populations descended from early settlers in unexpected locales, like beneath Europa, in warrens on lesser moons of Saturn, or in distant comets and forgotten asteroids.

Human-Covenant War

 * The Battle of Reach follows the version of the Fall of Reach presented in The Fall of Reach and First Strike, while incorporating most of the events of Halo: Reach with major modifications to the timeline. This was decided because despite 343i's attempts to reconcile the two, TFoR and Reach are only compatible in the loosest sense, and it's much more straightforward to just ignore one source.


 * The Cole Protocol includes not merely the erasure of human navigational records, but the planting of diversionary data - thousands of "ghost colonies" in empty sectors of space, a large-scale ONI effort known as Operation: WORM BOX. These decoy colonies took up the Covenant's resources considerably over the course of the war.


 * Aside from effective counterintelligence, a key reason the UNSC was able to hold off for so long was that they fought back like a mad dog, constantly striking back at Covenant supply lines, forward operating bases, refueling and refit stations and other infrastructure. SILENT STORM remained the only blow they were able to deal on Covenant space proper (depending on the definition), since following that mission the Covenant began to take longer, more indirect routes to human space to safeguard their own worlds. Multiple UNSC battlegroups operated with virtual autonomy for years on end behind enemy lines, constantly keeping the Covenant on their toes, and entire battalions of Marines and ODSTs were sacrificed on assaults on Covenant targets. The SPARTAN-III deployments PROMETHEUS, TORPEDO, and BONFIRE remained the most successful of such operations (though ODSTs would probably tell you otherwise), but they were a reflection of a larger trend.


 * Humanity's main shield was the vastness of space. Mighty as the Covenant was, they weren't used to carrying out campaigns far outside their borders in mostly unknown territory, and comparatively small as the human sphere was, there were still countless more empty systems within than occupied ones, particularly within the Outer Colonies. Eventually, however, the Covenant did start picking up on a pattern of human settlement being denser toward the core. Yet the war was hardly a straightforward progression from the Outer Colonies to the Inner Colonies, simply because the Covenant didn't attack from all sides, and because the Inner Colony border was not consistent in the first place. The Covenant would've had to know the shape and extent of the human sphere to plan a logical invasion spiraling from the fringes to the center, and they didn't, and were further thrown off by ONI's counterintelligence. As a result, about a 1/5 slice of the human sphere remained almost untouched by the war, with most of the surviving worlds there being remote Outer Colonies which survived precisely because of their distance from both Earth and the Covenant's invasion fronts.

Post-war era
In Project Daybreak's version of the post-war era, developments are allowed to happen slowly, over decades, rather than them all being compressed into a period of four years; this is to give the setting more breathing room. The consequences of the war on the UNSC are one example of this. The general impression one got from 343i's post-war fiction was that the Human-Covenant War ultimately wasn't that big of a deal. While we see some glassed worlds, there is an equal number of surviving colonies with thriving industries; and many of the glassed worlds have already been reterraformed just five short years later. Not only that, the UNSC was apparently building an ultimate super-ship in secret along with a revolutionary new batch of Spartans, all of which conveniently went online within weeks of the war's end. Then the UNSC started pumping out hundreds of new ships without a care in the world.

Not so in Daybreak. The UNSC will spend much of 2553 and 2554 simply winding down from war footing, figuring out what's left, and recalling battlegroups on remote assignments, and overall the rest of the 2550s are a precarious time. There is also a social and cultural shift in the overall context of the setting wherein humans are no longer in their own bubble, but part of a wider interstellar community now whether we like it or not. This is already a theme in 343i's work to some extent, but it's not communicated as clearly because the ex-Covenant is given little civilizational character beyond a few scattered planets. In any case, the Covenant is really, really big and very old, which will be showing in various ways.

The UNSC Infinity or the Spartan-IVs don't exist, not as such. This is one of our more obvious changes in comparison to 343i's version, but is reflective of a broader trend of consciously avoiding the UNSC's implied miracle recovery that was especially prevalent in Halo 4-era 343i material. We feel that this was not a narratively satisfying turn, and served only to contrive an altered power dynamic for its own sake. As well, other technological upgrades are more modest; the UNSC will have access to Covenant-derived slipspace drives and FTL communicators, but only in small numbers at first. FTL communications are also not universal, require considerable physical infrastructure to operate, and are not real-time outside in-system communications; still, much of the human sphere has been linked to the network by the 2570s. In some areas, human technology actually regresses for a time as the specialist infrastructure and expertise required to build and maintain it is lost, and other interests - mainly relief and reconstruction - are prioritized.

The UNSC fleet is gradually modernized, but there are more stumbling blocks and half-measures on the way; everything doesn't just work out splendidly; budget cuts reign in this era, and technicians and engineers are in short supply, forcing the UNSC to adopt various compromises and creative solutions; for one, many new ship designs are rolled out unfinished, only to be upgraded with various modern developments as they become available. Rather than full energy shields, ships are fitted with EM buffers to disrupt incoming plasma munitions; rather than every ship receiving new drives or FTL comms kits, only battlegroup flagships do, and lesser vessels must piggy-back on them. Things are cobbled together from various sources, including outdated tech and scavenged Covenant materials. In the absence of resources, a lot of things are improvised.

The war and its fallout will also mark an upheaval in human society and politics. The United Earth Government, sidelined during the war, loses much of its power in the grand scheme of things. A new interim coalition is established, known as the Phoenix Initiative, with the goal of facilitating the colonies' reclamation and the resettlement of the various populations displaced by the war.

Some worlds attacked by the Covenant survived with minor damage, and can be reclaimed with relative ease, though many retain Covenant stragglers. Worlds targeted by strategic plasma bombardment, or full glassing, can only be reclaimed in the long term, with estimates ranging from decades to up to three centuries of ecosphere restoration and reterraforming. Covenant terraforming technologies provided by the Concord can expedite this process in some cases, but the timeline of reclamation efforts is still measured in the order of decades, rather than years.

It should be noted that in contrast to 343i's fiction, there is much less emphasis on the Forerunner era spilling over to the modern day, nor is Reclamation a defining theme or conflict; the entire notion of Reclamation differs (see the "Forerunner backstory" section above), and the Mantle is just an old philosophy that has little to no relevance in the present, except in the minds of some Forerunner constructs. This is because to us, the most interesting parts of the post-war setting usually don't have anything to do with the Mantle, though similar ideas can definitely manifest in other forms.

Daybreak seeks to underline the thematic importance of the original Halo trilogy's narrative, and particularly its ending. This means that the Covenant is, for all intents and purposes, defeated. Not just as an organization, but also in terms of what they represent as a threat, which informs what conflicts the narrative prioritizes. This means that antagonists with the primary goal of eradicating humanity will take the back seat to other conflicts; such factions will still exist within the universe, but they are not narratively significant in the grand scheme of things. This does not mean the UNSC will run out of enemies, but those enemies will -- by and large -- have goals other than genocide. For example, you can still have warlords who wish to assimilate humanity as a client species, or to neutralize the potential threat the UNSC represents, and/or be ideologically or religiously opposed to the UNSC's use of artificial intelligence or their exploitation of Forerunner artifacts. Think outside the box; things get interesting when you have more to work with. Also, religiously-motivated factions can be surprisingly interesting and deep, as long as that religion is given proper definition and character; just note that there's more to the Covenant faith than "exterminate all humans". Particularly to the Sangheili, the idea of continuing the war becomes something of a taboo after the Hierarchs' duplicity is partly uncovered; for the campaign of genocide is a living reminder of the Prophets' treachery. The Writ of Union has been sundered, which means the Prophets can no more hold sway over the Sangheili.

Consequently, Daybreak's focus leans more on sociological drama and development than spectacle and threat escalation. While cooperation between humanity and the ex-Covenant species is beset by many challenges both without and within, it is not inherently doomed to failure; overall, there is more emphasis on the cooperation side of things than not, while still injecting due political nuance. Coupled with war-era movements among the Sangheili that already questioned the Hierarchs' motives for the war and the Great Schism, there are broadly speaking far more Sangheili who are either in some way sympathetic or indifferent about humanity than there are those who would wipe us out. On the other hand, many Jiralhanae do wish to continue the war, as their claim to legitimacy -- as bestowed upon them by Truth -- rests on it.

In terms of technology and socio-cultural cohesion, the ex-Covenant will suffer the consequences of High Charity's loss, but we hope to provide a more nuanced version of just how that happens, on what scales and over what kind of time span. The Sangheili's almost-comical technical ineptitude which reached its zenith in Glasslands' infamous barn scene is significantly downplayed, and there is no unexplained mass disappearance of Huragok. There is also more thought put into just how the division of labor would have worked in the Covenant and what extent of technological hegemony would've been practical in day-to-day life - e.g. because there are only so many San'Shyuum, most of whom hang out in High Charity, there has to be a level of technology other species can repair, even if they do not understand all of the underlying principles.

Because the power dynamic between the UNSC and the ex-Covenant is so radically recontextualized, the events of the Kilo-Five trilogy never happen, because they realistically cannot happen in this version. ONI will attempt to play ex-Covenant factions against one another, but this largely happens in their own turf, or in the contested crossing regions between the human and ex-Covenant spheres. ONI does not have the resources, intel or practical ability to project power to ex-Covenant space proper; even reaching Sanghelios in the first place would take weeks if not months, and navigating the tangle of political affiliations in the Covenant's old core would be so far beyond their ability it's not even funny. In turn, ex-Covenant polities will also play human polities off of one another, particularly those with strongly anti-alien sentiments. Several anti-alien factions spring up after the war's end, as there is much pent-up anger at the Covenant, and the UNSC/Phoenix Initiative's policy of appeasement - the only practical option as it may be - infuriates a lot of people.

On that note, the Swords of Sanghelios are recontextualized. Instead of being the name of the totality of the Arbiter's alliance, they are the martial government of Sanghelios which controls much of the Urs system, and a key player within a larger entity - the Concord of Reconciliation, or Concord for short, which is the main polity of allied ex-Covenant in Daybreak as of the immediate post-war decades. The Concord is hardly uniform internally, being a coalition of dozens of discrete polities across Covenant space, and some of them are bound together more closely than others. The Arbiter himself is not actually involved with the Swords at all, as his focus is much wider than Sanghelios.

While they have yet to be fully established, the events on Onyx proceed very differently; pretty much all of Glasslands can be thrown out. There is more to the story behind the Dyson sphere, and the circumstances of the survivors' escape differ (a lot of this exists on the level of extensive notes pending further revisions to bring them up to date with Daybreak's current canon). The version at the moment is that the survivors (if not necessarily all of them) return to normal space around early to mid-2553. As another major change to Glasslands, Onyx remains inaccessible after Blue Team escapes. The Dyson sphere is not returned to normal space, and the Onyx Sentinels guarding it do not disappear, both of which pose major obstacles for entry. This will remain so for the immediate future, likely several decades if not centuries.

The events of Hunters in the Dark never happen, because the Ark is accessed again only much later in the timeline and because HitD didn't contribute much of anything meaningful to the overall story.

The events of Halo 4 or Halo 5 don't happen. The Master Chief is set to return decades later, but under markedly different circumstances. This also means the Didact never awakens, because there never were two Didacts in the first place. As such, the attack on New Phoenix doesn't happen in this version, but since there is nothing else planned for that location at the moment, contributors may consider if some other disaster might befall that city should it become narratively relevant. The Created uprising also doesn't happen in this timeline, for obvious reasons. However, the overarching theme of AIs' relationship with humanity will be addressed in the post-war years and beyond, though hopefully in subtler ways. The Assembly from Halo: Reach's data pads - most pointedly their decision to deepen their ties with humanity - will be a factor as well, and it is expected that (after an initial period of stagnation due to loss of industry and expertise) smart AI development will continue to make progress throughout the later years of the 26th century and into the future, along with developments in the relationship and power dynamic between AIs, humans and potentially other species.

The Insurrection -- or more aptly, colonial independence movements -- continues to be a presence post-war, but there are developments that will change its course in the future; for one, the Phoenix Initiative's FTL communications and faster ships - limited as they are at first - will bring faraway colonies closer. The entire power dynamic of the human sphere has shifted, and the UNSC is no longer the biggest kid on the block; the emergence of post-Covenant factions as a permanent threat means the need for defense is greater than before, potentially motivating colonies that cannot defend themselves to accept UNSC control. On the other hand, trade with ex-Covenant as well as other factors like regional alliances will increase the self-sufficiency and power of certain colonies, particularly those along the Via Casilina trade route, many of which survived the war by virtue of being furthest away from the Covenant's incursion points. As well, many colonies will have seeded their own colonies further out that not even the UEG knows of, which will change power dynamics in the future.

Another factor of note that doesn't exist in canon is the Strewn Shore: a collection of colonies beyond the Madara Fringe settled by a flotilla of refugees from High Charity. They become an important player in the affairs of the further-out colonies of Sector 3, and serve as one of the places where human and ex-Covenant societies intersect in the post-war decades.

The next major defining event of the post-war era for humanity will be the New Diaspora: mankind's decades-long (and in many cases, permanent) exile from Earth and the Sol system after a post-Covenant warlord -- Daybreak's version of Jul 'Mdama -- takes it over at the beginning of the 2580s. This is both revenge for his betrayal by ONI, and a pragmatic stratagem to take over the portal to the Ark, inactive as it may be for the moment. However, this version of the character, at this point in time, is also content with letting the human population either leave or submit to his rule, rather than outright exterminating them. While some humans remain in Sol, they will be little more than Jul's subjects, denied advanced technology and under constant watch. So most opt to leave, and over the course of several years, much of the human population migrates away from Sol, ending up on existing UEG worlds, new colonies established after the war, and independent colonies, as well as worlds predominated by ex-Covenant. The UNSC and the Phoenix Initiative survive, though much reduced, now based out of a number of surviving extrasolar systems; however, they also become more mobile than before, based out of ships and mobile habitats rather than planets. But it does mark the effective end of the UEG. The Diaspora is also destined to end, after Jul's arc reaches its endgame at the Ark and a UNSC force retakes the Sol system, but things are still irrevocably changed and many of those who fled will never return.

Beyond the 2600s, things are still a bit fuzzy. Utilization of the Ark's industrial capacity and the opening of more portals will eventually usher in an age of progress that once again shifts the power balance in the Orion Arm, but it'll still be a good while before that happens.

Technology, ships and vehicles

 * Most ship and weapon designs that have appeared since 2009 are subjected to scrutiny, and many do not appear (e.g. most armor designs, and some of the more exotic REQ items in Halo 5). Some weapons and vehicles do exist but their designs have been reimagined to suit Daybreak's art style.


 * We're spacing out technological developments and the reverse-engineering of Covenant tech a bit more to the last few years of the war and the post-war decades, as opposed to it all being congested to January-March 2553.


 * The CSO and CRS cruisers do not make it in as such; equivalent ships are given more unique designs, and the CSO is quite a bit smaller.


 * Following the war, there is a clearer continuity from late-war UNSC ship designs to post-war ones. War-era ships remain in mainline use for some time, though many receive gradual upgrades as new technology becomes available. Late-war upgrades will inform improvements in the post-war era; structural enhancements that proved themselves during the war are put to production on new ships. For example, new UNSC vessels are to be equipped with improved superstructures, double hulls, ablative armor, and prismatic chaff screens designed to scatter lasers and particle beams. Later on, UNSC ships will begin to receive reflective nanolaminate-coated hulls -- or sections thereof -- to better defend against lasers and other directed-energy weaponry. Full starship energy shields are possible but not cost-effective nor energy-efficient for the postwar UNSC in most cases; anti-plasma EM shunts are more of a precision solution that exemplifies the UNSC's strengths of optimization and use of AI automation, which is required to calculate the electromagnetic gradients to precisely intercept torpedoes. However, the utility of these devices remains limited until upgraded Autumn-style reactor designs pan out, boosting UNSC vessels' power generation capability especially in combat situations.
 * Introducing new warship types takes time, and typically involves years of military-industrial politics and compromises; most of those surrounding the question of whether to upgrade older ships or build all-new ones. Most new ship types introduced within a decade of the end of the war were already being planned during the war, but did never come about due to the constant pressure on the UNSC.

Characters

 * Several characters are aged up to fix seeming inconsistencies in their portrayal in the narrative, and partly to reflect advances in medical technology.
 * Dr. Halsey is some years older to better reflect her portrayal in the original Nylund novels
 * Chief Mendez is about 15 years older than his canon incarnation, as he is depicted as a veteran instructor by the time of the start of the SPARTAN-II program.
 * Stanforth and Parangosky are both considerably older, Lord Hood to a lesser extent. In Stanforth's case, this is to fix several inconsistencies regarding his age and rank, while Parangosky and Hood are aged up to reflect a trend.


 * Admiral Parangosky grows senile and detached from reality in her later years, thanks to both longtime stress and stimulant overuse. It is only thanks to her more level-headed subordinates that some of her more destructive plans are never put to practice, and eventually she is quietly retired.


 * The Arbiter is a much more active character post-war. In an inversion of his title change in Glasslands, he doesn't even seek to be Kaidon of Vadam again, and probably wouldn't qualify anyway; instead, he now goes primarily by his title as the Arbiter, which is symbolic of his "rebirth" as well as supposedly impartial role. He is an aggressive uniter and reformer who zips around the Covenant sphere, making alliances, dispensing justice to his foes, and relief to his subjects. In time, however, his succession will be another question in its own right. Mighty as he may be, the Arbiter was still one burdened by his past crimes as well as the Covenant's old modes of thinking. And the true fruition of his Concord, should it come to pass, may need perspective not even Thel himself was capable of.


 * Jul 'Mdama is in, and his arc is meant to stay largely true to the spirit of the character in canon, but the timeline and many of the actual events on his path are altered radically to better suit the overall universe of Daybreak.

Spartans

 * We try to avoid 343i's pitfall of Spartan-II numbers creep, and the consequent need to remedy this with lore band-aids. Black Team is out, as is Halo Wars 2's version of Omega Team, along with a number of one-off Spartans of suspect story relevance (e.g. the ones who committed suicide in Homecoming). Less than a handful of the washouts may have been rehabilitated for combat duty, but these should be treated as exceptions rather than an easy way to add new Spartan-IIs. Overall, Spartans are one part of a larger cast, but not the end-all of Halo characters. See the List of Spartans for a tentative list to keep track of the Spartans' numbers.


 * Spartans, by default, are already very special and exceptional. As such, we try to avoid the fandom (and at times canon) trope of "extra special" Spartans or edgy hyper-lethal lone-wolf assassins and the like.


 * Likewise, we try to stay true to Ghosts of Onyx's thematic framing for the Spartan-III program, and so downplay the "cat-II"/MJOLNIR-wearing team concept. Since Daybreak's narrative focus is oriented forward, it is instead the Gamma and potentially Delta Companies who will provide a box of new Spartans to play with in the post-war era.
 * Alpha Company had no Spartans extracted, not as such. No one knew what would happen with PROMETHEUS, so any survivors would be those who didn't make the cut - at least formally - to the final phases of their training. ONI did find various uses for the washouts, however, and there may have been a handful of members in the company reserve who did not participate in PROMETHEUS; just not too many.
 * Beta Company had some Spartans set aside for specialist duties, but only a handful would be issued MJOLNIR prior to the war's end. This is to highlight just how rare, exclusive and thus difficult to procure MJOLNIR was at the time.
 * The history of Gamma Company's deployments is still undergoing revision, but the gist is that they were deployed in the later months of the war, and were split into three battlegroups for their final operation. Over 2/3 of the Gammas made it through the war, with some of them being stranded on a remote Covenant supply world for some time. They will make up the bulk of the UNSC's Spartan force in the post-war years. The "Smoother Problem" remains as the brain mutations responsible are irreversible, but their need for counter-drugs or "smoothers" isn't quite as frequent as shown in Last Light, as the Gammas by default are implanted with drug-dispensing implants which release the counterdrugs into their systems over a period of several months.
 * Delta Company is a blank at this point. Since there is no Spartan-IV program for the immediate future, the pressure to train Delta is higher, and the project might potentially serve as a testbed for future developments. Still, given the loss of Onyx and most of the relevant personnel, as well as the end of the war removing the immediate existential threat and the consequent diverting of funds to reconstruction, what would have been Delta Company will likely diverge considerably from the SPARTAN-III program's original concept. As well, it is likely that only part of the candidates will be trained, with most of them kept in cryostasis indefinitely. As AI-assisted special force infiltration tactics become increasingly important to post-war UNSC doctrine, this may also inform the training of the Delta candidates, and they may serve as prototypes for the next-generation Spartan program.


 * MJOLNIR generations have a definite look to them, and there's a clear visual progression from one generation to the next. However, the longer-lasting Marks (particularly IV) do experience internal development that can be roughly split up in terms of major midlife upgrades, some of which come with changes to physical architecture.


 * MJOLNIR's shield system is now reverse-engineered from Sangheili personal shields, rather than the Kig-Yar gauntlets as indicated in the original Halo novels, to reflect the increased prevalence of Elites since TFoR.


 * Following the war, Mark VI will remain the primary MJOLNIR platform for over two decades, though it will in time receive midlife upgrades; upgraded remaining Mark V suits remain in fairly constant use as well for about a decade, until its unique advantages are incorporated to Mark VI platforms in a midlife update. Overall, the end of the war removes pressure and funding from military technologies, though there are some breakthroughs once the UNSC gathers its bearings.


 * On that note, SPI development will give rise to the MIRAGE Semi-Powered Infiltration Armor in 2554, a kind of final production model of what the SPI suits were prototypes for. It's also what most Spartans post-war will be wearing. It's not quite MJOLNIR in terms of protection or force amplification, but it does the job and is stealthier, cheaper and easier to manufacture - all important to the cash- and resource-strapped postwar UNSC. Select teams of Spartan-IIIs can receive MJOLNIR suits, but they remain fairly exclusive for the time being.


 * The Mark VII will be a melding of MJOLNIR and MIRAGE technologies, along with Covenant-based upgrades and a streamlining of manufacturing processes similar to 343i's GEN2. The fusion of technologies required to make the Mark VII a reality remains "just a few years in the future" until being realized in the 2570s.


 * Spartan-IVs, as they appear in 343i canon, can safely be forgotten about, as can the idea of the Spartan branch. When that program comes about, around the 2580s, it will bear little resemblance to its canon incarnation. But there will still be limitations and sacrifices, whatever form those sacrifices take. The program will also be the product of a different society than before, shaped by new pressures both internal and external. And we need to crystallize those circumstances first before we start defining the specifics of the program.
 * However, the absence of new Spartans doesn't mean an absence of augmented people. There will be an increase in various biological and cybernetic enhancement programs and efforts in both the military and corporate sectors. Though usually not as extensive or holistic as the Spartan augmentations, many of these disparate programs - some of which already operated during the war - will pave way for the next generation of Spartans. And because of the general proliferation of physical augmentations, the new Spartans will have to introduce breakthroughs in some other area to truly be the next generation of supersoldiers.


 * Spartans, in a general sense, look more uniform, if not necessarily 100% uniform. Armor variants are strictly function-based and often switched out on a mission-by-mission basis. They are also much fewer in number; think Reach's style of customization over Halo 4 or 5. Particularly in the post-war era, ad hoc modifications and components kitbashed from other armor systems will abound. For coloration, muted colors - grays, greens, dark blues - are the norm, as well as camouflage coatings and photoreactive pieces to break off one's silhouette.


 * Nobody's going to be figuring out any pattern in the SPARTAN-II candidates' disappearances or the clones' deaths, ever. 75 children on hundreds of colonies -- even if they were picked from just a couple dozen worlds -- is a statistically insignificant number, and would be drowned out by unrelated disappearances and deaths; and without FTL communications or fully efficient, standardized information-sharing protocols between planetary administrations and/or law enforcement forces, no one would ever be able to pick up on any kind of pattern in the kidnappings, or the flash clone deaths even less so.