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The Didact as I imagined him.
Posted By: The Lionheart <angeliclionheart@hotmail.com>Date: 10/15/12 2:24 a.m.

In Response To: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Week 1 (Postmortem)


Okay, so I know that it is super late, but I really did want to put this info here while this particular contest was going on.

What I'm going to do is post the canonical visual information that we have about the Didact, and then I'm going to use a series of images to walk you through what I visualize in MY mind as being his face, his body, and his armor.

Without further ado:

[Body while in his Cryptum:]
"In fact, curled up like some monstrous, wrinkled embryo, it resembled a great corpse, shriveled by time--mummified."

"...the Didact's shriveled body."

"...the wrinkled hide..."

"...the body's bony hips..."

--> [Side-track: Description of Warrior-Servants who had visited Bornstellar's family in Orion:]
"Powerful, fiercely handsome, giving me [...] visions of strength and nightmares of great destruction."

[Resuming description of Didact's appearance while in his Cryptum.]
"A full-rate Promethean of the Warrior-Servants, the Didact, revived and uncurled, might have risen to twice my height and weighed four to five times my mass. His shoulders by themselves might once have been as broad as my outstretched arms. But now, lacking armor, alive or dead, he looked as vulnerable and ugly as a hatchling bird."

"The Didact's face was now visible for the first time. It was indeed a strong face, the skin drawn tight against the natural skull beneath."

"...the shriveled arms... the skin was not cold, but warm..."

"...the Didact's dried lips..."

"...wide, grayish white teeth."

"...the clenched jaws..."

"...the shriveled cheeks..."

"...the large body actually stirring."

"Had the arm not been shriveled, the weight might have defeated me."

"...the skin took on a different sheen and a kind of suppleness returned."

"I helped painstakingly restore the shriveled Promethean from his long slumber..."

"His rheumy eyes opened."
[Definition of rheum: a thin discharge of the mucous membranes, especially during a cold. This is a synonym of catarrh, which means: inflammation of a mucous membrane, especially of the respiratory tract, accompanied by excessive secretions]

"...he murmured, his voice like rocks grinding on the floor of a deep ocean."
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0M7FJ9Qta8#t=7m13s]

"After ten days, the Didact ventured out of the chamber to take exercise. His skin had lost most of its wrinkled character and taken on a more natural grayish pink color."

"His dark-hooded eyes..."

"...the Didact's exalted grammar and tone."

"His sadness was a pall over the beach and the jungle."
[Definition of "pall": anything that covers, shrouds, or overspreads, especially with darkness or gloom.]

"...it seemed as if the very air filled with his weary gloom."

"...through his narrow gray eyes."

"The pale fur on his scalp bristled."

"The Didact inspected me and for a moment, in that great stone visage, carved or artfully mauled by history and grief, he lifted his lips and almost smiled as if he were still young."

[Comparing The Confirmer to other Warrior-Servants:]
"He had none of the patches of bluish white bristling fuzz on crown or on shoulders that marked the Warrior-Servants I had known, including the Didact."

If there are other descriptions in Cryptum of the appearance of The Didact, I have missed them.

[The description of Bornstellar's parents, however, blends into how I picture the Didact:]
"...my father was four meters tall, broad-shouldered and thick-legged, his skin like polished onyx, his well-trimmed patches of hair purplish white, his eyes black flecked with silver..."

"...my mother was just over two meters tall, slender as a reed, her hair deep red and skin silver-gray."

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So! On to the pictures.

To start, I feel it best to start with Bungie's aesthetics for Forerunner warriors, given that it was they who first conceived them; not necessarily the Didact's aesthetics, but at least a Promethean's, for sure:

Next, the heretofore most canonical instance of The Didact's appearance is likely this image of The Didact and Bornstellar looking out over Forerunner structures. It definitely gives you an idea of the size difference:

Next, we have a fanart of the head/face, which, while very re-evolved human, still captures the human equivalent of what I imagine his facial expression to be like--focused, proud, and all business, like the dutiful captain of the royal guard; I imagine that this is a guy who has let what he does for a living completely define him and replace whatever sense of identity he had before he started doing his job:

When I imagined him in the terminals of Halo 3, long before Cryptum released, his headshape and bodysize were more in line with what I've recently seen in Prometheus; human-like, but still noticeably different:


This concept art of Forerunners from "the Halo MMO that never was" further reinforced that idea at the time:

And, ever since reading Cryptum, I'd always visualized his face as being a literal stony visage, where the surface of his skin was hardened and stern-looking:

Also after reading the Greg Bear novels, I was left with more of a pronounced physicality due to multiple mutations that further improve his status as a living weapon, and I could think of only a couple of depictions of ONE character I'd seen before that compared, and that was Darkseid. Extremely broad at the shoulders, incredibly strong, hardened skin, and extremely confident. Also, huge. Very huge. Pretty much everything else about the character isn't applicable, though:

One thing that wasn't captured with Darkseid, though, was the regality that I imagined The Didact to have. I knew that he carried himself with great pride, purpose, and confidence, all while being huge. Thankfully Colossus was able to help give ideas of this, albeit with cloth rather than floaty Forerunner armor bits:

...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand yeah. So that's a walkthru of what I imagined The Didact to look like.

If I could draw worth a darn, I'd draw it out for you, but I cannot. Hopefully this gets you into the same ballpark of what I was thinking of, though.

We're all going to see 343's depiction of him soon enough, I'm sure.

Message Index



Replies:

Visualizing the Halo Universe: Week 1Postmortem 9/23/12 11:47 a.m.
     Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Week 1thebruce0 9/26/12 9:06 a.m.
           Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Week 1TDSpiral 9/26/12 10:47 a.m.
           Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Week 1iForge 9/26/12 11:20 a.m.
           Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Week 1Jaydee 9/26/12 12:20 p.m.
           Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Week 1davidfuchs 9/27/12 12:42 a.m.
           Totally just caught this threadpadraig08 9/27/12 9:46 p.m.
     Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Week 1AddiCt3d 2CHa0s 9/27/12 7:14 p.m.
           Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Week 1Beckx 9/27/12 7:19 p.m.
                 Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Week 1AddiCt3d 2CHa0s 9/27/12 11:08 p.m.
                       Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Week 1Quirel 9/27/12 11:53 p.m.
                       Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Week 1AddiCt3d 2CHa0s 9/28/12 3:12 p.m.
     First submission!Postmortem 9/27/12 9:24 p.m.
     Two days to submit your artwork!Postmortem 9/28/12 9:45 p.m.
     I made somethin' *IMG*TDSpiral 9/28/12 11:02 p.m.
           Its sucks and I don't like you or your face. *BSC*INSANEdrive 9/28/12 11:08 p.m.
                 Also this is what Class 12 should prob. look like. *NM*INSANEdrive 9/28/12 11:11 p.m.
           Soooooo awesome. *NM*NsU Soldier 9/28/12 11:21 p.m.
           Re: I made somethin' *IMG*padraig08 9/28/12 11:37 p.m.
           In complete awe.Quirel 9/28/12 11:41 p.m.
                 Re: In complete awe. *Fix'd*INSANEdrive 9/28/12 11:53 p.m.
           Te odio. *NM*Jaydee 9/28/12 11:51 p.m.
                 Re: Te odio.Jaydee 9/28/12 11:52 p.m.
           ME GUSTA *NM*The Lionheart 9/29/12 12:01 a.m.
           I am so full of awe, it's awful *NM*JDQuackers 9/29/12 12:44 a.m.
           Amazing...Mid7night 9/29/12 1:28 a.m.
           Re: I made somethin' *IMG*AddiCt3d 2CHa0s 9/29/12 1:33 a.m.
                 Re: I made somethin' *IMG*Quirel 9/29/12 1:41 a.m.
                 Re: I made somethin' *IMG*TDSpiral 9/29/12 3:32 p.m.
                       Re: I made somethin' *IMG*AddiCt3d 2CHa0s 9/29/12 11:32 p.m.
           Re: I made somethin' *IMG*mastrbiggy 9/29/12 2:30 a.m.
           Very nice! *NM*Kermit 9/29/12 6:29 a.m.
           IncredibleMetalingus627 9/29/12 7:38 a.m.
           Well, that's the best thing I'm going to see todayLostSpartan987 9/29/12 8:31 a.m.
           Oh and...INSANEdrive 9/29/12 10:02 a.m.
                 Re: Oh and...TDSpiral 9/29/12 3:18 p.m.
                       Re: Oh and...thebruce0 10/1/12 9:41 a.m.
                 Whoa, nostalgic...TDSpiral 9/29/12 3:34 p.m.
                       :) Halo CommunityINSANEdrive 9/29/12 3:48 p.m.
           Didact face sketch *IMG*TDSpiral 9/29/12 4:52 p.m.
                 Re: Didact face sketch *IMG*INSANEdrive 9/29/12 5:55 p.m.
                       Re: Didact face sketch *IMG*NotTheVacuum 9/30/12 9:22 a.m.
                 + + !! *NM*AddiCt3d 2CHa0s 9/29/12 11:33 p.m.
                 Re: Didact face sketch *IMG*NsU Soldier 9/30/12 8:31 p.m.
                       Re: Didact face sketch *IMG*TDSpiral 10/1/12 4:36 p.m.
                 Re: Didact face sketch *IMG*serpx 9/30/12 9:56 p.m.
                       Re: Didact face sketch *IMG*TDSpiral 10/1/12 4:50 p.m.
                             +1 *NM*The Lionheart 10/1/12 5:25 p.m.
                             Re: Didact face sketch *IMG*demoncarnotaur 10/2/12 12:54 a.m.
           Re: I made somethin' *IMG*Leviathan 10/2/12 7:52 p.m.
     Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Week 1Aerostrike 04 9/30/12 12:13 a.m.
           Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Week 1Postmortem 9/30/12 1:48 p.m.
     Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Diddy *IMG*Hedgemony 9/30/12 3:54 a.m.
           Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Diddy *IMG*TDSpiral 9/30/12 10:16 a.m.
           Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Diddy *IMG*NartFOpc 9/30/12 10:46 a.m.
                 Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Diddy *IMG*Hedgemony 9/30/12 10:53 a.m.
           Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Diddy *IMG*Kermit 9/30/12 12:01 p.m.
     My entry *IMG*Archilen 9/30/12 7:30 a.m.
           Very nicedavidfuchs 9/30/12 10:00 a.m.
                 Re: Very niceArchilen 9/30/12 11:18 a.m.
                       Re: Very niceTDSpiral 9/30/12 12:28 p.m.
                             Re: Very nicedavidfuchs 9/30/12 12:40 p.m.
                                   Re: Very niceQuirel 9/30/12 12:48 p.m.
                                         Re: Very nicedavidfuchs 9/30/12 1:29 p.m.
           That's awesome! :D *NM*TDSpiral 9/30/12 10:15 a.m.
           Re: My entry *IMG*Leviathan 10/2/12 7:48 p.m.
     Week 1: Winners and FeedbackPostmortem 9/30/12 1:53 p.m.
           Winner*Postmortem 9/30/12 2:29 p.m.
           Awesome work all around!padraig08 9/30/12 3:38 p.m.
           Re: Week 1: Winners and FeedbackAddiCt3d 2CHa0s 9/30/12 8:42 p.m.
     The Didact as I imagined him.The Lionheart 10/15/12 2:24 a.m.
           Re: The Didact as I imagined him.Postmortem 10/15/12 10:47 a.m.



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