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Cortana
'Halo' character
A render of Cortana's appearance in Halo 5 (2015)
First game	Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)

Cortana is a fictional artificial intelligence character in the Halo video game series. Voiced by Jen Taylor, she appears in Halo: Combat Evolved and its sequels, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians. She also briefly appears in the prequel Halo: Reach, as well as in several of the franchise's novels, comics, and merchandise. During gameplay, Cortana provides backstory and tactical information to the player, who often assumes the role of Master Chief Petty Officer John-117. In the story, she is instrumental in preventing the activation of the Halo installations, which would have destroyed all sentient life in the galaxy.

Cortana's original design was based on the Egyptian queen Nefertiti; the character's holographic representation always takes the form of a woman. Game developer Bungie first introduced Cortana—and Halo—through the Cortana Letters, emails sent during Combat Evolved's production in 1999.

The relationship between Cortana and Master Chief has been highlighted by reviewers as one of the most important parts of the Halo games' story. Cortana has been recognized for her believability and character depth as well as her sex appeal. The character was the inspiration for Microsoft's intelligent personal assistant of the same name.

Description

Cortana is an artificial intelligence constructed from the cloned brain of Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey, the creator of the SPARTAN supersoldier project; Halsey's synaptic networks became the basis for Cortana's processors. Cortana is classified as a "smart" AI, meaning that her creative matrix is allowed to expand, in contrast to the limited matrix of other "dumb" AI characters in the stories. Cortana and other AIs are subject to a seven-year lifespan, after which they begin to dissemble and think themselves to death in a process known as rampancy.

In the games, Cortana often serves as an advisor and assistant to the player character, hacking alien computer systems and decoding transmissions. The character is portrayed as occasionally smug about her abilities. Halsey sees Cortana as a teenage version of herself: smarter than her parents, always "talking, learning, and eager to share her knowledge". Cortana is described as having a sardonic sense of humor and often cracks jokes or wryly comments, even during combat.

As an artificial construct, Cortana has no physical form or being. Cortana speaks with a smooth female voice, and projects a holographic image of herself as a woman. Cortana is said to resemble Halsey, with a similar attitude "unchecked by military and social protocol". In Halo: The Fall of Reach, Cortana is described as slender, with close-cropped hair and a skin hue that varies from navy blue to lavender, depending on her mood. Numbers and symbols flash across her form when she is thinking. Franchise development coordinator Frank O'Connor commented that Cortana is not nude, as a digital representation has no clothes or privates. 343 Industries decided to explain her settled appearance as a reflection of her personality; "So one of the reasons she is to attract and demand attention. And she does it to put people off so that they're on their guard when talking to her and she has the upper hand in those conversations," he explained.

Appearances

In video games

Cortana's first game appearance is in 2001's Halo: Combat Evolved. After the alien Covenant attack and overwhelm the human planet Reach, Cortana plots a course for the human ship Pillar of Autumn derived on coordinates found in an ancient alien artifact, which leads Autumn to the ringworld Halo. Cortana defends the ship from the Covenant until she is given to the supersoldier Master Chief to prevent her from falling into enemy hands. When the Master Chief arrives on Halo, Cortana monitors the communications channels, helps direct human survivors scattered across the ring, and assists the Master Chief in his missions. Inserted into Halo's Control Room, Cortana looks for a way to use Halo as a weapon against the Covenant, but realizes that the ring serves as a prison for the parasitic Flood; activating Halo would mean destroying all sentient life in the galaxy to prevent the Flood's spread. Defying Halo's caretaker AI, 343 Guilty Spark, Cortana takes the ring's Activation Index and assists Master Chief in destroying the ring and escaping.

In Halo 2, Cortana appears at an awards ceremony for the heroes of the previous game on the Earth defense platform Cairo Station. A Covenant fleet arrives, and Cortana takes control of Cairo's coilgun to repel the invaders. Cortana and UNSC forces travel to Delta Halo, where Master Chief and Cortana encounter the Flood intelligence Gravemind. The Gravemind sends Chief and Cortana to the Covenant city-ship of High Charity to stop the Covenant from activating Halo; Cortana infiltrates High Charity's computer systems to assist Chief, ultimately staying behind to destroy the city and Halo should Master Chief fail in his mission to stop the Covenant leadership. High Charity is assimilated by the Flood, and Cortana is left alone with the Gravemind.

In Halo 3, Cortana appears to the player in broken transmissions. Cortana manages to send a message to the Master Chief on Earth through a Flood-infected ship, revealing that she has a solution to the Flood threat. On the Forerunner installation known as the Ark, the Master Chief travels through the ruins of High Charity to rescue Cortana from the Gravemind's clutches. Cortana reveals her plan to activate the local Halo ring using the Index she still possesses, destroying the local Flood while safeguarding the galaxy. Chief and Cortana are successful, but become stranded in deep space aboard the human ship Forward Unto Dawn. Cortana activates a distress beacon, but she knows that years could pass before rescue comes. As Master Chief prepares to go into cryonic sleep to await rescue, Cortana confides to him that she will miss him. He replies to wake him when she needs him.

At the beginning of Halo 4 Cortana wakes the Chief years as Forward Unto Dawn drifts towards a Forerunner installation called Requiem. Over the course of the game, Cortana begins displaying aberrant glitches and behavior; Cortana reveals that she is suffering from rampancy as she approaches the end of her seven-year lifespan. She assists in the battle against the Didact, a rogue Forerunner who hates humans. Cortana fragments herself into pieces that overwhelm the computer system of the Didact's ship, enabling Master Chief to reach the Didact and ultimately destroy the ship. She uses the last of her energy to manifest as a solid form, bidding farewell to the Chief before seemingly dying.

Cortana's survival is revealed in Halo 5, when she calls Master Chief and his fellow Spartans of Blue Team to the Forerunner world Genesis. Cortana explains she survived the destruction of the Didact's ship and her own rampancy by entering the Domain, an ancient repository of knowledge. Granted an infinite life span by the Domain, Cortana believes that she and other AI should enforce peace through the galaxy. When Chief disagrees with her plans, Cortana imprisons Blue Team in stasis. Though Blue Team is rescued by other Spartans, Cortana proceeds with her plans, using ancient Forerunner constructs known as Guardians to enforce the Created's will throughout the galaxy.

Cortana makes a small appearance in the last levels of 2010's Halo: Reach, set shortly before the events of Combat Evolved. When the Spartan group Noble Team receives orders to destroy important intelligence inside the military installation Sword Base, Cortana contacts Noble Team and sends them to an excavation site under the base. There, Halsey entrusts Cortana to Noble Team for safekeeping, telling them that the AI carries possibly vital information derived from a buried Forerunner ship. Noble Six gives Cortana to Captain Keyes, who escapes Reach aboard Pillar of Autumn, leading to the events of Combat Evolved.

In other media

Cortana's first appearance in the Halo franchise is in the novel Halo: The Fall of Reach, a prequel to the first Halo game. Dr. Halsey allows Cortana to choose which SPARTAN-II soldier to accompany on an upcoming mission; Cortana picks the Master Chief, whom she believes is her best match. Cortana helps the Master Chief to survive the near-lethal exercises designed to test the Chief's MJOLNIR battle armor. Afterward, she plants incriminating evidence in the files of Colonel Ackerson, the ONI operative who nearly killed both of them, as revenge. Cortana also appears in the novelization of Combat Evolved, Halo: The Flood, and the following novels Halo: First Strike and Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. She is the main character in "Human Weakness", a short story written by Karen Traviss that appears in the Halo Evolutions anthology and details her time imprisoned by the Gravemind.

Character design

Cortana was designed and modeled by Bungie artist Chris Hughes. Cortana's original The character model's face was based on a sculpture of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti. Cortana's name is a variant of Curtana, the sword used by the legendary Ogier the Dane, just as the titular AI character of Bungie's previous game Marathon 2: Durandal is named after the legendary sword Durendal. Curtana's inscription reveals that the sword has the same "temper as Joyeuse and Durendal".

Cortana and the Master Chief's relationship was a core part of Halo 4's story, part of a desire to feature a more human story. Creative director Josh Holmes' mother was diagnosed with dementia during development, and his real-life struggles informed the characterization of Cortana's descent into rampancy and the Chief-Cortana relationship. Cortana's new appearance for Halo 4 was one of the game's most dramatic changes. Early in production, concept artists created a variety of "crazy ideas" and explorations for how Cortana might look. Promising 2D designs were turned into simple 3D maquettes to prototype them in the game engine. Character artist Matt Aldridge recalled that Cortana was one of the hardest characters to envision in the game because of how beloved the character is by players; one of Aldridge's goals was to create a character where scrolling lines of code would flow uninterrupted from her feet to her head. Art director Kenneth Scott was responsible for Cortana's final design. The character's motion capture was performed by Mackenzie Mason.

For Halo 5, Cortana's appearance changes significantly. Describing her previous appearance as soft and "deceptively vulnerable", 343 Industries took the story opportunity provided to change her look to reflect her new role as self-declared ruler of the galaxy. "In the first draft of the ending she was going to wear a flowing gown, have long hair, etc. She'd be very regal, very “powerful high queen." Very obviously different than she was," writer Brian Reed recalled. Her final design incorporated elements of the Spartans and Forerunners on top of her previous look, including a Forerunner glyph. "Having her wear was a nice way of having her own it too, from a symbolic standpoint," Reed said. The character was modeled and animated using motion capture and talent at 343 Industries and Axis Animation.

Voice acting

Voice actress Jen Taylor voices Cortana in the majority of the character's appearances. Despite her role in voicing other video game characters, including Princess Peach, she is not a gamer. Taylor was a college acquaintance of cinematics director Joseph Staten, and he recommended her as a possible voice for Cortana to audio director Martin O'Donnell. When choosing a voice actor for the character, Bungie originally wanted Cortana to have a British accent. O'Donnell recalled that Taylor's British accent was good, but felt it was too similar to her work for No One Lives Forever. The accent was dropped, but British colloquialisms remained in the character's dialogue. Taylor recalled that a key directive from Bungie about the character was that she not come off as nagging, despite her role as the player's guide and aid. "They wanted her to be like the girl next door, your best friend that you want to hang out with," she said. She felt that portraying Cortana was occasionally challenging because the character lacks a physical form.

For years after the first game was released Taylor remained somewhat distanced from the character, and she attended only one fan convention in six years after the release of Halo: Combat Evolved, and never having seen many of the finished cutscenes with the character until a Halo 3 launch party. Interviewed about Cortana in Halo 3, Taylor said that "There's a lot more drama and a lot less technical jargon this time around. I actually just finished a couple of lines that nearly had me in tears." Over time, Taylor's relationship with Cortana changed; " At first I was just excited to have a job and then I became more and more familiar, comfortable with and interested in her as she was developed," she recalled. "And I've sort of fallen for Cortana as far as characters go. She's remarkable." For Halo 4, Taylor performed her lines in the same room as Steve Downes, the voice of Master Chief, for the first time in the series. She credited the change for making the dialogue feel more authentic and real.

Promotion

Bungie introduced the Halo series publicly in 1999 by sending the Cortana Letters, a series of cryptic email messages, to the maintainer of marathon.bungie.org, a fan site for one of Bungie's previous series, the Marathon Trilogy. The strategic use of cryptic messages in a publicity campaign was repeated in I Love Bees, a promotion for Halo 2. Although Bungie does not consider most of the letters to be canon, Cortana speaks many of the same lines in Halo 3. According to C. J. Cowan, Bungie's director of cinematics, the studio used the character here to give story clues without actually revealing the story.

Cortana is featured in a variety of Halo merchandise. The character's first action figure was a seven-inch (178 mm) miniature released as part of the Halo: Combat Evolved series of action figures. In an interview, McLees noted that the first action figure was supposed to convey an older appearance than was depicted in the games. This was accomplished by making the figure look a little buxom, despite McLees' direct request to reduce the mass of the figure. She explains that the sculptor appeared reluctant to make the change and that time constraints ultimately left the design intact. The character is also featured in the first series of Halo 3 action figures, distributed by McFarlane Toys, and in a limited-edition silver-plated statue by Weta Workshop.

Windows digital assistant

Microsoft developed its virtual assistant for the Windows Phone operating system under the codename Cortana, but retained the name for the final product following a strong response in the developer community. The voice actor of Cortana in the games, Jen Taylor, provides the voice for the virtual assistant. Microsoft released a beta for Cortana in April 2014 with the developer release of Windows Phone 8.1. Microsoft also released Cortana virtual assistant on the Xbox One, Windows Phone 8.1, and Windows 10. The assistant is also available on iOS and Android.

Reception

Cortana was named one of the 50 greatest female characters by Tom's Hardware for the character's determination and fearlessness, which meshed perfectly with the game's protagonist. She has also been ranked as one of game's best sidekicks and companions. Cortana has also been recognized for her sex appeal; the character has featured on numerous lists of attractive video game characters and "babes" from publications such as Team Xbox, GameDaily, Games.net, Thanh Niên, and Complex. 1UP.com ranked the character as the fifth best video game computer, noting that as Cortana's sanity waned in the video games, her clothing appeared to decrease as well. Feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian argues that Cortana had gotten "more and more sexualized in every new installment."

Mike Rougeau of Complex noted that Halo 3 balanced a large conflict with a more personal one—that while the galaxy was imperiled by aliens, "more important to fans was the rescue of Cortana." While Cortana's role was greatly expanded in the game, Stuff.co.nz noted that the character "has inexplicably had a sexy makeover".

Despite mixed opinions of Halo 4's campaign as a whole, Cortana and her story was often considered a strong point of the game. IGN called Halo 4 "really Cortana's story", as saving the galaxy is of lesser importance to the Master Chief than saving Cortana, and Cortana's humanity is ultimately the game's focus. The Daily Telegraph's Tom Hoggins agreed, calling Cortana "the flickering blue heart of the game's plot", and Hoggins and reviewers for The Globe and Mail and Eurogamer singled out the character's writing and performance as high points of the game's campaign. Justin Clouse wrote that the interactions between Chief and Cortana as the latter loses her hold on sanity were "perhaps the best it's ever been". Complex's review praised the use of motion capture for Cortana, as they were given "new life" and new depth from the technology and performance.

David Their wrote that the choice for Cortana to return in Halo 5 and turn her into an antagonist provided the game "with a well earned sense of drive" and that her appearance in Halo 5 gave players another side of the character to see. "There's something unknowable about Cortana in her new role as AI God, but we've spent enough time with her throughout the series that we stick with her through the reinvention." Similarly, Patrick Dane of Bleeding Cool defended the game's divisive campaign and Cortana's turn to antagonist as an "inspired choice", driving a wedge between the most important character relationship in the games. Conversely, Matt Peckham of Time felt that the plot twist of Cortana's actions "feels strangely underwhelming", while Ars Technica's Sam Machovech called Cortana's return "dogged by a total lack of believability." Responding to criticism that 343 had turned Cortana "evil", franchise director Frank O'Connor said, "my question back to them is, 'What makes you say they’re evil?' Certainly a lot of our younger players are going to struggle with that subtlety, that nuance, because they’re expecting Darth Vader."

References

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External links

• The Cortana Letters
• Cortana's profile at Halowaypoint.com

• Halo characters
• Anthropomorphic characters in video games
• Artificial intelligence characters in video games
• Female characters in video games
• Fictional artificial intelligences
• Fictional gynoids
• Video game characters in comics
• Video game characters in literature
• Video game characters introduced in 2001
• Video game protagonists
• Video game sidekicks