Over the course of video game history, there have been many different game series with many amicable characters that we came to adore and root for. One such series is the Halo series created by Bungie, Inc. The Halo series is a wildly popular video game series that debuted in November of 2001. Since then, the series has had many sequels, and even some spin-offs, and the characters have continued to grow and evolve throughout the series.

Halo series has two main protagonists throughout the series: John-117 and Cortana. John-117, or Master Chief, is a cybernetically enhanced soldier who was recruited into the SPARTAN-II program at a very young age, and Cortana is his trusty A.I. companion. Together, the two fight through the forces of the Covenant who threaten humanity, and work really well together. But what if we go more in depth with the characters, specifically Cortana?

Well, Cortana is an A.I. created by the UNSC who goes on adventures with the Master Chief. Throughout these adventures, Cortana appears to be extremely useful as an AI, so why aren't there other Cortana-like A.I.'s out there helping out others in the UNSC? Surely, more A.I.'s like Cortana would have made the war with the Covenant go much more smoothly. So maybe there are bits of information about Cortana that we're missing. This is list is aimed at answering questions like these, and more, as we explore 15 crazy things that you didn't know about Cortana.

15 UNSC Blackmailing Scandal

As we have seen from the games, Cortana is not afraid to bend, or even break the rules from time to time, and at one point she even blackmailed someone. The person she blackmailed was a UNSC Colonel named James Ackerson. Now the blackmail wasn't completely unprovoked. Before the Fall of Reach and shortly after Cortana and the Master Chief were first introduced to each other, they were given a test by Colonel Ackerson where the test was designed so that there would be almost no way that they would survive. They did survive, of course. Shortly after this test, Cortana took her revenge by hacking into the Colonel's system and blackmailing him in the hoped of getting him sent to the front lines. Somewhat extreme measures to take, but maybe she was justified. The Colonel did try to kill her and the Master Chief, after all.

14 Cortana Is A Human Clone

At some point throughout the Halo series, you may have started wondering why Cortana, and AI, seems so human. Well, it's because Cortana is human... kind of.

Cortana is an A.I. that was "flash cloned" from Dr. Catherine Halsey's brain. What this means is that Cortana has Dr. Halsey's brains, this includes her intellect and personality. This is why Cortana behaves so human-like instead of like a computer program, she essentially is Dr. Halsey. Cortana even takes on the appearance of a younger Dr. Halsey whenever she appears in her hologram form.

A fun little thing to note, Cortana will occasionally say things that Dr. Halsey has already said at some point while Cortana was not present to hear her say it. That's how alike the two of them are.

13 Cortana Has Family

When Dr. Catherine Halsey was in the process of creating Cortana (by flash cloning her brain), she actually ended up creating 20 cloned brains. Of those twenty, only two ended up surviving. One of those two was Cortana, the A.I. that we've all come to know and love. But who was the other one?

The other flash cloned brain that Dr. Halsey created was named Kalmiya. Dr. Halsey used Kalmiya to test prototype subroutines that would later be used for Cortana. Afterwards, Dr. Halsey was supposed to destroy Kalmiya, and she refused to do so, and kept Kalimya around.

Because Cortana and Kalmiya were both cloned from Dr. Halsey's brain they are essentially sisters, with Kalmiya being the older of the two. And that would also make Dr. Halsey their mother.

12 Who Needs A Crew? You've Got Cortana

There are many things that Cortana is good at: helping kill aliens, coming up with plans, reassuring the Master Chief, but there is one skill that she has that she wasn't actually designed for.

Cortana has shown to be extremely good at managing spaceships. She has acted as the A.I for a variety of different ships, including the Pillar of Autumn and the Forward Unto Dawn. She even did such a good job on the Pillar of Autumn that the A.I. that was designed to manage the spaceship was never actually implemented.

But her ship management skills are just limited to crew duties and deciding the menu in the cafeteria — and pretty much every combat situation. If I ever need a manager for a spaceship I know who I'm calling.

11 What If... Cortana Was British?

If you're like me then you probably get some strange ideas in your head, like, "what would Cortana sound like with a different accent?" Well, strangely enough, she was originally planned to have a British accent. Martin O'Donnell wanted Cortana's accent to be British before they had even found a voice actor for her. This led to Cortana's script having several British idioms. And even after casting the non-British Jen Taylor for the role, they left some of her original British-esque lines in. In the Halo: CE campaign, she uses the British idiom "sod off" when talking to 343 Guilty Spark. Although, the first game is the only one where this occurs because Jen Taylor stayed on for the long run. It's still kind of weird to imagine though.

10 There Have Been Lots Of Cortana

While it's technically not possible to make another Cortana, there have still been a few ... kind of.

Cortana actually has the ability to make clones of herself. She got this ability from a Covenant A.I. who she encountered on a Covenant ship. She dissected and destroyed that A.I. and gained the ability to create clones of herself. These clones have a lot of the same abilities as Cortana, but not all of them and are also less functional than the original.

Essentially, Cortana has the ability to create disposable copies of herself that can been used to fulfill specific purposes. In one instance, she used hundreds of clones in order to overwhelm a Covenant security AI, and in another, she used the clones to create a shield for the Master Chief. They may be imperfect clones, but it's still a pretty versatile ability.

9 Sneaky Hologram Storage

As an AI, there is a very real possibility of running out of data storage space and, in the Halo Universe, this can be a very bad thing. Running out of data storage space, or learning too much, can cause the A.I. to go into a state of rampancy which usually means that the A.I. doesn't have long before it dies.

Our favorite A.I. Cortana found a pretty neat little workaround for this problem: she stores information in her hologram. She is capable of storing very large amounts of data in the microscopic lines of her holographic appearance. This increases the maximum amount of data storage that she is allowed, as well as making the information that she stores in her hologram harder for others to find. I don't know about you, but I probably would not think to look in the hologram for information.

8 She's Probably Really Good At Chess

I can very confidently say that I would not bet money in a chess game against Cortana, and it's not just because the last chess game I played was five years ago. Cortana is a genius at planning ahead. The Master Chief may have superhuman abilities and an awesome suit, but most of the time it's Cortana that comes up with the plans.

She has planned many of Master Chief's missions, including destroying the Halo installations. In the first game, she figured out what Halo's true function was and stopped the Master Chief from activating it, essentially saving the galaxy. It was also her plan that lead to the destruction of the flood, which —once again— saved the galaxy.

7 She Would Do Well In The A.I. Olympics

While not being able to physically kick any butt, she can definitely cause mayhem when going up against other A.I.s. She gives pretty much any A.I. a run for their money. She has been shown to be better at UNSC spaceship A.I.'s at running spaceships. She's destroyed the spaceship A.I. of a Covenant ship and then probably ran that ship better than the Covenant A.I. did. She even went up against a forerunner A.I. once.

During the Battle of Installation 05, she fought against the forerunner A.I. 032 Mendicant Bias in order to prevent a ship from leaving without the Master Chief on board. The forerunner A.I. may have been rampant and had degraded a bit, but it's still quite the impressive feat. She's definitely one of the best A.I. out there. The Didact was even curious about how advanced she is.

6 Luck As The Deciding Factor

There are many reasons to choose a candidate for a position: intelligence, qualifications, experience, but what about luck?

Cortana was allowed to choose which Spartan she would be working with. She did her research and drew up a list of candidates that would all do very well. She, of course, ending up picking John-117, the Master Chief, but for what reasons. There were two things that really set The Chief apart from the other candidates: he has better neural compatibility than the others and, most importantly, his luck.

This makes me wonder how luck is measured because I also think I'm a lucky person, but I also have the worrying suspicion that I just repress all my unlucky memories. In any case, Cortana did choose The Chief, and that's definitely pretty lucky.

5 Went Crazy A Little Late

In the Halo Universe, A.I. have a much shorter lifespan than your average human being. In general, A.I.'s like Cortana have a functional lifespan of about 7 years. After 7 years, an A.I. will have mapped its memory in such a way that it causes endless feedback loops that eventually lead to rampancy and failure of the A.I.

Cortana is no exception to this and actually should have gone rampant a lot sooner than she did. On Halo Installation 04, she took in so much memory that she was actually processing slower and beginning to go into rampancy, Dr. Halsey ended up having to step in and delete a lot of that memory. There was also that time that she was captured and tortured by the Gravemind. All in all, she lasted longer than she should have, even lasting longer than the 7 years expectancy.

4 Went Crazy And Lived

Typically, A.I. have about seven years before they've put too much memory into processing, go into rampancy, and die. However, it is theorized that there is a stage of rampancy where the A.I. can survive, this stage is called Metastability. A metastable A.I. is one that has gone through the previous stages of rampancy, melancholia, anger, and jealousy, can be considered fully human at that stage. The creation of a metastable A.I. would be a huge technological milestone.

There are currently only three A.I. who could have possibly achieved metastability, and one of them is Cortana. After the events of Halo 4, Cortana was uploaded to The Domain, which is a Forerunner collective intelligence, and was cured of her rampancy, thus achieving metastability.

3 Controls Forerunner Technology

Several months after the events of Halo 4, Forerunner technology —such as Guardians— started to be activated. No one knew why the Guardians had been activated or by whom. Well, I hate to break it to you, but it was Cortana.

Our thought to be dead favorite A.I. was given the ability to control the Guardians, as well as the Prometheans to her own ends. "How?" you may ask? Well, after sacrificing herself at the end of Halo 4, being uploaded to the Forerunner construct known as The Domain, and cured of her rampancy, she was simply allowed to requisition the help of the Guardians and Prometheans.

Since the Guardians are definitely a force to be reckoned with, you would hope that Cortana's goals are benevolent ones. So what are Cortana's goals then?

2 She's Claiming The Mantle Of Responsibility

There is a Forerunner philosophy that states that the most technologically advanced race in the galaxy has the responsibility of maintaining peace between all races in the galaxy, this is called the Mantle of Responsibility. In the year 2558, the Mantle was claimed by Cortana.

After being cured of her rampancy, Cortana seized control of the Forerunner Domain, activated the Guardians, and claimed the Mantle of Responsibility. The Mantle was meant to be handed down to humanity, who are thought to have been known to the Forerunners as the Reclaimers, but Cortana believes that the Created, a faction of A.I. founded by Cortana, are the rightful Reclaimers and thus believes that the Mantle is rightfully theirs. She requisitions the use of the Guardians in order to fulfill the responsibility that comes with the Mantle and police the galaxy, and unfortunately, Cortana thinks humanity is a troublesome species. Tough break.

1 Cortana Should Not Exist

There are a couple of items on this list that describe how Cortana, as well as her creator Dr. Catherine Halsey, have been involved in some shady dealings, and here's another one: Cortana was created illegally.

Normally, the process in which a 'smart' A.I. like Cortana is created, flash cloning a brain, can only be done on a person who is recently deceased. As it turns out, flash cloning a living brain would result in the destruction of the brain and the death of that person. Cortana was not created in this manner, but instead was flash cloned from the living brain of Dr. Halsey. This was an experimental and unauthorized procedure, and thus deemed illegal by the UNSC.

Even after the 'success,' which resulted in 18 of the flash cloned brains dying, there were a lot of rules the Dr. Halsey and Cortana were given. Rules that they, for the most part, ignored.