The terrifying enemy The Flood was inspired by a classic children's book

One of the most feared and even hated enemies in the Halo series is The Flood, the parasitic organism that threatens all life in the universe. The creatures are terrifying and disgusting to look at and clearly feel influenced by horror movies - but that's not actually where we find the inspiration for them.

In a Rolling Stone interview with two former Halo veterans who helped design the series in its infancy, it is now revealed how The Flood came about. Robert McLees was the person who created The Flood design, and he tells us that it's actually from the world of children's books that the inspiration comes from after first failing at a few attempts:

"When the Flood became something other than an infection, it looked like a cross between a house centipede and a blood sausage. That was disgusting, but didn't look very mobile. So, there's this shape that had been skittering around in the shadowy parts of my brain that became the classic infection form."

So what was it that made everything work out instead? Well, the children's book The Saggy Baggy Elephant:

"When my daughter was born, I gathered up all those Golden Key books I remembered from my own childhood so I could read to her before she went to sleep at night. And there it was, in The Saggy Baggy Elephant, a palm tree launched into the air by dancing elephants — the weird shape that had been haunting my subconscious mind for thirty-odd years. That was the basis for the Flood Infection Form."

At this link you can check out a video reading from the above mentioned book, and sure enough, we can see what McLees means. But now we know this, and the question is whether The Flood will ever feel as scary again?

Thanks, Rock Paper Shotgun.