And while it is not clear whether the Precursors made or became the Flood, we do know that after their transformation into the infectious parasites, they attacked the Forerunners with a vengeance. There is even evidence that despite the Flood's ferocity when it first attacked ancient humans, it turned on the Forerunners with even more hatred.
Because of their actions in wiping out the Precursors, the Forerunners spelled their own doom. When humanity first ran into the Flood on their planets, they aggressively expanded onto other worlds. Forerunners mistook this expansion for an expression of humanity's violent tendencies, not realizing they were fleeing the Flood.
Thus began the Human-Forerunner War. Thanks to their superior technology, the Forerunners won. As a punishment for their aggression, the Forerunners devolved humans.
Forerunners basically set humanity down a few rungs on the evolutionary ladder. Humanity needed to start from scratch after that. This might sound confusing, but there were two Didacts alive at one point. He firmly believed that the Mantle belonged to Forerunners, and he hated humanity. This Manipular took on the consciousness of the original Didact, becoming a kind of copy. The IsoDidact was created because Forerunners initially thought that the original was dead, and they needed a skilled Warrior-Servant to lead them against the Flood.
Forerunners created AIs just as humanity eventually did, too. Their AIs were called ancillas. The Forerunner's primary ancilla was called Mendicant Bias. This intelligent construction was in charge of the Forerunners' defense against the Flood. Unfortunately, a Flood Gravemind was able to corrupt Mendicant Bias, turning him against his creators. It is partially due to Bias' betrayal that the Forerunners lost and had to activate the Halo Array as a last-ditch effort to halt the Flood. Aloy's cheeks have been the subject of a lot of mockery from gamers online in the past few days because they're a bit bigger.
Share Share Tweet Email. They leave the rest for those who would one day be guided to discover them, and, in , one would believe that they came very close to accomplishing this. Kept secret from all but the most senior members of the Ecumene Council, the Mysterium was home to thousands of treasures that the Forerunners had appropriated over their long history. Others were… trophies. Still others were unique scientific curiosities. All secreted in the Mysterium, in the heart of the capital, all untouched, preserved simply for the having of them, of collecting, of adding to the glory of all it meant to be a Forerunner.
Once, [Bornstellar] had attended a farewell feast for one of the races they had reseeded, and had unwisely eaten far more than he should have. Now, he felt as if his eyes were being fed past their ability to digest what they beheld. Row after row of beautiful, terrifying, or incomprehensible objects stretched away into the darkness; images of beings and creatures and symbols that were utterly unfamiliar to either him or any memories the Didact had possessed.
What fantastical technology lay here, gathering dust? What solutions to problems simply sat, unimagined, for thousands upon thousands of years? In his youth, Bornstellar had been enthralled by the idea of treasure. Here, now surrounded by it, he could only gape at how limited his mind had been. Something connected to the Domain, a reserve that was once wrapped in Precursor architecture, discovered on a distant and remote world in the Milky Way.
This knowledge engine, which called itself Abaddon, was taken back to the Mysterium and the entire structure of Maethrillian was constructed around it. The device was sealed in a Deadbolt, which was used to securely lock away Precursor technology. Only the First Councilor of the Ecumene would possess the key to unlock it. In this time, it helped those early Forerunners to understand the Domain.
This may sound familiar, for it was first mentioned in Halo: Cryptum as a mythical, sought-after treasure that could reactivate all Precursor constructs in the galaxy.
And it was this pursuit of the Organon — a journey for reconciliation — that ended it. Abaddon had been twisted by the firing of the Halos, just as the Precursors were when they allowed the Forerunners to commit genocide against them. Where it once served the role of protector, Abaddon sought to gain revenge by putting the surviving Forerunners on trial for crimes against the Mantle and destroying what was left of them.
Just as all seemed lost, with Abaddon moving in for the kill; Bornstellar realised his love for Chant-to-Green not for her similarities to the Librarian, but her unique differences — for how she lived and what it meant , but feared that their mission had failed.
It is at this moment that Growth-Through-Trial-and-Change, a Lifeworker formerly a Builder , previously featured in Rebirth , managed to use the Deadbolt key to interface with Abaddon and begin the restoration process of the Domain — sacrificing herself in the process.
As we know from Halo 5 given that this story was intended to retroactively explain what the game did not , the gambit was successful — this transdimensional consciousness beyond all understanding was rebooted, like a computer…. One hundred thousand years later, the Domain would return and be accessed, though not by its intended custodians.
And while it retains its capacity to exercise control over a vast network of Forerunner technology, it still appears to be barren — devoid of the ancestral memories, knowledge, and essences that once kept it aglow with wisdom. And so, he decided to make a sacrifice of his own in order to preserve the future and help the Reclaimers who will one day come to the Ark.
Splended Dust believed that the humans would need an interpreter, someone to help them understand the Ark and its history — serving the humans as Abaddon once had the Forerunners. Forerunner technology! We failed Mendicant Bias. And we failed Abaddon. It gave us the Domain. For eons, it had only ever been helpful to us.
And we… I do not want to let the humans down as well. Therefore, I will stay behind. In the only way I can, I will stay. And I will wait for the Reclaimers to come. Splendid Dust had been a politician, one used to interacting with others. It would be more difficult for him than most to adjust to centuries, perhaps millennia, utterly on his own. Like Trial, and Chant.
Like Mendicant Bias. Like me. Like everyone. Who am I to deny him the chance? Splendid Dust accepted the act of being composed with more dignity and grace than he had ever displayed hitherto. Bornstellar wept and was unashamed. He thought of Guilty Spark, once a human known as Chakas. Once his friend. You will keep it safe for the true inheritors of the Mantle. Any thoughtlessness, or cruelty, or arrogance is washed clean from you now. Yours is not — cannot be — a happy end. And thus I name you Tragic Solitude… for you shall be alone, and your noble sacrifice shall aid the Reclaimers… but in doing so, it shall break what is left of your heart.
And so, another loop closes. Full processing would take a human AI over ten thousand years to complete. A detailed breakdown and analysis of that story can be read in this article here — Mythos: The Curator, the Domain, and the Ark. Having fulfilled their promise to the Librarian, completing the final stage of the Conservation Measure and restoring the Domain, their minds turn to what comes next for themselves. It opens with the narrator watching a young boy guide a herd of alien oxen through a valley while using a wooden plough to carve deep furrows of arable soil.
Veterans of the Forerunner Saga will be all-too familiar with the young Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting and his love of hats, following his snooty acceptance of the straw hat made for him by Chakas on their adventure through Djamonkin Crater. Centuries later, after the horrors of the Forerunner-Flood war and its aftermath, Bornstellar, Chant, and their nine year old son now live together on a new world in a new galaxy.
Having eschewed their advanced technology like the inhabitants of Seaward before them , they live a simpler life as farmers who tend the land of their new home. After the child guides the oxen back to the stable, Chant arrives with a basket and blanket — on this night, they would dine under the light of the stars.
The child asks his father to tell him one of his old stories, memories of a now distant time that have still left deep scars. To Bornstellar and Chant, of course, these are not merely stories, but the reality they lived. It was real. Asking what story he would like to hear, the child responds with one of my favourite lines in the series…. This could have been so cheap, particularly following the aftermath of Halo 5. What I think removes it from that is that no attention is really drawn to that line being anything more than a child asking his father to tell him a story.
Bornstellar relates the events of Halo: Primordium to his son in the form of a fairy tale, as the truth — about Halo, about the Timeless One, about everything — would have terrified the boy.
He knows that he has to tell his son the full version some day, that the abstract, mythical nature of those events has to be pulled back one day. For it was Bornstellar who began the Forerunner Saga by saying that the Forerunner story is one that has been told many times, idealised with each retelling, until it is scarcely recognisable. And the warrior reversed all of the evils the enemy had caused on the ringworld.
That is what elevates it as a line that really earns its right to be meta. After Chant and the boy fall asleep, Bornstellar carries them back to the house and finds that he cannot settle.
Recounting this story has provoked him, the image of Halo returning to his mind compelling him to go… somewhere. He set out hiking across the countryside, ascending a snowy mountain until he reached a hidden cleft where he finds Audacity — his ship.
And another loop closes. One that goes back to something we were shown in Halo: Legends , back in , at the end of Origins I. At the back of the ship was a dun obelisk, a vertical structure that detected my approach and opened by sliding two doors out from its center.
In front of me was a hulking suit of armour — old and imposing. Its helmet appeared to wear a stern countenance, and the chestplate and pauldrons had been pocked with damage from a hundred bitter wars. All of this was distant to me, but it was still my past.
Not long after we activated Halo, the handful that remained made plans to leave. We committed ourselves to a single purpose: exile. Our kind would not live forever. I looked at the top of the obelisk where a cuneiform pattern was etched.
My old name:. We left our armour here in the ship — armour that could have kept us alive for millennia. We forsook it and everything from our past, and started anew. Me, my wife, our son. We would return to the roots of my people, millions of years before. Simple farmers who lived and loved and died. I would fail my namesake, that was for certain — nothing about me would be eternal or lasting — but I would not fail the soul my people.
What we once were before our pride, before the wars, and before Halo. We were noble, kind creatures who served one another and recognised our small place in the greater story. That is how we would be on this world. That is how the last chapter would be told. Our new life here would be the end of our great journey.
And that, seemingly, is how the story ends…. And where did the other Forerunners go? We know that they recovered two other ships capable of extragalactic travel Bravado and Impudence from Maethrillian, so they were split into at least two groups and the fate they chose was shared between them.
Did they, too, give up their armour and choose to die? Who, then, is the Forerunner speaking in the present day in Iris? If not Bornstellar, could it be one of the other survivors? And what of the Forerunner descendants from after the firing of the Halos who spoke to the Didact in the Domain? Where are they now? It seems a remarkably cruel fate to impose on anyone, let alone a child, that they must die on this world, utterly alone. The child represents something unique — the first Forerunner to be born without the privilege of the Mantle, without the baggage of history weighing down upon them, without some great destiny to achieve or some galaxy-ending catastrophe to get wrapped in.
Where Bornstellar, like so many other characters throughout the series, was robbed of his childhood, the end sum of this Great Journey is a young boy who has the right to choose his own path.
The child would live a happy life with his parents, but I think he would one day feel called to greater adventure. This, I think, would be the most interesting route to go, opening up a wealth of new stories to tell from a very different perspective, be they in the modern setting or a completely different period long before any of the stories and events we know.
What is clear is that the end of the Forerunner story, as it is purported to be, brought with it as many questions and loose ends as it did catharsis and resolution. Stepping back in time a little bit from the current progression of our narrative, Halo 5 had something of a tertiary sub-plot of Forerunner logs in its mission intel.
This story follows an unidentified Forerunner of the Builder rate who survived the firing of the Halos, but was not among those who weathered the storm on the Ark. He witnesses Cortana sigh… infiltrate the Domain, assume the Mantle, ally with the Warden Eternal, and take control of the Guardians. As Cortana shifts her attention to sending the Guardians out into the galaxy to impose her totalitarian regime ugh… , the Builder manages to access the Domain and discovers that Bastion — whatever it is — still exists.
Guardians are stored and prepped for eventual Reclamation. I make my way now to Shield World Designation: Bastion. Now, the fact that this was cut from the game leaves its canonical status up in the air, which is useful to keep in-mind. When this narrative thread is picked up on, it may well turn out to be something altogether different. Could we have possibly heard of this before? I hope this message finds you well and helps you understand my decision.
Living in the past is a luxury none of us can afford. We must learn from it, but we cannot live there.
It is impossible to plan for the [now]—the present is ever fleeting. I do not look to trade my life in order to preserve our past, but to secure the future—and if not ours, then the future of some [culture] yet to come. The Onyx Sentinels also have the ability to combine for different purposes, such as exponentially increasing their combat capabilities, or for large-scale excavation.
One formation of these combined Sentinels was able to easily destroy two Covenant destroyers. However, it should be noted that the second Covenant Destroyer was caught off guard after a Slipspace jump, and the first one had its energy shields down in a gesture of peace, trying to initiate contact with the Forerunner constructs.
The Forerunners also constructed Automated Turrets that fire blue beams similar to those of Sentinel Majors. These turrets themselves resemble stripped-down Sentinels, and hover in mid-air, tracking enemy targets, but are otherwise immobile.
In Halo 3 , it seemed that even the Monitors had the ability to defend themselves against the Flood using a focused beam similar to the Sentinel's beam, but much more powerful. The weapon was capable of draining the shields of a Spartan-II in one short-duration blast, and mortally wounding Sergeant Major Avery Johnson.
It is also quite odd and puzzling as to why Penitent Tangent didn't use this ability against the Gravemind in Halo 2. It is assumed that the Gravemind is likely to have damaged Penitent Tangent when he captured the Monitor, disabling its beam weaponry. It could simply be that it was not equipped with one, although this is highly unlikely due to the importance of the monitors to ensure the Halo installation's upkeep. Forerunners also wielded an as yet unnamed beam weapon. In addition, the Forerunners also developed a number of hand-held weapons for use by infantry.
Composers , devices that convert organic matter to digital information, could be used as weapons by the Forerunners as well. The Forerunner had their own style of armor, simply called Forerunner Armor, as well as a completely different type of apparel known as Combat Skin.
Forerunner armor suits were equipped with ancillas, personal artificial intelligence constructs which interfaced directly with the wearer's mind. The ancilla stored and collated information recorded by the armor and the wearer's own sensory data, which could both be accessed later, significantly enhancing a Forerunner's already accurate memory.
In addition to their own stores of knowledge, a personal ancilla could connect to a network, such as that of a starship, and provide information for the wearer at will. However, the information one could access was limited based on their position. Personal armor also allowed mature Forerunners to connect to the Domain.
Armor also acted as a sophisticated mind-machine interface; for example, individuals could navigate a starship via their armor, sometimes with more than one Forerunner linked to one another in synchrony. The armor eliminated a Forerunner's natural need to sleep, artificially managing the functions normally taken care of by sleeping and allowing a constant continuity of consciousness without side effects. This gave Forerunners more time for their daily activities and meditation.
Forerunners did still rarely experience diagnostic waking dreams induced by the armor for "housekeeping" purposes. The armor was integrated with the wearer's mind to the point that in cases of psychologically harmful experiences, the armor could selectively purge specific memories. In the event of extreme mental damage, the armor could "reset" the owner's brain to a stable state.
However, this process could potentially result in complications. Forerunners could transfer enormous amounts of information to one another through the armor at the touch of each other's fingertips, and could engage in secure "silent conversation" by linking hands.
Forerunners of higher forms, namely Promethean commanders, were capable simultaneously processing the collective sensory experience of thousands of individuals, relayed through their armor. The armor's sensor equipment greatly amplified a Forerunner's senses, and could even substitute natural vision altogether, such as in the case of Bitterness-of-the-Vanquished, who, despite her blindness, received visual sensory input from her armor.
Personal armor granted its wearer immunity to most diseases. In emergency situations, the armor could suspend its user until they were rescued, and even provide nourishment for a time. Most Forerunner armor was capable of keeping the wearer alive for years without outside influences. If operational, the armor would also preserve the wearer's body after death.
Impressions of the wearer's consciousness were also stored in the armor in the rare event of death; traditionally, this essence would be placed into a timelocked Durance.
Forerunner armor also served as a powered exoskeleton, assisting or enhancing the wearer's movement. Personal armor was sealed against vacuum or the lack of atmosphere. Most if not all Forerunner armor possessed N-barriers and a system involving lenses to protect the user from harm.
In some cases, personal armor could be configured to make its wearer hover some distance over the ground as opposed to walking. Lifeworkers and Warrior-Servants have been observed using this capability. The specific features contained by a Forerunner's armor also varied according to their rate and task; for example, Lifeworker armor contained a wide array of equipment related to medicine and biological research, while armor used by Warrior-Servants was designed with combat and warfare in mind.
One notable attribute of Warrior armor was its ability to attune itself to specific forms of attack. Though the body armor provided the user with certain advantages, it also caused the user to lose sensitivity to the world around them. For example, when Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting decided to remove his body armor on Earth, he found himself exceedingly vulnerable; a simple touch from Chakas caused a strong reaction.
Since Forerunners also relied on the armor to keep track of minute details in their surroundings, supposedly allowing them to occupy their minds with more sophisticated thoughts, a Forerunner deprived of their armor might find their powers of observation significantly reduced, particularly in an unfamiliar environment.
The Forerunner also possessed advanced information technologies. The Domain was a massive network that the Forerunner used to keep track of all knowledge and information. While the Forerunners' architectural and technological prowess is legendary among the Covenant and UNSC , their masterpieces also extended to the fields of stellar engineering.
At least five Forerunner sites, the Shield , [21] Onyx , Requiem , the Ark , [27] and the Micro Dyson Sphere that holds the Apex, made use of suns where none should exist. The Shield World existed permanently in slipspace, where solar systems outside of a Dyson Sphere cannot exist, and the Ark was located far outside of the galaxy where galactic material would have been insufficient to form the sun that illuminates the Ark.
The sun at the center of the Dyson Sphere where the Apex was housed was abnormally small, in order to accommodate the planet-sized Dyson Sphere. Whether these suns are artificially engineered or simply moved from another star system by the Forerunners is unknown: either would have been an enormous technological achievement. This world had an outer crust like Onyx, but its inner Dyson sphere was accessed through a long narrow tunnel hidden under one of the planet's oceans.
Once through the tunnel, the Spirit of Fire had to pass through several "cleansing rings" in order to make it to the center of the planet. This Dyson sphere, unlike the Onyx Dyson sphere, was not separated in slipspace but was actually constructed on what appeared to be the hollowed out interior of the planet. This sphere seemed to have had an artificially created sun like the one on the Ark.
Delta Halo's Library , an example of Forerunner architecture. Forerunner architecture is noted mainly for being large-scale and geometric in style, with a semi-triangular theme being the most commonly observed design.
The Forerunners were highly skilled at creating natural-looking habitats, such as those of the Halo rings, which tend to be very elaborate, with numerous extrapolations of the basic design of a construct appearing to be purely decorative. In addition, the structures were engineered to compliment the natural landscape, as opposed to the modern idea of replacing it.
That said, their distinctive beauty are not restricted to Halo Array network. The Aztec-esque stones of Cote D'Azur , the arches and weathered inscriptions of Sigma Octanus IV, the intricate caverns and three-kilometer holographic dome beneath ONI's Reach complex, the ancient stepping-stones of the Unggoy's homeworld, and the Forerunner City discovered in the depths of the human-inhabited Onyx, all display the Forerunner's innovative architectures.
Most Forerunner architecture is constructed with a special type of metal that resists deterioration, bullets, plasma bolts and fire, as made evident by Forerunner structures standing in pristine condition ,, years after they were built. However their resistance to plasma fire is limited; in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx the Sangheili blasted a hole in a Forerunner wall with plasma weapons.
In Halo 2 , Sgt. Avery Johnson destroyed the door to the control room of Delta Halo with a Scarab. It should also be noted that the Flood attempted to melt a metal gate in a tunnel using Covenant weapons in order to attack UNSC troops on Installation Other structures are constructed out of traditional materials, such as chalcedonic quartz , which does not preserve nearly so well.
These structures employ complex geometric shapes that appear to operate in dimensions higher than human understanding can comprehend. Even the Sentinel robotic drones possess small holographic Forerunner script around their "eyes. Forerunner architecture distinguishes itself from Covenant structures in that they incorporate heavy use of geometric angles, usually at either extremely sharp degrees as the Forerunner buildings are usually triangular , or at forty-five degree angles, most notably seen in Halo: Combat Evolved.
Originally, the ideas and concepts on Forerunner structures and technology was that it would be sleek and curved to give it an advanced feel. However, Bungie wanted the structures to feel as if they could stand the test of time and redesigned them to be solid and monolithic.
The smooth, near-organic design would later be adopted by the Covenant in their architecture, although they did not adopt the Forerunner tradition of decorating their structures with glyphs.
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