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This topic has moved here: Subject: The Halo story as a Biblical allegory *long*
  • Subject: The Halo story as a Biblical allegory *long*
Subject: The Halo story as a Biblical allegory *long*

Let's start with the identity of the mysterious Forerunner. First off, the name "Forerunner". The Concise Oxford Dictionary (Fifth edition 1974) defines "forerun" as "Be precursor of, forshadow (hence ~ner)". By this definition we can see that the Forerunner was the intelligent civilisation that existed before the Covenant and humanity.

Now let's explore this linguistic symbolism further. The forerunner in the game are portrayed as gods, or close to gods, just as the Jjaro were in Marathon. Thus, in a biblical allegory (disclaimer: I actually hate religion), the Forerunner represent the character of God. The Flood, obviously, would represent the Great Flood that was created as punishment to humanity. 100 000 years before the game, the Flood was released. This biblical parallel would suggest that the Forerunner did this intentionally, however we cannot know this for sure. Obviously, since humanity and the Covenant survived the outbreak and the subsequent firing of the haloes, there must have been some sort of "Ark" that was created so that these races would survive.

Now, in the Bible, God makes a Covenant (!) with all living beings whereby he promises that "never again will all living beings be destroyed by a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth" (Genesis 9:11) The reminder of this promise was a rainbow. Anybody who has played Halo has seen how the way the ring forms a rainbow-like image when it arcs around the sky. Now, from this we could interpret that the Haloes were created by the Forerunner as symbols of their vow never to destroy all life with the Flood, so the Flood were imprisoned on the rings. This would also imply that the Flood outbreak 100 000 years ago was at least the second outbreak, and the haloes were fired to make good on the Forerunner's promise: ie all sentient beings were instead destroyed by the Haloes' firing (Those tricky gods with their loopholes!).

Now, the name "Covenant" implies that the group of races in the Covenant were in fact created by the Forerunner to ensure that no more Flood outbreaks occur. In fact, the Covenant were trying to prevent the Flood from escaping, and humanity ruined their efforts. This is most probably why the Covenant are waging their holy war on humanity, so that the flood do not again destroy all sentient life. The fact that the crystal from which Cortana discovered the location of Halo 04 was on Sigma Octanus, and that humanity had colonised that world gives an insight into the Covenant's rationale. It would seem that the human empire is expanding in worlds that were previously Forerunner worlds, and the Covenant are afraid that they are attempting to find the location of the Haloes and therefore there is a risk of a Flood outbreak. Cortana only received part of the message in the crystal; maybe it was instructions for the Covenant to help ensure the prevention of an outbreak, and Cortana only received the part that was giving the Halo's co-ordinates.

Now, I may have gone too deep to be right on the mark, and I admit that some of the final details are a little vague and rough around the edges, but I believe that the underlying idea, that the Covenant was made to stop another outbreak of the flood, and that humanity was a threat to this, is on the mark. Comments and improvements on this theory would be welcome. =)

- Reiginko

[Edited on 4/17/2004 6:17:18 AM]

  • 04.17.2004 5:30 AM PDT
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A very interesting post.
I'm not gonna bloody well type this all again, so i've lifted it from a post i made 5 minutes ago in another thread.


I believe that the forerunners were human. Here's the reasons, and i'll be using examples and references from the first game and the books, so spoiler warning if you haven't read them. Oh, and it's kinda long. Sorry.

Let's see, 343 Guilty Spark calls the Master Chief "Reclaimer" as if it KNOWS him, or at least beings like him, from experience.
343 is "the monitor of installation 04" right? So there must be AT LEAST 3 other forerunner installations out there. Plus 343 also says "Technically, this installation's pulse has a maximum effective radius of 25,000 light years. But, once the others follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life." Others? So logically, there must be a ring world spaced roughly every 15-20,000 light years in every direction from Halo, to ensure even coverage of the galaxy and ensure that there is no food (read:life) left for the flood.
BUT, the forerunners would like to exempt themselves from destruction, surely. When you put circles together on a map, you get gaps. So by putting some rings in the 'wrong' place, they could create a gap to spare earth from totally being wiped out.
But they'd want to let the flood die first, so they create a primitive colony in a 'Halo hole' on earth, activate the halo NETWORK, which is what it would have to be to cover the ENTIRE galaxy, in full knowledge that by the time we crawl back into space, the flood will be dead, all bar the ones kept in containment on the halos for study.
Hence 343 says "Why would you hesitate to do that which you have already done?" not only that, but in the books, several references are made to John-117 recognising the forerunner writing, but what he can't put his finger on is from where. Maybe a sufficiently advanced race could use a language based not on letters but on instinct, or one that speaks directly to the brain, or something like that. It would certainly be faster.
Also, Cortana "cracks the code" on the stone the brutes were looking at on Sigma Octanus IV, and uses the co-ordinates as references for the jump made while initiating the Cole Protocol at the end of the Reach conflict. These lead STRAIGHT to Halo, also, accidentally, leading the faster covenant ships there. The Covenant, being faster, get there first, and we all know what happens from there. More of these artifacts are later found on Reach, with strong hints that there are more, possibly on Earth, the worlds WE are most likely to reach, and therefore to explore fully, find these artifacts, and 'get back on our feet' as soon as possible, to give us a helping hand as it were, back to our former level of...soffish-tication.


Btw, slight error in your post mate

It would seem that the human empire is expanding in worlds that were previously Forerunner worlds, and the Covenant realise are afraid that they are attempting to find the location of the Haloes and therefore there is a risk of a Flood outbreak.

No need for the word 'realise', or perhaps you should put an 'or' in between 'realise' and 'are'.. Picky i know, but so are you. But so am i... ;) lol

[Edited on 4/17/2004 6:10:02 AM]

  • 04.17.2004 6:09 AM PDT

Sorry about the grammatical error. It seems a double proof-reading sometimes isn't enough! I should be more careful when I re-word sentences when I'm writing them.

- Reiginko

  • 04.17.2004 6:14 AM PDT
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Perfectly all right my friend... fobody's nerpect. We can but try.

  • 04.17.2004 6:24 AM PDT
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Actually that theory is kinda......old. And a lot of details were repeated. I'm too lazy to search but I know I've seen it around. Now as for this last paragraph.

Actually I believe the Covenant formed themselves. Let's take your ark for example. The Forerunner make this massive space ark that contains several of the different Covenant races. It contains them becasue what Halo does is cause a massive catastrophic even on every place with enough gravity, mass, and atmosphere to constitute a planet. It decimates any chance of life and things go back to normal. (ie the Great Flood, Jupiter's red spot, Mars' atmopshere). And such.

Now while on this whole ark idea here's what happened. The ark lands on each planet that the Covenant were originally from. Seeing that the Forerunner saved them they worship it. Here is where they come together and form the Covenant. That is the simple version of the story.

I'd go on, but it's too early over here in the states.

[Edited on 4/17/2004 6:25:55 AM]

  • 04.17.2004 6:25 AM PDT

lol. It looks like we both have doubles over on the HBO forum :)

- Reiginko

  • 04.17.2004 6:26 AM PDT
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Doubles? You talking to me or Hikaru? cos this is the only forum i've ever been on, EVER

  • 04.17.2004 6:34 AM PDT