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This topic has moved here: Subject: The Argument for the Forerunner (This is a long one)
  • Subject: The Argument for the Forerunner (This is a long one)
Subject: The Argument for the Forerunner (This is a long one)
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The intent of this post is purely speculative, and put out in hopes of further fleshing out a fuller history of the Forerunner/Flood Legacy. For documentation, it will reference both Halos 1 and 2, as well as the novels, "The Fall of Reach," and "The Flood."


Who were the Forerunner? What was their connection to the Flood? When did they finally choose to activate the Halos? Could the Flood have been stopped short of sterilization? These and many more questions surround the legacy of the Forerunner and their abandoned technology, so to understand the Forerunner, one must first seek answers to these questions. Fortunately, I think the writers at Bungie provided us with much more of the picture than most realize.

For starters, what do we know about the Forerunner? From what the games tell us, the Forerunner were a spacefaring civilization, anthropomorphic, with tolerances for temperatures, atmospheres, and gravity loads similar to our own. They obviously had colonized the known galaxy, as their artifacts have been found on both human and Covenant homeworlds, and the seven Halos stationed at equidistant points across the Milky Way.
It has been said that either Prophets, Elites, or Humans may well be descended from the Forerunner, however, this has never been fully substantiated. It should be noted, though, that Forerunner technology uses an interface which is intuitive to human thinking(See: "Halo: The Flood"), and furthermore, only humans have been repeatedly contacted in a familiar capacity by the Forerunners' robotic custodians (e.g. 343 Guilty Spark). This would suggest enough similarities between the two races to render the Monitors incapable of differentiating between them. Ergo, it is logical to assume that The Forerunner were a human (or at least, human-LIKE) race.

The Flood: Where do they fit into the Forerunner legacy? We know that the Flood were the Forerunner's undoing, but it is not know how or why the Flood came to be imprisoned on the Halos. One look at Halo architecture shows that each installation is far more than simply a containment complex/superweapon. Why, on Installation 05, there are even ruins of what appear to be Forerunner cities (Halo 2: "Delta Halo/Regret")! In addition, Cortana said in Halo 1 that the Forerunner referred to the Halos as "Fortress Worlds." Semantically speaking, a fortress is designed to keep enemies from getting in, rather than out, which would seem contradictory to the evidence already available. Therefore, it would be much more reasonable to infer that the Flood were never intended to find Halo. Once they did, however, it seems that the Forerunner's AI stewards deemed it necessary that

1) The Flood never leave Halo,

2) The Flood be contained so as to prevent them from growing in strength or numbers, and

3) That no lifeforms large enough to provide vectors for future Flood outbreak should evolve on Halo.

Propositions 2 and 3 merit special consideration, as it has been demonstrated that

2A)The Flood lifeform is much, much larger than the infection and combat forms which do its' bidding (See Gravemind), and

3A)No significant wildlife has ever been observed on any known Halo installation, at least not larger than small birds and insects (See Halo: CE "Two Betrayals").

Therefore, I conclude this part of the essay by arguing that the arrival of the Flood on Halo was not part of its' original design. Bearing this in mind, the known details of the Forerunner legacy can suddenly be viewed in a very different light. Allow me, then, to provide an updated, speculative view of the Forerunner, and their relationship to the Flood, based on these new propositions:

Some time during the galaxy's last iteration, The Forerunner either created or stumbled upon a race which decimated any world or installation it touched. This much we already know. For whatever reason, however, rather than attempt to contain the Flood at its' source (one can imagine the blockade/destruction of an entire world), the Forerunner chose to keep Flood samples, in order to study them.
Why would the Forerunner do this? It is clear that the Flood are extremely intelligent, and possess a will to survive far surpassing anything previously observed. Unless the Forerunner felt they had something to gain from the Flood, there is no good reason to conduct any study on Flood specimens, which history has shown are resilient, quick to breed, and resourceful. Perhaps the Forerunner felt the need to exploit the Flood for economic or military applications. Viewed in this light, the Flood suddenly becomes the Forerunners' dark little secret: The Flood have something the Forerunner lack, which prevents the Forerunner from looking away or destroying them outright. The only thing the Flood do well is refuse to die, so perhaps from a figurative standpoint, the Flood represent a kind of Faustian bargain on the part of the Forerunner. Even Gravemind described itself as a "Monument to (the Humans/Forerunners')sins." Perhaps the Forerunners' only great sin was not turning away from the Flood when they had the chance. We may never know.
In any case, the lectures of the Monitor of Halo 04 suggest that The Flood only became a problem after the Forerunner attempted to quarantine samples for study. One outbreak could have easily spread like wildfire--after all, The Flood were in a position to leave Halo 04 a mere twelve or so hours after their release, having overtaken the ring utterly. Likewise, once humans attempted to breach the Library of Halo 05, the Flood had a straight shot at their command ship, "In Amber Clad," and from there, the Covenant city of High-Charity, and its' entire accompanying fleet. In less than a day, the Flood have control of an entire armada, plus a floating asteroid-city capable of slipspace jumps. Imagine if this process were to carry on, unchecked!

Based on this information, we can infer the following chain of events:

1)The Forerunner discover/create the Flood, and have a choice to contain/destroy it.

2)The Forerunner refuse this choice, opting instead to study the Flood and carry them to other future outbreak locations. Naturally, the Flood escape.

3)The Flood escape quarantine on one or more Forerunner worlds, and proceed to grow at an exponential rate, spreading across the galaxy. On a star chart, one can see the fall of worlds to the Flood, appearing much like an apple being eaten away from within by worms. As the Flood spreads, the lifeform gains strength and new forms, eventually forming a series of collective nuclei (e.g. Gravemind), which serve as both the 'brain' and terminal stage of the Flood infection. These nuclei forms may cover entire planets, rendering them uninhabitable (See Halo: CE, "The Library").

4)The Forerunner attempt to combat the Flood, to no avail, dwindling in both territory and numbers, until at last, the Flood have spread to every major world in the Galaxy. Facing extinction, the Forerunners have no choice but to retreat to survive. So retreat they do...

5) To a series of secure, specially designed ringworlds, spread out across the galaxy in remote locations. Here, the remaining Forerunner congregate in hiding, creating for themselves seven unique paradises, each one staffed by a loyal army of robot custodians, and designed to emulate Forerunner worlds in all their natural beauty, before the spread of the Flood. Here, the crippled Forerunner civilization can live out its' remaining days in peace and security. Meanwhile, experiments on the Flood continue off-site, in "secure" locations such as above the gas giant, Threshold (see Halo 2, "The Arbiter/Oracle"). Perhaps the Forerunner sought to find new ways to either neutralize or at least render harmless the Flood infection. Decades, perhaps even centuries, have passed since the first discovery of the Flood.

6)Another outbreak occurs, presumably at the gas mines/research facilities on Threshold. Within hours, Flood combat forms arrive on Halo 04, and overtake it. From there, the Flood can access information on, and communicate with, the other Halo installations, "At super-luminal speeds" (see Halo 2, "Great Journey). The locations of the remaining secure Halo installations are compromised; dawn rises on the Forerunner civilization for the last time.

7)In a last bid to rectify its' past sins, with nothing left to lose, the Forerunner activate a last-ditch resort buried within Halo: a superweapon that will hopefully sterilize the infection, galaxy-wide, and allow life to begin anew. AI protocols in Halo are activated, briefed, and prepared to fire.

8) The Halos are fired, presumably first from Halo 04. It is assumed that this is the last known instance of Forerunner activity in the galaxy, though it is said that the master override for the Halos resides in a location known as the Ark, either on or near Earth. The legacy goes on further to tell of a Forerunner "Reclaimer" who will one day return to retake possession of the Halos. Thus far, all three known "Reclaimers" have been human, despite a strong covenant presence on both Rings.


As has been said before, much of this information Bungie fans already know. However, unless we view Halo as more than the sum of its' destructive parts, we can never hope to truly understand the Forerunner. There are still more questions to be answered, but this author is confident that more pieces to the puzzle are coming.





  • 02.01.2005 10:05 AM PDT