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Posted by: Lord Snakie
On Pure Forms:
Another important thing to consider is the question of Pure Forms. These forms are created when the calcium level of a flood colony reaches a certain point and they are able to "create" their own particular "pure" Flood forms to execute more difficult tasks. This has never been questioned; what is being questioned is where these Pure Forms came from.
While on the subject of Gravemind, let us return to the implications of this theory. The Gravemind was a catalog, and the Precursor were a species hell-bent on preserving life, just like the Forerunner. The Forerunner cataloged races, what's to say the Precursor didn't? What if they cataloged these races inside the Gravemind construct, and he is re-creating long-dead races whose blueprints he has stored permanently in memory to serve the collective that exterminated them? It raises questions on just how "personal" infection is. If a single entity is infected, could multiples of that entity's species be created by the Flood all over the universe to serve them?
Similarities between Halo and The Lord of the Rings:
The question of what exactly the Forerunner are has been brought up many times. One particularly popular idea is that the Forerunner were the only people who were against the creation of the Flood as a storage entity, and all followers of that ideal were sent to the Milky Way galaxy to serve as an outpost colony for the Precursor. When the Precursor were exterminated by the Flood as the Forerunner foretold, the Forerunner were the only Precursor to survive the extermination, changing their name immediately afterword and dedicating themselves to the preservation of life and the rectification of their species' sins.
When you think of it this way, interesting parallels can be drawn between the Halo universe and The Lord of the Rings. In The Lord of the Rings, Elendil, the last honorable Numenorean and a member of the line of Kings, leads his people in flight from Numenor when he learns that the irreverent and corrupted King is plotting to do an unspeakable evil. When this evil is accomplished by the King, the only group left to survive are the Numenoreans that fled from the kingdom of Numenor; the rest of the Numenoreans, along with the land of Numenor itself, were crushed under a massive tidal flood. The Numenoreans in the new land change their title to Gondorians and build great works unaccomplished and impossible by the unskilled and unguided peoples of Middle-Earth. They take these people under their wing, protect them, and fight a great war against an ancient God-like entity (Sauron) that seeks dominion of Middle-Earth. The final catch? This great war is over a set of magical and powerful rings.
What does this mean? Is it mere coincidence, or does it suggest that the Halo universe received inspiration from The Lord of the Rings, and does it suggest that the Forerunner are, indeed, Precursor? Again, we don't know.
(for expanded discussion on this subject, feel free to read The Precursor and Their Three Offspring: an Origins Theory)
Why do the Flood Infect?:
It is generally accepted that the Flood infect beings with enough intelligence and "biomass" and let all other life go, or occasionally adapt some relatively "highly evolved" life forms to serve them, such as Jackals and Grunts as carriers. The question being asked now is, "why"?
Every single piece of material created that I have knowledge of never says that the Flood are out for calcium, it simply says that they infect beings of high enough intelligence and "biomass". I personally wonder what kind of "biomass" is being discussed in this cryptic description. Could it be "neural synapses"?
I believe that it is possible that the Flood infect life because they are programmed to, and still follow the commands of the Precursor (as was discussed in a previous sub-section). But why are they programmed to? Not to reproduce, but to gain knowledge.
Think about the way that the Flood survives. It uses combat forms as the grunts, pure forms as the heavy lifters, and leftover calcium to make more infection forms to create more combat forms to allow the cycle to repeat. Flesh for the combat forms, bone for the calcium for the pure forms and infection forms. But, in one of the final Gravemind lines in Halo 3, it says:
Consumed a galaxy of flesh and mind and bone!
We have the Flesh and the Bone... but what of the mind? I propose that the mind is a branch in the Flood tree that theorists completely and totally disregard, but there is quite some evidence suggesting that it is important, particularly that quote.
I ask you: do you believe is it imperative for the Flood to infect in order for them to receive Calcium, or is it because of programming? Are the Precursor perhaps smarter than we thought, and with an inadequate supply of knowledge the Flood slowly begin to die, an inbuilt auto kill-switch for if the Flood ever got off their leash?
Calcium or Knowledge... or both? In Halo: CE, Captain Keyes was used both for his intelligence and his calcium, and I find it likely the Flood rely on both; it simply makes sense. Calcium to build more of them, intelligence to better themselves and follow their programming.
Are the Flood really still being influenced by the demands of the Precursor, after all that time?
Long-Term Function:
One of the main hiccups to this theory throughout its existence has been how the Flood infected the Precursor, obtained their knowledge, and then lost it as they made their way to the Milky Way galaxy. Recently, an answer to this conundrum has been discovered: organic memory retention in Flood spores.
The Gravemind was always meant to be the central catalog of information in this proposed system, but it is safe to assume that there would be backups, in case the Gravemind was destroyed, or in case the Precursor had need to create another one with similar memories and abilities. Theorists are aware of Flood Spores, the spores that clog the air when a Flood infection is nearby, but we have never really considered their purpose. Most think it is to infect, and this is supported by material from Halo Wars, but it's possible that the spores were also used to house fragments of the knowledge of the Gravemind.
If this is the case, the explanation for how the Flood lost all of their knowledge - and why the Flood were weak (comparatively) in Halo: CE through Halo 3 - has been handed to us. Organic material is known for degradation and decay over time; it is not entirely improbably that the reason the Flood lost much of their ability on coming to the Milky Way is that the first Gravemind they formed only recovered so much information from the original, due to degradation of the Flood Spores brought with the Milky Way infection.
If this is the case, it also explains why the current Gravmind hints that it knows about the Forerunner-Flood war, but cannot produce any significant detail about it. Humans remember general concepts, but not specifics. In the same way, the Gravemind likely lost the majority of the specific information, which is why the Flood is so relatively weak and easy to contain.
Side-Theories:
The Precursor are The Flood:
Several people have the idea that the Precursor evolved themselves until they became The Flood, the epitome of evolution. While I personally don't hold to this theory, it's still very plausible and very interesting. If considered, the Flood are fairly advanced, at least inwardly. A collective mind, no inner-species war, no theft. War outside, yes, but that's out of necessity. An intriguing side-theory, to say the least.
In Closing:
First, I'd like to say thank you all for reading. My theories are nothing without those who read them, the users of this site. I appreciate your patience as I ramble on about something that isn't too likely to be proven.
While this is not the first or longest theory I have created, I find it to be the likeliest (surprisingly). I'm glad those who read it could share in the moment along with me!On the pure forms you said What if they cataloged these races inside the Gravemind construct, and he is re-creating long-dead races whose blueprints he has stored permanently in memory to serve the collective that exterminated them? i think that your theory could be proved because the gravemind says do i take life? or give it? the give it part might be a reference to how the flood could recreate a species...proving your theory?