- anton1792
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- Noble Legendary Member
"Find where the liar hides, so that I may place my boot between his gums!" - Rtas 'Vadum
Posted by: Wolverfrog
There's also this, in the Terminals. I always thought it was Mendicant Bias speaking to the Forerunners, but it could be something else:
I render judgment on you; you who would obstruct destiny. Doing so brings me no joy; it is necessity that compels me.
Understand this: the Mantle you have shouldered I do rescind - with far more consideration than it was granted.
I kill you all and I enjoy it. I destroy you in your indolent billions - in your gluttony, in your self-righteousness, in you arrogance. I pound your cities into dust; turn back the clock on your civilization's progress. What has taken you millennia to achieve I erase in seconds.
Welcome back to the [Stone Age], vermin. Welcome home.
You are an impediment that the universe can no longer abide. Nature itself cries out for your destruction and I am its willing instrument. I will hammer your cities until no stone lies atop another. I will drive your people back into the caves they never should have left.
Your civilization has seen its final days. You will know your place.
Your history is an appalling chronicle of overindulgence and self-appointed authority. You have spent millennia [navel-gazing] while the universe has continued to evolve. And now you claim the Mantle is justification for impeding nature's inevitable refinement?
You are deluded. But through death you will transcend ignorance.
It could be the Forerunner talking to humanity. It's probably not, but it fits. The way the speaker talks of turning the clock back, driving back to the Stone Age, pounding cities into dust... it doesn't seem much like the Flood assimilating them, when you think about it. It does however fit the devolution and exile of humanity perfectly. What if humanity was the original holder of the Mantle, and the Forerunners took it from them by force?
It would be an interesting twist. I am not sure though; it says Contender [AI] 05-032 Confirmed Rampant beneath those entries. Seems to be Mendicant, and Mendicant was created as the solution to the Gravemind.
I think it fits the new Forerunner archetype as well. Terms like "Navel Gasing", "Self appointed authority", "Self-Righteousness", "Arrogance" are all sort of being reflected in Bornstellar and Forerunner society. (Bornstellar has obviously picked up these notions about Humanity from his Peers)