- SpoonGuard
- |
- Exalted Heroic Member
jful117, you pretty much got all the major points right.
_:SPOILERS:_
Humanity, in it's first iteration, evolved roughly parallel to the Forerunners. They, along with the San 'Shyuum (Prophets), developed slip-space technology and began to colonize the galaxy even before contact with the Forerunners was made. It was not until the Flood became a legitimate threat that humanity was forced to encroach on Forerunner territory. After the ensuing conflict, the human survivors were rounded up by the Forerunners and (at the behest of the Librarian) exiled to Earth.
The 'devolution' mentioned was likely done through genetic alteration of subsequent generations as well as suppression of knowledge and memory of humanity's former glory.
As Cryptum progresses, the Didact (or at least his personality inside of Bornsteller) makes multiple comparisons of humanity as an equal to the Forerunners. The exact word used escapes me at the moment but the point was to liken the two species as brethren from a common ancestor, the Precursors.
The book also talks about the fossil record:
"If Erde-Tyrene had been [Humanity's] true planet of origin, then these later
transplants and interventions must have muddied the fossil record beyond all
sense."
This is definitely a valid issue. You would think humanity would have eventually discovered signs of an ancient civilization on Earth. Then again, they only found the Ark portal below Mombasa right before the Covenant invaded. The only explanation for a lack of fossil records that I can perceive is a combination of Librarian intervention and side-effects of the Halo array.
We know that the Librarian brought the last remnants of post-war humanity to Earth as part of a 'special project.' If it were up to the Builder and Warrior castes, our species would have been completely wiped out. As such, the Librarian was undoubtedly only allowed to carry out her project if she adhered to a strict protocol of keeping humanity evolutionarily 'dumb.' That is to say, make sure we never progressed technologically and intellectually enough to pose a new threat to the Forerunners.
If this was indeed the case, part of her stewardship would have required an initial 'cleanup' of Earth before transplanting our ancestors there. She would have had to seek out and destroy all traces of the ancient human empire, lest we manage to find and learn from them at a later date. It would certainly have been within her power, logistically, to do this so it makes sense that no ruins or artifacts were ever found.
As for the lack actual biological human remains, I posit that the Halo array, when it was fired 100,000 years ago, took care of this. We know that Halo targets all sentient life (life with a central nervous system). Whether it reacts with specific DNA markers, macro-biological characteristics or something else entirely, we don't know. However, it is very likely that its effectiveness is not limited to live organisms. It would need to target dead tissue as well to be completely effective. Thus, when the array was fired, it took out, not only all living humans, but also all of those dead and buried. As a result, post-Ark humanity was never able to find traces of pre-war human civilization on Earth.
I think that more or less covers everything here.
[Edited on 04.17.2011 10:07 AM PDT]