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  • Subject: Interesting find on Forerunner slipspace travel
Subject: Interesting find on Forerunner slipspace travel
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Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?

I've read cryptum twice and i don't see how i missed something big as This


Let me explain why i am going crazy over this; The Forerunners depend on fragments of a crystal for slipspace travel while they use drives they built for "normal" travel.
I think this is pretty big, We praise the forerunner for their understanding of slipspace and faster travel but they are using a crystal for that not their own tech!


This is also makes First Strike a gold mine seeing how Halsey found a full crystal not just a shard like the forerunners use. So many questions


How did they find out about the crystals?
Where are they?
Are they natural or precursor?
what if the supply runs out?
Did the covenant know about this?
what did Truth do with the shards?


I really hope Ajw,Switch and everybody else gets giddy over this like i am.

  • 04.20.2011 5:51 AM PDT

An assassin will always carry on, even after death.

I think the crystal is Precursor made mainly because I now think the Forerunners depended on Precursor technology like the Covenant depend on Forerunner technology.

If it is precursor made then it probably does run out of energy or whatever.

BUT

If natural I don't think it nessicerrly runs out, it could be like a magnet, only it has a constant warp in space around it not a magnetic field.

Maybe it originates from a Black hole? Neutron star?

  • 04.20.2011 6:02 AM PDT

By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.

I don't know how I missed that... wow. So Forerunner ships use engine drives for normal travel, getting from point A to B without slipspace. But the Crystals enable them to go into slipspace?

How did they find out about the crystals?

Possibly stolen technology from the Precursors? The Forerunners seem to be more like the Covenant now, imitative instead of innovative with technology. Considering the way it's described, it sort of fits the description (or the way I imagine) of a Precursor construct - NOTE: I always think of the shards in the Shivering Isles from TES IV.

Where are they?

All the Crystals come from a single core Crystal that only the Master Builder knew the location of. Where this is? We do not know.

Are they natural or precursor?

From answering the first question, I think Precursor would be more likely.

what if the supply runs out?

I'd imagine it would take a very long time for this to happen. They only cut out a tiny fragment of the Core Crystal. But still, if it ran out the Forerunners would have to work out their own methods of slipspace travel.

Did the covenant know about this?

I doubt it.

what did Truth do with the shards?

Both the UNSC and Truth possessed shards, but it seems that they don't do anything. Page 287 from First Strike says:

Chunks of broken crystal on the pad refracted the light and distorted her image so she appeared half melted and cast prismed arcs of light onto the walls.

...

Cortana faced the Admiral. "Sir," she said, "you'll be happy to hear that I'm detecting no signals, residual radiation, or any transient contacts... which is precicely what you'd expect from a
normal Slipspace journey."


[Edited on 04.20.2011 6:17 AM PDT]

  • 04.20.2011 6:15 AM PDT
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Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?

So the forerunner are pretty humans in body with a covenant ambitions and human beliefs or something along those lines? thats interesting.


I just don't see where they would get the idea to throw a crystal into a drive and see what happens. Or how it hasn't run out after about 1 million years of being mined even if slowly.


History is so funny. The Forerunners got majority of their technological Prowess from an older race they saw as Gods and looked down on Man. While Man Actually built All he owns the forerunner just based it off precursor tech.

The covenant were the Exact same way and i have been speculating that the forerunners made the Elites.

  • 04.20.2011 6:22 AM PDT
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"Time was your ally human. But now it has abandoned you. The Forerunners....have returned. And this tomb... is now yours". - The Didact

But who says the crystal is non Forerunner?Because i thought all Precursor artifacts were useless for the Forerunners,as they don't know how to use it.

  • 04.20.2011 6:38 AM PDT

An assassin will always carry on, even after death.

Since we now know the Forerunners are like the Covenant, did the Precursors steal technology from a superior race before them?

If you think of it even Humanity stole Covenant technology. I imagine that what Humanity learned from the Covenant will advance their tech around 500 years once they've recovered from the war.

Crystals defenitly seem Precursor to me though. I really doubt the Forerunners made them, the Forerunners did know how to use some Precursor stuff.

  • 04.20.2011 6:53 AM PDT
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"Time was your ally human. But now it has abandoned you. The Forerunners....have returned. And this tomb... is now yours". - The Didact


Posted by: Skulblaka
Since we now know the Forerunners are like the Covenant, did the Precursors steal technology from a superior race before them?

If you think of it even Humanity stole Covenant technology. I imagine that what Humanity learned from the Covenant will advance their tech around 500 years once they've recovered from the war.

Crystals defenitly seem Precursor to me though. I really doubt the Forerunners made them, the Forerunners did know how to use some Precursor stuff.


I don't think there was any Precursor stuff they could use.

  • 04.20.2011 6:55 AM PDT

By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.

Still, if the Crystals are Precursor then why did Halo not destroy the one under CASTLE Base? Perhaps they are evidence of some kind of advanced material that the Precursors discovered?

  • 04.20.2011 6:55 AM PDT
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Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?


Posted by: Skulblaka
Since we now know the Forerunners are like the Covenant, did the Precursors steal technology from a superior race before them?

If you think of it even Humanity stole Covenant technology. I imagine that what Humanity learned from the Covenant will advance their tech around 500 years once they've recovered from the war.

Crystals defenitly seem Precursor to me though. I really doubt the Forerunners made them, the Forerunners did know how to use some Precursor stuff.


Humanities case is different seeing how they were at war with the covenant reverse engineering tech from your enemy to save yourself isn't the same as building your entire race off the ruins of the old one.

Mass effect is perfect for this. The reapers built the citadel and the mass relays which civilizations built their tech on. Thus The Reapers set the technological path for life in the galaxy.

The humans already had "everything" before they fought the covenant, they just hadn't the time to refine their tech.

Posted by: ajw34307
Still, if the Crystals are Precursor then why did Halo not destroy the one under CASTLE Base? Perhaps they are evidence of some kind of advanced material that the Precursors discovered?


I would like to think that there are exceptions to the technology and that we shouldn't fully lean on that statement. We are in the digital age yet we still have newspapers,Cds,etc.

The Complex could have protected it also.

[Edited on 04.20.2011 7:02 AM PDT]

  • 04.20.2011 7:00 AM PDT

"Find where the liar hides, so that I may place my boot between his gums!" - Rtas 'Vadum

I do not see anything special about this crystal.

The Forerunners could manipulate Gravity to an impressive degree. That much is said in the Bestiarium. That is what this crystal did. Manipulation of gravity would then lead to the bending of space, time and energy.

Also, one piece of advanced technology can give a false illusion about the level of advancement of the race it belongs to. It could be one of the Forerunners most advanced technologies. If you were to look at the NOVA and Mjolnir alone and nothing else, it would be easy to assume that the UNSC was able to field an army of supersoldiers and crack planets at whim, when the reality is that these things were rare and cutting edge.

  • 04.20.2011 9:11 AM PDT

An assassin will always carry on, even after death.


Posted by: anton1792
I do not see anything special about this crystal.


The crystals were very special, they made travel much, much faster allowing quick easy movement around the galaxy for any ship with one. One crystal could easily be a lot of use, a very important piece of tech.

The Forerunners had much more advanced tech too though. They had super AIs and they built the Halos.

  • 04.20.2011 9:18 AM PDT

"Find where the liar hides, so that I may place my boot between his gums!" - Rtas 'Vadum

Posted by: Skulblaka
Posted by: anton1792
I do not see anything special about this crystal.

The crystals were very special, they made travel much, much faster allowing quick easy movement around the galaxy for any ship with one. One crystal could easily be a lot of use, a very important piece of tech.

The Forerunners had much more advanced tech too though. They had super AIs and they built the Halos.

I was meaning that it does not necessarily stand out among Forerunner technology as being somewhat out of place.

  • 04.20.2011 9:40 AM PDT

The Forerunner, the Great Journey, and Heaven Theory

[Announcement Trailer] Halo: Forerunner

Posted by: Agustus
I lol'd at the absurd miscommunication that occurs whenever dibbs post something. Perhaps his brain is so highly evolved that he can no longer clearly communicate with lesser life forms, even among his own species.

Posted by: anton1792
I do not see anything special about this crystal.
I have to agree with anton. While it's safe to assume that the Forerunner didn't have a hand in creating the crystal that doesn't necessarily mean that it's Precursor tech. My first impression is that it is a naturally occurring (albeit rare) unique element or compound. Lets look at the facts.

-The crystal is controlled entirely by the government; there is no private industry manufacturing replications or knock-offs of the crystal. (We don't know much about the society as a whole but I'm making the assumption here that there is some kind of economic model involved in buying and trading inherent in their society. If thats the case then it's obvious no private manufacturer was able to synthesis anything remotely close to the crystal. Although I don't remember if the crystal was only put into use in military ships; if that's the case perhaps private manufacturers never even got their hands on it.)

-There is only one known location keep secret from everyone but the Master Builder and presumably a few top ranking government officials. (It's obviously important that the location is kept a secret. Why? Governmental monopoly on the sale? Easier to regulate who gets it? Something else? It seems that much like the private industry, the government wasn't able to synthesis the crystal for mass production either. Is this more indicative of a naturally occurring element/compound or an artificially constructed device?)

-The crystal is fairly large. (Surely there are some measures in place to prevent the Forerunner from using it all up, but it seems that the crystal has been used in their ships for thousands of years. How big is this thing? Building sized? Perhaps planet sized?)

  • 04.20.2011 10:12 AM PDT

I don't remember Cryptum saying anything about the crystals being a necessary element for the Forerunners to utilize Slipspace. Granted I don't have the book, so I can't go check what it says, but from what it sounds like on Halopedia it sounds like it is merely an element that all Forerunner ships are required to have much like how all computers have the capability of connecting to the internet (not the best analogy, but it's the only one I can think of).

They don't need the internet to function, but it makes having a computer more enjoyable, and it doesn't sound like the Forerunners actually need the crystal shards to utilize Slipspace, it's just they put them in all their drives because it makes their Slipspace technology more efficient. The Forerunners had to have created their own Slipspace capabilities. As it is stated they had no idea at all of how to operate Precursor tech or even decipher it. Whether the crystals are Precursor or not, I can't say, but the Forerunners can not have copied Slipspace technology from them.

  • 04.20.2011 10:36 AM PDT

The Forerunners use slipspace just like humans, except it's way more advanced.

The crystal probably is Precursor because instead of ripping a whole into another dimension and sticking part of your hand in it to increase your speed you're actually sticking your entire body into it.

They probably would have been able to figure out how to work precursor tech but they didn't have a power supply that would be compatible.

  • 04.20.2011 11:14 AM PDT

I am Field Master Avu Med 'Telcam, Servant of the Abiding Truth, and I have many brothers.

A god who creates tools is still a god. It is not for us to impose qualifications upon the divine or presume to guess its intentions.

Seems interesting, however not as interesting as you make it sound. The crystal is, compared to the other revelations of Cryptum, average.

  • 04.20.2011 11:20 AM PDT
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Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?

It is the mere fact they depend on flakes of this crystal to enter slipspace instead of a drive. with out the crystal they can't go into slipspace or it wouldn't be as fast

  • 04.20.2011 11:44 AM PDT

An assassin will always carry on, even after death.

I'm not too sure AT ALL how it works, but couldn't the Forerunners have to use drives to get into slipspace? The crystal might only come into effect in slipspace...

(It's been a while since I read First Strike or Cryptum, correct me if I'm wrong)

  • 04.20.2011 12:09 PM PDT


Posted by: grey101
It is the mere fact they depend on flakes of this crystal to enter slipspace instead of a drive. with out the crystal they can't go into slipspace or it wouldn't be as fast


I don't remember Cryptum saying anything like that though, and that's not what it sounds like Halopedia is saying about it. Would you mind putting out the excerpt from Cryptum where it says they need the Crystals Shards to even enter Slipspace.

  • 04.20.2011 12:22 PM PDT
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Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?


Posted by: OrderedComa

Posted by: grey101
It is the mere fact they depend on flakes of this crystal to enter slipspace instead of a drive. with out the crystal they can't go into slipspace or it wouldn't be as fast


I don't remember Cryptum saying anything like that though, and that's not what it sounds like Halopedia is saying about it. Would you mind putting out the excerpt from Cryptum where it says they need the Crystals Shards to even enter Slipspace.


That was purely me, not cryptum.

The crystal react during slipspace which gives the forerunners the advantage. What i am saying is if it weren't for the crystals forerunner slipspace would probably be like the covenants.

  • 04.20.2011 12:26 PM PDT


Posted by: grey101

Posted by: OrderedComa

Posted by: grey101
It is the mere fact they depend on flakes of this crystal to enter slipspace instead of a drive. with out the crystal they can't go into slipspace or it wouldn't be as fast


I don't remember Cryptum saying anything like that though, and that's not what it sounds like Halopedia is saying about it. Would you mind putting out the excerpt from Cryptum where it says they need the Crystals Shards to even enter Slipspace.


That was purely me, not cryptum.

The crystal react during slipspace which gives the forerunners the advantage. What i am saying is if it weren't for the crystals forerunner slipspace would probably be like the covenants.


Ok, I get what you're saying now XD For a while it sounded like you were saying that the Forerunners needed the Crystals to even enter Slipspace :P
I think the Forerunners (and the Covenant by extension) have Slipspace developed as far as it can be by itself, however there are probably things Slipspace can accomplish that have not been discovered yet.

  • 04.20.2011 1:12 PM PDT


Posted by: ajw34307
Still, if the Crystals are Precursor then why did Halo not destroy the one under CASTLE Base? Perhaps they are evidence of some kind of advanced material that the Precursors discovered?

because that crystal was underground and lightyears away from the nearest halo. the halo set off in cryptum was set to a higher detructive blast which destroyed the closest precursor tech which was on a planet right beside the halo

  • 04.20.2011 2:40 PM PDT