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This topic has moved here: Subject: Why weren't there Forerunner at the Ark?
  • Subject: Why weren't there Forerunner at the Ark?
Subject: Why weren't there Forerunner at the Ark?

I admit, I have yet to read Cryptum, and if anyone has an answer, it would be kind if you just told me straight forward.

Considering we take the Ring's firing into effect, all life in Galaxy was whipped out by the Installation's effect, but the Ark lies on the outer Rim of the Galaxy, how was it affected as well? Surely there were Forerunner there before the firing.

Again, I don't want to deal with trolls or something, just want a straight answer.

  • 07.14.2011 11:23 PM PDT

Please don't send me PMs about your Bungie group. I don't care.
Posted by: Atik L Yar

I hear you BTW, Kat is the worst AI I have ever had in my turret. The Elite who hi-jacked her was better!

They haven't said yet. There are still two books to go. All they have done so far is introduce, as far as I can tell, the major characters in the series.

EDIT: All the characters except Guilty Spark. I saw an interview with Greg Bear and the 343i crew and when asked about Spark they were all coy about it. So I am sure Spark will make an appearance in the series at some point.

[Edited on 07.14.2011 11:49 PM PDT]

  • 07.14.2011 11:35 PM PDT

Halopedia states they only left the Orion arm of the galaxy (it sources the "Halo Encyclopedia" book, Pages 16,28,171, and 289. If someone with the book could double check that as i don't have it)

EDIT: I had a theory, then found out Mendicant Bias didn't know the location of the ark. My theory was thrown out the window :/

[Edited on 07.15.2011 2:30 AM PDT]

  • 07.15.2011 2:17 AM PDT

No one else has a say?

  • 07.16.2011 12:33 PM PDT

The cold ghost has come, the sorrow forgotten will be remembered...

I halo legends it said it was done in secret, if only a select few knew then they might have either went into hybernation, or died of old age, or went to a new location. A majority of their people were to my knowledge put into slipspace hybernation, like the pods in ghosts of Onyx. So, they might have been there...just not in view, and not in great number.

  • 07.16.2011 12:58 PM PDT
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Astronomy FTW

Tubas Represent!

It's still hard to say, but I also remember reading that a couple hundred forerunners went and hid on the ark during the flood infestation. Why we didn't see them in Halo 3 remains a mystery, but it's doubtful they've survived after the events of Halo 3.

  • 07.16.2011 2:37 PM PDT

Cammalamm is the best.

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they are busy playing halo 4

  • 07.16.2011 2:54 PM PDT


Posted by: ansac11
It's still hard to say, but I also remember reading that a couple hundred forerunners went and hid on the ark during the flood infestation. Why we didn't see them in Halo 3 remains a mystery, but it's doubtful they've survived after the events of Halo 3.

most might have went into stasis in the many shield worlds around the galaxy like in Ghoasts of onyx

  • 07.16.2011 3:52 PM PDT

"It will not be we who reach Alpha Centauri, and the other nearby stars, it will be a species very like us, but with more of our strengths and fewer of our weaknesses, more confident, far-seeing, capable, and prudent. For all our failings, despite our limitations and fallibilities, we humans are capable of greatness."-Carl Sagan

It is a possibility that a few Forerunner stayed behind when the rest populated other Galaxies.

  • 07.16.2011 4:38 PM PDT

I wake up to find myself
After all these years
And where all the time has gone
Still seems so unclear

They never said really, but the whole "great journey" thing came from Didact saying that they were leaving the Ark. We can only assume to go to another Galaxy. I'm sure this will be a major point in the next Trilogy.

  • 07.16.2011 6:58 PM PDT
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Deva Path


Posted by: DecepticonCobra

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


Posted by: Ageless Durandal
They never said really, but the whole "great journey" thing came from Didact saying that they were leaving the Ark. We can only assume to go to another Galaxy. I'm sure this will be a major point in the next Trilogy.


you do understand he was talking about dieing alone pretty much right? why don't people fully read the statements they are given?

[Edited on 07.16.2011 7:44 PM PDT]

  • 07.16.2011 7:33 PM PDT
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They are extinct.

I am not sure if that's right, but it would make more sense, no?

  • 07.16.2011 7:48 PM PDT

I wake up to find myself
After all these years
And where all the time has gone
Still seems so unclear

Posted by: grey101
you do understand he was talking about dieing alone pretty much right? why don't people fully read the statements they are given?


I am fully aware of the possible connotations of the Terminal entries' language.

You can interpret it more than one way. The language is not set in stone, they leave it vague on purpose.

I will begin our Great Journey without you, carrying this bitter record.
Notice how "great journey" is capitalized. That could mean it's referring to an actual journey, not just a metaphorical one.

Those who came after will know what we bought with this [false transcendence] - what you bought, and the price you paid.

This is the part about death, but not his own death. He's referring to The Librarian's death, as she is inside the Halo Array's range. He's been saying that whole entry how sorrowful he is because he has to activate the array and how he's on the wrong side of the Line. He'd rather be with her and die then be on the Ark and live. It's preemptive survivors guilt if anything.

The Ark is outside the galaxy, it's outside the Halo array's range. Therefore, Didact will live. That's the whole reason Cortana and the Chief could take out the Gravemind with the second Alpha Halo. They tricked him into thinking he'd won because they brought him to the Ark where he thought it was safe.

Didact definitely lived through the Halo Array's activation. And as we learned from Cryptum, Forerunner's can live for thousands of years. And even longer inside of Cryptums. It's entirely possible that some Forerunner's remain alive, but dormant on the Ark or somewhere else. (Dyson Sphere's or the Legendary planet.)

In short, Ark outside range of Halo's. Didact activated Halo's from Ark. Therefore, Didact lived. Therefore it's possible he meant a literal "great journey." I may be wrong, we won't know for sure until the Forerunner saga tells us or the next Trilogy does.
So to answer your question, yes. I understand what the entry meant. I think I also indirectly answered the topic as well.

[Edited on 07.17.2011 2:27 AM PDT]

  • 07.17.2011 2:25 AM PDT
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Deva Path


Posted by: DecepticonCobra

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

He was talking about the forerunners as a whole and their philosophy of the mantle (which is clearly wrong), the price they paid by following it was damming the whole galaxy.

And please tell me where it was ever said or even implied that didact activated the ark?

We have IRIS that shows him activating a ring.

We have 343 statments and him confusing chief for the didact (at the most)

we have halo legends that shows the array being activated from a ring.


That is 3 accounts of it starting from the rings not the ark; don't tell me you go that from this line.

"Mendicant Bias is trying to prevent us from firing the Array. He speeds back to the Ark"


You want to know how to stop all the rings from firing? go to the ark and manually stop it. that should be common sense when you stop and think about it because there is no way MB could travel to all of the halo's; he was going to the ark because that is the only way he could stop it.

  • 07.17.2011 2:33 AM PDT

I wake up to find myself
After all these years
And where all the time has gone
Still seems so unclear

I don't recall any image in IRIS showing the Array being activated. (Also, Halo Legends was from Cortana's fragmented perspective, Frankie said it wasn't 100% correct. And no, I don't remember where he said that.)

However, you are right. Now that I think about it, in Halo 2, 343GS said if the Halo's activation was stopped mid-charge, they all went into standby phase to be activated from the Ark. So, unless that happened the first time, then it would have been from a Ring that Didact activated the Array. My mistake. I just assumed he'd activate it from the safest place possible. (Also, that line about being on the wrong side of the line. Which I always thought was the defense parameter around the Ark. Therefore, MB was coming to stop Didact. If Gravemind can communicate with all his Flood forms, you'd think he'd know that Didact was on Alpha Halo to activate the Rings. Maybe that's where those auxiliary ships were going from Mendicant's fleet?)

  • 07.17.2011 2:53 AM PDT
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Posted by: DecepticonCobra

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

he stops talking after array fired

The basic facts of the forerunner story were true including that one, it is mainly part 2 that isn't fully correct.

regardless i apologize for being hostile, i am going to sleep after this post. i just dislike people that came up with that idea without any logic behind it.


As for MBs fleet that is still up for debate. Some of use think he could have been sending the mind to a safe place, others think mendicant himself was sending "shards" of his persona into space.


I honestly like both ideas.

  • 07.17.2011 2:58 AM PDT