- un gato
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- Intrepid Mythic Member
We’ve watched while the stars burned
Out, and creation played in reverse.
The Universe freezing in half-light.
Once I thought to escape.
To end a master, step out of the
Path of collapse. Escape would make us God.
Yet I cannot help but remember one enigma,
A hybrid, elusive destroyer.
This is the one mystery I have not solved.
The only element unaccounted for.
There really are a lot of similarities between them.
Flood=Zerg
Covenant=Protoss
Humans=Terrans
Forerunner=Xel'Naga
These are just basic comparisons, but you get the picture.
What if the comparisons went further than that? What if The Forerunner created both the Flood and Covenant, like the Xel'Naga created the Zerg and Protoss? The Protoss worship the Xel'Naga, and the Covenant worship the Forerunner.
Here's the theory-
The Forerunner had become so advanced that they no longer saw any real ways to advance themselves. They decided that they would attempt to create a life form that would be marked by an excellence of form and mind, one that would be essentially perfect, under the belief that if they were to create such a perfect being they would it would be able to advance itself beyond the Forerunner because it would start off greater than they themselves did. They started experiments on several worlds, and eventually one of the races began to show extrodinary promise. They abandonmed their other races one by one until they were focusing on just the one, the Prophets. The species that they abandoned were the other species of covenant, and the humans. Anyway, they were excited by the progress of the Prophets, but wanted them to go further. However, the Prophets were now too intelligent to be guided as subtley as they once had. The Forerunner decided to reveals themselves to the Prophets in order to continue to shape them. The Prophets see the Forerunner as gods, and begin to worship them. Eventually however, strife occurs between the Prophets, as does in all religons. The Forerunner attempt to calm this, but any assitance they lend to one side or the other merely reinforces the viewpoint of that one sect, and war eventually breaks out. The Forerunner deem the Prophets as a failure, and leave the planet to start anew.
They decide that they should begin a new experiment. The problem with the Prophets, they agree, was their ability to think for themselves, and the inevitable disagreements this will eventually cause. There next species, therefore, must think and act nearly as one, and only attempt to improve the cause of the species as a whole, rather than each individual member attempting to improve itself alone. Thus they begin work on a promising parasite discovered as they travelling from the Prophet's world. It show a remarkable abitlity to work as a collective whole, and they begin to shape that aspect of it. When this species takes over a host it gradually changes the host, strengthening the body without care for how it looks. As they multiply by dividing itself, the physical appearance didn't need to be changed past what occured during the enhancment stage.
The Forerunner saw that the newly named Flood (saw that one coming, did you?), while able to work together remarkably well, were not able to coordinate there efforts into a larger whole. The decided to modify the Flood so it could create Command forms, which would be the leaders behind the flood. The Flood would be able to convert any lifeform into a Command form and use it's knowledge, which would then be shared among all Command forms. This way the Flood could theoretically gain infinite knowledge.
The Command forms did a remarkable job of controlling the Flood. However, the drive to gain knowledge and further the Flood as a whole eventually led them to turn their eye to the single greatest source of knowledge available to them- the Forerunner themselves. And thus, they attacked them, and from the Forerunner that they absorbed they vastly increased their intelligence, and obtained the knowledge to perform basic repairs to starships. However, the Forerunner's knowledge was largely contained within computers, rather than in each individual member of the race, so the Flood only got scattered knowledge. The Forerunner then fled to the ancient fortress worlds that they had used in ages past, when they were still trying to better themselves by conquest. However, some Flood had managed to sneak onboard, and once they reached the worlds, the Flood begin to spread there. They realize then that they will not be able to stop the Flood. In a last attempt to control the Flood, they detroy their own ships so the Flood cannot spread beyond the ring. The Flood on their homeworld, now deprived of food (which had been provided by the Forerunner) die out. The Flood on the rings, however, after devouring the Forerunner and creating a new set of Command forms to control them realize that they will be unable to survive without food. The command forms eventually find cold sleep capsules on the ring world, and as many Infection forms as possible are sent there to await something foolish enough to wake them. The remainder of the Flood on the ring dies off, leaving the only remaining Flood in cold sleep.
Wow, I didn't mean to make this so long... Well, anyway, to all of you that know the basic storyline behind the Xel'Naga, Protoss, and Zerg, this should seem somewhat familiar. And if the end seems a little lame, well, when I started I didn't really intend for this to be so thorough.
If you have a reason why this theory wouldn't work out (there are plenty, I'm sure), please give a reason rather than just saying "Ur a -blam!- moron!"
[Edited on 9/12/2004 12:03:10 PM]