- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Posted by: Mabon
That, is exactly what I always thought. Well...the part about humans being the forerunners. It makes perfect sense when you take into account all the sly hints in the games and the books. But, as it said in Halo CE...forerunners went kaboom when the activated the ring. Soooo......0_o
No, I don't think humans are the forerunners, that's for sure, but we are the "reclaimers" of the forerunners. Exactly what that means is hard to say. If you notice, 343 Guilty Spark, as well as that other monitor called any humans they encountered "reclaimers." "Forerunner" and "Reclaimer," two terms that relate to one another, but what is it exactly the humans are meant to reclaim? The lost knowledge of the Forerunners? To reclaim their Empire, or is it to reclaim their ultimate fate, aka extinction? That answer we'll have to find out at the end of Halo 3.
I'm usually able to predict the outcome of stories early on, so if you don't want to know how Halo ends, don't read further. I predicted that Cortana would be under the influence of Gravemind, for example. Hardly anybody believed me, but it turned true according to the trailer, so I'm serious. Don't read further if you want to spoil the ending.
What I personally believe is this. The Forerunners encountered the flood. How they encountered them is unknown, it's possible that the flood was originally created by the Forerunners as a biological weapon that was supposed to be effective only against their enemies, but mutated to be able to infect all sentient life. The flood overtook the Forerunners, so they built the halos, weapons of unimaginable power that, like the flood, somehow targets only sentient life forms. It destroyed all sentient life, and only sentient life, within three galactic radii of each halo device that was spread throughout the galaxy. So all sentient life in the galaxy and all orbiting companion galaxies was destroyed.
It's also important to note that this act did not destroy the flood, only sentient life, which apparently the halos don't recognize the flood as being, but since the flood feed on sentient life forms, they were essentially contained. But what if the Forerunners made a colony outside the reach of the Halos? The short answer is they didn't, because likely they would just bring the flood with them to wherever they fled to, rendering the construction of the Halos pointless. The whole point of the Halos was to destroy all sentient life to contain the flood. Also, since any civilization requires energy, and the only power source outside three galactic radii of our galaxy is the Andromeda Galaxy, thousand of galactic radii away from our galaxy at least. But let's assume that they wouldn't bring the flood with them if they fled to Andromeda? Well even if faster-than-light space travel is possible, which it is in the game world, Andromeda is still very, very far away. It would take an impossible amount of fuel to reach it, even if they would normally collect their fuel en route, as in the Star Trek method of collecting particles from space and converting it to fuel, the area between the galaxies are so devoid of matter that the trip just wouldn't be possible. So, three galactic radii spells death for the Forerunners.
This also answers the question about the flood being smart enough to the journey to another galaxy. Well, we just discussed that journeying to another galaxy isn't likely, if it was, the Forerunners or whoever else would have made the trip already, but yes they are intelligent enough to commandeer ships and pilot them effectively and such. Well, normal flood aren't, but we're forgetting about Gravemind, he is definitely intelligent enough, and I believe he's been around since the flood first started infecting the Forerunners. He is even more ancient than the Halos.
So their whole plan was to activate the halos, kill themselves, just to contain the flood, and what? That's it? Just a "I'd rather be dead than be a flood!" sort of attitude? Is there anything else? Well, yes, actually. That's where the Reclaimers come in. The Halos weren't meant to be just sentient destroying machines. They were also sort of environmental and biological laboratories, on a large scale. The Forerunners were trying to see if they could influence environments and biology. Specifically, could they create conditions that would guarantee the evolution of sentient life forms at any time they wish. Specifically, sometime after the activation of the haloes. In Halo 2, Cortana mentioned that the structures on Delta Halo were not built by the Forerunners, but that the Forerunner treasured them, venerated them. But why? And who built them if it wasn't the Forerunners and not humans? Why, it's the Prototype Reclaimers, of course. The Forerunners wanted to make sure that their Reclaimers would evolve after the Haloes were activated, so the made sure that at each Halo, they were. Of course, once the Haloes activated these Proto-Reclaimers would die, which is why the Forerunners wanted to honor them.
I think the Forerunners plans went like this; after the Haloes were activated, killing all Forerunners and Proto-Humans/Reclaimers. The Sentinels and Monitors, which they created to combat the flood, could easily eradicate them. This happened, but instead of complete eradication, the monitors ordered the sentinels to contain them on the haloes and elsewhere for study. I don't think this was the Forerunners intention, though it's possible. I think either the monitors decided to do it on their own, or they were affected by Gravemind, a being that whose existence I think the Forerunners were oblivious to. After the haloes were activated, humans, or the Reclaimers, were set to evolve using the machine under New Mombosa. The rest is history.
[Edited on 5/14/2006]