Posted by:ScubaToaster
Posted by: HipiO7
This man, this man right here put it so eloquently that I actually cancelled my own 2000+ word long post.
/slow clap for respect
:)
The person who said participating is important, not winning, obviously never won anything.
It's explained in Halo 3 indirectly.
The Forerunners had been defeated by the Flood. They were in charge of the Mantel, which made them the guardians of the galaxy. They survived the Halo Effect, but they preferred to leave the galaxy and perhaps return some day.
There was no need to catalog themselves because they were not going to be an extinct race had they not.
I haven't read Primordium, but I'm pretty sure that could be the explanation for it. I'm sure someone else will add details I was missing and what nots.