- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
All credit to JustAScrub
After re-watching a few halo 2 cutscenes I've come to the conclusion that Gravemind is indeed a Flood-infected Forerunner. This also hints even more that the Forerunner are ancestors of the humans. Now bear with me.
First of all let's take a look at what he says and what he does. First thing he says is "I am a monument to all your sins." I believe he's talking to Master Chief as though he is responsible for what happened to Gravemind. The Forerunner were dumb enough to keep the Flood around for studying, and the Gravemind, now being infected, blames humans (Forerunner) for what he's become. He also says something along the lines of "I have listened through rock and metal and time." It would make sense for him to be a Forerunner who has been a prisoner of time and basically a punishment for the Forerunner mistakes. Also all the knowledge he has of Halo and how much he knows about the what happened when the Forerunner activated Halo is a clue.
Also let's take a look at his abilities. One of the first things we see he is able to do is somehow take hold of the Oracle. The Oracle acts as if being in Gravemind's grasp is nothing to be worried about, and almost acts as if being in the grasp of Gravemind is a blessing. One of the biggest clues that leads him to being Forerunner is his use of the Covenent technology. When did he do this you say? After he has finished his talk with the MC and the Arbiter, somehow he manages to teleport the MC directly into High Charity. It seems as though he has complete use over the Covenent's technology, which is based on Forerunner technology in the first place. Now let's take a bit of a deeper dive into my theory.
This is what I've come up with on how Gravemind came to be. My theory is that when the Flood gather enough biomass they can achieve the ultimate state of the flood, which is an all controlling parasite that is the Gravemind. Now here's where it gets interesting. I'm almost positive that in Halo CE if the Master Chief had not punched a hole through Flood Keyes, then eventually, after gathering a few more hosts, that blob of infection would have become a Gravemind. One more, tiny little clue is, if you listen EXTREMELY closely, you can either other voices in certain parts of Gravemind's speech. Mainly it sounds like a woman talking, but you can here others too. So I think what Gravemind is is a bunch of forerunner (humans) gathered into one parasitic mass to create an ultimate Flood, which again would have been what Keyes eventually became if more humans were added to the mass.
Just to add a little more to my theory, these are words from the Gravemind soundtrack. Courtesy of Embo-1.
"I have walked among men and angels for three thousand years.
Time has no beginning, no end, no purpose.
I have seen death and destruction over the light, but the light cannot be extinguished.
I beg for forgiveness for my crimes against God and Man.
I am trapped in a prison of my own demise
I am trapped in time..."
This just points more and more to the fact that he is Forerunner. He's obviously been around for a LONG, LONG time. He even says time has no beginning, no end, no purpose. Also in the lines "I beg for forgiveness for my crimes against God and Man." and "I am trapped in a prison of my own demise" just suggest that he was one of the Forerunner who kept the Flood to study. When he did, however, he was infected, along with the others who studied the Flood, and ultimately became Gravemind.
[Edited on 5/31/2006]