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The Watchers and the Jjaro
Some of you may know this, but others who are newer will not, but Eagle 117 once had a theory about the relation between the Forerunner and The Watchers from the Book of Enoch. He suggested that the Forerunner were divided into disputing factions and that one faction "fell" by aiding mankind while the other sought to stay out of our business. The Forerunner we know would have represented both the remaining Watchers in heaven and God because they created the Halos to wipe the galaxy clean of the Flood (or Sin). The Halos were also designed partly to rid the galaxy of the Jjaro's influence. It would be beneficial to read Eagle’s original theory over at the HBO forums HERE. In that thread, be sure to also read Eric Trautmann’s responses. If you didn’t know, Trautmann is the maintainer of the Halo Story Bible. Trautmann is to Halo as Kirkpatrick is to Marathon. Because I love Marathon so much, I have named the Forerunner faction that helped us, the Jjaro. Trautmann, after nudging from Eagle, listed the Forerunners in the list of “chill”, but was still rather vague in saying what was right and wrong. So I am basing the Jjaro part of the theory on the assumption Eagle was partly correct. If he was wrong, then this part is wrong, but the other parts are basically unrelated.
Here’s a brief overview of the Book of Enoch and the story of the Watchers in relation to Halo:
And these are the names of their leaders: Sêmîazâz, their leader, Arâkîba, Râmêêl, Kôkabîêl, Tâmîêl, Râmîêl, Dânêl, Êzêqêêl, Barâqîjâl, Asâêl, Armârôs, Batârêl, Anânêl, Zaqîêl, Samsâpêêl, Satarêl, Tûrêl, Jômjâêl, Sariêl. These are their chiefs of tens.
Bezaliel is the twentieth who is often left unmentioned because of damaged text. I believe that Samyaza was the leading figure of the Jjaro (although later, he becomes less important as Azazel assumes his role). He led the 199 others to Earth. They were split into twenty units of ten each with a respective leader.
And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells [the Ethiopian text gives 300 cubits (135 meters), which is probably a corruption of 30 cubits (13.5 meters)]: Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood.
This is in reference to the Nephilim, the product of the Watchers fornicating with human women. Suppose that the Jjaro weren't much different than humans and were... let's say... compatible. They would have had children that weren't exactly human and weren't exactly Jjaro. Perhaps they bred a new race that was slightly larger and possessed a gene that separated them from other races. Eagle suggested that perhaps these were the Spartans. It is a possibility. We know that the Spartans were chosen by Dr. Halsey based on a certain gene they each possessed. I, however, am more inclined to believe that Spartans do not represent the Nephilim, but are more analogous to the “good” angels.
And Azâzêl taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjâzâ taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, Armârôs the resolving of enchantments, Barâqîjâl, taught astrology, Kôkabêl the constellations, Ezêqêêl the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiêl the signs of the earth, Shamsiêl the signs of the sun, and Sariêl the course of the moon.
Azazel taught them about war and the weapons with which to wage it. He showed them precious metals and taught decoration and vanity. Samyaza taught exorcisms (psychology?) and medicine. Armaros taught them magic and spells (perhaps slightly advanced technology). Baraqel taught astrology or divination (maybe this was some sort of prediction tool?). Kokabiel taught astronomy. Chazaqiel (Êzêqêêl) taught meteorology. I can't really speculate on what exactly Araqiel (Hm... have we seen this name before?) or Shamsiel taught. Sariel may have taught an understanding of the solar system. These Jjaro leaders "corrupted" humanity in the eyes of the Forerunner.
Another thought I had revolved around the creation of humanity. Although I believe that humanity evolved in the Halo universe, this seemed interesting. What if the Forerunners created humanity as "clones" of themselves for some science experiment? That would effectively have mirrored God's creation of Adam in his image. The Jjaro split off from the Forerunner because they differed in beliefs over how to continue the science experiment (help the struggling humans or let them evolve in due time). In fact, the Forerunner could have created life on Earth and just let humanity evolve. That, however, isn’t important to this theory. The point is that the Forerunner and the Jjaro differed in their beliefs on how to deal with humanity.