Talk:Forerunner (Halo)

Misuse of the term "sentient"
"A similar theory is that the Forerunners de-evolved themselves into a species of animal (homo erectus for example) which would be non-sentient (and hence would survive the Halo activation)". This isn't a plausible theory simply because Homo erectus was a sentient lifeform. Sentience refers to the presence of biological faculties that allow for sensory input (and, more philosophically, the ability to suffer). Additionally, the Halo Graphic Novel confirms, through "The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor", that the Flood can infect animals of lesser intelligence than Humans/Elites. These two species possess not only "sentience", but also the intelligent reasoning capacity know as "sapience". See Sentience.--The Berzerk Dragon 22:39, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

The Forerunner's didn't "vanish"
They destroyed themselves (or what was left of them) in an effort to stop the Flood. They didn't "mysteriously vanish" as the article puts it. I corrected it.

Part two of this article needs to seriously be cleaned up
or completely deleted, it has completely terrible grammar, no emphasis on punctuation, as well as an elementary display of writing competency. It distracts from the well written "part 1" article.


 * I have deleted section two of this article for the following reason: the section of the article was not up to the standards that a Wikipedia article should conform to. It suffered from a rambling, train of thought writing style, more suited to a fansite FAQ rather than a proper encyclopedia article, as well as atrocious grammer, punctuation, and formatting mistakes. It is inappropriate for an encylopedia article to be written in the first person mode of voice, ask questions of its audience, and to have a conversational tone. I'm trying to be polite here, and do not wish to offend the, and further more to refrain from speculation of your own accord (as troublesome as it was, I read the deleted article from start to finish and concluded that the majority of it was individual speculation being passed off as fact). The Halo story arc and videogames deserve quality articles on wikipedia, which the current authors of the articles that exist are admirably providing. --station82o

Maybe this should be moved to "Forerunner (Halo)" to avoid confusion. --OGoncho 06:03, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Perhaps - but which is it, Forerunner or Forerunners? I've heard both "The Forerunners" and "The Forerunner"... LockeShocke 15:31, Nov 25, 2004 (UTC)

Master Chief clone of Forerunner?
Conisidering the fact that the master chief was part of the SPARTAN cloning project, could it be that he is a clone of an original "forerunner"?


 * No, MC was a civilian kidnapped by the government, so they made a clone as a replacement. --OGoncho 10:30, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Forerunners aren't confirmed humans
We can't know that for sure. You could put anything humanoid into Mjolnir armor and it'd look like MC. If 343 thought that MC was a forerunner because of that, it explains the other comments. I'm just speculating, but do we have an answer to this?


 * I agree it's not yet confirmed but 343 GS also calls both Miranda Keyes and Johnson as Forerunner's, and they were not in any form of armor.

Perhaps it is because they are part of some Forerunner prophecy encoded into 343 GS. That they are a big part of what is going to happen and 343 GS is just acknowledging this.

Hey Is 100% correct. There is No way in hell that he is a forerunner. First off, We are not 100% sure, that the forerunners are even humans. We can mainly assume that they are but we could be surprised. But, Master chief was taken from the government at the age of 6 from his parents in a park. They cloned him and sent the clone back to the parents.

Now.. I have a sweet theory. In the book the Ghosts of onyx. The other spartan are on a forerunner planet and there is nothing there, But it is out of the edge of slip space.Read this....... In the second game, Halo 2, 343 Guilty Spark explains that the Halos are responsible for the destruction of the Forerunners. After exhausting every other strategic option in their struggle against the Flood, the Forerunners had no choice but to activate the rings, killing themselves in an effort to starve their enemy into defeat.[6] In the event of Halo activation, the Forerunners apparently planned to retreat to at least one "shield world" separated from normal space-time by Slipspace displacement, though the one visited in the series is uninhabited.

I think that at the end of halo 3 maybe mastercheif and cortana have maybe found a forerunner city. It seems pretty logical. Considering the fact that bungie created forerunners to have a history. And in addition it seems about right that they would have forerunners becuase they cant keep making some halo setting off and on and off and on. It will be halo 8 and doing the same damn mission for the 16th time. How fun. It will get old. So I believe that it would be logical if master chief and cortana are heading to a forerunner city. (halo 3 alt. ending) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 161.38.223.251 (talk) 19:29, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Forerunner Hand
An interesting thing http://halo.bungie.org linked to. --OGoncho 23:54, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * I don't really see it. And when I squint and look for a "six fingered symmetrical hand," there's nothing telling me it's supposed to be a hand. How do we know? Or is it just one of those place-your-hand-here-to-unlock sort of things, and it's just understood? LockeShocke 00:53, Nov 30, 2004 (UTC)

Duplicate
There's a duplicate at "The Forerunners (Halo)", delete or merge? --OGoncho 07:33, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

In Halo (1 and 2) I believe they are called the Forerunner not plural (the Forerunners).
 * No sir, I distinctly remember Cortana referring to them as "the Forerunners", although she also referred to one of their devices as "Forerunner technology". Same plural usage as "human", I guess. Master Deusoma 16:07, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Speculations?
The article intro correctly states that what little is known about the Forerunner is supplied as hints in the Halo games/novels. The following part of the article contains both a recollection of such hints, but also a lot of what I believe are just speculations dealing with the possible coincidence of the Human and Forerunner species. I don't know if this is somehow confirmed by hints in Halo 2, but I think the long paragraph with 343GS comments should be reworked to something less speculative. Berserker79 09:43, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Forerunner plural / Requested Move
The plural of Forerunner is Forerunner, as it refers to a species and not people. I've tried to change Forerunners to Forerunner whenever it appears, except unfortunately it seems to be the name of this article... is there some way to change this? Bronzey 10:31, 18 March 2006 (UTC)


 * You're right, "Forerunner" seems to be the correct plural spelling. I'd move the page myself, but there's already a page at "Forerunner (Halo)" that redirects here (WTF?), and it won't let me move the page... so I've put in a page move request.
 * If anyone disagrees with this move, speak up... this is where it will be discussed. --Wikivader 21:06, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

343's comment about the Flood installation...
From the article: ''...when Master Chief asks where he is after 343 Guilty Spark teleportes him to the Library, 343 Guilty Spark replies: "The installation was specifically built to study and contain the Flood. Their survival as a race was dependent on it. I am grateful to see that some of them survived to reproduce." This appears to be a reference to the Forerunner.''

Honestly, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Sure, it is possible that the humans are survivors of the Forerunners, despite the fact that there's almost no evidence to support that speculation. But this isn't what 343 Guilty Spark was referring to in that quote. He said that the installation was built to study and contain the Flood. Their (The Flood's) survival as a race was dependent on it -- that is, they were dependent on being kept alive for study and containment, rather than being exterminated with the rest of the Flood. The Flood are the only "race" that Guilty Spark mentioned. As for the part about Guilty Spark being "grateful to see that some of them survived to reproduce," it's obvious that Guilty Spark is more concerned with containing and studying the Flood than keeping any Humans/Forerunners/Covenant alive. --Wikivader 20:22, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

What i think guilt mean is that the inctectin from or mabey some of the combant form were able to play the waiting game untill they found a new suitable host.--Sinper 19:47, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Aha! While I do believe that 343GS is speaking of the Flood in this quote, I do see how this statement could be misconstrued to reference the Forerunners. When he says "Their survival as a race was dependant upon it" Someone could easily say "But Halo was built to destroy the flood, not keep them alive!" and "The lives of the Forerunner were dependant upon the Flood being destroyed, therefore he must be speaking about the Forerunner when he says 'their lives were dependant upon it.'" However, the evidence clearly shows that 343GS is speaking of the Flood as a race, not the Forerunner. One thing I do not quite understand is why the Forerunner would build a facility to keep the Flood alive (The Library) on the installation that would be used to destroy the Flood. It's a bit ironic... -Xikawnix 15:20, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Humans didn't devolve from Forerunners
Someone might add this, or maybe it already is there and I'm just too blind to notice it or something. I think that the Forerunners fired off Halo when their study of the Flood (the Halos were used to study them or something) as they were getting out of control, JUST like what is currently happening in the Halo universe. Everything was eradicated, and then the Forerunner life started up again as Humans. Isn't that in the article or am I blind? Seriphyn 16:30, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree with this in case most have forgotten the very first life form on the real earth is believed to be bacteria. with this said it is highly possible for a forerunner to reach earth with the ark ((saying that the ark is some kind of space ship)) and activate it. It is also possible that the forerunners, realizing their fate edited the bacterias DNA in some way or form so the human that evolved from it would have some vague knowledge of where and what they evolved from. which could explain why the ideal and theme from the bible is the center piece for most of the game's religious parts and forerunner artifacts --Sinper 23:49, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Some people's grammar... Assuming that 343 Guilty Sparks's memory chips arent all screwed up, Halo was activated only 101,217 years ago (From MC's perspective, that is). Supposedly, all sentient life (including on Earth and all the Covenant races' planets) was destroyed, so all that would be left would not just be bacterium, but other life forms as well, like deer and elephants and frogs and such. I question the prophets' claim to have evolved on a planet with forerunner artifacts. According to evolution, our non (semi?) sentient ancestors lived tens and hundreds of millions of years ago. 101,217 years just doesn't cut it for the necessary evolutionary process required to produce the Human and Covenant races from frogs, elephants and chimpanzees. Oh, and in addition, bacteria is not what life is believed to come from. Bacteria are very complex in comparison to what all life supposedly came from. I, personally do not believe in evolution, but I do know a thing or two about it. I would advise you to be correct next time. (Did that sound elitist or bitchy? I'm sorry if it came off that way. *cough*) Xikawnix 02:39, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

the First known Homo Sapiens lived 195 thousand years ago, handy man about 2 million years ago, its more likely that the Ark is earth itself with the device in Africa being part of a global shield. and that at some point after the activation society collapsed, like after the Roman Empire or the likely aftermath of a nuclear war, and that civilisation lost this knowledge and effectively restarted from scratch.

The Reason for War
Assuming the Ark was able to shield some of the Forerunner from destruction, I think it makes perfect sense that Humans are descended from them. Then, assuming that the Prophets had direct contact with the Forerunner, they would have to be aware of the resemblance between Forerunner and Humans. Therefore, if anyone else in the Covenant ever discovers the truth about the Forerunner being destroyed by the Halos and the Humans being all that's left, it would mean that all of the Prophets' bull**** about the Forerunner going on a "Great Journey" is just that, bull****, and rebellion would logically follow. With this line of thinking, I think it's understandable why the Prophets would call for complete Human Genocide. It is simply a matter of tying up loose ends to protect their power.

P.S. Forerunner being shielded by the Ark and becoming Humans also coincides with the fact that current studies indicate that Human Beings evolved in Africa, which is where the Ark is located. Coincidence? I think not.

The only problem is if we did evolution's then the would have had to send out the bacteria that they evolved from.

Read Halo: Contact Harvest, it says about a Covenant oracle (inside their forerunner ship in high charity) which tell the profit (who would become the profit of mercy) that the humans are forerunners. The prophets never spoke to the forerunner or what ever you suggested. The decided to cover it up by saying the humans were prepared to destroy holy forerunner artefacts, and could be destroy the holy rings. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Madmike159 (talk • contribs) 21:45, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Article: Section two
I have modified and replaced the second part of this article. I believe it could still use some editing and correction. If anyone wishes to add to or edit section two, please do!

I also believe that the redirect problem has been fixed. Correct me if I'm wrong? --Xikawnix 01:31, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Crazy!
Has noone here read the novel "Songs of Distant Earth"? Assuming that the forerunner's built a network of device's capable of wiping out all sentient life forms in the entire galaxy from only seven source points, isn't it likely that no matter how well shielded the life forms were, they would end up dead regardless? Surely the more likely theory is the use of some form of dna storage which would start up once any Halo network aftershocks had passed and begin repopulating the galaxy with lil forerunners (humanity).

Hay, it would be pointless to restart your race after the flood attack because they had to kill themselves again when hey get taken by the flood, again! And anyway wouldn't it seem more likely that if the "ark" activates the rings from a safe distance, as I believe it does(this is personal if you want to argue about it you can), that the Forerunner just reproduced and made the babies grow up without technology so it would take time for us to develop make said technology(thousands of years). Therefore we would not have to deal with this flood for a long time. Or my other theory is the second add on to the Reason for War (I can't make up my mind i go between the two day to day :) lol)

Ooh, also, as most of the first humans were black, does that mean that the forerunners were black? :) WookMuff 04:23, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

However, that would still nullify the Prophets' "Great Journey" propaganda, which would once again make sense that the Prophets want to kill all humans (I'm the one who wrote The Reason for War, up there ^).

Yeah. They might not have actually had to meet the Forerunner's to recognize and hate humanity. I mean all the other race's in the Covenant were tamed and brought into the fold, whereas humanity is from the start targeted for extermination. But I think that the Prophets' really do believe their own hype. Maybe the Forerunner records and tech just lying around led them to develop a mythology that all the Forerunner's just up and left, going on their Great Journey, and the Prophets' race just developed their own hankering for Journey-ing that led to their religious zeal! WookMuff 08:24, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Anyone who's read The Da Vinci Code will recognize the same precarious balance of "keeping the faith" and tying up loose ends to prevent anyone from "questioning the faith" that the Church displays (in the book, that is, not neccesarily in real life; I don't want to start a religious argument).

A religious argument in a wiki about a semi mythical creator figure(s)... how unlikely ;) WookMuff 08:39, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Original Research
You guys do know that this whole entire page is original research and unverifiable, so it should be almost entirely deleted. I'm not going to do it because, as a Halo fan, the theories intrigue me and I enjoy reading them, but if an admin ever stumbled onto this page or it was nominated for deletion there would be very little debate. Just thought I should warn you. Konman72 12:22, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, that's not entirely true. Only everything from "Succession Theories" down is speculation. Everything else is known to be 100% true.--67.172.204.135 17:50, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
 * That's what I'm talking about, that is almost the entire page lol. The truth is all the theories should be deleted and only citable facts stated. Konman72 21:14, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Dude, have you been to a star trek page lately? seriously, this is fairly tame compared to those loonies. Anyhoo, as long as there isn't a claim to be true, then i have no issue with it. The point is that people ARE thinking this stuff, not just the people in this talk page. Until Bungie say whats what, i think it should stay. WookMuff 23:36, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Like I said I'm not taking it out and am not saying others should. I'm saying that if an admin or non-Halo fan found this page they would probably do it or nominate it for deletion. Just because others are worse does not mean we should lower our standards. Wikipedia has a policy against original research and nonverifiability which is violated by the "Theories" section in its entirety. It is all speculation, which should not be in an encyclopedia. Now, as I said, I am a Halo fan and enjoy reading the speculation, thus I will not remove it. I was merely trying to warn the dedicated editors of this page that they might want to try working the information into an acceptable format or risk the entire section being deleted. Oh, and the fact that a section of fandom holds a theory does not make it noteworthy and none of the sources for such a claim would fit Wikipedia's policy on reliable sources. But don't worry, I'm not calling for any changes, I was just trying to give you guys a heads-up that any admin would immediately alter this page in a major way and to perhaps try to prepare for it. Konman72 00:04, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Removal of OR, cleanup
Here's the wikitext of the original research that I removed from the article:

Humanity as Forerunners
It has been hypothesized that humanity may actually be Forerunners who were protected from the original activation of the Halo weapons. If this is the case, it would be highly ironic, as the Covenant religious docrtine is based largely on following in the Forerunners' footsteps, eliminating humankind and embarking on the "Great Journey." [Bungie.org: The Forerunner]

Evidence
(Note: All quotes are cited from The Halo Transcript Archive)
 * In Halo 3, 343 Guilty Spark blatantly states that the Master Chief is Forerunner. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Apocalypse223 (talk • contribs) 19:54, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
 * When 343 Guilty Spark first appears in halo he already knows how to speak the human language (however, this might just be because Cortana could monitor the com link chatter and translate the things the grunts said into english.).
 * In Halo, 343 Guilty Spark infers that a Human activated Halo originally, while in Halo 2, 343 Guilty Spark blatantly tells The Arbiter that his makers, the Forerunners activated Halo.
 * When confronted about the true function of Halo after retrieval of the Index, 343 Guilty Spark comments:
 * "But you already know that. I mean, how couldn't you? (...) Last time you asked me, if it were my choice, would I do it? Having had considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed."
 * 1. 343 Guilty Spark states:
 * "Last time you asked me, if it were my choice, would I do it?"
 * Before this event, there has been no dialogue between 343 Guilty Spark and the Master Chief concerning the activation of Halo other than what needed to be done to accomplish it. Evidently, Halo has been previously activated. This suggests that 343 Guilty Spark:
 * - believes that Master Chief was present when the Halo(s) were originally fired
 * - has the habit of thinking that each Reclaimer is the same person (Note that 343 Guilty Spark in Halo 2's cutscene seen in the level "The great journey" while Tartarus tries to convince Miranda Keyes that she needs to input the index,the monitor says,"Please! Use caution! This reclaimer is delicate!" Therefore proving he knows there are different reclaimers)
 * - believes Master Chief has a knowledge of the history and purpose of the Halo structures.
 * 2. 343 Guilty Spark states:
 * "Having had considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed."
 * The time period which 343 Guilty Spark speaks of, logically, must be the time period between the previous, successful activation and this attempted activation.


 * During the Halo 1 level "The Maw" section "Light Fuse, Run Away", 343 Guilty Spark is seen in a cutscene extracting information from consoles in the engineering bay. As he madly hums, zapping boards with some unknown device, he comments to the Master Chief:
 * "You can't imagine how exciting this is! To have a record of all of our lost time! Human history, is it? Fascinating." 


 * The use of the pronoun "our" may or may not be inclusive of the Master Chief, but it does suggest either that humans are heirs to the Forerunners or at least that Forerunner events are entwined with those of humans, as it is presumably human data logs that Guilty Spark is extracting.
 * Cortana states in both Halo and Halo 2 that something seems "familiar" about the Forerunner computer systems, and Master Chief has no problem using the different Forerunner technologies throughout the events of Halo and Halo 2.
 * This would explain why only humans can use the Index to activate Halo:
 * During the Halo 2 level "The Great Journey", Tartarus seems aware that only a human can activate the Delta Halo, as he uses Miranda Keyes to activate Halo rather than taking the honor of doing it himself.
 * Finally, it is important to note that 343 Guilty Spark addresses both Master Chief and Miranda Keyes as "reclaimers". 343 Guilty spark approaches Master Chief saying "We have much to do!", as if Master Chief knows his purpose in activating Halo's defenses. He also tells Tartarus in Halo 2 that Miranda is a "Fragile reclaimer" and that he should be careful with her.
 * All these facts hint at the idea that 343 Guilty Spark was somehow programmed to react to the presence of a human life form or a life form that is physically and structurally similar to that of the human species. This is evident since 343 Guilty Spark does not react in a similar fashion to the Covenant upon their landing on Halo or Delta Halo. In fact 343 Guilty Spark shows a disliking to the Covenant.
 * It is also worth noting that while battling the Prophet of Regret on Delta Halo, the Prophet bleeds red when struck. Since the Prophets are known to have evolved on a planet formerly inhabited by Forerunners, this lends credence to the idea that the Forerunners and Humans are the same or at least share a common ancestor.
 * Sentinels didn't attack humans when they were overrun by the Flood in the Quarantine mission, nor did they attack the Master Chief until he turned on 343 Guilty Spark and destroyed Halo. But, during the Quarantine mission, Sentinels will attack the Arbiter and ALL of the Covenant there.  343 also seems to disdain the Covenant reffering them to as 'meddlers'.
 * In Halo: First Strike, the Forerunner computer system takes a sample of Spartan-104 Fredric’s DNA, allowing him, Dr. Halsey, and the other Spartans to enter the Forerunner corridor, buried underneath Castle Base on Reach. This is regarded by some of the more hardcore fans to be the smoking gun that Humans are related to the Forerunner.
 * In the Sacred Icon mission, on the panel where the arbiter must lower the shields shows a human-like hand.
 * A side note: Some hypotheses claim that, while not directly related to the forerunners, humans may have been engineered as or made into, the reclaimers as some sort of 'failsafe'.

Flaws

 * Although the Humanity-Forerunner connection is probably the most popular Forerunner succession hypothesis, one of the most significant flaws is that no one has been able to comprehensively explain how or why Humanity forgot its Forerunner heritage. Some have also pointed out that the Forerunners' angular gray architecture and technology looks similar to human technology, though that could simply be a result of the extreme contrast between Humanity's gray color scheme and the Covenant's purple color scheme.

Ark Theory
As it stands, a possible answer to the above flaw lies in the ancient Forerunner relic, the Ark. It is believed that the Ark may have sheltered the only surviving Forerunners. In addition, it is also believed that the Ark is Earth, or at least it is on or near it. One theory as to why the Covenant chose to land in New Mombasa is its proximity to the Great Rift Valley, a place rich in anthropological history and possibly a point of origin for the Forerunners' colonization of Earth. If, in fact, the number of Forerunner survivors had been low and their location was on or near Earth, then Humanity's relation to the Forerunners may have some more validity. It is further hypothesized that the rebuilding of the race would have to occur right on or near the Ark (considering that, if it were a vessel for preserving life, it would be well equipped for rebuilding a race, which would account for the countless debates about how in the begining of humanity we originated from Africa.) Over time, notions of Forerunner ancestry would be lost due to lack of records and Humanity would arise. This is, however, based on the presumption that the Ark protects sentient life from Halo being fired, of which there is little to no solid evidence it does so.

Amnesia Theory
A similar theory is that all humans have slight memory of their time as Forerunners. The Master Chief made several comments in the book series that the Forerunner writing looked similar to Aztec pictography. It's possible that the first civilizations on Earth used Forerunner language or some form of it as their own. This memory could explain the myths that appear in most cultures, that humans once lived in paradise until they fell from grace for one reason or another. The loss of technology could have come from some accident in the Ark en route to Earth or just because it couldn't be brought with them as they fled. If this or the previous theory is true the Covenant could think humans are mocking the Forerunners by taking their physical form and by living on a world that may have some religious importance. Also, the Master Chief remarked that the symbols used to operate doors, bridges, and the like, were almost intuitive, as though he had seen them before. Some speculate that there are many possible reasons that humanity has no recollection of the times as Forerunners. One of the Thoughts is that current form of humanity were actually born in the Ark itself as a new species with no knowledge of the going-ons in the world, while the rest of the Forerunners died from the Halo launch as a last resort.

Slave Theory
A newer theory maintains that the Forerunners kept humans as a slave race. This can be implied through the Covenant's actions. The Grunts are a lowly race with little intelligence and battlefield usefulness, except to clog the guns of the enemy. Yet, they are in the Covenant. Jackals are also a low class, physically weaker than humans, and seem to possess little intelligence, yet they too are members of the Covenant. Humans, of course, are not as physically strong as Elites or Brutes. However, one could argue that humans are of equal or greater intelligence to the Elites, and probably superior intelligence to the Brutes and Hunters, though not enough information is available in the books to verify this, although it has been stated that the Covenant technology is more parasitic of Forerunner innovation, and less innovative than human technology. Why then are the humans not given an opportunity to join the Covenant? In Conversations from the Universe, the Elites are depicted as largely confused by this decision to not allow humans the choice to enter the Covenant. Their territory seems to occupy many important Forerunner artifacts and the Ark (or key information leading to the Ark); it would have been much easier to ally with humans and take the artifacts than the war which, despite the Covenant's success, has been costly. It is known that Prophets have information regarding the Forerunners. One theory holds that they know that humans are Forerunners and do not want to lose their holy status to another race, especially one technologically inferior to their own. However, in this scenario the humans could have been assimilated into the Covenant without releasing that information. Taking in to consideration that the Prophets evolved on a planet that was once a colony of the forerunners, it is possible that the Prophets would have been at a reasonable stage of development to understand and venerate the Forerunners prior to the activation of the halos, although this is unlikely, as these proto-Prophets would have almost undoubtedly been obliterated along with the other Forerunners. It is also conceivable that the Forerunners realising that they may have to purge all life in the galaxy, gathered together a group of species that may in the future be able to repopulate the galaxy through some kind of stasis. This could mean that all current Covenant races may have had their planets of origin selected by the Forerunners, so that following a halo activation the galaxy would not remain devoid of sentient life. This would likely explain why many of the Covenants homeworlds have Forerunner artifacts, most likely they served the purpose of a type of stasis for the Forerunners chosen species. The Ark located on Earth was likely a lifeboat for their species, however they may have wanted to ensure nothing like the Halo purge occurred again. This may entail they destroyed all their knowledge and technology so they might start again, rebuilding their civilization from scratch. It is very likely that the Covenant had become aware of Humanity before the official encounter of 2520 in orbit of Harvest, they likely had observed Humanity for a while considering them a potential Covenant addition. However the Prophets would likely have been the only species old enough to recognise them as Forerunners, but their primitive technology would make them seem as simple beings not as the Forerunner Gods. This would be the death of everything the Covenant had believed in for likely millennia. The prophets in response deemed the inferior Human Civilization as an 'Affront To The Gods' ensuring that the rest of the Covenant would not waver in their commitment to the Great Journey, for the discovery of the Humans/Forerunners would counter the core of their religion. A logical conclusion is that the humans were a slave race to the Forerunners causing the Prophets to deem them as unfit for the Covenant, thus justifying their eradication. The fact that they're primates doesn't matter; Brutes are primates. A theory to this is that the Covenant doesn't want anyone else capable to complete the great journey. But then again, why would the Forerunners allow their slaves able to put the index in the core of halo's control room?

Caretaker Theory
Another theory is that the Forerunners left everything into the hands of the Humans and the knowledge given to them was lost. The Humans were meant to continue on and control the Galaxy now that they're gone. The Forerunners gave the Humans their ability to activate the Halo's in case the Flood were ever a problem again. This is theorized because 343 Guilty Spark makes a clear distinction between Forerunners and Reclaimers. Because it appears that Humans are Reclaimers, it seems that they are to reclaim the universe in the Forerunner's absence from the Flood.

Death and Rebirth Theory
The only reason we do not remember the Forerunner technology, is because we wiped ourselves out. The Forerunners or humans, activated Halo and the Ark with all its power set to full to destroy the flood. The only problem was that the rings destroyed only living, sentient life. That means it killed the food for the flood, and like a real virus or weed in a garden, the flood withered away with time. With everything dead, humanity re-evolved and over time rediscovered technology. When we re invented space travel we encountered the covenant who had also lost all former records of Forerunner history. Cortana even said in one of the rings that the systems were familiar. This means that the technology the Forerunners had, was between 30 and 50 years ahead of what they currently have in the Halo universe. Humans are the Forerunners, or were the Forerunners. If Humans were not the Forerunners, then it was an evolved race like the Prophets of Truth, Regret, and Mercy, in which they controlled the rings and the Ark.

I'm not an admin, and I am a fan of Halo, but this is really egregious. Please find reliable sources (reputable reviewss, etc.) if you want to include any of this. As for the cleanup tag, the article is written mostly from the point of view of the Hal;o universe, whereas all fictional articles should be written from the perspective of our real world. See Writing about fiction for more. — TKD::Talk 08:00, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Sentinels merge
I don't think that the Sentinels require their own article. With the large amount of OR just removed, they'd fit logically here. — TKD::Talk 08:05, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Agree merge them. I was wondering how we could expand the article once the OR was removed and merging all Forerunner technology into this one meta article should do a good job. We should also include a short explanation of "Halo" the artifact and link it to the main article on the subject. Konman72 08:07, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

I Agree also. Xikawnix 18:21, 5 August 2006 (UTC) Agreed. We should probably also include other Forerunner technology, as well, like the Reach crystal from First Strike. Peptuck 01:47, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Agree, not worthy of their own article, would be better suited in the main Forerunner one. --Bronzey 07:20, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

After thinking through, I have decided to merge the sentinels article with the Forerunner one. I thought it would be a good idea to have the sentinels have their own article. Now I think it'll be better to put it here. I hope I made everyone proud. --Senor Starman 7 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Looks good to me, I just turned the Sentinels (Halo) article into a redirect here. Konman72 19:23, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Additional Info
I took the liberty of adding sections about the Halos and the Monitors. In retrospect I discovered that I wrote it all in the past tense, so if anyone cares to change it, be my guest. 67.172.204.135 16:18, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Sentinal Flood control
"According to 343 Guilty Spark in the first Halo game, these sentinel beams are used to control the Flood, though they can only manage them for short periods." This sentence implies a mind control, of sorts. Is the Monitor not simply referring the the beams' use a weapons, saying that the flood can only be controlled while their numbers remain low?Sidney 20:14, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

"Argument" about diameter
Reading through, I saw that someone had thrown this beauty into an existing statement about the rings' diameters (the bolded words):

"Each ring is exactly 10,000 kilometers in diameter,this is in fact not true in a cutscne in halo 2 there are severeal rings rapped around making some rings smaller then others.making the biggest ring ableto have all the other rings inside it. with an artificialy generated environment and gravity running along the inside of the ring."

I have no recollection of any such cutscene in the game. I doubt it's true as it simply goes again common sense: the rings are spread out to cover the most possible area in the galaxy, so why would they be one on top of the other?

If I am wrong and if someone has seen this supposed cut scene, please correct it. --Sillywalker 17:06, 14 October 2006 (UTC)


 * They mean the last scene before the credits, where 343GS produces a hologram of the rings. --OGoncho 01:47, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
 * IMO, it seems that someone might be reading too much into the hologram, though, and that we should stick to what published sources say. — TKD::Talk 01:50, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Agreed, I looked back at it, and I that's just not what I got out of it.--Sillywalker 17:07, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Forerunner or Forerunners?
This seems to be a problem. In Halo: Combat Evolved, Cortana seemed to use "Forerunner" as both single and plural, this was also the case in the books. Then in Halo 2, the Arbiter at one point says "What happened to the Forerunners?", using a plural "s", which contradicts the first game. So: was the "s" a continuity error by Bungie, or should we use the second game as canon and start calling them Forerunners? Bronzey 04:55, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
 * "Forerunners" is mentioned throughout Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. I'm guesstimating that this is the "official" designation in later Halo media. Peptuck 07:48, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't know why people assumed that Forerunner was the plural of Forerunner (just like sheep). The games use Forerunner as the singular and Forerunners as the plural. Cortana tells the Chief that the structure at the centre of High Charity is a Forerunner ship. In this case, she is using Forerunner as an adjective and as a singular. It's like saying it's a Klingon ship. You wouldn't say that it's a Klingons ship. 343 Guilty Spark said that the Halo rings were "weapons of last resort built by the Forerunners". In this case, he's using the plural. I nominate that all articles and references to "The Forerunner" be changed to "The Forerunners".--Just James 01:53, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Forerunner theory
This was posted in the History section of the article by 72.38.56.78, but I think it really belongs here until it gets cleaned up:

Halo 3 - Are humans the Forerunners? (Spoiler Alert, halo 1 & 2 & novels) - This should be edited for tone and clarity

In halo one the master chief was referred to as "Reclaimer" by guilty spark 343 and designated him to "reclaim" the index. I do not believe that he would trust such a task to a non-forerunner, in halo 2 the forerunner AI referred to Miranda Keyes as the "reclaimer" not the Arbiter who was a covenant elite, not a human. Team Katana of Kurt's Spartans were found inside of the world Onyx captured by the sentinels, they were suspended in some sort of a slip space containers marked for "reclaimers" only, so that they could be protected (most likely from the flood). Why would the sentinels place humans in the slip space containers if they were not in fact forerunners. Also in the games reclaimers were defined as people that claimed the index, but in the novel the Spartans are in no way trying to get an index, so could "reclaimer" not actually mean; A Forerunner reclaiming their lost technology and civilization. In the Halo 2 collectors addition there is a message log of one elite asking another elite why they must war with the humans; only the prophets seem to know why and I think that is because they know the humans are the forerunners(most likely only prophet of truth) and want to destroy them, I believe this because in Ghosts of Onyx, you read of elites that have been revered by others, being killed or sent on suicide missions because the prophets were jealous of them, this is also seen in halo 2, when the arbiter (who is normally revered) is a warrior that is normally sent on suicide missions. Since the forerunners are revered more than the prophets, they decided to destroy the humans so that they could not be revered. This is my final article of evidence. It is noted in the novels that the covenant do not create, they copy. The forerunners were the original race and they created all they have, the humans have also done this, this makes the humans and forerunners the only known races to create.
 * I can't remember the reference to the source that stated this: the Prophets evolved on the world that was formerly inhabited by the Forerunners.
 * There's another possibility for you, but yeah I reckon that the humans are the Forerunners.--Just James 01:55, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Is it true forerunners are humans?
Because humans are the only ones that can activate forerunner artifacts? --Pewpewlazers 06:14, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
 * It is a theory, as so far only a few individuals, all human, have been referred to as Reclaimers by Forerunner A.I.s. It is also not a topic to be discussed in this talk page, as with all talk pages this is only about the article. But to answer your question, it is the prevailing theory that humans are forerunners, forerunner descendants, or otherwise heirs to the forerunners. WookMuff 07:11, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Canon
are the novels cannon? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.26.102.42 (talk) 02:55, 18 March 2007 (UTC).
 * Last time I checked, they didn't fire shells at enemy targets, like cannons tend to, but they are considered canon by Bungie. Peptuck 00:44, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

"Fictional Race"
Shouldn't the first sentence ("The Forerunners are a fictional race") take in to account that the Forerunners might be human? Since humans aren't fictional, it should be listed as possibly fictional. The Pelican 23:24, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Are the Forerunner real? Could you go out and actually touch a Forerunner? Talk to one in real life? Even if the Forerunner are human, they're humans in the Halo series, not humans in real life. While humans are real, no matter whether the Forerunner are humans or not, they are a fictional group of people. Just because the Imperium of Man is made up of humans it doesn't suddenly make the Imperium or any of its citizens real. Peptuck 00:46, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
 * 'Nuff Said. David Fuchs( talk /  frog blast the vent core!  ) 00:52, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I guess I was thinking of race as refering to a species, such as Elites and Grunts. The Pelican 01:53, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Halo2sentinel.gif
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Fair use rationale for Image:Halo2enforcer.jpg
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Fair use rationale for Image:Halo2enforcer.jpg
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BetacommandBot 05:02, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Forerunner identity CONFIRMED (spoilers inside!)
Just finished Halo 3 last night and saw Guilty Spark, as well as the Prophet of Truth, confirm that humanity, or their predecessors, were indeed the Forerunners. Guess we have some work to do. ApokalypseCow 13:50, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Oddly enough, the in-game terminals hint that might not be so simple. One of them states directly that the already-existing Forerunner found the humans on Earth while they were building the artifact that would let them transit to the Ark. Remember that the Gravemind and Spark aren't to be completely trusted; Gravemind isn't what we'd call the most honest and forthcoming individual, and Spark himself admits he doesn't know everything. Peptuck 14:53, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I must have missed that terminal, or that particular bit of information in it. Where was it, exactly? ApokalypseCow 15:02, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I....don't remember exactly. I was playing at 6 AM.... I think it was inside one of the shield pylon towers on the second level. When you reach the elevator that goes to the upper levels, there's a room beyond the elevators that you can jump to. In all the towers there appears to be a terminal in the same spot. Peptuck 15:34, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Ok, now im really confused... Weren't the forerunners supposed to have discovered humans as shown in ARG Iris 5? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.112.96.54 (talk) 05:00, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

The in-game terminal says nothing about the existing Forerunner finding "humans" - this is an assumption. What it does say is that they find a planet (assumed to be Earth) with several species that they catalog and index. If anything, this is an homage/reference to Adam's (note: the first human) naming of all the creatures of the Earth. (86.1.169.81 23:47, 28 September 2007 (UTC))
 * Note- uh, of course, I don't think I found *every* terminal. So excuse me if I end up with egg on my face. ;) I did find the terminals mentioned above however. (86.1.169.81 23:52, 28 September 2007 (UTC))
 * In other terminals the Librarian directly states that the reason the artifact was built on Earth was because the species that were encountered on Earth were "special" and unique. Combine this with the comic encountered in the Iris ARG, which shows primative humans watching the Forerunner construct the artifact. Peptuck 03:42, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
 * In the final level of Halo 3, 343 Guilty Spark confirms that the Chief is a forerunner. During the cutscene following the player gaining entry to the Control Room, 343 Guilty Spark specifically says "You are a forerunner", before preceeding to attack him. In addition, the Gravemind refers to you as the "child of my enemy", which could refer to all sentient life, or more likely, the forerunner race. The story told by the terminals supports the latter. 86.16.112.163 00:42, 2 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Spark also says "You are the child of my makers" in that same scene, indicating that the Chief is the descendant of the Forerunners. And again, the Librarian specifies that they found the humans on Earth and indexed them; this indicates that humans were already on Earth when the Forerunners arrived, meaning that the Forerunners were aliens who adopted the humans. Peptuck 04:02, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Terminals
If you read some of the terminals in the forerunner structures (I think the Cartographer level) it talks about forerunner efforts to defend against the flood. I remember it mentioning something about land and space battles. Once more is found out it should go in the history section. 71.34.102.95 05:15, 27 September 2007 (UTC)