Chakas
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
| Chakas | |
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Homeworld: |
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Died: |
c. 97,452 BCE (original body) |
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Species: |
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Gender: |
Male |
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Height: |
Approx. 1.67 metres (5 ft 6 in)[1] |
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Hair color: |
Black |
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Affiliation: |
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Notable info: |
Mind used as basis for 343 Guilty Spark |
- "A long time ago, I was a living, breathing human being. I went mad. I served my enemies. They became my only friends."
- — 343 Guilty Spark reminiscing his original form.
Chakas (pronounced "Chay-kas")[2] was an ancient human born on Earth during the Forerunner-Flood war. Having lived his youth on Earth, then known as Erde-Tyrene, he inadvertently became involved in the Forerunners' schemes due to a geas the Forerunner Lifeshaper, the Librarian, had imprinted on him at birth. Although his physical body was eventually killed, his mind survived in the form of the Forerunner monitor later known as 343 Guilty Spark.[3]
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
As an infant, Chakas was imprinted with a geas by the Librarian, who sought to use the humans in her plan to reunite with her husband, the Didact.
Chakas' family had a farm outside the city of Marontik, but after his father was killed in a knife fight with a water baron's thugs and the family's crops failed, they moved to the city. There, he took up several menial tasks to make a living while his sisters went to serve as Prayer Maidens in a temple dedicated to the Lifeshaper.[4] In Marontik, Chakas led a rough life of a small-time criminal and con man,[5] garnering some notoriety in robbing merchants outside the town and getting involved in fights, often for his own amusement.[6] He attempted to justify some of his criminal acts as a pursuit to gather enough money for his family to bring his sisters back home from the temple.[7]
Soon after moving to the city, he began having dreams of meeting a Forerunner and then attacking and robbing him, in hopes of selling his "treasure" and using it to bring his sisters back from the temple to live with his family. Chakas, at the time barely twenty years old, was then visited by Riser, a Florian, who offered him work and guidance if he stopped getting into trouble, saying that he had seen someone like him in a dream. Chakas accepted, and Riser showed him various places where he could find useful work. Chakas also provided protection to Riser's clan, which in exchange fed Chakas' family.[4] Riser would become Chakas' counterpart and most trusted friend. The Florian showed Chakas the sacred caves outside of Marontik,[8] where he would undergo a scarification ceremony marking his passage into manhood.[9]
Meeting with Bornstellar[edit]
- "After the Librarian (I was only an infant when I saw her) the next Forerunner I encountered was a young Manipular named Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting. I set out to trick him. It was the worst mistake of my young life."
- — Chakas, or 343 Guilty Spark, reflecting back on the fateful meeting.[7]
When the Forerunner Manipular known as Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting arrived in Marontik (unknowingly as a result of the Librarian's manipulation), Chakas and Riser were working for a collective of guides.[10] At the time, Chakas was not yet twenty years old.[11] After the Manipular enlisted their aid in his quest for Precursor artifacts, the two humans joined the young Forerunner on an expedition to the Djamonkin Crater, where Bornstellar found the Didact's Cryptum. Here, thanks to a geas implemented by the Librarian, he along with Riser sang a sound code, programmed into their geas, that authorized the opening of the Cryptum and the awakening of the Didact.[12] The Didact reacted to Chakas with anger, the human being much like the ones who had fought the Forerunners in the human-Forerunner wars.[13]
The Didact took Chakas, Riser and Bornstellar along on his his ship as he left Earth, first heading to Charum Hakkor and later to Janjur Qom, the San'Shyuum homeworld, in the hope this would spark a memory imprinted by the Librarian that could help the Didact. On the way, they also began discovering memories of their ancestors who fought in the human-Forerunner wars, imprinted as part of their geas.[14] On Janjur Qom, Chakas was imprisoned by the Master Builder Faber along with Riser and the Didact. The Master Builder ordered Chakas and Riser to be delivered to Installation 07, which he was using to conduct experiments in secret.[15]
Odyssey on Installation 07[edit]
- "The horizon curved upward to both sides. Not good, not right. Horizons do not curve up."
- — Chakas' first assessments regarding the unfamiliar environment of the Halo.[16]
- Main article: Battle for Gyre 11
Later, the ship carrying Chakas was caught in the massive battle around the Forerunner Capital and destroyed. Chakas, accompanied by several Forerunner guards, fled in an escape pod which made a rough landing on the surface of Installation 07, one of the Halos under control of the rampant AI Mendicant Bias. Injured, Chakas was discovered and tended to by a human girl known as Vinnevra, from whom Chakas learned that the Halo was home to various species and subspecies of humans, who collectively referred to themselves as "the People". While initially unable to understand or speak their ancient language, Chakas managed to obtain the knowledge he needed from the old memories his geas gave him.[17] Many of these humans had been transplanted on the ring long ago by the Librarian, while others had been brought in more recently by the Master Builder, who used humans in his cruel experiments on the Flood.
It was here that the consciousness of Forthencho, Lord of Admirals, who had commanded the human military forces against the Didact's fleets in the final battle of Charum Hakkor, surfaced alongside Chakas' own mind instead of Chakas getting memories from multiple deceased prehistoric humans. The other personalities subsequently appeared to go dormant as Chakas later stated that he could no longer feel them.[18] After Chakas had recovered, Vinnevra took him to see her grandfather, Gamelpar, who explained that he was also born on Earth and, like Chakas, held an "old spirit", or ancestral personality imprint, within him. Vinnevra then began to experience an urgent need to travel to where she assumed it would be safe; this was actually due to a geas imposed on the humans born on the Halo. Chakas, hoping to find Riser, joined Vinnevra and Gamelpar as they decided to leave the village and follow Vinnevra's geas. As they approached their destination, however, they discovered that Vinnevra's geas was leading them to what the humans called a Palace of Pain; a Flood research station where the Forerunners conducted experiments on humans. Observing the facility from a distance, Chakas, Vinnevra and Gamelpar witnessed numerous humans being herded into the structure by the Primordial, supposedly the last Precursor. Horrified, the three then decided to move in the opposite direction. After traveling for some time, they arrived at the shores of a large lake where they came across an abandoned human city. Exploring the city, Chakas and Gamelpar discovered a Proto-Gravemind imprisoned in a Forerunner energy cage, and promptly left.
After crossing the lake, the three were found by a Lifeworker named Genemender-Folder-of-Fortune, several Denisovans, and a large ape known as Mara and taken to a village full of humans. Upon being fed by Genemender and sent to sleep, Chakas was awakened by Riser, who warned him not to trust the Lifeworker and the other humans. Soon after, Genemender took Chakas to his hidden base of operations and revealed that the humans in his compound were not actually alive, but archived personalities manifested as realistic hard light holograms and stating that he was under orders to salvage the humans' genetic records to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Flood and the Master Builder. Genemender proceeded to do the same with Chakas, who upon realizing this attempted to attack the Lifeworker, only to discover that Genemender was also merely a hologram based in a monitor; he had archived not only the humans in the village, but also himself. As Chakas returned outside, he discovered that Gamelpar was dying. Genemender stated that they should salvage the personality imprint the old man carried, but Gamelpar adamantly refused, instead wanting to die with dignity. Chakas then accompanied Gamelpar in his final moments, with the old man having Chakas promise to watch over Vinnevra.
The entire area then experienced a power outage, powering down the monitors and the holograms of the archived humans. As Chakas, Vinnevra and Mara moved on, Riser joined them, having observed them from a distance for some time. Chakas was joyous at being reunited with his friend, who then proceeded to explain how he had stumbled upon them. The two also allowed their "old spirits" to converse with one another; it turned out that Riser car