Ecumene
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
| Ecumene | |
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 The Eld, a common symbol used to represent the Forerunners
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Intergalactic empire |
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Jagon, other Forerunner languages |
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- "The Forerunners were sophisticated above all other empires and powerful almost beyond measure. Our ecumene spanned three million fertile worlds. We had achieved the greatest heights of technology and physical knowledge."
- — The IsoDidact reflecting on the ecumene's former power and influence.[1]
The ecumene is the translated name for the Forerunner empire which existed over 100,000 years ago. It stretched across the galaxy and consisted of three million habitable worlds at its peak.[1] The political center of this empire was known as the Maethrillian, the Capital city, a massive planetoid structure containing multiple cities. Maethrillian itself was located in the Orion complex, which was considered to be the center of the ecumene. This region of space was bordered by the Jat-Krula, often translated as the "Maginot Sphere", a defensive boundary consisting of millions of Line installations.[2]
History[edit]
Early history[edit]
The ecumene was established sometime before 10,000,000 BCE, centered in the Orion complex. At one point the Precursors made a decision to pass down the Mantle to humans instead of the Forerunners. Although the specifics and causes of the events are unclear, the Forerunners furiously rebelled against the Precursors,[3][4] eventually leading to the latter retreating to Path Kethona, outside the galaxy. However, several Forerunners followed with an enormous fleet of warships. A majority of the Precursors were eradicated by the following Forerunners. The Forerunners responsible for the near-genocide were unable to bear the burden of what they had done. Ashamed, many of them exiled themselves on a barren planet located in the Spider.[5] The Builder and the Warrior-Servant commanders of the ecumene worked to suppress the truth and realities of the war. Any individual that attempted to learn of the past was silenced or exiled to a Cryptum.[6][7]
Now the dominant race in the galaxy, the Forerunners and their ecumene began to expand. This often resulted in several sapient species being forcibly relocated from their homeworlds to allow the ecumene to colonize the world.[8] Over the course of their history, the ecumene experienced a number of civil wars, one of which took place over half a million years before their war against the Flood. To safeguard the Orion complex—the center of the ecumene's governance—during these conflicts, the Forerunners constructed the Maginot Sphere, an immense array of defensive installations spread out in a sphere which completely surrounded the Orion complex.[2] During these civil wars, the Builders slowly made themselves the political leaders of the ecumene, rising to supremacy and removing the cultures of the Warrior-Servants and the Miners.[9]
The Capital, the center of the ecumene and the seat of the Ecumene Council, was constructed around 122,990 BCE.[10] At some point, the ecumene fought a series of bloody civil wars known as the Kradal conflicts in the galactic center.[11][12]
War with humanity[edit]
- Main article: Human-Forerunner wars
By 150,000 BCE, the ecumene was the largest empire in the Milky Way.[13] The expansion of the ecumene began reaching human space. Looking to escape from the Forerunners' dominion, the human empire expanded throughout the Orion Arm and eventually built an impressive empire consisting of at least 20,000 worlds in a thousand systems, rivaling the might of the ecumene.[14]
When the human empire was at war with the Flood, human fleets under the command of Forthencho, Lord of Admirals were sterilizing planets, home to other species, with Flood infestations. When worlds in the ecumene began to become infected by the Flood, they were immediately targeted for orbital bombardment, killing millions of Forerunners in the process. The Forerunners did not believe that the Flood was a credible threat to the ecumene and began attacking humanity in response, believing that the humans were attacking other worlds to expand.[15] While the humans were successful at holding their own against the Forerunner military, despite also fending off the Flood, humanity never came closer than 15,000 light-years of the Orion complex.[16]
The Forerunners took control of numerous former human colonies in the war, expanding the ecumene. Humanity's homeworld, Erde-Tyrene, was one of the first planets taken from the human empire, while its neighbouring planet, Edom, was used as a mining colony.[17] The San'Shyuum's home system also became encompassed by the ecumene, with the Deep Reverence orbiting Janjur Qom to ensure the species' exile on their homeworld for aiding humanity throughout the war.[18] Eventually, after a fifty-year standoff at Charum Hakkor, the human empire was defeated by the ecumene's military. As punishment for the human's crimes, the Ecumene Council ordered the species' regression to a pre-technological state.[19]
Forerunner-Flood war[edit]
- Main article: Forerunner-Flood war