Erde-Tyrene civilization

This article is about the ancient humans regressed to hunter-gatherers. For the original ancient humans with an advanced civilization, see Ancestors.

The civilization on Omega Halo.

Ur-Didact: "The humans' actions threatened the galaxy, yet we have treated them as the Mantle requires. Their punishment was just."

Librarian: "Justice is reducing their genetics in such short generations from a space-faring race to… this?"

Ur-Didact: "They are closer now to the animals they behaved as."

— A conversation between the Ur-Didact and Librarian

Between approximately 106,445 BCE and 97,445 BCE, a prehistoric civilization shared by various species and subspecies of human and related genera existed on Earth, then known as Erde-Tyrene. This civilization was a reduced remnant of humanity's previous interstellar empire, which was shattered by the Forerunners at the conclusion of the Plague War. Erde-Tyrene itself was considered an insignificant and obscure vassal planet of the Forerunners' ecumene, with a Forerunner Miner presence on the nearby Mars, known as Edom at the time.

History

Previous civilization

Main article: Ancestors

Humans first evolved and achieved civilization on Earth, originally known as Erda or Erde-Tyrene, before 1,100,000 BCE. For over a million years, humanity roamed the galaxy, experiencing a number of technological dark ages in the interim. Around 107,445 BCE, their latest—and last—interstellar empire stumbled upon the parasitic Flood, which indirectly forced humanity into a millennium-long conflict with the Forerunners. Exhausted from fighting the Flood, the humans were eventually defeated.

Following humanity's surrender at their capital of Charum Hakkor and the end of the human-Forerunner wars, the Forerunners used Composers to extract the patterns of the remaining humans on Charum Hakkor. However, many more humans remained in scattered redoubts across the galaxy, which the Forerunners and their subject species proceeded to conquer and gather any live specimens. These humans were transported back to Earth while all signs of human achievement and technology were erased from the galaxy.

Regression and revival

A village on Omega Halo.

As punishment for defying the Forerunners, the Forerunners' Old Council decreed that the humans be stripped of all technology and be forced to undergo an artificially-induced process of biological devolution: within a relatively short span of time, live humans had millions of years of their evolution reversed, soon leading to them losing body mass and, eventually, intelligence as well. This process was reluctantly overseen by the Forerunner Lifeshaper, the Librarian, acting under orders of the Old Council. While many Forerunners in positions of power wanted to see humanity wiped out, the Librarian spoke out in their defense, viewing them as special and potentially worthy of inheriting the Forerunners' Mantle of Responsibility.

The Librarian's beliefs about humanity were reinforced during the subsequent millennium: in only a thousand years, the devolved humans' population skyrocketed. Furthermore, the humans branched off into numerous species and subspecies, progress that should have normally taken millions of years. While this was partly due to the assistance of the Librarian and her geas, there were also unknown factors not even the Librarian and her subordinate Lifeworkers could explain despite studying the humans' genetic code in detail. Over twenty of these species migrated across Earth and formed separate populations across the planet.

The development of civilization began anew; humans began to settle down and gather into tribal communities and villages. They began to grow crops and domesticated many animals, such as sheep, goats, wolves, cattle, and birds. They developed tools and basic technology; this spurred the development of trade and even fledgling industry. Others continued to live in Tier 7 tribal communities, such as the one that was encountered by the Forerunners during the construction of the portal to the Ark in eastern Africa.

Conservation Measure

The Ur-Didact preparing to compose a population on Omega Halo.

Humanity was one of many species indexed and preserved by the Librarian during the Lifeworkers' Conservation Measure, the effort to catalog and index all life in the ecumene for repopulation in the event the Halo Array was fired. With a primary population of specimens held at the greater Ark, another population of hundreds of thousands of humans of over 120 different varieties was ferried from Earth to Installation 07, where they were later exploited by Faber, the Master Builder, in a series of experiments on the Flood.

Regarding Earth her "special population", the Librarian would imprint the humans there with the essences of human warriors processed via Composers after Charum Hakkor's fall. These imprints were kept dormant but were designed to awaken at the right triggers—such as those encountered by Chakas and Riser after meeting with the Forerunner Bornstellar. However, both the Council and the Librarian forbade taking these humans to the Halos for preservation or storage, as not they did not want to risk the presence of ancient human military personnel on the weapons. Acting against their explicit instructions, the Master Builder took populations of imprinted Earth humans to Installation 07 in his feverish search for a cure for the Flood.

The human civilization on Erde-Tyrene.

Four years before the end of the Forerunner-Flood war, the Librarian and her Lifeworkers initiated a mass evacuation of Erde-Tyrene, using their remote beacons to prompt all humans on the planet through their geas to cease their daily activities and gather in the Lifeworkers' evacuation ships.