Plague War
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
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Centuries before 107,472 BCE[1]-c. 107,472 BCE[Note 1] | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Forerunner victory
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- "Ten thousand years ago, humans had fought a war against Forerunners — and lost. The centers of human civilization had been dismantled and the humans themselves devolved and shattered into many forms, some said as punishment — but more likely because they were a naturally violent species."
- — Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting[2]
The Plague War,[6] also known as the Human-Forerunner wars[7][8] or the Human-Forerunner War,[9] was a major interstellar conflict fought between the human-San'Shyuum alliance, the Flood, and later the Forerunner ecumene for centuries years across the Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy.[1] Stemming from a Flood outbreak in the humans' dominion, the wars resulted in the dismantling of humanity's interstellar empire[2] and in the quarantine of the San'Shyuum species.[3]
The Librarian considered the wars to have been the greatest threat to Forerunner power in their history and believed the conflict weakened the Forerunners enough to allow the Flood to emerge victorious until the firing of the Halos.[10] While humanity's defeat affirmed Forerunner dominance over the entire galaxy, the destruction of a major military power combined with the subsequent political schism within the highest levels of Forerunner society set the stage for the return of the Flood and the disastrous Forerunner-Flood war.
Background[edit]
Origins[edit]
Around 150,000 BCE, humanity had moved their interstellar civilization outward along the Orion Arm, likely looking to escape from the Forerunners' dominion.[2] This civilization would eventually encompass at least 20,000 worlds in a thousand systems.[11] The planet of Charum Hakkor would be made the capital world of this empire in order to be close to a collection of Precursor artifacts.[12][13] Over time, humanity came to believe that they were the true inheritors to the Mantle.[12] Eventually, humanity would partner with the San'Shyuum species, beginning a process of deeper integration between the two species.[14]
During their colonization of other planets, humans discovered automated cargo ships of unknown origin, which had supposedly arrived from the Large Magellanic Cloud, crashed on planets near the edge of the galaxy. The humans found no crew, with the ships appearing to be automated, but they did find millions of small transparent cylinders filled with an unknown powder. Initial testing was done in the strictest containment. These early tests showed the powder to be harmless and useless, being composed of lifeless short-chain organic molecules. Early experiments demonstrated psychotropic effects on some smaller domesticated animals, one of which being the Pheru. The powder tests on the Pheru proved to be initially harmless, and indeed appeared to encourage desirable traits to appear in their appearance and behavior. Over centuries, this powder was applied. During this time, the powder began merging with and altering the genome of the Pheru in order to generate its own Flood Super Cells. Soon, the infected Pheru began to infect others and even began showing some symptoms of the Flood mutation, such as fleshy tentacle-like rods. Close contact with the Pheru spread the infection to humanity. Some San'Shyuum were also infected as the Pheru were also kept as pets on the San'Shyuum worlds. Eventually the Flood began to spread, and the Feral Stage was initiated.[15]
War[edit]
Infection[edit]
- "We had no idea that the Forerunners were not your only enemy. Humanity hadn't been expanding. They were running."
- — The Librarian[10]
Flood infected humans would begin to forcibly infect other humans. By this point, dozens of systems were already fully infested and could not be recovered. The Flood began to mutate both infected humans and infected animals. These worlds, and some full systems, were quarantined though these measures failed. Many infected had escaped and spread to hundreds of worlds across 15 systems.[15]
Over the course of 50 years, humanity probed Forerunner settlements and positions, most of which were the resettled worlds of other species.[12] Humans, in desperation, took 50 of these defenseless systems and colonized them for themselves.[4] This resulted in a "tide of human migration" to get away from the Flood.[15]
However, not all of this seemingly irrational violence was driven by the will to expand; instead, human fleets under the command of Forthencho, Lord of Admirals were sterilizing planets with Flood infestations. When Forerunner worlds became infected, they were immediately targeted for orbital bombardment, killing millions of Forerunners in the process. As the Forerunners apparently did not believe the Flood a credible threat to their ecumene, these actions only fueled their hatred towards perceived human aggression against other species.[16]
Sensing these actions would lead to Forerunner aggression in retaliation, humanity struck a military alliance with the San'Shyuum properly.[12][14]