Plague War
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
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Date: |
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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Outcome: |
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,[4] also known as the Human-Forerunner wars[11][12] or the Human-Forerunner War,[13][14] was a major interstellar conflict fought between the human-San'Shyuum alliance, the Flood, and later the Forerunner ecumene for centuries 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] Over the course of the conflict, humanity never came closer than 15,000 light-years of the Orion complex, the center of Forerunner power.[15]
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.[16] 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]
Humanity[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.[17] 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.[18][19] Over time, humanity came to believe that they were the true inheritors to the Mantle.[18] Eventually, humanity would partner with the San'Shyuum species, beginning a process of deeper integration between the two species.[20]