Forerunner



Forerunner(s) is the translated name for an ancient race of beings that built the Halos, The Ark and the Shield World, Onyx, as well as the artifacts that were found on Reach, Earth and Sigma Octanus IV. All that we know about the Forerunner has been gleaned from these various artifacts. The alien faction known as "the Covenant" worships the Forerunners as demigods, deriving much of their technology from Forerunner artifacts found throughout the galaxy.

The Forerunner also show some similarities (their highly advanced technology and the fact that they mysteriously vanished) to the Jjaro, a race of aliens from a previous Bungie game, Marathon.

Known History
Little is known about the Forerunner, save that they were an extremely advanced civilization that inhabited the galaxy over 100,000 years ago, coming to power after the extinction of another race, known to them as the Precursors.

The Forerunner were highly technologically advanced, evidence of which has been found on various planets. The fact that The Halos were scattered around the galaxy also hints at the possibility that the Forerunner empire covered most, if not all, of the galaxy.

At some point in their history, a Forerunner survey team came into contact with an extra-galactic parasite known as the Flood on the planet G 617 g. After this first contact, the Forerunner realized the danger that the Flood posed to the entire galaxy and attempted to contain them.

The Forerunner were unable, however, to contain the Flood outbreak, and war between the two broke loose. During the 300 year conflict, the Forerunner studied the Flood in labs such as the one located on Threshold, looking for some sort of weakness. Eventually they created the Halo Array, a weapon of last resort designed to starve the Flood to death by killing all sentient life with enough biomass to sustain them.

At first, the Forerunner were reluctant to use the Array. A Flood intelligence similar to Gravemind managed to convince a Contender-class AI, Mendicant Bias, to join the Flood. After Mendicant Bias led a fleet of a thousand ships to attack the Forerunner, the Forerunner were given no choice but to activate the Halos about 100,000 years ago, wiping out (presumably) all sentient life in the galaxy, including themselves.

Forerunner and Humanity
Various theories have been constructed about the nature of the Forerunners relationship with humanity and the rest of the Halo universe, ranging from Humanity and Forerunner being one and the same to the Forerunner actually being Grunts, Hunters, or Elites.



Both the games and the novels contain content that has led to speculation that humans are Forerunner. Both, however, as well as the Iris ARG, also contain content that could easily be interpreted as “humans are not Forerunner.”.

See The Reclaimer for more information on the links between the Forerunner and humans.

Forerunner Technology
Forerunner technology is highly advanced. They have managed to create solidified surfaces out of some sort of energy, construct a Halo-wide teleportation grid, as well as create and utilize a plethora of other advanced gadgets. The Halo rings themselves, as well as the Micro-Dyson Mark II sphere at the center of the artificial world Onyx, are, above all others, the most significant pieces of Forerunner technology. The planet Onyx in particular demonstrates both their ability for engineering on a grand scale, and their near transcendent grasp of "Slipspace" technology.

Weaponry
Forerunner constructs use a wide variety of weapons, typically high-energy beams. These weapons proved to very effective when battling the Flood, burning them to the point that they can not be revived. The Forerunners installed these beam weapons inside their constructs, allowing them to build an army of machines to battle the Flood without sending any Forerunners into real battle.

The Sentinels wield orange-colored directed energy beams, used mainly for fighting the Flood. Sentinel Majors however, have a more powerful and accurate version of the beam, which sports superior energy output at the cost of overheating issues. All varieties of these Sentinel Beams can be wielded by certain Covenant and Human infantry. Meanwhile, Enforcers are equipped with multiple packs of small rocket-like explosives launched over the top of their shield as well as weapons similar to Needlers, which fire clusters of smaller red crystals or bolts of energy at a faster rate, used mainly against infantry at close range. These mammoth constructs also seem to be able to lift vehicles using some sort of magnetic grapple, before crushing even tank-sized objects between their massive 'arms'. The Constructors repair beam can also be considered a weapon, but with minimal damage output. The Sentinels of Onyx had significantly more powerful weaponry. They were described to have spheres surrounding them by three floating "booms", or small pieces of armor that had powerful energy shields that would suddenly "pop" into place in order to deflect fast-moving fire. Their shields can be tricked by dense, slow-moving objects, such as rocks, which Team Saber used to destroy one of the Sentinels. Their energy weapons, described as a single golden beam that, although charged slowly, could melt straight through the armor of the Spartan III's. The Onyx Sentinels also have the ability to combine energies, for different purposes, such as stronger combat abilities, or excavation purposes. Their powers are exponentially increased by this combination, and enough of them were able to combine to easily destroy two Covenant destroyers. In Halo 3, it seemed that even the monitors had the ability to defend themselves aginst the Flood using focused beam similar to the Sentinel weaponry but more powerful. 343 Guilty Spark showed this ability in Halo (Halo 3). It is also quite odd and puzzling on why 2401 Penitent Tangent didn't use this ability against Gravemind in Halo 2. It is presumed that Gravemind probably struck 2401 Penitent Tangent hard enough, disabling it's beam weaponry or simply he didn't want to use it because he probably knew that the Gravemind needed him to access some of Halo's networking, or maybe because he though he was weaker than the Gravemind and let himself get captured because he didn't want to get destroyed.

Art and Architecture
Forerunner architecture is noted mainly for its large scale and geometric style. It tends to be very elaborate, with numerous pieces of the basic design appearing to be purely decorative. They use complex geometric shapes that appear to operate in dimensions higher than basic human understanding can decipher. The Forerunners tend to decorate the interiors of their structures with a complex web of engraved straight lines, and apply decorative touches and designs to nearly everything that they build, from structures to weapons. Even the Sentinel drones possess small holographic Forerunner script around their "eyes."

Fortress Worlds




Installation 04

 * Control Room
 * The Silent Cartographer
 * Alpha Base
 * The Library
 * Flood Containment Facilities

Installation 05

 * Control Room
 * The Library
 * Quarantine Zone
 * Sentinel Wall
 * The Temple
 * Flood Research Facilities
 * Relay Station
 * Sentinel Production Facility

Note that Installation 04 and 05 are the only two Fortress Worlds that have been discovered in the Halo Universe.

Other Forerunner Structures

 * Installation 00 - Known as the Ark; Controls all other installations.
 * Gas Mine – Houses laboratories created to study The Flood.
 * Coral Facility
 * Onyx - A UNSC controlled world, inhabited by sentinels.

Forerunner Constructs

 * Monitors - Floating AIs responsible for maintenance of Halo worlds and to make sure that the Flood stay imprisoned. In case of a catastrophic outbreak, the Monitors will seek out a Reclaimer to activate the installions and wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life. For each installation, there is a primary, secondary, and fail-safe monitor.
 * Enforcers - Enforce the Monitor's will. They serve to contain major Flood outbreaks.
 * Sentinels - Controlled by the monitors they are responsible for guarding a Halo.
 * Sentinel Majors - An upgraded Sentinel.
 * Onyx Sentinels - Powerful, adaptive Sentinel of Onyx.
 * Constructors - Small construct devices that repair damage to any Forerunner structure they find as they are responsible for the repair of a Halo. The Sentinels will come to their aid if their are attacked,

Forerunner Artifacts and Technology
See also Technology


 * The Ship
 * The Crystal
 * Deep-Space Artifact
 * Forerunner Hand
 * Forerunner Body Armor

Forerunner Glyphs and Symbols
Forerunner Numbers: Found in the Halo 3 Iris servers, these symbols are possibly part of a Forerunner numbering system.

Forerunner Glyphs: Some images of all the forerunner glyphs found spread all over the Halo Universe.

Forerunner Iris Icon: An image of the Iris Forerunner icon.

Trivia

 * The Forerunners are often compared to the Jjaro from the marathon series.
 * The exact origins of the Forerunners are a complete mystery, and are likely intentionally so by Bungie. Whether they were human or not, sources seem to support all theories, making untangling this web of information a difficult process.
 * For the current photo, note that you can see the sensory tentacles of the flood on the right side of the screen.

Les Forennurs