Halo 3: The Cradle of Life

The Cradle of Life is a story about a Tribal Elder. It takes place in Africa 100,000 years ago.

This comic tells the story of N'chala, who goes every morning to the same spot in the plains, and watches something special. The comic implies that some "gods" ( perhaps the Forerunners) are building a huge machine on the ground of the plains of Africa (It can be speculated that this machine is the Ark).

We also know of the activation of the rings by the Forerunners.

This activation is known to be the reason of the Forerunner's disappearance. But according to a Joe Staten Interview, one couldn't say that the Forerunners vanished: "Inscrutable alien beings with problematic ethics never die... they just fade away". We can only assume that he is trying to say that the Forerunners are still alive.

Some speculation suggests that the Forerunners were/are just human people. This could be true, but the "Cradle of Life" comic is proof that Humans and Forerunners weren't at the same level of knowledge 100,000 years ago. So it is more probable that the Forerunners are not the same as Humans.

The other reason that could help us think that the Forerunners are not dead is the use of a Shield World to avoid the lethal activation of Halo. Maybe few Forerunners made it to a Shield World like Onyx and, after the Halo activation, they went back to normal space and began a new life -- a new beginning.

There is another reason that can lead us to think that the Forerunners didn't disappear 100,000 years ago. In the Halo: Ghosts of Onyx book, on page 237, it is said that the Engineers are also called "Huragok", and that the word "Huragok" is a Forerunner word: "Huragok: the Forerunner name for the Engineer race." It clearly implies that The Covenant (Or one race of The Covenant) is linked to the Forerunners close enough to know their language. We can also believe that The Covenant found out the translation of this word on some wall paintings in one of the several Forerunners constructs (Like Cortana did on Alpha Halo), but it still implies that the Forerunner knew of the Engineers, met them, and gave them names.

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