The Forerunner

The Forerunners are a race of aliens referred to in the Halo universe. Little is known about them, although certain things can be ascertained from hints located in the games and books.

The alien alliance known as "The Covenant" exalts the Forerunners, even considering them demigods, but it is not known whether this is an earnest belief or simply religious propaganda spread by the Covenant's High Prophets. In the novel "Halo: The Flood", it is revealed that the Covenant received much of their technology from the Forerunners. Indeed, the High Prophets, who are part of the alien federation's leader caste, evolved on a planet formerly inhabited by the Forerunners.

History
According to the evidence scattered among the Halo games and novels, the Forerunners appear to be an extremely advanced race who mysteriously vanished, leaving behind a vast collection of their technology.

One type of such "technological relics" are the Halos, structures that the Forerunners built to contain the Flood, a dangerous species of mutagenic infection spores. It is revealed in Halo: Combat Evolved that the Halos are weapons of last resort, used to destroy all life in the galaxy capable of sustaining the parasitical Flood (any sentient life), thus preventing the Flood from spreading. A single ring has a range of 25,000 light years, but activating one will activate the other 6 spread throughout the galaxy. Near the end of Halo 2, 343 Guilty Spark explains that the Forerunners destroyed themselves along with other sentient life within three radii of the galactic center by activating the rings of Halo because of the spreading threat of the flood.

However, all 7 rings can be activated from The Ark if one is partially activated but fails to complete its firing sequence. The Ark is thought to be seen in the Halo 3 trailer released at E3 on May 9, 2006; buried under Kenya, between Mount Kilimanjaro and Mombasa / New Mombasa, East African Protectorate. Other hypothesized locations for the Ark included the Forerunner ship seen in High Charity, the Earth colony Coral, Earth's Moon, Jerusalem, and Boston, Massachusetts (from the Haunted Apiary).

Other types of Forerunner relics are mentioned in the two novels "Halo: The Fall of Reach" and "Halo: First Strike". These include a rock embedded with crystals apparently describing stellar coordinates for several solar systems (Epsilon Eridani, the system containing Reach; Sol system, containing Earth; and Threshold system, which contains Alpha Halo), and a mysterious crystal-shaped object seemingly capable of warping spacetime. The latter relic, however, was destroyed in "Halo: First Strike", by a Marine who blew up the crystal with C-7 foam high-explosive. The power of the crystal was unknown and underestimated, and its strange qualities apparently "squeezed" some of its remains into slipspace, where neither the Covenant nor the Humans could recover it.

Humanity as Forerunners
It has been hypothesized that humanity may actually be the Forerunners who were protected from the original activation of the Halo weapons, possibly by The Ark in the same manner that Noah's ark saved life from God's flood.

Evidence
(Note: All quotes are cited from The Halo Transcript Archive) "But you already know that. I mean, how couldn't you? (...) Last time you asked me, if it were my choice, would I do it? Having had considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed."
 * When 343 Guilty Spark first appears in halo he already knows how to speak the human language.
 * In Halo, 343 Guilty Spark infers that a Human activated Halo originally, while in Halo 2, 343 Guilty Spark blatantly tells The Arbiter that his makers, the Forerunners activated Halo.
 * When confronted about the true function of Halo after retrieval of the Index, 343 Guilty Spark comments:
 * 1. 343 Guilty Spark States:
 * "Last time you asked me, if it were my choice, would I do it?"


 * Before this event, there has been no dialogue between 343 Guilty Spark and the Master Chief concerning the activation of Halo other than what needed to be done to accomplish it. Evidently, Halo has been previously activated. This suggests that either 343 Guilty Spark believes that Master Chief was present when the Halo(s) were originally fired,that 343 Guilty Spark has the habit of thinking that each Reclaimer is the same person, or that 343 believes Master Chief has a knowledge of the history and purpose of the Halo structures.
 * 2. 343 Guilty Spark states:
 * "Having had considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed."
 * The time period which 343 Guilty Spark speaks of, logically, must be the time period between the previous, succesful activation and this attempted activation.
 * During the Halo 1 level "The Maw" section "Light Fuse, Run Away", 343 Guilty Spark is seen in a cutscene extracting information from consoles in the engineering bay. As he madly hums, zapping boards with some unknown device, he comments to the Master Chief:
 * "You can't imagine how exciting this is! To have a record of all of our lost time! Human history, is it? Fascinating."


 * The use of the pronoun "our" may or may not be inclusive of the Master Chief, but it does suggest either that humans are heirs to the Forerunners or at least that Forerunner events are entwined with those of humans, as it is presumably human data logs that Guilty Spark is extracting.
 * Cortana states in both Halo and Halo 2 that something seems "familiar" about the Forerunner computer systems, and Master Chief has no problem using the different Forerunner technologies throughout the events of Halo and Halo 2.
 * This would explain why only humans can use the Index to activate Halo:
 * During the Halo 2 level "The Great Journey", Tartarus seems aware that only a human can activate the Delta Halo, as he uses Miranda Keyes to activate Halo rather than taking the honor of doing it himself.
 * Finally, it is important to note that 343 Guilty Spark addresses both Master Chief and Miranda Keyes as "reclaimers". 343 Guilty spark approaches Master Chief saying "We have much to do!", as if Master Chief knows his purpose in activating Halo's defenses. He also tells Tartarus in Halo 2 that Miranda is a "Fragile reclaimer" and that he should be careful with her.
 * All these facts hint at the idea that 343 Guilty Spark was somehow programmed to react to the presence of a human life form or a life form that is physically and structurally similar to that of the human species. This is evident since 343 Guilty Spark does not react in a similar fashion to the covenant upon their landing on Halo or Delta Halo. In fact 343 guilty spark shows a disliking to the covenant.

Flaws

 * Although the Humanity-Forerunner connection is probably the most popular Forerunner succession hypothesis, one of the most significant flaws is that no one has been able to comprehensively explain how or why Humanity forgot its Forerunner heritage. Some have also pointed out that the Forerunners' angular gray architecture and technology looks similar to human technology, though that could simply be a result of the extreme contrast between Humanity's gray color scheme and the Covenant's purple color scheme.

Ark Theory
As it stands, a possible answer to the above flaw lies in the ancient Forerunner relic, the The Ark. It is believed that the Ark may have sheltered the only surviving Forerunners. In addition, it is also believed that the Ark is Earth, or at least it is on or near it. One theory as to why the Covenant chose to land in New Mombasa is its proximity to the Great Rift Valley, a place rich in anthropological history and possibly a point of origin for the Forerunners' colonization of Earth. If, in fact, the number of Forerunner survivors had been low and their location of was on or near Earth, then Humanity's relation to the Forerunners may have some more validity. It is further hypothesized that the rebuilding of the race would have to occur right on or near the Ark (considering that, if it were a vessel for preserving life, it would be well equipped for rebuilding a race). Over time, notions of Forerunner ancestry would be lost due to lack of records and Humanity would arise. This is, however, based on the presumption that the Ark protects sentient life from Halo being fired, of which there is little to no solid evidence it does so.

Amnesia Theory
A similar theory is that all humans have slight memory of their time as Forerunners. The Master Chief made several comments in the book series that the Forerunner writing looked similar to Aztec pictography. It's possible that the first civilizations on Earth used Forerunner language or some form of it has their own. This memory could explain the myths that appear in most cultures, that humans once lived in paradise until they fell from grace for one reason or another. The loss of technology could have come from some accident in the Ark en route to Earth or just because it couldn't be brought with them as they fled. If this or the previous theory is true the Covenant could think humans are mocking the Forerunners by taking their physical form and by living on a world that may have some religious importance. Also, the Master Chief remarked that the symbols used to operate doors, bridges, and the like, were almost intuitive, as though he had seen them before.

Devolution Theory
A similar theory is that the Forerunners de-evolved themselves into a species of animal (homo erectus for example) which would be non-sentient (and hence would survive the Halo activation) and this form eventually evolved into humanity. The flaw in this theory is the uncertainty in how the Halo activation works and what species are killed by it. It is also inconsistent with the theorized time span (100,000 years) since the last Halo activation. This time span would be inaccurate.

Slave Theory
A newer theory maintains that the Forerunners kept humans as a slave race. This can be implied through the Covenant's actions. The Grunts are a lowly race with little intelligence and battlefield usefulness, except to clog the guns of the enemy. Yet, they are in the Covenant. Jackals are also a low class, physically weaker than humans, and seem to possess little intelligence, yet they too are members of the Covenant. Humans, of course, are not as physically strong as Elites or Brutes. However, one could argue that humans are of equal or greater intelligence to the Elites, and probably superior intelligence to the Brutes and Hunters, though not enough information is available in the books to verify this, although it has been stated that the Covenant technology is more parasitic of Forerunner innovation, and less innovative than human technology. Why then are the humans not given an opportunity to join the Covenant? In [Conversations of the Universe], the Elite are depicted as largely confused by this decision to not allow humans the choice to enter the Covenant. Their territory seems to occupy many important Forerunner artifacts and the Ark (or key information leading to the Ark); it would have been much easier to ally with humans and take the artifacts than the war which, despite the Covenant's success, has been costly. It is known that Prophets have information regarding the Forerunners. One theory holds that they know that humans are Forerunners and do not want to lose their holy status to another race, especially one technologically inferior to their own. However, in this scenario the humans could have been assimilated into the Covenant without releasing that information. Taking in to consideration that the Prophets evolved on a planet that was once a colony of the forerunners, it is possible that the Prophets would have been at a reasonable stage of development to understand and venerate the Forerunners prior to the activation of the halos, although this is unlikely, as these proto-Prophets would have almost undoubtedly been obliterated along with the other Forerunners. It is also conceivable that the Forerunners realising that they may have to purge all life in the galaxy, gathered together a group of species that may in the future be able to repopulate the galaxy through some kind of stasis. This could mean that all current Covenant races may have had their planets of origin selected by the Forerunners, so that following a halo activation the galaxy would not remain devoid of sentient life. This would likely explain why many of the Covenants homeworlds have Forerunner artifacts, most likely they served the purpose of a type of stasis for the Forerunners chosen species. The Ark located on Earth was likely a lifeboat for their species, however they may have wanted to ensure nothing like the Halo purge occurred again. This may entail they destroyed all their knowledge and technology so they might start again, rebuilding their civilisation from scratch. It is very likely that the Covenant had become aware of Humanity before the official encounter of 2520 in orbit of Harvest, they likely had observed Humanity for a while considering them a potential Covenant addition. However the Prophets would likely have been the only species old enough to recognise them as Forerunners, but their primitive technology would make them seem as simple beings not as the Forerunner Gods. This would be the death of everything the Covenant had believed in for likely millennia. The prophets in response deemed the inferior Human Civilisation as an 'Affront To The Gods' ensuring that the rest of the Covenant would not waver in their commitment to the Great Journey, for the discovery of the Humans/Forerunners would counter the core of their religion. A logical conclusion is that the humans were a slave race to the Forerunners causing the Prophets to deem them as unfit for the Covenant, thus justifying their eradication. The fact that they're primates doesn't matter; Brutes are primates. A theory to this is that the Covenant doesn't want anyone else capable to complete the great journey.

Caretaker Theory
Another theory is that the Forerunners left everything into the hands of the Humans and the knowledge given to them was lost. The Humans were meant to continue on and control the Galaxy now that they're gone. The Forerunners gave the Humans their ability to activate the Halo's in case the Flood were ever a problem again. This is theorized because 343 Guilty Spark makes a clear distinction between Forerunners and Reclaimers. Because it appears that Humans are Reclaimers, it seems that they are to reclaim the universe in the Forerunner's absence, reclaim it from the Flood.