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 former 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, the Eloh from the MMORPG Tabula Rasa and to the Protheans on Mass Effect.

Known History
Little is known about the Forerunner, save that they were an extremely advanced civilization that reached its peak before they disappeared 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 Forerunners, however, were unable 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 the 26th Century Gravemind managed to convince a Contender-class AI, Mendicant Bias, to join the Flood. After Mendicant Bias led a fleet of a million ships to attack the Forerunner and plowed through the "Maginot Line", the Forerunner were given no choice but to activate the Halos about 100,000+ years ago, killing all life in the Milky Way (with the exception of the inhabitants of Earth, an important Forerunner planet) able to sustain the Flood.

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, the Micro-Dyson Mark II sphere at the center of the artificial world Onyx, and the Ark (Installation 00) 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 be 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 the Brute spiker, which fire clusters of smaller red projectiles or bolts of energy at an extremely fast rate, used mainly against infantry at close range. These mammoth constructs also seem to be able to lift vehicles using some sort of magnetic or antigravity 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 be sphere surrounded 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 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 against the Flood using focused beam similar to the Sentinel weaponry but much more powerful. 343 Guilty Spark showed this ability in Halo (Halo 3). It is also quite odd and puzzling as to why 2401 Penitent Tangent didn't use this ability against Gravemind in Halo 2. It is presumed that Gravemind is likely to have struck 2401 Penitent Tangent hard enough, disabling it's beam weaponry. It could simply be that he was not equipped with one, or that the Monitor was corrupted by the Gravemind.

Art and Architecture
Forerunner architecture is noted mainly for its large scale and geometric style. It tends to be very elaborate, with numerous extrapolations of the basic design of a construct appearing to be purely decorative. All Forerunner architecture is constructed with a special type of metal that resists deterioration, bullets, plasma bolts and fire, as evidenced by Forerunner structures standing in pristine condition 100,000-150,000 years after they were built. These structures utilize 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 robotic drones possess small holographic Forerunner script around their "eyes".

Forerunner Stellar Engineering
While the Forerunners architectural and technological prowess is legendary among the Covenant and UNSC, their genius also extended to the fields of stellar engineering. At least two Forerunner sites, the Shield World Onyx, and the Ark, made use of suns where none should exist. the Shield World existed permanently in slipspace, where solar systems outside of a Dyson Sphere cannot exist, and the Ark was located far outside of the galaxy where galactic material would have been insufficient to form the sun that illuminates the Ark. Whether these suns are artificially engineered or simply moved from another star system by the Forerunners is unknown: either would have been an enormous technological achievement. The Ark's is confirmed to be artificial, due to its unnatural "sail" shape. It is likewise unknown if these are the only stellar engineering achievements the Forerunners made; whether the systems that the Halo Installations orbit are artificial or native to that region of space; whether other Shield Worlds exist; and how the construction or movement of such large stellar bodies was accomplished.

Fortress Worlds


Installation 04

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

Installation 05

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

Note that Installation 04, 05 and the Ark are the only three Fortress Worlds that have been directly observed 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.
 * Enforcers - Enforce the Monitor's will. They are large, hulking machines designed to serve to contain major Flood outbreaks.
 * Onyx Sentinels - Powerful, adaptive Sentinel of Onyx.
 * Sentinel Majors - An upgraded, much more powerful Sentinel.
 * Sentinels - Controlled by the monitors, they are responsible for guarding a Halo.
 * Automated Turret - Created to be a deployable equipment for the Forerunners to defend themselves against possible Flood threats or another type of threat.
 * Constructors - Small constructing devices that repair damage to any Forerunner structure they find, as they are responsible for the repair of a Halo Installation. The Sentinels will come to their aid if they 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.

Forerunners in Covenant Religion
The Covenant venerate the Forerunners as gods, believing that the Halo Array elevated the Forerunners to godhood instead of killing them. As such, they have appropriated much Forerunner technologies and artifacts, and dedicated a significant amount of time to the search for other "holy relics," but most of all the Halo Installations, believing that they can follow the Forerunners into god hood.

Trivia

 * The Forerunners are often compared to the Jjaro from the Marathon (Game)|Marathon series and the Ancients of the Stargate television series.
 * The exact origins of the Forerunners are a complete mystery, and are likely intentionally so by Bungie.
 * For the current photo, note that you can see the sensory tentacles of the flood on the right side of the screen.

Les Forennurs