Ancestors

By approximately 150,000 B.C.E., humanity had achieved a considerable level of technological sophistication, achieving interstellar travel and colonizing planets along the Orion Arm. This civilization encountered the Flood in approximately 110,000 B.C.E. and, after discovering the parasite's true nature, went to war against it. After losing many planets, humanity desperately invaded a minor sector of the Forerunners' domain. After forty thousand years of expansion, the collective human genus waged war with the biologically similar Forerunner species. Eventually, they developed a cure against the Flood, winning the Human-Flood War. However, as they had been stretched thin due to fighting two wars at once, the humans were defeated at the hands of the Forerunners. As punishment, humanity was devolved and reduced to a pre-technological state and were exiled to their homeworld, Erde-Tyrene, where they were overseen by the Librarian.

Forced to start again, the collective human genera tried in vain to reattain their former glory, establishing wooden cities and steam-powered waterborne vessels. These efforts were not sufficient to halt humanity's technological and cultural collapse. Humanity eventually regressed into the Tier 7 tribes that were later encountered by the Forerunners during the construction of the portal the Ark in eastern Africa.

As of the 26th century, most artifacts and records of this former civilization had been lost to time. However, ruins on the planet Heian appear to show hallmarks of human design, suggesting that the planet was inhabited by ancient, space-faring humans.

List of appearances

 * Halo Legends
 * The Babysitter
 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * From the Office of Dr. William Arthur Iqbal
 * Halo: Cryptum