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Florian

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Template:SeeWikipedia Template:New Content Template:Species Infobox The Florians were a people of a diminutive species of human taxonomically referred to as Homo floresiensis and called hamanune (plural hamanush)[1] by contemporary humans themselves. They were native to Earth,[2] and later specific to the island of Flores in Indonesia, surviving up until around 13,000 BCE and possibly as recently as 10,000 BCE, living contemporaneously with "modern" humans, Homo sapiens.[3]

Before the activation of the Halo Array, Florians had extensive contact with other human species, and one, Morning Riser, served as a guide to Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting, a young Forerunner looking for Precursor artifacts. The Librarian had imprinted Riser's ancestors with a geas that made the subsequent generations seek a way to bypass the defenses around the Didact's Cryptum in the Djamonkin Crater.[4]

Overview

A fossilised Florian skull.

They possessed more "primitive" characteristics than modern humans, including a reduced mandible, lacking a chin, and a smaller cranial capacity and proportionally smaller brain, though were still intelligent. Their most outstanding feature was their small stature, standing at a little over a meter tall.[3] Hamanush were remarkably long-lived; Riser was around 200 years old when he met Bornstellar, and he was still "just a youngster" according to Chakas.[5]

The Didact described the Florians as "peaceful, yet full of cleverness" and asked them to be preserved following the Human-Forerunner wars. After the wars, Florians were favored by the Forerunners as a servant species, often amusing and instructing their young.[6] Family and ancestry were noted to be important in Florian culture. It was said that unlike chamanush, hamanush "lived with ancestors in their heads", implying they possessed a special connection to their ancestors, possibly a genetic memory of some kind.[7]

Besides regular speech, Florians communicated in a variety of ways, including "stare-whistle" and "click-song"; clicking noises made with their tongue and cheeks.[5] The Florian naming system was notably complex, with an individual having a family name, a personal name, and a considerably longer "long name"; for example, Riser's family name was "Day-Chaser", his personal name "Morning Riser", and his long name "Day-Chaser Makes Paths Long-stretch Morning Riser". However, they were typically only called by their first name and rarely revealed their full names to outsiders.[8][5]

List of appearances

Sources

  1. ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 79
  2. ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 23
  3. ^ a b Homo floresiensis on Wikipedia
  4. ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 55
  5. ^ a b c Halo: Cryptum, page 35
  6. ^ Halo: Cryptum, pages 82, 86
  7. ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 109
  8. ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 33