Precursor: Difference between revisions

The '''Precursors''' were an advanced race that preceded and were mythologized by the [[Forerunner]]s. The Forerunners classified them as "[[Technological Achievement Tiers#Tier 0: Transsentient|Transsentient]]" beings, having the ability to travel among galaxies and accelerate the evolution of intelligent life.<ref name="BES"/> While the Precursors themselves had long since disappeared during the time of the Forerunners, evidence of their technological and architectural achievements remained scattered across not only the galaxy but also outside it, namely in the [[Large Magellanic Cloud]].

The Precursors originated outside the [[Milky Way]] and arrived in the galaxy billions of years ago.<ref name="warfleet 8">''[[Halo: Warfleet]]'', p. 8</ref> They were an incredibly advanced race of beings who explored many galaxies and seeded them with life over the course of many billions of years as part of a grand experiment.<ref name="warfleet 8"/> As transsentient beings, they existed on a level beyond that of conventionally [[Sentience|sapient]] biological organisms; they were described as "dreamers and makers whose minds transcended many realms and having infinite forms, many voices, and singular purpose".<ref name="warfleet 92">''Halo: Warfleet'', p. 92</ref> The Precursors were not tied to any particular physical form, assuming any shape as they saw fit; they would allow themselves to die away and be evolved anew over and over again, taking on numerous incarnations both physical and immaterial. They lived through different stages of technological and cultural development countless times, being at times hyper-advanced and spacefaring and at others living primitively and remaining confined to their worlds.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 321'' (''"The Precursors lived in many shapes, flesh and spirit, primitive and advanced, spacefaring and locked to their worlds ... Evolved over and over again, died away, were reborn, explored, and seeded many galaxies ..."'')</ref> The Precursors based their existence around the philosophical concepts of the [[Mantle]], [[Living Time]], and a meta-technological mechanism known as [[neural physics]], which enabled them to manipulate the fabric of the universe. According to the philosophical aspect of neural physics, the universe itself is a living entity, though vastly different in nature and scale from organic beings.<ref name="c103">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 103''</ref> The Precursors' stewardship for all life involved the belief that all experience of biological organisms enriched the greater, universal whole,<ref name="sweetness">'''Halo: Primordium''', ''pages 365, 367''</ref> something they experienced firsthand through the constantly changing nature of their own existence. To contain their vast knowledge and experience the Precursors created the [[Domain]], a transcendent quantum reservoir of information later accessed by the Forerunners.<ref name="sil320">'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 320-323''</ref> The Precursors were not strictly benevolent, considering strife, pain and indeed evil an inherent part of the universe. The struggles of good and evil, the pleasures and pains of life, added to the 'sweetness', a sensation or emotional state that seemed to not have a human-analogue.  

The Precursors were responsible for seeding the Milky Way with life, creating the galaxy's diverse composition of species to become "new tools and companions", and engineered millions of solar systems. Over time, they would also judge whether a species was worthy of the Mantle, their assumed role of guardianship of all life. The humanoid species native to the world of [[Ghibalb]], who would come to be known as the [[Forerunner]]s, were next chosen for this task. Originally created by the Precursors to serve as their assistants and adjutants,<ref name="warfleet 8"/> the Forerunners were eventually judged to be unworthy of taking on the Mantle and planned to be wiped out<ref>'''Halo Mythos''', ''page 7''</ref>, and the Precursors instead decided that the responsibility would fall on the shoulders of another of their creations; a collection of species referred to as [[human]]ity, hailing from the planet known as [[Earth|Erde-Tyrene]]. During Forerunner's expedition on Path Kethona, where they encountered their creators, Forerunners accidentally found out this genocidal plan <ref>'''Halo Mythos''', ''page 7''</ref>  around [[10,000,000 BCE]]. Forerunners decided to prevent such fate and [[Forerunner-Precursor war|furiously retaliated against]] their creators and drove them to near-extinction, first in the Milky Way and eventually in the satellite galaxy of [[Path Kethona]]; only a small number managed to escape the Forerunners' campaign of extermination. According to the Precursors themselves the Forerunners struck against their creators unprovoked,<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 209''</ref> while certain Forerunners who learned the truth later on insisted that the Precursors had planned to wipe out the Forerunners first.<ref name="s203"/><ref>'''Halo: Primordium''', ''page 194''</ref>

However, not all Precursors chose this course of action. After the genocide, those Forerunners who refused to partake in the genocide of their creators were exiled to a planet in Path Kethona. While there they discovered two Precursor survivors who were not corrupted like the [[Primordial]] but were instead of a gentler and kinder nature. The Forerunners tried to save them but the survivors chose to die with the rest of their species.<ref name="POL" />

When human scientists questioned the imprisoned being as to the nature of the Flood, the Primordial's response horrified the humans so deeply that many of them committed suicide.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 271''</ref> Around ten thousand years later, the [[IsoDidact]] interrogated the Primordial on [[Installation 07]], receiving only vague responses as to the fate of the Precursors and their relationship with the Flood. Enraged, the IsoDidact then executed the being. The Primordial faced its end with calm satisfaction, stating that the Forerunners' defiance and, indeed, its own death through the artificial passing of a billion years within an [[Slipspace bubble|accelerating chronological field]], would only add up to the total "sweetness" of life's struggles while asserting its confidence that all life would still succumb to the Flood in the end.<ref>'''Halo: Primordium''', ''page 362-366''</ref><ref name="sweetness"/> The [[Ur-Didact]] later discovered that the [[Gravemind]] retained the thoughts and memories of the Primordial;<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 167''</ref> before its demise, the being had transferred its consciousness into the Flood's compound mind.<ref>'''Halo Mythos''', ''page 32''</ref> However, not even the Gravemind could fully access or comprehend the wisdom the Precursors once had, flawed and fallen as it was.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 322''</ref>

In the final hours of the Forerunners' war with the Flood the Gravemind sent a group of imprinted humans, including [[Forthencho|Forthencho, Lord of Admirals]], to deliver a message to the [[Librarian]], who was stranded on Erde-Tyrene. Forthencho revealed to her the truth about the Precursors and that the Domain was, in fact, the mythical [[Organon]], which would be destroyed by the [[Halo Array]]'s immediate firing. By withholding this information until the very end, when the Halos' activation could no longer be stopped, the Precursors ensured that the Forerunners would unwittingly destroy all records of their history and their cultural heritage, or "kill their own soul" as phrased by the Librarian.<ref name="sil320"/> This was the culmination of the Precursors' insidious plan of vengeance against the Forerunners, set in motion ten thousand years earlier with the revelation of the Flood. While the firing of the Halos seemingly quelled the Flood, the Precursors (through the Gravemind) had already accomplished what they intended: to punish the Forerunners for their defiance not only directly via the Flood, but also allowing the Forerunners' own scheming and internecine feuding to gradually tear down the Forerunners' deepest-held precepts and beliefs. By the time of the Halos' firing, in addition to the near-extinction of the Forerunner species, the Forerunners were forced to admit their many failures and give up the Mantle, ensuring that they would not rise again despite their Pyrrhic victory.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 323-324''</ref>

Precursor technology was extremely advanced, to the point that the Forerunners labeled it [[Technological Achievement Tiers|Tier 0]], or "Transsentient". Precursors based their technology upon what Forerunners called [[neural physics]]: the concept that inanimate matter and thought are inextricably linked and that the universe itself is effectively a living entity.<ref name="c103"/> By drawing from the fundamental energies of the universe,<ref name="s40">'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 40'' (''"These gray, eternal whorls stretched to middle orbit, where their rotating bands drew constantly and silently from the neurophysical energy of raw space in ways we still do not understand."'')</ref> the Precursors built exotic, virtually indestructible architecture and traveled across interstellar distances using a superluminal transit mechanism based upon the same principle.<ref name="s213">'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 213''</ref> It was believed by Forerunners that the Precursors also used neural physics techniques to construct artificial planets and star systems, with Charum Hakkor believed to be one such planet.<ref>'''Halo Mythos''', ''page 15''</ref> The Precursors traveled between worlds in vessels that used incredibly advanced [[artificial intelligence]] constructs known as [[knowledge engine]]s and walked upon [[star road]]s.<ref name="warfleet 8"/> The [[Halo Array]], being neurological weapons, are one of the only ways to destroy or otherwise damage Precursor artifacts. This was first evidenced when [[Charum Hakkor]] was used as a testbed for [[Installation 07|one of the Halos]]: the weapon's firing shattered every Precursor artifact on the planet. This also explains the lack of any Precursor ruins in modern society, as most, if not all, were destroyed when the Halo Array fired and sterilized the galaxy at the end of the [[Forerunner-Flood war]].<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 326''</ref>

The Precursors also left behind a small number of mysterious deep-space artifacts known as "anchors" — large, anomalous masses which released no radiation. They were generally regarded as unstable and dangerous; the Forerunners had recorded strange phenomena near the masses, including ships vanishing and surviving crews suffering severe mental trauma, requiring extensive proto-geometric therapy to restore their minds' neural topology to its normal state.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 69-70''</ref> Precursor construction was gray-silver in color, much like that favored by the Forerunners. When witnessed in a collapsed state on Charum Hakkor, the construction material had shattered along crystalline planes.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 117''</ref> The Precursors also built cyclopean laboratories described as being made of "crystallized reality".<ref name="warfleet 8"/>

Among the most impressive of the Precursors' structures were the enormous [[orbital arch]]es and [[star road]]s, unbending filaments woven into the fabric of reality which were used to connect entire worlds and star systems.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 102''</ref><ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 118''</ref> These structures were once plentiful in the galaxy, forming graceful curves across many star systems. They appeared to be mostly dormant and unchanging, apart from automatic adjustments based on changes in planetary orbits.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 114''</ref> Other types of Precursor constructs included structures referred to as planetary fortresses and citadels.<ref name="s187">'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 187''</ref> Toward the end of the Forerunner-Flood war the Flood began to reactivate and employ these formerly inert Precursor artifacts against the Forerunners, being able to control them due to its Precursor origins.<ref name="s187"/> These artifacts (mainly star roads) were what eventually turned the war in the Flood's favor as they were capable of effortlessly either outright physically tearing apart Forerunner fleets or remotely deactivating their weapons, [[ancilla]]s, and shields, rendering them helpless against the Flood.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 199-189, 214-215''</ref>

The Precursors' rekindled might extended beyond the mastery of technological artifacts. After reaching the [[Key Mind]] stage, Flood compound minds gained the ability to tap into neural physics and along with it the Precursors' reality-mutation capabilities.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 186-187''</ref> When moving across the galaxy, Flood-controlled Precursor constructs would convert space-time itself to be unsuitable for Forerunner [[slipspace drive]]s due to the differences between the [[slipspace]] travel used by the Forerunners and the Precursors' neural physics-based transit. Ships using this form of superluminal travel would momentarily radiate multiversal residues accrued during the journey upon return to normal space.<ref name="s213"/> The Forerunners suspected that the Precursors possessed unknown means of correcting causality other than the [[reconciliation]] Forerunner ships were subject to.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 111''</ref> The widespread use of neural physics transit affected the galactic-scale magnetic fields that marked the borders of the [[ecumene]]'s [[thema]]s. The effects of the Precursors' manipulation of space could even be felt by individual beings; toward the end of the Forerunner-Flood war Forerunners began to perceive starlight as possessing a hostile, repelling quality.<ref name="s223"/><ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 325''</ref>

Perhaps the Precursors' most extraordinary creation was what the Forerunners knew as the [[Domain]]: a vast reserve containing the totality of the Precursors' accumulated knowledge and experience - amounting to a hundred billion years, with most of the information gathered originating from the beginning of the universe if not earlier. This reserve of knowledge was contained in Precursor constructs in the Milky Way galaxy and projected a massive field through which the records could be accessed anywhere regardless of locality. The Domain itself was also a conscious entity, although this only became apparent to most Forerunners near the end of the Forerunner-Flood war. The Domain would later be discovered and appropriated by the Forerunners as a store of their own records and knowledge, becoming a principal element of their culture. Despite this, the Domain remained highly esoteric to the Forerunners; not even its origin and true nature were known. With the activation of the Halo Array and the galaxy-wide unraveling of Precursor neural physics, the Domain and all knowledge contained therein was lost along with all Precursor architecture.<ref name="sil320"/> While a group of surviving Forerunners later managed to reactivate the Domain, it remains unclear how much of the knowledge it once contained has been successfully recovered.<ref name="ptk"/>