Precursor: Difference between revisions
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Due to the Precursors' transsentient nature, what their true physical forms indeed if they possessed any originally are unknown but according to the Gravemind, they could assume any form they saw fit, be it physical or immaterial, having done so over billions of years of existence..<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 321''</ref> | Due to the Precursors' transsentient nature, what their true physical forms indeed if they possessed any originally are unknown but according to the Gravemind, they could assume any form they saw fit, be it physical or immaterial, having done so over billions of years of existence..<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 321''</ref> | ||
At least | At least four forms are known in detail to some degree. One form of Precursor, or at least an infantile stage of them, took the form of green teardrop plants as large as melons that when exposed to light would unfurl wide leathery leaves that would fan gently with the grace of a bowing dancer, and expose a glowing starburst of delicate white blooms dangling from groups of lantern-like stems.{{Ref/Novel|PoL|Chapter=?}} | ||
Another form of Precursor is the Primordial who was massive in size; the mold encapsulating the being on Charum Hakkor outlined a being approximately fifteen meters tall and eleven meters wide with the Ur-Didact seeing it on Charum Hakkor describing it as possessing an insectoid head, four arms, and two degenerate legs and a long, segmented "tail" being attached to the base of the skull and tipped with a two meter-long barb. Each of its hands had three fingers and a central opposable thumb. The face of the Primordial had been likened to that of a eurypterid, or "sea scorpion," a creature that the Precursors had allegedly seeded on a number of planets including Earth. Its head was flattened, with oval compound eyes and insect-like mouthparts.<ref name="c277">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 277''</ref><ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 119''</ref> Later, aboard Installation 07, the being was described as having a large number of legs which it held in a curled-up position similar to a spider. The creature's torso was described as "grossly fat," and its skin was covered in a glassy, crystalline coating; a fine powder often fell from its body, perhaps Flood spores or the same powder responsible for the original Flood outbreak. As a Gravemind, the Primordial was capable of shifting its physical form to an extent, such as rearranging its limbs.<ref name="p108">'''Halo: Primordium''', ''page 108-109''</ref> However given that the Primordial was said to be heavily mutated to survive vast spans of time, it is likely it no longer resembled other Precursors as they appeared during the time of the Forerunner-Precursor war thus it is likely this form was unique to the Primordial.<ref name="mythos 9">'''[[Halo Mythos]]''', ''page 9''</ref> | Another form of Precursor is the Primordial who was massive in size; the mold encapsulating the being on Charum Hakkor outlined a being approximately fifteen meters tall and eleven meters wide with the Ur-Didact seeing it on Charum Hakkor describing it as possessing an insectoid head, four arms, and two degenerate legs and a long, segmented "tail" being attached to the base of the skull and tipped with a two meter-long barb. Each of its hands had three fingers and a central opposable thumb. The face of the Primordial had been likened to that of a eurypterid, or "sea scorpion," a creature that the Precursors had allegedly seeded on a number of planets including Earth. Its head was flattened, with oval compound eyes and insect-like mouthparts.<ref name="c277">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 277''</ref><ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 119''</ref> Later, aboard Installation 07, the being was described as having a large number of legs which it held in a curled-up position similar to a spider. The creature's torso was described as "grossly fat," and its skin was covered in a glassy, crystalline coating; a fine powder often fell from its body, perhaps Flood spores or the same powder responsible for the original Flood outbreak. As a Gravemind, the Primordial was capable of shifting its physical form to an extent, such as rearranging its limbs.<ref name="p108">'''Halo: Primordium''', ''page 108-109''</ref> However given that the Primordial was said to be heavily mutated to survive vast spans of time, it is likely it no longer resembled other Precursors as they appeared during the time of the Forerunner-Precursor war thus it is likely this form was unique to the Primordial.<ref name="mythos 9">'''[[Halo Mythos]]''', ''page 9''</ref> | ||
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Precursor technology was incomprehensibly 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/Reuse|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/Reuse|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> | Precursor technology was incomprehensibly 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/Reuse|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/Reuse|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> | ||
Some Precursor artifacts were known to precede the Forerunners by hundreds of millions of years and, being impervious to conventional forms of damage, were durable enough to survive being cycled inside planets' crusts by plate tectonics.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 39''</ref> Precursor artifacts were often encountered by [[Miner]]s, who obtained and recorded them but rarely held any particular interest in them. The most coveted Precursor artifact among the Forerunners was known as the Organon, which was allegedly capable of activating all other Precursor artifacts.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 19''</ref> In truth, the Organon was a Precursor knowledge engine known as [[Abaddon]], who served as the overseer and guardian of the [[Domain]]. Although incorporeal, Abaddon was capable of interacting with the physical world in various ways, even vaporizing corporeal beings at will.<ref name="ptk">'''[[Halo: Fractures]]''', "[[Promises to Keep]]"</ref> | Some Precursor artifacts were known to precede the Forerunners by hundreds of millions or even billions of years and, being impervious to conventional forms of damage, were durable enough to survive being cycled inside planets' crusts by plate tectonics.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 39''</ref> Precursor artifacts were often encountered by [[Miner]]s, who obtained and recorded them but rarely held any particular interest in them. The most coveted Precursor artifact among the Forerunners was known as the Organon, which was allegedly capable of activating all other Precursor artifacts.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 19''</ref> In truth, the Organon was a Precursor knowledge engine known as [[Abaddon]], who served as the overseer and guardian of the [[Domain]]. Although incorporeal, Abaddon was capable of interacting with the physical world in various ways, even vaporizing corporeal beings at will.<ref name="ptk">'''[[Halo: Fractures]]''', "[[Promises to Keep]]"</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/Reuse|warfleet 8}} | 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/Reuse|warfleet 8}} | ||
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The Precursors were able to create and place Geas on other species as demostrated by how they placed one on the ancestors of the Librarian which led her to find Precurosr seeds in Path Kethona and later set about ensuring the rebirth of uncorrupted Precursors in another galaxy eons later. | The Precursors were able to create and place Geas on other species as demostrated by how they placed one on the ancestors of the Librarian which led her to find Precurosr seeds in Path Kethona and later set about ensuring the rebirth of uncorrupted Precursors in another galaxy eons later. | ||
The Precursors held a knowledge of slipstream space technologies beyond even the Forerunners' as demostrated by them having created at least one slipspace core, a large, quantum-engineered crystal which was found and later used by the Forerunners to create slipspace drives for their ships with the exotic composition and slipspace interactions of said core being incomprehensible to the Forerunners, and never replicated by them. | |||
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/Reuse|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/Reuse|ptk}} | 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/Reuse|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/Reuse|ptk}} | ||