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Precursor: Difference between revisions
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{{Quote|The Flood changes everything. Not just flesh. Space itself is infected. That's the power the Precursors once had... isn't it? They shaped and moved galaxies! They created us! How did we ever manage to defeat them?|The [[Ur-Didact]] to the [[IsoDidact]]<ref name="s223">'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 223-224''</ref>}} | {{Quote|The Flood changes everything. Not just flesh. Space itself is infected. That's the power the Precursors once had... isn't it? They shaped and moved galaxies! They created us! How did we ever manage to defeat them?|The [[Ur-Didact]] to the [[IsoDidact]]<ref name="s223">'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 223-224''</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> | 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 Precursors used [[Stasis capsule|stasis capsules]] to contain beings within stasis..<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 130''</ref> 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 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> | 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> | ||
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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/Reuse|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/Reuse|s223}}<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 325''</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/Reuse|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/Reuse|s223}}<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 325''</ref> | ||
The Precursors were able to create and place Geas on other species as | The Precursors were able to create and place Geas on other species as demonstrated by how they placed one on the ancestors of the Librarian which led her to find Precursor seeds in Path Kethona and later set about ensuring the rebirth of uncorrupted Precursors in another galaxy eons later.{{Ref/Novel|PoL|page 265}} | ||
The Precursors held a knowledge of slipstream space technologies beyond even the Forerunners' as | The Precursors held a knowledge of slipstream space technologies beyond even the Forerunners' as demonstrated 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.{{Ref/Book|Id=Enc22P319|Enc22|Page=319}} | ||
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}} | ||