Meyerm

A lot, but besides infection forms, they were all infected elites and humans.

Though it doesn't really make sense that the knowledge of a Gravemind isn't destroyed with it, it is canon and could explain it. On terms of how it was created, I find it hard to believe a single flood containment facility had enough biomass to build a Gravemind.

So, you're saying that a NEW Gravemind was created on the new Halo, which had all the memories of the old?

They never said that ALL the Precursors were killed, nor that ALL Forerunners were killed either. Both species had remaining survivors flee the galaxy in the aftermath of their respective disasters.

I actually have 3 things unclear about The Gravemind I want to address. 1. Ever wonder what may have caused The Flood outbreak that lead to The Gravemind's creation and the construction of The Quarantine Zone? They never left any explanation other than that it DID happen, and the Flood on Installation 05 WERE originally contained in a similar fashion as on other rings. Considering The Gravemind's size and intelligence even before quaratine was broken (tentacles miles underground), there had to have been sentient beings to infect, and A LOT of them. Most likely a race unassociated with humanity or The Covenant. But how would such a race be able to feed that much biomass to The Flood? We're talking thousands of human-sized bodies for something as big as The Gravemind is shown to be. 2. How did The Gravemind get aboard High Charity? In AMber Clad seems to be WAY too small to support The Gravemind. I've heard of tapping into the monitor's teleportation grid as a possibility, but he's so large, and why need the frigate in the first place, then? 3. Similarly, in Halo 3, how did The Gravemind get OFF of The ARk and out of High Charity to the rebuilt Halo? It's highly doubtful that, if the Gravemind still had Installation 05's monitor, it would be able to tap into the Ark's warp grid and jump to Halo, as not even 343 Guilty Spark seemed to be able to.

I'm not so sure. They've been hinting that something... else is coming. Hints that something more dangerous than The Didact is coming. Just as The Prophet of Truth was outshined as a villain by The Didact's reawakening, I think something more ancient than a Forerunner is going to ultimately end up as a main antagonist.

Topic says it all. There has been very limited information about what exactly is the state of Sanghelios and The Arbiter's Elites. The Covenant remnant seen in Halo 4 are radical splinters, separate from those that follow The Arbiter. What's their political situation, you think? It hasn't been made clear what the greater Elite race believes religiously, and what their relations with other ex-Covenant species is. We're even more in the dark on other homeworlds. It's been stated that Dosiac as fallen back to civil war. No status on other planets though. Is Te controlled by independent Hunters now? Palamok? Balaho?

I personally can't see any good plot that would involve bringing back the Brutes, but there is a possibility for The Arbiter and the Sanghelios Elites. Perhaps Sanghelios would choose to assist humanity against a common great. Perhaps.... The Didact and Covenant remnant fanatics, or maybe even Precursors.

According to the books and the explanations on the Halo wikis, The Flood are the result of surviving Precursors turning their genetic material into dust. The dust "became defective," and once merged with biomatter when prehistoric humans tried to use it to improve livestock, it mutated them and created the flood. It's stated that The Flood were to be used by the Precursors to get revenge on the galaxy and make sure their creations never rise against them again (Forerunners). However, if there was a purpose to the Flood, how were they "accidently" created by "defective" dust? Now this raises another point, suggesting pure Prescursors still live. They could just be making the best of a bad situation, putting their accident to work. However, if the flood were an accident, what was the purpose of creating Precursor bio-dust in the first place? I'm lost on whether the Flood's creation was intended or not, but I will say this: I believe that, regardless of their original motives, pure Precursors still live beyond the Galaxy (similar to how Forerunner survivors exiled themselves beyond the galaxy). I also believe that the Precursor survivors are planning to return (Halo 5/6?). For anyone who says precursors ARE Flood, my take has been that the original Precursors are similar to the flood, but without the ability to infect, and without the hive mind mentality.

What do you mean, early COVENANT ship? The Covenant doesn't even exist at that point, and wouldn't for another 108000 years. Keep in mind everyone, this is about the Human-Forerunner and Forerunner-Flood wars. If you don't at least have some general knowledge on the prehistoric human spacefaring civilization, I suggest looking it up on Halo's wiki.

I plan on writing a small story surrounding a Forerunner military commander prior to and during the Forerunner-Flood War and I'll be posting it here. However, before I begin, I need to come up with a name, and I'm dumbfounded when it comes to Forerunners. So... any good tips on how to come up with a good name for a Forerunner? Any advice and suggestions I use will be credited.

It's always annoyed me that despite it's significance, there are NO images whatsoever related to the Sangheili-San shyuum war, at least to my knowledge. Both races were supposedly already pretty advanced when the war started. The Prophets ended up as the scientists and engineers in the Covenant and were copying Forerunner tech long before then, so pre-covenant San shyuum technology and style must not have been a far cry from covenant tech, but there may have still be differences. Even so, we never see anything of purely Elite design. My searches have come up dry. Is there ANY visual content related to this war (besides the covenant mural stick drawings), official or fan-made?

What I want: 1. Playable Elites 2. Return of The Arbiter 3. Precursor enemies and weapons (if not H5, then 6) 4. Physical remnants of the prehistoric humans discovered 5. Explanation of where 343 Guilty Spark's remnants went, and what that crashed ship from the anniversary terminals was. 6. Didact alive 7. Halsey and the janus key as a major plot element. 8. The Flood. What I don't want: 1. Brutes (that chapter's closed, leave them alone).

Here's my take on what I think will happen in Halo 5. More or less of an abreviated fan-fiction. ------------------------ The UNSC continues war against the covenant remnant. The Didact survives and reactivates additional caches of Promethean forces elsewhere. Halsey seeks contact with John-117, and though a mix of UNSC campaigns and personal exhibitions, John reunites Halsey and is torn over a decision to help her or remain with the UNSC. After a revelation about his creation and purpose he refuses to join Halsey, who's killed by the covenant remnant leader, forcing the chief to kill him. Meanwhile, The Didact attempts to retake the janus key... UNSC seeks help of Sanghelios... janus key fully secured by humanity, battles, yada yada yada, Didact killed for good, but not before forewarning of a greater threat. Meanwhile, a great fleet begins their assault on human and Elite space... The Precursors have returned.

I'm looking forward more so to NEW things coming. We may or may not see Brutes, drones, etc. What I want to see though is something new. Halo 4 and the books hint at the return of the precursors. If not in Halo 5, then in Halo 6 for sure we'll get to see at least something precursor. As for the Flood, I'm always a fan of them, and their close link to the precursors may bring about their return. Perhaps a Flood army lead by Precursors?

I think in Halo 5 or 6 we'll get to see Precursor technology (perhaps usable weapons). I think we might even see prehistoric human technology.

The Covenant seen in Halo 4 are a fanatical splinter from the remnants of the original Covenant. They nolonger follow the prophets nor believe in The Great Journey, but they still venerate the forerunners as Gods and despise humanity as blasphemers. Even if they don't ALL follow the religion (Their leader actually just used religion as a basis to form an army to gain access to forerunner technology), but there may still be some that follow them just so they can get vengeance for losses in war against humanity. It's never officially stated, but I don't think the Sanghelios Elites are religious anymore. They may still recognize the forerunners for their achievements, but know they're not gods.

It WAS intended from the start by the Precursors for Humanity to be their successors. However, The Forerunners didn't select humanity as their own successors until long after prehistoric humanity's de-evolution. The humans were known to reverse-engineer precursor (and I think Forerunner) tech though. Perhaps.... both Forerunners and humans alike copied the design from the Precursors?

Wait, what? It's never stated Cortana is Forerunner, and I believe you are confused. I'm talking about the prehistoric humans, predating the Forerunner-Flood war. As for the "they copied it" idea, possible but not sure. The Forerunners, with their belief in The Mantle and what's basically described as a belief of superiority, probably wouldn't reverse engineer human technology. The humans might have, but not even The Covenant has reverse engineered and copied Forerunner ships down to the last detail.

http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/5/54/Human_ship_firing_%282%29.jpg Remember the ship that gets blasted at the beginning of the first Halo 4 terminal video (as seen above)? I'm curious about this vessel. This vessel type appears in both Forerunner and Human fleets at one point or another. In the photo above, a human ship is destroying one of these ships, but you can also notice another one in the human fleet. Since the battle was seen on hologram by Forerunners while debating their course of action, it's safe to assume the one destroyed was Forerunner. This ship appears several more times in the terminal series, appearing both in human fleets, Forerunner fleets, and in a Flood fleet when The Didact was deploying his first batch of Promethean Knights. My question is how? Is there any logical reason for two species to use the same ship design that doesn't include laziness on the creativity part?

I liked The Arbiter a lot. I'd choose him.