The Forerunners...

[Jevanee]

Ok so I must have overlooked some information and linked some things in my mind that weren't accurate because when I played through Halo 4's campaign I was very confused by the time it ended. I would like to say I have complaints and questions about everything in the story but I'm only going to focus on the one unconfirmed subject for me at least, that being The Forerunners.

 

Throughout the games and books the forerunners are said to have been a race of super advanced beings who expanded across the galaxy, then in an effort to destroy the flood they killed themselves and all sentient life. But they had libraries of samples belonging to all sentient life in secure areas so they could be distributed back after the Halo's were activated, restarting sentient life from where it left off.

 

So I'm going to jump right in with my opinion here. Until I played Halo 4 I always assumed the forerunners were in fact humans. Hence why the Prophets referred to them as Humanity's forefathers, why Guilty Spark calls humans Reclaimers, why only humans can use (and instinctively know how to use) important forerunner controls. But as it happens I was wrong and the Forerunners are simply confused aliens.

 

You may be wondering why I said "confused" aliens, well my friend I can only assume they were confused. Or at the very least their thought processes are very different to that of a human. Let me explain. Why when they wiped out all sentient life did they clone all the species, excluding themselves. Did the forerunners decide their species had been around for long enough? Did they simply forget to add their own samples to the libraries? For whatever reason when they fired the Halo arrays the forerunners decided that they weren't worth having around any more. That's one reason why i thought they were humans, because we were a result of their gene samples that were plonked on Earth after the Halo's were fired. But what confuses me most according to 343's cannon, they were at war with humans. So before they all died they made sure that their mortal enemies could rise back up to their former glory and use all the forerunner technology. I may have missed something but to me that makes little to no sense at all.

 

Which brings me on to humans. Where's all the ancient human stuff then? Over the years humanity has discovered Forerunner artifacts, robots, planets, stations and weapons. Yet not a single human space chair has been discovered. There is no evidence anywhere that anything besides the forerunners existed before the events of Halo. But apparently Humans were not only a living species they were also a galactic nation large and advanced enough to stand against the forerunners. So where are their planets? Their robots? their Artifacts? Or did the ancient humans just have an identical taste in architecture and engineering as the forerunners?

 

As I've said I must have gotten the wrong end of the stick or something because I've always felt that Halo had been subtly hinting that humans and forerunners were the same. But maybe I'm wrong and they've always been shaved brutes with jedi force powers.

 

But if someone could weigh in and explain what I've missed I would appreciate it!

 

 

 

And another thing when did every one find out that forerunner's name was "Didact"? I swear he never mentioned it to Cortana and Chief when he was evily monologue-ing

[Dr. Halsey]

Well after deevolving humans Forerunners possibly destroyed what was left of human stuff or/and things made by humans weren't as long-lasting as forerunners. It may also be hard to say what old artifacts were forerunner and what human. I think there was references to ancient humans in Halo legends: There was ancient architecture which did not look like forerunners

[Phillip Micheal Hanna]

In Halo 4 The Librarian explains why humans can use their technology somewhat,but not in great detail.Basically The Librarian implanted a Geas which was a genetic command imposed on an organism or species. Under the influence of a geas, an organism could be given a set of subconscious orders that would either be specific to that organism, or passed on to their children, in some cases lasting several generations. Only highly skilled Forerunner Lifeworkers, such as the Librarian, were capable of creating a geas. Forerunner students of the Mantle also hypothesized that the Precursors may have imposed a geas on the Forerunners themselves.The Librarian also imposed a broader geas on the entire human race, which has affected them a great deal throughout their history following the activation of the Halo Array. The geas includes, among other things, a familiarity with Forerunner technology and control interfaces as well as subconscious instructions on how to gradually achieve more sophisticated technology, including smart AIs and MJOLNIR armor. In addition, as a result of the Librarian's influence on humans, the basic image of what humans view as an ideal female is based upon the Librarian. Some of the features of the geas are carefully hidden and will only be activated by the right triggers, such as a latent immunity to the effects of the Composer. On Requiem, a personality imprint of the Librarian activated John-117's Composer immunity in order to allow him to defeat the Didact, who planned to use the Composer to imprison all of humanity into digital form. It was indicated she did more than this, saying she was going to advance his evolution by activating his geas, telling him she'd left humanity many gifts, of which the Composer immunity was only one.That's why humans can use Forerunner technology.

[SternuS]

I understand your concernation.

Nobody knows why they didn't put their genes into the Ark, or any other facility. Maybe the Librarian thought they weren't strong enough to fight the Flood, even at thousands of years in the future? Maybe she thought we were the only hope to destroy the viral enemy, because some of us were immune to the flood?

Who knows?

But i'm sure (and i hope too) they will explain that in the future years. I mean, they're free to do whatever they want, why explain everything now?

[Sierra1117]

The forerunners understood that there only purpose in the galaxy was to pass the mantle to mankind. That's why I their native language, their species name means forerunner. They saw that because the galaxy would basically be reset, it would be time for humanity to reclaim the mantle, so they didn't index themselves so humanity would be more superior.

[Dr. Halsey]

I don't buy the fact that forerunners did not try save their race because it was to give mantle to humans. There must be more to it. I hope we hear more of it in future.

[Phillip Micheal Hanna]

Don't buy the fact?...the fact has been proven.Have you read the Forerunner Saga?

[Dr. Halsey]

Don't buy the fact?...the fact has been proven.Have you read the Forerunner Saga?

Actually yes but it has been some time since i read the books and with my English I don't know the details. Anyway it feels stupid they did not try to save themselves. But ff course that's just "human thinking". Forerunners were not logical from our point of view.

The forerunners understood that there only purpose in the galaxy was to pass the mantle to mankind. That's why I their native language, their species name means forerunner. They saw that because the galaxy would basically be reset, it would be time for humanity to reclaim the mantle, so they didn't index themselves so humanity would be more superior.

Ok maybe it's logical but humans and forerunners should have shared the mantle.

[WonderWombat]

I don't buy the fact that forerunners did not try save their race because it was to give mantle to humans. There must be more to it. I hope we hear more of it in future.

I believe it was along the lines that the Forerunners had failed the galaxy and it was time to give up the mantle to another contender. Of course the Didact didn't feel this way, so whatever happened with him happened. So I'm guessing that the guilt emotion in forerunner is way stronger than ours.