The Forerunners. Who they were and what they did

[XO Jaime OX]

This topic was originally started by Omar3r in the Halo 4 forum, but i thought it would be better if it was placed in this one.

"A lot of people don't seem to know what a Forerunner is or what their role was in the Halo Universe so help me explain. What I know I learned from reading, watching Origins I and II, and talking to Halo Fans. The Forerunners were(or possibly are) a very advanced civilization. The most advanced civilization that humans have ever thought of. They created the Halo Rings to stop The Flood from controlling all sentient life in the Galaxy, at the cost of all life in the Galaxy, including their own. but they prepared for this mass slaughter and re-populated the planets with the same species that originally inhabited them, save their own species. The chief blew up one of the Halo Rings(Alpha Halo) but it turned out there was a replacement. The Forerunners are awesome like that." -Omar3rd

 

and this is what i have to add:

The Forerunners are a long-lost species which are first cryptically mentioned in Halo: Combat Evolved. Little is revealed about the Forerunners in the games, but for unknown reasons they consider humanity to be "special"; humanity is thus the only race which can reclaim the keys which activate the Halo network. According to the official backstory to the series, the Forerunners came to power after the extinction of an even more ancient race, known to them as the Precursors,^[27] and formed a galaxy wide empire more than 3 billion years before the events of the main Halo story arc.^[28] The Forerunners took it upon themselves to protect all life in the galaxy, but were threatened by the parasitic Flood. The Forerunners took action, but the parasite was unstoppable. A group of Forerunners conceived a plan to stop the Flood once and for all, building an installation known as the Ark that created seven ring-shaped megastructures called "Halos". The Halo Array, when activated, would destroy all sentient life within range—depriving the Flood of its food. After waiting as long as they could, and travelling the galaxy to collect species from planets, which would later be used to "re-seed" the galaxy, the Forerunners activated the Array and vanished.^[29] Although the parasite's spread across the galaxy was halted, the Forerunners paid a terrible price as they, and all sentient life capable of sustaining the Flood in the galaxy, were annihilated. The Covenant worship the Forerunners as deities and relentlessly search for Forerunner relics. The reason for the Forerunner's disappearance is revealed in Halo: Combat Evolved, when the artificial intelligence Cortana enters one of the Halo's computer networks and learns the true purpose of the Halos.

-http://en.wikipedia....Halo#Forerunner

 

For more information about Forerunners, go to this website: http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Forerunner

this is how Forerunners looked like:

 

If you haven't seen my other topic on who Precursors were, go check it out: http://www.343industries.org/forum/topic/5479-precursors-who-they-were-and-what-they-did/

[M4sT3r Ch13f S117]

The Forerunners and Flood are believed to be created by a species called Precursors. The Precursors had a big war with the Forerunners. The Forerunners won. But there is still believed to be one Precursor left called the Prisoner.

[Kapo*~]

wow thanks you for posting this I was confused to who the forerunners were .

[Ardent Prayer]

Long Story short.....watch halo legends or watch the cea terminals

[Lolmenade]

This certainly cleared some things up.

[XO Jaime OX]

your all welcome

[The Director]

Little known tidbit, The forerunners and the humans were both (possibly) made by the precursers. The forerunners then (possibly) fought and destroyed the precursers (according to the Timeless One, or the Captive). Humanity was threatened by the flood, and actually found a cure. However, due to their planets being destroyed, the encroached upon forerunner territory and took a few of their worlds. This started the Human-Forerunner war. The species known to us as "The Prophets" were allies with the humans during this time. The forerunners destroyed the humans and devolved them after a long and bitter war, ending on the planet that the Timeless One was imprisoned on. For more of this story, read the books Cryptum and Primordium.

[PH4NT0M]

Very very interesting! Yeah I had no clue what a forerunner was aha... OH WOW I JUST NOTICED. THAT'S WHY THE HIGHEST RANK IS FORERUNNER xD I'm an idiot..

[GlobalHawk722]

The highest rank is inheritor...

As explained in Primordium, the flood was a unifying agent designed by Precursors (which the captive was not, it was a grave-mind) to unify all life forms and intelligence to essentially create super beings. It didn't have the desired effect as it scared the crap out of all sentient life and they all tried their best to destroy it.

[DaveAtStateFarm]

Good help!

[FIREN4]

Nice Info, I didn't look closely and notice this stuff before.

[Hunterex12]

i doint know that much about the forunners but in know they created a planet called the forunners planet and they created the halo rings

[Azaxx]

I knew a bit of that but not all, ty all

[bwdwtw]

Thank you very much for feeding my brain!

 

You answered all of my questions about Halo's history... Now you just made me have a hundred more

[DaveAtStateFarm]

 

i doint know that much about the forunners but in know they created a planet called the forunners planet and they created the halo rings

 

I just can't get over on how awesome your signature is,did you make it your self? Or did Ghetto or QM?

[SixWaysToSunday]

A few things that havent been mentioned, so heres the history I know of:

 

Humans had an empire during the time of the forerunners that matched their power. These "prehumans" came into contact with the flood and eventually a war was started between them. The prehumans were losing for a long time, at which point they attacked the forerunners and colonized their planets to try and survive against the onslaught of the flood. The forerunners struck back, creating a 2 front war for the prehumans. The prehumans then collapsed from the other 2 factions power.

 

Before their destruction by the forerunners, the prehumans created a cure for the flood! This allowed them to defeat the flood, but they no longer had enough resources to combat the enraged forerunners and were defeated then de-evolved as punishment. As an act of vengeance before their destruction, the prehumans destroyed their cure and allowed the flood to come into contact with the forerunners, starting the flood-forerunner war. Which the forerunners eventually lost, leading to the creation of the ark, shield worlds, and rings, and the eventual "destruction" of all life.

 

The forerunners then "revived" most of the species of the universe except themselves. During their war with the flood, they had learned why the prehumans had originally attacked them and were horrified of what they had done to the prehumans. So to pay for their "crimes" against the prehumans, they destroyed themselves along with the flood when the Halos fired. Some of the monitors can be quoted saying, "We deserve to fade away and be forgotten." To make up for de-evolving the humans, they gave the keys of their technology and civilization to them. Thats why the monitor calls Master Chief The "Inheritor" or "Reclaimer," because the forerunners wanted the humans to regain the power they once obtained.

 

But the humans took too long, instead the Covenant was formed and they found the ancient technology left by the foreunners. Eventually they found the humans and attacked them since the prophets feared the humans would throw the covenant out of balance and out of their control. So the human-covenant war started, eventually leading Master Chief to the first Halo Ring, where HaloCE takes place. The rest of the history is played out in the games.

 

So its; flood-prehuman war, flood- -> prehuman <--forerunner war, prehuman-forerunner war, forerunner-flood war, and finally human-covenant war.

 

Whew thats alot to read! Thats all I know, omitting small details. If anybody knows anything about the Precursors thatd be awesome!

[XO Jaime OX]

if you guys want, ill make another topic also explaining the Precursors. if i can

[SixWaysToSunday]

Thatd be great! I love learning about the universe and theres not much good info around.

[Diadact]

It is rumored that the Precursors created both the Forerunners and the Humans. They were put at relatively opposite areas of the galaxy. The Forerunners and the Humans both advanced at relatively the same pace but the Forerunners were arrogant. They overturned the Precursors. The Humans learned that their Precursor "wardens" were in a conflict and losing. The humans then captured a precursor and rose up. The defeated and ashamed Precursors then fled to an unknown fate. The humans and Forerunners then led separate but relativaly equal societies until human-flood war.

[SPARTAN 117]

just read Halo: Cryptum and Halo: Primordium. In these novels is everything and more

[SixWaysToSunday]

Guess I have to get those books then, ive read all of the other Halo books.

 

Thanks Diadact!

[XO Jaime OX]

I added a new topic on who the precursors were for those who wanted to see it

[Azaxx]

A few things that havent been mentioned, so heres the history I know of:

 

Humans had an empire during the time of the forerunners that matched their power. These "prehumans" came into contact with the flood and eventually a war was started between them. The prehumans were losing for a long time, at which point they attacked the forerunners and colonized their planets to try and survive against the onslaught of the flood. The forerunners struck back, creating a 2 front war for the prehumans. The prehumans then collapsed from the other 2 factions power.

 

Before their destruction by the forerunners, the prehumans created a cure for the flood! This allowed them to defeat the flood, but they no longer had enough resources to combat the enraged forerunners and were defeated then de-evolved as punishment. As an act of vengeance before their destruction, the prehumans destroyed their cure and allowed the flood to come into contact with the forerunners, starting the flood-forerunner war. Which the forerunners eventually lost, leading to the creation of the ark, shield worlds, and rings, and the eventual "destruction" of all life.

 

The forerunners then "revived" most of the species of the universe except themselves. During their war with the flood, they had learned why the prehumans had originally attacked them and were horrified of what they had done to the prehumans. So to pay for their "crimes" against the prehumans, they destroyed themselves along with the flood when the Halos fired. Some of the monitors can be quoted saying, "We deserve to fade away and be forgotten." To make up for de-evolving the humans, they gave the keys of their technology and civilization to them. Thats why the monitor calls Master Chief The "Inheritor" or "Reclaimer," because the forerunners wanted the humans to regain the power they once obtained.

 

But the humans took too long, instead the Covenant was formed and they found the ancient technology left by the foreunners. Eventually they found the humans and attacked them since the prophets feared the humans would throw the covenant out of balance and out of their control. So the human-covenant war started, eventually leading Master Chief to the first Halo Ring, where HaloCE takes place. The rest of the history is played out in the games.

 

So its; flood-prehuman war, flood- -> prehuman <--forerunner war, prehuman-forerunner war, forerunner-flood war, and finally human-covenant war.

 

Whew thats alot to read! Thats all I know, omitting small details. If anybody knows anything about the Precursors thatd be awesome!

 

tl;dr

humans won

[TheTallmidgeT24]

the forerunners were an advanced race that existed 100,000 years before humanity. they were considered the protectors of life in the galaxy. They have done this for most of the time that they existed. Then, the Flood emerged. At first they didn't realize how big the threat was. they thought that they could eradicate the flood and find a cure for it. But by the time they realized how big the flood threat actually was, it was too late. after battling the flood for years and losing, the forerunners created the halo array as a last resort against the flood. it was designed to eradicate all sentient life in the galaxy, thus starving the flood. eventually, the forerunners made the decision to activate the halo array and destroy the flood, and in doing so, all life was destroyed. but all hope was not lost, for after the firing of the halo array, the dna samples of all the species collected was distributed, and the galaxy was reseeded with life. they were then sent back to their homeworlds where time eventually moved to where we are today, which is fighting the covanant.

[SuperIntendant]

I could post so much on the Forerunners and the Precursors! Primodium revealed so much! All I'm going to say in this post is that

 

the prehumans never developed a true cure for the flood, the flood just made them believe that they did, and also the

Precursors did make the Forerunners and humans and were going to destroy the Forerunners which is why the Forerunners went through and exterminated most of their species.