This article or section describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please rewrite this article to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective.

One of the Forerunners' Halo ringworlds, in orbit over the gas giant Threshold.

The Forerunners are a fictional race of beings, referred to in the Halo universe. Little is known about them, although certain things can be ascertained from hints located in the games and books. The alien alliance known as "the Covenant" exalts the Forerunners, considering them demigods. Covenant technology is also derived from Forerunners, as revealed in Halo: The Flood. Finally, the High Prophets of the Covenant, the leader caste of the alien federation, evolved on a planet formerly inhabited by the Forerunners. The humans within the Halo universe are indicated to be "descendants" of the Forerunners in Halo 3, but their exact nature is left unclear. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... Halo is video game series created by Bungie Studios. ... The Covenant is a fictional militaristic and theocratic alliance of alien races who serve as the main antagonist body of the Halo science-fiction video game series. ... Halo: The Flood is a 2003 novel based on the video game Halo: Combat Evolved (2001). ... The Prophet Hierarchs are fictional characters featured in the video game Halo 2. ... United Nations Space Corps Defense Force Emblem. ... The Halo universe is a fictional setting for the video games Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, the future games Halo 3 and Halo Wars, and the books related to the Halo series. ... For the Nine Inch Nails release, see Head Like a Hole. ...

Concept and creation

History

Almost nothing is known about the history of the Forerunners, only that they are hinted to hold an ancestry at some level to the human race. Like with the current races in the Halo universe, the Forerunners too came to power after the extinction of another race, known to them as the Precursors.^[1] They formed a galaxy wide empire more than 100,000 years^[2] prior to the current timeline of the series. Their civilization ended when they activated their last resort weapon, the life-eradicating Halo network, in a last ditch attempt to stop the rampantly infectious Flood parasite. As a result, they left behind an entire empire of advanced technology, which the Covenant later adapts for its own uses. In Amber Clad approaches Installation 05, otherwise known as Delta Halo. ... The Flood is a fictional parasitic alien life form in the Halo video game series. ...

In Halo 3, the player may access Forerunner terminals, revealing the events leading up to their demise. The Forerunners were engaged in an interstellar war with the parasitic Flood, in an effort to end the conflict without having to activate the Halo network. However, when the Flood intelligence known as Gravemind managed to corrupt their war-coordinating AI, Mendicant Bias, the Flood gained the edge they needed to win. The Forerunners had no choice but to activate the Halo network. Gravemind is a fictional character featured in the video game Halo 2. ... This is a list of major fictional characters from the Halo franchise. ...

Before these events, they worked to save as many species as possible from the impending extinction. One Forerunner in particular, identified as the "Librarian," encounters a "special" species in the form of humanity on Earth. Because of this, the Librarian chooses Earth as the site for the Slipspace portal leading to the Ark. She indicates that the humans hold the answers to "secrets" about the Forerunners. In the "Halo bestiarium" the "Precursors" are a race known to have the ability to accelerate evolution of species, and the terminal text in Halo 3 indicates that they Precursors left a "Mantle" to the Forerunner. Precisely what happens afterward is unclear, but various characters state that the humans in the Halo series are the descendants, to some extent, of the Forerunners. For example, the Prophet of Truth calls the Forerunners humanity's "forefathers", who abandoned humans because they were weak, and Gravemind states that the Master Chief will not receive forgiveness for "father's sins passed to his son." 343 Guilty Spark also states that the Master Chief is "the child of [his] makers" and that the Master Chief is a Forerunner. During the subsequent battle, Guilty Spark tells the Master Chief to "Accept [his] legacy!" while attacking him. This is a list of major fictional characters from the Halo franchise. ... In Amber Clad approaches Installation 05, otherwise known as Delta Halo. ... 343 Guilty Spark (pronounced three-four-three) is a fictional character featured in the video games Halo: Combat Evolved (and its novelisation, Halo: The Flood) Halo 2 and Halo 3. ...

The main artifacts left behind by the Forerunners are the Halo rings, but other types of Forerunner relics are mentioned in the four novels Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: The Flood, Halo: First Strike, and Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. These include a rock embedded with crystals apparently describing stellar coordinates for several solar systems (Epsilon Eridani, the system containing Reach; Sol system, containing Earth; and Threshold system, which contains Installation 04) and a mysterious crystal-shaped object seemingly capable of warping space-time. The latter relic was destroyed in Halo: First Strike by an ODST. The power of the crystal was unknown and underestimated, and its strange qualities apparently "squeezed" some of its remains into Slipspace. On the last pages of Halo: First Strike, Tartarus gives the Prophet of Truth three small pieces of the crystal. The crystal on Reach was found by Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey in a Forerunner structure underneath Menachite mountain, in ONI's Castle base. Spoiler warning: Halo: The Fall of Reach is a 2001 novel based on the video game Halo: Combat Evolved (2001). ... Halo: The Flood is a 2003 novel based on the video game Halo: Combat Evolved (2001). ... Spoiler warning: Halo: First Strike is a 2003 novel based off the video game Halo: Combat Evolved (2001). ... Epsilon Eridani (ε Eri / ε Eridani) is a notable main-sequence K2 class star in the constellation of Eridanus. ... Sol is the name or personification of the Sun, as originally used in Latin. ... In special relativity and general relativity, time and three-dimensional space are treated together as a single four-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian manifold called spacetime. ... Spoiler warning: Halo: First Strike is a 2003 novel based off the video game Halo: Combat Evolved (2001). ... This is a list of major fictional characters from the Halo franchise. ... Dr Catherine Elizabeth Halsey is a fictional character in the Halo series of video games and related novels. ...

In Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, an entire Forerunner city is uncovered in the planet Onyx's crust, though uninhabited save for Sentinels. Beneath the surface of the planet, vast and incredibly complex machinery of a tremendous scale produced immeasurable numbers of Sentinel guards which made up the interior of the world, and protected a miniature Dyson Sphere that was shunted into an alternate area of Slipspace. This Dyson Sphere itself was a "shield world" that would allow the Forerunners to survive the destructive effects of the firing of the Halo network. The ability to construct such devices and manipulate Slipspace itself to create such effects indicates how advanced the Forerunners were. A cut-away diagram of an idealized Dyson shell—a variant on Dysons original concept—1 AU in radius. ...

Art and architecture

One of many Forerunner structures on Alpha Halo.

Forerunner architecture is noted mainly for its geometric style and vast scale. It tends to be very elaborate, with numerous extrapolations of the basic design of a structure, all purely decorative. They use complex geometric shapes that appear to operate in dimensions higher than basic human understanding can decipher. The Forerunners tend to decorate the interiors of their structures with a complex web of engraved straight lines, and apply decorative touches and designs to nearly everything that they build, from structures to weapons. Even the Sentinel drones possess small holographic Forerunner script around their "eyes." Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...

Technology

Halos

Main article: Halo (megastructure)

The Forerunner built the Halos (which they called "Fortress Worlds"), giant rings floating in space, for the specific purpose of "studying and containing" the Flood.^[3] Each ring is exactly 10,000 kilometers in diameter and 22.3 kilometers thick, with an artificially generated environment and gravity running along the inside of the ring. Seven were built in total, but one is destroyed in the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. They are spaced out across the galaxy, each in orbit around a large celestial body. The seven rings make up a galaxy-encompassing doomsday weapon, used to destroy all bio-mass in the galaxy capable of sustaining the parasitic Flood (any sentient life), thus preventing the Flood from spreading.^[4] Each ring only has a range of 25,000 light years.^[5] In Amber Clad approaches Installation 05, otherwise known as Delta Halo. ... The Flood is a fictional parasitic alien life form in the Halo video game series. ... A kilometer (Commonwealth spelling: kilometre), symbol: km is a unit of length in the metric system equal to 1,000 metres (from the Greek words χίλια (khilia) = thousand and μέτρο (metro) = count/measure). ... Halo: Combat Evolved, or simply Halo, is a video game in the first-person shooter (FPS) genre, created by the Microsoft-owned Bungie Studios. ... See lists of astronomical objects for a list of the various lists of astronomical objects in Wikipedia. ...

In the second game, Halo 2, 343 Guilty Spark explains that the Halos are responsible for the destruction of the Forerunners. After exhausting every other strategic option in their struggle against the Flood, the Forerunners had no choice but to activate the rings, killing themselves in an effort to starve their enemy into defeat.^[6] In the event of Halo activation, the Forerunners apparently planned to retreat to at least one "shield world" separated from normal space-time by Slipspace displacement, though the one visited in the series is uninhabited. This article is about the video game. ... 343 Guilty Spark (pronounced three-four-three) is a fictional character featured in the video games Halo: Combat Evolved (and its novelisation, Halo: The Flood) Halo 2 and Halo 3. ...

Monitors

Main articles: 343 Guilty Spark and 2401 Penitent Tangent

To supervise and maintain the Halos, the Forerunners built the Monitors, artificial intelligence constructs with full control over the systems on their respective installations. Each installation has one Monitor, and each Monitor's control is limited to their specific Halo. Thus far, only the Monitors of Installation 04 and Installation 05, 343 Guilty Spark and 2401 Penitent Tangent, respectively, have been seen. 343 Guilty Spark (pronounced three-four-three) is a fictional character featured in the video games Halo: Combat Evolved (and its novelisation, Halo: The Flood) Halo 2 and Halo 3. ... This is a list of major fictional characters from the Halo franchise. ... AI redirects here. ... 343 Guilty Spark (pronounced three-four-three) is a fictional character featured in the video games Halo: Combat Evolved (and its novelisation, Halo: The Flood) Halo 2 and Halo 3. ... This is a list of major fictional characters from the Halo franchise. ...

The Monitors, known to the Covenant as Oracles, are known for their somewhat quirky personalities, leading Master Chief to come to the conclusion, in Halo: The Flood, that Guilty Spark had gone insane due to millenia of isolation. The Monitors have an unwavering devotion to stopping the Flood, which to them means activating the Halos, and will do anything to accomplish that goal.

Sentinels

To defend the Halos, the Forerunners created the Sentinels, automated drones armed with various weapons. The Sentinels of each installation are controlled by the Monitor. Large, airborne Sentinel Factories placed near the Library mass-produce the drones, and smaller construction vents in other places can produce small squads of them fairly quickly. According to the level called "The Arbiter" in Halo 2, the Covenant sees the Sentinels as "holy warriors of the sacred rings."^[7]

According to the novel Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, the Sentinels are constructed of various parts and are able to modify their body structure to suit specific tasks. They also exhibit the ability to link together into new forms and shapes, which serve to expand their existing firepower, defenses, and speed, up to the point where they can destroy Covenant and UNSC warships with ease. At the climax of the novel, it is revealed that the entirety of the planet Onyx is a latticework of trillions of Sentinels linked together to defend a specially developed habitat designed to survive the firing of the Halos.

Sentinel Minors

The basic form of Sentinel is the Sentinel Minor, a small hovering security drone equipped with a beam weapon capable of sustained bursts of fire. The Minors are primarily anti-personnel drones, not built to withstand fire from weapons meant for vehicles. Some Minors in Halo 2 are also equipped with energy shielding, while those with shields in the first game are explained to be Sentinel Majors. The primary purpose of the Minors is to manage the Flood for short periods while the Monitor works to activate the Halo network.^[8] In prolonged engagements, they rarely last long against the legions of combat forms produced by the parasite.

The Sentinel's main weapon is known as a Sentinel Beam, which can be picked up and wielded by the player in Halo 2. In the first game, the weapon is destroyed along with the drone. Similarly, the Sentinels in the Ghosts of Onyx novel fire their weapons from an orb hovering inside their frame, which becomes useless once the Sentinel is destroyed. When not engaged in combat, Sentinels contract into smaller forms, concealing their weaponry. The Forerunner-derived weaponry of the Covenant is noted to be quite effective against the Sentinels, whereas human weapons are much less so.

In Halo 2, an unusual glitch in the level Quarantine Zone causes the player to be confronted by a Sentinel Minor wielding a Needler, as opposed to a normal Sentinel Beam weapon. This appears to be a leftover from Halo 2's development cycle.

Sentinel Majors

An upgraded version of the Sentinel Minors known as the Sentinel Majors exists, which while retaining the same basic design are stronger than their counterparts. In the first game, they are distinguished by their use of energy shielding, as well as being slightly tougher opponents in terms of AI and damage. In Halo 2, gold-colored armor plating replaces the normal silver-colored armor plating to distinguish them from the weaker versions. The Halo 2 variant is also equipped with a much more damaging blue Sentinel Beam, as opposed to the red one used by the regular model. The blue version, when picked up, tends to overheat and deplete much faster. Unlike the original Sentinel Beam, the blue Sentinel Beam never appears in multiplayer.

Sentinel Enforcers

First appearing in Halo 2, Sentinel Enforcers are massive robotic automatons that serve to contain major Flood outbreaks. Larger than most vehicles and equipped with a massive energy shield on its front, the Sentinel Enforcers can fight on par with dropships if necessary.

The Sentinel Enforcer is equipped with a Needler-like pulse beam and mortar-like missiles, neither of which track their targets. It can also use the mechanical grabbing arms on its underside to pick up and crush vehicles, assuming the driver is careless enough to move under the lumbering machine.

Despite its firepower, an Enforcer is fairly slow. In addition, its shield, though powerful, can be depleted by sustained weapons fire, though small-arms fire is rarely effective. The Enforcer's arms contribute to its shield strength, so their loss will weaken it significantly. Finally, its ability to crush vehicles does not apply to personnel, so anything below it can fire at its weak underbelly with ease.

Constructors

Constructors are small machines that repair damage to any Forerunner structure they find. They are not combatants in the games, though they can be destroyed regardless. However, their beams will cause slight damage if someone blocks their path. They can be found in the beginning of the level "Sacred Icon" in Halo 2. They can be seen using their lasers to lower the shields on pistons and move through the Sentinel Walls quickly.

References

January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... This article is about the video game. ...

External links

• Halo Story Page: The Forerunner
• Halopedia