Of Forerunnners, Terminals, Halo and Bornstellars

Of Forerunnners, Terminals, Halo and Bornstellars

The Forward Unto Dawn has done an Ascendant Justice for us (man, I miss that blog!) and given us chapter and verse on the Forerunner Saga as written by Greg Bear, how those novels tie in with the Terminals found in the Halo series and more generally the wider Halo Canon, if you didn't know is the official word on how things are in the Universe. It's something to with the Pope and canon law....

Either way, here's the first few paragraphs to get you hooked else you can just dive into the whole thing.

"In fleshing out the story of the Forerunners, only hazily outlined in previous Halo media, a picture far different than what many fans expected emerged. The Forerunners were guardians of the galaxy, true–but they also harbored a hubristic streak from millennia of uncontested control of the Milky Way. Cryptum and Primordium also “humanized” the Forerunners beyond a homogenous group–there were heroes, demons, and ordinary citizens who wanted to avoid trouble. These Forerunners lived, worked, and (very occasionally) died. Families had conflicts, and society was imperfect.

And then came upstarts–humanity, and their allies the San ‘Shyuum. The Forerunners found the aliens, who encroached upon their territory, to be stubborn adversaries. Though the Forerunner beat them back, it took 50 years for the last bastion to fall. It was only after the fall of humanity–with the San Shyuum quarantined and humanity stripped of its technology and exiled to their home planet–that the Forerunner learned why the humans had fled into their territory. At the same time they were fighting the Forerunners, the humans had narrowly defeated a far more dangerous foe–the Flood.

The Forerunners were nothing if not thorough. They realized the threat that the Flood caused and began devising possible defenses. They believed their defeated human enemies might have answers, but bitter in defeat, even the dead impressions refused to yield their secrets. Eventually, the Flood did return, and after decades of warfare and exhausting every other option, the Forerunners activated the Halo Array. Every sentient being in range of the rings was eradicated to deprive the Flood of sustenance and stem its assault on the Ark, from which indexed life was reseeded across the galaxy. The Forerunners disappeared–whether any of them survived via the use of Shield Installations remains unclear, although fans may be tantalizingly close to the truth come November 6 and the release of Halo 4."

Forerunner structures found on Requiem

Forward Unto Dawn has also done a very handy and concise set of bullet points regard the plot of Halo Cryptum and Primordium:

• Forerunners learn of the Flood after defeating humans
• Forerunners attempt to learn cure for the Flood from humans
• Didact proposes Shield Worlds, Faber proposes Fortress rings; Didact loses and goes into exile in a Cryptum
• Librarian’s Conservation Measure accepted by the Council
• Halo test fired by Mendicant Bias
• Bias interrogates the Prisoner, goes rampant
• Didact awakened by Bornstellar
• Didact captured by Faber, Faber brought to trial
• Bias attacks capitol; several of the Halo rings destroyed; fate of the capitol unknown
• Rings flee to Ark
• Bornstellar Didact captures Mendicant Bias and Installation 07
• Primordial killed