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October 15, 2004

Daen Musick (amekitsune@hotmail.com) writes:

Just a few thoughts I felt like pointing a finger or two at.

My thought is on the Forerunners. Simply put - I don't think that the Forerunners mentioned so frequently as if they were theorigins of so many relics on so many planets were, in fact, organic. I've been kicking back and forth the idea that they were/are themselves constructs.

[1] Reason for keeping the flood.
- The construct-Forerunners ultimate goal was for themselves to not be machines, but organic. They wanted to contain and study the flood so as to better understand how they could, themselves, become organic entities. Suppose that this happened, initially, very long ago. Proir to the original developement of the dinosaurs or something. Give us a big time frame.

[2] Construct-Forerunner creation 'myths' and deification.
- Suppose after oh-so-many millions of years the construct-Forerunners get good at what they do, but are unsatisfied with the results. Sprouting from a conversation with a friend some time ago I had these thoughts, which lend to the 'failed experiment idea' I'm about to pose.
- Grunts are slow, and fairly weak as individuals. Fire absorbtion detail. Seems like what humans in reality produce with mechanical systems. Something that fills a niche.
- Jackals, while faster than grunts and more nimble, seem to be a deal more frail. Scouting detail.So now we have a robot that has more functioanlity, but is prone to mechanical failure.
- Hunters are by no means bright, but they make well with heavy lifting. Shock/seige troops. Now you have a 'bot capable of motion, but with a processor speed of your grandma's computer.
- Engineers seem fairly gear headed, and one track minded. Repair duties. Something that thinks a lot, but isn't as sturdy in form as the dumb guy upstairs.
- Brutes. I don't know terribly much at all about them, but they seem to be a mix between tactical and fire power. While still slightly out of balance, they're getting closer to multi-function.
- Elites are athletic, fairly intelligent, and all around quite capable. They are the scalpel force. They pilot the vehicles. They're the top of the food chain, but they can't do all the repairing, heavy lifting, scouting, fire absorbtion, etc.
- Prophets are brains that float. They have the least balance of all of the covenant. Seeing their creators and knowing them, they form the spiritual backbone of the Covenant. Deifying the construct-Forerunners.
- Humans. Simply put, and not to be egotistical and all, we are natures problem solvers. I we are what the construct-Forerunners would enter into the science fair. For every separate race the covenant has any human -can- accomodate. While not quite as well, they can do it. All of it.

[3] Failed experiments and jealous older 'brothers' abound.
- So, if all of the covenant we've seen so far has been a handful of failed construct-Forerunner attempts at making themselves organic forms, then I suppose they wouldn't care much for the successes. Namely humans. Prophets being the bright alien buggers they are know what humans are, and that is why they've declared spiritual war on all of humanity in the name of their creators. Why? They feel envy.

[4] Possible holes in this idea.
- Where are the construct-Forerunners now? It's not like they'd die if they were, as they are mechanical.
- Why would all the races be on separate planets?
- Why wouldn't the Prophets know where Earth was in the first place?

[5] Possible solution to possible holes.
- The construct-Forerunners were nomadic. Traveling from planet to planet, system to system. Constantly looking to make their creations 'better' and more functional. As humans were their 'perfect children' and 'last' to be made it's very possible that the construct-Forerunners had simply travelled far enough away from the prophets for the humans to go unnoticed. They've also travelled farther off, in hopes of finding more to study.
- The Halo rings were not left with the express purpose of killing the food source of the flood. While it was one purpose, they would also be able to destroy any experiments that went so wrong as to be dangerous. The flood were allowed to continueexisting because they were always being studied for how they interact with other organisms. Another possibility would be missed destruction of all flood on Halo, and the rings left active in case the need arose to kill off the newly created food source.

[6] Odds and ends.
- 343GS is a construct-Forerunner, as are all of the sentinels. Left behind to maintain the ring, defend it when needed. Any reference by 343GS to the Forerunners is his creators. As I would expect they also made other mechanical 'life' along side themselves for menial tasks. This lends the cyclops idea a little more go for myself, with wall patterns, etc. Sentinels also only have one eye.
- John was assumed to be the reclaimer for his armor. The large faceplate resembling a single eye. Machine skin. 343GS, if he were a construct-Forerunner 'worker drone' of sorts would know the goal of creating a singular, self dependant race. John would epitomize this goal.
- 343GS also assumed John knew what he was supposed to do, his duty, because all construct-Forerunners would know. It would be in their databanks to opperate Halo when need be.
- An alternate/additional flood thought is that they were the initial 'accident' of the construct-Foreunners, and they were kept so that they could learn from their mistakes.
- The last time Halo was 'blown' was what killed the dinosaurs, but enough small mammals survived that when the construct-Forerunners arrived they had a basis to build off of, as I would expect is what happened with all the other races in the Halo universe that I've posed as possibly beign made by these 'construct-Forerunners.'

A lot of intriguing possibilities in there. Nomadic Forerunner, galaxy-seeding, explanations of the Sentinels and 343 Guilty Spark, a decent explanation for the usefullness of the Flood, all definitely worthy of further exploration.

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