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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » ARG: Iris (Halo 3)
[SPEC] Rush's Forerunner/Iris Manifesto + New Video
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rush
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 		 [SPEC] Rush's Forerunner/Iris Manifesto + New Video
No Forerunner! That's a bad Forerunner!
Here it goes:

First of all, almost all of my theory borrows from mrbanana's Last Theory as can be read here. However, I do disagree with him on his main idea that Humans are actually Forerunner. I believe (and have a lot of evidence to back it up) that Humans are actually the moral guides for the Forerunner. So let me "dip into the wells of history" and speculate on what has happened so far.

Forerunner History

To understand the motivations and actions behind the Forerunner, we must first amass all that we know about them.

We know they were a race of hyper-intelligent beings that were capable of creating tremendous structures. We also know from the books and the games that the Forerunner mastered slipspace, time, teleportation, and anti-gravity. From the fact that they studied the Flood and left Onyx and the Halos full of wildlife proves that they were very interested in biology.

The Forerunner themselves were perhaps a more evolved form of Humanity. The Covenant often refer to them in the books as "Giants". In human mythology, half-giants were believed to be the offspring of Angel fathers and Human mothers. It is also important to note (especially now) that Giants were long thought to be the creators of Stone Henge.

It can be assumed that the Forerunners were methodically mastering every science to its furthest extent. They could manipulate space, time, and gravity. What else is their to learn? Genetics. The Forerunner had not quenched their constant thirst for knowledge. Therefor, in some twisted biological experiment, the Forerunner created the Flood. This is proved by the Gravemind:

"I? I am a monument to all your sins."

At the peak of their civilization, the Forerunner had a catastrophe on their hands. The Flood would have absorbed many Forerunner at the time of outbreak, and it could be assumed that they escaped whatever planet they were on, or else the Forerunner would have just blown up the planet.

With the Flood now able to travel to other planets, we can assume that system after system was falling to the Flood. Gravemind's actions in Halo 2 prove that the Flood even had access to the Teleportation systems of the Halos. The Forerunner, in all of their arrogant wisdom, decided to enact a last resort plan. When every last piece of Flood manure hits the fan, Halo is the plan.

The plan is this: Light fuse (activate Halo). Run away (take shelter in Onyx).

Therein lies two problems.

1. What to do with all of the life that is destroyed?
2. How will you know when it is a "last resort" situation?

343 Guilty Spark: "More or less. Technically, this installation's pulse has a maximum effective radius of twenty-five thousand light years. But, once the others follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life, or at least any life with sufficient biomass to sustain the flood."

"After exhausting every other strategic option, my creators activated the rings. They, and all additional sentient life in three radii of the galactic center, died ...as planned…Would you like to see the relevant data?"

So let's get this straight right now. The Halos fire a pulse all at once. Nothing in the galaxy can escape it. In fact, 3 galactic radii is overkill in the extreme. Halo will kill anything that has a certain amount of biomass. The reason 343GS says "sentient" is to generalize that no sentient life could be small enough to escape the blast.

Unless it was a sperm or egg. We assume the Forerunners had an exceptionally long amount of time before the Flood got too out of hand, since they had enough time to build 7 Halos and 1 Dyson Sphere with a star in the middle of it in another dimension. Remember, all the Forerunner had left to explore was biology. That means that life would suck for them if there wasn't anything left to study when they get out of Onyx. So, as explained very well in mrbanana's Last Theory, they enacted a reseeding plan. Like Noah taking two of every animal, the Forerunner took billions of samples of animal sperm and eggs of every species of animal that would be killed by Halo. They then built sort of nanny-bots to help the species along and then bury the Forerunner structures that harbored them.

The second big problem for the Forerunner was "If we're an amoral super-race with bad ethics, how will we know when it's ok to kill everything in the galaxy?" Answer:

Humans.

Perhaps the greatest quality that Humans have is the ability to feel and judge a situation based on our morality and our emotions. The Forerunner were more like the Borg on Star Trek, where they constantly gained knowledge, but never the concepts of love, sadness, or morality. They obviously screwed up with the Flood, and probably proved to themselves that they were not capable of judging a situation soundly.

So they let the Humans be the only ones to put the index into Halo. This is backed up by a number of different sources:

343GS: "Why would you hesitate to do what you have already done?"

"Last time, you asked me, if it was my choice, would I do it? Having considerable time (Joe Staten: 100,000 years) to ponder your query, my answer has not changed."

"...Unfortunately, my usefulness to this particular endeavor has come to an end. Protocol does not allow units with my classification to... perform a task as important as the reunification of the index with the core. That final step is reserved for you, Reclaimer."

Joe Staten: Inscrutable alien beings with problematic ethics never die... they just fade away . But if what you're asking is: when did the Forerunner take their "Great Journey," that would be about 100,000 years ago - around the time our Homo Sapien ancestors decided to migrate out of Africa. Mind you, that's a hotly debated paleontological theory.

{D-com}I feel no peril...... No pain. No remorse. Is that normal?


Why not any other race like the Prophets or the Elites?

Well, it doesn't seem very wise to let a suicidal alien who's willing to die before using an enemy's weapon fire the most powerful weapon ever created.


Why aren't the humans Forerunner?

It seems more than a little odd that the Covenant, Monitors, AND Sentinels on Onyx don't recognize the humans as their creators/lords. Also, we don't seem to be capable of working together to even feed ourselves, much less a galactic super-civilization. Hell, even in the Halo universe Humans were in an all-out civil war before the covies showed up.


Where are the Forerunner now?

Not here. 343GS says they died as planned. Maybe he didn't get the memo about Onyx. Maybe they are in the Ark. Maybe they couldn't get into Onyx in time.


If Humans went straight from the Forerunners to Earth, then what about neanderthals?

Neanderthals were wiped off the face of the Earth by Humans. They did not get the chance to evolve into Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens' ancestors are unknown and unfound in archeaology (read: missing link)


AdjutantReflex

AR is a compound intelligence (fancy way of saying AI) probably built by the Forerunner. At the end of Halo 2, Cortana states that she feels a resistance in the computer systems of High Charity. Something that is much older and superior to any Covenant AI, which, according to the books, are broken from the start. I speculate that AR was the AI Cortana encounters in High Charity. I think he was trying to go back to a pivotal point in time where he could influence what happens.

He's gone back to our time to spread the bread crumbs that will a) Teach us about the Forerunner, the Flood, and the Halos, and b) Help us avert some disaster (probably the Flood), or get the world in the Master Chief's time ready to fight it.

Iris

Iris is the Greek personification of a rainbow. 7 Iris is also an asteroid/minor planet that orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter. On August 25, 2007, 7 Iris, Saturn, Venus, Earth, and the Sun all line up with each other. Being 1 month before the release of Halo 3, I believe this could be the day the last server unlocks, or the day where we need to avert the Flood.

This brings up another topic: Noah's Ark allusions. In Halo, the Forerunner (God) brought about a terrible Flood (the Flood, or Halo if the flood is referring to the cleansing pulse that goes through the galaxy). The Forerunner then placed a sampling of each species in the Ark (or other Forerunner structures on other planets). When the flood is finished, Humanity exits the Ark with the help of nanny-bots, who then bury the Ark (as seen in the comic).

In the Bible, a covenant is formed between God and man as a promise to never flood the Earth again, signified by a rainbow. Now, that same rainbow can be seen as Iris, the game we are playing right now. The Forerunner AI (or CI) is giving us this rainbow to stop another flood from happening.


So the questions we need to answer in this game are:

Where are the Forerunner?
How were the Flood created?
How do we stop the Flood once they are on Earth?
or
How do we stop Truth from activating the Ark?

PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 12:35 am
Last edited by rush on Mon Jul 09, 2007 12:17 pm; edited 2 times in total
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ThereIsNoSpoone
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 		Nothing "new" from the Halo universe made me smile this much since the Mini Dyson Sphere was revealed at the center of Onyx.

Nice job!
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 12:42 am
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violentvixen
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 		Cool stuff, very nice summary and analysis.

At the end of Halo 2, Cortana states that she feels a resistance in the computer systems of High Charity.

I don't remember this at all from the game. When does she say this?

PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 12:54 am
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rush
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violentvixen wrote:
At the end of Halo 2, Cortana states that she feels a resistance in the computer systems of High Charity.

I don't remember this at all from the game. When does she say this?


She says it through your earpiece while you're fighting through the flood and getting closer to the conduit that goes to the Forerunner ship. She calls it a "presence" I believe, or "resistance". I'd have to play through the level to be sure.

PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 12:56 am
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Joshy
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 		Very good! A couple of questions though:

What took over AR and why?

I might be a little confused on this one but, why would we not want Truth to activate the Ark if it already served its purpose by keeping the human's alive for reseeding?

PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 1:02 am
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rush
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 		What took over AR and why?

Time travelling could have caused him to accidently copy himself and go unstable (like Cortana in First Strike). He might have picked up Cortana or Gravemind whilst roaming High Charity. Or he could have been built that way as a precaution or side effect (like how Cortana will eventually go insane and unstable... or already has).


I might be a little confused on this one but, why would we not want Truth to activate the Ark if it already served its purpose by keeping the human's alive for reseeding?

Activating the Ark: Triggers all 7 (now 6) Halos, Onyx, and the reseeding process. If Truth activates it, we're all dead; however, our seeds would probably be resewn again.

PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 1:07 am
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ThereIsNoSpoone
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 		Unless Earth is in the sector of the Universe that Alpha Halo was supposed to cleanse.

If so, Earth is safe from the Activation.
But that's a 1:7 chance.
Unprobable... but you never know Rolling Eyes
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:15 am
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Ekim
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rush wrote:
Activating the Ark: Triggers all 7 (now 6) Halos, Onyx, and the reseeding process. If Truth activates it, we're all dead; however, our seeds would probably be resewn again.


Ah, but what if the reseeding process wouldn't happen this time because it's not prepared prior to the firing?

It might be something that has to be programmed to take action or "reset", so to speak, before the Halos are set into action. Otherwise, the Ark might just remain underground in Africa, with all of the species genetic information going unused until several million years later when another sentient species develops and just happens to stumble upon this wealth of past civilization. Afterall, I don't think the Ark would've been buried to begin with. It was probably sent here, with NannyBots instructed to release the humans, and clean up the confusing machinery so that we don't get too far ahead of ourselves for our own good by messing with it like the Covenant likely did.

It seems like that could be a one-time procedure. I would think the Forerunner would figure the Halos could very well never need to be fired ever again after the first cleansing.

Or, if the reseeding is, indeed, just a collection of sperm/egg (or Covenant equivilant), it might have all been used up in the first re-seeding. If the Forerunner trusted that humanity would find the Halos and take up the responsibility of determining if or when to fire them, they could have assumed we would also take care to make sure the reseeding process was ready before taking the same drastic measures they resorted to. (The only evidence against this right now that I can think of is that Guilty Spark never mentions anything about a galactic "reset" when he's trying to get us to pull the trigger, so it could very well be automated. Just throwing out possibilities. Smile )

I hope this makes sense. It's 5:30am now. Geek
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 5:32 am
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LorD BaZTArD
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 		My favourite opinion at the moment is that there was no actual reseed. One may have been planned with the ark, and the Forerunners set up the sheild worlds to retreat to but alot of evidence points to the fact that they didn't pull it off and killed themselves nearly outright. Hence the relics all over the universe. A "The house is empty but the tea is still warm" kind of scenario.

Life is a tenacious bastard, I'm guessing that because the forerunner plan backfired, there was no-one around to guide life as it returned to the universe, I think therefore that the poor misguided covenant got it wrong and yet right. I think the great journey does exist, I think it is the shield worlds, although I don't think the prophets are aware of this.

I also bet that the forerunner left warnings of a dangerous race and the covenant got it backwards, mistaking the humans for the flood.
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:03 am
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pondrthis
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 		While on the subject of wild spec...
Here's some more!
Compound intelligence...

I hate to bring up Homeworld yet again (3rd time in just a few posts), but seeing as it is possibly the most "realistic" scifi story (as well as a well-thought-out one) it can have applications to other great works of scifi gaming.

Adjutant Reflex: Compound Intelligence. Compound.

My point is that in Homeworld, the Mothership's intelligence (called Fleet Command I think) is a computer fused with a woman named Karan Sjet (or something).

Could Adjutant Reflex be something similar, especially since the concept was somewhat touched on with Cortana's being? I have heard spec about a Gravemind-Cortana relationship (I don't know the details), and I'm sure this has been said before, but could Adjutant Reflex be a fusing of the biological intelligence of Gravemind and the artificial intelligence of another being? Or possibly a forerunner fused with an AI?

Evidence for/against the fact: "...outranks me, and anyway, is stronger." Stronger implies biological existence, but "outranks" in an inward sense is strictly related to the priority of programs in a machine.

Just posting to this thread what many have spec'd before.
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:41 am
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LorD BaZTArD
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 		Hmm. Interesting theory. Could be possible actually. The only real obstacle to that idea is why fuse two AI or an AI and a Forerunner together if they have differing view points and in turn, leading to one eliminating the other. That defeats the purpose of fusing two entities together like that... unless. Hmm

The forerunner seem to be good at bad decisions. What if a mistake was made and the fusing backfired. Certainly could lead to the AR issue.
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:03 am
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Jordan117
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LorD BaZTArD wrote:
I also bet that the forerunner left warnings of a dangerous race and the covenant got it backwards, mistaking the humans for the flood.

IIRC, the Flood came as a complete surprise to the Covenant -- nothing like it ever appeared in their "theology".

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 2:14 pm
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phantomb
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 		Re: While on the subject of wild spec...
Here's some more!
pondrthis wrote:


Evidence for/against the fact: "...outranks me, and anyway, is stronger." Stronger implies biological existence, but "outranks" in an inward sense is strictly related to the priority of programs in a machine.



This isn't necessarily true. When AIs in the Halo universe are in conflict, stronger could mean smarter, access to more information, have better skills and abilities, etc.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 2:56 pm
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Jordan117
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Jordan117 wrote:
LorD BaZTArD wrote:
I also bet that the forerunner left warnings of a dangerous race and the covenant got it backwards, mistaking the humans for the flood.

IIRC, the Flood came as a complete surprise to the Covenant -- nothing like it ever appeared in their "theology".

Clarification from the "Conversations from the Universe" booklet:

Quote:
>>> LETTER TO THE COUNCIL OF DEED AND DOCTRINE >>>

Submitted humbly by your servant.
The Prophet of Supposition

The Flood: A Question of Faith

In our research for truth and answers from the Forerunner legacy, we have discovered many gifts, but never a curse. The discovery of Halo was the greatest bequest to our faith in a thousand years, but it came at a price. The atrocity committed by the Humans was devastating, but the discovery of the Flood within Halo, was perhaps as troubling.

Humans we know and understand. They are vermin to be trampled. But the Flood was unexpected. Were they placed there as a test of our faith? Are they an enemy to be conquered? Or are they an article of faith? Nature tells us to strike back when we are ourselves struck, but this event was unprecedented. Are we to rail against the wrath of the gods?

Our scientists will analyze the scraps and fragments we recovered, and as ever, we will find use for what we have learned. Perhaps this Flood could be, if not an ally, then a weapon. The Forerunners have blessed us with obscure gifts in the past. This Flood hammered the Human forces every bit as hard as our own.

We cannot assume the Flood is gone; after all, it must have sprung from some source.

The Flood, it seems, was imprisoned on Halo, but what if we calculated incorrectly? What if the Flood had sanctuary there?

I submit to your appraisal.


PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:23 pm
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IMightBeRusty
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 		We should keep the August 25 date in mind. Great theory, Rush.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:50 pm
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