Template:Forerunner Era

Primus Human Empire
By approximately 150,000 BCE, those Lanteans who had fled the Alliance-Reaper War, had achieved a considerable level of technological sophistication, achieving interstellar travel and colonizing planets along the Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, in direct relation to their closest neighbors, the Forerunners.

After encountering the San 'Shyuum, Humanity formed an alliance, based on the planet Charum Hakkor. At this point, Humanity's technological advancement rivaled that of the Forerunners, with the Humans using Lantean and surviving Asgard artifacts to support their structures and installations. Although the Primus Humans were considered a far younger race by the Forerunners, they had always held Forerunner interference with contempt. Looking to escape from Forerunner control, Humanity expanded throughout the Orion arm, and eventually began building an impressive empire consisting of unknown amount of worlds.

Before their downfall, Humanity had made great advances in military and science and technology, rivaling those of the Forerunners. Even the highly advance Forerunners had little defense against the weapons created by the Humans and San'Shyuum. By collecting and reverse-engineering Precursor technology at Charum Hakkor, one of the largest collections in the galaxy, Humanity's rapid technological achievements made willing challenges towards Forerunner policies. This, coupled with their belief that they - not the Forerunners - were the (true) inheritors of the Mantle from the Precursors, made them ideological enemies, and heretics from a Forerunner perspective.

Reaper Manipulations
This civilization encountered evidence of the Reapers return in approximately 110,000 BCE and, after discovering the machine's true nature, began to rapidly prepare for the coming conflict. However indoctinated Humans used by the Reaper Pontent ignited a civil war and after losing many planets, Humanity desperately invaded a minor sector of the Forerunners' domain to suppliment the lose of their major agricultural worlds. After forty-thousand years of expansion, the collective human genus waged war with the biologically-similar Forerunner species.

Eventually, they developed a cure against Indoctrination, winning the Human Civil War. Because Pontent had never encountered a race that could develop a cure to Indoctrination, it had to destroy the First Human Empire at all cost. In order to do this it covertly funded fringe purist groups to take control of the empire and spark a war with the Forerunner Empire.

Forerunner-Primus Human War
Around 100,000 BCE, the Primus Human Empire suddenly invaded un-aligned territories near Forerunner space and annihilated 50 defenseless systems in which Forerunners had resettled other species. After displacing the indigenous populations of those systems, Humanity replaced them with Human colonies to strengthen their hold over these new territories.

Although Humanity was successful in its early conquest of the alien worlds which the Forerunners resettled, they were forced to deploy the majority of their military against the Reaper indoctrinated elements of their people. By the time the rebels had been defeated, the Human military had been exhausted. Even the capital of Charum Hakkor had been cut off from the rest of the empire by Forerunner naval fleets blockading the routes to the system. On Charum Hakkor, the Primus Human had incorporated Precursor technology and constructed formidable fortifications capable of standing out against even the strongest fleets.

Despite having the combined Forerunner military at their disposal, it took the Forerunners great efforts to defeat the Human resistance and capture the capital. Although cut-off and unable to receive reinforcements from the San'Shyuum, the Humans held off continuous attacks for fifty years. When the planet finally fell, and significant number of Humans and San'Shyuum committed suicide rather than being taken prisoner. Although Humanity was completely and utterly defeated, the tragedies of the war convinced the Forerunners to oppose and forestall the construction of the Halo Array seeing it would violate the Mantle as the destruction of Humanity proved similarly, a task that he succeeded for thousands of years.

Collapse
The Primus Humans defeat affirmed Forerunner hegemony over the entire galaxy, as one of the only few powers capable of competing against them was utterly defeated. However, the destruction of the Primus Human Empire set the stage for the return of the Reapers and the disastrous Forerunner-Repear War, as the Forerunners proved totally inadequate to deal with the machines (due to their disarmament). The Forerunners later regretted the complete destruction of the Primus Humans, since, earlier, they were unaware the Reapers were the reason for Humanity's aggression during the Human Civil War.

The San'Shyuum homeworld was placed under quarantine, with a Forerunner military fortress orbiting the planet. When the Forerunners attempted to index the San'Shyuum during the early stages of the Forerunner-Reaper War, the San'Shyuum mistook their intentions and rose in revolt against the Forerunners. The military elements of the Forerunners took this opportunity to test Halo's effects on living beings, on the San'Shyuum homeworld; it surpassed all expectations. This genocidal act led to the near extinction of the San'Shyuum species.

As punishment for the war, Humanity was reduced to a pre-technological state and were exiled to the world Erde-Tyrene, where they were overseen by the Forerunner known only as the Librarian. However, the Forerunner victory proved disastrous for the galaxy, as the Humans destroyed all their research data and physical evidence concerning the Reapers, including a cure to stop the Indoctrination. Many speculated it was Humanity's final act of revenge to leave the Forerunners unprepared to face the incoming threat that led to the firing of the Halo array.

As of the modern era, most artifacts and records of this former civilization had been lost to time. Even during the carefully observations by the Protheans found no trace of the ancient Primus Human Empire beyond a few footnotes in salvaged Forerunner databases. However, ruins on the planet Heian appear to show hallmarks of Human design, suggesting that the planet was inhabited by ancient, space-faring Humans.