Forerunner

Introduction
The Forerunners were a highly advanced, ancient species whose empire at its height encompassed three million fertile worlds in the Milky Way approximately 150,000 to 100,000 years ago. The Forerunners were the creators and builders of many significant installations, including the Halo Arrays, the Ark, and the Shield Worlds, as well as numerous lesser artifacts later found on many worlds.

The Forerunners were largely wiped out during the Forerunner-Reaper War around 100,000 BCE, but a small colony managed to survive, becoming the First Civilization. These beings would later inter-breed with the Primus Humans, creating the Cro-Magnon race. As such the Forerunners are one of the few alien progenitors that entered into Humanity's family tree and as such are considered a direct forebearer of the Secundi Human.

Biology
The Forerunners are quite similar to modern-Humans, but also share traits with the San'Shyuum as well. The differences from either of these species is that Forerunners have a pale complexion and black sclera.

Due to Forerunner customs they wear armor or combat skins at all times, it is difficult to determine other natural traits as well. A common trait of these seems to be that it makes Forerunners hover in a standing position.

Forerunner mutation to rates, also affect the characteristics of a Forerunner; these traits apparently range from increased height to an additional thumb on each hand.

There are five known rates: the Lifeworkers, the Warrior-Servants, the Builders, the Miners, and the Juridicals. Manipulars are juvenile Forerunners not yet mutated into a rate. Theoreticals were a rate of scientists that were dissolved after the Human-Forerunner war. Counting both the Manipulars and Theoreticals, there are a total of seven rates.

Mantle of Responsibility
The Mantle of Responsibility was a Forerunner philosophy and one of the few aspects of its culture that has survived to the modern era. While no precise definition of it exists, it is heavily implied that it was the source of both the Forerunners' "authority" and their apparent duty to preserve the galaxy's biological diversity. Bridging the social strata between an interstellar Marshall Plan and a religious, but benevolent, stewardship, the Forerunners took responsibility for the protection and cultivation of the species and planetary systems within their domain.

Forerunner mythology held that the Mantle was passed down to them by an even earlier and more advanced race, the Precursors; to what extent this was true, or even whether or not it was a common belief, remains unknown. Regardless of its origin, the Forerunners seem to have handed their Mantle down to Humanity. What actually happened was that the Forerunners and Primus Humans reached Tier II technology, and the Precursors had intended that the Humans take on the role of inheriting the Mantle and for the Forerunners to be eliminated. When said news got to Forerunners they rose and killed all the Precursors and therefore took on the role of holding the Mantle.

Some Forerunners doubted the purpose and validity of the Mantle, dismissing it as superstition and fairy tales. The Librarian, in particular, had such doubts, and even went so far as to hold it responsible for the downfall of the Forerunners at the hands of the Reapers. The then-rampant AI Mendicant Bias believed that the Forerunners used the Mantle to obstruct any change, even that which might eventually be beneficial.

The governance of the Forerunner Ecumene was entirely dictated by the Mantle, as were the religious beliefs of individual Forerunners. However, inspiring peace throughout their domain by minimizing their military capacity and disarming their weapons cache proved to be a costly approach for the Forerunners when the new alien threat emerged.

Rather than allowing every species to rise on their own merits, the Forerunners, following their Mantle, gave them no need to do so, serving as protectors against any threats that might have forced technological or cultural progression. An unforeseen side-effect was that only the Forerunners were able to hold their own against the Reapers (at least once they rearmed), while their charges were unable to defend themselves; the Forerunners had unintentionally left the galaxy vulnerable to Flood infection.

Some of the ideals of following the Mantle, such as it requiring a strict vegetarian diet as it "forbade the eating of the flesh of unfortunates." Suicide goes against the greatest and most solemn instructions of the Mantle.

Technology
Forerunner technology was highly cultivated and progressive. They managed to create solidified surfaces out of meticulous energy, construct a Halo-wide teleportation grid, and create and utilize a number of other advanced machinery.

Forerunner machinery consists of many sharp angles of a metallic like crystal reinforced on a molecular level. The Halo Rings themselves, the Micro-Dyson Mark II sphere, which is connected through a portal to the shield world Onyx, and the Ark (Installation 00) are, above all others, the most significant pieces of Forerunner technology. The planet Onyx in particular demonstrates both their ability for engineering on a grand scale, and their near transcendent grasp of Mass Relay technology. The Forerunners can also "devolve" a species back to a primitive state. It is unknown how much of their technology is based on the technology of the Precursors, if any.

Forerunners have the technology to reproduce entire individuals from encoded DNA/RNA/silicon samples in data streams. Reproduction of individuals for analysis is prohibited by this facility.

The Forerunners appeared to be genetically related to the humans, which can be corroborated by the Iris Server-05 message about the humans providing "answers" to the Forerunner's own "mysteries", and Mendicant Bias's own declaration in Halo: Contact Harvest. This also explains why the Prophets ordered the Covenant to exterminate humanity, knowing that they are the Forerunner's designated heirs and would undermine their power. Halo 3 and the Halo Encyclopedia provided further evidence of this as well.

Weaponry
Forerunner constructs and sentries use a broad variety of weapons, typically high-powered energy beams. These weapons proved to be very effective when battling the Reaper mutated Husks, burning Husk forms to the point that they cannot be revived or recycled by their compatriots.

The Forerunners have also proven to be able to merge beams together into one stream to amplify its power. The Forerunners installed and constructed these intricate beam weapons inside their paradigm Arrays, allowing them to build an army of machines to battle the Reapers without sending any Forerunner to the front lines.

Art and Architecture
Forerunner architecture is noted mainly for being large-scale and geometric in style, with a semi-triangular theme being the most commonly observed design. The Forerunners were highly skilled at creating natural-looking habitats, such as those of the Halo rings, which tend to be very elaborate, with numerous extrapolations of the basic design of a construct appearing to be purely decorative.

In addition, the structures were engineered to compliment the natural landscape, as opposed to the modern idea of replacing it. That said, their distinctive beauty are not restricted to Halo Array network. The Aztec-esque stones of Cote D'Azur, the arches and weathered inscriptions of Sigma Octanus IV, the intricate caverns and three-kilometer holographic dome beneath Reach's surface, the ancient stepping-stones of the Unggoy's homeworld, and the Onyx, all display the Forerunner's innovative architectures.

Most Forerunner architecture is constructed with a special type of metal that resists deterioration, bullets, plasma bolts and fire, as made evident by Forerunner structures standing in pristine condition 100,000-150,500 years after they were built.

Other structures are constructed out of traditional materials, such as chalcedonic quartz, which does not preserve nearly so well. These structures employ complex geometric shapes that appear to operate in dimensions higher than modern understanding can comprehend. The Forerunners also decorated the interiors of their structures with a complex web of engraved straight lines and applied decorative touches and designs to nearly everything that they built, from structures to weapons.

Forerunner Astro-Engineering
While the Forerunners' architectural and technological prowess is legendary among contemporary civilization, their masterpieces also extended to the fields of stellar engineering. At least three Forerunner sites, the Onyx, the Ark, and Apex, made use of suns where none should exist.

The Ark is confirmed to be artificial, due to its unnatural "flower head" shape. It is likewise unknown if these are the only stellar engineering achievements the Forerunners made. However, it is clear that manipulation of slipstream space allowed the Forerunners to transport and position these structures throughout the galaxy.

Early Evolution
The Forerunners first emerged on the planet of Ghibalb, under the guidance of the ancient Precursors, who they considered to be their creators. Described as a paradise, this planet became desolate and scoured with radiation after the Forerunners' early experiments in stellar engineering ended in disaster, resulting in a series of novas in the Orion Complex.

Precursor-Forerunner War
Eventually, the Forerunners rose up against their creators, the Precursors, as revenge for handing the Mantle of Responsibility to Humanity, specifically the Primus Humans. The reasons for this are unknown but it has been theorized that the Primus Humans policy of non-interference unless neccessary in contrast to the Forerunner's policy of intervening to push civilization to follow the path of peace and free of conflict was the reason the Precursors chose the former.

It is known that early Forerunners drove the Precursors out of the galaxy and followed them to Path Kethona where they utterly destroy the remaining Precursors, save for a few. Almost all Precursor technology and structures have been lost due to this act, due to the neural properties of their constructions rapidly dissolved without the Precursors presence and while a few survived the neural termination effects of the Halo Array wiped out all traces of the civilization.

Post-Precursor Era
The fact that the Halos were scattered around the galaxy also hints at the possibility that the Forerunner Empire covered most, if not all, of the Milky Way. In the absence of the Precursors, their civilization became entirely based around the Mantle of Responsibility, a belief that it was their role to protect all life in the galaxy.

The Forerunners themselves were a race almost entirely without conflict, and at some point in their history had reached a point of disarmament, believing they no longer needed weapons in their rule of the galaxy, which ultimately weakened them when the Reapers attacked. Some have suggested that this event could have been influenced by the Reapers themselves, in response to the fact that if the Forerunners had at least armed their vessels with even basic weaponry, they could have possibly won in direct conflict with the Reapers.

Empire
The Ecumene is the formal name of the galaxy-spanning Forerunner empire which existed over 100,000-years ago and consisted of three million or more planets. The political center of this empire was known as the Capital, a massive structure containing multiple cities.

Territory

 * Installation 00
 * Installation 01
 * Installation 02
 * Installation 03
 * Installation 04
 * Installation 05
 * Installation 06
 * Installation 07
 * Maginot line
 * Onyx
 * Shield World
 * Micro Dyson Sphere
 * Portal Artifact
 * Threshold
 * Relic
 * Apex
 * Flood Research Facilities
 * Reach
 * Arcadia
 * Requiem
 * The Line
 * Capital
 * CE-10-2165-d
 * Edom
 * Erde-Tyrene
 * Ghibalb
 * G 617 g
 * LP 656-38 e