The Forerunners

### Distinctions

Tall, humanoid, partially furred; various forms assumed by artificially-induced mutation

## Sociocultural information

### Languages

Digon, Jagon, etc

*"We are Forerunners, guardians of all that exists. The roots of many galaxies have grown deep under our careful tending. Where there is life, the wisdom of our countless generations has saturated the soil. Our strength is a luminous sun towards which all intelligence blossoms, and the impervious shelter beneath which it has prospered."*

— a speech about the purpose of them and the Mantle.

The Forerunners were a species of extremely technologically advanced beings whom which encompassed many galaxies including their own; meaning that they didn't originate here in the Milky Way, whom reigned for billions of years during their striving and development as an ascendant civilization, having achieved extreme technological sophistication; hence their extreme technological advancements, and mastering combat, many things from their ancient creators. Evidence of their existence are in many galaxies in the form of numerous creations, installations, artifacts, etc and themselves. They would identify humanity as their successors, naming them "Reclaimers". They also have an IQ of about 986, and their philosophy the Mantle explains everything about their purpose.

## History

Despite having a long story and origin, all that humanity knows is that the Forerunners were seeded on Ghibalb, in the galaxy DSP-B0022. their homeworld by the Precursors, a much more powerful civilization that preceeded the Forerunners. And the Forerunners nearly getting extinct after a series of events over time.

To summarize this page, the Forerunners are basically a higher beings stronger than any other civilizations, being extremely smart, extremely strong and extremely technologically advanced, hence their type of 3.98. While their prowess on everything is unbelievably, extremely legendary also mastering everything especially combat, they only prefer to be neutral.

## Physiology

The Forerunners were a bipedal species resembling humans in overall shape, though they were larger in stature. Over the course of their lives, Forerunners underwent a number of artificially-induced mutations, modifying their bodies to better suit the field of work of their rate. More specific aspects of their appearance varied with lineage, age and even personal tastes. They relied heavily on personal body-assist armor which, in addition to protecting the wearer from harm, augmented their physiology and mental faculties. Among many other advantages, it made their lifespans virtually indefinite by providing constant life support and medical care.

Before their first mutation, as Manipulars, Forerunners were tall and slender, and possessed patches of fine, purple-pink or white fur on the top of their heads, along their nape and shoulder area, as well as the backs of their hands. Their facial features were similar to those of humanity, and they were capable of making analogous expressions, but this changed as they mutated to their higher forms, which characteristically had stiffer facial muscles and a more limited ability to convey emotions. There was also a cultural stigma associated with expressing emotions; while even certain higher forms were capable of producing some semblance of a smile or laughter, for example, such uncontrolled display of emotions was regarded as barbaric. Unlike humans, Forerunners lacked pronounced noses or ears, having two slitted nostrils and a set of bulbous protrusions instead. Their skulls otherwise bore a very strong resemblance to those of humans, with subtle differences. The Forerunners also had a genetic code that was remarkably similar to humans, though they were not known to be genetically related. However the defunct Theoretical rate of the Forerunners own studies of human and Forerunner origins concluded that humanity share a genetic structure homogeneous to the Forerunners.

The Forerunners exhibited sexual dimorphism largely mirroring that of humans, with the females being more slender and somewhat smaller in stature than the males. The height of higher-form males ranged from around three to four meters, Males of higher forms also bore less resemblance to humans, while the females appear to have been more human-like in appearance.

Their skin color ranged greatly, including gray, black, blue, pink, or a mixture thereof. The number of fingers Forerunners possessed varied according to their rate and form; the most common number of fingers per hand appears to have been six or five, with two or one opposable thumb(s).

Thanks to their advanced life-support and medical technology, Forerunners could maintain a youthful appearance for thousands of years should they so choose. Even though Forerunner armor was capable of healing all injuries and blocking attacks which would otherwise be certainly lethal, including fatal doses of radiation, on rare occasions Forerunner individuals may choose to decline basic treatment.

While the Forerunners had a biological need to sleep, this necessity was eliminated by the use of personal armor which allowed them a constant continuity of consciousness without having to sleep; only on rare cases, they would experience diagnostic waking dreams. As such, Forerunners slept very rarely, mostly doing so by choice in instances such as long stretches of space travel, which themselves were rare due to their exceedingly fast slipspace technology.

Forerunners possessed highly advanced mental capabilities, far beyond those of a human in the case of their higher forms. These abilities were further augmented by their use of personal armor, which integrated with the wearer neurally and stored sensory information and memories, even consistently backing up the wearer's consciousness. The armor also allowed Forerunners direct information transfer to one another, which could also be employed in the form of "silent conversation". Higher-form Forerunners had the ability to process enormous amounts of information simultaneously; for example, Warrior-Servant commanders could simultaneously process the sensory input of thousands of their subordinates while coordinating large-scale battles and themselves experiencing reality in multiple separate frames of reference with variable streams of time. The use of an ancilla enabled Forerunners to recall any past event with exact accuracy, and even without armor or a personal ancilla they could remember enormous amounts of precise information.

### Mutation

   When a Manipular was ready to work within a particular rate, they would undergo an artificially-induced transformation into a more advanced form, which differed depending on the Manipular's chosen caste. Referred to as a "mutation", the transition typically occurred over a long period of time. A typical Forerunner would undergo several mutations over the course of a lifetime, though this was not always the case. Mutations altered Forerunners' abilities and physical shape to suit their class; Warrior-Servants, for example, underwent mutations that made them stronger and more robust. After their first mutation, Forerunners also gained the ability to access the Domain, a realm of information where the entire collated knowledge of the Forerunner civilization was contained.

In emergency circumstances, an operation known as a "brevet mutation" could be performed on a Manipular. This was a mutation that occurred over a much briefer period of time, and was often painful. Rarely, a brevet mutation could fail and result in deformities.

## Technology

The Forerunners' technological achievements were almost without parallel, They managed to create solidified surfaces out of light by using technology known as hard light, use slipspace to teleport between locations almost instantaneously, and create numerous forms of advanced machinery. Another of their greatest achievements is their ability to initiate premature stellar collapses of stars and create planets in less than years. The Halo Array and the shield worlds are, above all others, the most significant pieces of Forerunner technology. The planet Onyx and its inner Dyson sphere, Shield World 006, in particular demonstrated both their ability for engineering on a grand scale, and their near-transcendent grasp of slipspace technology. Forerunner technology is remarkably resilient, being able to remain intact for over a hundred millennia.

They employed a wide variety of artificial intelligence constructs, generally known to them as ancillas. A fully sentient Artificial Intelligence. These ranged from simple personal assistants integrated in their armors to various kinds of robotic Monitors and immensely powerful metarch-level AIs, of which the most sophisticated type was the Contender-class.

The Forerunners had mastered the use of various energy fields, including buffer fields which they used to manipulate gravity, constraint fields used to restrain individuals, confinement fields used to block the movement of entire ships, and the containment and collection fields they used to harness entire stars for energy production. Entire planets could be made habitable even in conditions of lethal stellar radiation via planetary shields.

The Forerunners had an unparalleled knowledge of quantum science, which enabled them much of their sophisticated technology. After a number of instances of catastrophic data loss in their history, they had abandoned conventional digital storage in binary code entirely in favor of storing information in substrates of quantum foam. Virtually all Forerunner technology was powered by harnessing and draining the energies of untold numbers of nascent alternate realities in the form of vacuum energy. This enabled the Forerunners to harness enormous amounts of energy, with a single slipspace-based transmission noted as requiring more energy than the generation capacity of all human assets combined.

In addition to their superior grasp of slipspace travel, the Forerunners had mastered many other methods of higher-dimensional manipulation. They were capable of altering the fabric of time and space within contained "bubbles" of slipspace, allowing the storage of enormous masses and volumes within a comparatively tiny space; as an extreme example, the 300-million-kilometer Shield World 006 was held in a space only 23 centimeters in diameter in normal space. In these bubbles, the flow of time could be suspended altogether, or numerous millennia could be made to transpire while only seconds had passed in normal space. The Forerunners routinely employed the higher dimensions of slipspace in their fleet engagements and created defenses which extended into slipspace, most prominently the Maginot Line.

Forerunner technology could also produce certain objects remarkably quickly without extensive production facilities. For example, personal armor could be manufactured by small engineering units on board a starship, and entire ships could be "grown" from a "design seed", being manufactured on-site from preprogrammed "blueprints" and construction materials obtained from local resources. Likewise, certain automatons — such as Promethean Crawlers — could be "conjured" on-site and constructed in a matter of seconds from raw materials present in the ground. Most Forerunner technology could disassemble and reconfigure itself into a completely different form, and automatically gather any additional construction materials if necessary. The Forerunners did use dedicated production plants for large-scale industry. An example of this is the vast Sentinel manufacturing facility on Onyx, which could produce a new Sentinel every six seconds.

Their technological advancements lead to them unlocking all of the universe's secrets, thus leading them to have mastered combat and everything making them extremely strong and also has a nanobot of their own which can range up to planck length and can create anything without the need of resources.

The Huragok, nanomechanical "supercomputers" created by the Forerunners for the purposes of maintaining their technology, and etc are an example of forerunner creations.

### Spacecraft

Forerunner spacecraft used special crystals embedded in their slipspace drives to travel through slipspace. In order to move through ordinary space, they utilized reaction drives which harnessed virtual particles as a propulsive force; however, they still required the use of onboard reaction mass. Forerunner warships could be enormous in scale; the most recent models of Fortress-class vessel were around a hundred kilometers in length.

The interiors of all Forerunner ships were not entirely composed of matter; for example, the structure of a planet-breaker was only half matter, with one third being fuel and reaction mass and the rest being comprised of hard light, allowing the captain to configure the ship's internal layout and decoration at will. At least some types of Forerunner craft can alter their geometry to better suit their current situation; for example, making the ship more aerodynamic in preparation for surface landing.

Forerunners could also create upgrade seeds to upgrade vessels of other species into seamless hybrids of their original technology and Forerunner technology. The inclusion of a Forerunner slipspace flake would give the vessel a Forerunner slipspace drive. Other known upgrades include stealth capability, upgraded weapons, comm and navigational systems kept within the framework of the ship's original operating functional capability.

#### Communications and sensors

Forerunners used a type of quantum entanglement for communications, allowing instant data transfer over vast distances. These communications were routed over proprietary encryption protocols, which could be used to track the source or destination of the communication. Forerunners did not use electromagnetic radiation (light, radio, microwaves, etc.) to communicate, presumably due to latency, interference, and security issues. Despite this, mundane radar emitters still played a role in short-range detection of incoming objects, They also used a form of superluminal communication involving wormholes; however, these communications were significantly slower than communication via the Domain.

Forerunner sensors were capable of instantaneous scanning and detection across interstellar distances. As a particularly impressive example of their available sensor ranges, the Forerunners' core authority routinely tracked individual slipspace or warp jumps. They were also capable of viewing various alternate spaces adjoining the physical universe—including denial of locale, natal void, shunspace, trick geodetics and a photon-only realm known as the Glow—and ascertaining events or objects in normal space through their signatures sometimes visible in these realms. Forerunners shipboard sensors were also highly accurate, being capable of providing a detailed analysis of a single planet's geological and ecological composition from lightyears away through the use of long-range entanglements.

##### Pattern transfer

The Forerunners were capable of extracting an individual's complete mental and biological patterns and memories, which could then be encoded in either another biological body or stored as data. A Forerunner could create an offshoot of their consciousness housed in an ancillary system, An individual's pattern could also be imprinted over another body. Typically, An abstracted consciousness could also be used as a template for an ancilla a dead Forerunner's final memories were recovered and stored in a time-locked container known as a Durance.

##### Art and architecture

Forerunner architecture incorporates heavy use of geometric angles, usually at either extremely sharp degrees - Forerunner buildings are usually trapezoidal - or at forty-five degree angles. Most Forerunner architecture is constructed with a special type of silver-gray metal that resists deterioration, bullets, plasma bolts and fire, as made evident by Forerunner structures standing in pristine condition 100,000 - 150,000 years after they were built. However, their resistance to heavy fire, antimatter, dark energy and etc is not limited and they are fully resillient to anything. Other structures and certain starships were built with a golden-bronze colored metal.

The Forerunners were also highly skilled at creating stone architecture. Typically, these buildings were built from a pale brown or tan stone. These structures were more subject to wear and aging, but their architectural sophistication remains apparent after 100,000 years.

In addition to physical structures, a large portion of Forerunner architecture is actually composed of sophisticated hard light construction. Such architecture is often crafted in the likeness of corporeal matter, most commonly gray Forerunner metal. Hard light structures can form complex shapes and in many cases, be entirely indistinguishable from physical construction, homes and public spaces to starship interiors. Many Forerunner structures are capable of materializing when needed and then melting away when deactivated, a feature most likely facilitated through the use of hard light. The immaterial and flexible nature of this technology lends it a great deal of uses, nonetheless, certain Forerunner ships, such as the command warship Mantle's Approach, employ hard light bonding as a means of maintaining the vessel's structural integrity. Some Forerunner structures, including many of those on Requiem, incorporate components which float in the air without any physical support.

Many symbols and patterns on Forerunner structures employ complex geometric shapes that appear to operate in dimensions higher than human understanding can comprehend. The Forerunners also decorated the interiors of their structures with a complex pattern of engraved straight lines and applied decorative touches and designs to nearly everything that they built, from structures to weapons. Even Sentinel drones possess small holographic Forerunner script around their "eyes". Some Forerunner structures, most prominently those on Requiem, mark bullet holes and other forms of weapon strike points with a small glyph automatically etched around the damaged portion of the surface within moments of the impact.

The Forerunners were highly skilled at creating natural-looking habitats, such as those of the Halo installations, which tend to be very elaborate and include realistic weather patterns and self-sustaining biomes. Although they are clearly distinct from the natural landscape, Forerunner structures often appear to "grow" out of the surrounding terrain, resulting in an impression of complementing the landscape as opposed to replacing it. They are also highly skilled in replicating natural ingredients for construction, formation of stars and etc, such as they can accurately create a material without any problems, replicate an element, using a device similar to the Cygnian's control c control v'er.

###### Astroengineering

While the Forerunners' architectural and technological prowess is legendary, their masterpieces also extended to the fields of stellar and planetary engineering.

Shield World 006, a full-size Dyson shell, existed in slipstream space, where planets and stars cannot ordinarily exist. In addition, the slipspace bubble containing the enormous construct was enclosed within Onyx, a planet-sized structure composed of trillions of Sentinels arranged into a complex structural scaffolding and covered by a terrestrial crust. The Forerunners also created many smaller shield worlds, essentially planet-sized Dyson shells with terrestrial inner and outer surfaces as well a miniaturized sun in the center. Some works of Forerunner engineering are also located beyond the confines of the galaxy, including Installation 00, a vast, flower-shaped construct with a terrestrial surface and its own artificial star for illumination. Another example of the Forerunners' mastery of megascale engineering was the Capital, a structure which surpassed even the Ark in sheer enormity and complexity.

In addition to moving and manipulating stars for use in their megastructures, Forerunner Miners, specifically stellar-class engineers known colloquially as "plasma jockeys", experimented with stabilizing young stars. The Forerunners had also harnessed dozens of stars for energy production by using sophisticated energy fields to direct the energy output of a star. Specialized plasma jockey installations were also capable of suspending the collapse of a star, although this was rarely entertained due to the enormous amounts of energy required in the process. In addition to stellar manipulation, the Forerunners were capable of considerably speeding up a planet's formation, artificially collapsing an asteroid field into a molten mass, then cooling it down and forming it into a terrestrial planet in less than years; a relatively short period of time for the ageless Forerunners.