The discussion came up on a separate forum, and one person is saying that they’ve reached 100 billion years of age, but I cannot find anything on that. I also have not started reading the forerunner trilogy, so if it is stated there, I’d not know. However, I’m not worried about spoilers, so if the answer requires them, feel free to let loose.
They have no specific age, yet they have been said to have existed since the beginning of time itself.
The Lord of Admiral’s “ghost” so to speak, representing the Gravemind, informs the Librarian that the Precursors compiled a reservoir of knowledge stretching back from 100billion years ago, “a time before there were stars.” So the Precursors are older than the universe, hence the 100billion years of knowledge they compiled.
Awesome, thanks for the help!
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> The Lord of Admiral’s “ghost” so to speak, representing the Gravemind, informs the Librarian that the Precursors compiled a reservoir of knowledge stretching back from 100billion years ago, “a time before there were stars.” So the Precursors are older than the universe, hence the 100billion years of knowledge they compiled.
That’s insane, I didn’t catch that the first time.
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> > 2533274798011936;3:
> > The Lord of Admiral’s “ghost” so to speak, representing the Gravemind, informs the Librarian that the Precursors compiled a reservoir of knowledge stretching back from 100billion years ago, “a time before there were stars.” So the Precursors are older than the universe, hence the 100billion years of knowledge they compiled.
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> That’s insane, I didn’t catch that the first time.
It was towards the end of Silentium.
> 2533274889742137;5:
> > 2533274798011936;3:
> > The Lord of Admiral’s “ghost” so to speak, representing the Gravemind, informs the Librarian that the Precursors compiled a reservoir of knowledge stretching back from 100billion years ago, “a time before there were stars.” So the Precursors are older than the universe, hence the 100billion years of knowledge they compiled.
>
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> That’s insane, I didn’t catch that the first time.
“Didnt catch that the first time.”
I see what you did there 
if you know what I mean.
I still think they should make an appearance of another primordial, if that would be possible and not tangle the existing story.
Wait… Spacetime started at the big bang 13.8-ish billion years ago… Therefore by definition nothing can be ‘older’ than the age of this universe.
Just because the Precursors’ knowledge encompasses 100 billion years doesn’t mean they’ve actually been around that long. We have “knowledge” of things billions of years in the past too. I’m skeptical that they’re actually older than the universe itself
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> Just because the Precursors’ knowledge encompasses 100 billion years doesn’t mean they’ve actually been around that long. We have “knowledge” of things billions of years in the past too. I’m skeptical that they’re actually older than the universe itself
That’s the thing. Our knowledge stops before the start of our universe, while theirs extends beyond it. Well, I guess we really don’t know enough about them to guess anything correctly, since it’s been noted that some of the forerunner books can’t be trusted (with our narrator guilty spark’s memory failing and pov’s changing) so i expect their history to change, yet again.
The so called “universe” very much existed before 14 billion years ago. Matter and energy still existed in some form, but it was not until the big bang that it became the universe we know now. Before that, although we cannot imagine or understand it, there was some plane if existence that mass had to occupy. And the precursors were a part of that.
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> The so called “universe” very much existed before 14 billion years ago. Matter and energy still existed in some form, but it was not until the big bang that it became the universe we know now. Before that, although we cannot imagine or understand it, there was some plane if existence that mass had to occupy. And the precursors were a part of that.
It’s impossible to comprehend what that could be. How could they have existed before the big bang when all of the matter and energy of the universe was condensed into a singularity? I don’t think it will ever be revealed in the fiction. As far as we know, the precursors are an enigma. That’s part of the reason why they’re so scary. The only thing we can do is fill in the gaps ourselves through speculation and conjecture. It’s even possible that they’ve existed in other universes before our universe came to exist. And I think it was stated that they’ve existed as billions of species, with the Flood being just one of them.
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> > 2533274844054393;12:
> > The so called “universe” very much existed before 14 billion years ago. Matter and energy still existed in some form, but it was not until the big bang that it became the universe we know now. Before that, although we cannot imagine or understand it, there was some plane if existence that mass had to occupy. And the precursors were a part of that.
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> It’s impossible to comprehend what that could be. How could they have existed before the big bang when all of the matter and energy of the universe was condensed into a singularity? I don’t think it will ever be revealed in the fiction. As far as we know, the precursors are an enigma. That’s part of the reason why they’re so scary. The only thing we can do is fill in the gaps ourselves through speculation and conjecture. It’s even possible that they’ve existed in other universes before our universe came to exist. And I think it was stated that they’ve existed as billions of species, with the Flood being just one of them.
My point. I hope 343 doesn’t explain them too much, i like the mystery surrounding them