I’d like to devote a thread to all things Flood first of all, but mainly to plausible ideas regarding how the Graveminds maintain consciousness even after death. I’ve come up with two possible theories.
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The Precursor-Flood connection is not a lie from the Primordial and somehow the Flood manages a sort of neural physics technology.
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The Flood created something like The Domain, and once a Proto-Gravemind reaches enough intelligence it can tap into it, sharing all the memories of every past Gravemind and adding it’s own.
Please continue to post your thoughts.
I forgot where and who said it, but it has been theorized that the Domain might have been a piece of Precursor technology that the Forerunners were able to seize after their war. It might be possible that the Precursors may have designed the Flood around the use of the Domain, unknown from the Forerunners. If the Domain could then pick and choose (similar to the Flood picking and choosing its victims), it may make more sense that the Domain was lost to the Forerunners leading up to the Forerunner-Flood War.
> I forgot where and who said it, but it has been theorized that the Domain might have been a piece of Precursor technology that the Forerunners were able to seize after their war. It might be possible that the Precursors may have designed the Flood around the use of the Domain, unknown from the Forerunners. If the Domain could then pick and choose (similar to the Flood picking and choosing its victims), it may make more sense that the Domain was lost to the Forerunners leading up to the Forerunner-Flood War.
I don’t think that makes too much sense. I believe it’s a fair to go along with the presented details about the Domain being Forerunner origin, because it houses most all of Forerunner history, and is “purposely” foggy on the Precursor-Forerunner War. I believe the Forerunner Hierarchy controls it because it spits out a few things that are false, like the Precursors just leaving the galaxy instead of there being a war. What I’m trying to say is the Domain is sort of biased towards the Forerunners, which wouldn’t make sense if it were of Precursor origin. Unless Forerunners somehow managed to manipulate it.
The Domain isn’t a technology it is pretty much the spirit of the forerunner race and is connected to slipspace. It was brought up in cryptum that the dreams of older forerunners were the foundation for this network.
Ah, then I made a mistake. I was under the impression that the Domain was like the internet of the Forerunner.
That is the best connection we have for it yes but for right now there isn’t anything implying in the least that is a foreign technology they acquired.
Plenty on Forerunners. Nothing on the Flood. I wonder how Bear will manage the Flood-Precursor connection.
> Ah, then I made a mistake. I was under the impression that the Domain was like the internet of the Forerunner.
Yea thats exactly what I thought too.
Well a repository of Flood memory makes sense, especially since a Gravemind seems to have a very powerful psychic capability. I can see a Proto-Gravemind reaching a critical mass that allows its psychic capability of tapping into this memory bank (whatever that may be) to achieve its type of consciousness or self-awareness.
> Well a repository of Flood memory makes sense, especially since a Gravemind seems to have a very powerful psychic capability. I can see a Proto-Gravemind reaching a critical mass that allows its psychic capability of tapping into this memory bank (whatever that may be) to achieve its type of consciousness or self-awareness.
That is the general consensus. But the way in which it goes about doing this is what can lead to interesting things. I personally think it’s got to do with the neural physics and the Flood-Precursor connection, whatever that may be. It all lays in the hands of Greg Bear really. The Flood is such an incredible dynamic and it would be interesting to see how he goes about fleshing them out.
If you think about it, the Flood could be the Precursors, the Primordal may be right. Precursors are described as being Tier 0. Tier 0 consists of traversing galaxies and the ability to speed up evolution. This is eerily simmilar to the Flood. The Gravemind converts Mendicant Bias to his cause by convincing him that the Flood is the next evolutionary step in this Galaxy. That the combined consciousness and unity it creates is above and beyond what any species could achieve alone. The Gravemind also tries this on Cortana unsuccessfully. This, combined with the fact that the Flood came from another Galaxy and has apparently absorbed life there fits the description of Galaxy-hopping. It’s interesting how when you think of these things you think of a very technologically advanced race, but the Flood fits that description just by being an all absorbing parasite. The Flood is fascinating and the potential that Greg Bear has here is boundless.
> > Well a repository of Flood memory makes sense, especially since a Gravemind seems to have a very powerful psychic capability. I can see a Proto-Gravemind reaching a critical mass that allows its psychic capability of tapping into this memory bank (whatever that may be) to achieve its type of consciousness or self-awareness.
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> That is the general consensus. But the way in which it goes about doing this is what can lead to interesting things. I personally think it’s got to do with the neural physics and the Flood-Precursor connection, whatever that may be. It all lays in the hands of Greg Bear really. The Flood is such an incredible dynamic and it would be interesting to see how he goes about fleshing them out.
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> If you think about it, the Flood could be the Precursors, the Primordal may be right. Precursors are described as being Tier 0. Tier 0 consists of traversing galaxies and the ability to speed up evolution. This is eerily simmilar to the Flood. The Gravemind converts Mendicant Bias to his cause by convincing him that the Flood is the next evolutionary step in this Galaxy. That the combined consciousness and unity it creates is above and beyond what any species could achieve alone. The Gravemind also tries this on Cortana unsuccessfully. This, combined with the fact that the Flood came from another Galaxy and has apparently absorbed life there fits the description of Galaxy-hopping. It’s interesting how when you think of these things you think of a very technologically advanced race, but the Flood fits that description just by being an all absorbing parasite. The Flood is fascinating and the potential that Greg Bear has here is boundless.
I agree and I want to know more. I would love to see Precursors in the Reclaimer trilogy at one point, but I also like the sense of mystery all of this stuff has.
im not really sure whats going on here i havnt read all the books but i loved fighting the flood and i hope they return
I think it is possible for the Domain to have been taken from the Precursors. It was built on the “dreams of their ancestors” right? Their ancestors fought the Precursors at one point, for they dreamed of something, be it being in control of the galaxy, upholding the mantle etc… And Neural physics could possibly be how it is connected, considering that it can be accessed by most people (I think, I might be wrong on that point though). It is possible it isn’t precursor, but if you defeat a greater entity, then you find somethign that could connect all your people, it would make sense to manipulate it for your own uses. And the flood could be connected in the same way, seeing as how the Precursors likely have a better understanding of their own technology.
One last thing, I remember the Domain being “down” and inaccessible, which could possible link it to the slipspace problems… Is that why it was down? Because, if not, then I was thinking the Primordial or other Precursors could be the cause of it…
Ancestors meaning the forerunners of that era the not “pre-history”. The domain was down due to medicant bias eating all of the wisdom along with the halo’s moving in slipspace.
Yeah I just found Cryptum and read that. Well still, it could be possible as Precursor technology I think.
you do understand they never got any piece of precursor tech to work right?
> you do understand they never got any piece of precursor tech to work right?
Well, they can’t anymore. But perhaps their ancestors managed to do that. Our ancestors managed to do something we can’t do today, so who’s to say their’s can’t? Plus, with it being “foggy” at that point in time, they don’t really know what happened.
you need to think about that you are saying and understand it.
The primordial made it seem like the “precursor era” was millions of years before the events that happen know. so in that time i can see both races ending up playing with precursor tech.
I can not see them being able to do so 50,000 years prior to cryptum when they are just getting established in the galaxy. it wouldn’t make sense.
Off topic: So I guess humanities Domain is the Internet.
The wasn’t relevant whatsoever thought it may be of use. If there is to be an equal which i see no reason why their should be, humans could be able to commune with spirits or something of that nature.
Forerunners get the compiled knowledge of the dead while humans get the dead themselves. Though i highly doubt this since the humans didn’t have anything like the domain.