So, does anyone else wonder how many Forerunner beings survived the Halo Array, and Flood war? I did a small story analysis and developed some speculations and some theories
Some of my theories may seem a bit off or some of my lore may be a bit dull but I think some of my theory may be pretty solid or good to thought.
We know there’s quite a few Forerunners left living, and for sure, one is presently alive per Halo 5: Guardian’s Story. This one has my biggest attention for the time being…In the many Intel data logs in various missions in the Halo 5 story, we know that a Forerunner Builder is narrating, or who we assume is of the Builder cast. Some claim he could be Filial Devotion. Whover it is, they’re most likely in present times eluding the Warden Eternal’s Forerunner forces, as well as staying out of Cortana’s grasps. Such information is found starting on Mission 7, as far as I can tell:
“With Bastion beyond my grasp, I turn to the possibility of the Domain. However, there is… corruption. The source, untraceable. Investigations, but no returns. Time runs short.”
“Bastion’s location is confirmed. How though? After dispersal of the Halos, an impossible act of reconciliation would be required. It may still be possible…”
“My acquisition of the Durance proved difficult in these final days, an ancilla has agreed to aid my efforts - yet there is concern if he will carry through. However, if Bastion has indeed achieved the impossible, I must find a way of reaching them! If that path meets from death to Domain, so be it.”
“Bastion is absent - not destroyed, simply… missing. No other facility is near enough, a new course of action is required.”
Then, there are also logs on Enemy Lines, during the ensuing battle with the Covenant Remnant’s Kraken. These audio logs may be out of order, but these are the next ones found, as well as some on Genesis where he awakens in the Domain, wondering “where is Bastion?”. He says that the Constructor network is picking up “echoes”. The next few logs are intriguing:
“Organon gone. Domain burnt, damaged. So many lost… missing.”
Others, myself included, a assume that the Organon itself was the node wrapped in Precursor architecture mentioned in Silentium which housed the Domain in our galaxy. The Didact, however, assumed that it didn’t even exist, though the Librarian learning it is the Domain.
More about this builder in the logs:
“The Guadians, she sees them, she understands. Stop her!”
“The ancilla, she knows I’m here. She hunts me.”
“The Warden made a pact. With whom? How does he walk once more?”
“An ancilla, new. How?”
“She reassembles, she cures… herself. Soon, the Domain.”
This is where things get really interesting… This Ecumene references the Warden… “How does he walk once more?” Now… that makes me wonder why he/she would ask such a thing. Was the Warden much older of a Forerunner than we know? I’m going to assume on a arbitrary concept that he was a Promethean, judging by the high position he holds. He may just be a purely built ancilla like Mendicant Bias or Offensive Bias. It’s obvious he’s gone through rough stages of rampancy, as he shouldn’t be so eager to allow a Human AI access to the Forerunner’s largest 'crown jewel" of technology (that being the Domain.) After all, Humanity was something many Prometheans have disliked throughout the series for the long war. This Builder may have also said that regarding him as maybe being a traitor in the series, long ago… Either way, this makes me wonder.
The fact that they state they have been eluding Cortana and the Warden leaves me wondering how they have managed to do so without encountering additional Human’s or Covenant along the way.
So this quite irrefutably takes place in the present, this Forerunner is still alive and is observing Cortana as she cures herself of rampancy and makes a pact with the Warden Eternal.
Then we get this:
“Ancilla distracted, Warden as well. Domain repairing. Feeling. I feel clear for the first time in” [I couldn’t make out the rest of what he says]
The Domain is repairing and it is feeling again. That means the Domain is repairing it’s damages from the Halo Array. The extent of what it’s capable of fixing and it’s true damage is left to be seen besides what it could have mentally done to Cortana.
During this, the Forerunner sees that Bastion “lives” and determines he needs to try communicating with Exuberant Witness because he needs the Constructors for something. What Bastion is, we don’t know. I’m guessing a Forerunner facility…if I’m wrong, correct me, but that is what it seems to be according to the audio logs. It also seems likely that Bastion was in a Slipspace bubble or location out of reach by traditional means, probably a reason why the Builder wanted help of the Constructors…That or to help restore the Domain in some way. But I bet it’s where the IsoDidact, Chant-to-Green, and many other Forerunner survivors went, where Chakas is currently going with the Rubicon. For all we know it could be another Micro Dyson Sphere like Onyx.
This is pretty damn huge when you think about it, as we know there are more Forerunner’s alive, with one definitely alive now in game. As for communications with Exuberant Witness, we know Cortana denied her access of communications and many other privileges on her own installation, so communication with this Forerunner and Exuberant may have/have not even taken place.
This means we have another Forerunner in game who actually isn’t insane, as the Didact…well…he is insanity due to the Gravemind’s tortures in the past, and a hundred thousand years of failed meditation due to no link to the Domain. That and he is composed as of Installation 03’s control room being jettisoned.
It’s no doubt of possibility at this point that the rest of the Forerunners are in the Greater Magellanic Cloud, or to the Forerunners, Path Kethona. There were plenty who got out of Halo array firing radius. Riser was told by the Bornstellar Didact that he hoped to see Human and Forerunner ancestors meet present day Humans once more. We have plenty of lore to back up his life is not over, as well as Chakas assuming control the Rubicon in search of the possibly living Librarian.
The story is much bigger than we perceive it to be. Halo 5: Guardian’s story was what we needed to really get some foundation on some ground theories of the universe.