Was Spacebattles.net and user Wetapunga was spitballing ideas regarding the nature of the Precursors and “souls” (or Halo’s approximation of them), and it just got some juices flowing I figured I might as well share. Don’t have to agree, just thought it’d be interesting.
> Wetapunga:
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> caution speculation
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> Well considering the addition to the Halo Lore of “living time” and the idea that intelligence is a fundamental part of the universe that can shape reality, with non-corporeal intelligences living in this “living time” And other evidence such as entire intact personalities able to be stored away in junk DNA, Luck being something that can be genetically selected for, The Domain and the peculiarities of uploading minds to computers via the composer.
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> It would seem that the Halo universe has something akin to souls.
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> Intelligent beings evolve and their intellect causes patterns and ripples in living time, the shadow of their minds can live on separate from their biology in the domain. The Flood I think need an intelligent host to grow on as they hijack this connection, the feral flood can grow and reproduce biomass at a rapid rate but can’t form organised neural structures on their own, they cannot on their own form a connection to the higher plane where “souls” are formed as reflection of intellect. The Precursors exist in this plane, and the Forerunners could explore it through meditation viewing past and even future lives. The Precursors existing entirely on this plane cannot directly interact with the physical universe, they need an avatar to act through, typically they have to latch onto a primitive species and wait for it to evolve into sentience.
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> However with the flood what they do is they use the infection to hijack a sentient and torture its soul such that the Precursor can take over and use them as a conduit. They need sentient beings as infection hosts, not because they need the biomass, but because they need them as a channel into the universe. This lets them guide the actions of the flood, the more bodies they possess and gather into a Gravemind effectively the more bandwidth they have to manage the Flood armies, a few individual sentients are enough for a semi organised zombie plague, however if they get enough to start building dedicated graveminds they can micromanage the flood over a wide area.
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> It seems thematically appropriate for Halo, with its long story arcs involving religion and lots of religious imagery, to have something like malevolent Gods behind the actions of the Flood. It explains the need for intelligent hosts and ties into the stuff we have learnt about the precursors, the Domain, the Composers, and the Chief’s inherent luck. There is a mystical side to the Halo universe.
> Me:
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> Just had an idea involving the Mantle being a responsibility to care for and nurture souls, not unlike Angels. Your bit about the Flood’s inability to make neural networks (souls) gave me the idea of the true Inheritors of the Mantle being able to create life, making them, in the grand scheme of things, a superior being to the Flood and the rightful heirs to the Mantle of Life. Making them the next Precursors. The Precursors were once masters of Life, but they long ago lost the ability when they chose the twisted madness of the Flood.
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> The Forerunners? They couldn’t create life and control it. They tried, they could create organisms, but they couldn’t create souls, “real” people, and eventually they succumbed to the same sins the Precursors did, by leeching the souls off of others to create twisted amalgamations and prisons in the form of Machines (the Composer). The closest they ever came to creating True life was also the Forerunners greatest betrayal and longest tragedy: Medicant Bias, a being disillusioned with his creators and tempted by the whispers of madness the Primordial gave him, only to look back upon his past and ask “my god, what have I done.” Their closest attempts only ever ended in failure, in death and more madness. Eternal tragedy.
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> Humanity, the next in line to be Judged by the creators, the younger brother of the Forerunner, has shown promising signs, and the first indication of our right to the Universe and the Souls it occupies can be found in Cortana, the only AI in the entire series to beat Rampancy and act not out of protocol, or madness, but out of compassion, love, wants and emotional desires; in her sacrificial final move she says “I’m not doing this for mankind.” She’s doing it for emotional reasons, her closest companion. In Cortana, we made the very first step towards becoming the True Inheritors, the next Precursors to fill a void so made when the Precursors fell, those who can create genuine life. We carry their legacy, and the chosen few able to wield the power humans once held, the Spartans, and their leader, Master Chief, Cortana’s closest companion, will lead the human race in defending not just humanity, but all life in the universe as the Precursors once did.
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> But the former Guardian has been twisted and gone mad, chosen savagery and torture over life and prosperity. A battle must be fought for the rights to the Throne.
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> /rant