The Forerunners are returning in Halo 4. Their most elite Warrior-Servants, the Prometheans, guard Requiem - an ancient and mysterious Forerunner world. For several months the Halo Universe community has relentlessly attempted to understand why these Prometheans in the Reclaimer Saga are so drastically different than the Forerunners described in the Forerunner Saga. Theories have been proposed across the board covering everything from Prometheans as organic Forerunners to the Prometheans as autonomous constructs used by the Forerunners. The Promethean Knight’s design is so alien and so different than our current understanding of the Forerunners that it is very difficult to imagine any connection these mechanical warriors might have with the Forerunners. After several months of collecting quotes on the Promethean Knight, proposing theories, and viewing the new vidoc “Return of the Forerunners”, I believe our answer is at hand.
Below is a collection of quotes on the Promethean Knight:
Cortana (Halo 4 E3 Presentation):
“Whatever it is, it’s not organic.”
Kiki Wolfkill (Return of the Forerunners):
“We didn’t want the Prometheans to look like robots because they’re not robots.”
Kiki Wolfkill (Return of the Forerunners):
“We didn’t want them to look like monsters because they’re not monsters.”
Frank O’Connor (Post E3 Sparkast):
“Prometheans are a race of warrior knights within the forerunner society. The things that you think you know about that class in the books may evolve or change as you play the game. They are Forerunner Warrior-Servants…they are super powerful warriors… they were mostly outfitted and trained and ultimately in some ways designed genetically and mechanically to fight the Flood."
Promethean Knight character description:
Residents of the artificial world of Requiem, Promethean Knights represent the central occupying enemy force, legions of extremely capable combatants with both ancient and mysterious origins. While these Prometheans are significantly different from the legendary Forerunner Warrior-Servants of ages past, these Knights are no less harrowing. They are fully weaponized, heavily armored bipedal warriors, easily capable of engaging and terminating perceived threats in almost all environments. They are truly lethal creatures, taken lightly only at one’s peril.
Bs angel (9.12.12 Bulletin):
“If these are advanced beings, it seems like they would be intimately connected with the world they made, so the Prometheans can manipulate their environment and themselves in a way that makes them part of it. That is where you get to the final end result of Forerunners being able to spawn in and out of the world, spawn other creatures, phase back and forth, and environments moving around.”
Bs angel (9.12.12 Bulletin):
“There was a super-brief glimpse of Forerunners in Halo Legends, but we wanted to do something different from that so we took as much as we could from already established Forerunner language and put it on the Prometheans.”
Based on the quotes above, the Promethean Knights are not organic, not robots, not monsters, and not exactly the same as the legendary Forerunner Warrior-Servants of ages past.
Also based on the quotes above, the Promethean Knights are Forerunners, are super powerful Warrior-Servants, are outfitted and trained and designed genetically and mechanically to fight the Flood, are ancient and mysterious, are residents of Requiem, are able to spawn in and out of Requiem, are able to spawn other creatures, and are able to phase back and forth.
We know from the Forerunner Saga that the original Prometheans were organic Forerunners. The Promethean Knights are Forerunners but are not organic. The only possible explanation is that the Promethean Knights are composed Forerunners. One function of the Composer is the ability to transfer the mind or soul of an organic being into an artificial intelligence, which can then be inserted into a Forerunner construct. In Halo: Primordium, the Didact used the Composer to transfer Chakas’ mind from his damaged body into a stable condition where he could continue to serve the Didact and the Librarian. Chakas was composed into an artificial intelligence, and the monitor you know as 343 Guilty Spark is either a duplicate or fragment of Chakas. “Composing” is the only possible method that explains how the Promethean Knights are both Forerunners and non-organic beings, and infection explains why the Forerunners were composed.
Based on a recent concept art release, I have also come to the conclusion that the Promethean Knight at one point served as a combat skin. This concept art shows what the Promethean Knight would look like if it was still piloted by an organic Forerunner. These are the finished Promethean Knight variants.
As it turns out, the achievement for completing mission 7 of the Halo 4 campaign is titled “Composer”. The evidence is there, the mission is there…this must be our answer. The Promethean Knights are composed Forerunners. Humanity has invaded Requiem, a Forerunner shield world guarded by an army of the dead. The Didact sleeps and must never be woken.
