I know it might be asking for much but can some please explain, in detail, Star Roads?
For instance, how they operated, what they did, what they looked like, etc.
I understand they’re basically used for FTL travel but it makes it sound like it’s some kind of physical “road” through space/slipspace. However, it also seems to be used as a weapon. Is it a wormhole like? Does it look like a swirling tunnel? Etc.
I imagined them as physical black objects. In the novel when they attack massively I just imagined like a galactic scale calamari made of thousands of tentacles but no body or anything else.
Just my speculation but I imagine them like a dark mysterious Precursor version of Forerunner hardlight technology. Essentially just based on precuror slipspace technology and making that appear in the physical realm but with additional properties for travel or physical manifestation.
For me truth be told I didn’t really get what star roads are/were either, just that they’re precursor in nature, enable fast movement and take a physical form that easily damages Forerunner structures when they were controlled by the Flood.
They are also damaged by the Halo’s firing as they are organic Precursor based?
Think of a grey birds nest that can exponentially increase it’s size. what they did was explained throughout the novel.
> Just my speculation but I imagine them like a dark mysterious Precursor version of Forerunner hardlight technology. Essentially just based on precuror slipspace technology and making that appear in the physical realm but with additional properties for travel or physical manifestation.
>
> For me truth be told I didn’t really get what star roads are/were either, just that they’re precursor in nature, enable fast movement and take a physical form that easily damages Forerunner structures when they were controlled by the Flood.
>
> They are also damaged by the Halo’s firing as they are organic Precursor based?
So maybe they did in fact look organic in nature? Like the poster above you, it looked like tentacles? That would be a creepy on a galactic scale for sure.
I pictured giant rainbow strands.
I pictured them as giant mettalic hairballs slicing up halo rings
I also pictured them in an elegant “bird nest” fashion, having a look of solidity to them, but acting more as like a slip space “live wire” conduit. When it came into contact with other objects, it could literally carve it up like a slipspace razor, or change to solidify like hard light if it wanted to exert a physical contact on something in order to grab, squeeze, or crush it. I would imagine craft meant to utilize them for travel would have been able to interface with them in order to safely “enter the current” so to speak, like merging onto a highway or entering a jet stream underwater. Just my thoughts though. 
I’ll tweet Greg Bear and see if he’s interested in some added detail maybe?
Star Roads, as described in the novel, are incredibly long silver strands of metal, linked with neural physics making them indestructable.
> Star Roads, as described in the novel, are incredibly long silver strands of metal, linked with neural physics making them indestructable.
Yeah see, I’m still having a hard time visualizing this. I like Siul’s idea about tentacles but okay, long strands of metal that the Precursors walk/crawl on? Or long stands of tube metal that they move inside of and what does “linked with neural physics” even mean since I don’t think we know what that technology even looks like. Sorry, not questioning you. I’m just having a hard time seeing what this would all look like.
Yeah, can’t imagine them either.
They are slipspace, manifest.
11 dimensional space pulled into our 3 dimensional plane! Science! -mad scientist laughter-
On a more serious note, they take different shapes throughout the novel so their appearance would vary. Before they activated though, I took the literal approach and pictured them as massive road like structures that linked planets and stars.
I imagined them looking like rainbow road ramming into planets :l
> I pictured giant rainbow strands.
like rainbow road from mario kart? thats what i thought
I pictured them more like dark objects like spheres that are linked together. Many of them are in position and passing through them is like passing through a star road. That’s how I imagined it.
Like others have said, I also see them as slipspace brought into real space. They are stll hard to fathom, but large black/metal lines is how I see them.
Also, does anyone else think that the chunk of rock on Impact could be a piece of Precursor star road left over from Halo’s activation? If so, I wonder if any other chunks of Star Road survived?
> > I pictured giant rainbow strands.
>
> like rainbow road from mario kart? thats what i thought
i dont have the game – but i know it. the star roads were always my favorite tracks. belive it or not – but they are not so unrealistic as many might think. the characters are – and the fact of beeing in a dimensional room ==D
No, they don’t walk on them. They are just called Star Roads because they look like roads that span stars. But they aren’t tubular or tentacle like because the novel explicitly says they are long silver strands.
> No, they don’t walk on them. They are just called Star Roads because they look like roads that span stars. But they aren’t tubular or tentacle like because the novel explicitly says they are long silver strands.
But they used them to travel so does it “zip” them through or “on” the strands? I know my questions are dumb, I’m just trying to get an idea of all this.