The Purpose of the Mantle

Games Other Halo
1

This is just a theory. Maybe it’s been done before But I havn’t seen it.

Here it is:

The mantle is the flood. They are the precursors idea of how to preserve life.

The forerunners heard about this and rebelled and defeated the precursors and started their own idea of the mantle which involves preservation of life through alternative means instead of making them into psychic semi-homogenous zombies.

The Master Builder is corrupted and is allied with the Precursors vision for the mantle instead of the forerunners vision which retains Individuality.

When the timeless one described to humans a dark secret concerning the origin of the flood if i’m not mistaken many of them committed suicide.

I have been wondering why for a long time…What news could be so horrible that someone would kill themselves.I honestly don’t think that they would kill themselves JUST because of hearing something horrible. It had to do with killing themselves because they were afraid of living…

but… Why would someone be afraid of living ?

well… Maybe it has to do with the condition of living.

This is just a hunch but I am guessing that the timeless one described to them the origin of the flood and also something else. That something else is “what it is like to be the flood.” That is what I believe led them to kill themselves. They would rather die than be put in the Quasiconcious hive mind slavery that the flood is. Sort of like how someone in a zombie movie kills themself before they become a zombie. They know they were going to die anyway and would rather go out as a human than “become one of them.” The humans were probably terrified of becoming one of the flood so they decided to end their lives.

at least some of them did…

This still leaves the origin of the flood up in the air.

They ( the flood ) are described as being “intergalactic” in origin. Something from outside our galaxy. I went back and took a look at the Halopedia page relating to “the timeless one”.assuming it is accurate about the books ( I Havn’t had a change to read some of the recent ones ) the timeless one indicated that the flood are connected to the precursors somehow.

I am guessing that the precursors are using the flood as a tool to go from galaxy to galaxy to achieve whatever their purpose is and that their arrival in the milky way is just one stop along the route.

  • the precursors started the mantle
  • the purpose of the flood is connected to the mantle ( i don’t know how )
  • humans were meant to inherit the mantle

there is an apparent contradiction though. If humans were meant to inherit the mantle then how does having the flood kill them off or assimilate them fit in. It seems to be self defeating…

Unless…“inheriting the mantle” means becoming infected with the flood. perhaps this is wrong but I am just throwing this out there in order to brainstorm about the possible connection. There is also this: The humans were meant to inherit the mantle but apparently ( apparently ) the flood is some sort of test.

test…but how. That is another Thing.

Perhaps the flood is supposed to have a certain effect on humanity. perhaps population control in order to select the best of the species and cull out the rest without completely destroying them. Maybe the flood are designed to try to continually produce a so called “master race” by assimilating the weak as themselves while letting the “genetically superior” ones survive an reproduce.

Perhaps the Precursors are a sort of “Dr. Mengele” that are trying to develop the perfect race via the flood. Maybe they were trying to speed up survival of the fittest by using the flood to cause evolution at an accelerated rate.

This might explain why Didact killed the Timeless one using a method of “speeding up time” so to speak. A touch of irony since the precursors were trying to speed up evolution perhaps the Didact deciding to give the timeless one a taste of his own medicine.

anyway. that is all.

Just some theories and brainstorming. Maybe you guys can use these ideas and info from the books to help put together some pieces of the puzzle better than I can.

Thanks for reading.

again all just theory and I might have some holes in and and possible contradictions but again its just a theory with limited information.

2

Arn’t the flood the exact opposite of the mantle? Isn’t the purpose of the mantle according to the forerunner’s, is to protect life in the universe? Isn’t that why the forerunners rebelled against the precursors? Seems to me the precursors are tied to the flood in some way. Like heavily evolved flood with heightened intelligence historically elvolved into the precursors or something.

3

> Arn’t the flood the exact opposite of the mantle? Isn’t the purpose of the mantle according to the forerunner’s, is to protect life in the universe? Isn’t that why the forerunners rebelled against the precursors? Seems to me the precursors are tied to the flood in some way. Like heavily evolved flood with heightened intelligence historically elvolved into the precursors or something.

you’re not getting it.

The mantle was an idea from the Precursors.
So was the flood. Therefore the flood is somehow
connected to the precursors vision of the Mantle.

I am guessing that the Precursors vision of preserving life was through the flood where everyone becomes the same entirety and stop fighting each other since the flood is never divided against itself.

The forerunners had the same reaction that you and I had. They said -blam- no to the the warped view of that mantle and fought against the precursors idea of preserving life and created their own view on what the mantle meant that differed vastly from the precursors.

The precursors idea of the mantle and the forerunners idea of the mantle are polar opposites, kind of like two conflicting religions.

same end goals but different means of accomplishing it with the precursors being evil through the destruction of free will, and the forerunners through some other means that retains the sanctity of life.

4

I understand, its why I said according to the Forerunners. We don’t have much to speculate with since we do not have much information about the forerunner rebellion with the precursors or why they adopted the mantle after it. To my understandind the flood were not around/acknowledged by the forerunners until after the rebellion leading me to believe that the flood were not the reason the forerunners fought the precursors.
The appearance of the flood after the forerunners rebelled leads me to think it might be revenge, a galaxy reset, or the evolutionary beginnings of the precursors…

5

Mantle and flood have nothing to do with each other.

6

I believe the flood were pushed out of the galaxy when they fought the humans and then returned at a later point in time, so the forerunners probably thought there could still be some flood outside the milky way.

7

WOAH!! very interesting

8

What if the flood turned out to be created by ancient humanity??? If im not mistaken, ancient humans created a cure for the flood but then vengefully destroyed it. Who better to create a cure than the creators of the flood. Just a suggestion.

I too don’t quite understand the mantle but im positive that we will get some answers in the upcoming games.

9

We really don’t know the exact relationship the flood and precursors have yet. I’m sure it will be a large chunk of story that will be fleshed out throughout the trilogy.

10

> What if the flood turned out to be created by ancient humanity??? If im not mistaken, ancient humans created a cure for the flood but then vengefully destroyed it. Who better to create a cure than the creators of the flood. Just a suggestion.
>
> I too don’t quite understand the mantle but im positive that we will get some answers in the upcoming games.

The humans didn’t create the flood, they found their spores on a crashed ship or something along those lines.

11

> > What if the flood turned out to be created by ancient humanity??? If im not mistaken, ancient humans created a cure for the flood but then vengefully destroyed it. Who better to create a cure than the creators of the flood. Just a suggestion.
> >
> > I too don’t quite understand the mantle but im positive that we will get some answers in the upcoming games.
>
> The humans didn’t create the flood, they found their spores on a crashed ship or something along those lines.

Do you mean ancient humans found the spores, or modern humans? I would’t know either way because I haven’t read the books and only know a little about the ancient history of the universe. You have to admit that would be a crazy twist right?