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> > > The Domain was also destroyed.
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> > I thought it was told to be just crippled and dormant? or is that what fans just assume as its not open again? I wonder if there’ll be a canon explanation for the lore heads!
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> Well as far as we know, the firing of the Halo array destroyed it, wiping out all forerunner history as explained in Silentium. It isn’t really an assumption. The Librarian was deeply saddened when she confirmed that firing the array would obliterate the Domain. The array was then fired and everyone lost contact with the Domain which in turn doomed the Didact to thousands of years trapped in his Cryptum with no way to access anything outside of his own mind and wiped forerunner historical records out.
The Domain contains more than a hundred billion years of history, including the origins of the Precursors. As Chakas points out in Halo 4 rebirth, the Precursors predate the stars. Think about that for a second. The Domain predates the stars. The Domain is older than the Milky Way Galaxy. Surely the obvious conclusion to draw is that the Domain is, well, as they say, “everywhere”. It is spread across the entire universe. Futurologists have long speculated about so called “Von Neuman Machines” tiny self replicating machines sent in all directions from a single point of origin, converting all matter they come into contact with into new self replicating machines, and then having those machines self organize into probes which then continue to spread, so on and so forth. Futurologists have predicted that such machines using conventional relativity consistent technology originating from a single point of origin could conquer the entire universe within a hundred million years. The Precursors, the Flood, what ever they are now (I know only what they will be, I see a worse fate yet to come, creatures crawling on the surface of a bright yellow sun), they could traverse through the void, a more advanced form of transportation than slipstream drives. How long do you think it will take for them to be “everywhere” and (gasp) every when?
As to the original question posed by the OP, in the Halo 3 terminals the Librarian refers to the mantle of responsibility imbuing them with the role of " guardianship", and elsewhere she refers to the Forerunners as “guardians”. Interestingly in the final Halo 3 terminal Didact talks about leaving on a “great journey”, in a related note earlier on in the terminals Didact mentions his intent to “follow in their footsteps”, it’s not clear in the context, but it seems likely he was talking about the Precursors. Finally in the last terminal Didact expresses his hope that future civilizations will “know what we have bought with this false transcendance”. In science fiction, and futurology transcendance is the use of technology to significantly augment a persons capabilities, and most typically by the literal uploading of a persons mind into a computer. Often Transhumanists, Singularitans, and futurologists describe this process as becoming “god like”. Interestingly the basic details of this plot would appear to overlap with some of the dogma of the original Covenant religion. Suggesting that perhaps even their myths had some truth to them.
So what are the Guardians? They are probably a fraction of the Forerunners who survived, who were either composed or copied using a full body scanner. This will likely have a large impact on the former members of the Covenant. The real question in my mind is this, will they end up helping mankind, or knocking us down? Will Ur-Didact (the leveler) attempt to subsume control over them? Will Medicant Bias (balance)try to exploit them? Will the Light become a second force of ruin to rival Primordial (: P) attempting to convert organics into machines in an act of desperation to gain ground on their adversary, who is rapidly conquering the entire universe? Are they buried there exclusively to assist our reclamation, and will do so without a hitch?