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> I think a DnD analogy is only enough to explain surface level knowledge, but I am actually interested in the correct canon lore because I want to actually understand the universe. If there is nothing written, then so be it. I have some questions on your comment:
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> “Precursors didn’t have their avatars defend themselves.” - So, they died because they knew they are transcendent beeings that live without a physical form? Therefore their phyiscal death does not harm them in any way? Or was their intention more like “yeah lets become space dust, we will return anyway, so who cares about some million years”?
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> “the Precursors turned the surviving avatars into Flood” - Does that mean, as they are a transcendent species, their soul, willings, believe and knowledge is not harmed in any way, they turned their current physical represantation into space dust KNOWING it will become the flood virus?
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> “and sent the dust to worlds where ancient humanity would find them.” - So they wanted to return to their previous form to give humans the mantle? Or they wanted them to give the dust to their pets to start the whole flood thing.
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> “The Mantle is the duty of one race to safeguard the opportunity of the other races to the chance to achieve their maximum potential, and this explains the Precursors’ and the Flood’s actions throughout the narrative” - Thats also one points I did not quite get, yet. For the mantle it is ok to have wars and all that stuff because it is part of life, but no race is allowed to completely wipe out an entire race. How does the flood fit in there? Its only purpose is to kill all races. That can’t be what the precursors wanted.
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> “the Precursors had the Flood wipe out the Forerunner” - So it was completely planned to become the deadly flood? Then the flood can be controlled by their transcendent will? Why does the flood keep existing after the Forerunners are gone? Are the Precursors gone for ever in their physical form, meaning that the milky way is their last galaxy to visit?
I believe the D&D analogy actually explains the deeper lore quite well. I didn’t go into every example because I was trying to keep my response concise.
Bornstellar gets a glimpse of a Precursor’s mind, seeing they existed “where life and death were meaningless, light and darkness twisted together, where the twin fists of time uncurled their fingers and joined in a clasp, so that nothing changed or ever would.” (Halo Cryptum pg 157) The Precursors existing as constants proves that the biological bodies that represented them are not actually them directly (like the difference between a dungeon mater and the non-player-characters being controlled… even if one of them is a self-insert character). This also explains why the Precursors are able to advance humanity back to a technological state after the Forerunners reduced them to barely sentient primitives (after the Precursors were supposedly gone).
We know the Precursors’ avatars didn’t fight back, and that the surviving avatars were either put in stasis (like the Primordial) or were turned to dust, put in jars, and those jar put on ships that all ended up on worlds where humanity would find them first. The Precursors being constants, having the twin fists of time (past and future) being synonymous to them, means the change of the dust into Flood can’t be unforseen. The Precursors either orchestrated the change themselves, or knew that would happen over time, and let it.
The Flood being found on human worlds, and unknowingly spread by humans, make humans responsible for unleashing this threat on the galaxy, so it is a test of worth to see what humanity does with that responsibility. Against the Flood directly, humanity fought valiantly, and were even self-sacrificial in their attempts to save the other species across the galaxy from the Flood. The Primordial while in humans’ custody also offered them a deal, where it would destroy the Forerunners for them, if they’d only release it. Again, humanity passed the test by refusing to unleash the Flood, even upon their enemies. This is why the Flood willfully stopped attacking humans part-way through the war, which had the additional benefit of creating the illusion that one of Humanity’s solutions actually worked, resulting in the Forerunners preserving humanity instead of exterminating them all, due to not being able to risk losing a potential cure for the Flood.
Regarding the Mantle: The Flood presents itself as being intent on consuming all races, but its actions don’t support that claim. It had the ability to consume everything in the galaxy within a handful of years if it had intended to, but it didn’t even use its best weapons until the final years, and it dawdled around for centuries. It played the villain, but it let the “heroes” go (like the D&D analogy, where the archlich is trying to create an infinite undead army, but the DM is specifically choosisng action that make the lich a threat, but holding back enough so it doesn’t win, because it’s supposed to be the players’ story). The Precursors are using the Flood to galvanize the mortal races into something better, through adversity.
When the Forerunners violated the Mantle, their sentence was death, only to be carried out in accordance with the Mantle, which meant they wouldn’t be executed until they had themselves, peaked. The Flood remainss after the Forerunners because it still serves to enforce the Mantle. Similarly to how it saved humanity from the Forerunners by first attacking them, then stopping, it later saves humanity again by denying the Covenant access to the fleet of Forerunner warships, and by splintering the Covenant with infighting.
The evidence also suggests that the actions of the Created are being directed by the Flood.
