What do you think the Mantle truly is? Is it on the Forerunner’s think, sacrifice for the greater good, or something completely different?
Personally I think it is complete unity of everything, with everyone being on a pretty much equal level, so there is no fighting or war, just all peace.
> What do you think the Mantle truly is? Is it on the Forerunner’s think, sacrifice for the greater good, or something completely different?
>
> Personally I think it is complete unity of everything, with everyone being on a pretty much equal level, so there is no fighting or war, just all peace.
The Mantle was a Forerunner belief system in which the Forerunners upheld they were required to protect and promote life. Bridging the social strata between an interstellar Marshall Plan and a religious, but benevolent stewardship, the Forerunners took responsibility for the protection and cultivation of the species and planetary systems within their domain. The Mantle was based around the concept of Living Time; “the joy of life’s interaction with the Cosmos”. This was also the origin of all of the complex rules involved in the Mantle.
http://www.halopedian.com/Mantle
Yet it states in Primordium that the Precursors also believed in the Mantle, and the way the Timeless One talks about it makes it seem like it could be something completely different, yet the Forerunners changed it.
The Mantle is to give yourself to the Flood, revealed by the Timeless One
Upholding the mantle is becoming one with the flood, thus obtaining true universal peace and knowledge.
Primordium states this, and so it is the true answer.
The forerunner just misinterpreted it, or perhaps made their own version.
Copied from an old thread of mine, my thoughts on the Mantle (direct quote in the brackets):
[[At the end of Primordium, The Primordial isn’t telling the Didact that the only way for the mantle’s principals is to be united under the flood, I belive he is saying that the only way to beat the flood is through Unity.
1: The forerunners failed in upholding the Mantle. They devolved species that they believed were becoming too powerful, and they were punished by their ancient enimies (possibly precursers) for this.
2: The primordial says that the only way to beat the flood is through “unity.” many believe that this means “unity through the flood,” which i believe is incorrect.
3: assuming the Primordial isn’t lying, and that he really is a precurser, then odds are he knew these things would happen from the beginning. If the humans never had a real device to stop the flood (as he suggests), then it must have been something else. That something else = Unity among species. Humans fought the flood with the help of their San’Shayumm allies before being decimated by the Forerunners. Different species united against a single foe that threatened them all, beating that enemy. The allegiance of MC and Thel Vadaam to each other suggests that our current universe is finally headed in the right direction.]]
I disagree when people say that the Flood was the original intent of the precursors for carrying out the Mantle. The precursors were the creators of all other life in the Universe, how much sense does it make for them to try and assimilate all that they themselves had created into a single form?
> Copied from an old thread of mine, my thoughts on the Mantle (direct quote in the brackets):
>
> [At the end of Primordium, The Primordial isn’t telling the Didact that the only way for the mantle’s principals is to be united under the flood, I belive he is saying that the only way to beat the flood is through Unity.]
This is actually an interesting idea, This argument would be supported by the fact that the UNSC and Covenant united briefly to destroy the Flood, while the Forerunner’s simply devolved any race that challenge their supremacy, however ONI seems to be taking a similar approach in the post-war society.
> I disagree when people say that the Flood was the original intent of the precursors for carrying out the Mantle. The precursors were the creators of all other life in the Universe, how much sense does it make for them to try and assimilate all that they themselves had created into a single form?
Did you even read primordium? It makes perfect sense.
That makes perfect logical sense. No war, only peace and complete knowledge. It is why the most advanced computer up to that time (medicant bias) was even swayed by the cold hard logic of it all.
Though I can see what you mean by the precursors being a step ahead of what even we are thinking. True peace and unity because all the races have a common enemy makes sense, but that doesn;t explain why they gave themselves to the flood, or why they somehow convinced 2/3 or humanity to flat out sacrifice themselves, or why they tried to outright destroy the most powerful of their creations.
The precursors hold a bit of a grudge, it seems. The “unity through a common adversary” sounds a bit too uh…“sweet” considering what has already transpired.
I know very little about the halo universe as I learn about it in the forums, but is it possible that the mantle is a technology that creates life? maybe that’s what was passed to the forerunners and what was used to create the flood. It could be a planet or space station that the precursors made or even found that allowed them to create most life in the galaxy. But I have yet to read all of the books so all this is mere speculation. I think that would be cool though.