I’ve been going through all the Halo cannon recently and putting some serious consideration into the question asked by many who read the Forerunner Saga books and listened to the Rebirth narrative: What happened to the Forerunners that survived the firing of the Halo Arrays? Well, I think I’ve come up with a decent theory on that front…
Item 1:
As we hear in the Rebirth narrative, a few forerunners, including the Iso-Didact, the current Lifeshaper (Chant-to-Green), and possibly even the Librarian herself, survived the firing of the Halo Arrays depicted at the end of Halo: Silentium. It is clear from comments made by the Bornstellar Didact to the human Riser that the survivng Forerunners do not plan to simply wander off and die, allowing their species to become extinct. In particular, the line “perhaps, one day, your children will make their way back [to the ark], and, I hope, meet our children” spoken by the Iso-Didact to Riser supports this supposition. Given the fact that the more primitive species (Humanity, Sangheili, San’Shyuum, etc) were able to survive and begin to rebuild by the events of the Halo games, it would seem logical that the Forerunners, being the “superior” species would be very likely to survive and repopulate if that was their intent.
Item 2:
By the time of the events portrayed in the Rebirth narrative, a consensus has clearly been reached by the remaining Forerunners that Humanity is to inherit the Mantle and that Forerunners should not interfere in the development of Humanity. Basically, the remaining Forerunners have come to the conclusion that they were never meant to inherit the Mantle and that the hubris and meddling of their ancestors is what,ultimately, brought the destruction of the Flood upon the galaxy. Thus, it seems likely that they would seek a location for their resettlement that would lie far enough away that neither these Forerunners, nor their descendants would be able to affect the natural development of the lesser species.
Item 3:
Based on the Rebirth narrative, we can reasonably surmise that the two most prominent surviving Forerunners are Chant-to-Green (the current Lifeshaper) and the Iso-Didact. Besides appearing to be the de-facto leaders of the remaining Forerunners, these two know the history of the Precursor-Forerunner war better than perhaps any other surviving Forerunner. In particular, they understand the dangers associated with forgetting history over the course of generations. I believe that the Iso-Didact, Chant, and the others would seek to ensure that their descendants not only would not, but COULD not, affect the natural development of lesser species, should the history of the Forerunner-Flood war be lost over time.
Item 4:
The Iso-Didact and Chant are intimately aware of the existence of the primitive Forerunner species (descendants of the survivors of the Precursor-Forerunner war) currently residing in the Path Kethona galaxy. Additionally, they both understand that, not being naturally capable of supporting life, the planet on which the primitive Forerunners reside is extremely barren and it would be very difficult for its residents to expand back out into the stars without outside help.
THE THEORY:
I believe that, seeking a place to rebuild the Forerunner race without affecting the “reclamation” of the galaxy and the Mantle by the lesser species, the Iso-Didact, Chant, the other survivors, and the Librarian (if she survived) chose to travel to Path Kethona in order to join their long lost cousins and abandon their technology in the same way that the Precursor-Forerunner war survivors did. This would represent the best chance for Forerunner survival while preventing future Forerunners from attempting to violently reclaim the Mantle and once again threaten Humanity and the other lesser species. In other words, by time of the Human-Covenant war, Forerunners likely still exist in a primitive form in Path Kethona.
Some might point to the assertion of the Librarian’s imprint in Halo 4 that the Ur-Didact is “the last living Forerunner” as proof that this theory is incorrect. I, however, would argue that the Librarian made the imprint on Requiem under extreme stress and duress, before the Array had been fired. Her imprint would have no way of knowing that some Forerunners would survive the firing of the Array, on the Ark.
Anyways, that’s my theory. What do you all think?