Earth itself is the Ark. The Forerunner could have left some of their species and animals on Earth which is their orginal home planet. And a select few flew back to Halo, and activated it. And over millions of years later the Forerunner forgot their orgin and became Humans. Also 343 says, In case of a unexpected shut down the Halo's send a message to the Ark. This could go along with my theory on Earth its self being an Ark and having the Forerunner activate it their. Also the Earth could be out of range of the Halos to protect the Forerunner. But 343 says that the Forerunner died out, but how could that be if he calls all Humans Reclaimer? What if the "Reclaimers" were anicient Humans and a total different race then the Forerunner. This could be the reason the Covenant hate us so much. Because the Forerunner selected us to be the one's to start the " Great Journey" and to live because we are the only ones that can activate the Rings. But something went wrong and most of the "Reclaimers" died off. This is why 343 says "I'm so glad to see that some of them survived and reproduced.". Because the Forerunner cherished us very much. So they left stuff for us on other planets so our children won't forget the Forerunner. Now the Forerunner didn't know something went wrong and nethier did 343. So what happens is that we forget and the stuff the Forerunner left gets lost. This is why 343 is so puzzled when we don't know nothing about the Halos. Now to the Covenant. The Prophets and Elites are fighting, so the Prophets find out about the Rings and knowing there gonna lose and knowing what the Halos do, told the Elites that if they stop fighting they can find the Rings and go on a "Great Journey". Their real meaning is to get the Elites to activate Halo and while the Prophets go to the Ark the Elites all die, but the plan backfired after they found out that they need a "Reclaimer" species. So now starts the age of collecting different speicies to find out which one is the "Reclaimer" speices. And remember that only the Prophets know about the "Reclaimers". These Prophets after having no luck with finding the "Reclaimer" species. Make up a False saying. The saying is that "The destruction of any more species that they encounter is the will of the Forerunner.". Because they had no luck at finding any "Reclaimers" so they say "That if the Rings are activated, then we will all become Gods.". That was ment to keep the Covenant loyal. Millions of years later the true meaning of the "Great Journey" is forgotton and now the Prophets really believe the crap the "False Prophets" made up. Now they have these false beliefs that they are following and they meet the Humans on Harvest, and try to kill them. Now to the Delta Halo times. The Prophets are finding alot of Forerunner tech on Human worlds, and then they find a Forerunner tablet about Humans being the "Reclaimers', and where the Ark is. So now the Prophets have a mission to find and capture Humans, and find the Ark. They capture the Humans so they could use them to activate the Rings and become Gods. But since Earth has nothing but Humans on it the Prophet of Truth decides to go to Earth and have Tarturus activate Halo with the captured Humans. And activate the Ark with the Humans on Earth. Now to the Covenant Civil War The Elites, Grunts, and Hunters. vs The Prophets, Brutes, Drones, and Jackals. Now The Prophet of Truth has found out about the original plans and about what really happens, so he tries to finish what his ancestors started. By kicking the Elites from being Protectors unexpected sides are taken. So the Prophet of Truth is now using the Brutes, Drones, and Jackals, to wipe out everything except for the Prophet species. PHEWW Ok so what do you think of my theory? I kinda messed up near the end because I trying to remember all these things. :) Also in the DVD Bungie says that on the facility on the Gas Giant is where the Forerunner first ran into the Flood and decided too build the Halos. My Theory On The Flood The Forerunner built the Station over the Gas Giant to create a new weapon, a toxic nerve attacking gas weapon. But the Forerunner didn't expect the Flood to be formed out of the Gas. Also notice how the Flood attack the Nervous system!? I just believe Humans are Reclaimers. Because 343 says that the Forerunners died, but yet he calls us the Reclaimers. If we were the Forerunner he'd call us that, he wouldn't call us Reclaimers. Therefore we couldn't be "Forerunners" because we are the "Reclaimers"... I think of the Reclaimers as being a sister, cousin, friendly like race that was entrusted with activating Halo, or activating the Halos if the Forerunner failed to do so. Also i looked up in the dictionary for Forerunner and it says: [b]"One that comes before"[b\] and [b]"indicates the approach of another"[b\]; a harbinger Hmm One that comes before and indicates the aproach of another... I think it means that the Forerunner were supposed to activate the Rings first, but 343 says the Reclaimers did. Hmm mabey the Forerunner couldn't acivate it so the Reclaimers did. Also 343 says HIS CREATORS activated the Rings. The Reclaimers acivated the Rings, so 343 is probally a Reclaimer invention, and Halo is a Forerunner invention. This also explains why 343 talks English... BTW when he says "We will become Gods, if we activate Halo.". He knows it will wipe out everything. Heck you will be a God if you managed to wipe out everything in the galaxy!!!! ;)

Oh God you people are all nerds (no offence)

ok here are a few little tidbits to think about. A) covies are after humans NOT earth which means earth probably has something to do with forerunners (if i double posting forgive me its a bad habit o mine) BUT they wanna kill humans... which can either prove or disprove that humans are forrunners depending on your point of view.... put it this way... if the humans were the forrunners why would the covies be killing them by the millions? ... or to prove it... they killin the humans because theyt wanna be the only ones with the forerunner tech... well damn there go all my ideas... ill be back when i have some more non sequitar comments... later all

Read the book it will educate you not only on your motor skills but on your halo skills too.

actually no cuz in halo u were called the reclaimer before u got the index cuz he called u it throughout the entire library level wich ends wen u get the index and plus in "the flood" the monitor points out a dead marine to the chief and says somethin like "my previous reclaimer was unsuccessful in the possesing of the index meaning the marine was named a rclaimer and he died before he could get it meaning that ur a reclaimer if u touch the index or not.

also wat greatly makes it definite that the humans and forerunners are the same is that of course the FR built the rings then were wiped out by the effect of the rings in desperation to exterminate the flood and wen the mc shows up in "the flood" 343 says that the mc's armor is only a 2 on some weird scalle and that a level 12 suit is available for his usage if u ask me y would an ancient race we just now discovered have suit that fits him DUH CUZ HUMANS ARE FR AND ITS PRETTY MUCH THE ARMOR OF A FR SOLDIER OR SOMETHIN. also tho since FR built rings and died wen they were activated they "lost" possesion over the rings because too the extent of the knowledge of the monitors of the 7 halos the FR are now extinct and wen humans show up the monitors call them reclaimers because they are re-claiming the halos aftyer many millenia.

when did halo 03 04 05 come out.

The humans are in no way the forerunners. The forerunners are extinct along with all living material in the galaxy that was alive when they were activated. The humans are a new species. Plus, if were gonna go that deep, i have another argument, God created humans.

read eagle 117's theorys...the forerunners cross-bread with early humans...

The books are excellant. Dont call the books stupid, jackass, you are talking about the beginning of the game, which has hardly any dialog. The medal was for everything he did. Also, he didn't kill all the soldiers on Halo, McKay did, by crashing the Truth and Reconciliation when they were taking off, to prevent the flood from spreading.

i reckon The humans are da Forerunners slaves..... they made us build da halos under there supervision, then abandoned us on earth

I would like to add to this. I belive it was on the planet Sigma or some other one in "The Fall of Reach". The covies usually just glass a planet over at first glance, but this time they had sent a landing party to investigate something. Ne way they eventually end up in a meusum, master chief is confused because he doesn't realize why the covies would be in a mueseum. The have some sort of articfact that they are uploading info to one of there ships. Master chief eventually gets hold of this and cortana somwehere down the line realizes its slip space cordinates. Hmm..These slipspace cordinates lead to the first Halo I belive (been a bit since I read it). And also these cordinates where found on a planet enhabited by humans with ideal conditoins for humans to live on. Someone put these cordinates there..(the forerunners). And if this planet is ideal for humans and close to earth since we found it before covie the forerunenrs must be human or very closley related.

All right i didnt read all ten pages but... To all you human=forerunner supporters: Would any of you care to explain how the forerunners devolved into us pathedic humans? How would they just lose their technology? How would they lose their language? How would they forget about everything? They would not just choose to forget everything they knew. They could have erased their own memory about the flood, but they would not choose to erase everything. Even if just one ship landed on earth and survived, they would have eventually rebuild their civilization on earth not just devolve into monkeys. After all they are a race that posses great technology. They could easily set up a colony, grew in population, and rebuild everything. Even if just one forerunner survived in a ship, he could have simply made a female version of himself though advanced cloning technologies. He wouldnt go around screwing monkeys.

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Um...Read the rest of the damn topic, you moron. I don't usually get mad at people, but you just pissed me off with your laziness and stupidity. I posted the theory about 70 posts ago. Not to mention that probably thousands of other people came up with the damn idea on their own too. Before you post a damn theory and claim it as your own, read the entire topic beforehand. God your stupid. listen man...im just agreeing with you in my own words...i'm not claiming it as my own and please im sure you werent the first person ever in the entire world to come up with this theory...grow up man

I like the connection between the ark and the flood from the bible. I mean the people that created Halo said they wanted to make a good stroy right. Well what is a greater story than the bible. If they can maniplutate it to fit the story of Halo they must be pretty fricken genious. I love they stories of halo and i thought the ending to halo 2 was retarded, but now I see y it works is because it make you think about halo 3 ad wait for more books to come out. I still think that legendary should of had a different ending like on halo 1 but hey it was still a great stroyline my favorite part was playing as the arbitor. Back to the point I personally think the human could be they forrunners, but i have my own theory that suggests that they are, i just dont have as much proof to back it up, so very good analigies it does make a good arguement

A Reclaimer has to do it. I would assume that a combination of that and Penitent Tangent's reaction to first seeing Master Chief ("A reclaimer, at last! There is much to do"), that only humans are Reclaimers.

master chief had to activate the first halo, the brute also makes Keyes daughter activate the second halo by forcing her hand on the index, why doesnt he push it himself?????????????????????????????????????????? [Edited on 11/17/2004 6:13:38 AM]

I wanted to correct a few small points I've seen wrong with the thread (I haven't read it all either so if it's redundant sorry). Penatent Tangent was captured by the Gravemind. Guilty Spark revealed to the Arbiter and the others that the Forerunners wiped themselves out. And the Halos were designed not to kill Flood, but the organisms the Flood need to 'breed' or expand themselves as a race, "thereby rendering the parasite harmless" (Guilty Spark said it in one of the final cutscenes). There could definitely be a connection between the humans and the Forerunners, but I doubt the humans ARE the Forerunners. The rings were activated, everything that could die, died when they were.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Spartan Fhajad Wow... I unleashed a beast. Allow me to untie another one. Haha... well, it's been really interesting reading everybody's opinions about everything... seeing the good logic, and the bad logic, and the weird theories that delve way too much into religious icons... but after reading everything, we've pretty much established that the humans and forerunners are MOST DEFINITELY connected somehow. Bear in mind, this IS only a THEORY. And I know this is really long, but PLEASE bear with me and READ IT ALL before responding. But the things that intrigue me most about it is everything about time travel. We know from the books that forerunner artifacts, when inacted in Slipspace, create strange dimensional anomalies and radiates intensely, creating strange gravity and time warps, that although case chaos to the humans in their current state, when used by the Forerunners, a technologically *PERFECT* society, obviously would be a means to initiate TIME TRAVEL. Weird, yeah I know, and I wish Bungie had left it out because that stuff is always just messed up, but it does make for some interesting plot twists. Another thing to think about -- the Covenant ship captured by the Gettysburg in First Strike, strangely enough, was piloted by a Covenant AI, like Cortana. The weird thing is -- the Covenant AI is WAY too much like Cortana. In fact, when Cortana captures it and starts pulling apart the coding of this weird and glitchy Covenant AI, she realizes in shock that the core of the AI's coding is actually HER OWN CODING, simply copied many times and manipulated. It's no coincidence then that the Covenant AI's name is "The Keeper of the Luminous Key" -- remember when she stole in Index?? This is a lot to swallow... and the thing I've read that interests me the most is the theory about the Forerunners being our DESCENDANTS, then traveling BACK in time for one reason or another. This could theoretically make the Forerunners BOTH our ANCESTORS AND OUR DESCENDANTS. Freaky, yes. But in Sci-Fi plots with time warps, it is totally predictable. Comments anyone? Flaming, anyone? ********ABOUT the ARK********* And about the crap about the Ark of the Covenant and all that yadda yadda... don't push this stuff too far. The Ark is either Earth or some kind of vessel on Earth, but it's not the box upon which the Shekinah Glory of the Almighty God rested when he dwelt on Earth. The Ark which Noah used to escape the Flood of the Bible is something completely different from the Ark of the Covenant anyways. The Ark of Noah was a BOAT. And the boat was used to survive the FLOOD. The ALLUSION is obvious. ********THE COVENANT********** The Covenant were not around when the Forerunners were. Otherwise they would know the purpose of the rings. The Covenant is made up of a group of different alien races. The Covenant was formed when the PROPHETS went to seek out the rings. The Prophets are the ones who believe in the Halos religious significance and that it will take them on their divine journey. The Prophets enlisted the help of the alien race knows as Sangheili, the ELITES, in order to protect them on their quest for godhood. Whenever the Covenant (the pact of Prophets and Sangheili) came upon another race, they offered for the race to join them as part of the Covenant, and so be granted part of the group that would travel to the "divine beyond." The Prophets revere the Forerunners at almost god-like status, and want to follow them to wherever they disappeared to. Obviously, these alien races were far below the technological advancements of the Forerunners, for although they know that they once existed, they have only copied pieces of their technology for their own uses, and don't really know the purpose of everything the Forerunners left behind when they committed mass-suicide in order to protect these other alien races from the Flood. These aliens obviously inhabited a part of the galaxy distant from where the Forerunners set up their colonies, or else they would have died as well when the Halos were activated. Specifically, the Covenant have set up their homeworld in the ORION SYSTEM (Orion's belt, anyone? You can see the Constelllation from Earth). This actually CONFIRMS the theory that BOTH Earth and the Covenant homeworld were outside the blast radius of the Halos, allowing A. a small group of Forerunner survivors to populate Earth, unbeknownst to the galaxy, and B. the race of Prophets to wonder in awe what the heck happened to all those guys who gave them some technology and used to fly around everywhere. Anyone?[/quote] this guy is right on the money and i know ive come up with the same thing and trust me ive been playing and reading all i can on halo's story and if u have read the books its clear if u have half a brain that we the humans are the foerunner just read the books play the games and have an open mind we will all see the whole story when bungie wants us 2 thats all i have 2 say for now

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Insomniac Jedi *spoilers* Sorry, you are wrong. In Halo 2 it says plain and simple that the forerunners blew themselves up with the Halo Rings along with all other sentient life.[/quote] your wrong lol u have no idea how this ring works do y the forerunners made it halo doesnt kill flood it kills u only u people that dont under stand the story lol that was a joke

THismight not help much, but I have an idea. 1) What if, the forerunners activated the Halos, and chose to forget about the flood, because they thought that the Flood has been destroyed. The great Journey represent their ourney to a new planet, beyoind the Halos blast radius if ever they were to reactivate Halos. Earth. The Ark is a symbol on which they took, as a place to save them or maybe a sanctuary. So, earth is the ark . But still, they are being cautious, so they hide the control to activate Halo on New Mombasa or something, if ever they need to use it again. 2) The significance of the name SPARTAN. According to history, they are the greek warriors ight? Maybe, because of the technology MC is using, GS saw him as a forerunner. But that does not add up when the other cybor said that the forerunners have been killed 3) Based on what I've read, the prophets are a race, which evolved through time to become much more smarter and stronger, and then they consume other races to work for them. Much like the Starcraft story, Zerg. Anyways, maybe, just maybe, the prophets know about the Halos, and would like to get their hands on them to activate them, but it may also be possible that they dont know that halos destroy all sentient life. 4) Prophets are the flood. Like the Flood overminds... Silly? Maybe Human might be the forerunners, because earth is far from the blast radius, and Halo was designed to keep the flodimprison. But, while they are keeping the flood in prison, the forerunners must have been there also. Thats why Halo has the same weather and all like earth. Speculations only. Feel free to laugh.

[quote][b] EDIT- I'd like to point out, on both Halos, the Reclaimer was the person who first touched the index.[/quote] Granted Maranda got the index before the covies snatched it...Penitent Tangent is being held captive by Gravemind when MC is brought down to grave mind. Then Tangent notices him and says" A reclaimer? Here? At last we have much to do!" not his exact words but I belive anyone who has watched the cinematics would agree. there is no way tangent would have known that another human touched the index first. Guilty Spark was the only one who did in fact witness the touching of the index. Also in answer to Gravemind's origin he is in fact flood. Notice how he shudders in disgust when comparing Tangent's Containment (then shudders)and Regret's Great journey.. If that doesnt give it away what will? Besides...Arbiter clearly distinguishes Gravemind's existence as that of the parasite....which is the flood...I accept anyones challenge to this....and if you already knew he was flood good for you. This is for those who don't quite grasp the concept yet. Thanks [Edited on 11/17/2004 3:32:10 AM]

I would think The Forrunners would have to have lived on some planet that was similar to Earth (if they were humans) if not Earth itself, before they made the Halos. It seems to me that the only way to reach the Halos is through Slipspace, unless they produced a more accurate and faster way of traveling but I doubt that. I just find it very ironic that the Halo's gravity and enviornment are quite like Earth, and had they indeed escaped the Halo's blast through a Slipspace jump, they were pretty damn lucky to have crash landed on Earth, if they didn't know it was there.

Although we have all pointed out ways for the Forerunner to have survived, they are all quite unlikely. We may be on the completely wrong track with the "Ark" bit. Nowhere in the actual games or from any credible source does it say that the Ark in the Halo universe is a safe haven from the Halos blast. Whichever monitor was at the end of the game (G.S. or P.T., I forget) said only that the Halos could be detonated remotely from the Ark. For all we know, the Ark could be Halo 01, maybe it is sort of an "alpha Halo," the mother of all Halos, if you will. Maybe that one has control of all the other Halos, and that is this mysterious Ark. It could be a reference to the Ark of the Covenant, not a metaphorical Noah's Ark to carry us through "The Flood," or maybe it's not connected to the old testament at all, despite the name (don't ask me about religious references please, as I know almost nothing about religious stories). My point is that we seem to be trying to solve a mystery with huge chunks of evidence missing. We do not really have a solid idea of what the Ark is. The wild speculation is fun to read, though. Regarding the Halos' environments being similar to Earth's, it is entirely possible that the Forerunners weren't Human, but their homeworld was also Earth. Another thing (this has more to do with speculation on Halo 3 than Human/Forerunner connections): What If Earth's part of ther galaxy was covered by Halo 04? Since that Halo was destroyed, that means that if Earth was in Halo 04 space, then we would be safe from harm if the Halos were to go off. Suppose that in Halo 3, the Prophet of Truth manages to detonate the Halos from the Ark (wherever that may be), but Earth and other space in its general vicinity remain untouched? o.O [Edited on 11/16/2004 2:54:02 PM]

what if the forrunners left for earth before the activation of the halos? forrunners are probably like the great great uncle 14 times removed to humans...