Forerunner Crash Course - A Brief Summary ****BOOK SPOILERS****

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#1 Fri, 11/02/2012 - 14:31
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Forerunner Crash Course - A Brief Summary ****BOOK SPOILERS****

For those of you who want some background info if you never read the 2 Forerunner books, I shall attempt a brief summary so you have a little Forerunner knowlege before playing Halo 4.  Anyone who has read the books feel free to correct me if I mess up something.  I'll try to be accurate, but brief, and pull info from the Halo wiki as well as what I can remember.

The Forerunner Saga Trilogy:  focuses on  Forerunner life 100,000 years before the Human-Covenant War.  Set during the golden age of the Forerunners, the series touches on the origins of humanity and the contacts with Forerunners and humans, as well as explaining the connection between the two and humanity's status as "Reclaimers". Forerunner technologies are explored in detail, and many new elements about the Forerunners are introduced, such as their political system and social structure. The characters of the Didact and the Librarian, introduced in the Terminals in Halo 3, are featured as central characters in the series

Book 1 - Cryptum:

Cryptum focuses on a young Forerunner known as Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting, a rebellious Manipular from a family of Builders, the highest and most politically powerful rate of the Forerunner. However, instead of following in his father's footsteps and becoming a Builder, Bornstellar is obsessed with exploring artifacts left behind by the Precursors, an enigmatic galactic civilization that preceded the Forerunner. His father sends him to the planet Edom in a distant system known as Sol to work with the Miners to come to terms with his duty as a Builder. Eventually, Bornstellar crosses paths with two humans on Earth, forever changing the fate of the galaxy.

In this book, Bornstellar and his 2 human comrades wake up the Didact . The Didact[1] was a Forerunner Promethean who held an extremely high status in the Forerunner society as supreme commander of the entire Forerunner military. He wholeheartedly believed in the "Mantle" the Forerunners held to protect life, and initially opposed the Halo Array as a sin beyond measure. He was also the lover and husband of the Librarian, and the one who eventually activated the Halo Array.[2] Although he was physically killed by the former Master Builder Faber, he lived on by implanting his consciousness within a young Builder known as Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting.

 

Long story short - The beliefs of The Didact and the Master Builder Faber opposed each other when the Flood first showed up.  The Didact was in control of the Forerunner Council at the time, but Faber used the fear of the Flood to construct all of the Halo weapons.  Since the Forerunners believed in the Mantle, which the primary goal is to protect life, they agreed to let The Librarian to collect all sorts of species, flora, fauna, etc and place them on the Halos in the event that they would need to activated, some life would still be left behind.  The Didact's disbelief in the Halo array led him to be banished into The Cryptum for an eternal slumber as punishment. 

 

Book 2 - Primordium:

Centered around Chakas and Riser, the two humans who accompanied Bornstellar in the first novel as they traverse an embattled Halo installation, facing a multitude of hurdles on their way and discovering the ancient plan of vengeance devised by the Precursors against the Forerunners. 

Set primarily on the "rogue" Halo ring Installation 07 used by Mendicant Bias during the events of Halo: Cryptum,[3] the novel follows the journey of the humans Chakas and Morning Riser, former companions of Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting. After crash-landing on the Halo ring during Mendicant Bias' assault on the capital, they discover it has been used by the Master Builder's researchers to conduct research on humans.[4] They are forced to make their way across the embattled Halo installation, facing the Flood and rogue A.I. constructs on the way, while the Precursors' ancient plan of vengeance against the Forerunners is revealed.[2] During their journey, they find their way into the Palace of Pain, the lair of the ancient entity known as the Timeless One, which has unleashed the Flood on the Master Builder's researchers on the installation.[4] Mendicant Bias will also play a major role in the story.[5]

Frank O'Connor has mentioned that the story is "closer to the ground" than that of Cryptum,[2] and that it will have "resonant connections" to Halo 4.

 

Full plot summary is here if you have 5 minutes to read it:  http://www.halopedia.org/Halo:_Primordium#Plot_summary

 

Long story short:

 

Chakas and Riser were originally from Erde-Tyrene which is now called Earth.  The book is told from a damaged Forerunner monitor, saying that he once was Chakas.  During Mendicant Bias' assault on the Forerunner capital, the ship carrying Chakas is destroyed and his escape pod crash-lands on a Halo installation.  The group is finally found by a transport and they are brought to the lair of Mendicant Bias deep inside the Halo's bowels. Chakas, Riser, and all of the other humans from Earth are gathered and have their imprinted ancestral personalities removed and implanted into monitors. Mendicant Bias promises them revenge on the Forerunners; however, they must first save the Halo from colliding with a planet, due to the ring being on a destructive course as a security measure should it fall under enemy control. The plan is for the Halo to position itself in such a way that the planet will pass through the Halo, which will suffer heavy damage but will survive. As the Halo moves towards the planet, Chakas is connected to the Silent Cartographer in order to interface with the Halo and help coordinate its movements.

A fleet led by the Didact then appears, and the Didact uses a failsafe code to disable Mendicant Bias. The Didact then enters the Cartographer and commands that the Halo be saved by moving it to an Ark installation for repairs. To successfully move through a portal, however, the Halo must shed a large portion of its constituent structure, thus reducing its diameter from 30,000 kilometers to 10,000 kilometers. Though heavily damaged, the Halo survives and moves through the portal.

 

The book ends with the Guilty Spark duplicate being ejected into space after powering down, but not before he injects his data stream into the ship's computer, subdues the shipboard AI and takes control of the ship. He then explains to the crew that he desires to resume his quest to find the Librarian and retrieve the old spirits of Riser and Vinnevra. Asserting that the Librarian is actually alive, he puts the crew to sleep and has the ship proceed to her location.

Shortly afterward, the Didact brings a mortally wounded Chakas ‌– who is already undergoing conversion into a monitor ‌– with him to confront the Primordial, who has been imprisoned. The ensuing conversation reveals that the Primordial is actually a Gravemind, and that more Precursors may have survived their war with the Forerunners. The Primordial asserts that "there is no difference" between the Flood and the Precursors, although it does not reveal the precise nature of their relationship. It also reveals that no human was ever truly immune to the Flood, but the Flood can choose whether to infect or not infect. The Primordial then states that the Flood is a test to judge a species' worthiness of inheriting the Mantle, stating that the Forerunners are to be eliminated and that humans will be tested next once they rise again. At the conversation's conclusion, the Didact kills the Primordial by activating a reverse stasis chamber that forces the Primordial to go through a billion years of aging in several seconds, causing it to disintegrate.

Back at present day, the ONI researchers reluctantly accept that the monitor telling the story is actually a fragment or duplicate of 343 Guilty Spark, the monitor of Installation 04.

 

Well, I hope this helps a little bit!  Feel free to comment or correct as needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fri, 11/02/2012 - 15:22
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Thanks Johnny I was looking for something like this to fill me in.

Fri, 11/02/2012 - 18:26
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Primordium was a hard read. By hard I mean boring. But in the spirit of reading every Halo novel I forced myself through it. I still don't know or understand what was important in the first 75% of the book. The last 25% have at least something that resembels a story. I think Glass Land and Thursday's War are probably more relevant to Halo 4 story although knowing of the Didact is probably important.

Fri, 11/02/2012 - 18:30 (Reply to #3)
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JimSmyth wrote:

Primordium was a hard read. By hard I mean boring. But in the spirit of reading every Halo novel I forced myself through it. I still don't know or understand what was important in the first 75% of the book. The last 25% have at least something that resembels a story. I think Glass Land and Thursday's War are probably more relevant to Halo 4 story although knowing of the Didact is probably important.

I found it difficult too.

I like Karen Travis's writing style better.

Fri, 11/02/2012 - 22:00
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Although Traviss was more fun to read, I find the things revealed in Bear's stuff so much more rich and fascinating.

Fri, 11/02/2012 - 22:13
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I liked Bear's first book. The second had bad flow I guess. I kept reading hoping that something really interesting would be right around the corner. There was some really interesting stuff but it was right in the last 30% or so of the novel. Maybe I should go back and read it again. Or just read the wiki on the book.

Fri, 11/02/2012 - 22:43 (Reply to #6)
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JimSmyth wrote:

I liked Bear's first book. The second had bad flow I guess. I kept reading hoping that something really interesting would be right around the corner. There was some really interesting stuff but it was right in the last 30% or so of the novel. Maybe I should go back and read it again. Or just read the wiki on the book.

Yeah, I hear you. Primordium reminded me a lot of Larry Niven's "Ringworld", which I kinda both enjoyed and shook my head at given that it's basically some source material for the Halo universe.

Sun, 11/04/2012 - 19:04 (Reply to #7)
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JimSmyth wrote:

I liked Bear's first book. The second had bad flow I guess. I kept reading hoping that something really interesting would be right around the corner.

 

This is very true!!!  A lot of wandering and roaming about the Halo waiting for something to happen.

Sat, 11/03/2012 - 01:34
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I had forgotten that the name of the Didact's group was the prometheans.  I just never put it together I guess.  Thanks for the refresher.  

i have to say, I didn't enjoy Bear's books either.  The history is good, but the delivery is lacking, IMHO.  I dunno, it's like he hasn't 'bought in' to the universe, and is just churning out words to fulfill his contract.  I like lots of his other books, but not the Halo ones.

I've read all of the novels and the Evolutions short stories.  I'm really liking the Travis books.

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