Editing Domain

{{Era|Forerunner}}
{{Quote|The Domain is the soul and record of all things Forerunner.|[[Juridical|Senior Juridical]]<ref name="prologue"/>}}

The '''Domain''' was an esoteric quantum information repository used by the [[Forerunner]]s to contain vast amounts of knowledge, most notably their cultural and ancestral records.<ref name="c167"/>

==Overview==
The Domain was an immaterial reserve of knowledge and collective experience viewed by the Forerunners as the essence and living expression of their culture and history. In addition to the ancestral impressions and memories contained within, information could also be stored in and retrieved from the Domain for practical purposes. There was a mysterious quality to the Domain; despite its ubiquity in Forerunner culture, its exact nature or origin remained largely nebulous even to Forerunners. Due to these abstruse aspects, the Forerunners treated the Domain as something mystical and transcendent; it was regarded with reverence and connected to the Forerunners' [[Mantle|religious beliefs]].<ref name="p234"/><ref name="s55">'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 55''</ref><ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 271''</ref><ref name="s275"/>

Forerunners used the Domain via various technological systems, most commonly their [[Forerunner personal armor|personal armor]]. Connecting to the Domain was possible for mature Forerunners anywhere within the Forerunners' sphere of influence, regardless of distance.<ref name="c167"/><ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 13''</ref> This was typically accomplished via an intermediary, most commonly a personal [[ancilla]] as well as [[Haruspis]]. A [[Cryptum]] also acted as a mediator between a Forerunner and the Domain; meditative [[xankara]] in a Cryptum provided a much clearer and more unrestricted experience of the Domain than contact when awake.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 255''</ref> Dedicated [[Z-9930 Information Vector Console|terminals]] were also sometimes used by ancillas to connect to the Domain when on Forerunner worlds or installations.<ref>'''[[Halo 4: The Essential Visual Guide]]''', ''page 129''</ref>

Haruspis and its associates were Forerunners dedicated to studying the Domain. Haruspices also sought out specific information within the Domain on a Forerunner's request.<ref name="prologue">'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 13-15''</ref> The Domain was central in major [[Ecumene Council|Council]] proceedings, such as a political trial. Among other things, it was used by judges to store archival and accounting material,<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 262''</ref> assess precedent, and to verify witnesses' testimonies.<ref name="c288">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 288''</ref> [[Ancilla]]s routinely accessed data within the Domain, and [[Contender-class artificial intelligence|Contender-class]] AIs such as [[05-032 Mendicant Bias]] were connected to the Domain upon their activation.<ref name="p337">'''Halo: Primordium''', ''pages 337-338''</ref>

==Mechanics==
{{quote|The records don't always stay the same. Sometimes they change. It is not known why."<br>"Like real memories.|[[IsoDidact|Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting]] and [[Chakas]] discussing the Domain<ref name="c167">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 167-168''</ref>}}

The Domain had its own set of rules and restrictions it rarely violated. Forerunners could only view information that they already knew or what was otherwise available to them, namely data stored in the Domain in recent times. The deepest records contained in the Domain could not be accessed, due in no small part because information in the Domain was not static: the records changed over time as new visits by newer generations laid new layers of information which settled into its own patterns and sought to make itself more complete.<ref name="s182">'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 182''</ref> These changes were regarded as sacred, and were never reversed or corrected.<ref name="c167"/> Over long periods of time, older information in the Domain ultimately became unintelligible to all Forerunners, even Haruspis.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 58''</ref> Due to these anomalies, the Domain was not commonly used as means of communication; messages could be inexplicably altered on the way.<ref name="c125">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 125''</ref>

The Domain retained partial impressions of individuals who had visited it in earlier times. Forerunners connected to the Domain could access these essences, although they only manifested themselves as abstract echoes like emotions or memories as opposed to complete personalities.<ref name="s255"/> The Forerunners also viewed the Domain as a form of afterlife, believing that the "essences" of individuals [[Mind transfer|sublimed]] into the Domain upon death.<ref name="p234">'''Halo: Primordium''', ''page 234-235'' (''"But to all of us there is a time like this, when the Domain seeks to confirm our essences, and for you, that time is now"'')</ref><ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page '' (''"You have come to remove me. Please do. I have been so long with the Domain that I will quickly pass into it-and I can think of no more suitable fate for Haruspis."'')</ref><ref name="s275">'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 275'' (''"I hear our ancillas perform their own mantra, and wonder if perhaps in the Domain there is any distinction between machine and living being."'')</ref>

An experience in the Domain could be visualized as a journey through an infinite series of hallways, corridors and caverns, with abstractions of records and memories lining and illuminating their walls.<ref name="s255"/> [[IsoDidact|Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting]] described his initial contact with the Domain as initially "deep" and "appropriately shapeless", but it soon took form, shaping into a coherent whole, like a building of majestic yet indefinite architecture, around his consciousness.<ref name="c201">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 201-202''</ref> The Domain appeared to be somehow related to a Forerunner's subconscious; Forerunner scholars theorized that the dreams of early Forerunners accessed the "ground" that the Domain was built upon.<ref name="c288"/> The [[Ur-Didact|Didact]] mentioned that that the Domain sometimes had a "broken-mirror aspect",<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 177''</ref> making it appear as if one's experience of visiting the Domain was the product of their own mind.<ref name="c201"/> 

===Self-awareness===
{{Quote|The Domain keeps its secrets only with difficulty. It wants, it needs, to spread knowledge. It wants to tell us when we're being foolish, but it can only replay the emotions and memories of those who came before. Still, rarely, it violates its own rules.|The [[Ur-Didact]] describing his experience with the Domain to the [[Librarian]].<ref name="s255"/>}}
The Domain itself was an aware, conscious entity with a will of its own. While this aspect of the Domain appears to have been a common belief among Forerunners and ingrained in their idioms and phrases,<ref name="p234"/><ref name="s55"/> the [[Juridical]]s did not formally recognize the Domain as any form of being or awareness.<ref name="prologue"/> The Ur-Didact noted that while the Domain kept certain topics secret by nature, it had an urge to spread knowledge and inform Forerunners when they acted against its will. It was not, however, capable of communicating its thoughts directly. Instead it used the memories and impressions it contained to express itself, projecting their emotions to visitors to match its own state. For example, before the end of the [[Forerunner-Flood war]], the Domain was ingrained with a looming sense of sadness of the impending end of Forerunner history and with it, the Domain itself.<ref name="s255">'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 255-256''</ref>

After [[Boundless]]' research was suppressed, around [[1,100,000 BCE]], Haruspis took note of the Domain seemingly favoring her by attempting to push her studies to the fore and make the information known.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 68''</ref> When accessed by a [[Juridical]] looking for information on the Precursors, the Domain itself requested to testify to the Juridical, who disbelievingly asserted that the Domain was in no way a sentient being. Haruspis rebuked the Juridical for his ignorance on the nature of the Domain, just before the Domain itself overwhelmed the Juridical with knowledge.<ref name="prologue"/>

In certain cases, the Domain has established contact with Forerunner individuals on its own accord, without technological aid like an armor's interface or a Cryptum. When Bornstellar approached [[Janjur Qom]], the Domain opened to him for a brief instant. Through this experience, Bornstellar felt the essences of everyone who had ever visited the Domain reach out to him and an unknown voice urging him to preserve the history of the Forerunners, which would soon come to an end.<ref name="c201"/> Years later, in the final days of the Flood war, the [[Librarian]] felt that her decision to use herself as bait to draw the [[Flood]] to [[Earth|Erde-Tyrene]] was born of the Domain's influence directing her. This, in turn, bought the [[IsoDidact]] enough time to prepare and fire the [[Halo Array]].<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 301-302''</ref>

==History==
{{Quote|The Gravemind tells us something impossible to understand—that most of what has been gathered comes from before there were stars. We do not believe in such a time, but the Mind insists...  The life-patterns and living wisdom of a hundred billion years.|[[Forthencho]] to the [[Librarian]] in her final moments on [[Earth|Erde-Tyrene]].<ref name="s322"/>}}
The Domain was created by the [[Precursor]]s over 500 million years before the end of the Forerunner civilization,<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 208''</ref> as a library of experience and cultural exchange totaling to a hundred billion years' worth of knowledge.<ref name="s322">'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 322-323''</ref> It was stored within the [[Milky Way]] galaxy, sheltered by the Precursors' [[neural physics]]-based architecture. The accessible aspect of the Domain was an immense field generated by this reserve.<ref name="s322"/>

During the final years of the [[Forerunner-Flood war]], the Domain suffered frequent outages, often becoming inaccessible for all Forerunners.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 258''</ref> This was a result of the [[Halo Array]] being moved across the galaxy, and the resulting buildup of space-time debt due to the enormous amounts of particle reconciliation required to correct the breaches in causality.<ref>[http://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/podcast '''Halo Waypoint''': ''343 Sparkast 017'']</ref><ref name="prologue"/> These difficulties would intensify in the coming years, as the Flood began to access neural physics and with it, the Domain itself.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''pages 208-209''</ref> The Domain also became more reluctant to accept information for storage, and the information within became more confused.<ref name="s182"/> By the last year of the conflict, the Domain had become completely inaccessible to Forerunners and ancillas, with Haruspis completely absent from the network.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 241''</ref>

At the close of the Flood war, the [[Gravemind]] conveyed a message to the [[Librarian]] via the essence of [[Forthencho]], revealing the true nature of the Domain as a Precursor construct. The Domain was, essentially, the mythical [[Organon]]. By activating the [[Halo Array]]—which would destroy all Precursor creations by dismantling neural physics—it would be ensured that the Forerunners' history would be lost.<ref name="s322"/>

Despite the Gravemind's claim, something of the Domain appeared to survive the activation of the Halo Array. In [[2557]], during their time on [[Requiem]], [[Master Chief Petty Officer]] [[John-117]] and [[Cortana]] were able to partially access the Domain via local terminal nodes, learning more about the tale of the Didact and the Librarian. However, Cortana mentioned that the terminal was "caught in a loop" trying to access the Domain, suggesting that the Domain itself was actually unavailable and the fragments viewed on Requiem were hosted locally in the terminals themselves.<ref>'''Halo 4''', campaign level ''Requiem''</ref>

==Trivia==
*The Domain serves as the fictional basis for the [[Terminal/Halo 4|terminals]] in ''[[Halo 4]]''.<ref name="terminal">[http://halo.xbox.com/en-us/Universe/detail/halo-4-terminal-jul-mdama/0f378de5-e0e3-4f31-a1e1-2a363af4094d '''Halo Waypoint:''' ''Halo 4 Terminal: Jul 'Mdama'']</ref><ref>[http://halo.xbox.com/blogs/Headlines/post/2012/08/22/The-Halo-Bulletin-82212.aspx '''Halo Waypoint''': ''The Halo Bulletin: 8.22.12''] ''(Halo 4 achievement: "[[Contact the Domain]]")''</ref>
*The Domain bears conceptual similarities to the Void Which Binds, a quantum information storage medium featured in Dan Simmon's science-fiction series ''[http://hyperioncantos.wikia.com/wiki/The_Void_Which_Binds The Hyperion Cantos]''.
*The Domain also has resemblance to the theory of the [[Wikipedia:Akashic records|Akashic records]], a Hindu belief that all knowledge, past, present, and future, is archived on another plane of existence that only a select few can access.
*Although the Domain is said to contain 100 billion years of knowledge, the universe is only 14 billion years old at present. Indeed, the Lord of Admirals expresses disbelief at the 100-billion-year timespan.<ref name="s322"/>

==List of appearances==
*''[[Halo: Cryptum]]'' {{1st}}
*''[[Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary]]''
**''[[Terminal/Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary|Terminals]]''
*''[[Halo: Primordium]]''
*''[[Halo 4]]''
*''[[Halo: Silentium]]''

==Sources==
{{Reflist|2}}
[[Category:The Forerunner]]
[[Category:Precursor]]