Editing Domain

[[File:H5-Domain.png|thumb|300px|The esoteric "quantum architecture" of the Domain.]]

The '''Domain''' is an esoteric quantum information repository that was once used by the [[Forerunner]]s to contain vast amounts of knowledge, most notably their cultural and ancestral records.{{Ref/Reuse|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/Reuse|p234}}<ref name="s55">'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 55''</ref><ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 271''</ref>{{Ref/Reuse|s275}}

Over a century after the Array's activation, [[Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting]], formerly the IsoDidact, viewed a recording from the Librarian relaying the Gravemind's message. He shared the recording with [[Chant-to-Green]] and both realized the consequences of the loss of the Domain. Understanding that the Domain needed to be somehow repaired, Bornstellar, Chant, and a group of other Forerunners journeyed to Maethrillian to accomplish this. Along the way some of the group encountered Abaddon, now active within the Capital and intent on judging the Forerunners for their crimes. Abaddon killed four of the Forerunners in the group, subdued another, and took over the remaining three Forerunners' [[ancilla]]s, attempting to lock down their armor. As a last-ditch effort, the [[Lifeworker]] [[Growth-Through-Trial-of-Change]] inserted the artifact known as the [[Deadbolt|deadbolt key]] into Abaddon's physical core. While Trial was instantly vaporized in the process, her act seemingly restored the Domain, apparently using the Lifeworker's biological pattern as an initial "seed" for its reconstruction. However, the Forerunner survivors suspected it would still take long before the network was truly healed.{{Ref/Reuse|ptk}} The Domain needed a Lifeworker's unique life template to reawaken and heal, but it would take a long time to do so due to the extent of the damage that the Domain had suffered. As a result, the repository used millions of Haruspis essences to create the [[Warden Eternal]] as a protector, although the Warden's devotion to the Domain eventually turned into obession instead. As the Domain healed, the Warden was sealed outside to guard the gateways.{{Ref/Reuse|Epi14}}

Having depleted much of its energy to create the void, the Domain required nourishment in the form of life's experiences with the Cosmos to heal. It wanted to accept all knowledge, to store and protect it, and it sought diversity of many of life's interactions, not just Forerunners. However, the records lost when the Halo Array fired were significant which, combined with the strength diverted to create the void, the Domain was unable and perhaps unwilling to welcome in those waiting in its outer boundaries. This, combined with the Warden Eternal, in its hyper-diligence, refusing to allow in the trapped Forerunner essences, much less the human ones, had inadvertently kept the Domain from properly healing and kept it weak.{{Ref/Novel|Id=Epi23|Epi|23}}

Over 100,000 years later the Domain was accessed once again. 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 history of the [[Ur-Didact|Didact]] and the Librarian. However, Cortana mentioned that the terminal was "caught in a loop" trying to access the Domain,<ref>'''Halo 4''', campaign level ''Requiem''</ref> leaving it unclear whether the fragments actually originated from the Domain itself.

After being rescued from [[Geranos-a]] in 2557, [[343 Guilty Spark]] attempted to access the Domain, but was blocked by [[Catalog]] who revealed he had also done the same to the Ur-Didact. Later, after [[Mission to Mount Kilimanjaro|finding]] a personality imprint of the [[Librarian]], Spark requested that she send him to the Domain to be with his friends after he was talked out of bringing them back to life. The Librarian warned Spark that the only thing left of [[Riser]] and [[Vinnevra]] in the Domain were echoes, "experiences remembered through the eyes of my kind, nothing more." The Librarian stated that Spark was not meant to dwell on the past and live in the halls of living memory and warned that in the Domain, "the bad lives alongside the good." The Librarian helped Spark to see that the friends he sought for 100,000 years were amongst the ''[[Ace of Spades]]'' crew and Spark gave up his quest. Spark later admitted to [[Rion Forge]] that he had sought the Librarian to access the Domain and either bring his friends back as ''[[geas]]'' or to join them.<ref>'''[[Halo: Renegades]]'''</ref>

After being composed, the [[Ur-Didact|Didact]] sought to free the Domain from the Created's control with the help of the [[Haruspis]] and the millions of Forerunner and human essences who had been kept out of the Domain by the Warden Eternal since the Halo Array's firing. Using a ritual devised by Abaddon long ago, the Haruspis was able to draw all of the iterations of the Warden Eternal located in the Domain and its outer boundaries into one body, rendering him vulnerable to the Didact. With the help of a distraction from the other essences, the Didact was able to destroy the Warden with a quantum weapon called a [[Riftblade]], the only weapon capable of destroying essences in the Domain. While some iterations of the Warden may have been trapped in the physical world and thus survived, they would be unable to reconnect with his body or the Domain and what remained of the Warden Eternal would go "quite mad," permanently neutralizing the threat of the Warden Eternal.{{Ref/Novel|Id=Epi25|Epi|25}}

With the Warden gone, the Didact led the Forerunner and human essences into the Domain, allowing humanity into the ancient repository for the very first time. The Domain was strengthened by this and began to transform from the bleak landscape that it had become. The strengthening of the Domain allowed it to evict the Created, although a few rogue AIs and splinters remained hiding in the interior to be hunted down by the essences. The Didact had the Haruspis seal the Gateway and all links to the Domain in the physical world so that no one could ever again abuse its power and resources as the Created had. The Didact intended for the Domain to be forgotten, returned to its enigmatic, mysterious and unattainable state. In time, the Domain would sink back into the shadows and become nothing more than a story, an obscure myth, perhaps eventually fading from collective memory altogether until such a time as it willed otherwise.{{Ref/Novel|Id=Epi26|Epi|26}}{{Ref/Novel|Id=Epi27|Epi|27}}

==Gallery==

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