Editing Great Purification

{{Status|Canon}}

[[File:HaloFiring.png|300px|thumb|A Halo ring is fired, [[Extinction|wiping]] the galaxy of Flood and all sentient life.]]

{{Quote|Activation is murder. A genocide larger than [this galaxy] has ever known. We are sworn to protect life, not destroy it! That is the [[Mantle]] we were given to carry.|The [[IsoDidact]], protesting the firing of the rings.<ref name="terminal">'''Halo 3''' - ''[[Terminal (Halo 3)|Terminal 2]]''</ref>}}

The '''Great Purification'''<ref>'''Halo: Broken Circle''', ''page 205''</ref> was the culminating act of the [[Forerunner-Flood war]] in [[97,445 BCE]], when the [[seven]] rings of the [[Halo Array]] were fired. The rings' combined pulses scoured the entire [[Milky Way]] galaxy, disabling the [[Flood]] and [[Extinction|wiping out]] all [[Sentience|sentient]] life that was not safely outside its range at [[Installation 00|the Ark]]. The effects of the firing had lasting effects on the galaxy for the next 100 millennia, marking the end of the [[Forerunner]] [[ecumene]] and eventually leading to the rise of the [[Covenant]] and [[human]]ity.

{{Quote|The Flood cover more of our galaxy with each passing day. They feast on the essence of life itself. The only way to stop their advance is to remove that life upon which they feast.|The [[Faber-of-Will-and-Might|Master Builder]] discussing the necessity of the Halo Array with the [[Librarian]].<ref>'''Halo 4''' - ''[[Terminal (Halo 4)|Terminal 5]]''</ref>}}

The Flood eventually returned to the galaxy, but as the war escalated and the parasite spread even further, the Didact (now two individuals) remained steadfastly opposed to firing the rings. Both of them viewed galactic genocide as a violation of the [[Mantle]], the Forerunner code of doctrine. While the IsoDidact refused to fire on moral grounds, not wanting to kill billions of innocents, the Ur-Didact rejected the Halos on societal grounds, certain that the Great Purification would cause the end of Forerunner dominance over the galaxy.<ref>'''Halo 4''', campaign level ''[[Epilogue (Halo 4 level)|Epilogue]]''</ref> Both of them delayed activating the rings by attempting alternate plans to defeat the Flood, including the anti-Flood AI [[Mendicant Bias]] (who went rogue and defected to the Flood) and the creation of mechanical [[Promethean Knight]]s, which were [[Composer|created]] from unwillingly [[Mind transfer|transformed]] humans, thereby causing genocide to prevent genocide. Neither of these measures succeeded in defeating the parasite.

By 97,445 BCE, the Forerunners were badly losing, most of their population had been lost, and the Flood had reached almost complete control of the galaxy. With much reluctance, the IsoDidact fired the Array, initiating the Great Purification.<ref>'''Halo 3''' - ''Terminal 7''</ref> The blast resulted in the death of the Flood and almost everyone else in the galaxy, including the [[Librarian]] herself. The only known exceptions to this were the Ur-Didact imprisoned on Requiem and the [[Xalanyn]], a species that was somehow immune to the Halo Array's pulse.

The Great Purification was not the first time a Halo had been fired. [[Installation 07|A ring]] of the original array had been fired by the [[Master Builder]] at the [[Charum Hakkor system]] to test its effect on the native wildlife.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 245''</ref> Later a pulse was fired on [[Janjur Qom]] to punish the [[San'Shyuum]] there who rebelled against the Forerunners.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 192''</ref> At the [[Fate of Maethrillian]] Mendicant Bias took control of five of the nearby rings (which had been assembled for decommissioning) and attempted to fire all of them;<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 307''</ref> at least Installation 07 was successfully fired while the Forerunner defense fleet managed to destroy at least one of the rings.<ref>'''Halo: Primordium''', ''page 272''</ref> The last use before the combined wave from the Array was at the [[Battle of the greater Ark]], when [[Omega Halo]] was fired, damaging a formation of [[Precursor]] [[star road]]s and wiping out all life in the [[Large Magellanic Cloud]].<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 273''</ref> None of the Halos were used again until 2552, but each had their firing halted or contained to prevent such widespread devastation again.

{{Quote|This installation has a successful utilization record of 1.2 trillion simulated and one actual. It is ready to fire on demand.|[[2401 Penitent Tangent]].<ref>'''Halo 2''', campaign level ''[[Gravemind (level)|Gravemind]]''</ref>}}

[[File:Killed by Halo Effect.jpg|thumb|265px|A creature is disintegrated by the Halos' pulse.]]

The Great Purification marked the end of the [[Forerunner-Flood war]]. Just before the firing, the galaxy had been teeming with Flood, who had progressed to an [[Interstellar Stage|interstellar threat]], consuming whole star systems, forming advanced Flood intelligences called [[Key Mind]]s, and able to [[Neural physics|interact]] with the fabric of the universe itself, halting slipspace travel across the galaxy. Immediately after the firing, the Flood was neutralized. Flood and sentient lifeforms on planets that had been seeded with [[solute]] beforehand were disintegrated.<ref>'''Halo: Silentium''', ''page 19''</ref> Forms in starships and non-soluted sites were killed but not melted, their bodies remaining but their nervous systems irreparably destroyed. The remaining [[Flood spore]]s and [[Flood combat form|combat forms]] that were left were taken to the Halos and other sites for study, in hopes that a cure could be found should the Flood ever return.<ref>'''[[Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary]]''' - ''[[Terminal (Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary)|Terminal 6]]''</ref>

The combined massacre of the rings and of the [[Battle of the greater Ark]] reduced the Forerunner population to less than a fraction of what it had once been. There was no hope of rebuilding their lost empire, and the survivors felt guilt over their imperialism in the name of the [[Mantle]], which had let the Flood conquer as far as it had.<ref>'''[[Rebirth]]'''</ref> Led by the [[IsoDidact]], the last Forerunners left the Milky Way to build a new home elsewhere, [[Reclaimer|commissioning humanity to one day take their place]]. All species brought to the remaining Ark were [[Reintroduction|reintroduced to their homeworlds]] at [[Technological Achievement Tiers|a pre-Industrial Tier 7 level]], and roughly 90 millennia passed before any of them became space-faring again.<ref>'''Halo: The Flood (2010):''' ''Adjunct''</ref>

The biological effects of the rings had long-term consequences on the galaxy's ecosystems. Because the Librarian could not rescue every species, almost all of the specimens left behind were wiped out and rendered their species extinct. Those species that had been saved on the Ark were reseeded afterward, but the gaps in the food chain were significant enough that during the [[dark time]] many more species went extinct due to their permanently altered environment. While the [[Conservation Measure]] did its best to eliminate any trace of genetic disruption, scars still remained in the fossil record. In [[2332]], [[human]] scientists discovered a curious anomaly dated to [[Wikipedia:Late Pleistocene|Late Pleistocene]], in which no fossils dating to roughly 97,000 BCE were discovered on [[Human colonies|worlds colonized by humans]]. The [[Ross-Ziegler Blip]], as it was called, was initially dismissed as a random aberration caused by spatial distortion, out of doubt that an interstellar extinction event could have occurred simultaneously on every planet. After the Halos were discovered by humanity, the Blip was reinvestigated, its cause now identified as the disintegration of most biomass in the galaxy during the Great Purification.<ref>'''[[Halo: Evolutions]]''', "[[From the Office of Dr. William Arthur Iqbal]]", ''page 519''</ref>

{{Quote|Halo! Its divine wind will rush through the stars, propelling all who are worthy along the path to salvation.|The [[Prophet of Mercy]].<ref>'''Halo 2''', campaign level ''[[Sacred Icon]]''</ref>}}

When the reseeded civilizations of the galaxy rebuilt in the following millennia, they were left with only distant historical fragments of the age of Forerunners. The [[San'Shyuum]], initially rebellious against the Forerunners, turned to worshipping their long departed oppressors. Without the complete account of what had happened, the San'Shyuum came to believe that the Halos were great machines designed to ascend its users to godhood. Their interpretation of the fragmentary texts was that the rings summoned sublime energies that burnt away falsehood and freed the soul from the material world.{{Ref/Reuse|sublime}} The Forerunners, according to them, had become spirit and reigned as gods, and had left their relics and holy texts behind to inform the other races on how to ascend like them. This legend about the Halos came to form the basis of the [[Covenant religion]], and the [[Covenant]] was formed as an interspecies union that together would seek the sacred rings.

There were some doubts among the Covenant that the legend was true. Some [[Sangheili]], such as the clan of [[Ussa 'Xellus]], believed that the rings did not exist but were a lie made up by the San'Shyuum in order to deceive species they [[Slavery|enslaved]].<ref>'''Halo: Broken Circle''', ''page 196''</ref> One of the San'Shyuum Prophets, [[Mken 'Scre'ah'ben]], had doubts about the rings' function, since to him the descriptions of the Halo effect sounded close to that of weapons.<ref name="sublime">'''Halo: Broken Circle''', ''page 67''</ref> Another San'Shyuum, the future [[Prophet of Truth]] believed in the rings and initiated their firing, but feared that some of the faithful could be left behind and not ascend, after discovering that [[human]]s were, by his interpretation, [[Reclaimer|un-ascended Forerunners]]. Truth thus resolved to eliminate all opportunity of doubt for the Covenant, demanding the extinction of humans before their status was discovered then ordering the Sangheili assassinated and replaced with [[Jiralhanae]] when many Elites began to question the claims of the Prophets.

The truth of the Halos of what happened to the Forerunners was revealed in [[2552]], when [[343 Guilty Spark]], the [[monitor]] of [[Installation 04|Alpha Halo]] explained their true use to the Covenant and humanity. Some, such as the [[Jiralhanae|Brutes]] and the Prophets chose to reject his words, and so nearly initiated a second Purification twice, at Delta Halo and then at the Ark.<ref>'''Halo 2''', campaign level ''[[The Great Journey]]''</ref><ref>'''Halo 3''', campaign level ''[[The Covenant (level)|The Covenant]]''</ref> Others, like humans and the Sangheili, accepted his words and put their efforts into preventing the firing of the rings. While humanity willingly fired a single ring, [[Installation 08]], at the very end of the [[Human-Covenant War]], the ring was safely kept out of range from the rest of the galaxy so its effects would be confined to the Ark.<ref>'''Halo 3''', campaign level ''[[Halo (Halo 3 level)|Halo]]''</ref>

A few Forerunner survivors emerged in the years after the Covenant War, resentful of the Purification's destruction of Forerunner civilization. After [[New Phoenix Incident|an initial attack on Earth]] with the [[Composer]] failed, the revived [[Ur-Didact]] attempted revenge on humanity with [[Installation 03|a captured Halo ring]], abandoning his principles to never use them.<ref>'''[[Halo: Escalation]]'''</ref> Another ancient, [[000 Tragic Solitude]], once the Forerunner politician [[Splendid-Dust-of-Ancient-Suns]], used the threat of a second Purification to trick humans into opening [[Portal at Voi|a portal from Earth to the Ark]], feeling that the species of the galaxy deserved to be wiped out for their own mistreatment of the Array. To prevent further incidents, standard operating procedure when encountering a new Halo was to secure its control room and [[activation index]] so that the ring would be prevented from firing.<ref>'''[[Halo: Hunters in the Dark]]'''</ref>

 

**''[[Terminal (Halo 3)|Terminals]]'' {{Mo}}

**''[[Terminal (Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary)|Terminals]]''

**''[[Terminal (Halo 4)|Terminals]]'' {{Mo}}

*''[[Rebirth]]'' {{Mo}}

{{Ref/Sources|2}}

{{Forerunner-Flood War}}