Editing Ur-Didact

{{ratings}}
{{Era|Forerunner}}
{{Forerunner Character Infobox
|name= Didact
|homeworld=
|birth=
|death=(original body) c. 100,300 B.C.E.
|position=Commander of Forerunner military
|rate=[[Warrior-Servant]]
|gender=Male
|height=
|weapons=
|equipment=
|vehicles=
|hair= Pale fur
|eyes= Gray
|cyber=
|era=[[Halopedia:Timeline#Forerunner Era|Forerunner Era]]
|types=
|notable=
|affiliation=[[Forerunner|Forerunner Empire]]
}}

{{Quote|[[032 Mendicant Bias|Mendicant Bias]] is trying to prevent us from firing the Array. He speeds back to [[Installation 00|the Ark]], but he won't succeed. [[Offensive Bias]] will stop him, and I will burn this [[Flood|stinking menace]] in your name. And then? I will begin our Great Journey without you, carrying this bitter record. Those who came after will know what we bought with this [false transcendence] - what you bought, and the price you paid.|The Didact's final transmission.}}

The '''Didact'''<ref>'''[[Halo 3]]''', ''[[Terminal]]s''</ref> was a [[Forerunner]] [[Prometheans|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]].<ref>Iris Array Recorder Data (D-COM)</ref> Although he was physically killed by the [[Master Builder]] [[Faber]], he lived on by implanting his consciousness within a young [[Manipular]] known as [[Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting]].<ref>'''''[[Halo: Cryptum]]''''' page 339</ref>

==Biography==
The Didact was a Promethean, a member of an extremely powerful class of [[Warrior-Servant]]. Following the end of the [[Human-Forerunner War]] and the first discovery of the [[Flood]], he advocated a policy of vigilance and research in the event of a Flood resurgence. He also proposed the construction of [[Shield World]]s across the galaxy, in order to monitor the galaxy for Flood outbreaks and provide military support should they occur. However, a faction of Builders at the time proposed the construction of a series of [[Halo Array|superweapons]] to deal with the Flood instead, and they were successful in convincing the Council to sanction their plans. Having lost the political battle, the Didact was stripped of his power and forced into exile. 

At some point, he entered a state of meditation inside a Cryptum, which somehow ended up in [[Djamonkin Crater]] on [[Earth]]. Over a thousand years later, he was discovered and awoken by a young Forerunner Manipular, [[Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting]], who had come to Earth in search of Precursor relics. 

During his subsequent travels with Bornstellar, the Didact performed a brevet mutation on him to allow him access to the [[Domain]]. Shortly afterward, the Didact transferred all of his memories and knowledge to Bornstellar, essentially merging his personality with the young Forerunner. The Didact was later executed at the hands of the [[Faber|Master Builder]], making Bornstellar, for all intents and purposes, the reincarnation of the Didact. He would go on to meet his wife, the [[Librarian]], aboard Installation 00.

===Forerunner-Flood War===
During the [[Forerunner-Flood War]], he was constantly trying to convince the Librarian to give up on her mission to save other sentient life from the Halos, and return to him "Where it is safe". His pleas, however, were unsuccessful, and the Librarian ended up destroying her own fleet, stranding herself on [[Earth]] to live out the rest of her days in a place she referred to as "[[Eden]]".

===Fate===
Didact's, and thus Bornstellar's eventual fate is unclear, whether or not he survived the activation or perished, as his location is not specified, be it on the Ark, or one of the Halo Rings. 

While the Server's first episode seems to state that Didact perished, though Terminal 7 seems to contradict this, as Didact describes going on the Forerunner's "Great Journey" without the Librarian, carrying the "bitter record" of the Forerunner's failure. Whether this describes an actual physical event and his survival, or a more ideological/religious concept involving the Forerunner's concept of death and the afterlife that he is describing, is unclear.

==Trivia==
*A conversation between Didact and the Librarian can be found inside the Terminals in ''[[Halo 3]]''. When the [[Terminal]]s are accessed, the player is eventually moved to their old conversation that was recorded before the [[Halo]] rings were fired.
*In the [[Iris]] campaign Server [[Episode 1]], Didact's last words to the Librarian can be read moments prior to the Array's activation.
*The word "Didact" actually means "one who teaches" in Greek. From this information, one could infer that at one point in his life he did some important teaching in Forerunner culture. The name Didact could come from the word didactic which means to instruct others in morals. This is rather ironic because he wound up being the one committing galactic genocide, firing the metaphorical gun at the head of the galaxy.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Didact.png|The [[List of Forerunner Symbols|glyph]] used to represent the Didact.
</gallery>

==List of appearances==
*''[[Halo 3]]'' {{1st}} {{C|Transmissions only}}
*''[[Forerunner Saga]]''
**''[[Halo: Cryptum]]''
*''[[Halo Legends]]''
**''[[Origins]]''
*''[[Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe]]''
**''[[Soma the Painter]]''
*''[[Iris]]''

==Sources==
<references/>
{{Forerunner-Flood War}}
[[Category:Forerunner Characters]]