Great Purification: Difference between revisions

==Effects==

{{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>}}

The Great Purification marked the end of the Flood-Forerunner war. Just before the firing, the galaxy had been teeming with Flood, who had progressed to an interstellar threat, consuming whole star systems, forming advanced Flood intelligences called [[Key Mind]]s, and able to 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 spores and 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>

==Legacy==

{{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 name="sublime"/> The Forerunners, according to them, had become spirit and reined 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 enslaved.<ref>'''Halo: Broken Circle''', ''page 196''</ref> One of 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.