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Great Purification: Difference between revisions
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After the Flood appeared defeated by [[Prehistoric human civilization|early humanity]], the [[Builder]]s, led by [[Faber-of-Will-and-Might]] insisted that stronger measures needed to be put in place across the galaxy in case the Flood should ever return. They proposed the assembling of the Halo Array, enormous ringworlds that fire a wave with interstellar range that would purge the galaxy of Flood infection by killing all carbon and calcium-based lifeforms on which it fed. While this proposal was met with immediate outrage from [[Ur-Didact|the Didact]] and the [[Warrior-Servant]]s, the [[Librarian]] and her [[Lifeworker]]s reneged to the plan if environmental steps were taken to preserve as much of the galaxy's wildlife and races as possible for reseeding after the Array was fired. These two suggestions were approved and the Halo Array was assembled, designed as both a weapon of mass destruction and nature preserve. | After the Flood appeared defeated by [[Prehistoric human civilization|early humanity]], the [[Builder]]s, led by [[Faber-of-Will-and-Might]] insisted that stronger measures needed to be put in place across the galaxy in case the Flood should ever return. They proposed the assembling of the Halo Array, enormous ringworlds that fire a wave with interstellar range that would purge the galaxy of Flood infection by killing all carbon and calcium-based lifeforms on which it fed. While this proposal was met with immediate outrage from [[Ur-Didact|the Didact]] and the [[Warrior-Servant]]s, the [[Librarian]] and her [[Lifeworker]]s reneged to the plan if environmental steps were taken to preserve as much of the galaxy's wildlife and races as possible for reseeding after the Array was fired. These two suggestions were approved and the Halo Array was assembled, designed as both a weapon of mass destruction and nature preserve. | ||
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''' | 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 [[Promethean Knight]] droids, which were created from unwillingly 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 everyone else in the galaxy, including the [[Librarian]] herself. | 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 everyone else in the galaxy, including the [[Librarian]] herself. | ||
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The ongoing space battle of the Forerunners and the Flood, the [[Battle of the Maginot Sphere]], had its order completely reversed. Mendicant Bias' Flood-controlled fleet had been fighting with Offensive's Forerunner-and-mechanical fleet, but within moments the rogue AI suddenly found itself with ships without any living crew. Offensive used Mendicant's momentary confusion to gain the upper hand, commanding his remaining ships directly and destroying the majority of the Flood's fleet in under 90 seconds. Mendicant was subsequently captured and imprisoned at Installation 00.<ref>'''Halo 3''' - ''Terminal 6''</ref> | The ongoing space battle of the Forerunners and the Flood, the [[Battle of the Maginot Sphere]], had its order completely reversed. Mendicant Bias' Flood-controlled fleet had been fighting with Offensive's Forerunner-and-mechanical fleet, but within moments the rogue AI suddenly found itself with ships without any living crew. Offensive used Mendicant's momentary confusion to gain the upper hand, commanding his remaining ships directly and destroying the majority of the Flood's fleet in under 90 seconds. Mendicant was subsequently captured and imprisoned at Installation 00.<ref>'''Halo 3''' - ''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. | 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>'''[[Halo: 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 6 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, 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]], 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 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]] - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe''', "[[From the Office of Dr. William Arthur Iqbal]]", ''page 519''</ref> | The biological effects of the rings had long term consequences on the galaxy's ecosystems. Because the Librarian could not rescue every species, 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]], 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 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]] - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe''', "[[From the Office of Dr. William Arthur Iqbal]]", ''page 519''</ref> | ||