- "Daowa-maad. We hunt, we grow, we live. Life is simple — we do."
- — Morning Riser
- "Daowa-maadthu ... Fate is off-center, the wheel of life is cracked, the wagon will hit a rock, jolt hard, and fall apart for all of us - eventually."
- — Forthencho
- "We play out our parts in Living Time and accept all that life brings, and all that it takes away. So we support the Mantle: Daowa maadthu."
- — Ur-Didact
Daowa-maad, historically referred to as daowa-maadthu, was an ancient human philosophy.[1] The term itself meant the "roll and tug of the universe"[2] and was also known as the "mantra of the broken wheel".[1] Translated into the dialect spoken by Forerunner Builders, it meant roughly "You fall as your stresses crack you."[2] It was an ancient teaching, originating from the time of early humanity's spacefaring era and still remembered and followed by humanity's subdued remnants as of Chakas's generation ten thousand years later.[1]
The Didact cited the term in his last moments spent with the Librarian before his first exile in a Cryptum, equating it with the Mantle and its duty to observe the flow of Living Time; the Librarian was surprised by her husband, known for his hostility toward humanity, using such a phrase.[3] The Forerunner Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting learned the term from his ancilla, and the fact he knew it impressed Chakas and Riser, his two human guides on Erde-Tyrene.[2]
List of appearances
- Halo: Cryptum (First appearance)
- Halo: Primordium
- Halo: Silentium