Even the Precursors cannot justify their own existence. They did not create themselves, nor did they create the universe. They rely on the universe for their existence.

The philosophy and complexity of the precursors is so fun to become immersed in. Thank you!

My personal head canon is that their are certain aspects of The Mantle that the precursors are withholding from lower species. All the available lore describes them as beings that have apparently experienced all achievable phases of biological, technological and societal evolution so many times over that their own incorporeal existence in the subatomic 4th dimensional fabric of the physical universe they currently inhabit is a bit too boring and predictable. So to remedy this they essentially 'farm' sapient life on the plane of existence just below them to gain fresh memories and experiences while appointing a sapient species or mantle holder to herd the flock sorta like a shepard dog until the precursors decide to reset things by sending in the flood to wipe out their 'creations' to begin the cycle anew and reap the bounties of their latest harvest.

Was super happy to work on this with y’a 00!

Always love to see content on the Precursors.

Its so hard to believe that this is fiction sometimes, it's so detailed and itd be amazing and mindblowing to know this much about space and the beings from other galaxies, creatures that have adapted to the endless bounds with knowledge and technology as expansive as the cosmos themselves.

Considering how Halo Infinite is setting up The Endless to be a larger threat than the Flood, which by all accounts come from the Precursors, and this series of games is called The Reclaimer Saga, what are the odds that a Precursor will appear to see the final test of who is truly worth of The Mantle since history recounts that not all the Precursors are dead when the Forerunners went to war against them? For that matter, what if 117 through all his trials is becoming what the Precursors wanted to see? We know that the Librarian did something to the humans in order to have a kind of defense against the Didact's Composer which is what spared 117 and Avery Johnson was made immune to the Flood infection because of his SPARTAN-I augmentations even though it was never intended. These factors can be shown that the Master Chief is either being turned into a Precursor or the true successor.

The Precursors never truly died. They just evolved. Evolved into the Flood.

The Precursors had technology that was simply beyond any of hope of understanding by the Forerunners, and could even alter reality with their thoughts. The Forerunners hunted and nearly drove the Precursors into extinction. I've yet to hear anything that even comes close to rectifying the above 2 statements. And that is a huge problem.

Probably one of the most intriguing, interesting and fascinating parts of the Halo lore. Makes you ask yourself questions, mindblowning questions, and i like it.

"All this has happened before, All this will happen again."

Very good video. Scary thought that we/Humanity and the rest of the races in the galaxy in the Halo universe don't truly know a damn thing about the forces we're playing around with or are just outright unaware of. . .

Not gonna lie, but the stories of the Librarian and the primordial seem the be the closest match. I'd say that the story found on the Ark is the forerunner retelling to absolve their guilt, while that of the Liberian and Primordial are the trustworthy sources.

I love these kinds of vidoes, where you sit and think, not just about Halo but our own universe itself. Thanks for an amazing video full of thought and passion 00.

I might be slow but watching the end of infinits current story line.. has anyone commented on the fact that there are 7 rings and each one looks almost like it could reference a halo.. right down to the damage done to them? The furthest ring is shattered all but one spot.. which we know from nightfall is about the size of the piece that remains of Alpha Halo, while one has a chunk missing from it.. much like Zeta.. the others are full.. coincidence? Or time.. playing tricks

I LOVE these precursor videos, there are just too few and i saw them all already

Instillation 00: there are 3 conflicting stores but which one is true KFC ad that popped up: KFC CHICKEN IS ONLY SERVED ONE WAY!

It's funny how you describe the fact that how the universe will repeat itself almost reminds me of how the gravemind describing himself and the flood the fact that they exist like a tide of water they will always regress but always come back no matter what happens to them

Sounds more like a cosmic horror story by entities who are enjoying an endless cycle of meaningless existence they created. Edit: RINGRAD that is only your opinion not a fact. But I am not talking about real life I am referring to this game's internal universe.

You sir, are an excellent narrator

Never clicked on a vid so fast. Your precursor stuff is my favorite content on the internet.

The universe is the soil, life is the crop, precursors the gardeners and the flood the sickle

Honestly, I would love a video game appearance of a precursor.

Always glued to anything regarding ancient humanity and precursors! Thank you!

Boy wouldn’t it be ironic if the chief turned out to be EXACTLY LIKE THE DIDACT and the weapon/Cortana EXACTLY LIKE THE LIBRARIAN. Awesome vid the future Fri the franchise is bright

I'm really really hoping this stuff doesn't get relegated to a book because this is literally about prophecies told hundreds of thousands of years ago, redemption, reclamation, and humanity's fate. The return of not only the Forerunners, but the Precursors too. What a waste it would be to not put it at the forefront of the series.

This is the kind of content I want to mainline into my veins.

All three have their ambiguities and subtle incompletenesses. One example is the recondite description of how the forerunners suddenly discovered they fell short of the probity which accompanies forfending the “mantle of responsibility.” Surely the precursors would never betray their plans to supersede the forerunners with humanity in conferring the MOR on humans? Let me be clear “history is written by the victors” and while the stories are relatively straightforward, yet they do not square. There is an element of mystery and uncertainty that engulfs all 3 accounts. By and large these 3 excerpts leave the Halo fans mired in ambivalence and “wanting” more rich lore to be expatiated by I-00 yo!

Beautiful as always! And can we just agree how awesome the new music is to fit in the background?

Food for thought what if, there is a full precursor that preserved itself of being killed in the halo firing array and what if that last remaining lowkey Precursor(not the Primordial) was the one to teach the Endless how to control time to save themselves from firing Halo array… I know my theory might be little complicated but just something that has been circling in my mind.

In that last scenario, cycles, factions playing out the same actions or and over, power changing hands... I wonder if the San'Shium ever had a bash at it.

I liked this recounting of Halo history even if the whole thing becomes a little too esoteric for my tastes. I'm here for the military science fiction!

I’ve been looking forward to this.

Ah a new video just in time to listen to to start my work day.

love to see this revisited

This sat in my watch later for almost 2 years lmao glad I finally finished it

maybe the primordial was just a rouge precursor who speaks on behalf of his own personal agenda/ creation of the flood, rather than a direct connection between the flood & all precursors? i still feel that the primordial is not be trusted as an honest/truthful account due to bias/manipulation tactics. i just love the whole mystery of all of this, easily my favorite part of the halo universe

This is perfect timing since I’m re listening to the Forerunner saga audiobooks.

As detailed by the librerian at the end of the afformentioned book, she along with a few other Forerunners basically manipulated the precursor flowers (who would basically eventually grow into actual precursors), manipulated so as to strip them of what would likely be over a billion years of evolution, not unlike how the Forerunners de-evolved ancient humanity as a depraved act of vengeance and a power-move.

Wait, aren't all three of these stories from a Forerunner's perspective? The unsc ai got it from a foreruner installation, the primordial's account comes from a Forerunner's memories, and the first account from the librarian, also comes from a forerunner source.

I love this channel so much ! There is just no words to describe the quality of your righting and narration

I won’t hold my breathe, this story could go either way but you give me a little hope

Amazing video brother

So the covenant were like the forerunners, fighting for the mantle. They didn’t like what they learned. Interesting.

More of this please

The precursors, seeing everything as sweetness, both positive and negative things, represent such a grateful attitude to life, a phylosophy that appreciates reality as it is.

Thanks. 💯

What if the forerunner learned of this cycle of death and rebirth and life and suffering that the precursors were propagating, and as the being the holders of the mantle of responsibility, killed the precursors in order to STOP the cycle? Because if the mantle of responsibility is to protect, then eventually having everything die would go against that, so the forerunners took offense to this because the mantle says so

Love the new intro

Nice work

Bro you should be a voiceover narrator

@Eck The Precursors didn’t all get killed and didn't all become dust. Some of them had already left the Galaxy others went into suspended animation and some became the powder that became the Flood. Possibly by choice to teach the Forerunners a lesson before making them kill themselves.

'Truths hidden and buried so deep within the folds of living time that they can barely be separated from the background noise of the big bang ' a pretty interesting quote Creator and creation endlessly warring each other scarring the echoes of time like a river carving a canyon...

Even though I have some differing opinions of the Precursors in your past videos on them I have really enjoyed your lore on these a lot. You're very talented at this. So I came to a theory, although It's not complete as I haven't read the Forerunner Saga myself but watched a LOT of lore videos on it. This theory has led me to believe that the Precursors were a very nuanced, probably more so than the Primordial, who I believe turned to darkness and against the wishes of many of his own kind. To support this I believe that the dark secret that he told the humans that committed suicide, may well be in fact not entirely true, but maybe what he, or some Precursors wanted, while others wanted to preserve life, some others may well have wanted to 'harvest' it. I see this as a likely possibility, with newer lore giving me more inclination to these thoughts being the case. I also agree that time does move in cycles, although it's a common story mechanic in sci fi, as Mass Effect and other large sci fi has done that. I also believe the Xelanyn, or Endless, were not Precursors, but also were powerful masters of Time, although they could be another descendent of the Precursors. A sister species to Humans, if you will. The genocidal attack on the Precursors you described here really gives me some thoughts, I wonder if part of it was inspired by the persecution and Holocaust of Jewish people. Maybe a sci fi allegory to evils of that nature?

If the Precursors still existed they would say to the For Runners might does not make right, to extinguish life in the universe is not there right 😳 regardless of the danger

You remain as the top level Halo canon archivist out there. In this troubling times where all we face is anger and hate, to see you continue to push the lore ahead with marvelous theories and remain away from the 343 haters capitalizing on the anger towards the studio, says great things about you. We need more prophets like you. And a lot less haters like the rest of the KZfaqrs. Thank you.

And here we go😁

I got the grave mind voice and the line "I am a monument..." Is the deepest rawest thing I know to say in any voice.

this universe is so awesome... why the frick did they make a tv show of an alternate timeline???

Dream of dreams, in sweetness you spark the reality of the living truth.

You tread on dangerous ground my friend. We ultimately know little of what the Precursors were like, what they wanted and what they did. Only what the Forerunners wrote in their histories after their war against them.

The first casualty of War is the truth!!!

I've always wondered with the precursors, did they "create" life or simply speed up evolution so to speak? If they created it they would have to have been in the milky way galaxy for billions of years (the first bacteria on earth for example), and as far as I know they have only been in the galaxy for what 100 million years? It makes much more sense to me if they simply hyper-evolved species from around the galaxy, taking primative species, and giving them the brain capacity to become space faring? Idk just headcannon to be honest.

Viewer 492 here! Love the content, and keep it up!!

It’s like the battlestar galactica time repeats

I wonder if Halo is connected canonically to Marathon

Have you ever heard the tragedy of Darth Primordial the Wise?

What was the installation00 video where he discussed something from outside our galaxy coming to give the ultimate and final test of the precursors?

Discussion idea: Reclamation vs reformation.

When you rise against the greatest liars and fail, their propaganda against you is immeasurable. May thy spirit rise from the grave, so the world will see that you are right.

Just imagine if all this was somewhat true. Humanity is far far older than many think.

a deep and penetrating look, it shows how much you love the halo lore Installation 00 :P

Whooooooooo!!!!!!

I just had a thought: considering the Precursors turned themselves into powder and they somehow became corrupted into the Flood, what if some powder was successfully reconstituted and they changed themselves into the Xalanyn?

All this has happened before and all this will happen again

Bro you can read off a horror story I’ll still feel relaxed

Sooooooo “when they are ripe, and bring them unity” it’s been apart of the plan the whole time for whomever is worthy of the mantle to allow thyself to be “United” with the flood - bring them unity, to reject the flood is to reject life and living time. OOOOR it can be interpreted as being humanity (and ig their alliances) unity.

What If the reason the Halo rings don't work on the Endless is because the Endless actually created the Halo rings which is why the Harbinger also has the Reclaimer symbol on her helmet.

And doesn't this kinda contradict your theory that the flood are just another form of precursor, intended to fulfill the universe with experiences?

Was the Flood a vengeance visited by the Precursors upon the Forerunners or was it another test for worthiness of the Mantle? A test that the Forerunners failed, yet again, and Humans have passed twice?

The first minute sounds like some 40k stuff lol

Based

So is the Gravemind a primordial?

This is humanity’s test. To survive our rebirth.

Halo with a golden voice.

Precursing the universe change my mind

For the sake of our sanity, I kind of hope this is one answer 343i doesn't give us. Leave it to our speculation and interpretation.

Good

The precursors will return and woe to any who stand in their way

So if you evaluate all of these stories, technically they're all the same and it's more about perspective taking. Particularly with the 3rd story about the human race discovering the Primordial. If we look to Halo Legends this makes sense and explains why humanity and the Forerunners fought, which has never been deeply explored before.

Been listening to you for a long time but I've never commented on any of your videos that I can recall.., but, I just got to tell you you need to get a job with audible or somewhere like that cuz you have got an excellent read voice, lol. I know super nerd comment but couldn't help but notice. Love you work keep them coming

The precursors new they’d be wiped out.

I still need the last book in the forerunner trilogy (hardbound preferred)

When i play the games i cant look at them the same after watching your videos. In a good way tho

They sound like reapers from the mass effect games.

With all this expanded lore Halo is starting to feel like Warhammer 40K

The flood is the test. Thats my theory

If they ere taken by surprise, and that is true, then perhaps the powdered version is the one that is true.

wow I've removed my left leg with this one simple trick

Hope the precursor reappear