The Gravemind is Not What You Think it Is

[Did4ct]

What is the Gravemind?

 

The Gravemind is the super-intelligent controlling unit of the Flood. It is a collectivization of the minds of the beings which it has overrun with its 'disease,' and is capable of controlling countless units of mobile Flood at once, through some sort of telepathy. The Gravemind then uses these thoughts/memories/intellects to expand its ever-noble cause: to consume all sentient life in the galaxy.

 

*However there is a problem. As shown from the terminals in Halo: CEA, the Gravemind forces its victims into submission. It is made up of innumerable minds of countless species, which in 'life,' had many different beliefs and agendas, and yet it consists of one, powerful consciousness. THEN WHOSE CONSCIOUSNESS CONTROLS ALL THOSE MINDS? WHOSE CONSCIOUSNESS IS THE GRAVEMIND ITSELF?

 

There is an answer. In Halo: Primordium, the Prisoner of Charum Hakkor (the Primordium), claims to be the last Precursor, the race of beings that preceded the Forerunners, that were even more advanced. This Precursor says to the Forerunner commander, the Didact, "We meet again, young one. I am the last of those that gave you breath and shape and form, millions of years ago. I am the last of those your kind rose up against and ruthlessly destroyed. I am the last Precursor. And our answer is at hand." At the end of the story, this Precursor is revealed to be a Gravemind. This 'Prisoner' was allegedly killed by the Didact in a reverse time capsule. I believe that the time capsule killed the body of that Gravemind, but the consciousness of the Gravemnd was preserved.

 

In Halo: CEA, The oracle has a conversation with a mysterious 'construct.' In response to the Oracle's question, the construct says,

 

"I serve, none serve me, Oracle." (He serves the will of the Precursors, but none are left to serve him)

 

He continues to say,

 

"We follow the path, and I am part of the -stone, -journey, -swarm that serves... I, we, serve. They will find, then I will be free." -Throughout the Halo's, the Gravemind refers to itself both as I and We. The Flood is being held 'prisoner' in the Halo.

 

The Gravemind in Halo 3 says to Chief, "Child of my enemy, why have you come? I offer no forgiveness. A father's sins, cast to his sons." -Humans are noted as 'Reclaimers' by the Forerunners, and there is evidence to suggest that that humans are from Forerunner lineage. This shows that the Gravemind is still exacting judgement on the Forerunners, even though they are gone (or are they?).

 

In conclusion, I believe that the Gravemind is the consciousness of one of the Precursors, who are said to be 'transsentient' by the Forerunners. Much of their technology dealt with the mind. This makes sense seeing that the Gravemind has such a strong will and can communicate telepathically.

 

I believe that this Precursor/Gravemind will be the primary antagonist later in the new Halo trilogy, because there are so many hints in Halo: CEA and Halo: Primordium that would not be worth discussing if it were otherwise.

[Zuko 'Zarhamee]

It's an interesting theory, but there is little evidence to support it. Everything can be explained by the fact that the consciousness of each Gravemind is preserved in what is left of the Flood. So the Gravemind that was killed in Halo 3 was effectively the same Gravemind that fought the Forerunners, which explains why the Halo 3 Gravemind was still exacting judgement on the Forerunners. And a Gravemind is the consciousness of the Flood itself. It is not made out of the minds of those that it's body was created from, it merely has access to their memories.

 

Edit: 500th post

Edited June 16, 2012 by TrueGhostlyotto

[Did4ct]

Thanks, if there's anything anyone can contribute, that would be nice.

[DoctorB77]

Amazing detail. I am astonished that you pulled this all together. This sounds like the type of stuff that was talked about with Aurora cygnus. If you can give any more information please do. We would love to help you piece this together.

[Zuko 'Zarhamee]

You just posted the same thread in the CE/CEA section. >_>

[Twam]

Staff Response
Topics Merged

[DoctorB77]

That's a first. I havnt seen topics merged before. Haha. Oh well. Still juicy info

[Did4ct]

When I first posted it in this Forum, it moved somewhere (maybe because the admin thought it didn't deal with Halo 4?) and I just wanted to get it back in the Halo 4 Forum, so I posted it again in the Halo CE/A Forum and it combined them in this Forum.

[Did4ct]

And a Gravemind is the consciousness of the Flood itself. It is not made out of the minds of those that it's body was created from, it merely has access to their memories.

 

Edit: 500th post

 

I think that the "consciousness of the Flood itself" is the consciousness of the Precursor in Halo: Primordium

[drunknmasta323]

What is the Gravemind?

 

The Gravemind is the super-intelligent controlling unit of the Flood. It is a collectivization of the minds of the beings which it has overrun with its 'disease,' and is capable of controlling countless units of mobile Flood at once, through some sort of telepathy. The Gravemind then uses these thoughts/memories/intellects to expand its ever-noble cause: to consume all sentient life in the galaxy.

 

*However there is a problem. As shown from the terminals in Halo: CEA, the Gravemind forces its victims into submission. It is made up of innumerable minds of countless species, which in 'life,' had many different beliefs and agendas, and yet it consists of one, powerful consciousness. THEN WHOSE CONSCIOUSNESS CONTROLS ALL THOSE MINDS? WHOSE CONSCIOUSNESS IS THE GRAVEMIND ITSELF?

 

There is an answer. In Halo: Primordium, the Prisoner of Charum Hakkor, claims to be the last Precursor, the race of beings that preceded the Forerunners, that were even more advanced. This Precursor says to the Forerunner commander, the Didact, "We meet again, young one. I am the last of those that gave you breath and shape and form, millions of years ago. I am the last of those your kind rose up against and ruthlessly destroyed. I am the last Precursor. And our answer is at hand." At the end of the story, this Precursor is revealed to be a Gravemind. This 'Prisoner' was allegedly killed by the Didact in a reverse time capsule. I believe that the time capsule killed the body of that Gravemind, but the consciousness of the Gravemnd was preserved.

 

In Halo: CEA, The oracle has a conversation with a mysterious 'construct.' In response to the Oracle's question, the construct says,

 

"I serve, none serve me, Oracle." (He serves the will of the Precursors, but none are left to serve him)

 

He continues to say,

 

"We follow the path, and I am part of the -stone, -journey, -swarm that serves... I, we, serve. They will find, then I will be free." -Throughout the Halo's, the Gravemind refers to itself both as I and We. The Flood is being held 'prisoner' in the Halo.

 

The Gravemind in Halo 3 says to Chief, "Child of my enemy, why have you come? I offer no forgiveness. A father's sins, cast to his sons." -Humans are noted as 'Reclaimers' by the Forerunners, and there is evidence to suggest that that humans are from Forerunner lineage. This shows that the Gravemind is still exacting judgement on the Forerunners, even though they are gone (or are they?).

 

In conclusion, I believe that the Gravemind is the consciousness of one of the Precursors, who are said to be 'transsentient' by the Forerunners. Much of their technology dealt with the mind. This makes sense seeing that the Gravemind has such a strong will and can communicate telepathically.

 

I believe that this Precursor/Gravemind will be the primary antagonist later in the new Halo trilogy, because there are so many hints in Halo: CEA and Halo: Primordium

 

some issues with your theory:

 

1) humans and forerunners may be related, but definitely co-existed at the same time. look up human-forerunner war which was caused by the first human-flood war over 100,000 years b4 halo ce. so humans did not come from forerunners.

2) a singular consciousness doesn't "control" all its parts. that's like saying your conscious guides your every decision. it is a voice that you hear inside you, but not necessarily something you listen to all the time.

3) the text you referred to from primordium could be taken another way. because the gravemind, which is a collection of thoughts and memories from the flood collective, the gravemind only knows of life from a perspective of before (memories of those infected) and after (memories of those after infection) infection. so his "giving breath and shape and form" literally is him speaking of infecting creatures throughout the universe, not of creating forerunners or humans or covenant. he is speaking of the flood existing prior to the forerunners existence. which could be a clue as to what happened to the precursors (who we have no idea what they were, only that all forerunner, human and covenant technology makes leaps and bounds once its incorporated.

4) the will of the precursors is known as "the mantle". it essentially says to preserve all life and is what most forerunners, especially the librarian (didact's wife) followed. it was the whole problem with the builder, who used a halo ring on one of the homeworlds of the prophets to teach them a lesson when they tried to again rebel (human-forerunner war had humans and prophets siding together against forerunners). so the mysterious construct wasn't speaking about the will of the flood necessarily, but about the fact that the construct was betrayed by its own people.

5) further information that the gravemind from halo 2/3 is not the same gravemind as interacted with Didact is, he refers to his enemy as the forerunners. the forerunners were the last group to fight the flood. but prior to that, humans also fought the flood. so that would mean the gravemind from halo 2/3 did not know about the human-flood war that happened prior to the human-forerunner war. the only enemy he knew of was the last enemy. this also speaks to what TrueGhost said about the gravemind existing within the remaining flood from the first halo array activation. the flood that was left would only have memories of the forerunner-flood war, not of previous wars necessarily. furthermore, the new gravemind could also have been referring to the covenant as his enemy and not speaking about the forerunners.

 

with all that said, interesting theory, could be possible, but seems like maybe some parts will play into it while others will not. all the info i refer to can be found on halo.wikia.com. human-forerunner war http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Human-Forerunner_war

[Veer Zamamai]

A Gravemind is a combination of different parasite forms, as discussed in Halo: Combat Evolved. It first starts of as a Proto-Gravemind which connects itself to the surroundings via tentacles. However, it needs a human/other species' body with a sustainable amount of biomass to create a fully fledged Gravemind. Once it has an able body, it will absorb the body's intelligence, make it forget everything and will then shut down the body's major organs which will terminate the body.

 

It can only work/feed with/on the most intelligent organisms possible, hence the name brain-form. Although these aren't seen much, they are incredibly dangerous and are used for tasks no other can complete. A Proto-Gravemind are sometimes used to pilot a starship, and going back to the biomass section, they will combine their forms with ship officers, pilots and the commanding officer(s) to gather knowledge on how to complete the task. They will use the body's consciousness to gather information out of them via a method known as interrogation. The body is also known as a host. Also, only after the host as been stripped of all knowledge is the host terminated by the Proto-Gravemind. Where it is possible for the host to die before the Proto-Gravemind has assimilated all of the host's knowledge, like has been done before.

 

A prime example of this is the Truth and Reconciliation, a Proto-Gravemind does exactly this to Captain Jacob Keyes, of the UNSC Halcyon-class light cruiser Pillar of Autumn. If you find the terminal which is associated with this mission, it will give a video showing what the Proto-Gravemind put the Captain through, and you can hear the screams and the noises it used to assimilate his knowledge and make him forget everything. The parasites' intention was to use the Captain's knowledge to pilot the CCS Battlecruiser, as the Gravemind would of had his knowledge to do so. Due to Master Chief Petty Officer, John-117, this action was not completed as Installation 04 was destroyed thanks to the Pillar of Autumn.

 

This Proto-Gravemind was nowhere near completion. It must grow incredibly in size for it to reach its next stage, the Gravemind, a near-omniscient parasitic form made of thousands of host bodies infused with the knowledge of each host that was used to make the Gravemind. This is formed once a Proto-Gravemind has reached something called a "critical mass" which is where it has developed a centralised intelligence. This only happens on rare occasions, usually because the parasite is seldom loose on a large enough scale to allow Proto-Graveminds to grow large enough to become a Gravemind. Only two Graveminds are known to have ever been created; however, they seem to have the same memories, since the Gravemind present during the Human-Covenant war possessed detailed knowledge concerning the Forerunner-Flood War and even described the actions of the previous Gravemind during that time period as if they were his own. In essence, because it shares all the knowledge of the previous Gravemind and considers them both to be the same being, the Gravemind of the games is the Gravemind that fought the Forerunners, simply been reborn from another Proto-Gravemind.

 

There is reams and reams of this and I could go on about it all day. Quite frankly, I do not have the energy or the time to do so. Therefore, I will leave it here.

[Did4ct]

some issues with your theory:

 

1) humans and forerunners may be related, but definitely co-existed at the same time. look up human-forerunner war which was caused by the first human-flood war over 100,000 years b4 halo ce. so humans did not come from forerunners.

2) a singular consciousness doesn't "control" all its parts. that's like saying your conscious guides your every decision. it is a voice that you hear inside you, but not necessarily something you listen to all the time.

3) the text you referred to from primordium could be taken another way. because the gravemind, which is a collection of thoughts and memories from the flood collective, the gravemind only knows of life from a perspective of before (memories of those infected) and after (memories of those after infection) infection. so his "giving breath and shape and form" literally is him speaking of infecting creatures throughout the universe, not of creating forerunners or humans or covenant. he is speaking of the flood existing prior to the forerunners existence. which could be a clue as to what happened to the precursors (who we have no idea what they were, only that all forerunner, human and covenant technology makes leaps and bounds once its incorporated.

4) the will of the precursors is known as "the mantle". it essentially says to preserve all life and is what most forerunners, especially the librarian (didact's wife) followed. it was the whole problem with the builder, who used a halo ring on one of the homeworlds of the prophets to teach them a lesson when they tried to again rebel (human-forerunner war had humans and prophets siding together against forerunners). so the mysterious construct wasn't speaking about the will of the flood necessarily, but about the fact that the construct was betrayed by its own people.

5) further information that the gravemind from halo 2/3 is not the same gravemind as interacted with Didact is, he refers to his enemy as the forerunners. the forerunners were the last group to fight the flood. but prior to that, humans also fought the flood. so that would mean the gravemind from halo 2/3 did not know about the human-flood war that happened prior to the human-forerunner war. the only enemy he knew of was the last enemy. this also speaks to what TrueGhost said about the gravemind existing within the remaining flood from the first halo array activation. the flood that was left would only have memories of the forerunner-flood war, not of previous wars necessarily. furthermore, the new gravemind could also have been referring to the covenant as his enemy and not speaking about the forerunners.

 

with all that said, interesting theory, could be possible, but seems like maybe some parts will play into it while others will not. all the info i refer to can be found on halo.wikia.com. human-forerunner war http://halo.wikia.co...-Forerunner_war

 

I have a problem with every single one of your points.

 

1) I know what the Human-Forerunner war is. Guilty Spark says to Chief, "You are the child of my makers. Inheritor of all they left behind. You are Forerunner."

2) There is a BIG difference between a conscience and a consciousness. I think you confused them. Consciousness is more like self-awareness.

3) If it had been talking about absorbing him into a Gravemind, he would be destroying "breath, shape, and form" He claims to be a Precrursor, those who made the Forerunners.

4) I believe that the Precursor threw away this belief after the evil rebellion of the Forerunners. "Our answer is at hand." "Child of my enemy... I offer no forgiveness." The enemy is Forerunner.

5) He refers to the enemy as Forerunners, oh I don't know, maybe because they killed off the Precursors and also created the Halo Rings and blew most of the galaxy to Hell to kill the Flood.

[drunknmasta323]

I have a problem with every single one of your points.

 

1) I know what the Human-Forerunner war is. Guilty Spark says to Chief, "You are the child of my makers. Inheritor of all they left behind. You are Forerunner."

2) There is a BIG difference between a conscience and a consciousness. I think you confused them. Consciousness is more like self-awareness.

3) If it had been talking about absorbing him into a Gravemind, he would be destroying "breath, shape, and form" He claims to be a Precrursor, those who made the Forerunners.

4) I believe that the Precursor threw away this belief after the evil rebellion of the Forerunners. "Our answer is at hand." "Child of my enemy... I offer no forgiveness." The enemy is Forerunner.

5) He refers to the enemy as Forerunners, oh I don't know, maybe because they killed off the Precursors and also created the Halo Rings and blew most of the galaxy to Hell to kill the Flood.

 

1) Guilty spark does say that in the game. You are confusing the game with the world of Halo. Guilty spark was created by Didact from a human who was dying. It is possible that forerunners created humans. They did treat them as beneath them as the forerunners did every living creature in the universe. Humans found precursor technology and, unbeknownst to the forerunners, caught up to them in technology. Then began to expand after they fought with the flood, which forerunners had no idea existed at the time. Once they found out, they understood the purpose for the human expansion in the universe. The phrase, "You are forerunner" is more of a reinforcement of the "inheritor" term. Guilty sparks is juxtaposing current humans for forerunners, not saying that Master Chief is an actual forerunner.

 

2) There is a difference between conscience and consciousness. Maybe I should put it in geek terms for you. I was trying to make it a personal thing. You are looking at gravemind like the Skynet master computer. As if gravemind created all the spores for whatever reason even though gravemind was created from the spores and collecting infections. As if gravemind is a precursor who created forerunners, not that gravemind or the eternal one are consciousness of the collective which can only happen when there are enough infections. Gravemind is not skynet, but moreso like the head borg on star trek. just the voice for the collective, not the actual brain bug on starship troopers.

 

3) and Gravemind is a precursor in the literal sense of the word. The flood was not created, only studied by the forerunners, which is why the Eternal One predated forerunners. Not a precursor creator. Think of "The Mantle" which the precursors lived by (and certain forerunners including the librarian), which states that they are the custodians of all life and must preserve any and all (including the flood). does that sound like a gravemind decided to write a creed called the mantle? Also, why would the flood be destroying species if the creed that the precursors, and as you put it gravemind itself, is to preserve all life as individual species and be custodians?

 

4) Once again, quotes from the halo games are usually references to a much larger picture which they expound upon in books. They are within a specific context. The evil rebellion of the forerunners against the flood is the same as the evil rebellion of humans against the flood prior to that. The enemy of the flood is anyone that tries to stop the collective, which seems to be everybody including the covies and most likely the precursors. My theory is that precursors are biological scientist beings who created all species through experimentation and the flood is one of those experiments. The flood destroyed them and starved out. But they had libraries holding dna for all the species were created and once it was determined by some custodian left to tend the flock that the flood was no more, the species were re-introduced. Similarly to what happened after the rings were activated during the forerunner-flood war. And yes, by absorbing covenant and human, the Gravemind would be destroying "breath, shape and form", so did the flood do so? The only reason the arbitor and chief weren't absorbed was because they served a purpose. If they had stopped the halo arrays and not destroyed the flood, you think they would have been sent back to their homeworlds to reproduce and continue life while the flood, which started flying ships just floated through space dying out?

 

5) Forerunners created the halo rings as a response to fighting the flood, not as a response to fighting the precursors. Gravemind would have referred to them as the enemy because they used the rings on them leaving only spore samples in libraries, as "The Mantle" dictated they should. The reason the humans, especially master chief is considered less enemy than the forerunners is because of the human response to the flood. During the human-flood war, humans didn't create rings that eradicated the flood. They expanded to forerunner planets in order to find precursor tech and fight the flood better. Master Chief already destroyed a ring in Halo CE, so the gravemind collective looks at humans as not his enemy.

 

Once again, with all this said, the original theory is possible. We won't know more til the game and the next book come out.

[drunknmasta323]

A Gravemind is a combination of different parasite forms, as discussed in Halo: Combat Evolved. It first starts of as a Proto-Gravemind which connects itself to the surroundings via tentacles. However, it needs a human/other species' body with a sustainable amount of biomass to create a fully fledged Gravemind. Once it has an able body, it will absorb the body's intelligence, make it forget everything and will then shut down the body's major organs which will terminate the body.

 

It can only work/feed with/on the most intelligent organisms possible, hence the name brain-form. Although these aren't seen much, they are incredibly dangerous and are used for tasks no other can complete. A Proto-Gravemind are sometimes used to pilot a starship, and going back to the biomass section, they will combine their forms with ship officers, pilots and the commanding officer(s) to gather knowledge on how to complete the task. They will use the body's consciousness to gather information out of them via a method known as interrogation. The body is also known as a host. Also, only after the host as been stripped of all knowledge is the host terminated by the Proto-Gravemind. Where it is possible for the host to die before the Proto-Gravemind has assimilated all of the host's knowledge, like has been done before.

 

A prime example of this is the Truth and Reconciliation, a Proto-Gravemind does exactly this to Captain Jacob Keyes, of the UNSC Halcyon-class light cruiser Pillar of Autumn. If you find the terminal which is associated with this mission, it will give a video showing what the Proto-Gravemind put the Captain through, and you can hear the screams and the noises it used to assimilate his knowledge and make him forget everything. The parasites' intention was to use the Captain's knowledge to pilot the CCS Battlecruiser, as the Gravemind would of had his knowledge to do so. Due to Master Chief Petty Officer, John-117, this action was not completed as Installation 04 was destroyed thanks to the Pillar of Autumn.

 

This Proto-Gravemind was nowhere near completion. It must grow incredibly in size for it to reach its next stage, the Gravemind, a near-omniscient parasitic form made of thousands of host bodies infused with the knowledge of each host that was used to make the Gravemind. This is formed once a Proto-Gravemind has reached something called a "critical mass" which is where it has developed a centralised intelligence. This only happens on rare occasions, usually because the parasite is seldom loose on a large enough scale to allow Proto-Graveminds to grow large enough to become a Gravemind. Only two Graveminds are known to have ever been created; however, they seem to have the same memories, since the Gravemind present during the Human-Covenant war possessed detailed knowledge concerning the Forerunner-Flood War and even described the actions of the previous Gravemind during that time period as if they were his own. In essence, because it shares all the knowledge of the previous Gravemind and considers them both to be the same being, the Gravemind of the games is the Gravemind that fought the Forerunners, simply been reborn from another Proto-Gravemind.

 

There is reams and reams of this and I could go on about it all day. Quite frankly, I do not have the energy or the time to do so. Therefore, I will leave it here.

 

Exactly. Good info

[Did4ct]

1) Guilty spark does say that in the game. You are confusing the game with the world of Halo. Guilty spark was created by Didact from a human who was dying. It is possible that forerunners created humans. They did treat them as beneath them as the forerunners did every living creature in the universe. Humans found precursor technology and, unbeknownst to the forerunners, caught up to them in technology. Then began to expand after they fought with the flood, which forerunners had no idea existed at the time. Once they found out, they understood the purpose for the human expansion in the universe. The phrase, "You are forerunner" is more of a reinforcement of the "inheritor" term. Guilty sparks is juxtaposing current humans for forerunners, not saying that Master Chief is an actual forerunner.

 

2) There is a difference between conscience and consciousness. Maybe I should put it in geek terms for you. I was trying to make it a personal thing. You are looking at gravemind like the Skynet master computer. As if gravemind created all the spores for whatever reason even though gravemind was created from the spores and collecting infections. As if gravemind is a precursor who created forerunners, not that gravemind or the eternal one are consciousness of the collective which can only happen when there are enough infections. Gravemind is not skynet, but moreso like the head borg on star trek. just the voice for the collective, not the actual brain bug on starship troopers.

 

3) and Gravemind is a precursor in the literal sense of the word. The flood was not created, only studied by the forerunners, which is why the Eternal One predated forerunners. Not a precursor creator. Think of "The Mantle" which the precursors lived by (and certain forerunners including the librarian), which states that they are the custodians of all life and must preserve any and all (including the flood). does that sound like a gravemind decided to write a creed called the mantle? Also, why would the flood be destroying species if the creed that the precursors, and as you put it gravemind itself, is to preserve all life as individual species and be custodians?

 

4) Once again, quotes from the halo games are usually references to a much larger picture which they expound upon in books. They are within a specific context. The evil rebellion of the forerunners against the flood is the same as the evil rebellion of humans against the flood prior to that. The enemy of the flood is anyone that tries to stop the collective, which seems to be everybody including the covies and most likely the precursors. My theory is that precursors are biological scientist beings who created all species through experimentation and the flood is one of those experiments. The flood destroyed them and starved out. But they had libraries holding dna for all the species were created and once it was determined by some custodian left to tend the flock that the flood was no more, the species were re-introduced. Similarly to what happened after the rings were activated during the forerunner-flood war. And yes, by absorbing covenant and human, the Gravemind would be destroying "breath, shape and form", so did the flood do so? The only reason the arbitor and chief weren't absorbed was because they served a purpose. If they had stopped the halo arrays and not destroyed the flood, you think they would have been sent back to their homeworlds to reproduce and continue life while the flood, which started flying ships just floated through space dying out?

 

5) Forerunners created the halo rings as a response to fighting the flood, not as a response to fighting the precursors. Gravemind would have referred to them as the enemy because they used the rings on them leaving only spore samples in libraries, as "The Mantle" dictated they should. The reason the humans, especially master chief is considered less enemy than the forerunners is because of the human response to the flood. During the human-flood war, humans didn't create rings that eradicated the flood. They expanded to forerunner planets in order to find precursor tech and fight the flood better. Master Chief already destroyed a ring in Halo CE, so the gravemind collective looks at humans as not his enemy.

 

Once again, with all this said, the original theory is possible. We won't know more til the game and the next book come out.

 

I think that anything in the Halo games is absolutely a part of the 'world of halo,' and can be taken as credible information. That being said, I don't have a problem with the humans being 'adopted heirs' of the Forerunners: both are valid arguments. I don't think I clarified saying that I think that this one Precursor controls the Flood Through the Gravemind. I don't think that any of the other Precursors were Flood at all. I think the Flood was created as a last resort weapon against the Forerunners.

[Did4ct]

A Gravemind is a combination of different parasite forms, as discussed in Halo: Combat Evolved. It first starts of as a Proto-Gravemind which connects itself to the surroundings via tentacles. However, it needs a human/other species' body with a sustainable amount of biomass to create a fully fledged Gravemind. Once it has an able body, it will absorb the body's intelligence, make it forget everything and will then shut down the body's major organs which will terminate the body.

 

It can only work/feed with/on the most intelligent organisms possible, hence the name brain-form. Although these aren't seen much, they are incredibly dangerous and are used for tasks no other can complete. A Proto-Gravemind are sometimes used to pilot a starship, and going back to the biomass section, they will combine their forms with ship officers, pilots and the commanding officer(s) to gather knowledge on how to complete the task. They will use the body's consciousness to gather information out of them via a method known as interrogation. The body is also known as a host. Also, only after the host as been stripped of all knowledge is the host terminated by the Proto-Gravemind. Where it is possible for the host to die before the Proto-Gravemind has assimilated all of the host's knowledge, like has been done before.

 

A prime example of this is the Truth and Reconciliation, a Proto-Gravemind does exactly this to Captain Jacob Keyes, of the UNSC Halcyon-class light cruiser Pillar of Autumn. If you find the terminal which is associated with this mission, it will give a video showing what the Proto-Gravemind put the Captain through, and you can hear the screams and the noises it used to assimilate his knowledge and make him forget everything. The parasites' intention was to use the Captain's knowledge to pilot the CCS Battlecruiser, as the Gravemind would of had his knowledge to do so. Due to Master Chief Petty Officer, John-117, this action was not completed as Installation 04 was destroyed thanks to the Pillar of Autumn.

 

This Proto-Gravemind was nowhere near completion. It must grow incredibly in size for it to reach its next stage, the Gravemind, a near-omniscient parasitic form made of thousands of host bodies infused with the knowledge of each host that was used to make the Gravemind. This is formed once a Proto-Gravemind has reached something called a "critical mass" which is where it has developed a centralised intelligence. This only happens on rare occasions, usually because the parasite is seldom loose on a large enough scale to allow Proto-Graveminds to grow large enough to become a Gravemind. Only two Graveminds are known to have ever been created; however, they seem to have the same memories, since the Gravemind present during the Human-Covenant war possessed detailed knowledge concerning the Forerunner-Flood War and even described the actions of the previous Gravemind during that time period as if they were his own. In essence, because it shares all the knowledge of the previous Gravemind and considers them both to be the same being, the Gravemind of the games is the Gravemind that fought the Forerunners, simply been reborn from another Proto-Gravemind.

 

There is reams and reams of this and I could go on about it all day. Quite frankly, I do not have the energy or the time to do so. Therefore, I will leave it here.

 

That is all valid info, and I believe it supports what my original statement argues.

[Veer Zamamai]

That is all valid info, and I believe it supports what my original statement argues.

 

It may do so, thank you. I writ that from scratch with some additional knowledge added from my family. I should think that it backs statements up.

[drunknmasta323]

I think that anything in the Halo games is absolutely a part of the 'world of halo,' and can be taken as credible information. That being said, I don't have a problem with the humans being 'adopted heirs' of the Forerunners: both are valid arguments. I don't think I clarified saying that I think that this one Precursor controls the Flood Through the Gravemind. I don't think that any of the other Precursors were Flood at all. I think the Flood was created as a last resort weapon against the Forerunners.

 

interesting theory. so to you, the flood is similar to aliens in the movie prometheus. a bio weapon created for the purpose of war that maybe turned on its creators? so to that, how would a precursor control the flood through a Gravemind? if the Gravemind is a collective conscious then would it be something where a precursor could become the loudest voice in that collection through mind technology?

[Did4ct]

interesting theory. so to you, the flood is similar to aliens in the movie prometheus. a bio weapon created for the purpose of war that maybe turned on its creators? so to that, how would a precursor control the flood through a Gravemind? if the Gravemind is a collective conscious then would it be something where a precursor could become the loudest voice in that collection through mind technology?

 

I think that the Precursors created the Flood to kill the Forerunners as a last-ditch effort. They may have created it so that one of their own could be absorbed and control it. I don't believe the Flood 'turned on' the Precursors.

[Did4ct]

I could be wrong, but I don't think the Precursors ever fought the Flood.

[Spectrum]

Hmmm... interesting theory. But there is one problem.

 

You constantly refer to the gravemind as one consciousness. However, it appears (from the voice of the Gravemind in the last mission of Halo 3, and the unknown Intelligence construct, if we are not to believe that as a insidious covenant AI), that there are multiple minds, and that they can communicate. Even when the Chief had destroyed the Gravemind by launching the ring, it referred to this process as merely a delay, despite almost certainly being destroyed.

 

From this, I could guess that the Gravemind acts almost like a computer, with Spark talking to it (I still think that was a Covie AI though, trying to get freedom), and multiple ones being created, Halo Wars, Halo 2, the one during the Forerunner War, a proto gravemind in Halo 1. This means that bthe Gravemind is merely part of a network, and what does a network have? Connections between components. Ways to communicate, locate, interact.

 

In other words, think of it almost like a Council, similar to that of Monitors.

[Did4ct]

Hmmm... interesting theory. But there is one problem.

 

You constantly refer to the gravemind as one consciousness. However, it appears (from the voice of the Gravemind in the last mission of Halo 3, and the unknown Intelligence construct, if we are not to believe that as a insidious covenant AI), that there are multiple minds, and that they can communicate. Even when the Chief had destroyed the Gravemind by launching the ring, it referred to this process as merely a delay, despite almost certainly being destroyed.

 

From this, I could guess that the Gravemind acts almost like a computer, with Spark talking to it (I still think that was a Covie AI though, trying to get freedom), and multiple ones being created, Halo Wars, Halo 2, the one during the Forerunner War, a proto gravemind in Halo 1. This means that bthe Gravemind is merely part of a network, and what does a network have? Connections between components. Ways to communicate, locate, interact.

 

In other words, think of it almost like a Council, similar to that of Monitors.

 

 

There has been more than one Gravemind, but they seem to be the same being. I like the computer analogy and I don't think that that disputes anything in the original post, however there is no evidence to suggest that there is some 'council' of Graveminds. I think all of the Graveminds are the same being, but I don't know of any 2 existing at the same time. I hope that is an answer for your response.

[ςHϵΑƨϵMΩηεTΞr]

the halo universe is SO DEEP

[Veer Zamamai]

the halo universe is SO DEEP

 

Indeed it is brother. And so it shall remain.

[Victory Element]

the flood and the precursors are actually of the same species. i think that the precursors are an evolved form of the flood ,and after the forrunners rebelled against the precursors, the precursors had to evolve again from a less complex form of thier species, or the flood that we know. i think it may also be possible that since the precursors were the first know beings in the halo universe, they may have created the forerunners to use as hosts becuase the flood is a parasite. they would have had no food source so they would have to create one. Or, the precursors wiped out all previous life that they could use as hosts, so they created the forerunners. but this is a very interesting and debatable topic to discuss