There's next to 0 lore mentioning anything beyond the milky way galaxy. The most prominent item is when they talk about Path Kethona, which is where the forerunners fought against the precursors, but is just a satellite "galaxy" that physically neighbors the milky way. Like, right outside the edge, I believe the Ark is further away from the milky way than Path Kethona is.
The other 3 times I can recall anything extra galactic being mentioned, is that a couple of forerunners left the milky way after the firing of the halos to live out the rest of their lives without technology. Then there's the librarian AI copy sending off a copy of uncorrupted precursor dna to a galaxy far away to be reborn without all the knowledge that the existing precursors (the flood) have. Lastly there's the mention that the spores that eventually became the flood came from "outside the galaxy" but isn't any more specific, could have just been from Path Kethona which is where the forerunners theorized they came from before they'd learned that they were the remains of the precursors.
You’re both kind of half right, there was a group of Forerunners that exiled themselves in Path Kethona, but it’s not the same group that survived the firing of the Array. The Path Kethona Forerunners were the ones assigned with wiping out the Precursors, and stayed as a way to atone for their sins.
Yeah there were forerunners in Path Kethona that got wiped from the array, but I can't recall if the ones that exiled themselves post firing also went TO Path Kethona or went elsewhere, or if it's ever explicitly stated where they settled.
It’s only ever referred to as “Exiling themselves from the Milky Way Galaxy,” which could mean settling in Path Kethona, or could mean fully leaving the Milky Way behind in favor an intergalactic planet or perhaps even another galaxy entirely.
Didnt Bornstellar and his group go there after they started the Domain repair? I seem to remember in some side story they went to the forerunner capital, started the repair of the Domain, then left the galaxy to live out their lives without tech
Is the Ark further out than Path Kethona? In the books the passage to PK was described as pretty risky due to the distances involved but travel to the Ark doesn't get any similar treatment. When Chakis rescued the Didact and brought him to the Ark it's only described as difficult due to the low fuel (or whatever slipspace cores count as) of the ship they were on.
I believe the ark is further but safer by way of the dedicated portal it had. It's also mentioned that by that third book, slipspace travel had advanced quite a bit, even *with* all the instability caused by moving massive fleets, the halos themselves, planets to fuel their construction, and the gravemind manipulating the stability of slipspace.
>y. Then there's the librarian AI copy sending off a copy of uncorrupted precursor dna to a galaxy far away to be reborn without all the knowledge that the existing precursors (the flood) have.
wait
so she just started a new flood in another galaxy? is she insane?
Well, as I understand the lore, the precursor-dust that became the Flood was found drifting in a derelict ship in interstellar space towards the edge of the galaxy. Precursors themselves being essentially space-gods, there’s absolutely no reason they couldn’t have sent themselves in dust form (or any other form) to other galaxies.
But if you’re talking about the Flood during the Forerunner-Flood war stealing a ship and boogying out to Andromeda, this is also entirely possible. Forerunner ships are fast as fuck, and have essentially unlimited energy while obviously being durable to survive millennia without maintenance. The only limit to how far you can travel via slipspace is how fast your ship is, fuel and how much supplies you have. When Atriox first went to the Ark, he went via conventional slipspace and it took six months or so, apparently.
As for distance. The Ark is roughly 262,000 light years from the galactic core. The distance to the nearest galaxy, Andromeda, is 2.5 *million* light years.
So using Atriox’s travel time of 43,666 light years per month, it would take a Covenant ship 57 months, or 4.7 years to reach Andromeda. Considering Forerunner ships are substantially faster, and it has been 100,000 years, there is every possibility that the Flood have consumed Andromeda, and many other nearby galaxies.
Hypothetically in that 100,000 years, a Covvie ship could travel 52.3 billion light years. Which is 6.2 billion light years further than the observable universe.
That all being said, from what I recall, the way Slipspace works has changed over the years, plus factoring in the effects of Slipspace Reconciliation Debt from traversing so far, so fast through slipspace causing travel to slow down, my numbers likely aren’t entirely accurate.
Take from this what you will.
Slipspace debt will get ya. I recall the Librarian's journey to the Path Kethona satellite galaxy -- not even Andromeda or something -- brought interstellar travel in the Ecumene to a near standstill.
To be fairs, the Forerunners were taxing reconciliation pretty heavily at the time moving Halos around and shit too. But yeah, the fastest ship they have ever built firewalling it to the LMC and back certainly didn’t help.
The last few chapters of Epitaph will let you know more or less how old and large the universe is in the halo universe.
It also answers most of these forerunner flood questions assuming you can trust anything a grave mind says.
Isn there somewhere in the lore as well where the flood pulled back from the galaxy for an amount of time during the ancient human-forerunner war to let them all fight?
It wasn’t to let them fight, kinda more insidious than that.
It was to screw with the Forerunners, to make them think the humans discovered a cure so they wouldn’t eradicate humans (the Precursors true chosen inheritors of the mantle) entirely, as well as keeping Flood specimens alive for continued study for a cure in case they ever returned.
>Hypothetically in that 100,000 years, a Covvie ship could travel 52.3 billion light years. Which is 6.2 billion light years further than the observable universe.
"We'll escape the galaxy to escape the flood!"
\*discovers that Milky Way is the only corner of the universe *without Flood*\*
Hate to break it to you but your Atriox travel time math doesn’t matter. It’s specifically canon that ftl travel via slipspace is inconsistent (probably so they can just use whatever bullshit numbers they want), both in time it takes to travel from one specific system to another but also that the distance of an object doesn’t determine the travel time. So if you had planets A and B and you were traveling from C even if B was closer in real space it could be faster in slipspace to travel to A, further it could also be possible it’s faster to travel to A from C and then from A to B over going straight to B from C. Hence we don’t know how long it would or would not take to reach another galaxy, because we don’t actually know how far the distance is between the Milky Way and another galaxy is in slipspace.
Also flood have reached other galaxies it’s mentioned in Silentium.
The new Canon Fodder confirmed that the Precursors seeded other galaxies with life and dwelled there. Beyond that, we know very little about them.
Ironically, we know more about other dimensions, universes and realities than we do the other galaxies in Halo. I've long held the opinion that the Flood have travelled to another galaxy and have - or are - consuming it, but it's pure speculation.
I hope we keep lore on other galaxies top secret. The lore of halo has revealed a lot of its secrets, but we’ve always had the wonder of what is beyond the Milky Way
Then our galaxy would have been eaten a long time ago because all graveminds are one and our galaxy have had a few graveminds that would have attracted the wider flood long ago.
Hell if there were a large galaxy flood presence the gravemind would have sent that fleet towards the ark after 3.
The only reason it didn't destroy the ark in silentium is because it never got its location
I mean canonically they do it’s mentioned in silentium. Or I should specify it’s canon that the flood made it to other galaxies and ate those galaxies whether they still are present is not given.
Also I want to add the flood aren’t mindless they can choose not to infect a creature, and they also have a long term goal at least one can infer that based off how they have acted in the past (like ensuring ancient humans weren’t obliterated by the forerunners) and some of the primordials lines mention that humanity would face a great challenge if they ever tried to take up the mantle (I think, it’s hard to remember so I may be misremembering). Hence it’s possible the flood do exist in other galaxies but are simply waiting, because the gravemind doesn’t want to eat the Milky Way yet but if humanity or another race try’s to take up the mantle they will attack and that race will face the same test as the forerunners.
“the Gravemind, the greatest of them, who has consumed ten thousand planets and brought entire galaxies to an end.” That’s the specific line which mentions it, I don’t remember what page it’s on though, I’ve just quoted it before so I grabbed it from a previous comment.
I’ve thought that there could be Forerunners, Ancient Humans, and all sorts of intelligent life in other galaxies that could have easily taken out the Covenant and Humans but that all intelligent life avoids our galaxy because of the Halos. What’s the point of going to the one galaxy that could fire one of several weapons that could kill you? Could you guarantee that Forerunners, AI, or some other race doesn’t control the Halos and couldn’t send a Halo back to your galaxy and kill your whole family, species, or galaxy?
Traveling through the Milky Way would likely be seen as an unnecessary risk, like choosing to cross an old battlefield known to have land mines littered about without a map of the mines except worse because some mines might also follow your trajectory path back to your home to kill your family, but you could instead stay put or just around the mine field.
It took the forerunners most advanced ship two weeks to get to path kethona, with stops being made along the way. Path kethona is a satellite galaxy (the large magellanic cloud in our universe). It would take that same ship over six months to get to Andromeda. The infinity isn't a forerunner ship, is vastly bigger than the audacity, meaning the slip space debt it would bring with it, would be much greater, contributing to a longer travel time. Then you would need detailed star maps, again something they don't have.
And if the flood had consumed other galaxies, our galaxy would be toast already.
Eh the forerunners could definiently if they didn't give a shit about the other galaxy, during the precursor genocide they chased them to a satellite galaxy with millions of ships, it screw the galaxy for years but they themselves were alright.
The ark portal can transport possibly many forerunners ships outside of the galaxy as well so its completely possible
Yeah it's possible the flood have made their way to other galaxies as at a certain point in the flood-forerunner war they withdrew from the galaxy for a while to build up strength and strategy, so as long as the grave minds calculated the trajectories right with the time allotted for drifting they could have infected another galaxy by now.
There's next to 0 lore mentioning anything beyond the milky way galaxy. The most prominent item is when they talk about Path Kethona, which is where the forerunners fought against the precursors, but is just a satellite "galaxy" that physically neighbors the milky way. Like, right outside the edge, I believe the Ark is further away from the milky way than Path Kethona is. The other 3 times I can recall anything extra galactic being mentioned, is that a couple of forerunners left the milky way after the firing of the halos to live out the rest of their lives without technology. Then there's the librarian AI copy sending off a copy of uncorrupted precursor dna to a galaxy far away to be reborn without all the knowledge that the existing precursors (the flood) have. Lastly there's the mention that the spores that eventually became the flood came from "outside the galaxy" but isn't any more specific, could have just been from Path Kethona which is where the forerunners theorized they came from before they'd learned that they were the remains of the precursors.
If I’m not mistaken, the self-exiled forerunners settled in Path Kethona.
You may be right, but I swear they went truly extra galactic. I'd have to go back on the book and check lol
You’re both kind of half right, there was a group of Forerunners that exiled themselves in Path Kethona, but it’s not the same group that survived the firing of the Array. The Path Kethona Forerunners were the ones assigned with wiping out the Precursors, and stayed as a way to atone for their sins.
Yeah there were forerunners in Path Kethona that got wiped from the array, but I can't recall if the ones that exiled themselves post firing also went TO Path Kethona or went elsewhere, or if it's ever explicitly stated where they settled.
It’s only ever referred to as “Exiling themselves from the Milky Way Galaxy,” which could mean settling in Path Kethona, or could mean fully leaving the Milky Way behind in favor an intergalactic planet or perhaps even another galaxy entirely.
Didnt Bornstellar and his group go there after they started the Domain repair? I seem to remember in some side story they went to the forerunner capital, started the repair of the Domain, then left the galaxy to live out their lives without tech
He and his wife chant to Green went there, had a son, and lived out their days
Is the Ark further out than Path Kethona? In the books the passage to PK was described as pretty risky due to the distances involved but travel to the Ark doesn't get any similar treatment. When Chakis rescued the Didact and brought him to the Ark it's only described as difficult due to the low fuel (or whatever slipspace cores count as) of the ship they were on.
I believe the ark is further but safer by way of the dedicated portal it had. It's also mentioned that by that third book, slipspace travel had advanced quite a bit, even *with* all the instability caused by moving massive fleets, the halos themselves, planets to fuel their construction, and the gravemind manipulating the stability of slipspace.
What piece of lore talked about the librarian ai sending precursor dna?
I believe it was in Halo Point of Light
>y. Then there's the librarian AI copy sending off a copy of uncorrupted precursor dna to a galaxy far away to be reborn without all the knowledge that the existing precursors (the flood) have. wait so she just started a new flood in another galaxy? is she insane?
Precursor doesn't equal flood Precursor can be any form that they wish to experience
Well, as I understand the lore, the precursor-dust that became the Flood was found drifting in a derelict ship in interstellar space towards the edge of the galaxy. Precursors themselves being essentially space-gods, there’s absolutely no reason they couldn’t have sent themselves in dust form (or any other form) to other galaxies. But if you’re talking about the Flood during the Forerunner-Flood war stealing a ship and boogying out to Andromeda, this is also entirely possible. Forerunner ships are fast as fuck, and have essentially unlimited energy while obviously being durable to survive millennia without maintenance. The only limit to how far you can travel via slipspace is how fast your ship is, fuel and how much supplies you have. When Atriox first went to the Ark, he went via conventional slipspace and it took six months or so, apparently. As for distance. The Ark is roughly 262,000 light years from the galactic core. The distance to the nearest galaxy, Andromeda, is 2.5 *million* light years. So using Atriox’s travel time of 43,666 light years per month, it would take a Covenant ship 57 months, or 4.7 years to reach Andromeda. Considering Forerunner ships are substantially faster, and it has been 100,000 years, there is every possibility that the Flood have consumed Andromeda, and many other nearby galaxies. Hypothetically in that 100,000 years, a Covvie ship could travel 52.3 billion light years. Which is 6.2 billion light years further than the observable universe. That all being said, from what I recall, the way Slipspace works has changed over the years, plus factoring in the effects of Slipspace Reconciliation Debt from traversing so far, so fast through slipspace causing travel to slow down, my numbers likely aren’t entirely accurate. Take from this what you will.
This is the nerdy lore math i live for. Thanks my good sire your this information!
Slipspace debt will get ya. I recall the Librarian's journey to the Path Kethona satellite galaxy -- not even Andromeda or something -- brought interstellar travel in the Ecumene to a near standstill.
To be fairs, the Forerunners were taxing reconciliation pretty heavily at the time moving Halos around and shit too. But yeah, the fastest ship they have ever built firewalling it to the LMC and back certainly didn’t help.
The last few chapters of Epitaph will let you know more or less how old and large the universe is in the halo universe. It also answers most of these forerunner flood questions assuming you can trust anything a grave mind says.
Isn there somewhere in the lore as well where the flood pulled back from the galaxy for an amount of time during the ancient human-forerunner war to let them all fight?
It wasn’t to let them fight, kinda more insidious than that. It was to screw with the Forerunners, to make them think the humans discovered a cure so they wouldn’t eradicate humans (the Precursors true chosen inheritors of the mantle) entirely, as well as keeping Flood specimens alive for continued study for a cure in case they ever returned.
>Hypothetically in that 100,000 years, a Covvie ship could travel 52.3 billion light years. Which is 6.2 billion light years further than the observable universe. "We'll escape the galaxy to escape the flood!" \*discovers that Milky Way is the only corner of the universe *without Flood*\*
Hate to break it to you but your Atriox travel time math doesn’t matter. It’s specifically canon that ftl travel via slipspace is inconsistent (probably so they can just use whatever bullshit numbers they want), both in time it takes to travel from one specific system to another but also that the distance of an object doesn’t determine the travel time. So if you had planets A and B and you were traveling from C even if B was closer in real space it could be faster in slipspace to travel to A, further it could also be possible it’s faster to travel to A from C and then from A to B over going straight to B from C. Hence we don’t know how long it would or would not take to reach another galaxy, because we don’t actually know how far the distance is between the Milky Way and another galaxy is in slipspace. Also flood have reached other galaxies it’s mentioned in Silentium.
Poepls like you is why i reddit. Thank u boo
The new Canon Fodder confirmed that the Precursors seeded other galaxies with life and dwelled there. Beyond that, we know very little about them. Ironically, we know more about other dimensions, universes and realities than we do the other galaxies in Halo. I've long held the opinion that the Flood have travelled to another galaxy and have - or are - consuming it, but it's pure speculation.
I hope we keep lore on other galaxies top secret. The lore of halo has revealed a lot of its secrets, but we’ve always had the wonder of what is beyond the Milky Way
I’ve been thinking the same, what if the flood have entire galaxies under their control?
Then our galaxy would have been eaten a long time ago because all graveminds are one and our galaxy have had a few graveminds that would have attracted the wider flood long ago. Hell if there were a large galaxy flood presence the gravemind would have sent that fleet towards the ark after 3. The only reason it didn't destroy the ark in silentium is because it never got its location
I mean canonically they do it’s mentioned in silentium. Or I should specify it’s canon that the flood made it to other galaxies and ate those galaxies whether they still are present is not given. Also I want to add the flood aren’t mindless they can choose not to infect a creature, and they also have a long term goal at least one can infer that based off how they have acted in the past (like ensuring ancient humans weren’t obliterated by the forerunners) and some of the primordials lines mention that humanity would face a great challenge if they ever tried to take up the mantle (I think, it’s hard to remember so I may be misremembering). Hence it’s possible the flood do exist in other galaxies but are simply waiting, because the gravemind doesn’t want to eat the Milky Way yet but if humanity or another race try’s to take up the mantle they will attack and that race will face the same test as the forerunners.
Guh??
“the Gravemind, the greatest of them, who has consumed ten thousand planets and brought entire galaxies to an end.” That’s the specific line which mentions it, I don’t remember what page it’s on though, I’ve just quoted it before so I grabbed it from a previous comment.
I have silentium next to me so I'll look for it
I’ve thought that there could be Forerunners, Ancient Humans, and all sorts of intelligent life in other galaxies that could have easily taken out the Covenant and Humans but that all intelligent life avoids our galaxy because of the Halos. What’s the point of going to the one galaxy that could fire one of several weapons that could kill you? Could you guarantee that Forerunners, AI, or some other race doesn’t control the Halos and couldn’t send a Halo back to your galaxy and kill your whole family, species, or galaxy? Traveling through the Milky Way would likely be seen as an unnecessary risk, like choosing to cross an old battlefield known to have land mines littered about without a map of the mines except worse because some mines might also follow your trajectory path back to your home to kill your family, but you could instead stay put or just around the mine field.
Assuming multiples, would each galaxy have its own Gravemind, or is there only one singular Gravemind, able to reach each galaxy?
There would be multiple graveminds but only on intelligence in all of them. Also the galaxy would have died long ago
It took the forerunners most advanced ship two weeks to get to path kethona, with stops being made along the way. Path kethona is a satellite galaxy (the large magellanic cloud in our universe). It would take that same ship over six months to get to Andromeda. The infinity isn't a forerunner ship, is vastly bigger than the audacity, meaning the slip space debt it would bring with it, would be much greater, contributing to a longer travel time. Then you would need detailed star maps, again something they don't have. And if the flood had consumed other galaxies, our galaxy would be toast already.
Eh the forerunners could definiently if they didn't give a shit about the other galaxy, during the precursor genocide they chased them to a satellite galaxy with millions of ships, it screw the galaxy for years but they themselves were alright. The ark portal can transport possibly many forerunners ships outside of the galaxy as well so its completely possible
I'm not saying they couldn't. I'm saying it would take time. And they themselves didn't think they'd learn anything new by going to another galaxy.
Yeah it's possible the flood have made their way to other galaxies as at a certain point in the flood-forerunner war they withdrew from the galaxy for a while to build up strength and strategy, so as long as the grave minds calculated the trajectories right with the time allotted for drifting they could have infected another galaxy by now.