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Eternal War: Prologue: The Reason for War
Posted By: Awacar<t.alvner@swipnet.se>
Date: 1 January 2004, 7:48 PM
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Short explanation of ancient races and their history:
The Forerunners and Prophets:
The planet Kartago has been a peaceful place for many years, and on this planet, one million years ago, the Forerunner Commandos and Forerunner Bio-tanks evolved. This means that the foundation of Forerunner military forces began on Kartago, the progenitary planet of the Forerunner. The introduction of a new species known as the "Prophets" also began on this world.
About 700,000 years ago, the first organized communication grid spanned Kartago, and it was Forerunner made. Fifty thousand years later, the Prophets followed.
The Prophets, based on simple desire, mentally placed themselves higher on the evolutionary ladder than the Forerunner. This false pretense carried over into later years, where it led to the Prophets' belief in their imminent superiority and their belief that they were more intelligent than the Forerunner.
The golden ages:
Commandos and Bio-tanks, the principal parts of the Forerunner military, conducted several civil wars throughout their history, which slightly burdened them, but eventually, peace reached the war-torn Forerunner.
New techniques were invented during the age that the Forerunner alliance was created, and slip space travel were made for the first time during this era, 685,000 years ago.
Throughout their golden age, the Forerunners were able to spread their technology to other highly evolved species throughout the star clusters, resulting in both affirmative and negative reactions. Several species, most notably the species later known as Snipers (they prefer to call themselves Assassins if you translate it from their tongue), appreciated the beneficial boost that the alliance granted them, and they later went so far as to become a part of the Forerunner alliance.
Another race, later known to be Elites, didn't think that this initiative was bad, but they suspected that the Forerunners didn't share everything that they had, and jealousy began to ferment among the Elites.
On Kartago, the Forerunners felt that their moral obligations forced them to share their technologies with the Prophets, though they didn't like it, since the Prophets had never given anything in return for the favors they had been given. Their suspicions were well founded.
Now, the Prophets had a chance to grow stronger, and behind the backs of their helpers, they persuaded the Elites to join them, basically by promising them that the religion they had would be beneficial, and a total exchange of technological knowledge's.
However, there were Elites that felt loyal to the Forerunners, and those Elites suddenly joined the Forerunner alliance, because they knew that if they, without protection, didn't follow the orders from the Prophets, they would have the wrath of their former allies upon them.
The rest of the Elites willingly took the orders from the Prophets, and they created a more advanced society and more effective ways to communicate. The Prophets and Elites started to cooperate more closely, and on the planet Kartago, the Elites were now welcome by the Prophets. All of the Forerunners looked skeptically at this, but with their naïve eyes they saw the good in this, and hoped to get some beneficial deal out of the technology. This was not to be.
Eras of smaller conflicts:
Tensions were rising in the shadows of the planet. The Forerunners tried to empower their army, and the Elites that had joined the Forerunners had now become most necessary for the Forerunners, since the majority of the scientists were Elites. The Prophets saw this, and found a need to empower their own position; they didn't like the risk of losing to the Forerunners. As a result to this fear, the alliance named "The Covenant" was created, and simply was an enforcement of the alliance already existing between the Prophets and Elites. The time of tension, the time when the Covenant was created, is officially called "The age of silent fears" and it lasted for nearly a millennium.
The advancements of the Forerunner society were enormous after the Elites had joined. Three hundred years into The age of silent fears, the Forerunner Elites took a slightly different path of evolution, and when they, to a Human scientist, were another race, they called themselves Engineers. This made the original Elites angry, not to mention afraid, as they quickly became wary of the Forerunner's evolutionary abilities.
The Covenant traveled the universe, looking for allies after their enemies' evolutionary progress, but to any civilized man or woman, this should not be called "travel", it should have been called a crusade. Many races, which were even more advanced than some Forerunner species, had to face the fact that they were militarily weaker than the Covenant, and therefore were annihilated. The largest losses of advanced species were lost in the "Sea Conflict" on the planet Xoreed, where the indigenous species, a highly advanced piscine civilization, were lost, and the "Dune War" on Kerthas, where an extremely intelligent form of arthropods were annihilated.
Many races had a choice: be wiped out, or follow the Covenant and their religion. Many of the species would have had a chance if they had just joined, and then tried to break free of the Covenant yoke, but pride took over, and they chose death. There was one species that was too afraid of death, seeing as how their society was cowardly. This was a species that was too weak to break free, and they stayed in command of the Covenant. The species was later known as the Jackals.
Fortunately, there was a roadblock to the Covenant Crusade, and this appeared after that the crusade had been going on for almost five years. This setback took the form of another race alliance, called the Barbarian Combine. Hunters and Brutes, as they later would be called, had allied, and they were far more powerful than the Covenant. The only problem was the rate of reproduction, which was too low. Their level of technology was decently high, but slightly lower than their enemy.
Wars were fought, between the Covenant and their new enemy. At first, the Barbarian Combine almost always got out of ground conflicts as the winner. Later on, they had suffered large losses, and they didn't get new blood to fight the battles. For a long time, The age of silent fears kept the lid on the bubbling hatred that was between the Covenant and the Forerunners. It would take nearly 80,000 years before the first Covenant breakthrough was attempted. Still, the Barbarian Combine kept them busy, fighting them almost constantly.
The revolutionary times:
The first revolution that took place in the Milky Way seems to have started on Kartago. It was called "The land revolution", since it resulted in a system where the Covenant got land of their own where they wanted it. Earlier, land had not been divided by species at Kartago, and anyone could settle down there. But on January 5th, 612,083 BC, the Covenant demanded 50% of the land area, due to the fact that they were one of the two alliances living on the planet. They didn't seem to worry about the fact that they were outnumbered ten to one by the Forerunner.
Another demand was that the rest of the ground would be available for the Covenant to settle on, but rather than let the Forerunners go in peace, the Covenant wanted that all the Forerunner on "their land" would be at their mercy. Of course, the Forerunners found this unacceptable. Still, many of the diplomats thought that the conflict could be solved, if not the Covenant demands about free reign over Forerunner civilians had came.
But because the Forerunners decided justly, and their formerly charitable nature was gone, sapped by the friction between the two alliances, the Covenant only got to control the third largest continent, named Salid, and Forerunners there would be under Forerunner command, not Covenant. This was still a generous offer, since the continent covered 10% of the planets surface, and the Covenant comprised 10% of the population of the Forerunners.
Needless to say, but the Covenant was furious about this, and they came up with a new proposal, one that said that they would also have the largest continent, Yhju, or the eight and ninth largest landmasses, called Omred and Turys, giving them a total 30% of Kartagos land areas. This one was found more acceptable, but the Forerunners didn't change for the better (at least for the Covenant), and instead, on June 29th, 612,081 BC, they sent a letter to the leaders of the Covenant, which read: "We, the Forerunners, have had patience with you Covenant, and we still think that we do. We have pondered the proposals that we have received, and they are found unacceptable; to deliver the continents Omred and Tyrus, or Yhju alone, is practically and politically impossible. We will not cleanse the most populated continents of Forerunners. We have been looking for your best a long time, but looking for your best does not include leaving entire continents in your hands." The last, and most important line read: "Salid is yours, and if you're not satisfied, leave the planet Kartago, or we will be forced to undo the species that find themselves as parts of the Covenant alliance."
For 5000 years, this threat was large enough to make the Covenant maintain a low profile, but on December 8th, 607,326 BC, an official declaration of war was received in the Forerunner headquarters, saying: "The planet Kartago is the rightful property of the Covenant, leave it or surrender. Either way, the messengers of the gods will have to speak!" The Forerunners answered to this new threat with military actions, and the Engineer Commander in Chief, Oleet, decided that a hydrogen-bomb carpet over Salid was the best cause of action. These orders were initiated on February 14 of the following year, and the few Covenant that still existed after that, were given a chance to live, but had to leave the planet Kartago, and promise to never come back. In fear of their lives and survival as a race, the Covenant people escaped Kartago, and would not be seen for long.
The second declaration of war:
More than hundred thousand years had passed, without any Forerunner-Covenant contact, but this was about to change. On March 19th, 502,639 BC, a Covenant armada materialized in orbit around Kartago, and delivered a message: "We have not forgotten your pointless slaughter, and we will take Kartago, it is our own ground and our property. This time, the messengers of the gods will speak directly to you!" together with several anti-material bombs, aimed at Yhju. This was the declaration for the "Eternal War".
Authors note:Thanks to witelancer for making a beta on this story, and the massive work you have done with the G/S correction. Thanks.
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