( I do NOT own Mass Effect. Dead Space. Halo. Destiny or XCOM they each belong to their respective owners.)
(A/N: There will be changes to the Mass Effect timeline and Humanity especially.
One big change is ES/GS in this new timeline before First Contact, Humanity is 200 years ahead of the Galactic Standard Year. after joining The Citadel Humanity will mostly convert to the GSY.)
[ ES - Earth Standard ]
•
[ GS - Galactic Standard ]
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Prehistoric Times - The Precursors reach the Milky Way seeding it with life and later retreat to observe it's evolution from the safety of Path Kethona, many years later one species The Leviathans evolve quickly and dominate the Milky Way, enthralling every new sapient race they encounter and protecting them in return for tribute. With no knowledge of the Precursors existence the Leviathans consider themselves the galaxy's first and only apex race.
The First Harvest - After observing that their subservient races create synthetic races who consistently and violently rebel, the Leviathans create an Intelligence to seek a way to permanently preserve organic life. The Intelligence constructs an army of "pawns" to gather genetic information throughout the galaxy. Several years later the Intelligence betrays the Leviathans, using its pawns to slaughter them for their genetic material to create Harbinger, the first Reaper.
Unknown BCE - Several cycles after the First Harvest, the Intelligence builds the mass relay network to increase the efficiency of the cycles, allowing galactic civilizations to develop faster and more consistently between harvests. Using a recently indoctrinated insectoid race that will come to be known as the Keepers to maintain the Citadel, the heart of the relay network.
c. 2,000,000,000 BCE - Several Black Markers enter the Milky Way from the direction of the Triangulum galaxy.
c. 1,000,000,000 BCE - The Leviathan of Dis, a Reaper, is killed by the Leviathans. Its corpse comes to rest on the planet Jartar.
c. 65,000,000 BCE - The Black Marker, traveling through space, hits Earth and causes the mass extinction of the dinosaurs.
c. 37,000,000 BCE - An unknown spacefaring race fires a mass accelerator round at a Reaper near the planet Mnemosyne. The round penetrates the Reaper, disabling it, and continues moving through space, eventually striking the planet Klendagon and creating the geological feature there known as the Great Rift Valley.
c. 15,000,000 BCE - The Precursors seed the species that would come to be known as Forerunners on the planet Ghibalb.
c. 14,000,000 BCE - Humanity is seeded on Erde-Tyrene the ancient Earth, by the Precursors.
c. 10,100,000 BCE - The Precursors choose early humans to be the next species to carry the Mantle. Desiring to seize the Mantle for themselves, the early Forerunners rebel against the Precursors and wipe them out almost entirely.
After the Forerunners hunt down all of the Precursors in the Milky Way galaxy. The remains of the Precursors retreat to Path Kethona; the Forerunners' Warrior fleets pursue them and proceed to finish their work.
In the face of extinction, most of the Precursors reduce themselves to inert powder, intending to regenerate their forms later. However, one intact specimen remained in deep stasis and is buried within a remote asteroid a million years afterward.
c. 9,100,000 BCE - The Primordial, a dormant Precursor, arrives on the edges of the galaxy.
c. 2,000,000 BCE - The alien inhabitants of Tau Volantis discover a Black Marker, later building Red Markers across the planet's surface in the hopes of harboring more energy for their uses. The Black Marker triggers a Convergence Event creating a Brethren Moon.
The aliens construct a Machine flash freezing Tau Volantis and halting the Convergence Event. The aliens become extinct in the process.
c. 600,000 BCE - A Forerunner civil war takes place.
The Zeioph are rendered extinct by a Convergence Event.
c. 298,000 BCE - The ancient Arthenn race flourish in the Zelene system, living on the planet Helyme until being destroyed by the Reapers. They also maintained a presence on other planets in the system including Epho, which bears the scars of orbital bombardment, and The system's outer gas giant, Gaelon.
c. 150,000 BCE - The Forerunners rise as the preeminent species in the Milky Way Galaxy, Believing themselves responsible for the lives of all those less advanced then they, the Forerunners fully initiate the Mantle.
c. 125,000 BCE - Ancient spacefaring races called the Thoi'han and Inusannon fight over the planet Eingana, littering the planet with the debris of hundreds of starships.
c. 122,990 BCE - Maethrillian, the capital of the Forerunner ecumene, is constructed.
c. 110,962 BCE - Faber-of-Will-and-Might a future Master Builder, is born on Secunda.
c. 110,255 BCE - Shadow-of-Sundered-Star, later known as the Ur-Didact, is born Rijaal Suluhu.
c. 108,000 BCE - The Reapers invade Milky Way, the Inusannon and Citadel fleets are quickly overwhelmed.
c. 107,858 BCE - The Forerunners invade relay space and join the war against the Reapers, pushing them out of Inusannon space.
c. 107,798 BCE - A Black Marker is discovered on a distant Forerunner world, after the discovery Red Markers are quickly built across the planet, months later a Convergence Event begins.
c. 107,787 BCE - Several Brethren Moons begin to attack Forerunner worlds, the Forerunners are forced to send multiple fleets to fight off the Necromorph invasion.
c. 107,445 BCE - Ancient human colonists proceed to uncover crashed vessels containing fine organic powder on both inhabited and deserted worlds near the edges of the Milky Way Galaxy. This powder is administered to the domesticated Pheru, which begin to exhibit more docile behavior; unbeknownst to humanity and their San'Shyuum allies, the powder begins to alter the Pheru's genetic makeup. Years later, the Pheru begin to show outward signs of mutation and cannibalize one another. Soon, both humans and San'Shyuum who are exposed to the powder begin to exhibit the same symptoms.
The Flood then begins to take over hundreds of worlds, turning its victims into misshapen forms. Humanity begins all-out war against the Flood. During their war against the Flood, humanity desperately invades a minor sector of Forerunner space, sparking the Human-Forerunner wars.
c. 107,399 BCE - Faced with a three front war, the Forerunners begin to focus most of their strength on fighting the humans and Brethren Moons, leaving the last remaining relay species to fight the Reapers alone.
c. 106,538 BCE - Human colonists arriving at a ravaged planet on the edge of the Milky Way discover an exceedingly ancient stasis capsule. This capsule is the prison of the ancient being known as the Primordial, supposedly the last intact Precursor. Yprin Yprikushma transports the capsule and its prisoner to Charum Hakkor for further study.
Some time afterward, the Flood begins to recede from the galaxy; while this is thought to be due to a cure created by humanity, no cure ever actually existed; the Flood's withdrawal is instead due to the Gravemind's long-term strategy.
c. 106,498 BCE - The final conflict in the Human-Forerunner wars begins. The Forerunner Warrior-Servants, led by the Didact, push humanity back to the Charum Hakkor system, the core of their interstellar empire, which is then effectively cut off from available reinforcements of both humans and their San'Shyuum allies. For the next fifty years, humanity holds off attacks by the Forerunner Fleets, until their defenses eventually fail after three final years of repelling assaults on the system in a constant stream.
c. 106,450 BCE - After Centuries of constant war with the Reapers, the severely depleted relay species begin to flee into Forerunner space willing to give up anything for protection.
c. 106,445 BCE - The final battles of the human-Forerunner wars are fought, concluding in the humans' standoff at Charum Hakkor. Stretched thin due to fighting two wars simultaneously, humanity loses the war and the Forerunners eliminate all traces of humanity's former interstellar civilization. The Librarian moves the surviving humans to their homeworld, Erde-Tyrene, and establishes a research station there. With their civilization and technology dismantled, humanity regresses to tribal hunter-gatherers for nearly nine thousand years, eventually developing primitive civilization.
c. 106,439 BCE - After tearing down human civilization and with the Brethren Moons in retreat, the Forerunners focus their attention back on the Reapers.
c. 106,437 BCE - Faced with a renewed Forerunner offensive, the Reapers begin to retreat back through the Citadel relay slaughtering any remaining relay species in their way.
c. 106,420 BCE - With the Reapers gone, the few remaining relay species are sent back to their homeworlds, to begin rebuilding civilization as new Forerunner vassals.
c. 100,040 BCE - The keyship, Anodyne Spirit is built.
c. 98,445 BCE - The Deep Reverence is retired near Janjur Qom, under the care of the Confirmer.
The Forerunner Prometheans, opposed to the construction of the Halo rings, lose their political battle against an extreme faction of the Builders led by the Master Builder, Faber, and are forced out of the Council. Many are disgraced or executed while others choose the alternative of exile in a Cryptum. For the next thousand years, the Council continues to marginalize and diminish the role of the entire Warrior-Servant rate.
The Didact enters his first, thousand-year exile in a Cryptum on Nomdagro. The Cryptum is later secretly moved to Erde-Tyrene by the Librarian.
With the final obstacle to his plan removed, Faber commissions the construction of twelve Halo Rings from the guild of Bornstellar's father.
Growth-Through-Trial-of-Change decides to become a Lifeworker instead of a Builder. She is rejected by her family as a result, and is adopted by a foster family.
c. 97,745 BCE - First contact is made between the Forerunner Primary Pioneer Group and the Flood on G617 g1. A military team is sent in later but is subsequently lost. The Flood escapes the planet, thus beginning the three-century-long Forerunner-Flood war.
c. 97,645 BCE - Riser is born in the City of Marontik on Erde-Tyrene.
c. 97,495 BCE - The Forerunner Ecumene Council assigns the Contender-class ancilla Mendicant Bias to test Installation 07 near Charum Hakkor. The installation, fired on a system-wide power setting, destroys all neurologically complex life and Precursor structures in the system and accidentally liberates an ancient Gravemind known as the Primordial, which is transported onto the ring on Master Builder Faber's orders.
Soon after, Faber tasks Mendicant Bias with interrogating the Primordial and Installation 07 is transported to an unknown location.
The Librarian returns to Earth to index the human species. Sample members of the species are removed from the planet and held on the Ark.
c. 97,464 BCE - Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting is born on Molaetra.
c. 97,445 BCE - Roughly ten years before the Flood conflict's conclusion, the father of Maker-of-Moons, a high-ranked Builder, is assassinated by Master Builder Faber's Builder Security minions.
The Librarian visits the primary San'Shyuum quarantine world Janjur Qom to collect specimens of the San'Shyuum as part of the Conservation Measure, sparking unrest among the San'Shyuum population. After Master Builder Faber arrives some time afterward to question the San'Shyuum elders about the Flood, the San' Shyuum rebel against his forces.
The Didact is resuscitated from his exile in a Cryptum by Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting, Chakas and Riser. They later make their way to Janjur Qom, where they are captured by Master Builder Faber. The Didact is interrogated and left to die in a Flood-infested system, while an offshoot of his consciousness lives on in Bornstellar's body through an imprint acquired in his mutation.
Afterwards, the Master Builder orders Mendicant Bias to use Installation 07 to put down the San'Shyuum rebellion by sterilizing the entire system.
As a result of the Master Builder's activation of the Halo ring, many Lifeworkers and Warrior-Servants on Installation 07 rebel against his forces, but are mostly defeated.
A crisis occurs in the Ecumene Council due to the Master Builder's unauthorized activation of Installation 07; many councilors resign in protest while younger ones take their place. Faber is arrested and placed on trial in the Forerunner Capital. Eleven of the Halos are brought to the Capital, awaiting a decision to have them decommissioned. Installation 07 and Mendicant Bias remain missing.
During Faber's tribunal, Mendicant Bias, convinced to turn against its masters by the Primordial, brings Installation 07 to the Capital system and launches an assault on the Forerunner government. While the Council's fleets respond to the attack and several of the Halos are destroyed, Mendicant successfully fires Installation 07 before the Halo is forced to retreat into a system near the galaxy's edges.
Having survived Mendicant Bias' attack on the capital, Bornstellar, Glory of a Far Dawn and Splendid Dust of Ancient Suns arrive at the Greater Ark, where they are healed by the Lifeworkers. As most Forerunners believe the original Didact to be dead, the Didact's consciousness takes control of Bornstellar in order to assume command of Forerunner military forces after a thousand years of exile and continue his mission against the Flood; subsequently, Bornstellar adopts the title IsoDidact.
Shortly afterward, the IsoDidact and his fleet track down Installation 07. Although the Halo takes heavy damage, it survives and is transported to the Greater Ark. Afterwards, the installation is sent to its final location, to be later joined by the six rings of the newer Halo Array.
The Primordial is imprisoned once again, and is interrogated - and eventually executed - by the IsoDidact.
Mendicant Bias is captured, deactivated and disassembled to its disparate components which are then distributed across the ecumene.
The mind of a mortally wounded Chakas is used as the template for the Monitor later to be known as 343 Guilty Spark.
The Ecumene Council is reconstituted as the "New Council" and the Didact's plans of a strategy to use Shield Worlds to combat the Flood are taken into serious consideration again. The use of the Halos is delayed.
For a period of at least three years following the crisis at the Capital, Master Builder Faber, thought dead by the ecumene at large, carries out his own small-scale campaign to combat the Flood with a crew of Builder Security and disgraced Warrior-Servants in a secluded region of the ecumene. He captures and haphazardly decontaminates small Flood-infested ships and then hands them over to Warrior-Servant crews. Due to inadequate decontamination, many of the ships are overrun by Flood still on board.
The Ur-Didact, having been left to die in a Flood-infested system by the Master Builder, encounters active Precursor star roads near Uthera Midgeerrd. The Didact is subsequently captured and tortured by the Gravemind. Afterwards, the Gravemind releases the now mentally unstable Didact, who is rescued and taken to the Capital system by the Master Builder.
The Librarian and the IsoDidact arrive at Earth to oversee its evacuation operation and to give their testimonies to Catalog. However, the Flood's arrival in the sector prompts the IsoDidact to leave to defend the core of the ecumene while the Librarian continues her mission; the two will not reunite until four years later.
Mendicant Bias is reassembled and reactivated by a Gravemind after the Flood overruns the facilities in which the components of the AI were held.
Catalog is captured by the Flood and corrupted with the logic plague subsequently spreading the infection across the juridical network. With the network suspended, Juridicals are eventually forced to cease all Forerunner legal proceedings indefinitely.
The Flood begins to reactivate and appropriate formerly dormant Precursor artifacts, allowing them to easily overpower Forerunners in combat. Already weakened and exhausted Forerunner defenses continue to fail at an increasing rate.
Over a year before the end of the war, following irregular outages for several years, the Domain goes permanently inaccessible to all Forerunners and ancillas due to the Flood's widespread tapping into its underlying neural physics architecture.
Four years after the evacuation of Erde-Tyrene, the Librarian, the IsoDidact and the Ur-Didact reunite in their family estate on Nomdagro. The planet is subsequently overrun by the Flood.
After the Capital system is lost to the Flood, command of the ecumene and most of its remaining population is placed at the greater Ark while a portion is sent to the lesser Ark. In the face of imminent defeat, the Master Builder is restored to command and a decision is made to use the Halo Array to purge the galaxy of life and thus starve the Flood. The IsoDidact is tasked with carrying out this plan.
Mendicant Bias and its fleet of Flood-controlled ships and Precursor constructs assault the greater Ark.
Anticipating that Omega Halo's human population may be at risk, the Librarian sends Chant-to-Green to collect more humans from Earth to ensure their numbers will be sufficient to repopulate the species.
While the Forerunners attempt to evacuate the greater Ark, the Ur-Didact uses a Composer to harvest the preserved human specimens on the nearby Omega Halo in order to use their essences to create more Promethean Knights for his mechanical army, a desperate effort to combat the Flood via new, more extreme methods.
Master Builder Faber fires Omega Halo, sterilizing the local galaxy of Path Kethona of sentient life and clearing a temporary path past the star roads laying siege on the greater Ark.
The greater Ark and Omega Halo are destroyed by star roads; Faber and most high-ranking Forerunner commanders are killed on Omega Halo, while the IsoDidact is saved by Monitor Chakas. Only a fraction of the Lifeworkers' biological specimens survive and are transported to the lesser Ark by the few survivors.
The Librarian infiltrates Requiem and imprisons the Ur-Didact in a Cryptum.
The Librarian journeys to Earth, planning to draw the Flood there in order to give the IsoDidact time to fire the Halo rings. She sends Chant-to-Green to the lesser Ark, along with the remaining humans gathered from the planet, and passes her title of Lifeshaper on to Chant.
Installation 00, the IsoDidact assigns the monitors for each Halo installation and has the rings distributed across the galaxy.
Monitor Chakas is renamed 343 Guilty Spark and assigned as the caretaker of Installation 04.
The Librarian, stranded on Earth, initiates the burial process of a Portal in East Africa. As she spends her last hours in the savanna, the Gravemind sends down imprinted ancient human essences to reveal the Domain's true nature as a Precursor creation; as a result, the Domain will be destroyed when the Halos fire, leading to the loss of not only all Forerunner history, but also the knowledge the Precursors had collected over the course of billions of years, and condemning the Ur-Didact, locked in his Cryptum, to spend the ages ahead of him in complete silence, dwelling on his own insanity and rage.
As the IsoDidact prepares to activate the rings, Mendicant Bias assembles all Flood-controlled vessels into a fleet of 4.8 million ships, and breaches the Maginot Sphere. On the other side awaits Offensive Bias with the remains of the Forerunner fleet. As the two fleets engage each other in an enormous naval battle, the Halo Array is fired. The Halo pulse kills all sentient life within three radii of the galactic center, including any Forerunners not located on the Ark or within Shield Worlds. Minutes after the firing of the Array, Mendicant Bias's fleet is obliterated by Offensive Bias.
The remains of Mendicant Bias are brought to Installation 00. The surviving Forerunners hold a trial to the AI for its betrayal; Mendicant Bias is entombed in the installation afterward.
Every sentient species indexed in the Ark is returned to their homeworlds as a part of the Conservation Measure; the Homo sapiens species begins migrating out of Africa.
Half of the surviving Forerunners go into self-imposed exile the rest go into stasis.
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(A/N: Just putting this out there to test the waters while I continue putting the actual fic together, might pop more of these out or edit this part, while i do that.)
(Anyway, that's a good chunk of Ancient History done, next is the timeline after the Halo Array was fired.)