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Are we talking pr-fall eldar or post-fall because that would make a large difference.

Pre-fall, I'd give to eldar; post-fall, I'd give to forerunners.

 Mr Nobody wrote:
Are we talking pr-fall eldar or post-fall because that would make a large difference.

Pre-fall, I'd give to eldar; post-fall, I'd give to forerunners.

This was specified earlier, Pre-fall.

Having finished Silentium, I see there were no spoilers in the thread after all.

Both sides at their height would be evenly matched I think, and any war between them would have catastrophic casualties. Frankly I'm not sure which side would win.


As for the flood, the descriptions of what they are capable of literally make them one of the most terrifying enemies in modern fiction I think, kind of like Tyranids but worse, in that they absorb your biomass but also know everything you know, and can operate everything just like you did; also they can take over AIs and bend them to their will. Crazy. What if the flood took over a Craftworld, including all of the Farseers. Yikes.

 Soladrin wrote:
Hey, at least their souls won't be eaten by Slaanesh that way.... I think that's a little better.. right?

Yeah, the Ur-Didact would just send them to be mowed down by either the Flood or by the UNSC

 daedalus-templarius wrote:

 Mr Nobody wrote:
Are we talking pr-fall eldar or post-fall because that would make a large difference.

Pre-fall, I'd give to eldar; post-fall, I'd give to forerunners.

This was specified earlier, Pre-fall.

Having finished Silentium, I see there were no spoilers in the thread after all.

Both sides at their height would be evenly matched I think, and any war between them would have catastrophic casualties. Frankly I'm not sure which side would win.


As for the flood, the descriptions of what they are capable of literally make them one of the most terrifying enemies in modern fiction I think, kind of like Tyranids but worse, in that they absorb your biomass but also know everything you know, and can operate everything just like you did; also they can take over AIs and bend them to their will. Crazy. What if the flood took over a Craftworld, including all of the Farseers. Yikes.

I'll agree to that. Especialy if you consider what the first grave mind was composed of. There's powerful knowledge, and then theres Precursor knowledge.

Technically, the Flood are the Precursors.

 Admiral Valerian wrote:
Technically, the Flood were the Precursors.

Fixed.

 Soladrin wrote:

 Admiral Valerian wrote:
Technically, the Flood were the Precursors.

Fixed.

No, its not absolute. The Precursors were a Trans-Sapient civilization, so godlike they put even the 3rd Edition C'tan and the Gods of Chaos to shame. The proof of this was the fact that the Domain (prior to its destruction by the Halo) was actually a Precursor itself overseeing one hundred billion years worth of information - older than the universe itself. Most of those who escaped the Forerunners during the Forerunner-Precursor War became the Flood. The others went elsewhere.

The Forerunners were blatant opportunists. The only reason they won against the Precursors was because the Precursors didn't fight back (apparently because they found the Forerunners' violence as 'marvelous'), and again with the prehistoric Humans (who were actually the rightful successors of the Precursors in this galaxy at least) was because the prehistoric Humans had exhausted themselves against the Flood. In the end, the Precursors were right about the Forerunners: they were weak and didn't have what it takes to rule.

EDIT: Personally, I believe the Precursors weren't one species, but several who achieved transcendence. The Mantle is not as the Forerunners and the Covenant believed (to watch over all life) but the potential to become one of them. Considering that the prehistoric Humans achieved a basic understanding of Precursor technology (and according to the Librarian would have have surpassed the Forerunners in a few generations), the Precursors were right in Humanity's potential.