Oh boy. Alright here we go... Humanity is an ancient species. The 21st century interpretation of the fossil record on Earth has lead to incorrect conclusions about our species. Over 10,000,000 years ago, the Precursors created humanity. Their original intentions for our species would not immediately come to fruition due to the their extermination. As time passed, our species evolved and progressed. As with our history as we know it today, humanity would be wrought with conflict. We suffered numerous dark ages, sending us back technologically. At around 150,000 BCE, our civilization had reached a point of stabilization. We began to ruthlessly expand and colonize. However, fearing Forerunner control and conflict, we expanded and moved our civilization towards the edge of the galaxy, away from the Orion Complex, the heart of the Ecumene. Thousands of years passed without any conflict. The center of human civilization was made on Charum Hakkor, a Precursor world filled with their constructs. At an unknown point, humanity allied itself with the San 'Shyuum. Eventually, the human political leader, Yprin Yprikushma would uncover a Precursor capsule encrusted in a far flung asteroid at the edge of out galaxy. The capsule would be brought back to Charum Hakkor and placed in Citadel Charum. After a time, humans figured out how to communicate with the being they called the Timeless One in the capsule. At first, they treated it like a great prophet, asking it questions and broadcasting its message to the rest of humanity. The answers it gave were often unintelligible or made no sense. Gibberish. Sometime before 110,000 BCE, humanity detected ships crashing on uninhabited and inhabited worlds alike. These ships were determined to originate from outside the galaxy, from the Large Magellanic Cloud. Contained in these ships were millions of glassy containers filled with a powdery substance. Initial tests revealed it to be a basic molecular compound that was inert. When tested on Pheru, a docile herbivore humans and San 'Shyuum favored as pets, it produced interesting effects. It made them more docile. Due to the sheer quantity of ships and containers, it was impossible to quarantine the crash sites. The powder made it onto the black market and Pheru treated with the powder were being sold. Pheru soon started growing soft fur at the nape of their necks. The San 'Shyuum found this sensuous and bred them together. Eventually, long flexible striped rods began to grow from the base of their necks. Other Pheru became compelled to consume these rods, and even the Pheru with them entirely. This was extremely troubling as the Pheru are herbivores. Some humans saw the Pheru as a delicacy. Soon, the humans who ate the Pheru became affected. They developed cannibalistic urges. Discarded body parts became capable of spreading this disease. Entire planets fell and turned into cannibal cults. Uninfected individuals would were fattened to extreme proportions, and then eaten alive by the infected. This disease spread from humans to humans, humans to San 'Shyuum, but rarely from San 'Shuum to humans. Soon, this disease changed. The bodies of those infected became incredibly distorted and malformed with disgusting growths on them. The Flood was born. Humanity called it the Shaping Sickness. A set of questions were prepared for the Timeless One regarding the Flood. When asked, it responded with coherent answers that were broadcast to the rest of humanity. Answers that were so horrifying, many humans could not live with the knowledge they had learned and killed themselves. Contact with the Timeless One ceased. Humans and San 'Shyuum reinforced the Precursor capsule. The demoralization of human culture had begun. As the Flood began to spread across the stars, Yprin Yprikushma rallied humanity and prepared them for the coming conflict with other species and the Forerunners. The Lord of Admirals spearheaded the human military effort. Forerunner outpost worlds infested and uninfested alike were either destroyed by humanity to cauterize the Flood or claimed by them in an effort to gain new resources and places to put refugees. The Forerunners responded with war. The Didact led the Forerunner war machine, easily defeating humanity. Humans imposed methods to prevent the spread of the Flood. Intelligent life they came across was enslaved in an effort to combat the Flood. Species that didn't agree with humanity's quarantine methods were killed. Eventually, a cure was found. One that would require the deliberate sacrifice of 1/3 of humanity across their 20,000 world civilization. These humans were programmed with genes that were destructive to the Flood. Soon, humanity began to push the Flood back. With the Flood close to defeat, humanity placed it's focus on the Forerunners. The war soon reached a stalemate. Slowly but surly though humanity was pushed back. They claimed their aggression towards the Forerunners was in order to halt the Flood. However, no evidence was seen, leading the Forerunners to believe the Flood to be a lie in order to justify humanity's conflict with them. With humanity close to defeat, the Didact encountered human worlds surrounded by the Flood, with the Flood seemingly leaving them alone. The Didact ruthlessly exterminated any and all Flood he found. On the brink of humanity's defeat, the Flood left the galaxy as if it was never there. Humanity destroyed all traces of the Flood in the hopes the Foreruners would succumb to it in the future. At humanity's final world, Charum Hakkor, the seige lasted three years. Three years of continuous slipspace incursions by the Didact. Thus, the 1,000 year long human-Forerunner war ended. Years earlier, the San 'Shyuum had made a truce with the Forerunners, leaving their human allies to fend for themselves. Once humanity had surrendered, they were originally determined to be exterminated for crimes against the Mantle. The Librarian quickly pointed out that the humans had found a cure. Humanity was spared, albeit with significant punishments. Most traces of their civilization were destroyed, significantly ruining the fossil records on many of our old worlds, including Earth. We were devolved and placed on Earth. We quickly splintered into over 100 sub-species of humans. Those with the possible knowledge on how to defeat the Flood were composed and imprinted onto the devolved humans, dormant until needed. On Earth, the Librarian encouraged humanity. Soon, our race began to re-evolve and acquire relatively advanced tech. Steam boats, hot air balloons and the like. Other humans were placed on Halos. The Master Builder ignored the orders of the Ecumene, and began to conduct experimental atrocities on humans to try and attain the cure for the Flood as they returned in 100,300 BCE. As the Forerunner-Flood War came to a close, the millions of human survivors were placed on Omega Halo stationed above the Greater Ark. In the process of moving the humans to Gargantua-class transports, the Ur-Didact composed the majority of humans, leaving our species incredibly few in number. The Librarian scrambled to gather any survivors she could find on Earth. The few survivors were placed on the Lesser Ark, safe from the Halos. Once the Halo Array was fired, humanity was reseeded on Earth a few years after 100,000 BCE. At this point, human history plays out as we know it. WHEW.