2. In the Halo franchise's fiction, the universe itself is a living thing, and sapient life is able to
continue its existence past the inevitable end of space and time within a universe.
There are beings within the Halo universe that transcend the limitations of sentience--whose
lives extend back into previous universes. They have access to "the life-patterns and living
wisdom of a hundred billion years". Their motivations and activities are immutably linked with
the creation of, and interaction with, all life--including the universe itself.
They are known by the characters in Halo as Precursors - "the eternal Fount".
It is they who pen The Mantle.
The Mantle of Responsibility for All Things has a near unfathomable amount of history behind
it, and encompasses many interwoven concepts simultaneously. The abbreviated articulation of it
as a concept is that The Mantle is a position of guardianship over "the flow of life's interaction
with the Cosmos," also known as "Living Time"; The Mantle is a guardianship over the
diversity, duration, and quality of that flow, as well as a role of guidance in life's progression
from its simplest to its most fully realized states.
It is simultaneously "the blessing of rule and the protection of life," arising out of those the
Precursors gave both life and design--some say in their own image, with their own breath. A
place of benevolent authority from which will flow deeply involved guidance and direction for
the very universe itself as life emerges from matter and energy and inexorably progresses
forward in diversity, complexity, and intensity.
Put another way, it is the intrinsic, fundamental, universal analogue of legal custody and
guardianship over the welfare of life itself, as though it were a child in a custody battle.

3. The eligibility for this position of guardianship cannot successfully be taken or assumed; it can
only be inherited from the Precursors, and only then by their election. It is they who create and
guide the races eligible for The Mantle, and it is they who judge those races for worthiness.
The known history of The Mantle, and mankind's connection to it, is as follows:
More than ten million years prior to the activation of the Halo array, Precursors announced to the
ancient Forerunners that they were not the ones chosen to receive The Mantle--that it was
humanity that was to be given The Mantle instead. The ancient Forerunners rejected this
judgment that found them wanting, rose up in defiance against the Precursors with whom they
were so intimately connected, and ruthlessly destroyed them, chasing down and killing the
survivors even as they fled to the Large Magellanic Cloud (called Path Kethona by Forerunners).
This was never expected by the creators of The Mantle, and the Forerunners' purge was so
awfully complete that only a few Precursors survived this holocaust, spared because they either
fled beyond the reach of their attackers, went dormant, or became dust that could regenerate their
past forms. At least one Precursor was left behind by the ancient Forerunners because "they were
not then powerful enough to erase all evidence of the Precursors", such as their structures and
artifacts. They left this Precursor "in the heart of a lost asteroid, to live out dreams of vengeance
and hatred; to lay down plans in cold and darkness."

4. Afterwards, the history of this entire series of events--of humanity's rightful place as Inheritors of
The Mantle, of the Precursor holocaust perpetrated by the ancient Forerunners, and of the near-
past relationship that the Precursors had enjoyed with both races--was lost. The ancient
Forerunners who carried out these atrocities and the fleets that ferried them to the Large
Magellanic Cloud never returned to this galaxy.
The Forerunners still located in the Milky Way, now disconnected from their past, interpreted
their own version of The Mantle. Part of that imperfect interpretation of The Mantle resulted in
"those they would keep safe being stripped of any capacity for self-defense," which "weakened
their protectorates, breeding dependence and sloth." The Forerunners were uncompromising in
their belief that they alone were meant to carry out the responsibilities of The Mantle.
All who opposed them were "wiped from the slate of history," and there were many who did.

5. Old humanity's final war with the Forerunners was subject to hidden Precursor interference, so
that the Forerunners would not completely eradicate humanity. Forerunners instead devolved the
remnants of humanity, genetically altering what the Precursors had intended for their Inheritors.
Some time after this, old humanity gained the attention and favor of a benevolent Forerunner
Lifeshaper called Librarian, who had discovered the ancient, hidden truth about humanity's
connection to The Mantle, and began work preparing them for what was to come.

6. Meanwhile, the Precursors brought about the Forerunners' end via the Flood, ultimately enabling
the Flood to use long-dormant Precursor structures--technology that required something
described by Forerunners as "neural physics."
This forced the Forerunners to activate the Halo array and re-seed life in the galaxy, clearing a
path for humanity's remnants to be able to reclaim The Mantle.

7. And because of Librarian's intimate involvement in humanity's genetics, after the array activation
they arose from their devolvement even better than they were before.
This gave humanity a renewed eligibility for The Mantle; one that found them with both the will
to fight at the core of their genetic identity, and something akin to "a field or over-spirit that
supplies them with amazing strength" as a race.
Librarian's involvement resulted in planned eventualities that included SPARTAN-117, Cortana,
and MJOLNIR armor.

8. As of the conclusion to Season One of Halo 4's "Spartan Ops" storyline, humanity stands on the
brink of discovering all their lost history and choosing how they will embrace their long-
established heritage--their Reclamation of The Mantle.
But before they can inherit this guardianship, they will be tested. Whether they will fail has not
yet been decided.
The "remaining 100,000 centuries" of Living Time will either belong to humanity or to none at
all.