Fortunately for the scientists studying the Forerunners, it has long been known how to translate otherwise seemingly untranslatable "dead" languages originating from previously unknown scientific cultures (see the section on "Omnilinguals in Archaeological Xenolinguistics") - and enough inscriptions, Books (?), and data from still intact computer memory core have been recovered from Forerunner sites to make this possible. However, for both technical reasons dealt with in the article mentioned, as well as due to the relative paucity of (and damaged state of many) the sources, it would be unwise to assume that any of the following details are to be taken as unarguable fact.

Another problem is that much of the material we possess is rather one sided in that it is of a military or scientific nature - and throws little light on the actual history of the Forerunners - and, of most interest to us, the reason for the massive destruction that exist on those sites of theirs that have been definitely identified. However, we do possess enough (presumably) Civilian material to give us at least some information as to the actual history of the Forerunner race - though it must be remembered that it is often, quite frustratingly, incomplete, fragmentary, or - more often than not - takes for granted the possession of evidently vital background knowledge that we do not yet possess.