First-Light-Weaves-Living-Song

"Each one of these souls is finite and precious.


 * And I'm close.


 * Close to saving them all."

- The Librarian

The Librarian was a Forerunner whose true name remains unknown. She sought to document and index all sentient beings of the Milky Way, and protect them from being absorbed into the Flood by sending them to the shelter of the Ark. Of all the races she indexed, she held a deep respect for Humanity, whom she viewed as "special" among all of the sentient life she had seen, and felt that it was well-worth the sacrifice of her own life to save them.

Post Human-Forerunner War
Soon after the Human-Forerunner War, the Librarian learns of the Flood, and its potential threat to the galaxy. In response to this potential threat, she pleads to the council to preserve as many humans as possible, due to their possible knowledge of a cure for the flood. After winning this battle, she focuses her attention on both aiding the Didact with the creation of his shield worlds, and also the study of humanity. Soon she notices the rapid development of humans, and begins to hide their progress from the council, the Master Builder, and most importantly the Didact.

Exile
After having lost every political battle for his shield world, the Didact is forced into exile. The Librarian, already making plans for the future, hides him and his cryptum on Erde-Tyrene, also known as Earth. Shortly after this, after believing to have found the galaxy where the Flood originated, she acquires a ship and a crew to accompany her on this journey. At first they find nothing, but eventually discover a world inhabited by primitive Forerunners, far surpassed in technology by the race of Forerunners she originated from. It is here that she is bitten by one of these inhabitants, which oddly seems to transfer information, like a universal form of communication. Following this strange encounter, she escorts the inhabitant to a biological Domain. Having obtained a plant organism resembling moss that seems to hold yet more information from the same planet, the Librarian collects more data; what data she actually obtains from this is unknown to us at this current time.

Once returning home, she continues indexing the galaxy's species, as by this time the Flood have returned.

Greater Ark
The Greater Ark was the location of most of the Librarians species and index samples, but in the end of the Forerunner-Flood War, she had to move most of her species to the Halo guarding this ark. But things did not go as planned. As the Flood begins to assault the Greater Ark, the Ur-Didact composes most of the human population from his warship, Mantle's Approach.

Betrayal
The Librarian follows the Ur-Didact to Requiem, and inside the world's core. Once she gains entrances to his chambers, The Librarian then knocks the Ur-Didact out, and imprisons him inside his Cryptum. She leaves with the knowledge that through the Domain, he will return to a normal state of mind, undoing what the Gravemind had done to him. Before leaving Requiem, The Librarian leaves an imprint of herself.

Final days
After leaving her husband and Requiem, the Librarian returns to Earth, to ensure her lifeworkers had gathered enough humans to ensure the survival of the human race. She then orders her lifeworkers to leave her behind, and escape to Installation 00, but not before handing over her rank of Lifeshaper to one of her most trusted lifeworkers.

To give the Iso-Didact and her lifeworkers more time, she sends a fake message to send the Flood to Earth instead of to the Lesser Ark. This tactic works, but leaves her with the knowledge that the Domain was created by the Precursors, and that if the Halos fire, the Domain will be destroyed with all other Precursor artifacts. Leaving the Ur-Didact for an eternity to sit and think in his own anger, and nothing else.

It is believed that she died during the activation of the Halo Array on Earth, but at the end of Halo: Primordium, 343 Guilty Spark (once the human known as Chakas) hijacked an ONI ship, declaring that the Librarian did not die on Earth, as most believed, and that he knew where to find her.

Imprint on Requiem
In 2557, the Librarian makes an appearance before John-117 during the First Battle of Requiem. She explains to the Reclaimer about her plans to ensure that mankind will inherit the Mantle of Responsibility, mankind's ancient history with the Forerunners and the motivations of the Didact, as well as his plans for the Composer. She then tells the Chief that when she indexed humanity for re-population, she had placed seeds which would lead to the creation of the Spartans, their MJOLNIR armor, even the Chief's Ancilla Cortana. She claims that he's "the culmination of a thousand lifetimes of planning." But before she could elaborate, the Didact appeared, demanding that she relinquish her dialogue with the human. With little time, the Librarian reveals that she also placed genes within the Master Chief's DNA, containing many gifts, including an immunity to the effects of the Composer but it had to be unlocked. She quickly enabled the immunity once she confirmed that the Didact can't be stopped without it.

Six months after the Didact's defeat, the Covenant Remnant, under the leadership of Jul 'Mdama, maintained a presence on Requiem, believing the Librarian to be in hiding on the planet and sought to release her, believing she would grant them powers and technologies beyond imagination. Later, Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey manages to activate the device that the Sangheili had been trying to activate. Upon succeeding, she rushed into the shrine and conversed with the Librarian. The Librarian showed her the Janus Key, which detailed the location of every Forerunner technology in the galaxy, to further humanity's advancement. But to find them, Halsey would need to get it to the Absolute Record. Halsey asked why she was being entrusted with such an important object. The Librarian stated that Requiem would soon cease to exist and the Key and what it contains must not be lost. But as soon as the Librarian passed Halsey the Key and released her, Jul got his hands on one half while the other was passed to Spartan-IV Gabriel Thorne.

Trivia

 * The Librarian's glyph is an emblem you can use in Halo 3's Multiplayer.
 * The Librarian was mentioned in Halo 3 in the Terminals. In conversations, she is known as "L".
 * On one of the Terminals in Halo 3, you can see the symbol of the Librarian.
 * The Librarian referred to the part of Earth she resided on as "Eden" - a reference to the garden of Eden in Abrahamic religions.
 * The Proto-Gravemind was originally called "The Librarian".
 * According to 343 Guilty Spark, the Librarian was the only one who could "temper" the Didact's rage.
 * The ending of Halo: Primordium strongly suggests that the Librarian may be alive, contrary to what her husband said.
 * The Librarian is the second Forerunner whose face has been depicted in the Halo series (the first being the Didact). Other Forerunners have been seen but they have all been wearing Combat Skins.
 * The Librarian manipulated the DNA of reseeded humans to guide them towards the development of the skills and technology they would require to uphold the Mantle. Such technologies include augmentation (Spartan II's augmentations ), advanced combat skins (MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor), and AI creation (AI). These manipulations would eventually culminate in the creation of one specific human who would be play a central role in Mankind's reclamation of the Mantle.
 * It is important to note that "Librarian" would not have been her actual name or title. The Forerunner records of her transmissions utilize translation software so advanced that it incorporates idioms from the reader's own experience. Thus words such as "Eden", "fairy tale" and "Librarian" are not direct translations of their Forerunner counterparts ad verbatim but rather close approximations in the English language, factoring in the cultural and linguistic idiosyncrasies inherent in the language itself. Such words are demarcated with brackets in the Terminals. This is not true as in Halo: Silentium, it is revealed that this is her real name.

List of Appearances

 * Halo: The Flood
 * Halo 3
 * Terminals
 * Halo: Cryptum
 * Halo: Primordium
 * Halo: Silentium
 * Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
 * Terminals
 * Halo 4
 * Spartan Ops