PROLOGUE
It was with much suffering, angst, and war that we as a new Covenant came to live peacefully upon the great rings and the terrestrial planets. Our history is rich; full of heroes, villains, and daring plots. And thus it is told just as it occurred, letting nothing slip into the darkness of neglect. And so begins our telling of the war of the great ring, or installation 01 as its keeper prefers to call it…
It began with the forging of the great ring by the Valar, although the humans call them the much less refined name of "Forerunners." The great ring was the first Halo, and the largest. No craft of the Valar, before or since, has ever matched it in beauty, might, or significance. To this great ring were made nineteen keys.
Three were given to the Elites (Though our rightful name is Sangheili,) who are immortal, and are the wisest and fairest of all beings on the Great Ring. Seven were given to the Huragok, who are great engineers and miners that dwell in the deeper regions of the ring. Finally, nine of these keys were given to the humans, who desire power above all else.
Within each of these keys lay the knowledge to unlock the secrets of the Valar, and ultimately clear the way for the Great Journey. However, another key was made…
The land of Mordor, which has been called the Quarantine Zone by the monitor of the great ring, is home to one of the most traitorous and vile creatures in the universe: the Prophet of Truth. He was once a noble ruler, one of the few prophets left. One day, however, his demeanor took a change for the worst. He began to use and manipulate the other races on the ring for his own benefit. He would soon meddle in the dark arts. Eventually his power grew so much that by his whim the holy city of High Charity came thundering down from its rightful place in the heavens, now to serve as his lair of evil in the land of Mordor. Once High Charity had landed, he renamed it Barad-Dur.
It was this daemonic creature who forged a master key to control all of the others. Into this "Index" he inscribed his cruelty, his malice, and his will to dominate all life on the ring. It was even rumored that, when united with the great control room of the ring, he could wipe out all life in the universe.
In his greed for power, and in his search for the control room, he marched with his vile armies across the lands of the ring, destroying all who resisted. But alas, a final alliance of Humans and Elites marched upon the fortress of Barad-Dur, and on the slopes of the Library, the place where the index was forged, they fought for the freedom of the Great Ring.
In the battle, Jackals (who formed the army led by the Prophet of Truth), Men, and Elites fell. The blood of all three races mingled on the dry, barren earth. The Men and Elites, being much stronger than the Jackals, quickly overcame their foes. Thus victory was at hand.
The power of the index, however, could not be undone. As Truth joined the battle, many lost hope, for he was wielding the mightiest of weapons: the Scarab Gun. When powered by the sheer evil of the index, the Scarab gun's power increased a hundred fold. Truth literally decimated the battlefield from the comfort of his floating chair.
It was in this moment, when all hope had faded, that Isildur (the son of a man) took up his father's plasma sword. Catching Truth at a moment when his guard was down, he cut the Scarab Gun from Truth's hand.
Injured and frightened, Truth used the residual power of the index to jump into slipspace, obliterating the entire battle scene. Naught was left, save the index.
Because of his foolhardy move, Truth had allowed the index to ensnare a new bearer. It came to a grunt named Gollum. He had once had a name, but the index poisoned his mind and granted him unnaturally long life, so much so that he forgot his true name and when by the gurgling sound he would always make in his throat. What Gollum had failed to realize is that the index contained flood spores, causing the bearer of the index to become infected and slowly deteriorate into the pitiful state of living rubble known as the Flood.
For nearly five hundred years, Gollum kept the index with him, calling it, "My Precious." His mind became corrupted to the point where he could not let it out of his sight. But the index had other plans.
It abandoned Gollum, to his extreme distress. Something happened, however, that the index was not programmed for. It was picked up by another Grunt: Bilbo Baggins of the land of Grunts, which is called the Shire
For the time would soon come when Grunts would shape the fortunes of all…