Those clever bastards...

[Al Capone111]

It is said that MOST of the Prometheans who were humans opted to turn into mechanical knights to avoid the flood.

Wait, so the human-forerunner war was basically fought between humans.

Damn, I seriously need to finish the campaign and spartan ops. BTW, the ForeRunner trilogy is a great read.

No. You need to read the books in the Forerunner Saga. They take place thousands of years after the human-forerunner war and a few years before the firing of the Halo array.

[SuRroundeD By 1]

Spoilers ahead, blah blah blah, most of you already posted what I'm going to write blah blah.

Anyone find and watch all the terminals found in Halo 4? You can watch them on Halo Waypoint . . . seriously . . . good watch.

ANYWAY:

Originally, Forerunners were trying to find a way to destroy the flood, first, they were just trying to find a way to prevent themselves from being turned into one of the bastards. They did this by creating the composer, a machine that could turn organic molecules into data, essentially, AI. The Didact was the first to attempt this, but all attempts to "compose" himself failed (god knows why), eventually his right hand men, Prometheans (Basically Forerunner Spartans) took it up to have themselves composed, thus creating the first set of Promethean Knights.

Oh, and by the way, any attempt at turning the composed organism back into . . . an organism, had terrible results, didn't work very well.

Back on track, after many battles against the flood, the Promethean force was getting thinner and thinner and thinner. So the Didact turned to a new form of building his army . . .

[Backstory]
After the Forerunners defeated Ancient Humanity (who actually stood a good chance against the Forerunners except they were fighting a two front war against them and the flood), they "decivilized" them, transforming them back to their roots (basically hunter gatherers/ cavement). The Librarian (who adored Ancient Humanity) wanted to protect them afterwards, placing them on the Halo Rings.
[/Backstory]

Anyway, the Didact turned to Humanity, believing that their final punishment/ atonement would be them becoming his servants. Against the Librarians wishes, he composes thousands of humans, creating the army we fought on Requiem.

Spartan Op's Promethean Knights are probably a mix of Ancient and Modern Human prometheans . . . New Pheonix took quite a hit in the Campaign.

If anyone sees a mistake and wants to correct me on it, go ahead, but I'm 99% sure that info is correct.

[Platinum]

Spoilers ahead, blah blah blah, most of you already posted what I'm going to write blah blah.

Anyone find and watch all the terminals found in Halo 4? You can watch them on Halo Waypoint . . . seriously . . . good watch.

ANYWAY:

Originally, Forerunners were trying to find a way to destroy the flood, first, they were just trying to find a way to prevent themselves from being turned into one of the bastards. They did this by creating the composer, a machine that could turn organic molecules into data, essentially, AI. The Didact was the first to attempt this, but all attempts to "compose" himself failed (god knows why), eventually his right hand men, Prometheans (Basically Forerunner Spartans) took it up to have themselves composed, thus creating the first set of Promethean Knights.

Oh, and by the way, any attempt at turning the composed organism back into . . . an organism, had terrible results, didn't work very well.

Back on track, after many battles against the flood, the Promethean force was getting thinner and thinner and thinner. So the Didact turned to a new form of building his army . . .

[Backstory]
After the Forerunners defeated Ancient Humanity (who actually stood a good chance against the Forerunners except they were fighting a two front war against them and the flood), they "decivilized" them, transforming them back to their roots (basically hunter gatherers/ cavement). The Librarian (who adored Ancient Humanity) wanted to protect them afterwards, placing them on the Halo Rings.
[/Backstory]

Anyway, the Didact turned to Humanity, believing that their final punishment/ atonement would be them becoming his servants. Against the Librarians wishes, he composes thousands of humans, creating the army we fought on Requiem.

Spartan Op's Promethean Knights are probably a mix of Ancient and Modern Human prometheans . . . New Pheonix took quite a hit in the Campaign.

If anyone sees a mistake and wants to correct me on it, go ahead, but I'm 99% sure that info is correct.

Wait, were the prometheans always a form of human? (During the forerunner-human war)

[Guzzie]

Wait, were the prometheans always a form of human? (During the forerunner-human war)

Not sure if they where always human (although they were later composed humans), but they were the warrior class of the Forerunners. They had a class system in which they were all categorized. Didact was a Promethean (Didact is the title given to the entire military leader), Master builder was the highest ranking of all the classes and the Librarian was a lifeworker.

[SuRroundeD By 1]

Wait, were the prometheans always a form of human? (During the forerunner-human war)

During the forerunner-human war, the Prometheans you know from the games didn't exist. They were created when the forerunner came face to face with the flood.

There was an original Promethean class, but they were basically Forerunner versions of Spartans. They were actually forerunners though, not Promethean Knights.

[Jam Cliché]

Minor confirmations:
- Prometheans are a warrior class of Forerunners, as stated.
- Promethean Knights are the name given to the composed beings that reside inside the synthetic creations we all know and love to kill. They are either Prometheans, ancient humans, or modern humans. There are no differences once they are composed, at least that we know of. All Knights in Spartan Ops could be any one of those three composed beings.
- Other classes of Promethean AI are not human, just AI. This is why they break apart instead of "dissolving" back into data.
- The Didact did not try to compose himself. Prior to the construction of the Composer, he experimented upon himself to find a genetic immunity to the Flood. He failed to find the cure he sought for. That is why he is more hideous than a normal Forerunner - he is artificially mutated. When the Composer was complete, his alterations ironically made him immune to its effects.
- In the Campaign, the Librarian "changes" the Master Chief in some small way, having isolated the genetic alteration that the Didact discovered which would make him uncomposable and applied it to the Chief.

[Platinum]

The Didact did not try to compose himself. Prior to the construction of the Composer, he experimented upon himself to find a genetic immunity to the Flood. He failed to find the cure he sought for. That is why he is more hideous than a normal Forerunner - he is artificially mutated. When the Composer was complete, his alterations ironically made him immune to its effects.

Then why were there two Didacts?

[H2O Yordle]

Then why were there two Didacts?

There wasnt.

[Platinum]

Ur Didact
and Bornstellar

[H2O Yordle]

Oh. Because the original was "put to sleep". The second one activated the rings to "kill" the flood. Which in turn failed.