Ringmakers

The "Ringmakers" were an antecedent civilization discovered by the Covenant, spanning at least a dozen or so star systems. Their most well known artifacts were a series of stone and metal rings. Their artifacts have been dated to around 60,000 BCE and are found on a variety of worlds spanning out in a twisting and turning path leading away from the Kalosi Reach. This path has been speculated to be everything from simple irregular navigation choices, to an older, now non-existent slipspace route connecting these worlds. Covenant explorers have proposed trying to find the rest of the path, but difficulties navigating beyond the last found system have stymied efforts. During the 22nd Age of Doubt, the San'Shyuum scholar-socialite Naro Kamashi even theorized that the rings mark a path leading to a Sacred Ring, though this theory never managed to gain enough traction to sponsor a concerted search by the Covenant. Kamashi managed to raise enough funds for a private expedition, but gave up the search after several years after contracting an alien disease on one of the Ringmaker worlds.

All Ringmaker colonies appear to have been relatively small, with few if any large population centers. This has led some to theorize that the Ringmakers established their colonies in a relatively short span of time, and vanished before they could develop substantial populations. According to one theory, all of the colonies in the string may have been established during a single mission, perhaps even just one ship jumping from system to system. The only evidence of any population centers have been discovered with aerial surveillance, mostly in the form of footprints of long-lost buildings and minor infrastructure.

What little Ringmaker technology has been found is unremarkable and nonfunctional, with the rings themselves being their most consistently well-preserved artifacts. The rings have been discovered both in the population centers and in caves, along with what appears to be their stone pedestals. The rings themselves have a band of metal on their interior, and their stone composition has not matched the materials on any world they have been found on. This implies their creators must have brought them from elsewhere, perhaps their as-of-yet undiscovered homeworld. Coupled with the rings' common origin, this indicates the Ringmakers placed considerable importance on the rings, even more so than their own living spaces. It is likely that many of their former colonies could yield more answers as to their culture or their disappearance, should a party show enough interest in a detailed xenoarchaeological expedition. This is unlikely to happen in the near future, however, due to the political instability of the Kalosi Reach as well as the current focus on Forerunner technology over that of minor antecedents. Only very minor, particularly zealous factions have taken much interest in the rings and Ringmakers. Often viewing them as having ascended after dedicated worship of the Halo rings, and possibly the Forerunners themselves.

Other than the rings themselves, Ringmaker relics have received relatively little attention by Covenant scholars, compared to better-documented secondary antecedent cultures such as the Jehioi and Ehrlon. As such, little is known of Ringmaker technology or culture. Their expansion pattern implies a decent understanding of slipspace navigation, but their linear, non-branching expansion pattern is puzzling. All conclusively-identified signs of a Ringmaker presence have been found on or around worlds with terrestrial-analog conditions, indicating a base biochemistry not much different from most Congruent species. Indeed, the Ringmakers' expansion pattern shows a strong bias for habitable planets, with understated evidence of a presence in space at best. Asteroids and low-g worlds abundant in mineral resources seem to have been ignored and no remains of large stations, solar arrays or orbital industries are present. Various theories have been put forward to explain this. It has been speculated that the Ringmakers discovered slipspace travel very early into their spacefaring history, sidestepping the usually-preceding interplanetary phase of space settlement and leaping directly into establishing interstellar planetary colonies without much in the way of surrounding infrastructure in orbit or on nearby bodies. Although it is impossible to glean much about their culture or societal organization, one theory posits that the Ringmakers existed under a rigid socio-technological hierarchy in which the colonies were deliberately left with limited access to many staple technologies of space travel after they were founded, with the means for space travel supposedly being monopolized under a singular organization.