Yes, I do believe they will. The San'Shyuum, I am inclined to offer, will be a key ally to humanity in some fashion at some point in the future lore... Whatever is left of them anyway. I don't think
Broken Circle was written just to accompany Halo 2A; I think it was also to give us further background and some context to their kin.
Ancient Humanity and the San'Shyuum were allies during the Human-Forerunner war, until humanity was defeated and the San'Shyuum were cut down and restricted to very limited travels.
I think that this alliance will appear once more.
There's an article about this very subject over at
Haruspis that expands on this theory extensively. I'll quote a few key passages below.
The SanShyuum, better known to the wider audience as the Prophets, are one of the most important parts of the Halo story in ways that I dont think we even fully understand yet. From their ancient alliance with humanity to their stewardship of the Covenant, the SanShyuum have wormed their way into many important events and have constantly provided us with a great deal of mystery.
[...]
There was much commotion when a Forerunner as revered as the Librarian came to Janjur Qom to catalogue specimens of their species, and the elders of the SanShyuum understood that something disastrous was coming. Immediately, they launched their assault on the present Forerunner forces a rebellion which was short lived as Installation 07 appeared and fired over the planet. As we learn in the latest novel released, Broken Circle, the surface of Janjur Qom remained scarred by this event which led future generations to believe that they had indeed been punished by the Forerunners long ago.
However, the SanShyuum were reseeded thanks to the Librarians efforts and were taken back to Janjur Qom. In the years that followed, they discovered that their world was saturated with Forerunner treasures and this led to a war between the Stoics (who only believed the technology should be worshipped) and the Reformists (who believed that the technology should be used). None of the treasures on their world quite matched up to the Keyship, what came to be known as the mighty Forerunner Dreadnaught, and the mysterious entity who occupied it.
Yes, a fragment of Mendicant Bias remained on that Keyship and has been the key to a number of significant events in Halos lore. Mendicant inadvertently caused the Human-Covenant war when he told Ord Casto, Lod Mron, and Hod Rumt (better known to us as Truth, Regret, and Mercy) that the religion of the Covenant was based entirely on a lie a misinterpretation of the word reclamation, which actually meant Reclaimer and pointed to humanity being the heirs of the Forerunner legacy.
Knowing that this would split the Covenant if word ever got out, the three SanShyuum ascended to become the hierarchs of the Covenant and ordered the extermination of humanity to prevent the truth from being known. Mendicant Bias attempted to launch the Keyship to go to Earth and take humanity to the Ark, but was prevented from doing so and shut down that is, until Halo 3 where the Keyship does go to the Ark and the two fragments are reunited.
From
Halo Evolutions, Vol II: Wages of Sin
The ship is and has always been the key. It once stood on our secret world, just as majestic and mysterious as it is now, an enigma that drove our civilization to greatness the seed of all our discoveries. Our world our true world had been unkind to us, or I suppose, we to it. The ship liberated us from the toxins and ash of our own endeavours, sanctifying our path. From it, we learned of the Forerunner legacy, the ubiquitous scatterings of their wake. So many worlds contain their leavings and their structures, but only ours was blessed with a Ship, a teacher. It taught us all how to unlock the secrets of space and time, to build ships of our own that sail the stars to spread the word. But it also seemed to ever nudge us in a direction, to build weapons of warenergy that could burn or sear flesh, vaporize bone. Technology that oft ekes conflagration from vacuum.
Back to Haruspis' theory:
The Keyship was a teacher to the SanShyuum, and it nudged them to build what we now know to be plasma-based weaponry sounds almost like a geas to me. Weapons that could burn or sear flesh and vaporize bone? Hmm, I wonder what enemy that could be useful against?
Isnt it such an odd coincidence that humanity is given a portal to the Ark and the SanShyuum the one and only key left in the galaxy (at least, that we know of)? Whats more, that Keyship just happened to have a fragment of Mendicant Bias who seeks to atone for his betrayal of the Forerunners the same people who kept him around in case the Flood one day returned so that he could be sought out due to his intimate knowledge about them.
The SanShyuum and humanity were once allied and were believed to have found a cure to the Flood. The Timeless One denies the existence of such a cure to the IsoDidact, but (and this could be a whole post in itself) there are a good number of hints that a cure to the Flood did exist because humans were coming back from the Palace of Pain on Installation 07 after being subjected to the Flood and exhibiting no signs of infection. Likewise, weve a contemporary example of Flood immunity through Sergeant Avery Johnson, the subject of his immunity is a key aspect of the novel First Strike where Halsey presents the Master Chief with a choice tell ONI about Johnsons immunity, resulting in him being killed and dissected for a million-in-one chance of replicating that, or tell them nothing. Its a great moral dilemma for John over the course of the novel and, in the end, he chooses not to tell ONI the truth.
To me, and this will answer the second question of what potential role the SanShyuum may play in the future, it seems like the Forerunners were planning to create a new alliance between humanity and the SanShyuum to potentially bring about a cure for the Flood, or at the very least work together when they came looming over the galaxys horizon once more.
The IsoDidact knew this would happen, as the Timeless One itself told him that humanity would be tested next for the Mantle at the end of Primordium.
The Timeless One, to IsoDidact:
The decision is final. Humans will replace you. Humans will be tested next. It is the way of those who seek out the truth of the Mantle. Humans will rise again in arrogance and defiance. The Flood will return when they are ripe and bring them unity. Misery is sweetness. Forerunners will fail as you have failed before. Humans will rise. Whether they will also fail has not yet been decided. We are the Flood. There is no difference. Until all space and time are rolled up and life is crushed in the folds
no end to war, grief, or pain. In a hundred and one thousand
unity again, and wisdom. Until then sweetness.
Back to Haruspis' theory:
Originally, the Ur-Didact was meant to awaken from his Cryptum with his mind cleansed of the Graveminds malediction so he could champion humanitys ascension and teach them how to not fall prey to the mistakes that the Forerunners made. A major part of this plan was the Janus Key (lots of keys in this plan, all highlighting one particular door on Earth
) which reveals the location of every piece of Forerunner technology in the galaxy.
From Halo 3's IRIS ARG. Spoken by Mendicant Bias:
Failure is for those who dont know the sound of darkness.
Those so blinded that they use all diverging paths.
And make no mistake, progress can blind you.
Just like now, pieces seem to be coming together- bit by bit, slice by surgical slice.
Then, all of a sudden- endless calm.
There was a lack of
a failure in judgement.
You must understand: not all life deserves a chance,
even the artifice passing as my own.
Now there is a lesson to spend a millennium lingering upon, waiting for a redemptive hand to turn the keys.
Leading to this symbiotic relationship which benefits both our futures.
I will guide your movements, and you will lead me to atonement.
So Mendicant Bias has his fingerprints all over the place. Let us not forget how Chief and Cortana ended up drifting in space, on a direct course with Requiem. In Halo, there are no coincidences, and when the slipspace portal closed over the Forward Unto Dawn, there was a design and a will and a purpose behind it. Mendicant Bias guided them to find and awaken the Ur-Didact, as the original plan of the Librarian was for the Ur-Didact to spend a time and a time in his Cryptum, learning from his mistakes. But what they couldn't have known, and what the Timeless One so brutally double crossed them over, was that the firing of the Halos severed their link to the Domain. It left the Ur-Didact alone for this whole time, alone with his own hate and his own hubris. He basically chewed on his anger over and over and over. He was to be the redemptive key, along with Mendicant Bias, in showing and propelling humanity forward towards the Mantle. But...
Back to Haruspis' theory:
...note the indirect mention of the Ur-Didact here, the redemptive hand who we await to turn the keys. The Janus Key that was left to him which would reveal the location of the last Keyship in the galaxy and the portal which it would open to take humanity to the Ark.
This symbiotic relationship which would benefit both humanity and Mendicant Bias. Humanity could fulfil the destiny laid before it in reclaiming the Mantle of Responsibility under the Ur-Didacts guidance, and Mendicant Bias would finally achieve the atonement he has sought for 100,000 years by providing humanity with the information it knows about the Flood so they can be beaten upon their return.
[...]
There was a Luminary on Janjur Qom which revealed the location of the Halo rings that ended up being lost because Mken, one of the novels protagonists, chose to rescue a SanShyuum female instead and the Luminary resultantly fell from orbit. Odd how that too was on their world along with the Keyship, eh?
So how can the Librarians plan potentially adapt to the current situation that the Halo universe is in? (With great difficulty* for all the characters involved, that much is for sure.)
We need to find the SanShyuum.
* "great difficulty" sticks out to me in his musings, as it makes me think of what Master Chief says to the symbol of his own heroism in his live-action trailer:
"This. Is this what you wanted? Is this what you were looking for? Was everything you've compromised, everything you've done worth it? Was it?"
