Hi everybody!! My name is Funkendunkel(Drunken Uncle is a popular variant for those that cant pronounce it). But just call me what you want. I just joined The Collective less than a week ago and this will be first attempt at forming a theory. I wanted to bring to light the possible origin of the Hereafter mainly because I havent seen very many post about this amazing weapon. I personally am a huge fan of sniper rifles, everything about them gets me excited(the ballistics, the range.......seeing those beady eyes for the last time and the intimacy of watching every move without them knowing you are there. oooooooooh so good). Sorry, Ill get back on track. Ok, so ive read two other theories on this heavenly rifle and some interesting tidbits. Weapon description [quote]“Huddled at the mountain's base, we had no choice but to beat our ploughshares into swords once more.”[/quote] The grimiore reads. [quote] Once, we had peace. This isn't a story about peace. Then there was darkness, destruction, despair. This isn't a story about those things either. This story comes much later. It's a story about what was here, after, And what came next[/quote] So first of all, the word Hereafter can also mean "heaven" or more direct in this case, peace on earth(the Golden age). As another post has implied, The Hereafter was most likely heavily modified by guardians after the dark ages and that it was based off of technology that was barely understood at the time. But this "barely understood technology" managed to make its way into a rifle platform. So I believe that the technology has been around for long enough for there to be an adequate understanding of the tech. I want to form my theory around this weapons advantages towards the fallen. If anybody sits around listening to Rahools mumbling in the hopes of gaining favor and turning that Legendary engram into an exotic, you may have heard him mention that fallen crews were reported to have skirmished in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro about halfway through the Golden Age. About the same time that colonies were growing large. So Fallen Crews were definitely around looting our walmarts and burning down the hoods(#EliksniLivesMatter). My own theory is that the Hereafter was born when the golden age was coming to an end before the Collapse. During the Golden Age, humanity was going through a great period of peace, and as Fallen crews slipped onto our planets. Space agencies needed a weapon to issue to colony ship crews and other colonies. Enter Herafter and Zhalo supercell(ill explain). What do both have in common? You guessed it! ARC ELEMENTAL!!!! Perfect for Fallen captain shields. And the Zhalo, it appears that the zhalo was a mass produced standard issue Autorifle that was standard issue to the troops of Old Russia. With the Fallen and those pesky Arc D Sheilds entering the fray, a weapon capable of Arc damage needed to be produced and distributed. Why produce a whole new weapons system when you can just stick a go-cart battery(golf cart/definitely russian possibly a jew) to an already existing weapon. So, im just thinking that both the Hereafter and Zhalo were created out of the same purpose, to counter the fallen. Now, i realize that i may be incredibly far from anything even remotely close to truthful. I would love to have some feedback so that i can do better on any future Post. Thank you.