Complete Story Of Halo

The Complete Story of Halo

The Spartan soldier walked down the confined, iron corridors of The Pillar of Autumn, his shoulders set at an angle and his assault rifle’s prow aimed into the dark recesses. What was once a well-lit hallway which led to the barracks was now a blackened fog of smoke and ash - destruction plastered on the walls and charred human remains on the floor.

This was the residue of the Covenant. They had come this way.
Trained since the age of five to six without hesitation, the super soldier did not give into trepidation or fear. He moved forward - slowly, silently and methodically, his eyes penetrating the fuming mist as a hunter would his prey.
There was something nearby; he could sense it. Something familiar.
As he came to a part in the smoke, his eyes trained on a shadowy figure. Pushing forward ever so slightly, this figure came into full view.

At nearly three meters tall and enmeshed in crimson armor, the Elite Major was the highest-ranking military operator involved in the boarding action against the Autumn. These creatures, by their own name Sangheili, were elegant and noble beasts - the military leaders of the Covenant. The aliens walked on haunches that ended in large hooves and their stooped muscular bodies were covered in a scaly flesh offering the look and scent of a reptile. Their arms were long and came to an end with four ambidextrous and tapered fingers, capable of wrapping tightly around their deadly Covenant weaponry with deft ease. Their heads were flat, with two pairs of mandibles covering their guttural vocal passages. They had keen yet hollow eyes, resembling those of a shark’s. This comparison didn’t end there, as it was clear that they had been the result of millions of years of evolution leading them to a path of predatory superiority on their planet, Sanghelios.

This one, of course, was far different than his barbaric ancestors. His gait implied a haughty certainty, a strategically sophisticated role as the Covenant’s iron heart and fist. Apart from their leaders, the Prophets, the Elites were the leaders of the Covenant and they had proven as much, over the years of war with humanity.
This was a perfectly-crafted enemy - the very definition of a worthy opponent.

This was Sangheili.

Anyone who has experienced Halo: Combat Evolved or Halo 2 know that Elites represent a level of refined cunning and deft combat skill that made them the ultimate enemies in the first half of the trilogy. In certain segments of Halo 2 and throughout all of Halo 3, the player can appreciate this exact same attribute from the opposite end of the spectrum - fighting alongside the Elites against the Covenant.

Out of all of the alien races and characters represented in the Halo trilogy, my personal favorite are the noble princes of Sanghelios. Ensconced in honor and regality, the Sangheili represent a diametric opposite to the other categorical and philosophical elements of the Covenant. They are loyal, they are honorable and their code of living most closely represents that of our own.
The purpose of this article is to close the gap between what the average Halo fan knows about the Elites and what their story is, as well as speculate based on the data about what details have remained hidden. It should serve as an exegesis of the culture, history and future of the Sangheili race. Rich and rife for further propagation, the story of the Sangheili is not only compelling, but it is also inspirationally sublime.

It is a story about a fervent belief in something greater, about broken covenants and executed betrayals. It’s about cold-blooded vengeance and a culture’s ability to loosen and rend that which has held them back. Their story is an important story to tell, not only within the scope of the Halo trilogy, but in the things it says about our own humanity, our vices, our own sins and as in the case of the Sangheili, the deliverance from them.

The Elites were bred a warrior race. Their education and eventual vocation revolved around service for the Sangheilian military.
The Sangheili’s roots trace back to their homeworld, Sanghelios. The fourth planet in a three-star system (Urs, Fied and Joori) with two moons (Qikost and Suban), their world had a considerably higher temperature than our own. Despite it being a far more dry and arid realm than Earth, the planet shared many topical similarities to humanity’s world. It had large bodies of water surrounding continental land masses - flora, fauna and all of the trappings of a fully operational ecosystem. That being said, sentient life on their planet clearly fell along drastically different physiological paths.

Looking at their phenotypic makeup from an evolutionary perspective, we see that these creatures were born as natural predators. Their haunched and feral posture, their low-level serpentine head, their tooth-filled mandibles and their muscular hind-legs are all ingredients of a beast which hunts for flesh. A predator.

At some point, despite this savage instinct, they developed reasoning, built an intellect around it and then formed a culture as an extension of their cooperative reasoning.

Their species quickly became a warrior race, but much like our own culture, they no doubt suffered from some of the consequences of such an antagonistic trait. Class was significantly important to Sangheilian society, even more so than to humans, so friction between members of a feudal and tribal segments would be expected, particularly in an aggressively patriarchal culture as theirs was. Their slow rise through the various tiers of technology may have been a somewhat violent one, but eventually an overriding purpose united their cause.

This was no doubt the discovery of Forerunner artifacts and herein their religion was born.

This common bond would have no doubt created a catalyst for the renovation of their class-based system, and it was then that they established a planet-wide government and military. It is not known whether they discovered these artifacts in space or whether they uncovered Forerunner relics on their own world, but either way the discovery would have rocked the very foundations of the Sangheili social structure.

The irony of the fact that the Forerunner technology became a catalyst for their religion, was that much later they would learn that the Forerunner’s own religious predicament is what caused the ancient culture’s demise in the first place. The Sangheili, nevertheless, held a deep spiritual connection to the artifacts, one which in hindsight eventually served the advent of the Reclaimer and the fulfillment of their own prophecies.

Within the race, there was a political internecine regarding the sanctity of the Forerunner discovery. Should they attempt to activate and use the technology or should they keep it locked away, hallowed and sacred? Fearful that they would defile the holiness of the relics, the Sangheili avoided interaction with them. They locked them away and began crafting an elaborate religion around the very little which they knew.
#The Forerunner Dreadnought would have brought the Sangheili race to extinction, if it were not for the Writ of Union and the formation of the Covenant.

Time passed and their faith continued to be emboldened by new discoveries until they ran headlong into another race with the identical goal of scouring the galaxy for Forerunner artifacts. On a reliquary world inside their own territory, the Sangheili found a race called the San ‘Shyuum - the Prophets. Both the Elites and the Prophets came from artifact-rich planets and had achieved advanced forms of space travel largely in an effort for the recovery of more relics. But when their abject differences in their interpretation over the use of Forerunner properties became clear, their encounters quickly turned hostile. The Elites saw the Prophets’ practical use of Forerunner technology in their ships and equipment as a heresy without parallel.
The Sangheili physically dwarfed the San ‘Shyuum in every relevant metric for infantry and space warfare, but the Prophets were cunning in the latter, effectively using a Forerunner Dreadnought to bring overwhelming causalities to the Elite’s fleets. Deadlocked in a war which seemed without end or victory, the Sangheili realized that their kind would be finished if they did not compromise. So they began using the Forerunner technology on their own fleets; to avoid extinction, they did the unthinkable.

At some point, the government of the Sangheili made a decision to work toward a truce. When this happened, the leadership met with the San ‘Shyuum and a deal was struck. The two races, both clearly conceding that the Forerunner relics were holy items to be sought after, joined forces forming two parts of what would eventually become an unbelievably dominant imperial war machine.

The Elites and the Prophets forged a promise which would tie their two races together in an effort to locate, secure and reverently use the items left behind by those they considered gods. This resulted in the actualization of the Sangheili’s acceptance that using Forerunner relics for the benefit of seeking out other relics was perfectly acceptable.

So began the Covenant.

The Honor Guard was composed entirely of Elites who directly served the Prophets and the High Council; their purpose runs analog with the role of Sangheili within the Covenant.

Like any union, there needed to be a codification and a declaration of rules and rights, especially since this measure would run cross-species. The Sangheili were already familiar with class warfare from their primitive years - the reconstitution of class and rank within the Covenant would be a natural and evolutionary progression, something very familiar to them. Likely, as a show of good will by the San ‘Shyuum, evidence suggests that the Sangheili’s language became the core language of the Covenant – which was reasonable since the Elites greatly outnumbered the frail population count of Prophets.

At this point, it is also believed that the Forerunner vessel was decommissioned and used in the construction and eventual powering of a centralized Covenant city. They would call this place High Charity. At its core, the sacred Forerunner vessel once used against the Sangheili to bring about their extinction would be offering them safety and energy - a new life. The city was built to be mobile and capable of incredibly precise slipspace travel; it would move with the Covenant fleet if needed.

Shortly after the “Writ of Union” was penned, a series of cantos depicting the formation of the Covenant, the leaders of each race came together and developed a government. The San ‘Shyuum would have three elected leaders, referred to as Hierarchs. They would serve as the spiritual leadership, underpinned by a High Council composed of both Prophets and Elites. The Elite Councilors were the highest regarded Sangheili within the Covenant’s fledgling government and they operated jointly with the Prophets, creating and enforcing the government at the highest level.

The Councilors were protected by the Honor Guard, a pinnacle class of warrior Elites who wore elaborate and vibrant armor; their powerful shapes lined the halls of the High Council chamber in the upper echelon of High Charity’s architecture. The Honor Guard’s place was critically significant, as they protected the High Council and the Hierarchs individually. It also acted as a metaphor for the Covenant as a whole: the San ‘Shyuum would lead in affairs of science and religion, while the Sangheili would operate the military and protect the Prophets.

When the government had taken considerable shape, the San ‘Shyuum Hierarchs became aware of the potential threat to their leadership and the dogma. Although they held the secrets to the Forerunner dreadnought, which we could assume was the source of their political leverage, their marriage to the Sangheili culture was potentially perilous. At any moment, the Sangheili could decide against the Covenant and with the dreadnought decommissioned, the San ‘Shyuum wouldn’t stand a chance - any serious battle would find their race extinct within days.

The Arbiter was a mantle without equal; their tasks were composed of brutal adjudication and swift assassination. For this reason, their lives were continually in peril by their deadly occupation.
This may have been the reason the Arbiter class was created. Warriors of the highest regard within Sangheili ranks were given the title “Arbiter” and referred to as “The Blade of the Prophets.” Their loyalty was strictly to the Hierarchs and their fates were inexorably tied to their missions. Historically, the Arbiters would always die completing their missions, as their tasks were without equal in danger. When the San ‘Shyuum needed to silence a discordant voice in the Covenant, the loyal Arbiters would do that bidding and they would do so well before it became a movement or even worse - a revolution.

Militarily, the Elites held complete sway. All order fell into the hands of the Imperial Admiral, a single Sangheili of the utmost military expertise and with complete control over all of the Covenant’s fleets. This Sangheili wore silver and gold armor with intricate and mysterious Forerunner text inscribed across it. He was the highest ranking member of the Covenant’s military.

Individually, however, the fleets were operated by Supreme Commanders, localized officers who supervised their collective of Shipmasters and by proxy the hundreds of vessels within their fleet.

There were a litany of individual classes, but many were consistent across all armadas and fleets. Elite classes included blue-armored Minor Elites, red-armored Major Elites and silver-armored Ultra Elites - these have always conducted the vast majority of the Covenant’s field operations, the latter being the highest regarded and the former being the most commonly implemented. Rangers, Ossoona Spies and Special Operations teams were part of a shorter list of specialized task forces used sparingly and for very specific missions – but still representing a powerful element of the Covenant military in their own right.

The history of the Covenant shortly after their formation is bound in mystery.
We know that their search throughout the galaxy led them to more artifacts and even more information about the Forerunners. We also know that they began searching specifically for the seven Sacred Rings to bring about something they called “the Great Journey” – this, the likely culprit as the central reason the Covenant was formed in the first place.

They were looking for these intriguing ringworlds and they were intent on activating them to initiate a holy transcendence for those who believed. This was called the Great Journey and in the ancient text, the Forerunner race took this pathway toward enlightenment and ultimately godhood. Although no rings had been found yet, the Age of Discovery for the Covenant became their defining years and emboldened the bond formed by the forefathers of both species.

It wasn’t long then before they came upon other alien races - many of these kinds were blinded by ignorance and some were eager to be hostile. The first few conflicts helped the Sangheili military and by proxy, the San ‘Shyuum leadership, learn how to better tame and convert these races into allies. They knew from experience that a prolonged war between two separate species would be problematic - a war would cost time, materiel and operated counter to the religious goal of the Covenant: search and discovery.
So the Unggoy (Grunts), the Lekgolo (Hunters), the Kig-yar (Jackals), the Yanme’e (Drones) and eventually the Jiralhanae (Brutes) were all converted from their heathen and treacherous ways into willing vessels within the Covenant’s military. It was likely a very involving process for the Sangheili, as their military was required to effectively and sometimes violently bring to an end any resistance being offered by these new races.

For these ignorant beings, believing the Covenant religion was an acceptable fate opposed to their newfound masters glassing the surface of their worlds to an unrecognizable gray and black ash. For the Sangheili, however, this meant new and diverse additions to their military’s size and scope. But it didn’t come without a price. Some races, like the Jiralhanae, remained barbaric and suspect to the Sangheili - a constant source of concern because of their formidable nature and uncivilized behavior. Cross-species spats quickly became revolutions which needed to be quickly stifled. The Unggoy attempted to rebel at one point over disputes with the Kig-yar about breeding rights, a conflict which only ended when the Sangheili obliterated large portions of Balaho, the Grunt homeworld.

The Sangheilian war machine was deadly, allowing no room for dispute or contention - even amongst fellow members of the Covenant.
Such bickering and strife became taxing over time and with the lack of any significant discoveries, the Covenant entered the Age of Doubt. Those dark years created unmatched strain for their religious body. What had been a streamlined and hopeful campaign so many centuries ago was now becoming a bloated and unstable union with no Sacred Rings to show for itself. During this time, the Great Journey was likely questioned. Maybe not out loud, as that would have been heresy, but it is likely that a good number of Sangheili thought skeptically about what they could not speak.

Then they found humanity.

In operations which were initially handled by Jiralhanae, the Covenant located and contacted a colonial world of a new race of beings – they referred to the planet as Harvest. What they found, using reverse-engineered technology that could locate their lord’s relics, was a reliquary, a treasure trove of Forerunner artifacts. To the Sangheili, much of this operation was kept in the dark. These humans were immediately regarded as enemies by the Prophets, trampling and defecating on the holy relics – ultimately destroying them before the Covenant could locate and secure their finds. The truth, however, was that two ambitious San ‘Shyuum politicians had uncovered that the relics were not machines or precious crystals, as they had been in the past. They were, in fact, the human beings themselves.

Humanity was the chosen heir to the Forerunners, not the San ‘Shyuum as their kind had once believed and hoped for. The Sangheili did not learn of this treachery until 27 years later, well after multiplied billions had lost their lives. The roles took by the two San ‘Shyuum politicians set into play a chain-reaction of events which ultimately destroyed the Covenant and brought humankind to the verge of extinction.

In the year 2525, the two politicians’ lies paid off - the newly elected Prophet of Truth and his fellow Hierarchs Regret and Mercy, the third being bribed to silence for his position, announced that the Age of Doubt had ended and that the Age of Reclamation was now at hand. Certain secrets which Harvest held, through the deceitful spectacles of the Hierarchs, convinced the High Council of two things. The first was that the Sacred Rings were within their grasp, that they would soon be discovered and the second was that humanity was an unholy and unworthy race. They would not be offered any truce or opportunity for conversion.
Instead, they would be offered only desolation.

Thus began the Human-Covenant Conflict, a war which would be fought tooth-and-nail for over a quarter of a century. Although humans did not possess the technology or the weaponry that the Covenant had, they were impressive strategists and they fought with enough heart to sway a handful of battles in their favor. Upon orders of the San ‘Shyuum Hierarchs, the Sangheili military effectively glassed any human world after searching it for artifacts.

The Elites often wondered why humanity was being slighted rather than welcomed in their search for the Sacred Rings, as they had ample opportunities in both infantry and space campaigns to interact with this strange new race. They were a compelling species and far more like the Sangheilian culture than any of the other races which the Covenant had wrangled in. Humanity would have been a perfect addition to their cause.

Sangheili have loyally served the San ‘Shyuum in search of the Sacred Rings for many ages. Their first encounter with one, ironically, would cause the eventual collapse of their entire union.

Never-the-less, under the Prophets’ commandment and with the promise of that the Great Journey was near, the Sangheili crushed each human world in their path, pushing back the species one system at a time. Eventually, humanity unleashed a powerful biological weapon - something they called “Spartans.” The weapon was a genetically and mechanically augmented variation on their own species, a super soldier which easily rivaled the Sangheili and Jiralhanae on the battlefield. Although their numbers were small at the time, fear no doubt gripped the hearts of some of those within the Covenant ranks. If a large population of these Spartans were to be unleashed, it would seriously undermine any chance for decisive victory.
The Sangheili labeled these Spartans “Demons” and their success against these creatures was bitterly fought for. Then they found some measure of success on the planet Reach. A fortress world, another site where a Forerunner artifact had been buried long ago, was found to also be a human military planet. Led by a tactical and cunning mastermind, the Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice, the Covenant saw an opportunity to crush the last remnant of the Spartans on the human world. With a fleet of 317 ships, the Sangheili Commander was able to successfully fend off the attacks from 152 human warships and its twenty orbital weapon platforms, allowing ground forces to siege the world’s surface and destroy the generators which powered the platforms themselves while simultaneously attempting to retrieve the sacred artifact.

During the battle for Reach, many Sangheili believed that the last of the Spartans had been extinguished, but they would soon discover otherwise. At least one Spartan had survived and his ship, The Pillar of Autumn, escaped into slipspace. A portion of the Fleet who were not involved in glassing the planet’s surface, followed with the Commander leading the way, but when they exited slipspace they had no way of knowing what they would find.
Installation 04 or Halo, one of the long sought after Sacred Rings, was where they Covenant and humans had fatefully emerged from slipspace. The Covenant had finally found one of their rings, but the Commander, although a believer, was not deeply religious or concerned about the ring itself. His goal was to attack the humans and destroy their ship, as well as the Demon within it. By the time the Covenant were able to effectively assault the Autumn, however, the humans had already escaped to the surface of the installation with lifeboats and were laying hold of it.

The Commander unleashed all of his resources to secure the ground, but word of the Demon’s survival and success spread throughout his fleet. Then came even more tragedy: A localized Covenant detachment found what appeared to be a heavily-secured Forerunner weapon cache on the ring’s surface. They attempted to unlock it, only to find that it was not a cache, but rather a containment facility for an extremely dangerous parasite known as the Flood. While it is possible that a few religiously-inclined Sangheili had known about the Flood from ancient Forerunner text, this was their first real encounter.

The hapless event ultimately cost far more than they had ever suspected.
Another cunning warrior, Special Operations Commander Rtas ‘Vadumee, discovered more about the Flood than the Sangheili bargained for. A SpecOps team was sent by the fleet’s same Supreme Commander to the Infinite Succor, which was assumed to have been boarded by humans. When they arrived, they made contact with the Flood and a violent battle ensued. ‘Vadumee eventually escaped the ship alone, sending it hurling toward a system’s sun. His left mandibles had been severed by an infected member of his own squad armed with a deadly energy sword. This physical scar would serve as a bitter reminder of the threat the Flood posed, but on the surface of the Halo ringworld, things would fair far worse.


Not only did the humans put up an honorable resistance to the Covenant’s ground forces, but the addition of the Flood’s savage numbers complicated matters immensely. The Covenant fleet’s Supreme Commander began focusing almost solely on the parasite, and by the time he uncovered the surviving Demon’s plans it was too late. The Spartan was attempting to destroy the Sacred Ring and halt the Covenant’s progress. When he was unable to damage the facility with the installation’s own pulse generators, he returned back to their crashed ship, The Pillar of Autumn, and set off a nuclear reaction which not only tore the ringworld apart, but nearly decimated the entire fleet.

The lives of any Covenant male born to a Sangheili mother were typically short, brutal and violent, yet they were always considered honorable.
The Sangheili Commander, wrecked with shame at the loss of the Sacred Ring and his own fleet, returned back to High Charity to receive punishment for what would no doubt be viewed as an act of heresy. This was the first of the Sacred Rings to be found and it was destroyed by a verminous human. Still, he held onto the hope that he could continue his war against humanity - if not for the honor of the Great Journey, then only to ensure that the Demon was destroyed.

Upon arriving at High Charity, the Hierarchs agreed with the High Council and the Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice was afforded the title “Heretic.” The Mark of Shame was seared on his naked chest for the rest of his days, only a preface to the humiliating punishment they had prepared. The Sangheili, even those among the High Council, sensed that something more was amiss. The Hierarchs had been spending an excessive amounts of time with the Jiralhanae leadership, currently embodied by a Chieftain known as Tartarus. When the Commander was punished, his punishment was executed by this outsider - to most of the Sangheili this must have be seen at the very least as an unusual peculiarity.
To further exacerbate this political quandary, two major crises were born.
In one, the Hierarch called Regret had located the human homeworld which unexpectedly resided on the same planet as a gateway portal leading to the Ark – a key component of the Great Journey. How the San ‘Shyuum discovered this location or the Forerunner secret of the Ark, has never been fully explained, but with a relatively small fleet, Regret attempted to take hold of the planet’s East African Protectorate, near the location of the gateway. Regret’s small exploration team was not suited for a full-scale battle against humanity on their homeworld, and he was forced to retreat through slipspace.

Upon emerging, a second Sacred Ring was discovered: Installation 05, also called Delta Halo. Whereas the advent of the last ringworld saw the Covenant chasing humanity through slipspace, this one found the Covenant fleeing from them in the same manner. It was clear that, once again, there would be a clash against humanity on a Sacred Ring. Some evidence suggests that the Covenant had recently uncovered this ring’s location and had already arrived there in some small numbers before Regret’s assault carrier appeared - nothing concrete has been disclosed thus far.
The other crisis was buried in the debris field of the first Halo installation - the one which the Demon had destroyed. There, a Forerunner gas mining facility in the orbit of Threshold had found its own brand of heresy. Having discovered an Oracle AI construct which claimed to be from the destroyed installation, Sesa ‘Refumee, the chief Sangheili researcher, was intrigued.
Once a member of the Fleet of Particular Justice, this Elite and his crew were sent to research a nearby Forerunner gas mine. When the Sacred Ring was suddenly destroyed, they were quickly paid a visit by the installation’s caretaker. It was then that the Oracle told ‘Refumee about the true purpose of the Halo installations and the real fate of the Forerunners. They were weapons of mass destruction meant to stave off the Flood and the Forerunners met their end when they activated these long ago. With this newfound knowledge, he and his crew were immediately converted. They quickly came to the realization that the San ‘Shyuum had lied about the Great Journey and immediately began transmitting the message across all bands of Covenant communication.

Sesa ‘Refumee was the first Sangheili to defect, but he would not be the last.
When the Hierarchs heard of this, they knew ‘Refumee must be silenced. The three of them had hidden humanity’s right as heir to the Forerunners from the Sangheili and the rest of the Covenant for decades - they would not allow a single meddler to aggravate their plans when they were so close to fulfilling them. In a scheme he thought masterfully engineered, the Prophet of Truth sent ‘Refumee’s former commanding officer, the disgraced Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice, and the SpecOps Commander, Rtas ‘Vadumee, to eliminate this threat. Before doing so, he pardoned the Commander of his heresy and, through an exchange of words and armor, transformed him into an Arbiter. The Sangheili Commander would not be able to continue his efforts against the humans or the Demon, but by offering himself as a sacrifice for the Covenant, the suicidal mantle of the Arbiter would provide absolution for his sins and, in turn, give the High Council the corpse they demanded.

While the Hierarchs privately determined how to handle Regret’s folly, the Arbiter and the SpecOps Commander took a squad of Elites to assault the heretic camp. The mission was harried but successful. The Arbiter assassinated ‘Refumee but not before hearing a significant portion of the rebel Sangheili’s discovery. Before he could learn more about it, however, the Chieftain Tartarus arrived and stole away the Oracle, retrieving it for the Prophet’s use.

The Covenant leadership was certain they would not lose this second Sacred Ring, so they took all of High Charity and the entire Covenant armada there, readying their ships to return back to Earth. On the surface of the ringworld, however, the surviving Demon was already at work. He broke into one of the Forerunner’s sacred temples, single-handedly eliminated the Honor Guard and then laid to rest the Prophet of Regret himself. The Hierarchs wasted no time leveling the temple in an effort to end the Demon’s work, but no sign had been given that the human was dead.

The SpecOps Commander Rtas ‘Vadumee and the Arbiter returned home to find High Charity’s politics had become a roiling furnace. With the death of a Hierarch at the hands of the Demon, the Sangheili Honor Guard which had stood for countless generations was disbanded. In its place, the Jiralhanae would be their replacements. One can imagine that a great deal of turmoil struck the Elite race in this moment – a fear that the San ‘Shyuum may have felt for ages, being at the mercy of the Sangheili’s military if ever they were to turn, was irrevocably reversed. With the inclusion of the Jiralhanae, physical equals to the Sangheili, the Prophets wasted no more time with formalities.
The Covenant was changing and the Sangheili were being left behind.

With the mounting tension in the Covenant ranks, there were no doubt a few Elites already preparing for civil war.
Blinded by the inertia of the recent events and hoping to claim some success for the Sangheili name, the Arbiter moved forward with a second mission for the two remaining Hierarchs. He was sent alongside the same SpecOps unit to secure Delta Halo’s Index - the Sacred Icon. With this key, the Prophets believed they could activate the Sacred Ring and initiate a sequence of events which would bring about the Great Journey.
The Arbiter assaulted the parasite-filled corridors of the ringworld’s Library, hearing that the Demon may have survived on the very same ring. He secretly hoped that he might have his vengeance yet. After seizing the Icon from two other humans, he was unexpectedly assaulted by Tartarus. The Chieftain revealed that he was ordered by the Hierarchs to betray and kill him. Stunned beyond words, the Arbiter was beaten and fell into a pit which he no doubt assumed would be his grave.

But much like the Demon, the Arbiter found some measure of safety in the installation’s bizarre underground - he also found the seething Flood lying in wait. Beneath the surface of Delta Halo, the Flood had created a Gravemind, a centralized consciousness as part of their natural evolutionary cycle.
With the Demon in one tentacle and the Arbiter in another, the Gravemind explained to his defiant Sangheili captive that the ringworlds were really weapons capable of killing all sentient life. Having seen the lies of the Hierarchs first hand, the Arbiter slowly became convinced that the Gravemind was speaking the truth.

The Flood sent him to Delta Halo’s control room, where he and the SpecOps Commander discovered that the Jiralhanae had killed almost all of the Sangheili members of the High Council. With this news, High Charity began to descend into chaos. The Sangheili and the Jiralhanae waged a full-scale war and the city began to fall apart. This provided an opportunity for the Gravemind and its Flood to leave Delta Halo and arrive on High Charity using captured human ships.

Saving only a handful of councilors from their demise, the Arbiter and the SpecOps commander moved against Tartarus at Delta Halo’s control room. The Arbiter was now completely convinced that activating the installation would do just as the Gravemind said, kill all intelligent life. The seed of doubt planted by ‘Refumee on the gas mining facility only a short time ago, had now grown into an absolute certainty in the Arbiter’s mind. While the installation was being activated, he slew Tartarus and formed a tenuous bond with a pair of humans there.

The Arbiter and Rtas ‘Vadumee both served in the Covenant’s Fleet of Particular Justice. In their most dire hour, this brotherly devotion helped unite the Elites under one banner against the Covenant.
The ring had not fired, but merely placed the entire weapon network on standby. The Oracle, freed from Tartarus’ clutches, immediately explained that the only place one could now fire the rings was from the Ark. The Flood did not take long to spread throughout High Charity, but by the time the Gravemind had arrived, the Hierarchs and much of the Covenant armada were already making preparations to venture back to the human homeworld and eventually, the Ark. In their last moments of preparation, the Prophet of Mercy fell victim to the Flood and Truth and, in one last dashing of the truce between the San ‘Shyuum and Sangheili, untethered the Forerunner Keyship and allowed it to take flight, leading the Covenant armada back to Earth.
With High Charity and Delta Halo falling to both the Flood and a massive civil war, the humans and the Arbiter left for Earth immediately. This event would later be called the Great Schism - the day in which the Elites separated from the Covenant and found allies in humanity. In the wake of the battle, the remnants of the Sangheili quarantined Delta Halo and then attempted to deal with infestation of High Charity.

The Great Schism was a brutal war with an incredibly high body count for half a dozen species, including humanity.
When they arrived, the bond between the Sangheili and the humans had been fully realized – the Spartan, who was once called the Demon, and the Arbiter joined together to fight a common enemy: The Prophet of Truth. By the time they arrived, the Hierarch was already using the Forerunner Keyship to activate the gateway portal and reach the Ark, where he was convinced that the Covenant would have access to the Great Journey. When the gateway portal was activated, Truth quickly left with the dreadnought and the Covenant armada - passing through slipspace to the Ark.
The humans had no time to consider pursuit as immediately thereafter another slipspace portal opened, this time with a Flood-infested vessel from Delta Halo. Shadow of Intent, an assault carrier being operated by Rtas ‘Vadum, who now bore the rank of Shipmaster and a slightly altered name, followed this ship with its fleet in close pursuit. Once the infestation was quelled, the Shipmaster, the Arbiter and a detachment of humans, with all of the vessels in their command, followed Truth and the Covenant back to the Ark.

The Sangheili fleet passed through the portal and immediately engaged the Covenant armada waiting at the other side. While space filled with death and destruction, the Arbiter, the Spartan and a number of soldiers from both species touched ground and moved quickly to stop Truth from activating the rings.

Rtas ‘Vadumee, the Spec Ops Commander, assumed the mantle of Ship master and became ‘Vadum acquiring full leadership of the last remaining Sangheili fleet and its assault carrier, Shadow of Intent.
It was not long until they discovered where this Ark was located, far outside the range of the galaxy and the Halo installations. They also uncovered the location of the control room on the Ark itself, a citadel within which Truth had barricaded himself and his Jiralhanae cohorts. Once the humans and Elites had removed an energy barrier protecting the Hierarch, ‘Vadum’s ship attempted to level the citadel and stop Truth permanently. Before he had an opportunity, High Charity emerged from slip space and debris struck the Shadow of Intent, injuring it severely. The Covenant city-ship had fallen prey to the Flood and was brought to the Ark by the Gravemind; the creature no doubt hoped that it could permanently disable the Halo rings. The Arbiter and the Spartan wasted no time and assaulted the heavily-guarded citadel, locating the Prophet of Truth at long last. In a measure of vengeful irony, the Arbiter, the Blade of the Prophets, executed the last remaining Hierarch.
One betrayal begot another and the voice of the Covenant was finally silenced.

Without the Sangheili, humanity would have likely lost their war with the Covenant. It is incredibly ironic, since Prophets were the reason for the Great Schism to begin with.

The Spartan stopped the rings from firing, but it was clear that the Gravemind and its Flood had no plans of relenting. Before it could consume the Arbiter and the Spartan, the two escaped and discovered the true purpose of the Ark - to manufacture the Halo installations themselves. The two unlikely allies stood side-by-side as a new installation emerged from the surface, rising into space. On one side was the Spartan who had destroyed the installation’s predecessor and on other, the Sangheili who had been brought to shame because of it.

With the Covenant completely destroyed, the Sangheili returned back to Earth through the portal. The Arbiter and the Spartan, however, stayed behind and set their sights on this new and unstable installation. Their plan was simple: they would use it to destroy the Ark and the Gravemind, bringing an end to the conflict once and for all. Although they were successful in activating the installation, the Arbiter was the only one to return back to Earth alive. Despite overwhelming evidence that suggested the Spartan had perished, the Arbiter held to the belief that he was still alive. Since the Hierarchs deceit was now made known, the Arbiter was reinstated by his own kind and took the leadership position from Rtas ‘Vadum. The comparatively small count of Sangheili on board were presumably all that was left of their military and now they were returning to Sanghelios, probably for the first time in decades.

A good deal of mystery exists about what they will find when they reach their planet. Will they be welcomed home by Sangheili who had been made aware of the Prophet’s deceit or would there be strife and confusion filling the void which their religion had once occupied? The Sangheili were on the verge of a massive social and philosophical transition. The Forerunner artifacts had united their kind long ago as a passionate religion, but could they exist in peace without the same hope and faith which had once bound them together? Would the Arbiter and ‘Vadum return to a peaceful welcome party, to a civil war or, perhaps, to something much, much worse?

Although the Arbiter has no idea what his return to Sanghelios will yield, he’s stared death in the face more than once and survived - he’s, no doubt, fully prepared for what lies next.

Whichever direction the Sangheili story goes, rest assured that if it is handled as delicately as these prior tales were, we’ll be in for a treat. This story is not only fascinating, but it speaks to what makes them so special as a race within the Halo fiction. They had an incredible amount of faith and passion, yet time and time again, the overriding element of their nature is their solidified belief in the value of honor. Even when their faith was questioned and shattered, they forged a new promise - a new covenant with humanity. And with that promise they fought and died alongside humankind, recognizing the importance of absolving their former sins by eradicating the horror that was the Covenant.

This philosophical approach to their society is inspirational. It provides us with a framework on how we as people should operate with regards to loyalty, commitment and honor. Halo is largely considered to simply be a shooting game for young males with too much time on their hands - but that notion ignores the cultural tapestry and brilliance of the story itself.
There are lessons to be learned from Halo; the Sangheili tale is irrefutable evidence to support this.
In the wake of the Halo Array’s demise, the future is an interesting place for Halo fans. Much of the Sangheili story is fresh and untapped, ready for a storyteller’s touch. There are stories which have yet to be fleshed out from the Sangheili history and tales even within the time period covered by the Halo trilogy which could warrant their own telling. With the end of the Halo story arch, is our time with the Elites over or will Bungie and Microsoft choose to unveil even more about the proud and noble Sangheili?
I, for one, certainly hope so.



This was not written by me, I just found it and decided to post it up here

 

No real reason, I just found it interesting.