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Subject: The Covenant Caste and Society
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So here is what we know: 1. the convenant know technology 2. the covenant know the idea of transportation (there fleet , vehicles etc.) 3. the Covenant have a a defined caste system
4. the covenant have building and stuctures, temples etc.

also in the books it describes a covenant city. i think. i read them and forgot like 80 percent.

so what do you think the homeworld is like , or should i say collection of homeworlds
cities, transportation, females civilians, children , entertainment, etc. do they even have such things. are the a military society like the greeks, what is their deal. they obviously care a great deal about thier religion. what does this supposed religion preach, moral and peace? doesnt look like it. but many human religions promote the same and it never happens. just wanting your thoughts. I think this all relates to halo 2 because i think we are going to find out more about the covenant and thier motives etc.

  • 06.13.2004 8:26 PM PDT

I can't imagine any covenant "civilians". In their society, you are either a slave, a warrior, or a warrior slave. Think of it as The Dark Ages- the Prophets and Elites are like the Nobles, and everyone else is a Serf that does whatever the Nobles wish.

  • 06.13.2004 8:33 PM PDT
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They are kind of like middle-east people (I DON"T MEAN TO BE RACIST OR ANYTHING)

Their way of thinking is greatly infuenced by their religion and they all obey. Otherwise, we know almost nothing about the Covenant. NOTHING!!!!!!!!

  • 06.13.2004 9:01 PM PDT
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The awesome thing is that in halo 1 you notice the diffrences between a blue elite and a spec ops elite and it subtly changed the tactics on ledgendary. I cant wait for Halo 2 to expanded on this because I bet alot of casual gamers didn't catch the diffrences between the races of the covenant and it added another layer of depth that could have been easily over looked and now its even better and you will have to adapt even more to the types of enemies

  • 06.13.2004 10:19 PM PDT
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[color=gray]They seem to have a very religiously-driven society. The covenant assimilates many races into its collective. Bungie said they look up to the Forerunners as a model of cultural and technical advancement.[/color]

[Edited on 6/13/2004 11:50:22 PM]

  • 06.13.2004 11:49 PM PDT
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1. the covenant know technology because they are imatative not inovative. the prophets original homeworld was forerunner so they got the majority of their superior tech from there. not saying they're completely dumb because they are obviously intelligent and may have made their own things from gathered technology. later in the war they steal useful human technology, such as A.I's in starships which further proves they are a imatative race.

2. yes the covenant are very mobile, they have superior starships in every way with few weaknesses and on the ground anti grav and plasma echnology gives them an edge.

3. yes the caste system is important in their society and way of life. while humans can adapt and perform multiple tasks it seems the covenant are very specialised in their functions. prophets are leaders and deal with spritual and political factors. jackals are scouts, patrols and snipers due to superior senses, elites use their knowledge of technology and superior battlefield tactics to man starships, many vehicles, be commanders and leaders and generally great soldiers to the covenant "they are the iron heart of the covenant war machine" grunts make up the bulk of the army and are fodder, i personally beleive they breed faster than any of the other covenant races also, with prophets being the least. brutes because of their strength and heavy defense are the guards of great importance such as the holy temples and the prophets themselves (so why are they on earth unless they are guarding/finding something of great riligious significance) hunters are backup and are like walking tanks where its more benificial (due to space etc or getting there) than using an actual tank, they are also very strong and sometimes used for manual things (brutes are too important) engineers are purely to maintain the covenant war machine and gather technology and we're probably a founding race like the elites and prophets. in order of caste significance it goes:

High Prophets
Minor Prophets, Commander Elites*
Elites Brutes Engineers***
Hunters
Jackals** Grunts
* if the elite is of VERY high rank it can outrank a minor prophet (said in the flood book)
** though in truth jackals and grunts are held in equal disregard by the higher castes jackals see themselves as higher than grunts and are violent to keep above them.
*** though not warriors, engineers are a high caste as they are crucial to the covenant war machine and maintaining society.

4. yes the covenant have great temples and cities and i believe the ones on the (main) homeworld was created by the founding covenant. the covenant obviously have creativity and art in their veins as there ships often contain works of beauty that are not purely related to fuction. in first strike on the unyeilding heirophant there is a grand hall, there are statues of covenant war heroes, moving pictures and gravity is used to move water (within the ship) to create wonderous effects and have planet environments in space. why would a race where there only culture seems to be war has this??? they are more complecated than that it seems (well some castes are).

i don't really think the covenant have entertainment. jackals seem to enjoy violence towards the grunts "or worse give him to the jackals". grunts seem to just sleep, eat and relax with comrades when not fighting. prophets are always scheming, planning and discussing religious or political things in their councils. due to their warlike nature i beleive all young are implemented into the military straight away to make the most of their unique caste abilities at a young age for the covenant war machine. as for females i certainly don't know, grunts have females as (its either in the strategy guide of the flood) children are taken away from mothers when they are young. the colours of jackals i think has to do what sex they are and how mad they are. as for the others i really don't know but all the fighting elites in the books that are named are clearly male so maybe females are held in high regard and don't fight? as elites are very high maybe the only true cilvilians are the children and females of the higher castes.

the covenant are clearly a military society and in religious terms hold the forerunners as almost god like and like a goal to aim to. the humans are obviously preventing this/slowing them down as it seems many of thier world contains forerunner artifacts and constructs or maybe humanity has deeper connections with the forerunner which the covenant dislike. either reason is good evidence that led the covenant into the religious war (see my sig)
hope this has cleared the covenant alittle though it opens more questions for me in the process (like why did the prophets abandon the forerunner world)?

[Edited on 6/15/2004 7:52:14 AM]

  • 06.14.2004 4:26 AM PDT
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i would describe the covie homeworld as...purple

think about it purple cruisers, purple tanks, purple boxes, purple dropships, purple ghosts, purple banshees, purple, purple PURPLE!!!!!!!!!

  • 06.14.2004 4:41 AM PDT
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purple is probably their war colour, ours is mostly green

  • 06.14.2004 5:16 AM PDT
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the covenant plasma weapons on their ships are suprisingly primitive, and if this war was all groundside wed be winning.

  • 06.14.2004 5:39 AM PDT
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posted this yesterday and i am glad to get responses. too many stupid threads now a days. anyway all great thoughts and ideas. especially the one about the covenants possible regard to art forms as in the ship design and temples etc.

  • 06.14.2004 10:05 AM PDT
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the plasma weapons on the ships arn't primative they're above our archer missiles, they just ar't used to greatest effect. and i'm sure if the covenant really wanted to kick our ass groundside they would, they just have never had to. thanks for liking my theories

  • 06.14.2004 10:08 AM PDT
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groundforces................well keep in mind we still havent experience all of the covenants groundforces yet. we are gonna see new troops, ie the brute, and new vehicles as well.

  • 06.14.2004 10:09 AM PDT
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Zamamee, you know what you are talking about, and it is very very possible that you are right. I think the Covenant are like the Romans, they have art but the society thrives on war.

  • 06.14.2004 10:14 AM PDT
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The society thing is something I am very glad Bungie is expanding on. But I wonder what role will the prophets posses in Halo 2? i really hope the dont attack you and shoot lighning out of their hands or something dumb like that.

  • 06.14.2004 10:27 AM PDT
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you know Zamamee, you obviously read all the books to serious depth "and im glad that someone is almost as much of a nerd about halo as i am." and i agree with you fully and ive had the a lot of the same ideas that you have except about the whole ground war thing. by the time this is all taking place, earth has expanded beyond our real imaginations and earth alone probably has a pop. of 20-40 billion+ so actually we should be able to do to the covenant that the covenant do to us with the grunts i.e. canon foder. we also kicked the covenants butt in the first book with just a couple hundred marines against an armada of covenant star ships. alll we need is a way to efficiantly take out their battle cruisers and were set.

[Edited on 6/14/2004 10:52:44 AM]

  • 06.14.2004 10:49 AM PDT
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good thinking.i mean they are saying that by 2100 our population will be like 15 billion so by 2552 or what ever our population is gonna be huge, like probably 40 or 50 billion. i think this will serve us well hopefully they translate that fact into halo 2

well not knowing if we are going to the covie homeworld or not in h2, if we do i hope it isnt like way weird alien . i mean i want it to be different of course. but their are just many instances of convenant technology nestled in the same physics and laws as our own contrustion ideas etc. i hope their city is a sight to behold like an technologically advanced rome or something

  • 06.14.2004 12:24 PM PDT
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you know Zamamee, you obviously read all the books to serious depth "and im glad that someone is almost as much of a nerd about halo as i am." and i agree with you fully and ive had the a lot of the same ideas that you have except about the whole ground war thing. by the time this is all taking place, earth has expanded beyond our real imaginations and earth alone probably has a pop. of 20-40 billion+ so actually we should be able to do to the covenant that the covenant do to us with the grunts i.e. canon foder. we also kicked the covenants butt in the first book with just a couple hundred marines against an armada of covenant star ships. alll we need is a way to efficiantly take out their battle cruisers and were set.

maybe so but who knows when the covenant races began? granted we have a large populous but not now with nearly all human colonies destroyed. also consider the population of EVERY caste combined, all their many worlds as well as homeworlds, all the populous of their empire and i bet their combined numbers are at least 20-1 against humans so i bet they could beat us groundside. heck it looks like they are on earth in halo 2.
(not that i don't value your oppinion)

  • 06.14.2004 12:39 PM PDT
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Humans beat the Covenant in groud battles with the help of the Spartans. They are not as effective by themselves. The Covenant have Hundreds of Ships left. They could easily surround Earth, and -blam!- her as they please. Or maybe they have little interest in humanity and earth. They're probably just looking for another rock that will lead them to another halo or something

  • 06.14.2004 12:48 PM PDT
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Posted by: ggivnish
Humans beat the Covenant in groud battles with the help of the Spartans. They are not as effective by themselves. The Covenant have Hundreds of Ships left. They could easily surround Earth, and -blam!- her as they please. Or maybe they have little interest in humanity and earth. They're probably just looking for another rock that will lead them to another halo or something


thats pretty much how i feel

  • 06.14.2004 1:05 PM PDT
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this thread is kool, it explains alot, i have read the first book, and the UNSC just win the battles in space, and the Spartans tend to use stelth, if they didnt, the covenant will swarm over then, and eliminate them, that is y the spartans are so effective, the have brilliant tac-tics!

  • 06.14.2004 1:11 PM PDT
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Posted by: Richard1000
this thread is kool, it explains alot, i have read the first book, and the UNSC just win the battles in space, and the Spartans tend to use stelth, if they didnt, the covenant will swarm over then, and eliminate them, that is y the spartans are so effective, the have brilliant tac-tics!


what are you talking about? the covenant ALWAYS win space battles unless they don't need to win. they win EVERY time

  • 06.14.2004 1:33 PM PDT
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We can only only beat the covenant when we out number them at least 3:1 and how many ships are left in the entire UNSC.

  • 06.14.2004 2:22 PM PDT
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not a lot, but remeber in the first book, the humans communicaton systems are actually just as good if not better. plus in a ground war, the UNSC would finally be able to take and study covenant technology and impliment it into there own weaponry. then in the third book, Cortana is able to take covenant weapons and other technology and make it twice as good with just a little fine tuning and with no time to tinker around taking out several other covenant ships.

  • 06.14.2004 2:32 PM PDT
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Posted by: Chuckles 117
not a lot, but remeber in the first book, the humans communicaton systems are actually just as good if not better. plus in a ground war, the UNSC would finally be able to take and study covenant technology and impliment it into there own weaponry. then in the third book, Cortana is able to take covenant weapons and other technology and make it twice as good with just a little fine tuning and with no time to tinker around taking out several other covenant ships.


yes but all thats abit too late now isn't it? plus i don't agree about the communications part. covenant had to step down to communicate with us and could relay information on unencripted channels and only cortana could find it out. it also seems to get from ship to ship faster than our communications (look how fast the ships reacted to the covenant A.I in fs)

  • 06.15.2004 7:48 AM PDT

SB-117

Excellent thread zamamee. You suggested thing I had never even thought of!

  • 06.15.2004 7:58 AM PDT

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