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  • Subject: Covenant Hierarchy...
Subject: Covenant Hierarchy...

With B.B. gone, the passion of Bungie.net has lessened.

Interesting..... very interesting...

The Prophets' roles in the Caste System seems to be a little bit less of what I expected. I thought that they'd probably just be using the lower races... not actually needing them. But since its now specified that they are weak, they seem to require the assistance provided by the Elites and other warrior races.

And I never would have guessed that Engineers were religious... I just thought they were only interested in science and mechanics... this makes them even more interesting than I had thought. And the fact that they rarely react to anything that is not Prophetic or Forerunner provides another interesting speculation: They (well, one) seemed to be very interested in the Chief's armor (even though Cortana actually told the engineer to fix it, I still got the impression that the Engineer was immensely enjoying the opportunity)... Maybe its just because its new to them....... but it might also be another clue to a relationship between Humans and Forerunners (even though I still don't believe there is one). Very interesting....

Here's a scary thought: Hunters are known for tactical brilliance <shudders>. Just imagine what they will be capable of if Bungie gets rid of the "one-hit kill" weakness..... Or maybe the AI will be so good that it'll be damn hard to hit the orange if they know you're there, anyway...

And that new Jackal render.......... ew..... just ew. I mean it looks good, but man, those things are freaking freaky.

I also love how Bungie specified this "mutual need" aspect between the Covenant races.

Any one else think that the Covenant's religion is like a Buddhist-Hindu splice (but a bit more fanatic)?

Good stuff. Very good, indeed. I've been waiting patiently for this information for a long time.... Thank you, Bungie!

  • 04.30.2004 3:54 PM PDT
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i didnt quite read all of it. i think its weird that in first strike there were some engineers that helped master chief and they also were very scared about what was happening. it seems weird that they could become violent if something were to happen to a forerunner object or artifact

it also might be interesting (spelling?) to see if we could maybe turn some of the covenant against eachother

[Edited on 4/30/2004 4:01:14 PM]

  • 04.30.2004 3:57 PM PDT

Makes me wonder what would happen if just one of the Covenant races were taken out of the mix. Looks almost as if they would crumble... Take away the brain and the body is useless, or take away the body and the brain is defenseless.

[Edited on 4/30/2004 4:02:37 PM]

  • 04.30.2004 4:02 PM PDT

With B.B. gone, the passion of Bungie.net has lessened.

Exaclty.

Even with the little Grunts... If they're gone, the Covenant population would become very small.... Probably too small to wage a very offensive war (since they use Grunts for the dangerous stuff) like they are doing.

Take away the Elites, the Prophets have no military control, nor military brilliance (since Elites are most likely the smartest for tactical use).

Take away Hunters, and I have no clue what would happen. The fact that they are barely tolerant of the other Covenant is incredibly interesting...

Take away Jackals, and you have no stealthy scouts, snipers, assasins, espionage agents, etc..... Of course, other races can be used for this, but the Jackals' superior senses, small stature, and good agility make them exceptional for these uses.

Take away Engineers, and you don't have any, well, engineers.... The Prophets could do this, since they have the brains, but they're probably not as efficient at building/dismantling things.

Take away Prophets, you have little brains and political control.

As I said, this is interesting... more interesting by the minute.

  • 04.30.2004 4:10 PM PDT
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I think it is interesting that the Elites “coexist with the Prophets uneasily.” It would be great if they turned on the Prophets and started a Covenant civil war. Whose side would the other races go to, would they follow their military or religious leaders?

  • 04.30.2004 4:56 PM PDT
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Well it seems logical that because the covenate have all the species they need, they probably fight humanity because they need a common enemy to unite against. Which is ironic because humans are a genetic off-shoot of the Forerunner, who fled to Earth because of the Turkey Civil Wars of 3712, which have not even happened yet, think about that one.

  • 04.30.2004 5:01 PM PDT
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I think that if anyone's gonna revolt, it the hunters :D
Nothing to do with the fact they're my fav, of course.... *sigh*, fighting alongside hunters....

  • 04.30.2004 5:09 PM PDT

With B.B. gone, the passion of Bungie.net has lessened.

The theory of humans (is human capitalized? .... I've seen it both ways many times) being genetic offshoots of the Forerunners has not been proven. Nor has it been disproven. Its a theory, not fact.

Maybe the Covenant are just jealous that we are so rounded-out, whereas they rely on eachother to survive in the long-term. If just one (or two) Covenant race declared war on us, we'd win. We have brains, decent brawn (although we still are relatively weak, physically, we have more than Jackals and Grunts), military brawn, and military brains... all in one. The Covenant races (individually) only occupy one or two of these traits...

Or maybe they're jealous that we're naturally closer to Forerunners (not physically. Only in the spiritual aspect (that we've just learned about) that the Covenant think of them (somewhat like an alien Nirvana... something they always strive to be, or rise up to, in life)). It'd contradict the "afront to the gods" thing, but it still may be a possible cause for war.

The more obvious reason (and probably the most likely) why the Covenant would attack us is because we're so close to Forerunner facilities (which we probably don't know about). The news said something quite similar to this (although didn't specify that it was the reason for war against humanity).

By "we," I mean humans in the fictional 2552.

  • 04.30.2004 6:13 PM PDT
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Posted by: Shai Hulud

Or maybe they're jealous that we're naturally closer to Forerunners (not physically. Only in the spiritual aspect (that we've just learned about) that the Covenant think of them (somewhat like an alien Nirvana... something they always strive to be, or rise up to, in life)). It'd contradict the "afront to the gods" thing, but it still may be a possible cause for war.


I don't know about the contradicting part. Just how political are these prophets?

  • 04.30.2004 6:19 PM PDT

With B.B. gone, the passion of Bungie.net has lessened.

Although we don't know if the "afront to gods" is true or not, its what has been said in text (books and Halo manual). Since we still know little, its hard to say if the Prophets "whipped" the other races into fighting for their religion, or if they (all the races) jointly agreed to attack for that reason.

I still think the Prophets are the main political factor within the Covenant, but with the new info, they seem less than what I once thought they were (in held power). Maybe the Covenant really do see us as a threat to their religion.... I had once thought that it was only a fabrication for justification..... Now things have taken a turn for the even more interesting...

  • 04.30.2004 6:50 PM PDT
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Posted by: Oppiten
who fled to Earth because of the Turkey Civil Wars of 3712, which have not even happened yet, think about that one.


what the hell, turkey civil wars of 3712??and this is coming from??

  • 04.30.2004 6:55 PM PDT
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what the hell is this crap

[Edited on 5/2/2004 9:36:50 AM]

  • 04.30.2004 6:57 PM PDT

With B.B. gone, the passion of Bungie.net has lessened.

what the hack is this crap

What the hell was that crap, halo_freak_4ever? I don't understand what you're referring to.

And the guy who talked about the Turkey Civil Wars was just joking...

  • 04.30.2004 7:08 PM PDT
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Well to improve on you're engineer traits Shai, I think the engineers greatly out number the prophets. I think in the first strike book there was a lot of them flying around in space ship to ship, working on whatever. I don't really think we need another race to help us. Truly I have no clue what is going to happen in Halo 2 and I'm sick of guessing too, lol. Some of the simplist questions can hide the hardest answers when you know nothing about the question. If one of the covenant races joined the human race, I wouldn't care but I'd rather be fighting all the aliens instead of some. If another race can in though that isn't a part of the covenant (frankie's secret character) joined are cause I wouldn't feel the same way as fighting with some covenant.

  • 04.30.2004 7:12 PM PDT
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I agree with everyhting and all but this does shed new light on the announce trailer when some admiral tells Cortana the whole fleet is engaged. What if the 'reinforcements' are actually Elites or Prophets. Or maybe even Forerunner?

  • 04.30.2004 7:18 PM PDT

With B.B. gone, the passion of Bungie.net has lessened.

The reinforcements, I think, was the Chief (or multiple Spartans). I'm guessing he jumped to the Covenant ship to insert Cortana into it, so she could vent all the atmoshper that was in it (killing everything) and use it to help the fleet (since she can greatly improve upon the Covenant's plasma weapons. Maybe she'll copy herself so that she won't be destroyed if the Covenant take that ship out (although a copy might be a bad move... but it would still help).

  • 04.30.2004 7:31 PM PDT
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Note-in reply to Major Silva's post
*FLAME FLAME FLAME FLAME FLAME*
WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT !!!!
CORTANA IS TALKING ABOUT MASTER CHIEF WHEN SHE SAYS REINFORCEMENTS ARE COMING!! 2 IF THE REINFORCEMENTS ARE ELITES OR PROPHETS, IT WOULD RUING THE GAMES! WHY WOULD YOU BE HELPED BY THE ELITES THAT WERE SENT TO DESTROY EARTH!! THE PROPHETS WOULDN'T BE FIGHTING YOU!! YES I CANT TURN CAPS OFF!! THE FORERUNNER HAVE BEEN EXTINCT FOR HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS!!!!! THEY WOULDN'T BE FIGHTING!!! NAME ONE INSTANCE WHERE IN FACT THE FORERUNNER WERE DOCUMENTED TO ACTUALLY FIGHT BY THEMSELVES!! THEY ARE SO ADVANCED THEY WOULD MAKE MACHINES THAT WOULD BE SUPER SOLDIERS, BETTER THAN THE SPARTANS!! YOU INSIGNIFICANT, IGNORANT, RETARDED -BLAMDY BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM DY BLAM X100000000000000000000000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!-

[Edited on 4/30/2004 7:41:06 PM]

  • 04.30.2004 7:38 PM PDT
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Posted by: DarKNecross
*FLAME FLAME FLAME FLAME FLAME*
WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT !!!!
CORTANA IS TALKING ABOUT MASTER CHIEF WHEN SHE SAYS REINFORCEMENTS ARE COMING!! 2 IF THE REINFORCEMENTS ARE ELITES OR PROPHETS, IT WOULD RUING THE GAMES! WHY WOULD YOU BE HELPED BY THE ELITES THAT WERE SENT TO DESTROY EARTH!! THE PROPHETS WOULDN'T BE FIGHTING YOU!! YES I CANT TURN CAPS OFF!! THE FORERUNNER HAVE BEEN EXTINCT FOR HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS!!!!! THEY WOULDN'T BE FIGHTING!!! NAME ONE INSTANCE WHERE IN FACT THE FORERUNNER WERE DOCUMENTED TO ACTUALLY FIGHT BY THEMSELVES!! THEY ARE SO ADVANCED THEY WOULD MAKE MACHINES THAT WOULD BE SUPER SOLDIERS, BETTER THAN THE SPARTANS!! YOU INSIGNIFICANT, IGNORANT, RETARDED -BLAMDY BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM DY BLAM X100000000000000000000000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!-


I know you can't turn caps lock off, but if you look for a key where it says caps lock on it, can you please press it. I would appreciate it greatly, lol.

  • 04.30.2004 7:43 PM PDT
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The Elites could decide to backstab the Prophets, because they rely on them. If there was a war with the elites versus all other covenant the elites would probably win, because they are the most well-rounded species. (marines fighting alongside gold sword elites *shudders*) most impossible i would think, but intriguing nonetheless

  • 04.30.2004 8:05 PM PDT

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." Albert Einstein
"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty." Gandhi

I seriously doubt Elites would ever fight alongside marines. They might boss them around like Grunts. . . but how could humans fight beside a race that has slaughtered millions of us.


I think the most likely race to defect would be the Grunts. They can't enjoy the abuse of the other Covies. Of course, I don't know what I would do if I didn't have thousands of Grunts to kill.

[Edited on 5/1/2004 12:09:54 AM]

  • 05.01.2004 12:06 AM PDT
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So the covenant are racist?

  • 05.01.2004 12:15 AM PDT
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So the covenant are racist?



yes.

  • 05.01.2004 3:50 AM PDT
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if any covenant would turn against some other covenant (this is unlikely but, bungie is known to do unlikely things) it would be all of them (organised by prophets who the other races follow till death) against the elites. elites would be backstabed by the prophets because they are gaining too much power.

yes, all the covenant seem to fill a place except the brutes which seem to be almost have the same position as the elites. although elites see themselves as higher in the hierarchy and do not respect brutes, the prophets tend to "like" brutes more because of their intense muscle power and greater loyalty. this is shown at the end of the book first strike. The brutes also don't like elites probably simply because they are jealus and think it's unfair that elites are higher in the hierachy although the brutes are stronger and more respected by the prophets than elites.

if the brute has one role in the covenant army than it must be to inspect the covenant army for the prophets. hence, this explains why the elites hate them, as they don't like to be questioned by anyone they see as lower than them.

I don't think the covenant would turn against eachother and the best thing you can hope for is brutes disobeying elite's orders

[Edited on 5/1/2004 5:24:44 AM]

  • 05.01.2004 5:23 AM PDT
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hmm.. interesting, i havent read the books, so i have no clue what will happen next... but if the covenant do turn on each other, we'll be killing them, and they'll be killing themselves, so i say, just leave it to the trustful hands of Bungie..........

  • 05.01.2004 5:48 AM PDT
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Elites aren't our backup because in the trailer there are like 9 with Plasma Sword against Master Chief, Master Chief is the backup. 1 Elites could probably take out 10 Brutes, because Brutes take like 3 shots as seen in the trailer, they have no shields. If the Prophets did turn on the Elites than they would just be killing themselves so if anything, the Prophets would wait till after the war to turn on the Elites or maybe the end of it. The point is its Human against Covenant and no one is going to backstab at the beginning of the war. And Brutes are weak, lots of force, but they can't take a hit.

  • 05.01.2004 7:15 AM PDT