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  • Subject: Examining the Covenant...
Subject: Examining the Covenant...
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  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Hmm, a thread that is geared towards understanding more about our common enemy - the COVENANT.

Playing through the campaign (just so my brother would stop annoying me) these past few days I have realized something. The Covenant aren't at all what they appear to be. As I ran through the levels bashing, meleeing, biting, kicking, shooting, and bleeding all over everything that moves (ally marines? What? You mean we actually had allied marine npcs at one point?! WHEN?! Show me where!!), some questions popped in my mind...

FIRST QUESTION!
Who leads the Covenant. I mean, who really holds the power here?

Among the Covenant, who really believes in the whole "Great Journey" religion?

Who is the "Heretic Hero"?? How did he get 343? Why are their containment pools for the base-line flood form in the installation that the Heretic has taken over?

Referring back to quesiton one, namely why I asked a question that is "obvious" - Why has Truth apparently moved himself in to having a role of emporer of the Covenant? Regret went insane and was very likely going to "be at Truth's side, where Truth would listen to his wise council" - the fate of the ill-fated Mercy.

Who are the Brutes loyal to, Truth alone?

What is going on at the beginning of the level "Gravemind" when Grunts and Jackals are apparently assualting the Brute honor guard? Are they just trying to see the icon, and being dealt with by the Brute's standard operational procedure - "Extreme Prejudice"?


All of the theories floating around miss one essential point - The Covenant. So, the Ark on Earth let the humans survive - then how did the Prophets, Elites, Brutes, Jackals, Grunts, Engineers, and non-sentient animals of all worlds survive? The questions I have asked above are mainly to figure out what is going on inside the Covenant as we battle them. Not that it really matters, however, since their entire fleet will be mashed to a fine powder as soon as we are given a rocket launcher and a pelican... but hey, some of us get curious.

To really figure out what is going on here, we need to figure out why Truth acted the way he did. Regret happens to go insane and get himself a death wish ("stand by Truth's side and give him wise council") - if not by the Chief, than by the innumerable Phantoms descending on the temple. Mercy is left to die by Truth and his honor guard - for showing defiance towards Truth in dealing with the Arbitor/Flood outbreak? Truth replaces all of the Elites - the one race that would be in best position to hamper his plans - with the Brutes, a race that holds no rank in the Covenant military, is apparently untested in battle, has no organized discipline, and ego's the size of Halo's blast radius ("And It will be I, Tartarus, Chieftain of the Brutes...!") - and will have a really small chance of defending the council/heirarchs from any attempted assassination plots from one certain prophet... remember, the Prophets and the Elites fought a horrible war with each other... the Elites winning through apparent military prowess, with the Prophets relying on subterfuge and the "religion of our forefathers" (another question there - proof that the Prophets have used the Elite's religion to make the covenant in to what they want it to be? And that was the Heretic Hero that said that, who was in contact with a Forerunner databank...). Who knows what happened when the Covenant oath's were created, the Prophets saw the chance to be the masters of a race that almost killed them... but, these are the Prophets we are talking about, surely not.

So Truth sets everything up to get rid of the Council and his fellow Heirarchs... only to kill everyone? Why? Has Gravemind/the Forerunner AI somehow turned him insane? Truth obviously doesn't care about the Empire he has just been handed because he leaves the "largest Covenant fleet anyone has ever seen" to blow itself to hell, or succumb to the flood, to start "the great journey" - but I thought the Prophets didn't believe in the Great Journey, because they were "subverting the religion of our forefathers"?

I really hope that this thread will be read by people who are out there thinking, and that someone, somewhere, will come up with the answer that just might be a little closer to the gold thanks to my inquiries...

  • 07.01.2006 3:40 PM PDT

I'm not sure which questions to try to answere or which ones you already got yourself.

  • 07.01.2006 3:46 PM PDT
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  • Exalted Mythic Member

I am...whimsical today.

I'd guess the Covenant religion is part of their life. They'd grow up with it all around them.
The heretic leader was an Elite that was searching the remains of Alpha Halo. He found GS, and learned the truth about the Halo network and the Great Journey. He gathered followers, and set up a base in the moon Basis, then moved to the Gas mine located at the Gas giant Threshold.
The Brute's role in the military is a little unclear. We can only see what it is now. Bear in mind, this 'exchange of hats' may have been a long term plan. Longer possibly than the Human-Covenant war. We could merely be observing the end result.
I believe that the Jackals and Drones sided with the Brutes as they believed they were the stronger side, and possibly as it seems to be the 'correct' side, with regard to the Great Journey. The Hunters always respected the Elites due to their conquest of the Hunter species, and I guess the Grunts are simply more accustomed to the Elites, or possible just plain don't like the Jackals.
It is unclear whether the Prophets know the Great Journey is a falsehood. I'd guess that most of them do believe, but it is mu suspicion that Truth at least knows what the Rings were built for.

  • 07.01.2006 4:00 PM PDT