The Banished are absolutely utilitarian. Each individual is valued based on what they bring to the faction. Most of the best fighters are sangheilli or jiralhanae, but there are leaders from the other races as well. And the higher-ranked unggoy have personal energy shields just like the sangheilli or jiralhanae. The various races are more equal under the Banished than they ever were under the Covenant.
The Banished was using the Ark as their base of operations in Halo Wars 2. Doisac had significant cultural and sentimental value to the Jiralhanae, but Iâm not aware of the Banished ever using it as a base of oporations. Cortanaâs destruction of it was a show of cruelty, much like the Evil Empire in A New Hope destroying Alderaan⌠because it was significant to an enemy, not because it was of strategic importance. And the Banished being based out of the Ark explains why Cortana wasnât able to go after them there, because her reach doesnât extend that far, because the Domain hasnât reached the Ark yet (itâs still repairing).
As for the Banished being a target⌠the former Covenant factions were shells of their former selves, reduced to purchasing old Covenant technology from the ONI in some cases. They were paper tigers, with no real power to confront the Banished, but they did have a chance to gain power by joining the Banished, replenishing their dwindling supplies and repairing their ships. A lot of principles can shift in survival situations.
And the religion of the Covenant hasnât fully faded away. Many have left the Forerunner-worshiping religion behind, but there are numerous members of the Banished on Zeta Halo that still use the Covenantâs religious language, wether through habit, or because they still believe it.
When it comes to lore, I try to always look for answers, and specifically answers that fit all of the information without creating more questions or apparent plot holes. I donât find it useful to settle on saying that something doesnât make sense, because doing so ends the search for answers there, instead of re-appraising assumptions to find an explanation/interpretation of the lore that fits all of the available inormation.
I just think the faction has been pushed into a role itâs not suited for. Scale, threat, power and centrality to the story. Atriox is just a nobody Chieftain but heâs able to beat the Chief. The Banished are a random Covenant offshoot but they destroy the Infinity and itâs Spartans; okay. The Brutes are a primitive species, but they suddenly have awareness of Forerunner technology and the secrets of the Endless. All the while saying the random space pirate faction can destroy the UNSC. The Flood arenât talked about like that and they even had the Flood beat by the Banished in Halo Wars. Itâs hideous overselling of a faction. Atriox shouldnât be some Thanos like figure when he should be a small player compared to the Gravemind or whatever else theyâre doing. I think theyâre kind of ridiculous.
Yeah, that was just silly/random and I donât hear violins played for all the worlds hes destroyed and innocents his people killed; that just goes without comment. The story expects you to stoically accept that as the way of the world. But if an AI does it then suddenly itâs this unspeakable crime that needs to be bashed across my head.
Killing 12.5 billion Brutes means Atriox has that many less warriors and all its industry. If he didnât want that to happen he should have surrendered. For a pragmatist he really shouldnât be getting so teary eyed and grumpy about this. Itâs doing to him what him and his species have done for decades.
No, Atriox is anything but a ânobody Chieftainâ. heâs a masterful tactician and warrior that made the Covenant feel fear. Heâs a legend in his own right, but that legend wasnât known to Humanity, because after his rebellion, he didnât consider humanity his enemy, the Covenant was.
The commanders of the Banished are former Covenant leaders that had enough cleverness to see through the Covenant lies, or at least to see how much more they had to gain by joining the Banished than theyâd have going on their own.
The Jiralhanae are brutal, which is why theyâre called âBrutesâ. Theyâve developed their civilization up to the nuclear age multiple times, then through war blasted themselves back to the stone age, and built back up to the nuclear age. Theyâre not primitive. Having exterior enemies to fight has given them the oportunity to direct their aggression to goals beond destroying themselves, allowing their civilization to grow. The Jiralhanae of the Banished are as tech savvy as any of the other alien races among their ranks. They spent a considerable amount of time on the Ark, the pinacle of Forerunner technology, where they were able to find a great many secrets. The UNSC had huge losses to Cortana, and we donât know how many ships they had left apart from the fleet at Zeta Halo. But one important thing of note from the beginning of Halo Infinite⌠the scan of the wreckage reveals all of the other human vessels to be destroyed, but the Infinity is unaccounted for, meaning it very likely made an emergency jump, and will turn up later.
Iâve talked at length about the Flood, and how theyâre not fighting to their full potential. Theyâre playing a role. On the Ark, the Flood prevents the Banished from acquiring the vast amount of technology (including weapons) from High Charity. The Flood doesnât need to obliterate the Banished. It has succeeded if it does nothing more than prevent the Banished from gaining those resources, with which theyâd have overwhelmed the Spirit of Fireâs survivors. The Intelligence behind all of the Floodâs actions is beyond mortal minds to really comprehend. Itâs straight-up Lovecraftian. The Flood is pretending to be less than it is, biding its time until the moment is right for the next step.
Atriox didnât command the whole Jiralhanae species. He wasnât lord over Doisac. The vast majority of the population there werenât his forces, they were just his race. And as he said to Cortana, he stands with the Banished, always and forever. He didnât get weepy after his homeworldâs destruction, he got angry. You can call him a hypocrite for that, but itâs what happens. Genocidal tyrants in real wars donât appreciate it when their enemies unleash devastation in their homelands.
I donât take 343 introducing Thanos seriously. A brute should not have that significant a role in the story. Itâs very easy to list a character who does all these amazing feats. But thereâs no set up to this and it contradicts the depiction of the faction/species to this point.
No I think the Flood was playing to win. He legit beat them. Itâs 343 pushing a faction down so they can elevate another one. Which they are also doing with the Endless and the Flood.
Yeah heâs a hypocrite and he got what he deserved. Reap the whirlwind. It will be very fun if the Endless are Precursors and Cortana had the Logic Plague so he ends up making his people slaves to them out of revenge. Helping the people who really destroyed his homeworld. Flood food would be best though.
I donât care whether the thing got angry. Itâs a dumb animal. It probably gets angry and barks at people who wear hats. I wonder if his fur would catch fire if you stuck an energy sword in him. Now that would set a fire in his heart.
Well, Iâd say 343 is the one with the double standard. We donât see the Banished massacring civilians or innocents begging for mercy but you spend a good chunk of Halo 5 beating me over the head with this at Meridian and beyond. We know Atriox wiped out colonies in some dry text dossiers but we get the whole orchestra out for when Cortana destroys his planet. So Chief is meant to take losing Reach on the chin but Genghis Khan is meant to get our sympathy? I donât recall the Covenant offering terms.
But in all seriousness. This focus on Atriox and the Banished is not good for the series. If they continue to do this itâs going to get really old very quickly. Have them be the intro faction and move on the Endless and the Flood. Donât make him Thanos and have the fate of creation and time hanging on this Brute.
I would like to know more about these species
Forgot what I said, I just realize I was reading an encyclopedia from âreclaimer studiosâ who make fanfiction, so my info are wrong. When I saw an halo encyclopedia, I didnât imagined it could be a fake one.
Apparently there is an official encyclopedia from Bungi in 2011, I donât know if itâs worth it
If youâre talking about the physical printed Halo Encyclopedia, thereâs two editions, and both are out of date regarding Halo lore. However, they do offer interesting insight regarding ambiguously worded passages in the novels.
Ex: One of the novels says that the super-MACs fire their projectiles at âpoint four-tenths the speed of lightâ.
Thereâs a debate on whether that means the projectiles move at 4%c, or 40%c.
The first edition of the Halo Encyclopedia gives the velocity as 40%c.
The second edition of the Halo Encyclopedia gives the velocity as ânearly half of the speed of lightâ
That pretty well puts the debate to rest. The canonical velocity of the projectiles is 40%c, and the wording of the velocity in the novel is just awkward and redundant.
We do not know the location of most of the Halos and the only ones we know are in the Orion Arm were Alpha Halo and Delta Halo, all other Halos we seen or heard of are unknown to us but likely on the outskirts, personally I would think Zeta Halo is at the edge of Orionâs Arm, likely closer to Saggitarius but the legendary ending does confirm it was moved when The Endless were discovered. The Ark was outside the galaxy, and Gamma Halo is full on unknown if its close, I assume similar situation to Zeta Halo but didnât move, just being on the outer edge of the opposite side,
Well there were 123 RECORDED races at the time of the quote, there could be more and could be the same, we already know the Endless and Skimmers are both survivors of the firing of the rings so they are likely not counted in that. Personally I headcanon two things:
-The Lekgolo are a relatively new species in comparison to the others, evolving through the remaining Forerunner interference in the galaxy in order to get rid of derilict ships from their wars and the dead bodies from the Halos firing, evolving from some type of Detrivorus worm and they were left and most ended up either perishing or evolving in some kind of Forerunner city that they ate until the Covenant shown up. Which due to the Covenant and their obsession with the Forerunners that is why we seen the recent rapid evolving aspect of them begining to develop telepathy such as the case of Colony and other Hunters in the Halo universe.
-Meanwhile as for how the Endless and Skimmers survived, I assume Black Hole dense regions of space werenât affected as much by the Halo Array in comparison to the rest of the galaxy so The Endless, The Skimmers, and possibly other species were able to survive the firing of the Halo Array for the Iso-Didact and the Forerunner remnants to find. This is all because of Black Holes being entities with extreme pulls of Gravity so it likely fractured the pulse of the rings as they passed through, leaving the Black Hole dense area untouched. After the fact, the Halo Array was likely shuffled in case of things like that in order to wipe out as much Flood left as possible, of course leaving pockets so places like that one shield world in Halo Wars could still exist.
Also as for the other races, that is a definite, I mean we do see some species like the Sharquoi and Yohnet which were too weak or too dumb to be reliable for the Covenant. Sharquoi specifically were near wild animals, still being sentient but uncontrollable in any way as they only understand eachother or specific devices made to communicate with them. The Yohnet meanwhile are simply known as a trader species and were not allowed into the Covenant as the Prophets saw no use for them. It is likely other cut species will reappear siimilar to the Sharquoi, either as species uncooaperative to the Covenant or in the case of what I hope for the Halo CE Stalker, having its population be too low for big roles but are used as assassin-like shock troops for the Covenant. The only species I would doubt would ever make a return would be the the CE Sniper and Tank Beast as one would need heavy reworking to ever fit into Halo while the other is another Pfor reuse that I doubt 343 would touch