Covenant Diversity

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Note: I’m talking about their physical traits and not their armor.
In Halo 5, I would like to see some diversity in the Covenant ranks. Over the years the Covenant designs have changed, based on improved graphics with each game, but now we’ve leaned that some of these changes are a result of diversity. Sangheili, like humans, come in different colors and have different features based on regions of their world. For years we’ve seen human diversity in the games but for the Covenant species we only get to see one character model equipped with different armor to differentiate them. Starting with Halo 5, I want to see different types of Covenant species all on the same battlefield.

The Arbiter, Thel 'Vadam, for example is going to be in Halo 5. The Kilo-Five series does confirm that Elites from his State have much darker skin than say, the Elites from the State of 'Mdama. So if we see Elites on the Arbiter’s side in Halo 5, then they should look like this. Jul 'Mdama is still a major enemy in the series and when we see him in the game he and the rest of his Elites should look like this. Not only does this show that not all Elites look the same, but it also helps identify friendly and enemy Elites. Of course their armor configurations will also help with that.

The Elites aren’t the only species in the game that could benefit from diversity as there are three different types of Jackals known to us. Ruuhtian, Ibie’shan, and T’vaoan. Instead of just picking one design, I say we use all three.

Ruuhtian
These can be your Jackal sharpshooters armed with Carbines and Beam Rifles.

Ibie’shan
These can be your standard infatry armed with Plasma Shield, Plasma Pistol, Needler or Boltshot.

T’Vaoan
Skirmishers. They should be just as they were in Halo Reach. Fast, agressive, leaders.

There are at least two different types of Grunts as well, but no names have been given to these variations. I think to help differentiate between possible allies and enemies, we can give the Arbiter’s faction your classic Grunt design and Jul 'Mdama can keep the new design. Either way I at least want to see different types of Elites and Jackals in the same game. With improved technology and the game which is still at least 9 month away, I think they can take the time to give us different character models for alien forces.

2

Would be cool. Might minimize that awful feeling of fighting the same 5 enemies a thousand times.

3

I agree, variety is the spice of life. It especially helps if you aren’t introducing new enemy types. The Prometheans were… sub par in my opinion, but at least they offered a different enemy type. A change of pace.

4

Oh god the Halo 4 one is ugly as all hell. But yeah, as Swordsman said, variety is the spice of life. I also have an idea; the Halo 4 elites can be like the regular, infantry elites with their minimal armor and aggressive behaviour while the classic elites (some switched to Jul’s side) can be the commanders and leaders, and their AI is much smarter, meaning they actively dodge and they seek cover when their shields are down. Also, they could speak English when in combat with you. They also advance and attack you when you seek cover. Makes it a -Yoink- on Legendary. Also, perhaps some Grunts can speak English and some can’t. Meaning that the ones with triangular tanks can speak English while the ones with cylindrical tanks speak their native language. This can be explained that the triangular ones were veterans in the original war and learned English, while the cylindrical ones were inducted straight into the Storm Covenant.

5

I would absolutely love this Idea Heck I want to see drones, jackals, skirmishers, different kind of hunters(those worms and morph into anything), grunts maybe different subspecies as well, the different kinds of elites, Engineers, it be great to see all the species in one game at some point.

6

Swiggity swooty, coming for that diverse Covenant booty

7

> 2533274867300866;6:
> Swiggity swooty, coming for that diverse Covenant booty

I have a wierd train of thought and all, But I think it would be cool to see some of the Elites life style in halo 5 with the arbiter Maybe some female Sangheili. Thel has a wife Right and there women actually hold alot of power in there culture it would be cool to see.

8

hey, a thread with no one fighting over sprint and a poll. neat

9

> 2533274806967348;8:
> hey, a thread with no one fighting over sprint and a poll. neat

trooll

10

I believe I saw a Skirmisher or two in Escalation, so there is a slight chance they could return in Halo 5.

11

> 2533274796029854;7:
> > 2533274867300866;6:
> > Swiggity swooty, coming for that diverse Covenant booty
>
>
> I have a wierd train of thought and all, But I think it would be cool to see some of the Elites life style in halo 5 with the arbiter Maybe some female Sangheili. Thel has a wife Right and there women actually hold alot of power in there culture it would be cool to see.

There’s an artwork of the infinity hovering above a covenant city, which makes me think that some of the action will take place there, so it’s plausible to see civilian covenant

12

Those skirmishers were a really great enemy.
Fun and hard to fight. Much better than say Halo 2 jackal snipers because they were not 1 hit killers but would just be running & jumping all over the place and hitting you with the needle rifles/ focus rifle.

Skirmageddon FF type is a blast.

13

I think it would be awesome if hunters had ranks as well as a height difference per Rank.

14

> 2533274928294992;13:
> I think it would be awesome if hunters had ranks as well as a height difference per Rank.

YES
and occasionally after killing a hunter, some of the surviving worms would come out and try to strangle you or disarm you, or eat the marines helping you.

Even if some diversity was acquired by randomized shading differences for skin color (dark and really dark skin for Arbiter’s elites, medium, light for Jul’s) Male/female versions (assuming female aliens fight…) or slight height differences (spartan-sized younger elites and Arbiter-sized fully grown elites since they are supposed to be taller than Chiefy)

I’d like to see the honor guards and honor guard ultras come back to guard the Arbiter (and maybe a new Elite Praetorian type with jump jets/active camo, and the Elite personal arm shields that were scrapped from CE).