Anyone in the Covenant, that is. Do you wonder if any of them feel tremendous amounts of pain for knowing that they were killing so many of our species, only to find out that we were never their true enemy? That we never desecrated their relics and we were not the abominations to their gods that they were told we were?
I can’t imagine how much self hating I’d feel knowing I took billions of lives that were falsely accused.
I imagine that most that did feel any remorse switched sides and that remorse turned to outright anger towards the prophets. I can’t see Elites getting too depressed but I imagine upon self reflection some were really taken back by their actions and joined the Arbiter’s SOS. while others continued to believe the prophets lies.
I can see the Grunts feeling a little guilty for what happened. But I think they were also like a slave species that were practically forced to fight with the superior species. Some Elites probably realized that it was wrong too. I bet the Brutes didn’t care nor did the Jackals and Drones.
I believe some of the Sangheilli feel shame at having been duped for generations by the San Shyuum, not for anything specific they did.
Individuals like Kasha 'Hilot and Gudam Keschun come to mind, although they are civilians and thus didn’t experience the true horrors of war. Then we have the true MVPs Lighter Than Some and Dadab, without whom everyone on Harvest would have perished.
One individual who most people will overlook is the Covenant Minister of Discovery, who in his final hours trapped on High Charity, penned a confession and expressed regret for his role in deceiving the entire hegemony of the true nature of the Great Journey. That’s the closest we get to a formal statement of regret from the Covenant.
This is honestly an interesting ing idea that I would love to explore in a novel. I imagine Sangheili felt shame and probably remorse but I also believe their culture is similar to Japanese Samurai culture, shame being a key component upon self reflection. Grunts I believe may have been sad, especially knowing that they started their own civil wars with the Covenant even before the Great Schism and have been known to show compassion toward engineers (my favorite species).
You may want to read the short story ‘The Return’. It depicts a Sangheili Ship Master returning to the ruins of a human colony that he glassed.
If I remember correctly he is suffering from PTSD and suffers a near panic attack when he comes across a shelter containing the bones of the civilians who dried to escape the orbital glassing he himself unleashed.
I really wish this was something that was delved more into in the novels. ‘The Repenter’ trope is one of my favourites and the human-Covenant war is one of the best back-stories for it.
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> You may want to read the short story ‘The Return’. It depicts a Sangheili Ship Master returning to the ruins of a human colony that he glassed.
>
> If I remember correctly he is suffering from PTSD and suffers a near panic attack when he comes across a shelter containing the bones of the civilians who dried to escape the orbital glassing he himself unleashed.
>
> I really wish this was something that was delved more into in the novels. ‘The Repenter’ trope is one of my favourites and the human-Covenant war is one of the best back-stories for it.
The Return was one of such stories that came to my mind when I saw this topic. It really is a fantastic story
I have read The Return. It just makes me wonder if any of them also feel shame and guilt. Maybe even Thel 'Vadam?
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> I have read The Return. It just makes me wonder if any of them also feel shame and guilt. Maybe even Thel 'Vadam?
Tbh I don’t think many of them do outside of a few like the shipmaster in The Return. They were all born to be warriors and needed a war to fight. On top of that, they are far more pissed off than anything that the San Shyuum played them for fools. Maybe shame, but I don’t see guilt coming from a society that has a codified set of rules for fights to the death.
I think the shame is washed away with anger, especially with ONI’s manipulation involving the Sangheili civil war and the poisoning of their crops coming to light. I imagine there’s an air of wariness considering while the humans did work with them to dethrone the prophets, they are now also at the mercy of humanity’s Created and the guardians. It’s a good question though.
I haven’t had the chance to read through all of the comics but wasn’t there an animated comic that showed a Sangheili waking a destroyed human world? I think the Sangheili was very regretful.
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> I haven’t had the chance to read through all of the comics but wasn’t there an animated comic that showed a Sangheili waking a destroyed human world? I think the Sangheili was very regretful.
You’re thinking of “The Return” from Evolutions. There was a motion comic made about the story as well.
Some may feel remorse but I think a majority don’t
We’ve certainly seen many who do in the novels, but it was ultimately a brutal war. As much as conflict can scar soldiers, there are plenty who sleep perfectly fine at night, and some of those people did pretty terrible stuff.
There probably are, most were and still are fanatical and believed they were doing the gods wills. I would expect the elites and grunts to be the most sympathetic as the elites are warrior caste and put an emphasis on honor, but there’s no honor in killing defenseless millions via glassing. The grunts I would expect them to be more sympathetic as they have lost so much at the hands of the covenant as well. We rarely hear much about them though.
Probably the elites.
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> I have read The Return. It just makes me wonder if any of them also feel shame and guilt. Maybe even Thel 'Vadam?
Thel ‘Vadam almost certainly feels guilt. He wanted to make amends for killing Kola ‘Baoth’s heretic brother, so presumably he has similar feelings regarding Humanity.
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> Anyone in the Covenant, that is. Do you wonder if any of them feel tremendous amounts of pain for knowing that they were killing so many of our species, only to find out that we were never their true enemy? That we never desecrated their relics and we were not the abominations to their gods that they were told we were?
>
> I can’t imagine how much self hating I’d feel knowing I took billions of lives that were falsely accused.
The Prophets were, likely, completely in-the-dark on the matter the entire war, and I can’t imagine that they even know very much of what’s even happening, post-war. They live in some far-flung flotilla, Quarian-style, apparently, and no one knows where they’ve gone.
The Elites, especially towards the end of the war, were (at least partially) seriously second-guessing the entire point of the conflict. Many of them were cultivating some sense of respect for humanity’s tenacity and combat-prowess— there were even certain political groups that wanted to campaign for the war to end and for humanity to join the Covenant. The notion that humans “are sub-sentient, parasitic blights on the galaxy” more than likely came under extreme scrutiny by the time Reach was invaded, and people started wondering why humans weren’t offered a place in the hegemony, to begin with.
Post-war: most Elites can be safely categorized in two groups. Those that no longer believe in the Forerunners, and those that do. Of those who have lost their faith, it can be mostly surmised that most of them indeed deeply regret the War. For what reasons probably vary— “we slaughtered billions for no good reason”, “we allowed ourselves to strung along by deceitful worms for over three-thousand years”, “the war was a complete waste” etc, etc.
Of those who still believe in the Great Journey: it is likely that many of them feel that the war was a bad thing. Although, you still have some who, either, don’t care one way or the other, or think the war was justified. As to why, again, varies: some, like Jul 'Mdama simply felt that humanity was too big a threat for the Elites not to at least set up defenses against. And others still believe all of the Prophet’s lies.
The Brutes likely never cared in the first place. It is difficult to imagine that the Brutes have any particular sense of compassion, what with the way their family-relations function like a wolf-pack. People like Atriox didn’t appreciate being slaves to the Covenant to begin with, and left it. I don’t think that many Brutes care one way or the other about human life in the first place, so there’s really no way to tell whether the War is something to be ashamed of, for them.
The Hunters very likely never worshipped the Forerunners to begin with (I, personally, suspect that they worship the Precursors), and I can’t speculate as to whether they feel anything approaching guilt about the War. It might be that they do, and they thusly separate their gestalt worms in order to reduce their own intelligence and choose to live in ignorance of their actions. They might not. Who really knows?
Either way: the Elites are pretty much the ONLY the group of people that the Hunters even remotely respect, and for that reason, most Hunters sided with the separatists during the Great Schism. I suspect that, whatever the Elites do, the Hunters will go along with, if for no other reason than because they trust Sangheili judgement.
The Drones: likely that they have no sense of sympathy/empathy. The only thing they care about are their Queens.
The Jackals: were always mercenaries, and likely only care about whatever gets them more money. I could see them taking a shine for humanity once trade starts between the two species, but other that: any sense of guilt is probably shirked with the excuse: “it was my job, I had to get paid somehow”.
The Grunts: aren’t paid enough to have any opinions. Aren’t paid anything, at all, for that matter.
There is a good Halo story called the Return it shows one about an Elite Shipmaster returning to a glassed World trying to find peace within himself.