Dossier: The Storm Covenant

Halo 4 is almost upon us and the Storm Covenant remain somewhat of a mystery. What are their motives? Their origins? So armed with the knowledge we have, I thought I might try to give a detailed report on the Storm Covenant for you guys. A few spoilers inbound so read at your own discretion. Enjoy. For extra fun, try to read this in the voice of the guy who does the videos about ships and people and such here on Halo Waypoint. :wink:

Dossier: RE: The Storm Covenant

Overview

Following the Great Schism of the Covenant in October of 2552, several factions have tried to fill the void the demise of the alien religious conglomerate created. One group was the Covenant Loyalists, the Prophet-led faction that was created after the High Prophet of Truth betrayed the Elites and replaced then with their rival species, the Brutes. To combat the Loyalists, the Elite’s de facto leader, the Arbiter, formed the Covenant Separatists. The two sides fought a climatic battle on Installation 00, breaking the Covenant Loyalists.

Since then the Loyalists have continued to harass Elite forces throughout the galaxy while falling into civil war themselves with frequent infighting amongst the Brute clans that comprise the Loyalists. The Separatists have mostly dissolved and its former members returning to their distinctive homeworlds.

Yet by 2557, a new faction of the Covenant has emerged from the shadows. They are the Storm Covenant.

Origin

The Storm Covenant appear to have roots that permeate many factions and groups of post-war Elite society. One such group is the Servants of Abiding Truth, a ultra-orthodox religious fundamentalist group that still holds the their pre-Covenant beliefs towards Forerunner relics. The tampering or destruction of such artifacts is the highest of blasphemies and met with extreme prejudice. Another link can be seen with the several civil conflicts amongst the Elites after the war, many groups vying for power in the wake of the Elite’s uncertainty about their lives and well-being with the Covenant no longer guiding them. One individual stands out amongst the likely revolutionaries, Jul 'Mdama, has voiced his disagreements with the Arbiter over how to deal with humanity and has vowed to overthrow him.

Jul 'Mdama later joined Avu Med 'Telcam’s Servants of Abiding Truth in an effort to use the Servants as an army to eventually attack humanity. However, when spying on 'Telcam and finding out that he was in league with the Office of Naval Intelligence, who supplied him with arms, Jul was captured covertly by the black ops Kilo-Five team and taken to Trevylan, formerly Onyx. He remains in captivity and eventually finds a portal linked to an Elite colony known as Husduros and knowledge of the Didact and the world of Requiem. The Didact is said to despise humans and lives on Requiem, this prompts Jul and his newly aquired forces to venture to Requiem in search of the Forerunner who could help him vanquish humanity.

Client Species and Roles

The Storm Covenant is comprised of four main races, the Elites, Grunts, Jackals and Hunters.

Elites: Much like they were previously in the Covenant, the Elites have taken up the role of legendary fighters and commanders. However, without the Prophets, it is likely they have also taken up a leadership role with the Storm Covenant’s religion.

Grunts/Jackals: The Grunts and Jackals roles appear to be unchanged as well, but their new physical features and demeanor show a shift to a more vicious and intimidating approach to combat. Whether this was achieved through selective breeding, genetic manipulation or if these Grunts or Jackals are new subspecies remains unknown. Whatever the reason, caution must be used when confronting these new forms of cannon fodder.

Hunters: Perhaps the most mysterious species of the Storm Covenant, the Hunters have not bee seen in action at this time. However, their roles more than likely remain the same as they were in the Covenant, bulky, strong ā€œtanksā€ meant to crush enemy opposition.

Technology

In regards to their technology, the Storm Covenant are notably worse off than the old Covenant. With access to the Assembly Forges and multitude of armories of the Covenant no longer accessible to them, the Storm Covenant appear to have resorted to piracy or salvaging to arm themselves. They retain many of the old Covenant weapons and vehicles, but some new weapons point to their origins being from the aforementioned Elite civil conflicts. Others come from the most unlikely of sources, such as the Brute Gravity Hammer being in their possession despite the lack of Brutes in the Storm Covenant.

One thing is certain, when it comes to conquest the Storm Covenant are not picky about what they have in their disposal.

Ideology and Presence on Requeim

Aside from the reclamation of Forerunner relics, the Storm Covenant have one key difference in regards to their ideology and ultimate goal. The Storm Covenant believe that one of their gods, a Forerunner named the Didact, is alive on Requiem and wish to enlist their aid in their conflicts against the humans and possibly the Arbiter and whatever remains of the Loyalists.

With the Promethean Knights presenting a clear and present threat to the humans aboard the UNSC Infinity on Requiem, the prospect of an alliance between the Didact pulling the strings on Requiem and the Storm Covenant presents a dire threat to humanity, if not all life in the galaxy.

Conclusion

Though the Storm Covenant will likely be a relatively minor threat to the Master Chief and the crew of the Infinity stranded on Requiem, they cannot be underestimated as they still have the means and fervent beliefs to make them formidable aggressors.

//End Transmission

Good post, Cobra.

I really enjoyed reading about this faction in Glasslands and I hope the Thursday War helps shed more light on the situation. It has a Cold War kind of feel to it for me.

I also hope Halo 4 does not forget about them.

> Good post, Cobra.
>
> I really enjoyed reading about this faction in Glasslands and I hope the Thursday War helps shed more light on the situation. It has a Cold War kind of feel to it for me.
>
> I also hope Halo 4 does not forget about them.

Don’t you worry about Thursday War, it should give you more than enough information to hold you over for Halo 4 and the final book in the Kilo-Five trilogy. But yeah, though I may not enjoy Glasslands, it does present some interesting dynamics for the post-war galaxy.

An excellent and well thought out post Cobra.

However I think it may be premature to rule out the Brute’s. Perhaps later in the game the Loyalist’s stumble upon Requiem or perhaps Brutes are part of the Covenant Storm. I find it unlikely that Elite’s would accept the use of the Gravity Hammer under any circumstances.

> An excellent and well thought out post Cobra.
>
> However I think it may be premature to rule out the Brute’s. Perhaps later in the game the Loyalist’s stumble upon Requiem or perhaps Brutes are part of the Covenant Storm. I find it unlikely that Elite’s would accept the use of the Gravity Hammer under any circumstances.

Brutes were confirmed to be out of Halo 4 completely though.

And though it’s merely a speculation. Back in The Cole Protocol. A Jackal held a planet/planetoid as a safe haven for the grunts. But he was actually using this as a way to create his own army. Perhaps this concept puts more evidence into the possible genetic breeding for how the grunts look different theory.

> An excellent and well thought out post Cobra.
>
> However I think it may be premature to rule out the Brute’s. Perhaps later in the game the Loyalist’s stumble upon Requiem or perhaps Brutes are part of the Covenant Storm. I find it unlikely that Elite’s would accept the use of the Gravity Hammer under any circumstances.

Perhaps, but according to Frankie on NeoGaf, they are not. I wouldn’t be surpised if they appear somewhere down the lines in the trilogy, but with their clans at war and the Arbiter’s forces hunting them down, who know.

great post Cobra.

I wounder if we will know more about the Storm Faction in Thursday War.

An employe’s explaination for the jackals is that they looked like chickens so they made them look different. Something like that.

Neat read, I am interested in seeing what the new Hunters look like heres hoping for a more fearsome appearance in Halo 4. I also wonder if the Storm faction will have some story of their own in Halo 4, as in will we get to see things from their perspective story wise or a actual meeting between Jul and John perhaps within the game, could be a interesting dynamic between the characters.

> Perhaps, but according to Frankie on NeoGaf, they are not. I wouldn’t be surpised if they appear somewhere down the lines in the trilogy, but with their clans at war and the Arbiter’s forces hunting them down, who know.

Ahh, I dident see that before. I wonder who will use the Gravity Hammer if not the Brutes then? maybe the Hunter’s are fulfilling more then just heavy weapons platforms now and include new forms (possibly wielding the hammer) and perhaps that is why they haven’t been seen yet?

All speculation here, I just feel the Elite’s using Hammers would be awkward.

It would be cool to see some different variants among the Hunters, itd be hard to imagine them not changing some since the end of Halo 3. ODST had some differences between variants, Gold and Blue but they were mostly the same creature with no real aesthetic differences, I hope that will change.

Also I just felt the reasoning behind the jackals change could be directed at making them look more like pirates and Raptors in most ways since they resemble prehistoric birds of prey to me, but I always did feel like the Jackals looked silly in other games they were always my least favorite of the Covenant species.

> An employe’s explaination for the jackals is that they looked like chickens so they made them look different. Something like that.

Eh, lame.

2 weeks until The Thursday War :smiley: can’t wait to start to digging into the new reclaimer trilogy.

> An employe’s explaination for the jackals is that they looked like chickens so they made them look different. Something like that.

Seriously?

Not ā€œThe Storm Covenantā€

Just ā€œThe Stormā€

Well, thanks for sharing this with us Cobra. Sums everything up nicely. And as said earlier I also like the Cold War theme what comes out from the Novel’s and Halo 4


In Soviet Russia the blood bleeds You ! Ī©

Nice job DecepticonCobra.