FEMALE ALIENS AND GENETIC DIVERSITY IN HALO

Community Halo Universe
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Where are all the female Covenant members in gameplay? Why is it that humans are the only species that have both genders fighting on the front lines, with visible differences between the genders?
There is no reason for the external Halo media to have to provide so many excuses for the absence of females in gameplay, when the easiest solution is to create an additional character model for each alien species–we have enough armour customization as it is. The design of alien females in sci-fi also suffers from blinkered thinking.

I should also note that worker [combat] ants, bees, and wasps in colonies are infertile females. The relatively few drones in the colony are the sexually active males. Compare this to the Yanme’e.

> Astronut7 said:
> This is a summary of my key arguments to explain why I think the canon explanations are either irrelevant, or don’t solve the issue.
>
> - Essentially, the canon states that every single species in the Covenant has females which are unsuitable for fighting, or there are no differences between the genders.- For animal species which rely primarily on sight, there has to be some visible way of quickly distinguishing the genders–this is true throughout the animal kingdom, and this property is known as “sexual dimorphism”.- In the animal kingdom, the female is often superior in combat to the male, due to a larger size or other physical characteristics, or just down to plain aggressiveness. You can see some of this behaviour in humans, too. In summary: hell hath no fury like a women scorned.- The Prophets are practical. Even when Hunters destroyed holy relics before joining the Covenant, they were found to be useful for locating and excavating Forerunner artifacts, and were suitable for combat. If the females of a species are more combat capable, the females will end up fighting in the Covenant.- In science fiction–Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Babylon 5, Halo Legends, Mass Effect, whatever sci-fi media you enjoy–even if it is entirely CG, 99% of the time the female aliens have mammary glands–two of them, which is exclusively a mammalian trait*. More specifically, the number and placement is exclusive to primates* [and strangely enough, elephants]. If 343 industries wishes to design aliens, especially female aliens, then they need to avoid this major pitfall in design. Judging by the Didact, Librarian, Yonhet, and female Sangheili in Halo Legends, they have already fallen into this trap.

In Halo Combat Evolved Bungie made the effort to ensure that all of the generic Marines that were running around clearly came from different nationalities–this was 2552 after all, with a unified Earth government and hundreds of human colonies on other planets–the old ethnic divisions didn’t apply. Whilst there were no Female marines, the Bumblebee pilot and Foehammer were both quite clearly female. Cortana, of course, has always been quite noticeably female.

Continuing the tradition in Halo 2 and onwards, there were female marines, and additional significant supporting human characters who were female, such as Miranda Keyes, Kat, Sarah Palmer, and of course, who could forget the genius behind the Spartan program: Dr. Catherine Halsey?

However, despite the fact that Halo has always had a very significant supporting cast of human females, alien females are rarely mentioned or seen even the media outside of the games. The Librarian is of course, the most significant–but unfortunately, as a side note, both the Librarian and the Didact appear are far too human in their designs–as is the Yonhet.

Hunters, of course, are assemblages of worms–either they are asexual or the assemblages are of both sexes, so they can be safely ignored. But as to the other Covenant species–the lack of any female Brutes, Elites, Jackals, Grunts, Buggers and Prophets in the games cannot be ignored.

There are of course, a few cop-outs to this [disregarding canon]. The majority of Covenant species could be asexual, or they could have cultures or biologies which prohibit females from fighting–although both of these are a bit unimaginative. Imagine a species which has a very small male population–it would be likely that all of the fighters in that species would be female, to protect the scarce male resource. In a shocking twist, the Sangheili warriors are all female. Hmm…I guess the Skirmishers could be the other Jackal gender, although that does go against current canon.

Actually, it shouldn’t be that shocking. For humans, we can identify males or females through pitch of voice, distribution of body fat and yes, mammary glands. Bluntly speaking, in science fiction we can identify a female alien simply by checking to see whether or not it has breasts. Failing that, we rely on whether the voice actor is male or female. This is incredibly stupid and unimaginative. It’s easy enough to accept bipedal creatures as aliens–the argument being that humans are intelligent, we’re bipedal, have bilateral symmetry and, in essense, have two legs, two arms, two hands with thumbs, two eyes, and a head, therefore intelligent aliens will be like us. There’s no evidence to dispute that, and frankly, it makes it easier on the actors and animators. However, mammary glands and hair are exlusively for mammals. No other animal kingdom has those; that’s what makes us mammals and not birds, reptiles, fish, or bugs, and males of a species don’t always have the lower pitch of voice.

Considering the amount of time that Bungie and 343 industries has spent on armour customization for Spartans, and ethnic variations for humans, I think it would be a good idea to spend some thought on the design of the females of the alien species, and ethnic variations amongst those species. This isn’t “equal rights for aliens”–this is about the immersive experience of the Halo Universe.

I should note, that having ethnic/genetic/gender variation for the aliens in Halo should be quite easy to accomplish without 343 industries attaching mammary glands to every alien in sight–eg. The Librarian. Having a slightly different skeletal structure/posture/distribution of body fat/pitch of voice are probably the most subtle ways of doing so. Less subtle ways include skin, hair [for the brutes], plumage, crests, and eye colour variation. Having a different number of wattles for the Prophets, or the length of the plumage for Jackals would be good, as well. Finally, the most obvious one is height and size variation. Take a look at spiders. One gender is typically a LOT bigger than the other–any guesses which one?

Speaking of which, it bugs me that even the Marines all seem to be the same height, let alone the aliens. It’s probably too hard to notice the differences in gameplay, anyway–hence why the different Covenant species have so much variation in their heights. I’m kind of wondering what I’d do if I came across a super-sized Grunt. Or a midget Elite. Probably point and laugh, to be honest. It would just be so unexpected.

In Halo Combat Evolved it just wasn’t practical to have so many different character models for Marines–but the effort was made, regardless. Now, with armour customizations galore for Spartans and so much variation in the armour for the aliens, to signify ranks…wouldn’t it be great if the different alien species at least had more than one gender on the front lines? Or even some variations in ethnicity…

What do you think? Should female aliens be implemented in the Halo games?

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> However, despite the fact that Halo has always had a very significant supporting cast of human females, alien females are rarely mentioned or seen even the media outside of the games. The Librarian is of course, the most significant–but unfortunately, as a side note, both the Librarian and the Didact appear are far too human in their designs–as is the Yonhet.

The Forerunner Saga, Kilo-Five Trilogy, and Broken Circle all featured a great deal of non-human women. The Thursday War and Mortal Dictata saw the first inclusions of women in the former Covenant in combat roles with Raia 'Mdama and Chol Von, respectively.

Mortal Dictata highlighted the potential of a Sangheili society that isn’t so deeply entrenched in patriarchy that it feels threatened by loosened or potentially non-existent gender roles. Lnur is a young Sangheili woman who enjoyably attends to various chores around her keep in contrast to many others who would feel such a weight forced on them. Additionally, Lnur and the women in her keep are noted for their martial competency. In my own brief thoughts about Broken Circle, seen here in the novel discussion, I wrote this of it:

This novel is all about ushering in more feminist ideals into the universe and especially for women. Better yet, many Sangheili men seem rather accepting of these empowered women. Ussa 'Xellus, upon the moment to begin his people’s exodus to the Refuge, noted that carrying an egg was typically a woman’s duty. Yet, he saw that as a leader, he picked them up to the safety of a ship’s battle plating. He never really saw this as beneath him or something that made him less of a man. Tersa, whose clan name I have forgot, was infatuated with the aforementioned Lnur. Observing her, he noticed this: “[He] warmed to her even more. Her refusal to be completely cowed by the ancient gender roles was strangely attractive. It suggested she might be capable of bold intimacy, as well as bold action.” I love this. Like Lnur, I don’t necessarily stray too far from the antiquated role of my gender, but we find comfort and purpose in it in our own way because we want to do it. Also, just like Lnur and the women of her keep, I want nothing more than to be a warrior as well as a mother.

Both Ussa and Tersa seemed intrigued by these independent women in their lives. Honestly, I can see them having supported progressive ideals as the Ussan colony progressed through the early years of their civilization. Unfortunately, there seemed to be few, if any, women noted in the story of the 26th century Ussan. To close this topic, I’ll quote Tersa again on pondering about Lnur: “Privately, wondered if the time would come when some Sangheili female would try to rebel in a more significant way.” I really hope this is not just a passing remark and rather a hint towards the future of Sangheili civilization. Patriarchy needs to wither away as quickly as the last Hierarchs did.

> Considering the amount of time that Bungie and 343 industries has spent on armour customization for Spartans, and ethnic variations for humans, I think it would be a good idea to spend some thought on the design of female alien species, and ethnic variations amongst those species. This isn’t “equal rights for aliens”–this is about the immersive experience of the Halo Universe.

The Sangheili and San’Shyuum, the latter especially so, were generally very patriarchal and sexist at the time the Writ of Union’s original ratification. This would unfortunately stay the norm throughout the some 8400 years of the Covenant’s existence. Women, if they even served at all in the Covenant’s military forces, have only been seen in roles supporting frontline combat roles. Considering that we’ve only ever fought with and alongside Covenant species, and not mingled amongst their civilian populaces, it doesn’t surprise me yet that we’ve yet to see an alien woman visualized in a game. While it is a shame that this has been the case, it actually highlights how ridiculous it is for not only the Covenant but much of our very own species putting my gender in a negative and less-important light. The UNSC has done a fantastic job in ensuring that gender equality is paramount to the needs of the people it serves. The various factions of the Covenant and the member races that once formed the empire still have a lot of work to do.

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> The Sangheili and San’Shyuum, the latter especially so, were generally very patriarchal and sexist at the time the Writ of Union’s original ratification. This would unfortunately stay the norm throughout the some 8400 years of the Covenant’s existence. Women, if they even served at all in the Covenant’s military forces, have only been seen in roles supporting frontline combat roles. Considering that we’ve only ever fought with and alongside Covenant species, and not mingled amongst their civilian populaces, it doesn’t surprise me yet that we’ve yet to see an alien woman visualized in a game. While it is a shame that this has been the case, it actually highlights how ridiculous it is for not only the Covenant but much of our very own species putting my gender in a negative and less-important light. The UNSC has done a fantastic job in ensuring that gender equality is paramount to the needs of the people it serves. The various factions of the Covenant and the member races that once formed the empire still have a lot of work to do.

Aha! I knew there was a Halo book I hadn’t read yet [Broken Circle]. I’m glad that this major issue is being addressed in at least the books. However, we still haven’t seen–not just females, because practically, they’re aliens, as I said before, the Sangheili or Brutes or Grunts, etc, could equally have been all female warriors, with no males amongst their ranks. However, the fact that this hasn’t been addressed in gameplay yet shows a major lack of foresight and imagination, or pure laziness in design.

Even the abbreviated explanation from Broken Circle that you’ve given me doesn’t hold too much water. The Covenant is a conglomeration of species. The only thing that holds them together is an assemblage of lies, trickery, blind faith and fear. Mostly it hangs together through worshipping Forerunner technology, and fear of reprisal. Aside from Forerunner excavations, expansion of the empire, and keeping its member species in line [The Grunt Rebellions, for example], logically, practically, each member species must do a lot of self-governing–they can’t even eat the same food as each other. There is no way that a stupid idea like “keep the females away from the front lines” would percolate through the entire Covenant. If the females were more combat capable than the males–in size, speed, viciousness, intelligence, numbers, or whatever, then guess which gender is going to be on the front lines? Based on what I know of the Covenant hierarchy, which made use of even the Hunters–which destroyed holy Forerunner artifacts–when they found out that they were combat capable, the Prophets would definitely not hesitate to use females–especially females of other species, seeing as the Prophets don’t do much fighting now that they are in charge, and the only females the Prophets would care about are the female San 'Shyuum.

I can understand an individual species of the Covenant having problems with sexism, but not every Covenant species, unless it is imposed by the Prophets–and we’ve just established that it wouldn’t make sense for that to happen.

So, essentially, there should be no time wasted on these silly explanations or excuses for the lack of female aliens. The gameplay of Halo doesn’t quite match the canon anyway, for gameplay reasons. No more “females are kept away from the front lines”–which isn’t even true for a number of human cultures throughout history, and that piece of stupidity definitely should not be applied to alien cultures, especially when they have to deal with racism towards other species of the Covenant. No more excuses that there is no visible difference between genders–there is always some difference, unless all alien species are asexual, and biologically speaking, there has to be some way for one gender to identify the other. 343 industries should just design and create the character models, and have them appear in gameplay. Period.

I guess what I’m trying to say is exploring the ideas and idiocy of racism and sexism is good. Attempting to use it to explain why only humans have both genders fighting on the front lines is BAD. It’s just a result of more blinkered thinking. It could even imply that females will always have to fight for equal rights, regardless of species–unless that idea is countered with species where it’s the male who has to fight for equal rights. It’s simpler and it provides a more immersive experience in this day and age to just create two stock character models for each alien species–male and female.

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Female jackals are dominant actually, and they have queens as their rulers. (There was one in a recent halo escalation) Though a female alien has yet to be seen in game, as bungie seemed not to care, and in halo 4 I guess there wasn’t really any convenient time or place.

I hope to see more diversity in future halo’s

(and also less American marines/spartans)

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I’m not a lore expert, but I’ll explain what I know and believe.
Male and female Elites are both taught to fight at a young age. However, only males are allowed to go join the army or wield a sword. While the men fight in the Covenant, the women lead the clans and tend to all the needs on the planet. It’s not necessary sexist, it’s just that they are taught to do different jobs.
Prophets I have no idea, except I expect only the elder males to lead.
Brutes we hardly know about either, but I’m guessing the females are smaller and treated unfairly. I think that the males use the women just for -Yoink!-. That’s just speculation, though.
I’ve heard that Grunts have both genders in the army. I’ve also heard that they also mate in the army to keep the Grunt populations high. It would be great if there was distinction between genders ingame.
Jackals live in a monarchy system pretty much. That means that there is a queen (maybe king?) that leads. Everyone else is poor in social standards. It is fair to believe that men still live above women. I would think that, as pirates, women fight with the men.
Drones are just that- drones. They have their ant-like colony. That means that there is a queen, and the men are used just for mating. So I think that all Drones in the army are female.
Last, Engineers are asexual. But I don’t think they mate either way, they are living computers created by the Forerunners.

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Here is my take on things:

Sangheili - Women have roles in building and maintaining aspects of society. They have a very, very limited role in matters pertaining to combat. Chances are, they could be very hard to tell apart from the males (if you don’t know what you are looking for) due to the fact notion that Sangheili are not believed to be mammals, but rather, close to reptiles. However, since these are aliens, this could vary.

Jiralhanae - These guys are defiantly mammals. Chances are the females have a very submissive role in society, as caregivers to the young, homebuilders, and what-not. We know that The Jiralhanae have brothels, so it is also possible that females may pursue careers as “mating workers”. Chances are, males and females could be easily distinguished based on the presence of mammary glands. Due to the highly combative nature of the males, it would seem that not only are The Jiralhanae a patriarchy, but the military is exclusively controlled by males.

Grunts - hard to tell. These guys may be like the Sangheili where males and females have very few observable differences.

Drones - I like to think of them as a Bee colony - One female Queen, and tons of (male) drones and (female) worker drones. However, all the combat units MAY be female. With that said, nothing says that you cannot also have males on the front lines with other females. All one would have to do is put a gun in the male’s hand and let them go.

Jackals - Again, males and females may be hard to tell apart due to the possibly reptilian origins. We do know that females have demonstrated leadership roles as ship mistresses. Males and females may serve together in the armed forces.

Hunters - Almost certain they are either hermaphrodites or asexual.

Engineers - No males, no females.

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@Grizzlei @Hyperice343 @Trio of Kings @xNAKED CROOKx
Thank you all for replying to my OP, however I feel that you are all missing the point. Perhaps I need to provide a summary of my key arguments to explain why I think the canon explanations are either irrelevant, or don’t solve the issue.

  • Essentially, the canon states that every single species in the Covenant has females which are unsuitable for fighting, or there are no differences between the genders.- For animal species which rely primarily on sight, there has to be some visible way of quickly distinguishing the genders–this is true throughout the animal kingdom, and this property is known as “sexual dimorphism.”- In the animal kingdom, the female is often superior in combat to the male, due to a larger size or other physical characteristics, or just down to plain aggressiveness. You can see some of this behaviour in humans, too. In summary: hell hath no fury like a women scorned.- The Prophets are practical. Even when Hunters destroyed holy relics before joining the Covenant, they were found to be useful for locating and excavating Forerunner artifacts, and were suitable for combat. If the females of a species are more combat capable, the females will end up fighting in the Covenant.- In science fiction–Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Babylon 5, Halo Legends, Mass Effect, whatever sci-fi media you enjoy–even if it is entirely CG, 90% of the time the female aliens have mammary glands, which is exclusively a mammalian trait. More specifically, the number and placement is exclusive to primates [and strangely enough, elephants]. If 343 industries wishes to design new aliens–especially female aliens–then they need to avoid this major pitfall in design. Unfortunately, by looking at the Didact, Librarian, Yonhet, and the female Sanheili in Halo Legends, they’ve already fallen into this trap of making aliens way too human, not just bipedal in design.Hopefully the above points clear things up. I’ll add this summary to the OP. :slight_smile:
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What most people do not realize is that a large amount of the species are very clearly, matriarchal, which are the unggoy, kig-yar, and the yanme’e. With the unggoy, their females are likely leading their tribes on Balaho, trying to keep their people alive and warm. Kig yar woman have roles as ship mistresses and other leadership positions. And with the yanme’e, well, think of the Formics from Ender’s Game. And the lekgolo and huragok are most likely asexual.

As for the sangheili, they are a pseudo patriarchy, in that while the males have all of the leadership positions, the females have significant influence over the politics. But the reason we have not seen any of the females in combat yet, is because it is customary for the females to stay and defend the keeps while the males are gone, as rival clans may take advantage of the male’s absence. But it would not be surprising to me if there were some females running around, slaughtering humans.

The jiralhanae though, are primarily patriarchal. Their woman are straight up, not allowed to serve in the military, but then again, that may vary between klein. And finally, for the San shyuum, none of them fight at all, really. And as in the last few centuries, they have seem to have lost their patriarchy, as we have seen that there was a female hierarch.

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> 2533274822366750;8:
> What most people do not realize is that a large amount of the species are very clearly, matriarchal.

Speaking bluntly again: it is NOT clear that most of the Covenant species are matriarchal. Not in gameplay. It doesn’t matter which way you spin it, the fact remains that every single alien species either doesn’t have visible differences between the genders, or otherwise have reasons for only one gender to be on the front lines. This does not make any sense. Looks like I need to edit my initial statement for the OP–from “Where are all the Covenant females?” to “Why is it that humans are the only ones that have both genders fighting on the front lines, with visible differences between the genders?” I’m familiar enough with the Halo canon, so having that vague initial question is entirely my fault.

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> 2533274880692195;9:
> > 2533274822366750;8:
> > What most people do not realize is that a large amount of the species are very clearly, matriarchal.
>
>
> Speaking bluntly again: it is NOT clear that most of the Covenant species are matriarchal. Not in gameplay. It doesn’t matter which way you spin it, the fact remains that every single alien species either doesn’t have visible differences between the genders, or otherwise have reasons for only one gender to be on the front lines. This does not make any sense. Looks like I need to edit my initial statement for the OP–from “Where are all the Covenant females?” to “Why is it that humans are the only ones that have both genders fighting on the front lines, with visible differences between the genders?”

Probably did not specify too much. For one, a “large amount” and "most " are different from eachother, and by clearly, and I am mainly referring to those who even slightly tap into the covenants lore, when I say clearly. As for the “no visible differences between genders”, think of how when you see a snake or dog on first sight, unless you have much experience with those species, then you will have hard time on guessing what gender it is.

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> 2533274822366750;10:
> Probably did not specify too much. For one, a “large amount” and "most " are different from eachother, and by clearly, and I am mainly referring to those who even slightly tap into the covenants lore, when I say clearly. As for the “no visible differences between genders”, think of how when you see a snake or dog on first sight, unless you have much experience with those species, then you will have hard time on guessing what gender it is.

The trouble with my wall of text, is that originally you had to read the whole thing to get my point. I tried to fix the OP by summarizing my main points in the Quoted section, and in response to your comment I have condensed my main arguments further into the first bolded paragraph. I have trouble with writing in a formal essay format, but it looks like that is the best way to actually display arguments.
It is quite easy to tell the difference between a male and female dog, or any other mammal. Snakes and other reptiles I’m not sure of. Spiders can be quite noticeably different, along with birds, bugs and fish. I would argue that it is more difficult to tell a male Spartan and a female Spartan in armour apart–yet we still have different character models for them. We even have female character models for humans going all the way back to the Bumblebee pilots in Halo 1–and that was expressed using far fewer polygons than we have available in games today. Using unfamiliarity with a species as an argument is invalid. Even if you don’t notice the differences on a cursory inspection, the differences are there nonetheless, and familiarity [how many hours do people play campaign or MP?] will make those differences obvious.
As I stated in the OP, even with no immediately obvious visual differences between genders of a species, in those cases where the differences are hidden from external view, there is always something, depending on what the primary sense for the species is–even if it’s smell or sound. Aside from the Hunters, all Covenant species use sight as their primary sense, so when they’re trying to discreetly figure out if a prospective mate is male or female, I’m guessing they are going to go by something visual.
Edit: As an addendum to my previous reply, I apologize for not making my initial question in the OP clear. Any confusion resulting from such a non-precise question is entirely my fault, so I should not have been so blunt in my initial response to you. I have now edited the OP to make it clear that I am familiar with Halo’s canon outside the games, and that I’m frustrated with the fact that the canon has had to bend backwards in order to explain the lack of female aliens present in the games.

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> 2533274824175624;4:
> Female jackals are dominant actually, and they have queens as their rulers. (There was one in a recent halo escalation) Though a female alien has yet to be seen in game, as bungie seemed not to care, and in halo 4 I guess there wasn’t really any convenient time or place. I hope to see more diversity in future halo’s (and also less American marines/spartans)

In respect to jackals, there was a huge, missed opportunity in Reach. To me, it looked as if the Skirmishers and Jackals were two genders of the same species.

Actually, taking a quick look at the Wiki, oh–this is stupid. Every single Jackal in Halo 4, the “Storm Jackals” are actually their own subspecies seperate from the Jackals seen in 2552, and the Skirmishers at Reach. Seriously? You have that much genetic diversity for the Jackals–three subspecies, and no-one thought to have the Skirmishers in Reach be a different gender. So, where did the Skirmishers and 2552 Jackals go? Did they not join the Storm Covenant? So many questions…

Anyway, take a look at peacocks and birds of paradise–or even the rooster, and you’ll see what I mean. The males are always more distinctive, so my headcanon is that the Skirmishers with their manes of feathers and deeper, more guttural voices are the males. So, in my headcanon, the standard Jackals you see are females. Seriously a missed opportunity there.

As to less American marines/Spartans–we’ve had marines and Spartans from all nationalities since Halo Combat Evolved.

  • Remember the guy [Andrew McKaige] who sounded like an American putting on a fake Australian accent? Chips Dubbo? Turns out the voice actor is actually Australian. Oops.
  • Cortana was originally supposed to be British–the phrase “sod off” is a key bit of dialogue, there.
  • Kat was voiced by an Israeli born actress–Alona Tal.
  • David Scully–the voice actor for Sergeant Johnson is English, as were the Prophets of Mercy, Regret, and Truth [Terence Stamp in Halo 3] and so is Jonathan Ross.
  • Hakeem Kae-Kazim [the voice of Jorge] is Nigerian.
  • Jamie Hector [Emile], whilst American, is of Haitian descent and Miranda Keyes’ voice actresses was changed between H2 and H3 because Bungie wanted someone with more of an accent [both actresses were American].
  • Keith David [The Arbiter] and Kevin Michael Richardson [Tartarus] are African-American,
  • Miguel José Ferrer [The Heretic Leader] is of Puerto Rican descent,
  • Nathan Fillion [Buck], Tricia Helfer [Dare] and Michael Wincott [Truth in Halo 2], Jennifer Hale [Sarah Palmer] and Jennifer Hale [Cortana, Halsey] are all Canadian by birth.
  • The voice actor for Roland, whilst portraying a British air pilot is American, as is nearly every other voice in the games. Voice actors often portray accents which are different from their place of birth.
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I understand where you’re coming from, but I feel like they’re just gonna be in there for the sake of being in there. Not that I DON’T want to see female aliens or whatever, it’s just what purpose would they ultimately serve? Not much of one. They’d just feel shoehorned and unnecessary.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not sexist or anything like that, but it doesn’t seem like it would blend well, it would just feel too forced.

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> 2533274832368555;13:
> I understand where you’re coming from, but I feel like they’re just gonna be in there for the sake of being in there. Not that I DON’T want to see female aliens or whatever, it’s just what purpose would they ultimately serve? Not much of one. They’d just feel shoehorned and unnecessary.
> Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not sexist or anything like that, but it doesn’t seem like it would blend well, it would just feel too forced.

Now that*'s* an interesting opinion. The reason I brought up this topic was ultimately because I felt that the lack of female aliens in the Halo games was shoehorned, forced, and unnecessary.
Some people seem to feel that being able to customize your Spartan’s armour is a cool and immersive experience. I actually think it’s a canon and logic-breaking experience for the Spartan IIIs and IIs, seeing as there were only 33 Spartan-IIs that survived the augmentation process, and the Spartan-IIIs all had mass-produced SPI armour, aside from Noble Team. Extensive armour customization in Halo 3 and Reach is therefore completely unnecessary, and actually detracts from the immersive experience. The Spartan-IV program is completely different, of course, but anyway, who would want to customize their Spartan or Elite character? It’s just a suit of armour. Why would anyone want to play as an Elite? It’s just a character model change. Why would anyone want to change their Spartan’s gender? It’s just a voice actor change. I trust that you can see where I’m going with this.
Look, the fact is that the Halo canon has to jump through some major hoops because there are no female alien combatants in the games. It wouldn’t have to waste time jumping through those hoops if there was a somewhat subtly different extra alien character model or two, or line of dialogue stating that actually, this species of Covenant primarily has female fighters.
The Buggers are a good candidate for this, because worker and combat bees/wasps/ants are infertile females. Yet the Buggers are often called “Drones”–which are the relatively few sexually active males in a Hive.
The Jackals, being an avian/reptilian species, are also another good candidate for this. Every time I see the Skirmisher I think “male Jackal,” even though, canonically, it’s one of three Jackal subspecies.
The Grunts are also a good candidate for having male and female fighters, with their squeaky voices and methane tanks obscuring possible differences. If this is already the case, I don’t know where it’s mentioned.
The Prophets were also good candidates for females to appear in the games, because the Prophets sat on their backsides all day, and rely on their hoverchairs to do their fighting for them. [Edit: by which I mean that the Prophets weren’t in a combat role. Only the males thus far have been seen as described. But if female Prophets are canonically prevented from rising to political power, that just opens up a whole new can of worms] I doubt we’ll ever see the Prophets again, as apparently this manipulative and cunning species was completely wiped out in a few months after thousands of years of machinations. That’s just logical.
With the Covenant in complete disarray, this is the perfect time to see the rising star of the female Sangheili warriors. Any time the prevailing order is thrown into chaos, those who were previously downtrodden sieze their chance. So…I doubt that introducing alien females in combat roles at this juncture is going to feel forced at all.
On a more technical note, seeing as Halo’s artists redesign the character models for every new Halo game, Halo 5 is the perfect time to actually introduce those alien female warriors we’ve been missing all this time.

15

> 2533274800842897;6:
> Here is my take on things:
>
> Sangheili - Women have roles in building and maintaining aspects of society. They have a very, very limited role in matters pertaining to combat. Chances are, they could be very hard to tell apart from the males (if you don’t know what you are looking for) due to the fact notion that Sangheili are not believed to be mammals, but rather, close to reptiles. However, since these are aliens, this could vary.
>
> Jiralhanae - These guys are defiantly mammals. Chances are the females have a very submissive role in society, as caregivers to the young, homebuilders, and what-not. We know that The Jiralhanae have brothels, so it is also possible that females may pursue careers as “mating workers”. Chances are, males and females could be easily distinguished based on the presence of mammary glands. Due to the highly combative nature of the males, it would seem that not only are The Jiralhanae a patriarchy, but the military is exclusively controlled by males.
>
> Grunts - hard to tell. These guys may be like the Sangheili where males and females have very few observable differences.
>
> Drones - I like to think of them as a Bee colony - One female Queen, and tons of (male) drones and (female) worker drones. However, all the combat units MAY be female. With that said, nothing says that you cannot also have males on the front lines with other females. All one would have to do is put a gun in the male’s hand and let them go.
>
> Jackals - Again, males and females may be hard to tell apart due to the possibly reptilian origins. We do know that females have demonstrated leadership roles as ship mistresses. Males and females may serve together in the armed forces.
>
> Hunters - Almost certain they are either hermaphrodites or asexual.
>
> Engineers - No males, no females.

1)Huragok have no genders.
2)Lekgolo could very well be simultaneous hermaphrodites. However the only known Mgalekgolo are refered to as males. Perhaps they might behave as male or female based on season/age. Like starting as female and later turning into males or starting as males and later turning into females.
3)We already know how to tell a female from a male Kig-Yar but other than the hair thing there does not appear to be much of a sexual dimorphism.
4)Exactly my thoughts here. Males would normally be used to fertilise the queen. However I bet that the reason why we see only females in the game is because the majority of the species is female and thus males are kept home.
5)Given their amphibian origins and arthropod-vertrebrate physiology I bet that sexual dimorphism here is really hard to spot. Also note that their eye placement would make their vision very bad and thus they could separate genders based on other factors like smell or pheromones and stuff.
6)I agree. However the mammalian glands of the females could only develop only after pregnancy. In simple words female Jiralhanae would develop women like breasts when pregnant or nursing their young and lose them later.
7)San’Shyuum are definetely mammals and they undergo some interesting changes in their appearance as they age. Longer necks, paler skin colour larger foreheads and increase in distance between the eyes.
8)The only thing that makes the Sangheili closer to birds and mammals is the fact that they are endotherms or at worst mesotherms.
They have scales and Halo 2A shows us they also have a cloaca (common orifice for reproductive, urinal and digestive tracts). Sangheili have very sharp vision that extends to a portion of the infrared spectrum (not thermal vision) and maybe a small portion of UV based on the fact that their ships’ emergency lights are UV. We also know that all Sangheili cannot see red, purple and orange due to the lack of a certain type of cone cells. We also know that most Sangheili have external ear holes and many lack molars. Sangheili also lay eggs and don’t have breasts. The art in the Duel is artistic liscence when it comes to certain things. Sangheili lay eggs and they do not nurse their young. What is however a problem when it comes to them being pure reptiles in the fact that some very old Sangheili grow some hair like features from certain parts of their body. For all we know Sangheili females are a bit paler than males, are not as strong physically and that they lack breasts/mammalian glands. Also again on the mammal vs reptile thing I bet that since losing water is a bad tactic on Sanghelios Sangheili urine would use uric acid instead of ammonia.
-Faber of Will and Might out

16

> 2533275014949226;15:
> > 2533274800842897;6:
> > Here is my take on things:
> >
> > Sangheili - Women have roles in building and maintaining aspects of society. They have a very, very limited role in matters pertaining to combat. Chances are, they could be very hard to tell apart from the males (if you don’t know what you are looking for) due to the fact notion that Sangheili are not believed to be mammals, but rather, close to reptiles. However, since these are aliens, this could vary.
> >
> > Jiralhanae - These guys are defiantly mammals. Chances are the females have a very submissive role in society, as caregivers to the young, homebuilders, and what-not. We know that The Jiralhanae have brothels, so it is also possible that females may pursue careers as “mating workers”. Chances are, males and females could be easily distinguished based on the presence of mammary glands. Due to the highly combative nature of the males, it would seem that not only are The Jiralhanae a patriarchy, but the military is exclusively controlled by males.
> >
> > Grunts - hard to tell. These guys may be like the Sangheili where males and females have very few observable differences.
> >
> > Drones - I like to think of them as a Bee colony - One female Queen, and tons of (male) drones and (female) worker drones. However, all the combat units MAY be female. With that said, nothing says that you cannot also have males on the front lines with other females. All one would have to do is put a gun in the male’s hand and let them go.
> >
> > Jackals - Again, males and females may be hard to tell apart due to the possibly reptilian origins. We do know that females have demonstrated leadership roles as ship mistresses. Males and females may serve together in the armed forces.
> >
> > Hunters - Almost certain they are either hermaphrodites or asexual.
> >
> > Engineers - No males, no females.
>
>
> 1)Huragok have no genders.
> 2)Lekgolo could very well be simultaneous hermaphrodites. However the only known Mgalekgolo are refered to as males. Perhaps they might behave as male or female based on season/age. Like starting as female and later turning into males or starting as males and later turning into females.
> 3)We already know how to tell a female from a male Kig-Yar but other than the hair thing there does not appear to be much of a sexual dimorphism.
> 4)Exactly my thoughts here. Males would normally be used to fertilise the queen. However I bet that the reason why we see only females in the game is because the majority of the species is female and thus males are kept home.
> 5)Given their amphibian origins and arthropod-vertrebrate physiology I bet that sexual dimorphism here is really hard to spot. Also note that their eye placement would make their vision very bad and thus they could separate genders based on other factors like smell or pheromones and stuff.
> 6)I agree. However the mammalian glands of the females could only develop only after pregnancy. In simple words female Jiralhanae would develop women like breasts when pregnant or nursing their young and lose them later.
> 7)San’Shyuum are definetely mammals and they undergo some interesting changes in their appearance as they age. Longer necks, paler skin colour larger foreheads and increase in distance between the eyes.
> 8)The only thing that makes the Sangheili closer to birds and mammals is the fact that they are endotherms or at worst mesotherms.
> They have scales and Halo 2A shows us they also have a cloaca (common orifice for reproductive, urinal and digestive tracts). Sangheili have very sharp vision that extends to a portion of the infrared spectrum (not thermal vision) and maybe a small portion of UV based on the fact that their ships’ emergency lights are UV. We also know that all Sangheili cannot see red, purple and orange due to the lack of a certain type of cone cells. We also know that most Sangheili have external ear holes and many lack molars. Sangheili also lay eggs and don’t have breasts. The art in the Duel is artistic liscence when it comes to certain things. Sangheili lay eggs and they do not nurse their young. What is however a problem when it comes to them being pure reptiles in the fact that some very old Sangheili grow some hair like features from certain parts of their body. For all we know Sangheili females are a bit paler than males, are not as strong physically and that they lack breasts/mammalian glands. Also again on the mammal vs reptile thing I bet that since losing water is a bad tactic on Sanghelios Sangheili urine would use uric acid instead of ammonia.
> -Faber of Will and Might out

Interesting where in halo 2A did we discover that the sanghelli have cloaca? This is interesting indeed.

17

> 2533275014949226;15:
> 1)Huragok have no genders.
> 2)Lekgolo could very well be simultaneous hermaphrodites.
> 3)We already know how to tell a female from a male Kig-Yar but other than the hair thing there does not appear to be much of a sexual dimorphism.
> 4)Exactly my thoughts here. Males would normally be used to fertilise the queen. However I bet that the reason why we see only females in the game is because the majority of the species is female and thus males are kept home.
> 5) [Grunts]: Given their amphibian origins and arthropod-vertrebrate physiology I bet that sexual dimorphism here is really hard to spot. Also note that their eye placement would make their vision very bad and thus they could separate genders based on other factors like smell or pheromones and stuff.
> 6)I agree. However the mammalian glands of the females could only develop only after pregnancy. In simple words female Jiralhanae would develop women like breasts when pregnant or nursing their young and lose them later.
> 7)San’Shyuum are definetely mammals and they undergo some interesting changes in their appearance as they age. Longer necks, paler skin colour larger foreheads and increase in distance between the eyes.

  1. Huragok are AI. No change required.

  2. Lekgolo are assemblages of worms. They could be hermaphroditic, or the invidivual worms in the colonies could have different genders. Unfortunately, the only named Hunters in Halo canon have actually been stated to be male. Hunter pairs are consistently referred to as “bond brothers.” All that’s needed is a change in pronoun from “he” to “it.”

  3. Kig-Yar. There are three separate subspecies of Kig-Yar. Every time I see the Skirmisher subspecies with that mane of feathers I think “Male Kig-Yar.” We already have mulitple species models for the Kig-Yar, so it would be easy to have put in a line of dialogue to state that the Jackals are the female Kig-Yar and the Skirmishers are the males.

  4. Buggers are referred to consistently as Drones. Therefore the soldiers we see are male. There are actually three distinctive variations of Drones in gameplay. Once again it would have been easy to state something along the lines of “actually, the Buggers have many genders, and use the infertile ones for combat.” Buggers are stated to be Hive-like creatures, with a Queen. Aside from that, I don’t remember any of the books going into further detail as to the Yanme’e social structures [correct me if I’m wrong], so assuming that the hierarchy of alien hives is the same as that on Earth is problematic, especially with the confusing moniker of “Drones.” Once again, a simple line or two in gameplay or in the books would clear things up.

  5. Grunts–don’t assume that their eyesight is bad. They are very good at detecting a stealth-trained [quiet and odourless] Spartan from long distances, so despite the placement of the eyes they do in fact, have very good vision. Any species which has good vision is likely going to have visible sexual dimorphism, although you could use the excuse that the methane tanks cover too much of the body. Just have a female Grunt character or something, to make it clear that once again, both genders are on the battlefield.

  6. I don’t remember any mention of Brute females in canon. If any “alien” species was going to be sexually dimorphic and have both genders in battle, then giant hairy apes would be it. Would you believe that out of all the primates, humans are one of the least sexually dimorphic species? And as to “brothels” for the comment you replied to, um, shall we say that brothels aren’t exclusively inhabited by women, and aren’t exclusively for males, and leave it at that?

  7. Okay. Not sure what you are getting at here.

  8. Since when have the Sangheili been colour-blind??? Ye gods, their ranks are based on armour-colour, so it would be a bit difficult if they couldn’t tell the differences between between red, purple and orange. Their ships are primarily red and purple, too. Now, as to female Sangheili…take a look at the lazy design apparent in the Halo Legends episode “The Duel.”

18

> 2533274880692195;12:
> > 2533274824175624;4:
> > Female jackals are dominant actually, and they have queens as their rulers. (There was one in a recent halo escalation) Though a female alien has yet to be seen in game, as bungie seemed not to care, and in halo 4 I guess there wasn’t really any convenient time or place. I hope to see more diversity in future halo’s (and also less American marines/spartans)
>
>
>
> In respect to jackals, there was a huge, missed opportunity in Reach. To me, it looked as if the Skirmishers and Jackals were two genders of the same species.
>
> Actually, taking a quick look at the Wiki, oh–this is stupid. Every single Jackal in Halo 4, the “Storm Jackals” are actually their own subspecies seperate from the Jackals seen in 2552, and the Skirmishers at Reach. Seriously? You have that much genetic diversity for the Jackals–three subspecies, and no-one thought to have the Skirmishers in Reach be a different gender. So, where did the Skirmishers and 2552 Jackals go? Did they not join the Storm Covenant? So many questions…
>
> Anyway, take a look at peacocks and birds of paradise–or even the rooster, and you’ll see what I mean. The males are always more distinctive, so my headcanon is that the Skirmishers with their manes of feathers and deeper, more guttural voices are the males. So, in my headcanon, the standard Jackals you see are females. Seriously a missed opportunity there.
>
> As to less American marines/Spartans–we’ve had marines and Spartans from all nationalities since Halo Combat Evolved.
> - Remember the guy [Andrew McKaige] who sounded like an American putting on a fake Australian accent? Chips Dubbo? Turns out the voice actor is actually Australian. Oops.
> - Cortana was originally supposed to be British–the phrase “sod off” is a key bit of dialogue, there.
> - Kat was voiced by an Israeli born actress–Alona Tal.
> - David Scully–the voice actor for Sergeant Johnson is English, as were the Prophets of Mercy, Regret, and Truth [Terence Stamp in Halo 3] and so is Jonathan Ross.
> - Hakeem Kae-Kazim [the voice of Jorge] is Nigerian.
> - Jamie Hector [Emile], whilst American, is of Haitian descent and Miranda Keyes’ voice actresses was changed between H2 and H3 because Bungie wanted someone with more of an accent [both actresses were American].
> - Keith David [The Arbiter] and Kevin Michael Richardson [Tartarus] are African-American,
> - Miguel José Ferrer [The Heretic Leader] is of Puerto Rican descent,
> - Nathan Fillion [Buck], Tricia Helfer [Dare] and Michael Wincott [Truth in Halo 2], Jennifer Hale [Sarah Palmer] and Jennifer Hale [Cortana, Halsey] are all Canadian by birth.
> - The voice actor for Roland, whilst portraying a British air pilot is American, as is nearly every other voice in the games. Voice actors often portray accents which are different from their place of birth.

Jackals are pirates and mercenaries. they are hired buy the Storm Covenant to increase their total military power. as such its not that odd that all the jackals in 4 are from the same sub-breed. there are 3 known breeds of jackal.

19

> Jackals are pirates and mercenaries. they are hired buy the Storm Covenant to increase their total military power. as such its not that odd that all the jackals in 4 are from the same sub-breed. there are 3 known breeds of jackal.

Ah, but that’s just it. We only see the Storm Jackal subspecies in Halo 4. The Jackal subspecies we saw in every previous Halo is absent, and the Skirmishers we saw in Reach are also absent. The Jackals are pirates and mercenaries, true, but why would only one subspecies join the Storm Covenant? Aliens in Halo are people. People make their own decision on what side in a war they want to fight on. They don’t make the decision based on their race. As such it is extremely odd that the Jackals, which are known for their mercenary behaviour, wouldn’t have members of all three subspecies fighting for both the Storm Covenant and the Arbiter.

Look, for a GAME series which has made the effort to show females in the games–through Cortana and Foehammer, since it started, and shown since Halo 2 that aliens are actually people that fight amongst themselves–it seems to be bending over backwards in the books to provide a whole list of convoluted reasons which PREVENT ANY ALIEN FEMALE, regardless of species, from fighting in actual gameplay or appearing in cutscenes.

I’m saying that a simple line or two of dialogue which state that such alien female fighters already exist, or a simple introduction of alien and female character models, would make it clear that female aliens can also be fighters. Perhaps some people would like to play as a female Brute or Sangheili, or a Jackal/Skirmisher…who knows?

20

Maybe that is by design with the Prophets? Keep the males in combat roles and the women back home and perhaps reinforce patriarchal tendencies to achieve this end. If any species decided to become a problem, it would be easier to kill off that species by cutting off their ability to reproduce. May not have much evidence behind it, but given the San 'Shyuum were in declining numbers, perhaps that was seen as the best way to give them an edge if things got worse.