This is one thing that I can’t help but think, but how the hell did the covenant get armour back from Ripa 'Moramee after he was killed in Halo Wars? He was tossed off the side of a bridge and then the shield world blew up.
Did he land right next to an elite, or did his body land on the windshield of a phantom? Or did the Covenant just make a new set of armour without telling any of the Elites in High Charity?
Or am I the only one that actually cares about this?
There are probably multiple sets of armour stored in the mausoleum on High Charity. You honestly don’t think dozens of Arbiters donned the exact same set of armour right? The variance in Sangheili body sizes and high fatality rate simply makes that impossible.
They didn’t get Ripa’s armor back. Each Arbiter is presented with his own armor. Ripa was over 8ft tall. It literally wouldn’t fit Thel.
If they could get the armor back, then they would store it at the mausoleum. If they couldn’t then they didn’t.
The Mausoleum of the Arbiter doesn’t have a body in each tomb. Some bodies, like Ripa’s, were not recovered, so some of those chambers are symbolic. And as others have mentioned, not every Arbiter’s armor was recovered, nor did every Arbiter have the same measurements for their armor (Ripa was a big boi compared to Thel)
Apprently, there’s more than one version of the Arbiter armor that have been recycled. Ripa wore custom armor because he was bigger than the average Sangheili. His armor was destroyed when the slipspace drive went off and the Covenant couldn’t retrieve his body in time.
Not to mention the Arbiter role is not a position of honor. It’s a role made up to get further use out of skilled individuals that cannot be trusted in the larger strategic picture anymore which would otherwise just be executed. A waste of potential, so the Arbiter role is basically tricking these individuals into going on and performing suicide missions and suicidal acts of military heroism to further the Covenant’s agendas. So I bet every Arbiter suit is bespoke for the individual Elite…But it’s either purposefully made the same way the old armor was or purposefully made obsolete to ensure that the individual is handicapped and thus more likely to die while undertaking these missions.
In a way, it’s not much different than SPI armor being given to Spartan-IIIs.
Pretty sure most of that armor is gimped like the Arbiter’s ‘older’ active camoflague in order to ensure the eventual death of the wearer. Especially if Legendary difficulty is taken as canon because seriously, it lasts for literally TWO SECONDS WHY
Naah Ripas Armour is long gone
There was supposed to be a fight against floodified arbiter corpses in halo 3 before that portion was cut. While cut content can’t be considered canon, its likely Bungie would have had them be wearing pieces of arbiter armor and not just be generic elite combat forms.
Now I want to see Thel in Ripa’s armor, like a kid in adult clothes. But I’m pretty sure each Arbiter gets his own custom armor to off and die in.
Probably already been said but they have made several armors over the course of their time because even if they got back Ripa’s armor, he was a lot bigger than Thel (in weight specifically, he was only like 3" taller) so the armor wouldn’t’ve fit unless they melted it back down or whatever they did and reforged it
It would be kinda funny if the covenant just kept repairing the armor for new Arbiters. You just see a bunch of patched holes in it. But yeah they likely forge a new set of armor for each Arbiter, because of varying body size, and the fact that arbiters are sent on suicide missions meaning the armor would usually get messed up badly. Which becomes interesting that they create a new set of armor for each arbiter but purposely use outdated tech and retain classic sangheili style.