The Post War Galaxy

Community Halo Universe
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I’ve been reading Halo: Glasslands and have been trying to put the pieces together as to how the galaxy looks after the Human-Covenant War to give me a better idea of what we’ll be stepping into when Halo 4 drops this fall. So here is my summary of what we know of in the post war galaxy thus far. Feel free to post with theories, specification or corrections since this is a work in progress.

Humanity
The UNSC is still licking its wounds, trying to convince the remaining colonies to come back to the UNSC voluntarily. Because this process is going to take some time and a lot of backroom dealing the ONI want to keep the Sangheili off balance during this process and begin supporting a group of zealots against the Arbiter. I don’t believe they actually want these zelots to succeed, but to keep the Sangheili fighting each other and wasting their resources while the UNSC regathers its strength.

The UNSC also has finally made breakthroughs with Covenant and Forerunner Tech to revolutionize ship and weapon designs. Along with the creation of the UNSC Infinity (possibly a brand new class of warship) with this technology the UNSC also restarted the Spartan program (Presumably to create a new brand of spec ops super soldiers for the inevitable war with the remnants of the covenant and the remaining insurrectionists.) This 4th generation is being created with a stripped down version of the MJOLNIR power armor and some new specialized genetic enhancements, allowing adult volunteers to be made into Spartans rather than children.

It seems the UNSC is posing itself to be the only remaining power left in the galaxy, after the disappearance of the Flood and the break down the of the now mostly inept Covenant Empire. With this ancient alien race now rising as a threat however there may be more then the UNSC can fight off alone.

Sangheili

The Sangheili are in a terrible state after the war. They retain control of their home planet but have a fractured government, no direction and little scientific knowledge of some of the essential things needed to maintain a vast interstellar empire. To add to their troubles the servants of abiding truth are intent on dragging the Sangheili into a religious civil war, further wasting their resources.

They have little to no knowledge of what it takes to maintain their vehicles let alone build new capital ships. With the loss of this knowledge of maintaining their technology meant that their ability to get supplies off world was diminishing and thus many have reverted to getting ancient plans for farm buildings and techniques as Sanghillios is forced to be more self sufficient.

We also know that by the time of Halo 4 many Sangheili were seeking direction on their own, like the ship master who sought direction on the human colony of Kholo. We also know that some are actively acting as raiders or seeking out human ships to attack (from what we have heard about the the first mission). But it seems that the fate of the Sangheili is still very much in the balance by the time of Halo 4, perhaps close to a complete and total destruction of their species.

San 'Shyuum/Jiralhanae

We don’t know anything really about the San 'Shyuum. They have gone dark and left the Jiralhanae to deal with the Sangheili on their own while the San 'Shyuum, presumably, run and hide to protect their own lives. Beyond that little is known of their fate but with their major worlds destroyed and their protectors turning on each other it seems the San 'Shyuum is on its last legs.

Kig-Yar

With the fall of the Covenant the Kig-Yar seem to be doing what they do best, pirating and scavenging. Like always they work for who pays them, some even being informants for ONI on the goings on of other former Covenant species.

Unggoy

The Unggoy are still working as laborers for whoever has the most direct control over them. Little is know about the status of the Unggoy as a whole but they still seem to be the basic slave race for the former Covenant.

That’s all I got thus far, anyone else have any info/assumptions they’ve made that might make this puzzle a bit less sketchy?

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nice thread! Added to my favorites. Info like this might come in handy… :smiley:

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I believe you left out hunters.I’m hoping hunters form some sort of alliance with humanity since they were merely slaves to the covenant.

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“Beyond that little is known of their fate but with their major worlds destroyed and their protectors turning on each other it seems the San 'Shyuum is on its last legs.”

“Last legs.” I see what you did there, since they use hover-thrones to get around…

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> I believe you left out hunters.I’m hoping hunters form some sort of alliance with humanity since they were merely slaves to the covenant.

Um the lekgolo are directly loyal to the elites and were never slaves of the covenant (the only ones that were are the elites) and they hate humans the most.

All of the races are minding their own business since they never fully integrated into the covenant or believed the religion.

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> I believe you left out hunters.I’m hoping hunters form some sort of alliance with humanity since they were merely slaves to the covenant.

I think they are a worm like species that usually mill about on their own unless they are brought up to be the hunters we see in the games. But here is what I have been able to scrounge up.

Also I left out the Engineers in my analysis, since they are such an important part of all the new tech I figured I should add what’s happened to them as far as I have seen…

Lekgolo

With out the military arm of the Covenant now totally dissolved there is little real use for the Lekgolo. They may still be serving on Jiralhanae or Sangheili Warships or Keeps but since their natural state is more amorphous and worm like they wouldn’t serve much help to the peace state after the war and with logistics a nightmare for every species they may simply have returned to their home world or settled down with their partners where ever they were left.

Huragok

Most of the Huragok have disappeared, this being the leading cause of the break down in logistics and maintenance in the former Covenant Empire. No one knows whats happened to to them but for a scattered few which the UNSC and (possibly)Sangheili have managed to acquire. Some theorize that the ones that once kept the Covenant war machine moving were kidnapped by the San 'Shyuum to rebuild their empire. We do know that the few Huragok that were acquired by the UNSC were heavily involved in the implementation of the forerunner tech in next generation ships like the UNSC Infinity.

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What about yamne.

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You could post Forerunners as a possibility in having an influence later on. It’ll mostly be speculatory though.

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> What about yamne.

Will add them, there aren’t any references to them in Glasslands and we haven’t heard of them/seen them in Halo 4 yet, but I will post what I believe has happened to them based on what we know.

> You could post Forerunners as a possibility in having an influence later on. It’ll mostly be speculatory though.

They have a huge influence on modern UNSC tech, Also the whole shield world thing being important in Halo 4. I am sure we haven’t seen the last of the Forerunner influence in the games or the cannon.

Yanme’e

There is little to no mention of the Yanme’e really after the war. Given that they too were enslaved by the Covenant against their will they may have simply gone back to their worlds. Its likely though that because of their siding with the San 'Shyuum in the civil war they are still serving on Jiralhanae ships or may have disappeared along with the remaining San 'Shyuum.

Forerunner

As of the time of Halo 4 they are still thought to be an extinct species of aliens who built many of the large and mysteriously powerful structures like the Sword World Halo Array or the Shield World Dyson Sphere Bunkers. Though they may be gone their legacy remains in most of the technology both the former Covenant and the UNSC use today.

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I figured that now that I have finished Glasslands I relized I haven’t touched upon several of the conflicts that seem to be important in both The Thursday War and Halo 4. Again feel free to comment or post your own findings/correct mine.

Intergalactic Political Struggles

The galaxy seems to have several political struggles going on between the various species. The obvious one is the struggle between the Humans and the Sangheili but there are several other struggles. All of these struggles are important in their own way and have a major effect on intergalactic politics.

Human Insurrectionists and the Kig-Yar seem to have teamed up to remain independent from the UNSC and Sangheili by trading technologies. They desperately attempt to stay off the radar of the empires while rebuilding. They also have a stable infrastructure and thriving economies, several having never being touched by the covenant fleet.

Several factions of Sangheili are fighting for dominance both on Sangheilios and their colonies. We know of at least two factions but it seems that each Keep is trying to collect their own forces as the weapons and tech from the former empire are being grabbed and stored. With the logistics and political stability of the Covenant gone the Elites seem to be more worried about each other than anything else.

The former slave species, the Unggoy, Yanme’e, Lekgolo and Huragok all seem to be dispersing slowly. They are abandoning their former posts and masters leaving more confusion in their wake. Though some remain loyal it looks like they may eventually all become independent species on their own with out serious intervention.

In all these conflicts it seems people have forgotten about the San 'Shyuum who have seemingly disappeared. They are feared by some to be rebuilding their forces to return to take control of their former empire. All the while the loyalist Jiralhanae still seem to be fighting for the Prophets in absentia.