Having just played through both H2 & Infinite recently I had a thought: the Banished are a splinter group of the original Heretic faction. Meaning Esherum & gang were active Heretics in 2552. The Banished rejected & broke away from the Covenant, right? Disbelieved in the Great Journey, and actively opposed the Prophets etc. The Heretics in H2 sound exactly like the origin story for the Banished. At least early days before the Heretic faction splintered into different things. I assume some of the Heretic Elites just went back to Sangheilios and fought in their wars once the Covenant dissolved. But couldn’t a group of radicalized Brutes, bolstered by the disenfranchised Brutes left with nothing after H3, have broken away from the Heretics to form their own clan of sorts?
No, the banished are completely different and their backstory was explained in HW2. Atriox formed it after defying the Covenant because they used him and his clan as expendable muscle that left only him alive. I think they were formed around 2549, but they had nothing to do with the heretics because they came before them.
Yeah Halo wars 2 explicitly explains the banished origins.
Atriox was sick of his clan being sent on suicide missions against the UNSC by the covenant. He rebels and convinces many others to follow. Steals covenant assets and carved out his own empire within the covenant. The covenant was also unable to put his rebellion down.
It’s also implied atriox was never a true believer in the religion either.
Whose to say the Heretics didn’t form prior to 2552. The Banished backstory as explained in HW2 occurs only 3 years prior to when we run into the Heretics in H2. I like to think they are connected. We don’t know enough about the Heretic faction as it is to be able to conclusively rule this out. Plus I mean Heretics is probably a loose term. The Covenant would have labeled any alien species who broke away as heretics.
We know from the h2a terminals that the heretics were loyal until spark encountered them. They effectively formed between ce and 2.
Yes the banished would be considered heretics, but that’s where the connections end.
We know the heretics didn’t form until 2552 because that was when the heretics encountered 343 Guilty Spark and learned the truth about the Halos. Atriox had already broken off from the Covenant at that point and was no where near the Halo installation seen in CE. And yes while Atriox would have been labeled a heretic, he would not be lumped in with the heretics seen in H2 as Isabell states in HW2 that the Banished were a target of the Covenant. And one that they couldn’t contain at the height of their power, so the Covenant knew that the heretics and Banished are different.
The Heretics disbanded from the Covenant with their own religious beliefs after getting the proper information from Spark.
Atriox was “Banished” from the Covenant when he effectively was too good.
Getting this treatment he formed his own faction.
One left, and the other cast out.
THe Banished are lead by the first hertic in the brutes atriox, completely not related to the H2 hertics…
Had the Heretics survived their encounter with the Arbiter, I believe they may have sided with Atriox and his forces.
However, they never got that chance.