| Arbiter (halo) |
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The rank of Arbiter is a special honor bestowed upon Covenant Elite s in the fictional Halo universe. ROLE The rank of Arbiter, is bestowed upon a Sangheili (known to many as elites) by the High Prophets during a time of need. The Arbiter acts as a sort of field commando, going on missions specifically dictated by the Prophets and during incidents such as the Taming of the Hunters, the Grunt Rebellion , and most recently, the threat of Heresy , he has emerged to lead the Covenant to victory. Many, especially Grunts , see the Arbiter as their Savior. It should be noted that his role is considered "The Will of the Prophets" or similarly "The Blade of the Prophets". Every Arbiter was "created and consumed in times of extraordinary crisis", and has been martyred in the undertaking of his momentous tasks. The corpses (or perhaps only memorials of some sort) are housed in identical caskets stacked upon each other in the great Mausoleum of the Arbiter; in the center of this room a floating pod contains the sacred armor of the Arbiter, highly decorative and fully functional (although some subsystems are out-dated, such as the Active Camouflage ) despite its apparent age. The mausoleum houses 168 visible caskets (and more may be set underground), reaching high into the air, and references of Arbiters settling the Grunt Rebellion and aiding the Taming of the Hunters would indicate that the office has existed for quite some time - before the Covenant as we know it was fully formed and its castes defined. The Arbiter can only be an Elite (the characteristic armor is tailored to the Elite anatomy). As a member of the Covenant, it is believed that the Arbiter is held in the capacity of maintaining the integrity of the Covenant, and his creation is necessitated only in momentous events like those mentioned above. Given that there are 168 coffins set for the Arbiter, it could be speculated that if an Arbiter is unable to complete the task set before him (dying while in the process) another is immediately chosen to take his place. This could mean that several Arbiters were created for any one given crisis supported by The Prophet Of Mercy's remark "The tasks you must undertake as the Arbiter are perilous, suicidal, you will die as each Arbiter has before you. The Council will have their corpse." However, there is also speculation that only one Arbiter is created for any one crisis, however this is the lesser of the two theories. Of course, he also serves as a political tool, an embodiment of the Hierarchs' power as well as an example of true faith, a warrior-martyr showing loyalty at times of division. THE ARBITER IN HALO 2 In the events of Halo 2, the Arbiter's role (voiced by actor , it was also hinted that the Sanghelli commander was also responsible for the loss of the Ascendant Justice, and the botched mission to retrieve a crystal from Reach. Because the Elite commander failed to protect the "Sacred Ring" from the Humans , he was branded with the Mark of Shame and sentenced to be hung by his Entrails , and his corpse to be paraded through the holy city of High Charity. However, rather than have him slain outright, the Prophets of Truth and Mercy gave him a chance to regain his lost honor and serve the Covenant again. He donned the armor of the Arbiter and became the Covenant's equivalent to the UNSC's SPARTAN IIs, including the Master Chief . As the Arbiter, the Prophets expected the Elite to die early in his tour of duty, completing his apparent "death sentence", but he survived. Dispatched to the Library on Delta Halo, he was also expected to die there, but just in case he survived, he was then to be killed by the Brute Chieftain Tartarus upon completion of his mission there; he was sent plummeting down into the core of the Library. During the game, the Prophets slowly begin to replace the Elites with Brutes , and once they are ready, they instigate a bloody genocide, through their Brute pawns, of all Elites so that Brutes may replace them in the Covenant's caste system as the Prophet's protectors and the backbone of the Covenant military. This sparks a Covenant civil war, disguised as a Brute insurrection. On one side, there are the loyalists: the Brutes, the Drones, and the Jackals, covertly sanctioned by the Prophets. On the other, the Elites lead the Hunters and the Grunts. The Arbiter, after meeting the Master Chief while being held captive by the Gravemind , discovered the Brutes' massacre of a number of his fellow Elites and recieved word that at least the Elite side of the Covenant High Council had been murdered by the Brutes. He joined forces with the separatists and became a central figure in the Covenant civil war. This massive breakaway faction might secure an uneasy alliance with their enemies, the Human United Nations Space Command to stop the mutual threat of the Halos being fired. At the end of the game, the Arbiter engages Tartarus in combat over the Index and the detonation of Delta Halo . While he had originally refused to believe the truth about Halo, the common belief of the heretics, Master Chief, the Gravemind, and Sgt. Johnson that Halo would bring devestation finally convinced him to ask 343 Guilty Spark about the rings. He finally believes the truth, and with the aid of Sergeant Johnson , the Arbiter triumphs. It is unknown how humans and the seperatists (Elites, Grunts, and Hunters) will co-exist with each other given the enormous likelihood of an alliance between them. |
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