Editing Kanto'Boreft

{{Status|Canon}}
{{Character infobox
|variant=Cov
|name=Kanto'Boreft
|image=
|homeworld=
|birth=
|death=[[2560#April|April 2560]]{{Ref/Novel|Id=Atropos|Halo: Ascension on Atropos}}
|causeofdeath=Assimilated by the [[Flood]]{{Ref/Reuse|Atropos}}
|parents=
|siblings=
|spouses=
|children=
|species=[[San'Shyuum]]{{Ref/Reuse|Atropos}}
|gender=Male{{Ref/Reuse|Atropos}}
|pronouns=
|height=
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|hair=
|eyes=
|affiliation=
*[[Covenant]] {{C|formerly}}{{Ref/Reuse|Atropos}}
*[[Governors of Contrition]]{{Ref/Reuse|Atropos}}
|rank=[[Minister (title)|Minister]]{{Ref/Reuse|Atropos}}
|sn=
|notable=
}}
'''Kanto'Boreft''', the '''Minister of Aretalogy''', was an influential [[San'Shyuum]] politician in the [[Covenant]]. He was notably a member of the [[Governors of Contrition]], a cult that believed in an extreme form of the [[Covenant religion]] that, among other things, believed the [[Flood]] to be a holy creation of the [[Forerunner]]s and as such something to be cherished. Boreft was exiled from [[High Charity]] for his beliefs due after the [[Outbreak at the Containment Facility|Flood outbreak]] on [[Installation 04]] in [[2552#September|September 2552]] and stationed in exile to watch over the abandoned world of [[Atropos]]. In [[2556]], Kanto'Boreft's beliefs were brought to bear when a spacecraft Flood carrying the Flood escaping from [[Outbreak at Site 22|an ongoing outbreak]] elsewhere crash-landed on Atropos. For the next three-and-a-half years he deliberately fed victims to the small Flood outbreak on the world, until he was eventually infected and assimilated himself.{{Ref/Reuse|Atropos}}

==Biography==
===Covenant service===
During the era of the [[Covenant]], Kanto'Boreft, already the Minister of Aretalogy, visited the lower districts of [[High Charity]], whereupon he encountered a young [[Sangheili]] craftsman, [[Atun 'Etaree]]. He took from 'Etaree an ''[[arum]]'' the Sangheili had just finished constructing, with the promise that if he was unable to solve the puzzle by the next day, he would return and lift Atun out of the lower districts to live in his estate - and that he would "''tell [Atun] a story''". This promise was fulfilled, and Atun became a follower of the minister, even to the Sangheili's own confusion as to what Kanto saw in him.{{Ref/Reuse|Atropos}}

The minister was also noteworthy as a member of the [[Governors of Contrition]], a radical organisation believed ''all'' Forerunner creations were sacrosanct. The Governors had been tolerated in the Covenant as they did not harm others, but an ideological split occurred after the outbreak of the [[Flood]] during the [[Battle of Installation 04]]. The Governors believed the Flood to be a Forerunner creation and thus, by extension, also worthy of protecting, and after Installation 04's destruction, were deemed too dangerous to remain in positions of power. As such, the Governors were forcibly split up and exiled across the empire, with Kanto'Boreft placed in charge of the [[Ninth Watchtower of August Attendance]] orbiting the planet [[Atropos]]. Ironically (and much to the minister's dismay), this meant that neither he nor his fellows were present at High Charity when the city-station [[Fall of High Charity|was assimilated]] by the Flood weeks later - which the minister had robbed him of his ascendance.{{Ref/Reuse|Atropos}}

===Exile on Atropos===
Throughout the [[Great Schism]] and [[Post-Covenant War conflicts|postwar era]] between [[2552]] and [[2556]], Kanto'Boreft continued to man his station at the Ninth Watchtower, never renouncing his faith and continuing to send off regular reports on the station's upkeep and the inactivity of Atropos, even as he questioned whether they were actually being received or read by anyone. In this time, the minister claimed that his guiding force was his mission to convert and shepherd his followers aboard the station.{{Ref/Reuse|Atropos}}

In [[2556#October|October 2556]], Atropos was visited by a [[slipspace]]-capable craft for the first time in years: a [[Condor]] dropship of the [[United Nations Space Command]] fleeing a [[Outbreak at Site 22|Flood outbreak]] in the [[Marcey system]]. The dropship had been hijacked by the Flood and managed to escape [[Site 22|the site]] of the outbreak before it could be destroyed by a [[nuclear weapon]]s bombardment by {{UNSCShip|Saturn}}, arriving at Atropos and crashing on the world below. With the arrival of the parasite on the planet, the minister prepared a new plan, which would see himself and his flock assimilated by the parasite, though this planning was interrupted by the chance discovery of a small [[human]] population on the planet below. The humans were descendants of outlaws and [[Piracy|pirates]] who had been marooned on Atropos decades before the [[Human-Covenant War]], and thus had no hostile predisposition to the minister or his followers. Instead, the minister elected to join the humans on the ground, and ordered the disassembly of the Ninth Watchtower in orbit, with the [[Covenant Citadel|Citadel]] structure at its core disassembled and reassembled as a base on the ground from which he could cultivate a new Flood outbreak. The Condor that had crashed on Atropos only contained a few badly-mangled bodies, not enough to kickstart a Flood infection alone, and thus required careful cultivation by the minister to reforge into a form which could be used to eventually spread the infection across the planet.{{Ref/Reuse|Atropos}}

For the next three years, the humans and Kanto'Boreft's followers met in an annual tradition known as the [[Festival of Joyous Partition]], during which the two sides traded stories and artefacts of their parent cultures. Once a month, Kanto'Boreft would select a "Chosen" from among his followers (who numbered at least a hundred, with multiple [[Ruwaa-pattern Shadow|Shadow]] and [[Ekesan-pattern Umbra|Umbra]] transports) and sacrifice them to the Flood interred within the Citadel. As the Chosen entered the Citadel, they would be regailed by stories read aloud by the minister before succumbing to the Flood themselves. Around [[2560#April|April 2560]], the Chosen was Atun 'Etaree, whose death at the hands of the Flood was the catalyst for the parasite to break out of the Citadel and begin spreading across the planet, infecting all life on the planet including Kanto'Boreft himself.{{Ref/Reuse|Atropos}}

As the minister succumbed to the spreading infection, he wrote his final dying words to reflect upon his actions, where he had the realisation that for him, the Flood represented a unity of all beings and a final evolution for all life - and something which he willingly gave himself to.{{Ref/Reuse|Atropos}}

==Personality and traits==
Kanto'Boreft was a charismatic individual, and noted by Atun 'Etaralee to look relatively young for a San'Shyuum. Despite this, he had the aura of having the wisdom of someone much older: these characteristics combined allowed him to amass several hundred followers who would follow him even into the arms of the Flood. His faith was such that he had even blinded himself performing a ritual which he claimed aligned himself with higher cosmic spheres: as a result his eyes were dark, with mottled grey-white spots.{{Ref/Reuse|Atropos}}

As was customary for San'Shyuum, Kanto'Boreft walked with the aid of an [[anti-gravity belt]].{{Ref/Reuse|Atropos}}

==Trivia==
Aretalogy is defined as a narrative, poem, or text that describes a divine figure's deeds, and are often used to represent the essential creed and belief of a religious or philosophical movement.{{Ref/Site|URL=https://www.britannica.com/topic/aretalogy|Site=Britannica|Page=aretalogy|D=20|M=9|Y=2015}}

==List of appearances==
*''[[Halo: Ascension on Atropos]]'' {{1st}}

==Sources==
{{Ref/Sources}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boreft, Kanto}}
[[Category:Covenant members]]
[[Category:San'Shyuum characters]]