Te

Te is a planet orbiting the star Svir. It is the homeworld of the Lekgolo species.

Background
Te is a high-gravity terrestrial planet with an atmosphere primarily composed of nitrogen, helium, and methane. It is orbited by 25 natural satellites, only three of which, Uhtua, Rantu, and Rentus, are known to be named. It has a temperature range of -20 C to 95 C (-4F to 203F) and is a quite large, rocky planet. This planet is known to have very high concentrations of rare metals in its crust, many of which serve as food for the Lekgolo worms. Because of the planet's large size and its thick, gaseous atmosphere, Te is often mislabeled as a gas giant.

The Forerunners once had a presence on Te and constructed platforms in orbit around the planet; at this time the Lekgolo had not yet evolved into sapience. Although they had reached Tier 3 on the Forerunner technological advancement scale, the Lekgolo's development of space travel was severely hampered by Te's high gravity. Despite this impediment, the Lekgolo managed to venture to Te's orbit and colonized several Forerunner installations there a number of millennia before their contact with the Covenant. Many of these Lekgolo fed on the Forerunner alloys and had eventually demolished the constructs almost completely. During the conflict which followed the Covenant's first contact with the Lekgolo, the Sangheili also confronted the Lekgolo on the surface of Te. The environment of the planet, specifically its high gravity, worked to the overwhelming advantage of the native Lekgolo. In the end, the Lekgolo were incorporated into the Covenant as a client race, with the Lekgolo's own interest in this arrangement being largely based on their access to the Covenant's advanced spacefaring technology.

Trivia

 * Te likely has the greatest population of any Covenant world, if each individual Lekgolo worm is considered a separate being.
 * In the Chinese philosophy of Daoism, "Te" is used to represent the concept of virtue or potentiality. In Confucianism it represents the virtue of internal goodness and proper behavior toward others.

List of appearances

 * Halo 3
 * Bestiarum
 * Halo: Contact Harvest
 * Halo: Broken Circle
 * Halo 2 Anniversary
 * Terminals