Elites

 

Elite http://www.yesalbum.com/v001/thepretenders22/elite_minor.png

Summary
The Sangheili, or Elites as the Humans call them, are the iron heart of the Covenant military.

There are a few varieties of the Elite, but all are roughly 8'6" tall and incredibly strong. Their strength allows them to rely on brute force when necessary, but they are quite capable of brilliant battlefield tactics as well. Their natural resilience is augmented by full body energy shielding which recharges when depleted. They wield plasma pistols, plasma rifles, plasma grenades, needlers, carbines, beam rifles, fuel rod cannons, and the formidable energy sword.

In Halo 2, when playing as the Arbiter, it is possible to give friendly Elites all of the weapons the player can wield, excepting the Sentinel Beam. All the human weapons, from the Magnum to the Rocket Launcher, can be given to them.

Culture
Elites consider the other Covenant client races to be below them in all ways. The Elites are the only known race permitted to operate starships within the Covenant, though the crews are always a mix of races.

In the Elite culture, names are considered a privilege. Only things of importance are named. The Elites generally consider humans to be nameless, and resent the fact that humans have assigned the label "Elite" to them, as humans have no standing to be naming things.

Because names are important to the Elite society, each element of the name has a meaning. Elite names are contructed from a series of parts. An example is Ado 'Mortumee. "Ado" is his given name, which is all he had until he was considered an adult. As an adult he earned the right to carry the badge name "'Mortumee". This name is made up of three parts: MOR (an adjectival descriptor, such as "fast", or "deadly"), TUM ( a créche name, basically his family name), and EE (an honorific indicating he is a participant in the military). Most Elites will have names with this kind of construction.

The Covenant military promotion is by merit. A Covenant soldier must succeed to advance. Success is often measured in scalps. A Covenant of "Admiral" or equivalent rank, may have personally slaughtered thousands of individuals.

Rank Structure
Elites have several classes or ranks:


 * Blue armored Elites are Elite minors, and generally serve as foot-soldiers. However they have been seen commanding several of the lesser Covenant races.


 * Red armored Elites are Elite majors, or veterans who command other Elites and larger squads.


 * Gold armored Elites are Zealot/Supreme Commanders and "Ship Masters", and normally captain starships or lead whole regiments of troops in large engagements. Strangely enough, a fair share were sent to the first Halo. The most notable sightings of Golden Elites in Halo 2 were in the Uprising level and in the final battle against Tartarus. The current Arbiter once held the rank of Supreme Commander before his defeat at Installation 04.


 * Black/White armored Elites are Spec-Ops and usually command Spec-Op Grunts. They replace Gold Elites as the main Energy Sword-wielders in Halo 2. Although Honor Guard Elites are the cream of the Elite crop, White Elites, nicknamed "Ultras", a moniker given by Cortana when one first encounters an Ultra on board the Scarab in Metropolis, bear even more potent shielding. This is evidenced by how the shields of Honor Guard Elites can be taken out by a single charged Plasma Pistol shot on Legendary, whereas it takes two to take out the shields of a White Elite. In comparison with their "regular" counterparts, the Gold Elites, Ultras are much rarer. In fact, only two have been spotted throughout Halo 2, the one commanding the first Scarab and Half-Jaw.


 * Gray/Light Blue armored Elites are Infiltrators and are rarely ever seen without their active camouflage generators engaged.


 * Elite Rangers are trained to use anti-gravity thruster packs in combat, are are equally dangerous in low or no-gravity enviroments as well as in "normal" gravity environments. They are always dual-wielding Plasma Rifles, regardless of difficulty setting. To an extent, the Heretic Leader is a Ranger with differently-coloured armour.


 * Elite Councillors are rarely seen in combat since their role within the Covenant seems to be strictly political. This does not mean, however, that they are unskilled combatants. They also seem to be more powerful than the honor guards in comparison. While they also appear in cutscenes, the player gets to fight one wielding an Energy Sword at the end of the level Gravemind as the Master Chief. The Arbiter told Half-Jaw, in the final cutscene for Uprising, that they had been murdered by the Brutes. However, he turned out to have had received faulty intelligence, because there are two Councillors that can be freed from holding cells in The Great Journey.


 * Honor Guards are Elites with especially ornamented armor, and are the best of the best. Instead of fighting out in the field with the Covenant troops on the front lines, they guard the Prophets from harm personally.


 * The Arbiter is a figurehead of the Elites, created by the Prophets in a time of extraordinary crisis. See main article.

Physiology
Elites have an interesting physical appearance. Their jaw is quadruple-hinged; they have an upper jaw, and then four mandible-like lips which are lined with sharp teeth. Their legs are double jointed so they can jump great distances compared to humans, and their unusually shaped hoof-like feet give them tremendous balance. Their hands have four fingers; two middle fingers and two thumb-like fingers on the outside of the hand for grasping. They have grayish-brown skin and purple-blue blood. It is not known what chemical makes the blood this color, though it is assumed they breathe oxygen because they can breathe the same atmosphere as humans.

Interesting Notes
It should be noted that the higher-ranking Elites have strange glyphs on the backs of their armor. Upon closer examination, these glyphs were found to be directly related to the same strange symbols that have appeared in ancient Forerunner structures found throughout known UNSC controlled space. This is an example of how the Covenant worship, or at least revere, the Forerunners.

Related Links

 * Arbiter
 * Elite Personal Energy Shield