Unggoy: Difference between revisions

===Induction into the Covenant===

Grunts were the sixth client race to be integrated into the Covenant, not including [[San 'Shyuum]] and Sangheili, about 411 years before the end of the [[Human-Covenant War]], roughly coming to their indoctrination in [[2142]] on the [[Military Calendar|military calendar]]. By the time of their discovery by the Covenant, the Unggoy homeworld was still recovering from its ecological collapse over a hundred millennia earlier, and the Unggoy civilization had yet to return to its former state.<ref name="Bestiarum"/>

While they are essentially a slave race, the Unggoy have managed to largely retain their cultural identities, and have [[Unggoy Rebellion|rebelled in the past]] [[Sixteenth Unggoy Disobedience|more than once]]. Being the lowest-ranked species of the Covenant, they are bitter rivals with the [[Kig-yar]], who are also low-ranked. The higher-ranking races of the Covenant have often ignored this rivalry. The breaking point came when [[Prophet of Truth|a junior staffer]] in the [[Ministry of Concert]]<ref>'''[[Halo: Contact Harvest]]''', ''page 150''</ref> discovered evidence of the Kig-yar planning to poison recreational narcotics the Unggoy enjoyed, which would have left them sterile, but the [[High Council]] refused to investigate the matter. The rising tensions with the Kig-yar and the general disinterest from the other Covenant races led to an [[Unggoy Rebellion]] in [[2462]]. While the rebellion was ultimately put down thanks to an [[Arbiter]] and the near-[[glassing]] of the [[Balaho|Unggoy homeworld]], the Unggoy proved that they were not the cowards they had been long deemed, and could indeed be vicious fighters when provoked. After the uprising's conclusion, as was their tradition, the Sangheili forgave the surviving Unggoy and allowed them to enter the [[Covenant military]] as armed infantry units, rather than the unarmed cannon fodder as which they had previously served.<ref>'''[[Halo Encyclopedia]]''', ''pages 142, 153''</ref>

===Psychology and behavior===

While not overly intelligent or creative on the battlefield, Unggoy are one of the most gregarious and sociable of the Covenant races and possess a very strong pack mentality, often associating with each other in groups. This numerical superiority and pack mentality allows for their sense of cultural identity to remain, despite a number of hardships, including their extreme subservience to the other races of the Covenant, as well as [[the dark time]] following [[reintroduction]] after the activation of the [[Halo Array]].<ref name="Bestiarum"/>

===Anatomy and physiology===

[[File:GruntBlood.jpg|thumb|250px|left|An Unggoy's luminous blue blood]]  

The taxonomic classification of the Unggoy has been a source of some confusion for the [[United Nations Space Command]]. Because they possess exoskeletons, they have been identified as being analogous to Earth arthropods; despite this, the Unggoy are actually a vertebrate species. The UNSC misclassified the species as arthropodal due to their physiological similarities to terrestrial arthropods; among other differences, the Unggoy circulatory system is apparently closed as opposed to the open systems characteristic of many arthropods.<ref name="THB 5.9.12"/> More accurately, the species should be considered xeno-arthropodal vertebrates which possess substantial (albeit hypothetical) genetic influences from primate-like amphibians that once dwelt in Balaho's [[Wikipedia:Aphotic zone|aphotic zones]]. This taxonomically incorrect nomenclature persists as late as [[2557]] as an ''ad hoc'' identifier, though the pressures of the Human-Covenant War and reconstruction have made such concerns trivial at best.<ref name="THB 5.9.12"/>

File:Unggoy concept.jpg|Early concept art for ''[[Halo: Combat Evolved]]''

File:Grunt Concept.jpg|Early concept art of an Unggoy [[Flood combat form]].

File:Succor.JPG|A cylindrical-backed Unggoy as seen in ''[[The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor]]''.

File:Grunt Comparisons.jpg|A comparison among Unggoy in the ''Halo'' Trilogy and ''Halo: Reach''.