And truth's plans were already in place before Thel failed to save the ring.

: Well, the Banished are only a faction, not the Covenant proper. Most Brutes
: seemed pretty zealous as new religious converts usually are.

Tartarus never showed any respect for the Covenant religion - look at his treatment of sparky, a Forerunner construct, an oracle. Compare his demeanour with the Arbiter's.

None of the Brutes that heard the exchanges between Johnson and Truth seemed in the least bit bothered that it takes a human hand to activate the most holy rings, and Truth's admittance that he was lying about humanity.

These, apparently, deeply religious Brutes didn't give a fig about the tenets of their religion. Maybe Truth kept all the religious ones away from the seat of power. Maybe their value to him was in their LACK of religiosity or deep thought.

: But I think
: the bigger issue is that the Elites operated at a co-equal relationship
: with the Prophets that put them at extreme risk . The Elites as a whole
: were starting to ask too many questions.

Some Elites asked questions whilst the Banished just wanted to break the Covenant and had won Elites to their cause.

Brutes don't respect the religion, they even pissed where they wanted to on the Ark. They just pissed on the holy works. OK, this doesn't happen until after Truth has made his big decision but does NOT speak to a strong religious zeal. Should we just see Truth as a VERY bad judge of character.

In contrast, the Arbiter was still uncle-toming right up to the point where Tartarus tells him that Truth wants to exterminate his race. No awkward questions from the Arbiter.

: Harupsis over at Halo Archive made a nice observation that in light of the
: Banished threat, the "demotion" of the revered Elite leader 'Jar
: Wattinree makes more sense—they didn't stick him with a fleet out doing
: nothing, he might have been tasked with fighting their shadow war, away
: from the spotlight. Fighting the Banished may have been an easy way of
: trying to get rid of troublesome units within the Covenant—although, like
: with Atriox, it may have also sometimes *bolstered* their forces rather
: than reduced them.

My first reaction was, "who he?" so I Googled. OK, Ghosts of Onyx and the fleet battles game. The never failed, oober warrrior got his clock cleaned by Atriox? The totally undermines Jar. Though it does big up Atriox and Atriox is an in-game character.