Recently, I've been thinking about whose boots the developers of Halo wants us to fill. I'm speaking of the recent teases concerning not only the Master Chief, but the Arbiter and Agent Locke as well. What these three have in common is that the people they're working for, how they're charged to do it, and how they do it are all rooted in very menacing, dastardly soil.

First, we have the Arbiter, Thel 'Vadam. He was something that nobody expected from a sequel to a game so heavily centered on a human supersoldier. Instead of merely someone tasked with hunting down the Demon, we see the Covenant commander forsaken by the Master Chief's action on Alpha Halo substantiate his pious to the Prophets. Throughout much of Halo 2 we inhabit the cute alien boots of someone who remained firmly entrenched in the ideals of the Great Journey and wanted to get back to his own role in the genocide of humanity. In that time, we struck down a movement that sought to end false worship of the Forerunners with the same ideas we ourselves would later appropriate when the San'Shyuum betrayed their union with the Sangheili.

Much later, on Earth, the Arbiter speaks of reclaiming honor for the Covenant. He says this during the Great Schism that has split species into varied factions with loyalty to different prophets and shipmasters. This is the same Covenant that his species, the Sangheili, have ruled over for centuries by abusing the skill and labor of those species lower in the imperial caste. Thel seemed to want this empire to remain and likely with little to better the conditions and interspecies relations of its members. Sure, as the weeks progressed and the Schism raged on, Thel's faith in the Forerunners was deeply shaken. In the post-war years, with the Sangheili ability to maintain, operate, and support large fleets severely diminished from its wartime peak, Thel surely couldn't police the vast territories of the former Covenant. But if he could, if he could reunite the member races of the Covenant, would Thel be any better than the Sangheili and San'Shyuum elite that preceded him?

Despite all we can see from his relationship with Lord Hood and other human colonial officials, I believe that Thel has very little trust in our species as the vast whole. Though who would blame him? Humanity is the sole superpower in the Orion Arm. While the Sangheili aren't close to shy of possessing carriers and high-end battlecruisers, they couldn't hope to match the power projection capabilties of the UNSC on any day. New technologies in humanity's forces is tipping the scale in their favor considerably. Per Catalog, we know that Shadow of Intent, a Sangheili carrier, destroyed three ONI prowlers that had been tailing it for some time, all while the allied Human-Sangheili fleet undertook exercises and joint patrols. Thel must be buying time for his people. With so many conservative, hardline elements on Sanghelios and within Sangheili civilization elsewhere, the Arbiter will have one hell of a time satisfying the needs of his people in a galaxy dominated by an alien race. The Sangheili have for far too long been under the influence, been controlled by, and stood in the shadows of another race. I believe a Cold War is brewing underneath the framework of this new galactic order and Thel is just one to let it go hot.

I hope you enjoyed that little analysis theory kinda thing even though it was fairly unorganized. Next time I'll talk about Agent Locke from Nightfall and Guardians.