Hunter Anatomy and Physiology

The Hunter is not a singular organism, but rather a hive creature composed of multiple small, orange, worm-like beings that form a singular collective consciousness and act as one, like a Portuguese Man O' War. The extremely strong armor that covers them serves the dual purpose of protecting the eels and keeping them together. Hunters also have very sharp, long spines made of the same worms that compose their body. Hunters have been known to impale careless Marines upon these spines when surrounded. However, in-game the spines serve no purpose besides decoration. The white streak on the Hunter's "head" is actually a visor or sensor screen.

The collection of worms that make up a Hunter's body are unintelligent at the most basic level, but can form complex thoughts and emerge as a conscious individual when they combine into larger masses that communicate through chemical and electrical means. Their society is predominated by this combination of being to create exponentially more intelligent creatures, and the actual "Hunter" organism is one of the rarer and smaller forms to be found, used primarily in interaction with the Covenant hierarchy. The worms that make up a "Hunter" only have one eye per worm. The worms that make up the arms and legs have the eyes located within the central thorax armor. The neural net that hunters develop enables them to be incredibly strong and sensitive to all things within a 1000 foot line pointing out from non-combat form, and a half sphere that extends 500 feet in combat form.

 

A Hunter with its spines flexed as it gets into an attack position.

Many believe that the Flood Juggernaut is an infected Hunter, but this is false due to several reasons. The Hunter's physiology, being separated into many singular components, makes it immune to Flood infection, as no central nervous system or calcium stores exist for them to utilize, and single worms are too small to be used as the Flood's tool. Though Hunters are immune from assimilation into the Flood collective, the parasitic race will attack them on sight because their bodies are still viable as food.

Hunters generally growl during battle but will sometimes talk and make remarks like the other Covenant species. Instead of using vocal chords, they vibrate their bodies to make a low rumble that is described as "more felt than heard" to produce speech.

It is theorized that Hunters reproduce asexually; however, there is, as yet, no way to be certain. Although new information suggests that the Hunters can generate a worm, and then a worm from a large number of other hunters is needed to make a hunter.

The Hunters' gauntlets have three fingers, each bearing a sharp claw. It appears that they wear their distinctive arm shield by inserting their hand into a built-in gauntlet. Similarly, their Fuel Rod Cannon has a large hand slot, enabling the weapon to be attached securely to the arm.

The Unggoy (Latin, Monachus frigus) are a species of subordinate warriors in the unified conglomerate races of the Covenant. The Humans have termed such warriors Grunts, because of their speech patterns and their status in Covenant society.

Grunts are the lowest-ranked species of the Covenant, forming the bottom-most of all the castes. They are often pressed into combat and manual labor, although they are typically poor and overall cowardly warriors. They are physically diminutive, wear minimal armor, and most of them are tactically inadept and are poor shots. However, what they lack in ability they make up for with sheer numbers.

 

Rank

   

The Grunts are the lowest tier of the Covenant rank hierarchy, and are close friends with Jackals as they are both on the bottom of the social hierarchy, and by a political standpoint, are expected to obey the commands of Elites without hesitation. This unwavering faithfulness is enforced by the threat of punishment, although on the battlefield, such social protocols are often ignored. They are, in comparison to other species in the covenant hierachy, useless and weak, especially individually. They are easy to overpower, and runaway when leaderless or overpowered

The Grunts are subdivided into sub-rankings. Lower-ranked Grunts are typically poor combatants, while higher-ranked Grunts may be formidable adversaries in combat and show signs of leadership capability.

 

Biological information
Homeworld	"Grunt Homeworld", Balaho
Physical description
Height	1.67 meters (without armor)
Skin color	Grey-blue
Distinctions	Short, round head with a squeaky voice.
Military and Political information
Equipment	Methane Environmental Suit
Ranks	Ultra Special Operations Gunner Major Minor
Affiliation	Covenant, Heretics, Covenant Separatists
Notable Individuals	Cowardly Grunt Gagaw Kwassass Linglin Mehmep Thirsty Grunt Yayap Zawaz
Other Nomenclature	Chimp Crab Grunt Lobster Pig Punk Runt

Here some information about the ''Jackals''

The Kig-yar (Latin Perosus latrunculus), or Jackals as Humans call them, serve as snipers and scouts within the Covenant due to their exceptional senses of sight, smell and hearing. They were the first Covenant species encountered by UNSC ground forces.

Biological information
Homeworld	Eayn
Physical description
Height	1.9 meters
Skin color	Orange, dark green
Distinctions	Tall and skinny
Military and Political information
Equipment	Jackal Point Defense Gauntlet
Ranks	Ranger Jackal Sniper Jackal Jackal Major Jackal Minor
Affiliation	Covenant, Covenant Loyalists
Other Nomenclature	Buzzard Chicken Jackal Vulture

  

Brutes are a physically imposing enemy to face in combat. Standing at approximately 9 feet tall, they tower over their human opponents, and the majority of their Covenant allies. Their hide is either a grey or brownish color and exhibits an incredible toughness. A Brute's ability to withstand a huge amount of firepower while remaining seemingly unfazed is testament to this.

They are covered in a thick, shaggy fur that may offer further protection. It covers most of the body except for the head and the shoulder blades. Brutes exhibit two colorations: brown and grey. This is perhaps an indication of age, since lower ranking Brutes are brown and Honor Guard Brutes and Tartarus himself are grey. In Halo 3, they are seen with shaved faces, which increases the fearful effect they have on opponents.

In Halo 2 Brutes have dark blue blood, denoting that it probably has copper, and not iron in it. In Halo 3 they have crimson blood. This could possibly denote that their blood has iron in it. Why their blood color and composition was changed is unknown.

Heavily muscled and possessed of an animalistic brutality and power, Brutes can rely on close combat to defeat their enemies, even more so than their Elite counterparts. Featuring characteristics both Simian, Ursine and alien their appearance matches their human given name.

Brutes have four digits on each hand including an opposable thumb. As such this allows them to make use of a variety of weapons both of Covenant and human design. Their feet have only two digits on each side. When it comes to ranged conflict Brutes show a tendency to use large, rapid firing, often powerful weapons. This may be indicative of their mentality and an extension of their brutal nature. The many spikes and serrated edges that adorn their race's weapons, vehicles and armor further exhibit this.

Brutes are by no means as stupid as they appear, and are often cunning tacticians. As such they can pilot vehicles, ships and command both land based and fleet encounters with strategic competence, if lacking in artistic flair.

 

The Yanme'e (Latin Turpis rex), also referred to by Humans as Drones, are a race of aerial warriors which make up part of the unified conglomerate races of the Covenant. They are informally referred to by infantry as "buggers". Although they have been part of the Covenant for some time, they have just recently been put to use as combatants in the war against the humans. In the Halo 2: Collectors Edition instruction manual it is said they are suited to flight and combat in a gravitational-pull like Earth.

In Halo 3, the Arbiter tries to convince a single Drone that the Prophet of Truth is misleading his species and will cause the "destruction of all their hives", showing that Drones live in hives.

After the Covenant Civil War began, the Drones took the side of the Brutes.

Summary

Little to nothing is known about the Prophets, beyond the fact that they are the sole members of the leadership caste of the Covenant hierarchy. They are an integral part of the Covenant High Council, formerly sharing this responsibility with the Elites. However, the expulsion of the Elites and their replacement by the Brutes is likely to have caused a power vacuum, and it is not known if any Brute councilors exist, or if the Council still exists, with the loss of the Covenant capital city, High Charity.

Prophets appear extremely frail either as an adaptation to a low-gravity world or because of age. The supplemental book incorporated in the Halo 3 Collector's and Legendary editions suggests that inbreeding and a lack of concern for physical health - perhaps superseded by a single-minded desire to achieve "trans-sentience" a la the "Great Journey" - may be responsible for this outcome. A long time ago, prior to the forming of the covenant, the prophets were either on par with elites physically or technologically superior to them.

Prophets have lobes of skin underneath their chin similar to a beard, and elderly members of the species have skin lobes on the lateral sides of the head (giving the impression of human-like ears). These are covered in a thin fuzz. Prophets have only three digits per hand and usually wear ornamental pieces that also double as life support mechanisms  While the head-pieces worn by each prophet share in their design a holographic representation of Halo, but each is uniquely shaped and ornamental.

It is known that they claim to have evolved on a former colony of an ancient race called the Forerunners which the Covenant revere as their gods. Prophets derive their legitimacy as leaders - as well as their colloquial names - from this connection. According to the Prophets their world was destroyed some 3200 years ago before the events of Halo 3 (approx. -648 BC) as the result of a stellar collapse; as a result of this they have since elected to make their home on the mobile-planetoid High Charity It is also known that they waged a fierce and bloody war against the Elites at some point, halted only by the discovery of Forerunner artifacts near the field of battle. The two races united to learn their secrets, forming a mutually beneficial arrangement that would eventually become the Covenant. The Elites would become the protectors of the Prophets while the Prophets would dedicate themselves to studying their "gods" and learning the secrets behind the "ascension" they left on .

As the representatives of the gods, the Prophets hold a great amount of power over the other races of the Covenant, earning reverential monikers such as "Holy One" and "Eminence". They are protected at all times by Legions of Honor Guards , and rarely involve themselves in combat, preferring to dedicate themselves to studying Forerunner artifacts. However, important events to the Covenant usually require a high-ranking Prophet, such as a Hierarch, to be present.

The majority of the Prophets use anti-gravity belts to support themselves. Higher ranking Prophets, such as the Hierarchs (a group of three Prophets with total control of the Covenant), use anti-gravity thrones to support themselves. These, however, are not so much for support than for personal defense - they are fitted with holographic emitters, an energy shield generator, a teleportation device, and a built-in Gravity Cannon and in the event of assassins getting past their guards they are able to defend themselves quite well with the Gravity Cannon.

Prophet Anatomy and Physiology

Since they bear the status of political figureheads most Prophets are physically quite frail creatures, preferring to move around via gravity belt, or anti-gravity throne in the case of the High Prophets. A life of inaction leaves most, if not all Prophets withered and weak. Since part of their ancient history concerns a long and bloody war with the Sangheili at some point the Prophets must have been physically powerful and capable warriors, or at least they must have outnumbered the Elites several times over, or have superior technology. Perhaps generations of decadence and reverence have left them as frail shadows of those earlier soldiers. This has been disproved as in the Bestarium is stated that the Prophets were nearly destroyed by the Elites.