Well if i remember correctly some elites by the time of halo 2 were questioning why the prophets havent accepted humanity like they did to the elites the humans had proven themselves to have passed the elite martial test so this is why during halo 2 the elites were all disposed of.
When it came to the war, the Elites saw humans just as worthy as they are. Only Truth, Mercy, and Regret knew how bad it would be if we joined the covenant. Not to mention, humanity would have surpassed the prophets politically after discovery of the Halo rings. Everything would have been a nightmare for them.
I mean they kinda plot armored the UNSC on that one because there would be almost no point in the covenant even attempting ground battles. Like its an extermination just sit up there and glass lol
@@UnholyWrath3277 I think their reasoning for that is that the planets they glass might have forerunner artifacts that they would try to get first and then using glassing as a last resort
@@Sgil97 thats what i mean about the plot armor. The covenant literally cant take the best route of basically garunteed victory. It makes sense in the context of the story but all the same without that its not even a war just a massacre
Fun Fact: The Brute Choppa was actually a gift for the Humans. When the covenant landed on harvest they didn't want to scare the Humans with a giant independence Day ship luiming overhead. So they landed in the countryside and since Harvest was a Farming planet. They found a tractor. Inspired by it, they made a covenant copy of it to give to the Humans as a peace offering. But that never happened. The Prophet of Truth thought it could be used in combat by adding spikes and putting Brute spikers on it. The High council disagreed but Truth secretly ordered there production and after the High council and the rest of the Prophets were dead. The Choppa came to Halo 3.
I wanna imagine what the High Council was saying about it now. "Ok Truth, this thing looks cool and all, but we already have ghosts. Why the fuck would we make a ghost with spikes and super loud engines? I swear, people are going to poke out their eyes when they do maintenence." "Ok, but is it cool?" "Well, yes, but-" "Done."
I find it funny that the whole peace talks between the covenant and humans could've been settled diplomatically if they didn't bring along Tartarus because the moment he heard the gunshots he tried to kill Johnson instead of trying to figure out what happened
@@PROTOTYPEHALO so on harvest when the Covenant and humans met they sent in Tartarus to talk about peace and so the negotiations were going well until a grunt got anxious and mauled a militia man to death which another militia man responded by putting down the grunt and Tartarus and Johnson both heard the gunshots instead of figuring out what the hell happened Tartarus flew into brute rage
Correction. The brute had only just REDISCOVERED radio and rocketry. They had gotten to be pretty advanced, then nuked themselves back into the stone age in their own ww3.
Kinda makes you think of how the Brutes might be if the Covenant discovered them earlier. Certainly still very aggressive, but likely not nearly as bad as they were in canon, since they wouldn't be a bunch of mad max maniacs.
@@Saberfighterx Actually in a fair war humanity would have won, but they had the Flood behind, so they were fighting the Forerunners and at the same time destroying their own worlds to stop the Flood infection and in fact they could contain the flood for a lot of time, so much that later the forerunners believed that Humans had a cure or something, but no it was just the will to do what have to be done on time, not like the Forerunners which waited too much to get serious against the flood. (btw in my opinion the Human-Furerunner war is one of the biggest plot holes in Halo story, it just doesn't make sense that to species so advanced and civilizated will start a war without trying to understand each other, I mean even the UNSC tried to talk with the convenant before the total war started).
The Halo games do a horrible job at showing us the true scale of the War and how close humanity actually was to being completely annihilated. Only Halo Reach comes close.
To be honest I feel like Halo 3 wouldn't really fit the bill as showing how close Humanity was to be annihilated because they got a one up by becoming friends with the elites and the flood for a temporary moment as it was there one giant push and Halo wars kinda does a good job of showing battles
You know, the Prophets declaring a holy war on humanity with the goal of complete genocide somehow becomes more depressing when you learn they did it for _political_ reasons.
Most holy wars have a political purpose. The crusades had a intended political purpose of uniting all of Europe's Christian kingdoms to stop fighting each other and focus on killing what they consider heathens. All religion does is give another reason to degrade the enemy
@@jonathanpalmer228 Well, I know that was the _official_ justification, but going by my comment I'm guessing it was mainly politics behind the scenes. (It's been two years, I don't recall the contents of this video.)
@@RelativelyBest Religious reasons were the excuse to justify the personal ambitions of the prophets. If the truth about the humans were to be revealed it could potentially cause an existential crisis and fracture the covenant. The high prophets could never allow that to happen so they declared the humans heretics to protect their positions of power. That’s the basic truth of the whole situation.
I’m not too fond of most of 343s additions to the original Halo story arc, but the CEA and H2A terminals are actually pretty good. They give a lot of context to the Covenants politics that imo doesn’t conflict with the story presented in game. Aside from maybe the Heretic leader supposedly knowing Thel’Vadam personally but not showing that in the boss fight at all.
Well he said "I doubt he'd respond to his former name." Which means he thinks he's to far gone. I think the Heretic leader thought that The'l had a trap set up or was willing to engage into conversation and then suddenly kill him. So that is why he opened fire, I could be wrong and that we have a plot hole on our hands.
I'd like to think that this war could've been avoided when the two sides encountered each other on Harvest. But, in the end, humanity would not have agreed with the so-called Great Journey that the Covenant were obsessed with.
The whole point was that the Prophets had to destroy humanity to maintain the Covenant since humans being forerunners or their descendants clashed with the idea of the great journey.
If we ignore all the other reasons as to why the alliance would never have worked, there would absolutely have been a lot of humans who not only would have believed about the great journey but also 200% be all onboard, willing to join for the cause.
One of the things I always thought set Halo apart from other science fiction was the fact that the Covenant were genuinely alien. There was no negotiation with them. No understanding of why they were after Humanity. No chance of surrender. They were mysterious and brutal and that made them terrifying. Aliens and conflicts from Star Wars or Star Trek or even the Battlestar had understandable goals and reasons for doing what they were doing, so the conflicts were just space versions of human ones.
It honesty would’ve made a great deal of sense if the ungoy got treated better by humans during the human covenant war and rebelled, due to their history.. but their little heads are so fun to shoot, and so fundamental to the halo game experience that it would never happen
The Grunt rebellion was an event that happened decades ago, in which Ungoy rebelled against the covenant. They fought for weeks, and only gave up after the covenant glassed their home world. But the Sangheli, seeing their commitment and bravery, offered them a position in the covenant military. From that point onwards the Sangheli and the Ungoy have felt an intense brotherhood. It’s why so many Ungoy protested the Sanghelis demotion in the covenant
I was 8 when halo 1 came out and I remember playing it and being so intrigued by the forerunner I wouldn’t constantly think and speculate on them. Then halo 2 came out and answered some of my questions and further intrigued me. Not to mention halo 2 was just the best had some great times online with that game. And to top it all off the forerunner saga really did me in I loved those books.
I wanna write a crossover of 40k humans accidentally crossing and helping halo humans but I've little to no clue for halo lore. So you can just imagine how much of a godsent this vid is.
Contact Harvest is honestly one of the best published works in the Halo lore and the fact that it's Joe who wrote it makes it no surprise it's as good as it is. I actually wonder now if Al Cygni had a hand in naming or constructing the training base in Infinite after Sarge for the Spartans. It would seem like something she would do to honor the man she grew close to during the Harvest conflict and to forever honor one of the wars greatest heroes.
One plot hole I’ve always noticed since reading contact harvest is, if all the covenant saw the glyph for reclaimer as reclamation, and that glyph showed up for all human tech (it’s supposed to be for all the stuff humans have and are supposed to inherit), then how didn’t any covenant go “hey wait a minute, ALL of the human’s stuff shows up as holy relics.” Wouldn’t it be a very easy leap of logic that they’re killing forerunners? (Granted, they’re killing the forerunner’s chosen successors, but that’s a longer leap of logic.) How did the Prophets explain that away? And if all the human tech shows the same glyph as forerunner tech, why would they glass human worlds. For all they know they’re glassing holy relics the humans are squatting in.
This has already been explained. Only the Prophets had the ability to read Forerunner language perfectly and continue to lie about what humanities role for the Forerunners was.
@@Seriona1 yes, but if yesterday that glyph meant “reclamation” then when you see a human ship show up with that symbol, I’d imagine you’d probably hesitate when the space Pope says blow it up.
@@loganb7059 The Elites had zero reason not to trust the Prophets. The Prophets simply justified anything about humanity as simply "you're right Elites however..." and the Elite had zero reason to distrust them until it was forced. The Elites wanted humanity in the Covenant and the Prophets said no, they had zero reason to disobey after that. The Prophets lied and the Elite followed blindly.
FANTASTIC video my guy, love how you used the music. Got chills when you were narrating the events that took place right before Reach. As a Halo lore junkie, I even learned some new things! I didn’t know that the Sangheili wanted Humanity to join the Covenant.
The Covenant thought that Spartans were simply recovered and resurrected to be sent back out to fight. Funnily enough, the only spartan (that I know of to my knowledge) to do that was Linda XDDDD
could you imagine if say the elites met with humanity first rather then grunts and jakels..... i imagine the encounter would of been much more diplomatic and maybe even resulting in a peaceful dialogue
We could've had a TV show that showed all of this, from start to finish and even in the before times, with the precursor, etc. Alas, we got a Halo show in name only. It tips it's hat to the base material but remains a husk of what it was, made simply to bring in money. Halo's lore and back story is why I fell in love with the games in the beginning. In 2001 when I played Halo CE I was fascinated by who the forerunner were and if humanity were the forerunner. Especially after Halo 3 with 343's line "You are the child of my makers, inheritor of all they left behind. You are Forerunner! But this ring is mine." - Halo 3 - Halo (Send Me Out With A Bang...) And then Halo 4 happened.
@abdulansari3666 dude, it's revealed in lot of Halo lore channels that at least 60-65% of covenant manpower is wiped out during this war and lot of resources were also depleted. Combine that with species discontent plus questioning why the higher ups didn't allow humanity to join Covenant and you get great schism. For the covenant, this war was very costly
This video was really well made, the narration is good, and works really well as an introduction for anyone unfamiliar with the lore. Great job! Although, there were a few inaccuracies. Yes the Grunt home world was glassed. But not entirely. It still has life, and probably recovered by now. The Covenant just glassed it enough to get them to surrender. The fleet of Kigyar ships didn’t actually put up that good of a defense. It was mostly comprised of pirate, and merchant ships. They lost badly, but we’re offered a place in the Covenant. Also, they don’t care much for the Covenant religion. They’re just a part of it because they get better technology, are allowed to pirate other species (unfortunately we’ve only ever seen a few like the Yonhet, and Sharquoi), and some other benefits. The alternative would have been extinction. The rest of the stuff with the Jackals was accurate though. You also missed the part where the Covenant discovered the Engineers on a shield world. Other than those few things the video is mostly accurate.
Thanks so much for this video! I recently bought Halo MCC + Halo Wars 1 & 2 cheap from sales. With all the Halo Infinite buzz I decided to dive into the games and the lore as well. Already watched some Forerunner saga synopsis videos, already understood that to play the games in timeline order I’d have to start with Wars, then Reach, then CE. I just finished Wars yesterday (loved the cutscenes and the voice acting!) but I felt like I had a lot of blanks in the timeline preceding Halo Wars. Your video fills these in perfectly! Fantastic job on the narrative and images as well!
@@thesuperintendent4290 I got halo 5 for 7.99 EUR during Black Friday so even if the game is not so good, it’s a steal and it completes the collection. And yeah I know H3 ODST comes before H3. I will get Infinite eventually yes but certainly not at full price. I’ll wait 1 or 2 years until it drops below 20 EUR.
Been playing the MCC on game Pass, this is a sick thing to show a few friends; glad I was subbed. If anyone has an issue where the games in the Master Chief Collection are locked (they obviously shouldn't be and are included), hmu I gotchu.
Definitely my favorite part of Halo lore, none of the post-Halo 3 wars/enemies weren't as nearly as threatening as the Covenant were. Side note, really wish they didn't retcon the lore about humans being forerunners. Makes the genocide against humanity make more sense as the prophets were scared of losing religious power.
It does make me wonder what would've happened if the Prophets had come to a different conclusion. What if one of them had decided that, instead of a long and costly war, it would be easier to claim that he was the one who discovered the Forerunners/Reclaimers, humiliate the other Prophets, bring humanity into the Covenant, and become all-powerful. That would involve a lot of intrigue and backstabbing, but it would be interesting. Of course, none of it would last once everyone found out what the Great Journey really involved...
Good video. Did not realize the Elite vs prophet war was as close as it was. Also just a very good summarization of facts and major battles in the early years of the Human-Covenant war
You forgot that the san shuem were a splinter group that was run off their own homework by their own peoples for the religious oppression they caused. They stole the dreadnought on escape.
It's funny if you think about it, just an ever so minor shift in the claims of the Prophets, with statements from Mendican Bias would have saved the Covenant. Since they would be interpreted as "reclaimer" it would be easy for the prophets to explain why humanity was "left over" from the "great journey". That the Humans where designated to be the race to usher in the next "great journey" by the Forerunners. Making the claim that the Forerunners would have left himans without any artifacts so that when they understood and reached the Rings, or the Arc, that since they where compatible with Forerunner tech, that they would activate the rings and usher in the next "great journey". Vuala, you have a religious reason to integrate the humans, the Covenant isn't broken, and you now have, at least part, of the human population genuinely believing in the great journey, so that if the prophets actually cared to fire the rings, at least some humans would activate the rings.
The human vs covenant war had battles in every part of the galaxy that they inhabit. There is still so much to cover, but the majority of it was shown as best as it can. The most saddest race of the covenant were the Grunts. They deserve better.
15:32 Minor Transgression was not a raider ship. It was a missionary ship that had barely any crew and barely any weaponry. Also the unggoy wasn't called "Deacon" he was a deacon which is a rank.
Reach wasnt completly glassed. They left a few Spots so they can search for Artifacts. This allowed a few humans incl. Halsey and some Spartan 2s to survive. And when the Master Chief returned from Halo he rescued them and got the Artifact.
Just started watching the Netflix series. I’m not into gaming but I love extensive storytelling. Without the books and videos like these I wouldn’t be able to understand some of the episodes elements and details as there just too vast of a plot to follow in an hour. Thank you!!
Game concept; Dark Souls style Halo Game. It starts and entirely takes place some time before the battle of New Alexandria player is a grunt in the UNSC. Directly and entirely mundane the whole game through, purely so you can see how absolutely devastating the covenant war was first hand. Really, just a totally different approach to the classic Halo setting.
I’m thankful you did this thank you. This is good for us halo fans. A lot of info and we learned about the first encounter with the covenant. Great story telling and your a great narrator. Thanks for making this video.👍👍
The covenant in forward up to dawn were kinda terrifying the humans didnt stand a chance when they first attacked i wish halo had extra horror elements the flood were scary but now annoying i think a halo game where you play as a marine would be cool like a tactical fps game and survival horror aspects like outlast but with combat but thats just a idea idk how it would be if it was made i just think halo could make a horror game cause the covenant and flood are more terrifying as a mairne then a odst or spartan
Sometimes it’s hard to see how humanity have allied with certain covenant groups when *this shit* happened very recently and is still somewhat happening.
In my eyes the rebels in the covenant war Unsc: yo we need to work together our race is being destroyed Rebels: the fuck u lieing for give us our freedom Unsc: who the hell say I’m lieing there is a whole alien army destroying every planet we live in Rebels: yeah right give us our freedom Unsc: yeah right ok then what that big ass purple ship behind u Rebels: there no purple ship behind me Unsc: u know what have fun don’t come crawling back to us when a laser sword is in your father chest Five hours later Rebels: help us Unsc what I can’t hear u at the case of the glassing Rebels: help us Unsc: no I’m sorry your a independent planet we can’t do that with the right of your leaders Rebels: glassing noise’s Unsc: oh u fucking idiots
28:00 The infinity and Eternity projects were also started as an Ark for humanity to find a far world to restart in case that they lost the war against the Covenant and were wiped out.
The story of the ungoy made no sense. If they glassed their planet why would they surrender, the only way that would work is if they threatened to do that if they didnt surrender as once they have glassed it there is no longer a reason to give up as they have destroyed their homeworld so if anything it would have made the ungoy fight harder and not to give up.
Maybe they only glassed part of it? Idk. I do know that if my home was destroyed, and I was offered to either join a technologically advanced civilization or fucking DIE, yeah, I'd be joining the covenant too. You can't fight for, or change anything, if you're dead. The grunts would have been eradicated from all history if they didn't submit, and no one wants their entire race to be thrown away and forgotten. At some point, you have to realize you're beaten, instead of giving up everything for a meaningless fight/death. Also you're applying how we think as humans to something that's supposed to be alien. Their society is completely different, and they would have a different sense of "honor and duty" than we do. They're feckin aliens, we can't put human ideology onto them (even though humans came up with the story :P)
@@I_am_a_cat_ Actually yes they can change something, the whole reason the then arbiter glassed their homeworld was to get them to surrender how ever that logic was supposed to play out and the reason was because they were a real threat that couldn't be defeated on the battlefield as there was just too many of them and were causing massive casualities among the elites and other covenant species. If they had kept fighting they could won or at least got much better terms for surrender, they wouldnt have gone through the effort of glassing an entire world if they weren't a threat.
It's pretty strange how the UNSC is described as being hopelessly outmatched by the Covenant except for Spartans who "were more then a match for most Covenant forces." The issue with this should be obvious, for the most part these battles happen with guns so why is it that the average marine is inferior to the average Ungoy when that doesn't really come across in game? Discounting melee encounters which are obviously very different it seems to me that Spartans mainly have an advantage in psychological warfare. In Halo 3: ODST you don't play as a Spartan and although ODST's are superior in many ways to the average marine there are two key gameplay differences, 1: your melee attacks are a lot less useful even against weak opponents like grunts who could usually be killed with a single punch, a brute will never flinch from being hit and will kill you instantly in melee. 2: most importantly the confidence of grunts is much higher when fighting against you, and it is very difficult to make them panic, which of course means they will spend more time shooting you and less time being totally helpless. This is really the only time you see grunts being a serious threat without the use of grenades.
*This guy needs to update the beginning a bit. The covenant attacked humanity, because after interacting with humanity, the prophets found out that humans were the true descents related to the forerunners, and decided to have a war, so their flock didn't find out that the forerunners weren't gods and that the prophets lied about the great journey and everything the covenant stood for*
Idk about anybody else, but I’m far more Interested in the precursors than anything else. Old humanity and the forerunners def a close second. Maybe it’s the history lover in me?
We can build planets using unformed planet core asteroids and putting them inside hollow moons and detonating nukes around underground lakes to make enough steam to create an atmosphere
Hope you guys enjoyed this first dive into the Halo universe. Let me know what you thought and what videos you’d like to see on this series!
You should go on you tube channel call,Institute 00
@@bloodmax7476 yes I’ve spoken to him a few times
Part 2?
O
I always wondered if master chief is a virgin, cause surely he doesnt have time to get down and dirty😂 i need answers plz
Love the fact elites were honorable race that tried to give human some chances.
Well if i remember correctly some elites by the time of halo 2 were questioning why the prophets havent accepted humanity like they did to the elites the humans had proven themselves to have passed the elite martial test so this is why during halo 2 the elites were all disposed of.
@@blackouthorus1519 It was also because the elites “failed” to protect one of the prophets from the parasite
@@hailarwotanaz5848 Even though it was Truth who oh so conveniently stopped and called back the legions of phantoms sent as reinforcements
When it came to the war, the Elites saw humans just as worthy as they are. Only Truth, Mercy, and Regret knew how bad it would be if we joined the covenant. Not to mention, humanity would have surpassed the prophets politically after discovery of the Halo rings. Everything would have been a nightmare for them.
@@bossshun9 Especially when they put up such a fight against a superior foes
I always thought it was funny the UNSC actually won most land-battles but the Covenant basically said, ‘nah’ and glassed their planet
I mean they kinda plot armored the UNSC on that one because there would be almost no point in the covenant even attempting ground battles. Like its an extermination just sit up there and glass lol
@@UnholyWrath3277
I think their reasoning for that is that the planets they glass might have forerunner artifacts that they would try to get first and then using glassing as a last resort
@@Sgil97 thats what i mean about the plot armor. The covenant literally cant take the best route of basically garunteed victory. It makes sense in the context of the story but all the same without that its not even a war just a massacre
@@UnholyWrath3277 Forerunner artifacts was the *reason* that they fought on land because it was deemed important to their beliefs.
@@deaconfetundes7888 yes. Plot armor as explicity mentioned above.
This is humanity in one sentence: “I didn’t hear no bell”
If we were to be sumarized by one characteristic: Humans REALLY don’t like going extinct.
@@Ballin4Vengeance It really tends to kick our asses into gear to the point we even wow ourselves with our capabilities
@@StegoAquaAdrenaline, primal instincts and human condition is one hell of a drug.
If the covenant discover us in the 21st century we are really fvcked.
humanity is going down with their enemy or they aint going down
So, Johnson was one of the first to face both the covenant and the flood, and the floating lightbright is what took him down
famous last word: "send me out ... with a bang"
He was also the first spartan-1 and survived some insane stuff
The Monitors where basically the most powerful machines left behind by the forerunners.
@@Gabronthe not even close
@@Gabronthe Mendicant Bias and Offensive Bias.....
Fun Fact: The Brute Choppa was actually a gift for the Humans.
When the covenant landed on harvest they didn't want to scare the Humans with a giant independence Day ship luiming overhead. So they landed in the countryside and since Harvest was a Farming planet.
They found a tractor. Inspired by it, they made a covenant copy of it to give to the Humans as a peace offering. But that never happened.
The Prophet of Truth thought it could be used in combat by adding spikes and putting Brute spikers on it. The High council disagreed but Truth secretly ordered there production and after the High council and the rest of the Prophets were dead. The Choppa came to Halo 3.
So by definition, the choppa is a technical…
@@kreimer1702 Yes, yes it is
"Choppa" I see what you did there ;)
That’s a cool fact
I wanna imagine what the High Council was saying about it now.
"Ok Truth, this thing looks cool and all, but we already have ghosts. Why the fuck would we make a ghost with spikes and super loud engines? I swear, people are going to poke out their eyes when they do maintenence."
"Ok, but is it cool?"
"Well, yes, but-"
"Done."
I find it funny that the whole peace talks between the covenant and humans could've been settled diplomatically if they didn't bring along Tartarus because the moment he heard the gunshots he tried to kill Johnson instead of trying to figure out what happened
What, when are you talking about?
@@PROTOTYPEHALO so on harvest when the Covenant and humans met they sent in Tartarus to talk about peace and so the negotiations were going well until a grunt got anxious and mauled a militia man to death which another militia man responded by putting down the grunt and Tartarus and Johnson both heard the gunshots instead of figuring out what the hell happened Tartarus flew into brute rage
@@commando7238 Thats actually a really cool piece of lore
@@commando7238 just proprably another plan of the prophets to derail peace talk
That a thing that cause peace talks to actually fail
Correction. The brute had only just REDISCOVERED radio and rocketry. They had gotten to be pretty advanced, then nuked themselves back into the stone age in their own ww3.
Kinda makes you think of how the Brutes might be if the Covenant discovered them earlier. Certainly still very aggressive, but likely not nearly as bad as they were in canon, since they wouldn't be a bunch of mad max maniacs.
@@downrangecash2418 humans were also extremely advanced when fighting the forerunners/flood, until the forerunners sent them back to the stone age
That sounds eerily similar to the Krogan from Mass Effect.
@@RandomC360 in fact they matched the forrunners themselves in technololgy
@@Saberfighterx Actually in a fair war humanity would have won, but they had the Flood behind, so they were fighting the Forerunners and at the same time destroying their own worlds to stop the Flood infection and in fact they could contain the flood for a lot of time, so much that later the forerunners believed that Humans had a cure or something, but no it was just the will to do what have to be done on time, not like the Forerunners which waited too much to get serious against the flood. (btw in my opinion the Human-Furerunner war is one of the biggest plot holes in Halo story, it just doesn't make sense that to species so advanced and civilizated will start a war without trying to understand each other, I mean even the UNSC tried to talk with the convenant before the total war started).
The Halo games do a horrible job at showing us the true scale of the War and how close humanity actually was to being completely annihilated. Only Halo Reach comes close.
I dunno, ODST did a great job too. Especially with the audio files.
@breaking the 4th wall like So? Even a tweak of the H3 sandbox proves that you can turn the perspective of a supersoldier into a normal person.
To be honest I feel like Halo 3 wouldn't really fit the bill as showing how close Humanity was to be annihilated because they got a one up by becoming friends with the elites and the flood for a temporary moment as it was there one giant push and Halo wars kinda does a good job of showing battles
@breaking the 4th wall like you mean like a common brute having a bright glow around them cuz if that's the case you didn't an kill engineer
@breaking the 4th wall like it's lowered because we were no longer a killing machine but just a normal (yet highly trained) human.
You know, the Prophets declaring a holy war on humanity with the goal of complete genocide somehow becomes more depressing when you learn they did it for _political_ reasons.
Most holy wars have a political purpose. The crusades had a intended political purpose of uniting all of Europe's Christian kingdoms to stop fighting each other and focus on killing what they consider heathens. All religion does is give another reason to degrade the enemy
@@RelativelyBest I'd say religious reasons instead of political
@@jonathanpalmer228 Well, I know that was the _official_ justification, but going by my comment I'm guessing it was mainly politics behind the scenes. (It's been two years, I don't recall the contents of this video.)
@@RelativelyBest Religious reasons were the excuse to justify the personal ambitions of the prophets. If the truth about the humans were to be revealed it could potentially cause an existential crisis and fracture the covenant. The high prophets could never allow that to happen so they declared the humans heretics to protect their positions of power. That’s the basic truth of the whole situation.
Fun fact the Covenant called the war the War of Annihilation. Also the Covenant called the ODSTs imps.
I’m not too fond of most of 343s additions to the original Halo story arc, but the CEA and H2A terminals are actually pretty good. They give a lot of context to the Covenants politics that imo doesn’t conflict with the story presented in game. Aside from maybe the Heretic leader supposedly knowing Thel’Vadam personally but not showing that in the boss fight at all.
Well he said "I doubt he'd respond to his former name." Which means he thinks he's to far gone. I think the Heretic leader thought that The'l had a trap set up or was willing to engage into conversation and then suddenly kill him. So that is why he opened fire, I could be wrong and that we have a plot hole on our hands.
I never really got the impression that the Heretic knew Thel personally, only that he had served under him and had a great amount of respect for him.
@Color Blue no lies detected.
Yeah, no. The terminals also suggest that the humans might not be forerunner. And that's not true.
@@paperclip6377they are on a technicality
I'd like to think that this war could've been avoided when the two sides encountered each other on Harvest. But, in the end, humanity would not have agreed with the so-called Great Journey that the Covenant were obsessed with.
There would have been an alliance since humans are the only ones who can interact with forerunner tech but they definitely wouldn't have joined
The whole point was that the Prophets had to destroy humanity to maintain the Covenant since humans being forerunners or their descendants clashed with the idea of the great journey.
@@nutyyyy That is true yeah.
@@commando7238 Should ask the ancestors how did the alliance with the San Shy'um went last time the humans were friends with them.
If we ignore all the other reasons as to why the alliance would never have worked, there would absolutely have been a lot of humans who not only would have believed about the great journey but also 200% be all onboard, willing to join for the cause.
One of the things I always thought set Halo apart from other science fiction was the fact that the Covenant were genuinely alien. There was no negotiation with them. No understanding of why they were after Humanity. No chance of surrender. They were mysterious and brutal and that made them terrifying.
Aliens and conflicts from Star Wars or Star Trek or even the Battlestar had understandable goals and reasons for doing what they were doing, so the conflicts were just space versions of human ones.
And then there’s wh40k; “we’re slaughtering everyone because everyone is also slaughtering everyone”
That's not entirely true. Humanity has talked to the covenant several times.
It honesty would’ve made a great deal of sense if the ungoy got treated better by humans during the human covenant war and rebelled, due to their history..
but their little heads are so fun to shoot, and so fundamental to the halo game experience that it would never happen
I think they’re cute
The Grunt rebellion was an event that happened decades ago, in which Ungoy rebelled against the covenant. They fought for weeks, and only gave up after the covenant glassed their home world. But the Sangheli, seeing their commitment and bravery, offered them a position in the covenant military. From that point onwards the Sangheli and the Ungoy have felt an intense brotherhood. It’s why so many Ungoy protested the Sanghelis demotion in the covenant
I was 8 when halo 1 came out and I remember playing it and being so intrigued by the forerunner I wouldn’t constantly think and speculate on them. Then halo 2 came out and answered some of my questions and further intrigued me. Not to mention halo 2 was just the best had some great times online with that game. And to top it all off the forerunner saga really did me in I loved those books.
I wanna write a crossover of 40k humans accidentally crossing and helping halo humans but I've little to no clue for halo lore. So you can just imagine how much of a godsent this vid is.
humanity in halo was really depressing they were annihilated and barely won
Contact Harvest is honestly one of the best published works in the Halo lore and the fact that it's Joe who wrote it makes it no surprise it's as good as it is. I actually wonder now if Al Cygni had a hand in naming or constructing the training base in Infinite after Sarge for the Spartans. It would seem like something she would do to honor the man she grew close to during the Harvest conflict and to forever honor one of the wars greatest heroes.
Could have done without the forced sex scene with johnson and the asian girl side character. Rather have read more fights and lore than that
Only one I've read fully
One plot hole I’ve always noticed since reading contact harvest is, if all the covenant saw the glyph for reclaimer as reclamation, and that glyph showed up for all human tech (it’s supposed to be for all the stuff humans have and are supposed to inherit), then how didn’t any covenant go “hey wait a minute, ALL of the human’s stuff shows up as holy relics.” Wouldn’t it be a very easy leap of logic that they’re killing forerunners? (Granted, they’re killing the forerunner’s chosen successors, but that’s a longer leap of logic.)
How did the Prophets explain that away? And if all the human tech shows the same glyph as forerunner tech, why would they glass human worlds. For all they know they’re glassing holy relics the humans are squatting in.
idk proprably because it a bunch of fanatic who follow order
denial and fnatic
This has already been explained. Only the Prophets had the ability to read Forerunner language perfectly and continue to lie about what humanities role for the Forerunners was.
@@Seriona1 yes, but if yesterday that glyph meant “reclamation” then when you see a human ship show up with that symbol, I’d imagine you’d probably hesitate when the space Pope says blow it up.
@@loganb7059 The Elites had zero reason not to trust the Prophets. The Prophets simply justified anything about humanity as simply "you're right Elites however..." and the Elite had zero reason to distrust them until it was forced. The Elites wanted humanity in the Covenant and the Prophets said no, they had zero reason to disobey after that. The Prophets lied and the Elite followed blindly.
FANTASTIC video my guy, love how you used the music. Got chills when you were narrating the events that took place right before Reach.
As a Halo lore junkie, I even learned some new things! I didn’t know that the Sangheili wanted Humanity to join the Covenant.
Some suggested it but overall they rather gleefully carried out the genocide.
The Covenant thought that Spartans were simply recovered and resurrected to be sent back out to fight. Funnily enough, the only spartan (that I know of to my knowledge) to do that was Linda XDDDD
The crew of the Spirit of Fire were humanity's best.
could you imagine if say the elites met with humanity first rather then grunts and jakels..... i imagine the encounter would of been much more diplomatic and maybe even resulting in a peaceful dialogue
The Unggoyy Rebellion and Insurrectionists are some of my favorite topics in all of Halo honestly
We could've had a TV show that showed all of this, from start to finish and even in the before times, with the precursor, etc. Alas, we got a Halo show in name only. It tips it's hat to the base material but remains a husk of what it was, made simply to bring in money. Halo's lore and back story is why I fell in love with the games in the beginning. In 2001 when I played Halo CE I was fascinated by who the forerunner were and if humanity were the forerunner. Especially after Halo 3 with 343's line "You are the child of my makers, inheritor of all they left behind. You are Forerunner! But this ring is mine." - Halo 3 - Halo (Send Me Out With A Bang...) And then Halo 4 happened.
Great video as always!!! Anyways, I'd really recommend that you delve into the origins of Ancient Humanity
Deffo gonna look into all the older lore soon :)
@@WiseFish looking forward to it :D
Ancient humans are true chads. Lol
Thank you for uploading a long video it helps my shifts go by faster
Played most of the halo games and didn’t really care about the origins, but wow. That’s a great origin story.
I think it's funny that a Alien race 1000 times more advanced feared Humanity.
It was mainly political and religious fears
Hummanty bever best. That's why hunnty b aned
There were weak, all that tech superiority and they still lost battles. Embrassing af
@abdulansari3666 dude, it's revealed in lot of Halo lore channels that at least 60-65% of covenant manpower is wiped out during this war and lot of resources were also depleted. Combine that with species discontent plus questioning why the higher ups didn't allow humanity to join Covenant and you get great schism.
For the covenant, this war was very costly
The elites didint surrender…. They made a Covenant
Exactly the war was at a stalemate
This video was really well made, the narration is good, and works really well as an introduction for anyone unfamiliar with the lore. Great job!
Although, there were a few inaccuracies. Yes the Grunt home world was glassed. But not entirely. It still has life, and probably recovered by now. The Covenant just glassed it enough to get them to surrender.
The fleet of Kigyar ships didn’t actually put up that good of a defense. It was mostly comprised of pirate, and merchant ships. They lost badly, but we’re offered a place in the Covenant. Also, they don’t care much for the Covenant religion. They’re just a part of it because they get better technology, are allowed to pirate other species (unfortunately we’ve only ever seen a few like the Yonhet, and Sharquoi), and some other benefits. The alternative would have been extinction. The rest of the stuff with the Jackals was accurate though.
You also missed the part where the Covenant discovered the Engineers on a shield world.
Other than those few things the video is mostly accurate.
Thanks so much for this video! I recently bought Halo MCC + Halo Wars 1 & 2 cheap from sales. With all the Halo Infinite buzz I decided to dive into the games and the lore as well. Already watched some Forerunner saga synopsis videos, already understood that to play the games in timeline order I’d have to start with Wars, then Reach, then CE. I just finished Wars yesterday (loved the cutscenes and the voice acting!) but I felt like I had a lot of blanks in the timeline preceding Halo Wars. Your video fills these in perfectly! Fantastic job on the narrative and images as well!
Some advice from a Halo fan.
Don't by Halo 5 but do buy Halo Infinite. Also play Halo 3 ODST after Halo 2 and beware of the Gravemind.
@@thesuperintendent4290 I got halo 5 for 7.99 EUR during Black Friday so even if the game is not so good, it’s a steal and it completes the collection. And yeah I know H3 ODST comes before H3. I will get Infinite eventually yes but certainly not at full price. I’ll wait 1 or 2 years until it drops below 20 EUR.
@@Breyzipp Take your time, avoid spoilers as it will be worth the wait.
Been playing the MCC on game Pass, this is a sick thing to show a few friends; glad I was subbed.
If anyone has an issue where the games in the Master Chief Collection are locked (they obviously shouldn't be and are included), hmu I gotchu.
Definitely my favorite part of Halo lore, none of the post-Halo 3 wars/enemies weren't as nearly as threatening as the Covenant were. Side note, really wish they didn't retcon the lore about humans being forerunners. Makes the genocide against humanity make more sense as the prophets were scared of losing religious power.
This could have been such a great series of films the best video game ever
I NEED MORE!
I CAN’T JUST REWATCH THIS AMAZING VIDEO OVER AND OVER!
It does make me wonder what would've happened if the Prophets had come to a different conclusion. What if one of them had decided that, instead of a long and costly war, it would be easier to claim that he was the one who discovered the Forerunners/Reclaimers, humiliate the other Prophets, bring humanity into the Covenant, and become all-powerful. That would involve a lot of intrigue and backstabbing, but it would be interesting. Of course, none of it would last once everyone found out what the Great Journey really involved...
I'd highly doubt Humanity would be brought into the covenant because Humanity are innovative/scientific by nature. It wouldn't work well at all.
Good video. Did not realize the Elite vs prophet war was as close as it was. Also just a very good summarization of facts and major battles in the early years of the Human-Covenant war
You forgot that the san shuem were a splinter group that was run off their own homework by their own peoples for the religious oppression they caused. They stole the dreadnought on escape.
I would really love to see a Halo game made like Dreadnaught where you’re fighting on a frigate or something and fighting the ships of the covenant
It's funny if you think about it, just an ever so minor shift in the claims of the Prophets, with statements from Mendican Bias would have saved the Covenant.
Since they would be interpreted as "reclaimer" it would be easy for the prophets to explain why humanity was "left over" from the "great journey". That the Humans where designated to be the race to usher in the next "great journey" by the Forerunners. Making the claim that the Forerunners would have left himans without any artifacts so that when they understood and reached the Rings, or the Arc, that since they where compatible with Forerunner tech, that they would activate the rings and usher in the next "great journey". Vuala, you have a religious reason to integrate the humans, the Covenant isn't broken, and you now have, at least part, of the human population genuinely believing in the great journey, so that if the prophets actually cared to fire the rings, at least some humans would activate the rings.
I know well the Halo classic Lore, but this video was such a terrific summary! Great work 🍻
The human vs covenant war had battles in every part of the galaxy that they inhabit. There is still so much to cover, but the majority of it was shown as best as it can. The most saddest race of the covenant were the Grunts. They deserve better.
15:32
Minor Transgression was not a raider ship. It was a missionary ship that had barely any crew and barely any weaponry. Also the unggoy wasn't called "Deacon" he was a deacon which is a rank.
That's. What chef. Say. Mercaor ship. With irsens some m I ny
Ive seen probably hundreds of hours of halo lore but ive never heard a lot of the stuff you explained in this video, good job!
The halo universe was so cool. So many opportunities for stories to be told. And every tv or movie attempt has been completely squandered.
Humanity was so great. The wanted them apart of the covenant. That’s scary
Reach wasnt completly glassed. They left a few Spots so they can search for Artifacts.
This allowed a few humans incl. Halsey and some Spartan 2s to survive. And when the Master Chief returned from Halo he rescued them and got the Artifact.
Thanks for this awesome and insightful video! Great writing, narration style, pacing, editing, music!
I simp for WiseFish Halo content
Just started watching the Netflix series. I’m not into gaming but I love extensive storytelling. Without the books and videos like these I wouldn’t be able to understand some of the episodes elements and details as there just too vast of a plot to follow in an hour. Thank you!!
Game concept; Dark Souls style Halo Game. It starts and entirely takes place some time before the battle of New Alexandria player is a grunt in the UNSC. Directly and entirely mundane the whole game through, purely so you can see how absolutely devastating the covenant war was first hand. Really, just a totally different approach to the classic Halo setting.
Fuck yes. I would love to hear more of the early years of the human covenant war
Your Halo lore vids are fire. Well done!
I’m thankful you did this thank you.
This is good for us halo fans. A lot of info and we learned about the first encounter with the covenant.
Great story telling and your a great narrator. Thanks for making this video.👍👍
The covenant in forward up to dawn were kinda terrifying the humans didnt stand a chance when they first attacked i wish halo had extra horror elements the flood were scary but now annoying i think a halo game where you play as a marine would be cool like a tactical fps game and survival horror aspects like outlast but with combat but thats just a idea idk how it would be if it was made i just think halo could make a horror game cause the covenant and flood are more terrifying as a mairne then a odst or spartan
21:49 - yes, we call that "Load last save"
Sometimes it’s hard to see how humanity have allied with certain covenant groups when *this shit* happened very recently and is still somewhat happening.
Hope to see the part 2 of this how humanity defeated the covenant
Those are some brutal losses for humanity before Reach even kicks off.
In my eyes the rebels in the covenant war
Unsc: yo we need to work together our race is being destroyed
Rebels: the fuck u lieing for give us our freedom
Unsc: who the hell say I’m lieing there is a whole alien army destroying every planet we live in
Rebels: yeah right give us our freedom
Unsc: yeah right ok then what that big ass purple ship behind u
Rebels: there no purple ship behind me
Unsc: u know what have fun don’t come crawling back to us when a laser sword is in your father chest
Five hours later
Rebels: help us
Unsc what I can’t hear u at the case of the glassing
Rebels: help us
Unsc: no I’m sorry your a independent planet we can’t do that with the right of your leaders
Rebels: glassing noise’s
Unsc: oh u fucking idiots
Seeing the Unggoys cry when their planet gets glassed is so sad :(
The creation of the Spartans is the single most best decision humanity has ever made.
Well I mean the Spartans where superior against most species but they where about an equal to an Elite
Elites are weak
Talk about an eargasm my dude.
Dope vid.
Dope work.
Glad I found you
Again.
This is the halo series (or movies) that we need and want, but sadly, not the one we got.
I want more videos like this.
It takes 4 days to get from harvest to reach and the covenant ships are faster than the unsc, Thats more than a moment.
-Sir permission to leave the station!
-For what purpose master chief?
-To give the covenant back their bomb.
-Permission granted...
Humanity: exists
The Covenant: And I took that personally.
God, I'm so fucking clever.
Where did you get all the videos of the covenant war? I see some front the games but the clips in the first five minutes are amazing. Great video.
28:00 The infinity and Eternity projects were also started as an Ark for humanity to find a far world to restart in case that they lost the war against the Covenant and were wiped out.
Never forget
Pre-343
We were forerunner
Now I kinda want an origin story game
recommending the Halo TV show to learn about the halo universe? He's a mad man!
it's not the universe it's the Galaxy.
the elites actually started to respect the grunts after their uprising,
Ngl I kinda wish you would’ve made the entire war from start to finish but still a great video
Correction: The events of Halo only take place in the Milky Way Galaxy, not across the universe.
Stellaris play through when everyone fights over ancient technology.
The story of the ungoy made no sense. If they glassed their planet why would they surrender, the only way that would work is if they threatened to do that if they didnt surrender as once they have glassed it there is no longer a reason to give up as they have destroyed their homeworld so if anything it would have made the ungoy fight harder and not to give up.
Maybe they only glassed part of it? Idk. I do know that if my home was destroyed, and I was offered to either join a technologically advanced civilization or fucking DIE, yeah, I'd be joining the covenant too.
You can't fight for, or change anything, if you're dead. The grunts would have been eradicated from all history if they didn't submit, and no one wants their entire race to be thrown away and forgotten. At some point, you have to realize you're beaten, instead of giving up everything for a meaningless fight/death.
Also you're applying how we think as humans to something that's supposed to be alien. Their society is completely different, and they would have a different sense of "honor and duty" than we do. They're feckin aliens, we can't put human ideology onto them (even though humans came up with the story :P)
@@I_am_a_cat_ Actually yes they can change something, the whole reason the then arbiter glassed their homeworld was to get them to surrender how ever that logic was supposed to play out and the reason was because they were a real threat that couldn't be defeated on the battlefield as there was just too many of them and were causing massive casualities among the elites and other covenant species. If they had kept fighting they could won or at least got much better terms for surrender, they wouldnt have gone through the effort of glassing an entire world if they weren't a threat.
Not the universe only the galaxy the only species to cross the galaxy's were the primordials and possibly the forerunners
I dono why I kept saying universe, really bugs me now looking back
It's pretty strange how the UNSC is described as being hopelessly outmatched by the Covenant except for Spartans who "were more then a match for most Covenant forces."
The issue with this should be obvious, for the most part these battles happen with guns so why is it that the average marine is inferior to the average Ungoy when that doesn't really come across in game?
Discounting melee encounters which are obviously very different it seems to me that Spartans mainly have an advantage in psychological warfare. In Halo 3: ODST you don't play as a Spartan and although ODST's are superior in many ways to the average marine there are two key gameplay differences,
1: your melee attacks are a lot less useful even against weak opponents like grunts who could usually be killed with a single punch, a brute will never flinch from being hit and will kill you instantly in melee.
2: most importantly the confidence of grunts is much higher when fighting against you, and it is very difficult to make them panic, which of course means they will spend more time shooting you and less time being totally helpless. This is really the only time you see grunts being a serious threat without the use of grenades.
Man u make stuff that a TH-camr with a million subs would make your gonna blow up bro 🔥🔥
*This guy needs to update the beginning a bit. The covenant attacked humanity, because after interacting with humanity, the prophets found out that humans were the true descents related to the forerunners, and decided to have a war, so their flock didn't find out that the forerunners weren't gods and that the prophets lied about the great journey and everything the covenant stood for*
I’m bringing people into the video dude watch the rest of it and I explain it! Not gonna just explain everything immediately am I?
Elites: The Humans have proven themselves an honorable warrior race
Meanwhile on a Earth a slob eats Cheetos playing World Of Warcraft
Do you think Arbiter and Chief ever talked about this? "I know we're friends and i trust you with my life Arbiter but wtf bro?"
The elites remind me of samurai
Bro imagine halfway through the video you just see an ad for kids with cancer bro the human covenant war is sponsoring kids with cancer😂😂😂😂
This is amazing, I love this vid.
Great video. A few small errors but nothing to really pick out and bitch about. Great job
Not gonna lie I gave up on humanity after Halo 4 years of playing Halo really got me into the games but it became exhausting
Idk about anybody else, but I’m far more Interested in the precursors than anything else. Old humanity and the forerunners def a close second. Maybe it’s the history lover in me?
He forgot the race that flies and looks like large grass hoppers
There's enough metal in near earth asteroids to make a 15 million mile long cable elevator between moons of different planets
This guy ain't telling it right. Conflict only broke out when a trigger happy grunt shot a dude
Thanks for the video!
We can build planets using unformed planet core asteroids and putting them inside hollow moons and detonating nukes around underground lakes to make enough steam to create an atmosphere
6:39 the covenant has fallen, billions must migrate
Same as immortality can only be reached by being ripped apart and put back together with advanced implants and biotech is godzilla
I still believe that humanity would have had no chance if it weren't for the flood and great schism.
@@CyberMutoh youre correct if there wasnt a great schism humanity would already have lost between halo 2 and 3 its a detail many people miss
Youre correct! if there wasnt great schism humanity would have lost already between halo2 and 3 its an detail many people seem to miss