Covenant Characters

The Arbiter: In times of crisis, the Prophets will choose a distinguished Elite to become "The Arbiter". The Mausoleum of the Arbiter is a massive room which holds the remains of all previous Arbiters, who all died during their assignments. Previous instances in which an Arbiter was present include the Taming He's back with a vengeance of the Hunters, and the Grunt Rebellion. The Arbiter is given the task of carrying out the will of the Prophets, often a challenging and dangerous task, because of this the Prophets do not expect an Arbiter to survive since none have so far. The Arbiter is a respected figure and is given the right to use the ceremonial Energy Sword, a weapon only allowed to be used by the highest ranking Elites.

The most recent Arbiter is the former Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice, who lost the first Halo to the humans when they detonated the Pillar of Autumn's fusion drive, as well as allowed the survivors to escape the system in the Ascendant Justice, the fleet's flagship. The survivors then proceed to steal a forerunner artifact from right under the Covenant's noses on the remains of the former military planet Reach and finally destroy a major Covenant refueling station where a large Covenant force of almost 500 capital ships was preparing to depart for Earth, all but 12 ships were utterly destroyed. He was disgraced and branded with the Mark of Shame, but the High Prophets of Truth and Mercy decided to make him the Arbiter allowing him one last chance to serve the Covenant, by traveling to a Forerunner mining facility within Threshold to quell "the heresy" which was taking place there.

Tartarus: Tartarus was the chieftain of the Brutes (chieftain being like their leader). Like all the Brutes he shared a common dislike and rivalry against the Elites. Tartarus was so blinded by envy against the Elite's guardian status among the Prophets and so obsessed with gaining the High Prophets favor that he started the Covenant Civil War when he ordered the Brute's to kill the High Council on Delta Halo and destroy any opposition in their way to Delta Halo's control room. He attempted to activate Delta Halo to start "The Great Journey", but was killed by the Arbiter before it could be activated.

Prophet of Truth: The highest ranking of the three Hierarch Prophets in the Covenant leadership. Truth was not seen during the events on Halo but did appear on several occasions during Halo 2. The Prophet of Truth is a very firm believer in the Great Journey and accepts the other Prophets wisdom but may secretly have more sinister plans, for instance when the Master Chief infiltrated the Prophet of Regret's temple on Delta Halo the Prophet of Truth ordered the nearby Phantoms to pull away instead of assist the beleaguered temple guards in protecting Regret and then ordered a plasma bombardment of Regret's temple by an orbiting cruiser. The Prophet of Truth is the last surviving member of the Hierarchs and was last seen departing from the Covenant's Holy City of High Charity after ordering Tartarus to Activate Delta Halo.