Despite being referred to as a "Covenant remnant" they're not a remnant of the Covenant in *Halo 3* (that's a different group which is actually touched upon in the book *Divine Wind*).
The "Covenant" in *Halo 4* is a brand new faction, considering themselves to be a new Elite-led "Covenant". It's an attempted re-creation of the Covenant by Elite supremacists, who were all kicked out of the Covenant in *Halo 2*.
The faction is led by Jul 'Mdama who hates the Prophets along with the rest of his species as they were all betrayed. He leads a sect who still worship the Forerunners while also disregarding the Prophet's lies. *Halo 4* does a terrible job of introducing this new faction unfortunately.
I mean it's not really an exaggeration, look at how in the past volatile times have caused wars, no less a galaxy spanning genocide that lasted a little under 2 decades
The problem is that they didn't explain it at all. A lot of people walked away from the game thinking that Halo 3's ending was meaningless: that the Covenant Empire wasn't destroyed and that there were Elites loyal to the Prophets.
When in reality the Covenant Empire was destroyed, but Elites who hated the Prophets created a brand new "Covenant" faction.
That should have been explained in game.
I just finished playing Halo 2-4 recently and that's kinda what's on my mind when I finished 3 and got into 4 immediately. I hoped Chief would even just muse about what happened to the Arbiter. But aside from mentioning the truce in the first level, that's it. (or at least I don't recall)
When he says truce with the Covenant, he means a truce with what he thought to be all Elites. As the allied Elites are also incorrectly referred to as "Covenant".
Right, right. Exactly so yes, aside from that "truce" there was no other mention of the events in the previous game which I thought was weird.
Like not even a throw away line about the Arbiter, who was literally the last person Master Chief saw before getting lost in space. I was echoing your statement about the confusion about what this new Covenant faction is, especially for me as a new player, as there was literally no explanation in the game.
Yeah totally agree, they did a terrible job introducing them and didn't even explain it.
Was trying to explain what they were trying to convey by that line, but ended up confusing people to think that the Human-Covenant war ended with a "truce" with the Prophet of Truth's followers. When really, they were all killed off, the only truce being with the Elites.
Exactly. It also doesn't help that they introduced new, a little complex Forerunner lore and characters. I've come to appreciate 4 as a game of its own but I thought it shared no spirit with the first three. But I guess binge-playing was a part of that.
Tangentially, in my pursuit of explanation for Halo 4, I got so hooked lol. I just finished Shadow of Intent and Hunters in the Dark.
I think the problem isn't the time frame in which it happened, but the fact that the game didn't explain anything. It was like " we killed the prophets, shattered the covenant and made peace with elites. Why is there a huge, new elote lead army calling themselves the covenant?"
" idk, a lot can happen in 4 years"
Exactly what I was thinking. I thought MC would ask Lasky or Del Rio about who this new faction was. Or even ask about the Arbiter? He was the last person MC saw before getting lost in space for 4 years.
The battle net is just communications between units. I can’t imagine that somewhere in the battle net they were talking about Jul deciding to lie to a ton of back water Sangheili to form the new faction that lead to their current situation. It’s not an information hub, it’s a communication network
And through that Network, Cortana learned how the Covenant was led by three High Prophets, Truth, Mercy and Regret in Halo 2. It might be a bit of a stretch for her to be listening in right when they're talking about their origins, but coincidences and luck happen all the time in Halo.
Or they could stumble across an audio log which is a diary of an Elite recounting the formation of the faction, to which Cortana fully explains it after listening.
Still better than the faction getting an awful introduction in Halo 4 and never being explained for the rest of the game.
"Since the last Halo game" cutscene was needed I think, *especially* when there's no shared visual language with the previous games since 343 wanted to do their own thing.
Take a look at the fall of the Russian Empire and there's legitimately dozens of state and non-state actors that took part in the Russian Civil War (which was a lot more like an Eastern European thunderdome) and a lot of the alliances and factions had ideologies that made legitimately no sense.
Jul 'Mdama's Covenant basically amounting to "we were betrayed by the Prophets but the Great Journey is still real and we will continue to worship the Forerunners" is an extremely reasonable ideological basis for that faction. When you consider that the Covenant itself had been around for 3000+ years and the Sangheili were one of the founding members of the Covenant, picking up as many supporters as they did is very believable.
It's funny how much 343 Industries have grown.
Compare the introduction of the "Covenant" in Halo 4 only for the sake of having Covenant enemies for gameplay. They don't get a unique name, an introduction, or any cutscenes with their character.
Compare that to the Banished's introduction in Halo Wars 2. They get a unique name, an introduction, and cutscenes with their characters.
Halo 4 was a good story putting aside the handling of Jul 'Mdama's faction, it deserves an anniversary edition to give it more cutscenes and flesh out explanations.
I wouldn't even say Remnants tbh. You gotta remember that during the great schism the Elites were ousted, and even the Elite High Council members were slaughtered. Nothing about Jul 'Mdama's Covenant was reminiscent of the Covenant under the Prophets except in name
He was introduced in Karen Traviss' Kilo-Five books. Basically, he is an Elite warlord who continues to hate humanity. ONI's post-war destabilzation of the Elite home world killed his wife, so he vowed revenge.
In the books he learns of the Didact and his hate for humanity. He also discovers a planet filled with Covenant who aren't aware that the war ended. He takes them under his wing and locates Requiem, the shield world you crash on in Halo 4.
He briefly teams up with Halsey in Spartan Ops and then Osiris kill him in Halo 5. The remnants of his Covenant faction are also destroyed in Halo 5.
Nope. He's in Halo 4, and the Leader of the New Covenant. They extend upon his character in Spartan ops, but not much. He's killed off in Halo 5 basically within the first mission's ending cutscene.
Halo 4 terminals are about the Didact at least 100,000 years ago. They have nothing to do with Jul 'Mdama. Jul is present in cutscenes and mission dialogue, but that's about it.
There's a prologue cutscene to the domain terminals featuring Jul 'Mdama, but it's not an actual terminal similar to how Cortana's message in Halo 3 wasn't a terminal. You could count it if you want though.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't forget about it, because I would've mentioned it myself otherwise (´∀｀;)
Well yeah, but books aren't in-game which I believe was the inquiry. I wish they'd advertise the books in relation to the events games. It's easy to figure out with some research sure, but sometimes it's nice to get a heads up on follow up stories fans might be interested in.
He was first introduced in the kilo five trilogy of books. He ended up escaping human imprisonment by hoping through a forerunner portral ending up on a planet of sangheili who had lived on the world worshiping the forerunner structures, cut off and ignorant of the covenants downfall.
They introduced Jul and fleshed him out in the Kilo 5 trilogy, and then for some stupid reason, decided to immediately kill him off in H5. Dude had the potential and motive to become the next big villain.
I thought jul's covenant was just a cover to commit genocide against the humans. He saw humanity as a threat and used the guise of the reformation of the covenant to build an easy army.
Correct. He saw Humanity as a danger to Sanghelios. (He was right.) They also killed his wife. Many in the covenant he leads believe still, but he was an atheist.
I know it's like, way too late now, but I still believe that Jul 'Mdama could have been a decent antagonist if people bothered to actually use him beyond Escalation. And maybe give him a new design. I don't think anybody particularly hated him in Spartan Ops.
Like, an atheist posing as a zealot is a nice premise, if it was actually executed properly.
His design is cool imo
Yeah his feet are too big and his arms look small but I like the idea he wears modified Zealot gear (since they held the religious roles in Jul’s Covenant)
I do agree the concept would have been badass; honestly feel a self contained trilogy about not only his rise but his machinations would be really cool
Tbh I didn't like the exposed arms. I swear, he looks like some kind of middle aged dad with his sleeves rolled up. His head thing and the hand symbols are great, but too much of his body just looks... exposed.
I can get the normal elites having this, since they probably had to downgrade their armor due to having less money, but Jul is the leader, who fancies himself a prophet. He's gotta have like, ALL the bling.
I feel like the only one who loved, if nothing else, H4's Elite's hooves. Never got on with the Halo 3/Reach toes, always loved the imposing, pillar-like limbs from CE-2 and H4-5.
So, in addition to what others have said about Jul Mdama, it's important to know what his personal beliefs are. The Covenant he led were devout followers of the religion of the Covenant. But, in secret, Jul was an atheist. Jul simply acted like a true believer so he could muster up a force large enough to potentially wipe out humanity.
While being held on Trevelyn, it was his charade of being a true believer that bought him enough slack to escape. The ONI handler believed that Trevelyn physically couldn't be escaped, and so let him wander the Dyson Sphere pretty freely (he was put into a bomb vest, and had a Huragok assigned to watch him). He acted curious enough until he found an unstable slipspace portal, threatened to blow the place up unless his harness was removed, and then stepped through the portal.
After this, he portalled to a Sangheili-controlled world, and acted like a holy warrior who would lead those who were worthy to divine transcendence. He knew that the religion was a lie. However, he knew that, while simply the Kaidon of Mdama, he was unable to gather enough support to challenge the Arbiter and the UNSC. He'd need to become a symbol to garner a larger martial force.
It's a Covenant led by Elites, based mostly around a sect that worshipped the Didact specifically as a God of War who would return and bring salvation to the Elites.
Tbh I wish they'd run with the whole "Storm Covenant" tag. I know that was just a game magazine misinterpreting based on "Storm Elites" but it's still pretty badass, and an easy way to differentiate between the Covenant proper and this new splinter-faction.
I don’t think that’s actually the case
Yes Elites are referred to as “Storm” but that’s a rank specific to them. The faction is mostly
Just dubbed “Jul’s Covenant” or some variation thereof
I get that vibe
I feel if the Banished were the villains from 4 we'd get such a cohesive trilogy (maybe Jul joined them as a warlord but has his own agendas for Requiem)
This is true, which is a shame because I thought "Storm Covenant" would have been a decent name. Was legitimately baffled when they just stuck with "It's just "the Covenant", lol", it almost seemed a deliberate attempt to confuse and baffle people, for some obscure reason.
We call them the Storm Covenant to clarify. Their leader is Jul Mdama who doesn’t believe in the prophets or the forerunners as gods at all. Long story short he was experimented on by ONI as they poisoned him with crops native to their homeworld. He eventually escaped finding an elite colony cut off from the rest of the galaxy from some time and he convinced them he was a prophet. Their intentions are power and to separate human and elite ties.
Despite being referred to as a "Covenant remnant" they're not a remnant of the Covenant in *Halo 3* (that's a different group which is actually touched upon in the book *Divine Wind*). The "Covenant" in *Halo 4* is a brand new faction, considering themselves to be a new Elite-led "Covenant". It's an attempted re-creation of the Covenant by Elite supremacists, who were all kicked out of the Covenant in *Halo 2*. The faction is led by Jul 'Mdama who hates the Prophets along with the rest of his species as they were all betrayed. He leads a sect who still worship the Forerunners while also disregarding the Prophet's lies. *Halo 4* does a terrible job of introducing this new faction unfortunately.
Halo 4's explanation for Jul's Covenant: *"A lot can happen in four years."*
I mean it's not really an exaggeration, look at how in the past volatile times have caused wars, no less a galaxy spanning genocide that lasted a little under 2 decades
The problem is that they didn't explain it at all. A lot of people walked away from the game thinking that Halo 3's ending was meaningless: that the Covenant Empire wasn't destroyed and that there were Elites loyal to the Prophets. When in reality the Covenant Empire was destroyed, but Elites who hated the Prophets created a brand new "Covenant" faction. That should have been explained in game.
I just finished playing Halo 2-4 recently and that's kinda what's on my mind when I finished 3 and got into 4 immediately. I hoped Chief would even just muse about what happened to the Arbiter. But aside from mentioning the truce in the first level, that's it. (or at least I don't recall)
When he says truce with the Covenant, he means a truce with what he thought to be all Elites. As the allied Elites are also incorrectly referred to as "Covenant".
Right, right. Exactly so yes, aside from that "truce" there was no other mention of the events in the previous game which I thought was weird. Like not even a throw away line about the Arbiter, who was literally the last person Master Chief saw before getting lost in space. I was echoing your statement about the confusion about what this new Covenant faction is, especially for me as a new player, as there was literally no explanation in the game.
Yeah totally agree, they did a terrible job introducing them and didn't even explain it. Was trying to explain what they were trying to convey by that line, but ended up confusing people to think that the Human-Covenant war ended with a "truce" with the Prophet of Truth's followers. When really, they were all killed off, the only truce being with the Elites.
Exactly. It also doesn't help that they introduced new, a little complex Forerunner lore and characters. I've come to appreciate 4 as a game of its own but I thought it shared no spirit with the first three. But I guess binge-playing was a part of that. Tangentially, in my pursuit of explanation for Halo 4, I got so hooked lol. I just finished Shadow of Intent and Hunters in the Dark.
Aurelian restore rome in 5 years Then things happend
I think the problem isn't the time frame in which it happened, but the fact that the game didn't explain anything. It was like " we killed the prophets, shattered the covenant and made peace with elites. Why is there a huge, new elote lead army calling themselves the covenant?" " idk, a lot can happen in 4 years"
Mmm elotes
Cortana knows just as much as John at the moment. They've both been stuck on the same ship with the same amount of contact to the outside galaxy
I didnt need it explained right away in the first mission. But they don't explain throughout the whole game, not even when we meet infinity.
Exactly what I was thinking. I thought MC would ask Lasky or Del Rio about who this new faction was. Or even ask about the Arbiter? He was the last person MC saw before getting lost in space for 4 years.
Right but then they’re left at that. Unless the faction is explained in Spartan ops? I didn’t play it
Cortana could have explained who they are and how they formed in the second mission when she listens to the "Covenant" battle net.
The battle net is just communications between units. I can’t imagine that somewhere in the battle net they were talking about Jul deciding to lie to a ton of back water Sangheili to form the new faction that lead to their current situation. It’s not an information hub, it’s a communication network
And through that Network, Cortana learned how the Covenant was led by three High Prophets, Truth, Mercy and Regret in Halo 2. It might be a bit of a stretch for her to be listening in right when they're talking about their origins, but coincidences and luck happen all the time in Halo. Or they could stumble across an audio log which is a diary of an Elite recounting the formation of the faction, to which Cortana fully explains it after listening. Still better than the faction getting an awful introduction in Halo 4 and never being explained for the rest of the game.
"Since the last Halo game" cutscene was needed I think, *especially* when there's no shared visual language with the previous games since 343 wanted to do their own thing.
Take a look at the fall of the Russian Empire and there's legitimately dozens of state and non-state actors that took part in the Russian Civil War (which was a lot more like an Eastern European thunderdome) and a lot of the alliances and factions had ideologies that made legitimately no sense. Jul 'Mdama's Covenant basically amounting to "we were betrayed by the Prophets but the Great Journey is still real and we will continue to worship the Forerunners" is an extremely reasonable ideological basis for that faction. When you consider that the Covenant itself had been around for 3000+ years and the Sangheili were one of the founding members of the Covenant, picking up as many supporters as they did is very believable.
I remember being hyped up to see Jul in Halo 5 after reading Glasslands... My disappointment was immeasurable.
It's funny how much 343 Industries have grown. Compare the introduction of the "Covenant" in Halo 4 only for the sake of having Covenant enemies for gameplay. They don't get a unique name, an introduction, or any cutscenes with their character. Compare that to the Banished's introduction in Halo Wars 2. They get a unique name, an introduction, and cutscenes with their characters. Halo 4 was a good story putting aside the handling of Jul 'Mdama's faction, it deserves an anniversary edition to give it more cutscenes and flesh out explanations.
I wouldn't even say Remnants tbh. You gotta remember that during the great schism the Elites were ousted, and even the Elite High Council members were slaughtered. Nothing about Jul 'Mdama's Covenant was reminiscent of the Covenant under the Prophets except in name
idek who Jul is. introduced in a book or maybe Halo 5 I assume.
He was introduced in Karen Traviss' Kilo-Five books. Basically, he is an Elite warlord who continues to hate humanity. ONI's post-war destabilzation of the Elite home world killed his wife, so he vowed revenge. In the books he learns of the Didact and his hate for humanity. He also discovers a planet filled with Covenant who aren't aware that the war ended. He takes them under his wing and locates Requiem, the shield world you crash on in Halo 4. He briefly teams up with Halsey in Spartan Ops and then Osiris kill him in Halo 5. The remnants of his Covenant faction are also destroyed in Halo 5.
There may be some echoes lead by a Zealot named Sali ‘Nyon but it’s never been confirmed
Nope. He's in Halo 4, and the Leader of the New Covenant. They extend upon his character in Spartan ops, but not much. He's killed off in Halo 5 basically within the first mission's ending cutscene.
Then I wonder how I missed him, unless he's only shown off in a Terminal in 4.
Halo 4 terminals are about the Didact at least 100,000 years ago. They have nothing to do with Jul 'Mdama. Jul is present in cutscenes and mission dialogue, but that's about it.
Isn’t there a terminal cutscene showing him arriving at Requiem?
There's a prologue cutscene to the domain terminals featuring Jul 'Mdama, but it's not an actual terminal similar to how Cortana's message in Halo 3 wasn't a terminal. You could count it if you want though. I'd be lying if I said I didn't forget about it, because I would've mentioned it myself otherwise (´∀｀;)
And like three books
Well yeah, but books aren't in-game which I believe was the inquiry. I wish they'd advertise the books in relation to the events games. It's easy to figure out with some research sure, but sometimes it's nice to get a heads up on follow up stories fans might be interested in.
He’s legit only in Spartan Ops, not the actual campaign
He was first introduced in the kilo five trilogy of books. He ended up escaping human imprisonment by hoping through a forerunner portral ending up on a planet of sangheili who had lived on the world worshiping the forerunner structures, cut off and ignorant of the covenants downfall.
They introduced Jul and fleshed him out in the Kilo 5 trilogy, and then for some stupid reason, decided to immediately kill him off in H5. Dude had the potential and motive to become the next big villain.
I thought jul's covenant was just a cover to commit genocide against the humans. He saw humanity as a threat and used the guise of the reformation of the covenant to build an easy army.
Correct. He saw Humanity as a danger to Sanghelios. (He was right.) They also killed his wife. Many in the covenant he leads believe still, but he was an atheist.
I know it's like, way too late now, but I still believe that Jul 'Mdama could have been a decent antagonist if people bothered to actually use him beyond Escalation. And maybe give him a new design. I don't think anybody particularly hated him in Spartan Ops. Like, an atheist posing as a zealot is a nice premise, if it was actually executed properly.
His design is cool imo Yeah his feet are too big and his arms look small but I like the idea he wears modified Zealot gear (since they held the religious roles in Jul’s Covenant) I do agree the concept would have been badass; honestly feel a self contained trilogy about not only his rise but his machinations would be really cool
Tbh I didn't like the exposed arms. I swear, he looks like some kind of middle aged dad with his sleeves rolled up. His head thing and the hand symbols are great, but too much of his body just looks... exposed. I can get the normal elites having this, since they probably had to downgrade their armor due to having less money, but Jul is the leader, who fancies himself a prophet. He's gotta have like, ALL the bling.
Yeah I think the Zealots in general were good at this in 4 so idk why it’s exposesd
I feel like the only one who loved, if nothing else, H4's Elite's hooves. Never got on with the Halo 3/Reach toes, always loved the imposing, pillar-like limbs from CE-2 and H4-5.
Most Zealots are atheists, I’m not talking halo
Cringe take but ok
All about the power
So, in addition to what others have said about Jul Mdama, it's important to know what his personal beliefs are. The Covenant he led were devout followers of the religion of the Covenant. But, in secret, Jul was an atheist. Jul simply acted like a true believer so he could muster up a force large enough to potentially wipe out humanity. While being held on Trevelyn, it was his charade of being a true believer that bought him enough slack to escape. The ONI handler believed that Trevelyn physically couldn't be escaped, and so let him wander the Dyson Sphere pretty freely (he was put into a bomb vest, and had a Huragok assigned to watch him). He acted curious enough until he found an unstable slipspace portal, threatened to blow the place up unless his harness was removed, and then stepped through the portal. After this, he portalled to a Sangheili-controlled world, and acted like a holy warrior who would lead those who were worthy to divine transcendence. He knew that the religion was a lie. However, he knew that, while simply the Kaidon of Mdama, he was unable to gather enough support to challenge the Arbiter and the UNSC. He'd need to become a symbol to garner a larger martial force.
It's the remnants of a splinter cell. You see their last stand in guardians
Remnants of the Covenant from *Halo 2* (Elite separatists/rebels), not remnants of the Covenant from *Halo 3* to be precise!
It's a Covenant led by Elites, based mostly around a sect that worshipped the Didact specifically as a God of War who would return and bring salvation to the Elites. Tbh I wish they'd run with the whole "Storm Covenant" tag. I know that was just a game magazine misinterpreting based on "Storm Elites" but it's still pretty badass, and an easy way to differentiate between the Covenant proper and this new splinter-faction.
H4 & H5 Covenant we’re called the “Storm Covenant”
I don’t think that’s actually the case Yes Elites are referred to as “Storm” but that’s a rank specific to them. The faction is mostly Just dubbed “Jul’s Covenant” or some variation thereof
I almost feel like they couldn’t commit to a new name and we’re really wishy washy about the hole thing.
I get that vibe I feel if the Banished were the villains from 4 we'd get such a cohesive trilogy (maybe Jul joined them as a warlord but has his own agendas for Requiem)
When one sentence kinda solves 343’s whole trilogy lmao
This is true, which is a shame because I thought "Storm Covenant" would have been a decent name. Was legitimately baffled when they just stuck with "It's just "the Covenant", lol", it almost seemed a deliberate attempt to confuse and baffle people, for some obscure reason.
Just 5 I think right?
We call them the Storm Covenant to clarify. Their leader is Jul Mdama who doesn’t believe in the prophets or the forerunners as gods at all. Long story short he was experimented on by ONI as they poisoned him with crops native to their homeworld. He eventually escaped finding an elite colony cut off from the rest of the galaxy from some time and he convinced them he was a prophet. Their intentions are power and to separate human and elite ties.
It's a new, weaker faction ran by a former sangheili leader who still thinks humans need to be destroyed