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In honor of this human day:

Boop.

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[ You probably already noticed, but consider this blog on hold until I can get back to it. ]

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Have there been generations that have been anti war? Like teens not wanting to understand the warrior culture?

With humans, we sometimes make antiwar propaganda out of hatred for the violence of it. From music, to paintings, to even graphic animation. Are there some Sangheili that hate war, and try to fight against it, or is it just treated as a bitter reality?

Rejection of warfare has never been common, among Sangheili. Our history tells us we warred with one another often and well long before the San'Shyuum made it our species' entire purpose.

This is not to say that none of my people have ever turned their backs on war as a solution, but that their number has been vanishingly few.

For our youths, it is traditional that only males were taught the battle arts. Females learned defense of self and home, but were more free to devote study to other pursuits. These were always considered secondary to military service.

Some young men refused to become soldiers. The Covenant could not make one of an unwilling or unable recruit, but it would mark him for life as somehow defective: he was a coward too weak of blood, a nonbeliever too weak of faith, or an invalid too weak of body. Any of these was a great shame to a clan, and a son's failure could worsen prospects for his cousins.

So was the thinking, for many years. So remains the thinking, among some clans.

As things are now, Sangheili must still fight. Our place in the galaxy is not certain if we are not able to hold it. But I hope the young ones we raise now will be stronger because those who fight do so by choice.

And they will be supported by those who cultivate the talents we neglected for too long.

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Happy Birthday, Mr. Arbiter sir. It’s an honour to fight alongside your Swords.

Thank you.

Forgive my belated response. There were matters in great need of my attention.

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Can you be my dad?

I am from Vadam. I can only be an uncle.

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are you my dad?

It is very unlikely.

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We know Sangheili culture is a warrior culture with deep honor systems. Arbiter, please tell us a bit about the food, clothing, arts (music, dance, etc)? Do these vary a lot by region? And if you could, were these parts as influenced by the Covenant as say the military?

There is difference, yes. The customs I grew up with in Vadam are different from those elsewhere on the homeworld, and far different from any of the colonies. I can tell you the keep a warrior hails from by the fold and cut of his cloak, not just which fleet gave him his armor. A hunter from Bothaes and weaponsmith from Qikost curse with different words. The finest dancers are from Mol, where the art was a cover for how their women have always taught one another to fight.

If the times we lived in were more peaceful, I would wish to show you the market of one of our great port cities. Even a human could find something of agreeable taste there.

Sangheili and the Covenant were as muscle and bone, each unable to move without the other. It is difficult even for our scholars to completely detach our ancestors' oldest ways from how they were shaped by it. There is sorrow in this, but perhaps it is sometimes relief. The truth is that not all old ways are good ways. Sangheili never required the Prophets to make our mistakes for us. We had already begun on our own.

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Does your back hurt, king? From carrying the entire Sangheili people since the fall of the Covenant? Do you need someone to ease the pressure?

The least that I could stand to offer is everything that I am able, but do not give me borrowed honor.

Were I without allies, it would not be enough.

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Arbiter, there’s a human expression of “tracers point both ways” when it comes to illuminated shots going down range. Have you ever felt that given how plasma weaponry reveals the shooter’s location almost immediately puts the user at severe tactical disadvantage (especially for concealment/snipers/designated marksman etc) or does plasmas ability to chew through shields outweigh the lack of stealth in your judgement?

Y’all got amazing active camouflage technology, it just always baffled me that you would exclusively use weaponry that would negate the effect almost instantly.

It is a puzzle of strategy one must contend with to use plasma at range, yes. But a weapon fired marks the marksman regardless, and a sniper has the gifts of range, surprise, and choice of vantage. It is a poor commander who cannot leverage these.

As for camouflage, it was not universally deployed and is not now. The power a camouflage module pulls from a harness generator compromises the strength of a warrior's shielding. While it is useful in its place and in skilled hands, sometimes there is very little advantage it buys.

I have heard human weapons used in situations where plasma light would give away movement, but this too is a trade.

There is value in one's reputation as an honorable fighter, and the choice to shed it is not small.

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do sangheili have dentist

Yes.

It is my hope that in the future, medical professionals such as these will be treated with greater respect among my people.

In fact, I insist.

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Scenario:

You are transported back in time, days maybe even weeks before you become the Arbiter. You meet your younger self.

What do you say to him?

The truth, though it would not be easy.

In the weeks prior to being made Arbiter, I was imprisoned pending execution. My failure at Halo was already numbered among the greatest disasters in the history of the Covenant. The gambit I played in refusing to submit to the will of the Minor Prophet of Stewardship would have been sufficient to mark me for death even had the consequences been far better. I knew what I had done, and I believed I knew my fate.

I was a faithful servant of the Covenant, repentant of my crime, and prepared to meet my death with whatever poise I could yet muster. The truth, that the Prophets' words were lies and Truth himself planned to turn the Brutes on my people, would have been difficult for me to accept even from someone well-trusted. This is not just because I was loyal, though I was, but because it would have seemed too easy an answer to my shame.

The shameful act itself is bad enough, but to shirk the weight of guilt is even more lowly. And I was about to die with little enough honor as it was.

However, I believe I know myself. And it is fortunate for me that I've found I have a gift for persuasion.

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Arbiter, you've been around humans long enough that I suspect you've had a chance to try some of our cuisine and sample our culture. If by some chance I have any sangheili join @authortobenamedlater and myself for our Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays that are coming up fast, I need to know what to serve and what to avoid if I wind up having any sangheili guests. 1. Do sangheili, in general, find bacon as irresistible as humans do for the most part? 2. Just how rare or well done would your average sangheili like their steak? 3. Salad. Take it or leave it? 4. Do y'all like cheese and dairy products or is serving that liable to get me into a firefight since you're a saurian species? 5. Any other cultural faux pas a human host should watch out for with sangheili guests? 6. Hold the booze or go all out?

Salt-cured meats have a place in our food culture as well.

This can be dependent upon sect and how much blood is permissible in meats. Blood has deep meaning for most Sangheili. Naturally, we often disagree on what to do about this. For me, I will trust the judgment of my host on what is best.

I have not eaten this, but would make an effort.

Are these as variable among humans as they are among Sangheili? I doubt there would be offense.

I would need to consult with one of my experts on details I am likely to miss, as I dine with humans less often than some of my people. But on Sanghelios it is considered disrespectful to pour a drink from a shared vessel on someone else's behalf.

It is my experience that most of us will try anything, once.

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Do you ever regret joining the Covenant?

I did not join the Covenant, in the same way that I did not join the House of 'Vadam when I was hatched. I am son of a great house of Sanghelios. I was Covenant. It was a foregone conclusion determined millennia before my birth.

I wish it had not been.

But more than this, I wish I had come to mistrust it sooner, and not been so easily plied by what it offered me.

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Mr. Arbiter sir. I am a UNSC operative who's run in a few joint operations with the Swords of Sangheilios before. I've come to call a few friends, even had shore leave on Paxopolis (have you been there?). ...But sometimes Sangheili allies say things like "Nice eyeballs" or "I like you but damn" and "I think you're cute" unprompted. Latest was "If you gaze at me much longer we might as well exchange fluids" (full eye contact). Are they jokes? Flirts? I do not know your culture well. Please help.

Recent years have afforded me few opportunities to leave Sanghelios, but the reports I have heard from the joint effort at Paxopolis are promising.

As for the question: I cannot say without knowing the context, the warrior, or the tone. We are not so different from humans that way.

If you think it is a bluff, see how they change their footing when you call it.

There is a saying I have adopted from your people: Fortune favors the bold.

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Do subanese crystals… taste good? They remind me of a classic earth candy, rock candy. They are crystals of sugar (very sweet substance) that are coloured to look more appealing.

I could not go near a Needler, I’d take a bite out of one of the crystals and turn my face to mist.

I have not had the misfortune of tasting one. I can, however, recognize the smell of a crystal detonation. Most who wield a Needler for any length of time learn to.

It is not appetizing.

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Why does the master chief call you baby girl

If he does, he does not do it to my face.

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How’s Sangheilios right now? Seeing those Created robot things walking around here made me think that you elites probably aren’t doing too well.

The Tyrant occupied Sanghelios with a will, and we did not take it kindly.

My hand was locked in place by my obligation to my people. We saw what became of Doisac when Atriox refused to bow, and I could not oppose her directly without my people sharing the same fate.

The Created's fall has not been instant, but the loss of Cortana has made it possible for us to openly fight.