Sangheili
Sangheili
Attributes
Dice: 16D
Dexterity: 3D/5D
Knowledge: 2D+1/4D+1
Mechanical: 2D+1/4D+1
Perception: 2D+2/4D+2
Strength: 3D/5D
Technical: 2D+2/4D+2
Move: 12/15
Size: 2.2 - 2.6m
Weight: 140 - 180kg
Special Abilities
- Jumping: Sangheili's strong legs give them a remarkable jumping ability. They receive a +2D bonus for their jumping skill.
- Bite: Sangheili's sharp teeth do STR+1D damage.
- Acute Senses: Because of their keen eyesight, smell and hearing, Sangheili receive a +1D when using the search skill.
Description
Sangheili are generally between 2.2 meters tall and 2.6 meters tall including helmet and armor, have two fingers and two thumbs on each hand which are much larger than human fingers and thumbs, which make the Sangheili look ungainly when wielding small human weapons such as the pistol. This large, odd appearance has given them the few names "Alligator" and "Dino". They look vaguely like lizards or theropods, except for their jaws. When wearing armor, they take on a shark-like look because of the "fins" on the sides of their helmets. Their jaws are made up of four separate mandibles attached to their face, similar to those found on the lower jaws of snakes from Earth. The Sangheili are attributed for great strength and intelligence, and are praised for their bravery and honor. Sangheili warriors augment these natural abilities further through use of Energy Shields integrated into their armor. Depending upon rank and mission objective, they are commonly seen in battle with Plasma Rifles, Needlers, Covenant Carbines, Needle Rifles and sometimes, if they are higher ranked, Energy Swords. Sangheili employ coffin-shaped Orbital insertion Pods as well as Phantom and Spirit Dropships for military transit purposes and rapid-response operations. Historically, Sangheili have followed the Covenant mentality of maintaining hatred towards Humanity, believing them to be an affront to their religion and a challenge towards the Great Journey. However there are signs that this stance is being slowly abandoned as seen in the tentative alliance between the two enemies, forming the core allied faction at the end of Halo 2 and during Halo 3.
Anatomy and Physiology
Sangheili are muscular and stand around between 2.2 meters tall and 2.6 meters tall. Their jaws are quadruple-hinged, with an upper jaw and four mandible-like lips. With few exceptions, these mandibles are generally shown with six teeth each; many sources also depict an additional large fang on the tips of each mandible. Anywhere from eight to ten broader teeth have been observed mounted on the central jaw structure. In Halo Wars and Halo: Reach, the Sangheili are depicted with more numerous, more feral-looking teeth. In the Halo Legends short The Duel, the Sangheili Han, Fal 'Chavamee, and Roe, keep their mandibles closed, using only the front two joints of their lower mandibles to speak, giving them a more humanoid appearance. While it may not actually be canon to the Halo franchise, it is possible that the Sangheili (save Ripa 'Moramee) don't usually use all four of their mandibles, except when breathing heavily; an example would be during combat situations, though this has yet to be confirmed. Sangheili smell with the use of two nostrils, each a little in front and below the eye socket. Given their predatory nature, a Sangheili's sense of smell is likely very developed. However it must be noted that as a distinct race they may have omnivorous tendencies. The mandibles appear to be made for gripping small prey, which insinuates that the Sangheili evolved from a quadruped race and that they are much larger than their natural prey. Their hands are tetradactyl, having four digits; two middle fingers, and two opposing thumbs on the outside for grasping. Their legs are digitigrade, with short upper and lower legs, and elongated tarsals, using the distal and intermediate phalanges to support their weight when walking. This arrangement possibly allows them to run very quickly and jump large distances, compared to ordinary humans and other Covenant races. Their superior agility may also be attributed to their homeworld's higher gravity; the additional strength required to move normally in a high-gravity environment would likely cause them to be more powerful in lower gravity situations. They also appear to have a double set of pectoral muscles, which contribute to their incredible strength.
Sangheili have at least two hearts, which circulate Purple/indigo-colored blood through their veins; the coloration is most likely caused by bimetallic hemoglobin, possibly cobalt-iron, whereas the crimson-blooded Humans possess monometallic iron-based hemoglobin. Though there are many theories on the subject, the chemical formula of Sangheili hemoglobin is still unknown. It is assumed that they breathe oxygen, as they can breathe the same atmosphere as Humans without any trouble, and their homeworld has a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, similar to Earth's.
Although Sangheili skin color and texture varies from light brown and scaly to black and smooth, most appear to have dark grey skin (which in Halo 2 looks spotted or scaly), and the majority have either dark blue, black, or brown eyes, although there are a few exceptions. It has been theorized that the reason Sangheili seem to have dark, blue eyes is because they wear eye coverings (which provide their in-game HUD). This hypothesis comes largely from the Arbiter's appearance - when standing before the High Council in his armor, his eyes were dark, but after his armor was removed, his eyes became a much lighter brown—and is also supported by the fact that in Halo: Combat Evolved, a Sangheili's eye color is always the same color as their armor. Sangheili have laterally-positioned eyes with slit-shaped pupils, large irises, and horizontal eyelids, though these traits can only be seen in Halo 3 - Sangheili in Halo 2 have all black eyes with no pupils except for the Arbiter, and in Halo: Combat Evolved they never blink. However, this is probably the result of animation.
Female Sangheili however, have an almost human appearance like how they often (If not always) have braided dark colored hair. They have a dark tanned skin and human like, almond shape eyes. A distinguishing property that they have is that they have no visible mandibles, unlike their male counterpart, and have an actual set of human like jaws. This can be proven wrong however as Halo Legends is shown to be non-cannon, and is possible that actual females look nothing like this sort.
In Halo: Glasslands and Halo: The Thursday War female Sangheili are described as being far more similar in appearance to male Sangheili than they are in Halo: Legends. The best canonical instance, Raia 'Mdama was described as being slightly shorter than the average male and having paler skin tone.
In Halo: Contact Harvest, it is mentioned that the Sangheili are strange for bipedal species in that their knees do not bend backwards but forwards.[citation needed] This unusual hinging does not impair their mobility on ground but climbing, especially on standard ladders, is difficult for them.
Intelligence
"Although Elites are naturally very intelligent, their culture's long dependence on a military-industrial schema has led to an emphasis on might over science. In some regards, the advent of the Covenant made this position easier-allowing the Elites to concentrate even more singularly on military endeavors, while Prophets took care of science and technology."
— 343 Guilty Spark in the Bestiarum
The Sangheili are intelligent and can demonstrate this in battle. Sangheili are normally on the move when fighting, constantly running and ducking, strafing and dodging when firing at the enemy. It should be noted that not all Sangheili make use of cover because of their superior strength; these are the Sangheili who hold the ranks of either Zealot or Councilor. The Sangheili seem to employ complex strategy only if it either improves success in battle, or it allows them to inflict more casualties on their enemies. In ship-to-ship combat, despite having the advantage of long range weapons such as Plasma Torpedoes, the Sangheili prefer to maneuver in close in an attempt to board their opponent's vessel. These Sangheili charge their enemies with reckless aggression, regardless of any damage they sustain; only very seldom do they admit temporary defeat. They are quite capable of luring their enemies into traps by falling back into cover; as the enemy approaches, a Sangheili will spring from its position and land a massive melee hit on the unsuspecting opponent, and is especially even more dangerous if the hiding Sangheili is carrying an Energy Sword due to the weapon's lethal melee power. With great and varied long-range weapons, they choose to fight in hand to hand combat.
The Sangheili are competent tacticians, known for their ferocity and decisive thinking. This is shown to be true in space during ship-to-ship combat, even when horribly outnumbered; they can win the fight with only few losses. An example of this is the Battle above Installation 00, when Truth's fleet outnumbered Sangheili forces three-to-one, yet the Sangheili prevailed with at least the Assault Carrier Shadow of Intent. However it should be noted that the Sangheili received and possessed ship technologies from the Prophet's study of Forerunner technology, perhaps a century or several centuries more advanced than that of Humanity. Examples include advanced reactor technologies with power outputs several orders of magnitude greater than Human reactor technologies, powerful shields capable of withstanding up to 3 MAC impacts, highly effective point defense laser turrets capable of fending off sizeable barrages of Archer Missiles and nuclear ordinance, and super-accurate Plasma Torpedoes and Energy projectors. Due to the lack of shielding on Human vessels, these plasma weapons were capable of outright destroying or disabling most Humans vessels in a single hit. The performance of their sub-light engines also far outstripped the maneuvering capabilities of Human vessels. Due to the vast technology gap, the tactical and strategic intellect of the Sangheili with respect to Humans cannot be ascertained.
There were incidences, however, of smaller Human fleets obliterating much larger Sangheili fleets such as Admiral Patterson's victory over Voro Nar 'Mantakree's initial fleet over Onyx. This, combined with Admiral Preston J. Cole's repeated victories over Sangheili fleets throughout his career with numbers to offset the Covenant's massive technological advantage, as well as the fashion in which the Sangheili lost over two thirds of their entire invasion fleet over Reach to nothing more than ablative tactics, gives reason to cast doubt on the Sangheili's actual mastery of their own technology. For example, Cortana points out that had they known the extent of their own Slipspace technology, they could have simply bypassed Reach's orbital defenses by appearing in-atmosphere. This should hardly been surprising given that most of the technology utilized by the Covenant has been reverse-engineered from Forerunner technology; the Sangheili could use the technology but had very little grasp of how it actually worked. Indeed, this also appears to happen between the Sangheili and the Jiralhanae. Although the two possess similar ships, the Sangheili possess slightly more sophisticated technology which gave them an edge over their Jiralhanae counterparts, such as the Counter Guidance Signal technology used to disrupt the guidance of plasma torpedoes. The Jiralhanae's grasp of this technology in comparison to the Sangheili's was poor.
However, their dominance over the Jiralhanae is more likely due to the Sangheili having much more experience with ship to ship combat. At the time of the Great Schism, very few Jiralhanae Shipmasters had ever commanded warships, while their Sangheili counterparts had years if not decades of experience in that field.
As much as Sangheili are, for the most part, competent when it comes to combat tactics and battle plans, their code of honor does get in the way of it as they have shown a preference for close combat with their foes, and the majority of their weaponry is suited for short-ranged fighting. The Energy Sword, the most prized weapon of the Sangheili, is the strongest example of this. Swords are often carried and used as primary weapons on the battlefield by Sangheili Zealots and other superior officers, and although devastating in hand-to-hand combat, are useless at long range.
The Sangheili practices of commanders leading from the front and distinguishing leaders through colored armor has resulted in a very high attrition rate for Sangheili commanders. In many battles, Zealots have been killed early in the fighting (such as Noga 'Putumee), leaving their forces leaderless and uncoordinated. UNSC snipers have been specifically trained to pick out and eliminate high-ranking Sangheili. The Sangheili tradition of promotion through feats of arms on the battlefield has sometimes placed individuals of questionable tactical and strategic skill, such as Ripa 'Moramee, into high-ranking positions, purely because of their ability to kill their enemies personally. However, it should be noted that this isn't common and certain Sangheili such as Thel 'Vadam and Rtas 'Vadum are brilliant tacticians.
What the Sangheili consider to be dishonorable has also limited their flexibility in battle. Being wounded is considered a dishonor by the Sangheili, and it has been seen that most Sangheili go berserk upon having their blood spilled and charge straight at their enemies for revenge. Others, such as Jora 'Konaree, have chosen to kill themselves after being seriously wounded in battle. The preference of most Sangheili to die rather than live wounded has resulted in unnecessary casualties. Retreat is viewed as an even greater dishonor, and many Sangheili have doomed their selves to be killed rather than retreat. The UNSC and Jiralhanae have very frequently attempted to take advantage of the Sangheili concept of honor to lure them into traps. Examples of this include Battle of Delta Halo where Tartarus killed many Elites with the Fist of Rukt, Operation: FIRST STRIKE, Kurt's final actions in the Battle of Onyx, the Battle of Alpha Base, and Cole's Last Stand at Psi Serpentis. After the fall of the Covenant, the Sangheili's religious, superstitious, and political views have somewhat changed and have led to the realization that many of these beliefs are unnecessary and zealous rather than honorable. Although it was not favored, the Sangheili began taking after Human customs such as understanding blindly charging is in no way beneficial compared to finding a tactful solution, taking away the advantage enemies like the UNSC and Jiralhanae have attempted to use against them. This is something that is becoming more and more beneficial to the Sangheili, both culturally and militarily.