Last evening we received our first correct prolonged have a look at Paramount+’s long-awaited Halo: The Series, the newest in a lengthy line of makes an attempt to deliver the Master Chief out of video video games and into live-action. But not solely is the brand new present about to be the most important try to just do that, it’s additionally going to be diving into Halo lore that’s barely been touched upon within the video games themselves.

The Halo video games, the primary three particularly, largely deal with subjects that can in fact even be vital to Halo: The Series, together with Master Chief’ existence as a “Spartan,” the product of a superhuman genetic engineering venture; humanity’s conflict with the alien faction generally known as the Covenant; and the titular Halos. But even within the transient glimpses we’ve had of the present up to now, it’s clear that Halo: The Series goes to discover past these components, even prefaced with the thought of it being in a “similar-but-different” alternate timeline to a long time of Halo video games, books, and comics (which means some issues famous right here won’t play out identically within the TV present). Here’s the fundamentals of what it’s essential to know coming into the present, whether or not you’ve by no means contact a Halo recreation in your life, or are a diehard fan who hasn’t dipped their toes into the plethora of Halo tie-in content material over the previous 20 years.

What Is a Spartan?

The Master Chief—or John-117 to his pals, performed by American Gods’ Pablo Schrieber within the present—isn’t a single supersoldier, however one in all many made in a secretive black-ops science and army analysis experiment generally known as the Spartan-II program. The program was created by Dr. Catherine Halsey (Jen Taylor within the present, who additionally voiced each Halsey and her digital counterpart paired with Master Chief, the A.I. Cortana, within the video games), a scientist connected to the United Nation Space Command’s spy company ONI (the Office of Naval Intelligence). It started by inducting kidnapped younger youngsters who had been changed by quick-aging clones to keep away from their disappearances being noticed. Those kidnapped youngsters had been then skilled and indoctrinated for years at secret army services to grow to be the subsequent technology of the UNSC’s specialised combating forces.

In all, 75 youngsters had been inducted into the Spartan-II program, however lower than half of that quantity made it out. At the age of 14 after years of their coaching, each Spartan-II candidate underwent biochemical and biomechanical augmentation, made to radically enhance their energy, reflexes, sight, bone density, and myriad different bodily enhancements to a superhuman stage. But the augmentations had been wildly experimental: simply 33 candidates responded to the enhancements as meant. Thirty extra died in the course of the surgical procedures, and the remaining 12 had been left horrifically injured, bodily and mentally, forcing them to be washed out of the method.

Eventually paired with a likewise experimental analysis venture, the MJOLNIR enhanced armor system—designed to work in tandem with the superhuman augmentations given to Spartans, amplifying them even additional—the surviving Spartans had been a number of the strongest human troopers ever put into fight. Although later Halo video games would see the event of latest generations of Spartans—the newest being the Spartan-IV program—Halo: The Series seems to be following simply the early days of the Spartan-II program, and Master Chief’s rise particularly.

Why Were the Spartans Made?

The Spartan-IIs weren’t developed as a response to Halo’s notorious alien antagonists, the Covenant (extra on them in a bit), though they performed an important position in offering humankind a viable counter to the superior applied sciences of their eventual alien foes. Instead, the Spartan-IIs had been designed to present the UNSC the higher hand in opposition to their very own individuals.

In the twenty sixth century setting Halo takes place in, humanity and its Unified Earth Government have gone past Earth and their very own photo voltaic system to colonize the celebs—over 800 colony worlds existed by the point of the video games, divided into “Inner” and “Outer” areas, primarily based on their relative proximity to the Sol system. But these “Outer” colonies grew more and more pissed off on the forms of being managed by the United Earth Government. Underfunded and under-supported compared to the extra prestigious Inner Colonies, one after the other pissed off programs rebelled in opposition to the rule of Earth, first by way of peaceable protests and civil disobedience. Then, violent responses from the UEG and USNC’s colonial administrations fomented the rise of the Insurrection, a loosely unified secessionist faction that brazenly waged conflict with the UNSC.

The Insurrection battled the UNSC by way of guerrilla techniques and terrorist assaults for many years earlier than the Spartan-II program was accepted, partially resulting from Dr. Halsey’s perception that drastic army motion was the one resolution to keep away from full-scale conflict between Earth and the Inner and Outer Colonies. While the surviving Spartan-II’s first official operations had been in opposition to Insurrectionist leaders and different rebellious targets, as meant, they had been shortly and publicly drafted in to face the emergence of a brand new, horrifying risk: first contact with an alien empire generally known as the Covenant.

What is the Covenant?

A non secular hegemony established 1000’s of years earlier than human civilization in stars far past these reached by the UNSC within the early twenty sixth century, the Covenant was an alliance between eight alien species. It started with the San’Shyuum and the Sangheili (higher recognized by their human nicknames within the eventual battle between the Covenant and humankind, the Prophets and the Elites, respectively), who based the Covenant and finally inducted six extra races:

• The Huragok (Engineers, tentacled biomechanical beings with profound experience in historical expertise)
• The Mgalekgolo (Hunters, large colonies of worms certain in big fits of armor)
• The Unggoy (Grunts, the diminutive disposable entrance line troopers)
• The Kig-Yar (Jackals, raptor-like avian beings skilled as long-range specialists)
• The Yanme’e (Drones, flying swarms of insectoid creatures)
• The Jiralhanae (Brutes, cumbersome, bushy creatures who vied for the standing of the Elites within the eyes of their rulers)

The present seems to be including not less than yet another, or not less than a consultant of yet another completely new species: a mysterious blonde humanoid is seen attacking UNSC troopers with snake-like aliens, and asking them to give up to the Covenant, however little is thought about them at the moment.

The Covenant’s non secular beliefs revolved round worship of a precursor species generally known as the Forerunners, and the large technological superstructures these beings left behind within the wake of their extinction. Leveraging that expertise themselves to large acquire, the Covenant quickly expanded its empire, changing new member species alongside the best way or wiping out resistance. Encountering humanity first on the colony world Harvest—which Covenant forces promptly bombarded from orbit, utilizing plasma weaponry to superheat the floor in a course of that will come to be generally known as “glassing” a world—conflict shortly broke out between the UNSC and the Covenant, with tons of and tons of of human colonies falling within the course of.

What Happened to the Insurrection When the Covenant Attacked?

One factor Halo: The Series seems to be doing that the video games largely left to tie-in fiction—the unique Halo trilogy depicting the Covenant-Human conflict doesn’t point out the Insurrection in any respect—is exploring the ethical dubiousness of the UNSC’s response to the Insurrection, and the way these factions of rebel and secession live on within the face of alien invasion and the seemingly inevitable extinction of humanity. As beforehand talked about, the primary few video games don’t contact upon the Insurrection in any respect, and in numerous tie-in books and comics over the 12 monthss it’s established that Insurrection forces throughout numerous worlds both begrudgingly teamed up with the UNSC to face the Covenant risk, or had been left by the latter to be worn out by their alien foes.

With the surviving Spartans shortly redeployed in opposition to the Covenant in the course of the conflict, most notably the Master Chief, the Insurrection wasn’t precisely anybody’s high precedence—even when, after the conclusion of the UNSC/Covenant battle by the tip of Halo 3, myriad tie-in tales laid the groundwork for the truth that the Colonies’ points with the UEG’s rule over them didn’t go away simply because humanity at giant survived being worn out. We already know that Halo: The Series will adapt a personality from a few of these tie-in tales, Soren-066—performed by Bokeem Woodbine—who was a Spartan-II candidate washed out after the augmentation course of left him severely bodily malformed, pissed off by his remedy to the purpose that he defected to the Insurrection. Time will inform how vital a job he has within the present, nevertheless it looks as if it’s not going to right away make humanity’s insurgent factions disappear the second the Covenant exhibits up.

What Is a Halo?

So vital that it’s the title of the franchise, the Halo Array was a sequence of ring-shaped superstructures created by the aforementioned precursor species generally known as the Forerunners. The Halos housed their very own liveable biomes, and the Covenant religiously revered them because the apex of their gods’ technological prowess. In actuality, the Halo Array was designed as an enormous, galaxy-spanning superweapon that would eradicate all natural life in a single immediate, with a purpose to unfold the occasion of the Flood: a parasitic alien species that just about worn out the Forerunner’s large empire 100 thousand years earlier than the earliest growth of human civilization.

In the Halo video games, the Halo array is first encountered by humanity accidentally, when the Master Chief’s ship encounters one of many ring worlds after performing a random FTL bounce to keep away from Covenant forces who had invaded the human colony world Reach, placing into movement your entire gaming franchise. One of the few particulars we learn about how Halo: The Series’ newly established “Silver” timeline differs from the video games’ continuity, nevertheless is the teaser that this discovery won’t be framed as being unintended within the present, however a deliberate discovery by Master Chief and the UNSC. Just what influence that tweak can have on the sequence’ narrative because it goes forward is at the moment unknown, however we’ll discover out extra when Halo: The Series begins streaming on Paramount+ on March 24.

Wondering the place our RSS feed went? You can decide the brand new up one right here.