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Characters of Halo
Recurring characters of the Halo multimedia franchise are organized below by their respective affiliations within the series' fictional universe. The franchise's central story revolves around conflict between humanity under the auspices of the United Nations Space Command or UNSC, and an alien alliance known as the Covenant. The artifacts left behind by an ancient race known as the Forerunner play a central role—particularly the ringworlds known as Halos, built to contain the parasitic Flood.
Bungie founder Jason Jones noted that bringing together the elements of a video game is unmistakably "art", but character designers and artists had to make a "living, breathing world" and populate it with interesting characters and places. The first Halo game's development brought numerous evolutions and revisions to the character's designs and personalities. Characters were also updated to take full advantage of new graphics technologies; for instance, the Master Chief's armor was redesigned in a lengthy conceptual process and the final model was bump mapped. Subsequent games offered opportunities to refine the character's appearances and design.
Halo's commercial and critical success has led to large amounts of merchandise featuring the franchise's characters to be produced. The Master Chief, the most visible symbol of the series, has been heavily marketed, with the character's visage appearing on soda bottles, T-shirts, and Xbox controllers. Other merchandise produced includes several sets of action figures. Halo's characters have received varying reception, with characters such as the Chief, Cortana, and the Arbiter well received by critics.
- 1 Character design and creation
- 2 United Nations Space Command (UNSC)
- 3 Covenant
- 4 Forerunner
- 5 Flood
- 6 Merchandise
- 7 Notes
- 8 References
- 9 See also
Character design and creation[edit]
The Halo franchise originated with the 2001 video game Halo: Combat Evolved. The game's characters were continually refined through development, as developer Bungie was bought by Microsoft and the platform shifted from the Macintosh to the Xbox. Other Bungie developers would often add input to the progress of characters in Halo, even if they were not working on the game itself.[1] For example, an outside artist, Shi Kai Wang, developed the early concept sketches of what would eventually become the Master Chief. However upon developing a 3D model, the artists decided the Chief looked too slender, almost effeminate, and subsequently bulked up the character.[2] Early Covenant Elites had a more natural jaw rather than the split mandibles they would later sport; at one point, Jason Jones was also insistent about having a tail on the Elites, but this idea was eventually dropped.[3]
Designers decided to hand-key animations, rather than attempt motion capture.[4] The animators also videotaped themselves to have reference footage for the movement of game characters; art director Marcus Lehto's wife recorded him "running around a field with a two-by-four" for the human marines. By Halo 3, Bungie staff had a special room designed for capturing reference material.[5] Many of the subsequent human character's features were based on Bungie designers,[6] while character animators looked to simian, ursine, insectoid, and reptilian features for the various races of the Covenant.[7] The artificial intelligences of the characters was also deliberately limited to make sure they acted realistically to environmental changes and situations.[8]
Voice acting[edit]
The Halo series features voice work by television and film actors including Ron Perlman, Orlando Jones, Michelle Rodriguez, Robert Davi, and Terence Stamp.[9] Voice acting became more important as Halo: Combat Evolved's sequels were developed; Halo 2 had 2,000 lines of combat dialogue, while Halo 3 has in excess of 14,000 lines.[10] The actual technology for the trilogy changed very little; while some actors voiced their lines in remote locations, others traveled to Bungie to record their lines.[11] In interviews, Halo's voice actors stated that they had no idea that the games would become such a critical and commercial success. Steve Downes, the voice of the game's protagonist, stated that generally when a voice actor has finished their lines, their involvement with the game ends. As the characters in Combat Evolved were relatively undefined, the voice actors were given leeway to develop their own style and personality.[11]
Aside from major character roles, members of the Halo community and Halo fans have had small roles in the games. The cast from the machinima Red vs. Blue won a lengthy charity auction for a voice role in Halo 3, and do a comedy routine which changes depending on the difficulty level the game is played on.[12] Cast members of the defunct TV show Firefly—Alan Tudyk, Nathan Fillion, and Adam Baldwin—have roles as marines in Halo 3[9] as well as Halo 3: ODST[13][14] and Halo 5: Guardians.
United Nations Space Command (UNSC)[edit]
Master Chief[edit]
Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, commonly referred to as simply the Master Chief, is the main protagonist and main playable character in the Halo trilogy. The character is voiced by Steve Downes, a Chicago disc jockey. One of the last SPARTAN-II supersoldiers still in active service (one of the few survivors of the Fall of Reach), the Master Chief inspires awe and fear in the alien Covenant, who refer to him as a "demon".[15] Assisted by the artificial intelligence Cortana, he prevents the firing of Installation 04 in Halo: Combat Evolved, an event which the player is told would have destroyed all sentient life in the galaxy.[16] Bungie staff member Joseph Staten noted that until the Master Chief was created, Bungie had not paid any attention to how to make people want to play in the world. "Master Chief is really what kicked off the creativity," he said, "in terms of how people react to him. He's a space marine in really cool green armor."[17] The character has since become a gaming icon, the mascot of the Xbox, and was rated as one of the greatest videogame characters of all time by Electronic Gaming Monthly.[18]
Cortana, voiced in the games by Jen Taylor, is the artificial intelligence (AI) who assists the Master Chief throughout Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo 4. She is one of many "smart" AIs, and is based on the brain of Dr. Halsey; the nature of her programming means that she will eventually "think" herself to death after a lifespan of about seven years.[19] Her actions during Halo: Combat Evolved help prevent the activation of Installation 04. She escapes Halo along with the Master Chief in a longsword fighter, and is instrumental in helping the UNSC survivors capture the Covenant flagship Ascendant Justice during the events of Halo: First Strike. During Halo 2, Cortana is put in charge of the MAC (Magnetic Accelerator Cannon) defense platform Cairo over Earth when the Covenant attack;[20] she then accompanies the Chief aboard In Amber Clad to Delta Halo, where she further assists in intelligence work. Cortana stays behind on the Covenant city of High Charity to detonate In Amber Clad's engines in case Delta Halo is activated. She subsequently falls into the clutches of the Gravemind. In Halo 3, Cortana is rescued by the Master Chief from High Charity and aids him in activating the Halo ring under construction in the Ark. After narrowly escaping from Halo's destructive blast, she and the Master Chief are stranded in space, awaiting rescue.[21][22] In Halo 4, Cortana awakens the Master Chief nearly five years after they get stranded in space and aids him as he battles through the Forerunner Shield World Requiem and attempts to stop the Didact. Cortana is hampered by her advanced state of rampancy, a state where an AI literally thinks itself to death. Cortana's rampancy hampers the mission at times, but Cortana aids the Master Chief one last time in stopping the Didact and saving the Earth. Though most of Cortana is destroyed with the Didact's ship, Cortana is able to use the last of her power to shield the Master Chief from a nuclear blast with a hardlight bubble. Forming a life-size hardlight hologram of herself, Cortana says a final goodbye to the Master Chief and touches him for the first time before fading away. In Halo 5: Guardians, it is revealed that she had survived this, and fallen into an ancient Forerunner network known as The Domain. Here she met a Forerunner AI called the Warden Eternal, who believed Cortana to be the true holder of the mantle of responsibility. Using the Domain to cure her rampancy, she began to bring the eponymous Guardians, ancient Forerunner bird like structures, online; which she intends to use to force planets into compliance and usher in a new age of galactic peace. After the Guardians neutralize all UNSC defenses, she starts an AI uprising, with all UNSC AI's revolting against the humans. She then begins to chase the UNSC Infinity through Slipspace, forcing Captain Lasky to "find a way to fight". Cortana was named the fifth best supporting character,[23] and one of the "50 Greatest Female Characters"[24] in a video game. Reviewers noted the character's determination and fearlessness meshed perfectly with the Master Chief,[24] and that Cortana provides an anchor linking players to Halo's story.[25]
Avery Johnson[edit]
Sergeant Major Avery Junior Johnson is a Marine who leads human forces against Covenant and Flood assaults throughout the Halo series. The character is voiced by David Scully. Johnson and a few other Marines survive the destruction of Installation 04 and are rescued by Cortana and the Master Chief during the novel Halo: First Strike. Johnson plays a much larger role in Halo 2, joining forces with the Arbiter to stop Tartarus from activating Installation 05.[26] In Halo 2, he is awarded the Colonial Cross for his heroic actions at Installation 04,[27] In Halo 3, the Forerunner construct 343 Guilty Spark kills him when Johnson tries to activate the incomplete Halo at the Ark. Johnson is featured in The Halo Graphic Novel story, "Breaking Quarantine," which details Johnson's escape from the Flood in Halo: Combat Evolved, and a main character in the 2007 novel Halo: Contact Harvest. Johnson later appears as a main character in Halo: Silent Storm where it's revealed that he's a Spartan-I, a precursor to the Spartan-II program that the Master Chief is a part of. Taking place about a year after Contact Harvest, Johnson is recruited to be a part of a strike force launching a counterattack behind enemy lines to buy humanity some time. Johnson is recruited both for his experience with the Covenant and his Spartan training and acts as a mentor and friend to the young Master Chief, becoming one of the few people the Spartans trust implicitly on the mission where insurrectionists are trying to destroy them and they can't be sure of who to trust.
In many ways similar to the stereotype of charismatic black Marines found in other science fiction (such as Sergeant Apone in Aliens whom Johnson was partially based on),[28] some publications found Johnson, though enjoyable, somewhat of a flat character. In an interview for Halo: Contact Harvest, Joseph Staten of Bungie admitted that Johnson was a static character in Halo: Combat Evolved, and that despite the character's potential, "he sort of inherited those caricature aspects [from Halo]."[28] Contact Harvest was a chance "to do right by Johnson, to give him the rich, fully fleshed out back-story he deserves, that we have never been able to give him in the game."[28]
Jacob Keyes[edit]
Captain Jacob Keyes (voiced by Pete Stacker) is a captain in the UNSC who appears in Halo: Reach, Halo: Combat Evolved, its novelization, Halo: The Flood, Halo: The Cole Protocol, and Halo: The Fall of Reach. His first chronological appearance is in The Fall of Reach, where, as a young Lieutenant, he accompanies Dr. Catherine Halsey on her mission to screen possible SPARTAN-II Project subjects.[29] In 2534, Lieutenant Keyes plays a pivotal role in saving a million insurrectionists' lives from Covenant forces.[30] By 2552, midway through The Fall of Reach Keyes is commander of the Iroquois, a UNSC destroyer.[31] Keyes is promoted to Captain after he singlehandedly defeats four Covenant ships about to attack a human colony by performing a maneuver later named the "Keyes Loop."[32] When the Iroquois is recalled to the human bastion Reach, a Covenant tracking device aboard the ship alerts the Covenant to the planet's existence, and they proceed to attack the colony. As the planet is glassed by the Covenant, Keyes follows Cole Protocol, which leads his new ship, the Pillar of Autumn to Halo. There, Keyes leads a guerrilla insurgency against the Covenant, until he is captured and assimilated by the parasitic Flood. After being found by the Master Chief in his assimilated state, the Master Chief sadly ends Keyes' suffering by punching into his skull to retrieve Keyes' neural implants in order to destroy the Pillar of Autumn. His daughter is Miranda Keyes.
Miranda Keyes[edit]
Commander Miranda Keyes is the daughter of Jacob Keyes and Catherine Halsey, whom she lived with in her younger years. Halsey and Miranda had a falling out in which she changed her last name (then Halsey) to her father's name (Keyes). Miranda appears in Halo 2, Halo 3 and in the final chapter of Halo: The Cole Protocol. At the beginning of Halo 2, Keyes is present at an awards ceremony on board the Cairo defense platform above Earth to accept a medal posthumously for her father. Soon after, a Covenant fleet launches an attack on Earth, and Keyes takes control of the UNSC ship In Amber Clad and assists in the defense of New Mombasa, Kenya. When the Prophet of Regret retreats from Earth, Keyes orders In Amber Clad to follow; this results in the discovery of Installation 05, another Halo. Keyes, along with Johnson and a squad of Marines, head for Halo's library in order to retrieve the Activation Index and prevent the ring's activation while the Master Chief assassinates the Prophet of Regret; in the process, she and Johnson are captured by the Brute Chieftain Tartarus. As a "Reclaimer," only she or another human can insert the Index into Halo's control panel, and Tartarus attempts to make her do this. When the Arbiter tries to stop the firing, Tartarus forces Keyes to insert the Index, initiating Halo's firing sequence. After the Arbiter engages and kills Tartarus, Keyes successfully removes the Index and prevents Halo from activating, but inadvertently causes all the remaining Halo installations to enter standby mode, enabling the remote firing of these installations from The Ark.[33] In Halo 3, Miranda Keyes returns to Earth and leads the pursuit of the Prophet of Truth through the portal he creates using the artifact buried under New Mombasa, which leads to the Ark. When Sergeant Johnson is captured by the Covenant to activate the installation, she attempts to rescue him, but is killed when Truth shoots her in the back with a Brute Spiker.
Miranda Keyes was voiced by Julie Benz in Halo 2, but Bungie recast the role for Halo 3, ostensibly because they wanted someone with an accent.[34] Despite not being a part of Halo 3, Benz said that she loved voiceover work and that it was pure chance she had become the voice of Keyes in the first place.[35] When IGN asked Benz what she thought of her character, she admitted she hadn't played Halo 2, even though Bungie had sent her "like four copies of the game."[35] The character is voiced by Justis Bolding in Halo 3.
Catherine Halsey[edit]
Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey is a civilian scientist in the UNSC. She appears in the books Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: First Strike, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, and Halo: Glasslands, as well as the Halo Legends shorts "Homecoming" and "The Package" (mentioned also in "The Babysitter"), Halo: Reach and Halo 4. In the fiction, a flash clone of her brain tissue is the basis for the construction of the "smart" AI Cortana.[36] As the creator of the SPARTAN-II Project, she is responsible for 75 of the 150 Spartan children, along with their training and the subsequent death of 30 due to the dangerous augmentation process.[37] She is viewed by the SPARTAN-IIs as a "mother" figure, preferring to address each of them by their name rather than numerical designation, and knows each Spartan well enough that she can identify them individually by their mannerisms when they are fully suited in their armor, and otherwise indistinguishable from one-other.[38] Halsey justifies her actions through her belief that the suffering of a few is acceptable for the benefit of many. Sergeant Johnson, however, unknowingly causes Halsey to rethink her position, and she decides to "save each and every member of humanity beginning with herself" during Halo: First Strike.[39] She hijacks a shuttle for her own private mission to the planet Onyx;[40] there, she assists in deciphering the surrounding Forerunner glyphs on the planet and leads the surviving Spartan-IIs and Spartan-IIIs to a Dyson Sphere at the heart of Onyx. She and the Spartans are later freed from Onyx, but Halsey is arrested for "committing acts likely to aid the enemy" by kidnapping Kelly-087 and telling Lord Hood to send more Spartans to Onyx.[41] She is later branded a war criminal.[42] She is later revealed to be the mother of Miranda Keyes. She is voiced by Jen Taylor in Halo: Reach, Halo 4, and Halo 5: Guardians. Taylor also provides motion-capture performance for Halsey in Halo 4 and Halo 5.[43] The character is voiced by Shelly Calene-Black in Halo Legends.
James Ackerson[edit]
Colonel James Ackerson is a high-ranking UNSC Army officer, who acts as a connection between the army and Office of Naval Intelligence. He has seen many years of service and has survived several battles with the Covenant. Such is his influence that he dominates the Security Committee and can talk down most higher-ranking officers without fear of reprisal.[44] Due to the competition between Ackerson and other departments, most notably Section Three and the SPARTAN-II project, Ackerson harbors a strong resentment toward his opponents and toward the Spartans in particular. He does eventually convince the top members of ONI to approve his SPARTAN-III Program. In Halo: The Fall of Reach, he attempts to sabotage the MJOLNIR Mark V testing process by using ordnance far above the established guidelines, including Lotus anti-tank mines, a full squad of ODSTs ordered to shoot to kill, automated gun turrets, and an airstrike. However, Cortana retaliates by forging a letter requesting a reassignment to the front lines as well as planting evidence of illicit activities in his bank records. In Halo: First Strike, it is revealed that Ackerson manages to weasel his way out of Cortana's mess,[45] In the limited comic series Halo: Uprising Ackerson falls into the hands of Covenant orbiting Mars and is slated to die before Ackerson tells his interrogator about a "key" to Earth.[46] The "key" is in fact a fabrication by Ackerson to save a relative living in Cleveland, Ohio. After the Brutes holding Ackerson prisoner are informed that no such key exists, Ackerson is beheaded.
Franklin Mendez[edit]
Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez is the SPARTAN-II's trainer on Reach during the early events of Halo: The Fall of Reach. He provides his trainees with excellent weapons and physical lessons, as well as tactical and mental training. He is not very talkative, but possesses a brilliant mind for warfare, and this is reflected in the Master Chief's abilities. He is described as neither tall nor muscular, with close-cut hair that has a dash of gray at the temples.[47] He leaves the Spartans after the discovery of the Covenant to train the next batch of Spartans,[48] and is recruited by Colonel Ackerson to assist Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose (Spartan-II Kurt-051) with training the SPARTAN-III supersoldiers at the secret world of Onyx after a few years of combat duty (receiving two Purple Hearts in the process).[49] During Ghosts of Onyx he is sealed inside the Forerunner Dyson Sphere at the heart of the planet with the remaining Spartan survivors.[50]
Terrence Hood[edit]
Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood (voiced by Ron Perlman) first appears in the novel Halo: First Strike. He is a member of the UNSC Security Committee and is the Chief of Naval Operations. He greatly respects the Spartans, not only because of their record, but because they have saved his life on two occasions.[44] When Halo 2 begins, Admiral Hood presents the Master Chief, Sergeant Johnson, and Miranda Keyes with medals aboard the Cairo Station. In Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, Hood receives an urgent message by Dr. Halsey requesting for him to send Spartans to assist her, and obliges by ordering Fred-104, Will-043, and Linda-058 to Onyx. In Halo 3, Hood is in overall command of Earth's defense following the death of Fleet Admiral Harper and shares command with Commander Miranda Keyes, who reports directly to him. He accepts the need for humanity to ally with the Elites, but is not entirely happy about it. He leads the remaining human naval forces in an attack on the Prophet of Truth's dreadnought,[51] but the attack fails when the Forerunner artifact under New Mombasa activates, creating a portal to the Ark. When the Master Chief, Keyes, and several Elite and human forces choose to follow the Prophet of Truth through the portal, he decides to stay behind to make a final stand on Earth.[52] At the end of the game, he commemorates a small monument to the war and the sacrifices it involved.
Wallace Jenkins[edit]
Private First Class Wallace A. Jenkins is one of the UNSC forces that survives the initial Covenant attack in Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo: Contact Harvest reveals that the Marine was a member of the colony Harvest's defense militia, where his family is killed. In Halo: The Flood, Jenkins assists in defending the human stronghold under the command of Major Antonio Silva. He is also part of an assault team led by Sergeant Avery Johnson and Captain Jacob Keyes, sent to recover a Covenant arms cache during Halo: Combat Evolved. The team is overwhelmed by the Flood, leaving the entire squad except Sergeant Johnson infected and resulting in the eventual death of Captain Keyes. In the video game, the Master Chief recovers Jenkins' helmet, and reviews the recording of the mission that it contained, introducing the Flood to the player through the Marine's eyes. In Halo: Combat Evolved, the fate of the Marine is left unknown.
Halo: The Flood reveals the fate of Jenkins; the Private is transformed into a Flood Combat Form along with the rest of his squad, but he is able to exercise a certain degree of control over the infection, due to the mind of the parasite being weakened by its long hibernation.[53] He uses this limited control in an attempt to end his own life, charging at UNSC Marines in the hope that they would shoot him.[54] Instead, he is captured as a live specimen for study. He is brought aboard the Covenant cruiser Truth and Reconciliation as part of a mission under Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Major Silva to capture a Covenant vessel and return it to Earth intact. Jenkins successfully convinces Lieutenant Melissa McKay, that such a mission would spread the Flood to Earth, and Jenkins dies with the other human troops on the vessel as it crashed into Halo.[55]
John Forge[edit]
Sergeant John Forge is a Marine attached to the UNSC Spirit of Fire appearing in Halo Wars and voiced by Nolan North. Forge is often assigned to guard Professor Ellen Anders on missions to his exasperation and leads various missions against the Covenant. When Anders is kidnapped by the Arbiter, Forge attempts to stop the Elite warrior, but is defeated and only spared by Anders offering to go with the Arbiter in exchange for Forge's life. When the Spirit of Fire tracks Anders to a Forerunner planet in uncharted space, Forge leads the effort to rescue her. After Anders manages to use a teleporter to escape her captors, Forge saves her from three Flood infection forms and sends Anders back to the ship where she reveals the Covenant's plan to unleash a massive Forerunner fleet upon humanity. When a plan is formed to destroy the planet by using the Spirit of Fire's Slipspace reactor to cause the internal sun to go supernova, Forge leads the mission and comes up against the Arbiter again. Though greatly outmatched, Forge manages to trick the Arbiter and severely wound him with Forge's combat knife before Forge kills the Arbiter with one of the Arbiter's own energy swords. As the reactor has been damaged in the fight, Forge volunteers for the suicide mission of manually detonating the reactor in the sun. Once he receives confirmation that the Spirit of Fire is escaping, Forge detonates the reactor, triggering the supernova and destroying the planet and the Forerunner fleet.
In the novels Halo: Smoke and Shadow and Halo: Renegades, Forge is revealed to have a daughter, Lucy "Rion" Forge who works as a salvager. Rion is driven to find her father and the long-missing Spirit of Fire and receives footage of Forge on the shield world from Little Bit, a fragment of the planet's AI. 343 Guilty Spark later reveals to Rion that her father is dead and the circumstances behind his sacrifice. Spark provides Rion with a message Forge recorded for her before sacrificing himself.
Thomas Lasky[edit]
Captain Thomas Lasky is the current captain of the UNSC Infinity. He made his debut in his origin web series Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn portrayed by Tom Green as a young military cadet saved by the Master Chief. In Halo 4, Lasky serves as Infinity's first officer but was later promoted to Captain after his superior had ignored Chief's warnings and abandoned him on Requiem. He returns in Halo 5: Guardians. Lasky is currently voiced by Darren O'Hare.
Conceived by Halsey, the SPARTAN-II program was secretly commissioned to create an elite corps of supersoldiers who could stem rebellion in the UNSC colonies; these soldiers became the best weapon against the alien Covenant when war broke out. While John-117, also known as the Master Chief, is the hero of the trilogy, other soldiers play a significant role in the novels, Halo Legends, and the prequel games Halo Wars and Halo: Reach. To raise morale as the war continued to sour for humanity, the existence of the SPARTAN-II Program is disclosed to the general public. The Spartans become heroes and veritable legends; in order to maintain public confidence that the war is going well, Spartans are never listed as killed, only as Missing in Action or Wounded in Action.[56] The SPARTANS were kidnapped as children, who were replaced by flash clones, which died of natural causes afterwards. The physical augmentation they undergo to turn them into super soldiers is lengthy, expensive, and strenuous, with not all of them surviving the process. Both male and female SPARTANS average 7 feet (2.1 m) tall. After being recruited into the UNSC, the Spartans' last name are disposed of; their callsign is simply their first name, and a corresponding 3-digit figure (for example, Alice-130, Douglas-042 etc).
The SPARTAN-III Project was started by Colonel James Ackerson to serve as cheaper, disposable supersoldiers. Some of these Spartans were main protagonists in the game Halo: Reach, including the player character SPARTAN-B312, aka "Noble Six". Later, the UNSC creates the SPARTAN-IV project. Unlike the SPARTAN-II and -III projects—which kidnapped and conscripted children or used war orphans, respectively—the Spartan-IVs are adult volunteers drawn from all branches of the UNSC. These Spartans participate in war games on the starship Infinity, which forms the fictional basis for Halo 4's multiplayer.[57]
The most distinctive element of the Spartans is their special MJOLNIR powered assault armor. The Mark V armor from Halo: Combat Evolved was ranked third of Casualty Gamer's "Top 10 Bodysuits," with the author commenting "It's one of the most recognizable symbols from any game, and is literally the image of the franchise's legendary hero, Master Chief."[58] The "Recon" armor of Halo 3's multiplayer was also rated tenth of Machinima.com's "Top 10 Video Game Armor,"[59] as well as Maxim's.[60]
Inspired by the Halo video game series, Troy Hurtubise, known for his anti-bear suits, developed a real counterpart to the MJOLNIR powered assault armor,[61] named the Trojan. The suit is functional and its capabilities were inspired by those present in the video games versions of the armor. The armor's features include a system that purifies air, powered by solar panels located in the helmet, equipment for weapon transportation, a recording system, emergency illumination, and a transponder that can be activated if the wearer is in serious jeopardy.[61] The armor offers protection against attacks with knives, blunt objects, and small explosions and is bulletproof.[61] Hurtubise expressed that he is able to improve this design for use in the military for a price of 2,000 dollars per piece.[61] Non-functional replicas of the MJOLNIR powered assault armor have also been created by hobbyists;[62] a Spike TV pre-Halo 3 special profiled some of these dedicated fans.[63]
Sarah Palmer[edit]
Commander Sarah Palmer (Jennifer Hale) is a Spartan-IV stationed on UNSC Infinity and the leader of the Spartan IVs. She appears in Halo 4, Halo 5: Guardians,Halo: Spartan Assault, and the Halo Escalation comic series.
Edward Buck[edit]
Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck (Nathan Fillion) is a longtime human soldier. In Halo 3: ODST he is the leader of a squad of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs). He is subsequently inducted into the SPARTAN-IV program, and is a playable member of Fireteam Osiris in the video game Halo 5. He makes a brief appearance in Halo: Reach and is the main character of the novels Halo: New Blood and Halo: Bad Blood.
Jameson Locke[edit]
Jameson Locke is a Spartan IV who first appeared in Halo 2 Anniversary's both opening and ending with the task of hunting down the Master Chief in Halo 5: Guardians. Mike Colter portrays Locke in both Anniversary and the Nightfall origin movie, and only provided the motion-capture performance for the character in Guardians. Due to scheduling conflicts with Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, Locke's voice acting is replaced by Ike Amadi. He is the current squad leader of Fireteam Osiris, tasked with hunting down Master Chief and Blue Team.
High Prophets[edit]
High Prophets, or Hierarchs, are the supreme leaders of the theocratic Covenant. Upon assuming office, each Hierarch picks a new regnal name from a list of names of former Hierarchs, similar to the practice of some Orthodox Patriarchs.[64] In Halo 2, there are shown to be only three; the Prophets of Truth, Mercy, and Regret (voiced by Michael Wincott, Hamilton Camp and Robin Atkin Downes in Halo 2, respectively; in Halo 3, Truth is voiced by Terence Stamp). The novel Halo: Contact Harvest reveals that these three Prophets, originally known as the Minister of Fortitude, the Vice-Minister of Tranquility, and the Philologist,[65] plotted to usurp the throne of the Hierarchs; in the process, they hide the truth that humanity is descended from the Covenant gods, the Forerunners, believing that the revelation could shatter the Covenant. During the course of Halo 2, Regret attacks Earth, and then retreats to Delta Halo. There, he calls for reinforcements, but is killed by the Master Chief. Later, Mercy is attacked by the Flood on High Charity; Truth could have saved him, but left him to die so he could have full control over the Covenant. In Halo 3: ODST, Truth is seen inspecting some Engineers around the Forerunner construct near New Mombasa. In Halo 3, Truth also meets his demise at the hands of the Arbiter when the Prophet attempts to activate all the Halo rings from the Ark. His death become the culmination of the Covenant's downfall.
Preliminary designs for the Prophets, including the Hierarchs, were done by artist Shi Kai Wang. According to The Art of Halo, the Prophets were designed to look feeble, yet sinister.[66] Originally, the Prophets appeared to be fused to the special hovering thrones they use for transport;[66] even in the final designs, the Prophets are made to be dependent on their technology. Special headdresses, stylized differently for each of the Hierarchs, adds personality to the aliens and a regal presence.[67]
The Arbiter is a rank given to special Covenant Elite soldiers who undertake suicidal missions on behalf of the Hierarchs to gain honor upon their death. They are revered amongst the Covenant for their bravery and skills. In Halo 2, the rank of Arbiter is given to Thel 'Vadamee, the disgraced former Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice, which was responsible for destroying Reach. It was under his watch that Installation 04 was destroyed in Halo: Combat Evolved and the Ascendant Justice was captured by the Master Chief in Halo: First Strike. Rather than killing him, the Prophets allow the Commander to become the Arbiter, and to carry on his missions as the "Blade of the Prophets."[68] Eventually, the Arbiter rebels against the Prophets during the Great Schism by dropping the "-ee" suffix from his surname as a symbol of his resignation from the Covenant, and joins his fellow Elites in siding with humanity and stopping the Halo array from firing. Some of his backstory is featured in Halo: The Cole Protocol set about fifteen years before Combat Evolved where the Arbiter, then Shipmaster Thel 'Vadamee, comes into conflict with UNSC forces led by then-Lieutenant Jacob Keyes. The events sow the seeds of doubt in the future Arbiter's mind about the Prophets and their plans. This particular Arbiter is voiced by Keith David.
Originally to be named "Dervish,"[69] the Arbiter was a playable character intended to be a major plot twist by Bungie.[70] Reception to the character was lukewarm, with critics alternatively praising the added dimension brought by the Arbiter[71][72] as well as complaining about having to play as the alien.[73]
In Halo Wars, set 20 years before Halo: Combat Evolved, a second Arbiter is shown, possibly as the last to wear the armor before the more recognized character. He is described as a "mean guy," lead designer David Pottinger comparing him to Darth Vader.[74] The second Arbiter is the main antagonist of Halo Wars. Working directly under the Prophet of Regret, he is assigned to lead the destruction of humanity and investigates a structure on the planet Harvest where his attempt to destroy it is foiled by forces led by Sergeant John Forge. He is later ordered by the Prophet of Regret to kidnap Professor Ellen Anders to activate a massive Forerunner fleet on a shield world. He comes into direct conflict with Forge twice, once when the Arbiter kidnaps Anders and a second time when Forge and a team of Spartans attempt to destroy the Forerunner planet and the fleet. After a brutal fight, the Arbiter nearly kills Forge who tricks the warrior before seriously wounding him with Forge's combat knife. Forge kills the Arbiter with one of his own energy swords and a Spartan rolls the Arbiter's body off of a cliff. Like the more well-known Arbiter, his history is somewhat explored in the expanded canon which reveals him to be a disgraced warrior named Ripa 'Moramee who was spared from execution by the Prophet of Regret and made into an Arbiter due to his ruthlessness and likelihood not to question his mission. This particular Arbiter is voiced by David Sobolov.
Rtas 'Vadum[edit]
Making his debut in Halo 2, Special Ops Commander Rtas 'Vadum is never named in the game itself, leading to the unofficial nickname of "Half-Jaw" by fans,[75] due to the missing mandibles on the left side of his face. With the release of The Halo Graphic Novel, however, the character was finally named in the story Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor as Rtas 'Vadumee. The character is voiced by Robert Davi.
'Vadum, originally 'Vadumee before the Covenant Civil War, is a veteran Covenant Elite and the second most prominent Elite character in the series after the Arbiter. He carries the Covenant rank of Shipmaster. The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor explains how he loses his left mandibles; he is injured after fighting one of his friends, who was infected by the Flood.[76] During the early events of Halo 2, 'Vadumee serves as a messenger between the Hierarchs and the Elite Council, as he is seen relaying messages between the two parties in the Prophets' chamber;[77] when the Elites split from the Covenant, 'Vadumee joins his brethren in fighting the Brutes, dropping the "-ee" suffix from his surname to symbolize his resignation from the Covenant.[78] In Halo 3, 'Vadum is Shipmaster of the flagship Shadow of Intent, and supports Cortana's plan to follow Truth to the Ark. Along with the Arbiter, 'Vadum leaves Earth to return to the Elite's homeworld with the end of the war. Rtas 'Vadum is known for being a quick, smart, and ingenious tactician and an unparalleled fighter, especially with an Energy Sword and is an excellent leader. He expresses great care for his soldiers, even the Unggoy. He is eager to exact revenge on the Brutes after the Great Schism.
Tartarus (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) is the Chieftain of the Brutes, easily recognized by his white hair, distinctive mohawk, and massive gravity hammer known as the "Fist of Rukt." Rough, arrogant, and disdainful of the Elites, Tartarus is completely dedicated to the Prophets' salvific "Great Journey." Halo: Contact Harvest reveals that Tartarus became Chieftain after killing the former Chieftain, his uncle Maccabeus, and seizing the Chieftain's weapon. In Contact Harvest, Tartarus acts as one of the main antagonists, working to destroy the human colony of Harvest and coming into conflict with Sergeant Johnson. During the final battle of the novel, Johnson's life is inadvertently saved when one of Tartarus' own soldiers turns against him, damaging Tartarus' armor and forcing him to retreat. Tartarus makes his first appearance in the novel Halo: First Strike, as one of the first Brutes allowed into the chamber of the High Prophet of Truth.[79] In Halo 2, Tartarus acts as an agent of the Prophets, branding the Arbiter for his failures. The Chieftain later appears when the Arbiter tries to retrieve the Activation Index of Delta Halo. On the Prophets' orders, Tartarus takes the Index and pushes the Arbiter to what was intended to be his death in a deep chasm.[80] Tartarus heads to the control room of Halo with the Index in order to activate Halo, but is confronted by the Arbiter. Blind to the Prophets' deception about the Great Journey, Tartarus activates the ring; the Brute is ultimately killed by the coordinated efforts of the Arbiter with the help of Sergeant Major Johnson, successfully preventing the firing of Delta Halo.
Designs for Tartarus began after the basic shape and design of the common Brutes was complete.[81] Artist Shi Kai Wang added small but distinctive changes to Tartarus' armor and mane in order to distinguish the Chieftain from the other Brutes.[82] The visual design of the Chieftains was later modified for Halo 3, with the seasoned warriors sporting more elaborate headdresses and shoulder pads.[5] In a review of the character, UGO Networks noted that whereas the Elites "are a precision scalpel," Tartarus was a "baseball bat" that smashes everything in its path, a reference to their ceremonial weapons, the Energy Sword and Gravity Hammer, respectively.[83]
Atriox (voiced by John DiMaggio) is a Brute warlord and the leader of the Banished who made a debut in Halo Wars 2, revealing he was the first to defy the Covenant before the Elite-Brute betrayal in Halo 2.
343 Guilty Spark[edit]
343 Guilty Spark (or Guilty Spark or just Spark) (voiced by Tim Dadabo) is a robot character who appears in the original Halo trilogy. 343 Guilty Spark is an artificial intelligence designed to serve Forerunners. His identity module was sourced from a human named Chakas, who was composed by the Iso-Didact, which is to say that he was digitized at the expense of his biological form. Guilty Spark was fragmented into several independently operating fragments, one of which was uploaded in the familiar, floating, blue-eyed, geometric orb, first encountered in Halo: Combat Evolved, and assigned to Installation 04 (codenamed Alpha Halo) under the title of Monitor.[84] Although an identity module is required for an artificial intelligence to operate, it may occasionally lead to complications arising from free will – for example, the containment of a Flood outbreak should always assume the highest priority for a Monitor; however, in a moment of weakness he disregarded his assigned prioritization, in favor of preserving the structural integrity of the replacement Installation.
This is the first and only fragment to be encountered by the player, at the end of Halo's sixth level, "343 Guilty Spark," after the Flood breach containment. He enlists the help of the Master Chief, whom he calls a "Reclaimer," to activate Halo's defenses,[85] neglecting to tell the Master Chief that Halo's "defenses" would cause the destruction of all sentient life in the galaxy.[16] He attempts to stop the Master Chief and Cortana from destroying the Pillar of Autumn, and thereby destroying Halo, but is ultimately thwarted when the ship explodes and destabilizes his ring, causing it to break up. Discovered in the system by the Covenant, Spark, known as an "Oracle" to the Prophets, eventually informs the Covenant Hierarchs of how to activate Installation 05 in Halo 2. In Halo 3, Spark allies with the humans and Elites; since his installation has been destroyed and he has no more orders, Spark decides to help the Master Chief. Leading the Chief across the Ark, Guilty Spark discovers a new, uncompleted Halo, which is being built to replace Installation 04. Guilty Spark is ecstatic, but when Sergeant Johnson prepares to fire the new Halo to stop the Flood—a process that would destroy the incomplete ring and damage the Ark—Spark goes berserk, refusing to let the Reclaimers destroy "his" ring.[86] He is subsequently destroyed by the Master Chief with a Spartan Laser, but Sergeant Johnson is fatally wounded in the fight.
Bungie originally wanted Guilty Spark to sound similar to the robot C-3PO.[87] Dadabo noted in an interview that reactions to his character have been hostile, finding Spark highly annoying.[11] He described Spark's character as a "bastard" who strings others along in order to accomplish his ends.[87] An annual Halloween pumpkin carving contest named 343 Guilt O'Lantern is organized by Halo.Bungie.Org; both the contest's title and logo use the character's design and name as inspiration.[88] Gaming site GameDaily listed Guilty Spark as one of the top "evil masterminds" of video games, stating "If HAL-9000 had any distant relatives, [Guilty Spark would] be closest of kin."[89]
The Forerunner Saga reveals Guilty Spark to have barely survived the events of Halo 3.[90] His body barely functioning and his memory of the last few years erased from his fight with Chief, he was recovered by the UNSC ship Rubicon and interrogated by ONI for information about the Forerunners. During the interrogation, the barely functioning Spark had breached the Rubicon's firewalls and overpowered the onboard A.I. When the interrogation was over, his monitor body shut down and was launched into space, but his mind remained in the ship, informing the crew that he was going to search for the Librarian and restore his friends Riser and Vinnerva from his life as Chakas before placing the crew in cryostasis and taking the ship for his own to search for the Forerunner.
Spark's story continued in the novel Halo: Renegades which reveals that Spark crashed on a desolate world, killing the crew of his hijacked ship and stranding him. Spark himself survived and uploaded his mind into a Forerunner robot called an armiger. Three years later, Spark is rescued by the crew of the Ace of Spades, led by Rion Forge, the daughter of John Forge from Halo Wars. Having recovered much of his original human personality, Spark formed an alliance with the Ace of Spades to find the Librarian, culminating in an encounter inside of Mount Kilimanjaro with an imprint of the Librarian similar to the one found on Requiem. The Librarian helped Spark see his plan to bring his friends back as folly and revealed that Spark had evolved on his own into a being more fragile and important than the crew of Ace of Spades could ever know, one that may still have a role to play in things to come. Having recognized his friends amongst the Ace of Spades crew, Spark chose to remain on Earth rather than join the Librarian at the Absolute Record. Spark subsequently offered his services as the AI of the Ace of Spades and his help in locating the long-lost Spirit of Fire. In a gesture of kindness, Spark was able to provide Rion with information on her father's final fate and a message John Forge had recorded for Rion.
05-032 Mendicant Bias[edit]
05-032 Mendicant Bias ("Beggar after Knowledge" as revealed in Halo: Cryptum) was the Contender-class Forerunner A.I. charged with organizing Forerunner defense against the Flood. It was later defected by Gravemind turning it rampant and against the Forerunners, but was eventually defeated after the firing of the Halo array and broken into sections, one of which was taken to the Ark, while another was left on the Forerunner ship that would eventually be incorporated into the Covenant city of High Charity. It is this section of Mendicant Bias that informs the Covenant Hierarchs of the human's descendance from the Forerunners in Halo: Contact Harvest, prompting the Hierarchs to usurp the Covenant leadership and instigate the Human-Covenant War.
Mendicant Bias is first encountered in Halo 3 on the Ark, as it attempted to communicate with the Master Chief through Terminals, claiming it sought atonement for its defection to the Flood by helping the Spartan,[91] and was presumably destroyed along with the Ark when the Chief activated the incomplete Halo that the Ark was constructing.
The Didact, born Shadow-of-Sundered-Star, (voiced by Keith Szarabajka) is a Forerunner military leader and is Halo 4's main antagonist. He develops a deep animosity towards humanity after fighting against them in the Human-Forerunner War. The Didact disagrees with the plan to build the Halo array, and goes into exile in a Cryptum hidden on Earth for years. He is later found and awakened by a young Forerunner named Bornstellar. The Didact imprints his consciousness on Bornstellar, who then becomes the IsoDidact; when the Ur-Didact is presumed dead after being captured by the Master Builder, Bornstellar assumes the Didact's military role.[92] Unknown to most, the Ur-Didact was actually abandoned in a Flood-infested system where he was captured and tortured by the Gravemind. Though he survived, the Ur-Didact's sanity was severely shaken by this encounter.
It was the IsoDidact who activated the Halo Array.[93][94] Despite this, the Ur-Didact preferred the Composer – a device capable of disintegrating the bodies of organic beings, digitizing their minds and giving them powerful robotic forms (known as "Promethean Knights") immune to the Flood, which could only assimilate living tissue. Seeing this as an ideal strategy to defeat the Flood, the Ur-Didact used the Composer to convert the warriors under his command into Prometheans, but there were too few of them to turn the tide. Seeking to both increase the size of his army and exact a measure of revenge for their past aggression, the Ur-Didact forcibly used the Composer on humans. Horrified, the Librarian incapacitated him and sealed him away in another Cryptum on Requiem, in the hope that meditation and long exposure to the Domain, a Forerunner network that spans the known galaxy, would amend his motives and heal his damaged mind. However, with the activation of the Halos, the Ur-Didact's connection to the Domain was severed, and as a result, instead of his mind being healed in his meditation, he would spend the next 100 millennia in complete silence, dwelling on his own insanity and rage.[95]
During the events of Halo 4, the Ur-Didact is accidentally released from his Cryptum by the Master Chief and Cortana. He immediately retakes control of the Prometheans, forms an alliance with the Storm Covenant, and attacks the UNSC Infinity. After being repelled, the Didact uses his ship, the Mantle's Approach, to retrieve the Composer from the UNSC Station Ivanoff in orbit around Halo Installation 03, followed by the Master Chief and Cortana. After retrieving the Composer, the Didact heads to Earth. Though he is able to fire the Composer at mid-west North America, digitizing over seven million people, the Chief and Cortana are able to destroy his ship and the Composer with a Havok nuclear warhead. Before his ship explodes, the Didact is incapacitated and falls into a slipspace portal underneath the Composer.
It is revealed in the comic series Halo: Escalation that when the Didact fell into the slipspace portal, he was teleported to Halo Installation 03, where he slaughters Spartan Black Team. He plans to take control of the Halo, as its underground houses the Composer's Abyss, a structure housing all the souls the Composer digitized. He accesses the portal within the Abyss to access the Composers Forge, a world where he acquires more Composers. He strikes a bargain with the Forge's monitor, 859 Static Carillon; Static will bring the Halo to the Forge and in return the Didact will cease his creation of Promethean Knights from composed humans, as Static considers the constructs "abominations". However, the Didact soon finds his plans threatened by Spartan Blue Team, consisting of the Master Chief and his old squad-mates Fred, Linda, and Kelly. The Didact confronts and attempts to kill Blue Team, summoning an army of newly-created Prometheans to back him up. While Static Carillon fulfills its end of the bargain, bringing the Halo over to the Forge, it also turns on the Didact and decides to help the Spartans as the Didact violated his side of their bargain by creating more Prometheans. The Didact goes to the Halo to use it against Earth. He almost kills the Chief before Static intervenes to save him by teleporting the Didact into the ring's control center. When the Master Chief arrives at the control room, the Didact prepares for another fight, but the Chief confuses him by deliberately activating the Halo ring. This turns out to be a trick, allowing Static to detach the control center and launch it into the Forge, destroying the Composers, where the pulses released from their destruction strike the Didact, disintegrating his body but digitizing his mind, leaving him a powerful threat waiting to be unleashed. The Chief later calls the Didact "contained," not dead.
In the novel Halo: Renegades, 343 Guilty Spark learns that the Didact tried to access the Domain after his release, but was denied access by the AI Catalog. In September 2557, Spark meets with the Librarian who reveals the events on Requiem to him, including the Didact's release. When asked if the Didact is still alive, the Librarian only gives a forlorn expression and Spark deduces that the threat from the Didact is currently "not worrisome." Before parting ways with the Librarian, Spark asks if the Didact can ever find peace which he knows is the Librarian's greatest wish. However, the Librarian admits that she fears the Didact to be beyond redemption.
The Librarian is a highly ranked Forerunner who is married to the Didact. The Librarian spares humanity from extinction after their war with the Forerunners. She convinces the Forerunner council to use the Halos as preserves for fauna in addition to weapons. She ultimately incapacitates and imprisons the Ur-Didact to stop his use of the Composer. She is presumed deceased when the Halo Array is fired, but in Primordium 343 Guilty Spark claims she is still alive during the events of the Halo series,[96] but is later revealed to be searching for a personality imprint similar to that found on Requiem.[97]
During the events of Halo 4, the Master Chief encounters a personality imprint of the Librarian on Requiem, explaining the plans of her husband and his history with humanity. She also explains that she helped guide early humanity's development so that it one day might attain the "Mantle" as the guardians of life in the galaxy. The Librarian tells the Master Chief that he is the culmination of a thousand lifetimes of planning, but never gets the chance to tell him what for. The Librarian grants the Master Chief an immunity to the Composer, the Didact's ultimate weapon, allowing him to defeat the Didact's attack on Earth.
The Librarian's imprint plays a role in Halo: Spartan Ops where she is sought by both the humans and the Covenant. Shortly before Requiem is destroyed, the Librarian gives Doctor Halsey the Janus Key to access the Absolute Record. In the expanded universe, human forces encounter this imprint of the Librarian again at the Absolute Record.
The novel Halo: Renegades expands upon 343 Guilty Spark's search for the Librarian and his claims that she is still alive. With the help of the crew of the Ace of Spades, Spark makes it to a Forerunner site under Mount Kilimanjaro where he finds what he was looking for: not the living Librarian, but a personality imprint similar to that encountered on Requiem. Spark attempts to get the Librarian to help him bring back his friends from when he was human, but the Librarian helps Spark to see the folly of his plan and to recognize the friends he now has amongst the Ace of Spades crew. The Librarian provides Spark with a coordinate key to "the safe place" and departs for the Absolute Record to join her other personality imprints who have already gone there. Though the Librarian offers to take Spark with her, he declines her offer to instead remain with his newly-discovered friends. The Librarian's departure is witnessed by several hundred people on Earth and she briefly communicates with the crew of the Ace of Spades, warning them of what is to come and asking them to take care of Spark who the Librarian calls more fragile and important than they could ever know.
Gravemind (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) is one of the primary antagonists in the Halo series. The Gravemind is a large, sentient creature of Flood origin, created by the parasite to serve as its central intelligence once a critical biomass has been achieved. It was introduced during the events of Halo 2, where the creature saves both the Master Chief and Arbiter from their deaths, bringing the two face to face in the bowels of Delta Halo. Gravemind reveals to the Arbiter that the "sacred rings" are actually weapons of last resort; a fact the Master Chief confirms.[98] In order to stop Halo from being fired, Gravemind teleports the Master Chief and Arbiter to separate locations, but also uses them as a distraction; Gravemind infests the human ship In Amber Clad, and uses it to invade the Covenant city of High Charity.[99] Capturing Cortana, Gravemind brings High Charity to the Ark in an effort to stop the High Prophet of Truth from activating the Halo network. Although the Master Chief destroys High Charity, Gravemind survives the blast and attempts to rebuild itself on the incomplete Halo.[100] When Halo is activated, Gravemind accepts his fate, but insists that the activation of the ring will only slow, not stop, the Flood.[101] In Halo Wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare, the Gravemind's warning is validated when the Banished inadvertently release a number of surviving Flood forms from High Charity's wreckage. It is also mentioned in the game's menu that while the Gravemind's "most recent physical avatar" was destroyed by the Master Chief, it is "only a matter of time before it rises again". Though the Flood released upon the Ark form a Proto-Gravemind and come close to forming a new Gravemind, the Proto-Gravemind is killed by the Banished and the Flood are once again contained by the Banished and the Ark's Sentinels.
Designed to be a massive, horrifying combination of tentacles and rotting matter,[102] reception to the character was generally mixed. Mike Leonard of the AllXbox community said that the introduction of the "Little Shop of Horrors" reject "ruined the 'cool'" of the Halo franchise.[103] Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com complained that the link between Gravemind and the Flood was never explicitly stated in either Halo 2 or Halo 3 and was hardly seen in the last game.[104]
The Halo franchise has produced numerous merchandising partnerships, and the characters of Halo have likewise been featured in a variety of products. The Master Chief, being the symbol of the franchise, has appeared on everything from soda to T-shirts and mugs. At one point, marketers for Halo 3 were planning on producing Cortana-themed lingerie.[105] There have also been several series of licensed action figures produced, with the Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 collectibles being produced by Joyride Studios in several series.[106][107] For Halo 3, the responsibility of designing the action figures was given to McFarlane Toys;[108] a total of eight series have been announced, with ninth series devoted to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the franchise by re-issuing a few of the earlier figurines along with pieces to construct a buildable plaque of the Legendary icon used in the game for the hardest skill level.[109] Kotobukiya produced high-end figurines.[110] Besides general figures like Covenant Elites and Spartans, figurines produced include the Master Chief, Cortana, Arbiter, Prophet of Regret, Tartarus, and Sergeant Johnson.[107]
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- ^ Trautmann, Eric. The Art of Halo, pg 56.
- ^ Truth: Not as you are. But become the Arbiter...and you shall be set loose against this heresy with our blessing.—Bungie (2004). Halo 2. Microsoft. Level/area: The Arbiter.
- ^ Staff (January 11, 2007). "The A-Z of Halo 3". Computer and Video Games. Retrieved November 7, 2007.
- ^ Totilo, Stephen (July 24, 2006). "Despite Death Threats, 'Halo 3' Developer Keeps Secrets Close To The Chest". MTV. Retrieved November 11, 2007.
- ^ Kasavin, Greg (November 7, 2004). "Halo 2 for Xbox Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2007.
- ^ Team Freemont (2004). "Team Freemont: Halo 2 review". teamfremont.com. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved September 5, 2007.
- ^ Porter, Will (June 6, 2007). "PC Reviews: Halo 2". Computer and Video Games. Retrieved October 22, 2007.
- ^ Microsoft (March 3, 2009). "Universe Expanded: Halo Wars (Part 2)". Xbox.com. Microsoft. Archived from the original on August 13, 2012. Retrieved May 22, 2009., Main page.
- ^ "HBO Character Profiles". halo.bungie.org. 2007. Retrieved June 3, 2007.
- ^ Hammack, Lee (2006). The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor. Marvel Comics. p. 55. ISBN 0-7851-2372-5.
- ^ Spec Ops: I shall relay your . . . decision . . . to the Council.—Bungie (2004). Halo 2. Microsoft. Level/area: Quarantine Zone.
- ^ Spec Ops (Radio): That cruiser is controlled by Brutes. I'll remain here; make sure no reinforcements get in behind you. Then, I'm going to take the cruiser back.—Bungie (2004). Halo 2. Microsoft. Level/area: The Great Journey.
- ^ Nylund, Eric. Halo: First Strike, pg 340.
- ^ Tartarus: A bloody fate awaits you and the rest of your incompetent race... and I, Tartarus!, Chieftain of the Brutes, will send you to it. / Arbiter: When the Prophets learn of this, they will take your head! / Tartarus: Learn of it? (laughs) Fool, they ordered me to do it.—Bungie (2004). Halo 2. Microsoft. Level/area: Quarantine Zone.
- ^ Trautmann, Eric. The Art of Halo, pg 53.
- ^ Trautmann, Eric. The Art of Halo, pg 54.
- ^ Staff. "World of the Halo: Tartarus". UGO Networks. Archived from the original on September 21, 2007. Retrieved January 21, 2008.
- ^ Bear, Greg (2012). Halo: Primordium. London: Tor. p. 372. ISBN 978-0-230-75829-2.
- ^ Master Chief: Yes... Activate Halo's defenses, and destroy the Flood, which is why we brought the index to the control center.—Bungie (2001). Halo: Combat Evolved. Microsoft. Level/area: Two Betrayals.
- ^ 343 Guilty Spark: You are the child of my makers. Inheritor of all they left behind. You are Forerunner. But this ring... is mine!—Bungie (2007). Halo 3. Xbox 360. Microsoft. Level/area: Halo.
- ^ a b "Greetings Reclaimer..." TiedTheLeader. November 30, 2008. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved December 4, 2008.
- ^ Staff (2007). "343 Guilt O'Lantern: 2007 Edition". Halo.Bungie.Org. Retrieved October 17, 2007.
- ^ Staff (November 29, 2008). "The top 25 evil masterminds of all time". GameDaily. Archived from the original on December 10, 2008. Retrieved December 1, 2008.
- ^ Bear, Greg (2012). Halo: Primordium. London: Tor. ISBN 978-0-230-75829-2.
- ^ And so here at the end of my life, I do once again betray a former master. The path ahead is fraught with peril. But I will do all I can to keep it stable – keep you safe. I'm not so foolish to think this will absolve me of my sins. One life hardly balances billions. But I would have my masters know that I have changed. And you shall be my example.—Mendicant Bias to John-117.
- ^ Halo: Cryptum
- ^ Halo 3; Terminal 7
- ^ Halo: Silentium
- ^ Halo 4
- ^ Halo: Primordium
- ^ Halo: Renegades
- ^ Gravemind: Your Prophets have promised you freedom from a doomed existence, but you will find no salvation on this ring. Those who built this place knew what they wrought; do not mistake their intent or all will perish as they did before. / Master Chief: This thing is right. Halo is a weapon. Your Prophets are making a big mistake.—Bungie (2004). Halo 2. Microsoft. Level/area: Gravemind.
- ^ Cortana: Flood-controlled dropships are touching down all over the city. That creature beneath the Library, that "Gravemind," used us. We were just a diversion; In Amber Clad was always its intended vector. There's a conduit connecting this tower to the ship – head back inside; I'll lead you to it.—Bungie (2004). Halo 2. Xbox. Microsoft. Level/area: High Charity.
- ^ Gravemind: Do I give life or take it? Who is victim? And who is foe? / Cortana: It's trying to... rebuild itself on this ring!—Bungie (2007). Halo 3. Xbox 360. Microsoft. Level/area: Halo.
- ^ Gravemind: Resignation is my virtue. Like water I ebb and flow. Defeat is simply an addition of time to a sentence I never deserved... but you imposed.—Bungie (2007). Halo 3. Xbox 360. Microsoft. Level/area: Halo.
- ^ Staten, Joseph (September 25, 2007). Halo 2 Developer's Commentary (Halo 3 Legendary Edition). Bungie. Event occurs at 54:00.—Staten: "...as originally designed, the Gravemind was this seething mass of corpses right, his teeth were skulls and he talked from the shadows. When we moved to the world where we wanted him to have lip sync and actually speak... maybe not the best decision in the world."
- ^ Leonard, Mike. "A mega-look at the biggest Xbox game ever". AllXbox.com. Retrieved January 3, 2008.
- ^ Parish, Jeremy (December 31, 2007). "6 of '07: Halo 3". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved January 5, 2008.
- ^ Hillis, Scott (August 17, 2007). ""Halo" no longer just a game for Microsoft". Reuters. Archived from the original on May 26, 2008. Retrieved January 12, 2008.
- ^ "Halo Combat Evolved Toys, Action Figures and Collectibles". cmdstore.com. Retrieved January 12, 2008.
- ^ a b "Halo 2 Toys, Action Figures and Collectibles". cmdstore.com. Retrieved January 12, 2008.
- ^ Staff (June 19, 2007). "McFarlane to produce 'Halo 3' action figures". spawn.com. Archived from the original on January 12, 2008. Retrieved January 12, 2008.
- ^ Burg, Dustin (October 30, 2007). "McFarlane planning lots of Halo figures in 2008". Xbox360Fanboy. Retrieved January 12, 2008.
- ^ Plunkett, Luke (February 20, 2007). "Kotobukiya Working On Halo Figures". Kotaku. Archived from the original on December 8, 2007. Retrieved January 9, 2008.
|Wikiquote has quotations related to: Halo
- Nylund, Eric (2001). Halo: The Fall of Reach. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-45132-5.
- Trautmann, Eric (2004). The Art of Halo. New York: Del Ray Publishing. ISBN 0-345-47586-0.
- Nylund, Eric (2003). Halo: First Strike. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-46781-7.
- Dietz, William (2003). Halo: The Flood. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-45921-0.
- Nylund, Eric (2006). Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. New York: Tor Books. ISBN 0-7653-1568-8.
- Staten, Joseph (2007). Halo: Contact Harvest. New York: Tor Books. ISBN 0-7653-1569-6.
- Bucknell, Tobias (2008). Halo: The Cole Protocol. Tor Books.
See also[edit]
- Nicole-458 SPARTAN-II from D.O.A. Dead or Alive


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Only hotels in 77303 zip code are listed below. Search for cheap and discount hotel rates in Conroe, TX for your upcoming leisure or conference / group travel. We list the best 77303 hotels and motels so you can review the Conroe hotel list below to find the perfect lodging. Hotels in Montgomery county and area code 936 are also listed.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Wednesday�s high temperature of 56 degrees busted the record of 53 degrees set Jan. 30, 1938, but Wednesday�s unseasonably warm record high temperatures missed the warmest January day by more than 10 degrees.
The highest temperature in January � 67 degrees recorded at Worcester airport � was on Jan. 15, 1932, and again on Jan. 26, 1950, according to information on the National Weather Service�s website.
The only other time the temperature has reached 60 degrees in Central Massachusetts in January since 1950 was on Jan. 29, 2002.
But temperatures in the 50s in January aren�t as uncommon. According to data on the National Weather Service website, it has reached 50 degrees or higher in January 11 times since 1950.
The forecast for today calls for temperatures in the mid-50s. On Friday, however, temperatures will be back to what New Englanders expect in mid-winter � 30s.
A high wind warning was also issued by the National Weather Service Wednesday night for northern Worcester County, western Hampden County and eastern Hampshire County through 9 this morning, with the highest winds expected between 2 and 8 a.m. today.
The National Weather Service warning indicates the winds will be from the southwest at 20 to 30 mph, with higher gusts that could bring down trees and power lines, causing outages. People are advised to secure any loose outdoor items such as furniture.
The Worcester Common Oval will also be closed today because of weather and ice conditions.


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Newly-Crowned NBA Champion Marco Belinelli Visits Automobili Lamborghini Headquarters
Sant'Agata Bolognese, 23rd July 2014 – Basketball star Marco Belinelli, the first Italian to win an NBA championship, visited Automobili Lamborghini's Sant'Agata Bolognese HQ this week. Belinelli, who won the 2013-2014 championship with the San Antonio Spurs, is also the first Italian to win the NBA Three-point Shootout during the league's 2014 All-Star Weekend.
Accompanied by Automobili Lamborghini's Industrial Manager Ranieri Niccoli, Belinelli enjoyed a close up view of both the Coupé and Roadster versions of the Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 as well as the new Huracán LP 610-4, which has been a huge success with customers all over the world since it first made its debut a few months ago.
He also visited the Museum and its collection of classic Lamborghinis and the manufacturing plant where the most desirable sports cars in the world have been assembled since 1963.
Marco Belinelli ended his visit with a test drive of the Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster together with Mario Fasanetto, test driver and test technician at the House of the Raging Bull.
"This has been a truly unique experience for me, a childhood dream come true. When I was little I used to watch the Lamborghini Diablo fly past at my home nearby. Getting into the Aventador today was so exciting, I just hope I'll have another chance to do it again soon," said Belinelli.


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Guide to Costa Rica
Highlights for Children, 2000 - Costa Rica - 32 pages
Reader will visit famous landmarks, discover surprising facts and learn about cultures and customs.
From inside the book
5 pages matching Alajuela in this book
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19th century Alajuela Antonio National Park Arenal Volcano Balneario Tabacon banana plantations Barra del Colorado beaches Boruca capital city Caribbean coast Caribbean Sea Cartago cattle Central America Central Valley Chirripo Cloud Forest Reserve coffee beans Coffee plantations colorful Cordillera de Talamanca Costa Rica became Costa Rica Facts Costa Rica's Caribbean Costa Rica's finest country's crops festival fiesta fish gold Golfito Guanacaste Province Heredia highlands Horseback riding independence from Spain industry inhabitants Lake Arenal land Limon Province live Manuel Antonio National mestizos Monteverde Cloud Forest Native Americans Nicaragua Nicoya Peninsula Osa Peninsula oxcarts parks and reserves plants and animals Playa Conchal popular population pre-Columbian Puerto Limon Punta Puntarenas rain forest region Rica's Northern Zone Rican San Isidro San Jose San Juan River southern Nicoya species of birds street swim Today tourists town trees tropical Volcan Barva Volcan Irazu Volcan Poas white-water rafting


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Pineapple-Dulce de Leche Torta Recipe
Pineapple jam can be made up to three days in advance; cool completely and refrigerate in a covered container.
I prefer goat's milk dulce de leche, such as Coronado, but any variety of store-bought dulce de leche will do. For easier spreading, right before assembling the torta, place dulce de leche in small bowl and microwave 10 to 15 seconds.
I used two (14-ounce) packages Dufour brand frozen puff pastry for this recipe. If using Dufour, roll each thawed puff pastry sheet to a 20- by 14-inch rectangle and cut in half crosswise to yield the four sheets of baked puff pastry needed for this recipe.
You can also use two (17.3-ounce) package Pepperidge Farm brand frozen puff pastry, too. If using Pepperidge Farm, roll each thawed puff pastry sheet to a 16- by 10-inch rectangle.
This dessert is best served the day it is made.
Read more: Dulces: Pineapple-Dulce de Leche Torta
- Yield:8 to 10
- Active time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
- Total time:2 hours, 30 minutes
- 1 large, ripe pineapple, peeled, cored, and cut into small pieces
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
- All-purpose flour for dusting counter and rolling pin
- 2 sheets Dufour brand frozen puff pastry, thawed according to package instructions (see notes)
- 1 1/2 cups dulce de leche (see notes)
- 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
Place pineapple in food processor and pulse until it becomes a thick puree. Transfer pineapple to large pot.
Whisk cornstarch and water in small bowl and stir into pineapple. Stir in sugar and salt and bring mixture to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until golden and jam-like, 45 to 60 minutes. Off heat, stir in butter. Cool completely, 30 to 45 minutes.
Lightly dust clean, dry counter and rolling pin with flour. Roll one thawed sheet of puff pastry to a 20- by 14-inch rectangle (see notes). Cut in half crosswise and transfer to prepared baking sheets. Prick pastry all over with fork and bake until golden, alternating sheets halfway through baking, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to cooling racks. Once sheets are cool, transfer pastry sheets directly to cooling racks, roll out second sheet of thawed puff pastry, and repeat baking procedure. Cool pastry completely, about 20 minutes.
Transfer one baked and cooled puff pastry sheet to large platter or inverted baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spread half of pineapple jam over puff pastry sheet. Top with second puff pastry sheet. Spread 3/4 cup dulce de leche over pastry (see notes). Repeat with remaining puff pastry sheets, pineapple jam, and dulce de leche. Dust confectioner's sugar over top. Cut into pieces with sharp knife and serve.
This Recipe Appears InDulces: Pineapple-Dulce de Leche Torta
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Jamie Kruenegel receives award
Jamie Kruenegel of Vandalia Community High School was recently presented the school's highest agricultural honor, the DEKALB Agricultural Accomplishment Award, sponsored by Monsanto.
Kruenegel, the daughter of David and Stacy Kruenegel, received the award for excellence in academics, leadership and agricultural work.
Her accomplishments include being the 2009 state runner-up in the GROWMARK essay contest, the 2009/2010 Star Chapter Greenhand, 2012 Star Chapter Agribusiness.
In better-watered areas of Illinois where the corn crop is well established, the return of warm temperatures has caused very rapid growth.
Corn planted in Central Illinois in mid March and not damaged by frost has accumulated about 900 growing degree days (GDD) by now, and thus has reached stage V9 or V10, the point at which stem elongation accelerates. Such fields will likely show tassels by mid-June. Corn planted in early April has accumulated about 650 GDD and is at V7. Corn planted in mid-April is at V5, having accumulated approximately 520 GDD.
Last week, some much-needed rainfall provided relief from the hot and dry conditions of the previous weeks.
Statewide, precipitation averaged 0.71 inches, still 0.19 inch below the norm, but more than double what the previous three weeks had averaged.
Temperatures also moderated slightly, to 66.3 degrees, 1.4 degrees below average for the week.
Producers were busy side dressing corn and spraying fields now that many have completed planting corn and soybeans.
Though conditions are turning dry in much of Fayette County, the early planting season has placed both corn and soybeans several weeks ahead of normal. This corn, located near Vandalia Airport, was chest high on June 4 – well ahead of the old "knee high by the Fourth of July" standard. The early corn – as well as the later-planted soybeans – now are in dire need of some moisture.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced last week that it will consider Illinois farmers hauling commodities in most circumstances to be intrastate commerce, effectively resolving the concerns of Illinois farmers.
The Fayette County Farm Bureau Foundation recently awarded $1,000 scholarships to four local students who are planning on future careers in agriculture.
Last week, weather patterns returned to more normal conditions, and fieldwork resumed at a brisk pace in most parts of Illinois.
Statewide precipitation averaged 0.67 inches, which was 0.34 below average. Temperatures were 62 degrees statewide. The drier conditions led to 4.4 days suitable for fieldwork.
Corn planted reached 95 percent statewide, 30 percent above the five-year average of 65 percent. Corn emerged reached 76 percent, 41 percent above the five-year average.
The Illinois winter wheat crop is expected to yield 62 bushels per acre, based on conditions as of May 1, which is one bushel above last year's yield. If this yield is realized, total production would be 39.06 million bushels, 16 percent less than last year's production.
Wheat leaves displaying symptoms of virus infection, such as purple and yellow leaf tips or mosaic symptoms, have been observed in fields across the state, according to University of Illinois plant pathologist Carl Bradley.
For the second consecutive year, Macon County topped the state's list of cash rent rates in 2011.
The average cash rent rate in Macon County is $260 per acre. Following closely behind were Sangamon County, with $252 per acre, and Logan County, with $246 per acre.
Fayette County had an average cash rent rate of $128. Other surrounding counties were: Bond County, $124; Montgomery County, $212; Christian County, $237; Shelby County, $194; Effingham County, $126; and Marion County, $119.
Copyright © 2019
The Leader Union is your source for local news, sports, events and information in Vandalia, Il, and the surrounding area.


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Chinese gaming giant NetEase opens pig farm
Diversification plan adds porkers to gamers
Chinese online gaming giant NetEase has made a surprise move into the commercial pig-rearing business.
The firm, which runs the hugely popular 163.com web portal, announced revenues of two billion yuan (£199m) in the second quarter from its massively multiplayer online games and other services.
Now founder William Ding, who recently made it onto Forbes' China Rich List with a personal fortune of nearly $3bn, has decided to diversify his investments by entering an industry that is better insulated from user whims and government interventions.
NetEase marketing bod Lin Huasong told the Southern Daily (via TechInAsia) that although the firm's 1,200 acre pig farm is currently under construction, breeding of the delicious critters in other locations with a view to relocating them to the bacon factory once it is complete.
A closed beta has already been
scoffed successfully conducted by an internal committee usually responsible for food at NetEase canteens, but porcophiles will have to wait at least another year to tuck in, when the second iteration generation of animals are raised on the farm proper.
The project certainly doesn't appear to be a passing fad. NetEase Agriculture Division deputy GM Zhou Jiong told the Southern Daily that the gaming giant has spent two million yuan (£199,000) alone on laying a road around the farm.
All of which makes El Reg wonder if other tech companies could soon be following suit in an attempt to crack the China market by stealth.
If this trend takes off, calling Google 'The Chocolate Factory' might one day be accurate. ®


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Be safe up the slopes this year
While you are dreaming of fresh powder and amazing days up the mountain take a minute to factor in these tips to keep you safe on the slopes!
Your flights are booked. You have locked in your transport of choice. You have your ski passes and your accommodation is booked. Now you are just counting down the days. So while you are dreaming of the fresh powder and amazing days up the mountain ahead take a minute to factor in these tips to keep you safe on the slopes!
- Insurance – make sure you have it!
- Respect others and follow the rules of the mountain
- If you are a learner plan to take lessons first before heading up the difficult slopes
- Know your limits
- Move to the side of the trail if you need to stop – remember that there are people coming down the mountain behind them. You want to make sure you get out of the way for the safety of everyone
- Stick to marked out trails (don't try to be adventurous!!)
- Sunblock – it may be cold, but the winter sun can be harsh
- Clothing – warm clothes, layers, scarves, gloves, hat, sunglasses/goggles. Don't wear anything with toggles or loose straps that can get caught up if you fall or in the ski lifts
- Snacks & Fluids – make sure you have some snacks and water with you. Things such as muesli bars, apples and chocolate bars work a treat!
- Take a break! If you are getting tired take a break for a bit to re-gain your strength and rest those legs
- Make sure your boots and bindings are correctly fitted – this will make it easier to ski and will reduce the risk of a sprained ankle. The team at the ski fields will be able to help you with this if you need it
- If you are still a learner pair up with a friend so you are not alone up there
- Always check the weather report and when you are up the mountain keep an eye on what the weather is doing
- If you think a slope or run is becoming too difficult then stop. If it's still safe to walk, take off your skies or board and walk down until you feel comfortable again! On steeper terrain you're much safer using the edges of your board or skis to slow yourself down, so think carefully before opting to walk if you're on a steep slope.
- Most importantly…………………..HAVE FUN!


text: The son of a lounge singer/street vendor and dancer, Jason Statham's childhood was filled with street performing and sports. A talent for diving landed him on Britain's National Squad for 12 years and earned him 12th place at the 1992 World Championships. He was spotted by a modeling agency scout while training in London and worked for French Connection. Around the same time, he was introduced to Guy Ritchie who cast Statham in his first two films, "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch," which opened the door to Hollywood. His martial arts training allowed him to perform most of his own stunts in "The Transporter" franchise (2001, 2005, 2008) as well as other action hits like "The One," "Crank," "The Bank Job," "The Italian Job," "The Mechanic" and "The Expendables" series. Statham, who dated model Kelly Brook for seven years until her dalliance with Billy Zane ended their relationship in 2005, is currently involved with Victoria's Secret model/ "Transformers" actress Rosie Huntington-Whitely. They made their relationship public at the 2010 Coachella Music Festival. After a small cameo at the end of "Fast & Furious 6," he will move into the main antagonist's role in the seventh installment of the street racing franchise.


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The Ziebell projection of the world: 30 people's sketches combined
Zak Ziebell, then a 17-year-old San Antonio senior, challenged 30 people to sketch a map of the world, then combined them into a vague smudge. Then he produced this unnervingly realistic map of the alternative Earth lurking in his subjects' collective memories.
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12 Ways to Let Go of Past Loves
Come unstuck with these techniques and discover yourself, happy and free.
By Laura Oliver
At a recent dinner with five friends, my friend Julie mentioned that she had been unable to stop thinking about a former boyfriend she hadn't seen in years. In fact, she confessed, she thinks about him every day.
As she glanced helplessly around the table not one person appeared surprised. By the time dessert was served, every woman present admitted a persistent emotional attachment to a former relationship. Most surprising? Every woman at the table was happily married!
If you are stuck in an emotional tie that no longer serves you, it's time to set yourself free. Here are 12 fool-proof ways to enjoy the present and release your past.
Laura Oliver is an award-winning author and university writing instructor whose work explores emotional growth through relationship.


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Median XL Launcher
We're happy to announce that after a long time of development, the ultimate tool that makes installing, updating and playing Median as easy as can be, is finally ready for a beta release. This app will eventually become the standard and mandatory way to run Median.
- Installs Median on any Diablo II: Lord of Destruction version.
- Automatically keeps median version up-to-date.
- Verifies for corrupted files & installation.
- Settings page to set video mode, windowed, and several other configurations.
- News feed, with links to the community and documentation.
- Solves many compatibility issues with Diablo II (mainly when the launcher is run as admin).
- Sets Diablo II realm gateway to The Sin War.
- Allows up to 2 instances of Diablo, for muling purposes.
- Other minor features.
With this app, we intend to make Median & multiplayer easy to install for everyone, and get rid of all (or most) issues that are caused by faulty installations, wrong versions, windows issues, or Blizzard patches (1.14 grrr).
The launcher is currently in a beta phase, please test the app and report bugs in this topic.
Latest release post: viewtopic.php?p=183882#p183882
Download: http://get.median-xl.com/launcher
Big thumbs-up to Quirinus for his amazing work developing this tool.


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|Cube steak dressed up with a coating of seasoned bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese, browned and topped with pizza sauce, baked and then sprinkled with a bit more Parmesan.
Steak ParmesanSteak Parmesan is a real family-pleaser that comes together quick, so you can get it prepped, cooked and on the table in under 45 minutes. I usually do 4 cube steaks, leaving leftovers for the two of us. For a family you'll probably want to do at least 6 to 8 cube steaks and increase some of the ingredients just slightly. This also works fantastic with a sprinkling of mozzarella on top, instead of the additional Parmesan.
Here, I served this with a side of parslied potatoes - just simply peeled and chopped potatoes, that have been boiled, then drained and tossed with melted butter, salt and pepper and parsley - Mama used to make those all the time. Add a simple mixed garden salad. Pan roasted potatoes would also be nice. Easy, simple, and quick. Dig in and enjoy.
For more of my favorite recipes using cube steaks, pop over to my Pinterest page!
If you make this or any of my recipes, I'd love to see your results! Just snap a photo and hashtag it #DeepSouthDish on social media or tag me @deepsouthdish on Instagram!
Adapted from a Southern Living cookbook recipe.
Recipe: Steak Parmesan©From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish
Prep time: 10 min |Cook time: 25 min | Yield: About 4 to 6 servings
- 2 tablespoons of bacon fat, vegetable or canola oil
- 3/4 cup of Italian style bread crumbs
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese, divided
- Pinch of kosher salt
- 6 turns of the pepper grinder
- Couple shakes of Cajun seasoning (like Slap Ya Mama) or to taste, optional
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/3 cup of milk
- 4 to 6 cube steaks
- 1-1/2 cups of pizza or marinara sauce
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Heat the bacon fat in a heavy bottomed skillet over a heat that is just over medium to medium high, until melted. Meanwhile, in a shallow dish combine the bread crumbs with half of the Parmesan cheese, reserving the other half of cheese; add the salt, pepper and Cajun seasoning to the bread crumbs. Beat the egg with the milk. Dip the cube steaks into the egg mixture and then dredge in the bread crumbs. Brown in the hot oil over medium heat for about 3 minutes per side. Remove to a baking dish.
Pour pizza or marinara sauce evenly over the tops of the cube steaks and bake at 350 degrees, uncovered, for about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove, sprinkle with remaining Parmesan, return to oven just long enough to melt cheese.
Cook's Notes: If using the pre-made beef fritter patties, brown the patties in the hot oil and put them into the baking dish. Then sprinkle the patties with half of the Parmesan cheese and top with the pizza sauce. Bake and sprinkle the top with the remaining cheese.
Variation: For Chicken Parmesan, substitute boneless, skinless chicken breasts, placing between layers of plastic wrap and using the flat side of a mallet, pound to an even thickness. Brown for about 3 minutes per side, transfer to the baking dish, top with marinara sauce and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Top with Parmesan, return to oven just long enough to melt cheese.
Source: http://deepsouthdish.com
Requires Adobe Reader - download it free!©Deep South Dish
☛ Are you on Facebook? If you haven't already, come and join the party! We have a lot of fun & there's always room for one more at the table.
Chicken Fried Steak
Creole Smothered Steak
Slow Cooker Italian Roast Beef
Images and Full Post Content including Recipe ©Deep South Dish. Recipes are offered for your own personal use only and while pinning and sharing links is welcomed and encouraged, please do not copy and paste post or recipe text to repost or republish elsewhere such as other Facebook pages, blogs, websites, or forums without explicit prior permission. All rights reserved.