#N'tho 'Sraom

[halobirthdays]

Happy birthday to N'tho 'Sraom!

Today is his -499th birthday!

N'tho was born into an influential family and was a prodigy, quickly advancing once he began his military service. At some point during his service to the Covenant, he fought Frank Kodiak, a UNSC solider and future Spartan. N'tho cut off Kodiak's arm, but was distracted before he could land a killing blow.

He was the youngest member of the Covenant Special Operations branch during his tenure there, and when the Great Schism began, he remained loyal to the Sangheili Covenant separatists. He accompanmied Arbiter Thel 'Vadam and Master Chief on thier mission to the Ark to stop the Prophet of Truth from firing the Halo array. Following these events, he pledged himself to the Swords of Sanghelios under direct service to the Arbiter.

He was hand-picked by 'Vadam to accompany the UNSC in a joint mission to the Ark in 2555, after the scientists there discovered that the Halo array hasd mysteriously begun a countdown to activation. Kodiak, now a Spartan, was selected for this mission, and would confront N'tho and challenge him to a dual. Though N'tho did not resent Kodiak or humanity in general, he understood his anger. Like their first meeting, their duel would be interrupted when the portal to the Ark reopened. The parties met on N'tho's corvette, Mayhem, but the UNSC disagreed with the Swords about their course of action. However, seeing as though N'tho was the shipmaster and did not directly report to the UNSC, he kidnapped the crew and brought them all to the Ark.

The Swords and UNSC eventually discovered the rampant AI who started the countdown and were able to destroy it. However, in the process, Kodiak's brother, who had been used as a thrall by the AI, would die. After these events, N'tho offered his condolences and made amends, though Kodiak declined his offer to visit Sanghelios.

During the Created crisis, N'tho continued to serve the Arbiter directly, sometimes as a personal escort.

In canon (~2560), he is turning 38!

[bloodgulchblog]

[halos-top-alien-model]

Bonus Poll...

I saw you in the notes of the Charbiter v ThelRtas ship wars poll going "but what about poly?!"

and you're right. I completely forgot about that. let's fix that.

[nekoprankster218]

as if I couldn't be more hyped for the first Thel POV book in ages, the first preview confirms N'tho and Usze are gonna be in it too! literally wasn't expecting them to appear in canon again besides maybe little updates on their status

would it be copium to hope this makes an Rtas/Shadow of Intent update more likely...?

[yanderes-galore]

Surprised to see no N'tho 'Sraom concept yet! Might as well go ahead and request it myself right now~

I actually didn't know him so I had to once again utilize the wiki to help me out ^^ Hope you enjoy this regardless! Not fully proofread, may have mistakes!

Yandere! N'tho 'Sraom Concept

Pairing: Romantic/Platonic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Possessive behavior, Yandere alien, Manipulation, Invasion of privacy, Violence (Mentions of war), Forced/Dubious relationship/companionship.

According to what I read, N'tho was originally the youngest Sangheili in a Covenant Special Operations branch.

He outperformed many of his fellow Sangheili in the group.

Later, during The Great Schism, he joined forces with Thel and Rtas against The Prophet of Truth.

He developed a high respect for humanity and was a human sympathizer.

He then became part of The Swords of Sangheilios after the Human-Covenant War with Thel.

He is very dedicated to old Sangheili ways.

He understands and respects human's audacity and resolve.

He actively participated in missions under Thel's command.

N'tho may be close to either a human or Sangheili who fought beside him during the end of the Human-Covenant war.

This way, regardless on which species you choose, you have time to prove yourself to N'tho.

Most Sangheili gain respect for others based on their combat prowess.

I'll try to keep this general but I am biased to human darlings....

N'tho's obsession starts with a mutual respect between you.

He is a young member of his kind but can see a good fighter when he sees one.

Regardless on your species... he respects you and considers you an ally and companion.

Even after the war he still remembers you fondly.

Perhaps if you're a Sangheili you are also a part of The Swords of Sangheilios.

Or, if you were a human, you're one of those new marine turned spartan types.

N'tho hopes you are respected for your skills in combat situations and wishes you the best.

His obsession slowly develops as he's away from you.

You two are stationed away from one another and N'tho finds himself thinking back on how well you fought.

N'tho canonically has not married or taken any sort of partner

So his obsession could just be a close bond or something more romantic.

He certainly is fond of you for your abilities.

Both in strategy, leadership, and overall combat knowledge.

He finds these traits desirable in both an ally and partner.

As a result N'tho may try to sneakily find information on you to meet you.

Surely he can get permission from Thel to meet with you, perhaps even for a future mission due to how well you are in combat.

He may even get away with it as you are a good asset.

Having an extra Sangheili/Human warrior can aid in missions.

It's even better if just by chance N'tho works with Thel and a human group, just to find you.

As with most Sangheili yanderes I write, N'tho grows possessive of you when he sees you again.

When he first met you he was a Sangheili Minor, a young Sangheili with barely any rank.

But now he's something much more, isn't he?

Surely you find this... appealing?

In a way you can tell he's trying to impress you.

He's a higher rank now, he even is able to command a ship as Shipmaster.

Due to his higher rank, N'tho may even recruit you on his ship.

Naturally he wants to keep you close, what better way to do that than by recruiting you?

Eventually N'tho's obsession makes you his second in command.

He keeps all other troops under his command away from you.

His possessive behavior leaks out at times, resulting in subtle threats towards some forces.

He holds back on outright violence... but he has his limits.

If he just sees you as an ally or friend... his obsession stops at that.

If not... then he tries to court you.

After all... he's improved so much from when you first met.

Aren't you impressed?

Maybe you should give him a chance...

As two warriors, you'll be perfect together!

If not... well... N'tho is persistent and loyal.

One way or another you two share a warrior's bond with one another...

He plans to preserve that connection and keep it all to himself....

[your-fave-is-christian]

N’tho Sraom and Usze Taham from Halo.

N'tho 'Sraom and Usze 'Taham from Halo are Christian!

[halopedia]

Spartan Saturday — Frank Kodiak

Serving as a foot soldier in the Human-Covenant War, Frank Kodiak lost his right arm to N'tho 'Sraom's energy sword during a battle in the 2540s. He received a battle-grade prosthetic and became Spartan-IV after the war.

In 2555, an urgent joint UNSC-Swords of Sanghelios mission to Installation 00 led to Kodiak's reunion with the very same Sangheili who had maimed him. However, Kodiak came to forgive 'Sraom over the course of the mission's harrowing events.

[holyshonks]

Bungie wanted you to know that N'tho 'Sraom is single.

[ask-cloverfield]

[inaccurate-halo-quotes]

Arbiter with Fireteam Osiris

N'tho: In gratitude for aiding the Arbiter and our people, We would like to make you honorary members of our Clan.

Arbiter:(hands them cups) Drink deep from these cups.

*All of Osiris drinks deeply*

Arbiter: The Helioskrill urine will make you strong.

*All of Osiris Freezes at this with wide eyes*

Arbiter: (Chuckles) Actually, it's Fresca.

Buck: (Spits with the rest of his team) Fresca?!

[gamelpar]

dude N'tho 'Sraom is fucking WILD

everyone's like "no you can't do shit like that!!"

and n'tho is like "uh yeah i definitely can do shit like that hold my fucking beer"

and while everyone's freaking out about n'tho ramming the ship through the ark portal Drifts Randomly is just there along for the ride

[dooptown]

i think N'tho 'Sraom should be gay and have a human bf

[bloodgulchblog]

WHAT HAPPENS IN HALO: OUTCASTS, ZITA?

Hot damn, I haven't done one of these in a while.

Let me get this written down for you while it's still fresh...

(As usual: I cannot guarantee I present events that are happening in the same time in different places in the order the book does, but I do promise the gist of the thing)

Outcasts happens in November of 2559, which is after the destruction of Doisac and before the events of Halo Infinite begin.

Cortana's forces are occupying Sanghelios and attempting to police the population, which makes the Arbiter's position suck out loud: he can't directly confront Cortana without winding up in the same position as Atriox with Doisac. The Sangheili have been trying to figure out what to do without Cortana finding out about any of their plans.

There are also some humans on Sanghelios, among them Spartan Olympia Vale. Vale has become a personal friend to the Arbiter in addition to an important diplomatic contact. (She is pre-emptively sad about how bad it's gonna turn out once the Arbiter finds out the extent to which ONI has fucked him over over the years, but also: Thel actually knows more than she thinks he does and that's kind of fun.)

Anyway.

After a very tense traffic stop by some of Cortana's troops on his way back from a big important Kaidon meeting (this is the part that N'tho 'Sraom and Usze 'Taham are around for), Thel has a vistor: an Oath Warden named Crei 'Ayomuu. Oath Wardens are hired guns who enforce contracts, either by scaring the noncompliant party into following through on their end, or by bringing back their head. This is considered highly dishonorable work and nobody likes Oath Wardens. Thel is not a fan either.

'Ayomuu, however, is here because he has some important information about the contract he is pursuing: a human xenoarchaeologist (Keely Iyuska) who specializes in pre-Forerunner civilizations (or, you know, what trace scraps of those exist) agreed, in exchange for funding, to give 'Ayomuu's client first pick of whatever she finds on a planet the Sangheili call N'ba.

To make a long story short, N'ba is what we would remember as Netherop from Halo: Oblivion. It is a miserable desert world that did have evidence of weird alien technology, but nothing too earth-shattering.

...But the evidence also suggests something far, far more important might be on Netherop: A weapon. A powerful, ancient weapon that once was used to kill a Guardian.

It is, obviously, very important that this not fall into the wrong hands. Cortana is also actively hunting for this human, and Cortana's hands would absolutely be the wrong ones.

It's time to get over working with an Oath Warden and get on the case.

Meanwhile, Vale is also finding out about this elsewhere. She's hearing it straight from the horse's mouth, because Iyuska is an old university acquaintance and is reaching out to Vale for help because ONI may be in fucking shambles after Cortana destroyed Bravo-6, but there are enough pieces still working and she knows Vale still has contacts. And they prrrrooooobably should not let Iyuska's client (or anyone) get their hands on this thing she is pretty sure she's discovered.

Vale agrees, and they set off to the one planet you know makes it a Troy Denning Halo novel: Gao.

In Oblivion the UNSC found a pack of feral children (the descendents of space pirates) on Netherop and those children wound up founding a settlement somewhere in the jungle on Gao. Vale wants to find someone who has been to Netherop before to advise on this mission. She and Iyuska make their way in by pretending to be medical researchers investigating a new prion disease that is infecting people on Gao. (That part is happening on Gao, by the way.) The cover falls apart pretty quick because the locals are deeply suspicious and because Vale is.... a Spartan-IV out of armor, and that shit is kind of obvious.

Luckily things don't turn to violence, though, because they are broken up by Rosa Fuertes. This is the character we knew in Oblivion as local Netherop feral youth leader Roselle. (She changed her name to try to avoid ONI tracking her or something and... honey... you are gonna have to try a lot harder than that.) She was like 20 in Oblivion so now she's like 50, and is herself wasting away from the prion disease. She agrees to go with Vale and Iyuska to help with whatever they're doing, but on the condition that ONI continues to leave her family the fuck alone.

Meanwhile, the Arbiter has snuck off Sanghelios (leaving his most trusted guys to cover for him and pretend he's home for as long as possible to throw Cortana's surveillance off the scent) and gone to Netherop. He has some help from two kaidons for this endeavor: 'Talot and Varo'dai. 'Talot is an old ally of 'Vadam and pretty traditional. Varo'dai is a lot more interesting: She (yes she) originally came from Saepon'kal.

This is some Shit No One Remembers Halo lore, so here's the tl;dr: The first time we ever heard of a NOVA bomb (you know, a planet cracker) was the time in First Strike where Admiral Whitcomb left one as bait for the Covenant to find. The Covenant, not knowing what it was, took it back with them to a fleet rally point. In Ghosts of Onyx, a Huragok accidentally set the bomb off by poking at it to trying to figure it out. This blew up most of that particular Covenant fleet, and there was much rejoicing.

...The planet this happened over was the Sangheili colony world of Saepon'kal. The damage from that big of an explosion shattered the moon and soon enough rendered the surface of the planet uninhabitable.

Varo'dai is kaidon of a new colony world, because she was instrumental to saving tens of thousands of Sangheili. She's a very cool character concept, I kinda wish we saw more of her, but by god if you want an excuse to think about cool Sangheili women you've got her and her handpicked all-female rangers who turn out to be some of the most competent people in the book. (Again, don't get your hopes up too much, they're just kinda there as set dressing. Varo'dai gets to be cool occasionally, but her rangers are the most characterless side characters and please do not buy this book just for the lacroix water flavor of Sangheili women being cool. I just... feel compelled to point out that this is the closest we are probably ever gonna get to Sangheili lesbians.)

Honestly, she's mostly there so we have an excuse to see the Arbiter tell off 'Talot for not treating her with respect because Thel 'Vadam confirmed feminist king.

The Arbiter's party makes it down onto Netherop first and encounters.... another returning Oblivion character: Lieutenant Commander Petrov.

Petrov and a handful of her soldiers were marooned on Netherop at the end of Oblivion because Roselle sabotaged her in order to ensure that Roselle and her gang of feral youths would get to leave the planet instead.

Petrov has, over the last thirty years, made this situation completely fucking insane and on the one hand it's so stupid that my disbelief can't handle it, but on the other hand it's kind of amazing? Petrov's people have continued to fight the war with the Covenant, but on Netherop "the Covenant" is just a literal handful of Sangheili holed up in the tel (ruins of an ancient alien underground city) with the ancient alien superweapon and an apparently infinite supply of food.

That's not the insane part.

The insane part is that the humans had a shit ton of kids expressly for the purpose of "making more soldiers" to fight the Covenant with.

And we thought the Spartan program was fucked up...

Thel manages to prevent his allies and Petrov's weird little unit/family from trying to kill one another and does enough diplomacy with Petrov to be on rough speaking terms.

...Meanwhile Vale, Iyuska, Rosa, and a shit ton of ODSTs try to insert onto Netherop. Most of the ODSTs are killed when their dropships are exploded by a MYSTERIOUS ALIEN SLIPSPACE DEATH BEAM, but the Owl with Vale and friends aboard is built for stealth so it manages to survive landing.

Vale doesn't expect the Arbiter to agree with her about what they're doing here, but he is an honorable man and figures if the UNSC finds the MYSTERIOUS ALIEN SLIPSPACE DEATH BEAM first he will, as a man of honor, let them have claim to it. But also, he's gonna do his damnedest.

Thel and his gang of fellow Sangheili have an advantage because the marooned Sangheili aren't automatically hostile to them, so they go in the obvious way while Vale and friends and ODSTs find a way to dig into the underground city instead.

The marooned Sangheili believe that this is the sanctum of the gods and Nizat 'Kvarosee, their leader, is the most strong of faith so he is the best at weilding the super weapon and used it to destroy those ENEMY HUMAN SHIPS.

Thel's team and Vale's team make their way through the tel, fighting the marooned Sangheili (Thel manages to recruit the former Silent Shadow Ra'ashai to his side, 'Talot and his warriors die) and investigating how the hell this place works. Iyuska determines that the whole place seems to run on extremely advanced nanotechnology, which the marooned Sangheili have become very attuned to (shown by how the place adapts to their desires and needs, creating food they can eat and clothing them and of course giving them control over the MYSTERIOUS ALIEN SLIPSPACE DEATH BEAM.)

Rosa gets separated from everyone (originally because the marooned Sangheili captured her) and has a weird moment with some mysterious voices that call themselve The Nothing and insist that she cannot tell anyone they exist, ever. As a prize for this, she wins having her prion disease magically cured somehow.

(Yeah, it's weird, I don't know either.)

Also, while all of this is going on, Atriox is in space overhead. The book thinks it's slick about Atriox secretly being the one who funded Iyuska's research, but it kind of plays that hand too strongly so you know it's Atriox and it's not a surprise. While the ground team is working on securing the weapon, Atriox is attacking everybody's ships. Nobody downstairs finds out for a long while due to comms blackout.

Thel and Vale's teams finally wrest control of the MYSTERIOUS ALIEN SLIPSPACE DEATH BEAM from the marooned Sangheili and one of them ('Kvarosee's lackey Tam 'Lakosee, did I mention he was also in this one?) shows Thel how to use it just in time for them all to figure out holy shit, the Banished are attacking! The beam detects what you think of as your "enemies" and smites them, basically, so Thel worries about whether his mixed feelings about human involvement here might imperil the human ship.

He shouldn't have worried about it. Thel zeroes in on the Banished and a Forerunner ship he knows is going to report to Cortana. 'Lakosee is horrified that he is attacking a SACRED FORERUNNER SHIP, and grabs for the controls in retaliation. End result: EVERYBODY'S big spaceships get blown up: human, Sangheili, and Banished.

Everyone is fucked, they have a matter of hours until Cortana's forces arrive and Banished insertion craft that weren't destroyed are already on the way down. The gang debate about what to do with 'Kvarosee and 'Lakosee, who are both in rough shape. When they refuse to re-integrate with the Sangheili because they believe that Thel and his entourage are clearly godless apostates, Thel and aforesaid entourage leave them to rot.

Iyuska disassembles the MYSTERIOUS ALIEN SLIPSPACE DEATH BEAM, which is unfortunate timing because that really would've helped with all these Banished.

They have to go out and meet/probably fight the Banished, and also figure out what the fuck to do with this superweapon. Thel kinda hates it and Varo'dai's suggestion of the humans and Sangheili each taking one of the two important pieces (a sample of self-propagating nanomachines, and the focusing lens) might be a good idea, but he is a man of his word: the humans did reach the weapon's chamber first when they were fighting their way in, so he will let them have it. Vale, despite it all, is genuinely surprised but okay sure.

....But then Vale gets an idea.

What if they just... give the Banished the weapon? The weapon seems to have pretty much destroyed Netherop's own civilization by being used here, and it would be difficult to impossible to set it up usefully as an offensive weapon. Give Atriox what he wants, and maybe everyone will be able to get off the planet.

(Because it turns out: there are some UNSC slipspace-capable craft that also survived the MYSTERIOUS ALIEN SLIPSPACE DEATH BEAM so it's fine.)

They parley with Atriox, blah blah blah shock and betrayal it turns out that Atriox was secretly employing 'Ayomuu through Atriox's Sangheili lackey this whole time yadda yadda, Atriox ends up leaving with space dust and a focusing lens he probably can't use but he hasn't figured that out yet, at least everyone gets to go home. (???) The most important thing here is that Rosa and Petrov have A Moment to resolve the fact that Rosa caused Petrov to be marooned. Petrov forgives her.

(There's also a chapter of how fucking bad Sloan is doing, you remember Sloan? AI? Meridian? Fenris Dragon Age voice? Anyway, he joined the Created in the hopes of integrating with the Domain and surviving Rampancy, but something about that... doesn't really work with his architecture. He's looping badly, and kind of AI dying. But not yet, not quite yet...)

A lot more stuff happens and there's lots of details scattered through here (some are fun, some are dumb, you know, it's Halo). It 100% does not advance the main universe plot at all, and what the fuck are the Nothing????

But... it was nice to see our guy Thel 'Vadam.

[halos-top-alien-model]

Bonus Poll: Sangheili & Spartans

rediscovered a post I made on my main, got a bad idea because of it

[nekoprankster218]

Look what I made~

Currently only has Thel, Rtas, Jul, Ripa, N'tho, and Usze. I may return to expand and include more characters, though.

[yanderes-galore]

Well, time for my autistic hyperfixation skills to shine! Here's your cheat-sheet for what Halo EU media to skip to for the good parts (aka aliens):

Since you've already read The Cole Protocol, Envoy is a rlly good skipping point. Besides the greatness that is Rojka 'Kasaan, and it having a pretty notable Jiralhanae villain, it's also written by the same author and follows up on the Gray Team storyline introduced in the former book.

Hunters in the Dark also makes the top of my list for fleshing out the Halo 3 co-op characters N'tho 'Sraom and Usze 'Taham and giving us nice cross-species positive interactions. Also can't forget Broken Circle, as it's all Sangheili and San'Shyuum in the story, no humans for once. It's split between two timelines: the era of the Covenant's founding and the time of Halo 2.

The Ferrets series of books (Last Light, Retribution, and Divine Wind so far) features the reoccurring antagonistic faction the Keepers of the One Truth lead by the Jiralhanae named Castor. The Master Chief series also features Fleetmaster Nizat 'Kvarosee in the first two books (Silent Storm and Oblivion) and the Keepers in Shadows of Reach; haven't read them yet but I heard good things about Nizat so far and he seems to be one of the more unique in the lore, being kinda older than most Sangheili we've seen so far. Also can't forget the Halo CE novelization, The Flood, which featured the first portrayal of Covenant perspectives in canon I believe (and therefore some of the lore and characterization there is a bit off in comparison to the rest of the books, but it's fine). Zuka 'Zamamee and Yayap are a real treat in that one, even if the tone of their sections are a bit sillier than most (from my impression so far, haven't finished the book yet actually).

And I kind of have to include the Kilo-Five trilogy, although with the fair warning that they're a bit divisive amongst the fandom. You're either gonna like them or despise them. I think a majority people, regardless of how they feel about the trilogy as a whole, did find the alien sections fine though. If I had to re-read them again I'd probably skip to just those chapters. Jul 'Mdama is a prominent character in the first two books (Glasslands and The Thursday War), with his wife Raia 'Mdama having more of a spotlight in the second, but then the whole 'Mdama plotline wraps up and gets replaced by Kig-Yar Chol 'Von in Mortal Dictata (although she's a good character on her own and it's unfortunate her story never got picked up by other authors after the trilogy ended). Other notable aliens in the trilogy include Forze 'Mdama, Avu Med 'Telcam, Sav Fel, and probably the most concentration of named Huragoks in a Halo storyline ever. Thel also makes some appearances here too.

Speaking of the 'Mdamas tho; I haven't gotten to it yet but Legacy of Onyx does feature Jul and Raia's sons as major players post-Halo 5, plus I believe there is a Sangheili teacher character and maybe some rare alien kid characters. Ohhhh and I can't believe I almost forgot, but upcoming book Outcasts is gonna feature Thel as a main character again! Been waiting for it but it got delayed, we should finally be getting it in August tho. You may want to read the Master Chief books first tho since it looks like some lore introduced there will be featured here too, especially since it's the same author Troy Dennings.

Finally to round out the recs are the anthologies. I'd go for Fractures before Evolutions, as the former has Shadow of Intent with Rtas, Tul 'Juran, Vul 'Soran, Stolt, and Tem'Bhetek and Oasis with Jat (who existed for maybe a dozen pages but has captured my heart for years). Latter still has Henry (human nickname, we never learned his real name because of language barrier) in The Mona Lisa, some named Jiralhanae in Stomping on the Heels of a Fuss (which I forgot about so idk if it's because it's been years or if they did not have much of a role), and an unnamed Sangheili shipmaster who's the focus of The Return. The Return & The Mona Lisa also got "animated" adaptations in the form of voice-acted motion comics you can find on YouTube.

Those are all books but maybe I might as well throw in the comics. Obviously there's the Rise of Atriox miniseries. Also not as well known but there was a small prequel comic for the first Halo Wars which features Ripa 'Moramee's origin story; I got the physical copy as part of my game copy, idk if there's a way to access it digitally. The Halo Graphic Novel includes the famous Halo story The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor feat Rtas 'Vadum and Thel in his Fleetmaster era. Haven't read it but Blood Lines has two Sangheili brothers as major antagonists. Tales From Slipspace has Atriox in Hunting Party and Avu Med 'Telcam in Knight Takes Bishop. Finally one of the more well known comics, Escalation has a few points of interest (note I haven't read all of 'em yet and going off Halopedia for this): Thel in Issues 1-3 + Jiralhanae Lydus, Jul 'Mdama and Sali 'Nyon in the Janus Key arc (Issues 13-16) and Absolute Record arc (Issues 19-24), and Ayit 'Sevi in Absolute Record arc.

And what the heck. let's get obscure: The Halo Wars Official Strategy Guide published by Prima Publishing includes some flash fiction featuring Ripa 'Moramee and The Prophet of Regret, because sometimes crumbs is all ya get. Halo: Legends - aka the official Halo anime - also has The Duel which shows an ancient Arbiter and why the title is considered dishonorable in modern Halo times.

Oh and... I guess there's the Forerunner trilogy, for like, Forerunners... tbh tho they're basically bootleggish humans to me, I rank them the lowest out of all the Halo aliens and don't really consider them most of the time when hyper-focusing on Halo aliens.

Gonna read this later