Endurance-of-Will

"Endurance" redirects here. For the space station, see Medical Facility Endurance.

Endurance-of-Will
Biographical information
Born:	Before 107,445 BCE
Died:	c. 97,445 BCE (original body)
Personal details
Species:	Forerunner
Gender:	Female
Political and military information
Affiliation:	Forerunner ecumene
Rate:	Promethean (R: Warrior-Servant)
Notable info:	Adjutant to the Ur-Didact

Endurance-of-Will, often referred to simply as Endurance, was a Promethean Warrior-Servant. She was a former lover of the Ur-Didact before his marriage to the Librarian and served as his top lieutenant during the endgame of the Forerunner-Flood war.

Biography

Endurance-of-Will was born into the Warrior-Servant rate and held to rigid principles of honor and discipline, with Bitterness-of-the-Vanquished being the one who guided her mutation to first-form.

Endurance was romantically involved with the Didact before the human-Forerunner wars, although he would later choose his eventual life-mate outside his rate, marrying the Lifeworker known as the Librarian instead. The Librarian gave the Didact a choice to return to his rate; had he done so, he would have married Endurance. However, he chose the Librarian, a decision that caused Endurance to resent the Librarian for thousands of years. During the war against humanity, Endurance served as an advisor to Bitterness-of-the-Vanquished, one of the greatest Promethean commanders and the Didact's mentor. Endurance herself was considered one of the Forerunners' top strategists, often clashing with the Didact regarding battle strategy.

Near the end of the Forerunner-Flood war, the now mentally unstable Ur-Didact requested Endurance's presence on his primary shield world, Requiem. The Ur-Didact was carrying out his new plan to use the Composer to convert all of his fellow Prometheans — and later all of humanity — into war machines to combat the Flood and later eliminate all "suspect" species who might potentially threaten Forerunner supremacy. Although innately doubtful and deeply worried for the Didact's sanity, Endurance did not voice these concerns and ended up supporting him due to her code of honor and her intense loyalty to the Didact. She became the Ur-Didact's adjutant and ultimately remained as the last Promethean loyal to him left unprocessed by the Composer, though she was slated to join the others eventually.

Forever loyal

When the Ur-Didact returned to Requiem after forcibly composing the humans of Omega Halo, the Librarian followed him, intent on imprisoning her husband in a Cryptum. Endurance confronted the Lifeshaper once she arrived on Requiem and initially showed willingness to follow the Ur-Didact until the end, in part due to her personal resentment for the Librarian and her strong sense of duty to her commander. However, her faith in the Didact was not as resolute as it appeared. Endurance eventually agreed to help the Librarian, having accepted the fact that the Ur-Didact was being used as a pawn by the Gravemind and that meditation in a Cryptum might actually benefit him, perhaps allowing his mind to heal via long exposure to the Domain.

After the Librarian knocked out the Ur-Didact and locked him in a Cryptum, Endurance insisted to stay behind and protect him, obeying his final command to protect Requiem with her life. She reluctantly allowed the Librarian to remove Requiem's army of Promethean machines from the Ur-Didact's control and to leave a personality impression of herself within Requiem in order to guide future visitors and warn them of the Didact. Shortly after this, Endurance composed herself, becoming a Promethean Knight and thus remaining as an ageless guardian for the Didact. After Endurance's composition, the Librarian took control of her Promethean Knight body along with the rest of Requiem's Promethean constructs.

On July 2557, Endurance would repel Jul's forces trying to awake the Didact, but she would fail to prevent John-117 from interfacing with the Cryptum and awakening him.

A new purpose

On February 2558, her damaged essence was salvaged by UNSC forces during the Requiem campaign. By October 2558, her essence was implanted into the Warzone simulations on the UNSC Infinity as a Promethean Knight construct on the Warzone scenario called "Skirmish at Darkstar"; her performance within the simulation is as closely monitored by the Office of Naval Intelligence as the participating Spartans themselves, but the reason behind their interest is unknown. Killing her will award the team 200 VP, and earn the player a Mythic Takedown medal. It was in these simulations that Endurance would, unexpectedly, found some measure of peace as she willingly served penance for her failure by sharpening the steel of a new generation of human warriors to become worthy of their inherited legacy.

Personality and description

The Librarian remembered her as honorable and sensitive, and because of this, she believed Endurance could yet be convinced to help her stop the Ur-Didact. Underneath her facade of strict adherence to the Promethean code and in spite of her deep resentment of the Librarian, she was shown to be ultimately rational, never truly agreeing with the Didact's genocidal scheme. Despite this, she still deeply respected the Ur-Didact. Endurance was small for a Promethean and possessed a cat-like grace.

Equipment

In the final years prior to the firing of the Halo Array, Endurance-of-Will carried two highly advanced and customized Z-110 Boltshot sidearms, named Open Hand and Closed Fist. Both weapons were later included in the United Nations Space Command's War Games simulations through a method that remains a closely guarded secret among Office of Naval Intelligence personnel. Her Open Hand Boltshot was also located in an area that Fireteam Osiris passed through on Kamchatka on their mission to rescue Catherine Halsey from Jul 'Mdama and his Covenant forces. She wore uniquely simple battle armor with sweeping curves and none of the decorations or spikes characteristic of Promethean armor.

When encountered in the Warzone simulation, she sports a spiked red Knight Commander carapace and wields a Heartseeker Z-390 incineration cannon.

Gallery

• Endurance.png

  Endurance as a Promethean Knight.

• Endurance-Of-Will.png

  Render of Endurance.

• 

  Endurance as a Mythic Knight Commander in Halo 5: Guardians.

List of appearances

• Halo 4
  • Terminals (Indirect inclusion)
• Halo: Silentium (First appearance)
• Halo 5: Guardians
• Halo Infinite (Mentioned only)