Arbiter body armor

This article is about the armor worn by the Arbiters. For other articles including "Arbiter", see Arbiter (disambiguation).

Thel 'Vadam wearing the traditional armor of the Arbiter in November, 2552.

As befitting the great honor associated with the title, each Arbiter of the Covenant is issued a unique set of traditional body armor.^[1]

Description

Every Arbiter's armor is designed and built to fit their shape and size, but the armor itself always follow an age-old traditional design that dates back to before the Covenant. Unlike the sleek, glossy armor worn by most Sangheili, the Arbiter's armor is made of a dark silvery-bronze metal and is more akin to a suit of human medieval armor. Notably, it includes a distinctive helmet with a curved hawk-like "beak" covering the face. The armor is secured to the Arbiter's combat suit by blue form-fitting straps and is composed of various segmented plates.

If the Arbiter is sent on a mission that requires specialized equipment, such as during the Taming of the Lekgolo, they will be given a different set of armor that is modified to meet the parameters of the mission while retaining the aesthetics of the original design.^[2]

After the Human-Covenant War Thel 'Vadam started wearing a custom-built ceremonial battle armor intended to pay homage to past Arbiters and symbolize his newfound role as a leader of his people.^[3]

Technical details

Like the standard Sangheili combat harness, the Arbiter's armor is equipped with an energy shield. It also possesses active camouflage capabilities, but this feature can only be enabled for a limited time, as opposed to the armor of Spec-Ops Sangheili, as the armor and its functionalities are somewhat older than current Covenant technology.

Trivia

In Halo 2, the Arbiter armor lacked the distinctive mandible guards seen in Halo 3. The most likely explanation is that the current Arbiter added them himself.