Minister of Etiology

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The Legate, formally Minister of Etiology, was a Minor Prophet in the Covenant Empire during the Human-Covenant War, stationed aboard the Agricultural Support Ship Infinite Succor during the Battle of Installation 04.

Biography

Battle of Installation 04

During the Battle of Installation 04, the Infinite Succor was in orbit over Installation 04 along with the rest of the Fleet of Particular Justice, when a Covenant Spirit dropship filled with Flood Combat Forms crashed into the ship's docking bay. Soon after, the Special Operations Commander Rtas 'Vadumee and a Covenant Strike Team boarded the ship, and fought its way through several new Flood types (as the ship contained an infected hunting ground) all the way to the bridge, only to find Infinite Succor's controls disabled.

Here they met the Prophet Legate, Minister of Etiology who revealed to them that he had disabled the controls, and locked-out the self-destruct sequence override from another part of the ship. The Minister ordered the entire group medically scanned before he would meet with them, due to the situation of Flood outbreak aboard the ship.

The Minister absorbed by the Flood.

The group met with the Legate in a secret location on the ship, where a plan was devised to get everyone off of the ship and have the ship vaporized by the nearby Covenant Fleet. During this time it also became apparent that the Flood had gained the access codes to Infinite Succor through one of the infected Elites from 'Vadumee's party. As the Flood continued to spread throughout the ship, they reached the bridge and engineering room and begun fortifying the engineering room. The Flood were attempting a Slipspace jump to escape the system. At this time, 'Vadumee realized the Legate was only concerned with his own life, which had been costing the group precious time. In anger, Rtas 'Vadumee slammed the Legate into the floor, telling him that their prime concern was the Covenant's safety, not his. The Minister was later absorbed by the Flood, before the Infinite Succor was destroyed.

Trivia

• The word "etiology" means "the study of causes, origins, or reasons", meaning he most likely is associated with studying the history of the Covenant races, the Forerunner, or even the Flood. This can be confirmed by the fact that he explained the complete history of the Flood to the Commander, implying he has studied the matter deeply.
• His hands have four fingers each, instead of three like the other San 'Shyuum, probably an oversight from the artist.
• In one scene of the Graphic Novel, the Legate is grabbed in a choke hold by Rtas 'Vadumee, then slammed to the floor. In the next "slide" he is seen just fine, his headpiece unbroken and his being is robustly frail as any other Prophet. This is just a simple printing glitch, meant to be in a prior page.