Halo Infinite: Who are Escharum and Atriox? | Game Rant
Along with Halo Infinite's first gameplay reveal, there was an additional tease at the end of the demo showcasing the main villain. The Brute at the end of the demo is War Chief Escharum, leader of the Banished on this new Halo ring. While fans of Halo Wars know who the Banished are, Escharum marks the first of the Banished to arrive in a mainline Halo game. This means he's likely working in service to the true leader of the Banished, a Brute named Atriox.
Atriox was first introduced alongside the Banished in Halo Wars 2, and has been the source of the new Covenant-like faction after the events of Halo 5. While Halo 5 and Halo Wars 2's endings meeting with the creation of another Halo ring, Halo Infinite seems to be picking up where both games left off. At the helm of the game's main conflict will be Master Chief and the Banished, with Escharum and Atriox likely being the main villains of Halo Infinite.
While Escharum was the one in the Halo Infinite gameplay demo, he's not the true leader of the Banished. Atriox, the ex-Covenant Brute (Jiralhanae) who initially rebelled against the original Covenant, seems to have issued a sect of the Banished over to the new Halo ring. Atriox was initially introduced in Halo Wars 2 as the original leader of the Banished, after rebelling against the Covenant during the Human-Covenant war. Brutes were treated differently by the Covenant at the time, utilized more as expendable infantry rather than ranking members of the Covenant army like the Elites. Witnessing the many deaths of his brothers, Atriox was lead to rebel because of the Brutes' servitude to the Covenant.
As the events of Halo 2 through Halo 5 played out, Atriox was in the background, slowly building his rebellion of Brutes and other Covenant races who wished to join. Atriox and the Banished eventually set their eyes on the Ark, a forerunner artifact known as "Installation 00" that essentially serves as the command center for all Halo rings. During the events of Halo Wars 2, Atriox attempts to colonize and utilize the Ark in an attempt to strengthen the Banished's forces. The UNSC "Spirit of Fire" frigate chases the Banished to the Ark, and defeats Atriox's forces and forces the remaining Banished to flee and regroup. Atroix eventually sends a scavenging mission back to the Ark, only to discover the former "High Charity" capital of the Covenant, unleashing a new Flood outbreak on the Ark.
After that, it's presumed Atriox is still building and maintaining the Banished's main force near the Ark. Though the Flood outbreak is certainly problematic, Atriox is still alive.
It's unclear how Atriox is involved in the story of Halo Infinite, if he is at all, now that Chief Escharum has been introduced as the game's main villain. Not much is known about Escharum, other than he is leading a sect of the Banished on this new Halo ring, which is presumably Installation 09 or "Anders' Halo." Escharum is a Brute War Chief of the Banished who, according to what's being teased in Halo Infinite, lead the Banished to victory against the UNSC months before the start of the game. The events in between are to be revealed in-game, but the end result is a scattered human military force led solely by Master Chief and "the pilot" that finds him.
Until then, it's to be assumed that Escharum is carrying out "the will of Atriox" by taking over this new Halo installation. Escharum also mentions that the Banished is working with a new entity known as "The Harbinger," who's true identity is yet unknown. The prevailing theory is that this connects to both the legendary ending of Halo 5 and the ending of Halo Wars 2. Theories state that this "Harbinger" entity is another name for Cortana, who's doing the ambiguous bidding of the Forerunners. A new Halo ring was introduced in Halo 5's legendary ending, with Cortana humming musical tones similar to Guilty Spark in previous Halo games. Additionally, the ending of Halo Wars 2 shows a new Halo ring (Installation 09) is created before jumping into slip space. Professor Anders, who was on the new installation, comes out of slip space early to find that Cortana's Guardian has also discovered this new Halo ring.
From this point forward, the events of Halo Infinite's campaign will play out. Escharum specifically states that the Banished and the Harbinger now have the same goals in mind with this new Halo ring, meaning the Forerunners' goals will likely be part of the overarching Halo Infinite story. As for what the "will of Atriox" truly entails, it's hard to definitively say. It's very possible that the Banished are facilitating their own version of the Covenant's original mission, of worshipping and fulfilling the goal of the Forerunners. The Harbinger could be a reference to Cortana, who as of the events of Halo 5, is now almost entirely tied to the Forerunners and their "Mantle of Responsibility" that she's working towards.
Halo Infinite is meant to be a sequel to the events of Halo 5, even though the game will also act as a spiritual reboot for the franchise anyway. It's very possible that all of these events are tangentially connected, and that Atriox and Cortana are somehow working together. All of that is conjecture for now until more story details are released for Halo Infinite, but Atriox and Escharum's roles are promising.
Halo Infinite releases this fall for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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