XENOKING

Welcome to Xenoking's Halo Elite Model Review. Please prepare yourselves, for this post is both full of pictures and substantially longer then the last.

If you haven't yet seen the first entry, centered on the Halo: Combat Evolved Elite, I implore you to do so. It's a shorter read than this one, and they have some wonderfully novel traits never found again after CE.

As we move on to to the Elites of Halo 2, we get the unique chance to observe the underlying anatomy of a sangheili unobscured by both armor and undersuit. The model above, specifically, is of the Arbiter, Thel 'Vadam himself. It's used in the original cutscene of him being branded with the Mark of Shame. So far, this is the only truly nude sangheili model I've collected from the games; all the rest come with techsuits that have little to no body mesh underneath.

Later in this post, we'll also take a look at the NPC Elites from the campaign, which have some differences to cutscene Arby, as well as Rtas 'Vadum's unique head mesh.

This body is nearly one-to-one with that of the Combat Evolved Elite. The only real difference is in the head and mandibles, which have been changed from the unique lip anatomy we covered previously. Otherwise, all physical observations here technically apply to CE in a retroactive fashion.

Like the last entry, we'll start near the bottom and work our way up.

Be prepared, though, 'cause I don't think you're ready for these feet. I sure as hell wasn't.

Just as I enlightened you to Halo CE Elite's unique mandibles, I'm enthused to present to you, possibly for the first time, an up-close look at the sangheili feet of Halo 2.

These are not quite hooves, and these are not quite toes. They're what I've taken to calling 'tooves', and they get weirder.

Viewed from the front, we can see that these digits are stumpy and blunt. They have apparent toenails, not claws, and they bear the sangheili's body weight in a manner not unlike cloven hooves. They are clearly bifurcated with a large arch between them.

This is already incredibly estranged from what you probably think of when you picture sangheili feet (unless you're a hoof purist). We're conditioned in the modern day to picture our Elites as having two, saurian, clawed toes attached to a basic foot, and not whatever the hell this is.

When viewed from below, we can get a good idea of their bare footprint. Or, hoofprint, because I'll admit that it essentially is one.

And the picture becomes ever clearer once we take a look from the side.

What's that on the 'heel', you might wonder?

It's more toe.

Fucking weird, right?

Frankly, I'm not even sure how to begin to address the toe arrangement these sangheili have going on. By all means, the closest thing that I can compare it to is zygodactyly in Earth birds: they have two toes facing forward, and two toes facing backward. Here, the foretoes are larger, while the hindtoes are smaller and reduced to form a heel. Being split down the middle, each pair on either side appears fused into a flat-bottomed flesh mitten which the sangheili walks on, with a toenail at both the anterior and posterior (front and back) ends.

I've drawn over these images multiple times, in an attempt to give them an adapted bone placement and structure referencing various Earth vertebrates. It does not work, or at the very least, it does not work well. Perhaps this is how it should be; alien anatomy only explainable by alien means. They could have more foot bones, or less foot bones, and/or a support structure of fat or cartilage to make this setup work.

The hind toes, in particular, could make sense if they were 'free floating' bones unattached to the rest, merely embedded in the surrounding tissue to provide structural support.

Any matter, these tooves are wonderful to look at, but unseen for the rest of the series. Tragically, this model's revamped successor, the H2A Elite, is entirely missing its lower legs beneath the armor. Once we reach them in this series, I'll likely refer to the boots of their armor plus external material to get an idea of what they look like.

Please look forward to that, because I cannot wait to show how these sangheili feet were re-interpreted for H2A.

Moving up, here's a look at the legs in profile:

Note the extreme shortness of the shin (the middle section, bent and almost horizontal here). It's easily the shortest shin of any sangheili from Halo 3 onwards (since the Halo 3 model is just a smoother version of this). The lower legs are quite stocky, which can also be seen when viewed from the front (see the header image for this post).

This exact foot structure is technically never seen again in the games. From here on out, all sangheili models have their heels on the ground. For reference, the heel in the above image is the first joint seen when moving up from the foot, and it's elevated off the ground in a manner similar to Earth ungulates.

It was at this point in this entry that I reluctantly came to admit that Halo 2 Elites are, in fact, hooved. Or at the very least, the most hooved that sangheili ever have been in the games.

This changes in Halo 3. Do look forward to finding out how.

Onto the torso.

Here, we can see the sternal ridge in the center of the chest, now bare where it was covered on the CE Elite. You can make out the central ridge, as well as thin lines projecting off it toward the sides. These could be interpreted as either ribs or, more likely in my opinion due to their placement, smaller ridges/skin details of their own.

The set of the shoulders is extremely level, and easily three times the width of the hips. On this Elite, the arms are also proportionally long, reaching down to the knees. The pectorals here are broad in contrast to a narrowed waist. If you look closely, there's also many blue colored veins on the chest. And all over the model, really—this Arbiter is rather veiny.

Here's a shot of Arby's Mark of Shame. This part of the model is used in the Halo 2 level 'The Arbiter', during the cutscene in which he's dragged to the Mausoleum of the Arbiter by Tartarus and brought before the Hierarchs.

Note the raw purple tissue here... which is surrounded by a rim of pink flesh tone. The most nagging, pedantic part of me is compelled to complain about this consistent and glaring inconsistency between blood and flesh color.

I want to be sure to highlight these shapes on the abdomen. They are also visible through the undersuit on the NPC Elite model, so it's probably muscle definition.

At this point, you'll likely have noticed the different textures of skin and scales across the model. Here, there are some bare, smooth-looking spots (like at the crease of the hips), as well as extensive scalation or rough skin on the abdomen. For me, it's rather hard to tell whether these patches resemble snake scales or elephant skin more.

No apparent anatomy to be found on the front of the pelvis, but there is a sphincter-like orifice on the backside.

If you've ever read the Halopedia entry for sangheili, you may already be aware of this. The one screenshot they cite is low quality, though. And they also don't let you in on the fact that it's tinted orange. No idea what that's about, but it is some hilarious trivia.

Check out the scaly ridges on the sacrum just above, though. Pretty neat detail. I'm elated to inform this also shows up in more detail on the H2A model!

In the above image, you can also make out where the ribs connect to the spine in the back.

Here is the arm and hand. The fat pads at the base of the thumbs are quite large in comparison to the middle fingers, which appear thinner and bonier. The distal part of the hand which bears the middle fingers is also narrower than the base. This Elite has fingernails, not quite claws, though they do have a slight point to them.

I think you've waited long enough, so let's move upward to the head. But not before noting this prominent chest, where this sangheili's sternal ridge gives them a slightly jutting keel.

The neck here is thick relative to the body. The distinction between the neck and head is very clearly demarcated here, as the back of the skull has a defined, bulbous ridge. You don't see this to nearly the same effect in later models, where the head-neck transition is far smoother.

For the longest time, I absolutely did not understand why sangheili skulls, divorced of flesh, looked so elongated... until I came to the realization that they really are just that long, as pictured here. It can be quite hard for me to reconcile with the fact that their braincases are so much longer than the mandibles, which I naturally associate with a jaw hinge and the consequent back of a skull. This isn't a critiscism at all, merely personal comments. I like this anatomy any matter.

Before we move on to the head proper, make sure to spot the blue veins on the neck. I just think they're neat. I'm not sure if purple-blooded veins should look that color through the skin, but I like that they look different at all.

Now, behold!

This is the face of the Halo 2 sangheili design. Most immediately apparent: the mandibles are starkly different to their previous appearance in CE. We'll touch on them shortly.

There are three ridges on the top of the head: one ridge for each brow, and a larger bump in the middle.

There are no apparent nostrils, but there is an external ear opening, which is visible a short distance behind the eyes. The eyes are colored dark amber, and the pupils are vertical. These eyes are smaller than they were in CE, and they also have a newly rounded shape.

You might notice from the profile view above that the snout is rather blocky. Shown from above, we can see that it's quite blunted indeed. This snout shape changes in Halo 3.

The teeth here are all shown to larger and less numerous than in the CE Elite, which had many small, needle-like teeth. But the mandible teeth do have the exact same orientation as in CE: upper set pointing down, lower set pointing inward.

Also note the tooth-gap in the premaxillary teeth. It reminds me of a snake, personally.

See how clearly the upper lip is defined here? That's the fleshy, exposed extent of the premaxilla, with the rest of the upper jaw's edge being covered by a scaly lip. This skin actually tucks into the mouth in a pretty odd way, pictured above to the left.

The way that these mandibles attach also gives these sangheili a weirdly wide facial structure when they are expanded, seen above on the right. Look around the eyes to see what I'm talking about.

The webbing attaching the upper mandibles on the CE Elite design has been removed. These mandibles are technically shorter than CE, but since the throat has been greatly recessed to create a cavity, there is more space inside the mouth, making them appear longer.

These jaws have a frankly surprising maximum gape angle. They can spread incredibly wide, and this is even seen in-game when Arby is branded.

No other sangheili has jaws that splay in quite this shape or quite this wide.

These mandibles do not neatly close on any side. They are quite fleshy, and the upper mandibles especially protrude past the maxilla. In my opinion, they seem bluntly imprecise, far more face-flaps than they are dextrous, gripping jaws of any capacity.

They show little ability to curl or grasp in any meaningful way due to their shape, as the tips of each mandible set cannot meet each other. Due to how far the throat is recessed in the back of the mouth, the mandibles would be entirely ineffective for pulling or pushing food into the esophagus.

This mandible design would support the idea of the jaws being vestigial for food processing, and relegated to communication only, at least for these specific sangheili.

And with that, we have concluded our coverage of the Arbiter's Halo 2 model! But don't forget, we still have the NPC Elite and Rtas 'Vadum to touch on before the full review comes to a close.

Now, if you still recall the mystery of what the techsuit spots on the CE Elite are, I'm glad to finally present to you the answer.

It's skin! It's bare skin. Probably, anyways—technically, the CE Elite's spots could have been a unique design element, which was only changed to represent skin in Halo 2. But seeing how almost every other part of the design matches up, there's evidence pointing toward the fact that it's the same thing.

Why do the Elites have giant holes in their techsuits? I have no earthly idea. It seems impractical, but at least we get a really good look at their scale texture with it. As a side note, we can also see that the techsuit of these Elites is still teal blue, but markedly less saturated than seen previously.

Onto actually reviewing this different head model, we can spot a few differences right off the bat. Most apparent of these is the difference in color. The NPC Elite's scales are a cool, greyish-brown in contrast to Arby's warm brown tone.

The scales also have a different and more uniform pattern in their coverage, and if you look closely, you can make out teal blue patterns on the head scales. These patterns are in all likelihood surface veins, like we saw on Arby.

It wasn't until this point that I identified that deep groove in the back of the skull—that dark, shadowed oval behind the eyes. But let it be known that it's clearly a feature of the Halo 2 Elite to have this pronounced groove/depression in the sides of their heads.

The eyes on this Elite are entirely black, instead of bearing a colored iris. Now, if you read Halopedia's reference to sangheili eye color, you'll find this note:

Elites of all ranks wear black lenses in Halo 2. These devices were likely meant to project the combatant's heads-up display.

Listen to me when I say that the only reference I found for this was statements on Reddit. I have seen numerous people purporting either their opinion, or the fact, that the Halo 2 Elites use black contact lenses to display a HUD.

Allegedly, as per some of these comments, this is corrobated by Elite P.O.Vs written in the Halo books. They do not explain exactly in which books. I have read a few myself, but I'm unable to recall such a detail from them.

So, for now, I consider this detail unsubstantiated until someone can provide a direct reference for it. I would love for it to be officially confirmed and have a canon citation! I think it's a fun retroactive explanation.

Next, I'm sure you've noticed the interesting headgear this Elite bears. Typically hidden under the helmet, this band appears to to cover the ears with two devices and is likely comms equipment. If you inspect the texture closely, you can also spot two small wires placed against the top of the head (or possibly routing inside it).

There's also an interesting groove in the middle of the head, which appears to extend under the head band. This detail doesn't appear on Arby, but I conjecture that it could be a row of ridges.

Or a hidden easter egg moai face. Up to you.

This model, which is used for almost all of the other in-game Elites, also has whiter and cleaner teeth than Arbiter. Do with that what you will.

Another difference that isn't obviously apparent is the thickness of the neck. To show this best, I layered the Arbiter and NPC Elite next to each other. The NPC Elite has a substantially thicker neck in comparison.

But wait! There's more!

Making sure to do my due diligence, I inspected every angle of the model and discovered this beautiful throat patch on the NPC model. It appears glossy and plated like scutes, or maybe even chitinous plates, if I'm being honest.

This is an oddly insectoid design detail that has no parallel on any other part of the model. I'm deeply curious to understand how this feature ever came about in development, never to be noticed by players, but I have doubts such a small detail would be included in any accounts of developer commentary.

Arby lacks this throat patch entirely, but I consider it an amazing find. I hope you enjoy it too! I would rejoice if any artist one day gave this obscure detail justice, by giving their sangheili a fun, shiny throat patch. That would be a delight to see.

With Halo: Campaign Evolved not far away, I'd say it's a better time than ever to take a look back to where it all started with the Elite design of Combat Evolved.

This initial entry should be the only time you see armor in this series. The CE Elite has a low-poly model, and a lot of it is armor attached to the mesh surface; there's nothing for me to strip away and look under, and frankly, I don't mind discussing it in this specific instance.

(Since my model's armor is not currently configured to be colored, this photograph by fellow blog haloreferences will serve to represent the true glory of the in-game model. Thanks, haloreferences!)

Over the years as I've read around in the community, I've seen a lot of vocal acclaim for these Elites, and they deserve it: when you get down to it, there's truly nothing else quite like them in the series, for nothing has matched their style exactly since. I think they owe their timeless appeal to a combination of factors, but especially to the charisma of their animations and the smooth, clean aesthetic of their armor.

They have some of the least detailed and most organically shaped armor in the entire series, which lends so much to their design it cannot be understated. For this reason, I feel that their style is difficult to bring up to par in modern graphics, at least without a conscious effort to preserve their smooth, glossy shapes. For me, even the high-fidelity work of Abimael Salazar falls short in portraying the nature of their armor.

But to expound any more would be breaking the 'not reviewing armor rule' I set in the introduction, so let's move on to the main goal of this series: anatomy assessment, or what little of it we can do here.

Because the CE Elite's anatomy is almost identical to the Halo 2 Elite, which we'll be covering next in detail, the most unique things we're going to look at here are going to be the techsuit and face.

This Elite has a very colorful techsuit. At least when imported into Blender, this can very plainly be seen. Almost the entire body is covered in a bright, teal blue undersuit with a hexagonal pattern. This is except for the boots, which have vertical striations and a grippy texture on the sole, and the gloves are textureless.

Note these yellowish spots interrupting the teal layer. You have to wonder just what they're supposed to represent, if not mere ornamentation.

Here's the torso. It features a line on the sternum, which I view as the undeniable origin of the sternal ridge on the Blur sangheili design. We'll see this again on the Halo 2 Elite, which is where the aforementioned Blur design actually took it from.

I'd also like to note the pattern shown here, in the concavity of the ribcage. I'm not sure what it's intended to represent (a symbol on the undersuit, or muscular detail?), but it's interesting to look at.

Quick pictures of the hands before we move on:

We're getting closer to the face, which is my favorite part on this Elite, so hang in there.

Once we get up to the back of the neck, we can find more of those yellowish spots from earlier. They're almost like textured patterns on the suit, or maybe cutouts.

There's one more on the throat. Also, please enjoy the angle on the mouth from here in anticipation of the full face. It's got a very interesting shape from the bottom (almost like a mushroom or keyhole).

I actually found that the Halo 2 models reveal just what these cutouts are, so if you're curious to find out, stick around! It's not what I initially presumed it to be, and I found it a fun, if insignificant detail.

I saved my absolute favorite for last, so let's finally look at the face!

I fucking love this guy. I didn't really start loving him until I started paying attention to this specific part, but he's a huge standout among all other Elites in the entire series for one specific reason: this very first Elite had mandibles entirely unlike any that came after it.

I'll show you why:

In every design that succeeded this guy, the upper mandibles sit directly below a dedicated upper jaw (maxilla) containing teeth.

In the CE Elite? The upper mandibles function as an upper lip. They close around the upper gums and are attached by what looks to be a membranous or muscular webbing.

In these jaws, the teeth on the upper mandibles point downward, while the teeth on the lower mandibles point inward. This setup pans out so the mandible-teeth aren't stabbing into the Elite's gums.

When closed, the front and sides meet neatly with no gaps, except for the bottom of the jaws. When combined with mandible armor, this lends the appearance of what some people call a 'face mask/guard' when describing CE Elites.

I personally find that it gives them a real shrewd and cunning look about them.

(goddamn cutie.)

Note the scoop-shaped end of the lower mandible. It almost forms a pincer when viewed from below (only marginally extended by the exterior mandible armor, I checked).

Overall, I adore these mandibles. In the present day, it's pretty hard to equate this design with our modern sangheili (who are now known for their four mobile mandibles sitting below the maxilla), but I enjoy it a lot.

The reveal of the gums and concealed inner teeth makes their jaw-splaying threat far more visually impactful; they're kind of the only 'horror' inspired version of Elites you get, beside Flood forms, which I don't exactly count for this.

They are sufficiently alien in a way that brings me immense joy. I'd love to see more art of this specific design in the modern day, but I don't expect to. Mayhaps my spotlight here could help change that.

As far as practicality goes, all Elite designs I've viewed have open-bottomed mouths. But the pincer-like shape of these lower mandibles seems passable to me for holding items in the jaws.

Combined with the way the mandibles close, the premaxillary teeth (positioned at the very front of the upper jaw, also seen on all Elites) might actually be effective here. The way I see it, the jaws seem like they could function to spear and macerate food directly at the tips of the mandibles, with those premaxillary teeth directly serving as a surface to squeeze and stab against. Like pins and a pincushion! Fucking awesome! I'm totally gonna borrow those biomechanics for personal use one day.

Also worth noting: the entrance into the throat is actually distended forward on this model, rather than recessed further back, like it became in the Elites to come.

Modelling limitation or conscious design choice, I wouldn't know. But as it appears, it would facilitate consumption far easier compared to the effort the other Elite designs would have to go through.

Most of them would have to flex their mandibles all the way back to push food into their esophagus (assuming, of course, sangheili mandibles are even playing a proper role in food processing and consumption anymore; with their setup, the easier option would frankly be to use their hands).

As an additional note on jaw-splaying, I'm simply in love with how vividly pigmented their mouth tissue is in CE. By Earth biology standards, it makes absolutely zero sense for a creature with purple blood, but it's beautiful and adds to the threat display fantastically. The vivid color makes it feel like a very biologically grounded behavior to me, like it's an inherent part of their intraspecific communication which Chief is just subjected to.

I could imagine jaw-splaying having a variety of meanings based on context, from fear to aggression, or even serving as any other kind of voluntary signalling (like a human wave! fuck, don't get me starting on hypothesizing sangheili body language).

And now I want to see someone draw an elite with highly blood-pigmented mouth tissue, but in purple.

With the novelty of the unique mandibles largely out of the way, let's touch on the head, or what little of it we can admire here.

Based on what can be gleaned visually, they have a very wedge-shaped head, which I'd argue is more shark-like than anything else. This is except for the mandibles, which are easily the most insectoid Elite jaws in the series.

Their eyes are black and proportionally the largest out of any Elite since. What skin is visible here also has rather insectoid features, appearing segmented into plates. You may or may not know this, but I'd safely say that the CE Elite's closest relative in terms of integument is undeniably the Halo Infinite Elite (which is unfortunately very, very far off in this series).

The Halo Infinite Elite shares this design in a reduced capacity, bearing segmented grooves upon the surface of its' head. At present, it's also my favorite sangheili head design ever, of all time. I really would be really curious to know for certain whether or not the Infinite Elite's head ridges are lifted from CE.

I could go on, but I'll be saving the deeper breadth of my anatomical scrutiny for the Halo 2 Elite; those models have much more to show.

So, I bring this post to a conclusion: the sangheili of Combat Evolved, from before sangheili were even much of a thing, are really an outlier among their bretheren. They have a disparate visual style and, in places, disparate anatomy to all that have succeeded them. I find this very interesting, for them having been the foundation of all Elites known today. Most Covenant races found in CE share a similar story, but I'm especially glad to highlight the Elite that started it all, for its' alien elegance and novelty compared to what's come since.

I really enjoyed writing this, and if you're reading, I hope you did too!

In the next entry, on the Halo 2 Elite, we will:

See some significant developments to CE's established sangheili anatomy

Thoroughly assess the only truly nude Elite model from the games

Over the past few years, I have developed an on-and-off hobby of collecting Halo game models for use in Blender. In particular, I set a goal to collect every single Elite model throughout the main games.

Following a recent initiative, I have completed this task. With models sourced by multiple methods (gracious uploaders on The Halo Archive on Discord, the Halo Archive Google Drive, and in some cases assets I ripped directly from MCC using the Reclaimer tool), my dream Elite lineup in Blender has been fulfilled.

As I’ve collected these models and studied them each, I’ve developed a great appreciation for many trivial aspects of their designs. And when trying to think of something to do with them all, I thought it would be a fun idea to share them, one-by-one, giving each the close-up look they’ve otherwise never seen.

Unless you’ve also amassed the game assets like I have (again, from incredibly convenient uploaders I am forever grateful to), it’s highly unlikely you’ve ever seen Elites in the way I aspire to show you. You can find some screenshots, sure, but none of them go the extra mile, outlined below.

The goals of this prospective series:

Provide plentiful, three-dimensonal screenshot references for the anatomy of each Elite model, with as much armor removed as possible in order to observe the underlying body

Show the diversity and evolution of sangheili designs over the course of the Halo games

Highlight small and interesting details that are difficult or otherwise impossible to observe in-game

and least importantly, express my highly proprietary personal opinions and judgement on what makes a good sangheili design

You would seriously be surprised by some of the fine details and physiological differences between each sangheili model! And in my opinion, they’ve had design inspirations from an unexpected variety of animals, such as insects and arthropods, snakes, sharks, and even dolphins (I’ll back this up later on).

Examples of traits that vary wildly across sangheili models:

Basic head shape

Integument (scale/skin type and texture)

Mandible anatomy

If you really enjoy creature/alien design, you should enjoy what I have in store to see. We all have our favorite model, but you might just learn some brand new things about the Elite designs you thought you knew.

I won’t be reviewing or comparing armor at all in this particular series, because that’d be a fuckin’ huge task that I ain’t cut out for right now.

Undersuits will be reviewed superficially when necessary, since they’re often a large part of the body mesh, and I somewhat count them under my ‘difficult to observe’ point.

As I go, I’ll also make an effort to display what individual character models exist, to get a look at variation between sangheili in the games.

Look forward to the first entry, on the Halo: Combat Evolved Elite, to be uploaded soon!