Unggoy

The Unggoy, nicknamed Grunts by the UNSC, are a sapient species and one of the former client species of the Covenant. The Unggoy occupied the lowest tier in the Covenant's caste system, and comprised the majority of the hegemony's labor force as slaves or serfs; consequently, they are near-ubiquitous across the Covenant sphere. While the Unggoy had some means of social mobility, either in special laborer duties, as merchants or in the clergy, few individuals were fortunate enough to have such opportunities.

Prehistory and rise of civilization
The evolutionary and pre-Halo history of the Unggoy is a difficult one to piece together, as the Forerunners kept few records on the species, and none of these go into any depth about what their society was like. As a result, most of what is known is based on speculations from human xeno-biologists and xeno-anthropologists, who are forced to look for evidence of their past in their anatomy and behavioral quirks.

The most readily-accepted theory is that the Unggoy evolved from a genus of amphibious, vaguely arthropod-like organisms with several primatoid physical characteristics. Early prehistoric individuals led tribal societies, and sustained themselves through hunting small animals and scavenging the corpses of larger ones. It is generally held that they were an important part of their ecosystem, where they were preyed on by Balaho's apex and second-order predators due to their numbers and considerable size. These often-unstoppable threats drove a number of early migrations outside of their home continent, while those that remained invented the defensive weapons and tactics they needed to survive. Over the centuries, this manifested in an instinctual fear of nature and anything that didn't resemble an Unggoy. Because of this, the history of their civilization was permeated with massive deforestation and culling campaigns, replaced with homes for their rapidly-expanding population. By the time the Forerunners came into contact with Balaho, little of the original wildlife and natural scenery remained.

They would reportedly develop themselves into a low-end Tier-4 civilization by Forerunner metrics, where they enjoyed limited spaceflight for a time, though there is no evidence of a permanent space presence beyond orbital satellites, probes, and possible sporadic manned missions to nearby bodies. However, centuries of habitat destruction, over-industrialization, and pollution would lead to a massive environmental collapse, starving their population. The damage was only mitigated by the intervention of their Forerunner overlords, who implanted massive atmospheric processors and hydrosphere filters to stabilize Balaho's condition, and supplied alternative food sources. This was the end to their assistance, as the escalating Flood invasion saw them leave the Unggoy to deal with the problems themselves. By the time the Halos fired, they were still unable to meaningfully restore their homeworld's ecosystems. Remains of this past civilization can be found on Balaho even to this day. Even though most of the megacities have crumbled in Balaho's harsh conditions, some ruins remain standing as a reminder of the bygone civilization. When Balaho was incorporated into the Covenant, sweeps of the system recovered a handful of intact artificial satellites, mostly clustered in the Balaho-Buwan Lagrange points, along with the remains of exploratory vehicles and small outposts on Buwan. However, any data these artifacts may have originally contained had long decayed due to the primitive nature of their storage systems.

There are some additional ambiguities to the pre-Array history of the Unggoy. The most prominent of these are the ruins on the methane-rich moon of Niihkta. The surface of Niihkta is littered with the crumbled remains of what appear to have been fairly developed urban communities, which in itself is not out of the ordinary as fallen planetary civilizations abound in the galaxy. What stands out are the carvings and inscriptions on some of these buildings, featuring elaborate murals depicting unmistakably Unggoy-like figures. The ruins remain a matter of controversy among Covenant scholars as Niihkta is nearly 1000 light-years from Balaho and the ruins there have been, with a slim margin of error, dated to be nearly 200,000 years old. Many dismiss the carvings as a later forgery, while others have called the dating methods into question. Though some Covenant scholars have suggested that the Forerunners may have blessed the Unggoy with another world, the notion that the gods would have seen fit to grace such a lowly species in such a way is difficult for some within the Covenant's aristocracy to accept.

The Covenant
The first Covenant scouts would discover Balaho in 238 BCE or the 6th Age of Conflict, at a time where limited-scale industrialization was rediscovered among certain tribes. This occurred at the height of the hegemony's first period of major dispersal and a time of upheaval and unrest, preceding the institutional and cultural consolidation of the First Illumination. The Covenant ship that first chanced upon Balaho belonged to an outlying warlord fiefdom, and at the time such marcher polities only had sporadic contact with High Charity. As such, news of the discovery of the new species only reached the holy city well after the fact. The surveyors' reports of a hardy but intelligent species that were eager to be taken off-world were initially treated with little fanfare. Their small numbers, low native technology level, peculiar native atmosphere and their consequent reliance on a methane supply outside it, initially made them of little interest to the Covenant as a whole. As such, they were made a vassal-species, but no concerted effort was made to integrate them to the Covenant hierarchy. Part of this was due to the Covenant itself going through a minor interregnum at the time, but another factor was the fact the Covenant's conversion process has not yet fully solidified, and there was debate as to whether such lowly and primitive beings were even eligible for Salvation.

Over the subsequent centuries, the Unggoy began to spread across the Covenant Empire, first as curiosities, entertainers and status symbols for wealthy magnates and nobles, then, more widespread servants and slaves. Increasing numbers of Sangheili aristocrats and warlords would foster small populations of Unggoy as serfs as well as cannon fodder in their internecine clan wars. Although Balaho was not formally part of the Covenant, the outsiders' footprint on the Unggoy homeworld grew ever larger with the centuries. Leaders of the handful of industrial Unggoy states struck deals with Sangheili warlords, agreeing to deliver the off-worlders servants or slaves. These slaves were usually gathered from the less technologically advanced, tribal regions of Balaho, thereby incentivizing a colonialism trend among the Unggoy's advanced states. Some of the leaders even managed to acquire Covenant technologies as rewards for their service, resulting in an even greater technological mismatch between the Unggoy groups and permanently disrupting the Unggoy's own technological development.

Eventually, the usefulness of the Unggoy was re-evaluated by the bureaucrats of High Charity, and the High Council took steps toward a proper conversion process. This was in part due to the species already being embedded to the Covenant power structure in many regions, but also the Covenant's need for a cheap labor force as their anti-automation doctrines grew stricter following the recent conflict against the machine-race known as the Rhiln. As well, the First Illumination had allowed the institutions of High Charity to consolidate, finally allowing them to contemplate expanding the empire in major ways. Scores of Ministerial officials and missionaries were assigned to study the Unggoy, reassess their worthiness of the Great Journey, and convert them to the Covenant faith and way of life. By this point, many of the Unggoy in service to Covenant warlords had already accepted the Covenant religion, mostly with open arms due to the appeal of its message of universal salvation. They were formally elevated to the status of full signatory client-species in 214 CE, becoming the second race to be assimilated following the Writ of Union.

Anatomy and physiology
The Unggoy's diminutive stature and often bumbling behavior belies their true capabilities, leading many to underestimate them. Unggoy are remarkably physically sturdy and can withstand a wide variety of environments outside Balaho's native biome, provided access to a regular methane supply. They are naturally capable of low-energy hibernation and can regenerate lost limbs and most other body parts over time, an autonomous response evolved in response to predators.

While their lifespans are relatively short, Unggoy mature more quickly than most known sapient species, with a 10-year-old being roughly equivalent to a human twice that age. Another notable and rather unique trait of Unggoy psychology is their exceedingly high neural plasticity. As they mature, Unggoy are capable of absorbing enormous amounts of information and learning new skills. This makes them naturally inclined to specialization. It also makes it difficult to measure an average intelligence among Unggoy; because two mature Unggoy, even those from the same litter, may vary vastly in their neural makeup depending on how and in what fields they were educated and trained. This plasticity degrades little with time, and Unggoy are capable of re-learning new abilities well into the later phases of their lives; however, going in-depth into a new specialty can also mean de-learning skills in another. This malleability was quickly discovered by the Sangheili even before the Unggoy had been formally incorporated to the Covenant. It made the Unggoy effective tools for their Covenant overlords, though it also means they are capable of taking advantage of it on their own even as the Covenant attempted to deliberately limit the extent of skills and education available to the Unggoy. As a byproduct of their flexibility, Unggoy also learn or develop languages very easily, with individual tribes often having their own secret languages.

The Unggoy's versatility, both physical and mental, was a major factor in the Covenant's decision to assimilate the Unggoy into the hegemony.

Culture and society
The Unggoy are naturally communal and polyamorous. Much of Unggoy culture is peaceful and largely egalitarian, with power typically distributed based around kudos and talent, though matriarchy has emerged as a trend particularly in the more organized and hierarchical communities. Many native Unggoy cultures were based on a barter or gift economy. However, some of the more technologically-advanced Balahoan communities were feudal or industrial capitalist.

Unggoy religions are many and varied, many having been practiced by the myriad tribes that inhabited Balaho. Many practiced worship of ancestral spirits, animism, or polytheism. Shamanistic practices were common. By now, virtually all native Unggoy religions are long gone, having been replaced by the Covenant faith, and the only data thereof exists in obscure studies by early Covenant scholars. Still, traces of these native religions remain in Unggoy communities, having been syncretized with the Covenant religion and shaping the worldviews of individual Unggoy to this day.

Within the Covenant
The Unggoy are, generally speaking, the Covenant's lowest-ranking species. However, considerable variance exists in their social status, partly owing to how eclectic the Covenant is across its constituent domains. Not all Unggoy are slaves, though many are; it is also possible for some Unggoy to earn freedom; though this is difficult and often up to luck - or more pointedly, the local laws and the whims of the local lords. Like for the other species, social mobility for Unggoy often came through distinction—usually in war, but also peacetime; e.g. a Sangheili lord impressed by a servant might grant him and his family-community freedom or even an allotment for their own colony (or at least a self-governed enclave on an existing world), which was one of the most noted distinctions Unggoy could receive.

In terms of common Unggoy social roles, there are the thralls or slaves (which themselves vary from laborers and cannon fodder to fairly well-treated household servants, interpreters, etc); there is a laborer class resembling serfs, who enjoy more rights than the average slave but are still bound to their masters. Serfs were usually under contracts in which they would, at least in theory, be free after a set period of time; however, after that contract, the reality of the Covenant's labor market, such as it exists on the local level, usually means they just have to accept a new one. Finally, there are free Unggoy citizens or freeholders, some of whom can get by quite well with occupations like trade, though most are still laborers of some kind. Some specific duties, such as the religious role of Deacon, might grant Unggoy privileges and status most of them could only dream of. Still, even the wealthiest merchant or the most respected deacon would still be looked upon "only" as an Unggoy by all but the most enlightened Covenant citizens.

Unggoy workers' ability to self-organize or meaningfully influence their own predicament varies by locale and the nature of the work. Organization is permitted in many areas, and unions or guilds are able to bring their grievances all the way up to the Ministry level, though more often they are dealt with on the level of the local authorities.

By and large, the Unggoy retain a considerable degree of solidarity among themselves, sometimes manifesting in large-scale rebellions that sweep across the Holy Ecumene. Still, their populations are highly splintered throughout the Covenant, and can be found on most Covenant worlds in some capacity. Balaho holds an almost religious significance to most Unggoy, especially those in diaspora (for its actual inhabitants, the homeworld is much less glamorous). However, some Unggoy communities are so far removed from Balaho by time and isolation they are scarcely aware it exists in the first place.