Spoilers for all works set before Hyborean are unmarked.
The Flood
The Flood
The Flood
Species: Inferi Redivivus
Appearances: Omega Halo
A parasitic infection that was sealed away on Installation-07.- Big Bad Ensemble: With Shipmaster 'Kodomee for Omega Halo. Keeping them from escaping Halo is a major concern but they're ultimately feral and without a Gravemind to guide them, making them a secondary to the Shipmaster, who intends to fire the ring. Even after 'Kodomee is killed, the UNSC are more focused on stopping the ring from firing, with the Flood being an obstacle hindering that goal.
- Hero Killer: The Flood end up killing Saul in Omega Halo.
- Not Quite Dead: They were presumed to be destroyed at the end of Halo 3, but an outbreak occurred on Installation-07, creating a feral horde without a Gravemind.
- Outside-Context Problem: Neither the UNSC or the Shipmaster's forces foresaw the Flood surviving on another Halo array and are taken by surprise when they're unleashed.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: They were locked away by the Covenant long ago, until Saul decided to open it back up again.
- Plot-Irrelevant Villain: While undeniably a major threat to the galaxy on their own, the Flood here end up being an obstacle that Saul accidentally unleashes in his zeal to bring down the Shipmaster, whose desire to activate the ring far eclipses any threat the Flood may pose. They don't cause any problems that weren't already there, beyond beyond killing several Red Shirts and Mauve Shirts. They do manage to kill Saul, however.
- Zerg Rush: Their only tactic is to charge the enemy but they have the numbers to offset the losses.
- Zombie Apocalypse: As per usual with the Flood.
The Hyboreans
In General
Hyboreans
Species: Forerunner Combat AIs
Appearances: Lifebringer | Brotherhood War | Brotherhood War: Aftermath | Hyborean
Sound Effects by: Shane Blair
A race of advanced combat A.I.s created by the Forerunners. Originally designed to combat the Flood, the Hyboreans were usurped by a surviving Forerunner called the Lifebringer, who survived the Halo firing by assimilating herself into a mechanical body.- Big Bad Duumvirate: It turns out that the Reformation had joined forces with them in the years between Lifebringer and Brotherhood War, with the Reformation offering their freedom in exchange for their assistance in destroying the UNSC.
- Big Bad Ensemble: With the Radical Reformation in Lifebringer. The Reformists want to use their technology for their own ends while the Hyboreans seek to take over the galaxy. The Hyboreans edge out as the greater threat after they wipe out the Reformists.
- BFG: The Eradicators carry incineration cannons that completely disintegrate their targets.
- Cold Sniper: The Enforcers wield powerful sniper rifles capable of administering a One-Hit Kill.
- Dying Race: The events of Lifebringer and Brotherhood War have depleted the Hyboreans' numbers significantly and because the Lifebringer lacks a Composer to make more, she's forced to rely on her army of Spartans and mechanized Centurions to bolster her army and keep the population in check. By the end of Hyborean, they've been completely wiped out.
- Elite Mooks: Vindicators, Hunter-Killer squads whose assassination protocols far outstrip their counterparts. They travel in teams of three or four and are every bit as deadly as their names imply.
- Enemy Civil War: They actively battle both the UNSC and Radical Reformation throughout the conflict on Cradle.
- Expy: Of the Prometheans in the Halo canon, although they are stated to be upgraded versions of them in-universe. They also draw comparisons to the Borg.
- Lightning Bruiser: The Poltergeist variants are extremely quick and travel in small packs to overwhelm their enemies.
- Mecha-Mooks: The Shock Trooper variants serve as the frontline infantry units of the Hyborean forces and are the most commonly encountered. The Shock Troopers are phased out with an upgraded variant in Brotherhood War, the Vanguard.
- The Unintelligible: Their speech patterns mostly consist of beeps and inhumane, distorted grunts to highlight their mechanical nature.
- You Will Be Assimilated: Many of them used to be organic Forerunners who were subjected to cybernetic augmentation by the Lifebringer.
The Lifebringer
The Lifebringer (born Life-Brings-Light-And-Song)
Species: Forerunner
Appearances: Lifebringer | Final Farewell note | Brotherhood War | Brotherhood War: Aftermath | Hyborean
Voiced by: Alyssa Whittington
An ancient Forerunner that survived on the planet Cradle, and the creator of the Hyboreans.- Ancient Evil: She is the only known Forerunner that survived her people's extinction, and has been dormant for millions of years by the time the UNSC finds her.
- And I Must Scream: Guardian and Zach defeat her by trapping her in an infinite teleportation loop, stranding her in limbo forever. Come Brotherhood War, however, she's found her way back with a little help from the Reformation.
- Arch-Enemy: She and Zach quickly develop a fierce enmity for the other, which only grows more personal by the end of Brotherhood War.
- The Bad Guy Wins: She successfully topples the UNSC from the inside with her Hyboreans and mind-controlled Spartans and ends Brotherhood War as the ruler of the planet.
- Big Bad: Of the Lifebringer saga, which consists of Lifebringer, Brotherhood War, Brotherhood War: Aftermath, and Hyborean.
- Brain Uploading: She transferred her consciousness into her current body, which allowed her to survive the Halo firing that wiped out the rest of her race.
- The Chessmaster: The biggest one in the Spartan Legacy and arguably her greatest strength. Whereas the Shipmaster used brute force and the Fleetmaster used super weapons, the Lifebringer employed deception and patience; and she's the first villain to achieve victory because of it.
- Death by Irony: Inverted; the Forerunners had the Lifebringer and her Hyboreans imprisoned on Cradle, which spared the latter two from the same fate that befell the former.
- Dirty Coward: At her core, when all is said and done, the Lifebringer is just a smug coward who lets others die for her and trembles in fear when faced with her own mortality. She only confronts Zach at the end of Hyborean when she runs out of minions to throw at him, and because Zach is still suffering from his earlier injuries. She sadistically beats on him out of spite and perverse enjoyment, but when Zach gets his Heroic Second Wind and gains the upper hand, she quivers and tries to run like a whipped dog, sputtering that humanity needs her.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Despite having the grandiose to be the series' Final Boss, the end reveals that she was preparing for something called the IXKA Anomaly, which was grave enough to frighten even her. With the announcement of The Void being the Grand Finale of The Spartan Legacy, it only reinforces the Lifebringer as this trope. That being said, she's very much the Final Boss of Zach's story.
- Everyone Calls Her "Barkeep": It's unknown what her Forerunner birth name was before she converted herself into the Lifebringer. Jacob has since revealed her birth name to be Life-Brings-Light-And-Song.
- Evil Counterpart: Veers between this and a Foil to Catherine Halsey; in light of an ongoing threatnote , both took it upon themselves to acquire a means in combating said-threatsnote ; both acquired such means through various unethical measuresnote , which lead the two to be viewed negatively by most of their peers afterwards; both also care for the subjects of their respective projects in a motherly light and, at one point, headed a Spartan program.
- Eviler than Thou: She's far worse than the Radical Reformation, with aims to wipe out the rest of the galaxy so that she may rule over it with her Hyboreans as the dominant lifeforms. She once again affirms her status as this when she turns on Nyla Isaka and keeps her prisoner as insurance against the Reformation.
- Evil Gloating: After revealing herself to Zach in Brotherhood War, she wastes no time gleefully rubbing in how she's played both the UNSC and the Radical Reformation for fools. Naturally, this gives Guardian enough time to hijack the nearby Centurion...
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Nyla Isaka sought the Lifebringer's aid to bring down the UNSC and she got it. Unfortunately for her, the Lifebringer wasn't going to just hand over her power to some lowly human.Lifebringer: The winds of change are upon us, Senator.Isaka: Then you've done it, haven't you? Well, let me out and together we will finish what we started.Lifebringer: I think not. I'd rather you remain in there where I may keep an eye on you. You will prove useful as a hostage.
- Exact Words: The Lifebringer technically kept her word when she helped the Reformation destroy the UNSC. She just left out the part where she took power for herself after doing so.
- Expy: Of the Didact, albeit unintentionally.
Chronicler177 had planned on using a Forerunner as a villain, but 343 beat him to the punch. She also exhibits shades of Palpatine by the end of Brotherhood War as her plan comes to fruition. - Fantastic Racism: She holds a very low opinion of anyone who is not a Forerunner or her Hyboreans.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Zach kicking her into the slipspace portal exposed her to, in her own words, "the horrors of the cosmos", and she saw something that frightened her to such a degree that her entire plan from Brotherhood War to Hyborean was to construct the Infinity with the purpose of confronting the anomaly.
- Godhood Seeker: Her goal is to wipe out/assimilate all life in the galaxy, then rule over it as a god with her Hyboreans.
- Godzilla Threshold: The Radical Reformation knew they couldn't beat the UNSC in a war, so they turned to the Lifebringer for aid, believing her Hyboreans will provide the forces necessary to topple the UNSC.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Aftermath reveals why she was imprisoned on Cradle—she used a Composer to convert an entire planet of Forerunners into the first Hyboreans, then set them against the Flood. This landed her on trial, where she uses this as her defense.
- Just Between You and Me: Partially out of Villain Respect, she reveals her entire plan to Zach and how she had been Playing Both Sides for an entire decade. She does indulge in a little Evil Gloating, but by that point, she already had the Hyboreans and a brainwashed army of Spartans, and had effectively won anyway.
- Last of Her Kind: She survived the Flood crisis, making her the last remaining Forerunner in the known galaxy, albeit the conscience of one stored in a Hyborean body. Her death in Hyborean renders the Forerunners completely extinct.
- Manipulative Bitch: She plays both the UNSC and the Reformation-like fiddles for nearly an entire decade, directing both sides from behind the scenes, creating a new generation of Spartans to tear the UNSC apart from the inside. The Reformation finds itself helpless against the Lifebringer when she decides to take control for herself, as their forces had been severely depleted in the six-month war with the UNSC, leaving her as the sole victor of the conflict and firmly in control of Earth.
- A Mother to Her Men: Subverted. Although she claims to care for her Hyboreans, even referring to them as her children, she doesn't bat an eye at throwing their lives away for her selfish goals, and even justifies it, saying they were for the greater good. From how little she understands true love, her claims are just empty platitudes.
- No Body Left Behind: Zach kills her with her own Scattergun, disintegrating her body into embers.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: She claims to be acting in the best interest of the galaxy, but it's clearly an excuse she uses to justify her various atrocities. Her perception that she's the only person who can protect the galaxy is a clear indication of narcissism and her actions have done nothing but spread suffering to untold millions. Zach especially calls her out on being this in their final fight, saying that for all her talk, all of the Lifebringer's actions are in service of her deluded sense of self-importance.
- Parental Favoritism: For all the usefulness of the Spartan Vs, the Lifebringer still favors her Hyboreans over them, despite the Spartans being the primary reason behind her victory, and their combat skills outstrip the Hyboreans by a significant margin. This is most likely her Fantastic Racism talking, as her Hyboreans are composed Forerunners, and thus inherently more worthwhile in her eyes.
- Playing Both Sides: While directing the Reformation as herself, she's also been playing the UNSC as Director Menaias, meaning she had molded the Spartans into her own army of brainwashed super-soldiers right under their noses. When she finally unveils her plan, the UNSC is taken completely off-guard, with many officers and leaders quickly being executed, and the Reformation is too depleted from the six-month war with the former to mount any significant resistance against her when she betrays them.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Her voice is very soft and even, along with a slight vocoder effect to further enhance her eeriness and psychopathic nature.
- Took a Level in Badass: She learns from her first defeat, realizing that the standard method of force wouldn't work. So, she infiltrated the UNSC under the guise of Menaias and played the long game until she created her own sleeper army of Spartans right under her foes' noses, and completely decimated the UNSC's leadership in one stroke.
- Tranquil Fury: During her Evil Gloating from Brotherhood War, her voice turns unsettlingly venomous as she brings up Zach's actions against her and her Hyboreans on Cradle.Lifebringer: The all-mighty Spartan, feeling so helpless! Tell me, Zach, when you were slaughtering my children, burning your way across my planet, shoving me into that forsaken portal, did you stop to wonder what it must have felt like to me? It felt like this!
- Villain Respect: She has a begrudging respect for Zach after he defeated her on Cradle, making him the only human to do so.
- Villain Team-Up: At some point, she was contacted by Nyla Isaka and Marcus Garrett, who offered her freedom in exchange for her assistance in bringing down the UNSC.
- Villainous Breakdown: One of the most cathartic in the series. Her composure completely goes out the airlock once she sees a battered, but still very much alive Zach storming the Infinity. As Guardian gives her a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech, all she can do is impotently yell in denial. Once Zach disables the engines to the Infinity, she settles for wiping out the human race after killing Zach out of pure spite. After Zach gets his Heroic Second Wind and starts to manhandle her, the Lifebringer can only sputter in shock and pitifully beg for mercy before she's finally put down for good.
- Walking Spoiler: It's very hard to talk about her without revealing she's the true Big Bad of Brotherhood War.
- The Woman Behind the Man: She's the true mastermind of the civil war between the UNSC and Radical Reformation, and no one suspects her true intentions until it's far too late.
- Xanatos Gambit: Since she's Playing Both Sides as herself to the Reformation and Menaias to the UNSC, she was poised to win regardless of who came out on top.
