Writh Kul

Writh Kul is born in the Tower of Vet’nos, a major city on the asteroid A’zhd. Unlike many other settlements on the asteroid, Vet’nos remains untouched by the constant raids of pirates, allowing Writh to grow up in a stable environment. Gifted with intelligence and a sharp mind for strategy, she eventually enlists in the Covenant navy, where her talents in tactics and command quickly distinguish her.

During the Human-Covenant War, Writh Kul rises to the position of shipmistress of the frigate Dagger of Mercy. By the final years of the war and the Great Schism in 2552, her exceptional ability in space combat earns her a place within the late Chieftain Tartarus’ inner circle. She is granted the role of naval combat architect, entrusted with overseeing large-scale space operations and devising strategies that cripple human fleets. Under her direction, Covenant forces destroy more than 185 UNSC capital ships, making her one of the most lethal naval commanders fielded by the Covenant during the conflict.

After the collapse of the Covenant, Writh Kul takes the Dagger of Mercy and its loyal crew into independent operations. She focuses on looting Forerunner relics across known space, selling them on the post-war black market that flourishes as different species and factions scramble for profit and advantage. These ventures make her wealthy, but the life of a relic raider offers little of the warfare she craves. Seeking purpose in combat once more, she turns her attention to Atriox and the Banished. Atriox, recognizing her skill and experience, welcomes her into his ranks.

Around 2559, before fully entering Banished service, Writh encounters Vrak’is, a former pirate queen among the Kig-Yar. The two face each other in a game of liar’s dice, with Vrak’is wagering her prized heirloom weapon, a Pinpoint Needler. Writh loses the game, but Vrak’is, impressed by Writh’s potential and knowing she no longer requires the weapon, gifts it to her regardless. The weapon becomes one of Writh’s personal armaments.

By the time of the Banished occupation of Installation 07 in 2560, Writh Kul is serving as part of Delta Pack within the Third Combat Element of the Thieves of the Claw. Armed with her Pinpoint Needler and commanding presence, she continues her career as both strategist and warrior, now applying her destructive genius in service to Atriox and the Banished cause.

Appearance: Writh Kul's She is a Kig-Yar female with digitigrade legs, clawed feet, and avian-reptilian features. Her head is elongated with a beak-like snout and sharp mandibles. Red plumage extends from the back and sides of her head, flaring outward beneath the armored headpiece.

She wears Banished combat armor in maroon and metallic gray. The helmet is angular, with forward-pointing ridges and protective plating covering the skull while leaving her facial beak exposed. The helmet has yellow "eye" visors over her head where her eyes are located beneath. Her chest armor is reinforced, with dark segments layered across the torso and additional plating over the shoulders and upper arms. Segmented gauntlets cover her forearms and hands, designed to fit her clawed digits. Her legs are protected by maroon armor plates running from the thighs to the shins, with metallic knee guards and silver-edged accents. The boots are shaped to accommodate her taloned feet, with armored plating extending over the front and sides.

The Pinpoint Needler is a modified variant of the standard Posu'gelka-pattern needler. In addition to having a white chassis instead of the standard purple coloration, it features an expanded magazine of 30 shards and an advanced target acquisition ability. The shards fired from the Pinpoint Needler also have a lower "supercombine" requirement.

The United Nations Space Command (UNSC) is the military, exploratory, and scientific agency of the Unified Earth Government (UEG) and has acted as the emergency governing body of the human race at large for a time.

The Battle for Zeta Halo was a large multi-faction battle that took place starting on December 12, 2559, prominently between the United Nations Space Command and the Banished on the Forerunner Halo Installation 07, otherwise known as "Zeta Halo", and continues as of around mid-2560. The earlier stages of battle ultimately led to the death of Cortana, the deactivations of her Guardians and the splintering of the Created in various fiefdoms and fledgling cells while simultaneously severely damaging Installation 07, making it a turning point of the Created uprising, although the conflict itself continued as of 2560.

The Banished are a multi-species confederation of pirates and raiding clans. Acting as mercenaries, the organization's goals have been described as attaining power in their raids across the Orion Arm, while their killers and mercenaries plunder treasure in the name of their own free will.

They were formed and led by the Jiralhanae warmaster Atriox after rebelling against the Covenant. The Banished are primarily composed of Jiralhanae and have incorporated Sangheili, humans, Mgalekgolo, Unggoy, Huragok, and Kig-Yar, as Atriox denounced vengeance between species as a petty restriction in the way of gaining rewards and treasures.

The Thieves of the Claw are a Kig-Yar-centric group of thieves within the Banished.

Skirmisher is a role held exclusively by Kig-Yar warriors, most notably within the Covenant and Banished militaries. Within the Covenant military, the skirmisher role was held almost exclusively by the T'vaoan subspecies of Kig-Yar. The T'vaoans are a subspecies of Kig-Yar hailing from asteroid colony of T'vao, within the Kig-Yar's home system of Y'Deio. 'vaoans are a subset of the Kig-Yar species hailing from the isolated environment of T'vao. The morphological variation among the Kig-Yar represents divergent evolution in response to varied environments on prehistoric Eayn. Xenobiologists believe that the asteroid's higher gravity and atmospheric shifts led to the development of the T'voans' avian features. They are much faster and stronger than the more lightly-built common Kig-Yar, known to humans as Jackals (particularly the Ruuhtians and Ibie'shan). They have darker skin and stockier, squared heads with small yellow eyes with slitted pupils, as opposed to the bulbous and pale eyes of the Ruuhtians. They also have more beak-like mouths and bony facial coverings. T'vaoans have true feathers on their head, back, and arms, unlike the Jackals' quills. A T'vaoan's voice is more raspy and guttural—this is because they have an expanding voice chamber on their throat. T'vaoan skirmishers served as Covenant shock troops, while the more lightly built Jackals saw deployment as dedicated ranger or sniper units. Unlike other Kig-Yar, T'vaoans do not display color changes in their plumage when their moods shift.

Their head shape appears to be more avian than their cousins; their skin tone is noticeably darker and not yellowish. Like other Kig-Yar, T'vaoans have sharp talons on their hands and feet. Male Kig-Yar from T'vao had much heavier upper body plumage than other Kig-Yar. Females from T'vao had a ruff of feathers on their heads and necks instead of scales.

T'vaoans have a culture largely similar to most Kig-Yar, although most T'vaoans believe themselves to be superior over the rest of the Kig-Yar. Among T'vaoans, it is often considered "bad form" to treat a T'vaoan like an average Kig-Yar. Like other types of Kig-Yar, T'vaoan society is described as matriarchal. T'vaoans are attracted to shiny, glittery and glamorous objects. Males often squabble amongst each other and display their quills for females.