Voridus

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Voridus
Physical information
Species	Jiralhanae
Gender	Male
Hair color	Black (receding)
Eye color	Red
Voiced by	Ashley Bagwell
Chronological and political information
Affiliation	The Banished
Rank(s)	Lieutenant
Era(s)	Post-War

The Banished go where they want, and destroy any who oppose!

Voridus was a Jiralhanae lieutenant who served the Banished and fought against the Flood in the Second Battle of Installation 00.

Biography

Background

During the time after the Banished seized Installation 00 on November 25, 2558, Voridus ruthlessly exploited the Ark for new resources and knowledge, especially the energetic meta-materials pumped throughout the Ark in great rivers to keep the installation functioning; these efforts culminated in his recent harnessing of "Infusion Gel." However, the prototype infusion technology Voridus created produced corrosive and mutagenic sludge during operation, even killing or damaging some Huragok in the process. Of course, this has not stopped Voridus from field-testing new weapons that harness infusion gel's byproducts.

One of these projects was the Jiralhanae Grenadiers. These criminals and savages, too crude to climb the Banished hierarchy, accepted Voridus's offers to obtain glory by testing his new toys. Given infused armor and overcharged grenade launchers, these unfortunates did indeed achieve glory in battle as the gel gave them great power, but they began to rot from the inside out to the point where, on death, they would explode into pools of toxic sludge. They became so crazed in battle, however, that they did not seem to mind this in the slightest.

In spite of constantly jeopardizing his brother Pavium's advancement in the Banished ranks, as well as his own, Atriox has allowed him to continue his work. However, he was put under his brother's command in hopes that the more disciplined Pavium could keep Voridus under control, something the former can only hope to yet accomplish.

The Ark

Many months after Installation 09 entered slipspace and left the Ark, Voridus and Pavium were tasked by Atriox to scout and salvage any crashed Covenant starships near the ruined remains of High Charity, which had crashed down on to the Ark's surface seven years before. When warned by Pavium to stick to Atriox's orders and leave High Charity untouched, he insisted that his brother "worries too much", and that he lacked the Jiralhanae lust for adventure. He also dismissed the existence of the Parasite as a lie cooked up by the Prophets, though he had never fought them before.

The two commanders soon engaged the swarms of Sentinels that grew in numbers and ferocity the closer they came to High Charity's crash site. To deal with the wreckage blocking the path, Voridus called in a Scarab to clear the way. Soon, Retrievers appeared, and since they had no way to fight the nearly indestructible constructs, Voridus found and accessed a Forerunner interface to shut down the entire swarm.

While Pavium handled a salvaging operation nearby, Voridus went against Atriox's orders and had his Scarab breach the quarantine shield around High Charity's wreckage and sent three Brutes to scout the interior. Sometime passed and one of the Brutes returned as a Flood Combat Form; Voridus soon realized something was terribly off. The Flood, who had remained dormant for seven years, swarmed through the breach Voridus had created, and though he valiantly fought and killed numerous Flood forms, he knew he could not win the battle and retreated with his remaining forces. Pavium and his forces soon met up with them and found a Forerunner facility underground; Voridus took several of his soldiers with him, while Pavium and the others stayed outside to prevent the Flood from trapping them.

As Voridus explored the Forerunner facility, he told Pavium of its current state, which the latter recognized as the slight slimmer of hope that could allow them to defeat the parasite. However, the Flood had begun infecting the facility, so Voridus and his men raced to the power core to reactivate the facility and cleanse the area of the Flood. Voridus received a few reinforcements from Pavium during the operation, and he managed to reactivate the Sentinel defense system before Pavium was overrun.

With the Flood slowly being contained, Voridus and Pavium were soon informed that they had one final Flood to deal with; a massive Proto-Gravemind that was on the move. Voridus was ecstatic about slaying such a mighty creature and the fame that went along with it. As they reached the massive creature and attempted to kill it, Voridus noted his brother's Mega Turrets were having no effect. Pavium soon detected a Forerunner facility nearby and tasked Voridus with opening it, which then sent Retrievers to kill the Proto-Gravemind. Voridus was delighted to have contributed to its death, though Pavium reminded him they still had to report to Atriox.

Atriox soon arrived and berated the two brothers, especially Voridus, for causing a near-catastrophe and having to consolidate the defensive lines he had planned for months again. As a Flood Infection Form attempted to infect Atriox, he crushed it with his hands and tossed its lifeless corpse in front of Voridus' feet before ordering them to seal the breach and clean up their mess before reporting to him. Atriox gave a dangerous glare towards Voridus before the two brothers left to secure the area.

Personality

Voridus is, in nearly every way, the polar opposite of his brother, Pavium. Like most Brutes, he is brash, stubborn, glory-seeking, and aggressive. However, he is also quite clever and excels at coming up with solutions to a problem on the fly. He, like his brother, is also very adept with Forerunner technology, able to interact with the Ark's control systems with little problem.

In combat, Voridus is fast and aggressive. He favors melee combat, always on the offensive and pushing the objective by any means necessary. It was his thirst for glory and his desire to prove himself that has not only gotten him in trouble with Atriox, but almost unleashed the Flood, the greatest threat the galaxy has ever seen.

Like many Banished Brutes in the post-Covenant era, Voridus scoffs at anything having to do with the Covenant and their religion. However, having never faced the Flood, he also discarded Pavium's fear not only that the parasite still existed on the crashed High Charity, but that it had ever existed at all and claimed it was another of Prophet's lies.

Appearance

While significantly shorter than his brother Pavium, Voridus stands a little taller than the average Brute, and wears bulky red and black Banished Brute armor with numerous modifications, such as a large pauldron on his right shoulder. His armor also has several glowing orange nodes to distinguish his armor in low light situations. His helmet comprises of a removable faceplate and a collapsible headgear that retracts into his back armor.

Voridus, like his brother, seems to have little hair on his head and body compared to other Brutes. What hair he does have is a sort of "high and tight" buzzcut atop his head.

Voridus, ever the resourceful creature, has a variety of weapons. In the cutscenes, he has a deadly set of four hefty blades on his left gauntlet that can cleave enemies in half and can even be fired as projectiles at short range. In the gameplay he wields a long handled, deadly mace much like Atriox's "Chainbreaker," in true Jiralhanae style, which he can overcharge using his Infusion tech.

Quotes

• "If we find prizes to bring back, how could that go wrong?"
• "Relax, brother. You worry too much."
• "This war has tamed you, brother. Where is your Jiralhanae lust for adventure?"
• "Next time the Covenant lose a war, I hope they clean up after themselves."
• "Prepare yourselves."

Gameplay

Halo Wars 2

Voridus is a Hero unit for Awakening the Nightmare.

Unit

Voridus is a Jiralhanae hero unit carrying a fuse Gravity Hammer to swing at his foes, his Gravity Hammer can also create a pool of gel when he slams it at the ground. He is also equipped with a cloak when ever he is on top of the gel.

Skirmish

Voridus gameplay is borrowed from the Warlord and he's a unit for his leader self. However, unlike the Warlord, Voridus can't stun units when he hits them nor drag them.

Blitz

Image	Energy Cost	Rarity	Leader Restriction
	190	Legendary	Voridus

In-Game Strategies

Voridus is one of the most unique leaders in Halo Wars 2, arguable rivaled only by YapYap. Because of this, learning to play him proficiently can be a bit difficult. His highly aggressive style and toxic Infusion make Voridus the trickster's leader- there are a number of different ways to go about winning with him, and to do so consistently you must know at least a handful of them as to not become predicatable. The moment Voridus runs out of tricks is the moment he loses.

One way is to field a mass of Grunts as quickly as possible and research Grunt Mine early on, then push on the enemy's base before they have anything to defend and focus down their Generator/Power Extractor. With Combat Spoils, you can catapult yourself into tech 2 while putting the enemy behind by depriving them of one of their precious Generators.

Another style focuses on stealing minibases on the enemy's side of the map. This is done by building a Chopper as soon as possible and sending it straight to the enemy minibase slots. Try to get more than one, but know that this is harder on some maps than it is on others. Once you have the minibase(s), you can put a raid camp of it and send them to the enemy base to target down a Generator. Along with Combat Spoils, he has Grenadier Drop on second point, which means that any early enemy infantry can be easily dealt with.

These two ways of playing can carry a player far, but the important part is that they become familiar with what Voridus is and is not capable of. Despite his aggressive style, Voridus struggles with killing powerful enemy hero units, the most blatant example being Atriox's Chosen. Grenadiers are slow, and do negligable damage to hero shields. While they are capable of high damage output once the shields are off any given hero (aside from Forge's Warthog and the Bison), unfortunately most of a hero's health pool is shield. Slowing the hero with Jump Pack Brute jumps and surrounding with masses of Grunts is a viable option, though it is also inconsistent. Maybe heroes will be able to escape and continue pestering your forces once the shields are back. Because of this, a Voridus player must become adept at harassment: hitting multiple places at once while avoiding the enemy hero in order to make the most out of combat spoils.

Voridus has a rather powerful early game, but as stated above it has weaknesses. His mid game is mainly carried by his Invigorating Frenzy ability, which gives any units standing in Infusion Pools increased speed and damage, as well as healing. This ability needs Infusion in order to work, so after getting tech 2 getting the Voridus hero out in order to spread Infusion is a must. Continuing harassment with Grunts and Brutes is recommended, as if it is done well enough, Voridus can gather enough power to get a quick tech 3 and field his powerful Infused Scarab special unit. The Infused Scarab is a game ender when used correctly, as it grants Voridus a large power spike that allows him to end the match before late game, where Voridus struggles very hard. Cataclysm becomes nigh inescapable when an Infused Scarab is present- just target down anything that isn't being melted and it will promply die. However, should the initial Scarab/Cataclysm push fail to end the game, Voridus is in a rough spot. While potent at first, Cataclysm becomes less and less effective as the enemy researches global unit upgrades and gets healing leader powers. Forge and Isabel can especially negate Cataclysm with a Restoration Drones/Heavy Metal combo.

To win with Voridus, one must keep all of this in mind and develop their own ways of overcoming his two greatest weaknesses: his inability to kill strong heroes in tech 1 and his impotent late game. However, if played correctly, Voridus is a highly effective leader for ending games quickly.

Trivia

• Voridus is the only DLC hero that can assassinate other heroes.

Appearances

• Halo Wars 2
  • Halo Wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare (First appearance)