With Halo Infinite rapidly approaching its December 8 release date, we’re starting to learn more about the story that’ll happen between all the shooting. One of the most dangerous foes in the upcoming game, for instance, is a dude named Jega ‘Rdomnai, who basically sounds like a Jokerfied version of Master Chief’s enemy-turned-ally the Arbiter.
“[Jega’s] almost like the inverse of what you’d expect from the Arbiter,” Halo narrative writer Jeff Easterling recently told IGN, referring to Master Chief’s ally from previous games. “We asked ourselves, ‘What is the psycho element of the Arbiter?’”
“One of the things we tried to do with Jega was make him into the creepiest, most disturbing character that’s been in Halo,” added associate creative director Paul Crocker. “Just every time you see him…he looks at things as prey. The whole experience of how he toys with Chief is just…how he is.”
Like most enemies in Halo Infinite, Jega belongs to a group known as the Banished. And while that name may conjure images of terrible screamo bands from the mid aughts, they’re actually a faction of the Covenant, an antagonistic alien empire in the Halo franchise, who broke away and took over Zeta Halo, the ringed installation upon which Infinite takes place.
As one of the Banished’s elite “Spartan Killer” soldiers, Jega’s main goal is taking down Master Chief. He’s even willing to break from Covenant tradition and install robotic prosthetics to do so.
“His lust for battle and vengeance completely outweighs even his own pride in his own culture,” said Easterling.
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While most of Master Chief’s enemies over the years have been solemn and militaristic, Jega fills an important “fucked-up little guy” niche the series rarely touches. And let’s be honest: Halo only stands to benefit from the antics of a creepy dude playing off its comically gruff and self-serious protagonists.