Together they kill Tartarus and stop the activation of Delta Halo, triggering a failsafe; the remaining Halo installations are put on standby from remote activation from a Forerunner installation known as the Ark. As a playable character, the Arbiter was identical to the Master Chief, save for the replacement of a flashlight with an active camouflage system. While Thel 'Vadamee remains a playable character in Halo 3 during cooperative gameplay (the second player in a game lobby controls him), the game's story never switches to the point of view of the character as in Halo 2. For much of Halo 3, the Arbiter assists human forces in their fight against hostile Covenant forces alongside Master Chief. They follow Covenant forces through a portal to the Ark, where the Arbiter kills the final surviving High Prophet. During the escape, the ship Arbiter and Master Chief are on is split in two; the Arbiter crashes safely to Earth while Master Chief is presumed lost. Novels and other works detail the Arbiter's efforts in the subsequent civil war that breaks out among the Sangheili. Thel 'Vadamee reappears in Halo 5: Guardians, where his forces, the Swords of Sangheilios, remain locked in combat with a faction of Covenant on Sanghelios. When a group of human soldiers travel to Sanghelios and rescues the Arbiter from attack, the Arbiter assists them in an assault on the final Covenant stronghold of Sunaion. After the human artificial intelligence Cortana begins subjugating the galaxy, the Arbiter and the Master Chief are reunited. Taking place 20 years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, Ensemble Studio's Halo Wars (2009) features a different Arbiter from the character seen in the trilogy. Lead designer David Pottinger described Ensemble's Arbiter as a "mean guy. He's Darth Vader times ten." The characterization stemmed from a desire to make the Covenant more basically "evil" in order to provide a good-guy–bad-guy conflict. Parts of the Arbiter's backstory before the game's events are explained in a tie-in graphic novel, Halo Wars: Genesis. The Elite, Ripa 'Moramee, was given the rank after he fought and lost a campaign against his own clan. The Arbiter acts as the primary enemy of the game, charged with the destruction of humanity by the Prophet of Regret. He is ultimately killed by human forces at the game's climax. Other appearances An Arbiter is depicted in Halo Legends, a collection of anime short