Arbiter (Halo) - Character Design

Character Design

The Arbiter in the video games Halo 2 (2004) and Halo 3 (2007) is voiced by Keith David, a New York actor. David noted that he enjoys voicing complicated characters who have a past. To make an impact with voice acting, he says, is difficult—"it's either good acting or it's bad acting". David is not a frequent video game player, but stated that he has become more known for his work as the Arbiter than for his film and other voice roles.

The Arbiter changed very little during development, as the overall appearance of the alien Covenant Elites had been designed and developed for the previous game, 2001's Halo: Combat Evolved. The only substantial difference between the Arbiter and other Elites is ceremonial armor seen in early concept sketches and which appeared in the final design. During Halo 2's early developmental stages the character's name was "Dervish", a name from the Sufi sect of Islam. Out of context, Microsoft Game Studios' "geocultural review" consultants found nothing wrong with the name. However, as Tom Edwards, a consultant who worked with Microsoft during the review noted, "within the game’s context this Islamic-related name of 'Dervish' set up a potentially problematic allegory related to Halo 2's plot—the -like forces (Master Chief/Sarge) versus Islam (the religious Covenant, which already had a 'Prophet of Truth' which is one synonym for Muhammad). Since this incident was not long after the September 11, 2001 attacks, sensitivity to the name remained high, and the character's name was changed to the "Arbiter".

In an interview with MTV, Halo developer Bungie's former content manager Frank O'Connor said that the inclusion of the Arbiter as a playable character in Halo 2 was supposed to be a "secret on the scale of a Shyamalan plot twist" and explains that Bungie was able to keep the public uninformed about this until the game's release, to the point that O'Connor never even considered including it on the weekly development updates posted at Bungie's webpage. O'Connor also stated that Bungie "had some other things that were secrets within secrets" and claimed that there was material related to the Arbiter that was kept secret during the development of Halo 3 because "There is an aspect of the Arbiter's character that is still secret to this day and will remain so for a good reason." Story director Joseph Staten said that the purpose of introducing the Arbiter was "to offer another, compelling point of view on a war where telling friend from foe wasn't always clear-cut. We knew we had a trilogy on our hands, so we were looking past the shock of playing as the enemy .