Pavium

This article may not meet Halo Alpha's standards. You can help by cleaning this article.

This article does not have enough inline citations or proper citation format. You can help Halo Alpha by adding citations.

A wise warrior does not pick a fight with an unknown foe.

Pavium was a Jiralhanae Warlord who served in the Banished and fought against the Flood during the conflict on Installation 00. He serves as one of the main protagonist of Halo Wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare, along with Voridus. 

Biography

Background

Pavium was an architect and siege master that constructed numerous fortifications for the Banished. He has become well known for his skillful use of long-range artillery, like Mega-turrets using his Orbital Designator, and has such prowess in building defenses and commanding the defensive line that he has become known as "The Unbreakable". However, with his mixed loyalties to the Banished and his clan, his advancing in the ranks has been somewhat slow.

During his long service with the Banished, alongside his younger and brasher brother Voridus, he accrued significant favor with their leader Atriox despite Voridus's repeated slip-ups in battle. Due to his adherence to discipline, his brother was placed under his command so Pavium could keep an eye on him and try to keep the glory-seeking Brute lieutenant under control.

He also gained favor with Atriox's right-hand man Decimus, who gave Pavium an enormous tower shield, almost as tall as himself, for use in battle.

The Ark

Many months after Installation 09 entered slipspace and left the Ark, Atriox decided to commit to a war of attrition and needed to gather resources, so Pavium and Voridus were tasked to scout and salvage any crashed starships near the ruined remains of High Charity, which had crashed down on to the Ark's surface seven years before. When Pavium warned Voridus to stick to Atriox's orders and leave High Charity untouched, the young brute scoffed and insisted that his brother "worries too much." Although Pavium had never witnessed the horrors of the Parasite still believed to be contained in the wreckage, unlike his brother he knew better than to take the risk.

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 Banished Scarab to clear the way, which Pavium dryly commented was "very subtle." Soon, Retriever sentinels appeared, and since they had no way to fight the nearly indestructible constructs, Voridus accessed a Forerunner interface to shut down the entire swarm.

Pavium reminded his brother one more time to heed Atriox's warning about the risk of the Flood and went to handle a salvaging operation nearby. He went some time without hearing from him and was unable to raise him on comms, but assumed he could handle matters himself. Suddenly, a garbled transmission from Voridus came through to warn Pavium, and moments later a sea of Flood forms poured into the salvage site.

Caught off-guard by the sudden emergence of the Flood, Pavium rallied his troops as they made a retreat action across the salvage site, relying on several Goliaths to help them carve an escape route. Despite killing innumerable Flood, the wise Brute knew that he was in a losing battle and the Flood began to overwhelm his forces. Vordius soon managed to get in contact with Pavium, but as Pavium and his remaining troops attempted to regroup with them, a massive tentacle emerged and cut off their route, forcing them to take a detour.

Despite the setback, the two managed to connect and consolidated their remaining units. Pavium stayed outside to prevent the Flood from attacking Vordius, occasionally sending in a few reinforcements to assist his brother. As Vordius reactivated the Sentinel defenses, Pavium took the time to inform Atriox of the situation, and reinforcements were quickly sent to help suppress the outbreak.

As they continued clearing the area of the Flood, massive tentacles emerged from the ground to block their path. Pavium's turrets allowed them to continue investigating the new outbreak, and they soon discovered the source of the tentacles. As before, Pavium deployed his turrets to help weaken the massive beast before it reached critical mass. However, Vordius noted that the turrets were not killing the creature. Pavium soon found a nearby Forerunner facility which deployed Retrievers to kill it once and for all. Though Vordius was ecstatic now that it was dead, Pavium reminded his brother they still had to report to Atriox. Atriox arrived and berated Vordius for causing the catastrophe, before tasking the two to clean up the mess they had made.

Thankfully for the galaxy at large, the threat of the Flood had been quelled once more. However, even Pavium's tactics and Voridus's courage did not provide an ideal outcome to the devastating battle with the parasite; both brother's war packs suffered heavily casualties and Atriox was forced to re-consolidate his troops again as the UNSC took advantage of the confusion to press further against his positions.

Personality

Due to his discipline, Pavium was given the nickname "the Unbreakable." Torn between his loyalty to his clan and to the Banished, Pavium desired to prove himself among his superiors, his clan, and Atriox.

Pavium is, in nearly every way, the polar opposite of his brother Voridus. Unlike most Brutes, he is astute, wise, and prefers to have a plan before acting. 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 interface with the Ark's control systems with little problem.

In combat, Pavium is best on the defense. He favors ranged combat, always holding his ground and anchoring his forces. It was his desire to wait and follow orders that could have prevented Voridus unleashing the greatest threat the galaxy has ever seen, had his brother only listened.

In the post Covenant era, Pavium is disenfranchised with the Covenant and anything to do with their religion. However, unlike many of the Banished he commands, he listens to Atriox's repeated warnings about the Parasite still existing on High Charity's wreckage, and his fears are proven correct.

Appearance

Pavium towers even over other Brute warriors, although not quite as tall as Atriox, and wears bulky red and black Banished Brute armor with numerous modifications, such as enormous pauldrons. His armor also has several glowing orange nodes to distinguish his armor in low light situations. His helmet is collapsible with a face mask that retracts into his armor.

Pavium, like his brother, seems to have little, if any, hair on his head and body compared to other Brutes. His head is devoid of hair, even lacking eyebrows. Instead of the typical brown or dark grey skin most Brutes have, his skin is a pale beige color.

Pavium seems to have designed his own weapons. He has a small, large bore projectile weapon that fits over his right hand, with a bayonet and fed by a container attached to the back of his suit. He also has a large shield and a knife-like attachment on his left gauntlet. He also has a large and powerful arm-mounted cannon with a 4-shot magazine. Although a ranged fighter, Pavium will resort to attacking with his boot and fist if an enemy gets too close before he can reload.

Gameplay

Halo Wars 2

Pavium is a Hero unit for Awakening the Nightmare.

Unit

Pavium is a Jiralhanae hero unit equipped with a launcher that shoots 3 or 4 explosive rounds at a time. He is also equipped with a long-range stasis beam that can slow enemies and deal damage. A drone also follows him, which passively heals ally buildings. His launcher is particularly effective against Flood infantry.

Skirmish

In Skirmish, he is a hero unit for his leader self. He is similar to the Chosen. However, unlike the Chosen, Pavium moves slower but has a higher rate of fire.

Blitz

Image	Energy Cost	Rarity	Leader Restriction
	190	Legendary	Pavium

Trivia

• Pavium and Commander Jerome are the only range heroes that have melee animations.
  • Unlike Jerome, Pavium has two melee animations.

Appearances

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

Sources