No Spartan can be listed as KIA

IC
Character Name: Master Chief John-117
Apparent Age: 40
Actual Age: 46
Canon: Halo
Canon Point: Post-Halo 4, immediately before removing his armor and before The Next 72 Hours.
Which Deity Brought Them Here? Ceannasach
History: Halopedia Link (Warning: Long as all heck) For an abridged version:

• John was born on 2511 on a small colony, just as a human civil was was brewing into becoming a cataclysmic war threatening to end with untold billions of deaths, and even drive them back to the stone age in the worst case scenario. He was kidnapped by the UNSC alongside 75 other children on Reach, trained to become the ultimate soldiers, and given augmentations at the age of 14. It left only 33 survivors, with the rest either dying of suffering deformities.
  
  
• In 2525, just when the Spartans were about to begin operations against the Insurrection, the Covenant Empire declared holy war on humanity. In the first mission John-117 engaged against them, inside one of their ships, his best friend was shot, and knowing his armor would be depressurized, was left behind to detonate a nuclear payload to destroy the ship. John-117 would be promoted to Master Chief shortly after in preparation for Operation: SILENT STORM, in which the Spartans would destroy a Covenant shipyard, at the cost of the ODSTs that accompanied them.
  
  
• Years of genocidal war would follow in which Spartans would be the only elements achieving consistent victories, while the war in general remained unwinnable, hardening the Spartans into stoicism. In 2552, the UNSC prepared for an operation to capture one of the Covenant's leaders to force them into a truce, and it was when John met Cortana, who would become his closest companion. Unfortunately, Reach was sieged and glassed, with the Master Chief and Cortana barely escaping onboard the UNSC ship Pillar of Autumn.
  
  
• The UNSC Pillar of Autumn would find Halo, which would reveal itself to be a galactic WMD against the Flood, built by a vanished alien empire known as the Forerunners. In turn, the Master Chief destroyed it, which caused ripple effects on the Covenant Empire. After rescuing Dr. Halsey and the few Spartans that remained, and engaging the Covenant on a space station, Earth, and Installation 05, the Covenant Empire collapsed into Civil War. This culminated on the Battle of the Ark, where the last Hierarch of the Covenant killed, the Flood contained, and the Halo rings stopped.
  
  
• However, their escape through the portal was cut, Master Chief and Cortana were left stranded on a ship for years. He would only wake up in 2557, with Cortana on the throes of A.I. death, inside the Shield World of Requiem, where they would face the Didact. Just as the Didact invaded Earth, the Master Chief and Cortana stopped him just barely, by wounding him, throwing him off the platform, and activating a nuclear payload. However, Cortana sacrificed herself to save John from the blast, and bid him goodbye, leaving him to ponder about his own humanity.
  

Personality:

• STOIC. The Master Chief’s stoicism is a combination of the relentless training he went through from the age of six, the lack of social contact and affection outside of his circles for many years of his life, and nearly three decades of brutal war against the alien Covenant. Spartans themselves were able to joke and banter with each other just fine, and even did so fresh out of training and finally engaging the Covenant. However, the isolation they felt from normal humans gave them great difficulties socializing, and the decades of war against the Covenant traumatized them into burying many of their emotions. This is turn made him silent, focused on the job at hand, and laconic to most people. What Spartans considered big displays of emotions were hand motions of their armor and humor among themselves. The first time in many years, when his stoicism was visibly broken, was when he lost Cortana.
  
  
• PARAGON. For all his suffering, John is a man with a strong moral code. From an early age, John was told he was going to carry the weight of humanity as a whole as a Spartan, and in turn, Déjà and CPO Mendez taught him the importance of being a good soldier. This in turn made the Master Chief a responsible, gentle, and even self-sacrificing soldier that constantly fought so others did not have to. While late in the war he was tempted by the philosophy of Utilitarianism, he realized later the importance of each and every life when he realized he did not want to lose any more Spartans after Reach, and that the people he saved could likewise perform great acts of sacrifice. John’s humanity shined through the most when he refused to let go of Cortana for final dispensation, ignoring all orders and protocols that dictated as such.
  
  
• HUMAN OR MACHINE. Spartans were expected to be ultimate soldiers, with no window to any sort of humanity. To outsiders, they were no different than machines. To a large degree, as the war went on and the Master Chief felt responsible for everyone, even he tried to think of himself as a machine in order to do what was needed. It shows as much when he tries to tell Lasky, and himself, that soldiers have to protect humanity, whatever the cost. And yet, after losing so many people dear to him, emotionally breaking as fewer and fewer loved ones become left as the war nears its end, and finally having an A.I. treating him like a person and not equipment, it is when his emotions are now clawing from inside of him. Begging to realize what is it like to be human. Reminding him of Cortana’s request, that he would find out which of the two was the machine.

Appearance: Due to the nature of his character, John-117's only canonical outside-of-helmet visage within the 'Blue' timeline is that of his eyes, in the Halo 4 Legendary post-credits scene. Due to this, much of his appearance outside of it can be surmised through the novels. Outside of his armor, John-117 has pale blue eyes and short brown hair, and a strong jaw. He used to have freckles when he was young, with only a handful remaining in his current age. His skin is pale white from the extensive time he has been inside of his armor, and has multiple scars throughout his body.

Said body has an extremely athletic build, muscular, product of the augmentation procedures as well as the extensive action he has seen throughout his life. Cortana described him as 'attractive in a primitive animal sort of way'. His height is 6'10'' outside of his armor, and 7'2'' inside of his armor, making him stand a head above even tall people.

As a personal choice, and following past lore, John’s armor will be closer in appearance to the Halo 3 incarnation of the GEN1 MJOLNIR Mark VI.


Fan Artist rendition drawn by Doublevisionary.
Color by Ishdakitty.

Scar guide by jameson9101322

How Do You Think They'll React to Being In Parthas? He will be desperate to return to action, and go into any mission in order to make himself busy. With few to no lethal missions happening all the time in Parthas, compared to what was the Great War in his galaxy, he will have troubles adapting, especially as he realizes he is alone with his thoughts. It is why in the TDM, he has the bright idea to tell the gods to bring him home not 24 hours after staying in Parthas.

He is going to be exposed to a cocktail of aphrodisiacs, dopamine, and affectionate physical touch he hasn’t felt in years. Likewise, he is going to be meeting people from many worlds, sometimes even romancing them, making have attachments and affection he has needed for so long. All of these feelings of warmth will make him ponder Cortana’s request.

Sample(s)?
John-117 on the TDM #3

Anything Else?

• AUGMENTATIONS. A collection of dangerous medical procedures that, once fully recovered, gave John-117 and the rest of the recovered Spartan trainees superhuman abilities. They can send mechs flying several meters away, run fast enough to keep up with speeding cars, think complex mathematical equations on the spot, see more clearly than most other humans could, and hear pin drops in sand storms.
  
  
• MJOLNIR MARK VI ARMOR. A suit of powered armor, developed before and throughout the Great War. On top of greatly increasing his already superhuman physical abilities (strength and speed to the point of rivaling Brutes and Hunters), it has an array of utilities such as a radar, aiming systems, health monitoring systems, sealed environment for space operations, internal compartments, water filtering systems, among other things. Spartans are so obsessed with wearing this armor, they feel skinless and exposed without it. After his encounter with the Didact, his shields are disabled and in need of repair.
  
  For kink’s sake, I would like for the two deities to curse him so his armor feels as if it was his bare skin, to the point he could make out with it on. And for aphrodisiacs to affect him just as easily, even through his helmet filters, no matter how much he tries to fix them. An armor dismantling and re-suiting machine will be requested in the future, but certain parts will be able to be manually removed without many issues.
  
  Due to a curse in Parthas, he can now de-suit during intimate moments, and send his armor into a hammerspace of sorts to come back later.