| abstract | - Thorak'tamin is a harsh place, where Sangheili criminals are sent presumably to their deaths. Only the most cunning and hardy individuals manage to eke out a living - and they do so by choice. The only crime that warrants being sent to Thorak'tamin is losing one's honour, and by surviving the worlds hostility, those who survive emerge greater than when they arrived. Naturally, the world is ideally suited to creating warriors, though the Sangheili Armed Forces would not begin recruitment there until 2557, during the Battle of Devout Foreboding. Invaded by Blood Covenant forces, almost every inhabitant rose up to defend their home from the Jiralhanae, including the prisoner-pilgrims - to them, this was one more ordeal on the path to salvation. Though the SAF forces would take the brunt of the workload, the prisoners would play their part - they managed to communicate with Supreme Commander Zuro Dun 'Xoram, agreeing to offer their services to the SAF, in exchange for redemption. Informally grouped until Olar 'Sundarma's banner, the prisoners would use their skills, honed in the harsh deserts of Thorak'tamin to covertly kill Jiralhanae patrols and assassinate high-ranking officials. It was 'Sundarma himself that slew Othnelius, the Blood Covenant's ground commander, almost reaching Gargantum's ship himself in a captured Seraph fighter. For their actions on Thorak'tamin, the prisoners were officially recognised by Arbiter Thel 'Vadam, with some encouragement from Supreme Commander 'Xoram, as the Thorak Legion, commisioned warriors of the Sangheili Armed Forces Army, as special operations shock troops. The Legion would participate in a number of vital battles, until the end of the War of Vengeance, after which the legion was disbanded and its members allowed to return to Sangheili society with newfound honour and freedom. During the Second Great War, the legion would be reactivated for propaganda purposes, and while it managed to recruit a number of former members, for the most part it was composed of new recruits from Thorak'tamin.
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