maybe the two arnt the same but they are connected. in 'the flood' it remarks that several covenant ships had broke away from halo due to the flood infection, maybe thoos ships went and warned the prophets, and on the return of the scout party they find the ring destroyed. after the loss of the ascendant justice the black armoured elite who was obviously ship masterand therefore below a gold elite who remained at high charity to prepare covenant troops to engage the flood. the black elite probablys gets killed right off he was following the arbiters orders (the arbiter was the carrier of the luminous key, well he was supposed to retrive the index to activate the ring but instead he pulled out and went for reinforcements) but the arbiter due to his judgment had lost his flagship which he should of been on and let the ring be destroyed. the flagship could of been hiding in the magnetic field of threshold to hide from the humans (piller of autum). due to this the he gets branded with the mark of shame and becomes the arbiter......and then an ally of the humans because his very own leaders tried to kill him so he goes turncoat as do quite a few elites, some stay loyal and are executed by the brutes as heratics, maybe in halo 3 they may be some levels where u can work with the arbiter......
like my theorys AI#23 or anyone else who reads this?
I KNOW HOW THE SPARTANS THINK
I MADE THEM WHAT THE ARE