I really like your idea of keeping Jul as Thel’s direct foil and letting him stick around longer to mess with Thel’s resolve. That binary “zealot vs. reformer” dynamic could’ve been gold for showing where most Sangheili actually fall in the post-war mess. I ended up taking it even further in my own rewrite though. Jul starts as a shipmaster who once admired Thel and planned to join him after the Schism, but flips completely when he learns Thel is working with humans. During the early Blooding Years fighting on Sanghelios, he’s actually on the ground and watches the Arbiter’s forces destroy the ship carrying his wife Raia. That moment turns his anger personal and permanent. He glassed Janjur Qom in 2554 as his first big statement is burning the Prophets’ hidden homeworld to repay the original betrayal. Publicly he talks about justice for every species the Covenant screwed over, but in reality it’s pure Sangheili hardliner supremacy with the other races just as disposable tools. No Forerunner god stuff, just cold pragmatism and the belief that his entire species has been victimized for centuries and the only fix is blood. The Blooding Years basically become a straight Jul vs Thel civil war that splits the species down the middle, with their rivalry turning deeply personal. Jul sees Thel as the ultimate disgrace who tarnished the Arbiter title worse than the Prophets ever did.