History of the Sangheili - Elites during the Covenant - Human War

“On the blood of our fathers, on the blood of our sons, we swore to uphold the Covenant!”
— Sangheilian Oath to the Covenant

The Sangheili (Macto cognatus, "I glorify my kin"), known to humans as Elites, are a saurian species of strong, proud, and intelligent warriors, as well as skilled combat tacticians. The Sangheili are named after their home planet, Sanghelios. Due to their skill in combat, the Sangheili have formed the military backbone of the Covenant for almost the entirety of its existence. They had a very strong rivalry with the Jiralhanae, which finally boiled over into open hatred during the Great Schism, and the conclusion of the Human-Covenant war.

Originally a founding member of the unified conglomerate of races known as the Covenant, their entire species later led the breakaway faction known as the Covenant Separatists, who sided with the humans against their former allies due to the fact that the Prophets of Truth and Mercy had ordered the genocide of the entire Sangheili race. This was established after the assassination of the Prophet of Regret at the hands of John-117, as it was the Sangheili who were ultimately held responsible for Regret's death, and they were seen as "unfit" to continue to guard the San'Shyuum. The San'Shyuum sought to achieve this through use of the other Covenant races, primarily the Jiralhanae.

History

Development of Civilization and the Covenant

The Sangheili home world, Sanghelios, had at one point been visited by or had been in contact with the mysterious Forerunners. They revered the objects these "gods" had left, and considered tampering with them a heresy beyond any other. In 938 BCE they encountered the San'Shyuum (who would later be known as "Prophets" by humans). They were a race that also worshipped the Forerunners as gods, but had utilized Forerunner technology for their own needs, believing that the technology had been left behind by the gods as gifts for their children. This sparked a war between the two races over how to treat the relics. Even though the Sangheili were much more physically imposing and numerous, they suffered extreme casualties due to the sheer power of the Forerunner dreadnought, a surviving Keyship, and by 876 BCE even the most devout had to admit that their survival depended on the reconstitution of their own Forerunner technologies. This, of course, led both sides to an agreement that ended with the decommissioning of the Forerunner dreadnought and a shaky alliance that eventually expanded into the Covenant.

The San'Shyuum helped assuage the Sangheili by informing them of the Great Journey. By seeking out the Holy Rings scattered throughout the galaxy and utilizing them, this "Journey" would transform believers into godlike beings, while providing salvation from their doomed existence of fighting with the Flood. The Sangheili became the bodyguards of the physically inferior San'Shyuum, who would search the galaxy for the Halos. The Writ of Union was drawn up in 852 BCE in order to codify the Covenant. Its first canto clearly outlines the nature of the Covenant from the perspective of the San'Shyuum.

Being one of the few races in the Covenant to achieve space-faring status without outside intervention, the Sangheili interaction with the San'Shyuum was initially strained due to memories of the recent war. However, the two sides later formed a prosperous relationship, eventually laying the foundation for the modern Covenant hegemony.

During their membership in the Covenant, the Sangheili were technological and societal equals of the San'Shyuum. For a significant period, they found themselves providing military might for the entire Covenant structure - hardly surprising given the warlike, feudal nature of their homeworld, Sanghelios. What was surprising was the cyclical stability this feudal society was able to offer. Technological and medical advancements followed, and the intelligent, aggressive Sangheili were peerless until they encountered the San'Shyuum. With the exchange of goods and ideas, the Sangheili adapted to and eventually embraced the Covenant religion, grafting its tenets into their own belief system.

Human-Covenant war

When the San'Shyuum declared war on a previously unknown species called "Humans," the Sangheili followed their lead without question. After a period of time, however, some seasoned Sangheili veterans began to question the refusal of the San'Shyuum to even consider accepting the Humans into the Covenant, even though the San'Shyuum insisted that the Humans were "unclean beings" that must be eliminated from the galaxy. These Sangheili seemed to believe that Humans, although physically weak, at least compared to themselves, were brave and even honorable. Some even believed that the Humans were equal to them - a considerable step for a Sangheili - or any member of the Covenant - to make. These few Sangheili admired how willing and brave the Humans were when fighting to survive against outright extinction, they even respected to a certain degree those few soldiers who were willing to stay behind and cover their comrades from a Covenant attack. A few Sangheili even had some degree of disrespect for the San'Shyuum before the Great Schism.

The Great Schism

During the final months of the Human-Covenant war, the political shift caused by both the Prophet of Truth and Tartarus, the Chieftain of the Jiralhanae, started a slippery slope that ended in the dissolution of the Covenant between the Sangheili and the San'Shyuum. Originally, the Jiralhanae were viewed as savagely aggressive and extremely goal-oriented, which the Sangheili viewed as a serious threat should the Jiralhanae ever begin to desire political power. This fear became reality when the Honor Guards of the San'Shyuum, originally an all-Sangheili class, was transformed into a duty of the Jiralhanae. This was directly caused by the death of the Prophet of Regret at the hands of John-117, the Human "Demon" known as the Master Chief, despite Regret's protection from his personal squad of Sangheili Honor Guardsman. Soon the Jiralhanae found themselves in new positions of power, such as Field Masters, Ship Masters, and veritable replacements for the Sangheili. At the same time, during the Battle of Installation 05, Arbiter Thel 'Vadam and Rtas 'Vadum (both of whom soon dropped the 'ee' suffix from their name to signify their abandonment of the Covenant) discovered the truth of the Halo Arrays from the Monitor 343 Guilty Spark and the deceit of the San'Shyuum.

These events led the entire Sangheili species to secede from the Covenant, forming the Covenant Separatists. They were aided by a few of the member-races within the Covenant, such as many Unggoy and most Mgalekgolo, even though many apparently ended up siding with the Covenant Loyalists despite the Sangheili's efforts. The secession included a movement to destroy the treacherous Jiralhanae and San'Shyuum, and the destruction of the Flood at all costs, eventually resulting in the Sangheili's alliance with the Humans, persuaded by the Arbiter's counsel.

It is known that this civil war stretched from the Human homeworld, Earth, all the way back to Sanghelios, as the Sangheili attempted to wrest their share of the hegemony away from their new-found enemies. The Jiralhanae stepped in to fill the military void in ever increasing numbers, sensing the vacuum and opportunity left by the departure of the Sangheili.