History, Religion and Covenant Empire Society

“Creatures of the Covenant, the path is broad, and we shall walk it side by side.”
— The Prophet of Truth

The Covenant Empire, also referred to as The Covenant, was a theocratic hegemony made up of multiple alien species that maintained control over a large portion of the Orion Arm in the Milky Way galaxy. The Covenant was a political, military, and religious affiliation, originally a mutual alliance between the San'Shyuum and Sangheili following a brutal conflict between the two warring races. Its expansion to include at least six other races united in the worship of the Forerunners and the Halo Array soon began after the original formation.

The Covenant waged a genocidal campaign against humanity until they were formally defeated due to many factors - the most crucial of which was an internal conflict that broke the Covenant in two, forcing out the entire Sangheili species and splintering them into separatist groups.

Whilst the Covenant ended either during the Flood infestation of High Charity or during the Battle of Installation 00, splinter groups of the former Covenant continue its efforts even after the conclusion of the war. Some of the separatist Sangheili sought to recreate the Covenant entirely under Sangheili rule, free of the Hierarch's influence. A splinter faction of Sangheili known as Jul 'Mdama's Covenant was created by Jul 'Mdama; this terrorist group is deemed hostile to Humanity, breaking the truce formed with the Sangheili Fleet of Retribution at the end of the war.

Other hostile factions that utilize assets from the former Covenant include Vata 'Gajat's faction, Merg Vol's faction, and The Banished, which existed prior to the Great Schism.

Society

The species that make up the hegemony known as the Covenant come from different parts of the galaxy and take all kinds of physical forms. The Covenant is organized into a caste system with their religious leaders - the San'Shyuum or Prophets - at the top of the hierarchical pyramid.

The Covenant society is a single hegemonic culture. It is a culture that practices imperial geopolitical dominance through implied means of power as opposed to direct military force. There are three Covenant castes that make up the unity: the Religious caste, the Warrior caste, and the Worker caste.

Government

The two ruling species of the Covenant are the San'Shyuum and the Sangheili; though the San'Shyuum are generally believed to be "the voice of the Gods." The Covenant have ten echelons of government, the highest echelon being the Covenant High Council, who are responsible for holding legislative, executive, and judiciary powers. Composed of 200 members of Sangheili and San'Shyuum, the High Council is ruled by the three San'Shyuum Hierarchs. These Hierarchs are the highest political and religious authority in the Covenant. For each new Age, three new Hierarchs are appointed; in order for them to usher in a new age and assume power, they must receive a blessing from the Oracle of High Charity. This Oracle is a Forerunner Artificial intelligence found within the Dreadnought which sits at the centre of the capital. Until the events that led to the war against Humanity, the Oracle had not spoken for over a millennia, so the ascension of the Hierarchs is steeped with political bribes, blackmail, and manipulation of the San'Shyuum Philologist.

The High Council consists of San'Shyuum Councilors and Sangheili Councilors, who are extremely important to the Covenant society. They share the central theocratic and decision-making body of the Covenant. In addition to the High Council, there are three other Councils: the Council of Concordance, the Council of Deed and Doctrine and the Council of Masters. Below that numerous Ministries exist within the Covenant government, each of which fulfills a single but important role within the Governmental body of the Covenant.

In truth, however, the San'Shyuum and Sangheili have an uneasy coexistence, and political infighting is very common behind the scenes.

Religion and Culture

The Covenant culture and religion is based solely on the worship and reverence of the Forerunners. Long ago, the San'Shyuum managed to decipher portions of data stored on terminals aboard a Forerunner dreadnought. Thanks to the Forerunners' robust translation systems, they misunderstood the many subtle meanings of Forerunner glyphs. The San'Shyuum incorrectly interpreted the activation of the Halo Array as a means of transcendence - a process they came to call the Great Journey. They did not understand that this activation had been designed to kill the Flood - or more precisely - to kill the Flood's food, creating a galactic genocide. They simply thought that the Forerunners had disappeared and left other species of the galaxy to their fates. Because of this, the Covenant often search and recover their artifacts and often have to turn to war to achieve their ends. In Covenant society, personal vendettas are not tolerated, although many conflicts in the Covenant's past have been sparked by vendettas.

The Covenant uses commerce itself as a form of economy. As the Covenant's cohesion is grounded in their beliefs of working for and sharing Forerunner technology, every member of the Covenant is given a form of employment- a service to fulfill in exchange for goods and necessities. In the Covenant's culture, service for salvation is the moral motivation for the entire population. Despite this, there is discrimination within the Covenant, due to their hegemonic thinking. The lesser species are treated as second-hand citizens with absolutely no political or representative voice or power.

The Covenant are always eager to add new species to their faith, so long as they pledge allegiance to the San'Shyuum as their supreme leaders and the Great Journey as their religion. Enlisted races are in all essence enslaved by the Covenant, forced to live a completely different way of life and - if unlucky enough - have their entire culture and history erased. The races of the Covenant are held together by a common belief - the slave races are driven by the religion which they have been forced to accept. Most races are only kept for their varying skills to be exploited, rather than to be a part of a flourishing empire.