Halo's Human-Covenant War Origins | Halo Lore

humanity during the 22nd all the way up to the 26th century had completely upped their technological efforts which had catapulted them into a new space-faring age with space travel being at the forefront of their efforts humanity would venture out into the stars and colonize other planets within the universe thanks to a ton of new pieces of equipment trade links between these planets became much easier and slip space travel was achievable thanks to the creation of the translight engine allowing humanity to get to and from planets within mere moments however as humanity continues to build up these colonies they would encounter an alien species who would immediately take offense to their presence and become hostile without any real negotiations taking place these aliens would call themselves the collective name of the covenant a religious organization who worshipped the ancient mystical beings known as the forerunners and would seek out their technology all over the universe and wipe out anyone getting in their way but leaving humanity to be their biggest blockade in their crusade the covenant would commit acts of horror wiping out colonies left right and center with their end goal of being complete extinction of all humans so they could eventually become the chosen species but who are the covenants where did they come from why did they hate humanity and what started the war known to humanity as simply the covenant war or in some cases the great war well in today's video we look at all of the events leading up to humanity's encounter with the covenant as well as some of the battles within the extinction event this is the story behind humanity's biggest war this is the human covenant war origins [Music] the covenant as a whole is a very old civilization forming of many different species all set under one goal but like with everything there is always a beginning and a single event that was able to bring all of these species together the year was 938 bc and the group of sangshayam reformists later known as prophets enter a sanghi the occupied system sang healy also later been known to humanity as the elites the saint shayum had already been intrigued by the forerunners for years before this event trying desperately to learn who they were and why they had disappeared as well as acquire their advanced technology which would help them in their civil war back on the shengshou and homeworld the sanghini met with the sangshuom on their planet but their relationship would go downhill fast whilst both the sangheili and the tsang shion respected the forerunner artifacts the sangheili worshiped them believing the relics to be sacred and should never be touched however the sangshayam had other ideas they wanted to study them and use them to their own benefits because of this differing of opinions the sangheili realized there would not be a compromise and instantly turned on this new species beheading some of them and sending them back to the others as a message the sangheli and the sangshayam were now at war over the forerunner artifacts on the sanghili surface but the sangheli were extremely strong thanks to their warrior culture and completely outnumbered the sangshayam with both their ships and soldiers their tactics and military strength as well was at a much higher level as they were easily able to wipe out the sengshayung but the sanctuary had one piece of equipment that would allow them to fight back with ease and that was therefore on a ship known as the dreadnought because of how powerful this forerunner ship was it forced the sangheili into breaking one of their most precious laws they would have to use their forerunner technology study it and use it to help them fight back against this devastating force with this new technology now being used within the sanghiti forces this caused the war to come to a stalemate at times both forces were equally matched thanks to this mysterious technology from a race they both looked up to and idolized but the dreadnought was still overwhelming the sangheli causing them to lose tons of their forces and eventually the sangheli had no choice but to surrender with their surrender the sang realized that they were just completely outmatched and with their extremely noble warrior culture began to start respecting the sangshayun and seeing them as their betters the sangshayam however agreed to bring them into a new agreement they wanted to broker a covenant between the two races and in 852 bc the two races signed the document known as the writ of union a treaty that would end their conflict and bring about peace between the two races it was here where the official faction of the covenant was formed ages passed with these two forces working together the sanctioned and sanghili would be able to evolve into a space-faring race quite quickly and here created high charity a capital city that would be seen one day as their holy city where all of the covenant forces could go to to discuss issues and come together to regroup as one but with this city being created the two races realized that for them to expand and become a force to be reckoned with they needed more races to be a part of their covenant who could help them on their quest to recover forerunner artifacts and expand their civilization with this gold in mind the covenant entered the age known as the first age of conversation the assimilation of new races into their empire every time a new race were to enter their ranks they would enter a new age of conversation the first race to be brought in was the legolo in 784 bc the let gola were a fierce race of worms which would form together into a huge being with incredible strength that would be incredibly difficult to kill this event was seen as so challenging for the sangheili and saint xiaomi that would be labeled as the taming of the legolo on their planet of tay after the let go low were tamed and brought into their ranks the covenant empire discovered the kikiya and tried to bring them into their ranks at first the race would refuse and fight off the invading forces however were eventually brought into the empire most likely due to what the empire offered them as a race in terms of riches after all the kigiar were a race mainly brought together through their mercenary and pirate lifestyles meaning they were ruthless in battle with only their self-interests at heart after that the covenant already had a strong force of warriors and technology however needed a lesser race that they could use as cannon fodder in battles and one they could control with ease here they invaded the planets of both the yanmei and the ungoy forcing them into their empire and essentially enslaving them this would work at first however due to how large the ungoy population was they were taken over the kigiar's area causing real hatred between the two species furious at this decision by the covenant the kikiyah were forced to relocate but in the process the ungoy would destroy thousands of the kikiar's eggs meaning their birth rate would drop massively in retaliation the kigiar poisoned the ungoy's infusion resources used in their methane supplies causing males to become sterile this made matters worse between the two species however the sanchem refused to respond to this to great effect because of this lack of care for what was going on the covenant empire was plunged into the 39th age of conflict as the ungoy rebellion was in full force during the heat of this conflict the ungoi showed how deadly they were in battle utilizing everything they could get their hands on as well as using their full force in numbers the prophets had to do something to stop this conflict and fast here they appointed another arbiter one of the most skilled sangheili warriors who would do the will of the prophets as the arbiter was selected he was instructed to take the ungoy planet and glass it forcing the species to surrender as he did the ungoy had no choice but to surrender as they watched their homeworld of balaho be erased of all life however because of their fierceness in battle during the rebellion the sangheili gave the ungoy better armor and weapons allowing them to become a true infantry force win in battle however still kept them as the lower ranks in their empire the final group to be brought into the covenant empire were the girola haney a savage and brutal race who despite their appearance and civilization were able to achieve space flight and space faring status however as they had only just recently discovered radio and rocketry just before the covenant empire discovered them in 2492 the covenant were able to easily defeat them and assimilate them into the covenant forces the covenant empire had been fully formed and their technology was at an all-time high with plasma rifles plasma shields and some of the best armor in the universe all thanks to their focus on recovering four runner artifacts and using it to build their civilization however as their empire approached the 26th century they would enter the 23rd age of doubt as they continued to search for the forerunner artifacts it would be here where they would encounter a new race who was supposedly sitting on a forerunner goldmine of artifacts however this race would be unlike any of the others and would be revealed to be the covenant's biggest fear this race would be humanity and the covenant knew they had to remove them from the equation to reach their ultimate goal [Music] [Music] during the years of the covenants expansion and assimilation humanity had also been expanding their territory within the galaxy completely unaware that other species were even out there within the wide universe humanity didn't have a clean history when it came to its space-faring years political tension was at an all-time high during the late 22nd century with two parties disagreeing to cooperate with the un those being the colossowitz and the feiden the colos of its being a marxist leninist group and the freedom being a german fascist organization due to the tension between all these factions war was inevitable and the interplanetary wars were to begin because the un had to fight off against these factions they formed a new group named the unsc the united nations space command composed of naval and marine forces who would fight back against these ultra extreme groups who wanted to take over some of the planets and moons within the soul system conflicts for the unsc started as early as july 2164 as they aimed to take back the jovian freedom moons such as io as well as the rainforest within south america and mars from the colosevitch forces eventually the interplanetary wars would come to an end within 2170 as humanity created the new unified earth government and together with the help of the unsc began to expand further into the stars outside of the soul system which had been at war for the past decade for over 300 years humanity began building their civilization on any inhabitable planet they came across however it was their discovery of the planet reach in 2362 by the ship called the odyssey where the unsc were really able to strive reach was quickly set up as a major naval yard and training center for their forces allowing them to have a stopping point before they got back to earth and enabled the unsc to boost their forces by bringing in new recruits by 2490 over 800 worlds were now part of the new government's territory with many of them developing into fully fledged colonies outer ring colonies were providing the government with raw materials helping boost the government's economy and helped build colonies even further however there was a large problem to a lot of people of the outer colonies the government had forgotten about them and they were just being used to expand their empire this did not sit well with a lot of people and within the colony of far isle a massive uprising happened to hit back against the unified earth government however the ueg could not have this happen and wanted to put this rebellion to a rest almost immediately the unsc were ordered to dispatch nuclear weapons on the planet as the bombs hit the rebellion was shut down this bombardment also meant that all of the fire isle settlements were destroyed meaning the colony was no more after this the unsc declared the code word bandersnatch to signal any other disasters like this but even though the government thought they had solved their problem this in fact made some colonists angrier and hate-filled towards their leaders the bombing of pharaoh meant that more colonists were joining the rebellions all over the systems labeling themselves as the insurrectionists civil war for humanity was to start all over again throughout all of the unsc controlled space unsc marines were going to label those who rebelled as terrorists with some even believing that far out destruction was just rebel propaganda to get people to join their courts the civil war waged on for decades between the unsc and the insurrectionists with the rebels even setting up an official faction named the united rebel front the rebels were getting even fiercer in combat as well taking over unsc vessels and bases along the way in response to the insurrectionists getting deadlier throughout all of the conflicts the office of naval intelligence relaunched the project known as the orion project originally the project was launched in 2321 with the goal of creating super soldiers through volunteers from the armed forces in the military however the original orion project was shut down due to poor results now in 2491 only decided to relaunch it making sure they had these super soldiers to turn the tides of war in their favor the orion project was successful to some extent and the first generation of spartans were able to get a successful win during the operation charlemagne on eredanus ii however the scientists were not happy with the abilities of the spartans and felt like they cost far too much to put together once again the project was put to the side in 2506 but almost immediately the unsc realized the insurrection was becoming too large to deal with with their small amount of special forces the orion project had to be relaunched once again but this time it had a new leader at the helm this time it was run and conceived by dr catherine halsey who was part of only section 3. halsey made one fundamental change to the spartan 2 program one that was highly controversial but was kept secret to anyone outside of the only ranks instead of grabbing military volunteers and chemically enhancing them like they had done in the last attempt halsey would instead use young children who had been kidnapped indoctrinated and raised as soldiers from the young age of six they would then be surgically genetically and cybernetically enhanced once they reach physical maturity whilst the program was seen as extremely unethical by some within the military and science the results that came from the project were exactly what they needed to fight back against the rebels they finally had a super weapon to win the civil war and take back the land from the insurrectionists however just as the unsc and only had found the solution to their main problem another one was right around the corner the date was now the 3rd of september 25-24 and the human ship labored the horn of plenty was delivering a shipment of melons from the epsilon indie colony of harvest to the colony of madrigal during its journey however it encountered a problem its slipspace drive malfunctioned forcing it out of slip space and away from anything recognizable miles away from its destination the ship needed help and sent out a distress beacon to any unsc ship nearby who could help them make the repairs and be on their way as they sat there in the darkness of space they saw on their scanners a nearby ship believing it to be a unsc ship because what else could it be the ship sent out a message the distant ship arrived but it wasn't unsc and it wasn't the insurrectionists it was in fact a kikiah raider ship called the minor transgression instantly the crew of the kikiya and the single unguy called raided the human ship destroying its engines cameras and massa dish with pulse lasers as they raided the ship they continued to strip it of all its salvageable materials cargo and its navigational computer because the ship received a whole breach a message was sent out immediately to the unsc and an only operative was sent to investigate what had happened believing the attack and destruction to be the result of the insurrectionists as an investigation was made on the raid of the horn of plenty and another human ship in the same area sif the harvest shipping operations ai reported the incident as in fact insurrectionist activity with this information the only agent julian alsigni set up a trap for the raiding parties involving two important unsc soldiers staff sergeant nolan byrne and staff sergeant avery johnson as the raiders arrived a small conflict broke out between the unsc and the kikiya privateers this was their first encounter with an alien species and immediately it was off to a bad start with these mysterious creatures humanity needed to know who they were dealing with they already had problems with their own species they could not have another species coming in and starting a war with them they needed to make a treaty and fast another covenant ship landed at this point in time bringing with it the gerald haney and the yanmei humanity through a pictogram tried desperately to make amends with the aliens and tried to trade with them however it was no good the covenant forces were only there to claim the relics that their luminary had detected on the colony of harvest the meeting also ended in disaster as a member of the colonial militia osmo was attacked by an extremely nervous ungoy who was sent to look for the relics once again another firefight ensued between two forces at this point in time back in high charity the discovery of multiple artifacts on harvest was a huge find for a few of the sangshayam bureaucrats the minister of fortitude and the vice minister of tranquility with this find they began scheming together to start the age of reclamation and make themselves the hierarchs of the high council but to do this they needed the blessing of the oracle of high charity also known as o32 mendicant bias or at least a shard of it going to the philologist to affirm on their behalf the data on the ship the rapid conversion caused the oracle to reactivate once again it was here where the prophets would learn the truth behind the forerunner relics mendicant immediately stated that the covenant had got the forerunner symbols all wrong the supposed relics that they had found on harvest were not actual relics but were in fact the humans themselves claiming them to be the reclaimers and his makers the sunshine was shocked and falsely came to the conclusion that the humans were actually living forerunners who had just been left behind when all the others were transcended mendicant was desperate to try and take the floor on the dreadnought to take the humans to deliver them to the ark but the sanctuary stopped him from doing so but then the process realized that if the masses knew of the supposed truth that they had just learnt that the species of the covenant will be left behind they would rebel against them ruining what they had created with this knowledge the minister of fortitude and the vice minister of tranquility brought the philologist into their plans and ascended to becoming the high profits of truth regret and mercy but with this the new high profits realized that something needed to be done to hide their truth humanity needed to be silenced as they were the ultimate secret that would bring about the downfall of their empire with this in mind the hierarchs declared that the humans were the ultimate enemy they had destroyed the holy relics on harvest and because of that all of them needed to be eradicated the covenant were now officially at war with humanity and the end goal was to see humanity go completely extinct [Music] the year was now 25-25 and humanity was now officially at war with this new species they had only just encountered this species however was ruthless and tore through all human civilizations and colonies in mere moments the covenant had been used in the luminaries to find human worlds knowing exactly where they were as they show up as forerunner relics it was clear to the human forces that the enemy they were facing were nothing like insurrectionists their technology was far superior and was ripping through all of their troops it was very rare in the early years that humanity would even be able to fight the covenant face to face because the covenant were taken part in a war of extinction they would send their ships over the top of planets glassing them and wiping out all life below meaning humanity had no way to really defend themselves from the multiple shielded covenant ships humanity were able to fight back sometimes using their human missiles and magnetic accelerated weapons which could cut through the enemy shields and fight against the plasma weapons however the victories they did win it was simply due to the incredible tactics as well as an extensive use of nuclear weapons rapid deployment of spartan teams such as blue team and just superior tactics within ground forces of the unsc but the realization wasn't lost on the unsc and they realized they had to change up their tactics if they were to survive here the unsc colonial military administration gave vice admiral preston cole the command of the then largest fleet in human history with orders to retake harvest from the clutches of the covenant coal eventually took back harvest in 2526 utilizing all of his ships however the war seemed doomed in many of their eyes as it took many ships to take out just one of theirs 13 unsc ships were taken down with humanity just taking down one of the covenants but despite that coal continued to spend time chasing the covenant around the outer colonies fighting them and scoring small but important victories but the covenant didn't stop and returned back to harvest to once again recapture the planet in response to this invasion once again the unsc deployed their spartan twos to the fight these spartans would be a real turning point in the battles as they would be far superior in firefights compared to most of the covenant forces so much so that the covenant in fact feared them in battle and labeled them as demons also believing that if they were taken out in combat they would be recovered resurrected and sent back into battle whilst the covenant was still victorious most of the time the prophets realized they couldn't just send all of their ships to annihilate humanity as they were leaving covenant space completely defenseless they also believed that the unsc were a good match for the covenant and despite all of their losses could hold their own against their forces as they continued to fight on harvest the prophet of regret decided it was best to dispatch an arbiter to the world to claim a forerunner artifact buried under the north pole with this technology the covenant could use this and it would allow them to gain a quick decisive victory in the conflict preston cole learnt of this information from an oni prowler and immediately sent captain james cutter to the area and removed the covenant occupation fighting off the covenant forces in a really heated battle the forces were able to get to the artifact and secure it for themselves however the covenant had already seen what the artifact offered in fact the artifact was a star map showing all the worlds in human space the unsc realized the horror of this discovery the covenant had now seen another ueg colony and could go there to take it out that planet in question being arcadia the covenant were already ahead of them and had followed the information to the planet of arcadia the covenant forces really hoped to find an important forerunner artifact to help them in their war effort and whilst they didn't find that they did find a complex of ruins that led them to a forerunner shield world known as shield 0459 here the covenant forces would capture a human researcher and try to find a way to activate the apex site which housed a huge fleet of forerunner starships which could be used by the covenant to completely wipe out all of humanity's forces but the unsc knew of their plans and needed to save the civilian researcher to stop this from happening the command sent a group of marines along with the spartan 2 red team to stop the invading forces get into the shield world the marines and red team would fight off the overwhelming covenant forces and take out the arbiter in the process forcing the profit of regret to retreat and leave the artifacts of the forerunner shield world whilst this was a huge win for humanity they had suffered a ton of losses in six years since the start of the war humanity has also used up pretty much all of their nuclear weapons stockpiles in some of their systems humanity was officially losing the war badly but the unsc needed to make this war with the covenant public and get all of humanity on board to help fight back here they used the victory at harvest as a call to arms and as propaganda to boost morale and help support the troops fighting but they needed something else and it became clear that whilst the spartan 2s were extremely efficient in combat their numbers would not meet the demand for world scale deployment with this in mind colonel james atkerson with only created the spartan 3 program which would see orphaned children created from the fallen colonies vengeful of their past they would be trained and armed and eventually turned into the next generation of super soldiers this group however had a different focus instead of advanced technology and equipment that the spartan 2s had they would have to rely more on superior battle tactics with an emphasis on stealth as well as teamwork to get the job done by this point in the war humanity had lost almost all of the outer colonies and their economy was in freefall agricultural worlds had fallen meaning humanity was also suffering from widespread food shortages covenant forces continued to invade cities and not hold back from wiping out every human they could find quickly moving into the inner colonies because of these endless losses the unsc issued the united nations space command emergency priority order 09831a-1 also named the coal protocol which would state that no unsc vessel could lead the covenant to earth or any other human population center this would mean all ships would have to do random slip space travel if retreating and if captured would have to order the ship to self-destruct as well as wiping all data mattresses to make sure the covenant could not access any of their information but that wasn't the only crisis alongside this it became apparent in the unsc that insurrectionists had teamed up with the kigiar who had been sent on a secret mission by the prophet of truth to side with the humans to learn of their worlds the rebels would be supplied with weapons that they would modify into human style weapons the prophet of regret heard of this modifying of the weapons and was horrified by this blasphemy and in response sent fel verdam to destroy the source of the modified weapons a remote asteroid habitat known as the rubble during this a unsc frigate name the midsummer night was captured which included its captain lieutenant jacob keys but luckily they were rescued by the spartan 2 grey team grey's team along with some of the rebels citizens were able to stop the assault from kikya leader as well as vadam's forces luckily all of the crew were able to escape and save a million civilians in the process escorting them to phallic numa however because of this mission put into place by the prophet of truth to side with the insurrectionists the covenant were able to find two more worlds to attack as the war continued on for 15 more years humanity had come to the realization that the covenant would eventually reach earth and their time was running out the pattern of battles on the ground and in space was becoming repetitive with millions of lives lost every day whilst the spartans were playing their part it got to the point where even the loss of 298 spartan 3's was considered acceptable losses by the unsc high command but things weren't going too well within the covenant ranks themselves after nearly 25 years fighting against one another the sangheili were getting frustrated by the fact that humanity had clearly proven themselves as an honorable warrior race and should be offered membership into the covenant however irritated by this plea the prophets rejected this unaware to the sangili that they needed to be erased to hide the prophet's secrets as the sanghili began questioning their leaders that gerald haney started to challenge the sangheilis dominance of the covenant military rapidly earning favor with the prophets as they did not question orders the year was now 25-52 and by this point only have accepted their fate and will resign to the fact that humanity may only have months left before the covenant destroyed the remaining inner colonies and took earth and the last case scenario haicom unsc's high command ordered all available spartan 2s to return to reach and commence operation red flag an operation that was to locate the covenant homeworld and capture a prophet to force their empire into a ceasefire whilst this was going on however the covenant had attached the spy probe to the unsc destroyer iroquois which led the covenant straight to the planet of reach immediately they conducted their attack on the planet devastating everything around them the unsc along with the available spartan 2s and 3s tried everything to defend the reach from falling with some heroic sacrifices from both the ground troops as well as incredible tactics from the ships above the surface such as captain keys in his new ship the pillar of autumn but it was no use the covenant were too strong and would overrun reach glassing it completely and causing it to fall humanity had to run once again and were really on the back foot with only earth left as one of their main homeworlds but as humanity fled captain keys along with the ai of cortana made a somewhat blind jump to a destination that was calculated from the symbols of a forerunner artifact recovered from the world of sigma octanus iv this jump sent the pillar of autumn to a mysterious four runner ring world of halo or how it was technically known installation zero four under the chase of the covenant still who had been located on the other side of the nearby planet the pillar of autumn would awaken the legendary spartan 2 of john 117 the master chief who would fight off the invading forces and escape to the halo installation with the other marines and commanders this event would be the turning point of the whole human covenant war and although humanity had pretty much accepted defeat their win on installation 0-4 thanks to master chief's heroics and luck would mean that they finally had hope in hitting back against the covenant to humanity it still felt like this was the end as the covenant empire ventured further into the inner colonies but with humanity's forces regrouping above their home planet of earth and chief and cortana heading back to the safety of the unsc after hitting the covenant with a major blow this was in fact not the end humanity was not finished in fact they were just getting started [Music] and those are just some of the events that happened before the events of halo combat evolved this was the origin of the human covenant war i missed out a few things because honestly this video would have been absolutely huge and if you really want a good telling of all the stories they are in the incredible books and tv shows and other bits of media made for the extended universe so do go check them out especially for the reach which is such an incredible book i do hope you guys enjoyed this video anyway i wanted to do something special as we approach the 20-year anniversary of halo combat evolved one of the first big games i ever played and it really means a lot to me as it got me really into gaming so do let me know what you think in the comments below if you did enjoy this please do leave a comment and subscribe if you haven't already also check out my other lore playlists in the description below also if you really really like this video you can support me on patreon or as a youtube channel member and speaking of which i'd like to thank my supporters real quick big thanks to our small fish guys our big fishes ducane 23 sac from rhino head andrew christopher and last persona user our sharks the avp men and connor and our huge megalodons sinus jacob garcia well such gaming shadow sgt and chernobyl stalker also big shout out to our youtube channel members our wise one jambu and our new guy fiery italian as well as all my amazing subscribers over on twitch all your support means the world to me and means i can make these videos for you guys so thank you once again it really doesn't mean the world to me but that is all for now thanks again for watching and i shall see you all in the next one cheers [Music] you

Channel: WiseFish

Views: 325,956

Keywords: halo covenant war lore, halo lore, halo origins lore, covenant lore halo, alien covenant lore, UNSC lore, halo explained, halo combat evolved 20th anniversary, 20 years of halo tribute, spartan lore halo, spartan 2 lore, spartan 3 lore, spartan 1 lore, orion project halo, halo contact harvest, halo lore explained, halo lore covenant, Halo explained, halo story explained, halo reach explained, fall of reach

Id: NjtE6EfL5C8

Length: 32min 24sec (1944 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 11 2021