The Untold History of the Covenant | Complete History

[Music] zorreskin former prophet of clarity personal log number 607 5th cycle 343 units another age is yet unnamed for many cycles I have lived on This Magnificent Shield world of the forerunners this Refuge of the usan people learning and studying the vast Treasure Trove of ancient relics alongside the noble sanghilli colonists who have lived here for so long and I have relished each and every moment of it with each new discovery I feel ever more connected to my ancestor McCann a Ben as I stroll through this final work of the great ones it is if I can feel his Spirit guiding me even now as I find new wonders to study and yet in all my time within this place I have forgotten the roots of which I was born to my roots as a historian within the Covenant as much as I despise what my people had done in recent events the war against humanity the great betrayal of the sanghilli the madness and barbarity of the great schism along with what's transpiring now in the aftermath within my very being is the seed of centuries of historians the Deep desire for truth and knowledge to make an accounting of the San shayum's doings in the galaxy is in my blood my soul and as I may very well be the last Scion of my species I feel a sense of Duty and obligation to make a record of the entire history of the Covenant of which my kind had forged eons ago this time with clearer and open eyes so that whoever sees this record May judge us fairly and accordingly helped along with the Lost knowledge within my ancestral records which I managed to recover before fleeing High charity as it fell if my race is to end with me so be it but I make this for whoever cares to listen be they send shayum Singh Healy or even human if only to shed light on what led us to such depravity now where to begin I suppose the origins of our covenant can be traced back to a pivotal war that took place thousands of solar Cycles ago on the planet janja quome the sacred home and womb of the sanchium a world rich in powerful inexplicable relics a million solar cycles and more of sanction history took place here this was where the San shayum emerged from the Seas where they began to farm to build to create civilization where they shed their blood as they struggled with one another over sovereignty it was on this world that the ancient sanction developed a faith of their own positing those who made the many relics found there were Gods those we came to learn were called the forerunners our ancestors believed this ancient race achieved Divinity through the activation of Halo a series of ring-like machines that would come to be known as the sacred rings and those who would Faithfully follow in their footsteps would become Gods themselves this belief would come to be known as the path of the great journey the most resplendent of these relics was the Majestic Dreadnought a massive Forerunner ship lying at the center of the Great apothea Sea it was a dispute over this vessel that tore the San shayum people apart some believed they should explore the key ship and bask in its knowledge and Majesty While others barred their way with the warning dare not defile this sacred and holy Temple less risk the Wrath of the Gods the controversy that followed led to a fierce division the traditional list stoics proclaimed that the artifacts of the Forerunner should only be deferentially observed while the open-minded reformists refuted this stating that these objects had been left behind as gifts to be used explored and even dismantled if deemed necessary their conflict began entirely as a political and philosophical dispute but quickly devolved when the stoic's numbers began to erode forcing its leaders to violently suppress the reformists through both imprisonment and death it was then that the war of Wills would begin a bloody century-long conflict that cultivated in a thousand heavily armed reformists secretly infiltrating the Dreadnought before barricading themselves inside with the stoic's unwillingness to damage the vessel to quell this heinous act the battle quickly turned into a protracted Siege to the stoic shock and dread the performance eventually managed to activate the Dreadnought taking a God's Fistful of the world as the mountain high vessel Rose to meet the Stars my ancestors were on that reformist flock it had the honor and privilege to join their brothers and sisters in this glorious Exodus they tell us that after fleeing gender Chrome they stumbled upon ancient orbital installations around salicer quam a sister World in our system here they found not only Provisions to sustain themselves but artificial creatures called hurricane servant tools created by the gods to repair the holiest of their relics and a powerful cartographer a map that guided the worthy along the path when this machine fed navigational data into the Dreadnought it activated an onboard device known as illuminary a Divine instrument that could guide The Vessel to Worlds Rife with Forerunner relics eventually the reformists gathered many of these huragak aboard the Dreadnought and followed the luminary signal away from their star system and into the great beyond for hundreds of Cycles the San shayum aboard the Dreadnought traveled across the Stars discovering vast Forerunner reliquaries on Long abandoned worlds and in derelict installations not only were they enriched by the Hurricane's unfolding of their makers Secrets but this further crystallized their beliefs in the gods themselves but in those days there were so few San shayum at least in space and there was a tendency to genetic blight among them for this reason a role of celibates was created a list designating those who were not approved to mate and reproduce Offspring it was instrumental in preventing inbreeding and degeneracy from arising among our people and continued for thousands of Cycles but this enlightened passivity was not to last many cycles later the San chayun Came Upon olgathon A Hard Scrabble world that appeared to be entirely uninhabited after making landfall the first reformists pioneer Detachment targeted a repository of Forerunner relics upon their arrival however they discovered that the site was inhabited by War mad species known as the sanghilli originally from sanghelios the sanghilli hailed from a world that was also rich with Forerunner artifacts also revering the forerunners as gods having long ago spread Out Among the Stars they spent Generations carefully observing and protecting the sacred relics holding that physical manipulation of such technology was blasphemy of the highest order punishable by Death the first encounter was amenable if not tense but after the sanghilli had discovered the San shayum's true intentions they were horrified to learn that our people used the relics of the forerunners for our own ends we tried consolating them sending a delegation that explained the San shayum under the direction of their prophets known at the time as the keepers of the Dawn also worshiped the forerunners but to no avail for the saying Healy shared a similar spiritual ultimatum as our stoic enemies of old defile holy relics and pay with your lives the delegates were butchered summarily slaughtered by the sanghilli under the lordship of a fearsome Arbiter judge king Vemma to God all-out War Began that day a bitter and devastating conflict that would bring both species to the brink of Extinction a conflict known to history as the war of beginnings and so the former age had come to an end and the first age of conflict had begun the saint shayum quickly took the Dreadnought into the skies only to be met by a blockade of sanghilli Warships the fleet engaged the Dreadnought relentlessly but the ship's resilience proved matchless and the sanghilli were summarily defeated though the San shayum were unwilling to land again they showed their resolve by violently raising the planet and eradicating its sanghilli population the war spread across the sanghilli worlds in cycles that followed bringing Untold Devastation as the San shayum sought to obliterate whatever remained of their new enemy in the sanghilli resolutely fought back even once managing to infiltrate the dreadnought's interior massacring thousands in their wake and damaging several critical systems this event began to shift the opinion of the sanction within the Dreadnought although their tyrannical leader ekla magao sadao known as pervading Stone demanded more sanghili blood other leaders such as the wise saparetta makra also known to history as breaking Shadow backed by Noble ushering dusk opposed this instead Desiring a truce the first kaidon of sang Helios Milat orlam also sought change when he proposed that the sanghilli respectfully used their own Forerunner artifacts many which they knew already to be powerful weapons while this was resisted for a time even leading to the assassinations of the first kaidon himself the sanghili eventually gave in recognizing the Peril of continuing against the San shayum as they had under the Bold wisdom of orlam's son palisar they began employing their own Forerunner weapons to great effect while this softened most sent shayum toward the possibility of a ceasefire the uncompromising pervading stone grew only more incensed seeking to obliterate the sanghilli entirely he finally brought the Dreadnought to sanghelios ravaging their Homeworld and its moons as a final Penance I suppose for his father who perished long ago on olgathon at the onset of the war in response the sanghilli Unleashed their Newfound weapons eventually bringing the Dreadnought down on the blood moon of suban and holding it in place with gravity anchors the sanghilli long debated whether to Simply destroy the ship outright or to breach it for their own taking In The End Breaking Shadow led a Swift and violent coup within the Dreadnought assassinating pervading Stone who had refused peace for so many cycles with Newfound solidarity among his people Shadow then prepared to At Last broach the possibility of peace with the sanghilli after many cycles of bloody war the San shayum sent an unarmed delegation who recounted all that had transpired throughout the conflict after which breaking shadow in palisar the strident the new first kaidon forged a tenuous truce forgiving each other of their crimes and working toward a piece for both their peoples this effort was formalized with the writ of Union a sacred document of Covenant between both species and ultimately recognition of their soul and Central Focus worshiping the forerunners through the discovery and reverent exploration of their profound luminous artifacts this was the birth of the Covenant an agreement founded on the belief that despite our blood-soaked history and significant differences both San shayum and senghili could work together to pursue Transcendence into Divinity their shared quest of the Sacred Rings The Writ of Union required both species to lay down their arms and unite the San shayum forsook their Mighty Dreadnought and the sanghilli would henceforth govern all military Affairs while the San chayun provided overarching religious insight and purpose under the authority of a triumvirate of hierarchs to usher in the dawn of each age of Covenant history and Shepherd the faithful along the path of divine Transcendence despite these efforts however not all Singh Healy desired to join our covenant as reported in the secret writings of my ancestor the prophet of inner conviction there was a short-lived rebellion and a violent purging that immediately followed an event we would simply call the rending that a certain heali faction led by one USA zealous tried to foment a resistance to the Writ and ultimately the Covenant he and his followers were said to have been annihilated by a mighty and blasphemous Act of mass suicide their deliberate destruction of the planetoid they called The Refuge a shield World constructed by the great ones in truth this was but a clever ruse on USA's part for within this great Shield world was a tool no other before it had possessed a disassembly process that famed destruction and thus his adherence known today as the usans were allowed to live in peace on This Magnificent world that they fractured in many pieces and had only recently joined together once more a broken Circle made whole with the end of the initial sanghili resistance to the writ of Union their war-like race became the enforcers of the will of the Covenant here followed the beginning of the sanghili whom we referred to as the elites of the High Council of sanghili and sanchayum and the beginning of a great construction the creation of the Homeworld that would become High charity a holy city free to move about in the void a world and a power formed around the kingship of the great ones and sacred land derived from jandra quam herself which brought the mercy of Deliverance to the converted throughout the Galaxy thus was the age of reconciliation the true seed of the age of conversion the new age was vested in the adaptation of all other sentient species that came to our attention a conversion that came about through the domination of Revelation itself and when necessary Conquest nearly 70 Cycles after signing the writ of Union a covenant Fleet stumbled upon the gas giant Tei surrounded by a ring of rock and debris the shattered remains of a forerunner orbital an eel-like species called the legolo were the cause of the installation's demise and remained on the ring in tased moons ever since this was considered a mighty sacrilege and the hierarchs declared war on these worm-like beings our sanghili Warriors struggled to eliminate the species without damaging what remained of the holy relics but this only resulted in greater losses the logole were able to bind themselves together forming substance gestalts of remarkable resilience and strength Fierce and Powerful behemoths against which the Covenant military had little defense it was thanks to the astute Arbiter jetlic Muti who ventured across one of Tay's moons run to that we were able to discover that the legolo Could Be Tamed and used to clear the debris from the surface of Forerunner artifacts aiding in excavations a truce was brokered which offered amnesty to the legolo for their service to the Covenant this agreement bore even sweeter fruit for after many cycles sanchayum priests would employ chosen legolo to scour the informational Pathways of the Dreadnought granting them greater access to the ship than they ever had before leading to the discovery of the great Oracle housed within the vessel it would enigmatically communicate to the holy monk studying the ship on very rare occasions but when it did it brought deliverance and Clarity to all High Charities completion would finally come over a hundred Cycles later I find this suspicious seeing as it was at this time that our birth World gender quam was said to have been destroyed from a devastating Stellar collapse mysterious and guarded about their past the hierarchs refused to provide coordinates of the event to verify this claim I suspect Intrigue was at play in these events but for the moment it is only supposition from this point forward our holy city became the center of Covenant power and from it we deployed countless fleets into the outer reaches of the Galaxy in the unwavering search of the Sacred Rings this would continue largely unimpeded for centuries until the Covenant finally encountered other civilizations some which deeply tested our resolve the first of these would come hundreds of Cycles later where a covenant flotilla discovered palamak the home of the young me trillions of Tenacious and defensive sentient insectoids who thrived in their planet's oppressive conditions ruled by their matriarchal Queens believing the world to have sacred Forerunner relics hidden below its surface the Covenant initially engaged the yangmies in a fierce battle but this proved fruitless costing the sanghilli thousands of lives it was only under the threat of Extinction from incredible Firepower by Covenant warships that the yangmies finally agreed to Parlay and a convocation of Hive Queens consigned their drones into our service when the holy sites proved inaccessible the Covenant allowed them to join the hegonomy incorporating their drones first as workers then over time as Warriors about 200 Cycles later the Covenant discovered the kigyar an avian civilization which occupied Ian the primary satellite of the planet chuat and its surrounding asteroids despite ages of hostility between their own colonies the kigyar forged a powerful united front against us as we sought access to a holy Forerunner facility buried deep within one of their habitats after a series of Victories by the Covenant which had proven our Naval superiority missionaries were dispatched to reach an agreement to their surprise the kig yaw were uninterested in Forerunner relics but used them to force an Armistice we offered them letters of Mark employing these jackals as privateers mercenaries and contractors in exchange the Covenant would explore and excavate the abandoned Forerunner Temple without restriction despite being driven exclusively by monetary gain the kigyaw proved to be one of the most versatile in Brazil brilliant members of the Covenant though they were rather quarrelsome with other races at times roughly 400 Cycles ago the Covenant encountered the ungoy a squat arthropodal species on the icy world of Bella ho whereas most species were grafted into the Covenant by faith or Mutual beneficence the young boy were not such absent of Forerunner artifacts they were conquered and brought into the fold by force for their world had no prayer against our might and Majesty thousands upon thousands were taken from their primitive Huts taken off balaho to high charity and other tie the worlds to serve as laborers and thralls to serve at our whims and Pleasures it was at this time that the existing Arbiter falshavami openly challenged the high prophet of solemnity an act of dissent that led to the death of his mate and a vicious bloody confrontation with the hierarch's infamous enforcer Haka sukari in the end Not only would both Warriors die but the mantle of arbiter would forever be converted from a place of high station into a badge of Shame he would henceforth be known to history as the defiant one it was here that the hierarchs established the line of Immaculate succession a dramatic shift not only in the role of arbiter but even in the sanghilli standing within the Covenant since then there had been a total of 18 Arbiters within this line centuries later feuding between the kig Yar and unggoy on high charity culminated in the infusion incident the kigyar had poisoned an ongoing narcotic leading to a widespread sterilization and ultimately a large-scale rebellion once fully provoked the ongoy were merciless in their violence lashing out on all species their large numbers and their tenacious volality made them a suitable challenge even for the elites but this Revolt this ongoing rebellion was only stemmed by a unilateral attack on balajo under the direction of the unrelenting Arbiter hakigabadi subduing the ungoy though from this point forward they would simply be incorporated as the grunts of the Covenant military their resolve and ability now proven in battle after which time they became the covenant's most devoted Seekers after the great journey sacrificing themselves in great numbers on the battlefield so prolific that more seemed always ready to throw themselves upon the altar of war the last race to join our holy Empire came nearly 70 solar Cycles ago when the Covenant Came Upon a war-torn world called doysak and found themselves pitted against the powerful and ruthless giohane this encounter came on the heels of a bloody civil war between Johannes War packs known as the great immolation with doysak teetering on the edge of nuclear winter vicious Fighters their Wars had reduced them from a higher civilization to one hampered by only feeble technology thus their resistance to the Covenant was short-lived hoped Along by an alliance of young Chieftains who eagerly adopted the Empire's tenets and served with extraordinary Zeal showing a depth of devotion that impressed even our most cynical of prophets despite the Deep reservations by the sanghilli the high prophets offered a truce with the jurohane and the elites reluctantly conceded placing the these brutes under close scrutiny and an easily controlled roles this tenuous relationship would begin to expose cracks in the foundation of the Covenant that would ultimately lead to its eventual downfall by the end of the 23rd age of doubt the Covenant stood at the very height of its strength encompassing much of the Galaxy bringing many species into our Dominion those who pose little threat to us were part of The Fringe a collection of tangible Holdings that were kept at arm's length of the Empire its people used as tools and laborers and in all those many centuries we never faltered in our holy crusade to the pursuit of Halo as well as the ark the forge of the array of sacred rings and if the Legends were true the final stronghold of the forerunners during the Great War with the flood but the seed of our destruction began when We Came Upon A Primitive race a race that had spread throughout the Stars akin to the sanghilli of old a race that would shake the Covenant to its very Foundation Humanity their Discovery was really won by chance by way of the predatians of a kigyar missionary vessel When They Came Upon a world the humans called Harvest signals consistent with Forerunner presence were detected there but no intact artifacts were found then violence erupted between the emissaries of the Covenant and the humans following these recent events the newly minted hierarchs truth mercy and regret concluded that the humans had sacrilegiously destroyed the holy relics that the humans were so dangerous and heretical they must be wiped out completely they declared the human's Vermin claiming that they were intent on desecrating Forerunner vestiges thereafter not only did the war of annihilation begin but so too did the ninth age of reclamation a time of the most disparate period for the Covenant in our history it was now the sacred duty of all Races within the Covenant to exterminate these infidels before commencing the great journey for such creatures could not be allowed to defile more holy Forerunner temples throughout the Stars as the war carried on however I grew ever more perplexed by this Proclamation along with the dismissal of the hierarchs to offer the humans a place within the fold if only to quell the endless Bloodshed the members of the Covenant when first discovered were thought to be dangerous and heretical as well and yet were allowed to join us but these humans were not afforded such a luxury why couldn't the humans like the saying Healy long ago become allies in the search for the great journey their resourcefulness could have been extremely valuable for many cycles this riddle haunted my thoughts and yet I do recall observing a recording during my time as a Communications officer that before the war the hierarchs prior to their Ascension to the triumvirate met within the Dreadnought and then departed soon after muttering amongst themselves in closed circles I was only able to discern a single word in their conversation reclaimer I suspect they must have met with the Oracle and discovered what we all know today the great journey was not but a lie perhaps that is why they truly declared war on Mankind in the first place to cover their own machinations and cling onto the power they so desperately craved how deplorable but what was done was done it could not be undone after a furious battle the planet Harvest was subjected to plasma bombardment and glassed but not before many of the humans had escaped more human Colony worlds were found and destroyed yet we could not for many cycles locate their Homeworld something we had Learned was called Earth in those early solar Cycles I heard damning rumors that certain kigyar Pirates had begun to trade blessed covenant Weaponry to human traitors of ill repute who inhabited an asteroid Colony alongside them scandals soon spread of such blasphemy and it was said that the prophet of regret dispatched a team of zealots to put down these traitors and Cravens and end the heretical dealings with humans some say that the Pirates were in fact agents under the orders of the Holiness the high Prophet of Truth and a desperate attempt to locate the human cradle world and did not confer with the other high rocks I did not take these gossips seriously at the time but with all that I know now such machinations doesn't surprise me truth and regret never did see eye to eye on many things but I digress solar Cycles followed as we fought our way from one human colony to the next wiping them out we took Grievous losses at times in those Cycles the desecration of the holy world of zoest the death of the Arbiter Ripa morami but these humans won only a sparse number of battles we were an Unstoppable Force rolling over their civilization which seemed over time to have encompassed impressively large portions of the Galaxy then came the planet they called reach which we supposed to be the Cradle the Homeworld it was not this world was discovered through the guidance of a luminary within the fleet of valiant Prudence an archaeological research and retrieval group under the command of supreme Commando robertami his flotilla engaged the humans for a short time until his shawada patterned super carrier the long night of Solace was destroyed shame really for it was said that burutami was quite an astute saying Healy with a great ambition to discover the throne world of the forerunners the fabled may thrillian I too would have loved to see the planet of which the forerunners ruled their once Mighty civilization Millennia ago but such dreams are best not to ponder though the planet was eventually glassed with the arrival of a massive Invasion Fleet of the ministry of resolution the events that followed began to set the war in a new alarming Direction a human vessel fleeing this world reach as it burned Came Upon the first sacred ring our Fleet of particular Justice followed the humans to what we now know as Alpha Halo discovering it at almost the same time I know I was there as one of the many supervisors of multiple combat squadrons dispatched on the Ring's surface it was our charge to safeguard this sacred world for the arrival of the hierarchs and fulfilled the ancient Prophecies of the great journey but the humans were still a grave threat a threat Supreme Commander thelvatimi could not tolerate if he had it his way the human vessel the pillar of autumn would have been destroyed long before it landed on the ring but his reverence the minor prophet of stewardship protested unwilling to damage the most revered creation of our Lords this would be but the first in a long line of heated disputes between command of atomy and the prophet of stewardship over command of the fleet while awaiting High Charities arrival and in their blindness the humans were allowed to evade us worse during our efforts to secure the ring we had inadvertently released the flood the greatest enemy the forerunners had ever encountered the parasite nearly infiltrated the fleet through an infected mirrored patterned agricultural support ship the infinite sukor but thanks to the Supreme Commander's insight and the boldness of Special Operations Commander artist vadumi the flood's efforts were in vain a great battle was fought on the sacred ring and it was ultimately destroyed the destruction of a Halo was a wounding of hope we all experienced its loss with a deeply resonant grief and the blame for this unspeakable atrocity was thrust upon fell Vladimir's shoulders and he was stripped of his status as Supreme Commander and was later given the mantle of the Arbiter by The Graces of the hierarchs as Penance for his blunder he was sent to eradicate a band of Heretics living on a forerunner mining platform within the gas giant Alpha Halo once orbited whose efforts were successful and he even managed to rescue an oracle from the clutches of the heretic leader Cesar referee and deliver it to the high rocks but this time of Sorrow was cut short as yet another Discovery was made one that shook the Covenant to its core Delta Halo seemed almost inconceivable that a second ring was discovered in such a short time such sorrow mixed with Newfound Jubilation was almost too much to bear then greater still the high profit of regret had found the location of a portal leading to the ark how exactly remains unknown to me even now perhaps it was ambition perhaps holy Zeal but he did not confer with the other high rocks before taking 15 warships to seek the ark but when he arrived with the fleet of sacred consecration at the portal site he quickly discovered that it was the Cradle planet of the humans themselves it was the world called Earth when the strength of Earth's defenses became too much to bear for his meager forces regret fled in a rather haphazard way to Delta Halo and he clumsily allowed the humans to follow him including the very demon who destroyed the first sacred ring but around the time high charity had reached this new ring the word came that another catastrophe had struck a high-level assassination on the prophet of regret and thus began the chain of events that brought the Covenant to utter ruin with the loss of alpha Halo and now the death of a hierarch truth and mercy laid the blame of recent events upon the saint heli for regrets murder the elites within the honor guard were replaced by the jurohane such a thing was unheard of by the presidents and laws of the writ of Union the sanghilli were charged to be the Guardians of the high prophets not a role that was to be handed over to Savages who lacked honor or conviction the sanghilli were outraged by this decree with many counselors threatening to resign their positions on the High Council I would discover that this was but one of the webs weaved by ORD Casto the high Prophet of Truth during my tenure as his secondary administrator I gathered much information about his activities leading up to the events that was to come for some time truth convened in private discussions with high-level brutes like the Arrogant Tartarus the anointed she Chieftain of the brutes along with like-minded sanction counselors such as the vile sycopint otherwise known as the prophet of Exquisite devotion and upon recent events the high Prophet sent special orders to Roots stationed around Earth with what remained of regret's forces allow me to pose a question why would he be giving such orders from high charity itself such a task would normally be beneath his attention and orders only for the drill Hane he had also sent another Fleet to Earth again not a job for his high station but apparently this wasn't the first time truth gave such clandestine orders after much investigation into his personal records I discovered that in the months prior to the invasion of Earth truth had already learned the location of the human Homeworld long before regret and had a master Fleet of over 500 warships warships commanded by Joel honey alone in preparation to conquer Earth single-handedly but a small human Strike Force had somehow infiltrated his Fleet and destroyed most of the Armada including its Command Center the unyielding hierophant all that was recovered from the destruction were shards of the Holy Light a forerunner Crystal discovered on reach during its fall the shards were apparently brought before the high prophets by Tartarus but I never knew such objects during my trips to the Chamber of the high rocks I suspect truth must have kept them hidden away for his personal machinations furthermore according to data I acquired from comptroller files he placed a large order with the sacred promissory the weapons Armory on high charity but kept this quiet for some time possibly for many solar Cycles the order was for the mass production of traditional brute weaponry and prior to my dismissal from truth service I found hidden documents among his records within the Palace of the hierarchs documents that data back Cycles he sent special instructions to pre-laid stationed far from the front lines along with the periphery of the Empire on how to drill brutes in Naval Warfare specific Ally on stratagems the sanghilli often employ it was all too clear that he was arming the brutes to a perilous degree a change of the guard and all this was done under the decrepit wrinkled nose of the prophet of Mercy whose wits had become dulled in his old age and holy contemplation it seemed that truth believed the covenant could be ruled by a single hierarchy and sought to rest full control of the covenant's military by way of the jurohane with the vile Tartarus at its head and when the elite High councilors arrived at the Chamber of consecration Delta Halos control center truth made his move his journey puppets slaughtered the councilors the prelates let his fleets against the sanghilli and all-out War erupted within the holy city the great schism as it would come to be called had begun for more than 2 000 solar Cycles the Covenant stood as the mightiest Empire in the known Galaxy second and only by the forerunners themselves and Truth in his conspirators had torn it asunder and for what the prospects of power worse yet the flood managed to infiltrate High charity itself and before long it would become but another one of the parasites many wretched hives unlike most sanction who had the audacity to call themselves prophets in the sight of this betrayal I remained loyal to the spirit of the writ of Union and the elites and I dare not entertain the cruel and barbaric practices my people performed in those dark days what I saw then what they did to the councilors My Friends by the great ones body parts crushed under artificial gravity Chambers called made to see his nephew pulverized by the force of a fallen planetoid I would have shared a similar feat had it not been for the intervention of guitoric clammy and other loyal saying Healy allies they had risked all for me I was forever indebted to these honorable beings far more than to any so-called Prophet on high charity we fled the city as the flood began consuming all in their wake and when I saw truth doing the unthinkable detaching the Dreadnought from high charity itself it gruddenly marked a sign of the times the death of the Covenant we fled the chaos above Delta Halo aboard a supply ship the journey sustenance it made our way here before we had ever discovered this Marvel Singh Healy subculture as we searched for USA zealous's lost descendants we managed to decipher what had transpired following our departure the flood had devoured what remained of high charity the prophet of Mercy killed and the Arbiter Thal Vadim had slain Tartarus on Delta Halo and thwarted the lighting of the Ring I would later learn that during all this chaos an offensive was being planned by the sanghilli zaitanjar when tinry the legendary Imperial admiral of the combined Fleet of righteous purpose had rallied what remained of the sanghilli leadership above the Fortress world of joyous exaltation to plot an ambush on the jurohane's top leadership in order to cut off the head of the Beast and give the elites an advantage they so desperately needed sadly this bold plan never came to pass for his Flagship his Fleet and the entire planet of sepan Kal was vaporized by a mysterious Hellstorm of Untold proportion what caused such a catastrophe remains unknown to me even now but back to the topic at hand after shutting down Delta healer the Arbiter learned from the humans what my ancestor McCann's Square are Ben theorized long ago that the Halos were not Divine instruments but weapons of mass destruction designed to cleanse all sentient life in the Galaxy denying the flood of sustenance he then formed an alliance with the same foes we had fought for nearly 30 Cycles in order to pursue truth to the ark they managed to shut down the massive installation and the Halos were silenced Once More by the demon and the Prophet of Truth was slain at the hands of thelv Adam and it was thus that the grand work of breaking Shadow and pellissar the strident had finally come undone and the once Mighty Covenant Empire had been destroyed forevermore following the great schism what remained of the Covenant Alliance had become what this world once was not that long ago in fragments broken the saying Healy who had once served the Covenant in The Fleets had returned to Saint Helios and her colonies it was a mixing of blood however from what I am told many still regarded the forerunners as holy beings and held on to some form of the path others believe there were only just another race brilliant beyond measure but merely mortal the Arbiter was being held by his people as the newly fledged leader of those who had truly abandoned the Covenant they would come to be known as The Souls of sanghillios in ages old order whose Origins long predate the Covenant committed now to the unification of their people under the pretext of honor and nobility over time they would lay claim to the spirit of Saint Helios keep by keep forging a new Destiny for the elites but this effort was not so easily accomplished when my companions returned to their Homeworld they told me that Strife in Civil War soon came to Saint Helios not long after the ending of hostilities with the humans many had been unified under the banner of the Covenant for so long its sudden collapse had created an enormous vacuum of power in their society what would be known as the blooding years represented a period of turmoil and flocks for Saint Helios and her surviving colonies and from what I am told the Dual Hane fared no better those who survived the fall of the Covenant seem to have shared similar consequences on their own worlds rival Clans now fight for land property and ships While others continue to pursue the covenant's goal of divine Transcendence unwill willing to give up on the Promises spoken by the prophets one such group are the keepers of the one Freedom open to all willing to walk the path the keepers continue the traditions of the Covenant yet divorced it from the failures of the sanction particularly the recruitment of human acolytes based on what particular Subspace Transmissions have told me yet all the while other Joe Hane's sects have completely forsaken the ways of the Covenant the greatest among the mother banished originating before the covenant's downfall the banish first began as a mere collection of johane morados and Warlords but now in the wake of our fall from power they have spread to every corner of the Galaxy multiplying ever greater under the command of their unrelenting War Master a cruel and cunning Warrior he is called Patriarchs while they resemble the Covenant in many ways having attracted many of the thrall species of the Empire and bearing its familiar Arsenal the banished are unified not under the pretext of divine sublimation but on power security and autonomy Desiring to use the weapons of the forerunners to decimate all who would oppose them of all the groups I have heard they are the only ones who truly give me pause I have heard they are without restraint without scruple without Mercy if they were to continue to grow as they are now I fear what is to come for our galaxy and in all this time my people the San shayum had apparently escaped the Carnage of the Schism aboard a great flotilla that jumped into slip space as high charity fell there had been some notable sightings of a few who had splintered from this Fleet but these were all power mad tyrants who craved Vengeance for losing their precious influence following the covenant's collapse for their crimes these war criminals were soon brought to Justice by the hands of the sanghilli as for the rest they had simply disappeared vanished without a trace of where they had gone for all I know I could very well be the last of my kind the last sanction in existence though perhaps that is for the best we have brought this vast Galaxy nothing but deceit war in death not only upon our enemies but upon ourselves as well all under the guise of a holy benevolence we were so arrogant that we thought ourselves to be the voice of the Gods but in truth we were the Agents of death the Destroyers of Worlds it seems only just that we reap what we sow and Fade Into The Silence of memory forever our final penance but our Legacy it seems did not fade away so easily the decimation of high charity in the loss of the covenant's major seats of power it was only a matter of time before power Brokers and Warlords began to part the opportunity to revive the Covenant in their own Twisted Image one of these was a resurgent covenant order under the leadership of an upstart julum dhamma enraged over the Arbiters packed with humanity and embittered by the loss of his wife the Journey of this Renegade sang Healy led him to the ancient stories of a vengeful God who was imprisoned within a shield World by his fellow deities oh what absurdity nevertheless from the remote colony of asturus mdama zeal to awaken this God this died act kindled the armories of its people leading to the foundation of a New Covenant one without the guidance of the prophets and with no sights on pursuing the great journey the forces adama's disposal were immense and began his campaign for Forerunner weapons hoping to extinguish Humanity at any cost but even his own flock would soon splint her into the session led by one Celine neon that one I remember all too well a zealot Commander during the war received personal commendations from hard runt the prophet of Mercy julum dhamma's efforts to revive the Covenant were eventually cut short with the assassination of the self-proclaimed hand of the died act and then finally through the swords of Saint helios's assault of their last Bastion at the city of sunnion thus ensuring a new dawn for Saint Helios and her people free from the Yoke of julum Dharma and his Covenant julum Dharma Celine Dion murgvold these are the names of fools who lay claim to the last Embers of the Covenant but their covenants are nothing more than ashes of Glory a glory that was extinguished Long Ago by lies deceitfulness and utter Folly for the original Covenant Empire was no more but based from what certain Subspace Communications can tell they are but a footnote of what is to come for some months there have been talk of other forces at work darker forces worlds going silent machines Rising beneath cities guitoric would call levukra an ancient word of a demon who sleeps in the ground and must not wake Madness if such myths are true if they are I fear that ah there you are as a reskin I've been searching for you for quite some oh am I interrupting something no no Oracle I was only um no enduring bias it was nothing now what can I do for you Kaiden Balto has expressed interest in repairing the communications array of the insulation now that the Eco level is within exceptional parameters he wishes to maintain a clearer line of communication with his captains within the reassembled sections of Shield insulation zero six seven three the hurricane is already at work but it has told me you have particular expertise in communication systems that you're kind or Adept in reverse engineering foreign or technology I believe your assistance would be most helpful in this endeavor it would be an honor to assist you and the kaidon of course Splendid oh this should be most enlightening [Music] thank you foreign foreign [Music]

Channel: Covenant Canon

Views: 72,898

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Id: 3W0AOwatozA

Length: 51min 25sec (3085 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 28 2022