Portal:Post-War Era

A work-in-progress portal page for Daybreak's version of the post-Human-Covenant War era, covering major topics related to the overall political situation, the factions involved, etc.

Premise

 * Daybreak Continuum provides a basic rundown of the post-war setup in Daybreak.
 * For the major differences from the 343i version and the rationales thereto, check out the Daybreak Reference Manual.
 * For our post-war timeline, see Reconciliation Era.
 * For the UNSC's modernization initiatives, see Workspace:UNSC Fleet Modernization.

Main factions

 * Humanity - By the immediate post-war decades, humanity is still relatively homogeneous politically, and this only changes with later decades.
 * UNSC - The UNSC downsizes after the war and relegates many of its emergency powers to the Phoenix Initiative and/or the UEG, but remains fairly prominent and autonomous.
 * UEG - The old Earth government diminishes with the advent of the Phoenix Initiative, though they continue to be a major economic and political force within it.
 * Phoenix Initiative - An interim body created by the UNSC and some elements of the UEG to oversee the reconstruction process.
 * Via Casilina Community - A colonial splinter polity formed in the Madara Fringe; shaped by their integration with the Strewn Shore.
 * Sagittarius colonies - A set of outlying, autonomous colony worlds formed during the war by independent colonists fleeing the Covenant. Connected to the Via Casilina Community.
 * Haldean Compact - A break-off polity known for their anti-alien stance.
 * With the destruction of most Outer Colonies, the Insurrection has ceased to be a widespread, organized movement, though some worlds continue to have independent or rebellious tendencies. As the UNSC cannot risk another war at this time, they have adopted a much more lenient approach to such colonies in the post-war era. Autonomy-minded colonies have been attracted back into the fold with the loose governance and various reconstruction incentives of the Phoenix Initiative as well as the promise of protection. Some colonies have still formally seceded from the UEG, though as long as these are not openly hostile to the UNSC and are not strategically vital, the UNSC has done little to stop them.


 * Schismatics - Covenant meta-faction composed of the Sangheili and those who allied with them. Also known as the Separatists by the UNSC. Mostly relevant as a label until the mid-2560s.
 * Loyalists - Covenant meta-faction composed of the Jiralhanae and their allies who stayed loyal to the Prophet of Truth, and therefore wish to continue the Human-Covenant War. Mostly relevant as a label until the mid-2560s.


 * Concord of Reconciliation - The Arbiter's alliance, formed in 2554. Built on the Singular Bond and various post-Covenant polities formed since, including the Strewn Shore
 * True Communion - A more traditionalist counterpart to the Concord, emerging from a sub-schism in the 2560s. Oppose some of the Concord's policies, such as the Arbiter's actions against the Covenant caste system and his leniency in certain religious matters. While not intent on continuing the extermination of humanity, many members would also wish to see humanity assimilated as a Sangheili protectorate. Mainly located on the Covenant's trailing side, though there are polities scattered across the Holy Ecumene sympathetic to them. Not as large as the Concord, at least at first, but grew considerably in the 2570s. Predominated by Sangheili, a small number of San'Shyuum, and Yanme'e queens.
 * Ecumenic Mercatoria - Emerging in the 2560s, a semi-autonomous alliance of merchants and commercial guilds encompassing large swathes of the Holy Ecumene. Overlaps with both the Concord and the Communion because they have no ideological or religious goals.
 * Sons of Heaven and Storm of Faith - Smaller warlord juntas that preceded the True Communion; more extreme than the Communion, though many Sons of Heaven cells would later merge into the Communion.
 * A Covenant rump state formed out of the disparate Jiralhanae factions that arose from the Great Schism. (c. 2570s)
 * Keepers of the One Freedom - Loyalist splinter polity most notable in that they wish to convert humans rather than exterminating them.
 * Servants of the Abiding Truth - A religious extremist faction distinct from the True Communion and other larger polities, which they found too lenient.
 * The Banished - a band of marauders formed by the Covenant defector and warlord Atriox. For the immediate future, the Banished remain something of a fringe threat as they are mostly active in the marches of Jiralhanae space in the first few decades of the post-war era. Hunted down by the Covenant, Atriox and his Banished fled far beyond the Jiralhanae space explored by the Covenant or most modern Jiralhanae, contacting even previously-unknown colonies of Jiralhanae from their early expansions. When the Banished (or their descendants) do return in force, it will be decades later, and they will be a society much changed by both time and isolation.

In addition, numerous smaller polities exist under these major groups. The Covenant fringe or Ulterior civilizations are not a major consideration yet, though the Waquish'Dawn and the Cix-Tu are relevant in particular to the trailing-side Covenant domains and may become increasingly relevant as news of the Covenant's collapse spreads. In addition, the Covenant's various Outlier or Strayed civilizations may become a factor, albeit one mostly localized to the regions neighboring them.

Humanity, the UNSC, and the Phoenix Initiative


Daybreak's post-war UNSC is characterized as capable and plucky, but limited by their economic issues, older technology, and their transitional phase as a society. The idea is not to present them as totally failed and pathetic and utterly reliant on alien aid, but still having the war's effects clearly visible on their economy, industry and society. While the first years of the post-war era are difficult, by the 2560s, the UNSC has recovered to the extent that it can police its own space and even venture beyond. The biggest change from 343i's lore is that the UNSC cannot reliably project force beyond their own sphere until the late 2550s because they're too focused on defending their own worlds, and even as they begin to push further out with the help of faster slipspace drives and a recovering industry, most of their operations remain limited to a 500-LY radius around Sol before the 2570s.


 * How is the Phoenix Initiative put together? What is its relationship to the UNSC and UEG?

The United Earth Government continues to govern Earth and SolCore with few internal political changes.

With the CAA's absorption into the UNSC and subsequent dissolution, the Phoenix Initiative acts as an interim body designed to facilitate reconstruction and dialogue between colonies. The Phoenix Initiative is more akin to a mutual defense/cooperation pact and economic union initiated by the UNSC than a cohesive polity in the truest sense. There are various degrees of cooperation within the Initiative, with many of the former Inner Colonies in particular assuming a more core role than some Outer ones, which only involve themselves in a peripheral status. The Initiative's purview mostly covers matters of security and resettlement-related issues, outside which its ability to interfere in the member worlds' affairs is limited. Other than that, the Initiative acts as an interim civilian authority that gradually accepts various responsibilities the UNSC took up during the war, though some of these also remain on the UEG proper.


 * What are the Phoenix Initiative's major colonization efforts? What are the hotspots of the reclamation process post-war? On what kind of timeline do these efforts take place in?

In theory, the Phoenix Initiative seeks to reclaim most colonies lost during the war. In practice, however, this is not exactly feasible, or only feasible over a timeline spanning several centuries. The immediate concern in the post-war decades remains to find enough viable space to put all the people displaced by the war and give them at least basic humane living conditions, and preferably something productive to do. Most of the reclamation and colonization projects are corporate-run, and megacorporations are given a lot of latitude in the Phoenix Initiative era. With the UNSC downsizing, some colonization contractors will hire PMCs or have their own security forces.

Most of the UNSC's post-war expansion leads away from the Covenant, spinward along the galaxy's rotation. The most notable new frontier is the Cygnus Verge, where several new colonies are established beginning in the 2560s.

UNSC reconstruction phases
The first three post-war decades (the 50s, the 60s and the 70s) each have their own predominant characteristics.

The prevailing emotions in the first few years are essentially shock, disbelief and even concern. These are called the "Years of Disquiet" to communicate that while the war is technically over, for most of the population there's no solid sense of what happens now. A lot of Brutes are still out there trying to kill humanity, and while the Arbiter has a solid backing, the Concord doesn't even really take off as a formalized thing until late 2554. And those Sangheili fleets that are still around the Human Sphere are going to look like just another Covenant fleet to the general population. Meanwhile, the more they learn about the Covenant's scope and scale, the more concerned the UNSC is about a Sangheili faction making a grab for the Ark portal. The Arbiter may enjoy widespread support, but he can't speak for all ex-Covenant. And what is even the Phoenix Initiative and how does it change things?

It's only in the late 50s-early 60s that the UNSC starts to be more in the clear, after the Brutes have been mostly driven off from human space and further treaties with the Concord make it more explicit where the two stand in relation to one another. Throughout the 60s and 70s, the UNSC starts properly rebuilding, rearming and incorporating a lot of the newer tech that didn't quite make it to the war. But the 60s are still largely an intermediate period.

By the 70s, many new ship types are already in service, and the UNSC has become fairly established again. They're not a "giant" by any stretch of the imagination, but at least they can police their own space for the most part and even carry out campaigns further out.

UNSC industry
Under what industrial constraints is the UNSC operating under, and how does that industry expand?

A big issue is that most of their industry will have to be built again from scratch, though on the plus side this also means it'll be modern. Some existing industries in Sol and Epsilon Eridani were evacuated to other systems away from the Covenant in the final years of the war (e.g. Neos Atlantis), though this ultimately represented only a fraction of the UNSC's industrial prowess. This relocation was done under the OUROBOROS Directive, the wider plan to ensure humanity's continuance during the war. Since the war, the efforts of the project continue and branch off into new directions.

The first decade or so following the war is a highly precarious time, and there's a period of a few years where the UNSC simply can't produce some high-end technologies in great numbers before they can rebuild. Such technologies include smart AIs, slipspace drives and the latest generations of MJOLNIR armor. The former two are prioritized while MJOLNIR development stalls for some time. Additionally, the loss of industry goes beyond damaged factories and shipyards. When Reach fell and Earth and Mars were bombarded, a lot of technical expertise and institutional knowledge was lost, and cannot simply be retrained again.

In the 2560s, things start getting a bit brighter. Most of the larger hostile factions have been driven from the human sphere, more new tech gets adopted (e.g. wavespace communicators), a lot of the UNSC's war-era emergency powers have been rescinded and the economy is showing signs of recovery. The UNSC peaks around the early-to-mid 2570s, after which new conflicts start emerging as the Blooding Years spill over to the human sphere. But our main focus right now is on the Reconstruction Period (c. 2553-2575).

The myriad innovations and reverse-engineered technologies pioneered during and after the war are gradually introduced into service, first in expensive fringe applications and eventually in mainstream usage. These include Covenant-based nanolaminate materials, new types of slipspace drive, advanced AI crystal substrates and power transmission, new reactor types, more portable nonlinear rifles, etc. This ushers in a gradual transformation of the human technological base over the coming decades.

UNSC doctrine

 * How will the UNSC change its doctrine in the years after the war?

This will mostly be influenced by what the UNSC needs to secure and defend, and against who: i.e. both remaining and new colonies against not just pirates and raiders, but factions of ex-Covenant marauders and warlords. UNSC command and control will also be more decentralized and mobile, as they cannot rely on secrecy or the Cole Protocol anymore. Earth's location is out there for any post-Covenant warlord willing to look, so the UNSC has to prepare for every potential outcome - including the worst ones. And they can never know if there will be enough time to prepare before an ex-Covenant warlord decides to make a grab for the Ark Portal.


 * What are the veterans doing now that the Army and Marines are downsizing?

Whether in uniform or as civilians, veterans of the Human-Covenant War will play key roles in Humanity's recolonization efforts.

Many will enlist their services to private security companies attached to reclamation or recolonization efforts, or establish their own. Some can act as military advisors to new colonists, training local militias. Others will ply their trade further afield, establishing new shipping companies and manufacturing firms.

Human culture and internal cohesion
The sheer carnage of the Covenant War and the continued overarching threat of hostile post-Covenant factions are the main external forces acting on humanity's collective psyche in the post-war era. Three decades ago, the UNSC was still the biggest kid on the block, and was seen as a bully by many. The existence of bigger, much worse fish is one hell of a wake-up call. The fatigue most humans have over endless war is another key factor. Whether they like the UNSC or not, most surviving colonial populations will have to agree that as the largest coherent military organization unambiguously protecting human interests, imperfect as it might be, the UNSC might be their only option for now. A certain undercurrent of solidarity exists among most human populations, even as they have their differences.

The Insurrection does not resume as such. There might be localized rebellions or resistance movements, but those are very much confined to single worlds' internal affairs. Large militant factions like the New Colonial Alliance are unlikely to gain support in the post-war environment because most humans realize that they're still not in the clear, and humans fighting other humans in the post-war environment might just be what a particularly bloodthirsty Loyalist warlord needs to finish what the Covenant started.

Human breakaway states exist, but their break-up with the UNSC is less violent than the Insurrection. This is simply because with the Phoenix Initiative, the UNSC has given up on its imperative to control all human populations. If anything, they're happy that contentious populations who cannot contribute anything leave. Such states include Gilgamesh and the loosely-affiliated worlds of the Via Casilina Community, though over time even they come to accept begrudging coexistence with the UNSC and/or the Phoenix Initiative. Colonies least impacted by the war might be the most likely to secede if they were contentious with the UEG before the war.

Humans still have their differences, however. Some of these include differing views regarding how friendly the UNSC should be with aliens or just how much power the UNSC or the Phoenix Initiative should have. Political differences exist between groups in the UNSC, but while competition is fierce between the factions, it rarely boils over into street violence.

On the other hand, there is a lot of cultural divergence - e.g. population groups that experienced the war vs. ones that didn't, worlds dealing with ex-Covenant, and new technologies (e.g. FTL comms) transforming society in the later half of the 26th century. The post-war decades are characterized by the displacement and resettlement of colonial populations, their internal crises as their governments-in-exile figure out a way forward, as well as the challenges that come with often hastily-set up refugee housing and even the Phoenix Initiative's planned communities. This gives rise to the "prefab generation", who grow up out of the immediate danger of the war but still in a fundamentally transformed human society, where nothing is constant and preparation for a cataclysmic invasion remains ubiquitous.

In short, Humanity is suffering from the overall cultural effects of thirty years of warfare — which are not minor — and the growing pains of becoming part of a larger interstellar community.

Spartans and other supersoldiers

 * The remaining Spartan-IIIs, mostly Gamma Company will be filling the niche the S-IVs do in 343i's lore for the most part, just less colorful and publicized. The other S-IV replacement is the HOPLITE program, an ODST augmentation/special missions project. Starts off with the 105th Shock Troops Special Missions Detachment, expands to other divisions in the post-war years. Narratively the closest thing Daybreak has to S-IVs (for about thirty years anyway).
 * Since Col. Ackerson is still around, S-III Delta Company goes forward despite the loss of Onyx, albeit with a lower budget and therefore personnel pool. Ackerson will also have a hand in a bunch of other ONI activities; since Halsey remains AWOL, Ackerson doesn't have as strong of a counter-force within the ONI special projects community. One effect of this is the prioritization of armor systems less ambitious than MJOLNIR.
 * Non-Spartan augmentation programs and the proliferation of augs and cybertech in the private sector.
 * The Army's TITAN-II project

The Concord
The Concord of Reconciliation is an alliance of various ex-Covenant polities sympathetic to the Arbiter and his general policies. Having its origins in a military pact between various Sangheili commanders in the immediate aftermath of the war, the Concord itself is established in the Grand Council of 2554, assembled by the Arbiter in collaboration with the remains of the Covenant's political hierarchy at the Strewn Shore, along with other groups of note across the Covenant sphere. This is the beginning of the Schism Councils which serve as a sort of truth and reconciliation commission for the activities of the last Hierarch triumvirate, as well as planning sessions for the future of the post-Covenant.

Humanity and the ex-Covenant
After the war UNSC and the ex-Covenant begin to mend the wounds of the war. The state of both the Concord and the UNSC post-war creates a scenario wherein they are forced to use a lot of creative solutions to problems and where cooperation with the Concord isn't just done because humans want to be nice (because most really don't); rather, it's done because both parties get something out of it, and the gradual familiarization occurs as a byproduct of that. On the Arbiter's side (and that of humans like Hood), the rationale is that if the two sides don't learn to get along now, they're never going to, or at least not before another bloody war.

Most ex-Covenant factions allied with the UNSC (essentially outgrowths of existing Covenant fleets) are also aligned with the Concord of Reconciliation, at least at first, since the foundation for the Concord was initially a pact between Thel, Rtas, and fleetmasters they rallied to their side in human space during the early months of 2553. However, this changes especially with outlying fleets operating near the Tempest Crossing, Pleiades Corridor, as well as the now largely glassed sectors, which host various unaffiliated factions. Some are even tentative allies to the UNSC, but against the Arbiter. Elements of ONI will attempt to play these factions against each other, particularly ship- or fleetmasters identified as having diverging views on humanity or the UNSC. Since 2554, the Concord (broadly speaking) comes to encompass various post-Covenant groups that accept the Grand Council of 2554 (which, among other things, acquitted humanity for their stated crimes and declared the last Hierarch triumvirate illegitimate).

What the Arbiter does with the Schism Councils is that he effectively seizes control of the post-Covenant's wider discourse on major topics of contention. The Concord of Reconciliation is effectively an Alien United Nations; it is not going to stop individual polities from fighting one another or going out of line, but it will mean that factions that go against the majority will have a hard time. So, things like trade and relations between domains and other subgroups of the Covenant still exist; they didn't disappear with the Schism. By going out of line (e.g. by attacking humanity) your faction essentially makes itself into post-Covenant North Korea. You won't have a lot of friends, people are afraid to associate with you, and there's a good chance some of the more fanatical martial orders that the Arbiter has taken under his wing will come after you.

So a faction has to be really anti-human (or a Truth loyalist) to actively try and invade human space. This is the status quo until the 2570s, anyway. By that point the Brutes have been reduced as a threat to such extent that there's starting to be more open factionalism within the Concord and questioning of the Arbiter's line. Also, groups like those Regret loyalists are getting their voices heard more and more. Many of these groups may tentatively accept the ruling of the First Schism Council of 2554, i.e. that maybe wiping humanity out entirely was excessive and a product of Truth's lies, but they'd still like to see the UNSC/PI (and the Excession) brought under control. There's a renewal of tensions between these factions and the Arbiter's "mainstream" Concord, along with sub-schisms leading to the formation of polities with stricter views like the trailing-side True Communion. Meanwhile, traders become more powerful and independent with the creation of the semi-autonomous Ecumenic Mercatoria (which is going to be a bigger deal later on). This all gradually erodes the Arbiter's and his close allies' hold on the post-Covenant discourse, and it is what enables a figure like Jul to emerge by the late 2570s. He's not the only one, he's very much part of a trend, he's just the one willing to aim highest. And he's smart enough to do it in ways the UNSC doesn't expect of a post-Covenant warlword (along with some potential aces up his sleeve).

The Concord offers aid in reconstruction and policing (c.f. Marshall aid), but accepting it is a balancing act to the UNSC since they don't want to become too reliant or tied to alien assistance (e.g. economically or technologically). Politically, there's a common fear that humanity will lose its independence and become a vassal-state of the Elites, though many acknowledge the need for at least some external aid in the early years, as well as pointing out the usefulness of economic integration in preventing future conflict. As the years go by, a lot of cross-pollination starts happening between businesses in particular on both sides. The hotspots of this less centralized form of integration are the Pleiades Corridor crossing route, as well as the worlds of the Via Casilina Community.

Human attitudes about the ex-Covenant
These are a complex topic. The UEG, the UNSC and the Phoenix Initiative are forced to tread a fine line between both not inciting retaliatory actions against Concord allies (and throwing humanity into another war they could not win) and maintaining the confidence of their own disgruntled population. The UNSC's efforts to preserve the peace with the Concord include propaganda and may go as as far as media censorship of revanchist firebrands and interference in the political process to prevent radically anti-Concord parties from gaining power. While ultimately seen as necessary evils, sacrifices for the sake of continued peace, this shift can go too far in a few places at the start, especially in regards to information control. Populist political movements taking advantage of the population's ire against the ex-Covenant is a relatively common occurrence after the war. Known broadly as Revanchists, such sentiments are held by various groups, ranging from veterans of the war and refugees who lost their homes to the Covenant to academic radicals. They even have sympathies in the UNSC's officer corps, who might in some cases look the other way in regards to Revanchist radicals' actions.

A quiet majority, particularly those not directly impacted by the war on a personal level, have a more resigned and pragmatic attitude at the matter, acknowledging the Covenant's atrocities and usually having no particular sympathy for the ex-Covenant, but also not wishing to see another war. Generally, the UNSC tries to combat the rise of extremists by arguing that another war would be very counterproductive for everybody, and ultimately burying the hatchet is better in the long run, coupled with channeling the hatred of the Covenant against the actually hostile factions. However, this doesn't change the fact many in the general population distrust the UNSC-led media. Misinformation and conspiracy theories abound throughout the Human Sphere. The UNSC does get a little bit better at balancing the two sides of the matter by the 2560s, though.

However, it's not just the UNSC that'll have to convince the general human population that the Concord is worth being allies with - the onus is on the ex-Covenant, particularly the Sangheili, to show that they can be trusted and can make amends. Not all Sangheili will be up for this, but the Arbiter actively tries to make sure the people that end up dealing with humans are not the bad apples—which he actually tries to keep under close watch. Groups such as the Contrite Estate and the Path of Penitence, and even the warrior-fanatics of Furious Absolution in their own way, actively work to make inroads with the human population.

Key concepts

 * Joint Occupation Zones are regions of space with joint military jurisdiction between the UNSC and the Concord, usually with a significant post-Covenant populations. Joint occupation zones are formalized circa 2554-2555 after various incidents resulting from ambiguities over military intervention.


 * The Concord's main embassy on Earth in the post-war era is the Silver City, located in the Ocean of Storms on Luna where the peace treaty of 2553 was originally ratified. Various refugees and stragglers initially based on Earth and around the Sol system will also make their home here, making it a relatively bustling community.


 * The Strewn Shore exists in a weird relationship with both the UNSC and the Concord. They're a bit too too far away to be considered any more of a threat than the other miscellaneous factions operating near the human sphere, but ONI is initially quite suspicious of them (they only learn of them circa mid-2553). It's only through the negotiations circa 2554 that their position as allies to both the UNSC and Arbiter becomes clear. Meanwhile, they establish fairly prosperous trade relations with the Via Casilina Community.


 * The ANVIL Initiative is the UNSC's umbrella term encompassing various joint training exercises and information/technology-sharing projects conducted with the Concord's cooperation. These are carried out for various reasons. One, which is particularly important to the Arbiter and his allies, is to mend the wounds of the war and work toward establishing peaceful relations and thereby avoiding future conflict. The second is familiarizing the two sides' tactics, technologies and strategies with one another to facilitate smoother joint operations. For the UNSC, it also provides valuable intel on how the behave and think, which is applicable against hostile factions. The distinction from 343i's canon is that such joint initiatives and ops aren't top secret; instead, they're highly publicized (at least when successful), because the UNSC wants to shift the public's opinion on the allied ex-Covenant, and they can't do that if they keep any and all cooperation secret.
 * The ODST HOPLITE program can play a pioneering part in this, though other, more "mundane" units should be routinely involved as well.


 * Operation: PALE HORIZON is a late 2550s joint operation carried out alongside the Concord against Jiralhanae outposts in the crossing regions which remained a threat to human space.


 * Operation: ICARUS is an early 2560s joint operation carried out outside human space alongside the Concord against the Jiralhanae. A secondary goal of the operation is gathering intel on Covenant space.


 * The Contrite Estate, while not a formal appendage of the Concord, are a group of (mainly Sangheili) monastics who aid in reconstruction efforts, though mostly on a localized level (e.g. individual or small groups of Sangheili helping out small communities).

Friendly ex-Covenant groups and fleets
Major Concord/ex-Covenant forces in human sphere post-war:


 * Fleet of Prosperous Concert - The main Concord fleet element in the human sphere, first assembled in 2553 from miscellaneous Sangheili-led fleet elements across the region along with a handful of ships from the Fleet of Retribution as well as captured Jiralhanae ships. Partly rotating roster as ships migrate to and from the ex-Covenant sphere; members are generally picked from those on the more human-sympathetic end of the spectrum, though some may have covert motivations (e.g. keeping a closer eye on humanity, or securing holdings for strategic reasons). The fleet patrols various areas assigned to it, largely composed of glasslands with Covenant loyalist activity. Task forces assembled from the fleet's ships also engage in joint operations with the UNSC. The fleet is commanded by the human-sympathetic Fleetmaster Pree 'Venkata.


 * Fleet of Unwaning Glory - A smaller fleet operating within the Pleiades Corridor. Commanded by Fleetmaster Itha 'Tarim. Slightly less tied to the Concord, at least directly.


 * Fleet of Defiance - Formed in the first days of the Schism; initially based in human sphere, later moves increasingly toward the Covenant's spinward side to battle the Jiralhanae. Led by Fleetmaster Nerit 'Mulaparthan.


 * Around the 2570s, an Ascetic chapter affiliated with the Concord will establish at least one cloister-fortress in the Perseus side of the human sphere (Supersector 4) in response to the growing ex-Covenant populations in the region, along with the growing unrest caused by the Blooding Years spilling over to the human sphere.

Covenant loyalists and other hostile factions
By far, the most prominent hostile factions in the first decade or so are Jiralhanae-led Loyalists. Initially, most of these groups just call themselves "the Covenant", maintaining the Covenant never fell, and claim to be fulfilling the Hierarchs' will. However, rifts between different chieftains start forming from the very first months onward, and while they themselves may continue to refer to themselves as the Covenant, the UNSC and the Concord will quickly adopt more descriptive nomenclature. As time goes on, the Brute factions start diverging more and more ideologically, religiously and politically. By 2558, most Brute factions have been driven out of human space, though the war continues to rage in the Covenant's spinward side and along the crossing routes (most notably the Tempest Crossing).

The Torchbearers - The most prominent coalition of Jiralhanae warmasters operating in the human sphere, established in the first half of 2553. Prominent leaders: Belgarum, Vargax, Maractus. Most of these are killed or forced to retreat between 2553 and 2556. A couple of San'Shyuum Minor Prophets as figureheads?

The Keepers of the One Freedom - A fairly distributed lesser group of Brute-led cells that split off from the Torchbearers in 2554. Accepts humans in their ranks but opposes the UNSC for pilfering Forerunner relics and using AI.

The Oathsworn - An insurgent network of Sangheili and other species under the Concord's banner. It was formed from the remains of a very large martial order that was formed for the sole purpose of fulfilling Truth's divinely ordained mandate to exterminate Humanity. Many of the members of that martial order still hold fast to their oaths for their own reasons. They seek to undermine the ceasefire with Humanity through targeted assassination and sabotage. They are called "Truth's Beholden" by the Arbiter and like-minded individuals, an epithet meant to undermine the group by highlighting their association with the despised Prophet of Truth.

However, some individuals with such views answer such accusations by separating the actions of the Prophets of Regret and Truth. Indeed, ever a friend of the Sangheili, Regret has become a convenient refuge for many Sangheili wishing to continue the war or at least subjugate humanity for good. Adherents of this school of thought venerate Regret as a martyr, holding Truth to be directly responsible for both Regret's death and the Great Schism. Some implicate the Prophet of Mercy alongside Truth, though views vary. Since since many ex-Covenant, civilian and Oathsworn alike, still regard Regret as a legitimate Hierarch, they also hold humanity's exoneration by the Grand Council of 2554 to be illegitimate. More moderate individuals have come to partially accept the Council's ruling, while still arguing for humanity's subjugation as a vassal state.

Important worlds and systems

 * Epsilon Eridani system
 * Reach - long-term restoration project. Despite pioneer resettlement efforts, will likely remain uninhabitable for at least a century.
 * Tribute - got off more lightly than Reach, prioritized for resettlement.
 * Circumstance - got off more lightly than Reach, prioritized for resettlement.
 * New Carthage - a populous and relatively prosperous Inner Colony, though it has been substantially impacted by the war, including a massive influx of refugees and the breakdown of industrial and agricultural supply chains.
 * Neos Atlantis - major UNSC naval yard in Sector 3.
 * Andesia - corporate-run Inner Colony grappling with internal dissent.
 * Gilgamesh - Inner Colony. Went independent after the war.
 * Asphodel - a lesser Inner Colony. Fairly inhospitable.
 * Cascade - Inner Colony that experienced an economic boom since the war.
 * Minister - refugee center.
 * Fjord - a colony with a tumultuous past
 * Harmony - reclaimed in the post-war years.
 * Ballast - Inner Colony.
 * Sunburn - Cygnus-side waystation colony reclaimed in the post-war years.
 * The Swarm - habitat-conurbation. Booming industrial and technological center in the post-war decades.
 * Ariel - refugee dumping ground/terraforming project.
 * Atlas Moons - the industries on some of the moons were prioritized for reclamation after the war.
 * Emerald Cove - reclaimed from Jiralhanae/Kig-Yar shortly after the war.
 * New Jerusalem - lightly glassed. Major waystation in the Cygnus system.
 * Draco III - damaged by glassing but reestablished as a waystation.
 * Sigma Octanus IV - prioritized for reclamation, but the process may take a few decades.
 * Norton's Crossing - a colony with a bloody history.
 * Mamore - a colony with a long and rebellious past.
 * Lenapi
 * Luyten - old Inner Colony.
 * Juneou
 * Colonies in the Madara Fringe - Gao, Venezia, Terceira, Talitsa, and Aleria are now effectively independent or pseudo-autonomous through the Via Casilina Community.
 * New Reach - the military hub of the Cygnus Verge expansion region, first charted in the DANDELION SEED initiative; named and established in the early 2560s

Strategic focal points

 * The Pleiades Corridor and the Tempest Crossing remain the most active crossing routes between the human and Covenant spheres. The Tempest Crossing is generally lawless and more unstable (with e.g. more Jiralhanae activity), while the Pleiades Corridor forms a special economic zone, large swathes of which are effectively run by various corporate entities.
 * The Installation 04 debris field. A joint research and military outpost, Keyes Station, is established on one of Threshold's remote moons.
 * Earth remains in a precarious position thanks to the presence of the Voi Excession.
 * The Epsilon Eridani system remains a strategic site thanks to its location in a slipspace crossroads. It is retaken by a joint UNSC-Concord task force in the very first weeks of 2553; this is known as Operation: FORTRESS SIEGE.
 * Any systems along major slipspace routes, and worlds of note in those systems. Not all former human colony systems have a permanent Covenant/loyalist occupation, though many of the strategic ones do.
 * Some ex-Covenant outposts along crossings or within the human sphere are still manned, often by Jiralhanae as the Prophets incentivized them to settle such worlds.