Zhoist

Zhoist, blessed with the religious esteem-name Light to the Path and known to humanity as Naraka, is one of the Covenant's most revered and remote reliquary worlds, and is located in the Umbral Crest. It is the capital of its own Domain, the Diocese of Zhoist.

History
Zhoist was once a population center for the Forerunners, who established ten large cities on its surface. Their pristine condition hints that the planet was abandoned rather than attacked by the Flood.

In the 1270s, a number of small but significant breakthroughs led to Covenant explorers discovering its location, an event which ushered in a new Age of Reclamation. Although settled, its distance from the rest of inhabited space meant that it could only be reached with the few Ministry ships equipped with Forerunner slipspace drives. Only hermit-monks who had been carefully selected and trained to live their entire lives without any support from the rest of the empire colonized the world, to study some of the most intact artifacts discovered to date.

Though it would take centuries, the technologies that were adapted from Zhoist's treasures would bring an end to the Covenant's Feudal Era and the Long Discord. Borer slipspace engines introduced in 1502 were instrumental in High Charity's attempts to restore order in the Holy Ecumene. As the Hierarchs reasserted their control and reorganized the Covenant under centralized leadership during the Second Illumination, Zhoist's loyalty led it to prosper. To protect their prize, material and manpower were brought in to fortify the system and establish it as a leading military hub and manufacturing base.

And that's how remained. Whenever some warlord tried to cede themselves from the Covenant, it was the fleets of Zhoist, often possessing the most modern advancements discovered, that were charged with defeating them. The threat of the Jiralhanae was pacified with weapons blessed from the world's Entrusted assembly forges. And with this power came influence, and great sacrifices were sometimes made by even the Prophets to keep the inhabitants of Zhoist on their side.

And so, when the Human-Covenant War began, one of Zhoist's fleets were immediately dispatched to exterminate them. The Muruga Skip was charted as the most direct route into the Human Sphere from the planet. However, the Covenant's reliance on Zhoist as their logistics, religious, and command center eventually led to the UNSC discovering it. And in 2526, they exploited this. Despite the dedicated fleets charged with its protection, Operation: SILENT STORM - the UNSC's first counterattack on Covenant soil - resulted in the shocking destruction of the Ring of Mighty Abundance, much of the Covenant fleet charged with invading the Human Sphere, and - most shockingly - the annihilation of two of the Cities of Edification. The few commanders and soldiers who survived were so terribly shamed at their failure that many opted to commit ritual suicide to preserve their honor.

For the rest of the War, Zhoist would take no further direct action in the campaign against humanity. Over the course of the subsequent 26 years, much of the Covenant's efforts were focused on repairing the planet's infrastructure and bolstering its defenses against further attack. This process was delayed several times by frontier raiders and Outlier factions taking advantage of the chaos caused by SILENT STORM and attacking various secondary worlds of the Diocese of Zhoist. The restoration of the Ring of Mighty Abundance was completed in the mid-2540s, and Zhoist's shipbuilding efforts resumed in 2547. However, as the Muruga Skip route was no longer used, few of the ships would end up part of the human campaign, instead being utilized in the region's internecine unrest. With the Sangheili failure to protect it, the planet's defense was later be entrusted to the Jiralhanae. This unprecedented action only inflamed tensions between the two species. Regardless, it remained under Jiralhanae control for the rest of the conflict. During the Great Schism, it passed into the hands of the Torchbearers, and would not be liberated by the Concord of Reconciliation until 2559.

Culture and government
Conventionally, Zhoist was governed jointly by a Sangheili planetary lord and his council, alongside the San'Shyuum magistrate in charge of the overall Diocese of Zhoist.

Orbit

 * Ring of Mighty Abundance

Planetside

 * Ten Cities of Edification