Radiant Zenith

Radiant Zenith is the capital world of the post-Covenant group known as the Chikri-Merkaa Conflux. Housing the Jewel-City of Terpen, well known of old for its splendor, and encircled by an expansive belt of orbital habitats and stations known as the Ring of Radiance, Radiant Zenith was first established by the Covenant in the 10th Age of Doubt, roughly twelve hundred years ago, as a trading and military outpost in the then-growing domain of the Siakar Expanse. Its brightness has somewhat waned in the recent centuries as outward expansion slowed at Siakar, but it remains a moderately important center of culture and political power in its interstellar neighborhood. Even now, Terpen is among the seven largest urban centers in the Siakar Expanse, two of which are located in the Chikri-Merkaa Strand.

Zenith was originally founded in the most auspicious confluence of slipspace channels and interstellar jump points in its interstellar neighborhood, with future expansion and concerns both strategic and commercial in mind. While Glorious Proclamation was an already existing Sangheili colony nearby, its location was not as advantageous in regards to the slipspace lanes considered strategically important at the time. It was the location of the Chikri system as an advantageous crossroads that gave the Station of Auspicious Confluence, the "trade capital" of the orbiting Ring of Radiance and later the seat of the Chikri-Merkaa Conflux government, its name.

Another key system in that great network was to be Merkaa and its main world Jai Shua, which was in the later centuries devastated by civil war, and it would be some time before the trading outpost of Haar Nappar, several light-years coreward, would rise in its stead. In those times the sliplanes were slightly different from those used today, for what would become the Jaht Desolation as a result of the conflicts of the First Discordance at Siakar, was then a still-growing collection of colonies, as were other systems beyond; and the flows of commerce were abundant, only to be altered by the various wars and calamities that met the region; there were great worlds just beyond the Chikri-Merkaa Strand which are now but a memory. Wars and further colonization have altered the balance and landscape of the region and in the recent post-Schism years, Zenith has lost its status as the Strand's primary trade port to the Haar Nappar Freehold with the connection to the human sphere changing the traffic flows more to the direction of the stardusts of the Jjaibii Shroud.

The most prominent of Radiant Zenith's initial settlers were a mix of traders, artisans, builders and warriors as well as anything in between, and mainly hailed from worlds within the Spinward Median. The world's initial settlement was part of a Ministerial initiative to form a strong basis for security and prosperity in the Siakar Expanse, which included the settlement of well-established Sangheili populations in the crossroads of major sliplanes by way of providing strong incentives - resources, power, wealth - for clans who took up the offer. This was a particularly popular way for budding cadet branches and other lesser nobles to expand their influence and fame by breaking free of the shadow of greater houses and making a name for themselves in the untamed peripheries. While lower-caste species could simply be forcibly relocated by Ministerial decree, it was often seen as preferable to offer them incentives as well - whether real or illusory. While it was also nearly a given that the serfs and laborers bound to Sangheili houses traveled with their masters, additional labor was usually required for the large-scale construction and infrastructure projects in newly-settled regions.

Most of the initial labor force for Zenith and other worlds of the Strand consisted of scores of Unggoy as well as Yanme'e and Mgalekgolo colonies bound to the most prominent Sangheili clans. In addition to hives established on Radiant Zenith and other colonies in the region, entire worlds were eventually dedicated for the Yanme'e and Mgalekgolo to supply the needs of the Chikri-Merkaa Strand and beyond. The Kig-Yar, who were relative newcomers to the Covenant at the time having been part of the hegemony for only a century, would come soon after as well, though at first out of their own initiative and only later by Ministerial edicts as they became more established within the Covenant's social order. Over time, the Kig-Yar would also become quite involved with the matters of the Strand and nearby regions, particularly where commerce and industry were concerned, and became instrumental in the local economy.

In its early centuries, Zenith was more militarized, serving as a local fortress world and waystation for further-flung colonization, though the military aspect of the world would gradually diminish as the different worlds began to specialize in different trades, with the Aachse and Shik systems in the neighboring Apex Firmament becoming the focal military centers of the region. As with most other key Covenant worlds settled by Sangheili, Zenith would retain a significant military presence such as it was integrated to the local clan structure, but with the surrounding frontier largely tamed, it was no longer the primary reason for the world's existence nor what it became most known for. Zenith's state as a haven of philosophy and high culture was mostly incidental, and stemmed from the world's general prosperity, the progressive trader mindset, and the many new ideas flowing through the region. As a result, the world has become known for its great statesmen, orators, philosophers and artists, and the Zenithers - in a generalized sense - are the most open to new ideas among the Strand's Sangheili populations.

Radiant Zenith has a population of 8.9 billion, with several tens of millions more living in its orbital communities. The population makeup represents a kind of microcosm of Covenant society as many such hub worlds do; most of Zenith's population is made up by Unggoy and Yanme'e laborers, while the Sangheili that comprise the higher classes make up only about one-fourth of the total population. There are Kig-Yar settlements planetside, but most of them dwell within the Ring of Radiance and across the greater Chikri system.