Nirphal Resurgence

The Nirphal Resurgence was an early Sangheili polity. Although the Resurgence regarded itself as a legitimate state and was recognized as such by a handful of other polities, it was considered a rebel organization by the large powers in the Urs system. The Nirphal Resurgence was inspired by the Nirphalite culturo-political movement, which had centuries earlier sought to preserve the pre-Skyfall way of life among the Voidborn, the spacefaring populations of the Sangheili species. Though the original Nirphalite movement was quashed after Sanghelios re-emerged as the preeminent power in the Urs system, this did not remove the friction between the Sanghelian conquerors and the Voidborn, particularly in the Joorian colonies. The Nirphalite movement found support among the colonists of Joori, Ethasonna, and various asteroids and space habitats of the Urs system, leading to the formal creation of the Nirphal Resurgence during the Ages of Strife. This act made them enemies of the Crimson League, the Thar'shi Sphere, and various smaller powers, even as the Thar'shi Sphere had previously backed Nirphalite rebels in earlier conflicts for cynical reasons. The Nirphal Resurgence was supported and covertly armed by the extra-Ursian Irshun League, which sought to benefit from strife in the Urs system. Despite this, the Nirphal Resurgence was never as numerous or well-armed as its enemies on Sanghelios, and was decisively defeated and disbanded as a force after the War of Many Banners. The Irshun League sheltered various refugees of the Nirphal Resurgence, and they would end up forming small enclaves in Irshun-controlled systems. Since then, the Nirphal ideology or its descendants reemerged several times throughout the pre-Covenant era and the Covenant's High Antiquity, particularly in times of chaos, though they never became as prominent as the Nirphal Resurgence once did. Seeking to escape the control of the larger polities, some Nirphal hardliners formed Outlier colonies beyond known space, though many of these would later be reintegrated.