Eternal Covenant

The Eternal Covenant is a loose association of Covenant successor states and groups. Governed primarily by San'Shyuum and Jiralhanae, the Eternal Covenant is a descendant of the Torchbearers and other Loyalist groups who, by and large, continue to adhere to the Truth Doctrine of the 9th Age of Reclamation with varying degrees of commitment. As their name suggests, the Eternal Covenant claims to be the one true successor state to the Covenant, though they are merely one of many to do so in the post-war era. In a similar fashion, they lay claim to the entire Holy Ecumene; in reality, their territory is relatively contained to a fragmentary group of fiefdoms in the Covenant's spinward side. The main body of the group is located in the heartlands of Jiralhanae space, and though they retain holdings outside this, these are often isolated and only tenuously connected to the whole. Even though the Eternal Covenant is more aptly described as a collection of roughly ideologically aligned groups, their leadership seeks to cultivate an outward image of one monolithic entity in order to appear more impressive and hide their internal differences, which have at times escalated to open warfare.

Pre-Schism origins
The roots of the Eternal Covenant's leadership lie in events of the decades leading up to the civil war. The ascension of the Hierarchs Truth, Mercy and Regret in 2525 saw the previous hierarchy deposed in political scandal surrounding the Prophet of Restraint. Due to her relative popularity among the High Council, the Prophetess of Obligation was offered a generous posting to secure her compliance within the political turmoil and prevent her from kicking up too much of a fuss. Her new posting saw her assigned within Jiralhanae space, tasked with using her political skills to assist in the ongoing incorporation of the Brutes into the Covenant as a whole; an important task that would keep her career secure and notable and, perhaps most importantly, ensure that she was placed well away from High Charity and thus only able to exert limited influence within the political framework of the Covenant proper.

Obligation made her seat of operations on the pathweaver, Epiphany's Lament, with the Minor Minister of Conversion assigned as the ship's Legate. Officially, the Minor Minister's role was to aid the ex-Prophetess in her duties, bringing the Ministry of Conversion's full resources to bear for the ongoing induction of the Jiralhanae. In practice, the Minor Minister was a close ally of the Prophet of Truth, and was as much a counterweight and cap on the Prophetess' power as an aide in her duties. Throughout the Human-Covenant War, the two worked closely with Tartarus and the other major Jiralhanae clans to allow for a relatively smooth incorporation of the Brutes into the empire as a whole. Obligation and Conversion had an uneasy working relationship, with frequent clashes over the minutia of day-to-day operations. However, the two were able to project a relatively stable external authority, which served as a boon for the Prophet of Truth's longer-term plans to incorporate the Jiralhanae as a primary caste of the Covenant.

Formation
The outbreak of the Great Schism in late 2552 took a few weeks to hit Epiphany's Lament. Due to its status as a high-priority centre of work, the ship was fitted with high-priority grand wavecasters, and appropriately the leadership of the vessel were some of those San'Shyuum leaders who went along with Truth's pronouncement of the Changing of the Guard. By this time, the Jiralhanae of the region had essentially been serving as the Sangheili's replacement anyway, and so the change was mostly administrative, rather than the armed uprising seen throughout much of the rest of the Holy Ecumene. As such, the conflict did not spread to Lament in the same fashion as the clashes around High Charity, and in the immediate post-war months the duology were able to present themselves as a stable figurehead of which other Loyalist forces could rally around.

The soon-to-be Eternal Covenant's appeal primarily centred around the presentation of the faction as a true successor to the Covenant of old. All three Hierarchs were dead at the hands of humanity, the Sangheili or the Flood, leaving room for the Prophetess of Obligation to re-assert her experience in the role prior as justification to inherit the mantle of the Covenant. By her side, the former-Minor Minister of Conversion, now crowned the Prophet of Solemnity, brought his long-time experience dealing with the Jiralhanae in a fair and just manner. Together, the two pretender Hierarchs vowed to uphold the Truth Doctrine's main tenets; primarily the promotion of the Jiralhanae as the primary caste of the Covenant. The two also vowed to uphold the herald declaring Holy War upon humanity, though in practice this has seen little more than vague lip service due to the Eternal Covenant's distance from the Human Sphere and more pressing threats closer to home. Some have questioned the true feelings of the Eternal Covenant's leadership on the issue of humanity, with speculation arising that the ongoing vocal protests against the continuing existence of humans may be moreso a way to keep the Eternal Covenant united toward a single common foe, rather than an honest belief on the part of the leadership.

Through the immediate post-war years, the entity that would go on to become the Eternal Covenant existed as a regional polity within Jiralhanae space, based from the the mobile base of Epiphany's Lament (itself, a cultural legacy used to trace further direct lineage from the Keyship which powered High Charity itself). The first few years of its existence saw it struggle to unite the Jiralhanae clans under it, especially with the deaths of Tartarus and Cethegus. At this time, Epiphany's Lament worked to keep its figurehead position as the Covenant; positing that the breakaway Sangheili were merely a breakaway state that the Jiralhanae now had a mandate to re-conquer. The Pact at Unkarath in 2556 and the subsequent dissolution of the Torchbearers allowed the Eternal Covenant to more seriously present itself as a credible option, and was able to sway a number of Jiralhanae clans to its cause in short order.

At present, the Eternal Covenant is an unstable collective, united largely out of propaganda and a perceived inertia from the Covenant of old. While it presents itself as a united front, the reality of the Eternal is that it consists of hundreds of disparate Jiralhanae clans only loosely united by a vague pretense of imperial succession. The leadership of the Eternal Covenant, while externally presented as stable, is known to have its own divisions - primarily the personal feud between the Prophetess of Obligation and the Prophet of Solemnity. The lack of a third Hierarch to complete the traditional triumvirate has proven a destabilising force, ensuring that decisions are often left without resolution or that orders are countermanded with frightening regularity. The minutia of the Eternal's commitment to the faith are similarly obscured - with the Prophetess of Obligation's commitment to the Truth Doctrine of suspect value.

Siakar Expanse faction
Located in the Ikket'hai Cascade of the Siakar Expanse, the Eternal Covenant's Siakar fiefdom originated as an outgrowth of a group of raiders established by the Jiralhanae warlord Targanus. By 2575, they were the largest Eternal Covenant-aligned state in the Siakar Expanse. The Eternal Covenant maintains tenuous alliances to several like-minded polities within Ikket'hai, and extracts tribute from a number of lesser worlds. While it seized most of its current territory with an initial, aggressive expansion phase, Targanus' group appears to have lost its initial momentum and has grown passive since the tide turned against the Loyalists in the wider Great Schism. Due to recurring skirmishes with other factions within the Ikket'hai Cascade as well as increasing encroachment by the neighboring Golden Compact and Chikri-Merkaa Conflux, their isolation from the other member states of the Eternal Covenant, as well as a domino effect resulting from the near-breakdown of supply chains to their worlds, it is suspected that both their resources and general morale have either run out or are at the risk of doing so in the immediate future. While the larger member factions of the Eternal Covenant further coreward may have the resources to aid the Siakar Expanse one economically or militarily, it does not appear to be in their interests to do so, particularly since the Concord of Reconciliation took control of major supply routes in between their territories.

Notable worlds

 * Qloosh
 * Ven'chre