Irshun League

The Irshun League was an economic, political and military coalition of Sangheili states that existed in the pre-Covenant and early Covenant eras. Spread throughout several of the Sunlit Worlds and later beyond, the Irshun League was known as the most socially dynamic and technologically experimental of the major Sangheili blocs at the time. This was a byproduct of their formation as a polity primarily composed of groups from the Sangheili colonial sphere, rather than Sanghelios or even the Urs system. Formed toward the tail end of the Sangheili's Ages of Exploration by several influential colonies including Rithal, Iraspik, and Shui Koba, Irshun was once regarded as the most successful of such polities in early Covenant history, capable of challenging the old powers of the homeworld itself at its height. While their numbers were fewer than those of the Crimson League or the Thar'shi Sphere, the Irshun League's warships were some of the most advanced thanks to their more liberal use of artificial intelligence technologies. Irshun also employed combat drones, or war-servitors, more extensively than the other factions.

The Irshun League clashed with the Thar'shi Sphere several times during the Ages of Strife, and their relations with the Crimson League were likewise hardly amiable. While they sought to remain neutral during the War of Many Banners, the Irshun League did support the separatists of the Nirphal Resurgence, both to weaken their enemies in the Urs system and out of a historical kinship some of the Irshun states had with the Ursian Voidborn. After the Nirphal Resurgence's defeat, several systems of the Irshun League provided amnesty for Nirphal sympathizers.

While the Irshun League had broadly agreed to their civilization's universal edicts against violating the sanctity of Forerunner relics, it was suspected by many that their scientists tampered with Forerunner technology in secret. This also made them the most receptive of the Sangheili factions to the San'Shyuum's offer of cooperation at the time of the War of Beginnings. Although the Irshun League was not the first Sangheili group to ally with the San'Shyuum, with several independent colonies and rogue organizations having already made similar arrangements, Irshun's decision sent ripples throughout the rest of the Sangheili sphere due to the League's prominence. Although the Irshun League's willingness to accept the alliance with the San'Shyuum won them some recognition in the early Covenant, it did not guarantee long-term stability. The League — never as strong ideologically or politically as its rivals — gradually disintegrated throughout the Covenant's High Antiquity. By the waning Ages of Late Antiquity, only a shadow of it remained, its former members having formed new alliances. Toward the end, the Irshun League became increasingly focused on cultivating a unified culture supposedly drawn from the colonies that formed it, as well as celebrating its glorious past; the irony that the League had originally been formed as a dynamic and progressive force to contrast the staid powers of the Urs system did not escape those well-versed in their history.