Covenant history

This page covers the history of the Covenant meta-civilization and its signatory species since prehistoric times up until first contact with humanity in 2525 and the onset of the Human-Covenant War. While the later parts of Covenant history are concurrent with human-related events, those are wholly unconnected to the Covenant events and should thus be listed separately on the Human history page.

Covenant history is recounted here as beginning from the earliest known activities of the member species, largely Sangheili and San'Shyuum at that point, rather than the formation of the Covenant as a political entity. Rather than ages, which would be too specific and too numerous, Covenant history is divided here into epochs encompassing multiple ages and reflecting broader trends within the meta-civilization in terms of expansion and political organization, which in turn were partly influenced by technological leaps. This is a common way of structuring Covenant history on the macro level - though not the only one - and while undoubtedly subject to the biases and trends of Covenant scholars, it does seem useful in segmenting their history into more manageable "blocks".

To view all of the era pages, see Timeline.

Covenant ages
Covenant ages are themed roughly after major events that occur (or are expected to occur) at their onset. While the ages seem to fall within a neat pattern, it should be noted that even major events did not always get their own appropriate age; as it was tied to the succession of the Hierarchs and various other political positions, the changing of ages was a process heavily influenced by politics. Though regulatory mechanisms existed to prevent Hierarchs from overstaying their welcome -- most prominently the High Council, the Grand Councils of the Wise, and the High Courts, these were not always effective.

The traditional order of the ages, as recounted in the Progression of the Ages rite, follows the order in which the first set of ages progressed. With the passing of time, the order became randomized by necessity as major events could no longer be fitted into the same pattern.

Primeval Era / Pre-Covenant (4000 BCE-852 BCE)
c. 2600s BCE (estimated/disputed): The Sangheili first develop spaceflight and their earliest in-system colonies. This is the species' later-reviled "Age of Decadence", when they would, according to tradition, forsake many of their old ways, including the reverence of the Forerunners.

c. 2300s BCE (estimated/disputed): A global cataclysm known as the Skyfall devastates the Sangheili's first budding spacefaring civilization. When the Sangheili first reached for the stars, the prevailing climate in the coalition of polities responsible was one of relative scientific enlightenment, a meta-culture that would be completely unrecognizable to us as anything resembling "Sangheili". The worship of the Forerunners prevailed in their cultural background, but it had in many places lapsed, and many saw it as outdated. Against the cautions of old priesthoods and to the abhorrence of more traditional rival states, relics were taken apart and studied. And in so doing, the Sangheili called upon themselves the wrath of the gods. No one really knows what happened exactly, for the details are lost in history and characteristically mythologized retellings thereof, but as a result of one particular experiment (possibly an attempt to tinker with a Forerunner AI core), Sanghelios' budding orbital infrastructure was wrecked along with most higher technology. Stations and orbital elevators came crashing down. Millions were killed. The Sangheili's path to the stars was postponed for several centuries.

Most legends and historians alike attribute the devastation to the incursions into an orbital artifact known among the early Sangheili as the Shard of Heaven, or H'ringun oot. This object, assumed to be a derelict Forerunner ship or station, had been a cultural curiosity to the Sangheili since the dawn of their species. From early on, the Sangheili could tell the object was no moon but an artificial structure, a belief confirmed as astronomy developed. Indeed, the independent development of Forerunner worship among many cultures on Sanghelious is partly attributed to the presence of the H'ringun oot; not only did various planetside structures demonstrate the Forerunners' engineering prowess, but the enigmatic Shard of Heaven proved the ancient beings' mastery over the domain of the heavenly spheres. The H'ringun oot is assumed to have been destroyed in the Skyfall, its automated systems likely having self-destructed to prevent tampering by the curious Sangheili after triggering what appears to be a multimodal viral (and possibly physical) assault on surrounding orbital infrastructure.

This event, known as the Skyfall, had a massive impact on the Sangheili. It served as a sobering reminder of the Forerunners' power to an increasingly secularized world. It also burned in the Sangheili's collective psyche one unifying tenet: the Gods would not take kindly to tinkering with their machines. There were of course dissidents who continued to experiment with Forerunner relics, but this was generally seen as heresy of the highest order, and none of the renegade tinkerers would enjoy the resources necessary to make any meaningful advancements. When the Sangheili did eventually reach spaceflight again, it was not the culture that had orchestrated the previous attempt, but another one that had previously fallen behind in technological development because of their more conservative treatment of relics; "We told you so" didn't even begin to cover it. Now, however, that divergent technological path turned in their favor as the previous masters of the skies came scuttling back and fell to unrest, regression and eventually obscurity.

In the consequent interregnum, science never went away, but the study of Forerunner relics became strictly forbidden, and the power of faith over society grew. Societies that had not meddled with Forerunner relics and had began to flourish and gain more ground while the old starfarers, now seen as decadent and corrupt, would fade to obscurity. Most (though not all) of the budding interplanetary colonies of the Urs system died out without contact from the homeworld. The Sangheili would take another path to the stars, although slower than once thought. And the culture that did so would be altogether different, with only residual elements of the prior civilization that once reached up and fell.

c. 2100s BCE (estimated/disputed): The San'Shyuum War of Wills concludes with the Reformist faction lifting off on the Forerunner keyship Anodyne Spirit. With limited understanding of the ship's systems and potential safeguards once put into place by the Forerunners, the Reformists are initially restricted to relativistic travel. Consequently, while they would only spend subjective decades during their subsequent wanderings, over a millennium would pass in the outside universe due to time dilation.

c. 1700s BCE: The Sangheili first develop spaceflight again after the Skyfall.

c. 1500s-1600s BCE: The Joorian Reconquest: during its re-expansion across the Urs-Fied-Joori system, the Sanghelios civilization rediscovers and conquers a splinter civilization that had arisen on worlds orbiting the distant red dwarf Joori since the Skyfall.

c. 1500 BCE: The first Sangheili Blinkerships depart the Urs system; the settlement of the Sunlit Worlds begins.

c. 1200s BCE: The close of the War of Wills: the San'Shyuum of the Reformist faction depart Janjur Qom aboard the Forerunner Dreadnought.

900 BCE: The Sangheili have close to a thousand well-established settlements in various stages of development in a roughly 500-light-year bubble around Urs; the innermost of these would later become known as the Sunlit Worlds.

c. 870s BCE: The Battle of Ulgethon: the first known engagement between the San'Shyuum Reformists and Sangheili occurs on Ulgethon, a frontier bastion-world of the Thar'shi Sphere, one of the early Sangheili polities. Prior to this, the San'Shyuum evidently made contact with at least one underdeveloped fringe colony where they were welcomed as gods or messengers thereof (the details are unclear and/or exaggerated), emboldening them to approach the leaders of Ulgethon. Ideological differences regarding the treatment of Forerunner artifacts ensue; most pointedly, the Sangheili of Ulgethon are outraged at what they see as a grave blasphemy in the San'Shyuum having "stolen" a divine vessel, and in so doing assumed the Forerunners' place. This results in the local Sangheili summarily executing the San'Shyuum envoys and declaring holy war on the other species. The War of Beginnings begins and soon envelops the Sangheili sphere. Over the course of the war, the San'Shyuum periodically attempt to find allies among different Sangheili groups, though most of the major factions remain against them. By the final years of the war, at least one major Sangheili polity has allied themselves with the San'Shyuum, paving way for the Writ of Union.

Archaic Epoch (852 BCE — 650 BCE)
The Covenant's earliest centuries before High Charity had yet been completed are remembered as a time of tumult, as the Covenant faith and social order were still taking shape. Many of the Covenant's most revered historical heroes come from the various wars of this era.

852 BCE: The founding of the Covenant is ratified with the Writ of Union. Notably, due to the politically disparate nature of the Sangheili sphere of influence, not all Sangheili colonies were brought under the Covenant at this point as they had not been aware of the War of Beginnings in the first place, or sought to lay low to avoid getting involved. Most of these colonies, home to often divergent cultures and civilizations, would be integrated into the Covenant over the next few ages.

784 BCE, 1st Age of Conversion: The Lekgolo are incorporated into the Covenant.

648 BCE: Construction is completed on High Charity. After its completion, High Charity would become the Covenant's main means of exploring the galaxy for relics thanks to its Forerunner slipspace drive.

High Antiquity (650 BCE — 200 CE)
The start of what the Covenant generally regarded as their ancient "golden age" was marked by the commissioning of High Charity. This era — which is often idealized in Covenant historiography — is remembered for hope and a renewed unity of purpose, with great expeditions into the unknown and illustrious Forerunner discoveries. In the great Ages of Discovery of this period, High Charity served as a trailblazer of exploration and settlement of new worlds, which brought immense wealth and knowledge to the Holy City. By the end of the Covenant High Antiquity, the Covenant caste system and its ideological underpinnings had been laid with the incorporation of the Unggoy.

238 BCE: First contact is made with the Unggoy species on the remote world of Balaho. A hardy species struggling on a planet still recovering from an ancient ecosystem collapse induced by a preceding global civilization, most of the Unggoy are organized into small tribal communities with only a handful of societies at the cusp of a second industrial age. Their small numbers, low native technology level, peculiar native atmosphere and their consequent reliance on a methane supply outside it, initially makes them of little interest to the Covenant. As such, they are made a vassal-species, but no concerted effort is made to integrate them to the Covenant hierarchy, also partly due to the Covenant itself dealing with internal issues at the time. By this point, the Covenant's conversion process has not yet fully solidified, and there is debate as to whether such lowly and primitive beings are even eligible for Salvation.

Over the subsequent centuries, the Unggoy begin to spread across the Covenant Empire, first as curiosities, entertainers and status symbols for wealthy magnates and nobles, then, more widespread servants and slaves. Increasing numbers of Sangheili aristocrats and warlords begin to foster Unggoy colonies as serfs as well as cannon fodder in their clan wars. Gradually, the Unggoy become embedded in the Covenant's power structure. Eventually, the usefulness of the species is re-evaluated, and the High Council takes steps toward a proper conversion process. Scores of Ministerial officials and missionaries are assigned to study the Unggoy, reassess their worthiness of the Great Journey, and convert them to the Covenant faith and way of life. By this point, many of the Unggoy have already accepted the Covenant religion, mostly with open arms due to the appeal of its message of universal salvation.

c. 200 BCE-70 CE: The First Illumination. Alerted to an increasing political, cultural and religious splintering across the Covenant's realms, the Prophets begin a concerted effort to catalog and structure the Covenant's dominion, the key slipspace routes therein, along with a streamlining of provincial governance. Where previously, it had led great expeditions into the unknown, High Charity would now return its attentions inward and play a key role in the process of reintegration, touring worlds that had either drifted apart from the Covenant due to centuries of isolation, or had never been contacted in the first place. This lays the ideological underpinnings for the concept of the Holy Ecumene, and cements High Charity's status as a center of religious, political and cultural power.

214 CE, Age of Conversion: The Unggoy are formally elevated into a full signatory race of the Covenant, becoming the second species to be assimilated to the hegemony since the Writ of Union. This served as precedent for the later Doctrine of Universal Conversion, which decreed that all beings with the capacity for thought, regardless of their level of advancement, should be assimilated into the Covenant. Even as this doctrine was not always followed to the letter with some fringe species the Covenant would later encounter — there were sometimes other obstacles in the way of total assimilation — it did shape the Covenant worldview considerably.

Late Antiquity (200 — 1200)
The Covenant's Late Antiquity marks the civilization's transitional period between its golden years of relative unity and cultural cohesion and the gradual decentralization of High Charity's power over the domains of the Holy Ecumene, which eventually led to what is now widely known as the Feudal Era. This was precipitated mostly by massive waves of expansion the Covenant underwent in this period of history, now increasingly carried out by ambitious regional lords in search of glory, land and holy relics.

c. 400s: Around this time (Note: the date may be off by several centuries as some Kig-Yar habitats record their founding as having occurred much earlier), the first wave of Kig-Yar space exploration marks the settlement of some of their longest-standing colonies, such as T'vao, Chiraav, Vitz and Tesev. More colonization waves by various groups would follow over the centuries to come, coupled with periods of interregnum and regression. Even now, most Kig-Yar cultures across the Orion Arm can trace their origins to fewer than thirty initial communities, which also formed their core cultural paradigms in addition to Eayn's planetside nation-states. Generally, a notable number of those who did depart Eayn were the misfits and rogues of their respective communities, resulting in many of the Kig-Yar space colonies being highly eclectic and experimental in their cultures and forms of government. This rebellion was usually not solely ideological in nature, however; corporate endeavors and entrepreneurs were also motivated by the chance provided by the new frontiers to circumvent the laws and regulations of Eayn's governments.

Over time, some of the more proximate habitats (such as the orbital swarm around Eayn) were "tamed" as a result of increased contact with Eayn nations' widening cultural spheres, or otherwise stabilized into what could be called civil societies. Regardless, in the Kig-Yar meta-civilization, space habitation has generally been seen as embodying a rebellious, progressive mindset -- what some Kig-Yar philosophers refer to as the Disruptive Impulse -- and there has always been an untamed frontier across the thousands of habitats within the Y'Deio system, from the many moons and trojans of Chu'ot to the main asteroid belt and the other worlds of the system all the way to the cometary clouds.

There are even interstellar colonization efforts; or, rather, asteroid-habitats which simply strapped engines into themselves and left the Y'Deio system for parts unknown. No Kig-Yar society ever discovered slipspace travel natively, so all of these efforts are subluminal. Only two are known to have successfully reached other systems and formed self-sustaining colonies, though neither were particularly thriving. As well, an unknown number of rogue habitats exist within Y'Deio's Oort shell, many of them having retreated there prior to the Covenant contact usually for the express reason of avoiding other societies.

400s: A series of religious conflicts known as the Qerkossian Shore Crusades takes place over an Age of Conflict. During the crusades, an event known as the Fall of Jakat Nur solidifies the partnership of Clan Vernam and a Lekgolo swarm which would later colonize the moon Kiett'abannot.

1112, Age of Conversion: The Yanme'e are incorporated into the Covenant. With their highly organized, top-down social structures, massive populations as well as highly advanced spacefaring technologies and weapons despite their lack of slipspace travel, the Yanme'e are some of the most formidable foes faced by the Covenant and it is only through great losses that the Covenant finally forces the monarchic superstates of the Napret system to capitulate. This grants the Yanme'e a unique place on the social ladder not only above the Unggoy but at times close to the Sangheili themselves; the interests of some of the more powerful Yanme'e queens weigh almost as heavily in Covenant decision-making as those of the higher Sangheili aristocracy. As well, the Yanme'e end up forming almost symbiotic partnerships with certain Sangheili clans near the Napret system and over time, the entire anti-spinward side of the Covenant's dominion in the Orion Arm, which has shaped some of the core cultural peculiarities of that region.

1151: The Ruin of Vaal Skettar: the Covenant colony world of Vaal Skettar suffers a global cataclysm as a Forerunner relic activated by the local religious fanatic Zaral 'Jaren cracks the planet apart. The survivors, led by the kaidon Ottal 'Jaren, set off on an exodus lasting for over a century in search of a new home before settling on the colony of Glorious Proclamation in the Chikri-Merkaa Stand.

Feudal Era (1200 — 1800)
This is generally seen as a time the Covenant reached the peak of the territory it could realistically control with the technology available at the time, resulting in considerable devolution of power to the regional level as well as cultural divergence, which would lay the foundations for tensions for centuries to come. It also saw a considerable waning in the power and authority of the Prophets and High Charity in the eyes of many, resulting in political and religious movements unthinkable in prior ages. This culminated in the Long Discord, a centuries-long period of irregular unrest and war particularly on the spinward side of the Holy Ecumene as countless homegrown religious, political and familial entities fought one another as well as High Charity's power, and ended with territorial reforms as well as the standardization of communications across the entire Covenant empire which are now widely known as the Second Illumination.

1213-1221: The Kusan Heresy. The settlement-cluster of the Kusan Massing had been off from the Covenant at large for nearly a thousand years due to what was likely a somehow still-active Forerunner slipspace jamming barge hurtling past the region, cutting off the slipspace routes leading there. When contact was reestablished, it turned out that the significantly divergent civilization that had evolved there wanted nothing to do with the Covenant and had developed peculiar religious beliefs irreconcilable with Covenant dogma, which led to their labeling as heretics and prompted a holy crusade against them. This was one of a number of conflicts on the scale and scope of the Human-Covenant War in Covenant history, though at that time the goal was merely to re-convert the population by force rather than their total extinction. Even so, the conflict cost the Covenant two Arbiters, and remnants of the old order lingered in the shadows of the lesser known stars of the Kusan Massing even after two centuries.

1270s: The reliquary-world Zhoist is discovered by a remote expedition following a lucky trail of breadcrumbs from epistles decoded in prior ages. Even then the world remains very remote and it will be long before effective logistical chains can be established there; for a long time, to study Zhoist was to enter a lifetime post as a hermit far from civilization, as was usually the case with such remote reliquaries that did not surrender their gifts immediately. The planet's residents were essentially an every-growing colony of hermit-monks until the first breakthroughs when the system became a nexus of activity, and even High Charity visited there and toured its immediate neighborhood. Over time, Zhoist would yield some of the most prominent technological developments in Covenant history, which will usher in major changes in the empire's internal composition and politics.

1300s: Differences between the major skeins on the Jiralhanae homeworld Doisac escalate into a global thermonuclear war.

1310, 15th Age of Discovery: the concerted colonization of the Siakar Expanse begins.

1342, Age of Conversion: The Kig-Yar are incorporated into the Covenant. Because of their distributed governing structures (Eayn was divided among several nation-states, while most of their habitats and colonies were likewise independent), the Kig-Yar never truly presented a unified front against the Covenant. Some states surrendered outright, while others resisted for decades.

1433, 16th Age of Doubt: Radiant Zenith, located at the hubstar Chikri in the confluence of favorable slipspace channels, is colonized as a trading and military outpost to facilitate further expansion into the Siakar Expanse.

1502: Based on the prolonged study of Forerunner devices on Zhoist, Covenant priest-scientists perfect the manufacture of slipspace-modulating crystal lattices. This effectively enables the mass production of Borer slipspace drives, which were previously scarce as their modulation cores had to be sourced from scavenged Forerunner materials. The High Council quickly realizes the strategic implications of this, namely, giving them a sorely-needed edge over some regional lords' and splinter societies' own fleets which had grown powerful enough to challenge High Charity itself. All Ministerial fleets are to be equipped with such drives with haste.

17th century (?) The Jiralhanae are first encountered by Covenant peripheral societies in the hegemony's spinward expansion front, making the beginning of centuries of hostilities with Covenant frontier worlds and Jiralhanae raiders.

1710: Mentions of Skar-Idir as a refueling outpost run by Kig-Yar first appear in the records of nearby hub worlds.

1789: The Long Discord, an ages-long period of civil wars and unrest across the Covenant's peripheries, comes to an end with Ministerial fleets crushing the last holdouts of rebellious feudal lords. This, coupled with the reforms that would follow, is later known as the Second Illumination.

1796: The current domain system is established as the Covenant's primary territorial/diocesan structure, considerably streamlining provincial rule by re-centralizing political and military power to a handful of hub worlds per domain. High Charity's bureaucrats become considerably more involved with regional administration, and military power is consolidated to Ministerial armed forces. While often understood as part of the Second Illumination, this reform is also specifically known as the Coadunation.

Consolidation Era (1800 — 2525)
The "modern" era of the Covenant, Consolidation Era marked a considerable albeit gradual re-centralization of power to High Charity and its Ministries, beginning a centuries-long decline of the Sangheili regional aristocracy as a force that was at its height capable of challenging High Charity itself- a decline that continues to this day, further accelerated by the recent consolidation of wealth and power to merchants particularly in the galactic spinward side of the Covenant's former empire.

2070, 20th Age of Discovery: The SDV-class corvette Ardent Prayer is commissioned.

~2070, 20th Age of Discovery: First contact is established with the Cix-Tu.

2135, 21st Age of Discovery: The CAS-class assault carrier Shadow of Intent is commissioned.

2341-2351, 36th Age of Conflict: The Waquish'Dawn launch an invasion of the Holy Ecumene that ends in a stalemate for both sides.

2367, 22nd Age of Doubt: A large Cix-Tu refugee fleet arrives in the Holy Ecumene and begs for asylum. Although a Covenant invasion to dispose the Imperial Directorate never comes to pass, it leads to considerable tensions between the two polities.

2455-2462, 39th Age of Conflict: The 14th Unggoy Rebellion, the bloodiest in recent memory, takes place as a result of the "Infusion Incident".

2477: The Sacking of Ettretritan by the Jiralhanae warlord Charactus spurs the first major response by the Covenant against the Jiralhanae raiders across their spinward-coreside frontier.

2491: Doisac is conquered by the Covenant, finally making the Jiralhanae a full subject species of the Covenant.