Schismatics

The Schismatics were the Covenant forces who stood in opposition against the Hierarchs and their loyalists in the Great Schism, or more specifically the conflict's early days. This mostly encompassed Sangheili and their allies and/or direct subordinates who remained loyal to their commanders; the term specifically refers to individuals and groups who were belligerents in the hostilities of the Schism. The UNSC tentatively referred to these forces as Covenant Separatists, though this is technically inaccurate as most of the Sangheili had no intentions to secede from the Covenant. Indeed, many of them continued to see themselves as the legitimate members of the alliance; according to this view, the San'Shyuum (or specifically the Prophet of Truth's triumvirate) had voided their membership by betraying their part of the.

It should be noted that the Schismatics are more of a label used for historical convenience than a singular affiliation, as the first days of the Schism were highly confused and few to no factional lines yet existed as such. However, the Sangheili-led forces around High Charity had some level of coordination from the beginning, and some Sangheili commanders of note, such as Xytan Jar 'Wattinree, Thel 'Vadamee and Rtas 'Vadumee attempted to gather Sangheili-led forces under their command with varying success. Out within the Covenant Sphere, the situation was often far less centrally coordinated, and the news of the Schism only reached some domains days, weeks or even months later. While the fall of High Charity created a wave of unrest that swept throughout the Covenant Empire, the immediate consequences of the Schism were not always bloody. However, large parts of the galactic spinward side of the Holy Ecumene in particular continued to see heavy fighting between the Sangheili and Jiralhanae for years to come. In some cases, the local authorities successfully managed to cover up knowledge of the Great Schism for a time, even for several years, though in the long run this would be futile as news spread by traders and migrants and the economic effects of the fall of the holy city reached even the furthest corners of the Covenant Empire.

The Schismatic label is typically only used up until circa early-to-mid 2553, as the death of the Prophet of Truth destroyed the Covenant as a singular polity and thereby eliminated the clear juxtaposition between Hierarch-led Covenant and the Sangheili uprising. Though various San'Shyuum and Jiralhanae leaders claimed succession to the Covenant proper, this was widely contested, and the rise of more defined polities out of both the Schismatics and Covenant loyalists prompted most historians to refer to those polities instead for reasons of clarity. However, some commentators have continued to use the Schismatic label in reference to events set as late as the mid-2560s, typically in the context of the ongoing Sangheili-Jiralhanae conflict. The largest and most continuously stable polity to come out of the Schismatics is the Concord of Reconciliation. Initially encompassing a collection of Sangheili commanders operating in the Human Sphere, the Concord successfully unified many of the provincial polities formed during the Schism, and even reestablished relations with the Covenant's political remnants at the Strewn Shore in the post-war years.