Qikost

Qikost is the smaller of Sanghelios' two moons and one of the oldest and most prominent Sangheili colonies alongside its twin moon, Suban. For much of the Covenant era, Qikost and its orbital facilities have served as the primary spaceports of the Urs system.

Ancient history
Important to Sangheili astronomy, mythology and religion since paleolithic times, Qikost was first colonized in the pre-Skyfall Age of Decadence. Its population always smaller than that of Suban, the Qikostans fared even worse than the peoples of Suban or Sanghelios in the aftermath of the Skyfall. Consequently, many higher technologies were lost and the standard of living fell sharply. Most of the Qikostans welcomed the Sanghelians as liberators, even demigods, after they returned to the moon centuries later. Qikost's reincorporation to the expanding Sanghelian civilization was a far less complicated affair than that of Suban, whose population resisted the conquerors in great numbers. Qikost's population grew considerably during the space age that followed as Sangheili from the homeworld moved in, though large areas of the moon were converted into nature preserves quite early on.

Culture and society
Qikost is a major hub of industry and commerce, with several powerful merchant guilds and industrialist clans calling it home. The Merchants of Qikost are one of the more famous of these guilds. Despite this, most of the moon's surface is protected as wildlife sanctuaries. Sangheili habitation is centered on carefully planned arcology complexes, and most of the heavy industry is located in orbit or in the L4 or L5 Lagrange points. However, a number of solitary monasteries, retreats and manors are still located within the wilderness, including one of the largest spiritual centers and archives of the Ascetics. An array of gravitic sky-lifts connects the moon's surface to its various orbital facilities.

Many habitats on Qikost use massive artificial gravity generators to simulate a gravitational pull more comfortable to the Sangheili, though these are not used in the nature preserves due to their harmful effects on local life. Powerful Sangheili and San'Shyuum often use the preserves as retreats to hunt and meditate. Hunting and navigating on Qikost is an art in its own right due to the low gravity as well as the size of the local fauna, though many Sangheili in particular prefer to use inverse gravitic belts set to increase their weight relative to the ambient gravity.

Because of the moons' diverging pasts, Qikost's population has clashed with that of Suban both ideologically and militarily several times over the course of history, and even at the best of times they remain highly competitive with one another. Despite their differences, the influence of the Covenant ministries forced them moons to deal with the imperial bureaucracy though the unified Sanghelios Forgemasters' Guild as of the Covenant's Consolidation Period.

Qikost was long worshiped as a deity by many early Sangheili cultures. Qikost was often identified as feminine in contrast to Suban's masculine nature. Though these faiths would eventually be cast aside in favor of Forerunner worship, vestiges of them remained in Sangheili folklore, mythology, and figures of speech. It is sometimes referred to as the "Blood-Moon" due to its blue-indigo coloration, and is associated with darkness, bloodshed and death, sometimes being the personification of death itself. (The Sangheili would later find out Qikost is the more hospitable and life-bearing of the two moons, and the irony has not escaped their historical commentators.) She is both the lover and foe of the eternal hero, Suban. The two moons' synchronous orbital dance and their regular reunions in the sky inspired fanciful interpretations of their encounters in ancient cultures.

Topography
Slightly smaller than Suban, Qikost is still large, dense and unusually habitable for the moon of a world Sanghelios' size. Qikost has a molten core and robust magnetic field, though it is less geologically active and much older than its twin moon. Its age and composition suggest Qikost is likely a captured inner planet and perhaps even extra-Ursian in origin, though its prograde motion and orbital synchronicity with Suban offer no hint of this. Due to these properties, some theories hold that Qikost was deliberately maneuvered into Sanghelios' orbit by either the Forerunners or an even older civilization. Qikost spins on its axis in a 2:1 spin-orbit resonance; A Qikostine "day" lasts exactly half a full orbit.

Qikost is more hospitable than its neighboring moon, and houses a complex ecosystem. Sangheili scientists have long agreed that the Qikostan biosphere has been artificially transplanted in primordial times and based on modified Sanghelios stock, albeit having evolved divergently for close to a million years. Vegetation and fauna are able to grow to enormous sizes in Qikost's low gravity. Large portions of the moon's surface are covered in oceans and lakes. Due to the rich concentrations of semiheavy water in Qikost's hydrosphere and its smallest orbital transit cost in the Sanghelios system, the moon has hosted a large deuterium refining industry since the earliest days of Sangheili space travel. This brought Qikost great wealth following the advent of the Sangheili fusion economy during the second space age.