Heliolance

The heliolance is an arcane polearm that was widely used during the Covenant's High Antiquity period.

History
Rising to prominence in the Covenant's High Antiquity period, during the so-called "golden age of melee weapons", the heliolance is just one of many examples of weapons developed and employed by the hegemony in this era. The emergence of energy shielding technology effectively hard-countered the existing standards of projectile weaponry employed by the Sangheili, resulting in artisans of the Covenant beginning to search for ways to adequately counter this development. In this era, plasma weapons were large and bulky, taking the role of crew-served emplacements with short ranges and high power consumption requirements. Shielding technology of the era was crude by modern standards, taking the form of a single generator which cast a shield to nearby personnel - akin to the overshield boosts later employed by the Huragok.

This peculiar series of developments led to infantry beginning to prefer tight formations to allow troops to take advantage of a single generator - usually carried by a designated shield-bearer. While ranged weapons were ineffective against energy shields, experiments into successfully using a melee weapon to contain magnetic sheaths of plasma proved promising. Some infantry units began adopting polearms as weapons, inspired by the fighting units of the Sangheili's own history - re-designed to incorporate new advances in military technology.

These units - named "Lances" after the weapons they organized themselves around, operated at a very unique niche in the militaries of the Covenant of the era - incorporating "lance" units to support and protect a weapons unit of heavy weaponry. These strategies proved themselves successful, with a central weapons company armed with crew-served plasma weapons and explosive weapons able to fight off regular attackers and heavier opponents such as vehicles, while Lance units served to protect the weapons unit from shielded infantry attackers.

These dynamics were constantly evolving throughout the High Antiquity period - the proliferation of energy shield technology meant that on some fronts, ministerial forces equipped with energy shields were practically unopposed by their under-armed opponents. For the Sangheili, this style of warfare was welcomed as a return to the martial traditions of old, and much of their culture pivoted to combine aspects of their history with the aesthetics of the Covenant - ultimately culminating in the development of the energy sword - a revitalization of older martial (if now largely ceremonial) traditions with a new practical battlefield purpose. Later developments saw energy shielding technology develop in new directions, including arm-mounted point-defense gauntlets.

The increasing incorporation of the Unggoy into Covenant society in this time saw Unggoy levy units increasingly employed to serve in the Lance units, and a trend toward the end of this "golden age" saw the heliolance and its peers take a central role in the First Illumination.

However, as the decades rolled on, offensive power began to catch up with defensive power, and the heliolance was slowly made redundant by newer styles of ranged plasma weaponry. Weaponry of this era began to experiment with combining the plasma weapon technologies of the emerging weapon field with those of lances to little success, and eventually they were once again retired. Nonetheless, the heliolance remains a staple in the culture of the Sangheili to this day - an iconic symbol of the First Illumination and the Covenant's "golden age" in general. Notably, their influence can still be seen in the staves of the honor guard, largely a ceremonial holdover from the High Antiquity era. Still, even to this day, a handful of Sangheili clans such as the House of Juran still train their guards in the use of energy lances that succeeded them.