San'Shyuum

The San'Shyuum, traditionally known by humans as Prophets, are a sapient species that acted as the Covenant's main political and religious leaders. Despite their human nickname, only the highest social class of the San'Shyuum were actually known as Prophets, with many occupying lesser ecclesiastic or ministerial positions while the majority were civilians.

The San'Shyuum have long been a species in decline, due to their exceedingly small gene pool caused by their ancestors' historical migration away from their homeworld Janjur Qom aboard the Forerunner keyship Anodyne Spirit. Over the generations, this has led to considerable physical degradation among the species. Though medical technology has been developed to remedy this to an extent, it can ultimately do only so much. The San'Shyuum were by far the least numerous species in the Covenant, with there being fewer than a billion San'Shyuum in the hegemony by its later years, a fraction of the other Covenant species' populations. As most lived on the fallen High Charity, this number may now be as few as 23 million.

Origins
The San'Shyuum hail from the planet Janjur Qom in the Mowas system, evidently located somewhere in or beyond the trailing reaches of the Orion Arm. Traditionally, the planet is assumed to have been destroyed by the local star's supernova some time after the Covenant's formation, with the Reformist San'Shyuum claiming to have fled to escape their world's impending doom. As Janjur Qom's location is lost from any known star charts, this may be impossible to verify. Some suspected that the early San'Shyuum lied about the destruction of their homeworld to cover up inconvenient questions about their origins and possibly build up the importance of High Charity as their new homeworld, but this too is difficult to confirm. However, it is certainly unlikely that the Forerunners would have re-seeded the San'Shyuum in a system whose star was about to go supernova within the next 100,000 years, as the star's state would have been quite apparent to them. Even if untrue, it is also possible that over the generations, later generations of Reformists came to believe the narrative their ancestors had told them about their origins.

The San'Shyuum maintain that they first achieved a starfaring status prior to the activation of the Halo Array, and had regular dealings with the Forerunners in their prime. Evidence of this in their system was abundant: the most overt being the enormous keyship partly embedded in the crust of Janjur Qom. As they developed astronomy, they found that one of their system's further-out celestial bodies was no planetoid at all, but an enormous derelict starship - one they assumed had been created by the same civilization that built the enormous vessel upon their world. Believing the vessels to be of divine origin, the early San'Shyuum began to worship the ships' makers—the Forerunner—as gods. The mushroom shape of the orbiting vessel, which the Reformist San'Shyuum would later find out had been called the Deep Reverence, left a lasting impression on the San'Shyuum; the holy city of High Charity itself would later be loosely modeled in its image. Other irregularities existed around the system: an enormous array of small artificial constructs, previously thought to be asteroids, orbiting at several AU outward from Janjur Qom. Further evidence still of past San'Shyuum glory was the Mowas system's second planet, Quam Awat, which clearly showed signs of ancient habitation. This led to many groups of San'Shyuum (most notably those living in visible distance of the colossal keyship) developing a cultural narrative of themselves as the Forerunner-Gods' chosen people, ones destined to reclaim the ancient civilization's legacy.

The San'Shyuum evolved from arboreal, primate-like organisms. They subsisted on a primarily herbivorous diet of various fruits, seeds and berries, supplemented with insects, worms and seafood. As the San'Shyuum brain developed, animal-based food became more common due to its high energy density. Primitive San'Shyuum mainly inhabited the large jungles of Janjur Qom; though they ventured on land more than their sub-sapient ancestors, they never wandered far from the trees, which remained an important source of food as well as a refuge from land-based predators. Their early communities were likewise tree-based, which may have contributed to their preference of dwelling in tall towers and enjoying sweeping vistas.

Rather than small hunter-gatherer tribes, the proto-San'Shyuum gathered in large "herds" or confederations of multiple tribes that developed well-defined social hierarchies and stable institutions fairly early on. As with humanity, the development of organized civilization began with agriculture, which quickly led to the creation of the first large civilizations with sophisticated cultures, religions and well-refined farming techniques. The San'Shyuum meta-civilization plateaued at this stage for several millennia, with a handful of large, very stable and culturally sophisticated preindustrial empires dominating much of Janjur Qom's continents. This was the "golden age" of San'Shyuum philosophy, culture and astronomy. Once the status quo changed, advancement happened rapidly. A cascade of rapid innovations led to an Industrial Revolution and an Atomic Age civilization within less than two centuries.

The rapid development of global telecommunications ensured the propagation of ideas and culture, and within a few short decades — and after a pair of large-scale wars — much of Janjur Qom was under a relatively stable and unified socio-political structure. Not long afterward, the radical Reformist faction arose to challenge the status quo, sparking the War of Wills. The Reformists managed to fortify themselves into the Forerunner Dreadnought, and the Stoics could do little against them out of fear of damaging the holy vessel. Fearing that the Stoics may soon deploy biological weapons against them, the Reformists eventually made the decision to launch the keyship. Even though the ancient ship's nose and two of its prongs were buried in the very bedrock, the keyship's engines were mighty enough to forcibly dislodge the ship and a large chunk of the planet with it, with parts of the ship still embedded as it lifted off, carving an enormous scar into the planet's face in the process. Almost immediately, the crater flooded, becoming a new sea later known as the Great Apothtea.

The fate of Janjur Qom
In the wake of the War of Wills and the ecological disaster the Dreadnought's launch brought about, many of the old institutions and states on Janjur Qom collapsed, were overthrown or eventually conquered in a series of internecine wars. The keyship's departure and the Reformist victory had wrought havoc on the legitimacy of the San'Shyuum religion, and the Stoic leadership, and a secularization movement took hold- one that despised the very idea of religion as something that had caused the current calamity. From the ashes of that conflict arose the Interim Preparatory Authority: a militaristic and totalitarian world government built on all-encompassing paranoia of a Reformist return. Their push for global rearmament yielded major technological advances in the early centuries as the new world state struggled to rebuild, and within a couple of centuries Janjur Qom's San'Shyuum were a spacefaring society.

As generation after generation passed, and the Reformists weren't coming back, more and more people began to question the necessity of the supposed emergency government, which kept repeating its propaganda about the Reformist threat to stay in power. But by that point it had entrenched itself so far it was hesitant to give up its power. When that society discovered slipspace travel, dissident factions fled into deep space, and maybe formed societies of their own. Perhaps some even came across other civilizations. Less than a millennium after its creation, the Interim Preparatory Authority lost its momentum, stagnated, and balkanized following a series of civil wars.

The Covenant
There is a persistent rumor that, some time after the Writ of Union, the San'Shyuum leadership dispatched a scouting mission to Janjur Qom. It never reported back. A second scout ship was sent, and it barely escaped, revealing the current state of the post-Stoic civilization. Going up against such a force would require a full-scale war, which would reveal the San'Shyuum's deception about their homeworld to the public. So they covered it up, wiped all records, and erased Janjur Qom from navigation charts. Everything went on as usual, while the San'Shyuum leaders silently feared the Stoic empire might one day rise to challenge the Covenant.

Great Schism
The years of the Great Schism were not kind to the San'Shyuum. They have always been the least populous species in the Covenant, and the Great Schism may have reduced their total population to as few as 20 million individuals. A substantial number of San'Shyuum perished during the Fall of High Charity and in the various battles of the Great Schism. Great San'Shyuum families and politicians who could secure themselves places on escape ships, or used their own where possible. Many returned to the Holy Ecumene. The greatest concentration of surviving San'Shyuum is probably found at the Strewn Shore, though most are civilians of comparatively low status.

The San'Shyuum at large were extremely fearful of retribution from the Schismatics, with stories circulating of bureaucrats and administrators being horribly butchered by vengeful Sangheili subjects. As a result, most San'Shyuum were wary of the Sangheili at best. Exceptions to this did occur, however, with one prominent example being the Strewn Shore and the rulings of the early Schism Councils under the Concord of Reconciliation. Although the actions of the last Hierarchs and all those who followed them were condemned in strongest possible terms, San'Shyuum who sided with the Schismatics and denounced the High Prophet of Truth would be regarded as officially exonerated.

A large number of San'Shyuum Loyalists continued to support the Jiralhanae's claim to legitimacy for much of the continuing Schism, though as the tide of the war turned in the Concord's favor, many former Truth loyalists would begin to defect or flee to parts unknown. Those who did not would become figureheads in the Eternal Covenant and its various fiefdoms. It is rumored that a large number of Truth's collaborators had managed to escape High Charity in a separate ship or flotilla during the first days of the Great Schism, though as no such fleet has ever been located, these rumors remain unsubstantiated and many now dismiss them as nothing more than a myth. A small number of those who supported the Prophet of Truth boarded the Forerunner Keyship, and were subsequently perished when Installation 08 activated above the Ark.

Some San'Shyuum retained good relations with Sangheili, while others found work in Sangheili-predominated factions for more utilitarian reasons. Although much of the Covenant's centralized economy had crashed with the hegemony's fragmentation, the San'Shyuum's privileged status meant that they still owned objects considered highly valuable for trade, and various warlords funded their armies by either raiding their ships or ransoming hostages. More importantly, their engineers were the only ones that knew how to build and operate the advanced technologies available to the Ministries, and even minor politicians could offer secrets that grant some advantage to their captors. Many factions such as the Concord promised amnesty for San'Shyuum in hopes of attracting individuals with specific skills, which were in short supply in the wake of the fall of High Charity.

A number of San'Shyuum politicians even managed to retain a degree of power in minor polities and domains, albeit usually as figureheads. A prominent example of this is the True Communion, which retains a San'Shyuum representation in its government. However, this also led to many prominent San'Shyuum bureaucrats being killed in what the Covenant call "The many games of Goshin-Kir". Goshin-Kir is a board game, similar in concept to chess but much different in the particulars. It is a game of maneuver, with each side trying to pin down and expose the other side's regent. During the Great Schism, thousands of new movements vied for dominance in their own corner of the Holy Ecumene. Hundreds of different interpretations of the faith fought with thousands of nascent political organizations. The fashionable way to get attention was to find a San'Shyuum cleric and prop him up as a mouthpiece. The fashionable way to get one up over the opposition was to assassinate that mouthpiece and denounce him for a laundry list of crimes and heresy. These denunciations often ended with the pun "He claimed to speak the truth, but instead he spoke like Truth".

Biology
Of the Covenant species, the San'Shyuum most resemble humans, with a mammal-like biology, relatively similar digestive and reproductive systems and arboreal ancestry, though the San'Shyuum are evolutionarily closer to their tree-dwelling ancestors than humans are to theirs. Prior to the species' regression resulting from the Reformists' self-inflicted genetic bottleneck, healthy San'Shyuum are estimated to have been slightly below human physiological capability on average, with their homeworld having a gravity of just under 1g. Today, they are much more frail than humans or any of the major Covenant species.

San'Shyuum mature slowly but also live long lives. After a long gestation period lasting about 18 months, their childhoods last up until their twenties, and they typically reach reproductive maturity by 30–35 years of age. This slow development is hypothesized to be due to their complex brains, which continue to grow and develop for much of their lives even as the body withers, though only up to a point. Even today, many younger San'Shyuum (aged ~45 and below) are able to remain relatively fit, though physical deterioration and senescence begin to set in earlier and earlier with each new generation. Life extension therapies alleviate this only to some extent, and even with prolonged lifespans and gene therapies, most San'Shyuum are born with various handicaps and congenital illnesses which slowly cripple them as they age.

As a result, few San'Shyuum past forty years of age are able to walk unaided in standard gravity, and use gravitic aids such as antigrav belts as both a safety measure due to their brittle bones and to be more comfortable overall. While the San'Shyuum do undeniably experience early senescence, part of their use of gravitic aid also has to do with culture and lifestyle. With regular exercise, most San'Shyuum would be able to remain relatively fit for decades longer, but the sedentary and comfortable lives they usually lead result in few taking the extra effort. Gravitic assist is so ingrained in San'Shyuum culture that an individual past fifty refusing to use a gravity belt or chair might be regarded as showing off by their peers; one's first antigravity chair and subsequent upgrades are regarded as much akin to expected initiation rites for ministry staffers and other bureaucrats. The chairs (or thrones) also act as status symbols for their users and are treated much like a piece of clothing, with lavish decoration and additional features. Not all San'Shyuum use gravity chairs, however, and many outside the ministerial bureaucracy only employ belts and regular vehicles for mobility. Gravitic aid is required if a San'Shyuum wishes to enter a high-gravity environment, though them doing so is rare to begin with. In their private estates, San'Shyuum frequently turn the gravity to much lower than standard, with elder San'Shyuum being most comfortable at fractions of a g.

The San'Shyuum's necks grow longer with age. Modern San'Shyuum begin to hunch over since young adulthood. On ancient, healthy San'Shyuum, this process would only happen with senescence.

The San'Shyuum have long had an interest in life-extension technologies. Even bio-augmentation and genetic engineering are occasionally contemplated to revitalize the species' germline. However, radical bioengineering efforts do not generally enjoy widespread acceptance out of the fear that they might instead worsen the species' predicament. Out of one of these efforts would come the Prelates, an augmented class of field commanders and supersoldiers co-opted by the Prophet of Truth into his plans to reform the Covenant under a far tighter San'Shyuum control. Ultimately, however, the Prelates were a shortsighted project at best as their augmentations did little to improve the species overall, merely augmenting the physical capabilities of individuals. Even as some of their bio-augmentations were heritable, early experiments showed that the results were unstable at best in their offspring. It is considered a great irony that the most physically fit San'Shyuum specimens, something coveted by the species for ages, offer no more solutions as to their future than baseline San'Shyuum.

Though most species have to some degree unique palates and dietary needs, the San'Shyuum have a reputation among the Covenant species as picky eaters. Although part of this is no doubt cultural, a byproduct of their upper-class lives, it also has a biological component. Due to their specific biochemistry and weakened immune systems, they cannot safely eat the food of other species. Their taste receptors are also highly sensitive for evolutionary reasons. The San'Shyuum's native biome in Janjur Qom's jungles was filled with poisonous and semi-poisonous flora and fauna, some of which were indistinguishable from foods that were safe to eat. This led to the animal life developing a high sensitivity to subtle differences in food taste, smell and texture. Accordingly, San'Shyuum culinary culture is both highly specific and rich.

Psychology
The San'Shyuum's position at the Covenant's leadership is not entirely arbitrary. The species is highly intelligent and likely fairly unique among the currently active species in their symbolic and abstract thinking capabilities, along with an innate aptitude for grasping complex social relations and various large-scale systemic phenomena. Their Dunbar's number equivalent has been estimated to be much higher than on humans and many other species, perhaps being as high as 1,000. Their linguistic, mathematical and spatial abilities are also very developed. The San'Shyuum generally make excellent administrators, philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, physicists, theologians, scholars, bankers, anything that requires complex systemic thinking. By human standards, median San'Shyuum intelligence is estimated at around 140 on the classical IQ scale; prior to the species' long decline, it was likely much higher. This contributed to their rise as the Covenant's overall leaders, as the Sangheili would concede that the San'Shyuum were demonstrably more gifted at political matters. Unfortunately, this also enables them to use these natural talents for own their ends by manipulation and scheming, though the San'Shyuum's modern reputation as schemers largely stems from the malign activities of the Prophet of Truth and his associates along with a small handful of notorious historical examples.

Culture
Modern San'Shyuum culture enshrines vitality, fertility and youthfulness, as those things are in short supply among the species. Despite this, the species is overwhelmingly gerontocratic overall, with age generally (if not always) corresponding to a higher political and religious position. Part of this is due to the fact their brains keep growing as they age, though this effect may have been exaggerated.

The San'Shyuum are relatively egalitarian in terms of gender roles, though there is still a clear trend toward males in high leadership positions. Part of this is due to the species' gene-pool issues and eugenic policies, meaning that fertile females near-universally spend their prime years in procreation-related duties. Even as they may be able to access political and religious posts with age, male San'Shyuum will always be many steps ahead of them. Political careers are a common option for individuals on the Roll of Celibates, though barren or genetically unfit females in particular face widespread prejudice from other San'Shyuum. As a result, they are more likely to become monastics in various holy orders rather than being part of the mainline clergy.

Social hierarchy
While Prophets and religious officials only small portion of population, the San'Shyuum by default occupy the highest tiers of the Covenant's byzantine caste system, with civilian and low-ranking San'Shyuum roughly corresponding to the Sangheili equivalents. Most adult San'Shyuum civilians outside the hierarchy also occupied some form of social or religious role, though these were often mere sinecures more akin to hobbies the San'Shyuum took upon themselves to keep themselves stimulated.

High-ranking San'Shyuum such as Minor Prophets, Ministers or Minor Ministers were known as legates when assigned to a Covenant fleet or some other military formation. Legates served in a religious and political advisory capacity, though in practice they had considerable power over the campaigns carried out by the fleets to which they were assigned.

High Ecclesiastics
 * High Prophets
 * Minor Prophets
 * Cardinals
 * Ministers
 * Vice Ministers
 * Minor Ministers
 * Consultors
 * Definitors
 * Postulators
 * Ministry staffers / Clerics

Ordinaries
 * Archbishops / Archimandrites
 * Bishops
 * Provisors / Exarchs
 * Palatines
 * Prelates
 * Scholasters
 * Archpriests
 * Priests & Celebrants
 * Almoners
 * Stewards / Servers / Initiates

Judiciary
 * Senior Adjudicators
 * Adjudicators
 * Notaries

Specialists
 * Knowledge-priests / Discovery-priests
 * Techaries / Apotecharies / Nanotecharies / Cryptotecharies
 * Chirurgeons
 * Scribes / Annalists / Chroniclers / Archivists

Monastics
 * Hieromonks (e.g. Philologists)
 * Periti
 * Abbots / Abbesses
 * Canons / Canonesses
 * Ruminants
 * Mendicants

Technology
By the time of the Reformists' departure, the San'Shyuum civilization on Janjur Qom achieved a late Tier 5/early Tier 4 level of technology, roughly equivalent to that of Earth's 1940s-1960s with the largest difference being the San'Shyuum's comparatively advanced communications networks, comparable to the Internet of 1980s-1990s. The "information explosion" was extremely quick, going from semaphores to telephones to instant global information transfer within less than a century. The San'Shyuum of this time had fission power, rudimentary communication satellites, rocket-powered engines and various medical conveniences. Their home system's various irregular features prompted the San'Shyuum to develop advanced telescopes and astronomy fairly early on as well in order to study the myriad "heavenly enigmas". Though missions to the Deep Reverence and the other planets, including the moon Plaon and the planet Quam Awat had been planned, trans-orbital spaceflight had not yet been attempted before the Reformists' flight. Little can be guessed at as to how the planetary civilization developed since.

After their escape from Janjur Qom, the San'Shyuum Reformists developed their own divergent technological base. With their limited resources, expertise, and existing technology, the Reformists lost the ability to manufacture some of the technologies of their homeworld. While this meant they relied increasingly on the Keyship's own systems for their needs, they eventually regained the ability to manufacture some basic technologies such as computers and fission reactors. From what can be gleaned of those times, their technological base was extremely mismatched, with many Tier-5 technologies such as CRT displays and mechanical control interfaces juxtaposed with looted Forerunner devices eons ahead. Additionally, they lacked many supporting basic technologies that normally emerge as a byproduct of natural technological advancement. As the Reformist elite lived on the Keyship, which already provided most basic amenities, so there was little incentive to develop all but the most essential technologies for those living on habitat-ships outside it. Even with their limited technological base, the Reformists sought to emulate the Forerunners as they began to build ships of their own. The contact-era Sangheili saw this as another blasphemy, a mockery of sacred Forerunner technology; the Sangheili themselves believed that the Forerunners were to be emulated, but not directly copied, as each species should reach enlightenment in their own ways.