Conflict & Reconciliation

The beginnings of the Covenant can be traced as far back as 2200 BCE, at the start of the War of Wills, a violent San’Shyuum civil war on their home planet of Janjur Qom. While most San’Shyuum wanted to worship and revere the Forerunner artifacts scattered on their homeworld without disturbing them, a small sect of San’Shyuum thought it best to exploit any and all Forerunner technology for their benefit. This disagreement exploded into a war between the majority Stoics and the minority Reformists, a fight that lasted around one-hundred years. The conflict only concluded when the Reformists took control of the crashed Forerunner Dreadnought, half-buried in the Janjur Qom surface, and successfully piloted it away from the planet.

For the next thousand years, the San’Shyuum Reformists, which numbered around one-thousand, searched the galaxy for Forerunner artifacts, eventually coming into contact with the Sangheili in 938 BCE . Like the Stoics a thousand years prior, the Sangheili wanted to worship the Forerunner artifacts littering their homeworld and colonies and didn’t appreciate the Reformists who wanted the artifacts to themselves. This sparked another war, the War of Beginnings, which lasted over eighty years, between the Reformists and Sangheili. Eventually, the two sides fought to a draw, signing an alliance known as the Writ of Union which ended the war and formed the Covenant. For the next several centuries, the Covenant grew, building High Charity and incorporating new species into their theocratic union of alien races.

Age of Conversion

The Covenant, an ever-expanding force, flourished for thousands of years, embracing the inclusion of diverse species into its illustrious ranks. Among these additions were the agile Yanme'e and the cunning Kig-Yar. Though initially reluctant to join, the indomitable power of the Covenant prevailed, overpowering these civilizations and compelling them to contribute their unique skills and abilities to the grand tapestry of the empire. In doing so, the Covenant grew in strength, solidifying its dominance across the cosmos.

Doubt & Discovery

In the year 2142, the Covenant made a momentous discovery as they encountered the Unggoy, a race whose feeble nature offered little resistance against the overwhelming might of the Covenant. Swiftly coerced into submission, the Unggoy were forcibly assimilated into the Covenant's ranks, destined to serve as subservient slaves to other species within the Covenant hierarchy. As the Covenant's weakest race, the Unggoy yearned for recognition and respect within their newfound society, eventually sparking the flames of the Unggoy Rebellion. Though the rebellion was swiftly suppressed, it did bestow upon the Grunts an opportunity to earn the admiration of the Sangheili, granting them the chance to assume combat roles and rise above their former station.

The Jiralhanae, known as the Brutes, were the final species to be integrated into the Covenant's diverse tapestry, their inclusion occurring in the year 2492, just prior to the initial encounter with humanity in 2525. Although the Brutes possessed formidable strength, they were in the process of recovering from the ravages of a devastating civil war known as the First Immolation. This cataclysmic conflict regressed the entire Jiralhanae civilization to a pre-industrial state and plagued their homeworld of Doisac with the lingering aftermath of radioactive fallout. Unbeknownst to them at the time, the incorporation of the Brutes into the Covenant's ranks would ultimately precipitate the cataclysmic collapse of the Covenant in the year 2552 during the onset of the Great Schism.