Whether you’re following Master Chief and the United Nations Space Command (UNSC)’s fight against the Covenant by watching the Halo TV series or playing the Halo games in order, you might be wondering what’s the deal with the religious alien hegemony that threatens humanity. We’ve collected the main points of their history here to give you a quick rundown of who they are and what their goals are.
While much of Halo’s iconography comes from the UNSC, Halo vehicles and troops, and, more importantly, the Spartans (not just Master Chief), the Covenant might be one of the most unique hostile alien factions ever conceived for a sci-fi story. The fact that the Halo franchise has been quite successful with novels and comic books definitely helped flesh out its universe. However, the games did a great job on their own by painting a complex picture of the big extraterrestrial menace.
Once you’ve read this article and know your enemy, grab your battle rifle and head on over to our list of the Halo games, ranked worst to best. While you’re in that “war against mankind” realm, it kinda feels imperative to take a look at the best alien invasion movies of all time and the best alien invasion games of all time too. Can’t be too prepared!
Warning: Spoilers from this point onwards for most of the Halo game series.
Halo’s Covenant: Who are they?
The Covenant, also referred to as the Covenant Empire or Hegemony, was a gigantic religious faction comprised of multiple alien species that controlled most of the Orion Arm in the Milky Way Galaxy for thousands of years.
It originally started as an alliance between the San’Shyuum (Prophets) and the Sangheili (Elites), but later expanded to “assimilate” other species including the Huragok (Engineers), Mgalekgolo (Hunters), Unggoy (Grunts), Kig-Yar (Jackals), Yanme’e (Drones), and Jiralhanae (Brutes).
All were united in the ardent worship of what remained of the ancient Forerunners’ leftover technology and artifacts. Despite initial conflicts due to disagreements about how to interact with Forerunner relics, the Covenant eventually became an unstoppable force across the Orion Arm.
The San’Shyuum and Sangheili, the founders of the Hegemony, governed the other species that they saw as inferior and disposable. The massive theocratic cultural hegemony eventually began chasing the mission of achieving transcendence through the Great Journey which would be triggered by the Halo rings (which they called the Sacred Rings).
Halo’s Covenant: War against the UNSC
In the year 2525, humanity first encountered the Covenant on the planet Harvest. Many leaders thought the species would be a fine addition to the hegemony, but the Hierarchs (Truth, Mercy, and Regret) knew of humanity’s status as the Forerunners’ descendants and chosen inheritors. Since that information leaking would likely cause the Covenant to descend into chaos and make the San’Shyuum lose their personal power, they declared that humanity (the prophesized Reclaimers) were to be exterminated.
After decades of war, some Sangheili began to question why humanity wasn’t offered a chance to join the Covenant, especially when they’d proven surprisingly determined and hard to defeat, largely due to their Spartans supersoldiers. Meanwhile, break-off factions also started to rebel, the main one being the Banished, led by a Jiralhanae stalker named Atriox. They disagreed with the Prophets’ rule, but still waged war against humans.
The UNSC suffered a major blow in 2552, when the stronghold planet of Reach fell to the Covenant. However, a single vessel named the Pillar of Autumn escaped battle to one of the seven Halo rings the Hegemony was after. Fighting on the ring-world followed, with Spartan-II John-117 (Master Chief) aka “The Demon” leading the remaining UNSC forces; they secured victory by destroying the ring after they became aware of the Covenant’s plans.
The Supreme Commander of the fleet present during the first Halo battle, the Sangheili Thel ‘Vadam, was initially branded a heretic for his failure to save the ring. However, Thel ‘Vadam later became an Arbiter (the highest possible rank for his species) and was tasked with cleaning out heretics to prove his loyalty.
At the same time, the High Prophet of Regret stumbled upon the human homeworld of Earth and escaped by making a slipspace jump. They were followed by the UNSC frigate In Amber Clad, the slipspace leading both parties to a second Halo ring. Master Chief ended Regret’s life and managed to shut down the second ring.
Following the recent unreliability and rumors of heresy, the remaining Hierarchs replaced the Sangheili with the Jiralhanae as their military leaders. This led to the Sangheili revolting once they were targeted by the Jiralhanae, and so the Great Schism began.
Meanwhile, the UNSC frigate In Amber Clad, now controlled by the Flood (the organic threat the Forerunners tried to erase with Halo rings and led to their extinction) crashed into the moving holy city of High Charity, a place consumed by chaos and the relentless Flood.
The Prophet of Mercy was killed during this attack, and Truth escaped to Earth. The new conflict, plus the many losses suffered by both sides, led to the Sangheili and humanity forming a tentative alliance to stop the Jiralhanae, Truth’s forces, and the Flood. On Earth, Truth discovered a Forerunner construction located in Kenya that generated a portal to the Ark installation, a giant installation located outside the galaxy that could activate all of the Halo rings at once.
Truth barricaded himself inside the Citadel, a control center of the Halo rings, but the joint UNSC and Sangheili forces broke through the Covenant’s defenses alongside the Flood-infected High Charity. John-117 and the Arbiter found and killed Truth, and then deactivated the rings.
Following the events at the Ark, the Covenant dissolved. The San’Shyuum went into hiding, other species scattered, and a formal alliance between the humans and the Sangheili was established. There was, however, the problem of splinter factions and the Banished repeatedly striking against the Sangheili and UNSC, trying to complete the work left undone by the late Covenant.
Halo’s Covenant: The Hegemony’s legacy
Most of the Jiralhanae kept opposing the Sangheili, but some chose to serve as laborers under them. The post-Covenant power vacuum allowed the Banished to amass a rather sizable degree of control. This would go on to cause many problems for both the Sangheili and the UNSC, who were busy shutting down other major threats, such as the rogue AI Cortana.
Meanwhile, Thel ‘Vadam, former Arbiter, restored the pre-Covenant government as the Swords of Sanghelios, which was based on their ancient homeworld. This led to more fights amongst their own ranks over their faith and how to move forward.
Other former member races of the Covenant – those who didn’t want to be part of more interstellar affairs – returned to their respective homeworlds or vanished into unknown space. There were, however, many members of the former Covenant who looked for asylum on Earth.
Later conflicts over the Halo rings and Forerunner tech would be started by Atriox’s enduring Banished. They dealt substantial blows to UNSC forces, including John-117, by becoming experts in guerrilla warfare. Atriox’s Banished also managed to free a being called the Harbinger from imprisonment. This creature is a member of another ancient species capable of surviving the firing of the Halo Array, who had been incarcerated by the extinct Forerunners.
This is where the current video game timeline ends with the finale of Halo Infinite. It’s an ongoing conflict and storyline, but we’ll need to wait for the next installment for more info.
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