Covenant (disambiguation)

The Covenant is a religious group of multiple species. They worship Forerunners, builders of the Halo Rings.

Species

The Covenant include many species:

History

The current events in Halo 2 occur during the Ninth Age of Reclamation. UNSC researchers are unsure how the Covenant record time, but seven distinct ages have been collected. It's uncertain if these names are reused or if, for instance, there have been eight other ages of reclamation in the past. (Note: the arrangement and meaning of the ages is only speculation)

The Ages of the Covenant

Little is known about their history except that the ancestors of the Prophets and Elites waged war on each other, but they formed the Covenant after finding evidence of the Forerunners and their Great Journey.

One of the leading theories is that the Age of Abandonment was the time when the Forerunners left the Prophets and Elites to embark on the Great Journey.

Elites and the Prophets began fighting each other in the Age of Conflict. It is not yet known why this war started.

In the Age of Discovery, the Prophets discovered the remains of the Forerunner technology, maybe with the help of the Engineers.

During the 1st Age of Reconciliation, the Prophets shared the information learnt about the forerunners with the Elites. The Elites and the Prophets made a truce to unite to form the Covenant with the Elites being promised salvation in exchange for their military services and protection. Presumably, this is when the Covenant Writ of Union was created.

The Age of Conversion was when the Elites and the Prophets started to conscript other races (such as when they "tamed" Hunters) into the Covenant through religious conversion or force.

The Covenant began to doubt the word of the Prophets during the Age of Doubt, due to their fruitlessness of their search for the rings (such as Alpha 04 and Delta (05) Halo) or any other means to begin The Great Journey. The Grunt Rebellion probably occurred during this span of time.

Halo and Halo 2 take place during the 9th Age of Reclamation. It is often speculated that this is a reference to the name that the Monitors give to humans: Reclaimers. Others, especially the Elites, wonder why the humans, worthy opponents that have proven themselves in battle many times, were not given the opportunity to join the Covenant. Some within the Covenant even wonder what bad thing the humans have done to be an "affront" to the gods. This fact might be linked with humans presumably being the reclaimers, and not any of the Covenant races. It seems that the Prophets are particularly unhappy with this fact, given their liberal use of the word "Demon" in reference to the Master Chief.

Taming of the Hunters

The Taming Of the Hunters is a fictional event in the Halo Series that is mentioned in the game Halo 2. The Taming of the Hunters is one of the early tasks of the Arbiter. The Arbiter no doubt died during this task. The ground troops of the Covenant were not able to defeat the Hunters on the planet surface, and the Hunters were only convinced to join the Covenant after being threatened with a bombing (glassing) by the Covenant which would have totally destroyed the planet. As a result Hunter's are deeply respectful of the Elites and choose to side with them during the Covenant Civil War.

Grunt Rebellion

Main article: Grunt Rebellion

The Grunt Rebellion was an event dangerous enough to the Covenant that an Arbiter had to be created to combat it. Like all the other Arbiters, it is assumed that the Arbiter at the time died in the course of the Rebellion. It involved the smallest and most common form of the Covenant, the Grunts, rebelling against the rest of the Covenant. It is however unknown as to why the rebellion took place.

Because the majority of the warriors and workers of the Covenant appear to be these 5 foot tall aliens, this event would have been extremely hard to deal with.

Ninth Age of Reclamation

The Ninth Age occurred between the Earth years 2525 and the current year, 2552. Thus far, this age has been tumultuous for the Covenant, and has featured a war with humanity, the unleashings of the Flood, and a civil war simultaneously.

When the Covenant first came into contact with Humanity at the planet [[Harvest], they waged a twenty-five year religious war that destroyed almost every world colonized by humans. Even the battles won by the UNSC's advanced Spartan soldiers were unable to slow the advance of the Covenant.

Earth remained undiscovered in part because of the Cole Protocol, a standing order by UNSC Admiral Cole, that directed retreating UNSC ships not chart a direct course back to Earth or other population centers in case the Covenant were able to follow. In fact, ships were required to self-destruct rather than lead the Covenant to Earth. This decision was apparently successful and the Covenant did not discover Earth until the events of Halo: First Strike, and even then it turned out that the Covenant had not actually located the human homeworld, but apparently happened upon it by chance and were unaware that it was populated by the majority of humanity.

When the Prophet of Regret and his fleet arrive at Earth, they appear to be surprised that humanity is on Earth. This gives us a clue that, perhaps, they came to Earth for other reasons.

The Human War, combined with the subsequent and simultaneous Civil War, the threat of Heretic forces, and the Master Chief's infiltration of and the Flood invasion of High Charity splintered the Covenant into heretic/separtist/etc. and loyalist forces. The High Prophets of Mercy and Regret, Tartarus, and many of the Councilors have been killed, leaving the Covenant in a precarious position.

The Prophet of Regret is speculated to have traveled to Earth in search of the Ark, a structure built by the Foreruners to activate installations 01-07. The Ark is thought to be located near New Mombasa, as observed in the Halo 3 trailer.