Covenant religion

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This article is about The Covenant religion, also known as "The Great Journey". For the Halo 2 level, see H2:The Great Journey.

The mark of the Great Journey, the defining symbol of the religion and the Covenant empire as a whole.

"Every member of the Covenant shall walk the Path. None will be left behind when our Great Journey begins! That is the Prophets' age-old promise, and it shall be fulfilled!"

— The High Prophet of Regret

The Covenant religion, based upon the worship of the ancient race of beings known as the Forerunners. The Covenant commonly referred to the religion itself as the Great Journey and its teachings as the Path.

Background

The High Prophet of Truth activates the Halo Rings from the Ark.

According to the Covenant religion, the Forerunners, a race of enlightened beings regarded as nearly omniscient and all-powerful, discovered a way to transcend the physical world and became divine gods by activating the Halos, or "Sacred Rings" as referred to by members of the Covenant. The Halos supposedly uplifted the Forerunners into transsentience, but left all lesser, unworthy races behind. The Covenant believed themselves to be the chosen inheritors of the Forerunners, and sought to reclaim the "gifts" they left behind, in most cases lost technology. Their ultimate goal was to locate and activate the Halo installations. In doing so, it was believed that all faithful adherents to the Covenant religion would be uplifted as the Forerunners were, following them on a Great Journey resulting in godhood. This belief was shared, with varying degrees of sincerity, amongst all the Covenant's client races.

History

Reformists and Stoics

What would eventually become the Covenant religion was first practiced on Janjur Qom, the San'Shyuum homeworld. Janjur Qom was home to two influential factions, the Stoics and the Reformists. Although both factions believed in the prophecy of ascendancy and the holiness of artifacts left behind by their gods, they held different views on how the religion should be practiced; the Reformists believed that the religion could spread throughout the galaxy through travel in their lords' ship—a Forerunner Keyship that had reseeded Janjur Qom with San'Shyuum millennia earlier, unbeknownst to the populace—but the Stoics viewed their actions as desecrating the memory of the Forerunners. This initiated the San'Shyuum Schism, a conflict which resulted in the defeat of the Stoics. The Reformists used the Keyship to leave Janjur Qom, traveling through the stars in search of more Forerunner Relics.

Conflict and spread

While the exact date remains unrecorded, the Ages of Conflict spanned thousands of years and were a significant period in the spreading of what started out as solely the San'Shyuum's Faith (and by extension, their empire). In the First Age of Conflict, the San'Shyuum Reformists eventually encountered a saurian species known as the Sangheili. This alien race had developed a religion based on the worship of Forerunner deities independently of the San'Shyuum. However, while the two species shared similar religious beliefs, the Sangheili believed that tampering with the artifacts of their gods was an unforgivable offense. Their first contact soon led to the San'Shyuum-Sangheili War. The war ended with the submission of the Sangheili and the formation of a new empire through the Writ of Union. The Sangheili would take the role as the warriors, with the San'Shyuum acting as their superiors in matters of technology and faith, advising their allies on how best to achieve the Great Journey.

Development and rebellion

Sesa 'Refumee, the leader of the Heretics with 343 Guilty Spark at his side.

"Ask the Oracle about Halo… how they would sacrifice us all for nothing!"

— Sesa 'Refumee to the Arbiter.

The development of the Covenant religion took place across seven ages; the Age of Abandonment, Ages of Conflict, Age of Reconciliation, Age of Discovery, Age of Conversion, Ages of Doubt and the Ages of Reclamation. These ages saw the expansion of the Empire's power and the belief in the Great Journey throughout its new vassal races. In 1342, the Kig-Yar became the first race to be converted as a whole to the Covenant religion (though most were influenced by monetary rewards granted by the San'Shyuum). Next, in 2142, came the Unggoy. The Jiralhanae, in 2492, were the last species to be fully integrated into the Covenant Empire, and thus their religion.

The Covenant religion was not without internal conflicts and heretical movements, as evidenced by several conflicts throughout Covenant history such as the Struggle for Ideological Purity. In the final years of the Covenant Empire's rule, an irreligious splinter group known as the Banished split off from the Covenant out of a lack of commitment to the hegemony's cause. Later, a heretic uprising on Threshold, near Alpha Halo, was born as a result of 343 Guilty Spark revealing the truth about the Halos to