Canon

Great Immolation

From Halopedia, the Halo wiki

Great Immolation

Date:

Shortly before 2492[1]

Location:

Doisac, Oth Sonin system[2]

Outcome:

Collapse of Jiralhanae society[2]

Details
Belligerents

Rh'tol[2]

Vheiloth[2]

Commanders

Chieftain Rukt[3]

Unknown

Strength

Ceretus' clan[4]

Casualties

Heavy[2]

Heavy[2]

 

"Vicious fighters, their wars had reduced them from a higher civilization to one hampered by only feeble technology—thus their resistance to the Covenant was short-lived."
— From the Prophet of Clarity's Notes on the History of the Covenant[5]

The Great Immolation[6] sometimes termed the First Immolation[2] or the great civil war,[7] was a vicious, decade-long Jiralhanae civil war that took place on the species' homeworld of Doisac.[2] The conflict was the culmination of a number of prior wars and ultimately led to the devastation of civilization on the planet.[8]

Prelude[edit]

Prior to the Great Immolation, the Jiralhanae had recently become a technological Tier 4 species, achieving rocket-based spaceflight[9] and establishing colonies in the Oth Sonin system.[10] While the Jiralhanae are divided into numerous pack-like clans, almost all of the clans were divided into two prominent skeins: the arguably primitive Rh'tol and the more sophisticated Vheiloth. These skeins were profoundly different in both culture and philosophy, with both sides having different means to pursue power.[2] Despite the technological progress the Jiralhanae achieved, their pack mentality and ritualistic, warrior culture led to inevitable conflict between both skeins.[11]

The war[edit]

Doisac was devastated by the global war

The war was eventually started by the powerful Chieftain Rukt of the Rh'tol skein,[3] when members of both the Rh'tol and the Vheiloth collided after a protracted territorial dispute took a sudden and violent turn.[2] The resulting global war led to a widespread mechanized war of attrition across Doisac, in which the various master-packs came into conflict with each other.[1] Chieftain Rukt and members of his clan were responsible for killing thousands of Jiralhanae across Doisac's surface during this war, while earning a name for the clan's war hammer Fist of Rukt.[3]

The Great Immolation ultimately lasted a decade as the Jiralhanae set their homeworld ablaze in conflict and nearly caused their species' own extinction. The use of nuclear weapons heavily damaged the planet's ecosystem and killed numerous Jiralhanae.[2][12] Parabum's and Ceretus' clans battled each other before and during the conflict.[7] During the war, armored hovercraft ranged across Doisac's plains, of which the future Eklon'Dal Workshop Marauders would be reminiscent of.[8] Though most battles in the war were brief, the effects of the Great Immolation proved devastating to Jiralhanae society.[2] Some clans, such as the Vanguard of Zaladon, used bunker complexes like their citadel Toruun'tulo to shelter from the fallout of the nuclear weapons - bunkers which remained in use up until the planet's destruction in 2559.[13]

Ultimately, the conflict resulted in the near-total destruction of two of Doisac's continents, Gfolos and Rheolith, both of which were left quarantined and off-limits after the war's conclusion.[14]

Aftermath[edit]

The Great Immolation was a nuclear holocaust of such magnitude that the war caused the Jiralhanae to regress to a Tier 7 pre-industrial society,[1][9] setting the species technologically back several hundred years in science and machinery.[2] Some thought the war had crippled their people, but others believed that it had only served to temper the Jiralhanae and make them stronger.[12] The Jiralhanae were forced to rediscover the advances their ancestors had made before them. While some clans were ashamed of the technological progress the Jiralhanae had lost after the war, other clans were not bothered by the loss as they believed that the species was becoming too dependent on technology.[7] The Jiralhanae are noted to be the only known species that achieved spaceflight, reverted themselves to a pre-industrial society through civil war, and recovered to some degree without historically learning anything from the experience.[9]

The Battle of Gbraakon occurred shortly after the Great Immolation, taking place in the Gbraakon territory.[15] When the Covenant discovered Doisac in 2492, the Great Immolation had just recently concluded. At this time, the Jiralhanae were just rediscovering radio and rocketry, as well as the applications these technologies could have in warfare.[1] Ill-prepared for the Covenant's arrival,[5][11] survivors from the Rh'tol and the Vheiloth skeins would be incorporated into in the Covenant.[2] Some clans were grateful for the technology the Covenant would provide, replacing what the Jiralhanae lost in the war.[7] When the Covenant collapsed in 2552, many Jiralhanae returned to Doisac.[2] However, the damage done to the planet in the Great Immolation resulted in a lack of supplies for its inhabitants, forcing Jiralhanae to raid the frontier colonies of the Sangheili.[12]

Ultimately, Doisac was completely destroyed in late 2559 at the hands of the Created, leaving the Jiralhanae without any homeworld.

Production notes[edit]

While the notion of a planetwide nuclear conflict which reverted the Jiralhanae back to a preindustrial state had been firly cemented in Halo canon in 2007 thanks to Halo 3's bestiarum and the novel Halo: Contact Harvest,[1] the conflict itself went unnamed until 2015, when it was formally named the First Immolation in a Halo Waypoint universe article; seemingly implying that the conflict was one of multiple such wars.[2] The First Immolation name went unused in further sources describing the conflict (including Halo: Envoy and Halo Wars 2) before being formally replaced in the Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition) with the conflict's current name, the Great Immolation.[6][16][17] The Great Immolation has continued to see regular use since this shift, seemingly-replacing the originally given First Immolation name.[13][18][19]

List of appearances[edit]

Sources[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Halo: Contact Harvest, chapter 12
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Halo Waypoint, Jiralhanae (Retrieved on Oct 27, 2015) [archive]
  3. ^ a b c d Halo Waypoint, Fist of Rukt (Retrieved on Oct 27, 2015) [archive]
  4. ^ a b Halo Waypoint Forums, (Possible Catalog) Jiralhanae -us suffix question (Retrieved on Jan 25, 2016) [local archive] [external archive]
  5. ^ a b Halo: Broken Circle, chapter 15
  6. ^ a b Halo Waypoint, The New Halo Encyclopedia is Out Today: "GREAT IMMOLATION - The brutal Jiralhanae civil war that left their homeworld on the edge of nuclear annihilation, shortly before their species joined the Covenant." (Retrieved on Dec 5, 2025) [archive]
  7. ^ a b c d Halo: Evolutions - Stomping on the Heels of a Fuss
  8. ^ a b Halo Wars 2, Phoenix Logs: Marauder
  9. ^ a b c Halo 3, Bestiarum
  10. ^ Halo Encyclopedia (2011 edition), page 309
  11. ^ a b Halo Encyclopedia (2011 edition), page 121
  12. ^ a b c Halo: Envoy, chapter 3
  13. ^ a b Halo: Empty Throne, chapter 4
  14. ^ Earth Day 2014 trading cards, Doisac card
  15. ^ Halo: The Essential Visual Guide, page 122
  16. ^ Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition), page 193
  17. ^ Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition), page 210
  18. ^ Halo: The Rubicon Protocol, chapter 11
  19. ^ Halo Waypoint, Canon Fodder - O Come All Ye Fiction (Retrieved on Dec 19, 2024) [local archive] [external archive]
Retrieved from "https://www.halopedia.org/index.php?title=Great_Immolation&oldid=1696958"