San'Shyuum

"Who would doubt the Prophets? What have they foretold that has not come to pass?"

- Prophet of Truth

San 'Shyuum (Latin Perfidia vermis, meaning "worms of treachery" ), also known as Prophets by humans, are the leadership caste within the Covenant. The San'Shyuum exert complete control over the Covenant's religious and political affairs.

The San 'Shyuum hold a vital position in the Covenant because they are responsible for studying the holy Forerunner artifacts and using them to develop new technologies, and also because they manage political affairs and maintain order in the Covenant. They hold many seats on the Covenant High Council, formerly sharing this responsibility with the Sangheili and later the Jiralhanae.

At any given time, the Covenant is headed by a triumvirate of Prophets, known as the Hierarchs. The Prophet triumvirates known in recent years were Obligation, Tolerance and Restraint, and most recently Truth, Mercy and Regret, all of whom are now deceased.

Summary
They evolved on a former colony of an ancient race called the Forerunners which the Covenant revere as their gods. Prophets derive their legitimacy as leaders as well as their colloquial names from this connection. According to the San 'Shyuum, their world was destroyed some 3200 years ago, approx. 648 BCE, as the result of a natural stellar collapse. Because of this, they have since elected to make their home on the mobile planetoid station High Charity.

The San 'Shyuum waged a fierce and bloody war against the Sangheili at one point, halted only by their realization that war would never come to an end. The two races united to learn their secrets, forming a mutually beneficial arrangement that would eventually become the Covenant, although they usually see themselves above the Sangheili. The Sangheili became the protectors of the Prophets while the Prophets dedicated themselves to studying their "gods" and learning the secrets behind the "ascension" they left on.

As the representatives of the gods, the Prophets held a great amount of power over the other races of the Covenant, earning reverential titles such as "Holy One" and "Eminence". They are protected at all times by the mighty Legions of Honor Guards, and rarely involve themselves in combat, preferring to dedicate themselves to studying Forerunner artifacts. However, important events to the Covenant usually require a high-ranking Prophet, such as a Hierarch, to be present.

The majority of the Prophets use anti-gravity belts or anti-gravity chairs to support themselves, a more advanced form of the wheeled chairs they used before the activation of the Halo Array. Higher ranking Prophets, such as the Hierarchs, use shielded anti-gravity thrones to support themselves. These however, are not so much for support as they are for personal defense - they are fitted with holographic emitters, an energy shield generator, a teleportation device, and a built-in gravity cannon. In the event of assassins getting past their guards, they are able to defend themselves quite well with the gravity cannon.

Since the activation of the Halo Array and the subsequent reseeding, the San 'Shyuum numbers have been dwindling, with the destruction of their original home world 3200 years before the events of 2552 likely contributing to this. While their population at the time of the reintroduction was 500,000,000, there were only 23,831,463 San 'Shyuum existing by 2552. After the Flood invasion of High Charity, the majority of their species was consumed, leaving less than a thousand alive. Most were doomed by the Sangheili quarantine of Delta Halo and the rest of the Covenant fleet.

Anatomy and physiology
Prophets are extremely frail, possibly due to being adapted to low-gravity environments, due to age, or a combination of both. The Bestiarum suggests that inbreeding and a lack of concern for physical health, perhaps superseded by the single-minded desire to achieve "trans-sentience" (Also known as the "Great Journey"), is probably responsible for this outcome.

San'Shyuum are a gangly, bipedal species, with very long necks and limbs. They evolved on a planet with low gravity, and tend to have some degree of difficulty moving in higher-gravity environments. Although young San'Shyuum are significantly stronger and more mobile, the majority of San'Shyuum in the Covenant are very elderly, and this combined with a life of physical inactivity leaves most if not all Prophets withered and weak. As a result, most San'Shyuum elders wear some form of anti-gravity device. They are capable of moving unaided, however: In the Halo 3 level The Covenant, the Prophet of Truth is seen walking for a short amount of time.

San'Shyuum have distinct, often fur-covered lobes of skin hanging underneath their chin similar to a beard, known as "wattles". Prophets of greater age, for example the High Prophet of Mercy, have skin lobes on either side of their heads reminiscent of ears; despite this resemblance, the San 'Shyuum actually receive sound at the back of the head. Prophets have three digits on each hand, and are usually found wearing massive ornamental pieces that may also double as life support systems. The head-pieces of Covenant Hierarchs bear holographic representations of a Halo Ring. Lower-ranking Prophet Councilors wear more functional robes that lack any ornamentation whatsoever.

The lifespan of a San 'Shyuum appears to be extensive, largely through the development of technologies to increase it. Such a process began in about 1552, which was one thousand years before the events of Halo 3. The San 'Shyuum have put considerable effort into the increase of lifespan of their own species, as more than a quarter of their population are now super-bicentenarians.

Culture
During the time of the Forerunners, the San 'Shyuum culture was centered around the pursuit of beauty and pleasure. They were known throughout the galaxy for their hedonistic ways and skills at manipulating other races with their near-universal appeal. Following their defeat in the Human-Forerunner Wars, however, their culture became centered around the guidance of elderly religious leaders, or Prophets.

Before the Covenant was formed, a thousand or so Prophets called Reformers, who believed in using Forerunner technology for their use and wished to explore the Dreadnought they had discovered, left their homeworld, leaving theStoics (those who only wished to worship the technology and not explore the Dreadnought) stranded. The resulting calamity meant that the Covenant San 'Shyuum population was reduced to a few thousand, forcing the species to carefully manage their gene pool to prevent the loss of beneficial genes and the introduction of undesirable traits, with individuals possessing negative recessive traits placed in the Roll of Celibates to prevent their breeding. The Prophet of Truth is on such a list. However, if they should have such sexual urges, the Prophets will use concubines. If such a pregnancy should occur, however, they must be aborted, or the children will be killed at birth and the father sterilized.

It is known that the fertility cycles of female San 'Shyuum are short and few and far between, which would make it difficult for San 'Shyuum to have children. As a result, they would have a celebration called a Birthing Period when a child was conceived, which was very uncommon.

With regards to naming practices, each San 'Shyuum has a given name and a family name. However, once they rise to a certain level in the bureaucracy, they prefer to be addressed by their title, or be known by a trait they claimed to possess. Upon their ascension, Hierarchs may select a regal name from a list of former High Prophets. For example, the Prophet Hod Rumnt is always addressed by his titles, such as Philologist, or his regnal name, the Prophet of Mercy.

Human-San 'Shyuum alliance
Sometime around 110,000 B.C. the San 'Shyuum were part of an alliance with the humans, forming an empire in the Orion Arm of the galaxy. During this period, they encountered the Flood for the first time, but the spread of the infection was successfully pushed back by their human allies while it was still relatively minor. The empire later collapsed when the San'Shyuum surrendered during the Human-Forerunner Wars.

The Ark and Reseeding
During the Forerunner-Flood War, the Librarian visited Janjur Qom to secure specimens of San'Shyuum for preservation from the Halo Array. The San'Shyuum elders correctly guessed that a catastrophe was imminent, and launched a short-lived uprising against their Forerunner overseers. All San'Shyuum on the planet were subsequently killed when a Halo was fired on a low power setting nearby.

The San'Shyuum would be reseeded on their homeworld following the firing of the Halo Array. Having lost nearly all memory of the Forerunners, they discovered Forerunner technology on their homeworld and based their religion around the artifacts they found.

San 'Shyuum Civil War
The San 'Shyuum who would later found the Covenant left their homeworld Janjur Qom due to a brutal civil war on their home planet. The conflict began when some San 'Shyuum believed that they should enter into the Forerunner Dreadnought present on their planet and learn from its technology, even though much of the population believed that the ship was a sacred artifact and should not be interfered with. The two sides fighting in this war were the Stoics, or the San 'Shyuum who refused to enter and desecrate the Dreadnought, and the Reformists, who wanted to develop new technologies by entering studying the Dreadnought.

In 2100 BC, at the climax of the war, about a thousand Reformists commandeered the Dreadnought, while the Stoics debated what to do, since even their fury toward the Reformists could not bring them to destroy the object of their reverence. The Reformists then took flight from the planet, breaking off a massive chunk of rock in doing so. This piece of rock would later become the foundation of High Charity, the Holy City of the Covenant.

Although the Reformists had achieved victory and left the Stoics (who sent out communication messages threatening that they would be damned for their impudence toward the gods) behind, they realized that they were doomed due to the small number that had joined their cause to control the Dreadnought. With an extremely small gene pool, they would need to create strict controls around mating to prevent potentially disastrous inbreeding.

Sangheili-San 'Shyuum War
The war between the Sangheili and the San 'Shyuum began soon after their first encounter in 938 B.C.E.. As with the San'Shyuum Stoics, the Sangheili believed that Forerunner technology should not be touched or used for personal gain, while the San'shyuum believed that it should be reverse-engineered to further their own technology. Their first meeting resulted in a bloody engagement. Physically, the Sangheili were far superior - one Sangheili warrior was the equal to at least ten San 'Shyuum. However, technologically, the San 'Shyuum had the advantage: they had the Forerunner Dreadnought which proceeded to wipe out the Sangheili armada using hit-and-run tactics. Eventually, the Sangheili realized that their only chance for survival lay in using the Forerunner relics on their planet to engineer more effective weapons. This forced the Sangheili to abandon their convictions, and with the core reason of their conflict now gone, the two races united in 852 B.C.E. to form the early Covenant, with the San 'Shyuum as the head religious leaders and the Sangheili as the military backbone and defenders of the Prophets.

Fall of High Charity
With the outbreak of the Flood and its subsequent arrival on the holy city High Charity, the San 'Shyuum will have had two extinction events visited upon them within a single great cycle. Only those individuals who were permanently posted somewhere other than their ersatz homeworld are certain to have survived. Even those who held some position within the Covenant fleet have no hope for survival, as the entire fleet was present at Installation 05 and the Sangheili quarantined it. This is also impacted by many Elites killing the San 'Shyuum in an act of vengeance and/or honor. Their current total population is now estimated at less than one thousand. It is likely that the number of Flood Prophet forms are drastically higher as a result of the Flood outbreak.

Post-war
With their population at dangerously low levels following the loss of High Charity, and now having to contend with the wrath of their former guardians, the San 'Shyuum gave their new Jiralhanae protectors access to all the technology they could. For a few years after the Human-Covenant War, the Covenant was successfully fighting off the Separatists, who had long depended on the San 'Shyuum to provide them technology. But according to a Sangheili Shipmaster, the Prophets soon "vanished". The Sangheili had heard rumors that the San 'Shyuum went on the Great Journey, but disregarded them. Most likely the few remaining survivors went into hiding or simply died out.

Appearances
The Prophet of Regret is the only Prophet that is confronted in combat by the Master Chief in the Halo series in the game Halo 2. He appears at the level called Regret. The Prophets do make other appearances though, mostly in the cinematic sequences in Halo 2. In fact, in most of the cinematic sequences, there is at least one Prophet present. Also, Mercy's corpse is found at the beginning of the level called High Charity, and Truth's corpse can be seen at the last playable section of The Covenant.

The Prophet of Regret also appears as an in-game "Hero" unit in Halo Wars, riding his gravity throne amidst combat. He can call down a "Cleansing beam" or glassing beam that drains the players resources; it is guided around by one of the thumbsticks.

High Prophets

 * High Prophet of Restraint (Deposed)
 * High Prophet of Tolerance (Deposed)
 * High Prophetess of Obligation (Deposed)
 * High Prophet of Mercy (Deceased)
 * High Prophet of Regret (Deceased)
 * High Prophet of Truth (Deceased)
 * Unidentified Prophet (The Duel) (Unknown)

Lesser Prophets

 * Prophet of Supposition
 * Prophet of Pity
 * Prophet of Disdain
 * Prophet of Objection (Unknown, probably Deceased)
 * Prophet of Stewardship (Deceased)
 * Unidentified Prophet (The Babysitter) (Deceased)
 * Prophet of Conviction (Deceased)
 * Prophet of Candor

Legates

 * Minister of Etiology (Deceased)
 * Minister of Inquisition (Deceased)
 * Minister of Penance (Unknown)

Trivia

 * The High Prophets' names are almost always ironic counterpoints to their behavior. The Prophet of Truth was prone to lying, the Prophet of Mercy was very harsh towards others, the Prophet of Regret was headstrong and unapologetic, and the Prophet of Restraint stepped down as a result of high sexual exploits when it was forbidden for him to do so, therefore showing a lack of restraint.
 * A Prophet's blood is strikingly red, like that of a Human. This can be seen when the player beats the Prophet of Regret in Halo 2 and if the player shoots Truth's corpse in Halo 3.
 * Halo: Contact Harvest states that only the highest-ranking Prophets have the luxury of traveling in singular platforms in High Charity. Lower-ranking Prophets have to travel in groups of threes, fives or tens. This is because the thrones of lower-ranking Prophets are not individually capable of flight, so they must combine gravity fields with other thrones in order to fly.
 * The Halo 3 Limited Edition Bestiarum states that there are less than 1000 San 'Shyuum left in the universe after High Charity was consumed by the Flood, killing the majority of the San 'Shyuum population (approx. 20 million).
 * They are the only Covenant species that does not appear in Halo: Reach.