Great Schism

The Covenant Civil War, also known by members of the Covenant as the Great Schism, is a war between the two factions that split apart in October, 2552.

Cause
After the Prophet of Regret was killed by the Demon, the Prophets, most notably the High Prophet of Truth, deemed it necessary to reorganize Covenant society, replacing the Elites with Brutes as the Prophets' protectors. The Elites viewed this as a violation of the principle the Covenant had been founded upon and threatened to resign from the High Council arguing that if Truth had not withdrawn the Phantoms that had been on route to Regret's location, the Prophet's death would have been prevented, and the Demon would have been killed.

To further deform the Covenant, Truth then gave command of the Covenant fleets (the Elites' job) to the Brutes. Once there were enough Brutes in place, Truth instigated the war by secretly ordering the assassination of all ruling Elites on and around High Charity, and presumably, the entire galaxy and beyond. This is disguised as a Brute insurrection against the Covenant to the Elites, the Hunters, and most Grunts, and as an Elite revolt to the other factions (excluding the Brutes and the Prophets).

Factions
When war broke out on High Charity, the two sides were quickly decided, leaving the Covenant split in two, though one could say that it "truly" split when the Elites learned the truth about the Halos and the Great Journey. One force, the Covenant Loyalists consist primarily of the Prophets, Brutes, Jackals, Drones and, apparently, a number of Grunts and Hunters while the Covenant Separatists seemed to comprised mostly of Elites, with some Hunters and Grunts also breaking away. Furthermore, it appears that an alliance of circumstance galvanized in the control room of Delta Halo has tied the fate of the UNSC with that of the Covenant Separatists.

The Story so Far
Elites have been confirmed as allies to the humans of the UNSC. The "Story So Far..." page at halo3.com has stated: "Even with our newfound allies, the Elites, and their valiant and honorable leader, the Arbiter, we are still hopelessly outnumbered and at the mercy of the will of the Prophets, and the single minded force of the Flood."

Along with the Elites bio page: "The Elites have allied with their former Human foes in part because of a deep-seated resentment of the Prophet rule and in part because they actually understand the scale of the Flood problem."

The Civil War ends when the Covenant Loyalist Fleet is destroyed over the Ark by the Seperatist Fleet and the Prophet of Truth is killed by the Arbiter and the activation of the Ark is stopped.

2552
September 22: October 20: October 21: October 22: November 3
 * Installation 04 is destroyed by Human forces. Its Monitor, 343 Guilty Spark, escapes to Threshold. The Fleet of Particular Justice is wiped out. The fleet's secondary flagship, the Ascendant Justice, is captured by humans.
 * A Covenant Artifact Retrieval team led by Sesa 'Refumee is investigating the Gas Mine of Threshold when he encounters 343 Guilty Spark. Inspired by Spark's words, 'Refumee rebelled against the High Prophets of the Covenant.
 * The Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice is tried before the High Council and sentenced to death.
 * The High Prophet of Truth overrides the council and makes the Supreme Commander an Arbiter of the Covenant. Truth then sends him to kill Sesa 'Refumee and destroy his rebellion, which they dub "Heresy".
 * The First Battle of Earth. The defeated High Prophet of Regret is forced to retreat to Installation 05, pursued by the UNSC In Amber Clad.
 * The Arbiter and a SpecOps Commander, Rtas 'Vadumee leads a team of SpecOps forces to Threshold, where they kill Sesa 'Refumee and successfully crush his rebellion.
 * The Master Chief tracks down and kills the Prophet of Regret on Installation 05.
 * High Charity arrives at Installation 05. Witnessing the assassination of the Prophet of Regret, the Prophet of Truth replaces the Honor Guard Elites with Brutes. Insulted, the Elite Councilors threaten to resign from the High Council.
 * The Arbiter and Tartarus are sent to retrieve The Index. The Arbiter successfully takes the Index, but Tartarus tries to kill him and takes the Index from him, as he was secretly ordered to do so by the Prophet of Truth.
 * Most of the Elite Councilors are taken to the surface of Installation 05 where they are massacred by the Brutes.
 * Tartarus declares war on the Elites, and the Battle of High Charity begins. Fighting between Elite and Brute forces breaks out all over the Holy City. As word spreads, fighting takes place throughout the fleet, as Elite- and Brute-controlled ships attack one another.
 * Flood invade High Charity in the middle of the battle using the UNSC frigate In Amber Clad.
 * Tartarus attempts to activate the Halo.
 * The Arbiter, with the help of Sergeant Johnson and Rtas 'Vadumee, kills Tartarus.
 * The battle in and around High Charity ends with the Flood in control of the city. The Brute and Elite fleets remaining around the city-station continue to destroy each other.
 * The Prophet of Truth takes the Forerunner Ship to Earth, to join The Second Battle of Earth. The Brute forces there are already engaged in fighting with the UNSC. Unbeknownst to the Prophet of Truth, the Master Chief is on the ship, with the intention of "finishing the fight".
 * the UNSC Prowler Dusk witnesses the battle between Elite- and Brute-held ships above Delta Halo, both fighting each other pausing only to stop an immediate outbreak of the Flood from the ringworld, and links up with Battlegroup Stalingrad.
 * Major Domo Voro 'Mantakree kills his Ship Master while he is attempting to allow the Flood to enter the ship, assumes command, and becomes the de facto leader of the Second Fleet of Homogeneous Clarity. He leads his forces to Joyous Exultation, pursued by the Brute Gargantum and his ships.
 * Imperial Admiral Xytan Jar 'Wattinree plans to lure the Brute leadership to Joyous Exultation, and plans an ambush for them. He deploys the newly-promoted Fleet Master Voro 'Mantakree to Onyx to recover the Forerunner technologies there, and prevent the UNSC forces there from claiming it themselves. A NOVA bomb captured by the supercarrier Sublime Transcendence devastates the planet moment after Mantakree's forces leave, the survivors joining Mantakree at Onyx.

March 3, 2553

In Halo 3, it seems that the Grunts and Hunters have once again rejoined the Covenant, possibly because they realized that it were the Elites who were the separatists. But according to the Beastarium in Halo 3's Limited Edition, the Grunts were too indecisive to continue the rebellion, and the true political motivation of the Hunters is a mystery.

The Covenant all attack Earth in unison, including Hunters and Grunts. When the portal to the Ark is opened, all Covenant Loyalists forces leave Earth and enter the void, just as the Flood entered Earth through an infected ship. Shortly after, a flotilla of Elite spacecraft arrive at Earth and proceed to glass half the continent to end the Flood outbreak. The Elite forces then join with the ship, the Forward Unto Dawn and follow the Loyalist armada to the Ark to prevent the Halos from being fired.

When the Human-Elite force arrives, they are soon engaged by a Loyalist fleet triple their size. As the battle in space occurs, Human troops and armor are deployed into the surface to fight the Covenant forces. Human and Elite forces proceed to shut down the shield around the Control Room. Ironically, as soon as the shield meant to block the Flood is shut down, High Charity appears, spewing Flood across the Ark and presumably containing Gravemind. Fighting through Loyalist and Flood alike, the Master Chief and the Arbiter finally confront and kill the Prophet of Truth, preventing the activation of the Halos.

With Truth dead, it is unknown what exactly the remaining Loyalist forces did. They presumably escaped, or perhaps were completely destroyed, since no more Brutes or their allies are seen for the rest of the game. At the end cutscene of Halo 3, we see the victorious Elites departing for their homeworld. It is most likely that the Covenant has been disbanded, and with the war over and the Flood threat effectively ended, each race probably returned home to rebuild. Although, Shipmaster Rtas 'Vadum states that Truth's fleet was destroyed, so, had any of the Covenant survived on the Ark or in the ruins of their fleet, they were either taken by the Flood or definitely killed when the unfinished Installation 04 fires and destroys itself and the Ark.

Related Links

 * Elites
 * Brutes
 * Prophets