Ten Cities of Edification

The Ten Cities of Edification, as named by the Covenant, was a collection of large Forerunner cities located on the surface of the Covenant world Zhoist. In the Covenant's history, the ancient guild halls dominating these cities were the source of many of the technologies employed in Covenant weaponry and spacecraft. By 2526, thousands of Covenant artisans and engineers continued to work on Zhoist.

Due to the massive presence of these cities, the entire planet was revered as a holy world by the Covenant. During Operation: SILENT STORM, the UNSC's Task Force Yama launched an Attack on Zhoist, deploying SPARTAN-II personnel on the ground. When the SPARTANs began to ascend the gravity lifts connecting the surface to the Ring of Mighty Abundance, fleetmaster Nizat 'Kvarosee was aghast at the mere thought of reversing the lifts to put the heretics back on hallowed ground, even when it risked destruction of the Covenant fleet base. Ultimately, two of the Ten Cities were destroyed by nuclear weapons during the operation.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Silent Storm
 * Halo: Oblivion