Ministry

"Ministries seem to proliferate. Certainly faster than San'Shyuum. Soon there will be more Ministries than there are members of our species."

- The Prophet of Inner Conviction

Ministries were a political and military subdivision of the Covenant Empire.

Function
Each ministry acted as a governing body of the Covenant, directing vital religious and secular activites within the empire. The power and prestige of their groups waxed and waned as they waged bloody internal wars for bureaucratic dominance and promotion of their particular brand of orthodoxy. Ministries controlled a large number of independent martial organisations, with the empire as a whole not having one strict standing military. During the Human-Covenant War, three ministries served as the primary military force encountered by humans.

A given ministry is led by a San'Shyuum minister, with a vice minister under him. The ministries employed senior and junior staffers below these leadership positions.

Known ministries of the Covenant

 * Ministry of Abnegation - responsible for overseeing the Sangheili order of the Ascetics.
 * Ministry of Anticipatory Security - short-lived ministry responsible for detecting threats to High Charity before they became a threat.
 * Ministry of Artifact Survey
 * Ministry of Concert - responsible for settling matters of dispute between Covenant client species, and representing the lower-caste species such as Kig-Yar and Unggoy.
 * Ministry of Conversion - responsible for exploring space already known to the Covenant to find new convertees to Covenant faith.
 * Ministry of Discovery - responsible for technological development and reverse-engineering Forerunner artifacts.
 * Ministry of Etiology
 * Ministry of Fervent Intercession
 * Ministry of Fortitude
 * Ministry of Inquisition
 * Ministry of Kindly Subjection
 * Ministry of Penance
 * Ministry of Preparation
 * Ministry of Relative Reconciliation
 * Ministry of Relic Safety
 * Ministry of Resolution
 * Ministry of Sacral Assembly
 * Ministry of Sanitation
 * Ministry of Tranquility