Covenant fringe

The Covenant fringe is a collection of sapient species scattered throughout the Orion Arm that were never fully integrated into the Covenant Empire. Members of the Covenant fringe provided various strategic and infrastructure-related advantages to the Covenant, but never posed no martial threat to the empire. Focusing their efforts to reconstruction and exploration at the end of the Human-Covenant War, the United Nations Space Command and its Office of Naval Intelligence began to gather the first bits of intelligence on the exact nature and size of the Covenant fringe. Many of these species have yet to be contacted and cataloged by humanity, as the San'Shyuum did not deign many worthy of trading service for salvation within their fleets and the Sangheili kept few records of civil affairs.

The Yonhet were a part of the Covenant fringe, from the small moon of Yonhe. When the species first came into contact with the Covenant, they were deemed militarily insignificant due to their small population and there was little value in considering the Yonhet as full signatories to the Covenant Empire. However, their talents and adherence to the Great Journey granted the Yonhet a high degree of tolerance within the Covenant.

Following the collapse of the Covenant in 2552, member species of the fringe have a fragile status in the post-war years and some are subjected to persecution and enslavement by remnants of the former Covenant Empire.

Behind the scenes
In reference to regular questions about the Covenant fringe on the Halo Waypoint forums, 343 Industries' 2015 April Fools included the full list of species that made up the fringe: the Yonhet, Glacius (Killer Instinct), the Locust (Gears of War), and the Piñata (Viva Piñata).

List of appearances

 * Halo: Escalation
 * Halo: Nightfall
 * Halo Mythos
 * Halo: Smoke and Shadow