Joyous Exultation Covenant

"I, like all of you, believed in our leaders and their holy Covenant. How could we have been so willing to believe a Covenant of lies! They have called for the destruction of all Sangheili. They have aligned themselves with the barbaric Jiralhanae. The Great Schism is upon us. The unbreakable Covenant Writ of Union has been split asunder. This is the end of the Ninth, and final, Age. You must now decide to surrender to fate — or resist and strive to persist. Myself, I choose to fight. I call upon you all to join me. Let the old ways fade and battle by my side. Together we can forge a new, better union — a new Covenant among the stars."

- Imperial Admiral Xytan 'Jar Wattinree addresses the Sangheili commanders

An alliance of Sangheili forces seceded from the main body of the Covenant during an emergency summit on the Sangheili base world Joyous Exultation at the onset of the Great Schism on November 3, 2552.

History
After the Hierarchs cast the Sangheili out of the Covenant and replaced them with the Jiralhanae as the leadership caste of the Covenant military, Imperial Admiral Xytan 'Jar Wattinree summoned all Sangheili factions to their fortress world of Joyous Exultation. With the Sangheili leaders gathered aboard his flagship Sublime Transcendence, Wattinree announced the secession of the Sangheili from the main body of the Covenant. In addition, memorandums of the Prophets' betrayal were transmitted to all Sangheili vessels across the galaxy.

The Imperial Admiral also summoned the leadership of the Jiralhanae Alpha Tribes to Joyous Exultation under the guise of a peace summit, in truth planning to kill the envoys and deal a decapitating blow to the Jiralhanae leadership. Wattinree also gave Shipmaster Voro Nar 'Mantakree command of his own fleet and ordered him to go to Onyx and prevent the Forerunner technologies there from falling into human hands.

Wattinree's plans came to an end, however, when a NOVA bomb aboard Sublime Transcendence, retrieved from Reach weeks earlier, was accidentally detonated by the Unggoy Kwassass and a group of Huragok, obliterating the supercarrier, the Sangheili fleet, and razing Joyous Exultation's surface. Mantakree's fleet made it to Onyx and engaged the UNSC forces there, but they were eventually wiped out by the Forerunner world's automated defenses.

After the devastation of Joyous Exultation, many Sangheili went on to join the separatist group headed by Arbiter Thel 'Vadam and allied with humanity to stop the Prophet of Truth and his Jiralhanae underlings.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
 * Halo: Evolutions
 * The Return