"Ah, yes. The Covenant. The wayward affiliation of alien races responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands of sentient beings and bending the galaxy over in the span of a few decades, completely warping the political landscape of the galaxy as we know it. You know, before the Chiss came along and brought these... barbarians onto our doorstep, we had peace. All species, in relative harmony. When Khar'shan wasn't burned to ashes, when the words of an Asari still mattered in galactic politics, when Humans were actually given the time of day. What have these newcomers brought since their arrival? Death. Nothing more."
- Anonymous Human citizen, Citadel. 2158.
The Covenant
The Covenant Empire is a religious affiliation comprising a number of sapient alien species that inhabit the Ettarue Arm, through which their sphere of influence is based. Their number of colonies is unclear, but it is most likely that it encompasses thousands of systems.
One of the most technologically advanced faction in the modern galactic era, the Covenant are infamous for instigating the Intergalactic War, the largest multispecies conflict in the known history of Forn Gorek. Since its inception, the Covenant has come to include at nine races in its caste, with a confirmed number of at least three other that are affiliated and engaged in trade disputes but have not been officially absorbed into the empire's ranks. These races, known as the "Covenant fringe", are not elaborated upon in this entry, instead bearing their own codex entry.
History
The Covenant was founded in 852 BCE when the San 'Shyuum and the Sangheili established a mutual alliance in the wake of a civil war between their races, making the alliance between the two the oldest institutional association between sentient species in the modern galactic era.
This war, known to the two species as the War of Beginnings, began eighty-six years earlier when the San 'Shyuum discovered the Sangheili homeworld of Sanghelios. Both races shared strong religious views towards the Chozo, whom the San 'Shyuum refer to as the "Forerunners", and the San 'Shyuum had originally come to Sanghelios with the intent of studying a rich assortment of Chozo artifacts left there. However, both races soon found themselves sharing different ideologies of how such artifacts should be treated. The Sangheili believed that Chozo artifacts were sacred and should not be touched, while the San 'Shyuum believed that they should be studied and use them to make practical objects of their own design. The highly-militarized Sangheili attacked the San 'Shyuum almost as soon as their differences became apparent, starting the war between the two races.
At the start of the war, the Sangheili had a numerical advantage in terms of ships and soldiers. Their strength and military tactics were without peer. However the San 'Shyuum's technology, gleaned from years of travel and study of a Chozo Dreadnought they possessed, gave them the advantage in ship-to-ship combat. This proved to be the most common type of combat witnessed during the war.
Eventually both species came to fear a very real threat: annihilation. The Sangheili feared it through the San 'Shyuum's use of their unstoppable dreadnought, and the San 'Shyuum came to admit that if the Sangheili were this dangerous, there might be other forms of sentient life far more threatening to their race. The long and brutal war caused the Sangheili to violate their religious beliefs, studying and incorporating Chozo technology in order to avoid defeat. This incorporation of Chozo technology eventually caused a stalemate in the war against the San 'Shyuum, however their dreadnought remained unstoppable. Faced with this bitter reality, the Sangheili surrendered.
With a proud tradition as warriors, the Sangheili held great respect for a worthy adversary, and after their surrender, the San 'Shyuum sought to seek a burgeoning covenant of the two races. A tentative truce was worked out between the two species through the Sangheili leader, Pelahsar the Strident, and the San 'Shyuum Breaking Shadow. The two agreed to forgive the past crimes of their species and began efforts towards an alliance. This eventually came about with the signing of the Writ of Union, a treaty that ended the conflict and brought about peace between the two factions.
In time, this mutual partnership developed into the Covenant Empire, and over the course of the next two-thousand years, it came across and absorbed into its collective the Lekgolo, Yanme'e, Kig-Yar, Unggoy, and Jiralhanae, in that order. Details of these races and their histories up until their absorption into the Covenant are explained in the following sections below. The Covenant leadership convenes from High Charity, a mobile capital city that measures in 348 kilometers in diameter and 505 kilometers in height.
Skipping ahead to the year 2125, the Covenant by that point were ruled by a triumvirate of religious hierarchs known as the High Prophets of Truth, Regret, and Mercy. Not too long after the three were coronated, the Covenant made gradual first contact with the Chiss Ascendancy at the agricultural planet, Harvest. Kig-Yar pirates initially discovered the planet first and engaged in plunders and raids on cargo ships moving to and from the planet. Word of this reached the wider Covenant, who sent what were originally thought to be representatives for negotiations.
Things broke down almost immediately. The representatives, which consisted of groups of Jiralhanae and Unggoy, incited the first hostilities when an overeager Unggoy shot and killed a member of Harvest's militia. Most of the Chiss delegation was mercilessly slaughtered while the Covenant party quickly fled aboard the Rapid Conversion and relayed what had occurred back to High Charity. It is unclear what exactly happened in the interim between this moment and the declaration of war, but the Hierarchs declared that the entire Chiss species was an affront to their gods and demanded that they be exterminated. This decision would spark the Intergalactic War.
For the next few decades, the Covenant systematically obliterated every Chiss planet they could find. The Citadel Council entered into the war in 2141, joining on the side of the Chiss, leading to the Covenant fighting two fronts at once. Their numerically and technologically superior forces gradually overwhelmed both factions, and during this time, the Raloi, a Citadel species, were enslaved and brought into the Covenant collective.
Races
The San 'Shyuum
The San 'Shyuum (Vasci bah taskebasi, translated from the Chiss native language of Cheunh as "worms of treachery") are a sapient race of segmented annelid-like beings that make up the leadership caste within the Covenant. While they are very advanced and intellectual creatures, the San 'Shyuum evolved on a world with very low gravity, and as a result, they are physically frail and weak to the point of using anti-gravity technology to move around.
Since before achieving space travel, the San 'Shyuum were incredibly advanced, with their technological achievements enhanced by the presence of numerous Chozo relics on their home planet, Janjur Qom. The San 'Shyuum redeveloped technology, language, and culture based on their observation of these artifacts.
Around 2,200 BCE, the San 'Shyuum were actually embroiled in a civil war amongst their own species known as the War of Wills. In the war, two radical factions of San 'Shyuum, called the Stoics and the Reformists, came to ideological blows in regards to the treatment of an intact Chozo spacecraft, classified as a type of dreadnought (though recent historical analyses of Chozo innovations has suggested the vessel was designed for a purpose outside of naval combat). The Reformists wanted to develop new technologies by entering the dreadnought, while the conservative Stoics refused to enter and desecrate the ancient ship.
Towards the climax of the war, the Reformists infiltrated the dreadnought and figured out how to activate it. The Stoics, outraged, were unable to take any action as it would result in them damaging the artifact of their reverence. The Reformists took flight from Janjur Qom, and in the process they broke off an enormous chunk of rock in doing so. This rock would later become the foundation of High Charity, the future holy city of the Covenant. Centuries later, the descendants of the Stoics met the Sangheili, and together they formed the Covenant Empire.
The San 'Shyuum exert complete control over the Covenant's religious and political affairs, and are highly zealous and fanatical in their worship of the Chozo themselves. It was they who first instigated the Intergalactic War in the wake of their declaration of heresy towards the Chiss, plunging the galaxy into full-scale war.
The Sangheili
The saurian species known as the Sangheili (Ch'ah htusah ch'eo tisan'sasi, meaning "I glorify my kin") is one of the principal races in the Covenant Empire. Originating from the planet Sanghelios, located in a triple star system, they are one of the tallest races in the galaxy, with the males standing at least nine feet in height. Compared to most species, they have jaws that are quadruple-hinged, with an upper jaw and four lower mandibles arranged in two tiers as well as tetradactyl hands, each having two fingers in the middle and and opposing thumb on either side, plus digitigrade legs. Their skin is a combination of leather and scales in certain places, a remnant of their evolutionary history as reptilian predators. Oxygen breathers, they have a bnary circulatory system that pumps indigo-colored blood through their bodies.
Culturally, the Sangheili are powerful, honor driven warriors with a military caste system similar to that of the Turian Hierarchy, but with a greater emphasis on martial prowess and military endeavors. Due to their skill in combat, the Sangheili have formed the military backbone of the Covenant for almost the entirety of its existence.
Prior to the Covenant's formation, the Sangheili had only just entered a Space Age when their homeworld, Sanghelios, was discovered by the San 'Shyuum. Like the San 'Shyuum, the Sangheili worshipped the Chozo, who had at one point visited Sanghelios before their disappearance and left a large abundance of artifacts. The Sangheili revered the objects these "gods" left, and much like the San 'Shyuum Stoics before them, considered tampering with them heretical. When the Reformists arrived, it really wasn't much of a surprise when both incredibly zealous groups conflicted over this difference in ideology. As stated before, this War of Beginnings resulted in a stalemate between the two races, leading to a partnership that would slowly evolve into the Covenant.
Sangheili are famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) for their strength, pride, and skill as combat tacticians. In spite of the barbarism displayed heavily in the Intergalactic War, the Sangheili are not without more admirable traits. Their warriors form very close-knitted relationships, referring to their comrades as "brothers" and remaining intensely loyal to them, and their admiration for honorable fighters, whether they be Sangheili or not, make it common for them to have such an admiration for their adversaries.
The Huragok
The creatures that the Covenant calls Huragok (Ch'ascakiset visivcasi, meaning "artificial character") are perhaps the most mysterious race in the Covenant. The only non-combatant group in the Covenant hierarchy, the Huragok resemble large pink tentacled slugs that float above the ground using two gas-bags. Their tentacles have the ability to split into millions of thread-like cilia, which they use for grasping and managing objects more ambidextrously.
In actuality, the Huragok are not biological creatures, but cybernetic robots constructed by the Chozo. They have been known to exist in various Chozo ruins all across Forn Gorek, which was most likely the reason as to how the Covenant came upon them in the first place.
Huragok are highly efficient technicians, able to manage, repair, or even create any type of machine through simple observational learning. They also do not care about the Covenant's philosophies. Their only desire is to integrate with technology, not caring about what faction they assist in the process. As such, many Huragok have found their way into both Chiss Ascendancy and Citadel Council services, proving to be invaluable assets on all sides.
The Lekgolo
Hailing from one of the moons of the gas giant Te, the Lekgolo (Von'zan'ch'ah bah rast'an't, meaning "assembly of serpants") are a Covenant species, arguably the most biologically unique. The race is comprised of small, colonial worm-like creatures that can join together to form purpose specific assemblages through use of microscoping silia. These assemblages, which can range in size and form, are called Mgalekgolo.
The Lekgolo were the third race to be inducted into the Covenant. The Covenant found them in 784 BCE when they arrived at Te in search of Chozo artifacts. They soon discovered that the rings of Te were in fact the remains of an ancient Chozo orbital construct which the Lekgolo were literally devouring in droves. The San 'Shyuum viewed this as a heresy and, in an event known as the Taming of the Lekgolo, declared war on the worm-like aliens. In the Lekgolo, the Sangheili found a respectable adversary, as the worms' ability to merge into larger assemblages made them formidable ground combatants. Impressed, the Sangheili actually suggested to the San 'Shyuum the prospect of allying with the Lekgolo and putting them to better uses as part of hte Covenant. The Covenant leaders eventually agreed, forcing a pact with the Lekgolo.
In contrast to the other Covenant species, the Lekgolo are not strictly attached to the Covenant's homogenized religion and are content with aiding their longtime allies in exchange for security. The Covenant tolerates this due to the Lekgolo's limited communication capabilities and their use as shock troopers. The Mgalekgolo themselves are the strongest and most resilient member species in the Covenant, armed with near-impenetrable armor and powerful assault cannons.
The Yanme'e
In 1112, the Covenant discovered Palamok, a largely broiling world with a plasmic molten outer core which the Covenant sought to exploit. What they did not immediately realize, however, was that the planet was inhabited by the Yanme'e (Ch'itnato csahn, meaning "ugly king").
The Yanme'e were the fourth race to join the Covenant. An insectoid species, the Yanme'e closely resemble mosquitoes, bloodsucking, flight-capable insects native to the Human homeworld of Earth, albeit with more apparent chitinous exoskeletons that provide limited armor protection against basic projectile weaponry. Much like the ancient Rachni, the Yanme'e are hive minded beings living under a caste system ruled by queens, and therefore are more geared towards working in concert with larger groups. They are believed to have evolved from winged, tree-dwelling arthropods on Palamok which lived in deep underground burrows that thrived off of the warmth emitted from the planet's core. They are the only known species in the galaxy with natural flight capability that, when combined with the Covenant's antigravity technology, gives them an almost insurmountable strategic advantage in combat.
Like many other races in the Covenant, the Yanme'e initially resisted absorption into the Covenant, until the San 'Shyuum were able to negotiate the Yanme'e into the Covenant ranks peacefully. For the majority of their time in the Covenant, the Yanme'e were often used as engineers due to their aptitude for technology.
The Kig-Yar
Sporting both avian and reptilian characteristics, the Kig-Yar (Ch'iticen'bo csinot, meaning "hateful bandit") were the fifth race to be indoctrinated into the Covenant. Egg-laying creatures who evolved in a low-gravity environment, the Kig-Yar have a unique aspect amongst them in that there is a diverse assortment of genetic variation within their race. There are at least three morphologically distinct subtypes that have been identified: the mainstream Ruuhtians who thrive on most of their homeworld's largest continents; the Ibie'shan, Kig-Yar who originate from the small volcanic continent of Ibie'sh who have more fierce, reptilian traits than their cousins; and the T'vaoans, highly robust Kig-Yar with more avian-like traits than their cousins including rows of feathers, stockier heads, smaller eyes, and darker complexions. Unlike the Ruuhtians and the Ibie'shan, the T'vaoans did not evolve on their homeworld, but rather the large asteroid of T'vao which was one of the first Kig-Yar colonies to be set up. Traits shared amongst all three subspecies include sharp beaks lined with razor-sharp teeth, three-fingered hands, sharp talons on their feet, and a strong salty stench that most other races find quite unpleasant.
The Kig-Yar first evolved on Eayn, a forested moon in orbit of the planet Chu'ot in the Y'Deio system. Their early history had the species divided into clans that sailed across their homeworld's seas as pirates, raiding the encampments and settlements of rival clans. Even after achieving space travel, the Kig-Yar resumed this way of life, preying upon merchant starships.
Around 1,100 years ago, the Covenant came upon the Kig-Yar's home system with small contingent fleets, which the Kig-Yar directly attacked, leading to a long naval war in the system. Eventually, realizing the unlikelihood of them winning against a numerically and technologically superior foe, the Kig-Yar offered their services to the Covenant, making them the only Covenant race in history to have been absorbed into the alliance voluntarily. Often, though, this was merely used as an excuse to continue their criminal activities, spending time outside of Covenant endeavors pillaging merchant ships of other species. Unwittingly, it was this plundering lifestyle that resulted in the Kig-Yar, and the Covenant as whole, discovering the Chiss colony of Harvest and starting the Intergalactic War.
It should be noted that only about 30% percent of the Kig-Yar population is actually allied with the Covenant. The other 70% makes up the most of the Ettarue Arm's more unsavory, criminally based regions. Many of these factions, ruled by various Kig-Yar female authority figures and pirate organizations, have been spotted within the Terminus Systems as of late.
The Unggoy
Unggoy (Ch'itzishn ch'un'ifn, meaning "cold monk") are a cross between both chordates and arthropods, as they possess both a vertebrate and a chitinous exoskeleton. Physically, however, they resemble short, bipedal turtles with gorilla-like forearms, with which they also use in locomotion to increase speed. They are the only sapient species in the galaxy to breathe methane rather than oxygen, forcing them to wear breathing apparatuses outside of their homeworld.
The Unggoy are historically the sixth to join the Covenant's ranks. Both before and after their induction, Unggoy history was laced with tragedy. In ancient times, the Unggoy's homeworld of Balaho experienced a catastrophic environmental collapse caused by global over-industrialization. By the time the Covenant found them, the Unggoy were nothing more than mingling primitives desperately pining for resources. The Covenant's annexation of the Unggoy race was brutal, as the Unggoy, inexperienced in the art of war and defense, were overwhelmed by the invaders and surrendered only a few short hours after the initial assaults.
In 2062, the Unggoy actually attempted to stage a rebellion against the Covenant when the Kig-Yar population aboard High Charity, in retaliation for the Unggoy inadvertently destroying several of their eggs in the habitats the two species were forced to share, poisoned the recreational narcotics that the Unggoy enjoyed to forcefully sterilize them. The rebellion was short and quickly put down by the Sangheili, but rather than force brutal punishment on the Unggoy like the San 'Shyuum and Kig-Yar both wanted, the Sangheili were actually impressed by the uncharacteristic resolve that the Unggoy displayed during the crisis. The Sangheili forgave the Ungoy and allowed them to enter the Covenant military as armed infantry units.
Despite this act of mercy from the Sangheili, the Unggoy's place in the Covenant hierarchy is still wretched. Of all the Covenant species, the Unggoy have the lowest position in the caste system, being treated more like slaves than any other race in their ranks. To both the Covenant and the wider galaxy, the Unggoy are looked upon as pitiful creatures. The Covenant use the high breeding rate of the Unggoy to their advantage on the battlefield, with occasionally overwhelming squads of Unggoy frequently being sent in as cannon fodder.
The Jiralhanae
The Jiralhanae (Ruzihn raszercu'en, meaning "wild servant") are a large, bipedal race of dark-skinned mammals sporting coats of fur in variable shades. Their large, stocky appearance is most likely due to the gravity on their planet, which is about twice the gravity of that on other species' homeworlds like Csilla and Palaven.
Said homeworld, Doisac, was a temperamental forest world with a challenging and diversifying environment infested with beasts of various shape, size, and ferocity. This envrionment played a great role in shaping the Jiralhanae's savage and brutal behavior. Despite this, the Jiralhanae actually did manage to achieve spaceflight status, though their warlike nature meant they quickly collapsed into civil war and afterwards, fell back to their former pre-spaceflight status. This repeated itself several times before the Covenant discovered them in 2092.
Having only just rediscovered radio and rocketry, the primitive Jiralhanae at the time had begun to rally under the leadership of a chieftain known as Maccabeus. The Jiralhanae under Maccabeus were quickly forced into submission by the Covenant's superior forces. Maccabeus himself used information he gathered from other Covenant worlds to fully unite his people. Maccabeus himself was known to have been present during the initial first contact at Harvest; he was one of the many Covenant casualties of that conflict, and he was subsequently succeeded by his nephew, Tartarus.
The Jiralhanae are widely reviled by the rest of the galaxy, more so than most other races in the Covenant, for their incredibly aggressive behavior. Even though they are essentially a unified people, their homeworld is forever war torn, and the species is known for their particular joy in vicious activity. They have earned the hatred of much of the galaxy; even the Sangheili, their most frequent military allies in Covenant endeavors, fear the Jiralhanae for their monomaniacal behavior.
The Raloi
The most recent species to join the Covenant, the Raloi (Ttoci nuz vacosetahn, meaning "feathered newcomer") are species originating on the planet Turvess. The planet is located within Citadel Space, making the Raloi the only Citadel species to join the Covenant throughout its history.
Biologically, the Raloi are sentient avians who evolved from flightless, omnivorous birds similar to the non-sentient Lisk native to the Chiss colony world of Hoth. They possess slim torsos and muscular arms tipped with four-fingered, talon-like hands that evolved over tens of thousands of years from wings. Their necks are very vulnerable, and are reflexively guarded during combat. The Raloi have a convex face ending in a beak-like mouth, and their heads are with a feather-lined ridge protruding from the skull. These feathers are known to shfit in color depending on a Raloi's mood: green indicates inquisitiveness, thoughtfulness or amusement; orange is a sign of happiness; and blue is anger, disgust, irritation or seriousness.
Only a few short years before the Citadel Council was dragged into the Intergalactic War, the Raloi made first contact with the Asari. After launching their first space telescope and discovering an Asari cruiser in their system, the Raloi prepared to be fully welcomed as a new member race of the Citadel Council. However, an unexpected attack on Turvess by the Covenant destroyed any chance of this. Turvess is located in the Attican Traverse, which was the front of the Covenant's assault against the Council in the Intergalactic War. The primitive Raloi were completely outclassed by the invaders, their population subdued and forced to enter the war as slave soldiers.
The inclusion of the Raloi into the Covenant provided beneficial contributions to the Covenant war machine; before they were enslaved by the Covenant, the Raloi had greatly improved their own technology using Element Zero-based tech supplied to them by the Asari. The Covenant have been able to reverse engineer this tech to better understand its strengths and benefits, giving them an edge against the Council races.
(Information from this point forward is limited for the moment and subject to change. Both Ascendancy and Council war analysts are still gathering information.)
Politics
For the entirety of its existence, the Covenant has been largely ruled by the San 'Shyuum and Sangheili, though the former obviously hold greater sway. Analysts have concluded that the Covenant government consists of echelons, the highest being the High Council, a legislative group consisting of hundreds of San 'Shyuum and Sangheili authority figures and headed by the High Prophets. Below the High Council, numerous ministries exist, each dictating a single, but important role within the Covenant governmental body and sporting a San 'Shyuum minister.
Religion
The entire Covenant culture is based around its species' religion, which is based solely in the worship and reverence of the Chozo. Now, to understand the Covenant's religion, it seems appropriate to go into more detail on the Chozo. These ancient beings were known to have ruled much if not all of the Ettarue Arm and even other regions beyond, a noteworthy example being the research outpost on the Quarian world of Adas. While less abundant, a few outposts have been sighted in Citadel Space, one such being located on Dekuuna, the homeworld of the Elcor. None of these ruins have been studied in great detail, however.
Predating Citadel Space's Protheans by 50,000 years, the Chozo are, by far, the most scientifically advanced species ever documented. The technology and artifacts preserved in their ruins are incredibly cultivated and progressive. Some accomplishments they had conceived include solidifed surfaces made of meticulous energy, anti-gravity technology not reliant on Element Zero, and synthetic constructs including but not limited to the Huragok. Much of the technolgoy utilized by the Covenant is based on Chozo artifacts.
The Chozo were known to have possibly meddled in the development of various species in the ancient past, including the Quarians, (possibly) the Elcor, and many of the races in the Covenant. The Covenant religion stemmed off of information loosely deciphered from these ancient visitations, though it is suggested that much of the Covenant's opinions of the Chozo is heavily exaggerated. Nonetheless, the Covenant races, specifically the San 'Shyuum, arrived at the conclusion that the Chozo advanced themselves scientifically and biologically to the point where they achieved some form of "transcendence". Because of this, the Covenant devotes itself to searching for and recovering of Chozo artifacts, looking to recreate whatever process they believe did this. At several points in the Covenant's history, this desire to reclaim Chozo technology has resulted in the hegemony declaring war against non-compliant species, the most recent instance being their war against the Chiss Ascendancy and the Citadel Council.
Technology
The technology employed by the Covenant is some of the most advanced used by any currently living sapient species, far surpassing that of which is used by either the Chiss or the "big three" races of the Citadel Council. It has very recognizable curved, organic and sophisticated-looking style ranging in colors like purple, white and blue, primarily based on the aesthetic tastes of the San 'Shyuum with a loose connection of Sangheili designs. This style is seen in Covenant architecture and the design of their ships and ground vehicles. The materials used are unknown, but quite strong and resilient, able to hold its own both charric energy and mass accelerators.
However, much like the races of the Citadel, the Covenant's technology borrows more from ancient civilizations, in this case, the Chozo. Covenant tech is largely reverse-engineered from artifacts left by the precursor race, including exceedingly accurate slipspace navigation, near-instantaneous interstellar communication, the manipulation of extremely high volumes of plasma energy from sublight travel, short-range translocation of matter, a great influence over gravity and repulsor-based technologies, and man-portable application of energy manipulation.
Although innovation is not one of the Covenant's strong suits, the Covenant has shown considerable advancement in bridging the technological gap with newly-encountered species. For example, in the first encounter of the Intergalactic War, the Covenant learned of the Chiss' computer systems and of its language from salvaging Chiss computer and network components from destroyed ships. This knowledge benefited the Covenant greatly in understanding the Ascendancy's military operation.
The reverse engineering of Chozo technology also made interstellar travel quite easy for the Covenant. Like the Chiss and the Quarians, the Covenant uses slipspace as their method of FTL. However, the Covenant's slipspace drive is much more efficient and reliable, capable of reaching destinations in a shorter time frame than the Chiss. Their starships use repulsor engines for propulsion in space, and they are equipped with various forms of anti-gravity technology that allow them to hover within an atmosphere. This anti-gravity technology is also used for Covenant ground vehicles.
There are some instances, though, where it seems that the Covenant have not fully explored all of what the Chozo employed to create their technology. In some cases, such as their plasma weaponry, Covenant technology imitates the effects of the Chozo technology it is based
On the subject of their plasma weapons, the Covenant arsenal is filled with it. While plasma-based directed energy is the main of the Covenant arsenal, they are also known to utilize pulse lasers, particle beam weapons, antimatter explosives and even chemical crystal-based weapons. Interestingly, Covenant weapon designs seem to defy known laws of mechanics; there is typically no form of radiative, physical, or electrical contact between the firing mechanism and "trigger" of a weapon. For these and other reasons, the workings of Covenant weaponry is generally beyond the comprehension of scientists from other species.
Plasma weapons typically use a rechargeable power cell to provide power to their internal components. Covenant plasma weapons are effective but crude, and most automatic-fire plasma weapons are prone to overheating. To compensate, most weapons have vents that open to discharge excess heat and plasma when they overheat, although such weapons are rendered inoperable as the excess heat is dissipated. Once the energy of the plasma weapon is depleted, it must be recharged or discarded. To date, the means by which plasma weapons can be recharged is still unknown to Chiss and Council forces, though the former and the Salarians are working hard to figure this out and hopefully emulate it.
Though rarer, the Covenant have also been seen using projectile weapons, the most common being a type of unconventional, crystal-based weapon. This weapon, nicknamed the "Needler" by the Chiss, uses the chemical crystal-based system mentioned earlier. It fires hard, razor-sharp crystals formed from some unknown type of chemical. These crystals detonate seconds after impacting with a target, and through unknown means, actively seek out organic targets upon being fired.
The Covenant also employs melee weapons in its arsenal, including the infamous energy sword, a blade of superheated plasma used mostly by the Sangheili and occasionally the Kig-Yar and Jiralhanae. The Jiralhanae's introduction to the Covenant caste system introduced a larger number of melee weapons, which were commonplace in Jiralhanae culture, the most famous being the gravity hammer. Rather than being a blade of plasma, the hammer generates a gravitational field which can cause tremendous damage within a several-meter radius.
God this one took forever to write. Next up with be the Covenant fringe races, and will be much shorter. Council races after that, though I'm still unsure whether I should do a whole page centered around them, or do individual pages for each Council species, considering their culture is much more diverse than that of the Covenant. Also, the inclusion of the Raloi was something I came up with recently. Figured some of the more obscure races could use a tiny bit more limelight.
To close this off, I will reiterate this one last time: in this fic, the Chozo and the Forerunners are one in the same. It is still the same Forerunners from Halo canon, just called the Chozo. The title "Forerunners" is a label largely used by the Covenant, similar to how the Hanar call the Protheans "Enkindlers". I won't be changing it, so please, no more commenting on it. Thank you, and have a nice day.