The Covenant is a multi-alien empire in the Halo franchise known for its sheer ferocity in subjugating different races and its goal of achieving a state of godhood via The Great Journey. It was one of the biggest threats to humanity's existence, but it collapsed on itself, never fulfilling its purpose.
While many factors contributed to the Covenant's destruction, the Great Schism can be seen as the one that started its true downfall. It is a civil war that took place within the empire, which eventually led to the Elites siding with the human race, ultimately shifting the tides of the battle for survival that has lasted for years.
Due to the role it played in helping end the Covenant and ensuring that the powerful Halo rings didn't wipe out all sentient life, it is important to learn about the Great Schism. To better understand it, we must examine the three groups that played a major role in the civil war: the Prophets, the Elites, and the Brutes.
The Prophets are essentially the religious leaders of the Covenant, using the promise of salvation through the Great Journey to ensure their coveted positions and control over the other races. The Elites are the Prophets' main military force, who are loyal to the empire's purpose but eventually show distrust regarding what would actually happen upon completing The Great Journey. The Brutes play a similar but less significant role to the Elites, but are more fiercely devoted to the Prophets and the Covenant's cause.
With the relationship between the three established, the next step is to understand how the war started. While trying to achieve salvation, the Prophets discovered that their gods, the Forerunners, did not intend for them to be the ones to activate Halo, but rather the human race. Such a secret, if revealed, would result in the collapse of order within the Covenant and the Prophets losing their status as religious leaders, which would likely end with their demise.
The Elites, while not fully aware of the situation, were slowly but surely uncovering the lie behind the Great Journey, becoming a silent threat in the empire that couldn't be ignored. Upon realizing that, the Prophets of Truth, Mercy, and Regret established a plan to remove the Elites from the Covenant and replace them with the more easily manipulated Brutes, thus preventing the secret from being revealed and ensuring they keep their position of power.
The opportunity to set it in motion arrived following the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, where the Master Chief successfully destroyed a Halo installation. The Prophets strategically used the event to blame the Elites and undermine their position in the Covenant, to rousing success. To further humiliate the race, the religious leaders ordered a Brute, particularly a chieftain named Tartarus, to publicly brand the Elite commander who failed to stop the Master Chief, who would eventually turn to become the Arbiter.
This slowly sowed the seeds of the changing of the guard, but was still not enough reason to command the complete annihilation of the Elites. The second opportunity came when the Prophet of Regret, who was on Earth thinking it contained Forerunner secrets, died at the hands of the Master Chief despite the protection of the Elite honor guards.
While it resulted in the loss of the powerful religious leader, it provided ample reason to fully replace the Elites with the Brutes as the Covenant's main military backbone, which caused the former to question their allegiance to the empire. Still, this was not enough for the Prophets to completely justify wiping the race out of the Covenant and from existence, but a good reason to do so was drawing near.
After some time, it finally came during a mission that involved Tartarus and the Arbiter having to reclaim an artifact that allowed for the firing of a Halo ring. Upon retrieving it, the chieftain blasted the Arbiter into a chasm in the hopes of killing him, which acted as a signal for the Brutes to follow the Prophets' command to massacre the Elite race.
This resulted in the violent act of the Great Schism coming to full effect, and the beginning of the dissolution of the Covenant. The Elites fought for survival, with some Jackals, Grunts, and even Hunters siding with them, but they knew they would eventually be outmatched. Through no other choice, they formed an uneasy alliance with the human race, a decision that would ultimately lead to them emerging as the victors of the civil war.
After which, events such as the destruction of additional Halo installations, and the deaths of Tartarus and the Prophets of Truth and Mercy came to be. With the loss of more sacred rings and the lack of powerful figures to lead, the Covenant became too fractured to remain, leading to its demise and the survival of the Elites after the Great Schism.
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