Covenant (Halo)

In the primary 26th century setting of Halo, humanity and the Covenant clash for the first time in the year 2525. Searching for relics left behind by their gods, the Forerunners, the Covenant stumble across humans at the colony world of Harvest. The Covenant leadership discovers that the Forerunners designated humanity "reclaimers" of their legacy, and that the Covenant religion is built on falsehoods; to prevent the truth from being uncovered, they instigate a genocidal war against humanity. The Covenant's superior technology gives them a distinct advantage in the war. In 2552, the Covenant discover and destroy Reach, one of humanity's greatest military strongholds. A human ship fleeing the battle discovers a Forerunner ringworld, Alpha Halo. The Covenant believe the activation of these rings are key to bringing about salvation, but the ring is destroyed by the human supersoldier Master Chief. Soon after, the Covenant falls into civil war as the truth of the Halo rings' purpose is revealed: they are actually weapons of mass destruction built to stop the spread of the parasitic Flood. The disgraced Covenant commander known as the Arbiter ultimately allies with the Master Chief to stop the Covenant and Flood, ending the Human-Covenant War. In the post-war era, various factions replace the power vacuum left by the Covenant; these include the Banished, who feature as primary antagonists in Halo Infinite. ==Game development==

Throughout much of the development of Halo: Combat Evolved, very little concrete story details had been developed for the story campaign, and what trials the player character would face. Writer Joseph Staten and other Bungie staff came up with the idea of a coalition of alien races, subsequently deciding that the faction would be motivated by religion. During the course of development of Halo, the designers decided upon three "schools" of architecture, for each of the factions represented – humans, Covenant, and Forerunners. For the Covenant, the team decided on "sleek and shiny", with reflective surfaces, organic shapes, and use of purples. According to art director Marcus Lehto, the principle designs for the faction came from environmental artist Paul Russell, Bungie designed the majority of Covenant technology to mirror the aesthetic of the Elites; the exteriors are sleek and graceful, with a more angular and complex core underneath hinting at the Forerunner origins of the technology. The Elites usually take command of a Grunt squad. • Unggoy (Nicknamed "Grunts" by humans), are short, methane-breathing bipeds commonly depicted as basic foot soldiers. Squat and cowardly fighters, Unggoy panic and flee if players kill their commanders although they can pose a threat on higher difficulty settings, especially if encountered in groups. • Kig-Yar (Nicknamed "Jackals" by humans) carry energy shields or long-ranged weaponry. In some cases, such as with the Kig-Yar, the overall design was honed once the enemy's role was clearly defined. Huragok later made appearances in Halo Wars, Halo 3: ODST, Halo Reach and Halo Wars 2 as well as various novels. With subsequent games, the Covenant and their look were changed or refined to account for increased graphic hardware or gameplay needs. In Halo 3, the Jiralhanae became the primary enemy, and they were heavily redesigned. Concept artists took inspiration from rhinoceroses and gorillas, and armored them with buckles and clothing to represent a different aesthetic look compared to the Covenant. Weaponry was designed to reflect the Jiralhanae’s "souls" distilled to its purest form – conveyed by dangerous shapes, harsh colors, and objects that looked "dangerous to be around". Halo: Reach served as a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, and creative director Marcus Lehto pushed for the team to revamp the Covenant. The aliens' translated English was replaced with untranslated, guttural alien sounds, and their look and weaponry was redesigned. The goal was to make the Covenant intimidating and more alien to players. ==Analysis==

The Covenant serve as one of a number of religious allusions in Halo. Their name refers to sacred agreements between the people of Israel and their God in Jewish and Christian tradition, and could be used to indicate the attitude of superiority complex the aliens have to the inferior and sacrilegious humans. The Covenant's ships bear names referring to elements of Judeo-Christian religion. A review of religions and religious material in video games noted that the Covenant's invented religion had many similarities to those in similar games, and would likely be called a cult in the real world. The thematic parallels of religious zealots fighting an American military metaphor was not lost on Microsoft's content review team, who forced a name change of the holy warrior "Dervish" to Arbiter before the release of Halo 2. Theologian P.C.J.M. Paulissen notes that while on the surface the Halo games present a conflict between rational humans and religious alien fanaticism, the comparison is complicated by the technical superiority of the Covenant (they wield energy weapons compared to primitive human ballistics) and the games seem to reject the idea science and religion are rigidly disconnected. ==Cultural impact==

Merchandise Microsoft has commissioned multiple sets of action figures and merchandise featuring Covenant characters for each video game. The Halo 3 action figure sets have been made by McFarlane Toys, and include Brutes and Jackals. The Covenant's weaponry has also been adapted into large-scale replicas. Reception The Covenant were positively received in Combat Evolved, with their artificial intelligence praised and the different tactics needed to defeat each enemy type commended. The ability to experience the storyline of Halo 2 from the Covenant perspective was described as a "brilliant stroke of game design". Allowing the player to assume the role of a Sangheili who was described as providing an unexpected plot twist, and allowing the player to experience a "newfound complexity to the story". In addition, some reviewers thought that this provided the series with a significant plot element – IGN referred to it as the "intriguing side story of Thel 'Vadam and his Sangheili" – and its elimination in Halo 3 was pointed to as responsible for reducing the role of the Arbiter within the series plot. ''Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition'' listed Covenant as 16th in their list of top 50 Villains. ==References==