• The lives of any Covenant male born to a Sangheili mother were typically short, brutal and violent, yet they were always considered honorable.

The Sangheili Commander, wrecked with shame at the loss of the Sacred Ring and his own fleet, returned back to High Charity to receive punishment for what would no doubt be viewed as an act of heresy. This was the first of the Sacred Rings to be found and it was destroyed by a verminous human. Still, he held onto the hope that he could continue his war against humanity - if not for the honor of the Great Journey, then only to ensure that the Demon was destroyed.

Upon arriving at High Charity, the Hierarchs agreed with the High Council and the Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice was afforded the title “Heretic.” The Mark of Shame was seared on his naked chest for the rest of his days, only a preface to the humiliating punishment they had prepared. The Sangheili, even those among the High Council, sensed that something more was amiss. The Hierarchs had been spending an excessive amounts of time with the Jiralhanae leadership, currently embodied by a Chieftain known as Tartarus. When the Commander was punished, his punishment was executed by this outsider - to most of the Sangheili this must have be seen at the very least as an unusual peculiarity.

To further exacerbate this political quandary, two major crises were born.

In one, the Hierarch called Regret had located the human homeworld which unexpectedly resided on the same planet as a gateway portal leading to the Ark – a key component of the Great Journey. How the San ‘Shyuum discovered this location or the Forerunner secret of the Ark, has never been fully explained, but with a relatively small fleet, Regret attempted to take hold of the planet’s East African Protectorate, near the location of the gateway*. Regret’s small exploration team was not suited for a full-scale battle against humanity on their homeworld, and he was forced to retreat through slipspace.

Upon emerging, a second Sacred Ring was discovered: Installation 05, also called Delta Halo. Whereas the advent of the last ringworld saw the Covenant chasing humanity through slipspace, this one found the Covenant fleeing from them in the same manner. It was clear that, once again, there would be a clash against humanity on a Sacred Ring. Some evidence suggests that the Covenant had recently uncovered this ring’s location and had already arrived there in some small numbers before Regret’s assault carrier appeared - nothing concrete has been disclosed thus far.

The other crisis was buried in the debris field of the first Halo installation - the one which the Demon had destroyed. There, a Forerunner gas mining facility in the orbit of Threshold had found its own brand of heresy. Having discovered an Oracle AI construct which claimed to be from the destroyed installation, Sesa ‘Refumee, the chief Sangheili researcher, was intrigued.

Once a member of the Fleet of Particular Justice, this Elite and his crew were sent to research a nearby Forerunner gas mine. When the Sacred Ring was suddenly destroyed, they were quickly paid a visit by the installation’s caretaker. It was then that the Oracle told ‘Refumee about the true purpose of the Halo installations and the real fate of the Forerunners. They were weapons of mass destruction meant to stave off the Flood and the Forerunners met their end when they activated these long ago. With this newfound knowledge, he and his crew were immediately converted. They quickly came to the realization that the San ‘Shyuum had lied about the Great Journey and immediately began transmitting the message across all bands of Covenant communication.

• Sesa ‘Refumee was the first Sangheili to defect, but he would not be the last.

When the Hierarchs heard of this, they knew ‘Refumee must be silenced. The three of them had hidden humanity’s right as heir to the Forerunners from the Sangheili and the rest of the Covenant for decades - they would not allow a single meddler to aggravate their plans when they were so close to fulfilling them. In a scheme he thought masterfully engineered, the Prophet of Truth sent ‘Refumee’s former commanding officer, the disgraced Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice, and the SpecOps Commander, Rtas ‘Vadumee, to eliminate this threat. Before doing so, he pardoned the Commander of his heresy and, through an exchange of words and armor, transformed him into an Arbiter. The Sangheili Commander would not be able to continue his efforts against the humans or the Demon, but by offering himself as a sacrifice for the Covenant, the suicidal mantle of the Arbiter would provide absolution for his sins and, in turn, give the High Council the corpse they demanded.

While the Hierarchs privately determined how to handle Regret’s folly, the Arbiter and the SpecOps Commander took a squad of Elites to assault the heretic camp. The mission was harried but successful. The Arbiter assassinated ‘Refumee but not before hearing a significant portion of the rebel Sangheili’s discovery. Before he could learn more about it, however, the Chieftain Tartarus arrived and stole away the Oracle, retrieving it for the Prophet’s use.

The Covenant leadership was certain they would not lose this second Sacred Ring, so they took all of High Charity and the entire Covenant armada there, readying their ships to return back to Earth. On the surface of the ringworld, however, the surviving Demon was already at work. He broke into one of the Forerunner’s sacred temples, single-handedly eliminated the Honor Guard and then laid to rest the Prophet of Regret himself. The Hierarchs wasted no time leveling the temple in an effort to end the Demon’s work, but no sign had been given that the human was dead.

The SpecOps Commander Rtas ‘Vadumee and the Arbiter returned home to find High Charity’s politics had become a roiling furnace. With the death of a Hierarch at the hands of the Demon, the Sangheili Honor Guard which had stood for countless generations was disbanded. In its place, the Jiralhanae would be their replacements. One can imagine that a great deal of turmoil struck the Elite race in this moment – a fear that the San ‘Shyuum may have felt for ages, being at the mercy of the Sangheili’s military if ever they were to turn, was irrevocably reversed. With the inclusion of the Jiralhanae, physical equals to the Sangheili, the Prophets wasted no more time with formalities.

The Covenant was changing and the Sangheili were being left behind.

• With the mounting tension in the Covenant ranks, there were no doubt a few Elites already preparing for civil war.

Blinded by the inertia of the recent events and hoping to claim some success for the Sangheili name, the Arbiter moved forward with a second mission for the two remaining Hierarchs. He was sent alongside the same SpecOps unit to secure Delta Halo’s Index - the Sacred Icon. With this key, the Prophets believed they could activate the Sacred Ring and initiate a sequence of events which would bring about the Great Journey.

The Arbiter assaulted the parasite-filled corridors of the ringworld’s Library, hearing that the Demon may have survived on the very same ring. He secretly hoped that he might have his vengeance yet. After seizing the Icon from two other humans, he was unexpectedly assaulted by Tartarus. The Chieftain revealed that he was ordered by the Hierarchs to betray and kill him. Stunned beyond words, the Arbiter was beaten and fell into a pit which he no doubt assumed would be his grave.

[Proceed to Part IV]

*Postscript Edit: Thanks to the few who were kind enough to point out this slight discrepancy in the story. While I am personally familiar with ILB’s storyline and was aware of the transmissions which indicate that the Covenant found Earth through a Trojan Horse-virus after the fall of Troy, I failed to commit this to the above article. And though it’s still accurate that the source of Regret’s invasion of Earth “has never been fully explained,” we will likely not have a better explanation than the one given in the ILB storyline. Halopedia appears to have the best breakdown of those canonical events if you care to read further (link). Thanks again!