Covenant Empire

The Covenant are a religious alien empire who are the main antagonists of the Halo series. They are obsessed with activating the titular "Halo" space stations, believing that they will send them on a "Great Journey" into godhood, when in reality they were intended to be a last-resort defense against The Flood and would destroy all life in the galaxy if successfully used. They worship the ancient "Forerunner" race, which created the Halos, but are oblivious to the true purposes of their creations even when Forerunner robots such as 343 Guilty Spark are still around who would gladly inform them. They are at war with humanity because humans are actually the descendants of the Forerunners, and since the Covenant religion states that all the Forerunners went on the Great Journey and ascended to a higher plane of existence, this means that their prophecy is wrong and the leaders of the Covenant want to exterminate humanity so the other Covenant won't find out about this and cause the organization to fall apart.

One major practice of the Covenant is the orbital bombardment of enemy planets by their larger spaceships, known as "Glassing", which has an effect similar to a nuclear holocaust. This most notably happened to the planet Reach, which fell shortly before the first Halo game and was shown in the prequel game Halo: Reach.

The Covenant is comprised of at least eight different alien races:


 * Elites/Sangheili: The most skilled warriors of the Covenant, the Elites themselves are grey humanoid creatures with strange squid-like mouths, but they wear a variety of elaborate armor that always covers their bodies. They have a highly sophisticated culture and ranking system, and served as the highest-ranking zealots of the Covenant army. That is, until Halo 2, where an Elite named the Arbiter learns the truth about the Halo rings and the Prophets and leads his race away from the Covenant, joining the humans and later killing the Prophet of Truth personally. They only appear as allies in Halo 3.
 * Grunts/Unggoy: The lowliest and weakest of all the Covenant, these small creatures are identified by the large breathing apparatus they wear on their backs to survive in human environments, which resemble a shell. They have squeaky, high-pitched voices and their lines often provide comic relief during gameplay.
 * Jackals/Kig-Yar: Skinny orange creatures with very long heads who are relatively low in the Covenant hierarchy and usually serve as "scouts" in military operations. They usually carry round energy shields on their arms and often are trained as snipers. In Halo: Reach, a new variation of the species called Skirmishers are introduced, which are stronger and black in color.
 * Hunters/Mgalekgolo: Large blue mechanical monsters made up of a colony of small worm-like creatures called Lekgolo. They always fight in pairs. Hunters appear in all Halo games.
 * Brutes/Jiralhanae: Hairy, barbaric, ape-like humanoids with incredible physical strength and powerful weaponry. They are led by Chieftains who wield powerful melee weapons called Gravity Hammers. Brutes are introduced in Halo 2, where they serve as the main enemies of the Arbiter after he turns good, become the personal bodyguards of the Prophets during the game's storyline and replace the Elites as the main enemies in Halo 3.
 * Drones/Yanme'e: Relatively small flying insect creatures that rarely appear in battle and are always found in large groups when they do. Drone packs usually serve as isolated filler sequences that help break up the action during lengthier levels. Introduced in Halo 2.
 * Engineers/Huragok: Floating slug-like creatures that were actually created by the Forerunner and now serve the Covenant as slaves. A peaceful and simple race, they do not directly participate in combat and usually just provide psychic shields for other Covenant units, but are sometimes used as suicide bombers. Engineers were created for the original Halo: Combat Evolved but were cut from the game, and later appeared in the tie-in novels before being featured in the spinoff game Halo Wars and then in the Bungie-developed Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach.
 * Prophets/San'Shyuum: The leaders of the Covenant religion, the Prophets are frail, old creatures who use floating chairs to move around. They are very few in number, and there are three main Prophets: The Prophet of Truth, the Prophet of Regret and the Prophet of Mercy. Ironically, all three of their personalities are actually the opposite of their names. Only one prophet is actually fought in the entire Halo series: The Prophet of Regret in Halo 2.