Covenant Civil War (Cultred)

The Covenant Civil War, also known as the Great Schism or the Great Betrayal (specifically to Separatists), was a major interstellar military conflict pitting the and their allies, the United Nations Space Command, against the , occurring in a small portion of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.
The war began when Covenant political and religious leader issued the on the date of October 20, 2552, replacing Sangheili Honor Guardsmen with Jiralhanae. Simultaneously, he sent a massive naval fleet with a significant surface component to Earth to subdue the previous Sangheili that had traveled to the planet under the command of in search of a Forerunner artifact. This, in addition to events on , in which the truth of the Halo Array being a massive galactic weapon rather than an ascent to godhood was revealed to then-, sparked conflict as many members of the Covenant broke off; this included the military-oriented Sangheili, who had been the Covenant's military leaders since the signing of the in 852 B.C.E.
The fragmentation of the Covenant into two entities would be credited as the root cause of UNSC Pyrrhic victory during the . Because the Separatists primarily consisted of Sangheili, who had been the military leaders of the Covenant, their alliance with the UNSC gave the UNSC a significant advantage in the final months of the conflict. Both would fight alongside one another in some of the bloodiest conflicts in history at the conclusion of the war, notably at , , , and . These major victories proved to be stunningly vital for the UNSC, as they allowed them to overcome over 27 years of interstellar warfare that was primarily studded with losses and emerge victorious.
Following the conclusion of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC Defense Force would continue to support Separatist operations against Loyalists until the end of the civil war in 2559. After its conclusion, human technological innovations, industrial and agricultural applications, and ideals for economic resource consumption would help the Sangheili avoid the predicted "crash and burn" due to the lack of infrastructure and economy. In return, the Sangheili would hand over billions of credits worth technologies that, after reverse-engineering by human scientists, proved vital for human civilization, even at its terribly unstable state, to rebuild swiftly and successfully. These mutual relations helped both governments emerge from the Human-Covenant War as major subgalactic superpowers.
Category:Wars