Anodyne Spirit

The Anodyne Spirit was a Forerunner keyship originally discovered by the san'shyuum on their homeworld, Janjur Qom. It served as the centrepiece of High Charity prior to the Great Schism.
== History ==
=== Prehistory ===
The Anodyne Spirit was used by the Librarian and the Lifeworkers to index and catalog life in the galaxy and transport it to Installation 00 as part of the Conservation Measure. During the final days of the Long Night, the Spirit's crew would range deep into Flood-controlled territory to locate untouched worlds and index a cross-section of their biodiversity before it could be consumed.
Following the Great Purification, Anodyne Spirit re-seeded life to the san'shyuum homeworld Janjur Qom. As the ship departed for Janjur Qom, a fragment of Mendicant Bias escaped, nesting within the shipboard computer. After the keyship arrived at the planet and re-seeded the san'shyuum, Mendicant Bias attempted to take control of the vessel and travel to Earth to make amends for the crimes it committed against the Forerunners during the War for the Dawn by aiding their descendants. However, an unknown complication occurred and the Anodyne Spirit crashed onto the surface of Janjur Qom, its impact forming an immense sea later known as the Great Apothtea.
=== Resdiscovery ===
Over several millennia, the Anodyne Spirit became partially buried in rock and submerged below the Great Apothtea off the coast of Janjur Qom's main continent. Early in the history of the san'shyuum, the species discovered and partially uncovered the keyship on their homeworld and began to worship it. These early worshipers were split over the usage of the ship, as the Stoics refused to enter the vessel, while the radical Reformists wished to explore it. The division in san'shyuum society led to the violent San'shyuum Schism. During the climax of the civil war, around one thousand Reformists stormed the Anodyne Spirit and barricaded themselves inside. The Reformists occasionally raided Stoic territory to collect and stock the ship with plants, wood, seeds, and other goods from the planet, and made preparations to depart. Eventually, the Reformists commandeered the keyship and left Janjur Qom, taking a gigantic piece of the planet with them.
The massive crater left behind on Janjur Qom was filled in by the sea. The Stoics watched as the Forerunner vessel left them behind, but they were unwilling to fire upon the object of their reverence, and grudgingly allowed the Reformists to leave. Though, the Stoics did send them messages warning them that they would be damned by the "gods" for their theft of the vessel. Utilizing some of the terminals located about the Anodyne Spirit, the San'Shyuum solidified their religion and realized the Path to the Great Journey. However, they had mistranslated the terminals and incorrectly believed that activating the Halo Array would initiate the Journey.[16] With the help of the Forerunner technology from the keyship, the Reformists were able to survive and travel the galaxy. Unaware of the ship's Forerunner classification, the san'shyuum would come to call the Anodyne Spirit the Forerunner Dreadnought due to the vessel's unparalleled power.
=== War of Beginnings ===
The san'shyuum eventually encountered the sangheili, who also had familiarity with Forerunner technology. The Dreadnought landed on the sangheili frontier colony of Ulgethon, and san'shyuum diplomats were sent to meet with the sangheili, led by an Arbiter. The san'shyuum believed that reverse-engineering Forerunner technology was allowed by their religion. To the sangheili, such a thing would have been unthinkable. The opposing beliefs led to war, and the Dreadnought left the world, after the san'shyuum discovered that the Arbiter had killed the diplomats.
During the war, the sangheili had an early advantage, with each warrior comparable in skill to ten San'Shyuum in battle. However, the San'Shyuum's technological superiority, and possession of the Forerunner Dreadnought, meant that they had the advantage in space.The San'Shyuum used the keyship's defensive weapons to great effect in devastating hit-and-run strikes against the Sangheili fleets. During a skirmish on the world of Balkesh, the Dreadnought was used to eliminate Sangheili ground forces from orbit. Eventually, the Sangheili were forced to amend their position of the treatment of Forerunner technologies and began incorporating elements into their own designs.
Additionally, the san'shyuum were able to weaponize the Dreadnought's contingent of Aggressor Sentinels to serve them in combat. By the time the war ended, these Sentinels had been wiped out almost entirely, only a select few having been preserved aboard the keyship.
Eventually, in order to ensure the survival of both races, the two races merged to form the early Covenant with the San'Shyuum as the head religious leaders and the Sangheili as their protectors, and head of the military.
=== Centerpiece of High Charity ===
The two races then penned the Writ of Union, which formally established the Covenant, and decommissioned the Forerunner warship, removing all known weapons, and placing it within the partially completed High Charity. It was then used to power the city, with its engines at partial power. The massive piece of rock taken from Janjur Qom was later refitted into the rocky dome of High Charity, along with the Dreadnought atop it. The Dreadnought then became the purview of the ascetic priests, who studied the vessel's systems and tended to the Oracle, in fact a fragment of the rampant Forerunner ancilla 05-032 Mendicant Bias.
After the Taming of the Lekgolo, the Prophets used the newly incorporated lekgolo to explore Forerunner relics, and after ages of experimenting on lesser relics, finally worked up the courage to explore the Dreadnought's pathways. At first, these explorations were slow and deliberate, as the priests feared damaging the Dreadnought or offending the Oracle. But with no response from the Oracle, the priests began to continue the explorations until the practice became common place, often with the aid of Huragok. Afterwards, at least twenty Mgalekgolo remained on guard around the Dreadnought.
During the 23rd Age of Doubt, the Minister of Fortitude, and the Vice Minister of Tranquility went to the Dreadnought for confirmation of two symbols found on the missionary vessel Minor Transgression. These two symbols were “Reclamation” and “Oracle”, which were found on a world populated by a large majority of humans. After the Philologist entered the data into the "Oracle" inside of the keyship, it began to relay a series of cryptic messages:
: FOR EONS I HAVE WATCHED
: LISTENED TO YOU MISINTERPRET
: THIS IS NOT RECLAMATION
: THIS IS RECLAIMER
: AND THOSE IT REPRESENTS ARE MY MAKERS
: I WILL REJECT MY BIAS AND MAKE AMENDS
: MY MAKERS ARE MY MASTERS
: I WILL BRING THEM SAFELY TO THE ARK
During this series of messages, the Oracle began a launch sequence, which would rip the keyship from High Charity and destroy the Covenant capital with it. Fortunately for the people of High Charity, the Dreadnought was short-circuited by Lekgolo exploring the pathways. The Oracle was soon disconnected, but this caused a spiritual crisis for Fortitude, Tranquility and the Philologist. Through the Oracle’s messages, the Forerunners (or their descendants), were still alive, which would shake the foundations of the Covenant itself to the core: if the masses learned that they might be left behind, then they would revolt against the Prophets. In an attempt to keep the religion itself intact, they covered up the encounter, and would try to eradicate these Reclaimers.