The Halo universe is rich with side stories, factions, in-fights, and wars. Throughout the great mainline series, spin-off games, and countless books (as well as comics, anime, and the new Paramount Plus television series), the lore of this sci-fi shooter has been expanded in every direction.
As any Star Wars fan will know, however, the more stories are told, the more likely it is that there will be some inconsistencies. Halo is no exception, and the Covenant — the primary antagonist in the first three games — is especially knotted. Throughout the many tales told, some things about them just don’t make any sense.
Updated October 31, 2022 by Amanda Hurych: Even though the primary antagonists of Halo Infinite are the Banished, their origins stem from the Covenant as we saw them in the first three Halo games. This group, perhaps even more than the Flood, has plagued the UNSC with their fixation on the Great Journey. But every great opposing force in a video game has some equally great flaws and inconsistencies. Read on to discover more things that make no sense about the Covenant.
15 They Didn’t Discover A Halo Ring Sooner
The Covenant was around for years, even when it was made up of just Sangheili and San’Shyuum. And during all that time, they had nearly unlimited access to a host of Forerunner artifacts. You would think that during all that time, the Covenant would have found even a single installation of the Halo Array, long before they ever ran into humans. However, it was only post human contact that Halo rings were discovered.
14 They Didn’t Make The Connection Between The Flood And The Great Journey
In Halo: Combat Evolved, Installation 04 is revealed to be hiding some Flood parasites in its bowels. With the help of Cortana, Master Chief learns that the whole reason the Halo ring exists is to eliminate the Flood’s food source (all sentient life). The Covenant, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to grasp that the “Great Journey” they’ve been reading about in Forerunner texts and artifacts is one and the same with the ring’s activation. They had loads more time dealing with Forerunner gadgets and scripts, but they just couldn’t put two and two together.
13 The Prophet Of Truth’s Change In Motivation
When you play through Halo 2 and witness any cutscene that includes the Prophet of Truth, you’re immediately confronted with his political acumen. He schemes and maneuvers his way through the Covenant hierarchy, and you get a solid impression that he doesn’t believe the Great Journey nonsense he spouts.
He just uses it as a tool to gain power. However, Halo 3 does a complete one-eighty. Truth sounds like a hardcore fanatic, actually believing in every word he says in those religious broadcasts he holograph-streams all the time.
12 The Disappearance Of The San’Shyuum
We don’t get to see too many San’Shyuum in the Halo games aside from the “noble hierarchs,” the Prophets of Truth, Mercy, and Regret. However, even though we don’t see other members of their species, they do exist canonically. But they all seem to have disappeared after the events of Halo 3. We have no clue what happened to the San’Shyuum as a whole. It’s rumored they all ran away and hid themselves so that the Elites wouldn’t go hunting after them (and who could blame them), but we’ve yet to see where they’ve secluded themselves.
11 The Covenant Persisted After The Events On The Ark
The battle on the Ark for all intents and purposes spelled the end of the Covenant. With all three of the hierarchs eliminated at that point, the Covenant had no leadership to speak of. And assuming they committed the majority of their forces to controlling the Ark, a vast amount of their resources were destroyed when Master Chief and Arbiter blew the place up. But even though the Covenant should have been effectively demolished, they show up again (with just as many resources) in Halo 4 and Halo 5.
10 They Speak English
One of the most interesting aspects of Halo: Combat Evolved’s new world was the aliens, serving as worthy fodder for the player’s combat rifle. As an enemy, they were so full of personality. From Grunts to Elites, they’d scurry around, grunting strangely, and firing their unique weapons.
Yet when Halo 2 came around three years later, all these aliens spoke standard human English. Halo 2 only takes place a month or so after the first game, so in that time these alien species became bilingual, apparently. Either they had a great run on Duolingo or something doesn’t quite add up.
9 Their Religious Beliefs Are Inconsistent
The Covenant is portrayed as a religious union, joined in the worship of the Forerunners. They find Forerunner technology and seem to believe in the spirituality of these machines. In general, it seems that these pieces of technology are relics of this unknowable, godlike race.
Other than that, however, we don’t really know or see much of their religious beliefs. There’s nothing in the games about their religious worship and rituals, or even a religious text. For a group that fights large-scale wars for their faith, you’d think there would be more obvious religious practices.
8 Simple Artificial Intelligence
Halo is also responsible for creating one of the most iconic AI characters ever: Cortana. She is one of the most intelligent and powerful AIs in the Halo universe and accompanies Chief throughout the first three games. So why doesn’t the Covenant have anything as good?
The AI that the Covenant makes use of can do very little, at least according to the books. They can autopilot their ships, but not much else beyond that. While there are some UNSC AIs that the Covenant has stolen, they don’t utilize them to any great benefit. Maybe they’re just happy with a fancy sat-nav and nothing else.
7 The Bomb’s Timer
One of the most iconic scenes in Halo comes at the beginning of the second game. The Covenant have placed a bomb on Cairo Station, a defensive space station above Earth. Just in time, Chief disarms the bomb and then decides to ride it out into space like something out of Dr. Strangelove, taking it into a Covenant ship and blowing it asunder.
It is a legendary scene, but it was always confusing that the Covenant just didn’t do something similar to Cairo Station. They have more than enough Grunts that once they got the bomb inside, a lowly recruit could arm the bomb on a two-second timer, rather than the lengthy one they had before. It just feels like they made it a bit too easy for Chief.
6 Their Power To Conquer Civilizations
The Covenant is a massive religious union, made between multiple alien species. They are incredibly powerful, controlling a huge swathe of the galaxy. However, as seen in the later Halo games, something so big can easily start to crumble from the inside. Somehow, this shaky union full of different leaders with different aims still manages to wipe out the civilizations in spite of its rocky foundation. Even so, after a relatively short space of time — around six months — after this event, there is a civil war. Who knew something so close to falling apart could also destroy a whole planet?
5 Less-Advanced Technology As Time Goes On
The issue that will always plague prequel video games is working out how to add more stuff, yet not ruin what comes afterward. In Halo: Reach, there are weapons that don’t appear in some Halo sequels, which is weird when considering that Reach directly leads into the opening cutscene of Halo: Combat Evolved. There may be some, convoluted reason why the Covenant ditched the Focus Rifle for other weapons, but it does feel a bit inconsistent.
4 Attempted Genocide Of Humanity
On learning that humans might be directly linked with the Forerunners (the god-level beings that the Covenant worship), the High Prophets of the Covenant decided to wage a genocidal war on humanity, rather than risk the crumbling of their religion, and in turn their own power.
This seems to make some sense, but there is one big flaw. Why didn’t the Covenant just leave humans alone? The result of this war on humanity was the Great Schism, a civil war among two species in the Covenant, and the only hope that humans had of actually defeating their enemies. It looks like the initial decision is what actually led to their eventual downfall, funnily enough.
3 Technological Failures
The Covenant is much more technologically advanced than humans, as well as being larger in number. If it wasn’t for the divisions among their own ranks, humans would have never stood a chance. Yet, for a group so advanced, they still had some severely silly technological failings.
Similarly, with their ineptitude with using AI, the Covenant have struggled to make the most of the Forerunner technology that they found. For example, they happily put light shields on their Banshees, but not on their Ghosts? There are also big holes in the back of Wraiths that are perfect for making them blow up, which doesn’t seem like the best idea.
2 The Two Sides Of The Great Schism
During the Great Schism — a civil war that split the Covenant — the Prophets started executing and replacing the Elites with Brutes, as the Elites had split from their rule. It’s all pretty gnarly stuff, yet some aspects are still left unclear.
For example, which races sided with the Elites, and which stayed under the rule of the Prophets? During the memorable ending of Halo 2, we see some Grunts assisting the Arbiter (leader of the Elite rebellion, allied to the humans), yet by Halo 3 the Grunts are enemies again. Did they just switch sides in the handful of days between Halo 2 and 3?
1 Everything They Build Is Purple
The biggest, most noticeable aspect of the Covenant is their penchant for one vibrant color: purple. Almost everything that is theirs, from the buildings to the vehicles, is purple. This is because it is made out of a certain strong material, which is fair enough, but had they not heard of paint?
Of course, bringing human sensibilities to alien psychology is a losing battle, but it is odd that the Covenant’s favorite color is that usually ascribed to wealthy Romans and pop star Prince. It feels a bit flashy for such an earnest union of religious zealots.
