Ankoran Covenant

"Faith in Hardship. Unity in Faith. Strength in Unity."

The Holy Covenant of the Ankoran, also known as the Ankoran Covenant, or simply, the Covenant is a theocratic, ankoran-centric polity originating from the planet Usse in the Milky Way Galaxy. The theocratic empire controls over 1400 habitable planets across its domain, and has extended its grasp across the intergalactic void to colonise both the Andromeda Galaxy and Triangulum Galaxy.

The technological advances of the Ankoran Covenant are matched only to its intergalactic rivals in the Teyan Dominion, and their ancient, unbeknownst seeder, the Draknisi Imperium.

Although granting the freedom of religion, the government of the Ankoran Covenant, an oligarchic body where political leadership lies in the hands of the leaders of the nation's most powerful religious factions, who heavily push for religiously-minded education and cultural ideals. As a result of this, the population of the Covenant near-universally accepts religious doctrine within the Covenant as factual, shunning and persecuting the non-religious or 'heretical' minorities within its space for faithlessness and apostasy.

History
"For over a thousand years have we searched for answers, for a purpose, for a trace of the divine still in the universe. Their light went out... We must bring it back!"

- Archprophet Haythi Aelis, founder of the Covenant

Origins
The Ankoran Covenant was first established during the year 5782 BC as part of a union between several of the largest nations of Usse; the theocratic empires who ruled the jungles of their vicious homeworld coming together under a union built upon mutual faith and kinship. Many prophets rose and fell across the centuries prior, spreading a variety of faiths across the globe, though through the nature of Ankoran Cult, these religious denominations would be absorbed into the pre-modern cult as the nation-states of Usse united and coalesced. Some nations did so peacefully; others were annexed by force; but after a 100 year period of uniting power blocs, a global coalition was formed; the Covenant, which would go on to become the formal governing body of the ankoran people as they attempted to access the stars.

During that time the ankoran reverse-engineered the technologies of their holy Precursors to create the first functional hyperdrive, allowing the fledgeling Covenant to expand beyond the borders of the Kuvura system, into the Carina Nebula and beyond.

Early Expansion
As the early Covenant began to explore the Carina Nebula beyond the limits of the Kuvura system, it began to establish its first interstellar foundations on new worlds, building observation posts and beginning to search for habitable planets beyond the limits of early Covenant’s domain. It would be in 5711BC that the first habitable exoplanet would be discovered by Covenant scientists, much to the shock of the ruling religious council, who did not expect to find life at all before exploration beyond the Carina Nebula was established.

The first ankoran expeditions to this planet, later named Aluos would begin in 5699BC cataloguing the alien biosphere for study, and determining the suitability for the planet to host the first Covenant colony beyond the Kuvura system. Although the atmosphere was non-toxic, the oxygen levels in the atmosphere were too low for the ankoran to survive for long periods of time, and thus oxygen canisters were required for early explorers. The planet’s soil was found to be highly toxic to imported fauna from Usse, though the native animal life was deemed fit for ankoran consumption, and the initial survey outpost was repurposed to the beginning of ankoran civilisation on the planet as the colonisation of the world was greenlit.

By 5662BC, two other habitable planets had been identified by Covenant scientists and settled by the Covenant - Carinae and Sultae, the future economic and scientific hearts of the nebula.

Colonial Schism
It was in 5645BC that the early signs of conflict were cracking through between Usse, Carinae, and Sultae. Although Aluos remained heavily dominated by loyal and faithful ankoran, who remained staunchly in support of the Ankoran Covenant, its sister colonies were becoming far more independent, and soon rebellious as they found themselves growing more distant from the homeworld, and more hungry for total independence.

As tensions began to rise, a conflict began to seem more and more likely; ultimately breaking out when the Sultae First political party began openly endorsing terrorist attacks on Usse. Shocked and outraged by this betrayal, the Covenant, initially relaxing its hold on the colonies, immediately began a military campaign to remove the Sultae First party and bring Sultae back into compliance - destroying any hope for Sultae becoming an independent power in the process. Brutal crackdowns followed a military occupation of the planet, as a new government was installed and democratic elements restricted severely across the Covenant as a whole.

The display of brutality on Sultae swiftly killed off any thoughts of independence from Carinae, whose population was both shocked by Sultae’s brazen terrorist attacks, and disturbed by the brutality of the Covenant’s response. Support for becoming independent powers soon faded away into memory for everyone, as the Covenant began to centralize power in the Carina Nebula.

Nebulaeic Trio
After the brutal but short-lived conflict on Sultae, the Covenant returned to its expansionist outlook, surveying the stars beyond the limits of the Carina Nebula. Its first colonies beyond the immense star-creating gas cloud became observatories to view the wider universe, and identified the Omega Nebula and Eagle Nebula as regions of scientific and colonial curiosity.

The Carina-Omega Hyperlane was soon mapped out, and colonial ships and scientific expeditions launched to explore the Omega Nebula. Kaasto was the first identified habitable planet in the Omega Nebula, finding animal life fit for consumption by ankoran as with Aluos many years before. Kaasto City was first established 5610BC, and became the Covenant’s seat of government of the Omega Nebula.

In 5598BC, the Omega-Eagle Hyperlane and Carina-Eagle Hyperlane were established, and expeditions to colonise the Eagle Nebula began, with the construction of Prophecy in 5594BC, a central habitat at the heart of the nebula, and the discovery and colonisation of Taeduos in 5581BC. Taeduos would later become the central administrative location of the Eagle Nebula, as Kaasto had become in the Omega Nebula.

First Contact
In 5322BC, the Covenant would make first contact with another sapient species in the galaxy, shattering preconceptions of ankoran divinity and that their long-dead gods had seeded the galaxy for them alone, as previously theorised by ankoran theologists.

This species, the yphrel, were of similar technological progress as the ankoran themselves, although many aspects of each race’s technology were entirely incompatible with one another; similar concepts but entirely different executions. The unexpected presence led to immediate debate by theologists on how to handle this discovery, while sociologists began to scour theorised yphrell space for any information on their language, culture, society and any concepts that might be shared between the species, as to enable communications.

By 5287BC, Covenant sociologists had made little progress, though were shocked to find the yphrel had cracked the Covenant’s lingua franca, Ankorta, enabling the establishment of diplomatic ties.

Andromeda Initiative
In 1288CE, the efforts of the Andromeda Initiative arrived in the Andromeda Galaxy. The project, intended to send scientists, explorers, and colonists on a one-way trip to settle the frontiers of Andromeda, has the ultimate goal to establish a permanent presence on the seemingly resource-rich frontier of Andromeda and eventually create a reliable route between it and the Milky Way Galaxy. With powerful benefactors lending their support, the program grew substantially in scope after its initial inception, allowing the transport of a million volunteers in cryosleep across the intergalactic void. The mission as a whole was an astounding victory for the ankoran species - becoming one of the few extragalactic species of the Milky Way Galaxy to settle beyond their galactic domain.

The attempted establishment of a hyperspace tunnel to connect the Andromeda Galaxy to the Milky Way soon followed, as an effort began in Andromeda to create their side of a gate that would allow ships to pass through a channel of compressed hyperspace to travel from one galaxy to another in a shorter time than the 300 years spent in cryosleep. Though the project was never able to be completed, advancements in hyperdrive technologies negated the need for the tunnel as new engines could manage the journey in only a single year; still a considerably long time, but far less than the lifetime before.

Colonisation of Triangulum
In 1288, the sister project of the Andromeda Initiative also arrived at its destination; the Triangulum Galaxy. The Triangulum Initiative landed on Iraeli and began to establish itself in its new home; the one million volunteers who had journeyed to the Triangulum Galaxy settling a foundation for a new empire separate from the Covenant. Despite the separatist mindset of the Triangulum Covenant’s colonists, the hyperdrive improvements that saw the 300-year journey shortened to only one dashed these hopes, as the new colonial region was forced into compliance with the Covenant, overseen by loyalist agents from Usse.

Encounter with the Dominion
First contact with the Teyan Dominion did not come, as might be expected, in the Triangulum Galaxy where the Dominion’s core territories lie, but in the Andromeda Galaxy, when Covenant colonists encountered the Dominion of Andromeda. Though the news spread quickly between both factions of the other’s existence, it was a third party; the Sulsuan Protectorate, who would ultimately introduce, and translate for, the two future rivals.

Diplomatic relations initially seemed promising, but the ambitions of both powers and disputes over colonisation rights soon boiled over into conflict between the two powers in the Andromeda Galaxy. The conflict between the Andromedan Covenant Territories and Dominion of Andromeda would soon begin to muddy the diplomatic waters between the Covenant and Dominion as a whole, forming the foundation for a rivalry between the two galactic powers that would last from that day onward.

The Schism in Triangulum
Since the first founding of the Triangulum Covenant Territories, the region has been uncomfortably uncooperative with the Covenant’s government for Usse. It was in 2540 that these tensions and bitterness erupted into open protests and riots on Iraeli at the news of additional taxation on trade with the other states of the Triangulum Galaxy. Enraged by what they perceived as an overbearing and authoritarian grip of their homeland by the Covenant - which factions within the Triangulum Covenant Territories were beginning to view themselves more and more distantly from, an 8-day protest erupted, followed by another 8-day period of rioting across the colonial territory. Military intervention was necessary to end the riots, and mass arrests followed suit.

The event led to the further tightening of control on the Triangulum Covenant Territories and is believed to be the underlying event that sparked the new secessionist movements within the Triangulum Covenant Territories.

Covenant-Dominion War
After several naval stand-offs between Covenant and Dominion border patrols, rising tensions between the two powers soon began to crack open into utter hostility between the two intergalactic hyperpowers; it was shortly after this in 2837 that Covenant intelligence agencies discovered that Warmaster Bellicor Tulkan of the Teyan Dominion had arrived in the Dominion of Andromeda on the 23rd of August. It was then uncovered that Bellicor had ordered a naval strike on the Covenant colony of Daemoclef as a preventive strike, aiming to cripple the Covenant Navy and prevent it from attacking the Dominion.

In response to these uncovered plans, the Covenant laid a trap in the Kaso System, waiting for the Dominion Navy to arrive for its attack. Springing the ambush in orbit of Daemoclef, the Fleet of Pious Inquisition and Fleet of Crusading Divinity destroyed the Dominion’s assault fleets in the First Battle for Daemoclef, instigating the Covenant-Dominion War.

The conflict would go on for four years, spreading quickly across other worlds within the colonial territories of the two major factions, and then to the Milky Way and Triangulum galaxies, causing billions of lives to be lost on both sides as the Covenant and Dominion fought each other over their now-burning animosity and desire for galactic dominance.

Unbeknownst to most of those involved, the conflict was started and maintained purposefully by Bellicor Tulkan and ended with his death at the hands of the Dominion’s Empress Vaera Faendras II.

Territory
Controlling a large swathe of the Carina–Sagittarius Arm, with a heavy presence in the Carina Nebula, Eagle Nebula, and Omega Nebula. The Carina Nebula comprises the capital sector of the Ankoran Covenant, housing its most important worlds, both politically and economically, although several major planets of vast political, economic, and strategic importance dot the immense territories of the Covenant.

Inside the claimed territories of the Covenant, many minor powers exist, ranging from primitive, fractured nation-states, to minor single-system empires. The vast majority of powers with FTL capacity within the Covenant sphere of influence are typically integrated or recognised as an "independent polities" within Covenant territory.

Andromedan Covenant Territories
The Andromedan Covenant Territories are the region of the Andromeda Galaxy controlled primarily by the Ankoran Covenant’s colonial administration. Primarily concerned with trade and political relations with Andromedan polities such as the Sulsuan Protectorate and Draknisi Imperium. The region is largely independent of the Ankoran Covenant itself, though acts as a semi-sovereign autonomous district with loyalty to the Covenant’s government.

Triangulum Covenant Territories
The Triangulum Covenant Territories are the less loyal and less wealthy sister to the Andromedan Covenant Territories, situated within the Triangulum Galaxy at the edge of the Teyan Dominion’s hegemonic domain. Far more independent than the Andromedan Covenant Territories culturally, it has found itself oppressed by the Ankoran Covenant for its rebellious desire to cut itself away from its parent state and increasingly unstable as its people and government struggle with its parent for political freedom.

Religion
The Covenant Faith is an unsurprising constant across the entirety of the otherwise diverse population of the Ankoran Covenant, and perhaps the only constant across the Covenant’s expansive, inter-galactic domain. Also known as Path of the Precursors, Precursor Worship, and the Ankoran Cult, this religion is centred around the concept of the unknowable nature of divinity, and the supposed universal truth that no religion, not even itself, can truly comprehend the entire nature of the precursors.

The Covenant Faith has incorporated elements from galactic religions from all three of the major galaxies in the Local Group, including human religions such as Christianity and Islam, as well as the li'mai faith of sun-worship, Ayanna, and the teyan Hakai denomination. Other faiths that have been incorporated into the Ankoran Cult in some capacity include the draknisi Cult of Drakon, and thousands of other minor religions.

What the individual followers and even worlds, of the Covenant call the supposedly divine precursors who first uplifted their species (and should their doctrines be true, all other species in the universe) varies, although the most common names are the Forebearers, Firstborne, and Divinitian.

Heresy
Heresy, any belief or theory counter to the accepted beliefs of the state religion, in the Ankoran Covenant is typically a matter of no legal importance unless the individual is a member of the Covenant Clergy. Heretics are barred from holding government positions that have any religious significance and are banned from certain military positions, including leadership roles, and as religious councillors.

Within the civilian sphere of the Covenant population, being deemed a heretic will have little legal consequences, although they are likely to be scorned, shunned, or even persecuted by extrajudicial means. “Heretical Rights” have become a significant mar on the Covenant’s diplomatic missions due to this feverish and zealous response to heresy, ranging from the loss of family, career, and in extreme cases, imprisonment through accusations of other crimes. Heretics are typically quick to evacuate from Covenant space and are usually found living alone on the worlds of other interstellar powers.

Although heretics are, in theory, protected by law, public blasphemy is considered a felony misdemeanour offence and can result in legal consequences.

Population
According to the 2947 census, the total population of the Ankoran Covenant was around 12,006,182,500,000. The majority of the Covenant’s population live within the Carina Nebula, Omega Nebula, and Eagle Nebula, with the three nebulae totalling roughly 65% of the total Covenant population.

The Andromedan Covenant Territories and Triangulum Covenant territories house roughly 15% of the Covenant’s population between them. The remaining 20% of the Covenant’s 12 trillion citizens live more sparsely on planets beyond the Covenant’s nebulae, within the Milky Way galaxy.

The Ankoran Covenant is currently experiencing a period of lowered population growth, with only 3% population growth each year.

Language
Most planets within the sphere of the Ankoran Covenant speak their own native languages, derived from the ancient languages of Usse that once existed in the 8000 year period between the Covenant’s founding and the present day. Although these original languages have long since died out, and linguistic drift has since rendered these descendent languages mutually unintelligible from their origins,

Of these many languages that have formed in the span of the Covenant’s birth to the present day is Ankorta, the officially-recognised state language of the Covenant, used in the managing of the state. Although this language is well known by the vast majority of the Covenant’s population (with 85% of all citizens being fluent in Ankorta), it is typically a second language to most of its population, with the local planetary language preferred for use outside of commerce and government duties.

Holy Tribunal
The Ankoran Covenant is a theocracy, governed under the concept of the divine sanction of the ruling council of religious leaders by the Covenant’s gods - the Precursors who uplifted them aeons ago. This council of religious leaders, known as the Holy Tribunal is the national legislative body of the Covenant, ruling from Usse as a religious oligarchy, deriving its authority from the claimed will of the divine. The Holy Tribunal appoints a Chief Precentor to oversee its actions, and to act as a religious authority capable of breaking deadlocks, and proclaim new religious revelations to the masses.

The Holy Tribunal is comprised of one hundred spiritual leaders drawn from across the Ankoran Covenant’s territory, whose members are elected from candidates by existing members of the Tribunal. The Tribunal itself is structured as a religious unicameral body, and is responsible for passing new laws, and overseeing diplomatic relations with alien polities. Members of the Holy Tribunal will typically act as diplomats to alien states within the Milky Way, although such duties have been relegated to the Diplomatic Corps within the Covenant’s extragalactic colonies.

Civil Governance
Civilian administrative and bureaucratic duties fall not to the Holy Tribunal, but to a subservient secular government, known as the Covenant Administrative Council. This government separates each Covenant-controlled planet into twelve administrative districts for governing and bureaucratic purposes. The Administrative Council is the beating heart of the vast bureaucracy that comprises the secular concerns of the Covenant, with duties ranging from levying taxes to building cities.

The nigh-byzantine bureaucracy of the Covenant carries itself on sheer momentum alone, with more local concerns forcibly relegated to the local administrative districts. Offices on more developed worlds house thousands of archivists, lawyers, and bureaucrats, who scrutinise sector-level operations with a keen eye and unwavering adherence to policy and doctrine.

Law
The legal legislation of the Ankoran Covenant is based on religious law enshrined in the traditions and writings of the Ankoran Cult. The Holy Tribunal appoints the head of the Covenant Judiciary, who in turn appoints the head of the Supreme Court and the chief public prosecutor. The Covenant courts are split into three distinct groups.

Public Courts are responsible for civil and criminal cases, including matters such as custody disputes, legal battles between major companies and individuals, and other secular legal disputes and felonies.

Church Courts are, in turn, responsible for theological crimes, and act as part of the greater religious systems of the Covenant, being responsible for determining heresies, settling theological disputes between clergymen and women, and excommunicating members of the clergy for religious or civil crimes.

Above the Public and Church Courts is the Tribunal Court; an acting supreme court above the supreme courts of both other court branches. The Tribunal Court typically acts when settling matters in which there is no prior legal framework to base a decision on, and is the only court in the Covenant permitted to subject an individual to capital punishment; an act it has only done once since its inception.

Foreign Policy and Relations
The Covenant’s foreign relations have often been portrayed as being based on two strategic principles: eliminating outside influences in the region, and pursuing extensive diplomatic contacts with developing and non-aligned countries. The state’s policies have oscillated between the two opposing tendencies of revolutionary ardour, which eliminate alien and non-religious influences, and pragmatism, which advance economic development and normalization of relations. The Covenant’s bilateral dealings are accordingly sometimes confused and contradictory.

The Ankoran Covenant holds particularly sour and tense relations with the Teyan Dominion and its client states, with particular animosity towards the Othenia Accord. Although relations remain tense between the two powers, and there is a degree of distrust from the theocratic polity towards its hegemonic rival, although diplomatic relations have begun to slowly heal since the Covenant-Dominion War with the death of the Dominion’s Warmaster, Bellicor Tulkan. The Covenant remains hostile with several Dominion vassals and has continuously refused diplomatic missions to improve standings between the stellar entities.

Other stellar states, such as the Sulsuan Protectorate enjoy warmer relations with the Covenant, although there remains a degree of distrust between the two nations after the Ankoran Covenant and Teyan Dominion fought several battles in territory claimed by the Protectorate.

Covenant Intelligence
The principle rule and defining factor of the Covenant Armed Forces is not their equipment or doctrine, but their intelligence services and rules of engagement. The unquestioned superiority of the Covenant Intelligence Service allows the Covenant to use their already sizable military to maximum effectiveness. Well before fighting breaks out, Covenant Armed Forces possess complete knowledge of enemy positions, intentions, and timetables.

Their powerful intelligence network is spearheaded in the field by the Covenant Ghost Program, an organisation responsible for monitoring developing situations and taking necessary action, usually without the shackles of traditional laws and procedures. This may be as simple as scouting and information gathering, or as complex as ensuring a conveniently unstable political situation stays that way, whether through blackmail, supplementing of opposition parties, or assassinations.

In every war the Ankoran have fought, they struck first and without warning. To the Ankoran, to know an enemy plans to attack and let it happen is folly; to announce one's own plans to attack is insanity. In defensive wars, the Covenant's fleets have executed devastating preemptive strikes hours before the enemy's own attacks. On the offence, they have never issued an official declaration of war before attacking, leaving the galaxy stunned at the unexpected aggression - all made possible through the CIS and CGP.

Covenant Army
The Covenant Army, also known as the Covenant Armed Assault Forces (CAAF), is the primary ground force of the Ankoran Covenant. Primarily concerned with planetary defence and invasions, making use of highly trained soldiers, mechanized armament, including walkers and tanks, and overwhelming technological advantages to achieve its goals. The Covenant Army worked in tandem with the forces of the Covenant Navy, relying on the numerous fleets to transport legions of troopers across the Covenant’s territory.

Covenant Ghost Program
The Covenant Ghost Program is the top-secret special forces branch of the Ankoran Covenant. Originally known as the Phantom Project, the program has remained under heavy secrecy since its conception, and little is known by the general populace of the galaxy regarding the specifics of the Covenant’s lethal Ghost operatives, their recruitment processes, or their training. What is known by the wider galaxy at large is that Ghost operatives are incredibly lethal individuals, armed with weapons and technology beyond the reach of other military service branches including stealth suits, advanced sensor technology, and psionic amplifiers.

The duties of Ghost agents varies from officer to officer, and planet to planet. Most of the time, Ghosts are deployed as counter-terrorists and assassins, acting to neutralize terrorists, their organizations, and their networks covertly without large military operations. Ghosts are additionally trained for counter-insurgency operations, though no Ghosts have been deployed on such missions since 1891.

During armed conflicts, such as the Covenant-Dominion War, the Ghost Program shifts its focus from counter-terrorism (although agents will likely still engage in such actions during wartime) to infiltration, reconnaissance, and sabotage. Ghosts will typically be assigned to military platoons as specialists during wartime and may be assigned solo operations to extract prisoners of war, plant explosives, steal data caches, and assassinate or capture enemy VIPs, such as generals, commanders, and strategists.

Covenant Navy
The Holy Navy of the Ankoran Covenant, also known simply as the Covenant Navy, is the primary naval interstellar taskforce of the Ankoran Covenant, responsible for the defence of the Covenant, and all non-planetary military operations, including anti-piracy patrols, naval warfare, and galactic exploration.

Comprised of thirty-eight fleets, each comprised of five flotillas, the Covenant Navy lacks the massive numbers of its galactic rivals, typically engaging in inter-polity combat outnumbered four-to-one. Instead of numerical advantages, the Covenant Navy relies primarily on technological superiority to counter its adversaries, utilizing bleeding-edge technologies to stay ahead of rival powers such as the Teyan Dominion. It is claimed that the Covenant Navy is the most technologically advanced military force in the universe, excluding that of the Draknisi Imperium, with weapons and shield technology outstripping the best designs of other stellar nations by several hundred years.

Covenant fleets and floaties are given religiously significant names, such as the Fleet of Pious Inquisition, Fleet of Divine Retribution and Fleet of Sacred Truth.

Covenant Starfighter Corps
The Covenant Starfighter Corps is the service branch of the Covenant Navy responsible for the training and recruitment of starfighter pilots. The Starfighter Corps is a subdivision of the Covenant Navy, whos officers are typically stations on carrier ships and stations. The Starfighter Corps was divided into flightcrews, each flightcrew belonging to a navy vessel or station, and were further divided into flightsquads of 24 fighters. The number of flight squads in a flight crew will vary from ship to ship, dependant on how many fightercraft the ship can support.

Covenant Marine Corps
The Covenant Marine Corps is the primary infantry fighting force of the Covenant Navy, acting as the military branch responsible for ship boarding actions, repelling enemy marines from Covenant navy ships, ship security, and naval policing. Covenant Marines typically were not involved in large-scale planetary invasions, although have been part of multiple smaller-scale operations on planetary bodies where a full invasion was unnecessary or impractical.

Trivia
The current holy sigil of the Ankoran Covenant was directly based upon and derived from Starcraft's Protoss Mothership design.