User:Imperial Misanthrope/Inquisitors of Truth

The Inquisitors of Truth were an esoteric group of Covenant individuals that held a slightly augmented view of the Covenant faith. They believed in the “Great Journey”; however the method of how to achieve it was disputed by this group.

History
The Inquisitors are not many in number, mainly they are Sangheili and several San ‘Shyuum, though there is also an Unggoy deacon among their ranks.

The belief of the Inquisitors is that the Halo Rings are not the actual keys to ascendance, merely part of a galactic map or route that would lead to the method of rising to Godhood. The reason for this is because of disputed recordings of a Forerunner account on the Halo Rings, thought to be an engineer or technician, or some form of military official commenting on the Rings from a personal view. The message is quite damaged, and translations among the Covenant are considered sketchy at best, but there is a section of the message that is clearly heard:


 * … salvation. If not, these fortresses will lead the way at least, perhaps… find out how… must never know of…

(Human’s speculate after the war that this message was left describing the Ark, though the Covenant had no knowledge of Installation 00 at the time.)

It is this message that caused the Inquisitors to form their own group after having serious, near civil-war conflicts with the more conservative members of the Covenant leadership. After a while though, the group was ignored as expansion of the Empire was afoot, and the High Council was too preoccupied with the conquests. Instead, the current Hierarchs selected an Arbiter to deal with the issue, and he did. At the nearing of a civil war, when both sides were getting ready to literarily gun each other down in the streets, the Arbiter made a public announcement from in front of the Council chamber. Hostilities had begun between a Pontiff of the Inquisitors and a minor Prophet, both of whom were waving plasma pistols at one another. Standing between them, they both hit the Sangheili, causing his primitive energy shields to instantly deplete and burned a hole into his spine, killing him. Both San ‘Shyuum dropped their pistols upon the exclamations from the crowd. Uneasy negotiations followed, both sides agreeing to a truce.

Unfortunately for the Inquisitors, the truce caused them to inadvertently slip into the backgrounds of Covenant society, and their numbers dwindled obscurity. In the last days of the Covenant before the Great Schism, their number was in the double digits, with only 58 members. It was during this time that they would have made a reemergence, though because of the Schism and the infection of High Charity by the Flood, they were reduced to merely three members. With the discovery of the Sacred Rings, they had hoped to finally discover what it was that the Forerunner had done with the Rings to point them in the direction of salvation.

The last three remaining members, the Prophet of Incompetence, a Sangheili Shipmaster on Sanghelios at the time, and the Unggoy deacon who was aboard one of the Sangheili ships during the Schism over High Charity and survived up until the Battle of Installation 00 where the CCS-Class Battlecruiser he was aboard was destroyed.

Rank System
During their prominent beginnings, the Inquisitors had three ranks that set them apart as leaders of the belief, members of the belief, and followers of the belief. The members and followers were essentially the same, they merely differed on their loyalties, and many of the members were strictly loyal to the Inquisitors while the followers believed them, but had loyalties elsewhere.

Pontiff of Truth

Pontiffs were the leaders of the Inquisitors, and were usually San ‘Shyuum or Sangheili that had access to artifacts that could back up their claims. The Sangheili were often high ranking military officials such as Fleet Masters, Supreme Commanders or Special Operations leaders. The Pontiffs were subject to the most criticism by hard-line conservatives of the Covenant faith, believing them to be heretics, though the High Council at the time fortunately had more pressing issues to deal with.

Principal of Truth

Principals of Truth were the most loyal of the Inquisitors believers, some of them placing the group over their obligations to the Covenant. As such, several of them were murdered as heretics, branded by public opinion instead of by trial. This lead to a near civil war within High Charity, though the ordeal was halted by the sacrifice of the Arbiter at the time.

Acolyte of Truth

The Acolytes were the followers and believers that still held onto past loyalties, such as to the military. These followers, although on the whole just as fervent in their beliefs as the Principals, were not targeted so much.