Heresy Archives

The Heresy Archives are a section in the Ministry of Tranquillity's extensive repository of Forerunner knowledge and Covenant scriptures. The majority of its content are the works of authors later deemed heretics for their views or actions, while others are merely material awaiting classification. Others are works deemed to sensitive to allow the public access.

Originally, the Ministry of Tranquillity's library was intended to serve as a public access to Forerunner scientific knowledge and religious scripture. Its founders began collecting material for the archive soon after the Ratification Parley was formalised, and the Covenant officially formed. As the Covenant began uncovering more and more material on the Forerunners, the library grew more extensive. While the original building was constructed on Sanghelios, as a gesture of goodwill from the San'Shyuum to the Sangheili, after the construction of High Charity the library's contents were moved to the new holy city and the building was leased out to the local Morhekan Council of Elders. In its new home, the library occupied a whole tower, with multiple levels dedicated to specific categories.

As material was accululated, the library's overseers began to realise that much of it did not fit with traditional San'Shyuum - now Covenant - dogma. Some authors had included reinterpretations of Forerunner artefacts that differed from convention, and others had come to conclusions about the Great Journey that differed radically from the San'Shyuum beliefs. These authors were deemed heretics, and either flew outside of Covenant territory or were executed for their heresies, most of their works burned. Eventually, however, it was decided that these works too should have their own space in the library - a dedicated Heresy Archive, restricted to all but the highest-ranking Prophets.

The Heresy Archives now contain a variety of material that the San'Shyuum deem unacceptable to Covenant religion - artefacts that do not fit into Covenant interpretations of the Forerunners fate; manuscripts written by heretic authors, and the biographies of these authors; and generic material that awaits categorisation by the library overseers, too ambiguous to easily decipher.

Today, while most of the library is administrated by representatives of the Ministry of Concert, the Ministry of Tranquillity retains exclusive access to the Heresy Archives, maintaining tight security. Extremists have attempted many times to burn its contents, and while heretical, they are important works that need to be preserved, if only because the Ministry worries that somewhere in their lies there may be a grain of truth somewhere.

A number of works are transcriptions of Forerunner glyphs discovered on ruins on Sanghelios, by Sangheili authors, which automatically makes them suspicious to San'Shyuum religious officials. These texts are scanned for any differences in interpretation of the Forerunners, and unacceptable texts end up in the Heresy Archives. Very few Sangheili authors have had their works accepted into canon, due largely to San'Shyuum bias.