This level, which is one of the longest in the entire series, is essentially a guided tour for the player through some of High Charity’s most important locations, and it gives Halo fans a first-hand look at the fracturing of the Covenant during the onset of the Great Schism, as Brute and Elite forces turn against each other and the Covenant fractures. We first see High Charity in Halo 2’s opening cutscene, and it is seen several times throughout the game -it makes a particularly dramatic appearance along with its escort fleet during the climax of the level Regret, but it is not visited by the player until near the end of the game in the level Gravemind. A remnant of an even more ancient war machine, the Dreadnought is so advanced that it can power the entire city of High Charity with just a fraction of its maximum output. Arguably the most defining feature of the Holy City, however, is the monolithic Forerunner Dreadnought that dominates the central ‘skyline’ of the city. The Covenant leadership of course occupy the highest towers in the city, whilst the lower castes toil away in the deeper levels of the city. It is a cultural epicenter of the various races that make up the Covenant – the city itself is contained within the vast hemisphere that tops the city, and inside over 7 billion citizens go about their lives as the genocidal designs of the Covenant are planned out high above them. Noted as being substantially larger than both the Galactic Empire’s Death Stars combined, High Charity is a prominent construct in the Halo universe and is visited over the course of the games several times, particularly in Halo 2.Īs a mobile base for the Covenant, High Charity is more than just a space station.
This is perfectly illustrated by the Covenant capital city – also known as the Holy City of High Charity – a gigantic, mushroom-shaped mobile base of operations for the Covenant that, despite having the destructive potential of an entire fleet, has as many hanging gardens and cathedrals as it does hangars and weapons.
The ornate, manta-ray design of the standard Covenant CCS-class BattlecruiserĬomparing the Covenant with another fictitious faction of despots such as the Galactic Empire from Star Wars highlights the wholly unique aesthetic of the Halo universe – whereas the Galactic Empire have Star Destroyers made of dull grey metals in angular designs, tanks and weapons made from gunmetal grey materials and soldiers who wear dull drab grey or uniform white armour, everything that the Covenant designs, from the largest warship to the smallest sidearm, is a work of art built to look organic, sleek and graceful.
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