Ages of Conversion (Earth-5875)

The Ages of Conversion were periods where the Covenant discovered and inducted other species into the hegemony as a part of their empire and religion. The discovery of the lekgolo in 789 BCE marked the First Age of Conversion with the Taming of the Lekgolo, where an Arbiter threatened to destroy the species' homeworld of Te to incorporate them. Other Ages of Conversion include the induction of the kig-yar, unggoy, yanme'e and jiralhanae into the Covenant.

History
The founding of the Covenant and the end of the War of Beginnings marked the First Age of Reconciliation. The next era was the First Age of Conversion, marked by the Covenant's expansion through the Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy. In 784 BCE, the Covenant encountered the lekgolo on Rentus, one of the many moons of Te, the lekgolo's homeworld. As soon as the two sides found each other, the Covenant immediately declared violence against the lekgolo after discovering they were devouring forerunner structures on the moon, leading to the Taming of the Lekgolo. While the lekgolo proved difficult to be wiped out duo to their ability to bond with each other to form more powerful forms, such as the mgalekgolo, the Covenant had naval superiority and the lekgolo were forced to join and be indoctrinated into the Covenant after the hegemony threatened to glass Te and eliminate them all.

In 122 BCE, the Covenant discovered the kig-yar in the Y'Deio system, and a conflict between the two soon started when the kig-yar went into immediate aggression in an attempt to drive the intruders outside their home system. During the conflict, kig-yar pirates and the militias of Eayn and T'vao, long enemies, joined forces in the face of the bigger enemy. While the Covenant was easily able to quell the kig-yar, the knowledge over the system's many abnormally dense asteroid belt, which the pirates and militia used for hiding. The two forces eventually agreed to end the fighting and make a truce: the kig-yar would join the Covenant as mercenaries, not out of faith, earning commissions by the Covenant High Council so they could engage into the hegemony's service.

In 1112, the unggoy were discovered by the Covenant on their homeplanet Balaho, and they were soon to give up upon to the alien invaders duo to their superior firepower, and were forced to join the Covenant as laborers. Not long after, in 1262, the Unggoy Rebellion occurred when some kig-yar rendered a number of female unggoy infertile as a revenge for the unggoy dispatching kig-yar homes in High Charity because of their large numbers. During the rebellion, the unggoy proved to be deadly opponents when fighting together, and their damage was so massive that the Hierarchs had to name an Arbiter to put an end to the rebellion. Under the orders of the Arbiter, the Covenant partially glassed the surface of Balaho, hoping to end the resistance before further damage could be done. Upon seeing the death of thousands of their own, the unggoy in High Charity surrendered, and those who survived were integrated into the Covenant as warriors.

In 1544, the Covenant discovered the yanme'e on their homeplanet Palamok. The yanme'e had already achieved interplanetary colonization, and first contact between the two resulted in a conflict that led to heavy casualties on both sides, but specially the yanme'e. Despite the yanme'e enormous numbers and swarm tactics, they were unprepared for the deadly and advanced armament of the Covenant, losing millions of their warriors during the war. The Hierarchs were eventually able to found a way to communicate with the yanme'e Queens, and after threatening them, which would result on the loss of numerous hives, they agreed to be inducted into the Covenant as warriors and laborers.

The jiralhanae were the last species to be inducted into the Covenant, having been discovered by the hegemony in 2492. When the Covenant arrived at Doisac, their homeworld, the jiralhanae were fighting in the First Immolation, a massive civil war between master packs. Many packs, upon seeing the Covenant, fought back, but were decimated duo to their primitive weaponry and warriors in comparison to the rest of the Covenant. After discovering of the Covenant's religion, most jiralhanae decided to join the aliens in search of meaning and theology in their lives, while those that continued resisting were easily defeated and absorbed into the Covenant.