Sangheili High Councilor (Earth-5875)

High Councilors were sangheili politicians who presided over the Covenant High Council, the decision-making, legislative and executive body of the Covenant, serving ed alongside their san'shyuum counterparts.

History
The title of High Councilor was established in 850 BCE, alongside the Covenant High Council, following the Writ of Union. As outlined by the Writ, the first High Councilors were a sect of Reformist delegates.

In 2513, the Minister of Fortitude, the Vice Minister of Tranquility and the the Philologist Hod Rumnt presented themselves before the High Councilors to announce their intention of becoming Hierarchs and replaced the previous ones. While initially reluctant, the High Councilors accepted their wishes and the trio rose to become the new leaders of the Covenant.

During the First Contact War, the Prophet of Truth effectively led the High Council and started to transfer more power to the san'shyuum High Councilors in comparison to the sangheili High Councilors. In 2535, the san'shyuum High Councilors reorganized the fleets of the Covenant Armada against the wishes of the sangheili High Councilors.

Following the murder of the Prophet of Regret at the hands of John-117 at Installation 05, the Prophet of Truth and the Prophet of Mercy publicly replaced the sangheili Honor Guardsmen with the jiralhanae. The sudden drastic change was immediatly met with immense rejection by the sangheili High Councilors, who saw it as a direct violation of the Writ of Union and thus threatened to resign from the Council. During the ensuing Battle of Installation 05, the san'shyuum and sangheili High Councilors were to meet at the Control Room of Installation 05 under the pretense of witnessing the start of the Great Journey. However, once they arrived in the room, only the sangheili Councilors were there. Seconds after, most of them were murdered by jiralhanae soldiers led by Captain Melchus, obeying Truth's plan to replace the sangheili for the jiralhanae in Covenant society. The few High Councilors who surrended were imprisioned, but later saved by Arbiter Thel 'Vadam, helping him kill Chieftain of the Jiralhanae Tartarus to stop him from activating Installation 05 once they discovered the truth about the Halo Array.

After the end of the First Contact War, the surviving High Councilors did not hold unified positions on how to carry on the Great Schism. While some agreed with Vadam's cause to ally with humanity in the Swords of Sanghelios, others chose to restart the Covenant under sangheili leadership, using the power vaccuum left by the death of the Hierarchs and most san'shyuum to rally loyalists and salvage technology.

Powers and functions
One hundred sangheili High Councilors served in the Covenant High Council alongside one hundred san'shyuum High Councilors in the High Council Chamber, on High Charity. The Councilors were some of the most powerful members of the Covenant, and they determined the legislation and day-to-day affairs of the government and society of the empire. Additionally, High Councilors were tasked with selecting replacement Hierarchs in extreme cases. They had the power to reorganize the fleets of the Covenant Armada, although only in extreme circumstances. Some High Councilors assigned themselves to a particular fleet to serve as the local High Council representative. Councilors had their own dormitories in the Tower Districts, protected by some of the best warriors of the Covenant Honor Guard.

Duo to the war-like nature of the sangheili, most High Councilors were more military leaders and Kaidons rather than true politicians.