Planet or Origin: Janjur Qom, a now destroyed planet with a gravity lower than Earth in the Milky Way galaxy.
The
San 'Shyuum are a physically frail mammal-like species acting as leader caste in the interspecies interstellar community known as the
Covenant overwhich they exert complete religious and political control by enforcing a misguided
theology based on the false belief that firing a interstellar-range weapon of mass destruction left by the now extinct species known as the
Forerunners and known as the
Halo Array will start what they call the
Great Journey,
transcending them into a god-like status.
They are also responsible for studying all other Forerunner artifacts - considered holy - and with them to develop new technologies. Their position of power is based on the claim of having evolved on a former Foreunner colony.
Physically frail creatures, they prefer to move around using anti-gravity technology. A life of
physical inactivity leaves most if not all Prophets withered and weak but they still remain a strenght greater than that of humans in their arms. Each Prophet has distinct, often fur-covered lobes of skin hanging underneath their chin similar to a beard, known as "wattles". Prophets of greater age have
skin lobes on either side of their heads reminiscent of ears; despite
this resemblance, the San 'Shyuum actually receive sound at the back of
the head. Older Prophets appear to lose
the pigment in their skin as they age and turn a shade of grey, then
white. Prophets have three digits on each hand. They have parts of their brain showing through
absences of skin on their heads, while skin is still there, it may be
possible that they evolved to allow their brain to grow to such a size
that the skin is there simply to hold it in place. Anagatictechnologies gives them long lifespan but the fertility cycles of their females are
short and few and far between, which would make it difficult for them to have children.
With regards to naming practices, each San 'Shyuum has a given
name and a family name. However, once they rise to a certain level in
the bureaucracy, they prefer to be addressed by their title.
Sometime around 110,000 B.C. the San 'Shyuum were part of an alliance with the
Humans' empire, forming a major power in the Orion Arm of the galaxy. During this period, they encountered the
Flood
for the first time, but the spread of the infection was successfully
pushed back by the humans while it was still relatively minor.
This alliance ended when the San 'Shyuum surrendered to the Forerunners during the following
Human-Forerunner war.
All San'Shyum on Janjur Qom were killed when the Halo Array was fired during the next Flood outbreak dubbed the Forerunner-Flood War. Their homeworld would eventually be reseeded with specimens that were preserved on the Forerunner Ark structure. Having lost nearly all memory of the
Forerunners, the San'Shyum discovered Forerunner technology on their homeworld
and based their religion around the artifacts they found. The beliefs they developed led to bloody civil wars and part of the population leaving their planet, leaving it deeply scarred toward 2100 BCE.
The war between the Sangheili and the San 'Shyuum began soon after their first encounter in 938 BCE. Sangheili believed that Forerunner
technology should not be touched or used for personal gain while most
of the San 'Shyuum believed otherwise, and disassembled Forerunner
relics to produce their own versions. Their first meeting resulted in a
bloody engagement. Physically the Sangheili were far superior. One
Sangheili warrior was the equal to at least ten San 'Shyuum. However, technologically, the San 'Shyuum had the advantage and wiped out the Sangheili armada using hit-and-run tactics.
Eventually in 852 B.C.E.,
in order to ensure the survival of both races, the Sangheili gave up
their own conviction, and the two races merged to form the early
Covenant with the San 'Shyuum as the head religious leaders and the
Sangheili as the physical backbone and defenders of the Prophets. Soon after, their homeworld was destroyed approx. 648 BCE as
the result of a natural stellar collapse and they moved to the mobile-planetoid High Charity which was in turn destroyed by the Sangheili when it was the scene of a new Flood outbreak in the 2550ies. Their current total population is now estimated at less than one
thousand.
