War of Wills

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Next:	War of Beginnings
War of Wills
Date:	2200 BCE–2100 BCE
Location:	Janjur Qom, San'Shyuum home system
Outcome:	Reformist victory Reformists leave Janjur Qom aboard the Dreadnought
Details Belligerents San'Shyuum Reformists San'Shyuum Stoics

The War of Wills, also referred to as the Stoic-Reformist conflict, was an internal conflict that arose when some of the San'Shyuum began to believe that they should enter the Forerunner Dreadnought, a relic which crashed on their homeworld Janjur Qom long ago.

History

The conflict began in 2200 BCE, when a group of San'Shyuum known as the Reformists demanded they be given access to the Forerunner Dreadnought present on their planet and learn from its technology, even though much of the population believed that the ship was a sacred artifact and should not be interfered with. The two sides fighting in this war were the Stoics, or the San'Shyuum who refused to enter and desecrate the Dreadnought, and the Reformists, who wanted to develop new technologies by entering and studying the Dreadnought. The Reformists had a technological advantage over the Stoics as they utilized Forerunner weapons and technology whereas the Stoics' belief had them only using their native arsenal.

In 2100 BCE, at the climax of the war, about a thousand Reformists broke into and commandeered the Dreadnought. The outraged Stoics were unable to take action, since even their fury toward the Reformists could not bring them to destroy the object of their reverence. After forty days, the Reformists took flight from the planet, breaking off a massive chunk of rock in doing so. This piece of rock would later become the foundation of High Charity, the Holy City of the Covenant.

Aftermath

Although the Reformists had achieved victory and left the Stoics (who sent out communication messages threatening that they would be damned for their impudence toward the gods) behind, they realized that they were doomed due to the small number that had joined their cause to control the Dreadnought. With an extremely small gene pool, they enacted strict controls around mating to prevent potentially disastrous inbreeding.

Reformists returned to their homeworld in 850 BCE. Janjur Qom was destroyed when its star allegedly collapsed upon itself in 648 BCE. After this, High Charity, a mobile planetoid made out of the chunk of rock and powered by the Dreadnought, became the new homeworld of the San'Shyuum.

List of appearances

• Halo: Contact Harvest (First mentioned)
• Halo: Broken Circle (Mentioned only)
• Halo Mythos (First appearance)
• Halo: Shadows of Reach
  • Sacrifice (Mentioned only)