Covenant murals

The Covenant religiously kept a series of murals in High Charity which depicted key events in their thousands-year history. The murals would have been likely destroyed after the fall of High Charity in 2552. Sometime after the Human-Covenant War, a Sangheili Shipmaster seeking asylum provided useful intel to the UNSC and replicated the murals for them in hand-drawn sketches.

Production notes

"We have this fantastic story arc that we're trying to get across and we have all this back story that we're trying to get across. And there comes a point where we look at the amount of time we have left to finish this game and we realize that we're just crazy and we're not going to be able to do all of this. So we pick our battles with what we can cut out..."

— CJ Cowan

In the deleted scenes on the Halo 2 Limited Collector's Edition DVD, Joseph Staten displays an unfinished cut cinematic of the Covenant murals which depict the seven different types of "ages" of Covenant history.

Murals

First Mural	"So when you look at the first mural you see it's a representation of the conflict between the Prophets and Elites, and this one shows the Elites function in the Covenant, which is as the enforcers." — Joseph Staten This mural depicts the War of Beginnings and the First Age of Conflict.
Second Mural	The second mural depicts the Taming of the Lekgolo, when the Lekgolo were forced to join the Covenant as the first species after the truce between the Sangheili and the San'Shyuum.
Third Mural	This mural clearly shows the San'Shyuum and Sangheili having power over the other species as the new species of the Covenant are bowing to them. It depicts the Ages of Conversion, during which the Sangheili and San'Shyuum incorporated the other races into the Covenant, either through conquest or religious conversion.
Fourth Mural	This mural is hard to understand, yet it is speculated that it represents the Age of Discovery, and that the mural stands for the Sangheili and San'Shyuum either finding, or understanding the technology left by the Forerunners. The picture depicts a hidden sword, which could symbolize hidden technologies. Both the Sangheili and San'Shyuum are reaching for it together in harmony. Notice the Sangheili's weapon in this mural, as well as in the previous murals, is a simple, almost crude, spear. In all the other murals after this point, the weapon of the Sangheili is replaced by the more complex energy sword, likely due to the discovery of new Forerunner technology, as depicted in this mural.
Fifth Mural	This mural is believed to show the locations of each of the seven Halos. This symbolizes the Covenant's search for the Halo Array or the "Sacred Rings" which form the basis of the religious doctrine of the "Great Journey" (i.e. devout believers being transformed into gods when activating the Halos).
Sixth Mural	This mural depicts the races of the Covenant (in the form of Forerunner glyphs) under a glowing, activated Halo ring with an eye in the middle. This symbol may reflect the Covenant belief that the Forerunners were watching their actions, and that by activating the Halos the Covenant could achieve godlike status, following the Forerunners' footsteps. Ironically, activation of the Halo rings would have made the Covenant much like the Forerunners; dead by their own hand.
Seventh Mural	The last mural shows the Sangheili and San'Shyuum embarking on the Great Journey. Note the glyph of the eye and the glowing (activated) Halo ring similar to the one on the mural seen above, and the stylized energy sword held by the Sangheili.

Trivia

• There are seven murals; this is probably yet another one of Bungie's seven references.
• Se7en created re-renders of the murals on the Bungie forums, and Bungie acknowledges them as correct. They may be viewed here.
• Reimaginings of the iconography used in the cut Halo 2 murals can be found in the ancient Sangheili ruins in Nuusra in the Sanghelios levels of Halo 5: Guardians.

List of appearances

• Halo: Broken Circle (First mentioned)
• Halo: Envoy (Mentioned only)