"Reliquary" is the Covenant term for a planet that holds a tremendous number of Forerunner artifacts.[1]
Only two known reliquaries are known. The first was likely the planet where the Sangheili and San 'Shyuum encountered each other, a world in Sangheili territory with Forerunner relics.[2] The second was the human-colonized world of Harvest, which was glassed by the Covenant believing the humans had destroyed or stolen the relics present, leading to the Human-Covenant War. In reality, the signal being read by Covenant scans as Forerunner artifacts to be reclaimed were in fact individual human beings, who were all labeled as Reclaimers until scanning technology was altered to prevent that knowledge from falling to the general Covenant populace.
Both the San 'Shyuum homeworld of Janjur Qom and the Sangheili homeworld of Sanghelios were Reliquaries, with their Forerunner Artifacts jump starting both their religious and technological progress.
Sources
- ^ Halo: Contact Harvest, page 224
- ^ Halo: Contact Harvest, page 147