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I hosted a thread a few days ago on a similar subject. Here were my thoughts in relation to your thread:)
Subject: COVENANT ALLIANCE SYSTEM MAY FALL APART...
If you've read "The Covenant Primer," an article recently released by Bungie that explains some of the Covenant heirarchy and background, then you know that the Covenant are only held together by very loose strands of allegiance. The Covenant aren't held together by some common god/gods; rather, each species within the Covenant alliance uses, NOT HELPS, the other species. For example, the article described the relationship between the Prophets and the Elites, an "unesy" one at best, as hired muscle. The Elites are paid by being given access to Forerunner technology. In return, they expand the Covenant empire through assimilation of species found usefull, Grunts and Engineers, or total destruction of rival and non-usefull species, Humans. Similar alliances are found all through out Human history. For example, look at the Punic Wars in Roman history. Carthage, a rival to Rome, hires an army of mercenaries, paid soldiers, to expand their empire. Eventually this action forces Rome, who had a citizen army, into war with Carthage. To make a long story short, Rome wins. ( Bungie has in the past made many parallels to ancient Roman and Greek history.) All alliances fall apart when when common interest are no more. In the case of Carthage, hired soldiers would only fight with winning odds; thus, the alliance ended with defeat. May it be for survival, Grunts, or victory in battle, Elites, some Covenant species may find more correlation with the Humans. Again, the Covenant aren't held together by religion; instead, they are held together through the bonds of survival(Grunts),greed(Prophets), and power(Elites)!
P.S.
I know, I know, it looks like I've let my imagination get to me; however, Bungie always throws in the unexpected, ALWAYS!!!
[Edited on 5/4/2004 6:57:36 AM]