High Charity

In the video game Halo 2, High Charity is the name of the mobile capital city of the Covenant. Its structure consists of one half of a small planet or moon that has been hollowed out, forming a roof over the city. It is capable of slipspace jumps, like any other vessel. The city houses the majority of structures sacred to the Covenant, such as the Council Chamber, the Mausoleum of the Arbiter, and the Sanctum of the Hierarchs. The central tower is in fact a Forerunner ship which had been modified to power the entire city.

Before the fall of Reach and the destruction of the Pillar of Autumn at the first Halo, the UNSC planned a mission to have the SPARTANs capture a Covenant ship and locate High Charity. There, they would capture the High Prophets, and force an end to the war with a peace treaty or truce. During the events of Halo 2, however, Master Chief (who was alone teleported to High Charity by Gravemind) abandons this goal and decides to kill the High Prophets, despite Dr. Halsey's profile on Covenant society which revealed that killing a prophet would only escalate the war. This time, Master Chief receives aid from Marine POWS.



During the course of the game, the Flood took advantage of the chaos surrounding Master Chief's infilitration and the ensuing Covenant civil war between the Separatists' (Elites, Grunts and Hunters) predecessors and Loyalist (Brutes, Drones, Jackals, and Prophets) forces, using the situation to infest the city. Eventually the Prophet of Truth commandeers the Forerunner ship at High Charity's core and takes off, with the Master Chief stowed away inside. Cortana stays behind. The city is abandoned and assimilated by the Flood, drifting in the middle of a space battle. Whether it will be destroyed, reinhabited or left in the occupation of the Flood in the future (Halo 3) is unknown.