Taming of the Lekgolo Beginning: Age of Conversion End: Age of Conversion (784 B.C.E.)[1] Place: Te Outcome: Lekgolo join the Covenant Empire Belligerents The Lekgolo Race The Covenant Commanders Unknown Unknown Arbiter Strength Lekgolo The Arbiter Sangheili Probably hundreds of Corvettes and CCS-Battlecruisers Casualties Unknown number of Lekgolo Unknown number of Sangheili

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"While some were shortsighted and chose to reject the promise of our Union, all were eventually swayed by the knowledge that those who joined the Covenant would be welcome on our Great Journey."

— ^[2]

The Taming of the Lekgolo was an event in the history of the Covenant.^[3]

The Taming occurred during a Covenant Age of Conversion, during their galaxy-wide search for remnants of Forerunner technology. Such technology was discovered on the planet Te, where the Covenant first encountered the native Lekgolo worms.

HistoryEdit

Hives of Lekgolo were found in the orbital rings surrounding their planet Te. The rings were in fact the destroyed remains of one of the ancient Forerunner installations in orbit. The relics had been on the Lekgolo's diet for several millennia, and the orbital rings around the giant were actually composed of digested-and-destroyed Forerunner relics that some of the Lekgolo had been consuming. Strangely, many of the Lekgolo colonies had very differing diets, as some would eat only Forerunner alloys, while other would eat everything except  Forerunner materials.

Appalled by this desecration, the Prophets ordered the Sangheili to exterminate the Mgalekgolo. The Covenant fleet commanders soon found that indiscriminate destruction would have unacceptable consequences: since the Lekgolo lived in the sacred relics that the Elites were trying to preserve, simply annihilating the Lekgolo would have resulted in the destruction of some and/or all of those relics. The Arbiter that was created during this crisis suggested that they could be tamed and put to better uses as part of the Covenant Hierarchy.

Thus, those Lekgolo colonies which preserved Forerunner relics were incorporated into the Covenant, while those that destroyed relics were eradicated.^[4] This extermination campaign proved to be difficult, as the Lekgolo were able to combine into powerful Mgalekgolo; consequently, the Lekgolo won most, if not all, ground engagements. The Covenant's forces were completely overwhelmed by the sheer size and ferocity of their foes. On the verge of defeat, the Covenant took desperate measures, threatening to orbitally bombard the planetary surface of Te unless the Mgalekgolo surrendered.

AftermathEdit

Facing the complete annihilation of their race, the Hunters submitted, and joined the ranks of the Covenant. The compliant Lekgolo were incorporated into the Writ of Union in 784 B.C.E.^[5] Impressed by the Mgalekgolo fighting prowess, the Sangheili incorporated them into the Covenant military. Individual Lekgolo worms were used by San 'Shyuum priests to explore the electrical pathways deep inside the Forerunner Dreadnought on High Charity.^[6]

TriviaEdit

• The Taming of the Hunters is pictured on one of the seven Covenant Murals in the Mausoleum of the Arbiter.

SourcesEdit

Related PagesEdit

• Arbiter
• Sangheili
• Lekgolo
• Mgalekgolo