So I just realised that the covenent are worshipping the forerunners through the prophets, but haven’t Master Chief and Arbiter already finished of the prophets in the previous games. And if there are more shouldn’t that mean that they oppose a threat to the UNSC. I am quite confused with this matter and would appriciate your thoughts on the matter. Thanks for commenting.
The Prophets’ religion was about the Great Journey, the belief that the Forerunners used the Halo rings to achieve transcendence and become Gods. But even before the Prophets and the Elites formed the Covenant, the Sangheili believed that the Forerunners were Gods because the artifacts scattered across their Homeworld appeared to be magic; they also believed that tampering with said artifacts was heresy. With the Prophets gone and the Covenant shattered into hundreds of different factions, many of the Sangheili have gone back to worshiping the Forerunners, but have forsaken the Great Journey as a lie from the Prophets. We’ve got some Sangheili warlords like Jul M’dama who don’t believe that the Forerunners are Gods anymore, but will put on a show of being faithful so as to manipulate his followers. Some like Avu Med Telcam have reverted back to the Sangheili’s ancient religion and are waging a war against the Arbiter’s secular faction, the Swords of Sangheilios, for the heresy of using Forerunner tech.
Hope that helps.