Luminary

A Luminary is a Covenant technology, modeled after a Forerunner device recovered from the Forerunner Dreadnaught. It's purpose is to scan for and identify Forerunner relics, and is required on all Covenant vessels. It is described as a series of three silver pyramids, two smaller ones supporting a upside down larger one in the center. Luminaries are of great religious significance to the Covenant, and tampering with them was punishable by death. A Holy Writ concerns the Luminaries, namely, "A Luminary does not lie".

As the presence of a Luminary is required on all Covenant vessels, there are likely tens if not hundreds of thousands of them in existence. The Luminary of the Minor Transgression is significant as it lead the Covenant to the UNSC colony Harvest, and precipitated the Human-Covenant War. It identified Harvest with several thousand Forerunner glyphs (referred to as Luminations in this context), likely associating every human on the planet as Forerunner.