Two San 'Shyuum bureaucrats, the Minister of Fortitude and the Vice Minister of Tranquility, were already scheming to use the supposed reliquary to inaugurate a new Age of Reclamation with themselves as the Hierarchs of the High Council. To do this, they needed the blessing of the Oracle of High Charity. When the two San 'Shyuum approached the Philologist to affirm on their behalf, the data from the Rapid Conversion caused the long-dormant Oracle to reactivate. Mendicant declared that the Covenant had been misinterpreting Forerunner symbols: the "relics" in question were the humans, calling them Reclaimers and his makers. This shocked the three San 'Shyuum, who falsely concluded that the humans were actually living Forerunners who had been left behind when the others transcended. Although they were able to prevent Mendicant from taking the Forerunner Dreadnought to take the humans to deliver them to the Ark, Fortitude concluded that if the masses learned that they might be left behind, they would rebel against the Prophets. Fortitude and Tranquility inducted the Philologist into their plan and ascended as the High Prophets of Truth, Regret, and Mercy. The hierarchy declared that the humans destroyed the holy reliquary on Harvest, and ordered the entire race to be eradicated.