While the phrase "Yanme'e Hives" is generally considered by humanity and the Sangheili to describe the central Yanme'e body of civil and military authority, it would be false to claim that it is a true "government". At most it is a loose confederacy or hegemony of semi-independent hives, each with their own authority and territory, though the hives cooperate as a whole for the good of the species, especially on matters of defence. Founded long before the Covenant stumbled upon the species, these Hives have ruled Palamok, the Yanme'e homeworld, for centuries, perhaps millenia, and have returned to their place as the supreme Yanme'e authority after seceding from the New Covenant in 2569. In the aftermath of the Second Great War, the Yanme'e have formed a loose but mutually beneficial allianc