Here’s the mega thread for it.
And if your wondering why it’s called a ripcord… it’s cause Ion used that analogy back at the Blizzcon when Shadowlands was announced. Saying if the covenant system doesn’t work for one reason or another they had a ripcord to pull just in case. He later said they didn’t have one after some backlash, but 
Also a ripcord is the string part of a parachute that you pull to deploy said parachute. If you don’t, you go splat.
Kind of like the current iteration of the covenant system, one large flat 
pancake. 