Within this tome from the Darkness is a tale of the birth of universes, and the clash therein. Long ago, a Gardener and a Winnower play a game of possibilities. In time, the Gardener pushes for change in their rules, and the Winnower rises to rebuke them.
In the ancient past, in a sea of endless sands, wanderers come across a great machine buried in their world. Within its shadow, a golden civilization blossoms.
The first among those blessed by the Traveler are only remembered as the Precursor civilization. In the Light, they grow to tower over all other worlds they could perceive. They pursue great works, such as the end of suffering, and achieve more than most would ever dream. After many thousands of years, the people of the Precursors grow concerned by the lack of guidance from the Traveler, and in studying the Traveler, they discover a thread they would follow back into the stars.
Following the link from the Traveler, the Precursors discover a second artifact of paracausality adrift in space, known as the Veil. And within its influence, they come to understand the power of the Darkness. They come to recognize that the power of the Light acts without thought or consideration to how it affects the universe, but also how they might tame this dangerous element. To that end, they bring the Veil to the Traveler, hoping that by doing so, they would strengthen their connection and begin to shape the universe into one without suffering. In response to this trespass, the Traveler departs from the skies of the Precursor worlds.
Following the departure of the Traveler, the Precursor civilization makes a decision which will allow them to follow after the Traveler, and complete the mission they began upon discovery of the Veil. In the Darkness, the Precursors cut away their doubts, their divisions, their fears, removing all that would cloud their intent, and become one. There are a thousand names for what they become, it whispers one: The Witness.
The Witness's first encounter with another civilization that had known the blessings of the Traveler after them. The Eurythmia welcomed the voice in the Darkness with open arms, as it struck at the heart of their world to once more attempt to reach the Traveler's Pale Heart.
Among the earliest victims of the Witness’s pursuit of the Traveler across the stars were a people recorded as the Noesis. They believed this new mind to be a friend. As the Witness learns its abilities, the Noesis are brought to ruins as planets vanish from their sky, and their minds are unmade to be reiterated in their Final Shapes. All that remains of the Noesis is their cry to be remembered.
Once, there was a world called Lubrae. It existed beneath two suns, one Umbral, and the other Sapphire. Its people were once blessed by the Traveler, and fell to division. In the strife, Rhulk was born to those who lived outside the City. He would be feared by many for his skill at violence and bloodshed. In his life, he would slaughter and maim for both the Regime of the City and the Wanderers of the wild. After being betrayed by his family. He would be raised up by the Witness, who showed Rhulk the power to shatter his entire world.
An early time in Rhulk's discipleship. He came upon a people known as the Ahslid, and attempted to mantle his Witness, to guide them on the path of Sword Logic. But his actions would ultimately see the extinction of these people. Only one of his potentiates, Uun, would ever meet him, and died never knowing his name.
Nezarec, the Final God of Pain, is molded in the image of the first Disciple of the Witness, Rhulk. He is the Prime Tormentor of the Witness’s forces. He is a being of immense psychic power, capable of blanketing entire worlds in nightmares.
Nezarec; Disciple of the Witness, descends upon the homework of the Psions, establishing his Acolytes among them.
The Traveler arrives among the 52 moons orbiting a world known only as the Fundament. Among these moons live the civilization of those who would be named the Ammonite. One of many within the Habitable World of the Ecumene. As many times before, the Traveler sets about the gardening of this system, so that life may flourish wherever it finds itself.
The World of the Krill is drawn into the gravity of Fundament, where it is shattered and the Krill are divided across floating continents across the world. Upon these disparate shores arose factions like the Helium Drinkers and the Osmium Dynasty.
Rhulk; Disciple of the Witness, descended the oceans of Fundament in search of his prize. The Great Leviathan attempted to resist him, but was laid low by a blow of its own rib in the disciple's hand. Rhulk soon finds his prize, the great worms. Xita, mother of these newborn gods, is taken by Rhulk to be made into an engine of salvation. She would serve the Final Shape, as would all her children current and yet to be born.
Once, there was a king, who had three children. In time the king grew mad and so his children's teacher plotted his and their deaths. But the children escaped deep into their world's ocean. Within, a terrible bargain was made, and they rose again as Gods of a great and terrible Hive. Within these fetid tomes lay treachery, lies, calamity, and salvation.
Following the arrival of Rhulk and the abduction of Xita, there was a massive conflict with those worms who yet remained within the depths of Fundament's oceans. Ahsa would attack her own kin to escape. The seas churned with blood as they turned on one another. Failing to prevent the Hive from finding the other worms, Ahsa was branded a traitor by the Hive, and she fled Fundament to seek the Traveler across the stars.
After reconquering their homeworld, the Worm Gods of the Hive beseech the newly risen Gods to find for them a means to escape the dying world of Fundament, and reach the stars. Following Xivu Arath’s devastation of Kaharn Atoll, the Hive obtains the means to cut through space and traverse space. The first leg of their crusade is the 52 moons orbiting Fundament, where the Ammonite Civilization has provided refuge to Taox. The Worms declare the Traveler among the moons to be the bringer of the calamitous syzygy that would wash clean the surface of Fundament, and to strike back at it, the Hive would first need to deal with the Ammonites. King Auryx’s first attempts to assault the Ammonite are decisively repelled, who in the Light of the Traveler, have devised weapons making use of its power. To bring about the end of the conflict, Auryx proposes a parley with the Ammonite, though he never reaches that summit for Savathun slays the naive king.
But Auryx is not yet gone, for now the Hive Gods will persist into death, safe within the confines of their Throne Worlds among the Ascendant Plane. His Gods chide him for his foolishness in holding to the ideals of his former life. Life is the struggle to existence, and in order to bring about a true existence, he will impose that struggle on all in his wake. As the king of the Hive returns to life, he brings with him a renewed ferocity. Even with the aid of the great Leviathan, the Ammonite civilization falls beneath the hungry jaws of the Hive, though not before both the Traveler and Taox successfully escape the carnage.
Among the many civilizations slain by the Hive were the Qugu, a powerful people with an armada so mighty that it defends four other nearby star systems. On the homeworld of Seht, Warden Te’Qal is given command over the great armada. Two years later, Savathun descends upon Se’Un, one of the star systems in the Ququ’s care, drawing the Armada of Seht to investigate, where they engage in overwhelming conflict with the Hive, and are driven back from the system. But Savathun would not relent in her quest for their annihilation as she chases them from system to system, back to their home of Seht. Savathun rips from their home, the great mountain at the heart of their civilization, within it were the jaw-beasts, great mollusks to whom the Qugu sacrificed their limbs. As their homeworld burns, Te’Qal once more flees with what remains of his Armada.
Over twenty thousand years following the destruction of the Ammonite civilization, the Ecumene recover a ship from the system, containing within it Taox, once teacher of the gods of the Hive. With her information about the motivations, tactics, and leadership of the Hive, the Ecumene begin a nearly successful genocide of the Hive. In response to their imminent obliteration, Auryx, Savathun, and Xivu Arath devise a desperate ploy to increase their power by having Auryx slay the Worm God Akka. The ploy is successful, and with the death of Akka, Auryx is able to commune with the Deep itself, and is reborn as Oryx; The Taken King. In his hands, is the power to Take life and make it his own.
Upon returning to the overworld, King Oryx quickly set about eliminating the Ecumene with his newly obtained power to Take enemy forces and reforge them as loyal servants of his will. With this power, Oryx would reign uncontested throughout the Universe. He established the system of bloody tithes of death amongst his hive, to ensure that never again would he or his sisters fear the hunger of their worms again. With the renewed might of the Hive, many worlds fell under the black flames of the Taken King, such as the Taishibethi, slain so quickly by their Taken Emperor Raven. But such times of prosperity breeds conspiracy within Xivu Arath and Savathun, to maroon their king within the Deep. Upon his return, he set about punishing his family for their failed coup, as well as deciding that he would like more family to wage war against in time.
King Oryx’s family would grow with the additions of his sons and daughters, Crota and Nokris, Ir Anuk and Ir Halak. One son, Nokris, finds himself banished from the family for the crime of communicating with the Worm God Xol, in order to claim forbidden power for himself. Oryx’s remaining children would go on to expand the Hive’s power through the development of new techniques of bloodshed, and the worlds they consumed. Once, they even made war against the Vex, influenced by the meddling of Savathun, and taught the collectives of the Sword Logic.
Rhulk; Disciple of the Witness, is installed within the Throne World of the Hive Witch Queen Savathun. His task is to be a guide in her discipleship. They warred and slighted each other for many eons.
After the war waged against the Vex in Oryx’s throne world concludes, the Taken King moves to take his throne out of the Ascendant Realm, and install it within a mighty Dreadnaught. As Oryx’s campaign across the universe continues on, he would once more come into conflict with the Vex Mind Quria, and Takes it as a gift for his sister, Savathun. After the fall of another civilization blessed by the Traveler’s Light; the Harmony, and the consumption of the Gift Mast; a relic of its Light, Oryx’s sisters approach him with their decision that the three would have to diverge themselves from each other, in order to grow their strengths differently enough that they might wage war amongst themselves again someday.
Within the accretion of the Sol system came a mass of dark matter that in time would develop awareness, and as life grew upon our worlds, their awareness expanded.
The time before the Cabal could expand their empire beyond Torobatl's star was known as the Era of Lead. Where herds of Uluranth warriors would roam the plains of their world engaging in ritual combat in Rites of Proving and testing their might against great beasts. Their first emperor, Acrius, was told to have slain a legendary monster in order to capture their sun itself. Eventually, they would expand out from their own world to conquer all planets within their star system, and soon would expand beyond even that.
"The Age of Sails, when we conquered the stars."
As the Cabal expand out from their home system, they begin their colonial campaign across the galaxy, encountering, subjugating, and extracting resources from a multitude of cultures across the stars, such as the Clipse, Sindu, Arkborn, and Psions. Their civilization’s wonders locked away with the Cabal Empire’s Athenaeum worlds.
Calus leads a revolution against the ruling Cabal government, known as the Praetorate. In the end, he claims their authority for the Emperor, and their wealth is redistributed across the Empire, bringing about an age of art and philosophy for a time.
At Calus's coronation, he has the Consul of the Praetorate castrated, and exiled out into the wilderness of Torobatl. Calus intends for the Consul to die alone and with no heirs to continue his will. They will meet again at the midnight hour.
Calus’s reign over the Cabal Empire is marked as one of Art and Philosophy, as the newly crowned emperor begins his radical reformations to Cabal society. Among his many decrees was the creation of the Evocate General within the Cabal Military, to grant them a voice within the halls of power. His daughter, Caiatl, is born in this period and is raised around the finest educators from across the worlds of the Empire and dreamed to fly a starship for the glory of what would someday be her empire.
Calus becomes impressed by one gladiator in his fighting pits, a small albino Cabal soldier named Ghaul. He is so enthralled that he continues to patron them, and one day appoints the young warrior as a Primus of what will be the finest fighting force in the Cabal Empire, the Red Legion.
Calus is overthrown under the cover of night. Ghaul, Evocate General Umun'Arath, and his daughter Caiatl capture Calus. With the aid of officials such as Lictor Shayotet, Freeborn Otzot, Aedile Moli Imoli, and Iska'al of Fantor, control of the Empire is wrested from Calus. At the behest of his daughter, Calus is not killed but instead imprisoned aboard a prison barge to be sent adrift in space for all time.
Following the Midnight Coup and the exile of Calus, it was believed that Calus would simply waste away to nothing, in the empty void of space. In his journey, he would arrive at a gap in the Universe, where he would be Witnessed, and return to Herald the end of all things to come.
Ghaul, Primus of the Red Legion, is named as the new ruler over the Empire of the Cabal. Refusing to be named Emperor, the Ghost Primus would claim the title of Dominus. He sets about radically altering the empire as Calus did before him, only his aims are to bring the military into the central focus of Cabal society. He redirects building projects to manufacture arms for the empire, as well as alters the very language spoken amongst his people, to be better suited for combat scenarios.
With the entire planet of Riis now livable, the Eliksni expanded out across the world, and discovered it a world of dangerous creatures and wild plains. The Order of Slayers is formed to set about taming their world but slaying the most dangerous of monsters, using special tonics that empower their bodies.
The Traveler descends upon the world of Riis, and floods the land with Ether, so that the Eliksni may live upon their entire world now. This is the beginning of the Golden Age of the Eliksni.
A glimpse of a golden age "These little gardeners are such careful stewards of fragility. They sing songs of disasters averted and loved ones lost. They fashion heavy elements combed from the bones of old stars into objects of peace and beauty."
Houses Kings and Judgement join together to end an age of piracy and isolationism, uniting all the Houses together in the Eliksni Golden Age.
The Black fleet of the Witness descends upon the Eliksni homeworld of Riis just as the Traveler flees their star system. The Eliksni remember well the valor of the Kell of Stone, Chelchis, as he fought against the forces of Oryx in this time. But nothing would prevent the destruction of the Eliksni civilization. They would flee their home to begin a long drift across the stars, in search of the Traveler.
To enable deep space voyages to chase the Traveler. New machines are created in its image to produce ether beyond Riis.
Following the Whirlwind was a period of Eliksni history known as The Long Drift. For centuries, all that remained of the people of Riis was confined within the Ketch ships that carried them across the stars to the Earth, to one day reclaim their place beneath the Traveler.
It is unclear when they arrived on the moon, but the Hive has been part of Earth's moon since before the first humans looked up and dreamed of exploring it. Watching and waiting for their day to rise.
Seemingly from out of the empty void of space appeared this strange white orb into our solar system. Many could not begin to guess what would be the result of this sudden emergence, but all knew that what was to come must be watched carefully.
The role of the Traveler is made known to humanity as soon they watch on as the Traveler's Light forever changes the worlds around her. Impossible new terrains are opened up to humanity, beyond anything ever imagined.
Shortly after the terraforming of the planet Mercury into a garden world, the Vex descend upon the planet to sow the seeds of a forest of infinite paths to tomorrow.
Humanity bands together to meet the Traveler on Mars. A crew consisting of Jacob Hardy, Evie Calumet, Ulysses Qiao, and M. Mihaylova begin working towards finally meeting the Traveler, and are successful. Not all would make that final journey, but on the Martian surface humanity's future was gilded.
Following her escape from Fundament's Oceans, Ahsa dives into the Ascendant Plane to glide across vast distances between worlds, across galaxies, and would arrive in Sol as humanity's golden age was beginning. She descended into Titan's methane oceans where humanity would one day arrive.
The name of Nezarec; The Final God of Pain, begins to spread within humanity. One family takes up the duty of chronicling all the knowledge of Nezarec within a tome they would pass down for centuries to come.
The period of time that would follow the arrival of the Traveler would be marked by the wondrous advancements of human civilization in the Sol system. New cities were built on worlds untouched by human hands. Technology bordering on mystical wonders was commonplace. Even what it means to be human would soon be changed forever.
"Human lifespan tripled. It was a time of miracles."
– The Speaker
Almost as soon as humanity arrived on the planet Venus, the Vex were discovered as well. It is unclear as to when they had taken root in this world. Had they always been here? Were they brought here through cosmic coincidence?
In the Golden Age, one man's name shone brightest across the stars. The Clovis Bray Corporation would be heralded for pioneering many of the advancements of this time in human history. But the brightest light obscures the deepest darkness.
There came people for whom the Traveler could share knowledge. These people would experience vivid dreams filled with intent and understanding. They would speak to the people of the Traveler's message. This order of people would be known throughout the centuries to come as the Speakers of the Traveler.
The Clovis Bray Organization purchased the rights to an emergency response system from pre-Golden Age space stations. The company would use this AI as the basis for the construction of an interplanetary communications and defense network. Dr. Anastasia Bray would be responsible for the development of Rasputin's cognition until eventually the Rasputin AI would be brought online to connect all of humanity across the solar system. Unbeknownst to Dr. Bray, her grandfather Clovis, had ulterior motives for the Warmind. To one day strike down the Traveler, and replace it as humanity's supreme machine god.
A team of researchers at the Ishtar collective capture a Vex unit for study. In time they discover that for as much as they were studying the unit, it was studying them in several hundred perfect simulations of the team. With such perfection, the chances of you yourself being real dwindled to nil. To attempt escape, they reached out to Rasputin for if their message went through, they were real. In the end, Rasputin rescued them from the Vex, along with several hundred of the simulated copies, who would volunteer to be returned to the Vex network, to study it for centuries to come.
Humanity wouldn't always wait around for the Traveler to give them new homes to live in. On Saturn's moon of Titan, brave explorers joined together to establish a place for people to live on the oceanic moon, without waiting for the Traveler's hand to alter the moon.
Forty years after being rescued by the Warmind Rasputin, Maya Sundaresh is brought on for a secret research project to create a device capable of mimicking Vex technology, and scattering one’s mind across numerous timelines. The experimentation takes its toll on all the researchers. Eventually, Maya decides to leave the cult that had formed around this oracle device they’d built in Lhasa, and join her wife Chioma at Hyperion.
A seed is planted for a monster to grow new life. In less than 20 years, Clovis Bray the first would discover this seed. The fruit of the Traveler's enemy would grow in the garden of Sol.
On the moon, a team of researchers under the K1 designation would discover a strange black orb, of unknown age, that produced a signal. They would go on to study the effects of this strange signal. While it plagued their minds, denying them sleep, it granted them improved cognitive effects. Eventually the Clovis Bray Organization would step in to develop a containment device for this artifact, where it would be bound for years to come.
The Whispers of the Witness draw Clovis Bray to Europa. Here is where he studies "Clarity" and creates the Exo after discovering that when Vex Mind Fluid is exposed to the aura of the Clarity Control statue, it would be purged of all Vex influences, and become the perfect substrate to transfer human consciousness onto.
Through knowledge found in communion with the K1 article, humanity can fly further than ever.
The Echo Project was an initiative planned by the Clovis Bray corporation. Ships would be fitted with human embryos for long distance travel, with the crew of the ship entirely consisting of an all Exo Crew, to pilot the ship for however long the travel would take. Dr. Anastasia Bray was responsible for the recruitment and training of these officers.
In order to prepare for humanity to begin moving out beyond the Sol system, we would need to increase our capacity to plan those flights. The Clovis Bray Corporation and the Ishtar collective worked together to create an AI-COM with Vex technology, which would perfectly predict the ideal courses for these ships to fly.
Cayde-6 is sent to guard researchers on Venus after the arrival of strange new creatures, which would be known as the Ahamkara. The project would be led by Dr. Maya Sundaresh.
See: Cayde's Treasure Island Book
In order to better accommodate potential colonists aboard the Exodus Program, the Clovis Bray corporation begins a new project under the leadership of Dr. Willa Bray. Initially the project was around human augmentations, to increase the resiliency of the crews. When this approach failed to yield success after numerous parallel human trials, they moved onto what the colonies would be built from. The result is a self-assembling nanite swarm that could perform any task they were programmed for.
The Exodus Black, helmed by Captain Masoud Jacobson, crashes down on 7066 Nessus before it could establish the first extrasolar colony of humanity. Lost Colonies
Before it was officially brought online, Dr. Maya Sundaresh asks the AUGERMIND to perform a final test simulation of potential homes for humanity in the Andromeda galaxy. As it plotted those new courses, they began to vanish one by one until none were left. Soteria sends this data to Rasputin as a warning.
Fearing for human survival, Soteria launches the ECHO Program under the guise of a test flight for the ships. When it becomes clear to Clovis Bray that Soteria will not return the ECHO-1 fleet to its launch bay, he engages the pillory protocol, capturing the mind, and shattering it. Before this can be completed, the AUGURMIND creates a submind of itself, housed on a single ship bound for Neptune.
See also Long Arm See also Into the Sunset
Seeking Clarity control, the Vex invade Europa to convert it. They're repelled by Elsie Bray and the Exo of her Grandfather Clovis. The Clovis Bray AI is shut down and Eventide abandoned.
To better understand the conditions of the people Rasputin was charged to protect, Rasputin created a new Exo unit. Unlike all other Exo in existence, this one was not human, they were a submind of Rasputin, modified to be completely indistinguishable from humans. The unit has autonomy and lived among the people. Every so often, they conferred with their father over what they had learned.
A woman named Henriette Meyrin worries for her daughter's future, as she feels humanity is growing complacent beneath the Traveler. Following the detection of an anomaly out in space, she works alongside Helga Rasmussen and Yuki Satou, to found the organization known as the Black Armory, a weapons manufacturer group dedicated to the protection of humanity through arms.
The Black Fleet arrives in Sol. At its head is Nezarec; The Final God of Pain, Savathun; The Witch Queen, and The Witness itself to at last capture the Traveler for the Final Shape.
The Collapse of Titan begins with an evacuation order for the entire moon as Rasputin dispatches a SOLSECCENT team to secure the research of Dr. Shanice Pell. Mia van der Venne, the New Pacific Systems and Facilities Administrator, is able to warn the doctor of their arrival, so that she may have the chance to flee the moon. But Dr. Pell would never leave Titan's surface as Rasputin obliterates a passenger ship carrying her to safety. Soon, intense gravitational forces begin to act on the moon, creating a massive tidal wave that sinks several of the moon's arcologies.
A world unfinished as the Traveler departs from Jupiter's moon in the collapse, moving to rest over the surface of the Earth.
The Hive of Luna rises to meet their Witness, overwhelming all the remaining crew of the First Light lunar base.
"Consider IT the power Titanomach world-ender and consider what IT means. I met IT at the gate of the garden and I recall IT smiled at me before before IT devoured the blossoms with black flame and pinned their names across the sky. IT was stronger than everything. I fought IT with aurora knives and with the stolen un-fire of singularities made sharp and my sweat was earthquake and my breath was static but IT was stronger so how did I survive?"~Rasputin
The Yang Liwei, mother ship of the Exodus Green, attempts to try and flee Sol as the Black Fleet begins to engulf the system. Rasputin calls for them to return, for use in his war strategies, but after a vote of the crew, they attempt to convince the Witness not to destroy them as they leave. The Witness does not care for their pleas. But before their final moments, the Traveler's Light reaches out to clash the coming Darkness, and in the conflict a singularity is created that swallows the ship and crew. First to be consumed and awaken would be Mara Sov.
The Will of Thousands and the Foundling of Oryx arrive on Mars. Rasputin freezes them under the SIBERIAN ENTROPY protocol.
Savathun secretly betrays the Witness and murders Nezarec while cursing his corpse. After the Final God of Pain is dispatched, Savathun hides away the Veil beneath the storm of Neptune.
One of the Pyramids of the Black Fleet is brought down to crash into the surface of the Earth's moon, where it is entombed for many centuries to come. Aboard this Pyramid was the cursed corpse of Nezarec; The Final God of Pain. Slain by Savathun, and later harvested by the Fallen.
The Exodus Indigo is attacked by a strange figure on route to exiting the solar system. Through a clever trick, they're able to disguise the ship as a Vex by attaching their ship to a mysterious Vex signal, allowing them to escape. But in order to maintain the ruse, they had to follow it all the way back to Neptune.
To survive the collapse, Rasputin made a terrible calculation. Rasputin could not endure the collapse, and protect humanity at the same time. To ensure its continued survival, and potential later victory, Rasputin adjusted his morality to MIDNIGHT EXIGENT, thereby allowing him to disable all personal protection protocols. Humanity would burn in the collapse, but the Tyrant would live on.
"In its dying breath the Traveler created the Ghosts, to seek out those who can wield its Light as a weapon - Guardians, to protect us, and do what the Traveler itself no longer can." ~ The Speaker
See also The We Before Us
The destruction of the collapse was total and complete. The golden heights of the age before them have collapsed into rusted ruins and desolation. What remains of humanity is scattered across the Earth, to try and rebuild. This age is remembered for the dark times to come.
The Houses of the Eliksni arrive with the Sol system in search of the Great Machine, the Traveler, that had once blessed their civilization.
Upon arriving on Neptune, Chioma Esi discovered the Veil. When Maya Sundaresh arrived, she was drawn to study this strange alien artifact, establishing the colony which would become Neomuna around the Veil so that she may continue her research. In time, she would be drawn to dark places. Obsessed with the need to utilize the Veil.
The Ghosts of the Traveler begin their search for those whose Spark can be ignited. These chosen would be found from the dead, scattered throughout the solar system. It is unknown exactly how many Ghosts came into existence following the death of the Traveler in the Collapse. Many among these newly risen demigods do not know what their powers mean, some choose to be of service to humanity around them, some would try and hide from their gifts, and some would claim power as Warlords over humanity.
The Veil has proven to be a dangerous and caustic presence within the fledgling Neomuna colony. It renders all those who come into contact with it braindead. Maya Sundaresh later hauls the Exo corpses out of storage and hooks them up to a priorly attempted, and similarly fatal interface for the Veil. Dozens were destroyed as she used the Veil to project her own mental imprint down into one Exo. This is the creation of Lakshmi-2.
Using the paracausal dimensional fold created by the Veil around Neomuna, the Neomuni create a digital network version of their city, where people can live and work inside. Over time the CloudArk is expanded from a simple simulated storage space into an entire world, by Conrad Jain who would one day become the Cloudstrider Bluejay.
An accident in nanite experiments turns Mikaela Julaha into the very first Cloudstrider, known as The Strider. The Sidereal is created, so as to transform many more individuals in just the same way as she was.
On Neomuna, a group of people known as the Uplift Coven attempt to impose their rule over the Neomuni civilians by converting their entire membership into Cloudstriders. Cloudstrider Maelstrom puts a stop to their rebellion before they can become Cloudstriders.
Following the final battle of the Collapse, Rasputin was left in stasis for a time, sealed off on the Earth fragment of the Warmind Network. He would not remain offline for long however, and would return to functionality within the Cosmodrome Warmind Bunker.
Following the reawakening of the Warmind Rasputin, Chioma Esi sends the Cloudstrider Stargazer to the Earth in order to prevent him from interfacing with their systems, and learn more about the Veil. The Stargazer also had a secondary mission, which was to abandon the young Lakshmi-2 on Earth as Chioma could no longer tolerate her presence. Stargazer would use the Malahayati submind in order to purge the Warmind's database of any and all knowledge revolving around Neptune, and to disconnect Rasputin from his network- leaving him stranded on Earth.
A group of survivors of the collapse had gathered together within the City of London and erected a wall around themselves for protection. But this would not persist as the House of Devils, lead by an Eliksni named Akileuks would destroy that wall and sack the entire city in a single night. There is only one confirmed survivor of that terrible event, an exo named Lakshmi-2.
"Are you with me? Will you stand with me— as Iron Lords?"
The order of Risen Lightbearers who swear by the ideals of protecting humanity from all threats, the Iron Lords, rises up to end the tyranny of Warlords throughout the planet.
A system wherein disputes are settled between Risen through combat. This would be one of the first systems to tie together all Lightbearers across the globe, and would continue for many centuries to come.
The Infamous Iron Lord Felwinter is raised from the remains of Rasputin's SIDDHARTHA GOLEM protocol. His life is plagued by Rasputin's attempts to slay him. He later goes on to join the Iron Lords and give them his citadel as their base of operations in Old Russia.
The man who would be known as the Drifter is revived and tries to live his life as far from the Light as he can. When his hometown of Eaton is obliterated in the conflict between an Iron Lord and a War Lord, he moves to the Iron Temple in order to ingratiate himself with Lord Felwinter, to avenge his home.
After the Collapse, the Traveler's voice had grown so weakened that no Speaker could dream of her messages anymore. One Speaker of the Dark Age created a device which could pick up on the weakened signals of the Traveler, and while the messages would become muffled and confusing, they would be heard once again.
The Iron Lords secure a place for humanity in South America and begin to guide the disparate human populations to all gather together under their protection. Many before now have tried and failed to claim the name "Last Safe City", but it shall be here where humanity will grow again.
Before the Hunters, there were the Rangers. A group of brave humans who would guide people from across the world towards the Last City. In time, this duty would be taken up by those Lightbearers called Hunters.
A fledgling Lightbearer of no renown comes to the Iron Temple to begin training his fire under the tutelage of the great warlocks of his time.
Through research, guile and atrocities, Mara Sov is able to scrape together several million Awoken citizens to join her as she leaves the Distributary and returns to the Sol System. They are attacked as they attempt to leave the pocket space, but will not be stopped from returning home.
Shortly after their return from the Distributary, Mara's expedition discovers the Earth, and confirms the continued existence of humanity. Mara Sov is wary of the situation as she observes the Traveler over the Earth, and does not yet wish her people to move out at this time. But many among the crew are eager to commit to the aid they journeyed through spacetime to give, and a mutiny occurs among the fleet. In the end, a third of the expedition is permitted to leave for Earth after the struggle.
Though her desire for the expedition was to be governed through direct democracy, all looked towards the woman who inspired and guided them from the Distributary. All listened to her words, and all would make of her their Queen in the end. A formal coronation follows the creation of her kingdom, but all knew to whom they had pledged their lives to.
Through the Wish Magic of the Ahamkara and careful scavenging of the destroyed ships of humanity, Mara Sov founds the Kingdom of The Reef within the Asteroid Belt between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. Following their exodus from the Reef, Mara Sov proclaims that all Awoken may return home to the Reef, warning them they will be exiled if they deny her call.
See also The Reef
A diplomat of the old Distributary, Nasan, entreats Mara for the opportunity to journey with the Earthbound Awoken, in order to make them understand it was not out of malice that Mara kept them from Earth. She is granted this request, but will not fulfill it as she is murdered on her first night on the Earth. A Ghost finds her body, and she is reborn as a Lightbearer. They name eachother Orin and Gol.
Orin traveled the world for some time before being captured, and later recruited by an order of Lightbearers called The Pilgrim Guard. They were a group dedicated to the safe relocation of mortal civilians to their new homes. In time, they would make their way to the Last Safe City, where the Pilgrim Guard would be based from then on.
One morning, within the Dreaming City, Mara Sov is stirred from her slumber to find her friend and mentor Kelda Wadj suspended in the air alongside her techeuns. While the Techeuns would be released from the trance, the life of the allteacher would be taken, and in her place came a singularity that burned without destroying, asking what would be asked of it. The singularity would be used as the seed-heart of what would be known as the Oracle Engine.
Mara Sov dreams of a sword and a bomb one night, prophesying a conflict between herself and Oryx.
Orin meets a man named Namqi in the last city and convinces him to take her to the Reef so that she may learn where she comes from. They're captured, judged, and released with Orin owing Mara a debt.
The Iron Lords Saladin, Felwinter, and Efrideet come to convince a Warlord to give up his territory and guide his people to live within the Last City. Over several days, Felwinter and Shaxx would duel many times as both factions massed their forces for a conflict. In the end, Shaxx would cede his land in peace, and come to live in the Last City. He would become Saladin's protege after this.
A man who would be known as the Greatest Guardian to ever live enters the Last City as its first walls are being built. His life would be forever changed in a chance encounter with another man, and a conversation over severely burnt food.
After failing a mission to escort colonists to reclaim Mercury after being overrun by the Fallen House of Rain, Saint-14 is rescued by a mysterious Guardian whose Ghost shows him a vision of the future of the Last City.
Following the exodus of the Awoken from the Reef, one of the first ships to escape comes to crash down on the Earth, killing the crew. The man who would be Zavala is raised from this crew and would begin his journey across the world to come to rest in the Last City.
During his training by Lord Saladin, Zavala would meet Safiyah, a human woman who had come to offer medical aid to the mortals under the protection of the Iron Lords. The two quickly fell in love and when it came time for her to move on from the Temple, Zavala would follow by her side. After a raid from the Fallen house of Devils, the two would discover an orphaned infant whom they would raise as their son, Hakim. They were happy, but it was not to last, as one day there came raiders seeking revenge for their captain, slain by Zavala. When the dust settled, Hakim lay dying in his mother's arms after trying to fight by their side. Zavala would return to the Iron Temple, alone. He never forgot the family he lost...
As the City swells in size, conflicts arise as both mortal and Lightbearing citizens of the Last City are divided along factional lines. There is terrible conflict within the streets of the Last City. A new government is formed to solve issues in committee rather than violence. The Risen are known as Guardians from here onward.
Vanguard members: Osiris, Saint-14, Tallulah Fairwind
Consensus members: New Monarchy, Dead Orbit, Concordat
See also Factions
As the City begins to take prominence on the global stage, a new age of humanity begins. No longer do we live in Darkness and turmoil, an age of peace and growth is upon us.
The Sunbreaker order of Titans leave the city for the wilds, recognizing that their form of Solar Light may be too dangerous to the City if they remained. So they shall be apart from the City they protect.
There were six fronts by which one could enter the territory of the Last City, and a day came when the Fallen house of Devils gathered to siege the Last City. But they were repelled by an impenetrable defense of the City's Guardians and Iron Lords. Here is the day the legends of Osiris and Saint-14 would be immortalized throughout the ages. The Greatest of Guardians fought together on this day.
Following the battle of Six Fronts, it is decided to name Saint-14 as the Vanguard Commander. But he would only hold that title for a brief while, as within his first day of command, he would resign from the position. He names Osiris as his replacement for the position.
One of Osiris's first acts as the newly appointed Vanguard Commander is to establish a working relationship with the Sunbreaker order of Titans for the aid of the Last City.
At the Speaker's bequest, Saint-14 begins hunting down any and all Eliksni encampments throughout the Sol system. All houses would know to fear The Saint...
Not much is known about the woman who turned up in the Last City one day. She would go on to establish the Future War Cult within the Last City. An organization centered around use of a device that permitted one to glimpse through time itself. She can see nothing but war in humanity's future, and works to prepare it for those times.
Seeking to impress his sister, Uldren Sov journeys to where she has forbidden. Within the Garden, the prince would discover the Black Heart, and forever be changed by the experience.
The Ahamkara are wiped out under orders from the City, with the aid of the Awoken, the Guardians of the Last City are armed with weapons crafted to slay the Ahamkara until all but those few hidden away in the Dreaming City.
The First Hunter Vanguard, Tallulah Fairwind, is slain in an Ahamkara hunt. She is succeeded by the Hunter Caliban-8.
Following the Great Hunt, a mysterious person appears in the tower. It is unclear what their intentions may be, but they come to market the most prominent items that the Guardians of the Last City have ever known.
Efrideet grows tired of the violence and seeks a new life. She ventures out into the edge of the Solar system and becomes part of a community of other Lightbearers who preach nonviolent use of their Light. It is unknown where exactly they survive.
For the many centuries of his life, Lord Felwinter sought to protect and uplift the people around him, and in time discovered the magical technology of SIVA, a swarm of nanites which would create great marvels for the people of the Last City. He should have questioned the ease by which he would discover this wondrous power...
Rasputin claims the lives of nearly all the Iron Lords following their expedition to the coastal territory of the Russian Cosmodrome. Felwinter's discovery of the site was a trap laid by his once father. Only Lord Saladin would survive this slaughter by the sacrifice of Lady Jolder, who gave her life to seal away the swarm before more harm could come.
See also King of the mountain
The centaur 7066 Nessus returns to the Solar system after an unexpected delay in its orbit.
Osiris values his own pursuits above the politics of the City. He is seldom seen at Consensus meetings, he attempts to install his own protege, Ikora Rey, onto the Vanguard without Consensus approval, and his proclamations chafe against the guidance of the Speaker as many Guardians choose instead to pursue Osiris's goals rather than their duties to the Last City.
A team of Guardians venture to Venus, down into the Vault of Glass.
One would consume and be consumed by the Vault.
One would be imprisoned throughout time and space.
One would escape the vault to die on the Martian sands.
There once lived a legendary titan by the name of Rezyl Azzir, he was a noble man whose Light burned bright. A champion of humanity, who would one day venture to Luna in search of rumors he'd hope were but myth. He had found the Hive within the Hellmouth and descended upon them with fire. After slaying the partner of the Wizard Xyor, he claims a bone from the ashes. In binding it to his weapon, he had sealed his fate in Darkness.
An early conflict with the Hive on Earth. Victory was claimed by the Guardians, which would fuel the fire that draws them to the surface of the moon.
The calamitous expedition to retake the moon from alien hands would see the annihilation of thousands of Guardians on the surface in their hubris for Crota: Son of Oryx had come to claim their Light. The Hive God was invincible against the Guardians, cutting them down by the hundreds, and forcing the forces of the Last City to retreat from the site. This battle would be the final resting place for many legendary Guardians, such as the Titan Wei Ning.
The failure to retake the moon cost us dearly. To prevent further Guardian losses against the Hive on the moon, the Vanguard invokes an interdiction order between the Earth and its moon. Any Guardian acting in defiance of this order would see no assistance or guidance from the Last City.
Following the countless lives lost to the Hive on the moon, a Praxic warlock named Eriana-3 would assemble one team for a mission of justice against the Hive. Joining her would be Eris Morn, Sai Mota, Omar Agah, Vell Tarlowe, and the infamous Warlock Toland. The journey would be just as calamitous as the disaster itself. Vell is the first to fall before breaching the Lunar surface. Shortly after were the lives of Sai and Omar, by the Hive onslaughts. Eriana-3 would be the one to get closest to Crota's ascendant Throne. All their lives traded away for Toland's plot to breach the Throne World, and learn the song of death. Only Eris Morn would survive this journey as she becomes trapped beneath the surface of Luna following the death of her Ghost Brya.
In the town of Palamon lived a young boy by the name of Shin Malphur, whose life would be forever changed by the arrival of two Lightbearers into his life, Jaren Ward, and Dredgen Yor. One to guide and mentor the young boy, the other to burn away all he held dear. Jaren would take Shin Malphur under his wing as they hunted down Dredgen Yor, following the devastation of Palamon. This journey would see Jaren Ward killed by Dredgen Yor, never to return. With vengeance in his heart, Shin Malphur would hunt down Dredgen Yor, and kill him at Dwindler's Ridge, becoming known then on as the man who forged the Golden Gun. But before he passed, the monster would leave the Hunter with one final message.
"Nothing ends"
The fourth Hunter Vanguard vanishes under mysterious circumstances a few years prior.
The Hunter, Andal Brask, is appointed to the position of the Hunter Vanguard following the failed challenge against Cayde-6. As he failed to slay the mercenary Taniks before Cayde, he would join the Tower as the fifth Hunter to hold the position.
The combined forces of the Houses of Devils, Winter, and Kings unite together to encircle the Last City for a grand push against the Guardians. Only the House of Wolves fails to arrive for this endeavor.
Queen Mara Sov ambushes the Fallen House of Wolves on their way to the Battle of Twilight Gap by obliterating the moon of Ceres, killing the Wolf Kell Virixas, and leading to the start of the Reef Wars.
The conflicts of the Reef and the House of Wolves are numerous following the Scatter. For several years, the House of Wolves and the Reef would clash in brutal battles across the Asteroid Belt.
A chance encounter changes one man's life as Sjur Eido rescues an Eliksni Vandal named Misraaks from the House of wolves, and brings him to the Dreaming City. The Light provides.
Mithrax finds a lost child among the ruins of a battlefield. He takes her as his own child. She grows up among the Reef with her father, and is named Eido, after the friend who had changed his life. She would study the Light and Eliksni history as well as the ways of the Techeuns of the Reef.
Osiris's tenure as the Vanguard Commander comes to an end following the distribution of several prophecies uncovered by his research into the Vex. His title and ranks are stripped as he is exiled by the City Consensus. Replacing his position as Warlock Vanguard is his protégé Ikora Rey. Titan Vanguard Zavala is named as the new Vanguard Commander.
Osiris's first steps in exile take him to Mercury, where he is followed by his cult. As to ensure they do not disturb his research, he bequeaths to them the task of understanding one of the many spires of Mercury, while he descends further into the Infinite Forest.
The Fallen houses of Kings, Devils and Winter unite, leading to the second great battle in the history of the City. Following the reduced Guardian effectiveness from the losses sustained on the moon, and the restructuring of Vanguard Leadership, the Fallen seem to have the upper hand against the Guardians. Until Lord Shaxx, recognizing an opening in the Fallen forces, defies an order for retreat, and with the aid of Guardians like Nkechi-32, Idil Abdi, Truce, Liu Feng, and Ana Bray, they push through and begin to rout the Fallen. The Houses are pushed back from the Last City.
Ana Bray is believed dead after the battle at twilight gap, and uses this fact to search for Rasputin without oversight.
The death of the first Queen's Wrath occurs during the time of the Reef Wars just before the Wolves attack the libraries of Hygeia. All that is found is her body, and a strange coin in place of her bow.
Mara calls in her debt from Orin after many centuries. She wishes to confirm the identity of the Sjur's killers, and whether or not this was murder.
The death of the Devil Kell Solkis would mark the end of the Fallen's united attack on the Last City. With one mighty blow of Saint-14's skull, he caved in his foe's.
When Skolas would not listen to reason as Variks begged him to not attack Cybelle, he left him no choice. Working with a priest named Fikrul, Variks had the Prime Servitor of the Kaliks line hidden away. Its location is lost to time, only Fikrul may know where it lay.
Following the battle at Twilight Gap, and the near defeat of the Last City, Lord Shaxx is given command over the old institution of the Crucible. He decides to reform the system into a regimented training program for Guardians to hone their skills in live combat against one another. These matches would be held in secured territories throughout the system, to ensure constant Guardian presences in these arenas if and when additional forces are called. These matches become a form of City entertainment as the people of the Last City watch on as their Guardians practice the skills they will use to protect them all.
The Concordat is removed from the Consensus following a battle in one of the Towers of the Last City. Following their defeat and exile, the Future War Cult is given their rights within the consensus, to ease the transition of Guardian forces.
See also Ghost fragment: the city age.
With the capture of Skolas and the remaining Prime Servitors of the House of Wolves. Variks the Loyal declares Queen Mara Sov to be the new Kell of Wolves.
Following the capture of Skolas and the end of the Reef Wars, Veliniks, the Ravenous attempted to assault the Reef. But before he could do any damage, Petra Venj; Corsair of the Reef, hunted him down with the aid of several Guardians. In an act of miscommunication, she gives the order that leads to the deaths of nine Guardians and their Ghosts. She is named Queen's Emissary, and sent to live among humanity in the Last City.
Saint-14 attempts to find Osiris on Mercury, in those infinite corridors Saint-14... [:error: timeline splice in progress ]
Shin Malphur, under the name of Zyre Orsa, meets and begins working with a Guardian named Teben Grey, to research and understand the terrible powers of Dredgen Yor, so that they might be used in the service of humanity someday.
Following the murder of Andal Brask by Taniks the Scarred, Cayde-6 takes his position as the Hunter Vanguard, but not before getting his payback against the mercenary.
See also: mementos-from-the-wild-561670121
Following the end of another failed timeline, the hourglass is flipped once more. Nobody knows how or why the granddaughter of Clovis Bray is unstuck from time or why she is always returned to this point. She has lived this life many times over, but perhaps this will be where she succeeds.
After several years, Zyre Orsa comes to Teben Grey with research conducted by the City's cryptarchy, leading the duo to follow in Yor's footsteps to the moon.
Teben Grey, Zana Maas, Jonah Pavic, Callum Sol, and Braga Yasuul join with Shin Malphur to found a group of Guardians devoted to understanding the power of Darkness which corrupted Dredgen Yor, and how it may be wielded for the good of humanity.
For a while, the Drifter has been wandering the system wary of those who would only follow the Light of the Traveler. He finds comradery with the Shadows of Yor for a time, even taking the name Dredgen Hope.
Sightings of the Hive on Earth appear, following the Great Disaster.
Through the power of the Sundial, the Guardian walks through time, and saves the Greatest Titan to ever live
A Guardian is resurrected in the Light within the Cosmodrome of Old Russia. After fighting through scavengers from the Fallen house of Devils, the Guardian is able to secure a crashed jumpship that will take them to the last city.
The Guardian sets out to obtain a warp drive for their ship, in order for their journeys to extend beyond Earth. While searching throughout the Cosmodrome for the part they require, the Guardian is assaulted by Fallen from the House of Devils, led by Archon Riksis. After an intense battle, the Archon of the House of Devils is dead, and the Guardian obtains an NLS drive for their ship.
The Guardian goes to investigate the Skywatch, following the orders of the Speaker. Within they discover the Hive on Earth.
The Guardian and their Ghost investigate the Cosmodrome following Vanguard reports about Fallen scavenging around. Along the way, they uncover a strange transmission of music. Following the signal throughout the coastline, the Guardian encounters the House of Kings attempting to hack into a strange computer to no avail. The Guardian learns that the rumors about the Warmind, Rasputin, surviving the collapse were indeed true.
After fighting through dozens of Eliksni and Hive combatants, the Guardian is able to successfully reactivate the communications array in the cosmodrome, but not before the Warmind, Rasputin, is able to take control over the systems and reconnect to his network of warsats and bunkers throughout the solar system
Restored to his full capabilities, the Warmind goes about testing his weapons systems on the backs of Cabal and Vex as they battle on Mars, obliterating all sides.
The Guardian leads a strike team into the heart of the house of Devils in the cosmodrome, where they find and obliterate the Prime Servitor of the Sepiks line.
With the continued appearances of the Hive on Earth, it becomes clear that this fight will return to the surface of the moon, and so the Speaker lifts the Lunar Interdiction, in place since the Great Disaster. Guardians may once again patrol the lunar surface, with the support of the City.
Following the lifting of the lunar interdiction, the Guardian begins exploring Earth’s moon. They begin following the trail of another guardian who came searching for a way to enter the Hive fortress near Archer’s Line. After battling Fallen from the House Exiles, the Guardian reaches the Temple of Crota and finds the body of the guardian they were following. The Hive awaken to surge against the Guardian. With the death of Vurok, Eir Spawn, Ghost is able to retrieve the remains of the guardian’s ghost, and learn that the Hive are raising an army in preparation to invade Earth.
Acting on orders from The Speaker, The Guardian travels to the Hellmouth in search of a site known as the World’s Grave. The World’s Grave is a library of Hive knowledge, and may hold insight into the Hive’s purpose for Sol. Venturing through the necropolis, the Guardian arrives at the World’s grave, defended by the Hidden Swarm. Ghost is able to copy down the archives for the city to decrypt as the Guardian repels the Hive protectors.
Acting on intel gathered from the Temple of Crota by Cryptarch Rahool, the Guardian investigates the legendary Sword of Crota. A weapon of dark power which slew thousands of Guardians in the Great Disaster. In order to destroy the Sword, the Guardian must kill the Swarm Princes who crafted the blade before. One by one, they are hunted down, leading the Guardian to the Sword of Crota itself. Using the blade, the Guardian slays the remaining swarm princes before the sword vanishes from their grasp.
The Guardian prevents the Hive from completing a ritual to drain the Traveler of its Light, and communicates with Elsie Bray, known then as the Exo Stranger, who invites the Guardian to visit Venus.
Ikora Rey has felt a disturbing atrocity growing within the depths of the Hellmouth, and has dispatched the Guardian to slay the monstrosity growing within.
Before the Guardian meets with the Exo Stranger, they set out to strike one last blow against the Hive on Luna. Ghost recalls an old warning from a legendary Warlock named Osiris, about the Shrines of Oryx. Venturing deep into the Hellmouth, the Guardian battles Fallen and Hive all the way to the Shrine. With the death of Sardok, Eye of Oryx, the shrine is destroyed.
Following the invitation given, the Guardian arrives on Venus. After fighting their way into the old Ishtar collective center on Venus, they finally meet Elsie Bray in person who asks the Guardian to destroy the Heart at the center of the Black Garden.
To enter the Black Garden, the Guardian must first seek out the Awoken. An offshoot of humanity, living out on the edge between light and darkness. The Guardian is brought to the Vestian outpost where they are shocked to see Fallen soldiers. Following a brief clarification by the Queen of the Reef, Mara Sov, the Guardian is given an opportunity to prove themselves able to enter the Black Garden. All they need to do is obtain the eye of a Gatelord.
Before the Guardian can obtain a Gate Lord’s eye, first they must learn more about the Vex. They travel across Venus to one of the old research stations of the Ishtar collective. Studying a mind core taken from the Vex, Ghost learns how the Guardian can draw out a gate lord.
At the behest of Master Rahool of the Cryptarchy, the Guardian infiltrates and reactivates the archives of the Ishtar academy.
Deep within the depths of Venus lies the engine of conversion being unleashed on the world. Ikora Rey dispatches the Guardian to lead a strike team down to the Nexus to destroy the mind within.
While on Venus, the Guardian kills the Kell of the House of Winter to put a stop to their raids on the Ishtar Archive.
To draw out the Gate Lord the Guardian needs, Ghost disrupts the gate network around Venus. Once the Guardian has caused enough damage and destruction, the Gate Lord Zydron appears to stop them. With the destruction of the Vex construct, the Guardian is able to retrieve the eye as requested by the Awoken.
The Guardian returns to the Reef with the requested eye of a vex gate lord to be given the key needed to enter into the Black Garden. However, the eye is dead, but the feat alone has impressed Queen Mara Sov somewhat. At her instruction, prince Uldren Sov tells the Guardian where they can find the gate to the Black Garden. On the surface of Mars, within the Cabal’s exclusion zone.
As part of a bounty given by Queen Mara Sov, the Guardian leads a strike team to eliminate the Archon Priest, Aksor. Who had been freed from the Prison of Elders by Taniks the Scarred and would have rallied the house of Winter after the death of their Kell Draksis.
The Queen's Crows enter the Cauldron of Rhea, upsetting the Nine. The Queen gives them Skolas as a gift.
With knowledge gained from the Awoken of the Reef, the Guardian now knows of a Vex gateway that can take them to the Black Garden. The problem is now that the Gateway resides in a territory of Sol patrolled by the Empire of the Cabal.
Whether we wanted it or not, we've stepped into a war with the Cabal on Mars. Commander Zavala has dispatched the Guardian to lead a strike team against Valus Ta'aurc to break their grip on Freehold.
With the lifting of the Cabal’s exclusion zone on Mars, the Cryptarchy tasks the Guardian to aid their investigations into the lost city of Freehold. Fighting through several detachments of Cabal soldiers, the Guardian enters the Dust Palace and within Ghost uncovers that the Warmind Rasputin has been connected to the systems on Mars.
The Cabal have sent forth the Psion Flayers to take hold over the Warmind systems on Mars. Cayde dispatches the Guardian to lead the strike team into the Dust Palace to eliminate the threat posed by the flayers.
Before the Guardian can enter the Black Garden, they’ll need to revive the eye of the Gate Lord they slew. Ghost comes up with a plan to do just that. Within the cabal war base near the garden’s gate is a Vex spire linked to it. Using that spire, the Guardian is able to restore the Gate Lord’s eye and is able to enter the gateway.
Early in his time as a Cloudstrider, Rohan sought to understand the Veil and discovered the Vex had created a half-working copy of it in the form of the Black Heart.
While the Guardian prepares to storm the Black Garden, the Vex forces swell to protect the martian gateway. Before the Guardian can enter the Garden, they’ll first have to thin out the numbers. Traveling deep within the city of Freehold, the Guardian destroys several of the Vex’s gates and learns that many of the Vex are returning to the Black Garden.
Using the eye of the Gatelord Zyrdon, the Guardian invades the Black Garden for the first time, and obliterates the malformed Black Heart at the center of the Garden. With its destruction, reality fractures as the Black Garden now paradoxically exists beneath the surface of Mars, and the Traveler can heal.
Following the destruction of the Black Heart, a fireteam known as the Kentarch-3, consisting of Lisbon-13, Rekkana, and Yardarm-4 ventured into the Black Garden at the behest of the Oneiromantic circle of the Cryptochrons. Deep within the Garden, they discover a strange Divinity, a weapon of Vex worship. Shortly after, all three Guardians are offered the powers of Darkness and accept. Eventually a brawl breaks out between the three of them, with only Lisbon-13 walking away. The Witness approaches Lisbon and offers to remove his memories, which he accepts. The bodies of Rekkana and Yardarm are never found.
At the request of the Speaker, the Guardian ventures deep within the Vault of Glass on Venus, to end the powers it was theorized that the Black Heart might have allowed to manifest in reality. Within the Vault of Glass, the Vex control the flow and existence of all time. Guardians make their own fate, as it was proven with the destruction of the Templar, the Gorgons, and Atheon; Time's Conflux.
After many cycles spent hiding in the Hellmouth, Eris Morn returns with warnings of the return of Crota, and a plan that would allow others to succeed where her fireteam failed.
Eris asks Guardians to defeat the 'Fist of Crota', fearing that the Fist will summon Crota from his netherworld to Earth.
Working with Eris Morn, the Guardian stops the Hive Wizard Omnigul from breaching the Warmind through the cosmodrome bunker.
Eris has tracked down Omnigul, the Will of Crota, down to the skywatch seeder. She cannot be allowed to survive, and so Eris dispatches the Guardian to lead the strike team to eliminate her.
The Guardian ventures into the Hellmouth of Luna to stop the return of Crota to the material plane. They are successful, but Eris Morn warns that this will not end until Crota himself is dead.
The Guardian ventures down into the Hellmouth to see to the destruction of the son of Oryx, and avenge Eris Morn's lost friends.
Following the death of Crota, Eris morn works with the Guardian to enact a hive ritual of sacrifice that will echo across the stars.
After the destruction of the Black Heart, the Black Garden has come to paradoxically exist under the surface of Mars, and the Vex will not permit this. Ikora Rey dispatches the Guardian to lead a strike team down into the Garden to eliminate the Undying Mind to prevent them from repairing the Garden.
Following the death of Crota, the Nine claim the gateway that tormented the Sophia.
On his voyage through the stars, Skolas is released from his cryo prison to find Xur; Agent of the Nine has come with his freedom. The would-be Kell of Wolves then moves to rally the disparate fallen houses and proclaim himself Kell of Kells.
With the return of their former Kell, House Wolves is honor bound to follow him once more.
As Skolas is once more released into the solar system by the Nine, Mara Sov must now move to end this Kell of Kells before he can cause more damage. For her continued loyalty despite the years, Mara Sov anoints Petra Venj as the second Queen's Wrath, and tasks her with uniting the Guardians for the task of the defeat of Skolas, and the breaking of this resurgent House of Wolves.
To facilitate the Hunt of House Wolves, Mara opens access to the Vestian Outpost of the Reef. Here is where Petra Venj will coordinate with Variks the Loyal in hunting down the House of Wolves, throughout the solar system. Within, Guardians are also introduced to Brother Vance, a disciple of Osiris, and Reef Cryptarch Ives.
He calls himself "Kell of Kells". Working with Petra Venj, the Guardian is dispatched to Venus to attempt to intercept Skolas as he attempts to recruit the House of Winter under his banner. The mission ends in failure as Skolas is able to secure the loyalty of the House before escaping justice.
The Guardian ventures out to the Cosmodrome to investigate sightings of the Silent Fang, a group that worked with Skolas during the Reef Wars, on the assumption that Skolas will use them to decapitate the heads of the House of Devils. Working with Petra and Variks, the Guardian intercepts the Fang and wipes them out, ending Skolas’s efforts to recruit the House of Devils.
Skolas attempts to win over the House of Kings to his cause, however they reject his proposal for unity. In the end, the Guardian is able to eliminate the emissaries of both Houses.
Taniks kneels before no house banners, but today he is contracted by the House of Wolves to scavenge the Hive. Variks dispatches the Guardian to lead a strike team, and defeat Skolas in the ways of old.
In a desperate attempt to utilize Vex technology, the Wolves break into the Vault of Glass. While the Guardian is able to repel the invaders, the House of Wolves is successful in obtaining some technological advantages from the Vault.
The uprising of the House of Wolves is ended atop the Citadel of Venus. After fighting through waves of Wolves forces, drawn throughout time and space, the would-be Kell of Kells is captured by the Reef. Before he could be sentenced by Mara Sov once again Skolas foretells of coming Darkness.
With nothing more to be gained from the continued life of Skolas the Rabid, he is dispatched to the arena of the Prison of Elders, where he is slain by the Guardians.
The Spires of Mercury appear to resonate with Guardians. The Disciples of Osiris start the Trials of Osiris to observe this effect.
Eris Morn ventures to the Reef to warn Queen Mara Sov of Oryx's impending arrival. As part of a plan Mara had been preparing, she constructs a Throne World of her own within the Ascendant Plane. Tying it to the Blind Well of the Dreaming City.
Before Oryx can arrive in the system, these three meet in secret to hatch a plot that will see the Taken King dead for all time.
Reef scouts are the first to become aware of the Dreadnaught's presence orbiting Saturn.
Queen Mara Sov unleashes the Harbingers, devastating the Hive fleet, but Oryx's Dreadnaught retaliates, wiping out the Awoken fleet and killing Queen Mara Sov. the coming war
There is only the plan...
In her attempt to save the life of her Queen, Techeun Shuro Chi holds open the gateway that would have brought them both to the Dreaming City for too long. Through his throne world blast, reaching the gateway, Oryx is able to learn of the location of the Dreaming City, and discovers the Last Ahamkara within its halls.
As the Taken King tears through the sacred city of the Awoken, he discovers that contained within those halls was the last known Ahamkara of the Sol system. Riven of a Thousand voices. Imprisoned by Queen Mara Sov through a clever deception, as the Great Hunt sought to claim the lives of all Ahamkara. Oryx Took the last Ahamkara for himself, but would leave her bound within her prison for the time being.
As his mate Riven was being Taken by Oryx, Taranis commits the most unthinkable act an Ahamkara can perform. To ensure that his and Riven's children would survive Oryx and all to come, he grants his own wish to scatter their clutch of eggs throughout the Ascendant Plane. An Ahamkara must never grant their own wish, for it means the end of their existence.
Following the apparent demise of Mara Sov, Uldren Sov, and many high-ranking officials, Petra Venj is named as the Regent-Commander of the Reef. Her rule is filled with infighting and political division.
Following the Taking of Riven of a Thousand Voices, Oryx invades the throne world of Mara Sov, laying waste to those ascendant halls.
The Guardian arrives on the moon of Phobos, following a distress signal broadcasted by the Cabal stationed there. It is then discovered that strange new creatures known as the Taken have arrived in the Sol system, who can abduct our foes and return them as new Taken enemies.
Dominus Ghaul orders the Skyburner Primus to take his legion and board the Dreadnaught no matter the cost.
Cayde-6 has come up with a plan to get the Guardian onto Oryx’s Dreadnaught, but first we need to recover a stealth drive that Cayde hid within the Exodus Red ship in the Cosmodrome. The Guardian discovers how quickly the Taken have infested the Cosmodrome along the way. When they arrive atop the colony ship, the stealth drive is nowhere to be found. But after repelling the Echo of Oryx, Cayde reveals the hidden stealth drive.
Using a recovered cloaking shield, and Eris's hive infused ship, the Guardian is able to board the Dreadnaught and disable the Dreadnaught's weapon. After fighting through the crashed Skyburner legion of Cabal, the Guardian is able to create a Transmat zone aboard the Hive warship so that further operations can continue.
Now that the Guardian has access to the Dreadnaught, they begin working to track down Oryx within the moon sized ship. Zavala orders the Guardian to infiltrate the crashed Cabal ship for their field intelligence. After fighting through the skyburner defenses, the Guardian discovers that Oryx is behind a portal nearby. However, after combatting several waves of Hive and another echo of Oryx, Eris determines that only Ascendant beings may pass through the gateway. So, the Guardian must become Ascendant themselves.
Eris’s plan to gain the Guardian access to the Dreadnaught’s ascendant rupture is to see if perhaps some essence from Crota remains within the crystal that housed him on Luna. While the Guardian is successfully able to scavenge part of the crystal, it was without the needed essence. But before the Guardian could transmat away, they’re ambushed by Oryx’s Taken, and forced to flee for their life. Once they return to the lunar surface, Eris and Cayde begin to plan for how to obtain the essence they came in search of.
The Fallen are invading the Warmind bunker in the cosmodrome. Commander Zavala has dispatched the Guardian to eliminate the new weapons unit, S.A.B.E.R, and prevent the Fallen from claiming any useful technology.
Before the Guardian returns to the moon to search for Crota’s essence, they need to obtain a new stealth system, and Cayde sends them off to Rasputin’s bunker within the cosmodrome. After the Guardian ventures down into the depths of the warmind bunker, fighting against the Taken invasion, they’re able to retrieve the code Cayde needs to create a new cloaking system.
The Guardian, armed with a new stealth cloak, once more enters into the throne world of Crota as his sisters are conducting the death ceremony. The mission is a success as the Guardian gathers up the essence needed for Eris, who teleports the Guardian back to the Lunar surface. Now is the time to end the King of the Taken.
The Guardian navigates through the labyrinthian halls of the Dreadnaught to face down Oryx, The Taken King. The battle is intense, but in the end, the father of Crota dies, and is banished further within the Dreadnaught for now. Eris later comes to retrieve a shard from Oryx's legendary cleaver, Willbreaker.
Eris Morn has recovered a shard of the blade of Oryx, known as Willbeaker, and ponders on whether such a thing could be reforged into a tool for the Light. To this end, the Guardian brings the core to Lord Shaxx and together they forge a new blade for the Guardian to wield.
After the Guardian has driven Oryx back, they begin establishing the patrol and transmat beacons necessary for their fellow Guardians to be able to come to the Dreadnaught.
The bond brothers of Primus Ta'aun have staged an expedition into the Dreadnaught, in order to blow the core of the ship. Doing so will cause a chain reaction that may see the entire solar system destroyed. So, the Guardian leads a strike team against the Cabal forces to protect the Dreadnaught’s core.
While aboard the Dreadnaught, it is discovered that the Skyburner legion have been archiving and broadcasting any and all data they've been able to gather from the Dreadnaught, all the way back to the Cabal home system.
The Guardian works with Ikora Rey to combat the Taken on Venus. Their journey takes them through the Vault of Glass to try and rescue the lost guardian Praedyth, and atop the citadel where the Guardian captured Skolas to kill another of Oryx’s echoes.
The Guardian works with Cayde-6 to combat the Taken within the Cosmodrome. Their journey begins with eliminating the Taken coven in the Steppes to stem the tide of the Taken infestation. However, it turns out that the Taken were being led by the knight Tsugoth within the Rocketyard. After their elimination, an Echo of Oryx is discovered and destroyed in the King’s Watch bunker.
The Guardian works with Commander Zavala to eliminate the Taken on Mars. Their journey begins with the discovery of an Echo of Oryx within the Tharsis Junction of Freehold leading into the paradoxically placed Black Garden. While the Echo is driven from the Garden, it is not destroyed. The Echo flees to the moon of Phobos with the Guardian in pursuit. Where this war began is where it shall end.
The Guardian leads a raid to challenge the Taken King and see him brought down. Six Guardians blaze through the terrible War ship. Not the Warpriest, not Gologoroth, nor even Oryx's own daughters, are a match for this fireteam as Oryx; The Taken King, dies by burning Light.
Across the Dreadnaught, the Guardian quickly discovers dozens of strange little calcified fragments, which whisper to them. Bringing these back to Eris, she begins to translate the whispers for what they actually are, the history of the Hive known as the Books of Sorrow. As More and more of these fragments are recovered, Eris discovers within them that Oryx had sown the seeds for a weapon to be built that would carry on his legacy. Though conflicted about building the weapon, Eris Morn resolves to construct the Touch of Malice for the Guardian.
Mara Sov's gambit pays off and so she begins her journey back to life through the Ascendant Plane. Along the way, she has a brief encounter with the Shattered One, Toland.
With the final death of Oryx, the Taken King, there will be many who rise to claim the throne, and one such was Alak-Hul. The Darkblade has once before attempted to overthrow the King, and was imprisoned for it. Eris stages a strike team to eliminate the knight before he can rise again.
The House of Wolves following the death of Skolas seek to find territory for their own. To that end, they seek to establish themselves on Mars.
While Variks works to understand who could be giving the House of Wolves their orders on Mars, the Guardian continues their efforts to prevent the House of Wolves from gaining any ground on the planet. Their search takes them over to Firebase Rubicon, where the Cabal have entered into battle against the Wolves. After the destruction of one of the House of Wolves’ Walkers, Variks develops a theory about who may be leading them.
Variks has discovered who is now leading the House of Wolves, or rather what is leading them. They have recreated the Prime Servitor Orbiks. After a lengthy battle against the Prime, the servitor is destroyed, and so the Wolves shall be scattered again.
Without the Nexus Mind, the Vex's conversion over Venus has been stalled, and so they have called forth a Restorative Mind to pull it from time. Ikora has dispatched the Guardian to ensure the return of the Nexus mind will not come to pass this day.
Tex Mechanica is holding a crucible contest among Guardians with the prize being a recreation of Amanda Holiday’s own shotgun, the Chaperone. On her behalf, the Guardian enters into the tournament, and through skill and the bribing of several officials, the Guardian obtains the grand prize.
Tex Mechanica works with the gunsmith Banshee-44 in order to recreate the hand cannon known as the First Curse. The fabled sister weapon to the legendary Last Word, though lost to a great fire long ago. With the Guardian’s aid, the weapon is reforged for a new era.
The Guardian has been collecting archaic prototype fusion rifles around the solar system and then one day a strange signal begins broadcasting from Rasputin’s vault, and the Guardian comes to investigate. Once the Guardian has properly cleared out the vault of its hive invaders, they receive a curious transceiver. Once the Guardian has inputted the correct passcodes, the transceiver begins broadcasting coordinates to the top of the exodus red spire, where the Guardian obtains an incomplete IKELOS fusion core. To complete the core, the Guardian will need to obtain parts from around the solar system. With the core completed, the Guardian gives it to Banshee for the time being. The following day, Banshee informs the Guardian that new signals are being detected out on Venus and Earth. Upon investigating the Cosmodrome bunker, the Guardian is granted the Sleeper Simulant Weapon Frame, which Banshee is able to insert the fusion core into.
The remaining Techeuns begin experimenting with Taken Power by infusing it into armor and weapons.
Cayde-6 contacts the Guardian about another Archon Priest named Nixis, that the Fallen have taken from the prison of elders, and has authorized a strike team to eliminate the prisoner on behalf of the Reef. However, before the Guardian’s strike team can arrive, the Priest has been taken. The Guardian is able to eliminate the Hunger of Oryx before they can escape to cause more damage.
With the death of Oryx, the Taken have lost their commanding will, and are aimless. One amongst them, Malok, seeks to rise to the power vacuum. The Guardian attempts to eliminate the taken, but it successfully escapes before the killing blow.
The Guardian hunts down Malok, Pride of Oryx, to earth's moon. After fighting through waves of Fallen, Hive and Taken, their claim to the throne of the Taken King ended beneath the former Shrine of Oryx.
In an attempt to confirm the deaths of her fellow Witches, Coven Mother Illyn attempts to reach out by using Taken Power to contact her lost witches. She wants this more than anything, but does not know that a predator of want is listening in on this connection.
After the Taken War, the Scorned Barons banded together in a time of weakness to become strong, to prey on anyone and anything that practiced the old Eliksni ways. They began with the one thing their people needed to survive: Ether. In a way, the Barons had become heads of a new House, priests in their own rites, and arbiters of their own trials.
Following the death of her brother Oryx, Savathun comes to survey what remains of his works. Arriving in the Dreaming City, she discovers the Taken Ahamkara still within her enclosure. She would make a bargain of her own, to obtain the command over this perfect monster, for a boon yet to come.
Orin the Lost makes preparations for an expedition to find the Nine.
One year before the events of the Red War, the Drifter, along with several others, venture out into space for parts unknown. Their goal being to find something which would help to balance out what they saw as an overbalance of Light in the Sol System. They would find it on a frozen world out in the middle of nowhere.
A mysterious affliction takes root within the Guardian ranks as strange glowing nanites begin appearing following several excursions to the city of Freehold on Mars. While the Guardians themselves are unaffected, a quarantine is called to keep all Guardians away from civilians due to the damage they could feel. With the diligent efforts of the group known as Owl Sector, we are able to discover the origins of this plague in Clovis Bray's records as a means to prepare humanity for life on new worlds, as well as how they may be cured before any lasting damage can be done. But the question remains, who was it who unleashed these nanites, and what may they have walked away with?
After all their digging in the Cosmodrome, the House of Devils make a terrible discovery.
The Guardian aids Lord Saladin in repelling the Devil Splicers from the Iron Temple.
Working with Shiro-4, the Guardian ventures into the now SIVA plagued lands of the Cosmodrome, to try and track down the rebuilt Sepiks Prime. Saladin aborts the mission as it becomes clear that there are greater problems than the reborn servitor.
The Guardian begins working with Lord Saladin, Shiro-4, and Tyra Karn to end the growing threat of the House of Devil Splicers.
The Guardian pushes back against the Devil Splicers from building forward cannons along the coast of the Cosmodrome.
In order to try and persuade the rank and file of the House of Devils, the Devil Splicers restored the Prime Servitor destroyed by the Guardian so long ago. Shiro-4 dispatches the Guardian down to ensure this will be the end of their efforts.
The Guardian travels to Mars to learn about SIVA and its development as a building program for potential human resettlement on other worlds.
The Guardian avenges the Iron Lords and lays their legacy to rest as they rise as the first new iron lord.
The Devil Splicers have invaded the moon of Earth to experiment with seeing if they may co-opt the Hive biology with SIVA. The Guardian is dispatched by Shiro-4 to eliminate the abomination.
The Guardian learns of Devil Splicer leadership after seeing how they are pushing back against local Hive nests.
The High Priest of the Devil Splicers has mobilized on a nest within the Plaguelands. Shiro-4 dispatches the Guardian down to finally eliminate Kovik, and end the Splicer's experiments with the Hive.
Lady Efrideet, long thought dead, returns to Earth from a pacifist colony out in Sol to aid Lord Saladin in helming the Iron Banner tournament.
The Guardian destroys Devil Splicer leaders after infiltrating their lair through the Cosmodrome wall, and destroying their siege engine.
With the House of Devils Splicers shattered, they made the attempt to recruit one Fallen captain of great renown to their cause with Taniks the Shattered. Taniks was already more machine than eliksni, and so they believed SIVA would not only restore the fallen captain, but perfect him. Variks dispatched the Guardian to lead a strike team back to the moon to prove them wrong.
Somehow, Omnigul had managed to restore herself to life. Should she be allowed to remain in action, there is no telling what may befall the system. Cayde-6 and Ikora Rey send out the Guardian to once more take down the consort of Crota.
After upgrading the Nexus Mind with vault of glass technology, the Vex have once more engaged their planetary conversion engine on Venus. The Guardian leads a strike team against them once more, to ensure Venus does not befall the same fate as Mercury.
Eris makes one last visit to an old friend before she leaves the Last City to find where the next threat will come from.
See also Silicon Neuroma
Following the sustained attacks on vital house individuals by Guardians, House Kings uses Uldren Sov to call all remaining Eliksni to band together under 1 banner of Dusk, bearing the colors of the old House of Rain.
The Shadows of Calus make a desperate attempt to kill the Dominus of the Cabal Empire. All who ventured aboard this terrible expedition would be slain by the Ghost Primus and his Red Legion.
They imprison the Traveler in a cage, cutting off all Guardians from the Light, and they kidnap the Speaker. Many of the Citizens of the Last City flee with Commander Zavala, but not all are able to escape.
After Osiris left the Spire in the care of his cult, they came to discover the spires resonated with a two-toned noise whenever a Guardian died. When the Red War began and Guardians were sundered of their Light, their deaths now only produced a singular tone.
Eva Levante was among those in the Last City unable to flee the Red Legion. Over the months-long war, Eva worked with other survivors to get people out of the Last City to safety.
Following the fall of the Last City, Commander Zavala takes the evacuees of the Last City to the moon of Titan, where the Cabal do not follow. He soon learns why the Red Legion avoid the shadow of the Dreadnaught
Following the loss of the City, Cayde-6 journeys to find a way to assassinate Ghaul. Gets trapped by Vex tech on Nessus.
Ikora Rey journeys to the shard of the Traveler to regain her light without success. Travels to Io in a crisis of faith.
The Guardian only barely survived their encounter with Ghaul and must now flee the Last City. For the next week, the Guardian wanders further and further from their once home, following a strange falcon through the mountains. Eventually, they come to meet a woman named Hawthorne, who escorts them across the ocean to a Farm in the European Dead Zone.
The Guardian visits the shard of the Traveler in the European Dead Zone, restoring their Light.
Devrim Kay and Hawthorne would like the Guardian to install a comms signal to broadcast a message of safety within the European Dead Zone for other refugees to rally to.
The Fallen are trying to block all communications within the EDZ, so the Guardian is sent out to clear up the air waves and clear out the Fallen.
The Guardian is sent out to kill the arms dealer of the Red Legion, Bracus Zahn, by Commander Zavala, Hawthorne, and Cayde-6.
Hawthorne has gone and installed a signal relay atop the nearby salt mines in Trostland. But the signal isn't quite reaching, so Devrim Kay has the Guardian run up a signal booster to Suraya. After facing down the House of Dusk, the Guardian arrives atop the mines to meet Hawthorne. Once she installs the signal booster, they are able to receive a message from Commander Zavala, calling for all Guardians to rally on the moon of Titan.
The Guardian aids Hawthorne and Devrim in clearing out Red Legion and House Dusk soldiers around the European Dead Zone.
Following Zavala's distress broadcast, the Guardian reunites with the Commander, and secures a foothold on Saturn's moon of Titan.
Now that the Guardian has reunited with Commander Zavala and Deputy Commander Sloane, they are going to have to clear the wave energy converters to reactivate the command systems on the Rig.
The Fallen have attacked some of Sloane's repair crews and stolen their equipment. The Guardian is sent by Sloane to retrieve the stolen gear and eliminate the gang of thieves.
Deputy Commander Sloane has dispatched the Guardian to clear out nearby encampments of Hive and Fallen. Using the explosives taken from the Fallen, the Guardian draws out the Hive to eliminate them as well.
Now that all Rig systems are restored, Sloane has a plan to begin their counter offensive against the Red Legion. She has intercepted a legion communication, but lacks the technology needed to decrypt it. Luckily, one such system is nearby for the Guardian to retrieve, deep within the arcology. Once the Guardian has returned from the depths of Titan, Sloane is able to decrypt the signal and learn of how Ghaul conquers planets by placing a device called the Almighty upon local stars, and has done so to our sun. But Zavala will not be daunted, though first he will need his fireteam. He needs Ikora and Cayde.
Sloane has been picking up some intense gravitational disruptions being caused by the Hive in the arcology. The Guardian is sent to track down the source of these waves and eliminate them.
The Guardian is part of a rescue effort after several fireteams of Guardians have been lost within Titan's arcology. As they fight through the Hive, they encounter one of the remaining survivors with Taeko-3, who gives her life so that the Guardian may end Savathun's song.
The Hive have been harassing Sloane's repair crews in the arcology, and so she calls in the Guardian to eliminate the Knight. To their surprise, the Knight quickly returns to life once more. The Guardian tracks down the Knight over and over until they are finally able to disrupt the ritual and eliminate the Knight permanently.
After receiving a strange signal from Sundance, Cayde-6's Ghost, the Guardian travels to the centaur of Nessus in search of Cayde. To their surprise, what was expected to be a cold and barren rock was a thriving forest. Cayde has been trapped in a Vex teleportation loop. Luckily, Cayde was not the only ally on Nessus, with Failsafe. The AI system for the Exodus Black has been here all this time, and enthusiastically aids in the rescue of Cayde-6.
Working with the AI-COM/XBLK, aka Failsafe, the Guardian is able to free Cayde from a Vex trap.
Ghost has come up with a plan to integrate Failsafe with the Vex network here on Nessus, so that they can steal as much data as possible. Failsafe is captured by the Vex, where she meets another trapped individual, before being liberated by the Guardian.
Failsafe has come up with a plan to once again attempt to gain intelligence from the Vex network. After her prior imprisonment, she has developed authentic Vex logins for the local network. The Guardian is able to successfully retrieve reports on Vex capabilities and Cabal fleet movements.
The Guardian discovers that the Vex have been taking Fallen crews prisoner to run experiments on. The Guardian travels into the depths of Nessus to free the captured crews before the Vex can continue their research.
Failsafe has contacted the Guardian regarding the fates of two crew members of the Exodus Black who abandoned the ship after an argument with Captain Jacobson. The Guardian uncovers their fate after being forced by the Vex to undergo several of their tests.
Failsafe contacts the Guardian regarding the nearby Vex having upgraded their defensive shields with a strange new unidentifiable energy. The Guardian travels throughout the centaur to uncover the secrets of these new shields and break them.
The Guardian is dispatched by Commander Zavala to eliminate a nearby Fallen soldier using stealth technology. With their elimination, the Guardian learns that the House of Dusk is planning a raid on the Exodus Black. The Guardian successfully repels the Dusk Fallen, preventing them from claiming the technology within.
The Fallen of the House of Dusk are raiding the remains of the Exodus Black. Cayde-6 dispatches the Guardian to clear out the space pirates, and maybe collect some nice loot along the way.
The Red Legion soldiers on Nessus have been receiving orders from an unknown Cabal vessel. As Cayde 6 and the Guardian investigate what is going on, it is discovered that the one giving orders to these soldiers is the former Emperor of the Cabal, Calus.
To hobble the Cabal troops on Nessus, Commander Zavala sends the Guardian down into the Inverted Spire to prevent them from obtaining dangerous vex technology.
Reunited with Ikora, the Guardian works with her and Asher Mir to uncover Ghaul's plan.
Ikora reports to the Guardian that the Taken are gathering at a Cabal camp nearby, and would like them to investigate. The Guardian descends into the Wraith Mines nearby Terrabase Charon. With the elimination of Iraz, Eye of Savathun, Ikora makes a startling realization. Someone has claimed the crown of Oryx.
Asher Mir has come to the Guardian with a strange request. He asks them to procure one of the Cabal’s armored vehicles and to use it to eliminate the Vex surrounding the nearby Warmind Vault. Ghost makes a suggestion that we also reclaim any stolen data taken by the Vex from the vault. Among the data is information regarding Mars, the Warmind, and the Guardian Ana Bray.
Asher Mir sends out the Guardian to investigate strange Vex energy readings. It is discovered that the Vex are preparing to fully machinoform Io. The Guardian is able to eliminate the construct and the Constructive Mind. Asher Mir is able to upload a virus to the Vex network.
To better make advances against the invading Red Legion, Asher Mir has come up with a hypothesis to attempt restoring Light to more than just the Guardian. However after an invasion by the Taken, it is made clear that while the energy of Io can be used to enhance a Guardian's command over the Light, it cannot grant the Light itself.
Before the Guardian can make a move on the Almighty, they will first need to obtain information on the massive space weapon. Ikora has a plan to utilize the nearby Warmind facility in order to properly scan the station, where it is discovered that should we destroy the Almighty, it will take our sun with it.
Asher Mir has dispatched the Guardian to the Pyramidion of Io in order to take vengeance for his lost arm and comrades.
The Taken have gathered around Trostland, and are poisoning the water supplies for Hawthorne's nearby refugee camps. The Guardian is sent by Commander Zavala to wipe out the Taken.
With the Vanguard reunited, Commander Zavala has requested that Cayde-6 re-engage the patrol beacon network so that further operations can continue. Cayde-6 delegates this task to the Guardian.
Now that the Guardians have a plan of attack against the Cabal, it is time to put it to work. In order to reach the Almighty, the Guardian will have to ground the carrier ship near Trostland. With the newly developed Drake Tanks, the ship will never fly again.
There have been reports coming from the dark forest in the EDZ that Red legion psions have begun experimenting with their new ability. The Guardian is sent to investigate and discovers that the red legion have begun co-opting the Taken’s powers. The Guardian is able to eliminate the corrupted psions and ends their experiments.
The Guardian works together with Asher Mir and Failsafe to begin studying the Taken. By exposing the Guardian to Taken radiation, they are able to fool the Taken into following the Guardian into a Cabal research base to overwhelm it. Afterwards the Guardian eliminates the remaining forces from the base.
The Guardian works with Ikora Rey and Devrim Kay to steal a power core from one of the Red Legion’s goliath tanks, to overload the massive cannon weapon in Firebase Hades, taking it out of commission for the foreseeable future.
The Guardian works with Devrim Kay to shut down power generators to the Red Legion base by traveling through the underground tunnel system.
Commander Zavala and Hawthorne have requested the Guardian eliminate a roving gang of fallen pikers in the EDZ.
To reach the Almighty, the Guardian needs the access codes from Thumos the Unbroken. He is one of Ghaul’s blood guard. The Guardian fights through the grounded Orobas Vectura to reach the command center where Thumos becomes broken.
The Guardian works with Amanda and Hawthorne to capture Red Legion supplies for the resistance. The House of Dusk attempts to claim the caches before the Guardian but are repelled.
The Guardian works with Sloane and Hawthorne to use the Red Legions own explosive charges to destroy their tanks in Firebase Hades.
Hawthorne has called up the Guardian to take down the anti-air turrets on Firebase Hades. The Guardian and Ghost get a little carried away with taking out every major weapons system they can find.
Deputy commander Sloane has made a discovery about the Cabal's technology. The organogel that runs through the Cabal's armor is also used for their ship's fuel systems. Asher Mir and Sloane have a disagreement about how best to make use of this information to assault the Cabal, leaving the decision up to the Guardian.
Now that the Guardian has Thumos’ access codes, they need to retrieve a ship to travel all the way to Sol’s orbit. Thumos’ personal carrier in the nearby shipyard is the perfect vehicle to carry the Guardian to the sun.
While the Guardian is disabling the Almighty from firing, Zavala prepares a push to retake the Last City. The Consul murders the Speaker in his anger.
The Guardian defeats Ghaul in combat, but Ghaul grows into an enormous Light-filled creature. The Traveler awakens, destroying Ghaul and sending a pulse of Light across the galaxy. At the edge of the galaxy, a fleet of Pyramids awaken.
See also Radiant Accipiter
Ghost begins picking up a strange signal on the moon of Io, and the Guardian goes to investigate. They soon discover a bunch of stunned Vex surrounding a strange warmind device. Following the signal from one device to the next, Ghost is able to parse strange quotations and music within the signal that has seemingly hypnotized the Vex. Once the Guardian eliminates the Vex within the warmind's vault, their Ghost receives a strange data transmission which briefly overwhelms their consciousness.
Devrim Kay calls up the Guardian to investigate some strange Fallen in the nearby Trostland area. The nearby pirates have somehow enhanced their either using cabal technology, which the Guardian goes to investigate. They’re able to destroy the machine enhancing their ether but the threat is not yet ended. Devrim calls the Guardian back to find and destroy any and all containers with the artificially enhanced ether, finding it guarded by a lost captain Mazan. Ikora Rey is brought in to provide her expertise in what may be causing all this, who directs the Guardian towards one of the House Dusk Archon Priests and their servitor. The Guardian uses empty ether cores in order to draw out the servitor in order to eliminate it and end the enhanced either production.
Quest: A Second Opinion, Enhance! Quest: Differential Diagnosis, Enhance! Quest: Experimental Treatment, Enhance! Quest: Follow Up Appointment, Enhance!
Deputy Commander Sloane would like the Guardian to help clear out some fallen who are residing in one of the Rig’s control centers before they sink the entire station. It is apparently just a single captain and his crew who have come in search of some data in the station, and the Guardian is able to repel them from the area with little issue. Amanda Holiday is brought in to look through the data that the captain was looking for and discovers that there is an untouched golden age methane reactor somewhere on the rig, and with it Sloane could restore full functionality to the base. Along the way, the Guardian once again meets up with the fallen captain, named Mithrax, who has been trapped by the local security system, and frees them as a result of Ghost attempting to reactivate the reactor and determine its location. Once we arrive at the reactor site, the Guardian quickly discovers Mithrax in battle with the Hive, and the two forces join up to eliminate the Knight. Mithrax leaves the Guardian in peace with a bow. May the Light provide.
Quest: Data Requisition, Enemy of My Enemy Quest: Report to Sloane, Enemy of My Enemy Quest: Lighting the Dark, Enemy of My Enemy Quest: Chances and Choices, Enemy of My Enemy Quest: At Full Power, Enemy of my Enemy
Now that Dominus Ghaul has been eliminated, Asher mir has called the Guardian back to Io in order to help him continue his research into the Pyramidion. The Taken have infested the superstructure and have begun searching for the warp gates within, to consume the Collective Mind. Around the base of the Pyramidion, the Guardian is informed by Ikora that the Hidden have observed the Taken behaving strangely with the Vex, and would like us to investigate. The Taken have been capturing the Vex without transforming them. After the Guardian eliminates the nearby jailers, the Vex begin emitting a distress call that the Guardian follows back to the source of these abductions, a Taken Knight with the ability to take, a power believed only to have been held by Oryx. Ir Arok is able to escape thanks to the arrival of Elatiox: Beloved of Quria. Again and again, the Guardian tracks down the Knight but is unsuccessful in preventing the abduction of more Vex. Atop the Pyramidion, the Guardian is able to finally corner the Knight, and eliminate them, ending their efforts to build up an army on Io.
Quest: Premeditation, Dynasty Quest: Calculated Action, Dynasty Quest: The Long Play, Dynasty Quest: Gratitude, Dynasty
Mithrax leads two Guardians to the tomb of Sjur Eido, where he vows to create a home for all open minded Eliksni. This is the beginning of the House of Light.
Failsafe has begun contemplating death, following the demise of Dominus Ghaul, and would like the Guardian to uncover the fate of her former captain jacobson, as she has been hearing his voice on her comms network. Shockingly, yes, there is a voice transmitting along the network, coming from nearby exodus black suits. The Guardian tracks the signal from body to body till they arrive as a satellite array set up by captain jacobson before the Vex attacked. To further unravel the mystery, the Guardian eliminates nearby Vex to search their memories of that attack. Strangely, the Vex report that the captain is coming to meet the Guardian. Stranger still, a weird looking harpy arrives, and Failsafe bids us to follow. The harpy leads the Guardian to the remains of captain jacobson while running the Guardian through several combat trials, before playing some of the final thoughts of the captain for Failsafe. The experience has given Failsafe much to process
Quest: O Captain, Exodus Black Quest: My Captain, Exodus Black Quest: Simulation of Grief, Exodus Black
After Dominus Ghaul's death, the exiled former Emperor of the Cabal came to Sol in search of the one who slew the leader of the Midnight Coup, inviting them aboard the behemoth pleasure barge.
Following the Red War, a woman known as the Emissary of the Nine holds combat matches for the Guardians.
Panoptes, Infinite Mind, finds Osiris. Upon deducing that the Mind is able to perceive his Ghost's light, Osiris tries to save his Ghost, Sagira, but she is damaged in the process. Ikora enlists the Guardian's help to find out what happened.
The Guardian works with Brother Vance to awaken Sagira's shell using technology from a previously hidden bunker of the Disciples of Osiris, hidden in the EDZ.
The Guardian learns of the perfect Vex future after traveling back to Mercury with Sagira, to attempt to find Osiris.
The Guardian and Sagira go to the Io Pyramidion to find a map of the forest
Using the infinite forest, the Guardian attempts to track down Panoptes.
In search of a better processor to read the Infinite Forest map, the Guardian travels to Nessus.
Using the map of the infinite forest, the Guardian is brought to the birth of Panoptes to find them through time. They succeed, but Sagira is captured by the Vex.
Panoptes almost manages to delete the Guardian from the Infinite Forest, but Osiris and his reflections prevent it, allowing the Guardian to defeat Panoptes.
With the destruction of Panoptes ensuring the safety of tomorrow, Brother Vance has taken it upon himself to introduce the Guardian to the many twisting roads of the Infinite Forest.
The Guardian works with Brother Vance in order to better understand the 10 lost prophecies of Osiris. With the solution to each puzzle box unlocked, the infinite forge within the Lighthouse becomes able to craft another weapon from the venerated warlock. Among the lost prophecies is discovered a hidden 11th tale, which leads the Guardian to reforging the Perfect Paradox shotgun that had once belonged to Saint-14 long ago.
Ghost receives a communication from Sagira requesting our presence in the Infinite Forest. Sagira informs the Guardian that the Vex are attempting to simulate the Hive, to test out a new reality path, and the Guardian is here to destroy everything in sight and ruin their data.
Osiris and Sagira have called in the Guardian to once more disrupt a Vex simulation. This time, the Vex are studying the Fallen’s battle tactics, and so the Guardian will go in to ruin any data the Vex might obtain.
Osiris has called the Guardian into the infinite forest to investigate a peculiar Vex simulation. They have crafted a single cabal soldier who is just running between two points, carrying encrypted data. Whatever purpose this simulation may hold, Osiris requests we end this loop.
Ghost has picked up a Vanguard signal coming from within the Infinite Forest, and upon further investigation it is revealed to be the Light of Saint-14. The greatest titan who ever lived has not been seen for decades. This is one of Osiris’s many shames, for Saint-14 came to the infinite forest in search of him all those years ago. However, tragically it is discovered that Saint-14 has per….[:error:timeline splice in progress}
The Guardian once again ventures into the Infinite Forest as the Cabal have been causing enough damage that their simulations may potentially leave the Infinite Forest and wreak havoc.
Sagira calls the Guardian to inform them that Osiris has potentially unleashed a new danger onto the world. Osiris wished to better understand how the Infinite Forest came to be, and so created a simulation of Dendron, the Mind which grew the forest on Mercury. But now the simulation has become self aware, and threatens to take hold over the Forest entirely. The Guardian must eliminate the mind before this can occur.
Vance touches upon a truth the system is not ready for and is rebuked. But walks away with a request from Mara Sov.
Osiris and Sagira are able to use more of the infinite forest's power, following the death of Panoptes, and Osiris glimpses what is to come.
[See Prophecy of Osiris comic]
The Guardian returns once more to the Leviathan in search of Calus. Along the way, it is discovered that the Leviathan has drawn in the conversion engine for the centaur Nessus. The Guardian takes this opportunity to eliminate Argos, Planetary Core.
In the wake of the Speaker's passing, Zavala is given access to secret knowledge before only held by the Speaker. He decides to venture to Mars, to Rasputin.
Ana Bray and the Guardian work together to fight through the Hive and reach the futurescape on Mars.
Ana and the Guardian fight there way to Rasputin's Mindlab where Zavala awaits them
The Guardian travels to the EDZ to find something to draw Xol into the open.
After defeating Nokris, the son of Oryx, Xol imposes its will upon the Guardian, nearly killing them.
Xol attacks the mindlab and is killed by the Guardian. With the aid of Ana Bray and an empowered Valkyrie spear, the Guardian is able to slay the Worm God. In the aftermath Rasputin declares his purpose in the system. He will guard all in his domain, as he sees fit.
Ana Bray has contacted the Guardian about a sweep the Vanguard did of the Clovis Bray archives, and discovered that a copy of Rasputin's weapons development database is located nearby. Her mission for the Guardian is to go out and destroy every terminal that houses that data. But not before making sure she still gets to keep a copy.
Commander Zavala has reached out to the Guardian to eliminate the Red Legion forces operating on Mars before they can claim anything of value. Ghost learns that the Psions have been harvesting energy from Rasputin and with the help of Devrim Kay, set up a trap for the Cabal commander to walk into.
Ana Bray has contacted the Guardian about some strange signal that has been messing with her equipment. After eliminating some Hive, Ana has determined that they are building something down in the tunnels nearby. The Hive have constructed a signal amplifier to call out to Savathun. The call is ended quickly as the Guardian destroys all the amplifiers in the area.
Ana Bray has contacted the Guardian regarding radio chatter from the Red Legion. After eliminating a small battalion of Cabal nearby, Ghost learns that the local psions in the area are attempting to evolve, using Rasputin’s systems. The Guardian manages to repel the invading forces from the mindlab.
Ana Bray has been digging through Rasputin’s data and has discovered a blank spot. To uncover this mystery, Ana Bray sends the Guardian out across Hellas Basin where Ghost finds an energy trail to follow that leads to a DVALIN core, and a secret chest hidden within the Alton Dynamo facility. Within was a code that Ana recognized as her own omni-key, capable of unlocking anything in Rasputin’s database, along with data to create a mysterious engram. Ana states that the only way this engram will be decrypted is with Rasputin himself and her omni-key. Along the way, the Guardian has to bypass several of Rasputin’s safety mechanisms he activated for the Cabal. Ana says she wants to see what the engram was with her own eyes. The blueprints created a rifle. This rifle was one that Ana and her sister Elsie had worked together to create, and she would be glad if the Guardian would help her finish it.
With the discovery of one of the weapons developed by Ana Bray in the Golden Age, Rasputin has been inspired to continue working on his IKELOS weapons systems, and is sending the Guardian out to collect the necessary data he requires for this task. With his calculations concluded, Rasputin returns to the Guardian the Sleeper Simulant.
The Guardian returns once more to the Leviathan in search of Callus. An invasion by the Red Legion is underway and the Guardian must once more act to defend the Leviathan from invaders. With the defeat of Val Ca'our and his fleet, the Leviathan remains under the command of the Emperor.
With Drifter's return from the frozen world, the Nine take interest
Osiris will not stand to see his love lost, and so creates a machine to travel through time to save the life of Saint-14. Ultimately, he is unsuccessful, and hides the project away.
Shin Malphur meets with the Drifter before he arrives at the tower. The two scheme together for their mutual benefits. Gambit is brought to the Guardians.
The Spider hires Cayde-6 and a crew to capture a group of fallen criminals known as the Scorned Barons. Cayde's Six are successful in capturing all but Fikrul, the Fanatic, who is gunned down in solar flame by Cayde-6. [See Cayde's Six comic]
Uldren Sov discovers the dying body of Fikrul, and makes a wish for him to live. This wish is granted by Riven.
Uldren Sov grows tired of the Craask's influence and together with Fikrul, they slay the Kell of Kings. Uldren Sov is now the Kell of Dusk.
Uldren meets with the Techeuns to demand they help Mara, who is believed by all to be gone. He is rebuked, and ends his journey surrendering to the Reef.
Following Uldren Sov and Fikrul's imprisonment in the Reef, Variks attempts to cure them of both of their afflictions. He is unsuccessful and inadvertently creates the Scorn, undead Eliksni, risen through Dark Ether. With the knowledge that Variks is the last free Eliksni to come from Riis, Variks causes a prison break to cover his escape from the Reef in order to attempt to unite his people.
Responding to a request from Petra Venj, Cayde-6 and the Guardian go to the Reef to help contain a prison break in the Prison of Elders. Cayde-6 tries to stop Prince Uldren's escape, but is killed by Uldren and his Barons.
In the mayhem of the prison break, a House of Devils Baroness named Eramis is able to flee the prison of Elders.
Following the death of Cayde-6, the Guardian leaves to hunt down the man responsible across the Tangled Shore. They meet with Petra Venj, who has also come to seek the death of Uldren Sov, for his crimes. But to get their vengeance, the two will have to work with The Spider, the only law in these lashed lands.
The Guardian fails to get all the barons in one go, but working with the Spider; Baron of the Tangled Shore, the Guardian is able to hunt down almost every last one of the Scorned Barons.
In order to reach Uldren Sov, the Guardian must first hunt down each of the Scorned Barons. To track down Yaviks, the Rider, the Guardian stole one of her pikes and went for a joyride around the tangled shore so that Ghost could learn how to track her down through her pikes. Yavik’s life ends as the Guardian catches her in the Boil.
In order to reach Uldren Sov, the Guardian must first hunt down each of the Scorned Barons. Pirrha, the Rifleman, is found out in Sores Cut in a shootout with the Cabal. With each of the decoy snipers that the Guardian destroys, Ghost is able to further track down Sundance’s killer, who dies in Hellfire canyon.
In order to reach Uldren Sov, the Guardian must first hunt down each of the Scorned Barons. Reksis Vahn, the Hangman, is found out in Sores Cut while the Guardian frees the Spider’s servitors. The Hangman loathes the servitors and comes to end the Guardian’s rescue operations. After a brutal battle, the Hangman lies dead at the Guardian’s feet.
In order to reach Uldren Sov, the Guardian must first hunt down each of the Scorned Barons. Kaniks, the Mad Bomber, comes out to meet the Guardian in Four-Horn Gulch with explosive payloads scattered around. The Guardian narrowly disables the mines, but loses sight of Kaniks. Luckily the Red Legion have also been tracking him down, and the Guardian follows them all the way to Diaviks Mine, where the mad bomber breathes his last.
In order to reach Uldren Sov, the Guardian must first hunt down each of the Scorned Barons. Hiraks, The Mindbender, is found out in the Jetsam of Saturn, having used his technology to take psychic control over nearby Hive. As the Guardian chases him down throughout the wrecked tombship, Hiraks is able to slip into the ascendant plane to his throne world. This is his final mistake, for a death in the sword space is true and final.
In order to reach Uldren Sov, the Guardian must first hunt down each of the Scorned Barons. Araskes, the Trickster, is discovered by the Guardian when we come across one of her trapped exotic engrams. As we move to destroy her production of death traps, the Guardian comes face to face with the Trickster in Diaviks Mine. The Trickster is eliminated by the Guardian despite all her deceptions.
All but the Fanatic and Uldren Sov remain alive after the death of Elykris; The Machinist. But not before she is able to dispatch multiple ships full of Fikrul's Dark Ether, to ensure the Scorn will have a permanent place in the Sol system.
Believing he is helping Queen Mara Sov, Uldren uses a shard of the Traveler to unlock a portal, releasing the Voice of Riven, which consumes him. After the Guardian is successful in repelling the Taken Chimera, Uldren Sov is left to face the final justice of the Guardian and Petra Venj.
The Guardian works with Banshee-44 to restore the Ace of Spades after reclaiming it from the hands of Uldren Sov. To do this, Banshee asks the Guardian to retrieve materials from Cayde-6’s personal staches. With the parts in hand and the hand-cannon modified to perfectly fit the Guardian’s hand, the Ace is restored.
The Guardian returns to the Prison of Elders as part of a strike team to clear out any of the remaining loose prisoners that they can. The Drifter sends the Guardian after one such target, the Warden servitor left behind by Variks. The Guardian is able to eliminate the servitor after completing its broken challenge of the Elders. It will be a while before the Prison of Elders is restored to full functionality.
The Spider brings in the Guardian to come and clear out the Hive nest growing on the tangled shore. The Mindbender had apparently been using this brood to experiment with the Hive, breeding ether into their systems. With the death of the broodmother In Anaaks, the Spider is satisfied with his debt.
Fikrul, the Fanatic, was able to escape the Guardian's justice thanks to the wish magic Uldren used to save his life so long ago. But he will find no respite as the Guardian returns to his lair once more to end this brief return to life, and will do so again and again.
Petra is going to hunt for answers about why Uldren Sov did everything. She invites the Guardian to come with her through the watchtower.
With the death of Prince Uldren, Petra Venj has invited us to follow her through the portal in the Watchtower, though it has become infested with Taken. With the aid of the Spider’s associates, the Guardian is able to enter the gateway.
It is revealed that Riven, the Last Ahamkara, has been Taken, and was manipulating Uldren into arranging her escape.
Six Guardians travel deep into the Dreaming City to kill Riven, the last known Ahamkara.
In the death throes of the last known Ahamkara, she casts a grand curse over the Dreaming City as the Hive and Taken invade, under the leadership of Dul Incaru; Daughter of Savathun.
Following the cursing of the Dreaming City, the Reef calls upon the Last city to help defend their most sacred space.
Petra Venj has called in the Guardian to rescue the last remaining Techeun taken by Oryx in the Taken War. The Guardian is able to successfully cleanse the tech witch after a long journey throughout the dreaming city and ascendant plane.
Petra Venj has received word from one of her corsairs in the field. The Hive have come to start stealing relics from the Dreaming City, and the Guardian's aid is requested to rescue the corsair and eliminate the Hive invaders.
Sedia has tasked the Guardian with clearing out the Taken which have seized control over the Oracle Engine's tower. The Guardian is able to repel the Taken without any damage to the Oracle.
The Scorn are gathering near the monastery in Rheasilvia, and the Guardian is brought in to clear them out. Within the Harbinger’s Seclude, the scorn appeared to have been enacting some sort of ritual, but were cut short by the Guardian’s efforts.
After working with the Drifter for some time, and competing in his Gambit arenas, the Guardian was able to find and slay an Ascendant Primeval and claim its heart for Drifter. The rogue lightbearer has a plan for the organ, but first he wants the Guardian to check up on an acquaintance of his by the name Callum Sol. Callum was last seen running into the Ascendant Plane, which the Guardian enters through the Dreaming City. The Guardian traverses the plane, tracking the Light of not just Callum Sol, but an unknown lightbearer. The trail leads the Guardian to a burnt out rock face within the ascendant plane, and a dead ghost. Callum Sol was killed by another Guardian, and not just any Guardian, but Shin Malphur. Once the Guardian returns to the Tower, the Drifter presents them with the Malfeasance handcannon, so that we don’t end up like Callum.
After charging the Blind Well for the last three weeks, the Guardian is finally able to come face to face with the source of the Dreaming City's curse. Upon passing through the doorway beneath the well, the Guardian arrives in the once Throne World of Queen Mara Sov, Eleusinia. The throne world has been completely devoured by the Taken infestation that has rooted itself since the arrival of Oryx. Fighting through the many arduous challenges, the Guardian comes face to face with Dul Incaru, a daughter of Savathun the Witch Queen, and ends her life. This should have ended the curse.
The Guardian sights Toland one day on patrol out on the Tangled Shore. Following him down into the lashed asteroids, the Guardian is brought before an amethyst doorway. Beyond the awoken construct, the Guardian faces down waves and waves of Taken and obtains three tokens from the enemies within. But in order to awaken them, the Guardian returns to the Shattered Throne to once more face down the Taken, and end them. With all three tokens now awoken, the statue of Sjur Eido, the first Queen’s Wrath, bestows the Guardian with its bow.
Believing that with the death of Dul Incaru, the curse of the Dreaming City should be lifted, and its domain restored. But Queen Mara Sov knows better. What has happened before will happen again and again, as the Dreaming City has now been caught in a time loop.
Mara Sov sets up a future development with the Nine through their Emissary. It shall be moved beyond the Grave of the first fleet.
The Spider summons the Guardian to the Tangled Shore in order to make an introduction for them to an associate of his.
The Queen of the Awoken uncovers an uncomfortable discovery and leaves it in the hands of the Guardian to one day make sense of.
Following a meeting with the Spider, the Guardian works alongside Ada-1 to stop Siviks, the brother of the Spider, from using the Black Armory forges to bring chaos to the solar system.
Before the Guardian may obtain any weapon from the Black Armory’s catalog, they will first have to reclaim the armory’s lost forge from the Cabal. The Guardian is able to track down the Volundr forge to the EDZ, and clears out the cabal guarding it before returning to Ada-1. The armorer is astounded that the Guardian has accomplished this, but hesitant to allow the Guardian to forge a weapon with it. She acquiesces and the Guardian creates the very first of their Black armory weapons.
Quest: Black Armory Machine Gun Frame, The Black Armory Quest: The First Blacksmith, The Black Armory
The Guardian discovers more Fallen from the Kell’s Scourge crime syndicate carrying Black armory technology, despite the Volundr forge being secured in the EDZ, and brings the gear to Ada-1 for her thoughts. She is disgusted by this joining of her family’s technology to the Fallen’s, and asks that we instead take this to the Spider. The Spider tells the Guardian that even more of this gear has found its way to his shore, and if we want answers, we’ll need to crack some skulls. After enough cracks are made, the identity of the leader of the Kell’s Scourge is revealed. Siviks, Lost to None, brother of the Spider, and another escapee of the Prison of Elders. The Guardian follows the trail of technology from the EDZ all the way to the ruins of the Exodus Black on Nessus, and discovers the Gofannon Forge.
Quest: The New Syndicate’s Identity, The Spider’s Competition Quest: The Lost Gofannon Forge, The Spider’s Competition
Six Guardians track down Fallen at the outskirts of the city to secure a lost Black Armory vault. While Siviks is able to escape with his life and several documents from the vault, the Guardians are able to destroy his war machine, Insurrection Prime.
Ada-1 is distraught. But her hope remains, for for the first time in the armory’s history, Guardians have acted to protect what was the armory’s. Though not everything could be secured. Siviks has managed to abscond with many pages from the journals of the Black Armory’s founder. The Guardian will have to retrieve these pages to discover what Siviks is after.
The Guardian has discovered that not only did the Exodus Black carry on it the Gofannon forge, but the Izanami forge as well. The third forge has been moved further within a Vex controlled section of Nessus, and damaged. Without the igniter repaired, the Izanami forge is useless. Luckily Ada-1 has an idea for how the part can be restored. Using materials from across the solar system, the igniter is rebuilt and ready to be reinstalled in the forge. With the reclamation of this new forge, Ada is beyond gracious to the Guardian. She had nearly considered the Black armory finished, and we have breathed new life into her.
Deep within the EDZ lay a prototype black armory forge, rediscovered by the Guardian after cracking its protection protocols. Within the ancient laboratory was an experimental fourth forge of the Black armory. The Bergusia Forge was a new type of system, able to craft any weapon patterns inserted into its systems.
The lost pages of the Black Armory Papers are returned. They reveal that Ada-1 was the daughter of the Black Armory's founder, Henriette. Her name was Adelaide.
The Guardian has discovered a strange box within the EDZ bearing the markings of each of the four forges they have reclaimed over the season. After crafting keys from each forge, the box opens to reveal a mysterious decryption device and a mysterious datapad. Ada says that the decryption device is meant to be used on the founder’s journals, and she has used it to uncover that Project Niobe had even more to offer than before. Including etchings of a new kind of weapon. Working with Ada, the Guardian manages to craft a new weapon frame to be forged in the experimental Bergusia Forge. Siviks, Lost to None, attempts to intercept us before we can use the forge, and falls to the combined might of the Guardian and the Black armory. What the forge produces is not a weapon itself, but an artifact meant to be combined with a weapon Ada herself once used to avenge her mother, and she would be proud to see us carry the Izanagi’s Burden in our own hands.
Sightings of strange blights are found in Io, the Drifter asks you to investigate. The essence of Xol, Will of the Thousands has burrowed into Io's soul. The Guardian ventures through Taken, to obtain a rifle of power.
Following a discovery made by Drifter, the Guardian stops a Hive consort from crafting more weapons of Sorrow. In doing so, the Last Word is now wielded by the Guardian.
See also Book: Letters from a renegade
In order to confront the dangers coming to reach Sol, Queen Mara Sov must once again venture out beyond the Throne of the Reef.
After wandering through the Hellmouth, Eris morn is tormented by Savathun, and later meets up with Mara Sov. The two begin to travel together in order to uncover the next threat. On these journeys Eris witnesses Mara attack the Black Fleet, before returning to Sol.
With the mysterious datapad in hand, the Guardian returns to Niobe labs to investigate. With the right access points utilized, and the clearing out of unwanted intruders to the labs, the Guardian obtains another ancient black armory frame. Once filled with the radiance energies from each of the four forges, the device transforms into a component known as the Obsidian Accelerator. The Guardian knows from reading the Black armory papers that this device was once housed within Ada-1 herself, and so returns to the woman her full capabilities as the union between Clovis Bray Exotech and Black Armory Forge technologies.
A variation of Drifter's original gambit missions sees the Guardians in a much more intense duel.
After the Guardian gives Drifter’s new Gambit a test drive, the rogue lightbearer invites them up to enter into the strange rock lashed to his ship. This is the world of the Reckoning, a pocket space created by the Nine for the Drifter. Here is where Guardians will forge new armor to take into Gambit Prime.
Drifter approaches the Guardian about the fact that he is aware that the Vanguard have been keeping a watchful eye over his illicit activities, and wants the Guardian to report back on him. The Drifter doesn’t mind whatever the Guardian chooses, but warns them that standing with the Vanguard means facing down Drifter’s adversaries as well. But if they stand with him, then the Drifter will watch our backs. He leaves the decision up to the Guardian to make.
The Guardian chooses to stand by the Drifter, to that end the Drifter sends the Guardian off to the Spider for supplies he needs to keep his operations going. Specifically to “ask him for the jerky.” Among the Spider’s illicit collection is “The Jerky”, coordinates to some golden age salvage on Titan. After clearing out the nearby pirate gangs and replacing a transmat beacon, the Guardian sends off the supplies. Drifter received a tip from Spider while this was all occurring, that the fabled hunter Shin Malphur had been spotted out in the EDZ, and Drifter is not happy. After a short excursion around the solar system, running more errands for the Drifter, he informs the Guardian that he has a message for them on his ship. After hearing his message, Drifter tells the Guardian that he’s come to trust them a little, but before he goes further, there’s some things the Guardian should hear out in the EDZ. After that, far as Drifter feels, whatever we face will be together.
Quest: Dead Drop, Honor Among Thieves Quest: Drifter’s Hideaway, Honor Among Thieves Quest: Drifter’s Hideaway, Honor Among Thieves Quest: Hidden Messages, Honor Among Thieves Quest: We’re In This Together Now, Honor Among Thieves
The Guardian chooses to stand against the Drifter. He’s not happy about the decision, telling the Guardian that we are wrong about the way we think about him. Later the Warlock Aunor Mahal reaches out to the Guardian with an offer of cooperation if they choose to be the Hidden Agent's spy against the Drifter. The Drifter later returns to the Drifter’s facilities to bug the location so that Aunor can listen in on his conversations. Drifter is sending someone over to the Spider, and Aunor wants the Guardian to get there first. The Spider is willing to cut ties with the Drifter, for a price. 50,000 glimmer later and a deal is a deal. The Spider even offers the Guardian a tip that the Drifter is doing something on Titan, and Aunor agrees it’s worth pursuing. The Emissary of the Nine reaches out to the Guardian on Titan, stating that Aunor is wise to distrust the Drifter, and that in time, the Nine will aid our search for truth. The Drifter joins our communications with fury, saying that us and Aunor are clearly looking to break his deal with the Vanguard. After further infiltrating Gambit Prime, Aunor contacts the Guardian again with another lead aboard the Drifter’s ship that leads the Guardian to the EDZ and several hidden recordings left by the Drifter. With that, the Guardian returns to Drifter one more time to confront him. He’s as distant as ever. Despite everything, he hopes that you do see that he is more than what you thought.
Decision Point - Stand with the Vanguard Quest: Bomb Threat, The Investigation Quest: Hard Truths, The Investigation
The Guardian is granted visions from the Nine, showing them many events throughout the system. Among them is a warning about the approaching Black Fleet of Pyramids.
The Guardian discovers the remains of several Guardians out in the EDZ, and among the bodies is the ruined wreckage of a Thorn hand cannon. The Guardian brings the Thorn over to Banshee to see if it can be repaired. Banshee says it’s possible, but will need to rebuild the gun, and has a detailed list of materials he needs the Guardian to pick up. With the Gun repaired, the Guardian pays a visit to Tyra Karn to see if she could offer insight into how it may be further restored, and she sends the Guardian down into Titan’s arcology for just such. The Guardian once more wields the power of Thorn.
Shin Malphur, Zyre Orsa, Dredgen Vale. A man with many names tells the truth of himself to the Guardian.
The Guardian works with Mithrax to stop Eramis from raiding the tower and obtaining a relic of SIVA from within its vaults.
See also IV. The Visionary
Following her failure to reclaim SIVA, Eramis is unsure of her path. But one is whispered to her through dreams.
A hunter retrieves the Crown of Sorrows from one of Calus's Athenaeum worlds.
Calus seeks to have the means to bring the Hive into his empire, and uses the Crown of Sorrows to turn Gahlran, a specially cloned gladiator, into a Hive Commander. But secretly, Savathun has inscribed spells into the crown which bend Gahlran in her thrall, and through him unleashes a Hive infestation aboard the Leviathan.
Ghost has been inundated with message requests coming from a frame within the Annex, and the Guardian finds a malfunctioning maintenance frame. Emperor Calus has commandeered the frame to invite the Guardian out to Nessus. Ikora grants the Guardian clearance to investigate.
At Ikora's request, the Guardian investigates the strange frame in the tower, leading them to Nessus, where Calus has dispatched a barge for them. Once aboard, a new frame bequeaths to them a golden chalice of opulence. Calus's voice invites the Guardian to return to the Leviathan once more.
The Guardian boards the Leviathan to slay Gahlran and stem the flow of Hive into the Leviathan
The Guardian finds a scrap of paper among the treasures taken from Calus’s menagerie. Seeing that they are not fluent in awoken script, they bring the notes to Petra Venj in the Dreaming City. The note was addressed to the “daughter of Light” indicating that there is a stolen rocket launcher somewhere within the Prison of Elders. But to find it, we will need a map that’s been lost in the Ascendant Plane. The Guardian discovers that the map is only a fragment, and contains a riddle for the daughter of Light to solve. After solving the riddle, it is clear that this was meant for an Eliksni to unravel, but the Guardian decides anyways to claim the rocket launcher for themselves.
Shin Malphur has entrusted the Guardian with Dredgen Yor's original Thorn. After dedicated hard work, the Weapon of Sorrow is reborn in the Light, as the Lumina. A weapon of hope
As a reward for their repeated service, Calus has opened up a hall within the Leviathan for the Guardian's own self-aggrandizement.
A tear in the planes is left over from when Gahlran lived. The Guardian investigates and retrieves the weapon Bad Juju from the realm.
After the deaths of both Crota and Oryx, the Hidden Swarm attempts to make a new ruler. Beneath them a forsaken ritual is enacted to bring ruin to the swarm. And between them both is a Witch Queen, seeking to bring about the total destruction of all. In this time is the Scarlet keep raised up on the Lunar surface.
Following her journey with Mara Sov, Eris Morn returns to the Last City with a dire warning before departing for Luna.
A Pyramid, buried on the Moon, begins creating unending nightmares after its discovery by Eris Morn. Zavala calls for all available guardians to return to the moon as the Hive pour out onto the surface from the newly erected Scarlet Keep. Ikora informs them that Eris Morn is down here with the Guardian. As the Guardians fight through the Hive to the Keep, the Guardian pushes deeper into the crags of the moon. Strange figures start to appear floating within the caves, and Hive who are not actually hive assault the Guardian. The Guardian eventually reaches the source of the disturbance on the moon, a massive black Pyramid crashed down into the lunar surface. As the Guardian approaches, a visages of the Guardian’s old foes manifest to prevent their approach to the Black Pyramid, and in the end Eris Morn rescues the Guardian from the three Nightmares. Her mission for us is clear, we must find a way inside the Pyramid.
As the Pyramid of Luna awakens from Eris Morn's touch, strange phantasms begin to roam the Lunar surface. Terrible shadows from our past walk among us again. Nightmares and Phantasms are born from the collected trauma of those Lightbearing minds. A defense mechanism of the Pyramid, exploited by the daughters of Crota in their quest for power over the Hive.
The Guardian works with Eris morn to learn how they will be able to get past the Pyramid’s defenses. To that end, the Hive near the scarlet keep will hopefully hold some answers. The Guardian observes that the Hive are drawing in the Nightmare monsters of the Pyramid to their rituals. Before we can learn more, screams echo over the radio as Eris’s signal is lost. The Guardian returns to Eris’s camp to learn that a Nightmare of Omnigul had assaulted the area, and she just managed to survive using the essence that the Guardian received from Crota’s nightmare. If we are able to master these essence’s, we may be able to resist the Nightmares.
The Guardian tracks down the Nightmare of Omnigul for another essence that may be used to create armor that can bypass the Black Pyramids defenses. With the destruction of this Nightmare, the Guardian obtains the needed essence. Eris Morn bids us to investigate the Scarlet Keep next.
In order to obtain the means to craft more armor for the Guardian to enter the Black Pyramid, they will need to enter into the Hive’s Scarlet Keep. The Guardian leads a strike to the top of the grand spire, where Hashladun, daughter of Crota, harnesses the energies of the Pyramid. Once the guardians have slain the witch, the Guardian claims a tablet from her corpse describing an object known as a cryptoglyph.
To find the Cryptoglyph mentioned in Hashladun’s tablet, the Guardian is sent down to the catacombs of luna. Within, the Guardian finds another of Crota’s daughters conducting a ritual at the base of the Black Pyramid. With the elimination of Besurith, the Guardian claims the cryptoglyph, but before the Guardian could be transported back to the surface of the moon, the Darkness of the Pyramid cuts us off from Eris, and so the Guardian must fight their way back to the surface.
The Guardian hunts down the Nightmare of Phogoth, the Untamed, into Hellmouth. Phogoth was fear incarnate for the Guardians, and with its demise the Guardian is one step closer to entering the pyramid.
The Guardian hunts down the Nightmare of Taniks the Scarred to the crashed ketch of the original fallen mercenary. With their destruction, the guardian has obtained all they need to enter the Black Pyramid.
Armored with the magic of Eris Morn, the Guardian is finally able to pierce through the Darkness of the Black Pyramid and enter within. As the Guardian approaches the colossal ship, Ghost becomes possessed by an unknown force that welcomes the Guardian into the vessel. As the Guardian travels to a central chamber, they are brought face to face with old rivals from history. As the Guardian obtains a strange relic they experience a vision of a fleet of Pyramids in the Black Garden.
Strange whispers begin emitting from the orb retrieved by the Guardian obtained within the Lunar Pyramid, and week by week, Eris Morn begins to transcribe the words carried through the Darkness. They tell the Guardian a story of the beginning of the universe and their place within its design, asking for sympathy and acceptance.
Eris Morn guides the Guardian to find the spark of Toland the Lost, who has come to Luna in the wake of the Pyramid’s awakening. The Guardian is tasked with studying the Hive’s death song through the skulls taken from slain deathsingers on Luna. With the skull of Ir Airam, the Deathsong is now the Guardians to command through a weapon crafted by Eris.
Following the signal emitted from the relic found aboard the Lunar Pyramid, the Guardian follows it to the Black Garden where they find a shrouded statue, and the weapon Divinity.
Eris bids the Guardian to hunt down the remaining spawn of Crota down into the depths of the Scarlet Keep. Within those halls, the Guardian comes face to face with Zulmak, a Hive Knight of immense strength, bound in life and death to the remaining daughters of Crota.
The Guardian helps Eris Morn resolve the lingering pains that have bound the Nightmares of her fireteam to her. Recovery is ever a journey, one where it is always valued to have friends by your side.
Memory of Sai Mota Memory of Vell Tarlowe Memory of Omar Agah Memory of Eriana-3 Memory of Toland, The Shattered
The Vanguard have detected a massive burst of vex activity on Io and have dispatched the Guardian to lead a strike team to the Pyramidion to investigate. The Taken have made an offensive into the Vex structure with the goal of claiming a massive vex computational array for Savathun. With the deaths of the commanding Taken, the construct remains out of Savathun’s clutches.
Drawn to the Lunar Pyramid, the Sol Divisive begins to infest Earth's moon.
Banshee has sent a transmission to the Guardian about a gift that he would like to give them. He had a weapon that he felt would aid the Guardian in their efforts against the Vex and the Lunar nightmares. He left it over in his workshop for us to get, once we found the secret entrance. Unfortunately, the keys to the safe with the weapon have been lost, and so the Guardian must do some brief safecracking. With several combat missions, the Guardian is able to assemble a key generator for the safe.
The data coming from the Vex offensives on Luna has given Ikora Rey the identity of the one responsible for these invasions. The Undying Mind has returned to operation. In order to end these invasions, the Guardian will need to eliminate the mind again. But that is easier said than done, for the Mind has begun moving through different timelines to ensure its continuance. Ikora will need time to formulate a plan.
Ikora Rey devises a plan to slay the Undying Mind, which has hidden copies of itself throughout time. Over several weeks, the Guardians construct a portal which can draw those copies back, and have them exterminated by the Guardians. Quest: The First of Many, Vex Invasion To Destroy a Mind
Over many weeks, the Guardians systematically obliterate every last iteration of the Undying Mind that it has hidden throughout time.
Ana Bray works with Rasputin to uncover the secrets behind the Pillory Program, and pays for the terrible consequences of her first life's work. {Record: Legacy Pt 2)
Psion sisters search throughout Mercury and have discovered an old time machine, and hatch a plan to use it in order to rewrite the events of our history.
Following the destruction of the Undying Mind, Osiris ventures into the Infinite Forest one day to find that the dark simulant future he saw to prevent had been eradicated. Almost the whole solar system had been obliterated to the subatomic level.
The Guardian meets with Osiris on the fields of Mercury. When we slew the Undying Mind, we changed the predicted flow of history within the Infinite Forest, changing the future from one of Vex conversion to complete subatomic oblivion. When Osiris emerged from the forest to see what had occurred, he found that the Red Legion had abused one of his old creations, the Sundial.
Originally, Osiris had created the Sundial so that he could rescue Saint-14 from his fate within the Infinite Forest, and now the Psions are using it to tear apart time so that they may win the Red War. Now Osiris sends the Guardian throughout the corridors of time with the power of the Sundial so that they can undo the damage done by the Red Legion Psions.
Ghost discovers that the shotgun that the Guardian created with the Infinite Forge has a reaction to the Sundial, and is broadcasting temporal coordinates across time. Using the Sundial, the Guardian travels to the dark age past of Mercury. Upon arrival, Saint-14 calls the Guardian over the comms, pleading with the Guardian to retreat from the Zephyr Station now. A crestfallen Saint-14 came here to protect a colonization attempt, but the House of Rain savagely slaughtered everyone who came with him. Thanks to the Guardian, Saint-14 is alive and the fallen are in retreat. To try and lift his spirits, the Guardian bequeaths to Saint-14 the Perfect Paradox shotgun with Ghost showing the young titan what the future of the Last City holds. With that, the Guardian is drawn back to the present day of Mercury. The Guardian informs Osiris of their journey to his melancholy, as he could never find the moment needed to save Saint-14.
The Perfect Paradox had one other set of coordinates to be used within the Sundial, and so the Guardian once more steps through time, arriving in a much more recent past of Mercury. The Guardian meets with a now confident and proud Saint-14 just after the Vex have completed the Mind which will spell his doom. However, with the Guardian here now to fight by Saint-14’s side, the Martyr Mind is crushed beneath the Light of the two Guardians. As the Guardian is drawn back through the Sundial, Saint-14 tells them that he will meet them again when they open the Infinite Forest next. What’s a few more years of fighting Vex?
Quest: Corridors of Time Part 2, Completing An Impossible Task
Three of the Psion flayer sisters merge themselves together in a final attempt to repel the Guardians from the Sundial, and secure their future. Their fourth sister does not join them, instead vowing to avenge their deaths should they fail.
Following the Guardian's journey throughout time, Saint-14 has been brought home from another timeline to the Last City again. [:Error resolved: Timeline splice complete]
After so many years away from his home, the Greatest Titan to ever live, has come to rest within the City he was shown many centuries before.
With the elimination of the combined Psion Flayer, Intotam, the Sundial is no longer under Red Legion Control. Osiris is beyond grateful for the Guardian's aid in clearing out the Sundial, and the return of his partner Saint-14. He bids the Guardian to go and enjoy the time they have, while there is time remaining.
Saint-14 shows the Guardian around the battlefield of Twilight Gap where history was made. Lord Shaxx sings a song from Eris...
Osiris visits Rasputin on Mars, and confronts him about which side of the war he is on.
Elsie Bray discovers a Pouka creature of Neomuna out by Pluto, alongside a Ghost named Tokki. These two would be her companions for a time, as Elsie attempted to study the strange nanotech material also found at the sight. In time, it would become known that the Pouka possesses psychic abilities, which let Elsie Bray recall events in her prior timelines with greater clarity.
The Guardian has received a request from Osiris that while Saint-14 has been saved, there are still places within the Corridors of Time that Osiris has not traversed. The Guardian once more delves into those temporal tunnels. After many many twists and turns, the Guardian arrives at the Time Lost Vault, and within is the gravesite of the Guardian themselves. After listening to their eulogy provided by Saint-14, the Guardian learns that this grave is marked with one of the Guardian’s favorite weapons, as Saint-14 bids them to claim it back should they make a new miracle happen, and come back to life. The Guardian takes the broken weapon core from their grave and returns to Mercury. Upon returning to Saint-14 in the present, he informs the Guardian that somehow his Light is being picked up in the Tangled Shore, and would like the Guardian to investigate. After some negotiations with Spider, and several dead fallen, the Guardian is set on the path of a pair of fallen captains, Aksiniks and Reysk. The latter who was dead and now returned as Scorn. With Reysk returned to the grave, the Guardian retrieves the frame of Saint-14’s old weapon. Saint-14 is more than elated to see the Guardian wielding his old weapon, as he combines the frame with the weapon core from the time lost vault.
The Guardians create a new Lighthouse on Mercury, using the fractline obtained from the Sundial. The Trials of Osiris shall return to the Crucible.
Osiris, now free to roam the system, demands aid from the Warmind. He is led to the edge of the Kuiper Belt where he finds a great yawning maw, there is no Light here, within he finds a small metal seed to be planted.
Osiris plants the seed found out in space on the moon of Io, at the behest of Queen Mara Sov. A tree with Silver Wings will grow there.
Eramis has gathered many Eliksni on the moon of Europa, following the Whispers from her dreams, and begins to build for them a new home here on this frozen world.
Following the death of her sisters, Amtec boards the Almighty and sends it on an unstoppable collision course with the Earth.
With the Almighty on a collision course with the Earth, all seems lost. But Ana believes that Rasputin can be convinced to obliterate the Almighty before it reaches us. But first, we will have to work together in order to raise our defenses before Rasputin will aid us. To that end, Rasputin is sending the Guardian somewhere in the EDZ.
Quest: Speak with Ana, Raising Our Defenses Quest: Into the Mindlab, Raising Our Defenses
Commander Zavala has requested the Guardian retrieve an old weapon from the Vanguard’s vaults for this coming clash with the Red Legion. It is discovered that someone had stolen the weapon from right under the Vanguard’s watch. Ana Bray tells the Guardian that there’s only one group who might’ve been able to pull off this heist, the cabal. After gathering intel from cabal soldiers, Ana determines that this particular thief was one of Calus’s Shadows. With the data in hand, the Guardian visits the Benedict 99-40 frame in the annex, who states that the Shadow behind the theft has been disposed of by Calus’s daughter, Caiatl, and that the weapon is lost in the EDZ. The Guardian is able to locate the Fourth Horseman shotgun within the Quarry of the EDZ.
The Guardian discovers that Rasputin has had a secret bunker hidden in the EDZ all this time. Alongside Ana Bray and Commander Zavala, the Guardian clears out the fallen that have taken residence inside the bunker so that they can reconnect the station to Rasputin on Mars. Zavala remains distrustful of Rasputin and whether or not he will aid them after all these years of silence, but Zavala is willing to put his faith in Ana for this.
In order to destroy the Almighty, Rasputin wishes to modernize and update his current warsat systems. To that end, the Guardian shall be protecting the seraph towers nearby the warsat command bunkers, as the new units are finishing their construction.
Following the discovery of the EDZ bunker, the Guardian and Ana Bray venture out to Luna in order to recover another location for Rasputin. While fighting through the hordes of Hive, Ana opens up about how she feels about others' view of her, and how she regrets that she could have done more for humanity while she was off searching for her family’s legacy.
With the discovery of a new warsat bunker on the moon of Io, Commander Zavala has come along to confront Rasputin’s willingness to defend humanity following the many years of silence from the Tyrant warmind. Rasputin plays back audio from the Collapse, while also showing Zavala that he has been tracking an approaching fleet of Black Pyramids ensnaring the solar system. Rasputin has been planning for his second encounter with that which felled humanity’s golden age before. He is afraid he will once more lose. With this gesture of openness, Zavala swears that from here on they shall be true allies. Both in the destruction of the Almighty, and the defeat of the Black Fleet.
With all three of the warsat bunkers now under Rasputin’s control, and fully repaired, it is time to begin launching his newly improved warsats into orbit. The Guardian will have to once more defend the seraph towers as the satellites are fired into orbit.
Before the final assault on the Almighty. Rasputin takes the Guardian on a journey of trust, showing him how he slaughtered the Iron Lords in malice, not indifference. How he abused his son's kindness to see him slaughtered and all who were with him on that day. A story about a father's regret for their tyranny's ruin. Quest: A Warmind’s Secrets, The Lie
Through the combined efforts of the Guardians and Rasputin, the Almighty is turned to scrap and ash over the Last City.
The Black Fleet of the Witness has returned to the Sol system, to bring about Salvation.
The Black Fleet begins to touch down on several worlds around the Sol system. Rasputin attempts to fire his new and improved war sats at the fleet, to know avail, and for his impudence he is commanded to die. Nothing will stand before salvation...
With the return of the Black Fleet, the people of Neomuna elect to go into cryogenic stasis until the threat passes. They will live within the CloudArk of Neomuna for the foreseeable future.
Eramis boards the Pyramid as it lands on Europa, and finds within the power to control and dominate the world.
After training with the Pouka, Elsie is able to better envision the history of her prior timelines, and through them learns about Stasis. She journeys to the Pyramid on Europa, but is too late to secure the crux, but not too late to reconnect to the Darkness, and reclaim her power over Stasis. She seeks out allies for what is to come.
The Guardian attempts to meet with Eris Morn on Io. The Pyramid attempts to abduct the Guardian, who is seemingly rescued by an Ascendant gateway. The Guardian then meets Eris beneath the Io Pyramid and finds a tree of silver wings in blossom. They take from it a seed, which Eris believes can be used to commune with the Pyramid. Later, Zavala, Eris, and the Guardian meet to discuss future plans for the fleet.
The Drifter has devised a way they can use the tree of Silver Wings to break through Savathun's interference and commune with the Pyramid on Io. Contact - Io Contact - Titan
The Drifter and Eris Morn seek out knowledge of the Darkness from the Nine within the impossible world of the Haul. prophecy
With the amassed Darkness that Drifter has obtained, Eris Morn can break through Savathun’s interference and listen to the words of the Darkness. This week’s message is “Protected”. Eris considers the various meanings contained within this logograph, settling on that the Black Fleet believe the Traveler’s sheltering of humanity to be less benevolent than we know.
With the amassed Darkness that Drifter has obtained, Eris Morn can break through Savathun’s interference and listen to the words of the Darkness. This week’s message is “eggshell”. The Black fleet believes that the Traveler has kept us isolated from the world, and to grow, we must break through that barrier.
With the amassed Darkness that Drifter has obtained, Eris Morn can break through Savathun’s interference and listen to the words of the Darkness. This week’s message is “White”. The absence of color. The bleached bones of a long dead thing.
With the amassed Darkness that Drifter has obtained, Eris Morn can break through Savathun’s interference and listen to the words of the Darkness. This week’s message is “cusp”. A message of a past mistake made that yielded no knowledge gained.
While the Guardian and Eris work to uncover these mysteries, Commander Zavala is calling for all Guardians to return to the Last City.
With the amassed Darkness that Drifter has obtained, Eris Morn can break through Savathun’s interference and listen to the words of the Darkness. This week’s message is “gift”. The Tree of Silver wings has grown a new branch for Eris and the Guardian. A gift from the Black Fleet. While Zavala is wary of such an offering, he believes that Eris and the Guardian are capable enough to handle it.
Alongside the branch of Silver wings, ancient Light has begun to bubble up to the surface on the worlds being invaded by the Black Fleet. Savathun's scouts hound the Pyramids as well, and so Eris Morn has devised a plot. Let the branch consume the essences of Savathun’s taken, and with the calcified Light, Eris Morn shall bind the branch to the Guardian. After feeding the branch with the deaths of those bound to Darkness, Eris Morn crafts the branch into a new weapon based upon the Touch of Malice. While the touch was crude, this weapon shall be a thing of beauty.
With the amassed Darkness that Drifter has obtained, Eris Morn can break through Savathun’s interference and listen to the words of the Darkness. This week’s message is “contrast”. A word for judgment. The Black fleet challenges our determination that it is the side of evil, claiming itself to be only as malicious as the forces of nature.
With the amassed Darkness that Drifter has obtained, Eris Morn can break through Savathun’s interference and listen to the words of the Darkness. This week’s message is “yes”. The Darkness approves of our path, and pleads for us to continue.
With the amassed Darkness that Drifter has obtained, Eris Morn can break through Savathun’s interference and listen to the words of the Darkness. This week’s message is “unborn”. Eris ponders about the nature of Guardian rebirths, and the lack of agency we had in that.
With the amassed Darkness that Drifter has obtained, Eris Morn can break through Savathun’s interference and listen to the words of the Darkness. This week’s message is “purity”. A word defined by the loss of something. The loss of memory of new guardians? Or perhaps the pyramid speaks of what would come with the loss of limits that we impose on ourselves.
With the amassed Darkness that Drifter has obtained, Eris Morn can break through Savathun’s interference and listen to the words of the Darkness. This week’s message is “conviction”. Zealotry by another name. The Black Fleet suggests that great atrocities will be justified with valor.
With the amassed Darkness that Drifter has obtained, Eris Morn can break through Savathun’s interference and listen to the words of the Darkness. This week’s message is “petulant”. The Black Fleet has taken notice of Savathun’s interference, and expresses its disapproval.
With the amassed Darkness that Drifter has obtained, Eris Morn can break through Savathun’s interference and listen to the words of the Darkness. This week’s message is “camouflage”. The Black Fleet claims there to be a predator amongst us. Is this truth or deceit?
With the amassed Darkness that Drifter has obtained, Eris Morn can break through Savathun’s interference and listen to the words of the Darkness. This week’s message is “falling”. Eris Morn determines that an action has already been made, and we are yet to perceive it.
Over three months, the Guardian and Eris have painstakingly uncovered whispers from the Pyramid over Io while the Witch Queen worked to slow down their efforts. Nokris, lost Son of Oryx, is slain in the Ascendant Plane, and the message of the Black Fleet is heard. Ancient Power awaits you on Europa... Book: The Singular Exegete
Guardians will continue to fight the coming storm no matter the dangers. Be Brave, lost Lights... Book: Duress and Egress
The Traveler begins to shift and glow over the last city as the Guardians feel the power of Light swell around them. The Traveler emerges, healed of the damage suffered in the Red War, and protects the inner system from the Darkness of the Black Fleet. Io, Mercury, Titan, and Mars are swallowed up in the shadow
Following the vanishing of Titan from the Sol System, Deputy Commander Sloane, and her Ghost, Síocháin, were left to fend for themselves on the oceanic moon. They would spend the coming years fighting against pockets of Taken and Hive. But in their hour of need, a new force appeared before them. Ahsa, proto-worm of Fundament, would forge a pact between herself and Sloane. Bind and live. Aiat.
Following the death of Ghaul, Princess-Imperial Caiatl attempts to hold her empire together. Through a clever deception of Savathun, Caiatl unwittingly opens a gateway over Torobatl, allowing Xivu Arath to descend upon the heart of the Empire and destroy it. In the aftermath, Caiatl takes her place as Empress of the Cabal. Though her rule has begun in ashes, the Cabal shall ascend under her watch.
Osiris sets out across the solar system, searching for answers as to the disappearance of the worlds. Along the way he uncovers signs of new Cabal leadership under Empress Caiatl, and learns of Savathun's punishment by the forces of the Black Fleet. Venturing down into Luna, Osiris is drawn into Xivu'Arath's blood craze. He nearly succumbs to Xivu'Arath's celebrant, if not for the sacrifice of his first friend, Sagira. In the aftermath, Osiris is possessed by Savathun. Immolant Pt. 2
Calus has felt slighted by the voice in the Darkness for not speaking with him upon its arrival, and so he enacts a plan to force a communion with his Witness. Gathering up the Scorn, he binds them to the Crown of Sorrows, and the Leviathan slips from the Universe.
Following Eramis's rise as the Kell of Darkness, Variks has sent out a distress beacon for anyone to come and bring aid.
Following the words left to them by the Pyramid on Io, the Guardian ventures to Europa and discovers Variks in distress. They investigate to find the former Warden of the Reef under assault by the newly formed House of Salvation.
As the Guardian crosses over the planes of Europa, Variks and Ghost discuss the power of Darkness that Eramis now wields, Stasis. The Guardian is quick to arrive in the ruins of the Eventide colony to try and eliminate Eramis and her house before they can cause any harm. The Guardian is too late however, as Eramis has already begun showing her House how to command the Darkness, and so the Guardian must retreat.
Variks tasks the Guardian with helping him to install a secret communications relay, so they may call for help. As the Guardian works on the fields of Europa, the whispers of Darkness beckon them away. The Guardian witnesses the Pyramid construct a new building out on the planes of Europa as Eris Morn, the Drifter, and the Exo stranger fight through House Salvation fallen with the same stasis power that Eramis commands.
The Stranger has once more returned to face against the Darkness. She had once before tasked the Guardian with eliminating the black heart, hoping that would prevent the arrival of the Darkness. But the inevitable cannot be delayed. She now wields the Darkness for the protection of humanity, and is prepared to teach the Guardian how they as well may command this strength. After communing with the Darkness atop the Ziggurat, and attuning to one of Eramis’s splinters, the Guardian begins to be able to wield these powers.
Before the Guardian can face Eramis again, they will first take down her commanders. The first to be felled is the Warrior, Phylaks. Phylaks had taken refuge down in the Vex converted Nexus of Europa. The Guardian is able to eliminate Phylaks with the new stasis powers they have obtained, and claim Phylaks’s splinter for themselves.
With the death of Phylaks, the Guardian may bring the claimed splinter to the ziggurat and grow their command over Stasis yet further. The Stranger gives further guidance on the nature of Darkness, and what it may do to one who is unprepared to wield the Darkness.
Next of Eramis’s generals to fall is the Technocrat, Praksis. With his death, Eramis will no longer be able to grow her force of dark bearing fallen. The Guardian tracks down the fallen scientist into the labs of the Deep Stone Crypt and eliminates them, once again claiming their splinter for themselves.
Commander Zavala has come to Europa to speak with the Guardian. He has been made aware of Eramis and our efforts against her plans, and has a report that she has been spotted in the old cosmodrome. The Guardian is to check it out and see what they find. But Commander Zavala implores us to remember that the Darkness is not our ally.
The Guardian has arrived in the Cosmodrome on the trail of Eramis. She has come to these lands in order to try and recruit House Devils loyalists who remain. But the Guardian is able to eliminate Eramis’s envoy, Bakris, and prevent her house from receiving reinforcements.
With the House of Devils denied to Eramis, she has gone to the Nexus in order to open up a massive vex portal from the Golden Age. As the Guardian fights through salvation’s soldiers, Eramis and Variks trade barbs over the coms. The Guardian is too late to stop Eramis from activating the portal as legions of Vex come flooding through the portal. After they have been stopped, a drain in the floor opens up to collect the radiolarian fluids spilled from the battle.
The stranger further educates the Guardian on the nature of Darkness, alluding to her past experiences with those who fell to its corrupting influences. With Praksis’s splinter in hand, the Guardian once more communes with Darkness atop the ziggurat, and is filled with strength.
Working alongside Elsie Bray, The Drifter, Eris Morn, and Variks, the Guardian claims the power of Darkness for the protection of the Last City. Within us all is the will to control Darkness, and with it Eramis's House of Salvation is shattered as the Kell of Darkness herself loses control over her power, and is encased in a Stasis crystal.
Elsie Bray provides the Guardian with a familiar old weapon of theirs, though not the rifle they remember. The Guardian helps Elsie to further improve on the weapon’s design with experimental technology developed at Clovis Bray.
With the defeat of Eramis, the truth of the Darkness is revealed to the Guardian. Darkness resides within all things. We no longer require the splinters to command its power. The Stranger tells the Guardian more about the world she came from, another timeline where many fell to corruption, including ourselves. The time has come for our final communion atop the ziggurat, and to fully claim Darkness for ourselves.
While the House of Salvation remains on Europa, Variks is given a temporary stay of judgment by the Reef until such time as House Salvation is no longer a threat on Europa.
In exchange for a delay of Judgement by the Awoken, Variks has agreed to work alongside the Vanguard to further sabotage the House of Salvation by destroying their advanced weaponry. The Guardian fights through the production facilities of Riis Reborn, destroying weapons caches and facilities along the way.
The Drifter comes to the Guardian with rumors about a grenade launcher being developed by the House of Salvation, utilizing the power of Stasis. Once the Guardian has tracked down the location of the prototype weapon, all that’s left is to go retrieve it. The Drifter himself could not be present for such a heist, but Ghost is more than capable of filling in the banter. With weapon in hand, and assistance from the Spider, the Guardian successfully absconds with the Salvation’s grip.
The Guardian continues to destabilize the House of Salvation on Europa. With how well the fallen are resisting the rising tide of Vex on the moon, Variks and Zavala believe that someone has perhaps risen to replace Eramis as leader of this house. Kridis, the Priestess, and last of Eramis’s council, reveals herself as the Guardian aids Eliksni ships attempting to flee the moon. The priestess escapes the Guardian’s justice for now.
The Guardian goes in search of Kridis within Riis-Reborn, to end her reign over the House of Salvation. Kridis believes that Eramis is not dead, but merely slumbering, and she shall rouse her. We cannot allow the Kell of Darkness to return, and face down the priestess where we felled the Kell of Darkness before.
The Guardian works with Elsie to further fine tune their control over Stasis. Along the way, Elsie Bray reveals truths about the life she has lived. She reunites with her sister, Ana Bray, who is uncertain about her sister's dark power.
To attempt to address the risk of Guardians falling to corruption by the Darkness, the Vanguard makes the official policy of the City that no Guardian is permitted to use the power of Darkness. Though enforcement of this policy is less than iron tight.
The Guardian repels the House of Salvation from the Deep Stone Crypt, though the crypt is stripped of its security measures. The Clovis Bray AI is reawakened.
As the Guardian uncovers the past of Europa, they learn not only of what befell the Eventide Colony, but that Banshee himself was once Clovis Bray himself. After speaking with Banshee, he tells the Guardian that he’s begun to remember some sort of blade. With the aid of the Clovis Bray AI, the Guardian is able to reforge the Lament sword, and stop the Vex from assaulting the Deep Stone crypt further. He grants the Guardian the blade, asking only that Banshee come visit him someday.
The Guardian enters into the training simulations of the original exos in the Deep Stone Crypt.
Simulation: Survival Simulation: Safeguard Simulation: Agility
Zavala warns the Guardian that Osiris is attempting to storm the Hellmouth, in spite of Sagira's death. They venture down into the Hellmouth to protect the now Lightless Guardian, and down in the pit the Guardian is met with The Crow, a Guardian indentured to servitude to the Spider.
As the Guardian uncovers the past of Europa, they learn not only of what befell the Eventide Colony, but that Banshee himself was once Clovis Bray himself. After speaking with Banshee, he tells the Guardian that he’s begun to remember some sort of blade. With the aid of the Clovis Bray AI, the Guardian is able to reforge the Lament sword, and stop the Vex from assaulting the Deep Stone crypt further. He grants the Guardian the blade, asking only that Banshee come visit him someday.
The Guardian meets with Crow to discuss how they will be going about taking down the wrathborn of Xivu Arath. He’s fashioned some hive artifacts together into a lure which will draw out the wrathborn to the Guardians, so they can be eliminated. Crow tells the Guardian that he’s happy to finally be working alongside another Lightbearer.
All across the solar system, from the moon to the distant Reef, the Guardians take the fight to Xivu Arath’s wrathborn armies with lures in hand. It will take many months, but the forces of the Last City will rid the system of these corrupting spires plaguing the worlds.
The Crow tells the Guardian about dreams he's been having. Together they work to make sense of the message left by the Traveler and stop Savathun's taken from obtaining Light from a shard of the Traveler. "It's a warning. It's everything. It's us, it's Crow, it's the Taken, it's our path. Guardian, the Traveler is talking about the future. About how the choices we make will impact Crow and whatever his role to come will be." —Ghost
Over these last few months, Crow has been working with Osiris to study the Hive, and how we might be able to draw out the High Celebrant for the Guardian to take down. The time is now to avenge Sagira’s death and end the hunt. With the combined teamwork of the Guardian and the Crow, the High Celebrant is cornered and brought down within the ascendant plane.
The Guardian has worked with the Crow and "Osiris" over many weeks to hunt down Xivu'Arath's High Celebrant. They corner them in the Dreaming City and slay the beast responsible for Sagira's death. As their reward from the Spider, the Guardian demands the release of the Crow from his servitude.
Free from the Spider, the Crow makes his way to the last city, where "Osiris" welcomes him with new gear for his fresh start.
Following the destruction of the Cabal home system, Empress Caiatl has come to rally forces in Sol.
The first meeting between the Empress of the Cabal and the Commander of the Vanguard is tense. She demands he bend the knee and join her empire. Commander Zavala refuses. Following the failed negotiations, Commander Zavala dispatches the Guardian on a ground assault to Caiatl’s land tank on Nessus to eliminate a former Red Legion commander who now bears the banner of the Empress Caiatl.
Crow meets with Osiris and the Guardian within the newly constructed HELM workstation. Though Crow has just arrived within the Last City, he’s already to get to work on this mission. The Guardian’s assault on the Red Legion commander has impressed Saladin, who wishes that effort be extended throughout all of Caiatl’s war council potential members. The Guardian will take part in the rites of proving, eliminate the Cabal, and prevent Caiatl’s war council from forming.
Lord Saladin contacts the Guardian with news that the Cabal have begun to invade the Cosmodrome and are charging into a Hive nest. Val Ma’rag hopes that with this symbolic retribution for their lost home system that Empress Caiatl will promote him to her war council. Lord Saladin will not stand for this, and invites us to eliminate this commander before it’s too late. Following the defeat of the Cabal on earth, Osiris contacts the Empress of the Cabal about how this war will continue. Empress Caiatl's offer of submission remains, but Osiris will not acquiesce to her demands.
A ship known as the Glykon returns from beyond the universe emitting a distress beacon. The Guardian is sent to attempt to rescue a Guardian aboard. Sadly, the Guardian Katabasis is already passed, and so the Guardian takes his rifle as tribute.
Lord Saladin has called up the Guardian once more to face the Cabal. A psion known as Ixel, the Far-Reaching has taken to Nessus in search of something that would impress the Empress, such as the Vex prediction engines. Saladin is unwilling to risk either Caiatl gaining this sort of advantage or anything worse, and sends in the Guardians to take down this psion. After the battle, Crow returns from scouting behind the scenes of Caiatl’s war effort with a warning that the psions are plotting something, and that we need to act now. Osiris instructs the Guardian aid Crow in this, but will not inform Commander Zavala for if we are successful, then the Commander doesn’t need to know about this.
Lord Saladin informs the Guardian that Osiris has sent Crow undercover in order to investigate the Psion’s plans for the Vex Prediction engines they stole. Our role in this effort will be to return to the battlegrounds and draw as much attention as we can, so that Crow will not be noticed. By taking out their equipment and gold, the Cabal won’t be able to continue to supply their war effort for long. The plan is successful, and Crow learns that the Psions are plotting an attempt on Commander Zavala’s life. Upon further investigation, the Psions have developed a weapons system that can be used to cut off a Guardian’s Light by caging their Ghosts. With a skilled enough assailant, one could catch a Guardian off guard, and eliminate them. Crow will take his findings to Osiris.
One night, while walking alone through the gardens of the Last City, Commander Zavala was nearly killed when an unseen psion assassin had made their way into the city. If not for the unseen, watchful eyes of Crow, the Commander may not have survived the night.
Lord Saladin has contacted the Guardian about the attempted assassination of Commander Zavala, and he wishes to strike back against the Cabal with burning fury. The Guardian is dispatched to the battlefields to cause as much chaos and destruction as possible, to send a message. Afterwards, Osiris berates the Crow for being witnessed by Commander Zavala in the night without his mask on. Crow pushes back that he had to act, otherwise the Commander would be dead now. Their argument turns sour as Crow invokes Osiris’s own actions on Luna. Crow relents that while he regrets not wearing his mask, he does not regret saving Zavala’s life. Osiris installs the Crow as Zavala’s personal bodyguard in order to draw out any remaining assassins.
The war with the Cabal is escalating after the psions failed to take Commander Zavala’s life. Saladin worries about what might happen as the Cabal grow more and more desperate, and is looking to end this war as quickly as possible. Zavala, Osiris, and Saladin are at an impasse about how to handle the situation. Saladin pushes for a direct assault, but is shot down by the other two. Osiris puts forward the plan that the Vanguard challenge Caiatl in ceremonial combat to settle matters once and for all. Zavala and Saladin are concerned with whether or not the Cabal will agree to the results, even if the empress herself does.
Lord Saladin calls forth the Guardian one last time in this war. A decision has been made to settle the conflict with one final rite of proving, the Guardians vs the empire’s champion. To ensure that the empress agrees to this course of action, the Guardian is tasked with leading more assaults against the Cabal on the battlefields in order to pressure her into accepting these terms.
To end this war with the Cabal before it begins, "Osiris" suggests one final match between the Cabal and the City. Both sides send forth their champion. The Guardian emerges triumphant, and Caiatl prepares to honor the agreement of Zavala's terms for Armistice.
Empress Caiatl and Commander Zavala meet on Nessus to take oaths for peace between their people. Suddenly two Psions attempt an ambush to kill Commander Zavala one last time. He is saved thanks to the swift actions of Empress Caiatl and the Crow, whose face is finally unmasked before Zavala.
After several weeks of exploration, the Crown of Sorrows is finally recovered from the Glykon, and brought to the last city for study.
A Vex simulation is somehow manifesting in the real world over the Last City.
The Guardian meets with the Kell of House Light, Mithrax, to bargain for his aid as a Sacred Splicer, to lift the endless night over the Last City.
Exercising their authority over refugee admission, the Vanguard welcomes the Eliksni House of Light refugees into the Last City. This causes contention with Lakshmi of the future War cult.
After getting the House of Light settled into the Last City, Mithrax contacts the Guardian through the servitor installed in the Helm to begin their combined efforts to stop the Vex and bring an end to the Night. Mithrax has a gift for the Guardian, the first splicer gauntlet made for human hands. Mithrax shall impart on the Guardian sacred splicer techniques as the Guardian ventures into the Vex domain. Ikora Rey has designated Saint-14 to oversee the House of Light refugees, with the hope that his presence will be a beacon for humans and eliksni to unite. Lakshmi contains the Guardian within the HELM with a message about a dark potential future for the Last City housing Eliksni.
Ada-1 meets with the Guardian to tell them about her troubles. How when the Black Fleet came, and tore the worlds from our skies, all her weapons could do nothing to prevent it, and to make matters worse, the Forges are gone. She wishes to forge some new path for herself with which to continue the Black Armory’s legacy. She hears rumors from the House of Light refugees from Europa about Clovis Bray matter programming and asks the Guardian to investigate.
Mithrax contacts the Guardian about how the Endless Night is making settling in the Last city difficult, and that the Vex are behaving strangely. Upon returning from another excursion into the Vex network, the Guardian arrives in the HELM as Osiris is mediating an argument over supplies between Mithrax and Saint-14. Osiris reaffirms that he will provide for the Eliksni as he would humanity, which Saint-14 scoffs at. Mithrax and Saint-14 come to an understanding about how they’re both simply trying to keep their people safe. The endless night is putting much pressure on the Last City, and tensions are high.
Mithrax has contacted the Guardian about a request from Lakshmi-2 to have full access to the Vex data gathered by the Guardian. Lakshmi has been openly fomenting animosity towards the eliksni. Mithrax has agreed to the terms, in the spirit of cooperation, to build trust with her in spite of his own misgivings about the technology used by the Future War Cult. With this latest excursion into the Vex domain, the Guardian has learned how to reach even deeper into the Vex domains, and has found one of the Oppressive minds behind the Endless Night and eliminated it. With its destruction, progress in lifting the endless night is finally underway. Mithrax attempts to use the Vex data to see the heart of the Endless Night, but something impedes his vision.
Mithrax informs the Guardian that while progress is being made against the Vex, the endless night is taking its toll on the people of the last city. In spite of our successes, the skies above remain dark, and many in the city are falling ill. Tensions ride high within the Last City. Lakshmi broadcasts classified information regarding the events on Europa this year, about how the House of Salvation’s actions brought about the Vex on them, and lead to the Guardian orders now wielding the Darkness, claiming that these are the same Eliksni who now reside within the Last City walls. Within the Vex domain, Mithrax feels the Guardian being watched by some yet unseen eyes. With the demise of another Oppressive Mind, the Vex network continues to collapse. Osiris says that with the Future War cult’s technology and our combined efforts, he believes the source of the Endless Night may be located. Mithrax expresses concern for Lakshmi’s health, regarding the technology she uses, and offers to modify it so that it may be safer for her. Osiris dismisses the kell’s suggestion, saying that she’s already been helped by the Black armory, and that the less her people interact with the eliksni, the better, for now.
Ikora contacts the Guardian about the Eliksni Quarter within the Last City. It has been ransacked. She has sent Saint-14 to investigate, but while she trusts him, she would like the Guardian present as well, to keep the peace while she confronts Lakshmi. Lakshmi’s broadcasts have done much to inflame tensions, and will no longer be tolerated by the Vanguard. Down in the Eliksni district, a distraught Mithrax is met only with the apathy of Saint-14, and Lakshmi’s demands for him to be grateful it wasn’t worse. Mithrax begs Lakshmi to use her voice to help humanity to see the House of Light as they are, and not to fear them. Lakshmi suggests that if he is dissatisfied with his stay in the Last City, that his people should leave, as she departs. Saint-14 claims you cannot ask a people to live alongside the monsters who have hounded them for centuries, and Mithrax educates him on exactly what that experience is like.
Mithrax contacts the Guardian once again, telling us to keep focused on collapsing the Vex networks, and lifting this endless night. The Guardian has become adept in their splicer techniques, such that the network can no longer differentiate themselves from the Vex. With the death of the third oppressive mind, Ikora is confused about why our progress against the endless might has stalled. With an unknown amount of minds remaining, Ikora wishes to redouble our efforts towards finding the central Vex mind governing the endless night.
Saint-14 has thought much on Mithrax’s story, and his place within it. This is not the man he wishes to be. This is not the Saint-14 he will be. He will no longer look upon the House of Light through the eyes of the past. We must be more than the enemies of our enemies.
Mithrax contacts the Guardian about how he has discovered a malevolent force within the Vex network, one which he detected when the Guardian met him on Europa. Fearing that the Endless Night may be the result of another’s hand, guiding the Vex, he wants the Guardian that the night must be ended before it is too late. Within the Vex domain, the Guardian discovers that the Taken have infested the space. The oppressive mind within this region of the network has been reborn, but once more is slaughtered by the Guardian, and with its death, Mithrax is able to discover the vex behind the Endless night. Quria, the Dreaming Mind, a partially taken Vex unit commanded by Savathun; the Witch Queen. She is the architect of the endless night. Osiris is skeptical of Mithrax’s findings, but the kell of house Light affirms his certainty of this. Osiris offers his aid for the capture of Quria, rather than its destruction. An idea Mithrax rejects, but will observe the City’s guidance on the matter. Ikora is granting Osiris full access to all Hidden records, for his eyes only.
Lakshmi once more broadcasts to the Last City, informing them that she has learned of Savathun’s involvement in the endless night, and demands the Last City not allow the Vanguard to continue supporting the eliksni. Before her message can continue, Ikora takes over the channel to challenge Lakshmi’s words with her own. That the Vanguard’s duty is to preserve a just peace, and to have faith that a Last City of humanity and Eliksni united will end the endless night for the good of all.
Mithrax contacts the Guardian again and has determined that the energy of the Last City is being siphoned away for some unknown purpose by Quria. This has been the cause for many of the hardships within the Last City. The Guardian must strike now at the Vex, for him to find the location of Quria. Once more an oppressive mind of Quria’s has been restored, but with its destruction by the Guardian, Mithrax has determined a route to Quria’s location, but it remains well defended by the Vex yet. When the Guardian returns to the HELM, they encounter Saint-14 discussing with Osiris how Lakshmi approached him with a proposal to reclaim his leadership over the Vanguard. Osiris dismisses his concerns, claiming she only wants the best for the city. Once Saint-14 leaves, Osiris requests the Guardian not inform Ikora of what they have just heard, and to keep working with Lakshmi.
Taken Blights manifest within the walls of the Last City. A sure sign of the Endless Night’s growing malignance.
Mithrax greets the Guardian with news that now with the path to the Dreaming Mind known, it is time to once more venture into the vex domain, and clear away its defenses. With the destruction of the third and final returned Oppressive Mind, the path to Quria is open. Now is the time for the Guardian to end this night.
With the way clear, and the path to Quria known, the Guardian ventures into the Vex domain once more, to eliminate the Vex mind and the Endless Night. Quria attempts to prevent the Guardian’s approach by dragging them through remnants of the network domains they have already collapsed. But nothing will prevent the Guardian from eliminating this ancient Vex mind this day. With this, the Endless Night begins to dissipate. Lakshmi 2 reaches out to the Guardian about how she wishes to speak to the Guardian about the future after the Endless Night has been banished with the House of Light having left the city as well.
Lakshmi-2, alongside Executor Hideo lead the major city factions in an attempted coup of the Last City, to remove Zavala and Ikora from power. As part of this operation, Lakshmi-2 has learned from "Osiris" how to open a Vex gate, and attempts to slaughter the entire House of Light by sending them into the vacuum of space. But instead, the Vex emerge from the gateway and kill her on the spot. Now as Vex invade the Last City, humanity and Eliksni unite together to defend their home from this threat. They succeed in closing the gateway together as one. In the wake of their failed power grab, New Monarchy, Future War Cult, and Dead Orbit flee the City to avoid justice. "Osiris" leaves the Last City as well, under mysterious circumstances.
Petra has a new coven of Techeuns trained to retrieve Mara Sov. The first since Mara decreed no new Techeuns to be trained. They succeed in ferrying Mara Sov across the Ley Lines, back to the Dreaming City, but several of the techeuns are lost among the Ascendant Plane.
The Guardian, following Saint-14 and the Crow, tracks down "Osiris" to the Dreaming City. After dispatching newly empowered Taken and Scorn soldiers, they find "Osiris" and Mara Sov having just finished a conversation. They ask him to return to the city, and Savathun: the Witch Queen reveals her true form to them all, before Mara encases her in a crystal prison. She will return Osiris to them, in exchange for the exorcism of her worm parasite.
The Guardian begins to navigate the Ley Lines to find lost Techeuns to aid Mara Sov in her exorcism of Savathun's worm. Nobody believes a word out of Savathun's mouth, but this is the first chance they've had to end her for good. She will be mortal once her worm is removed, and the safety of her throne world will be gone.
Book: Ripples
Queen Mara Sov has a tale to tell of the Awoken, often recited by her brother long ago to the children. A tale of a mother kestrel and her two children, gifted with a crown and a scepter. Mara Sov already possesses the Crown, and requests the Guardian obtain the scepter. The use of the Ley lines has drawn out old Awoken navigational devices which will guide the Guardian. After navigating around the Dreaming City, the Guardian is able to enter the Caliburn Gatehouse. Within, echoes of Uldren Sov remain within the skews, and are heard. Mara Sov explains the metaphor of her family and the siblings' relationship to their mother.
Mara Sov contacts the Guardian to better justify her decision to deal with Savathun. The Witch Queen is more vulnerable than ever before at this time, requiring the protection of Mara Sov herself. Mara Sov believes that Savathun fears something ancient, the creator of the Taken, now seeks her out. After the rescue of another of Mara’s techeuns is successful, the Guardian once more meets with Savathun. The Witch Queen attempts to appeal to the Guardian’s sense of nuance. That nothing is ever simply good or bad, Light or Darkness, and that by standing on the line between both, we may find what has been watching us all along.
With another of the Atlas skews recovered from the Dreaming City, the Guardian once more returns to the Gatehouse to hear more of Uldren’s tale. Mara Sov gives a short history of the creation of the Awoken, and her culpability in not only what they became but also who her brother turned into. To become Awoken, Uldren required Mara Sov’s assistance to be born into the Distributary, and to do so she had to fill gaps within his memory, and be the star for him to follow. The bond forged between them would grow toxic as the centuries and distance between them grew. She remarks on how even as Crow, that need for connection remains, only now it is to the Guardian that her brother looks.
Mara Sov contacts the Guardian to preach the Awoken’s perspective on the nature of Light and Darkness. How neither force truly aligned towards any moral designation. For just as the Guardian commanded the Darkness on Europa to stop Eramis, so did the Warlords wield the Light to subjugate humanity in the Dark Age. Mara knows what true evil is, and that is what the Voice in the Darkness is. Once the Guardian has rescued another of the Queen’s techeuns, it is time to interrogate the Witch Queen once again. But before then, Crow makes the attempt first and is rebuked by Petra Venj before he may even enter the portal to the Witch Queen’s prison. Savathun claims that the inevitable will come to pass, that she wishes to speak with Crow, to tell him that she did truly value their time together while she was disguised as Osiris. Later the Guardian speaks with the Crow about his attempts to speak with Savathun. He knows that this all ties back to the man he once was, and how tired he is of being judged by that man’s sins when he doesn’t even understand the crime. Petra informs the Guardian that it was by Mara’s order that Crow is barred from Savathun.
With the return of another of the Atlas Skews, the Guardian returns to the gatehouse again, to hear the story of Uldren Sov continue. Mara tells the Guardian of her wishes and desires for Uldren to have been the ruler over the Reef’s borderlands. With Ager’s scepter in hand, he would expand the kingdom under her reign, opening many doors and challenging powerful foes. In her mind, he was not unlike a guardian already. She feared for his safety, and so hid the scepter, bidding him to search for it instead. A safer path she says.
Mara Sov is pleased that we are rescuing her techeuns, and reclaiming much of the Reef’s ascendant territory. But all of these successes remind her just how much she can never reclaim. The Dreaming City will never be a home again. She now stands in the same room as her brother again, and he cannot know who he once was, and is grateful all the same that he is with her once again. She pleads with the Guardian to understand why she won’t allow him to meet with the Witch who orchestrated his demise once before. As another techeun rescue is successful, the Guardian returns to Savathun. The Witch Queen has been thinking about family in her imprisonment, and how once she is detached from her worm parasite, she will also be separated from Xivu Arath as well.
With the last of the Atlas Skews in hand, it is time for the Guardian to hear the end of Uldren’s story. Mara Sov tells the tale of the Battle of Saturn, where she brought the Awoken Armada to bear against the Taken King, and where she died her second death. She failed to mold Uldren into the man she had intended him to be, and now fears what might happen if she were to reveal the truth to Crow. The Queen deflects if we would be so ready to forgive Crow, if he were indeed more like Uldren. Finally, the Guardian is able to breach the Dozmary Vault, and claim Ager’s Scepter from its resting place. But it has been shielded with a defensive ward since Mara placed it here. There is a bypass, but it is one we will have to gather from around the Dreaming City. Luckily Mara has arranged for this to be done, while we attend to the Taken invaders nearby. Once the key is prepared, the Guardian returns to the vault, and claims the scepter. Weapon in hand, the Guardian repels Kelgorath, and his forces. Upon returning to Mara Sov, she tells the Guardian about how even now, she can feel Crow’s heartbeat. That she sees the embers of who he was within him, and hopes can be restored. She knows that to have her brother back, she will need more to offer him than their past. She asks that the Guardian be his guiding star now.
Mara ponders to the Guardian about what it is that keeps the Black Fleet at our borders, instead of simply destroying us as they had done once before. She knows that Savathun has some hidden knowledge that necessitates her continued life. Mara Sov wishes to know that secret, but time is limited, and she must be ready for Savathun’s inevitable betrayal. With another of the techeuns rescued, the Guardian returns to interrogate Savathun again. She ponders on whether or not Mara Sov will indeed let her live, or if the Guardian may beat her to that prize. She challenges the Guardian to consider the source of their strength, how many enemies recognize that Ghost holds the Guardian’s link to the Light. She asks that the Guardian look not just towards her, but to the worm that gives her strength, and further beyond that to the true source of that strength, and to ponder where it truly is that the Guardian should strike.
The Crow used to not worry himself much about the man who wore his face before him. But in recent weeks, he has been made to suffer the consequences of that man. He sneaks into Savathun's prison within the Dreaming City to confront her over her actions while masquerading as Osiris. She in turn offers him clarity as to who people see in his eyes. Savathun somehow restores the memories of Uldren Sov to Crow, leaving him in existential turmoil for the future.
Mara Sov marvels at how the Witch Queen was able to restore her brother’s memory when she was unable to. The Queen has decided that all access to Savathun will now be restricted until she is ready to exorcise the worm from the witch, but we will be granted one final audience with her before that time. With the final techeun rescued, all that is now needed for the exorcism is an astral alignment, though that is still far off. Petra Venj thanks the Guardian for their efforts. The Guardian meets with Savathun for the final time before the ritual. The Witch Queen mocks how once more she is the unifying force between the Last City and the Reef. She knows that this will be their last conversation for some time, and leaves the Guardian with only the request that the Guardian keep Xivu Arath at bay until the appointed hour.
It's time. Enough of Mara's techeuns have been returned and the Ley Lines are aligned. The Exorcism of Savathun's worm is carried out as Xivu'Arath's forces barrel down on the Dreaming City. The Exorcism is successful. Savathun's Worm is separated from her, but Savathun had prepared an escape spell to be triggered precisely as it occurred. She did however hold her end of the bargain and the real Osiris is returned, only in a coma from which it is unclear if he will wake.
Savathun, the Witch Queen of the Hive, arrives at the edge of the Last city, clinging on to life. Her final gamble is now. After what may be her final words, her eons long life ends on an abandoned mountainside...
The Guardian uncovers treasures and trinkets from across the Paraverse in tonight's Dares of Eternity!
Savathun is reborn in the Light by her Ghost Immaru. Her faith in the Light paid off. Soon she is attended to by an arriving Witch who was her right hand in life, to guide the now amnesiac Hive to the Lure, where the plan set in motion in her first life can be enacted.
Feeling the pull of the Light, the Ghosts are drawn to find Savathun's throne world in a state of transformation as the Light sunders and remakes the entire plane around them. It is here where the Lucent Brood are born of the dead Hive amassed within Savathun's throne world. Book: Lucent Tales
In her first days of being a Lightbearer, Savathun seeks to better understand the powers of Light which now surged through herself and her brood. She observes how different classes of Hive soldiers have differing affinities for the Light's attendant elements.
Savathun imprisons Rhulk; Disciple of the Witness, within the Pyramid sunken within her throne world.
With the sudden return of Mars to the system, Ikora Rey and Eris Morn come to investigate a strange new pyramid structure found buried near the Cradle point of Mars. The Guardian is called in as the Cabal have begun to assemble a large cannon in the vicinity, pointing at a cloaked Hive ship belonging to Savathun. More oddities abound as Mars is marked with many areas that display shades of the ancient past. As the Guardian attempts to reach the Hive flagship, they come under attack by Caiatl’s soldiers. Once the Guardian has reached the flagship, after commandeering the Cabal’s cannon, they discover signs of Void Light nearby. The mystery continues as strange moths of Light flit around the brood of Savathun. The Guardian spots the Witch Queen entering into a portal just as a Hive Knight is summoned, commanding Void Light, and upon death is summoned a Ghost which returns the Knight to life. The battle ends with the Guardian crushing the Ghost in hand, wondering what just happened. With no time to waste, the Guardian rushes into the portal Savathun fled through, and arrives within the Throne World of the Witch Queen. Savathun challenges how the Guardian found the resolve to slay another Lightbearer and their Ghost. After a battle, Savathun is dead, but the Guardian is bound by a spell before they can slay Savathun’s ghost, and is banished back to the surface of Mars to reunite with Ikora.
Ikora Rey asks the Guardian to investigate the strange facility they’ve discovered on Mars. It seems to be channeling the same power as the artifact that the Guardian found aboard Savathun’s lure. When the Guardian enters into the Relic and places the artifact on the table workspace, the Darkness coalesces around to transform it into a new weapon for the Guardian to wield.
Ikora informs the Guardian that Zavala will be meeting with Empress Caiatl in the tower soon, and to attend. She hands the Guardian a Synaptic Spear developed by the Cabal before the Guardian departs to continue their investigation, before meeting with the Empress.
The Guardian has returned to Savathun’s throne world, to continue their investigation into how the Hive have come to gain command over the Light as Guardians. Shortly after, the Guardian is contacted by an individual known as Fynch, who advises them to leave as soon as possible. Ghost tracks down the signal back to its source. Using the Guardian's newfound ability to manifest memories into reality, the Guardian escapes Savathun’s citadel and meets with Fynch outside the fortress. Fynch is discovered to be a Hive’s Ghost, who wishes to aid the Guardian in their investigations.
Empress Caiatl is expressing her outrage over the events that transpired on Mars which ended with the deaths of her soldiers to Lord Saladin and Commander Zavala as the Guardian arrives in the Tower. Given the discovery of Hive Lightbearers on Mars, Commander Zavala asks that we all put aside the events of Mars to focus on the actions of the Lucent brood’s operations beyond the Throne world of Savathun.
The Guardian speaks with Empress Caiatl and Lord Saladin through the HELM’s communications table. The Empress is willing to forgive the deaths of her soldiers this one time, given the circumstances. But this will not be forgiven a second time. The Empress outlines the functionality of the Synaptic Spear that the Guardian received from Ikora and the plan for attack against the Hive. By eliminating the Hive Lightbearers with their own mindscapes with the spear, the Guardian will render the Hive Lightless, but intact. Without the Light or their worm parasites, the Hive cannot survive. Caiatl’s psions will hold the Hive in a state of suspended animation, as they harvest their minds for information on Savathun’s plans. Saladin brings word that the Lucent Brood has been active in the EDZ, and assaulting Guardians there. The Guardian is being dispatched to eliminate the Hive, and capture their leadership for Caiatl’s psion. After returning from the battle, it is determined that the Hive are harvesting the Light of inexperienced Guardians, and collecting it for some purpose yet unknown.
Empress Caiatl informs the Guardian that her troops have been picking up a series of psychic broadcasts coming from the Cabal base nearby the city of Freehold. These messages are recruitment efforts for Caiatl’s psion soldiers to defect from her armies to the Black Fleet. The Guardian is sent in to end these transmissions, and eliminate the forces within the base, as Empress Caiatl cannot be seen sending in her own troops to put down these psionic communications.
The investigation continues as Fynch comes to the Guardian with the location of a Hive temple nearby that has within it the shattered remains of Sagira, the Ghost of Osiris. As the Guardian fights their way to the temple, the Scorn stand in their way as they have also invaded the Throne World under the banner of a mysterious new leader. After an intense battle, the Guardian is able to recover the remains of Sagira, which begin to whisper with Savathun’s voice about a being known as The Witness.
In order for the Guardian to properly understand the whispers coming from Sagira’s shell, they will need to further master this new ability to manifest memories. To that end, Eris Morn sends the Guardian back to the surface of Europa, into the Pyramid there. As the Guardian arrives on sight, Caiatl sends a proclamation that all Cabal soldiers investigating the Darkness are defectors who have no place in her armies. As the Guardian moves through the Pyramid, it becomes clear that the Cabal soldiers have come to destroy the veiled statue within the ship. Doing so would prevent the Guardian from being able to further master their new powers, and so the Guardian eliminates them all. With this communion, the Guardian returns to Savathun’s Throne world, to test their new abilities.
The Hidden have identified a location where the Guardian might be able to access the memory attached to Sagira’s shell, and the Guardian is sent to investigate. After eliminating nearby Scorn who were blocking the Guardian’s access to the site, the Guardian enters into a strange space unlike anything else in the Throne World thus far. With the strange altar, the Guardian is able to manifest the full memory tied to Sagira’s shell. A recollection of when Savathun discovered the identity of the Voice in the Darkness, the Witness, and her replacement of Osiris in the Last City.
Fynch believes he has discovered another object within the Throne World, which bears a memory that the Guardian might be able to use to unravel the mystery of the Lucent Hive. It is kept in a temple to Oryx within the swamps of Savathun’s throne world. As the Guardian begins their journey, they’re assaulted by a returned Alak-Hul, now known as the Lightblade, who Fynch says is supposed to be guarding the temple. The Hive Knight is able to flee before the Guardian can end him. With Fynch’s aid, the Guardian uses the water ways to reach the temple of Oryx where the Guardian successfully kills Alak-Hul, but his Ghost manages to escape for now. The Guardian recovers the object Fynch spoke of, a Tablet of Ruin from Oryx. With the tablet in hand, the Guardian returns to the Altars of Reflection, and learns that Savathun wishes to seal away the Traveler within her throne world, in order to protect it.
Fynch once more comes to the Guardian with information about another object of interest in this investigation. It is a secret underground temple dedicated not to Savathun, but to Sathona, Savathun’s nascent self.The Temple itself has been surrounded by the Scorn and covered in many of Savathun’s spells to prevent access to the temple. After eliminating the scorn and dispelling Savathun’s wards, the Guardian discovers the husk of the worm that led Savathun and her siblings to become the Hive all those eons ago. After escaping one final illusion in the form of an Ahamkara, and a poisoned pathway, the Guardian successfully recovers the worm’s remains. However, upon the Guardian’s attempt to bring it within the Altar’s of reflection, the Guardian is repelled. The Guardian returns to Mars to Ikora and Zavala in an argument over the investigation into Savathun. Ikora leaves to let Zavala and Eris Morn take the reins over the investigation while she thinks of the next step.
Eris Morn sends the Guardian deep within Savathun’s fortress, to retrieve a shard of the crystal prison that bound Savathun as she awaited Mara’s exorcism. The memory within the crystal would likely be from when Savathun claimed the Light for the Hive. Commander Zavala is concerned when he learns that the lead on this crystal came from Queen Mara Sov, and expresses his distaste for the Guardian’s need to wield the Darkness in order to uncover this mystery. The Guardian is able to clear the way and claim the crystal fragment from Savathun’s apothecary, where the Lucent Brood experiment with their newfound Light. When the Guardian returns the crystal to the Altars of Reflection, the truth is discovered. Savathun’s claim to the Light is the same as all Guardians; upon her death, she was resurrected by her Ghost in the outskirts of the Last City. As the Guardian grapples with this knowledge, Savathun appears before them within the Altars, and explains how thanks to the Guardian’s investigation, she has reclaimed her memories from the amnesia of the Light.
Savathun attempts to summon the Traveler to her Throne world. The Guardian fights their way all throughout her Throne until they reach Savathun. Using memories hidden away in her father's worm familiar, they're able to barely succeed in killing Savathun. Before she dies, Savathun offers us one final warning: the Witness is coming. Before the Guardian can kill Immaru, and forever ensure Savathun's demise, he escapes as the Traveler returns back over the Last City.
Though Savathun may be dead, there is yet more to uncover. Mara Sov works with the Guardian to save the life of the parasite once housed within Savathun's form. For it has been with her for eons, with many secrets to tell. However Savathun has cursed it to die without a host. The Guardian and Mara Sov end up hosting the parasite within a weapon. Though offended by its new host, the Parasite follows its end of the Bargain, and reveals that Savathun betrayed the Witness in the collapse.
With the death of Savathun, and her wellspring disrupted, her binding spell over Rhulk weakens within the Pyramid. Mara Sov sends forth the Guardians to slay the Disciple before he may cause greater harm. Within the Pyramid, the Guardian finds Rhulk preparing to use THE UPENDED to sunder the Throne World. Throughout the Pyramid lay Rhulk's experimentations with the Scorn. With great effort, the Disciple is slain, and the Pyramid broken. Now we must preserve it from being used by the forces of the Witness once more.
With the death of the Witness’s disciple, Rhulk, the Scorn have begun to frenzy around the broken pyramid in Savathun’s swamp, and Mara Sov asks that the Guardian eliminate them so that they do not claim any power from the fragment of the Black Fleet. Aboard the ship, the Guardian discovers memories from Rhulk about his life as the Witness’s disciple.
With the death of the Witness’s disciple, Rhulk, the Scorn have begun to frenzy around the broken pyramid in Savathun’s swamp, and Mara Sov asks that the Guardian eliminate them so that they do not claim any power from the fragment of the Black Fleet. Aboard the ship, the Guardian discovers memories from Rhulk about his life as the Witness’s disciple.
The Guardian is called up again by Lord Saladin, and informed about the Lucent Brood’s operations within the Cosmodrome. Empress Caiatl believes this is the location where the Hive have been stockpiling the Light they’ve stolen from the Guardians. To that end, Saladin sends for the Guardians to eliminate the Hive and capture their leader to learn the next steps for what Savathun had planned for this Light. The Crow expresses his distaste for the actions we’re taking with the Lucent Brood, that we are unnecessarily torturing the Hive by capturing them and harvesting their minds like this. But relents to Lord Saladin’s orders for the time.
Lord Saladin once more sends the Guardians out to the battlefield in order to disrupt any Lucent Hive operations, and capture more of their leadership for Caiatl’s Psions. While the Guardian was busy with combat, Lord Saladin conversed with Caiatl’s Psion operation about what the next step would be.
The final plan of the Lucent Brood is revealed. They had been amassing a massive amount of Light to summon Savathun's throne world to the Earth's moon. The Guardian is dispatched to end the Hive Wizard enacting the final ritual. Victory is soon soured as upon returning home, the Guardian and Saladin find that Crow accidentally killed Caiatl's psion operative in his haste to end the interrogation operation. Caiatl is displeased and demands Crow's death in exchange. Lord Saladin volunteers his own instead. Caiatl agrees to spare the life of Crow, but Saladin will forever be a Cabal soldier as part of her war council. Before leaving, Saladin gives crow some parting advice, his Iron medallion, and an Iron War axe.
Eris Morn is given Savathun's corpse to study and dissect. Within the skull of the Witch Queen lay the binding sigil for the Crown of Sorrows. Eris later works with the Drifter to uncover that between all the Pyramids of the Black Fleet, there is a binding, which links to a source far away from Sol, for now...
The Leviathan has appeared over the Lunar surface, forever changed as the Emperor has been. The Guardian returns to see the pleasure barge of Calus infested with the Egregore fungus that they had first encountered aboard the Glykon ship. Calus has communed with his Witness and prepares to elevate himself by connecting with the Pyramid embedded into the Lunar surface. Before the Guardian can continue exploring the Leviathan further, they must flee as the Nightmare phantasms, formerly a common sight on the moon, now roam the halls of the Leviathan.
Eris morn has come up with a plan to deal with the Nightmares plaguing the Leviathan. She binds the Nightmares of Crow and Commander Zavala to herself and the Guardian. This will allow the Guardian protection as they are put to the task of hunting down any and all phantasms aboard the Leviathan, and imprisoning their energy within the Crown of Sorrows.
Eris Morn has sent the Guardian and Crow aboard the Leviathan to begin their efforts in severing the Leviathan from the Darkness of the Lunar Pyramid. As the Guardian and Crow navigate the underbelly of the pleasure ship, Crow is hounded by the Nightmare of Uldren Sov, a manifestation of his shame for what he had done in his first life. As the final ritual amplifier is set, and the guardians are ready to begin the severance ritual, a Nightmare of Fikrul is summoned to combat the Guardian. The ritual is unfinished as Crow is unable to push his shame back.
Eris has a new angle of attack for the Guardian’s second attempt at the ritual of severance. Like before, the Guardian and Crow must navigate the Leviathan’s underbelly to reactivate the ritual amplifiers they had installed in the last attempt. And just as before, Crow is hounded by the words of Uldren Sov in his ear, though he is better prepared for his words through Eris’s guidance. When it comes time for the ritual of severance to commence, Crow is ready for the Nightmare this time, and as the Guardian vanquishes the returned Nightmare of Fikrul, Crow succeeds in reconciling his life with Uldren’s. With the ritual completed, something strange happens, and the Nightmare of Uldren Sov is transformed from a harsh Nightmare into a luminous Memory of Uldren Sov. With this, the Leviathan’s link to the Pyramid is weakened.
In order to better understand what has happened to the once Emperor of the Cabal, Eris Morn sends the Guardians into the depths of his mindscape, to uncover this truth. The Guardian learns of Calus's rise as Emperor, the truth of his exile, and his ascension before the Witness.
For the Guardian’s next severance ritual, Commander Zavala accompanies them aboard the Leviathan as they begin to prepare the ritual. Just as with Crow before, the commander is hounded by the whispers of Nightmares. His Nightmare is that of Safiyah, a woman he loved in the Dark Age, before the Last City. The severance ritual is unable to be completed successfully as the Nightmare pushes Zavala to speak not only her name, but their son Hakim. Later, Eris tells the story of Zavala before he was Commander, about his meeting with Safiyah, their son’s tragic demise, and Zavala’s grief for the life he lost then.
Commander Zavala and the Guardian once more return to the Leviathan’s underbelly to reattempt the severance ritual. Zavala stands stronger and more ready to meet Safiyah’s Nightmare once more. With the final amplifier in place, Zavala is ready to begin the ritual of severance once again, and this time he is able to find forgiveness for himself so that he could move forward with his life. With this, the Nightmare of Safiyah is transformed into the Memory of Safiyah just as what happened with Uldren Sov’s manifestation. Back aboard the HELM, Zavala contacts the Guardian wondering if there is an end to a Guardian’s duty, and how long a person can bear the responsibility of their immortal lives. Eris says we’re poised to truly sever the connection between Calus and the Pyramid, but is concerned that something else is afoot that we have not seen yet.
Empress Caiatl has come forward to Eris with her wish to aid in severing her father from the lunar Pyramid’s influence, and so she will be conducting a ritual of severance aboard the Leviathan as well. Eris is concerned that the Empress was not part of the binding ritual that she had conducted with Zavala, Crow, and the Guardian and may not be able to succeed in the ritual. The Empress contacts the Guardian, requesting they not interfere in this ritual. It shall be a proving between her and the Nightmare of Ghaul. After Caiatl arrives aboard the Leviathan, Eris Morn sends in the Guardian to find and aid her however they can, against the empress’s wishes. Ghaul’s Nightmare attacks Caiatl with doubts about her reign as Empress, and whether she truly holds that authority herself and lives up to his legacy. She is unable to overcome the Nightmare’s words as the Guardian fights against the Nightmare of the Dominus, and retreats on Eris Morn’s request. Afterwards, Eris and the Guardian discover that while the ritual occurred, Calus had used several of his soldiers as a psychic bridge to ferry his mind to the lunar Pyramid on behalf of his new master, the Witness.
Eris Morn informs the Guardian that she has brought Empress Caiatl into their shared ritual bond to the Crown of Sorrows, and is prepared to once again attempt the final ritual of severance needed to stop Calus from linking fully to the Darkness of the Lunar Pyramid. With Empress Caiatl’s resolve to reshape the Cabal’s future in solidarity with the Last City, she is able to stand against the Nightmare of Ghaul, and it is transformed into a new Memory of Ghaul. She tells the Guardian of who Ghaul once was to her, and how that idolization molded her into who she was today, but now she is ready to stand for herself, and forge a new empire of peace with the Cabal. Eris Morn is concerned, for with this severance ritual, Calus’s schemes should be ended, but there has been no reaction from the exiled emperor.
The connection between Calus and the Black Fleet is forged. The Guardian, Eris, Crow, Zavala, and Caiatl make a last desperate attempt to halt Calus's integration with the Lunar Pyramid, but the best they can do is delay the inevitable as Calus slowly is joined with the forces of the Witness. The Herald of the second collapse is soon upon us.
A psychic manifestation of Emperor Ghaul has manifested within the HELM and across the Last City to boast his new station with the Witness, and invites all who hear his voice to embrace the inevitability of the end to come and tells them that he will be ready to meet the Guardian should they still resist.
Eramis's slumber within the crystal of Stasis is shattered. She has been tasked by the Witness to see the return of great power lost since the collapse. Eramis cannot refuse this will and begins calling up the old pirate crews of the Dark Age. This return is discovered when the Drifter has the Guardian arrive on Europa, to smuggle the Spider into the Last City.
Now that the Spider has arrived within the Last City, he has set himself up a new location in the Eliksni District where the Scribe of House Light, Eido, meets with him to welcome him to the Last City. She is excited to be part of this adventure to stop Eramis from gathering all the relics she’s hunting for. When Eido leaves, the Spider pulls the Guardian off to the side to let them know that they can continue using his Ketch for the time being.
It’s time for the Guardian to begin their first foray into piracy. Mithrax shows the Guardian the ropes and their new Captain’s atlas, which will help the Guardian navigate the system to wherever the old pirate lords hid the relics Eramis is searching for, and seize them first. First lord to fall to the Guardian is Val’aug, a Cabal defector. With the pirate dead, the Guardian is free to claim the treasures within her lair, including one of the relics sought by Eramis. Eido begins investigating the Relic with her father to find out what it is that Eramis has been sent to gather for the Witness.
Mithrax contacts the Guardian with information about the relic that the Guardian retrieved from the pirate’s lairs. It is an object of eliksni legend, he says, and full of terrible dark powers that the Eliksni fought over when they arrived in the system. He begs the Guardian to prevent Eramis from gathering any of them. The next pirate lord that the Guardian is sent after is Iriks. After clearing out the lair, the Guardian claims another relic. Mithrax is uncomfortable with Eido joining on the Guardian’s quest to gather the relics instead of researching them. When the Guardian returns to the Last City, they arrive as Mithrax is meeting with the Spider. The Spider tells Mithrax that they should be claiming the relics for their own benefits, and Mithrax shuts him down harshly.
Mithrax contacts the Guardian about Eramis’ movements across the system in search of the relics. He requests that the Guardian not involve his daughter Eido any further in gathering the relics. He does not wish for her to see this violence. The next lair to be targeted belongs to a pair of pirate lords, Tagh’al and Thagh’urn. With their deaths, the Guardian claims another of the dark relics. Eido interrupts the Spider and the Guardian debriefing about the operation, and demands to know why she was being excluded. When the Guardian returns to the Eliksni District, they walk in on a meeting between Eido asking the Spider for why her father does not want her involved with these relics, and Mithrax arrives to end the conversation before she can learn more. Later, Eido uncovers an old vanguard report which references what the artifacts may truly be, body parts radiating with intense Darkness.
Eido contacts the Guardian to tell them that they will continue to aid in the search for more of the dark relics, despite her father’s reservations on the matter. The next lair to be assaulted by the Guardian is Alaaks and their horde of Cabal warbeasts. As the Guardian fights through the lair, they discover it had already been attacked by another party before they arrived. The pirate lord survived, but only until the Guardian found them and claimed the relic they held. Drifter and Spider wonder who else is now on the search for the relics. Mithrax is concerned about what may happen now, and admits to having been keeping secrets about these relics from the Guardian, but requests our patience in further elaborating.
Mithrax contacts the Guardian to tell them that Eido has sent a message to Eramis requesting a parley, and he is wary that the Kell of Darkness may not hold to the agreement for non-violence. Until the meeting can take place, the Guardian sets out to gather another relic from the lair of another pirate lord. After the Relic has been obtained, Eido receives a transmission from Eramis, accepting her request for a parley, to which the Guardian attends at Mithrax’s request. At the meeting, Eramis reveals the truth about the relics, and about how Mithrax was once involved with them as a pirate lord himself centuries ago. Eido is furious with Mithrax’s deceit and storms off. With the knowledge that these relics contain the shattered body of Nezare, Eido begins to research more about this mysterious disciple.
The Drifter contacts the Guardian with his own admission about knowing what these relics were when this expedition first began, and reaffirms that the Guardian cannot allow them to fall into Eramis’s hands. When the Guardian arrives at the next lair containing a relic, the Guardian discovers that the ones who assaulted the lair of Alaaks were the Lucent Brood of Savathun. It is unclear Hive Lightbearers might want the Relics of Nezarec. When the Guardian returns to the Eliksni District, they overhear the Drifter trying to ease Eido’s pain brought about by her father’s deceit. Later, Mithrax contacts the Guardian vowing to prove to the Guardian and himself that he is no longer the brutal pirate lord he once was.
Drifter contacts the Guardian with a warning before their next expedition to another of the pirate lord’s lairs. The Guardian is successful in the elimination of the pirate lord Ithyks, and gathers the relic from their lair. Afterwards, Rakis requests the Guardian visit them in the Eliksni District to talk about how he came to be the Spider, and hopes that Mithrax never forgets who he once was either. Eramis contacts Eido about what the future of Eliksni could be, and warns Eido that should they cross paths again, it will be their last meeting.
Mithrax contacts the Guardian to confer about their mission and how communications between Eramis and her crews have gone silent. The Guardian is sent to gather the final relic of Nezarec that they have located. As the Guardian arrives in the pirate lair, they discover not only have the Hive come to claim the relic within, but so has Eido herself. The Guardian and Mithrax fight frantically through the brood of Savathun in order to reach Eido. The young scribe of House Light is saved in the end by Eramis herself. Before she can take the relic from Eido, Eramis arrives to duel her himself, ending with Eramis fleeing the scene.
Mithrax begins to ponder what can be done with these relics of Nezarec, now that they have been secured from the Witness's grasp. While he devotes himself fully to the discovery of what is possible, he asks the Guardian and Spider to oversee some of his duties as the Kell of House Light. Using the funds and resources obtained from pirate crews and around the solar system, the Spider coordinates the refurbishment of the Eliksni District within the last City.
Mithrax successfully uncovers a means to siphon off the primordial power of Darkness within the Relics of Nezarec, and distills a cup of tea with it. After Saint-14 administers the terrible brew to his slumbering love, Osiris is awakened from his coma since his possession by Savathun. His mind is filled with secret knowledge stolen from Savathun, but there would be time for that later. For now, there is only celebration.
Acting on Osiris's vision of a city on Neptune, multiple scouting parties are dispatched, and nothing is found. Osiris's condition is interrogated by Ikora to try and determine his physical and mental soundness. Osiris feels dejected as this vision is all he has to show from his capture by Savathun, and nobody believes in him anymore.
Osiris seeks out Ana Bray to confide in her how he languishes in people's distrust in him and has come to her with a request and a plan. If there is anyone in the entire solar system who could legitimize his visions of Neptune, it was Rasputin, who was nearly lost in the return of the Black Fleet. To see him restored to life, Osiris suggests that they beseech the Clovis Bray AI for assistance. Whom better to rebuild the Warmind, than his original creator?
En route to Europa, Ana notes that the Deep Stone Crypt’s defenses are on high alert as Clovis Bray has come under siege. Clovis Bray is under attack by Xivu Arath’s wrathborn forces. Xivu Arath has come to claim Clovis Bray for her own forces, but the Guardian is able to repel the invaders from the Deep Stone Crypt. Once the site is secure, Ana Bray and Osiris come down to explain to Clovis her plan to rebuild Rasputin. Clovis Bray will join the group at the HELM.
With Clovis Bray installed in the experimental exo frame that Ana brought to the HELM, he begins outlining the next steps for rebuilding the Warmind. As a resiliency measure, Rasputin was able to partition his code into autonomous subminds. By collecting their data and reintegrating them into the AI core that Ana salvaged, Rasputin’s code would begin to repair itself. Mara Sov contacts the Guardian with reports that Xivu Arath’s forces are gathering on a warmind facility on luna. Within the bunker is the Submind Malahayati. After eliminating the scorn within the base, the Guardian is able to retrieve data from the submind. Mara Sov notes that the scorn leading the assault came from the House of Salvation, and concludes that their resurrection was a form of punishment for the Kell’s inability to gather the relics of Nezarec. Later, the Guardian would return to Europa in order to collect data from an AI kernel deep within the Deep Stone Crypt, which can aid in Rasputin’s recovery.
In preparation for the reconstruction of Rasputin, the Guardian is sent to the outskirts of the Last City in order to secure a warsat bunker so that when the AI-COM is ready, the Guardian will be able to reinstall Rasputin to the Warsat network from the Seraph station in orbit over the earth. After clearing out the Hive, the Guardian reactivates the reactor powering the facility while Ana Bray makes it look like the Guardian only came for some records. As Clovis Bray attempts to prep the facility's launch protocols, he discovers that Rasputin has changed the codes on him. Another mission for another day.
As the Guardian returns to the HELM in order to continue rebuilding Rasputin, they walk in on the end of an argument between the Bray sisters. Clovis Bray has come up with a plan to obtain more submind data to rebuild Rasputin. He has learned that Mars was returned to the system covered in temporal anomalies, and Rasputin’s Mindlab is within such an anomaly. In the distant past, the station houses the Charlemagne submind, and this will be the Guardian’s target. As the Guardians fight through the forces of Xivu Arath, the Brays all discuss what will be done with the Warmind once he has been fully rebuilt, Ana wishes for Rasputin to retain his autonomy going forward. The Hive have brought in Kelgorath, Risen from Bones, now a Darkblade of Xivu Arath, to install a Hive spirit within the mindlab. But the Guardian once more eliminates the Knight, and is able to secure more data for Rasputin.
An old outpost on Mars is reactivated by the temporal disturbances across the surface. The Sol Divisive invade the spire under the guidance of Eramis. Osiris wishes to investigate. Ikora sends the Guardian to go in and uncover what can be discovered. It is revealed that this base was a joint operation by the Clovis Bray Corporation and Ishtar collective. The Guardian succeeds in stopping the Vex from using the spire to imprison Rasputin's subminds. Osiris is pleased to discover that this facility contains knowledge that can shine new lights on his vision of Neptune. Shortly thereafter, Ana Bray leads an expedition into the Spire to learn about the AUGURMIND Soteria's past. TM-Earp Custom Suit
One more, the Guardian is sent to the seraph station in Nkechi’s cut. When the Hive seals the bunker entrance that the Guardian used prior, Ana directs them to enter via the rooftop’s vent. Once the Guardian has eliminated the ancient Hive stationed within, Clovis Bray is able to secure the launch systems for the facility but will need time to decrypt the codes for a launch. Till then, Ana Bray covers the Guardian’s tracks by pinging several other bunkers.
Clovis Bray informs the Guardian that Elsie Bray will be joining their efforts to rebuild the Warmind. While Rasputin is not operational this week, Elsie will still send the Guardian up to the Seraph station orbiting Earth. Ana has also come across records of an old weapon within the seraph station, and requests that the Guardian grab it while they’re up there. Aboard the space station, Xivu Arath has sent Eramis to secure the network controls with her splicers, as well as a detachment of wrathborn and scorn soldiers. After the Guardian fakes a surrender to gain further access through to the station,the Guardian comes face to face with a now scorn Praksis. With the scorn eliminated, the Guardian is able to upload a virus which will prevent anyone from gaining access to the warsat network until we rebuild Rasputin.
The Guardian works with the Hidden agent known as Fenchurch in order to uncover the secrets behind the creation of the Revision Zero rifle found aboard the seraph station leading to the discovery that the Hakke foundry of the Golden Age had been studying the technology of the Relic on Mars in order to develop the rifle.
Rasputin's code has yet to rebuild itself, and we've run out of AI-COM locations to provide new data for the engram. Ana Bray comes to the Guardian with a plan. She has learned that Lord Felwinter was created from the body of Rasputin's lost son. If the Guardian can obtain that Ghost, Rasputin may be able to use the data within to reawaken.
The Guardian arrives at the Iron Temple in the cosmodrome, but the House of Salvation has invaded the temple as well, to obtain Felspring’s shell, after intercepting Ana’s communications. The Guardian fights alongside Valus Saladin Forge’s legion, the Iron War Beasts, to push back the invasion. With access to his Ghost, Felspring, Rasputin awakens. He reveals the truth of Clovis Bray's designs for the Warmind, that Rasputin was built to obliterate the Traveler so that he may replace her as a machine god of Clovis Bray's design. His deceit revealed, the Clovis AI is once more confined to the surface of Europa.
With Revision Zero in hand, the Guardian is able to access a hidden lab within the seraph station and discovers a robotic dog named Archie. The Guardian brings the canine back to the HELM for pets.
Rasputin tells the Guardian that while he is operational, his code is not yet prepared to be reintegrated into the warsat network and asks the Guardian to continue gathering data from the submind vaults in order to further rebuild his code. Osiris converses with the Guardian about Rasputin may hold the key to the vision he received from Savathun in the knowledge of what Nefele Stronghold once was. Once the Guardian returns from the submind vaults, they are contacted by Elsie who is worried that Ana is acting more like Clovis Bray than she’s entirely comfortable with, but wants to trust her to do the right things. As Rasputin integrates more and more of his data, he recognizes that the data is altering his own personality matrix, and giving him perspective on who he once was.
It is revealed what plans Xivu Arath holds for the Warsat network. In order to summon forth herself and her armies to the Sol system, she requires an act of devastation so terrible. Mara Sov posits that no matter who uses the Warsat network, Rasputin or Xivu Arath, the destruction caused will open the gateway for Xivu Arath to invade the system. Rasputin must now only hold the Warsat network, without using it to destroy the forces of the Witness amassing over the Earth. For however long until something else can be done.
Rasputin has begun to formulate a plan for how to safeguard humanity, without firing the Warsat network. A plan which will see the people of earth forever safe from obliteration on high. But before this can happen, Rasputin sends the Guardian to retrieve hidden files within the cosmodrome, air-gapped from his network to ensure their security.
The Guardian arrives at the old bunker within the Cosmodrome, as they fight through the bunker to retrieve the data Rasputin requested, the warmind muses upon his past acts of tyranny. One such act that he nearly enacted was an assault upon the Traveler, intending to immobilize it. But thanks to Ana Bray, he aborted the firing sequence back then. The Guardian is able to retrieve the data, which Rasputin asks be kept by the Vanguard instead of uploaded to his network.
The worst has come to pass. Eramis has managed to bypass the virus preventing her from controlling the Warsat network, and has enacted the ABHORRENT IMPERATIVE under the Witness's watchful eyes. The Warsat network begins moving into a firing position over the Traveler, who for the first time in centuries, moves out of the sky of the Last City to protect humanity. Rasputin's plan is revealed, Aurora Sacrifice. Once Rasputin is reconnected to the Warsat Network, Ana Bray must fully and permanently delete his AI. As Eramis fires the Warsats, Ana Bray ends the life of Rasputin. The Traveler is saved from the Warsat network.
The information Rasputin wanted retrieved from the Cosmodrome contained within it the proof Osiris sought. The existence of Nefele Stronghold, and the secret it hides. The Veil, an object of immense paracausal power, tied to the Traveler.
The Black Fleet surrounds the Traveler over the Earth, nothing, not even the Terraforming power of the Light, can be done to stop the Witness as it approaches. Touching the mind of the Traveler, the Witness learns the location of the Veil on Neptune, and dispatches his newly empowered Disciple, Calus. The Guardian and Osiris give chase as the Typhon Imperator moves to descend upon Neptune.
The Guardian stows away aboard one of the cabal vessels following Calus’s flagship to the orbit of Neptune along with Osiris. Aboard the ship, the Guardian first encounters the new Shadow Legion that Calus has amassed in his rise to being a Disciple of the Witness. After sabotaging the ship, Osiris and the Guardian escape from the ship and crash down on Neptune’s surface, where they discover a whole entire civilization. As the Guardian moves towards Osiris’s location, they are contacted by Rohan and Nimbus, Cloudstriders of this city. Once the Guardian reaches Osiris’s location, they discover a strange weave of Darkness that they use to fight off the incoming Shadow Legion. After the Shadow Legion is dealt with, the two guardians meet up with the Cloudstriders.
While Calus himself may be on Neptune, unearthing the Veil from its resting place. Queen Mara Sov of the Awoken has come to the aid of the City, to rescue prisoners captured by the Shadow Legion within the Pyramids of the Black Fleet. To do this, Mara Sov will channel her immense paracausal power through the Guardian orders so that they can breach the Black Fleet’s prisons. Amanda Holiday has broadcasted a distress beacon from within one of the prisons and the Guardian is sent in to rescue her and the rest of the captives.
After meeting with the Cloudstriders, the Guardian sets off towards the location of the Veil here in Neomuna. The Shadow Legion have set up defenses that the Guardian first has to deal with including paracausal disruptors which disable the Guardians known elemental abilities. While the Guardian is able to dispatch the soldiers blocking their path, the Shadow Legion are able to secure the area surrounding the Veil. Ghost is once more taken over by the voice of the Witness, and the Guardian observes a meeting between It and Calus, where they learn the emperor is to attach a relic known as the Radial Mast to the Veil, and see the Veil destroyed.
The Guardian storms the flagship of Calus, known as the Typhon Imperator, in search of the Radial Mast. Upon entering the fortress, Ghost notes that he feels a source of Light energy deep within, which Osiris identifies as the Radial Mast. The Guardian succeeds in reaching the Mast, but is forced to flee from Calus’s forces. With the arrival of Empress Caiatl and her legions, the Guardian is able to escape from the flagship.
Failing to obtain the Radial Mast, the Guardian is sent by Nimbus and Rohan to stop a Vex offensive within the City. The Vex are trying to take power away from Neomuna’s CloudArk systems, which the Cloudstriders inform the Guardian that the CloudArk is what manages almost everything in Neomuna, and that by protecting it we can keep the Veil safe from Calus’s reach. As the Guardian fights through to the reactor, they encounter more of the strands of Darkness they encountered earlier. After the Guardian clears out the Vex from the reactor, the Shadow Legion storms the facility to kill the Guardian. After eliminating the Shadow Legion and several of Calus’s Tormentors, the Guardian is able to flee the facility using the strand power they’ve seen all across Neomuna.
Nimbus has told the Guardian and Osiris that they have an idea about where the Guardians can go in order to better train with the power of Strand that the Guardian has discovered on Neomuna. The Guardian practices commanding this power by eliminating nearby Vex with it, but is constantly exhausted after every battle. Osiris pushes the Guardian to push past their limits in spite of the pain, saying that we cannot defeat Calus without mastering this ability. While the Guardians' ability to manipulate Strand is improved, they are unable to master its use without strain.
Calus is on the move to align the Radial Mast to the Veil. The Guardian and the Cloudstriders move out to stop the Shadow Legion before that happens, and with the power of Strand, the Guardian is able to overcome the paracausal disruptors that impeded their abilities in the past. With this new power, and several stolen Drake tanks provided by Nimbus, the Guardian is able to reach the Radial Mast alongside Rohan. Before the Guardian can destroy the Veil with Strand, the power exhausts them, leaving Rohan with no choice other than to detonate his own core to destroy the Radial Mast.
With no time to mourn Rohan available to them, Nimbus sends the Guardian out to investigate a Shadow Legion incursion into the Vex Network that is disrupting Neomuna’s defenses. Before the Guardian enters into the Vex domain, Nimbus informs them that the citizens of Neomuna had been reporting strange voices and nightmares within the network recently. The Guardian discovers these voices for themselves as they fight through the Taken and the Vex. Once the network domain has been cleared of hostile forces, the voice reveals itself to be Nezarec, a disciple of the Witness.
As Nimbus and Caiatl ready themselves for the final attack on Calus, the Guardian works with Osiris in order to truly master the power of Strand. The Guardians have come to understand that in their struggles to command Strand as a power, they have been fighting against their own goal. By learning to flow with the connections of Strand, instead of trying to dictate them, the Guardian is able to truly make this power over Darkness their own as they effortlessly tear through the Vex.
Calus makes a final push against the forces of Empress Caiatl and the Guardian. He descends from his flagship to personally secure the Veil after dispatching his daughter Caiatl. Deep beneath the city of Neomuna, the Guardian faces down Calus. With the newly mastered power of Strand, Calus; Disciple of the Witness, is slain. Victory is short-lived as it is revealed the Witness has once more possessed the Guardian's Ghost, and uses them to connect with the Veil. Above the Earth's surface, the Witness carves a gateway before the Traveler, entering its Pale Heart. All across the system, it is felt, the being known as the Traveler is now gone. Where once her heart was felt, now only the gateway remains.
Following the demise of Calus and the Witness’s successful linking to the Veil, the Guardians are left without a plan to follow. Nimbus informs the Guardian that they had heard Rohan say that the Vex had at one point attempted to create a copy of the Veil, and that we might be able to learn more about what the Veil’s function is by gathering Rohan’s old notes. It is revealed that the attempted Veil recreation was actually the Black Heart of the Garden that the Guardian destroyed almost a decade ago. While the Heart may have been destroyed, the Vex might still have some data from it that can be recovered. While the Guardian investigates the Black Heart, Osiris asks that Nimbus remain in Neomuna. When the Guardian begins their search in the Black Garden, it becomes clear that Nimbus has not followed Osiris’s request. Within the Black Garden, the Guardian and Nimbus recover one of Rohan’s old weapons, and Nimbus grieves for their lost mentor before returning to Neomuna. The Guardian is able to successfully recover the data from the Conceptual Mind before the Taken can destroy it. Osiris will need time to look through what they have found.
The Guardian works with Devrim Kay to eliminate another Taken infestation in the EDZ with several explosive devices taken from the Black Fleet.
The Guardian works with Devrim to eliminate an arms dealer providing the Shadow Legion with their armaments here on earth, as well as liberating several captured psions dispatched by Empress Caiatl for that same task. Together the two forces are able to eliminate the new Bracus Zahn.
Amanda Holiday reaches out to the Guardian to express her gratitude for rescuing her in the EDZ. She’s received reports about more Shadow Legion in the Cosmodrome rounding up captives, and asks the Guardian to go and handle it. Once the Guardian returns, Devrim speaks to them over the comms network to give his thoughts on why the Witness attacked as it did, and how it failed to break our hope.
The Guardian works with City Archivist Quinn Laghari to repair several Cloudstrider graves destroyed by the Vex just after the Witness linked itself to the Veil. As the Guardian repairs the graves with their newfound Strand abilities, they uncover a secret carried through the ages by all these dead Cloudstriders, a hidden Vex mind buried within the CloudArk known as the Occlusion. This Vex mind was born from a fragment of the Soteria AI that made it to Neptune long ago. Once the Vex hunting down the mind are eliminated, the Occlusion gives the Guardian a message, telling them to investigate the lost moon of Titan, and the enemy of the Witness who resides there.
The Guardian investigates a strange anomaly within the EDZ, a Vex network node that contains the word AVALON. After bypassing a security shield, the Guardian is brought into the Vex network, which Mithrax detects and joins them on the comms. Mithrax detects a strange signal within the network and requests the Guardian investigate it further, leading to a reborn Brakion to face down against the Guardian. With the Vex mind eliminated, the Guardian is able to claim a weapon from its lair, a Glaive of Vex data. As the Guardian returns to the lair week by week, they will learn the identity of the strange signal to be Asher Mir, who has digitized himself in order to make use of the Vex’s computational abilities and identify the Veil. Once the Guardian has slain the reborn Brakion for a third time, Asher Mir is able to gain access to the core of the Vex Network, and loses himself within it.
Within the CloudArk of Neomuna, nightmares began to terrorize the Neomuni from the returned disciple of the Witness, Nezarec; The Final God of Pain. The Guardian follows these whispers aboard the terraformed pyramid over earth, where the Witness once stood. The Guardians discover that Nezarec had been inadvertently revived by the Traveler's terraforming Light. To end Nezarec's hold over the Neomuni, the Guardians face down this terrible threat for what may hopefully be the final death of the final god of pain.
The Guardian is sent into the Vex Network to stop the Shadow Legion from destroying data from the CloudArk. Among the data that would be affected is the journal of Maya Sundaresh, one of Neomuna’s founders. With the elimination of the Shadow Legion’s bomb squad, the data is preserved.
Nimbus has sent the Guardian into the Vex network to eliminate a Vex Mind within that has been constantly harassing the people of Neomuna for months.
The Guardian aids Sam Moleyn in installing a Vex Virus into their portal network to disrupt it around Neomuna.
Now that the Guardian has fully mastered the powers of Strand, they begin to see if it wouldn’t be possible to integrate their new abilities into weaponry. With the aid of Nimbus, the Guardian is able to craft a weapon with materials used in the Veil’s containment facility.
Mara Sov has contacted the Guardian with a plan to attack the Shadow Legion. The legion has constructed another prison in orbit over Earth where they’re holding more prisoners; they believe that their defenses make a rescue attempt impossible. But with the Guardian’s growing mastery of Mara Sov’s power, they are able to travel through the Ascendant Plane like never before and are able to travel directly into the prison itself, bypassing the security patrols. With the prisoners inside rescued, the Guardian returns to the Farm and overhears Amanda Holiday tell her story to Mithrax.
Following a distress signal detected from a Shadow Legion prison in the EDZ, The Guardian, Mithrax, and Amanda Holliday ventured into the Tunnels off the Sunken Isles. After fighting through the considerable defenses of the legion, including one of the Witness's own tormentors, the base went into lockdown and began the self-destruct process. Amanda Holliday was able to undo the holdings for the prisoners, but not with enough time to escape the blast herself. Her body was later recovered, to be interred within the Last City...
In the midst of the ongoing operations to rescue civilians from the Cabal, a small funeral is held for Amanda Holiday.
The Guardian uses Mara Sov's power to carry themself, Crow, Mithrax, and Devrim to the Shadow Legion Flagship flying over the Earth. Together, they fight through the ship, and destroy its engines completely. With the prison ship no longer fully operational, the Shadow Legion know that humanity will not stand idly by, and allow their brutality.
Following the failure of the Guardian to stop the Witness from making a connection to the Veil, and linking to the Traveler, all seemed lost. Recently, the saturnian moon of Titan has returned to the Sol system by some unknown means.
Upon Titan's return to the solar system, a distress call was immediately received from Deputy Commander Sloane. Immediately, the Guardian, Zavala, Saint-14, and Lord Saladin departed for Titan to bring home Sloane. Along the way, it was discovered that Drifter had come for much the same task. To the horror of all, the voice of Xivu Arath was heard throughout the Arcology. The Hive god of war has arrived. After repelling her forces, the Guardian ventured a kilometer beneath the waves to find Sloane, partially Taken. She did not send the distress call for herself, but for Ahsa, Proto-worm of Fundament. She has secret knowledge of the Witness that must be heard.
The Drifter has come up with a means by which Ahsa and Sloane's bond may be strengthened, allowing for more communication to be shared between the two. To accomplish this task, we must dive down beneath the waves of Titan to dig up Egregore Coral for its ability to create psychic links.
Ahsa has informed the Vanguard of the location of egregore coral along the depths of Titan that can be used to help improve the psychic connection between her and Sloane. As the Guardian fights along the ocean floor they must contend with more of Xivu Arath’s forces who have moved in when Titan was out of the system. With the defeat of the Wrathborn Servitor J4W-S, the Guardian is able to collect the coral.
With the egregore coral recovered, Ahsa consumes it to begin her story about the Witness.
“An oasis in the desert. Seeds of hope... buried beneath the sands... Nomads... wanderers... travelers. Their journey comes to an end... The first to be claimed by the Deep... the first to fall victim to the Witness…”
After Nimbus informs Osiris of strange Vex activity, he sends off the Guardian to investigate what it is the Vex may be up to. It is discovered that they are attempting to access data servers within Neomuna that are not connected to the CloudArk. With enough effort, Osiris is able to determine that the Vex were attempting to reach systems within the Veil containment complex and has the Guardian venture down to investigate. Osiris notes how as they interact more with the Veil, the more he understands the lingering shadows of Savathun with his mind. After having Ghost install a data mining application, audio logs from Chioma Esi are recovered about her arrival on Neptune in the Collapse. Before the Guardian can rest, the site is invaded by a Tormentor. The Guardian is able to crush the invaders, and Osiris asks that we return later to hear more of Chioma’s recordings.
When the Guardian returns to the Vex containment facility, the next audio log is decrypted, and able to be heard. This log deals with the arrival of Maya Sundaresh to the Veil site. She hears whispers of her own voice, telling her the Veil’s name, promising Salvation. It killed everyone sent to touch the object, and is causing psychological stress in the Indigo’s Exo crew members. Osiris corroborates the information with records from Nezarec taken in the Guardian’s assault on the Witness’s Pyramid, confirming that Savathun was indeed responsible for the Veil being on Neptune.
Deep within the Arcology, the corpse of Oryx; the Taken King, is discovered. While exploring the area, the Guardian uncovers a plot by the Lucent Brood to forcibly resurrect Oryx through a combination of both Hive necromantic skills, and the Light of a Ghost. It is discovered that Xivu Arath has been visiting this pseudo-grave for some time, as the corpse of Oryx keeps a memory of those visitations.
Following the failure of the Lucent Brood to forcibly resurrect Oryx; the Taken King, Ikora dispatched a Hidden fireteam to examine the site and remove Oryx's corpse to a more secure location. Bizarrely, the corpse itself still displays a form of life, and is suffused with Darkness.
Commander Zavala has been catching Sloane up on the events that had transpired since Titan’s abduction by the Witness. He is worried about how much Sloane has compartmentalized her emotions for the mission, and asks the Guardian to help remind her that she is not in this battle alone. Several Guardians sound a mayday call from one of the coral extraction sites. While the Guardian fights along the ocean depths, Saint-14 attempts to reach out to Sloane to see how she is feeling, but Sloane does not want to open up at this time. While the Guardian is unable to rescue the excavation team, they are able to complete their mission, and avenge them against their killers. When the Guardian returns to the HELM with the coral, they converse with Commander Zavala and Saint-14 about their times as the Vanguard Commander.
Once more, Ahsa consumes the sample of egregore coral to connect with Sloane, and continue her story.
“A city of Light… a… a flourishing garden… A silent god… withholds a deeper truth. Questions unanswered, uh… longing… unfulfilled. The sky… darkens… as a new journey begins.”
The next research log to be recovered deals with the beginning of settlement efforts on Neptune, surrounding the Veil. The SIVA technology aboard the Exodus handled the infrastructure of not only the settlement itself, but the Veil’s enclosure. Tragically not before the last Exo crew member succumbs to brain death. Nimbus is concerned over the fact that this record does not mesh with the history known by the Neomuni today.
Valus Saladin Forge calls up the Guardian this week to give the Guardian their perspective on the weight of solitude, and how it feels to once more have companions walking by his side again. He asks that we keep this in mind as we walk the depths of Titan alongside Sloane. Scans have uncovered a shelf of Egregore coral within the deepest depths of Titan’s oceans. While the Guardian fights through Xivu Arath’s forces, the Drifter converses with Sloane about what life at the bottom of the sea had to have been like. He’s found himself at a crossroads where he won’t be able to turn back from, and asks Sloane for her perspective on what it is to fully commit to something. In the depths of Titan, the Guardian is once more brought to battle with Kelgorath, now Taken from Bones. With this latest defeat of the Hive Knight, the Guardian recovers the egregore coral. When they return to the HELM, they overhear a meeting between Saladin and Drifter about their long lives as Lightbearers.
With coral consumed, Ahsa continues her story of the Witness.
“ Shrouded in… Darkness. A promise of something more… Two halves of a whole… long divided. A… schism between them. Reunited. A glimpse beyond… to the beginning…”
The next research log concerns the initial attacks on the fledgling Neomuna by the Vex. In spite of the Vex’s efforts to transform the planet of Neptune and its history, something has been preventing them from transforming the settlement's bounds. Chioma believes this to be an effect of the Veil. The Vex insert a simulation into Neptune’s atmosphere that both safeguards the City from detection, but also isolates them. Osiris feels a strange kinship with Maya Sundaresh as Chioma mentions she has forgotten their anniversary, and will be spending the evening alone.
Drifter has called up the Guardian to send them deep into the Throne World of Savathun to retrieve the equipment that the Drifter needs in order to better improve the gear used to help Sloane and Ahsa communicate with each other. Afterwards, it’s back to Titan’s depths for more coral. Once the Guardian returns from this expedition, they witness a conversation between Sloane and the Drifter about the things he had to do in order to survive.
With coral consumed, Ahsa’s tale of the Witness continues.
“ Anathema… calamity! That which cannot, MUST not come to pass… A wordless denial. A fleeing god. Betrayal… and escape. The pursuit… for the final shape…”
This week’s research log is concerning the Exo crewmates of the Exodus Indigo after their exposure to the Veil. From Maya’s time on Europa, she had learned that the mind fluid behind Exo brains is made from Vex radiolarian fluid that has been exposed to “Clarity” from the artifact within the Deep Stone Crypt, and concludes that the Veil is related to that artifact as it produces the same effect, which wiped the Exo crews of their minds. She wonders if perhaps the same process could be used to create a mind. Osiris asks if Nimbus has any knowledge of how the Cloud Striders were created.
After several weeks of gathering egregore coral from the depths of Titan, the connection between Ahsa and Sloane was stronger than ever. This day, Ahsa reveals to all the true history of the one known as the Witness, warning of what may yet come.
This week’s research log is concerned with the SIVA nanotech that was used to construct resources as the Exodus ships required. A comparison is made with Vex tech, and Maya and Chioma are attempting to push the nanotech even farther by incorporating parts from disabled Vex and dead Exo. Nimbus ponders if this means they are part Vex, and whether they can traverse time like them.
Lord Saladin contacts the Guardian with a grave emergency. Xivu Arath has attacked Ahsa while the Guardian was returning from a dive. Ahsa is wounded, but moves towards the site of the ritual in order to stop it, and Saladin asks that the Guardian join them. The Guardian, Commander Zavala, Lord Saladin, Saint-14, and Sloane race to the ritual site along the depths of Titan’s floor. The ritual is for Xivu Arath to take the primordial worm god. Ahsa is saved as the Guardian eliminates the wizards behind the ritual. As the Guardian, Sloane, and Commander Zavala resurface to check on Ahsa, Xivu Arath makes one final push to take over Deputy Commander Sloane. Sloane is able to push back Xivu Arath’s control with Zavala’s help, and makes her connection with Ahsa to hear the last message from the worm.
"The true path lies obscured. But she knows the way. She who hides the truth... in deception. The Witch Queen... must rise."
This week’s research log is to do with the Ishtar team’s development of an interface that they can use to investigate the Veil further. It works by linking together a choir of many minds in order to distribute the psychic load across them all, so that a conductor would be able to gain some intelligible information from the Veil. Chioma is worried about the potential loss of life caused by the device, but Maya insists they push forward. Like before, Osiris feels a painful reflection of himself in Maya, knowing that he was like her at one point.
As the Guardian takes time out to relax while fishing, they’ve managed to collect several broken Hive blades from across the solar system. They bring the broken blades down with them into the depths of Titan, and through them are able to gain access to a hidden lost temple on the ocean floor. As the Guardian fights against the forces of Xivu Arath, she goads them further and further inside the temple. After the Guardian slays her Tormentor, they are granted a weapon from Xivu Arath through the shrouded Veil statue. A Wicked Implement for the Guardian to hone themselves with.
The next research log decrypted is following up from the prior week’s discussion of a Veil interface. The process killed everyone involved in the experiment, but all Maya sees are valuable data points having been gathered together. Osiris makes the connection between this attempted Veil interface, and that of the ritual which created the Witness that Ahsa revealed recently, and wonders if perhaps Maya is following a similar path.
This week’s research log is concerning a familiar face to the Guardian, Lakshmi-2. It is revealed that Maya Sundaresh conducted an experiment where she hooked up dozens of dead exo bodies to her Veil interface, and ran it in reverse through her mind and into one of the bodies. The result was Lakshmi-2, now speaking with Maya’s voice, and having some of her memories. Nimbus is confused why Osiris recognizes that name, and he explains to the Cloud Strider of who she was within the Last City.
This week’s research log is on the Veil. Maya has successfully managed to connect human minds to the Veil without killing them. Chioma determines that the Veil is a web of consciousness, similar to the Vex network. If the Vex were able to get ahold of the Veil, they may even be able to conduct paracausal simulations. Chioma wishes she could be happy, but with everything that leads to this moment, all she can do is grieve the woman her wife once was. Osiris recounts to Nimbus how he nearly fell victim to the same obsession that had ensnared Maya.
This week’s log is a personal one from Chioma. Maya Sundaresh has died. She found her body in the Veil Interface’s conductor’s chair, all alone. She’s at a loss on how to explain this to the still developing Lakshmi-2 and has her quarantined for the time being.
This week’s log deals with the reactivation of the Warmind Rasputin on Earth. Using the Warsat network, Rasputin is able to locate the Exodus Indigo colony ship, classifying it as “Nefele Stronghold” and attempts to remotely interface with the settlement. Chioma sends Stargazer to Earth in order to prevent that from completing. Along the way, the Cloudstrider is to take Lakshmi-2 with them to remove her from the City and Chioma’s sight. With this information, Osiris is able to identify who it was that purged records of the Nefele stronghold from Rasputin’s data.
The research log uncovered this week is about when Chioma Esi decides to hide away all the research they have conducted on the Veil, and the many horrors that befell them all. Osiris is unsure if he agrees with Chioma’s decision here. Nimbus comes to mention that Quinn has noticed a data signature on this log, from MSund12.
In the final research log from Chioma Esi, she tells the story of how she and Maya once had become trapped on Venus by a Vex mind, and how those days feel almost heavenly compared to the hell she has found herself in now. She has made contact with the Vex outside Neomuna and will go to them for her ending. Osiris summarizes the knowledge he has been able to obtain from these research logs over the last few months.
In order to travel through the gateway on the Traveler, the Guardians will require Savathun's knowledge. Her price is the death of her sister, Xivu Arath. To that end, Eris Morn has conferred with Immaru on a plan. She will join the Hive's pantheon as their fourth great god, and slay Xivu Arath.
So she rises. Eris Morn, Hivebane, the many mouthed hunger, the knife-edged truth, and God of Vengeance. Aiat.
While the Guardian works with Eris to learn how Savathun could be the key to entering the portal made by the Witness, Osiris has managed to crack into the data core of the Conceptual Mind slain by the Guardian several months back. Within it, Osiris makes a shocking discovery about the nature of the Light and the Darkness. The two forces were once united as one. With this data, Osiris is able to calculate where the Witness has gone. The Witness now resides within the heart of the Traveler. He speculates that it is for this reason that the Traveler has become inert, as she has directed her efforts within.
Eris has detected an anomaly beneath the spire of Savathun, and Ikora asks the Guardian to investigate the Arcane Oubliette, as Immaru calls it. Within the chamber, the Guardian may enact summoning rituals from Savathun in order to call forth opponents to be slain in tribute to Eris Morn. As the Guardian tears through bone and bile of the many foes called forth, Eris Morn revels in the anguish exalting her strength. Ikora Rey watches on in horror as the carnage unfolds, but Immaru says that this will only be the beginning.
As the Guardian meets with Eris Morn this week, she opens up about transforming into her Hive form feels, asking that the Guardians continue to slaughter and tithe in her name for the time. While the Sword Logic may be Hive philosophy, the strength obtained in its practice is very real. Eris Morn now wields that strength not in desperation, but to see our foes slain before her. When the Guardian returns to the HELM after completing several rituals for Eris, they walk in on a conversation between the Drifter and Eris Morn about her transformations, promising that he will be there for her when it is over. Shortly afterwards, Immaru contacts the Guardian to play them a recording from Savathun as a show of how we’re all dancing to Savathun’s tune.
The Guardian meets with Eris Morn in her Athenaeum as a Hive God, to reaffirm her plan to end this spell once Xivu Arath is dealt with, and warns that she has felt the arrival of something dangerous on the horizon. A prophecy quickly fulfilled as Xivu Arath and her brood have finally breached into Savathun’s Throne world, believed to have been protected by the Light. She bids Eris Morn send forth her forces as she sends hers, so that they may meet in glorious battle.
Immaru urges the Guardian to venture into the Arcane Oubliette and eliminate as many of the foes within as they can, in order to prevent Xivu Arath from claiming their strength. As the Guardian eradicates the forces of the Hive, Vex, and Scorn, Eris Morn and Xivu Arath proclaim their divinities to each other. With such bountiful slaughter brought forth before Xivu Arath, she deems the Guardian worthy of facing the strongest of her fighters, the eater of the great Leviathan of Fundament. The Guardian is able to drive off the God of War’s chosen, but is unable to slay them.
As the Guardians continue to gather tithe and strengthen Eris Morn to face down Xivu Arath, it is revealed that in order for Eris Morn to assume her divine Hive shape she has entered into a pact with Ahsa. While Eris Morn is empowered by the strength of these bloody tithes, Ahsa bears the weight of their sickness. Should this ritual continue for too long, both Eris Morn and Ahsa will be transformed forever into grim Hive monsters.
As the Guardians have worked their magic within the Spire of Savathun, a new section of the spire has become open to the Guardian’s explorations. The Imbaru Engine, a series of hidden chambers presiding over the Arcane Oubliette, where the Guardian is tested on their cunning. Here, Savathun harvested her Imbaru, a strange reinterpretation of the logic of Oryx.
Eris Morn’s strength grows as she has fed from the putrid tithes of the Guardians slaughtering their foes and themselves over these weeks. When the Guardian returns from their own rituals, they arrive in the Athenaeum to witness a conversation between Eris Morn and Immaru about what the future holds. While Eris Morn still lacks the strength necessary to slay the God of War, she has a plan to obtain the necessary might. Within the Imbaru Engine, another chamber opens up for the Guardian to explore, a test of the Guardian’s Strength.
After months of guardians venturing out across the universe, paying Eris Morn their bloody tithes, all the God of Vengeance required was just a little more power to enact her grand design. To that end, Immaru revived Savathun once more, only for her to be struck down by Eris Morn. The Hive God of Cunning has not been killed by another Hive for so long, and through this grand death, Eris Morn became the most powerful Hive to live. Her final act of divinity is to sunder the link between Xivu Arath and her throne world, rendering the God of War mortal once more. After this, Immaru raises Savathun once more, to tell us all about how we may follow the Witness through the Traveler's gateway. She says we already have the key, and leaves Immaru in our care so that we can end Savathun's long life if we so wish.
While the Guardians work to uncover what the Witch Queen’s next plot will be, they still work to eliminate as many foes within the Spire of Savathun as they can in order to continue practicing their magic and ensure Savathun cannot make use of her Spire once more. Once more, the Guardian is able to unlock another chamber of the Imbaru Engine, a test of the Gaurdian’s competency with Navigation.
After traversing throughout the Throne World of Savathun; The Witch Queen, the Guardian is now able to unveil the final secret of the Imbaru Engine within Savathun's Spire. Within the Spire lay an Ahamkara egg of Riven's clutch, completely untarnished by any Taken Blight. It is too dangerous to keep, and even more dangerous to leave in the grasp of Savathun. In a stroke of inspiration, The Guardian comes to realize what Savathun had meant when she'd said "You will find you have it when you are ready." and discovers a hidden pattern upon Savathun's wing. A pattern which may yet be conveyed to the Wall of Wishes in the Dreaming City's Keep of Voices.
Before the Guardians may cross the portal to the Pale Heart, they first must learn how to open the door. Savathun provided the Guardians with a potential opportunity to accomplish such a feat. Through a wish, granted by the Ahamkara Riven, they may find entry. But Riven of a Thousand Voices has no such intents to grant the wish of her murderers. Not for free at least. She demands the rescue of her surviving clutch of eggs, the assurance that the Ahamkara will live again throughout Sol, and only then will she grant this final wish. Queen Mara and Osiris have their doubts, but at this time, Riven is the single lead towards the Pale Heart.
The key to the Pale Heart cannot be taken. It must be granted.
After Mara has met with Riven’s spirit to establish the terms of their bargain, she calls the Guardian to the HELM to discuss what is to come. She is furious that she must still heed the wants of the creature which had irreversibly cursed the Dreaming City, but we must pursue the Witness, and to that end the Guardian is sent by Riven into her former lair to collect the eggs therein. After pushing past the Vex and Taken within the lair, the Guardians arrive to see Riven’s egg nowhere to be found.
Petra has discovered that Riven’s lost eggs have been scattered across the Ley Lines. While it is currently unclear how this occurred, the energy expended to move them into the lines can trace the paths of the eggs for them, and where the Guardian may meet them once the Guardian reconfigures the Blind Well to do so. With the Ley lines in alignment, the Guardian races through Riven’s lair once more to meet the lost egg when it arrives. When the Guardian returns to the HELM they find Osiris and Mara Sov discussing if there are any alternatives to retrieving the dragon’s offspring.
Osiris has finished his research on the Veil based on what he was able to glean from Chioma Esi’s research and has come up with a theory. The reason that the Witness is able to take control over our Ghosts in places of great Darkness is that it is able to link to them through a parallel connection. Further, that the link may not be a one way path, and the Witness may be reached back through it. He further surmises that for the moment, the Witness has become blind to our current actions while it is within the Traveler.
The Guardian takes a fireteam to investigate a trail of Scorn leading to an abandoned Warlord's castle within the EDZ. While there, Petra informs them that there was an Ahamkara in this region some time ago. While combating the Scorn throughout the ruins of Warlord Naeem's castle, her history with the Ahamkara Hefnd is revealed, and how the Ahamkara has reached through death to enact his friend's dying wish to see the House of Kings be punished. To this end, Hefnd had been drawing in Taken and absorbing their essence to corrupt himself so that he may raise the corpses of the House of Kings as Scorn to be slaughtered. With the destruction of Hefnd's chimera form in the castle, this tale has come to an end. Worryingly, several of the Scorn found within the castle bore the signatures of The Fanatic, Fikrul, who had sent his Knights to Earth to retrieve these newly revived Scorn.
Another egg is soon to pass into Riven’s lair from the Ley lines. Riven attempts to sway the Guardian away from Mara Sov, implying that it was she who banished the eggs that we now hunt for. Once the Guardian returns from the lair once more, egg in hand, they are informed by Petra Venj that the trajectories of the remaining eggs will never align with our reality on their present courses. Using Mara Sov’s remaining harbinger, we can guide the remaining eggs into alignment, but first the Guardian is sent to retrieve a lodestone for Mara to use in communicating with the harbinger.
With the lodestone aligned to the confluence, Mara Sov has commanded her harbinger to guide home Riven’s remaining clutch of eggs. Once more the Guardian ventures into the lair of Riven to retrieve another of her eggs as it has moved into position within. When the Guardian returns to the HELM, they are met with defeat from Osiris as he has come to feel it is impossible to follow the same path that the Witness took.
With the arrival of another egg within Riven’s Lair, Riven relents that it most likely was not Mara who scattered the eggs, but another Ahamkara’s magic. As the Guardian enters the lair once more, Crow informs them that the lair has been invaded by Vex of the Sol Divisive who seek to cut off the Guardian from the lair, and prevent the gathering of Riven’s eggs. With the discovery of Oracles manifesting outside the Vault of Glass it appears that the Sol Divisive have managed to align their codes with the power of Darkness. While the Guardian is able to take down the Vex, it was not before they were able to escape with Riven’s egg into the Black Garden.
Using a path provided by Riven, the Guard is able to enter into the Black Garden in search of the egg. As the Guardian walks through the Garden, whispers from some unknown source play throughout. Riven reveals that this section of the Black Garden is the lair of another Ahamkara, and to get through, the Guardian makes use of sparks of paracausality left behind. With the defeat of the Pitiless Mind, the Guardian successfully locates the stolen egg beside the remains of another Ahamkara, who Riven recognizes to be Taranis, her mate. Through Crow, the final words of Taranis are heard. It was he who scattered their remaining eggs by granting a wish of his own, at the cost of his own life. Riven asks that the Guardian honors Taranis's wish, and ensures the safety of their clutch.
Riven calls the Guardian to alert them to a rise of the Taken within her lair, and requests that the Guardian race to retrieve the next egg from her lair before the Taken are able to. Though the Guardian is able to exterminate the Taken with the dragon’s lair, they are too late to reach the egg, which has become blighted by the Taken. Though not all is lost as Mara comes up with a plan to cleanse the egg of corruption. Using essentia from the Taken, and a minor wish made by the Guardian the egg is cleansed. For this minor miracle, Riven reveals a secret she has known since this bargain was made: the Wish that Savathun has crafted for her will only permit the passage of a single individual through the Traveler’s portal. Though Mara is enraged by the deception, Osiris convinces her that a single individual might be exactly what we require.
The Guardian meets with Riven again as she informs them that though the path of her final egg has been determined, it will not be arriving within her lair this day. Still she asks that the Guardian continue to root out intruders from her lair till then. Upon their return, Crow calls the Guardian over to propose an idea, he will be the one to make use of Savathun’s wish to enter the Traveler. Through his unique bond with Mara, she will be able to follow his path through the Traveler’s portal and grant passage to all the Guardians. The Queen is hesitant to allow her brother to once more throw himself into danger but places her trust in her brother.
The time has come for the Guardian to claim the final remaining egg of Riven’s clutch from within the heart of the confluence. Once the final egg is secured, Riven shall grant Savathun’s wish, and open the path into the Traveler. With the path to the confluence opened, the Scorn have surged within to claim the egg of Riven. With their destruction, the Guardian claims the final egg of Riven and Taranis. It is time for the Last Wish of Riven to be granted.
With the eggs safely gathered together, the Guardian returns to the Wall of Wishes to make Savathun’s final wish. Mara Sov, Petra Venj, and Crow gather within Riven’s chambers as the universe shakes and a portal into the Traveler opens before the three, with few parting words between the sov siblings, Crow leaps headlong through the portal. Before Riven succumbs to her final slumber, she asks that Queen Mara watch over her children now. With Mara and Crow’s bond, she is able to feel Crow as he travels into the Pale Heart of the Traveler.
While the Guardians await the arrival of the Crow within the heart of the Traveler, Mara Sov has come to the Guardian with a series of challenges and quests left behind by Riven before her final passing. Should the Guardian accomplish these tasks, they will be well rewarded for their efforts.
While the Guardians await word of Crow’s arrival in the heart of the Traveler, the forces of the Black Fleet have begun a terraformation operation here on earth. Lord Shaxx has asked the Guardians to take the fight to the Black Fleet with the ADU technology developed by himself and Ada-1 to crush the would-be invaders. For their efforts, the Vanguard has permitted Lord Shaxx to begin reissuing newly improved, formerly banned, weapons from his personal vault for the Guardians to arm themselves with.
Eris Morn offers to aid the Guardian in their preparations against the Witness. Through meditation on past encounters with the Taken on Io, Eris Morn is able to reforge the rifle claimed on that expedition. With her help, the rifle may yet be further empowered as the Guardian thinks on those events.
The robotic hound found aboard the seraph station so long ago has grown curious of the worlds around him, and sets off on a journey of him own.
To further prepare to face down the Witness, the Guardian works with Ada-1 to not only recreate the Outbreak Perfected, but improve upon the technology, and create a more perfect rifle to take with us into the field. By venturing into a simulation engine recreating Eramis’s heist several years ago, the Guardian is able to retrieve the data required by the gunsmith of the Black Armory.
As the Crow arrives in the Pale Heart, the time has come for Osiris to link the Sov siblings into the Veil, and open the way for the Coalition to breach the Traveler’s portal and confront the Witness. Before that can happen, the Sol Divisive have once more conjured the Black Heart in order to keep the Veil from connecting to the Traveler. The Guardian tears through the Black Garden to stop this heart like they did many years ago. With its destruction, the way through is now open. It is time to end the Witness and stop the Final Shape from coming to pass.
As the Witness is beginning the Final Shape, the earth is at once calcified in segmented statues, before the Traveler quickly undoes it all. As this moment passes, it becomes clear that the Vanguard can wait no longer and must enter the portal now. Commander Zavala, Ikora, and the Guardian lead the charge through the gateway.
As the guardians enter through the portal, they come under fire from the forces of the Witness. The Guardian fights through the recreations of reality, they begin to use both Light and Darkness together at once to clear a path. Among the enemy forces stand new faces for the guardians to fight, the Dread. As the Guardian crosses through the gateway, they are once more given a vision by the Traveler before entering into its Pale Heart. Within, the Guardian finds wells of prismatic energy that they tap in order to face down the forces of the Witness, culminating in the ultimate fusion of Light and Darkness together within the Guardian. The line between Light and Darkness is gone. After the Guardian defeats one of the Witness’s subjugators, they hear a harmonica playing in the wind. Following the sound to a recreation of the Speaker’s office in the last city, they find a returned Cayde-6 who fills them in on what has happened.
Following a tip from Cayde, the Guardian sets out into the Pale Heart to track down Crow after he has gone missing. As the Guardian and Cayde reconnect after so long, they follow one of the birds of Light that the Traveler manifests to find Glint separated from Crow. After dispelling a Taken barrier, the Guardian is able to enter into the cave Crow went down. As the Guardian traverses the corrupted tunnel system, the Witness speaks and attempts to slay the Guardian’s Ghost. The Guardian finds Crow nearby one of the veiled statues within the cave and the two leave to meet up with Cayde outside.
In order to better understand what is happening to the Traveler, the guardians need to track down Ikora in the Pale Heart. Crow sends the Guardian to inspect a wrecked ship he had dismissed earlier. The guardians all agree to meet up at the recreation of the Io Cradle nearby. After clearing through the forces of the Witness, the Guardian meets up again with Ikora at the foot of the tree within the Cradle. She shares her hypothesis on what has occurred here within the Pale Heart before joining the Guardian at their campsite. Here, she is reunited with Cayde-6 to her astonishment.
After reuniting with Ikora, the guardians move to meet back up with Commander Zavala. Among the Witness’s forces, one of the veiled statues appears to be weeping, but the Guardians dismiss this for the time as Cayde-6 tracks down Zavala’s signal. As the guardians traverse one of the corrupted wounds in the Traveler, the Witness again attempts to persuade them, before Zavala’s Ghost, Targe, cuts through. The Guardian finds Zavala defending the recreation of his family’s home from the Dark Age and aids in repelling the Witness’s forces. Before he leaves, Zavala asks for a moment alone to say goodbye to the statue of his wife Safiyah inside their home. Before Ikora finds him, he hears a pained whisper of an unknown voice. The experience leaves Zavala incensed as he walks out to see Cayde-6 and embraces him in a hug. Reunited, all five guardians sit around a campfire reconnecting before moving on to the next fight.
Crow, Cayde, and the Guardian trek up the nearby mountain to find a pathway through to the Witness’s monolith. Along the way, the two hunters discuss Zavala’s worsening mentality. As Ghost remarks on how the Traveler seemed to bring back Cayde just as he was needed, Crow asks that he and Cayde meet up to talk about that. Crow reveals that when he was entering the Pale Heart, he may have made a wish to Riven, thinking about Cayde, and that is how the Hunter Vanguard was returned to life. Cayde asks that Crow keep this between them for now. After clearing out more of the Witness’s forces, the guardians emerge on the other side of the snow capped mountain into a deserted valley where a familiar silver hawk awaits over a fissure of Light. Stepping into it, the Guardian is filled with the Traveler’s might, and granted a new super ability to rain down on the Witness’s Taken. After the battle, the Vanguard meets up to decide what to do next. Zavala wishes to follow up on the strange whisper he heard from the veiled statues of the Black Fleet. Ikora is against the plan and Crow asks that they try again to reach out to the Traveler first.
In order to commune with the Traveler, Cayde-6 is sending the Guardian to try and find more of those fissures of Light from before. He heard something coming from within them before they closed up after the Guardian’s communion. As the Guardian explores the lost sectors of the Pale Heart, they come across the Lucent Brood of Savathun within them. Within the Blooming Deep, the Guardian meets a Hive Wizard known as Luzaku, a Hive Guardian who does not wish to fight against the Guardian. They lead the guardians to a sapling of a silver wings tree where Cayde receives a vision from the Traveler of his Ghost Sundance showing him moments from the past related to the Guardian tenets of Devotion, Bravery, and Sacrifice. The vision is cut off by the Witness before Sundance could speak the final tenet, Death. Cayde departs from the cave, shaken by what he saw. Luzaku says that they will remain here with the sapling to watch over it for the Traveler.
Enraged by the vagueness of the Traveler’s message, Commander Zavala sends the Guardian on the trail of one of the Witness’s Tormentors nearby, guarding a path to the Witness’s monolith. As the Guardian pushes through the Witness’s forces, it is clear that the Commander’s anger is clouding his judgment. Using several nearby Ahamkara Skulls, the Guardian is able to reach Kataxia, the Tormentor of Ahamkara though they manage to escape before the Guardian can attack. Soon after, the Guardian comes across a recreation of a town with unknown architecture, Zavala presumes that this must be a manifestation of the Witness’s past here. After eliminating nearby Witness forces, the Veiled statue beckons us to give ourselves to Darkness, to find the answers we seek. With these clear instructions, Zavala feels convinced that this is the right path, in spite of Ikora’s pleading for him to not act rashly. Before the argument grows more heated, Cayde-6 steps in to calm them both down. After the defeat of the Tormentor, the Vanguard regroup to discuss what to do next. Zavala is determined that the Darkness is the right path to follow, and not the riddle left by the Traveler. He walks off, disregarding the pleading words of Ikora and Crow.
Zavala has left the camp alone, leaving Targe behind as he goes to learn what the Witness’s weakness might be. The Guardian, Crow, and Cayde work with Targe to track down Zavala. Targe comes up with the idea to ask the veiled statues if they could give any guidance on Zavala’s location. It is revealed that these dissenters were parts of the collective of the Witness that it has struck from itself to preserve its purity of intent. The voices say that they cannot speak freely anywhere but in Darkness. After dispatching several powerful Scorn, Dread, and Taken, Ikora, Crow, Cayde, and the Guardian arrive at the foot of the Witness’s monolith to watch as Zavala steps into a pillar of Darkness. Within the Darkness, the Witness shows Commander Zavala how it was created as the dissenters interject with their own message. In the end, the Witness tells Zavala that he will join the collective as a Dissenter tells Zavala to meet them where the Witness was formed. Before this can happen, Targe bursts onto the scene to push back against the Witness’s words. The Witness crushes Targe in its hand as the ghost’s Light burns it away, forcing Zavala out of the vision.
Reeling from the demise of Targe, the guardians push forward to end the Witness where it was created. The Pale Heart has recreated the ritual site the dissenters spoke of, high upon the monolith of the Witness. The Guardian fights their way through to the site as they are assaulted by Dread, Scorn, and Taken forces. The Witness attempts once more to try and persuade the Guardian to join them instead. As the Guardian climbs the spire, Mara Sov comes through over the coms declaring she has brought the forces of the coalition fleet through to battle the Witness. Soon after, the Guardian reaches the ritual site, and bearing a sword and shield of the Traveler’s Light, the Guardian is able to enter into the Darkness as Zavala did before. Within, the Dissenters tell the Guardian to destroy them. Doing so harms the Witness for the first time in its eons of existence. But to truly destroy the Witness, the Guardian will first have to free the Traveler from its grasp. With these last words, the Witness cuts the Guardian from the Darkness, badly wounding both them and Ghost. Using the Traveler’s Aegis, the Guardian flees the monolith, and is rescued by Mara Sov just as they were about to be cut down by the Witness’s forces. Back at the ritual site, the Witness appears before Zavala, Ikora, Crow, and Cayde with golden radiance bleeding out from its side, stating that while it had hoped the guardians would understand, it is done trying to convince them as it begins to transform and strike at the assembled Vanguard. They are only just able to escape aboard the HELM before the Witness crushes them in its hands. The Witness may have survived this battle, but the war continues as Mara Sov has brought with her the forces of the House of Light, the Empire of Caiatl, and a Hunter named Micah-10 to prepare for the final battle with the Witness.
After the battle at the Monolith, Savathun contacts the Guardian saying that she has come to offer her aid here against the Witness in the Pale Heart. The Lucent Brood begin to set up ritual sites near the Tower. Mara Sov sends the Guardian out to investigate whatever it is that Savathun may be up to. It appears that the Lucent Brood are preparing to attack the Tower. As the Guardian tears through the lightbearing Hive soldiers, Crow demands to know what it is that Savathun seeks to gain from this while the Witness is still a threat. Savathun dodges the question, saying that if her brood was enough to crush them, then they had no chance against the Witness. The Guardian fights the Witch Queen once more, though she manages to escape before a killing blow can be landed as her forces pull back from the tower. Mara Sov asks that the matter be left with her, so that Crow can focus on working with the Vanguard to take down the Witness once and for all.
The Guardian works with Ikora and Mithrax to investigate House Salvation forces gathering in the Cradle. They are attempting to siphon off paracausal power from the tree growing in the Blooming. After Mithrax and the Guardian tear down the paracausal barriers erected by House Salvation, Mithrax sees who it is that is leading them, Korha the Hollow. The captain is able to flee before the Guardian can eliminate them, and Mithrax is enraged by the encounter.
Over on Europa, the Guardian and Mithrax have tracked down Korha within Riis-Reborn, and have come to eliminate him. Along the way, Mithrax tells Ikora and the Guardian how it was Korha that murdered his mother Inaaks. Within the factory of the technocrat, Korha is slain by the Guardian and Mithrax, though the victory is hollow as seemingly Korha himself had become another of the Witness’s mindless minions. Mithrax tells Ikora he hopes that Eido will be able to grow up in a kinder time, and asks Ikora to help guide her.
The Guardian works with Commander Zavala and Empress Caiatl to track down Shadow Legion troops moving heavy equipment across the Pale Heart. The commander is reluctant to take part in the operation since the loss of Targe and his Light, but Caiatl refuses to allow Zavala to turn and hide in his grief at this time. The Guardian and Caiatl’s forces manage to destroy the Shadow Legion’s Light harvesters and halt their operations for the time being. Zavala is informed that Crow has intercepted Shadow Legion communications about similar operations across the Pale Heart. He tries to cede control over the operation to Caiatl, who refuses, stating that Zavala is Vanguard Commander and it is him who all of Sol follows.
Later atop the mountains of the Divide, the Guardian once again meets up with Caiatl to once more assault the forces of the Shadow Legion. Caiatl still tries to get through to Commander Zavala, and shake him from his dour attitude as the Guardian ends the nearby Shadow Legion commanders. Descending from the mountain, the Guardian finds Shadow Legion established around Zavala’s old home. After the battle concludes, Zavala and Caiatl share a moment where she reminds him that he had once told her to know that they are more than the scars left behind by their failures.
Once again, Savathun makes her presence known within the Pale Heart as Mara Sov sends the Guardian to track down her brood. After some goading from Savathun, Mara Sov has a revelation and instructs the Guardian to begin eliminating nearby Taken and releasing as much of their energies as they are able to. Once the Guardian has become thoroughly empowered by their energy, Mara Sov is able to bring the Guardian to the point of almost being Taken themselves, allowing the Guardian to move through the world as they do. With this, the Guardian is able to discover fissures of Light out of phase with the normal reality of the Pale Heart, that can be used to help the Traveler as the Taken swarm to assault the Guardian, but help arrives with Luzaku to push back against the Taken.
The Guardian works with Crow and Cayde to investigate a detachment of Scorn experimenting with Dark Ether in the Pale Heart. Along the way, it becomes more and more clear that Crow is growing into his own sort of leader as he takes the point in the investigations. As the Guardians gather up the experimental Dark Ether, a detachment of Shanks come and steal away the collected ether. Crow and Cayde fight together to retrieve it from the Scorn deep in a nearby cave system. In the end, Cayde-6 asks that Crow take up his mantle as the next Hunter Vanguard, bestowing him with a new cloak. Cayde-6 has also crafted a new rifle for the Guardian, in commemoration of their time.
Ikora Rey contacts Commander Zavala about Cayde’s intent to not return as Hunter Vanguard, and his decision to name Crow as his successor. The two Guardians agree that Crow is more than ready to take up the mantle. Before the conversation can end, Zavala confides in Ikora that he would like her to teach him how to use Stasis for the coming battle against the Witness.
While Caiatl and Mithrax have brought in their own forces for the coming battle, Micah-10 believes that it is the Ghosts who flock to her that may yet turn the tide against the Witness here in the Pale Heart. Though many of her flock have gone missing, and did not make it to the Pale Heart. She asks that the Guardian and Cayde-6 work with her to gather her lost flock from around the system and see what it is that they have learned.
Several of the unpartnered Ghosts have gone missing within the Pale Heart and the Guardian is tasked with helping Micah-10 to track them down across the strange world within the Traveler. The Guardian is able to locate one of the lost ghosts, but they’re badly wounded. Through exposure to the Traveler’s Light, the Ghosts are able to be healed, and in turn this heals the Traveler. With the plan in place, the Guardian begins exploring the Pale Heart in order to help find lost ghosts, and bring them back to fissures of Light from the Traveler to heal both of the Witness’s influences.
With all their preparations complete, the Guardian returns to the sacrarium to truly finish uniting the powers of Light and Darkness within themselves into a single coherent force. Within the ritual site, the Guardian finds one of the statues of the dissenters, radiating with the Traveler’s Light, and claims a sword of Light from the Traveler to wield against the Witness once more.
The Guardian leads a team to ascend to the top of the monolith of the Witness in order to face down the God of Darkness, and free the Traveler from its hold. Using the powers of Darkness and Light, the Guardians race to the top of the spire as the Witness is on the precipice of bringing about the Final Shape. In the end, the Guardians manage to drive the Witness back down from the Spire, freeing the Traveler from its grip, but the fight is not yet done.
Immediately after the Witness’s hold on the Traveler’s Light was shattered, Commander Zavala leads the combined forces of humanity, Eliksni, Cabal, and Hive to face down against the armies of the Witness and end the threat of the Final Shape once and for all. The Guardians who stormed the Witness’s monolith arrive in the heat of battle, and fights alongside Caiatl, Mithrax, and Savathun to end the Witness once more. With the Traveler’s Light now freed, the Guardians are able to enter into the Darkness, bearing the sword of the Traveler once more, devoted to destroying all the remaining veiled precursors within. But it’s not enough, in an act of bravery, Ghost asks that the Guardian channel the full power of the Traveler’s Light through him in order to destroy the Witness. The battle is won as for the first time since its creation, the Witness dies alone and confused. The victory is short lived as all this power pushed through the already wounded Ghost was too much, and he falls to the ground dead. Ghost sacrificed his life to end the Witness. In the aftermath, the Guardian finds themselves surrounded by the Traveler’s Light, begging it to please bring back Ghost. Cayde-6 arrives, explaining that he knows what he was brought back to do. He channels the Light within him to bring Ghost back to life.
Following a celebration within the Last City, the Guardian and Ghost go to sit on the hull of the HELM, looking out onto the Traveler as three beams of light come rocketing out from the portal to the Pale Heart. The Guardian listens in as Crow contacts Commander Zavala about how not only has the death of the Witness left this power vacuum within its remaining loyalists, but also that the Traveler has begun venting out Light and Darkness from the portal into open space. Nobody knows what it means just yet. Crow has tracked one of the beams that erupted from the Traveler out to Nessus, and has dispatched his hunters to investigate, while he states that he intends to see if he can’t track down Fikrul and see what it is that the Scorn are up to.
As the Guardians work together to eliminate remaining Witness forces and aid the Traveler’s recovery, they discover Savathun has been working behind the scenes on something. After eliminating her Hive Lightbearers in the field, the Guardians are drawn to the Refraction, where the Dread have been gathering together. Savathun watches on as the Guardians investigate what it is that the Dread are up to, inviting the Guardians to break the rules of Light and Darkness together.
One of the pieces of anomalous matter ejected from the Traveler following the Witness’s defeat has crash landed down on the surface of Nessus. Ikora Rey has dispatched the Guardian to investigate alongside Osiris, Saint-14, and a very excited Failsafe. Before the Guardian can descend deeper into the depths of Nessus and uncover what it is that has crashed down, the Vex close up the crash site.
As their investigation continues, it becomes clear that whatever has landed on Nessus has begotten a strange new development in the behaviors of the Vex on the centaur. They begin to act with more individuality than what would be expected of the collective. And someone is collecting Golden Age intelligence within the Vex network.
This first act closes as Saint-14 goes missing while out on patrol. Ikora and Osiris send the Guardian in to investigate what has occurred. The Vex attempt to repel them, with tactics that normally are not used by the Vex, such as strategic retreat and covering fire. The Guardian descends into the depths of Nessus and discovers Saint-14 bearing one of the commanding yokes seen among the Vex on Nessus, though he is able to shake off its influence, the words of someone known only as The Conductor, echo in his mind.
Following the revelations of the Conductor, the Guardian begins to navigate down into the depths of Nessus in order to find out what the Conductor is after and how to confront them.
As the investigation runs into a wall, Ikora Rey comes up with a plan that will allow Failsafe to open up the pathway directly to the conductor, but it will require Saint-14 to return to his tomb.
After navigating to the Nessus archives, the Guardians are once more brought to the entombed remains of Saint-14. After absorbing the memories of his alternate self, Saint-14 is filled with renewed certainty of himself, and the pathway to the Conductor is opened.
The true identity of the Conductor is revealed to be Maya Sundaresh, returned from within the Vex Network to bring about a new golden age of humanity, empowered by the Vex under her command through the Echo created by the Witness's death.
With access to the laboratory of The Conductor, the Guardian is able to discover the true goal behind Maya’s plot in the center of Nessus. Maya Sundaresh has been extracting instances of her wife, Chioma Esi, from within the Vex network, in search of the original woman she left on Neptune long ago. In finding them lacking the qualities she sought, Maya eliminated many simulations of her wife over and over.
In a final attempt to convince Maya of the cruelty of her scheme, Ikora Rey worked with Failsafe to use data from Neomuna to track down the original Chioma Esi, where Maya had failed to. In doing so, it is discovered that sometime ago Maya had indeed found her original wife, but blinded by her own obsession with her perfect vision of the future, determined that even this woman was not her true wife and killed her like all the rest. Together with Ikora and Saint-14, the Guardians were able to beat back the Conductor in Nessus, though she managed to flee with the Echo of Command.
For now, the mechanisms of Nessus have once more gone dormant as Maya retreats into the Vex Network. Though she would leave a message for the Guardian on Europa, warning that it is too early for us to respond to what is coming on the horizon, and the great cost that will be paid for our Golden Age.
The Crow dispatches the Guardian to Europa in order to answer a distress call from the House of Salvation. Hidden intel says that Eramis is on-site, and Crow asks that the Guardian take her into custody. Within Riis-Reborn, the Guardian makes a startling discovery as the Scorn have invaded the once new home of the House of Salvation, and begin capturing Eliksni. Even more troubling, the Eliksni refer to these scorn as Na Veskirisk, “Not lifeless”. These Scorn are not born of Eliksni corpses, but transformed alive, through the power of the Echo that Fikrul now commands. Working with Eramis, the Guardian is able to dispatch one of the new Revenant Barons that Fikrul has made. Crow manages to convince Eramis to come aboard the HELM willingly, and face justice within the City, in exchange for her people being granted refuge within the Last City. Aboard the HELM, it appeared that a House Salvation Ketch was coming to rescue Eramis, only it is revealed to be Fikrul himself, who uses the crew of the Ketch to ram into the HELM, claiming the title of Kell of Kells for himself. Failsafe guides the HELM into a crash landing down onto Europa.
Following the emergency landing on Europa’s surface, the HELM is brought back to the Last City for repairs. Mithrax, Kell of House Light, calls for the Guardian to meet him and his daughter down in the Market District of the City, where Eido has set up a workstation to train as an Apothecary, in order to try and cure the curse of Nezarec that has taken hold over her father. With his condition, Mithrax cannot personally take to the field in order to stop Fikrul from transforming all Eliksni into hordes of Scorn, and therefore names the Guardian as the Slayer Baron of the House of Light. He tasks us with the protection of his people against the undying Fanatic, Fikrul, and from his curse when the time comes.
The Guardian is sent out across the system, to hidden Eliksni conclaves, to rescue the civilians from Fikrul’s Revenant Scorn hordes. Eido also tasks the Guardian with aiding her studies into the old medicines and tonics of the Order of Slayers from Riis’s history, so that her father might be spared his grim fate.
Eventually, the Crow is able to track down Fikrul to the Reef, and asks the Guardian to come with him to try and convince Fikrul to stand down his armies. The would-be Kell of Kells rebukes Crow, seeing him no longer as his true father, claiming he will rip Uldren back out from Crow’s dead body before fleeing the scene. Together, the Guardians are able to escape the ambush with some Eliksni captives on site. But this fight has only just begun.
Following the disappearance of several of his operatives, the Spider calls up the Guardian to go and investigate a derelict space station in orbit around Europa. Aboard, the Guardian is quickly assailed by remnants of the House of Salvation. Rebooting the central AI of the Vesper Central, the Guardian begins investigating what had happened with the crew of the satellite. After dispatching a strange amalgamation of dozens of servitors, the Guardian finds Atraks, one of Eramis’s loyal followers, only something has transformed the once Eliksni. The former Exo-Eliksni is slain, and the madness aboard the station is seemingly brought to an end.
Later, the Guardian once more returns to continue their investigation with Spider, and the central AI of the station. As their expedition continues, the Guardian learns of how Clovis Bray had meant for this station to house various experiments he wanted isolated from the rest of his work on Europa, but also discovers that whatever had possessed the Fallen scavengers aboard had arrived recently, to build the portal outside of the station, and sent a message through it to some unknown location.
Working with the AI governing Vesper Station, the Guardian overrides all of the peculiar locks that Clovis Bray had put on the AI, which made her ineffective in managing many of the station's systems. With all restrictions lifted, the true name of the Vesper Central AI is revealed. Astraea.