The World Of 'Destiny': Enemy Factions

Video Games

Feb 5

Destiny as a franchise has been running for ten years, and while there has been some rocky news at Bungie and the wider gaming industry, it is a world with a rich lore full of amazing characters, intriguing concepts, and some beautiful locations. But it is also full of enemies who seek to destroy the last remnants of humanity across the solar system. Today, on CultureSlate, we break down these enemy factions, see how they came about, and what they want.

The Fallen/Eliksni

The Fallen were one of the first extragalactic forces to arrive in the Sol system after the Collapse, a great cataclysm brought about by forces opposed to the Traveler, the huge white sphere that has remained iconic throughout Destiny’s lore. However, the Eliksni (their proper name) were also once blessed by the Traveler and suffered their own Collapse, which they call the Whirlwind. The Traveler left their homeworld, Riis, to the mercy of its enemies, and so the surviving Eliksni set out after their machine god (for they revere technology).

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When they arrived at Earth, they were furious to see the Traveler had chosen another people and that it had stayed with them in their time of greatest need. The Long Drift through space had seen the Eliksni become pirates and cutthroats, and these raiders took to attacking the survivors of the Collapse on Earth and across the solar system. Their many Houses carved out territory for themselves, and battled against the Guardians ferociously, until more recent times when many of the old Houses collapsed to make way for new ones.

The House of Light, led by an Eliksni named Misraaks, has chosen to unify with humanity and now lives under the Traveler in the Last City. The House of Salvation, by contrast, has largely been absorbed by forces of the Witness after committing themselves to Darkness, though there were soon defections and survivors of recent turmoil have now joined the House of Light. There are also the remains of the criminal House of Dusk and unaffiliated pirate forces raiding across the Sol system. So, even with Eliksni allies on the side of the Guardians and the Last City, there are still Fallen roaming the world, hungry for plunder and vengeance.

The Hive/Krill

Possibly THE poster child of Destiny’s universe when it comes to enemies, the Hive were once a simple species called the Krill, the bottom of the food chain (somewhat literally) on the gas giant of Fundament millions of years ago. Wars between their petty kingdoms birthed nothing but destruction, until one of their leaders, the Osmium King, went mad.

He was then betrayed by his greatest advisor, and his three daughters sought to dive deep into the core of Fundament, pursuing a way to become more powerful to get their revenge. There, they met the Worm Gods, beings with immense power who made a pact with the three sisters. They returned to the surface, infected with the Worm God’s offspring, spreading this gift of the worms to their fellow Krill, birthing the Hive. The Hive soon became a force of unstoppable conquest, taking over Fundament, and pursuing the Traveler and those it interacted with across the universe. The Hive follow or at least followed, the Sword Logic, which boils down to, whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger, and if it kills you, then it is more worthy to exist.

However, the Guardians have put a massive dent in the Hive. They killed not only the leader of their Pantheon, Oryx the Taken King (a metamorphosed member of the same old trio of sisters from millions of years ago), but most of his family line before and after he arrived in the Sol system. Their sibling, Savathûn, gained her own Ghost and empowered her brood with the Light, though she remains hostile to the Last City.

The final sister, Xivu Arath, God of War, is the only one still carrying on the old Hive ways, but after a ritual instigated by Guardians that caused her to lose her immortality, she now hides and keeps back from the fighting, instead sending her armies to contest with Guardians and the Lucent Hive of her traitor sister. The lore of the Hive is rich and one of the most fascinating parts of the game. The last Episode of this year’s content slate, Heresy, focused on new developments in their ranks, is sure to continue that fascination.

The Vex

The Vex are an intriguing group that, on first examination, players might assume to be robotic. Not so, as it is the milky white substance at their body’s core that is the Vex, and their various machine forms are just frames with which they use to move about the universe. Capable of time travel, the Vex were once split into multiple subgroups and units responsible for different activities or operations across the universe, but as a result of events in the original Destiny, the Vex combined their many Subminds into a greater unified whole. The Vex also have three different time periods, Past, Present, and Future, with unique remodels of all their forms to match the different eras.

Unable to wield paracausal power, and thus fascinated by it, their recent history has been rocky. A large portion of the Vex were corrupted and turned into Taken (discussed later in this article), before the infamous Sol Divisive, who worshiped the Darkness, reawakened as the Witness grew closer to the Sol system. Now, however, the Vex are battling against thralldom forced upon them by a copy of the consciousness of an old Earth scientist, Maya Sundaresh.

Deeply involved with studying the Vex before the Collapse, with dozens of copies of her mind being thrown into the Vex Network (a landscape of digital and real matter controlled by the Vex) alongside those of her colleagues, this much darker version of Maya was reborn after gaining access to an artifact of immense power called an Echo. While she was temporarily defeated, she was not destroyed, and now lurks beyond the reach of Earth’s heroes, the Vex struggling to contain the rapid changes infesting their once-perfect order.

The Cabal

The Cabal are an intriguing alien species, with a rich culture and history untouched by the Traveler or the Darkness until much later, when they helmed an interstellar empire. Mirroring the history of ancient Rome, Emperor Callus rose to power after defeating his rival, the Consul, though not killing him. This was a grave mistake, since the Consul found a lowly abandoned albino Cabal and raised him into a fierce gladiator, who became a general, and ultimately, Dominus of the Empire. After a coup against the Emperor led by Ghaul, Callus was allowed to live but was imprisoned aboard a floating pleasure palace attached to the titanic Leviathan, set adrift to never return. Cabal legions were already in Earth’s space by this time, post-Collapse, and set themselves up on Mars. However, after the arrival of Oryx and his Dreadnought, Cabal command issued a call for help, and the Dominus answered. Thus came the Red War, where Ghaul sought to take the Light away from the Guardians and instead imbue himself with it. With him marched the Red Legion, who set up operations across the solar system to aid in this mission. But, when the heroes defeated Ghaul, the Reg Legion fell into chaos.

Elsewhere, Callus’ daughter Caital, a woman of great martial ability completely divorced from her father’s opulence, accidentally unleashed a Hive invasion on the Cabal homeworld of Torobatl. Fleeing with the remnants of her people, the Cabal Empire collapsing, she went to Sol where she recruited what she could of the Red Legion and ultimately formed an alliance with the Last City. However, her father, who had arrived earlier with his Leviathan, and who played at being an ally, was of a much different mindset. He joined with the Witness and came to lead the Shadow Legion, attacking the hidden city of Neomuna on Neptune before the Guardians killed him. One of the greatest plot points remaining in Destiny’s world is the fate of the Cabal homeworld, as well as the fate of their Psion allies. A species once closely controlled by the Cabal, yet freed by Empress Caital, many have chosen to stand with her, but others have broken away. Some joined her father and the Witness, while others sought the old lack of equality that once existed in Cabal society so they might hold status over others. Hopefully, this dense area of lore remains a priority at Bungie, so we can get conclusions to these gripping narratives.

The Taken

The Taken are not so much a species as an infection. Created when a living being is “taken” and has an encounter with the Darkness, the entity that emerges on the other side is hungry for the Light and changed in some way. In terms of gameplay, there are Taken members of every class of enemy for every core game faction, who attack differently than their fully living former allies. The Taken are a creation of the Darkness itself, the power to Take initially being given to Oryx by this power. But when Oryx died at the hands of Guardians, the Taken fractured.

Many lack intellect, and instead follow power, with only the highest echelons of their leadership capable of any independent thought. Savathûn soon gained power over them and began using them in operations across the Sol system heralding her imminent arrival. But, when she betrayed the Witness, many Taken fell under the control of her sister, Xivu Arath, who has used them ever since to bolster her forces in the field. Mindless and hungry, the Taken are a unique foe as they lack a leader among their ranks, instead following others in an endless quest for satiation.

The Scorn

The Scorn are the result of a wish gone awry (a story for another article). Created from Eliksni corpses, and a corrupting substance called Dark Ether, these zombies and their leaders, the Scorn Barons, were unleashed onto the Tangled Shore (a portion of Earth’s asteroid belt) in the first major expansion of Destiny 2, Forsaken. Despite Guardians killing every Baron, their leader Fikrul could not truly die, instead endlessly resurrecting and constantly requiring Guardians to kill him (a fun explanation for repeating one of Destiny 2’s missions). However, when the Tangled Shore went dark as the Black Fleet of Pyramid Ships arrived, Fikrul fled, lurking at the edges of the inhabitable worlds of humanity.

Other Scorn saw “evolution” under the command of the Witness, beginning to take on more intelligence, and were the vanguard of the invasion against Savathûn’s Throne World, a pocket dimension where she and her Lucent Hive resided after she betrayed the Witness. Fikrul remained apart from this force though, operating with his own group. After the Witness’ defeat, an Echo came into Fikrul’s possession, allowing him to instantaneously spread the Scorn corruption to still-living Eliksni. He also resurrected several notable Fallen and Scorn enemies from the past, and he led these new Revenant Scorn on a campaign to claim the ancient Eliksni title Kell of Kells for himself. Recently, at the end of Episode: Revenant, players defeated Fikrul seemingly for a final time, the Echo abandoning him for a new bearer, though the future of the Revenant Scorn is uncertain.

The Dread

The Dread are the most recent enemies to Destiny’s world, though they have technically been present for a very long time. Made up of twisted and reforged members of alien species the Witness encountered in their eons-old pursuit of the Traveler, the Dread are relentless and devoted to the Witness…at least, they were. After The Final Shape where Guardians killed the Witness, and the associated rampage through The Pale Heart defeating several notable Dread lieutenants, there are not many leaders left among their kind. Instead, much like the Taken, they now pursue any major source of power, and the Echoes are at the top of their list. In Episode: Revenant, we could see them serving Fikrul, and more have since appeared in Heresy as well. With very unique designs, and supposedly possessing a translatable-to-English spoken language, the Dread will certainly be intriguing to see expand a little more over the coming years.

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