In Destiny, a Guardian decrypted 87 words of the Fallen. It took over two years.
Have you ever wondered what the Fallen are shouting at you in Destiny? If so, then you’re now getting closer to the answer.
Because the YouTuber Sarsion has made it his mission to decipher the language of the Fallen, to give meaning to their sounds, and even to create a small grammar.
Learn 87 Fallen Words!
The language of the Eliksni, as the Fallen call themselves, can be heard quite frequently in Destiny. Unlike the other enemy races, the “Fallen” often shout some sounds at you – which, however, can be of little use.
Sarsion began deciphering the Fallen language when the “House of Wolves” DLC was released in May 2015. The reason: Then the character Variks entered the Destiny universe, who occasionally acts as a translator. Variks is an allied Fallen who is fluent in human language.
With these translations from Variks, Sarsion was able to analyze many moments where the Fallen talk to us. Especially Skolas, the Kell of Kells, and Taniks, the Shadow Thief, have quite loose tongues.
Since Sarsion assumed that Bungie created their own rules, a vocabulary, and a grammar for the Fallen language – just as they did in Halo games – he began to decipher them. In the meantime, he has translated 87 words of the Fallen – which he can also apply to Fallen monologues in the game, for which there are no translations from Variks.
However, there was a problem with Variks as a translator, according to Sarsion. He would not always translate literally, but occasionally he would interpret. Therefore, the user describes the work as a “very long, very difficult crossword puzzle,” in which he had to allow himself some freedom in the translation. His results are probably neither perfect nor 100% precise, but maybe there will be more Fallen translations in Destiny 2 that he can continue his work with.
Sarsion is not the first Guardian to deal with the Fallen language. But he is the only one who managed to decipher 87 words. This “dictionary” he has elaborately packed into a video, in which Variks teaches us the language:
By the way: “She Da Hur Et” from the title means something like: “Fear of a fight, right?”
In Destiny 2, there will again be Fallen to fight. However, this time the Cabal are at the center as the great danger:
