The launch of Destiny 2 is approaching. Time for a look back at the story of Destiny – for newcomers and returnees!
Destiny is known for its confusing and disjointed story. In fact, a year before the launch of Destiny 1, there were significant internal changes at Bungie that made a restart of the story necessary. However, the framework of the Destiny world had already been established despite these internal conflicts. And it’s intense.
In our extensive story overview, you will find everything you need to know as a newcomer or veteran for the launch of Destiny 2.
What happened before “Destiny” – The Traveler and the Darkness
Long before the events of the main game, humanity experienced a “Golden Age”, triggered by the Traveler. A gigantic sphere that made the planets of the solar system habitable through terraforming all on its own.
The true nature of the Traveler – whether friendly or hostile – remains in the dark. However, its discovery catapulted humanity into a time of growth and progress, allowing them to colonize other planets.
Scientists founded the Ishtar Academy on Venus, a place of knowledge and research, while elsewhere, humans created the Exos, machines with human traits (and a selectable “race” in the main game).
The greatest proof of technological advancement came from powerful artificial intelligences, known as War Spirits. One of these War Spirits also survived the main game of Destiny 1: Rasputin.
One day, a great hostile force appeared on Earth – The Darkness. The Darkness destroyed many of humanity’s achievements along its path. This event has since been referred to as the “Collapse”, the end of progress and prosperity.
To save humanity, the Traveler sacrificed itself and used its “Light” to fight the Darkness. Throughout this battle, the Traveler created the Ghosts, who subsequently stood by the Guardians in battle, preventing them from dying.
After the Great Collapse, the Traveler remained asleep over Earth, while the survivors of the catastrophe built the last city within its limited protective shield, the last bastion of humanity on Earth. The Last City is simultaneously the setting and Social Space of Destiny 1: The Tower.
The First Year of Destiny – The Awakening
Many events from the first year of Destiny form the foundation for the further narrative in the DLCs. At the beginning of the main game, you are already dead for some time. In the opening sequence, you are revived by a Ghost searching the Cosmodrome for Guardians, a massive rocket base in ancient Russia.
Like the other Guardians, you have now been empowered to use the Light of the Traveler through your Ghost. Your first task is to fight your way past the Fallen to reach the last city and thus the Tower with the help of an old spaceship.
THE FALLEN
The Fallen, or Eliksni in their language, are space pirates and mercenaries that have spread across the planets of our solar system. They are one of the hostile races against humanity. They are technologically advanced. Fallen require “Ether” to survive. This Ether is administered by Servitors. Fallen have an Ether supply in their suit to survive.
The Fallen are structured in houses with clear hierarchies. The houses are led by a Kell, followed in order by the Archon Priests, the Servitors, the Captains, the Vandals, and finally the foot soldiers.
Upon arriving at the Tower, you meet the Vanguard, who protect the last city and its inhabitants. The Vanguard is led by Cayde-6, Commander Zavala, and Ikora Rey, who represent the playable classes in Destiny: Hunters, Titans, and Warlocks.
The Speaker is also introduced to the story here – a representative of the Traveler who will guide and support you in the fight against the Darkness. Your main task as a Guardian is to protect the Traveler, the last city, and the Tower from any threat from the outside.
To New, Old Worlds
In order to set out for other planets in the solar system, you will need a corresponding drive, which you can find in the ruins of the Cosmodrome. As you wander through the ancient structures of long-gone times, you will meet the Hive.
THE HIVE
The Hive is an ancient race that has mostly spread across the Earth’s moon. The Hive came with the Darkness at the end of the Golden Age. They are known for deeply invading the planets they conquer and constructing sophisticated cave systems.
The Hive is divided into various sects, all of which are supposed to honor one of their deities. Before we awaken the Hive in the main campaign, they quietly remained under the moon for centuries while increasing their powers.
In search of the drive, you unlock new paths, including one that leads to Rasputin, the long-lost and presumed destroyed War Spirit. In the further course, as Guardians, you protect the War Spirit from the Fallen and then set out with the discovered drive towards the moon to find the last Guardian who went there.
In search of this Guardian, you awaken the Hive, which hasn’t been seen for centuries. Additionally, you will meet an Exo Stranger who wants to meet you on Venus, if you manage to get there alive.
Venus – The Place Without Explanations
On Venus, you meet the third of the hostile races – the Vex. After a collision with them at the Ishtar Academy, the Exo Stranger appears again and fails to explain why she can’t explain anything to you.
THE VEX
The Vex are machine beings and are considered architects of incredibly complex structures on uncountably many worlds. They form a swarm intelligence, whose actions and behavior are unfathomable.
Unlike the other hostile races, the head of the Vex is not the critical point. In order to efficiently eliminate the Vex, one must aim for the energy core on the torso.
It is said that Vex can travel through time.
After this telling encounter, you make your way to the Reef – a standalone colony amid a cluster of asteroids and space debris. Here, the Guardians seek help to open the Black Garden and eliminate the threat to the Traveler. In the Reef, you will meet Mara Sov, the Queen of the Awoken.
The Awoken were originally humans who changed under the influence of the Reef. The Awoken represent a playable race in Destiny 1.
Upon arriving at the Reef, you will also be greeted by the Fallen. The Fallen in the Reef are the only non-hostile representatives of this race. They serve the Queen and belong to a disgraced faction of the Fallen – the House of Wolves.
In order for the Awoken to help the Guardians, the eye of a Vex Gate Lord must first be obtained, with which one is expected to be able to penetrate the Black Garden.
Back on Venus, you find that the Fallen want to enlist the help of an Archon Priest who has been held captive for a long time. In the course of a strike, you must eliminate the threat from the House of Winter in order to subsequently preserve the secrets of the Ishtar Academy from the influence of the Fallen.
With the head of the Vex Gate Lord acquired on the side, you make your way back to the Reef – where your next goal is announced: Mars.
Turtles on Mars
Your goal on Mars is the destruction of the Heart of the Black Garden, a gigantic structure of the Vex that poses a threat to the Traveler. On Mars, you also meet the fourth hostile race: large space turtles known as the Cabal.
The Cabal are heavily armored, turtle-like enemies that destroy anything in their path with pure destruction. Cabal troops sent to conquer other planets are banished from the community until they are successful.
With the destruction of the core of the Black Garden, you have completed the main campaign. As thanks for protecting the Traveler, the Exo Stranger gives you her weapon: The Stranger’s Rifle.
The raid – the Glass Chamber – takes you to an area of the Vex where different timelines intersect and overlap. You find the bodies of Guardians long dead. However, due to the time overlays, you also find fragments and memories of these Guardians. The goal of the raid is to fight Atheon, who is referred to as the point where all timelines converge.
THE LEGEND OF KABR
And so spoke Pahanin: His name was Kabr. Although he was not my friend, I respected him as a Guardian and a good man.
He fought the Vex alone. That destroyed him. Before he disappeared, he uttered things that should be remembered as far as I am concerned:
“In the chamber, time is frayed, and a needle moves through it. The needle is Atheon’s will. I do not know the name of the form that comes after the needle.”
“No one can open the chamber alone. I opened the chamber. No one was with me, but I was not alone.”
You will encounter the Templar at a place that exists either in time before or after the stars. The stars will orbit around you and mark you and sing for you. They will determine whether you are real.”
I drank from them. It tasted like the sea.”
Kabr and his strike team opened the chamber. They reached the Templar but could not damage its armor with conventional weapons. The Oracles (stars) erased one after another – they were forgotten, forever. Thus, Kabr knew that he had opened the chamber, but not with whom.
Kabr fled deeper with the scant remains of his team into the chamber until the Gorgons found them too and wiped out their existence. Kabr, however, was “assimilated” by the Vex, he “drank” from the Vex, explored their technology, and created with the last meager remnants of his light the Aegis, that relic which many centuries later would enable the Guardians to defeat the Templar and Atheon.
Since then, Kabr has wandered through time, neither dead nor alive; for him, there is no today, yesterday, or tomorrow. Yet his legend lives on.
The Darkness Lurks
With the destruction of the Black Garden, a former Guardian emerges into the light again: Eris Morn. For a long time, she wandered through the halls and caves of the Hive on the Moon after a failed assault against Crota, son of Oryx and Prince of the Hive, who had the power to destroy the Light of the Guardians.
Eris Morn is the only survivor of this failed attempt to destroy the Hive Prince and asks for your help in the first expansion of Destiny 1, as Crota’s servants are trying to restore their master to former power.
In the course of the expansion, you must deal with Omnigul, Crota’s first general, and destroy the essence of Crota, so he can no longer walk the Earth.
Since this cannot be a permanent solution, you must summon Crota in a raid set up specifically for this purpose and destroy him yourself so he can no longer pose a threat to humanity and the Traveler.
The Traitors from the House of Wolves
The Fallen of the House of Wolves serve Queen Mara Sov in the Reef. In the second expansion of Destiny, the Guardians experience how a Fallen Captain named Skolas wants to unite the scattered houses under one banner. In the course of this unification, the Fallen of the House of Wolves betray the Queen. Only Variks remains loyal and does not join the traitors.
The Queen seeks your help to prevent the unification of the houses under Skolas. Your journey takes you to Venus, where Skolas researches Vex technology. Throughout the story, the Guardians manage to capture Skolas alive. He is taken to the Prison of Elders, where you later invade and ultimately defeat Skolas.
The Taken King – Daddy on a Vengeance Mission
The third expansion, The Taken King, is considered the climax of the story of Destiny. The storytelling is significantly more refined, and the characters are much more in focus.
Oryx is the supreme deity of the Hive and was reborn as part of a pact with the Darkness. He invades our solar system to take revenge, revenge for his son Crota, whom the Guardians summoned and destroyed on their own.
Oryx parks his gigantic Dreadnaught in the rings of Saturn, packed with weapons of mass destruction. Oryx’s army consists of Taken, creatures of other hostile races that are bound to his will by being teleported into another dimension and back. They are shadowy beings and move jerkily, as if they have not properly arrived in reality.
The Reef with Queen Mara launches an attack on the Dreadnaught, which turns out to be a suicide mission solely designed to provide the Guardians access to the Dreadnaught. The Queen’s fleet is utterly destroyed by Oryx’s arsenal of weaponry.
As the Guardians reach the Dreadnaught, the Cabal are already there. A two-front war ensues. To truly get close to Oryx, the appropriate technology must first be obtained. Only with this technology is it possible to reach Oryx’s Sanctum.
Later in the story, the superweapon that wiped out the Queen’s fleet is disabled, and Oryx is tracked down. In a long battle, you finally defeat him.
The raid King’s Fall reveals shortly thereafter that Oryx is far from defeated – he has merely retreated. In the raid, you can finally finish off Oryx.
By the way, Nexxoss has also dealt with the story of Destiny. You can find the details in the following video.
The Iron Lords
The Fallen House of Devils scours ancient Russia for technology to become stronger and smarter. There they find SIVA, an ancient nanotechnology that makes them significantly stronger. Fallen affected by SIVA are called Splicers. They are faster, more accurate, and deadlier.
Lord Saladin, a remnant of the Iron Lords who originally came to unite humanity after the Great Collapse, tasks you with exploring and securing the Iron Temple. Here, you encounter a SIVA-enhanced Servitor – Sepiks Prime – who flees after a brief skirmish.
As the story progresses, the Guardians must stop the spread of SIVA and bring the source to a halt. They break into a structure that was sealed long ago, which turns out to be a graveyard for many Iron Lords, and stop the spread of SIVA.
In the raid “The Wrath of the Machine”, the Guardians must destroy the Splicers and their leaders once and for all.
What Awaits Guardians in Destiny 2
The events of Destiny 2 start two years after the events of Destiny 1. The Tower is destroyed, and the last city, the last refuge of humanity, is attacked by the Cabal Legion, a faction of the Cabal under their leader Ghaul. The last remnants of humanity are scattered and driven away. It is now up to the Guardians to reunite them and reclaim what was lost.
In the story of Destiny, the Cabal were underrepresented; a fact many players criticized. With the launch of Destiny 2, we experience the full power of the Cabal, who will pose their greatest challenge to the Guardians. Bungie has made it clear that you do not need to have played the predecessor to understand Destiny 2 and all its story aspects.
One may be curious whether Bungie can maintain the quality of storytelling since The Taken King and tell an exciting campaign around the fight against the Cabal.
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