Future 2 Story Recap: From Past Mild To Lightfall

A serious Future 2 enlargement, Lightfall, is on the horizon. It marks a big improvement within the story that Bungie has been telling for nearly a decade, as issues are lastly coming to a head and the ability behind the Darkness–the Witness–has emerged. However simply how did we get right here?

Future’s story is lengthy and sophisticated. To really perceive every thing that is occurred, it is advisable to have engaged with all of its expansions and seasonal content material (a lot of which is now not obtainable), dug into lore entries, and pieced collectively an incredible quantity of knowledge. The final two and a half years have been notably notable when it comes to sharing new data, as we realized extra concerning the Darkness, the Traveler, and our function as Guardians on this long-running war–and even started to query whether or not long-held assumptions about who the great guys are have been right.

To make sure you’re absolutely up to the mark when Lightfall and Season of Defiance launch on February 28, we have assembled a complete recap of the story occasions of Past Mild, The Witch Queen, and all the accompanying seasons.

Past Mild enlargement

After the disappearance of the 4 planets, the Black Fleet stops its incursion, remaining on the outskirts of the Photo voltaic System. One of many pyramid ships lands on Europa, the frozen moon of Jupiter. A misery sign summons you to the moon’s floor, rapidly revealing that extra has been occurring with the Darkness than we beforehand knew. It seems, the message comes from an surprising supply: Variks of Home Judgment.

Variks is a personality who hasn’t been round for fairly some time, however he was a significant a part of the unique Future. Variks was loyal to Mara Sov and the Awoken, however when Mara was seemingly killed in the course of the Battle of Saturn towards Oryx, Variks disappeared. It hasn’t been clear what occurred to him in the course of the intervening years, till now.

Earlier than he left the Reef, Variks served because the warden of the Awoken’s enormous jail, the Jail of Elders. It was there that he discovered Eramis, the Ship-Stealer, an previous Fallen chief. Variks got here to consider that Eramis was the chief his individuals needed–someone who may unite the Fallen below a single banner and assist them search peace and prosperity, as a substitute of endlessly scavenging and scraping by within the Photo voltaic System. Variks helped Eramis and her allies escape the Jail of Elders, and in so doing, additionally launched Mara’s brother, Uldren Sov, alongside together with his Scorn Barons. It wasn’t his intention, however Variks was not directly accountable for the demise of Cayde-6 at Uldren’s arms.

Eramis and her followers headed to Europa, the place they discovered Eventide, a metropolis and analysis station that had as soon as belonged to Clovis Bray throughout humanity’s Golden Age. There, they established a secure haven for the Fallen (or Eliksni, the title they name themselves). They named their new metropolis Riis-Reborn, after the homeworld they’d fled, Riis, when the Darkness descended on it and the Traveler deserted them.

After the Black Fleet arrived within the Photo voltaic System, one of many ships landed on Europa, and issues began to vary. Eramis communed with the pyramid and was gifted with Splinters of Darkness–artifacts that allowed her to manage Darkness the identical method Guardians management Mild. Slowly, her message stopped being one in every of defending the Eliksni individuals and giving them a peaceable place to thrive, and extra about creating a brand new Eliksni empire. Variks, seeing Eramis as corrupted by her new energy and the affect of the Darkness, despatched out a misery sign to his former Guardian allies.

You discover Variks and rescue him from Eramis’s forces, however rapidly discover out that her new Darkness talents, the ice-based energy often called Stasis, make her too highly effective so that you can take down by yourself. In the meantime, Variks acknowledges the function he performed in Cayde-6’s demise, however the Vanguard decides to work with him to cope with the risk posed by Eramis.

Fortunately for you, others have turn into conscious of the ability of Stasis and have been learning it, anticipating the arrival of the Black Fleet. The Drifter is joined by Eris Morn in learning Stasis, and so they’re aided by one other unlikely determine: The Exo Stranger. We’ve not seen the Stranger for the reason that earliest days of Future, when she despatched us to the Black Backyard to destroy its coronary heart. Now, lastly, she’s again, serving as a mentor in communing with the Black Pyramids and claiming the ability of Stasis for ourselves. The Stranger, together with Eris and the Drifter, consider the one method to defeat the Darkness shall be to make use of its personal energy towards it, together with the Mild. To them, Mild and Darkness are simply completely different types of energy–neither is inherently “good” or “evil.” They hope to show that along with your assist, and to arrange humanity to face towards the Black Fleet and the Entity that controls it.

First, although, it is advisable to take down Eramis. Utilizing intelligence from Variks and your new Darkness powers, you make your method by means of the ruins of Europa to get rid of every of Eramis’s lieutenants. As you achieve this, you uncover what Eventide was used for. This was the ability the place Clovis Bray, the person answerable for the company that bore his title, perfected the Exo mission. Exos are robotic our bodies with human minds downloaded into them, however fashionable Exos do not know the place they got here from or how they got here to be. Europa solutions that query: They have been created by Clovis with the objective of defying demise and permitting people to achieve immortality. After all, Clovis wished this for himself most of all.

With Eramis’s supporters eradicated, you are lastly capable of take the combat to Eramis herself. With the mixed energy of Mild and Darkness, you are capable of defeat her. Within the closing moments, plainly the Darkness abandons Eramis to her destiny, permitting her to be frozen strong by her Stasis powers.

There are nonetheless extra threats to cope with on Europa, nonetheless. The primary is Eramis’s closing lieutenant, who was despatched to one in every of Clovis’s most necessary services: the Deep Stone Crypt.

Deep Stone Crypt raid

The Exo Stranger summons you to enterprise into the Deep Stone Crypt raid, the place Eramis’s lieutenant, Atraks, is making an attempt to execute the final of the Kell’s plans. The Crypt is the place Clovis Bray lastly cracked the code of making Exos, a program he’d struggled with for years. The Brays suffered from a degenerative genetic illness, and Clovis hoped to save lots of himself–and to a lesser extent, his family–by unlocking the flexibility to switch a human thoughts into an Exo physique. Earlier than he created the Deep Stone Crypt analysis heart, this system was a failure. Clovis’s personal son went mad when transferred into his Exo physique, actually tearing himself aside.

Venturing by means of the Deep Stone Crypt, you uncover how Clovis solved the thriller of the Exos. After his experiments on the moon, he discovered one thing he dubbed “Readability Management.” It was a Darkness statue, an identical to the one you found within the Backyard of Salvation raid, however a lot bigger. The statue radiates Darkness vitality and appears to be a direct hyperlink to the Entity controlling the pressure. That intelligence guided Clovis within the creation of the Exos, telling him construct a tool that would open a portal to a Vex colony round a distant star. Clovis used the portal to seize Vex constructs and research them. The key to creating the Exos work was the introduction of the Vex’s Radiolarian fluid into their design; in different phrases, the Darkness was the important thing wanted to make the Exo program work, and each Exo has some Darkness inside them.

Eramis wished to make use of the Exo program to create a military of Fallen Exos, who could be highly effective troopers to assist her construct her empire. Atraks used the Deep Stone Crypt to resurrect Taniks, a vicious Fallen mercenary and cyborg who gamers had fought, and killed, at a number of factors in Future’s historical past.

After you defeat Atraks, Taniks makes an attempt to destroy the Deep Stone Crypt facility through the use of a failsafe Clovis created within the occasion that Readability Management, which he considerably mistrusted, turned towards him. A part of the Crypt was an orbital station that Clovis may drop onto the primary facility, utterly wiping out each. Taniks makes an attempt to kill you by dropping the orbital station onto Europa, however you handle to cease him. The station crashes, and within the wreckage, you deliver Taniks down one closing time.

Within the aftermath of the raid, the Exo Stranger reveals that her true id is Elsie Bray, Clovis’s granddaughter and Ana Bray’s sister. What’s extra, Elsie is a time traveler who has been trying to repair the timeline by means of her affect on you. She’s seen a future the place the Darkness takes over the Photo voltaic System, killing and corrupting Guardians. When Elsie first directed Guardians to the Black Backyard again in Future 1, she altered the timeline in a key method. Since then, she has seen quite a few futures however has by no means been capable of cease the Darkness or defend her sister Ana. Our timeline is her newest try; right here, she’s guided us towards Stasis and revealed herself to Ana, hoping these adjustments will maintain her sister from falling to corruption.

Clovis, it seems, additionally nonetheless lives. He copied his thoughts into the computer systems that run the Deep Stone Crypt and Eventide analysis services, creating an AI from his character that also exists, hidden on Europa. He additionally ultimately downloaded himself into an Exo physique simply because the portal he created for his Exo analysis allowed the Vex to launch an invasion of Europa. In his new physique, together with his recollections of his previous life wiped, Clovis determined to assist the individuals residing in Eventide and combat the Vex. He ultimately emerged victorious, however not earlier than falling repeatedly in battle and having his thoughts wiped again and again consequently. That Clovis Exo nonetheless lives on–as Banshee-44, the Tower’s gunsmith. The quite a few resets have brought about Banshee to neglect his previous life, and his self-sacrifice has modified him into the person Clovis had all the time struggled to be.

Season of the Hunt

Whereas Eramis tried to create her empire on Europa, the exiled Warlock Osiris was touring the Photo voltaic System, investigating the 4 planets that disappeared in Season of Arrivals. Osiris found that, whereas the planets appear to have vanished, one thing is left behind the place they was: a form of Darkness anomaly.

Through the course of his investigation, nonetheless, Osiris is attacked by the forces of Xivu Arath, the Hive god of warfare and sister to Oryx and Savathun, and his Ghost, Sagira, is destroyed. Devastated by the loss, Osiris units off for revenge. You discover him on the moon, below assault by a Hive Knight. Osiris’s life is saved by, shockingly, Uldren Sov.

After gamers hunted down Uldren with the assistance of Petra Venj, he was laid to relaxation within the Dreaming Metropolis. That is the place a Ghost named Glint discovered him, and Uldren was resurrected as a Guardian. Like different Guardians, the resurrected Uldren does not bear in mind something of his previous life; he’s, successfully, a brand new particular person. Calling himself “The Crow,” this new Guardian discovered himself attacked and shunned for what Uldren had accomplished to Cayde.

In some unspecified time in the future, Crow was found by the Spider, the Eliksni crimelord residing on the Tangled Shore. Spider acknowledged each who Crow had been and who he was now, and realized he may exploit the scenario. He took Crow into his service, providing him a spot the place he may belong. Secretly, although, Spider had explosives positioned inside Glint’s shell; if Crow disobeyed his new grasp, Spider may kill his Ghost and rob him of his Lightbearer powers.

After assembly you and Osiris, Crow brings you again to Spider, the place you study that Xivu Arath has encroached on the Tangled Shore. The Hive god’s forces have left unusual totems throughout the Tangled Shore that corrupt creatures that enterprise close to them, serving to Xivu Arath elevate a military from the species already current within the Photo voltaic System. Beneath Osiris’s management and with Crow’s assist, you go on a hunt to root out and destroy these “Wrathborn” creatures earlier than Xivu Arath can consolidate her energy.

Finally, with Crow’s assist, you observe down and defeat the Excessive Celebrant, Xivu Arath’s lieutenant and the creature that killed Sagira. Via working collectively, you and Osiris come to respect Crow, and the cost you demand from Spider for serving to safe the Tangled Shore is Crow’s freedom.

Via the course of the season, Crow additionally undergoes unusual goals, which appear to be messages from the Traveler. These goals information him and also you to a dam within the European Useless Zone, the place the 2 of you uncover a Shard of the Traveler attacked by Taken forces. After eliminating the Taken, you and Crow uncover what the Traveler wished you to seek out: Hawkmoon, a Mild-infused Unique weapon meant that will help you fight the Darkness.

Season of the Chosen

Whereas the Excessive Celebrant was making an attempt to get a foothold within the Photo voltaic System for Xivu Arath’s forces, the Hive God of Battle was at work elsewhere. In Season of the Chosen, we uncover that Xivu Arath attacked Torobatl, the Cabal homeworld. The Cabal and their forces, led by Calus’s daughter, Empress Caiatl, have been pushed from their dwelling. With nowhere else to go, Caiatl introduced her individuals into the Photo voltaic System, hoping to rally the remnants of the Crimson Legion to mount a stand towards the Hive.

Caiatl additionally turns her consideration to the Vanguard and meets with Commander Zavala to dealer an alliance–but fearing that she’ll lose face along with her generals if she’s too lenient, Caiatl calls for Zavala kneel earlier than her and be a part of the Cabal below her command. Zavala refuses Cabal management, leaving the 2 forces at an deadlock. The Vanguard fears the opportunity of one other warfare with the Cabal, and Zavala is unwilling to let Caiatl consolidate extra energy within the Photo voltaic System.

Zavala, joined by his mentor, Lord Saladin, and Osiris, launches a plan to undercut Caiatl’s plans. As she attracts Crimson Legion forces to her, Caiatl has invoked an historic Cabal custom referred to as the Ceremony of Proving, giving troopers the chance to compete to turn into a part of her warfare council. Beneath the Cabal’s traditions, those that participate within the rites should reply any challengers. Saladin and Osiris ship Guardians out to problem these Cabal troopers who may be a part of Caiatl’s warfare council, utilizing the Ceremony of Proving to attract them out and get rid of them. It is a method to lower the Cabal’s energy with out participating in a full-fledged battle with them.

Again within the Final Metropolis, Osiris serves Zavala as an adviser, and brings Crow alongside. He offers Crow with a masks that hides his id, believing that nobody within the Metropolis–least of all Zavala–will settle for the resurrected Uldren Sov, even when Crow is a distinct particular person. Whereas serving the Vanguard, Crow begins to suspect that Zavala could possibly be at risk from conspirators among the many Cabal, and possibly even Caiatl herself. He begins to shadow the Vanguard commander with a purpose to maintain him secure.

It seems that Crow is correct, and one evening within the Metropolis, he stops an assassination try towards Zavala. With much more purpose to concern for Zavala’s life, Crow works to uncover the conspirators working to get rid of the Vanguard’s commander.

In the meantime, a wierd misery name is detected within the Photo voltaic System, drawing you to a derelict Cabal ship referred to as the Glykon Volatis. With Osiris offering tactical help, you examine the ship and uncover that it was a analysis vessel working for Calus. Caiatl turns into conscious of your investigation and likewise takes half, hoping to find Calus’s whereabouts so she will be able to hunt him down. The Glykon at first appears abandoned, however you quickly uncover it is full of Scorn.

Repeated journeys to the Glykon reveal what occurred aboard the ship. Calus was trying to find a method to contact the Entity behind the Darkness and hoped to take action with the Crown of Sorrow, the Hive artifact that Savathun tried to trick Calus into sporting again in the course of the Crown of Sorrow raid. Calus had hoped to pressure a Scorn to put on the crown; the Scorn are undead creatures created by means of Darkness because of Riven and Savathun, so Calus experiments on them and hopes to make use of their connection to the Darkness to succeed in the Entity. The crew of the Glykon is led by a Shadow, a Guardian in Calus’s service, who leaves accounts of what occurred aboard the ship and its eventual downfall.

The experiments aboard the Glykon initially fail, and Calus orders the ship to fly into the anomaly left behind when Mars disappears. Utilizing the Scorn, Calus lastly did make contact with the Entity. Based on the Guardian commanding the ship, the emperor then simply…disappeared. In the meantime, the crew of the Glykon discovered the anomaly affected them in unusual methods. It twisted and rearranged the ship and broken their psychological states. Quickly, the Scorn escaped their confines and revolted, killing everybody aboard the ship.

In the meantime, the battle towards Caiatl’s forces reaches a crescendo when the Vanguard challenges the empress’s champion and wins the Ceremony of Proving. Impressed, Caiatl meets Zavala to formalize a truce. Through the summit, Psion forces throughout the empress’s ranks assault Zavala, utilizing a miniaturized model of Ghaul’s Traveler internet expertise from the Crimson Battle to chop off Zavala’s connection to his Ghost. On the final second, nonetheless, Crow saves Zavala’s life, and Caiatl has the assassins killed, sustaining that the plot was not her doing. Crow’s masks is knocked off, revealing his former id to Zavala. However quite than select to assault the person that was Uldren Sov, Zavala presents him a hand and welcomes him into the Vanguard–although he is not precisely completely satisfied that so many individuals near him have been mendacity about Crow’s id.

Season of the Splicer

Within the Metropolis, the Vex launch a wierd assault: the Countless Evening. The ins and outs are slightly robust to elucidate, however principally, it is some sort of simulation that blankets the Metropolis in darkness, inflicting illness and draining energy.

On Europa, a bunch of Eliksni name for help because the Vex try to hunt them down. They’re loyal to Mithrax, an Eliksni with a protracted historical past with the Vanguard. Within the early days of Future 2, there was a mission on Titan during which gamers chased a wiley Fallen captain to cease him from stealing Golden Age expertise. The mission culminated with discovering the captain locked in fight with a Hive Knight. Gamers may kill the knight and spare the captain, who would react with shock, after which thank the Guardian and disappear. That act of mercy put Mithrax on a protracted course of selecting to forgo his historical past with the Fallen crews and as a substitute begin a brand new faction: Home Mild.

Through the Past Mild marketing campaign, Variks enlisted your assist to evacuate Fallen refugees who fled from conscription into Eramis’s forces. Mithrax was the man who was choosing up these refugees and serving to them flee to security; Home Mild is loyal to the Traveler and an ally to Guardians, looking for peace for the Eliksni.

Arriving on Europa, you save Mithrax and the Home Mild refugees from the Vex. Mithrax reveals that he is being hunted due to what he is found concerning the Countless Evening. Ikora and the Vanguard agree to present the Eliksni refugees security within the Final Metropolis–they’re allowed to remain within the part that was beforehand a part of the Scourge of the Previous raid–in alternate for Mithrax’s assist stopping the Vex and the Countless Evening.

Mithrax is what’s often called a “Sacred Splicer,” an Eliksni with a particular command of expertise that additionally attracts on the ability of Mild. Along with his assist and an Eliksni Splicer gauntlet and with Osiris as soon as once more main the hassle, you are capable of delve into the Vex community, a wierd laptop world that is not not like the Ascendant Realm, however for the Vex. Inside the community, Guardians seek for the Vex thoughts accountable for the Countless Evening, gaining an increasing number of intelligence concerning the scenario with a purpose to put a cease to it.

Dispelling the Countless Evening takes a very long time, although, and in the meantime, the Darkness is taking its toll on the residents of the Metropolis. The people who reside there are uneasy about having Fallen inside their borders–these aliens have been enemies of humanity for hundreds of years, in any case, and a number of the worst battles ever fought noticed Fallen invaders making an attempt to deliver the Final Metropolis down as soon as and for all. The Eliksni refugees are met with derision, racism, and ultimately, violence. Lakshmi-2, the chief of the Future Battle Cult faction, one of many three civilian teams that make up the Final Metropolis’s authorities, takes to creating anti-Eliksni radio addresses, demagoguing to the individuals of the Metropolis and fomenting resentment. The continued Countless Evening simply makes issues worse because the individuals turn into extra offended and stressed.

Ultimately, expeditions into the Vex community reveal who’s actually behind the Countless Evening: Savathun. The Hive god of crafty is making use of Quria, a Vex thoughts that Oryx “took” method again in Future’s lore. The Vex are unwilling puppets below the affect of Quria and Savathun. Combating by means of the community reveals Quria’s location and after clearing out different Vex minds to open the trail, Guardians get rid of Quria. That places an finish to the Countless Evening, though it takes some time for the simulation to finish.

That is when Lakshmi leaps into motion. All through the course of the season, Lakshmi has been trying to develop her energy by means of political machinations. She makes use of a particular gadget managed by the Future Battle Cult to see doable futures, and in a single, she noticed herself turning into the chief of the Final Metropolis and casting off the Eliksni she hates. Lakshmi sees the Vanguard’s safety of the Eliksni as a large failure, permitting enemies into humanity’s stronghold, and he or she has the help of the opposite two civilian factions, New Monarchy and Useless Orbit, for an influence seize. Lakshmi has apparently talked with Osiris about the opportunity of new management, and he or she even approached Saint-14 about turning into the brand new head of the Vanguard. Saint, nonetheless, has been modified by his interactions with Mithrax and the Eliksni. As soon as a crusader towards the Fallen, he now feels a kinship with them, and considers the refugees as a lot his individuals, worthy of safety, as any people.

Lakshmi releases one final message, claiming that she has labored with Osiris to take management from the Vanguard, and opens a Vex portal within the Eliksni quarter of the Metropolis. The Vex invade, attacking the Eliksni and killing Lakshmi, however Guardians rush in to assist. The battle finally sees Saint combating aspect by aspect with Mithrax to guard Eliksni lives, and along with your assist and that of Ikora, the Vex are defeated and the portal is closed.

Osiris, watching the aftermath from the rooftops, disappears from the Metropolis, leaving everybody questioning what has occurred. The assault additional unites humanity with Home Mild, nonetheless, with a respect constructing between the Vanguard and Mithrax’s individuals. The Countless Evening does, in actual fact, finish.

Season of the Misplaced

Osiris turns up once more within the Dreaming Metropolis, asking for an viewers with Mara Sov, who we final noticed within the Ascendant Realm again in the course of the Forsaken marketing campaign. Whenever you comply with with Saint, Ikora, and Crow to seek out out what is going on on, Osiris reveals the reality: The particular person you believed was Osiris for the final yr was, in actual fact, Savathun. Utilizing her Hive magic, Savathun has possessed or maybe infested Osiris, puppeting his physique. The true Osiris was current inside his physique as properly, watching this all unfold, tortured by seeing his mates work together with Savathun with out realizing it.

Savathun transforms into an enormous, indestructible crystal to guard herself, pledging to return Osiris unhurt if Mara helps take away Savathun’s worm parasite. The worm is what offers Savathun and Hive like her their Darkness-derived powers and immortality, however the worms are fed by demise and conquest and all the time demand extra. That successfully makes the Hive slaves to the worms, as a result of the worms will eat the hosts if not regularly fed. Savathun needs to be freed from her worm in order that she might be rid of this infinite obligation, and Mara is prepared to oblige–but for her personal causes.

Mara has a critical grudge towards Savathun. It was Savathun who, with Riven’s assist, manipulated Uldren Sov into opening the best way to the Dreaming Metropolis, and Savathun who trapped the Dreaming Metropolis in its infinite three-week time loop for causes we nonetheless do not absolutely perceive. Mara needs to get her revenge, and realizes that, if she removes Savathun’s worm, the Hive god shall be weak. So Mara pretends to cooperate with the worm-removal ritual, however intends to betray Savathun and homicide her as quickly because the worm is out.

To ensure that the ritual to happen, nonetheless, Mara wants the assistance of her Techeuns, a bunch of highly effective Awoken who mix expertise with a form of magic. It was the Techeuns who lastly managed to rescue Mara from the Ascendant Realm, the place she’s been caught ever for the reason that Battle of Saturn, when Oryx destroyed the Awoken fleet. In saving Mara, nonetheless, the Techeuns have been scattered throughout the Ascendant Realm. They should be tracked down and rescued–which is your job all through the Season of the Misplaced.

In the meantime, Savathun is hanging out in her crystal in the course of Mara’s throne within the Dreaming Metropolis, and he or she has nothing to do however discuss to individuals. She talks to you about her deception as Osiris and claims she was truly making an attempt that will help you, regardless that every thing she did looks like it was calculated to undermine the Vanguard and the Final Metropolis. Savathun has demonstrated that she’s additionally an enemy of the Darkness–part of why she’s hiding out within the Dreaming Metropolis is as a result of she’s being pursued by Xivu Arath. She claims that every one her machinations have been truly about serving to you, and there is no less than some proof for that. Via Savathun’s maneuvers, you discovered Crow and introduced him into the Vanguard, discovered peace with Caiatl, and created an alliance with the Eliksni. However her true objectives aren’t clear.

All through the season, Crow struggles to cope with Mara, who dislikes the Guardian model of her brother and is grappling along with her personal contribution to what occurred to Uldren. Crow, too, struggles with the truth that Osiris, somebody who was type to him and who he thought-about a good friend, was truly Savathun all alongside. The 2 figures appear to be battling to affect Crow, and that culminates in a closing second during which Savathun makes use of her energy to revive Uldren’s recollections to Crow. All of a sudden, Crow understands who he was, what he did, and why everybody hated Uldren. It causes him to spiral, and he takes time away from the Vanguard and the Dreaming Metropolis.

With all of the Techeuns lastly united, Mara performs the worm ritual. It efficiently removes Savathun’s worm, however earlier than Mara can shut her lure, the crystal shatters and Savathun disappears. Left behind is Osiris, who has fallen right into a coma however remains to be alive. Saint returns him to the Metropolis to be cared for, however everybody wonders what Savathun has in retailer for them now that she’s freed from her worm.

The Witch Queen enlargement

Savathun does not reappear instantly after she flees the Dreaming Metropolis, however the planet Mars all of the sudden does. It returns modified after its disappearance; whenever you head there to analyze, you discover areas which might be seemingly trapped at a distinct time, in the course of the Golden Age. Hovering over the planet is a large ship that belongs to Savathun. It appears bizarre that the Hive god would make herself identified so quickly after her escape, however you board the ship anyway.

What you discover on board adjustments every thing: Hive warriors who carry the ability of the Mild, like Guardians. They even have their very own Ghosts. So as to kill these Hive for good, it’s important to destroy their Ghost companions, an unsettling act even after centuries of warfare with the death-worshiping Hive.

The ship seems to be a portal to Savathun’s throne world within the Ascendant Realm. Like Oryx’s Throne World, Savathun’s displays her character and, when she nonetheless had her worm, gave her a sort of immortality. As you enterprise into the unusual, swampy place, you run into extra Hive Lightbearers, after which Savathun herself–wielding all the identical powers as a Guardian.

After escaping from the Witch Queen, you set about investigating the Throne World, making an attempt to find how Savathun managed to steal the ability of the Mild. Alongside the best way, you uncover a wierd artifact referred to as the Enigma. And again on Mars, Ikora and her Hidden operatives uncover a wierd constructing they arrive to confer with because the Relic. Linked to the Darkness, the Relic permits you to look into the previous of objects, which lets you revert the artifact you discovered into the weapon it as soon as was, referred to as a glaive. The artifact is the primary clue as to what is going on on within the Throne World and the way Savathun took management of the Mild.

Investigating the Throne World additional, you stumble throughout a Hive Ghost named Fynch, who claims to be an ally. Fynch is a conscientious objector–he discovered he did not like his Hive Lightbearer, and when he was killed, Fynch refused to revive him. Fynch now offers data to you and Ikora that will help you work out what’s going on with Savathun.

Venturing by means of the Throne World, you uncover a particular altar hidden inside. For those who place objects on the altar, you possibly can unlock Savathun’s hidden recollections trapped inside them. Fynch leads you to different helpful artifacts, together with the shell of Sagira, Osiris’s Ghost, and the petrified first worm found by Savathun lengthy earlier than the beginning of the Hive.

Your investigation ultimately reveals two unbelievable truths. First, you discover that the Entity behind the Darkness tricked Savathun and her siblings into embracing the worm gods and the Darkness with a purpose to maintain them from being aided by the Traveler–essentially, eons of the Hive’s worship of demise and genocide of entire species was all constructed on a lie with a purpose to enslave them.

Subsequent, you uncover that Savathun did not steal the Mild. When Mara Sov tried to kill Savathun after the ritual to take away her worm within the Dreaming Metropolis, Mara was profitable. Savathun escaped, however she was mortally wounded. Savathun made her method to a ridge bordering the Final Metropolis and begged the Traveler to assist her. Moments after she died, Savathun was found by her Ghost, Immaru–and revived.

It is a enormous revelation. Ghosts do not know why they decide the individuals they do to bond with and resurrect as Lightbearers. Many spend years and even centuries scanning the stays of lifeless individuals, hoping to seek out the one one that they will bond with–but they cannot clarify why that one lifeless particular person is their Lightbearer. The interpretation by each Ghosts and followers of the Traveler is that Ghosts do not select who must be resurrected as a Lighbearer; quite, it is the Traveler who picks. That shakes individuals like Zavala and Ikora to their cores; they’ve believed all their lives that they have been chosen by the Traveler to be Guardians. By that logic, Savathun and her Hive Lightbearers have been additionally chosen by the Traveler. They’re simply as reputable as Guardians.

Wandering all through the Throne World to uncover Savathun’s recollections, nonetheless, seems to be a lure in and of itself. We discover out that Savathun left these artifacts behind particularly for us to seek out, and that through the use of them to unlock her recollections, we have truly restored Savathun’s recollections. Like some other Guardian, Savathun did not bear in mind her previous life when she was resurrected. She had hoped the Traveler would select her after releasing herself from her worm, and a path of breadcrumbs for the participant to comply with to assist her notice her objectives. Along with her recollections restored, Savathun is free to enact the final part of her grasp plan: to seize the Traveler.

The race is on to cease Savathun as soon as and for all. The Hive god hopes to lure the Traveler into her Throne World, which might lock off the ability of its Mild from the remainder of the world. Guardians would lose their connection to the Mild, and solely the Hive would keep that energy. You tackle Savathun earlier than she will be able to do that and present her the recollections that show that she and the remainder of the Hive have been tricked by the Entity. Defeated, Savathun releases the Traveler and dies–but her Ghost, Immaru, manages to flee. Savathun’s physique is taken by the Vanguard, however with Immaru nonetheless at massive, it is doable the Witch Queen may at some point return.

Savathun did not simply depart you recollections to trick you into restoring her as a Guardian, nonetheless. She additionally left behind recollections so that you can discover that operate as messages on to you. It appears that evidently Savathun’s plans persist even after her demise, and he or she offers you with extra cryptic hints concerning the future. It is also by means of Savathun that you just study concerning the enigmatic Entity behind the Darkness, a being often called the Witness.

Vow of the Disciple raid

Exploring the Throne World, you uncover that whereas the Hive basically functioned because the Witness’s military, scouring the universe at its behest, it had stopped trusting Savathun. The Witch Queen’s entire deal, in any case, was being crafty, and he or she had been working towards the Witness for a while after discovering that she and the remainder of the Hive had been manipulated by the worms. In response, the Witness despatched one in every of its strongest lieutenants, a creature often called a Disciple of the Witness named Rhulk, to control Savathun.

You discover a landed Black Fleet pyramid within the Throne World, the place Rhulk made his dwelling. The Disciple additionally arrange a black metropolis within the Throne World the place he may create extra worms, to make sure that there would by no means be a scarcity of parasites to bind to new Hive warriors. Venturing inside, you study that it was Rhulk who first subjugated the worm gods, forcing them to misinform and enslave the Hive.

When Savathun gained the Mild, it modified her as an individual, and thus, its energy bled into the Throne World and reshaped it to match. That energy locked Rhulk away in his pyramid, which is why Scorn have invaded the Throne World to battle the Hive there; Rhulk is making an attempt to regain management. Contained in the pyramid, he experimented with the worm parasites and the Scorn, hoping to empower the Witness’s new military to make them sturdy sufficient to tackle the Hive, and anybody else who may stand in his method.

Rhulk welcomes you into his pyramid, no less than at first, however upon realizing you will not be a part of him, plans to destroy you. He hopes to sunder the Throne World utilizing a superweapon referred to as the Upended, which Rhulk used to annihilate different planets–including his own residence world. Earlier than he can do this, nonetheless, you handle to combat your method to him and destroy the Disciple. The Vanguard is caught persevering with to combat to manage each the pyramid and the Throne World, however no less than in the meanwhile, the risk to the Traveler and the specter of the Upended are gone.

Season of the Risen

Immaru is working because the commander of Savathun’s forces, often called the Lucent Hive, and so they’re not content material to remain in her Throne World. They’re additionally venturing out into the remainder of the Photo voltaic System, attacking Guardians in locations just like the EDZ and the Cosmodrome, nevertheless it’s unclear what Immaru is making an attempt to perform. The Vanguard wants extra data to cease the specter of the Lucent Hive.

Zavala turns to Caiatl for assist. At this level, the Vanguard and the Cabal are having hotter diplomatic relations and resolve to work collectively. Caiatl offers her Psions to assist in the operation, which is led by Lord Saladin, with Crow serving below his command. With the assistance of some Cabal-built equipment and a tool referred to as the Synaptic Spear, the plan for the operation is to seize Lucent Hive lieutenants and break into their minds to find Immaru’s general plan.

Because the seasonal story unfolds, you seize a number of Hive lieutenants and disrupt their operations on Earth, the place they’re killing Guardians and, apparently, harvesting their Mild. After breaking into the minds of the lieutenants and severing them from their Mild, they’re saved in a Cabal containment equipment within the Vanguard’s particular HELM command heart. The containment system retains the Hive lieutenants in a sort of limbo–neither residing or lifeless. That permits the lead Psion to plumb their minds for data, however Crow is morally against the strategies. Although the Hive often is the Hive, they nonetheless deserve mercy, he believes, particularly as Lightbearers. Lord Saladin agrees, however believes the knowledge gleaned from the Hive is so necessary that these strategies are crucial.

After sufficient lieutenants are gathered, Caiatl’s Psion gleans sufficient data to find out Immaru’s plan. The Lucent Hive are gathering and storing captured Mild and intend to take over the Scarlet Carry on the moon, a Hive stronghold presently managed by Xivu Arath’s forces and positioned overtop of a Black Fleet pyramid hidden beneath the lunar floor. With the Hold, Immaru can use the captured Mild to summon Savathun’s Throne World to the moon, the place he can launch a full-scale invasion towards Earth. The concept is to depose the Guardians, with the Lucent Hive turning into the brand new, and solely, protectors of the Traveler.

Saladin dispatches you and different Guardians to the moon, and also you handle to cease the Lucent Hive. Whenever you return to the HELM, nonetheless, you uncover that Crow has by accident killed the Psion serving to with the operation by shutting down the containment system. The error is a monumental one, however whereas Crow regrets the Psion’s demise, he additionally believes the Vanguard’s actions have been torture for the Hive and have been morally improper.

When Caiatl finds out concerning the Psion’s demise, Crow tries to take duty, however Saladin as a substitute presents himself to Caiatl in Crow’s place. As a substitute of taking his life, Caiatl brings Saladin into her service, requiring him to serve on her warfare council. Saladin leaves the Vanguard and joins Caiatl, and shortly climbs the ranks amongst her troops and turns into revered, however the loss is a significant one to the Vanguard, the Guardians, and Crow himself.

Whereas working with the Cabal throughout Season of the Risen, the Vanguard additionally discovers exercise on Mars. Investigating the placement within the Vox Obscura mission, you discover that previous Cabal services we final noticed in Future 1 have been rebuilt. You combat your method by means of them to find that the deserters from Caiatl’s forces and rogue Psions have joined with Calus and are sending indicators out to recruit extra Cabal to their trigger. You’re employed with Caiatl to cease the indicators and attempt to discover out what Calus is as much as, however finally solely study that the exiled emperor remains to be round and has a plan to enact of his personal.

Season of the Haunted

It isn’t lengthy earlier than Calus resurfaces, in a method. His large ship, the Leviathan, seems in orbit across the moon. As you enterprise aboard, you uncover the place is twisted and lined with Darkness-saturated fungus, identical to the Glykon, in addition to infested with Nightmares, the phantom-like figures central to the Shadowkeep enlargement. Calus, it appears, is trying to commune with the pyramid buried beneath the lunar floor, and strengthening the Nightmares the pyramid creates. Zavala, Crow, and Caiatl are notably affected by their torments.

We’ve not heard a lot from Nightmares shortly, however Shadowkeep shed numerous mild on these unusual phenomena. Thought they appear like spirits or specters of lifeless characters, they’re truly a form of psychological resonance–they’re recollections, not precise individuals or ghosts, born from the trauma of the individuals who bear in mind them. In Shadowkeep, we helped Eris dispel the haunting recollections of her fireteam, who died once they ventured into the moon’s Hellmouth to destroy the Hive god Crota. Eris enlists you, Crow, and Zavala for a ritual that she hopes will bind their Nightmares and weaken Calus’s energy.

As soon as the ritual is accomplished, you head into the Leviathan to do some ghost-busting. The concept is that, with Eris’s assist, you possibly can bind Nightmares within the Leviathan, strengthening a tool referred to as the Nightmare Harvester to make use of it to counteract Calus. The plan is to beat the Nightmares haunting Crow, Zavala, and Caiatl, and eventually stopping Calus from doing no matter it’s he is making an attempt to do in service of the Witness.

The story goes by means of some intense character moments. Crow battles together with his recollections of Uldren and the person he as soon as was; Zavala seeks forgiveness for the household he misplaced years earlier; and Caiatl struggles over the lack of Torobatl and what she sees because the judgment of Ghaul. The story is not nearly beating every of their private Nightmares, however about serving to every of them to come back to phrases with their pasts and their trauma.

The season additionally takes gamers into Calus’s psyche with the Duality dungeon, a form of “thoughts heist” during which you attempt to discover out what Calus is as much as. What you uncover is the emperor’s best trauma: that his daughter betrayed him. Unable to reconcile with their relationship or his personal narcissism, Calus has embraced the Witness, aspiring to turn into its “Herald” and to assist it obtain its objectives of bringing a couple of second Collapse.

After serving to every character come to phrases with their Nightmares and attain a degree of forgiveness, the group takes on Calus. Via his communion with the Witness and the Darkness anomaly, Calus has seemingly turn into one with the Leviathan, extra a being of vitality than of flesh. He is utilizing his connection to the pyramid under to attempt to switch himself into the ship, thus gaining the ability of the Black Fleet and strengthening the Witness’s forces. With the assistance of Caiatl and the reworked, calmed Nightmares of the opposite characters, you are capable of cease Calus, reducing brief his plans. He nonetheless manages to flee, however he is not profitable in gaining the complete energy of both the pyramid or the Nightmares.

Within the aftermath of the battle, nonetheless, Crow, Zavala, and Caiatl nonetheless have some private baggage to kind out. Zavala particularly appears to take the occasions of Season of the Haunted fairly onerous. Nonetheless, the commander has mates he can lean on, as demonstrated all through the season, together with the Cabal empress, who has turn into a full-on ally of the Vanguard.

Season of Plunder

After being frozen for greater than a yr following the tip of Past Mild, the Witness has launched Eramis from her Stasis jail and charged her with finding a number of lacking Darkness-infused relics. With Eramis again on the prowl and the wrath of Mara Sov bearing down on him, Spider, the Tangled Shore’s Eliksni crime lord, contacts the Drifter to smuggle him to security. Drifter enlists you to assist with the rescue, and in return, Spider offers you entry to his ketch, an Eliksni spaceship.

Your personal vessel means you possibly can sail the starry seas to tackle Fallen pirate crews that Eramis has united below her banner, with the assistance of Drifter and Spider, in addition to Mithrax and his daughter, Eido. Boarding ships and taking down their commanders permits you to collect clues about hidden treasure caches and observe down the Darkness relics Eramis has been tasked with discovering. Slowly, you begin to collect them collectively, though it is not clear why the Witness needs them or what they’re good for.

As Eido and Mithrax research the relics, Mithrax turns into extra apprehensive about what he is discovering, and tries to defend Eido from details about the relics and her father’s previous. Eramis reveals the reality, nonetheless: Mithrax was as soon as a vicious pirate chief himself, who used the relics to consolidate energy. The artifacts are literally reliquaries that include items of Nezarec, a lifeless Disciple of the Witness. The lunar pyramid was additionally Nezarec’s tomb.

The revelations about her father have broken Eido’s relationship with Mithrax. The ultimate cutscene of Season of the Plunder confirmed that Mithrax studied the Nezerec relics, which he claimed have been related by threads he may understand and that they whispered to him. He reworked the Darkness relics and distilled its vitality right into a cup of tea that might elevate Osiris from the unconscious state he was positioned in when Savathun returned him throughout Season of the Misplaced. Having been efficiently roused from his coma, Osiris signifies that he can bear in mind a few of Savathun’s ideas and fears and that she knew of an influence saved secret on Neptune–likely hinting on the existence of Neomuna the brand new location we’re headed to within the Lightfall enlargement.

Season of the Seraph

When the Pyramid Fleet arrived within the Photo voltaic System in Season of Arrivals, Ana Bray encrypted the Rasputin AI core in an engram, hoping to revive him at some point. Rasputin is a Warmind–extremely advanced AI constructed in the course of the Golden Age–capable of creating use of Warsats to cease alien threats and brimming with data from the Golden Age. At the beginning of Season of the Seraph, Ana is brief on time to switch Rasputin into an empty Exo body, as he’s successfully able to die inside his engram. Reluctantly, she seeks assist from her grandfather Clovis Bray’s AI on Europa after Osiris convinces her that Clovis would know repair the code.

Whenever you arrive, Xivu Arath’s Wrathborn, now together with the Fallen Home Salvation, have already invaded the BrayTech facility. Ana decides to maneuver the Clovis AI into the Exo body till they work out what to do with Rasputin. In the meantime, you spend the season working to achieve management of the Warsat community by retrieving knowledge from the Warmind subminds–named Malahayati and Charlemagne–and defend the Seraph orbital station the place The Witness despatched Eramis’s Fallen to help Xivu Arath’s plans to co-opt the Warsat community.

Ana comes up with one closing resolution to assist restore Rasputin, which requires a go to to Felwinter’s Peak–a snowy mountaintop launched in Rise of Iron. Lord Felwinter was an Exo created by Rasputin, and his lifeless Ghost Felspring rested on the Iron Temple. After you switch Rasputin’s code and collect Felwinter’s knowledge, Rasputin awakens and is ready to communicate. Rasputin proceeds to warn Ana about how Clovis Bray’s intentions in the course of the Golden Age have been worse than she thought.

Rasputin reveals Clovis solely created him to exert management over humanity and exchange the Traveler. He didn’t care to make use of Rasputin to guard Earth from extraterrestrial threats, as he claimed. Rasputin credit Golden Age Ana for educating him artwork, historical past, philosophy, literature, and music since she didn’t wish to see him turn into a tyrant. Rasputin confirmed impartial thought, leaving him with the will to save lots of humanity in any respect prices, locking Clovis out to forestall his plans from coming to fruition on the time.

He goes on to assert that the present Clovis AI is as harmful because the human, and if Clovis uploads his thoughts to Rasputin’s community, he would obtain god-like energy. Ana and Elsie then delete Clovis from the Exo body and exchange him with Rasputin, also called Crimson. (Nonetheless, regardless of this, Clovis’s AI does live on within the depths of the Bray Exoscience facility on Europa.)

Osiris is keen to get solutions from this beacon of Golden Age secrets and techniques to grasp his newfound visions and Savathun’s whispers about Nefele Stronghold–claiming that Ana acknowledged the phrase “Nefele,” which was uncovered from a temporal disturbance on Mars. The title Nefele Stronghold seems in submind caches, so Osiris leads you to the Seraph tower within the temporal disturbance area of Mars–where areas of Mars have been set again to the Golden Age time interval when the planet returned from an anomaly.

This Seraph tower was a collaborative effort between the Seraphs–Guardian-like people appointed by Rasputin–and Ishtar Collective for extra-solar colonization and to handle subminds. A Seraph advanced on Mars awakens for the primary time for the reason that Collapse and is now being tampered with by the Vex Sol Divisive in quest of one thing on the Pillory bunker and subminds.

Rasputin assures Osiris of the existence of Nefele Stronghold however claims that he’s not conscious of the main points. Whereas Osiris is preoccupied with that, Mara Sov reveals a major problem. The Vanguard’s plan is to achieve management of and use the Warsats for defense. However Xivu Aarth is a god of warfare, and her worm feeds off of violence, so utilizing Warsats would solely empower her and permit her to open the Ascendant Aircraft over Earth. Mara says the efforts to proceed restoring Rasputin have to be stopped.

For Ana, leaving Rasputin’s restoration incomplete is off the desk, as she has fought for his likelihood at redemption and believes he is realized from errors up to now, when he operated independently. Mara then proposes that, quite than try to win the combat, they goal for a stalemate by stopping Xivu Arath’s forces from gaining management of the Warsats–but additionally not having Rasputin use them, as they initially supposed.

Shortly after, Rasputin sends you to a bunker that accommodates categorized data. This results in one other revelation that Rasputin didn’t shoot the Traveler to get it to remain on Earth in the course of the Collapse–debunking long-standing theories. Rasputin attributes his choice to not achieve this to Ana, whom he thanks in a heartfelt message.

Regardless of your efforts, Home Salvation and Eramis breach the Warsat community on the Seraph orbital station. Scrambling to make sure they don’t seem to be ready to make use of the Warsats, Rasputin comes up with a plan to sacrifice himself and the Warsat community. You combat your method towards Eramis and her forces to hold out Rasputin’s plan and stop the Warsats from getting used towards the Traveler.

All of a sudden, the Traveler, which has sat above the Final Metropolis for hundreds of years, rises into the higher environment, seemingly ready to desert humanity. Beneath the command of the Witness and as revenge for abandoning the Eliksni, Eramis goals the Warsats on the Traveler, however Ana permits Rasputin and the Warsats to be destroyed simply in time to cease Eramis. Though the Traveler then chooses to not abandon Earth for causes we do not but perceive, the Witness explains to Eramis that it selected to not flee as a result of “it has nowhere else to run.” As that is mentioned, the Black Fleet might be seen shifting previous Jupiter.

Rasputin leaves the Guardian one closing message a couple of Neptunian metropolis that’s dwelling to an object referred to as the Veil, a paracausal object linked to the Traveler, establishing Neomuna and Lightfall’s story. Intriguingly, Rasputin notes that somebody had scrapped his information referencing the town, suggesting somebody was keen to maintain Neomuna or the Veil’s existence a secret.