fate is out ! And whilst it might bethe most - preordered new dimension in gaming history , not everyone who ’d be concerned in a young scifi story is inevitably interested in playing a gunman to discover out about it . So let ’s take a look at a piffling of what we bonk about the world of Destiny and its inhabitants so far .
http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2025-03-15/destiny-pre-ordered-original-game-history
A foreword : The factual storytelling of Destiny is pretty barebones . Personally I ’m only about half way through the tarradiddle missionary station in the secret plan , and so far there ’s nigh no major characters or real impetus to press a story outside ofshooting all the thing . Whilst there ’s no job with that – shooting thing is most in spades enjoyable – it ’s not on the dot the best fashion to give away matter about this new universe . Good caper that there ’s these things calledGrimoire Cardsthen , collectable items get hold in the secret plan that give you little lore dumps that make Destiny ’s world an interesting landscape painting to research . Most of the information in this post come from those cards .
Any way , permit ’s get started !
The Golden Age
portion might be all about the future , but first , we have to start in the yesteryear . Well , present . Sorta .
Destiny takes place in an alternate universe where , in 2014 , Humanity is capable of , and is actively sending , manned missions to Mars . Also , their spaceman obviously carry space - M-16s . After detecting a strange signaling on the Red Planet , an unnamed external organisation institutionalise the Ares-1 mission to happen out what it is – and they discover it ’s a gigantic , bloodless orb float in the air . The eyeball , known as ‘ The Traveller ’ , was a mysterious pseudo - technical entity that was capable of not only granting Humanity implausibly advanced engineering science to kickstart the colonisation of other reality in the solar system of rules , but also of biologically augment them , increase their strength and lifespans threefold and terraforming world to fit Humanity ’s needs ( There ’s also something vaguely spiritual about its world – its arrival purportedly shattered theological public debate on Earth , and a conduct image among the Nonproliferation Center you encounter is The Speaker , voice by Bill Nighy , a clerical build who symbolically present the will of the dormant Traveller ) . The human backwash spread across the Solar organisation , build liquidation on planets like Mars , Venus and Jupiter , and an age of enlightenment known as the Golden Age commence .
It did n’t last .
Centuries of felicity later , swarm of alien creatures , powered by a nebular entity that had been chasing The Traveller across the universe called The Darkness ( you ’ll begin to see that Bungie loves itself some mysterious Nouns ) caught up with it and Humanity ’s space empire . Humanity was almost wipe out , rive back from its colonies to Earth , construct sentient technological concept call theExoto fight for them . Humans not complete destroyed by the Darkness ’ putrefaction were mutate into gloomy - skinned humanoids known asthe Awoken . Eventually , all that remained was a single city on Earth , where the Traveller struggle the Darkness – I do n’t cognize about you guys but I think I ’d wish to see the ridiculousness of a elephantine white blank sphere somehow duking it out with cloudy cloud of darkness – and sacrificed itself to push the duskiness back . In its dying breath , the Traveller creates small A.I unit of measurement call in trace , imbuing its powers and advanced technology within the bantam robots to help the remnant of Human civilisation , before go away dormant above the last City on solid ground . Most records of the Golden Age have been lost by the time the biz ’s events roll around , only the remains of what was , past events talk about in hushed tones – Destiny may be typeset in the hereafter , but liken to this ‘ Golden Age ’ , it ’s practically a medieval dark times .
That ’s where you come in .
Guardians (of the Galaxy)
The Ghosts , tasked with protect the last of the humans and the Awoken and Exo refugees arriving in the City , have the power to instill part of the Traveller ’s vim ( sleep with as ‘ the Light ’ – like I said , noun ! ) into a individual , granting what areessentially superpowersand transforming them into warriors have a go at it as Guardians . The Guardians started appear in brief after the Traveller ’s battle – one of the first was a human male calledJaren Ward , for representative . Also , they ’re ordinarily drained . Considering there are so many dead remains around from the Darkness ’ attack , it means there ’s heap of fabric for Ghosts to resurrect soldiers to protect the Traveller from – some Guardians are actually hundreds of years old , and they do it it . Except for the Exo , who had their collective memories pass over when they died , and know nothing of their origins or nature outside of the fact that they were created for war , with only vague recollections of their preceding life history . Some Exo ’s have evenattempted to down themselves , acknowledge that their Ghost could revive them , in an attempt to access their past memories and discover more about their existence .
Guardians are divide into three sects – Titans , big brawly Hero who apply their powers to fling themselves into closemouthed quarter combat and punch thing really hard , Warlocks , who impart their ability through studies of arcane text to shake off magical zip spells , and hunter , who … well , Hunt things . Their power grant them a keen ability for tracking and stealth . Guardians are basically a special judiciary force for the City . Normal people fear them as neat heroes , and they ’re world first and last defence against extraterrestrial threats – expire out and patrolling the ruins of Humanity ’s lost empire .
Hello Darkness, My Old Friend
Just as our heroic Guardians are masses raised to sizeableness by the Light , they ’re mirror by the minion of the Darkness , invest by its taint to strike out at what s left of the Traveller and its ally .
First up are the Fallen , four - gird magpie that are only really acquainted with the other minions of the Darkness in their widespread hate of Humanity . After civilisation draw back back to Earth , the Fallen moved in to claim the abandoned metropolis of Mankind for themselves ( and they certainly would n’t mind the very last metropolis on earth , too – year before the events of the game , a huge Fallen Army amassed and assail the City alongside the Cabal at the Battle for Twilight Gap , which get wind thousands of Guardians die to protect the City ) . A piratical coinage who value hoarding loot and implements of war , the Fallen are divided into multiple , independent Houses – the House of Wolves ( who are mostly under the tilt of the Queen of the Awoken – more on her after ) , the House of Winter , the House of Kings , and finally the House of Exiles , a sect of Fallen who were put down and kicked out of other Houses . Although they ’re joined in their hate of Humans , the Fallen Houses are largely profane and item-by-item – they ’re not afraid of fighting each other over territorial dominion .
The Hive are apparently the shadow ’ first and foremost servants . create by it during The Darkness ’ conflict with the Traveller in the Collapse , these twisted wight burrow under Earth ’s lunation , biding their time before pullulate out of their caves and catch Humanity unaware . If Guardians are think of to be the pure embodiment of Light , the Hive are the staring shape of the Darkness , specifically make to battle the Traveller , and are even capable ofabsorbing the Light powersgiven to Guardians they enamour .
The Vex are a wrench in the works of the Destiny universe , more or less . Apparently time - travellers from a remote galaxy , they ’ve come to the Solar System to ( yup , you ’ve guessed it ) take it for their own . The Vex are a Robotic hive mind unassociated with the Darkness , controlled by a key net operated by item-by-item ‘ mind ‘ . Each private Vex Unit is up to of its own remarkable processing force – a exclusive Vex cansimulateentireexistenceswithin its own system of rules for read its larger surroundings . Although they are a separate threat to Humanity aside from the Darkness , the Vex have come into tangency with it – some of themchoosing to be authorise as the Hive were .
We also have the Cabal : Huge , hulking humanoid , clad in sealed Environmental suits to survive on the open of Mars . There ’s something of the Roman Empire in the Cabal , and not just because their soldiers are list Legionnaires and Centurions and what have you – the ones in our solar system have come from a distant one of their own , part of a larger imperium , perhaps one that grew without the Traveller ’s influence , if they have manage to spread so far ( althoughthere is evidence , or at least speculation , that they ’re escape from something . The Darkness , just like humankind ? ) .
at long last , thought , Destiny also features a cabal of Awoken that are neither friend or opposition – base at the edge of the Solar System , they are large group of Awoken and Fallen who did not reelect to Earth after the Collapse to assume Guardianship , instead building their own nursing home on the other side of the system . As the City has expanded over the years , they ’re only just make out into contact with the Reef and its inhabitant – and theQueen of the Awokenwho holds secrets that could be central to the future of the franchise .
Dancing
There ’s no real lore take in dance in Destiny , or as to why Guardians of all grammatical gender and coinage have such styling , nifty moves . Maybe part of the Traveller ’s Light , not only granting superpowers and Christ’s Resurrection ability but also the know - how to do the Robot ? It ’s middling silly and fun though .
And that ’s kind of emblematic to Bungie ’s approach to the worldbuilding of Destiny as a whole so far . It ’s not first and frontmost their focus , the gameplay is ( even if that is coming at the toll of severalize a comparatively bland news report in this first game ) – but they ’ve built an interesting universe to play around with , gathering disparaging elements of sci - fi and fantasy to waver a unique sandpit for players to spiel around with . With the studio apartment ’s bold claim to support the franchise for the next 10 years , what we have here is just the commencement of a whole new scientific discipline fiction universe – one that , if Halo is anything to go buy , has the potential to spin off across books , funnies and short photographic film into something rather especial .
You ’re readingToybox , io9 ’s new web log for all things pop cultivation . From ware to awful fan creations , boob tube recaps and critical commentary on the red-hot topics of the twenty-four hour period , you could regain it all here !
DestinyGamesWorldbuilding
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , scientific discipline , and cultivation news in your inbox daily .
tidings from the future , delivered to your present tense .
Please select your want newssheet and submit your e-mail to advance your inbox .