The Last City
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The Last City, also known as the Last Safe City or simply the City,[1] is the final bastion of humanity. Located somewhere on Earth, the City was built under the shadow of the Traveler in the hope the Light would offer some protection from threats to Humanity.[2][3] Construction of the Last City began after the Collapse[4], marking the end of the Dark Age and the beginning of the City Age; most of humanity's survivors now live in the City, after previously being spread across countless hidden settlements across Earth.[5] Many conflicts (such as the Battle of the Twilight Gap) were fought by the Guardians, under the command of the Vanguard, in order to keep the city and its people safe.[6] The City is surrounded by a massive wall built by the first Titan Order to keep out enemies, such as the Fallen. The Tower, former headquarters of the Vanguard, rests on top of the wall.[4] Although being successfully defended by the Guardians for centuries, the relative safety within the walls came to an end when Dominus Ghaul's forces invaded at the beginning of the Red War.[7] The City was then occupied by Ghaul and his Red Legion before being liberated after a counteroffensive led by the Vanguard. ContentsGovernment[edit]
The City is inhabited by Humans, Awoken and Exos, who have cooperated with each other in the time following the Collapse, in order to build the City and its defenses.[2] Due to no centralised government or leadership, the City became embroiled in a bitter faction war, until the Guardians stepped in and put a stop to the violence. Since this time, the City has been ruled by a Consensus of the factions, with the Speaker as its head and the Vanguard in an advisory position.[8] During the Red War, Dominus Ghaul's occupation of the City disrupted its governance. Although the Vanguard and Consensus survived, the Speaker was presumed dead following the City's liberation, and it is unclear who, if anyone, will fill his role. Another seat in the Consensus has been emptied during the events of Forsaken, with Prince Uldren Sov murdering the Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6 and leaving none to take up the mantle. As of the events of Season of the Splicer, with one Consensus faction leader dead and the remaining two having been banished from the City, the sole governors of the Last City are the Vanguard leaders Ikora Rey and Commander Zavala. History[edit]The beginnings[edit]
For centuries after the Collapse, humanity was divided into various settlements across Earth, with early Risen (later called Guardians) blessed with the Traveler's Light acting as warlords, bandits, or makeshift lawmen. However, following the foundation of the Iron Lords, humanity began to unite. Underneath the Traveler, with the guidance of the first Speaker, the Last City began to take root. It started as a small number of tents, but as more people and Guardians arrived in the area, the City began to grow, makeshift structures turning into fully-fledged buildings and increasing in number as the population exploded. After repelling various attacks on the fledgling city, such as raids carried out by the Fallen, construction on a wall surrounding the Last City began, with the help of Guardians, such as Zavala, Ikora Rey, and Shaxx. At some point during the City's existence, the various factions and groups in the city fought one another for dominance in a conflict that nearly tore the city apart. However, the conflict was eventually ended when the Guardians intervened and stopped the fighting. The end of the Faction Wars saw the creation of the Consensus; a government consisting of representatives from the major factions, the Vanguard, and the Speaker serving as the city's leader. Besides the Faction Wars, the City had been involved in two major conflicts during it's earlier years. The first being the Battle of Six Fronts, when four Titan orders defended the Last City's walls against six enemy approaches. The second and far more devastating conflict was the Battle of Twilight Gap, where the full might of the Fallen Houses descended upon the City with the goal of retaking the Traveler, but were eventually defeated by the Guardians after Fallen reinforcements from the House of Wolves failed to arrive due to the Queen of the Reef, Mara Sov's intervention.[5] The Taken War[edit]
In recent years, the Guardians of the Last City began to reach out and take a more active role in pushing back the hordes of alien invaders threatening the Sol system. They Vanguard engaged in a war of resistance against Oryx, the Taken King, in response to his arrival in the system, and deployment of Taken troops to multiple planets, including Earth. This conflict would later be known as the Taken War. Fortunately, the Guardians were able to push Oryx and his Taken back, culminating in a raid that breached Oryx's Ascendant Realm on the Dreadnaught. This raid resulted in the deaths of Oryx's most powerful servants and the Taken King himself. However, these actions did not bring the war to an end, as the vanguard continued to fight against the lingering Hive and Taken presence in the System.[9] Transmission Crisis and SIVA's reawakening[edit]
When the Owl Sector, a civilian scientific organization working alongside the Vanguard, found a strange mite had been infecting the Guardians' armor and replicating at an incredible rate, the Last City was put under quarantine restrictions. The civilians worked together with the Vanguard and Ikora Rey's Hidden to contain the outbreak, going as far as to reach out to the Reef's Techeuns for help and researching old Golden Age data logs concerning SIVA in hopes of finding a way to stop the epidemic. The cure was eventually developed thanks to the Owl Sector's liaison to the Vanguard Shun Li falling ill and serving as a test subject--though not without hazard to his life. It was later discovered the outbreak had been caused by the Devil Splicers meddling with SIVA they had discovered in the Plaguelands. The Last City and the Vanguard did not initially take an active role during the events of the SIVA Crisis, the conflict instead being handled directly by Lord Saladin of the Iron Lords, Shiro-4, and the Guardian. Forces of the City did however later intervene when a Fallen plot to destroy the Bannerfall tower and leave the City vulnerable was discovered. With the Vanguard's help, the Guardian was able to drive out the Fallen, thereby securing the tower and by extension, the entire city's Wall.[10] Near the end of the SIVA Crisis, the Vanguard and the City's forces became involved in a number of operations against old adversaries who had suddenly reappeared, such as Taniks, Omnigul and Sekrion, Subverted Mind. Overseen by Ikora Rey and "supported" by Cayde-6, the Guardians were able to destroy Taniks Perfected after he was resurrected by the Devil Splicers using SIVA, as well as prevent remaining Taken forces from controlling the repaired Vex Nexus Mind and slaying Omnigul before she could resume serving her now dead master.[11][12] The Red War[edit]Two years after the Taken War, the Cabal Empire launched a major invasion of Earth, headed by the commander of the Red Legion and emperor of the Cabal Empire, Dominus Ghaul. The Red Legion launched a massive surprise attack on the Last City, completely devastating the last bastion of Humanity and the Tower. During the inital attack, a massive cage of Cabal design was attached to the Traveler, which constricted its power and allowed the Commander of the Legion, Dominus Ghaul, to extract and use its Light for himself. This left Guardians cut off from the Light, thus severely crippling their ability to fight back against the invaders. Many inhabitants of the City were killed during the invasion, and its subsequent occupation. [13][14] Several weeks after the Red Legion's occupation of the City began, a Vanguard counter-offensive led by Commander Zavala, Cayde-6, and Ikora Rey liberated the city. During the final battle within the City, the leader of the Red Legion, Ghaul, was killed and the stolen light was reclaimed by the Traveler, which had awoken for the first time since the Collapse. The Speaker was believed to have been killed during the occupation. As the Tower had been destroyed in the battle, the Vanguard and many other vendors were forced to relocate until the old Tower could be renovated. Strikes against priority targets continued to be directed and authorized from this new position.[15] Scourge of the Past[edit]
During the events of Black Armory, the city was breached by the Kell's Scourge, a brand new, anarchist faction of Fallen terrorists who sought to steal and harness Black Armory technology to rise against all Fallen orders. Their attack was the largest Fallen offensive on the City since the Battle of the Twilight Gap, and required a full team of six Guardians to raid their lair. The attack was neutralized when the Guardians confronted the source of the attack, Insurrection Prime, Kell's Scourge, who battled the Guardians with a massive war-mech, eventually being brought down by the combined efforts of the Guardian raid team. The Almighty Crisis[edit]
Some time after the Red Legion's defeat at the The Sundial and return of legendary titan, Saint-14, the Psion Flayer Amtec, in a final desperate act, commandeered The Almighty and sent it on a collision course with Earth, hoping to annihilate the Last City. Thankfully, Commander Zavala and Anastasia Bray, with the help of Rasputin and the Guardian, were able to reactivate the Warmind's Seraph countermeasures. Mere days before the Almighty's collision with the City, Warsats bombarded the ship until it finally exploded in low orbit. Debris from the Almighty's core crashed along the side of a mountain near the city, unleashing a massive shockwave that inflicted minor damage to the New Tower. Ultimately, however, the Last City survived Amtec's plot. The Darkness's Arrival[edit]
Unfortunately, this victory against the Cabal would prove short-lived as the Last City received reports of Pyramid-shaped vessels appearing over planets throughout the Sol System soon after. The Guardians, the Vanguard, and Last City officials soon confirm their worst fears: the Darkness had returned. Worse, Rasputin was silenced by the Darkness when it and Ana Bray attempted to fight back against this new threat with the Warmind's Warsat network, only to fail. As the Guardians worked with Eris Morn to discern the Darkness's intentions in the messages the Pyramid's send on Io, Zavala gathered the main City factions to formulate a plan should the Darkness turn hostile. Despite some initial squabbling, Zavala was able to reach a compromise with the factions, gaining their support in the establishment of Project Stronghold, the plan to fortify the Last City's defenses. Ikora Rey was put in charge of leading the City's siege preparations. As the enemy circled in on the Last City, the Traveler reformed itself healing its Red War wounds in a splendid show of power, releasing a burst of Light to chase off the encroaching Darkness. Sadly, it was not enough to keep the Pyramids from taking Io, Mars, Mercury and Titan and leaving only mysterious singularities in their place. Deputy Commander Sloane, Brother Vance and Asher Mir were unaccounted for, having refused to evacuate from the assailed planets. With the Darkness calling Guardians to Europa, the Vanguard turned its eye toward the icy moon and focused all resources on stopping Eramis, Kell of a new Fallen house, from striking against the Traveler. Clash of the Chosen[edit]
Forced to flee their home Torobatl destroyed by Hive under the lead of Xivu Arath, God of War, a massive Cabal fleet entered the Solar System and formed a base on Nessus. Empress Caiatl called Zavala and Osiris to discuss an alliance with them, offering her aid in battling both the Hive and the Pyramids if the City's leaders bowed to her and joined the Cabal Empire. When Zavala refused, a conflict broke out, with multiple champions seeking to prove themselves worthy of joining Caiatl's war council striking against vital targets like the Cosmodrome or the Deep Stone Crypt. Guardian forces battled them for weeks, and when a fireteam of three defeated Ignovun, Chosen of Caiatl in ritual combat, the Empress was forced to sign a peace treaty on Zavala's conditions. The Endless Night[edit]
A short time after, a Vex simulation began to affect the City, causing massive strains on the power grid among other issues. During this time, the Vanguard chose to give shelter to the Eliksni of House Light, while their leader, Mithrax assisted the Guardians in bringing the Endless Night to an end. Lakshmi-2, leader of the Future War Cult, publicly criticized the Vanguard's choice to grant the Eliksni asylum within the City, claiming they could not be trusted. Though Ikora Rey condemned her words, many citizens agreed with Lakshmi's sentiment, feeling unsafe and resentful about living side by side with the people who not that long ago had been the main threat to the City's very existence. With the help of Osiris (secretly Savathûn), Lakshmi-2 launched an attack on the Eliksni Quarter, using Vex portal technology. This resulted in a Vex incursion into the city, which was soon thwarted by the Vanguard with help from Saint-14 and Mithrax, Kell of Light. Shortly after the attack, and the death of Lakshmi-2 at the hands of the Vex, the factions (Dead Orbit and New Monarchy) fled the City while Future War Cult was disbanded with some of its former members defecting to the Vanguard due to their disgust towards Lakshmi's actions. At this time, the Vanguard has complete control over the City's government. Districts[edit]The City is divided into several districts, not all of which are known. Shuttles periodically transport passengers between the City's districts and the Tower.[16]
After Twilight Gap, the districts nearest the City walls were abandoned.[21] Many districts were also entirely obliterated by the Red Legion's invasion and occupation of the City. To replace them following the City's liberation, blueprints with modular designs for housing and storefronts were drawn up by City engineers.[22] Locations[edit]
City-based organizations[edit]Consensus Factions[edit]
Guardian organizations[edit]Weapon Foundries[edit]Other[edit]
Raid[edit]Trivia[edit]
Gallery[edit]
List of appearances[edit]
References[edit]
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