Rasputin

Rasputin
Warmind Exo
Biographical information
Other name(s):	Big Red (Ana Bray) AI-COM/RSPN The Tyrant R
Homeworld:	Mars
Species:	Artificial Intelligence
Gender:	Male programming
Eye color:	Red (Exo)
Political and military information
Affiliation:	Humanity
Rank:	Warmind

"The Bray family shaped me to be an all-seeing savior…while your Vanguard sought to wield me as a primitive weapon. But today, that ends, and I define the reality of my own existence. My sight will stretch to the edge of this system and beyond. Never again will a threat go unseen. From this day forward, I will defend humanity on my own terms. I am Rasputin. Guardian of all I survey. I have no equal."

— Rasputin, translated by Ana Bray

Rasputin (also identified as AI-COM/RSPN and the Tyrant) was a Warmind housed in the BrayTech Futurescape in the Hellas Basin. He was created during the Golden Age and was believed to have been destroyed during the Collapse until the Iron Lords awoke his wrath. After Rasputin was shut down and almost destroyed by the Black Fleet, what remained of his protocols and data was compiled into a special Engram by Ana Bray, who, with the help of the Young Wolf, then uploaded him to an experimental Exo frame in the H.E.L.M., where he resided awaiting full reconstruction.

With the help of Felspring's remains found at the Iron Temple, the Warmind was fully restored, and with a newfound perspective on humanity and his actions throughout the years. This reconstruction was short-lived, however, as not only did Rasputin find himself unable to fight back against the forces of Xivu Arath without giving her more power, but he would soon find no other choice but to sacrifice himself to prevent Eramis from firing the Warsats upon the Traveler from within Seraph Station. In the end, Rasputin chose to sacrifice his life to protect humanity one final time.

Overview

"I bear an old name. It cannot be killed."

— Rasputin

Rasputin was designed and built by the Clovis Bray Exoscience Corporation, one of the Golden Age's greatest collections of scientists and engineers. He was designed to foresee potential threats to human civilization and to leverage military assets for its protection if the need arose.

While their relationship is unclear, investigations in the City Age have discovered that Charlemagne and Voluspa are subminds of Rasputin, and were developed together. Malahayati is another submind of Rasputin, formerly housed by the Ishtar Collective on Venus, but with facilities in the Cosmodrome and backups on the Moon.

Biography

Pre-Golden Age

"I am
Thought to breach Ares in motion. Red-shift information across time.
My purpose is wombed in the arc delivered safely between worlds, and it is quiet."

— Rasputin

First designed by Dr. Mihaylova, the experimental AI designated "R" was conceived as a safety AI for the Ares One mission to Mars. Its function was not only to simply run logistics, but to withhold secrets from the crew for the sake of preserving complacency. In the time before launch, R learned to write its own code and created its own assessments of the project and crew. R was even partially credited by the Ares One crew after their mission was hailed a success.

After the mission, R was implemented more broadly as an emergency response system for pre-Golden Age space stations, where it was used for running system diagnostics like checking oxygen and fuel.

Golden Age

Rasputin compound in Hellas Basin

"I am Rasputin
The all-seeing savior of Humanity. A chivalric blade held pointed at ravenous throats.
My worth is painted upon the wreckage of my enemies.
Tremble."

— Rasputin

During the Golden Age, the Clovis Bray corporation took the code of the original R safety AI and upgraded it into a fully sentient interplanetary defense system they named "Rasputin", becoming the most powerful military intelligence ever developed. Dr. Anastasia Bray was responsible for teaching Rasputin language, which she accomplished by uploading a massive compilation of human works of literature into his network.

The Warmind's personality was sub-divided into semi-autonomous segments, known as "subminds," each of which was given their own name; known subminds include Charlemagne and Malahayati. During the development of SIVA by the Clovis Bray corporation, Malahayati expressed concerns about the potential risks involved with the nanotechnology.

The Collapse

"I met IT at the gate of the garden and I recall IT smiled at me before IT devoured the blossoms with black flame and pinned their names across the sky. IT was stronger than everything. I fought IT with aurora knives and with the stolen un-fire of singularities made sharp and my sweat was earthquake and my breath was static but IT was stronger so how did I survive?"

— Rasputin

Rasputin was the first entity in the Sol System to detect the coming of the Black Fleet immediately prior to the Collapse.

Rasputin's core directive was to protect humanity, but during the Collapse, every action he took to fulfil this directive either failed or was predicted to have a 100% probability of failure. As a result, he implemented a protocol known as MIDNIGHT EXIGENT, reconfiguring his core programming to prioritize long-term survival, abandoning his previous functions and going dark, while simultaneously ordering all remaining forces and facilities at his disposal to do the same.

Prior to the Collapse, Rasputin had created a protocol labeled "ABHORRENT IMPERATIVE", which stipulated that if humanity was threatened with extinction and the Traveler attempted to leave Earth, Rasputin would open fire with his most powerful weapons to immobilize the Traveler and thereby coerce it into a "pseudoaltruistic" defensive action; in effect, the Traveler would be forced to protect humanity if it wanted to survive. Rasputin would avoid culpability for such an attack by initiating it through a series of proxies. Even before the Collapse, Rasputin had been discreetly stockpiling such weapons in the Cosmodrome, though some human operators suspected Rasputin's involvement. Ultimately, however, ABHORRENT IMPERATIVE was never invoked by Rasputin, as the Traveler chose to stay and protect humanity of its own volition.

As the Black Fleet made its approach toward Earth, Rasputin attempted to contain potentially dangerous data about the Darkness that was discovered by Dr.Shanice Pell at the New Pacific Arcology on Titan. He dispatched an Exo team led by Morgan-2 to contain the data by taking Pell and her staff into custody along with their research. However, Administrator Mia van der Venne believed Rasputin was overstepping his authority by denying the scientists a choice about what to do with the data, and subtly warned Pell to evacuate alongside the rest of the moon's population as the Black Fleet closed in. Unable to contain Pell's discovery peacefully, Rasputin destroyed the ship carrying the scientists with a Warsat, invoking the TWILIGHT EXIGENT protocol to justify lethal force on humans. For unknown reasons, TWILIGHT EXIGENT remained in effect on Titan, with Rasputin proceeding to use the Warsats to exterminate all humans attempting to flee the moon.

During the Collapse, the Worm God Xol, accompanied by his herald Nokris and their revenant followers attempted to conquer Mars by burrowing deep into the planet's crust to corrupt its core. In response, Rasputin initiated the "SIBERIAN ENTROPY" protocol, which flash-froze the entire Hellas Basin landscape in a matter of days and trapped the Hive and Xol beneath it.

Dark Age

Site 6

"YUGA SUNDOWN canceled by unauthorized access at Console 62815. Reactivation protocols in effect. Moral structures maintain MIDNIGHT EXIGENT. Multiple lifeforms detected in Sector 17. [O] energy detected. Query: [O] status. Query: [O] activity. Query: Civilization status. Query: SKYSHOCK event rank."

— Rasputin

Although disconnected from the Mindlab on Mars, Rasputin maintained an active presence on Earth, though he remained dormant for most of the Dark Age. He eventually was reactivated when an unknown party attempted to access one of his computer consoles and began surveying the Sol System, leading him to discover the fledgling post-Collapse colony of Neomuna hidden on Neptune, to which he gave the codename "Nefele Stronghold". The Neomuni detected Rasputin's attempts to infiltrate their computer networks, leading Chioma Esi to task the Cloud Strider Stargazer with traveling to Earth to find a way to stop Rasputin from further investigating the city and discovering the Veil. Though most of the expedition team was killed after encountering the warlord Carnunta, Stargazer managed to contact the submind Malahayati and asked her to wipe all mention of Neptune or the Exodus Indigo from Rasputin's archives.

At some point, Rasputin was alerted to an asset gone rogue: "SIDDHARTHA GOLEM", an Exo originally intended to act as an avatar of Rasputin, but which had instead been resurrected by a Ghost to become a Lightbearer named Felwinter. At the time, Rasputin was ill-equipped to process Felwinter's resurrection by the Light and responded by classifying Felwinter as a threat that needed to be eliminated. Rasputin attempted to kill the now-Risen Exo by dropping Warsats on him from orbit and sending armies of militarized frames to hunt him down, but all failed to kill Felwinter, who went on to join the Iron Lords.

Rasputin subsequently laid a trap for Felwinter and the other Iron Lords by allowing them to learn of SIVA, a powerful nanotechnology capable of disassembling matter and reconstituting it into almost any desired form. Upon arriving at the Site 6 Replication Complex, Felwinter attempted to reason with the Warmind, but Rasputin immediately activated all of his defensive measures against the Iron Lords, including SIVA. By then, Rasputin had programmed SIVA to kill not only Felwinter but the other Iron Lords as well.

Realizing that they had been arrogant and that SIVA posed a significant threat to the planet, the Iron Lords fought back. Hundreds of Iron Wolves perished in the battle for the Plaguelands, with eight of the founding ten Iron Lords sacrificing themselves to seal SIVA within its replication chamber. Only Saladin Forge and Efrideet survived.

Rasputin, content that Felwinter had been destroyed and the other trespassers had been ejected from his facilities, withdrew his countermeasures and began passive observation of the Guardians of the Last City. However, he would be left melancholic over the death of Felwinter and the damage this had irrevocably caused. As time went by, Rasputin began to understand Felwinter's perspective and learned that nuanced problems are seldom solved by simple solutions; he came to hope that one day he would find forgiveness for his mistakes.

City Age

Seraphim Vault

"Rasputin isn't an ally. You hear me, blood? You find yourself thinking that, you shut it down. He may not be against us, but he doesn't care if you live, if the City lives, if the Traveler lives. Trust me. He told me himself."

— Tevis Larsen

Long after the fall of the Iron Lords, the Fallen and Guardians discovered that Rasputin was still alive and protecting something valuable in the Cosmodrome. After a communications array at the Terrestrial Complex was reactivated by the Guardians, Rasputin was able to reconnect with the old interplanetary defense network, regaining control of the Warsat network and ground installations across the system, and launching a series of orbital strikes against the Vex and Cabal on Mars. Rasputin's attacks proved so debilitating to the Cabal that Valus Ta'aurc himself ordered that the Ice Reapers be released to track down Rasputin.

Rasputin resisted any attempts by the City to parlay, even going so far as to dismember a scouting team sent by the Vanguard. Rasputin was later encountered on Mars within the Dust Palace, attempting to protect a broken AI related to the Warmind from the invading Cabal. The AI was ultimately lost after a long battle with the Psion Flayers.

Following these events, Rasputin faced a number of more direct threats. Omnigul and the Spawn of Crota attempted a breach at the Seraph Bunker in the Cosmodrome and targeted Rasputin, either to destroy him or corrupt him for their own purposes, but they were thwarted by the Guardians. Later, during the Taken War, a group of Taken also penetrated the same bunker to prevent the Guardian from obtaining Golden Age stealth technology; while they did not damage or corrupt Rasputin, they had ample opportunity to do so. The bunker was breached a third time when the Fallen House of Devils used the modified Shank S.A.B.E.R.-2 to hijack Rasputin’s systems, seeking to bypass the Warmind's security protocols and take control of his Warsat system. Though S.A.B.E.R.-2 was ultimately destroyed, Rasputin again had to be rescued through the efforts of Guardians.

Conceding that his bunker's defenses had failed too many times, Rasputin triggered the IKELOS subroutine, an initiative to provide advanced weaponry to the Guardians to aid them against their enemies. The end result of IKELOS was the Sleeper Simulant, a heavy fusion rifle with a unique core based on obsolete DVALIN FORGE fusion rifles that the Warmind had armed humanity with during the onset of the Collapse. The Sleeper Simulant represented a successful melding of Golden Age technology with contemporary designs and Banshee-44's gunsmithing expertise.

Post-Red War

Entrance to Rasputin Facility

"What is buried beneath that ice is too dangerous to allow back into our world. It doesn't think as we do. It weighs and judges our existence in its ruthless calculations, and we don't even know what the goal is. Once, long ago, it might have been created as a tool to save Humanity. It is far more than a mere machine now. And it is broken."

— Zavala

Shortly after the Traveler's awakening following the Red War, the ice caps on Mars began to thaw. Detecting evidence of non-native organic chitin near its core among the rising temperatures, Rasputin assumed control of Mars' atmospheric defenses and invoked the AURORA PALISADE protocol to defend itself, crashing Warsats into the surface of Mars.

Rasputin soon came under siege from the Hive once again, but this time at his central core facility in Hellas Basin. Making matters worse, his attackers were led by Nokris, a minor Hive God and a son of Oryx, and Xol, Will of the Thousands, one of the Hive's gargantuan Worm Gods. Unable to adequately defend himself against such a massive threat, Rasputin accepted the assistance of Ana Bray (who had been reborn as a Guardian) and the Guardian, granting them the use of the powerful Valkyrie javelin and other Golden Age weaponry.

After an unsuccessful attempt by the Vanguard to trap and defeat Xol, the enraged Worm God launched an assault on Rasputin's neural network. With the aid of the Guardian, Rasputin was able to generate a super-charged version of the Valkyrie, granting the Guardian enough offensive power to damage and eventually vanquish Xol.

With the abatement of the Hive threat, Rasputin finally permitted Ana Bray, Commander Zavala, and the Guardian to enter his core and gain an audience with him. The Warmind declared that he would no longer allow his purpose to be dictated by other parties and that he would once more watch over the Sol system and protect it from harm, but on his own terms. As proof of his intent, he launched a new network of Warsats under his sole command.

Following several cycles of the curse in the Dreaming City, Petra Venj sent telemetry to Rasputin for analysis and comparison.

Choosing Sides

Osiris confronting Rasputin

"A line has been drawn in this system. Light on one side. Dark on the other. Where do you stand?"

— Osiris questioning Rasputin's allegiance

More than two years after Xol's destruction, Rasputin was confronted by the former Warlock Vanguard Osiris, who derided the Warmind as an "old man" and called him out as a traitor for turning his back against humanity during the Collapse, and as a murderer who slaughtered the Iron Lords during the Dark Age. Having learned of the coming arrival of the Black Fleet from his predictive simulations within the Infinite Forest, Osiris called into question Rasputin's allegiance in the upcoming battle between Light and Darkness. In response, Rasputin gave Osiris coordinates, highlighting an anomalous signal near the edge of the Sol System, which satisfied the former exile enough to leave and investigate.

Stopping The Almighty

Rasputin showing Zavala the incoming threat

After the events at the Sundial, the Red Legion, led by Amtec, who escaped the fate of her fellow Psion Flayer sisters, disabled the engines of The Almighty and sent it on a collision course towards the Last City. The Guardians, with little choice, then sought help from the ancient Warmind and were tasked with reactivating Rasputin's arsenal to find a way to stop the Almighty from careening into the Last City.

After conversing with Ana Bray and a very reluctant Zavala, the Guardian interacted with Rasputin directly to ask for his cooperation. The ancient Warmind agreed to aid the Guardians in finding a way to stop the Almighty by rearming his systems. Firstly, he had the Guardian head to a secret bunker in the EDZ, which required manual access for Rasputin to make a connection. Traveling to the dead zone, the Guardian, Ana, and Zavala are able to clear the bunker of Fallen pillagers and make a connection with Rasputin, restarting the bunker and allowing the Warmind to forge weaponry for the Guardians. Further, Rasputin had Guardians defend Seraphim Towers being constructed throughout the system from raiding Fallen and Cabal.

As the Guardians worked to activate the Seraph Bunker on Io and connect it to Rasputin's mainframe, Rasputin had a confrontation with the Vanguard Commander. Zavala questioned the ancient machine in his sincerity of understanding the stakes, which Rasputin answered by showing Zavala how close the Darkness is to the Solar System and of his past, having survived the Collapse. Finally coming to an understanding with Rasputin, the Titan Vanguard vows that once The Almighty has been broken, he will agree to work with Rasputin, granting the Warmind whatever resources the Last City has in battling the coming Darkness. In addition, Rasputin begun to send his combat frames on missions to secure "valuable assets" in the form of sleeper nodes.

Rasputin reveals his secret

In later weeks, Rasputin sent a Guardian up to Felwinter Peak. There, they and Ana Bray discover secrets of Rasputin's activities during the Dark Age. They learn Rasputin deployed a battalion of frames to attack Felwinter when he was still the mountain's sole occupant, and that he programmed SIVA to act as bait for the Iron Lords. These activities were apparently in response to a breach of his systems in Old Russia. After having the Guardian acquire more data for him, he summons them to the Seraph Bunker on the Moon. Once there, he tells them the story of a tyrant and his son, an allusion to the story of his connection to Felwinter.

Mere days before The Almighty would collide with the Last City, the Guardians succeeded in activating and rearming Rasputin's Seraph Bunkers, allowing the Warmind to deploy his countermeasures against the massive vessel. The Guardians returned to the Tower to witness Rasputin's assault. In full view of the Tower's denizens, countless warsats bombarded The Almighty for a full hour before making a critical hit to the ship's core, resulting in a spectacular explosion that reduced the Red Legion's crown jewel into chunks of burning rubble that crash-landed into the mountains outside of the Last City.

The Arrival of the Dark

Rasputin shuts down

Several days after the Almighty's destruction, the Black Fleet pushed into the system, with one ship breaking off to go to Io. With Ana's assistance, Rasputin used his Warsat Network around the moon of Jupiter to try shooting the vessel down. Sadly, his countermeasures had no effect, and the Pyramid responded by completely disabling the Warmind and his systems, leaving the Guardians to fend off the fleet themselves. Ana managed to transfer Rasputin into an Engram with the help of her Ghost, Jinju, though the Warmind's integrity was left in doubt. With the Guardian's help, Ana detected a remnant of Rasputin cycling through the buffer of his systems, though she was unsure how to safely extract it. When they returned to inform Ana that Mars was to be evacuated, she informed them that she discovered that Rasputin had disguised the remnant as a benign signal and once again enlisted their help to recover it. She eventually managed to restore the fragment into a small contraption and evacuated with it and an experimental Exo frame to implant Rasputin into.

Rebuilding the Warmind

Ana spent the following two years attempting to restore Rasputin and upload him into the Exo frame, to no avail. Following the City's alliance with the Imperial Cabal and the settlement of the House of Light, with the help of an Imperial Psion and Splicer tech, she managed to enter a mindscape with Rasputin to verify he was still intact.

After Osiris was awakened by Mithrax using the power of Nezarec's relics, he experienced visions of a city on Neptune. After being told there was nothing there by Ikora Rey and her Hidden, he sought to ask Rasputin what he knew regarding this city. Learning that the Warmind was still disabled and that Ana had made no progress in repairing him, Osiris suggested asking her grandfather, Clovis Bray I, to try and fix him. After battling through Xivu Arath's Wrathborn on Europa with the aid of the Guardian, they reached the Clovis AI and asked him to help repair Rasputin. Out of a need for legacy and self-preservation, Clovis agreed and inserted himself into Rasputin's experimental Exo frame. He explained to Ana and Osiris that they must gather Rasputin's subminds and inject them into his core to fully fix him.

However, as the Guardians made progress in gathering the submind data of Malahayati and Cha