Editing The Device

{{Quote|Future War Cult has an artifact they call 'The Device' which may be Vex in origin.|[[Sister Faora]], "Theories on the Vex"}}<ref>'''Bungie (2017/12/5)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Curse of Osiris]] - Item Description: [[Kairos Function Suit#Kairos Function Helm/Mask/Crown|Kairos Function Helm/Mask/Crown]]''</ref>
"'''The Device'''", as it is referred to by the members of the [[Future War Cult]], is a machine that allows its users to view possible futures, as well as alternate timelines.  Though originally constructed by a research team during the [[Golden Age]], the Future War Cult's members recovered the prototype and reconstructed the machine during the [[City Age]]

==History==
===Golden Age===
{{Quote|We built the device in mimicry of the Vex gateway systems from Ishtar. An observatory, yes, but I think of it as a mind-ship. Capable of displacing its payload across space and time.|[[Maya Sundaresh]] in a letter to [[Chioma Esi]]}}<ref name="Lhasa">'''Bungie (2015/9/15)''', ''[[Destiny]]: [[The Taken King]] - [[Grimoire]]:[[Grimoire:Enemies|Enemies]]/[[Grimoire:Enemies/Vex|Vex]], [[Grimoire:Enemies/Vex#Ghost Fragment: Vex 5|Ghost Fragment: Vex 5]]''</ref>
The Device was designed and built by a team of scientists in [[Lhasa]] during the [[Golden Age]], among them [[Maya Sundaresh]], who had left the [[Ishtar Academy]] and its [[Ishtar Collective]] around 40 years prior. It was designed to emulate [[Vex]] gateway technology that had been studied by the Ishtar Academy on [[Venus]].<ref name="Lhasa"/> The Device may have been intended for intelligence-gathering purposes, as it bore the label "SxISR" on its exterior, an abbreviation presumably indicating its status as a special asset for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance.<ref>[https://www.acronymfinder.com/ISR.html '''AcronymFinder''', ''ISR'']</ref>

During the initial tests of the Device, volunteer test subjects experienced a variety of disturbing visions or cognitive effects, in at least [[Zakharik Gilmanovich Bekhterev|one case]], resulting in a suicide. A "supervisory [[Warmind]]" that was involved with the project (presumably [[Rasputin]] or one of his [[Submind|subminds]]) developed a drug intended to help protect subjects during use of the Device, but this appears to have been ineffective. The seeming capriciousness of the Device caused many members of the research team to become superstitious, hoping that by engaging in ritualistic behavior they might encourage the Device to work more reliably.  This research team ultimately became the first members of a pre-[[Collapse]] "[[Future War Cult]]".<ref name="Lhasa"/>

===The Collapse & the City Age===
The [[Future War Cult]] would survive the [[Collapse]], and later become a major [[Faction]] in the [[Last City]].  The device, initially lost to the march of history, was recovered and rebuilt through the efforts of [[Novarro|numerous]] [[Hari-5|members]] of the Cult.  The Cult's members (especially their [[Lakshmi-2|leader]]) would continue experimenting with the device throughout the years.<ref>'''Bungie (2014/9/9)''', ''[[Destiny]] - [[Grimoire]]:[[Grimoire:Allies|Allies]]/[[Grimoire:Allies/City Factions|City Factions]], [[Grimoire:Allies/City_Factions#Ghost Fragment: Future War Cult|Ghost Fragment: Future War Cult]]''</ref>

===The Endless Night & The Cult's End===
During the [[Endless Night]], [[Lakshmi-2]] would become more and more paranoid from her use of the Device and the influence of [[Savathun]] (masquerading as [[Osiris]]). This was especially the case after a vision from the Device showed [[Fallen]] standing over a destroyed [[Last City]] after a massive battle, with [[Mithrax]] among them.<ref name="PotSI">'''Bungie (2021/5/11)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Season of the Splicer]] - [[Path of the Splicer I#Step 4|Path of the Splicer I: Step 4]]''</ref> Believing that the [[House of Light]] posed a threat to the Last City and that the [[Vanguard]] were not taking her warnings seriously (as they did before the [[Red War]]), Lakshmi took to creating incendiary radio broadcasts, accusing the Vanguard of conspiring with "the enemy",<ref>'''Bungie (2021/5/11)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Season of the Splicer]] - [[H.E.L.M.]] Radio Message: [[H.E.L.M.#tabsection-1-2|Lakshmi's first broadcast]]''</ref><ref>'''Bungie (2021/5/11)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Season of the Splicer]] - [[H.E.L.M.]] Radio Message: [[H.E.L.M.#tabsection-3-2|Lakshmi's second broadcast]]''</ref><ref name="final">'''Bungie (2021/5/11)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Season of the Splicer]] - [[H.E.L.M.]] Radio Message: [[H.E.L.M.#tabsection-9-2|Lakshmi's final broadcast]]''</ref> and whipping up hysteria about the new Eliksni residents of the City, causing street brawls and conflict between the [[Human]] and Fallen residents of the City, including (at one point) an attack on the [[Eliksni Quarter]].<ref>'''Bungie (2021/5/11)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Season of the Splicer]] - [[Path of the Splicer IV#Step 6|Path of the Splicer IV: Step 6]]''</ref> Novarro, a senior member of the Cult and one of those who had helped retrieve the Device in the first place, resigned over Lakshmi's increasingly incendiary rhetoric and paranoid behavior.<ref>'''Bungie (2021/5/11)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Season of the Splicer]] - Item Description: [[The Vision#Lore|The Vision]]''</ref>

Lakshmi's descent into darkness came to a head when she unleashed the Vex on the Last City in a bid to "banish" the Fallen from the City, which resulted in her death at the hands of the machines.<ref name="final"/> The intrusion would be stopped by the [[The Guardian|Guardian]] and their allies,<ref>'''Bungie (2021/5/11)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Season of the Splicer]] - [[Override: Last City]]''</ref> but the damage to the Cult had already been done. The coup planned by the Cult, [[Dead Orbit]], and [[New Monarchy]] was revealed, causing their leaders and remaining members to flee the City. Lakshmi's final message put much of the onus behind the Vex intrusion on Osiris, who subsequently fled the City.<ref>'''Bungie (2021/5/11)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Season of the Splicer]] - [[As Prophesied#Step 5|As Prophesied: Step 5]]''</ref>

With the end of the Cult and the death of Lakshmi, the fate of the Device remains unknown.

==List of appearances==
*''[[Destiny]]'' {{Fm}}
**''[[The Taken King]]'' {{Mo}}
*''[[Destiny 2]]'' {{Mo}}
**''[[Curse of Osiris]]'' {{Mo}}
**''[[Season of the Splicer]]'' {{Mo}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Technology]]
[[Category:Future War Cult]]