Timeline

This is a detailed timeline of the history of the Destiny universe. Note that nearly all events are not attached to specific dates; they may not be in exact chronological order, and adjacent events in the list may be separated by spans of only a few days or several centuries.

The Ancient Past

 * The Worms, an intelligent species able to wield the power of the Darkness directly, are trapped in the depths of a global ocean within one of the atmospheric layers of the gas giant Fundament by the Traveler. The Traveler's priest, a creature called Leviathan, also dwells in the deeper Fundament and attempts to dissuade anyone from seeking them out. The Worms in turn begin calling across the stars to other species, seeking to lure one that can free them. As a result, hundreds of species migrate to Fundament and become stranded there—eking out a living on the shards of their broken worlds which become floating continents. One such species was the proto-Hive, whose homeworld collided with Fundament and shattered. The proto-Hive survive and build a new civilization for themselves on the floating shards of their former homeworld, gradually forgetting their original history. Meanwhile, a species of bony six-armed cephalopods named the Ammonites benefit from the Traveler's patronage and build a sophisticated starfaring civilization spanning all of Fundament's fifty-two moons, before eventually coming into contact with the distant Ecumene.


 * At eight years of age, the proto-Hive Osmium King of the Osmium Court on Fundament sires his final brood of offspring, which include his three daughters Xi Ro, Sathona, and Aurash who are tutored by sterile mother Taox. At ten years of age, the Osmium King begins to succumb to senility and madness; becoming consumed with ancient texts and obsessing over the movements of Fundament's moons, and the possibility of a catastrophic alignment called the Syzygy.


 * Fearing for the Osmium Court's future and believing the royal daughters were unsuited to rule, Taox secretly contacts the rival continent's Helium Drinkers of the Helium Court, inviting them to invade, assassinate the royal family, and install her as a subservient regent of the Osmium Court in exchange for engines capable of moving their continent. The Helium Drinkers agree, resulting in the Osmium Court's fall and the death of the Osmium King, but the royal daughters escape and vow to take revenge.


 * Three years after losing their kingdom, upon the advice of their father's worm, Xi Ro, Sathona, and Aurash use a salvaged high-tech ship to dive into Fundament's depths, hoping to discover a secret to stave off the Syzygy, which Aurash had come to believe was imminent. They encounter the Leviathan, but reject his pleas to turn back and continue on to the Worms.  The Worms offer the sisters immortality and power in exchange for accepting their larvae as parasites and carrying out the will of the Darkness. The sisters agree to the pact and are transformed into the first Hive: Xi Ro becomes Xivu Arath, Sathona becomes Savathûn, and Aurash becomes Auryx.


 * Xivu Arath, Savathûn, and Auryx return to the surface and share the Worm parasites among the other proto-Hive, creating an army that quickly overwhelms Fundament's other species. Taox flees, at first to other continents and then to the Ammonite capital moon where she is granted asylum. The Hive follow and war against the Ammonites, eventually exterminating them, killing the Leviathan, and forcing the Traveler to abandon Fundament. The Hive colonize and transform Fundament's moons into mobile war-moons, and embark on their purge of the universe in the name of the Darkness. During this time the Worms begin instructing Auryx in the nature of the Sword-Logic.


 * The Hive eradicate hundreds of intelligent species, including the Qugu, over a span of twenty thousand years. During this time they grow and expand their kingdoms, refining and deepening their knowledge of the Sword-Logic. Auryx makes war upon Savathûn out of both revenge and love, with Xivu Arath fighting them together.


 * Approximately twenty-four thousand years after the fall of the Ammonites, the Hive reach the frontier of the Ecumene and invade seventeen worlds over the course of a century . The Dakaua, a client species of the Ecumene, discover Taox in cryo-stasis aboard an ancient ship. Taox shares her knowledge of the Hive's leaders and motivations with the Dakaua, and the Ecumene unleashes its most powerful weapons against the Hive, who immediately suffer setbacks. Seeking the power necessary to allow the Hive to continue their crusade, Auryx slays his sisters and then the Worm God Akka , harnessing the ability to Take. Auryx becomes Oryx, the Taken King. Over a period of one thousand, one hundred and forty years the resurgent Hive triumvirate annihilate the species of the Ecumene so utterly that no trace of them remains. Taox escapes yet again, however, and the Hive resume their pursuit, ravaging the galaxy along the way.


 * Ten thousand years later, after destroying the Taishibethi in an event known as the Golden Amputation, Oryx reaches the Darkness itself and communes with it. He decides to produce children, and sires a son and twin daughters: Crota, Ir Anûk, and Ir Halak.


 * While Oryx is absent from his court to observe the Darkness destroy an ancient fortress world, Crota, after being tricked by his aunt Savathûn, inadvertently opens a portal to a place containing Vex while experimenting within the Ascendant Realm. The Vex, unable to comprehend the physics of Oryx throne world, manifest Quria, Blade Transform, who begins experimenting with the Hive, learning to worship the Darkness, and continue to plague Oryx's realm for a hundred years. The Worm God Eir finally calls Oryx home to deal with the problem after the Vex come close to conquering the High War. Oryx Takes many of the Vex, dividing them against one another, before finally expelling the cybernetic machines from his realm. Oryx comes to consider the Vex a worthy rival, and resolves to follow the Darkness and document the destruction it wreaks in a "grave of worlds" , so that he may learn from it and use this knowledge to succeed in his crusade against the universe. With his Ascendant Realm having been compromised by the Vex incursion, Oryx builds the Dreadnaught from Akka's corpse and houses his realm within it. This takes place before Earth's formation (at least 4.54 billion years ago)


 * The Hive destroy the Harmony, another species that had built a peaceful and advanced civilization with the aid of the Traveler, and topple the fabled Gift Mast over a period of a hundred and fifty years. During this conflict Oryx defeats Quria, Blade Transform and the remaining Vex who were attacking him, and gives the Taken Hydra to Savathûn. Quria's last act is to share what it has learned about Oryx's origins as Aurash with the rest of the Vex collective mind. Afterwards, Oryx's sisters part ways with him; Savathûn takes her war-moons into the black hole the Harmony's worlds orbited, while Xivu Arath ventures into unknown space. Oryx journeys on in the footsteps of the Darkness, continuing the Hive's crusade and still seeking the elusive Taox.


 * By means unknown, the Vex embed themselves in every known celestial body. On Venus this results in the creation of the Vault of Glass and Atheon, Time's Conflux to further study what Quria had recovered from Oryx and the Hive.

Pre-Golden Age

 * The Traveler visits the Eliksni (later known the "Fallen") and provides them with limitless Ether. The Eliksni prosper under the Traveler's patronage and revere it as "The Great Machine". During these years, the House of Judgment enforces law and peace.


 * Some time after, the Eliksni civilization is destroyed by an event known as the Whirlwind, and Chelchis, Kell of Stone is slain by Oryx himself, becoming a legend amongst his people. The Traveler abandons the Eliksni around this time. In the aftermath, the House of Judgement attempts to maintain order among the survivors, but is unable to prevent the outbreak of a bloody civil war and is itself nearly eradicated. The remnants of House Judgment are forced into servitude by the remaining Kells.


 * At some point, the Cabal forge a vast interstellar Empire and incorporate the telekinetic Psions as a client race. An unknown calamity eventually strikes the Cabal and forces the Empire to flee.


 * Long before the Cabal invaded the Solar System, Dominus Ghaul, with the aid of The Consul, leads a military coup against Emperor Calus, who is exiled to The Leviathan. Ghaul becomes the new leader of the Cabal Empire.


 * As Calus is too popular among the Cabal populace to execute without risking rebellion, the conspirators exile Calus and his surviving supporters to the Leviathan and lock its course to a destination far outside of the Cabal empire.


 * After wallowing in despair for an unknown amount of time after his exile, the Leviathan comes across an expanse of nothingness,which shorts out the navigational systems. Calus then looks into the void, and gains a renewed sense of purpose. With control of the Leviathan back in his hands, Calus begins exploring the galaxy and planning to retake the empire.

The Golden Age
- According to various in game quotes and Grimoire entries, the Golden Age lasted a few centuries. It came to a devastating end in the wake of the Collapse.

21st Century

 * Present Day—Humanity detects and tracks the Traveler as it enters the Solar System and terraforms Mercury, Venus, and the moons of Jupiter. When it reaches Mars, the multinational Ares One mission is launched to make contact with it. The Traveler promises humanity the universe and imparts its vast knowledge to the species, spurring the colonization of the Solar System.


 * The Cosmodrome is built in modern day Kazakhstan where humanity first takes to the stars in search of what lays beyond and ultimately in hope of escaping their overcrowded planet.


 * The Golden Age, a centuries-long era of widespread prosperity and technological miracles, begins.


 * The North American Empire is formed.

Early Golden Age

 * Fifty years after the Traveler's discovery, at the age of ninety, Commander Jacob Hardy records his experiences from the Ares One mission in his diary and explains how the Traveler's dramatic impact on human well-being and civilization changed everything while in the midst of studying the properties of Light-influenced terraforming.


 * The Cloud Walkers lead the first Exodus.


 * The first off-Earth colony is established in the Ocean of Storms on the Moon and an exobotany laboratory is built in Mare Cognitum.


 * The city of Freehold is founded on Mars with the support of Clovis Bray. It becomes known as one of humanity's greatest achievements.


 * The Hesperonauts first descend into Venus boiling mists and place terraforming engines in caldaras, beginning the planet's transformation into a habitable world.  They were later remembered by the Last City and the Guardians through a set of armor forged in their honor.


 * During the initial exploration of Venus, ancient Vex ruins are discovered. Early Vex research outposts like Campus 9 attract Earth's brightest minds, leading to a colonization rush on the planet. The researchers found the Ishtar Collective and the Ishtar Academy.


 * The Warminds are built alongside an array of various defense constructs as a deterrent against possible extraterrestrial threats.


 * A copper box with a red lid is discovered, its lid dented, one hinge shattered. Inside is a small quantity of the finest, driest powder, more brown than gray, more blue than green. The powder is weighed by the grain, studied close. One hundred billion bits reside inside, all of them tiny and nearly spherical, and etched with the outlines of continents and islands and icecaps. Each sphere represents a planet. One is found of Earth, Mars, and Venus. Many studying presume that the box is a message of how minuscule all of creation is, and some wonder who delivered this message, and why.


 * A father on Venus shows his son a representation of what their world used to look like before the Traveler arrived.

Mid-Golden Age

 * Human settlements are established in the Asteroid Belt, subsequently becoming a treasure trove of industry.


 * A currency known as Silver is developed, and is later used by the Reef post-Collapse.


 * Jupiter and its moons become a cornerstone of human civilization, lunar cities buried deep in ice shelves and within subaqueous oceans.


 * The first Exo are built to aid and protect humans.


 * Dr. Willa Bray develops the first engram matter-encryption techniques based on relic crystals' unique datastatic properties. Glimmer is presumably developed as a byproduct and used as a source of power.


 * Information about Plutarch's writing on Fabius Maximus was encoded onto an engram. The engram includes the type of warfare termed the 'Fabian Strategy' - the strategy involves attrition tactics and avoiding direct conflict until an enemy makes a mistake.


 * The Ishtar Collective captures a live Vex specimen and nearly go mad until a Warmind intervenes. They send a group of two hundred twenty seven proxies into the Vex ruins to explore the Vex network.

Late Golden Age

 * The Future War Cult is founded by Maya Sundaresh at Lhasa after experimenting with Vex technology. The group disbands, however, after many of its members either go insane, commit suicide, or leave out of ethical concerns. Maya Sundaresh is among them.


 * The Kestrel, an experimental long-range jumpship, is prototyped.


 * A pilot designated SABER GREEN piloting the ship Secure ISIS communicates with ICE MINARET. Civilian launches are not scrubbed and colonization efforts are being pushed beyond schedule to preserve secrecy. They are carrying an antimatter payload of one annihilation-pumped caedometric weapon codenamed RIGOR, and two other unknown devices codenamed SKYSHOCK and APEX. ICE MINARET remarks that they both know where the order came from.


 * Clovis Bray begins developing technologies geared toward the colonization of the Solar System in the form of SIVA and Transmission. After going through several prototypes, SIVA is approved for deployment.


 * Sometime later General Chen Lanshu glides around the Cosmodrome and converses with submind Malahayati about the possibility of invasion and speculates whether or not the Traveler could have been an enemy. Shortly thereafter, Chen Lanshu speaks to Willa Bray about the possibility of accelerating the colonization programs, and whether SIVA could be used for military purposes.


 * Site 6 is constructed.


 * Five hundred years before the Red War, the colony ship Exodus Black, carrying a cache of SIVA, is launched. Although Exodus Black's intended destination is the Kepler-186 system, the ship is intercepted by the Vex-inhabited centaur planetoid 7066 Nessus and crash-lands. The survivors briefly try to make contact with Earth and send for help, but their signals are never received. The Vex soon exterminate the survivors, leaving only Exodus Black's failsafe AI, Failsafe.


 * The Traveler begins terraforming Io.


 * Members of the First Light colony investigate the tunnels beneath the Moon. They discover the Worms and the Hive nesting deep within, but do not survive to tell the tale.

The Collapse

 * The Warmind Rasputin detects the sudden arrival and rapid approach of an unidentified entity outside the Solar System with the aid of technology abandoned by the Future War Cult. Recognizing the entity as a threat, Rasputin assumes control of humanity's Planetary Defense Network.


 * The Traveler makes its "final exodus" from Io, leaving the moon's terraforming incomplete and fleeing to Earth as the Collapse begins.


 * Rasputin attempts to defeat the Darkness using all available weapons, but to no avail. In a last ditch attempt to stop the impending doom, Rasputin enacts ABHORRENT IMPERATIVE, and prepares to fire upon the Traveler with his most powerful weapons, thereby coercing it into a "pseudoaltrusitic" defensive action, should it attempt to leave. The Traveler, for reasons unknown, chooses to stay and fight.


 * As all countermeasures fail to affect the entity and defeat becomes a certainty, Rasputin decides to enact YUGA SUNDOWN, and shuts down to protect itself, leaving billions of people to perish.


 * First Fleet or quite possibly what comes to be known as the Cassini, is lost around the orbit of Saturn.


 * On Mercury, Venus, and Mars, dormant Vex units reacting to the Collapse reactivate and begin terraforming several worlds. While Mercury is turned into a machine in days the Vex spread is temporarily stalled by the Traveler.


 * A massive spacecraft bearing a sigil of Golden Age Earth on its prow crashes on an unidentified battle-scarred world where over two dozen Exo soldiers fight a titanic battle with the Vex.


 * The Collapse—the Darkness, the ancient enemy of the Traveler, arrives in the Solar System, precipitating the Collapse and the abrupt end of the Golden Age. Earth's defenders are steadily beaten back until humanity is threatened with extinction. Humanity is saved only through the intervention of the Traveler, which sacrifices itself to stop the Darkness. With its last breath, the Traveler creates the Ghosts, to seek out those who can wield its Light as a weapon.


 * A shard of the Traveler lands in the European Dead Zone during its battle with the Darkness.


 * At some point during the Collapse, some humans seeking refuge from the Darkness flee into deep space, and become the Awoken. Many take up residence in the Reef. The Awoken also claim Mars at this time.

The City Age
- Many legends rise and fall during the City Age—the Lords of Iron; Saint-14; Toland and Osiris; the Speaker; and many others—not the least of which is a single Guardian, resurrected on the eve of the Darkness' return.

Many Years From Now
- Based on the Rise of Iron's background and introduction, the in-game events can be extrapolated to three years, with Rise of Iron taking place a year after The Taken King.

Shadowkeep

 * At the beginning of the events of Shadowkeep, Eris became haunted by the Nightmares of her fireteam; the same Guardians who had formed the first attempt on Crota's life. During the course of their journey, the Guardian creates several mementos, one for each fallen fireteam member, and gradually frees Eris from their influence.