User:Arcmind-1

"And you say he gave you a "friendly" tour of the place? He did not seem ill-mannered. In any way? Hmm, that doesn't sound like him. Though he is friendly around his Ghost and Cabal companions, he is not exactly what I would call a courteous Guardian. Perhaps I should have a talk with him anyway...."

- Commander Zavala

Hello Guardian, welcome to the Archives! Allow me to introduce myself, I am an Exo. Obviously. A Titan to be specific (Yes I like punching things too, but it's the Hammer of Sol that really convinced me to become a Titan). Though I cannot recall my real name or most of my past before the crash of my ship a while back, and having no Ghost to resurrect me should I attempt the arcane methods of the Thanatonauts, most of my fellow Guardians call me Arcmind. Yes, it is a strange name indeed, but perhaps being one of the Vanguard's chief intelligence sources on the Vex has certain...connotations that come along with it. However I would make one thing clear, though i do posses an inherent fascination with the Vex, my allegiance is to the Light alone, and I will not be swayed from that path. That means don't try and mention me and Osiris in the same sentence, and don't ever try to imply I am out of whack, because the last Guardian that did.....well, I am not going to say. That's right, instead, I am going to take that stunned face as meaning you get my point. I will say this however; as long as you keep your mouth where your Ghost is, we should get along fine.

As a memento, I am going to keep a journal, like my idol Cayde-6. Reason? Since things upstairs come and go for us Exos, I've taken to recording whatever fragments surface here, as it's nice to get stuff down before it leaves again. Now [Standing Up], seeing that this menial conversation is over, you are going to go back over there, and tell Commander Zavala that I did as requested, and gave you a nice, friendly tour of the place, and that I am going back to work now on breaking Vex encryption okay? Great. See we are off to a great start already, now scram!

=Memory Fragments= "So let me get this straight; this guy is obsessed with the Vex. Yep I said it. Doesn't have a Ghost because he never died, but he walks around without any recollection of his past? Huh, I think he just took Eris' place as the creepiest Guardian to date. That's it, I am outta here! Too many odd people and things going on."

- - Cayde-6

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Memory Fragment/Fragment 1
I am falling into a vast desert. Everything is on fire. The ship's AI says damage sustained. Trajectory nominal. Collision inevitable. The voice is cold. It does not fear. For a brief moment, i admire it's lack of human emotion, it's inhumanity. But then, everything goes black. As the darkness engulfs me I can feel my memories fading, the shattered fragments scrambling, reshuffling. And then, I see myself, falling into an eternal abyss. Fragment/Terminal/Realigning....Wait! There is more, something taking a shape. But there is something about it I do not like. The shape is me, but it carries the face of the abyss. It calls itself a shadow. It whispers things, horrible things I do not understand. I flee, flee to the light which whispers too. Whispers words of hope - "It is time to return" it says. "Return to the light."

Memory Fragment/Terminal/End Fragment }}

=Shattered Past=

Premise
Mankind's desire to explore the universe is rooted in our curiosity. But in Shattered Past, that inherent curiosity results in a terrible devastation. As humans attempt to prepare the planet Mars for human habitation after a failed colony on the Moon almost a century earlier, the terraforming process reveals ancient ruins and mysterious machines that lay dormant beneath the Martian sands for thousands of years. Soon after, humanity is attacked and driven back to Earth by a robot race hellbent on claiming the Solar System and the rest of the universe for themselves. Nearly three centuries later, you awaken as the protagonist near the wreckage of your crashed ship to find your memories shattered, and humanity scattered across the western part of the planet while their robotic foes control the eastern lands. Through your journey to unlock the secrets of your past, you will become involved in a battle to retake Earth, and to once more bring lief and hope to the desolate lands of humanity's broken home. {{Scroll box|

Time Immemorial

 * The Primeval rise in a distant galaxy where they build an advanced spacefaring civilization that spans their entire solar system, and spreads far beyond it's confines, only to collapse centuries later in a terrible intergalactic cataclysm that destroys over five-hundred interstellar civilizations and brings many others to near extinction.
 * The races who survive the cataclysm become embroiled in an interstellar war in which the Primeval flee their galaxy after building a massive Warship known as the Maelstrom entropy.
 * Approximately twenty-four thousand years before the rise of humanity (B.H), the Primeval awaken from cryostasis after reaching the Sol System and attempt to claim it for their own, eradicating the native species' on the Outer planets over the course of four centuries. Among the races encountered by the Primeval, are the Sivian Empire; a sophisticated civilization encompassing Jupiter and it's 72 moons, five of which are destroyed by the Primeval Warship during their siege of the planet, forcing the Sivian to flee from the Solar System and into the intergalactic void.
 * As the Primeval advance on the Inner System, an alien force living in the sands of Mars comes up from the dust, and begins infecting the Primeval race, who immediately suffer setbacks. In the face of this new threat, the Primeval survive by turning to new bodies in the form of the Primeval Cognitive, fusing metal and flesh to prevent corruption. The Primeval are transformed into the Primeval Cognitive.In the wake of this war, Mars tenuous atmosphere becomes too unstable for the Primeval Cognitive to maintain an effective base of operations on, prompting them to create the fully mechanical Praetorians, who lie dormant beneath the martian deserts, until a time when they can summon their creators to finally complete their grand purpose.
 * Humanity rises on the planet Earth.

Age of Humanity

 * Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden.
 * Clothing and shelter becomes commonplace.
 * The Flood.
 * First stone tools.
 * Modern Humans leave the Cradle of Humanity in Ethiopia and begin to migrate worldwide.
 * Metalworking becomes commonplace.
 * First civilization in the Mesopotamian region.
 * Invention of the wheel.
 * First written language. Early ziggurats built.
 * The Pyramids of Giza are built.
 * Stonehenge is constructed in England.
 * Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt.
 * Jesus Christ of Nazareth is born.
 * Jesus Christ rises from the grave.
 * The Roman Coliseum is completed.
 * The Fall of Rome.
 * The Middle Ages.
 * The Crusades
 * The Age of Enlightenment
 * The United States of America is formed after a 13 year war with Britain.
 * James Bowman Lindsey invents and uses the first incandescent light bulb.
 * The son of Charles Babbage completes construction of his father’s design for the first computer.
 * First manned flight is conducted by Orville and Wilbur Wright.
 * The first nuclear bomb is tested in New Mexico, codenamed “Trinity”.
 * The Soviet Union launches the first satellite, Sputnik 1.
 * The Soviet Union achieve the first successful moon landing.
 * The Soviet probe Venera 3 is the first manmade object to land on Venus.
 * Neil Armstrong is hired to fake the first man on the moon.
 * Soviet Union land an unmanned lander on Mars.
 * Voyager 1 launched.
 * Voyager 1 breaks the heliopause.

21st Century

 * The International Bureau of Aeronautics is established on Earth, an organization that contributes immensely to furthering the quality of space travel engineering.
 * The first iterations of exoatmospheric colony pods are designed at this time.
 * The first human outpost on the moon is established, but is abandoned shortly after, a result of the satellite's low gravity and lack of atmosphere.
 * An exoscience company tasked with solving issues regarding human habitation on extraterrestrial planets is formed. Soon after, the company begins work on an early prototype of atmospheric processor.
 * In collaboration with the exoscience company, the International Bureau of Aeronautics commences work on a still theoretical form of Faster-than-Light travel called the Cosmodrive.
 * With numerous breakthroughs being made in space travel and exobotany technology, the Red-Eden Project is enacted, and predicts that the first off-Earth colony will be established on Mars in less than fifty years.
 * An early version of the Cosmodrive is tested. During the experiment, several of the researchers are sent into the future. In an attempt to maintain the project, the results of the initial test are concealed, and a scientific subdivision dedicated to finding a way to retrieve the lost science team is created.

22nd Century

 * The science team is rescued from the future by two quantum physicists within the International Bureau of Aeronautics.
 * The Jovian Moons Campaign - Affected by their time travel experience, many of the researchers that returned from the future commit suicide, while those who survive begin a campaign to warn of a dark evil that will come from the Jovian moons.
 * The Cosmodrive is completed, and the first colony ship, utilizing the designs of the original colony pods begins construction.
 * Refined terraforming systems are publicly unveiled.
 * The colony ship finishes construction and is launched, laden with troops and terraforming gear aboard in order to prepare the planet Mars for human habitation.
 * Humanity establishes the Satellite Congress to govern and coordinate Man's colonial effort throughout the Solar System.
 * As the Martian atmosphere begins to form, violent sandstorms reveal ancient ruins, which early research outposts determine to be constructed of a highly advanced form of nanotechnology that vastly surpasses humanity's own.
 * Across Mars, dormant Praetorian units reactivate, and begin attacking humanity, driving them back to Earth. The Satellite Congress is destroyed.

23rd Century

 * The Praetorians invade humanity's homeworld. In Europe, this results in the creation of the Overmind.
 * The Praetorians overrun the War Bunker. From the safety of the Bunker, the Overmind organizes a series of invasions.
 * The Century Long War - Over the course of a century, humanity fights the Praetorians. During the war, non-sentient automata known as War Drones are constructed for military applications.

24th Century

 * Due to mounting losses, Earth's national governments issue a statement to all military forces that all organized combat operations in Europe are terminated, and declare the entire region off-limits.
 * The Americas become the only safe haven for humanity, with pockets of hidden human communities spread across the continent while the Praetorians control the whole of Eurasia.
 * A Praetorian Convergent Hull known as the Invasive Conductor, leads the Praetorian invasion of the former North American Nation. After the Hull's destruction, the Praetorians return to Eurasia.
 * Warlords terrorize wilderness fiefdoms, and raids of small settlements and city's for supplies become frequent.
 * As an army is rallied against the ruthless Warlords, Humanity becomes embroiled in a bloody civil war over their civilization's ruins. Many survivors form colonies in the wilderness following the civil war.
 * The Watchful Peace - Humanity had achieved a tenuous peace, strengthening the borders between it's colonies, all the while keeping a watchful eye on the east.

25th Century

 * The Protectorate is formed to jointly govern the scattered human colonies, and the Overwatch complex is constructed as their fortress.
 * The Praetorians manifest a Permutative Hull known as the Terraformer, who undertakes a project to replace cellular mass with synthetic ones using advanced nanomachines in the process. The Project is a success, and alien structures begin growing from the abandoned fields of Earth.
 * Dry regions of Earth are plagued by dust storms. Though some think it due to humanity's overuse of resources during the war, other still pose it to be their machine counterparts working to transform the planet into a manipulable world.
 * Array stations known as outposts are built across the frontier to maintain communications with Earth's colonies in a defense program overseen by the Protectorate's higher-ups known as the "Iron Line".
 * The Overmind initiates a series of campaigns against human settlements beyond the Iron Line to claim more ground for the Terraformer's operations. As a result, the Praetorians begin swarming across the wastelands, aggressively seeking out and attacking human occupied territories.

Base Game
Earth
 * Having survived a Praetorian incursion, you attempt to escape the onslaught but your ship is shot down and crashes in The Desert. A group of Rangers investigating a distant colony that recently dropped out of contact with the Iron Line, see the downing of your craft, and rescue you from it's burning debris. Remembering little about your past before the crash, and stranded otherwise, you join the Rangers following a brief meeting, and after fending off a Praetorian scouting mission along the way, arrive at the colony only to find the remote settlement destroyed, and under Praetorian occupation.
 * After helping eliminate the Praetorian presence at the colony, and wanting to help, you aid the Rangers in reactivating a series of dormant tracking sensors and learn that a Permutative Hull known as the Terraformer has begun isolating the lands for experimentation in an effort to transform the region in order to make it more suitable for Praetorian operations.
 * Together with the Rangers, you journey into the Cyberlands and defeat the Praetorian construct before subsequently destroying a network of machine units being used to augment the landscape. Claiming the area and it's mysterious technology for study.
 * Returning to the Overwatch with the Rangers, you are invited to attend a discussion concerning the mysterious Praetorian behavior, and Commander Fenrir becomes convinced to strike back at their forces. Soon after, you join Fenrir's rallied army of Rangers to attack the Praetorians near the colonies. His campaign is successful and Praetorian attacks on the human settlements temporarily abate.
 * While establishing another network of tracking sensors across the five miles of territory reclaimed during the offensive, you survey an abandoned military facility known as Carrhae, and discover an AI. The AI points to a location in Old Europe, The War Bunker.
 * Lacking the materials necessary to supply a convoy to Europe, you lead a team-based exploration in the gathering of enough resources to repower the old Dropships.
 * You are then deployed together with a team of Rangers to disable a set of gun platforms, after the assault convoy assembled by Fenrir is thwarted by the Praetorian defenses. After which, you find transport at a broken hangar nearby, allowing you to make it to the Praetorian stronghold.
 * Upon reaching the AI's coordinates, you recover a transmission among the corpses of a dead team from [], emanating from within the base, warning that a Praetorian Hull of impossible capabilities dwells within. You venture into the base and after finding and rescuing [], fight alongside him against the Overmind Hull. Finally defeating the Praetorian command nexus, and dealing a massive blow to the machine hivemind.

The Primeval Cognitive
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 * The Protectorate tasks you with looting a dilapidated Human research structure of an ancient Praetorian Data Core with enough information to finally help break Praetorian encryption.
 * The Praetorians initiate a large scale mobilization against a Protectorate outpost. While Protectorate cryptanalysts are deciphering the information from the Data Core, you are dispatched with a trio of Rangers on a mission to aid in fending off the Praetorian attack after the Protectorate picks up a distress call from the outpost.
 * Having determined from the contents of the Data Core, that several anomalous messages from Mars, are the presage of a Praetorian invasion, the Protectorate sends you to investigate and neutralize any Praetorian activities on the red planet. After arriving on Mars, you explore the Endless Plain, and discover a giant Praetorian portal, spawning dozens of Praetorian units known as the Primeval Cognitive. Upon learning the portal's purpose is to summon the ancient creators of the Praetorians from the past, you destroy the gate, annihilate the Primeval Cognitive, and kill their leader, the Cognitive Hull, leaving the Praetorian network in disarray once more.

Compendium of the Crux Monith
"For all of the bad rumors, he has been fairly helpful in recovering a substantial portion of the Crux Monith. Secretive to some extent yes, but for the most part, he would make a brilliant Cryptarch!"

- - Master Rahool

The Compendium of the Crux Monith is a collection of excerpts and fragments detailing both Primeval history, that of the human race, and to some extent, even that of other races as well, stretching back millions of years. The Monith is divided into chapters known as Chronicles and individual verses known as Numbers.

I: Chronicle of the Cataclysm
First Number of the Cataclysm's Chronicle: ''A distant galaxy. Hundreds of star systems stretch across the black like a giant tapestry, woven from the harsh light of unfamiliar and distant suns, each system holding it's own unique forms of life. One of these systems hosts a highly sophisticated starfaring civilization which will eventually expand far beyond the systems confines and across many other worlds. They are primeval.''

Second Number of the Cataclysm's Chronicle: ''The cry of many moons, the cry of death. The terrible cataclysm that overtook them was swift and total. Though it shattered the Primeval civilization and many others, they were counted lucky, for they had survived the apocalypse. Five hundred species, wiped from the face of history, to be remembered no more. For those who survived, they turned to warring for resources and new homes. As did many races, the Primeval set out to find a new home, and aboard a massive Warship; they called the Maelstrom Entropy they fled.''

Third Number of the Cataclysm's Chronicle: ''Twenty-thousand years in cryostasis, before they finally found the Sol System. A nest of little worlds scarred by the cataclysm. Scarred indeed. But nevertheless such scars could be healed. Therefore with their Warship, the Primeval took the Gas Giants from those who inhabited them, and when the Sivian Star Fleet attacked the Entropy from their lord of worlds-Jupiter- the Primeval responded by destroying five of the planet's seventy-two moons. And so the Sivian fled, fled into the void beyond.''

Fourth Number of the Cataclysm's Chronicle: ''Upon reaching Mars, the Primeval encountered something they had never seen. An alien force, who crawled from the dust. It burrowed into the flesh, and the first shape was made anew. Almost immediately, the Primeval began to falter. To survive the Primeval turning to new bodies in the form of the Primeval Cognitive. Cybernetic forms which would prevent their corruption, and so the Primeval crusade continued, and Mars was won. But with victory, follows much death. In the wake of the war, the tenuous Martian atmosphere became unstable. It's lands becoming constantly plagued by violent sandstorms. Unable to maintain an effective base of operations on the planet in it's current state. The Primeval Cognitive create the Praetorians, who lie dormant beneath the deserts, until a time when they can summon their creators through giant portals to finally complete their grand purpose.

II: Chronicle of the Centuries
First Number of the Centuries' Chronicle: As space exploration grew in popularity during the 21st century, space colonization operations required international cooperation and assistance in order to effectively conduct territorial expansion throughout the Solar System. The International Bureau of Aeronautics was formed at this time - an organization that contributed immensely to furthering the quality of space travel and engineering - with the first off-Earth colony in the modern age being established during the later half of the 21st century on Luna, thanks to the Bureau's construction of Colony Pods (Large Space Vehicles containing Vacuum Sealed Habitats). Despite this major success however, the effort did not solve the Moon's issues regarding it's lack of atmosphere and low gravity, ultimately resulting in the eventual abandonment of the lunar colony. Soon after, an exoscience company tasked with solving the challenges of colonizing inhospitable planets such as Mars was formed. Meanwhile, the International Bureau of Aeronautics began working on a still theoretical form of Faster-Than-Light travel known as the Cosmodrive. In light of this, the RED_EDEN Project was initiated, predicting that the first successful off-Earth colony would be constructed on Mars in less than fifty years.- An recovered taken from the Bekenstein Encyclopedia of World History

Second Number of the Centuries' Chronicle: '' As advancements in terraforming technologies such as the Atmospheric processor were made during the early part of the 22nd century, allowing for the transforming of many formerly hostile planets in the Solar System into worlds capable of sustaining life, the International Bureau of Aeronautics constructed its first line of colony ships equipped with completed versions of the cosmodrive to initiate the terraforming of the planet Mars for human habitation. To manage governance over the future interplanetary colonies, the Satellite Congress was established. Half a century later, however, the terraforming process would reveal the presence of dormant machines and a hostile race of robots who reactivated for reasons unknown and began attacking the human outposts, pushing them back to Earth once more, effectively destroying humanity's satellite congress and initiating the Human Preatorian War. '' - An article recovered from the Bekenstein Encyclopedia of World History

Third Number of the Centuries' Chronicle: ''As the Praetorian war continued, Earth was invaded. In Europe, this resulted in the creation of the Overmind Hull, who from the safety of a captured human War Bunker, set up a series of invasions. Over the remainder of the Century, humanity would continue the battle for Earth, using non-sentient war drones to help combat the tireless waves of Praetorian forces that continually assaulted human positions.

III: Chronicle of the Enemy
First Number of the Enemy's Chronicle: ''After thousands of years in dormancy, the Praetorians have begun to awaken. Having waited for the planets of Sol to heal from the wounds left by a terrible interstellar cataclysm, a great purpose begins. Now, on the desert world of Mars - a planet thought long-bereft of all life - dormant units reactivate for a grim purpose, commencing a slow process of revivification that will see the eradication of the human race.''

Second Number of the Enemy's Chronicle: ''The Overmind is a Praetorian hull that contains global instances of superordinate goal sets meaning that the Overmind Hull can plan and coordinate Praetorian action against human forces on a global scale. It's current operational plan - appears to involve an attritional campaign to aggressively seek out and destroy humanity's presence on Earth, supplemented by disruptive albeit minor, invasions of territory, claiming it for the Terraformer's enigmatic purposes.''

Third Number of the Enemy's Chronicle: ''The Terraformer is a Praetorian construct created to oversee a mysterious and unknown experiment on Earth. One which would presumably result in the transformation of the planet and many others into ones suitable to the Praetorians. According to the data collected from the Cyberlands, the Praetorians were using nanotechnology to augment the landscape. If they succeed, Earth will become a manipulable world. One which the Praetorians can shift and change at will. Perhaps this is their goal, or maybe they are simply the remnants of a once great civilization. One that fell victim to a terrible cataclysm and survived in the form of our robot foes, and one that now seeks to make anew scared worlds to their liking.''

Fourht Number of the Enemy's Chronicle: Convergent Hulls are mobile foundries who act as heavy infantry machines when protecting sectors and stand out among their troops, leading the attack.

The Mantle, Fifth Permutation of the Didact's Number