Uldren Sov

"She means you owe us...Guardian..."

- Uldren Sov

Uldren Sov is an Awoken. He also goes by the titles, "The Prince of the Reef", and "The Master of Crows." He was the Queen's advisor, spymaster, and enforcer, using his Crows (both the agents and the monitoring devices) to spy on the activities of the other races in the system. While loyal to his sister, he disagreed with her frequently on matters of defense and foreign policy, and is very disdainful of the Guardians. He is the main antagonist of Forsaken, having apparently killed the hunter Vanguard, Cayde-6 and established himself as the leader of the Skorn after a massive breakout of the Prison of Elders.

Prince of the Reef
Uldren intercepted a Fallen transmission that was broadcast on all channels, but was unable to decrypt it, and was only able to discern that all of the Fallen Houses were having an unprecedented level of communication and cooperation. The Techeuns looked toward Earth and saw the Fallen gathering there, and the Reef's leadership came to the conclusion that the Fallen were joining forces for a major attack on the Last City. At first, they believed there was nothing they could do, until the House of Wolves passed through the asteroid belt and stopped at Ceres. There, the Awoken revealed themselves and assaulted the Wolves, using the Harbingers to shatter the planetoid and killed half the House of Wolves, including Virixas, Kell of Wolves. However, the Battle of Ceres was only the start of the Reef Wars, as the remaining members of the House of Wolves scattered throughout the Reef and split into three factions, led by Irxis, Wolf Baroness; Parixas, the Howling; and Skolas, the Rabid.

After two major losses to the Wolves at Amethyst and Hygiea and a pyrrhic victory at Iris, Uldren provided the Awoken with a major advantage when he and his Crows cracked the Fallen's encryptions. Using knowledge gained from the intercepted communications, Uldren assisted Paladin Imogen Rife in luring one of Skolas' vassals, Baroness Drevis, into a trap at the asteroid Bamberga which destroyed her Ketch and led to the capture of Drevis, Kaliks-4, and many other high-ranking Fallen. Unfortunately, the victory was short-lived as Rife's fleet was ambushed by another of Skolas' vassals, Pirsis, who gathered a massive fleet and laid siege to the settlement of Pallas, trapping Rife's forces for years. The stalemate was broken when Weksis, the Meek launched a foolhardy assault on Pallas that failed, giving the Reef superior numbers on the Fallen. Uldren and his Crows then worked with the Techeuns to create an illusion of the Harbingers, which scared the Wolves into scattering and led to the capture of Pirsis, although the Fallen captain had managed to slay Paladin Rife during the battle.

Following the capture of Beltrik, the Veiled at Fortuna Plummet, Uldren was brought a message by one of his Crows from a Fallen named Variks, the last member of the House of Judgment. Variks provided the Reef with Skolas' plan to assault the military fortress of Cybele, leading to the capture of Skolas and most of his lieutenants, bringing an effective end to the Reef Wars.

The Black Garden
"My motive is simply loyalty, to a people, a Queen and a sister."

- Uldren, explaining his hostility to the Guardian

When a Guardian came to Reef asking for an audience with Mara, Uldren greeted them with hostility and told them that he did not believe they should be granted access to the Queen. As the Queen's Fallen guards entered the throne room, the Guardian panicked and grabbed a gun from one of the Awoken guards, causing Uldren to draw his knife and hold it to the Guardian's throat. Mara then entered the room and explained that the Fallen were hers, and after the guard retrieved their weapon Uldren removed his knife from the Guardian's throat and apologized to the Queen for the disturbance. When the Guardian declared they were looking for the Black Garden, Uldren was surprised, but was unimpressed that they intended to destroy the Darkness at its heart, dismissing their goal as unimaginative. The Guardian asked for help entering the Garden, and Uldren questioned why they would help them. Mara then called her brother over to the throne, and suggested that the Guardian retrieve a Vex Gate Lord's eye so they could make a key for them. Uldren was pleased by this suggestion, as he believed the Guardian would perish attempting the task.

When the Guardian returned, Uldren believed that they had run from the Gate Lord and mockingly reassured them that their was no shame in their action. The Guardian was defiant and said they did not run, transmatting the head of a Gate Lord into the throne room. Uldren was stunned they had succeeded, and when they asked for the key and location of the Black Garden as agreed, he angrily noted their ignorance of its location to his sister. She told him to provide the key and coordinates, confusing and angering him further, and Uldren exclaimed that if she wanted the Guardian dead they should just kill them now. His sister informed Uldren that his guessing of his motives was only revealing his own, and he bowed before her and claimed he only wished to serve his people and her. After she directed him once more to gift the Guardian the eye, Uldren reluctantly pulled out his knife and pried the eye from the Gate Lord's head. As he did so, the eye lost power, and Uldren cheerily noted that all the Guardian's efforts were wasted. Mara disagreed and ordered him to hand over the eye anyway, and after a moments hesitation he tossed them eye and provided the coordinates of the Black Garden's entrance on Mars. Mara then proclaimed that the Guardian would come to the Awoken's aid if they should ever need it, which Uldren bluntly noted meant that they owed them for this. As the Guardian left, Uldren sarcastically wished them luck getting through the Cabal's exclusion zone on Mars.

Search for the Queen
He participated in the Battle of Saturn and is the only known survivor, as his ship crashed on Hellas Basin, Mars. However, his survival was unknown at the time, as control of the Crows passed to Variks. Uldren suspected that his sister survived the battle, as he could still sense her. He then spent the rest of the Taken War and throughout the SIVA Crisis to search for her, evading everyone including his own followers. His last known report indicated he allowed himself to be captured in order to find the Kell of Kings, to raise an army via some unclear means. He also indicated that his sister approved of his actions.

Forsaken
A year following the Red War, he played a role in freeing the Skorn from the Prison of Elders, where he shot and killed Cayde-6, fleeing the scene afterward. From his perspective, he was doing something noble.

Personality and Traits
Prince Uldren Sov has proven that while intelligent, cunning, clever and loyal to his sister and the Reef, he has shown to be condescending, smug and arrogant towards outsiders and enemies, particularly to the Guardians. Even some members of the Reef dislike him for his negative attitude but can't deny his skills, leadership and expertise. His leadership of the Crows in both the Reef Wars and the Wolf Rebellion showcased his skills in intelligence gathering. In addition, he proved resourceful enough that he was able to avoid the detection of his own followers.

Uldren largely didn't want to help the Guardian in finding the Black Garden despite the threat of the Vex and was content to have nothing to do with them. Likewise, he doesn't have an ideal opinion of the Guardians, as he quickly suspected that the Guardians would fail in the mission to find and defeat a Vex Gate Lord. When the Guardian actually succeeded, he was left shocked and almost livid that he was proven wrong. In addition, Uldren is confused and angered with his sister's growing alliance with the Guardians but out of loyalty, he kept his opinions to himself and followed orders obediently.

What happened after the Battle of Saturn with Oryx and surviving is unknown but Uldren has become even more ruthless and cruel. He was willing to betray the Reef, ally with the Fallen Skorn and commit murder in cold-blood to meet his unknown goals.

Trivia

 * Originally, Uldren was named Crow and spoke with a flanged voice in the Closed Doors Demo at E3 2013. In the original version of Destiny, players would "help the Crow loot the Academy archive." Players would meet him in an early mission, where they would have a standoff, and work with him to find Osiris. According to a source within Bungie, his personality in this version was akin to how Cayde-6 was portrayed in The Taken King. He was later retooled to be "Prince Uldren," and the Crows would be his spies.


 * Uldren is performed and voiced by actor Brandon O'Neill.
 * Before House of Wolves, Uldren was simply known as "The Queen's Brother."
 * Uldren's crashed ship can be found on Mars by Guardians in Warmind, within the Ma’adim Subterrane Lost Sector of the Glacial Drifts location. This is an in-game error, as Athabasca is far to the north-west of Ma'adim.


 * Uldren is the first Awoken main antagonist in the franchise, and the second to not be apart of any of the main enemy races, the first being Xol, Will of the Thousands.


 * His role in Forsaken has escalated him into one of the most hated and controversial characters amongst the Destiny community.
 * It was largely believed by fans that Uldren was the leader or one of the leaders of the House of Dusk after finding many clues relating to him. His reappearance and leadership of the Skorn makes the rumors partially true. He is the leader to a faction of Fallen but not the House of Dusk.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * House of Wolves
 * The Taken King
 * Rise of Iron
 * Destiny 2
 * Warmind
 * Forsaken