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 imprisoned by the Traveler in the lowest depths of the global ocean that exists in one of the atmospheric layers of the gas giant Fundament. The Traveler tasks its disciple, a creature called Leviathan, with guarding the Worms and dissuading anyone who seeks them out. The Worms in turn begin calling across the stars to other intelligent species, seeking to lure one that can free them. As a result, hundreds of species make their way to Fundament and become stranded there, eking out a living on 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, the Traveler shares its bounty of knowledge with the Ammonite species native to an icy moon of Fundament. The Ammonite eventually build an advanced starfaring civilization that spans all of Fundament's fifty-two moons, and comes 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. The royal daughters are tutored by Taox.


 * At ten years of age, the Osmium King begins to succumb to senility and madness, consulting with his 'dead' pet worm, 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 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. 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 Syzgy, 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 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.


 * The Hive eradicate hundreds of intelligent species, including the Qugu.


 * 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 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 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.


 * After destroying the Taishibethi, 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, turning them against themselves, before finally expelling the Vex 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.


 * 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.


 * The Hive destroy the Harmony, another species that had built a peaceful and advanced civilization with the aid of the Traveler. During this conflict Oryx defeats Quria, Blade Transform and the remaining Vex who were attacking him. 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.

Pre-Golden Age

 * The Traveler visits the Eliksni (later known the "Fallen") and provides them with limitless Ether. The Eliksni revere the Traveler as "The Great Machine", and the House of Judgment enforces law and peace.


 * The Eliksni civilization is destroyed by an event known as the Whirlwind. 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 the House of Judgment are forced into servitude by the remaining Kells.


 * The Eliksni take to the stars in search of the Traveler.


 * Chelchis, Kell of Stone is slain by Oryx himself, and becomes a legend amongst his people.


 * At some point, the Cabal begin forging a vast interstellar Empire. They conquer the telekinetic Psions and incorporate them into the Empire as a client race. Eventually, an unknown calamity, possibly the Darkness, is believed to have struck the Cabal homeworld, forcing the Empire to flee.

21st Century

 * The 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 imparts its vast knowledge to humanity, spurring the colonization of the Solar System. The Golden Age, a centuries-long era of widespread prosperity and technological miracles, begins.


 * The Cloud Walkers lead the first Exodus.
 * The first off-Earth colony is established in Mare Cognitum on the Moon in the Ocean of Storms.

Early Golden Age

 * Fifty years after the Traveler's discovery, at the age of 90, 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.


 * 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.


 * 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. The minds presume that the box is a message of how minuscule all of creation is. They wonder who delivered this message, and why.


 * Sekrion, Nexus Mind, eats away at the planet, preparing to turn it into a Vex machine. Legends come to be told of the tunnels below the Ishtar Academy.


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

Late Golden Age

 * The Asteroid Belt becomes a treasure trove of industry.


 * Jupiter becomes a cornerstone of civilization.


 * A Father shows his son a simulation of Venus before the Traveler’s arrival, when the Father was a little boy.


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


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


 * The Future War Cult is founded by members of the Ishtar Collective at Lhasa after experimenting with Vex technology. However the group disbands after many members either go insane, commit suicide, or leave out of ethical concerns.

The Collapse

 * The Warmind Rasputin detects the sudden arrival and rapid approach of an unidentified entity outside the Solar System. Recognizing the entity as a threat, Rasputin assumes control of humanity's defense network. As all countermeasures fail to affect the entity and defeat becomes a certainty, Rasputin decides to shut down to protect itself, leaving billions of people to perish.


 * 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.


 * At some point during the Collapse, some humans seeking refuge from the Darkness flee into deep space.


 * The House of Devils destroys London.


 * 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 terraforming is slowed on other worlds for reasons unknown.


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

The Dark Age

 * In the aftermath of the Collapse comes the Dark Age. It is a time of vast suffering and terrible evil.


 * Those humans who fled into space during the Collapse return, transformed into the Awoken. Many take up residence in the Reef.


 * First Fleet is lost.


 * 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.


 * Freehold is buried in the sands of Mars.


 * The Exo reappear, but their memories have been irreparably damaged.


 * Before the first Guardians appear, Takanome's Rangers protect humanity's survivors. They disappear after the Guardians become commonplace.


 * Ghosts travel among the refugee columns, seeking the first Guardians.


 * Rumors circulate of a haven beneath the Traveler.


 * The first Titans pledge to defend the refugees gathering to the Traveler, forming the Pilgrim Guard.


 * The Cabal establish a beachhead on Phobos for initiating the invasion of Mars. The Cabal wage a massive campaign of attrition with the native Vex programming the Virgo Prohibition, who desperately attempt to protect the entrance to the Black Garden from the ever expanding Cabal Exclusion Zone. The war will continue throughout the Dark Age and the City Age with little outside interference.


 * Reports are made of a Cabal commander, Bracus Tho’ourg, who secured the Buried City on Mars with merely a fraction of the planet’s Cabal forces. The first Guardians who faced him died at some point between here and the City Age.

Founding the Last City

 * The Last City is founded - Survivors of the Collapse, human, Awoken, and Exo, travel from far and wide to the site of the inactive Traveler, and build the Last City beneath its protective aura.  The City Age begins.


 * The Faction Wars - Power struggles between various political factions for the support of the City's refugee masses escalate into a series of violent conflicts. Rezyl Azzir, a great leader and champion during those days helps unite The Risen, and forms the Guardians, gaining him further fame. Together they end the bloodshed before the City is torn apart by the civil war, and focus on the new encroaching threat: the Fallen. The Consensus, a representative body through which the factions could pursue their agendas peacefully, is subsequently formed to jointly govern the City with the Speaker.


 * In the aftermath of the Faction Wars, the first Titans construct and defend the City's walls.


 * New Monarchy coalesces in the wake of the Faction Wars.

Early City Age

 * The Battle of the Six Fronts - The first major attack weathered by the City. Four orders of Titans led by the Iron Lords defended six different approaches against an overwhelming enemy force. None of the orders faltered, and what could have been a disastrous defeat became instead a decisive victory.


 * The Crusade of Saint-14 - The legendary Titan and Exo Saint-14 rallies an army of Guardians to attack the Fallen surrounding the Last City. His campaign is successful and Fallen attacks on the City temporarily abate. During the campaign, he personally fights and kills Solkis, Devil Kell.


 * The Great Ahamkara Hunt - The Vanguard deems the Ahamkara to be too dangerous and orders their extermination in the Great Ahamkara Hunt. The Warlocks preserve some Ahamkara bones and fossils for study.


 * The Six Coyotes, a legendary fireteam of Hunters, make the first survey of the interior of the Cosmodrome in Old Russia.


 * The Hive begin landing Seeder Ships on Earth in a centuries-long process intended to precede an invasion. Guardians eventually first learn of the Hive's presence at the Rusted Lands, the future site of a Crucible arena.


 * Fireteam Tuyet traverses the Ishtar Sink in search of Vex secrets. Unfortunately the Vex find them first and Tuyet is lost in a last stand on the Shattered Coast. The intel they recover though is later used to forge Pocket Infinity.


 * The Iron Lords discover the SIVA plague within the Cosmodrome. They all pledge to prevent its spread and sacrifice themselves to contain it; only Saladin Forge returned to the City.


 * A fire team consisting of Praedyth, Pahanin, Kabr, and three unknown Guardians lands on Venus and breaches the Vault of Glass, hoping to destroy Atheon, along with whatever secrets the Vex have hidden there, and return to the City in glory. The assault is a disaster, as Kabr's team encounter the Templar, whose impregnable shields and powerful weapons force the team deeper into the Vault of Glass. Only Pahanin escapes the Vault. One member, Praedyth is trapped by the Vex and lost in time, and the remaining Guardians are erased from existence. Kabr himself is not killed but instead goes mad, becoming obsessed with the Vex, fashioning armor and weapons from their corpses. In the end Kabr does not die but is assimilated by the Vex. In his last act Kabr creates the Aegis, a weapon capable of piercing the Templar's shields, so that future fireteams will not meet his fate.

Recent City Age

 * The Battle of the Twilight Gap - The Kell of Kings, the ruler of the House of Kings, manipulates the combined might of the Fallen Houses into an assault against the City. The battle is joined in Twilight Gap, just outside the City's walls. Vanguard Commander Saladin Forge coordinates the City's defenses with his students Zavala and Shaxx. Though many Guardians fall in the ensuing battle, the united Fallen Houses are driven off with heavy casualties. In the aftermath of the Guardians' hard-won victory, the outermost sections of the City are evacuated and converted into fortifications, and the Vanguard decides to take a more proactive stance in fighting the forces of the Darkness by deploying strike teams against high value enemy targets.


 * The Reef Wars - As Twilight Gap rages on Earth, the Awoken of the Reef ally with the Nine to subdue the powerful House of Wolves. Battles include the Hildian Campaign and the Raze of Amethyst. After their Kell Virixas is killed, a brutal civil war among the Wolves ensues which sees Skolas emerge as the new Kell. Following Skolas's capture at the Cybele Uprising, the Wolves surrender and swear fealty to the Queen of the Reef rather than be totally destroyed. The Queen seals their nobility in the Prison of Elders and allows the rest to serve as her personal guards and servants.


 * Following the Reef Wars, the Cabal commander, Valus Trau'ug attempts to authorize an invasion of the Reef. When he is denied by his superiors, Trau'ug massacres his own officers in an act of mutiny and leads his most loyal soldiers against the Queen. Trau'ug fails utterly as both he and his Broken Legion are interned in the Prison of Elders. Their ships end up as part of the Reef.


 * In the aftermath of the Reef Wars and the Twilight Gap, numerous rogues and outcasts of the Fallen houses band together to form the House of Exile on the moon and start to plunder the Hive fortress there.


 * Holborn's Host investigates the Dust Palace on Mars, seeking a Warmind.


 * Battle of Burning Lake - The Hive invade Earth and make first contact with the Guardians. Though the Guardians beat them back, Shaxx unsuccessfully attempts to dissuade the Consensus from ordering a counterattack, realizing that the Hive's power needed to be understood before they could engage. He instead begins developing the lost art of swordsmithing, reverse-engineering the dreaded Hive blades for use by Guardians.


 * The Great Disaster - The Guardians launch an audacious offensive to reclaim the Moon from the Hive. The Hive Prince Crota, the son of their God-King Oryx, brutally repels the attack, personally leading the Hive's forces and killing scores of Guardians with his fabled sword. Humbled, the Vanguard orders a full retreat and declares the Moon off-limits, hoping that the Hive will lose interest and refrain from invading Earth.


 * Seeking to avenge their lost allies, Eriana-3 leads a fireteam of Guardians consisting of Eris Morn, Vell Tarlowe, Omar Agah, Sai Mota, and Toland, the Shattered return to the Moon to hunt down Crota. Though they succeed in destroying Crota's physical form, the Hive catch and preserve his soul. As the Guardians try to flee, they are killed one by one until only Eris remains. Eris survives in the Hive's tunnels for years before escaping and later becoming one of Ikora Rey's Hidden.


 * Andal Brask, the Hunter Vanguard, falls in battle with the vicious Fallen mercenary Taniks. Cayde-6 reluctantly assumes Brask's post in memory of his deceased friend.


 * The Concordat faction attempts a coup against the Consensus, fighting a battle against the New Monarchy at Bannerfall. In the wake of their defeat, the faction is ejected from the City. The Vanguard and the Speaker then approve the ascension of the Future War Cult to replace the Concordat.


 * The once noble hero Dredgen Yor, bearer of the Hand Cannon Thorn, begins his campaign of destruction, murdering fellow Guardians and civilians alike. His victims include the Crucible champion Thalor and the Hunters Jaren Ward and Pahanin.  Yor is finally killed by Ward's son, the Hunter Shin Malphur and his hand gun The Last Word after a fateful duel.

Destiny

 * Seven centuries from the present day, a Ghost finds and revives its Guardian from just outside the ruins of the Cosmodrome. The Guardian is forced to fight off the Fallen while seeking out an ancient Arcadia-class Jumpship in Dock 13. The Jumpship is revived by The Guardian’s Ghost and the two travel to the City, where the Speaker tasks this Guardian with finding the means to restore the Traveler before the Darkness returns and destroys the City once and for all.


 * The Guardian returns to where they found their ship and defeats the Fallen House of Devils' Archon, Riksis, obtaining a warp drive.


 * The Speaker requests that Guardians discover what the Fallen are keeping a tight hold of in Skywatch. The Guardian investigates. and kills the Hive Wizard Gotra. The Hive’s newly reported presence on Earth convinces the Vanguard to strike back at the Hive on the Moon.  The Guardian recovers the Ghosts of the team of Guardians sent by Dead Orbit.


 * The Vanguard report that Fallen are tearing into machines all over the Cosmodrome. Convinced they aren't just looting the place, the Guardian investigates, and discovers that Rasputin is still alive. Ignoring attempt to make contact by the Vanguard, Rasputin takes charge of the planetary defense network. The Guardian tracks down codes to activate ancient communication links to Golden Age colonies off world, once used by Dead Orbit.


 * The Guardian travels to Earth’s moon, following the trail of a Guardian who went dark searching for a way into the Hive Fortress. After fending off the Fallen House of Exile, the Guardian hacks a colony base before finding the lost Guardian and their dead Ghost, and confronting a Hive Wizard.


 * The Guardian infiltrates the Hellmouth and destroys the legendary Sword of Crota after using it to hold off the Hive. The Guardian then descends deeper into the Hellmouth to a Hive library which holds ancient secrets they have ripped from the Earth, before following a lead in a recording from the vanished Warlock Osiris to the Shrine of Oryx in the darkest corner of the Hellmouth. They kill Frigoris, a Baron of the House of Exile, and the Hive Knight Sardok, Eye of Oryx, and destroy the Shrine after discovering that it is tethered to a power far beyond the system, presumed to be Oryx himself.


 * The Speaker issues an urgent transmission to Guardians on all channels, claiming that they have discovered the existence of a dark ritual site under the surface of the Moon that is draining the Traveler of its Light, and that nothing is currently more important than stopping it. After receiving a transmission from the Exo Stranger, inviting them to find her if they are successful on the Moon, the Guardian kills the Siphon Witches, freeing the Traveler from the Hive's parasitic influence, allowing it to regain its Light and begin to heal.


 * The Ghost traces The Stranger’s transmission to the Ishtar Region of Venus where after defeating a hoard of Vex forces, the Stranger meets with the Guardian to warn them of the impending threat of the Vex and their attempts to rewrite reality, before instructing the Guardian to find the Black Garden and “rip out its Heart” in order to heal the Traveler.


 * The Guardian then travels to the Ishtar Collective and revives one of it's many research stations in order to analyze a Vex Mind Core sample, before searching out the collective's lost Archive sealed away in a Vault beneath the surface of the planet.


 * After assaulting a Fallen Ketch to assassinate Draksis the Kell of the House of Winter, the Guardian's Ghost informs them that only the Awoken know how to get into the Black Garden and that they must speak with them to obtain it's location.


 * The Queen's brother agrees to help the Guardian if they bring him the eye of a Vex Gate Lord's eye. The Guardian obliges, and the Prince reluctantly gives coordinates for the Spire.


 * The Guardian then seeks out the source of the Vex surges and discovers they are returning to the Black Garden. After expelling the Cabal from the buried city, the Guardian seizes control of the Garden's Spire, using it to repower the Gate Lord's eye and infiltrate the Black Garden, destroying its heart. Returning to the Tower, the Guardian watches the Speaker give a victory speech from the Hangar while conversing with the Stranger who says the fight has only begun, and then abruptly leaves, giving the Guardian her rifle.


 * A Guardian fireteam is ordered by Zavala to destroy the House of Devils' Prime Servitor, Sepiks Prime, in the Cosmodrome, crippling the house's ability to wage war against the city.


 * A Guardian fireteam kills the enormous Ogre named Phogoth, the Untamed before the Hive unleash it on the Last City.


 * A team of Guardians infiltrate the House of Winter's lair and kill Aksor, Archon Priest.


 * The Cabal High Command is decimated after scores of its leaders are killed in battle with Guardians. Among them are Primus Sha'aul, leader of the Blind Legion and the veteran general Valus Ta'aurc, leader of the Siege Dancers. The Cabal suffer an even greater loss after an elite unit of Psion Flayers are wiped out in the Dust Palace by a fireteam from Earth.


 * Guardians kill Sekrion, Nexus Mind to prevent the Vex from converting the planet into another node in their network.


 * A group of Guardians ventures into the Vault of Glass and defeats Atheon, disrupting the Vex's plan to permanently incorporate themselves into reality itself.

The Dark Below

 * Eris Morn returns to the Tower, warning of an impending Hive invasion led by a resurrected Crota.


 * Sardon, Fist of Crota is defeated in the Cosmodrome.


 * Rasputin’s bunker in the Cosmodrome is attacked by Hive forces led by Omnigul, Will of Crota. They are repelled.


 * The Wakers of Crota fail to summon their master at the Threshold of the Hellmouth due to the intervention of a Guardian fireteam from Earth.


 * The Hive Forsaken are defeated at the Hellmouth by Guardians.


 * The Undying Mind attempts to revive the Heart of the Black Garden and seal it away from Guardian assault. Luckily the Mind and the Sol Primeval assisting it are destroyed by Guardians.


 * After Guardians foil the invasion and Crota's resurrection, they journey into Oversoul Throne to destroy him for good.


 * With Crota dead, the Vanguard turns its attention to wiping out his generals. His direct servants are quickly eliminated including the executioner Urzok, the Hated and Crota's final general, Omnigul, who is assassinated after she makes a last stand near the Skywatch.

The House of Wolves

 * The Reef is betrayed by the Fallen House of Wolves, led by the House's Kell, Skolas, who wrests control of the House of Winter and declares himself as the Kell of Kells. In response the Queen of the Reef opens her realm to the Guardians to enact her vengeance.


 * Skolas' Silent Fang is stopped from usurping power from the House of Devils and the House of Kings on Earth.


 * The Guardians track Skolas from the wastelands of Old Russia to Venus, before Skolas is eventually defeated after a final battle atop the Citadel, where he attempts to use Vex technology to augment his army. He is captured by the Queen and sent to his death in the Prison of Elders.


 * As Skolas' Wolves rampage through the system, the mercenary Taniks, is hired by the Wolves to acquire the secrets of the Darkness from the Hive, but is killed on his ship, Kaliks-Syn, during a Guardian strike.


 * The Queen of the Reef gives Skolas to Variks for use in the Prison of Elders and instructs Variks to begin allowing Guardians into the Prison of Elders to do combat with the captors for unknown reasons.

The Taken King

 * Eris Morn alerts Mara Sov of Oryx's arrival, and the Queen sets out with the Awoken armada to Saturn, where the Taken King's Dreadnaught and a massive fleet of Hive ships have amassed, presumably to invade Earth.


 * Uldren Sov leads his fighter wings to attack the Dreadnaught and engage the fleet of Hive warships and Tombships protecting it, with the Queen and Oryx presiding over the battle from their respective flagships. With help from her Coven of Techeun Witches, the Queen summons her Harbingers.The Harbingers bombard the Dreadnaught, but leave no lasting marks on the battlecruiser. Oryx then fires the ship's superweapon, which rips a hole through the rings of Saturn and smashes the Awoken fleet. Queen Mara Sov and many other major parts of the Reef's leadership, including Paladin Abra Zire, and Techeun Shuro, have since disappeared and are considered MIA, while Petra Venj has advised all remaining Paladins to declare all of them dead. Though the Dreadnaught itself is unscathed, Oryx's fleet is obliterated and he is halted from attacking Earth directly.


 * The Vanguard intercepts a distress signal on all channels, broadcasting from the Skyburners fortress of Korus on Phobos. A Guardian is dispatched to Phobos in order to investigate, but upon their arrival they find the Skyburners have been slaughtered. Oryx contacts the Guardians, willing into existence the first wave of his army of corrupted Cabal and Hive called the Taken. The Guardian defeats these Taken, overcoming Syrok, Word of Oryx. They then attempt to escape the Skyburner Keep via the Aerodrome landing pad, which is riddled with Taken. The Guardian reaches the transmat zone and is pulled back to the Tower.


 * Realizing the Taken to be too deadly a threat to take lightly, the Vanguard send Guardians to rediscover lost powers of their forebearers. The Hunter gains the Nightstalker class and the Shadowshot super ability, the Warlock gains the Stormcaller class and the Stormtrance super ability, and the Titan gains the Sunbreaker class and the Hammer of Sol super ability.


 * The Vanguard locates Oryx's Dreadnaught in orbit of Saturn and analyzes its super weapon. Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6 directs the Guardian to one of the dead colony ships in Old Russia, where he had previously hidden a stealth drive capable of getting Guardians past the super weapon into the Dreadnaught to face Oryx. Upon touching down in the Blast, just outside of the Fallen House of Devils' lair, the Guardian discovers that the Taken have attacked Earth and have overwhelmed the Fallen. They then recover a stealth drive before defeating an Echo of Oryx and returning to the Tower.


 * With the stealth drive equipped, the Guardian evades Oryx super weapon and infiltrates the Dreadnaught. The Guardian then proceeds to disable the super weapon, and break into the crashed Cabal gunship, Dantalion Exodus VI, and steals information that the Cabal have secured on Oryx. Learning of a portal called the Rupture, the Guardian travels to back to the Moon where they obtain enough of Crota's essence to become Ascendant. They then infiltrate the Rupture and defeat Oryx's physical form, forcing his soul to retreat deeper into his ship until a team of six Guardians finishes him off for good.


 * With the arrival of Oryx, Cabal detachments across Mars and Phobos suffered enormous casualties. The Cabal are nearly annihilated until their reserve force, the Skyburners are deployed in a direct attack on the Dreadnaught. After the Skyburner's Primus is taken though, their offensive crumbles. A lone unit aboard the Cabal ship, Dantalion Exodus VI, sends a distress signal to the head of the Empire, only to be wiped out by Guardians. Nevertheless their message is believed to have reached its intended target.


 * The Guardians stop Theosyion, the Restorative Mind from bringing back Sekrion, Nexus Mind from the past and completing Venus' transformation into a Vex machine world.


 * Guardians answer Rasputin's call for aid in fending off a Fallen attack led by S.A.B.E.R.-2, a giant super-powered Shank.


 * Guardians prevent a Cabal assault team led by Valus Tlu'urn and Valus Mau'ual, from blowing up the Dreadnaught's core, saving the entire system from certain doom.


 * Alak-Hul, the Darkblade is found imprisoned aboard Oryx's Dreadnaught and is slain in his Sunless Cell by a Guardian Fireteam tasked by Eris Morn to eliminate a contender for the Osmium Throne.


 * On Venus, Guardians return to the emptied Vault of Glass hoping to rescue Praedyth from his timeless prison, but discover Morphon, Blighted Mind, a Vex Hydra tasked by Oryx to co-opt the Nexus' power, is blighting and corrupting the Vex network. Luckily for the Vex, Morphon is destroyed by Guardians, and Praedyth is freed from their control, his centuries-old remains found in a small room within the Vault.


 * The House of Wolves regroups on Mars and rebuilds their previous Prime Servitor, Orbiks Prime. Under Orbiks' direction, the Wolves attempt to establish a base in the Blind Legion's former keep, coming into conflict with local Cabal forces. The Guardian tracks down Orbiks Prime and eliminates it, scattering the House of Wolves once more.


 * A Taken Warbeast, Malok, Pride of Oryx, attempts to rally the remaining Taken from the Hellmouth. Malok is discovered however and a strike team eliminates him in a last stand at the Shrine of Oryx.

Rise of Iron

 * The Fallen House of Devils begins digging into old Golden Age research labs all over the system, eventually returning to the Cosmodrome and shifting massive amounts of resources to a previously dark region of Old Russia. This prompts Lord Saladin to take charge of the situation personally.
 * A Fallen force captures Felwinter Peak. Unable to get there in time, Lord Saladin orders the Guardian to secure the observatory at the top before it is too late. After defending the mountaintop from several waves of Fallen forces, the Guardian reaches the Iron Temple before defeating Sepiks Perfected, keeping the Fallen from the temple long enough for Lord Saladin to arrive with reinforcements.
 * Upon Saladin's arrival, the pair witness Sepiks escape Felwinter Peak, prompting Saladin to send the Guardian to the Cosmodrome to find and eliminate Sepiks in order to learn the extent of the SIVA corruption. In the Cosmodrome, the Guardian encounters the Hive, who are being driven out somehow, before seeking out a monitoring station responsible for keeping the sensor grid online.
 * Kovic, Splicer Priest invades a Hive nest located in an old Missile Silo near the Triglav Bunker. After a team of Guardians destroy a network of SIVA Nodes which are augmenting the Silos' old defense protocols and keeping the facility sealed tight, the Guardians descend into the Hive Nest and kill Kovic, as well as a captive Hive Ogre the Fallen Priest had infused with SIVA.
 * A fireteam of Guardians tracks down Sepiks Perfected again, and kill both it and Dresiks, Splicer Baron in the Devils' Lair. A trio of augmented Captains—the Shock Captain; the Splicer Scorch Captain; and the Null Captain—are methodically eliminated.