Taniks, the Scarred

"Taniks has no House. He kneels before no banner, owes allegiance to no Kell."

- Variks, The Loyal.

Taniks, the Scarred is a renegade Fallen mercenary with no House, but affiliated with the House that pays him.

He is first seen working for the House of Wolves during the Wolf Rebellion in The Shadow Thief Strike and later reappears in the Deep Stone Crypt Raid.

Early History
"A Kell cut off his arms. He built himself new ones. Then he killed the Kell with them."

- Does Not Bow

Taniks was once loyal to an unknown House, but docked into subservience by his Kell. He then built himself new prosthetic arms and killed his former Kell out of revenge. Taniks later renounced his pledge to any House and refused to adhere to their arbitrary customs and traditions.

Inspired by Sekris, Baron of Shanks, who prolonged his lifespan through cybernetics, Taniks was among a new generation of Fallen mercenaries who modelled their brutality and cybernetics after Sekris. He built a reputation among the Eliksni as an undying huntsman and infused his physical body with mixtures of technologies pilfered from legendary treasure troves. This continued to the extent where he was considered more machine than Fallen.

Battles with the City
"Taniks didn't announce himself. Didn't say a word. Just laughed a few times and tried like hell to kill us all... Which meant the boogeyman had a face—the boogeyman was REAL."

- Cayde-6.

During the early City Age, the Fallen Houses placed a large bounty of Glimmer and Ether on an infamous crew of Hunters, which included Andal Brask, Shiro-4, and Cayde-6.

Taniks sought to claim this bounty and ambushed Cayde, Shiro, Nian Ruo, and Lush during a cache run. He murdered Nian and destroyed Lush's Ghost before they could escape. Andal was later informed of the news and sought to kill Taniks out of revenge. One night, Andal and Cayde stayed up late drinking and decided to make a Vanguard Dare. They decided that whoever failed to kill Taniks would become the new Hunter Vanguard, while the winner lived the life of a free Hunter.

Cayde first succeeded in killing Taniks and Andal kept his word by becoming the new Hunter Vanguard. It was later discovered that Taniks was not dead at all and prompted Cayde to talk Andal out of his position as the Dare was made in a compromised state. Taniks was later killed by Cayde again, however Taniks' body was hauled off by his Crew.

Taniks became a pain to the Last City and this led to Osiris joining the hunt and the Speaker enlisting Saint-14; who was infamous amongst the Fallen, to find and kill the mercenary himself.

In the Battle of the Twilight Gap, Taniks returned after surviving both his encounters with Cayde. There he became acquainted with the infamous Baroness, Eramis, the Shipstealer, and followed her assault against the City. Taniks fired thunderous blasts from his Scorch Cannon and created explosions of blood around him while laughing maniacally. However, the Fallen Houses failed their "Final Attempt" attack and retreated in defeat.

Later, Taniks proceeded to murder Andal in cold blood and forced Cayde to replace his old friend as Hunter Vanguard.

Prison Breakout
"And still you wonder why I refuse my house-pledge. You could conquer the system, but you'd rather adhere to these arbitrary customs. Aksor belongs to Winter, and Eramis does not."

- Taniks, the Scarred.

At some point Taniks would join the Reef Wars and kill many Awoken. Later, Draksis, Winter Kell of the House of Winter would hire Taniks to free Aksor, Archon Priest from the Prison of Elders, who was captured during the Reef Wars. Taniks at first recollected how the Winter Kell once called him a self-serving scum who spat at his banner-less armor, but had to refrain himself from ripping out the his arms and legs as he believed Draksis would seek his services later on.

While Taniks held payment above pride, he also sought payment in blood and battle that was worthy of his time. He took the job, but charged twice his usual price out of anger as he will miss the opportunity to free the fiercest of the Eliksni warriors such as Eramis, Pirsis and Calzar. He criticised Draksis for wanting to free the impotent Archon from the Prison and insulted his Winter troops for being pathetic.

The Shadow Thief
"I remember Taniks from the Reef Wars. Many Awoken dead. Clever, clever creature."

- Variks, the Loyal

Hired by the House of Wolves to steal from the Dark, Taniks would lead the Wolf pack to plunder the Hellmouth. Variks having tracked Taniks movements since the Wolf uprising, would enlist a fireteam of Guardians to kill him. He would inform them that Taniks did not see them as an enemy, but as a trophy to collect.

Taniks, relishing at the challenge of the Lightbearers, would briefly engage them before retreating to his Ketch and jamming their comms. He then challenged them in the ways of the old and called upon the Wolves to unleash their military might and impede their progress by sending waves of Fallen, including a Walker upon them.

With tremendous effort, the Guardians destroyed the Walker and wiped out their enemies before cornering Taniks as he taunts them in Fallen dialect. He is eventually killed much to Variks' delight and rewards the team treasures from the Queen.

SIVA Perfected
"He talks. How is that possible?" "Maybe Taniks was more machine than we thought. He's not alive: perhaps he never was."

- Commander Zavala and Ikora Rey

During the aftermath of the SIVA Crisis, the leaderless Devil Splicers form an alliance with Taniks' Crew and rebuild the Fallen mercenary. Enhanced with SIVA, Taniks becomes Taniks Perfected and seeks to reclaim his old territory. Variks quickly informs Ikora and Zavala of his return and the Vanguard enlist the Guardians who fought with Saladin to hunt him down.

On arrival, Zavala notes how the Splicers are experimenting on nearby Hive and asks the Guardians to end this quickly before another SIVA outbreak occurs. As they approach the Dusk Warrens, Taniks encounters them near the lift to his Ketch, but is forced to retreat. Zavala is shocked that Taniks is able to talk since they believed the Splicers were only reanimating his body with SIVA. Ikora comments how Taniks maybe more machine than Fallen and perhaps he was never alive to begin with. With his Ketch still intact, a jamming field disrupts the Vanguard communications.

After fighting through the Splicers, Hive and a Perfected Walker, the Guardians manage to corner Taniks by his command bridge. Taniks is armed with his signature Scorch Cannon which is modified to allow Shock and Void blasts. His SIVA abilities also generate a immunity shield where nearby SIVA crystals need to be destroyed in order to disable the shield. The Guardians prevent SIVA from restarting Taniks' mercenary operations and slew him.

Nightmare of Taniks
"Years ago, Taniks tore the Vanguard apart over a mere bounty. Andal Brask was murdered in cold blood, and the Hunter Vanguard was left without a leader. Taniks would ultimately die on the orders of Cayde-6."

- Eris Morn

Taniks would continue to haunt the Guardians as a Nightmare recreated by the Pyramids. Eris Morn would send the Guardians to hunt down the Nightmare of Taniks as its Essence of Isolation was essential to forge armor to suppress the Nightmares and breach the Pyramid. The Nightmare would be defeated by the Dusk Warrens after the Guardians breached into the Temple of Crota. However his nightmare would continue to plague the Guardians as it reappears in the Altars of Sorrow and Nightmare Hunts.

Beyond Light
"There is evidence of Fallen giving themselves to technology... The mercenary Taniks is one example—more machine than Fallen now, an abomination in the eyes of traditional Fallen belief."

- A Blind Eye Towards Tomorrow.

Following the failed raid to capture Outbreak Perfected, Eramis would relive a dream of the Twilight Gap. She remembered how Taniks aided her crusade against the City, but awakens when she sees her fellow allies evaporate into ash. She later forms the House of Salvation and at some point they recover Taniks' body.

Her House established a stronghold on Europa and they rebuilt Taniks and kept secret him in the Deep Stone Crypt. Upon learning of the deaths of Phylaks and Praksis, Eramis retaliates by ordering Atraks to return to the Crypt and prepare the "body", in reference to Taniks. Later, Eramis acquires the Vex Radiolaria she needed and a cutscene follows. There Taniks is seen twice alongside Eramis and her allies as Variks comments how she found new family among them.

After the defeat of Eramis, a fireteam of Guardians is enlisted by the Exo Stranger to raid the Crypt in order to stop her followers from harnessing a chaos they do not understand. After bypassing the Crypt Security, the Crypt AI notes that Clarity Control was breached by a single unregistered Exo and a single life form of unknown biology and were detected by the Crypt laboratory. There Atraks-1, Fallen Exo reawakens Taniks only to anger him when he notices the Guardians. He begins to bash the laboratory glass so he can kill them, but later disappears.

Following the defeat of Atraks-1, the Crypt AI initates its nuclear descent protocol to fend off the intruders. Taniks, now known as Taniks, Reborn, is found by the Rapture, a control room of the Morning Star space station. Taniks engages the Guardians and supressess their attempt to disarm the Crypts protocol with nuclear cores and attacks them with his Molten Welder.

After deactivating the nuclear protocol, the orbital collision into Europa remained active. The Guardians quickly retreated into a lower hallway of the Rapture, but were followed by Taniks who mercilessly blasted them with his Molten Welder. He seemingly perished when the station crashed into Europa, but was later found to have survived the impact.

He re-emerges from the rubbles as Taniks, the Abomination, now more powerful than before and a monstrosity merged with a Heavy Shank. Taniks attacks the Guardians by blasting them with new abilities such as Turbulent Barrage and Turbulent Detonation and creates a Shock Field which the Guardians must enter to deal damage against him. In his final stand, Taniks teleports around the crash site of Restricted and falls to the fireteam.

In the aftermath, if Guardians were to die from his nuclear radiating corpse, it will trigger Taniks to laugh and suggests that the Fallen cyborg may still be alive in death.

Trivia

 * Taniks' cloak is orange and features an insignia not belonging to any known House. Whether it belongs to the House Taniks originates from, or is unique to Taniks himself, is unknown. It is also a random strike-exclusive Legendary drop for the hunter.
 * Taniks' is one of three Fallen Ultras found with Scorch Cannons, the others being Skolas and Vosik.
 * Taniks is one of the only Fallen enemies to kill a high authority of the Last City.
 * He leads his own group of loyal Fallen called Taniks' Crew.
 * He is the first Strike Boss to become a Raid Boss.
 * Taniks is believed to have once been a member of an extinct Fallen house called the House of Scar.
 * According to the flavor text of the Legendary Auto Rifle Does Not Bow, Taniks was punished with docking by his Kell; subsequently he built his first mechanical arms and took revenge.
 * It is suspected that Taniks was infused with darkness from the statue in the crypt, for he used void and arc energy in the raid.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * House of Wolves
 * The Taken King
 * Rise of Iron
 * Destiny 2
 * Curse of Osiris
 * Forsaken
 * Shadowkeep
 * Beyond Light