Vex

"Where we see beauty, the Vex see imperfection. Every world, every being, must be made anew."

- Ikora Rey

The Vex are a race of time-traveling cybernetic war-machines. They have been encountered on several planets, moons and other celestial bodies in the Sol system, among them Venus, where they have built the Citadel and the Vault of Glass, and Mars, where they guard the entrance portal to the mysterious Black Garden. Additionally, they have laid claim to Mercury and Nessus, both of which have been fully converted into Machine Worlds, and have established a foothold in Echo Mesa on Io.

Overview
"Living metal. Incomprehensible intelligence."

- Grimoire description.

The Vex have been described as a "hyperintelligent time-spanning thought-mesh", a collective mind composed of countless component intelligences distributed across time and space. The mobile Vex machines encountered by Guardians are merely containers for these intelligences, which carry mind cores filled with milky radiolarian fluid - hypothesized to be the only remnant of their distant biological origin.

Vex come in a diverse array of shapes and sizes, but the majority share features such as triangular or conical "heads," single glowing photoreceptors, jointed limbs, and in several cases arrays of flexible tentacles. Despite their often animalistic appearance, the Vex appear to be mass-produced units, constructed of an unknown metal alloy resembling hammered brass. Headshots on humanoid Vex do not do much damage and instead send them into a berserk state; however, shooting the exposed mind cores in their abdomen will cause them to explode. The Vex travel to the Floating Gardens to recycle their mechanical bodies when they are no longer functional.

The Ancient Past
"But the Vex? The Vex seek neither Light nor Darkness. They seek Convergence, the reduction of all life to its simplest, most meaningless form. An entelechy of zeros and ones."

- Sister Faora

The Vex's origins are unknown. The earliest event associated with the Vex is when the Hive god Crota, Son of Oryx opened a portal to a place where the Vex were present, hoping to find a secret power for himself. Instead, he allowed the Vex to invade Oryx, the Taken King's throne world, the High War. At first unsuited to the Ascendant Realm and the rules governing its reality, the Vex quickly learned of the Hive's Sword-Logic, creating Quria, Blade Transform to investigate it. Through Quria, the Vex learned to achieve divinity by killing all who opposed them and adopting worship as a primary function. Though Oryx eventually succeeded in eliminating the Vex from his realm, they preserved what they learned and passed it on to the rest of the Vex hive mind.

The Golden Age
"I have destroyed myself to do this. They have taken my Ghost. They are in my blood and brain. But now there is hope. [...] Now it is done. If I speak again, I am not Kabr"

- Kabr, the Legionless

During humanity's Golden Age, Vex structures were found on Venus dating back to a few billion years before humanity's existence. Ishtar researchers suspected that the Vex ruins came from an alternate Venus and came into being when the Traveler transformed Venus into a habitable world.

The Collective also recovered a live specimen of Vex and discovered that it had created an internal simulation of themselves, accurately predicting their every move. To Collective researchers, this ability raised profound philosophical quandaries about the nature of reality. Eventually the researchers were driven nearly to madness, as they started to wonder if they themselves were just Vex simulations, so they decided to bring in a Warmind to intervene on their behalf. Warminds were many orders of magnitude more complex than humans, and it was believed that the Vex would be unable to simulate them; thus, the Warmind's presence and actions would be a sufficiently chaotic variable to allow the researchers to discern which universe was real and disrupt the simulation.

The Vex first appeared on Mercury during the Golden Age as well, shortly after the Traveler terraformed the planet into a garden world. Dendron, Root Mind was created following the Vex's arrival, and began converting the planet into a Machine World that would house the "reality engine" known as the Infinite Forest within its core.

During or before the Collapse, the colony ship Exodus Black left Earth on a trajectory out of the solar system. It was intercepted, however, by the planetoid known as Nessus, which had become fully converted into a Vex Machine World and had left its usual orbital patterns. The entire crew of the Exodus Black was captured or killed, with some being kept alive by the Vex for a time for experimentation and analysis.

The City Age and the Taken War
"They want me to send a message... The creatures will soon reach the heart of the Vault. When they do, they'll destroy the Vex. Once they take the Vex, they'll come for the Light."

- Praedyth

When the Guardians Kabr, the Legionless, Pahanin, and Praedyth ventured into the Vault of Glass on Venus, a major confluence of the Vex network, they were thwarted by the Templar and its Gorgons. Pahanin managed to escape, but Kabr perished and Praedyth was trapped and lost in time.

Praedyth was forgotten until the time of the Taken War, when the Taken began to blight the Vex network. After receiving a distress signal from Praedyth, The Guardian was sent to the Vault to investigate and was unexpectedly granted access by the Vex. Inside, the Guardian discovered a series of Dead Ghosts Praedyth had left behind. Praedyth revealed through recordings within the Ghosts that he had seen what the Vex had calculated would be their future: eons hence, they would be completely corrupted by the Taken, becoming an eternal part of the legacy of Oryx, the Taken King. Although the Vex were able to foresee this future and compelled to seek a way to avert it, they concluded that this grim fate was inevitable without the Light; allowing the Guardian to fight the Taken blight that plagued them was an act of desperation. Traveling through a portal, the Guardian was transported to the Vex's future, where the blight was defeated, the Vex were spared from their fate, and Praedyth's remains and Ghost were recovered. Despite this moment of cooperation, however, the Vex still had no intention of returning the favor or sparing the Last City.

On Mars, the Vex (under the Virgo Prohibition) waged an intense war with the Cabal, who managed to repel the machines despite the vast numbers of them that continually assaulted Cabal positions. The reason for this massive, if ineffective, offensive against the Cabal is that the Vex were surging to protect the Black Garden, which the Vex are being summoned to for an unknown purpose. Guardians who succeeded in breaking into the Black Garden discovered that the Vex in fact worshiped an entity within the Garden known as the Black Heart, an aspect of the Darkness that had lent power to the Vex. Even after the destruction of the Sol Progeny and the Black Heart, the Vex sought to control the Black Garden and pull it back out of space and time. Besides the Black Heart, the Vex may have another connection with the Darkness; Osiris speculated that Vex structures such as the Timekeeper are designed to activate in the presence of the Darkness. With the gate to the Black Garden having been destroyed by the Red Legion, it is unknown if the Vex still have the means to access the Garden itself. It's possible the entrance from the Tharsis Junction still exists and the Garden is still accessible.

In recent times, the Vex had suffered numerous setbacks across the system - a large number of Vex Axis Minds were destroyed by Guardians, leaving the Vex network in disarray. With the arrival of the Taken, attacks against the Vex had only escalated. The Vex have yet to counter these failures, though some believe the cybernetic machines have begun preparing countermeasures as Variks, the Loyal notes, following Skolas' defeat, "Old machines are waking up...".

The Red War
"Some speculate that the radiolarian fluid is the last vestige of a biological life-form that became the Vex."

- Sister Faora

By the time of the Red War, two years after the Taken War, the Vex had come under attack by the Fallen House of Dusk and the Cabal Red Legion on Io, Mercury, Mars, and Nessus. Of note, on Mars the Red Legion quickly succeeded against the Vex where other Cabal legions had failed for decades: they destroyed the gate to the Black Garden and drove the Vex out of Meridian Bay. According to Cayde-6, the Red Legion has brought even more of their might to bear on Mars than on Earth.

On Nessus, the Red Legion had begun drilling into The Inverted Spire, hoping to study and utilize Protheon, Modular Mind as a weapon but the Vex responded violently, causing a warzone to break out near the drilling sites. The Vanguard found out about the legion's efforts and sent in Guardians to destroy Protheon before the Red Legion could capture the Vex Mind. After fighting through Vex and Cabal forces, the Guardians descended into the Inverted Spire and faced off against the Vex entity. Despite its firepower and altering the battlefield, the Guardians succeeded in destroying Protheon, depriving the Vex of an Axis Mind and the Cabal of a potential new weapon.

While on Io, the Vanguard pin-pointed the Vex's machine conversion of the moon at The Pyramidion, lead by Brakion, Genesis Mind. Not only do the Vanguard want to put a stop to the Vex's plans to turn Io into another machine world but also prevent any lingering Taken from corrupting the Genesis Mind into a powerful Taken entity. Storming the Pyramidion, the Guardians, guided by Asher Mir, evade Vex traps, Vex defenders and Taken enemies and enter a pit that leads to the Genesis Mind. Battling the Vex Mind, the Guardians succeed in destroying Brakion, hindering the Vex's efforts to convert Io and granting Asher Mir as sense of vengeance as it was Brakion who nearly converted him into a Vex machine.

Curse of Osiris
"I never found Osiris, but I've killed enough Vex to end a war."

- Saint-14

However, following the death of Dominus Ghaul and the reawakening of the Traveler, Vex Minds began to call the modern Vex, Precursors, and Descendants to Mercury, in order to bring forth a dark future in which only they dominate all life and both Light and Darkness no longer exist, through the means of the Infinite Forest. This required the Vanguard to locate Osiris, in the hopes of stopping them. Despite her reservations, Ikora Rey, the former student of Osiris, gives her blessing to the mission and gains assistance from the Cult of Osiris.

Though the Vanguard gained an ally in the exiled warlock's Ghost, Sagira, the Guardians traveled across the Infinite Forest to find Osiris while also thwarting the Vex's plans. After encountering reflections of Osiris, the Guardians face the mastermind and instigator of the Vex's plans, Panoptes, Infinite Mind, an extremely powerful Axis Mind with the power to delete the Vex's enemies within the Forest. Though the Guardians lost Sagira to Panoptes during their mission to locate the Infinite Mind's lair, they remained determined to stop Panoptes from bringing about the Vex's desired future. With the aid of Ikora and her abilities, the Guardian was able to enter the Infinite Forest once again and find Panopte's lair, Infinity's Crown.

The Guardians battle with the Infinite Mind but find themselves unable to harm the Axis Mind. Just before Panoptes deletes the Guardian, Osiris himself and many of his reflections arrive to aid the Guardian. Using his power, Osiris stuns Panoptes enough that Guardian was able to harm the Infinite Mind's core using Arc charges. In time, the Infinite Mind was destroyed for good, stopping the Vex from merging reality into their dark future. Leaving the Infinite Gate, Osiris is reunited and reconciles with Ikora Rey but returns to the Infinite Forest to prevent any more Vex plots.

At some point, the Leviathan consumed a chunk of Nessus that contained a powerful Vex Mind, Argos, Planetary Core, who caused the world-eater to clog up and malfunction. Emperor Calus immediately called upon the help of the Guardians to destroy the Vex intrusion, where they succeeded and repaired the Leviathan. Calus saved the Guardians from being sucked into the Leviathan afterward, where he rewarded them for their efforts.

Biology
"There are people who do the big pie in the sky thinking, like "What if there was a... a liquified race of people that were contained in this walking form, this robotic form, and they all shared one mind and it was contained in this data milk," you know. And then there are the other people who would write the ghost’s dialogue to describe, you know, the Vex in the scene they get revealed."

- DeeJ - Community Manager for Bungie



The Vex in their true form are aquatic microorganisms known as radiolaria. Though Ikora Rey believes that this is not the true form of the Vex themselves, as she believes that if the Vex could manifest their consciousness in such a form, it would be able to take on other forms The "mind-fluid" inside each of their mind-cores is composed of a milky substance wherein radiolaria cells float; this centralized mind-core is also a localized receiver for each individual Vex "component" of the Nexus. Their aquatic origins are strongly implied through their architecture. Vex cells are noted entheogens and physical contact with Vex units can produce dangerous mind-altering effects.

It is believed that Vex are not born or made, so much as converted. When Asher Mir was infected with Radiolarian fluid, his arm turned into a Vex construct. Kabr, the Legionless would have suffered a similar fate had he not used his Light to become The Aegis.

The source of Venus Spirit Blooms might be a byproduct of Vex-influenced flora. It is said that Vex encryption is unbreakable.

Objectives
"The Vex have no hope. No imagination, no drive, no fear. All they have is the Pattern. Everything must fit. If it can be made to fit, good. If it can't, it gets cut away."

- Praedyth

The ultimate goal of the Vex is to remake all of reality in their image. Praedyth described the Vex as being motivated by a "Pattern," which drives the Vex to either reshape or destroy everything in their path. Osiris referred to the Vex's objective as "Convergence," an outcome where all life in the universe has been converted to a simplified, digital form. As part of this ideal future, the Vex seek to bring about a state where neither the Light nor the Darkness exist any longer. The Vault of Glass on Venus serves as a testing ground to melding reality with the Vex through ontological means.

The Vex have displayed an interest in studying the behavior and strategies of other species in order to further their own aims. At least one known programming is known to study its enemies, taking prisoners for observation and conducting a variety of experiments; examples include the Ishtar Collective scientists, Failsafe's crew, and later The Guardian.

The Vex are unable to simulate paracausal forces or beings such as the Light, Guardians or the Darkness, and consequently have a particular interest in understanding paracausality and co-opting paracausal forces for their own use where possible. When the Vex first encountered the Hive after Crota inadvertently released them into the Ascendant realm of Oryx, the Taken King, the Vex manifested an Axis Mind dedicated to understanding and utilizing the Sword-Logic. The Black Garden is another example of a Vex effort to harness paracausal forces for their own use, in this case by creating the Sol Divisive to worship what appeared to be a fragment of the Darkness and the Sol Progeny as its vessels for harnessing that power in conjuction with the ontological Vault of Glass. The pulse of Light emitted by the Traveler when it defeated Ghaul was apparently instrumental in allowing Panoptes, Infinite Mind to predict a future where Convergence was achieved, and to enact a plan to achieve that future.

Programming Collectives

 * Aphix Invasive—Vault of Glass, Prison of Elders
 * Hezen Corrective—Venus
 * Hezen Protective—Venus
 * Sol Primeval—Vault of Glass, Mercury, Black Garden
 * Sol Divisive—Black Garden
 * Sol Imminent—Vault of Glass, Mercury
 * Sol Progeny—Black Garden, Prison of Elders
 * Vex Sol Collective—Nessus, Io, Mercury
 * Virgo Prohibition—Mars

Vex Collective Leadership

 * Argos, Planetary Core
 * Atheon, Time's Conflux
 * Brakion, Genesis Mind
 * Dendron, Root Mind
 * Panoptes, Infinite Mind
 * Quria, Blade Transform
 * Sekrion, Nexus Mind
 * The Templar''

Major Characters

 * Methodios, Module Proxy
 * Prohibitive Mind
 * Protheon, Modular Mind
 * Qodron, Gate Lord
 * Sol Progeny
 * Eschaton Mind
 * Imminent Mind
 * Primeval Mind
 * The Gorgons
 * Theosyion, the Restorative Mind
 * The Undying Mind
 * Vekron, the Conductive Mind
 * Zydron, Gate Lord

Minor Characters

 * Acanthos, Gate Lord
 * Accumulative Mind
 * Achronos, Infinite Proxy
 * Agoros, Gatekeeper
 * Alecto, Infinite Proxy
 * Antikytheran Mind
 * Apaktos, Oxidizing Mind
 * Aphix Penultima Alpha
 * Arcadian Chord
 * Arcane Mind
 * Attenuation Mind
 * Branched Mind, Proxy
 * Corrective Mind
 * Corrective Permutation
 * Divisive Mind
 * Divisive Occulator
 * Entangled Mind
 * Episkeptis, the Uninvited
 * Eydx, Exothermic Mind
 * Falysion, Frenzied Mind
 * Hagios, Reverent Mind
 * Hapax, the Convergent Mind
 * Igneous Mind
 * Integration Mind
 * Kagathos, Empathic Mind
 * Kataskopos
 * Khartion, Archival Mind
 * Krothion
 * Liquid Mind
 * Maniphage
 * Network Cyclops
 * Network Mind
 * Network Minotaur
 * Network Protector
 * Nucleative Mind
 * Outopos, Stranded
 * Overmind Minotaur
 * Pakrion
 * Photometric Mind
 * Prohibitive Permutation
 * Proto-Sentinel Galedrix, Forge Saboteur
 * Qeldron, Keeper
 * Radian Clocker
 * Recursive Mind
 * Replicant Mind, Proxy
 * Ropymion, Delirious Mind
 * Ruined Mind
 * Siege Minotaur
 * Spaelosus, Buried Mind
 * Splendid Mind
 * Tekton, Constructive Mind
 * Teleosus, Purifying Mind
 * The Fragment
 * The Groundskeeper
 * The Impregnable Nightmare
 * The Menacing Nightmare
 * The Nightmare, Awakened
 * Thyrdron
 * Tyranos, Gatekeeper
 * Vechron, Spire Lord
 * Vex Warden
 * Viadion, Cleansing Mind
 * Viadon, Inquisitor Mind
 * Vortex Mind
 * Watchful Harpy
 * Wayward Mind
 * Xegonion, Warped Mind

Mentioned Only

 * Hezen Lords
 * Hezen Axis Mind

The Nexus
It is thought that the Vex have embedded structures within every known celestial body, linked together in a massive trans-dimensional and trans-temporal network called the Nexus. This Nexus converts new worlds into massive Vex machines; Mercury was converted into a Machine World within days of the Collapse to house the reality-simulating Infinite Forest. Ostensibly, the purpose of the Nexus is to paracausally incorporate the Vex into the fabric of the universe itself. The Vault of Glass, a space where the Vex can ontologically manipulate reality at will, is potentially a testing ground for this power. This power is limited to the Vault, though Ikora hypothesizes that the Sol Progeny were meant to carry this ability into the rest of the universe. Both the Vault of Glass and the Nexus are both currently undertaken by the Hezen Protective on Venus, though the process of the latter was drawn out for centuries for unknown reasons.

Teleportation
The Vex display a mastery of teleportation, and use a variety of teleportation modes for transporting troops and resources. Entire squads of Vex can drop into combat zones from thin air, their arrival preceded by shimmering angular patterns and clouds of mist. According to Ghost, the Vex are capable of teleporting between star systems in seconds. Minotaurs are infamous for using teleportation aggressively, warping in and out of existence as they close with enemies. Stationary warp gates are also used to transport Vex between distant locations. Weapons such as the Slap Rifle and Line Rifle utilize teleportation as part of their core mechanisms, drawing power from highly energetic and vastly distant sources.

According to simulations within the Infinite Forest, the first Vex structures on Mercury arrived via teleportation from some other location in space, and possibly time as well.

Simulation
As machine intelligences with incredible amounts of processing power at their disposal, the Vex are capable of generating simulations of reality to a degree of accuracy and realism exceeding even the best efforts of Golden Age humanity. According to records from the Ishtar Collective, Vex are capable of generating simulations of real-world events with perfect fidelity and predictive ability — essentially running a parallel reality in their minds which is arguably indistinguishable from the "real" universe. Even lone Goblins have the processing power to nest such simulations up to 227 times through the simple expedient of simulating themselves along with their surroundings. The predictive capacity of these simulations appears to be limited only to ordinary physics, as the Vex are apparently unable to simulate complex phenomena that are linked to a paracausal power. These include Guardians, and Oryx; in the latter case they were only able to bootstrap a simulation of his original incarnation as Aurash. Warminds are also complex enough to resist simulation, at least by a single Vex unit.

The Infinite Forest within Mercury is perhaps the most impressive example of Vex simulation technology, being a massive "reality engine" capable of simulating countless variants of past, present and future realities. These simulations can be entered by non-Vex through a gateway on the surface of Mercury, and are "real" enough such that intruders can be damaged by attacks from simulated Vex or other entities within the Forest.

Time Travel
It is generally assumed that the Vex are capable of some form of time travel; the Precursors and Descendants are thought to originate from the past and future, respectively, and numerous Vex units have titles or functions that allude to an ability to manipulate time. However, according to Sister Faora of the Cult of Osiris, the Vex may not capable of "time travel" as is commonly understood; if they were, she claims, neither the Guardians or any other obstacles to the Vex would still exist. Apparently while hacking into a major Vex terminal, the A.I. Failsafe was captured by the Vex in the network, by the time the Guardian got her out, she explained that a decade has passed inside the network despite only a few minutes passing outside. It appears that time works differently in the Vex Network than in the real world.

Weaponry

 * Aeon Maul
 * Harpy Slap Rifle
 * Chronology Rifle
 * Line Rifle
 * Slap Grenade
 * Slap Rifle
 * Torch Hammer
 * Vex Laser Rifle

Structures

 * Citadel
 * Conflux
 * Infinite Forest
 * Jump Gate
 * Machine World
 * Mercury
 * Nessus
 * Nexus
 * Spire
 * Sync Plate
 * Vault of Glass
 * Warp Gate
 * Pyramidion

Other

 * Vex Warden

Command structure
"There's no hierarchy among the Vex—just specific functions. The ones you're after serve the purpose of being tough and mean."

- Cayde-6

The Vex are all connected to one another in a massive hive mind, but individual Vex units called Axis Minds act as leaders by storing all information necessary to complete a particular goal, freeing up individual Vex to pursue local tasks while the Axis Mind can plan globally. This creates a centralized weakness for the Vex, but they seem to consider it worth the risk. The Vex are divided up into different programming collectives, each with a different set of directives intended to advance the Vex race as a whole. Whether the Vex in question are devoted to engineering projects, full-scale war, or religious devotion, all Vex are united by a single, unfathomable purpose.

Infantry

 * Cyclops—vex artillery units that lay down Void mortar fire that deals heavy damage. Can be pushed into a berserker rage that causes it to rapidly fire Void blasts in a wide area.
 * Cyclops Disciple
 * Barrier Mind
 * Keeper of Ages Past
 * Quantum Cyclops
 * Fanatic—glitched Vex that attempt to decimate their opponents with their self-destruct sequences. Can infect Guardians with radiolarian fluid.
 * Disintegrator
 * Finalizer
 * Rusted Fanatic
 * Goblin—cannon fodder that rely on swarming to overwhelm their targets. Most commonly armed with a Slap Rifle, but can also been seen with a Torch Hammer (rare), or a Line Rifle (very rare).
 * Axis Goblin
 * Goblin Zealot
 * Goblin Disciple
 * Depraved Goblin
 * Descendant Goblin
 * Precursor Goblin
 * Rusted Goblin
 * Qodron's Eye
 * Architector Goblin
 * Hobgoblin—long range support machines that provide suppressive fire. Most commonly armed with a Line Rifle, but can also be seen with a Torch Hammer (rare) or a Slap Rifle (very rare).
 * Axis Hobgoblin
 * Chord Hobgoblin
 * Conductive Disciple
 * Descendant Hobgoblin
 * Hobgoblin Disciple
 * Iso Hobgoblin
 * Mercury Defender
 * Precursor Hobgoblin
 * Quantum Hobgoblin
 * Rusted Hobgoblin
 * Integrator Hobgoblin
 * Harpy—scouting and patrolling support units that provide cover fire in a pinch and move around very quickly. Armed with a Harpy Slap Rifle or Vex Beam Weapon.
 * Axis Harpy
 * Chord Harpy
 * Descendant Harpy
 * Gorgon
 * Harpy Zealot (Arc Shield)
 * Inquisitor Harpy
 * Mercury Defender
 * Precursor Harpy
 * Supplicant
 * Quantum Harpy
 * Rusted Harpy
 * Minotaur—extremely aggressive, heavy assault machines that can rapidly teleport to flank their targets. Equipped with a Void Shield. Most commonly armed with a Torch Hammer, but can also be seen with a Slap Rifle or a Vex Beam Weapon. Also lacks a weak spot.
 * Axis Minotaur
 * Chord Minotaur
 * Corroded Minotaur
 * Descendant Minotaur
 * Keeper of Ages Present
 * Minotaur Guard
 * Point Minotaur
 * Praetorian
 * Mercury Defender
 * Headless Praetorian
 * Precursor Minotaur
 * Integrator Minotaur
 * Shielded Minotaur
 * Storm Minotaur
 * Quantum Minotaur
 * Rusted Minotaur
 * Hydra—aggressive, levitating robotic centipedes that provide heavy support to other Vex units; also serve as processing nodes. Armed with an Aeon Maul and equipped with a rotating shield that blocks all damage. Can perform a death blast when killed.
 * Axis Hydra
 * Corroded Hydra
 * Elite Mercury Defender
 * Hydra Disciple
 * Integrator Hydra
 * Inquisitor Hydra
 * Precursor Hydra
 * Keeper of Ages Unseen

Emplacements

 * Oracle—glowing spires of Vex energy that attempt to use their time-bending abilities in order to wipe Guardians from existence.
 * Quantum Mine —Mines used to sustain the barrier of Argos, Planetary Core and will kill Guardians when detonated

Trivia

 * According to a post on RolingStone, the story of the Vex was inspired by a little known movie called Gandahar which was about metal men who come from the future and begin turning everything in a paradise world to stone.
 * The Vex may have their name derived from the VEX Robotics Design System, a kit intended to introduce newcomers to the world of robotics.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * House of Wolves
 * The Taken King
 * Destiny 2
 * Curse of Osiris
 * Warmind
 * Forsaken