Vault of Glass (location)

The Vault of Glass is a Vex stronghold located on Venus.

Overview
"The Vault of Glass. A wound in time, a landmark to the Guardians. Only a legend such as you would be up to the challenge."

- Ikora Rey

Described as the "Vex underworld" by the Ishtar Collective, the Vault is a timeless realm used by the Vex on Venus as a testing ground to manipulate reality through the use of ontological warfare, as opposed to their realistic simulations. Because in this space, reality and time are altered by the Templar and the Gorgons to better suit the Vex's long-term goal of Convergence, with Atheon, Time's Conflux in charge as its nexus processing these calculations into the Conflux network. Located at the heart of the Vex collective, the Vault exists simultaneously across multiple alternate timelines and universes, acting as an anchor for the Vex's time-spanning operations. While these reality-bending powers do not extend outside the vault, the Speaker and Ikora speculated that the Sol Progeny are meant to unleashing them upon the Sol System and potentially the universe. Its enigmatic nature at the time of discovery has lured countless Guardians to their demise, including the ill-fated Kabr, the Legionless and his fireteam.

Despite being an entirely separate timeless realm on it's own, It is possible to begin to hallucinate after long periods of time in there, especially when confined within a cell, such as with Praedyth. And in the various timelines that are in there, it can even have the Traveler in various places, such as hanging above The Last City or other worlds, it is even implied it can emit light too, it can even show different versions of it, plus other locations in the universe. Even the cells inside the Vault are strong enough to cut off their prisoners from not only their power source but even the warmth of suns.

History
"The Vault of Glass is unique in all of the solar system. My scans indicate that other realities brush up against our own within the confines of the vault. So maybe you could even say it's unique in all the universes? The Vex are confusing."

- Ghost

When the Guardians Kabr, the Legionless, Pahanin, and Praedyth ventured into the Vault of Glass on Venus, a major confluence of the Vex Collective network, they were thwarted by the Templar and its Oracles. Pahanin managed to escape, but leaving Kabr to perish as the Vex took his Ghost and became assimilated by their technology, but not before his Light was reforged into the Aegis, a powerful shield that can alter fate in the Vault itself. Meanwhile, Praedyth was caught by the Gorgons' gaze and became erased from the records of history, yet he would actually remain imprisoned within the Vault; during which he witnessed countless other events that took place in the alternate timelines surrounding the Vault.

Following the destruction of the Black Heart, the Vanguard mounted a full six-manned Raid upon the Vex realm, putting a stop to their time-spanning operations for good. Unlike Kabr's team, the Guardians successfully breached the vault, defeated the Templar with the Aegis, and destroyed Time's Conflux at the Glass Throne.

During the Wolf Rebellion, Skolas attempted to seize the power of the Vault for himself in Wolves' Gambit. Utilizing Winter and Wolf Splicers, Skolas succeeded in tapping into the Vex network and attempted to use it to pull the entire House of Wolves through time, but ultimately failed.

Another attempt to seize the vault, this time by Oryx and the Taken, proved a much greater threat. Oryx utilized a corrupted Vex Mind, Morphon, to infect the Vex collective network at its core. The Vex believed that this would have truly meant the end for the Vex, for Oryx would have had access to and infected the entire Vex network, until they realized that they could trick the Guardians into entering the Vault and stopping the Taken for them.

Trivia

 * At multiple points throughout the Vault, it is possible to observe specks of light darting in and out of view. Upon closer examination it is shown these are actually projections of Ghosts.


 * Cayde-6 was actually quite interested in the Vault of Glass at one point.


 * From the Epistemic lore entry, Praedyth mentions that he has seen various figures standing in front of the shard of the Traveler in European Dead Zone and that they are all different from each other but bare the same light, this is likely another example of the Destiny Universe playing at the 4th Wall Awareness theme with each of us as The Guardian going through the same Story of Destiny, across multiple Timelines.


 * An area in The Whisper featured a non-traversable Gate through which an area within the Vault of Glass could be seen, nearly 3 years before it returned in Destiny 2 during Season of the Splicer. Likewise, the other side of the Gate appears in the Destiny 2 reprisal of the Vault of Glass Raid and shows The Whisper through it.


 * Despite it being a raid level threat, the first fireteam to explore the Vault was only composed of three members; Kabr, the Legionless, Praedyth, and Pahanin.
 * A popular fan theory is that the fireteam was of six, but throughout the raid; whether to the Oracles, The Templar, the Gorgons, or even Atheon, Time's Conflux itself, three of the six were expunged from time, leaving only Kabr, Praedyth, and Pahanin remembered.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * House of Wolves
 * The Taken King
 * Age of Triumph
 * Destiny 2
 * Curse of Osiris
 * Season of the Splicer