The Nine

"More of your brother's Crows have entered the Cauldrons of Rhea. The Nine do not approve."

- Techeun

The Nine (often represented as the IX; also known as the ennead) are the enigmatic rulers of the "Jovians", the worlds and people beyond the Solar System's asteroid belt. They reside deep within an alternate dimension in spacetime, the Unknown Space.

History
"He says the Nine are vulnerable every moment they touch our world."

- Brother Vance

Little of the Nine is known outside of legends and the cryptic sayings of Xûr, Agent of the Nine. Osiris is said to have met with the Nine on Europa, and before his exile had an obsessive interest in them to the exclusion of his duties as the Warlock Vanguard. Nonetheless the Nine appear to have a vested interest in helping the City, tasking Xûr to sell powerful weapons to Guardians. Following the Red War, the Nine have taken an active interest in Guardians, and have began to host the Trials of the Nine through their proxy, The Emissary. Emperor Calus is dismissive of their efforts.

The Nine have an alliance of sorts with The Reef but their loyalty is in doubt following the release of Skolas, Kell of Kells despite rumours to the contrary. The Cabal know of them as the Ennead.

Sometime during or before the Red War an individual Guardian named Orin (and potentially an agent of Mara Sov ) sought out nine Ghosts who had gone beyond the Solar System and inquired after their findings. Receiving only a set of coordinates she left them. She also found several "deep-orbit minds" in the midst of her search. Orin soon encountered some of the Nine herself. After warning her of the possibility of going mad from the conversation  and of a potential price as consequence, they tasked her with finding three "worthy keys". They then commended her for seeking them out, for her resourcefulness in acquiring a ship and her decision to avoid "a golden snake who poses as a god".

Whether before or after Orin/the Awoken agent visits them, the Nine speak of two significant events. The first event is with expectation and appears to be Mara Sov's plan with her Techeuns. They are confident that her fall is inevitable for the odds she plays with have been weighted by them. The second event is harder to construct and is tinged with overtones of regret and sadness; the Nine could be referring to anything from the Great Ahamkara Hunt, to The Collapse, or the Harbingers. Regardless of the specifics, one member urges the rest to "rid [themselves] of regret".

Identity
"I cannot explain what the Nine are. They are... very large. I cannot explain. The fault is mine, not yours."

- Xûr, Agent of the Nine

Very little about the Nine or the Jovian peoples is known due to the isolation of the outer Solar System. In Destiny, nine legends offer contradictory clues and hints as to their nature, but none have been proven. The Cabal call them the Ennead.


 * Former human colonies who made a compact with an alien force to survive became the Nine and/or the Jovians.
 * Deep-orbiting Warminds who survived the Collapse.
 * Ancient leviathan intelligences originating either from Europa or Titan.
 * The Nine originated from the Corona-Borealis supercluster.
 * The first Awoken, now transcended into mental energy moving along the Jupiter-Io flux tube.
 * Ghosts who exited the Solar System and studied the heliopause.
 * Remnants of the Darkness, broken by the Traveler's sacrifice, still seeking to destroy human civilization.
 * A viral language of pure meaning.
 * Imprints of a transcendent entity left behind after its complete destruction.

In Destiny 2 there are seventeen Lore entries which seem to have five particular members of the Nine defined, with a potential sixth and seventh. It should be noted that six could be I speaking more, and seventh a possible typo, and thus not conclusive or definite.

These members are as follows:

Agents of the Nine

 * Xûr, Agent of the Nine
 * The Emissary

Territory

 * Jupiter
 * Europa
 * Saturn
 * Rhea
 * Titan
 * Unknown Space

Trivia

 * The name, "The Nine" or "IX", is likely a reference to the "Ix" in Frank Herbert's Dune series, a fictional planet whose position from its sun inspired the name, ruled by the Ixian Technocracy. Ix was the primary provider of technology for the Old Imperium (or Galactic Padishah Empire) after the infamous Butlerian Jihad, which banned AI; ironically, Leto Atreides II used many of their creations later in his reign, a situation unthinkable in his early years.
 * Additionally it could also reference the in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, given by Sauron (in disguise as Annatar) to corrupt nine powerful kings of men to his service, of which three were Númenórean, the last noble survivors from the island kingdom of Númenor that Sauron had destroyed. "Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die..."


 * Some of Xûr's dialogue partly explains the in-universe legends behind the Nine, as he mentions that what Guardians do "is to speak in a language of pure meaning".
 * The identity of at least five Nine was put together in a reddit post by u/jeckal_died, and serves as the basis for some of this article, minus the speculation.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * House of Wolves
 * Destiny 2
 * Curse of Osiris
 * Warmind