The Guardian

This article is about the main character of the Destiny series. For the faction, see Guardians.

The Guardian
Biographical information
Other name(s):	"Captain" "God-Slayer" "Iron Lord" "The Taken King" "Young Wolf"
Born:	N/A
Died:	N/A
Species:	Optional
Gender:	Optional
Height:	N/A
Weight:	N/A
Hair color:	Optional
Eye color:	Optional
Political and military information
Affiliation:	Factions Guardians Iron Lords The Last City Traveler Vanguard
Rank:	Guardian
Class:	Optional
Notable info:	Slayer of the Black Heart, Atheon, Time's Conflux, Crota, Son of Oryx, Skolas, Kell of Kells, Oryx, the Taken King, and Aksis, Archon Prime

"All of the after-action reports I've shown you about the Taken War, the calm state of the system... we have this Guardian to thank. I've attached more details, if you want to read evaluations from the Vanguard. Just skim Cayde's. He's... not very biased, here."

— Grimoire description

The Guardian is a protector of the Last City and a new-generation Iron Lord, who has participated in numerous legendary battles to retake humanity's past from various malevolent forces.

Biography

A Guardian Rises

Centuries after The Collapse, the Guardian was resurrected by a lone Ghost searching the Cosmodrome. Before Ghost could explain what had happened, a band of Fallen who tracked the machine encroached on their position. Ghost led the Guardian into The Wall and gave them their first weapon, a battered, ancient Khvostov 7G-02. After foraging for more gear the Guardian kills a Fallen Devil Captain named Rahn, and escapes in an Arcadia-class jumpship just as an Archon, Riksis, appears on the scene. As the Fallen futilely shoot at the jumpship, a mysterious stranger watches the Guardian depart.

After flying through a storm over many leagues of land the Arcadia makes its way to The Last City, a place Ghost calls the "last safe city on Earth", the only place still protected by the Traveler.

Defending Earth

The Guardian gets acquainted with the various residents of the Tower, home the Guardians; they meet the three Vanguard leaders, the Gunsmith, the Cryptarch and Bounty Tracker, as well as the Postmaster; the Tower Shipwright helps repair their ship. Along the way they visit other Tower residents of lesser importance, including three Faction leaders.

Afterward the Guardian returns to the Cosmodrome to find a Warp Drive. They locate a fallen Guardian's ship and learn the location of where an existing drive might be found. After battling and killing Riksis they acquire the drive and return to the Tower to install it. Later that night as the Guardian looks up at the Traveler, they meet with the Speaker, an old Warlock who had been with the City since its foundation. The Speaker answers some the Guardian's unasked questions, namely what the Ghosts are, and a brief summary of the Traveler's history with humanity. He then confides in the Guardian of his deepest fears: the Darkness, the everpresent threat facing the City, is returning and the Guardians won't be able to survive this time.

The Guardian asks if they could do anything; the Speaker encourages them to join those already fighting to defend Earth and the solar system, adding wryly that he hoped the Ghost chose prudently, to which the robot reaffirms empathically that it did.

Returning to the Cosmodrome at the request of the Speaker, the Guardian goes to the old Skywatch, a complex that once maintained communications with Earth's former colonies, and find the Fallen in an uproar. Pressing onward in the Lunar Complex, breaking through Fallen fortifications, they discover another enemy: the Hive. After eliminating all of the Hive enemies they encounter and kill a Hive Wizard named Gotra. Ghost wonders if the appearance of the Hive means they are preparing for the Darkness' return, as they hadn't been seen for centuries.

Locating Rasputin

Shortly thereafter the Vanguard report an upsurge in Fallen activity all over the Cosmodrome, much more aggressive than before. Connecting to the vehicle grid the Guardian makes their way to the Forgotten Shore via Sparrow and find a Fallen amplifier. After searching a second one Ghost finds both are linked to the Skywatch, and they make their way there next. Finding a Fallen encampment inside the Terrestrial Complex they defeat the aliens and hack into one of their machines. Ghost discovers resistance from an unknown entity and investigates further; meanwhile the Guardian defends against the Fallen.

After Ghost retrieves data they destroy the machine. Ghost reports discovery of the ancient Warmind Rasputin, who somehow survived the Collapse, and is defending something later revealed to be the Planetary Defense Network Array in the Cosmodrome.

In an effort to raise the Array the Guardian finds a lost Dead Orbit Guardian team and extracts the codes from their dead Ghosts. Beating off the Hive, who have established a large presence and are in conflict with the local Fallen, they enter the Terrestrial Complex again. Sensing the increased presence of Darkness, Ghost quickly gets to work opening up the Array just as Hive Tombships appear.

As the Guardians fights the oncoming Hive, including a Hallowed Knight, a satellite dish awakens in the distance and pivots to face the heavens. Once the battle's finished Ghost reports that Rasputin took control and is expanding his reach throughout the solar system.

Awakening the Hive

On the Moon, the Guardian picks up the trail of another Guardian who went dark searching for a way into the Hive Fortress. After hacking a Golden Age colony base, the Guardian travels to the Temple of Crota where they fight off Exiled Fallen as well as Hive forces led by Wizard Vurok. Unable to save the Guardian, Ghost recovers his Ghost's memories and learns that the Hive are raising an army to invade Earth. Just moments before the fight with the Hive, the Guardian hears the same stranger—revealed to be a female Exo—again, and catches a glimpse just before the Temple doors open.

In an attempt to uncover what the Hive are planning, the Guardian infiltrates the The World's Grave and kills its keeper, Kranox. The Guardian's Ghost then steals as much data as possible before the two return to warn the City. After looking through Cryptarch records on the Temple the Guardian infiltrates the Hellmouth once more and claims the Sword of Crota, killing its guards and destroying it in the process. While inside the Hellmouth, the Guardian follows a lead from the vanished Warlock Osiris, seeking the mysterious Shrine of Oryx, a tribute altar. After killing Frigoris and his Fallen crew, the Guardian defeats its guardian, Sardok, and destroys the Shrine.

After successfully decrypting the information from the World's Grave alongside the Cryptarchs, the Speaker broadcasts an urgent transmission to all Guardians claiming that a Hive ritual is draining the Traveler's Light. The Guardian then returns once more to the Hive Temple and after receiving a message from the Exo Stranger, inviting them to come find her if they are successful, kills the Siphon Witches, effectively preventing them from stealing any more of the Light.

Uncovering the Vex

Following the Stranger's coordinates, the Guardian finally travels to the Ishtar Sink, Venus, where they are ambushed by alien cyborgs known as the Vex, described by Ghost as "war machines". After reactivating an extensive set of sensors established by other Guardians to track these machines, the Guardian meets with the Exo Stranger in the Ishtar Academy. There she informs them of the Black Garden, the birthplace of the Vex, and is what keeps the Traveler in a state of catatonia. If the Guardian kills its heart then the Traveler could recover.

Before the Guardian could ask any more questions the Stranger suddenly vanishes following a mysterious conversation with unknown persons. Ghost suggests they go look for the Awoken in order to find the Garden, an option it had brought up during the discussion. Wistfully it wonders if they could stay with the Vex, as the idea of traveling far into danger was not something it liked, and the Guardian jokingly calls it "little light" after the Stranger. Ghost firmly objects.

The Awoken

The Guardian leaves Venus and enters the distant Reef, a graveyard of ships who fled the Collapse drifting amongst the asteroids. Along the way their ship is intercepted by two Royal Awoken Guard Ceres Galliots, and the Guardian states their missions. The Awoken shortly escort them to the Vestian Outpost and give them entry to the Queen of the Reef's throne room. There the Guardian meets with the Prince, Uldren Sov. Sov mockingly reveals he had been the one to let them in, and denies them their audience with his sister the Queen.

Two Fallen guards emerge from behind the Queen's throne, armed with spears; alarmed, the Guardian grabs a weapon from one of their guards while Uldren pulls out a knife; Mara Sov's appearance defuses hostilities. The Guardian reiterates their request for the location of the Black Garden. Despite this, Uldren denigrates them until his sister calls him back. After a moment of conferring the brother offers them a deal: they bring the head of a Vex Gate Lord and the Awoken would give the location of the Garden. Despite the Guardian's skepticism, and Ghost's stammering, it is done, and they leave for Venus once more.

Finding a Gate Lord

To find a Gate Lord, the Guardian travels to an old research station of the Ishtar Collective, and analyzes a Vex mind core, giving them vital intel on the nature of the Vex as well as the means with which to summon the Gate Lord. While at the Ishtar Academy, the Guardian kills Graliks, a Baron of House Winter, and a High Servitor named Simiks-3, and secures an ancient Golden Age Archive for the Cryptarchs.

In the middle of their mission they take a detour to hunt Draksis, the Kell of House Winter, as reports place him in a nearby group of caves. Battling their way aboard the Ketch they find and kill the Fallen leader and his guards. Back on track with the Fallen threat dealt with momentarily, the Guardian reaches the Endless Steps, summoning and slaying Zydron.

A Bargain Made

Returning to the Reef, the Guardian brings the Gate Lord's head before the Queen, to the astonishment of Uldren who expected them to fail, and the Queen's suspicion. The Guardian states they should hold to their end of the bargain; after a brief argument, Uldren reluctantly obeys his sister, and cuts out the now dead eye from the Gate Lord.

Sneering he mocks the Guardian with their "wasted journey" but the Queen forces him to give both the eye and the coordinates to the Black Garden. She then addresses the Guardian directly, telling them she's shown benevolence in their quest, and expects them to come when she needs their help at a future date. They courteously thank her for her help and leave, politely ignoring both Uldren's "translation" of his sister's words and his mocking well-wishing.

The Black Garden

On Mars, the Guardian infiltrates a Cabal survey post and secures their research into the Vex Spire. Along the way, the Guardian clears out the Cabal occupying the ruins of Freehold and explores what remains. Battling their way through a Cabal hardpoint, the Guardian reaches the Garden's Spire and kills Primus Sha'aul. While en route to the Garden, the Guardian also shuts down a series of Vex gates beneath the subway tunnels of Freehold, and discovers that the Vex are being summoned to protect the place where they were born. Successfully recharging Zydron's Eye, the Guardian is transported to the Black Garden.

Within the Black Garden, the Guardian confronts the Sol Progeny and defeats them, destroying the Black Heart in the process. Returned to Mars upon the Heart's destruction, the Guardian is summoned back to the Tower, where the Speaker gives a victory speech. Meanwhile, the Exo Stranger converses with the Guardian inside the Hangar and gifts them with her Rifle before leaving abruptly again. The Guardian then repowers their ship and takes off into orbit as they prepare for their next mission.

Further Exploits

Return of Crota, Son of Oryx

After an unspecified number of years, Eris Morn returns to the Tower, warning of an impending Hive invasion led by a soon-to-be-resurrected Crota. Under Eris' direction, the Guardian travels to the Cosmodrome and seeks out Sardon, Fist of Crota and slays the Hive general within the waterlogged caves of the Grottos. Traveling to the Moon, the Guardian halts a Hive ritual intended to resurrect Crota. However knowing Crota's soul survived their assault, the Guardian, alongside five others, infiltrates the Hellmouth and enters Crota's realm, the Oversoul Throne, where he is slain permanently.

Some time after, the Hive lay siege to one of Rasputin's bunkers in an attempt to corrupt him. The Guardian repels them successfully, securing the old Warmind within its vault once more. The Guardian also leads a fireteam on a mission to track down and kill Crota's last remaining general, Omnigul, ending the Hive invasion of Earth.

Upon learning that The Undying Mind has begun to summon back the Black Heart, the Guardian ventures to a previously unexplored part of the Black Garden and destroys it.

House of Wolves Rebellion

The Reef is embroiled in civil war as the House of Wolves, a Fallen house whom the Queen had conquered during the Reef Wars, are now in open rebellion. Their leader, Skolas, has declared himself the Kell of Kells and wishes to unite the Fallen under his banner. The Queen has summoned the Guardians to aid her in ending the rebellion, in return for the Reef's treasures. The player is aided by Petra Venj and Variks, The Loyal, with whom they search for Skolas and put a stop to his plans. After failing to seize control of the House of Devils and House of Kings, Skolas instead attempts to seize control of the Vault of Glass and the Vex technology within. The player finally captures him atop the Citadel, stopping him from summoning his entire House through time from the Vex's time portals. Skolas is sent back to the Prison of Elders, where he's finished off once and for all.

The Taken War

Oryx, the father of Crota, has come with his Hive fleet to avenge his fallen son. Using his terrible power, Oryx creates a new army called the Taken, and lays siege to the entire solar system. The Awoken fleet lead by Queen Mara Sov attempt to stop him before he can enter the Inner System, but they are utterly destroyed. He then starts Taking the Cabal stationed on Phobos who send out a distress signal, which catches the Vanguard's attention. Responding to the distress signal, the player is sent to investigate. Upon seeing the devastation, the player is confronted by a vision of Oryx, who tells the player that he is there to pay back humanity for his son's death. Realizing the threat that laid before them, Cayde-6 crafts a plan with the player to sneak aboard Oryx's Dreadnaught. Though they are successful, they cannot enter Oryx's inner sanctum until the player becomes Ascendant; Eris helps the player recover the last fragments of Crota's Soul, allowing entry into Oryx's chambers, where they duel. Though Oryx's physical form was defeated, he retreated even further into the ship, recovering his strength. Meanwhile, the Guardians work towards pushing the Taken out of the system. Once Oryx's lieutenants, the Court of Oryx, have been defeated the Guardians push deeper into the Dreadnaught to seek out Oryx within his Ascendant realm. There, he confronted the Fireteam of Guardians sent to kill him once and for all with his full might, even pulling them into a Darkness dimension. But in the end, using Light stolen from his pawns, Oryx was slain permanently.

Siva Crisis

The Fallen House of Devils, while looting ancient tombs from the Golden Age, accidentally unearth a self replicating nano-technology plague known as SIVA within the depths of the Old Cosmodrome. This plague mutates the Devils into powerful machine gods which collapsed The Wall in Old Russia, prompting Lord Saladin, the last of the Iron Lords, to leave his post as the Handler of the Iron Banner and personally lead the Guardians in a final stand against the plague, raising a new generation of Iron Lords to guard the Last City.

Exploits During The Red War

Onset of the War

The Guardian attempted to disorganize the enemy by disabling the Cabal command ship and though they succeeded in infiltrating the ship and in destroying the Shield generators, no reinforcements could make it, and they were confronted by Dominus Ghaul himself. There the Cabal Emperor activated the Light-restraining device upon the Traveler, encasing it in a force field. This act cut the Guardians off from the Traveler's Light, effectively crippling them. Ghaul savagely beat the weakened Guardian, even sending them off of his command ship along with their Ghost, plummeting to the devastated city below. Barely surviving the fall, the Guardian linked up with others, and with little choice, they evacuated the Last City.

Despite Ghaul's success in attacking the City, the Guardian refused to give up the fight, and after setting up a camp in the European Dead Zone, they sought out to gain new powers and began developing a counterattack against the Red Legion.

Personality and Traits

"You know it's starting to concern me how seldom you talk. We've been through a lot together, the neural symbiosis is pretty far progressed, but you'd be surprised how little I understand what you're thinking."

— Ghost

The Guardian is shown to be extremely humble, often fighting the Solar System's enemies without question nor hesitation. Like other Guardians, The Guardian is very silent, only speaking when the situation deems it necessary.

Gallery

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  The Guardian looks over the landscape of Titan.

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List of appearances

• Destiny Alpha (First appearance)
• Destiny Beta
• Destiny
  • The Dark Below
  • House of Wolves
  • The Taken King
    • April Update
  • Rise of Iron
    • The Dawning
    • Age of Triumph
• Destiny 2 Beta
• Destiny 2