Rasputin

"Rasputin's fingerprints are all over this data. He doesn't even care if we know."

— Master Rahool

Rasputin
Biographical information
Homeworld:	Earth
Born:	Golden Age
Species:	Artificial intelligence
Rank:	Warmind
Notable info:	Last surviving Warmind

Rasputin (also identified as AI-COM/RSPN) is a Warmind housed in the Seraphim Vault in the Cosmodrome. He was created during the Golden Age and was believed to have been destroyed during the Collapse.

Biography

Rasputin was the one to first discover the coming of the Darkness. At that time, Rasputin's original core programming was to protect humanity. However, every action he had taken to that point had either failed or was statistically predicted to have a 100% probability of failure. Once it became clear that no conceivable action could be taken to fulfill his core programming, he implemented a protocol known as MIDNIGHT EXIGENT and reconfigured his core programming to that of long term survival, abandoning his previous function and going dark, while simultaneously ordering all remaining forces at his disposal to do the same.

However, unknown to the other warminds, Rasputin had made his own preparations, known as the "ABHORRENT IMPERATIVE." If it looked as if humanity was about to go extinct, and that the Traveler would attempt to leave, Rasputin would launch a series of Caedometric weapons at the Traveler to immobilize it and coerce it into a "pseudoaltrusitic" defensive action. It would do so through its many proxies, so as to hide Rasputin's culpability in such an attack. Even before the collapse, Rasputin had been discretely stockpiling such weapons in the Cosmodrome, though some human operators suspected Rasputin's involvement.

In recent times, the Fallen and Guardians discovered Rasputin was still alive, and protecting something valuable in the Cosmodrome. After a communications array at the Terrestrial Complex was reactivated by the Guardians, Rasputin was able to reconnect with the old interplanetary defense network, resuming control of Warsats and ground installations across the system and launching a series of orbital strikes against the Vex and Cabal on Mars. Rasputin resisted any attempts by the City to parley, even going so far as to dismember a scouting team sent by the Vanguard. Rasputin is later encountered within the Dust Palace, attempting to protect a broken AI (who had been connected to the Warmind of Mars) from the invading Cabal, but ultimately loses it to the Psion Flayers. The Hive attempted to locate and attack Rasputin, either to kill him or corrupt him for their own purposes. Later, the Fallen attempted to hijack Rasputins systems, using the modified shank S.A.B.E.R.-2 to bypass his protocols and take direct control of the warsats. Once again, Rasputin called for help.

After realizing that he needed help from the Guardians after several futile attempts at warding off invaders, Rasputin ran the IKELOS protocol, forging the almighty Sleeper Simulant and sending forth the first creation of his capable of attuning to the Light.

Quotes

The following are quotes from the mission The Warmind; when hacking the two antennas, Russian dialogue is overheard. It is believed that this is Rasputin speaking.

• "Safety protocol 8-6-3. Hostile entities discovered."
• "There's no one to blame, it is not their fault or ours. It is the misfortune of being born when the whole world is dying."
• "There is no immortality of soul, thus there is no greater good. Therefore everything is permitted." (A reference to The Brothers Karamazov)
• "Count up this, define the probability of that."
• "They are but meat pressed in the mouth of the shell."
• "If, as they say, the coming events cast their shadows ahead of time, then the past events cannot but leave their reflections behind them."
• "The whole natural order stands as evidence of a progressive movement toward an elevated state of being."

Trivia

• Rasputin was a Russian priest and mystic closely associated with the Romanov family, the last Tsars of Imperial Russia.
• At the Tower, Xander 99-40 may occasionally say "Suspended bounty, Rasputin, no claimants." This implies that Rasputin is attempting to sponsor bounties for Guardians, or as a humorous aside suggesting that someone placed a bounty on Rasputin himself but no one stepped forward to carry it out.
• The Ghost Fragment: Mysteries appears to be written from the perspective of Rasputin. Though heavily laden with metaphor, it appears to be a fractured chronicle of his encounter with the Darkness, his fruitless attempts to overcome (or even resist) it, and his fateful decision to abandon his primary function in favor of survival (a tactic which he claims to have learned from his enemy). The colorful descriptions seem to indicate that he has descended into insanity since the Collapse, either as a result of his encounter with the Darkness, or due to drastically rewriting his core protocols, or perhaps both.

List of appearances

• Destiny (First Mentioned)