Vex: Difference between revisions

==History==

===Origins===

{{Quote|They learned the rules that governed which patterns would flourish in the game, and which would dwindle.<br>They learned those rules, because they were those rules.<br>And in time the gardener became vexed.|The [[Darkness]]}}

===The Ancient Past===

{{Quote|With his sword Crota cut open a new wound, into a new space. In here he thought he might obtain a secret power.<br>Out of this wound came machines called Vex. They invaded Oryx's throne world. |The [[Books of Sorrow]]}}

====The Golden Age====

{{Quote|ESI: It controls the simulation. It can hurt our simulated selves. We wouldn't feel that pain, but rationally speaking, we have to treat an identical copy's agony as identical to our own.<br>SUNDARESH: It's god in there. It can simulate our torment. Forever.|Recorded  [[Ishtar Collective]] transcript}}

===Destiny 1===

====The City Age====

{{Quote|They brought us here. The Vex. Evil so dark it despises other evil.|The [[Exo Stranger]]}}

====The Taken War====

{{Quote|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 [[Taken|take]] the Vex, they'll come for the Light.|[[Praedyth]]}}

===Destiny 2===

====The Red War====

{{Quote|Some speculate that the radiolarian fluid is the last vestige of a biological life-form that became the Vex.|Sister Faora}}

====''Curse of Osiris''====

{{Quote|I never found Osiris, but I've killed enough Vex to end a war.|[[Saint-14]]}}

====Undying Salvation====

{{Quote|The Black Garden lies open. As we speak, Vex are spilling out onto the Moon, drawn by the Pyramid's influence. Countless more are sure to follow. Our problems, it seems, are multiplying.|Eris Morn.}}  

====Broken Pattern====

{{Quote|Martyr Mind, time to die!|Saint-14}} <ref>'''Bungie (2020/04/08)''', ''[[Destiny]]: [[The Taken King]], PlayStation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Saint-14#Quotes|Saint-14]]''</ref>

After an exhausting campaign, the Guardians were successful in destroying all the copies of the Undying Mind. However, upon finally destroying the true Undying Mind, the timeways over Mercury became disrupted. As a result, access to the Vex timeways became available to other factions. Taking advantage of this, a council of [[Cabal]] [[Psion Flayers]] seek to assume control of the timeways to undo their defeat during the [[Red War]] and create a better future for themselves. Seeking to prevent this, [[Osiris]] emerges once more to organize the Guardians to prevent the Cabal from perverting the timeways, preserve their reality and possibly save a legend, [[Saint-14]].  

====Darkness Arrives====

Having failed to take control of the Vex timeways with the Sundial, the Red Legion, under the leadership of the Psion Flayer [[Amtec]], enacted a last resort plan to crash the warship known as ''[[the Almighty]]'' into the Last City. To stop ''the Almighty'', Guardians began arming the Warmind [[Rasputin]] on Earth, the Moon, and Io. Operations on Io attracted the curiosity of Vex forces, much to the chagrin of [[Asher Mir]], who would complain to [[Ana Bray]] about "stirring up" the Vex. In addition, Vex responsible for machine conversion managed to excavate their way into the [[Seraph Bunker]] outside the Pyramidion, requiring it to be cleared out frequently for it to maintain a connection to Rasputin's mainframe.

====Endless Night====

Following the Guardians' trials with the Cabal, the Vex somehow have plunged the Last City into an endless night, threatening the safety once found beneath the watchful presence of the Traveler. To combat the Vex's latest intrusion, Ikora and Osiris have the Guardians call upon an unlikely ally: [[Mithrax]], Kell of the [[House of Light]] and one of the last of the Sacred Splicers. As a member of this order, he possesses the knowledge needed to combat the Vex technology that ensnares the Last City.

The Guardian managed to locate Mithrax on Europa after he was attempting to grant safe passage to Eliksni refugees fleeing from the House of Salvation but was ambushed by the Vex. After meeting with the Kell, Mithrax asks the Guardian to aid him in "blinding" the Vex so he can lead his people to safety. The Guardian agrees and, using a special device of Mithrax's, they enter into the Outer Nexus of the Vex Network. With Mithrax's guidance, they manage to slay the Curator in charge, bringing back a sample of its living code for study and escaping before the Vex could retaliate. Sharing a common enemy and understanding that Mithrax and his house are different than the other Fallen, Ikora offers Mithrax and the House of Light safe haven with the Last City, to which the Kell gratefully accepts.

===Radiolaria===

{{quote|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<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfaBztF1oJI Destiny Podcast #2]</ref>}}

The Vex in their biological form are microorganisms known as [[radiolaria]], existing within the fluid found inside the core of Vex units. 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. Vex cells are noted entheogens and physical contact with Vex units can produce dangerous mind-altering effects. <ref name="GFV4"/>  For [[Ikora Rey]], she 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. <ref>'''Bungie (2017/5/12)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Curse of Osiris]] Playstation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Universal Wavefunction]]''</ref>  

===Objectives===

{{Quote|The Vex will not rest until every star has been crushed into a black hole and every newborn cosmos filled with more Vex. And in the unending array of their enslaved cosmos, they will simulate all possible pasts, and fill those with Vex, so that all things that have ever lived or might ever live will experience infestation and consumption and torment by the silica nightmare. <br> <br>And in those devoured simulations, the simulated Vex will use our flesh as hosts for yet more nested universes full of yet more nested copies of us eternally tormented by yet more Vex.<br> <br>An infinite regression of pain and madness inflicted upon every possible version of us in every possible world. Not because they hate us, or fear us, or want to punish us. But because they are indifferent and curious, and they will do every possible thing to us in every possible way.|[[Elisabeth Bray]] in a letter to her grandfather, [[Clovis Bray I]]}}

==Technology==

===Machine worlds and gate technology===

It is thought that the Vex have embedded structures within every known celestial body, linked together in a massive trans-dimensional and trans-temporal [[Corridors of Time|gate network]], which spans thousands of divergent realities all at once. Using this gate network in the present timeline, [[Pyramidion|machinoforming engines]] are utilized by Vex Minds in the conversion of 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, Vex strive to achieve Convergence by incorporating themselves into the fabric of the current universe itself, either through conventional or paracausal means.<ref name = "Destiny">'''Bungie (2014-9-9)''', ''[[Destiny]]: Playstation 4, Activision Blizzard''</ref> The [[Vault of Glass (location)|Vault of Glass]], a location on [[Venus]] 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 [[The Speaker]] believes that the [[Sol Progeny]] were meant to carry this ability into the rest of the universe,<ref name=VoGSP/> while [[Ikora]] hypothesises that the Sol Progeny are a separate effort by the Sol Divisive to bind themselves to the Black Heart and remake themselves in it image.<ref name=SolP>'''Bungie (2014-9-9)''', ''[[Destiny]]: PlayStation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Grimoire]]: [[Grimoire:Enemies/Vex Axis Minds#Sol_Progeny|Sol Progeny]]''</ref> Both the Vault of Glass and the conversion of Venus are both currently undertaken by the [[Hezen Protective]], though the process of the latter was drawn out for centuries for unknown reasons.<ref>'''Bungie (2014-9-9)''', ''[[Destiny]]: Playstation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Grimoire]]: [[Grimoire:Enemies/Vex#Hezen_Protective|Hezen Protective]]''</ref>

Overall, the Vex network is compartmentalized and operates in localized nodes called "subnets", which can each work independently from one another. If one suffers, it will not affect the rest of the network as a whole. They all function differently but work toward the same goal of Convergence. The Infinite Forest, and possibly the Vault of Glass, are their own subnets, where the former represents only a fraction of Vex's overall power. <ref>'''Bungie (2017/12/5)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Curse of Osiris]], Playstation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Kairos Function (Warlock)|Kairos Function Suit]]''</ref>

===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 anywhere in the system, 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, though in actuality they are "revising their place in history" in order to move to a "more advantageous future", which appears to the unaware viewer as teleporting<ref>'''Bungie (2021/8/24)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Season of the Lost]] - [[Lore]]: [[Lore:Ripples#Isolation|Isolation]]''</ref>. 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.  

===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 in the pockets of the universes that are being simulated. <ref name="GFV"/><ref name="GFV5">'''Bungie (2014/9/9)''', ''[[Destiny]]: PlayStation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Grimoire]]: [[Grimoire:Enemies/Vex#Ghost_Fragment:_Vex_5|Ghost Fragment: Vex 5]]''</ref> Due to the nature of Vex cognition, they cannot actually distinguish between their simulations and reality, and only recognize that the two must match.<ref>'''[[Mysterious Logbook]]''', "NOTE—FORGE STAR", ''[[Mysterious_Logbook#-048-|-048-]]''</ref> 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 [[Guardian]]s,<ref>'''Bungie (2015-5-19)''', ''[[Destiny]]: [[House of Wolves]], PlayStation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Grimoire]]: [[Grimoire:Allies/Osiris#Osiris|Osiris]]''</ref> and [[Oryx]]; in the latter case they were only able to bootstrap a simulation of his original incarnation as Aurash. [[Warmind]]s are also complex enough to resist simulation, at least by a single Vex unit.  

===Time travel===

As a collective intelligence spanning across alternate realities, the Vex are intrinsically tied to the [[Corridors of Time]] that they can traverse through it in a manner similar to time travel; the Precursors and Descendants subtypes having originated from the past and future respectively, and numerous Vex units have titles or functions that allude to an ability to manipulate time. [[Skolas, Kell of Kells]] attempted to leverage Vex time-travel technology to pull the entire [[House of Wolves]] through time from the past to the present.<ref>https://www.ishtar-collective.net/transcripts/queens-ransom#variks</ref> However, according to Sister [[Faora]] of the [[Cult of Osiris]], the Vex may not be capable of "time travel" as is commonly understood; if they were, she claims, neither the Guardians nor any other obstacles to the Vex would still exist.<ref>'''Bungie (2017/12/5)''', ''[[Destiny 2]]: [[Curse of Osiris]], Playstation 4, Activision Blizzard, [[Kairos Function (Warlock)#Kairos Function Boots|Kairos Function Boots]]''</ref>

===Weaponry===

According to the [[Drifter]], Vex weapons retrieved from destroyed Vex no longer function.

*[[Aeon Maul]]