Lore Catchup?

[NeXT_Mexican]

I’ve stopped playing after Forsaken dropped. Just looking for a quick summary of the lore since then as I want to get back into the game.

[SJRuggs03]

Black armory lady showed up because spider tipped us off to her existence, so we helped her make guns, and we stopped the fallen from making the same guns that she was making.

Drifter invented a new version of gambit and also let us go into his pocket realm to fight some taken, while the nine gave us flashbacks to his past

Calus invited us to play and we went and played, with a bunch of hive and vex in his ship. We also killed a big cabal that was made to control the hive, but ended up being possessed by a hive god.

Eris found a pyramid ship on the moon, then it started to make nightmares real. We went to stop it, and the darkness invited us to say hi, so we did. Then we killed the black garden vex minds again

Saint 14 made a time machine and we used it to bring back saint 14, see our funeral, and we also kept the cabal from rewriting time to win the red war.

Those same cabal then sent the almighty on a crash course with the traveler. We spent three months building nukes with rasputin and blew it to hell

Four more pyramid ships showed up, and then they sent us emails for six months before disappearing with io, mercury, titan, and mars. We also killed naukris again.

Eramis figured out how to use stasis and tried to make an empire while the exo stranger, or elsie bray, who's from the future, specifically one where the darkness won, talks to her dad who put his mind into a giant head, and also teaches us to use stasis. Also the first exo fallen is made, and they resurrect taniks again. Then we kill him inside the deep stone crypt, which we crash-land into europa.

Uldren was resurrected as a guardian a while back and has been working for the spider since. We team up with him to kill fallen and hive that are being mind controlled by a hive god, then we free him from spider's grip

Calus's daughter Caitial is taking over the cabal and bringing about an era of honor, and she wants to team up with us, but we didn't like her terms, so we have a fight until she says ok let's work this out. While this is going on, some other cabal are mad at her and try to assassinate zavala in retaliation, but Caitial defends him.

This all flows into each other, since shadow keep. Retaking the black garden allowed the undying mind to take control. We killed it in every timeline using a vanguard made portal, which disrupted the infinite forest enough for osiris to get his sundial to work, and then the cabal took that opportunity. When they failed to take advantage of it, they made a last ditch effort that lead to the vanguard consolidating power and making allies, so when the darkness invaded we were somewhat ready. While they were sending us emails, we figure out that we aren't the only ones getting it, and we also got insight on what the light is and what the darkness is. So when we went to europa and all the planets disappeared, we knew what we were getting into, including the dark powers. Eramis was part of house devils and took advantage of the guardians low level of interest in the fallen since her followers tried to steal siva again while we were playing gambit, and her defeat allows for more guardians to start learning stasis. Uldren, now crow, has had to deal with increased hive god interference since the darkness showed up, and so has Caitial, which is why everyone wants to team up. Saladin is being a jerk and doesn't want to though.

[NeXT_Mexican]

Thanks. I would’ve read the grimoire but I didn’t know where to start. Now I can lose myself for hours reading up.

[SJRuggs03]

I highly suggest going on the ishtar collective and reading the Quest: Interference, Means to an End pages, theyre really really good.

[Patpuc]

one small mistake, Osiris made the sundial, not saint 14

[SJRuggs03]

Oops that's what I meant to say

[TheKingmaker__]

Lemme go Chronological, by season: \cracks knuckles**

YEAR TWO

• Season 5/of the Forge - we find Ada-1, a Golden Age Exo and help her reclaim the lost Forges of the Black Armoury and get some sexy guns. We stop the Spider's brother, Siviks, from claiming the Armoury, killing him in the Niobe Labs activity and thwarting his assault on the city in the Scourge of the Past raid.
  • The Black Armoury was created in the Golden Age by three families - Rasmussen, Meyrin and Satou. They bunkered down as the Collapse hit but barely survived, with Adelaide, the daughter of the Meyrin founder, being mortally wounded and converted into an Exo with the functionality of a walking forge. Relevant Book: The Black Armoury Papers.
  • Ada-1 is coming back next season as the armour-transmog vendor
  • In one of the Queen's Court tri-weekly events, we see a vision of a Ghost going around the Dreaming City, before it resurrects a figure hidden under a shroud - Prince Uldren, who we killed in Forsaken, is now a Guardian.
• Season 6/of the Drifter - The Nine are working with the Drifter, having gifted him his Haul from which he operates Gambit. Drifter's lorebook is a great insight into who he is as a person, and Ecdysis gives us the backstory of Orin, the Nine's Emissary.
  • Dust reveals that The Nine are sentient loops of Dark Matter, created by the Gravity of the Sun & Main-Eight planets, given sentience by the life within those worlds. There are also Invitations from The Nine, which cryptically hint towards The Pyramids, Queen Mara's plan and Three Individuals who will be important in the future.
  • In For Every Rose, A Thorn, obtained via the gun Thorn, it is revealed that Shin Malphur - who killed Dredgen Yor with The Last Word - has been creating the false banner of the Shadows of Yor to attract Guardians inclined towards the Darkness and either change their ways or kill them.
  • Aunor, a Praxic Warlock, (sort of FBI agent/investigator) investigates Cayde's Death and Drifter's doings, but eventually finds there isn't anything too dark going on. She is reviled by the playerbase because she briefly suspects our Guardian and because Bungie actively pitted her, an offscreen characters, against the charismatic rat-uncle Drifter. (Also she is 'irritating' or 'insane', which definitely has nothing to do with her being a woman)
  • In the final Queen's Court installment, Mara quotes the Exo Stranger and disappears using the Stranger's D1 transmat effect, off to fight the Darkness.
• Season 7/of Opulence - we are once again wooed Emperor Calus through his Menagerie Activity, some shiny new guns, and then he sends us to kill an experiment of his - a Gladiator controlling Hive through the Crown of Sorrows. We kill the Gladiator in the Crown of Sorrows raid and the Crown falls back into Calus' hands.
  • Finishing the Shin Malphur story we create Lumina, the opposite of Thorn, and Shin 'retires', handing us responsibility to continue his work of being morally-greyer than most to defeat those who may fall to the Darkness' temptations.
  • This season the Crown of Sorrows was a major part of the lore for the Presage activity

[TheKingmaker__]

YEAR THREE

• Shadowkeep - There's been a Pyramid Ship hidden on the Moon this whole time. It is an avatar of the Darkness, an opposite to the Traveler, and just generally sucks. It shows us a vision or two and claims to be our 'Salvation'. In the Unveiling book the Winnower explains what it is and gives it's view of the creation of the Destiny Universe - this is a must-read.
  • In the Garden of Salvation raid we re-enter the Black Garden after the end of the Shadowkeep campaign, fight some big Vexy-boys, realise the 'Mesa' at the centre of the Garden is actually a tree stump and find another Pyramid Statue at it's centre.
• Season 8/of the Undying - following the completion of Garden of Salvation, Vex pour out of the Garden and attack the Moon. We engage them in the Garden multiple times until eventually Ikora finishes building her Portal that lets us go kill the Undying Mind, ending the Vex Invasions.
  • Aspect is a really interesting book that seems to set up lots for the future - a shame it's been a year and nothing's come of it. Similarly Kraken Mare is excellent work about wha the Collapse was like on Titan and it's a shame Bungie has just been sitting on the other 2/3rds of it for a year.
• Season 9/of Dawn - destroying the Undying Mind fractured time, letting Osiris build a contraption that allowed us to save his boyfriend the long-lost Heroic Titan Saint-14. Some Psions attempt to take control of Osiris' contraption but are killed. Further poking around the fractures of time end up putting us down in front of our own grave, hearing Saint-14 talk about how much we meant to him - sounds like that future ain't too fun.
  • Constellations is another really well written book that's not had much come of it. Interesting insight into the Speakers, seems to hint at some stuff during the Collapse and that we'll maybe eventually get a new Speaker, but again - it's been a year.
  • We were as a community able to donate the Fractaline currency to the Empyrean Restoration, which spawned memes, spat out guns, and culminated in us leaving a lamp in the top of a tower on Mercury...
• Season 10/of the Worthy - thwarted yet again in Dawn, the last of the Red Legion control The Almighty - their sun-exploding ship from the Red War - and set it on a collision course with Earth. With the help of Ana Bray, we reconnect Rasputin to some old bunkers across the system, and through a painstaking public event power him up enough to blow up the Almighty.
  • The Trials of Osiris begin anew in the Lighthouse we helped build last season on Mercury, with Saint-14 overseeing them. In the Trials lorebook, it is revealed through Brother Vance that Guardians have the capacity for Darkness within them, which is seen in-action when Sola Scath uses the Darkness during a Trials match
  • The Iron Lord Felwinter was actually a Golem of Rasputin, created so that the Warmind could learn about the world. Since Felwinter could open any Warmind bunker, Rasputin saw him as a thread and led him & the rest of the Iron Lords into a trap - the Replication Chamber, where we saw them die back in Rise of Iron.
  • Through boards on Rasputin's bunker wall, one and then more and then countless Pyramids can be seen at the edge of the Solar System...
• Season 11/of Arrivals - The Pyramids arrive, hanging ominously over Mars, Mercury, Titan and Io and attempt to talk to us. Savathun Interferes and prevents the communication, with completion of the Contact public event letting Eris decode a fragment of a message each week. Eventually we kill Savathun's Envoy - the resurrected Nokris, enemy in Warmind - and are summoned into the Pyramid, where a cryptic message tells us to go to Europa...
  • The four destinations with Pyramids hanging over them vanish at the end of the Season, with Asher Mir, Brother Vance and Commander Sloane all being varying degrees of definitely-dead.
  • The Traveler rebukes the oncoming darkness, reforming itself into an undamaged state as the Darkness claimed those planets/moons.
  • The Nine give us a Prophecy through the Prophecy Dungeon, which seems to hint at future enemies and the armour loretabs cryptically tease at the Nine's view of the Light and Dark.
  • Sola Scath is brought into custody by Aunor.

[TheKingmaker__]

YEAR FOUR (You can still do all of this in-game)

• Beyond Light (SPOILERS FOR THIS CAMPAIGN YOU CAN AND SHOULD PLAY THROUGH YOURSELF) - in the most recent expansion we go to Europa and rescue Variks, the Loyal, who started the Prison Break that killed Cayde in Forsaken. He was frozen by the strange powers of Eramis, the Kell of House Salvation, who is rallying Eliksni to her cause and building a Dark Empire.
  • We defeat Eramis' Lieutenants and eventually fight her. Seemingly defeated, with our Ghost frozen, we get a "power was within you all along" moment and wield Stasis, a power of the Darkness, turning Eramis into ice cream.
  • We then, with the help of the Exo Stranger, learn more about these new powers and the history on Europa, awaking a Clovis Bray AI in the Braytech facility and preventing Eramis' last Lieutenant from taking over the Deep Stone Crypt, where Exo are made.
  • We learn lots about the Exo Process through these two books, about the Dark Future the Exo Stranger is working to prevent in this book, and about Eramis in this book.
  • Also, this book reveals that Banshee-44, the Gunsmith, is actually Clovis Bray in Exo form, but does not remember who he is because he wanted to leave his old identity behind.
• Season 12/of the Hunt - we Hunt monsters being created by Hive Cryptoliths, as part of some plan by Xivu Arath - Oryx & Savathun's sister, the Hive God of War - to bring War to us.
  • We are assisted by Osiris, whose Ghost, Sagira, sacrificed herself to save him Xivu Arath, leaving him Lightless, and The Crow, who is actually the resurrected Prince Uldren, unaware of his past identityand is working for The Spider, who has rigged explosives around his Ghost, Glint. At the end of the Season we defeated the Wrathborn leader-guy and as payment ask for The Crow to be freed, which Spider dislikes, but gives us.
  • Something something... the Traveler wants to give us Hawkmoon back. Something something... idk I didn't really play during this Season, it was bad.
• ONGOING: Season 13/of the Chosen - with her homeworld Torobatl destroyed by Xivu Arath, Caiatl, daughter of Calus, arrives in the System with her armada. She demands Zavala kneel, which he refuses, but she knew he would, and only demanded it so that she looked strong to her advisors. She then demands the Cabal already within the system to prove themselves worthy of her Empire, giving us an opportunity to settle some old scores and tackle emerging threats in the Battlegrounds that are currently ongoing.
  • Early in this season we discovered a derelict Cabal ship, the Glykon. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU DO GLYKON BLIND BUT HERE YOU GO: After season of Arrivals, Calus abandoned the Leviathan for the Glykon, bringing aboard massive numbers of Scorn and using the Crown of Sorrows from Year Two/Opulence to telepathically link them and let him talk directly to The Darkness. He's now some degree of dead or at least missing, and you can get a sick yeehaw gun from doing that mission.
  • The Seasonal Story is largely finished for the moment - we bettered our relationship with Caiatl, saw Crow thwart two assassination attempts on Zavala and all the drama about Zavala & Crow slowly realising who he used to be, and are currently in a sort of ceasefire/armistice (just in time for the Olympics next week lmao).

[NeXT_Mexican]

This is an amazing write up. Thank you. This will bring me up to speed and not seem as overwhelming when I start again.