This made me think of the factions in the tower. The faction leaders expressed their philosophies to respond to the coming darkness. this video from dattodoesdestiny has clips from the faction leaders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7HRgOwzr_M&list=UUkmAjbIecTIjTQctolYeuDw&index=2 Dead orbit wants to run and hide from the darkness - they remind me of the hive The new monarchy wants to build a new kingdom - they remind me of the fallen The future war cult that wants to fight until they are wiped out - they remind me of the cabal or their obsession with another timeline reminds me of the time traveling vex. Perhaps the characteristics of the enemy species we encounter are a representation of choices those species made when they encountered the darkness. Or maybe in some weird way the species we fight against are actually ourselves from different timelines where we made different choices.