I need help working out the finer details on a theory of the history of the traveler, darkness, and our four favorite alien races. I don't have many grimoire cards, and have read few if the ones I do. Any help will be edited in bold and credits will be put at the bottom, thanks for all the help. First I'd like to explain what I've been told us from the grimoire already: The the ghosts were created in the garden, this leads me to believe that so was the traveler and then later the darkness. Here's what I think is the most likely. This includes information read and thought of on my own. The darkness corrupts all that it touches. It has touched the hive and the fallen. The cabal do not follow the travelers light, but they also don't follow the darkness. The vex worship the darkness as it is the most powerful form of darkness (more on the specifics below) The traveler is the mirror to the darkness, while the darkness corrupts, the traveler brings advancement. These both lead to the same outcome (more on this below) Going from the enemies as we meet them. [b]fallen[/b] The fallen were civilized creatures. they needed their defenses, but they were less oriented in battle. The fallen we face are of the once Nobel houses, the rest have died due to the corruption of the darkness. This is primarily why they aren't really battle ready. The darkness affected their entire planet ruining it and causing them to flee, but they were not untouched by it's corruption. They begin to degenerate into uncivilized bloodthirsty creatures in a quest for a new world to inhabit. [b]hive[/b] The hive were uncivilized creatures who lived in a world of what most would call magic. Their anatomy and sciences come across as impossible feats of magic, but are just as I said anatomy and sciences. [b] As Said in the zadus files below they are very religious, worshipping their own set of gods from a different universe.[/b] The darkness quickly corrupted them causing them to flee as as wellThey had a long journey and became heavily corrupt. They took the moon and burrowed deep inside it, until one day the humans in the midst of their golden age came across them and started a war. The hive would not be pushed out of another home. [b]vex[/b] The vex were [b] creatures from a parallel world, they exist in a world where the traveler lost it's initial fight with the darkness[/b] The precursors are the vex of our universe, they only still exist in the black garden, a world in flux with time. [b]i should have made it clear that the black garden IS on mars just in an alternate time[/b] The vex were formed by the corruption of darkness, this is not to imply precursors are peaceful or against the existence of the vex. In the story you come across the darkness, known as the black heart on its juvenile stage of life, as it's being worshipped by the corrupted precussors (vex) and attack it, wounding it dearly and sending it to flee. [b] as stated in the zadus files the heart is likely from an alternate universe, brought along with the vex[/b] This was technically before the darkness corrupted the hive and therefore before it corrupts the fallen. More on this later on I want a certain timeline shown. [b]cabal[/b] The last to be touched by darkness, still holds most of its sanity and pursuits. The cabal were conquers, going from planet to planet crushing the inhabitants. The cabal were a gadfly accident. Going to the ruined planet of the hive they were corrupted by the remnants of darkness. They set out onto the trail that the darkness requests following the hive, fallen, and vex to our universe they set up on mars. Trying to make an outpost there to further it's path but as we see the vex impede them. [b]black garden[/b] The black garden is a world in flux with time, the goings on here do not follow the time line outside of it. This is where the darkness grew, only to be shot down before it's true power was achieved by a guardian sent by the traveler in a different time. [b]the darkness[/b] In the beginning there was nothing. Shit went down and your mom got banged by your dad and you're born and what not. The darkness was formed, a "dark mirror" to the traveler. Perfectly the same in all except it's one and only difference, darkness. [b] the traveler and darkness fought, anti matter and matter evil and good advancement and degeneration these two fought to the death. The traveler was victorious, in our universe. In another the darkness was the winner, causing things to grow differently there. The vex were the main difference.[/b] [b] the vex came from a different universe with the understanding of the traveler existing here, coming over weakened the darkness, so it slept to regain it's strength.[/b] You enter the garden forcing it to awaken early, weak and weary from being a newly created God, only living for a few centuries, it forms gate keepers to try to stop you but with no luck. It runs. It goes far away to a seemingly primitive planet, the inhabitants were feral beings with magic like science. They were the hive. Less intelligent than the vex and less superior they fell faster and harder into the darkness. The planet became uninhabitable so they fled. The darkness urged them towards the moon setting it's plan into motion. The darkness left. It goes to a civilized world of fallen. Respectable houses rule, keeping blood lines strong. The darkness set it and anarchy broke out. The lower beings started to rise against the noble houses. The houses weren't fighters, they were well educated and used others to fight for them. Quickly they set into work making sentrys and the devil walker. It wasn't good enough, they left to rule a less brutish world, urged by the darkness: earth. It was time, the darkness would destroy the planet that set forth a guardian to destroy it in the black garden. It had it's army and it was ready for everything, or so it thought. The traveler was on earth, aiding the humans. The darkness still arrogant that it could win with its army set forth to war. The humans weren't ready for the attack and the darkness was seemingly going to win, until the traveler shone brighter than ever before. The travelers light banished the darkness once again, but at a cost. It was weak, extremely weak and the army's of darkness were still about. The humans needed it, but it was already falling asleep. In it's last effort it created the ghosts. [b][u][i] THE ZADUS FILES[/i][/u][/b] below is all the information from zadus then from in-game information and grimoire. [spoiler] [quote]Concerning the vex, they are a race specializing in mathematics. They are obsessed with mathematical equations and the cards state that they wish to somehow inject themselves into the very equations that dictate the physics of the universe. They are very good at what they do. Besides being able to manipulate time and space, the vex can also use math to perfectly predict human behavior. Dr shim's grimoire cards relate the horror of this event. There is some evidence to show that some of the vex did not want to follow the darkness. Atheon might have been leader of the vex on Venus that did not worship the black heart. The vex on Mars only chose to worship the black heart because they decided that was the only decision that would ensure their continued survival and dominance in the universe.[/quote] [quote]Concerning the hive, they are basically religious fanatics. Their religion or creed is that all light needs to be extinguished. They also seek to make a universe where everything is touched with hive darkness. The Crota's end raid starts on the moon, but the grimoire states that at some point you "pass through a keyhole" to enter a pocket dimension where Crota's true essence lies. This dimension is a reflection of the hives intentions for the form of the universe. It's what they want.[/quote] [quote]Concerning the black garden, from the grimoire cards and the missions it seems pretty clear that the black garden does physically exist on mars. The vex like to do this thing where they manipulate time in order to "inject" themselves like a virus into the cores of planets. They then proceed to turn the planet into a machine from the inside out. This is what happened to mercury, and would have happened with Venus if we did not stop it in the missions and the raid. After you defeat the black heart, the garden becomes no longer "locked out of time". Your ghost scans and realizes that you are back on mars. In the new strike, Ikora says that the vex in the garden are trying to "reseal" the garden so they can again summon the black heart. She talks about them creating a schism to do this. For this reason I believe the darkness exists in another dimension from ours. Perhaps the darkness comes from a dimension where atoms lost in the primordial fight? Perhaps it comes from a universe where everything is made of anti matter instead of matter, as there is a grimoire card where Rasputin detects something that contains antimatter.[/quote] [/spoiler] I'll add edits as needed let's keep this growing.