<It's safe to say that the Collapse was an extinction level event. Something that shook the skies of every world, toppled buildings, and killed BILLIONS. All in, if we go by the Awoken timeline, hours. However, as it's well known, not everybody died. So what happened to people during the Dark Ages (for those who don't know) to the City Age, what happened to those not on Earth, etc.? [b]Humanity[/b] Many human survivors took shelter in anything they could find. This lasted until they could some together to make settlements. This continued when the first Guardians were awakened. Most of the Risen at the time used their power as any human really would, evil. Evil as in taking control over settlements, making themselves kings or queens, and enforcing their law. The Warlords soon faded out as the Iron Lords came in. However, many villages still had a Guardian around as the Fallen were making themselves known and Guardians could beat entire squads easily. Eventually, a group of people found the Traveler and started another settlement. This settlement grew and grew into a city. This became the Last City. Many other survivors started making their way to the City, which includes the family of Amanda Holliday. However, many did not survive the trek, which also includes Holliday's family. While an apparent majority flocked to the Last City for safety, others stayed in their settlements. This includes Suraya Hawthorne's settlement, The Farm. This one is important because of its proximity to the Shard of the Traveler and Hawthorne's aid to the survivors of the Red War. Despite recent breakthroughs from one particular Guardian, humanity is still very much on the edge of extinction. The Red War killed thousands of Guardians and humans alike. Humanity's direct survivors of the Collapse are long dead, and many of their descendants cannot seem to recall any stories. This makes trying to figure out what happened during the Collapse from humans nearly impossible. [b]Exos[/b] Many Exos were also lost in the Collapse. Those that survived seemingly rebooted or otherwise got nearly all memory of the event erased. However, it seems as if the first scenario is most likely. Exos are unique because they are able to have visions of their previous lives in certain circumstances. For example, Cayde-6 had a vision of the Collapse at least once. Banshee-44 also seems to forget what he is doing in the moment, which can either mean he typically forgets current events, or shifts into a previous memory. Given the brain damage that comes with multiple reboots, I wouldn't be surprised either way. The history of Exos post-Collapse is pretty much the same as humanity's. Some became Guardians, some made settlements, and in the end most went to the City. I don't know if you can pull an Exos memory, but if it is at all possible, then it is a key to figuring out exactly what happened during the Collapse. Especially for Exos like Banshee, who have been around for a LONG time. [b]The Awoken[/b] The colony ship Yang Liwei, part of Project Amrita, a subsection of the Exodus Program, was sucked into a black hole after a clash of raw Light and Dark power. The crew of the Yang woke up in what they called the Distributary. The Distributary is a place outside of time and space. After the Theodicy War, which can be best described as a civil disagreement gone wrong, Mara Sov led many Awoken out of the Distributary and into the real universe. Here they colonized the Reef and started to learn of the state of the Sol System. About the Fallen, the Traveler, the Last City, the Ahamkara, all of it. This started another disagreement. Many Awoken wanted to aid the human survivors, the others preferred to stay in the Reef in order to avoid drawing attention to themselves in the form of the Fallen. Despite the riots, the Awoken who wanted to leave eventually left. Many survived the journey while others (like Zavala and Savin) died and were resurrected as Guardians. The rest, under Queen Mara Sov, had the Dreaming City and the entire asteroid belt to themselves as long as they kept a low profile. This changed when the House of Kings rallied the Houses of Devils, Winter, and Wolves to their aid. In an act of defense of the City, Mara unleashed the Harbingers on the Wolf fleet, destroying half of it in what would be known as the Scatter. It was the event that kickstarted the Reef Wars. Despite that, no event would be as devastating to the Awoken as the Battle of Saturn. Known to them as the Day of Screams, the battle against Oryx's Dreadnaught would see all but one Ketch of their offensive fleet destroyed and thousands lost. Ever since, more and more Awoken would die. Combined with small attacks from the House of Dusk, the Scorn, and the Taken, their entire civilization outside of the Distributary would be in total disarray. Currently they're using their relationship with the Last City to help deal with a curse on the Dreaming City in which the entire asteroid would reset to 3 weeks prior indefinitely. The Dreaming City is important due to its direct connection to the Distributary. According to Mara, she remembers everything about when she was born, making her one of the few primary sources for figuring out what happened during the Collapse. Then again... the entire thing from her point of view was recounted in the Cosmogyre section of the Marasenna. [b]The Jovians[/b] This subsection of humanity is not well known. What we do know is that they are the survivors of the Jovian colonies, which shows that it's not just Earth-born humans that lived. So far the only Jovian we have seen is Xur. He and the original Nine grimoire card reveal some telling things about the Jovians that many on the forums have already heard me rant about. The Jovians made a compact with an alien force to survive. The Jovians are hurt by Light and Xur sits in pain every time he goes to the Tower. Xur implies the Nine are responsible for the change. Makes sense considering the Nine hate the Light (thanks TotN for that info). Xur also says the change was by choice, referring to the Awoken transformation as forced. This reinforces the compact line. As Xur is the only one we've seen, we don't know where the others are. From what we can tell though, they are powerful. Thoughts, anything I missed, etc.?>