While Destiny 2 hasn’t given us full confirmation on who runs the House of Dusk right now, Destiny 1 did give us a few clues though.
Prince Uldren crashed on Mars after the Awoken-Dreadnaught battle in the card “The Aftermath.” His Crows found him and helped him repair his ship. Afterwards, in the card “Ghost Fragment: Reef 4,” he spent weeks fooling the House of Kings into thinking he was weak and ripe to be captured.
All of this planning was to build an army, he needed soldiers who would listen to him no matter what. After the weeks of captivity, he was finally brought to the Kell of Kings. With a stare, he made the Kell kneel while Uldren took the position. Soon after this card, the Fallen around the system began to disappear from their posts.
In the card “Ghost Fragment: Fallen 6,” Guardian scout reports tell of the House Devil completely gone from the Cosmodrome. There are similar reports for Houses Exile, Winter, and Wolves. Since the Kings were secretive, Guardians never knew where they were. In the reports, Guardians found burnt cloth and banners of Houses vigils. This is worrying because this shows that the Fallen have abandoned their Houses for something new.
Then there is Variks, the Loyal. During the House of Wolves’ rebellion us Guardians brought him many trophies and items in exchange for weapons and armor. One of these items was the “Elder Cipher,” which a Kell uses to control Ether flow. Ether is vital for Fallen to survive, so the control of this is important to rank. The deeper they drink, the bigger a Fallen can grow. Owning this Cipher is a must for a Kell. After the Cipher was solved, we gave it to Variks. Now he has one of the requirements to become Kell. Variks has talked in the past about reuniting the Fallen together as one House. In the grimoire card “Wolves of Mars,” he does talk about having control of the Crows. He had them search for the “Kell of Kells,” but since Skolas was dead at the time, he might have been searching for a new Kell of Kells to be the beacon for the other Houses.
He states, “The Crows will find the Kell of Kells. Then Banners will rise as one. And Eliksni will stand together. Forever.”
This is a good example of Variks’ wish to bring the Fallen together again. When Petra confronted him in “Challenge of the Elders,” about his use of the Crows and their war strategy, Variks redirects the conversation to have Gaurdians fight for them again. Just open the vaults and give the worthy treasure, the Guardians would come running.
Variks belongs to the House of Judgment, which keeps records of Fallen history. He knows what more about the Whirlwind than most Fallen, and he knows that separate they will fall, but together as one they can rise back to being the proud Eliksni.
After the Red War, the City has been busy with repairs and rescue missions. Based on the information looped around the City, they thought the Reef was also attacked by Ghaul. Without a comm link to the Reef, we don’t know if the Prince has returned or if Variks left his post to be the Kell. It is still up in the air about who controls the House of Dusk. Hopefully when contact is made, we can rule out at least one of these theories.