To The Naming of the New Enemy Factions

Lore
#1

Since the release of Destiny 2, there have been new factions of our enemies in the solar system. The Hive have the new Spawn of Savathǔn faction on Titan. The Fallen have the House of Dusk. The Taken seem to have multiple possible masters. The Cabal have the Red Legion and the Calus Loyalists. And the Vex have a new named collective in the system.

I began to think that the lack of faction naming in Destiny 2 might cause a problem when talking about these new factions. For the Hive it is easy to get a name of the faction. The Hive have a pattern of naming their factions based on lineage. Like the Spawn of Crota or the Spawn of Crota. So, for the new faction under Savathǔn, it would be the Spawn of Savathǔn.

We have confirmed that the new Fallen House is called the House of Dusk, so there is no need to name them.

The Taken can be broken down by their masters, so all the TTK Taken are Oryx Taken. Now for the new Taken in Destiny 2, there are Taken with titles involving Quria and Savathǔn. So, there are two possible masters for the Taken. Knowing that Oryx gifted Quria to his sister, it is possible that Quria is under Savathǔn’s control. So, naming them isn’t currently possible.

For the Cabal, there are the Red Legion and the Loyalists, sided with Ghaul and Emperor Calus respectively. So, their naming is it done as well.

For the Vex, they have a new collective that has taken over most of their combat presence in the system. This new faction has appeared more than any other collective the Vex have. So, to find a name for this new collective. To do this we need to look at the main possible function to these Vex.
Let’s look at the Infinite Forest, its function is to create an ideal future for the Vex. The biggest problem the Vex have with this is us, the Guardians. We have slowed them down time and time again. So, they need to find a way to simulate our Light to find a way to defeat the Guardians. They have done this to one Guardian already, Saint-14. In the Lore Tab for Perfect Paradox. It took them centuries to tune a weapon to Saint-14’s specific Light. This might be a small worry if they take centuries to take down a single Guardian, but now that they have done it once, they can to it again. As the Vex have shown in the past, they can learn fairly quickly once they learn something. This is similar to what happened when they arrived in Oryx’s Throne World and learned the Sword Logic.
And this is the biggest part of this new Vex collective, defeating our Light. They found a way to defeat their largest problem in their equations. With this new path, the Vex can now look ahead for their Simulant Future to be the true future. And to give a name for this Vex collective based on their actions, I would say Radiant Prohibition.
In a simple way, all it means is to stop the Light. This is in line with the goal of these Vex. While this isn’t an official name for the Vex and Bungie might release their true collective name, it can be the name we give them until that time.

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#2

The name “House of Dusk” has not been officially confirmed anywhere in game. It comes from the Destiny 2 Strategy Guide. @AnonPig has pointed out previously that in the original strategy guide for D1, the House of Exile was called the “Shattered House” and some of the Hive broods had different names from the names in game too. The new Fallen house isn’t given a name at all in game, whether that be in the missions, lore entries, scans etc, although we know what their symbol looks like from their banners and armour. There is a reference to a “House Fallen” in one of the EDZ ghost scans (http://www.ishtar-collective.net/transcripts/ghost-scan-maevic-square-european-dead-zone-3) but it’s not clear if this is the name for the new Fallen house or if it’s referring to the Fallen in general. It’s not referred to anywhere else either.

Also the lore tab for Perfect Paradox does not say that the Vex simulated Saint-14’s light. It actually says that the Vex “completed a Mind with the sole function to drain the Light from (him)”.

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#3

I tried to find where the name for the House of Dusk came from, but I couldn’t find it. For Saint-14, that is true they drained his Light, but since they have done it once, I believe they will be able to do it again and faster this time. The Light is something they don’t fully understand, so being able to drain it from a Guardian is a significant accomplishment for them.

#4

I have to disagree about the naming of Hive sects:

-The sect you likely referred instead of Spawn of Oryx is Blood of Oryx, which are said to be his direct servants, but not directly his spawn, even if Crota himself is part of this sect. As far as we know, Oryx direct descendant only includes Crota and the Deathsinger twins.

-Spawn of Crota is repeatedly hinted to literally by Crota’s spawn, with Omnigul referred to as their mother. That being said, in a broad sense I guess you can consider Crota’s spawn to be by extension Oryx spawn.

-It’s worth noting that there’s a second less know cult that also bears Oryx’, name, the Venom of Oryx, which appears in The First Firewall mission.

Other Hive sects seem to be of less direct connection to Hive Gods:

-The Silent Brood may be a subdivision of Blood of Oryx (perhaps the same could be true about Venom of Oryx), serving as wardens within the dreadnought.

-The Hidden Swarm seems to be the most generic cult, with their most prominent members having titles associated with the 4 remaining Worm Gods. Now, considering that the Swarm Princes are said to be the generals of the Fist of Crota, we can assume that the Hidden Swarm is subordinated to the Spawn of Crota, even if not directly blood related, a fact hinted by the Brood Mothers from Rise of Iron that continue producing more offspring long after Crota’s demise.

-The infamous Scarlet Brood, only mentioned in a strategy guide, could be the “long-forgotten brood” Urrox watched over. For what it may count, Urrox reddish colors-scheme in addition to his solar-based abilities would fit well with a the “scarlet” theme. Ultimately this is pure speculation and otherwise the Scarlet Brood is not mentioned anywhere else.

-That leaves the Cult of the Worm as the most mysterious sect. Perhaps we can assume that they could have been the ones that attacked the Ketch that became The Drifter crucible map at the Reef, placing them as the sect in the outermost part of the Sol system prior to the Deardnought’s arrival. For what’s it’s worth, there’s a Tower announcement indicating Hive presence on Venus:

“Announcer:Recalling bounty on Hive Temple at Ishtar, anticipated probability of success: unacceptable.”

https://www.destinypedia.com/Tower

Also, The Cauldron crucible map which is said to have been a Hive ritual site for making sacrifices show that the Hive has not only been using human and Fallen subjects, but also Cabal, hinting that their presence may extend to Mars as well.

All that aside, the mention that the Worm Keepers made the ritual to summon Gulrot as a Reborn Ogre (like Phogoth, with an Unborn Ogre being your regular sized Ogre) without the resources of the Summoning Pits, make me think that the Cult of The Worm also used the Hellmouth as their base of operations, something which wouldn’t be hard to reconcile giving the warp capabilities of Hive ships such as Tombships. Personally I’m more concerned on how despite the above-mentioned limitations that resulted in Gulrot’s faulty summoning, they seem to have the resources for having more than one Wretched Knight, those giant-sized Knights which other sects seem to only have in small numbers, if none at all.

Anyway, whatever Savathun’s Hive sect is called, it’s likely it won’t be Spawn of Savathun if like Oryx, Savathun only has few direct descendants (either for some limitation due to the power of the Darkness or simply due to their place in the royal line). It’s worth noting that Crota is described as the youngest Hive God, which could mean that not only he is Oryx last and most “recent” child, but also the youngest among the the children (if any) from Oryx sisters.

#5

That’s true, the name for Savathun’s sect might not be Spawn or Blood of Savathun. I always saw the Hive sects as only Hive Gods cold have a branch before now. Since the three sisters had control over all the Hive, then I assumed that only Hive Gods could own a sect. For example, since Crota is a Hive God, then he has a sect, the Spawn of Crota.
I see now that this might not be the case. Thanks for the explanation, it’s hard to learn about some of this since Hive isn’t my strong suit.

#6

I also wanted to add my two coins on the Vex:

-As it turns out, there’s actually a couple of instances in Destiny 1 in which you run into enemies on Mercury: during the second part of the Sunbreaker subclass quest and during Sparrow Racing (Shining Sands track). In both cases, the collective encountered is the Hezen Corrective, which would indicate that Mercury is under the authority of the so called Hezen Lords, and that the Hezen Protective is likely also present at other key locations.

-For comparison, the other SRL tracks where the Vex appear, on Venus and Mars respectively, have units from the Aphix Invasive. As we know, some “Eliminate The Target” public events at these locations consist on shooting down a Minotaur from the Aphix Invasive, which does confirmed their presence in both planets long before the SRL. The track on Venus is located on Maat Mons, away from the Ishtar regions, while the track on Mars is at Meridian Bay.

-Then there’s the issue of the effectiveness of the different collectives: the Virgo Prohibition seems unable to claim back territory form the regular Cabal forces, while the Sky Burners that attempted make a beached on Mercury in the Vertigo crucible map were swiftly disappeared in such way that their equipment was left intact. Based on what we know, the Hezen Corrective seems to be the most likely culprit given their confirmed presence in Mercury and this would denote a vast difference in effectiveness between it and the Virgo Prohibition.

-I’m inclined to think that the problem is that the Virgo Prohibition might be too-defense oriented: in Mars they seem more concerned in protecting the area around the Black Garden and the areas both above and underground Freehold. As quick reminder, let’s remember that the conflux in the Scablands is connected to the tunnels that you enter from the Buried City. Also, the infamous Praethorians that guard the entrance to the Vault of Glass also belong to the Virgo Prohibition, with the rest of the Vex in the area being part of the Hezen Corrective.

-On the other hand, the Hezen collectives seem to focus on areas already under Vex control or areas where large scale construction is undergoing/needed. Individually speaking, the Hezen Corrective seems to take an offensive role, while the Hezen Protective takes a more defensive stance. In the case of Venus it is mentioned that the Hezen Protective’s Minotaurs are given construction roles as assigned by Sekrion, The Nexus Mind in charge of integrating Venus into the Vex network. The Vex Sacrifices public event that only appears in Venus could be a different kind of construction role which the Hezen Corrective carries out, for instance, in the Ishtar Cliffs one of the spots for the aforementioned Public Event is a Vex Warp Gate that seems inactive on the Fallen side of the area. We could assume that the goal of the Vex sacrifices in that location is to restore said gate and possibly use it to reclaim that side of the area.

-The Endless Step is one odd area though: the Grimoire card from the Hezen Protective claim that it’s under the control of that collective, but when you actually go (Gate Lord’s Eye mission or patrol) it’s defended by the Hezen Corrective. However, during the first part fo the Nightstalker Quest, you are engaged by the Hezen Protective instead. In that said mission, the large Gate at the top of the can now connect to the Black Garden, which rather suggest that after the destruction fo the Black Heart, which resulted in the Black Garden to return to Mars in the current timeline, it became possible for other Vex Gates (possibly restricted to other large/main gates) to connect directly to it.

-There’s also the Sol Divisive which seem restricted to the inside of the Black Garden. Oddly enough, the Undying Mind which looks like a Sol Divisive Hydra is classified as belonging to the Sol Primeval (the Precursors), who are said to have been its ancient creators. Perhaps the same is true for the Sol Divisive as a whole?

-On the other hand, the Sol Progeny is not limited tot he 3 vessels sued by the Black Heart, but also includes the Overmind Minotaur at the Prison of Elders, and IIRC also Gate Lord Qodron himself. On a related note, it is not specified to which collective does Gate Lord Zydron belong to, but I’m inclined to think that he could also belong to the Sol Progeny and essentially be a collective that includes only high ranking Axis Minds. On a separate note, Qodron is depicted as having the same black smoke coming out its frame as the Sol Progeny vessels that the Black Heart possessed, which makes me inclined to think that his erratical behavior might be the result of being the first test subject to be possessed by the Black Heart.

-Leaving the Precursors (sol Primeval) and Descendants (Sol Imminent) aside, that leaves the Aphix Invasive, which is all around the place and are particularly known as Qodron’s followers who are fought in the Reef. Much like the Sold Divisive which has a distinctive physical trait (vines), the Aphix Invasive frame can be distinguished by the spikes on their frames unique to that collective. If I had to take a guess, I would say that they are also an offensive-based collective, seen on areas away from the Black Garden in Meridian Bay and away from the Ishtar region in Venus, not to mention their out of the way presence in the Reef.

So, what about the collective in Destiny 2? Much like the unsustained claims that the new Fallen House was a “House of Dusk”, I saw that some sites called them the “Outer System Vex”, a term that would fit their presence on Nessus and Io, but became outdated when the Curse of Osiris put this same collective on Mercury. Also, much like the Aphix Invasive, they have physical differences with the rest of the frames form other collectives.

All that being said, I think that ultimately the problem is that like much else form Destiny 2, the enemies have been oversimplified, which is why we no longer have such subdivisions and basically each race is now a single group without distinctions (with the exception of the Cabal and later the past/future Vex), a fact I find quite disappointing as I found very interesting such distinctions.